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The 19th century saw a great migration of Quakers from the Carolinas and from eastern Ohio to southwestern Ohio. Attracted by rich soil and abundance of fresh water and springs, Quakers became the dominant religious group in the region. Clinton County was referred to as the “Quaker County of Ohio.” In August 1870, members of the Society of Friends purchased at an auction an unfinished building on 14 acres of land and founded Wilmington College, the first Quaker institution of higher learning established in Ohio. College Hall is the original structure and the first classes commenced in April 1871. Wilmington’s importance as a Quaker center grew with the founding of Wilmington College, which houses the Quaker Collection of historical, literary, and genealogical publications in the Watson Library.
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Harold Hart Crane was born at this site on July 21, 1899, to Grace Hart Crane and Clarence A. Crane, the inventor of Lifesaver Candies, and lived here until the age of three. “A born poet,” according to e.e. cummings, Crane dropped out of high school in 1916 and moved from Cleveland to New York City to focus on a literary career. Mainly self-educated, Crane drew his influence from the writings of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. His major work, The Bridge (1930), uses the Brooklyn Bridge as the perfect metaphor to celebrate contemporary urban life. Uniquely lyrical in structure and full of imagery, it is considered one of the three major poetic sequences of the first half of the twentieth century along with T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and William Carlos Williams’ Paterson. Crane died on April 26, 1932.
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The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) traces its origins to mid-18th-century England, where it served as a mutual benefit society for traveling workmen. Odd Fellowship moved to the United States in 1819; the first Ohio lodge was established in 1830, and the Canfield Lodge was instituted in 1850. The charter members of this lodge were E.J. Estep, John G. Kyle, James Powers, W. M. Prentice, and William W. Whittlesey. Many of the early members of this lodge were businessmen, lawyers, physicians, and tradesmen. Lodge 155 remains one of the oldest active lodges in northeastern Ohio. (continued on other side)
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General John Hunt Morgan of Kentucky led a force of Confederate calvarymen into Meigs County during a forty-six day raid north of the Ohio River. The advance forces burned Benjamin Knight’s carding mill and sawmill, the Shade River Bridge, and pillaged local businesses in Chester on July 18, 1863, while waiting for the rest of the column to catch up. This two-hour halt delayed General Morgan’s arrival at the ford at Buffington Island until after dark, allowing Union troops to arrive before he could make his escape. General Morgan surrendered eight days later near West Point in Columbiana County, the northernmost point ever reached by Confederate forces during the Civil War.
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Long known to the Indians for the mineral spring water, this land was purchased in 1819 by Samuel Knisley. After 1880 it was developed as a resort area by Dr. Jerome Bland, who also established a cattle and horse breeding farm. In 1930 the land became part of PICKWICK FARMS which in 1976 was the largest standardbred breeding farm in Ohio and known throughout the United States and Canada.
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Bridenbaugh District No. 3 School. One-room schools were commonly named for people who furnished land for the building. Michael Bridenbaugh (1820-1895), who settled in Riley Township in 1835, and wife Jemima (1834-1903) sold a half-acre of land to the Riley Township school board in 1873. The first school on the site was a wooden structure, built in 1878. It was replaced by a brick building in 1889. The school operated until 1927, after which the district was consolidated. Students attended classes in nearby Pandora. (Continued on the other side)
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William Bruce founded and platted the city of Eaton in 1806. Born in Virginia in 1762, Bruce relocated to Ohio in 1793. In 1806, he purchased nearly two thousand acres of land from the government for the founding of Eaton. Bruce, a Revolutionary War veteran, named the town for General William Eaton, a veteran of the Tripolitan War, a war fought between the United States and the Barbary States from 1800-1805. Some of Eaton’s principal streets also took their names from other Tripolitan War veterans, including Somers, Decatur, and Israel. Bruce established the first sawmill and gristmill in Eaton and often distributed corn meal to the needy and deserving. He also made liberal donations of land for the benefit of the town, and sold many lots inexpensively or on partial payment to induce settlers to locate in the town. William Bruce died in 1830 and is interred in the Mound Hill Cemetery in Eaton.
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A Shaker village called Watervliet, Ohio, was located here from 1806-1900. The Shakers, originally called the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, were followers of Mother Ann Lee who came from Manchester, England in 1774 and established the first Shaker community in Watervliet, New York. The tenets of the religion included communal living, celibacy, and public confession of sins. The frenzied dance movements, which were part of the worship of their sect, gave the members the name “Shakers.” Attracted by the great Kentucky revivals in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Eastern Shaker missionaries came west to find converts and establish communities. A discontented Presbyterian congregation in the Beaver Creek area called Beulah was the nucleus for the Watervliet Shaker community. (continued on other side)
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