138
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the intriguing thing about Grant's
career being that his fame
rested largely on his military
achievements though Grant himself
was a man who neither liked war nor, on
the technical side at
least, knew very much about it.
Speaking in a pleasing, staccato manner,
Patterson captivated
his audience with his fund of
seldom-heard stories, the interest-
ing sidelights he threw on well-known
historic events, and his
ability to sum up in a few revealing
words the personalities of
our Presidents.
Most of his tales were humorous ones,
appreciation for which
was shown in the repeated laughter heard
in the hall. One of
his most effective stories was that of
the interview granted, per
force, to Anne Royall, intrepid
newspaper woman of the early
nineteenth century, by John Quincy
Adams, who bathed in the
Potomac while the dauntless reporter
waited on the bank and,
seated on the presidential habiliments,
noted down Adams' grudg-
ing replies to her questions on the
United States Bank.
Hearty applause marked the conclusion of
Patterson's lecture.
Speaking for himself, the Ohio State
Archaeological and His-
torical Society, and attenders of the
Ohio History Conference,
Johnson thanked Patterson for the
stimulating and entertaining
evening he had given his listeners.
General Session, 10:00 A. M., April
8, Ohio State Museum,
Frank A. Livingston, Presiding
The first speaker of the morning was
Miss Mary A. Stone,
of Cambridge, Ohio, president of the
Guernsey County Historical
Society, and a teacher for fifty-one
years.
GENEALOGY: A STUDY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
By MARY A. STONE
The work of an historical society
becomes more important as the
years pass. The pioneers who saw
the beginnings are gone, and their
children who heard from their elders'
lips the stories of the past are going
very rapidly. In the future, history
must be written by the younger gen-
eration. The writers must make thorough
scientific research and investi-
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 139
gation. The full meaning of any movement
is not understood by the actors
in the movement. Time gives perspective
that enables interpretation. The
duty of the present day historical
society is two-fold: to collect and pre-
serve records and to inspire the younger
generation to further research
and. the writing of history. Each must
interpret his own time by under-
standing the past. A great opportunity
and a great responsibility is ours.
We are citizens of the vast Mississippi
basin. A wise man said some forty
years ago: "This wide territory has
furnished to the American spirit
something of its own largeness" and
"this sense of space is an explanation
of many features in American
character."
Many years ago a famous scholar from
University of Cambridge,
England, said, as he looked over our
wide prairies, rolling hills and noble
streams: "This will become the seat
of the greatest empire the world has
ever known." He did not know
American ideals, aspirations or traditions.
He little dreamed of the influence of
the wide open spaces upon the
American spirit and the love of
freedom. He could not foresee our
democracy. The Middle West is a powerful
factor in the nation. Immi-
gration played its part. Ports in the
northern colonies were not open to
all peoples and religions, so many in
the early years landed in Pennsyl-
vania, Virginia and Maryland, and as
immigration moves on parallels
and the colonies where they landed were
fast filled up, Scotch-Irish, Eng-
lish, Welsh, French and other Europeans,
soon came to the West and the
Mississippi basin became the
"melting pot of America." Assistant Attorney
General McMahon said recently: "The
source of our power is the protec-
tion of our individual rights" and
a writer on national defense declares "the
best way to promote world peace and good
will is to make the American
experiment more and more
successful." This gives great importance to
the development of personality. That has
ever been a serious problem to
parents and teachers. I am old-fashioned
enough to believe in heredity;
the best personality, I believe, is one
in which the influences of heredity
and environment are well balanced and
blended.
America needs now more than she has ever
needed before, a return
to the ideals of her founders, "the
faith of our fathers."
"We must safe-guard her standards
The vision of her Washington,
The martyrdom of her Lincoln
With the patriotic fervor of the Minute
Men
And the soldiers of her glorious
past."
Why study genealogy? It seems unnecessary to explain to this
audience.
Dr. O. W. Holmes said, "Every man
is an omnibus in which all of
his ancestors ride." Is it not
worth while to be acquainted with our pas-
140 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
sengers? I heard a new reason a few days ago. A
Cambridge man, Mr.
A, who likes history
and scorns genealogy was passing the home of his
friend, Mr. B, one
morning. Mr. B rushed out to show his friend his lineage
which he had just
received from one of the bureaus that offers to send
your family tree for $2
or more. Mr. A looked at it and said, "What
value is it to
you?" Mr. B answered, "Well, I expect some day to go over
there and I should like
to know whom I am going to meet."
There is a foolish vain
pride of ancestry that collects famous names
and boasts of rank and
wealth but there is a proper pride in ancestors of
high ideals, of loyalty,
courage and industry, ancestors of noble ideas and
deeds. I see no
dividing line between genealogy and history. History is
the activity of the
people who were living at the time described.
We should honor in our
lineage not only heroes and persons notable
but also the faithful
toilers who lived, worked and died "unhonored and
unsung." American
youth need to know the joy of working and of
bearing one's part in
the general welfare. Once a worn out teakettle lay
in the corner of a shed
with some disabled and dismantled locomotives.
The teakettle said,
"Well, brothers, don't be downhearted; we played a
useful part in our day
and may comfort ourselves thinking of our achieve-
ments." "What
is that old tin-whistle talking about over there in the
corner? Who are his
brothers?" said one locomotive. "Let me tell you,"
said the teakettle,
"with all your pride you will not own me as a brother;
I am your father and
mother, for whoever would have heard of a locomo-
tive, if it had not
been for a teakettle?"
The Latin poet, Horace,
had no pride of ancestry because his father
was a Roman slave, but
those who pointed the finger of scorn at him died
in obscurity, while the
poet is immortal.
The Chinese have held
longer to their unchanging traditions than
any other people
through an ancestor worship of a mistaken type.
The Athenian youths
were very early sworn to uphold the ideals of
their fathers.
The Bible is full of
genealogies, and there we find an illustration of
the passing of it over
to the children. In orthodox homes of the Hebrews
a portion of the
Scripture was placed in a tiny box or case, fastened to the
side of the door frame
and each member of the family as he passed
through the door,
touched the box with the finger tip and remembered the
sacred words; the
little ones were required to repeat them aloud. At the
Passover, in each home,
when the ceremonials are over the youngest boy
present asks of the
oldest man, "Father, what mean these things?" and the
history and
interpretation are given in detail.
Alfred the Great,
famous Saxon king, required the monks to trace
his lineage back to
Adam and write it in the old Saxon Chronicle; there
it is today--if you can
get your line to Alfred, you can go on to Adam.
The old English also
passed the traditions over to youth. Those who
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS 141
had the allotting of lands took with
them lads whom they whipped with
rods as they went round the lots, so
they would remember the boundaries.
This was called "beating the
bounds."
I heard a speaker say the Pueblo Indians
near Santa Fe had kept more
of their original traditions and customs
than any other American Indians.
A picture painted at the artist camp
near-by will explain that--it is the
"Solemn Pledge"--two tall
dignified Indians stand in the foreground. Be-
fore them is a twelve-year old boy, with serious face; he is pledging
himself to keep the ancient tradition. A
younger boy stands by him drink-
ing in every word. When his time comes,
I am sure he will pledge himself
gladly. Dr. Jay H. Nash of University of
New York wrote recently: "No
great nation has developed leisure and
lived. Get a hobby!" What more
fascinating hobby than genealogy?
