Marking the occasion is something we humans do.
And Thursday, some of the “historically minded” folks Springfield’s Bob Hulsizer speaks of dedicated a stone mile marker from the historic National Road that now sits in a small greenspace at Main and Snyder streets.
In a well-tended triangular lot formed by those two strips of pavement and a slanting railroad track, is mile stone 305, which originally sat at the old road and the current Kingstree Lane near Rockway School.
It’s called mark 305 because by the time travelers passed it, they had traveled that many miles from Cumberland, Maryland, where the National Road cuts through the Appalachians.
The marker lists three other distances: The 4 miles the stone sat west of the Springfield of the time; the 5 miles it would take to reach the next town, Donnelsville, identified on the stone only by the letter D; and the 121 miles in front of travelers headed for Indianapolis.
While the stone’s placement on Thursday ultimately did hinge on the historical interest of those involved, the process started about 40 years ago for a much different reason: Hulsizer and the late Horace Hansell got tired of hearing one another gripe about the knee-high grass in the lot at Snyder and Main.
Hansell was particularly irked about it because he worked for the railroad and thought it may have been responsible for the mess. But he and Hulsizer ultimately agreed that instead of fighting the powers that be, they would be better off just mowing the lot themselves.
Five years later, the two of them and others in the old West End Neighborhood Association “decided it would be nice to put a little park in there,” Hulsizer recalled. And when the late Bryce Hill, the building materials man about it, he pointed to a couple of bins of decorative stone and told them to take their pick.
When they eventually learned what the West End neighbors were doing, the lot’s actual property owners – a couple that lives on Troy Road near St. Paris – sent in a check for the cost of past mowings and have sent another annually ever since.
In the ensuing years, when West Main was dug into by utilities crews of any kind, West-Enders began collecting some of the bricks that were unearthed and that Hulsizer’s father, Ted, had seen put on the National Road when it was bricked over in 1915.
Fast forward to about a year ago, when Hulsizer, pleased with the way the park was looking, thought it might be nice to add a marker to announce its connection with the National Road.
Long interested in Springfield history and with wife, Flossie, a stalwart of the Genealogical Society of Clark County, Hulsizer shared the idea with Bill Smith, a retired teacher and confessed history nerd.
The suggestion was not lost on Smith, who happens to be treasurer of the Ohio National Road Association.
Just how geeked-out is Smith about the National Road?
He and wife Karen spent their 50th wedding anniversary at the Summit Inn, which sits on the National Road near Farmington, Pennsylvania, and was part of the older Braddock’s Road, built in the British America of 1755, when the Red Coats were trying to challenge France for control of the North American continent.
As important to the rededication of Marker 305 is Smith’s side gig, playing a rat catcher at 18th century trade fairs like the Fair at New Boston and the Clark County Parks District, which hosts the fair at George Rogers Clark Park.
“He calls me a couple of days later,” Hulsizer said, and soon, Marker 305 is pulled from a ditch at George Rogers Clark, hefted on a tractor and brought to the West End neighbors’ park.
“We were fortunate it was only three miles,” Smith said, “because it was uphill on a tractor” driving a four-lane highway.
That good deed done by County Parks workers who did the hauling was matched that day by National Trials Parks and Recreation workers who had digger in the west end of Snyder Park. Beckoned, they happily drove it over to the triangular park on Main Street and dug a base for the mile marker.
Hulsizer said other “historically minded people” soon pitched in.
The City of Springfield, the Turner Foundation and the Springfield Foundation all lent a hand, and Lowe’s donated some rose bushes, a flower chosen because Springfield once was the “Rose City.”
West Enders put on the finishing touches, including John Brown, once a garden center employee, who carefully added handfuls of mulch.
Although Hulsizer is proud of this group and this effort, he’s very much aware of the entire community’s interest in history.
At a time when many keep up with local history chatter on popular Facebook pages, Bob and Flossie Hulsizer see it in the stream of people who continue to donate items to the Heritage Center.
The area’s particular dedication to the National Road is also evident downtown as the first exhibit in the Heritage Center, and in the presence of the National Road Commons, home to the Madonna of the Trail statue, dedicated July 4, 1928, with the help of future president Harry Truman.
If was the first of 12 such statues dedicated along the 600-mile length of the National Road because Springfielders joined Lagonda Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in raising the necessary funds.
Of course, the Turner Foundation, Lagonda Chapter rehabilitated the Pennsylvania House, also on Main Street, and once an Inn for travelers on the National Road.
I would be remiss not to mention Clark Countian Cyndie Gerken, who serves with Smith on the Ohio National Road Association, was awarded the association’s Milestone Award in 2010 and in 2015 published “Marking the Miles Along the National Road Through Ohio,” which documents markers like 305.
In one way, Thursday’s dedication on that small lot represents a smallish contribution when compared with other past efforts.
But it’s part of a larger tradition of interest in area history renewed in recent years by the restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Wescott House.
As Hulsizer puts it: “There’s a lot of historically minded people in Springfield and Clark County – and that helps.”
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