As Ohio prepares to celebrate its 200th birthday, hundreds of historical markers for memorable people, places and events are sprouting across the state.

        Markers range from Sawyer's Point, where the role of the German-American community in Cincinnati's history is commemorated, to Steubenville, birthplace of singer Dean Martin, to Seward, where long before Woody Hayes and Ohio State football, Ohio and Michigan battled in the “Toledo War.”

        Some 500 markers now celebrate Buckeye bravery, honor, heritage and whimsy as the state moves toward its 200th birthday in 2003. By then, some 700 markers should be in place.

        The program, which began for Ohio's sesquicentennial in 1953, has been revitalized by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission with the help of funding from the Longaberger basket company of Dresden.

German-Americans' marker

        Don Heinrich Tolzmann of Mack appreciates it. He kept hearing the same question: “Why don't we have something to commemorate Cincinnati's German settlers?”

        That was answered in October, when a historical marker was erected at Sawyer Point, and the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati spoke a collective wunderbar.

        “We think the site is significant because the first German settlers arrived on the riverfront in 1788,” Mr. Tolzmann said. “They included David Ziegler, a veteran of the American Revolution and the man who would become the first mayor of Cincinnati. Despite that, he is rarely, if ever, mentioned today.”

        The marker program had slowed down in recent years because of the cost — $1,300 to $1,600 per marker.

        But now, state and local businesses are pitching in after Longaberger donated $100,000 to theprogram. As a result, local groups now must pay only one-third of the cost.

        “It has been given new life and emphasis” as the state prepares for its 200th birthday, said Fred Stratmann, a spokesman for the commission in Columbus.

        To put the marker situation into perspective, consider that it took almost 50 years to erect the state's first 400 markers, said J.D. Britton, director of local history for the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus. By 2003, he said, Ohio will have put up 300 more.

        “By reading markers, you realize that some fascinating things have happened in Ohio — things you never thought about before. We have markers for scientific inventions, major events, you name it. We even have a marker for the woman who named Hollywood, Calif. She's from Hicksville.”

        The German-American marker honors Cincinnati's heritage and explains how German-Americans have greatly influenced the social, cultural, economic and political life of the region.

        In the past month, the Bicentennial Commission's marker selection committee approved 20 more markers, including one commemorating the 1835 “Toledo War,” a violent boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan at the Fulton County village of Seward. Also approved was a marker for the William Holmes McGuffey House in Oxford. Mr. McGuffey wrote the influential Eclectic Reader.

        Another recently erected marker commemorates the site of the internment camp for Archibald Lochry's Expedition in 1781. At a location on East Miami River Road, near Cleves in Hamilton County, 64 survivors of his military expedition were held captive by a group of Indians led by British ally George Girty.

        They killed 37 militia members, including Col. Lochry. The survivors were taken to Detroit. Fewer than 20 returned home.

        “After the Revolutionary War, 12 prisoners in Col. Lochry's command settled in Ohio,” said Charles G. Edwards, a Delhi Township resident and historian for the Cincinnati chapter of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. “One, Issac Anderson, in 1812 moved his family first to the frontier settlement of Cincinnati. ... He kept a journal of the expedition and capture.”

        Mr. Edwards said the historical marker program is important because the past is important to the future of America.

        “According to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 5 million teen-agers don't know the true meaning of Independence Day,” he said. “One in five do not know from what country American declared its independence. One in 10 don't know the name of our first president.

        “These are staggering statistics. The historic marker should make a contribution toward educating our teen-agers to some of America's history and the history of their community.”

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