Alexandria's Veterans #5

Decoration Day   Part I I I

Who were these people who spoke at that first Decoration Day?

Joseph M. Scott was a Civil War officer in the United States Army. Commissioned a Captain, Scott commanded Company B, 76th Regiment, Ohio Infantry. This company was largely recruited by Captain Scott and mustered in on October 5, 1861, at Camp Sherman, Newark, Ohio, under the command of Captain Scott, First Lieutenant Ira French (later promoted to Captain), and Second Lieutenant John R Miller (later promoted to First Lieutenant). Several men from Alexandria and St. Albans filled the ranks. Camp Sherman was named for Ohio Senator John Sherman, brother of the famous General William T. Sherman. The Camp was opened in the Fall of 1861 and, by the Summer of 1862, was closed. Today, we know the old Camp Sherman as Moundbuilders Park. The regiment was assigned to XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee. Captain Scott led his men to the Tennessee River and worked their way to Louisiana, then Missouri and Arkansas for winter camp where they lost personnel to sickness, then to Raleigh, North Carolina. Company B was mustered out of service in Louisville. Scott returned to Fort Hayes where he was honorably discharged on July 24, 1865. Company B participated in a number of campaigns and battles, including Sherman's March to the Sea. Captain Scott joined those who had gone before on December 16, 1919. Today, we might know him more for his house than anything. Yet, we should also remember that Captain Scott's book on the early history of St. Albans Township is invaluable to us today.

Ira Page French was a native of Johnstown. In 1860, we find the 21-year-old Ira as a clerk in one of Alexandria's stores and living with Lyman Rose's family. He would marry the 19-year-old Emily Rose, Lyman's daughter, before heading off with Captain Scott. Ira died three years later and was buried in Alexandria's Maple Grove Cemetery. Emily filed for and received a pension based on Ira's service. Emily's brother, Henry, also served in Company B, and is one of the "Lightning Brothers."

John R. Miller also died in 1863. Nine of the 76th OVI officers died in action while disease claimed another five. I do not know which category Lieutenant Miller fell; I have no additional information at present. Seven of the ten companies of the 76th were formed from Licking County. An infantry company contains about 100 soldiers. Alexandria, St. Albans, and Licking County truly answered the call to arms. Even more so, we had soldiers in other units as well. Of our dead, a little less than half served under Captain Scott.

Reverend Simeon Siegfried, Jr. was the keynote speaker at the event. Walter Castle, an author of St. Albans history had this to say, "Simeon Siegfried was a remarkable man. During his pastorate, the church had a wonderful growth spiritually. After his resignation, however the church's strength ebbed terribly, [...]" Siegfried must have been a remarkable man. Siegfried's father had been preaching as early as 1833 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where Simeon Siegfried, Jr., was born. Before that Siegfried, Sr., had published a newspaper. Siegfried, Jr.'s grandfather, George Siegfried had been a pioneer preacher when Pennsylvania was frontier country. Reverend Simeon Siegfried, Jr., who served as pastor of the Alexandria Baptist Church from 1865 to 1871, left West Chester, Pennsylvania, then journeyed west to Adamsville, Ohio, where he pastored a church before coming to Alexandria. During the Civil War, we find the record of Simeon Siegfried, Jr., serving in the 160th Regiment of the Ohio Infantry. Siegfried was a Captain and served as the Commander of Company E. The 160th OVI was formed at Zanesville and where Siegfried joined from Adamsville. Siegfried left Alexandria in 1871 and went to New Jersey before returning to Pennsylvania. Siegfried died in 1879 while pastor of the First Baptist Church of Norristown, Pennsylvania.

Newton Parker survived the Civil War. Newt served as a Corporal in Company D, 135th Regiment, Ohio Infantry. In the 1860 Federal Census, we find Newt living in Monroe Township with his wife and son. By 1870, Newton had moved to St Albans Township where he and his 16-year-old son Brainerd worked a farm. Newt's wife, Lorana Whitehead Parker, is listed as 'Keeping house.' Newt passed away on December 13, 1901 at the age of 75. Newt's great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Thrall had served in the American Revolution. We remember Newt's legacy through his son and grandchildren. Brainerd Parker married Alice Cornell and they had four children. Parker Park takes it's name from the family and the efforts of grandson Howard Parker to create the park for us and there remains those of us old enough to remember Newt's granddaughter, Ollie Mae Parker.

