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8-29 Old Wilberforce University Campus at Tawana Springs
In the early 1800s, William and Eleanor Kendall owned this land, known for its natural springs, beauty, and farmland. In 1850, Elias Drake, lawyer and former speaker in the Ohio General Assembly, purchased the property and named it Tawana or Xenia Springs. He developed a health resort hotel surrounded by summer cottages, all of which […]
7-29 Clifton Gorge – A Feature of Ohio’s Glacial Past
Clifton Gorge is a classic example of a canyon cut into dolomite and shale bedrock that dates to the Silurian Period 400 million years ago. Created by meltwater released from the retreating continental glacier some 15,000 years ago, the cool, moist gorge has maintained a diversity of native plants, such as the red baneberry bush, […]
6-29 Moncure Daniel Conway / The Conway Colony
Moncure Daniel Conway was born on March 17, 1832 in Stafford County, Virginia, the son of Walker Peyton and Margaret Daniel Conway. His father was a wealthy slaveholder and prominent state legislator and county court justice official while his mother, who opposed slavery, introduced her son to abolitionism. Conway graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania […]
5-29 Historical Clifton
This historic village was a hub for early Ohio industry and travel. The natural geography of the area provided ideal conditions for the establishment of a variety of mills. Col. Robert Patterson, an ancestor of the founder of National Cash Register in Dayton, John Patterson, chose Clifton for the site of a woolen mill, which […]
4-29 McDonald Stone Quarry
In 1849, each state in the Union was invited to furnish a block of native stone for the construction of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Geologists selected stone from this quarry, then owned by Wilford McDonald, as typical of the best quality in Ohio. The dimensions of the limestone block used in the Washington […]
3-29 Birthplace of Tecumseh
The great Native American Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was born on the bank of a large spring at this site in 1768, at the very instant that a great meteor seared across the skies. The birth occurred while his parents, Shawnee war chief, Pucksinwah, and his wife, Methotasa, were en route from their village of Kispoko […]
2-29 Union Meeting House Organized in 1807 / Union Seminary Organized in 1809
On this site in 1809, pious Christians from Virginia and North Carolina erected a Methodist Church, the first in Greene County. The church was officially organized on May 23, 1807 as the Bonner Society. Frederick Bonner, Sr. and the illustrious Rev. John Sale were the principal organizers. This Methodist Church, one of the oldest in […]
1-29 Historic Little Miami River
In 1779 John Bowman’s forces followed the east bank to Glady Run, then north to the Indian village of Old Chillicothe. In 1780 and 1782 militia commanded by George Rogers Clark, and guided by Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, crossed the river and camped two miles north of Caesar’s Creek, then marched on the villages […]
1-28 Chardon Business District
Chardon was designated the county seat of Geauga County in 1808. On July 25, 1868, the entire village business district (now Main Street) was destroyed by fire, including forty businesses, offices, meeting halls, and the 1824 courthouse. Citizens immediately rallied and formed the Chardon Building Company. In August 1868 they contracted with Herrick and Simmons […]
18-28 Hanging Rock
Near this location on May 15, 1823, the first murder trial in Geauga County concluded with the public execution of Benjamin Wright, Jr. On February 1, 1823, Wright stabbed Zophar Warner over a financial dispute, wounding him mortally. The following month, a jury found Wright guilty of murder and ordered that “he be hung by […]