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Charles E. Wilson was born on July 18, 1890 in Minerva. After earning a degree in electrical engineering from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1909, he joined the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh before moving to General Motors in Detroit in 1919. By January 1941, Wilson had become president of General Motors, and during World War II directed the company’s huge defense production efforts, earning him a U.S. Medal of Merit in 1946. While still with General Motors, President Dwight Eisenhower selected him as secretary of defense in January 1953. During his confirmation hearings, Wilson said, “What was good for the country was good for General Motors and visa versa,” but was interpreted as saying solely, “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” He served Eisenhower for four years, reorganizing the department of defense to effectively deal with missile and nuclear technology. He died in Norwood, Louisiana, on September 26, 1961.
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Old Wood County Jail 1847-1870. Built in 1847, during the Presidency of Polk, when Perrysburg was the County Seat, and used as the Jail and Infirmary until 1870. Continued to serve as the Perrysburg Jail until 1899, sold by the town in 1918. Acquired and restored by Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Hoffmann in 1954. Listed in the Historic American Building Survey and National Register of Historical Landmarks, Library of Congress.
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The Richwood Opera House and Town Hall was erected in 1890 as a community center designed to house the town council chambers, fire department, jail and opera house. The Richardsonian Romanesque styled building served Richwood in all these capacities for nearly 75 years. The Opera House was the site of minstrel shows, concerts, movies, lecture courses, revivals, farmers’ institutes, commencements, and community meetings. The second floor gymnasium was used for a men’s independent basketball league, dance classes, and as a teen center after World War II. Construction of an interurban railway running between Richwood and the resort town of Magnetic Springs in 1906 provided an expanded audience for the Opera House. (continued on other side)
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The killing of local shopkeeper Levi Jones stirred rumors of an impending Indian attack. Mansfield’s settlers needed help. On the evening of August 9, 1813, Johnny Appleseed is believed to have embarked from here on a daring overnight journey to the settlements of Clinton and Mount Vernon for reinforcements. At the time of Appleseed’s run, this square was the site of two blockhouses erected during the War of 1812. One blockhouse, constructed of round logs by a Captain Schaeffer of Fairfield County, stood at the intersection of Main Street and Park Avenue West. Colonel Charles Williams of Coshocton built the other blockhouse of hewn logs. It was located in the middle of the north side of the square and later served as Mansfield’s first courthouse.
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In 1798, Henry Massie, brother of General Nathaniel Massie, platted a town, the earliest permanent settlement in Highland County, covering 400 acres and named it New Market after a town in his native Virginia. New Market served as the unofficial county seat until Hillsboro assumed that title in 1807. Despite being traversed by the Cincinnati-Chillicothe Post Road with seven other roads (including one from Manchester) leading in, New Market ceased being an active trade and civic center. It is now a small hamlet with a cluster of dwellings, a church, and a few businesses.
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Henry Simon Winzeler, founder of The Ohio Art Company, was born in 1876 in the Winzeler family home just north of this site in Burlington. As a young man, he opened a dental practice in 1900 in the Murbach Building in Archbold on the corner of North Defiance and East Holland streets. Making a dramatic career change eight years later, Winzeler, inspired by an oval mirror in his aunt’s clothing store, started a company to manufacture picture frames. Calling it The Ohio Art Company, venture capital came from Winzeler’s Hub Grocery that he opened in August 1908 located on North Defiance Street. His picture frame company was opened in the Spoerle and Baer Building, a few doors down on the same street. [Continued on other side]
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Acclaimed author and illustrator of juvenile literature Lois Lenski was born in Springfield in 1893, grew up in Anna, and graduated from Sidney High School. In 1915, Lenski graduated from The Ohio State University and moved to New York City to work and study art. After illustrating several children’s books in the early 1920s, she began writing and illustrating her own stories. Lenski specialized in historical fiction and regional themes–eventually publishing nearly one hundred carefully-researched books.
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The completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal on July 4, 1843 brought many new settlers into this region. The Wabash and Erie Canal connected with the Miami and Erie Canal at Junction. Antwerp, ideally located on the Maumee River, was seen as a perfect place in which to establish a town. That same year surveyors W. Wilshire Riley and Samuel Rice platted what would become Antwerp. Naming rights belonged to Riley and storeowner Horatio N. Curtis, who wanting a name not duplicated anywhere else in the country, named it after Antwerp, Belgium. Early pioneers subdued the massive forests that once formed the “Black Swamp” and built a thriving city. Antwerp was incorporated in 1863. (continued on other side)
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