Tuesday, March 5, 2013

1638 Granville Street - Doty House

1638 Granville Street, March 2010
Lot 5 Ryland's Woodland Place Addition

J.A. Laurence purchased lots 4 and 5 from Samuel Ryland in 1892. The Laurences sold the lots to W.A. Jones in 1894. Jones sold the lots in 1898 to A.R. McNeille.

The McNeilles lived at 1634 Granville Street. McNeille sold the lots to Otho W. Loofbourrow on April 1, 1913. On March 4, 1914, Ross W. Cheek bought the two lots.

Ross was in real estate and was President of the Columbus Real Estate Board (now the Columbus Board of Realtors) in 1913.

This house was probably built in 1914 either by Cheek or for the Dotys. The Dotys bought the property from Cheek on July 14, 1914.

George Henry Doty was born September 15, 1853 in Whitley County, Indiana, son of James and Barbara Shreve Doty. He married Julia Eliza Parfitt on December 20, 1883 at First Presbyterian Church,​ Pittsburgh,​ Pennsylvania. Julia was born March 21, 1862 in Pennsylvania, daughter of John and Mary A. Brown Parfitt. They had a son, Earl J. (October 1884).

In 1910, George was a railroad baggage master. The Dotys lived at 329 West Ninth Avenue. In 1920 the Dotys lived at 992 Oak Street.

George died in Columbus on December 17, 1934. He and his parents are buried at Greenlawn Cemetery. Earl had moved to Alameda, California before 1940. Julia died in Alameda on October 7, 1956.

On May 4, 1916, Stanley Sparks bought the house from the Dotys.

Stanley William Sparks was born May 27, 1875 in Ohio, son of Edward S. and Belle Akin Sparks.
He married Viola Belle Knarston on March 10, 1910 in Covington, Kentucky. Viola was born in California in 1885

In 1910 the newly married Sparks lived with Stanley's family at 1040 Fair Avenue. Stanley was a commercial traveler in machinery. The July 27, 1911 issue of The Iron Age reports that effective August 1st, the machinery department of the Lake Erie Nail and Supply Company of Cleveland "will be in charge of S.W. Sparks, who has been connected with the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company, Columbus, Ohio."

The May 1916 Southern Hardware journal reports, "The Simplex Machine Tool Company, of Cleveland, with $100,000 capital, has been started by S.W. Sparks, C.D. Gibson, W.E. McNaughton, John O' Bren and Frank Ginn." It is reported elsewhere that the Simplex company was a sales arm of Cleveland Machine and Supply Company and that Sparks was President of both firms. In 1917 Stanley was living at the Seneca Hotel in Columbus.

Stanley W. Sparks,
circa 1919
Edna Spencer Sparks,
circa 1919
In 1919, Stanley was living with his second wife, Edna at 59 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, New York. Edna Spencer was born August 21, 1893 in Salem, Virginia, daughter of Wayland L. and Sallie B. Spencer.

On December 2, 1920, Stanley and Edna divorced in New York City.

Stanley married Lyndel Clima in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on December 18, 1920. Lyndel was born about 1892 in Naugatuck, Connecticut, daughter of Edmund R. and Inez A. Gibbud Clyma.

In 1925, Sparks was living in Summit, New Jersey and filed a patent for an improved gate valve design. He assigned the patent to the Columbus Machine Company.

In 1930, Sparks was living in Norwalk, Connecticut with his fourth wife, Eunice M., who he married in 1929. Eunice was born about 1899.

In the 1939 Norwalk City Directory, Stanley is listed with what seems to be his fifth wife, Rosella. In 1941, Sparks filed a patent for the Sparks Lathe which he assigned to the Sparks Machine Tool Corporation of Norwalk.

Herbert H. Goddard, circa 1938
July 8, 1918 Henry Goddard bought the house

Dr. Henry Herbert Goddard was born August 14, 1866, in Kennebec County, Maine, son of Henry Clay and Sarah Winslow Goddard. He married Emma Florence Robbins  August 7, 1899. Emma was born January 10, 1865 in Winthrop, Maine, daughter of Cyrus S. and Mary R. Rockwood Robbins. The Goddards had no children.

