Trending
Three stories dominated the front page of the The Marietta Times on Sept. 25, 1890. All three would have been big stories for Marietta regardless of what year they occurred.
The lead story was one about a "BIG GAS WELL" being drilled near Marietta. A large oil boom was starting and the article described in detail the success of a new well being drilled near Indian Run. Indian Run Road is a continuation of Westview Avenue on the west side of the Muskingum.
"Before The Times representative came within a half mile of the spot the roaring could be plainly heard. The sand was reached Monday night about midnight, and about day-break Tuesday morning, the gas came with such force that the two-thousand-pound tools bobbed up and down like a cork, compelling the operator to stop drilling. … This is a big thing to Marietta and a bigger thing to those who own the well. … It seems to us that this well demonstrates the fact that our city is in the center of an oil field which if properly developed will rival the Washington, Pa. field." The Times was right, a decade later the newspaper was reporting the news of dozens of wells being drilled all over the county.
Another top story of the day was the drowning death of Clara Gross in Duck Creek. "She, with a number of other ladies, had attended a quilting at the house of Jacob Moata during the day, when the time for departure came, some of the number had to cross Duck Creek; five ladies including the deceased got into a small boat and near reached the opposite shore when by some cause the boat came near upsetting, dipping water and throwing all overboard. … Miss Gross, being in the stern of the boat fell into deep water and a strong current and was quickly washed down stream."
The search for Gross appears to have turned into a large community event. "On Sunday morning an immense throng of people lined the shores to see the search renewed." When the girl was found, The Times reported that hundreds of people lined both sides of the river to get a morbid view of the recovery.
The Washington County Fair had just concluded a successful three-day run, "The exhibits were better than expected, taking the bad crops and bad weather into consideration."
"The interesting feature of the fair was the balloon ascension and parachute leaps by Mad. LaZelle. This lady has made several in the neighborhood, but none were quite so successful as those she made here. On Wednesday she ascended to a height of about two hundred feet, when she cut herself loose and came down and alighted in a corn field nearby. Thursday she did not ascend quite so high, and when she alighted, it was in the river. She swam out without any trouble. Our people were well pleased with her part of the program." A separate item on the page reported that gate receipts at the fair had been $1,000, enough to cover all expenses.
The Times also reported on the state Democratic Party convention in Columbus, as well as dozens of more mundane short items such as "Mr. Ed West and wife, who have been visiting here for some weeks past, have returned to their home in Huntington, W.Va."