Kingston Twp. has rich history

As we pre­pare to enter a new mil­len­nium, it’s inter­est­ing to look back and see what life was like in Kingston Town­ship 200 years ago. Accord­ing to the His­tory of Delaware County and Ohio, 1880, the Kingston Town­ship “… inhab­i­tants are like­wise noted for their moral­ity, indus­try and hos­pi­tal­ity.” They immi­grated to Kingston Town­ship in the early 1800s from Con­necti­cut, New Jer­sey, Penn­syl­va­nia, West Vir­ginia, Ver­mont and Virginia.

The land in the area was given by Con­gress to Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War sol­diers as pay­ment for their ser­vices. But, it seemed to be a good idea gone bad. The land was issued in war­rants for 100 acres, but could only be located in 4,000 acre tracts. Most sol­diers were poor and sold their war­rants to spec­u­la­tors or turned it over to their land­lords or tav­ern keep­ers to pay their bar bills.

SUMC ready for 26th Annual Memorial Day Yard Sale

The Sun­bury United Methodist Church (SUMC) will host its 26th annual Memo­r­ial Day Yard Sale from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mon­day, May 27 at 100 West Cherry Street. This annual event, which is held in con­junc­tion with the Memo­r­ial Day Flea Mar­ket on the Sun­bury square, attracts peo­ple from all over cen­tral Ohio. Park­ing is free, and there will be great deals on fur­ni­ture, tools, toys, house­hold goods, antiques and more, all donated by church members.

A home­made break­fast will be avail­able from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the din­ing room, fol­lowed by a home­made lunch, which starts at 11 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m. or until the food runs out. Any­thing not pur­chased from the yard sale is given to a Ken­tucky fam­ily that dri­ves up to Sun­bury, loads their truck, and returns to their town to fix and sell the materials.

Cub Scout Pack 197 plants McNamara East entrance


On Sat­ur­day, April 20, mem­bers of Cub Scout Pack 197 along with their par­ents and Pack Leader Chris Jeunelot planted a vari­ety of flow­ers and bushes at Genoa Township’s McNa­mara Park east entrance.

Genoa Town­ship Parks Man­ager Ron Keil said the But­ter­fly bushes, Lilac, Day Lily, Mon­key Grass and selec­tion of orna­men­tal grasses will be an entic­ing draw to the park’s new east entrance. 
Keil has actively worked build­ing a rela­tion­ship between scout troops and the town­ship, assist­ing scouts with their Merit Badge require­ments over the past two years.

Helping survivors of Super Storm Sandy with Kitchen Recovery Kits

Super Storm Sandy seems to have come and gone. We hear in the news that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has allo­cated bil­lions of dol­lars for Sandy relief, and other crises have taken over the head­lines. What most folks don’t real­ize is that many fam­i­lies in areas impacted by the storm are still with­out homes and liv­ing in shel­ters, with rel­a­tives or other tem­po­rary accom­mo­da­tions; the lucky ones are mov­ing back home or into new homes.

But many homes were so severely dam­aged by Sandy that when folks do finally have a sta­ble place to live they have noth­ing; the storm destroyed every­thing that they owned. They don’t even have sim­ple kitchen items like a pot to boil pasta in and a plate to serve it on.

But they have not been for­got­ten. Back in Novem­ber Deb Bergmann of Con­dit Pres­by­ter­ian Church was in New Jer­sey deliv­er­ing blan­kets and books to Sandy sur­vivors when she touched base with Pas­tor Joe Gratzel of the First Bap­tist Church of Man­asquan. Pas­tor Joe explained the ongo­ing need for sim­ple items like Kitchen Recov­ery Kits that folks need to help jump-start a nor­mal life after the dev­as­tat­ing storm.

Bergmann and other Big Wal­nut area vol­un­teers helped mobi­lize mem­bers of the Pres­bytery of Scioto Val­ley to col­lect Kitchen Recov­ery Kits that were being dropped off at Con­dit Pres­by­ter­ian for deliv­ery to Man­asquan, New Jer­sey, on May 4.

Jackson Farms Car Show Saturday Relay

The weather is get­ting warmer and we’ll soon be approach­ing sum­mer; and on a warm late spring day there’s noth­ing like a clas­sic car show, and toss in a lit­tle ice cream and you’ve got the Jack­son Farms Car Show & Ice Cream Social.

The best part about the Jack­son Farms Car Show & Ice Cream Social is all pro­ceeds from the day will ben­e­fit the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety Big Wal­nut Area Relay For Life.

The Sat­ur­day event takes place rain or shine at Jack­son Farms, 2341 South Ohio 605, Galena.

Red Bank Cemetery Workshop June 1; registration deadline tomorrow

Misti Spill­man, an Ameri­Corps mem­ber at the Ohio His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, is offer­ing a Begin­ners Ceme­tery Restora­tion Work­shop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, June 1, at Red Bank Ceme­tery in Genoa Town­ship. Spill­man has a back­ground in research­ing and restor­ing ceme­ter­ies, and has also cre­ated a ceme­tery tool kit as a guide for peo­ple who want to restore cemeteries.

Fifth Annual Run for John 5K registration now open

Reg­is­tra­tion is now open for the 5th Annual Run For John 5K Run/Walk that raises money for Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share. Run For John began fol­low­ing the sud­den death of John Scan­lan, who died in Sep­tem­ber of 2008 of sud­den car­diac arrest.

John was an avid run­ner who trained for, and par­tic­i­pated in, Iron­man events until his sud­den pass­ing. John’s widow Nicci said the race is more than an oppor­tu­nity to run and raise funds for a local cause; it’s also a day to remem­ber John Scanlan’s com­mit­ment to the com­mu­nity he lived in.

The 5th Annual Run For John will be held begin­ning at 9 a.m., Sat­ur­day, August 31.

Galena Historic Foundation started

Mem­bers of the newly-formed Galena His­toric Foun­da­tion, Inc. held their first meet­ing on Wednes­day, April 24, at the Galena Town Hall. The foun­da­tion was started to raise aware­ness of the role Galena has played as a vil­lage in local and regional history.

The Foun­da­tion is a Domes­tic Non-profit Cor­po­ra­tion and is accept­ing dona­tions of his­toric arti­cles and cash contributions.

The Vil­lage of Galena has given the foun­da­tion a room for dis­play­ing and archiv­ing both writ­ten and phys­i­cal arti­facts at the newly remod­eled Galena Vil­lage Hall, the for­mer Galena United Methodist Church Building.