The eastern half of Richland County is full of forests, fields, and folklore -- with each of the area's legacies, legends, myths, and ghost stories connected to various bends in the road and other distinctive landmarks throughout the region.  This story below is the second in a series of attempts to write down some of the folklore from this Rich Land of Stories...

*     *     *     *     *

Everyone in the eastern half of Richland County agrees that Geisinger Road can be treacherous terrain to travel, especially the easternmost stretch, where the road bends right as it approaches the bridge over the Brokensword Creek.  It's an absolutely beautiful stretch of countryside, where gold-finches flit and flutter across the road, the grasses grow tall along the way, and large red barns overlook lazy rows of corn on every side with their view broken only by randomly scattered stands of maple and oak.  It's enchanting to drive along this bypass of some of Ohio State Route 96's sharper bends; but it is not a road to be casually traversed.  Numerous accidents resulting in numerous fatalities have taken place in the area over the years.  In fact, even as our family has been visiting the area this summer -- just a little over a month ago -- there was a story in the Shelby Daily Globe reporting the death of another young man, in a pick-up truck, who had lost control of his vehicle out on Geisinger Road, not far from the landmark that area residents have come to call the Crying Bridge.

Everyone agrees that Geisinger Road can be treacherous terrain to travel.  But not everyone agrees on the specifics of the stories surrounding the Crying Bridge -- or that there are any stories to be told at all.

Generally speaking, the stories say that if you visit the Crying Bridge at night -- when the Milky Way stretches out overhead, the lightning bugs flash in the deep dark places where the trees crowd together, and the crickets sing softly on every side -- and if you stand there in complete silence (with not even the idling of an automotive engine), you can hear the sound of a woman crying.  They say that it's the sound of a ghost, crying for her baby who was killed at the creek.  But that's about as far as the stories agree.

Some say that the sounds of the Crying Bridge are a ghostly reminder of an Amish woman, whose family was traveling by horse and buggy at dusk, along Geisinger Road, when an oncoming automobile rounded the bend leading up to the bridge too quickly and crashed into the buggy.  The horse, the husband, and both of the little girls who were riding in the buggy were killed instantly.  The woman of the family, however, was completely unscathed by the accident.  When the driver of the car regained consciousness, he found the Amish woman sitting at the edge of the bridge with the heads of her two little girls in her lap.  The remains of the buggy were scattered around them like matchsticks, but the Amish woman just stroked the blood-soaked hair of her girls and sobbed, as she looked out over the water.  When the authorities arrived at the scene of the accident, the driver of the car blurted the story from start to finish.  But when they started looking for the Amish woman, she was nowhere to be found.  The scene of the accident was blocked off, the victims were identified, and the Amish community eventually laid them to rest, but nothing was ever seen of the Amish woman again.  Only at night, at the Crying Bridge, standing in complete silence, can she be heard again, eternally crying for her babies.

Others say that the sounds of the Crying Bridge go back much further than that, though.  These people talk of the very earliest days of Ohio's settlement, when the white people first pushed into Indian country.  One day, when some of the whites' horses had been stolen, they set off on a killing rampage -- riding from Indian village to Indian village and slaughtering men, women, children, and animals.  Thus one tribe found refuge in a hollow of the creek and hid out as the whites ransacked their village.  Frustrated by the escape of the "savages," the whites swept across the countryside in search of the escapees, roughly following the path of the creek with their long guns poised for action.  When they approached the bend in the creek where the Indians were actually hiding, one papoose -- just a few months old -- started fussing, threatening to betray their position.  The squaw tried to hush her child, but he could not be placated.  As the whites drew closer, the baby started wailing even louder -- at which point the mother was forced to clutch the baby so close to her that he was suffocated to death.  The squaw's sacrifice saved the tribe for that day, but the loss of her child was so bitter that she sobbed uncontrollably for days after the whites had moved on.  She rooted herself on the spot where her baby had been killed -- roughly the spot where Geisinger Road passes over the Brokensword Creek today -- and eventually, they say, her tears watered and cultivated the growth of a weeping willow tree which hung over the water.  Legend has it that the squaw died shortly after the death of her baby, and that her spirit settled within the willow tree.  And even today, the willow tree hangs over the creek, weeping the Indian woman's tears every night.

