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This brick home was built in 1856 by John McDannald, son of Samuel and Bell (Craig) McDannald who came from Virginia in 1813. The McDannalds were prominent in the development of Blendon Township, The Central College of Ohio, and The Central College Presbyterian Church. This house served as one station on the Ohio Underground Railroad.
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The Hopewell Associate Reformed Church and Cemetery, now known as Historic Hopewell, was founded in 1808 in a log building that was replaced in 1826 with the present building. It was built by the area’s first settlers, mainly Scotch-Irish who left Kentucky and South Carolina because of their opposition to slavery. The church encouraged worship by African Americans and played an important role in the Underground Railroad. It became the parent church for four “Daughter” Presbyterian congregations: Fairhaven in 1835, Oxford in 1837, College Corner in 1849, and Morning Sun in 1876. Reverend Alexander Porter, the first pastor, was committed to education and constructed a school near the Hopewell Spring that still produces clear water. “Old Hopewell” was completely refurbished in 1880, but by 1915 the membership declined and regular services discontinued. Today Hopewell holds Sunday services in the summer and is maintained by a generous and devoted group of volunteers.
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Sidney’s First Presbyterian Church formally organized on September 4, 1825, under the guidance of Reverend Joseph Stevenson, who traveled from Bellefontaine for that purpose. The original eight-member congregation worshipped outdoors or in the Shelby County Courthouse until able to finance their own building in 1834. First Presbyterian’s small frame chapel was constructed on the half-acre parcel that became their permanent home. Two centuries later, the congregation continues to worship at the corner of Miami Avenue and North Street on Lot 109, set aside for religious use in Charles Starrett’s 1819-1820 agreements platting Sidney’s original 70-acre tract. (Continued on other side)
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The New California Church was organized in 1826 at a time when the congregation was called the Associate Congregation of Darby and represented Presbyterians whose ancestors came from the “Seceder” tradition of Scotland. Seceder Presbyterians were so named because they left or “seceded from” the mainstream Presbyterian Church when the English Crown claimed the right to name ministers. Their desire for religious freedom brought them to America where they were one of the earliest denominations to condemn slavery. The congregation met at members’ homes until building its first church in 1833, a log structure. The first minister to serve this congregation, the Reverend James Wallace, who served from 1832-1841, was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and this congregation maintained that anti-slavery stance under later ministers. The present church was built in 1904. (continued on other side)
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Fowlers Mill (originally Fowler’s Mills) developed around a group of mills built in the 1830s on the Chagrin River. Opportunities from these mills led to Fowlers Mill becoming the commercial center of Munson Township. From the 1830s into the twentieth century, the community expanded with construction of churches, a post office, township hall, stores, hotel, blacksmith shop, schools, and houses built in such styles as Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne. This type of community center was common in rural, nineteenth century America, but rarely survives with so much original fabric intact. On Mayfield Road, the Disciple Church was built in 1842. East of the church, the brick central school built in 1913 replaced earlier one-room schoolhouses. The gristmill is the only mill standing in Geauga County. The cemetery contains burials dating from the 1830s. The Fowler’s Mills Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
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Saints Peter and Paul Church, Petersburg (1835), was the mother church for St. Joseph, Wapakoneta; St. John the Evangelist, Fryburg; St. Lawrence, Rhine; and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Botkins. All were founded by German-Catholic immigrants to west-central Ohio. After the removal of the Wapakoneta Shawnee in 1832, the land became available for purchase. The 1830s and ’40s saw a wave of devout German settlers who wished to practice their faith in their new home, a desire served by missionary priests such as Father Wilhelm Horstman. Father Horstman first visited the settlement at Petersburg on May 8, 1835, presiding at Mass, baptizing, and blessing a marriage. In April 1836, immigrants John and Anna Mary Ruppert sold 40 acres of land in Pusheta Township to the trustees of the Catholic Church and a log church was built at the Petersburg site. (Continued on other side
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Findlay College was a joint venture of the Churches of God, General Conference, and the Village of Findlay. It was chartered on January 28, 1882, to provide a liberal arts education within a Christian context for all–regardless of race or sex. Old Main was constructed between 1883 and 1886 at a cost of $51,662.95. It was 171 by 107 feet, one of the largest college buildings in the state, and the only one heated by natural gas. The cornerstone was laid on May 25, 1884.
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On this site in 1848, the Presbyterians and Methodists entered into a situation unique to Gilean, as Grand Rapids was then known, by jointly constructing a frame church for worship. James Purdy, grantor, sold the lot for five dollars for religious purposes thereby authorizing either denomination to sell to the other. Proceeds were to be used to build another church. This ecumenical arrangement continued until 1880 when the Methodists sold their interest in the building to the Presbyterians in order to build a new church. The Presbyterians, whose charter included eleven members when they first organized at Guyer’s schoolhouse on September 18, 1848, built a new church here in 1928. One addition to the current building was made in 1961.