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On March 18, 1942, four U.S. Army Air Corps pilots lost their lives within a quarter mile of this marker. Three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, these pilots left Wayne County Airport near Detroit flying P-39F Airacobra pursuit planes. They were part of the Army Air Corps Ferry Command delivering new aircraft to Louisville, KY. As they entered Allen County, a blinding snow storm limited visibility and convinced flight leader Lt. Edward H. Saunders to make a U-turn to escape the perilous conditions. With ice building on their wings and windshields, all four pilots, flying in close formation, crashed their planes into the ground within seconds of each other. There were no survivors. Although these men never faced the enemy, their mission was crucial to the United States in fighting the war.
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Founded in 1921 as the Weaver Aircraft Company and located in Lorain, Ohio, the Waco Aircraft Company relocated to Troy in March 1923. It was the first aircraft company to use assembly line production and shock strut landing gear. Leading all civilian aircraft production at a ratio of two to one from 1927-1929, the company had sales distributors in 24 countries worldwide. The United States government became the prime contractor of Waco Aircraft Company’s troop/cargo gliders (CG-4A) used extensively during World War II. The company also managed the U.S. Army’s glider program for 15 companies that produced gliders nationwide. The last WACO, model W “Aristrocrat,” was built in Troy in June 1947.
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General John Hunt Morgan led a force of 2,000 Confederate cavalrymen into Meigs County on July 18, 1863, during a raid north of the Ohio River. More than 50,000 Union troops and mlitia pursued Morgan across the State of Ohio. At Langsville, in an attempt to delay the Confederate approach, local militia burned the bridge near McMaster’s grist mill. This was the first burned bridge encountered by the Confederates on their trek across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. A young Confederate soldier, shot and killed by a local resident, was buried near this site. After suffering losses at Buffington Island, Morgan surrendered eight days later near West Point in Columbiana County. The surrender field was the northernmost point reached by Confederate forces during the Civil War.
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The Muskingum River forms at the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walhoning rivers at Roscoe Village and flows south approximately 100 miles to the Ohio River at Marietta. During the first half of the nineteenth century, fugitive slaves from Virginia crossed the Ohio River and followed the Underground Railroad lines north toward Canada. Four Underground Railroad lines converged in Roscoe Village on the Muskingum River. The first followed the river north out of Marietta through Rainbow and Waterford. An Ohio River crossing at Belpre connected runaways with the Muskingum River at Putnam in Muskingum County. Two others came from the west through Granville in Licking County and New Concord in Muskingum County. From Roscoe Village, fugitive slaves sometimes traveled from station to station along the Ohio-Erie Canal that was completed in 1825. The canal ended at Lake Erie where the runaway slaves were assisted in crossing into Canada.
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Ohio, first native-born governor, Wilson Shannon was born in February 1802 in the Mt. Olivet area near Barnesville. After attending Ohio University and studying law in Kentucky, he returned to Belmont County to practice and was elected county attorney in 1833. Shannon served two terms as governor of Ohio, from 1838 to 1840 and again from 1842 to 1844, resigning to accept a presidential appointment as minister to Mexico. After participating in the California Gold Rush, Shannon returned to Ohio and was elected to Congress in 1852. President Pierce then appointed him territorial governor of Kansas, an office he held until 1857. After a notable career of public service, Shannon died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1877.
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Settlers and soldiers moving west brought with them familiar institutions such as the Masonic Lodge. Here at Camp Meigs, military officers were authorized by Ohio Militia Captain Henry Brush, Ohio Masonic Grand Master, to establish the first lodge in Northwest Ohio on September 13, 1813. Colonel William Anderson was Master, Lt. Col. William McMillan, Senior Warden, and Capt. Charles Gratiot, Junior Warden. Built under the command of Gen. William Henry Harrison, the fort was named for Ohio Governor, Return Jonathan Meigs.
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Pulaski and Pulaski Township in Williams County are named for Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalry officer who died to win America’s independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. Charged with attempting to kidnap the king of Poland, Pulaski (1747-1779) fled to Paris and then to America in 1777, met General George Washington, and joined the colonies’ struggle. At the Battle of Brandywine, Pulaski covered the American retreat with a daring charge at pursuing British forces. After Brandywine, the Continental Congress commissioned Pulaski a Brigadier General of Cavalry. Pulaski later resigned his command and petitioned Washington to organize what came to be known in March 1778 as Pulaski’s Legion.
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In 1918, Charles Young made a desperate attempt to convince the U.S. Army that he was fit for duty. The Army’s highest-ranking Black officer, he had been medically retired and not given a command during World War I. To demonstrate his fitness, he rode 497 miles from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. Leaving on June 6 he made the journey in 17 days, 16 on horseback and 1 resting. Averaging 31 miles each day, he rode 45 minutes and walked 15 minutes every hour. Upon his arrival, Young met with Secretary of War Newton Baker. Pressured by the Black press and the White House, Baker hedged. He recalled Young to active duty a year later and assigned him to Camp Grant, Illinois, just five days before the end of the war.
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