News-Info-Alerts

Re: History Unearthed

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: September 11, 2003

"Mysteries, Civil War history surface in Peninsula homes

Melissa Hebert Plain Dealer Reporter

All Diane Seskes wanted was a home remodel.

She got that, as well as the chance to play history detective and a spot in this year's Peninsula Historic Home, Building and Garden Tour, which will be held Saturday.

Her house is one of five homes, six buildings and one garden on the tour. A guide will be on hand at Cedar Grove Cemetery on Main Street to share the history of Bronson Memorial Church.

Seskes bought her house, which is thought to have been built in the 1850s, some 15 years ago. And its storied history found a Civil War connection thanks to some renovation work in the original post-and-beam part of the house, which is now the kitchen, living room and two upstairs bedrooms.

Workmen were prying off the paneling and finding odds and ends of previous owners in the process. They often left what they discovered on the kitchen table for Seskes to find when she returned home from her teaching job at Kenston High School.

Some of the items were poignant, some were historical, she said. There were pieces of wallpaper in formal florals and whimsical cowboy prints. There were old newspapers used as insulation. A die. Four baseball cards. Two condoms. A key.

The historical items were more intriguing. They were found when the workers were installing heating ductwork on the second floor, she said.

In the tiny hall between the two bedrooms is a door to a tinier storage area. Two floors six inches apart were stacked in that space. Between the floors were three letters written by Adar Johnson, who served in the Union army, Company A of the Second Ohio Cavalry, from 1861-65. He served as a wagoner - taking care of the company's wagons - and was mustered out as a corporal.

During his service, he served under two of the biggest names in the Union army, George Custer and Ulysses S. Grant. He was in the Battle of Buffington Island, the only battle in the war to be fought in Ohio.

The first letter, while unsentimental, had some mystery to it, Seskes said. Johnson wrote it to his family in Ohio, but there was no date on the letter or envelope. With the help of Downtown Emporium owner Rhonda Russell, who also is part of the Civil War Roundtable, Seskes set out to solve the mystery.

Johnson wrote in his letter that he was at Camp Stoneman near Washington. Tracing the records of his company, Seskes said she discovered that the company arrived at the camp on April 22, 1864. From there, it went on to fight at Brandy Station, Va., and the Campaign of the Wilderness.

After the war, Johnson returned to the area and married Julie Cody in 1866, who had her own tragic connection to the war. Her brother, Thomas, was one of about 1,700 returning Union soldiers killed when the steamship Sultana, overloaded with returning veterans - many of whom had survived hellish Confederate prisoner of war camps such as Andersonville in Georgia - exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 26, 1865.

Johnson worked as a carpenter, like his father John. He also worked for five years for the Zanesville Street Electric Railway in the late 19th century. Another letter found is one Johnson wrote in 1891 from Zanesville during the Zanesville flood, Seskes said. He had been sent there by the company to work on a bridge project.

Careful restoration

With that kind of history behind her house, Seskes said she has been very careful with her restoration efforts.

As with many older homes, it had been added to and updated over the years. Seskes said that she wasn't able to totally restore how the house would have looked during the Civil War but was able to keep the house true to its history.

"The house was pretty working class in its origins," she said. "People like that would not have had the elaborate trim."

Other details that she had to cope with included walls that had been paneled over, a downstairs bathroom toilet, sink and tub being lilac and five designs of tile on the walls.

In addition to her house, Seskes also has a log cabin in her back yard on the tour. It was originally used in North Carolina for tobacco drying but was moved to Ohio. Seskes' mother, Lucille, who always loved log cabins, bought the cabin five years ago. It couldn't be moved whole onto the Seske's property, so it was disassembled. Only the original logs remain. A floor of wood reclaimed from other cabins was laid, and new chinking put in, Seskes said. Seskes calls it the Log Cabin Gallery and opens it for art shows several times a year. Sometimes she throws a party, as well as her annual chili cook-off and tag sales.

Other connections

Another house on the tour, owned by Norma and Greg Pernetta, has its own connection to the Civil War. Charles Risdon moved to the house with his family during the Civil War era, led by his father Thaddeus, a carpenter, according to Ed Andros, who is involved with the tour and helps with historical research. One Risdon brother, Silas, was also a carpenter. But Charles and brothers Lucius and Marcellus went to war.

Charles Risdon was first a private in the regiment of Ohio Volunteers. When James Garfield formed the 42nd Ohio Infantry Regiment, Risdon went with him as a first lieutenant. Under Garfield, Risdon participated in the siege of Vicksburg and the battle of Champion Hill.

Then Risdon got the chance to make his own mark on history.

Risdon was one of the white officers asked to create all-black units. Starting as a lieutenant colonel, he became a colonel and regimental commander of the 53rd U.S. Colored Infantry. In March 1865, he received the temporary rank of brigadier general.

Connections such as that to history are part of what makes Peninsula special, Seskes said.

As a child growing up in Brecksville, Seskes remembers how her father would take the family for weekend rides. Peninsula was a favorite destination. Later, she would come to Boston Mills dances and have ice cream at the Country Maid.

"I'd always wanted to live in a small town like this," she said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mhebert@plaind.com, 216-999-5291

© 2003 The Plain Dealer"