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Mourning a tree in blossom
(May 2020, Geneva, Ohio) Its five main limbs resembled the biceps of a circus weightlifter. They emerged from the low-set trunk just a few inches above the former orchard’s soil; twenty-inches in diameter at their widest, the limbs rose like a worshiper’s arms and terminated…
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Mail Pouch
It was the summer 1985. I was in my second year as a photographer and occasional writer for the Ashtabula Star Beacon while, when searching for feature art in the Rock Creek area, I came across a barn being painted. The barn was just north…
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American Penmanship’s father had a famous daughter, too
Ellen Spencer Mussey: The Father of Penmanship’s Trail-Blazing Daughter Ellen Spencer was but 12 years old when she went to work in the penmanship school of her famous father, Platt R. Spencer of Geneva. She was the youngest penmanship teacher in Ohio, and her father,…
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Ashtabula stockholders invested in Normania
The shipping season of 1909 delivered nothing but progress to Ashtabula Harbor. The first four of eight Hulett electric unloaders went online that summer at the Lake Shore’s (New York Central) Superior extension docks on the river’s east side. As the operators became comfortable with…
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Pleasure Grounds marks 150 years
(July 5, 2019) The smoke from the July 4th fireworks has cleared, replaced by the oppressive humidity and haze typical of July along the Lake Erie shoreline. The bursts of fire and glimmer over the Geneva-on-the-Lake business district was witnessed by thousands of motorists and…