A church at the center of New Marshfield can be seen through a gap in the trees where train tracks used to pass through town on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
New Marshfield, Ohio, is a small town of around 300 residents nestled among the foothills of the Appalachians. In decades past, New Marshfield was a bustling town as trains brought coal from the mines in the surrounding area to Cincinatti and beyond. However, first the trains stopped, then the coal mines shut down and finally the tracks were pulled up. Now, like the tracks, a hotel, gas stations, stores and restaurants are all gone. In a town where the primary asset is quiet, a variety of small communities find ways to spend their time when not commuting to Columbus or other nearby cities for work.
Bruce Chaney tries to get reception on his phone after he finishes digging a grave to check the weather and see if he will need to cover the hole from rain on Monday, March 15, 2021. Chaney has worked for the Waterloo Township since 2004 and has looked after the New Marshfield cemetery ever since. He said he helped bury his mother and father during his first year on the job.
Boyd Montle closes the barn door before going into his house outside New Marshfield on Monday, March 1, 2021. The farm has been in Montle's family for over 100 years. He and his wife Jill own a wood bundling business and also raise cattle to be butchered and sold. "Some days all you're doing is keeping your head above water... just the tip of the nose," Jill Montle said about life on the farm. "Other days you realize you have abundant blessings."
Paul Jones plays catch with his dogs Max and Winnie in his front yard on Friday, January 29, 2021. Jones often sits outside to play with his dogs in his front yard but said some residents walk the streets of New Marshfield with bats or sticks to fight off aggressive dogs. "This town is full of drug addicts, drug peddlers and pit bulls," he said.
Pastor Adelbert Winegardner Senior prays with Joey Henry, 13, at the front of Faith Baptist Church during a service before Henry walks around to collect money on Sunday, February 21, 2021. Winegardner and his wife turned portions of the closed down school in New Marshfield into a church after their former church was torn down. The school halls now hold memories of the many years of Sunday schools and services. On one wall, a canvas is filled with painted hands of children who now, as adults, bring their own sons and daughters to services.
Danny Osborne, a lifelong New Marshfield resident, and Kody Cummings cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs while watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7, 2021. Osborne's wife Tina Osborne said that Danny plans to be buried in his Derrick Thomas Chief's jersey with a Chief's hat that Thomas signed. Danny has not worn the jersey since Thomas died in a car accident in 2000, but allows his daughter Danielle to wear it for games.
Ryan Peters jokes with his friends as they ride in their off-road vehicles through the trails at an Athens County Crawlers event on Saturday, March 13, 2021. The ACC is an off-road park outside of New Marshfield where Athens County residents and people from throughout southern Ohio can bring their rigs to ride through the mud and scale hills of different difficulty.
Kody Cummings sits on his purple toilet trophy after being voted the most valuable player for the Toilet Bowl on Sunday, February 14, 2021. For over forty years, New Marshfield residents have held a pick-up football game the Sunday after the Super Bowl. The MVP on the winning team is given the purple toilet to hold on to until the next game is held the following year. Originally, the teams were divided between east and west depending on which side of the railroad tracks you lived on. With the railroad tracks long since gone, team captains now pick players based on skill level alone as they try and scrape out a victor. Arly Rouse, a player in the 2021 game and sporting a bloody nose after it was over, said it’s southeast Ohio at its finest.
An Athens County Sheriff's deputy speaks to attendees of a birthday party in New Marshfield after Kody Cummings, left, and three others were pepper sprayed by a neighbor on Saturday, February 6, 2021. Tina Osborne and her daughter Danielle Osborne confronted this neighbor after the neighbor's son threatened Tina's grandson Miah and the other children with pepper spray. While yelling at the neighbor for filming the kids at the party from her car with her phone, the neighbor pepper sprayed Kody, Tina and Danielle before driving to her house down the street.
Buford Brown, 79, prays during a sermon in New Marshfield on Sunday, January 31, 2021. Brown holds the services with his wife of 57 years Ginny Brown, 75. Brown now primarily gives service to a middle-aged and elderly crowd of weekly parishioners. His sermons are often filled with prayers for community members within New Marshfield. People with surgeries coming up are listed off as prayers are allocated for each name. Recently, this list often included those who are recovering from COVID-19. "We used to have a youth group, about 20 kids, but of course when they grew up and moved away that was the end of that," Ginny Brown said. "We're very traditional because we don't have any young people to be contemporaries."
Pete Woyar prepares homemade maple syrup in a shack on his farm outside New Marshfield on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. Woyar said he has around 230 taps on trees throughout his property and has been making syrup since he was 12 years old. He has lived on the farm since 1972 and finds ways to keep busy since retiring from teaching forestry at Hocking College. When the weather is not right for syrup, Woyar also makes hay to sell to farmers around the area. "Half the adults around here have made hay for me at some point when they were teenagers," Woyar said. "I've got plenty to do around here."
Katie Roberts, 11, and Grace Roberts, 5, ride a scooter and bike down the road in front of their home in New Marshfield as the sun begins to set on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021.
John Moore leans against his porch as he stares into a fire outside of his home in New Marshfield on Sunday, April 4, 2021. Moore said he and his family often sit by the fire to talk and eat dinner. "Get some pizza, go out by the fire and tell lies," he said.
A skull hangs off of the building where Pete Woyar prepares syrup on his farm outside of New Marshfield Thursday, February 25, 2021.
A newly born calf suckles at its mother's utter on Jill and Boyd Montle's farm in New Marshfield on Monday, March 8, 2021.
More than 20 children from New Marshfield gather in the Osborne home while parents and other family members hide Easter eggs around the main square at the center of town on Saturday, April 10, 2021. Tina Osborne and other community members decided to postpone the celebration by a week so more kids could take part. Scott Perry said they hid over 1250 eggs throughout the park and their was a raffle put together by the community for kids to get candy and prizes.
Gary Van Meter and Bill Elekes watch as Evelyn Elekes, 5, peers over a post on Bill Elekes porch in New Marshfield on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021. After having Easter dinner together, Elekes and his wife Jane sat out on the porch with other members of his family as Evelyn and his 21-month-old grandson Cooper ran around the yard. Elekes has lived in New Marshfield since 1974 and worked in the Meigs coal mines before they closed in 2003. "After the railroads pulled out it really died fast," Elekes said about the town. "There were a lot of boys who worked on the railroads here and they went to work at the mines for ten years till it shut down."
Jeremiah "Miah" McDowell, 9, and Trace Eblin, 11, peer through a fence in the backyard of Miah's grandfather's home in New Marshfield on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
Andrew Wheeler, 15, throws a pitch while Addam Eblin, 15, sits ready to catch it as DJ Gonzalez begins to swing at it on Saturday, April 4, 2021. Kids and teenagers often bike throughout the town and play in the field and park at the center of town as parents and friends watch from the surrounding houses.
The sun rises on the center of New Marshfield on Monday, March 15, 2021. Moore moved to New Marshfield later in life but said he enjoys living there. "It's not a bad town, everyone tries to help everybody from what I've seen," he said.
Denzil Roberts II stands near his tractor after competing in a tractor derby in Nelsonville, Ohio, on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Denzil's son, grandson, and a family friend all competed in one of the derby matches during the event. "Whole of New Marshfield running against each other... it's the battle of New Marshfield," Dom Severt, Roberts's grandson, said about the event.