THE OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941
The Ohio History Conference, April 4-5,
1941, included the
Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Ohio
State Archaeological and
Historical Society, the Tenth Annual
Meeting of the Ohio Acad-
emy of History, the Tenth Annual Meeting
of the Columbus
Genealogical Society, the Third Annual
Meeting of the Commit-
tee on Archives and Medical History of
the Ohio State Archaeo-
logical and Historical Society, with the
cooperation of the Ohio
State University and local historical
societies of the State.
PROGRAM
April 4, 1941
10:00 A. M. Annual Business Meeting of the Ohio State Archae-
ological and Historical Society. Ohio
State Museum.
Arthur C. Johnson, Sr., Presiding.
Report of the Director.
Report of the Secretary, Editor and
Librarian.
Report of the Treasurer.
Miscellaneous Business.
"The Relative Functions of State
and Local Historical So-
cieties: The Local Viewpoint," by
Eugene D. Rig-
ney, President of Ross County Historical
Society.
10:00 A. M. Ohio Academy of History. Deshler-Wallick
Hotel.
Lawrence F. Hill, Ohio State University,
Presiding.
Subject: "Historical and
Contemporary Aspects of Hemi-
sphere Solidarity."
"United States--Brazilian Relations
and Hemisphere
Solidarity," by David R. Moore,
Oberlin College.
"Danger Spots in the Caribbean
Area," by Thomas B.
Wenner, Cleveland College.
"Mexico, the Key to Hemisphere
Solidarity," by Harold
E. Davis, Hiram College.
Discussion.
12:00 M. Annual Meeting
of the Board of Trustees of the
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208
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Society.
Trustees' Room, Ohio State Museum.
12:30
P. M. Subscription Luncheon.
Deshler-Wallick Hotel.
Wm. T. Utter, Denison University,
Presiding.
"The Great Man in History," by
Paul F. Bloomhardt, Wit-
tenberg College.
1:00 P. M. Third Annual Meeting of the Committee on Ar-
chives and Medical History of the Ohio
State Archae-
ological and Historical Society.
Library, Ohio State
Museum.
Jonathan Forman, M.D., Chairman.
Subject: "Ohio Medical History of
the Period, 1835-1858."
"The Introduction of Anesthesia
into Ohio," by Howard
Dittrick, M.D.
"The Development of Nursing in
Ohio," by Marion G.
Howell, R.N.
"The Organization of the Ohio State
Medical Society
and Its Relation to the Ohio Medical
Convention,"
by Donald D. Shira, M.D.
"Epidemics and Their Medical
Treatment, or 'Bleeding'
in Ohio," by David A. Tucker, Jr.,
M.D.
"Jared Kirtland, M.D.,
Naturalist," by George M.
Curtis, M.D.
"The Reformed Botanics and Their
Worthington
School," by Jonathan Forman, M.D.
"Local Boards of Health in Ohio
during This Period,"
by Robert G. Paterson, Ph.D.
"Eclectic Medicine," by Ralph
B. Taylor, M.D.
2:30 P. M. Joint Meeting of the
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society and the Ohio Academy
of History.
Auditorium, Ohio State Museum.
George F. Howe, University of
Cincinnati, Presiding.
"The Beginnings of Higher Education
in the Northwest
Territory," by Thomas N. Hoover,
Ohio University.
"The Kirtland Phase of
Mormonism," by Wm. J. McNiff,
Miami University.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 209
6:15 P.
M. Annual Dinner of the Ohio State
Archaeological and
Historical Society, to which all others
participating in
the Ohio History Conference were
invited. Faculty
Club, Ohio State University.
Address: "Early Ohio Education and
Educators," by Dr.
George W. Rightmire.
8:00 P. M. General Session. Auditorium,
Commerce Building,
Ohio State University.
Arthur C. Johnson, Sr., Presiding.
"The Study of History--a Hindrance
or a Help in the Per-
fecting of International
Organization," by Dr. K. C.
Leebrick, President of Kent State
University.
April 5, 1941
10:00 A. M. Joint Session of the Columbus Genealogical Society
and the Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society.
Auditorium, Ohio State Museum.
Frank A. Livingston, Columbus
Genealogical Society, Pre-
siding.
"Searching for a
Great-grandfather," by Seward G. Folsom,
Lima, Ohio.
"Accomplishments and Future Program
of the Ohio His-
torical Records Survey," by Dr.
James H. Rodabaugh,
Hayes Memorial, Fremont.
Discussion.
2:00 P. M. Research Conference, planned by Miss Bertha E.
Josephson, Editorial Associate Mississippi
Valley His-
torical Review. Auditorium, Ohio State Museum.
George A. Washburne, Ohio State
University, Chairman.
"British Colonization of America to
1776," by Professor
Clarence P. Gould, Youngstown College.
"Majority Rule in American
Politics," by Professor Jacob C.
Meyer, Western Reserve University.
"Techniques for Discovering and
Measuring Public Opinion
as a Problem in Historiography," by
Professor George
D. Crothers, Western College.
Adjournment.
OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY ANNUAL BUSINESS SESSION, 10:00
A. M., APRIL 4, 1941, OHIO STATE MUSEUM
The Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting of the
Ohio State Archae-
ological and Historical Society convened
in the Auditorium of the
Museum at 10:00 A. M. on April 4, 1941. Mr. Arthur C. John-
son, President of the Society, called
the meeting to order.
President Johnson spoke briefly of the
activities of the past
year, most of which had reached the
members through the publi-
cations of the Society, stating that he
felt that members would
agree that accomplishments had been most
satisfactory, in view
of limited funds during recent years. He
commented favorably on
the progress which had been made in the
content, make-up and
presentation of the material in the QUARTERLY. At this
time he
extended a welcome to Governor John W.
Bricker, adding: "The
Governor has honored us with his
attendance this morning. I
do not know what his program is but I
hope that he will stay
with us to the end. I know that you will
want to hear what the
Governor thinks about this institution.
It may be that he wishes
to make some promises. If it meets with
his pleasure, we should
like to hear from him now."
The Governor addressed the meeting and
said that he had not
come with the expectation of making a
speech but merely to par-
ticipate in the Annual Meeting of the
Society. He stated: "I
believe that my office really makes me a
member of the Society and
I want to assume the responsibilities
which are incumbent upon
me. It is always inspiring to come here.
I could spend weeks in-
stead of the few minutes that I have
just now had in this
Museum." He spoke of a trip which
he had made recently which
included a visit to the University of
Illinois and the University of
Wisconsin, where he had been impressed
with the attitude of these
institutions toward the history of the
two states. He referred to
the fact that the Library of the
University of Wisconsin and the
Library and Museum of the Historical
Society of Wisconsin are
housed in the same building; that the
University of Illinois had
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OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 211
recently become associated with the
Resources Institute, as a
result of which a large building had
been constructed by the people
of Illinois for housing material on the
archaeology of the state.
Governor Bricker continued:
"Something should be done to
advertise more extensively the work of
this Society to the people
of Ohio. I think that this would double
or treble those who actu-
ally come here to gain knowledge at this
Museum.... I wish that
I could make more promises at this time
as to appropriations. I
wish that these might be more adequate
than at present. I am
hopeful that we may build an additional
wing to this building to
complete the unit. It would help the
Museum, help the member-
ship, and enable the Society to render a
greater service than is now
possible." He stated that if the
State revenues continue to increase,
perhaps later in the year it might be
possible to build the addi-
tional wing. He added: "A thought
which I have had in mind is
that we might charge something for
admission to some of the
parks owned by this Society, so that
their maintenance might at
least be cared for. . . . Many of these
places are of especial his-
torical value and interest." He
concluded by saying: "Let me
assure you that you have the full
interest at least of the admin-
istration, and that any help that I can
give before the legislature,
in getting adequate appropriations to
continue this work, will be
forthcoming. I am glad to join with your
group, Mr. Johnson,
and I pledge to you the cooperation of
this administration to the
Society in its fine educational
service."
President Johnson responded: "I
think the Society has
known all along that the Governor has a
unique understanding
of the purpose of the institution, its
value to the State, and of the
objective toward which it is working. We
are particularly happy
that he should express his interest and
are appreciative of his at-
tendance at this meeting, in view of the
multiplicity of duties which
his office imposes. I do know that
Governor Bricker intends to
do everything that he can for the
organization in order to increase
its value to the State."
The President then referred to three
vacancies on the Board
of Trustees, resulting from the
expiration of the terms of Dr.
George W. Rightmire, Harold T. Clark,
and Commander Webb
212 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C. Hayes. Mention was made of the
Governor's appointment of
Mr. Laurence Norton, of Cleveland, who
represents that section
of the State, and the expressed desire
of Mr. Clark, also of Cleve-
land, who for personal reasons has found
it impossible to continue
in office. The Chairman then appointed
Curtis W. Garrison, W.
H. Siebert, and Charles A. Jones,
members of a committee to
nominate successors to fill the
vacancies. At this time President
Johnson introduced Mr. Julius
Fleishmann, of Cincinnati, who
was recently appointed to the Board of
Trustees by Governor
Bricker.
Proceeding with the order of business,
President Johnson
called for the report of the Director.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR
Activities and accomplishments of the
Society's Museum during the
past year have been fully commensurate
with the funds and personnel at its
disposal. While these results can be
referred to only briefly at this time,
detailed reports will be published in an
early issue of the Society's QUAR-
TERLY. I believe you will enjoy reading
these, and that they will bear out
the foregoing statement.
During the interval since the recent
Annual Meeting, the Director and
his staff have striven to place the
Museum on a plane second to none in its
class. If the reaction of museum
authorities the country over has been
properly interpreted, we now enjoy this
distinction, and every effort is being
made to retain and even to surpass this
desirable status.
Those charged with administrative duties
in the Museum and its several
departments have recognized the
necessity of getting and keeping perspective
in these changing times; of ascertaining
what is currently recognized as
accepted museum practices and
principles; and of adapting these to our own
organization. This has meant keeping in
close touch with pertinent literature
and publications; attending and
participating in conventions and conferences;
and personal visits to leading museums
and organizations recognized as
leaders in their respective fields of
endeavor. These, we believe, are basic
essentials in keeping abreast of the
times.
Thus equipped, we have turned our
attention to the rendering of a more
adequate service to our Commonwealth.
This service, naturally, begins with
the Museum, as such. The seeking out,
securing, interpreting, preserving,
publishing, and making available for
study of materials pertaining to the
prehistory, history and natural history
of the State constitute the trust which
the State of Ohio and the people of Ohio
have entrusted to the Society. If
all these material evidences could be
brought into the Museum, and if all
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 213
citizens of the State could come to the
Museum, nothing more would be
needed; but since neither of these
premises is possible, what may be termed
"extra-mural" activities
become necessary. Many underprivileged people,
particularly in the more distant parts
of the State, cannot come to the
Museum, and so the Museum must be taken
to them. This is done in a
modest way by furnishing to Ohio
schools, free of cost, portable loan
collections of objects from the Museum's
collections, as aids in visual educa-
tion. The many outstanding
archaeological and historical areas of the Com-
monwealth have been developed into State
Memorials, where every con-
venience is supplied to those who may
visit them.
Thus, it will be noted, the Society
tenders a three-fold service to the
public. Each of these has shown marked
improvement within the year,
and with much needed moderate increases
in funds and personnel, it will be
possible to render an indispensable
service available in no other quarter.
The carefully prepared detailed reports
of heads of departments to the
Director, afford a temptation to go into
detail at this time. Since this is
not practicable, we shall content
ourselves with a brief summary of routine
activities which go into the making of
the Museum's program. To begin,
there is of course a bulky
correspondence on the subject of Ohio in its
almost every aspect; answering
innumerable telephone inquiries; lectures,
radio talks and conducted tours, both in
the Museum and in the State
Memorials; acquisition, installation,
cataloging and labeling new collections,
and refurbishing old ones; making models
and groups, repairs and replace-
ments; research and publication-and so
on, without end.
Glancing over the curator's reports, I
have jotted down a few out-
standing items from each. In the Department of Archaeology,
Curator
Richard G. Morgan and his assistant Mr.
H. H. Ellis conducted explorations
jointly with the Department of
Sociology, Ohio State University, at Fort
Ancient, during the past summer; Curator
Morgan taught a course in Ohio
archaeology during the University's
spring quarter; Mr. Ellis prepared and
published two technical articles for the
Lithic Laboratory; he also is a
member of the committee on
Archaeological Terminology of the Society
for American Archaeology. Both curators
have continued the compilation
of a bibliography of American
archaeology, and have carried it to near
completion.
William D. Overman, Curator of the
Department of History, has
virtually remodeled the historical
exhibits in the Museum, has installed two
new pottery exhibits, and is currently
completing a model of a pioneer
gristmill. A new exhibit of philatelic
items has been installed. Dr. Overman
also has conducted research in Ohio
history, and has written a chapter on
Education for the new six-volume History
of the State of Ohio. He is
serving as sponsor's representative for
the W.P.A. project in the Museum;
has prepared factual data for a current
series of broadcasts on Great Men
214
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of Ohio; has prepared a number of book
reviews, and serves on several
committees of national historical and
archival organizations.
Edward S. Thomas, Curator of Natural
History, reports the installa-
tion of a new bird alcove of 38 cases,
individually lighted and labeled; an
additional insect Loan Collection with a
booklet on Insect Life-stories; 1000
kodachrome slides from his own nature
negatives for use of the public
schools, a bibliography of early
references to Ohio wildlife, and the collect-
ing of many additional insects, birds
and mammals from Ohio. It is inter-
esting to note that in ten years the
Museum's collections in natural history
have been increased many fold, under Mr.
Thomas' curatorship.
The Division of State Memorials, under
Mr. E. C. Zepp, Curator, has
enjoyed its greatest year. Much
constructive work has been accomplished
and the basic functions of maintenance
and control have been placed on a
most satisfactory plane. With the aid of
the State Highway Department
and the Ohio Planning Survey, and with
labor furnished by several relief
organizations, the condition of the
upwards of 40 archaeological and his-
torical areas, known as State Memorials,
has been definitely improved.
Curator Zepp and his assistants have
participated in the recent National
Road celebration, the Ohio State Fair,
the Maumee Valley Historical Con-
ference, and installation of the Ohio
River Museum, at Marietta. They
have attended conventions of the
National Conference on State Parks and
the Annual Conference of Park
Executives.
Mr. S. L. Eaton, as Superintendent of
Maintenance, although handi-
capped by too small a force, has most
efficiently cared for the building and
grounds, and has effected many repairs
and improvements which ordinarily
would have to be done outside the Museum
staff. Other members of the
staff, whom I need not refer to by name,
have been equally diligent and
faithful.
I take this opportunity to acknowledge
the indebtedness of the several
relief agencies-N. Y. A., C. C. C. and
particularly W. P. A., which have
been of inestimable aid both in the
Museum and in the State Memorials.
The W. P. A. Museum project, Mr. A. O.
Steele, supervisor, has afforded
us a force of 25 workers during the
year, to the great advantage of the
institution.
An impressive list of acquisitions
through gift has enriched the Mu-
seum's collections; these will be
acknowledged in the printed report.
With the sanction of the Board of
Trustees, the Director and the
Department of Archaeology made a display
of Ohio Mound-builder artifacts
in connection with the Exhibition of
American Indian Art, at the Museum
of Modern Art, New York City. This
exhibit, extending from January
15 to April 15, is attracting wide
attention and most favorable comment.
H. C. SHETRONE, Director
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 215
Museum Accessions, April, 1940 to
April, 1941
Department of Archaeology
An early oil-painting of the Marietta
prehistoric earthworks, by C. R.
Sullivan, presented by Miss Virginia S.
Nye, of Chillicothe, through Albert
C. Spetnagel, Chillicothe; a historic
tobacco pipe, presented by Emerson M.
Ort, Columbus; an archaological
collection, by Mrs. Carl J. Ziegfield,
Columbus; historic Indian specimens,
Mrs. S. D. Ruggles, Columbus;
Indian relics, Paul Munger, Perrysburg;
archaeological collection, I. W.
Cross, Circleville; Peruvian pottery
vessel, Miss Rowena Buell, Marietta;
archaeological collection, Stephen D.
