, OH
Built circa 1840 by Henry Barnhisel Jr. in the Greek Revival architectural style, the Barnhisel home is one of the oldest remaining structures in Girard. Henry and Eve Anna Barnhisel purchased the land where the house stands in 1813 when they acquired 318 acres in the Connecticut Western Reserve. The couple moved onto the land with their eleven children, and the family lived among a large group of Pennsylvania Germans who settled in Liberty Township. Their son, Henry Jr., took over the farm after his father’s death in 1824. In 1833 he married Susan Townsend. Henry contributed to his community by playing a key role in the building of both the Methodist Church and the first brick school in Girard and Liberty Township. He fathered five daughters, some of whom married into other leading families of the Mahoning Valley, including William Tod, son of the governor. Two granddaughters married into the Wicks and Stambaughs.
, OH
Near this site stood the former Custer Homestead of Emanuel and Maria Custer from 1856-1865. For two years it was the boyhood home of Captain Tom Custer, younger brother of famed General George Armstrong Custer. At age 16, Tom misled a recruiter in neighboring Gilead, Ohio about his age and enlisted in the Civil War. He later earned two Congressional Medals of Honor, the first person in history to do so, for capturing enemy flags at Namozine Church on April 3, 1865 and at Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. His parents relocated to Monroe, Michigan during the Civil War. Tom continued serving in the Army during the Indian Wars in the West and often visited his brother Nevin in Tontogany. He, along with his brothers George and Boston, brother-in-law James Calhoun, and nephew Harry Reed, were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.
, OH
The Homestead was built in 1820 by Nehemiah Wood with an addition completed in 1822 by his son, Harrison. The Wood family, a pioneer family of Gallia County, arrived in 1805. The Homestead remained in the Wood family for over 100 years. The two-story Federal style building is constructed of bricks made on site by freed slaves who accompanied Nehemiah Wood from Virginia. The lane just below the house was a stagecoach route that ran between Chillicothe and Gallipolis. In the mid-1800s the Homestead served as an inn and stagecoach stop. The Wood family sold the farm to Rio Grande College in 1938 which used the land for college gardening and farming programs. (Continued on other side)
, OH
On this site Daniel Gebhart established a tavern in 1811. Taverns were where people gathered to eat, rest, and share news. During spring freshets, boatmen from the Great Miami River stayed at the tavern. Joining them were pioneers coming by the river and overland to settle at Hole’s Station, now Miamisburg. The tavern closed in 1840, became a boarding house, and then sold to become a private residence in 1853. To commemorate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, Miamisburg’s bicentennial committee purchased the tavern and gave it to the city. It was restored and opened as a museum in 1982. (Continued on other side)
, OH
The Jain Center of Cincinnati and Dayton was established on April 22, 1979 as a non-profit tax-exempt organization under the laws of the United States and the State of Ohio. The foundation stone of the Jain temple, the first of its kind in Ohio, was laid down on August 21-22, 1994. The temple was dedicated on September 2 – 4, 1995 when more than one thousand people from all over Ohio and many other states participated in holy rituals to install three idols of Jinas (Gods). The Jain Center is a place for the teaching of non-violence, reverence for life, and compassion for all beings. The center was the home of the twelfth biennial convention for the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, which was held on July 3 – 6, 2003. (Continued on the other side)
, OH
This area of western Hancock County is a part of the Maumee River Watershed known as “Indian Green.” Wyandot Indians chose this area for hunting and ceremonial grounds along the Blanchard River in the 1700s because it was next to the river, yet high enough to avoid frequent flooding. One-half mile east of this location is a Liberty Township cemetery. It is located upon a sand ridge once used as a burial ground by Indians, hence the name “Indian Green.”
, OH
This circa 1840s log house, which now serves as a museum and home to the East Palestine Historical Society, was originally located at the corner of West Main and Walnut Streets. Some of its most notable and earliest residents were Dr. Robert Chamberlin (1798-1876), the town’s first resident physician, and his wife Rebecca (1810-1895). Chamberlin practiced medicine for 30 years, serving the town as a township trustee in 1834, the first postmaster in 1836, and township clerk in 1839. (Continued on other side)
, OH
Jeremiah Reeves was born in England in 1845 and began his career in the mills of Wales, United Kingdom, at the age of ten. In 1867, he immigrated to the United States where he worked in the steel mills of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He met his wife Jane Rees in the latter place and they married in 1869. In 1883, Reeves acquired a steel rolling mill in Dover for $14,000. Despite a history of financial difficulties, the Reeves Iron Works would go on to expand several times and employ over 800 men. The iron works and later the Reeves Manufacturing Company established Dover as an industrial center during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.