In the spring of 1865, the first spring after the end of the Civil War, three baseball clubs were founded in downtown Columbus. This local enthusiasm for the game reflected the national trend during the post-war era, when baseball, or "base ball" as it was called, was spreading rapidly throughout the United States. Baseball in Columbus begins with these earliest baseball pioneers and tells the story of the national pastime in the capital city right up to the present-day Columbus Clippers of the International League. Columbus first made the "big leagues" in 1883 with the Columbus Buckeyes of the American Association, and local fans have embraced the city's teams and players ever since. Several of baseball's greats once wore a Columbus uniform during their minor league careers, including Enos Slaughter, Joe Garagiola, Harvey Haddix, Willie Stargell, Derek Jeter, and Bernie Williams.
Brief History of Tremont, A
9781626197855
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For almost two centuries, the historic Tremont neighborhood has rested on a bluff overlooking Cleveland's industrial valley. The sleepy farming community was transformed in 1867, when Cleveland annexed it. Factories attracted thousands of emigrants from Europe, and industrialization gave rise to a class of wealthy businessmen. After the city prospered as a manufacturing center during World War II, deindustrialization and suburbanization fueled a huge population loss, and the neighborhood declined as highways cut through. The 1980s marked the beginning of the rebirth of the cultural treasure Tremont became. Author W. Dennis Keating chronicles the challenges and triumphs of this diverse and vibrant community.
Sheffield Village
9780738583334
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The Village of Sheffield was founded on the Lake Erie plain and a sandy ridge of glacial Lake Warren. Black River and French Creek course through rich farmlands, once home to Archaic and Woodland Indians. Originally surveyed as Township 7 of Range 17 in the Connecticut Western Reserve, hearty pioneers arrived here in 1815 from the Berkshire Mountains of New England, naming their settlement Sheffield after their Massachusetts town. In the mid-1800s, another wave of immigrants arrived from Bavaria, adding cultural richness to the community. In 1894, industrialist Tom Johnson constructed giant steel mills on the west side of the river, and Sheffield Village eventually broke away, choosing to retain its agrarian identity. Today Sheffield Village is in transition to a modern residential/commercial community but keeps much of its natural character by virtue of parklands along stream valleys. Fortunately, fine examples of homestead architecture have been preserved throughout the village.
Legends of the Hall
9780738561691
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Legends of the Hall: 1950s captures a period of time when playing professional football was for tough, honest men who played solely for the love of the game. The 1950s was an era of crew cuts and nicknames like Crazylegs, Hopalong, and Night Train. The decade began with Sammy Baugh throwing his last passes and ended with the death of Bert Bell. This era also produced some of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game. They were known as the glamour boys of the league--Otto Graham, Bob Waterfield, Bobby Layne, Y. A. Tittle, and Bart Starr, to name a few. The incomparable, individual brilliance and unique team chemistry that marked this era have transcended this specific time and place to make Legends of the Hall: 1950s an unforgettable part of the magic and myth of professional football.
Ohio Train Disasters
9781626192584
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In nearly a century of heavy rail travel in Ohio, a dozen train accidents stand out as the most horrific. In the bitter cold, just after Christmas 1876, eleven cars plunged seventy-five feet into the frigid water below. The stoves burst into flames, burning to death all who were not killed by the fall. Fires cut short the lives of forty-three people in the head-on Doodlebug collision in Cuyahoga Falls in 1940 and eleven people in a train wreck near Dresden in 1912. Author Jane Ann Turzillo unearths these red-hot stories of ill-fated passengers, heroic trainmen and the wrecking crews who faced death and destruction on Ohio's rails.
Cincinnati's Great Disasters
9780738551258
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Cincinnati's Great Disasters explores catastrophes from 1905 to 1937, featuring floods, tornadoes, fires, explosions, winter storms, and crashes. Although tragic, disasters became popular postcard subjects in the early 1900s, with many of these photograph postcards being taken by professional photographers. The postcards documenting the 1907 and 1913 floods make up the bulk of this book, as these disasters dramatically affected Cincinnatians' lives and led to innovative flood prevention planning and health initiatives. Flooding ultimately determined where businesses and residences were located in the city and was a driving force behind urban renewal of the riverfront.
