Remarkable Ohio

Results for: women
Charity Adams-Earley Girls Academy, 440 Shoup Mill Road
Dayton

, OH

In 1942, Charity Adams Earley (1918-2002) became the first African American woman to receive a commission in what became the Women’s Army Corps (WACs). She rose through the ranks to command the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in Europe, the only unit of African American women to serve overseas in World War II. Upon leaving the service in 1946, she was the WAC’s highest-ranking African American officer, a lieutenant colonel. Raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Earley moved to Ohio to attend Wilberforce University and later The Ohio State University. She married Stanley Earley, Jr., M.D. in 1949 and they later moved to Dayton. She became active in civic affairs, including serving on the Sinclair Community College Board of Trustees.

North side of 300 block of West Broadway between Cherry and S Plum streets.
Granville

, OH

Just three weeks after reaching Granville, pioneer villagers decided on December 9, 1805 to build a log cabin where eighty children would attend school. By 1820, public school classes were being held in a three-story brick building. When rail lines and the National Road bypassed the village, dreams of becoming an industrial and commercial center were dashed. Educational institutions, however, thrived and by the Civil War Granville’s citizens had organized the following: the Granville Literary and Theological Institution, later called Granville College and then renamed Denison University; the Granville Female Seminary, the Granville Episcopal Female Seminary, the Young Ladies’ Institute, the Granville Female Academy, and the Granville Male Academy. As Granville enters its third century, educational excellence continues to attract students to the community’s schools.

1 South Monument Avenue
Hamilton

, OH

The Soldiers, Sailors, and Pioneers Monument was planned and promoted by Butler County Civil War veterans and financed by a county levy in 1899. The monument, built of Indiana Limestone, is near the center of the site of Fort Hamilton, built in 1791 and named in honor of Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in President George Washington’s cabinet. Featured, are two large, colorful windows that recognize the contributions of Butler County women during the Civil War. Featured speaker at the July 4, 1906, dedication was Governor Andrew L. Harris, a Butler County native and Civil War veteran. His name is one of the more than 4,300 carved into the interior marble walls.

200 N Mulberry Street
Granville

, OH

The original structure, the central portion of the current house, is the oldest frame building in the village. It was built in 1808 by Elias Gilman, a prominent figure from Granville Massachusetts, who led the first family party to Ohio to establish a new settlement . In the home’s early years, it served as a post office, library, retail store, and select school. The initial meeting of the Freemasons of Granville was held in the home in 1811 and the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized here in the 1880s . A large spring to the west of the house supplied the village with water throughout the 19th century . The house has been an integral part of community life for over 200 years.

Across the street from 358 OH 7
Brookfield (Township)

, OH

Activity of the Underground Railroad is believed to have begun in Brookfield Township around 1838 with the first known runaway slaves, two women, to pass through in 1843. Freedom seekers moved north using a system of routes known by operators, or “conductors”. Trumbull County reputedly had over 150 miles of Underground Railroad routes, which would have made it the largest network in Ohio. The slaves that passed through Brookfield Township came mostly from the Youngstown, Poland, and the Canfield areas. From Brookfield they were sent north to Hartford, Kinsman, Burghill, and Vienna ultimately headed to Canada.

6924 Brown Road
Oxford

, OH

As Oxford Township was developing in the mid-1800s, a cluster of farmsteads near its northern border developed and was designated the “Doty Settlement.” As was the custom, the community took its name from a prominent family in the area. In or near the settlement were a church and cemetery, a school, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, a distillery, a furniture shop, and a fulling mill for cleansing, shrinking, and thickening cloth. With the frontier spirit of self-reliance, it was seldom necessary to travel several miles into Oxford village for additional goods or services. Working together, the community farmed local fields and bartered for other items. Men, women, and children worked long, hard hours in the fields harvesting corn and wheat. It is evident that these families, living in an agricultural society, possessed many useful skills for surviving in the Ohio country.

1000 North Keowee Street
Dayton

, OH

Katharine Kennedy Brown (1891-1986), born in Dayton, was a leading figure in local, state, and national Republican politics. Soon after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, she earned a seat on the Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee; moving up to the Ohio State Republican Central Committee in 1928 and the Republican National Committee in 1932 ─ serving on both until 1968. She founded the first Republican Women’s Club in the county. (Continued other side)

106 N Main Street
Oberlin

, OH

First Church was built by the Oberlin Community in 1842-44 for the great evangelist Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). He was its pastor, headed Oberlin College’s Theology Department, and later became College president. In the mid-19th century this Congregational church had one of the largest congregations and auditoriums west of the Alleghenies. Eminent speakers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Twain, and Woodrow Wilson have addressed the community in its Meeting House. Antoinette Brown graduated from the College’s Ladies’ Department in 1847 and then completed three years of study under Finney in the all male Theology Department. She worshipped and led women’s prayer meetings at First Church. The College denied her the Theology certificate since women were not deemed suitable to be ordained. (continued on other side)