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The intersection of Turney and Granger Roads, called German Corners in the 1800s, later became known as South Newburgh Centre. At its earliest Turney Road was known as State Road and then Fisher Road. Finally, it was named for Joseph Turney, area resident and two-term treasurer of the state of Ohio. Granger Road was named after John Albert Granger, a major pioneer landowner in the area and the third son of Gideon Granger, an original investor in the Connecticut Land Company and U. S. Postmaster General under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Located here are St. John Lutheran Church, school and cemetery, established by German settlers that settled this farm community. Nearby is the Garfield Heights Historical Society Museum in a house built in 1890 for the German teachers.
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Southington native Newton Chalker built, furnished, and donated Chalker High School to his community in 1907. Chalker was born in 1842 in Southington Township and lived there until adulthood. He later built a prosperous law and real estate practice in Akron. Chalker’s dedication to improve educational opportunities in the township likely originated with his personal struggle to complete high school, which was repeatedly interrupted by financial concerns and family obligations. The Chalker High School building was designed in the Neo-Classical Revival architectural style which was favored for public buildings, churches and schools early in the twentieth century. The building exhibits Classical influences through the use of fluted columns that support a pedimented gable, resembling a Greek temple. Chalker High School and the Civil War Monument were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. (Continued on other side)
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In 1827, noted evangelist Walter Scott came to Canfield and visited with a number of area Baptist families living on Palmyra Road and in the vicinity of Dean Hill. A follower of Alexander Campbell, Scott delivered powerful sermons that persuaded some to establish a new church congregation in the Disciple faith. After meeting in congregation members’ homes, a framed meeting house was erected circa 1830 on land purchased from William and Orsemus Dean. This church stood across from William Dean’s brick residence. A burial ground was provided at the site with existing grave markers dating to 1837. Veterans from all the wars of this nation are buried here, including Benjamin Dean of the 105th Ohio Infantry Regiment who died from wounds suffered in the 1863 Battle of Murfreesboro in Tennessee. (continued on other side)
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First Church was built by the Oberlin Community in 1842-44 for the great evangelist Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). He was its pastor, headed Oberlin College’s Theology Department, and later became College president. In the mid-19th century this Congregational church had one of the largest congregations and auditoriums west of the Alleghenies. Eminent speakers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Twain, and Woodrow Wilson have addressed the community in its Meeting House. Antoinette Brown graduated from the College’s Ladies’ Department in 1847 and then completed three years of study under Finney in the all male Theology Department. She worshipped and led women’s prayer meetings at First Church. The College denied her the Theology certificate since women were not deemed suitable to be ordained. (continued on other side)
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Slifers Presbyterian Church is on land deeded to the local faith community by Philip and Elizabeth Slifer on December 2, 1816. Rev. Thomas Winters of the German Reformed Church and Rev. John C. Dill of the Evangelical Lutheran Church ministered to people of German descent who settled in the area. During the “cold plague” (a malaria-like malady) of 1819, they ministered to the sick and grieving, renewing the faith of many. The community pooled their limited resources and began building their first log church in 1819. It was completed in 1825 and expanded later that year as the congregations grew. They erected their first brick church in 1858 for a cost of $500. Pastors conducted services for both Lutheran and Reformed congregations in German.
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The inhumanity of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 motivated anti-slavery activists to operate a covert network, the “Underground Railroad,” which helped fugitive slaves escape captivity. From the early 1800s to the end of the Civil War, local activists assisted runaway slaves on their journeys north to freedom. Guides (“conductors”) used their homes, farms, and churches (“stations”) to hide and shelter runaway slaves (“cargo.”) If captured, fugitives were severely punished and re-enslaved; “conductors” faced large fines and imprisonment, and Free Persons of Color risked being sold into slavery. A route often-traveled was once a path used by migrating buffalo, which became an Indian trail called the Bullskin Trace. It ran north from the Ohio River to Lake Erie and later became U.S. Route 68.
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Public markets housing butchers, fish merchants, and produce vendors were once the primary source of perishable foods for residents of America’s cities. Cincinnati operated nine in 1859. Only Findlay Market, built here in 1852, survives. Cincinnati’s lost indoor markets include: Fifth Street Market: 1829 to 1870, Fifth between Vine and Walnut Wade Street Market: 1848 to 1898, corner of Wade and Bauer Avenue Canal Market: 1829 to 1864, Court between Vine and Walnut Court Street Market: 1864 to 1914, replaced Canal Market Jabez Elliott Flower Market: 1890 to 1950, Sixth between Elm and Plum Sixth Street Market: 1895 to 1960, Sixth between Plum and Western Row Pearl Street Market: 1901 to 1934, Market between Sycamore and Broadway
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Merion Village was named for the Nathaniel Merion family, who in 1809 settled what is now the South Side of Columbus on 1800 acres of the Refugee Lands. Entrepreneur William Merion operated “Merion’s Landing” in the 1830s to capitalize on the canal trade from the Columbus Feeder Canal. This area saw a large influx of German immigrants as the South Side industrialized in the mid-nineteenth century. Later, many Irish, Italian, and eastern European immigrants who worked in the local steel mills and foundries made their homes here.
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