Archives: Markers

33-29 Gowdy Associate Reformed Cemetery

Gowdy Cemetery was sold by James Gowdy to the Associate Reformed Church in 1820 for 50 cents. After Xenia’s Woodland Cemetery was chartered in 1845, Gowdy fell into disuse. Its last burial was James Gowdy in 1853. Gowdy Associate Reformed Cemetery is the resting place for many prominent citizens that brought mercantile and economic growth […]

12-25 (revised) Ovid Wellford Smith (9 November 1844-28 January 1868) / Medal of Honor Recipients At Green Lawn

Ovid Wellford Smith, aged 16, enlisted in the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry as James Smith. He volunteered for the 1862 “Andrews’ Raid” mission to destroy Confederate supply lines. Enroute Smith became ill and was detained near Huntsville, Alabama, prior to the April 12 capture of “The General” locomotive at Big Shanty, Georgia. He escaped and […]

22-7 King Solomon White (1868-1955) / “Sol” White In His Own Words

King Solomon “Sol” White was born in Bellaire on June 12, 1868. A Baseball legend, he was an all-around player, manager, and organizer in the Pre-Negro Leagues (1887-1912) and the Negro Leagues (1920-1926). White first played with integrated baseball clubs the Bellaire Globes (1884-1886) and Wheeling Green Stockings (1887). After 1887-1888 color barriers were imposed […]

37-47 Wilson Bruce Evans House

The Wilson Bruce Evans House, 33 East Vine Street, is a rare example of a residence built and occupied by an African American abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative. Free-born in North Carolina, Wilson Bruce Evans (1824-1898) moved to Oberlin in 1854. A skilled cabinetmaker, he opened a carpentry shop with his brother, Henry (1817-1886). Together […]

4-28 (B) Bainbridge Center Historic District

Bainbridge Center Historic District. Founded in 1817, Bainbridge Township was named for Commodore William Bainbridge, commander of the USS Constitution during the War of 1812. The unincorporated hamlet of Bainbridge Center is both the geographic and historic center of Bainbridge Township. The town hall, churches, stores, shops, a school, and post office were established in […]

30-25 (B) Ohio-Erie Canal and Locks / The Columbus Feeder Canal

The Ohio-Erie Canal was built between 1825 and 1832 and extended 308 miles from Lake Erie at Cleveland to the Ohio River at Portsmouth. The greatest engineering achievement in Ohio up to that time, the canal gave the state’s farmers and merchants much greater access to goods and markets and was instrumental in the young […]

7-75 Saint Remy Catholic Church / The Village of Russia

In 1839, Bishop John Baptist Purcell recruited European priests to minister to his Ohio flock. Father Louis Navarron, a young French missionary, was appointed to the French Catholic population of Darke and Shelby Counties in the area now marked by the villages of Russia, Versailles, and Frenchtown. St. Valbert, a centrally-located log church, was dedicated […]

31-45 The George & Agnes Curry Farm / The Curry Farm Historic District

George Curry (1819-1885) was one of seven children born to a tenant sheepherder in the Cheviot Hills of Scotland. He immigrated to Ohio during the 1840s and married Scottish immigrant Agnes Milligan (1830-1893) in 1855. The couple moved to Licking County in 1865, and purchased 160-acres of farmland in 1873 to establish a sheep farm. […]

102-31 Sara Mayrant Walker Fossett (1826-1906) / Peter Farley Fossett (1815-1901)

Sarah Mayrant Walker was born enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, and sent to New Orleans as a young girl to study under a French hair specialist in the art of hair and scalp treatment, and goods manufacturing. Brought to Cincinnati around 1840, she used her networks to build a hair salon empire that catered to […]

1-30 (A) Wreck of the Shenandoah

“Wind increasing in volume. Get no chance to . . . ”  These were the last words from the doomed Navy airship Shenandoah, caught in a violent storm and crashing 7 miles southwest of this spot near Ava at dawn, September 3, 1925. Fourteen of its crew were killed. While souvenir hunters stripped the wreckage, […]