Beyond the stories of the Amish woman and the Indian woman, there are still other vague rumors about Indians, or early settlers, or Amish folks, or even teenagers on their way to a football game (the last one being surprisingly similar to the mythology surrounding the Olivesburg Fork).  But in any event, the stories all speak to the dangers of Geisinger Road -- warning any people passing that way to be careful.  It's difficult to know exactly which story should be affixed to the Crying Bridge.  But if you visit the bridge at night, in complete silence, and listen for the sound of a woman crying, maybe you'll be able to decide for yourself.

The eastern half of Richland County is full of forests, fields, and folklore -- with each of the area's legacies, legends, myths, and ghost stories connected to various bends in the road and other distinctive landmarks throughout the region.  This story below is the first in a series of attempts to write down some of the folklore from this Rich Land of Stories... 

*     *     *     *     *

Olivesburg is one of those towns that's so small that it doesn't even warrant a speed bump.  Ohio State Route 96 barrels through the settlement with just a mild reduction to the speed limit -- from 55 miles per hour, to 45 miles per hour -- although most motorists ignore even that.  Being as such, it only takes about five seconds to breeze past the dozen houses that make up Olivesburg.  And all things being equal, it's a pretty forgettable town.

But something happened on a dark spring night, many years ago, which made Olivesburg such that it can never again be forgotten.

It was early May.  The spring had been a rainy one, so the rivers and streams were swift and swollen, but on this particular weekend the weather was bright and clear.  Lilacs bloomed by the roadside, with their sweet purple smells hanging heavy over the land.  The robins and cardinals chirruped cheerfully from the trees.  And the students of Crestview High School were on their way to prom.  The boys wore tuxedoes and musky cologne.  The girls wore long, billowing, satinny dresses along with perfume that made the smell of the lilacs seem dull.  The parents took pictures as the boys offered floral corsages to their dates and the couples posed by the family fireplaces.  And then the high schoolers were off to dinner:  "fancy" places like the Red Lobster in Mansfield and the SkyWay East in Madison Township.  Along the way, they laughed and reveled in their youth and vitality.  And then they drove from their restaurants -- scattered across Richland County and Ashland County -- to convene at the Crestview High School Gynasium for the night of their lives.

The prom went off without any problems bigger than a few kids getting busted for smoking in the bathroom, or vomiting all over the dance floor.  But after the party in the gymnasium started disbanding, one particular car full of high-schoolers left the parking lot, driving east on 96 towards Ashland for some after-prom activities, never to be seen again.  The driver of the car was a senior who had borrowed his family's Ford for the evening, and his date had been one of the nominees for prom queen that evening.  Another couple was in the back-seat.  But as they approached Olivesburg, at the place where State Route 603 intersects with State Route 96 at a 20-degree angle -- the Olivesburg Fork -- something happened that caused the car to spin out of control, into the wooded area on the far side of the intersection, and tumbling down the ravine.  Some say that there had been an Amish boy traveling by horse-and-buggy, returning to his family's farm after courting a girl down the road.  Others say that there was a near-miss with another car westbound on 96, which had drifted slightly left of center.  Still others say that the driver had just tipped back a few too many glasses of punch that had been spiked at the prom.  But in any event, the vehicle crashed into the bottom of the ravine at a high speed, the car crumpled like a paper bag, coming to rest upside-down in the creek that filled the bottom of the ravine.  Nobody actually saw it happen, as far as anyone could tell, but some of the folks in Olivesburg heard the noise and came out to investigate, only to find that all four teenagers were dead at the scene.

