Remarkable Ohio

Results for: martin-luther-king-jr
1350 Brush Row Road
Wilberforce

, OH

The son of an enslaved father and free Black mother, Martin Delany became one of the most prominent Black leaders in 19th Century America. Called the “Father of Black Nationalism,” Delany promoted African American pride and self-determination. Delany was born May 6, 1812 in present-day Charles Town, West Virginia. Because education for Blacks was illegal there, his family moved to Pennsylvania. Delany studied medicine, founded a newspaper, the “Mystery,” and advocated rights for African Americans and women. He co-edited the “North Star” with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Delany risked his life by demanding equality and by aiding Americans of African descent in their fight from slavery to freedom. (Continued on other side)

890 London-Groveport Road W-Marker was inadvertently numbered 20-18 instead of 20-25
Lockbourne

, OH

In 1809-1811, Magdalene Strader Borror, widow of Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Borror Jr., moved to this area from Virginia with her seven children (Martin, Jacob, Myomi, Solomon, Christine, Issac, and Absalom). Originally clearing and settling 400 acres of land given to Magdalene by her father, Christopher Strader, the family eventually prospered throughout the entire township. After her death in 1838, Magdalene was buried in nearby Scioto Cemetery, the resting place of more than seventy of her descendants.

307 Main Street
Findlay

, OH

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 prompted an expansion of the “Underground Railroad,” and as the state spanning the shortest distance between the Ohio River and Canada, Ohio saw heavy traffic in escaping slaves in the decades before the Civil War. Hancock County was home to many sympathetic residents who defied fugitive slave laws to help conduct slaves to freedom. “Stationmasters” offered safe havens, “conductors” accompanied fugitives through the county, and “stockholders” provided financial support and misled pursuers. Known stations were located mainly along the Perrysburg Road, now U.S. Highway 68. (continued on other side)

73 S. Professor Street
Oberlin

, OH

Aluminum pioneer Charles Martin Hall was born in 1863 in Thompson, Ohio (Geauga County), and moved with his family to Oberlin in 1873. Hall graduated from Oberlin College in 1885, studying chemistry under Professor Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926). Jewett, who lived in this house from 1884 to 1923, encouraged Hall’s interest in chemistry and aluminum, then a semi-precious metal. Hall discovered an electrochemical reduction process for producing metallic aluminum from aluminum oxide dissolved in molten cryolite in his woodshed laboratory at his family’s home at 64 East College Street on February 23, 1886. This process, the culmination of research with Jewett, became the basis for the aluminum industry in America. In 1888 Hall co-founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). Upon his death in 1914, Hall left one-third of his estate to Oberlin College.

720 Washington Avenue
Lorain

, OH

Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King was born in Lorain, Ohio, on November 23, 1878. He graduated from Lorain High School in 1897 and later attended the United States Naval Academy. King lived by his motto, “Do all that we can with what we have.” Having the full confidence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, King was eventually promoted to Fleet Admiral and commanded the largest fleet in the history of the United States and the world. Through his career, King held various leadership positions in the United States Navy and was the first man to simultaneously hold the positions of Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations. (continued on other side)

Cassano Enterprises, Inc., 1700 E. Stroop Road
Kettering

, OH

Kettering grocer Victor “Vic” Cassano, Sr. (1922-2002) and his mother-in-law Caroline “Mom” Donisi (1893-1987) opened what became Cassano’s Pizza King on June 4, 1953. Their signature square-cut, thin-crust “pizza pie” was an instant success; selling 400 pizzas the first day and propelling Cassano’s to one of the top pizza chains in America by the mid-1970s. Vic Sr. was a trailblazer, as Cassano’s was reportedly one of the first in the nation to franchise its stores (in 1955) and offered delivery via its “Pizza Bugs” in the early 1960s. A true entrepreneur, Vic Sr. also developed other restaurant concepts, including, by 1980, London Bobby Fish & Chips and The Commodore. (Continued on other side)

801 E. Pete Rose Way, Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point
Cincinnati

, OH

Cincinnati, along with Milwaukee and St. Louis, is one of the three corners of the “German Triangle,” so-called for its historically high concentration of German-American residents. During the 19th century, Cincinnati was both a destination for immigrants to the tri-state area and a hub from which many groups of Germans moved inland to settle new Ohio communities-many along the Miami and Erie canal corridor which began here. German-Americans have greatly influenced the social, cultural, economic and political life of the Cincinnati area. At the turn of the 21st century, approximately half of Cincinnati’s population was of German descent. (Continued on other side)

541 W Vine St
Alliance

, OH

Soldiers from Company F of the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry died in the explosion of the steamboat Sultana seven miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. The Sultana reportedly carried more than 2,400 passengers–six times its capacity of 376. The vast majority were Union soldiers recently freed from Southern prisons at the end of the Civil War. Approximately 1,800 passengers and crew died in what is considered the worst maritime disaster in American history. Company F was organized in Stark, Columbiana, and Portage Counties and was mustered into service at Camp Massillon in the fall of 1862. This marker is a memorial to the soldiers of Company F who died as a result of the Sultana tragedy and other war-related causes.