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Michael Uhrich, Sr. founded Uhrich’s Mill on this site in 1806. Uhrich emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1804 and became one of the first County Commissioners upon the formation of Tuscarawas County in February 1808. In 1833, the same year Mill Township was organized, Michael Uhrich, Jr. platted the town named Waterford, which became Uhrichsville approximately six years later. During the Ohio-Erie Canal period, Uhrich’s Mill – consisting of four wheels (one for sawing wood, one for wheat, and two for grinding corn) – became the focal point for nearly all grain produced in the Stillwater Valley and shipped to Cleveland markets via the canal.
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The Root Homestead was built in 1879 by Amos Ives Root, founder of the A. I. Root Company, shortly after he moved his business from the town square. The homestead housed several generations of the Root family until 1953 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A pioneer of the beekeeping industry, Root helped to standardize such beekeeping equipment and tools as the Langstroth removable frame hive and the centrifugal honey extractor. As a result, beekeepers were able to harvest more honey every season without harming the bees. A prolific author and publisher, Root educated beekeepers across the globe and built a sense of community within the profession. (Continued on other side)
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Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth, renowned as “The Father of American Beekeeping,” lived in this simple two-story, eight-room house with his wife, Anne, and their three children from 1858 to 1887. Unchanged externally, the Greek Revival cottage features brick pilasters and pediments and a fan-shaped front window. In his garden workshop, Langstroth made experimental beehives, established an apiary, and on the ten acres that surrounded his home, grew buckwheat, clover, an apple orchard, and a “honey garden” of flowers. He imported Italian queen bees in efforts to improve native bees and shipped his queens to keepers across the United States and around the world. The Langstroth Cottage was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. (Continued from other side)
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Fawcettstown, later to become East Liverpool, marked the first Ohio community to be encountered by early river travelers as they headed toward new challenges and new lives in the expanding nation. Indian canoes, flatboats, and steamboats carried increasing traffic, both passenger and freight, along these Ohio “Gateway” shores. Many of these early craft were built locally and local residents served as crewmen. Products from farms and ceramics from this city’s pioneer potteries were shipped from this site. The wharf area also served as a landing place for many of the early English potters who came here to ply their trades and, in the process, create a defining industry. The river continues to play an important role in industrial and recreational capacities.
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Attracted by the promotion of a civic group, as well as abundant fuel, Edward Drummond Libbey relocated his glass operation from Massachusetts to Toledo in 1888. His company was renown as a producer of fine art glass. Michael J. Owens, a Libbey Superintendent, developed the first fully automatic bottle-making machine in 1903. His invention revolutionized the industry and helped eliminate child labor in glass factories.
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The history of Belpre and the Ohio River are inextricably linked. Settlers from New England, including farmers and Revolutionary War veterans, arrived via flatboats at “Belle-Prairie” (beautiful prairie) in 1789. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery paid a visit in keelboats in 1803 as they began their epic journey to the Pacific. Belpre’s farmers raised fruits, vegetables, and grain. Packet boats carried flour, livestock, vinegar, and passengers down river, some all the way to New Orleans and thence throughout the world. (Continued on other side)
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Lorain’s shipbuilding industry began when Augustus Jones and William Murdock began constructing wooden sailing vessels on the west side near the mouth of the Black River. The sloop General Huntington was the first boat launched from Lorain in 1819. In 1897, the shipbuilding industry moved to the east side of the river with the establishment of the Lorain yard of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, the precursor of the American Shipbuilding Company. In 1898, they were the largest dry dock on the Great Lakes. On April 13, 1898, the first steel ship, the Superior City, was launched. At the time, it was the largest vessel on fresh water. During the early years well-known passenger ships, railroad car ferries, tankers, self-unloaders, tugs, and barges were built here.
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From its founding in 1865, Dennison was a railroad town and became the second largest rail center for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rail presence was so strong that the industry dictated social and economic development throughout the community. For example, the Railway Chapel, the historic name for the First Presbyterian Church of Dennison was built because W.W. Card, Pennsylvania Railroad Superintendent, saw a spiritual need in the community. As the first church built in Dennison, Card contacted the Presbytery of Steubenville to start the church, arranged for donation of land, provided for financing from railway officials, and arranged for labor and material from the railroad. Railroad workers constructed the furnishing for the church with walnut pews built by the Dennison Car Shops. The pews have reversible backs, designed after ones in passenger cars. The church was dedicated in April 1871 and listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 2009.