Results for: world-war-ii
5445 OH 37 E
New Lexington

, OH

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.”

101 S. Main Street
Bellefontaine

, OH

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.”

1311 West Main Street
Springfield

, OH

David Snively built the Federal-style Pennsylvania House in 1839 along the newly constructed National Road. This tavern and inn was an important stopover for livestock drovers and pioneers traveling by foot, on horseback, or in Conestoga wagons during the westward expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century. Dr. Isaac K. Funk, of Funk & Wagnalls fame, lived in the house in the 1840s while his father served as its tavern keeper. Closed as an inn after the Civil War, it then served as a doctor’s clinic, boarding house, and secondhand shop before falling into total disrepair. The Lagonda Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution saved it from demolition and has owned and operated it as a museum since 1941. The Pennsylvania House was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Canal Museum, 1605 N Verity Parkway
Middletown

, OH

At Middletown, Ohio, on July 21, 1825, ground was first broken for the Miami-Erie Canal, which eventually linked Cincinnati and Toledo. The canal created much change in the region, including increased population and commercial, political, and industrial growth. Products grown and manufactured in this previously isolated area now had access to world markets. Prosperity reigned until the 1860s when railroad competition caused a slow decline in canal transportation. The canal was officially closed on November 2, 1929, again, as it had started, in Middletown. The canal bed was converted into a modern highway, known as Verity Parkway, which runs parallel to this park.

SE of intersection of Paige Street & N Lynn Street
Bryan

, OH

In 1966 the New York Central Railroad Company (A.E. Perlman, President) proposed a test of existing rail passenger equipment to determine the feasibility of operating high-speed passenger service between cities up to 300 miles apart. The site chosen for the test was near Bryan, Ohio on the longest multiple track straight railroad line in the world. This sixty-seven mile straight trackage from Toledo, Ohio to Butler, Indiana was originally constructed by the Northern Indiana Railroad Company of Ohio incorporated March 3, 1851. On July 23, 1966 the New York Central Technical Research Department ran their Budd RDC-3 passenger car number M-497 fully instrumented for stress analysis, and propelled by two roof-mounted jet aircraft engines. The speed of 183.85 miles per hour was attained, the highest recorded on a railroad in North America at that time and to this day.

E. Church Street
Woodsfield

, OH

With 229 victories, Woodsfield’s Samuel Pond Jones, or Sad Sam Jones, was one of professional baseball’s top pitchers in the early 1900s. He started his 22-year career with the Cleveland Indians in 1914 and later played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, and Chicago White Sox. He posted a career-high 23 victories for Boston in 1921 and won 21 for New York in 1923. Jones appeared in four World Series, but the pinnacle of his career came September 4, 1923, when he threw a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics.

W of Main Street and Church Street Intersection
South Salem

, OH

Presbyterian minister Hugh Stewart Fullerton asked his congregation in 1841: “Shall we endeavor to form an academy to provide better educational advantages to the young citizens of this remote community?” Predating the founding of the town of South Salem, the Salem Academy was built and opened in 1842, its stone coming from a quarry south of Greenfield. Its primary purpose was to prepare ministers and teachers for the West. Professor J.A. Lowes served as principal during the “golden age” of the academy from 1848 to 1858. (continued on other side)

OH 38 NE
Bloomingburg

, OH

The Bloomingburg Presbyterian Church and cemetery were established in the northwest corner of the current cemetery grounds on March 7, 1818. Several years later it became a center for anti-slavery activity. The Reverend William Dickey, who presided over the church and other members, devoted their lives to the anti-slavery cause not only in voice but also in abolitionist activity. By the mid-1800s, their work, as well as the fact that Bloomingburg had become home to a vibrant African American community, led to the town becoming the area center for the Underground Railroad, which helped transport many fugitive slaves to freedom in the north. Six soldiers from the American Revolutionary War, nineteen from the War of 1812, and over 100 from the Civil War and Spanish-American War are buried in the Bloomingburg Cemetery, including Henry Casey, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor at Vicksburg.