Moment in Time (October 27, 2021)
Emily Bell Wilkinson Moelchert and her husband Chester (C.C.) Moelchert are shown in this 1924 photograph on the front sidewalk of their home at 1964 Cardigan in Marble Cliff. The children in the photo are not clearly identified, but are assumed to be their 4-year old daughter Charlotte and their 4-year old nephew Tommy Hobson, son of Charlotte’s sister Dorothy.
John W. Wilkinson was born in Missouri to Judge Ezekial S. Wilkinson and his wife Maria, and moved to Montana in 1864 with his family. He entered West Point in 1868 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1872, assigned to the Army’s Eighth Infantry. After Col. George Custer and his regiment were killed at Little Bighorn, Wilkinson was reassigned to Custer’s famous Seventh Cavalry, where he continued to serve in “Indian country” in Montana and Dakota. Toward the end of his career he was deployed to serve as a professor of military science and tactics at an Ohio military institute.
Charlotte Dean was the daughter of well known Ironton, Ohio judge Ezra Van Ness Dean, and granddaughter of former judge and two term U.S. Congressman Ezra Dean. Charlotte married Lt. John Wilkinson and they had four children, each born on a different army base across the country: Alan, Ezra Dean, Dorothy, and Emily. In the fall of 1891, Wilkinson was ordered from Ohio to Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas to be commissioned as an Army Captain. While there, he contacted pneumonia and relocated to Pasadena and then to Yuma, Arizona, where he died in early 1892 at age 45, leaving Charlotte widowed in Ironton.
Wanting better opportunities for her children, Charlotte moved her family to Columbus so that they could be close enough to attend Ohio State University. She purchased a lot at 1964 Cardigan Ave. in the village of Marble Cliff and started construction of their new home in March of 1913 (the same builder was building another home at 1970 Cardigan at the same time.) An article in a local magazine indicated that the two houses share some features such as beamed ceilings, French doors and hardwood floors. The Wilkinson home featured fireplaces in each room and a wooden coffered ceiling in the dining room. (An earlier article said that “the home even had indoor plumbing and electricity!”) The family often took in boarders in order to make ends meet with their finances.
In 1918 at age 27, Charlotte Wilkinson’s daughter Emily married Chester C. Moelchert, who was then the secretary of Columbus Die, Tool and Machine Co. The company, located across from Timken Roller Bearings on Cleveland Avenue, made all kinds of machine parts, and played a significant role in supplying parts for the wartime effort. The new couple moved into the Cardigan home, and Chester served as Clerk for the Marble Cliff village government. After Charlotte’s death in 1922, the home passed to the children, and Emily and Chester took ownership from the others, residing there for the remainder of their lives. Chester lived to the age of 100 and Emily to the age of 101.
Their daughter, Charlotte (Tyler), was delivered in the home by Dr. Lewis Anderson, who lived nearby at the corner of Cardigan and Arlington Avenues. Charlotte’s daughter Gail and her husband William Johannes purchased the Cardigan home in 1981. Bill retired in 2000 as a Vice President for J.P. Morgan Chase, and began a second career as administrative assistant and Clerk of the Village of Marble Cliff until he retired in December 2017. Gail and Bill established the Johannes-Tyler Teacher of the Year Award granted through the Columbus Foundation, honoring Grandview Heights Schools teachers for leadership and dedication to students.