Quantcast
Channel: The Historical Marker Database - New Entries
Viewing all 103121 articles
Browse latest View live

A Respite In The Wilderness

0
0
Kansas, Marshall County, near Blue Rapids


The water is of the most excellent kind. The spring is surrounded with Ash Cotton wood and Cedar trees. It is an excellent place to camp for a day or two to wash, recruit the cattle etc. I this day cut the name of the spring in the rock on Table at the top of the falls.
- Emigrant journal entry: George McKinstry, May 30, 1846.

This cold-water spring was named by Edwin Bryant, a member of the ill-fated Donner and Reed emigrant wagon train that camped here for several days in late May of 1846. The company, which lost most of its members to starvation before reaching their destination, suffered its first loss here at Alcove Spring. Mrs. Sarah Keyes, the elderly mother-in-law of James Frazier Reed, died after an extended time suffering with consumption.

It took courage to venture into the wilderness. Pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails faced many obstacles - scarcity of water and food, sickness, rough terrain and harsh climate to name a few. Sanctuaries, like Alcove Spring, provided a reprieve as well as a place to bury the dead. Although more than 30,000 emigrants were buried along the trail, many more survived to begin a new life in the west.

[Inset photo captions read]
Alcove Spring inscription placed by George McKinstry of the Donner and Reed wagon party, May 30, 1846.

"J.F. Reed 26 May 1846" inscribed into one of the rocks now lying below the falls. Photo courtesy of Ray Ellenbecker.

(Environment • Roads & Vehicles • Settlements & Settlers • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

New Hope Cemetery

0
0
Texas, Jones County, near Stamford
William F. Bean (1872-1944) and his wife Birdie Bean (1881-1917) were among the first settlers to the New Hope community; both their families arrived in 1883. William’s great-uncle, Amos Bean, died between 1883 and 1890 and was interred under a tree on Bean farmland. The newborn son of W.L. and Georgia Whitaker was interred nearby in 1890. Three more infants and children were buried on Bean farmland in 1891, 1898 and 1899. William Bean deeded land 3/4 mile northwest of his great-uncle’s grave for a new New Hope community burial ground in 1899. Since that time the cemetery has grown to three acres including the first five graves. Others interred here include J.E. Skiles, longtime minister of the Baptist church; James Williams, who taught school at New Hope; his wife Marry Artealy Williams; and their descendants.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 9 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The 1840s American Dream

0
0
Kansas, Marshall County, near Blue Rapids


Stranded by heavy flood waters on the bank of the Big Blue River, 100 members of the Donner and Reed Wagon Train waited for several days anticipating that the spring runoff would begin to subside. Sarah Keyes, James Reed's mother-in-law, although feeble and ill traveled with them hoping to see her only son one more time. Cadden Keyes had journeyed to Oregon several years earlier. Mrs. Keyes knew that her health was failing and that she likely would not survive the journey, but she and Cadden had arranged to meet at the Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post located at Fort Hall on the Snake River.

In the dark morning hours of May 29, 1846, fate intervened. Although Mrs. Keyes' death had been anticipated for several days, the event still cast a shadow of gloom over the whole camp. The men quickly set about making a coffin and excavating a grave. A large gray stone was fashioned into the shape of a tombstone and Mrs. Keyes' name, age, and date of death were engraved on it.

Even though she passed away without fulfilling her dream, Sarah Keyes symbolized the pioneer spirit of America's westward movement. Historians estimate that one in ten emigrants died enroute to their destination. Whatever their reason for going west, those pioneers that had gathered the courage to undertake the long, tedious, and sometimes dangerous journey into the wilderness - to a place where they could begin a new life - knew full well that there were no hospitals, no grocery stores, no towns, and no second chances.

[Lower center inset photo caption reads]
To honor one of America's pioneer women who passed away enroute to a new life in California, a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Reveloution [sic] (D.A.R.) produced and placed this marker near Sarah Keyes' grave in March of 1950. On the far left is a photo of Mrs. Keyes taken prior to her 1840s journey to see her son.

[Lower right inset photo caption reads]
In the 1840s and 50s, hundreds of emigrant wagons passed this way on their way west. Nick Eggenhoffer illustration is courtesy of Hastings House Publishers

Emigrant Diary Notes on Graves at Alcove Springs
Edwin Bryant, What I Saw in California
, May 29, 1846. - "Last night Mrs. Sarah Keyes, a lady aged 70, a member of the family of Mr. J.H. Reed of Illinois, and his mother-in-law, died. Mr. Reed with his family is emigrating to California."

