Genoa Township Land Conservation Association

Covington Meadows

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History

The following lineage of landowners of the property that became Covington Meadows is only a set of snapshots obtained from notes on township maps. Other persons owned various parcels throughout the years, falling between the occasions of updating the maps.

In 1830, the Covington Meadows property was a small piece of more than 1,600 contiguous acres of land owned by Stephen B. Minor, who erected a barn there in 1823. In 1849, L. Badger owned the northern half of the property, and Daniel Smith owned the southern half.

By 1866, R. Moore owned the northern section of the property, and James Mossman farmed the center section. J. Carver’s heirs owned the western side of the southern section of the Covington Meadows property, and J.S. Copeland, a farmer and stock raiser, possessed the eastern side. Besides farming, John S. Copeland was a carpenter; he built his own barn and contracted out his services to other farmers. Copeland’s father, William S. Copeland, had farmed land directly east across Tussic Road, where he also manufactured wagons and buggies. After William’s death, John inherited and farmed that land as well.

In 1875, James Martin owned the northern section of the Covington Meadows property, and James Mossman still tended the center section on both sides of the Galena & Westerville Road (GWR). Mrs. Carver and J.S. Copeland continued to work the southern section of the property. In 1890, Ernest Fritsche had purchased the northern third, Mossman remained on the center third and Copeland still farmed most of the southern third. William A. Glass had purchased 96 acres of land along Freeman Road between the railroad (now a township multi-use trail) and GWR and a small part of Copeland’s land on the east of GWR (now the southern entrance to the subdivision from Old 3-C Highway).

Just after the turn of the century, in 1908, Gavin Williams was working the western part of the southern section, while Carl Shavely was working the eastern part. Ernest Fritsche was tending the center and northern sections, on both sides of the GWR. Fritsche had moved to the area in 1871 from his native Germany. Eight years later, the 55-acre southern section of the property had come into the Clay Rammelsberg family, while the Fritsche family was still working the northern sections. At this time, the Rammelsberg name had become common among property owners in the area, as had the Freeman name, for which Freeman Road was later named.

Ownership on the Covington Meadows property hadn’t changed as of 1921, but by 1941, H.C. Lawrence had taken over the 40 acres of the northern third of the property and Garfield Fritsche was working the middle third, while Clay Rammelsberg remained to the south. By 1955, E.J. and G.S. Driscoll had purchased the northern section, Garfield Fritsche farmed the center section (with a two-acre lot on Old 3-C partitioned for Carl Fritsche and a three-acre lot next to it for C.H. and B.R. Fritsche), and Clay Rammelsberg tended the southern section.

In the early 1960s, neighbors Carl Fritsche and Beulah Rammelsberg married and took over farming much of the Covington Meadows property, using the white barn (painted red at some previous point) that still stands at the southwest corner of the property. They tended a small herd of milking cows, raised chickens and sowed corn, soybeans, wheat and oats, using horse-drawn, single-blade plows in the early years on the farm. Fritsche also sold turkeys to the local A&P supermarket through the 1970s.