On the Moraine

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Prologue

Geologically, Ohio is roughly two states divided by a line that runs from Cincinnati to Cleveland. Sometimes, this line is thought to roughly follow the old “3C” highway or I-71.  

It veers quite widely from this line, particularly in Highland County. North and west of this line, the state is fairly flat and smooth, the result of the last glacier of the Ice Age. South and east of this line are the Appalachian foothills, undisturbed by glaciers. In most textbooks, this line is called the Terminal Moraine.

I proposed to the publisher, and he has agreed, that I can write a series of columns about living on the Moraine in Highland County. I’ll continue to write two columns per week, one on contemporary topics and the other, “On the Moraine.”

Starting in the 1950s, my family acquired two farms. The first one, known as the McNary Farm, is located at the junction of Highland, Ross and Pike counties. In fact, there used to be a large surveyor’s stone in one of the fields here, with a “T” cut in its top, which marked the point where the three came together. Some time since 1968, someone has removed this stone, illegally (it is illegal to remove an official survey marker).  

The McNary Farm is clearly on the southeast side of the Terminal Moraine. The other farm, known as the Beaver Farm, is located on the north side of state Route 506 at the intersection of that highway and Franklin Branch, a creek which is clearly marked on the Highland County engineer’s map of today. The Beaver Farm is definitely on the northwest side of the Terminal Moraine.

The watershed of most of the McNary Farm and all of the Beaver Farm flows directly into Rocky Fork Creek below the Rocky Fork Lake dam. The McNary Farm contains a sandstone layer high up in the hill on the northwest of the farm. The Beaver Farm has limestone outcroppings near Franklin Branch.

To drive between these two farms is literally to drive across the Terminal Moraine. In my way of thinking, Rocky Fork Creek pierces the Terminal Moraine at the old Barrett Mill, where it goes into the region formerly known as the “7 Caves.”

My narrative will be in the first person, set in the time these matters happened. It will be something of a “Little House on the Prairie” style told through my eyes and ears as I experienced it.  

When this adventure started, my family lived at 803 South Mulberry Street in Troy, Ohio. The house still stands, but the neighborhood has changed dramatically. Next to our house to the north was the New York Central railroad yard, consisting of a through line and four sidings. Our lot was narrow and long.  

At the back end was a garage, formerly a horse stable, with a small loft for hay. Alongside the railroad track side was a building we called “the shop,” where my dad had a full complement of tools you would expect in a small machine shop – lathe, milling machine, surface plane, automatic lathe, welders and so forth. It was, however, just a hobby.  

The family income came from Dad’s position at Hobart Brothers, the manufacturer of welding equipment (but not Kitchen Aid, which is a separate Hobart company). Both the garage and the shop are long gone – just concrete slabs now. When I look at the size of the slabs now, especially the shop, I can’t believe dad squeezed all the equipment in there that he did.

Back in those days, Mother and Dad raised flowers on all the perimeters of that lot and also around the house and shop. The beds were three or four feet wide and on spring through fall evenings when we were in town, Mother could be found planting, weeding or digging up bulbs for safekeeping in the winter.

The driving force to leave Troy for Highland County was a family secret which will be revealed in due course.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.