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Entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph (Jose) de Rivera was born in Barcelona, Spain, and built an import business in New York City. In 1854, he bought six Lake Erie Islands and had South Bass Island surveyed and subdivided into ten-acre lots. De Rivera traveled between New York and South Bass Island, initially turning Put-in-Bay into a sheep farm. He encouraged settlement on the island and its wine industry by helping German immigrants purchase land to plant vineyards. He donated five acres for this waterfront park, the site for the first school, and the land for the first church. To promote travel to the island, de Rivera opened the island’s largest cave as a tourist attraction. He is buried in the island’s cemetery, which is on land he donated for that purpose.
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First surveyed in 1849, Powhatan Point was laid out by Franklin Knox. The “point” is the confluence of Captina Creek and the Ohio River. The small but thriving river and farming community served York Township and the rich Captina Valley as a shipping center for its first 75 years. Given impetus by the construction of the Powhatan Enterprise Flouring Mill and Woolen Factory in 1850, local businesses shipped grain, fruit, lumber, cheese, whiskey, livestock, wool, and tobacco to northern and southern ports. There were three boat landings: Boger’s, Hornbrook’s and Dorsey’s, each equipped with an incline car track from the warehouses to the river’s edge. With the opening of North American Coal Corporation’s Powhatan No. 1 Mine in 1922, the village became a mining community that continued to rely on the river. A disastrous mine fire took the lives of 66 men on July 5, 1944.
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Formed by the retreating glacier more than 14,000 years ago, Buckeye Lake first existed as a shallow, swampy pond, named “Buffalo Swamp” by Ohio Company explorer Christopher Gist in 1751. Beginning in 1826 the State developed it as a water source for the Licking Summit of the Ohio and Erie Canal, it being the highest level between the Scioto and Licking rivers. Engineers dammed the north and west sides of the swamp, inadvertently creating a unique floating sphagnum-heath bog surrounded by water. Cranberry Bog, with boreal vegetation typical of glacial-era Ohio, is a registered National Natural Landmark. (continued on other side)
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Mahoning County was created in 1846 by combining townships from southern Trumbull and northern Columbiana counties. Canfield engaged in competition with several surrounding communities for the new county seat, and its success was attributed to its central location along with the state and local political influence of Judge Eben Newton and Elisha Whittlesey, Esq., Comptroller of the United States Treasury from 1849-1857. To become the county seat, the State of Ohio required “a suitable lot and $5,000 toward public buildings” Judge Newton donated the land and spearheaded the subscription of the state required bond. Once attained, construction progressed rapidly on the Classical Revival style courthouse, completed in June 1848. The Italianate style West wing was added in 1862, but its government status was challenged when in the early 1870s, Youngstown, by now a city, resumed its earlier challenge for the county seat. (continued on other side)
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Reverend John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart envisioned an educational institution and colony dedicated to the glory of God and named in honor of John Frederick Oberlin, a pastor in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. Early colonists signed a covenant pledging themselves to the plainest living and highest thinking. Oberlin (known as the Oberlin Collegiate Institute until 1850 when it was renamed Oberlin College) was the first coeducational institution to grant bachelor’s degrees to women and historically has been a leader in the education of African Americans. In fact, African American and white children studied together in the town’s one-room schoolhouse, in defiance of Ohio’s “Black laws” forbidding this practice. The schoolhouse, built 1836-1837, is part of the Oberlin Heritage Center.
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In May 1800, Congress passed an act dividing the Northwest Territory, with the western division becoming Indiana Territory and the eastern called the Territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River. Two years later, thirty-five delegates from the nine counties of the latter division convened in Chillicothe to draw up the constitution for the new state of Ohio, which became a state in 1803. Israel Donalson was the last survivor of the convention dying in 1860 at the age of 93. This frontiersman served Manchester as a surveyor, schoolteacher, postmaster, and judge in the first court. In 1791, one month after his arrival here at Massie’s Station, Donalson was captured by Native Americans. His memoir is a colorful account of his capture and escape. Donalson served as an Elder for the first Presbyterian church in Adams County, which stood on these grounds.
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Erected in 1828, the Randolph Mitchell House is a five-bay, Federal-style “I” house. Its facade features a doorway with an Adam-style fan and sidelights. The interior boasts a grand stairway in the foyer and fine woodwork throughout. Randolph Mitchell (1796-1847) was born in Rockingham County, Virginia. In 1819, Mitchell and his mother Sarah (1765-1844), settled in New Reading and he married Lydia Witmer (1798-1872). They had four children. A merchant, Mitchell kept an ample smokehouse and owned a tannery and real estate. He served as a justice of the peace for Reading Township. After Mitchell’s death, his son-in-law, Dr. W.W. Arnold (1818-1872) maintained his practice in the home, where he and Caroline Mitchell Arnold (1825-1888) lived. Their son William Arnold (1858-1948) acquired the house, which remained in the family until 1951. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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Major buildings dating from 1832 to 1898 surround the village green, the geographic center of Gustavus Township. Built in 1832 on the northwest quadrant, the George Hezlep House features Federal-Greek Revival architecture and has a closet reputedly used on the Underground Railroad. Built in 1840, the Farmers’ Exchange Store was originally a double entrance Greek Revival structure. The Storekeeper’s House, also a Greek Revival structure, was built next to the exchange store in 1840. South of this house is the Fraternal Hall, built in 1870. There were once four churches in Gustavus including the Methodist Church, built in 1856 with a temple front and a belfry, and the Congregational Church, built east of the center in 1854. The eclectic Town Hall was built in 1890 and fronts the southeast quadrant. The Gustavus Centralized School, reported as the first centralized school in the United States, was built in 1898 and was replaced by the current building in 1928.
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