By the early 1900s, Decoration Day was a major event in Alexandria's history. Many pictures survive of the preparations for Decoration Day. By then, a revitalization of Maple Grove Cemetery had taken place and the grounds were kept mowed and groomed. Young ladies are shown in white dresses with the flowers they will soon use to decorate the grave of a soldier. The community has always had a strong commitment to those who have served. The Decoration Day event, I believe, gave our community a sense of history and a sense of direction, as well as a sense of closure. Alexandria's history book contains 15 pages of soldiers who served in our county's wars. The list begins with the American Revolution ends with World War II...

Since then, we have fought the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, Gulf Wars I and II, we have fought in Afghanistan and many places throughout the world. You may have never heard of some of these places, or you may never even know.

Every veteran has a story whether they served on the front line or the mail room, whether they served on the land, sea, or air. Every veteran has a reason to serve... and potentially, to die.

"O not in vain ye call us forth..."

Ed Hankison renders honors during the 21-gun Salute.

Alexandria's Veterans #5

Decoration Day,   Part I I

With the houses clean and the farms tended, the young ladies put on their finest white dresses to perform one last task before summer officially began.

There are a series of pictures showing the ladies of Alexandria dressed in white for Decoration Day.  Today, we call this Memorial Day.  Back then, Decoration Day was the day to recognize the fallen soldiers of the community by decorating houses with bunting, much as we celebrate the Fourth of July today.  Decoration Day used to be a big event and was reserved solely for honoring those who died in the service of their beloved country.  It was a day the young women decorated the graves of veterans by placing flowers on the graves of the fallen.  The observance of Decoration Day started shortly after the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln - a singular event with profound effect on our community.

Decoration Day was first celebrated in Alexandria on Monday, May 31, 1869, and this Decoration Day specifically honored our losses in the Civil War.  At 4 PM, the local citizenry gathered at the Maple Grove Cemetery and Captain Joseph M. Scott called the observance to order.  A hymn was sung, a prayer given, and a poem read.  Reverend (Captain) Simeon Siegfried, Jr., of the Alexandria Baptist Church addressed the crowd.  This was followed by another hymn, set to the song "Children of the Heavenly King" with the words from "Strew the Blossoms."  Children of the Heavenly King is Pleyel's Hymn and became popular after it was sung at Abraham Lincoln's funeral.

At this point, the crowd processed from one veteran's grave to another as the ladies decorated each grave by placing flowers and short remarks were made at each by either Captain Scott, Reverend Siegfried, or Newton Parker.  The following graves of soldiers who died in the American Civil War were honored in this order,

- Corporal Henry Rose, Company B, 76th OVI - died February 15, 1863, Milliken Bend, Madison Parish, Louisiana (Killed by lightning with Sergeant Rufus Buxton)

- Captain Ira P. French, Company B, 76th OVI - died November 27, 1863, [Battle of Ringgold Gap,] Georgia

- Sergeant Rufus Buxton, Company B, 76th OVI - died February 15, 1863, Milliken Bend, Madison Parish, Louisiana.  (Killed by lightning with Corporal Henry Rose)

- Private Dwight Follet, Company D, 22nd OVI - died January 3, 1862, St. Louis, Missouri

- Private Joseph Lyman, Company B, 76th OVI    

- Private John I Quincey Merrill, Company B, 76th OVI - died October 6, 1863

- Private Samuel Jones, Company F, 135th OVI - died October 10, 1864, Georgia

- Henry Vail, [Rank and Service Record Currently Unknown.  There are at least two Henry Vails in the records of the Regiments of the Ohio Infantry]

- Private Reuben Sinnett, Co D, 22nd OVI - died January 20, 1862, Missouri

- [Rank Unkown] Benjamin Strothers, Company A, 22nd OVI    

- Private Jasper Monroe (Munroe), Company B, 76th OVI - died July 29, 1862

- [Rank Unknown] Arthur Wamsbrough, Company H, 5th OVI

- Private Edelbert H. Cooley, Company H, 76th OVI - died September 2, 1862

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The term OVI refers to Ohio Veteran Infantry.  Once the unit was mustered out, the veterans retained their unit identity more as a social organization.  Today we might call it the National Guard.   The number refers to the regimental number.

