Local History Shared in “Going, Going, Gone”
Tacoma resident Marie Bundy, noted local and Quaker historian, has penned another book focusing on the greater Barnesville area.
“Going, Goin, Gone” takes its inspiration from the Hanlon Brother’s 1888 Illustrated Yearbook of Barnesville. Designated as “The Hub” for almost 40 smaller communities whose citizens looked to Barnesville as the center of commerce and life, the yearbook was published just once.
Who recognizes the names Demos, Pilcher or Atlas? These were the post office town names for Centerville, New Castle and Boston.
What are the current town names for Millwood and Wrightstown? Think Quaker City and Belmont.
Is it Eldon or Spencer’s Station? Take your pick.
What about the once promising towns of Cabinet or Slabtown? Cabinet in Kirkwood Township and Slabtown in Warren Township today exist in name only.
And why name a community Temperanceville? Even in 1842 folks felt it a bit of a strange name for a town founded by an Irish Catholic.
The answers to these questions and much more are addressed in Going, Going, Gone that covers 16 townships in Belmont, Guernsey, Monroe and Noble counties.
Some of the communities profiled in the book exist today in name only. Others are rapidly heading in the same direction as the economies that once supported them no longer exist.
The 190-page book is $20 (tax included) and available locally at Avenues of Barnesville, the Barnesville Antique Mall and soon at Barnesville Chamber office. Copies will also be available at the Watt Center for History and the Arts during the group’s Barnesville Pumpkin Festival book sale.
Mail orders are welcome. Please add $5 for shipping and handling. Please make checks payable to and send orders to Watt Center for History and the Arts, P.O. Box 463, Barnesville, OH 43713.
Bundy is also the author of two other books. She updated and expanded the local Quaker-family focused book Little Home Histories in our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio in 2019 and the following year authored Tacoma, Ohio: Fragments from the past.
The author will present a PowerPoint presentation on the new publication at the Belmont Heritage Museum this fall. Prior to the book’s release, she also shared the program with residents of the Walton Retirement Home and with fellow members of the Belmont County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society.
Profits from the book will benefit the publisher, the nonprofit Watt Center, whose mission is to promote history and the arts in the greater Barnesville community. The Center is housed in the historic Watt Car & Wheel office building at 511 Watt Avenue.
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