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Chartered in 1852 by the Christian Church and later a Unitarian institution, Antioch College opened with educational pioneer Horace Mann as its first president. One of the earliest co-educational colleges in the United States, from its inception Antioch promoted humanistic and egalitarian values. In 1920 Arthur E. Morgan became president and initiated a widely emulated cooperative work-study program. The Antioch Review, one of the oldest literary magazines in America, began publication in 1941. In 1978 the college reincorporated as part of Antioch University, a multi-campus system headquartered in Yellow Springs.
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In November 1843 former slave Frank Lambert, along with 29 other former slaves, purchased 265.5 acres of land in Morgan Township. These African American settlers had once belonged to Charles Lambert Jr. of Bedford County, Virginia, but had been freed upon his death in 1839. His last will and testament also stipulated that the freed slaves be given horses, oxen, wagons, clothing, and financial support to help them relocate to a state chosen upon advise of the will’s executors. They chose Ohio and specifically Gallia County. Shortly after the former slaves established their settlement in Section 32, they began using their authentic surnames, which included the Burks, Jones, Leftwiches, Millers, Randolphs, Reeds, Sales, Minnis, and Wingfields. By 1845 several of this group helped to establish the Morgan Bethel Church where a memorial was dedicated in 2002. (continued on other side)
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Following the Civil War, many of Ohio’s disabled and wounded veterans found inadequate provisions for their long-term needs. In response, the Grand Army of the Republic’s Department of Ohio lobbied for a state-operated veterans’ home. In 1886 Governor Joseph B. Foraker signed a bill establishing the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home for honorably discharged veterans. A board of trustees led by Sandusky publisher I.F. Mack selected the site, and the Sandusky community donated the tract of land, utilities, and a connection to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The facility opened in November 1888. (continued on other side)
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The Teegarden-Centennial Covered Bridge, constructed primarily of white oak is of Multiple King Post design spanning 67 feet. It was built nearly 100 years after the birth of the nation. Located on Eagleton Road, just off Teegarden Road, it is still at its original location, spanning the Middle Fork of the Little Beaver Creek in Eagleton’s Glen Park. It remained in use until 1992 when it was bypassed by a new concrete structure. The official contract for the construction of the bridge was awarded to Jeremiah C. Mountz in June of 1875. The stonework for the abutments was awarded to David Reese and painting of the original structure to George W. Akin in 1876. Members of Highland Christian Church came here to be baptized by immersion. There were over 250 covered bridges in Columbiana County, including at least 16 railroad covered bridges. The Teegarden-Centennial Covered Bridge is one of only five still remaining.
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For more than 10,000 years, Flint Ridge was one of the most important flint quarries in eastern North America. The flint formed at the bottom of a shallow ocean 300 million years ago. The softer rocks surrounding the flint have washed away, leaving the hard flint exposed near the surface. Prehistoric people came here to quarry the flint, which they crafted into a variety of stone tools. Hundreds of quarry pits and workshops are scattered for miles along this ridge. The beautiful rainbow-colored flint was especially prized by the Hopewell culture that built the nearby Newark Earthworks. Artifacts crafted from Flint Ridge flint may be found throughout eastern North America. In more recent times, local industries quarried the flint for use as grindstones.
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Henry Kelsey Devereux was born into an aristocratic family on October 10, 1859 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio artist, Archibald Willard, chose Harry, as he was fondly known, to portray the drummer boy in one of America’s most famous patriotic paintings, “The Spirit of ’76”. At the time Willard approached him to pose, young Harry was a cadet at Brooks Military Academy. He married socialite Mildred French in 1885 and in 1910 they settled in her father’s pretentious country estate in Wickliffe, Ohio (presently Telshe Yeshiva College). His passion for harness racing and for breeding horses culminated in the organization of the American Association of Trotting Horse Breeders and his position as president of the Grand Circuit. The affluent and charitable Wickliffe resident died in 1932 at the age of 72.
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Christopher Evans was a celebrated district, state, and national union builder. Born in England in 1841, he began coal mining as a young boy. Evans immigrated to Pennsylvania around 1869-1870. By 1874 he was president of his local mining union. Evans moved to New Straitsville between 1875-1877, where he organized union meetings in Robinson’s Cave. During the miners’ strike of 1884-1885, Evans served as president of the Hocking Valley District of Ohio and its Relief Committee. After area mines were set on fire, miners were forced to abandon New Straitsville when its mines closed forever. Evans helped organize the United Mine Workers of America in 1890 and later authored a two-volume history of the movement. He remained in union leadership until retiring in 1908. Christopher Evans died in 1924 and is buried in New Straitsville Joint Cemetery.
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For more than ninety years, this area was the heart and soul of Berea’s sandstone quarries. In the early 1830s, John Baldwin discovered that the area’s sandstone deposits made superb grindstones and building stones. In the 1840s, thriving sandstone quarries developed and became Berea’s lifeblood. Searching for the “American Dream,” German, Irish, Italian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants, among others, came here to work. The quarries eventually encompassed nearly 250 acres and consumed the fashionable houses of Berea’s “South Side” and the buildings of Baldwin University. The Cuyahoga County Court House, Ohio’s Capitol, and Canada’s parliament buildings are among many structures in North America and Europe constructed of Berea sandstone. Decreasing demand for sandstone and the Great Depression closed the last of Berea’s quarries in the mid-1930s.