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This hamlet, located one mile southwest from here, was never platted, but was named after William Woods, president of the three-story brick Woodsdale paper mill constructed in 1867. Flanking the mill were the company office and store and several workers’ houses. Previous to this, the area flourished from the presence of two grist mills on the Great Miami River and from the Miami & Erie Canal. Additional enterprises such as a stone quarry, ice cutting company, and grain elevator operated here during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Woodsdale was also known for the Woodsdale Island Amusement Park and the LC&D Railroad depot. The park, established on an island between the Miami & Erie Canal and the Great Miami River in 1891, was the site of picnics, political rallies, a large dance hall, and amusement rides–including a beautiful swan boat. The great flood of 1913 completely destroyed the park.
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Built in 1822, this native limestone structure was the home of Benajah Wolcott, first keeper of the Marblehead Lighthouse (originally called the Sandusky Bay Light), and his second wife, Rachel Miller Wolcott. Benajah maintained the lighthouse from 1822 until his death ten years later. After Benajah’s passing the U.S. Government appointed Rachel as the keeper, making her the first female lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes. The building is the oldest known residence still standing in Ottawa County and is a fine example of a “hall-and-parlor house,” an early American home design.
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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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This is Marion County’s fourth courthouse and the second at this site. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1884. Costing $115, 00, it was completed in 1885 by contractors Leffler and Bland. In 1973 the courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1975 the interior was remodeled at a cost of over $900,000.
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The Shannon Stock Company, also known as Shannon’s Famous Players, was a traveling theatre company based in Wapakoneta from 1913 until the Great Depression. Founded by Harry Shannon, the group included his wife Adelaide, their children, Harry Jr. and Hazel, and a company of twenty people or more. The Company performed in theatres in southern states during the winter and in a tent in Ohio, Indiana, and other Midwest states during the summer. When not performing, the Shannons prepared for the next tour while at home here in Wapakoneta. [continued on other side]
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This site, at the head of the Great Rapids of the Maumee, has been a major river crossing for centuries. The village was platted in 1833 as Gilead but was overshadowed by rival Providence during the canal era. In 1868 the name Grand Rapids was adopted, and the town prospered with the arrival of the railroad in 1877. Fires ravished the village in the late 1890s and spring floods have remained a threat. Restoration of the Victorian architecture began in 1975 and has helped revitalize this village along the historic Maumee.
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In the mid-1700s, France found its influence waning among midwestern tribes as it contested for Native American trade and military alliances with Great Britain. Shortly after Miami chief Memeskia (also known as Old Britain or La Demoiselle) moved his village to Pickawillany, British traders were given permission to establish a small post in the village, which was deep in the territory claimed by France. When French demands to evacuate the post failed, Charles Langlade led a party of 250 Ottawa and Ojibwe warriors and French Canadians in a surprise attack on the Miami village on June 21, 1752. The trading post was destroyed, British traders were taken to Detroit as prisoners, and Memeskia was executed. Pickawillany was completely abandoned soon after. As a prelude to the French and Indian War, the Battle of Pickawillany fueled land claim and trading right conflicts between France and Britain.
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On this site, the evening of December 29, 1866, a group of men gathered in the First Baptist Church for a prayer meeting which resulted in the founding of the Painesville Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Two years later the YMCA outgrew its headquarters at the Baptist Church and moved to upstairs rooms at 71 Main Street. In 1905 it purchased the former Steele mansion on Painesville’s Park Place and relocated once again. The Painesville YMCA and the county YMCA merged in 1922 to become the Lake County YMCA, the second oldest YMCA in continuous existence in Ohio.
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