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On July 28, 1838, the first and largest company of Mormon pioneers to migrate west camped along the Mad River near this site. Known as Kirtland Camp, the 515 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) appeared as a train of 59 covered wagons and 189 head of livestock stretching a distance of 9 miles. They were heading to Missouri from Kirtland, Ohio. The migrants fled religious persecution and sought new homes and religious freedom. They sought respite here during the journey. To earn money, the Saints accepted various jobs. These included building dykes and levees, and half-mile section of Springfield-Dayton Turnpike. The Saints resumed their trek on August 29, 1838.
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St. Augustine Episcopal Chapel was founded by Lenora Evans Berry, an African American woman, in 1907. A lifelong Baptist, her mission was the development of the Episcopal Church for African Americans in Youngstown. Mrs. Berry’s husband, bricklayer Thomas D. Berry, the son of master builder P. Ross Berry, became the church’s first senior warden and treasurer. The congregation met in St. John’s Parish until they were able to obtain property on Parmalee Avenue. In 1912, Reverend John Ogburn was officially called to vicar. In 1920, work began on plans for a new church. The structure was designed by Charles F. Owsley and construction began after more than six hundred individuals from the community attended the laying of the church’s corner stone on September 11, 1921. St. Augustine Chapel is the oldest African American church and congregation in Youngstown still in its original location and structure.
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Founded in 1841, Woodland is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries, the style of which was a dramatic departure from traditional church burial grounds at the time. Woodland’s oldest portion, including Victorian Era burial sections, a Romanesque gateway, and a Tiffany chapel, forms a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Arboretum, with over 3,000 trees on more than 200 acres, completes this outdoor museum of Dayton history. Among those buried here are cemetery founder John Van Cleve, the Wright Brothers, inventors John Patterson and Charles Kettering, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Col. Edward Deeds, Governor James M. Cox, and humorist Erma Bombeck.
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Welsh Hills Cemetery was once part of the United States Military Tract given to veterans of the Revolutionary War. The land was owned by a Philadelphia Welshman named Samson Davis. On September 4, 1801, a portion of his land was purchased by the co-founders of the Welsh Hills community, Theophilus Rees and Thomas Philipps, who came from Carmarthenshire, Wales. On February 6, 1808, Theophilus Rees donated a portion of his land for the establishment of this cemetery. On that same day, Rees Thomas, the 8-year-old grandson of Theophilus Rees, became the first person interred. (Continued on other side)
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As Oxford Township was developing in the mid-1800s, a cluster of farmsteads near its northern border developed and was designated the “Doty Settlement.” As was the custom, the community took its name from a prominent family in the area. In or near the settlement were a church and cemetery, a school, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, a distillery, a furniture shop, and a fulling mill for cleansing, shrinking, and thickening cloth. With the frontier spirit of self-reliance, it was seldom necessary to travel several miles into Oxford village for additional goods or services. Working together, the community farmed local fields and bartered for other items. Men, women, and children worked long, hard hours in the fields harvesting corn and wheat. It is evident that these families, living in an agricultural society, possessed many useful skills for surviving in the Ohio country.
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“All life is interrelated in today’s world. I can’t be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be; and you can’t be what you ought to be ’till I am what I ought to be.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words before 3,500 people while addressing a Freedom Rally here on March 20, 1964. His speech addressed issues of racial equality and unity, and urged passage of the Civil Rights Act. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law, prohibiting discrimination based on a person’s race, color, religion, sex, or nationality.
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St. Mary Church was dedicated in 1868 in response to the spiritual needs of the growing German-Catholic population of Columbus’ South Side. The original schoolhouse, which stands behind the church, was erected in 1865 under the direction of Rev. Francis X. Specht, St. Mary’s first pastor. It served as a temporary house of worship until the Gothic-style church was completed. St. Mary’s distinctive spire – soaring 197 feet into the Columbus sky – was added in 1893. By 1865, Columbus’ population was one-third German, and the South Side had become a thriving working-class community. The new immigrants built homes and churches and established schools. Local German businesses, organizations, and newspapers prospered. German Village is one of the premier historic restorations in the world, and is the largest privately funded historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 1,600 buildings have been restored since 1960.
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Greek Christian refugees from Asia Minor migrated to Canton in the early 1900s settling in the industrial area known as “Carnahan.” Erected in 1917, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church was chartered by Elies Korosedes, Nick Kessenides, Alex Heropoulos, Harry Achilles, and Paul Paulidis. It cost $50,000 to build and was repaid within 3 years by parishioners, mostly laborers earning 30 cents an hour. In 1927, a separate building Koraes Hall was added as a social and cultural center. It was later connected to the church in 1934. The property was sold in 1976 and subsequently changed ownership many times. On September 2, 2020, a devastating fire destroyed the former Koraes Hall, rendering the remaining structure unsafe. City officials condemned the buildings for demolition and buried the remnants beneath the ground.