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The Peters Cartridge Company was once a major employer in the region, providing munitions for Allied forces during World Wars I and II. Organized in 1887, it was the first ammunition company to produce machine-loaded shotgun shells. After an explosion in 1890 that killed 12, the factory was rebuilt at this site. By 1916, brick and reinforced concrete buildings had replaced wood structures and a taller shot tower had been erected. Sister company to the King Powder Company across the Little Miami River, 3,000 men and women at Peters produced 1,500,000 cartridges per day in 1917 to supply munitions during WWI. In 1934, Remington Arms bought the company, enlarged it, and then sold it in 1944. The shot tower and smoke stack stand as a reminder that Peters was once the leader in ammunition production.
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The Canfield War Vet Museum was chartered in 1988 by American Legion Post 177 and Ladies Auxiliary to collect and preserve items and history from American wars. The building that houses the museum was built in 1809 by Comfort S. Mygatt, a Revolutionary War veteran, and later, passed through several generations of the Church family. Colonel James Madison Nash, a Civil War officer, lived here for a time, giving the house its nickname, “The Colonel’s House.” The structure stands as the oldest building in Canfield on its original site. The carding barn on the rear of the property was built in 1810 to process sheep wool. The Wall of Honor at this site honors war veterans, in particular, the Revolutionary War veterans interred in Canfield cemeteries and the 18 Canfield men who lost their lives in World War II.
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In search of a westward-flowing river, French explorer and trader Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) mounted an inland expedition from the south shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Grand River in the fall of 1669. Thought to be the first European to see the Ohio River, La Salle journeyed up the Grand River and portaged to a tributary of the Ohio; from there he descended as far as the falls at Louisville, Kentucky. La Salle’s explorations both expanded the fur trade and helped to consolidate French claims to the Mississippi River valley. French dominance in Ohio ended following British victory in the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
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The Triangle, one of the most historic places in Berea, has been the center of the city’s civic life since the mid-19th century. Just beneath lie the solid layers of the famous Berea Sandstone that brought prosperity to Berea during its early years. Quarry owner and Berea Seminary founder John Baldwin obtained much of what is now Berea from Gideon Granger, Postmaster General under President Thomas Jefferson and original owner of Township 6, Range 14 (later Middleburg Township) of the Western Reserve. When the seminary trustees transferred the Triangle tract to the people of Berea in 1847, they designated it by deed as a public promenade. This farsighted stipulation preserved it from commercial development during the 20th century. (continued on other side)
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The Marysville Ohio National Guard Armory was the first such armory constructed in the state after the recognition of the Guard in 1909. The new armory and others like it were built in response to federalization of National Guard units after the passage of the Militia Act of 1903. Armory buildings served as the headquarters for local companies and provided drill rooms and arsenals for the storage of military equipment and supplies. Architect Charles Insco Williams designed Marysville’s armory and it was built by James Laughlin, both of Dayton, Ohio. Marysville contractor George W. Fox provided the brickwork for the structure. Construction began in 1910 and was completed in 1911 at a cost of $19,886. (Continued on other side)
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In the late 1790s General Benjamin Whiteman built near this site one of the first log cabins in Alpha, the first settlement in what would become Beavercreek Township of Greene County. The cabin, later owned by Whiteman’s father-in-law, Owen Davis, and leased for use as a tavern to Peter Borders, became the first courthouse of Greene County. Twenty-five feet square, it had one room below and a chamber above, serving as the family sleeping quarters. A small ladder through a hole in the ceiling reached the upper level. The building was constructed of burr oak logs with a roof made of clapboards held in place by long poles laid across them. Considered to be one of the finest houses in that part of the county, the cabin had one door, one window, and a huge fireplace with an outside chimney built of sticks, stones, and clay. (Continued on other side)
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Frances Dana (Barker) Gage was born on October 12, 1908, in Marietta. She married James L. Gage in 1829 and they raised eight children, including four sons who served with Union forces during the Civil War. Throughout much of her life, Frances was deeply involved with the Temperance and Anti-Slavery movements and Women’s Rights issues. Presiding over the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron in 1851, she invited Sojourner Truth to give her famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech. The Gage family moved in 1853 to St. Louis, the western extension of the Mason-Dixon Line, where her life was threatened whenever she spoke out against slavery. During the Civil War, she traveled south to aid Union soldiers and teach freed slaves. Though crippled and permanently disabled by a stroke, she continued to lecture on social issues until 1867. Frances Dana Gage died on November 10, 1884, in Greenwich, Connecticut.
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American Legion Union Post No. 79 was organized on August 21, 1919, at the National Guard Armory in Marysville. In 1927, the Legion purchased a 24 acre parcel known as “Clement Woods” to serve as a living memorial “to Union County Veterans of All Wars”. The park was dedicated on August 24, 1927, and renamed American Legion Memorial Park. The brick Memorial Building was constructed from 1937 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Post held their first meeting there on September 12, 1938. An addition to the Memorial Building was completed in 1960. In 1989, the Legion donated the park to the City of Marysville on the condition it remains a free, public park.
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