Michigan, Wayne County, Livonia
![]()
This barn was constructed in 1919 on the burnt-out foundation of an earlier structure built about 1888. It is a fine example of an increasingly rare bank barn style. Here, on the farm owned and operated by his family since 1847, Ira Wilson built a million-dollar enterprise which grew from dairy farming, to delivery, to full creamery operations. By his death in 1944 the business had become "one of the district's leading creameries." Wilson also held several local elective offices.
(Agriculture • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
This barn was constructed in 1919 on the burnt-out foundation of an earlier structure built about 1888. It is a fine example of an increasingly rare bank barn style. Here, on the farm owned and operated by his family since 1847, Ira Wilson built a million-dollar enterprise which grew from dairy farming, to delivery, to full creamery operations. By his death in 1944 the business had become "one of the district's leading creameries." Wilson also held several local elective offices.(Agriculture • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Approximately at this point
two Ohio military trails
branched. Reading Road fol-
lows the marches of Bowman,
Clark, Harmar, Harrison, Clay
and Shelby.1779- 1812.
Central Parkway follows the
route of St. Clair and Wayne,
1791- 1793
C- 62
Ohio Revolutionary War Commission 1930
Big Bone Methodist Church
Big Bone Methodist Church was constructed in 1888
The original congregation, which was organized in 1887
and led by Reverend George Froh, helped in the construction.
As was the custom, a social order lodge shared the expense of the
construction and upkeep and occupied the upper floor, accessed
by a separate stairway.
In this vicinity on 18 June 1864 Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain received a near-fatal wound while leading a Union brigade in a charge against Confederate works defending Petersburg. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant promoted him to Brig. Gen. of Vols. “on the spot” for “gallant conduct.” Chamberlain returned to duty in November and was wounded again in March 1865. On 12 April at Appomattox he commanded the ceremony at which the Army of Northern Virginia formally surrendered its arms. He was governor of Maine from 1867 to 1871 and received the Medal of Honor in 1893.
The Avondale Mill was built on this site in 1845.Initially a flour mill, it later produced cotton cloth and lace. The building was used to manufacture tractors during WWII. The mill burned in 1991. The site is part of Laurel's Riverfront Park.Site 27
Born near here in Dinwiddie County in 1818, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, or Keckly, was a
dressmaker and abolitionist. She lived as a slave in Virginia and North Carolina but
eventually bought her freedom in 1855. By 1860 she had relocated to Baltimore and then
to Washington, D.C. Because of her dressmaking skills, she became a seamstress,
personal maid, and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln's wife.
In 1868, Keckley's account, Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years
in the White House, appeared and met with criticism from Mrs. Lincoln for its candor.
Keckley died in 1907.
Dinwiddie Normal Industrial School, the first African American high school built in the county during the segregation era, stood three miles southeast. When the building burned in 1953, plans were already in progress to construct a modern facility on this site as part of county efforts to build “separate but equal” schools. Bids came from across the region, and in Aug. 1952, the school board chose Farmville's Mottley Construction Co. to build the new school, which was renamed Southside High School. The school opened in spring 1954 with 520 students. Dr. Roy Watson served as principal. The school was closed in 2012.
Residents of the short-lived community of Belle Plaine were burying their dead at this site as early as 1878. Although the presence of unmarked graves suggests earlier possible usage, the oldest marked grave, that of sixteen-year-old Virgil Hill, dates to that year.
Deed for cemetery dated Dec. 10, 1884. Texas and Pacific Railway Company conveyed through E.E. Solomon, County Judge. All of its right and title to citizens of Callahan County, nine acres, one and one half miles south of Belle Plaine for a cemetery. Burial spaces here must be selected under the supervision of the Belle Plaine Cemetery Association.
A native of Illinois, William Jeff Maltby gained fame as a frontiersman, veteran of the Mexican War and American Civil War and Texas Ranger. Maltby began his Texas exploits about 1850, building frontier forts for the U.S. Army. He retired to Callahan County in 1878 and developed a nursery that earned him national recognition as a fine horticulturist. Maltby co-authored a partial autobiography, published in 1906, called “Captain Jeff”.
Early college of west Texas. Founded in 1881 by Methodist Church. Enrollment reached peak of 300 and students attended from throughout the region.
This building was the early home of the Merchant family, who later moved to Abilene. Clabe Merchant, twin-brother of John Merchant, becoming the founder of Abilene and naming it after the town in Kansas, at the end of the cattle trail at that time.
First official county seat of Callahan County, 1877 - 1883. The first unofficial county seat was Callahan City where the commissioners court was organized, July 30, 1877, and several civil and probate cases filed. By an invalid election, October 13th, and a valid election, December 9, 1877 Belle Plain was selected. On January 16, 1883, the county seat was located at Baird.
