The story of my home’s construction is said to have started with a 19th century butcher named Samuel Crossland. I thought I would take a deeper dive into his life and discover more about the man who had my home built in the 1850s. The Crossland family immigrated from Germany and originally settled in LancasterContinue reading “One House’s Story: The Crossland Family”
Category Archives: Stories
One House’s Story: The Schmidt Family
This simple, unassuming home on what was the outskirts of New Philadelphia, Ohio once belonged to an immigrant who’s skills helped build the city of New Philadelphia in the 1800s. Note: The surname Schmidt is often recorded as the anglicized ‘Smith’ as well in later historical records. Notably, the Schmidt children all went by theContinue reading “One House’s Story: The Schmidt Family”
One House’s Story: “Grandmother” Harriet Mitchell
It was believed that she was the oldest resident of Tuscarawas County when she was interviewed in 1903. Born enslaved in rural Virginia in the early 19th century, her life carried her to New Philadelphia, Ohio where she lived in a small home on South 7th Street. Harriet Mitchell, often referred to as “Grandmother” Mitchell,Continue reading “One House’s Story: “Grandmother” Harriet Mitchell”
One House’s Story: The Herron Family
This New Philadelphia home was built in the 1920s by a respected painter and wall paperer before his crime would make him infamous in Tuscarawas County history. The Herron family arrived in Tuscarawas County from Maryland in the early 1820s with the arrival of Richard Herron (1780-1857) and his family. They settled principally in WarrenContinue reading “One House’s Story: The Herron Family”
William C. Mills and the Newcomerstown Mounds
Amateur archaeologist and druggist William C. Mills excavated two indigenous burial mounds and other locations around Newcomerstown in the late 1880s. What he discovered during these excavations altered how historians and archaeologists viewed native culture in the region forever. Archaeology as we know it today did not exist when William C. Mills (1860-1928) became interestedContinue reading “William C. Mills and the Newcomerstown Mounds”
One House’s Story: The Shaffer Family
I have walked past this house so many times and wondered who occupied it when it was a new, and attractive home in New Philadelphia. The home’s history is connected to a family that originally settled on the banks of the Ohio River but made New Philadelphia their home for over sixty years. John D.Continue reading “One House’s Story: The Shaffer Family”
One House’s Story: The Glatfelter Family
This house’s history is associated with the family of a Pennsylvania-born Civil War veteran and his family of bricklayers who contributed to the construction of New Philadelphia, Ohio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Why Solomon Glatfelter (1838-1912) left his home in York County, Pennsylvania in the late 1850s and moved to NewContinue reading “One House’s Story: The Glatfelter Family”
Runaway to Hero: The Life of Henry T. Danforth
I stumbled across a runaway apprentice advertisement from 1842 and my curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to find out what happened to the apprentice whose master only offered one cent for his return. I was surprised by what I found. If we are to believe the 1842 advertisement for runaway saddler apprenticeContinue reading “Runaway to Hero: The Life of Henry T. Danforth”
One House’s Story: The Maurer Family
This house’s story is connected to the son of a prominent Tuscarawas County German immigrant who’s work impacted the New Philadelphia school system and countless late 19th and early 20th century New Philadelphia students. The parents of Jacob Maurer (1824-1901) immigrated, along with their six other children, to Tuscarawas County around 1840. The family ofContinue reading “One House’s Story: The Maurer Family”
The “One Dollar Ghost”
I stumbled across a letter written in 1819 from a Tuscarawas County resident in a Canton, Ohio newspaper that told a fantastical ghost story that I simply had to investigate further. A letter from New Philadelphia, Ohio appeared on the front page of a July 1819 edition of the Canton Ohio Repository newspaper describing aContinue reading “The “One Dollar Ghost””
Tuscarawas County Stories 