1 Linden Avenue
This lovely home is part of the Lenox area of Wheeling – a neighborhood roughly bordered by Lenox Avenue, Bedillion Lane, National Road, and Wheeling Creek.
Early records indicate that this land was once owned by John Good[1]. At one time, his property extended along the southwest side of what is now National Road to Wheeling Creek from Bethany Pike almost to the current Dimmeydale. Across the creek was the Daniel Steenrod property. Good reportedly left the area in 1847 to join the western gold rush, but his son, Benoni, remained on the land.
Meanwhile, French immigrant Abraham Bedilion (sometimes shown as being spelled Bedillion) and his wife, 11 children, and slaves were living in Triadelphia and operating a stagecoach inn or roadhouse. They reportedly moved to “Lenox” in 1840. The 1860 Ohio County Census lists farmer Benoni S. Good, 45 years old, and his wife Jane (43) and son John (18) as living in “Wheeling Creek Valley.” That same year, Abraham Bedilion (59 year old farmer) his wife Margaret (53), and children John (25), Margaret (19), Edward (18), Sarah (17), and Thomas (15) are also shown as living in Wheeling Creek Valley. Another Bedilion, James S. (27 years old and probably another son of Abraham) and his wife Eliza (24) are also listed as farming in the same general area.
As early as 1797, John Good may have had a dam and flour mill along the creek. An 1821 map indicates Good’s Mill along the creek in the approximate Lenox area.[2] It appears that the Bedilions took over the mill and operated it until an ice gorge in 1882 destroyed the dam. The mill has been described as “of marvelous construction and from the basement to the top story consisted of four stories. The machinery was operated upon the first and second floors. All of the interior woodwork was black walnut, and when it was taken away the walnut was as solid as the day it was placed there. No nails had been used in its building and it was dovetailed together.”[3]
The Bedilions reportedly enjoyed parties and “established the annual custom of expecting their friends every Fourth of July. The guests came in the morning and stayed all day, and the banquets were spread upon the lawn in picnic fashion and early in the evening the old-time fiddlers came. The second floor of the mill was all cleared and ready to be used as a ballroom and merry indeed were those who had the good fortune to receive an invitation.”[4]
Joseph Bedilion is listed as a miller in the 1870 and 1880 Ohio County Census records (with listed ages of 41 and 50, respectively). His wife was Abigail Conant (43 and 51), and at the time, their household included daughters Mary or Minnie (11 and 21), Louisa (9 years old in 1870, not listed in 1880), Josephine (6 and16), and Julia (3 and13). As the land continued to be subdivided, various names appear as partial owners – Tom Bedillion, Thomas Clohan, William Memminger, Albert Slagg, and Hugh Ball.
It appears that the land was divided into building lots around 1912, and deed restrictions state that “any building or dwelling house which shall be erected upon each of the said lots shall cost not less than $3500.[5]
Charles L. and Pauline F. Sonneborn purchased this property in late 1915 and enlisted noted architect Edward Bates Franzheim to design their home. Franzheim (1866-1942) was educated at Linsly Institute, was privately tutored at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and studied under celebrated Boston architect John H. Sturgis. He opened his Wheeling office in 1892 and is remembered for having designed, among many other buildings, the Court and Rex theaters, Vance Memorial Church, the Rogers Hotel, the Wheeling YWCA, and the Fort Henry Club.
Charles Sonneborn (1888-1961) was born in Bellaire, Ohio, the son of Moses and Lottie Friedenberg Sonneborn. He was secretary-treasurer of The Hub department store in Wheeling, was on the board of directors of the Half Dollar Trust and Savings Bank, and was involved in other business interests in Wheeling. He was a member of the Woodsdale Temple, the B.P.O.E Lodge No. 28, and the Knights of Pythias. The Sonneborns had two sons, Charles L. Sonneborn, Jr. and Dr. Robert Sonneborn, both of whom lived in Wheeling at the time of the elder Charles Sonneborn’s death.[6]
John E. and Gertrude Wise purchased the house in 1944. Wise was president of Ohio Valley Distributors. Following John Wise’s death, the home was sold in 1962 to Max E. Mahlke, Jr. and his wife Susie. Mahlke was president of McAllister’s Island Pharmacy. West Liberty State College teacher Rathin Mitra and his wife Menju purchased the home in 1976. The Mitras lived here until 1986, when they sold the property to James C. and B.H. Lahood. The Wheeling City Directory lists Lahood as office manager, Muzak-Wheeling Services. In the next few years, the home changed hands frequently, with owners listed as John E. and M.A. Starkey (1989), Regina Starkey (1991), David and Phyllis Brautigan (1993), and Charlotte Cohen (2001).[7] Current owners Don and Lorrie Ross purchased the home in 2002.
Prepared by: Jeanne Finstein
Friends of Wheeling
May 4, 2005
[1] Steenrod, Blanche, Pot Pourri, Volume 2, 1938, pages 1-4.
[2] Map surveyed and drawn under the direction of John Wood, 1821.
[3] Steenrod, Blanche, Pot Pourri, Volume 2, 1938, pages 1-4.
[4] ibid
[5] Ohio County deed records
[6] Wheeling News Register, October 23, 1961.
[7] Various Ohio County deed records and Wheeling City Directories.