Echoes Magazine | November & December 2021

MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021 GILDED-AGE TANGLED WEB

SINCE 1971

AMAZING AND PRESERVED

FRÖHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN

Cleveland’s Cassie Chadwick

Ohio’s State Income Tax

Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks

German Christmas Markets in Dayton and Cincinnati

Page 22

Page 28

Page 34

Page 40

MAGA ZINE

Cover: Generations of northeast Ohioans shopped The May Company on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, advertised for many years as “Ohio’s Largest Department Store.”

Few shoppers had the chance to see the beauty of its white-glazed terra cotta details this close-up, though. Cleveland’s landmark Terminal Tower is in the background.

AutoHaus Image | Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

Vol. 60, No. 6 EDITORS

Contents N O V E M B E R & D E C E M B E R 2021

22

Cleveland’s Cassie Chadwick— A Gilded-Age Tangled Web

28

A Contentious, Politically Divisive Life— The 50th Anniversary of Ohio’s State Income Tax

34

Amazing and Preserved— Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ancient Landscape Architecture

40

Fröhliche Weihnachten— German Christmas Markets in Dayton and Cincinnati

Bill Eichenberger Tom Wolf CONTRIBUTORS

Stella Alleman Michael Cur tin

I N E AC H I S S U E

Brad Lepper Steve Stephens Tom Staf ford Amanda Wachowiak ADVISORY BOARD

Donna DeBlasio Youn gstown St ate Unive r sit y

Nishani Frazier Miami Unive r sit y

Rober t G enheimer Cin cinn ati Muse um Ce nte r

Stephen G eorge O hio Histor y Conne c tion

Alex Hastie O hio v. the World

G eorge Ironstrack Miami Unive r sit y

Chester Pach O hio Unive r sit y

Roger Pickenpaugh Historian an d Auth or

2 4 4 6 15 16 18 19 46 48 50

Contents From Our Editors What’s Your Story?

In the News Historic Sites & Museums At the Ohio History Center & Ohio Village Online Events Featured Events & Exhibits I Wish I’d Been There Young Eyes on the Past Reviews

Daniel Rivers T he O hio St ate Unive r sit y

Truda Shinker O hio Histor y Conne c tion

THANKS TO OUR OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION STRATEGIC PARTNERS:

Echoes Magazine (ISSN 0012-933X) is published bimonthly and distributed by the Ohio History Connection as a benefit of Ohio History Connection membership.

Editorial Offices: Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Phone 844.836.0012 • Email echoes@ohiohistory.org Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Echoes Magazine, Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Entire contents © 2021 by the Ohio History Connection.

All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted or electronically reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. The Ohio History Connection accepts no responsibility for facts and opinions expressed by the authors.

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Cleveland’s Cassie Chadwick A GILDED-AGE TANGLED WEB

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Cassie Chadwick’s wild rise to fame and fortune reads like a modern bank heist movie script. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Chadwick borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from Cleveland-area banks by claiming that she had promissory notes signed by her illegitimate father, Andrew Carnegie. She spent lavishly and appeared to be one of the wealthiest women in Cleveland. But when she didn’t pay back her loans, her creditors filed lawsuits and her entire scheme unraveled. Oh, and her name wasn’t Cassie Chadwick.

A Contentious, Politically Divisive Life THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF OHIO’S STATE INCOME TAX

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Death and taxes—it’s said they’ll always be with us. But some taxes have not always been with us. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ohio’s state income tax, enacted in 1971.

Michael Curtin looks at the origins of Ohio’s state income tax and how it has evolved over time.

Amazing and Preserved OHIO’S HOPEWELL CEREMONIAL EARTHWORKS, ANCIENT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

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The most amazing and best-preserved earthworks created by ancient American Indians, Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are masterpieces of creative genius, incorporating a sophisticated knowledge of geometry and astronomy in their designs. Considered together, they’re remnants of a 2,000-yearold Indigenous landscape architecture unlike anything else in the world, says author Brad Lepper, senior archaeologist for the Ohio History Connection’s World Heritage Program.

Fröhliche Weihnachten

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GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS IN DAYTON AND CINCINNATI Inspired by traditional German Christmas markets, members of Cincinnati’s Germania Society and Dayton’s Liederkranz-Turner Club roll out the stollen, pfeffernüsse and glühwein to celebrate the holiday season. Tom Stafford explores how the Dayton and Cincinnati Christmas markets came to be and where you can experience some gemütlichkeit this holiday season.

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What’s In every issue of Echoes Magazine, we feature the stories of Ohio History Connection members and other Ohioans to stoke memories and shed light on our shared past.

FROM OUR EDITORS What do the former May Company store in downtown Cleveland, central and southern Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and the Bancroft House overlooking Chagrin Falls all have in common?

All figure in stories in this issue of Echoes Magazine, all are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and all are connections to our shared past—literal Ohio history connections.

Generations of northeast Ohioans shopped at The May Company. Far earlier— about 2,000 years ago—generations of American Indians convened at the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in what’s now central and southern Ohio.

And recently in Chagrin Falls, a new generation of Ohioans recognized that, minus the Bancroft House atop Grove Hill, Chagrin Falls would be less, well, Chagrin Falls.

Folks in Chagrin Falls were inspired by the words of former National Trust for Historic Preservation president Richard Moe: “There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here or there, but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they embody.”

At the Ohio History Connection, we’re proud to be in the preservation business.

We preserve 50+ historic places directly (see page 15) and, through our State Historic Preservation Office, are partners in preserving many, many more. We manage Ohio’s National Register; review federal projects for potential effects on places eligible for it; and administer state and federal income tax credits that have resulted in more than $6.8 billion in private investment in more than 2,225 places that reflect our shared stories as Ohioans, preserving them and returning them to the tax base.

Our time is characterized in part by renewed appreciation of the local, whether locally grown foods, locally brewed beers or locally built landmarks. Forwardlooking Ohioans are realizing the economic and emotional benefits of planning for change in such a way that we can bring along the best of our past as we enter the future. We love being a partner in saving Ohio communities and the values they embody, and we love sharing stories like these in Echoes Magazine.

For this issue, we asked,

“ What are your fall traditions?”

Here are some of your responses: HAUNTED HOUSE Not all traditions are established in childhood. I started having an annual Halloween party in my 30s. A friend’s offer to provide a casket resulted in, thus far, 10+ years of an annual spooky event. After several parties at our house, we moved a few years ago into a condo complex where it was no longer practical to have guests walking about in absurd costumes and parking everywhere. I looked at rental facilities, but they lacked that certain eerie quality. As in any good horror story, I did not find our eventual location; while I was searching for an unrelated vacation spot, it found me: a beautifully haunting old farmhouse just south of Columbus which accommodated a dozen or so guests, perfect for a small but frightening gathering. Now every October we have a “Haunted Hiatus,” with a themed scavenger hunt on the first night and more of a traditional costumed affair on the second night.

Prizes are won, spiked cider consumed and many laughs are had by all, maybe even by ghostly guests that reside at the farmhouse. The Hiatus is our way of giving back to friends and enjoying a pause before winter creeps in. The casket is long gone, but our spooky tradition remains.

—Holly Johnston-Cook, Pataskala

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Your Story?

FALL TRADITIONS

Bert Drennen

JACKSON COUNTY APPLE FESTIVAL The chill is in the air, and leaves are falling. The remains of the family garden are being picked, canned, frozen and prepared for family meals in the winter. The apples in the trees are being picked to eat, make homemade pies and apple butter or stored for future use. In my hometown, an excitement is in the air as people anticipate the annual Jackson County Apple Festival. The town will be decorated for the event.

An apple queen and her court will be selected. Storefronts will focus on apples and their uses. The local school bands are preparing for the Wednesday and Saturday night parades. Local businesses, community organizations and civic groups are decorating floats and individuals are anxious for the many events that will occur. Booths will be open on two streets featuring apples in a number of ways—pies, candied apples, cider, apple butter and handiwork including woodwork, sewed items such as quilts, photography and artwork. A county once dotted with apple orchards is now mostly void of such due to labor costs. What I describe is what was once, but little of that exists today. The festival still exists, but it’s much smaller.

Dr. Doris Rhea-Coy, Pickerington

COVERED BRIDGES After attending The Ohio State University and spending 20 years in Columbus, I returned to my northeast Ohio hometown of Conneaut to rediscover the fall pleasures of Ashtabula County. Ashtabula County is known for its covered bridges and wineries, and there is a festival for every event. The county may be in the Snowbelt, but the days leading up to winter are celebrated with a passion.

With the vineyard harvest came the Grape Jamboree in Geneva. (My daughter’s Wildfire group marched

Festival-goers at one of Ashtabula County’s 19 covered bridges in the parade every year.) We lived overlooking a covered bridge, and the October Covered Bridge Festival feted each bridge with a sponsor such as a Boy Scout troop or church group. I still have a covered bridge calendar for every year of the festival with photos of all 18 bridges. Brant’s Apple Orchard had a fall festival with homemade doughnuts and fresh apple cider. The Antique Engine Club had a fall show, and there were Rib Burn Offs and Thunder on the Strip in Geneva-on-the-Lake. Every community welcomed Santa to town with a parade around Thanksgiving.

The fall leaves, Lake Erie and three wild and scenic rivers just add to the ambience of each outing. Every year, starting with the D-Day Reenactment in August, my house would overflow with friends and relatives wanting to get in on a little of our fall fun.

—Bert Drennen, Broadview Heights

HISTORY IN FAIRBORN Fairborn, Ohio, was the merging of two villages, Fairfield and—after moving the entire village in the 1920s—Osborn. This was a drastic change after the Dayton 1913 flood and the Huffman Dam was built.

This change worried the Osborn community that a major flood could happen again. So, the community said, “Move the village of Osborn next door to Fairfield!” They picked up houses and businesses with the help

of horses and tractors and moved them. The merged communities officially became Fairborn in 1950.

Fairborn is near where the Wright brothers invented and tested their flying machine. Visitors may see this site near Huffman Dam along Route 444 north of Dayton—thus the name of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Also nearby is the National Museum of the United States Air Force, with a collection of over 350 historic military air and space vehicles, starting with the Wrights’ 1909 military flyer.

The Fairborn area includes ancient historic sites as well. A few miles next door is the village of Enon’s ancient Adena Mound, second tallest conical burial mound in Ohio. Overlooking Huffman Dam and Huffman Prairie is the Wright Memorial, honoring the aviation inventors. Also located there are other ancient Adena mounds.

—Ann Ingoldsby, Fairborn and Enon Historical Societies

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? We want to know your stories, so in every issue of Echoes Magazine we ask you a question, then run selected answers in the following issue. Here’s the question for January & February: What is your occupation and what two or three books do you refer to on a regular basis?

Tell us about them.

Email your story responses (50 to 150 words) by Nov. 10 to echoes@ohiohistory.org or, if you follow us on Facebook, send us a Facebook message.

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Maineville: Bloomfield Schon + Partners and Turnbull-Walhert Construction for rehabilitating the 1918 Peters Cartridge Co. building at 1915 Grandin Rd. as the 134-unit Peters Cartridge Factory Apartments.

The project was undertaken using state and federal tax credits for historic preservation.

In the News State Historic Preservation Office Awards

The Preservation Merit Award is for preserving Ohio’s prehistory, history, architecture or culture.

Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, restoring, rehabilitating or otherwise preserving an important building or site; longtime stewardship of a property; promoting protective legislation; funding preservation projects; offering leadership, support or service; and furthering preservation at the local, regional or state level. The 2021 recipients are:

Five outstanding historic preservation achievements are being honored with the Ohio History Connection’s 2021 State Historic Preservation Office Awards. Ohio History Connection CEO and State Historic Preservation Officer Burt Logan is paying visits to each recipient this fall to present the awards.

Each year since 1984, the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office has recognized achievements in historic preservation by presenting awards in two categories: Public Education and Awareness, and Preservation Merit.

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND AWARENESS AWARD

The Public Education and Awareness Award is for increasing interest in historic preservation.

Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, media, newsletters, publications, interpretation, original research, educational programs and special events that have substantially increased public understanding and awareness of historic preservation at the local, regional or state level. The 2021 recipient is: Chagrin Falls: Save Grove Hill, Western Reserve Land Conservancy and Chagrin Falls Historical Society for the campaign to save the 1878 Bancroft House at 3 W. Summit St. in Chagrin Falls.

