HOCKING COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM

HOCKING COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM We are currently closed for the winter. Tours can be scheduled by calling ahead. We bring you the Best of Hocking County's Past! You'll be glad you did!

Admission to our museum and parking are free. The museum is handicapped accessible. Our museum is staffed with friendly, knowledgeable volunteers on Friday and Saturday afternoons (1-4 pm) to help you in your research and/or tour. Private and group/bus tours are welcome and encouraged. Please contact us to set up your private tour. Within our museum you can go back in history. Visit the 1881 SCHEMPP HOUSE, and learn how people actually lived in that period with each room bursting with exhibits. The Historical Center has a TIMELINE covering 100 years of history, a one-room schoolhouse, military displays, indian artifacts and much more. The CARRIAGE HOUSE features farm implements and period tools. You may also visit the HENRY LUTZ 1898 STEAM CAR GARAGE and learn the history of the steam car. A PIONEER CONESTOGA WAGON and OLDE PRINTSHOP can be seen on site, along with a RAILROAD TELEGRAPH OFFICE, complete with Hocking Valley Railroad memorabilia. We also have a room available for GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH. Included are the histories of many local families and notables, old yearbooks, books by local authors and much, much more. We also have books available for purchase covering many diverse subjects. A complete will soon be available on our page.

Dr. Charles Francis Shonk, Logan’s Beloved General PractitionerDr. Shonk is a familiar name in Logan, especially if you ...
12/29/2025

Dr. Charles Francis Shonk, Logan’s Beloved General Practitioner
Dr. Shonk is a familiar name in Logan, especially if you were here before the mid-1970s.
He graduated from Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1922 and except for 1-year surgery training in Dayton and 1-year practice in Bremen has spent 50 years as a Logan Physician.
Dr. Shonk resided at 264 Mound Street, Logan. He was married in 1930 to Anna Grace Murtha who died in 1964.
Dr. Shonk took care of many Hocking County patients in his office on Market Street. His first office was in a building where the old Elberfeld’s building now stands. He frequently took garden produce, hams, etc., as payment when the people could not afford his small fee.
He was at times very gruff with his manner and his language but was an exceptionally good family Doctor.
Dr. Shonk suffered a stroke in Logan and spent a couple of weeks in Grant Hospital, South before being transferred to Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Nelsonville where he died in September 1973.

Many of us have memories of this man. I never got out of the office without a shot of penicillin as a kid, and never in the arm.
Do you have any memories about Dr. Shonk you would share?

LOGAN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS from the Logan Daily News of March 4, 1939and THE NEW STADIUM from Judy Maniskas’ book 1900 – 1...
12/28/2025

LOGAN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS from the Logan Daily News of March 4, 1939
and THE NEW STADIUM from Judy Maniskas’ book 1900 – 1950 The Hocking Hills.

12/28/2025

National Fallen Firefighters Foundation applauds lawmakers for including the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act as key provision in 2026 National Defense Authorization Act
“On behalf of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, I applaud the House and Senate for passing this important bipartisan legislation. I especially would like to thank Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Kevin Cramer, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, and Congressman Carlos Gimenez for leading this effort,” said Victor Stagnaro, CEO of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. “Firefighters put their lives on the line every day to keep their communities safe. By recognizing fire service–related cancers under the PSOB program, we ensure that those who risk their health for others receive the support they and their families deserve. I especially want to thank our brave Fire Hero Families who tirelessly advocated for the passage of this vital legislation. Their dedication, passion, and tenacity are why this bill will soon become law.”
Read More: https://www.firehero.org/2025/12/17/cancer-benefits/

12/27/2025

3 NEW DOCTORS OPEN PRACTICES
The Logan Daily News of July 10, 1973
David Arledge, Hocking Valley Community Hospital administrator, announced today that Logan now has three new doctors practicing medicine.
Dr. Roger L. Black is practicing family medicine with Rauch Medical Clinic and Dr. Donald B. Twiggs has joined the staff of the Logan Clinic practicing family medicine.
Dr. Alfonso Y. Gay has opened an office at 160 E. Main St. for the practice of general and vascular surgery. He is a board-certified general surgeon.
Arledge also reported that the hospital is operating at capacity today, with three temporary beds in the corridor. The present patient load is equal to that of the mid-winter high patient load.

