In the years leading up to the Civil War, Ohio had more African American settlements than any other state. Owing to a common border with several slave states, it became a destination for people of color seeking to separate themselves from slavery. Despite these communities having populations that sometimes numbered in the hundreds, little is known about most of them, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, nearly all had lost their ethnic identities as the original settlers died off...

In the summer of 1957, a young Holmes County farmer was gunned down in cold blood. There was little to distinguish this slaying from hundreds of others throughout the United States that year except for one detail: Paul Coblentz was Amish. A committed pacifist, Coblentz would not raise a hand against his killers. As sensational crimes often do, the "Amish murder" opened a window into the private lives of the young man, his family and his community--a community that in some respects remains ...

More than 200 tips on choosing and caring for your new feline friend, from North America's largest non-profit pet adoption website. Includes photos!From adoption and care to behavior and communication, this comprehensive guide to cats comes from the experts at Adopt-a-Pet.com, who have spent many years connecting homeless pets to their new families. It covers:Basics: Understand your new kitten or cat, prepare for a new arrival, get the skin...

Department stores were a midwest institution, none more prominent in downtown Columbus Ohio than F&R Laazarus & Company. For more than 150 years, F&R Lazarus & Company was the heart of downtown Columbus. Headed by the "first family of American retailing" with an eye for flair and a devotion to the customer, this uniquely midwestern institution won the hearts and minds of a community. Look to Lazarus draws on the memories of those who worked and shopped in this grand emporium to tell the un...

Prior to the Civil War, thousands escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. Untold others failed in the attempt.These unfortunate souls were dragged into bondage via the Reverse Underground Railroad, as it came to be called. With more lines on both roads than any other state, the Free State of Ohio became a hunting ground for slavecatchers and kidnappers who roamed the North with impunity, seeking "fugitives" or any person of color who could be sold into slaver...

2022 Foreword INDIES Gold Award WinnerMaster the simple formulas behind every great real estate deal for a foolproof investing strategy.Whether you’re looking to purchase your first rental property, scale a portfolio, or evaluate massive syndication deals, every great real estate deal comes down to a few key metrics. From cash flow to compound interest, Real Estate by the Numbers makes it easy for anyone to master the concepts that form th...

With the opening of the Ohio State Reformatory in 1896, the state legislature had put in place "the most complete prison system, in theory, which exists in the United States." The reformatory joined the Ohio Penitentiary and the Boys Industrial School, also central-Ohio institutions, to form the first instance of "graded prisons; with the reform farm on one side of the new prison, for juvenile offenders, and the penitentiary on the other, for all the more hardened and incorrigible class." ...

Every community begins with a dream - a dream of a better life Home to thousands of settlements extending as far back as 13,000 years ago, Ohio has seen most of its architectural history fall to the wrecking ball. But there is still history all around if we know where to look. Located south of Dayton, SunWatch is the best-known Fort Ancient Indian village in the United States. On the other side of the state, Marietta is the oldest permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. About fift...

YOU CAN KICK THE BOY OUT OF THE BAND...Some fifty years after Zack Black & the Blues Attack broke-up, the surviving members of the band still hadn't come to terms with it. For Wes Kennedy and Evan Bishop, the wounds still hadn't healed. But things were different for Will Black ever since he met Audrey Taylor, Zack's beautiful and wealth widow. You might say his life had landed "jelly side up." He was ready to move on, but the past wouldn't let him.B...

As early as 1755, explorers found coal deposits in Ohio's Hocking Valley. The industry that followed created towns and canals and established a new way of life. The first shipment of coal rolled into Columbus in 1830 and has continued ever since. In 1890, the United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus. Lorenzo D. Poston became the first of the Hocking Valley coal barons, and by the start of the twentieth century, at least fifty thousand coal miners and their families lived and ...

In the late 19th century Ohio was reeling from a wave of lynchings and other acts of racially motivated mob violence. Many of these acts were attributed to well-known and respected men and women yet few of them were ever prosecuted--some were even lauded for taking the law into their own hands.In 1892, Ohio-born Benjamin Harrison was the first U.S. President to call for anti-lynching legislation. Four years later, his home state responded with the Smith Act "for the Suppression of ...

Explore one of history's most notorious maximum-security prisons through these tales of mayhem and madness.As "animal factories" go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America's first vampire, accused of sucking his victims' blood five years before Bram Stoker's fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the o...