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Cleveland: Bedrock Detroit, GLSD Architects LLC, Geis Companies and Historic Preservation Group LLC for rehabilitating the 1914 home of The May Company department store at 158 Euclid Ave. on Public Square as a 307-unit luxury apartment building called The May. The project was undertaken using state and federal tax credits for historic preservation, which are administered by the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office and the Ohio Development Services Agency.

Cleveland: Millstone Management Group and Perspectus Architecture for rehabilitating the 1928 Music Hall in Public Auditorium at 601 Lakeside Ave. Cleveland: Woodland Cemetery Foundation,Kevin C. Robinette Architect LLC, McMahon Masonry Restoration, Sona Construction and the City of Cleveland for reconstructing the historic Woodland Cemetery Gatehouse at 6901 Woodland Ave.

Western Reserve Land Conservancy

PRESERVATION MERIT AWARD

Bancroft House, Chagrin Falls

Woodland Cemetery Foundation | Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

2021 RECIPIENTS HONORED

Learn more about this year’s recipients and explore past State Historic Preservation Office Award recipients at ohiohistory.org/hpawards.

AutoHaus Image | Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

The May, Cleveland Perspectus | Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

Perspectus | Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

Music Hall, Cleveland Bloomfield Schon + Partners Courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

Woodland Cemetery Gatehouse, Cleveland

Peters Cartridge Factory Apartments, Maineville OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Traditions

by Ben Garcia As I write this piece for the November & December issue, holidays are on my mind. Like many Ohioans, I have an extended family that celebrates many holidays and traditions. I was raised Catholic but have cousins and in-laws and nephews and nieces who are Jewish, Protestant and Baha’i. My paternal grandfather used to tell the story that when he first met his future in-laws, he was nervous about how they would react to his Jewish faith.

They were Methodists living in rural Virginia in the 1920s. At one point in the evening, when his in-laws asked about his religion, he told them he was Jewish and they exclaimed with relief, “Well that’s okay, we thought you might be Catholic!”

The industrial infrastructure of this nation was built in large part on steel produced in northeast Ohio by people who worked in dangerous and exhausting conditions to make a better future for themselves and their families. The churches, synagogues and social clubs around Youngstown speak to the many religious and cultural traditions of the

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The gray days of November and December are brightened considerably by the celebrations of Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. November is a time to honor our veterans and their families, as well as the Native American ancestors who lived on these lands for thousands of years and whose descendants are carrying forward their traditions in the present day. These holidays and remembrances have in common traditions of giving thanks, honoring ancestors and sharing meals and tokens of love.

In that spirit, I look forward to sharing the work of some of my colleagues in upcoming editions of Echoes Magazine. Beginning with the January & February 2022 issue, we’ll feature the work of a division or department that’s making a difference for Ohio history. Kicking it off will be Dr. Charles Wash, who will share some of the work of the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce and progress on a new site we’re developing on Columbus’s Near East Side, Poindexter Village.

The Ohio History Connection and I wish you a joyous holiday season, whatever your tradition.

Ben Garcia is deputy executive director and chief learning officer for the Ohio History Connection.

Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor

I was reminded of this story last week when I spent a very pleasant day visiting the Ohio History Connection’s Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor. Housed in a striking Postmodern building by the late architect Michael Graves, the museum tells the story of the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley through the eyes of steelworkers and their families. One of the exhibits that most captivated me addresses the mix of Italian, Russian, German, Romanian, Hungarian (and other) immigrants of many faiths and traditions who worked together in the steel mills and associated industries. Workplace-safety signs in multiple languages brought to life the challenges of running a multicultural, multilingual workforce.

region. This is Ohio’s story and the story of our nation: people of all backgrounds finding a way forward together in cruel times and in kind times. If ever you find yourself discouraged by the problems of the world or by the divisiveness of our civic discourse, visit an Ohio History Connection historic site or museum. In Youngstown, as in Fort Recovery or Dayton, Wilberforce or Chillicothe, you will meet dedicated volunteers and staff who are working to connect Ohioans of all backgrounds to our collective histories. And you’ll most definitely find a story that can inspire you.

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. worker-safety sign of about 1930 in, from top to bottom, English, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak and Croatian.

PUBLIC MEDIA CONNECT

EXPECTED TO AIR IN NOVEMBER

A Natural Partnership

Kitty Lensman, president and CEO of Public Media Connect (the parent company of ThinkTV/CET), gave Rotolante the green light on her documentary and then signed off this summer on expanding it from half an hour to an hour. She expects the documentary to air sometime in November.

A partnership between the Ohio History Connection and Public Media Connect, the Public Broadcasting System of Cincinnati and Dayton, that began in 2019 has undoubtedly benefited both organizations. And, as it turns out, the fit couldn’t have been more natural or more productive.

“Some of the folks at Public Media Connect reached out to us because they heard we were working on getting people organized around suffrage and, I think, assumed that we would have relevant material and interest,” says Megan Wood, director of the Ohio History Connection’s Cultural Resources Division.

Independent of the Ohio History Connection’s work on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020, Ann Rotolante, a producer on staff at ThinkTV/CET—public broadcasting that serves the greater Dayton and greater Cincinnati areas—had already begun working on a half-hour documentary titled Let Ohio Women Vote.

“I was inspired by an exhibit of work by artists in the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network called Suffragists: And They Persisted!" Rotolante says. “The exhibit was on display at the Dayton Metro Library in July 2019 to mark the upcoming centennial of the 19th Amendment in August 2020.

“The art quilts were far more than just pretty objects; they really told the story of the fight for women’s suffrage in the U.S. Some of the quilts even included biographical information on women who played key roles in the movement, many of whom lived in or had roots in Ohio—such as Frances Watkins Harper, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem and Lucy Stone.”

“Creating documentaries is really in our DNA,” Lensman says.

“Certainly when you think about PBS, you think of Ken Burns.

Those documentaries don’t really make money, but public TV has always valued education, culture, diversity.”

Public Media Connect routinely produces and airs one or two documentaries a year. They’ve done shows on the Dayton Flood of 1913, one titled When Dayton Went to War and another called Let’s Go Down to Rike’s.

Lensman is excited about another Public Media Connect documentary, this one about the Memphis Belle, one of the first United States Army Air Forces B-17 bombers to complete 25 combat missions, after which the crew returned with the bomber to the United States to sell war bonds.

The bomber was restored and has been on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.

“The documentary is going to be aired by 135 stations across the nation,” Lensman says.

Of Public Media Connect’s collaboration with the Ohio History Connection, Wood says, “It was a natural … because it was also something we were actively working on and we could springboard from our exhibit, Ohio Women Vote: 100 Years of Change, which was funded by Ohio Humanities and told diverse stories of women and activism.”

Sat., Nov. 13 • 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

OHIO HISTORY CENTER COLUMBUS What was it like to be a soldier back in the day? From Roman Gladiators to World War II GIs, meet and talk with more than 20 soldiers of times past!

Advance timed tickets required.

800.686.1541 • ohiohistory.org/march Included with museum admission.

Ohio History Connection members enjoy free admission.

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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 took advantage of trends such as northeast Ohio’s rapidly growing population, refrigerated railcar shipping, the growth of fruit growers’ exchanges and the introduction of fruit grading and government inspection to become the dominant fruit wholesaler in Cleveland, selling 90% of the fruit that arrived in the city.

In 1929, it relocated to even larger quarters at the new Northern Ohio Food Terminal, a 34-acre railroad, trucking and cold-storage hub that brought Cleveland’s fruit, vegetable, dairy, poultry and meat wholesalers together into one complex.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Recent Ohio Additions to the National Register of Historic Places CIRCLEVILLE • PICKAWAY COUNTY

 GREGG-CRITES OCTAGON HOUSE 440 Crites Rd.

The 1856 Gregg-Crites House has been added to the National Register as an example of the octagonal houses made popular in the 1850s by Orson Squire Fowler’s 1854 book A Home for All; or, The Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building. At the center of the Gregg-Crites House is an octagonal hall with floating spiral staircase to the second floor. The house was moved from its original location in 2004 to another site on the same farmland to prevent its demolition.

HARTFORD • LICKING COUNTY

 CURRY FARM HISTORIC DISTRICT 12844 Foundation Rd.

Located in Hartford Township, the Curry Farm is 2.8 miles northwest of the village of Hartford. From 1873 to 1980, five generations of the Curry family owned and farmed the property. Added to the National Register for its association with regional agricultural trends, the farmstead includes a two-story house, barn, chicken coop, small barn, corn crib and silo. The Gothic Revival house dates to about 1840, and the outbuildings date to about 1900. The farm also includes a small vineyard.

CLEVELAND • CUYAHOGA COUNTY

 CONSOLIDATED FRUIT AUCTION CO. BUILDING 601 Stone’s Levee

This 1911 building on a Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway siding less than one-half mile west of Cleveland’s wholesale food district of the time is associated with the city’s early-20th-century wholesale fruit industry. The firm

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LAKEWOOD • CUYAHOGA COUNTY  HOMESTEAD THEATRE BLOCK 11794-11816 Detroit Ave.

Associated with the history of entertainment and recreation on Cleveland’s west side, the Homestead Theatre Block combined stores, a movie theatre, a ballroom and offices.

Designed by Cleveland architectural firm Lehman & Schmitt, it opened in 1916, as did the Homestead Ballroom and the Homestead Theatre—a “photoplay house” showing silent movies. The block reflects early-20th-century entertainment trends, including advances in movie production and shifts in morals regarding ballroom dancing. By the 1950s, the popularity of TV and larger, newer suburban theatres and multiplexes hurt traditional neighborhood venues like the Homestead Theatre. The Homestead Ballroom closed in 1966.

LANCASTER VICINITY • FAIRFIELD COUNTY

 DAIRY BARN— BOYS’ INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 5900 B.I.S. Rd.

Built in 1905, the Dairy Barn at the former state Boys’ Industrial School has been added to the National Register for its association with the history of juvenile reform, especially with the goal of teaching boys

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 10 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

All National Register photos courtesy State Historic Preservation Office

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marketable skills for post-release.

When built, the barn was described as modern and up-to-date, implying that it was important for boys at the reformatory to have exposure to modern dairying techniques, equipment and facilities. It remained in use as a dairy barn until 1980 when the institution stopped serving as a youth reformatory.

LANCASTER VICINITY FAIRFIELD COUNTY  DRILL HALL— BOYS’ INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 5900 B.I.S. Rd.

Built in 1896, the Drill Hall at the former Boys’ Industrial School has been added to the National Register for its association with the history of military-inspired juvenile disciplinary reform at the turn of the 20th century, its association with one of the earliest state reform schools in the nation and its Romanesquestyle stone construction featuring a cavernous round-arched entryway and crenelated towers. Architect Clarence E. Richards (1865–1921), who later became known for his prison architecture, is specifically credited with designing the Drill Hall for the Columbus architectural firm of Yost and Packard.

MANSFIELD • RICHLAND COUNTY

 KINGWOOD CENTER ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION 900 Park Ave. W.

A 45.6-acre estate on the west side of Mansfield constructed between 1926 and 1932, Kingwood was added to the National Register in 1976. New, more detailed information has been added to the nomination about Ohio

Brass Co. president Charles Kelley King, the owner; Cleveland builder Clarence Mack, who designed and built the house; and Cleveland landscape architects William Pitkin and Seward Mott, who designed the Arts and Crafts-style formal gardens in the 1920s. Since 1953, the former estate has been open to the public as a horticultural center, Kingwood Center Gardens.

Current members save 20% on all new Ohio History Connection gift memberships!

Use code HOLIDAY21 when you purchase online at ohiohistory.org/join or call 800.686.1545 and mention this offer.

ORRVILLE • WAYNE COUNTY

 SCHANTZ ORGAN CO. 626 S. Walnut St.

Schantz Organ Co. has been added to the National Register for its long association with the design, manufacture and distribution of pipe organs. The American pipe organ industry thrived in the late19th and early-20th centuries, with hundreds of builders throughout the United States. Many closed during the Depression of the 1930s, while over time others were absorbed or consolidated with larger corporations, so that few independent family-owned companies remain. Housed in the same facility since 1904, Schantz is the oldest American pipe organ builder known to be under direct management of the founding family, operating solely from its historic facility. Five generations of the Schantz family have handcrafted custom pipe organs there, embracing innovations in design, technology and marketing, while retaining the same hand-crafted process.

Offer good Nov. 1–Dec. 3, 2021.

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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12 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

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OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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VIRTUAL OHIO VILLAGE

We Need Your Help!

