10/20/2023
If you're driving around Wellston on Halloween, here are some ideas for mysterious or interesting stories to share as you're driving around.
WELLSTON HALLOWEEN TOUR
Harvey Wells house, E. A Street, Wellston
T.J. Morgan Mosoleum, Ridgewood Cemetery, Wellston
H.S. Bundy grave, Ridgewood Cemetery, Wellston
Harvey Wells grave, Ridgewood Cemetery, Wellston
Potters field, Ridgewood Cemetery, Wellston
Sanitarium house, formerly located in Ridgewood Cemetery, Wellston
Water tower, formerly located on E. Broadway, Wellston
Hoy Hospital, formerly located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 2nd St., Wellston
Underground mine shafts
Doctor's office explosion on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Peking Cook
City Bldg/T.J. Morgan Mansion, Broadway, Wellston
Soldiers Monument, Monument Square, Wellston
Ammonia Spill
The City of Wellston was founded in 1873 as a center of iron and coal mining industries. The town quickly grew from the farm of Congressman Hezekiah S. Bundy to a city of 5000 residents within 5 years. The town was founded was Harvey Wells. The early town had many industries, including hotels, a nail mill, and theaters. The city was also advanced in developing water and electrical service. There was a silent movie made in the town called “Wellston’s Hero”. There was also a nearby amusement park at Lake Alma. The coal mines were underground and most of the town is underlaid with mine shafts that have caused many streets and houses to sink.
Harvey Wells
Born May 28, 1846 – Died October 22, 1896
Founder of Wellston. He was born in Wilkesville, served in the Civil War, attended College, and was a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1871. He wrote a book called “Rapid Calculation”. After failing to persuade investors in Jackson, he purchased land from local resident, Congressman Hezekiah Bundy to plat Wellston, because there were valuable deposits of coal and iron in the area. He developed and encouraged investment in a number of industries, municipal improvements, and railroads in Wellston. Wells married Bundy’s daughter, Eliza Bundy, and had a son, Harry. Wells later married Laura, and had daughters, Laura and Hannah. Wells built this house in 1883 and died in the house after illness and falling from a bedroom window.
HS Bundy Grave
US Congressman. Elected to represent Ohio's 10th and 11th Districts in the United states House of representatives, he served from 1865 to 1867, 1873 to 1875, and 1893 until his death in 1895. He also served as a Member of the Ohio State House of Representatives in 1848, and as a Member of the Ohio State Senate in 1855.
Hoy Hospital
Hoy Hospital located at intersection of Pennsylvania Ave. and 2nd Street. The following information was taken from a Wellston newspaper: The Hoy Hospital was established in 1896 and was the first hospital in southern Ohio that had a regular staff of physicians. The hospital catered to the coal miners in the area. Every month they paid into a fund that was established specifically for hospital care. Membership in the fund entitled miners to room and board in the hospital if they became sick or were in accident. The hospital was best known because it had all the modern conveniences of the time such as electric lights, hot and cold water, an elevator to transport patients to the upper floors (where most of the surgeries and medical procedures took place) and the best beds in the state. I am unsure when it closed down but Dr. Hoy died around 1924 while in Columbus, most likely visiting his son who was a surgeon there. In later years the building housed the dental office of Dr. John Butler and optometrist Dr. Raymond Grady. The Waugh Insurance Co. was also located there for many years and the upper floors were used as apartments. Today there is a boutique store there and I believe that the upper floors are still being utilized as apartments.
City Bldg/T. J. Morgan Home, Wellston, Ohio
T. J. Morgan, retains fame largely on the basis of his splendid mansion completed in 1905. Stipulations put into the building's deed by his daughter state that neither dancing be held in the third floor ballroom nor any type of alcoholic drinks served or kept in the building. Since 1940, the one- time home has served as the Wellston city hall.
The Morgan Mansion is a historic residence in and the current city hall of Wellston, Ohio, United States. Built in 1905, it was the home of one of Jackson County's leading industrialists, T.J. Morgan, and it has been designated a historic site.
Morgan entered the iron and coal business in Wellston in 1884, when he established the Wellston Coal and Iron Company. By 1905, he had become sufficiently wealthy to commission the design of his home from leading Columbus architect Wilbur Mills. Mills' design was a brick building with a stone foundation, an asphalt roof, and elements of stone and iron. Rather than being of a single architectural style, the two-and-a-half-story house is a mix of Jacobethan and Spanish Mission Revival architecture. The various structural elements combine to make the Morgan Mansion more architecturally significant than any other building in the city. Morgan himself died just three years after the house was erected.
Thirty years after Morgan arranged for its construction, the house was purchased by the city of Wellston and converted into its city hall, a purpose that it continues to serve to the present day. In 1979, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying both because of its historically significant architecture and its place as the home of a leading local citizen.
Ammonia Spill, October 16, 1989
All 6,500 residents of this city were evacuated late Saturday night when a frozen-pizza plant leaked deadly ammonia gas. The authorities allowed them to return to their homes early today, but people with breathing problems were told to wait.
About 50 people affected by the gas were taken to hospitals and four were admitted. Dozens of others were given oxygen by paramedics, who rushed to Wellston from communities around the rural southeastern quarter of Ohio.
The anhydrous ammonia leak at the Jeno's pizza plant, owned by the Pillsbury Company, was reported at about 8 Saturday night. The gas, used for refrigeration, spread quickly over an area of about half a mile, said Lieut. Ron Winters of the Fire Department. Mayor John Carey said that it was brought under control by 10:55, and Assistant Fire Chief Bob Long said people started returning to their homes just after 5 A.M. today.
The Mayor warned that the elderly, people with breathing problems and small children could be affected by the remaining v***r and should remain away from the town until the ammonia dissipated completely.
The police had ordered people to evacuate a seven-block area near the plant, then expanded the order to cover the entire town as the gas spread. Sheriff's deputies went door to door ordering people out of their homes.
Evacuees were taken by school bus to two schools in the nearby towns of Hamden and McArthur and to a community center in McArthur, said Ethel Gussler, a dispatcher at the Vinton County sheriff's department.
Vicki Dailey, a resident, said she, her husband and their two children fled the choking fumes about 9 P.M. ''We were out in the driveway and at first could not smell anything,'' Mrs. Dailey said. ''But within about two minutes, we started smelling it and decided to get out. We were choking.''
