6-72 Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike / Woodville “The Lime Center of the World”

6-72 Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike 00

The first road to traverse Sandusky County through the Black Swamp was little more than a muddy path connecting Lower Sandusky (Fremont( and Perrysburg with Woodville. The arduous task of clearing the 120-foot-wide road through the swampy forest was completed within four years. By 1842, the work of stoning the road and draining adjacent lands […]

5-72 Bishop John Seybert / Circuit Riders

5-72 Bishop John Seybert 00

Born in Pennsylvania in 1791, Bishop John Seybert came to Ohio in 1822 and preached throughout the mid-west. Seybert served the faith for forty years as an itinerant preacher, a presiding elder, and the first bishop of the Evangelical Association, one of the original denominations that is now part of the United Methodist Church. As […]

3-72 McPherson Cemetery

3-72 McPherson Cemetery 00

Named for Major General James B. McPherson, buried here July 29, 1864. Here also are graves of George Burton Meek, U.S.N., first American serviceman killed in the War with Spain; Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Charles H. McCleary, Civil War, and Rodger W. Young, World War II; Emma Anderson, mother of author Sherwood Anderson.

2-72 Sandusky County Fairgrounds

2-72 Sandusky County Fairgrounds 00

Here Bradstreet’s British expedition camped in 1764. Also farthest point west reached by colonial forces under command of Col. Israel Putnam. These grounds purchased in 1870 by the Sandusky County Agricultural Society.

1-72 Fort Stephenson / Fort Stephenson

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War of 1812. Victoriously defended by Major George Croghan. Battle of Fort Stephenson. August 2, 1813. Built on this spot 1812-1813 and named for Col. Mills Stephenson, one of its builders.

17-71 Joseph Carter Corbin / Joseph Carter Corbin

17-71 Joseph Carter Corbin 02

Joseph Carter Corbin’s work in the Reconstruction-era south after the Civil War created many educational opportunities for African Americans. Corbin (1833-1911) was a professor, administrator, journalist, linguist, and musician. Born in Chillicothe, Ohio to free African American parents, he earned his bachelor’s degree and two masters’ degrees from Ohio University, in 1853, 1856, and 1889, […]

14-71 Concord Presbyterian Church

14-71 Concord Presbyterian Church 02

The Concord Presbyterian Church congregation organized in 1805. The Concord Church was an integral part of the antislavery movement and was a station on the Underground Railroad. Reverend James H. Dickey, the congregation’s second pastor, was known to be “an avowed anti-slavery man” and an “active Ohio abolitionist.” The Anderson and Galbraith families, who were […]

5-71 The Chillicothe Gazette

5-71 The Chillicothe Gazette 03

The oldest commercial enterprise in Ohio, the Chillicothe Gazette began publication on April 25, 1800, as Freeman’s Journal and Chillicothe Advertiser. That October it became the Scioto Gazette, and Chillicothe has had a Gazette ever since. It is the oldest newspaper in continuous operation west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the second oldest in the […]

3-71 Site of Ohio’s First Statehouse

3-71 Site of Ohios First Statehouse 00

Ross County’s first courthouse was Ohio’s first statehouse. The courthouse was erected on the Public Square in 1801. Thomas Worthington, one of the building’s superintendents, laid out the foundation. Chillicothe was the last capital of the Northwest Territory, and the final session of the territorial legislature met in the courthouse in 1801. Ohio’s first constitution […]

2-71 Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio

2-71 Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio 01

On this site, on January 4-7, 1808, the six Masonic lodges then existent in the state met and formed the Grand Lodge of Ohio. General Rufus Putnam of Marietta was elected the first Grand Master. Because of advanced age and failing health, he declined the honor and Governor Samuel Huntington was named in his stead.