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Dr. Thomas William Burton, Springfield’s first Black physician, was born into slavery in a Kentucky log cabin on May 4, 1860. The youngest of 15 children, he was orphaned at 9, and his only education was the alphabet before age 21. Burton attended Kentucky’s Berea College and graduated from the Indianapolis Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons on March 24, 1892. Dr. Burton moved to Springfield and opened his medical practice on East Main Street the same year. In 1894, he established both the first Black-owned drug store and a shoe store. Additionally, he operated a newspaper, The Loyal Legion of Honor. Dr. Burton established the Ohio Mutual Medical Association (Ohio’s first Black medical society), and chaired its inaugural meeting in Xenia on August 27, 1897. (Continued on other side)
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The Milford Public Library, Clermont County’s oldest continuously operating library, was founded in 1900 by a local civic organization, the Milford Village Improvement Society. It was preceded by a circulating library–one that charges patrons for renting books–that was chartered in 1822. At the time of the Milford Public Library’s founding, circulating libraries were in decline and public libraries were increasing in number as an inexpensive alternative. To obtain support for their proposed “reading room,” the Society’s Literary Committee travelled door-to-door, soliciting members and books. To become a member of the library, adults paid 25 cents and children paid 10 cents in annual dues. The library’s first–and current–home is the stone building at 19 Water Street. (Continued on other side)
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At this location, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), a U.S. Army General Hospital was constructed on 29 acres of land overlooking Camp Carrington, a site used to recruit and train soldiers for the Union Army. Built in the spring of 1862, this hospital consisted of several wooden, ridge-ventilated buildings in which both Union and Confederate soldiers were treated for combat wounds and illnesses. Captain C.M. Moulton, U.S. Quartermaster at Gallipolis, upon instructions from Headquarters of the Union Army’s Mountain Department, contracted for the first building to be constructed in April 1862. (continued on other side)
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As Morgan’s Raiders rode eastward across southern Ohio during the third week of July 1863, the scattered defensive forces pursuing him consolidated and drew closer. Four regiments under Brigadier General Eliakim P. Scammon (including the 23rd Ohio, containing future U.S. Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley Jr.) arrived here by steamboat on July 18, preventing Morgan from entering Pomeroy. Brigadier General Henry Moses Judah’s division also arrived in Pomeroy on July 18, immediately marching east following Morgan. Following Morgan’s defeat at Buffington Island on July 19, both Judah and Brigadier General Edward H. Hobson returned to Pomeroy and headquartered at the Grand Dilcher Hotel. Of the approximately 900 Confederate prisoners captured in Meigs County, 227 were held here at the courthouse before being sent downriver to Cincinnati.
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Sandusky Street (U.S. Highway 20) is the former Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike. Native American tribes northwest of the Ohio River ceded the right of way for this 46-mile road to the federal government in the Treaty of Brownstown in 1808. This narrow strip ran in a nearly straight line from the lower Maumee River rapids through the Black Swamp to the boundary of the Western Reserve, and included one mile of land on either side of the 120-foot wide road. In 1823 Congress gave the land to the state of Ohio, and a crude roadway was cleared by 1827. Land sales financed roadbuilding and maintenance. Notoriously impassible during the wet seasons, the “Mud Pike” was surfaced with gravel in 1838.
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Organized in 1845, Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest congregation of African descent in Delaware, with Reverend Daniel Winslow serving as the first minister. In 1853 the cornerstone of the first church was laid, which was dedicated in 1855. Three former Pastors of Zion became Bishops in the AME Church–James A. Shorter, 1868; John Mifflin Brown, 1868; and Cornelius T. Shaffer, 1900. In 1876 the existing church was razed and carpenter, brick mason, and plaster church members built the present edifice. A fire destroyed the interior on December 19, 1983, and for two years the congregation met in the recreation building of the Londontown Apartments, undercroft of the William Street Methodist Church, and sanctuary of the Victory Seventh Day Adventist Church. On the first Sunday in October 1985, Presiding Elder Virgil Cummins, Pastor Rodney Thomas, and the congregation marched from the Adventist Church back into the restored sanctuary.
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A group of concerned Cincinnati women organized, in 1855, The Protestant Home for the Friendless and Female Guardian Society as a private, not-for-profit maternity home for destitute women and children. These public minded social leaders were aware that Cincinnati had grown beyond the time when the poor or unfortunate were cared for by their neighbors. The Home, which was funded through bequests and personal donations, was founded to care for poor mothers and babies, unmarried pregnant women, wanderers and strangers in the city, and to promote adoptions. (Continued on other side)
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Company E of the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was the only full infantry company formed in Jerome Township. Capt. Elijah Warner organized the unit in the village of Jerome and it was mustered into the Union Army at Camp Chase in Columbus on August 29, 1861. A total of 102 men from the township fought in the regiment throughout the war, while approximately 25% of the total population of the Jerome Township served. Company E performed outstanding service, participating in the Antietam, Vicksburg, and Atlanta Campaigns, Sherman’s March to the Sea and the March through the Carolinas, and the in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. Of the 102 Jerome Township men in Company E, 32 perished during the war. The regiment was mustered out of service August 13, 1865.