Side A: Western Reserve agriculturalist Charles Clement Jennings built the Casement House, also known as the “Jennings Place,” for his daughter Frances Jennings Casement in 1870. Designed by Charles W. Heard, son-in-law and student of Western Reserve master builder Jonathan Goldsmith, it is an excellent example of the Italianate style, featuring ornate black walnut woodwork, elaborate ceiling frescoes, and an innovative ventilation system. It remained in the Casement family until 1953. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Side B: Frances Jennings Casement (1840-1928) was a prominent and effective activist for women’s rights. She organized the Painesville Equal Rights Association in 1883 and served as the first president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association from 1885 to 1888. She worked closely with national leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton during this formative era in the women’s suffrage movement. Soldier and railroad builder, John Stephen “General Jack” Casement (1829-1909) served with distinction in the Civil War, rising from the rank of major to brigadier general of the 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was instrumental in the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, receiving the contract (with his brother Daniel) to lay the 1,044 miles of track for the Union Pacific Railroad between Fremont, Nebraska, and Promontory, Utah. He lobbied for statehood and women’s suffrage as a territorial representative from Wyoming (1868-1869), where women won the right to vote in 1869.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.