Straight From The Hart

Straight From The Hart By Joan Rowden Hart Oakland Mansion Part 2 Last week’s story about Jacob  Blickensderfer  building the Oakland Moravian Church and mansion brought more comments than I’ve had on any other column I have written. This week I want to give you a look inside the mansion as Jacob designed and built it.  Although I pastored the church Jacob built for 12 years, I have never been privileged to see inside the house so I can’t attest as to changes or renovations that have been made over the years by different owners. All of the information I am writing this week comes from a book entitled “Old Trails & Iron Rails” written by Jacob’s great-granddaughter, Norah Lee Brown.   Her information was taken from his diaries and letters. The house was built with three stories with an astronomical dome on top.  The dome observatory was enclosed by a wooden railing and had cannonball posts at each of the four corners.  It was accessed by a short flight o...

Straight From The Hart By Joan Rowden Hart Jess  Easley , Lebanon Historian and StoryTeller I’ve been trying to trace a place called Railroad Pond from the early days of Lebanon.  Perhaps some of you “old-timers” will have more information, but I found a reference to it in Jess  Easley ’s recollections of Lebanon. Jess talked about skating on Railroad Pond when he was just a kid, and also working to cut ice on it during the cold winters that Lebanon experienced.  The grocery stores which had meat markets would hire people to cut ice from the pond to put in their ice house and store for the summer. Jess was one of Milan’s favorite customers when Milan started working at the barber shop with Fred Pitts in 1968, and he quickly became one of Milan’s mentors in collecting oral memories and memorabilia of Lebanon history. Jess was born in Lebanon in January of 1891, and died here on March 1, 1983 at the age of 92 , and had a good strong mind right up to the very end, so he...

My favorite headline from last night's LDR newspaper: TEEN FACES CHARGE AFTER THEFT OF BATTERIES Another one of my favorites appeared a year of so ago.  Law enforcement finally caught someone who had been hiding out in woods after shooting his wife, etc. and headline was about him being caught after  "being on the lamb" for six months or so. Then there was the story one night about someone finding  a live hampster in the dumpster. LDR 05.14.12  For sale Wii 7....2 nun chucks.......  so in the style of Yakov Smirnoff, "if you don't like your nun...."

Rev. Howard Megill presents me with my 25 year ministry pin with Milan looking on.  March 2011.

  Here's a story I didn't have room for in my column this week. A doctor Harrison came to Lebanon from CA and built the large house on Adams and Hayes that Harold Bell Wright lived in. But he also kept bees and he imported dandelion seeds for his bees. Lebanon had never seen a dandelion until he brought them in. Most landowners hated them of course because you can't get rid of them Others loved them and ate them as part of their spring "greens".

How classmates change Ego Buster=========== While waiting for my first appointment in the reception room ofa new dentist, I noticed his certificate, which bore his fullname. Suddenly, I remembered that a tall, handsome boy with the samename had been in my high school class some 30 years ago. Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought.This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was too old to have been my classmate. After he had examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended the local high school. "Yes," he replied. "When did you graduate?" I asked. He answered, "In 1964." "Why, you were in my class!" I exclaimed. He looked at me closely and then asked,    "What did you teach?"

Straight From The Hart By Joan Rowden Hart Jacob Blickensderfer Goes To Town This is the final column for now on Oakland and the Blickensderfers. For you Lebanon history buffs I am detailing some Lebanon establishments with which Jacob did business, according to his diaries. I do not claim to be an expert on Lebanon history.  My information is only as accurate as the material from which I am doing my research. So if you disagree with me, it’s alright.  Either one of us could be right just as easily as we could be wrong. Jacob often left his horse at Drago’s Stable and Livery.  Anthony Drago and his family moved to Lebanon in 1866 to be near  the Frisco Railroad. He started his livery barn on St. Louis Street and eventually moved his house from Old Town to Washington Avenue.  Most people had their own horse and buggy by then but commercial travelers still needed to use a horse and buggy from time to time, and young men needed to rent them ...