Tyler, Columbus.
Department of History
An oil painting, Elizabeth McFarland
estate, Oxford; pioneer coverlet,
chair, etc., Jean Thomas, Ashland, Ky.;
pioneer quilt, Alice J. Walker, New
Haven; early medical instruments, Dr.
David Giliam, Columbus; children's
watches, Miss Helen Mills, Columbus;
dress of 1882, Dean C. E. MacQuigg,
Columbus; early photographs of Columbus,
Mary Sellers, Columbus; family
relics, Rousch Family Association,
Jersey City; potter's kick-wheel, S. E.
Heightshoe, Hebron; World War pictures,
M. B. Eaton, Columbus; early
Columbus photographs, etc., J. Nick
Koerner, Columbus; pioneer foot-
warmer, Mrs. Joseph C. Goodman,
Columbus. Others who presented de-
sirable specimens and collections are:
W. C. Hollenbeck, Mrs. T. S. Thomas,
E. E. Stoughton, Pearl Burns, W. C.
Wheaton, Richard Merz, Frederick
Shedd, E. C. Ramsey, Rolla Bolton, W. R.
Bennett, Coles Raymond, Shirley
M. Dressback, and Mrs. Harold F. Rexer,
of Columbus; R. L. Worley,
Black Lick; Mrs. J. C. Brown, Ironton;
Mrs. Mary A. Lacey, Ft. Wayne;
O. L. Mansfield, Groveport; Christopher
Look, Freeport, Ill.; Edith McCoy,
Newark; Daughters of Confederacy,
Sandusky; Peter Bowerfind, Hudson;
Walter Daniel, Sabina; and Mrs. Ethan
Paisley, Cuyahoga Falls.
Department of Natural History
Large series of 17-year cicadas,
presented by Conrad Roth, Ports-
mouth; skins of small mammals from
Maine, William Goslin, Columbus;
collection of insects, Robert Goslin,
Columbus; collection of Florida insects,
H. M. Spandau, Mansfield; specimens of
Orthoptera, W. C. Stehr, Athens;
collection of Odonata, Dr. Donald J.
Borror, Columbus; and additional
desirable specimens and collections
presented by the following: Donald
McBeth, Karl Maslowski, J. S. Hauser,
Erwin C. Zepp, Charles A.
Dambach, B. C. Sanford, Keith Wagner,
James Jenkins, John Craig, Dr.
A. E. Waller, Joseph F. Wright, Robert
P. Adams, A. C. Miller, Harrison
Beasley, Dr. C. F. Walker, Mrs. W. L.
Spahn, Charles L. Williams,
Walter A. Tucker, and Mrs. Bertha Drake.
H. C. SHETRONE, Director.
Next in the order of business came the
report of the Secre-
tary, Editor and Librarian.
216
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE OHIO
STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
To THE TRUSTEES AND MEMBERS OF THE OHIO
STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL SOCIETY:
The Secretary presents to the Board of
Trustees and members of the
Society his eighth annual report for the
year ending March 31, 1941, it
being the annual report for the
fifty-fifth year of the Society.
I. Secretarial Duties
In addition to the routine duties of the
Secretary, he has given special
attention to the Maumee Valley
International Historical Convention, the
Anthony Wayne Memorial Association, and
the six-volume History of the
State of Ohio prepared in commemoration of one hundred fifty years of
civil government in Ohio. He has also
been actively associated in the
organization of the new American
Association of State and Local Historical
Societies of which he is a member of the
Council.
Membership
The total membership as of April 1,
1941, was 609, as compared with
658 one year ago. The present membership
is classified as follows: one
Patron, two Sustaining Members, thirteen
Contributing Members, 256 An-
nual Members, and 337 Life Members.
During the year the Society has
added thirty Annual Members and one
Contributing Member. Our records
show a loss of 43 Life Members during
the year. As a matter of fact
a number of these had been dead for
several years. The Secretary made
a special effort to check on the Life
Members during the year with the
results stated above. Since most of our
life memberships were received
many years ago when the membership fee
was $25.00, the present situation
is easily understood. This year's report
shows a net loss of 49 members.
The Secretary has had prepared a map
showing the distribution of member-
ship over the State. It reveals the rather surprising fact that
only 18
counties have a membership of six or
more per county. Fifty-two counties
have a membership of five or less, and
18 counties have no membership
representation. This is a situation
which should challenge the attention of
the Board of Trustees and every member
of the Society. An organization
of this kind must have a representative
membership covering the whole
State in order to function properly. Our
minimum goal should be at least
1000 members. An average of 12 members
per county would mean 1056
members. Franklin County already has
188.
Trustees
In November, 1940, the Governor appointed
as trustees of the Society,
Mr. Laurence H. Norton, of Cleveland, to
complete the unexpired term of
Mrs. Anna M. Young, deceased, and Mr.
Charles E. Ritchie, of Tallmadge,
to complete the term of Mr. George B.
Smith, deceased. Both of these
appointees were Life Members of the
Society. Mr. Norton's appointment
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 217
expired February 18, 1941, but he was
reappointed for a term of three years
and Mr. Julius Fleishmann of Cincinnati
was appointed at the same time
for a like term.
Mr. Ritchie had been much interested in
the work of the Society and
was looking forward with much
satisfaction to the opportunity of serving
the Society and the State as a trustee.
Although not a well man at the
time, he insisted on being allowed to
attend the regular meeting of the
trustees on January 25. He reached
Columbus the evening before, but
became very ill and was not able to be
present at the Board meeting. He
lingered on until March 13, when he died
in the Mt. Carmel hospital in
Columbus.
The terms of Dr. George W. Rightmire,
Harold T. Clark and Webb
C. Hayes as trustees elected by the
Society's members, expire at this time.
Bequest
During the year the Society received the
remainder of the bequest
of $1000 made to the Society by Miss
Elizabeth E. McFarland in her will
of April 7, 1932. Miss McFarland died
January 30, 1935.
II. Publications
The QUARTERLY is being mailed to
1212 persons and institutions, and
Museum Echoes to 1543.
The Society has published the following
booklets during the year:
Ohio Cherishes Her Rich Historical
Traditions, Insect Life-stories, Inter-
esting and Useful Rocks and Minerals,
List of the Publications of the
Society, Select List of Materials on
Ohio History, and in connection with
the one hundredth anniversary of the
completion of the National Road
through Ohio, a 48-page
illustrated booklet entitled The National Road in
Song and Story. Booklets are now being prepared on the Hanby Home
and Fort Recovery, and a revision of The
Romantic Story of Schoenbrunn.
It is hoped that The History of the
State of Ohio to be published in
six volumes will be completed by the end
of 1941. Volume I is practically
ready for delivery and Volumes II and
III are in the printer's hands.
Volume VI is nearly completed and it is
expected that Volumes IV and V
will be completed this year.
The Editor of the Society has two
manuscripts ready for publication
prepared by the Department of Natural
History but no funds are available
for these. Other good historical
material on Ohio's history is available.
The Society should have a special
publication fund to provide the means
for the publication of desirable
material as it becomes available.
During the past year, progress has been
made in the recataloging of
Writers' Project for which the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society has been official sponsor, the
outstanding one being The Ohio Guide
of 634 pages published by the Oxford
Press in American Guide Series.
Ten other Writers' Project publications
are now in press or ready for the
printer.
218
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
III. The Library
During the year, 1565 volumes have been
added to the Library. Of
these, 892 were gifts, 437 were obtained
on exchange, 47 as review copies
and 173 by purchase. Seven hundred
eighty-eight pamphlets desirable for
preservation were also added. The State
appropriation for the purchase of
books during the past year was very
small and entirely inadequate. If the
Society is to function as it should the
book purchase fund appropriated
by the State must be increased and in
this demand the members of the
Society can render a real service by
impressing upon the members of the
General Assembly this need. Our present
appropriation is less than is
made to many of our small city
libraries. There is also great need of
a group of patrons or sponsors who will
be willing to provide private
funds when unusual opportunities for
increasing the usefulness of the Library
present themselves.
The Library of the Society is receiving
regularly 293 periodicals. Of
these, 65 are gifts, 80 are exchanges
and 48 are cash subscriptions.
The Library now contains 47,348 volumes,
exclusive of newspapers,
pamphlets, broadsides, maps and
manuscripts.
During the past year, progress has been
made in the recataloging of
the Library's serial holdings, in
conjunction with a full report of such
holdings to the Union List of Serials,
wherein they will be presented for
the first time. It is interesting to
note the number of titles we have which
have not been listed previously in this
work by other institutions. New
accessions have been cataloged as
received. 3,806 volumes have been cata-
loged and 25,389 cards including catalog
cards, index cards, cross reference
cards, Union Catalog cards, shelf cards
and office record cards have been
typed and filed. The Cataloging
Department has also indexed Volumes
I and III of the History of Ohio and
Vol. XLIX of the QUARTERLY.
Manuscript Division
Since April 1, 1940, four hundred
sixty-two volumes and portfolio
cases of manuscripts have been
accessioned. The bulk of these were obtained
in three or four large collections but a
great many small collections of one
or two portfolio cases were added to the
Manuscript Division.
The outstanding addition of the year was
the Larwill Papers which
were purchased last summer with the
financial assistance of friends of the
Society. This collection consists of
over three thousand pieces, the papers
and records of John and Joseph Larwill.
The Larwills were born in
England and came to America in 1793.
After living four years in Phila-
delphia the family moved to Pittsburgh
in 1798 and in 1802 came to Colum-
biana County, Ohio. In 1807 Joseph
Larwill was surveying in Wayne
County and he together with John Bever
and William Henry founded the
town of Wooster. A few years later
Joseph Larwill, John Bever, Jacob
Newman, and James Hedges became the
proprietors of a town called Mans-
field.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 219
John Larwill began a merchandising
establishment in Wooster in 1814
and was in business there until 1862. He
secured the charter and was
influential in the promotion of the
Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad which
is today the Pittsburgh to Fort Wayne
division of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road. John and Joseph were both
prominent in the War of 1812 and active
in Ohio politics for many years. Their
families were among the most
influential in the area of Wooster and
Mansfield throughout the early period
and their letters and records will be
invaluable to the study of the history
of that portion of the State.
Other additions of special interest were
the Coggeshall Collection and
the John Straughan Journal. William T.
Coggeshall was born in 1824 and
died August 2, 1867. He came to Ohio in
1842 and worked on newspapers
in Akron and Cincinnati. He was
connected with the Genius of the West
from 1853-56. Later he became Ohio State
librarian, was editor of the
Ohio Educational Monthly, was owner and editor of the Springfield Republic.
In 1865 he became editor of the Ohio
State Journal. He was private
secretary to Governor Jacob D. Cox and
was American minister to Ecuador
at the time of his death. He was the
author of many books of early
western fiction and was editor of the
volume entitled The Poets and Poetry
of the West. The Society has obtained seven portfolio cases of
letters,
diaries, and literary manuscripts of
William T. Coggeshall.
In April, 1804, John Straughan left
Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
with a cargo of earthenware and flour
for New Orleans. The journal of
his trip to the mouth of the Mississippi
and his return to Pennsylvania by
way of the high seas and New York makes
interesting and exciting reading.
This Journal was purchased for the
Manuscript Division in January of this
year.
Archives Division
All work has been completed on the
Executive Documents housed in
the Archives Division. The
correspondence is in chronological order and
filed flat in portfolio cases and all
record books are in order. The Execu-
tive Documents section now consists of
the following series shelved in the
order here listed:
Correspondence, 1803-1929, 425 boxes.
Letter Books, 1853-1912, 1 section.
Short Hand Notes, 1893-1903, 64 volumes.
Governor's General Record, 1803-1929, 37
volumes.
Index to General Record, 1803-1888, 18
volumes.
Appointments Record, 1842-1915, 12
volumes.
Justice of the Peace Record, 1840-1852,
2 volumes.
Notary Public Record, 1840-1928, 18
volumes.
Pardon Record, 1831-1915, 13 volumes.
Petitions for Pardons, 1805-1908, 77
boxes.
Requisitions for Extradition, 1805-1866,
10 boxes.
220
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Pardon Application Records, 1853-1914, 7
volumes.
Restoration of Citizenship Record,
1881-1915, 7 volumes.
Requisitions Record, 1876-1916, 11
volumes.
Transfer of Prisoners Record, 1883-1907,
1 volume.
Miscellaneous Records and Documents, 21
volumes and boxes.
The Records of the Adjutant-general's
Office have been classified and
tagged and work is well under way in
sorting and filing the records of the
Board of Public Works. The last
mentioned section will be of great use-
fulness to governmental departments and
to historians when it is in shape.
The present arrangement does not permit
of its use for even the simplest
form of research.
As the official documents are classified
and filed in usable form the
space requirements become greater and
the crowded condition of the archives
stacks becomes more and more acute. If
more space is not soon provided,
either in our own building or in a
separate Archives Department the use-
fulness and even the life of many
valuable State documents will be en-
dangered.
Newspaper Division
As in the past two years the Ohio
Newspaper Index and Microfilm
Project has had almost the complete
attention of the Newspaper Division.
Constructive work in regard to the
immediate problem within the Library
itself has been postponed until the
index job is completed or discontinued.
Considerable progress has been made in
multilithing and binding the
various index volumes to date-eleven
years having been printed. Akron
has five years in print, Cincinnati two
years, Dayton two years, Youngstown
two years, and the Columbus volume is on
the press at the present time.
This does not include the six years
which have been multigraphed in
Cleveland. Now that the organization has
been set up, we expect to print
one volume of each of the seven indexes
every month.
The problem of distribution and
promotion of the indexes and the
publicity necessary for the wide use of
the microfilm are the responsibilities
of the Newspaper Division as official
sponsor. We have been able to
maintain good relationship with our
cosponsors and have been able to
persuade the cosponsors to help
financially. This has been necessary inas-
much as the responsibility of getting
the paper and binding supplies rests
with us. Within the next three months
the Society will have in its files
$100,000 worth of newspaper microfilm.
Utmost care should be given to
the storing and preserving of these
films, especially in regard to proper
temperature, humidity, etc.
The makeshift bindery set up about two
years ago has repaired and
rebound 900 volumes. The method of
sewing has been changed from the
straight sewing to the cross-stitch
method. This gives greater stability and
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 221
facilitates opening of the volume, which
is a distinct advantage if the volume
should ever be filmed or photostated.
Work has continued on the cut file,
which now includes approximately
4300. The numerical cards are being
checked against the alphabetically
arranged cards, and the result will
facilitate the looking up of any particular
cut.
At the present time the Library is
receiving 68 Ohio and 11 out-of-
State dailies, 67 weeklies and semi-weeklies,
and 5 foreign-language papers
printed in Ohio. The Library received
409 wrapped volumes and 62 bound
volumes, or 30,543 issues, during the
past year. By combining volumes,
in order to reach a more uniform size,
the number of volumes has been
reduced from last year's figure,
although of course there are many more
issues. The Department now has 6,360
wrapped volumes, 16,564 bound
volumes, making a total of 22,924.
From April 1, 1940, to March 31, 1941,
the Library received 2,568
calls for newspapers.
W. P. A.
The Society has continued to sponsor the
State-wide Historical Records
Survey, the Ohio Newspaper Index
Project, and the Ohio Writers' Project.
In the Ohio State Museum building we
have been assisted by a unit of
the State-wide Library Services Project
and by a group working on a
Museum Project.
Associated Historical Interests
Two historical interests of more than
State-wide significance in which
the Secretary has been directly
concerned deserve mention.
Last year the state historical agencies
of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and
Ontario, Canada, united in a Maumee
Valley International Convention which
was held in the Maumee Valley, September
27-29, 1940. The Secretary
of the Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society was Chairman of
the Ohio Committee. The Convention was a
success in every way. A full
report of this with the principal
features of the program was published in
the Society's QUARTERLY for
January-March, 1941. The interest aroused
by this Convention has crystallized into
a permanent organization known as
the Anthony Wayne Memorial Association
whose objectives are:
(1) The promotion of historical
celebrations commemorative of the
final conquest of the Old Northwest;
(2) The encouragement of research in the
history of the Old North-
west and the possibility of the
publication of the results;
(3) The developing of a program for the
selection and proper mark-
ing of historical sites, parkways and
routes pertinent thereto;
and
(4) The promotion of a program of
education disseminating informa-
tion concerning Anthony Wayne and the
Old Northwest.
