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First surveyed in 1849, Powhatan Point was laid out by Franklin Knox. The “point” is the confluence of Captina Creek and the Ohio River. The small but thriving river and farming community served York Township and the rich Captina Valley as a shipping center for its first 75 years. Given impetus by the construction of the Powhatan Enterprise Flouring Mill and Woolen Factory in 1850, local businesses shipped grain, fruit, lumber, cheese, whiskey, livestock, wool, and tobacco to northern and southern ports. There were three boat landings: Boger’s, Hornbrook’s and Dorsey’s, each equipped with an incline car track from the warehouses to the river’s edge. With the opening of North American Coal Corporation’s Powhatan No. 1 Mine in 1922, the village became a mining community that continued to rely on the river. A disastrous mine fire took the lives of 66 men on July 5, 1944.
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Organized in 1845, Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest congregation of African descent in Delaware, with Reverend Daniel Winslow serving as the first minister. In 1853 the cornerstone of the first church was laid, which was dedicated in 1855. Three former Pastors of Zion became Bishops in the AME Church–James A. Shorter, 1868; John Mifflin Brown, 1868; and Cornelius T. Shaffer, 1900. In 1876 the existing church was razed and carpenter, brick mason, and plaster church members built the present edifice. A fire destroyed the interior on December 19, 1983, and for two years the congregation met in the recreation building of the Londontown Apartments, undercroft of the William Street Methodist Church, and sanctuary of the Victory Seventh Day Adventist Church. On the first Sunday in October 1985, Presiding Elder Virgil Cummins, Pastor Rodney Thomas, and the congregation marched from the Adventist Church back into the restored sanctuary.
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On July 3, 1872, 16 men and a 9-year old boy descended the 170 foot shaft in the Atwater Coal Company Mine located in Atwater Township south of Route 224 and East of Route 225. The mine was situated on the property known as the S.G. Shaffer Farm. By mid-day, 7 miners survived the brutal fire in the mine. Richard Roberts, Robert Roberts, William Roberts, Thomas Maines, Joseph Otey, John Williams, John Howells, John Jones and 9-year old George Hufford gave their lives to the first Mining Disaster in Ohio and the 19th mining disaster in the United States since 1839 with more than 5 fatalities. In 1873, Ohio was the second State to pass a law for the safety of Miners.
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Settlers from Connecticut were the first to come to Canfield Township in the late 1700s, and they were followed by a second wave of immigrants, Swiss-German pioneers who began arriving from Berks and Leigh counties in Pennsylvania in 1804. In 1810, these “Pennsylvania Dutch” established The Zion Lutheran and Reformed Church and built a log church and cemetery on this site. The church was destroyed by fire in 1845 and a new church served the congregation well until it too was destroyed by fire in 1894. The cemetery, known as The Old Dutch and German Burying Ground, German Cemetery, and Lynn Cemetery and now Old North Cemetery, is all that remains. Among the dozens of old stone markers, some in German, are markers for veterans of the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, and other wars.
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Toledo High School opened in 1854 on the site of the city’s first log schoolhouse. After an 1895 fire, it was rebuilt and named Central High School. The facility closed in 1914 with the opening of Scott and Waite high schools. It reopened as Woodward Technical School and later became Vocational High. The building was razed in 1938 for construction of the Toledo Public Library.
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St. Joseph Catholic Church has been located here since the parish’s formation in 1845. Tiffin was established by Josiah Hedges in 1822, and shortly after, many German Catholic families began to settle in the area. They formed part of St. Mary’s parish until 1845, when they obtained permission from Bishop John Purcell of the Diocese of Cincinnati to organize as the separate congregation of St. Joseph. In May 1845, parishioners bought two acres of land at the conjunction of Melmore and South Washington Streets. Within the month, they laid the cornerstone for a 40-foot by 66-foot brick church that would be completed by August of that year. As the congregation grew, Rev. Joseph Bihn, pastor from 1856 to 1873, saw the need for a new church. (Continued on other side)
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The Hotel Ashtabula was built in 1920 during an economic boom that lasted most of that decade. Architecturally, it represents a combination of Second Renaissance Revival and Georgian Revival styles. The H.L. Stevens and Company of Chicago and New York designed and built the hotel and others like it in Cleveland, Dayton, and Warren, Ohio and throughout the Midwest. The building included a ball room accommodating 300, a dining room that could seat 125, and club meeting and social rooms. A prominent structure of this downtown street, the Hotel Ashtabula was a hub for social activity. (Continued other side)
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On March 2, 1942, four months after the U.S. entered WWII, farmers living between Marion-Williamsport and Marseilles-Galion Roads and between State Route 98 and the Norfolk & Western Railroad were notified to vacate their farms by the first of May. This displaced approximately 126 farm families from over 12,600 acres so that a munitions factory could be built. The site included the administration area, cafeteria, fire and police stations, and a hospital, in addition to the widely dispersed powder houses and the production lines. Manufacturing began in the fall of 1942. The plant’s operators included U.S. Rubber, Atlas Powder, the Permanente Metals Division of the Kaiser Corporation, Kilgore Manufacturing, and Ferro Enamel, who made bombs until August 14, 1945 — VJ Day. (Continued other side)
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