Southeast Messenger - March 8th, 2020

PAGE 6 - SOUTHEAST MESSENGER - March 8, 2020
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In the 19th century, John S. Rarey was
known throughout the world for his talent
and skills in humanely training horses,
such as the mighty stallion Cruiser.
column
A ride through town
www.columbusmessenger.com
with Rarey and Cruiser
Editor’s Notebook
Soapcitylaundry.com
2056 Lockbourne Rd.
Columbus, OH 43207
(614) 443-7627
Rick
Palsgrove
But, we also must
remember that Rarey
and Cruiser were residents
of Groveport
and spent many days
in town just living
their daily lives far
from the fame and
crowds of Rarey’s popular
horse training
exhibitions.
While at his Ohio
home, Rarey was
known for riding
Cruiser around the
streets of Groveport and the nearby countryside
for exercise and enjoyment.
I can picture a pleasant spring morning
in the early 1860s when Rarey would walk
out the door of his mansion on Main Street
(later known as the Elmont Hotel and
which sat on the site of the current
Groveport Madison Middle School Central)
and saddle up Cruiser for a ride.
Maybe the pair would trot out to Main
Street and head west through town. I
imagine I can hear Cruiser’s hooves clomp,
clomping on the wooden floor boards of the
Main Street bridge over the Ohio and Erie
Canal as they passed through the downtown
business area. While some homes and
storefronts we see today were there in
1860, the now familiar Groveport Town
Hall was not built until 1876. Instead, the
site of Town Hall was the original front
lawn of John’s brother, William’s own
stately home.
Rarey and Cruiser would ride further
west down the unpaved Main Street, past
the smattering of houses and shops, many
of them made from brick produced in
Groveport. It’s possible some residents and
shopkeepers would wave to Rarey and
Cruiser as they trotted by, or maybe they
didn’t pay much attention to them because
Rarey and Cruiser were probably a familiar
sight and, even though Rarey was
world famous, in his hometown he was still
just John, the fellow they’d seen grow up in
Groveport.
As Rarey and Cruiser rode along they
likely passed other riders on horseback or
horse drawn wagons that rumbled along
the way. Cruiser’s hooves would splash
across the shallow Joppa Ditch that ran
where Brook Alley now exists.
Soon the pair would come upon the formidable
Groveport United Methodist
JOHN S. RAREY
Church, a brick structure built in 1836 at
Main and College streets and which would
later be replaced by the current church in
1908. Rarey himself donated the bell,
which was cast in England, for this church.
Next they would pass the Campbell
Hotel on the northwest corner of Main and
College streets, a site that is now a vacant
lot. The Campbell Hotel is said to have
once hosted the famous 19th century politicians
John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay,
who it is rumored stayed there once on
there way to Ohio’s capital, Columbus.
The further west Rarey and Cruiser
would ride, the fewer homes they would
pass and by the time they reached West
Street they would be at the edge of town as
the area beyond this last street opened up
into farm fields and orchards. Maybe they
turned south on West and then east on
Cherry Street where they would eventually
pass the brick home of Groveport’s first
mayor, Abraham Shoemaker.
On to College Street they would go,
turning towards the canal on the south
edge of town and then maybe following its
route back to Main Street passing by the
blacksmith shop at Crooked Alley and
Cherry Street and then up and across the
canal bridge heading east.
Figuring Cruiser would like a run, Rarey
would then head east out of town and let the
mighty horse stretch his legs in the open
countryside, as the speed of Cruiser would
make the trees and fields a blur.
After the spirited run, they would then
return home to the stable and Rarey would
brush his fine horse.
The morning ride, complete, I’d like to
think Rarey would enter his home, get a
cup of coffee, sit on his porch, listen to the
quiet, and watch the passers-by on Main
Street.
Rick Palsgrove is editor of the Southeast
Messenger.