The Overland Journal of Amos Piatt Josselyn, Tuesday May 15, 1849.
"Got off at 6:30 o'clock. Passed the Big Blue at 1 o'clock; drove about 20 miled this day. Water plenty and roads pretty good. At the Blue there is two graves of which is an old lady from Springfield, Ill. (Sarah Keyes) buried in the spring of 1846. The other is Johnn Fuller who lost life by the accidental discharge of a gun. Buried April 29, 1849; could not learn where he was from."

Virginia Reed Murphy, Across the Plains in the Donner Party, "As soon as we stopped traveling, Grandma began to fail, and on the 29th day of May she died. It seemed hard to bury her in the wilderness and travel on. We were also afraid that the Indians would destroy her grave, but nowhere on the whole road could we have found so beautiful a resting place."
——————————
In honor of
Sarah Handley Keyes
1776 - 1846
Daughter of a
Revolutionary Patriot
Arthur Barrett Chapter, DAR

God in his love and charity
has called in this
beautiful valley
a pioneer mother
May 29, 1846

(Fraternal or Sororal Organizations • Roads & Vehicles • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Masonic Temple

0
0
Newfoundland and Labrador, Division No. 1 (Avalon Peninsula), St. John's
Built to replace the Long’s Hill Temple destroyed by fire in 1892, the cornerstone of this building was laid by Sir William Whitewall on August 23, 1894. The Temple is the largest brick fraternal lodge in the province, and with its classical revival and Masonic motifs is an important example fo Victorian Lodge design.

(Fraternal or Sororal Organizations) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Big Bone Lick

0
0
Kentucky, Boone County, near Union
Discovered in 1739, by the French Capt. Charles Lemoyne de Longueil this famous saline- sulphur spring was frequented for thousands of years byIndians and vast herds of buffalo, deer and other animals. The first English explorers found here scattered over the lick countless bones and teeth of the extinct Pleistocene elephants, the mammoth and the mastodon. Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1938

(Paleontology • Science & Medicine) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Mary Ingles

0
0
Kentucky, Boone County, near Union
Reputed first white woman in Ky. Shawnees captured her and two sons in July 1755 at site Roanoke, Va. Led to village at mouth of Scioto River, separated from sons, taken to Big Bone Lick. compelled to make salt here; adopted by chief; given few liberties. Escaped late fall with another woman. After 40 days she reached home. Died 1813, age 83. A courageous, resourceful pioneer. 1965 Kentucky Historical Society Kentucky Department of Highways 859

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Mary Draper Ingles

0
0
Kentucky, Boone County, near Union
In celebration & commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the daring escape of

Mary Draper Ingles

from her Shawnee captors here at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky in the fall of 1755

Her direct descendants met here for a family reunion to honor her unprecedented and unequaled strength, courage, determination and fortitude

July 16, 2005

dedicated by the Friends of Big Bone

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Big Bone Lick

0
0
Kentucky, Boone County, near Union
Scientists consider William Clark’s dig at Big Bone Lick in 1807 as establishing American vertebrate paleontology. Bones found here by Clark included mastodon and mammoth. Prehistoric native American artifacts found were given to Dr. Wm. Goforth in Cincinnati.

Sponsered by Friends of Big Bone, Ohio River Chapter- Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, National Park Service, Kentucky Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission.

(Paleontology) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Lewis and Clark in Kentucky

0
0
Kentucky, Boone County, near Union
In Oct. 1803, while traveling down Ohio River to meet Wm. Clark for expedition to Pacific, Meriwether Lewis visited Big Bone Lick. He was to gather fossilized bones for Pres. Thomas Jefferson. In Sept. 1807, clark supervised a 3-week dig for bones at Jefferson’s request.

