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As he traveled the National Road on August 20, 1835, the last diary entry by Christopher C. Baldwin, librarian for the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, was, “Start by stage on the Cumberland Road for Zanesville.” Baldwin never reached Zanesville or his ultimate destination, which was to investigate prehistoric mounds in southern Ohio on behalf of the Antiquarian Society. On that day, near this site, he was killed in what is considered to be the first traffic fatality recorded in Ohio. While passing a drove of hogs on the road, the horses pulling the stage became unmanageable and when the driver tried to check their speed on a decline, the stage turned over. Baldwin was riding with the driver and was killed when the stage rolled over on him. Due to the lateness of the season and the distance from his home, his remains were interred in Norwich.
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Central State University originated on March 19, 1887, when the Ohio General Assembly passed an act establishing a Combined Normal and Industrial (CN&I) Department at Wilberforce University. Through various transitional changes, it emerged as an independent, state university. In 1941, the General Assembly expanded the CN&I, which offered two-year courses, into the College of Education and Industrial Arts, with four-year programs. In 1947, it separated from Wilberforce University. The history of Central State University tells the history of higher education and advancement for African Americans in Ohio. It is within the walls of these structures, and others unfortunately demolished or destroyed by the 1974 tornado, that thousands of African Americans received valuable training for successful and rewarding careers. Thus, many of the contributions of African Americans to the promotion and betterment of education, medicine, law, social justice, technology, and the arts in Ohio have their roots here on the campus of Central State University.
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Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, the lone religious property within the Mt. Vernon Downtown Historic District, served what became only the second African American congregation in the city. The cornerstone for 13 South Mulberry Street was laid October 17, 1915, and a dedication service was celebrated in March 1916. Mt. Calvary grew out of the Black Baptist traditions brought by Southern refugees during the Great Migration. Although dwindling membership and resources closed the building, it provided Mt. Vernon’s African American community with a vital space of worship, communion, mutual assistance, asylum, social support, and community celebration for almost a century.
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The United Society of Believers (or “Shakers,” as they are commonly known) established White Water, the last of four Ohio Shaker villages, in 1824. White Water flourished throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At its peak during the 1850s, 150 Believers living in three semi-autonomous Shaker “families” farmed 1,300 acres of land in Crosby and adjacent Morgan townships. The Shakers were among the most successful religious societies in the United States. Belief in the equality of men and women, separation of the sexes, celibacy, communal ownership of property, and a distinctive style of worship — characterized by rhythmic movements and shaking — helped define the Shaker lifestyle. (Continued on other side)
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The A.H. Heisey & Co. produced high quality, hand-wrought glass in Newark, Ohio beginning in 1896. Glass originally produced by pressing was intended to simulate cut glass making elegant glass affordable to more families. Heisey was an innovator in production methods. He introduced colors and different patterns of glass to meet the social habits of the era. Highly skilled craftsmen produced, cut, and etched glass in many styles. The plant closed in 1957 because of Heisey’s refusal to produce an inferior machine-made product. The beauty and superior quality of this glass makes it a highly collectable item. The Heisey Collectors of America, founded in 1971, opened The National Heisey Glass Museum in 1974. The Museum stands as a historical reminder and an educational resource to the heritage of the A.H. Heisey & Co.
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Near this location on May 15, 1823, the first murder trial in Geauga County concluded with the public execution of Benjamin Wright, Jr. On February 1, 1823, Wright stabbed Zophar Warner over a financial dispute, wounding him mortally. The following month, a jury found Wright guilty of murder and ordered that “he be hung by the neck until he be dead.” At the time, executions in Ohio were carried out locally and public hangings were seen by some as social events. The “hanging bee” drew more than 4,000 people, some of whom traveled from upwards of 50 miles to witness the spectacle. One witness wrote, “I felt that he deserved to be hung…but it was an awful site I hope to never the like see again.” Wright’s body was taken to nearby LeRoy for burial and the gallows was dismantled.
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Lorain County Community College opened its Abbe Road facilities on October 3, 1966, making it the first community college in Ohio with a permanent campus. At the time, three buildings had been completed on the 250-acre site-Engineering Technologies, Physical Science, and Mechanical Services. By the end of the Fall 1966 semester, three more buildings opened-College Center, Business, and Physical Education. Lorain County Community College has become a cornerstone of the community, contributing to the educational and social and cultural enrichment of all Lorain County residents.
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One of America’s most inventive twentieth century writers, Kenneth Patchen was born in Niles and graduated Warren G. Harding High School in 1929. He first published his poetry while studying at an experimental college at the University of Wisconsin in 1929. A pacifist deeply concerned with the human condition in mid-twentieth century America, Patchen blended linguistic and visual elements to create avant-garde works that defied literary conventions of the period, presaging both the “beat” and “concrete” movements of the 1950s. The Journal of Albion Moonlight (1941) and Hallelujah Anyway: Picture Poems (1966) are among the best known of his more than forty works of poetry, prose, and drama.
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