The Indiana University website states, "It is no exaggeration to characterize Henry Goddard as the father of intelligence testing in the United States. His biographer points out that he was either a leader or a participant in every significant event occurring during the genesis of American psychometrics. In the years between 1908 and 1918 he translated the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale into English, distributed 22,000 copies of the test throughout the United States, advocated for its use in the public schools, established an intelligence testing program on Ellis Island, and served as a member of Robert Yerkes' Army Alpha and Beta testing team during World War One (Zenderland, 1998, p.2). Goddard's contributions to public education were considerable as well: He helped draft the first state law mandating that schools provide special education, and stressed the need for public school reform by suggesting that normal children could benefit from the instructional techniques originally developed for use with retarded students (Zenderland, p. 124, 63).

When Goddard began working in education he was an unlikely candidate for such a distinguished career. He spent his 20s working as a Quaker schoolteacher and principal, and he didn't begin his Ph.D. work until he was 30 years old. He graduated in 1899 and took a job teaching psychology and pedagogy at a state normal school in Pennsylvania. In 1906 he was offered a position in a small New Jersey institution called the Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys. He enjoyed his work with the students there, and became very interested in the both the causes of mental deficiency and the teaching methods employed by the instructors. His research facility at the school was perhaps the first laboratory for the scientific study of mentally retarded persons."

From a webpage by a researcher who identifies herself only as Lorainne, "As for Henry Herbert Goddard, I may be going out on a limb here, but I believe the reason the tone of "The Kallikaks" study was so harsh (aside from selective editing) was because of his genuine outrage over the conditions Elizabeth Kite reported to him. He had been raised in Maine, in an almost Puritanically-strict Quaker environment, and so, it's understandable that his confoundment must have grown with every story of perfidy provided by Miss Kite. Yet, there was much in Emma's family history that uncomfortably parallelled his own!

"HHG had been born (1866), like Emma, into the less-favored branches of TWO illustrious family trees, the Goodards and the Winslows. His cousins included rocket scientist Robert Goddard, and father & son naturalists Pliny and David Goddard (the latter, a prize-winning botanist and drug-policy advisor under several Adminstrations, referred to his notorious cousin as "Feebleminded Goddard".) Henry's father was a once-prosperous farmer who had sunk, by the time of his son's birth, from landowner to day laborer, partly due to permanent disability from being gored by a bull. His mother, Sarah, became a fanatical Quaker missionary, leaving her crippled husband and son to the care of Henry's much older, married sisters while she preached all over North America.

"Even so, Henry had positive memories of his parents. "They loved me uncommonly", he wrote, "I was the child of their [old] age." There was, apparently, little physical punishment (the father, who died when Henry was nine, was "very gentle") though both parents were quite firm in imposing their beliefs, especially about tee-totalling; their son avoided any drink stronger than cider. Henry grew up in intense poverty (but "genteel"--- no infamous behavior like the rudderless Kallikaks he later wrote about) , only partly relieved by handouts from the local Quaker congregation and earnings from his mother's missions. How he felt about his sisters and their husbands, who raised him after the father's death, may have been something else--- it's interesting to note that, when Henry's wife died, and he grew old, he went to live in California with her relatives, rather than anyone in his sisters' families, or back to Maine, period.

"In any case, the Quakers DID provide Henry with an education--- in a local boarding school, and later, via a scholarship, Haverford College, both of which he later described in almost Dickensian terms. The boarding school was surrounded by a high fence, and in both institutions, the students' routine was monastic. The general intent was to protect the fledgling Quakers from corruption and evil, preparing them for modest careers in teaching and preaching. Henry's instructors discouraged him from reading for enjoyment, and insisted that he bury himself in Greek--- which had its effect, years later, when he was inventing creative terminology such as the word "moron" and, of course, "Kallikak" ("kallos" meaning good; "kakos" meaning bad.)

