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Lakeholm was built as the home of Columbus Delano while serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1875. Delano (1809-1896) came to Mount Vernon in 1817, attended public schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. In addition to practicing law in Mount Vernon and serving as the Prosecuting Attorney of Knox County, Delano was a farmer, mill owner, and politician. Lakeholm, originally part of a 300-acre farm, contains many of its original rooms and Italianate features. In 1966, 209 acres of the farm were acquired for the establishment of the Mount Vernon Nazarene College. The house served as offices, meeting rooms, and classrooms. In 2002, the college became a university and continues to use Lakeholm for administrative offices. Historic Lakeholm is a focal point on the Mount Vernon Nazarene University campus and a symbol of the institution’s ties with the Mount Vernon community.
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David Stearns, the first permanent settler, built a log cabin near this site on the “ridge” (Lorain Road) in 1816. Stearns was given this land by his father, Elijah, who had bought 1,002 acres from the Olmsted family. This area of North Olmsted was first called Kingston, renamed Lennox in 1823, and Olmsted in 1829. In 1827, Stearns donated his cabin to the community to be used as the first schoolhouse. In 1852 the cabin was moved to Butternut and Dover Center and continued to serve as a school.
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William J. Knight (1837-1916) was born in Wayne County, Ohio and raised by his grandparents, Jacob and Martha Knight, near Farmer, Ohio. After the outbreak of the Civil War, William enlisted in Company E, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On April 12, 1862, the twenty-five year-old Knight participated in “Andrews Raid” as an engineer. Led by James J. Andrews, the raiders stole the locomotive “General” at Big Shanty, Georgia, planning to cut telegraph lines and destroy railroad bridges and tracks as they headed north between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Above Ringgold, Georgia, the raiders were captured. Eight were executed. Knight and seven others escaped from an Atlanta jail on October 16, 1862 and made it to Federal lines. Six raiders were exchanged in 1863 (Continued on other side)
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The Zanesville lock, canal, and dam were part of a series of eleven such built on the Muskingum River from Marietta to Ellis, north of Zanesville, from 1836 to 1841. The improvements made the shallow river navigable by steamboats. The State of Ohio funded the project as part of the Ohio Canal System. The locks are approximately 35 feet wide and 160 feet long. The river improvements spurred the development of industry in Zanesville, including pottery manufacture, shipbuilding, and grain milling. From Zanesville, goods could be shipped north to the Ohio Canal and Lake Erie. Products could also be sent south to Marietta and then east to Pittsburgh or southwest to New Orleans. Steamboats brought in manufactured goods, staples, mail, and entertainment. After 1880, competition from railroads caused a gradual decline in the river traffic. Today the locks remain in operation for the enjoyment of pleasure boaters.
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First a farming community, later a railroad crossroads in southern Hancock County, Arlington was one of the county’s earliest settlements. Gen. William Hull opened a trail into the area during the War of 1812 as he crossed Buck Run at Eagle Creek. He led his army to the Blanchard River to establish Ft. Findlay. Robert Hurd owned extensive tracts of land in the area, and his sons were the first recorded settlers, building a log cabin near this site in 1834. The rich farmland and abundant water soon attracted other settlers to the vicinity of “Hurdtown.” The name was changed to “Arlington” when the village was formally surveyed in November, 1844.
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From 1942 until 1946, members of local churches and two railroad auxiliaries operated a community-based free canteen for passing troops on the platform of the Pennsylvania Railroad station. A grateful region honored approximately 1.2 million of the nation’s sons and daughters with welcoming words, sandwiches, pies, cakes, cookies, fruits, drinks, and other sundries. Staffed and funded entirely by volunteers, donations came from many communities in eight counties. Crestline’s children donated their pennies to pay for construction of a larger canteen in 1943. Volunteers met as many as 25 trains daily. They served troops on passenger trains, troop trains, and hospital trains and new recruits and returning veterans as well as troops from allied countries on their trips to and from Europe or the Pacific. Throughout World War II, many other canteens were created across the nation, including many in Ohio. The Crestline region’s reputation was enhanced immeasurably by the volunteer’s service.
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In 1972 a group of Welsh-Americans chartered the Welsh-American Heritage Museum to preserve Welsh history and culture, and to preserve the Welsh Congregational Church. The old brick church was where songs of praises rang, as the Welsh gathered and sang beloved hymns of their homeland in four-part harmony. The church is a link in a long, unbroken chain of memories and still serves the community as a center of Welsh-American activities and a keeper of the community’s heritage. The red dragon and daffodil are symbols of Wales.
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When inventor and entrepreneur Garrett Augustus Morgan sold his Traffic Signal patent to General Electric in 1923, he used the $40,000 to purchase a 121-acre farm in Huron County in 1924. Advertising “a village of our own,” Morgan established the Wakeman Country Club — one of Ohio’s early African American recreation clubs — and offered 247 lots for $60 each in “Wakeman Heights.” Located near the intersection of State Route 60 and Chenango Road, the development provided country pleasures to Blacks excluded from the Country Club lifestyle. Club membership, included in the purchase of a lot, offered fishing, hunting, swimming, and horseback riding. A restaurant, dance hall, and amphitheater provided cultural and boxing events. The club waned during World War II and no buildings from the once-thriving Wakeman Country Club remain.