When I was invited to speak here today,
it was suggested that I give
some of my own experience. If I give too
much of the personal, pray
pardon me on account of that request. I
shall speak first of home experi-
ence as we were the children I knew
best, and we were just ordinary
children; what would interest us would
be interesting to other children. I
always feel sorry for children who grow
up without the association with
their grandparents. It is perhaps
because we were so unusually blessed
with them, that my sister and I became
fascinated with both history and
genealogy. Our parents died in their
thirties, but all four grandparents
lived to be more than the three score
and ten. We lived with our father's
parents, and, my grandmother's older
sister, "Auntie" Bassett, lived with
us and mothered us through our
childhood. Besides, we visited our
mother's parents and two great
grandmothers and one great grandfather--
three golden weddings among them, which
we helped to celebrate! What
stories they could tell! How we
delighted in them! Grandma and Auntie
told about their journey to Ohio in
1828, from Keene, New Hamp-
shire, by big wagon to Troy, New York,
by Erie Canal to Buffalo, by
Lake Erie in a great storm to Sandusky
and again big wagon to what is
now Keene, Coshocton County, Ohio; of
the grandfather left in the New
Hampshire home, lame from a wound at
Bunker Hill; of the other grand-
father, a Minute Man at Lexington and
Concord, and of his wife born in
the Wayside Inn which her grandfather
built. Our grandfather told of
his Civil War experiences, of his father
in 1812 and his grandfather with
Washington at Valley Forge, and how his
tiny grandmother rode horse-
back from Culpepper, Virginia, to Valley
Forge with supplies for her hus-
band and brothers, and how from York,
Pennsylvania, she carried a letter
to General Washington, which told of a
plot against him. We saw and
handled pewter plates, samplers and
other heirlooms. We had candle
moulds and Grandma made some
"tallow dips" for us. Grandpa tapped a
maple tree and let us make some maple
sugar. He sowed a patch of flax
in our back yard and went through all
the processes to the linen thread. I
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
am sure you have guessed why I am
telling all this. These are the things
children love to hear and see--true
stories of olden times, heirlooms and
how things were done in the past. We
should keep alive an interest in the
life and customs of olden time. Every
child in Ohio should visit the Mu-
seum here, Schonbrunn and Marietta.
Every high school boy and girl should
see Washington, D. C.
In the teacher-training department at
Muskingum College in our social
studies classes, we required the
teachers to develop a project they could
use in future in their schools. Some
made scrap-books, some, collections of
pictures, card board villages of Indians
or Pilgrims, etc. One Muskingum
County teacher made a collection of old
time implements. Every boy who
saw it had to try the flail and then he
would say, "It took a strong man to
thrash grain with that." A young
man from Tuscarawas County began a
miniature Schonbrunn; he completed one
cabin, the church and school; and
his pupils were to complete the project.
Do you think children cannot
understand or appreciate these things? I
fear we often underrate their
abilities in that line. Bobby, aged
eight, used to come to enjoy my bird
books, readers, etc. One day I found him
flat on the floor poring over a
Compendium of the Institute of American
Genealogy. When I asked what
he was doing, he said he had a picture
he wished I would explain--it was
an elaborate coat-of-arms in colors. I
told him what I could about it and
to his surprise, his father brought out
his family arms. Bobby brought it
over and together we studied its symbols
and he kept it as a sort of mea-
sure of conduct and I believe it has
helped him to become the fine young
man that he is now. In 1904, my sister
and I took our five-year-old niece
to the St. Louis Exposition. One of her
favorite places to visit each day
was the Independence Bell. One morning
as we stood looking at it, the
policeman on guard said to us, "Let
the little girl go under the rope and
put her hands on the bell."
Margaret did not wait for us to tell her but
slipped quickly under the rope and
patted the bell as though it were alive.
The policeman said a few days before he
saw a little three-year-old boy
eyeing him as if, were he out of sight,
he would do something, so he turned
his back and then turned quickly--the
little boy had crept under the rope
and kneeling, was kissing the old bell.
The guard said he had made up
his mind that all the little folks
should have an opportunity to touch
the bell.
Last November I had some research at the
Congressional Library;
before leaving, I visited once more the
shrine of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. As I stood before it thinking
what the Signers must have felt,
the guard who has been there seven years
said to me: "You love it, so do
I, but so many people care nothing about
it. Very little children look at
it with awe and speak of it in whispers.
From about the second grade to
the seventh, the children are interested
and enthusiastic. From there on
through high school they are
increasingly indifferent. I wonder why. Do
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS 143
you know?" I told him I did not
know but I had some guesses--that
teachers become so accustomed to the
same patriotic stories, they speak
without the enthusiasm they should feel
and use. Some, impressing young
people with their own superiority,
belittle the subject enshrined and, too,
the debunking of so many sacred things
by newspapers does much harm.
As I came away he lifted his cap and said:
"Thank you, you have given
me something to think about." I
have thought about it, too, since, and I
think perhaps I omitted an important
item. The high school boy does not
parade his emotions; perhaps his
indifference, his flippant remark hide
real feeling.
In Washington, D. C., twin boys aged
twelve won a contest for the
best verses on "Why I Love and
Respect the Flag." Did they understand?
Listen !
"It's something that she stands for
That makes my heart beat fast;
It's the memory of her greatness,
The spirit of the past.
"A spirit great and glorious
That comes down through the years;
It makes my heart beat wild with joy
And eyes fill up with tears."
In August, 1936, I was retired after
fifty years of teaching, the last
twenty-two years being in the
teacher-training department of Muskingum
College. In order to be affiliated with
the Teachers' Retirement Fund I was
required to teach an extra year. The
Cambridge School Board gave me the
privilege and I taught my last--my
fifty-first year, in a different building,
but on the same ground I taught my
first. My position was an extra one--
I believe they called such jobs in the
Revolutionary War supernumeraries.
Among other things, I had five classes
of eighth grade boys and girls
in civics. The text-book was hard and
dry, statistical; the students did not
like it. So we put into it a lot of
local material--I had them draw North-
west Territory, Ohio, and the counties
and roads, Guernsey County, the plat
of Cambridge in 1806, when all the
streets were named for trees, and the
plat with twice as many lots in 1830. We
had the photostat of the land
grant, too, giving the land, on which
Cambridge is situated, to her founders,
Zaccheus A. Beatty and Zaccheus Biggs,
signed November 6, 1801, by
Thomas Jefferson, President, and James
Madison, secretary of state.
While we did this, we had stories of the
founding of the town and organi-
zation of the county. Some of them were
descendants of pioneers and
brought in items of interest. This
brought in genealogy and the pupils were
greatly interested; some brought in
books of family history. One boy said:
"Oh, Miss Stone, I haven't any
ancestors." Thereupon another one com-
144
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mented: "Like Topsy, he just growed
up." I understood and said: "Your
father came from England?"
"Yes." "Well, ask him about his people in
England." He did and his father had
an English sister send the boy a
chart, then the boy who didn't have any
ancestors had plenty of them.
We were looking forward to the Northwest
Territorial Celebration
and a few minutes each day were given to
current news about it. One item
that attracted much attention was to the
effect that our roads being harder,
the ox team must be shod and how was it
to be done. One boy referred
the question to his father and was told:
"Your grandfather drove oxen, ask
him." Next morning the boy was
there bright and early and he had a shoe
for an ox. Most of the boys and girls
asked if it were broken, not think-
ing that for a cloven hoof a shoe is in
two pieces.
In the spring of 1937, Cambridge
celebrated the centennial of its incor-
poration; the Chamber of Commerce asked
that the schools take some part.
The principals met and decided I should
do the work. So while a substi-
tute met my classes, I went about to the
elementary schools and gave six-
teen talks on the history of Cambridge.
The children gave excellent atten-
tion and their interested faces and
enthusiastic reception I can never forget.
Then the teachers asked for it in
permanent form and I carefully prepared
this little book. Any labor or time I
gave to its preparation or of the talks
has been richly repaid by their
appreciation. One mother of a first grade
girl told me that the little one showed
visitors her little history first and
then her dolls. One rainy Saturday evening not long ago,
someone
knocked at my door and there was a
little boy, his face streaked with tears.
