New Book Releases

Now a bustling city of more than 50,000 residents, Cleveland Heights, situated just six miles from Cleveland's Public Square, boasts a history that begins well before its own incorporation. The region was once home to Native American tribes including the Erie and Seneca, and stalwart pioneers established settlements in the area as early as the late eighteenth century. In the post-Civil War period, as Cleveland was becoming an industrial metropolis, affluent residents began moving to the newly developed "garden suburbs," anxious to live closer to nature and farther from the smoky city and its increasingly diverse population. Born of this same desire, Cleveland Heights was founded in 1901. Here, in this isolated countryside owned by substantial families like the Silsbys, Minors, Comptons, and Taylors, entrepreneurs and city officials envisioned a clean and comfortable suburb for Cleveland's elite. Officially designated a city in 1921, Cleveland Heights quickly became not the homogenized suburb envisioned by early developers, but a community of widely divergent neighborhoods and people. Newcomers belonged to varying class, religious, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. A century after its founding, Cleveland Heights has become an "inner-ring urban suburb," boasting gracious homes of architectural distinction and attractive parks, but also facing the modern challenges of a dwindling population and commercial districts in need of economic revitalization. This new volume illustrates, in both word and image, the evolving life of Cleveland Heights from its beginning as part of East Cleveland Township, one of the region's first suburbs, to the present day.

Truly a model community of the best that small-town America offers, Salem, Ohio, represents good values, a peaceful setting, and a host of men and women grounded in prudence, integrity, and resolve. The combination of Quaker spirituality and pioneer resourcefulness helped its first settlers in the beginning of the nineteenth century to carve out a lasting home in America's beckoning wilderness. Against a backdrop of two centuries, Salem evolved from a simple Quaker outpost into a thriving community—one that would participate and influence many major events in our nation's history. Salem: A Quaker City History documents the town's unique story over the past 200 years, beginning with Elisha Schooley's cabin in 1801 and spanning the town's evolution over the succeeding decades. Within these pages, readers meet the town's earliest citizens and its founding fathers, Zadok Street and John Straughan, and experience firsthand the changing landscape through the struggles and triumphs of Salem's new settlers seeking opportunity and freedom. This devotion to freedom is at the very heart of the town's identity, having served as an outspoken advocate for emancipation and woman's suffrage and providing legions of its young men in service to the country in times of military conflict.

The early west-central Indiana town of Crawfordsville saw the passage of several Native American tribes, as well as French traders and missionaries, traveling along Sugar Creek. Flourishing as the county seat, the city was buoyed by the railroad, horses, and higher education, and is most well known for Wabash College, outstanding American authors such as Lew Wallace (Ben Hur), and the Federal Land Office. Overcoming hardships along the way, the residents' fortitude and commitment to the city's growth enabled them to persevere and establish this lucrative and charming community.

From early encounters with Native Americans to today's thriving tourism industry, Watertown, Wisconsin has proven itself a friendly and welcoming city. The large German population belies the fact that New Englanders actually began the process of taming the Rock River and the land that would become Watertown. This land, surrounded by an oxbow in the Rock River, began calling to American pioneers such as Timothy Johnson in 1836, a siren song of rolling hills and grand rapids. Sawmills, plank roads, and the railroad spurred the town's growth and prosperity, but the people still had obstacles to overcome. Watertown's resolute citizens now work hard to preserve their history while encouraging growth and change.

Watertown: A History is the story of how a serene village became a center for industry, shopping, and recreation while focusing on its best asset-the energetic and hardworking people who lived the Watertown story. Readers will discover how riots broke out when politics took center stage just before the Civil War due to strong anti-Republican sentiments. The bond scandal only decades later is highlighted as the event that plunged Watertown into her darkest days. This volume recounts these stories and more through both images and narrative, fostering a deep respect for the commitments and sacrifices made by its residents of today and yesterday.

The history of Chicago Heights mirrors the growth and struggles of the entire nation. From determined settlers to visionary industrialists, from the power of rail to the vast intercontinental highway system, this Illinois city of hard workers and dynamic ethnic groups persevered through overwhelming obstacles to claim its place at the center of the Industrial Revolution.

Ed Lentz takes readers on a photographic journey of the Arch city through history from National Road to capital city.

From the enigmatic Moundbuilders who left their mark in the heart of the Buckeye State to the National Road and Ohio Canal that drew an influx of settlers to the burgeoning capital, Columbus blossomed into an industrial hub that became the world's largest producer of buggies. The Arch City--with its illuminated streetcar arches curving gracefully through downtown--struggled through social and political unrest to thrive on its economic success and grow into a diversified capital city.