"Like Emma at Vineland, Henry was not exactly mistreated in HIS schools, either. He won prizes for his speeches, was involved with the school newspaper and the brand-new YMCA (much more religiously-oriented than it is now.) And, in spite of his deceptively compact form and smallish hands, he played on the football team, back when the game, more like rugby then, lacked all modern pretenses at safety. Later, he was even, briefly, a football coach while also teaching in a college in California. Eventually, fulfilling a boyhood dream, the surprisingly sturdy Henry found time to go mountain-climbing in Europe while there for psychological conferences !

"He made a fair number of life-long friends, but in boyhood, he was quiet and shy ---unless overwhelmed with a new enthusiasm (not always a good thing, like when he later became enamored and then obsessed with intelligence studies.) He developed another trait that reflected his fatherless state: When seized by his enthusiasms, he eagerly, perhaps TOO eagerly, sought approval and acquaintance with prominent men in whatever field his interests currently lay. (Also, sometimes not a good thing.) It was, indeed, this life-long tendency toward almost boyish eagerness, even ingenuousness, which endeared him to his friends, to such an extent that, in his old age, he himself derided his "childishness."

"Henry was not very attractive as a youth, with an oblong head, topped by a receding hairline by his teens, and a long nose, all of which he later brought into balance with a substantial mustache. He was already repressing whatever resentments he had against his absent mother, dead father, busy sisters and brothers-in-law, and, of course, his teachers. In old age, Henry would write of the occasions he had been made to feel lonely and incompetent, and that he HAD initially felt empathy with his Vineland pupils. "I was one of them!"

"Henry's destiny seemed to be as an undistinguished teacher in a series of small Quaker schools. It was during one sojourn that he met his wife, Emma Florence Robbins, a fellow teacher. She was over a year older, but petite and pretty; however, she was noted for being "strong-willed." (This may have been the result of being raised, along with many siblings, by a very determined widowed mother who ran the family farm on her own after her husband's early death.) Even so, Emma seemed to be just what the young, lonely Henry needed--- he married her just before his 23rd birthday. He let her set the rules of their home, and, perhaps because they remained childless, the couple was more devoted than most. When apart, they wrote each other several times a day. Observers would comment 25 years later that the Goddards still behaved like love-struck teenagers. Henry would even write to a male colleague that he couldn't come to a meeting he'd been looking forward to, because Emma was sick, and he acted as "nurse and cook." When she died in 1936 (by which time the couple was living in Illinois) Henry's grief and depression was so intense, that his friends all the way back in Vineland worried about him."

The Goddards employed a live-in maid, Helen T. Duncan in 1926.

Emma died of cancer on October 23, 1936 at University Hospital in Columbus. She is buried at Siloam Cemetery in Vineland, New Jersey.

Goddard moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1947. He died at his home there on June 18, 1957. Wikipedia states that his cremated remains were interred with those of his wife at the Vineland Training School (Cemetery), though evidence suggests the Goddards are both buried at Siloam Cemetery in Vineland.

Goddard sold the house on February 18, 1948 to Robert C. and Dorothy H. Duckworth, though Robert and his parents are already listed as living at the house (as is Henry Goddard) in the 1946 City Directory.

Robert C. Duckworth was born June 11, 1920 in Ohio, son of Van James and Suzanne Duckworth. He married Dorothy Helen Nicklaus on November 2, 1946. Dorothy was born December 17, 1922, daughter of Louis Charles and Arkie Belle Thompson Nicklaus. They had three children.

In 1940, Robert lived with his parents at 1637 Oak Street.

Robert followed in the footsteps of his father, a radio repairman with his own shop. In the early 1950s, Robert had the shop and his father worked as a television tech at Riebel's Appliance Center. The present God's House of Glory at 2189 East Fifth Avenue near Sunbury Road was the home of Duckworth Television and Radio Service. The Duckworths later lived at 178 North Ardmore Road in Bexley.

