, OH
This covered bridge, over Middle Run, Elkrun Township, Columbiana County, is the shortest covered bridge in the United States still standing on a once-used public highway, having a clear span of 19 feet and 3 inches. It is an example, rarely found covered, of the simplest, most basic truss design, the two-panel king post truss. It has withstood the rigors of time and traffic since the 1870s and stands in eloquent testimony of the fine craftsmanship of the early Ohio bridge builders.
, OH
The Cranberry Prairie, southwest of this marker, is a part of Ohio’s natural history. The place was named for the cranberries that grew in a swamp here prior to drainage of the area. The Cranberry Prairie was created by centuries of peat accumulation in a late Ice Age lake that formed at the base of St. John’s Moraine. Paleo-Indian or Early Archaic peoples probably killed the elk whose skeleton was dug up here in 1981. This elk was dated at approximately 7400 B.C. By the 1860s, immigrant German farmers had begun transforming the swamp into fertile farmland. “Wild Bill” Simison, a legendary inhabitant, lived in the swamp and settlers respected him for his knowledge of the area. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Granville Township School #7, St. Francis Catholic Church, and Bertke’s Store stood at the edge of the Cranberry Prairie.
, OH
This monument marks the square of the village of Risdon founded 1832. The land was owned by John Gorsuch, who settled here with his family in a clearing along the Portage River in 1831. He had a plat of the area made by David Risdon, Seneca County surveyor, after who the town was named. This plat was officially recorded September 13, 1832. The village of Risdon had the first church and post office, and has the oldest house in Fostoria.
, OH
Here, on April 10, 1779 during the Revolutionary War, David Zeisberger founded one of the five Delaware Christian missions to occupy the Tuscarawas Valley between May 3, 1772 and September 8, 1781. Living at the Lichtenau mission near the Delaware capital of Goschachgunk (presently Coshocton, Ohio), Zeisberger feared that the Delaware nation was about to break their neutrality and join the British led Indians. Accordingly, he decided to disperse his Christian congregation and move his converts thirty-five miles up river to a place of safety in this large alluvial plain adjacent to the Tuscarawas River.
, OH
On this site in 1809, pious Christians from Virginia and North Carolina erected a Methodist Church, the first in Greene County. The church was officially organized on May 23, 1807 as the Bonner Society. Frederick Bonner, Sr. and the illustrious Rev. John Sale were the principal organizers. This Methodist Church, one of the oldest in Ohio, has been serving the area known as the Union Neighborhood uninterrupted from this site since 1809. Rev. Bennett Maxey was the first pastor. (Continued on other side)
, OH
The Windsor Township Baptist Association was organized January 11, 1818 by Elder William Davis with 35 members who met in homes, barns and schoolhouses. At the death of the six-year-old granddaughter of Samuel and Tabitha Davis Henery, this plot by the river was laid out of a church yard and deeded by John Henery in 1837. In 1838 a brick church was built at the cost of $1,000. It served this community until the road and church were destroyed by the flood of 1913. More than 50 men from this area served in the Civil War. Twenty-six War of 1812 veterans are buried here as well as William Davis, veteran of the American Revolution; Obadiah Brokaw, founder of Big Bottom State Memorial; and Captain Isaac Newton Hook, river pilot at the age of ten and U.S. master of inland navigation, 1860-1873, who ran supplies on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers for the Union Army. At Captain Hook’s death in 1906, the steamers Valley Gem, Zanesville, and Sonoma from Marietta in his honor landed passengers at the church here for his funeral, “largest ever held in the Muskingum Valley.” “The Lord and the River giveth and then taketh away.”
, OH
Tallmadge was established in 1807 by David Bacon as a Congregational community. In 1821 local landowners donated timber to build this church, designed and constructed by one of Ohio’s first architects, Col. Lemuel Porter. Dedicated on September 8, 1825, the structure is considered to be a perfect example of the pure Connecticut-type of Federal architecture. It is the oldest Ohio church to be continuously occupied as a place of worship.
, OH
This congregation was founded in Warren November 19, 1803, by the Rev. Joseph Badger, who was serving as a missionary in the Western Reserve for the Connecticut Missionary Society of the Congregational Church. Rev. Badger was assisted at the first communion by the Rev. William Wick of Youngstown and the Rev. Samuel Tait of Mercer, Pa. The first church building on this site was constructed in 1832. The present building was dedicated in 1878.
614.297.2300
Contact Us
