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Organized efforts to establish an eight-hour workday existed as early as 1866 in the United States. The Cleveland Rolling Mills Strikes of 1882 and 1885, as part of this almost-70-year struggle, contributed to the establishment of the eight-hour workday. Both strikes challenged the two-shift, twelve-hour workday in addition to seeking recognition of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. The first strike – by English, Welsh, and Irish skilled workers – was at the Newburgh Rolling Mills, a major producer of steel rails for the rapidly expanding railroad industry that once stood near this site. It was quickly broken when unskilled Polish and Czech immigrants, unaware of the ongoing labor dispute, were hired. The strike ended when these new workers did not support the union. (continued on other side)
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In January 1836, Barber and Lord sold a six-acre parcel for $160 that was to be used “forever as a public burying ground.” When Ohio City incorporated, the township cemetery became the city cemetery. Ohio City’s council established the cemetery’s rules and regulations, appointed a sexton, arranged for the ground to be platted, and purchased a hearse. After annexation by Cleveland, the cemetery became known as “the west side cemetery” and, later, the Monroe Street Cemetery. Under Cleveland’s charge, the cemetery was landscaped, protected by patrolmen, and fenced to keep out wandering hogs. Until the late 1890s, Monroe Street was the only public cemetery on Cleveland’s west side. Architect Joseph Ireland designed the cemetery’s Gothic Revival gateway arch (1874). Architect Walter Blythe designed the cemetery’s gatehouse, also in the Gothic Revival style (1876).
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Here lived the reformers of the Anti-Saloon League of America who led the movement that turned the United States “dry” in 1920 with the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquor. Moving its headquarters to Westerville in 1909, the League built a publishing house that buried the liquor industry in a 10-year avalanche of books, pamphlets and periodicals that helped win Prohibition and made Westerville the “Dry Capital of the World.” Rev. Purley A. Baker (1858-1924), the League’s general superintendent, bought 11 acres and erected his rustic home at Park and Grove streets in 1910. (Continued other side)
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Pleasant Litchford was born into slavery in Virginia in 1789. He purchased his freedom and moved his family to Ohio by 1831. A master blacksmith, Litchford bought a small farm four miles north of Columbus in 1833. By the time of his death in 1879, he was the fourth largest landowner in Perry Township. Described as “a man of iron constitution,” Litchford served as a lay-preacher, founding member, and deacon at Second Baptist Church. The church and James Poindexter, its pastor in 1847, provided an important voice during the anti-slavery movement. In 1869, Litchford sold, for $1, a parcel of land to establish a school for African American children. He was married three times and was survived by seven living children, twenty-five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Pleasant Litchford was buried in the Litchford Family Cemetery.