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The history of Belpre and the Ohio River are inextricably linked. Settlers from New England, including farmers and Revolutionary War veterans, arrived via flatboats at “Belle-Prairie” (beautiful prairie) in 1789. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery paid a visit in keelboats in 1803 as they began their epic journey to the Pacific. Belpre’s farmers raised fruits, vegetables, and grain. Packet boats carried flour, livestock, vinegar, and passengers down river, some all the way to New Orleans and thence throughout the world. (Continued on other side)
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Lorain’s shipbuilding industry began when Augustus Jones and William Murdock began constructing wooden sailing vessels on the west side near the mouth of the Black River. The sloop General Huntington was the first boat launched from Lorain in 1819. In 1897, the shipbuilding industry moved to the east side of the river with the establishment of the Lorain yard of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, the precursor of the American Shipbuilding Company. In 1898, they were the largest dry dock on the Great Lakes. On April 13, 1898, the first steel ship, the Superior City, was launched. At the time, it was the largest vessel on fresh water. During the early years well-known passenger ships, railroad car ferries, tankers, self-unloaders, tugs, and barges were built here.
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From its founding in 1865, Dennison was a railroad town and became the second largest rail center for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rail presence was so strong that the industry dictated social and economic development throughout the community. For example, the Railway Chapel, the historic name for the First Presbyterian Church of Dennison was built because W.W. Card, Pennsylvania Railroad Superintendent, saw a spiritual need in the community. As the first church built in Dennison, Card contacted the Presbytery of Steubenville to start the church, arranged for donation of land, provided for financing from railway officials, and arranged for labor and material from the railroad. Railroad workers constructed the furnishing for the church with walnut pews built by the Dennison Car Shops. The pews have reversible backs, designed after ones in passenger cars. The church was dedicated in April 1871 and listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 2009.
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The schooner Idaho was built in Milan during prosperous times, which started with the opening of the Milan Canal in 1839. The canal connected the village with Lake Erie by way of the Huron River and facilitated the development of the area’s shipbuilding industry and port, as Milan became one of the busiest grain ports during the 1840s. Completed at the A. J. Mowry shipyard in 1863, the Idaho sailed the Great Lakes until the economic panic of 1873. The Idaho was headed to the Milan dry dock for repair, but due to depressed economic conditions, the crew abandoned her here at the lower lock of the Milan Canal. Eventually, only “bones”, or iron pins, from the Idaho’s hull could be seen protruding through the mud of the abandoned lock. The last remnants of the schooner have since disappeared from the lock and now reside in Milan museums and in personal collections.
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Aluminum pioneer Charles Martin Hall was born in 1863 in Thompson, Ohio (Geauga County), and moved with his family to Oberlin in 1873. Hall graduated from Oberlin College in 1885, studying chemistry under Professor Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926). Jewett, who lived in this house from 1884 to 1923, encouraged Hall’s interest in chemistry and aluminum, then a semi-precious metal. Hall discovered an electrochemical reduction process for producing metallic aluminum from aluminum oxide dissolved in molten cryolite in his woodshed laboratory at his family’s home at 64 East College Street on February 23, 1886. This process, the culmination of research with Jewett, became the basis for the aluminum industry in America. In 1888 Hall co-founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). Upon his death in 1914, Hall left one-third of his estate to Oberlin College.
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In 1884, the first natural gas well was successfully drilled in Findlay, and when The Great Karg Well, then the largest in the world, was drilled in 1886, the boom was on. Many industries, especially glass, were attracted to Findlay, lured by free or cheap gas for fuel. They included eight window, two bottle, two chimney lamp, one light bulb, one novelty, and five tableware glass factories. Famed manufacturing pioneer and inventor Mike Owens (later associated with Owens Illinois) managed the Richardson Glass Works, located at this site in 1891-1892. Tableware glass companies included Bellaire Goblet (1888-1892), Columbia Glass (1886-1892), Dalzell, Gilmore & Leighton (1888-1901), Findlay Flint Glass (1889-1991), and Model Flint Glass (1888-1893). Tableware companies employed women as decorators and packers. Hundreds of skilled glassworkers came from the eastern states of America, as well as Europe, especially Belgium, France, and Germany. Bottle glassworkers were among the first workers to unionize and to use collective bargaining.
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The Johnson Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1902 by brothers James B., J. Will, Isaac T., and Charles F. Johnson, all of Quaker heritage. The company manufactured tin and galvanized iron ware for railroad lines across the United States. The initial product was the No. 1 long-spouted locomotive oiler with the patented dripless spout. That was quickly followed by other types of oil cans, signaling equipment, engine buckets, tallow pots, torches, track inspection devices, tin cups, and caboose and cabin car lamps, all carrying the Diamond J trademark. The makers created the patterns and everything was cut, riveted, and soldered by hand. As production expanded, the original frame building at 605 Miami Street was replaced by a brick structure in 1910, the southernmost part of the present building. (continued on other side)
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There are 48 known members of the Postle family buried in the cemetery. Their stories are interwoven with the history of Prairie Township, Franklin County, and Ohio. In 1810, Shadrach and Anna Stacia Postle were among the first settlers of Prairie Township. Their son Job was a veteran of the War of 1812 and later owned the Checker Inn, a popular stopping place on the National Road. In the 1860s, Smith Postle and his son, William Sylvester Postle, were some of the first manufacturers of clay drainage tile in Ohio. Their products improved drainage in farm fields and fostered the growth of the tile industry in the state. Gabriel Postle was the first Postle buried in the cemetery in 1829. Twelve graves are of children under the age of six, which testifies to the hardships endured by the area’s early residents. Other graves include those of John Whitehurst, a freed slave who lived with the family of the Job Postle and John Tracy, a veteran of the Civil War. In 1870, Nancy Postle was the last person buried in the cemetery.
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