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A pioneer in automotive innovation, Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958) was born three miles north of Loudonville. He attended local schools and graduated from Ohio State University in 1904. He organized the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) in 1909, which later became a part of General Motors (GM). “Boss Ket” served as vice-president of research for GM until 1920 and held over 140 patents (including four-wheel brakes, safety glass, and “ethyl” gasoline), achieving his greatest fame for an all-electric starting, lighting, and ignition system. The electric starter debuted on the 1912 Cadillac and was soon available on all cars, helping to popularize them with women. In 1945 he helped establish the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Institute in New York.
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At this site on September 17, 1952, an assembly of Louisville citizens led by Olga T. Weber joined U.S. Congressman Frank T. Bow in commemorating the completion of U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. With the goal of promoting a wider understanding of citizens’ rights and responsibilities, the Committee for the Preservation of the Constitution lobbied for both state and national observances. In 1953, Governor Frank Lausche proclaimed September 17 as Constitution Day in Ohio; subsequently President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the week of September 17, 1955 as Constitution Week. The committee, incorporated in 1962, has marked the anniversary each year since–making this Louisville tradition the nation’s longest continuing observance of Constitution Day.
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The Ottawa, or “Tawa” Indians had inhabited the Maumee Valley since the middle of the 1700s. By the 1790s, Ottawa settlements included villages along the Blanchard River at the present-day Village of Ottawa. During the War of 1812, Colonel James Findlay destroyed these villages because the Ottawa aided British forces. In 1817, the United States government established a reserve for the Ottawa in exchange for their lands in Northwest Ohio. The reserve encompassed a five-mile square area; its center was the intersection of the Blanchard River and an Indian trace near what is now Old State Route 65. (Continued on other side)
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The Bunker Hill House, previously the Bunker Hill Tavern, was built in stages between 1834 and 1862. The building is one of Ohio’s best representations of Federal-Greek Revival style “pike town” architecture. This architectural style is closely associated with pre-Civil War horse-powered turnpike transportation and lodging. The building was a way station for pioneers heading west and for drovers driving their animals to Cincinnati stockyards. It was also a stagecoach stop on Eastern Stage Coach Company’s Cincinnati Omnibus Line that operated daily between Cincinnati and Richmond, Indiana. Tavern operations ceased in 1858 due to decreased turnpike travel resulting from the newly completed railroad through nearby Camden. In 1862, a general store was established to supply the growing population in the area. The store closed in the early 1900s with the advent of the automobile, which made travel to larger, more distant stores viable. The Bunker Hill House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. (continued on other side)
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This historic inn began serving travelers on the old Portage-Columbiana stage road (now Tallmadge Road) in 1832. Two major stage lines, one from Cleveland to Wellsville (the closest Ohio River port) and the other from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, passed through Palmyra in the early 1800s. Originally a simple two-story Greek Revival-style building, it had its third story added in 1888 when it became a lodge for the Knights of Pythias fraternal organization. It served as a private residence and store for most of the 20th century. The Palmyra Center Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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McConnelsville and Malta are two towns that prospered because of the locks and dams built on the Muskingum River from 1836 to 1841. Settlers came to both towns in 1817. In the 1820s and 1830s, flatboats carried grain, lumber, and livestock down the river. The locks and dams made the Muskingum navigable to steamboats, and both towns grew rapidly. Malta was the home of the Brown-Manly Plow Company, a leading maker of farm equipment in the 1800s. Brown-Manly depended on steamboats to bring in raw materials and to take products to markets. Mills at McConnelsville ground grain and shipped flour north to the Ohio Canal and to the east coast, and south to the Ohio River and the Mississippi trade.
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The museum of the Mercer County Historical Society, the Riley Home represents six generations of the Riley family in the county. The first Riley to arrive here was Captain James Riley, who surveyed the area in 1819, after it was opened to American settlement following the Treaty of Saint Marys in 1818. Captain Riley was elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 1823. Captain Riley’s son, James Watson Riley platted Celina in 1834, was Mercer County’s Clerk of Courts, and then represented the area in the Ohio General Assembly beginning in 1843. (Continued on other side.)
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The Wakeman Red Caps, perhaps one of the area’s best semi-pro baseball teams during the 1930s and 40s, first played night baseball under lights installed at Wakeman Field on July 24, 1935. The Field, no longer extant, was bounded by Hyde, Clark, Pleasant, and Townsend (Ohio Route 303) streets. The game was played only two months after Franklin D. Roosevelt switched on lights at Crosley Field for the Cincinnati Reds. The Red Caps were part of the Wakeman Baseball Club, an organization which was founded in 1889 and was sponsored by Charles S. Clark, Sr., and others. For aspiring local baseball players, playing night baseball for the Red Caps was a great honor. Wakeman Field was annually graced with Abe Saperstein’s Ethipian Clowns, an African-American traveling baseball team, and also saw appearances by Tom Manning, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Al Schacht, Jesse Owens, and other sports greats.