The crowd returned to the stand and sang "O not in vain ye call us forth."  A list of those fallen soldiers from surrounding cemeteries was read and the service concluded by singing "Blest are the martyred dead" to the tune recognized today as the Doxology (Old Hundredth).

All those young ladies in white...  yet, if you allow me some literary leeway, there was one in particular who wore black.  Emily was young lady of the community.  Her ancestors were some of the very earliest in the Granville and Alexandria farmlands and businesses.  Her father ran a successful store in Alexandria.  Then the Civil War came.  Emily lost her brother Henry when lightning struck the tent he was sheltered in.  At her father's store was a young clerk learning to be a druggist, Ira French of Johnstown, who had taken a room with her father during his clerkship.  Before leaving for Camp Sherman, Ira and Emily were married.  Captain Ira French lost his life at the Battle of Ringgold Gap.

For additional information on the deaths of Rufus Buxton and Henry Rose, please read,

http://www.miltonhistoricalsociety.org/.../Prechtel... "The Lightning Brothers"

Alexandria Veterans #5

M E M O R I A L    D A Y, Part I

When I was little, Charlie and Lucy Satterfield owned the 'grocery store.'  Today, part of that is the Day Spa.  It was odd waiting on the salonist to finish my daughter's hair.  In my mind, she was sitting right where the counter was where you piled up your groceries and Lucy rang them up.  Apparently, I suffer from some sort of temporal disorder.  When originally built in 1906, Satterfield's  was intended to be two stores.  Today, you can still observe this, but I remember one store.  On the left groceries and on the right was where Lucy had her dry goods.

There are several terms we need to understand.  A general store sells a general variety of items.  This can range from food and groceries to hardware to dry goods, depending on the needs of the community it serves.  The dry goods part refers to cloth and fabric, thread, ribbons, bows, lace, and everything needed to make clothes.  Dry goods can also include personal items such as brushes and combs, soaps, toothbrushes, and so on.  By 1900, these stores could be combined or seen together, and advertised as such, or run as separate enterprises.  Then there was the millinery store.  This was usually a dry goods store that specialized in fabrics and sewing needs and could include seamstresses, pre-made dresses, and, more commonly seen today, women's hats.  By 1900, you can say in general terms, men went to the hardware or general store while women frequented the milliner's store.

The milliner was important.  Today we can order on-line, and, within a few days, the delivery driver places your order on your doorstep, hopefully in the correct size.  Back then, you had to hitch up a horse, go to town, hope you found the right fabric, and if you didn't sew, you then contracted the seamstress to make your clothes.  Alexandria's seamstresses, milliners, and dry goods stores are well documented through their advertising.

One story in particular stands out.  Misses Alta and Bertha Curtiss were a members of the Drake family - one of St Alban's older families - through their mother Amanda, a granddaughter of David Drake.  Alta was 24 and unmarried when she opened her Millinery Store above Cubbage's General Store sometime around 1900.  At 24, Alta may have had to consider her prospects for marriage against the need to support herself; such was life in the early 1900s.  Bertha, more correctly, Alberta, was the youngest sister and helped Alta with her store.  This was a boom time in Alexandria.  S.S. Anderson had just opened his hotel in March.  Alta not only ran her Millinery Shop, but in the back room was Alexandria's portion of the Alexandria & Croton Telephone Exchange.  Alta managed that too as this would serve as a guaranteed income.  She was also a boarder at the Bowman's and she now had rent money.

In the early Fall of 1905, tragedy struck.  In a storeroom on the first floor, right under Alta's shop, a fire broke out.  By the time it discovered at 1:00 AM, there was no stopping it.  Alta and Bertha escaped with the clothes they were wearing and a handful of personal objects.  At this point, all the citizens of Alexandria could do was keep the fire from spreading.  Alta and Bertha lost everything.  They had no insurance.  Every other business was insured.  The telephone service was quickly restored in another building further west on Main Street.  In 1906, construction began on the new concrete block Business Block.  Alta had nothing.  By the age of 30, Alta had to start all over.

