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The Mount Zion Chapel of the Christian Church was built in 1872 on this hill adjacent to the members’ cemetery outside of Clermontville. The site was part of a two-acre parcel that had been secured from the farm of William R. Clark, Sr. for church and cemetery purposes. The Mount Zion Chapel replaced the Boat Run Christian Church that was organized in 1842 by a sect called the Christians, or the New Lights. Their first meeting house in Clermontville was dedicated on June 4, 1843 and damaged by floods in 1871. Worship was first held in the new frame church with the new name on October 6, 1872 and the church remains active today.
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The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway began construction of the Dennison Railroad Shops here in 1864. This rail line was chartered as the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad in 1849, opened in 1855, and integrated into the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1870. The yard and shops, situated exactly halfway between Pittsburgh and Columbus, were known as the “Altoona of the Pan Handle” and boasted foundries, machine shops, and two roundhouses. The Dennison Shops experienced their busiest period between 1900 and 1921, with over 3,000 workers employed in the complex. A bitter 1922 strike prompted consolidation, and the facility was gradually phased out. The last passenger train stopped in 1970. Ohio Central Railroad Systems revived the line in 1992 as the Columbus and Ohio River Railroad.
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When Sunbury was platted in 1816, a town square was set aside for public use with the intention of constructing a town hall on the site. The first two stories of the Town Hall were built, as a school, in 1868 for $5,000. The Masons added the third story for $1,500 and occupied it for 91 years, until a lodge was constructed. Since 1868, the Town Hall has served Sunbury as a village office building, jail, fire station, and community library. Church services as well as Farmer’s Institutes were held in the building, and at one time it housed a bank. In 2002, the Town Hall was renovated for use as a community room and village offices.
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At the turn of the twentieth century, increased enrollment in the Combined Normal and Industrial Department at Wilberforce University (which later became Central State University) spurred construction of new teaching and dormitory facilities. Galloway Hall, which included an auditorium and a tower with chimes and a clock, was completed in 1906. Many famous personalities performed in Galloway Hall’s auditorium, including the renown opera singer Leontyne Price; Robert McFerrin, the first African American male lead with the New York Metropolitan Opera; actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis; comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory; and composer and conductor Duke Ellington. Noted authors and intellectuals addressed audiences there, including historian John Hope Franklin; writer, poet, actor, and playwright Maya Angelou; Lerone Bennett, author, historian, and editor of EBONY Magazine; and writer and essayist James Baldwin. (continued on other side)
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The Society of Separatists of Zoar built the Zoar Town Hall in 1887 when the village was formally incorporated. Established in 1817 by German religious dissidents, Zoar became one of the most successful experiments in communal living during the 19th century. Early hardships encouraged the Zoarites, in 1819, to establish a communal system to ensure economic and social security. The Society disbanded in 1898. The Zoar Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
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The Village of Tallmadge was founded in 1807. The first Academy building was erected in 1815. The first home of the Academy was located on the second floor of this Town Hall, which was erected in 1859. The Academy served students from northeast Ohio, who desired advanced courses not offered by local school systems, until 1876.
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John “Appleseed” Chapman is considered one of Richland County’s original pioneers. In the summer of 1809, Chapman arrived in the Mansfield area just as Mansfield’s first town lots were being offered for sale. Chapman purchased town lot 265 for $120 from Henry H. Wilcoxen. Wilcoxen served as Richland County Sheriff from 1820 to 1825. Chapman later sold the lot to Jesse Edgington on October 30, 1818 for $100. During the War of 1812, approximately two blocks west of this site, members of the Delaware Indian tribe were encamped in a ravine southwest of the public square. After being removed by military force and their village burned, the Delaware were en route from their village in Greentown to the Council at Piqua under Colonel Samuel Kratzer.
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In 1796, surveyors for the Connecticut Land Company designated an area five miles square surrounding this place as Range 7, Township 7 of the Connecticut Western Reserve. A landowner’s expedition on June 15, 1798, arrived at the northwest corner of the township. One of its members, Thomas Umberfield (Umberville) brought his family to the center of the township (now Burton Village) on June 21, 1798. Here they built the first home, a simple log cabin located southwest of the spring at the end of Spring Street. The owner of the largest parcel of land in the township, Titus Street, was given the honor of naming the township. He named it after his son, Burton.