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In February 1819, seven individuals met in Isaac Barnes’ home to form a Congregational Church and entered into covenant. Reverend William Hanford of the Connecticut Missionary Society provided guidance and charged the new congregation to “walk worthy of their high vocation.” Prominent members led the way. In 1832, charter member Nira B. Northrup led the Wadsworth Presbytery in releasing Reverend John Shipherd from pastoral duties to help found what would become Oberlin College. Harrison Gray (H.G.) Blake was a committed abolitionist who, as a state senator, helped repeal the Ohio Black Laws and who was a principal “station master” on the Underground Railroad. (Continued on other side)
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Company E of the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was the only full infantry company formed in Jerome Township. Capt. Elijah Warner organized the unit in the village of Jerome and it was mustered into the Union Army at Camp Chase in Columbus on August 29, 1861. A total of 102 men from the township fought in the regiment throughout the war, while approximately 25% of the total population of the Jerome Township served. Company E performed outstanding service, participating in the Antietam, Vicksburg, and Atlanta Campaigns, Sherman’s March to the Sea and the March through the Carolinas, and the in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. Of the 102 Jerome Township men in Company E, 32 perished during the war. The regiment was mustered out of service August 13, 1865.
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A group of concerned Cincinnati women organized, in 1855, The Protestant Home for the Friendless and Female Guardian Society as a private, not-for-profit maternity home for destitute women and children. These public minded social leaders were aware that Cincinnati had grown beyond the time when the poor or unfortunate were cared for by their neighbors. The Home, which was funded through bequests and personal donations, was founded to care for poor mothers and babies, unmarried pregnant women, wanderers and strangers in the city, and to promote adoptions. (Continued on other side)
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In 1871 Robert and Martha McLaughlin George erected a Soldiers Monument in the memory of their son Thomas and other soldiers from Ross Township, Jefferson County, Ohio who died in service to the United States during the Civil War. All were native to Ross Township and some, like 25 year-old Thomas George, were members of Company K, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Captain David Mitchell commanded Company K, whose recruits came from Mitchell’s Sald Works (Holt) and Yellow Creek. The unit fought in many battles, including Perryville, Kentucky, Stone River, Tennessee, Chickamauga, Georgia, and in the Atlanta campaign. Corporal Thomas George was killed at Perryville on October 8, 1862. Many of his comrades were killed in battle; others parished from disease or died as prisoners of war.
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During World War II, forty of Troy’s teenage girls, their mothers, and volunteers operated a free canteen service for troops on the platform of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad station. The group began as a few neighborhood girls providing magazines to soldiers while trains were stopped. With support and donations from Miami County communities and six additional counties, thousands of food baskets and countless drinks were given to approximately 600,000 soldiers trackside. Books, games, cigarettes, and other sundries were made available to soldiers on their trips to and from Europe or the Pacific. The volunteers of the Junior Girls Canteen served every train and soldier that came through the station, whether it was in the dead of night or the coldest day of winter. Throughout World War II, many other canteens were created across the nation, including eleven other canteens in Ohio.
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From 1944 to 1999, this was the site of Woody’s Market started by the late Woodrow W. Bowman. The Market grew from a one-person open-air produce stand to a 500-employee, 100,000 square foot full-service shopping center open 24 hours, 7 days a week. The Over-the-Road-Restaurant, added in 1968, was a gathering place for the community. Woody’s Market was a regional retail icon. After closing the Market in May 1999, Woody Bowman died on July 22, 2006. The Market was razed in April 2007.
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Called the “Cradle of Equal Suffrage” and “Free Speech Chapel,” Union Chapel was to be “…open and free for all denominations, but to be monopolized by no one or to the exclusion of anyone.” Built in 1858 or 1859 on land donated by Anson Matthews, the chapel reputedly exists in response to incident triggered by James A. Garfield, then principal of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College) and later president of the United States. He was scheduled to speak at the Congregationists’ “Brick Church” in December 1857. Because of the supposed controversial nature of Garfield’s speech, however, the invitation was withdrawn. (Continued on other side)
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In 1869 a secret organization, The Knights of Labor, was founded in Philadelphia. The K.O.L. promoted an ideal society based on bettering life for others with the slogans, “labor was the first capital” and “an injury to one is the concern of all.” Shawnee’s Local Assembly #169 Knights of Labor was organized in 1876, and quickly became a powerful voice for labor in Ohio. National labor leader, William T. Lewis, later Labor Commissioner of Ohio, taught free grammer classes at night for the miners. Lewis initiated “The Ohio Plan,” the first free empployment bureaus in the United States. William H. Bailey, later head of National District Assembly #135 of Miners and T.L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers in 1910, also started their careers here. Meetings involving these leaders led to the formation of the United Mine Workers in 1890. (Continued on other side)
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