editor’s note; The temperature in Columbus, Ohio reached a record-shattering 74 degrees today on March 1st, 2023, so the Pencil Storm Editorial Board chose tomorrow to schedule Nick Taggart’s County Trippin’ column about the Christmas Holidays in Holmes County. Such are the ways of independent journalism.

HOLMES COUNTY

“Holmes for the Holiday”

December 2022

“My father's body lies beneath the snow

High on a hill in Holmes County, Ohio

From there you can look out across the fields

A farmer guides his horses home as day to darkness bends

And finally yields”

“My Father’s Body” by Over the Rhine

It’s not often a good song name-checks an Ohio county, so it should be promoted when it happens. “My Father’s Body” is a melancholy tune where Linford Detweiler, half of the band Over the Rhine, confronts the death of his father. “Jingle Bells” it ain’t, but rather one of the band’s many holiday songs they categorize as “reality Christmas music.” It provides a nice seasonal soundtrack while tugging slightly at the heartstrings.

There was no snow on the ground, though, as we entered the county from the southwest along U.S. Route 62. The temperature was too high for that, but the pavement was wet from the previous night’s downpour.

A half mile inside the county, we passed a remnant of the past in the form of a forlorn-looking barn with a painted tagline still visible on its boards: “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco, Treat Yourself to the Best.” It’s not a totally uncommon sight, but one that’s fading from the landscape as quickly as its paint. During its peak in the early 1960s, this unique form of advertising boasted about 20,000 such examples spread across 22 states. My aging mind ponders whether it’s just another once-ubiquitous item becoming a rarity in my own lifetime.

From reminiscences to the ridiculous, our attention was drawn across the road from the barn to Ruttencutter’s Roost, a business dealing in unique concrete statuary. Examples of its creations are displayed on its grounds including a giant rooster standing as a sentinel on the front lawn.

The road bobs and weaves in this part of the county, but flattens and straightens for a spell as it passes through Killbuck Valley. We noted a skein of geese flying overhead while level with our car a bank of swans paddled away in a splash of wetlands. The road then bent to the left and led us north into the county seat of Millersburg. While there were sights to see there, they had to wait, as our breakfast destination was about seven miles to the east.

The unincorporated community of Berlin – pronounced with an accent on the first syllable, since, afterall, this is Ohio – is said to be the heart of the area’s Amish community. The Amish make up half the population of Holmes County, so one needs to take those horse & buggy road signs seriously and SLOW DOWN! Upon entering Berlin, our progress was slowed even more by a road block on the main street. (It stayed in place for a couple of hours for no discernable reason before opening back up.) That forced us to detour down a parallel alley where we found a parking space behind our destination, the restaurant of Boyd and Wurthmann.

The no-frills eatery dates back to 1938 when it began as a grocery store. Dining services were added in the 1950s. It is “where the locals eat,” according to its website, but it’s also where most tourists choose to dine, as evidenced by the line of people waiting for a table. The line often stretches out the door as it did during our visit. We had about a 15-minute wait to be seated which didn’t seem too bad. There are only 22 tables, five booths, and one round table, so waiting is common, but the Amish-style cooking makes it worth the wait. One should also expect to pay cash as they don’t take credit cards. An ATM in the vestibule provides greenbacks, albeit with a hefty fee, according to a fellow diner waiting in line.

Despite the delay, we were seated just before the grill made the switch from breakfast to lunch, so we were able to order two BW Breakfasts consisting of two scrambled eggs, three strips of bacon, home fries with sausage gravy, toast, and juice. There was so much food that neither of us could eat it all.

A county trip itinerary can sometimes require the logistics of a D-Day storming. Considerations are ramped-up in Holmes County where the quaint and simple life of the Amish involve not-so-quaint limited hours. Most businesses close on Sunday and some close up shop by midday on Saturdays. There was more to see and do in Berlin, but we had to leave it momentarily for a quick 4-mile trip south to the village of Charm, home to Keim Home Center.

The village was thick with buggies and bicycles as we maneuvered into the parking lot. Keim’s began in 1911 as a lumber store, but expanded over time to include an inventory of over 60,000 products relating to the home. Had we more time, it would have been fun to roam its aisles, but my goal before its noon closing was to see the 513-year-old tree ring on display. It’s a huge piece of bubinga tree cut down in the western African country of Gabon in 2004. It greets visitors at the entrance to the store’s exotic wood department where a crazy number of varieties of domestic and exotic hardwoods are available for purchase. The slab of bubinga contained small laminated postings that put in perspective the tree’s age noting moments in history since the tree was a sapling in 1491. Examples included: “1564 – William Shakespeare is born” and “1626 – Peter Minuet purchases Manhattan Island for $24.”

