, OH
This bridge, spanning Brush Creek in Brush Creek Township, Scioto County, was erected in 1874 by the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, Ohio. Robert W. Smith was granted patents for timber trusses in 1867 and 1869, and the design for this bridge is a Smith patented truss. The supplemental arches were added in 1896. Original length of 200 feet had been shortened to its present 171 feet. This plaque has been erected to give due honor to these early timber covered bridge builders and to the men of the community who so ably assisted them. [This side of the marker contains a bridge illustration in the upper left corner]
, OH
Construction began in 1825 on the 20-mile segment of the Miami Canal from two miles north of Middletown to the head of Mill Creek. Canal boats were operating from Hartwell’s Basin near Cincinnati to Middletown by Nov. 28, 1827. This early link in what became the Miami and Erie Canal joining in 1845 Toledo and Cincinnati by water was restored in 1971 by the Butler County Park district.
, OH
In 1742, a tribe of Kickapoo requested permission from Montreal’s Governor to move to a Mascoutin village on both sides of the river here. French “Coureurs de Bois” traders named the wide floodplain “La Prairie des Mascoutins” (The Meadow of the Mascoutin). In 1764, Captain Thomas Morris explored this newly acquired British territory, and met the prophetic dreamer Chief Katapelleecy here. General Anthony Wayne’s troops victoriously returned from The Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and burned “Prairie de Masque.” The Treaty of Detroit in 1807 created a hunting reservation to the east, allowing settlers to acquire the surrounding lands. Ethnic tensions climaxed in 1812, when an American Captain Logan was mortally wounded near here. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused the remaining tribes to move west.
, OH
Near this site scout Peter Navarre built in 1807 a log cabin close by an Ottawa Indian Village of 60 whitewashed cabins. Here he maintained friendly relations between white settlers and Chief Autokee. The 1833 Treaty of Maumee gave 320 acres of this region to the Indians who later sold the isle for $1,000. Presque Isle is now at the heart of Port of Toledo activity.
, OH
Begun in 1833, the Miami Extension Canal linked the Miami Canal in Dayton to the Wabash & Erie Canal at Junction. Engineering difficulties, epidemics, and the Panic of 1837 delayed completion of the Extension until June 1845, when the packet boat Banner first navigated the almost 250 miles distance from Cincinnati to Toledo in three days. New Bremen was the northern terminus for a period while work continued northward on the Extension. Designated the Miami & Erie Canal in 1849, it served as the primary avenue of commerce and military transport, and as a “post road” before the railroad era. The Miami & Erie remained in use until 1913, long after the canal era had passed. Along the course of the canal, New Bremen was the approximate midway point between Cincinnati and Toledo.
, OH
In 1910, the Ohio Electric Railway Company opened this terminal, formerly the Interurban Building, which served interurban passengers until 1937. Along with offices, it contained space for express and baggage handling, ticket windows, a newsstand, a lunch counter, and waiting rooms. Three tracks were laid at the rear of the building. At its peak, Ohio Electric radiated from Lima to Springfield, Toledo (via Ottawa), Defiance, and Fort Wayne. Its competitor, The Western Ohio Railway (“Lima Route”) connected Dayton and Toledo (via Findlay). The interurban network in and around Lima led to the creation of suburbs, linked industrial and residential areas, and promoted the creation of amusement parks and small lake resorts. With decreased passenger traffic due in part to personal automobiles and the Great Depression, the interurban and street railway era in Lima ended in 1939, 52 years after it had begun as Ohio’s first successful electric streetcar system.
, OH
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined the boundary of the northern and southern tier of states to be carved out of the Northwest Territory, as a line drawn east from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan until it intersects Lake Erie. Controversy over the exact location of that line led to the 1834-1837 boundary dispute between the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory. Passions ran high as everyone on both sides of the boundary knew that a great port city (Toledo) would emerge in the disputed territory. President Andrew Jackson settled the dispute in 1836 when he signed an act that recognized the current border between Ohio and Michigan, giving Michigan 9,000 square miles of Upper Peninsula land and awarding the disputed strip of approximately 470 square miles to Ohio. Michigan then joined the nation as a state the following year.
, OH
This area, known as Calmoutier, was an early French Catholic farming community founded in 1832 by Claude Druhot, who came from Calmoutier, Hte-Saône, France. Its first native, the four-month-old Claude Joseph Druhot, was baptized on 9 June 1833 by Fr. John Henni, who resided at St. John’s in Canton (and in 1854 became Milwaukee’s first bishop). In 1836 Fr. John Alleman, O.P., established St. Genevieve’s Mission (when it began to keep its own records) on land donated by the Pierson and Roussel families. The log chapel that was built (the first of four churches here) predated any Catholic church building in Cleveland, Akron, and Toledo.