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Henry Solomon Lehr founded Ohio Northern University in 1871 as the Northwestern Ohio Normal School. Its purpose was to train teachers and to provide higher education to the people in Northwest Ohio. In 1885, the school became Ohio Normal University. The new name recognized that the institution drew students from all over Ohio and the nation, and offered courses in many disciplines, including literature, music, business, telegraphy, and law, as well as teacher training. Beginning with 131 students, the institution’s enrollment grew rapidly during its first thirty years of existence. Buildings on the early campus included Dukes Memorial (left), built in 1905; the Normal School Building, built in 1871 and demolished in 1915 to make way for Lehr Memorial (center); and Hill building (right) finished in 1879. The Methodist Episcopal Church (predecessor to the United Methodist Church) assumed control in 1899. Ohio Normal University became Ohio Northern University in 1903. On June 3, 1910, President William Howard Taft delivered that year’s commencement address near this spot.
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Major buildings dating from 1832 to 1898 surround the village green, the geographic center of Gustavus Township. Built in 1832 on the northwest quadrant, the George Hezlep House features Federal-Greek Revival architecture and has a closet reputedly used on the Underground Railroad. Built in 1840, the Farmers’ Exchange Store was originally a double entrance Greek Revival structure. The Storekeeper’s House, also a Greek Revival structure, was built next to the exchange store in 1840. South of this house is the Fraternal Hall, built in 1870. There were once four churches in Gustavus including the Methodist Church, built in 1856 with a temple front and a belfry, and the Congregational Church, built east of the center in 1854. The eclectic Town Hall was built in 1890 and fronts the southeast quadrant. The Gustavus Centralized School, reported as the first centralized school in the United States, was built in 1898 and was replaced by the current building in 1928.
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The Root Homestead was built in 1879 by Amos Ives Root, founder of the A. I. Root Company, shortly after he moved his business from the town square. The homestead housed several generations of the Root family until 1953 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A pioneer of the beekeeping industry, Root helped to standardize such beekeeping equipment and tools as the Langstroth removable frame hive and the centrifugal honey extractor. As a result, beekeepers were able to harvest more honey every season without harming the bees. A prolific author and publisher, Root educated beekeepers across the globe and built a sense of community within the profession. (Continued on other side)
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The Marlborough Society of Friends Meeting was established in 1813 by the Salem Quarterly Meeting at the request of the Springfield (Damascus) Meeting. The Marlborough Friends and Lexington Friends combined to become the Alliance Friends in 1865 and relocated to 322 East Perry Street in Alliance, which was the site of a Methodist Episcopal Church. The Marlborough Friends Meeting House and the burying ground were sold to W.W. Holibaugh in 1897 and remain in private ownership. When State Route 619 was widened in 1941, some burials were exhumed and re-interred
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The first religious society organized in Liberty Township was formed in 1810 by Elders Thomas Cellar, Josiah McKinnie, and Leonard Monroe. Cellar and McKinnie came to Delaware in 1802. In 1820, The Elders and others built Liberty Church and laid out a cemetery on land provided by Thomas Cellar. Along with the Cellar and McKinnie families, early settlers, church and community leaders are buried here. In 1855, John F. Cellar deeded the three acres on which the church was located to Liberty for one dollar. The land was to be used only for the Church, burying ground, and schoolhouse. In the 1990s, the congregation outgrew the old meeting house. A Barn Church was constructed by builder John Redding, assisted by Amish men Josie and son, Junior Miller and their crew. It was constructed in 1996 near the old Liberty Church.
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Chartered in 1852 by the Christian Church and later a Unitarian institution, Antioch College opened with educational pioneer Horace Mann as its first president. One of the earliest co-educational colleges in the United States, from its inception Antioch promoted humanistic and egalitarian values. In 1920 Arthur E. Morgan became president and initiated a widely emulated cooperative work-study program. The Antioch Review, one of the oldest literary magazines in America, began publication in 1941. In 1978 the college reincorporated as part of Antioch University, a multi-campus system headquartered in Yellow Springs.
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The Moravian Church in America began missionary work among the Delaware and Mohican tribes of North America in the mid-18th century. David Zeisberger, one of the best-known Moravian missionaries, came to the Ohio country with Delaware converts from a mission in western Pennsylvania and founded Schoenbrunn in the Tuscarawas Valley on May 3, 1772. Josua, a Mohican convert and missionary leader, led Mohican and Munsee Christians downriver and settled Gnadenhutten (“Tents of Grace”) on October 9, 1772. Zeisberger served as lead missionary at both villages. By 1775, there was an estimated 200 inhabitants in the village. The British, along with Wyandot and Delaware allies, suspected the Christian Indians of aiding the Americans. To ensure their allegiance to the British, the inhabitants of Gnadenhutten were forcibly removed in 1781 and taken to Captives’ Town on the Sandusky River.
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Established in 1873, Lakeside is a pioneer of the American Chautauqua Movement, one of the greatest revival movements in United States history which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by the Methodist Church, Lakeside is one of the few existing Chautauqua communities that remain and thrive today. Each summer, the late-Victorian community provides spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and recreational programs designed to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. It draws visitors from across the country and around the world for its Chautauqua program. Lakeside is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.