Jackson has a long-standing history of public works projects. In line with the city's small-town patriotism for the state of Ohio and the nation,&nbsp;the park was commissioned in 1901 after President McKinley was assassinated. In 1902, a commission was assigned to oversee the development of the park, but the strip of land remained empty until 2012 when the local Garden Lovers Club took over the project. Local historian Robert Ervin, who has written several books on the history of Jackson County, has been credited with the idea of renewing work on the park. The park was dedicated on July 23, 2013. 

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1848 in Niles, Ohio and served in the Union army in 1863. Prior to being elected president, McKinley served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and one term as the governor of Ohio. In 1896, McKinley was elected the 25th President of the United States and was re-elected in 1900. He was assassinated in 1901 in Buffalo, New York. McKinley's vice-president and successor was Theodore Roosevelt, a wealthy New Yorker, a self-made frontiersman, and a veteran of the Spanish-American war.

Book

Located on a triangular piece of land on East South Street, McKinley Park sits at the edge of the historic residential area in Jackson, Ohio. The park is one of several located in Jackson, and despite its small size, the park took 111 years to complete. After the assassination of native Ohioan President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York in 1901, the city of Jackson chose to dedicate a new park in his honor. A small schoolhouse sat on the park's current location in the 1800s, but the small strip of land was vacant by 1901. In 1902, a commission was appointed to oversee the establishment of the park. However, the project was abandoned, and the land set aside for the park was left empty. The park was not completed until 2012 and was dedicated in 2013. 

McKinley Park 

This tour begins at Jackson's centrally located park, Manpower, and ends at the Jackson County Veterans Memorial. It passes through the portion of historic residential area in Jackson and up Broadway street in the old section of the city. It then moves down East Main Street on what was part of the Kanawha Trail past the Cambrian hotel, the Jackson County Court-House, the James Rhodes Memorial, and the John Wesley Powell Memorial Plaza.

Most of the park is located on land that was once&nbsp;owned by the Globe Iron Company. Globe Iron was started by Welsh immigrant Thomas T. Jones who purchased and consolidated Globe Furnace and Fulton Furnace into a single iron company. Thomas T. Jones's grandson, John E. Jones, was the innovator of silvery pig iron (a type of iron with a high concentration of silicon). Silvery pig iron had special applications due to its high heat tolerance, and Globe Iron became the world's leading manufacturer of silvery pig iron. The second leading manufacturer of silvery pig iron was Jackson Iron and Steel Company (JISCO). John E. Jones was a major shareholder of JISCO.&nbsp; Globe Iron was in operation for nearly a century. The Globe plant&nbsp;was located across the street from Manpower where the Jackson Square Shopping Center is currently located. Thomas T. Jones began the company in 1872, but in 1960, an explosion occurred at Globe that killed one person and injured several others. The damage to the facility was too extensive to be repaired, and Globe Iron was closed permanently. As a result,&nbsp;Globe offices located across the street were converted into the Manpower Training Center. The Manpower Center operated as a vocational school to help train workers for new jobs after Globe Iron closed. In the early 1980s however, this&nbsp;training facility also closed. The park was named in honor of Manpower after the company donated the&nbsp;land to the center to create this park.&nbsp;

One of several parks for residents of Jackson, Manpower Park was made possible by the donation of land to the city by the Manpower Training Center. On June 9, 2014, it was officially renamed Manpower Park, dedicated in honor of Admiral Stanley R. Arthur. A graduate of Jackson High School, Admiral Arthur served as a Naval officer for 38 years. Between the years 1992-1995, Arthur was the second-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy as Vice Chief of Naval Operations. In his early career, he was a combat pilot in Vietnam, and he retired from the Navy in 1995.  

Manpower Park Dedicated in Honor of Admiral Stanley R. Arthur

Jackson has a long-standing history of public works projects. In line with the city's small-town patriotism for the state of Ohio and the nation,&nbsp;the park was commissioned in 1901 after President McKinley was assassinated. In 1902, a commission was assigned to oversee the development of the park, but the strip of land remained empty until 2012 when the local Garden Lovers Club took over the project. Local historian Robert Ervin, who has written several books on the history of Jackson County, has been credited with the idea of renewing work on the park. The park was dedicated on July 23, 2013. 

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1848 in Niles, Ohio and served in the Union army in 1863. Prior to being elected president, McKinley served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and one term as the governor of Ohio. In 1896, McKinley was elected the 25th President of the United States and was re-elected in 1900. He was assassinated in 1901 in Buffalo, New York. McKinley's vice-president and successor was Theodore Roosevelt, a wealthy New Yorker, a self-made frontiersman, and a veteran of the Spanish-American war.

