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William Bruce founded and platted the city of Eaton in 1806. Born in Virginia in 1762, Bruce relocated to Ohio in 1793. In 1806, he purchased nearly two thousand acres of land from the government for the founding of Eaton. Bruce, a Revolutionary War veteran, named the town for General William Eaton, a veteran of the Tripolitan War, a war fought between the United States and the Barbary States from 1800-1805. Some of Eaton’s principal streets also took their names from other Tripolitan War veterans, including Somers, Decatur, and Israel. Bruce established the first sawmill and gristmill in Eaton and often distributed corn meal to the needy and deserving. He also made liberal donations of land for the benefit of the town, and sold many lots inexpensively or on partial payment to induce settlers to locate in the town. William Bruce died in 1830 and is interred in the Mound Hill Cemetery in Eaton.
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The Lima Chapter of the American Women’s Voluntary Services Organization established a community-based, free canteen during World War II for troops traveling on the Pennsylvania Railroad and adjacent Baltimore & Ohio-Nickel Plate Railroads. Meeting as many as forty trains a day, the ladies served 2.5 million troops between 1942-1945. Food, coffee, and other items were donated to the canteen from a twelve county area. The “AWVS” disbanded in 1945, but succeeding volunteers continued to provide service throughout the Korean Conflict and Viet Nam War. Lima’s “Servicemen’s Free Canteen” was the longest, continuously operated service canteen in the United States. An estimated four million soldiers, sailors, and marines were served between 1942-1970.
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Camp No. 3 was located about six miles below Fort Winchester on the north side of the Maumee River. Militiamen from Kentucky, part of the forces led by War of 1812 Brig. Gen. James Winchester, occupied the camp from November 1812 until December 30, 1812. They had marched off to war in summer wearing their linen clothing; unaware they would end up in the heart of the Black Swamp in mid-winter. The suffering they endured was intense. Camp No. 3, thought to cover an area of about 40 acres, had picketed walls and an earthen bastion at each corner. The soldiers built small huts for shelter. In his diary, Pvt. Elias Darnell of Lewis’ Regiment of Kentucky volunteers referred to Camp No. 3 as “Fort Starvation.”
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Built in 1816 by General Reasin Beall and his wife Rebecca Johnston Beall, the homestead is recognized as the oldest existing residence in the City of Wooster. Born in 1769 in Maryland, Reasin Beall came to Ohio in 1801. In the War of 1812, he was promoted to brigadier general of the Ohio militia. After the war, Beall served one term as a Republican to the Thirteenth Congress and ten years as a register of the land offices at Canton and Wooster. After Beall died in 1843, his daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Joseph Stibbs II received his house.
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One of the most influential Native Americans of the 19th century, Tecumseh was born in 1768 in the Pickaway settlements on the Mad River and raised by older siblings at Old Town. A prominent Shawnee war leader who vigorously opposed American expansion, he fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers but refused to attend the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Greene Ville in 1795. Angered by purchases of Native American land in Indiana by the United States, Tecumseh promoted a pan-Indian confederacy to resist the encroachment of white settlers, traveling thousands of miles throughout the western and southern frontiers in an effort to gain supporters for the alliance. Tecumseh sided with the British during the War of 1812 and was killed at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813. His death ended hopes for a united Indian coalition.
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Desperately trying to protect their homeland, the Delaware Indian Nation who lived here in the Tuscarawas Valley, joined the French against the English during the French and Indian War, 1754-1763. After the French defeat, the Delawares, dissatisfied with the treaty terms, joined an Indian Confederacy to attack the English in early 1763. Known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, the uprising was lead by Ottawa chief Pontiac. In response, the English commander, General Jeffrey Amherst, ordered Colonel Henry Bouquet to mount a 1,500-man expedition to subdue the Confederacy in Ohio. The Army arrived at this location on October 13, 1764. The camp, known as Camp 14, was located in this valley between the two small streams on the side of the hill. Proceeding on to the Delaware town of modern-day Coshocton, Bouquet negotiated a surrender with the Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandot who then relinquished over two hundred white prisoners.
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Born in Lancaster, Fairfield County, John Sherman moved to Mansfield to practice law and was elected to Congress in 1854 as one of the first Republicans. In 1861, Sherman was elected to the U.S. Senate. An authority on finance, Sherman was instrumental in shaping federal financial policy in the years following the Civil War, and President Rutherford Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1877. During the “Greenback” debate, he re-implemented the gold standard, stabilizing the currency during an inflationary period. Sherman returned to the Senate in 1881 and served until early 1897 when President McKinley appointed him Secretary of State; in declining health, he resigned in 1898. He died in Washington, D.C. and is interred in the Mansfield Cemetery.
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This village was founded in 1830 on the banks of the Blanchard River by Asa M. Lake, son of Asa Lake, veteran of the Revolution and War of 1812 and first settler of Delaware Township. The town and river are named for an early French pioneer, Jean Jacques Blanchard, who resided among area Shawnee Indians during the period 1770 to 1802. The Methodist Episcopal Church, first religious organization in Hancock Co., was founded in Delaware Twp. in 1828.