, OH
Thomas Stinson Cummin, owner of a successful dry goods store, built his home in the early 1870s on the outskirts of the growing village of Marion. The home was purchased in 1889 by Henry M. Barnhart, an inventor and co-founder of the Marion Steam Shovel Company. In 1927, it was sold to the Schaffner- Queen firm of funeral directors and converted into a funeral home. Franklin Schaffner had previously been responsible for the funeral arrangements for President and Mrs. Warren G. Harding. A succession of businesses has maintained the use as a funeral home. As of 2016, the building is occupied by the Denzer-Farison-Hottinger & Snyder Funeral Home. (Continued on other side)
, OH
Congress passed Fugitive Slave Laws in 1793 and 1850, allowing federal marshals to arrest slaves that had escaped to the North and take them back to their southern owners. They could also arrest northerners suspected of aiding runaway slaves. These laws were contested throughout the North, including Ohio where one case received national press. It involved escaped slave Addison White who arrived in Mechanicsburg in August 1856. There he met abolitionist Udney Hyde and stayed at his farm while Hyde recovered from a leg injury. White’s master Daniel White learned of his location and went to Mechanicsburg in April 1857 with federal marshals. When attempting to take Addison and arrest Hyde on grounds of violating the Fugitive Slave Law, Hyde’s daughter ran to town and brought back residents with pitchforks and shovels to fight the marshals. Fearing for their lives, the marshals left, but came back to arrest the men who protected White. [continued on other side]
, OH
Natalie Clifford Barney was born in Dayton on October 31, 1876. Her family was wealthy and industrious, including her great grandfather who founded the Dayton Academy, Cooper Female Seminary, and Dayton Car Works. Natalie, who knew that she was a lesbian by age twelve, lived an outspoken and independent life unusual for a woman of this time period. Her openness and pride about her sexuality, without shame, was at least one hundred years ahead of its time. She published Some Portrait-Sonnets of Women, a book of love poems to women under her own name in 1900. American painter Romaine Brooks was Barney’s partner and companion for fifty years. (continued on other side)
, OH
This monument was dedicated on Memorial Day of 1913 to honor the Union soldiers of the Civil War from Jerome Township. Many citizens, school children, and Civil War veterans attended the dedication as Col. W.L. Curry, who fought at Chickamauga, spoke to the crowd. The zinc monument contains the names of 400 soldiers of the township. The shaft is just over 21 feet high. Placed inside was a time capsule containing a number of historical documents including 60 photographs of Civil War veterans. Donations from a grateful community and a bequest from R.L. Woodburn, a Civil War veteran and Ohio legislator funded the monument.
, OH
During the Civil War in 1863, twenty-year-old Massillon farmer Robert Pinn enlisted in the 5th Regiment, Company I, United States Colored Troops (USCT) at his first opportunity, saying, “I was very eager to become a soldier, in order to prove by my feeble efforts the black man’s rights to untrammeled manhood.” At the battle for New Market Heights in the 1864 Richmond campaign, he assumed command of his company after his unit’s officers were all killed or wounded – and was himself wounded three times. For his meritorious conduct Pinn received the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of four African Americans so honored from the 5th USCT. Following the war he attended Oberlin College and became a successful Massillon attorney. He died in 1911 and is interred here.
, OH
Near this location stood the settlement of African American families known as “The Lett Settlement.” The Lett Settlement was a self-sustaining community of mixed race families, including the Caliman, Guy, and Lett families. The families had formed ties through marriage and common background during the mid-1700s in Virginia and Maryland. These early African American pioneer families came to Ohio as “free people of color,” and began acquiring land in Meigs Township, Muskingum County, and surrounding townships in adjacent counties during the 1820s. They were soon joined by the Brown, Clifford, Earley, Simpson, Tate, and Pointer families. The families of the Lett Settlement were land owners and tax payers in Ohio before the Civil War and challenged the State of Ohio for the right to vote and for access to education during the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. (Continued on other side)
, OH
Hallie Quinn Brown (c. 1850) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to former slaves. She and her family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio in 1870, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Wilberforce University in 1873. Brown taught school in the South until her appointment as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University in 1893. A gifted elocutionist and author, Brown received national and international acclaim not only for her recitals and written works, but also for her passionate belief in civil rights and African American culture. (Continued on other side)
, OH
The history of Belpre and the Ohio River are inextricably linked. Settlers from New England, including farmers and Revolutionary War veterans, arrived via flatboats at “Belle-Prairie” (beautiful prairie) in 1789. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery paid a visit in keelboats in 1803 as they began their epic journey to the Pacific. Belpre’s farmers raised fruits, vegetables, and grain. Packet boats carried flour, livestock, vinegar, and passengers down river, some all the way to New Orleans and thence throughout the world. (Continued on other side)
614.297.2300
Contact Us
