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Established in 1898 as the Russian Orthodox Church of the Dormition, Holy Assumption was founded by Carpatho-Russian immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Constructed in 1905-1906, it is considered to be the oldest Orthodox church building in Ohio. Archbishop Tikhon, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America, consecrated the church and celebrated the first Liturgy. Tsar Nicholas II of Russian personally donated the four icons on the iconostas, or icon screen, as well as liturgical items. Both the Tsar and, by then Patriarch, Tikhon were murdered by the Bolsheviks during the 1917 Russian Revolution and were glorified as Saints of the Orthodox Church. Holy Assumption Orthodox Church continues to be a beacon of the Orthodox Faith on the Marblehead peninsula.
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Envisioned by Fairview Village Mayor, David R. Bain, this community center was originally completed in 1937 as a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era work relief program initiated by the Federal Government in 1935. A fire destroyed the original log cabin on December 14, 1937, just four days before the planned dedication. With the support of the community, Mayor Bain turned again to the WPA for funding and labor to rebuild the structure. This cabin, constructed of bricks on the original foundation, features an 8’x12′ mural painted by artists of the WPA’s Federal Art Project and which depicts Fairview’s history through the 1930s. The new cabin was dedicated on January 15, 1940, and was named in honor of Mayor Bain in 1957, four years after his death.
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In 1918, early Slovene immigrants organized the Slovenian Independent Society Home and later constructed this hall, which became the center for Barberton Slovene cultural, social, and recreational activities. They formed dramatic and singing clubs, conducting performances in their native language. In the early twentieth century, prior to employers providing insurance or health care for their workers, the society acted to ensure sick and death benefits for its members. It also prepared members for citizenship in their newly chosen country. First generation Slovenes provided the labor that helped spur the growth of local industries while succeeding generations have continued to contribute to the community in various business, industrial, professional, and governmental capacities.
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In 1934, workers at the Electric Auto-Lite Company and other automotive-related manufacturers secretly organized the Automobile Workers Federal Union Local 18384, American Federation of Labor (AFL), which became the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 12. Anti-unionism, broken pledges by management, and abuse of workers had festered locally for generations. Workers bitterly resented the fact that management took advantage of the Depression’s high unemployment to decrease wages. In February, workers struck at Auto-Lite, Bingham Stamping, Logan Gear, and Spicer Manufacturing Company. When management refused to negotiate in good faith, the workers, including a large number of women, struck the Auto-Lite in mid-April. Auto-Lite management secured a court order limiting the number of strikers to twenty-five. The strike appeared to be lost until the Lucas County Unemployed League organized fierce resistance to the court injunction as the crowd around the plant grew to ten thousand. (continued on other side)
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Born here on September 15, 1857, William Howard Taft is the only American to have served as President and Chief Justice of the United States. His unique career of public service began after he graduated from Yale University and Cincinnati Law School. He became an Ohio Superior Court Judge at age 29. In 1892, he was appointed a judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1900, President William McKinley sent him to the Philippines as chief civil administrator. President Theodore Roosevelt named him Secretary of War in 1904, and he was elected president of the United States four years later. In 1921, President Harding named Taft Chief Justice, a position that he relished, serving until just before his death in 1930.
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The Lanes, Baptist merchants from New Orleans, and the Kempers, a Presbyterian family from Cincinnati, gave money and land respectively for Cincinnati’s first manual labor theological seminary and high school, which opened in suburban Walnut Hills in 1829. The Reverend Lyman Beecher came from Boston as its first president. The president’s house, now known as the Stowe House after Beecher’s daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, still remains at Gilbert and Foraker. Lane Theological Seminary, bound by present day Gilbert, Chapel, Park, and Yale streets, continued to educate Presbyterian ministers until 1932, when it was merged with McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
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Following the success of Confederate forces in eastern Kentucky and General John Hunt Morgan’s raids there in 1862, Cincinnatians believed that Southern invasion was imminent. Anxious officials ordered Cincinnati citizens to form home guards, but black men willing to volunteer were rebuffed when they attempted to join a defense force. Instead, police serving as provost guards rounded up many and marched them by bayonet to build fortifications in Kentucky. Reacting to the shameful treatment of the blacks eager to support the Union, the commander of the Department of Ohio dispatched Major General Lewis Wallace to command the civilians and to liberate black men forced into service. (continued on other side)
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Following the national merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955, more than 2,000 labor delegates representing one million union members convened at the Cleveland Public Auditorium for the founding convention of the Ohio AFL-CIO in 1958. This leading labor organization achieved significant advances in the quality of life and security for working Ohioans during the second half of the twentieth century in areas of civil rights, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance. Its notable legislative successes include the passage of a public employee collective bargaining bill in 1983 and a voter referendum that protected worker’s compensation in 1997.