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Fowlers Mill (originally Fowler’s Mills) developed around a group of mills built in the 1830s on the Chagrin River. Opportunities from these mills led to Fowlers Mill becoming the commercial center of Munson Township. From the 1830s into the twentieth century, the community expanded with construction of churches, a post office, township hall, stores, hotel, blacksmith shop, schools, and houses built in such styles as Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne. This type of community center was common in rural, nineteenth century America, but rarely survives with so much original fabric intact. On Mayfield Road, the Disciple Church was built in 1842. East of the church, the brick central school built in 1913 replaced earlier one-room schoolhouses. The gristmill is the only mill standing in Geauga County. The cemetery contains burials dating from the 1830s. The Fowler’s Mills Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
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Ground was broken for Mariemont by Mary M. Emery, the village’s founder, on April 23, 1923. This planned community was designed by eminent town planner John Nolen and twenty-five of America’s leading architects. As part of the “garden city movement,” Mariemont was influenced by English models. Mariemont was incorporated July 12, 1941, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1979.
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The oldest known structure standing in Franklin, the Old Log Post Office is a reminder of the links the community’s earliest members maintained to the rest of the young state of Ohio and to the United States during the early nineteenth century. John Noble Cumming Schenck, older brother of one of the founders of Franklin, William C. Schenck, established a store here in 1802. In 1805 President Thomas Jefferson appointed John Schenck postmaster of Franklin, a position he held until 1829. Schenck’s store is considered Franklin’s first post office and was one of the first four in Warren County. This building first stood at 310 South River Street and over the years was completely covered by additions and clapboards. They were removed in October 1974 and the house was moved to this location on December 6 of that year. In 1976 the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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In 1839, Bishop John Baptist Purcell recruited European priests to minister to his Ohio flock. Father Louis Navarron, a young French missionary, was appointed to the French Catholic population of Darke and Shelby Counties in the area now marked by the villages of Russia, Versailles, and Frenchtown. St. Valbert, a centrally-located log church, was dedicated in December 1840 by Bishop Purcell to serve the region. In Russia, a log chapel was dedicated on Jean Jacques DeBrosse’s farm in 1846. Parish boundary lines were established in 1850, Precious Blood priests arrived, and a new church was dedicated to Saint Remigius in August 1852. As the congregation grew, so did the church buildings. The current Saint Remy Catholic Church, built between 1891-1892, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
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Built by William Stedman in 1816 of local stone, this building served as the Bank of the Alexandrian Society, which printed its own currency. The bank failed in 1817 and 1837. This building has also been used as a store, post office, and interurban railway depot. It was enlarged and opened as a museum during Granville’s Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1955, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Granville Historic District in 1980.
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Richard E. Schreder grew up in Toledo, Ohio and graduated from the University of Toledo with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was a decorated navy pilot and iconic aviation figure who helped shape the American soaring movement, international glider design, and competitive soaring and piloting flight strategies. He also made high performance gliders available to a wide audience through the affordable kit production of his distinctive HP (High Performance) glider designs. These designs and Schreder’s numerous contributions to aviation and the sport of soaring are recognized as “groundbreaking and pioneering” by the Smithsonian Museum and are part of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s permanent collection. (continued on other side)
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The Village of Van Buren was laid out December 28, 1833, by John Trout and George Ensminger on the boundary of Portage and Cass Townships. It was comprised of 53 lots surrounding a public square, and was named in honor of Martin Van Buren, a prominent national figure (8th President, 1837-41). The village was incorporated in 1866 and Daniel Frick was elected the first mayor.
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The Oorang Indian football team was founded by LaRue native Walter Lingo (1890-1966), owner of the Oorang Airedale Dog Kennels. The team, comprised of Native American Indians, played in the National Football League (NFL) in 1922-23. The star player and coach was Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), a Sac and Fox Indian. Thorpe gained international fame as a two-time gold medal winner (decathlon and pentathlon) in the 1912 Olympics and was acclaimed as the “World’s Greatest Athlete.” The team gave LaRue the distinction of being the smallest community ever to have an NFL franchise.