Remembering Pataskala area country stores

As each of us negotiates our role of consumer in this busy and diversified world, we are bombarded by our many opportunities through which to do this! Magazines, TV, social media, newspapers, signs, billboards, etc., etc., etc. . . sometimes so numerous we are unable to process and remember all our choices. This situation is a natural result of the numbers of businesses competing and the number of people who are being “wooed.”

This article is an attempt to remember some folks in an earlier time who were very valuable to our local residents but in a MUCH simpler manner. We know life has moved on but it is interesting to bring these folks “to life” again, to give them credit for the service they performed within the timeframe of their lives.

While many small businesses would qualify for the above recognition it is not possible to get to all of them at one time so let your minds wander to just two businesses of the 19th and 20th centuries that had their “day in the “sun” and served this very rural community.

Some time ago, in the northwest corner of the intersection of Morse Road and Ohio 310, there once was the village of Ash! Calling it a village is a stretch of the imagination because it consisted of just the one building pictured here with this article but it was an important building and location at that time.

When the photo was taken the building was owned by James M. Beeson, grandfather of David Beeson. Mr. Beeson owned it from 1895 to 1937. Not only did he own the building but he operated the business inside which at one time boasted a “set of scales (now on display in the Mead-Needham Museum), a slaughter house and a cider mill,” It was also a gathering place for the men, mostly farmers, of the neighborhood.

Many could simply walk to Ash for provisions and services; other means of transportation were horses, either sporting riders or attached to a people-hauling buggy. The little building on the right was originally a post office and it stood in the southwest corner of that same intersection from 1887 to 1902. The larger building was built in 1902. It was razed in the early 2000s.

The village of Jersey also had its answer to farmers’ needs. Dickersons operated a store in a small, frame building in the northeast corner of the intersection of Morse Road and Condit Road. That building pictured here burned in February 1911 but was replaced by the old Jersey school which by then also had been replaced by a new brick structure. The Reussner family operated the store in the 1930s and 1940s and some of us alive today remember a special trip to Reussner’s to purchase special equipment to keep the gasoline powered lights glowing in our homes. Obviously all of this was before electricity.

It came to this area via the Rural Electrification Association (REA) in the mid-1930s. That company has since evolved into The Energy Cooperative. Back to the store. . . this Jersey store, too, was not only a source of necessary items for the rural and village residents but also served as a great place to gather and swap stories. Unfortunately the 1911 store also burned; this was in the early 2000s.

It is important that residents of this suburbia-like landscape of today have a grasp of the people and conditions that have brought us to this point.

Realizing this, those responsible for the Mead-Needham Museum have made a great effort to recognize our agricultural background in the preparation of its 2018 displays. Farm photos, equipment, history of individual farms, businesses involved with agriculture. . .all things that made up our rural scene are there for visitors to feast their eyes upon. (Yes, the sentence ended with a preposition!)

The museum is now open each Sunday afternoon, 1-3 p.m. Do stop by! The museum is an outgrowth of the goals of the West Licking Historical Society.

Visitors are always welcome at its meetings, the next of which is April 19, 7 p.m. at the historic Etna Township House during which Tom Tykodi will be talking about “Driving by the Numbers.” Come see what that’s all about and enjoy a bit of comeraderie with us. . .just like the old days!