In the Open: Old Ruins at Conservation Area Raise Questions About the Past

In the Open

By Jim Freeman

Visitors to the Meigs SWCD Conservation Area, which is located along New Lima Road approximately midway between Harrisonville and Rutland, may have noticed what appears to be an old concrete foundation along the walking path along Little Leading Creek.

Some of the older local residents, all gone now, told us that the foundation was the site of a gas-fired cannery that closed prior to World War II. Presumably local farmers would bring their produce to the cannery, where it would be canned, loaded into wagons and hauled to Rutland where they would be put onto trains headed to distant markets.

It sounds plausible enough, and there are old gas wells and portions of steel gas line that corroborate those accounts.

Since the Meigs Soil and Water Conservation District purchased the property in 2003, we have done a bit of work around the foundation, assisted by volunteers and other benefactors, with the eventual goal of placing some sort of informational plaque or marker at the site, outlining the history of this property. Of course, before that happens, we have to know that the information is correct, so I have been doing a little research into the property.

As is often the case when digging into history, you come up with more questions than you do answers; you discover that what you thought you knew was not necessarily the entire story, and then get directed onto sidetracks that turn into stories on their own. Meanwhile, you had better have some thick skin and be prepared to accept that you may be wrong.

Sometimes anecdotal evidence, like in the case of the Conservation Area, is all you have, and sometimes it is wrong or incomplete, or it doesn’t give you the whole story. Even with family histories, sometimes information doesn’t get passed along, or it gets changed in subtle little ways to make a story more colorful

In any event I had developed a mental story of the cannery, and find myself faced with the prospect that I may have been wrong.

There isn’t a lot of information out there about the supposed canning company, although records indicate that articles of incorporation for the “Rutland Canning Company” were filed on Sept. 8, 1899, with $10,000 in capital stock. However, I don’t know if that refers to this particular canning company or for the Humphrey & Humphrey (or Humphrey & Holt) Canning Factory that was in the actual village of Rutland. (That particular cannery has a tragic story of its own that I will share later.)

Families associated with the property that is now the Meigs SWCD Conservation Area include the Chase, Case, Higley, McCormick and Welsh families, and also the Brown family and Thompson family until George Thompson sold the property to the Meigs SWCD.

One of the previous owners, Oscar Chase, apparently owned a planing and saw mill located two miles north of Rutland (which would place it in the approximate area of the Conservation Area and the old foundation). According to the “Annual Report of the Department of Inspection of Workshops…, Volume 18” by the Ohio Dept. of Inspection of Workshops, Factories and Public Buildings, on Oct. 21, 1901, the owner Oscar Chase was instructed to install a “substantial handrail” on the inside and outside stairway.

A further notation remarked that the building was destroyed by fire and will not be rebuilt. The same document states the mill was used in the production of doors, sashes, etc. and consisted of a two-story frame building.

In 1914 the “Rutland Canning Company” received a “G” (Good) rating by the Dairy and Food Commission, so it was still in existence at that time, but the exact ownership and location of that particular company is in question. Could it be the old planing and saw mill back in operation as a canning plant? Or the Humphrey & Holt Canning Factory, or yet another business?

Anecdotal evidence states that the supposed cannery at the Conservation Area was closed by the time World War II came, perhaps a victim of the Great Depression or left behind by the railroad.

Aerial photos taken roughly every 10 years and dating back to 1939 tell a story of changes to the land associated with the Conservation Area. Although some sort of physical structure is visible in the 1939 aerial photograph, it is not visible in the next photograph which was taken in 1951. Later photos show that part of the property being reclaimed by brush and woods.

Today a walking path leads around the old concrete foundation and the public is welcome to examine the ruins. I encourage anyone with any information about the history of the Conservation Area to give me a call or email me; information and photos would be greatly appreciated.

In any event, all that remains today is a silent foundation, and it isn’t giving up its secrets willingly.

Jim Freeman is the wildlife specialist for the Meigs Soil and Water Conservation District. He can be contacted weekdays at 740-992-4282 or at [email protected]