Dedication of Williamsport, Ohio marker. Alliance Review, June 15, 1953
#23. Dedication of Williamsport Marker
On June 14, 1953, the Alliance Historical Society dedicated a marker at the site of the first church in what is now known as Alliance. The event was covered in the June 15, 1953 edition of The Alliance Review and featured the picture shown here. On hand were Mayor Harley R. Ewing, Mrs. Fred (Dorothy) Donaldson, Mrs. Melvin (Ethel) Van Winkle, both from the Alliance Historical Society, and Congressman Frank T. Bow.
The marker paid tribute to the hardy pioneers who laid the foundations of Alliance in the Village of Williamsport and the men and women who are buried in the first cemetery where the United Brethren Church was built in 1819. The land was donated by William and Martha Teeters, who were among the first settlers in the area. The marker and cemetery can be visited on River Street on the north end of the city.
Williamsport marker on River Street
Williamsport was founded along the banks of the Mahoning River as early as 1805 and formally listed as settled in 1827. The settlers arrived from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. William Teeters had a gristmill and a sawmill along the banks of the Mahoning. The church was reportedly built from logs and had a burying ground next to it.
The markers for most of those buried here have decayed over the years with only a few stumps remaining. The gravestone for William and Martha was replaced in 1952, at the same time as the large marker was placed, by the Alliance Historical Society. It reads, in addition to their birth and death dates: To the memory of the two leaders of the Williamsport settlement.
The large memorial includes the names of those that could be deciphered from remaining tombstones in 1940 and includes veterans of the Civil War and John McIntire, who was killed by the collision of trains in Alliance on December 8, 1856.
The village of Williamsport was merged with the villages of Freedom and Liberty to the south in 1854 to form the Village of Alliance. This marker and cemetery are all that remain of this early settlement.