(Exploration • Paleontology • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Jury of Erie County Women &

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
"Jury of Erie County Women, First to be Impaneled Under Federal Suffrage" proclaimed the headline of the Sandusky Register on August 28, 1920. One of the first female Court of Common Pleas juries in the nation was impaneled in Erie County on August 26, 1920, moments after the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States was declared ratified. On that date, Judge Roy Williams was to conduct a trial and jurors were needed. Out of the ten men he contacted, only one could serve. Frustrated, Judge Williams later told the women, "When I learned shortly after 10:30 this morning that suffrage had been proclaimed, I decided to impanel a woman jury. Twelve women were summoned. Twelve women served."

(continued on other side)

"Erie County Courthouse"
(continued from other side)

The first Board of Erie County Commissioners - Samuel B. Carpenter, Nelson Taylor, and William B. Craighill - was instructed by the Ohio Legislature to hold the county's first term of court in December 1838. As a result, Erie County's first Court of Common Pleas was held in the Academy building on the east side of Columbus Avenue, across from the Courthouse's current location. The Academy building continued to house the Court of Common Pleas until a new Courthouse was built on the current site in 1874 at a cost of $142,026.45. The Art Deco exterior was added when the Courthouse was remodeled beginning in 1936 as a project of the New Deal's Public Works Administration.

(Politics) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Sandusky

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Early Indian village of Ogontz; also French & British trading post.
1816 - platted as town of Portland; English version of Indian name, "San Dus Tee," adopted in 1818. First Connecticut settlers arrived in 1817.
1848 - influx of refugees from German political revolution.
Home of Jay Cooke who financed Civil War. Strategic area in War of 1812.
Perry's Victory, Battle of Lake Erie,
in 1813 won American sovereignty of Great Lakes.

(Notable Events) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Old Perkins Cemetery

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Using the power of eminent domain, the United States Government purchased 9,000 acres of land in Perkins Township, Erie County, Ohio to build the Plum Brook Ordnance Plant in 1941, displacing many families and businesses. This tract included the original Perkins cemetery, the resting-place for many of the township's founding families who settled here in 1809 and victims of the numerous cholera epidemics of the early to mid-1800s. Though many of the earliest graves could not be located, most were re-interred here as part of the war effort on the home front during World War II.

(Government) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Cholera Cemetery / In Honor of the Doctors

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Marker Front:
Of the city's 5,667 people in 1849, 3,500 fled, and 400 of those remaining were victims of cholera. Most are buried here, some only in rough boxes in a common grave. The scourge came again in 1850 and 1852 but with less toll.

"Dismay stalked abroad in the daytime and the drowsy night was hideous with the wailings of the disconsolate."

Marker Reverse:
Doctors, nurses and others assisted in fighting the cholera in 1849, aiding heroic citizens led by Foster M. Follett. Doctors Austin, Brainard, Lane and Tilden suffered illness and exhaustion, leaving Dr. Cochran alone among Sandusky doctors until aid came. Drs. Ackley, Beaumont, Lauderdale and Spencer, and Messrs. Dolan and Miller of Cleveland; Drs. Banks, Caroland, Follen, Foote, Hughes, Lindsey, Ocheltree, Quinn and Raymond, and Messrs. Bailey, Hindale and Yorke, Mrs. Cowden and nurses from Cincinnati; Dr. Appleton of Philadelphia; Dr. Stanley of Canton; Drs. Evans and Pack of Akron; Drs. Glick and Teagarden of Mansfield; Dr. Vance of Urbana; and Mr. and Miss Rushton of Bellevue.

"They came emphatically in our time of need, and faithfully and successfully did they minister relief to the distressed and the dying. Long will be e'er the citizens of Sandusky forget their kindness."

(Disasters) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ohio Veterans Home

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Following the Civil War, many of Ohio's disabled and wounded veterans found inadequate provisions for their long-term needs. In response, the Grand Army of the Republic's Department of Ohio lobbied for a state-operated veterans' home. In 1886 Governor Joseph B. Foraker signed a bill establishing the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home for honorably discharged veterans. A board of trustees led by Sandusky publisher I.F. Mack selected the site, and the Sandusky community donated the tract of land, utilities, and a connection to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The facility opened in November 1888. (continued on other side)

Opposite side:

Ohio Soldiers and Sailors home 1888-1979
(continued from other side)

Built of Sandusky Blue Limestone with sandstone details in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the restored I.F. Mack Administration Building houses museums for the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Home. Six remaining residential cottages, also in the Romanesque style, were built between 1896 and 1908. Original houses of Officers' Row stand along DeWitt Avenue. In 1979, the facility was renamed the Ohio Veterans Home (OVH), and has grown to include a modern long-term care facility and "domiciliary," which were completed between 1978 and 1992. The OVH has served veterans representing all of America's major conflicts since the Mexican War. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

