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

old. His younger sister, Margaret, was in the WAVES, so there was always worry over far away familymembers. I will never forget the sound of President Roosevelt’s voice on the radio announcing the attackon Pearl Harbor.Over the years we had watched the growth of St. Clare Church-first the little frame building on theCedar Avenue side, then the construction of the present buildings. The frame church was torn down, aswell as the Eicher’s house, which was then a home for the teaching nuns. Strangely enough they didn’traze the priest’s home, but moved it down to 5912 Lantana. It was interesting to watch the moving of thatbrick home. It sat up on a bank level with our house and just across the street from it. They built up asupport of railway ties in the street until it was level with the house, shifted it onto rollers, which weregradually removed until it was down to rollers on the street-then came the slow move down Cedar toLantana, north around the corner and onto its new location. Before that the church building, with schoolrooms on the second floor, had been built on Salvia. Then the new priest’s house was built, partially onthe site of the Eicher house. Finally the basement of the present church was built and used as the churchfor many years until the new church was added above it.One of our classmates from old College Hill School and Hughes High School became very famousin Cincinnati-Caroline Williams also lived on Larch Avenue. We knew that her father was the artist forthe Cincinnati Enquirer-we always looked for his sketches on the weather report and SeckataryHawkins-a favorite reading of mine as a child. I lost track of her for awhile, but after she moved toBurlington, Kentucky, I contacted her and we became firm friends because of our mutual interest inhistory and old buildings. I used to visit her and thoroughly enjoyed her log cabin. I had become interestin old cemeteries and we walked about the one she discovered on her farm. I used to get treats to take tohr big police dog, Annie-I always loved dogs.Ralph died in 1950 and I started classes at the University of Cincinnati and got my undergraduatedegree and teaching certificate in elementary education. I continued my classes after I got a teachingposition in 1953 and got a Master’s degree in 1956 and continued for several years after that-for awhile Ithought I wanted to get a doctorate. While I was teaching third grade at Struble School I becameinterested in local history and started actively to try to gather as much information on Colerain Townshipas I could. It resulted in the formation of the Coleraine Historical Society. I also worked with other groupsinterested in local history.In 1966 College Hill was planning to celebrate its Centennial. I was contacted and asked to do ahistory of the community for Hilltop News. As a result I plunged in to get as much information as Icould, researching and interviewing people about what they remembered. One interesting contact was anelderly gentleman who lived on a street northwest of North Bend Road. He told me that when he was aboy he used to tag along with old Mr. Harbison, who would always take two flags with him on MemorialDay or Fourth of July and take them into the old Cary Cemetery. This would seem to indicate that theremay have been two soldiers’ graves left there after the Cary family removed their own members to SpringGrove Cemetery. He also made the remark when they were tearing down the Crawford Home on NorthBend Road, “I wonder if they discovered the old hiding place for escaping slaves in the sub-cellarunderneath it.”While I was working on College Hill history, the old Bowman house on North Bend Road, just eastof the Wigwam was empty. Eleanor Bowman asked me to go there with her as it was to be torn down.Matie Bowman was Eleanor’s aunt or great aunt. Matie’s maiden name was Ludlow-William B. Ludlowhad been her father. The original property had been a seven acre tract-the north east corner of Hamiltonand North Bend Road. It had been in the family descended from John Ludlow, half-brother to IsraelLudlow and early sheriff of Hamilton County. Matie had apparently become estranged from her familyand left everything to her servant, who left many things in the house which upset Eleanor and me quite abit. Matie had lived a very prominent social life in College Hill and had saved everything. The attic wasfull of things pertaining to her interests. There were art magazines, pictures, music and old dresses-severalwardrobes and many other things. Kids had broken into the house and gotten into the attic before we gotthere and had gotten into everything-the floor was covered at least a foot deep with the things theyscattered. I tried to save as much as I could find-programs of a College Hill women’s group, small calling239