Welcome to Haydenville

Nope, this is not a joke! A place really exists called "Haydenville", Ohio. I'm not joshin' ya, you can look it up yourself AND I also have the pictures to prove it!! So HA!
Last week, we happened upon this town as we were on a little adventure.
Naturally, when we saw the sign from the freeway, we had to stop.

As it turns out, Haydenville was, at one time, a very happening place! Haydenville is an unincorporated community in Hocking County, Ohio. Even though it is unincorporated, it still has a post office and its own zip code. In 1853, Peter Hayden, a Columbus Industrialist, purchased 3000 acres, renaming it Haydenville. He knew of the minerals that were in the area and had intentions of running an iron smelting company there. In the meantime, the Civil War began in 1861-1865. It wasn't until 1880 that the Company, Haydenville Mining and Manufacturing began. The company built and owned all of the structures in the town, including the homes of the employees. Haydenville is known as Ohio's last company town. The Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad runs through the middle of town, but we didn't see any trains, just the tracks.

As you can see, the buildings that were built by the company utilized the materials that they were producing. The bricks on the buildings all look very peculiar compared to the regular bricks that you see in other places. Well, on second thought, maybe you can't tell very well from the pictures of this row of houses, but I promise they looked odd. They were very shiny and were a different color... perhaps it will show up better in some of my other photos. (Click to enlarge to take a closer look )
Included in the history of the town is this tunnel that was used in the business. The tunnel runs for nearly a mile beneath the ground runs between a sealed-off mine and the long-demolished manufacturing plant. Here you can read about the Haydenville Tunnel, the truths and legends that are around about it. You can also click here to see some more pictures that I happened upon while trying to research things a bit more.
One of the more interesting buildings is one that we missed seeing. It was down a road that we didn't go down. Shame on us! The building is now someones home and I couldn't find any information about what it was built to be originally. It sure would make decorating difficult if you had rounded walls!














We also visited the cemetery, wondering if we would find some elaborate Hayden Family grave site. Alas, there wasn't even one Hayden in the whole place. Since we didn't know the history, we were a bit puzzled, but now that we know the truth. Truth is, that the rich Peter Hayden is probably buried in some fancy mausoleum in New York somewhere!

While on our grave hunt I did come upon this grave marker and thought it looked very unusual. It's marked "Mother" and pictures an arm and some stars. So...was she a one armed mother with lots of children, which is depicted by the stars? OR Did she get her arm cut off and see stars before her death? Maybe its an ancient symbol for mothers with 5 children who lost their arms in freak household accidents? Probably not, but you can't blame me for trying to think up something outlandish, can you?
Also, notice down by the hand and to the right there is a leaf...maybe she died in the fall? Oh! wait maybe the leaf is there because she was poisoned by some sort of ancient Chinese herbal remedy gone array? Okay, maybe not...there probably weren't a lot of Chinese herbalists around in the 1900's. I guess I'll give up, but still, it IS interesting don't you think?
Thanks for humoring me anyway.