One Michael has received one of the highest Science Merit Qualification
awards in the nation and is receiving a four year scholarship in the college
of his choice either Rose Hulman or Depaw.
The next farm South is owned now by Earl and Carrie (Raufersen)
Mason.It was first the home of a Swiss family, a branch of the Moery’s.
They were Fred Feller and Marie Stuckey. I don’t know if they
were husband and wife or of two families of those names. Fred Feller
was a cheese maker and had come from the Alps. My father-in-law, Mr. Jacob
Painter said he was once his hired hand and he made him bend his thumb
down and compress with his fingers when milking the cows. Then Amos Gass
and his wife
Pearl (Canavan)
lived there. He was a lover of fine saddle and harness horses. My
recollections of him was that he was always pumping water from his well in
front of the house for these beautiful horses. The wife was the daughter of
Patrick Canavan an Irish Catholic that lived one mile East of Wickliffe.
Others that lived in the house before the
Masons
were Charles Canavan, Charles Brown, George Atkins and Will Rudy.
Next toward Wickliffe are two new homes and a trailer.These are on a part of
the 80 acres once owned by Seldom Sinclair. Other owners were Fred
Eckerty, Romer Eckerty,and Clifford Cook. The present owners are
the Knies brothers. The trailer is the home of Virginia Cook.
The first house is that of Melvin and Wanda (Cook) Lane. The
next is that of Clifford Cook and wife, Diana (McFarland) Cook.Their
children are Clifford, Jr. , Douglas and Mary. This takes us to
the Southern boundary of the Park.
Across the road from the Clifford Cook farm is that of Lester
Stemply. It was first the home of Pleasant Sinclair and his wife
Mary ( ). They had no children but raised a boy by the name of
Sturgeon. He was a good farmer and was reported to have cash hidden
about his farm. When he passed away search was made for it but to my knowledge
it was never found.
An amusing story comes to my mind showing the superstition that all of us have
more or less. When he quit farming he advertised an Empire one horse corn
drill for sale for $14. As a young farmer in need of one I bought it from him
at that price. Shortly thereafter I was in the Porter Eckerty hardware
store and Porter laughingly said “And Ples Got his half dollar
back after all.” It seems Pleas had bought the drill from Porter.
Porter’s price was $13. Ples said “If you don’t care I will
just pay you 50 cents more or $13.50 for the drill.” He distrusted the $13
afraid it would bring him bad luck. Other owners of this farm