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On April 1, 1818, six families from the Cilcennin area of Mid-Wales sailed from Aberaeron, Wales to Baltimore. The group of 36 people was led by John Jones Tirbach. From Baltimore they traveled to Pittsburgh and then by flatboats down the Ohio River toward their destination-Paddy’s Run in Butler County in the southwest corner of Ohio. They stopped in Gallipolis for provisions where their boats were cut loose by either travel-weary women or citizens of Gallipolis who wanted them to stay. The men found work on the Gallipolis to Chillicothe road that was under construction. The terrain reminded them of Mid-Wales, so they purchased land near Centerville and remained. These Welsh prospered and wrote home to Wales with news of their success, prompting others to come. (continued on other side)
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Lake Erie commerce has played a central role in the development of Huron. Important among Huron’s maritime industries were shipbuilding and commercial fishing. The city’s shipbuilding industry dates to the first decades of the nineteenth century. Shipyards were located on the Huron River’s west bank, slightly north of this marker, and also upstream at Fries Landing. Among the vessels built at Huron were the Great Western, constructed in 1838 and the first lake ship to have above-deck cabins, and the Golden Age, which, at 286 feet, was the largest craft on the Great Lakes when built in 1886. Huron shipbuilding declined as the nineteenth century drew to a close. Commercial fishing emerged thereafter, serving as Huron’s economic cornerstone for over fifty years. Huron’s fishing enterprises included the Huron, Kishman, Scott, and Zimmerman fish companies. By 1950, however, polluted lake waters ravished the once-lucrative industry. Although shipbuilding and commercial fishing are no longer a part of Huron’s daily life, they each had a profound effect upon the community’s growth for nearly two centuries.
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The City of Amherst was founded in 1811. Beginning in 1847, Amherst developed and prospered around the sandstone industry and its associated quarries. This sandstone proved to be an important economic blessing to our early settlers and is the foundation of Amherst’s existence. Amherst sandstone shows lines of stratification or bedding when exposed in sections. Its natural beauty is enhanced by a virtual spectrum of rich and unique colors including deep reds, browns, yellows, and shades of gray. Amherst sandstone is well known for its quality, durability, and rich texture and has been utilized across our nation and throughout the world. Amherst is literally and figuratively built upon a rock, which extends deep in the earth.
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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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Major buildings dating from 1832 to 1898 surround the village green, the geographic center of Gustavus Township. Built in 1832 on the northwest quadrant, the George Hezlep House features Federal-Greek Revival architecture and has a closet reputedly used on the Underground Railroad. Built in 1840, the Farmers’ Exchange Store was originally a double entrance Greek Revival structure. The Storekeeper’s House, also a Greek Revival structure, was built next to the exchange store in 1840. South of this house is the Fraternal Hall, built in 1870. There were once four churches in Gustavus including the Methodist Church, built in 1856 with a temple front and a belfry, and the Congregational Church, built east of the center in 1854. The eclectic Town Hall was built in 1890 and fronts the southeast quadrant. The Gustavus Centralized School, reported as the first centralized school in the United States, was built in 1898 and was replaced by the current building in 1928.
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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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Officially opening on August 4, 1840, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal followed the route of present railroad tracks through Munroe Falls approximately one thousand feet south of this marker. This 82-mile long "feeder canal" connected the Beaver Valley canal system at New Castle, Pennsylvania with the Ohio and Erie Canal in Akron, thereby linking Pittsburgh with Cleveland and the western Great Lakes. Many communities along the canal’s path became linked to national and world commerce through their establishment as canal ports. New England investor Edmund Munroe purchased property and water rights along the canal’s proposed route, and in 1837 established the Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company. The village of Munroe Falls grew around the manufacturing company site and was incorporated on October 26, 1838. When this section of the canal closed in 1869, the waterway through Munroe Falls was filled and railroad tracks were laid over its path. A portion of the canal bed is still visible east of State Route 91.
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Meadowbrook Park began as a Tiffin, Fostoria & Eastern Electric Railway plan to draw weekend riders. Laura Stephenson Sneath, wife of a major company stakeholder, led the park development. Originally north of Wolf Creek, Meadowbrook included a baseball diamond and a 1902 dance pavilion. In 1923, William Richards purchased the buildings and leased the land from Henry Matthews of Matthews Boat Company. The pavilion was destroyed by fire under suspicious circumstances on October 12, 1925, but no one was charged. James Garfield Haugh, president of the Gem Manufacturing Company, purchased the land in 1925. (Continued on other side)
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