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The Village of Genoa and Clay Township agreed to construct a joint township and village hall in Genoa in 1884. The firm Findley & Shively of Fremont designed the hall in the High Victorian Gothic architectural style and Woodville’s Fred Sandwisch was contracted to build the hall for $8,860. In 1890, the Sandusky Register declared that Genoa could “boast of having one of the finest town halls of any village of its size in Ohio.” As a seat of government and an auditorium (“opera house”), the hall hosted village and township meetings, Memorial Day services, school graduations, community events, and theatrical productions. The hall also had a jail and served as a municipal garage. By early 1970s, the auditorium had been condemned and the future of the structure was uncertain. (Continued on other side)
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The charter establishing the original thirteen colonies were vague in their descriptions of location. In some cases, more than one colony had a legal claim to the same western land, After much controversy and compromise, each new state gave up its claim to the west. The lands were placed in public domain to benefit all the states. Virginia, which had given up vast claims as part of the compromise, reserved an area in Ohio called the Virginia Military District. It was bounded by the Scioto River to the north and east and by the Little Miami River to the west. All of present-day Union County was within the Virginia Military District. (Continued on other side)
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From its founding in 1865, Dennison was a railroad town and became the second largest rail center for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rail presence was so strong that the industry dictated social and economic development throughout the community. For example, the Railway Chapel, the historic name for the First Presbyterian Church of Dennison was built because W.W. Card, Pennsylvania Railroad Superintendent, saw a spiritual need in the community. As the first church built in Dennison, Card contacted the Presbytery of Steubenville to start the church, arranged for donation of land, provided for financing from railway officials, and arranged for labor and material from the railroad. Railroad workers constructed the furnishing for the church with walnut pews built by the Dennison Car Shops. The pews have reversible backs, designed after ones in passenger cars. The church was dedicated in April 1871 and listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 2009.
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Hiram House was Ohio’s first settlement house and among the earliest in the nation, opening in October 1896 in Cleveland’s Whiskey Island neighborhood. Representing the ideals of a late-1800s urban progressive movement, settlement houses provided–through “service, not charity” –health, recreational, and self-development opportunities that were not widely available in this era. Founded by Hiram College divinity graduate George A. Bellamy (1872-1960), Hiram House administered a wide range of social services for people of different ethnic and economic backgrounds. Bellamy established the “Fresh Air Camp” circa 1900; Cleveland industrialist Samuel Mather donated this tract of land in 1903. In continuous operation since its founding, Hiram House has provided outdoor experiences and educational programs for thousands of Ohio children.
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Granville, Ohio, was settled in 1805 by the Licking Company, a group formed in Granville, Massachusetts, and Granby, Connecticut, for the purpose of emigrating west. The Old Colony Burying Ground was defined on the first town plat of Granville in 1805. Many of Granville’s pioneers are interred within this ground, and the cemetery retains its original form and most of its westward facing rows of sandstone and marble gravestones. The early settlers buried here helped to lay out this town and determined the appearance and development of the village as it is today. The first burial, the infant son of Ethan Bancroft, was in April 1806. The oldest extant gravestone is dated 1808. Eighteen veterans of the Revolutionary War, thirty-nine from the War of 1812, and sixteen Civil War veterans rest here along with ministers, farmers, industrialists, physicians, young mothers, children, and other citizens of Granville.
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Carlisle Station Depot. The Carlisle depot for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton (CH&D) railroad was located nearby. The CH&D started operations in 1851 and was the second railroad through Warren County. Carlisle Station was a passenger and freight-shipping depot and was joined in 1872 by another, when Cincinnati & Springfield Railroad (later part of the Big Four and the New York Central Railroads) erected a depot in nearby Franklin. Carlisle was originally known as the “Jersey Settlement,” because many settlers in the early 1800s were from New Jersey. George Carlisle, vice-president of the CH&D, purchased a large tract of land here. After Carlisle and his wife Sarah donated a lot to the community in 1856, residents renamed the place “Carlisle Station.” The Carlisle Literary Association built a hall on the lot c. 1856, which, as of 2019, remains as the older section of Carlisle’s municipal building. Side B: Schenck-Stanton Rally, October 3, 1868.
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Lucas County was named for Governor Robert Lucas who championed Ohio’s cause in the “Toledo War,” a boundary dispute arising when both Ohio and the Michigan Territory claimed this area. The Ohio legislature created Lucas County on June 20, 1835. The first court session convened in a Toledo schoolhouse during the pre-dawn hours of September 7 to avoid the Michigan militia.
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The Johnson Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1902 by brothers James B., J. Will, Isaac T., and Charles F. Johnson, all of Quaker heritage. The company manufactured tin and galvanized iron ware for railroad lines across the United States. The initial product was the No. 1 long-spouted locomotive oiler with the patented dripless spout. That was quickly followed by other types of oil cans, signaling equipment, engine buckets, tallow pots, torches, track inspection devices, tin cups, and caboose and cabin car lamps, all carrying the Diamond J trademark. The makers created the patterns and everything was cut, riveted, and soldered by hand. As production expanded, the original frame building at 605 Miami Street was replaced by a brick structure in 1910, the southernmost part of the present building. (continued on other side)