Lillian E. Jones was born in 1893 and died in 1991 at the age of 98. The building that is now the Lillian E. Jones museum was originally built in 1867 by Horace L. Chapman, who established the First National Bank of Jackson. In 1921, Lillian's family bought the house after the death of Lillian's father, Edwin Jones. The Jones family had the house renovated by Frank L. Packard, the same architect that designed the Cambrian Hotel, built by Lillian's father in 1901. In 1921, Lillian was living in New York but returned to take care of her ill mother and lived in Jackson for the rest of her life.&nbsp; The Jones family was an extremely influential family in Jackson for more than a century. Lillian's great-grandfather, Thomas T. Jones immigrated from Wales in 1834 and was one of the founders and first president of Jefferson Furnace, established in 1854. In 1872, Thomas T. Jones purchased the Globe Iron and Fulton Furnaces in Jackson and established the Globe Iron Company. Globe Iron Furnace once stood where Eddie Jones Ball Field currently resides on West Main Street, and Fulton Furnace once stood on East&nbsp;Main Street across from the current location of Walgreen's Pharmacy.&nbsp; Thomas T. Jones had four sons, including Lillian's grandfather Eben Jones. Eben Jones was a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War and was involved in Jefferson Furnace. One of his sons was Lillian's father, Edwin Jones. The director of the Lillian E. Jones Museum, Megan Malone, has cited Edwin Jones as Jackson's first economic developer. Edwin Jones was involved in the local coal mining industry, the Jackson Mill and Lumber Company, the Diamond Flint Glass Company, Crown Pipe &amp; Foundry, Globe Iron Company, and the DT&amp;I Railroad Company.&nbsp; Edwin Jones's younger brother was John Ellsworth Jones, who was one of the presidents of the Globe Iron Company. John E. Jones was the innovator of silvery pig iron, a form of pig iron with a high concentration of silicon. Silvery pig iron requires higher temperatures to produce than normal pig iron and has special applications that require a higher heat tolerance, such as in molds. Globe Iron Company became the world's leading producer of silvery pig iron until 1960 when an explosion permanently halted the foundry's production.

The Lillian E. Jones Museum opened in 1995 and offers exhibits that interpret the history of Jackson and surrounding communities. While the region is home to several museums that are open on a seasonal basis, this museum is open throughout the year. The museum is located in the former home of Lillian E. Jones, daughter of local businessman and philanthropist Edwin Jones. Lillian E. Jones passed away in 1991 and donated her home under the condition that it serve as a local history museum. Recognizing that similar efforts to create local history museums had stalled in the past, Jones added a proviso in her will that this home was to be demolished if it had not been converted into a local history museum within five years of her death. Civic leaders and local residents began collecting materials, and within four years the house was converted into the Lillian E. Jones Museum. 

Lillian E. Jones Museum

Hotel owner Edwin Jones was the grandson son of Thomas T. Jones, one of the founders of Jefferson Furnace and founder of the Globe Iron Company. Edwin Jones was heavily involved in the Jackson community, and at one time, he served as mayor of Jackson and as a councilman. He was an economic developer in the city, and after the Cambrian was completed, he sold the building and moved on to other projects. The Cambrian had several owners and was restored in 1984.2&nbsp;The building is no longer a hotel but is still the most striking feature of downtown Jackson. This location was originally the site of the Isham House, which served as one of the two hotels in Jackson during the 1860s along with the Gibson House. During Morgan's Raid, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan stayed at the Isham House on the night of July 16, 1863, when he and his raiders came through Jackson. The next morning, Morgan and his men split forces and left the city. One brigade went southeast to Galia County, while Morgan and the rest headed east where they met 1,500 Ohio militiamen at Berlin Crossroads. As Morgan approached the town, a Confederate scout was shot and killed by an Ohio militiaman. Morgan retaliated by bombarding the militia's position for two hours before attacking. The battle at Berlin Crossroads lasted a total of three hours, and, although the Morgan was outnumbered three to one, militia commander Benjamin Runkle was forced to retreat.

Built by Edwin Jones and designed by Frank L. Pickard, the Cambrian Hotel represented the growth of the city of Jackson as an iron processing center and transportation hub at the turn of the century. Construction of the hotel began in 1900, and the hotel opened in 1902. The word "Cambrian" is a reference to Cambria, the name for Wales in the medieval period, reflecting the area's Welsh heritage. Though it currently serves as an apartment complex, the architecture and relative grandeur of this building serve as reminders of the growth of the city and the prosperity of those affiliated with the iron industry. Prior to the construction of the hotel, this site was home to the Isham House which hosted Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan when he stayed one night in Jackson during Morgan's Raid.

