HISTORICAL NEWS
Historical Societies
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE
AND HISTORY, Columbus
William F. Savoy, State Director
The Columbus branch of the association
observed the 23d an-
nual celebration of Negro History Week
during the second week in
February. Radio speakers were Dr. James
H. Rodabaugh, Mrs.
Julia Burrell, Charles Allen, Dr.
William Utterbeck, Dr. John Ben-
nett, Dr. Allen Griffen, Chester Gray,
and William F. Savoy, state
director of the association. Dr.
Rodabaugh and Mr. Savoy spoke
at the Lockbourne Air Base at the
Officers' Wives Club. Mr. Savoy
also spoke at the First Baptist Church.
Miss Ormay Pate spoke at
the Pilgrim School.
BUTLER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Hamilton
Elmer Kessling, President
Plans are being made for the conversion
of the home of the late
Pauline Benninghofen to the use of the
society. The property was
bequeathed to the society by Miss
Benninghofen as a meeting place
and museum to be maintained in memory of
the Benninghofen
family.
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Cleveland
Kenneth B. Desher, Director
Miss Jean Baxter, M.A. in anthropology
from the University of
Michigan, who has been assisting in the
reorganization of the North
American Indian Room and was in charge
of the recent exhibition
on the Navaho, has resigned to accept a
position with the Episcopal
Mission on the Navaho in Arizona.
FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Norwalk
Homer M. Beattie, President
The present officers of the society are
Homer M. Beattie, presi-
dent; Charles Frohman, vice president;
Esther Gibbs Powers, secre-
197
198
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tary; James Wood, treasurer; James E.
Dixon, curator. The society
is now cataloging, rearranging, and
redisplaying all its exhibits.
HAYES MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, Fremont
Watt P. Marchman, Director of
Research
The library has added to its manuscript
collections fifteen orig-
inal letters written by President
Rutherford B. Hayes to: Dr. Francis
H. Brown, Boston, July 22, 1868;
Columbus Delano, May 14, 22,
and August 7, 1873; B. R. Cowen, Washington,
D. C., May 1, 1873;
William E. Chandler, June 30 and
December 31, 1876; William C.
Howells, July 15, 1876; A. T. Britton,
police commissioner, Wash-
ington, D. C., July 20, 1877; George
Bancroft, November 23, 1880;
E. C. Brown, New York City, May 17,
1884, enclosing an autograph
transcript of his letter to William
Henry Smith, August 24, 1864;
E. Rosewater, editor, Omaha Bee, Omaha,
Nebraska, August 20,
1891; and Walter H. Page, editor, the Forum,
November 30, 1891.
The original document appointing William
Ware Peck of New York
an associate justice of the supreme
court of the Territory of Wyom-
ing, December 14, 1877, was presented by
R. Colcord, office manager,
Pan American World Airways System,
Atlantic Division, Long
Island City, N. Y.
Photostat copies of 24 letters and 7
documents written and
signed by Rutherford B. Hayes and copies
of other manuscripts
were also added to the collections of
the library: three Hayes let-
ters to V. B. Horton, January 18, 1877,
George W. Jones, June 11,
1880, and Edward W. Bok, October 26,
1891, by courtesy of Judge
Curtis Bok and Cary W. Bok of
Philadelphia; twelve Hayes letters
to Warner M. Bateman, Cincinnati,
1865-78, two letters of A. T.
Wikoff, Columbus, 1875, to Bateman, and
eleven letters of W. K.
Rogers (private secretary of President
Hayes) to Bateman, by cour-
tesy of Bateman's son, W. M. Bateman of
Cleveland; one letter to
Gen. B. F. Potts, Helena, Montana, March
6, 1876, by courtesy of
Dr. R. W. G. Vail, director, New York
Historical Society; eight
Hayes letters and seven documents, by
courtesy of Russell H. Ander-
son, director, Western Reserve
Historical Society, Cleveland.