Murder & Mayhem on Ohio's Rails
9781626192607
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Ride Ohio's rails with some of the bravest trainmen and most vicious killers and robbers to ever roll down the tracks.
The West may have had Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, but Ohio had its own brand of train robbers. Discover how Alvin Karpis knocked off an Erie Railroad train and escaped with $34,000. Learn about the first peacetime train holdup that took place in North Bend when thieves derailed the Kate Jackson, robbed its passengers and blew the Adam's Express safe. Make no mistake--railroading was a dangerous job in bygone days.
Waterville
9781467125642
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Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the end of the War of 1812, the Maumee Valley became open to settlement. John Pray arrived in 1817, built a dam to run a mill, and the site became known as Pray's Falls. By 1831, Pray had platted the first 50 lots and called it Waterville. Others were attracted to the area, and the trading post inn that Pray had constructed in 1828 was greatly enlarged in 1837. The Columbian House became an important stop on the stagecoach run between Fort Wayne and Detroit and the social center of the village. In 1843, when the Miami and Erie Canal opened through Waterville, there was an economic boom. The business center of town moved from Main Street (River Road) to Third Street, and the town was incorporated in 1882.
Hardin County
9780738582511
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Hardin County, carved from the northern portion of Logan County, is nestled in the quiet, agricultural region of northwest Ohio. The county has featured several nationally known manufacturers, including Champion Iron Company, Imperial Cup, Kenton Hardware Company, International Car, Scioto Signs, Dickleman Manufacturing, and McCurdy Manufacturing. Kenton hosted Harry Blackstone and the first International Brotherhood of Magicians conference, Presidents James Garfield and William McKinley, as well as Gene Autry. From the Scioto Marsh, once the "Onion Capital of the World," to the Wilson Football Factory's NFL and NCAA footballs, the county has impacted countless American lives since its founding in 1833.
Avon Lake
9780738582566
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Twenty miles west of downtown Cleveland, in the northeast corner of Lorain County, Avon Lake hugs five miles of Lake Erie shoreline. Once part of a land called Xeuma by the Erie Indians and later part of Tract Seven of the Western Reserve, the area was difficult to tame, but forests became ships and swamps turned into fields. By 1900, the fields were mostly orchards and vineyards. The arrival of the Lake Shore Electric Railway turned the scattered rural township into a summertime resort destination, thus igniting a real estate boom. By World War II , the LSE was no more, but plentiful, affordable, and locally produced electricity and water made Avon Lake a good place to make a living and a desirable place to reside. Fruehauf and B.F. Goodrich arrived and stayed, followed by more industry, commerce, suburban settlers, and commuters. Avon Lake became a city in 1960, and today 24,000 residents call it home.
Historic Columbus Taverns:
9781609496708
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One of the first buildings in Central Ohio in the 1790s was a tavern and 200 years later--Columbus as a foodie" town shows renewed interest in discovering its historic "liquid assets." Once historic taverns in frontier Columbus featured live bears chained to giant wheels, pumping water for travelers in need of a shower and giving new meaning to the term "watering hole." Existing historic taverns in Columbus span from 1830s through the 1930s and still have little-known histories, stories, scandals, as well as, architectural fabric to explore. One is built on a still active graveyard; another is in the building of a former Pentecostal church. Several remain from the Irish and German migrations and survived Prohibition; one was the quintessential gentlemen's bar still with pool room that connected by underground tunnel to the Ohio Statehouse in a time of temperance. Another was both a tavern and a bordello for Union and Confederate officers (though on different nights). Set in the social and political historic context of a changing city, the taverns offer a chance to explore the city's history through its watering holes."