The Ohio History Connection is looking for members and family members to provide input on the experience of playing our new virtual experience, New to Town— The Ohio Village Experience. You’ll help Abram Rosenberg, a newly arrived Russian-Jewish immigrant child, explore Ohio Village looking for a summer job and along the way learn about the Jewish experience in Ohio during the late 1890s and early 1900s. After you complete the game, we’ll email you a short survey for you to let us know how we might improve this new educational resource. Interested in providing feedback? Email Teresa Valencia at tvalencia@ohiohistory.org. Please put “Ohio Village Virtual Experience” in the subject line.

NATIONAL AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM

$50,000 Grant Supports Museum Planning The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently chose the Ohio History Connection’s National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center as one of 24 recipients (from a pool of 74 applicants nationwide) of grants from the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture program. With the $50,000 matching grant, the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center will undertake a strategic planning process to align with the Ohio History Connection’s recently updated strategic plan. A consultant will facilitate the process, working in partnership with staff and stakeholders to develop a plan for the future of the museum as it shifts from a national perspective to a museum of African American history and culture in Ohio.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Grant Furthers Preservation of Civil Rights Sites A $50,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Underrepresented 14 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

Communities program is enabling the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office to identify places in Ohio that may be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for their association with the history of the African American civil rights movement. Additionally, the project will include a review of Ohio places that appeared in the Negro Motorist Green Book of the 1930s to 1960s. At least one National Register nomination is expected to be completed as part of the grant, one of 17 awarded to projects in 14 states to identify and nominate eligible places associated with diverse communities.

SITES

$380,000 Grant for Stowe House The National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Grant Program has awarded $380,000 to the Ohio History Connection to help preserve Cincinnati’s Harriet Beecher Stowe House, currently being restored to look as it did when Stowe lived there from 1832 to 1836. This year’s grants to 53 projects in 20 states also include awards to the Cleveland Restoration Society to stabilize the exterior of Cory United Methodist Church, a venue for national figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the 1960s ($500,000); Gem City Hilltop Community Development and Housing to preserve the 1928 Linden Community and Recreation Center, Dayton ($498,030); and Miami Valley Housing Opportunities of Dayton for preservation of the 1928 Fifth Street YMCA ($53,930).

VIRTUAL HISTORY

Pinnacle Hall of Fame Award The Ohio History Connection is one of three recipients of this year’s Pinnacle Hall of Fame Awards presented by the non-profit Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, a national clearinghouse for interactive,

virtual programs for students and lifelong learners. Its Pinnacle Awards recognize museums, science centers, art galleries, zoos, aquariums, musicians and authors who demonstrate quality content and exceptional skill at program delivery.

The Hall of Fame Awards recognize providers for 10+ years of quality programming. In addition to the Ohio History Connection, 2021 honorees include Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, Kansas, and the Buffalo Zoo in Buffalo, New York. Jan Zanetis of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration says, “The Hall of Fame Award recognizes the best of the best. These winning organizations demonstrate continued excellence year after year.”

OHIO VILLAGE PRESENTS

SAT. NOV. 27, DEC. 4, 11, & 18 Seatings at 4:30 & 7 p.m.

SUN. NOV. 28, DEC. 5, 12 & 19 Seatings at 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.

AMERICAN HOUSE HOTEL, OHIO VILLAGE Enjoy complimentary same-day admission to Dickens of a Christmas festivities throughout Ohio Village with purchase of Dickens Dinner or Buffet.

Advance registration required.

800.686.1541 ohiohistory.org/dickens

O HI O HIS TO RY CO NNEC T I O N

Historic Sites & Museums NORTHWEST OHIO 1. Armstrong Air & Space Museum 2. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve 3. Cooke-Dorn House 4. Fallen Timbers Battlefield Memorial Park 5. Fort Amanda Memorial Park 6. Fort Jefferson Memorial Park 7. Fort Meigs 8. Fort Recovery Museum & Monument 9. Glacial Grooves Geological Preserve 10. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums 11. Indian Mill 12. Inscription Rock Petroglyphs 13. Johnston Farm & Indian Agency 14. Lockington Locks

NORTHEAST OHIO 15. Custer Monument 16. Fort Laurens 17. McCook House 18. Museum of Ceramics 19. Quaker Yearly Meeting House 20. Schoenbrunn Village 21. Shaker Historical Museum 22. Tallmadge Church 23. Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor 24. Zoar Village

SOUTHWEST OHIO 33. Adena Mansion & Gardens 34. Davis Memorial Nature Preserve 35. Fort Ancient Earthworks & Nature Preserve 36. Fort Hill Earthworks & Nature Preserve

CENTRAL OHIO

37. Harriet Beecher Stowe House

SOUTHEAST OHIO

38. John Rankin House 39. Miamisburg Mound

47. Big Bottom Memorial Park 48. Buckeye Furnace

26. Hanby House

40. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center

27. Logan Elm

41. Paul Laurence Dunbar House

50. Campus Martius Museum

28. Newark Earthworks

42. Serpent Mound

51. John & Annie Glenn Museum

29. Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

43. Story Mound

52. Leo Petroglyphs & Nature Preserve

30. Shrum Mound

44. U.S. Grant Birthplace

53. National Road & Zane Grey Museum

31. Wahkeena Nature Preserve

45. U.S. Grant Boyhood Home & Schoolhouse

54. Ohio River Museum

32. Warren G. Harding Home & Memorial

46. William Henry Harrison Tomb

55. Our House Tavern

25. Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries & Nature Preserve

49. Buffington Island Battlefield Memorial Park

Before traveling, visit ohiohistory.org/sites or call 800.840.6127 to confirm what's open, hours and any special requirements.

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Dickens of a Christmas at Ohio Village Nov. 27–28 & Dec. 4–5, 11–12 & 18–19

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P R O G R A M S & E X H I B I T S AT T H E

Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some Ohio History Center & Ohio Village programs have moved online.

See page 18. Before traveling to visit the Ohio History Center & Ohio Village, we recommend that you first visit ohiohistory.org/sites or call 800.686.6124 to confirm hours and any special requirements.

Clintonville Farmers’ Market

A Bird’s Eye View of the Hopewell from author Charlotte Stiverson and try out a pump drill. An adult must be present during the entire program. Included with museum admission.* 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory.org DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS

Dickens of a Christmas at Ohio Village

included with admission. $68, $58/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/dickens DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS

Dickens Brunches at Ohio Village SUN., NOV. 28 & DEC. 5, 12 & 19 TWO SEATINGS: 11 A.M. & 2 P.M. American House Hotel, Ohio Village, Columbus 4 Savor a festive holiday buffet of splendidly prepared dishes in the warmth of the American House Hotel, then enjoy Dickens of a Christmas festivities throughout Ohio Village until 5 p.m., included with admission. $48, $33/ages 4–12 (Ohio History Connection member: $38, $23/ages 4–12). Advance registration required. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory. org/dickens

SAT., NOV. 27 & DEC. 4, 11 & 18

SATURDAYS THROUGH NOV. 20

Kwanzaa Celebration

5:30–9 P.M.  SUN., NOV. 28 & DEC. 5,

9 A.M.–NOON South Parking Lot, Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 The Clintonville Farmers’ Market features 60+ producers who grow or make everything they sell. At the market, you’ll find fruits and vegetables, poultry, pasture-raised meats, cheese, honey and jams, baked goods of all kinds, eggs, grains, cut flowers and more, all produced locally and brought to market at the peak of freshness. Preorder and/or shop onsite at the market! clintonvillefarmersmarket.org

12 & 19  NOON–5 P.M. Ohio Village, Columbus 4 Capture the spirit of holidays past in our recreated 19th-century community, where Charles Dickens’s festive and enduring vision comes to life through jolly carols, decorations and traditions inspired by his colorful tales. Meet Scrooge, Jacob Marley and other characters from A Christmas Carol, plus Santa decked out in Victorian style. Pose in a sleigh for a unique holiday photo; enjoy craft and cooking demonstrations; buy wassail, cookies or roasted chestnuts; and shop P. Wylie’s Emporium for the perfect gift. $16, $12/ages 4–12. (Ohio History Connection member: $11, $7/member ages 4–12, Free/age 3 & under.) Advance timed tickets required. No on-site ticket sales. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/ dickens

DEC. 26–JAN. 1 F 4–8 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Kwanzaa, meaning first fruits or harvest in Swahili, is a celebration honoring African heritage in African American culture. Based on seven basic values or principles called the Nguzo Saba, this nightly celebration will showcase high energy and engaging performances of African drumming, dance, poetry, theatre and storytelling. Free. 800.686.6124

Lustron House Decorated for the Holidays + Holiday Train Display WEDS., NOV. 17–SUN., JAN. 9 Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 It’s Christmas, 1950s-style, in our real, fully furnished Lustron house! Drop by to see how Dottie and Bob have decorated and check out little Jimmy’s model train display, courtesy of the Central Ohio Model Railroad Club. Included with museum admission.* MORE FEATURED EXHIBITS • • • JUNIOR HISTORIANS AT THE MUSEUM

A Bird’s Eye View of the Hopewell SAT., NOV. 20 F 1–2 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 During this special program, elementary school students learn about Ohio’s ancient American Indians through a live reading of

Ohio History Center Hours Museum WEDS.–SUN. 10 A.M.–5 P.M. CLOSED MON.–TUES. CLOSES AT 4 P.M. SATURDAYS NOV. 27–DEC. 18 CLOSED DEC. 24–25

DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS

OPEN 4–8 P.M. DEC. 26–28

Dickens Dinners at Ohio Village

OPEN 10 A.M.–8 P.M. DEC. 29–JAN. 1

SAT., NOV. 27 & DEC. 4, 11 & 18 TWO SEATINGS: 4:30 & 7 P.M. American House Hotel, Ohio Village, Columbus 4 Experience an evening in the world of Charles Dickens. Feast on a sumptuous dinner at the American House Hotel, then enjoy Dickens of a Christmas festivities throughout Ohio Village,

*Museum admission is $13; $11/ages 60+; $7/ages 4–12.

Ohio History Connection members and ages 3 & under enjoy free admission.

Third Floor Research Room OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY ohiohistory.org/archives-library WEDS. 12:30–3 P.M. THURS. & FRI. 10 A.M.–3 P.M. CLOSED SAT.–TUES.

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AT T E N D FROM A N Y W H E R E !

Online Events Black Voices for Justice WEDS., NOV. 3 & DEC. 1 F ONLINE DISCUSSION 7–8 P.M. F RSVP FOR LINK Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 In researching and writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe drew on a tradition of Black Americans sharing their own stories and writing against slavery. This monthly discussion series considers some of the important works by Black men and women in this tradition from the 19th century to our own time. Stowe became increasingly concerned with women’s issues after the Civil War, and we’ll follow her example by examining questions of racial and gender justice, as well as intersections between the two. NOV. 3: Join Dr. Mich Nyawalo, Xavier University associate professor of Critical, Ethnic, Black/Race Studies, and Dr. John Getz, professor emeritus, Xavier University, for a lively discussion of the works of Paule Marshall and Edwidge Danticat. DEC. 1: Join Dr. Janice Walker, chief diversity and inclusion officer, Xavier University, and Dr. John Getz to explore writings of Langston Hughes, Toni Cade Bambara and ZZ Packer. Find suggested readings at stowehousecincy.org. Advance registration required. $5. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org HISTORICALLY SPEAKING LECTURE SERIES

Service in Black—Finding Our Military Heroes and Sheroes THURS., NOV. 11 F 7 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce 4 Join us for a Veterans Day commemoration and learn basic skills and techniques that may lead you to ancestral or historic discoveries in U.S. military records of African Americans.

Presenter Cecelia McFadden of the Franklin County Genealogy Society’s African American Interest Group will cover techniques for researching select 19thand 20th-century conflicts via hands-on exercises, concluding with a question-

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and-answer session. Free with required advance registration. 800.752.2603 or ohiohistory.org/virtual GENEALOGY WORKSHOP

How Deep Thy Religious Roots— Searching Church Records and Family That Joined a Religious Sect SAT., NOV. 13 F 10 A.M.–NOON Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Did your ancestors go to church or synagogue or join a religious sect? Learn about using religious records for family history research with Jayne Shoots Davis, a professional genealogist for 25 years. Get a look at various types of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish records and where to locate them. $25, $20/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/genealogy VETERANS DAY

Honoring Native American Military Service—The National Native American Veterans Memorial SAT., NOV. 13 F 7–8 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 On Veterans Day 2020, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened the National Native American Veterans Memorial on its grounds, honoring the extraordinary tradition of military service by generations of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian men and women. Learn about the memorial and the history of Native American military service with Rebecca Head Trautmann, project curator for the National Native American Veterans Memorial and assistant curator of contemporary art at the National Museum of the American Indian. $5, Free/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/virtual

A World War II Story Through Sketches SAT., NOV. 27 F 2–3 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 A Cleveland native and longtime Akron resident, Staff Sgt. Jacob John de Vries served in the U.S. Army 103rd Infantry (Cactus) Division in Europe and First Allied Airborne Army occupying forces in Berlin. Even before his formal training at Cleveland School of Art, de Vries was always sketching, including during his four years in the Army. This program explores a World War II story through his sketches of people, landscapes and churches in France, Austria and Germany in 1944– 1945. The storyteller is his daughter Janet, who grew up in Akron and now lives in Casper, Wyoming. $5, Free/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required. 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory.org/virtual

Presidential History Book Club WEDS., DEC. 1 F NOON–1 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted

by Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont 4 See page 19.

