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During the early months of World War II, ordinary citizens as well as soldiers made enormous sacrifices for the war effort. In March 1942 the War Department announced plans to build a 13,000-acre munitions manufacturing complex northeast of Marion. Using the power of eminent domain, the U.S. Government purchased the homes and farms of 126 families in the Likens Chapel community. Given only two months to vacate their property, many displaced farmers found the government-appraised values for their land inadequate for buying similar farms elsewhere and the growing season too advanced to plant new crops. (continued on other side)
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Giuseppe Moretti was born in Siena, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1888. For 40 years he sculpted monuments and heroic figures in the United States and Cuba, employing the Beaux-Arts technique, known for its neoclassical style that tended to be heroic and dramatic in nature. Mor etti, known for his eclectic personality and for always wearing a green tie, was a prolific artist with completion of 12 World War I memorials, 19 monumental works, six church sculptures, 24 memorial tablets, 14 cemetery memorials, 27 sculptures in marble, bronze, and aluminum, and 27 bronze statuettes. He created the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Toronto in 1919 as a tribute to the 300 local citizens who answered the call for service during World War I. His other Ohio works include the John Patterson Monument (1925) in Dayton and statue of Simon Perkins (1895) in Akron.
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Representative of the patriotic spirit of the homefront during World War II, the Big Four Route Veterans Association Women’s Auxiliary No. 3 operated a free canteen service for troops in a small white building on the platform of the New York Central Railroad. Staffed and funded entirely by volunteers, donations came from ten counties. The 170 volunteer ladies met servicemen with welcoming words, thousands of sandwiches, desserts, fruits, drinks, and cigarettes, despite federal government rationing restrictions. Approximately 702,779 soldiers, sailors, and marines were fed on their trips to and from the European and Pacific theaters of war. This was one of the few known canteens known to serve all nationalities and races. Margaret Clingerman, who started the canteen, influenced the establishment of six other canteens in Ohio.
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This Depot, dedicated on December 27, 1900, served as division headquarters for the Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis railroad, commonly called the Big Four. Peak passenger usage occurred during and after World War I when 32 trains stopped here daily. Railway Express serviced as many as 20 trains a day into the 1950s, and Galion became a “whistle stop” for presidential campaigns with speeches from the train platform from such candidates as Al Smith in 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon in 1952. In 1929 the New York Central acquired the Big Four, which moved the division headquarters west to Bellefontaine in Logan County. The ticket office remained opened until 1964, but all railroad offices closed in 1969. The Depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
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Born in Chillicothe in 1872, Burton Stevenson’s life was devoted to the written word as a prolific author and anthologist, and as a librarian. Following stints as a journalist while a student at Princeton University and then at newspapers in Chillicothe, Stevenson became the librarian of the city’s public library in 1899. He held the post for 58 years. Stevenson helped secure a Carnegie Library for Chillicothe, completed in 1906, and became prominent for his service during World War I. He founded a library at Camp Sherman (an army training camp north of the city), which became a model for others nationally.
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Adna R. Chaffee was born in Orwell on April 14, 1842, and grew up on the family farm. He left home in 1861 to pursue a career in the military, enlisting first in the 6th U.S. Cavalry for service in the Civil War. Distinguishing himself in many battles, including Gettysburg, Chaffee rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. He then fought in the Indian Wars of the West from 1867-1888, assisting in the capture of Geronimo and being promoted to the rank of Major. He also saw action in the Spanish American War, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the Philippine Insurrection. On January 9, 1904, Chaffee was promoted to Lt. General and became Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, the first to achieve this office without attending West Point. He retired in 1906. He died in 1914 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with the highest military honors.
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James Birdseye McPherson was born in Hamer’s Corners (now Clyde) on November 14, 1828. He left this house at age 13 to work in nearby Green Springs. He attended Norwalk Academy and West Point, where he graduated first in the class of 1853. Early in the Civil War, he was appointed by General Ulysses S. Grant to command the Army of the Tennessee. He received the rank of Major General with the United States Volunteers in October 1862 and was promoted to Brigadier General in the Regular Army in August 1863. He was killed in action during the battle of Atlanta, Georgia on July 22, 1864. General McPherson was the youngest and highest ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. He is buried in the local McPherson Cemetery. This McPherson home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Agricultural development and cultivation on steep lands led to severe soil erosion in the nation in the 1920s and 1930s. In response, the United States Department of Agriculture established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1935. The SCS established the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed (NAEW) in the hills of Coshocton County to study and develop methods of conserving soil and water resources. The Federal government and Coshocton County purchased 1,047 acres of land for the program and, in 1936, field research equipment was installed and buildings constructed. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided labor near the program’s inception, as did the Civilian Public Service Agency during World War II. (Continued on other side)
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