Unknown
[identification of item], "Ova's Homes: A Diary Resume of Sixty Consecutive Years 1918-1978" by Chester B. Alspach, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0349, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Beth Crowner, 2019 March; Finding Aid written by: Beth Crowner, 2019 March
Reverend Chester B. Alspach (1896-1990) was born in Columbus, Ohio and married his wife, Ova Caroline Lehman Alspach (1893-1978), on September 6, 1918. The Reverend attended Ohio State University’s Agricultural College, graduating on June 16, 1925, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture. He then traveled with his wife to China’s Hunan Province and served as a missionary from 1925-1927, before having to flee the country prior to the Shanghai Massacre (also known as the April 12 Incident).
After returning to Columbus in 1927, the Reverend became heavily involved in farming, agriculture, and 4-H programs, serving briefly with the Union County Farm Bureau in 1929, then as an agricultural extension agent of Licking County in the 1930s. He was elected to the executive board of the Ohio State Grange Mutual Insurance Association in 1951, and served the Association for several decades while working as a pastor for several local churches. After his wife caught the Hong Kong Flu in 1969, her health never recovered. Alspach spent the remainder of her years visiting her daily at a nursing home until her death in 1978.
"Ova's Homes: A Diary Resume of Sixty Consecutive Years 1918-1978" by Chester B. Alspach is a self-published, autobiographical account of the personal life and vocations of Reverend Chester B. Alspach, compiled after the death of his wife, Ova Caroline Lehman Alspach, in 1978. The work, dated 1979, details Alspach's marriage to Ova C. Lehman, his time spent at Ohio State University, his brief missionary work in China prior to the Shanghai Massacre, including a a short personal account from Ova Alspach discussing her escape from China after being temporarily separated from her husband and witnessing the shelling of Nanking, and his employment with the Ohio State Grange Mutual Insurance Association. The book starts with a family genealogy with pictures, followed by details and lists of local Columbus and Newark people, places, and agricultural work, then ends with an alphabetized list of marriages and funerals the Reverend officiated. It is organized chronologically by the different locations of homes Ova and Chester lived in.