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1-33 Hog-Creek Marsh
Comprising 8,000 acres of Brookston-Crosby soils, the marsh is named for Hog Creek which drains it. Once a shallow lake, cranberries, wild flags and grasses flourished here. Reclamation (1868) cost $13.00 per acre. Dredging was done by steam scow; lateral ditches were hand dug by spade. The original grade of 1/3″ in 100′ proved ineffective […]
23-32 William Ellsworth Hoy (1862-1961)
William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy was born in Houcktown on May 23, 1862. Although spinal meningitis as a toddler left him deaf and mute, Hoy became one of the great 19th century professional baseball players. He played centerfield for such teams as the Chicago White Stockings, Louisville Colonels, and Cincinnati Reds. In his 1888 Washington Senators […]
22-32 Mason Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church
In spite of small numbers and being welcomed by the mostly white congregation of First Methodist Episcopal Church, African Americans in Findlay in the 1880s wanted to express their faith in ways that best reflected their freedoms and traditions. By the mid-1880s, the congregation was meeting in members’ homes and the Odd Fellows Hall, but […]
21-32 The Glass Industry of Findlay
In 1884, the first natural gas well was successfully drilled in Findlay, and when The Great Karg Well, then the largest in the world, was drilled in 1886, the boom was on. Many industries, especially glass, were attracted to Findlay, lured by free or cheap gas for fuel. They included eight window, two bottle, two […]
20-32 The Underground Railroad of Hancock County
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 prompted an expansion of the “Underground Railroad,” and as the state spanning the shortest distance between the Ohio River and Canada, Ohio saw heavy traffic in escaping slaves in the decades before the Civil War. Hancock County was home to many sympathetic residents who defied fugitive slave laws to […]
19-32 Indian Green / McKinnis-Litzenberg Farmstead
This area of western Hancock County is a part of the Maumee River Watershed known as “Indian Green.” Wyandot Indians chose this area for hunting and ceremonial grounds along the Blanchard River in the 1700s because it was next to the river, yet high enough to avoid frequent flooding. One-half mile east of this location […]
18-32 Rawson and the Railroads / The Rawson Heritage
The original town plat of Rawson was filed on February 3, 1855, consisting of fifty-five lots in sections 13 and 14 of Union Township, Hancock County on the Frederick Keller and George J. Kelly farms. Several residential and business structures were built in anticipation of completion of a railroad rumored to pass from Fremont through […]
17-32 19th Century Freight Depot / Railroads of Hancock County
The freight depot east of this marker stands on the western terminus of Hancock County’s first rail link to the outside world. In 1849 the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Company opened a branch line from Findlay to its main line at Carey. A freight warehouse was built here ca. 1848 and passenger station […]
16-32 Old Mill Stream Fairgrounds / Oesterlen Well Site
The Hancock County Agricultural Society was organized on March 26, 1938. The Society soon purchased an 80 acre farm once owned by Tell Taylor, composer of the song “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” and held its first fair on this site October 13-15, 1938. The county fair has been held here every year since […]
15-32 Riverside Park / Old Mill Stream
One of the earliest and largest amusement parks in Northwest Ohio dedicated in 1906 on site of old waterworks. Trains brought visitors from as far away as Cleveland. 1907: Dance Pavilion and 2,000 seat auditorium built. 1908: Bathing beach made in old reservoir. 1925: Green Mill Dance Hall built on side near dam. Big name […]