Legends and Hauntings

There are a number of reported hauntings and local legends that circulate around Licking County.

Legends

First National Bank

Popular legend states that the well known face carved into the doorway of the former First National Bank Building at 1 S. Park Place belongs to Adam Kiesel. In 1868 Kiesel was a failing businessman who reportedly set fire to his grocery shack that stood directly east of the bank. He was tried for arson and acquitted, but many locals were thankful that he had burned down unsightly structures from the public square. The architect who designed the bank building Thomas D. Jones carved this face as a reminder to Kiesel's public service to the bank and the community. Other sources say the face may be that of Puck, the mischievous wood sprite immortalized in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , but locals like to attribute it to Newark's first arsonist.

Jailed Marshal

Believed to be the oldest building in Newark, the downtown office of Aldridge-Mead Chiropractic was once a general store 200 years ago. Legend states that although there was prohibition, the owner of the general store made and sold his own whiskey. Because this was illegal at the time, a marshal came into the town to arrest the owner. The owner who was beloved by the townspeople, was accidentally shot by the marshal when a fight broke out between the two. The marshal was thrown in jail, but later when some of the men got drunk, the dragged the marshal out of jail and hanged him on a telephone pole, at the corner of Second Street and South Park Place.

Coca-Cola Bottle

Local legend claims that the famous design for the Coca-Cola bottle was designed by Alexander Samuelson, while he lived in Newark and worked as the superintendent of the Everett Glass Works in 1913. The bottle was inspired by a simple drawing of a coca bean in the Encyclopedia Britannica . The American Bottle Co. in Newark was one of the first to begin production of the bottles and the design was patented in 1915. Other sources state however that the actual bottle was designed by Earl R. Dean who worked for the Roots Glass Co. in Terra Haute, Indiana with Samuelson after he left Newark.

Underground Railroad

History recounts that a old cabin located off Brushy Fork Road, in Newark, was once a safehouse on the Underground Railroad. Slaves began escaping slavery to the North in 1793, after the first Fugitive Slave law was passed in Congress. The house is near the bed of the Erie Canal and the railroad, which were two popular avenues in the days of the Underground Railroad.

Buffalo Bill Cody

Back in the hills of Licking County stands Cody's Knob, believed to be the home of Isaac and Mary Ann Cody, parents of William Frederick Cody, more famously known as 'Buffalo Bill'. Though nothing remains of the original cabin, the homesite stood off of National Road, about a mile or two from Jacksontown. Although Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa in 1846, his parents lived in Ohio before he was born.

Lincoln's Hat

Legend states that President Abraham Lincoln once left a hat in Newark while he was passing through on his way to Washington D.C. for his inauguration. In March of 1861, a strong storm came through the city and swept the silk top hat off of Lincoln's head and deposited on the farm of Daniel Z. Forry. When he arrived at Newark's Union Station, he was missing his hat and admitted it had been lifted of his head. Lincoln's hat still remains in the Forry family today, secured in a vault of the First National Bank.