Robert died June 30, 1990 and Dorothy on January 9, 2004. They are buried at Greenlawn Cemetery.

On November 17, 1949, the Duckworths sold the house to James W. and Elmine H. Rickman.

James W. Rickman,
circa 1943
James Wesley Rickman was born June 22, 1922 in Meigs County, Ohio, son of Earl C. and Cassia Rickman. He married Elminie Holland. Elminie was born June 3, 1924 in Seneca, South Carolina, daughter of George and Rosa Holland.

In 1940, James lived with his parents in Middleport, Meigs County and Elminie lived with her family in Londsdale Mill, South Carolina.

James was a Staff Sergeant in the Army in WWII. He was awarded four battle stars and a good conduct medal. He attended Wilberforce State College. He was an attorney.

The Rickmans breaking ground for a new
school building, circa 1962
Elminie founded Rick's Child Guidance Center in the early 1950s. It is the oldest African-American school and the second oldest kindergarten in Columbus, having been in continuous existence from approximately 1953.

Elminie was one of nine children. She graduated from the Oconnee County School System and continued her education at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and teaching certification for Elementary Education. Mrs. Rickman taught school in Seneca and then joined her husband, Attorney James W. Rickman, in Columbus, Ohio in 1947.

In 1947 and 1948 she was a teacher at the Religious Training Institute (RTI) which was located at 20th and Long Street. In 1952 Mrs. Rickman began a kindergarten in her home at 1638 Granville Street with eight children. In approximately 1955 she purchased property at 297 Woodland Avenue and relocated her school, which had an enrollment of nearly 100 students and a staff of five trained teachers. She envisioned, founded, built and served as director of  Rick's Child Guidance Center (Kindergarten-Nursery), which accommodated two hundred children and is said to be the first all fireproof building for a kindergarten in the state of Ohio. Apparently fireproof was a hard lesson learned as the front page of the Columbus Dispatch of January 4, 1962 reported, "Three teachers act quickly to save seventy-five children from a two-alarm fire at Rick's Child Guidance Center Kindergarten, 297 Woodland Avenue." This was followed a month later by another Dispatch story on February 6, 1962 that reported that charges of operation without a license were dismissed against Mrs. Elminie Rickman, 1638 Granville St., Operator of Rick's Child Guidance Center Kindergarten.

From 1953 to 1992, Mrs. Rickman had continuously conducted her kindergarten with a staff of eight teachers, six substitutes, a cook, a custodian and two bus drivers. She held annual graduation exercises for her kindergarten students. Graduates from her school number into the thousands. In addition, she presented several theatrical productions, programs and recitals over the years. She received numerous honors throughout her life for her contributions to various civic and community affairs.

James and Elminie both died in Columbus, he on November 2, 1992 and she on April 16, 2000.

Rick's Child Guidance Center, 289 Woodland Avenue
I toured 1638 Granville Street in 2012. I was struck by the number of windows on the first floor (all original and without storms) and the enclosed porch area in the front. Recent renovations included a less-than-perfect kitchen remodel and a finishing of the attic which involved adding a steep staircase through one of the bedrooms, making the second floor layout somewhat awkward.

1571 Hawthorne Park - Brown House

Woodland Park, Columbus, Ohio
1571 Hawthorne Park, March 2010
Lot 21-22 Amended Plot of Woodlands (Lot 31 of Calender & Rockwell's Addition)

This house was built between 1908 and 1911 for John Beals Brown. It was probably designed by architect Otto C. Darst.

John Beals Brown was born January 8, 1864 in Columbus, son of John W. and Sarah Louise Wing Brown. He married Osie Emma Armstrong on April 13, 1887 in Franklin County. Osie was born August 21, 1866 in Troy, Ohio, daughter of Elliott B. and Mary Emma Parker Armstrong. They had a son John Weller Brown, II, born June 10, 1892

The October 7, 1916 issue of American Contractor reports that architect Otto C. Darst's plans for a garage at 1571 Hawthorne Park will be ready for bids on October 10. John B. Brown, owner, Secretary and Treasurer of the John W. Brown Manufacturing Company.

