10-87 North Baltimore / Community Firsts

10-87 North Baltimore 00

Located in southern Wood County, the village of New Baltimore was founded in 1860, with the first plat of twenty-nine acres recorded by B.L. Peters in 1873. Official incorporation occurred February 7, 1876, with the name being changed to North Baltimore in 1880. The town flourished owing to the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio […]

9-87 First Presbyterian Church

9-87 First Presbyterian Church 00

On this site in 1848, the Presbyterians and Methodists entered into a situation unique to Gilean, as Grand Rapids was then known, by jointly constructing a frame church for worship. James Purdy, grantor, sold the lot for five dollars for religious purposes thereby authorizing either denomination to sell to the other. Proceeds were to be […]

8-87 Dominick Labino

8-87 Dominick Labino 00

This site is dedicated to Dominick Labino, 1910-1987, glass scientist, engineer, artist, and inventor. Credited with 57 patents, Mr. Labino invented pure silica fiber which was used in insulating tiles covering the space shuttle Columbia and the Apollo, Mercury, and Gemini spacecraft. As a glass artist, Labino was co-founder of the studio glass movement in […]

7-87 Army Lodge No. 24 Free and Accepted Masons

7-87 Army Lodge No 24 Free and Accepted Masons 00

Settlers and soldiers moving west brought with them familiar institutions such as the Masonic Lodge. Here at Camp Meigs, military officers were authorized by Ohio Militia Captain Henry Brush, Ohio Masonic Grand Master, to establish the first lodge in Northwest Ohio on September 13, 1813. Colonel William Anderson was Master, Lt. Col. William McMillan, Senior […]

6-87 Grand Rapids 1833-1983

6-87 Grand Rapids 1833-1983 00

This site, at the head of the Great Rapids of the Maumee, has been a major river crossing for centuries. The village was platted in 1833 as Gilead but was overshadowed by rival Providence during the canal era. In 1868 the name Grand Rapids was adopted, and the town prospered with the arrival of the […]

5-87 The Howard Cemetery

5-87 The Howard Cemetery 00

Thomas Howard, aged 66, a Revolutionary War veteran, arrived at the head of the great rapids of the Maumee from New York State in 1822. Three cabins were erected for his family and the families of his two sons Edward and Robert. The first death in this settlement was Thomas Howard in 1825; and this […]

4-87 Providence Historic District

4-87 Providence Historic District 00

The town of Providence was born, thrived and died with the Miami & Erie Canal. It was platted in 1835 by French trader Peter Manor, swept by fire in 1846, ravaged by cholera in 1854, and finally unincorporated in 1928. Today, only the Irish builders’ St. Patrick’s Church (1845), the oldest in the Toledo Diocese; […]

3-87 Old Wood County Jail

3-87 Old Wood County Jail 00

Old Wood County Jail 1847-1870. Built in 1847, during the Presidency of Polk, when Perrysburg was the County Seat, and used as the Jail and Infirmary until 1870. Continued to serve as the Perrysburg Jail until 1899, sold by the town in 1918. Acquired and restored by Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Hoffmann in 1954. […]

2-87 First Seventh-Day Adventist Church

2-87 First Seventh-Day Adventist Church 00

Elder Oliver Mears organized on February 8, 1862 in a tent on this spot, then a walnut grove owned by William Lovett, the Lovett’s Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church, first of this denomination in Ohio. A Frame building erected in 1864 served the congregation until 1911 when it moved to its present location in Bowling Green.

1-87 In Memory of Lieutenant Wilson W. Brown / The Andrews Raiders

1-87 In Memory of Lieutenant Wilson W Brown 00

Medal of Honor winner, who is buried here. He joined the famous Andrews Raiders to wreck Confederate supply lines. The raiders captured a locomotive, “The General,” at Big Shanty, Georgia, on April 12, 1862. Brown served as the engineer and was captured after the “General” ran out of fuel. He escaped on October 16 and […]