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In 1835, Dr. William Awl of Columbus and Dr. Daniel Drake of Cincinnati presented recommendations to the Ohio General Assembly to establish a school for the blind. Legislation, signed by then governor of Ohio Duncan McArthur on April 3, 1837, provided funding to create the first state-supported residential school for the blind in the United States. The Institution for the Education of the Blind opened July 4, 1837, with five students. A year later, the first permanent structure, housing 60 students, was built on a nine-acre tract of land on the eastern edge of the city, and that was followed in 1874 with a larger facility near Fulton and Main streets. The school was honored and recognized in 1937 as being one of the finest schools for the blind in the country. In 1953, a new school for the blind was built at its present location at 5220 North High Street.
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Because three distinct survey methods were used to survey Plain Township lands and are still meaningful, the township can be thought of as a surveyor’s museum. The township came into existence by a 1796 act of Congress in which the federal government established a Military District of Ohio to satisfy the claims of Revolutionary War veterans. The act divided the district into townships five miles square divided into four quarter-sections containing 4,000 acres each. These boundaries were surveyed in 1797 after the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the subsequent Treaty of Greenville, which forced Indian removal. Because a veteran was entitled to 100 acres, the southeast quarter of the township was surveyed into 40 hundred-acre lots. From 1801 to 1805, veterans, their heirs, and assignees, none of whom settled permanently in the township, claimed 24 lots. Abijah Holbrook, a land speculator, acquired veterans’ warrants for the remaining sixteen. (continued on other side)
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A tavern and inn, for which Noble Landon (1783-1866) obtained a liquor license in 1835, formerly occupied the southeast corner of High and Main streets. In 1837 Landon and William Yantis laid out the town of New Albany in 50-by-100-foot lots, with Landon’s lots lying on the east side and Yantis’ on the west side of High Street. Landon was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, lived as a young man in St. Albans, Vermont, and migrated to Licking County, Ohio, in 1810. He was the first clerk and first Justice of the Peace in St. Albans Township and first postmaster in Johnstown and later in New Albany. In addition to contributions as a builder-developer, Landon gave to the village lore the story of a remarkable conversion. Long known as a heavy drinker, he suddenly ordered kegs of whiskey he owned to be carried into the street and broken. He then attended church regularly. (continued on other side)
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Johann Christian Heyl (1788-1877), the first German and first Lutheran to settle in Columbus, was one of the original 15 settlers of the city. A baker by trade, Heyl came to bake for the soldiers quartered in Franklinton during the War of 1812. He founded the city’s first Lutheran Church and helped financially underwrite the German Theological Seminary, which later became Capital University. An early civic leader, Heyl served on City Council for 14 years, was County Treasurer for 8 years, an associate judge in the Court of Common Pleas for 14 years, was appointed to the first public school board, and was the first Chief of the Fire Department. His Sunbury Road home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. (continued on other side)
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Self-educated golfer Jack Kidwell grew up in central Ohio. From 1937 until 1971, he owned and operated the Beacon Light Golf Course, where he started as a caddie. In 1943, he married Geraldine “Jerry” Kidwell, his wife of 57 years, and had four daughters, Sally, Shirley, Kathy, and Jody. Kidwell became a Class “A” golf course superintendent and earned life membership status as a Class “A”PGA professional. His peers selected Kidwell as president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1980. A member of the Ohio Turf Grass Association, he was honored as Man of the Year in 1982. His accomplishments gained him induction into the Southern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1997.
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A team of Battelle researchers played a major role in developing one of the 20th century’s most innovative and commercially successful ideas–xerography. In 1944, Battelle recognized the merits of a crude experiment in electrophotography demonstrated by an independent inventor. A licensing agreement with Haloid, later renamed Xerox, moved this basic technology to the marketplace in a fully automated office copier machine. Xerography forged a new way to manage information and improve global communication and, at the same time created a multi-billion dollar industry.
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This historic college opened in 1847 as Otterbein University of Ohio, named for Philip William Otterbein (1726-1813), a founder of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. The church later merged with the Evangelical Church to become the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and later with the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church. Otterbein was one of the first colleges in the United States to open its doors to persons of color and women without restrictions on what they could study. While Otterbein’s educational offerings have evolved over the years to meet society’s needs, the college has remained committed to the liberal arts as the foundation of all learning.
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Born on September 21, 1918, golf course architect Jack Kidwell attended Columbus Central High School where he became the Ohio School State Golf Champion in 1937. Kidwell was the owner and operator of Beacon Light Golf Course from 1937-1971. He was inducted into both the Southern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame and the Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1997. He was the founding father of Hurdzan/Fry Golf Course Design and the inspirational leader to this day. Kidwell was a true giant of the golf industry and has been named the person having the most influence on golf in the state of Ohio over the past 200 years. He was married to his wife Geraldine “Jerry” Kidwell for 57 years and they had four daughters, Sally, Shirley, Kathy, and Jody. Jack Kidwell died on April 29, 2001.
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