It's believed to be the oldest building in Ohio, and possibly the Midwest. But the mystery remains: who built it and why?
Posted on 07/24/2012 5:51:29 PM PDT by Pharmboy
It's believed to be the oldest building in Ohio, and possibly the Midwest. But the mystery remains: who built it and why?
COSHOCTON, Ohio -- It's believed to be the oldest building in Ohio, and possibly the Midwest – built nearly a century before the American Revolution. But the mystery remains: who built the Old Stone Fort and why?
On an ordinary plot of farm land on County Road 254 in eastern Coshocton County sits what is arguably one of the most important buildings in Ohio history.
It is believed that the Old Stone Fort was built sometime around 1679.
As important as it is, however, hardly anything is known about the Old Stone Fort.
For example, no one knows who built the fort or why.
It's generally believed that it was built by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.
He was a French Canadian and brother of the founder of New Orleans.
It's believed that he traveled the nearby Tuscarawas River and built the fort to guard against the English in the fur trade battles.
Then, there's the George Croghan scenario.
He was an Irish fur trader working for England who moved into the Native American territories to trade furs with the Delaware tribe.
He was not born until 1718, which would mean that if built by Croghan, the fort isn't as old as presumed.
There's also the theory that the fort was built by unknown settlers as a way to defend themselves against the native tribes.
There are rifle ports on all sides, and archaeological digs have found evidence of a stockade.
Then, there's yet another theory.
"I'm going to get tarred and feathered and ran out of Coshocton, because I don't think it was a fort," said Margaret Lowe.
Lowe has studied the fort all her life and said she believes it was not nearly as historic as a fort or outpost, but it may have just been part of a farm.
"I think it was probably, and again, this is written during one version, that it was used as a spring house. Another version was that it was used for a meat house," Lowe said.
Could it have been all of the theories over the years?
In the French Canadian version, the fort was built nearly 100 years before the American Revolution, and oral history handed down over generations say it was built as early as 1800.
In 1918, a farmer dug up a French compass while plowing near the fort. In 1880, there was a tornado in the closest town of Evansburg, destroying the town, but the fort survived.
The town, named after the people who lived there, was never rebuilt.
Over the centuries, the fort was rebuilt after falling into disrepair.
Part of the doorway is preserved at the local museum, and the wood looks ancient.
It is only 14 square feet inside, and doesn't appear to have been used as living quarters.
At one time there was a ladder heading up to a second floor, but now the fort is boarded up.
What the Old Stone Fort has given the neighbors is a sense of wonder.
"I would have loved to have seen the stockade around it," said Dan Markley, a local historian. "This fort, everybody has a different opinion as why it was here and it's just a mystery. If you could find just one person, somewhere along the line who could give you a true answer."
Another mystery surrounding the fort is the owner. It's not clear who owns the building today.
Locals want to know the history, but likely will take their theories to the grave, never having an answer.
There is a lot of history there.
The oldest building still remaining in the original Connecticut Western Reserve is in my home town.
If it dates to 1679, it was surely French.
The Newly formed America did not settle the area until the late 1770s.
There was no “farm country” back in the day.
I’m thinking local tavern/trading post/inn.
The only thing that does not make sense as a last resort fighting place, is the ground level door.
The slotted window (guns) and the small widow (guns) make sense and the large second level entrance makes sense if the ladder for egress can be retracted.
which is why my hunch is this structure dates from the late 1700’s (post Rev) or very early 1800’s, when settlers were moving into Ohio and were still vulnerable to attacks into the 1790’s (or later into the 1800’s? Ohio historians?)
someone was settled on this land enough to build a stone structure -
just wonder if they have investigated whether the stone is encasing or replaced an older log structure, as has been suggested occurred with some of the original log blockhouses in pre-Rev war PA that are contained within later built homes
That is where they found my ancestor Lochry’s 1774 blockhouse- within a farmhouse built over it
http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/blockhouse.html
There are some other very interesting sites in Ohio. In Independence, out side of Cleveland, A friend’s Great Grandmother owned a farm on the North East corner of Valley View and Rockside roads, This farm pre-dated the Firelands era, There was an ancient family cemetery right up close to Rockside. The farm was in the Cuyahoga River Valley. On a tall hill on the South East side were the remains of what was rumored to be a fort, and that quite a battle had taken place there, with Indians. When we explored there as kids, all that was left were large sandstone blocks.
The area is now all office and light industrial. I went into the office building that was built over the family graveyard, and asked them if they ever had strange things happening. I told them that i had witnessed the construction of their building, and that I had watched the old family graveyard just plowed under. Some of the people I talked to were quite disturbed by that news.
I have seen similar structures in Apache areas in Az that were small with slotted windows for fighting the indians as a last resort.
Larger wooden structures were built around them over the years and the old “safe” place was a place of last resort for security within the wooden building but not fighting.
Over the ages the wooden structures were lost and only the old hidey hole remains.
There are more reported “ghost story’s” in Ohio than any other state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pitt_Blockhouse
The Ft Pitt Blockhouse, oldest “authenticated” structure west of the Alleghenies
Second floor opening could have been knocked out or enlarged later if the building was converted to farm or other use
The gun slot tips me off, and the small size of it.
Lots of things change with time.
It’s hard to date some of this stuff.
Where I grew up we became the county seat, but there where political tensions, and the Court house was burnt down and all records were lost
http://www.mahoninghistory.org/wdyk9-countyseat.htm
I don’t believe it. How could someone build a fort without paved roads and bridges in place? Whoever built it didn’t do it without the Government’s help.
And no moats full of alligators LoL
I’m going to have to check that out.
Close to home.
Heh! Could be. There were a lot of them and they seemed to be, uh......very prolific. heheheh. One of his grandsons was Joshua Frye Speed, Lincoln’s room-mate and “BFF” of notoriety.
Time for an archaeological Dig at this place and see what that says. I think there was more to the place—wooden buildings now gone (or burned) Maybe some bodies buried there too.
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