The John W. Brown Manufacturing Company was located on the northwest corner of Town and Center Streets. They made headlights for carriages and then early cars and motorcycles. One of their tradenames was Stabilite. Their headlights were on Auburn, Studebaker, Hudson and Ford automobiles among others. They manufactured Motolamps for Indian Motorcycles. In 1930 the company merged with two others and became the Corcoran-Brown Lamp Company and was based in Cincinnati. That firm later became part of Autolite.

The Horseless Age, September 17, 1913 reports, "New Plant for Brown Mfg. Co. - The
John W. Brown Mfg. Co., of Columbus, O., one of the largest makers of automobile lamps in the country, is making rapid progress on the construction of a large new plant, located on Marion road. The plans of the officials are to have the plant ready for occupancy by the first of the year, if
not sooner. The concern has a large contract to supply the Ford Motor Car Co. with lamps." This building was located at 753 Marion Road. They also had a manufacturing facility at 666 Marion Road in 1919.

Hughes House, 51 West Second Avenue, circa 1897
In 1930 the Browns lived at 56 South Columbia Avenue in Bexley, a house designed by architect Darst and built by R.H. Evans Company for John Weller Brown in 1916 at an estimated cost of $30,000. This home later became the Columbus School for Girls.

Brown has a mausoleum with a beautiful stained glass window at Greenlawn Cemetery. There are six of the family interred in the mausoleum, including Brown who died August 10, 1931 in Tuscarora Township, Michigan and his wife, Osee who died in Bexley on November 4, 1940.

The Browns sold the house to Frank L. Hughes on January 11, 1917.

Frank L. Hughes was born September 7, 1857 in Ohio, son of Welsh parents, John R. and B. Elizabeth Evans Hughes. He married Harriet M. Ritson in Franklin County on October 19, 1887. Harriet was born August 1863 in Ohio. They had two daughters: Mary R. (October 1, 1888) and Margaret (August 26, 1896).

Margaret Hughes, circa 1923
Mary R. Hughes, circa 1920
Hughes was Vice President of the Buckeye Buggy Company and president of J.R. Hughes Trunk Co. Frank's father, John R. Hughes came to Columbus in 1848 and began making trunks. He founded the J. R. Hughes Company in 1850 and organized the Buckeye Buggy Company in 1881.

The Buckeye Buggy Company operated from 1881 to 1910 with a factory at 482 North High Street, built on the site of the first professional baseball game to be played in Columbus in 1876. The factory was demolished April 23, 1910. The company slogan was "Get a Buckeye and Be Satisfied."


Buckeye Buggy Company billhead from 1896

Lima (Ohio) News, June 14, 1926
Capitol Trust Building, 8 East Broad Street, center, circa 1909
Hughes died June 14, 1926 when he committed suicide by jumping from the 13th floor of the Capitol Trust Building, 8 East Broad Street and falling to the roof of 6 East Broad Street. He is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery.

The property passed to Harriet and his two daughters after his death and finally to Margaret (Merkle) on November 6, 1936. She sold it on November 23 to Margaret I. Hatton.

Frederic G. Hatton,
 circa 1918
Frederic George Hatton was born March 13, 1883 in Delta, Ohio, son of Frank and Jennie Boone Hatton. He married Margaret Iola Coulson in Franklin County at St. Paul's P.E. Church on October 24, 1906. Margaret was born October 9, 1882 in Bellaire, Ohio, daughter of John W. and Margaret A. Henry Coulson. They had two sons: Frederic H. (1908) and William C. (May 14, 1912, Roanoke, Virginia).

