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In 1941, Sandusky High School student Eleanor Downing wrote an essay for the Fram entitled “This Was My Home.”
Eleanor wrote that she always loved living in the country, with its blue skies, sunshine, and starry, still nights. She enjoyed the sights and sounds of rural Erie County, Ohio, and war seemed far away from her happy home. In 1941, the United States War Department acquired 9,000 acres of farm land in Perkins Township, to make way for a munitions factory. 150 families had to find homes elsewhere. The Plum Brook Ordnance Works was named for a creek which ran through the land. Later the site was occupied by NASA for nuclear research. The Plum Brook Station is now called the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility.
By doing a bit of research on Ancestry Library Edition, Rootsweb, and the Ohio Obituary Index, we were able to determine that Eleanor Downing was a descendant of the House family, who were among the early settlers in Perkins Township from Connecticut. The land was a vital resource to those pioneer residents, who had large farms on which they raised crops and livestock. Eleanor wrote a poignant article about how much she appreciated her home in the country, and how soon the things that she had “loved and looked forward to” would become things of the past. Visit the Sandusky Library to view the original article by Eleanor Downing in the April 1941 copy of the Fram.
2 comments:
This is probably one of the most beautiful, touching essays I've ever read. Especially so since it came from the pen of a teenager It would be wonderful to know more about this sensitive and talented young lady's adult life.
During the war years, how I remember that foul, noxious, reddish yellow effluent put forth into our sky by the TNT plant south of town. Necessarily so. We were a nation at war.
After the war, some of the confiscated land (About a third, I think.) was offered back to the pre-war owners. It would be nice to know if the Downing family was able to reacquire their beloved farm.
Upon re-reading that touching essay above, I engaged in a little detective work and located Eleanor Knupke living in Loudonville, OH. There was a current phone number listed! So I called. Alas. Too late. After one ring I got the message "The number you have dialed is no longer in service." A loss. I am certain that we both would have greatly enjoyed our conversation.
Eleanor, a respondent to my latest copy (2014) of the SHS alumni directory, is listed as a homemaker; with a husband named Gene, and a family of four daughters.
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