The 2021 MTFCI Tour Day 3 – Model T Ford Fix

Model T’s rolling in to Newcomerstown, Ohio at the morning coffee stop on the MTFCI Tour July 20, 2021 about 8:45 AM.

Tuesday morning dawned drier than the day before and a bit warmer. Model T’s were puttering around the motel parking lot as I got the ’15 ready for the day. We checked the oil and water, filled up with gas, looked it over real well, loaded up and we were off!

Our first stop of the day was the museum in Newcomerstown, Ohio.

The name comes from a Lenape (Delaware) village established in the 1760s by chief Netawatwees also known as Newcomer. The town was used as a meeting place for the Iroquois Great Council, and English and French traders called it Newcomer’s town. By 1771 it was a thriving place, mostly inhabited by the Lenape tribe but also there were a few English and French settlers. The Temperance museum sign showed the event (above) but the museum itself was closed.

Next door was the Olde Main Street museum which was open and where free coffee and pastries were located for those of us on the tour. Newcomerstown is famous as the home of baseball hall of fame pitcher Cy Young, who was born here.

We were among the first to arrive at the museum and the coffee was not quite ready yet.

Soon we all had sugary confections and coffee.

From Newcomerstown we toured to the little village of Roscoe, Ohio which is just across the Muskingum River from Coshocton, Ohio. The roads were fabulous, with hills we were able to climb mostly in high gear although we used the Ruckstell a couple times.

Roscoe was founded in 1816 on the theory that farmers would rather bring their wheat crops to a town on that side of the bank rather than pay the nearby ferry operator 15 cents (at the time a day’s wages) to take the ferry to Coshocton. Pretty soon the Ohio branch of the Erie canal was built and it came to Roscoe, not Coshocton. The first canal boat, the Monticello, landed at Roscoe on August 21, 1830. Above is a photo of the now unused lock near Roscoe on the Erie canal. The canal was surpassed by rail roads in the 1860’s but both continued to operate. In 1913 Roscoe was nearly wiped off the map by severe flooding in the “Great Flood of 1913”.

In the 1960’s investors saw the potential of restoring Roscoe for the benefit of tourists. See more about the great flood of 1913 here: Great Flood of 1913 – Wikipedia

Pretty soon Roscoe was teeming with Model T Fords. We explored a few shops and even took our Pomeranian Jack into the dog biscuit bakery where he was given a treat.

We decided to have lunch at the Warehouse Steak and Stein in Roscoe. Thank goodness I ordered the “small” fish and chips.