, OH
Datus and Sara Kelley built their home here in 1843, known as the Island House. It was located up the hill from the steamboat landing and across the street from the island store (the Lodge, 1854). In 1873, Jacob Rush bought the property and built a 102-room hotel. This “pleasure resort” was 224 feet wide and three stories tall. It featured many amenities, including a bowling alley, billiard parlor, bath houses, laundry, barber shop, livery stable, and a dancing pavilion (the Casino) overlooking the lake. A fire destroyed the structure in November 1877. Later owners of the property where the hotel stood were Clara Fann and George Schardt in 1892, Frank Stang in 1895, Jacob Kuebler in 1899, and John Himmeline in 1905. Himmeline sold the property to the Village for use as a park in 1925.
, OH
The inhumanity of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 motivated anti-slavery activists to operate a covert network, the “Underground Railroad,” which helped fugitive slaves escape captivity. From the early 1800s to the end of the Civil War, local activists assisted runaway slaves on their journeys north to freedom. Guides (“conductors”) used their homes, farms, and churches (“stations”) to hide and shelter runaway slaves (“cargo.”) If captured, fugitives were severely punished and re-enslaved; “conductors” faced large fines and imprisonment, and Free Persons of Color risked being sold into slavery. A route often-traveled was once a path used by migrating buffalo, which became an Indian trail called the Bullskin Trace. It ran north from the Ohio River to Lake Erie and later became U.S. Route 68.
, OH
The Bunker Hill Society was organized about 1845 and fellowshipped in 1854. A frame meeting house, capable of seating 300, was dedicated in 1855. Thirty people united with the church during teh 1859 Annual Meeting. The membership suffered greatly during the Civil War, many enlisting in the Union Army. Some members, Like John G. Agnew, were Peace Democrats (Copperheads). Agnew withdrew from the church on July 5, 1863 saying, “I feel the course I am and have been pursuing does not comport with the Christian character. Nor do I think that I can be better while this war lasts. I do not wish to be a reproach upon the church.” The church was re-fellowshipped in 1900. The last sermon was delivered October 23, 1910. Fire destroyed the building May 8, 1924.
, OH
The first wave of Polish immigrants arrived in Toledo beginning in 1871. Most were Roman Catholics escaping oppression in Prussian Poland, where German chancellor Otto von Bismarck had instituted “Kulturkampf,” a policy of cultural assimilation. The first formal association of the Toledo Polonia (Polish community) occurred on October 16, 1875, when twenty-five families formed St. Hedwig Parish on that saint’s feast day. By 1900 Toledo had become a center of Polish population in America, and many Poles found work here in the growing glass and automobile industries.
, OH
Toledo’s first fire station was built in November 1837 one city block due north of this site at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Eagle Lane at 519 Cherry on what is now the driveway for the Goodwill Industries Building. It was a small non-descript, wooden building, built by contractors Hoisington and Manning for $78. It was replaced by a two-story brick building with tin-clad window sills and trim in December 1854. With fire trucks becoming larger and heavier, it was necessary to construct a new building in 1872 at a cost of $7000. Designated Station No. 2, it remained in service until 1953 when the new headquarters station at Huron and Orange streets was dedicated. It disappeared for good during the Urban Renewal projects of the late 1950s and 1960s.
, OH
Clark Lane (1823-1907), industrialist and philanthropist, was a son of John Lane (1793-1880) and Rosanah Crum (1795-1877). John came with his family to the Ohio Country when it was still part of the Northwest Territory. As a young man, Clark worked in his family’s blacksmith shop, and eventually helped found Owens, Lane & Dyer Machine Company in 1854. It built agricultural machinery, sawmills, papermaking machines, and other products, initiating Hamilton’s prominence in metals manufacturing. Lane funded the Butler County Children’s Home, an orphanage for over a century, and constructed an octagon house as his residence on Third Street. He built this library in 1866, also as an octagon, and donated it to the people of Hamilton. A 19th century admirer wrote, “The name and generous deeds of Clark Lane will never fade from the memories of a grateful people who have been recipients of his favor.”
, OH
“The Poet’s Shack” was built as a writing studio for the prolific poet Percy MacKaye, who held the position of writer-in-residence at Miami University from 1920-1924. MacKaye requested a writing studio in the woods, a simple shack with a fire where faculty and students could gather to talk with the poet or hear his newest works. MacKaye’s studio was built on Miami’s lower campus — now known as Bishop Woods after first president Robert Hamilton Bishop — where Upham Hall stands today. Students called the structure “The Poet’s Shack.”
, OH
Thousands of Irish immigrants came to Columbus to seek personal and religious freedom. With the “Great Hunger” in Ireland and the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the National Road, immigration to Columbus increased in the mid nineteenth century. They initially settled in the north side of the city in the swamp flats, where inexpensive land was available and work could be had on the railroads. Settlement spread to Franklinton, on Naghten Street, later known as “Irish Broadway”- part of which is now Nationwide Boulevard, and to nearby Flytown. The immigrants became domestic workers, civil servants, entrepreneurs, and served the city in police and fire departments. Others were leaders in government, law, medicine, and education. Their legacy continues today in the Irish-American population of Columbus, Ohio.
614.297.2300
Contact Us
