Flora Armbruster
Leeann Faust has graciously shared an additional photograph of her family. This photo is of Rosa, Pauline and Flora Armbruster.
Leeann and her cousin David believe the photo was most likely taken at the house at 3100 North High Street but where and what the building–which looks the be rather rough construction–is, is not known. Leeann ponders, “Could it be the barn? That was where the house is that faces California stands today (on the east side of the side driveway). It could also be a storage building. We were looking at the things in the background. If it is the barn it might have been what was north of the house or if they were at the ends east or west. We know the barn faced the house so it couldn’t have be what was south. If it’s not the barn, we don’t know it’s position.”
If anyone has any guesses, please pass them on!
For additional photos, search “3100 North High” or “Armbruster” on this web site.


David Beers was another early pioneer with an exciting life story of having been captured and released by the Native Americans. Beers came to Ohio in 1802. Descendents of David Beers still live in the area to the present day. (Photo courtesy of Terry Miller)
Beers had a log house near the intersection of Dodridge and North High Street. The cabin still exists but has been moved to Norwich Avenue. This photo appeared in the December 29, 1904 Dispatch, on the house’s centennial. The people included friends, relatives, and associates of the cabin’s next owner, Conn Baker, and they were reminiscing with him about early Columbus and marking the 100th anniversary of the cabin after the its move and reassembly to E. Norwich.
The Beers family operated a mill which existed until the early twentieth century. For many years the father of the well-known poet John James Piatt operated it. The future poet spent his boyhood days playing about the mill, and some say that the impressions made by its surroundings found expression in his work. The mill was considered to be one of the most picturesque spots in Ohio. Built around 1810, the mill burned in 1902.
The reason for this gathering is unknown, but it includes several Beers descendants (and likely many who are not related) and was taken about 1905, probably at Olentangy Park. (Photos courtesy of Marty Cottrill)
Eliza Rathbone Wetmore’s father, John Rathbone, acquired 4000 military land grant acres including all of Beechwold and much of Clintonville. John Rathbone gave Ohio a loan to build the Ohio canal and bequeathed 262 acres of land to his daughter Eliza. Eliza married Charles H. Wetmore, a physician, and the young couple settled in Clinton Township in 1819. Her land would eventually be purchased by the Columbus Zoological Company and would eventually become Old Beechwold. Some say that the stone pillars are the remains of the Wetmore driveway. (Courtesy of Columbus Metropolitan Libraries.)
People like to say that the story of Clintonville starts with the story of Thomas Bull Jr., who came to this area in 1812 with his family from Vermont, by way of Worthington. Bull purchased about 680 acres in Clinton Township, and bequeathed land to his children when he died in 1823. Bull and his family were Methodists and abolitionists. The family graves were moved in March 1910 to Union Cemetery, section “new”, lot 176, across from the flagpole. (Despite the section name, this is in the old area of Union Cemetery on the east side of Olentangy River Road.)
This is the Thomas Bull residence which stood on the east side of High Street between Dunedin and Piedmont. Some of the information about the house is conflicting, but Nancy Pendleton states that Alonson Bull helped to build the house around 1821 and lived there until the mid-1860s. The local Methodist congregation held services in this house until Thomas Bull’s death in 1823. Elias Pegg purchased it, along with its farm, in 1862 and raised his children there. The house was torn down in August 1931. This photo is from the Sunday edition of Cols Dispatch March 5, 1950.