Cambrian Hotel 

Prehistoric people settled the region because of the salt, such as the unknown people made Leo Petroglyph, Ohio's oldest prehistoric site, and the Adena and the Hopewell. The Adena and the&nbsp;Hopewell were not two organized tribes, but two groups of associated tribes. In the 1700s, due to the Fur Trade and European encroachment in the east, tribes like the Shawnee, who became dominant in the area, pushed the people already living in the area west or assimilated them into their own society.&nbsp; The natural salt deposits found in Jackson attracted animals and people to the location for thousands of years. Prehistoric animals inhabited and migrated to the area because it was a source of salt. In the 1970s, the fossilized remains of a woolly mammoth were found near Jackson and this particular species of the mammoth was subsequently named Elephas Jacksoni. The City of Jackson was founded in 1817 and was one of the first settlements established in the Northwest Territory. Prior to the incorporation of the city, the original settlement was established in 1795 and known as Salt Lick Town. This name reflected the many natural salt deposits in the area. At the height of production, twenty salt furnaces (boilers) were operating along Salt Lick Creek, a small stream that runs through the city.&nbsp; Jackson is located in what is referred to as the Hanging Rock Region, which spans from Kentucky to Southern Ohio and is rich in iron deposits.&nbsp;Other settlements along the Salt Lick Creek include Poplar Row (named for the tulip poplars that are plentiful in the area), Purgatory (most likely named for the salt furnaces), and Salt Lick Town (currently Jackson). In 1804 the first post office opened in Salt Lick Town, and in 1817 the city of Jackson was established, named after Andrew Jackson who was already nationally popular&nbsp;for his victory at the Battle of New Orleans. By 1826, the salt industry in Jackson had halted and was replaced by the iron industry. Over sixty iron furnaces operated in the region during the iron boom of the mid 19th century, and eleven of these were located in Jackson County. During the Civil War, most of the iron produced in Jackson County was purchased by the Union army. As an example of the significance of iron produced in this region during the war, the U.S.S Monitor was made from iron from the Jefferson Furnace. &nbsp; In 1885 the first apple orchard was established in Jackson, and during the mid 20th century, agricultural apple production replaced iron as Jackson's leading industry. In 1950 Jackson produced 500,000 bushels of apples. Although the Richards Brothers Orchard is the only orchard that remains in operation, Jackson continues to honor this heritage annually with its Apple Festival which features the largest annual parade in the state.&nbsp; After World War I, all of the charcoal furnaces in the Hanging Rock Region had ceased production. The only iron furnaces left in operation were the more advanced coke furnaces that were developed in 1870. However, in&nbsp;Jackson,&nbsp;the iron industry remained the basis of the city's economy. In the 1930s, Globe Iron was the world leader in the production of silvery pig iron, a form of iron with that features a high silicon content. Globe's leading competition was Jackson Iron &amp;Steel Company (JISCO), also located in Jackson. On September 4,&nbsp;1960, the Globe Furnace exploded. At this time the Globe's sister foundry Fulton Furnace was still in operation. By 1969, however, both Globe Iron Company and JISCO were closed. Famous residents of the town include explorer John Wesley Powell, the first person of European descent to reach the Grand Canyon. Powell lived in Jackson during the 1930s and became an amateur historian and archaeologist. Among other notable inhabitants of Jackson are&nbsp;country musician Bobby Bare, Ohio's longest-serving governor James A. Rhodes, and Frank Crumit, a musician and author of the Ohio State fight song.

The building that serves as the current Jackson County Courthouse was built in 1868. This structure replaced the previous courthouse, which was constructed at this location in 1819 and destroyed by a fire in 1860. On January 17, 1951, an electrical fire broke out and consumed the bell tower, which was later replaced. The county's records were not damaged in the 1951 fire, and no other other permanent damage was done to the building. 

Jackson County Courthouse

James A. Rhodes was born in Coalton, Ohio on September
13, 1909. He attended school in the nearby city of Jackson. While he was very
young, his father died, and his mother told the family that all they were going
to know from then on was hard work. Indeed, Rhodes worked as a janitor and
turned peanuts in the roaster at the local ice cream shop, Michael's Ice Cream,
as a child. Rhodes never forgot his childhood in Jackson: For his 89th
birthday, Rhodes returned to Michael’s and served customers. And when the
Jackson City Schools were looking for a new mascot, he wrote to one of the
local newspapers and suggested that the new mascot should be the Ironmen, in
honor of Jackson's long history in the iron industry.

