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Milan was a leading Great Lakes port after the completion of the 3 mile Milan Canal in 1839. Center of activity was the Milan Basin at this site where produce was brought from area farms for shipment to lake and world ports through 14 warehouses by as many as 20 schooners a day. Seventy-five vessels were built in the basin. Railroad competition and the flood of 1868 ended Milan’s port activity.
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The 43-room Tudor mansion represents a fine example of stately homes in Cleveland at the turn of the century and is the last of the “Millionaire Row” homes that once lined Euclid Avenue. It was designed by Charles F. Schweinfurth, a world-renowned Cleveland architect, in 1905-06 and completed in 1910 at a cost of $1,200,000. Following Samuel Mather’s death in 1931, the building was occupied by the Cleveland Institute of Music until 1940 then by the Cleveland Automobile Club until 1967 when it was purchased by The Cleveland State University. The mansion was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on February 20, 1973.
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A migration of Indians throughout Ohio began due to unstable conditions created by the American Revolution. The massacre of Christian Indians at the Moravian mission of Gnadenhutten in 1782 and Colonel William Crawford’s expedition against Wyandot and Delaware towns along the Sandusky fueled insecurities. Delaware, including a small group of Mingo Indians, abandoned the village of Helltown, five miles southwest of this site, and settled Greentown as early as 1783. Greentown, situated on an elevation on the Black Fork beyond the clearing behind this site, was presumably named for British loyalist, Thomas Green. John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) had an amicable relationship with the Delaware, owned land throughout the Black Fork Valley, and was known to visit Greentown on his travels throughout Ohio. Other visitors to the village included the Shawnee Prophet; Munsee Delaware leader, Captain Pipe; and local preacher, James Copus.
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Production of synthetic soda ash began here, in America’s second plant, on November 1, 1900, by Columbia Chemical Company to support Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now PPG Industries), marking birth of PPG’s diversified chemical operations. Principal founder John Pitcairn, first works manager Hugh Allen Galt. Plant subsequently added other chemicals. World’s deepest limestone mine (2200 feet beneath surface) established 1944. Soda ash discontinued 1973.
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Mariah Storts Allen was Ohio’s last surviving first generation daughter of a Revolutionary War soldier. She was born August 4, 1842 in Bearfield Township and died May 2, 1933 in New Lexington. Her father, John Jacob Storts, volunteered to fight for American independence at age 13 and camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Allen was a descendant of Ohio’s First Families and an Honorary Member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The DAR refers to first generation daughters as “Real Daughters.”
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Judge William H. West of Bellefontaine led a distinguished career in law, public service, and politics. In 1854 West helped found the Republican party in Ohio and six years later he participated in Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for the presidency. West served consecutive terms in both houses of Ohio’s General Assembly from 1857 to 1865 and was elected the state’s attorney general at the end of the Civil War. He became an Ohio Supreme Court justice in 1871 and in 1877 was his party’s nominee for governor. After losing his sight, Judge West retired from the court but continued to practice law. At the Republican party’s convention in 1884, the “Blind Man Eloquent” nominated James G. Blaine as the G.O.P.’s presidential candidate. Defining Republicans as a party for “union, freedom, humanity, and progress,” the judge’s nomination speech sparked a celebration that historian David McCullough described as “one of the most memorable events in the whole history of national political conventions.”
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Y-BRIDGE—1902—World Famous Part of the Old National Road
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Bainbridge Center Historic District. Founded in 1817, Bainbridge Township was named for Commodore William Bainbridge, commander of the USS Constitution during the War of 1812. The unincorporated hamlet of Bainbridge Center is both the geographic and historic center of Bainbridge Township. The town hall, churches, stores, shops, a school, and post office were established in Bainbridge Center. The architecture of houses in the area, most notably those built during the Greek revival period, reflects the agricultural past of the community and its development in the twentieth century. Citizens gathered in The Center to attend church and school, shop, and participate in social and political functions.