BAINBRIDGE, Ohio — The village will dedicate its new Nathaniel Massie Memorial Park at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony honoring the Revolutionary War soldier and surveyor who founded Bainbridge in 1805.
The dedication is being organized with American Legion Post 14 and will include remarks from Village Administrator Lewis Ewry and a keynote address from Lydia Mihalik, director of the Ohio Department of Development, according to a program of events released by the Bainbridge Fire Department.
The ceremony will open with the national anthem performed by McKenna McFadden, followed by Ewry’s welcome and acknowledgements. American Legion Post 14 Ladies Auxiliary Chaplain Mindy Campbell is scheduled to speak, and local performer David Tillis will portray Massie during the program. Mihalik will then join village officials and other local and state dignitaries for the official ribbon cutting, with the ceremony closing with a benediction.
Massie, born in Goochland County, Virginia, in 1763, was a Revolutionary War soldier who came to the Northwest Territory as a surveyor. Appointed a deputy surveyor in 1790, he platted roughly 750,000 acres across the Virginia Military District over the following decade and used his land claims to found more than a dozen Ohio towns, including Manchester in 1791, Chillicothe — Ohio’s first capital — in 1796, and Bainbridge in 1805. He went on to serve as a Ross County delegate to Ohio’s 1802 constitutional convention and as the first president of the Ohio Senate. Massie died in 1813.
American Legion Post 14, also known as the Luther Giffin Post, has operated in Bainbridge since 1946, supporting local veterans and families alongside its Ladies Auxiliary and Sons of the American Legion squadron.
Organizers said parking and seating at the park will be limited and are asking attendees to bring a lawn chair.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Bainbridge Fire Department.
