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In April 1797, a committee of Marietta citizens, led by General Rufus Putnam, met to establish an academy suitable for preparatory instruction for their youth. Muskingum Academy, completed late that year, became the first institution of its kind in the Northwest Territory, providing “classical instruction… in the higher branches of an English education.” Its first instructor was David Putnam, a 1793 Yale graduate. The building also served as the home of the Congregationalist Church until 1808. Growing and expanding with Ohio’s first city, the academy served Marietta’s educational needs for more than thirty years as the forerunner of Marietta College.
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In May 1800, Congress passed an act dividing the Northwest Territory, with the western division becoming Indiana Territory and the eastern called the Territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River. Two years later, thirty-five delegates from the nine counties of the latter division convened in Chillicothe to draw up the constitution for the new state of Ohio, which became a state in 1803. Israel Donalson was the last survivor of the convention dying in 1860 at the age of 93. This frontiersman served Manchester as a surveyor, schoolteacher, postmaster, and judge in the first court. In 1791, one month after his arrival here at Massie’s Station, Donalson was captured by Native Americans. His memoir is a colorful account of his capture and escape. Donalson served as an Elder for the first Presbyterian church in Adams County, which stood on these grounds.
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Entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph (Jose) de Rivera was born in Barcelona, Spain, and built an import business in New York City. In 1854, he bought six Lake Erie Islands and had South Bass Island surveyed and subdivided into ten-acre lots. De Rivera traveled between New York and South Bass Island, initially turning Put-in-Bay into a sheep farm. He encouraged settlement on the island and its wine industry by helping German immigrants purchase land to plant vineyards. He donated five acres for this waterfront park, the site for the first school, and the land for the first church. To promote travel to the island, de Rivera opened the island’s largest cave as a tourist attraction. He is buried in the island’s cemetery, which is on land he donated for that purpose.
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The first African American congregation and first African American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Dayton trace their roots back to the early 1830s. They were organized by Father Thomas Willis and a small group of faithful men and women. After several moves, the congregation settled on Eaker Street and the church was dedicated in the early 1870s. The church was rededicated in 1882 and renamed Wayman Chapel AME Church. The eminent poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and his mother Matilda attended and worshiped at the Eaker Street church. His untimely death in 1906 brought family and friends to his funeral services held at the church. By 1923 church leadership felt the need for more secure space for the growing congregation and moved to a new building at Fifth and Banks streets. Three elegant chandeliers for the sanctuary were donated by the city’s newspaper, the Dayton Daily News. (Continued on other side)
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The First Congregational Church of Claridon has served the community since it was dedicated in the summer of 1832. Twenty-seven souls from the Burton Congregational Church petitioned to form their own church in Claridon in November 1827, and their request was granted the following month. In 1830, a committee made up of Cotton Kellogg, Chester Treat, and Asa Cowles contracted with John Talbot and Rufus Hurlburt to build the church. When “sledding” came during the winter of 1831, logs were hauled to Cotton Kellogg’s sawmill to be cut into lumber. (Continued on other side)
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St. Joseph Catholic Church has been located here since the parish’s formation in 1845. Tiffin was established by Josiah Hedges in 1822, and shortly after, many German Catholic families began to settle in the area. They formed part of St. Mary’s parish until 1845, when they obtained permission from Bishop John Purcell of the Diocese of Cincinnati to organize as the separate congregation of St. Joseph. In May 1845, parishioners bought two acres of land at the conjunction of Melmore and South Washington Streets. Within the month, they laid the cornerstone for a 40-foot by 66-foot brick church that would be completed by August of that year. As the congregation grew, Rev. Joseph Bihn, pastor from 1856 to 1873, saw the need for a new church. (Continued on other side)
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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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The Concord Presbyterian Church congregation organized in 1805. The Concord Church was an integral part of the antislavery movement and was a station on the Underground Railroad. Reverend James H. Dickey, the congregation’s second pastor, was known to be “an avowed anti-slavery man” and an “active Ohio abolitionist.” The Anderson and Galbraith families, who were members of the congregation, were Underground Railroad conductors. Fugitives hid in the loft of the church until they could be taken to the next station in either Frankfort or Chillicothe.
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