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Site of the first Findlay Field Office for what was to become a world-wide oil company, formerly locally owned and operated. 1887: The Ohio Oil Company was incorporated by five independent oil producers in the Lima field. 1901: J.C. Donnell elected President of the Ohio Oil Company. Company’s ‘big well,’ the “Hugh McMurray,” comes in. 1929: Construction begins on new office building at South Main Street and Hardin Streets. 1962: Name changed to Marathon Oil Company to reflect international operations.
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William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) was a Miami University faculty member in 1836 when he compiled the first edition of the McGuffey Eclectic Reader in this house. His Reader taught lessons in reading, spelling, and civic education by using memorable stories of honesty, hard work, thrift, personal respect, and moral and ethical standards alongside illustrative selections from literary works. The six-edition series increased in difficulty and was developed with the help of his brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. After the Civil War the Readers were the basic schoolbooks in thirty-seven states and by 1920 sold an estimated 122 million copies, reshaping American public school curriculum and becoming one of the nation’s most influential publications. (Continued on other side)
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Established in 1873, Lakeside is a pioneer of the American Chautauqua Movement, one of the greatest revival movements in United States history which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by the Methodist Church, Lakeside is one of the few existing Chautauqua communities that remain and thrive today. Each summer, the late-Victorian community provides spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and recreational programs designed to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. It draws visitors from across the country and around the world for its Chautauqua program. Lakeside is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Arriving in 1853, the Central Ohio Railroad called this place “Kirkersville Station,” and it was later changed by stationmaster James Outcalt, who renamed the town Outville after himself. As rail traffic increased in Ohio, a successor company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built numerous rural depots, this one in 1899. After 1940, the depot was closed and then sold and moved from town in 1963. The Harrison Township Trustees arranged for the return of the depot to Outville in 1993. Today, it stands as the only one of its type remaining on this line, and one of only a handful of original railroad buildings extant between Columbus and Pittsburgh. It serves as a reminder of local railroad and transportation history. The Queen Anne, Stick/Eastlake architectural style depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
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Ellamae Simmons, born and raised in Mount Vernon, became the first African American woman physician to specialize in asthma, allergy, and immunology in the country. Graduating in the top of her high school class, she dreamed of attending Ohio State University to become a nurse but was rejected as that program “did not have the facilities for training” the young black girl. Whenever Simmons encountered a barrier in life she refused to accept rejection, tenaciously steered the course of her own life, and blazed new trails for others. She ultimately earned degrees in nursing (Hampton, 1940), pre-med biological sciences (OSU, 1948), social work (OSU, 1950), and medicine (Howard University, 1959). Dr. Simmons again broke gender and racial barriers when hired by Kaiser Permanente in 1965. She practiced there until retiring in 1989. Simmons died aged 101.
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Maryland Park was opened in 1921. It served as the site of the annual Emancipation Day Celebration until 1933. The first Columbus public pool was constructed here in 1929 as the Center of Eastside Social and Recreation Activities. It was home to many black athletes who brought pride and distinction to themselves and to the city.
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Born in Massachusetts in 1805, Sala Bosworth spent all but nineteen years of his eighty-five years in Washington County. After studying at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, he returned to the county to paint many full size and miniature portraits of prominent Washington County citizens. His historical drawings were used in Samuel P. Hildreth’s Pioneer History. He is also known for his mural in what is now the Unitarian Universalist Church in Marietta. Bosworth moved to Cincinnati late in life and started to paint with watercolors. He died there in 1890. Charles Sullivan also studied at the Philadelphia Academy and became a fast friend of Bosworth after coming to Washington County in 1833. While he also painted portraits, he excelled in his landscapes, including views of Blennerhassett Island, the Blennerhassett mansion, and the mounds at Marietta. Sullivan died in Marietta in 1867.
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Benjamin Overfield (1774-1831), son of a Revolutionary War soldier, opened his tavern in this log house on September 13, 1808. Never moved, it is the oldest surviving building in Troy. The tavern provided food, lodging and space for business and social gatherings. Overfield agreed to let the county use a room on the second floor of the building as a temporary courtroom. Behind the tavern, Benjamin built a small log cabin that was home to his family. He prospered here until 1825 when he moved to the Public Square. Today’s structure includes the tavern, the cabin, and later additions. Used as a dwelling from 1825 until 1948, the building now houses the Overfield Tavern Museum. Benjamin Overfield and his first wife Mary are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.