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A. B. Graham, superintendent of Springfield Township Rural schools in Clark County, established the Boys and Girls Agricultural Experiment Club, which revolutionized agricultural education and non-formal youth development methods. The first meeting of the club, said to be the nation’s first farm club for young people, was held at this site on January 15, 1902 in the basement of the Clark County Courthouse. This was the start of what would be called a 4-H Club a few years later. Through the years, the overall objective of A.B. Graham and 4-H has remained the same: the development of youth as individuals and as responsible and productive citizens.
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A pioneer in automotive innovation, Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958) was born three miles north of Loudonville. He attended local schools and graduated from Ohio State University in 1904. He organized the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) in 1909, which later became a part of General Motors (GM). “Boss Ket” served as vice-president of research for GM until 1920 and held over 140 patents (including four-wheel brakes, safety glass, and “ethyl” gasoline), achieving his greatest fame for an all-electric starting, lighting, and ignition system. The electric starter debuted on the 1912 Cadillac and was soon available on all cars, helping to popularize them with women. In 1945 he helped establish the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Institute in New York.
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Monroe County’s ground-water resources are valuable assets for its people and economy. Especially notable are the substantial quantities of water that can be obtained in the medium sand and gravel underground aquifers located on the eastern side of the county. The Sardis Town Pump, which taps into one of these aquifers, has been in continuous operation since the nineteenth century and has played an important role in the daily life of Sardis residents. At approximately 78 feet deep, it was originally operated with a hand pump and converted to electricity in 1951. It is the drinking choice for many in the community and throughout Monroe County. It is the last of four known public wells that have served the village of Sardis.
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In 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton built a kite to test a revolutionary flight control system, and in 1900, built their first airplane (glider). With promising results, the Wrights built man-carrying gliders and airplanes to refine their ideas. Wind tunnel experiments led to accurate calculations of lift and drag. In 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made the first sustained, controlled, powered flight in history, lasting 12 seconds. By 1905, the Wright brothers had developed the first practical airplane and the skills to pilot it. The U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased a Wright flyer, the first practical military aircraft, in 1909. Through public demonstrations beginning in 1908, the Wright brothers showed the world the future of aviation.
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Republican congressman William M. McCulloch was one of the architects of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the first of three laws to recommit the nation to the cause of civil rights in the 1960s. “Bill” McCulloch was born near Holmesville to James H. and Ida McCulloch on November 24, 1901. Raised on the family farm, he attended local public schools, the College of Wooster, and, in 1925, earned his law degree from the Ohio State University. He married his childhood sweetheart Mabel Harris McCulloch (1904-1990) in 1927, after settling in Jacksonville to start his career during the Florida land-boom of the 1920s. It was in Jacksonville that the Deep South’s racial intolerance seared him. (Continued on other side)
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Judge William H. West of Bellefontaine led a distinguished career in law, public service, and politics. In 1854 West helped found the Republican party in Ohio and six years later he participated in Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for the presidency. West served consecutive terms in both houses of Ohio’s General Assembly from 1857 to 1865 and was elected the state’s attorney general at the end of the Civil War. He became an Ohio Supreme Court justice in 1871 and in 1877 was his party’s nominee for governor. After losing his sight, Judge West retired from the court but continued to practice law. At the Republican party’s convention in 1884, the “Blind Man Eloquent” nominated James G. Blaine as the G.O.P.’s presidential candidate. Defining Republicans as a party for “union, freedom, humanity, and progress,” the judge’s nomination speech sparked a celebration that historian David McCullough described as “one of the most memorable events in the whole history of national political conventions.”
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Heritage Farm is a typical mid-19th century farm of the Ohio Western Reserve and has been restored and preserved. The original parcel of land consisted of 325 acres, which was purchased by David Berdan in 1818. The farmstead has been home to Abram and Sarah Berdan, William and Rachel Pitkin, George and Julia Tibbitts, and Peter and Mary Groening. The Heritage Farm Museum site consists of 4 acres with a house, privy, carriage house, corncrib, granary, equipment shed, barn, milk house, and chicken house, and was open to the public on July 1, 2000.
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Dinsmore Township School District #4 was formed in 1865following a decision by the township’s board of education that a school would be built in the center of every four sections of land, or every four square miles. This placement of school buildings gave township children the opportunity to attend school close to home and the chance at receiving a public education up to the eighth grade, Nine districts were created for the children of white households, and an additional district was formed to educate the children of the African American families, for a total of ten districts in the township. On June 11, 1866, the Dinsmore Township School Board purchased land from George Wenger to build the District #4 school near the intersection of Ohio Route 274 and Wenger Road. (Continued on other side)
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