A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Emerson retired in 1902 and his son, Lowe K. Emerson became president. The distinctiveNapoleonic coach “Body by Fisher” logo, adopted in 1914, became one of the world’s most recognizedsymbols.In 1866 Emerson married Maria Elizabeth Knight(1837-1899). Their children were: Harrison DexterEmerson (married Flora Coan), Ernest Lowe Emerson (1870-1871), Guy Winslow Emerson (1874-1889),who was killed by a lightening strike at his home when he was age 15, Laura Elizabeth Emerson, andLowe Knight Emerson (1876-1911), who married Flora Coan’s sister, Barbara. Maria’s sister, Olive A.Knight married John R. Allen. Their daughter, Cora Marie Allen (1864-1952) married College Hill’sOrville Simpson. They had two children: Lowe and Robert Orville Simpson. Olive and Maria’s othersister, Louise Mary Knight, married Harrison Dexter. Laura Emerson was raised by her aunt, LauraEmerson, who married Herbert Aiken.Lowe K. served in the Spanish American War, forming a Cincinnati company of infantry to fight andthereafter went by Captain Lowe Emerson. In 1874 he and Col. R. Dollings formed the Ohio LifeInsurance Co. Lowe died unexpectedly of appendicitis in 1911.The Oaks was sold to Peter G. Thomson in 1902. The building was remodeled and pillars wereadded to the front when Mr. Thomson anticipated that his son, Alexander, was going to married a Goulddaughter. The Goulds came from New York to College Hill for a visit but the marriage didn’t occur. TheThomson’s lived in the house when Laurel Court was under construction. Mr. Thomson gave the house tohis son Alexander when he married Mary Moore Dabney, who later became the president of WesternCollege for Women. During their honeymoon in Europe The Oaks was again remodeled. The sash typewindows on the ground floor were removed and French doors installed. The one-story porch was removedand the present two and one half story porch added along with a breakfast room. The interior woodworkwas changed to the present fluted Corinthian type and decorative Greek key cornices and plaster moldingswere installed. Another wing was added with a new kitchen.In 1920, a tunnel running from the acetylene shed, under the smoke house and into the southwestcorner of the cellar was obliterated. This tunnel was mentioned in Levi Coffin’s description of theUnderground Railroad.In the yard is a gingko tree, a gift from Mr. Sugimoto. A trumpet vine still blooms that was plantedat the end of the Civil War. A century old pine oak is in the front yard along with oak trees from the timeof Farmers’ College. Grapevines smuggled from Portugal by the Thomson’s first gardener, Joe Riis, arestill there. Mr. Riis came from the University of Cincinnati and started working for the AlexanderThomson’s in 1907.After the death of Alexander Thomson in 1939, the mansion was sold to Walter T. Askew, presidentof the Pierson Lumber Company. Mr. Askew passed away suddenly and his widow, being unfamiliar withthe business, sold their interest.The house was acquired in the 1950’s by the St. George Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church. Theexterior was painted gray and the house visually vanished. Green paint covered interior mural decoratedwalls and wood paneling. The church congregation later moved to the former carriage house on theThomson property and sold the ‘big house.’ It was purchased by Douglas Trimmel and the late RobertD’Amato in 1977 and the huge task of restoration of the house started. Without their work, time, andloving care, this house might truly ‘be history’ today.212