GENEALOGY WORKSHOP

OH-IO! Where Should I Go? Discovering Ohio’s Archives SAT., DEC. 4 F 10 A.M.–NOON Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Whether your ancestors settled in Ohio or just passed through, they may have left records in some unexpected places. Learn about genealogical libraries, archives and repositories throughout the Buckeye State that you can visit in person or search online, from tiny town libraries to wonderful regional and state resources.

Presenter Kelli Bergheimer is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, International Society of Genetic Genealogists and Genealogical Speakers Guild. $25, $20/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required. 800.686.6121 or ohiohistory.org/genealogy

F E AT U R E D O H I O H I S T O R Y C O N N E C T I O N

Events & Exhibits Due to the evolving status of COVID-19, we recommend that you call the number or visit the website listed after each program to confirm hours and any special requirements before you travel.

Many programs and events at Ohio History Connection museums and attractions currently require advance registration. To register, call the number or visit the website listed with each program.

Our online calendar offers more upto-date information about programs and events at Ohio History Connection museums and attractions. Find it at ohiohistory.org/calendar.

Masks are required indoors at all Ohio History Connection sites.

Most of our museums and attractions are managed by local partner organizations who set their own requirements for outdoor areas.

Questions? Call 800.840.6127.

CENTRAL CENTRAL OHIO

Hanby Christmas Open House TUES., DEC. 7 F 7–9 P.M. THURS., DEC. 9 F 7–9 P.M. SAT., DEC. 11 F NOON–4 P.M. Hanby House, Westerville 4 Tour the 1850s home of the Hanby family, enjoy festive holiday decorations, sample old-time refreshments and listen to live holiday music, including Ben Hanby’s Up on the Housetop. Donations gratefully accepted. All guests are invited to observe health-safety protocols and wear masks out of consideration for our guides and volunteers. 614.891.6289 or hanbyhouse.org or westervillehistory.org

NORTHEAST OHIO NORTHWEST SECOND SATURDAYS R 4 KIDS

Around the World with Col. Webb Hayes SAT., NOV. 13 & DEC. 11 F 9:30–11:30 A.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy monthly activities for kids in grades K–3 inspired by the travels of Col. Webb Hayes, son of President Rutherford B. Hayes and first lady Lucy Webb Hayes. These events are open house-style, so kids can stop by any time between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. NOV. 13: Morocco. Make snowflake ornaments out of paper, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks and enjoy pre-packaged pizzelles, thin Italian Christmas cookies shaped like a snowflake. DEC. 11: German Christmas Traditions. Make pinecone Christmas trees, paper stars and paper candles inspired by the German tradition of Christmas trees. Free. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Holiday Lights Display FRI., NOV. 27–SUN., JAN. 2 NIGHTLY FROM DUSK UNTIL 10 P.M. Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta 4 See the space-themed lights and take pictures with out-ofthis-world displays at one of northwest Ohio’s largest free holiday light displays.

800.860.0142 or armstrongmuseum.org

Presidential History Book Club WEDS., DEC. 1 F NOON–1 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Read and discuss books about the presidency at this free book club.

Bring your lunch if you’d like. DEC. 1: Reagan: An American Journey, by Bob Spitz. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org The Presidential History Book Club meets in person and online. For information on joining virtually, contact Dustin McLochlin at dmclochlin@rbhayes.org.

Lights of Spiegel Grove THURS., DEC. 9 F 6–8 P.M. LIGHTING OF CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AT 6:30 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Be on hand when Spiegel Grove, 25-acre estate of 19th president Rutherford B. Hayes, lights up for Christmas at 6:30 p.m. Sip hot chocolate and snack on popcorn by the campfire.

See the annual Hayes Train Special model train display and enter the gingerbread house contest (rules and entry forms at rbhayes.org). Free. South Creek Clydesdales will offer horse-drawn sleigh and trolley rides for $5.50/person (sleigh), $4.50/person (trolley) and Free/ages 2 & under. Enjoy Christmas-themed first-floor tours of the president’s home for $10, $8/ages 6–18 and Free/age 5 & under. Buy recommended advance sleigh, trolley and house-tour tickets at rbhayes.org. Remaining tickets will be sold on the day of the event, pending availability. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Fort Meigs Holiday Open House SUN., DEC. 12 F NOON–5 P.M. Fort Meigs Visitor Center, Perrysburg 4 Join us in the Visitor Center to celebrate the holidays. War of 1812 soldiers and civilians will be on hand to offer demonstrations and answer questions about the war and camp life. Enjoy holiday music, refreshments and handson activities and shop our museum store for unique holiday gifts. Free.

800.283.8916 or fortmeigs.org

Hayes Home Holidays SAT., DEC. 18–SUN., DEC. 19 & WEDS., DEC. 22–THURS., DEC. 23 F 5:30, 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30 & 8 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy a cup of wassail and hear Victorian holiday tales of ghosts and the supernatural, such as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, on this evening tour of the Hayes home lightly decorated

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for Christmas. $18, $10/ages 6–18, Free/ ages 5 & under. Buy recommended advance tickets at rbhayes.org.

Remaining tickets will be sold at the front desk on the day of each event, pending availability. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Sleigh Rides Through Spiegel Grove SUN., DEC. 26, MON., DEC. 27, TUES., DEC. 28, THURS., DEC. 30 & FRI., DEC. 31 F 1–4 P.M. WITH LAST RIDE TICKETS SOLD AT 3:45 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the wooded grounds of the Hayes estate, just as President Hayes did when he lived there. A horse-drawn trolley will also offer rides. Both offer nostalgic trips past the Hayes home and down Lover’s Lane, a favorite pinetree-lined spot on the grounds. Sleigh: $5.50/rider ages 3 & older and Free/ ages 2 & younger. Trolley: $4.50/ages 3 & older and Free/ages 2 & younger.

Buy recommended advance tickets at rbhayes.org. Remaining tickets will be sold at the front desk on the day of each event, pending availability. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Model Train Clinic SAT., JAN. 8 F 1–4 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Wrap up the holiday season by taking your train to the Model Train Clinic for some attention from experienced train hobbyists. They’ll assist you with advice related to maintenance and repair, and estimate the value of older model trains. You can also run your train on the Hayes Train Special Model Train Display track, which fits standard, O-gauge and G-gauge trains. $5, Free/ages 5 & under. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •

Hayes Train Special Model Train Display FRI., NOV. 26–SUN., JAN. 9 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 See operating model trains running through a Victorian holiday scene and use interactive buttons to control aspects of the trains’ movements

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along the winding, multi-tiered layout.

Free. Donations accepted. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org SOUTHEAST

SOUTHEAST OHIO

Historic Our House Tavern Open THROUGH DECEMBER F FRI.–SUN. 10 A.M.–4 P.M. Our House Tavern, Gallipolis 4 Tour a restored Federal-style tavern built in 1819 that hosted the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited Frenchfounded Gallipolis in 1825. 800.752.2618 or ohiohistory.org/ourhouse

Appraisal Clinic SAT., NOV. 6 F 10 A.M.–2 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Have you ever wondered whether that knickknack you’ve been dusting all these years is valuable? Is it something to pass on to your children? Should you insure it? Have your questions answered by Andrew Richmond, a professional in the field of antiques and appraisals. $5 donation per item. Proceeds benefit Campus Martius Museum. 800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org GALLIPOLIS IN LIGHTS

Historic Our House Tavern Holiday Open House WEDS., NOV. 24 F 5:30–9 P.M. Our House Tavern, Gallipolis 4 See the restored Federal-style tavern built in 1819 that hosted the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited Frenchfounded Gallipolis in 1825 decorated for Christmas during the annual Gallipolis in Lights holiday event. Gallipolis in Lights tree-lighting ceremony at 7 P.M. 740.446.0586 or 800.752.2618 or ohiohistory.org/ourhouse BROWN BAGGIN’ THRU HISTORY

Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay FRI., DEC. 3 F NOON–1 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Learn from naturalist, artist and writer Julie Zickefoose about what it’s like to let a wild bird into your life and your heart. She began writing and illustrating Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay upon becoming foster

Hanby Christmas Open House, Westerville, Dec. 7, 9 & 11

mother to a young blue jay. More than a wildlife rehab story, it’s the story of life, love and dealing with great loss and of finding grace and redemption in bonding with a wild bird. Zickefoose lives and works quietly on an 80-acre wildlife sanctuary in the back country of Whipple, Ohio. She’s a prolific writer and painter and contributing editor to Bird Watcher’s Digest. Free with required advance registration thanks to the generous support of Washington County Public Library. Limit 30 registrants.

800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org

Visit with a Pioneer WEDS., DEC. 29 F 9:30 A.M.–4 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 You’re invited to the 1788 home of Gen. Rufus Putnam, preserved inside the museum, to meet with some of Marietta’s early 19th-century citizens. Included with museum admission: $7, $4/student, Free/Ohio History Connection member or ages 5 & under. 800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org SOUTHWEST

SOUTHWEST OHIO

Scrapbooking Crop FRI., NOV. 5 F 9 A.M.–9 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe Do you find yourself constantly interrupted when trying to scrapbook at home? Adena Mansion & Gardens has the solution for you! Join us for

12 peaceful hours and scrap those wonderful memories of families, friends, vacations and more. We provide lunch, dinner and snacks so you can concentrate on your scrapbooking skills. You’ll be set up with a personal six-foot table and have electrical and Wi-Fi access. We’ll spread out for social distance, and masks are required if you’re away from your assigned seat.

Participating vendors will be on hand with interesting booths. Everyone will receive a welcome gift and be eligible for door prizes. $55. Advance registration and payment required. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

Holidays at Adena SAT., DEC. 4 & 11 F 10 A.M.–3 P.M. SUN., DEC. 5 & 12 F 10 A.M.–3 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe Step back two centuries on a special holiday tour of the 1807 home of early Ohio governor Thomas Worthington.

Closed for the winter season, Adena re-opens for the holidays on two weekends only. Enjoy guided tours of the decorated mansion every half hour starting at 10:30 a.m., with the last tour at 3 p.m. Nearby, the Tenant House will be decorated to reflect German traditions brought to Adena by indentured servants who worked on the hilltop estate, and there will be craft activities for children.

At the Visitor’s Center, enjoy live entertainment and refreshments, and shop for toys, books, decorations and

Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

Sleigh Rides Through Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Dec. 26, 27, 28, 30 & 31

Art of Soul! Juried Art Show, Wilberforce, through Feb. 26 A New Dawn, Jimi Jones, Cincinnati, Ohio

gifts. $10, $5/child. Horse-and-carriage rides available at an additional charge.

On Children’s Weekend, Dec. 11 & 12, one child will be admitted free with each paid adult admission. Buy tickets at the door, 800.319.7248, 740.772.1500 or adenamansion.com.

Wreath Workshops SAT., DEC. 4 F 10:30 A.M.–4 P.M. SUN., DEC. 5 F 10:30 A.M.–4 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe At one of three sessions each day, decorate a wreath for the holidays.

We provide the evergreen wreath as well as natural materials gathered from the grounds of Adena Mansion & Gardens. You may also bring personal mementos to decorate your wreath. $35/ person. Advance registration required.

800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

An Old-Time Dunbar Family Christmas THURS.–SAT., DEC. 16–18 F 6–8 P.M. SUN., DEC. 19 F 4–6 P.M. Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton Celebrate the season at the home of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906).

Enjoy live music of the time, reenactments and Dunbar’s Christmas poetry read aloud. Stop by the Visitor Center to enjoy live carols sung by the University of Dayton music department.

