Willow
Bend
History
The
following lineage of landowners of the property that became Willow Bend 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, Jeptha Jarrard, an heir of a Ludlow
family, owned about 490 acres of land that would someday include all but the
eastern edges of Willow Bend. The eastern pieces, which later would border
Worthington Road, were a small part of about 1,600 acres owned by Stephen B.
Minor that extended clear to Tussic Road. In 1849, Jacob H. Thompson owned most
of the Willow Bend property, with an M. Pace and Stanberry & Munn owning
the eastern pieces. By 1866, Thompson still owned the bulk of the property,
while the eastern parcels were owned by S. Rogers to the north, heirs of P.
Cockrell in the middle and P. Freeman to the south. Mr. Freeman also owned
another parcel of land south of Willow Bend and extending to the eastern side of
Worthington Road. His fixture on the northeast corner of an intersection would
lead to that east-west road becoming known as present-day Freeman Road.
In 1875 and 1890, the ownership remained the
same. By 1908, Thompson still* owned the western half of the property. Further
east, George Moore owned 10 acres on Big Walnut Road, W.D. Wood owned 34 acres
to his south, and A. Rammelsberg owned 17 acres below Wood. The eastern edge
was owned by H.M. Rogers to the north and A. Rammelsberg to the south. Eight years
later, Carl H. Young had purchased the Thompson and Wood farms, Samuel Moore
now lived on the ten-acre plot on Big Walnut, and the eastern pieces were still
tended by Rogers and Rammelsberg.
A 1921 map indicates that the Columbus Mutual
Insurance Company then owned the former Young farm. Between 1916 and 1941, that
parcel of land passed through the hands of a handful of landowners, at least
one of them twice, as the Great Depression meddled with the fortunes of many
landowners, including some area farmers. Moore, Rogers and Rammelsberg still
owned their respective properties.
In 1925, the
Wesleyan Church paid $1,200 to purchase ten acres of land along Big Walnut Road
to provide space for summer camp meetings. (Photo courtesy of Pastor Walter
Jeffries, Wesleyan Church)
The first
services were held in a tent in 1926 and then each summer for the next 77
years. (Photo from Victory Camp Golden Jubilee program)
Major religious revivals reached into almost
every corner of the U.S. in the 1800s. The Methodist Church and several other
denominations adopted the revivals in the form of camp meetings, and introduced
them into Ohio and much of the eastern United States. In the late 1880s, tent
revivals were held across from the Township Building, which sits at the corner
of Tussic and Big Walnut Roads. In 1925, the Western Ohio District of the Wesleyan Church, with deep roots
in the abolitionist and holiness revival movements of the nineteenth century, bought
10 acres of land along the south side of Big Walnut Road west of Worthington
Road and then added three acres in 1947, another three acres in 1959 and a
final six acres in 1961. Over the years, many church families attended “Victory
Camp,” building more than 60 small, white, privately-owned cottages and
other camp structures, eventually including two dormitories, two tabernacles, a
caretaker’s home and a dining facility. During the annual camp meeting in late
July, nightly alter calls and the melodies of camp songs could be heard by
families on nearby farms. The cottages were removed in 2003 to make room for
the Wesleyan Church’s Dayspring Chapel and the Manors at Willow Bend
subdivision. Some of the cottages were preserved and moved to various locations
around the area.
Several Victory
Camp cottages were purchased and moved to the William Freeman property in Genoa
Township on Jaycox Road in 2003. The Freeman Barn also had been moved to this
site, transported in 1971 from its original site, in Orange Township, to make
way for the Alum Creek Reservoir. (GTLCA photo)
By 1941, Horace W. and Alice D. Troop, who also
owned land north of Big Walnut Road, had obtained deeds to the Columbus Mutual
sections, H.C. Hughs lived on the 10 acres on Big Walnut and Ida R. Ferbach
owned the former Rammelsberg property on the south end, as well as the eastern
pieces. In 1955, the Troops remained on the west section, and the Ferbachs
farmed to the south and east. Edna Grace Love and others now owned the northern
end of the eastern pieces.
In 1980, the majority of the land was still
owned by the same Troops and Ferbachs, except that Laura Lois Buld now owned
the northern part of the eastern pieces along Worthington Road, surrounding the
Osage Ridge subdivision, and Donald and Lillian Conklin owned 23 acres to
Buld’s south. By 1992, Robert Echele had purchased the Troops’ 89 acres along
the western side of the property and began transforming his property into a
vision he had of rural living and exotic landscaping. He built a waterfall
adjacent to the spring-fed pond, integrated old, wooden barn-siding into his
home and had dirt brought in from the construction of the I-71 and Polaris
Parkway interchange to create mounds along Big Walnut Road, which now are
covered in wildflowers.
The Edwards Land Company purchased the
properties, and homes were erected through a partnership involving Duffy Homes
and Bob Webb Builders. The Willow Bend conservation lands were donated to GTLCA
in November 2005.