On this date in park history, George Washington reputedly drank from Rock Springs when he and his party, including the Indians Half King, Pheasant, and White Feather, camped near the entrance to the park on this night.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
George Washington Visits Rock Springs
Sunday, October 21, 1770
On this date in park history, George Washington reputedly drank from Rock Springs when he and his party, including the Indians Half King, Pheasant, and White Feather, camped near the entrance to the park on this night.
On this date in park history, George Washington reputedly drank from Rock Springs when he and his party, including the Indians Half King, Pheasant, and White Feather, camped near the entrance to the park on this night.
Birth of Dr. James Walter Smith Jr.
Friday, October 29, 1926
On this date, Dr. James Walter Smith Jr., plastic surgeon and noted collector of late 19th century to the mid-20th, coin-operated games and similar machines, including Rock Springs’ Wurlitzer Carousel Band Organ, was born. Like so many men and women of his generation, Dr. Smith first saw the magical machines in childhood. Born in East Liverpool, Ohio, Rock Springs amusement park beckoned from across the river. Young Smith would slip away from his family at the park to the gaudy clangor of the penny arcade. There was worse to come. By the time he was a teenager, James Jr. was frequenting the local pool hall, where he played coin-operated baseball and horse-racing games. ''What were you doing in there sinning?'' his father, James Walter Sr., would bellow as he swooped down on the pool hall just long enough to extract his son by the ear. The son turned respectable. He served two years in the Navy; earned an undergraduate degree in 1948 from Adelbert College, later part of Case Western Reserve University; and in 1952 received an M.D. degree from Columbia. Dr. Smith became a prominent surgeon with a string of publications to his credit, was sent by the State Department to research leprosy in India and gained recognition for his work in hand reconstruction.
Friday, October 19, 2012
This Week in Rock Springs Park History
On October 17, 1930, The three governors of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania met at the junction of the William Penn Highway (U.S. Route 22) and the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30) in Imperial, PA, for a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of both roads during the Depression. This included the recently completed 3-mile stretch through Chester. Read more at http://rockspringspark.blogspot.com/2011/07/governor-of-wv-attends-celebratory.html.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Not Too Shabby
C.A. Smith Died On This Date
Charles A. Smith Dies in Chester
(left) Charles (C.A.) Smith from the 2001 Class of Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Inductees.
East Liverpool, Oct. 14 - Funeral arrangements will be made here today for Charles A. Smith, 86, transit company owner, pottery manufacturer, oil operator and gentleman farmer, who died Tuesday at his home in Chester, W.Va.
Mr. Smith founded the village of Chester and named it after his uncle, Chester Mahan.
He was principal owner of the old Steubenville, East Liverpool and Beaver Valley Traction Co., now the Valley Motor Transit Co., the Taylor, Smith & Taylor Pottery Co., extensive oil and real estate interests and the 4,000-acre Hillcrest Farms.
He was formerly owner of the Ohio River bridge between East Liverpool and Chester, which he sold to the state of Ohio for $2,135,000. For many years he also operated Rock Springs Park, an amusement resort in Chester, which he built at the same time he was starting Chester.
Mr. Smith once owned light and power rights for East Liverpool and Steubenville, but sold them to what is now the Ohio Power Co. in 1917. One of the founders of the old Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland Baseball League, he sponsored a baseball team known as the "World Champions," which he sent around the world in 1906-'09.
He was born April 14, 1867, in Wellsville, where he began his climb from gas company waterboy to one of the Ohio Valley's wealthiest men. He made money first in West Virginia oil drilling operations.
The body is at the Dawson Funeral Home.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Rock Springs Park Sold
The Evening Review reported that Frances D. Schatt of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company is repainting the ponies of the Merry-Go-Round at Rock Springs Park. This would contradict claims, at the time the horses were auctioned off 37 years later, that they were still in their original paint. See them at http://rockspringspark.blogspot.com/2011/08/trinket-or-tradition.html.
Saturday, October 7, 1950
East Liverpool, Oct. 7 - Charles A. Smith Jr., today announced the sale for $70,000 of Rock Springs Park at nearby Chester, W. Va., to Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Hand, who have managed the 50-year-old amusement resort since 1935. The 45-acre park was established by the retiring owners father Charles A. Smith, in 1898, when Ohio River steamboats carried picnic excursions. (The Youngstown Vindicator, October 7, 1950)
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