History and Background of HVCH
Hocking Valley Community Hospital has a long and distinguished history in the Logan community. Originally established as Cherrington Hospital in 1906, it transitioned in 1949 to become Hocking Valley Community Hospital, operating as a non-profit community facility dedicated to serving local residents.
Over the years, the hospital has steadily expanded its services and facilities. It has increased its capacity in emergency care and has developed specialized units, including behavioral health services, transitional care, and medical arts offices, to address the evolving needs of the community.
Throughout its growth, Hocking Valley Community Hospital has remained committed to its core mission: providing accessible, patient-centered healthcare to the rural community of Logan and the surrounding areas.

Facilities and Services
Hocking Valley Community Hospital offers a comprehensive range of facilities and services designed to meet the essential healthcare needs of the community. The hospital is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital, which allows it to provide vital medical care while maintaining a focus on accessibility and quality for local residents.
The Emergency Department and Urgent Care units are available to handle immediate medical situations, ensuring that patients receive prompt attention during critical moments. For those requiring further recovery following acute medical events, the Transitional Care Unit provides specialized post-acute care and support.
In addition to emergency and transitional services, the hospital delivers a broad spectrum of inpatient and outpatient care. This includes surgical procedures, rehabilitation programs, and specialized treatments in cardiovascular, pulmonary, urology, wound care, and pain management. These services ensure that patients can access high-quality healthcare close to home.
Primary care and pediatrics are available through HVCH-affiliated providers, along with specialty physician services that cater to a wide variety of health needs. The hospital continually invests in state-of-the-art equipment and advanced technology, supporting the delivery of high-quality medical care in a rural setting.

12/26/2025

TWO CASES OF CHILD MURDER
The Hocking Sentinel of Marc. 15, 1888
Coroner Gage was called to Monday Creek station on Friday last, to investigate the case of a dead child, which was found under a house.
After inquiries were made, the child was given to Dr. I.L. Davis until the following day when the coroner went out again in company of Dr. I.C. Wright, of this city.
A postmortem was held, the verdict showing that the child had been strangled to death by his mother, it being wrapped in an old shirt, the strings of which were wound tightly around his throat. The woman was put under arrest until able to be removed to Logan. NOTE: No further mention of this event could be found in the local papers.
The coroner was called again yesterday morning to the house of Mrs. Fields, about one mile northeast of Logan, to look into the case of another dead child which had been born to her daughter, Mrs. Anna Stalter under suspicious circumstances. The verdict of the coroner’s jury showed that the child had died from want and absence of proper care.

NOTE ADDITIONAL DEATH: March 17, 1888
One day this week, Coroner Gage was called to the residence of Mrs. Fields in the 2nd ward to hold an inquest on the dead body of an infant.
Upon investigation it was found that the child was born dead by a woman named Anna Stalter, a daughter of Mrs. Fields. Mrs. Stalter has not been living with her husband for more than a year.

I COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING ELSE ON EITHER CASE.

12/25/2025

This is what children from a classroom requested in their letters to Santa Claus in 1908
The Democrat-Sentinel of Dec. 17, 1908

Dear Santa Claus:
Please bring father a tie, waist shirt, handkerchief, scales and a jumping jack. Bring mother an apron, shirt waist, and a bracelet. My sister would like to have a doll, teddy bear, coat and a necklace. I think my brother would like to have a pair of skates and a gun. I would like to have a doll and a pair of shoes. Santa I am going to watch for you.
Your friend,
Ethel Marie Weis

DEAR SANTA CLAUS:
Please bring father a suit of clothes, a handkerchief and a collar. Bring my mother a dress, a ring, a pair of shoes and some candy. My sister would like a dress, m**f, a pair of shoes, coat and hood. My brother would like a violin, drum, horn and a suit of clothes. I would like a fur m**f, a dress, coat and hood. I will leave a lunch on the stand for I suppose you will be hungry when you get here.
Your friend,
Vera Delong

DEAR SANTA CLAUS:
Please bring father a suit of clothes, neckties and an overcoat. Bring mother a kimono, skirt and a jacket. My sister would like a doll, a go-cart and a coat. I would like an overcoat, riffle and a suit of clothes. I will have mother to bake a cake for you.
Your friend,
Gerald McLaughlin

DEAR SANTA CLAUS:
Please bring father a hat, book and cake. Bring mother a jacket, kimono and shoes. Bring my sister a ring, shirtwaist and a go cart. My vroth4r would like a shot gun, a sled, skates and boots. I would have a lunch ready.
Lewis Burgoon