222 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Because the chief theater of action of
General Wayne was within the
limits of the State of Ohio it is
expected that the historical agencies of the
State will assume an important place in
the activities of this association.
The other organization developed during
the past year is the American
Association for State and Local History,
an organization to unify programs
of activities, stimulate interest and
assist weaker organizations in historical
endeavors. Such an organization properly
supported may be of great help
to local historical societies in
particular.
The Staff
In February, Laurence H. Bartlett, head
of the Newspaper Division
was drafted for a year's military
training. The necessity of his absence
for a year was felt particularly because
in addition to his regular duties
and responsibilities in the Society's
Library he was the technical director
of the State-wide Newspaper Index
project. To meet this need Andrew
J. Ondrak, Jr., a member of the Library
staff, has been appointed acting
head of this Division during Mr.
Bartlett's absence. Miss Elizabeth Biggert
has rendered valuable service to the Library
on special appointment made
necessary by extra work in connection
with the publication of The History
of the State of Ohio. With the too small staff of the Library it would
be impossible to meet the requirements
made upon it were it not for the
loyal and faithful efforts of the staff
as a whole.
Respectfully submitted,
HARLOW LINDLEY, Secretary, Editor and
Librarian
In the absence of the Treasurer, the
Financial Secretary read
the letter of transmittal of Mr. W. D.
Wall, Certified Public
Accountant, to the Society's Treasurer,
Mr. Oscar F. Miller.
REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE OHIO
STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
April 2, 1941
MR. O. F. MILLER, TREASURER
THE OHIO STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL &
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
COLUMBUS, OHIO
DEAR SIR:
We are reporting on the audit made by us
of the books of the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society for the year ended December
31, 1940. Below is presented a brief
resume of the Society's financial
transactions for the year, further
details of which are to be found in the
statements comprising this report.
From the schedule of the Society's
Receipts and Disbursements (page
2), it will be noted that the total of
receipts collected during the year was
OHIO HISTORY
CONFERENCE, 1941 223
$2,914.42, of which
$684.15 was refunds from the state, leaving a total of
$2,230.27 from revenue
sources, as compared with $2,667.34 for the year
1939, a decrease of
$437.07. Expenses paid out of Society funds amounted
to $2,893.67, which
exceeded Society funds income by $9.85. Included in
the above receipts is
$30.60 representing interest and miscellaneous sales
from the Hamilton
Kline Memorial Fund and from which fund was spent
$387.30 at Fort
Laurens. Total expenditures from the Hamilton Kline
bequest to date is
$1,923.73. The interest of $30.00 and income of $.60 was
deposited to the
checking account carried at the Bolivar State Bank, Bolivar,
Ohio. The balance of
the fund consists of the following:
Checking Account
balance................ $ 401.64
Certificate of Deposit
No. 5442............ 500.00
Certificate of Deposit
No. 5459............ 1500.00
Total
................................ $2401.64
The depositors claim
(No. 574) of $435.03 against the Bolivar State
Bank still continues
unchanged.
Attention is directed
to the Statement of Receipts and Disbursements
(page 3) of commissary
operations in many of the state memorials, which
produced total
receipts of $15,335.51 including refunds of cash advanced of
$535.96, or $14,799.55
of revenue receipts for the current year as compared
with $14,846.29 for
the preceding year, a decrease of $46.74. Direct ex-
penditures in
connection with operations were $10,058.65 as compared with
$10,044.28 for the
previous year, an increase in expenditures of $14.37. The
Society also disbursed
from these receipts $5,133.92 for equipment, improve-
ments and betterments
of the memorials and $406.98 in cash advances. This
fund has a cash
balance at December 31, 1940, of $1,569.61. Included in
the fund is a bequest
of Eliza Beulah Blackford of $500.00 for Fort St.
Clair, from which
$371.47 has been expended leaving a balance of $128.53.
Presented on page 4 is
a statement of Receipts and Disbursements of
commissaries operation
at the state memorials and the balances from
operations at the
beginning of the year, results of operation for the year
and results of
operation for the commissaries to December 31, 1940. Pre-
vious to the current
year, the administrative expense was allocated to the
various memorials.
The total state
appropriation was $118,580.96, to which was added
$18,782.69 of the
previous year's unexpended appropriation and $27.50 as a
revenue voucher,
making a total available of $137,391.15 or a decrease of
$8,076.41 of funds for
expenditure. From the state appropriation, the Society
expended $129,683.88,
as against $124,867.38, an increase in expenditures of
$4,816.50.
During the year the
Society was in receipt of a bequest of $1,000.00
from the Estate of
Elizabeth E. McFarland. A $20.50 expenditure was
224 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
made from this bequest, leaving a net balance of $979.50 which was
deposited
in a savings account in the Ohio National Bank, Columbus.
The books of the Society were found in excellent condition, in balance,
and the several fund balances, as stated herein, are supported by bank
statements and certificates of deposit.
Respectfully submitted,
W. D. WALL,
Certified Public Accountant
The Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society
Statement of Receipts and Disbursements-State, Society
and State
Memorial Funds for Year, 1940.
Cash Balance, January 1, 1940 ............................. $ 7,682.75
RECEIPTS
Society Cash Receipts ......................... $ 2,914.42
State Memorial Funds (Concessions) .......... 15,835.51
State Appropriation House Bill 674 $118,580.96
1939 Unexpended Balance F o r -
warded ....................
18,782.69
Add Revenue Voucher ..........
27.50
Total ...................... $137,391.15
Less Balance December 31, 1940..
7,707.27
Net Amount ............................ $129,683.88
Total Receipts ....................................... $148,433.81
Total
.................................................... $156,116.56
DISBURSEMENTS
Museum and Library ......................... $ 77,880.70
State Memorials ............................. 4,715.17
Big Bottom .................................. 346.85
Buckeye Furnace .............................
Buffington Island ............................ 55.83
Campbell Memorial .......................... 85.63
Campus Martius ............................. 6,052.49
Custer Memorial ............................ 102.32
Dunbar State Memorial .......... ............ 872.08
Fallen Timbers .............................. 815.80
Flint Ridge ................................. 25.50
Fort Amanda ................................ 818.10
Fort Ancient ................................ 6,855.82
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 225
Fort Hill .................................... 3,397.68
Fort Jefferson ............................... 27.15
Fort Laurens ................................ 1,834.27
Fort Recovery ............................... 1,110.36
Fort St. Clair ................................ 2,321.52
Fort St. Clair Blackford Fund ................ 371.47
Gnadenhutten
................................ 104.71
U. S. Grant.................................. 2,244.35
Hanby Memorial ............................ 641.58
William Henry Harrison ...................... 778.96
Hayes Memorial ............................. 7,051.17
Kelley's Island .............................. 300.81
Logan Elm
.................................. 53.56
Miamisburg Mound .......................... 791.13
Mound Builders Memorial .................... 3,705.06
Mound City ................................. 3,822.50
Octagon State Memorial ....................... 1,400.86
Leo Petroglyph .............................. 51.00
Felix Renick ................................ 280.42
Schoenbrunn ................................. 13,763.55
Serpent Mound .............................. 5,056.81
Tarlton Cross ............................... 12.00
National Road Booklets....................... 817.19
Total Disbursements .................................. $148,564.40
Balance,
December 31, 1940............................... $ 7,552.16
Represented by:
Klippert Memorial Fund .................. $ 2,154.54
Current Fund Checking Account ......... 1,390.19
Current Fund Savings Account............ 36.18
State Memorial Fund Checking Account... 1,569.61
Kline Memorial Fund
Checking Account ....... $ 401.64
Certificates of Deposit... 2,000.00
2,401.64
Total as
above............................................. $
7,552.16
O. F. MILLER, Treasurer.
The Nominating Committee unanimously recommended the
reelection to the Board of Trustees Dr. George W.
Rightmire
226
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and Commander Webb C. Hayes, for terms
of three years. The
Committee, realizing the deep interest
and long service of Mr.
Harold T. Clark and bowing to his
personal desire for retirement,
nominated for the third vacancy Dr.
Charles E. Holzer, of Gallipo-
lis. The Secretary was instructed by the
Chairman to cast the bal-
lot for each of the nominees.
President Johnson: "Last year Dr.
Overman, of our staff,
presented a paper on the subject of the
relationship between the
State Society and Local Historical
Societies, with special reference
to the State Society's viewpoint. Now,
Mr. Eugene D. Rigney,
President of the Ross County Historical
Society, Chillicothe, will
present a paper on the subject of 'The
Relative Functions of State
and Local Historical Societies: The
Local Viewpoint.'"
THE RELATIVE FUNCTIONS OF STATE AND
LOCAL
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES: THE LOCAL
VIEWPOINT
By EUGENE D. RIGNEY
The following remarks are a synthesis
of my own opinions and preju-
dices, unsullied by research, and
presented, in unglazed English, as my per-
sonal contribution towards a solution
of the mutual problems of state and
local historical societies.
Most local historical societies are the
by-product of the general enthu-
siasm and exuberance manifested at local
historical celebrations, exhibitions
and parades. Usually, the proud
promoters, imbued with the spirit of the
occasion and a desire to memorialize
their achievement, discover themselves
in the midst of organizing an historical
society, with the immediate neces-
sity of housing the material that has
been assembled from local attics, never
to return.
Too frequently the housing problem is
never solved and the project
dies with the occasion; but, fortunately
for many of our cities, public sub-
scription meets the need, or some
well-disposed--and wealthy--member is
sufficiently civic minded to endow the
fledgling and provide the necessary
quarters.
Of course, all of those who have been
infected by the celebration are
susceptible to membership and more than
willing to do their share of work
in the formation of the society--for the
first year. After that, and the
inevitable injuries to personal feelings
and differences of opinion, member-
ship rosters decrease and puzzled
officers must face the formidable task of
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 227
seeking a stimulant, in the form of
varied programs, exhibits, and even
social functions.
Oddly enough, money is seldom present in
sufficient quantity to de-
moralize the administration of the
society, but almost always available if
the need is well publicized and the
proposed use is an intelligent one.
But, having been founded by the
historical minded and maintained by
the elect of the community, there is a
tendency towards stagnation, and lack
of interest. There is little evidence of
a general desire to develope the pos-
sibilities of the organization and its
services to the city and county, as an
educational factor and means of arousing
interest in, and properly publiciz-
ing, local historical landmarks and
attractions. Ultimately, the trend is to
crawl in a cave and convert it into a
catch-all for the ancient and unwanted
odds and ends of the locality, be they
animal, vegetable, mineral or his-
torical.
To arouse the local organization from
its lethargy, to make it see its
possibilities and the need for its
service, is usually the task that confronts
each succeeding board of directors and
each new group of officers. For-
tunately, an idea here, a novelty in
program there, from the well-meaning
amateur, is frequently sufficient to
keep the body alive and functioning from
year to year.
The state historical society, on the
other hand, has the considerable
advantages of an expert staff, of size,
location, prestige; but suffers from the
ravages of two dread diseases: more
stagnation, from a surplus of per-
manent collections, and financial
malnutrition, due to the very nature and
extent of its operations, and the whims
and caprice of the legislature. Most
historical societies would quietly close
their museum doors if the burden
of the dread "biennium" was
added to their present difficulties.
But where is the common ground of
action, the common means to solve
the mutual problems of state and local
historical societies? It is unlikely
that the absorption of local museums and
local societies, frequently advo-
cated as a panacea, would remedy the
situation, since such action would
only impose an additional financial
burden on the state without producing
compensating revenue. Pursuit of such a
policy would also tend to elimi-
nate local interest, enthusiasm, and the
more subtle, more important, quality,
conveniently labeled
"atmosphere."
Removing subsidy and merger from the
prescription list, we must con-
clude that the alternative course,
bearing that vast and vague title: "co-
operation," is indicated. To this
end, the following suggestions are offered
as a means of establishing a basis for
action.
There must be a complete conversion to
the idea that an historical
society, state or local, with a museum,
should devote that institution and
form its policies on the lines of
education and service in its own sphere
of influence. Such a policy necessarily
entails the abandonment of stagnant
collections, and the use of
well-prepared, carefully-selected, exhibits de-
228
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
signed to link the past with the
present, to indicate clearly progression or
decline in some field of human endeavor,
and, ultimately, to educate or in-
spire the visitor. In this effort, the
handsome, vermin- and dust-proof case,
with its permanent collection, is
representative of a policy that is as modern
as the moat around a castle. For, if we
are to hold the attention of that
visitor, we must be prepared to display
our material as skillfully as any
industrial or commercial exhibitor.
Light and color must be added to our
resources and well-conceived
installations must be devised. Such a pro-
cedure demands technical skill as well
as financial outlay. Dissemination
of this knowledge would be possible
through the medium of a mimeographed
news bulletin designed to serve as a
forum for the description of trends
and the examination of successful
practice and policies. It is not inconceiv-
able that these exhibits could be
circulated among the historical societies of a
state, particularly when the subjects
were of general interest, to be aug-
mented by related local material, and
discussed by a competent speaker.
Collaboration in the development of
parks on historic sites, and the
preservation and restoration of
important landmarks (with or without the
aid of the Federal Government) would be
of great benefit. Local historical
societies would undoubtedly participate
in the preparation and publication
of descriptive leaflets, in photographic
surveys, and in the erection of suit-
able markers for their counties. A
series of tour guides, uniform in plan,
would be of considerable value to the
traveler. An extension of this co-
operative effort could result in the
preparation of a series of volumes
dealing with the state's historical
intangibles: such as balladry, humor and
cooking.
The suggestion has been made on several
occasions that the field of
genealogy should be left to the
libraries; and with this policy we should
completely disagree. The historical
society's mail is full of normal--and
abnormal--inquiries about ancestors, and
many visitors come to our mu-
seums with the expressed intention of
inquiring about their family "trees."
Why should we disregard this valuable
contact with the public? If copies
of the letters we write in answer to
these requests for information were
sent to a central agency, such as the
state society, there to be filed by name
or area, an important collection of
research material would soon accumulate.
Such a course of action implies that the
state society must assume the
leadership and serve as an example, as
well as a friend, to the local so-
cieties. In return for this service, the
local societies can exert considerable
influence on local members of the
legislature to support the state institu-
tion. We will not be as so many
"St. Georges" to combat the dread
"biennium," but our local
support should bring the desired result.
President Johnson: "Mr. Rigney has
certainly brought us
a very refreshing paper filled with life
and color. I trust that we
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 229
may keep in touch with him with the idea
of utilizing, in part at
least, some of the suggestions which he
has made."
In response to the Chairman's inquiry as
to further business,
the Director called attention to the
forthcoming convention of
the American Association of Museums
which will meet in Colum-
bus on May 15-16, when the Society will
have the honor, for the
first time, of playing host to the
national organization.
After announcements the Annual Business
Meeting adjourned.
HARLOW LINDLEY, Secretary.
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE OHIO STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY, APRIL 4, 1941
The Board of Trustees of the Ohio State
Archaeological and
Historical Society met at noon, Friday,
April 4, 1941, in the
Trustees Room of the Ohio State Museum.
President Johnson
presided over the meeting attended by
the following trustees:
Messrs. Eagleson, Fleischmann, Florence,
Rightmire, Spencer,
Spetnagel, Wittke, and Wolfe. Director
Shetrone, Secretary
Lindley, and Miss Hiestand were also
present.
For the committee previously appointed
to consider the ad-
visability of purchasing Professor
Wilbur H. Siebert's library on
the Underground Railroad, Mr. Rightmire
read a communication
of March 25, 1941, from Mr. Siebert to
Mr. Rightmire in which
the special library was described and a
price of $4500 quoted.
In closing his letter Mr. Siebert wrote:
"In case the Society buys
my collection, which I think ought to be
within a year's time, it is
my intention to present to the Society's
library my comprehensive
collection of materials relating to the
American Loyalists of the
Revolutionary period." Mr.
Rightmire also read his own letter
addressed on April 3, 1941, to Mr.
Johnson, chairman of the
special committee, in which he told of
his examination of the
Siebert collection and said, " . .
