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The Jain Center of Central Ohio was established on May 12, 1991. The foundation stone of the Jain temple, the first of its kind in Central Ohio, was laid down on October 15-16, 2011. The temple was dedicated on July 19-23, 2012. More than 1,000 people from all across Ohio, many other states and India particpated in holy rituals to install deities of Jina (translated as “spirital victors” and God). Following the rituals, the temple was opened for regular worship. The Jain Center is a place for the teaching on non-violence, reverence for life and compassion for all beings. The Jain principle of karma states, “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
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Memorial Park hosted the famous Kansas City Monarchs during a barnstorming tour on August 4, 1961. The home team was the Lima Metro League’s Cairo Merchants. Legendary pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige (1906-1982) appeared on the mound for the Monarchs. The first African American to pitch a World Series, Paige was famous for helping the Cleveland Indians win their 1948 championship. After the Cairo exhibition game, he thrilled fans by signing autographs. Although the score of the 1961 game is forgotten, the impact of meeting Paige and other Kansas City players is remembered. During an era of racial tension and national change, a baseball game between an all-Black and all-White team taught many in attendance that they had much in common, including a love of the game.
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The village of Chagrin, founded in 1798, changed its name in 1834 to honor Dr. Westel Willoughby, a pioneer medical educator. That same year, the Willoughby University of Lake Erie was chartered, and the Willoughby Medical College opened its doors, signaling the beginning of medical education in northern Ohio. The Medical College trained 160 doctors, educated in contemporary methods of medicine, anatomy, chemistry, and surgery. Financial struggles and public outcry against grave-robbing — which supplied cadavers for anatomy classes — hampered the college’s development. The movement of faculty to Cleveland and the transfer of the state charter to Columbus hastened the demise of the Medical College in 1847, and laid the foundation for the establishment of the medical schools of Case Western and Ohio State universities. (Continued on side two)
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Paul Eugene Brown was born September 7, 1908, to Lester and Ida Belle Brown at their Norwalk home on 7 West Elm Street. He attended Benedict Elementary until his family moved to Massillon, where his football career began. Although small, Brown was a successful quarterback for Massillon’s Washington High School and Miami University in Oxford. In 1932, he returned to Massillon as head coach. Compiling an 80-8-2 record, he instituted new ideas now considered commonplace in football: the playbook, hand signals, and sending in plays. Ohio State University hired Brown in 1941 and he coached the Buckeyes to their National Championship in 1942. After WWII, Brown agreed in 1945 to coach Cleveland’s new pro team. Despite his objections, fans voted to name the new team after Coach Brown. (Continued on other side)
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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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Stephen and Viola Armstrong moved their family, including 13-year-old Neil and his younger siblings, June and Dean, to the house at 601 West Benton Street in 1944. Here, Neil explored his fascination with flying by reading aviation magazines and building model airplanes. Neil completed flying lessons at nearby Port Koneta airport and earned his pilot’s license on his sixteenth birthday, even before receiving a driver’s license. Neil graduated from Blume High School in 1947 and studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University on a Navy scholarship. The Korean conflict interrupted his studies, but he left the Navy as a decorated combat pilot, flying 78 missions. After graduating from Purdue in 1955, Neil worked at what would become the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Soon after he became a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. (Continued on other side)
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Daniel Arthur Rudd was born into slavery on August 7, 1854, in Bardstown, Kentucky. He became a newspaperman, lecturer, publicist, and tireless advocate for the Roman Catholic Church. After the Civil War Rudd moved to Springfield. Baptized and raised in Catholicism, he joined St. Raphael Parish, where the philosophy of racial equality offered by the church solidified his vision of justice. By 1885 he had established his own weekly newspaper, The Ohio State Tribune. He rebranded it The American Catholic Tribune (ACT) after moving to Cincinnati. Rudd claimed ACT was the only Catholic newspaper owned by an African American. At the height of its popularity in 1892, the publication had a circulation of 10,000. In 1893 Rudd was asked to chair the Afro-American Press Association, representing more than 200 black-owned newspapers.
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When inventor and entrepreneur Garrett Augustus Morgan sold his Traffic Signal patent to General Electric in 1923, he used the $40,000 to purchase a 121-acre farm in Huron County in 1924. Advertising “a village of our own,” Morgan established the Wakeman Country Club — one of Ohio’s early African American recreation clubs — and offered 247 lots for $60 each in “Wakeman Heights.” Located near the intersection of State Route 60 and Chenango Road, the development provided country pleasures to Blacks excluded from the Country Club lifestyle. Club membership, included in the purchase of a lot, offered fishing, hunting, swimming, and horseback riding. A restaurant, dance hall, and amphitheater provided cultural and boxing events. The club waned during World War II and no buildings from the once-thriving Wakeman Country Club remain.