Alta grew up without a father.  Her father, John Wesley Hebron Curtiss, had passed away in 1884, when she was a young girl of about eight, leaving Alta to help her mother with young siblings and her older brother to tend the farm.  Alta's mother, Amanda Elizabeth Drake Curtis died young in 1903.  Alta Ardella Curtis passed away on November 16, 1908 at the age of 32.

Clothing was a bigger item then than now.  At the foot of my bed is a chest we use for blankets.  It was a hand-crafted piece of furniture made by George Irwin - not all that glamorous - called a 'dress press.'  It was critical in the early 1900s.  George Irwin had a house full of women, a wife, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters.  At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, women wore ankle length, pleated woolen skirts.  Every spring, these skirts would be brought out, laundered, dried, then each pleat carefully ironed.  They even had a couple of special pleat irons that were heated on the stove to accomplish this.  While one was used, the other was reheated.  Then, each skirt was careully returned to the dress press with a layer of tissue paper seperating the skirts.  All this was part of a larger series of tasks that involved beating carpets, scrubbing floors and woodwork, and polishing furniture.  Then Decoration Day came at the end of May and it was socially acceptable to wear white again.  Crops had been planted, houses cleaned and aired out, and everything must have seemed new again.

To see the town dressed in bunting, the young ladies dressed in white, the houses clean, and everything fresh and new, you would think it would be a celebration...

Alexandria had one more thing to do.

Alexandria Veterans #1 

 B O B

For some reason, John Steele took me under his wing.  (Pun intended).  Mr. Steele taught me machinist work, how to use tools - including taps and dies - and he taught me to fly.

For anyone who has had me as a passenger in a car, you know I try to drive from the right hand seat.  Flying in a passenger jet works the same.  Most people assume I have a fear of flying.  Not true.  I just feel better when I have the control stick between my knees.  Call me a control freak - I do not care - I prefer to control the means of my destiny, Gott sei dank.

After an afternoon flight out of our local airport in Heath   with Mr. Steele, I came home to work on a new plastic model airplane I had recently purchased, a Northrop P-61 Black Widow.  It was a beautiful day in the early summer.  This was, in the reality of World War II, a significant development in aerodynamics and tactical employment.  In short, this model represented a game-changer in the defeat of the Nazi Luftwaffe in World War II.

Bob Fisher, LCL 6-Man, All League, Quarterback.

Little did I know but there was a World War II veteran of the U. S. Army Air Force of World War II who was a radio operator/rear gunner who served aboard a real P-61 Black Widow.  I wish he had lived long enough for me to completely download his wartime experiences.  Sadly, death comes to us all, even a fellow Red Devil.

Alexandria High School Class of 1941

Bob - Robert Fisher - graduated from Alexandria High School in 1941.  Bob also made Licking County's 6-Man All-County Football Team as Quarterback.  I do not know if Bob was drafted, but I do know that there were many who volunteered for the Army Air Force to avoid being drafted into the infantry.  After Basic Training, Bob headed off to sunny Florida, specifically Orlando, for Night Fighter Training.  Bob may have gone to Panama City, Florida, for gunnery training at Tyndall Army Airfield.  Tyndall had a unique gunnery range; gun turrets were mounted on the back end of jeeps and drivers drove these jeeps around a racetrack while gunners shot at targets along the way.  While in training, Bob was assigned to an aircrew with whom they trained together.  Bob was sent to England, then followed the front across France into Germany after D-Day.

Bob Fisher's post in the P-61 Black Widow.

From all of this, Bob told me this one story.  To understand the story, you have to understand the P-61 Black Widow.  From where Bob sat, there was no way to move forward towards the pilot and radar operator.  Bob was, in effect, alone in the back of the airplane.  There was a chair with radio equipment against the bulkhead and nothing but clear Plexiglass above, to the side of, and aft of Bob.  In short, it must have seemed like a magic carpet ride, except for Bob, who was looking off the back end of the carpet.  Bob had drifted off... they were night fighters... remember?  Sleep was always an issue, and this was a non-combat flight; Bob was just along for the ride.  The pilot pulled the aircraft up in a sharp climb leaving Bob, in the back, to stare, suddenly awake, at the ground receding below him.  I can only imagine what went through Bob's brain; he thought he was going to fall out...

