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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 […]
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 […]