.the purchase price which he [Mr.
Siebert] mentions . . .seems reasonable
to me, although I have no
commercial standard by which value in
such case can be deter-
mined. I have no doubt that this
material should be on the shelves
of the Society, and I recommend that a
particular effort be made
to obtain it. This matter was referred
to the Executive Com-
mittee which was given power to act.
The Secretary sketched the rise of
business history groups in
this country and recommended that for
the following reasons it
would be well for our Society to sponsor
the organization of such
a section and approve the setting up of
a committee for that
purpose:
(230)
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 231
1. To promote the study of business history and to make
a record of surviving businesses of
early date.
2. To
encourage owners to preserve old business documents.
3. To bring qualified historians into
touch with new sources
of raw material.
4. To provide skilled assistance and
advice to owners of
documents.
5. To further these ends by the issuance
of suitable publi-
cations.
Mr. Eagleson seconded Mr. Wittke's
motion that the Board
adopt the Secretary's recommendation.
The motion carried.
The Secretary told of the background
(the Maumee Valley
International Historical Convention held
in September, 1940)
from which arose the present Anthony
Wayne Memorial Associ-
ation and outlined the present set-up of
that association, asking
that the trustees authorize the
appointment of a committee of
three representing the Society to work
with the general executive
committee of the association, the
committees from the state legis-
latures of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana,
and the individual state
committees in the areas mentioned. Mr.
Wittke moved that such
a committee for the Society be set up;
Mr. Wolfe seconded the
motion, which carried.
The Director asked that a committee be authorized
to call
upon Mr. Herman P. Jeffers to discuss
with him the possible
exploration of the mound on his property
north of Columbus.
The trustees approved this request.
The Secretary reported that the Sundry
Claims Board had
allowed a claim for $164.1O in settlement
for delinquent taxes
due prior to the purchase of the Hanby
Memorial at Westerville,
but had rejected the claim for
reimbursement of $5,360.27 ex-
pended in 1936 and 1937 on W.P.A.
projects at Fort Ancient,
Hanby House, Mound City, Serpent Mound,
and Tarlton Cross.
The trustees approved the motion of Mr.
Fleischmann that
the incumbent officers of the Society be
reelected for the ensuing
year. In connection with this order of
business, the President
introduced the new trustee, Mr. Julius
Fleischmann, to his col-
232
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
leagues, and spoke of the death of a
former trustee, Mr. Charles
E. Ritchie of Tallmadge.
On motion of Mr. Wolfe the trustees
reelected the present
staff. The Secretary spoke of the
temporary shift necessitated
when Laurence H. Bartlett, head of the
Newspaper Division, had
been drafted into the Army, whereby
Andrew J. Ondrak was
placed in charge of that department
during Mr. Bartlett's absence.
In this connection the President
expressed confidence in the ability
of the administrative heads to make
whatever temporary arrange-
ments might be necessary should
additional staff members be
drafted and mentioned the Board's ruling
that positions on the
staff should be kept open for persons
following their return after
such military service.
The Director spoke briefly of the status
of the Society's
budget for the biennium 1941-42,
predicting that the Memorial
Division would be granted a liberal
allowance while the Museum
and Library would probably get just
enough to carry on.
The Secretary read a letter from the
daughter of George
Smith, a former trustee, expressing
appreciation for the Board's
sympathy at the time of her father's
death.
The Secretary asked the trustees to
consider the advisability
of holding the annual meetings of the
Society and the Board on
Saturday morning rather than Friday in
order to accommodate
the members of the Ohio Academy of
History. The trustees
decided to continue such meetings on
Friday.
The Secretary reported the accession by
gift from Mr.
Joseph C. Goodman, a former trustee, of
books, a map, and mu-
seum material, and he was directed to
extend the thanks of the
trustees to Mr. Goodman.
The Secretary recommended that an
honorary life member-
ship be granted to Mr. S. A. Canary of
Bowling Green, Ohio,
because of his recent activities in
behalf of the Society. This
suggestion was approved by the trustees.
Dr. Rightmire invited the trustees
present to be his luncheon
guests at the Faculty Club.
The meeting adjourned.
HARLOW
LINDLEY, Secretary.
THE GREAT MAN IN HISTORY
By PAUL F. BLOOMHARDT
You will agree with me that credit is
due Mr. Overman and
those who have arranged today's program,
for their alertness in
recognizing the centennial of Carlyle's
famous dictum. The idea
for his "Hero" lectures seems
to have taken shape in his mind
between February 27 and March 2, 1840.
The first of this series
of addresses is dated "Tuesday, 5th
May 1840." Expanded to
about double the size of the lectures,
the essays appeared in an
initial edition of 1000 copies during
the first quarter of 1841.
The publisher was Fraser and the price
per copy was 10s. 6d.
In the same year a pirated edition was
published in New York by
Appletons, and New York newspapers
printed it serially. Before
the end of 1841, an American "third
edition" appeared in Cin-
cinnati as the work of U. P. James, No.
26 Pearl Street.1
Carlyle's American friend, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, was
chagrined at these piracies as he had
planned for the publication
of an authorized edition.
Parenthetically it may be remarked
that Emerson's interest in biography
dates from the correspond-
ing period of the last century. His
lecture on "Great Men" was
delivered in Boston in 1835 and his
essays on "Representative
Men" appeared in 1850. To him
likewise, "there is properly no
History; only Biography."2
In the fourth sentence of Carlyle's
first lecture he states the
opinion that "as I take it,
Universal History . . . is at bottom the
History of Great Men" and a dozen
pages later he repeats that
"the History of the World . . . was
the Biography of Great Men."
Nevertheless it would be a mistake to
assume that this is the
thesis which he set out to establish. As
a matter of fact, these
sentences and a few adjacent ones which
bear upon them, could
have been omitted without impairing the
train of his discourse.
The subject which he announced for this
series of lectures
1 Archibald MacMechan, Carlyle on
Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in
History, Athenaum Press Series (Boston, 1901), Introduction.
2 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series, "History."
(233)
234
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
was, "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and
the Heroic in History."
His theme was, Hero-Worship as a social
force. "Society is
founded on Hero-Worship." The
passages devoted to the heroes
themselves are for the most part
subordinated both in extent and
significance to the discussion of the
social movements with which
they were associated. He saw his heroes
less as agents con-
sciously directing the course of history
than as symbols which
have motivated their own and later
generations to achievement.
For instance, "The Nation that has
a Dante is bound together as
no dumb Russia can be." "The Great Man [Mahomet] was
always as lightning out of Heaven; the
rest of men waited for him
like fuel, and then they too would
flame."
We may be as impatient with the
limitations of Carlyle's social
philosophy when he insists on
hero-worship as the ratio omnium
of history, as with his bald statement
that history is the biography
of great men. He is capable of saying,
"Society, everywhere is
some representation, not insupportably
inaccurate, of a graduated
Worship of Heroes." We are led to
inquire how he came by such
a concept. I am inclined to find at
least a partial explanation in
the religous cast of his thinking. His
reverence for his typically
Scottish Calvinist father led him as a
youth to seek an education
for the ministry. He was diverted from
this by intellectual dif-
ficulties which arose from his reading.
But in his twenty-fifth
year he experienced a spiritual crisis
which involved three weeks
of sleeplessness, in which his atheism
yielded to a positive appre-
ciation of religious impulses. It can be
understood from this, how
Carlyle was led to say, "a man's
religion is the chief fact with re-
gard to him," and how he was led to
subordinate economic and
other mundane interests in human life.
This accounts for the
choice of most of the heroes on which he
lectured:
The Hero as Divinity: Odin.
The Hero as Prophet: Mahomet.
The Hero as Poet: Dante; Shakespeare.
The Hero as Priest: Luther; Knox.
The Hero as Man of Letters: Johnson;
Rousseau; Burns.
The Hero as King: Cromwell; Napoleon.
It may be noted that religious minds, at
least as compared
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 235
with scientific or economic minds,
afford congenial soil for the
acceptance of hero-worship as the
main-spring of social action
and hence as the core of the
interpretation of history. A survey
of the names of the principal religions,
Mosaism, Buddhism,
Christianity, Mohammedanism, reveals the
prevalence of this con-
cept. An habitual attitude of worship
towards the deity is easily
transferred to human relationships. In
this connection, it is in-
teresting to note that recent studies in
primitive religion recognize
that side by side with a belief in
impersonal magic, fetishism, and
animism, there existed the concept of
"higher gods," cosmic
deities, and heroes among the gods, even
approaching a mono-
theism.3
Not only mythology but also the classic
religious writings on
the whole exhibit a philosophy of
personalism. Historic Chris-
tianity, with its Christo-centric
theology, its saints on the one
hand, and its Antichrists on the other,
and the exaltation of
denominational founders, reveals a
similar tendency which the
postulate of an overruling Providence
and a belief in a divine
plan of salvation operating through the
ages, does not modify.
Nor should we neglect to observe that
ever since religion divorced
itself from fertility cults, notably at
the time of the Hebrew
prophets, it has tended to subordinate,
even to deny any lasting
place in history to such social forces
as the biologic urge, economic
incentives, and the insatiable curiosity
of the human intellect. Of
geographic factors it has been concerned
only with the cata-
clysmic, and it regards these as of
passing significance.
Carlyle's thinking is colored by these
conceptions and we may
be justified in viewing both his great
man theory of history and
his hero-worship explanation of social
action as characteristic of
the romantic school of history in which
mysticism predominates
and the religious interpretation of
history has been most prevalent.
As might be expected, Carlyle felt a
strong distrust of the
tide of democracy which was arising in
his nineteenth century.
He placed his hope on an
"Aristocracy of Talent" whose powers
of social control should be exercised
through their control of the
3 Wilhelm Schmidt, Der Ursprung der
Gottesidee (Munster, 1926-35); W. F.
Albright, From the Stone Age to
Christianity (Baltimore, Md., 1940), 124f.
236
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
land. In an unpublished essay, my son,
Fred Bloomhardt, calls
attention to the military aspect of the
Utopia which Carlyle sug-
gests in his "Past and
Present" (IV, 3).
Pointing to the army he [Carlyle]
declares that there is the one really
efficient institution in the country.
"Who can despair of Governments, that
passes a Soldier's Guard-house, or meets
a red-coated man on the streets."
True, the army is organized for a
militant purpose . . . murder to Carlyle.
Yet it is the organization that Carlyle
is now observing. Here, he says, still
is reality and success. Here is more
justice than in the Chancery law
courts. Here is no weak-kneed
blundering, but effective action. No long-
winded Parliamentary speeches are made,
but the needful actions are taken
more quickly and effectively than any
Parliament could possibly do. Why
not, asks Carlyle, apply the same
principle to civil life? "I could conceive
an Emigration service, a Teaching
service, considerable varieties of United
and Separate services, of due thousands
strong, all effective as this Fighting
service is; all doing their work like
it;--which work, much more than
fighting, is henceforth the necessity of
these New Ages we are got into."
(IV, 3.) This borders very closely upon
the totalitarianism of our own
age. Certainly it was almost a complete
about face from the prevailing
democratic tendencies.--It is more than
possible that Carlyle got a large
part of this idea from the
Saint-Simonian literature which came into his
hands.
In passing from this notice of Carlyle
and his Heroes, I
have not considered it pertinent to
refer to the well-known
characteristics of his work--his
prejudices, his inadequate use
of sources, his neglect of the critical
method, and the shallow-
ness of his analysis. Only the sheer brilliance of his literary
skill can account for the vogue which he
has enjoyed.
II
Carlyle wrote a hundred years ago. He
was obviously out
of tune with his own century. Might he
have felt more at home
in our own times when vast millions of
men share his attitude
towards democracy and believe implicitly
in das Fuehrer Prin-
zip as exemplified by Mussolini, Mustapha Kemal, Hitler,
Riza
Khan, and the Kodo philosophy of
Japanese emperor-worship?
Professor Joseph E. Baker (Northwestern
University) has sug-
gested that Carlyle is the man to
interpret Hitler and his movement
to us since many of Hitler's ideas can
be expressed in familiar
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 237
old phrases from Carlyle and there are
parallels in the funda-
mental doctrines of the two men.4
Were Carlyle living, he would also hear
an echo of his
ideas in the writings of eminent
historians who use his own
tongue.
Sir Charles Oman, Professor of Modern History at
Oxford, brought out his On the
Writing of History in 1939.
As summarized by Allan Nevins in an
excellent review, Sir
Charles holds that "History is
simply a series of happenings
of highly mixed and various tendency;
not so much a stream
as a set of eddies and counter-eddies.
While some of it moves
logically from cause to effect, a huge
part of it is merely acci-
dental, and is constantly affected by
unforeseeable and 'cataclys-
mic' occurrences. Sir Charles believes with Carlyle that the
chief of the cataclysmic forces,
unrelated to any conceivable
pattern of cause and effect, is the
intermittent occurrence of
great men." Among these he singles
out for mention Alex-
ander, Augustus, Mahomet, and
Charlemagne. Allan Nevins'
comment on all of this is,
"convincing as far as it goes."5
A fundamental consideration in dealing
with the problem
of the great man in history is the
relative importance, even the
existence of the personal element in the
milieu of history. Pure
determinists would interpret the course
of history solely as the
result of impersonal forces--geographic,
climatic, economic.
For instance, it is held that the entire
life process, including the
political, social and religious, is
determined by material condi-
tions of production. The existence of
these factors in human
affairs is irrefutable but with the
whole intricate pattern of
human behavior spread before us it may
well be asked whether
those who represent any one or all of
them as the unifying
principle of history, have not shared
Carlyle's tendency to over-
simplification. To ask this question is
by no means to disclaim
the value of the contribution which
materialists have made to
the interpretation of history. Their contribution in the main
has been the strengthening of the
concept of continuity. The
reaction to this mechanistic view has
been extensive. Skepticism
4 Joseph Ellis Baker, "Carlyle
Rules the Reich," Saturday Review of Literature
(New York), X (1933), 291.
5 New York Herald-Tribune, Dec.
31, 1939.
238
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
with regard to it has arisen from an
inability to conceive of
human society differing only in degree
from a herd of cattle,
breeding blindly, nibbling inch by inch
towards greener pas-
tures, sniffing the air for the smell of
a water-hole, and dumbly
facing the hazards of nature.
Somewhat parallel is the
scientific-technological school
which correlates human progress with the
development of
natural science. In this group you will recognize Comte,
Buckle, J. S. Mill, and Spencer. This,
of course, reduced his-
tory to the determinism of natural law
since such was the
concept of impersonal natural science. A
distrust of this in-
terpretation has grown out of the fact
that this correlation with
natural science is based on a series of
analogies, some of which
are unwarranted, and which in any case
is less than soundly
scientific, and out of the confusion
into which natural science
has been thrown by the discovery of the
principle of indeter-
minacy in nuclear physics.
The essential difference between these
views and others
may be designated as the awareness of
the element of human
personality. Other schools of historical interpretation include
this relatively unpredictable element
within their perspective.
The causal forces of history are found
in the human spirit. The
material factors serve in part to direct
these forces in the mass,
and also to challenge men either as
individuals or as societies
to oppose and rise above the controls
which environment tends
to establish.
One such school, known as the spiritual
and represented by
Eucken, Matthews, H. O. Taylor, and W.
R. McLaughlin, de-
clares, "The spiritual
interpretation of history must be found in
the discovery of spiritual forces
cooperating with geographic
and economic to produce a general
tendency towards conditions
which are truly personal. And these conditions will not be
found in generalizations concerning
metaphysical entities, but
in the activities of worthful men
finding self-expression in social
relations for the ever more complete
subjection of physical nature
to human welfare."6
6 Shailer
Mathews, The Spiritual Interpretation of History (Cambridge, Mass.,
1916).