Microfilm copies (4 reels) of the
executive correspondence of
Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio,
1868-72, 1876-77, taken
HISTORICAL NEWS 199
from original papers in the library of
the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society, Columbus, by
courtesy of Erwin C. Zepp,
director, and John O. Marsh, librarian,
were added to the Hayes
papers of the Hayes Memorial Library.
Miscellaneous manuscripts acquired
recently include: a tele-
gram from H. C. Corbin to R. B. Hayes,
September 17, 1881, report-
ing the condition of President Garfield;
26 Civil War letters,
1862-64, to Annie F. Howells, from R.
Williams, Willis D. Maier,
and J. W. Walkins; a letter from Stanley
Matthews to James A.
Garfield, April 10, 1878; a letter from
John Sherman to William C.
Howells, January 26, 1882; and a letter
from William Henry Smith
to William C. Howells, May 13, 1864.
Photostat copies of four
letters to or about R. B. Hayes have
also been acquired: Hamilton
Harris and George Dawson, Albany, New
York, December 10, 1880,
to Hayes; John C. New, Indianapolis,
Indiana, February 2, 1878,
to Hayes; John Pope, Leavenworth,
Kansas, October 6, 1872, to
Hayes; Roscoe Conkling, Washington, D.
C., January 25, 1881, to
J. Schuyler. The library has acquired a
microfilm copy of Abram
S. Hewitt's "Narrative of facts in
connection with the Presidential
Campaign of 1876 and action of the
Electoral Commission," by
courtesy of Dr. R. W. G. Vail, director,
New York Historical
Society.
A copy of the index to the Lincoln
papers in the Library of
Congress on microfilm has been purchased
by the library.
HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF
OHIO, Cincinnati
Virginius C. Hall, Director-Librarian
The annual spring exhibit will open at
the Taft Museum the
evening of April 30. Life on the Ohio
River and its tributaries from
the earliest times to the present will
be portrayed in woodcuts, photo-
graphs, manuscripts, printed documents,
and museum objects. There
will be a gala opening for members and
invited guests. Thereafter
the exhibit will be open to the public
for a period of three weeks.
Virginius C. Hall, director-librarian of
the society, recently
addressed the Monday Lecture Class on
the subject "America As
She Was-Currier and Ives."
200
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Bulletin for March, in
anticipation of the spring exhibit,
is devoted to the Ohio River, with
articles by Clark Firestone, Harry
B. Muckoy, Carl Vitz, and G. Anderson
Espy. The Bulletin, edited
by Lee Shepard, has a new format and has
been enlarged to 48
pages.
Biographical-genealogical forms have
been mailed to all mem-
bers of the society. These records are
being filed as a permanent
source of information. They are held for
restricted or unlimited use
in accordance with the desire of the
member.
Membership in the society now numbers
465 annual paying
members.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO,
Toledo
Randolph C. Downes, Director
The society has recently published the
first volume of the
Lucas County Historical Series which will be a six-volume work on
the history of Lucas County. The book is
by Randolph C. Downes,
director of the society, and is entitled
The Conquest.
Articles in the January 1948 number of
the Northwest Ohio
Quarterly, the publication of the society, are "David Ross
Locke:
Civil War Propagandist," by Jack
Clifford Ransome; "Sherwood
Anderson: The Spanish-American War
Years," by William A. Sut-
ton; and "The Battle of Fallen
Timbers As Told by Chief Kin-jo-
i-no," by Dresden W. H. Howard.
KIRTLAND ANTHROPOLOGY CLUB, Cleveland
Jean Baxter, President
The following officers of the club were
elected in December
1947: Jean Baxter, president; Mildred
Nixon, vice president; Robert
Smith, secretary; George E. Tower,
treasurer.
The primary interest of the club is
local archaeology. Its cur-
rent project is the construction of a
map of Cuyahoga County show-
ing spots where artifacts have been
found, recognized sites of burials,
cemeteries, villages, "forts,"
and mounds, and trails.
The membership of the club is made up
largely of amateurs.
It is sponsored by the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History.
HISTORICAL NEWS 201
MEDINA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Medina
Florence Phillips, President
The Medina County history to be
published by the society is
now in the hands of the printers. The
history will be composed of
the histories of the county's townships.