He said a little cousin had visited him
that day and had liked the "little
Cambridge book" so much his mother
had given his to the visitor. When
she found how her boy grieved at its
loss, she sent him to see if I had any
more. I sent him away happy with another
book.
The Northwest Territory Celebration
resulted with us in the forma-
tion of a Pioneer Club and then the
Guernsey County Historical Society.
I wish to give you an idea of one of our
plans. We are planning to enter-
tain small groups of young people in
each township; several of us will be
there with something historical to show
and talk about. A friend who is
an invalid and cannot take part in this
has promised to lend me for my
first party one of her treasures--a
cannon ball picked up on the battlefield
after Braddock's defeat.
"What are all the prizes won
To Youth's enchanted view?
And what is all that man has done
To what the boy can do?"
It is my sincere belief after years
spent in the schoolroom, that the
Youth of America is today as fine and
true and noble as the world has ever
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 145
known. Entrust the future to them. Teach
them ideals of service and of
Christian citizenship. They'll not fail
us. Throw them the lighted torches
and these will grow brighter as they
climb the heights to endless day.
Said our beloved poet:
"The thoughts of youth are long,
long thoughts."
and Emerson,
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'
The youth replies, 'I can.'"
The second speaker of the morning was
Mrs. Helen C. Hill
Sloan of Marietta, Ohio.
THE LURE OF THE PIONEER
By MRS. HELEN C. HILL SLOAN
PRESIDENT LIVINGSTON, MEMBERS OF THE
COLUMBUS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
AND FRIENDS:
I bring you greetings from the little
settlement at the confluence of
the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. There for
over one hundred and fifty
years we have carried on our New England
traditions, under the giant elms
and maples, which our pioneer
forefathers, and successive generations, have
planted and cared for.
We hope you will all drive down to
Marietta this spring, the red-bud,
and dog-wood along the way will be
beautiful. Summer or fall, we will
have many things that will interest you,
historically and genealogically.
I have been asked to tell of some phases
of my work in Washington
County. As historian and genealogist for
the Marietta chapter, Daughters
of the American Revolution, and member
of the State Historical Activities
Committee of the Colonial Dames of
America, it has been my duty to
acquaint myself with the various sources
of information available in this
section.
Our court and church records date from
the beginning of the settle-
ment in 1788. Local histories, private
collections of manuscripts, letters, and
genealogies, including the journals of
Rufus Putnam and the proceedings of
the Ohio Company, furnish accurate data
and enable us to go back beyond
the Revolution to early colonial times.
It has been my especial interest to
collate the lines of descent of these
early pioneers, in order that their
names and deeds may be preserved and
their pedigrees established, and made
available back to the immigrant ances-
146 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tor who first established the family in
America. Sometimes I have to fur-
nish a wife or husband and often I give
them a dozen children.
"Throughout the fabrick that has
been weaving in the loom of time
there is a pattern. The shuttle in
ceaseless routine moves; with bright
colors: with the drab of
uneventfulness, sometimes with the black of war,
with its deepening shadows of disaster
and despair. Ever present though,
through all the ages, has been and will
be, outstanding in the weaving pat-
tern, an undertone of values, eternal
and supreme--the blending harmonies
of continuing family life."
I like the thought, recently attributed
to Kaiser Wilhelm, that: "A
nation is created by families, a
religion, traditions. It is made up of the
hearts of mothers, the wisdom of
fathers, and the joyous laughter of
children."
If it be true, that the environment and
experiences of our parents, and
of their parents, and earlier
parents--uncounted--has come unerringly, in
some degree, to be a part of us, then,
unless the role of indifference be
assumed, there must be wholesome concern
in everyone, over the question:
Who were these people whose names we
bear, whose stature we acquire,
whose complexion we share, and whose countenance
our mirrors reflect?
By identifying those whose blood we
share, we each may find a place
in the ever-weaving pattern. The shuttle
thread of history thus becomes
to each of us a personal thing.
"History is a Painter
Her pictures fill the land
Unfailing is her genius
Unceasing is her hand."
Let us then look backward and see the
picture portrayed and the part
our forebears had in the developing of
this new world.
In 1620 our Pilgrim forefathers
left their homes in old England and
established a New England here in
America. In 1788 our pioneer fore-
fathers left this same New England to
begin life anew in the Ohio country.
What was the lure of this new
country--why did men and women
leave home and dear ones, friends and
the comforts of an established com-
munity ?
If one is to think of the pioneers of
Ohio of 1788 and the following
years, when there was a steady flow of
emigration from the New England
states--one must inevitably think of
1620. I venture the assertion that
there were few--if any--of the early
settlements in Ohio, that did not
number their Mayflower descendants--in
accordance to the ratio of their
New England population.
We are familiar with the Mayflower
Compact, we know why the
Pilgrims came to America and we have
acquainted ourselves with the con-
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 147
tributing factors which resulted in the
forming of the Ohio Company and
the establishing of civil government in
the Northwest Territory--but what
of the children of old England, and what
of the mothers and families here
in Ohio?
We are prone to think of our pioneer
Ohio families and our Revo-
lutionary heroes as being from New
England--but were they? The more
we study the facts, the more are we convinced
that
"No one can live unto himself
alone, . . .
A separate path no one can quite
pursue--
We work together, though we know it
not."
Shall we look for a moment across the
ocean? If I seem to ramble
about inanely, please bear with me,
concentrate on the names I give and I
hope you can follow my line of thought.
First we will visit an English garden.
The shy, lonely lad is Bill
Bradford--his parents are dead.
Sometimes his grandparents allow him to
play with the six little Carpenter
girls. "Let's play stage coach," suggested
Bridget. "Let's go far, far away,
maybe clear to London," said Alice. "I
could never leave Mother," said
prim little Mary. And little did they dream
that soon the Carpenters would flee to
Holland, and never had they even
heard of America.
Many things happened and at last the
Carpenters returned to England.
Alice was quite a big girl and grew very
fond of young Bill Bradford, but
the proud parents soon put an end to the
budding romance. Poor Bill left,
for no one knew where--so it was
probably just as well.
The years flew by, and how amused they
were, those six Carpenter
girls, when someone suggested they might
go to America. "Why, how
silly, who ever heard of such a thing?
Sister Alice is going to be mar-
ried next month to a very fine
gentleman. We think Agnes likes Sam
Fuller, and everyone knows that Julia
will marry George Morton, and live
in York."
As for Bill Bradford, no one had seen
him for ever so long. It was
rumored that he had gone to Leyden and
married Dorothy--well, Dorothy
somebody.
Probably Alice Carpenter had forgotten
all about him. She was busy
with her two babies--and then her
husband died.
Once in a while word would come from
America. Massachusetts was
quite a colony and they were very proud
of the new house for the
Governor.
Letters were an exciting event in those
days and Mrs. Southworth
wondered who could be writing to her.
Such a strange post-mark, and it
looked as though the letter had come a
long way. I peeked over her
shoulder, and this is what I saw:
"I am not that Bill Bradford I once was.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
I am now Governor of the Colony, a
widower, and if you will come to
America, I am at your service."
Yes, I think we were mistaken--perhaps
Alice Carpenter Southworth
had not quite forgotten her boyish
lover. (Children sometimes don't--even
when their parents tell them to.)
It took a lot of courage, but sister
Bridget said she would go along
and help with the children. They sailed
on the good ship Ann, and on the
fourteenth of August, 1623, Alice
Carpenter married Bill Bradford, and
went to live in the Governor's mansion.
