Results for: manufacturing-economic-growth
203 North Depot Street
Stryker

, OH

Like many nineteenth century communities in Ohio, Stryker owes its birth and early growth to the railroad industry. Stryker, named for Rome, New York, attorney and railroad executive John Stryker, was surveyed on September 19, 1853, beside the proposed Northern Indiana Railroad. For more than fifty years, “track pans” at Stryker allowed steam locomotives to take on 5,000 gallons of water while traveling at forty to fifty miles per hour, saving valuable time, “the principal enemy of railroad schedules.” On July 23, 1966, the U.S. rail speed record of 183.85 miles per hour was set through Williams County, including through Stryker. The Stryker depot was constructed in 1900 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 1989. (continued on other side)

12 Tawawa Drive
Sidney

, OH

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)

125 E. Water Street
Piqua

, OH

Completed in 1837, the limestone lock nine served as a catalyst for the growth of Piqua. The lock helped connect the village to Cincinnati (1837) and Toledo (1845) by way of the Miami and Erie Canal. German immigrants traveled up the canal from Cincinnati and settled within a five-block area of the lock. Industries used the lock as a source of water power and developed products as diverse as flannel, flour, and flax seed. Lock nine remained as a functioning part of the canal until its destruction during the flood of 1913.

506 Union Street
Mount Pleasant

, OH

After witnessing the slave trade in Wheeling, Virginia, Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839) resolved to battle the institution, first organizing the Union Humane Society in St. Clairsville in 1815. In 1821, Lundy moved to Mount Pleasant and began publishing the Genius of Universal Emancipation, a newspaper devoted wholly to anti-slavery issues. The newspaper would later be published in Tennessee, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. Lundy traveled widely to promote circulation, lecturing on the moral evils of slavery and its associated negative economic and social effects. The Lundy home served as an Underground Railroad stop.

500 E. Clinton Street
Napoleon

, OH

Miami & Erie Canal and Napoleon’s First Cemetery. The Miami & Erie Canal stretched approximately 250 miles from Cincinnati to Toledo. Napoleon and other towns on the Maumee River’s banks were on a slackwater section of the canal. Between 1825 and 1845, laborers constructed the canal using shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, and horse and mule-drawn carts. In Henry County, Napoleon, and elsewhere, German and Irish immigrants and area farmers did the work and were paid around 30 cents a day. As the canal brought more people and business to the area, villages such as Florida, Damascus, and Texas flourished and the county seat of Napoleon boomed. The canal and consequent growth took their tolls, however. Sickness and disease such as “ague” (malaria) and cholera spread and carried off many. Napoleon’s first cemetery was located in the vicinity of 500 East Clinton Street, near the route of the canal.

OSU Main Campus, Mirror Lake
Columbus

, OH

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.

Just E of 835 E. North Street
Lima

, OH

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.

862 OH-416
New Philadelphia

, OH

Seeking an alternative transportation route to distant markets, many farmers and manufacturers in Ohio wanted to connect the Ohio River to Lake Erie with a canal. Beginning in Cleveland the Ohio-Erie Canal ran south, the length of the state, to Portsmouth. The canal was a total of 308 miles long, 40 feet wide at the surface, and 4 feet deep. The Ohio-Erie Canal opened for traffic along its entire length in 1832 and consequently effected great change. Population along the canal increased, and commercial, political, and industrial growth in Ohio boomed. Products grown and manufactured in this previously isolated region now had access to world markets. Profits for farmers and merchants increased, and the entire state economy was bolstered. With the rise of railroads in the 1860s, however, canals were destined to become obsolete because the railroad was a faster and more dependable means of transportation. The canal system ceased to operate altogether after a disastrous flood in 1913.