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The twenty-five acre estate Spiegel Grove was the home of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th president of the United States. Spiegel Grove received its name from the German word “spiegel,” meaning mirror, describing pools that collect beneath the trees after a rainstorm. Hayes’s uncle, Sardis Birchard, a Fremont merchant, built the home on this site in 1863. The Hayeses moved to Spiegel Grove after Hayes’s second term as Ohio governor ended in 1873. They inherited the estate in 1874. The family left Fremont after Hayes’s election as Ohio governor in 1875, and U.S. president in 1876. They returned to Spiegel Grove in 1881. The Hayeses expanded the home in 1880 and 1889. Lucy and Rutherford Hayes died at Spiegel Grove in 1889 and 1893 respectively. They were reburied at Spiegel Grove in 1915. Their children donated the property to the state of Ohio in 1909 in order to establish the nation’s first presidential library.
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This site is dedicated to Dominick Labino, 1910-1987, glass scientist, engineer, artist, and inventor. Credited with 57 patents, Mr. Labino invented pure silica fiber which was used in insulating tiles covering the space shuttle Columbia and the Apollo, Mercury, and Gemini spacecraft. As a glass artist, Labino was co-founder of the studio glass movement in America. His art works are in over 60 museums in the U.S. and abroad, and his architectural elements of hot cast panels are in many public buildings. His forte was original formulation of glass of high quality, durability, and unusual color effects. A resident of Grand Rapids since 1956, he was a benefactor and warm friend to the village.
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This is the site of Camp Noble, named for Congressman Warren P. Noble, who obtained the officer’s commission for William H. Gibson as the colonel of the 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Companies of 100 began to arrive here August 12, 1861 from Crawford, Hancock, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, and Wyandot Counties. On August 20, they were mustered into Federal service as the 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Nicknamed the “Buckeye Vanguard” by Col. Gibson, training continued until September 9, 1861, when the 49th was ordered to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, Ohio. (Continued other side)
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(Stout Post Office) A thriving riverport in the 19th Century, founded in 1835 by William Stout. Elisha Stout, son of William, born and raised here, was one of the founding fathers of Omaha, Nebraska, and Denver, Colorado. Former site of Adamsville which served as the county seat of Adams County from Dec., 1797, to Dec., 1798. A log courthouse and jail were erected here to serve the public.
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Zion (Ribel’s) Church was built on this site in 1808. The log structure was located in the Zion Ridge Cemetery, adjacent to the first school in Thorn Township. The congregation of Zion Reformed Church is the oldest in Perry County still in existence. The church was officially organized in 1806 when the German Reformed and Lutheran congregations joined together in building the first church in Perry County. They purchased this land on June 30, 1806, and shared the building, alternating Sundays, until 1911. In 1803, Reverend Johannes Christian Koenig (John King) became the first minister to settle in Perry County and became the founding minister for the German Reformed congregation. In 1805, Reverend Wilhelm Georg Forster (William Foster) was the first Lutheran minister to settle in Perry County and was the founding minister for the Lutherans. The present Zion Reformed Church was built across the street from the original church in 1910.
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This 6.5 acre island, named for the resemblance of its dolomite ledges to the Rock of Gibraltar, was the likely observation site for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval forces during the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Stone Laboratory, located on both Gibraltar and South Bass islands, is the oldest freshwater biological field station and research laboratory in the United States. Founded in 1895 as the Lake Laboratory, it was named for Franz Stone, whose son Julius purchased the island from the Jay Cooke family and presented it to Ohio State University in 1925. It continues as the research and teaching laboratory for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The Jay Cooke Castle on the island is a National Historic Landmark.
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In 1870, African American men in Circleville attempted to vote in municipal elections. Despite the recent ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, pollsters refused their votes on the basis that state law forbade them from receiving the ballots. The Second Baptist Church was the site of a meeting of 147 African American men seeking redress. Together with Republican leaders these men produced petitions that were sent to the United States Senate and House of Representatives. These petitions gave the Republican Party the grounds to introduce bills to enforce the Fifteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The passage of the Enforcement Act of 1870 imposed criminal penalties for interference with the right to vote and also helped to shift power and authority from the individual state legislatures to the centralized Federal government.
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The Mount Zion Chapel of the Christian Church was built in 1872 on this hill adjacent to the members’ cemetery outside of Clermontville. The site was part of a two-acre parcel that had been secured from the farm of William R. Clark, Sr. for church and cemetery purposes. The Mount Zion Chapel replaced the Boat Run Christian Church that was organized in 1842 by a sect called the Christians, or the New Lights. Their first meeting house in Clermontville was dedicated on June 4, 1843 and damaged by floods in 1871. Worship was first held in the new frame church with the new name on October 6, 1872 and the church remains active today.