Ironton Tribune, December 15, 1966

There are more versions of the story that relates to the naming of Hanging Rock . . . than you can envision. Actually the river was filled with boats before hanging Rock came into being . . . It was uncharted and two large rocks reared their heads at a bend in the river below the point where the thriving furnace was located . . . They stood forbidding as the gates of Hercules . . . and in the fog that often covered the Ohio Valley (then as now) . . . many boats were hung up on those two mighty rocks . . . Sometimes the river was just high enough to cover the mighty, craggy stones . . . That was the danger season for shipping and many cargoes were lost in the roaring floodwaters . . . Another story contended that a man jumped off the high cliff overhanging the river to evade pursuing Indians . . . He is said to have made a safe landing . . . But that is only one of a series of interesting events connected with the history of Hanging Rock . . . and we shall attempt to relate them as we recall the stories told us by Billy McKEE, the old-time grocer in the thriving community . . . Mr. McKee was one of the most observant men in the valley . . . and from the days when we attended school in the village with Tom and the late Dick HUDSON, the EICHER boys, the FRAZIER the GENTIL, the GRAFF, the SHEPPARD, the WOLLUM boys, and many others whose names escape us now . . . we talked with Billy McKEE, in what leisure time he found . . . Our regret now is that we didn't record the historical facts he laid before us . . . It would have made wonderful reading . . . But being a put-it-off type we didn't do it . . . So it will have to be reproduced as we recall facts and figures from dim and distant past . . . There are able minds like Attorney Hud___ JEFFERYS and members of family . . . who can produce facts from records . . . __ would completely cover Hanging Rock Ironton Region because his family was more closely associated with its development than most families in the region . . . His parents, Mr. And Mrs. William JEFFREYS helped to guide the destiny of the community for many years . . . William JEFFREYS, who passed away many years ago, operated the Hanging Rock Iron Co. for years . . . and his widow, Mrs. Florence JEFFREYS, of Sixth and Monroe St., Ironton . . . continued to carry on . . . She remains a vibrant and active leader and is prominent in the business and social life of Ironton . . . together with other members of the HUDSON and JEFFREYS families . . .

In the old days, when flood waters came along every winter and covered the eastern portion of West Ironton . . . the folks who were driven from their homes would go on the Yellow Branch hills that overlooked the valley . . . and they noted that the water that moved into West Ironton fanned out and formed a figure that looked for all the world like a goose's neck that stretched over the back area . . . where the two big slaughter houses stood in the earlier days of Ironton . . . The men who watched that same picture formed by the high water began calling the area Goose Point . . . The name stuck until the State Highway came along and drove a four-lane highway through the low-lying sections . . . Goose Point retains the name even though the floodwall and the highway broke up the picture . . . thank goodness.

The married lady admitted that she was no spring chicken when she was married . . . but when the husband reminded her of the fact . . . she loudly asserted that she was a little goose . . . when she married him . . .

A lot of noise at least, makes a sound argument . . . according to one of our friends who has a resounding voice.