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The original northernmost lock in a canal system which linked Lake Erie with the Ohio River was located near the foot of LaSalle Street. Indiana’s Wabash & Erie Canal (1843-1874) joined Ohio’s Miami & Erie Canal (1845-1913) near Defiance and shared the same course to this location. Toledo’s Swan Creek side cut became the northern terminus in 1864.
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On April 20, 1857, the trustees of Morgan Township met in Okeana to obtain a lot for the township house. From a quarter mill tax levy, $850 was budgeted for a house and lot. Money expended on the project included $50 for the lot, $650 for the construction of the building, $41 for fencing, $12.60 for twelve chairs, and $10.25 for a table. Since its completion in 1858, this meeting house has been used for trustee meetings, a voting precinct, village singing schools and concerts, public school, bank, and township garage. The trustees moved to a new building across the street in 1972 and into their Chapel Road complex in 2000.
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Christian Deardorff (1781-1851) with his brother-in-law Jesse Slingluff (1775-1836) platted and founded Dover and built the area’s first gristmill on Sugar Creek. With the coming of the Ohio and Erie Canal to Dover, Deardorff lobbied successfully to make Dover a toll stop for the canal and the be afforded a source of water power for his mill. A dam built on Sugar Creek obstructed for the mill there. Deardorff received access to the canal near Tuscarawas Avenue, and there erected a mill, later named the Cascade Mill by the Hardesty brothers when they purchased it in 1872. The Hardestys, from Carroll County, came to Dover in the 1860s and began operating a large mill on the Calico Ditch, near the foot of 2nd Street. The Dover Milling Company bought the last Hardesty-owned mill in 1951.
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Camp Chase was a Civil War camp established in May 1861, on land leased by the U.S. Government. Four miles west of Columbus, the main entrance was on the National Road. Boundaries of the camp were present-day Broad Street (north), Hague Avenue (east), Sullivant Avenue (south), and near Westgate Avenue (west). Named for former Ohio Governor and Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, it was a training camp for Ohio soldiers, a parole camp, a muster-out post, and a prisoner-of-war camp. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through its gates from 1861-1865. By February 1865, over 9,400 men were held at the prison. More than 2,000 Confederates are buried in the Camp Chase Cemetery.
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This marks the site of the first Sikh Gurdwara in the state of Ohio. Sikhs began to arrive in Ohio after India’s freedom from British rule in 1947. They came for advanced education at universities in the state. With liberalization of immigration laws in the 1960s, many Sikhs settled in metropolitan areas and set up organizations to hold congregational prayer. The Guru Nanak Foundation of Greater Cleveland Area was named after Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh Faith. The Foundation, which at first used rental facilities for religious activities, was incorporated in 1976. However, by 1980 it was able to purchase a building at 3305 West 25th Street in Cleveland. Membership swelled during the 1980s, and in 1991 the congregation decided to move the Gurdwara to its present location in Richfield.
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Interest in the new field of aeronautics grew dramatically when the United States entered the World War I in 1917. The army chose Dayton as the site for a research-and-development program for military aviation because of the area’s transportation links to major cities and its engineering and testing facilities. McCook Field, north of downtown between Keowee Street and the Great Miami River, was charged with researching, developing, and testing military airplanes and accessories. For nearly a decade, many advancements in aviation occurred at McCook Field. They included new aircraft, controllable-pitch propellers, bulletproof gas tanks, free-fall parachutes, and night-observation cameras. In the 1920s, larger and more-powerful aircraft overwhelmed the small field, which featured a large sign to warn pilots: “This field is small. Use it all.” In 1927, aeronautical engineering was transferred to newly-created Wright Field, now a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
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The roots of Huntersville began when John and Elizabeth Hilliard purchased this former Shawnee tribal land in 1797 from Ohio’s largest land speculator Judge John Symmes. When Symmes defaulted on his payments, the Hilliards found themselves repurchasing their own land from the federal government. These uncertain land claims defeated their 1799 attempt to found “Hilliardstown.” David Hunter purchased the abandoned village site in 1833. He re-surveyed the land in 1838 creating an eighteen lot, two street village that he named Huntersville. The village incorporated in 1848, but was annexed by the neighboring city of Piqua in 1893. At the time Huntersville had a population of over 760, its own school system, a volunteer fire department, gas lights, and an assortment of saloons, boarding houses, and grocery stores.
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On Memorial Day in 1907, interurban car 123 crashed into the rear of interurban car 129 at the intersection of 5th Street and Middle Avenue. Eight passengers died including Homer Allen, son of Elyria businessman Edgar F. Allen. Inadequate hospital facilities are believed to have contributed to some of the deaths. After the accident, Allen dedicated himself to fundraising for better hospital facilities in Elyria. Allen’s efforts came to fruition with the opening of Elyria Memorial Hospital in 1908 and the Gates Hospital for Crippled Children in 1915. In 1919, the Elyria Rotary Club endorsed E.F. Allen’s plan to help crippled children. The plan helped to establish international “crippled children’s societies” and the Easter Seals organization.