Remarkable Ohio

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Front Text: Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet with 1500 British regulars and American militia penetrated the Ohio wilderness to crush Chief Pontiac's Indian conspiracy. Here at the forks of the Muskingum River during October and November, Bouquet subdued the Delawares, Senecas, and Shawnee without firing a shot, secured the freedom of every colonial captive, and obtained promises of peace--a feat unequaled in colonial American history. Back Text: Same

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Front Text: George Washington Crile was born in 1864 at Chili, in Crawford Township, Coshocton County. Before embarking on his notable medical career, he graduated from Northwestern Ohio Normal School (now Ohio Northern University) at Ada, teaching for two years before becoming principal at Plainfield School. Crile first studied medicine under village physician Dr. A.E. Walker, who loaned him medical books and took him on calls to visit rural patients. Later in life Crile credited his early experience in education in Plainfield as one of the most influential points in his career. (continued on other side) Back Text: A pioneering surgeon and medical researcher of the early twentieth century, Dr. George Washington Crile graduated from Wooster University Medical School in 1887 and joined the college as a professor, a teaching role he continued throughout his life. He served in the Spanish-American War as an Army surgeon and brought clinical advances to the battlefields of World War I. An innovator in the field of surgery, he contributed greatly to the understanding of the role of shock in surgical physiology, including novel techniques in nerve-block anesthesia and blood transfusion. In 1921 he co-founded the Cleveland Clinic, serving as chief surgeon and president of the internationally acclaimed medical facility to the end of his career. Crile died in 1943.

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Front Text: In 1764, Colonel Henry Bouquet established the site of what is now Coshocton. In 1811, the county was founded and the town incorporated as the county seat. The Coshocton County Courthouse, the third on this site, was built between 1873 and 1875 by contractors Carpenter and Williams of Meadville, Pennsylvania. The Second Empire structure features a five-story tower containing a four-faced clock and the bell from the previous 1824 courthouse. The courthouse contains a notable mural by artist Arthur William Woelfle depicting the signing of Bouquet's treaty with the Indians near the Walhonding River in November 1764. The Coshocton County Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Back Text: Same

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Front Text: The Muskingum River forms at the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walhoning rivers at Roscoe Village and flows south approximately 100 miles to the Ohio River at Marietta. During the first half of the nineteenth century, fugitive slaves from Virginia crossed the Ohio River and followed the Underground Railroad lines north toward Canada. Four Underground Railroad lines converged in Roscoe Village on the Muskingum River. The first followed the river north out of Marietta through Rainbow and Waterford. An Ohio River crossing at Belpre connected runaways with the Muskingum River at Putnam in Muskingum County. Two others came from the west through Granville in Licking County and New Concord in Muskingum County. From Roscoe Village, fugitive slaves sometimes traveled from station to station along the Ohio-Erie Canal that was completed in 1825. The canal ended at Lake Erie where the runaway slaves were assisted in crossing into Canada. Back Text: The acknowledged host of the Underground Railroad in Coshocton was Prior Foster, a well-respected African American who lodged fugitive slaves in his shanty at Harbaugh Corner. He fed, sheltered, and clothed them, and then accompanied them to the ferry to cross the Muskingum River to Hanging Rock. There they would remain hidden until they could be safely forwarded north. Virginians knew about the Underground Railroad in Roscoe Village. Slave owners and bounty hunters lurked there in search of fugitives. Other leading Underground Railroad operators in Coshocton County were James Luther, William Boyd, William Elliot, Samuel Weir, Mr. and Mrs. William M. Johnson, Eli Nichols, Reverend Alexander Campbell and his son Charles, Ebenezer Seward, John F. Shannon, Benjamin Waite, Thomas Powell, and Ebenezer Bigham.

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Front Text: Agricultural development and cultivation on steep lands led to severe soil erosion in the nation in the 1920s and 1930s. In response, the United States Department of Agriculture established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1935. The SCS established the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed (NAEW) in the hills of Coshocton County to study and develop methods of conserving soil and water resources. The Federal government and Coshocton County purchased 1,047 acres of land for the program and, in 1936, field research equipment was installed and buildings constructed. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided labor near the program's inception, as did the Civilian Public Service Agency during World War II. (Continued on other side) Back Text: (Continued from other side) The NAEW is known worldwide for development of water measurement instrumentation, including the “Coshocton wheel,” a rotating sampler powered by flowing runoff; and weighing lysimeters (65-ton blocks of natural soil that measure surface runoff, evaporation, percolation, and water storage). The NAEW also pioneered the development of “no-till” and conservation tillage agriculture to reduce runoff and erosion in fields. Other accomplishments include improving grazing management, supporting the development of the “curve number” method (used worldwide to estimate runoff), and conducting a landmark study on mining and reclamation effects in southeast Ohio. A reorganization in 1954 transferred the station to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. In 1973, The Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center became a partner at the station until it closed in 2015.