DEAR SANTA CLAUS:
Please bring father a necktie, handkerchief and collar. Bring mother a kimono, tablecloth and skirt. My sister would like to have some new books, a new hair ribbon and a wood burning set. And please don’t forget to bring grandma a pocketbook, shawl, some handkerchiefs and a pair of bedroom slippers. I would like to have some new games, a book, new dress and a doll. I will leave a lunch by the fireplace.
Your friend,
Helen Rochester

MAD DOGS 1888 – 1890 The Hocking Sentinel of April 19, 1888(New Plymouth Graphic) Quite a sensational affair occurred i...
12/25/2025

MAD DOGS 1888 – 1890
The Hocking Sentinel of April 19, 1888
(New Plymouth Graphic)
Quite a sensational affair occurred in the vicinity of Starr and Union Furnace Monday.
As unknown dog, supposed to be mad, made his appearance in that vicinity, and the first place he went was at Bay’s where he bit one sheep and made the hogs get around pretty lively, but don’t think he bit any of them. He next went to Scotts’ where he bit two sheep.
After leaving Scott’s he was next heard of near Union Furnace, and as it was going by Mr. Kelly’s house his child being out playing, the dog bit it on the cheek.
After leaving the Furnace it went on a little bit further and bit two dogs, but the man who owned the dogs killed them right away.
The strange part about the dog is that it waws going up the railroad, and Mr. Kelley, who happened to be on the track at the time, headed him off and he went around him by going into the field and then got back on the track. The dog would walk across a trestle wandered \crossed the creek once on a log, something a mad dog won’t do.

A MAD DOG IN LOGAN
Hocking Sentinel January 10, 1889
There is a mad dog scare in Marions Township. It is reported that three dogs are known to be mad.
The Ohio Democrat of November 29, 1890
A Mad dog is running around taking bites out of inoffensive Maxville citizens.

A MAD DOG IN LOGAN
The Hocking Sentinel of July 5, 1888
On last Thursday a man named Westenberger, from Maxville, while coming to Logan on foot, met a dog on the road near the fairgrounds and was severely bitten. The savage beast made a spring at his throat; in fighting off the brute, the dog got the man’s hand in his mouth and mangled it fearfully.
Westenberger came to town, after kicking the dog from him, and had his wounds cauterized by Dr. Wright. His left hand was caught by the dog, and the fangs went through the hand. The right hand used to choke off the beast is also scarred. The dog next appeared in Logan, bit Judge Friesner’s horse and Ed Price’s dog. He was shot at the depot.
How many others of the snapping worthless curs infesting out streets were bitten is not known.
This we know that dogs on our streets are becoming a nuisance. Ladies avoid our thoroughfares. Children fear to come down streets on an errand. Let the dogs be muzzled or killed.

The Ohio Democrat of Nov. 29, 1890
There has been much excitement in the vicinity of Maxville over the appearance of a mad dog in that area. Mrs. Blackston and a boy living there named Miller were bitten. Several dogs that were bitten have been killed. The mad dog seems to have gone away.

MAD DOGS
The Hocking Sentinel of Dec. 4, 1890
There has been considerable excitement in Logan and vicinity in the past weeks concerning mad dogs among us. One or two people and several dogs were bitten in Maxville and the people at that place are very excited concerning their safety.
Several dogs were seen to have hard fits on our streets last Sunday, which however proved to be caused by poison.
Some quiet citizen is foolishly endangering the lives of his fellow townsman by reaping his revenge on the canine tribe in the above-mentioned way.
To be bitten by a dog frothing at the mouth in a fit caused by the effects of poison is just as hazardous as to be bitten by one in a hydrophobic condition.
We are surprised at any person, supposed to be living an age of intelligence, being so lot to reason as to poison a half a dozen dogs and let them run loose among our people and children.
If the grinding antipathy for the canine finds itself in the heart of a man, the intelligent and is nothing to do would be to dispatch the animal immediately and not in a low, underhanded way throw the dog into fits by the use of poison and thus endanger the community and the innocent children that might chance to play with the poisoned dog.
Wherein would lie the sweetness of revenge, should the man’s own child struggle with death, in spasms of madness caused to befall her innocent life, by the bite of a raging dog at the eventful hands of her poison dealing father.
We repeat that we are surprised at the lack of reason of someone on our own. If you must kill the dogs, shoot them down and then all danger to the innocent is averted.

