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Many early settlers of Morgan County were of Scot-Irish heritage and brought the Presbyterian faith with them. From this group Reverend John Hunt and twelve charter members organized the first congregation in McConnelsville and Malta in 1824 and third oldest congregation in Morgan County. The congregation built a brick church in 1832 at a cost of $2,361. Known for its excellent acoustics and fine music, the building received the first pump organ in the two villages in 1849. In 1916 the church was stuccoed and added a Sunday school and vestibule. The original bell was sold to the steamboat H.D. Munson in 1865, and the present bell came from the Bristol Presbyterian Church. Because of its large seating capacity, the church was also used for civic functions, including an early court trial. Over the years, members have included General Robert McConnell, founder of McConnelsville, Henry Dawes, uncle of Vice-President Charles Dawes, and Frances Dana Gage, early women’s rights leader.
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Founded in 1807, Columbia was the first continuously inhabited settlement in Lorain County. Harmon, Levi and Azor Bronson, Calvin Hoadley, Jared Pritchard and others formed the Waterbury Land Company to buy the township from the Connecticut Land Company. In 1808, Sally Bronson named the township and became its first teacher. In 1809, the first church society was formed and Hoadley built a log gristmill beside the Rocky River. A militia company was organized in 1810 and a two-story blockhouse was constructed for protection during the War of 1812.
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On February 8, 1848, the Ohio Legislature incorporated the Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula Railroad Company, which reached Painesville in 1851, with track and a depot. President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Painesville on February 16, 1861, on his way to his inauguration in Washington, DC. The Lake Shore Railroad Company replaced the Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula Railroad Company in March 1869 followed by consolidation with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company in June of that year. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, replacing the original 1851 depot, built the present station in 1893. With its Richardson Romanesque style architecture, sandstone walls, slate roof, red oak and marble interior, and its hanging chandeliers, it was considered the jewel of Painesville. In 1914, Lake Shore merged with ten others to form the New York Central System. In 1971, the last passenger train left the Painesville yard, ending nearly 100 years of passenger rail service.
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In 1862, less than a mile upriver from this marker, the John Lithoberry Shipyard in Cincinnati constructed the Sultana, a 260-foot, wooden steam transport. At the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Government contracted the Sultana to transport recently freed Federal prisoners north from Confederate stockades. During the night of April 27, 1865, while carrying over 2,300 Union soldiers – over six times its capacity of 376 passengers – a steam boiler aboard the Sultana exploded. The ship erupted in a massive fireball and sank in the cold, flood-swollen Mississippi River ten miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. Over 1,700 individuals died – some 200 more than those lost aboard the Titanic in 1912 – in what remains the worst maritime disaster in American history. Of the total casualties, Ohio lost the most of any state, with 791 dead. Indiana lost 491 persons, with Kentucky suffering 194 dead. It is estimated that, of the Ohio casualties, over fifty were Cincinnatians.
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Near this site stood the former Custer Homestead of Emanuel and Maria Custer from 1856-1865. For two years it was the boyhood home of Captain Tom Custer, younger brother of famed General George Armstrong Custer. At age 16, Tom misled a recruiter in neighboring Gilead, Ohio about his age and enlisted in the Civil War. He later earned two Congressional Medals of Honor, the first person in history to do so, for capturing enemy flags at Namozine Church on April 3, 1865 and at Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. His parents relocated to Monroe, Michigan during the Civil War. Tom continued serving in the Army during the Indian Wars in the West and often visited his brother Nevin in Tontogany. He, along with his brothers George and Boston, brother-in-law James Calhoun, and nephew Harry Reed, were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.
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Here lies Thomas Drummond (1832-1865)- legislator, abolitionist and soldier. Raised in eastern Ohio, he moved to Iowa where he served in the General Assembly and secured the location of the State Asylum for the Blind at Vinton. As editor of the “Vinton Eagle”, he was an outspoken opponent of slavery. During the Civil War, Drummond was appointed to the 5th U.S. Cavalry where he commanded George Armstrong Custer and fought at First Bull Run, Stoneman’s Raid during Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. On April 1, 1865 at the decisive Battle of Five Forks, Drummond was mortally wounded. Returned to St. Clairsville, he was buried beside his mother Harriett Green Drummond.
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The Toledo Blade is the city’s oldest continuing business. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835, during the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute known as the “Toledo War.” The name is derived from that conflict and the famous swords of Toledo, Spain. A copy of the first edition and two gift swords from that Spanish city are displayed inside the Blade Building.
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On this site Daniel Gebhart established a tavern in 1811. Taverns were where people gathered to eat, rest, and share news. During spring freshets, boatmen from the Great Miami River stayed at the tavern. Joining them were pioneers coming by the river and overland to settle at Hole’s Station, now Miamisburg. The tavern closed in 1840, became a boarding house, and then sold to become a private residence in 1853. To commemorate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, Miamisburg’s bicentennial committee purchased the tavern and gave it to the city. It was restored and opened as a museum in 1982. (Continued on other side)
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