Nelsonville
9781467114769
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Named for Daniel Nelson, who arrived with his family in 1814, Nelsonville grew to become a boomtown by the mid-1800s. Coal mines and brick factories were its major employers, and the town attracted emigrant workers from England. Two major routes, the Hocking Canal and Hocking Valley Railroad, not only provided transportation for the area but also a means to export coal. The canal suffered attacks by Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his Confederate cavalry during the Civil War and was ultimately destroyed by spring flooding, but the railroad has remained a premiere tourist attraction. The Public Square, around which the earliest establishments such as the Dew House were erected, continues to thrive as an arts district. Images of America: Nelsonville uses archival photographs and postcards to celebrate the most influential people and beloved places of the Little City of Black Diamonds and to recap the challenges and triumphs that helped earn Nelsonville its distinctive reputation.
Case Western Reserve University:
9780738582757
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Case Western Reserve University Farm is a multiuse facility rich in its 400 acres of fields, prairies, ravines, hills, waterfalls, and pristine forest, not to mention its historical buildings. It is situated a mere 10 miles from the campus proper; close enough for the hundreds of researchers, students, and professors alike to make the short trip out to this verdant oasis.
The Milders Inn of Fairfield, Ohio
9781467119184
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Mom Milders's Best in the Middle West fried chicken drew crowds of regular and famous folk alike to her Fairfield establishment for decades until it closed after World War II. Notorious gangster John Dillinger stopped in for a bite while on the lam, but Mom made sure he removed his hat inside the building just like everyone else. Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds was a regular, mingling with fans at the inn. Today, the family still serves up the original fried chicken recipe every week at Ryan's Tavern in Hamilton. Author Teri Horsley explores the nostalgia and beloved recipes of the former inn that served up delectable home cooking with a side of history.
Fairview Park
9780738552040
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Fairview Park is truly a postwar community. Before World War II, it was mainly rural countryside just beginning to see some development. The Rocky River valley had been enough of a barrier to keep Fairview that much more rural until high-level bridges were built in the 1920s. A brochure at the time for the newly developed Coffinberry Estates in northeast Fairview Park refers to "quick access to downtown Cleveland via Hilliard Road, Detroit Avenue, or Lorain Avenue bridges." The bridges residents now take for granted were then a major selling point. The farmland started to evolve into suburbia as spaces between houses were filled with more houses. Fairview Village became Fairview Park in 1948, and the year before, Cuyahoga County's first shopping center was built here.
Akron-Canton Baseball Heritage
9780738551135
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Baseball has a strong presence in the Akron-Canton area dating back to its formative years in the late 1880s with such teams as the Akron Acorns (1887), the Akron Akrons (1890), and the Canton Nadjys (1889). In the 1920s, manufacturing companies such as Goodyear and Firestone fielded baseball teams that battled for local bragging rights and opportunities for players to make the big leagues. Along with these industrial leagues, professional baseball found its way to the Akron-Canton area with minor-league teams including the Akron Yankees (1935-1941), the Canton-Akron Indians (1989-1996), and the Akron Aeros (1997-). In addition to teams affiliated with major-league ball clubs, this area gave birth to independent teams such as the Canton Crocodiles (1997-2001), the Canton Coyotes (2002), and others. Besides professional baseball gracing local fields, nearby universities have storied baseball programs of their own. These schools have turned out such major-league greats as Eugene Michael, Thurman Munson, and 1980 Cy Young winner Steve Stone. Akron-Canton Baseball Heritage offers a unique look into the history of baseball in the region with historic and present-day photographs.
Cleveland Heights Congregations
9780738561424
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Since the last quarter of the 19th century, dozens of religious congregations have made their homes in Cleveland Heights. They have been Presbyterian, United Methodist, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish (Conservative, Orthodox, and Egalitarian\traditional), Unitarian Universalist, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, Lutheran, Christian Science, Episcopalian, African Methodist Episcopal, and Congregational and now also include a wide array of community and nondenominational churches. Sponsored by established congregations, encouraged by real estate developers and public officials, and usually welcomed by residents, churches, synagogues, and temples have fostered the suburb's growth, sometimes maintaining and sometimes changing Cleveland Heights neighborhoods. Their houses of worship, ranging from modest renovated storefronts to stately cathedrals, have enriched the city's landscape; their religious pluralism has nurtured ethnic, economic, and racial diversity, as well as controversy and conflict; their calls to action have sometimes aroused the community's conscience. Religious congregations, in short, have helped to sustain the vitality of Cleveland Heights.