After the war, Bob married Jean, a native of Washington, D. C.  Bob brought his bride to Alexandria where she earned many stories to tell about small town life.  Initially, they were neighbors of another young couple, Kermit and Annabelle Anderson.  Later, Bob and Jean would move to and move various homes in town while raising a family.

I miss Bob and Jean.  Bob and I never talked much, but we always acknowledged each other as brothers-in-arms.  I just believe that is how Bob was.  He did allow me to borrow his prized squadron book, which I relished reading with pride.

Robert Fisher is but one of Alexandria and St. Albans many, many heroes, all of whom have their stories to tell.  Some we call the Greatest Generation; to others we say, "Welcome home."  Maple Grove Cemetery holds the bodies of our men and women who fought for our freedom.  One day, it will hold mine.   Sadly, I can only share so many stories either of my own or on behalf of others.  If you have a Vet, the Library of Congress has an Oral History Project.  Just saying for a friend. http://www.loc.gov/vets/

Welcome home.  Thank you for your service.  Semper Fi Mac.

The SKIES of ALEXANDRIA #1

S O M E   B A C K G R O U N D

For a few brief years, the 58th Air Division ruled the skies from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  Alcoa, Tennessee, has, since World War II, been a strategic asset to the United States or three reasons: a power grid, fissile atomic material, and aluminum.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was a Roosevelt initiative to provide electricity to the southern Appalachians.  Ostensibly, this was a good works project for the region.  It was also a good way to support the Alcoa company in their mining and processing of aluminum for the aircraft industry.  Aluminum was, at that time, vital to the production of aircraft.

Even more vital, but never discussed -- it was above TOP SECRET -- was the need to produce weapons grade Uranium.  There were two ways to do this.  One in Alcoa; the other in Hanford, Washington.

In 1907, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company changed its name to the Aluminum Company of America - AlCoA - and began looking for a place in eastern Tennessee to open a large smelting operation.  By 1919, Alcoa had established a community of 150 company houses in North Maryville, and the village incorporated itself as Alcoa, Tennessee.  To smelt aluminum, Alcoa needed power.  They bought the Knoxville Power Company for their holdings on the Little Tennessee River.  Soon, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) came along, and this part of the country had plentiful electricity.  Then, under the Manhattan Project, a nuclear refinement facility was built nearby.

It was not until after World War II was over and U.S. intelligence began looking through captured Nazi documents that a plan was discovered whereby a German U-Boat would sneak up the Mississippi River and travel as far as they could navigate and dispatch saboteurs to disrupt as much as they could of the valuable war effort taking place in and around Alcoa.  This was how important Alcoa was.  But this plan never materialized.  Meanwhile, a new threat emerged. 

Crest of the 58th Air Division, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.

With this in mind and as the Cold War dawned, the newly formed Air Defense Command needed to defend Alcoa, Tennessee.  Any bombers, the brass decided, would come over Ohio or Indiana. By the 1950s, the 58th Air Division was formed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  This unit was responsible for protection of Alcoa.  The Division had 4 fighter squadrons, six ground radar sites, and a host of Ground Observer Corps (GOC.)

One of my close friends grew up in the Baltimore, Ohio, area just south of Licking County and Kirkersville.  As a Boy Scout, the troop pulled their national duty by supplying a shift at the Kirkersville GOC.  His memory was the boring nature of the shift.  Their targets were always identified as airliners heading to and from Port Columbus --today's Eddie Rickenbacker International, my friend never detected an enemy bomber.  He would go on to be an Air Force radar technician in the 1960s.  Thank you, my friend.  You know who you are, Gene.

As a youth, I would have sworn tha I saw an F-89 Scorpion break the sound barrier just south of Alexandria.  I was probably mistaken, but the sonic boom was real.

By 1959, the 58th Air Division was done.  ADC begins to restructure for the coming Semi-Automated Ground Environment (SAGE) which will introduce computers into the air defence equation.  After SAGE came the Sector Operations Control Centers, in which I spent five years.

