Editing Louisville, Ohio (section)

==History==
On October 8, 1834, Louisville was formally settled by Henry Lautzenheiser, from Germany, and Henry Fainot, a French Huguenot. The city was named after Lautzenheiser's son, Lewis, and called Lewisville, Ohio. The name of the town was also considered appropriate because it was initially surveyed by the similar-sounding name of Lewis Vail.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} When the post office was established in 1837, with Sam Petree as its first postmaster, it was discovered Ohio already had a [[Lewisville, Ohio|Lewisville]], so the spelling was changed to Louisville.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IJtVP9WnXEC&q=Morrow+Ohio&pg=PA121 | title=This Day in Ohio History | publisher=Emmis Books | date=2005 | access-date=November 21, 2013 | author=Goodman, Rebecca | pages=121| isbn=9781578601912 }}</ref><ref>Smith, Kenneth R. Louisville – The Way It Was 1834–1990. Edited by Tracy Z. Poole. Second Edition. Canton, Ohio: Claymore Publishing, 1997.</ref>

Within Louisville's early days, the town competed with the fellow [[Nimishillen Township, Stark County, Ohio|Nimishillen Township]] community of [[Harrisburg, Stark County, Ohio|Harrisburg]] (also known as Barryville) for growth. Harrisburg initially flourished due to its accessibility as a [[stagecoach]] stop between [[Canton, Ohio|Canton]], [[Alliance, Ohio|Alliance]], [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]], and [[Pittsburgh]]. Meanwhile, Louisville also grew, due to its location upon the east branch of the [[Nimishillen Creek]], which flows toward Canton. However, when the [[Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway]] was laid through Louisville in 1852, Louisville began to grow more quickly than Harrisburg, which struggled with the difficulty of hauling its main product, wheat, by barge.<ref name="louisvilleohio.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.louisvilleohio.com/index.php/community/history |title=History |access-date=November 18, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141115170714/http://www.louisvilleohio.com/index.php/community/history |archive-date=November 15, 2014 }}</ref> Today, Harrisburg is now an [[unincorporated area|unincorporated community]], marked only by a handful of businesses and a [[Roman Catholic]] parish.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Harrisburg Populated Place Profile / Stark County, Ohio Data|url=https://ohio.hometownlocator.com/oh/stark/harrisburg.cfm|access-date=September 12, 2020|website=ohio.hometownlocator.com|language=en}}</ref>

On April 1, 1872, Louisville was officially incorporated as a village, with George Violand elected as Louisville's first mayor. By the late 19th Century, Louisville contained many quickly growing businesses, including: a plow manufacturing company, a wooden mill, a brewery, a basket factory, flour mills, tanneries, a brick yard, two hotels, a shoe factory, and a number of taverns/saloons (Louisville had twenty saloons at one point, giving the town a rather notorious reputation). Two of these businesses, Star Mill and the Town Tavern, remain open to this day. Furthermore, many of the buildings constructed within Louisville during this time period are listed upon the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. Such locations include [[St. Louis Church (Louisville, Ohio)|Saint Louis Catholic Church]], which was completed in 1870 and dedicated in 1878, and the city's historic downtown district, roughly bordered by Chapel Street, Lincoln Court, St. Louis Court, Nickelplate Street, East Gorgas Street, and Center Court.<ref>[[National Register of Historic Places listings in Stark County, Ohio]]</ref> The city's current weekly newspaper, ''The Louisville Herald'', was first published in 1887. For a brief time, the town also had a [[Roman Catholic]] college, established by the Reverend Louis Hoffer, located across the street from St. Louis Church. Called Saint Louis College, it opened in 1866 under the operation of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland|Diocese of Cleveland]]. The [[Congregation of St. Basil]] of [[Toronto]] assumed control of the college the following year, and Saint Louis College closed in 1873, due to lack of funds and transportation difficulties for the students. After briefly serving as an all-girls academy and a school for deaf mutes, The building became an orphanage under the guidance of the [[Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition|Vincentian Sisters of Charity]]. The Saint Louis Orphan Asylum closed in 1925, and became a [[hospice]] for the elderly, named St. Joseph's, in 1927. The old red brick building was razed in 1975, as St. Joseph's moved across the street from [[St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Louisville, Ohio)|St. Thomas Aquinas High School]]. A [[McDonald's]] is now located upon the site.<ref name="louisvilleohio.com"/><ref name="Smith, Kenneth R. 1997">Smith, Kenneth R. ''Louisville – The Way It Was 1834–1990''. Edited by Tracy Z. Poole. Second Edition. Canton, Ohio: Claymore Publishing, 1997.</ref>

The early 1880s saw the arrival of telephone toll lines to Louisville. Louisville's first public street lights, twelve oil burners, were lit downtown for Christmas 1884. In 1894, a public water system was established for Louisville, and a sewage system installation followed in 1910. The town's Main Street became Louisville's first fully paved road in 1914. In 1960, Louisville's residents voted for the village to become a city.<ref name="louisvilleohio.com"/><ref name="Smith, Kenneth R. 1997"/>

=== Constitution Town ===
Louisville is also known as the "Constitution Town" because a resident of Louisville, [[Olga T. Weber]], petitioned for the establishment of [[Constitution Day (United States)|Constitution Day]] for the United States in 1952. Her lobbying led the [[Ohio General Assembly]] to proclaim September 17 as a statewide "Constitution Day," under a law signed by then-governor [[Frank J. Lausche]]. The following year, Weber urged the [[United States Senate]] to declare the week of September 17–23 as "Constitution Week". Her request was approved by both the Senate and the [[United States House of Representatives]], and signed into law by President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. On April 15, 1957, Louisville's City Council officially declared itself "The Constitution Town."<ref name="louisvilleohio.com"/> The city continues to hold a "Constitution Week" celebration annually during the week of September 17.