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The Adams County Fairgrounds, established at this site in October 1853, on seven acres of land donated by Judge George Collings, was converted to a Civil War training camp named in honor of General Thomas Hamer, a Mexican War hero, of Georgetown, Ohio. The old stone Courthouse was made into a hospital to serve the camp. The 70th Ohio Volunteer infantry, organized in October 1861, trained on the old fairgrounds until Christmas day 1861, when it marched from Camp Hamer to Ripley. The 70th participated in the battles of Shiloh, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; the siege at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Sherman’s March to the Sea.
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People living in Marietta and along the Muskingum River shared a history of slavery opposition. Manasseh Cutler, from Massachusetts and an Ohio Land Company agent, helped draft the Ordinance of 1787 that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. General Rufus Putnam, Captain Jonathan Stone, and other Ohio Land Company Revolutionary War veterans, founded Marietta at the mouth of the Muskingum River in 1788 bringing with them their anti-slavery sentiments. A proposal to legalize slavery in the proposed state of Ohio was vetoed largely due to the efforts of Marietta’s Ephraim Cutler and General Putnam at the 1802 Ohio Constitutional Convention. These conditions were precursors toward the formation of the Underground Railroad as fugitive slaves crossed the Ohio River seeking freedom. From 1812 through 1861, large numbers of fugitive slaves fleeing toward Canada, were aided by descendants of early settlers who operated Underground Railroad Stations along the Muskingum River. (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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Among the earliest settlers to Rush Township were members of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers, who emigrated from the eastern states, mostly Pennsylvania and North Carolina. At first religious services were held in the homes of devout Quakers who in turn built a small-framed meeting house on this site in 1842. The present Friends Church replaced the original structure in the 1870s at a cost of $4,245. Although not a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church supported local ardent Abolitionists who helped runaway slaves reach freedom in Canada. An epidemic during the winter of 1850-1851 reduced the Friends’ membership and led to several Quaker families relocating to Iowa. The final religious service was held here on October 26, 1997, after which the church was donated to the village of North Lewisburg.
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Lorain’s shipbuilding industry began when Augustus Jones and William Murdock began constructing wooden sailing vessels on the west side near the mouth of the Black River. The sloop General Huntington was the first boat launched from Lorain in 1819. In 1897, the shipbuilding industry moved to the east side of the river with the establishment of the Lorain yard of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, the precursor of the American Shipbuilding Company. In 1898, they were the largest dry dock on the Great Lakes. On April 13, 1898, the first steel ship, the Superior City, was launched. At the time, it was the largest vessel on fresh water. During the early years well-known passenger ships, railroad car ferries, tankers, self-unloaders, tugs, and barges were built here.
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Born in New Jersey, Richard and Sarah Conine, the founders of the village of Pataskala, moved to Lima Township and lived on this site as early as 1821 when Richard established a grist mill nearby. Their homestead also served as a stagecoach stop on the mud pike between Columbus and Newark prior to the coming of the railroad. Richard platted “Conine Town” south and west of here in 1851, and the town was renamed Pataskala soon after. The public-spirited Conines contributed to the building of several area schools and churches and donated land for the Pataskala Cemetery. After their deaths, Sarah’s nephew Jacob Van Dorn inherited the property. John Hawley purchased the home in 1887 and for many years it was known as “The Hawley House.” It was demolished in 1964 to make way for commercial development.
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In 1837, Cincinnati merchants projected a branch canal to join the Whitewater Canal at West Harrison, Indiana, with the goal of tapping commerce from Indiana’s Whitewater Valley. The major obstacle on this route was the ridge between North Bend and Cleves, just northeast of this site. Engineer Darius Lapham designed a 1,782-foot tunnel though this barrier. Lined with brick made on site, the tunnel, 24 feet wide and 20 1/2 feet high, was the first canal tunnel in Ohio. Six workers died in its construction. The Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal opened in 1843 but was abandoned by 1856, after the main Whitewater Canal had been rendered useless by repeated flooding. The canal tunnel was subsequently used as a railroad tunnel from 1863 until 1888, illustrating the progression of transportation technology in the mid-nineteenth century.
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This circa 1840s log house, which now serves as a museum and home to the East Palestine Historical Society, was originally located at the corner of West Main and Walnut Streets. Some of its most notable and earliest residents were Dr. Robert Chamberlin (1798-1876), the town’s first resident physician, and his wife Rebecca (1810-1895). Chamberlin practiced medicine for 30 years, serving the town as a township trustee in 1834, the first postmaster in 1836, and township clerk in 1839. (Continued on other side)
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