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In 1869 a secret organization, The Knights of Labor, was founded in Philadelphia. The K.O.L. promoted an ideal society based on bettering life for others with the slogans, “labor was the first capital” and “an injury to one is the concern of all.” Shawnee’s Local Assembly #169 Knights of Labor was organized in 1876, and quickly became a powerful voice for labor in Ohio. National labor leader, William T. Lewis, later Labor Commissioner of Ohio, taught free grammer classes at night for the miners. Lewis initiated “The Ohio Plan,” the first free empployment bureaus in the United States. William H. Bailey, later head of National District Assembly #135 of Miners and T.L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers in 1910, also started their careers here. Meetings involving these leaders led to the formation of the United Mine Workers in 1890. (Continued on other side)
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On April 1, 1818, six families from the Cilcennin area of Mid-Wales sailed from Aberaeron, Wales to Baltimore. The group of 36 people was led by John Jones Tirbach. From Baltimore they traveled to Pittsburgh and then by flatboats down the Ohio River toward their destination-Paddy’s Run in Butler County in the southwest corner of Ohio. They stopped in Gallipolis for provisions where their boats were cut loose by either travel-weary women or citizens of Gallipolis who wanted them to stay. The men found work on the Gallipolis to Chillicothe road that was under construction. The terrain reminded them of Mid-Wales, so they purchased land near Centerville and remained. These Welsh prospered and wrote home to Wales with news of their success, prompting others to come. (continued on other side)
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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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Robert L. Eichelberger was born in Urbana on March 9, 1886, the youngest of the five children of George Maley Eichelberger, an Urbana lawyer, and Emma (Ring) Eichelberger. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1903, he attended Ohio State University and then was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Graduating in 1909, he was appointed a second lieutenant of infantry. Four years later he married Emma Gudger, daughter of Judge H. A. Gudger of Asheville, North Carolina. For several years, he saw service in Panama and the Mexican border before joining the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia. From 1918 to 1920 Major Eichelberger observed the Japanese incursion into Siberia and became aware of Japanese methods. In 1940 he was appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point where he established regular courses to include flight training for Flying Army Officers. [continued on other side]
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One of America’s leading architects of the early 20th century, Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), was born in a home that stood at this site. After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gilbert apprenticed with prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White. The critical success of his first major public building, the design of the 1895 Minnesota State Capitol, established his national reputation. His influential 1912 Woolworth building, at 792 feet, was then the world’s tallest building, earning Gilbert’s nickname of “Father of the Modern Skyscraper.” Combining classical designs with modern technology, Gilbert also created the United State Supreme Court building (1932) in Washington, D.C., an enduring icon of American justice and democracy. His other achievements include the Arkansas and West Virginia capitols, the U.S. Custom House in New York, and several buildings at Oberlin College. Gilbert served as the president of the American Institute of Architects and the National Academy of Design.
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The house of Ebenezer Zane was built here in 1805. The structure was the meeting place for the First Methodist Quarterly Conference in 1819 where over 300 settlers in the area and about sixty members of the Wyandot tribe came together. Although the cabin was reconstructed in 1997, it is a symbol of harmonious relations between American settlers and the Wyandot in the years before the latter’s removal from Ohio in 1842.
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William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) was a Miami University faculty member in 1836 when he compiled the first edition of the McGuffey Eclectic Reader in this house. His Reader taught lessons in reading, spelling, and civic education by using memorable stories of honesty, hard work, thrift, personal respect, and moral and ethical standards alongside illustrative selections from literary works. The six-edition series increased in difficulty and was developed with the help of his brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. After the Civil War the Readers were the basic schoolbooks in thirty-seven states and by 1920 sold an estimated 122 million copies, reshaping American public school curriculum and becoming one of the nation’s most influential publications. (Continued on other side)
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Settlers from Connecticut were the first to come to Canfield Township in the late 1700s, and they were followed by a second wave of immigrants, Swiss-German pioneers who began arriving from Berks and Leigh counties in Pennsylvania in 1804. In 1810, these “Pennsylvania Dutch” established The Zion Lutheran and Reformed Church and built a log church and cemetery on this site. The church was destroyed by fire in 1845 and a new church served the congregation well until it too was destroyed by fire in 1894. The cemetery, known as The Old Dutch and German Burying Ground, German Cemetery, and Lynn Cemetery and now Old North Cemetery, is all that remains. Among the dozens of old stone markers, some in German, are markers for veterans of the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, and other wars.
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