Powellsville Manufactures-Its Amusements and its Music-Widows and Mortality
Powellsville, Lawrence County, Ohio, 28 April 1874
For the Times
Dear Times-We notice an item occasionally in your paper from this place, and one in particular, which speaks of it as a considerable manufacturing town. And of all the items we have noticed, not one contained anything which would give anyone not acquainted with the place any real idea of what kind of a town it is.
And now, Mr. Editor, we suggest giving you something near a true description of that town. From the flattering account given of the place by your correspondent, “Animalcula,” some time ago, one might conclude that it is quite a metropolis.
POWELLSVILLE
Powellsville is situated on Poplar Fork, a branch of Pine Creek, by which it is flanked on the west and the east by a range of low hills. Powellsville, Lawrence County, Ohio, occupies a very low and swampy ground. In rainy weather, it is very muddy and commonly called a “mud hole,” and we think very appropriately, too.
The most appropriate name it has ever received is “Fleatown,” as every inhabitant could testify. It is a continual war on gardens from the earliest dawn of spring until winter lays his icy getters on them and drives them into the old stables and barn, which form very commodious hiding places.
They are so plenty at this season of the year that one can hardly work during the day or rest at night, of their continuous annoyance. Powellsville contains one store, one blacksmith and carpenter shop, one shoe shop, a church, and a schoolhouse.
Esq keeps the store. Finney and at which you can buy anything from a paper of pins to a suit of clothes. The blacksmith and carpenter shops are doing a good business in their line, but this is all the claim that Powellsville has to the name of a “manufacturing” town unless it is from the fact that a great amount of deviltry is manufactured.
The most characteristic feature of Powellsville, Lawrence County, Ohio is what is known as “Loafers’ Corner,” upon which may be seen at almost any time a collection of the idlest boys of the village and surrounding neighborhood, whose business is to smoke cigars, crack vulgar jokes, insult their betters, swear, etc.
It is a terrible nuisance and used to be so bad that a lady was hardly safe from some form of abuse if she should chance to pass it, either night or day, but we think it is getting better since Esq. Finney is located in the place.
The “boys” are a little afraid of the law. On the opposite side of the street from the “Loafers’ Corner” is a dilapidated old two-story building, which has long been deserted, and the boys call the hospital. If you could pass there any night during the summer session, you might conclude that it was haunted. You would see the light from the windows and hear strange noises, and if you listened attentively, you would probably hear words like the following: “Follow suit or tramp,” “Hearts are trumps,” “It’s my deal,” etc.
Again, Powellsville, Lawrence County, Ohio, is an inviting retreat for those who love nature’s music. The continuous song of the whippoorwill, mingled with the croaking of bullfrogs from the surrounding woods, would disguise the most ardent lover of nature and destroy the patience of Job. But Powellsville, with all its disadvantages, has some redeeming features worth noticing.
In the midst of all the vice and immorality, our Sabbath schools exert a healthy moral sentiment, and Powellsville has more than its share of bad boys and a goodly number of excellent citizens. Powellsville challenges the world to beat it for widows. It has eight, two of whom are grass widows.
Temperance leagues are organizing rapidly through this part of the country, and liquor dealers are beginning to tremble in their boots. Over fifteen hundred dollars has been raised by subscription to prosecute those who sell intoxication liquors illegally and those who drink them to intoxication.
But, perhaps we have written enough for the present. We have endeavored to give you some idea of the village in question, with its leading features and surroundings, and to clear up the errors we notice in “Animalcula’s” exaggerated account of it as a “manufacturing” town.
Powellsville, Lawrence County, Ohio
I.G.O.
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