Moment in Time (originally submitted to ThisWeek News for publication December 21, 2005)

Roberts sisters (l to r): Anne Roberts Morgan, Margaret Roberts Hughes, Mary Roberts Price (Mrs. Timothy J. Price), and Catharine (Kate) Roberts Smith (Mrs. Benjamin Smith)

This undated photo from the Baker Art Studios in Columbus shows the daughters of Humphrey and Mary Roberts (l to r): Anne Roberts Morgan, Margaret Roberts Hughes, Mary Roberts Price (Mrs. Timothy J. Price), and Catharine (Kate) Roberts Smith (Mrs. Benjamin Smith). They were born in Dolgradog, Plaismenith, North Wales. Two of the sisters married extremely well and figured prominently in local history. Catharine’s husband Benjamin was a financier who, among other things, was a founder of the Hocking Valley Railroad. Their grand Victorian home at the southeast corner of East Broad and Fourth Street is now the Columbus Club. Mr. Smith owned and subsequently subdivided the 800-acre Marble Cliff farm, which compromised most of the area known today as Old Upper Arlington. In 1859, Benjamin sold to Mary’s husband, Timothy J. Price, 320 acres which contained the limestone quarries on the property. Timothy Price became the proprietor of the T.J. Price Stone Company, a predecessor to the Marble Cliff Quarries Company. Not to be outdone by his brother-in-law, in 1889 Timothy Price also platted “Arlington Heights” the first subdivision of what was to become the Village of Marble Cliff.