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In 1796, surveyors for the Connecticut Land Company designated an area five miles square surrounding this place as Range 7, Township 7 of the Connecticut Western Reserve. A landowner’s expedition on June 15, 1798, arrived at the northwest corner of the township. One of its members, Thomas Umberfield (Umberville) brought his family to the center of the township (now Burton Village) on June 21, 1798. Here they built the first home, a simple log cabin located southwest of the spring at the end of Spring Street. The owner of the largest parcel of land in the township, Titus Street, was given the honor of naming the township. He named it after his son, Burton.
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Emmitt-Greenbaum Building, 200 North Market Street, was built around 1878 by businessman and politician James Emmitt (1806-1893) to replace his 1837 wooden warehouse. The brick three-story Italianate building featured five vertical cast iron belts of simulated stone, a projecting cornice, reeded pilasters, and a “fortress-like fourteen bay front.” A covered wooden stairway on the building’s south side originally projected over the canal. Charles Louis Greenbaum (1871-1935) purchased the building in 1912 and opened his department store advertising it as “The Store with The Goods!” Over 140 years, the Emmitt-Greenbaum building was occupied by Jas. Emmitt Dry Goods, Hoffman’s, Greenbaum’s, Armbruster and Armbruster, Waverly Drugs, and the Bee Hive Tavern. A structural collapse after decades of deterioration condemned the building and the southwestern half was razed in 2021.
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Paul Eugene Brown was born September 7, 1908, to Lester and Ida Belle Brown at their Norwalk home on 7 West Elm Street. He attended Benedict Elementary until his family moved to Massillon, where his football career began. Although small, Brown was a successful quarterback for Massillon’s Washington High School and Miami University in Oxford. In 1932, he returned to Massillon as head coach. Compiling an 80-8-2 record, he instituted new ideas now considered commonplace in football: the playbook, hand signals, and sending in plays. Ohio State University hired Brown in 1941 and he coached the Buckeyes to their National Championship in 1942. After WWII, Brown agreed in 1945 to coach Cleveland’s new pro team. Despite his objections, fans voted to name the new team after Coach Brown. (Continued on other side)
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The Bremen Oil Boom commenced in 1907-’08 and the town became a center in the region’s petroleum industry. The area was a forest of oil derricks. From this point south, it was said that one could go down Broad Street from derrick to derrick and not touch the ground. A reconstructed derrick, erected to commemorate Bremen’s sesquicentennial in 1984, may be seen in Howell Park directly east of this marker.
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Stephen and Viola Armstrong moved their family, including 13-year-old Neil and his younger siblings, June and Dean, to the house at 601 West Benton Street in 1944. Here, Neil explored his fascination with flying by reading aviation magazines and building model airplanes. Neil completed flying lessons at nearby Port Koneta airport and earned his pilot’s license on his sixteenth birthday, even before receiving a driver’s license. Neil graduated from Blume High School in 1947 and studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University on a Navy scholarship. The Korean conflict interrupted his studies, but he left the Navy as a decorated combat pilot, flying 78 missions. After graduating from Purdue in 1955, Neil worked at what would become the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Soon after he became a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. (Continued on other side)
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The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), a world-wide fraternal organization, was introduced to the United States from England in 1819 and was established in Ohio in 1830. Mahoning Lodge #29 in Warren, Ohio, received its jurisdictional charter on May 21, 1844, and is currently the oldest active lodge in northeast Ohio. The lodge was originally located at the southwest corner of Park Avenue and Market Street, but was subsequently moved several times within the city. The present Odd Fellows Temple was dedicated in 1925. Friendship, Love, and Truth. Erected May 21, 1994, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Mahoning Lodge #29 in Warren, Ohio
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Pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Rev. Thomas F. Conlon met with the newly appointed bishop of the Toledo Diocese, Rt. Rev. Joseph Schrembs, to discuss building a charity hospital for the community. Community leaders and physicians promoted the necessity of a hospital that cared for all people regardless of race, creed, or color. Seven acres of land were purchased from Miss Emma J. Bowe on West Market Street for the construction of a four-story, fireproof brick building. Designed by local businessman George W. Netcher, the new hospital cost approximately $75,000. At the hospital’s dedication on October 26, 1913, Bishop Schrembs praised the people of Tiffin saying, “I appealed to the public-spirited citizens and my appeal did not fall upon deaf ears, as this building testifies.”
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Sully Jaymes was an African American lawyer and tireless activist for equal rights in Springfield during the first half of the twentieth century. Born on March 30 sometime between 1875-1880, he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1901. By 1903, he opened a Black-owned law practice at 17-1/2 Main Street in Springfield. Working primarily with the city’s Black residents, Jaymes offered his services free of charge if clients were unable to pay. He was a long-time member of North Street A.M.E. Church. Jaymes served on the first Board of Directors of the Center Street YMCA (a safe-haven for young Black people), on the Board of Trustees at Wilberforce University, and as a Grand Chancellor of Ohio for the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias. (Continued on other side)