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A review by sunsoar25
My Buckeye Lake Story--: A Memorable History of The Playground of Ohio by Donna Fisher Braig
4.0
My Buckeye Lake Story: A Memorable History of "The Playground of Ohio" by Donna Fisher Braig was absolutely fascinating. I'm not too far from Buckeye Lake and I knew some of this information going in, but I loved/ was disturbed finding out a lot more details that I didn't know at all. I was especially interested in the early years of the lake from the Ohio Canal times to when it was "the Playground of Ohio", an amusement park that had its heyday in the 1940s-1950s. What I learned about about the Interurban: it was an electric tram system that was fast, clean, and ran all over the state and into Indiana. The most surprising part of all of that was finding out that it went 70-80mph!! The system was dismantled completely by 1929 after around 30-40 years in service.
What I learned about Licking County, Ohio and Newark (the county seat) (plus Knox and Muskingum Counties): they were major strongholds of the Ku Klux Klan and were at their height in the 1920s. Buckeye Lake held two major rallies. One in June 1923 with 75,000 attendees and then in 1925 with 500,000. Those rallies were called the "Ohio Konklave" of the "Invisible Empire". Here's a direct quote from this book: "Part of the explanation of belonging to the Klan in those days was stated as being that the American businessmen who dressed in gray flannel suits, could add excitement to their lives by dressing up in sheets and addressing fellow Klansmen, not with mundane names as president or secretary, but rather with Imperial Wizard, Kaliff, Klokard, Kludd, Klaber, Klezer, and Kleagle. The Newark Advocate (a local newspaper which is still in publication today) stated that Newark businessmen joined because 'it was the thing to do'." Also, it mentions that the Grand Dragon of the Klan who spoke at the 1925 rally was was the Mayor of Newark, Ohio and that "'Crosses were burned and many speeches given, and the meeting ended with the spectacle, 'Sodom and Gomorrah', with 200 singers, 25 dancing girls and brilliant music.'" The book mentions that the head of the Ohio Konklave was David C. 'Steve' Stephenson who had a summer home on Buckeye Lake and worked with the Mayor of Newark to set up rallies. The author wrote that he was convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter and was sent to prison shortly after. I looked up Stephenson and found he has an entire Ohio Capitol Journal, Columbus Monthly, and The Newark Advocate. I don't know about you, but it seems important to remember this piece of our history especially now.
Furthermore, here are some things I learned about the Crystal Ballroom and other locations at the park/ Buckeye Lake itself: the author remembers when she was a kid in the 1930s she had to ask her parents what the "Caucasians Only!" signs meant. If Black people wanted to swim, the "Park Company developed a 'sign-in' area, and you had to 'join the Swim Club' in order to swim." If you were Black, the club, as you might be able to guess, was not accepting any more members. The park had a "Colored Day" which sounds like it was the only day of the year that the park was officially completely opened to Black people and that was on the 1st Thursday in August. Except for the pool, of course, which was always closed. Eventually, this came to an end when some came "to join the club". "The Park Company had been warned that this would happen and that day all whites stayed out of the pool. The Advocate printed a photo of one black family in the huge pool, all alone. The rest of the summer it was touch and go, but segregation ended at last."
There's a lot more I could say about Buckeye Lake that I learned from this memoir, but I'll leave it here. If you're interested in local Ohio history and memoirs, this is quite a little book. Buckeye Lake is quite different now - I didn't realize just how much it's changed in the last 35-40 years.
What I learned about Licking County, Ohio and Newark (the county seat) (plus Knox and Muskingum Counties): they were major strongholds of the Ku Klux Klan and were at their height in the 1920s. Buckeye Lake held two major rallies. One in June 1923 with 75,000 attendees and then in 1925 with 500,000. Those rallies were called the "Ohio Konklave" of the "Invisible Empire". Here's a direct quote from this book: "Part of the explanation of belonging to the Klan in those days was stated as being that the American businessmen who dressed in gray flannel suits, could add excitement to their lives by dressing up in sheets and addressing fellow Klansmen, not with mundane names as president or secretary, but rather with Imperial Wizard, Kaliff, Klokard, Kludd, Klaber, Klezer, and Kleagle. The Newark Advocate (a local newspaper which is still in publication today) stated that Newark businessmen joined because 'it was the thing to do'." Also, it mentions that the Grand Dragon of the Klan who spoke at the 1925 rally was was the Mayor of Newark, Ohio and that "'Crosses were burned and many speeches given, and the meeting ended with the spectacle, 'Sodom and Gomorrah', with 200 singers, 25 dancing girls and brilliant music.'" The book mentions that the head of the Ohio Konklave was David C. 'Steve' Stephenson who had a summer home on Buckeye Lake and worked with the Mayor of Newark to set up rallies. The author wrote that he was convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter and was sent to prison shortly after. I looked up Stephenson and found he has an entire Ohio Capitol Journal, Columbus Monthly, and The Newark Advocate. I don't know about you, but it seems important to remember this piece of our history especially now.
Furthermore, here are some things I learned about the Crystal Ballroom and other locations at the park/ Buckeye Lake itself: the author remembers when she was a kid in the 1930s she had to ask her parents what the "Caucasians Only!" signs meant. If Black people wanted to swim, the "Park Company developed a 'sign-in' area, and you had to 'join the Swim Club' in order to swim." If you were Black, the club, as you might be able to guess, was not accepting any more members. The park had a "Colored Day" which sounds like it was the only day of the year that the park was officially completely opened to Black people and that was on the 1st Thursday in August. Except for the pool, of course, which was always closed. Eventually, this came to an end when some came "to join the club". "The Park Company had been warned that this would happen and that day all whites stayed out of the pool. The Advocate printed a photo of one black family in the huge pool, all alone. The rest of the summer it was touch and go, but segregation ended at last."
There's a lot more I could say about Buckeye Lake that I learned from this memoir, but I'll leave it here. If you're interested in local Ohio history and memoirs, this is quite a little book. Buckeye Lake is quite different now - I didn't realize just how much it's changed in the last 35-40 years.