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On March 18, 1942, four U.S. Army Air Corps pilots lost their lives within a quarter mile of this marker. Three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, these pilots left Wayne County Airport near Detroit flying P-39F Airacobra pursuit planes. They were part of the Army Air Corps Ferry Command delivering new aircraft to Louisville, KY. As they entered Allen County, a blinding snow storm limited visibility and convinced flight leader Lt. Edward H. Saunders to make a U-turn to escape the perilous conditions. With ice building on their wings and windshields, all four pilots, flying in close formation, crashed their planes into the ground within seconds of each other. There were no survivors. Although these men never faced the enemy, their mission was crucial to the United States in fighting the war.
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In 1809 the citizens of Zanesville erected a building on this site which served as the capitol of Ohio from October 1, 1810, until May 1, 1812. The 9th and 10th sessions of the Ohio General Assembly met here before returning to Chillicothe in May 1812. The building was then used as the Muskingum County Courthouse until the present courthouse was built in 1874. The 1809 date stone from the old building was incorporated into the new building and may be seen over the front steps.
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Nicknamed “Ohio’s Million Dollar Playground” or “Atlantic City of the Midwest,” Sandy Beach Amusement Park opened here on May 29, 1924. The park at Indian Lake featured a 2,000-foot long roller coaster and other popular rides, a boardwalk, and the Minnewawa Dance Hall. The Minnewawa and its succeeding dance pavilions hosted the greatest names of the Big Band era, and thousands of people came from all over Ohio to listen and dance to these popular entertainers. Societal turmoil and rioting in the 1960s affected the popularity of the park. Diminishing crowds, plus competition from larger theme parks such as Cedar Point and Kings Island, led to the park closing in the early 1970s. The lone remnant of the park is the steel arch bridge that spans the harbor.
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The commercial building that stood at 305 Main Street for over a century was built by Justus S. Law in 1897. On April 1, 1897, Law leased the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias joint-use of the third floor, rent-free, for 99 years after they completed its construction and added a slate roof to the building. Although the Pythians purchased the remainder of the building in 1921, they continued to share their “Castle Hall” with the Odd Fellows until 1965. In July 1974, the Pythians assigned their Pleasant City property to the Ohio Knights of Pythias Home in Springfield. From 1974 to 2012 the property exchanged private ownership multiple times until forfeited to the state in 2020. After the dilapidated Victorian building was demolished in 2021 the land was donated to the Village of Pleasant City.
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Memorial Park hosted the famous Kansas City Monarchs during a barnstorming tour on August 4, 1961. The home team was the Lima Metro League’s Cairo Merchants. Legendary pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige (1906-1982) appeared on the mound for the Monarchs. The first African American to pitch a World Series, Paige was famous for helping the Cleveland Indians win their 1948 championship. After the Cairo exhibition game, he thrilled fans by signing autographs. Although the score of the 1961 game is forgotten, the impact of meeting Paige and other Kansas City players is remembered. During an era of racial tension and national change, a baseball game between an all-Black and all-White team taught many in attendance that they had much in common, including a love of the game.
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William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States. Following McKinley’s assassination in 1901, the Village of Jackson dedicated this triangle of land as a park in his honor. Earlier in the nineteenth century, a small school had occupied the plot. In 1902, a local commission was appointed to oversee the development of a park. It was not, however, until 2012 that the Jackson Garden Lovers Club finished the commission’s long overdue work. The park was dedicated in 2013, 111 years after it began.
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Sidney’s First Presbyterian Church formally organized on September 4, 1825, under the guidance of Reverend Joseph Stevenson, who traveled from Bellefontaine for that purpose. The original eight-member congregation worshipped outdoors or in the Shelby County Courthouse until able to finance their own building in 1834. First Presbyterian’s small frame chapel was constructed on the half-acre parcel that became their permanent home. Two centuries later, the congregation continues to worship at the corner of Miami Avenue and North Street on Lot 109, set aside for religious use in Charles Starrett’s 1819-1820 agreements platting Sidney’s original 70-acre tract. (Continued on other side)
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Acclaimed author, conservationist, and farmer Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield in 1896. A graduate of the city’s schools, he went on to study agriculture at Cornell University in 1914, but left in 1915 to help run his family’s farm. In 1916, Bromfield enrolled in Columbia University to study journalism. As America entered World War I, he enlisted in United States Army Ambulance Service and saw action in seven major European battles. Determined to become a writer, Bromfield finished his education after the war and became a reporter. In 1921, he married Mary Appleton Wood and they would have three daughters. Bromfield’s first published novel, the Green Bay Tree (1924), was a critical and commercial success; his third novel, Early Autumn, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927. The Bromfields moved to France in 1925 where they lived until 1938. In all, he published thirty books and authored numerous stories, articles, and screenplays during his writing career.