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In the early 1800s, Jabez Wright, an early Huron County judge, purchased a large tract of lakeside land on the north side of what is now Cleveland Road. There Wright built an eight-room farmhouse that later served as a “station” on the fabled Underground Railroad, playing a vital role in aiding fugitive African-American slaves to freedom. Beneath Wright’s farmhouse was a sixteen foot-wide and ninety foot-long tunnel. Escaped slaves entered the passage through a trap door in the home’s basement and exited into a corn crib located a mere one hundred feet from Lake Erie. There the slaves awaited the arrival of rowboats transporting them to vessels heading north to Canada. (Continued on side two)
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Ulysses Brooks Lawrence was born in Springfield on January 30, 1925. Nicknamed “The Bull,” he broke numerous color barriers throughout his baseball career. In 1976, Lawrence was the first Black player inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. An all-around athlete at Springfield High School, Lawrence lettered in basketball, track, and football (the school’s first Black starting quarterback). After graduation in 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and earned a Bronze Star in Guam during World War II. Lawrence enrolled at Ohio’s Miami University, becoming that school’s first Black baseball player (1947-1949), before signing with the Cleveland Indians. Acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals (1954), he was assigned to the Columbus Red Birds Triple-A farm team, breaking another team’s color barrier. (Continued on other side)
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Huron and Erie County are rich in Native American history. During the construction of the nearby Ohio Route 2 bypass, archeologists in 1976-77 uncovered three Native villages and burial sites. The Anderson site, overlooking the Old Woman Creek estuary, contains artifacts dating to the fifteenth century A.D. The site was once a permanent village, with remains of bowls, fire pits, and even traces of food found among its artifacts. The Jenkins site, also near the estuary, was a winter camp for Indians. Excavators there found several pieces of pottery carbon-dated to 1470 A.D. The final dig, the Enderle site — located west of the Huron River — was strictly a burial site. The discovery of European objects in its graves suggests its creation by a more recent people, such as the Delaware or Wyandot Indians. In 1805, Native Americans in the Firelands signed a land cession treaty at Fort Industry (modern Toledo), and in succeeding years were compelled to leave the region.
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Bellefontaine was a railroad town from the 1890s to the 1950s. The city was the site of one of the largest roundhouses and repair centers on the Big Four/New York Central Lines and trains stopped here to have steam engines serviced and to switch crews. Up to ninety freight trains and over forty passenger trains came to Bellefontaine each day. The railroad was a major employer in Logan County. Over two hundred employees worked at the roundhouse and shops at any one time and many others were members of train crews. Bellefontaine’s importance as a railroad center waned in the 1960s with the increased use of diesel engines, newer technology, and other modes of transportation. Yet, the railroad and its workers left an indelible mark on the history of Bellefontaine.
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This Queen Anne style building with segmental-arched windows and steep hipped roof was Burton’s second high school. Completed in 1885 at a cost of $12,500, it is wood framed with a brick and stone exterior, modeled after an academy in River Falls, Wisconsin. Its basement and two upper floors contained 12,720 square feet of space, enough for all twelve grades. There were two separate entrances; girls entered on the left and boys on the right. Electricity was installed in 1921 by the superintendent and students. Classes met here until 1936. During its history, the building housed various organizations, including the Red Cross, Opportunity School of Geauga County (later Metzenbaum), Geauga County Historical Society, American Legion, and County Extension Office. In 1937, it became the home of the Burton Public Library and in 1983 was expanded with a north wing designed to be architecturally consistent with the original 1885 structure.
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Envisioned as a rural cemetery with careful attention to landscaping design and symmetrical lots, the Riverview Cemetery was established in 1883 on forty acres of land. The chapel was a gift to Riverview from the Grand Army of the Republic, mostly Civil War veterans, and was dedicated on Memorial Day 1899. Plaques inside the chapel list 702 men from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia who served in the Civil War, including 311 who are memorialized or buried at Riverview. There are also plaques listing soldiers killed in World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. The rich history of East Liverpool and Columbiana County is documented in the burials at Riverview Cemetery.
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The General at Union Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee (circa 1907). Born in Knoxville in 1840 and reared at a farm in New Somerset, William Pittenger mustered into the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under a 90-day enlistment, in 1861. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run and was the war correspondent for the Steubenville Herald. After reenlisting, he participated in the ill-fated Andrews Raid of 1862. While attempting to disrupt enemy supply lines, the raiders stole the Confederate locomotive “The General.” After being chased north, they were captured. (Continued on other side)
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When the Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Ashtabula Railroad was finished in 1873, Ashtabula’s harbor became a direct route to ship iron ore to the booming steel mills of Youngstown and Pittsburgh. On the west side of the Ashtabula River, a brush-filled gulley became Bridge Street. New buildings and bridges attest to the harbor’s importance as a commercial and shipping hub from the late 19th through mid 20th centuries. Fires destroyed wood-frame buildings on the block closest to the river. A fire in 1886 nearly cleared the north side of Bridge Street. Another fire swept over the south side in 1900. Fire resistant brick buildings replaced frame structures and over the course of rebuilding, the level of the street rose approximately eight feet. In 1889, a swing-span bridge replaced the original pontoon bridge over the river. A bascule lift (draw) bridge replaced the swing bridge in 1925.