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 239
Both the sociological, defined as an
attempt to account for the
origin, structure, and activities of
society by the operation of
physical, vital, and psychical causes,
working together in a process
of evolution, and the "collective
sociological" interpretation seem
at least to leave room for the personal
element. This is definitely
true of recent representatives of the
sociological interpretation, for
one type of which sometimes the term organismic
is used. In
Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History (1934),
his principles of
"Challenge and Response" and
"Withdrawal and Return" are
illustrated mainly from biographical
sources. Sorokin in his Social
and Cultural Dynamics (1937) tends to minimize the place of the
individual in trying to base his
"logico-meaningful" method of
ordering the chaos which seems to
prevail among the variable ele-
ments of any social complex or organism,
on extensive statistical
and analytical surveys. His theory is
criticized by Albright in pre-
senting the following interesting thesis
whose implications for the
subject of this discussion are obvious:
Every cultural complex is itself a
microcosm, in which opposing fac-
tors are constantly meeting and
clashing, so that sometimes one, sometimes
its opposite, prevails.... It cannot be
too strongly insisted that integration
of a culture is not necessarily a good
thing. Perfect integration of a per-
sonality leads to stagnation of that
personality. Practically all great men,
and certainly all geniuses have been
very poorly integrated. It is precisely
the friction and conflict between
imperfectly balanced or harmonized ele-
ments in a man's mental make-up which
may lead to innovations and dis-
coveries. Real greatness often emerges
from profound spiritual or intel-
lectual travail. A placid, bovine mind
may be exceedingly well integrated
at a low level; a gifted demagogue may
enjoy perfect nervous and mental
health, with few conscientious scruples
or intellectual struggles to prevent
him from employing his talents to
personal advantage and to public dis-
aster--in other words, he is well
integrated at a higher level. The same is
true, mutatis mutandis, of groups
and nations. A group may be so com-
pletely integrated that it exhibits
little internal friction, a high degree of
efficiency in accomplishing its
purposes, together with self-sufficiency and
smugness--but it will accomplish little
of value for the world. The early
Christians were certainly not well
integrated as a group, since it required
centuries for them to come to a
temporary agreement on normative theologi-
cal doctrines and social policies--yet
few will dispute their potential capac-
ities for good. Modern Jewish
intellectual circles are generally as fine ex-
amples as can be found in history of
lack of integration, yet they are
240
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
producing an astonishingly high
proportion of the significant intellectual
achievements of our age. It is even
possible that the greatest advances of
any group are made when that group is in
the highest state of excitation
that can be attained without disaster to
the group. All this obviously means
that there is most likely to be progress
within a group when that group
contains an optimum number of polar
elements, i. e., of elements standing in
real or potential opposition to
one-another.7
As a philosophy, personalism raises
certain questions into
which we are not called upon to enter
here, namely, whether per-
sonality alone is reality and material
environment is but phe-
nomena; and whether the only causal
force in history of which we
have a strictly empirical knowledge, i.
e., our own inner awareness
of ourselves as active beings, is
volitional personality.8
In those who hold, as for instance
Shotwell,9 that life itself
escapes materialistic analysis, and that
the problem of historical
interpretation is to establish the
relations between the psychic
element and the material element in
human affairs, this philosophy
of personalism is implicit.
At this point the social psychologist
enters. Acknowledging
the infinite variety of personalities,
he yet finds, as Sorokin, that
the material, social, and mental
characteristics of a given culture
are relatively stable and can generally
be fixed with a decreasing
margin of error as social organization
becomes more primitive and
less self-conscious or sophisticated.
Nevertheless there is a margin
of error. There is a difference in
historic certainty in interpreting
the actions of groups and of
individuals. There is no way of tell-
ing how an individual will act and his
action will be more eccentric
as he approaches the stature of genius.
Moreover, the reaction
of a group cannot be predicted if too
many or too elusive variable
factors are involved, or if a group is
under the influence of a
superior personality of unpredictable
character.10
If the psychologists should succeed in
explaining the sum of
human behavior on naturalistic grounds,
the significance of unique
individuals will be seriously impaired.
Yet such studies of genius
7 An excellent criticism of Arnold
Joseph Toynbee and Pitirim Aleksandrovich
Sorokin, and a presentation of the
organismic philosophy of history is found in
Albright, Stone Age to Christianity, 60-87.
8 Cf. Albert C. Knudson, The Philosophy of Personalism (New
York, 1927).
9 James T. Shotwell, An Introduction
to the History of History (New York,
1836), 332.
10 Cf. Albright, Stone Age to
Christianity, 78f.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 241
as have appeared seem to be concerned
only with groups of
superior individuals, an intellectual haute
bourgeoisie. (Terman,11
following Ellis and Galton, rejects as
an unscientific concept, the
use of the word genius to
designate some kind of mystical gift
which cannot be explained by the
ordinary laws of human nature.)
The possibility is not shown that a
child can be chosen on the
basis of eugenic and psychological tests
and surrounded by any
known educational environment so that he
will unquestionably
emerge as a person of heroic size either
as a directive force in
society or as a creative genius. To some
extent, therefore, the
emergence of great men seems to
introduce a degree of the cata-
clysmic in history which is unique in
the orderly processes of
nature.
Into the phase of individualism which is
represented by
Nietzsche's "Superman," it is
not necessary for us to enter since
in the first place history knows no such
man, and in the second
place its discussion belongs in the
realm of ethics.
III
As a kind of appendix, we may consider
the place of the
great man in the writing of history.
From a great mass of in-
formation the writer is constrained to
select and arrange what
he or his age views as significant for
the closest possible approxi-
mation of historical truth. His goal
like that of the teacher, must
be the establishment and retention of
this approximation to true
concepts in the minds of his readers and
students. The degree
to which he achieves this purpose will
depend in large part upon
the artistry with which he employs his
materials. Painters and
cinema directors know well that
attention must be centered upon
individual figures if comprehension is
to be conveyed. In a battle
scene or mob action, one or more
individuals are pictured strongly
in the foreground and the hundreds or
thousands of others are
represented less distinctly in the
background, leaving it to the
viewers' imagination to think of them as
engaged in the same
action. In magazines of recent weeks we
have seen a large picture
of a mass of thousands of people on the
beach of Coney Island.
11 Science (New York), XC (1940), 293.
242
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It leaves an impression of chaos and its
significance escapes us.
One feels an impulse to look at it more
closely and try to pick
out some individuals whose postures and
expressions may tell a
story of some kind. Thucydides,
Polybius, Xenephon, Tacitus,
Sallust, and Suetonius among the
ancients, whatever their limita-
tions may have been, did not fail to
appreciate this characteristic
of human comprehension. And modern
history writers have ob-
viously followed this lead with their
Augustan Age, the Age of
Charlemagne, Elizabethan Era, the Age of
Louis XIV, the French
Revolution and Napoleon, the Era of
Metternich, Jacksonian
Democracy, etc. Like the artificial
make-up which actors in the
cinema wear before the Klieg lights in
order to produce a truer
picture on the screen for the film
followers, it is possible that
history written on this pattern, when
strictly considered, over-
draws the part which the great man has
played in his time. Such
a view may leave the impression that the
historiographer is merely
a popularizer but Egon Friedell
definitely claims that the salient
characteristics of any age can best be
comprehended in the person
of its outstanding man or men.12 In a somewhat parallel way,
Professor Roy F. Nichols advocated the
use of biography as a
"case method" in order to
achieve "a clearer and more accurate
understanding of the process of social
change and development."13
Such a work as the Chronicles of
America exhibits the biograph-
ical element to an unusual degree.
On the other hand, I have the impression
which I am unable
to demonstrate, that in spite of
Friedell, much of the modern
"culture history" gives less
space to the significance of great men
in the development of institutions,
manners, social classes, and
other interests to which men have given
their attention. In some
special fields there has been a lag in
this respect. Many of us have
on our shelves histories of medicine,
literature, preaching, art,
philosophy, science, some of relatively
recent date, which are little
more than "Who's Whos" in
their respective fields, arranged
chronologically instead of
alphabetically, and attempting little more
than a classification by
"schools." It may even contribute to our
12 Egon Friedell, A Cultural History of the Modern
Age (New York, 1930-32),
I, 24-7.
13 Historical Outlook (Philadelphia), VII (1926), 270.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 243
own humility to look into the histories
of history. This will pass,
as it is clearly beginning to pass in
the histories of literature, art
and science.
IV
From the foregoing we may be tempted to
conclude that the
significance of the great man in history
is to be found specifically
within his own period; later ages are
influenced rather by some
institution (used in the widest sense)
which lives after him.
Many instances to support this
conclusion arise in our minds;
thus Hammurabi, Ikhnaton, Pheidias,
Aurelius, Justinian, Attila,
Henry II (Plantagenet), Isaac Watts,
Edward Jenner, and maybe
Henry Ford. As our perspective expands
geographically to em-
brace world history, and chronologically
to view the whole story
from the Stone Age to the present, and
culturally to include all
the varied interests that have engaged
the attention of men, we
may expect to find proportionately less
occasion to magnify great
men except as a means to be used in
effective historiographic
presentation. However, I am little
inclined to agree with such
generalizations. It has also been
suggested14 that some individ-
uals seem to stand out in bolder
perspective as the details of their
age are lost, and that men of thought,
as compared with men of
action, sometimes take on a richer
significance as they are digested
by later ages. The recent deluge of
biographies may be considered
as a response to a deep-seated desire
not only to know of men's
achievements, but also to feel directly
the impact of their lives on
our own.
14 In a personal communication by
Prof. C. A. Clausen of Wittenberg College.
THE BEGINNINGS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN
THE
NORTHWEST TERRITORY
By THOMAS N. HOOVER
Rufus Putman never attended a
university; but fathered the
first institution for higher learning in
the Northwest Territory.
He seldom if ever went to school; but
contributed much to the
cause of education. His mother, when
Rufus was still a small
boy, inflicted upon him an undesirable,
domineering, illiterate
step-father, who required the lad to
work all day, and denied him
a candle, that he might study at night.
In spite of such handi-
caps, Putnam became educated. He was
outstanding as a civil
engineer, serving with distinction in
the Revolutionary War, and
later as surveyor-general of the United
States.1
Putnam, at the close of the
Revolutionary War, was most
interested in the vast region west of
the mountains. He was
chairman of the Newburgh meeting, which
on June 16, 1783,
petitioned Congress, in the name of the
two hundred eighty-eight
Revolutionary officers present, for
grants of lands within the
limits of the present State of Ohio.2 He sent the petition to
General Washington, to be presented by
him to Congress. With
the petition, Putnam sent a letter, in
which he stressed the need
for settling the western region. He
urged the construction of
forts, the survey of lands into
townships, the sale and settlement
of the land, and the support of schools
and churches, "to banish
forever the idea of our western
territory falling under the domin-
ion of any European power."3 Washington, with his own letter
of endorsement, transmitted the petition
and the Putnam letter
to Congress.
A year later, in 1784, Putnam again
wrote to Washington,
"The settlement of the Ohio
country, sir, engrosses many of my
1 For a brief biographical sketch of
Rufus Putnam see Dictionary of American
Biography (New York, 1928-1937), XV, 284-5.
2 A copy of the petition and names of signers is included in William Parker
Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler, Life,
Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh
Cutler,LL.D. (Cincinnati,
1888), I, 159-67.
3 Ibid., I, 167-72.
(244)
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 245
thoughts, and much of my time. ... we
are growing quite im-
patient; and the general inquiry now is,
when are we going to
the Ohio?"4
Putnam's suggestions were incorporated
in the famous Ordi-
nance of 1785.
On the night of January 9, 1786, Rufus
Putman had a guest
at his Rutland, Massachusetts, home. He
was Benjamin Tupper,
another native of Massachusetts,
Revolutionary officer, and like
Putnam, a civil engineer. Tupper had
been in charge of surveying
the first seven ranges, and, like
Putnam, was much interested in
the region west of the mountains.
Together these men drew up
a document called the
"Information" dated January 10, 1786,
and signed by Putnam and Tupper.5
This was to inform persons interested in
the Ohio country
that a meeting would be held at the
Bunch of Grapes Tavern in
Boston, on the first day of March, 1786,
for the purpose of form-
ing an association to be known as the
Ohio Company. Delegates
were to be chosen at meetings held on
the fifteenth of February.
Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Winthrop
Sargent, John Mills,
Manasseh Cutler, John Patterson,
Jelaliel Woodbridge, Thomas
Cushing, Crocker Sampson, and Abram
Williams attended the
meeting, formed the stock company, and
planned for another
meeting a year later, for a report on
the sales of stock.6
At the meeting in March, 1787, it was
reported that two
hundred fifty shares, at $1000 per share
had been sold. Generals
Samuel H. Parsons, Rufus Putman and Rev.
Manasseh Cutler
were selected as directors of the
company. Parsons was sent as
the representative of the company to New
York, to present a
memorial to Congress, for the purchase
of a tract of land of the
public domain in the Ohio country.7
He appeared before the
Congress on May 9, and presented the
memorial. This was
referred to a committee of five members,
James Madison and
Edward Carrington of Virginia; Rufus
King and Nathan Dane
of Massachusetts; and Egbert Benson of
New York.8
4 Ibid., I, 174-6.
5 Ibid., I, 179-80.
6 For the organization of the company, ibid.,
I, 180-90.
7 Ibid., I, 191-2.
8 Journals of the Continental Congress (Washington, D. C., 1904-
), XXXII,
276.
246
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Two days later, began a period of no
quorum, which con-
tinued till July 4. The committee,
however, had considered the
Parsons memorial, and made its report,
signed by the five mem-
bers, on July 10. This report "Resolved,
that the Treasury Board
be authorised and empowered to contract
with Samuel Holden
Parsons Esq. or any other Agent or
Agents, duly authorised, by
the Company stiled [sic] and
known by the name of the Associ-
ation for the purchase of Lands on the
N. West side of Ohio
River. . . ." The report further
recommended that, in each
township, lot sixteen be reserved for
schools, twenty-nine for the
purposes of religion, and eight, eleven,
and twenty-six reserved
for Congress, and "four complete
Townships to be given per-
petually for the purposes of an
University, be laid off by the
Company, as near the centre as may be,
so that the same shall
be of good land to be applied to the
intended object by the
Legislature of the State."9
In the summer of 1787, Manasseh Cutler
was assigned the
task of trying to contract with Congress
for the purchase of land
for the company. Cutler was born in
Connecticut in 1742. He
was a graduate of Yale in 1765. He was a
minister of the
Gospel, lawyer, doctor, teacher, and
shrewd politician from the
little village of Ipswich,
Massachusetts. On the 24th of June
he set out from his home on his long
trip to New York with his
one-horse, two-wheeled gig. He arrived
at New York on the
afternoon of July 5. On the next day he
appeared before Con-
gress and "delivered my petition
for purchasing lands for the
Ohio Company, and proposed terms and
conditions of purchase.
. . . As Congress was now engaged in
settling the form of gov-
ernment for the territory; for which a
bill had been prepared,
and a copy sent to me, with leave to
make remarks and propose
amendments, I returned the bill with my
observations."10
On July 9, Cutler attended the Committee
at Congress cham-
ber, debated on "terms but were so
wide apart that there appears
little prospect of closing a
contract." Cutler then took a short
trip to Philadelphia, where many of his
friends were attending
9 Ibid., XXXII, 312.
10 Cutler's diary of this period, Cutler, Cutler, I, 208-42.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 247
the Constitutional Convention. On his
return to New York,
the 17th of July, he found that the
Ordinance had been passed
on July 13 and all of his suggestions
had been incorporated in
the final document.
On July 23 conditions of a contract were
submitted to Cutler
but were not acceptable. Although Cutler
was anxious to make
a contract with Congress, he appeared to
be absolutely indifferent.
He played a shrewd game. He accepted
invitations where they
would do most good. He spent an evening (closeted) with
Colonel William Duer. The final bit of
politics that he played
was that the President of Congress,
Arthur St. Clair, should be
the first governor of the Territory.11
This proposal was accept-
able to Cutler and on the 27th of July,
the contract was agreed
upon. In this contract was the following
provision: "and also
reserving out of the said tract so to be
granted, two complete
townships to be given perpetually for
the purposes of an univer-
sity, to be laid off by the said parties
of the second part [The
Ohio Company], their heirs or assigns,
as near the center [of
the Ohio Company's purchase] as may be,
so the same shall be
of good land, to be applied to the
intended object in such manner
as the Legislature of the State wherein
the said townships shall
fall, or may be situated, shall or may
think proper to direct."12
This contract was signed on October 27,
1787.13 Thus Con-
gress set aside two townships, 46,080
acres of land, for the support
of the first university in the Northwest
Territory, and sixteen
years before there was the State of
Ohio, bequeathed to the
future State the guardianship of the
university.
