Trail of Hope

First little town in Ohio on the Trail of Hope.

The township was founded by Jonathan Fowler, who fell in love with Yellow Creek which flows through Poland. Fowler owned an inn near the river which still stands as the oldest building in Poland. 

For years after Revolutionary War, all over new United States, there was a feeling of gratitude and respect for those who had come from other countries to assist in the cause of freedom. This respect was quite often expressed by naming towns in honor of the heroes of that war. 

Poland statue, “American Freedom Fighters ” honors General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the brilliant engineer who fortified Bemis Heights during the battle of Saratoga in 1777 and was responsible for saving West Point during the war. 

His passion for Polish independence burned so greatly that he felt he must be a part of this quest for independence by fledgling nation called the United States of America.

Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski, a cavalry officer who is known as ” the father of America’s cavalry.”  He was killed in the Battle of Savannah in 1779 and is buried there.

A letter to George Washington from General Pulaski stated : ” I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.”
The people of Fowler’s place had the desire to honor these two foreign heroes and not to slight either man decided to name this community Poland after their country of birth.