Hocking County Historical and Genealogical Society and Museum

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                            WELCOME

  To our web site, we do update, so please come back!        

            CORONAVIRUS19

   THE BOARD HAS VOTED TO KEEP THE            MUSEUM CLOSED THIS YEAR

       MUSEUM TOURS APPOINTMENTS

       CALL  ANN  740-590-6023

                NYLA  740-385-2255

               (CELL 740-603-1876)

                        2020

           Saturday 1:00 to 4:00 pm                   

           Sunday    1:00 to 4:00 pm    

  (and other times for group tours with     prior arrangement)

                         FREE Admission

Admission and parking are FREE and our campus is handicapped accessible.

                      Group/bus tours are welcome!

Please call to schedule a time for your private tour.

 We encourage people living in our community and guests visiting the beautiful Hocking Hills to come and see our historically interesting displays that preserve our county's fascinating past. 

                        Phone 1-740-385-6026

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           LELAND LAVON CONNER

                 5/9/30 - 11/16/07

 WITH THE EXHIBIT OF HIS ARTIFACTS

 AT THE MUSEUM, WE WILL FOR             SEVERAL WEEK ,HAVE HIS STORIES, POEMS, RESEARCH AND TALES. 

          (on Special Project page)

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                Joseph Dodds Longstreth

         August 23, 1824 – December 21, 1897

Joseph was born in 1824. He married Cynthia Bay in 1852 and together they purchased land of John Westenhaver, of Green Township where they resided in an old log cabin.

Through industry, energy, and business ability, he prospered financially and was one of the largest individual landowners in the county. As a farmer, Mr. Longstreth was the most eminently successful and was one of the best stock raisers in this section of the county, making a specialty of sheep and cattle. He was the most extensive woolgrower in Hocking County having the best quality of Vermont sheep. He was engaged in the culture of short horn cattle.

On top of the hill on the farm he built and lived in the beautiful brick structure overlooking Union Furnace (known for many years as the Presbyterian Farm on St. Rt. 328)

J.D. Longstreth gave freely to the church as well as to the needs of those who were in distress. Realizing the need of a church in his own neighborhood, he donated the land and raised the money to build a church just down the road from his home, contributing large amounts of funds from his own means. When the new Presbyterian Church opened in December 1867, he was one of the original elders and served in that capacity until health prevented it in his old age.

This church was located across from the old Union Furnace School.

J.D. and Cynthia had one son and two daughters. Son Robert married Blanche Cresap. For a wedding gift, J.D. and Cynthia had a house built for Robert and Blanche. This house on St. Rt. 329 was purchased by Clarence and Ozilla Skinner in 1845. It is now the home of Jim and Mary Skinner and is still used for sheep and cattle farming.

A home was also built for one of his daughters just up the road. It has been owned by Wendell and Selma Phillips and family for at least 68 years. That original

home was torn down and a newer home is there now.
                       

      

           THROWBACK  THURSDAY                                        CLICK   

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   Six buildings of historic displays showcase the circa 1898 Schempp House, the Lutz Steam Car, original pioneer wagon of the Stiers Family & original Hocking Valley Railroad Telegraph Office, where you can test your Morse Code knowledge.

     Sit in early 1900's desks & write on chalkboards in the recreated 1912 School House and shuck corn on corn sheller's in the Carriage House display of agricultural items   

    View numerous displays of Hocking History including: a medical office, military uniforms & equipment, toys, coal mining, local clay & brick industry, Hocking Canal & bridge history, an example of a print shop, mastodon teeth & Indian artifacts.

     A Timeline Exhibit of Logan and Hocking County features a century of the county's history condensed into four panels is also on display. The timeline includes Native Americans, the first settlers (1798), the Civil War, the Hocking Valley Railway and the 1916 Logan Centennial, ending in 1917, when America joined the war.