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Colonel William Crawford, a lifelong friend of George Washington, was born in Virginia in 1722. He was married twice, first to Ann Stewart and later to Hannah Vance. In 1755, he served with Colonel Edward Braddock in the French and Indian war. In 1767, he moved to “Stewart’s Crossing,” Pennsylvania, near the Youghiogheny River. During the Revolutionary War he raised a company of men, commanded the 5th and 7th Regiments, fought in battles in Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, and built forts along the western frontier. In 1782, he led the Sandusky Campaign into the Ohio country and was subsequently captured by Delaware Indians after the battle of “Battle Island.” On June 11, 1782, he was tortured and killed near the Tymochtee Creek near this marker. A monument dedicated to his memory is located about a quarter mile north of here. Counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania are named for Colonel Crawford.
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Resting here among other pioneers are: Obed Denham, native of Plainfield, New Jersey, donor of this plot, founder of Bethel in 1798, and pioneer abolitionist; Thomas Morris, antislavery leader, veteran state legislator, U.S. senator 1833-1839, and Liberty Party vice presidential nominee 1844; Reader Wright Clarke, U.S. representative from the Clermont District 1865-1869, and U.S. Treasury second auditor 1869-1870; “The Unknown Hunter”; befriended by Obed Denham and the first person buried in this hallowed ground.
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Coaches, Conestoga wagons, herds of livestock, pioneers on horseback, peddlers, soldiers, beggers–these and many others have crossed this bridge on the National Road since 1830. Escaping slaves sought shelter beneath it. Like many others on the road, the bridge was built with well-cut stone and good mortar in the shape of an “S” because it was easier to erect than one thrown straight across an oblique stream.
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Organized August 23, 1822. Twinsburg pioneers, many from Killingworth, Connecticut, worshiped in various locations for 31 years until this church was built in 1848. Its design is attributed to master builder Simeon Porter. The spire is an 1857 replacement. The edifice is notable for being a Classic Revival translation of the standard meeting house of the preceding Federal period.
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The Bunker Hill House, previously the Bunker Hill Tavern, was built in stages between 1834 and 1862. The building is one of Ohio’s best representations of Federal-Greek Revival style “pike town” architecture. This architectural style is closely associated with pre-Civil War horse-powered turnpike transportation and lodging. The building was a way station for pioneers heading west and for drovers driving their animals to Cincinnati stockyards. It was also a stagecoach stop on Eastern Stage Coach Company’s Cincinnati Omnibus Line that operated daily between Cincinnati and Richmond, Indiana. Tavern operations ceased in 1858 due to decreased turnpike travel resulting from the newly completed railroad through nearby Camden. In 1862, a general store was established to supply the growing population in the area. The store closed in the early 1900s with the advent of the automobile, which made travel to larger, more distant stores viable. The Bunker Hill House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. (continued on other side)
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Daniel E. Weltzien, pilot and hometown son, dreamed of a flying community – one where every family would have a plane in their garage for work or play. In June 1965, the Williams Farm on Acme Hill became a runway with taxiways to every home. Young men and women came for flying lessons, and now traverse the world in space, the military, and commercially. Surviving fire, tornadoes, an earthquake, Ohio winters, and severe crosswinds, students still come here to take their first flight and become pilots. In Ohio, birthplace of aviation pioneers, this is “SKYPARK” THE FLYING COMMUNITY, a first in Ohio because a man dared to dream.
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The completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal on July 4, 1843 brought many new settlers into this region. The Wabash and Erie Canal connected with the Miami and Erie Canal at Junction. Antwerp, ideally located on the Maumee River, was seen as a perfect place in which to establish a town. That same year surveyors W. Wilshire Riley and Samuel Rice platted what would become Antwerp. Naming rights belonged to Riley and storeowner Horatio N. Curtis, who wanting a name not duplicated anywhere else in the country, named it after Antwerp, Belgium. Early pioneers subdued the massive forests that once formed the “Black Swamp” and built a thriving city. Antwerp was incorporated in 1863. (continued on other side)
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On this site the Ohio & Erie Canal flowed south and down-level under the Market Street Bridge. Nearby Pawpaw Creek and the canal culturally divided the Swiss settlers to the west in Basil and the Virginia pioneers to the east in New Market (Baltimore by 1833). In March 1825, the “Twin Cities” were “dedicated” one day apart and energized a feud that often erupted at the bridge where “the boys of one village entered the other at their peril and where the worst of the intervillage fights were held.” The rivalry stretched well into the twentieth century and was arguably terminated with an uneasy consolidation of the two towns in 1947.