No, I have not forgotten about the other
Carpenter girls. Of course
no one called them girls over here. They
were very "well thought of," and
their husbands were important men in the
colony. Priscilla married
William Wright. Julia was Mrs. Morton,
and Bridget had just become
Mrs. Fuller. "But, I thought you
said Agnes--" Yes, I did, but you
see
poor Agnes died and was buried under St.
Peter's in old Leyden town, and
then Dr. Fuller came to America on the Mayflower.
You know Bridget
came over with her sister Alice in 1623,
and after a time Dr. Fuller asked
her to be his wife. Do you remember
little Mary saying she could never
leave her mother? Well, she never did. She took such loving
care of
her, but, after her mother's death, then
Mary came over and made her
home with Governor and Alice Bradford.
The records say she was "A
Godly old maid, never married,"
died at Plymouth, March 19, 1667, aged
about eighty years.
Here are "bits" from the
letter which "prim little Mary Carpenter"
received, inviting and urging her to
"come over to us" in America.
"We are grown old and the country
here more unsettled than ever,
by reason of the great changes . . . and
what will further be the Lord only
knows: which makes many think of
removing their habitation, and sunderies
of our ministers (hearing of the peace
and liberty now in England and
Ireland) begin to leave us, and it is
feared many more will follow. . . .
With our love remembered unto you we
take leave and rest,
Your loving brother and sister,
PLYMOUTH WILLIAM BRADFORD."
August 19, 1664.
Less than eight miles from where the
Carpenters used to live, is the
village of Bristol, where a little girl
played with her dolls and carefully
mended their broken heads and arms.
The homes of northern England, were
filled with sturdy youths, who
often went with their fathers to the
fishing banks--sometimes as far as the
Great Banks. The Lakes were famous
fishermen, and at last Archibald
was allowed to go. "He's much too
young," growled his father.
Were you ever in Scotland? The Earl of
Selkirk used to have a
beautiful garden up in
Kircudbrightshire. The gardener's little son often
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS 149
watched his father, and thought that he
too would work in the garden,
just as soon as he grew up. But like
many little boys he changed his
mind, and went to sea in the American
and West India Trade. Frequently
he saw Abe Whipple, who came over from
the colony in Rhode Island.
Trade was good and soon John Paul, the
gardener's son, grew wealthy
and settled in Virginia. I have heard
that he joined with the colonists
against the British in the War and
helped quite a lot in the Revolution.
Mary Bird grew up and put her dolls
away, for she was going to be
married and go to the Great Banks with
Archibald Lake, the boy from
northern England.
Over in Rhode Island, Abe Whipple had
been pretty busy, fighting in
the French and Indian War, and after
that he had some fun commanding a
"privateer." He married Sarah Hopkins, sister of Governor
Hopkins.
They were very wealthy and had a fine
house in Providence, and a farm
"out Cranston way."
Things were not going so well with the
Lakes. The French were
causing trouble about the fishing and so
Archibald and Mary came to New
York, where Mr. Lake found work in the
ship-yards.
It is too bad about young Whipple, we
heard that he was to have been
hung, for some mischief he got into.
Let us return to Marietta. I want to
tell you a little about our ceme-
teries. There is something that tugs at
the heart strings, and a fascination
about these scattered God's Acres. Their
soft grey sandstones are the
markers, left between the pages when our
forefathers laid down the great
"book of time." It is
surprising how much can be read between the lines
and the discoveries that may be made.
In the little cemetery at Cedarville,
below Belpre, Ohio, may be found
the grave of Major Robert Bradford, and
in the church-yard at Newport,
a shaft bears this inscription:
"Captain Nathaniel Little, died
November 20, 1808,
The first interment in this
cemetery"
and on the same stone:
"Pamela, wife of Nathaniel Little,
died October 30, 1822,
aged 59 years."
I turn to the old family Bible, the one
they had in "Farmer's Castle"
during the Indian War, and read:
"Nathaniel Little and Pamela Bradford
was married February ye 16th,
1792."
On the west bank of the Muskingum, seven
miles above Marietta, we
find another pioneer cemetery, with many
interesting names. May I call
your attention to the one with the
bronze tablet, which informs us that
Mary Bird Lake taught the first Sunday-school in the Northwest
Territory
(some say in the United States) and was
Matron of the General Army
150
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hospitals during the Revolutionary War?
Her husband, Archibald Lake,
also has a bronze tablet telling of his
services in the War. If we look in
the early histories we will find many
pages devoted to this remarkable
woman. Mrs. Lake was many times
personally thanked by General Wash-
ington, for her "tender, vigilant,
and unremitting care of the sick and
wounded soldiers."
It has often been stated that there are
more Revolutionary officers
of high rank, buried in Mound
Cemetery, than in any other one burial
ground in the United States. One has
only to read the names, Putnam,
Tupper, Hildreth, Parsons, and on down
the line to recognize the im-
portant part these men played in the war
against Britain, and later in the
establishment of the Northwest
Territory.
Over by the moat, near the Big Mound, is
a simple white shaft. Per-
haps, some of you have leaned over the
iron railing, trying to decipher the
unusual epitaph, have wondered about the
man: who he was, and what
he had done.
"1733 - 1819
Sacred
to the memory of
COMMODORE ABRAHAM WHIPPLE
whose name, skill, and courage
will ever remain the pride and
boast of his country.
In the late Revolution he was the
first on the seas to hurl defiance at
proud Britain,
gallantly leading the way to wrest from
the mistress of the ocean her scepter,
and there to wave the star-spangled
banner.
He also conducted to the sea
the first square-rigged vessel ever
built on the Ohio,
opening to commerce
resources beyond calculation."
" the pride and boast of his
country."
" the first to hurl defiance at
proud Britain."
" the first to conduct ships down
the Ohio."
" opening up commercial resources
beyond calculation."
Does it not intrigue the imagination?
Let us turn to the encyclopedia
and see what we may find. Strange is it
not, that no mention is made of
Commodore Whipple? We are told that John
Paul Jones, of Virginia,
rendered valuable service and has been
regarded as chief among the naval
heroes of the American Revolution. His
remains were brought in 1905
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS 151
from Paris to America where he was
buried in the Naval Academy grounds
at Annapolis.
If we turn to colonial histories we will
find much about Whipple's
daring service in the French and Indian
War, and of his exploits as com-
mander of a privateer. Arnold tells of
the burning of the Gaspe. Learning
that Captain Whipple had been in command
of the men from Providence,
who burned this ship, a message was sent:
"You, ABRAHAM WHIPPLE,
on the 10th of June, 1772, burned your
Majesties vessel, the Gaspe, and I
will hang you at the Yard-arm,"
signed "JAMES WALLACE." To which the
terse reply was: "To SIR JAMES
WALLACE: Always catch a man before
you hang him. ABRAHAM WHIPPLE."
Historians generally consider the
burning of the Gaspe, the first overt
act of the Revolution. This was eighteen months prior to
the Boston Tea
Party, and three years before the battle
of Lexington.
Rhode Island was the first of the
Colonies to renounce allegiance to
the British Crown, and the first to send
to sea under legislative authority,
vessels of war. Rhode Island purchased,
equipped and manned two sloops--
the Washington and Katy. These
were placed under the command of Abra-
ham Whipple with the rank of Commodore.
Whipple was ordered to clear
the bay of British ships. June 15, 1775,
Whipple sailed down the Narra-
ganset, routed the British, cleared the
bay, and thus gained the honor of
having fired the first shot--"the
shot that was heard around the world."
Such was the commencement of our first
American Navy, and that
was the Navy's first cruise. This
was two days before the battle of Bunker
Hill.
