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In 1866, Alliance physician, amateur horticulturalist, and politician Dr. Levi Lamborn propagated the scarlet carnation from French seedlings in greenhouses at this site. Opposing William McKinley for the 18th Congressional District in 1876, Lamborn presented the future president with a carnation boutonniere before each debate. McKinley, successful in those debates, continued to use the carnation as a good-luck charm, wearing the carnation in his lapel as president. On September 14, 1901, moments after removing the flower from his lapel and giving it to a young admirer at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, President McKinley was killed by an assassin’s bullet. The Ohio General Assembly passed a joint resolution naming the scarlet carnation the state flower on February 3, 1904, as it “represented a token of love and reverence for the Ohio president.” On April 1, 1959, the Ohio Legislature proclaimed Alliance “The Carnation City.”
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James Willard Converse (1806-1892) opened his store in 1825 at 10 South Chillicothe Road. Serving residents, merchants, and travelers, the store proved central to Aurora’s early commercial development. Converse’s Daybook survives as a glimpse into the habits of early citizens, who, along with household items, regularly purchased whiskey. Surprisingly, such sales surged on George Washington’s February 22 birthday. Converse deeded the business to employee Seth A. Gillett in 1834. Hopson Hurd Sr. (1793-1869) purchased it from Gillett in 1845. Hurd’s store was popular with local farmers who used their home made cheese as legal tender and enjoyed the barrel of whiskey kept in Hurd’s basement for customers who paid their bills. Hurd added a cheese warehouse to his store and, as a major exporter of cheese to Cleveland, Warren, and Pittsburgh, amassed a sizeable fortune.
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Lucy Depp Park was a 102-acre development named for Lucinda Depp (1844-1929). She had inherited the land from her father, Abraham (1791-1858), an emancipated African American man and central Ohio pioneer from Powhattan County, Virginia. Known historically as the Depp Settlement, Robert Goode (1876-1957), a nephew of Lucy and her husband Thomas A. Whyte (1845-1919), purchased the land and developed it as “Lucy Depp Park” in the mid-1920s. The park became a popular vacation spot as well as home site for African American families from Columbus and elsewhere in the segregated America before the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. According to a brochure Goode used to promote the development, “Lucy Depp Park…For People Who Care; by the Beautiful Waters of O’Shaughnessy Resevoir and Twin Lakes.”
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The Village of Genoa and Clay Township agreed to construct a joint township and village hall in Genoa in 1884. The firm Findley & Shively of Fremont designed the hall in the High Victorian Gothic architectural style and Woodville’s Fred Sandwisch was contracted to build the hall for $8,860. In 1890, the Sandusky Register declared that Genoa could “boast of having one of the finest town halls of any village of its size in Ohio.” As a seat of government and an auditorium (“opera house”), the hall hosted village and township meetings, Memorial Day services, school graduations, community events, and theatrical productions. The hall also had a jail and served as a municipal garage. By early 1970s, the auditorium had been condemned and the future of the structure was uncertain. (Continued on other side)
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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 prompted an expansion of the “Underground Railroad,” and as the state spanning the shortest distance between the Ohio River and Canada, Ohio saw heavy traffic in escaping slaves in the decades before the Civil War. Hancock County was home to many sympathetic residents who defied fugitive slave laws to help conduct slaves to freedom. “Stationmasters” offered safe havens, “conductors” accompanied fugitives through the county, and “stockholders” provided financial support and misled pursuers. Known stations were located mainly along the Perrysburg Road, now U.S. Highway 68. (continued on other side)
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In 1809-1811, Magdalene Strader Borror, widow of Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Borror Jr., moved to this area from Virginia with her seven children (Martin, Jacob, Myomi, Solomon, Christine, Issac, and Absalom). Originally clearing and settling 400 acres of land given to Magdalene by her father, Christopher Strader, the family eventually prospered throughout the entire township. After her death in 1838, Magdalene was buried in nearby Scioto Cemetery, the resting place of more than seventy of her descendants.
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The Triangle, one of the most historic places in Berea, has been the center of the city’s civic life since the mid-19th century. Just beneath lie the solid layers of the famous Berea Sandstone that brought prosperity to Berea during its early years. Quarry owner and Berea Seminary founder John Baldwin obtained much of what is now Berea from Gideon Granger, Postmaster General under President Thomas Jefferson and original owner of Township 6, Range 14 (later Middleburg Township) of the Western Reserve. When the seminary trustees transferred the Triangle tract to the people of Berea in 1847, they designated it by deed as a public promenade. This farsighted stipulation preserved it from commercial development during the 20th century. (continued on other side)
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In 1798, Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northampton, Massachusetts, drew the 72nd draft in the land lottery held by the Connecticut Land Company and received 15,305 acres in Township 4, Range 1, for which he paid $12,903.23, less than one dollar per acre. The area had been inhabited for many years by trappers, missionaries, and Native Americans. One of the earliest settlers was James McMullen, who acquired the first 160-acre parcel from Hinckley in 1801. Brookfield Township became the crown jewel of Hinckley’s holdings. Hinckley named Brookfield after a city in England and set aside land for the village green and the cemetery stating that they were for public use forever. During the mid-1820s the Overland Stage Line had a run through Brookfield, linking it to Salem, Warren, and Youngstown in Ohio and Erie, Pennsylvania and Dunkirk, New York. (Continued on other side)
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