Annual Soup Beans Dinner, Ice Cream Social, & Jazz on the Lawn

September 14th Happenings  in ZANESFIELD!

TWO EVENTS ON THE SAME DAY

BRING THE WHOLE FAMILY!

Soup Beans & Cornbread Dinner

LOCATION: Helen Wonders Blue Park at the corner of County Road 10 & Sandusky Street. 

TIME: 11am - 1pm

DETAILS: Bring a lawn chair and enjoy a bowl of beans that have been cooked in a kettle over an open fire served with home baked cornbread.

MUSIC BY: Mad River Dulcimer Society

ACTIVITIES: Corn Hole & Lawn Games

This event is hosted by the Zane Cabin Restoration Committee. 

The Zane Cabin Restoration Committee consists of Ron Ricketts - President, Mary Mortimer - Secretary/Treasurer, George Wackerman, Gary Baxter, John Horton, Bob Blue, Keith Bayliss - Members. This comittee meets once a year on the first Saturday of May to decide on the The Zane Cabin Committee Annual Bean & Cornbread Dinner.

Donations are welcome and benefit cabin upkeep, restoration, chimney repair, and water sealant for the logs.

Ice Cream & Cookie Social + Jazz on the Lawn + Quilt Display & Raffle

LOCATION: Dr. Sloan Library, 2817 Sandusky Street

TIME: 12:30-2pm

DETAILS: Bring a lawn chair and enjoy Stoner's Ice Cream, My Little Bakery Cookies, and Jazz Music under tents on the on the library front lawn. 

MUSIC BY: Benjamin Logan Alumni Jazz Band

ACTIVITIES: Tour the charming and historic Dr. Sloan Library and admire the creativity of quilting with a beautiful display by the Logan County Piecemakers.

This event is hosted by the Dr. Sloan Library. 

The Dr. Sloan Library Board of Trustees consists of Lois Stoll - President, Mary Mortimer - Vice President, Mike Coder, Dee Ricketts, Deepika Sheiderer - Members. This board meets quarterly at the Dr. Sloan Library. 

Quilt Raffle Details:

Tickets will be available at the Dr. Sloan Library on Saturday September 14th from 10 am to 2 pm. The prize quilts will be showcased throughout the library on that day.

Members of the The Logan Piecemakers will sell tickets for $1 each, or six tickets for $5. Four of the lap-sized quilts on display (each one representing one of the four seasons) will be awarded to lucky winners. The Quilt Drawing is scheduled for December 16th, and winners will be notified personally. (Additional raffle ticket purchase opportunities will be available at the Logan County History Center during the first two weekends in December.)

About The Logan Piecemakers:

The Logan Piecemakers is a community service minded quilt guild, with members from Logan and surrounding counties. Their mission proudly supports various causes, including the Domestic Violence shelter in Logan County, The Lutheran World Relief Mission Quilts Project, The Traumatic Brain Injury Support Group of Logan County, and Meals on Wheels of Logan County.

This year, the Logan Piecemakers assisted in donating quilts to the tornado victims in Lakeview and Russell's Point, along with quilting essential bags for women at the local domestic violence shelter.

Interested in joining or supporting the Logan Piecemakers and their mission? Meetings are held on the second Monday of each month (except July) at the Logan County History Center @ 7 pm. For more information, kindly contact Lois Stoll at board@drsloanlibrary.org.

Interested in learning more about the Zane Cabin Restoration with photos? 

Click here: 

Logan County History Center Facebook Post

OR - You can read the post here:

History of the Zane Cabin Restoration

By Mary E. Mortimer

The Zane Cabin in Zanesfield was built in 1805 by Ebeneezer Zane, son of Isaac and Myeerah Zane.

Ebeneezer’s family was one of the earliest settlers in the Zanesfield area. The cabin served the Zane family well and was the site of the first Methodist Conference in November of 1819. The two-day conference was held by Rev. J.B. Finley and attended by over 300 people. That same year, Ebeneezer Zane and his brother-in-law, Alexander Long, officially platted Zanestown and changed the name to Zanesfield.

