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Indian Lake Dam was built 1851-1860 to create a feeder lake, known as the Lewistown Reservoir, for the Miami and Erie Canal. The dam included a 700-foot long concrete ogee weir spillway that discharged water from the lake into the Great Miami River. In 1898, the Ohio General Assembly designated the lake as a public recreation area and renamed it Indian Lake. The lake and dam structure have been owned and operated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources since the creation of ODNR in 1949. (Continued on other side)
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Benjamin Overfield (1774-1831), son of a Revolutionary War soldier, opened his tavern in this log house on September 13, 1808. Never moved, it is the oldest surviving building in Troy. The tavern provided food, lodging and space for business and social gatherings. Overfield agreed to let the county use a room on the second floor of the building as a temporary courtroom. Behind the tavern, Benjamin built a small log cabin that was home to his family. He prospered here until 1825 when he moved to the Public Square. Today’s structure includes the tavern, the cabin, and later additions. Used as a dwelling from 1825 until 1948, the building now houses the Overfield Tavern Museum. Benjamin Overfield and his first wife Mary are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
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Considered a bold experiment in community planning, Greenhills was intended to relieve an acute housing shortage and to provide jobs during the Great Depression. In 1935, the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the construction of three greenbelt communities: Greendale, Wisconsin; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Greenhills, Ohio. The construction of Greenhills began on December 16, 1935. The project generated thousands of jobs and, ultimately, 676 units of housing for working people. On April 1, 1938, the first Greenhills “Pioneers” moved into homes on Avenell Lane. Greenhills reflects the town planning principles of the English “garden city” movement. Planners clustered homes around a common green space and a community shopping area was within easy walking distance. Like the original greenbelt of forests and farms, today Winton Woods Park serves as a buffer for the Village. The original federally built center of Greenhills was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
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Labeled “Union Square” on the first village maps, block 12 of the City of Bellaire was formed by joining portions of the Harris and Rodefer Farms in 1857. Used for tent shows, circuses, political meetings, and playing baseball, the land during the Civil War was used as a canteen for feeding Union recruits from nearby Camp Jefferson. Stonemasons cut sandstone blocks here that make up “Great Stone Viaduct” railroad bridge. A steam derrick and stable for horses that helped to move the sandstone to the bridge’s construction site were also placed temporarily on this land. In 1882, a monument was erected to honor Civil War veterans as “Union Square” became a city park. Former President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech here to the citizens of Bellaire in 1912.
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The Village of McGuffey was named for John McGuffey, who in the 1860s first attempted to drain the Scioto Marsh. A larger and more effective drainage effort, made by others who entered Hardin County in the 1880s, continued for several decades until thousands of acres of land were in production, principally of onions for which the marsh became nationally known. During the era of highest production of onions, most townspeople were involved in planting, weeding, and harvesting. The fields were bordered by windrows of willow trees to decrease wind damage over the black silt-like muck that was originally ten or more feet deep throughout the marsh. Successful treatment against wind erosion and oxidation reduced the depth of muck to only a few inches.
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“I say white brother, because I believe that to be the proper phrase, inasmuch as I believe in the principle of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of all mankind no matter what the color of his skin may be.” Richard L. Davis championed the cause of racial equality throughout the eastern coalfields, calling for an end to the color line and for all miners to unite against wage slavery. He was born in Roanoke County, Virginia in 1862 and arrived in racially integrated Rendville in 1882, where he became an organizer for the Knights of Labor. In 1886, a year after the Great Hocking Valley Strike, Davis wrote his first letters to the editor of the National Labor Tribune, establishing himself as voice for miners in the labor movement. (Continued on other side)
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Officially opening on August 4, 1840, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal followed the route of present railroad tracks through Munroe Falls approximately one thousand feet south of this marker. This 82-mile long "feeder canal" connected the Beaver Valley canal system at New Castle, Pennsylvania with the Ohio and Erie Canal in Akron, thereby linking Pittsburgh with Cleveland and the western Great Lakes. Many communities along the canal’s path became linked to national and world commerce through their establishment as canal ports. New England investor Edmund Munroe purchased property and water rights along the canal’s proposed route, and in 1837 established the Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company. The village of Munroe Falls grew around the manufacturing company site and was incorporated on October 26, 1838. When this section of the canal closed in 1869, the waterway through Munroe Falls was filled and railroad tracks were laid over its path. A portion of the canal bed is still visible east of State Route 91.
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Meadowbrook Park began as a Tiffin, Fostoria & Eastern Electric Railway plan to draw weekend riders. Laura Stephenson Sneath, wife of a major company stakeholder, led the park development. Originally north of Wolf Creek, Meadowbrook included a baseball diamond and a 1902 dance pavilion. In 1923, William Richards purchased the buildings and leased the land from Henry Matthews of Matthews Boat Company. The pavilion was destroyed by fire under suspicious circumstances on October 12, 1925, but no one was charged. James Garfield Haugh, president of the Gem Manufacturing Company, purchased the land in 1925. (Continued on other side)
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