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Archaeologists believe that this prehistoric mound, part of a complex of earthworks, was used for rituals by the Hopewell people and was probably built between 100 BC and 400 AD. Note the painted post tops marking the Hopewell pole house footprint. The mound is recorded on the National Register of Historic Places and was given to the Worthington Historical Society in 1974 in memory of Herman Plesenton Jeffers.
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The facilities once here propelled the United States through the Nuclear and Space Ages and were named for the nearby pre-historic Miamisburg Mound. The Manhattan Engineer District of the War Department began construction of Mound Laboratory in 1946. The facility consolidated production of the nuclear-reaction initiators, developed for the United States’ first atomic bombs during World War II. Previously (1943-1946), the work to separate, purify, and process the element polonium used in these initiators occurred at facilities throughout the Dayton area. Mound Laboratory was the nation’s first permanent post-WWII Atomic Energy Commission site. Mound Laboratory had 116 buildings and at its peak employed approximately 2,500 scientists, engineers, and skilled workers. Contractors operating at the site were Monsanto (1947-1988), Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier (1988-1997), and Babcock and Wilcox (1997-2002). (Continued on other side)
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Steel-frame skyscrapers and retail buildings replaced wood-frame residences as the downtown evolved into a commercial district. A small public library branch occupied the north side of the square from 1923 to 1954. The Keith-Albee Theater (later the Palace) in the northeast corner of the square from 1926 to 1964, featured vaudeville performances and movies. Streetcar tracks around the square were removed for scrap during World War II. With expansion of suburban shopping malls, downtown theaters and department stores gradually closed. In 1973-74 Central Square was converted to a pedestrian Federal Plaza by closing off traffic on Federal Street one block east and west of Market Street. Central Square reopened in 2004 with a new traffic pattern, planting beds, and street furniture. Marker for “Central Square (1798-1899)” across the street.
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Born in Rhode Island, John Pray (1783-1872) moved to the Maumee River Valley from New York shortly after serving in the War of 1812 and completing a prospecting tour in Ohio. He built a dam across the river to Granger Island and in 1821 constructed a water-powered gristmill, the first on the lower Maumee. In 1831, he laid out the Village of Waterville with the first 50 lots. The Columbian House, a stagecoach inn constructed by Pray in 1828 and expanded in 1837, was for years the commercial and social center of Waterville and accommodated travelers from cities such as Detroit and Cincinnati. From this building, he operated the village’s post office. When Wood County was organized in 1820, Pray became a commissioner until Lucas County was formed from part of Wood in 1835. For nine years he served as Justice of the Peace in Waterville. He and his wife Lucy raised eleven children to adulthood. Circa 1854 he constructed his home, which today overlooks Pray Park.
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In 1798, Judge Turhand Kirtland came to Township 1, Range 1 as an agent of the Connecticut Land Company. In 1804, Kirtland donated the Village Green and the graveyard adjoining the church to the residents of Poland. On the Green, the settlers built a log meetinghouse and school. Prior to 1812, the local militia drilled here and, in 1861, young men trained here before leaving to fight in the Civil War. The graveyard contains some 450 graves of early families of Poland, including settlers such as Kirtland, Fowler, Walker, Morse, Arrel, Adair, Lee, McCombs, and Truesdale. Among those buried here are thirteen Revolutionary War veterans, thirteen veterans of the War of 1812, and ten men who fought in the Civil War. In 1862, Samuel K. Hine provided in his will for the maintenance of both the Graveyard and the Green.
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The Erie Terminal Building, constructed 1921-1922, serviced both the Erie and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railways and area commerce. The design, by Swiss-born, Youngstown architect Paul Boucherle (1882-1966), is in the Commercial Style with simple classical details. The six-story building housed a passenger railroad station on the first floor and Erie Railway offices on the fifth and sixth floors. A one-story commercial bay faced Commerce Street and was the home of the International Bank and later the Morris Plan Bank. The widening of Commerce Street removed the bay in 1939. Once named the Hamory Building for its financial backer, Gustave Hamory, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and renovated in 2012, creating apartments in the upper floors and restoring the first-story railway spaces.
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The Village of Poland officially incorporated in August 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War. In April 1867, the citizens elected John Leslie as mayor. As of 1880, Poland’s population exceeded 400. Through its history, the village has consisted of a four-acre village green, churches, schools, hotels, a sawmill, gristmill, post office, tannery, and foundry, as well as carriage, tin, and cabinet shops; drug, dry goods, and hardware stores, and doctors, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. Residents swam in and skated on Yellow Creek. The Poland Municipal Forest was established in 1938 and annexed later as the Village continued to grow. In 1966, the residents held a three day Centennial Celebration, featuring an address by Governor James Rhodes. The centennial year also saw the publication of a history of Poland and the restoration of Centennial Gardens.
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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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