Category Archives: Beach

Willard/ edited (alphabetical sort by name; top part):

Winesburg, OH with Wilmot, Winfield. Beach City (originally Willards Mill) at top again (just “City” here):

https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/more-map-stuff-04/

https://archive.org/details/historyofstarkco00perr

Same source; brief detour into neighboring Wilmot…

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sam_Toomey

Martha invited Hurley inside for tea while she relayed the background with Sam and the numbers. She said that one night — about 16 years before Hurley’s visit — a voice appeared in the static “repeating those numbers over and over again”. Sam used the numbers to win $50,000 in a “Guess the Number of Beans” (within 10) contest at the fair in Kalgoorlie. Martha said the jar “must have been big as a pony, and it’s filled to the rim”, commenting that the man “had been running the same scam for 40 years and nobody had ever come close” until Sam hit it exactly by using all the Numbers (4,8,15,16,23,42).

On their way home from the fair, Sam and his wife were hit head-on by a truck that blew a tire on the highway, and Martha lost her leg, while Sam escaped without a scratch. Toomey blamed that, as well as future unlucky occurrences, on the Numbers. Those occurrences continued until he committed suicide “to end the curse”.

Another thing of note, perhaps: Barrs Mill usurped original name of Willards Mill for Beach City, but presently there is another Barrs Mill in the area (lower part of above map). Barrs Mill is not mentioned in the Stark County history book quoted above, but is in the below newspaper article concerning the history of Beach City (July 3, 1976 · The Evening Independent from Massillon, Ohio · Page 46).

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/3551068/

FORTY SIX SATURDAY, JULY 3,1976 THE MASSILLON EVENING INDEPENDENT 1816 Indian trail led Henry Willard to Beach City Village named for railroader By AMY SHRIVER What is today known as Beach City has undergone several changes, both in name and character since the area was first settled around 1816. At thst time, Sugar Creek Township was separated from Canton Township. In this year, Henry Willard followed an Indian trail to a point overlooking today’s village. He chose this si’,e to construct a gristmill, using stones for grinding corn and wheat. The settlement became known as Willards Mills. LATER, F. V. BELL purchased the mill and made ‘numerous improvements. Bell added a sawmill and machinery for carding, spinning, weaving and dressing cloth. Bell became so popular among local residents that Willard was forgotten and the settlement becatne Bell’s Mills. After Bell’s death, the property was passed on to his son, Philip and George. The mill failed under their management due to bankruptcy of some eastern creditors and swindling on the part of two employes who reportedly lit out of town and headed west with full pockets. After passing through a long list of other owners, the mill was purchased in 1850 by Jonathan Barr, who rebuilt the properties. The fickle public began culling the area Barr’s Mills. His grist and flour mills supplied a large merchant trade until 1934 when the buildings and land were taken over for the Muskingum Conservancy District.

Returning to the Magic Book…

0 of 0 sam_
0 of 0: toom
0 of 0: beach
1 of 1: beech

Past the pond and along a path that followed Wine Creek he [Willard] went until he came to a grove of beech trees.

Beech grove equals Beach City, destination of Willard along path or trail.

A fairy city (“Winner”) I found recently along a path or trail atop Beach (mountain). Another implied Beach City, then.

https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/harrisonia-tomorrow-and-tue-and-maybe-wed/

https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/weekend-hikes/
https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/harrisonia-tomorrow-and-tue-and-maybe-wed/

This makes the presence of a Trail near Winesburg more important, seemingly (in above map again). And on Indian Trail Creek.

IN THE BEACH…

The young reporter was thinking of Kate Swift, who had once been his school teacher. On the evening before he had gone to her house to get a book she wanted him to read and had been alone with her for an hour. For the fourth or fifth time the woman had talked to him with great earnestness and he could not make out what she meant by her talk. He began to believe she must be in love with him and the thought was both pleasing and annoying.

Up from the log he sprang and began to pile sticks on the fire. Looking about to be sure he was alone he talked aloud pretending he was in the presence of the woman, “Oh, you’re just letting on, you know you are,” he declared. “I am going to find out about you. You wait and see.”

(to be continued)