Description: Early map of the city of Gallipolis, Ohio, titled "A Tract of Land granted By The Congress to The French Inhabitants of Gallipolis," surveyed by Absalom Martin. The map shows 92 plots of land making up the city along the Ohio River. In 1790, land speculators representing the Scioto Company persuaded several hundred French immigrants to come to the United States. The immigrants built a settlement in the Ohio Country called Gallipolis, meaning "city of the Gauls." Once the French arrived, they discovered that the company's representatives had misled them. The land that they had purchased actually belonged to the Ohio Company of Associates rather than to the Scioto Company. Many of the immigrants returned to the East. Those who chose to stay had either to pay the Ohio Company for their land or move to the area set aside for them by the American government known as the French Grant. The French faced great difficulties during the early years of the town's settlement. Disease was common in the community due to the town's swampy conditions, and approximately one-third of the French settlers died from these diseases. Gallipolis grew relatively slowly, despite its location along the Ohio River. By the 1880s, just over one thousand residents lived in the town. Numerous businesses operated in Gallipolis, with many of the manufacturing establishments making furniture, stoves, or carriages. Today, Gallipolis has a population of just over five thousand people, and is the county seat of Gallia County. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MAPVFM0260_2
Subjects: Gallipolis (Ohio); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Maps--Ohio; Ohio River;
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio);
 

Description: Ohio River at Gallipolis, Gallia County, Ohio. The photograph was taken ca. 1940-1949. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00344
Subjects: Gallipolis (Ohio); Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio)
 

Description: The East Hall at the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics. The hospital facility was a former Union Hospital site during the Civil War. Before the use of this hospital there did not exist any hospitals for epileptics within the United States. The reason for this hospital was to provide for those who were afflicted with epilepsy who could not find support or support themselves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06814
Subjects: Hospitals--Ohio; Medicine--History; Gallia County (Ohio); Gallipolis (Ohio)
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio); Ohio
 

Description: An aerial view of the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics. he hospital facility, a former Union Hospital site during the Civil War, was the first of its kind in the United States. Before the use of this hospital there did not exist any hospitals for epileptics within the United States. The reason for this hospital was to provide for those who were afflicted with epilepsy who could not find support or support themselves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06817
Subjects: Hospitals--Ohio; Medicine--History; Gallia County (Ohio); Gallipolis (Ohio)
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio); Ohio
 

Description: This photograph is a view of the front exterior and one side of Our House Tavern, Gallipolis, Ohio, ca. 1960s-1970s. Much of the front exterior is covered with ivy or a similar plant. The three-story brick tavern, built in the Federal style, dates from 1819, when it was built by Henry Cushing and his sister Elizabeth in this Ohio River community. The tavern acquired its popular name because Henry Cushing invited Ohio River travelers to "come over to our house." The Cushing family operated the tavern until the 1860s. Our House was the center of the Gallipolis community’s social life for many years. It featured a taproom, dining room, ladies' drawing room, a ballroom, and accommodations for overnight guests. On Independence Day, 1820, the citizens of the town, after conducting appropriate ceremonies at the court house, paraded to Cushing’s Tavern with a military escort in full regalia. Our House was also the place where General Marquis de Lafayette, then on his triumphant tour of America, was entertained on Sunday, May 22, 1825, by the prominent citizens, an event which has lingered in the city’s memory so vividly that it is customarily marked with an annual event. During the Civil War the building was a receiving hospital. It later became a private residence and then a boarding house. Charles E. Holzer, Sr., M.D., and his wife, Alma Vomholt Holzer, purchased Our House in 1933, refurbished it, and donated it to the state of Ohio in 1944. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06658
Subjects: City and town life; Taverns (Inns); Bars (Drinking establishments); Genealogy & local history; Gallipolis (Ohio); Historic houses
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio)
 

Description: First post office in Gallipolis, established in 1794, Gallia County, Ohio. The photograph was taken ca. 1940-1949. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00345
Subjects: Gallipolis (Ohio); Other--Federal Government
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows a view of the Silver Bridge, which crossed over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio, via U.S. Route 35. Built in 1928 for $1.2 million, the 2,235-foot, two-way vehicular bridge was the first of its design in America and the second in the world. It was suspended on heat-treated eye-bar chains rather than woven-wire cable. It was the first bridge in the world to be painted with aluminum paint, which gave the bridge its distinctive silver color and thus its name. On December 16, 1967, the bridge collapsed during the afternoon rush hour, plunging vehicles and their occupants into the Ohio River. Forty-six people died. The immediate cause of the bridge failure was a defect in one of the eye-bars that caused it to break and its joint to fail, disrupting the entire structure's equilibrium. Construction of a replacement, the Silver Memorial Bridge, began in 1968. The Silver Memorial Bridge, which connects Galllipolis, Ohio, and Henderson, West Virginia, is located about a mile south of the old bridge's location. It opened to the public on December 15, 1969, the second anniversary of the disaster. This image of the Silver Bridge was among the photographs produced by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1943. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06387
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio River; Kanauga (Ohio); Gallipolis (Ohio); United States. Work Progress Administration; Disasters--West Virginia--Point Pleasant--History--20th century--Pictorial works; United States. Work Progress Administration
Places: Kanauga (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio)