Shawnee grew rapidly after its founder, T.J. Davis, purchased land from fellow investors, including this site, where Israel Gordon’s farmhouse stood; within months of the town’s platting in March 1872, that farmhouse became the town’s first hotel, the O’Bear House, and commercial buildings and homes rose daily. After village government was established in 1874, a Town Hall and soon a two-story schoolhouse were built. Early residents came from older mining centers in southern Ohio, followed by immigrants from the British Isles, mostly Welsh along with Scots, English, and Irish, who clustered on separate hills that became known as Welsh Hill, Scotch Hill, and New England Hill. Germans and a small group of Italians, who settled in what became known as Italyville, also arrived, while town sentiment and laws barred African Americans and people from southern and eastern Europe from settling there because newcomers were often regarded as strike breakers who would flood the labor pool and lower wages. Main Street businesses included milliners, meat markets, dry goods stores, restaurants, a Chinese laundry, and many taverns, while two coal companies also ran company stores, and the New York Company is known to have paid miners in scrip redeemable only at its store. Professional services included doctors, lawyers, opticians, dentists, funeral directors, and a chiropractor. Churches flourished as well, including Primitive Methodist, Methodist Episcopal, Welsh Congregational, Welsh Presbyterian, Baptist, Church of Christ, Church of God, and Catholic congregations, along with small Lutheran and Jewish groups. Fraternal and social organizations such as the Odd Fellows, Pythians, Masons, Red Men, Maccabees, Hibernians, Foresters, and Princes of the Orient, along with women’s counterparts, maintained lodges there. Shawnee became a regional entertainment center with two opera houses, traveling Chautauqua and medicine shows, large Labor Day weekend celebrations and parades, and sporting events, including a victorious visit by the Cincinnati Reds in 1906. Two rail lines connected the town to the outside world, each with its own depot and telegraph office, and four newspapers operated during the boom era, the longest-lived being the People’s Advocate from 1891-1944. Political and labor rallies were common, attracting gubernatorial and presidential candidates including then Governor William McKinley and his presidential opponent William Jennings Bryan. By 1900, Shawnee had grown to about 4,000 people, making it the largest mining town created during the Hocking Valley coal boom era.