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The hills before you were inspiration for the design of The Great Seal of the State of Ohio. The seal, first depicted in 1803, was often reconfigured until the present image was sanctioned by the Ohio General Assembly in 1967 and modified in 1996. In 1803 the law prescribed the sheaf of wheat to represent Ohio’s agricultural roots and the bundle of seventeen arrows to symbolize Ohio’s place as the seventeenth state in the Union. In the background is a range of hills, including Mount Logan, as viewed from Thomas Worthington’s estate, Adena, now a state memorial. (continued from other side)
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Central State University originated on March 19, 1887, when the Ohio General Assembly passed an act establishing a Combined Normal and Industrial (CN&I) Department at Wilberforce University. Through various transitional changes, it emerged as an independent, state university. In 1941, the General Assembly expanded the CN&I, which offered two-year courses, into the College of Education and Industrial Arts, with four-year programs. In 1947, it separated from Wilberforce University. The history of Central State University tells the history of higher education and advancement for African Americans in Ohio. It is within the walls of these structures, and others unfortunately demolished or destroyed by the 1974 tornado, that thousands of African Americans received valuable training for successful and rewarding careers. Thus, many of the contributions of African Americans to the promotion and betterment of education, medicine, law, social justice, technology, and the arts in Ohio have their roots here on the campus of Central State University.
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Congress passed Fugitive Slave Laws in 1793 and 1850, allowing federal marshals to arrest slaves that had escaped to the North and take them back to their southern owners. They could also arrest northerners suspected of aiding runaway slaves. These laws were contested throughout the North, including Ohio where one case received national press. It involved escaped slave Addison White who arrived in Mechanicsburg in August 1856. There he met abolitionist Udney Hyde and stayed at his farm while Hyde recovered from a leg injury. White’s master Daniel White learned of his location and went to Mechanicsburg in April 1857 with federal marshals. When attempting to take Addison and arrest Hyde on grounds of violating the Fugitive Slave Law, Hyde’s daughter ran to town and brought back residents with pitchforks and shovels to fight the marshals. Fearing for their lives, the marshals left, but came back to arrest the men who protected White. [continued on other side]
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Smith’s Burying Ground was established in 1814 when John Smith (born 1742), Revolutionary War Veteran, died and was buried here. John Smith and four of his sons and their families made the six week, six-hundred-mile journey from New Jersey with ox teams the previous year. John Clouse (1758-1822), Dutch immigrant and Revolutionary War veteran, is also buried here. (Continued on other side)
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One of seven native Ohioans to serve as president of the United States, William McKinley (1843-1901) was born at this site. The original house was moved from this site and ultimately destroyed by fire. The McKinleys lived here until 1852 when they moved to Poland, Ohio, where William attended the Poland Seminary. He briefly attended Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, but poor health and family financial strain forced him to return to Ohio. As an enlistee in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, McKinley rose to the rank of major. After the war, he settled in Canton and practiced law. Elected to Congress in 1876, McKinley favored high protective tariffs, a policy he continued to support as President.(Continued on other side)
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Since it was formed in 1819, Meigs County was fostered by its location on 57 miles of the Ohio River, named by the Indians”Oyo,” meaning beautiful river. Pomeroy, the county seat, was named for Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, an early landholder. His company, Pomeroy, Sons & Company, and his son-in-law, Valentine B. Horton (1802-1888), were influential in developing the coal, salt, and iron industries of the region. Horton pioneered the transportation of coal by river, building the world’s first coal barges and, in 1835, the first coal-fueled towboat, the Condor. Coal, salt, and iron, in addition to other local products, were shipped from Pomeroy’s 125′ x 40′ wharf to ports from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. Excursion, passenger, shanty and showboats also visited Pomeroy’s port. Today, the Ohio River continues to be a busy waterway carrying commodities such as coal, petroleum, chemicals, steel, sand, and gravel. It is also a busy haven for recreational crafts as well as stern wheel boats.
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Trenton’s founder, Michael Pearce, came to the area in 1801. The original village of 33 lots was named Bloomfield. When the post office was established in 1820, it was named Trenton to honor the founder’s home state of New Jersey. Pearce’s son-in-law, Squier Littell, was the first resident doctor in Butler County. Originally settled by the English, Trenton saw a migration of Germans by 1840. By 1851, the farming community became a grain center with the introduction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad. Further development occurred when a franchise was granted to operate interurban electric traction cars through the village in 1896. Early commercial endeavors were Dietz, Good & Company grain elevator, Trenton Foundry, and Magnode Corporation. By 1991, the largest industries were Miller Brewing Company and Cinergy/Cincinnati Gas & Electric.
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Ottawa Park, the largest city park, was developed in the early 1890s on the 280-acre farm of John B. Ketcham. Based on a design by the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ottawa Park was intended to be central to a vast park and boulevard system. By 1920 the Toledo Park movement had provided fifteen parks totaling nearly 1400 acres.