Free. DAAV_Dunbar150@nps.gov

FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •

2021 Art of Soul!

Juried Art Show THROUGH SAT., FEB. 26 WEDS.–SAT. 9 A.M.–4 P.M. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce 4 See an annual juried exhibit featuring works created by artists from across the United States in response to this year’s theme, Black Future. Also on exhibit: African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory; Behind the Mask—Black Power in Comics; Queens of the Heartland; Rhythm of Revolution; and What’s in Your Attic? Selections from Our Permanent Collection, including a special mini-exhibit, Playing with Identity— Selections from the Lillian M. Bartok Black Doll Collection. Included with museum admission: $6, $5/senior, $3/ages 6–17, Free/Ohio History Connection member or ages 5 & under. Masks and social distancing required. 800.752.2603 or ohiohistory.org/naamcc

In response to requests from members, we now offer auto-renewal when you purchase or renew your membership online.

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After Chadwick’s conviction, the authorities in Cleveland were able to recover “considerable property belonging to Mrs. Chadwick.”

Ohio History Connection Archival Collections

Cleveland’s Cassie Chadwick A GILDED-AGE TANGLED WEB BY AMANDA WACHOWIAK

M

y first “run-in” with Cassie L. Chadwick occurred when I was doing preliminary research on a story about Cleveland’s Millionaires’ Row. In a long list of wealthy men was Dr. Leroy S. Chadwick, who had nothing of substance in his personal biography except that his wife, Cassie L. Chadwick, was a notorious con artist.

My initial interest in the lives of the ridiculously wealthy took an immediate U-turn to this one woman and her single-sentence mention among all of the mentionable men of Millionaires’ Row.

Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University

Chadwick’s wild rise to fame and fortune read like a modern bank heist movie script. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Chadwick borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from Cleveland-area banks by claiming that she had promissory notes signed by her illegitimate father, Andrew Carnegie. She spent lavishly and appeared to be one of the wealthiest women in Cleveland.

But when she didn’t pay back her loans, her creditors filed lawsuits and her entire scheme unraveled. The promissory notes were found to be forgeries, and her relationship to Carnegie was proven nonexistent. It was also revealed that the name Cassie Chadwick was an alias.

She had previously been known as Lydia DeVere and had worked as a clairvoyant.

As DeVere, she’d been arrested and served time for asking clients to pass bad checks.

Of course, Lydia DeVere wasn’t her real name either, and it’s possible that she had many other aliases and schemes before the infamous Carnegie con.

Right: This photo of Cassie Chadwick was taken in 1904. The Cleveland Memory Project files it under “Swindlers and Swindling.” Chadwick had several pseudonyms in addition to Chadwick: Lydia Scott, Madam Lydia DeVere, Elizabeth Bigley, Lydia Hoover and Elizabeth Springsteen.

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CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD A BANK Ultimately, Chadwick was convicted of conspiracy to defraud a bank, fined and jailed, where she died on Oct. 10, 1907. These are the basics of the story, but there are many details in between that are varied and confusing.

The “Chadwick Affair” hit the newspapers across the country in 1904, and those involved were the subject of discussion and speculation. Charles Beckwith, president of the Citizens National Bank in Oberlin, was also accused of conspiracy to defraud a national bank.

He lent Chadwick so much money that he bankrupted the Oberlin bank, destroying the savings of community members and local Oberlin College students.

Ira Reynolds, a banker with Wade Park Banking Co., also received scrutiny, as he was the one who put Chadwick’s promissory notes in a safe deposit box and supposedly never bothered to check their

authenticity. Individuals who were familiar with Lydia DeVere were called upon to confirm that Chadwick and DeVere were one and the same.

Andrew Carnegie was also briefly involved, if only to make statements that he didn’t know her, had not signed promissory notes and wouldn’t testify or press charges. Even Chadwick’s husband was reportedly under investigation and subsequently cleared of wrongdoing.

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. DILLON One name that I didn’t see in the newspapers was a Mr. Dillon. Dillon (whose first name might be Joseph or James) was either a friend or acquaintance of Chadwick’s husband, possibly a banker or attorney, and supposedly the reason why Chadwick was able to pull off her Carnegie con.

Dillon is said to have accompanied Chadwick on a visit to Carnegie’s New York mansion and waited

Ohio History Connection Archival Collections

Chadwick’s lawyers spent an entire day searching unsuccessfully for $15,000 to pay her bail. She remained in jail until she went before the grand jury.

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outside while she “met” with Carnegie (it’s said she only ever spoke to a servant) and seen that she had received promissory notes signed by Carnegie.

In this version of events, he was the first to hear that she was Andrew Carnegie’s illegitimate daughter and heiress to his fortune. Dillon supposedly convinced her to get a safe deposit box for the promissory notes, and promised to keep her secret. He’s also credited with starting gossip in Cleveland as to Chadwick’s wealthy connections.

In modern retellings, Dillon is presented as a key player in the “Chadwick Affair.” But in the newspaper articles of the time, he was conspicuously absent from the conversation.

Ohio History Connection Archival Collections

If Beckwith, Carnegie, Dr. Chadwick and others were all receiving scrutiny in the case, it would make sense for Dillon to receive the same. So, where was he? Perhaps he steered clear of the trial and media and conveniently “disappeared” when Chadwick was

In modern retellings, Dillon is presented as a key player in the “Chadwick Affair.”

But in the newspaper articles of the time, he was conspicuously absent from the conversation. exposed. Perhaps he had an untimely death.

Or perhaps Dillon never actually existed at all.

Saying that Dillon never existed may sound a bit dramatic. It’s entirely possible that Dr. and Mrs. Chadwick had a friend by that name. However, I’ve yet to find sources that conclusively convince me that he was involved. Both Beckwith and Reynolds are reported as saying that it was Chadwick herself who told them about her relationship to Andrew Carnegie.

That they might have spread the rumor seems far more likely. So where did Dillon come from?

Chadwick’s sensational story came to an end when the con artist died in the Ohio Penitentiary on Oct. 10, 1907.

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Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University

The Cassie L. Chadwick residence in Cleveland about 1906, published by the Souvenir Post Card Shop.

SECONDARY SOURCES When I browsed the lists of sources cited by the modern articles I read, there was a rather obvious similarity: they were all citing the same secondary sources. One of those sources turned out to be John Crosbie’s fictionalized version of the con artist’s life, The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick.

That doesn’t mean there’s no truth in that retelling, but it makes me hesitate when I see it on a list of sources for an article that claims to be an accurate version of her story. Period newspaper articles are tricky in their own right. It’s difficult to know if they reported the exact truth or if they embellished the story for the delight of their readers.

Either way, primary sources provide valuable information not just on the current events of the time, but also on the thoughts, feelings and values of the people involved.

There are so many question marks in Cassie Chadwick’s story that I think it will be difficult to ever know all of the facts. It doesn’t take away from the drama and uniqueness of Chadwick’s story to admit that many of the facts are hazy. It doesn’t take away the severity of her actions, either. It should, however, encourage me and others to dig deeper, ask more questions and perhaps lead us all a bit closer to untangling her web.

Amanda Wachowiak is in her third year of

There are so many question marks in Cassie Chadwick’s story.

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service as a member of AmeriCorps Ohio History Service Corps. She has a master’s degree in public history and enjoys learning about unusual and unexplored stories in history.

Ohio History Connection Archival Collections

Marguerite Reilley, warden of the Ohio Reformatory for Women from 1932 to 1958, at her desk.

PRISON, REFORMED You may be surprised to learn that Cassie Chadwick was sentenced to, and died in, the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. At the time, there was no wholly separate women’s prison facility in the Buckeye State. Since 1837, women sentenced for crimes had been housed at the Ohio Penitentiary, though separately from men.

During the Progressive Movement of the 1890s to 1920s, which brought about many other social reforms—including women’s suffrage—in Ohio and nationally, a legislative commission was appointed to study and report on conditions for women at the Ohio Penitentiary. In 1911, Gov. Judson Harmon proposed creating a women’s reformatory similar to the already-existing one for men in Mansfield.

The Ohio General Assembly approved and the resulting Ohio Reformatory for Women opened in Marysville in 1916.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. In the September & October 2021 issue of Echoes Magazine, we shared that the Harmon Building at Marysville’s Ohio Reformatory for Women—the very building opened in 1916 as a result of the 1911 report and Harmon’s recommendation—has recently been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The 1886 Ohio State Reformatory for men in Mansfield was added to the National Register in 1983.

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE We can’t vouch for it, because it won’t be published until February 2022, but we’re keen to get a copy of William Elliott Hazelgrove’s Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. Hazelgrove turns to thousands of contemporary newspaper articles about Chadwick’s so-called “trial of the century” to build as complete a picture of the con artist’s exploits as possible. “Chadwick conned at least 2 million dollars, equivalent to about 60 million today, simply by claiming to be the illegitimate daughter and heir of steel titan Andrew Carnegie.

Playing to her victims’ greed, she was able to convince highly educated financiers to loan hundreds of thousands of dollars on nothing more than a rumor and her word.”

In 1930, Haldeman-Julius published J.V. Nash’s Famous Eccentric Americans (Little Blue Book No. 1524), which included short biographies of ‘Lord’ Timothy Dexter, Carrie Nation, General Benjamin Butler and, of course, Cassie Chadwick.

John Crosbie’s The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick, published in 1975, is a lurid, melodramatic, fictionalized version of Cassie Chadwick’s Gilded Age story.

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A letter from the International Molders and Allied Workers Union to Gov. John J. Gilligan exploring ways to sell Ohio’s graduated income tax and avoid a constitutional amendment.

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A Contentious, Politically Divisive Life THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF OHIO’S STATE INCOME TAX BY MICHAEL CURTIN

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n the family of Ohio’s major taxes, the youngster is the personal income tax. On Jan. 1, 2022, it turns 50. The same day, the sales tax turns 87. A few months later, the granddaddy of them all—the real estate tax—turns 223.

Of the Big Three, the income tax endured the most troublesome birth, and still leads the most contentious, politically divisive life.

In 1799, before statehood, Ohio’s territorial assembly enacted a broad-based land tax that was re-enacted upon statehood in 1803.

In 1934, to meet demands of the Great Depression, Ohio adopted a 3-cents-on-thedollar retail sales tax. It took effect Jan. 1, 1935.

While no tax ever wins a popularity contest, over time the legitimacy and necessity of real estate and sales taxes were widely accepted by Ohioans and their elected officials.

Not so with the personal income tax. A half-century after its arrival, it still draws fire from conservatives who argue it punishes initiative and slows economic growth, while liberals defend it as the state’s only progressive tax, integral to a tax system that’s fair to the little guy.

This ideological fault line did not exist when Ohio’s leaders first contemplated the merits of a personal income tax.

During the first century of statehood, in a largely agricultural economy, Ohioans worried about a growing state eventually placing too much dependence on real estate taxes.

Federal and state leaders, Democrats and Republicans, took interest in the idea of taxing incomes—old hat in the Old World and used temporarily during the Civil War. In September 1906, Republican governor Andrew L. Harris appointed a five-man tax commission “to investigate the tax laws of this state and to make recommendations for their improvement.”

In June 1909, President William Howard Taft, a Republican, proposed a constitutional amendment giving Congress the power to levy federal income taxes, an amendment ratified in 1913.

The work of Ohio’s tax commission prompted delegates to the state’s 1912 constitutional convention to consider a state income tax. Among the 48 states then, only Wisconsin had a state income tax, adopted in 1911.

All images courtesy of Ohio History Connection Archival Collections OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Sensitive to concerns of rural landowners and intrigued by “the Wisconsin experiment,” Ohio’s constitutional convention delegates decided to ask the state’s voters to weigh a constitutional amendment authorizing a state income tax.

On Sept. 3, 1912, Ohio voters—by a 52–48 ratio— approved an amendment “providing for the taxation of incomes, and such taxation may be either uniform or graduated, and may be applied to such incomes as may be designated by law.”

The General Assembly was not quick to use this new authority. As the 20th century unfolded, lawmakers opted to expand business, utility and excise taxes and to raise the sales tax (to 4% in 1967).

However, throughout the 1960s, pressure increased for an income tax. In 1962, Tax Commissioner Stanley J. Bowers predicted Ohio would need an income tax within five years, primarily to relieve excessive tax burdens on real estate and personal property.

In 1968, a tax study committee led by state Rep. Albert H. Sealy, R-Dayton, held 24 hearings across the state. Business interests, led by the Ohio Farm Bureau, the Ohio Contractors Association and the Ohio Hardware Association, voiced support for an income tax to offset the hated personal property tax, which bore no relation to profitability.

In 1970, the Democratic nominee for governor was John J. Gilligan, a progressive intellectual, professor of literature, former congressman and former member of Cincinnati City Council.