Southeast Air Defense Sector, Tyndall AFB, Florida

The ALEXANDRIA PAPERS #7

VICKY'S TEETH

I particularly like a series of books I keep on my shelf...  There Will Be War edited by Jerry Pournelle.  This is also the label on the notebooks in which I keep my notes and lectures for the Cleves-Juelich Succession Crisis and Twentieth Century military history beginning with the Franco-Prussian War.  One of those lectures is on the politics that set the stage for the Assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and lit the Twentieth Century on fire...  I, lacking a better idea, got descriptive and called the lecture "Vicky's Kids."  This collection of paragraphs is about her teeth.

Vicky... Victoria Regina or, Her Royal Highness Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India... had bad teeth.  Bad teeth seem to be a British thing, at least if Monty Python has any credibility.  Here is where the personal connection comes in.

When my wife and I were undergrads at the Ohio State University's Main Campus, my classes were somewhere around 12th and 17th Avenues.  Hers were south of the hospital.  We would meet for lunch on South Campus and, depending on the weather, sometimes I would attend her afternoon Anatomy and Physiology lecture with her.  I confess, the most useful thing I learned in her lecture was that a lower-case "c" with a bar over it was medical shorthand for "with."  My wife's lecture was in the huge auditorium in the School of Dentistry.  I have literally walked by the statue of Willoughby Dayton Miller over a hundred times.  In a fit of irony, the University of *ichigan also has a statue of Willoughby Dayton Miller.

Willoughby grew up on his father's farm along the north side of Hardscrabble Road on Lot 15 in Liberty Township.  This is approximately where the Stiers farm is today.  Willoughby was the youngest of eleven children.  About half of his older siblings had unnaturally short lives.  Willoughby did not do so much better, thanks to appendicitis.

I would not attempt to recount the esteemed Doctor's biography, please use your mad Google skills.  I just want to say four things,

• Dr. Miller wrote The Micro-organisms of the Human Mouth.  Today, it is considered foundational in modern dentistry and the primer on dental cavities.
• Dr. Miller worked on the teeth of many crowned heads of Europe.  Although ostensibly the Court Dentist of Prussia, the King of Prussia was Vicky's son.  Dr. Miller attended Vicky's cavities.
• Dr. Miller never forgot Alexandria and Alexandria never forgot Dr. Miller.  The names Willoughby, Dayton, or Miller were used in various combinations in the Bishop, Brooks, and Cady families, as well as others I may not have seen.
• Willoughby Dayton Miller is buried in our Maple Grove and is the only headstone in the shape of a cross.

When I was stationed in Germany, there were times when it seemed like we lived on the edge of a straight razor.  Tactical nukes, a lifespan that could have been measured in minutes and hours if the Cold War went hot.  Fears over whether my wife could get herself and my daughters to France in time, if that even mattered. Mom got me a subscription to The Johnstown Independant.  By the time I got it, it was old news, but still news to me.  I never forgot Alexandria.  Neither did Willoughby.

While it is tempting to say that W. D. Miller is Alexandria's greatest son, as I go through Alexandria's citizenry, so many have done so much who have called Alexandria home.

The ALEXANDRIA PAPERS #6

D O   N O T   P I C K   M E   F O R   B A S K E T B A L L

I do not run anywhere.  Those days are past.  I do not shoot well.  Never did.

There used to be a number of small high schools in Licking County that are no more.  There was Union High School along State Route 37 between Granville and Luray at little known Union Station.  A distant relative of mine helped plan this school and sat on the board.  This was a rural high school for people who did not go to Granville, Hebron, or Pataskala High School.  This school disappeared when Granville absorbed outlying areas, when Pataskala consolidated with Etna and became Watkins Memorial, and when Hebron took in southeastern Licking County to become first Lynnwood, then Lakewood.  Just a few miles away along Route 40, Kirkersville High School was renamed Harrison Township High School around 1940 before consolidation with Watkins Memorial about 15 years later.

In 1938, the Licking County League looked like this:  Alexandria, Etna, Granville, Hanover-Toboso, Hartford, Hebron, Homer, Jacksontown, Johnstown, Kirkersville, Pataskala, Summit, and Utica.

