Statues from courthouse fountain sell at auction

Leonard L. Hayhurst, Coshocton Tribune
·3 min read

COSHOCTON − Three statues once part of a fountain on the Coshocton Court Square recently sold at auction and might not have the lineage touted by the seller.

Three statues once part of a fountain on the Coshocton County Court Square that went dormant in 1949 were recently sold at auction, however who bought them and for what price is unknown.
Three statues once part of a fountain on the Coshocton County Court Square that went dormant in 1949 were recently sold at auction, however who bought them and for what price is unknown.

Statues depicting Hebe, the Greek Goddess of Youth, and two naiads were owned by Mike and Jessie Garinger of Hartford City, Indiana. They were recently part of an online auction by Bricker Auction Company of Portland, Indiana.

The auction house's website lists the statues as sold with a reserve and that online bidding is now closed. Emails by the Tribune to the auction house and the daughter of the sellers have not been returned to inquire on who bought the statues and price.

Jessie said her grandfather lived in Coshocton and worked at the papermill and bought the statues sometime after the fountain went dormant in 1949. They've been in her and Frank's barn for about 70 years.

The auction house said the statues were originally on display with a fountain as part the World's Columbian Exposition at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The zinc and cast iron works were made by the J.W. Fiske Company of New York City. The water fountain and statues were moved to the Coshocton Court Square sometime after.

Spurred by a story in the Tribune about the sale, Jeff Mullen, Coshocton County public defender, decided to look more into the story by using online sources of old newspaper clippings and records from Coshocton County commissioners.

Mullen also contacted the auction house and was informed their information was based on what was in the newspapers and what they were told by the family selling the statues.

Mullen found The Coshocton Tribune and The Democratic Standard reported on the fountain coming to the court square in 1893 and 1894, but didn't provide deep details. It appears county and city officials combined to have the fountain constructed in the summer of 1893 and wanted it done in time for the Coshocton County Fair that fall.

A contractor named David Raiff was hired in September for the work for $2,000. While it was done in time for the fair in October, the cement wasn't given proper time to cure and there were leaks. The fountain was shut down, leaks repaired and it was open again in the summer of 1894. Newspaper reports said a 40-pound catfish from the Muskingum River was caught and placed in the fountain for a day that summer.

Mullen discovered that neither paper had photographs and only described the fountain as being "very ornate." Both papers covered the Chicago's World Fair and the Colombian Exposition, but there were no mentions of the statues coming from there. It's possible the statues were similar and came from the same company.

"The World’s Fair ran through October, so it’s not likely that our fountain had anything to do with it. But given that the fountain went in in 1893, I can see how that could enter popular lore in later years," Mullen conjectured.

Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.

This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Statues from courthouse fountain sell at auction