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J. Scott Garbry, a 1986 inductee into the Ohio Conservation Hall of Fame, had a lifelong commitment and passion for conservation, historic preservation, and education. His gift of land and artifacts to the Upper Valley JVS led to the creation of the Willowbrook Environmental Education Center and Garbry Museum. He was also instrumental in providing land for the site of the Piqua High School and for Garbry Woods of the Miami County Park District. These gifts make it possible to appreciate and experience Ohio’s natural and historic heritage.
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Situated in an agriculturally rich area, county fairs have long been a significant tradition and event in Meigs County. The Meigs County Agricultural Society held its first fair on October 22, 1851, in Middleport and its second at the Rock-Spring Hotel on October 31, 1852. Subsequent fairs occurred around the county until March 14, 1868, when the first section of a permanent location was purchased from Leonard and Jane Carleton near Rock Springs and became known as the Meigs County Fairgrounds. A popular place, the nearby natural springs, exemplified by the historic stone-carved springhouse, once supplied water to the grounds and community. Improvements to the fairgrounds included expanding the one-third mile racetrack to a half-mile in 1889, constructing the unique curved grandstand in 1890, and reconstructing the 1829 Foster-Jenkinson log cabin on the grounds in 1987. A single barrack from the Civilian Conservation Corps camp of the 1930s remains in use.
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Old Woman Creek is one of the few naturally functioning estuary environments – places where chemically-distinct bodies of water meet and mix – left in the western basin of Lake Erie. This ecosystem features diverse habitats of marshlands, sand beaches, and upland forests, supporting plants and animals unique to natural coastal communities. Nearly 300 bird species (including bald eagles), 40 fish species, and hundreds of native plants have been recorded in this area. Old Woman Creek is Ohio’s only national estuarine sanctuary and became a state nature preserve in 1980.
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The Jain Center of Cincinnati and Dayton was established on April 22, 1979 as a non-profit tax-exempt organization under the laws of the United States and the State of Ohio. The foundation stone of the Jain temple, the first of its kind in Ohio, was laid down on August 21-22, 1994. The temple was dedicated on September 2 – 4, 1995 when more than one thousand people from all over Ohio and many other states participated in holy rituals to install three idols of Jinas (Gods). The Jain Center is a place for the teaching of non-violence, reverence for life, and compassion for all beings. The center was the home of the twelfth biennial convention for the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, which was held on July 3 – 6, 2003. (Continued on the other side)
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Near this site stood the former Custer Homestead of Emanuel and Maria Custer from 1856-1865. For two years it was the boyhood home of Captain Tom Custer, younger brother of famed General George Armstrong Custer. At age 16, Tom misled a recruiter in neighboring Gilead, Ohio about his age and enlisted in the Civil War. He later earned two Congressional Medals of Honor, the first person in history to do so, for capturing enemy flags at Namozine Church on April 3, 1865 and at Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. His parents relocated to Monroe, Michigan during the Civil War. Tom continued serving in the Army during the Indian Wars in the West and often visited his brother Nevin in Tontogany. He, along with his brothers George and Boston, brother-in-law James Calhoun, and nephew Harry Reed, were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.
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The Newbury Woman Suffrage Political Club, headquartered at Union Chapel, planted the Centennial Oak on July 4, 1876. The White Oak (Quercus alba) was chosen for its endurance, longevity, and beauty. The picnic and planting celebration included speeches, songs, fireworks, and a poem dedicated to the Oak written by local suffragist Anna Green. As the club gained national recognition, it attracted such notable suffragists as Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Taylor Upton as visitors and speakers. A Newbury gathering on August 23, 1919, held to celebrate Ohio’s recent ratification of the 19th Amendment, included suffragists Upton and Frances Jennings Casement. The last living founding member of Newbury’s Woman Suffrage Club, Dr. Julia Porter Green, led a parade from the chapel to Centennial Oak. There she placed a wreath of evergreen and goldenglow upon the tree.
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Jeremiah Reeves was born in England in 1845 and began his career in the mills of Wales, United Kingdom, at the age of ten. In 1867, he immigrated to the United States where he worked in the steel mills of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He met his wife Jane Rees in the latter place and they married in 1869. In 1883, Reeves acquired a steel rolling mill in Dover for $14,000. Despite a history of financial difficulties, the Reeves Iron Works would go on to expand several times and employ over 800 men. The iron works and later the Reeves Manufacturing Company established Dover as an industrial center during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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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.