Memorials & Historical Markers
HARLEM TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS MEMORIAL
In March, 2014, Harlem High School Alumni President, John Barnhard, and Treasurer, Ted Wurm, attended the Township Trustees meeting to ask for permission to create a memorial to the Harlem Township Schools in the Community Park. At that meeting they also asked Vicki Tieche if she and Harlem Township Heritage would help.
Funds for the memorial were raised by selling commemorative bricks and pavers. Items from the old schools that had been saved by the Firemen’s Association and individuals were brought to the park area for cleaning and restoration work where needed. Plaques with pictures of the old schools were made as were posts to hold the two bells. Vicki oversaw the whole process leading up to the Dedication ceremony held on August 15, 2015 during Harlem Township Heritage’s Harlem Township Days.
There is room to add additional bricks and pavers to the memorial. Anyone wishing to purchase one can do so by contacting the township administrative assistant at admin@harlemtwp.com. Brick (4x8) pricing is $75, and pavers (8x8) are $100 each.
BRICK ORDER FORM
PAVER ORDER FORM
HARLEM TOWNSHIP OHIO HISTORICAL MARKERS
Harlem Township’s first Ohio Historic Marker honoring our first settlers, Benajah and Cassandra Cook, and their industry was dedicated on September 14, 2013. In the photo taken by Joni Manson, four descendants of this couple…Tom Paul (portraying Civil War Major General William Rosecrans), Connie Dillon, Ken Cook, and Jerry Paul … stand in front of the marker on Gorsuch Road. The effort to obtain the marker was begun by Mike and Diane Kabler who live near the original Cook cabin site during the Harlem Township Bicentennial in 2010 and completed through the efforts of Harlem Township Heritage.
Marker Text
BENAJAH COOK SAWMILL AND FARMSTEAD
Benajah Cook and the families who settled in Harlem Township, Delaware County, are honored for creating a community of productive farms. The Benajah Cook family arrived when the land was forested and settled on 500 acres of the 4,000 acres that Benajah purchased at a sheriff’s auction on June 12, 1807. The millrace, visible along the north side of Duncan Run near the Gorsuch Road bridge is the last vestige of the sawmill operated by Benajah on the Cook farmstead. The Cook farmstead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Side 2
Upstream from the millrace are traces of the foundation for a dam or wooden weir constructed across Duncan Run. Logs were floated down Duncan Run at times of high water and stored in the mill pond. They were then sorted and moved single file along the race to the sawmill. The millrace facilitated the movement of logs and turned the mill wheel that drove the up and down motion of the saw. The lumber produced was used primarily in construction on local farms, and the cleared land became farm fields.
Harlem Township Heritage, Inc
Ohio Historical Society
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
Standing left to right - :Thompson family descendants - Landon Thompson, Brody Thompson, Daniel Thompson, Tabitha Thompson, Scott Thompson, Brooke Thompson, Audrey Thompson, Karen Thompson, Sherry Smiley, Sitting-back row:- Lisa Thompson, LeeAnn Stewart, Theresa Smiley, Sitting-front row:- Emmaretta Thompson, Baylee Jo Thompson, Remington Thompson. Photo by Joni Manson
Obtaining this Ohio historic marker honoring Richard W. Thompson took several years of research and effort by Thompson family member Lisa Thompson and Vicki Tieche of Harlem Township Heritage. The marker was dedicated on Veteran’s Day weekend, 2019. Richard Thompson was a Fife Major and Drum Major during the Revolutionary War and Master Musician of the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. Two Revolutionary War fifer re-enactors played fife music as parts of the dedication ceremony. The ceremony ended with an honor guard salute followed by a bugler playing taps. Text of this historic marker follows:
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
Tunes played on fife and drum regulated a soldier’s life in camp and his actions on the battlefield. Heard over the roar of battle and through the haze of smoke, fifes and drums – field music – communicated orders to massed troops quickly. Richard Willoughby Thompson (c. 1742-1837), buried in Fancher Cemetery, was a field musician during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. According to his grandson Henry’s recollections from the 1920s, Thompson was born in Dublin, Ireland, and enlisted in the British army, where his service culminated in his capture while picking blackberries. He switched allegiances, joined the colonials, and was sent to Virginia. Thompson was appointed the Fife Major of the 5th Virginia Regiment and remained a Fife Major as Virginia units organized during the war. (Continued on other side)
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
(Continued from other side) Thompson was appointed Drum Major of the 3rd and 4th Virginia Regiment in October 1779. As a fife or drum major, he was responsible for training other field musicians. During the War of 1812, Governor Return J. Meigs appointed the aged Thompson Master Musician of the Ohio Militia and he joined General William Henry Harrison’s Grand Camp near Upper Sandusky. Thompson trained and drilled field musicians and his “activity was rather remarkable for a man of his age,” noted an eyewitness. Thompson was tragically murdered on December 28, 1837. Rebekah Lee Thompson (1762-1852) is buried beside her husband Richard. Other known Revolutionary War veterans buried in Fancher Cemetery are Benajah Cook from Connecticut (Row 7); William Fancher from New York (Row 8); Zimri Hills from Connecticut (Row 10), and James Garlinghouse from New Jersey (Row 19).
