The first mention of checkers appeared in 1869. The game board was set up at The Lodge (the Store on the Corner). This is the one iconic photo of how intense these games were. From left to right: Standing: Charles Martin and Charles Erne. Sitting: Erastus Huntington, Charles Carpenter, J. Woodford, Oscar Dean and Titus Hamilton. “The Lodge has got checkers on the brain, though customers can be waited on between the games. It is reported that one game was actually broken up at the most interesting point by the late fire, but this needs confirmation, as it is taxing the credibility of the public too much to expect any reliance to be placed in such improbable sensational yarns.” So important was the game, Jacob Rush immortalized it in verse! CHECKERS ON THE BRAIN Oh no, it is not with checkers that I while away the day. It is only to the Lodge I go, to see the others play They come from all directions; North, South, East and West. All are represented from the
In an earlier Blog post we noted that our opening day was June 26, 2010. So why does the cornerstone of the building say 2005? The Kelleys Island Historical Assoc. was formed in 1980. It was obvious that we needed a museum so we cleared out the stone church and move some of our more interesting items in. This was a tight fit since one-half of the space was also our gift shop. Back in those days, our logo was our letterhead. Not the best quality but it did the job. We didn’t even put our address on our letters! Next came our brochure. We still featured the church since that was the cornerstone of our organization, but we were looking to the future. This was the first step in raising funds for the new museum. " What's past is prologue " is a quotation from the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare. The phrase was originally used to suggest that all that has happened before that time, the "past," has led what someone was about to do: commit or make another choi