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(Page Last Updated:
2006-08-25
)
Lake-O-Springs
Index: (Click
on photo for larger size image.)
- House in abt 1907 versus house
in 2001.
- House with front porch.
- Road in front of house in abt
1907 versus 2001
- Lake-O-Springs park in 1929
- Aerial photo of Lake-O-Springs
park in 1931
- Winter Scene at W.L. Brown's
Lake-O-Springs house
- Will L. Brown at Gross Farm,
1907
- Eulice Jeffery and Kingsley
Brown with ice boat
- Marion Brown playing 'dress-up',
circa 1913
- The Brown's vegetable garden
at Lake-O-Springs
- 1920 Photo of Lake
"O" Springs
- Ruth Brown (nee Kimble) at the Brown's 'Uncle
Sam' mailbox, 1920s.
- Hatchet used by W.L. Brown -
Dated 1927
Background
Information: After W.L. Brown
and family left Versailles, NY, they moved into a new home located west of
New Berlin, Ohio. The name New Berlin was changed to North Canton during
WWI. Their house was at the SW corner of the NW Quarter of Section 14,
Twp. 11, Range 9 (Jackson Township), Stark County, Ohio. As shown in 1910 Federal census, Will
originally rented this house. In fact, Will and his family were the first
occupants of the house and, according to Mildred (Middie) Young, Will lived for
a short while with his neighbours, the Youngs,
while he was waiting for his rental house to be competed. The landlords were William H. and Ellen S. Braucher.
In 1916, these landlords sold the house and 2.5 acres of land (165' frontage by
660' deep) to Will Brown. In 1920, Will sold the rear 165' to
Marshall F. Clay for $100. Mr. Clay and his brother Frank Clay, built a dam, flooding
part of this small
parcel along with other land they had assembled, thereby creating the present
lake known as Lake O'Springs. When first built it was known as Lake
"O" Springs and Lake-O-Springs. This lake did not exist in its
present form in 1906. Will Brown's wife, Maude, died in 1929 and in 1936, Will
sold the house and land to Marshall F. Clay and Libbie A. Clay.
House
in abt 1907 versus 2001. The picture presented on the left below was
taken in approximately 1907 and shows the north and west (the front) sides of the
house. The woman laying in the grass along the right side of the road is
Alta Jeffrey, the sister-in-law of Mrs. Maude Brown (nee Jeffrey). The front door
of the house was located at approx. Lat 40° 52.277' N and Long 81° 27.621' W (WGS-84
Datum). The
"X", marked "Gas Sta." on the 1907 photo, indicates the location of a small
building at Gross Farm where W.L. Brown worked as a telegrapher for the East Ohio Gas Company.
It was located at approximately Lat 40° 51.821' N and Long 81° 27.779' W (WGS-84
Datum). This makes it a just over a half a mile from the house (actually,
2,860 feet in a straight line distance) at a bearing of 194.7° true. Will
Brown would have had to walk slightly further to get to work, since he would presumably have followed
the road. The picture on the right is of the same house taken
in May, 2001. It shows the south side of the house. The front, or west
side, is behind the power poles. A tornado struck the area around 3:00 PM
EDT on Sunday, April 28, 2002,
toppling the large trees around the house and removing many pieces of slate from
the roof. It seems likely that the house will be demolished before
the end of 2002.
(As
usual, click the photos for larger images.)
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A front
porch was built on to the house at one point and then later removed.
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Road in abt 1907 versus
2001. The picture on the left, below, is a view looking south along
what is now Lake-O-Springs Road, taken from the top of the hill in front of the W.L. Brown
house. It was also taken in approx. 1907. The little square structure
on the horizon, near the center of the picture is the Gas Company telegraphy
building. The picture on the right is the view looking south along Lake-O-Springs Road, taken from a
spot directly in front of the
former W.L. Brown house, that
is about 50 yards north of the location where the picture on the left was taken.
