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King Solomon “Sol” White was born in Bellaire on June 12, 1868. A Baseball legend, he was an all-around player, manager, and organizer in the Pre-Negro Leagues (1887-1912) and the Negro Leagues (1920-1926). White first played with integrated baseball clubs the Bellaire Globes (1884-1886) and Wheeling Green Stockings (1887). After 1887-1888 color barriers were imposed on baseball, White played on segregated minor league teams. They included: the Pittsburgh Keystones, Cuban Giants, York Colored Monarchs, Cuban X-Giants, Page Fence Giants, and Chicago Columbia Giants. As a coach, he helped organize and lead the powerhouse Philadelphia Giants to their 1904-1907 championships. White died on August 26, 1955, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Staten Island’s Frederick Douglas Memorial Cemetery. In 2006, “Sol” White was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Katharine Kennedy Brown (1891-1986), born in Dayton, was a leading figure in local, state, and national Republican politics. Soon after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, she earned a seat on the Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee; moving up to the Ohio State Republican Central Committee in 1928 and the Republican National Committee in 1932 ─ serving on both until 1968. She founded the first Republican Women’s Club in the county. (Continued other side)
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The Theater District, bound by Chester Avenue, Prospect Avenue, East 18th, East 9th and East 12th Streets, came into being at the turn of the 20th century, when Cleveland emerged as a thriving metropolis. Built between 1890-1928, the area hosted a variety of fine retail stores, theaters, prestigious clubs, restaurants, and distinct office buildings. The rise of television and flight to the suburbs sent downtown entertainment into a death spiral, until a 1970 grass roots effort saved from demolition the surviving post-World War I theaters (the State, Ohio, Hanna, Allen, and Palace), making it the “world’s largest theater restoration project.” It became a catalyst for reinvestment in downtown properties, restoring civic pride and giving testimonial to the creative vision of the city’s civic leaders and citizenry. By the year 2000, Cleveland’s Theater District boasted the nation’s 2nd largest performing arts center.
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In 1918, early Slovene immigrants organized the Slovenian Independent Society Home and later constructed this hall, which became the center for Barberton Slovene cultural, social, and recreational activities. They formed dramatic and singing clubs, conducting performances in their native language. In the early twentieth century, prior to employers providing insurance or health care for their workers, the society acted to ensure sick and death benefits for its members. It also prepared members for citizenship in their newly chosen country. First generation Slovenes provided the labor that helped spur the growth of local industries while succeeding generations have continued to contribute to the community in various business, industrial, professional, and governmental capacities.
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Dayton Woman’s Club. Community leader Robert Steele built the house that became the Dayton Woman’s Club between 1845 and 1850. Napoleon Bonaparte Darst, a wealthy merchant, bought the residence in 1861. After the Civil War he refurbished the structure, updating it to the then-popular Second Empire style. In 1916, Darst’s heirs sold the house to the newly-formed Dayton Woman’s Club. Mrs. Marie Kumler (1856-1925), first president of the Club and the Dayton Federation of Women’s Clubs led efforts to raise the $25,000 to purchase the property. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and the Club celebrated 100 years here in 2016.
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Established as the Oxford Township Cemetery in 1880, this public graveyard replaced the original one at the corner of College Avenue and Spring Street. That earlier burial ground was abandoned when the railroad bisected it in the 1850s. New cemeteries were established including the privately incorporated Oxford Cemetery, the Catholic Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and this one, renamed Woodside Cemetery in 1931. Bodies transferred here from the original graveyard included those of early 19th-century settlers, who were reinterred in the “Pioneer Quad” at the south end. The cemetery includes veterans of the nation’s wars, including one from the 54th Massachusetts regiment of Civil War fame, and generations of African Americans, who comprised 20% of Oxford’s population in the late 19th century. Maintained by the township and then jointly by the township and city, Woodside became solely the city’s responsibility in 2002.
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The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings made history not only as the most dominant baseball club of its time, but also as the first band of professional ballplayers. Cincinnati’s decision to pay players proved to be a success, and other cities soon began establishing their own professional clubs throughout America. In 1876, the Reds joined the newly formed National League. Baseball soon became one of Cincinnati’s most popular entertainment venues, aided in part by the team’s World Series titles in 1919 and 1940. Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine,” featuring players such as Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, dominated baseball in the 1970s, picking up additional titles in 1975 and 1976. A surprise wire-to-wire title again in 1990 strengthened the Reds’ legacy and helped ensure future generations of Reds fans.
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Ella Nora Phillips Myers Stewart was one of the first practicing Black women pharmacists in the United States. After she married William Stewart in 1920, the couple settled in Youngstown, then moved to Toledo where they opened Stewart’s Pharmacy in 1922. Having broken professional barriers, Ella Stewart became a tireless civil rights champion. Advocating for Black women she was active in the Enterprise Charity Club and was a 1937 charter member of Beta Lambda and Toledo Alumnae chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She served on the National Association of Colored Women Clubs, the Women’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Department of Labor, and Pan-Pacific Southeast Asia Women’s Association. Toledo’s Ella P. Stewart Academy for Girls was named in her honor in 1961. She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1978.