Orange Township
9780738507309
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Connecticut once claimed three million acres of unsurveyed land that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, between the 41st and 42nd parallels. The state ceded a 120-mile stretch of this land, west from Pennsylvania to the borders of Lake Erie, and sold it to a group of developers at 40¢ an acre. This land was subsequently purchased by the early settlers of Orange Township, who pushed their way through wilderness to the Chagrin River and established villages between the river and the wooded hills. Located in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Orange Township is comprised of the present-day communities of Gates Mills, Hunting Valley, Moreland Hills, Orange Village, Pepper Pike, Chagrin Falls, Mayfield, and Solon. Orange Township, Ohio recounts the history of this area from 1850 to 1950. Tremendous growth followed the primary settling of the area, as immigrants arrived by steamship and by train. Wealthy Clevelanders sought land suitable for "high quality residential living." These original settlers were described as landowners, scholars, and adventurers. Through family portraits, from the Burnets and James Abram Garfield, 20th president of the United States, to the Van Sweringen brothers, Orange Township unfolds in the pages of this book in intriguing detail.
Olmsted Falls
9780738550909
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Settled in the early 1800s, Olmsted Falls was originally known as Kingston Township before being named Olmsted Falls, after Aaron Olmstead, first purchaser of the land from the Connecticut Land Company. It merged with the Village of Westview in 1971, and the City of Olmsted Falls was established in 1972. In 1989, longtime resident and realtor Clint Williams bought many buildings in the town center and restored and redeveloped them into an area known as Grand Pacific Junction, after the Grand Pacific Hotel, once the social center of the community. It is celebrated as one of the most authentic and revitalized town center historic districts in Ohio. Many of the buildings have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Marion Popcorn Festival: A Fun-Filled History
9781626196612
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In 1981, a small group of local business leaders put Marion, Ohio, on the path to hosting the largest popcorn festival on the planet. Founded in part to honor the achievements of Marion-based Wyandot, Incorporated, once the world's largest popcorn exporter, the Marion Popcorn Festival celebrates the city's dynamic industrial past. Free and open to the public for more than three decades, the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of fans for three days of popcorn, pageantry and fun. Drawing on the memories of founders and longtime volunteers, author Michelle Rotuno-Johnson brings us the festival from seed to snack in this all-encompassing work.
The Ohio State University Neighborhoods
9780738560342
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The Ohio State University's surrounding neighborhoods predate the establishment of the nation's largest university. What emerged after the university's founding from NECKO to Glen Echo was a diverse community of people, professions, housing styles, educational experiments, and activism. Despite intense development pressures after World War II and inevitable change to a densely populated area, 80 percent of the historic housing stock remains. The university area neighborhoods have more districts on the National Register of Historic Places and city-protected historic districts than any other area in Columbus. In addition to longtime residents, the University District has been the collegiate incubator of more famous people than any other neighborhood in Ohio--humorist James Thurber, bicycle daredevil Conn Baker, writer Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Dr. Charles Pavey, vaudevillian Elsie Janis, and athlete Jesse Owens, to name a few.
The Cleveland Grand Prix: An American Show Jumping First
9781626195257
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Home to inventors of the first automobile, airplane and professional baseball team, Ohio is also the birthplace of the first horse show jumping grand prix in the Western Hemisphere. Longtime fans can relive the exciting victories of some of the finest horses and riders in history, while newcomers can experience the Cleveland Grand Prix's glory years as the premier summer social tradition for thousands of spectators. From harness racing to fox hunting, saddle up with equestrian authority Betty Weibel as she explains how this picturesque corner of the Chagrin Valley grew into a world-class horse sport hub.
Kent State University Athletics
9780738551760
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Established in 1910 by the State of Ohio as a teachers' training college, Kent State Normal School rapidly evolved into a major research university during the first half of the 20th century. Kent State University Athletics chronicles the highlights of sports history during the institution's first 100 years. As athletics evolved from its close relation to physical education training and intramural play to varsity intercollegiate programs competing at the Division I level, a number of outstanding athletes, teams, and coaches arose, including several Olympic competitors and future professional athletes.
