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Colonel William Crawford, a lifelong friend of George Washington, was born in Virginia in 1722. He was married twice, first to Ann Stewart and later to Hannah Vance. In 1755, he served with Colonel Edward Braddock in the French and Indian war. In 1767, he moved to “Stewart’s Crossing,” Pennsylvania, near the Youghiogheny River. During the Revolutionary War he raised a company of men, commanded the 5th and 7th Regiments, fought in battles in Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, and built forts along the western frontier. In 1782, he led the Sandusky Campaign into the Ohio country and was subsequently captured by Delaware Indians after the battle of “Battle Island.” On June 11, 1782, he was tortured and killed near the Tymochtee Creek near this marker. A monument dedicated to his memory is located about a quarter mile north of here. Counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania are named for Colonel Crawford.
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The Smith Tannery is the oldest original structure remaining in Greenfield. Built in 1821 by Revolutionary War veteran William Smith and his son Samuel, the tannery became a noted station on the fabled “Underground Railroad.” The structure, which also served as the family residence, was the birthplace of Dr. Samuel M. Smith, Surgeon General of Ohio during the Civil War, and Dr. William R. Smith, who personally notified Abraham Lincoln of his nomination to the presidency in 1864. The Smiths were active members of the Abolition Society of Paint Valley, which was established in 1833 in Greenfield and reorganized in 1836 as the Greenfield Anti-Slavery Society. In 1844, the Society assisted the efforts of Frederick Douglass, one of the nation’s leading abolitionists. The Society provided an important junction on the Underground Railroad, assisting many fugitive slaves to gain freedom, including, it is said, Eliza Jane Harris of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame. The Smith Tannery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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With a population of 475 residents, the Beallsville community gained the unfortunate distinction of having suffered the highest known per-capita casualty rate during the Vietnam War. Six Beallsville men, all under the age of 21, were killed in action in Vietnam between 1966 and 1971, a profound tragedy for this close-knit community. In 1969 Beallsville citizens worked with congressional representatives to prevent further loss of life, to no avail. Five other Monroe County men lost their lives in the conflict as well, magnifying the loss for one of Ohio’s least-populated counties. (continued on other side)
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The lodge was organized in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1776, by Connecticut soldiers in the Continental Army. It met when and where it could during the Revolutionary War. By tradition, the lodge’s name and seal were suggested by Benjamin Franklin and the seal was engraved by Paul Revere. Many of the lodge members settled in the Marietta area following the war. On June 28, 1790, the lodge was reorganized in Campus Martius under its original warrant held by Past Master Capt. Jonathan Heart, commandant of Fort Harmer.
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War of 1812. Victoriously defended by Major George Croghan. Battle of Fort Stephenson. August 2, 1813. Built on this spot 1812-1813 and named for Col. Mills Stephenson, one of its builders.
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The West Salem City Hall reflects a late-1800s municipal trend to house many civic functions under one roof. The fire station, jail, and council chambers occupied the ground level, while the second floor hosted a public auditorium, or “opera house.” Designed by native son William K. Shilling, later an internationally prominent architect, the Romanesque-style building was completed in 1899 at a cost of $9,077 and soon became the center of civic life in West Salem. Band concerts, vaudeville shows, town meetings, and graduation ceremonies were conducted in the opera house during its heyday before World War II. During the Cold War it was designated as a Civil Defense emergency field hospital. It remains a focal point of the West Salem community.
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Its location and the tides of war established Gallipolis, then a town of some 3,000, as a point of strategic military importance to the Union upon the outbreak of the conflict in 1861. It was destined during the next four years to play a role without counterpart in Ohio. Here through this troop concentration area passed thousands of soldiers to the great campaigns. Here the traditional peacetime activity of the town, long a depot of supplies for the Kanawha Valley, was turned to military purposes for maintaining armies in the field. Here riverside warehouses held vast military stores to be transported by steamboat. Here newly-mustered troops set up Camp Carrington in a wheat field on the upper side of town. Here the women of Gallipolis helped minister to thousands of wounded and sick in an army hospital
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Seven-year-old Jonathan Alder was captured by a Native American war party in Virginia in 1782 and taken to a Mingo village north of the Mad River in Ohio where he was adopted by an Indian family. He remained with the Indians until after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ended the Indian Wars in the Ohio Country. As white settlers entered the region, Alder frequently served as an interpreter. In 1805, he journeyed to Virginia and was reunited with his original family. He returned to Ohio with his new wife, Mary Blont, and built a cabin on Big Darby Creek. His cabin is now at the Madison County Historical Society Museum in London. Alder is buried in Foster Chapel Cemetery.
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