Like a surgical strike, we were in and out of the store before closing and on our way back to Berlin. Our route was a giant loop, following Township Road 369 south to Charm and then County Road 557 back north to Berlin. The latter route took us past Guggisburg Cheese Chalet, known as the originators of Baby Swiss cheese, a smoother and creamier variety than its Swiss cheese namesake.

Back in Berlin, we found the Grande Hotel on North Street where one of its conference rooms was hosting the 13th Annual Pomerene Auxiliary Christmas Festival. I included this event on our itinerary since it appeared holiday-related, but we didn’t really know what it was all about. Was it a craft show? Would there be caroling? (No and no.) It turned out to be a fundraiser for the Pomerene Hospital Auxiliary, a financial supporter of the community’s healthcare system. In the past, funds were used to refresh the Ambulatory Care Unit. The festival consisted of displays of holiday decorations falling into one of four categories: Christmas trees, wreaths, centerpieces, and small furniture. Each piece was sponsored by a local business. The $5 admission charge allowed visitors to vote on their favorites as well as an opportunity to purchase the items. There wasn’t much to DO besides peruse the displays, but they were nice to look at and we felt we were supporting the community.

The sun was finally making an appearance as we returned to Berlin’s main strip of shops, but a cold wind was blowing, too. We weren’t able to check out every shopping opportunity, but were able to sample a fair number of them including the Amish Country Soap Company, Kelly’s Boutique, Catalpa Trading Company, and Sol’s Kit-N-Kaboodle. Our only purchases were some pleasant-smelling soaps and candles at our first stop, and then a couple of lattes at Ginger House Coffee to warm us up at the end. I also managed to find a life-size Sasquatch yard ornament who agreed to have its picture taken with me.

Being the heart of Amish country also makes Berlin the center of tourism and all that entails. Its depth and variety of unique shops give visitors an array of opportunities to spend their money while they’re busy gawking at the Amish. I like to spend and consume as much as the next excursionist, but as we walked from shop to shop, we couldn’t help but feel an underlying oppressive “wholesomeness” that lives to the far right on the political spectrum. I suppose it might fit snugly with the plain & simple conservativeness of the area’s traditionalist Christian groups, but its cup runneth over with way too much Jesus-y crap and subtly bigoted merchandise for our taste.

There were the tiresome “Don’t Tread on Me” snakes layered atop American flags; cutesy T-shirts that attempt funny and religious messaging (but are just dumb), such as “Pumpkin Spice and Jesus Christ”; and, in case your neighbors aren’t sure if you are misogynist AND racist, there were signs for sale that read, “Drunk Wives Matter.”

For reading material, I came across a display of Amish-oriented novels by Leslie Gould, part of her “The Courtships of Lancaster County” series. In the library biz, we’d call these “gentle reads,” as they don’t contain any sex, violence, or offensive language. (You know, the good stuff.) While I’m not here to judge what goes on beneath the sheets of these pages, I couldn’t help but think the covers were conveying a totally contradictory message. Each book featured a comely young lass wearing a bonnet and looking as fetchingly innocent as possible. Apparently, even the prudish recognize that sex sells with this “Amish porn” marketing.

Feeling sufficiently creeped out, we left Berlin behind and drove a mile northeast on US Route 62 to the neighboring village of Bunker Hill and to Heini’s Cheese Chalet. Three generations have been making cheese in Ohio since John (Hans) Dauwalder came over from Switzerland and established the company in 1935. They offer over 25 varieties of cheese and claim they can produce twelve tons a day. Sweet-cheeses-on-a-stick but that’s a lot of cheese! [I considered inserting a pun here regarding curds, but that would be whey too much.] We took our time browsing the aisles and came away with a selection of cheeses (Muenster, Smoked Salt Gouda, and Smoked Swiss), a stick of summer sausage, and jars of peach habanero jam and pickled asparagus.

Continuing northeast a few more miles, our next stop was Wendell August Forge, the oldest business in the country crafting hand-wrought ornamental metal ware. Their hand-etched creations are made from six different metals: aluminum, bronze, copper, pewter, stainless steel, and sterling silver. While the company got its start in Pennsylvania in 1932, its presence in Ohio dates to 1995 when it opened a 13,000-square-foot forge and gift shop in a timber frame building in Holmes County.

The unique creations are quite beautiful and include lines of professional sports and college-themed ornaments, jewelry, and commemorative items, but my main reason for stopping was to see “the world’s largest Amish buggy.” It’s on display in a corner of the showroom. It weighs over 1,200 pounds and is 10 feet 1.5 inches tall, 13 feet 9 inches long, and 7 feet 4 inches wide. In a culture where muscle cars are verboten, I assume this buggy was built by a young Amish man wanting to claim: “Mine is bigger than yours.”

