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Since 1839, the Mt. Healthy Christian Church (established as the Church of Christ at Mt. Pleasant) has served as a model for global ministry and missions for Disciple of Christ churches emerging from the actions of the Restoration (Stone-Campbell) Movement. Founding Pastor David S. Burnet established the church at Mt. Pleasant with the collaboration of Restoration Movement leaders, including evangelist Walter Scott. Elder Burnet established the Christian Bible and Missionary Societies with Scott and others in 1848 in Cincinnati to nationally organize and unify the followers of the Restoration Movement. The church founded by Burnet in Mt. Pleasant has had continual significant leadership, including the Reverend Archibald McLean, leader of the movement’s reorganized Foreign Christian Missionary Society.
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Fr. John Henni founded St. Aloysius Orphanage in 1837 to care for German-speaking Catholic children who were left abandoned by the cholera epidemics of the 1830s. The orphanage has occupied its main building since 1856. All of the orphanage’s other buildings were constructed by 1930. In 1864, additional land was purchased, making the orphanage a self-sufficient farm growing fruits and vegetables as well as livestock.
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Seven original members, who were staunch abolitionists, organized the First Congregational Church of Berea in the nearby Union School House on June 9, 1855. These members publicly articulated opposition to slavery and their desire for a church with full local autonomy. The church purchased this property and erected this sanctuary in 1869, the oldest still standing structure used as a church in Berea and the original Middleburg Township. It is constructed of locally manufactured brick with a foundation from the Berea sandstone quarries. The 100-foot spire was added in 1954 to celebrate its 100th anniversary since the founding of the church in 1855. The church joined the newly formed United Church of Christ in 1961. During its long history, the church has developed many programs to assist persons in need in the Berea area and developed collaborative ventures with other churches and civic groups.
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The National Italian Catholic parish of Saint John the Baptist was founded in October 1896 by the Reverend Father Alexander Cestelli, D.D. Father Cestelli was born in Fiesole, Italy and came to America in 1888 to serve as a professor at St. Paul’s Seminary in Minnesota. In January 1896, founding Rector Monsignor John Joseph Jessing invited Father Cestelli to serve at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio as a professor of moral theology. In October 1896, the Right Reverend John Ambrose Watterson, D.D., Bishop of Columbus, appointed Father Cestelli as pastor of the Italian Catholic community. Sunday Mass was celebrated in the baptistery of Saint Joseph Cathedral until September 18, 1898, when the Most Reverend Sebastiano Martinelli, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, dedicated this historic church.
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The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur were founded in 1804 by Saint Julie Billiart to spread the message “Ah, how good it is to serve God.” In 1840, at the request of Bishop John B. Purcell in 1840, the Sisters travelled to Cincinnati, Ohio to help educate the city’s growing Catholic population. Choosing to serve the poor, the Sisters turned down land in Brown County and instead founded schools at Sixth Street in Cincinnati. Since the start of the 21st century, the Sisters serve in twenty-seven other states, the District of Columbia, and in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Sister Dorothy Stang, while working for land reforms for the poor in Brazil, was martyred in 2004.
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Joseph Peake was born in Pennsylvania in 1792 and came to Ohio in 1809 with his parents and brother. They were the first African Americans to settle permanently in the Cleveland area. He was the son of George Peake, a runaway slave from Maryland, who fought on the British side at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 during the French and Indian War. A man with some means and talent, George Peake invented a stone hand mill for grinding corn, a labor-saving device that endeared the Peakes to their neighbors in western Cuyahoga County. Joseph Peake and his wife Eleanor, an African American from Delaware, bought land in the 1840s on the Mastick Plank Road and built a home near this marker. [Continued on other side]
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Camp Joy was born at the site of Seven Hills Neighborhood House and original location of St. Barnabas Episcopal Mission Church. Displacement and loss caused by Ohio River flood of 1937 inspired St. Barnabas’ rector and his wife, Laurence “Cap” and Sadie Hall, to act on behalf of the children of Cincinnati’s West End. The Halls conceived of Camp Joy as a haven where kids could find a respite from impoverished surroundings in the city and its sweltering summer heat. The camp was a success and continued after the Halls’ assignment to another parish. From 1940-1944, Rev J. Brooke and Mrs. Betty Mosley continued to nurture the people of the West End through St. Barnabas and Camp Joy. (Continued on other side)
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John Carroll University opened its doors as Saint Ignatius College on September 6, 1886. Originally located on Cleveland’s West Side, the College was founded at the request of Bishop Richard Gilmour by German members of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits, founded in 1540). In 1923, the College was renamed John Carroll University after America’s first bishop. In 1925, the University acquired land in Idlewood Village (now University Heights) and initiated construction of a new campus in 1931. Classes began there in 1935 with 456 students. The institution admitted laywomen to evening and graduate classes in the 1930s and officially became coeducational in 1968. The University’s Jesuit Catholic mission inspires individuals to excel in learning, leadership, and service, both regionally and worldwide. John Carroll University is one of 28 Jesuit institutions of higher learning in the United States.
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