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The Ridgewood neighborhood, platted in 1914, was one of the first fully planned and restricted suburbs in the United States. Its innovative developer, Springfield native Harry S. Kissell, was among a small group of nationally-acclaimed real estate developers who, in the early twentieth century, created the modern suburb as we know it today. Their developments offered spacious lots in park-like settings; curvilinear, paved roads; utilities, and sewers. They also ushered in the practice of deed restrictions, which were both protective and exclusionary. Harry Kissell went on to become president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards in 1931. During his tenure, he conceived the idea for the Federal Home Loan Banking system, which, during the Great Depression, saved millioins of Americans from foreclosure and permanently opened up the possibility of home ownership to the middle class.
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This village was founded in 1830 on the banks of the Blanchard River by Asa M. Lake, son of Asa Lake, veteran of the Revolution and War of 1812 and first settler of Delaware Township. The town and river are named for an early French pioneer, Jean Jacques Blanchard, who resided among area Shawnee Indians during the period 1770 to 1802. The Methodist Episcopal Church, first religious organization in Hancock Co., was founded in Delaware Twp. in 1828.
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This is the gravesite of Robert Nesbitt, an immigrant from Convoy, Ireland who named Convoy, Ohio after his home town. In 2010, the Convoy Community Foundation, Convoy Lions Club, Convoy Business Association, and Convoy Community Days, Inc. raised the funds to restore Nesbitt’s tombstone. A representative from Convoy, Ireland – Ray Bonar – attended the rededication ceremony on July 4, 2010. The Van Wert County Historical Society took over the care of the grave site, which is in the Sugar Ridge Cemetery. The cemetery has been under the care of the Tully Township Trustees since its foundation.
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Descendants of slaves, who may have reached Ohio through the Underground Railroad, and other African Americans, formed the community of Flatwoods in the southwest part of Bokescreek Township. This one-room schoolhouse was built circa 1868 for African American children of Flatwoods and remained open until 1923. Remnants of past lessons remain inscribed on the chalkboard. The schoolhouse was threatened with demolition in 1999 and later moved to Veteran’s Park. The Logan County Historical Society owns and maintains the site as a living history museum.
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Known as the Norwegian Count, Nils Louis Christian Kachelmacher was born in Oslo, Norway of wealthy parentage. He immigrated to the United States at age 21 and was responsible for industrial growth in the Hocking Valley and expansion of the town of Logan. As president of the Columbus and Hocking Coal & Iron Company, Kachelmacher pioneered oil fields and developed holdings in iron, natural gas, and coal. He also directed the construction of the Greendale Brick plant, once considered the world’s largest brick producer. He died in 1917, bequeathing 10 acres of land to be used solely as a public park. He also established a trust to create an institution “solely to research the cure, prevention, and relief of varicose veins.” He once said, “It is my belief that each person should endeavor to make the world a little better because he lived and worked in it.”
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The Grenadier Squaw Village was located between this area and Scippo Creek, upon the Pickaway Plains, the primary Shawnee settlement in Ohio. Non-hel-e-ma, born circa 1722, was the sister of the Shawnee Cornstalk and Silver Heels. Known as Grenadier Squaw because of her imposing stature, she spoke four languages, serving as peacemaker and interpreter. After the peace treaty with Lord Dunmore in 1774, and in spite of Cornstalk’s murder, she remained allied with the Americans. On October 1, 1978, Non-hel-e-ma was honored with a marker in Logan Elm Park near to those for Chief Cornstalk and Chief Logan. The “Burning Ground,” used as a site to burn captured prisoners at the stake, was located on the elevated hill just south of Grenadier Squaw’s Village. The Council House was located slightly to the northwest.
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Nicknamed “Ohio’s Million Dollar Playground” or “Atlantic City of the Midwest,” Sandy Beach Amusement Park opened here on May 29, 1924. The park at Indian Lake featured a 2,000-foot long roller coaster and other popular rides, a boardwalk, and the Minnewawa Dance Hall. The Minnewawa and its succeeding dance pavilions hosted the greatest names of the Big Band era, and thousands of people came from all over Ohio to listen and dance to these popular entertainers. Societal turmoil and rioting in the 1960s affected the popularity of the park. Diminishing crowds, plus competition from larger theme parks such as Cedar Point and Kings Island, led to the park closing in the early 1970s. The lone remnant of the park is the steel arch bridge that spans the harbor.
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William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States. Following McKinley’s assassination in 1901, the Village of Jackson dedicated this triangle of land as a park in his honor. Earlier in the nineteenth century, a small school had occupied the plot. In 1902, a local commission was appointed to oversee the development of a park. It was not, however, until 2012 that the Jackson Garden Lovers Club finished the commission’s long overdue work. The park was dedicated in 2013, 111 years after it began.
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