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In 1934, workers at the Electric Auto-Lite Company and other automotive-related manufacturers secretly organized the Automobile Workers Federal Union Local 18384, American Federation of Labor (AFL), which became the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 12. Anti-unionism, broken pledges by management, and abuse of workers had festered locally for generations. Workers bitterly resented the fact that management took advantage of the Depression’s high unemployment to decrease wages. In February, workers struck at Auto-Lite, Bingham Stamping, Logan Gear, and Spicer Manufacturing Company. When management refused to negotiate in good faith, the workers, including a large number of women, struck the Auto-Lite in mid-April. Auto-Lite management secured a court order limiting the number of strikers to twenty-five. The strike appeared to be lost until the Lucas County Unemployed League organized fierce resistance to the court injunction as the crowd around the plant grew to ten thousand. (continued on other side)
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In 1879, local hardware store owners L.W. Loomis and H.E. Parks established a summer resort at Front Street and Prospect Avenue. The High Bridge Glens and Caves park spanned both sides of the Cuyahoga River and featured a dance and dining pavilion, scenic trails and overlooks, cascades and waterfalls, deep caverns, curious geological formations, and a suspension footbridge. The park also offered several manmade attractions, including what is believed to have been one of the earliest roller coasters in the area. At the height of its popularity, the park attracted more than 8,000 visitors a day, including Congressman (later president of the United States) William McKinley. (continued on other side)
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The Battle of Fallen Timbers, fought on August 20, 1794, is one of the most significant events relating to post-Revolutionary War America. Major General “Mad” Anthony Wayne led the Federal Army, known as The Legion of the United States against a confederacy of Native Americans led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket. Defeat in battle and lack of help from their nearby British allies disheartened the tribes and lead to the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The Treaty secured United States control of the Northwest Territory and ultimately resulted in the formation of five new states-Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. (continued on other side)
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The Boy Scouts of America began in 1910, and by 1912, Scouting was established in the Mahoning Valley. Camp Stambaugh opened in July 1919, thanks to a gift from the estate of prominent local industrialist Henry H. Stambaugh (1858-1919). In his will he had named his friend and business partner Phillip J. Thompson as trustee of Stambaugh’s 86.5 acre Indian Creek Farm. Stambaugh’s expectation was that Thompson would convey the property to the local Scouting organization. In 1919 the property was mostly a treeless pasture and one could see Indian Creek from Stambaugh’s hay barn near Leffingwell Road. That first summer a Council Ring was carved from an old limestone quarry just north of the creek. (Continued on other side)
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The Covington-Cincinnati Bridge Company under the leadership of Amos Shinkle built the first Ohio River bridge linking the North and South following the Civil War. The bridge was privately operated until purchased in 1955 by Kentucky and later renamed the “John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.” Completed in 1866, this National Civil Engineering Landmark was the only bridge in service over the Ohio River during the 1937 flood. Since 1976, its national and local heritage has been commemorated with beautification lighting and flags sponsored by the citizens and institutions for which the bridge stands as a community symbol. (Continued on other side)
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At this location, in 1913, R. Guy Cowan opened Northeast Ohio’s only art pottery, the Cowan Pottery Studio (known first as the Cleveland Pottery and Tile Company). Cowan began molding Lakewood’s clay into sculptural forms covered with unique glazes. Cowan’s venture depended on the commercial success of his tiles, which adorned homes and community institutions throughout greater Cleveland. By 1917, his Lakewood Ware had achieved international recognition with an ward from the Art Institute of Chicago. After his World War I service, Cowan returned to Lakewood, where a drained gas well prompted the pottery’s relocation to Rocky River. Until the pottery closed in 1931, a casualty of the Great Depression, its artists produced elegant household wares and limited-edition ceramic sculptures that were sold throughout the United States and Canada.
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The David and Clarissa Harroun family migrated to Sylvania in 1835 and built their home, and in 1858 the barn, on this site. Four generations of this Harroun family called this property home, from 1835-1938. While here, David, Clarissa, and their son Edwin became involved in aiding fugitive slaves across the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. David secretly transported the runaways from Maumee to Sylvania in his lumber wagons. The fugitives were covered in hay, and the wagons were driven at night to avoid detection. Once on Harroun’s property, they were hidden in the attic of the home or the hayloft of the barn. The Lathrop family, who lived on a farm to the west, helped the Harrouns by hiding fugitives in the basement of their home. From Sylvania, the runaways were taken to Bedford, Petersburg, or Monroe in Michigan where they were then transported toward Detroit for their crossing into Canada.
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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of developmental, medical and neurological conditions, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Originally built to house 650 people, by the 1950s its campus had grown to accommodate over 3,000. Growing access to new medications and treatments then began a gradual decline in patient population. Eventually, most of the buildings were razed, and much of the hospital’s property was transferred, later becoming the site of The Medical College of Ohio. This transfer included the two Toledo State Hospital cemeteries, with documented burials (as of 2009) totaling 1,994 persons. Toledo State Hospital New Cemetery was opened in 1922, when the Old Cemetery (1888-1922), located .5 miles to the northeast, reached capacity. (continued on other side)
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