Whipple was credited with having
captured more British prizes than
any other naval officer of the
Revolution. It was Commodore Whipple who
was intrusted with the important papers
that must be gotten to our Com-
missioners in France, when it seemed
impossible for any one to run the
British blockade. It was Whipple who was
sent to raise the siege of
Charleston. It was Whipple who spent his
own fortune to keep the Ameri-
can fleet manned--it was his money that
paid the sailors. It was Whipple
who was given command of the first
merchant vessel sent to Great Britain
after the Peace. At this time he was
"the first to unfurl the American flag
(the star-spangled banner) on the
Thames."
Whipple, like many others, had expended
his entire fortune in the
cause of freedom, and was reduced to
actual want. The whole amount due
Whipple was over sixteen thousand
dollars, a considerable fortune in those
days. Quoting from his pitiful petition
to Congress, in 1786, after setting
forth his military services, he said:
"Thus having exhausted the means of
supporting myself and family,
I was reduced to the sad necessity of
mortgaging my farm, the remnant I
had left, to obtain money for temporary
support. The farm is now gone.
. . I am turned into the world at
an advanced age, feeble and valetudinary,
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
with my wife and children, destitute of
a house or home that I can call my
own, or have the means of hiring ... I
have served the United States from
the 15th of June, 1775, to December,
1782 [when taken prisoner], without
receiving a farthing of wages or
subsistence from them since December,
1776 [6 yrs.]. . . . The payment
of this, or a part of it, might be the happy
means of regaining the farm I have been
obliged to give up, and snatch my
family from misery and ruin."
In 1788, Commodore Whipple and wife
(Sarah Hopkins) came to
Marietta to be with their daughter and
son-in-law, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat.
In 1800 the first ship built at Marietta
was completed, but there was no one
in the new settlement qualified to take
the vessel to sea. So once again,
though an old man, Whipple came to the
rescue, took command, and with an
untrained crew took the boat to Havana,
disposed of the cargo, reloaded with
sugar and sailed for Philadelphia, where
he disposed of both cargo and ship
to advantage. Whipple then walked all
the way back to Marietta. From
then until the Embargo Act,
ship-building was the leading industry, and
vessels from Marietta sailed for every port.
Thus had Commodore Whip-
ple "opened to commerce, resources
beyond calculation."
Those who have made a study of the
accomplishments of this old
hero may well question the point that
John Paul Jones was "chief among
American naval heroes."
We read that "Man is but the
plaything of Fate." Truly, even with
our last resting place--Fate her tricks
doth play. How little did they
dream, those parents of long ago, that
Alice and the lonely lad William
would find a resting place at Plymouth,
in far away America! That little
Mary Bird from Bristol, and the fisher
lad from northern England, would
lie beneath the sod of Wiseman's Bottom,
beside the beautiful Mus-
kingum! And even in 1623, the Governor
and his bride would have pon-
dered long, had some one foretold that a
Major Robert would be in Cedar-
ville at Belpre, and Pamela with her
husband and children, in Newport
would live and die.
The gardener's son will not be found in
Scotland, for with pomp and
ceremony was he laid among the heroes of
our country. Commodore Whip-
ple, we know, sleeps just as peacefully
beside the moat, beneath the shadow
of the Great Mound. Who knows, perhaps
those silent people of long ago,
looked into the future as they built the
mound and planned it so!
The courage and self-sacrifice of those
early Ohio mothers is well
portrayed by the letter which Lucy
Backus Woodbridge wrote concerning
their plan, "very hastily
formed" to remove to Marietta.
"I feel reconcile'd myself to any
step that will promote the interest of
my family. In this place [Norwich,
Conn.] there is very little for anyone
to expect so of course we do not hazard
much in the attempt, and the de-
scriptions of the western world are truly
flattering. If the half of them
are just I shall chearfully quit my
prospects here. It will be painful part-
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 153
ing with the connections I must leave
behind me, but the society of our
friends but poorly compensates for the
want of a subsistence. We have a
large circle of little ones dependent on
us, and I know of no persuit that
would give me more pleasure than that of
providing an easy Liveing for
them."
Emigration has ever played its part in
the making of history and in
every land since Moses led his trusting
band to the land of "milk and
honey," there has been a lure that
beckons men to fields afar, for homes
must be established and little mouths
fed, and there must be weaving and
spinning. Yes, a nation is made up of
the hearts of mothers, the wisdom
of fathers, and the joyous laughter of
children. "Within the mirrors of
their children's radiant eyes I see
envisioned all the hopes and fears of men
and women, who 'neath alien skies
transmuted wilderness to paradise."
The last speaker at this session was
Professor Francis Phelps
Weisenburger of the Department of
History of the Ohio State
University.
THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN HISTORY
By FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER
My subject today is very similar in its
wording to that taken a few
years ago by Professor Edward M. Hulme
of Stanford University, Cali-
fornia, in his presidential address
before the Pacific Coast Branch of the
American Historical Association. At that
time he spoke on the topic,
"The Personal Equation in
History."1 The matter which he discussed,
however, was a very different one from
that which I have in view in com-
menting upon "The Personal Element
in History." Professor Hulme had
in mind of course the extent to which
the writer of history, however objec-
tive his intentions, is necessarily
influenced in his selection of data and
in his interpretation of events by his
own personal background. Race,
color, ancestry, schooling, economic
circumstances, and many other factors
are indeed often very significant in
determining the viewpoint expressed by
even the most unbiased of historical
writers. Professor Hulme flatly de-
clared that "perfect
detachment" among historians is impossible, is in
fact "a myth." He went on to
express the view that history of all kinds
is "colored" by the personal
equation, sometimes indeed rather slightly
but at other times very deeply.
Circumstances of time and place, he said,
are important in determining the trend
of historical interpretation, and the
personal background of the author is apt
to be of great significance. His-
torians at best, he said, are not
machines on the one hand or angels on
Pacific Historical Review (Glendale, Calif.), II (1933/34), 129ff.
154
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the other, but very human individuals
trying in varying degree to rise
above their own personal prejudices and
predilections. Hence, wholly
objective history, he said, is probably
as impossible as objective art and
possibly no more desirable.
Many historians would agree that
objective history is difficult to pro-
duce and that an insistence upon a
thorough detachment is a perfection not
to be attained in a world of human
limitations. But many would hold
tenaciously to the view that such an
objectivity must be devoutly sought
in every possible way as the only worthy
goal of historical effort.
My principal purpose today, however, is
not to deal with "The Per-
sonal Equation in History," with
the extent to which the writer of his-
tory may succeed in transcending the
personal equation in presenting a
clear and complete picture of the past.
Rather my hope is to present
rather briefly my views as to the
importance of personality in the making,
not the recording or the explaining of
history. In other words the inten-
tion is to make some observations on the
importance of individuals as
participators in the molding of past events
rather than as chroniclers and
interpreters of the past.
In presenting historical material, every
historical writer or teacher
has been confronted with the problem of
the use of the chronological
method on the one hand, or the topical
on the other and has invariably
arrived at some degree of compromise.
But he has also been confronted
with the question of emphasis in the
presentation of his material. As
Professor Charles A. Beard has pointed
out, written history is, in a sense,
"an act of faith."2 Accordingly,
the faith which the historical writer
places in the various possible
approaches will obviously color his interpre-
tations of past events.
Historians have differed of course as to
the number of such ap-
proaches that they have deemed
significant. Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes, the
rather iconoclastic historical writer,
but one whose comments are often
very thought-provoking, published a year
and a half ago a volume entitled,
A History of Historical Writing.3 In it he mentioned seven usual avenues
of approach to history. These, with some
changes in the order of their
presentation, we may consider with brief
comments.
