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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.
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The Bremen Oil Boom commenced in 1907-’08 and the town became a center in the region’s petroleum industry. The area was a forest of oil derricks. From this point south, it was said that one could go down Broad Street from derrick to derrick and not touch the ground. A reconstructed derrick, erected to commemorate Bremen’s sesquicentennial in 1984, may be seen in Howell Park directly east of this marker.
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This mid-19th-century structure, built in the Federal style with Italianate detail added later, was once owned by town pioneer and merchant Cornelius Van Ausdal. It was later the home of his daughter Lucinda, her husband Joseph Donohoe, and their four children. Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison reportedly stayed here while he was in Eaton to deliver a campaign speech on September 8, 1840. Lucinda Donohoe reputedly also hosted circuit-riding preachers here and owned the area’s first piano. From 1938 to 1966, this building housed Mrs. Wagner’s Colonial Kitchen, a nationally recognized restaurant.
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On March 11, 1817, Rev. Roger Searle of Connecticut met with a group of settlers at the home of Zenas Hamilton in Medina Township and founded St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. On April 10, 1817, the congregants cleared land near Weymouth and built a log church, which served as a school, place of worship for other dominations, and meeting house. The congregation eventually moved to Medina to serve the village’s growing population. Around 1883, noted Detroit architect Gordon W. Lloyd designed a new church in the Victorian Gothic style, thereafter described as “incomparably the finest Episcopal church in any country town at the time.” The first service was held on December 19, 1884. St. Paul’s was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is the oldest congregation in Medina County still in existence.
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