But two townships of land would not make
a university.
The Northwest Territory must be settled,
Indian wars must be
fought, a Greenville Treaty must be
signed before it would be
safe to venture into the interior of the
company's purchase.
On May 16, 1789, the directors of the
company ordered
Putnam and Cutler "to make such
further application [to Con-
gress] as they shall judge expedient
respecting an establishment
11 Ibid., I, 295-6.
12 A
copy of the contract, in W. E. Peters, Legal History of Ohio University
(Cincinnati, 1910), 43-8.
13 Cutler, Cutler, I, 326.
248
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
of instructors in the University and
procuring a charter for that
Seminary."14
As early as 1790, the directors of the
company took steps
to have the two townships for the
university definitely located.
Indian wars however checked this
movement for five years.
On January 10, 1795, the directors of
the company
Resolved, that the committee appointed
by a resolution of the 9th
of Nov., 1790, for the purpose of
designating the two townships reserved
for the benefit of an university be
requested to be ready to go up the great
Hockhocking with the directors as soon
as the season will permit, for the
completion of the business for which
they were appointed and that the
Superintendent [Putnam] furnish a
surveyor and a suitable number of
hands for the occasion, also fifteen men
as a guard and hands in the above
resolution, and that a suitable number
of canoes or boats be provided for
the purpose of transporting the
necessary provision.
Resolved that for caring [carrying] the
above business into effect it
will be necessary that there be provided
for [by] the Ohio Company eight
hundred pounds of good salt pork called
Middleings, also twelve hundred
of flour and hard bread, three bushels
of beans and forty gallons of
whiskey.15
Thus supplied, Rufus Putnam and his men
rowed down the
Ohio, up the great Hockhocking and
located the two university
townships, 8 and 9 in Range 14.16
But Rufus Putman would not let the
project die. Two
townships of land in themselves would
not be a university. Early
in 1799 Putman wrote to Cutler informing
him of the location of
the two townships which would ultimately
bring to the support
of the university more than $5,000 per
year. He further sug-
gested that someone should be authorized
to erect buildings,
appoint officers, and get the university
going.17
Cutler replied on July 15, as follows:
So far as I have had opportunity, I have
consulted the charters of
public seminaries in Europe and America.
Those in our own country are
generally more modern, and the best
adapted to the purpose intended; but
none appear to me to accord with a plan
so liberal and extensive as I think
ought to be the foundation of the
Constitution of this University. The
14 A. B. Hulbert, ed., Records of the
Ohio Company (Marietta, O., 1917), I, 107.
15 Ibid., II, 233-4.
16 Ibid., II, 183.
17 Cutler, Cutler, II, 18-9.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 249
Constitution ought to be composed of
mere principles as clear and few as
may be.18
On August 7, 1799, Putman replied to
Cutler:
We are totally destitute of any copy of
an incorporating act or charter
of a College, or even an Academy; but
this is not my principal reason for
applying to you. It is a subject I know
you have long thought of, there-
fore, I request of you not only the form
but the substance. I want you to
make out one in detail, or procure it
done for us, and forward it by mail
to me as soon as it is ready.19
Cutler complied with the request of
Putnam and on June
30, 18OO, sent a model charter, with a
letter of explanation. The
charter contained a preamble and ten
sections. The preamble
stated that "Institutions for the
liberal education of Youth are
essential to the progress of Arts and
Sciences; important to
Morals and Religion; friendly to the
peace, order and prosperity
of Society; and honorable to the
government which patronizes
them."
Cutler proposed the name, American
University; a Board
of Trustees of eleven members who should
elect a president and
other officers of the university,
approve the giving of degrees,
prescribe the duties of the faculty, and
require quarterly exam-
inations of the students. Cutler urged the importance of this
as a part of the constitution
"since it is so apt to be neglected by
the Government, and so often opposed and
resisted by the stu-
dents." He was opposed to any large
buildings for
with regard to erecting public buildings
for the University, I can not
so fully express my mind to you as I
could wish. At present, I should not
think it best to erect any considerable
public buildings. It will be necessary,
in the first instance, to open a Latin
school, for I conceive it improbable that
any youth can be found in the country
qualified for admission as the stu-
dents of a college. Or if a Freshman
class can be formed, it must be small.
A building of two stories, pretty large
on the ground, in the form of a school
house, may answer every purpose for some
years. I feel an aversion to
large buildings for the residence of
students, where there are regular fami-
lies in which they can reside. Chambers
in colleges are too often made the
secret nurseries of every vice and the
cages of unclean birds. It must
require time to mature plans for large
buildings, I will endeavor to attend
to the matter, and give my idea of
Public Buildings.20
18 Ibid., II,
20-1.
19 Ibid., II, 21-2.
20 For
text of the recommended charter and Cutler's letter, see ibid., II,
22-31.
250
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Putnam replied to Cutler on August 2, 18OO, with a letter
of appreciation for the model charter.
He differed from Cutler
on the question of buildings. He thought
there would be plenty
of students ready for college by the
time buildings might be
constructed. "Indeed," he
wrote, "I am more apprehensive that
we shall not be able in due time to
erect the proper buildings and
support the expense of officers, than
that we shall want students,
although for several years the number
may be small."21
At the same time Putnam was writing
Cutler regarding a
model charter, he was laying plans for a
Board of Trustees. On
November 20, 18OO, he worte to Paul Fearing as
follows:
With respect to the University, in my
opinion nothing local should
influence our minds in naming the
trustees as it respects counties. The nearer
they live to the spot and one another,
the more easily will they be con-
veaned [sic] and the less
expensive, and for this reason I would by no
means appoint more than eleven in the
first instance. There can be no need
of more for transacting the business
until the University is opened and
besides we know not what characters may
come forward as promoters of
the institution or what additional
donations may be made. We ought there-
fore to leave a wide door open to admit
such characters as partners in the
trust. I think it not improbable that
some worthy characters may soon settle
in the University townships and is it
not possible that some worthy, able,
public spirited gentlemen in Adams and
Ross County, may make donations
to the institution whom it might be
thought proper to appoint trustees.22
In the letter Putnam suggested names of
persons who might
constitute the first Board.
On December 18, 1799, the newly
established Territorial
legislature passed an act providing that
Rufus Putnam, Benjamin
Ives Gilman and Jonathan Stone be
requested to lay off in the
most suitable. place within the
townships, a town plat to contain
a square for the colleges, lots suitable
for house lots, and gardens
for president, professors, and tutors,
bordering on or encircled
by spacious commons. They were likewise
requested to lay out
a plan for a town. Putman was in charge
of the work and
selected sections 9, 1O, 15, 16, and 22
in township 9 for the
college campus. He also laid out the streets for the town
of
21 Ibid., II, 31-2.
22 Paul Fearing was delegate to Congress from the Northwest Territory, 1801
and 1802. Paul Fearing MSS. (in Marietta
College Library), V, 58.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 251
Athens. These plats were approved by the
Territorial legislature
on December 6, 1800.23
In the last session of the Territorial
legislature held before
Ohio became a state, on January 9, 1802, the Assembly
passed
an act providing for the university. It
followed somewhat closely
the model charter from the pen of
Manasseh Cutler. The follow-
ing were the main provisions of the act:
Whereas institutions for the liberal
education of youth, are essential
to the progress of arts and sciences,
important to morality, virtue and
religion; friendly to the peace, order
and prosperity of society, and honorable
to the government that encourages and
patronizes them--and whereas the
Congress of the United States did make a
grant of two townships of
land, within the purchase made by the
Ohio Company of Associates, for
the encouragement and support of an
university therein; and whereas the
interference of the legislature is
rendered necessary, to point out and direct
the mode in which the same shall be
brought into operation, that the benefits
of the grant may be applied to the
purposes designed:
Therefore,
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the legislative
council and house of repre-
sentatives in General Assembly, and it
is hereby enacted by the authority
of the same, that there shall be an
University instituted and established in
the town of Athens, . . . by the name
and style of the 'American Western
University,' for the instruction of
youth in all the various branches of the
liberal arts and sciences, for the
promotion of good education, virtue, religion
and morality, and for the conferring of
all degrees and literary honors
granted in similar institutions.
Sec. 2. That there shall be and forever
remain in the said University,
a body politic and corporate, by the
name and style of 'The President and
trustees of the American Western
University,' which body politic and
corporate shall consist of the president
ex-officio, and not more than seven-
teen nor less than eleven trustees, to
be appointed as herein after is provided.
Sec. 3. That the Hon. Rufus Putnam,
Joseph Gilman, Return Jona-
than Meigs, Jr. and Paul Fearing,
Esquires, the Reverend Daniel Story,
Griffin Greene, Robert Oliver, Ebenezer
Sproat, Dudley Woodbridge and
Isaac Pierce, Esquire, together with the
president of the said University,
for the time being, to be chosen as
herein after directed, be, and hereby are
created a body politic and corporate, by
the name of 'The President and
trustees of the American Western
University,' and that they and their
successors, and such others as shall be
and remain a body politic and
corporate, in law, by that name forever.
The trustees were to elect a president,
secretary, professors,
23 Peters, Legal History of Ohio University, 75-8.
252
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
treasurer, etc., and prescribe their
duties. Seven members would
constitute a quorum. They were to fix
salaries, make rules, sus-
pend officers and fill vacancies
temporarily.
The faculty was to fix the course of
study, make rules, and
hold quarterly examination of students.
Other provisions were
for the administration of the two
townships for the purpose
designated by the Congress of the United
States.
The final provision was "That the
Hon. Rufus Putnam,
Esquire, shall be, and he is hereby
authorized and empowered,
to fix the time and place for holding
the first meeting of the
said corporation, of which he shall give
notice in writing to each
member, at least fourteen days previous
to such meeting."24
Rufus Putnam called the trustees to meet
at the home of
Stephen Pierce, inholder, on May 21, 1802.25
The year after Ohio became a state, on
February 18,
1804,
the General Assembly of the State passed an act "Estab-
lishing an University in the Town of
Athens."26
The preamble was the exact language of
the first six lines of
the preamble in the act of January 9, 1802.
The name was changed from the American
Western, to
"Ohio University." The
trustees were to be the governor of the
State, the president of the university
and from ten to fifteen
members. The original trustees, named in
the act, were Elijah
Backus, Rufus Putman, Dudley Woodbridge,
Benjamin Tappan,
Bezaleel Wells, Nathaniel Massie, Daniel
Symmes, Daniel Story.
Samuel Carpenter, Rev. James Kilbourne,
Griffin Greene, Sr., and
Joseph Darlington. The powers and duties
of the corporation
were similar to those under the former
law. Public examinations
were to be held quarterly. Further provisions
pertained to the
administration of the two townships and
construction of a build-
ing. The governor of the State was
required to notify the
trustees of the first meeting of the
Board.
Thus the infant institution, conceived
by the founding fathers,
financed by a grant of land from the
Federal Government and
24 For the Act of Jan. 9, 1802, see ibid., 76-99.
25 Fearing MSS., IV, 291.
26 For the Act of Feb. 18, 1804, see
Ohio Laws, Statutes, etc., Acts, 2
.Assemb.,
1804, 193-206.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 253
by that government bequeathed to the
State, was accepted by the
State of Ohio. So proud was Ohio of this
first institution for
higher learning in the Northwest
Territory, that it gave its own
name, Ohio, to the young university.
The Congress of the United States had
given a "Local Habi-
tation," the State of Ohio had
given a "name," but even so, until
46,080 acres of land would bring in some
cash, Ohio University
would be principally "Airy Nothingness."
Ohio's first governor, Edward Tiffin,
called the first meet-
ing of the trustees of Ohio University
to be held at the home of
Dr. Eliphaz Perkins in Athens on the
first Monday in June, 1804.
Attending the meeting were Rufus Putman,
Elijah Backus, Dud-
ley Woodbridge, Daniel Story, Samuel
Carpenter and James
Kilbourne. Tiffin presided. Woodbridge
was made secretary
and Perkins treasurer. Provision was
made for surveying the
lands and laying out roads, in the
college townships. For several
years the main task of the trustees was
that of leasing the lands
and getting an income.27
At the meeting on April 3, 1806, when
the treasurer was
called upon for his report, the
condition of the treasury showed
"not one cent."28 At
this meeting, however, the first steps were
taken for a building. Jacob Lindly,
Rufus Putnam, and William
Skinner were the members of the
committee in charge of having
an academy building constructed. Putnam,
Buell and Wood-
bridge were to draft a set of rules for
the university.
On Christmas day, 1806, the trustees
approved the plan
for an academy building presented by
Rev. Jacob Lindly. In
due time the building was completed, a
two-story, two-room,
brick structure, 24 by 30 feet, built by
Jehiel Gregory at a cost
of $500. It was ready for occupancy in
June, 1808.29
It fell to the lot of Rufus Putnam to
select a preceptor.
His choice was Rev. Jacob Lindly,
graduate of Princeton in
1800, Presbyterian minister at Waterford, Ohio, in 1803 and
since 1805 a member of the Board of
Trustees.
On March II, 1808, Putnam wrote
the Presbyterian congre-
27 Board of Trustees of Ohio University,
Records, I, 1-7.
28 Ibid., I, 8.
29 Ibid., I, 10-28.
254
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gation of Waterford for the release of
Lindly. The letter in
part follows:
The Trustees of the Ohio University take
the earliest opportunity to
inform you that they have invited your
Reverend Pastor to the office of
Preceptor of the Athens Academy which
they expect will be ready for the
reception of students next June.
We sincerely sympathize with you in your
fealing [sic] on the ocation
[sic] and hope through the blessing of Divine Providence you
may shortly
obtain another Pastor and teacher in
whom you will be as happily united.30
Putman had reason to suspect that the
good Presbyterians
of Waterford would be unwilling that
their pastor should leave
them for Ohio University. He therefore
wrote the Ohio Presby-
tery, as follows:
The trustees of the Ohio University (by
their Committee appointed
and Authorized for that Purpos [sic])
beg leave to inform your Reverend
and honorable body, that they have made
Choise [sic] of the Reverend
Jacob Lindly of Waterford, to fill the
office of Preceptor of the Athens
Academy. They doubt not of your
approbation of their choise, and solicit
your consent that Mr. Lindly have leave
to resign his charge at Waterford
and take upon him the more immediate
government of the Ohio University,
which first opens in the Athens Academy,
and will be ready for the reception
of students in June next.
The committee of Trustees have writen [sic]
to the Church and Con-
gregation of Waterford on the subject of
Mr. Lindly's leaving them. We
understand they mean to oppose Mr.
Lindly's removal and that an agent is
appointed for that purpose to attend the
Presbytery. This opposition was
expected, and is always to be expected
from every people on a like ocation.
It has been the general if not the
uniform practice in similar ocations to
select from among the Setled [sic] Clergy
a character suitable to fill such
an important office: the objections of
their people being no sufficient bar
to their removal when a more enlarged
Sphier [sic] of usefulness in pro-
moting the general good appeared to call
for them. That it is of the utmost
importance to place at the head of such
an institution (and especially the
Ohio University) a gentleman of an
established character, one acquainted
with the genius and maners [sic] of
the people around him, and one in
whom those who have children to educate
place confidence, all will admit.
But if the objections of Waterford be
admitted as a sufficient bar,
their [sic] remains no
probability of obtaining such a character because if
it is right that the objections of
Waterford should prevale [sic]: so ought
the objections of every other society
who have a settled minister to bar his
removal. Besides as their [sic] is
no settled minister in the County of
30 Putnam MSS. (in the Marietta College
Library), II, no. 33.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 255
Athens, nor are any of the settlements
able (separately) to support stated
preaching, therefore it has appeared of
very great importance to the
Trustees, to place a minister at the
head of the institution who would as time
and opportunity presented, preach to the
people: it is therefore to be hoped
Mr. Lindly (by the blessing of God) may
serve the cause of religion by
preaching in Athens and its vicinity as
much as he would, should he remain
at Waterford.