Gilligan campaigned unapologetically for a state income tax, telling Ohioans their state ranked near the bottom in education, public health, environmental protection, care for the mentally ill and disabled and in nearly every other state responsibility.

Elected in November 1970 by a decisive 54–43 ratio over Republican Roger Cloud in a four-man race, Gilligan, upon inauguration, wasted little time advancing a bold agenda before a Republican-led legislature.

Calling Ohio “the foremost example of a low-tax, low-service state,” Gilligan proposed a $9.1-billion, two-year budget to increase spending by nearly 50% over the previous budget.

The plan’s centerpiece: a graduated, individual income tax with rates ranging from 1 to 4%, and a

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An educational brochure put together by the Ohio Department of Taxation to explain to Ohioans the details of the graduated income tax.

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net income component to the corporate franchise tax with rates ranging from 4 to 8%. Previously, the franchise tax was based only on corporate net worth.

Most Republicans reacted with fury. Lt. Gov. John Brown charged Gilligan’s plan would “set Ohio on a course to fiscal ruin.”

However, prominent Republican heavyweights, including House Speaker Charles Kurfess, Ohio Republican Chairman John Andrews and former Gov. James A. Rhodes, were more strategic.

Rhodes’s thinking: give Gilligan just enough Republican votes to pass the tax, then clobber him with it in the 1974 campaign.

Tensions within the House and Senate Republican caucuses ensured no swift action. Throughout the summer and fall of 1971, political stalemate required passage of one interim budget after another—seven in all.

Along the way, Gilligan closed 46 of the 57 state parks, laid off nearly 3,000 state employees and warned school districts might have to close for lack of funds.

Finally, a battle-weary legislature approved, and on Dec. 20, 1971, Gilligan signed, a $7.7-billion, twoyear budget that included Ohio’s first state income tax, with brackets ranging from 0.5 to 3.5%. The budget also reduced tangible personal property taxes and provided a 10%, across-the-board cut in real estate taxes.

On Jan. 1, 1972, Ohio became the 43rd state with an income tax. Interestingly, by that year more than 300 Ohio cities and villages already levied flat-rate income taxes—a trend started by Toledo (1946) and Columbus (1947).

Conservative Republicans, led by state Rep. Robert Netzley of Miami County, qualified an income tax repeal issue for the November 1972 statewide ballot.

The repeal failed by more than 2-to-1 and lost in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.

In November 1974, Gilligan lost the governorship to Rhodes, who found it necessary during the 1981– 1982 recession to win legislative approval of a 50%, “temporary” increase in the income tax.

Rhodes’s successor, Democrat Richard F. Celeste, in 1983 made that increase permanent and added another 40% to it over pre-1982 levels.

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Those increases prompted another repeal effort, this time led by conservative state Sen. Thomas A. Van Meter of Ashland. That repeal failed, 56–44.

In 1984, for the first time, state income tax collections surpassed sales tax collections. By 2005, income tax revenues accounted for nearly half of all state general fund revenues.

Since then, the tide has turned. Under Republican governors Bob Taft (1999–2007), John Kasich (2011–2018) and Mike DeWine (2019–present), state income tax rates repeatedly have been slashed.

Sales tax collections now far outpace income tax revenues. In 2020, sales taxes accounted for 44% of state general fund revenues, while income taxes provided 33%.

Ohio’s current budget, which took effect July 1, 2021, slashed income taxes by another $1.6 billion.

It eliminates taxes on incomes below $25,000 and reduces the top marginal rate to 3.99%, on incomes above $110,651. The top rate has been steadily reduced from its 1985 high of 8.55%.

Beginning its second half-century, the income tax remains at the center of Ohio’s tax policy debate.

Michael Curtin is retired from The Columbus Dispatch, after a 38-year career as reporter, editor and associate publisher. He is co-author of The Ohio Politics Almanac, now in its 3rd edition, published by Kent State University Press.

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE

Visit ohiohistory.org/taxes to learn from the Ohio Department of Taxation the history of all the state’s taxes—on land, on corporations, on personal income—from 1792 through 2011.

Visit Ballotpedia, a digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections, at ohiohistory.org/taxes2 for a history of Ohio tax policy.

Top left: In the run-up to adoption of the state income tax in 1971, the Department of Taxation educated Ohioans about the various means of taxation.

Top right: After the Ohio state legislature adopted a graduated income tax in 1971, opponents immediately attempted to repeal it and proponents sought to defend it.

Bottom right: In its initial form, the graduated income tax penalized married couples. A telegram to Gov. Gilligan from a constituent took issue with that penalty. At the end, the telegram writer suggests a potential new career for the governor.

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Map of a Section of Twelve Miles of the Scioto Valley with Its Ancient Monuments

by Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis, 1847. This map shows the amazing concentration of Hopewell earthworks along the Scioto Valley near Chillicothe, making it clear why this region is considered to be the Hopewell heartland.

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Amazing & Preserved

THE HOPEWELL CEREMONIAL EARTHWORKS, ANCIENT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE BY BRAD LEPPER

T

he Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks encompass the most amazing and best-preserved earthworks created by Ohio’s ancient American Indians. They include Newark’s Great Circle and Octagon Earthworks, the Fort Ancient Earthworks and the five earthworks that make up Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.

Individually, these sites represent masterpieces of creative genius incorporating a sophisticated knowledge of geometry and astronomy in their designs. Considered together, they are remnants of a 2,000-year-old Indigenous landscape architecture unlike anything else in the world. (This is why the Ohio History Connection is seeking to nominate these sites to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s—UNESCO’s—World Heritage List.)

The very first publication of the Smithsonian Institution was devoted to ancient American Indian landscape architecture, although the authors, Ephraim Squier, then editor of the Scioto Gazette, and Edwin Davis, a Chillicothe physician, didn’t realize that’s what they were writing about. The title of their monograph was Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley and much of their work involved surveying particular earthworks, which they classified as either “Enclosures for Defense” or “Sacred Enclosures.”

They also included, however, a few maps depicting several of the earthworks scattered across various river valleys.

As an example, their map of “twelve miles of the Scioto Valley” shows several large enclosures, including three of the five sites included in the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, along the Scioto River in the vicinity of Chillicothe. Squier and Davis intended the map simply to demonstrate that “the fertile valley of the Scioto river was a favorite resort of the ancient

A richly detailed topographic map of the Fort Ancient Earthworks prepared in 1908 by the Civil Engineering Department of The Ohio State University for the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, now the Ohio History Connection.

All images from Ohio History Connection Archival Collections OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Eli Hull’s Second Empire-style mansion as it appeared in the 1875 Combination Atlas Map of Licking County, Ohio. Hull built his home within a small circular enclosure that was part of the Newark Earthworks. The property has since been subdivided, but a remnant of the circular wall is preserved in the front lawn. Called Hull Place, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

people, and was one of the seats of their densest population.” But that’s not all it demonstrates. It vividly shows how the individually monumental earthworks are parts of a much more expansive natural and cultural landscape.

When looking over this map, it’s important to remember that we don’t know whether this represents an accumulation of separate ceremonial centers built and used at different times by different groups, or a series of related earthworks, each with its own dedicated purpose and built more or less at the same time. It’s probably something of both. For example, the Mound City and Hopeton Earthworks, located on opposite banks of the Scioto River north of Chillicothe, appear to be complementary components of a single earthwork composition.

HOPEWELL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE According to the American Society of Landscape Architects, landscape architecture “involves the planning, design, management, and nurturing of the built and natural environments.” The ancient American Indian landscape architects who designed the various components of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks did all of this on such a grand scale that it staggers the imagination. John Hancock, a now-retired professor of architecture at the University of Cincinnati, argues that the earthworks of the Ohio Valley are a radically different

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View of the Licking County Fairgrounds in 1854, the year it hosted the Ohio State Fair.

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Left: A view into the Great Circle probably in the 1930s showing the interior ditch, which once held water, and buildings associated with the fairgrounds. Right: A view into the Octagon Earthworks, probably in the 1930s. The gap in the walls on the left opens onto a parallel-walled avenue that connected the Octagon with the Observatory Circle. The small platform mound on which the men are standing is one of eight such mounds that were located at each opening into the Octagon. These mounds were not used for burial. One possible explanation for their purpose is that they were stations for gatekeepers who would decide who could enter each gate and at what time during the course of the ceremonies held there.

kind of architecture from what we’re used to. It “reflects a spatial conception that is fundamentally beyond the grasp of the modern Western imagination.”

NEWARK EARTHWORKS Squier and Davis thought that the Newark Earthworks were “so complicated, that it is impossible to give anything like a comprehensible description of them.” The site includes two huge circular enclosures, a large square, an octagon and an ellipse. The enclosures are linked to one another by a subtle geometry as well as by a network of ceremonial avenues framed by parallel walls.

The entire massive site seems to represent, in miniature, the three-layered cosmos described in the traditions of many North American Indian tribes.

The earthworks are surrounded by three streams, just as the Middle World—the world in which we live—is surrounded by the waters of the Beneath World. A ceremonial avenue connected each of the streams to an enclosure. Might these corridors, which channeled movement into and through the earthworks, also have served as conduits for drawing in spiritual powers from the Beneath World?

The Octagon Earthworks are aligned to the eight key points on the horizon that mark the limits of the 18.6-year-long cycle of moonrises and moonsets.

Might this have provided the means for drawing upon the powers of the Above World on those occasions when the earthworks and moon were in alignment?

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If these provocative suggestions are correct, the Middle World then would be represented by the earthworks—literally, works made from the earth.

The intricate design of the earthworks, incorporating complex geometry and precise lunar alignments, points toward a singular visionary architect, an Imhotep or a Michelangelo, with a devoted following that labored for years to make her or his vision a reality.

Everything we know about the Indigenous societies that built these earthworks indicates that there were no authoritarian leaders. Everyone worked for a living, ate the same food and lived in the same sort of house. Yet people from many communities came together to plan, design, manage and nurture some of the most magnificent landscape architecture ever conceived.

The Newark Earthworks sprawl across more than four square miles. According to a conservative estimate, more than six million cubic feet of earth was used in their construction. And all of this was accomplished using only the simplest of tools— pointed sticks, clamshell hoes and baskets. That visionary architect must have had a message that resonated powerfully with the people, but without the equivalent of a Bible or a Koran, we may never know what that message was. We can, however, still see and appreciate what that message inspired.

John Low, director of the Newark Earthworks Center at The Ohio State University and an enrolled citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, shared his thoughts about what message the remnants of the Newark Earthworks convey to him in his 2019 editorial in the Newark Advocate. They “are tangible evidence that disrupts the stereotype of Indians as nomadic savages moving about the woods. These were very smart people, who farmed, hunted and lived semi-sedentary lives in balance with their surroundings.”

INCORPORATING HOPEWELL EARTHWORKS INTO MORE RECENT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Ironically, many of the Hopewell earthworks survived to become eligible for potential inscription on the World Heritage List only because Ohioans of the past two centuries found ways to incorporate them into more recent landscape architecture. And Newark, once again, provides some of the most interesting examples.

Eli Hull built his Second Empire-style mansion on Main Street within one of the smaller circles at the Newark Earthworks. Over the years, the property has been subdivided and much of the circle has been obliterated, but a remnant still arcs across the front lawn.

Newark’s Great Circle became the Licking County Fairgrounds in 1854. Ellen Hayes, a pioneering astronomer and mathematician who grew up in Licking County, remembered going to fairs as a young girl. In her book, Wild Turkeys and Tallow Candles, she expressed the opinion that using the Great Circle for the fairgrounds was like “holding a bazaar at Stonehenge.”

The Octagon Earthworks became the Ohio State Militia Encampment in 1893. During the summers, as many as 3,500 soldiers camped within the large circular enclosure. By 1908, the militia (by then it was called the Ohio National Guard) was gone and in 1910 the Newark Board of Trade leased the property to Moundbuilders Country Club. The golf course, which now occupies the site, opened the following year. In 1933, the property was conveyed to the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, now the Ohio History Connection, for permanent preservation.

Even though much of the Newark Earthworks has been destroyed, the Great Circle and the Octagon Earthworks preserve much of the grandeur of the ancient Indigenous landscape architecture.

Glenna Wallace, chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, described her astonishment at first seeing the Octagon Earthworks in a 2019 editorial in the Newark Advocate. The “array of earthen walls” was “amazing.” Its “mathematical complexity” was “mind boggling.” “My ancestors treasured these mounds.

