Talk:Fredericktown, Ohio

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[edit] History

Long before white settlers entered the area, Mississippian Indians or more specifically Adena and Hopewell Indians inhabited the present day area of Fredericktown. Early settlers found three mounds and earthworks located on nearby hilltops. While the Raliegh Mound and Stackhouse Mound and Works are preserved today, the third mound, located by what is presently the Baptist Church, was demolished. These mounds were all visible from one another when there was no foliage or building obstruction. Both preserved mounds were most likely ceremonial structures and they are oriented towards the Sun's movements. When settlers arrived, all they found were these abandoned sites with few other traces of the people who lived there. There were a few scattered Native Americans that settled nearby along what was then the perifery of Indian Lands established by the Greenville Treaty Line.

The first white settler was John Kerr who in 1807 bought and platted the town and built a mill on the North Branch of the Kokosing River. Growth was sluggish until the Sandusky, Mansfield, and Newark Railroad came through the village in 1853. A grain elevator, a foundry, and other small trading businesses set up shop to establish Fredericktown more firmly as a business center than the nearby crossroad settlements of Batemantown and Waterford. Around World War II a small airplane panelling factory was built and later reverted to the furnature manufacturing. In the last half of the 20th century, a few light manufacturing operations and the largest privately owned general construction contractor in Ohio, Kokosing Construction, have been established.

Sources:

World Wide Web. Indian Burial and Sacred Grounds Watch: http://www.ibsgwatch.imagedjinn.com/learn/ohio.htm, 11/9/05

World Wide Web. Fredericktown Historical Society: http://www.fredericktown.net/historybrief.htm, 11/9/05