Remarkable Ohio

Results for: united-mine-workers-of-america
12246 Sherman Church Road
Bolivar

, OH

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, England lost the American Revolution and ceded to its former colonies land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. By this time, pioneer settlers had reached the eastern bank of the Ohio River, but the Ohio Country, located west and north of the river, was still considered Indian Territory. The Indian tribes desperately defended their hold on this land. On August 20, 1794, United States forces led by Major General Anthony Wayne defeated an Indian alliance at the Battle of Fallen Timbers fought near modern-day Toledo. One year later, on August 3, 1795, the largest assemblage of northwestern Indian representatives at a peace settlement signed the Treaty of Greene Ville, which effectively ceded all land south of the Greene Ville Treaty line to the Americans. The Fort Laurens site was a reference point in the Treaty line. The Ohio Country was then rapidly settled, and in 1808, Tuscarawas County was organized.

215 W. Main Street
Van Wert

, OH

When local banker and businessman John Sanford Brumback left a large bequest to Van Wert County for the purpose of establishing a countywide library in 1897, such institutions did not yet exist, and Ohio had no legal provision for a tax-supported county library system. In response, the Ohio Legislature passed an enabling law in April 1898, marking the beginning of the county library system in the United States. Designed by Toledo architect David L. Stine and built of Bedford limestone in an eclectic Romanesque style, the Brumback Library was dedicated in 1901. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it continues to serve as a center of knowledge for all of Van Wert County.

46 Madison Street
Tiffin

, OH

When St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated on January 6, 1884, an ornate brass chandelier presented by the Edison Electric Light Company provided illumination for the ceremony. Wired for electric lighting before its completion, St. Paul’s was one of the first churches in the nation lighted by Edison lamps. The Tiffin Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the first central electric power station in Ohio and the tenth in the United States, was built in Tiffin in late 1883. With a 100 horsepower boiler, a 120 horsepower engine, and two dynamos, it supplied direct current sufficient to light 1,000 lamps. It stood two blocks north of this site. The original brass “electrolier” still hangs in the sanctuary inside.

SE of intersection of Paige Street & N Lynn Street
Bryan

, OH

In 1966 the New York Central Railroad Company (A.E. Perlman, President) proposed a test of existing rail passenger equipment to determine the feasibility of operating high-speed passenger service between cities up to 300 miles apart. The site chosen for the test was near Bryan, Ohio on the longest multiple track straight railroad line in the world. This sixty-seven mile straight trackage from Toledo, Ohio to Butler, Indiana was originally constructed by the Northern Indiana Railroad Company of Ohio incorporated March 3, 1851. On July 23, 1966 the New York Central Technical Research Department ran their Budd RDC-3 passenger car number M-497 fully instrumented for stress analysis, and propelled by two roof-mounted jet aircraft engines. The speed of 183.85 miles per hour was attained, the highest recorded on a railroad in North America at that time and to this day.

300 N. Front Street
Ripley

, OH

Ripley was incorporated as the village of Staunton in 1812. Its name was changed in 1816 to honor General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, a hero of the War of 1812. In the years before railroads, Ripley was a principal Ohio River shipping center. Also important were its extensive boat-building, tobacco, pork, and timber industries. Ripley too was the home of saw and planing mills, iron foundries, and a piano factory. Such varied commerce enabled Ripley to remain vibrant throughout the nineteenth century. Although noted as a port, Ripley is best remembered as an abolitionist stronghold. Many of its citizens, including Rev. John Rankin and John P. Parker, served as conductors on the famed “Underground Railroad.” The notoriety of Ripley’s anti-slavery network perhaps eclipsed that of nearby Cincinnati, earning the town a reputation as the “Black Hole of Abolitionism.” (Continued on side two)

Intersection of Niagra and Lawrence Road
Port Clinton

, OH

In an effort to improve the marksmanship of Ohio soldiers, Adjutant General Ammon B. Critchfield established Camp Perry, an Ohio National Guard Military Training site on the shore of Lake Erie in 1906. Camp Perry was named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who defeated British forces in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. This particular location was ideal for shooting ranges because varying-length ranges were able to share a common firing line, and shooting practice could take place on all ranges, without the added risk of stray bullets. (continued on other side)

100 S. Main St.
Marysville

, OH

Robert Sprague Beightler was born in 1892 in Marysville. A graduate of Marysville High School, he began his career as a soldier in 1911, when he enlisted as a private in Marysville’s guard unit, Company E, Fourth Ohio Infantry Regiment. He served in Mexico from 1916-1917, World War I from 1917-1919, and World War II from 1940-1945. From his stint with the Ohio Infantry, he rose in rank to command the famous 37th Ohio National Guard Buckeye Division as Major General during WWII. Beightler was one of the most successful National Guard Generals and the only National Guard General to lead his troops through both training and combat in WWII. He was with his troops through 700 days of fighting in the South Pacific Theater. Fighting occurred on Bougainville Island and in the islands of New Georgia and the Philippines. (Continued on other side)

Behind the Cridersville Fire Department, 100 E. Main Street
Cridersville

, OH

The Village of Cridersville was founded in 1856. With the discovery of oil in 1885 the village prospered and grew quickly. Its business district developed along Main Street in the first block east of the railroad. The Town Pond Reservoir was constructed here in the 1890s to provide water in the event of fire. At 3:00 p.m. on May 2, 1918, a rubbish fire was started across the street from this pond and blew out of control. The fire ignited a nearby barn, and, with the aid of strong winds, soon carried to the business district on East Main Street. Wood frame construction and wooden shingles allowed the fire to spread rapidly. Within an hour both sides of Main Street were ablaze and the village had but a single hand pumper to fight the fire. (continued on other side)