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The most notable feature of Mantua Center is the “Village Green,” which harkens back to the New England heritage of Mantua Center’s early settlers. The Green sets upon land donated by Hezekiah Nooney Sr. and was important to both the social and commercial interests of the town. The businesses located here were a furniture and cabinet maker’s shop, harness shop, blacksmith shop, post office, tannery, ashery, dry goods store, and distillery. The Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Mantua Civic Center, stands at the southwest corner of the green. Eastlawn cemetery, with a burial that dates to 1816, sits along the south border. The cemetery serves as the final resting place for soldiers of several wars, including the American Revolution, as well as many other early citizens. In 1835 Horace Sizer constructed the stone wall around the cemetery adjacent to Mantua Center Road. [continued on other side]
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Sully Jaymes was an African American lawyer and tireless activist for equal rights in Springfield during the first half of the twentieth century. Born on March 30 sometime between 1875-1880, he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1901. By 1903, he opened a Black-owned law practice at 17-1/2 Main Street in Springfield. Working primarily with the city’s Black residents, Jaymes offered his services free of charge if clients were unable to pay. He was a long-time member of North Street A.M.E. Church. Jaymes served on the first Board of Directors of the Center Street YMCA (a safe-haven for young Black people), on the Board of Trustees at Wilberforce University, and as a Grand Chancellor of Ohio for the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias. (Continued on other side)
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Anson Williams visited Ohio in 1834 before he moved to Orange Township. A former resident of New York State, Williams purchased this site and the surrounding 1,000 acres of U.S. Military District lands and hoped to find opportunity for himself and his family. He bought the land for $6.00 an acre from James D. Wolf, who owned the 4,000-acre section three of Orange Township. The Village of Williamsville was laid out with 80 lots in 1836 on both sides of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike. Williams built his home and a hotel with a store and tavern. A hotel and tavern, owned by George Gooding and where the stage changed horses, had already been established north of Williamsville. Competition may have led to Williamsville’s decline. A church was built in 1845 and remained until 1900. Anson died in 1847, and his wife Hannah passed away in 1851. Both are buried in nearby Williamsville Cemetery.
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Orrville was founded in 1852 at the railroad crossing that would later serve the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago and the Columbus, Mount Vernon and Cleveland railroads. The town was named in honor of Judge Smith Orr, who was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Wayne County. Orr persuaded landowner Robert Taggart to partition ten acres into town lots. After buying out the land owned by fellow settlers Christian Horst, David Rudy, and Peter Perrine, Orr engaged Jesse Straughan to create the first plat map that centered the newly-formed town on the railroad crossing. Incorporated on May 9, 1864, Orrville prospered and attracted manufactories of all kinds. Orrville was the largest manufacturing town in Wayne County by 1873.
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This church, founded in 1866, is the oldest Black congregation in Akron. After worshiping in several locations, the congregation held a fund-raiser to help finance the construction of a permanent home. The person collecting the most money had the privilege of renaming the church. That honor went to Mrs. Belle (Smith) Wesley. Completed in 1928, the current structure is a Neo-Classical Revival style building, featuring a classical pedimented portico, or porch, and four distinctive ionic columns. An education wing was added in 1963 by the late Rev. Dr. E. E. Morgan, Jr. Akron Black architects Herbert L. Wardner and John O. Somerville designed the church, and then a Black contractor, Samuel Plato, completed the structure. The church has long been a vital religious and social focal point for Akron’s Black community. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was organized at Wesley Temple. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places 3/19/94.
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General John Hunt Morgan led 2,000 Confederate cavalrymen into Meigs County on July 18, 1863, during a 45-day raid north of the Ohio River. In pursuit, Union forces under Gen. James M. Shackelford and Col. Frank L. Wolford deployed near Bashan Church on the morning of July 19. Near this point five regiments of Kentucky cavalry and the 45th Ohio Mounted Infantry met Confederates retreating from the battle at Buffington Island, three miles east. During this skirmish, Confederate Colonels Richard C. Morgan, William W. Ward, and D. Howard Smith surrendered their commands, numbering about 400 men and officers.
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Soldier, engineer, and statesman, W.S. Rosecrans was born in Delaware County in 1819 and grew up in Homer. He graduated from West Point in 1842. During the Civil War, Rosecrans commanded the federal Army of the Cumberland. Popular with his troops, who called him “Old Rosy,” he was a cautious commander and, though victorious at, Corinth, Murfreesboro, and Chattanooga, he suffered major defeat at Chickamauga in 1863. A skilled engineer, Rosecrans developed coal properties in western (now West) Virginia before the war and helped design St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Columbus for his brother, Bishop Sylvester Rosecrans. Following the war he served as minister to Mexico and represented California in Congress from 1881 to 1885. He died in 1898 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Established in 1879 by Chicago industrialist William P. Rend as a coal mining town, Rendville became a place where African Americans broke the color barrier. In 1888, Dr. Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American to receive a medical degree in Ohio, was elected Rendville’s mayor, also making him the first African American to be elected a mayor in Ohio. Richard L. Davis arrived in Rendville in 1882 and became active in the Knights of Labor. He was one of the labor organizers from the Little Cities of Black Diamonds region who helped found the United Mine Workers of America in 1890. An outstanding writer and orator, Davis was elected to UMWA’s national executive board and organized thousands of African Americans and immigrants to join the union. (continued on other side)
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