RESEARCH
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Observations about this "Loan Closet" story:
In one news story, the construction of the loan closet (or "chest") is reported to be a project for the manual training class at the Darrtown school and in the other news item, the Hanover school is mentioned. It seems likely that a Darrtown project would have been completed by the Darrtown school.
The spelling of the committee chairman's last name is different in the two articles. The correct spelling, according to other Darrtown records, is Kramer.
The need for this first aid resource is underscored, by the statement included in the Journal News article that, as of April of 1925, excluding the cities of Hamilton and Middletown, there were only TWO DRUGSTORES in Butler County and both of them were in Oxford.
… The Journal News
11 April 1925, Saturday. Page 24.
FIRST “LOAN CLOSET” FOR AID OF SICK, WILL BE PUT AT DARRTOWN
The first loan closet in Butler County will be established by the Mothers’ club of Darrtown and will be kept in the home of Mrs. Frederick Kramer, chairman of their committee. This consists of articles for use in the sick room, which may be borrowed by anyone in the community, or anyone of the nurses, to be used as long as necessary, and returned to the closet, when the necessity no longer exists. Users can pay for the use of them, if they choose, but are not compelled to do so. The idea first originated with the Health and Hygiene committee in Hamilton last fall and was propounded to the Darrtown organization by Mrs. Howard Heyman of Hamilton and Miss Edna Holzworth, supervisory county Red Cross nurse. A house-to-house canvas was made and $43.57 collected. Part of this money will be kept out to buy lumber, out of which the manual training department of the Hanover Township school will build the closet. Investigation showed that outside of Hamilton and Middletown, there are only two drugstores in the county and those are both in Oxford. Due to this fact, many first aid articles will be included in the equipment to be bought for the closet.
...Webmaster note: The Lexington (Kentucky) newspaper item (above right) mentions the "Lewis mill, near Darrtown." This is the first time the name "Lewis Mill" has appeared in Darrtown research conducted at this website.
The "Skeets" Wright campground and the Lanes Mill (both referenced above left) were both located in Section 31 of Milford Township. A perusal of Section 31 property records did NOT reveal anyone named Lewis, as an owner of land in Section 31.
The "Lewis mill" item falls into the category of "stay alert for future discoveries."
In early March 1929, three area newspapers published stories about a local man revealing that government representatives had contacted him about leasing 80 acres of his farm for the construction of an airport that would be used to refuel planes hauling air mail.
The man was identified as Mr. J. K. Sandlin and his farm was located about three miles north of Darrtown, in Milford Township's Section 17. Records have been found that link the Sandlin property to the "old Sohn farm," as described in the March newspaper articles.
important to remind ourselves that our original goal was to establish the location of the Sohn/Sandlin farm, so that we could determine the general location of the proposed air mail airport. It seems that said goal has been achieved. Granted, property records regarding the transfer of this land are inconsistent and the chronology of some events is puzzling. Nonetheless, when taken as a whole, the preceding records seem to support the summary offered below.
…that the Sohn estate included three farms; one of which was located in Section 17 of Milford Township.
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Community Militia Sports Hitching Post Post Office Return to Events page
COMMUNITY - PAGE 8
Air Mail Airport Proposed at Darrtown
Community
8
When the Darrtown airport was proposed, air mail was commonly used to speed the distribution of printed communication. Click the link at the right for more info.
United States airmail was a service class of the United States Post Office Department (USPOD) and its successor United States Postal Service (USPS) delivering air mail by aircraft flown within the United States and its possessions and territories. Letters and parcels intended for air mail service were marked as "Via Air Mail" (or equivalent), appropriately franked, and assigned to any then existing class or sub-class of the Air Mail service. After an intermittent series of government sponsored experimental flights between 1911 and 1918, domestic U.S. Air Mail was formally established as a new class of service by the Post Office Department on May 15, 1918, with the inauguration of the Washington–Philadelphia–New York route for which the first of special Air Mail stamps were issued. The exclusive transportation of flown mail by government-operated aircraft came to an end in 1926 under the provisions of the Kelly Act which required the USPOD to transition to contracting with commercial air carriers to fly them over Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to be established by the department, although during the first half of 1934 the U.S. Army Air Forces temporarily took over the routes—with disastrous results—when all CAM contracts were summarily canceled by President Franklin D. Roosevelt owing to the Air Mail scandal. Domestic air mail became obsolete in 1975 as a distinct extra fee service, and international air mail in 1995, when the USPS began transporting all First Class long-distance intercity mail by air on a routine basis.