Rhodes served his first eight-year term
from 1963 to 1971 and his second from 1975 to 1983. During those times, he expanded
the state university system to include twelve schools and established the Ohio
vocational school system, building forty-nine facilities. He was one of the
founders of the Pan-America Games and Rhodes's Raiders, a team that traveled
the world enticing businesses to locate themselves in Ohio. He was the first
governor to lead a trade mission to China. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">He also led
the way in building Ohio's part of the Appalachian highway system, without
which the two main lanes
of traffic north to south and east to west would not exist. </a><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null"> </a>

James A. Rhodes is one of only six Ohio governors to serve two eight-year terms. He is well-known in part because he sent the Ohio National Guard to Kent State University in May 1970 after the campus ROTC building was burned by an unknown arsonist. The subsequent shootings on campus led to the death of four students while nine others were injured. Still, Rhodes is generally remembered favorably because of improvements he made while in office. Under Rhodes, the Ohio State Fair turned into the largest in the nation, Ohio became the leader in the development of interstate highways, and Ohio’s park system was extended. 

James A. Rhodes Memorial

John Wesley Powell was born in 1834 and moved to Jackson, Ohio in 1838 from New York. Powell's family was politically liberal, and he was bullied by his peers because of it. The Powells decided that it was best to get a private tutor for John and found one in John Crookham. Crookham was a salt boiler, educator, geologist, local historian, and abolitionist. One of Crookham's primary interests was the discovery of the region's pre-settlement history. To that end, he collected Native American and pre-historic artifacts and wrote a book on the history of the region. Many of the artifacts that Crookham collected were lost in a fire when a group of local Jacksonians burned Crookham's home for his abolitionism (many of the people of Jackson were originally from Virginia, a slave state). Crookham's tutelage of the young John Wesley Powell inspired his interest in geology, although his family left Jackson in 1846.&nbsp; After the outbreak of the Civil War, John joined the Union Army and held the rank of Lieutenant in the 20th Illinois Infantry. In 1862 he fought along with Generals Grant and Sherman at the battle of Shiloh where he lost his right arm. In 1869 he led a nine-man expedition on the first full-length exploration of the Colorado River, including exploration of the Grand Canyon. In 1871 Powell led another expedition that again led him to the Grand Canyon. Powell was a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University and helped to found the U.S. Geological Survey. He was the organization's director from 1881 to 1894.&nbsp;

Located in the John Wesley Powell Memorial Plaza, the John Wesley Powell Memorial is dedicated to the one time Jackson resident and geologist. The building contains artifacts pertaining to Powell, who was the first American to navigate the length of the Colorado River and explore the Grand Canyon in 1869. Powell moved with his family from New York to Jackson in 1838 when he was four years old and lived in Jackson until 1846. As a child, Powell was tutored by Jackson resident George Crookham, a salt boiler, educator, and abolitionist. Later in life, Powell remembered to credit Crookham as the person that inspired his interest in geology. 

John Wesley Powell Memorial 

This site has a long-standing history. Main Street runs along the Kanawha Trail, which has served as a natural highway for centuries. The trail was initially blazed by bison as they passed through seeking the plentiful salt licks in the region. Native Americans settled the area because of the same salt licks and used the trail that had been created by the bison. The Shawnee used the trail on their way to raid frontier Virginian settlements, and during the fur trade, the trail was used by fur trains. The trail ran from the Kanawha River Valley across to Circleville, Ohio and the Scioto Trail.&nbsp; The location is also the former site of the Gibson House. The Gibson House was a hotel that operated in Jackson during the Civil War and continued to operate until it was abandoned in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, the Gibson House was demolished by the city along with the city's second high school, Kinison. When General John Hunt Morgan stopped in Jackson during his famous raid through Indiana and Ohio, some of Morgan's men stayed at the Gibson House while Morgan himself stayed at the Isham House, located down the street where the Cambrian currently sits. The Memorial has plaques dedicated to all the men from Jackson County awarded the Medal of Honor, including John Wollam. John Wollam was among the first recipients of the Medal of Honor, along with the rest of the volunteers who took part in Andrew's Raid, otherwise known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The goal of the raid was to damage and disrupt the Confederate infrastructure. The raid ended in failure, but all of the eligible participants were awarded the Medal of Honor.&nbsp;

Located on Main Street a short distance from the county courthouse, the Jackson County Veterans Memorial sits on the location where the Gibson House hotel once stood. The memorial is dedicated to all of the past and future veterans of Jackson County. The memorial features the names of Jackson County's veterans with special plaques for Jackson County's prisoners of war and those missing in action. The memorial also features three distinct plaques for each of the county's Medal of Honor recipients: Private James Compston, Private John Wollam (both of the Union army), and Sargent Donald R. Long (Vietnam). 

Scenic Jackson Tour

McKinley Park

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information