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This brick, Federal-style house was built in 1836. Helen Moore, the grand daughter of General Robert McConnel, officer during the War of 1812 and founder of McConnelsville, married Dr. Hiram L. True and made their home here. Dr. True practiced medicine in the area and was widely known for his interest in science, serving as president of the local Scientific Society. Their daughter Evelyn True Button was born in the house in 1875. A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Evelyn traveled to the Philippines in 1898 on a missionary trip to train teachers. A teacher, principal, community leader, and ardent worker for women’s rights, she died in the place of her birth in 1975. She bequeathed the house to the Morgan County Historical Society to serve as a depository of furnishings and artifacts of Morgan County heritage.
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Unserheim, meaning “Our Home” in German, is the name of this ante-bellum Queen Anne style home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. From 1857-1878, it was home to Daniel Howell Hise, a Quaker and ardent abolitionist. On April 8, 1849, Hise wrote, “Welcome! Welcome to the protection I can give, with or without the law.” A major stop on the Underground Railroad, Unserheim’s secret rooms and tunnel provided shelter to slaves on their flight to freedom. Hise’s belief in abolitionism was so strong that following John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, he was instrumental in erecting the Edwin Coppock Monument at Hope Cemetery. Coppock had been executed for his participation in the raid. Hise also supported the Women’s Rights Movement and opened Unserheim to such notable guests as famed suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth.
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The Dayton, Springfield, and Urbana Electric Railway (DS&U) was an “Interurban” rail system that ran between the cities of Urbana, Springfield and Dayton. Its beginning can be traced to the franchise given to William H. Hanford to operate a single line of electrical railway between Springfield and the southern boundary of Champaign County in 1895. Hanford then sold his rights to John G. Webb of Springfield and Colonel Frederich Colburn of Kentucky, who along with other syndicate members formed the Dayton, Springfield, and Urbana Electric Railway. In 1897 Boston promoter Arthur E. Appleyard joined the syndicate and brought investment monies, organizational skills, and energy to the venture. He quickly became managing director/treasurer and the real driving force of the DS&U. The railway was organized into two divisions. One operated between Dayton and Springfield and the other between Springfield and Urbana. [continued on other side]
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Officially opening on August 4, 1840, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal followed the route of present railroad tracks through Munroe Falls approximately one thousand feet south of this marker. This 82-mile long "feeder canal" connected the Beaver Valley canal system at New Castle, Pennsylvania with the Ohio and Erie Canal in Akron, thereby linking Pittsburgh with Cleveland and the western Great Lakes. Many communities along the canal’s path became linked to national and world commerce through their establishment as canal ports. New England investor Edmund Munroe purchased property and water rights along the canal’s proposed route, and in 1837 established the Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company. The village of Munroe Falls grew around the manufacturing company site and was incorporated on October 26, 1838. When this section of the canal closed in 1869, the waterway through Munroe Falls was filled and railroad tracks were laid over its path. A portion of the canal bed is still visible east of State Route 91.
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Many early settlers of Morgan County were of Scot-Irish heritage and brought the Presbyterian faith with them. From this group Reverend John Hunt and twelve charter members organized the first congregation in McConnelsville and Malta in 1824 and third oldest congregation in Morgan County. The congregation built a brick church in 1832 at a cost of $2,361. Known for its excellent acoustics and fine music, the building received the first pump organ in the two villages in 1849. In 1916 the church was stuccoed and added a Sunday school and vestibule. The original bell was sold to the steamboat H.D. Munson in 1865, and the present bell came from the Bristol Presbyterian Church. Because of its large seating capacity, the church was also used for civic functions, including an early court trial. Over the years, members have included General Robert McConnell, founder of McConnelsville, Henry Dawes, uncle of Vice-President Charles Dawes, and Frances Dana Gage, early women’s rights leader.
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Natalie Clifford Barney was born in Dayton on October 31, 1876. Her family was wealthy and industrious, including her great grandfather who founded the Dayton Academy, Cooper Female Seminary, and Dayton Car Works. Natalie, who knew that she was a lesbian by age twelve, lived an outspoken and independent life unusual for a woman of this time period. Her openness and pride about her sexuality, without shame, was at least one hundred years ahead of its time. She published Some Portrait-Sonnets of Women, a book of love poems to women under her own name in 1900. American painter Romaine Brooks was Barney’s partner and companion for fifty years. (continued on other side)
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During the Civil War in 1863, twenty-year-old Massillon farmer Robert Pinn enlisted in the 5th Regiment, Company I, United States Colored Troops (USCT) at his first opportunity, saying, “I was very eager to become a soldier, in order to prove by my feeble efforts the black man’s rights to untrammeled manhood.” At the battle for New Market Heights in the 1864 Richmond campaign, he assumed command of his company after his unit’s officers were all killed or wounded – and was himself wounded three times. For his meritorious conduct Pinn received the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of four African Americans so honored from the 5th USCT. Following the war he attended Oberlin College and became a successful Massillon attorney. He died in 1911 and is interred here.
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Hallie Quinn Brown (c. 1850) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to former slaves. She and her family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio in 1870, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Wilberforce University in 1873. Brown taught school in the South until her appointment as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University in 1893. A gifted elocutionist and author, Brown received national and international acclaim not only for her recitals and written works, but also for her passionate belief in civil rights and African American culture. (Continued on other side)
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