Over the years, the cabin was added onto and then moved to the back of the property where it was used as a garage and for storage. No one thought too much about the old log structure until 1976 when the West Ohio Methodist Conference held their annual meeting in Zanesfield. Local historian, Dick Rash, knew of the significance of the cabin to the Methodist Church so he asked Harold Jennings, the owner of the cabin, if he could make a sign for it. Dick hand painted a sign that read “Site of first Methodist Conference 1819” and hung it on the cabin.

At the 1976 Methodist meeting, Rev. Marvin Bean, Conference Historian, asked that an offering be taken to restore the cabin. Over the next twenty years, Rev. Bean persisted in raising funds for the project. The cabin was in bad shape, and some said it wasn’t worth saving, “better to make firewood out of it.” However, around 1992, the owner of the cabin, Stephanie Conrad, believed it should be saved so she donated it to the Zanesfield Chamber of Commerce. The cabin was then dismantled and stored in Chamber member John Horton’s barn.

In 1995, Rev. Bean met with members of the Zanesfield Methodist Church and reported he had accumulated over $7,000 for the Zane Cabin restoration. He recommended a committee be formed and paperwork filed with the Secretary of State and I.R.S. for incorporation and non-profit status. The Zane Cabin Restoration Committee consisted of Dick Rash, Chairman, Maurice Blue, Secretary-Treasurer, Mary Fraser, Vice Chairperson, and John Horton, Robert Brown, Ron Ricketts, Jim Rash, Marga Umbereit, and Dale Kauffman, committee members.

Next the committee had to decide how and where they were going to reconstruct the 190-year-old cabin. The Helen Wonders Blue Park was selected as the best location. It had been purchased by Bob Blue in 1989 and dedicated to the village of Zanesfield in 1990 by the Blue family in memory of their mother and grandmother, Helen Wonders Blue. Plus, the park was across the alley from the original location of the Zane Cabin.

The Zane Cabin logs were hauled from John Horton’s barn to the lot behind the Zanesfield Methodist Church. There Maurice Blue began sorting the logs and determined which ones could be used. Many original logs were deteriorated and had to be replaced. A couple of the original logs are thought to be chestnut, a type of wood that is now extinct. As needed, new logs were cut from walnut, poplar and Osage orange trees. Merle Hostetler, of West Liberty, donated logs from a 100-year-old cabin he had. Ralph Folsom and George Wackerman also donated poplar logs.

Maurice Blue then spent many days in the winter of 1996 – 1997 building a model of what the original cabin looked like. Maurice spent the summer of 1997 notching and fitting the logs for the raising that was planned for September. His working alone in the heat of the summer and was the talk of the town. Everyone thought the 80-year-old was overdoing it. The donated logs and sheeting were sawed by Bill Hilterbrand and Rick Penhorwood.

September 13, 1997, was set as the date for the cabin raising.

On September 12, 1997, Maurice Blue, Dave Hanset, Homer Taylor, Jim Rash and Dick Rash hauled the logs from the Methodist Church lot to the Helen Wonders Blue Park. The next morning a large group of volunteers came to help raise the cabin and many came to watch the historic event. Everything went exactly as planned. John DeWitt videotaped the cabin reconstruction throughout the day.

Jay Ricketts cooked a large pot of beans and ham over an open fire and cornbread was donated to go with the beans. Everyone joined together for the homecooked meal, and it was decided that each year the Zane Cabin Committee would hold an annual Bean & Cornbread Dinner in honor of the Zane Cabin.

About a month after the raising, Maurice Blue, Ron Ricketts, and Dick Rash put cedar shake shingles on the roof of the cabin and batted the cracks in the gable ends. The next year, the finish work on the cabin continued with ash flooring being installed and the chinking completed. In the spring of 1998, Ron Branham built the stone fireplace and chimney. The Jim and Betty Small family donated a sign for the cabin and Betty planted an herb and flower garden. Furnishings for the cabin and flowers for the gardens were donated by many Zanesfield area residents.

The Zane Cabin Committee still meets annually and holds the Bean & Cornbread Dinner the second Saturday in September. Jay and Kathleen Ricketts family still cooks the ham and beans, and cornbread is donated.