Kelleys Island History Blog

The Village maintains two parks (the park downtown and the one on Addison Rd..) and several recreation areas. Recently, the Kelleys Island Park Board officially named the Addison Road park the Kelleys Island Community Park. In looking back, this park has been a big part of our community history. This year the KI History Museum has been posting articles from the 1950s, and this one brought up a lot of memories. Several years ago, the Kelleys Island Landowners Assoc. moved its Homecoming event to this park (it used to be downtown). What a great move. There was more space, a pavilion with picnic tables, a water faucet and a big area for tents and games. But, what’s a park without a safe, fun place for children to play? The equipment was old with just a really tall slide and a few swings. The merry-go-round (now called meat grinders) had already been removed. None of the equipment met safety standards. It was time for an upgrade, but it would literally take a village to make it happen....

Every museum has a ghost story (except maybe us), and every museum has that one item that is a show stopper. Ours is “that creepy doll”. Of course we don’t think the doll is creepy at all. She is quite charming. She was donated by Lydia Bechtel and she is wearing a blue skirt with a white blouse and cloth sweater. She has a lovely pearl necklace and earrings, and has lace-up black and white shoes and socks. In researching her, we discovered an advertisement for a similar doll with this description that closely matches our doll. A doll made by Simon & Halbig, which has a smooth, creamy bisque face with crisp facial modeling. She has four upper teeth, small ears, molded and feathered brows over deeply set, spiral threaded eyes that close for sleep with upper and lower lashes. Her hair is a Mohair wig, which likely had spiral curls at one time. We actually have several lovely old dolls which we are working at bringing back out into the museum. The scariest thing about this doll is how...

  T HE ISLAND’S OLDEST INHABITANT– JACOB HAYES   George Huntington , in his presentation to the Fire Lands Historical Society   on October 30, 1862, offered this about the man. “Jacob Hay, then as now a bachelor, and one of our oldest residents, was boarding with Mrs. Knowlton at the afore-said boarding house in front of where the Island House   now stands. If, as political economists assert, that man is to be considered a public benefactor who causes two spires of grass to grow where but one grew before, then Mr. Hay is certainly deserving great credit, since he has performed a much greater amount of physical labor than any man now living on the island, almost the whole of which was tended directly or indirectly towards the general improvement. For 15 years his time was devoted almost exclusively to clearing land, building fences, putting up small tenements, &c. and since that date he has been employed in making and repairing agricultural implements, &c., ...

OCTOBER 1867 - OPERATING A SALOON & SELLING INTOXICATING LIQUORS In May, John Reinheimer was accused of selling liquor to minors. This was followed by complaints of vandalism against Wm. Robinson; the first of several cases involving the Robinsons and the Reinheimers, as well as a charge of Assault & Battery. The Island had several Justice of the Peace officers, and their dockets often record some really creative testimony. SELLING INTOXICATING LIQUORS TO A PERSON INTOXICATED - “ The State of Ohio vs. John Reinheimer - Selling intoxicating liquors to a person intoxicated and for keeping a saloon for the sale of liquors contrary to law . This day came William Robinson and entered complaint that on or about the 4th day of May, the above named John Reinheimer did sell or otherwise dispose of intoxicating liquors to one named Edward Robinson, knowing that the Edward Robinson is in the habit of getting intoxicated. At the same time said William Robinson made complaint that the...

THE FIRST BURIAL S IN THE KELLEYS ISLAND CEMETERY Discover the earliest burials in the Kelleys Island cemetery. In my last post I shared the history of our cemetery which was established in 1854. Now we can explore some of the earliest burials. In 1854, the year the cemetery was established. John McDonald, who died on January 14, 1854 at age 26, was the first burial and his headstone still stands. Norman Hills told an interesting story about McDonald, who had been employed in preparing the new cemetery for burial purposes.   He was taken to task for carelessness in his work and his reply was to the effect that he did not care, for he did not expect to be buried there. It so happened that soon after completing his work in the cemetery, McDonald was accidentally killed and became the very first person to be buried in the cemetery he built. McDonald’s death appeared in Datus Kelley’s Ledger. “A letter from Mr. Addison Kelley informs us of a sad accident which occurred on Kelley’s ...