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Located in southern Wood County, the village of New Baltimore was founded in 1860, with the first plat of twenty-nine acres recorded by B.L. Peters in 1873. Official incorporation occurred February 7, 1876, with the name being changed to North Baltimore in 1880. The town flourished owing to the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873, from which the town took its name, and the discovery of rich oil and gas deposits in 1886. First settlers included: Jacob Dirk, George Franks, Levi A. Tarr, and B.L. Peters. The population of the village grew from 700 in 1880 to 2,857 in 1890. One of the first buildings, which was erected in 1860, served as a school and meeting hall and was located on the northwest corner of Main and Broadway streets. This area, then known as “The Great Black Swamp,” had given birth to a thriving town.
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Anson Williams visited Ohio in 1834 before he moved to Orange Township. A former resident of New York State, Williams purchased this site and the surrounding 1,000 acres of U.S. Military District lands and hoped to find opportunity for himself and his family. He bought the land for $6.00 an acre from James D. Wolf, who owned the 4,000-acre section three of Orange Township. The Village of Williamsville was laid out with 80 lots in 1836 on both sides of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike. Williams built his home and a hotel with a store and tavern. A hotel and tavern, owned by George Gooding and where the stage changed horses, had already been established north of Williamsville. Competition may have led to Williamsville’s decline. A church was built in 1845 and remained until 1900. Anson died in 1847, and his wife Hannah passed away in 1851. Both are buried in nearby Williamsville Cemetery.
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The Episcopal Society of Huron was organized in 1837, the Rev. F. M. Levenworth, pastor. The cornerstone of this building was laid May 23, 1838; it is the oldest church building in Huron, standing near what had been the original southern limit of the village. The Rev. Samuel Marks became pastor in 1839 and continued for over 40 years. This marker commemorates the church’s sesquicentennial observance in 1988.
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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.
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The most notable feature of Mantua Center is the “Village Green,” which harkens back to the New England heritage of Mantua Center’s early settlers. The Green sets upon land donated by Hezekiah Nooney Sr. and was important to both the social and commercial interests of the town. The businesses located here were a furniture and cabinet maker’s shop, harness shop, blacksmith shop, post office, tannery, ashery, dry goods store, and distillery. The Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Mantua Civic Center, stands at the southwest corner of the green. Eastlawn cemetery, with a burial that dates to 1816, sits along the south border. The cemetery serves as the final resting place for soldiers of several wars, including the American Revolution, as well as many other early citizens. In 1835 Horace Sizer constructed the stone wall around the cemetery adjacent to Mantua Center Road. [continued on other side]
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A descendent of Knox County’s earliest pioneers, Confederate Brigadier General Daniel Harris Reynolds was born just three miles west of Centerburg in 1832. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, where he became a close friend of Otho Strahl, another Ohio born Confederate general. Reynolds taught school in Ohio before studying law in Iowa and then Tennessee. Admitted to the bar in 1858, Reynolds established a law practice in Chicot County Arkansas. An advocate of secession, Reynolds chose to serve the Confederate States of America in his adopted state of Arkansas at the start of the Civil War. Well respected in his community, he raised a company of cavalry known as the “Chicot Rangers.” (Continued on other side)
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In 1817, Revolutionary War veteran and Camden co-founder James Moore Sr. and his wife, Mary, deeded a plot to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) to erect a place of worship. Although a church was not built until 1825, the earliest burial stone recovered on the plot was that of five-year-old Simon P. Zimmerman, dated 1818. Many subsequently interred were victims of the cholera epidemic of 1849. Felix and Rachel Marsh, in 1852, sold an adjacent one-acre plot to the MEC trustees “for a graveyard.” The expanded cemetery became known as Orchard Hill Cemetery due to the nearby fruit orchards. Prominent citizens of early Camden as well as veterans of American conflicts from the Revolution through the Civil War are buried in the cemetery. (Continued on the other side)
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In recognition of its noteworthy representation of the history, culture, and architecture of the Western Reserve, Burton Village’s Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Historic District, an area of approximately 20 acres surrounding the Village Green and along streets at the north end of the Green, includes 15 buildings of historical significance built between 1815 and 1891. Preserved within the District are commercial and public buildings and private dwellings that reflect the cultural and architectural development of a village of the Western Reserve of Ohio during the 19th century. Buildings in the predominant architectural styles of the 19th century are all represented in the Historic District, including Western Reserve, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Italianate, and Queen Anne. [Continued on other side]
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