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Charles Young in Ripley. Upon his death in 1922, Colonel Charles Young was the highest ranking African American officer in the United States Army. Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1864, Young moved to Ripley with his parents Gabriel and Arminta in the 1870s. He excelled academically, graduating with honors from Ripley High School in 1881 and accepted a teaching position in Ripley’s African American school thereafter. Encouraged by his father, a Civil War veteran, mentored by J. T. Whitman, superintendent of the school, and John P. Parker, entrepreneur and former Underground Railroad conductor, Young sought and accepted, in 1884, an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was the third African American to graduate, in 1889, and the last to do so until Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. in 1936.
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This brick, Federal-style house was built in 1836. Helen Moore, the grand daughter of General Robert McConnel, officer during the War of 1812 and founder of McConnelsville, married Dr. Hiram L. True and made their home here. Dr. True practiced medicine in the area and was widely known for his interest in science, serving as president of the local Scientific Society. Their daughter Evelyn True Button was born in the house in 1875. A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Evelyn traveled to the Philippines in 1898 on a missionary trip to train teachers. A teacher, principal, community leader, and ardent worker for women’s rights, she died in the place of her birth in 1975. She bequeathed the house to the Morgan County Historical Society to serve as a depository of furnishings and artifacts of Morgan County heritage.
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The Root Homestead was built in 1879 by Amos Ives Root, founder of the A. I. Root Company, shortly after he moved his business from the town square. The homestead housed several generations of the Root family until 1953 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A pioneer of the beekeeping industry, Root helped to standardize such beekeeping equipment and tools as the Langstroth removable frame hive and the centrifugal honey extractor. As a result, beekeepers were able to harvest more honey every season without harming the bees. A prolific author and publisher, Root educated beekeepers across the globe and built a sense of community within the profession. (Continued on other side)
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A school has stood on this site almost continuously since the late 1840s. The first school here was the Newell School, a white-frame, one-room school in use from approximately 1847 to 1939. The building was a part of the Newell Rural School District, which extended from the north border of Greenhills to present-day Interstate 275. Area schools consolidated in 1939 and the Newell district was absorbed into the Science Hall Rural School District and then into the Greenhills Rural School District (later renamed the Greenhills/Forest Park School District). The site of the old Newell School is now a part of the Winton Woods City Schools. The building directly behind this marker opened in 1968 as Forest Park High School and later became Winton Woods High School.
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Hallie Quinn Brown (c. 1850) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to former slaves. She and her family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio in 1870, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Wilberforce University in 1873. Brown taught school in the South until her appointment as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University in 1893. A gifted elocutionist and author, Brown received national and international acclaim not only for her recitals and written works, but also for her passionate belief in civil rights and African American culture. (Continued on other side)
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Lorain County Community College opened its Abbe Road facilities on October 3, 1966, making it the first community college in Ohio with a permanent campus. At the time, three buildings had been completed on the 250-acre site-Engineering Technologies, Physical Science, and Mechanical Services. By the end of the Fall 1966 semester, three more buildings opened-College Center, Business, and Physical Education. Lorain County Community College has become a cornerstone of the community, contributing to the educational and social and cultural enrichment of all Lorain County residents.
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Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. (July 1, 1877 – November 26, 1970), the nation’s first African American general in the Regular Army, was born in Washington, D.C. Davis first served as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War. Following that conflict, he enlisted as a private in the 9th U.S. Cavalry, serving in the Philippine Insurrection where he began to rise in rank. Davis was promoted to first lieutenant in 1905, captain in 1915, lieutenant colonel in 1920, colonel in 1930, and brigadier general in 1941. His military career took him around the world. In 1909, he was detailed as Military Attache to Monrovia, Liberia. During World War I, Davis was stationed in the Philippines. In 1938, he took command of the New York’s African American 396th National Guard Infantry, later known as the 369th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment. (Continued on other side)
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Originally known as Allen’s Mill Bridge, the Eldean Covered Bridge was built over the Great Miami River in 1860 for Miami County by the Hamilton Brothers of nearby Piqua. Its 224 feet place it among Ohio’s longest covered bridges and the longest in the nation that follows an 1830 Stephen H. Long patent, considered America’s first science-based bridge design. The Long system added strength through a series of hand-driven wedges. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the bridge was restored in 2005/2006.
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