Muskingum County History

09/03/2026

This real photo postcard captures a group of children with their teacher but unfortunately, we do not know who they are. When we look at old school photos the first thing we check is how many kids are in their bare feet. Here everyone is well shod and two of the boys even have neckties. The message on the back starts out, "Well this is 'me & the kids.' Guess I had never presented you with a 'copy.'" The card was postmarked in Adamsville at 10 AM on May 22, 1913, and was address to Miss Muriel Roberts, Meredith Com. [Commercial] School, Zanesville, O. Miss Roberts was the principal of the shorthand department of the Meredith Commercial School which was later known as the Meredith Business College. Miss Roberts was living on Greenwood Ave at the time, but she had family connections to Adamsville and she might have know some of the kids in the photo.

09/01/2026

Every other year the Ohio History Connection sponsors Ohio Open Doors, a program to encourage owners of historic buildings around the state to open their buildings to the public, especially featuring spaces that might have not been open on a regular basis.

The Ohio History Connection created Ohio Open Doors in 2016 to promote and inspire pride in Ohio’s heritage and to celebrate the National Historic Preservation Act.

Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Oct. 15, 1966, the Act has proven instrumental in transforming the face of communities from coast to coast, establishing the legal framework and incentives to preserve historic buildings, landscapes and archaeological sites. The Act drives economic revitalization by attracting investment, supporting small business, stabilizing neighborhoods and creating jobs.

“Ohio Open Doors shares stories of important landmarks and interesting places right in our communities, highlighting the history and unique nature of some of Ohio’s most treasured sites,” says Diana Welling, Director of the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office.

Many of the locations featured in Ohio Open Doors events are in the National Register of Historic Places, which the National Historic Preservation Act created. The State Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio History Connection administers the National Historic Preservation Act in Ohio.

Muskingum County History will participate in Ohio Open Doors with a special textile display in a room at the Dr. Increase Mathews House which had been closed in recent years while it was being used for storage of the Zanesville Times Recorder photo collection which is now in the closed stacks section of our archives at 462 Putnam Ave. There will be free admission to both our museums on September 10, 11 and 12 from 1:00-4:00. The textiles in the exhibit are not usually on display and this will provide a rare chance to see this part of our collection.

09/01/2026

An article in the Sunday Times Signal of January 16, 1944, under the headline "Ex-Bostonians Take Pride in Historic Home on East Pike" told about Evan Warren Griffiths and his wife Frances Ella Passmore Griffiths. Mrs. Griffiths' grandfather Joseph Passmore came to Muskingum County from England and settled in the SE quarter of section 10 in Perry Township where he built a log cabin c. 1813. The article says the cabin was "where the [RR] tracks cross East pike just west of Norwich." Another description says the farm was on the north side of the National Road 9½ west of Zanesville. Mrs. Griffiths' father, Enoch Passmore, purchased all of the claims to the family farm and built a brick house on the land in 1876.

Mr. Griffiths earned degrees from Harvard and Northeastern and taught in the Boston area for many years. Mrs. Griffiths served as a Methodist assistant pastor in many different cities before marrying and living in Boston. In 1933 the couple moved into Mrs. Griffiths' ancestral home.

The photos give us a look at the life of an educated retired couple in the 1940s. We picture Mr. Griffiths wearing a necktie everyday and we can see the couple reading books and listening to the latest news of the war on the radio. The house is now gone and so are the times depicted in the photos. Click on the individual photos for more information.

08/30/2026

These aerial photos of downtown Zanesville were taken on Aug 6, 1949, apparently to be used with an article about the new traffic pattern although we could not find that they were ever printed. On Aug 1, 1949, 4th, 5th, 9th, Canal, and California Streets and Elberon Ave became one-way, joining 6th, 7th and Marietta Streets which were already one-way. The photos are interesting just as views of downtown life in 1949.

08/29/2026

Earlier this month we told you of a group in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in the UK that was making plans to honor three servicemen killed during WWII, including William R. Mitchell from Zanesville. The memorial was dedicated today. It is remarkable that 82 years later, people in England still remember the men from America who gave their lives on foreign soil while trying to stop the spread of a fascist aggressor. We thank Mission82 for their work in remembering those who gave their all.

08/29/2026

Congratulations to Prospect Place for becoming the second Muskingum County property to be listed on Heritage Ohio's "250 Buildings 250 Stories" series. We applaud the efforts of the G.W. Adams Educational Center to stabilize and repurpose Prospect Place and its carriage house. If you like stories of adaptive reuse of venerable building around Ohio, we suggest you follow Heritage Ohio on Facebook.

