Towns of my Forefathers part #2

Headed north about 35 miles yesterday for a Jr High Football Game at Wayne Trace(Haviland) High School. Wayne Trace was back in the day called Blue Creek High School, before that Scott-Haviland High School, and further back in the early 20th century, Scott School.

Blue Creek Township is located in southern Paulding County, Ohio. My great-grandfather and mother, Nelson and Mary Ann Houseworth moved there after the Civil War, about 1870. My Grandfather Sam Houseworth was the 10th of 11 children and was born in Blue Creek...the first 7 were born in Waldo or Delaware, 4 more in Paulding County.

I'm not certain why Nelson and Mary Ann, along with a few cousins, moved by horse and wagon from Waldo the 120 or so miles northwest to the desolate Black Swamp area of Blue Creek Township...but my best guess is, it was for the free land. Land you had to work by hand to clear...a bug, wildlife infested area, full of mosquitoes, typhoid fever, and death. The Houseworth family faced both. Nelson died from Typhoid in 1887, son William Nelson died at age 3 in 1879, from Scarlet Fever. The rest lived to adulthood, including my Grandfather Samuel Lawrence Houseworth, who died in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1928, at age 50.

Blue Creek today has several small towns, and a couple Ghost Towns located in it....it is a flat, well tiled, and the farm land is rich. Towns include the north portion of Scott, Haviland, and Tipton. Blue Creek, has a total population of 804 folks. The only Houseworths left in Blue Creek are those buried in the Blue Creek Township Cemetery.

Scott, Ohio

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Scott today has 322 people living there, about even distribution between Van Wert County on the south, and Paulding County on the north. When founded back in the 1880s, Scott was actually 2 towns. Lewellen on the Paulding side, Scott on the Van Wert south side. The Lewellen families and Scott families founded the town, after a few years, the town of then 1000 souls, voted to merge and named the town Scott.

My Grandmother, Wilda Waldron married, Sam Houseworth in 1906, and set up shop in Scott, until they separated in the 1920s. Wilda Houseworth lived in Scott for the rest of her life, dying at the ripe old age of 91, in 1975. Mom moved from Wilmington, Delaware, and married dad in 1946...we lived in Scott until 1954, when we moved to Venice, Florida.

Both Blue Creek and Scott look today, much like they did 100 years ago.

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Photos-from top(1) The Scott School around 1925, my dad, Stan Houseworth(1917-1972) seated 5th from left(the kid leaning) (2) Blue Creek Cemetery...Civil War Veteran Nelson Houseworth(1837-1887) is buried here along with other family members...Grave Stone of Nelson S. Houseworth..Blue Creek from where the Township took it's name, as it looked yesterday after the dry summer. Downtown Scott, Ohio, not much has changed in 125 years. Military plate at my dad's grave, located in the Scott Cemetery. The Scott Elevator as it looks today, sitting at the same spot as it did almost 100 years ago in this 1915 era postcard....the old Elevator has been destroyed by fire on at least 2 occasions, the last being in 1962 while the family was on summer vacation in Scott, something we explored and talked about for the rest of the vacation.

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Today is Bloggers Poverty Awareness Day...all bloggers are supposed to talk about what can be done to fight poverty. Here is my little opinion, at least for America's poverty:

GET OFF YOUR DEAD ASSES, PICK YOURSELF UP, AND GET A JOB!

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back later>>>>>>>>>>>>