Aviation typically involves thoughts of going up; however, uncovering the background of this story involved going down... digging deep into old newspapers, vintage maps, and property ownership records ... to uncover information about a proposed air mail airport near Darrtown.
If you are the type of person that enjoys the ride as much as the arrival; if you enjoy discovering the backstory of an incident; if you like knowing the details of an event, then you may want to take the elevator below, which makes several stops along the way to uncovering this story about a proposed airport near Darrtown.
If you are the type of person that begins a book by reading the last page or chapter - to see how it turns out - then you may want to take the "EXPRESS" elevator (below) and quickly get to the summary.
Click the following link to take the Express elevator to the summary of this story.
Click the following links and the PLUS signs to access the items that led to the summary of this story.
This air mail airport story began with discovery of a single newspaper item, ... which led to finding two more.
…cited the Sandlin farm as the site of the proposed airport and it referred to the property as the “old Sohn” farm. A search began for land north of Darrtown that was once owned by Sandlin and/or Sohn. At this point, the exact location of the proposed airport was still unknown.
More research revealed a 1901 sale bill that advertised the auction of the John Sohn farms.
The names from the map review (above) and the section number (17), enabled a search of property records (see links at the right).
The section number in the Sohn sale bill led to a review of Milford Township maps (see links at the right).
The United States Postal Service provides a webpage titled "Airmail: A Brief History."
…show some property line changes, from 1895 to 1930; however, the basic formation of the property was very similar, as it transferred from Sohn to Shumaker to Doberman to Sandlin. This seems to confirm the March 7, 1929 newspaper story about an airport being proposed at the “old Sohn farm."
In 1977, from the end of March, until end of the end of July, State Route 177 was closed between St. Rt. 73, north of Darrtown, and St. Rt. 129, at the north edge of Hamilton.
If you lived in the area during that four-month period, you may recall the inconvenience forced upon your travels ... while waiting for repairs and improvements to be finished.
Click the following links to see enlargements of a 1977 Cincinnati Post news article about the road closure and a photo that accompanied it.
BRIDGE SOUTH OF DARRTOWN TO BE
AND
It was April 1901 and a 19-year old woman had been crowned queen of Ohio gypsies, according to items published by the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader.
Attendees Estimated to Number Between 300 to 500
Click the links beneath the images to see the articles enlarged.
Click the plus (+) signs to see more info.
...of the event was described as being "near Lanes's Mill" and "between Darrtown and McGonigle."
Records at this website confirm that a campground existed in that area. Situated along the south side of the Four Mile Creek, opposite the mill known as Lanes Mill, this propery was known by locals as the "Skeets" Wright campground.
In April 1925, the Darrtown Mother's Club established a medical resource for the community - as reported in two news articles that appear below.
Even with enlargement, the newsprint proved difficult to read. So, both articles have been transcribed to text messages which you may access at the following links:
… Hamilton Evening Journal
13 April 1925, Monday, page 5
DARRTOWN EQUIPS FIRST AID CLOSET
Through a house-to-house canvas, $42.57 has been raised in Darrtown to build and equip a “first aid closet” to be used by the community. The closet will be located at the home of Mrs. Fred Cramer, who is chairman of the health and hygiene committee of the village. The Mothers club backed the project. Mrs. Howard, Heyman, and Miss Edna Holzworth, Red Cross nurse, talked to the club last week and the members agreed to raise the necessary money. The manual training class at the Darrtown school will build the chest.
Two 1937 newspaper articles reported a devastating fire that consumed a house near Jericho. One item mentions that the house was once known as the Meyers Tavern. The property later became part of the R. Kirk Mee estate.
Click the links below the images at the right for more information about this event.
