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Born on April 18, 1913, in Barrea, Province L’Aquila Abruzzi, Italy to Salvatore and Maria (Lombardozzi) Campana, Mary Ann Campana immigrated to the United States with her parents at age eight. Raised in Youngstown and educated in the Youngstown Public Schools and Youngstown College, Ms. Campana was a pioneer in Ohio, National, and international aviation. In 1932, at age eighteen, she achieved the distinction of being the first licensed woman pilot in Ohio. On June 4, 1933, with only 44 hours of prior flying time, Mary Ann established the world’s endurance record in the Light plane class for a non-refueled flight. Flying above Youngstown in a 500-pound Taylor Cub Plane with a 40-horsepower engine and loaded with 40 gallons of gasoline, she flew for 12 hours and 27 minutes without a parachute, breaking the old record by one hour and ten minutes before electrical storms forced her down. (Continued on other side)
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The village of Chagrin, founded in 1798, changed its name in 1834 to honor Dr. Westel Willoughby, a pioneer medical educator. That same year, the Willoughby University of Lake Erie was chartered, and the Willoughby Medical College opened its doors, signaling the beginning of medical education in northern Ohio. The Medical College trained 160 doctors, educated in contemporary methods of medicine, anatomy, chemistry, and surgery. Financial struggles and public outcry against grave-robbing — which supplied cadavers for anatomy classes — hampered the college’s development. The movement of faculty to Cleveland and the transfer of the state charter to Columbus hastened the demise of the Medical College in 1847, and laid the foundation for the establishment of the medical schools of Case Western and Ohio State universities. (Continued on side two)
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In 1833, Robert Busenbark deeded land to the directors of School District No. 6 for Busenbark School. Twenty years later, Robert and son David granted a right-of-way on their property for a station on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad (CH&D). One of eleven depots in Butler County, Busenbark station attracted the Kinsinger-Augspurger Warehouse and the Kennel Grain Elevator to the area in the 1860s. The railroad also enabled the cross-roads settlement to host an American championship prize fight in 1867. Fighting with bare knuckles in an outdoor ring, Mike McCoole bested Aaron Jones in a match seen by thousands. The Busenbark generating station supplied power to interurban lines until 1912 and later furnished electricity to local residents. Farmers and the Miami Poultry Yards depended on the trains and interurban to ship produce. The railroad depot disappeared between 1914 and 1916; the school closed after 1937; interurban service ended in 1939. All that remains of Busenbark is Busenbark Road, which was established in 1858.
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The New California Church was organized in 1826 at a time when the congregation was called the Associate Congregation of Darby and represented Presbyterians whose ancestors came from the “Seceder” tradition of Scotland. Seceder Presbyterians were so named because they left or “seceded from” the mainstream Presbyterian Church when the English Crown claimed the right to name ministers. Their desire for religious freedom brought them to America where they were one of the earliest denominations to condemn slavery. The congregation met at members’ homes until building its first church in 1833, a log structure. The first minister to serve this congregation, the Reverend James Wallace, who served from 1832-1841, was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and this congregation maintained that anti-slavery stance under later ministers. The present church was built in 1904. (continued on other side)
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Just after 5:00 P.M on June 28, 1924, a tornado swept off Lake Erie directly into downtown Lorain. Within five minutes, seventy-eight people lost their lives. Fifteen died in the old State Theatre that stood upon this site, as an audience of two hundred watched a Saturday afternoon musical performance. More than one thousand suffered injuries. The tornado did extensive damage to the business district, destroyed 500 homes, and damaged a thousand more. The city’s largest industry, the American Shipbuilding yards, was severely damaged. The tornado, which had hit Sandusky before striking Lorain, continued along the shoreline and struck Sheffield and Avon minutes later. Contemporary accounts listed eighty-two deaths resulting from the deadliest tornado in Ohio’s history.
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On this bluff lies one of the two great animal effigy mounds built by Ohio’s prehistoric people. Shown here, Alligator Mound is a giant earthen sculpture of some four-footed animal with a long, curving tail. Archaeologists believe the animal is perhaps an opossum or a panther, but not an alligator. The earthwork is approximately 250 feet long, seventy-six feet wide, and four feet high. Like the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, Alligator Mound is not a burial mound. The Newark Earthworks, built by the Hopewell people between 100 B.C. and A.D. 400, are three miles to the east. Scholars do not know who built Alligator Mound, but it may be the work of the Hopewell.
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Approximately 1000 feet east of this marker lies the graves of sixteen American soldiers from Fort McArthur who gave their lives during the War of 1812. The fort, a one-half acre timber stockade containing huts, was built in the summer of 1812 to guard the Scioto River crossing of Gen. William Hull’s “Trace” to Detroit. Construction of the fort was under the command of a future Ohio governor, Col. Duncan McArthur.
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On December 15, 1967, about one mile downstream from this historic marker, a national tragedy occurred. Forty-six interstate travelers lost their lives when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River during five o’clock rush hour traffic. The 2,235 foot two-way vehicular bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio via U.S. Route 35. The West Virginia Ohio River Company built the structure in 1928 for $1.2 million. The bridge, unique in its engineering conception, was the first of its design in America and the second in the world. Instead of woven-wire cable, the bridge was suspended on heat-treated eye-bar chains. It was named the “Silver Bridge” because it was the first in the world to be painted with aluminum paint. In 1969, two years later, its replacement, the Silver Memorial Bridge was dedicated.