Grand
Oak
History
The
following lineage of landowners of the property that became Grand Oak 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 1805, President John Adams granted 4,000
acres, including the Grand Oak land, to William Steele. 1830, Mr. Jeptha
Jarrard, an heir of Israel Ludlow, owned about 490 acres of land that would
someday include Grand Oak. By 1849, that area was divided up, with H. Meacham
owning the western third (along with another parcel west to the township line),
S. Lockwood owning the next third east, and H. Adams owning the eastern third.
Some small lots north of the property along Jaycox Road had already been set
aside as well.
An Ohio
Historical Marker denotes Africa, a settlement that existed just one mile west
of Grand Oak, near the Alum Creek Reservoir Dam. (Photo by Greg Hamilton)
The Patterson
farm there served as an important link on the Underground Railroad between
Westerville and Sunbury. (From map by William Siebert)
In the years prior to the Civil War, many
runaway slaves crossed from the South into the border state of Ohio, following
the many routes of the Underground Railroad. One of those routes, the Sycamore
Trail, ran from Westerville along Alum Creek and then to Mount Vernon. The trail
was named for the distinctive, white-bark tree that grows along Central Ohio
waterways, marking the route northward. To elude pursuing trackers, former slaves
waded up the creek to the Samuel Patterson farm at East Orange, which at one
time featured several commercial buildings, including a post office, a general
store, and a saloon. East Orange, a short distance to the west from Grand Oak, later
received its “Africa” name from a nearby pro-slavery resident, Leo Hurlburt,
due to the fact that a number of freed slaves from North Carolina had settled
in the area, later moving to other localities such as Delaware and Westerville.
Much of what little remained of Africa, including the Africa Cemetery two miles
to the north, disappeared when Alum Creek Reservoir was constructed and filled
in the 1970s, but some of Patterson’s buildings still exist, as does the
building that once served as the Africa Wesleyan Church.
In 1866, A. Fairman owned nearly all of the
western third of the Grand Oak property, the Lockwood heirs owned the middle
third, and Mrs. S. Stanforth owned the eastern third. M. Granges owned a lot
just north of the Fairman land. By 1875, the Civil War had been over for a
decade, and Mrs. Thompson had purchased the Granges property, while Fairman
still owned his property to the south. George Moore had bought the Lockwood
land, and George Preston had purchased the eastern section from Stanforth. In
1890, the ownership stayed pretty much the same, except that L.J. Van Auken
then owned the lots to the north.
By 1908, D.R. Matthews had purchased the western
third from Fairman, George Moore still owned the middle third, and George Darst
was tending the eastern third. L. Harris now owned the lots to the north. Eight
years later, Carl H. Young had taken over the 53 acres of the western Matthews
property, George Moore’s 51 acres of land had passed to Fred Moore, and George
Darst was still on the eastern 52 acres, while L.E. Davis owned the small lots
on Jaycox.
In 1921, Moore and Darst had not moved, but L.D.
and C.F. Fischback had moved onto the Young property. Davis was still on Jaycox
Road. 20 years later, Horace W. and Alice D. Troop now worked the western
Fischback land, Ernest A. and Helen A. Jahn tended the 52 acres in the middle,
and Louis B. Darst worked the eastern 48 acres. In 1955, the Troops were still
on the western section, the Jahns were in the center, and Darst was to the
east. Samuel and Mary Price now owned a four-acre lot on Big Walnut (known as
Africa-Big Walnut Road at that time) at the south end of the Darst property,
and eight acres to the north of Darst, just south of the Jaycox lots, belonged
to M. and B. Kuhns.
By 1980, the Troop family still owned the
western acreage, William E. and Barbara J. Cole lived on the 52 acres in the
center section, and Doris B. Metz and Mary R. Bailey took over 36 acres to the
east. The Coles had bought the land in 1965 and moved from Westerville in 1968 after
improvements had been made and the briar thickets had been tamed. To enrich the
dense clay soil so that they could grow soybeans and hay, they worked in
livestock manure and other fertilizers. They dug a pond near what is now the
southwest side of Harrow Glen Court, which later was filled in for development.
They raised standard-bred horses, chickens and sheep, planting several acres of
Christmas tree seedlings obtained in Pennsylvania and holding many hayrides and
wiener roasts in the back woods. The shallow well that supplied water to the
Cole house next to Big Walnut Road required substantial softening to remove the
staining, bitter iron concentrations, a situation that forced the Coles to haul
drinking water for several years from Westerville until the Del-Co Water
Company extended its lines to the area in 1972.
By 1987, Robert
C. Echele had taken over the Troop place, except for a small parcel to the
northwest, owned by Jack and Diane Roxey. He also owned land directly across
the road to the south. Echele worked for Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. as a
real estate developer, and later, with NP Limited, which planned the nearby
Polaris Centers of Commerce. In 1992, the Coles also sold 50 acres under land
contract to Echele, who later sold all of his land to the Edwards Land Company for development
into the Grand Oak subdivision by Centex Homes and Bob Webb Ventures. Amy and
Dan Barr reside on the remaining two acres sold to them by the Coles. They live
in the original house built by George Moore. The Grand Oak conservation lands
were donated to GTLCA in December 2005.