They were sacred. No, they did not build them but they loved them, protected them, revered them. … There is not another place in the world like Newark Earthworks. And they need to be shared, experienced on a daily basis by masses of people.”

Brad Lepper is senior archaeologist for the Ohio History Connection’s World Heritage Program.

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes of Ohio: More Than Mounds and Geometric Earthworks (Oxbow Books) is, Brad Lepper says, “the culmination” of author Mark J. Lynott’s “more than three decades of study devoted to the Hopewell culture.”

In 2004, Yale University Press and the Art Institute of Chicago published Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South. The book, edited by Richard F. Townsend and Robert V. Sharp, includes Brad Lepper’s essay, “The Newark Earthworks: Monumental Geometry and Astronomy at a Hopewellian Pilgrimage Center.”

Circa 1930s postcard view of the embankment walls of the North Fort of the Fort Ancient Earthworks near Oregonia and Lebanon.

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Fröhliche Weihnachten GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS IN DAYTON AND CINCINNATI BY TOM STAFFORD

O

The Christkindlmarkts that have re-energized the two clubs are growing during an era of Ohio history that those with German roots haven’t enjoyed since first the Kaiser, then the Führer, left their marks on the first half of the 20th century–and probably not even then.

“At one point, you didn’t even want to acknowledge being German,” says Judy Schneider of the Dayton club. Ohio once forbade the teaching of German in public schools; Schmidts and Muellers changed their names to Smith and Miller; New Berlin, Ohio, became North Canton; and even services in immigrant German churches hurriedly emigrated to English.

Enmity toward Germans was sharp enough that sauerkraut was rebranded as “liberty cabbage” so American shoppers could avoid the taste of the word “kraut” on their tongues.

GERMAN SISTER CITIES In much more recent years, Cincinnati and suburban Blue Ash—along with Dayton, suburban Kettering and neighboring Springfield—all have adopted German sister cities. “This whole area is so solidly of German descent,” Schneider says, "that a lot of people don't know they have German roots."

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Tom Gillian Photography

Christkindlmarkts are German festivals that celebrate all things Christmas. German-born Sylvia Ridenour has a lovingly curatorial relationship with the Christkindlmarkt that will make its 23rd appearance Nov. 5–7 on the 32-acre grounds of Cincinnati’s Germania Park, the pandemic permitting. Like the Dayton Liederkranz-Turner Club, whose Christkindlmarkt is set to convene Dec. 11 and 12 in that city’s St. Anne’s Hill Historic District, the Germania Society strives to make the event as authentically German as the smell of pfeffernüsse cookies in the oven. For Ridenour, co-founder of the Cincinnati event, there is just one cardinal rule: “You don’t want to have an ‘oom-pahpah band.’”

Tom Gillian Photography

hio Christkindlmarkts are as German as pfeffernüsse cookies und glühwein, and Cincinnati and Dayton festivals are contributing to a German cultural revival in the region.

Germania Society of Cincinnati

Germania Society of Cincinnati

Germania Society of Cincinnati

Germania Society of Cincinnati

Germania Society of Cincinnati

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OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

But it wasn’t until 2017 (99 years after the end of World War I) that Cincinnati restored the names Hamburg, Hanover and Berlin to its city street signs.

Now, with the Cincinnati band Over the Rhine riding high on the musical charts, renewed appreciation for German culture is flowering—spelled “flouring” at the Christkindlmarkts.

“I have discovered over the years the amount of joy these desserts bring to people,” says Shelle Zechar, part of the baking group that fills the Dayton club’s konditorei (cake shop) with made-from-scratch pastries, cakes, tortes, stollen—and the favorite of them all: the anise-sprinkled cookies Zechar sometimes snatches up before the shop officially opens.

People buying bagsful of desserts have inspired the baking group to explore more challenging German recipes. The result has been not only more confident bakers but people with a deepened sense of connection to club and culture. That’s saying something for Zechar, whose earliest German ancestor arrived in America in 1749 and who remembers her great-grandmother Clark speaking German in her kitchen in (you guessed it) Germantown.

GERMANY AFTER WORLD WAR II Although the Liederkranz-Turner Club’s Trudy Campbell helps the Christkindlmarkt in other ways, she grew up in a post-war Germany in which few girls learned how to bake. “We just couldn’t afford it,” she explains. Her mother and soldier father both died in World War II, and she grew up one of the countless war orphans.

Moreover, because she was from East Germany, Cold War suspicions about communism combined with anti-German sentiment delayed her emigration to Dayton until 1958, when she was embraced by a Dayton community of German war brides and emigrants working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

They and their descendants are the heart of the club.

As is so often the case, necessity was the mutter of invention for Germania’s first Christkindlmarkt, the larger of the two and older by 10 years. Then a member of Germania’s activities group, Maria Geers was among those looking for ways to use “our wonderful pavilion” to help the club’s bottom line when a friend suggested a visit to Chicago’s Christkindlmarkt. She came back ready to launch the festival in 1998, and since has visited more than 30 Christkindlmarkts in Germany and other European countries.

Tom Gillian Photography

A German teamster (foreground) leads his horses through town to deliver wooden barrels full of beer.

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Bratwurst and other sausages are crowd-pleasers throughout the year.

On her overseas travels, she sometimes stops in antique shops to supplement the family collection of dozens of nutcrackers and smokers of the kind that are sold at both the Cincinnati and Dayton Christkindlmarkts. Other popular gifts available from largely outdoor booths include German glassware, spinning “pyramids” driven by candle power and Schwibbogen, the enchanting depictions of religious and nostalgic holiday scenes.

THE ERZGEBIRGE REGION Many of the items are fashioned in the former East Germany’s Erzgebirge region, the best-known giftmaking community being Seiffen. Ridenour, who visited there “not long after the Wall was down,” says it’s a small Christmas village chock full of craftspeople.

“That’s all they do in every store there, so it’s their livelihood. But I remember the people being just kind of overwhelmed that we came all the way from this country to their little village to shop.”

Although Geers won’t get into food fights with any bakers’ committees, she says, “I’d say the shopping is the most important ingredient in drawing 7,000 to 8,000 visitors to Germania’s event each year. If you like Christmas, the stuff is just cool.”

IT GOES RIGHT TO YOUR HEAD And just as kids find Germania’s lantern parade, petting zoo and pony rides cool, adults warm to beverages of the ilk that once put German immigrants—and the whiskey-drinking Irish—in the crosshairs of powerful Prohibition-era crusaders and politicians. (For those keeping score, Congress instituted special wartime Prohibition, motivated in part by anti-immigrant feeling, a week after the Kaiser’s surrender.)

Both Christkindlmarkts feature two now perfectly legal hot toddies made for early winter outdoor shopping. One is glühwein, the w pronounced like a v. A cousin to mulled cider, it translates as “glow wine,” says Schneider, who describes it in the voice of a shopper about to enjoy a warm second helping: “It’s spicy and yummy and goes right to your head.”

Pat Kister, whose husband, Helmut, founded the Liederkranz-Turner event, stands just as firm in her support of the Rudesheimer coffee, named for the German town. It starts with three sugar cubes in a mug, into which is added a liberal dose of Ansbach, a German brandy. That’s (carefully) set on fire, doused with a more liberal dose of coffee, says Kister, “and then topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.”

Tom Gillian Photography

Tom Gillian Photography

Tom Gillian Photography These hand-crafted wooden toys were purchased in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Christkindl glühwein (mulled or spiced wine) is served hot or warm during the Christmas season.

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Das ist gut, and those on the Germania grounds may find the sweetness especially enjoyable after partaking of the festival’s traditional Klubhaus Dill Pickle Soup, the history of which has an old country sound. Explained Geers: “We were in a situation where we had a surplus of dill pickles and we were trying to figure out what to do with them.”

She and husband Mark, the son of Germania Club founders and now the club’s president, have a similar surplus of souvenir glühwein cups they have amassed at Christkindlmarkts all over Europe. Although Dresden hosts his favorite, Mark Geers calls Nuremberg’s “renowned” and says Munich “has taken it to the next level. They all seem to have specialties—cooked mushrooms, special waffles, different pastries, chestnuts.”

The lovingly curatorial Sylvia Ridenour might cite this as evidence that with its 22 states “just like the U.S., Germany has all these different regions and people in the different regions have different ways of looking at things—just like Mississippi is different than upstate New York.”

But for Mark Geers, the draw even of Prague’s Christkindlmarkt points to the unifying power of the event. Wherever it’s held, he says, “It’s the same feel: family-oriented, full of people enjoying the gathering, the coming of Christmas and the spirit that’s making you appreciate what you have.”

And these days, that’s true in Dayton and Cincinnati, too.

Tom Stafford spent 35 years as a reporter

Right: Pre-COVID-19, market-goers packed into the Dayton Liederkranz-Turner Great Hall for food, entertainment and shopping.

44 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

Tom Gillian Photography

at the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, 20 of those writing more than 1,000 local history stories for weekly publication. He continues to write a Sunday column for the paper in retirement and does freelance reporting for WYSO in Yellow Springs.

LEARN MORE

In the spirit of the traditional German Christmas markets, Ohio Village will host several artisans specializing in historic trades and crafts during Dickens of a Christmas (see pages 16–17). Paper filigree, woodworking, pysanky egg decorating and a variety of other crafts will highlight the role of traditional trades in Victorian culture. Meet artisans, learn about their crafts and shop their work. Visit ohiohistory.org/dickens for a full list of artisans and a schedule of when they'll be on hand, and join us as we welcome them to Ohio Village for the holiday season.

Cincinnati’s Annual Christkindlmarkt at Germania Park* 5–10 P.M. FRI., NOV. 5 11 A.M.–10 P.M. SAT., NOV. 6 NOON–5 P.M. SUN., NOV. 7 3529 W. Kemper Rd., Cincinnati ADMISSION: $3/adult, free age 12 and under or active or retired military with current ID INFORMATION: Daily schedule at germaniasociety.com/christkindlmarkt

Dayton Liederkranz-Turner Christkindlmarkt* 10 A.M.–5 P.M. SAT., DEC. 11 NOON–4 P.M. SUN., DEC. 12 1400 E. Fifth St., Dayton ADMISSION: Free Held the same days as the “Dickens of a Christmas” guided walking tour of Dayton’s St. Anne’s Hill Historic District INFORMATION: dayton.liederkranz.info@gmail.com *Don’t miss both events’ raffles of German goodies!

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I Wish I’d Been There

THE L AST BRITISH AT TACK IN OHIO—THE WAR OF 1812 AND THE BAT TLE OF FORT STEPHENSON BY STEVE STEPHENS

Like many history lovers, I relish visits to hallowed American battlefields such as Yorktown and Gettysburg.

A small park in downtown Fremont, Ohio, might seem an unlikely member of that group. But the park occupies the site of long-gone Fort Stephenson, which, on Aug. 2, 1813, became the scene of a battle that was briefly one of the most celebrated in the country.

Although often overlooked today, the War of 1812 (which lasted into 1815) was sometimes called the Second War of Independence. And Ohio was the hotly contested northwestern theatre.

ditch, built in the wilderness on the Sandusky River. Future president William Henry Harrison, who was in charge of the army in the Northwest, had placed Maj. George Croghan, a mere 21 years old, in command of the small garrison.

Croghan had just been promoted for serving notably at the siege of Fort Meigs, where American forces had finally scored a victory, repulsing an attack in May by the British and their American Indian allies.

REFUSING TO EVACUATE

By mid-1813, after a series of dark and discouraging setbacks, the young country needed a victory.

In late July, Harrison, fearing the foe would advance in force on Fort Stephenson and its 150 soldiers, ordered Croghan to abandon the post. But the headstrong commander refused, insisting he didn’t have enough time to evacuate.

Americans would get that victory at Fort Stephenson, a small redoubt with 10-foot-high log walls and a surrounding

A few days later, nearly 2,000 British and Indians arrived. After a parlay at which Croghan refused to surrender his

small force, the British began a terrific bombardment with three cannons and a howitzer.

Fort Stephenson had only one cannon, which had acquired the affectionate nickname “Old Betsy,” although one source reports “Good Bess.”

Whatever the cannon’s name, Croghan ordered it fired from various spots behind the fort’s walls, to fool the British into thinking it had several sisters.

Noting that the British fire was concentrated on the northwest corner of the fort, Croghan gambled that the enemy would try to breach the wall at that point. He finally positioned Old Betsy where it could fire through a porthole directly into the ditch.

OLD BETSY AT WORK Croghan was right. Advancing through smoke so thick they couldn’t be seen until they were some 20 paces away, the British troops attacked at the very spot where Old Betsy awaited.

