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In April 1830 four Dominican sisters from St. Catherine’s, Kentucky, founded St. Mary’s Academy, the first Catholic school in Perry County. Bishop Edward Fenwick, first Bishop of Ohio, donated a small brick house and attached building situated on an acre of land for the school’s use. Classes began with forty students. The following year the sisters built a three-story structure with a dormitory for boarders; by the end of the Civil War, enrollment had increased to 134 students, and St. Mary’s gained recognition as one of the finest schools in Ohio. An 1866 fire destroyed the academy, and in 1885 the Dominican sisters reestablished the academy as a parish school. The present Holy Trinity School building dates to 1968.
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Union Village, the first and largest Shaker (United Society of Believers) community west of the Allegheny Mountains, was established in 1805. Nearly 4,000 Shakers lived in Union Village, the last living here until 1920. They owned 4,500 acres of land with more than 100 buildings. Union Village was parent to other communities in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Georgia. Shakers were among the most successful religious communal societies in the United States. Believe in equality of men and women, separation of sexes, confession, communal ownership of property, and celibacy helped define their society. The name “Shaker” was derived from the shaking and dancing that were part of their worship. Union Village Shakers were successful entrepreneurs selling herbal medicines, garden seeds, and brooms. They also raised and bred Poland China hogs, Durham cattle, and Merino sheep.
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The West Liberty area, in the Mad River Valley, was the location of at least seven Shawnee Indian villages. This elevated site was the location of one of those villages. Several septs or divisions of the Shawnee nation lived in this area after being forced from their homes in southern Ohio. In 1786, together with Simon Kenton, Colonel Benjamin Logan’s army destroyed all the Shawnee villages in retaliation for the Indian raids in southern Ohio and Kentucky. Consequently, the remaining Shawnees moved to northwest Ohio near the present-day site of Maumee.
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The great Native American Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was born on the bank of a large spring at this site in 1768, at the very instant that a great meteor seared across the skies. The birth occurred while his parents, Shawnee war chief, Pucksinwah, and his wife, Methotasa, were en route from their village of Kispoko Town, on the Scioto River, to a major tribal council at the Shawnee tribal capital village of Chalahgawth (Chillicothe – now Oldtown), which was located “two arrow flights” northwest of this site. Though prohibited by tribal tradition from becoming chief of the Shawnees, Tecumseh rose to become one of the greatest warriors, orators, and military strategists of any tribe in America.
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In July 1813 a detachment of soldiers under Lt. Col. James V. Ball built a supply fort here along the military road that ran along the west bank of the Sandusky River. Ball chose this site for its large spring of cold water, which he enclosed within the stockade. Following the War of 1812, settler Erastus Bowe established a house and tavern on the site of Camp Ball. This settlement, in 1817, marks the beginning of both Seneca County and the city of Tiffin.
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After American militia troops forcibly ended the 1812 siege of Fort Wayne, General James Winchester’s Army of the Northwest marched down the north side of the Miami [Maumee] River to stop or retard advancing British troops sent to aid in the siege of Fort Wayne. After three days of difficult march, Ensign James Liggett of the 17th Regiment, volunteered to lead a group of four spies or scouts to the site of the old Fort Defiance. Liggett’s small force was surprised and killed on or about September 25 near here. The Americans tried twice to recover the bodies, but met with ambush from hostile Native Americans sympathetic to the British. Their bodies were finally recovered and buried in a common grave. Besides Liggett, they included Wyatt Stepp, Guy Hinton, William Bevis, and Nathaniel Mitchell of Woodford County, Kentucky, all of Captain McCracken’s Company, 1st Rifle Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Militia.
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Branch Rickey, a pivotal figure in the history of baseball, was raised in this house with his brothers, Orla and Frank. Rickey started baseball’s farm team system while he was president, vice president, and manager of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1917-1942. As president of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1942-1950, he signed Jackie Robinson to a major league contract, which resulted in the desegregation of baseball. “The Mahatma,” as Rickey was known, also ran the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1950-1955. Rickey’s career in major league baseball began in 1904 as a Cincinnati Red. Later he played with the St. Louis Browns and the New York Highlanders (now known as the Yankees). Branch Rickey was born in 1881 and died in 1965. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. His grave is located approximately one mile southeast of this marker on the eastern edge of Rush Township Cemetery.
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Dudley Nichols was born in Wapakoneta in 1895, the son of Dr. Grant and Mary Mean Nichols. He spent his childhood in a home on this site and graduated from Blume High School before leaving Ohio. After working as a journalist in New York City, he relocated to Hollywood to become a screenwriter for such films as Stagecoach, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Bells of St. Marys. In 1936 Nichols won an Oscar in the category Best Adapted Screenplay. He refused recognition for his work on The Informer because of strained relations with the Hollywood establishment. Nichols was the first person to ever refuse the prestigious award saying, “As one of the founders of the Screen Writers’ Guild, which was conceived in revolt against the Academy, and born out of disappointment with the way it functioned against employed talent-I deeply regret I am unable to accept the award.”
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