The Ohio Democrat of July 12, 1890
PASTEUR has treated during the past three years 7,803 people bitten by mad dogs, and to this number only thirty-three died.

GORE TRAIN DEPOTThe Logan Daily News of Mary 19, 1990
12/24/2025

GORE TRAIN DEPOT
The Logan Daily News of Mary 19, 1990

The Earliest Grammer School on the Hilltop stood in the old football field.
12/23/2025

The Earliest Grammer School on the Hilltop stood in the old football field.

12/22/2025

PIONEER VILLAGE OF LOGAN WAS BORN IN ‘EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-AND-FROZE-TO-DEATH’
The Logan Daily News of June 25, 1966
Weather in this sesquicentennial year of 1966 has given Logan just a taste of what happened in 1816, which became famous as the year of “eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death”.
Thomas Worthington’s diary notes what the weather was like for most of the days in 1816, including killing frosts and freezes April 15, May 14 and June 7. On Feb. 15, Worthington noted “this is the iciest winter ever experienced since the settlement of this country. Winter set cold on Dec. 20th and continues until now.”
What happened in Ohio, however, was nothing compared to the weather in New England in 1816. In that section summer never came at all – heavy frosts were recorded every month, a blizzard struck in June, ice storms coated trees in July, birds froze to death, hundreds of cattle and sheep died, crops failed and farmers perished in snowdrifts. On June 7th, the date on which Worthington records a heavy frost in this area, a foot of snow blanketed Williamstown, Mass. Some snow fell in Ohio, but apparently none this far to the south.
The June 15th issue of the Danville, Vermont Star reported: “On the night of the 6th water froze an inch think and on the night of the 7th and morning of the 8th a kind of sleet or exceedingly cold snow fell, attended by high wind, and measured in places where it drifted 18 to 20 inches in depth. The shoots of leaves in the forest trees which were putting forth, and corn and garden vegetables were out of the ground and mostly killed.”
A Vermont farmer ventured out in the midst of the storm to tend his sheep. As he went out the door, he said jokingly to his wife: “If I am not back in an hour, call the neighbors and start them after me. June is a bad month to get buried in the snow.” Three days later, searchers found his frozen body.
So many birds were frozen that relatively few were seen in New England in the next few years. One farmer regularly brought orioles into his kitchen to warm them.
In many parts of New England, the vital corn crop failed. Those who managed to raise some food helped their neighbors. The inscription on a gravestone in Ashland, New Hampshire reads: ‘Son of a Revolutionary Soldier, a pioneer of this town. Cold Season of 1816 raised 40 bushels of wheat on this land which kept his family and neighbors from starvation.”
The sun rose every morning red and rayless, as in a cloud of smoke. Scientists thought the sun may have been obscured by a globe-girdling cloud of volcanic dust thrown up by the tremendous eruption of Tamburo, in the East Indies, in April of the year before.
Dudley Leavitt, a 19trh century astronomer and almanac maker, attributed the weather to a large number of sunspots. Present-day meteorologists speculate that a combination of volcanic dust and sunspots may indeed have cause the “eighteen-hundred-and-freeze-to-death.”

The Dollison HouseThe Logan Daily NewsIn 1888 Elizabeth Carnes advertised for six or eight boarders by the day or week a...
12/21/2025

The Dollison House
The Logan Daily News
In 1888 Elizabeth Carnes advertised for six or eight boarders by the day or week at the Dollison House. Meals provided.
What do you remember about this building? It once faced the Courthouse on the east, behind the James building.

MODERN WASHING MACHINE OF THE 1920SLogan Daily News, unknown date.Last minute shopping for the woman. The Hocking County...
12/20/2025

MODERN WASHING MACHINE OF THE 1920S
Logan Daily News, unknown date.
Last minute shopping for the woman. The Hocking County Historical Society has a small washing machine resembling this at the museum that was made in Logan. There is a crank on one end to agitate the clothes clean. These could be sat on the wood fire in the kitchen or placed over a fire outdoors while doing laundry to keep the water hot. A rinse tub would have been needed to rinse out the dirty and soapy water.

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64 N Culver Street
Logan, OH
43138

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Sunday 1pm - 4pm

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