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Platted by educator and abolitionist Cyrus McNeely in 1849, Hopedale was the site of McNeely Normal School, later Hopedale Normal College, the first coeducational college for teachers in eastern Ohio. It operated from 1849 to 1902. Among its graduates was George Armstrong Custer in 1856. Hopedale served as an important stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves fleeing bondage in the southern states. Local tradition notes several “stations” in the village, three at private homes and one at a hotel.
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Named for the Native Americans who first dwelled here along both sides of the Kokosing River, the Little Indian Fields is adjacent to the site of the first white settlement of Knox County. Early white inhabitants of this land were Andrew and Catherine Craig and Benjamin and John Butler. John “Appleseed” Chapman planted an apple orchard near here at the confluence of the Kokosing River and Centre Run and in 1809 bought two lots in Mount Vernon. In 1808 the Ohio Legislature created Knox County and later designated Mount Vernon as the county seat.
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On a stormy autumn morning in 1925, the giant Navy airship, christened Shenandoah, crashed near this site. Initially, the Shenandoah was commissioned to perform scouting missions for the Navy; however, she would soon be flying promotional missions. The Shenandoah had recently begun a six-day publicity tour across the Midwest when she crashed. The turbulent weather of late summer created strong winds, which ripped the 680-feet long Shenandoah in two and tore the control car from the keel. A majority of the 14 crewmen who died in the crash, including the captain, Lt. Commander Zachary Lansdowne of Greenville, Ohio, were killed when the control car plummeted to the ground. The stern section fell in a valley near Ava and the bow was carried southwest nearly twelve miles before landing near Sharon, Ohio. The Ohio National Guard was called in to control the crowds of spectators who traveled to the crash sites.
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On this site, on January 4-7, 1808, the six Masonic lodges then existent in the state met and formed the Grand Lodge of Ohio. General Rufus Putnam of Marietta was elected the first Grand Master. Because of advanced age and failing health, he declined the honor and Governor Samuel Huntington was named in his stead.
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At this site on July 4, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, a Master Mason, turned the first shovelful of earth for the Ohio Canal. The ceremony was attended by area citizens and Master Masons. In the early 1840s James A. Garfield, who was to become 20th President of the United States and a Master Mason, led tow horses on the canal.
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Col. William Crawford and Dr. John Knight, separated from the American troops following the Battle of Upper Sandusky, June 4-5, were captured by Indians on June 7 at a site about five miles southeast of this marker. Taken first to Chief Wingenund’s camp north of Crestline, they were then taken, on a trail passing near this marker, to a bluff near Tymochtee Creek northwest of Upper Sandusky. Crawford was tortured and burned at the stake on June 11. Knight later escaped. For years afterward, Crawford’s fate inflamed frontier sentiment against the Indians.
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In the 1820s a general store and grist mill were established on this site, where the famous Scioto-Sandusky Indian trail neared the Sandusky River. The settlement was first known as McNutt’s, later as Swope’s Corners. The village of Fort Seneca was surveyed January 14, 1836. Its name was derived from Gen. Harrison’s War of 1812 fort, which was located a few miles downstream.
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The Sisters of the Precious Blood, founded in Switzerland by Maria Anna Brunner in 1834, began their ministry of prayer and education in Mercer County here at Maria Stein (Our Lady of the Rock). Father Francis de Sales Brunner, a Missionary of the Precious Blood, brought the Sisters to America in 1844, and in 1846 established the foundation at Maria Stein, named after a Benedictine Abbey in Switzerland. The convent was the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Precious Blood until 1923. Relics of the saints were brought to this site from Italy in 1875. The present convent and relic chapel (National Marian Shrine of the Holy Relics), built during 1890-1902, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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