Hatton was Secretary of the Middle States Coal Company in 1905. He was President of Hatton, Brown and Company and the Blue Ridge Coal Company. His partner, William M. Brown lived in Roanoke, Virginia. Both men had worked at the Sunday Creek Coal Company and the Clinchfield Coal Company. In 1942 he was President of the Hatton Coal Company.

The Hattons sold the house to Ambrose C. Lomer on July 18, 1951.

Ambrose Condins Lomer was born in Fryburg, Pennsylvania on November 9, 1887. He married Etta. Etta was born July 18, 1883.

Lomer came to Columbus via Erie, Pennsylvania and Akron, Ohio.

Ohio Auto Sales, 772 North High Street, circa 1915. The building 
on the corner of High and Warren Streets, looks much the same today.
In 1924 Lomer owned Lomer's Auto Laundry at 31-35 North Wall Street.  By 1934 it was Lomer's Auto Park at 35 North Wall Street. He was also President and Manager of Lomer Auto Sales at 772 North High Street. The 1940 Census lists Lomer as a parking lot operator, living at 1209 W. Third Ave. In the early 50s, Lomer and his wife, Etta, lived at 1688 East Broad Street, Apartment 1.

Lomer died in December 1957 and Etta died May 26, 1981.

Lomer sold the house to Frank R. and Mabel R. Arnold on February 23, 1952.

Rev. Frank Russell Arnold was born June 18, 1884 in Ironton, Ohio, son of Calvin R. and Mary Bickley Arnold. He married Twila Mae Martin in Cuyahoga County on August 28, 1919. Twila was born October 6, 1898 in Springfield, Ohio, daughter of Samuel H. and May Pattiese Martin.

Frank lived in Martins Ferry, Ohio and was an Army Chaplain in WWI.

Frank and Twila divorced in Columbus on December 4, 1920. Twila married Henry C. Sherman in Clark County on February 13, 1924. Frank married Mabel Sarah Rone in Cuyahoga County on April 25, 1921. Mabel was born in 1893 in West Virginia, daughter of Edward and Mary Poindexter Rone.

In 1940 the Arnolds lived in Cincinnati.

Arnold was pastor of Asbury Methodist Church 1949-1961. With a growing congregation, Arnold was responsible for Asbury's purchase of the Nelson Memorial Presbyterian Church at 1586 Clifton Avenue in November 1953. Frank was Minister of the McKinley United Methodist Church in Dayton, Ohio from 1961-1966.

The Arnolds sold the house to James D. and Pauline Parks on September 5, 1963. The Parks lived at 1512 Eastwood Avenue in Columbus.

James Darry Parks, Jr. was was born January 17, 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia, son of James Darry and Lulu Sims Parks.

The 1940 Census shows James living with his parents at 195 Garfield Avenue. His brother Arthur was born in Ohio in about 1927, so the Parks probably moved to Columbus from Georgia between 1925 and 1926.

James married twice and both his wives were named Pauline. He married Pauline Davis in Clark County on December 23, 1943. They married on Pauline's 16th birthday. Pauline was born December 23, 1926 in Springfield, Ohio, daughter of Alex and Fannie Maxwell Davis. Parks was in the U.S. Marines at the time.

On June 20, 1948, James married Pauline N. Dotson in Franklin County. Pauline was born May 5, 1929 in Gallipolis, Ohio, daughter of Dixie and Geraldine Borden Dotson. At the time of their marriage, James was a city fireman and living at 451 South Monroe Avenue. Pauline lived at 185 North 20th Street, her parents' home that Pauline owned until her death.

Pauline Dotson Parks
James and Pauline were divorced in Columbus on August 25, 1987.

James died in Columbus on May 25, 1996. Pauline died in September 2012.

Carolyn Napier posted her condolences in the Columbus Dispatch online guest book with Pauline's obituary along with this comment, "I remember fondly her teaching me how to sew. I remember her in the kitchen cooking and all the fun Paula and I had in the house with all the secret hiding places."

Moses D. Mosley bought the house on April 17, 1996.