HARLEM TOWNSHIP HERITAGE, INC. THE OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION
2019 County Code
In March, 2014, Harlem High School Alumni President, John Barnhard, and Treasurer, Ted Wurm, attended the Township Trustees meeting to ask for permission to create a memorial to the Harlem Township Schools in the Community Park. At that meeting they also asked Vicki Tieche if she and Harlem Township Heritage would help.
Funds for the memorial were raised by selling commemorative bricks and pavers. Items from the old schools that had been saved by the Firemen’s Association and individuals were brought to the park area for cleaning and restoration work where needed. Plaques with pictures of the old schools were made as were posts to hold the two bells. Vicki oversaw the whole process leading up to the Dedication ceremony held on August 15, 2015 during Harlem Township Heritage’s Harlem Township Days.
There is room to add additional bricks and pavers to the memorial. Anyone wishing to purchase one can do so by contacting the township administrative assistant at admin@harlemtwp.com. Brick (4x8) pricing is $75, and pavers (8x8) are $100 each.
BRICK ORDER FORM
PAVER ORDER FORM
HARLEM TOWNSHIP OHIO HISTORICAL MARKERS
Harlem Township’s first Ohio Historic Marker honoring our first settlers, Benajah and Cassandra Cook, and their industry was dedicated on September 14, 2013. In the photo taken by Joni Manson, four descendants of this couple…Tom Paul (portraying Civil War Major General William Rosecrans), Connie Dillon, Ken Cook, and Jerry Paul … stand in front of the marker on Gorsuch Road. The effort to obtain the marker was begun by Mike and Diane Kabler who live near the original Cook cabin site during the Harlem Township Bicentennial in 2010 and completed through the efforts of Harlem Township Heritage.
Marker Text
BENAJAH COOK SAWMILL AND FARMSTEAD
Benajah Cook and the families who settled in Harlem Township, Delaware County, are honored for creating a community of productive farms. The Benajah Cook family arrived when the land was forested and settled on 500 acres of the 4,000 acres that Benajah purchased at a sheriff’s auction on June 12, 1807. The millrace, visible along the north side of Duncan Run near the Gorsuch Road bridge is the last vestige of the sawmill operated by Benajah on the Cook farmstead. The Cook farmstead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Side 2
Upstream from the millrace are traces of the foundation for a dam or wooden weir constructed across Duncan Run. Logs were floated down Duncan Run at times of high water and stored in the mill pond. They were then sorted and moved single file along the race to the sawmill. The millrace facilitated the movement of logs and turned the mill wheel that drove the up and down motion of the saw. The lumber produced was used primarily in construction on local farms, and the cleared land became farm fields.
Harlem Township Heritage, Inc
Ohio Historical Society
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
Standing left to right - :Thompson family descendants - Landon Thompson, Brody Thompson, Daniel Thompson, Tabitha Thompson, Scott Thompson, Brooke Thompson, Audrey Thompson, Karen Thompson, Sherry Smiley, Sitting-back row:- Lisa Thompson, LeeAnn Stewart, Theresa Smiley, Sitting-front row:- Emmaretta Thompson, Baylee Jo Thompson, Remington Thompson. Photo by Joni Manson
Obtaining this Ohio historic marker honoring Richard W. Thompson took several years of research and effort by Thompson family member Lisa Thompson and Vicki Tieche of Harlem Township Heritage. The marker was dedicated on Veteran’s Day weekend, 2019. Richard Thompson was a Fife Major and Drum Major during the Revolutionary War and Master Musician of the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. Two Revolutionary War fifer re-enactors played fife music as parts of the dedication ceremony. The ceremony ended with an honor guard salute followed by a bugler playing taps. Text of this historic marker follows:
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
Tunes played on fife and drum regulated a soldier’s life in camp and his actions on the battlefield. Heard over the roar of battle and through the haze of smoke, fifes and drums – field music – communicated orders to massed troops quickly. Richard Willoughby Thompson (c. 1742-1837), buried in Fancher Cemetery, was a field musician during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. According to his grandson Henry’s recollections from the 1920s, Thompson was born in Dublin, Ireland, and enlisted in the British army, where his service culminated in his capture while picking blackberries. He switched allegiances, joined the colonials, and was sent to Virginia. Thompson was appointed the Fife Major of the 5th Virginia Regiment and remained a Fife Major as Virginia units organized during the war. (Continued on other side)
FIELD MUSICIAN RICHARD W. THOMPSON
(Continued from other side) Thompson was appointed Drum Major of the 3rd and 4th Virginia Regiment in October 1779. As a fife or drum major, he was responsible for training other field musicians. During the War of 1812, Governor Return J. Meigs appointed the aged Thompson Master Musician of the Ohio Militia and he joined General William Henry Harrison’s Grand Camp near Upper Sandusky. Thompson trained and drilled field musicians and his “activity was rather remarkable for a man of his age,” noted an eyewitness. Thompson was tragically murdered on December 28, 1837. Rebekah Lee Thompson (1762-1852) is buried beside her husband Richard. Other known Revolutionary War veterans buried in Fancher Cemetery are Benajah Cook from Connecticut (Row 7); William Fancher from New York (Row 8); Zimri Hills from Connecticut (Row 10), and James Garlinghouse from New Jersey (Row 19).
HARLEM TOWNSHIP HERITAGE, INC. THE OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION
2019 County Code
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