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This rail line was the original route of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, the first railroad to operate west of the Allegheny Mountains. The train made its initial run on October 3, 1836 from Toledo to Adrian, a total of approximately thirty miles. In 1837, a steam locomotive replaced horses as the train’s engine. The E. & K. R.R. opened markets from Lake Erie to the Michigan Territory.
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The inhumanity of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 motivated anti-slavery activists to operate a covert network, the “Underground Railroad,” which helped fugitive slaves escape captivity. From the early 1800s to the end of the Civil War, local activists assisted runaway slaves on their journeys north to freedom. Guides (“conductors”) used their homes, farms, and churches (“stations”) to hide and shelter runaway slaves (“cargo.”) If captured, fugitives were severely punished and re-enslaved; “conductors” faced large fines and imprisonment, and Free Persons of Color risked being sold into slavery. A route often-traveled was once a path used by migrating buffalo, which became an Indian trail called the Bullskin Trace. It ran north from the Ohio River to Lake Erie and later became U.S. Route 68.
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In January 1827, the Ohio State Legislature chartered the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company to build an east-west “cross cut” canal connecting north-south canals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The route ran from the Beaver Canal in Pennsylvania to the Ohio & Erie Canal in Akron. In Ohio, the canal ran through the towns of Youngstown, Warren, Leavittsburg, Newton Falls, Ravenna, and Akron. Specifications called for the canal to be no less than 28 feet wide at the botton, no less than 40 feet wide at the waterline, and at least four feet deep. Towpaths were at least 10 feet wide and 2.5 feet above the water. (Continued on other side)
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Eleutheros Cooke. The Cooke-Dorn house was the last home of attorney Eleutheros Cooke (1787-1864) who served four years in the Ohio legislature and one term in the 22nd Congress of the United States. An early proponent of railroads, Cooke received one of the first charters granted to a railroad west of the Alleghany Mountains, for the Mad River & Lake Erie line. He and wife Martha had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood. Two rose to prominence in the Civil War era. Jay was a successful banker and became known as the “financier of the Civil War” for his efforts to secure loans from Northern banks to support the Union’s war effort. Henry was appointed as the first governor of the short-lived Territory of the District of Columbia in 1871 (which was replaced in 1874).
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Bradford began, in 1852, as a construction camp of the Columbus, Piqua, and Indiana Railroad. When the Richmond and Covington Railroad made a junction here in 1864, the village grew with the railroad yard. There were 60 miles of track, a 50-stall roundhouse, and jobs for 2000 men. Community life in Bradford centered at the Railroad YMCA.
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Bradford began, in 1852, as a construction camp of the Columbus, Piqua, and Indiana Railroad. When the Richmond and Covington Railroad made a junction here in 1864, the village grew with the railroad yard. There were 60 miles of track, a 50-stall roundhouse, and jobs for 2000 men. Community life in Bradford centered at the Railroad YMCA.
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A salt spring, located about a mile west of this site, was the primary attraction for immigrants to the Western Reserve territory in the mid-1700s. Prior to European-American settlement, Indians used the springs, boiling the water to extract the salt and using it for preserving meat among other uses. In 1755, surveyor Lewis Evans underscored the importance of the springs by noting it on his “General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America.” This enticed immigrants from western Pennsylvania to the region. In addition to the salt itself, the abundance of wildlife near the spring ensured good hunting in the area. (Continued on other side)
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The Lima and Toledo Traction Company Bridge was construted in 1907 by the National Bridge Company of Indianapolis, and it was considered to be a revolutionary type of bridge construction. The Old Electric Bridge, as it was called, was built of steel reinforced concrete and filled with earth. In fact, for this period some considered the bridge to be the longest such railroad bridge in the world. Twelve spans of Roman aqueduct architectural design anchor the 1220-foot bridge in solid river bedrock. The bridge linked Lucas and Wood counties and connected a busy Toledo with points south by means of an electric trolley. This Interurban Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.