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The Hopewell Associate Reformed Church and Cemetery, now known as Historic Hopewell, was founded in 1808 in a log building that was replaced in 1826 with the present building. It was built by the area’s first settlers, mainly Scotch-Irish who left Kentucky and South Carolina because of their opposition to slavery. The church encouraged worship by African Americans and played an important role in the Underground Railroad. It became the parent church for four “Daughter” Presbyterian congregations: Fairhaven in 1835, Oxford in 1837, College Corner in 1849, and Morning Sun in 1876. Reverend Alexander Porter, the first pastor, was committed to education and constructed a school near the Hopewell Spring that still produces clear water. “Old Hopewell” was completely refurbished in 1880, but by 1915 the membership declined and regular services discontinued. Today Hopewell holds Sunday services in the summer and is maintained by a generous and devoted group of volunteers.
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On this bluff lies one of the two great animal effigy mounds built by Ohio’s prehistoric people. Shown here, Alligator Mound is a giant earthen sculpture of some four-footed animal with a long, curving tail. Archaeologists believe the animal is perhaps an opossum or a panther, but not an alligator. The earthwork is approximately 250 feet long, seventy-six feet wide, and four feet high. Like the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, Alligator Mound is not a burial mound. The Newark Earthworks, built by the Hopewell people between 100 B.C. and A.D. 400, are three miles to the east. Scholars do not know who built Alligator Mound, but it may be the work of the Hopewell.
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In 1870, African American men in Circleville attempted to vote in municipal elections. Despite the recent ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, pollsters refused their votes on the basis that state law forbade them from receiving the ballots. The Second Baptist Church was the site of a meeting of 147 African American men seeking redress. Together with Republican leaders these men produced petitions that were sent to the United States Senate and House of Representatives. These petitions gave the Republican Party the grounds to introduce bills to enforce the Fifteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The passage of the Enforcement Act of 1870 imposed criminal penalties for interference with the right to vote and also helped to shift power and authority from the individual state legislatures to the centralized Federal government.
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The current Preble County Courthouse, the third courthouse erected on this site, was designed by noted architect and Preble County native Harvey Heistand. Its cornerstone was laid on March 17, 1917, with a copper box containing a bible, historic papers, and other memorabilia placed under the stone. Upon completion, the building was dedicated on September 10, 1918, with three thousand people attending the ceremony. Designed in the Neo-Classical style, the exterior was constructed of Indiana Bedford limestone with ten immense columns that extend upward from the second floor. Above the colonnade, a dentiled entablature is inscribed, Salus Populi Suprema Lex, meaning “The health of the people is the supreme law.” The façade is enhanced with a bricked courtyard flanked by balustraded terraces. [continued on other side]
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The advancing and retreating mile-high glacial sheet of ice and snow shaped the countryside around this area. As the last of the ice masses melted, a great swamp developed, punctuated by towering white pines, bogs, and wetlands, fed by the Shenango and Beaver rivers. Abundant wildlife drew prehistoric and later historic Native Americans into the area where they lived and hunted for thousands of years. Indian legend has it that the name Pymatuning means “The Crooked-Mouthed Man’s Dwelling Place,” referring to a Native American chief who once resided in the area. European trappers came to these swamp lands in the 1700s in search of beaver and other fur-bearing animals. Pioneer farmers and lumbermen came to the area after 1800, but settlement in the swamp was slow and difficult. Eventually much of the area was cultivated in onions and other root crops. (continued on other side)
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Pulaski and Pulaski Township in Williams County are named for Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalry officer who died to win America’s independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. Charged with attempting to kidnap the king of Poland, Pulaski (1747-1779) fled to Paris and then to America in 1777, met General George Washington, and joined the colonies’ struggle. At the Battle of Brandywine, Pulaski covered the American retreat with a daring charge at pursuing British forces. After Brandywine, the Continental Congress commissioned Pulaski a Brigadier General of Cavalry. Pulaski later resigned his command and petitioned Washington to organize what came to be known in March 1778 as Pulaski’s Legion.
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On December 15, 1967, about one mile downstream from this historic marker, a national tragedy occurred. Forty-six interstate travelers lost their lives when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River during five o’clock rush hour traffic. The 2,235 foot two-way vehicular bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio via U.S. Route 35. The West Virginia Ohio River Company built the structure in 1928 for $1.2 million. The bridge, unique in its engineering conception, was the first of its design in America and the second in the world. Instead of woven-wire cable, the bridge was suspended on heat-treated eye-bar chains. It was named the “Silver Bridge” because it was the first in the world to be painted with aluminum paint. In 1969, two years later, its replacement, the Silver Memorial Bridge was dedicated.
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Before and during World War II, the aviation industry was vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, particularly thunderstorms. In 1945, Congress mandated the nation’s first large-scale, scientific study of thunderstorms. The Thunderstorm Project was a cooperative undertaking of the U.S. Weather Bureau, Army Air Force, Navy, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor of NASA). The first phase of the project was conducted in Florida in 1946 and the second phase in Clinton County in 1947, partly because weather fronts frequently pass through this area. Pilots from the Clinton County Army Air Force Base made many flights through storms of varying intensities and all stages of development. (Continued on other side)
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