One is the geographical, a factor which
has, at least at times, been
of interest to the historical writer
since the days of the Greek physician
and author, Hippocrates, who pointed out
the effects of climate upon dis-
ease. In recent years few interpreters
of this school have been so in-
fluential as Ellsworth Huntington, who
has written such books as Civiliza-
tion and Climate 4 and with Sumner W. Cushing, Principles of Human
Geography.5 Perhaps we should also mention Ellen Churchill Semple,
who died in 1932, the author of American
History and Its Geographic Con-
2 The American Historical Review (New York), XXXIX (1933/34), 219-31.
3 (Norman, Oklahoma, 1937).
4 (New Haven, 1915).
5 (New York, 1920).
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 155
ditions.6 Also of interest to the well-informed student of
American his-
tory are the writings of Frederick
Jackson Turner, who showed the way
in which certain geographical regions
have, through their inter-develop-
ment, diversified and enriched the
American nation. But the importance
of the geographical element in history
need not be taken upon the word
of the historian. Its importance is so
evident that all who run may see
the evidences of its significance. Even today when modern inventions
have eliminated certain limitations of
space, the American people are con-
stantly aware of the importance of the
three thousand mile geographical
distance which separates them from the
immediate danger of threatened
borders and devastating air raids. Great
Britain, on the other hand, while
appreciative of the value of the English
Channel as sort of a moat sepa-
rating her from the direct threats of
continental neighbors realizes that
geographically her "splendid
isolation" is gone forever.
A second approach to history is the
sociological. This avenue en-
deavors to utilize an analysis of the
origin and activities of social groups
in arriving at an interpretation of the
past. Many students of southern
history in the United States have found
this method definitely helpful. In
the ante-bellum South some writers have
grouped the population of the
region below the Mason-Dixon line into a
number of categories, includ-
ing the planting aristocracy; the
professional classes who were dependent
upon their patronage; the more or less
prosperous yeoman farmers; the
poor Georgia "crackers,"
Alabama "hill-billies," etc.; and finally the
negro slaves.
Likewise utilizing the sociological
approach, many students have found
in the varying contributions of
immigrant groups, such as the Scotch-
Irish, the Pennsylvania
"Dutch," the Swedes, the Germans, the Greeks,
the Italians, the Poles, and many others
a key to a fuller understanding
of American life.
A third approach is the scientific and
technological. This lays great
stress upon an appraisal of the amount
of scientific knowledge possessed
at a given time and the extent to which
inventive genius has adapted it
to the needs of the common life. Those
who emphasize this factor are
persuaded that tremendous national
resources may be of little significance
to history when technical knowledge is
such that they are unexploited and
unused for practical purposes.
A fourth approach is the much discussed
economic interpretation of
history. Karl Marx of course gave the
classic expression to this view,
and his position has been followed,
often less dogmatically, by many Euro-
pean and American historians. Such persons believe that economic re-
sources and institutions are of primary
significance in determining the
trend of social development and cultural
change. Among such writers we
find Henri See, author of The
Economic Interpretation of History.7
6 (Boston and New York, 1903).
7 American edition (New
York, 1929).
156
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A fifth approach has sometimes been
called the spiritual interpreta-
tion. Over twenty years ago Shailer
Mathews, long dean of University
of Chicago Divinity School, wrote a
volume called The Spiritual Interpre-
tation of History.8 Since that time there have been others who have sought
to discover certain spiritual dynamics
by which men have moved forward
toward a freer and fuller life.
A sixth approach, a relatively new one,
is the "collective psycholog-
ical." This is an attempt to bring
together into a synthesis the various
factors, not to be found in a single
category, which determine the trends
of the life of an era. Under this view,
science, technology, economic
institutions, all are important in
influencing social, political, and religious
standards, and thus a dominant pattern
for the civilization of the period
is created.
It should be mentioned in passing that
Dr. Barnes dismisses in rather
cavalier fashion one approach which long
has been followed by a large
portion of historians, the political.
Edward Augustus Freeman, the noted
nineteenth century historian of England,
who described history as "past
politics," has been the most
celebrated exponent of this tendency. Indeed
the education of each one of us present
today has been definitely affected
by this view. Under this conception the
reigns of kings and dynasties
and the vicissitudes of parties and
political organizations are of preeminent
importance in analyzing the collective
life of a nation. Accordingly, how
many of us have learned to name in order
the kings of England and the
Presidents of the United States!
Intimately associated with this political
approach is that which emphasizes the
significance of the military and
naval factors in national life. The late
Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan,
who wrote such volumes as Influence
of Sea Power upon History, 1660-
17839 and Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812,10 was undoubtedly
the most important writer in this
particular field of interpretation.
Those who minimize the value of the
political approach to history
will perhaps assert that their own lives
have been more influenced by the
stock quotations for U. S. Steel or
General Electric at the time they entered
college than by the fact that the
Democrats or Republicans happened to
be in control of Congress at that
period. Others will retort of course
that the value of U. S. Steel or almost
any other stock at a given time
is definitely affected by the friendly
or unfriendly attitude toward business
manifested by the political party that
is in power.
However that may be, Dr. Barnes does not
omit from his list of
present-day approaches to historical
interpretation the personal element,
the one to which we are to direct our
principal attention today.
Among historical writers of by-gone
generations, those who have
been best known for their stressing of
the personal element in history are
8 (Cambridge, Mass., 1916).
9 (Boston, 1890).
10 (Boston, 1905), 2v.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 157
Thomas Carlyle and James Anthony Froude.
To these British historians,
history was in essence a kind of
collective biography. In other words,
the story of human life was to them
little more than "the lengthened
shadow" of the great men of all
times. The viewpoint of such historians
was essentially aristocratic. Carlyle
interpreted history in terms of the
dramatic careers of its great
personalities. Hence his great literary achieve-
ments, Life and Letters of Oliver
Cromwe,ll The History of Friedrich
the Second Called Frederick the
Great,12 and the French
Revolution13 are
distinguished especially for their vivid
portrayal of the glittering per-
sonalities who were associated with
these eras. Though abler as an in-
terpreter and less prejudiced than his
well-known predecessor, Froude em-
ployed much the same method as Carlyle,
the aggrandizement of the
masterful character. Hence, in his History
of England from the Fall of
Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth14 we find striking portrayals of such
individuals as Henry VIII and John Knox.
In theory, Carlyle early believed in
stressing the part played by all
personalities--great and small--in the
influencing of human affairs. Actually
his enthusiasm for the powerful figures
whose careers he portrayed be-
came so great as to relegate the masses
of mankind to absorption in the
herd of lesser folk or to membership in
an undisciplined mob, as was
his conception of the part played by the
rank and file of Frenchmen in
the French Revolution.15
For some decades there has been a
definite tendency, in analyzing
the affairs of mankind, to minimize the
importance of the single individual.
The universe has seemed so large that
the influence of one individual has
often appeared to be so infinitesimal as
to be wholly inconsequential. There-
fore, a kind of "astronomical
intimidation" has brought a feeling of de-
featism to more than one modern man. The
resulting philosophy of many
has been characterized by a spirit of
cynicism which has been very little
different from the preacher of old who
cried out, "Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity."
It has not been the idea alone of the
immensity of the universe, how-
ever, that has sometimes caused the
personal element in the affairs of the
world to seem trivial indeed. There has
also been the feeling that economic
forces, social tendencies, and political
trends, have controlled the affairs
of men and that individuals have
functioned much like little bubbles rising
to the top of a mighty stream.
Our purpose at this time is not to argue
anew the age-long question
as to whether man is the master of his
fate and the captain of his soul
or even to discuss in non-theological
terms the old controversy between
11 (New York, 1845), 2v.
12 (London, 1858-1865), 6v.
13 (London, 1837), 3v.
14 (London, 1856-1870), 12v.
15 B. H. Lehman, Carlyle's Theory of
the Hero (Durham, 1928), 56-61.
