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In 1885, 800 feet north of this marker, Benjamin Faurot struck oil after drilling into the Trenton Rock Limestone formation at a depth of 1,251 feet. This event marked the beginning of the great Oil Boom of northwest Ohio. The ensuing rush brought speculators who drilled hundreds of wells in the Trenton Rock (Lima) Oil Field that stretched from Mercer County north through Wood County in Ohio and west to Indiana. By 1886, the Lima field was the nation’s leading producer of oil, and by the following year it was considered to be the largest in the world. Production from the Ohio portion of the Lima-Indiana field reached its peak in 1896, when more than 20 million barrels were brought out of the ground. Though short-lived, the oil rush brought an influx of people, pipelines, refineries, and businesses, giving a powerful impetus to the growth of northwest Ohio.
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About a mile south in St. Paul’s Cemetery, the Reverend Father Edward J. Fenwick, “Pioneer Apostle of Ohio,” organized the first Catholic parish in northern Ohio. The first mass was celebrated in the log house of Daniel McCallister. A century and a half later the cabin was dismantled, moved here, rebuilt, and rededicated in May, 1967 as the Log Cabin Shrine of Dungannon.
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The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College grew out of the Cannon Act of March 22, 1870. “But let it be started,” Governor Rutherford B. Hayes told the Legislature in 1873, “with the intention of making it a great State University.” The little college opened September 17, 1873 with a faculty of seven and twenty-four students. One academic building at first housed everything. The campus, remote from the city, was surrounded by some of the original forest. In May, 1878 the name was changed to The Ohio State University. It was after 1900 before it really began to realize its educational potential, and its major growth occurred after World War II. By 1970, the Centennial Year, the university had more then met the hopes of its founders. A leading university with great manpower and physical resources, it had earned high standing in many fields covering a wide range of educational and research activities.
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Prairie grasslands were once widely scattered across western Ohio. One of Ohio’s best remaining prairies, Killdeer Plains is dominated by tall grasses such as the big bluestem and plays host to some unique species of wildlife such as the eastern massasauga or swamp rattlesnake. Prairie grasslands are one of the most rare types of wildlife habitats in the state. Named for the killdeer, a shore bird, this is part of a wet prairie that once spanned some 30,000 acres and boasts a tremendous number and diversity of native wildlife.
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Zenas King (1818-1892) was a 19th century bridge builder whose iron bridges received wide acceptance throughout the country. He developed his tubular bowstring bridge in 1859, patented the design in 1861, renewed the patent in 1867, and founded King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company in 1871. Based on an arch’s inherent strength, King’s design used less raw materials than wooden bridges and the square tubes were simple to fabricate and ship for on-site assembly. His Cleveland-based company soon built so many patent bowstrings across Ohio that it set a design standard. (Continued on other side)
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John Campbell (1818-1891), founder of Ironton, was an ironmaster and president of the Ohio Iron & Coal Company, a Presbyterian, and an abolitionist. This house and barn, which he built in 1850, became a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves crossing the Ohio River from Kentucky. Fugitives were concealed here and furnace wagons transported the escapees northward by way of Campbell’s furnaces in Lawrence and Jackson counties.
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Urbana University was established by the Swedenborgian Church in 1850. Bailey Hall (1853), named after Francis Bailey (1735-1815), was designed by W. Russell West, architect of the Statehouse of Ohio. Bailey was an American Revolutionary War hero, official printer of the Continental Congress and printer of The Freeman’s Journal or the North American Intelligencer. He also printed The True Christian Religion papers. John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman (1774-1845) distributed The True Christian Religion papers along with his famous apple trees throughout Ohio as a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church. Barclay Hall (1883) was named after Hester Barclay, a ward of Francis Bailey. It was Hester Barclay’s brother-in-law, John Young, who converted Chapman to the Swedenborg faith. Francis Bailey and Hester Barclay were the first male and female Swedenborgian converts in North America. Both Bailey and Barclay halls appear on the National Register of Historic Places.
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In the years leading to Ohio statehood in 1803, Ames Township citizens decided to establish a stock-owned circulating library. Since cash was scarce during Ohio’s frontier era, some citizens paid for their $2.50 shares by the sale of animal pelts, which were taken to Boston for sale in the spring of 1804 by merchant Samuel Brown. There he acquired fifty-one volumes, primarily books on history, religion, travel, and biography, as the first accessions for the Western Library Association. Senator Thomas Ewing later related that he paid his share with ten raccoon skins, thus suggesting the collection’s popular name “the Coonskin Library.” Judge Ephraim Cutler was the first of many librarians who kept the library until 1861.