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In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, when the general public believed that the insane and paupers could be rehabilitated into productive citizens, the Ohio Legislature gave authorization to county commissioners to establish county “poor houses.” The Athens County Home, formerly known as the Athens County Infirmary, opened on this site in 1857 to provide care for indigent citizens of Athens County. When fire destroyed the original building in 1903, a new building was constructed from 1904-1905, designed with the capacity to house up to one hundred people. When it was built, it was considered to be one of the finest and most modern charitable institutions of its time. The facility continued to provide housing for indigent and elderly residents until 1997 when the County Commissioners closed the home and it became a primary location for the delivery of social services in Athens County. (continued on the other side)
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The oldest known structure standing in Franklin, the Old Log Post Office is a reminder of the links the community’s earliest members maintained to the rest of the young state of Ohio and to the United States during the early nineteenth century. John Noble Cumming Schenck, older brother of one of the founders of Franklin, William C. Schenck, established a store here in 1802. In 1805 President Thomas Jefferson appointed John Schenck postmaster of Franklin, a position he held until 1829. Schenck’s store is considered Franklin’s first post office and was one of the first four in Warren County. This building first stood at 310 South River Street and over the years was completely covered by additions and clapboards. They were removed in October 1974 and the house was moved to this location on December 6 of that year. In 1976 the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Washington Court House was founded in 1810 by American Revolutionary War veterans from the state of Virginia. They also established Washington Cemetery in 1810 and located it in what was originally the southern part of the town. With the coming of the railroad, the cemetery’s size was reduced to what is now approximately half an acre of land containing one hundred and twelve headstones. One of the prominent people buried in the cemetery is Judge Wade Loofborough, known for his interest in the utopian socialist society called Fourierism. He purchased land in Clermont County to establish the society, but it failed. Loofborough eventually became a respected judge and lawyer in Fayette County. Other distinguished people buried here include veterans of the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
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New Haven, Ohio, was the mercantile center of southwest Huron County during the first half of the 19th century. Residents described immense wagons, or “land schooners,” lined up for miles on the New Haven-Worthington Road traveling from Columbus to the Lake Erie ports. Organized in 1815, New Haven was one of the early townships formed in Huron County and the Firelands. The village was platted, with streets at right angles around a diamond-shaped town green, after the plan of New Haven, Connecticut. When, in the 1840s, New Haven rejected the railroad’s direct route through the village, the Sandusky & Newark was routed to the west and through Plymouth taking with it the shipping business. Subsequently, New Haven began a steady economic decline into a small crossroads village.
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Opened in the fall of 1930, Universal Stadium became the home of the Portsmouth Spartans professional football team. Earlier that summer, the Spartans had just become a member of the National Football League (NFL). Led by a few local businessmen, the Portsmouth National Football League Corporation raised money to help build the permanent stadium for the Spartans. The stadium opened on September 14, 1930 as the Spartans defeated the Newark (New Jersey) Tornadoes for their first NFL victory. Ten days later the Spartans played one of the NFL’ s first night games against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Portsmouth Times said, “Night football has come to stay, at least in Portsmouth.” From 1930 to 1933, the Spartans compiled a record of 19 wins 2 losses and 4 ties at Universal Stadium. (continued on other side)
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The history of New Knoxville provides one of the best examples of chain migration to America. After the Shawnee were removed from what would become Auglaize County, James Knox Lytle, cousin to James Knox Polk, purchased land in Washington Township. Lytle platted a village of 102 lots in 1836, calling it Knoxville to honor his mother’s family. Meanwhile, newly married Wilhelm and Elisabeth Fledderjohann Kuckhermann (later Kuck) immigrated from Ladbergen in northwest Germany. Having missed their boat to St. Louis, the couple lived briefly in Stallostown (Minster) and Bremen (New Bremen). They wrote home, encouraging others to emigrate; in the summer of 1835 the Fledderjohanns (Elisabeth’s family), Meckstroths, and Lutterbecks arrived. The families bought land near the site of Knoxville. (continued on other side)
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With news of hostilities at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Ripley men formed one of Ohio’s first military units and established Camp Ripley on what was the 12-acre Ripley Fairgrounds. Chosen as Captain was West Point graduate Jacob Ammen. His unit would be a saving force for Ulysses S. Grant’s troops at Pittsburg Landing raising him to the rank of Brigadier General. Soon barns and buildings became military quarters, and tents dotted the landscape from William Street to Maplewood Cemetery. Camp Ripley, also known as Camp Ammen, served as a regional mustering point and military drilling location. Ripley gained distinction as being the only town in the United States to have soldier’s organizations fighting from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.
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James Elrick, a local carpenter, built the Lane-Hooven House in 1863 for Clark Lane (1823-1907), a Hamilton industrialist and philanthropist. Lane, who first came to the area at age twenty-one as a blacksmith, resided in the house for more than eleven years. In 1866, Lane built the library, also originally an octagon, across the street. In 1868, he conveyed the library to the city. The C. Earl Hooven family resided in the house from 1895 to 1942. In 1943, Bertrand Kahn purchased the residence and presented it to the community for civic and charitable uses. It was donated as a memorial to his father, Lazard Kahn, a Hamilton industrialist and civic leader. The Lane-Hooven House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. (Continued on other side)
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