Introduction from the Author

An Invitation to Ross County
About Ross County

An Invitation to Ross County

Welcome to Ross County, where various versions of a dream of life-together-in-Earth-and-Spirit are being played out day by day by individuals & groups in a variety of settings. This fictional world first arose out of the stuff of imaginary explorations in the early 1980's, when I was casting about at the trailhead of my own vocation for a foothold; throwing off the dogmas of youth and seeking the ley-lines of what I came to call an earthen spirituality. It initially manifested itself in dreams about the Yule and then came to be formulated in poetic speculations during night walks and conversations. It presented itself as a place where a genuine vision of life could be constructed, and where the deep questions I was asking about life could be asked. This vision was first manifest through "The Whittiers" -- a family that lived on Deer Hill south of the county seat, Wickersfeld. Over the next ten years, the vision was to diversity and be manifest through characters representing various traditions; i.e., Wicchan, Celtic Christian/Pagan and a secular/literary tradition tied to the American Naturalists (e.g., Henry David Thoreau).

I have been 'visiting' Ross County since the early 80's, culling themes and gleaning poetic touchstones that were then embodied in the stories and poems that I wrote. Storytelling has always seemed to me a potent mode of thinking. To tell a story is to imply a world. Here, at this website, I've brought together all of the characters that populate my poems, stories and narrative essays. Ross County has been a 'staging ground' for each of the poetic and philosophic experiments that I've pursued over the years. It is now home to all of the spiritualities I've practiced as well as taught. Herein you will find the touchstones of the earthen philosophy that I now explore in my blogs. Come to Ross County, and explore as you will. May you find touchstones for your own vision of Life-Together-in-Earth-and-Spirit.

About Ross County

Ross County is a primarily rural landscape in central western Pennsylvania, more west of Harrisburg than it is east of Pittsbugh, situated in coal and lumber country, in what has sometimes been called "Westsylvania," that is, "the West Woods." It's culture is a 'melting pot,' seeing the usual waves of immigration from the early nineteenth until the early 20th centuries; English, French, Germanic, Irish, and finally eastern European. The land that became Ross County was heavily lumbered in the first half of the 19th century, the majority of its native forests being leveled by 1875. After this time, second growth forests grew up and became dominant, now hemming in farms and towns from one end of the county to another. In the mid-19th century coal mining took off, and lasted into the mid-20th century, after which the industry petered out, owing to the depth of the remaining coal. In the mid-19th century the Railroad came through Ross County, opening it up, culturally as well as economically, to the wider world. Some limestone was quarried in the south eastern corner of the county, and a couply of small oil fields sprung up in the north west corner of the county in the late 19th century, and thn went dry.

The County seat of Ross County is Wickersfeld, located somewhat southeast of the actual center of the County. In the East of the County is the smaller town of Milvale; these two towns being the largest in the County. North of Wickersfeld is a small town called Tannersville, and south of the County seat is Sommerstown; a 'cross-roads' town that functions as a hub for the farming community in Ross County.

Despite the history of logging in the County, there are two places where there is still a stand of primary Old Forest. One of these is on the ridges of Windsor Forest in the NE quarter of the County. The other is Deer Hill; a prominent 'hogback' rising out of the local landscape, having a mysterious, nearly always haunted, presence--located about a mile south of the outskirts of present-day Wickersfeld. Here, four farms were cleared in the 19th century, but aside from these properties, the rest of the forest was left untouched. The original inhabitants of the land considered this hill to be sacred, and the first European settlers -- a family by the name of "Henry" -- inherited the native peoples' reverence for the place and made sure it was never logged.

When the Whittiers came to the area that would become Ross County in the 1790's, they made their homestead near Deer Hill, and became friends with the Henrys. They were from NW England -- from Northumbria -- where they had been involved in the shipping and logging industries. They came to western Pennsylvania in search of timber, and it was the Whittiers who founded the logging camp along Willow Creek that eventually became Wickersfeld.

One of the things that distinguishes The Whittiers is their tradition of 'keeping Christmas' in terms of what they call the Thirteen Dayes and Nights of Yule; a 'calendar' first formulated by Egbert Whittier around 1800. The family has a store of tales about their experiences during the Season of Yule over the last two centuries, many of which have been collected by Geoffrey C Whittier in his book, The Whittier Hearth (6th Edition, 2001). They tell a tale of "Nicholas and the Elves" every year on the Eve of Saint Nicholas (6 December), the ext of which may be found in Montague Whitsel's book Heart and Hearth (AuthorHouse, 2009).

The Whittiers came to live on Deer Hill in the 1890's, and it was in that house that their life philosophy and their earthen aesthetic came to an implicit maturity. When that house was destroyed in a fire on 9 October 1949, the family dispersed from Deer Hill, living for the next thirty years in houses in Milvale, Wickersfeld and Tannersville. Though they kept in touch, they lost somethng of the spirit and verve of their former life.

Then, in 1980, they began to return to Deer Hill, after a reunion inspired by a hike taken by four friends who had known each other back in the late 1940's and who had met at the first Whittier House. Since then, four branches of the family have built new houses on Deer Hill, where they live together in a familial comminity, seeking wellbeing and fullfullment. Their present life is sourced in the touchstones of memory from the First Whittier House. The Whittiers today are a family of carpenters and writers, Christmas tree growers and painters, college professors and landscapers. They still celebrate the Thirteen Nights and Dayes of Yule, and tell the story of Saint Nicholas and the Eleves every year on the Eve of Saint Nicholas.

-- Montague Whitsel

Disclaimer: As is true with any fictional world, any seeming similarity herein -- in the pages of this website -- to places in the 'real,' external world, beyond my imagination, is purely accidental. I have modeled Ross County on no actual existing place. No actual, existing person or group of people is represented herein. It is an amalgam of all of the most interesting features and dimensions of many places, both real and dreamt, transformed -- via the poet's imagination, into fodder for reflection.