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11-33 The Black and White Schoolhouse
Built in 1886 by direct descendants of slaves, the Black and White schoolhouse provided education for local youth until 1928. Denied admission to white schools in the area, local African-American families first built a log schoolhouse across the road in 1883 in which to educated their children. Three years later, this brick building was constructed. […]
10-33 Kenton Hardware Company
First organized as the Kenton Lock Manufacturing Company in 1890, the Kenton Hardware Company became one of the world’s largest cast iron toy factories. Under the management of L.S. Bixler, toy stoves, banks, fire company outfits, horse drawn vehicles, automobiles and cap pistols were produced. The immensely popular Gene Autry cap pistol was produced at […]
9-33 Wheeler Tavern
Wheeler Tavern was built by Portius Wheeler, an early pioneer of Hardin County, around 1835 near the Shawnee Ford of the Scioto River. According to local historians this was the first brick residence constructed in Hardin County. Tradition maintains that Wheeler Tavern was a station on the Underground Railroad, a network of contacts and places […]
8-33 Fort McArthur Cemetery
Approximately 1000 feet east of this marker lies the graves of sixteen American soldiers from Fort McArthur who gave their lives during the War of 1812. The fort, a one-half acre timber stockade containing huts, was built in the summer of 1812 to guard the Scioto River crossing of Gen. William Hull’s “Trace” to Detroit. […]
7-33 Scioto Marsh
The Scioto Marsh, the largest of three extensive marsh areas in western Hardin County, was formed in the low basins left by the last retreating glacier 10,000 years ago. It covered more than 16,000 acres and was thought to be a source of malaria by the early settlers. A drainage project was begun in 1859, […]
6-33 Devil’s Backbone
The knolls and ridges found in this vicinity were formed by deposits of gravel left by the retreating glacier which covered much of Ohio during the Pleistocene Era 10,000 years ago. Popularly known as “Devil’s Backbones,” these ridges can be several miles in length. As the glacier retreated it also left large round depressions in […]
5-33 Mad River Railroad
In 1832 a charter was granted by the state of Ohio for construction of a railroad between Sandusky City and Dayton. The right-of-way privileges included Hardin County. The first train, of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, arrived in Kenton from Sandusky on July 14, 1846. The railroad was completed to Dayton in 1851. […]
4-33 Old Sandusky Trail and Shawnee Ford
County Road 265 follows an old Indian trail which connected the Wyandot villages at Upper Sandusky with the Shawnee Mac-o-chee towns to the southwest. Many wigwams were pitched near this Scioto River ford during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Soldiers (during the War of 1812), settlers, and stagecoach passengers later followed this route.
3-33 Chief Roundhead’s Village
Upon this site, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, stood Chief Roundhead’s Wyandot Indian village. This flourishing agricultural community later gave way to white settlement and Hardin County’s first town was laid out here in 1832. Roundhead, or Stiahta, was celebrated for his capture of American General James Winchester during the War of […]
2-33 In memory of Jacob Parrott
Jacob Parrott who is buried here. Born July 17, 1843 in Fairfield County, Ohio. Died December 22, 1908. At 18 he enlisted in Company K, 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was the youngest member of the famous Andrews Raid. The raiders seized “The General” locomotive at Big Shanty, Georgia, April 12, 1862. Captured and […]