They were collected and
edited by Mrs. C. L. Griesinger.
OHIO ACADEMY OF HISTORY
William D. Overman, Secretary-Treasurer
The spring meeting of the Ohio Academy
of History will be
held Friday, April 9, at the Deshler-Wallick
Hotel, Columbus. Fol-
lowing is the program:
Morning Session-10 A.M.
Presiding-CLAYTON S. ELLSWORTH, College
of Wooster
"The Name of the Holy Roman
Empire"
RICHARD G. SALOMON, Kenyon College
"The Good Neighbor Policy"
ARVID T. JOHNSON, University of Toledo
Luncheon Conference-12:30 P.M.
Presiding-HASTING EELLS, President of
the Academy
"German Historiography during the
Nazi Regime"
HAROLD J. GRIMM, Ohio State University
Afternoon Session-2:30 P.M.
Presiding-HASTING EELLS, Ohio Wesleyan University
"History in the General Education
Course"
BENJAMIN H. PERSHING, Wittenberg College
"Publications in Ohio History"
JAMES H. RODABAUGH, Ohio State
Archaeological
and Historical Society
Business Meeting: Election of Officers,
Awards.
The present officers of the Academy are
Hastings Eells, presi-
dent; George F. Howe, vice president;
William D. Overman, secre-
tary-treasurer.
202
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
OHIO PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
U. L. Mackey, President
The officers of the society are Dr. U.
L. Mackey, president;
Dr. William J. Hail, vice president; Dr.
Clarence S. Gee, librarian.
The society expects to carry on a
somewhat more active program
in the future than it has in the past
few years.
OTTAWA COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM, Port Clinton
May Hesselbart, Curator
The sixteenth annual report of the
Ottawa County Historical
Museum was read by May Hesselbart,
curator, before the village
council on the evening of February 10.
Miss Hesselbart reported that the museum
had 354 new visitors
and 811 repeat callers during the year
covered by the report. Visi-
tors came from 41 different localities
within the state and from fif-
teen other states. The greatest number
of visitors from states out-
side Ohio were from California. Michigan
ranked second.
SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF PIONEER RIVERMEN
Frederick Way, Jr., President
A large, brass, ship's clock has been
presented to the Greene
Line's new tourist steamer the Delta
Queen. As a gesture of appre-
ciation, Captain Tom Greene gave the
River Museum at Marietta the
original log kept at sea while the Delta
Queen was en route from
San Francisco to New Orleans in April
and May of 1947. This
was the first such trip made by a river
steamer.
Scale models of the following steamboats
will be added to the
collection in the museum as soon as
cases are built: the Kate Adams,
the Helen E., the Alice Brown,
and the Iron Age.
Frederick Way, Jr., has been named
Inland Rivers Editor of
Steamboat Bill of Facts, the quarterly publication of the Steamship
Historical Society of America.
STARK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Canton
E. T. Heald, Secretary-Treasurer
The annual dinner meeting of the society
was held on January
22 in the parish house of St. Paul's
Episcopal Church, Canton, with
HISTORICAL NEWS 203
an attendance of 125. W. F. McArtor of
Canton gave an illustrated
lecture on "The Arts and Industries
of the Zoarites." At the meet-
ing, Paul B. Belden, Sr., was re-elected
president of the society,
H. T. O. Blue, vice president, and E. T.
Heald, secretary-treasurer.
More than 2,500 copies have been sold of
A Century of Educa-
tion, Being One Hundred Years of the
Massillon, Ohio, Public
Schools, a publication sponsored in part by the society. The
author
is Mary Jane Richeimer.
"Documents: Petrograd, March-July
1917: The Letters of
Edward T. Heald," edited by Warren
B. Walsh, was published in
the American Slavic and East European
Review, volume VI (1947).
The letters were written while Mr. Heald
was in Petrograd in
Y.M.C.A. service for war prisoners
during World War I.
WARREN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Lebanon
Gardner Townsley, President
New officers of the society are Gardner
Townsley, president;
Harry Schwartz, vice president; Mary
Lincoln, secretary; Helen
Lamb, treasurer; Marion Snyder,
historian.
WESTERVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Westerville
Mrs. Robert Wilson, President
The annual meeting for the election of
officers of the Wester-
ville Historical Society was held on
January 16. Following the
business meeting, Dr. Robert Price,
professor of English at Otter-
bein College, gave a talk on John
Chapman (Johnny Appleseed).
Officers elected were as follows: Mrs.
Robert Wilson, president;
E. D. Meedham, first vice president;
Charles R. Bennett, second vice
president; Ila Grindell, secretary; Dr.
E. W. E. Schear, E. L. Wiel-
land, and Mrs. Hanby R. Jones, members
of the council.
About Historians
Dr. Charles Morley, assistant professor
of history at Ohio State
University, has been appointed Slavic
Fellow in the Hoover Insti-
tute and Library on War, Revolution, and
Peace at Stanford Uni-
versity where he will continue work on
his book entitled An Intro-
204
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
duction to Research in Russian
History. The appointment is for
the spring and summer quarters and
carries a stipend of $2,000.
Dr. Foster Rhea Dulles will begin a
year's leave of absence this
spring to write a two-volume history of
the American Red Cross.
Sir Humphrey Mildmay, Royalist
Gentleman, by Dr. Philip
Lee Ralph, chairman of the department of
history at Lake Erie
College, was published by the Rutgers
University Press during the
past year.
The Academy of History of Cuba has
elected to membership
Dr. B. H. Pershing, chairman of the
department of history at Wit-
tenberg College.
Dr. Carl Wittke has resigned as
professor of history and dean
of the college of arts and sciences at
Oberlin College to become
dean of the graduate school and
professor of history at Western
Reserve University. The appointment is
effective May 1.
Robert S. Fletcher will be on leave of
absence from Oberlin
during 1948 and 1949.
Dr. Donald G. Barnes, chairman of the
department of history
at Western Reserve University, is on a
sabbatical leave for research
and travel in Europe during the second
semester.
Dr. Harvey Wish will be visiting
professor in American history
for the summer session at the University
of Southern California.
At Capital University, Dr. Hilmar G.
Grimm has been ap-
pointed chairman of the department of
history and advanced to
the rank of associate professor.
The staff of the department of history
at Otterbein College now
consists of A. P. Rosselot, chairman, L.
William Sleek, and Harold
Hancock. Professor Hancock is at present
studying in England.
John H. Cramer has been appointed
associate professor of his-
tory at Youngstown College.
HISTORICAL NEWS
Historical Societies
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE
AND HISTORY, Columbus
William F. Savoy, State Director
The Columbus branch of the association
observed the 23d an-
nual celebration of Negro History Week
during the second week in
February. Radio speakers were Dr. James
H. Rodabaugh, Mrs.
Julia Burrell, Charles Allen, Dr.
William Utterbeck, Dr. John Ben-
nett, Dr. Allen Griffen, Chester Gray,
and William F. Savoy, state
director of the association. Dr.
Rodabaugh and Mr. Savoy spoke
at the Lockbourne Air Base at the
Officers' Wives Club. Mr. Savoy
also spoke at the First Baptist Church.
Miss Ormay Pate spoke at
the Pilgrim School.
BUTLER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Hamilton
Elmer Kessling, President
Plans are being made for the conversion
of the home of the late
Pauline Benninghofen to the use of the
society. The property was
bequeathed to the society by Miss
Benninghofen as a meeting place
and museum to be maintained in memory of
the Benninghofen
family.
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Cleveland
Kenneth B. Desher, Director
Miss Jean Baxter, M.A. in anthropology
from the University of
Michigan, who has been assisting in the
reorganization of the North
American Indian Room and was in charge
of the recent exhibition
on the Navaho, has resigned to accept a
position with the Episcopal
Mission on the Navaho in Arizona.
FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Norwalk
Homer M. Beattie, President
The present officers of the society are
Homer M. Beattie, presi-
dent; Charles Frohman, vice president;
Esther Gibbs Powers, secre-
197