(Military) Includes location, directions, 8 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ohio Veterans Home

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Following the Civil War, many of Ohio's disabled and wounded veterans found inadequate provisions for their long-term needs. In response, the Grand Army of the Republic's Department of Ohio lobbied for a state-operated veterans' home. In 1886 Governor Joseph B. Foraker signed a bill establishing the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home for honorably discharged veterans. A board of trustees led by Sandusky publisher I.F. Mack selected the site, and the Sandusky community donated the tract of land, utilities, and a connection to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The facility opened in November 1888. (continued on other side)

Opposite Side: Ohio Veterans Home

(continued from other side)

Built of Sandusky Blue Limestone with sandstone details in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the restored I.F. Mack Administration Building houses museums for the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Home. Six remaining residential cottages, also in the Romanesque style, were built between 1896 and 1908. Original houses of Officers' Row stand along DeWitt Avenue. In 1979, the facility was renamed the Ohio Veterans Home (OVH), and has grown to include a modern long-term care facility and "domiciliary," which were completed between 1978 and 1992. The OVH has served veterans representing all of America's major conflicts since the Mexican War. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976

(Government) Includes location, directions, 8 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Grace Episcopal Church

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
This building was begun in 1835 and was completed in 1844. It is the oldest church building in continual use in Sandusky and incorporates a portion of the original structure. This marker commemorated the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone and the church's sesquicentennial observance in 1985.

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Kilbourne Plat

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Hector Kilbourne, a Freemason and the surveyor who make the original plat of Sandusky (as Portland) in 1816, laid out the streets to form the Masonic emblem. Huron and Central Avenue are the arms of the compass, Elm and Poplar Streets the sides of the mason's square. The first Masonic Lodge in Sandusky was founded in 1819, with Kilbourne as Master.

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Underground Railroad

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Many homes in Sandusky and other parts of Erie County were stations on the Underground Railroad before and during the Civil War. Residents provided food, shelter, clothing, and transportation to Canada. Harriet Beecher Stowe used Sandusky as the gate to freedom for the run-away slaves in her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

(African Americans) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Underground Railroad / Abolition Boats Provide an Escape to Freedom in Erie County

0
0
Ohio, Erie County, Sandusky
Marker Front:
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad, but a system of loosely connected safe havens where those escaping the brutal conditions of slavery were sheltered, fed, clothed, nursed, concealed, disguised, and instructed during their journey to freedom. Although this movement was one of America's greatest social, moral, and humanitarian endeavors, the details about it were often cloaked in secrecy to protect those involved from retribution of civil law and slave-catchers. Ohio’s history has been permanently shaped by the thousands of runaway slaves passing through or finding permanent residence in this state

Marker Reverse:
The promimity of the mouth of the Sandusky Bay to the Lake Erie Islands leading north to Canada was crucial in safely transporting runaway slaves to freedom. Several types of vessels to as “abolition boats”. The fearless men who captained these crafts had to be skilled in navigating the treacherous waterways that poured into the western basin of Lake Erie. Runaways could earn passage to Canada by working in or around the shipyards that lined the mile-long waterfront of Sandusky. Passage to the Lake Erie Islands and Canada beyond, could be made by sled during the cold of winter, a method of travel that also entailed risk.

The abolition boats included: Walk-in-the-water, Superior, The Arrow, United States, Bay City, Mayflower, May Queen, Morning Star, and others. The captains included: Captain Shepherd, Captain Swiegel, Captain Thomas McGee (owner of the Steamboat Hotel), and others.

(African Americans) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Josiah Pugh Wilbarger

0
0
Texas, Travis County, Austin
Marking the spot where
Josiah Pugh Wilbarger
of Austin's Colony was stabbed
and scalped by the Indians in 1832
while locating lands for the Colonies.

Born in Bourbon Co. Ky. Sept. 10, 1801
Died in Bastrop Co. Tex. April 11, 1845

A true Pioneer and Patriot.
We honor the spirit of sacrifice.
Reverenced and erected by his descendants.

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Viewing all 103121 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images