158
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
free will and predestination. It is
true, nevertheless, that as we look over
the world today it may seem indeed that
in country after country the
average single individual is of little
consequence. The philosophy of Nazi
Germany and of other totalitarian states
in truth embodies the view that
the state is all important and that the
individual as such is of little or no
consequence except as he contributes to
the glorification of the nation.
Yet, the dictator states themselves have
emphasized--perhaps after the
manner of a Carlyle--the personal
element in history. One certainly can-
not disparage the influence of
personality in history at a time when from
month to month a nervous world awaits
with bated breath the latest radio
utterances of an Adolph Hitler, or to a
much lesser extent, the pronounce-
ments of a Mussolini or a Franco or a
Chamberlain.
One certainly cannot disparage the
influence of personality in history,
moreover, as one reviews the happenings
in America during the last six
years and calmly appraises the great
importance--for good or evil--of
the activities of Franklin D. Roosevelt
in both domestic and foreign affairs.
On the other hand, it must be pointed
out that, even in the case of
the most powerful individual, favorable
circumstances have contributed to,
indeed made possible, the outstanding
influence of such a personality. The
times apparently were ripe in 1829, for
the rise to great power of such
a man as Andrew Jackson, and the
post-World War period for the emer-
gence of a Mussolini. The extent to
which really creative effort can be
attributed to the masterful individual
and the extent to which the accom-
plishments of such a person are the
results of irresistible movements
separable from his leadership are
problems of great difficulty for the
biographer and historian.16
It is not the purpose of this paper to
do any special pleading for the
idea of the importance of the personal
element in history. Most historians
probably agree that so many factors
enter into any well-rounded interpre-
tation of the past that no single
approach is wholly adequate. Clearly,
however, the element of personality is
one factor which cannot safely be
ignored in any satisfactory
interpretation of history. Hence, it is the duty
of students of the past to obtain as
clear a view as possible of the part
played by individuals in the making of
the world what it is today.
The importance of the personal element
in history has been recog-
nized in recent years in the United
States in many ways. Not incon-
spicuous among these has been the
preparation and publication in twenty
large volumes (with an additional index
volume) of the monumental
Dictionary of American Biography. These volumes, edited by Allen John-
son and Dumas Malone, and published over
the period from 1928 to 1936,
contain detailed biographical sketches
of 13,633 prominent Americans of
every generation (although no living
persons are included). As many as
2,243 different authors, generally
specialists in the period and field in which
16 Edward P. Cheyney, Law in History and Other Essays (New
York, 1927), 163-4.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 159
the subject lived and worked contributed
to this colossal undertaking.
Some of the biographical sketches are in
themselves fairly extensive, no
less than seventy-six of them extending
to the length of five thousand words
or more. In some cases, moreover, these
biographical contributions con-
stitute probably the best
characterizations to be found anywhere in print,
as in the instances of Thomas Jefferson
and Woodrow Wilson.17 In addi-
tion, thousands of characters who
contributed significantly to American
life in all of its phases--social,
political, economic, cultural, and religious--
have been rescued from some degree of
oblivion.
In many instances in preparing these
biographical sketches, the authors
communicated with, by letter or
personally interviewed relatives and friends
of the individual whose life story was
to be told. Thus, often information
which would soon have vanished, to some
extent at least, was preserved
for future reference.
In the composing of a number of sketches
for these volumes I myself
found that I had some measure of
experience of this kind. For example,
in the case of one prominent individual,
once a United States Senator,
whose middle initial was B., I found no
indication of the name for which
this stood. I searched older
biographical dictionaries and county and local
histories; I wrote fruitlessly to an
historical society of which the Senator
had been a patron, to the surviving
widow of one of his grandchildren,
and to the custodian of the records of
Hamilton College at Clinton, New
York, from which he had been graduated.
Finally through the mediation of
the chairman of the board of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer who has since
died, information was obtained from a
surviving granddaughter, who
reported that her prominent ancestor had
been christened without a middle
name. Arriving at the age of maturity he
had become definitely conscious
of the lack of a middle initial and had
adopted the letter B. because he
thought that it blended harmoniously
with the rest of his name. Thus,
the middle initial signified just that and
nothing more.
In another case I found that a
distinguished Congressman of bygone
days had, according to various newspaper
accounts in his home city, left
one son and one daughter. But other
papers stated that he was survived
by a son and two daughters. Finally,
after writing numerous letters and
securing no satisfactory answer to my
query, I got in touch with the
clergyman who had officiated at the
Congressman's funeral. This reverend
gentleman ascertained for me that there
had been one son and one daughter
and a granddaughter who had been raised
as a child of the family. Thus,
a very easily explained discrepancy in
the newspaper accounts was cleared up.
For the student of American biography
and genealogy these twenty
volumes of the Dictionary of American
Biography constitute a rich mine
of source material. Here, for example,
are somewhat extensive accounts
17 Review by Arthur M. Schlesinger in American
Historical Review, XLII
(1936/37), 769 ff.
160
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of no less than forty-two persons by the
surname of Adams; twenty-one
by that of Abbot or Abbott; nineteen by
that of Baker; sixteen by that of
Anderson; sixteen by that of Bradford;
fifteen by that of Alexander;
fifteen by that of Ames; and fifteen by
that of Bell. For further pur-
poses of illustration, if we turn to the
end of the alphabet, we find that
there, too, numerous surnames are
represented a considerable number of
times: Williams, fifty-seven times;
Whyte, thirty-eight times; Wilson and
Willson, thirty-six times; Wood and
Woods, thirty-five times; Ward,
thirty-two times; Walker, thirty times;
and Wright, thirty times.18
Among recent writers in the field of
American history perhaps none
has emphasized the personal element
more ably than Professor Allan
Nevins, of Columbia University, who has
written numerous biographies
of leading figures in the American life
of bygone generations. Utilizing
something of the Carlyle method but with
the restraint of scientific schol-
arship, Nevins in his extensive
biography of Grover Cleveland, of which
the sub-title is A Study in
Courage,19 has included practically a history of
the national administration during the
period of Cleveland's Presidencies.
In his volume dealing with the careers
of Peter Cooper and Abram S.
Hewitt20 we find much material on the
very basis of business invention,
and philanthropy in New York during the
latter part of the nineteenth
century; and in his life of Hamilton
Fish,21 secretary of state under Ulysses
S. Grant, we find as clear a
pen-portrait of Grant and other notables and
as definite an analysis of the political
trends of that period as are available
in print.
It is interesting to note that the
importance of the personal element
in history has made such an appeal to
some educational leaders that at a
number of American colleges, notably
Dartmouth, courses are given in
American biography. At the above-mentioned
institution in New Hamp-
shire, one course is given on American
Political Biography, 1776-1865 and
another on the same subject, 1865-1935.22
Since this session is a joint session of
an historical society and a
genealogical society, perhaps it is
appropriate for us to point out the inti-
mate relationship between biography and
history on the one hand and
genealogy on the other. Scholars in
various fields of course have never
agreed as to the extent to which
heredity or environment has been the
determining factor in the molding of
personality. Doubtless both are im-
portant; hence any student of the
personal element in history is much
interested in the type of forebears from
whom an individual is descended
and the kind of interests which these
forebears cherished and which helped
to determine the personality of the
younger members of the family.
18 From reviews by Arthur M. Schlesinger, ibid., XXXV (1929/30),
119ff;
XLII, 769ff.
19 (New
York, 1932).
24 Abram
S. Hewitt: with Some Account of Peter
Cooper (New York, 1935).
21 (New York,
1936).
