Busenbark / Dr. Charles F. Richter
1900 - 1985
Side A: Busenbark
In 1833, Robert Busenbark deeded land to the directors of School District No. 6 for Busenbark School. Twenty years later, Robert and son David granted a right-of-way on their property for a station on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad (CH&D). One of eleven depots in Butler County, Busenbark station attracted the Kinsinger-Augspurger Warehouse and the Kennel Grain Elevator to the area in the 1860s. The railroad also enabled the cross-roads settlement to host an American championship prize fight in 1867. Fighting with bare knuckles in an outdoor ring, Mike McCoole bested Aaron Jones in a match seen by thousands.
The Busenbark generating station supplied power to interurban lines until 1912 and later furnished electricity to local residents. Farmers and the Miami Poultry Yards depended on the trains and interurban to ship produce. The railroad depot disappeared between 1914 and 1916; the school closed after 1937; interurban service ended in 1939. All that remains of Busenbark is Busenbark Road, which was established in 1858.
Side B: Dr. Charles F. Richter
Charles F. Richter was born approximately one mile from Busenbark at Sunnyside Farm on Wehr Road, Overpeck. In 1909, his family moved to California. In 1928, Richter received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology and began work at the Seismology Laboratory. That same year, he married Lillian Brand, a creative writing teacher. Working with Beno Gutenberg, Richter developed a means to measure the magnitude of earthquakes, which was published as the Richter Scale in 1935. Richter also helped to establish the Southern California Seismic Array, a network of instruments that tracks the origin and intensity of earthquakes. He knew seven languages, authored textbooks, and devoted his life to seismology.
Marker is at the intersection of Hamilton-Trenton Road and Busenbark Road, on the right when traveling north on Hamilton-Trenton Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
