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Heading north on State Route 42 out of Delaware County and into the open arms of Morrow County, I couldn't help but wonder if it was any coincidence that 42 departs from one of the roughest sections of Delaware and into the quiet, downtrodden community that is Morrow County.
Morrow County is only downtrodden in an economic sense. The county reports a little more than $15,000 as the per capita yearly income. A per capita income that is a far cry from the $35,000 seen in its Delaware County neighbor to the south and about $10,000 less than Marion County to its west.
While the developments and insurgence of "sleeper communities" that are swallowing the culture of Delaware County whole, Morrow County has preserved its sense of self.
The first thing you notice pulling into the county seat of Mt. Gilead (pop. 3,443 in 2002) on State Route 42 is the lack of newly built homes. The community has been able to hold onto to its heart as you roll upon the historic downtown. Downtown features one of the most unique round-a-bouts to ever be seen. A small oblique is the feature in the center and the businesses continue to be built around it while not encroaching upon the old village square. There are even a couple of businesses that sit back off a small green with no street access from the two main areas that feed the town square. The charm in Mt. Gilead is not in the immaculate pristine restored nature that you feel pushed into in other "classic" communities, but rather a working class rustic form of classic. Beautiful houses - with blemishes - are all over State Route 95 as you head east and west from downtown.
Heading East, you'll go towards Mt. Gilead State Park and its numerous opportunities for rustic entertainment. If you continue east the rolling hills begin to pick-up as they become the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains east of Fredericktown.
Morrow County has only two communities of any major size, besides Mt. Gilead is Cardington (pop. 1843), sitting about five miles south of Mt. Gilead on 42. The economic climate has been lifted by its proximity to I-71 and the growing Columbus community. Among the other communities are Chesterville, Sparta, and Marengo which have combined for Highland High School, the alma mater of former major league pitcher Tim Belcher.
Another attraction is Lake Candlewood, which was designed to become the Apple Valley of Morrow County. The community is still a gated one, but the home values and influx of money didn't happen as they had hoped. On the north side of Lake Candlewood is the village of West Point. West Point defines numerous cross-road communities spread around Morrow County.
Heading West out of Mt. Gilead on State Route 95, you'll pass quickly through the community of Edison and one of the most violent rail-road crossings in the state. The location of two car dealerships right next to the tracks cannot be a coincidence as the height and lack of repair has been known to lift a semi’s trailer right off the truck.
The railroad quickly appears to be the end of the rolling hills, as western Morrow County is flat and on this cold February evening the turned brown soil was prepared for a spring planting to be filled with fresh corn and beans later this summer.
Much like the rest of Morrow County, the beauty lies in its tradition and classical nature.
5 comments:
I want to wish you well on your project Toby. You nearly got to my county of Richland on this trip. Richland, a once booming industrial center is like most of Ohio still trying to come to grips with losing so many of our industries and the money they provided. We are now like the faded beauty queen trying to come to grips with what passing time and the vagaries of big business has left us with. Even though our largest city Mansfield is looking a tad bedraggled, the surrounding countryside is beautiful with it's rolling hills and farmland. I welcome your blog, it's interesting.
jak
Jak,
What part of Richland County are you from? Both of my parents are Clear Fork graduates and I was born in Mansfield. We lived in Butler until moving to Danville when I was three.
Thanks for the comments. I'm having fun doing this.
In answer to your question, I am from Mansfield also. Born here many years ago, left and stayed away, then returned in 1972. I have seen the town in its glory years and its, well not so glorious years. If you visit try and visit Mt. Jeez at Malabar farm on a sunny day. It is a wonderful place for quiet reflection and the views are magnificient.
jak
Dawn Powell, a Mt. Gilead native left Ohio with not very good thoughts of the experience. Here is a short bio of her.
Powell, Dawn, 1896–1965, American novelist, b. Mt. Gilead, Ohio. She came to New York City in 1918 and settled several years later in Greenwich Village, where she spent most of the rest of her life and became a member of a stellar literary set. These two locales are reflected in Powell's 15 novels: her Ohio novels are realistic, often melancholy works set in small towns, such as Dance Night (1930) and the autobiographical My Home Is Far Away (1944); her Manhattan novels are witty and satirical works, incisive, mordant, and glittering with urban life, such as Turn, Magic Wheel (1936) and The Locusts Have No King (1948). Powell was well known in the 1940s and 50s, but aside from a devoted cult following she fell into literary obscurity in the decades that followed. A revival of interest began in the late 1980s, largely due to enthusiastic promotion of her work by Gore Vidal. Among Powell's other novels are The Happy Island (1938), Angels on Toast (1940), and The Golden Spur (1962). She also published several short-story collections and wrote a number of plays.
Jak,
Thanks for the comment.
That is interesting bio for Dawn, of course if New York City made her "happy" then I can see how she would have been very melancholy in a community like Mt. Gilead. The town would be almost perfect for me, but then I visited NYC for three days and left early because it just wasn't my kind of town. To each their own...
Sorry about not getting back to your prior post quicker, it has been an extremely busy couple of days. I haven't been to Malabar Farms in years, both my grandparents live (at least in the summer) in Butler so we still try to get over that way once a month.
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