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Platted by educator and abolitionist Cyrus McNeely in 1849, Hopedale was the site of McNeely Normal School, later Hopedale Normal College, the first coeducational college for teachers in eastern Ohio. It operated from 1849 to 1902. Among its graduates was George Armstrong Custer in 1856. Hopedale served as an important stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves fleeing bondage in the southern states. Local tradition notes several “stations” in the village, three at private homes and one at a hotel.
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The Walnut Grove Cemetery is the burial place of members of the Zane and Martin families. Their graves lie within the brick enclosure. The cemetery is also the resting-place of many early Martins Ferry residents, including veterans of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The Zane and Martin families were significant in the pioneer history of the region. Betty Zane’s legendary heroism at Fort Henry (now Wheeling, West Virginia) helped settlers resist an attack by the British and their Native American allies in September 1782. (Continued on other side)
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Named for Major General James B. McPherson, buried here July 29, 1864. Here also are graves of George Burton Meek, U.S.N., first American serviceman killed in the War with Spain; Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Charles H. McCleary, Civil War, and Rodger W. Young, World War II; Emma Anderson, mother of author Sherwood Anderson.
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George Washington Crile was born in 1864 at Chili, in Crawford Township, Coshocton County. Before embarking on his notable medical career, he graduated from Northwestern Ohio Normal School (now Ohio Northern University) at Ada, teaching for two years before becoming principal at Plainfield School. Crile first studied medicine under village physician Dr. A.E. Walker, who loaned him medical books and took him on calls to visit rural patients. Later in life Crile credited his early experience in education in Plainfield as one of the most influential points in his career. (continued on other side)
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Mary Ann Ball was born in this vicinity in 1817 and began her nursing career at age 20. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Mary at the age of 45 went to the soldiers’ aid. Ignoring rank, protocol, and allegiance, she pursued fearlessly and with inexhaustible energy her mission to care for the sick and wounded. Rebel, Union, and Negro soldiers all received the same attention. She risked enemy fire, especially through Grant’s Western Campaign and Sherman’s Georgia Campaign, to rescue suffering men, often going out at night to hunt for the fallen. When the victorious armies of the North were reviewed in Washington at the war’s end, “Mother Bickerdyke” road her faithful white horse beside the generals and colonels. Veterans along the line of march gave her the loudest cheers.
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One of the most effective political orators of his era, Tom Corwin (nicknamed “the Wagon Boy” for his War of 1812 service) resided here from 1839 until his death. A Whig stump speaker known for his wit and eloquence, he was elected governor of Ohio in 1840 and campaigned for William Henry Harrison in his presidential victory that year. Corwin served six terms in Congress and one in the Senate, where he spoke out against the Mexican War in 1847. He also served as secretary of the treasury in the Fillmore administration and as President Lincoln’s minister to Mexico. Built and first occupied by Corwin’s brother-in-law Phineas Ross in 1818, the Corwin House is representative of Federal-style architecture of this period.
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Maple-Dell was the home of John Butler, a Quaker who expressed his religious faith by working for humanitarian causes. An early Goshen Township teacher, Butler opened his home to orphans, the homeless, and runaway slaves, and devoted 20 years of his life to support the Freedman’s Camps for former slaves. One of the many individuals he sheltered was Edwin Coppock who was hung along with abolitionist, John Brown, after the raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Butler met with President Lincoln and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton in 1862 to request exemption from military service for Quakers during the Civil War. In 1868, President Grant petitioned the churches to assist in organizing a peace policy for the Indians. Butler prepared and presented to Congress a proposal for treating the Indians humanely including providing them with scientific and industrial education.
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In 1787, the construction of Fort Steuben was completed by Captain John Francis Hamtramck and soldiers of the 1st American Regiment, who were sent to the frontier by the United States government to remove illegal squatters and protect government surveyors from American Indian raids. The surveyors were platting the First Seven Ranges of the Northwest Territory. The surveyed land was sold for settlement or offered to soldiers as payment for military service during the Revolutionary War. Consequently, the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin were formed from the settlement of the Northwest Territory. Fort Steuben was named after Baron Frederich Wilhelm Augustus Steuben, who had served in the Revolutionary War and from which the town derived its name. Captain Hamtramck abandoned the fort in 1787 by order of Colonel Josiah Harmar, and by 1790 the remains of the fort had disappeared. Fort Steuben has been reconstructed on its original location.
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