Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-27
LETTER FROM OHIO.
DENNIsoN, O., Mar. II, 189

|
1 would write letter to the MONITOR,
as Glover, VT, was my birthplace and
my home for many years, and my
parents are living yet in that quiet
little town. I have also two brothers
| and one sister living in Vermont. I
have lived in Ohio for the past ten
years and like my home here very
much. The name of the town is Den
nison, nice, little, railroad city with
population of 5000. We have five
very nice school buildings, nine fine
churches, and support twenty five
good doctors and several good mu-
sic teachers We burn coal alto
gether, and have1 plenty of cleo
trio light, and lots of mud. Fruit is
very plenty and very cheap. The
ways of living are so different than in
the eastern states, and people speak
SO differently, but they are very
friendly class of people, always ready
to do kind acts. Money is much more
plenty in the middle states than in
the east, but it costs more to live.
Unless a man can make from one
hundred to one hundred and fifty
dollars a month he considers he does
not make much more than a living.
Railroad business is considered the
best paying bushes in the state. In
the part of the state that we are To-
Gated we have but very little snow,
or cold weather but, this winter was
called the coolest winter that the
state has known for half century.
Two weeks of February was quite
cold; one night it was % below zero,
and people were very much alarmed.
If little snow falls they brush and
shake themselves and remark "don't
this beat the Dutch?" which is a great
expression with Ohio people.
Farmers have been blowing for
some time. They usually commence
in February. We have many fine
farms and many good farmers here,
but it takes Vermonters to make good
butter and sugar. do not think they
make sugar in this state, IDever have
seen any. Ohio is called the buckeye
State" the chief cities are Cincinnati,
Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton,
Youngstown, Springfield, Akron,
Canton and GAINESVILLE. We have
many fine cities in our state and
think it has more fine buildings than
any other city in the state. The sol
dier's monument, the statue Of Gen. |
Moses, the lighthouse, the Jewish or !
phan asylum, the Medical department |
of the University, the school of ap |
piled science and Garfield monument |
Cincinnati has the Queen City club, |
Tyler Dawson fountain and the beau |
tiful bridge in Eden park. Cincinna- |
ii is the chamber of commerce. Akron |
has many beautiful school buildings |
Columbus has the State Penitentiary |
which is a great castellated limestone
building which accommodates 81 $50
convicts and covering "A acres. It
has the state capital, and is the third
largest city in the state. This city has
also many large manufacturing com
panies, aninstitution for the educa
ton of the blind and an institution
for the deaf and dumb. Toledo has
the State library. The early history
of Ohio contains many interesting
episodes, like the hideous massacre Of
the Moravan Indians at Guadenhut-
ten by American border ruffians. The
most arduous struggle Of the pioneers
was not with the Indians and fanatics
but with the forests and bad roads.
The early houses we're loghuts of
single room with earthern floors,
windows of creased paper, and chinks
daubed with clay. Their food con-
sisted of ashcakes, hoecakes, dodgers
and pones. Their furniture was hewn
from beech and poplar with bearskin
beds and buckeye bowls ard platters
the clothing from deerskin, tow and
linen and jeanss dyed with walnuts
and butternuts. The chief pastime
were bearhunts, sugarcamping milit
ia musters, shoe ting matches, quilt
ing parties, weddings, house warm
ings campmeetings and travelling
museums. The itinerant schoolmas
tiers and circuit riding preachers of
those early days laid the foundation
of the cultivation and religion of the
modern state. The name Ohio means
Chow beautiful" and was applied by
the Senecas of Lake Erie to the COM
bined river, the Allegheny, Ohio. The
Wyandotsl called it "Oheezuh'' the
grand. The French explorers retained
the Iriquois name, spelling it ''Oye''
and translating it literally ''La belle