EVENDALE — It began with a one-room school at a valley crossroads, equidistant from the hills to the west and east.

        Because it was in the middle of the dale, the farmers of the early 1800s called it the Evendale School and a community was born.

Evendale's new historical society has been gathering old photographs, including a collection from Marian Morgan, whose father and husband were the village's first two mayors. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        The history of this Mill Creek Valley town has become a key topic in the past eight months after Village Council authorized forming a community historical society, said the group's president and Village Councilman Stiney Vonderhaar.

        Part of the impetus is that the community will celebrate 50 years of incorporation in 2001.

        Also, active historical societies in neighboring Reading, Sharonville, Glendale and Blue Ash have succeeded in preserv ing history in those communities, Mr. Vonderhaar said.

        Evendale began as a farming community along the coach road that is present day Reading Road, said Dutch Speidel, historical society vice president. “There were livestock and crop farms and a dairy farm,” he said.

Evendale Historical Society

• Membership: Open to all Evendale residents and business owners and employees. Associate memberships are available to others, but associate members may not hold office.    • Cost: None.    • Contact: Stiney Vonderhaar, president, 563-0808; Diane Lemen, secretary, 733-4688; address: 10368 Arborhill Lane, Evendale, OH 45241; e-mail stiney@one.net.

        The schoolhouse, built in 1832, became a magnet of sorts — a place where farmers sent their children for education and the only “community” building in the dale. Then, when automobiles replaced horses, a gas station popped up on another corner.

        Mary Speidel, Butch Speidel's wife and former village clerk, said that while the 20-member organization is busy with a project to create a history of the past 50 years, the overall mission is to research the community roots to their beginnings; to preserve village records, correspondence, photographs and artifacts; and conduct oral histories with long-time residents.

        Already, the society has about 40 photographs, many from the collection of Marian Morgan, whose father, Clark McGrew, was the village's first mayor. Her late husband, Ken Morgan, was the second mayor.

        Diane Lemen, society secretary, said the first settlers were James and Jeanette Cunningham from Lancaster, Pa., who first lived in a cabin surrounded by a stockade to protect them from Native American raiding parties around 1800.

        The Cunninghams were driven back to Cincinnati, but returned to build what is believed to be the first brick house in the area. Part of that house still stands along the west bank of the Mill Creek south of Glendale-Milford Road between Interstate 75 and Reading Road.

        Mr. Vonderhaar said the society would like to restore the Cunningham homestead, but the cost of such an endeavor makes it unlikely soon.

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