There’s a little town in Ohio, called North Star. I’d never heard of it before this morning. It is up in Darke County, which is directly north of where I live in Preble County. I didn’t know Darke County has something called the Great Black Swamp either, but it does. That is where North Star resides, at the edge of that alleged black swamp. They say the town got its name for its location at the northernmost point in Darke County that was not wetland.
North Star sounds big in my mind but it isn’t. During the last census, the population was only 236. That’s up from 209 people, ten years before. I bet it is the kind of place where everybody knows your name.
They have a Catholic Church in their town, called St. Louis Catholic Church. Now I am guessing they have named it for an actual saint and not a city. So I looked the guy up. Sure enough. Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270) was commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint. He was the only King of France to be canonized in the Catholic Church.
It turns out, Saint Louis, or King Louis IX, was a tremendously nice man. He was, in fact, a devout Catholic, but it went much further than that. His entire reign is remembered as a medieval golden age. Yep, he was the man. France reached an economic as well as political peak during his time as ruler. And his fellow European King Buddies? They regarded him highly, not only for the wealth of his kingdom but for his reputation of fairness and moral integrity.
Louis stirred things up in the way of “Royal Justice” of the day. He made it clear that the king was the supreme judge. And anyone, from little to large, could appeal to seek his fair ruling on a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal and introduced the “presumption of innocence” in criminal cases. Now that was truly something for the 1200s.
But here’s the biggie. Louis was renowned for his charity. He fed beggars right from his table. He washed their feet. He helped the lepers and every day, he fed over one hundred of the poor. He founded many hospitals for the sick and houses for reformed prostitutes. So I guess the whole “Saint Louis” bit was very well deserved. Which brings us back to the church in North Star, Darke County, Ohio. I hoped they named their church for the saint, and not the city with the single McDonald’s Arch.
That church though. It was constructed in 1914 and has been recognized as a historic site because of its unique architecture. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. I’ve looked at photos of the church. From the outside, it looks like most other white, wood-frame buildings in our area.
But. As I often do, I became utterly sidetracked. This all started because I saw it was Annie Oakley’s birthday. Yes, she arrived here on this planet on August 13, 1860, and then she left again on November 3, 1926. Sixty-six years to do what she had to do here. I was going to write about her, as she was an extremely remarkable woman, if you ask me. We all know she was an outstanding markswoman and performed faithfully in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. But she was also quite a philanthropist and gave most of her money to charities along the way. Annie married early on, a man named Frank Butler, another sharp-shooter. They spent their whole lives together. They were in l-o-v-e. After she died of a brief bout of pneumonia, Frank grieved so hard, he quit eating for 18 days, until he died. He and Annie are buried side by side in Darke County. But this all started because she was born in a little log cabin less than five miles from North Star, the town I’d never heard of.
This Universe continues to amaze me, how it is all so very connected, from a young girl in a log cabin on the edge of a black swamp to the noble Kings and Saints of France in the 13th century. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
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“But how could you live and have no story to tell?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights
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“Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.”
― John Green
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“It is the story that matters not just the ending.”
― Paul Lockhart
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