BURLINGTON – THE OLDEST NAME
By Charles Collett
(no date – circa 1940s)
Burlington Ohio Early History – Burlington, the oldest name in the Tri-State … When Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803, more people lived in the vicinity of Burlington than elsewhere in this section … When Lawrence county was laid out in 1816, the courthouse and jail were erected at Burlington… The first newspaper published on the river between Portsmouth and Gallipolis was the Lawrence County Gazette at Burlington, established by W. C. Wheeler on November 22, 1845… That was four years before Ironton was founded.
Before the Civil War, Burlington had a distillery making good whiskey… This little community today is not listed in the postal guide, with such other cities as Burlington, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Maine, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado…which states all have a Burlington. .. Instead, the citizens here now receive their mail on rural route South Point.
Many stories have been told about the period leading up to the Civil War when Burlington was known as a stop on the “Underground Railway,” a path followed by slaves running away from the South for freedom to the North… Cross the river than was Virginia,” as the state had not been divided in the West… Because runaway slaves received such humane treatment, many remained, and others returned after the war…
The stories of the underground bring to mind another experience 40 years ago when the nation was undergoing the noble experiment remembered as national prohibition… A friend invited me and two others to show us a real SpeakEasy… Our party arrived in Burlington about 9 p.m. parked the car off the main highway, walked in the dark about a block to a home where only the hall lamp was burning… A woman with a candle in her hand answered the doorbell, and the leader of our party identified himself, and we were ushered into the parlor… The house had three doors leading from the hallway, and we could hear voices in the other rooms.
The parlor had a fancy oil lamp and an old fashion organ. The waitress took the order for four ginger highballs…. When she returned, she had a little handbell on the tray, saying if we wanted anything else, to ring the bell… The drink must have been good because our party rang several times.
The proprietress or landlady entered the parlor and was introduced… I remember her words, ” I hear Lawrence County’s biggest politicians are in the house.”… That made us all feel important… She talked in a low, quiet tone and was quite gabby… Her husband worked nights in Huntington, and she operated the “blind tiger” only after 8 p.m. with lights out at 11 … She spoke of her list of select clientele… No party of more than four was admitted at a time, and each was assigned a private room. “You never can tell,” she said, “the Mayor of Huntington might be drinking with a party in the next room – We never mix company.” … That’s our memory of Burlington 40 years ago.
Our memories of the town where the highway on old US 52 makes the big “Z” curve has one of the first tourist cabins between Ironton and Chesapeake… Those cabins attracted attention because on the doors of two adjoining small buildings were the words “Maggie and Jiggs”… Those signs could be read from the highway and provided many a smile in mixed company… Not long ago, I heard about similar buildings called “summer houses” because some are for men and others for women.
Today Burlington has a drive-in theatre and new churches, and the old building was a part of Lawrence County’s first courthouse 120 years ago remains. – Date unknown
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