Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1941-10-16

the lofty cantilever bridge intruded
itself, and the old wharf-boat,
"Hornbrook and Best" was missing
and weeds and willows crowded our
view.
To get an idea of the glory that
once was, you must go up to the
Campus Martius Museum, and there
is some of it in miniature. Near
our seat in this little, tiny park was
a boulder bearing the Inscription
that Lafayette had landed there
when he visited Marietta in 1928.
Nearby was a marker informing all
that Mary Gardner Owen was the
hrst white woman to arrive there
on June 5, 1888, following the pio-
neers who had arrived on April 7,
two months earlier.
The city is visited by many tour
lists, most of them include the
Campus Martius Museum. We took
tramp up the pike" (I guess they
still call it that that cuts through
the old "McAllister school lands.
and while lettering at a roadside
stand and gazing over the ground
once trod by my grandmother, as a
young school teacher, a car halted
and-''Hey, there! aren't you lost ?"
Voice and face familiar, but at the
instant to place him. He soon set
us Alright. He was the Rev. 7 d
heller, Methodist minister, now sta
toned at New Matamoras.
We accompanied him back to the
city, and from there we wended our
way to Mound cemetery. We were
never very much for rambling
through old graveyards (no spooky-
ness, understand) but this one is
the exception-perhaps it is the
TACT OF the mound itself. An in
scrlptlon on tablet at the high
corner states that the ground was
set aside for burial purpose in 1900
and the first interment was a wear
later. The first burials were made
on the other side of the Mus
klngum, above Harmar. 1t is the
Oldest cemetery in this part of Ohio
The thought that crept into our
mind as We entered this sacred en-
closure was that what the artistic
hand of the sculptor and engrayer
mad wrought, less than a hundred
years ago, the ruthless and relent-
less hand of time was SLOWLY and
surely tearing down-sandstone
scaling, marble disintegrating and
granite, we'll, time only will tell. We
$1,000 at the grave Of DR.. Samuel P.
Hliofeth, noted physician and
chronicler of the first fifty years of
ohio's history. There are fire slabs
IN row and the last one bears the
inscription, "The last of three GEN
eratlons OF DOCTORS" We approa CHI
ed the monument of Return Jona-
than Me1gs, who distinguished him
self in various official capacities and
was one or Ohio's early governors
we thought of some of the old mon
uments in the Olive cemetery made
by the late Thomas Stockwell. But
When our crooked and defective eve
caught the engraving we said out
loud, We'll, Tom never did that."
The inscription began with "Here
lles!' and those few letters were
twice as large as even the name. A
monument records the fact that
somebody back in 1861 had "died
in Cleveland of heart disease COM
mon today but we we'll remember
when it was extraordinary. A dis
lntegrated marble slab bears the
legend, Our Jenny''-that was all.
On a morning we went to the ton
of Harmar Hill, and then some
to 316 Sharon avenue. No, we
didn't ride; we hiked it. Here we
1ound man many of you know
Frank P. Wheeler. Having never
met him, we were not long in form
ing very pleasant acquaintance.
Following delightful conversation
out on the veranda, he excused him
self for moment, and when he re-
turned he had a present for us-a
replica, shall we call it of the old
McGuffey third reader. 1t was put
out by Federation of McGuffey
societies, giving names of officers
programs, etc. 1t included some of
the stories that characterized this
series of the McGuffey readers. In
preparing to leave, we incidentally
told him that we were going up the
river (Muskingum) to see Sam
Plummer. He managed to detain us
us few minutes when a taxi ap-
peared at the front We were to be
taken to the Plummer home. He
placed silver coin in the drivers
hand and we bade goodbye to a man
whose heart was as big as pump
kim
Sam Plummer, farmers institute
speaker, edits Life from the Side
lines in the Ohio Farmer; yes, you
know him. He lives in a lovely
place near the Washington county
farm. This man Plum
mer is different from some of the
institute speakers we have come in
contact with in days gone by-tells
about something they had planned
and constructed and we, with an ex-
Denditure of time and money, would
make trip to see the thing, only to
find that it didn't exist, only in the
skillful fabricator's mind, or on pa
per. The Plummers love flowers;
we were proud to be able to name
some rare varieties CD such as cas-
-oroil beans, hollyhocks, sunf1owers,
etc Down the road a short dis