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The Exaltation/Elevation of the Holy Cross Church served both Byzantine Greek and Russian Orthodox Catholic congregations from 1915 to 1967. As Slovak migrants found work in the Cambridge coal fields of Guernsey and Noble Counties, they dreamed of a place to worship surrounded by the religious rites and iconography of their homeland. On January 26, 1914, Daniel Varhola, John Fetkovich, John Demko, Stephen Varhola, and Mike Zeleznik (trustees of the “Greek Catholic Church, which is united forever with the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church”) purchased land on a hill overlooking Belle Valley. The two-sided cornerstone, inscribed in Russian and Slovak, was blessed November 15, 1915. For over 50 years, the church anchored the Eastern European immigrants living in Belle Valley to the ethnic identity and traditions of their homeland. (Continued on other side)
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Miami & Erie Canal and Napoleon’s First Cemetery. The Miami & Erie Canal stretched approximately 250 miles from Cincinnati to Toledo. Napoleon and other towns on the Maumee River’s banks were on a slackwater section of the canal. Between 1825 and 1845, laborers constructed the canal using shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, and horse and mule-drawn carts. In Henry County, Napoleon, and elsewhere, German and Irish immigrants and area farmers did the work and were paid around 30 cents a day. As the canal brought more people and business to the area, villages such as Florida, Damascus, and Texas flourished and the county seat of Napoleon boomed. The canal and consequent growth took their tolls, however. Sickness and disease such as “ague” (malaria) and cholera spread and carried off many. Napoleon’s first cemetery was located in the vicinity of 500 East Clinton Street, near the route of the canal.
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Asa Bushnell, former Governor of Ohio, encouraged by the light grade of the land, decided to establish the Springfield, Troy, and Piqua Railway (ST&P) in July 1904. The interurban traction line utilized sixty-pound rail and traveled over only one bridge. With direct current electricity generated in Springfield, the ST&P used four double-ended fifty-foot cars, each with a railroad roof, arch windows, GE-57 engines, and fifty-horsepower motors. The ST&P traveled from Springfield’s Fountain Square to Maitland, Hill Top, Lawrenceville, Bushnell, North Hampton, Dialton, Thackery, Proctors, Christiansburg, Brights, and Casstown and ended at Troy’s North Market Street Bridge. Later rights were granted to travel over the Great Miami River into Troy in conjunction with the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railway. The northwest right-of-way from Casstown to Piqua was secured but never built.
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The first road to traverse Sandusky County through the Black Swamp was little more than a muddy path connecting Lower Sandusky (Fremont( and Perrysburg with Woodville. The arduous task of clearing the 120-foot-wide road through the swampy forest was completed within four years. By 1842, the work of stoning the road and draining adjacent lands was completed. Tolls were collected to maintain the road, and it became known as the Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike. After 1888 it became a toll-free road and today is State Route 20.
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William McKinley served the nation as president, the people of Ohio as governor, and the citizens of his congressional district as a representative. McKinley was shot by an assassin in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901 and died several days later. The McKinley National Memorial, funded by children’s donations, was dedicated in 1907. It is the burial site of the 25th President, First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley, and two daughters. Designed by architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle, the pink Milford granite structure was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
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Seba Bronson Jr. left Columbia Township in early 1810 and followed the Rocky River to an area one and a half miles north of here. He built a cabin and planted a crop and thus started what became known as the village of Hardscrabble in Liverpool Township. The village was centered around the Columbia/Grafton Road area, and the township is the oldest continuously inhabited township in Medina County. The Potawatami Indians occupied this area and camped annually along the Rocky River. For five silver dollars, they showed Seba and a partner a hidden salt springs which they sought to exploit. Other men also scrabbled to own it and Justus Warner succeeded. Seba was turned out. Warner operated the Liverpool Salt Works beginning in 1811. The first industry in the county, salt was a necessity and eagerly sought by setters in the area.
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This is Marion County’s fourth courthouse and the second at this site. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1884. Costing $115, 00, it was completed in 1885 by contractors Leffler and Bland. In 1973 the courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1975 the interior was remodeled at a cost of over $900,000.
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The pioneer village of Vistula is now bounded by Walnut, Champlain, Chestnut, Magnolia, and Summit streets. Established in 1833 by Benjamin F. Stickney and Edward Bissell, Vistula was merged with its rival, Port Lawrence, and in 1837 both villages were incorporated as Toledo. The Vistula Historic District, Toledo’s oldest neighborhood, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.