22 Dartmouth
College Bulletin (Hanover, N. H.),
Third Ser., (1935/36), 125.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS 161
Apparently the able editors of the Dictionary
of American Biography
held this in mind when they insisted
that, wherever possible, contributors
should give exact and not too limited
data concerning the immediate ances-
tors of the individual whose life-story
was being told. Time and time
again, they were not content with the
amount of material of this kind
originally submitted by the
contributors, hence they often insisted upon a
more extended analysis of the family
background.
The editors of this well-known
biographical dictionary have not been
alone in such an emphasis. We note the
same interest in ancestry among
the numerous biographers of George
Washington, who have taken great
pains to trace the family, generation by
generation, to the Washingtons of
Sulgrave, Northampton, England.
In the case of Abraham Lincoln--to use
another of the standard
examples in American history--although
the martyred President himself
could trace his ancestry back no farther
than to certain forebears who
had lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania,
scholars have interested them-
selves in the subject and have followed
the line, step by step, as far back
as Samuel Lincoln, who in 1637 settled
in Hingham, Massachusetts, having
come from an English community of the
same name. On the side of
Lincoln's mother there has been much
misinformation, much supposition,
and much heated controversy.23 Apparently
the mother, Nancy Hanks Lin-
coln, was the illegitimate child of Lucy
Hanks, hence there has been con-
siderable conjecture as to Lincoln's
maternal grandfather and to the extent
to which a possibly superior personality
in that instance may have trans-
mitted to Lincoln certain elements of
strength. In connection with the
Hanks line, moreover, one writer, Rev.
William E. Barton (father of the
present New York Congressman, Bruce
Barton) has conjectured that
Lincoln's ancestry is linked with the
family of Robert E. Lee.24 Barton's
tireless interest in such phases of
Lincoln's background was so great that
he contributed to the discussion a
number of volumes including (in addition
to The Lineage of Lincoln) The Paternity
of Abraham Lincoln--Was He
the Son of Thomas Lincoln: An Essay
on the Chastity of Nancy Hanks.25
In the case of Woodrow Wilson, his
biographers have placed much
stress upon the importance of his
Scotch-Irish ancestry in shaping his
career. Thus, William Allen White, the
well-known Kansas journalist,
in his biography of Wilson has a whole
chapter devoted to the significance
of Wilson's ancestry. Entitled the
"Miracle of Heredity," this chapter
suggests that the War President acquired
from his Wilson ancestry much
of his ability as an active leader in
public affairs and from his Woodrow
forebears his definite interest in
theoretical ideals.26 Similarly, Ray Stan-
23 See bibliographical note by James G.
Randall in Dictionary of American
Biography (New York, 1928-1937), XI, 258-9.
24 See chapter, "Lincoln Was a Lee," in The Lineage of
Lincoln (Indianapolis,
1929), 196-211.
25 (New York, 1920).
26 (Boston and New York, 1924), 8-27.
162
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
nard Baker, in his many-volume Life
and Letters of Woodrow Wilson has
devoted twenty-seven pages to a
discussion of the Wilson and Woodrow
families as important factors in
determining the destiny of their distin-
guished descendant.27 Incidentally,
I have used some private letters and
other materials relating to Wilson's
ancestry that had not been previously
utilized by the biographers of the World
War President. These previously
unexploited sources have been the basis
for an article, "The Middle Western
Antecedents of Woodrow Wilson,"
which I presented in the Mississippi
Valley Historical Review for December, 1936.28 In this connection it is
interesting to know how Woodrow Wilson's
grandfather, James Wilson, a
Steubenville editor and politician,
could insist, in writing to a friend that
they owed a definite responsibility to
him. In one letter he frankly stated:
"I have so many boys I do not know
what to do with them. I cannot
afford to set them up in any business
and my friends must take care of
them." In another communication he expressed his adherence to "the
notion (not altogether, perhaps,
a Yankee notion) than when a man has
friends he ought to use them." On
one occasion when insisting upon cer-
tain patronage for his newspaper he
flatly declared, "This, I think, so far
as I am concerned I have a right to insist
upon and have a right to get mad
if not done. I say nothing about merits,
services to the people and all
that." 29 Although Woodrow Wilson
was born in Virginia and spent his
youth in the deeper South, his immediate
forebears were Ohioans, and it
will always be a matter of conjecture as
to how much middle-western
influences had a bearing upon the
molding of his personality.
Many writers in American history and
biography have indeed stressed
the significance of ancestry in its
effect upon the careers of important
Americans. Thus, William Allen White,
the Emporia (Kansas) editor
whom we have previously mentioned, in
his interesting recent biography
of Calvin Coolidge, significantly
entitled A Puritan in Babylon, has care-
fully indicated the influence of
Coolidge's Vermont ancestry on the forming
of the rather enigmatical character of
the twenty-ninth President of the
United States.30
Furthermore the significance of family
associations in relation to
American biography has recently been
stressed by such writers as James
Truslow Adams in his articulated study
of numerous prominent Adamses
in The Adams Family 31 and by
Burton J. Hendrick in his similar account
of The Lees of Virginia.32
In conclusion, may it be suggested that
the student of genealogy can
find in the biographical sketches of
many of these famous men considerable
insight into some of the possibilities
of genealogical research. Over twenty-
27 Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (Garden City, 1927), I, Youth.
28 Vol. XXIII, 375-90.
29 Ibid., 382-3.
30 (New York, 1938).
31 (Boston, 1930).
32 (Boston, 1935).
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 163
five years ago, Charles K. Bolton,
librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, in
an address on "Genealogy and
History" before the American Historical
Association assembled in Boston (1912)
showed how, as he said, "the
vicissitudes of families conceal the
very sources of political and economic
history." He urged, accordingly,
that genealogists, in their researches
concern themselves not merely with the names,
births, marriages and deaths
of various members of the families
involved, but with the environment,
activities, and existing states of
culture. By doing this, the genealogist
may combine with his interest in vital
statistics an appreciation of the part,
however small, played by the individuals
whose records are being traced,
in the life of the day in which they
lived.33 By doing this, moreover, the
genealogist may understand, as never
before, the importance of the "Per-
sonal Element in History."
33 American Historical Review, XVIII (1912/13), 467.
138
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the intriguing thing about Grant's
career being that his fame
rested largely on his military
achievements though Grant himself
was a man who neither liked war nor, on
the technical side at
least, knew very much about it.
Speaking in a pleasing, staccato manner,
Patterson captivated
his audience with his fund of
seldom-heard stories, the interest-
ing sidelights he threw on well-known
historic events, and his
ability to sum up in a few revealing
words the personalities of
our Presidents.
Most of his tales were humorous ones,
appreciation for which
was shown in the repeated laughter heard
in the hall. One of
his most effective stories was that of
the interview granted, per
force, to Anne Royall, intrepid
newspaper woman of the early
nineteenth century, by John Quincy
Adams, who bathed in the
Potomac while the dauntless reporter
waited on the bank and,
seated on the presidential habiliments,
noted down Adams' grudg-
ing replies to her questions on the
United States Bank.
Hearty applause marked the conclusion of
Patterson's lecture.
Speaking for himself, the Ohio State
Archaeological and His-
torical Society, and attenders of the
Ohio History Conference,
Johnson thanked Patterson for the
stimulating and entertaining
evening he had given his listeners.
General Session, 10:00 A. M., April
8, Ohio State Museum,
Frank A. Livingston, Presiding
The first speaker of the morning was
Miss Mary A. Stone,
of Cambridge, Ohio, president of the
Guernsey County Historical
Society, and a teacher for fifty-one
years.
GENEALOGY: A STUDY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
By MARY A. STONE
The work of an historical society
becomes more important as the
years pass. The pioneers who saw
the beginnings are gone, and their
children who heard from their elders'
lips the stories of the past are going
very rapidly. In the future, history
must be written by the younger gen-
eration. The writers must make thorough
scientific research and investi-