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Myron T. Herrick, Governor of Ohio from 1904 to 1906, was born in Huntington Township in 1854 and lived here until age 12. A respected Cleveland attorney and businessman, Herrick was a friend and confidant to Senator Mark Hanna and Presidents McKinley, Taft, and Harding. His public service career culminated in two appointments as ambassador to France, from 1912 through the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and again from 1921 until his death in 1929. Enormously popular with the French people, Herrick escorted Charles Lindbergh in Paris after his historic 1927 transatlantic flight.
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The Exaltation/Elevation of the Holy Cross Church served both Byzantine Greek and Russian Orthodox Catholic congregations from 1915 to 1967. As Slovak migrants found work in the Cambridge coal fields of Guernsey and Noble Counties, they dreamed of a place to worship surrounded by the religious rites and iconography of their homeland. On January 26, 1914, Daniel Varhola, John Fetkovich, John Demko, Stephen Varhola, and Mike Zeleznik (trustees of the “Greek Catholic Church, which is united forever with the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church”) purchased land on a hill overlooking Belle Valley. The two-sided cornerstone, inscribed in Russian and Slovak, was blessed November 15, 1915. For over 50 years, the church anchored the Eastern European immigrants living in Belle Valley to the ethnic identity and traditions of their homeland. (Continued on other side)
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The Dayton and Michigan Railroad provided the single most important impetus to the growth and development of Wapakoneta. Although Wapakoneta had been platted in 1833, at the time of incorporation (1848), “the town was still without any material improvement worth the name of enterprise, save in the erection of residences and opening of small retail stores and shops.” On March 15, 1854, in its first ordinance, the village council of Wapakoneta voted unanimously to grant a right-of-way to the Dayton and Michigan Railroad Company to construct a railroad line through the community. The financial backers of the railroad ran short of funds during construction, and planned to end the line at Sidney, but local leaders raised $70,000 to ensure its extension. (Continued on other side)
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On this site on May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth, a former slave, gave her world famous “And Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, recalling the hardships she had endured. Active in both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements, she electrified an audience of women and men who had come to the Universalist Stone Church for a two-day women’s rights convention.
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Lancaster’s native son, Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, was a four-star military genius. He played a major role in the Union victory during the Civil War as a brilliant commander and grand strategist who revolutionized war by incorporating psychological and economic warfare into his military tactics, culminating with the famous “March to the Sea” through Georgia. In retrospect, he declared “War is Hell.” Honoring an allegiance to the United States Constitution, he fought to preserve the Union. His self-written epitaph was “Faithful and Honorable.”
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Born in Lancaster, Fairfield County, John Sherman moved to Mansfield to practice law and was elected to Congress in 1854 as one of the first Republicans. In 1861, Sherman was elected to the U.S. Senate. An authority on finance, Sherman was instrumental in shaping federal financial policy in the years following the Civil War, and President Rutherford Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1877. During the “Greenback” debate, he re-implemented the gold standard, stabilizing the currency during an inflationary period. Sherman returned to the Senate in 1881 and served until early 1897 when President McKinley appointed him Secretary of State; in declining health, he resigned in 1898. He died in Washington, D.C. and is interred in the Mansfield Cemetery.
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A progressive farmer, physician, and legislator, Norton S. Townshend lived in Avon from 1830 until his death. His introduction of field drainage tile significantly increased the productivity of Avon farmland. A well-educated country doctor, he served this district as a U.S. congressman (1851-1853) and later as an Ohio state senator. As a legislator Townshend, a member of the antislavery “Free Soil” Party, espoused civil rights for women and free blacks. Later he was instrumental in the founding of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College in Columbus, serving on the first board and as its first professor of agriculture. In 1878, this land-grant college became Ohio State University, where Townshend Hall stands in honor of his founding role. He is interred in Avon’s mound cemetery.
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This Little Red Schoolhouse served children from Berea, Brookpark, and Middleburg township. The first mayor and council of Middleburgh Heights were elected here. During its colorful history, the schoolhouse has been a City Hall where town meetings were held, a speak-easy, a railroad way station, and a private residence.
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