Reverend and honored gentlemen
If the agent from Waterford appear as we
expect we hope it will prevent
the necessity of a delay for the purpose
of citeing [sic] the people of Water-
ford to appear as in ordinary cases.
Again as it is not an ordinary removal
of a Minister from one Con-
gregation to another, may not we presume
to hope that the Presbytery will
consider the application as not coming
within the ordinary prescribed rules
of delay, as in Common Cases, and
therefore come to a decision at their
present session.31
The Reverend Jacob was given his release
from the Water-
ford Church, and was transferred to
Athens, to assume the duties
of preceptor of the academy, and
president pro tem. of the Board
of Trustees of Ohio University, at an
annual salary of $500.00.
On June 1, 1808, the academy opened its
doors to first
students, with an offering of
arithmetic, English grammar, Latin
and Greek languages, geography,
mathematics, logic, rhetoric,
natural and moral philosophy. The students were to pay $2.00
each quarter, to recite six days per
week, to be examined quarterly
by the trustees, and to appear once a
year in a public exhibition.
Three of the trustees were to dig and
stone a well and "direct
the apparatus proper for drawing water
from the same, erect a
Necessary and clear the College green
reserving suitable trees
for shade." The requests of William Weir for two acres
of land
for a brewery and of Jacob Wolfe for
land for a tanyard were
rejected. Joel Abbot was paid $87.00 for
building the "Neces-
sary" and Alexander Stedman $43.00
for the well (this did not
include the rope).32
A resolution of May 16, 1809, provided that
payments to
the university might be made in hemp at
$6.00 per cwt.: steers
three years old and not over eight at
$2.50 per cwt. the hide and
31 Ibid., II, no. 5.
32 Trustees, Records, I, 69.
256
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
tallow to be included; barrows and
spayed sows weighing alive
not less than 250 pounds at $3.00 per
cwt.
The rules of Princeton were adopted
temporarily as the
rules for Ohio University, but in March,
1812,
the trustees
adopted the following:
No student shall possess or exhibit any
indecent picture; nor purchase,
nor read in the University any lacivious
[sic] impious or irreligious book
or ballad, nor sing or repeat verses of
like character; and if any student
shall be convicted thereof or of lying,
profaneness, drunkenness, theft, un-
cleanliness, playing at unlawful games
or other gross immoralities, he shall
be punished according to the nature and
heinousness of the offense by ad-
monition public reprehension, or
expulsion from the University.
If any student shall quarrel with,
insult or abuse a fellow student or
any person whatever he shall be punished
according to the nature of his
fault.
No student shall keep by him, nor bring
nor cause to be brought into
the University, on any occasion any
spiritous or fermented liquors without
the expressed permission of the
President.
No student shall go to a Tavern,
Alehouse, Beerhouse, or any place
of like kind for the purpose of
entertainment or amusement without special
permission from some one of the faculty;
nor shall he, on any occasion, keep
company with a person whose character is
notoriously bad under penalty of
admonition, and if the practice be
continued of expulsion.
It is required of the students to treat
all persons whatsoever with
modesty, civility and due respect; but
more especially, to exhibit at all times
the most respectful deportment to the
officers of the University, and if any
student shall wistfully [sic] disobey
any officer of the University, or shall
either in speech or action manifest
disrespect towards the President, he shall
be admonished and make due
acknowledgement to the offended party, or be
suspended, as the Faculty may decide.
If any student shall refuse to appear
personally before the President
or any other officier [sic] of
the University when required to do he shall be
punished for contempt of authority: and
the most prompt and implicit
obedience shall be yielded by each
student to the lawful commands of the
President of the Institution.
Any student remaining in University or
in town, in time of vacation
shall be subject to all the laws
respecting decent and orderly conduct; and
shall be under the control of such officiers
of the University as may reside
there during vacation.
No hallowing, whistling, jumping nor any
other boisterous or tumultu-
ous noise shall be permitted in any of
the apartments of the University,
under such penalty as the nature of the
offense may require.
No student shall disguise himself by
wearing women's apparel, or in
OHIO HISTORY
CONFERENCE, 1941 257
any other way
whatever under such penalty as the President and any two
trustees may see
cause to inflict.
If any meeting or
combination of students shall at any time take place,
either for resisting
the authority of the University, interfering in its govern-
ment or for
concealing or executing any evil or disorderly design, every stu-
dent herein
concerned, or in any manner engage, shall be considered guilty
of the offense
thereby intended; and the faculty are empowered and directed
to destroy all such
combinations and associations as soon as discovered and
to inflict a suitable
punishment therefore.
No servant shall be
employed in the University unless by the President
at a stipulated
salary and with the concurrence of the faculty, by whom the
duties of such
servants shall be pointed out. Should any such servant be
found to violate any
of the laws of the Institution, be negligent in duty, or
otherwise misbehaved,
he shall be immediately dismissed.
Should any student or
students destroy, trespass or in any manner
wantingly [sic] injure
the property of any person in the town or elsewhere
or in any manner by
improper conduct, disturb the quiet of any private fam-
ily, or should fail
to deport himself or themselves decently and orderly in
any private family
where he or they may be permitted to board; the parties
so offending, shall
be dealt with according to the nature, quality and degree
of the offense; and
any unlawful combination, to prevent the execution of
the civil law, shall
meet a severe and exemplary punishment.
In every dismission
from the University the person shall receive a
certificate, signed
by the President, specifying the cause and reasons thereof,
and the student's
standing as a scholar.
Whenever and so
often, as it may be necessary or expedient for any
or the whole of the
students to board in private families, care should be
had, that none be
permitted to board at improper or disorderly houses; and
in no case, shall a
student be allowed to board in a tavern without special
leave of the
President.33
In March, 1812, Rufus
Putnam was called upon to
draft a
plan for a college
edifice. Putnam prepared a plan for a group
of three buildings.
The first to be constructed was called the col-
lege edifice, erected
near the center of the campus. Putnam found
the need of help from
an architect. He secured the services of
Benjamin Corp of
Marietta, whose fee for his services was $6.00.
Corp was also
employed to oversee the construction of the build-
ing. The final plans
provided for a building 82 feet long and
55 feet wide. It was
begun in 1816 and completed in 1818 at a
total cost of
$17,806. This seemed to the trustees far more than
sixty-five billions
seem to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
33 Ibid., II,
29-32.
258
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
In 1814, a committee headed by Putnam
petitioned the State
legislature for a lottery for raising
funds to meet the cost of the
college edifice. In 1817 Jacob Lindly went to Columbus, the
new capital of the State, and lobbied
through the lottery bill and
collected his expense account of
$60. The trustees, however,
did not resort to the lottery, but
instead solicited subscriptions
and thus raised the funds for paying off
the indebtedness. Rufus
Putman was first on the list with a
contribution of $200. A Mr.
Patterson, of Pittsburgh, gave $20 because the
university had
not resorted to gambling in the form of
a lottery for raising the
funds.
Manasseh Cutler, very much disgruntled because the
building had not been named Cutler Hall,
grudgingly gave $20.
Undoubtedly there was some great
rejoicing in heaven in August,
1914,
when the trustees gave the name, Manasseh
Cutler Hall, to
the first building for higher education
in the Northwest Territory.
A course of study leading to a
bachelor's degree was pre-
scribed in 1812. The first
students to complete the course were
John Hunter, of Zanesville, and Thomas
Ewing, of Athens
County. They were the members of the
graduating class of
1815.34
In 1817, the university expanded. In
addition to the presi-
dent there was now a faculty member,
Joseph Dana, professor
of languages -- salary, $250 a year.
Dana continued in the service
of the university till his retirement in
1835.
In 1819 the course of study was revised
as follows:
The Freshman Class--Lucians Dialogues,
the Georgics and Eclogues
of Virgil, Sallust, the Odes and Epodes
of Horace, Writing Latin exercises,
Latin and Greek Prosody, English
Grammar, English Composition, Declama-
tion, Geography, Arithmetic.
Sophomore--Horace, Cicero, Xenophon,
Homer's Iliad, Composition
in Latin exercises, Rhetoric, English
Composition, Declamation, Geometry.
Junior--Tacitus, Terence, Collectanea
Gracca Majora, Latin and Greek
Antiquities, Latin and Greek
Composition, English Composition Rhetoric,
Criticism, History and Chronology, Moral
Philosophy, Algebra, Law of
Nature and Nations--Grotius, de Veritate
Religionis Christianae.
Senior Class--Classical department
discretionary with the faculty--
Natural Philosophy, Moral Philosophy,
Metaphysics, Logic, Astronomy,
34 Ibid., II, 60.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 259
English Composition, Criticism of the
best Writers, Declamation, Law of
Nations and Nature.
Each student was required to submit
English compositions
every two weeks to the faculty and two
long themes each year
to the trustees. Some additional rules and regulations were
adopted for the moral welfare of the
young men attending the
university. Students guilty of profane
cursing or swearing, riot-
ing, keeping company with lewd or
infamous persons or gam-
bling or any other known immorality
should be punished.
Students were examined orally twice each
year by the mem-
bers of the Board of Trustees. Seniors
were examined by the
trustees on all the work of their
four-year course. Commence-
ments were held about the middle of
September each year.
After Lindly had collected $500 for his
services on the build-
ing committee in connection with the
construction of the college
edifice, he was retired from the
presidency in 1822 and was de-
moted to a professorship. In 1826 it was
found necessary to
elect one of the three faculty members
to be dropped because of
lack of cash. When the votes were
counted, it was found that
Rev. Jacob Lindly was the one elected to
be dropped. He con-
tinued a member of the Board of
Trustees, and attended a meeting
of the board in 1837, from Waterford. He
moved to Mississippi
from this board meeting and charged the
mileage, $57, to the
university. Next year he was expelled
from the Board. But
in 1853 he was given the D.D. degree.
The last chapter on
Lindly was the naming of a fine
dormitory for him, but misspell-
ing his name.
Rufus Putnam at last was unable to make
the trip from
Marietta to Athens to attend the
meetings of the Board. In the
trustee's Records of September 11, 1822, is the following:
The Board will doubtless hear with much
pleasure that a valuable
donation of books consisting of one
entire set of Dobson's Encyclopedia35 has
been made to this institution by the
honorable Rufus Putnam of Marietta,
such munificence in this aged benefactor
of the human race cannot but in-
spire our gratitude and prompt us to its
natural and obvious expressions--
35 Encyclopaedia; or a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences
and Miscellaneous Literature,
published in Philadelphia by Thomas Dobson, 1798, in 18
large volumes, with three
supplementary volumes published in 1803.
260
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
your committee therefore recommended the
adoption of the following reso-
lutions:
1st, That the thanks of this board be
tendered to the Hon. Rufus
Putnam for his highly esteemed donation
to the University of Ohio.
2nd, that the secretary of the Board be
directed to transmit to him a
copy of this Resolution.36
Ripe in years and rich in
accomplishments, Rufus Putnam,
at the age of 86, passed to his reward.
James Irvine, professor of mathematics,
was made president.
Because of ill health he was absent most
of the two years of
his term. He resigned in 1824 and was
followed by a real uni-
versity president, Robert G. Wilson, who
served from 1824
to 1839, when he in turn was succeeded
by William Holmes
McGuffey.
Just before Wilson came, the trustees in
resolutions drawn
up at their annual meeting, with almost
prophetic vision saw the
Ohio University of future years.
Our finances are in a deranged state--ur
treasury is exhausted--we
are in debt. But although these objects
cannot be realized at once we should
never lose sight of them. We should
approach them as speedily as possible
and we should even now commence a system
of measures bearing upon them.
We have gone too far to draw back. The
work is too important to pause.
We are debtors to public confidence. We
are debtors to the rising genera-
tion. We are debtors to posterity. Under
these claims we should move
forward with inflexible firmness, resolved
that nothing shall be wanting on
our part to secure to the Present and
perpetuate to future generations the
blessings of Education.37
36 Trustees, Records, II, 122.
37 Ibid., II, 131-2.
THE KIRTLAND PHASE OF MORMONISM
By W. J. MCNIFF
Kirtland, Ohio, was but a stepping stone
for the Mormons
as they restlessly pushed on towards the
setting sun. Somewhere
in the West they planned a city of Zion.
Their leader prophesied
a land of milk and honey, gleaming with
alabaster towers, where
righteousness would reign in the hearts
of man. The Kirtland
phase came as an interlude between the
future Zion of Missouri
and the scornful attitude of the New
Yorker. In 1827 Joseph
Smith, an untutored, young Vermonter,
told the gaping country-
men of western New York that he had
found some "gold plates"
on Cumorah Hill, near Rochester, New
York. These plates, ac-
cording to Joseph, told the story of
Christ's coming to the New
World after His, resurrection as well as
the arrival of the lost
ten tribes of Israel in the western
hemisphere. A new religion
and a new church, based on these
recently discovered "truths,"
were established in 1830. Joseph Smith is
but one more illustra-
tion of a prophet without honor in his
own country. By the end
of 1830, unpleasant episodes in western
New York forced Joseph
Smith to move westward to Kirtland. When
the Mormon prophet
arrived there the Mormon Church's
organization, doctrines, beliefs,
and practices were in an uncertain and
nebulous condition. By a
process of trial and error, by
absorption and by rejection of
practices and ideas that were current in
the Zeitgeist of this
particular part of the frontier in the
eighteen thirties, the Mormon
leaders showed during their stay at
Kirtland that worldly forces
as well as direct divine revelation were
at work in their midst.
Joseph Smith, himself, burst into
Kirtland like a meteor
dropping from the skies. One cold,
clear, crisp February day
in 1831 a group of philosphers
were gathered about the cracker
barrel in Gilbert and Whitney's general
merchandise store at
Kirtland. A sleigh drove up to the
store-front, out bounced a
lively young man, who approached one of
the men in the store
and accosted him with, "Newell K.
Whitney, thou art the man!"
(261)
262
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The dumb-founded store-keeper managed to
mutter, "I'm
sorry, sir, but I don't seem able to
place you, although you appear
to know me."
"I'm Joseph the Prophet. You've
prayed me here. Now,
what do you want of me?"1
In a short time, Newell K. Whitney and a
few hundred Kirt-
land residents accepted Joseph Smith's
new dispensation. A hun-
dred or so of Joseph's followers from
western New York soon
arrived and Kirtland became a Mormon
gathering-place for the
new converts, for already the active
Mormon missionaries were
treading the highways and by-ways of the
older states and the
new territories to the west telling of
their prophet and of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints.
The time was propitious for these
missionaries. This bright
young New World presented unlimited
vistas for those who had
panaceas to offer mankind; western
democracy was in its ado-
lescence. This era, from the eighteen
twenties to the eighteen
forties, had its share of schemes for
the amelioration of social
wrongs. In France, Fourier thought
communism was the cure-
all. In England, Robert Owen was
advocating philanthropic
idealism and in 1825 had established his
colony at New Harmony,
Indiana. Even the United States had some
ideas of its own. At
Low Hampton, New York, William Miller
had but recently been
preaching the coming of the Millennium.
Sylvester Graham was
advancing his theories of a saner diet
than most Americans
practised. In New England, Brook Farm
was still in the ex-
perimental stage. Emerson portrays this
period well in an article
describing a "Bible
Convention" in July, 1842.
A great variety of dialect and of
costume was noticed; a great deal
of confusion, eccentricity and freak
appeared, as well as of zeal and en-
thusiasm. If the assembly was
disorderly, it was picturesque. Madmen,
madwomen, men with beards, Dunkers,
Muggletonians, Come-outers, Groan-
ers, Agrarians, Seventh-day Baptists,
Quakers, Abolitionists, Calvinists,
Unitarians, and Philosophers,--all came
successively to the top, and seized
their moment, if not their hour, wherein
to chide, or pray, or preach, or
protest.2
1 J. H. Evans, Joseph Smith (New
York, 1933), 66.
2 Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Works. New Centenary Edition (Boston, 1911), X, 374.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 263
Mormonism, itself, was a product of
these dreams and aspira-
tions. Joseph Smith came to Kirtland
from a region of particularly
high mental voltage. For of all regions
open to the reforming
excitement of this period, that about
Rochester, New York, seems
to have been most susceptible. Within a
radius of fifty miles lies
Batavia, the scene of the Morgan
abduction in 1826, an episode
which gave rise to the antimasonic
outburst of the 'thirties. It
was also within this region that the Fox
sisters first heard the
mysterious rappings and discovered the
modern possibilities of
spiritualism. This area is on the edge
of the "burnt-district"--
in northwestern Pennsylvania--a region
dear to the heart of
evangelists seeking crowded revival
meetings and eager, amenable
converts.