Prospect Place has been part of the Muskingum County landscape for more than 170 years. Completed in 1856 as the home of prominent industrialist and entrepreneur George Willison Adams and his family, the estate is Muskingum County’s only surviving mid-nineteenth-century country estate. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as a local landmark, Prospect Place connects the region to stories of agriculture, industry, transportation, westward commerce, and, according to local tradition, the Underground Railroad.

Today, the historic mansion has been stabilized and returned to active public use by the nonprofit G.W. Adams Educational Center, welcoming visitors for tours, educational programs, public events, and heritage tourism. But immediately adjacent to the mansion stands the estate’s next great opportunity: its historic carriage house.

Years of water infiltration, drainage problems, foundation movement, and deferred maintenance have left the carriage house significantly deteriorated and largely underutilized. Yet the building remains standing, and its location within an already established heritage destination gives it tremendous potential for adaptive reuse.

The vision is to transform the carriage house into part of an Arts & Heritage Center, creating space for artists and makers, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations, performances, educational programs, community gatherings, and private events. While the mansion would continue telling the history of Prospect Place, the carriage house could become the estate’s creative and economic engine, attracting new visitors, generating revenue to support continued preservation, and creating opportunities for artists, educators, and cultural organizations.

Its rehabilitation could have an impact well beyond the estate. More programming and visitors could mean longer stays and additional spending at restaurants, shops, lodging, and other businesses in the surrounding region. It is an opportunity to use one historic building to strengthen heritage tourism, arts and culture, community life, and rural economic development.

The Prospect Place Carriage House represents exactly what Opportunity 250 is about: a historic building with an important past and tremendous potential for its next chapter.

What historic building in your community is waiting for someone to see its possibilities? Submit it to Heritage Ohio’s 250 Buildings, 250 Stories initiative and help us shine a spotlight on historic places ready for investment, imagination, and new life. www.heritageohio.org/250-buildings-250-stories

Photo Credit - David L Taylor & Dave Paul Photography

08/28/2026

Good turn out last night to hear Todd, Bil and Jim talk about the abolitionist banners on Putnam Hill and Dug Road and they people they honor. In 1835 114 men met upstairs at the Stone Academy to discuss abolition and in that same spirit a smaller group of people have been meeting downstairs on the fourth Thursday of the month to talk about the work started in 1835. We have one more program coming up in September. One theme discussed last night was the need to do more to publicize the work done by women and Black men (so far, we haven't found any evidence of abolition activities by Black women but that could always change).

Jim mentioned the four Hale sisters who came to Putnam and Mansfield from Glastonbury, Connecticut, and their connection to the Smith sisters who made the Indian dolls that can be seen to Todd's left. Bil spoke about Joshua McCarter Simpson and Wesley Gassaway, two local Black men who were abolitionists. We have printed articles about Simpson in Muskingum Journal and he is fairly well-known among those doing abolition research but there is still much to be learned about Gassaway. The internet is a powerful tool that allows us to do research without driving to archives in distant cities but it does require hours spent peering at a computer screen. As more information is uncovered we will let you know.

08/26/2026

Last month we showed you some of the banners along Dug Road and now we have photos of some of the banners on top of Putnam Hill. We will add brief descriptions to the photos but you can learn more at our program at the Stone Academy tomorrow at 7:00. Hear Todd Ware, Bil Kerrigan and Jim Geyer talk about the banner project and some of the people honored. Everyone is invited to attend and there is no admission charge.

08/25/2026

In 1967 the Ohio Savings and Loan League published a small booklet titled "At Home in Ohio" featuring Jim Baker's Eric Sloane-style drawings of buildings and building elements from around Ohio. One Muskingum County example made it into the booklet, the doorway of the Nye-Potts house on Adams St in the Putnam Historic District. The Nye-Potts house is still standing and is recognized by the National Park Service as a Network to Freedom site. Our copy of "At Home in Ohio" was distributed by Roseville Federal Savings & Loan Association.

08/24/2026

At the end of July we showed you some of the banners along Dug Road which honor people and places associated with the Abolition Movement in Muskingum County. This Thursday, August 27, you can learn about the program to recognize these people and learn about the people themselves as Todd Ware, Bil Kerrigan and Jim Geyer present the next installment in our Muskingum County Local History Forum. The program will be at the Stone Academy, 115 Jefferson St, Zanesville, a building that is itself the subject of a banner. Everyone is welcome to gather with us at 7:00 for an entertaining and informative look at the beginnings of America's first civil rights movement and the part that local people played in the effort to achieve racial equality.