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This 4-acre plot, established ca. 1860 by John Gee, is a burial ground for local colored citizens. John Gee was a religious leader as well as a skilled carpenter who built houses in early Gallipolis. Some Gallipolis colored pioneers were artisans while others came to work in the homes of French settlers. Leah Stewart, the first legally-recorded colored person in Gallia County, arrived in 1803. In this cemetery are the graves of numerous soldiers who served in this country’s military forces. At least 57 United States veterans rest upon this sacred site.
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Now ranked among the country’s finest, the zoo began in 1900 with one large woodchuck in a box at Walbridge Park. After the organization of the Toledo Zoological Society, 1905-10, the zoo began its steady growth, particularly after 1923 under the leadership of Percy C. Jones. An ambitious federal construction program during the Great Depression of the 1930s provided several major structures.(See other side)
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This eight-sided house reflects a widespread pre-Civil War architectural fad. Promoted by phrenologist Orson S. Fowler in his 1848 book A Home for All as a way to “bring comfortable homes within the reach of the poorer classes,” the octagon made efficient use of interior space and natural ventilation. More than thirty octagonal houses are known to have been built in Ohio, and at least twenty-five survive. This example was built circa 1854 and purchased by cabinetmaker Amirus Darrow in 1864. The exterior walls are constructed of chestnut beams between layers of concrete. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
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Following the Civil War, many of Ohio’s disabled and wounded veterans found inadequate provisions for their long-term needs. In response, the Grand Army of the Republic’s Department of Ohio lobbied for a state-operated veterans’ home. In 1886 Governor Joseph B. Foraker signed a bill establishing the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home for honorably discharged veterans. A board of trustees led by Sandusky publisher I.F. Mack selected the site, and the Sandusky community donated the tract of land, utilities, and a connection to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The facility opened in November 1888. (continued on other side)
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Most of the homes in this district were constructed after the creation of the Mackinaw Development Corporation in 1887. The corporation was named for the Cincinnati, Jackson, and Mackinaw Railroad which arrived in Franklin from Darke County in 1886. The corporation subdivided the farm of Lewis Gaston Anderson, whose Italian Villa-style home still stands at the northwest corner of Miami and Lake Avenues. Anderson was a grain and lumber dealer in Franklin, who in 1881 was elected to the 65th Ohio General Assembly as a state senator. (Continued on other side)
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In 1834, ministers gathered at Providence Church in Berlin Crossroads and organized the Providence Anti-Slavery Baptist Association; believed to be both the first African American Baptist Association in Ohio and among the earliest in the country. The Association’s name boldly reflected its stance: opposition to slavery and a commitment to freedom. Several affiliated churches and their members were known Underground Railroad safe houses and conductors. Providence Association grew to include member churches across Ohio—including Athens, Bidwell, Beaver, Blackfork, Burlington, Gallipolis, Glouster, Ironton, Middleport, Nelsonville, Rutland—as well as congregations in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Michigan.
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Zachariah Price DeWitt was born of a Dutch family in New Jersey in 1768. With brothers Jacob and Peter, he migrated to Kentucky where, in 1790, he married Elizabeth Teets, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1774. By 1805 all three brothers had settled in Ohio near Four Mile (Talawanda) Creek. Here Zachariah and Elizabeth raised corn, hogs, and eventually, nine children. Zachariah became a prominent community leader, operating a sawmill, building houses in Oxford, serving as Masonic Lodge secretary, and commanding a rifle company during the War of 1812. Tradition has it that Elizabeth wore a black sunbonnet to cover a scar from having been scalped as a child in Kentucky. Elizabeth died in 1843, followed by Zachariah in 1851. Both are buried in Darrtown Cemetery.
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Major buildings dating from 1832 to 1898 surround the village green, the geographic center of Gustavus Township. Built in 1832 on the northwest quadrant, the George Hezlep House features Federal-Greek Revival architecture and has a closet reputedly used on the Underground Railroad. Built in 1840, the Farmers’ Exchange Store was originally a double entrance Greek Revival structure. The Storekeeper’s House, also a Greek Revival structure, was built next to the exchange store in 1840. South of this house is the Fraternal Hall, built in 1870. There were once four churches in Gustavus including the Methodist Church, built in 1856 with a temple front and a belfry, and the Congregational Church, built east of the center in 1854. The eclectic Town Hall was built in 1890 and fronts the southeast quadrant. The Gustavus Centralized School, reported as the first centralized school in the United States, was built in 1898 and was replaced by the current building in 1928.