Remarkable Ohio

Results for: black-history
Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, 118 Woodland Avenue
Dayton

, OH

Founded in 1841, Woodland is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries, the style of which was a dramatic departure from traditional church burial grounds at the time. Woodland’s oldest portion, including Victorian Era burial sections, a Romanesque gateway, and a Tiffany chapel, forms a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Arboretum, with over 3,000 trees on more than 200 acres, completes this outdoor museum of Dayton history. Among those buried here are cemetery founder John Van Cleve, the Wright Brothers, inventors John Patterson and Charles Kettering, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Col. Edward Deeds, Governor James M. Cox, and humorist Erma Bombeck.

Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Avenue
Cincinnati

, OH

The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History is part of Cincinnati Museum Center. The Western Museum Society, organized by Dr. Daniel Drake in 1818, preceded it. The Western Museum Society’s collection was built around ornithology, fossil zoology, geology, and Native American artifacts. The Museum’s first taxidermist, John James Audubon was hired in the winter of 1819 to do taxidermy, build collections, and create exhibits. Audubon supplemented his income by drawing portraits, teaching art, and running his own drawing academy. During his brief stay in Cincinnati, Audubon created five paintings of local birds that were among the first contributions to his acclaimed Birds of North America. He left Cincinnati in 1820 to travel and finish his collection of drawings that would make him one of North America’s most revered and famous nineteenth century artists.

164 Eastland Road
Berea

, OH

The Cuyahoga County Fair, first known as the West Cuyahoga County Fair, has been held at this site since 1895. Agricultural fairs, exhibiting the best techniques for producing better crops and livestock, have been part of Cuyahoga County’s history from its early years. As Cleveland became an industrial center, fairs moved from the city to more rural areas of the county. By 1928, with the closure of fairs in Chagrin Falls and Dover, Berea hosted the only fair in the county. Although the Fair was not held during the Great Depression in 1932 or in the World War II years of 1942 and 1943, the Fair has thrived to reach proportions rivaling the Ohio State Fair. The goal of the Cuyahoga County Fair remains to exhibit, to educate, and to demonstrate agribusiness products and techniques from the past, present, and future in a festive atmosphere for all generations.

2900 Sullivant Avenue
Columbus

, OH

Camp Chase was a Civil War camp established in May 1861, on land leased by the U.S. Government. Four miles west of Columbus, the main entrance was on the National Road. Boundaries of the camp were present-day Broad Street (north), Hague Avenue (east), Sullivant Avenue (south), and near Westgate Avenue (west). Named for former Ohio Governor and Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, it was a training camp for Ohio soldiers, a parole camp, a muster-out post, and a prisoner-of-war camp. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through its gates from 1861-1865. By February 1865, over 9,400 men were held at the prison. More than 2,000 Confederates are buried in the Camp Chase Cemetery.

315 E Main Street
Canfield

, OH

For more than two centuries, this burial ground has been a final resting place for those individuals whose lives represented the community history of Canfield. The earliest existing tombstone marks the death of Huldah Tanner in 1803. Seven earlier deaths in Canfield Township are recorded from 1798 to 1803, but the gravesites are unknown. Elijah and Rhoda Hopkins Wadsworth formally deeded the cemetery to the citizens of Canfield in 1810 with a first edition of land donated by Matthew B. Whittlesey in 1811. In 1862-1863, the graveyard was again enlarged. For seventy years the cemetery and fencing were maintained on a volunteer basis. When the Village of Canfield was incorporated in 1869, the care and management was vested in a board of trustees. (continued on other side)

SE corner of McFarland Road & Zimmerlin Road
Rossville

, OH

In 1833, John Randolph from Roanoke, Virginia, died leaving three wills that requested that all of his slaves be set free and that land be purchased for them. Although contested for thirteen years by his family, the slaves were freed and the executor of the wills, Randolph’s cousin Judge William Leigh purchased about 2,000 acres of farm land in Mercer County, Ohio. Traveling by wagon train, the freed slaves, 383 in all, reached their destination in 1846, but were forced to turn back by earlier established white settlers. They turned around and ended up north of Piqua where they purchased land and developed the Village of Rossville. Later some moved on to other places in Miami County and well as Shelby County. In Rossville, they established an African Baptist Church in 1869, cemetery in 1866, and public black school in 1872.

46 S. 3rd Street
Newark

, OH

Designed by J. W. Yost, a renowned Ohio architect, the jail first opened for use in 1889. The Richardsonian Romanesque structure cost $120,000 to build. It was constructed of pink sandstone known as “brownstone,” which was quarried near Millersburg, Ohio. The front three levels were built to house the families of the sheriff and the jail matron. Sheriff Andrew Crilly was the first to occupy the sheriff’s quarters when the jail opened. The rear portion of the building was used for the incarceration of male and female prisoners on separate floors. The 32 cells, each a minimum of 8′ x 8′ in size, had an official total capacity of 68 prisoners. However, well over that number were housed here at times. The jail building was last used for incarcerations in 1987. (Continued on/from other side)

333 N Summit Street
Toledo

, OH

In 1847, eight persons formed a mission parish of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Sandusky Circuit). Reverend Henry J. Young, the minister, had come to Toledo through the Underground Railroad, as had some of his congregation. Richard Mott and Congressman James Mitchell Ashley helped the mission to rent a frame building on the southwest corner of Adams and Summit streets. The mission later became the Toledo Circuit of the A.M.E. Church.