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The Union Township Hall was a center of community life from the time of its construction around 1907. The hall included the offices of township government, a community hall, and club meeting rooms, a rarer combination in the 21st century. Local government and services occupied the first floor. The second floor “opera house” retains many original features, including the stage and stage backdrops. The hall hosted many types of entertainment, including church choirs and the Knights of Pythias Band. Leaving the township’s possession, the hall was used by various owners for a church, art studio, and bed and breakfast.(Continued on other side)
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The original town plat of Rawson was filed on February 3, 1855, consisting of fifty-five lots in sections 13 and 14 of Union Township, Hancock County on the Frederick Keller and George J. Kelly farms. Several residential and business structures were built in anticipation of completion of a railroad rumored to pass from Fremont through the “Rawson” area on its way to the western boundary of Ohio. Farmers Keller and Kelly named their village Rawson after L.Q. Rawson, President of the railroad company, hoping that the name would encourage him to build through their area. Financial troubles delayed construction causing a standstill in Rawson. Seventeen years later the first locomotive arrived in Rawson, spurring new construction. At that time the railroad was called the Lake Erie and Louisville; in 1879 it was changed to the Lake Erie and Western and in 1922 became part of the Nickel Plate Railroad. (Continued on other side)
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Bob Evans was born on May 30, 1918 in Sugar Ridge, Ohio. He married Jewell Waters in 1940 and moved to Gallipolis, Ohio. In 1946 Bob took the first step in what would later become Bob Evans Farms, Inc., when he opened a 12-seat diner in Gallipolis. Bob, unsatisfied with the quality of the sausage he was able to purchase to serve in his diner, created his own recipe. Before long, Bob Evans was selling his sausage to grocery stores and meat markets.
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The Chillicothe Turnpike stimulated the growth of Aurora Center, Aurora’s first commercial area. Established in 1802 by Benjamin Tappan, the road also precipitated the development of Kirtland, Chester, Russell and Bainbridge, provided access to landlocked properties, and linked distant towns from Lake Erie to Ohio’s first capital in Chillicothe. In Aurora, the Chillicothe Turnpike turned southwest towards Hudson and continued southward over the boundary of the Western Reserve.
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Jeremiah Reeves was born in England in 1845 and began his career in the mills of Wales, United Kingdom, at the age of ten. In 1867, he immigrated to the United States where he worked in the steel mills of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He met his wife Jane Rees in the latter place and they married in 1869. In 1883, Reeves acquired a steel rolling mill in Dover for $14,000. Despite a history of financial difficulties, the Reeves Iron Works would go on to expand several times and employ over 800 men. The iron works and later the Reeves Manufacturing Company established Dover as an industrial center during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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The Village of Genoa and Clay Township agreed to construct a joint township and village hall in Genoa in 1884. The firm Findley & Shively of Fremont designed the hall in the High Victorian Gothic architectural style and Woodville’s Fred Sandwisch was contracted to build the hall for $8,860. In 1890, the Sandusky Register declared that Genoa could “boast of having one of the finest town halls of any village of its size in Ohio.” As a seat of government and an auditorium (“opera house”), the hall hosted village and township meetings, Memorial Day services, school graduations, community events, and theatrical productions. The hall also had a jail and served as a municipal garage. By early 1970s, the auditorium had been condemned and the future of the structure was uncertain. (Continued on other side)
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In 1837, Cincinnati merchants projected a branch canal to join the Whitewater Canal at West Harrison, Indiana, with the goal of tapping commerce from Indiana’s Whitewater Valley. The major obstacle on this route was the ridge between North Bend and Cleves, just northeast of this site. Engineer Darius Lapham designed a 1,782-foot tunnel though this barrier. Lined with brick made on site, the tunnel, 24 feet wide and 20 1/2 feet high, was the first canal tunnel in Ohio. Six workers died in its construction. The Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal opened in 1843 but was abandoned by 1856, after the main Whitewater Canal had been rendered useless by repeated flooding. The canal tunnel was subsequently used as a railroad tunnel from 1863 until 1888, illustrating the progression of transportation technology in the mid-nineteenth century.
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The Johnson Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1902 by brothers James B., J. Will, Isaac T., and Charles F. Johnson, all of Quaker heritage. The company manufactured tin and galvanized iron ware for railroad lines across the United States. The initial product was the No. 1 long-spouted locomotive oiler with the patented dripless spout. That was quickly followed by other types of oil cans, signaling equipment, engine buckets, tallow pots, torches, track inspection devices, tin cups, and caboose and cabin car lamps, all carrying the Diamond J trademark. The makers created the patterns and everything was cut, riveted, and soldered by hand. As production expanded, the original frame building at 605 Miami Street was replaced by a brick structure in 1910, the southernmost part of the present building. (continued on other side)
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