It was a tragic end to the school year, and the families mourned their losses for years afterwards.  But when many of the local high-schoolers visited the scene of the accident to lay flowers in memory of their friends, multiple ghost sightings were reported.  Even today, area teens will go to the site at night.  And when passing vehicles cast their headlights into the woods on the Ashland side of the Olivesburg Fork, people swear they can see the silhouettes of four young people -- two women and two men -- walking up the hill towards the road, on their way back from prom.

The eastern half of Richland County is full of forests, fields, and folklore.

Shawnee warriors once hunted the area's rich store of deer and fish, but today it's farm country:  corn and soy, red barns and silver silos.  In the easternmost sections of the county, where Richland bleeds into Ashland, Amish and Mennonite families maintain the farming lifestyle of the original white settlers who first pioneered the land, no electricity, no machinery, no frills or foolishness -- traveling by horse-and-buggy, tying their hay up in old-fashioned sheaves, and hanging their laundry out to dry in the wind.  But mostly, today's inhabitants of Richland County are normal folks with televisions, baseball caps, John Deere tractors, basketball hoops, and Ford pick-up trucks.  Generally speaking, the people in the eastern half of Richland County work hard, vote Republican, and love Ohio State football.

Skirted by colorful sprays of wildflowers, purple, orange, and yellow, Ohio State Route 96 weaves its way from Shelby to Ashland, following the contours of the land.  It's a route that demands one's time and attention -- carefully accelerating and braking, following the curves in the road, watching for white-tailed deer, especially at dawn or dusk.  Red-tailed hawks perch on fence posts and telephone poles, watching and waiting to swoop down for a groundhog, rabbit, squirrel, or mouse.  Around this time of the year, the corn is tassling, and the evenings are humid and moist, like a whispered secret.  Late in the day, an amber light slants across the landscape, forming long, cool shadows, with the soy forming soft, verdant beds in the fields, in which the mist nestles down for the night.  As the sun sets and the moon rises, lightning bugs sparkle from the forests.  Crickets sing on the breeze, but otherwise a hush hangs over the land.

And in these moments, the stories return to me.

There are so many stories from this countryside:  legacies, legends, myths, and ghost stories.  Each one seems to be connected to a particular landmark.  There's the Crying Bridge, on Geisinger Road.  And the Olivesburg Fork, close to the spot where State Route 96 and State Route 603 intersect.  There are stories of the Ku Klux Klan and Satanists, convening in the forests and occasionally venturing out to the settlements to wreak their havoc on unsuspecting citizens.  My wife's family -- Richland County residents for seven generations -- has a story about a Moonlight Interrogation.  And almost none of these stories have been written down, as far as I can tell.  After a little bit of research on the internet at at the local library, it seems like very few of these stories exist beyond the aural accounts of Richland County residents -- and the ones that do exist are very condensed, very short, and honestly not recorded the way that I remember hearing them.  So I want take some of these warm summer evenings to see if I can remember some of these stories, draw them out and give them room to breathe, and then set the stories down in written form.  I don't know if I'll be able to get around to all of them, but I'm going to do the best I can do to harvest some of the fruit of this Rich Land of Stories.

I'm officially half-way through my Proverbs 365 project!  For the past six months, I've been taking a Proverb for each day of the year and then considering it and applying it for 21st Century living. Continuing my monthly tradition, I'm highlighting three of my personal favorites from the past month (and hopefully, in so doing, encourage some cross-over readership!):

I've been submitting a number of my Proverbs 365 entries to the fiction critique group to which I belong.  And up to this point, one of their favorites has been P2815 - Papa Bear, a short story about a powerful dictator, a secret agent, and exploration of the subtle motivations behind tyranny.  The story, of course, is inspired by one of the Proverbs -- Proverbs 28:15, to be specific -- in which it says, "Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people." The story ends with something of a twist, but you'll have to go and read it if you want to find out what it is...

