Wakeman, OH

Wakeman is a Huron County village on the Vermilion River named for Jesup Wakeman, an early land proprietor. Its history has more range than the size of the place suggests. An Underground Railroad account credits Leverett B. Hill of Wakeman with helping 103 freedom seekers in 1852, while a Cleveland Stone Company quarry operated north of town from 1877 into the early twentieth century, producing Berea Sandstone. Later, the Wakeman Red Caps gave the village a semi-pro baseball chapter in the 1930s and 1940s. Wakeman is northern Ohio in layers: river village, sandstone quarry, Underground Railroad history, and baseball field.