Kirtland and the Western Reserve area
was not entirely
insulated from the electric tensions
passing through these neigh-
boring regions. One, Sidney Rigdon, a
frontier orator of the
first rank was thundering Campbellite
doctrines up and down
the Mahoning Valley. In addition to the
ideas of salvation in
the next world which Rigdon was
preaching, he had convinced
his followers of the desirability of
holding property in common
in this world. At the time Joseph Smith
had grandiloquently an-
nounced his arrival to the denizens of
Gilbert and Whitney's store,
Sidney Rigdon had already become the
religious overlord of
Kirtland.
With the coming together of these two
individuals--Sidney
Rigdon and Joseph Smith--there opens one
of the major problems
of Mormon historiography. All stories of
Mormonism are affected
by the relationships of these men to
each other. The problem
is--who was the founder of
Mormonism? The followers of
Joseph Smith accept the story of Joseph
Smith--that he was
divinely inspired. Another theory is
advanced by I. Woodbridge
Riley3 and W. F. Prince.4 These
men apply so-called "rigorous"
psychological tests to Joseph Smith's
works and arrive at the
conclusion that Joseph Smith did write
the Book of Mormon--
3 I. W. Riley, The Founder of
Mormonism, a Psychological Study of Joseph
Smith (London, 1903).
4 W. F. Prince, "Psychological
Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon,"
American Journal of Psychology (Ithaca, N. Y.), XXVIII (1917), 373-89.
264
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
but it was produced by his own
psychological processes. He may
even have fooled himself.
A third hypothesis brings us back to the
Western Reserve
region of Ohio. This version is accepted
by A. W. Linn in The
Story of Mormonism and by G. B. Arbaugh in his careful and
scholarly Revelation in Mormonism. Much
of the spade work
for this hypothesis was done by E. D.
Howe in his Mormonism
Unveiled, which was published in Painesville, Ohio, in 1834.
These
men believe that the weight of evidence
supports Solomon Spauld-
ing as the author of a story which
Joseph Smith in turn con-
sciously plagiarized as the basis for
the Book of Mormon. The
proof follows a long and complicated
chain of reasoning, a chain
containing many weak links, yet as
plausible as the other theories
concerning the authorship of the Book of
Mormon. In short, this
thesis asserts that Sidney Rigdon
obtained a copy of Spaulding's
manuscript, then by devious routes it
reached Joseph Smith, and
eventually the two men concocted a new
religion. If this ver-
sion is accepted, then Joseph Smith's
blitzkrieg on Gilbert and
Whitney's store was being eagerly
awaited by "Quisling" Sidney
Rigdon, and, unconscious of their role,
Rigdon's Campbellite
followers were destined to perform the
functions of a "fifth
column."
But the creed of Mormonism, in spite of
all the controversy
over the authenticity of the Book of
Mormon, does not rely to a
great extent upon that book. Between
1827 and the convergence
of Mormon columns upon Kirtland, Joseph
Smith had had many
revelations. Therefore, after several
ecclesiastical conferences,
a series of Joseph Smith's
pronouncements were approved by
his followers and published at Kirtland
in 1835 as the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants. This procedure indicates an advantage
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints had over its
competitors for converts--the followers
of Joseph Smith had a
living prophet. The inhabitants of
Kirtland could boast of a
creed which was up-to-the-minute in its
adoption of divinely-
inspired revelations. Here becomes
evident that Mormon attitude
of flexibility to changing conditions in
temporal affairs. For as
new conditions arise, Mormon leaders, as
inheritors of Joseph's
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 265
powers, can announce new doctrines. It
had already become evi-
dent with the superseding of the Book of
Mormon by the Book
of Doctrine and Covenants that Mormonism was not destined to
become a static institution.
Here also at Kirtland, as evidence in The
Word of Wisdom,
the Mormon leaders began their sumptuary
regulations over the
worldly affairs of their adherents. The
Mormon leaders were not
oblivious to the reforms in regard to
health that were being urged
at the time. In February, 1833,
"wine and strong drink" were
considered as unhealthy for the Latter
Day Saints.5 Tobacco
and such drinks as tea and coffee were
put on the forbidden list
where they remain to the present day.
Later, in Utah, clothing,
dancing, the care of cattle and of
children--all these topics had
become matters of interest to the church
leaders.
Sidney Rigdon's efforts to solve the
problems of the "haves"
versus the "have-nots" at
Kirtland by holding property in com-
mon was not tossed into the limbo of
forgotten things by Joseph
Smith. In fact, groups of newly
converted "Saints," poor in
the goods of this world but rich in the
hopes of the Mormon
future, kept arriving in Kirtland. Many
of these people were
in dire need. In order to supply their
wants Smith issued a
series of revelations. As a result of
these pronouncements the
Mormon leader advocated a new economic
order among mankind,
the United Order of Enoch, better known
among the Mormons
as the United Order.
According to Smith the individual Mormon
was to surrender
his property to the church. This
property was then divided by
the church authorities into two parts.
The first of these was
the inheritance or stewardship. This was
the amount considered
necessary for the individual to live
upon and was returned to
the individual who had given it. After
its return this amount be-
came a personal possession by clear
title, so far as the church was
concerned. A second part, known as the
surplus, was "consecrated"
to the church and title passed. If
possible, this surplus was
placed in the bishop's storehouse, and
used by that official for
5 Book of Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, O., 1835), Section 89.
266
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the poor and needy among the faithful.6
The church had a clear
title to this as far as the individuals
who had given it were con-
cerned. Thus the United Order was an
attempt to retain in-
dividualistic enterprise as the
foundation of the economic order,
and to build upon the surplus
accumulated by individuals a store
of goods held for the common benefit.
The economic theory of
Joseph Smith may be likened to a pyramid
with individualism at
the base supporting an apex of
communism.
This revelation of Joseph Smith
pertaining to the all-important
question of earthly allotments was not
very specific. Lesser in-
dividuals had the difficult task of
dividing the "inheritance" among
the people on the basis of equality
according to families, according
to wants and needs, and finally
according to circumstances.7 Here
was a task worthy of a Solomon. With a
reassuring sense of
calmness, the revelation in which the
ideal of the United Order
is set forth adds that in other respects
Mormon economic relation-
ships were to be carried on as usual.
By 1836, according to the Mormon
leaders, it became evident
that mankind, at least that portion of
it in Kirtland, was not suf-
ficiently prepared in spirit to accept
the United Order. Therefore,
on July 8 of that year, a new and lesser
revelation, that of tithing,
was announced. This decreed that
thereafter the Mormons "shall
pay one-tenth of all their income
annually to the Church."8 Since
1838 tithing has proved one of the main
sources of church revenue,
but several unsuccessful attempts have
been made in Utah to
revive the United Order. Although the
plan of a better economic
order has been relegated to the Book
of Doctrine and Covenants,
the faithful Mormon believes that it
will again emerge and ulti-
mately regenerate the world.
The failure of the United Order
illustrates that difficulty with
which many other sects besides Mormonism
are confronted. Each
religion has to bridge in some fashion
the chasm which separates
ideals and practices; it is forced to
find some manner of evading
the pious platitude which so frequently
torments mankind, that
"the spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak." The spirit of Mor-
6 Ibid., Sections 42, 32-4, 65, 61, 4-5.
7 Ibid., Sections
51, 1-3.
8 Ibid., Section 119.
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 267
monism was high at Kirtland, and Joseph
Smith exuberantly
voiced Mormon aspirations. And then one
day in 1832 there
came to Kirtland a young man who
expressed another side of
Mormonism--the practical side. This
young convert was Brigham
Young and there was little that was weak
about him. Here was
the individual who had the ability to
hold the Mormon Church
together throughout its later trials and
tribulations. If Kirtland
had no other reason to be remembered in
Mormon circles than
the fact that this small Ohio hamlet was
the meeting place of
Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, to the
Mormons, this fact
alone would entitle Kirtland to become a
Mormon shrine.
These two men illustrate two phases of
Mormonism. Joseph
Smith was the dreamer of dreams, the
seer of visions, and the
spinner of theories. Ideas, plans, and
Utopias caused him little
effort. No sooner were the
"Saints" settled in Ohio, than Joseph
Smith envisioned a Mormon Zion in
Missouri. He moved rest-
lessly from one plan to another, from
one task to another. By
the time the Mormons had reached Nauvoo,
Illinois, Smith had
become grand chaplain of the Masonic
lodge, mayor of Nauvoo,
registrar of municipal deeds,
lieutenant-general of the Nauvoo
legion, editor of the Mormon
publication, Times and Seasons,
president, seer, revelator, and prophet
of the Mormon Church,
and, finally, a candidate for the
presidency of the United States.
To Joseph, it seemed that nothing
succeeds like excess.
Brigham Young, on the other hand, moved
quietly, ruthlessly,
and efficiently. He filled in Mormon
practice with the flesh and
blood of practicality where Joseph Smith
had builded a framework
of ideas. Where Joseph was abstract,
Brigham was concrete.
Brigham Young did not create any new
points of Mormon doctrine
or of Mormon idealism. He contented
himself with making Mor-
monism work. In Kirtland, Smith had
gathered the Mormon
elders in classes to study Greek and
Hebrew. In Utah, Brigham
Young similarly gathered the Mormon
elders in small groups, but
now methods were discussed by which the
Mormons could avoid
coming under economic control of
non-Mormon merchants. In
Kirtland Smith had conceived the plan of
sending missionaries
to convert the poor of England. Young
made the English mission
268
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a success and changed Mormonism from
having almost entirely
a New England constituency to being a
fair picture of the com-
posite American melting pot. Again, in
Kirtland, Joseph had
planned the organization of the Mormon
ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Under Brigham the Mormon organization
performed almost flaw-
lessly. Kirtland was a stepping stone in
the development of the
two greatest of leaders as well as a way
station for Mormon insti-
tutions.
Polygamy, to many good Christians the
bugbear of Mormon-
ism, was not in evidence at Kirtland.
But persecution was. As
Joseph Smith's claims grew, opposition
became violent. The Mor-
mon interest in wordly matters, involved
Joseph Smith in a bank-
ing crash during the lean year of 1837.
Joseph's speed in quitting
Kirtland saved him for a later martyrdom
at Carthage, Illinois.
The Ohio anti-Mormon mobs were as
willing to wreak bloodshed
as were their colleagues in Missouri and
Illinois. The difference
lies in the comparative smallness and
weakness of the Mormon
community at Kirtland. The Mormons
departed as a group in
1838 for Missouri. All that remains is
their temple. The Kirt-
land phase of Mormonism illustrates the
fact that with a vital
organism, as the Mormon Church was from
1831 to 1838,
"Each Age is an age that is dying
Or one that is coming to birth."
THE STUDY OF HISTORY--A HINDRANCE OR A
HELP
IN THE PERFECTING OF INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION
By K. C. LEEBRICK
This statement was made by Nicholas
Murray Butler at the
184th Commencement of Columbia
University, June 1, 1938:
Ideas and principles, as well as kings,
can abdicate. There are many
disturbing signs--and not in Europe or
in Asia alone--that Democracy is
moving, in no small measure
unconsciously, toward abdication. The long
and steady progress of democratic
principles and ideals which had continued
for some three hundred years and which
the Great World War was to de-
fend and to establish firmly forever,
has all too plainly been brought to a
halt.
This serves as well as any statement I
know to call our atten-
tion to the serious situation as it
exists at the present time and
has existed for the past few years.
Lola Best Covey in discussing the
teaching of international
relations and international cooperation
stated that:
The schools have no more gigantic task than
the teaching of inter-
national relations and international
cooperation. But what, now, will teachers
teach? Will they turn their backs on the
need for a concerted program
among nations? Will they fear to teach
international cooperation, lest their
teaching be interpreted as sympathy with
causes other than American
causes? Or will teachers still feel that
they have a contribution to make to
the world community that must express
itself in terms other than of hate?
I am aware that the teacher's role is a
negligible one in changing the
course of international relations. That
is the work of warriors, statesmen
and philosophers. But that much remains
to be done in teaching America's
youth to accept changes in the course of
international relations without
losing their faith in democracy and
world cooperation, I am also aware.
And that is the task of the
teacher.
Just this week I received a letter from
Mrs. K. Capper-
Johnson, wife of a former colleague of
mine in international rela-
tions at Syracuse. They are members of
the Friends Church and
had returned to England a number of
years ago. We wrote offer-
ing to take care of their son for the
duration of the war if they
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270 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
felt that that was the proper thing to
do. She wrote declining.
In her letter she summed up the
situation as she saw it from her
position in England:
What vast changes will have come about
in our own lives and in
National and International life before
we rid ourselves of violence and
society then foster the endless and
incomparable beauty of the Heavens and
the earth, but that, as I see it, can
only be done through not "going back"
but going forward to a far simpler way
of life enriched by experience and
knowledge--not the old enforced
simplicity of poverty but that based on the
convictions which Jesus so ably set
forth in his lifetime.
The work to be done after the war will
be of far greater magnitude
than now, in war time. That is why one
goes on hoping that the war will
not go on until our energies and
initiative are sapped.
These quotations have been used to call
our attention to the
fact that there is a crisis which needs
to be considered by all
teachers of social science and, of
course, especially by those of
us who have in some way been responsible
for the teaching of
history and for the preservation of
records.
The study of history has been under
attack in many sources.
I need not recall to you the classical
remark of a great automobile
manufacturer to the effect that the
study of history was a waste
of time. Those of us who have been
trained in history have a
feeling that a careful study of the
past, and an analysis of the
way people have lived, and the rise and
fall of civilizations, and
the success and failure of various
social experiments is an ex-
cellent preparation for public life.
Among us there are those who
feel that a study of history is one of
the soundest methods of
education and that it helps us to avoid
mistakes of the past and
helps us to try not to repeat things
that have already been tried
and found to be unsatisfactory. Those of
us who feel this way
do not, therefore, apologize for being
historians, whether we are
professional or amateur, teachers, or
just interested readers of
history in various forms.
Recent events in Europe, and even in
this country, have
again challenged the field of history as
a study. In general, I do
not feel that these criticisms or
challenges are merited. Those who
really know European history and have a
general acquaintance
with ancient and medieval history that
precedes the modern period
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 271
certainly have a better understanding of
what is going on in
Europe today than those who know only
contemporary American
events, or, in a more general way, the
events taking place in the
present international arena.
It is my considered judgment that a
person who carefully
reads history and who has sufficient
training so that he can read
understandingly and also exercise
reasonable criticism has a much
better guide to the future than the individual
who only reads
about contemporary situations.
For instance, the publication in the
recent White Book of
the documents reputed to be found in
Poland, by the Germans,
is nothing new to the person who has a
sound foundation in
history. With the arrival of the White
Book in this country
textual and other criticisms will help
us to determine whether
this is manufactured propaganda or
whether it has a real basis
in actual valid documents. As an aside,
I may say that the manu-
facture of documents that would fool
even the experts is not
confined to this period. There are many
instances in history of
successful counterfeiting.
From these remarks it would appear this
is to be a "love
feast" and that I am gently
stroking the backs of those of you
who are historians and trying to justify
myself for once having
been a professor of modern European
history.
Without invalidating what I have just
said, I do want to
challenge a number of things that have
been done in the name
of history and perhaps criticize
teaching methods or subject matter.
History is one of the easiest tools to
be used by a totalitarian
government to justify its ends.
Frederick the Great, when told
that clear historical title to Silesia
had not been found, remarked
to the effect that "I will first
conquer and you will thereafter
justify the acquisition." We have
seen an example of this re-
cently in some of Hitler's statements
regarding Czechoslovakia,
Danzig and, most recently, Poland. Even
Russia's recent creation
of the Karelian-Finnish Soviet is an
attempt to justify by history
what might equally well be called
imperialistic expansion, with or
without justification.
Since we have mentioned Hitler and
Stalin, we should state