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Built in 1877 and spanning 136 feet, the Engle Mill Road Covered Bridge carried vehicular traffic until 2003. The bridge is named after the nearby Levi Engle Mill. It is one of a few dozen Smith Truss bridges in the United States. The Smith Bridge Company manufactured the bridge using the Smith Truss patent, invented by founder, Robert W. Smith. The company originated in Tippecanoe City, Ohio and relocated to Toledo, where it was purchased by the Toledo Bridge Company in 1890. Smith died in 1898 at the age of 63, leaving a legacy of unique bridges.
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The roots of Huntersville began when John and Elizabeth Hilliard purchased this former Shawnee tribal land in 1797 from Ohio’s largest land speculator Judge John Symmes. When Symmes defaulted on his payments, the Hilliards found themselves repurchasing their own land from the federal government. These uncertain land claims defeated their 1799 attempt to found “Hilliardstown.” David Hunter purchased the abandoned village site in 1833. He re-surveyed the land in 1838 creating an eighteen lot, two street village that he named Huntersville. The village incorporated in 1848, but was annexed by the neighboring city of Piqua in 1893. At the time Huntersville had a population of over 760, its own school system, a volunteer fire department, gas lights, and an assortment of saloons, boarding houses, and grocery stores.
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Built in 1877 and spanning approximately ninety-five feet, the Stevenson Road Covered Bridge carried vehicular traffic until 2003. It is one of the few Smith truss bridges left in the United States. The Smith Bridge Company manufactured the bridge using various patents of the company, which were secured by its founder, Robert W. Smith. The company originated in Tippecanoe City, Ohio (Tipp City) and later relocated to Toledo. In 1890 the Toledo Bridge Company Purchased the company from Smith. Robert Smith died in 1898 at the age of sixty-five leaving behind a legacy of unique covered bridges.
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The Peter J. Miller House was constructed around 1830 and is one of the last remaining pre-Civil War lakefront houses in Lorain County. The architecture is Greek Revival. Peter Miller married Ruth Houseworth in 1828. They had five children. In 1851 Peter Miller died and it’s believed that his family continued to reside on the property until 1925. The City of Avon Lake purchased the property in 1962. The house was opened for tours, and restoration proceeded, as funds were available. In 1975 the water heating system burst and caused extensive damage. In 1985 a new committee took over and was successful in restoring the house. Volunteer trustees have overseen the operation of the house as a museum since September 1989.
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For over three decades, the electric interurban railways played a major part in the economic life of the American Midwest. Their contribution was greatest in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. The interurban railways were electrically-powered trains speedier than city streetcars that were designed to connect communities together. A quick and cheap alternative to regular railroads, canals or horses, the interurban became a popular mode of travel at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1915, Ohio had 2,780 miles of interurban track.
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Greek Christian refugees from Asia Minor migrated to Canton in the early 1900s settling in the industrial area known as “Carnahan.” Erected in 1917, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church was chartered by Elies Korosedes, Nick Kessenides, Alex Heropoulos, Harry Achilles, and Paul Paulidis. It cost $50,000 to build and was repaid within 3 years by parishioners, mostly laborers earning 30 cents an hour. In 1927, a separate building Koraes Hall was added as a social and cultural center. It was later connected to the church in 1934. The property was sold in 1976 and subsequently changed ownership many times. On September 2, 2020, a devastating fire destroyed the former Koraes Hall, rendering the remaining structure unsafe. City officials condemned the buildings for demolition and buried the remnants beneath the ground.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield Connecticut in 1811 and moved to Cincinnati in 1832 when her father, prominent Congregational minister Lyman Beecher became the pastor of the city’s Second Presbyterian Church and president of Lane Theological Seminary. Married to Calvin E. Stowe in 1836, she bore six of the couple’s seven children while living here. Life in the city provided Stowe with the firsthand accounts about the evils of slavery. Already a published writer, she drew upon these experiences and the death of her infant son Charley in 1849 to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Published in book form in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin almost single-handedly popularized the cause of anti-slavery, made Stowe famous, and remains an icon of the American anti-slavery movement. A prolific writer, she wrote a book a year for nearly thirty years of her life. After moving from Cincinnati in 1850, the Stowes lived in Brunswick, Maine, Andover, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, where she died in 1896.
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In 1846, the same year that Mahoning County was created, Ohio’s General Assembly passed an act “for the encouragement of agriculture.” An outgrowth of this legislation led to the founding of the Mahoning County Agricultural Society in April 1847. Boasting a membership of 170, the Society agreed to sponsor competitions for premiums to be distributed at an “annual fair and cattle show the next fall.” Canfield was the geographic center of the county and selected as the site for the first fair. In October, from the lawn of the First Congregational Church, Comptroller of the United State Treasury Elisha Whittlesey welcomed participants. Admission was one shilling (twelve and one half cents). The Village Green overflowed with exhibitions of prized livestock, harvests, plowing contests, and horse racing. Early fairs were one-day events attended primarily by gentlemen. However, the church provided a venue for ladies to display their handiwork. (continued on other side)