The original newspaper article is difficult to read, so it has been transcribed. The following appeared in the Hamilton, Ohio Journal News on Thursday, April 22, 1937. "A disastrous fire occurred Saturday night at the Mee farm at Jericho, when the fine, old farmhouse was completely destroyed by fire. The spectacular blaze attracted many to the scene, and the Oxford fire department responded to the call and while the house was beyond saving, efforts were put forth to keep the flames from spreading to the many other farm buildings. In early days, the place was known as the Meyers Tavern, and recently, Mrs. Alta Harvey Heiser, in one of her weekly sketches in the Hamilton Journal News mentioned the place. For many years, it was owned by the parents of Mrs. Mary E. Mee Bell and of later years has been a part of the estate. The farm was tenanted by Mr. and Mrs. Tharpe, who moved there this spring. Some of the household effects were saved."
Click the links below the images to see them enlarged.
Click the following link to see an enlarged section of a 1930 Milford Township map.
You've likely heard the question many times...
Finally, FROM THE STREETS OF Darrtown, we have a DEFINITIVE ANSWER!
Please, do not think you have been fed a "fowl" ball, when you see the answer that is "laid" in front of you.
Truth be told, this anecdote is nothing to "crow" about and these words are simply an attempt to "egg" you into reading further.
CLICK THE LINKS BELOW (left to right) to unscramble this somewhat "egg-citing" story.
…have engaged in many acts of friendship, assistance, and compassion. A few examples include: The Darrtown Union Sunday School, which involved the Methodist and Lutheran churches holding a common Sunday School service, on alternating Sundays - for over 100 years. In 1925, the Darrtown Mother’s Club established a “Loan Closet” (see story above, on this page) that provided free medical supplies for those in need. In the 1930s, when fire struck Wyckoff’s warehouse and the old Popst Saloon/Hotel, village residents rushed to the rescue. More recently, countless volunteers assisted with the 2014 Darrtown Bicentennial, which attracted over 2,500 visitors, from 29 states. Those things and many, many, more make Darrtown a truly special place - for those who live there now … and for those who lived there in the past … starting as early as 1814, when Conrad Darr platted the village. That’s what makes this chicken-crossing-the-road story “a Darrtown thing."
(+ sign opens the link) (- sign closes the link)
The Teague / Mee property was located adjacent to the road known as the Darrtown Pike (aka - the Hamilton-Richmond Road or State Route 177). This route started as a path for herding livestock to the Cincinnati stockyards. The people who drove the animals along the path/route were known as “drovers” - who, while making the days-long trip from farm to stockyards, were in need of food, drink, and occasional lodging. Hence, taverns cropped up along the route; Darrtown’s Milford House is one example. It seems likely that the Meyers Tavern, on the former Teague/Mee property, was also such a place.
…the FIRST ARTICLE (dated April 17, 1937) reports the structure, built in 1842, became the homestead of John Teague and later owned by R. Kirk Mee. Genealogy records at the Darrtown Family Tree show that John Morton Teague (1839-1916) was the uncle of R. Kirk Mee. So, presumably, Mr. Mee inherited the former Teague property. The SECOND ARTICLE (dated April 22, 1937) reports that the house was once known as the Meyers Tavern. According to an Internet source, the reported loss of $6,000 in 1937 dollars equals about $131,500 in 2024 dollars.
An effort to achieve such legislative action was reported in an area newspaper. Click the following link to see the newspaper item:
On October 15, 2000, the Walter “Smokey” Alston monument was unveiled in the southwest quadrant of the Darrtown village square, when about 300 townspeople and baseball fans attended an Alston monument dedication ceremony.
Click the following link to see the official language of the Ohio Revised Code.
In the fall of 2018, the Darrtown Reunion Committee erected signs (see image below) alongside St. Rt. 177, at the north and south entrances to the village.
Dedicating a section of an Ohio state highway for a specific person or cause requires approval by the state legislature.
In 1999, a group of Darrtown citizens lobbied the Ohio state legislature to pass a bill that would name the Darrtown section of St. Rt. 177 as the: "Walter 'Smokey' Alston Memorial Highway."
On November 22, 1999, the Ohio state legislature passed the bill that named the Darrtown section of St. Rt. 177 as the "Walter 'Smokey' Alston Memorial Highway."
