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Rossville was settled in April 1801 shortly after the U.S. Government initiated land sales west of the Great Miami River. Its original proprietors–John Sutherland, Henry Brown, Jacob Burnet, James Smith and William Ruffin–named the town in honor of Pennsylvania Senator James Ross (1762-1847), who favored Ohio statehood and advocated free navigation of inland rivers. These founders envisioned Rossville as a shipping port for the rapidly growing population of farmers settling west of the Great Miami. The most practical outlet for their products was by flatboat down the Great Miami, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. The town of Rossville was founded in 1804, the year after the Louisiana Purchase, which made the Mississippi River a United States possession. (Continued on other side)
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In 1873, Tiffin’s Cronise sisters became the first women admitted to the Ohio Bar. At that time, Ohio laws did not provide for the admission of women attorneys. On April 4th 1873, Nettie Cronise applied to the district court. Despite vigorous opposition, leading local attorneys, including William Harvey Gibson and George Seney, supported Nettie’s applications. Ironically, at the same time as Nettie’s admission, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Illinois’ denial of admission to the bar to another woman based upon gender. Regardless, Nettie opened the door for the admission of women to the bar of Ohio. Six months later, Florence, Nettie’s younger sister, was admitted. Florence was also the first female notary public in the state. Together the sisters opened the first female-owned law practice in Ohio, N. & F. Cronise. (Continued on other side)
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In 1805, for $1.50 an acre, Jacob Miller purchased this property in the Congressional Land Office in Chillicothe, capital of the new state of Ohio. He and Somerset co-founder John Finck then each built a tavern on either side of town along the Zane’s Trace, laid out along existing Indian trails in 1796-1797 and Ohio’s first major thoroughfare. Finck built his home and tavern in 1807 and Miller his shortly after. From 1800 to 1815, Zane’s Trace saw significant traffic between the established eastern states and the newly opened Northwest Territory. A perpetual stream of emigrants rolled westward, giving constant occupation to hundreds of tavern-keepers. Besides operating his tavern and farming, Jacob Miller was a public servant. In 1809, he was appointed Overseer of the Poor as there was a need to “bind out” poor children to families who could take care of them. [continued on other side]
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Born in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, William Lawrence moved to Bellefontaine shortly after graduating from Cincinnati Law School in 1840. Lawrence was prosecuting attorney for Logan County (1845); a member of the Ohio Legislature (1846, 1847, 1849-51, 1854); Judge of the Common Pleas and Third District Court (1857-1864); colonel, Eighty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War; United States Congressman (1865-1871, 1873-1877); Founder and President of Bellefontaine National Bank (1871); First Comptroller of the United States Treasury (1880-1885); and original owner of Lawrence Woods State Nature Preserve, Hardin County. Judge Lawrence was instrumental in helping Clara Barton found the American Red Cross and served as its first vice president and chairman of the Executive Board.
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James Sr. and Rebecca (Junkin) Galloway moved with their family to Greene County from Kentucky in 1798, constructing their first home, a small log cabin. Galloway built the present structure around 1799 near the bend in the Little Miami River near what is now Goes Station on U.S. 68. In 1936, the Greene County Historical Society moved the home to the corner of Second and Monroe streets and then to the present site in 1965. The 1974 Xenia Tornado caused serious damage to the building, which has been restored and maintained by the historical society. James Sr. served as a hunter during the American Revolution, procuring game for the army, and while in Ohio, was the first treasurer of Greene County. His son James Jr. served as the first County Surveyor.
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Captain Gordon C. Greene, a veteran riverman, was born in Newport, Ohio, on September 8, 1862. In 1890 he started the “Greene Line” with the “Henry K. Bedford,” a small shallow draft steamer; he owned twenty-five packets in his lifetime. The “Greene Line” later became the “Greene Steamboat Line” then the “Delta Queen Steamboat Company,” with the original port at the Newport Landing. The Greene family launched packets for tours on the Ohio River and its tributaries. Captain Greene died in 1927 at Hyde Park, Cincinnati, and is buried in Newport Cemetery. (continued on other side)
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The first Blaine Hill Bridge was constructed in 1828 as part of the National Road, the nation’s first federally funded highway. This three-arch S-shaped structure, 345 feet in length, spans Wheeling Creek (a tributary of the Ohio River) and is the longest original “S” bridge in existence on the old National Road. At a gradient of approximately 6.3 percent from east to west, it significantly eased, for the first time, the arduous 500-foot western climb out of the valley. Crumbling and in poor condition, it was saved from demolition in 1999 and in 2001 was designated Ohio’s official Bicentennial Bridge. Now tucked between the 1933 U.S. 40 viaduct and Interstate 70, it illustrates the earliest of Ohio’s three eras in national highway transportation.
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This church, founded in 1866, is the oldest Black congregation in Akron. After worshiping in several locations, the congregation held a fund-raiser to help finance the construction of a permanent home. The person collecting the most money had the privilege of renaming the church. That honor went to Mrs. Belle (Smith) Wesley. Completed in 1928, the current structure is a Neo-Classical Revival style building, featuring a classical pedimented portico, or porch, and four distinctive ionic columns. An education wing was added in 1963 by the late Rev. Dr. E. E. Morgan, Jr. Akron Black architects Herbert L. Wardner and John O. Somerville designed the church, and then a Black contractor, Samuel Plato, completed the structure. The church has long been a vital religious and social focal point for Akron’s Black community. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was organized at Wesley Temple. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places 3/19/94.
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