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Agriculture dominated the economy of southeastern Ohio’s Morgan County until the 1940s when harvests dwindled, the population declined, and land values dropped. Surface mining the area’s rich underground coal deposits replaced agriculture as the major industry and revitalized the declining local economy. As the nation’s demand for electricity grew over the next half-century, so did the demand for coal as fuel for nearby power generation plants. During mining’s heyday in the 1960s to the late 1980s, American Electric Power’s former Central Ohio Coal Company subsidiary employed nearly 1,000 people. Nearby communities-such as Cumberland, Caldwell and Chandlersville-thrived. As time passed, however, the robust coal industry was hit hard by environmental regulations that reduced the market for the area’s high-sulfur coal. In turn, mine work forces shrank considerably and local businesses closed. (continued on other side)
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The Marion Mausoleum represents a time in early 20th-century America in which burial practices changed because of advances in engineering and construction materials, concerns about hygiene, and a new rise in wealth among the middle class. Exhibiting elements of the Neo-Classical Revival and Prairie architectural styles, construction of the sandstone building began in 1906. The mausoleum opened to the public in 1916. The interior is comprised of marble and concrete. Furnishings include chandeliers, wool carpeting, and wrought iron furniture. Stained-glass windows admit natural light. Two windows feature an upside-down torch with a still-burning flame, which symbolizes a belief in eternal spiritual life after death and burial. The mausoleum has space for 383 internments. As of 2016, it is supported and maintained by a perpetual care fund.
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Established in 1879 by Chicago industrialist William P. Rend as a coal mining town, Rendville became a place where African Americans broke the color barrier. In 1888, Dr. Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American to receive a medical degree in Ohio, was elected Rendville’s mayor, also making him the first African American to be elected a mayor in Ohio. Richard L. Davis arrived in Rendville in 1882 and became active in the Knights of Labor. He was one of the labor organizers from the Little Cities of Black Diamonds region who helped found the United Mine Workers of America in 1890. An outstanding writer and orator, Davis was elected to UMWA’s national executive board and organized thousands of African Americans and immigrants to join the union. (continued on other side)
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In total area, Lake Erie is the twelfth largest freshwater lake in the world and the most shallow of the five Great Lakes. It is about 210 miles long, 57 miles wide, with a shoreline of approximately 871 miles, and has a maximum depth of 210 feet. It served as a passage for early explorers navigating by canoe into the interior of North America and has since become a key link to commercial shipping on the Great Lakes. Lake Erie is an important water resource for recreation and tourism as well as for municipal and industrial use. Its warm, shallow waters harbor a diverse and abundant fishery, primarily known by anglers for fine catches of walleye, yellow perch, and smallmouth bass.
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Unsatisfied by the terms of the treaty that ended the French and Indian War, Ottawa chief Pontiac led a confederacy of Native American tribes in attacks against British frontier forts during 1763, a campaign known as “Pontiac’s Conspiracy.” In October 1764, Colonel Henry Bouquet led a 1500-man army into the Ohio country from Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) as a demonstration of British force and to free captives held by several tribes. Informed of possible attack, Bouquet diverted his army overland from his Tuscarawas River valley route and here deployed his forces into three lines: a group of scouts on each ridge and the main force along present Route 93. Evidence of artillery emplacements and infantry breastworks remained visible for many years.
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In 1749, the French in North America perceived a threat by British expansion west of the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River Valley and beyond. The French commander, Pierre Joseph Celeron, sieur de Blainville, with 250 men, left Montreal, New France, to establish French claims. They buried inscribed lead plates at the mouths of six important tributaries to the Ohio River. Three lead plates have been recovered, one was sent to England, and two are in American historical societies. The final plate was buried just west of here at the mouth of the Great Miami River, before the detachment turned north. However, after the British captured Montreal in 1760, French claims east of the Mississippi River were ceded to Britain by the 1793 Treaty of Paris. British Parliament annexed to Quebec (now Canada) and controlled all lands north of the Ohio River until 1776.(Continued on other side)
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As Morgan’s Raiders rode eastward across southern Ohio during the third week of July 1863, the scattered defensive forces pursuing him consolidated and drew closer. Four regiments under Brigadier General Eliakim P. Scammon (including the 23rd Ohio, containing future U.S. Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley Jr.) arrived here by steamboat on July 18, preventing Morgan from entering Pomeroy. Brigadier General Henry Moses Judah’s division also arrived in Pomeroy on July 18, immediately marching east following Morgan. Following Morgan’s defeat at Buffington Island on July 19, both Judah and Brigadier General Edward H. Hobson returned to Pomeroy and headquartered at the Grand Dilcher Hotel. Of the approximately 900 Confederate prisoners captured in Meigs County, 227 were held here at the courthouse before being sent downriver to Cincinnati.
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Around 1867, along the shale cliffs of the lakeshore of Sheffield Lake, Jay Terrell found fossils of a “terrible fish” later named in his honor as Dinichthys Terrelli. This animal, now known as Dunkleosteus terrelli, was a massive arthrodire (an extinct, joint-necked, armor-plated fish) that lived in the Devonian sea, which covered much of eastern North America some 354-364 million years ago. Dunkleosteus was armed with an incredible set of shearing jaws and was clearly the top marine predator in the Devonian Period (the “Age of Fishes”).
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