Over 220 years of my family heritage in The Mad River Valley
Over 220 years ago, my ancestors, who were French trappers, arrived in what is now Bellefontaine, Ohio. Bellefontaine is French for “Beautiful Fountain.” Back in 2009, my wife Jenny and I paid a visit to the Bellefontaine Historical Society, where we were met by two librarians who spent about 4 hours with us reviewing records dating back to the 1760s. My grandfather and my great-grandfather, Roy Lane, originally lived on Mad River Street in Bellefontaine and worked at the Iron Works, so-called “Iron City,” as fabricators. Further back in 1780, the land in what is now western central Ohio was known as the Upper Mad River towns. Shawnee villages existed, including Wapatomica, which is now present-day Zanesfield. Zanesfield is named after Isaac Zane, a frontiersman captured by the Wyandot Indians as a child and who later married Myeerah the daughter of the Wyandot chief Tarhe.
Isaac, who was captured as a young boy in 1763, later became a key interpreter for the Wyandot Indians during many treaty negotiations. Isaac was known as “The White Eagle of the Wyandots.” Isaac Zane was my great x8-grandfather, according to the Ohio Historical Society and the LCHC Logan County History Center.
When I finally left the Bellefontaine Historical Society with Jenny, my head was reeling because I somehow ended up in Central Ohio all the way from my birthplace in the Hawaiian Islands! We all knew my grandfather hitchhiked across the US from Bellefontaine, joined the US Army before WW2 in San Francisco, and was then stationed in Hawaii, and that's how my lineage reached so far out of bounds. What we did not know was his fascinating family lineage that he left behind. It was sheer irony that I ended up in Logan County. I was just as dumbfounded as everyone else in our family at the time. Now I have a house on ten acres of woods just down the street from the Mad River. And about 10 minutes South of Bellefontaine —pretty crazy stuff. Since 2009, I have met many older locals from West Liberty, Urbana, and Bellefontaine who remember my Grandfather's family. Yet, it always fascinates me how I ended up here on a lark.
I met my great-uncle from Bellefontaine in Colorado while on a fly-fishing trip years ago, and, much to my surprise, my grandfather and his brother fished the Mad River quite a bit as young boys. He told me stories about how the river was straightened, and about many of the old homesteads along its once-curvy route before it was re-channeled, starting in 1915 and lasting many years. The Mad River Valley has had significant roots in my family tree, and now so do my bamboo rods.
Thank you for letting me share ~Clint Bova. www.cjbovarods.com
