Pennsylvania, Luzerne County, Wilkes-Barre
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Founder of MCI Communications. MCI challenged AT&T's monopoly of the telephone industry and went on to become one of the nation's leaders in that field. McGowan was also a major financial contributor to many medical institutions and fields of research. He was a native of Ashley.
(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Founder of MCI Communications. MCI challenged AT&T's monopoly of the telephone industry and went on to become one of the nation's leaders in that field. McGowan was also a major financial contributor to many medical institutions and fields of research. He was a native of Ashley.(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Strategic Importance
Northampton County, formed in 1741, was served by other courthouses on this site prior to construction of this building in 1858. At the time Samuel Calvert oversaw the project; Henry King Burgwyn has been credited as architect. Resting atop a high base, this building is one of the few surviving examples in North Carolina of the full-blown Greek Revival temple form. This noble brick structure with Ionic portico and columns has become a symbol of Northampton County.
Early channel of trade, its valley long an area of plantations. Frequent floods until 1952; since controlled by Kerr Dam. Old name was "Moratuck".
Built by Col. Wm. Hamilton, youngest son of the renowned American statesman, Alexander Hamilton. Col. Hamilton was the founder of Hamilton Diggings, now Wiota. He was born in New York, August 4, 1797. He spent 3 years at West Point after which he was appointed surveyor of the staff of Wm. Rector. Coming west to Illinois, he landed at Galena, on July 4, 1827. In 1828, he started lead mining and smelting at Hamilton Diggings. Col. Hamilton was a prominent citizen of this territory and a captain in the Black Hawk War. He went to California in May, 1849 after the gold discovery. He died in Sacramento in 1850.
Helen Steiner Rice was born on May 19, 1900, in Lorain, the daughter of Anna and John Steiner. Demonstrating an early propensity for writing, Helen planned for college, but her father's death during the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic kept her working at the Lorain Electric Light and Power Company. In 1929 she married Franklin Rice, a Dayton bank vice president. Following the 1929 stock market crash, she worked for the Gibson Greeting Cards Company in Cincinnati and became editor of verse lines. Known for her words of inspiration, Helen's gift for writing continues to reach millions in her poetry found in modern-day greeting cards and dozens of books. One of America's most prolific poets, she was also an early advocate of women in the workplace. She was elected to the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1992. Helen died April 23, 1981, and was buried next to her parents at the Elmwood Cemetery in Lorain.
Around 1867, along the shale cliffs of the lakeshore of Sheffield Lake, Jay Terrell found fossils of a "terrible fish" later named in his honor as Dinichthys Terrelli. This animal, now known as Dunkleosteus terrelli, was a massive arthrodire (an extinct, joint-necked, armor-plated fish) that lived in the Devonian sea, which covered much of eastern North America some 354-364 million years ago. Dunkleosteus was armed with an incredible set of shearing jaws and was clearly the top marine predator in the Devonian Period (the "Age of Fishes").
In June 1815, Captain Jabez Burrell settled this land after coming from Sheffield, Massachusetts. Five years later the brick homestead was constructed. Five generations of the Burrell family occupied the homestead continuously from 1820 to January 2001 when Eleanor B. Burrell passed away. In 1836, the racially integrated Sheffield Manual Labor Institute, a branch of Oberlin College, was established at the Burrell Homestead, but the Institute closed the next year because the Ohio Legislature refused to grant its charter unless it excluded black students. From 1837 until the start of the Civil War, the homestead was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves were hidden in the grain barn until Robbins Burrell could arrange for captains in Lorain, such as Aaron Root, to hide them on vessels for the trip across Lake Erie to freedom in Canada.
The 103rd O.V.I. was recruited for Civil War service from Cuyahoga, Lorain, and Medina counties. The Regiment was organized at Cleveland in August, 1862, and served until 1865 in campaigns at Cincinnati, Knoxville, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, and the Carolinas.103rd O.V.I. veterans and their descendants have held continuous, annual reunions since 1866. The organization is believed to be unique in the nation. Descendants live on these grounds today.
Soldiers from Company F of the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry died in the explosion of the steamboat Sutana seven miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. The Sultana reportedly carried more than 2,400 passengers—six times its capacity of 378. The vast majority were Union soldiers recently freed from Southern prisons at the end of the Civil War. Approximately 1,800 passengers and crew died in what is considered the worst maritime disaster in American history. Company F was organized in Stark, Columbiana, and Portage Counties and was mustered into service at Camp Massillon in the fall of 1862. This marker is a memorial to the soldiers of Company F who died as a result of the Sultana tragedy and other war-related causes
This marker preserves the names carved in stone on the Civil War memorial adjacent. South elevation; “Erected in Memory of the deceased of Co. F. 115th O.V.I. by the Company and Friends. 1865” North elevation: “Death caused by Explosion of Steamship Sultana on April 27, 1865. Sgt. Thomas Rue, Sgt W.H.H. Smith Corp Benjamin Crew, Corp. Charles W.Deitrick, Pvt. Adam H. Hendrick, Pvt Alex Laughtener, Pvt. Robert W.Roath, Pvt. Thomas Spencer.” West Elevation: “Died of Disease; Privates Adam Bower, Preston Jackson, Wilson Hamlin, William Carter, Francis L. Phelps, Samuel Rossell, George Johnson. Teamster Benj. F. Spees.” East elevation: “Died Prisoners of War: Pvt. George Carver, Pvt. Luther T. Swartz. Died Paroled Prisoners of War; Pvt Alva J. Hamlin, Pvt. Lewis K. White. Died of Wounds: Corp John D. Gray. Killed in Action: Pvt. George W. Ross.”
Just after 5:00 P.M on June 28, 1924, a tornado swept off Lake Erie directly into downtown Lorain. Within five minutes, seventy-eight people lost their lives. Fifteen died in the old State Theatre that stood upon this site, as an audience of two hundred watched a Saturday afternoon musical performance. More than one thousand suffered injuries. The tornado did extensive damage to the business district, destroyed 500 homes, and damaged a thousand more. The city's largest industry, the American Shipbuilding yards, was severely damaged. The tornado, which had hit Sandusky before striking Lorain, continued along the shoreline and struck Sheffield and Avon minutes later. Contemporary accounts listed eighty-two deaths resulting from the deadliest tornado in Ohio's history.
In spring 1937, the eyes of the nation were on Monroe. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee had organized a handful of workers at Republic’s Newton facility. On June 10, about 120 pickets confronted over 1,000 non-unionized workers and “special deputies” armed with bats and clubs. When efforts failed to resolve the tensions, the “citizen army” fired tear gas, stormed the picket line, set ablaze the strikers’ ‘kitchen,’ and dumped their cars into the river. The pickets scattered, and the non-union plant was reopened. This event was a major setback for organized labor. Republic left its outmoded Newton operation in 1942. In 1947, Kelsey-Hays, which owned the facility, recognized UAW Local #723.
