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In December 1772, Brother David Zeisberger and his followers began the construction of Schoenbrunn schoolhouse. The school was built in the Tuscarawas Valley on land given to Zeisberger in the spring of 1771 by the Delaware Native Americans as a Moravian mission to the Delaware. With the land, Zeisberger laid out the town of Schoenbrunn or “Beautiful Spring.” The school served Delaware Indian children, who were taught from special textbooks prepared in the Delaware and German languages by Zeisberger. John Heckewelder, who taught at the school, is recognized as the first schoolteacher in Tuscarawas County. The present reconstructed schoolhouse was dedicated on July 29, 1928 on the 155th anniversary of the completion of the school’s construction. The village can be seen just a few hundred yards south of this marker.
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Founded in 1807, Columbia was the first continuously inhabited settlement in Lorain County. Harmon, Levi and Azor Bronson, Calvin Hoadley, Jared Pritchard and others formed the Waterbury Land Company to buy the township from the Connecticut Land Company. In 1808, Sally Bronson named the township and became its first teacher. In 1809, the first church society was formed and Hoadley built a log gristmill beside the Rocky River. A militia company was organized in 1810 and a two-story blockhouse was constructed for protection during the War of 1812.
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St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1838 by German Lutheran immigrants, primarily from Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt, who located in this vicinity in the 1830s. The congregation, called Neudettelsau, erected a second log church in 1843 centrally located in the “German Settlement”. A congregational split in 1846 resulted in the conservative members building a separate brick church a half mile away. This church in 1847 became one of the 12 charter members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Growing membership required a larger brick church built on this site in 1860. In 1878 the two St. John’s congregations in the settlement reunited.
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Trenton’s founder, Michael Pearce, came to the area in 1801. The original village of 33 lots was named Bloomfield. When the post office was established in 1820, it was named Trenton to honor the founder’s home state of New Jersey. Pearce’s son-in-law, Squier Littell, was the first resident doctor in Butler County. Originally settled by the English, Trenton saw a migration of Germans by 1840. By 1851, the farming community became a grain center with the introduction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad. Further development occurred when a franchise was granted to operate interurban electric traction cars through the village in 1896. Early commercial endeavors were Dietz, Good & Company grain elevator, Trenton Foundry, and Magnode Corporation. By 1991, the largest industries were Miller Brewing Company and Cinergy/Cincinnati Gas & Electric.
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Situated in an agriculturally rich area, county fairs have long been a significant tradition and event in Meigs County. The Meigs County Agricultural Society held its first fair on October 22, 1851, in Middleport and its second at the Rock-Spring Hotel on October 31, 1852. Subsequent fairs occurred around the county until March 14, 1868, when the first section of a permanent location was purchased from Leonard and Jane Carleton near Rock Springs and became known as the Meigs County Fairgrounds. A popular place, the nearby natural springs, exemplified by the historic stone-carved springhouse, once supplied water to the grounds and community. Improvements to the fairgrounds included expanding the one-third mile racetrack to a half-mile in 1889, constructing the unique curved grandstand in 1890, and reconstructing the 1829 Foster-Jenkinson log cabin on the grounds in 1987. A single barrack from the Civilian Conservation Corps camp of the 1930s remains in use.
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On this site Daniel Gebhart established a tavern in 1811. Taverns were where people gathered to eat, rest, and share news. During spring freshets, boatmen from the Great Miami River stayed at the tavern. Joining them were pioneers coming by the river and overland to settle at Hole’s Station, now Miamisburg. The tavern closed in 1840, became a boarding house, and then sold to become a private residence in 1853. To commemorate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, Miamisburg’s bicentennial committee purchased the tavern and gave it to the city. It was restored and opened as a museum in 1982. (Continued on other side)
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This circa 1840s log house, which now serves as a museum and home to the East Palestine Historical Society, was originally located at the corner of West Main and Walnut Streets. Some of its most notable and earliest residents were Dr. Robert Chamberlin (1798-1876), the town’s first resident physician, and his wife Rebecca (1810-1895). Chamberlin practiced medicine for 30 years, serving the town as a township trustee in 1834, the first postmaster in 1836, and township clerk in 1839. (Continued on other side)
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The Village of Adamsville commemorates life in this area as it was during the early to mid-19th century. The original Adamsville settlement was located on the banks of Raccoon Creek, roughly one-half mile east of this site. Adam Rickabaugh (1761-1836), a veteran of the Revolutionary War from Virginia, brought his family to this valley around 1804. His patent for land along the creek was signed by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison. Soon after his arrival, Rickabaugh built a grist mill, which became a meeting place for the growing community. In 1805, Nehemiah Wood, one of the earliest settlers in Gallia County, bought the mill from Rickabaugh, later adding a sawmill and a fulling mill for cleaning and thickening woolen cloth. (Continued on other side)
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