While the cannon raked the ditch from end to end with slugs and grapeshot, militia sharpshooters poured in fire as well. Dozens of British soldiers were killed or wounded almost instantly.

The attackers soon retreated, leaving behind a boat on the river, scores of weapons and a macabre scene in

46 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

Steve Stephens

Ohio Histor y Connection Archival Collections

Print depicting Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812. The fort was located near what is today Fremont, Ohio. Americans successfully battled to defend the fort against the British in August 1813.

"Old Betsy," a cannon that could shoot six-pound iron balls, played a key role in the defense of Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812.

Astoundingly, only one American died, a 14-year-old boy. According to some reports, his arm was shot off when he raised it in a defiant gesture above the fort’s wall. Five other Americans were wounded, none gravely.

The British never mounted another offensive in the Northwest.

Ohio Histor y Connection Archival Collections

Ohio Histor y Connection Archival Collections

the blood-soaked ditch. More than 100 British soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured, and their Indian allies suffered uncounted casualties.

NATIONAL HEROES When the public learned that a vastly superior army had been hoodwinked, outmaneuvered and outfought by the tiny force at Fort Stephenson, Croghan and his men instantly became national heroes.

An epic poem was composed lauding the battle. Congress later authorized a commemorative medal honoring Croghan. And, in a most charming gesture, the women of Chillicothe, then the state capital, awarded the dashing commander a beautiful ceremonial sword.

Croghan immediately received another promotion, to lieutenant colonel, and in 1815 fought alongside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. But he never achieved another moment of glory to compare with Fort Stephenson.

Croghan eventually rose to inspector general of the Army—and developed a fondness for strong spirits.

One story says he was to be courtmartialed for drunkenness when his friend Jackson, then president, intervened, proclaiming “George Croghan shall get drunk every day of his life if he wants to and, by the Eternal, the United States shall pay for the whiskey.”

The fort didn’t last long after the war. The site became a public park in the town that grew there, with Old Betsy displayed, then and now, in a place of honor. In 1875 the park was still, according to that year’s Atlas of Sandusky County, “a spot of national

Left: Color illustration labeled "Repulse of the British before Fort Stephenson."

The Battle of Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812 was the last western battle fought in U.S. territory. Right: After graduating from the College of William & Mary, George Crogan joined the army in 1810. He fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe and served at Fort Meigs, located in present-day Perrysburg, Ohio. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel after his leadership in the Battle of Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812.

attraction, sought for, viewed and revered by every American soldier, and dear to every American citizen.”

The site is still dear to some of us who love Ohio history. And we can still visit and pay homage to Old Betsy and to George Croghan, who died in 1849 and was later buried where he achieved his greatest victory.

Steve Stephens was a long-time reporter and travel writer at The Columbus Dispatch, and has a large collection of antiquarian books focusing on Ohio history.

LEARN LEARN MORE MORE The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict by historian Donald R. Hickey is a “comprehensive, highly readable study” from one of the leading contemporary authorities on the War of 1812. According to The Archive website, Hickey is “particularly strong on the military engagements, pinpointing the significance of each move and countermove while never losing sight of the bigger picture.”

You can visit The Archive and read the article “Nine Essential War of 1812 Books” at ohiohistory.org/1812.

Written a year after the War of 1812 ended in 1815, Capt. Robert McAfee’s History of the Late War in the Western Country was the definitive book about the conflict for more than a century. It is still in print today.

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Genius Ignored I G N A Z S E M M E LW E I S A N D C H I L D B E D F E V E R YO U N G E Y E S O N T H E PA S T BY STELL A ALLEMAN

Over the past year, I have heard the call to “wash your hands” thousands of times.

So, when it was time to pick a topic for History Day, I immediately thought about the history of hand-washing. In doing some research online, I came across the name Ignaz Semmelweis, someone I had never heard of before.

Being Hungarian, I was intrigued by the story of this Hungarian doctor who was fired from his job because he demanded that his fellow doctors wash their hands. I felt that this was a perfect fit for History Day this year as an example of a failure of communication.

I chose to do an individual documentary because I am interested in video editing.

EXCERPTS In July 1846, Semmelweis was put in charge of obstetrics at Vienna General Hospital in Austria. There were two maternity wards at the hospital, one run by doctors and one run by midwives. The death rate of mothers in the doctors’ ward was 18%, while

that of the midwives’ was less than 1%. Semmelweis was determined to discover why the death rates were so different between the two wards.

He rejected the ‘old school’ mindset that the causes of childbed fever were foul air, poor ventilation and even shame by the mothers being examined by male doctors. Semmelweis suspected that doctors and students who performed internal exams directly after performing autopsies without properly washing their hands were causing childbed fever. Since the midwives were not performing autopsies, this explained why their ward’s death rate was lower.

His suspicions were confirmed when a healthy colleague was cut by a student during an autopsy and quickly suffered and died from the same symptoms as patients with childbed fever. In early May 1847, Semmelweis implemented a hand-washing routine for everyone entering the ward. In four months, the monthly death rate in the doctors' ward fell from 18% to 0%.

UNLIKE A GENTLEMAN Instead of being recognized for his discovery and the dramatic drop in the mortality rate, Semmelweis was fired.

Most of the doctors were not happy with his demand that they wash their hands. It was

Color etching of Vienna General Hospital, 1825.

Universitat Wein

48 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

thought that the hands of a doctor could not pass on diseases because that would be “unlike a gentleman.”

Semmelweis left Vienna without saying goodbye to his colleagues and moved back to his hometown in Hungary.

Across Europe in the late 1850s, childbirth mortality rates for mothers continued to be high, and medical associations continued to question the cause. Ten years had passed since Semmelweis’s theory and nothing had changed.

Semmelweis finally published a book in 1860 on the topic and sent it to medical societies and obstetricians throughout Europe. However, the book was very poorly edited and included many rants and ravings.

The entire second half of the book attacked his critics directly. It was no surprise that the book did not result in the acceptance of his demand for doctors to wash their hands.

DEATH BY SEPSIS Out of continual rejection and dismissal, Semmelweis began to retaliate by calling doctors murderers in print and in person. Questions of his mental state began to arise. Rumors were swirling that he had a nervous breakdown. He was admitted into an asylum and tragically died at age 47 on Aug. 13, 1865. An autopsy showed death by sepsis—a blood poisoning just like childbed fever.

Today, the medical field recognizes Semmelweis as a genius and a hero, especially in his home country of Hungary.

In early May 1847, Semmelweis implemented a hand-washing routine for everyone entering the ward.

Copper plate engraving by Jenő Doby, Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons

Left: This portrait of Ignaz Semmelweis is from 1860, five years before his death at the age of 47. Semmelweis looked much older than his 42 years. His inability to convince doctors to accept his hand-washing regimen weighed heavily on him, as he continued to see young mothers die of childbed fever. Right: Marble statue of Semmelweis sculpted in 1906 by Alojs Strobl. This monument is located in front of a hospital in Budapest where Semmelweis worked from 1851 to 1857, after being fired from Vienna General Hospital for insisting that doctors wash their hands with chlorinated lime solution. Semmelweis is now recognized as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures.

Stella Alleman is an eighth grader at Saint Rose School in Girard, Ohio.

She enjoys listening to music, creating art and reading in her free time. This was Stella’s first year of competing in History Day, and even though the contest was virtual due to the pandemic, she enjoyed it very much.

LEARN MORE

To watch Stella’s History Day documentary, visit ohiohistory.org/ hands.

In 2016, the University of Alabama Press published Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis by retired

neurosurgeon Theodore G. Obenchain. The strength of the book, according to CHOICE magazine, is “in his [Obenchain’s] attention to multiple contexts— institutional, professional, theoretical, political, social, and historical—that defined each period of Semmelweis’s career, beginning with the simultaneous stagnation and innovation that marked a tempestuous period in the history of the Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien), the hostile setting in which Semmelweis did his research and instituted effective preventive measures.”

Leave a Legacy Passionate about preserving history for future generations?

Consider including the Ohio History Connection as a beneficiary in your estate plans. Our staff can help you choose options that best fit your needs.

Call 800.647.6921 to learn more.

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Reviews

Shop our Ohio History Store in person at the Ohio History Center or online at ohiohistorystore.com for these titles and more.

BOOK

A Bird’s Eye View of the Hopewell by Charlotte L. Stiverson, illustrated by Kati Aitken

Charlotte Stiverson teaches fourth grade at the Columbus School for Girls; she’s taught history for 30 years. In an author’s note at the end of her 2019 children’s book, A Bird’s Eye View of the Hopewell, she confides that over the years, “I yearned for a picture book that provided an overall view of the prehistoric people who lived thousands of years ago in the area now known as Ohio.” We don’t know everything about the culture of these ancient American Indians,

not even what they called themselves, but the Hopewell—the name came from a Ross County farm owned by Mordecai Hopewell—did “leave a vast wealth of artifacts—jewelry, effigy pipes, breastplates, spear points, pottery—to name a few.”

Stiverson tells her story through her three main characters, Rabbit, Squirrel and Owl. Owl proves an expert guide to the Hopewell culture for her companions.

When Rabbit fears a Hopewell ceremony might be a “war call,” Owl reassures them, “The Hopewell people are known for having a peaceful community, perhaps because their society is equal and decisions are made collectively.” In addition to the story of Owl, Rabbit and Squirrel, Bird’s Eye View also includes a glossary of terms (such as atlatl, an aid to throwing spears farther and harder than if by hand) as well as information about the Hopewell sites in Ohio, from the earthworks at Newark to Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries & Nature Preserve, from the Seip Earthworks to the Mound City Group.

—Bill Eichenberger, Echoes Magazine

BOOK

Historic Barns of Ohio by Robert Kroeger “They were the ‘money makers,’ the Ohio Talk to Kroeger for any length of barns of the nineteenth century,” Robert time and his love of Ohio’s barns Kroeger writes in the Introduction to Historic becomes palpable and hard Barns of Ohio. “The barn served to protect to resist. Over the last several both livestock and crops, and without it, the years, Kroeger has turned his family would not have survived.” Alas, the passion for barns into gorgeous barns of Ohio have fallen on hard times, paintings of structures from all neglected, underappreciated, “non-functional” 88 counties in the state. The in Kroeger’s words. “Despite being icons for barns were “built with wooden a bygone age, they are disappearing rapidly.” nails and mortise-and-tenon What did Kroeger, a retired dentist who’d joints and assembled with written two books on dentistry and several beams hand-hewn from others on the golf courses of Britain, do when nearby trees”—chestnut, yellow the barns came to his attention on a wedding poplar, black walnut, beech, anniversary trip to Licking County with his maple, sycamore, elm and wife, Laura? Well, naturally, Kroeger took up three varieties of oak. What’s next for the barn painting to record the passing of Ohio’s barns fanatic? He’s going to write a book about the and to celebrate their history. His project round barns of the Midwest, with paintings, began “mysteriously, almost spiritually.” The sketches and photographs. ‘almost’ in that last sentence is unnecessary.

—Bill Eichenberger, Echoes Magazine 50 Echoes | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2021

Junior historians can meet author Charlotte L. Stiverson and hear her read from A Bird’s Eye View of the Hopewell on Sat., Nov. 20, at 1 p.m. at the Ohio History Center museum in Columbus, included with admission. Ohio History Connection members enjoy free admission.

Sixty-six paintings, sculptures and other works of art are featured in Art of Soul!, an annual juried show by artists from across the United States, this year with the theme Black Future.

See Art of Soul! at the Ohio History Connection’s National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce through Feb. 26, 2022.

Ohio History Connection members enjoy free admission. Learn more at ohiohistory. org/naamcc or call 800.752.2603.

Top: Happy Hour, Clarice Moore, Beavercreek, Ohio. Middle, left to right: Ancestree: When Will Justice Be for All?, Joyce Morrow Jones, Cleveland, Ohio; Voice of Freedom, Suzanne Accetta, Greenville, South Carolina; Our First Juneteenth 2021 (Mudd foot & Derric Cole), Richard Duarte Brown, Columbus, Ohio.

Bottom, left to right: Ancestral Journey Agent, Steven Mealy, Detroit, Michigan; Great Zimbabwe, Tom Baillieul, Columbus, Ohio.

All images courtesy National AfroAmerican Museum & Cultural Center OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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OHIO VILLAGE PRESENTS

Enjoy sights and sounds of Christmas Past!

Saturdays 5:30–9 p.m. • Sundays Noon–5 p.m.

Advance timed tickets required. No on-site ticket sales.

800.686.1541 ohiohistory.org/dickens