Another three miles northeast of the Forge is the village of Winesburg, Ohio. If it had any connection to the Sherwood Anderson collection of short stories of the same name, I would have been interested in making a literary detour to check it out, but Anderson actually based his stories on his boyhood home of Clyde, Ohio and has no connection whatsoever to this Holmes County community.

We pointed our car back the way it came and proceeded southwest on US Route 62. Michele made the random observation that we were seeing far more poop on the roads than on an average county trip. It didn’t come as a surprise since the horse & buggy is a common form of transportation in these parts, but it’s still noticeable nonetheless.

Just past Heini’s, we turned south onto County Road 77 and pulled in at the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center. The Center has existed since 1981 and promotes a mission to “accurately inform visitors about the faith, culture, and lifestyle of the Amish, Mennonite, and Hutterite peoples.” Its current building opened in 1990 with its main feature being the Behalt cyclorama, a 10-foot high, 265-foot circumference circular mural that depicts the heritage of the Amish, Mennonite, and Hutterite people from their Anabaptist beginnings in Zürich, Switzerland in 1525 to the present day.

Behalt comes from a German word meaning “to keep” or “to remember.” The mural is the work of one man, Heinz Gaugel, a native of Germany and self-taught artist. He was neither Amish nor Mennonite, but became enamored with the culture when he passed through the area in 1962. A decade later, he moved to a Holmes County farm. In 1978, he began work on his mural.

It’s almost like, if, after seeing Nick Cave in concert for the first time, I spent the next decade and a half creating a pictorial mural depicting Cave’s history from his beginnings with The Boys Next Door to the present day with The Bad Seeds. Wouldn’t that be cool?! Based on my artistic talent, it would have to be told with stick figures drawn in crayon, but still…

The Center purchased the first 100-feet of Gaugel’s mural in 1988 with a mutual agreement that The Center would construct a special Mural Hall in which to house it and that the artist would continue to work on it. It was eventually completed in October 1992. Gaugel passed away in 2000.

Our admission ticket included a 40-minute tour by a well-informed Mennonite docent who pointed out, and explained, key aspects of the history depicted in the mural. It helped provide a better understanding of the Mennonites and Amish. One portrait featured Jonas Stutzman, the first Amish in Holmes County who settled in 1809. On display in front of his picture is a chair he built in 1850 using wooden pegs instead of nails.

Behalt is quite a sight to behold. If nothing else, it’s a monument to the grit and stick-to-itiveness required to create such a work. I pondered what kind of temperament would be needed for a 14-year project of this magnitude. Was Gaugel a passionate idealist? An obsessive compulsive? He was probably somewhere in between where much great art is made.

With the light of the afternoon quickly dying, we found our way back to US Route 62 and drove west back to Millersburg. On Jackson Street, the main east-west street running through the center of town, is the Millersburg Hotel where we had reservations. A stagecoach stop and tavern was located on the spot as early as 1824, the same year Millersburg was named the county seat, but much of the current building was constructed in 1847. That’s the year that officially marks the hotel’s beginning, making it the third oldest continuously operating hotel in Ohio.

We were assigned room #208 which felt a bit smallish as compared to the size of your average modern hotel, but the history and ambiance are the hotel’s key features. I don’t think there are any La Quinta Inns or Baymont Suites that can claim former President Grover Cleveland as a previous guest.

We rested for a while before heading back out for dinner. Since we were in Amish Country, it seemed a sin not to eat Amish. We figured we’d be safe with a place called Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen. The restaurant is located in Mt. Hope, 9 miles from Millersburg along Ohio Route 241, another twisting, turning road. Without any illumination beyond our headlights to guide us, there was no way I was able to maintain the posted 55 m.p.h speed limit. I’m sure that didn’t endear me to the local truck driver behind me whose elevated lights shone directly into our car, but I wasn’t going to chance a roadway mishap when I knew an Amish buffet was at stake.

Both Michele and I selected the $17.99 buffet. Not only does that choice guarantee you won’t leave hungry, but it enables one to sample the full range of home-cooked tastes. The fried chicken is always the entrée I most look forward to, but my mouth was also happy with bites of meatloaf, pot roast, carrots, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes & gravy, noodles, cole slaw, and a large selection of salads. Wanting the meal to last just a little bit longer, Michele got a big piece of coconut cream pie to go.

Upon our return to Millersburg, we left the pie in the car and walked down the street to the Millersburg Brewing Company. Established a decade ago in 2012, it’s located in a repurposed old building in the town’s historic district across from the courthouse. The interior tics all my boxes with exposed brick, original wooden floors, and high tin ceilings. We found a table on the side of the tavern where live music was in progress. Ren, the stage name of a singing guitarist, was backed up by a bass player, and was doing a fine, energetic job of covering popular tunes by the likes of the Eagles, Billy Joel, and Jackson Browne. His inclusion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two,” was a pleasant surprise.

