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William Holmes McGuffey, author of the Eclectic Series of Readers, was ordained a Presbyterian minister in a log meeting house on this site in 1829. The ordination was performed by Robert Bishop, President of Miami University, and other ministers from the Oxford Presbytery. McGuffey’s Christian character is an example and model for all teachers and students in America.
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A focal point of community pride for generations, McClain High School was the gift of textile manufacturer Edward Lee McClain to his hometown, “as promising the greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time.” Designed by nationally prominent school architect William B. Ittner, the school was dedicated in September 1915. Lauded as one of the most complete and state-of-the-art school plants of its time, McClain High School embodied the ideals of the progressive education movement in the early 20th century. A fully equipped gymnasium, motion-picture equipment, and a pipe organ were rare luxuries for any school during this era. Additional gifts by McClain also furnished a vocational training center and an athletic field. Numerous sculptures, paintings, and other works of art displayed throughout the school continue to enhance the atmosphere of Greenfield’s acclaimed halls of learning.
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This congregation was founded in Warren November 19, 1803, by the Rev. Joseph Badger, who was serving as a missionary in the Western Reserve for the Connecticut Missionary Society of the Congregational Church. Rev. Badger was assisted at the first communion by the Rev. William Wick of Youngstown and the Rev. Samuel Tait of Mercer, Pa. The first church building on this site was constructed in 1832. The present building was dedicated in 1878.
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Elder Oliver Mears organized on February 8, 1862 in a tent on this spot, then a walnut grove owned by William Lovett, the Lovett’s Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church, first of this denomination in Ohio. A Frame building erected in 1864 served the congregation until 1911 when it moved to its present location in Bowling Green.
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Col. William Crawford and Dr. John Knight, separated from the American troops following the Battle of Upper Sandusky, June 4-5, were captured by Indians on June 7 at a site about five miles southeast of this marker. Taken first to Chief Wingenund’s camp north of Crestline, they were then taken, on a trail passing near this marker, to a bluff near Tymochtee Creek northwest of Upper Sandusky. Crawford was tortured and burned at the stake on June 11. Knight later escaped. For years afterward, Crawford’s fate inflamed frontier sentiment against the Indians.
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This house originally stood at Logan’s Gap, Union Township. By tradition, it was constructed in 1793 by Indian scouts William Dixon and Cornelius Washburn who became residents of Brown County. Dixon lived in this house until 1800.
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The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined the boundary of the northern and southern tier of states to be carved out of the Northwest Territory, as a line drawn east from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan until it intersects Lake Erie. Controversy over the exact location of that line led to the 1834-1837 boundary dispute between the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory. Passions ran high as everyone on both sides of the boundary knew that a great port city (Toledo) would emerge in the disputed territory. President Andrew Jackson settled the dispute in 1836 when he signed an act that recognized the current border between Ohio and Michigan, giving Michigan 9,000 square miles of Upper Peninsula land and awarding the disputed strip of approximately 470 square miles to Ohio. Michigan then joined the nation as a state the following year.
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Located one mile north of Fitchville, the Golden Age Nursing Home caught fire and burned to the ground at 4:45 a.m., November 23, 1963, killing 63 of 84 patients. Fire departments from New London, Greenwich, North Fairfield, and Plymouth responded. Ignited by the arcing of overloaded wiring, the incident called for action to require sprinklers, automatic fire detection systems, and electrical wiring compliance to building codes in all nursing homes. The worst tragedy of its kind in the nation, the incident was overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was not widely reported. Twenty-one unclaimed bodies were interred in a 60-foot grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in Norwalk. Those killed in the fire are listed on the reverse.