On a more personal note, I deal with some of my own issues of gluttony, greed, and social awkwardness in P2301 - Chastised Over Cheesecake.  I was reflecting on Proverbs 23:1-3, where it says, "When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what (or who) is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.  Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive." And as I considered it, I was reminded of the time that I almost blew my relationship with the love of my life... over a piece of cheesecake.  Fortunately, we were able to recover from "The Cheesecake Incident" and even get to a point where we can laugh about it.  But it was definitely a learning experience...

Thirdly, I wonder:  How many of us have ever thought that we're never really ready to be "grown-ups?"  Personally, I can feel like this all the time!  It's hard to live with "grown-up" responsibilities.  It can feel really, really sad and lonely.  Not too long ago, I was reminded of this while watching the film "Mary Poppins" (of all things) -- and the film actually brought me to the point of tears!  But then, by God's grace, I found myself reading Proverbs 18:10 the very next day, where it says, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Meditating upon this Proverb, I came up with a post entitled P1810 - What to Do When You're Mr. Banks.  To me, it's brought a lot of comfort; maybe the same would be true for you, too...

For a more comprehensive listing of June's content, here are the titles of all 30 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the content.

• P108 - Family Heirlooms
• P209 - Righteousness, Justice, and Fairness
• P311 - Don't Resent the Rebuke
• P417 - Another Kind of Bread and Wine
• P518 - Hot, Passionate, Mind-Blowing, Biblical Sex
• P618 - Fabulous Fab and the Rest of Us
• P721 - Persuasive Words and Smooth Talk
• P802 - The Lady of Schiphol
• P906 - The Road out of Rijeka
• P1022 - All Yin, No Yang
• P1126 - Lessons from the Long Winter
• P1223 - Escaping the Aura of Egghead Eric
• P1313 - Considerations for Hiring, Appointing, and Enrolling
• P1404 - The Hard Work of Farming
• P1503 - Eyes Everywhere
• P1631 - Faith for the Middle-Aged
• P1728 - Internal Dialogue
• P1810 - What to Do When You're Mr. Banks
• P1902 - The Pace of the Proverbs
• P2018 - Seeking Advice
• P2104 - What's the Big Deal with Pride?
• P2207 - The Return to Indentured Servitude
• P2301 - Chastised Over Cheesecake
• P2427 - First Things First
• P2528 - Preventing Ourselves from Doing Things We Want to Do
• P2616 - The Problems of Haiti
• P2717 - Sharpening Experiences
• P2815 - Papa Bear
• P2915 - A Child Left to Himself
• P3015 - Insidious Insatiability

I've got to be honest:  at this point, the Proverbs 365 project is feeling kind of heavy.  Day after day of reading, meditating, and writing has started to catch up to me -- especially as other circumstances in my life become more time-consuming and stress-inducing.  But I am determined to press onward.  I'm half-way there!  Please know that your participation, feedback, and encouragement is greatly appreciated throughout the process.  I'm still working on July's posts -- but so far, it's looking like it'll be a pretty good month.  Check it out for yourself at http://proverbs365.ericasp.com. Please feel free to spread the word, too... One of the distinct advantages of the Proverbs is that it's easy to tune into them, whenever one might so choose. It's not like if you missed the first six months, then you're "behind" or anything like that. The Proverbs are just like these little power pellets that can be consumed and digested immediately. It's never too late to start enjoying them!

It's been a whole week since my last post in this space, which is kind of unusual for me (even in weeks when I've been traveling).  Even so, I have not slacked off in my Proverbs 365 project: taking a Proverb for each day of the year and then considering it and applying it for 21st Century living. I'm now officially one-third of the way through.  It's been a challenge to keep up with such a rhythm of daily posting -- including daily devotionals -- but I've found it to be a very worthwhile experience.

