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This building was a center of community life from the time of its construction in 1886 to the late 1930s. Once common, such combinations of governmental offices and commercial and entertainment space are today rare. The second floor opera house retains many original features, including stage backdrops, dressing rooms, and seats. Vaudeville, theater companies, and entertainment of all kinds were hosted here and many performers signed the backstage walls: Buffalo Bill dated his signature October 28, 1888. Along with village offices, first floor tenants have included the Vermillion Township Trustees, the Eddie Stover Hat Shop, and the F.L. Smith Watch Repair and Jewelry Store. Hayesville’s citizens approved the hall’s construction on April 18, 1884 by a vote of 100 to 13. Contractor Samuel Craig completed the building two years later at a cost of $4,852.20. Located on the Lincoln Highway, this building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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Born in Hicksville in 1862, Daeida H.W. Beveridge co-developed and named, in 1887, the Los Angeles, California, suburb of Hollywood, since the early 1900s a world center of the film and television industry. With first husband H.H. Wilcox, she led development efforts there, and was instrumental in establishing much of the civic infrastructure, including the city hall, library, police station, primary school, city park, and much of the commercial district. Remarried to the son of a California governor after Wilcox’s death, she continued to promote Hollywood until her death in 1914.
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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)
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African-American history began in Piqua with the settlement of Arthur Davis in 1818 and expanded with the settlement of the freed Randolph slaves of Virginia in 1846. African-American religious heritage in Piqua began with the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853 and the Second Baptist Church (Park Avenue) in 1857. Segregated education started in 1854 at the Cyrene Church and ended in 1885 at the Boone Street School. Several Piqua African-American men circumvented Ohio’s early ban against Civil War military service by joining the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments. Following the Civil War an African-American Co-operative Trade Association established Piqua’s first African-American retail store. Continued on/from other side)
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Colonel John J. Voll from Goshen, Ohio, was the highest scoring ace of the 15th U.S. Army Air Force in the Mediterranean theater of World War II. As a Captain flying a P-51 Mustang fighter plane, he was credited with twenty-one aerial victories. His superior skill in one particular battle enabled him to maneuver three enemy aircraft into crashes without firing a shot. On a separate mission, while flying solo, Captain Voll had four confirmed kills, two probables, and damaged two additional enemy planes. (continued on other side)
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Located 100 yards southeast of this marker is the boyhood home of Major General Charles Griffin. Born in 1825, he graduated from West Point in 1847 and rose to prominence during the Civil War. Griffin fought in most of the major engagements of the war’s eastern theater, including the first battle of Bull Run, the Seven Days battles, and the Wilderness campaign. While under his command, units from the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac blocked the Confederate retreat at Appomattox, compelling surrender. In recognition of Griffin’s service, General U.S. Grant designated him a “Surrender Commissioner” in charge of the capitulation of the rebel army. During Reconstruction, Griffin became the military governor of Texas and Louisiana, and was a vigorous advocate of the civil rights of newly freed slaves. He died during a yellow fever epidemic in Galveston, Texas in 1867.
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The Warner Brothers – Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack – were members of a Jewish immigrant family from Poland that settled in Youngstown in the mid-1890s. The brothers attended local schools and worked in their father’s shoe repair shop and meat market before entering the motion picture business. They purchased a projector and opened the first of several theaters in the Mahoning Valley in 1905. The brothers left Youngstown for New York and Hollywood as their company developed into an industry leader. Warner Brothers Pictures, founded in 1923, released Don Juan in 1926, the first “talking picture” using Vitaphone technology. On May 14, 1931, the family gathered in Youngstown to dedicate a luxurious new Warner Theater to the people of the city where it all started, and to memorialize Sam, who died in 1927.
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Stars of the silent screen, Lillian and Dorothy Gish enjoyed long and distinguished careers both in film and on stage. They began their careers as child actresses, performing in touring theater companies. Although Lillian was born in Springfield, Ohio, and Dorothy in Dayton, the Gish sisters considered Massillon their home, often staying here with relatives between plays and films. In 1912, Lillian and Dorothy went to New York and made their first film, An Unseen Enemy, with famed director D.W. Griffith.
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