If These Walls Could Speak...

What stories they might tell! Because I’m always fascinated by the history of a place, by the stories told of it, and how those stories might differ or sometimes combine to form an even more interesting narrative, I thought I would share with you all a bit of the history we were able to dig up on the building that houses our gallery here at 55 West Jackson Street, and the family who originally built it. Our storefront gives a nice clue as to a starting point...

Way up top, you can see the name C.J. Voorhes, and the date 1873, so we know when the building was first built, and by whom.

Since the name Voorhes is no longer a familiar name in these parts, the next step was to see what we could find on Mr. C. J. Voorhes. Turns out, his first name is somewhat unique- Carolus Jones. And while the family name might not be commonly used here today, they were a somewhat prominent family of the area at the time.

Carolus Jones was the son of one Carolus Ford Voorhes, who was “a successful and wealthy public servant and judge”. A three-time holder of the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Holmes County, Carolus F. was elected as Holmes County’s delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873-74 and served on various committees. In October 1877 Carolus F. was elected Judge of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas for the 6th Judicial District, comprising Holmes, Wayne, and Coshocton Counties. He served in that capacity from 1878-1883. He was memorialized as “A Good and Safe Counselor”, which are characteristics he seems to have passed on to his son Carolus Jones, who is in turn memorialized as having “lived a life of exemplary honesty and industry” and being “of exceedingly cheerful disposition and quick to win friends”. Not a bad way to be remembered, right?

So we found the family, now I was hoping to find what purpose the building served at the very beginning. Thanks to the Holmes County Historical Society, I think we’ve narrowed it down to the most likely option. In an 1874 Holmes Co. Farmer, there was an ad for ‘Iron and Tin Roofing- A Specialty at Voorhes Bros.’ Further down, you can see the location listed as ‘One Door West of Central Hotel’, today’s Hotel Millersburg, which since the 1875 Caldwell’s Atlas shows an empty lot between this building and the Hotel, puts Voorhes Bros. neatly at 55 West Jackson. And in the Business Directory of the Atlas mentioned above, C. J. is listed as ‘General Jobber’ under Dealers in Hardware, Stoves, and Tinware. Jackpot. I think it’s fair to assume our building began its existence as.. drumroll please.... a Hardware Store!

As to which of the brothers besides C. J. comprised the Voorhes Bros. Company, I don’t know. There were two, Stanton Gaskill and Daniel Doddridge. We know that in 1878 Daniel practiced law in Millersburg as part of the Voorhes & Uhl partnership, but anything beyond that remains a mystery, at least for now.

In later years, the 1898 Sanborn Fire Maps list the Voorhes building as a saloon, which sounds intriguing, then in the 1900’s it had many occupants, from a Gift & Paint Shoppe early on, to the most commonly remembered Burkey’s Quality Shoppe into the mid 70’s, McKelvey’s Optical in the 70’s and 80’s, and later everything from a dress shop to the political headquarters for the area. And now in 2019, thank goodness, an Art Gallery!

As much as I enjoyed digging through sources to find information on this, I wouldn’t have gotten very far at all without the services of the Historical Society, Ms. Barnhart in particular, so I want to thank them for going above and beyond in helping with the search. So when you’re next in Millersburg, stop by and share with us any interesting bits of history you know of the area! See you soon...