Sandridge Farm at Audra, Barbour County

Sandridge Farm at Audra
Click on photo to see enlargement.

About the Photograph and the Farm
Don Williams
This is a picture of the Sandridge farm at Audra, just east of the Middlefork River. I believe this photo was made from an old photographic plate that was found at my grandparents, James and Iva (Sandridge) Crites, house in Tallmadge, Ohio. I do not have a date for the picture but if you look closely you will see that they did have electricity. There are poles in the river and to the right of the covered bridge. There appear to be three houses, three barns, a mill an ice house (near bottom right) and several outbuildings. This area is now part of Audra Park. If you have been to Audra Park there is a monument on the site of the mill. The park snack bar is now located to the left of the mill site with the swimming hole in the river below it.

The Sandridge farm, is supposed to have been bought from the O'Brien family. I believe it was the Hall family farm before that.

In The Genealogy of Thomas Hall we find a clue in the caption of a 1910 photograph of a group of Volga community people gathered in Alum Cave "in what is now Audra State Park. On the Middle Fork River, just south of this cave, is the site of Enoch Hall's gristmill."

Some additional information
Margaret C. Lew

Enoch Hall (b. 7 March 1810 d. 8 May 1859) married Mary O'Brien 28 Nov 1839. His will mentions both gristmill and farm properties:

It is my will and I hereby bequeath and give her my wife Mary Hall all the profits of my mill and farm. The mill is on Middlefork and the farm on Swamp Run which she is to have hold and use as she thinks best to enable her to raise and educate my children until they become of lawful age or so long as she takes care of them and remains my lawful widow.
The will also refers to one hundred acres I agreed to sell to Luther Sandridge which lays next to Cunninghams land which he bought of Henry O. Middleton. It was to be sold only if his widow needed more than the proceeds of the mill and farm to settle debts and get along. A look at the deed records may furnish the information on the date the property transferred from the Halls to the Sandridge family.

In the 1850 Census of Barbour County I found Luther Sandridge age 18, living in the household of his parents Lindsey and Lucy J. Sandridge.

In Barbour County Marriages the marriage of Luther Sandridge and Catharin House on 2 Nov 1856.

This photograph may be copied for personal, noncommercial use. Both Don Williams and I would appreciate hearing from any who have additional information on this farm or the families who lived and worked there.

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