Then, there was what I call the Classic Licking County League: Utica, Northridge, Johnstown, Licking Heights, Watkins Memorial, Lakewood, Licking Valley, Granville (Exempted), and Newark Catholic.  That is how I remember it in the 1970s.  But for a brief moment, two years, I was able to enjoy the past.  I was an Alexandria Red Devil.  The junior high schools kept their pre-consolidation community identities.

Consolidation was painful for some.  The first graduation class from Northridge did not necessarily identify as Vikings.  One person in particular was upset that after three-and-one-half years in Alexandria High School, the remaining time meant their diploma would say Northridge, not Alexandria.  But Northridge was a consolidation of consolidations.  Before Northridge was Northridge North (Hartford and Homer) and Northridge South (Alexandria).  I suspect that for all the consolidations, there are similar stories.

I was a Red Devil.  I shared a past with many community leaders I knew.  Alexandria played six-man football.  I played outdoor sports on the Red Devils football field.  When former Alexandria resident and teacher Helen Irwin Cunningham shared some ticklish stories about shenanigans at that football field, I knew exactly where she was talking about.

The 1954 Lickingana (Licking County High School Yearbook) lists these schools:   Alexandria, Pataskala, Homer, Hanover-Toboso, Summit Station, Jacksontown, Hebron, Kirkersville, Johnstown-Monroe, Utica, Etna, and Hartford.

Alexandria "Red Devils" (Red and Black) - became Northridge South (1960), then consolidated with Northridge North (Croton and Homer) into Northridge (1963)

Etna "Eagles" (Green and White) - consolidated into Watkins Memorial (1955).

Hanover "Panthers" (Maroon and White) - renamed Hanover-Toboso 1934, consolidated into Licking Valley (1959).

Hartford "Yellow Jackets" (Orange and Black) - consolidated into Northridge North (1960), consolidated into Northridge (1963).

Hebron "Trailblazers" (Blue and Gray) - consolidated into Lynnwood-Jacksontown  (1958), consolidated into Lakewood (1960).

Homer "Blue Devils" (Blue and Gold) - renamed Northridge North 1960, consolidated into Northride (1963).

Jacksontown "Trojans" (Red and White) - consolidated into Lynnwood-Jacksontown  (1958), consolidated into Lakewood (1960).

Johnstown "Johnnies" (Red and White) - at some point, became Johnstown-Monroe.

Kirkersville "Komets" (Red and White) - consolidated into Watkins Memorial (1955).

Pataskala "Blue Streaks" (Blue and White) - consolidated into Watkins Memorial (1955).

St. Francis "Green Wave" (Green and White) - later changed to Newark Catholic.  [Found on 1950s era Alexandria Sports Schedules - TEB]

Summit (Summit Station) "Yellow Jackets" Maroon and Gold - consolidated with Jersey to form Licking Heights (1958).

Toboso - consolidated into Hanover-Toboso (1934).

Utica "Redskins" (Red and White).

Today's Licking County League is a different entity than this poor Red Devil remembers.  The following list comes from Wikipedia with team name, dates of inclusion, and colors:

Big School Division

Granville Blue Aces (1927-1950, 1963-1991, 2013-) Colors: Blue and White

Zanesville Blue Devils (2020-) Colors: Blue and White

Licking Heights Hornets (1927-1983, 2013-) Colors: Maroon and Gold

Licking Valley Panthers (1959-1991, 2013-) Colors: Red, White and Blue

Watkins Memorial Warriors (1955-1991, 2013-) Colors: Black and Gold

Small School Division

Heath Bulldogs (1964-1991, 2013-) Colors: Brown and White

Johnstown-Monroe Johnnies (1927-1991, 2013-) Colors: Red and White

Lakewood Lancers (1959-1991, 2013-) Colors: Red, White and Blue

Newark Catholic Green Wave (1973-1991, 2013-) Colors: Green and White

Northridge Vikings (1963-1986, 2013-) Colors: Green and White

Utica Redskins (1927-1991, 2013-) Colors: Red and Gray

Somewhere is the Red Devil that was center court in the 1954 gym before it was replaced by a Viking.  I may no good at basketball, but it would be nice to revisit this old icon.

ADDENDUM:

Union Township High School graduated classes into the 1940s. However, I have not fully researched their participation in the Licking County League.

At various times, Utica High School appears as Washington (Township) High School or Washington-Utica High School.