We felt extremely comfortable just listening to music and sampling a few pints from the brewery’s taps. Michele enjoyed the Edgy Elf, a winter warmer ale with a delightful mix of cinnamon, ginger, honey, and spices. I went darker with a glass of Panther Hollow Vanilla Porter followed by a State Route 39 Stout. We enjoyed all our selections as well as our time at the bar. It’s nice to know that Holmes County has more to offer than just gaping at men in broad-brimmed hats.

Temperatures had dropped throughout the day and were well under the freezing mark by the time we left the brewery. It was the first real chill I’d experienced of the season and it seemed to cut straight through my bones as we walked back to our car to retrieve the pie and on to our hotel.

We slept in the following morning and used up all our minutes before the 11 a.m. check-out time. Our car was frosted all over when we threw our bags in, but we weren’t driving anywhere quite yet. We walked back down Jackson Street to the courthouse where I snapped a picture. Construction of the current government building was completed in 1886. It is of Italianate design and is the third courthouse to serve Holmes County since it was formed in 1824.

Across the street, near the Millersburg Brewing Company, is Bags Sports Pub. Not only is it one of the few places open in the county on Sundays, but it’s also a good restaurant. It was founded in 2007 by Duane Yoder, who goes by the nickname "Bags.” His love of golf is responsible for its links-themed décor. (The coat hangers at each booth are the heads of golf irons.) Michele ordered an appetizer sampler consisting of onion rings, cheese wedges, boneless wings, and shrimp while I opted for the burger special with a side of tomato basil soup. When we left an hour later, there was a wait for a table.

The weather had improved dramatically while we were inside. The frost on our car had completely melted and the sun was making every effort to stay out from behind the clouds. We drove to the west side of the downtown and parked at Hipp Station, the Millersburg trailhead for the Holmes County Rails-to-Trails. The county coalition responsible for this route has paved 22 miles so far. It’s wider than other rails-to-trails in order to accommodate the Amish population. There’s one lane for bike and pedestrian traffic and an adjoining lane for horse & buggy traffic.

Since it was Sunday when the Amish tend to stay home, we didn’t have to worry about running into any equestrian bottlenecks, but we did have to be ever vigilant against stepping into horse poop. We strolled north up the trail for about a mile and a half to the point where it comes closest to State Route 83. Killbuck Creek ran parallel on our left and in between, Mother Nature provided us with constant distractions.

We spotted three varieties of woodpeckers (downy, pileated, and red-bellied) rapidly striking the timber of dead trees. There were flashes of color from blue jays, cardinals, and a red-tailed hawk. A dark-eyed junco foraged through leaves on the ground while chipmunks scurried nearby. And crows, tufted titmice, nuthatches, and chickadees provided even more diversity. We felt as though we were able to work off some of our morning meal calories while also getting a show.

We drove north out of town for about four miles on State Route 83 before turning in at the County Home. Shortly after the Civil War, an Infirmary was constructed here to house the county’s poor and homeless. They performed farm work in exchange for room and board. A large dairy barn was built on the grounds circa 1870 from which a herd provided milk and butter for the home and income from the sale of milk. In 2000, the broad side of the barn became the canvas on which Scott Hagan painted the Ohio Bicentennial logo. It was the 47th barn he completed as part of the 88-barn bicentennial project designating one barn in each county. I noted that its colors were still vibrant as I snapped a picture.

We returned to Millersburg and parked at 484 Wooster Road, the sight of a beautiful 28-room Queen Anne-style house that was built in 1901. It originally served as a private residence for L.H. Brightman, a wealthy industrialist from Cleveland. Now known as the Victorian House, it’s the headquarters for the Holmes County Historical Society. Every December, the house is done up for the holidays in full 19th century adornment. This year’s theme was “Songs of the Season” with each room decorated in the theme of a traditional Christmas carol.

The $10 admission fee entitled us to a self-guided walk through the 7,000 square foot abode. We spent way too much gray matter in the first couple of rooms trying to figure out what song the room’s decorations represented. When we finally gave up and looked at the answer, we realized the relationship with the ornamentation was tenuous at best. The rooms were festively embellished though, and helped provide us with some early holiday spirit.

Had we hurried, we might have still gotten in some shopping at the Jackson Street antique stores before they closed at 4 p.m. It felt a little wasteful to ignore a business willing to be open on Sundays, but Holmes County isn’t a place that stresses haste or speed, so we stuck a fork in the trip and deemed it done. We rolled out the way we rolled in along U.S. Route 62.

Time spent in the county: 29 hours, 8 minutes.

Miles driven in the county: 105.

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