Ohio, Harrison County, New Athens
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side A
Franklin College
Alma Academy
One of Ohio's earliest colleges, Alma College (earlier known as Alma Academy) was founded in 1818 and became Franklin College in 1825. Its founders were primarily of Scots-Irish descent who had settled in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio and were of the Presbyterian faith. Many nineteenth-century national and international leaders attended this school, including 8 U.S. Senators, 9 U.S. Representatives, 32 State Legislators, and 2 Governors. Notables include John Bingham, author of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and chief prosecutor of President Abraham Lincoln's assassins; Civil War General George W. McCook; Ohio Supreme Court Justice John Welch; and Joseph Ray, publisher of the universally popular school text Ray's Arithmetic. The slavery question bitterly divided the school, and its enrollment declined in the years following the Civil War. Franklin College closed in 1921, and its charter was later transferred to Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.
side B
Cornerstone of Civil Rights
John Bingham, Franklin College class of 1837, was the primary author of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment protects the privileges and immunities of American citizens and guarantees due process of law and equal protection. Bingham later wrote to Franklin College classmate and friend, Reverend Titus Basfield, a former slave, "In the Fourteenth Amendment I sought to obtain for all human beings, including the long oppressed members of your race, the precious rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This means due process of law whereby the judicial system must look benignly at a person's attempt to seek redress of wrong to his immortal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
(Civil Rights • Education • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
side AFranklin College
Alma Academy
One of Ohio's earliest colleges, Alma College (earlier known as Alma Academy) was founded in 1818 and became Franklin College in 1825. Its founders were primarily of Scots-Irish descent who had settled in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio and were of the Presbyterian faith. Many nineteenth-century national and international leaders attended this school, including 8 U.S. Senators, 9 U.S. Representatives, 32 State Legislators, and 2 Governors. Notables include John Bingham, author of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and chief prosecutor of President Abraham Lincoln's assassins; Civil War General George W. McCook; Ohio Supreme Court Justice John Welch; and Joseph Ray, publisher of the universally popular school text Ray's Arithmetic. The slavery question bitterly divided the school, and its enrollment declined in the years following the Civil War. Franklin College closed in 1921, and its charter was later transferred to Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.
side B
Cornerstone of Civil Rights
John Bingham, Franklin College class of 1837, was the primary author of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment protects the privileges and immunities of American citizens and guarantees due process of law and equal protection. Bingham later wrote to Franklin College classmate and friend, Reverend Titus Basfield, a former slave, "In the Fourteenth Amendment I sought to obtain for all human beings, including the long oppressed members of your race, the precious rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This means due process of law whereby the judicial system must look benignly at a person's attempt to seek redress of wrong to his immortal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
(Civil Rights • Education • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
As its name implies, this village was conceived as a cultural and educational center. Here, 1818, Rev. John Walker founded classical Alma Academy. The academy became a college in 1825; it was renamed "Franklin" the following year. Old Franklin was early a center of intense Abolitionism; her moral force sent forth some 400 Servants of Christianity. Her notable alumni include Wilson Shannon, first native-born Governor of Ohio; Joseph Ray, whose "Arithmetics" were long companionate to McGuffey's Readers; and John A. Bingham, Statesman, Prosecutor of Lincoln's Assassins, and the Minister to Japan. In 1921 Franklin College merged with Muskingum of New Concord.
Side A
This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior
This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior
Side A
This ridge road west from Cadiz through Deersville to the Tuscarawas Valley is known locally as the Moravian Trail. Originally an Indian path, it became an important trail for the frontiersmen. The men who participated in the Gnadenhutten Massacre, March 8, 1872, used this trail. In June, 1872, as part of Crawford's defeated army fled eastward from pursuing Indians along this road. Both of these parties were led by Col. David Williamson, and the entire route from the Ohio to the Tuscarawas is know in history as Williamson's Trail.
In memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice in defense of their country in World War II 
Platted and established by the Lincoln Land Company of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Guernsey garners its name from Charles A. Guernsey, noted legislator, rancher, and investor in early Wyoming. 
Vertical on the stake
This property has been placed on the
Historic Site
Two monuments, one erected in 1932 and the other a modern replacement, are located in the Guernsey city park.
To All Pioneers 
Grave of 
The historic Oregon Trail descends from the benchlands across the valley to the river bottom below. Brigham Young’s 1847 Company of Mormon Pioneers crossed the south side of the North Platte River near Fort Laramie to follow the Oregon Trail past this point. William Clayton, in his guidebook for emigrants, describes the trail as a ”steep hill to descend… the descent being over rock and very steep… dangerous to wagons, but it is not lengthy.” 
