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On April 19, 1891, a head-on collision between two trains of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company occurred at the Kipton depot. Eight people lost their lives, and the depot was heavily damaged. The crash occurred when a fast mail train heading east near Kipton and a passenger train going west from Elyria collided. The passenger train was supposed to let the mail train go by, but the conductor had not realized that his watch had stopped for four minutes and then restarted. As a result the passenger train was late getting to the stopping point. Looking into the matter, the railway company enlisted Webb C. Ball, a well-known Cleveland jeweler, to investigate time and watch conditions throughout its lines. Ball instituted the current railroad industry’s timekeeping program, which specified watches trainmen could use. His attention to accuracy and promptness led to the well-known saying, “Get on the Ball.”
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The village of Gates Mills derives its name from its founder, Holsey Gates, and from the importance of mills in the agricultural community. In 1826, the year of Gates Mills’ founding, a sawmill was constructed to increase the lumber supply and attract new settlers. In the following year, a rake factory was established, and by 1829 a gristmill was in operation. The Chagrin River was dammed to create a millrace that regulated the flow of water to the wheels that powered the mills. Shops and houses encircled the mills, which were the center of industry in Gates Mills.
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Akron, an industrial boomtown in the early twentieth century, grew in population nearly fivefold between 1900 and 1920. As the city industrialized, middle class residents sought homes on West Hill, away from the smoke and soot of heavy industry on the East Side. The Hall Park Allotment Historic District in West Hill represents a notable early twentieth century neighborhood. Developed by Philander Hall between 1902 and 1919 during the height of Akron’s “rubber boom,” it consists of several houses representing the picturesque styles of the period, including the American Foursquare, Craftsman, Colonial, and Medieval Revival Styles. With its gently curving brick streets, hilly topography, and mature trees, the Hall Park Allotment Historic District evokes the feeling of a distinct period of time in Akron’s history and constitutes a neighborhood of distinctive historical character and architectural merit.
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Laid out in 1814, Lakeside Cemetery became the first public burying ground in Dover Township, an area that now includes Bay Village, Westlake, and the northern portion of North Olmsted. Reuben Osborn (1778-1860) arrived in Dover on October 10, 1810, but returned to New York. He settled on this land with his wife Sarah Johnson Osborn (1779-1856) and family in 1811, later purchasing most of the plot where the cemetery would be established from Philo Taylor. Sarah’s sister, Rebecca Porter, and her infant son were the first to be buried here; they were killed when their boat capsized at the mouth of the Rocky River in 1814. Including land purchased in 1877, the cemetery currently spans half an acre. Although not recorded until 1879, there are over 270 known burials. Among those interned here are veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I.
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The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Company was chartered by the State of Ohio in January 1832 to connect west central Ohio with northern Ohio and Lake Erie. It was the first company to be incorporated for railroad purposes in the state. Construction started in Sandusky in 1835. By June 1849, the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was completed to Springfield. Through a series of mergers, the railroad became known as the Big Four Railroad in 1890. It came under control of the New York Central Railroad in 1905. As the railroad industry consolidated, ownership transferred from New York Central to Penn Central and then to Conrail. In 1994, the West Central Ohio Port Authority, a special purpose district established by the boards of county commissioners of Champaign, Clark, and Fayette counties, acquired the railroad track to ensure that freight service would continue.
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The Cincinnati Union Terminal opened in March 1933 and integrated rail travel in the city, which previously operated from five separate passenger terminals. Built when rail travel was already in decline, Union Terminal stopped operating as a passenger railroad station in 1972. Only during WWII was the terminal used to capacity with as many as 34,000 people travelling through the building daily in 1944. As part of preservation efforts, 14 mosaics depicting Cincinnati industry of the 1930s by Winold Reiss were saved from the concourse and moved to the Greater Cincinnati Airport. The restored Union Terminal became a Museum Center in November 1990 with the opening of the renovated Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and new Cincinnati History Museum. Cincinnati Union Terminal has been described as one of the most outstanding examples of Art Deco train stations in the nation and was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
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You are standing on the site of Ohio and Erie Canal. The canal helped to open the interior of Ohio to trade and settlement and played a part in Winchester’s prosperity during the mid-1800s. Local farmers exported grain from the village via the canal while local merchants imported such items as coffee, dishes, and tools for sale. Winchester was later named Canal Winchester to distinguish it from other “Winchesters” and to honor the role the canal played in its development. (Continued on side two)
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Old Homestead-on-the-Lake was established on August 7, 1927, when the Old Homestead Beach Association was granted ownership of Harbor View Beach, Mansell Beach, tennis courts, and two parks from R. A. Breckenridge, trustee for owner Metta Breckenridge. The former lake front farm area, noted for having one of the finest beaches on Lake Erie and once owned by Aaron Wright Meeker, became a site primarily for summer cottages in the spring of 1922 when Greenleaf Realty began selling lots. The original entrance served as Stop 22 1/2 for the Lake Shore Electric and serves today as a reminder when Huron became a vacation destination, which forever changed the village.
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