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The Civil War created orphaned and impoverished children across the nation. To establish a home for area children, a group of Hamilton women met with Reverends Thane Miller and Benjamin W. Chidlaw in January 1869. By May, the women had rented a house on North C Street. Five years later, a new house was needed. Local businessmen Clark Lane and Elbridge G. Dyer pledged a combined $10,000 to purchase the property at 425 South D Street. One condition of the gift was that home’s operators had to raise an additional $2,000 to cover expenses. The newer, larger home opened in September 1875. In 1902, Robert and Eleanor Beckett McKinney donated funds to build a hospital on the property, named Ruth Hospital, to honor their deceased infant daughter. Mrs. McKinney and her mother, Martha Beckett, had long supported the home’s work. (Continued on other side)
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Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995), pioneering historian of the American Jew, founded the American Jewish Archives (AJA) in Cincinnati in 1947. In the aftermath of World War II and the brutal destruction of European Jewry, Marcus anticipated the need to establish a central repository dedicated to preserving the history of North American Jewry. The AJA, which began with a few boxes of documents, has become one of the world’s largest catalogued collections of primary source material on the history of American Jewry. An international community of scholars, researchers, and students utilizes the AJA’s vast archival holdings.
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Nathanial Sackett (1768-1854) and John H. Piatt (1781-1820) platted Monroe in 1817, naming it for President James Monroe. Monroe was a stagecoach stop between Cincinnati and Dayton and grew to be a rural village surrounded by farms and dotted with small factories, incorporating in 1907. Beginning in the mid-1950s and coinciding with the construction of Interstate 75, the village expanded geographically, through the annexation of surrounding farmland, and continued to grow in population. Monroe officially became a city in 1995, when its population exceeded 5,000 people (5,380). As of its bicentennial year of 2017, Monroe was home to more than 13,000.
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Celebrated Cincinnati Reds pitcher and radio broadcaster, Joe Nuxhall (July 30, 1928 – November 15, 2007) grew up here in Hamilton’s North End. On these fields the endearing story of “Hamilton Joe” Nuxhall began in the summer of 1943. Scouts from the Cincinnati Reds discovered fourteen-year-old Joe while he was playing with his father’s Sunday municipal league team. Because of World War II, the rosters of major league teams were depleted as players went off to fight. Joe, displaying exceptional talent and poise for his age, met the Reds’ dire need for pitchers. He signed a contract to play for Cincinnati on February 18, 1944. On June 10, at age 15, he became the youngest player in major league history when he pitched against the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. (Continued on other side)
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The Pomeroy House, built from 1847 to 1848, was the home of Alanson Pomeroy and his wife, Kezia. They continued the tradition, known as “Pomeroy Hospitality,” that began when Alanson’s parents established a tavern in Strongsville. Prominent in the community, Alanson served as township trustee and Justice of the Peace in Strongsville Township, and was a leader in the Congregational Church. Oral tradition holds that the Pomeroy House served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves were brought from Oberlin, often concealed under bales of hay in wagons, and hidden in the cellar of the house until they could be safely taken to Rocky River. From there, the fugitives boarded ships headed to Canada. The Pomeroy House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was restored in 1979 and opened as Don’s Pomeroy House restaurant in 1980.
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Construction for the current St. Anthony Church began in 1890 after the original wood-frame church became too small to serve the steadily growing congregation of Polish immigrants coming into the Toledo area. Completed in 1894, St. Anthony was the second Polish church built in Toledo and became known as the “mother” church for the local Polish community serving as many as 8,000 parishioners piror to the 1970s. The first Mass was celebrated on March 4, 1894. (continued on other side)
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Settlers from New England purchased this land in 1817 for use as a burying ground and to build a meeting house. Located in the center of Bath Township, a part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, the site provided a convenient place for public and religious gatherings and for a cemetery. Out of need, the cemetery was established before the township was founded in 1818. Many of Bath Township’s farming families, as well as both owners and operators of businesses of Bath, are interred in the cemetery. In a tradition originating with Civil War veteran Perry Alexander, the graves of all veterans are marked with an American flag on Memorial Day as a tribute to their service.
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This location was selected in 1936 for a Memorial Home for aged Masons, at the wishes of Otis Avery Browning. Browning, a prominent Toledo businessman, book publisher, civic leader, and Mason, set forth the plans for this Home in a will he prepared in 1922, creating a trust for the Otis Avery Browning Masonic Memorial Fund. His will states, “It is one of the chief purposes of my will, that I may become an instrument, under God’s directing care, in providing for the erection and maintenance of a home for aged people, where they may be properly cared for and with all modern comforts.”