Since it's now the beginning of the project's fifth month, I'm going to continue what has now become something of a monthly tradition -- highlighting three of my personal favorites from the past month (and hopefully, in so doing, encourage some cross-over readership!):

My favorite post of the month may have been P2101 - Watercourse.  I wrote it based on Proverbs 21:1, where it says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases."  And while the Proverb is cool enough in and of itself, it was especially meaningful to me because of the circumstances through which it came to my attention.  Literally the day before reading through Proverbs 21, my kids and I were at a park near our home, where we discovered a super-cool playground that was based around a manually-operated water-pump dumping its payload out into an inclined sand pit, which could be dug and dammed and channeled in a thousand different directions.  So when I read Proverbs 21:1, fresh off the context of discovering our own neighborhood watercourse, I felt like I received a lot of fresh insight into the Proverb's meaning -- not to mention receiving fresh hope for our world's gridlocked political systems.  You can read these reflections for yourself by following the link above...

Another highlight from the last month the insight I received on the character of God, through reading Proverbs 11:27:  "He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it ."  After considering this Proverb, I wrote a short story entitled P1127 - The Painter and the Retiree.  Loosely based on a recent personal experience at the local bank, this story was a more creative way to analyze and apply the wisdom of this Proverb.  In addition to appreciating any feedback on this particular entry, I'd be curious to hear what you might think of this form of reflecting on the Proverbs...

In addition to the above two Proverbs, I found myself being very challenged and encouraged by the wisdom of Proverbs 28:14, where it says, "Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble."  I personally found myself interacting with the text on a pastoral (ministry) level, seeing how I regularly find myself dealing with people who are going through the mountains and valleys of faith.  As I thought about things, I realized that we all sin and that (thanks to Jesus!) no sin is unforgiveable, but just about any sin can be catastrophic -- depending on the condition of the sinner's heart and his or her response to the sin that was committed.  As I explain in P2814 - The Trouble of Hard-Heartedness, it really comes down to how hard or soft a person's heart is.  It's challenging stuff to consider -- not just on the pastoral level, but on the personal level, too.  I'd challenge you to take a good, hard look at the condition of your heart in the light of Proverbs 28:14 and see what God might reveal to you through that...

For a more comprehensive listing of April's content, here are the titles of all 30 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the content.

• P131 - Fruit
• P207 - Where's the Shield?
• P301 - Flip the Script
• P413 - The Carabiner of Life
• P509 - Preventative Cancer Treatment
• P617b - A Lying Tongue
• P716 - Four Multi-Sensory Ways to Spice Up Your Sex Life
• P805 - Simplicity versus Folly
• P917 - Eating Disorders as Manifestation of Folly?
• P1018 - How to Handle Hatred
• P1127 - The Painter and the Retiree
• P1225 - Succes & Sterkte
• P1323 - The Paradox of Iceland and Zimbabwe
• P1423 - Profitability as a State of Mind
• P1515 - Oppression as a State of Mind
• P1609 - The Futility of the Five-Year Plan
• P1706 - A Vestigial Kind of Love
• P1816 - Schmoozing Reconsidered
• P1913 - "Chicken or Egg" Family Dilemma
• P2022 - Waiting for Answers
• P2101 - Watercourse
• P2202 - Poverty vs. Prosperity
• P2310 - A Case for Boundaries
• P2426 - The Insights of an Antagonistic Older Brother
• P2517 - No Toilet for a Family of Five
• P2604 - A Clear-Cut Contradiction in the Bible
• P2701 - Lessons from March Madness
• P2814 - The Trouble of Hard-Heartedness
• P2925 - Stepping Out of the Snare
• P3008 - Middle-Class Prayer

May promises to be another great month -- so check it out for yourself at http://proverbs365.ericasp.com.  Others are apparently getting some use out of it, too, as the blog is currently averaging 365 hits per day (a very convenient statistic for a project called Proverbs 365!).  So please feel free to spread the word, too... One of the distinct advantages of the Proverbs is that it's easy to tune into them, whenever one might so choose. It's not like if you missed the first four months, then you're "behind" or anything like that. The Proverbs are just like these little power pellets that can be consumed and digested immediately. So it's never too late to start enjoying them!