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The Walnut Grove Cemetery is the burial place of members of the Zane and Martin families. Their graves lie within the brick enclosure. The cemetery is also the resting-place of many early Martins Ferry residents, including veterans of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The Zane and Martin families were significant in the pioneer history of the region. Betty Zane’s legendary heroism at Fort Henry (now Wheeling, West Virginia) helped settlers resist an attack by the British and their Native American allies in September 1782. (Continued on other side)
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When David Knisely, the founder of New Philadelphia, first arrived in the Tuscarawas Valley on August 27, 1803, he found a sparsely populated, pristine wilderness. Five years later the state legislature approved a bill organizing Tuscarawas County effective March 15, 1808. Shortly thereafter, New Philadelphia was chosen as the county seat, and on April 16, 1808, the first commissioners met at Leininger’s tavern. By August, the tavern proved to be an inappropriate location for the county’s official business, and the commissioners approved the construction of a two-story, combination jail and county office building on land donated by John Knisely on the northeast corner of the square. By 1818 a new, larger brick courthouse was authorized by the commissioners. This building was occupied in 1825 and served as the courthouse until 1882 when the present structure was approved. Occupied in 1888, the building continues to be the center of the county’s business. The beautiful, state-of-the-art annex was dedicated on October 27, 1990.
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In 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton built a kite to test a revolutionary flight control system, and in 1900, built their first airplane (glider). With promising results, the Wrights built man-carrying gliders and airplanes to refine their ideas. Wind tunnel experiments led to accurate calculations of lift and drag. In 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made the first sustained, controlled, powered flight in history, lasting 12 seconds. By 1905, the Wright brothers had developed the first practical airplane and the skills to pilot it. The U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased a Wright flyer, the first practical military aircraft, in 1909. Through public demonstrations beginning in 1908, the Wright brothers showed the world the future of aviation.
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Originally called the James Thompson Inn, named for its builder, the son of Middlefield’s first settler, Isaac Thompson, the Batavia House is Middlefield’s oldest remaining structure. Built in 1818, the two-story wood frame structure was operated continually as an inn by Thompson until his death in 1877. It became the private residence of his daughter, Caroline, until 1907 when again it became an inn, functioning as the Century Inn until 1951. The one-story cement block portion was added circa 1950 to accommodate the weight of the heavy printing presses of the Shetler Printing Company, which occupied the building until 1983.
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The Ohio General Assembly established the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station in 1882. From its inception until 1892, the Station occupied 17 acres on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University before relocating to 470 acres in Wayne County. In 1965, the Station changed its name to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) to more accurately reflect its mission and programs. In 1982, the Center formally merged with The Ohio State University. Today, the Center encompasses nearly 2,100 acres in Wayne County with 10 branches located across the state for a total of approximately 7,100 acres dedicated to agricultural research.
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Established as the county seat of Pickaway County in 1810, Circleville derives its name from the circular portion of a large Hopewell-era earthwork upon which it was built. The Circleville earthworks, described in 1772 by Rev. David Jones for a Boston magazine, comprised an 1,100 foot diameter circle connected to a 900 foot square. Town director Daniel Dreisbach platted the town directly atop the earthworks, integrating the town plan into the prehistoric landscape. An octagonal courthouse stood directly in the center.
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Mary Leonore Jobe was born on January 29, 1878, near Tappan, Harrison County, Ohio. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Scio College and master’s degree from Columbia University. While studying, she began a life-long career of exploration and natural history investigation. She first explored areas of British Columbia, Canada in 1905 and in 1916 started Camp Mystic, a summer camp in Connecticut for girls. She married explorer Carl E. Akeley in 1924 and completed an expedition to Africa when Carl died in the Belgian Congo in 1926. Honors include the naming of Mount Jobe in Canada to recognize her achievements and Belgium awarding her the Cross of the Knight, Order of the Crown, for her work in the Belgian Congo. She is known for her books and contributions to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She died on July 19, 1966, and is buried in Deersville.
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African-American history began in Piqua with the settlement of Arthur Davis in 1818 and expanded with the settlement of the freed Randolph slaves of Virginia in 1846. African-American religious heritage in Piqua began with the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853 and the Second Baptist Church (Park Avenue) in 1857. Segregated education started in 1854 at the Cyrene Church and ended in 1885 at the Boone Street School. Several Piqua African-American men circumvented Ohio’s early ban against Civil War military service by joining the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments. Following the Civil War an African-American Co-operative Trade Association established Piqua’s first African-American retail store. Continued on/from other side)