Between 1790 and 1850, waves of Anglo-Americans, African Americans, and European immigrants flooded the Old Northwest (modern-day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin). They brought with them a mosaic of Christian religious belief. Stephen T. Kissel draws on a wealth of primary sources to examine the foundational role that organized religion played in shaping the social, cultural, and civic infrastructure of the region. As he shows, believers from both traditional denominations and religious utopian societies found fertile ground for religious unity and fervor. Able to influence settlement from the earliest days, organized religion integrated faith into local townscapes and civic identity while facilitating many of the Old Northwest's earliest advances in literacy, charitable public outreach, formal education, and social reform. Kissel also unearths fascinating stories of how faith influenced the bonds, networks, and relationships that allowed isolated western settlements to grow and evolve a distinct regional identity. Perceptive and broad in scope, America’s Religious Crossroads illuminates the integral relationship between communal and spiritual growth in early Midwestern history.

Join the author in reliving Sylvania's over 180 years of history from footpaths to expressways and beyond, in volume three of an eight volume set. With 30 years of research she has included every subject imaginable that helped bring Sylvania to where they are today, with excellent schools, over-the-top parks and recreation, rich beautiful homes, commercial and industrial businesses and a quaint historical dowtown that looks like it was planned by Norman Rockwell himself. This book is a treasure trove of information for the thousands who have ancestors that once lived and helped Sylvania grow through these years. Located in northwestern Ohio, Sylvania is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio and for many years has been known as "the fastest growing suburb in Lucas County." A once rural farm community, between both the city and township they have grown from a combined 2,220 residents in 1910, to 48,487 in 2010. Over a short period of time the land has transformed into beautiful subdivisions of grand houses, so that now their subdivision names are all that remain to remind them of their once dense forests and sprawling farmlands. No longer can Sylvania be called the "bedroom community" of Toledo, because over the last 50 years they have done a lot more than sleep.