Central College
9781467110594
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The area of Amalthea, better known as Central College, was platted by Timothy Lee in 1816. Situated three miles southeast of Westerville, Central College was built along Big Walnut Creek. A college known as the Blendon Institute was formed in 1832. In 1842, the institute was given to the Presbyterian church to form the Central College of Ohio. However, due to financial struggles, the school--later known as Central College Academy--closed in 1894. The Ohio School for the Deaf Alumni Association purchased the defunct school property and created the Ohio Home for the Aged and Infirm Deaf; it was the first home of its kind in the state. The village of Central College filled with excitement when the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Delaware Railroad was slated to pass through town in 1873. However, the railroad announced that it would instead pass through Westerville, and because of the lack of public transportation through Central College, the town failed to grow.
Licking County
9780738551548
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Licking County is located at the geographic center of Ohio. The history of the county began over 2,000 years ago when an ancient people known as the Hopewells occupied the area. While they disappeared for no apparent reason, the large earthen mounds left behind give modern man clues to their type of culture. Licking County is home to a countless number of these mounds with the Great Circle Earthworks being the largest. In 1808, Licking County was established with Newark as its county seat. The construction of the Ohio Canal began in 1825 and finished in 1833. The canal brought a new era to Licking County, and Newark became a beehive of activity. The railroads came and the canal gradually began to lose its value. In 1908, the great Ohio Canal was filled in. For the past 200 years, many people have had a connection to Licking County, and their names continue to keep the history of the county alive.
The Dover-Phila Football Rivalry:
9781596299917
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It was 1908, and Dover had just upset a far superior New Phila football team. A group of DHS students set forth on a streetcar to gloat in the Phila square. They were met with eggs, and the football rivalry, which had been simmering, began in full. Through the lens of this rivalry's greatest games, traditions emerge and passions mount as The Game becomes Game Week and community pride hinges on the outcome. Whip through the first snake dances, paint the rock and revisit the early clashes in the fairgrounds through the 100th game and beyond. Whether you remember Paul Miskimen's field goal in 1946 to beat the Tornadoes, Don Watsons ninety-four-yard fumble return for Dover in 1989 or Richard Sindiland's dominating performances in 2004 and 2005, this book commemorates triumphs for all fans of this classic Ohio rivalry.
The Shakers of Union Village
9780738551234
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Founded in 1805, Union Village began as a religious and communal experiment. Eventually it became one of America's largest and most productive Shaker communities, its members achieving many firsts in education, equality, music, horticulture, and animal husbandry. Their unique faith influenced every aspect of their lives, from making furniture to raising children. They welcomed the leading figures of the period, including Native American chiefs, politicians, and abolitionists, while they continued to open other Shaker settlements in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Georgia. These vintage images--including many never published before--trace the Shakers" progress as they worked toward creating an earthly paradise. Although Union Village dissolved in 1912, some Shakers remained there for almost another decade. Today Union Village's heritage is still shared with the public at OtterbeinLebanon Retirement Community and in neighboring Lebanon.
Knox County Bridges
9780738551562
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Knox County had its beginnings at the confluence of the waters of Center Run with the Kokosing River. This pictorial history of the spanning of area waterways is mostly a story of disasters. Many of the photographs are of the wreckage of failed bridges and what is left of the vehicles that brought them down. They depict a county highway department that was only reactive. The practice was to send the crews out to pick up the pieces and then figure out how to repair or replace the bridge. Changes began to occur with the Silver Bridge disaster in 1967 over the Ohio River, as the federal government instituted inspection of all public bridges at two-year intervals. With the information afforded through inspections and additional funding mechanisms, counties by the mid-1980s had the tools to be proactive toward bridge maintenance. A scheduled plan to inspect structures for repairs or replacement prior to failure began to occur. During this period, construction materials other than timber--stronger and longer-lasting materials--became the norm, thus saving lives.