ALSTON HIGHWAY ADOPTED
ALSTON MONUMENT DEDICATED
ALSTON SIGNS ERECTED
Ohio Revised Code » Title [55] LV ROADS - HIGHWAYS - BRIDGES » Chapter 5533: MEMORIAL HIGHWAYS 5533.39 Walter Smokey Alston memorial highway. The road known as state route number one hundred seventy-seven, within the community of Darrtown in Butler county only, shall be known as the "Walter 'Smokey' Alston Memorial Highway." The director of transportation may erect suitable markers along the highway indicating its name. Effective Date: 11-22-1999.
Some additional thoughts regarding a public announcement that a chicken was crossing the road...
…of the wayward traveler, the event was noted on the "Darr City" Facebook page. The digital conversation that followed produced the answer to the age-old question, “Why DID the chicken cross the road?” - Click the “Here’s the Answer” link at the right to see the conclusion.
…of this story occurred, when a community-wide alert was raised a few weeks back, after an animal was seen crossing Main Street and ... the journey taken by the two-legged critter produced an answer to a question that has plagued civilization for decades, perhaps centuries.
...with the recognition that Darrtown is a friendly place to live. Neighbors look out for each other; quickly offering a helping hand. Many are the times that word is passed through the village that a cat has gone missing or a dog has been found; or a "heads up" is sounded, if a suspicious-looking vehicle is noticed in the area.
applied to portion of Darrtown Pike
It was 1925 and persons who traveled between Darrtown and Hamilton, Ohio were about to benefit from road-surface improvements to Darrtown Pike. The tarvia would not yet reach the village ... but it was getting closer.
Tarvia was a coal tar product that was used to improve dirt and gravel roadways.
See this story reported at:
Known today as Ohio State Route 177, there was a time when the route number was 224.
The two following links offer some background information.
It was 1902 and the Butler County Democrat newspaper of Hamilton, Ohio reported that people from Darrtown wanted the route of a projected "electric road" to include Darrtown.
Presumably, the term "electric road" refers to a "traction line" or "traction railroad." This website has information about the traction car and a 1907 report of a proposed traction line.
Click the link at the right to see the news article.
The sharp curve in the road at the south end of Darrtown got the better of another driver on June 26, 1985.
Unfortunately, the driver and his truck made things worse for the Jack Hansel home.
Click the following links to see images of the story as published in the Hamilton Journal News.
This story, published July 1929, tells of a beacon light INSTALLED at Darrtown.
The story immediately above (regarding a proposed airfield north of Darrtown) broke in March of 1929.
1929 News Item about Possible Airfield at Hamilton cites BEACON LIGHT AT DARRTOWN
Possibility that the Embry Riddle company, Cincinnati, operators of mid-midwestern air routes, may establish a flying field on the Ford properties north of the city loomed Monday with announcement that Lieutenant John Paul Riddle, general manager of the company, will visit Hamilton, Monday at 5 PM to inspect the field and confer with officials of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. Directors of the local chamber have taken no official action, but they are reported to be in favor of the proposal that the Cincinnati concern establish a field here. An Emery-Riddle airport would put Hamilton in line as a stopping place for the Cincinnati-Chicago and Cincinnati-Detroit air traffic, both mail and passengers, according to officials. At the present time, passenger planes going to the western metropolis have an air lane near Darrtown, where a large beacon light has been installed for night flying. Officers of the Emory Riddle company had made no definitive overtures for the Hamilton Field, but they are reported to be interested in the venture. Mr. Riddle plans to fly to Hamilton tonight and inspect the field with Lucian L. Kalm, president of the Chamber of Commerce; John F. Northway, secretary-manager; Herbert Randall, chairman of the, aviation committee, and H.S. Luedtke, manager of the Hamilton branch of the Ford Motor Car Co. They will seek Mr. Riddle’s recommendations as to improvements needed at the field and the amount of land that will be required to provide an airport capable of caring for several large ships at a time and equipped with hangers and a lodging house for pilots.
Click the links at the right to see a news article about the possible construction of an airfield at the North End area of Hamilton, Ohio.