The lens used for this picture also had a slightly longer focal length than the
lens used for the above picture; that is, this picture has a wee bit of a
telephoto effect as compared to the 1907 picture. Because of all the
trees, it is difficult to tell that the area at the foot of the hill and to the
right of the road (the field in the 1907 picture) has all been developed into
estate lots with quality residential homes.
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This 1929 photo
shows Lake-O-Springs park as it looked when viewing it from the backyard of the
W.L. Brown house. The photograph is looking in an approximately easterly
direction.
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This aerial photograph
was taken on 1931-05-03 from an aerial location about midway between the W.L.
Brown house and the park. According to Mildred
Mohler (nee Young), this photograph was taken by Clyde Butler, a Jackson Twp.
resident who flew his own airplane and did free lance aerial photography.
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This is a winter scene
at the house of W.L. Brown at Lake-O-Springs. This photograph was probably
taken in the late 1920s.
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This building at
Gross Farm was where Will L. Brown (shown in photo) operated the
telegraph for the East Ohio gas company. This building was about 1/2 mile
south of the Brown home.
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Eulice Jeffrey
(center of picture) working on building an ice boat with his nephew Kingsley
Brown at the Brown's home at Lake-O-Springs, Jackson Twp, Stark County, Ohio. The back of
the upper-left photo is marked in the handwriting of Marion Brown (nee Erbland) as follows: "Ice Boat made by Kingsley Brown and Uncle Eulice Jeffrey / Lake O Springs Ohio / Eulice in center picture.
He, son of Stephen Jeffrey, brother of Maud Jeffrey Brown."
That is, Eulice Ray Jeffrey was the brother of
Maud Brown (nee Jeffrey). According to the 1920
journal of Eulice's brother-in-law aand Maude's husband, Will Brown, Eulice
and his family arrived for a visit on December 8, 1920 and Eulice and Kingsley
were building the ice boat on December 10 & 11, 1920. According to the
journal, Eulice ("Eulie") and his family left on December 15th.
The back of the lower-left photo is marked "Ice
boat owned by The "Browns" at N. Canton, Ohio Dec 1920 - Runners
and Rudder not attached". That
handwriting is thought to Eulice Ray Jeffrey's. In another handwriting,
the following note is also on the back of the picture "Made
by Eulice Jeffrey and nephew Kingsly Brown".
That handwriting is thought to belong to Marion Erbland (nee Brown), Kingsley's
sister.
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Marion Brown is
shown here playing dress-up at the Brown home near lake-O-Springs.
This photo is probably circa 1913. Marion's son Mardon (me)
asked his mother (Marion) about this picture with the thought that there was
some 'big story' behind it. Instead, Marion said that she was only dressed
this way as part of a kids 'dress-up' game and there was nothing more to it than
that. This scan is from a colored photocopy of a hand-tinted photograph.
The tinting was probably done by Marion's brother, Terry, years after the
photograph was taken. Terry was very involved in amateur photography.
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This vegetable garden
of Will Brown's was located near the Brown house at
Lake-O-Springs. This photograph was probably taken in the 1920s.
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This Lake "O"
Springs photo was taken by Eulice Ray Jeffrey in December 1920 from near the home of the Will L. Brown family.
Eulice was visiting the family of his sister, Maude Brown (nee Jeffrey).
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Ruth Kimble at the
Brown's mailbox at Lake-O-Springs. Ruth was b. 1894, d. 20-MAY-1990, and
married Terry Brown on 10-JUN-1922. Marion Erbland (nee Brown) mentioned
this mailbox to me (her son Mardon)
several times during our discussions about Lake-O-Springs. I had the
impression that Marion really liked it.
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This hatchet
belonged to Will Lincoln Brown. It bears the inscription "W.L.B.
1927". This photograph was taken on 27-NOV-2003 by Will Brown's
grandson, Mardon Erbland. Presumably Will used this hatchet in the pursuit
of one of his favourite pastimes, that of making walking canes.
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