Ohio History Journal

HISTORICAL NEWS

Historical Societies

 

BRECKSVILLE EARLY SETTLERS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Brecksville

Ernest Green, President

Harold E. Wallin of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has

been appointed curator of the museum maintained by the association in

the Squire Rich house.

The secretary, Mrs. Walter S. Lister, reports that the society spon-

sored this year a contest for the junior class of the local high school for

one-act plays on early Brecksville.

 

CLARK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Springfield.

Orton G. Rust, President

New trustees of the society are Edwin B. Lohnes, Eliza H. MacBeth,

and George Rinkliff.

Volume 4 of Yesteryear in Clark County, a series of historical

sketches published by the society, is now available.

 

CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Cleveland

William E. Scheele, Director

There have been a number of changes recently in the museum staff.

Dr. Arthur B. Williams retired on June 30 after twenty years of service.

Harold E. Wallin was named curator of outdoor education, Mary E.

Flaline took over the club and adult activities program, and Lida H.

Whittier became educational department secretary.

The preparation department opened two new rooms on July 1, the

"Ecology Room" and the "Prehistory of Man Room."

The Birds of Cleveland by Arthur B. Williams was issued in June

and the ecology issue of the Explorer in July.

 

CLINTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Wilmington

Howard H. Thorne, President

The society has attained a membership of 112 persons since its or-

ganization in March of this year.

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Historical News                     445

 

CRESTLINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Crestline

Ernest G. Hesser, President

The society sponsored the visit to Crestline of the Ohio Liberty Bell

on June 28 and arranged the program given in the high school park

on that occasion. It sponsored also the visit on August 19 of the Ohio

Car of the French Gratitude Train.

 

FAIRFIELD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Lancaster

Harry Kilburger, President

New officers of the society are Harry Kilburger, president; Herbert

M. Turner, vice president in charge of program; Raymond Spitler and

George H. Lamb, directors.

In promoting the Lancaster and Fairfield County Centennial, Judge

Kilburger, Mr. Turner, and Paul R. Cummins presented a series of

historical speeches and radio addresses.

The society participated in the preparation and production, under

the chairmanship of Mr. Turner, of the sesquicentennial pageant "The

Epic of Standing Stone," which had a cast of 500 persons.

A number of members of the society contributed historical articles

to the sesquicentennial edition of the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, June 3,

1950.

 

FORT RECOVERY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Fort Recovery

Iris H. Longley, President

Officers for the present year are Mrs. Iris H. Longley, president;

Floyd A. Freemyer, first vice president; Ruth Beach, second vice presi-

dent; Elizabeth Hedrick, secretary; and Leo E. Hildbold, treasurer.

In May 1949 the society opened a museum in the library-museum

building at the Fort Recovery State Memorial. The museum will be

open on Sundays and holidays, with various members of the society

in charge. A beautiful park, a lot on which stood the pioneer home

of the Campbell and Krenning families, was donated to the society by

Mary S. Krenning. This forms an approach to the library-museum

building. Lights have recently been placed along the walk.

Another project of the society is the restoration of Pioneer Ceme-

tery, in which lie the remains of Samuel McDowell and the bones of the

victims of St. Clair's defeat. Property rights have been traced, markers

reset, and the fence replaced.

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446   Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

The society sponsored a sundown ceremony at Monument Park on

August 3, the 155th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Greene

Ville. Carlton E. Reiser made the address of the occasion.

 

FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Columbus

Charles A. Jones, President

The society formally dedicated the new National Road milestone at

Whitehall on June 1. Dr. Jonathan Forman, chairman of the society's

board of trustees, unveiled the marker and spoke on the objectives of the

society.

Gilbert F. Dodds, research associate, spent three weeks this summer

in Washington, D. C., where he attended a course on the preservation

and restoration of historic sites and performed research in the Library

of Congress and the National Archives.

The program committee for the 1950-51 season is composed of

Jonathan Forman, Charles A. Jones, and Daniel F. Pugh, secretary-

curator.

Feature articles in the June and July issues of the Bulletin included

one on the William Sharp Homestead, Westerville, and one on St. Francis

Hospital, which celebrated its centennial this year.

 

HAYES MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, Fremont

Watt P. Marchman, Director of Research

Special exhibits at the Hayes Memorial during the spring and sum-

mer were as follows: Origin of Memorial Day (May 30); Day of Inde-

pendence (July 4); Rodger Young (July 31); and George Croghan and

the History of Fremont (August 2). Each exhibit remained on display

a month or more.

A forty-page illustrated booklet on the Hayes Memorial by the

director of research was recently published by the Ohio State Archaeo-

logical and Historical Society. The booklet contains a biography of

President Hayes and his wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, a history of Spiegel

Grove, the Hayes estate, and the Hayes homestead, a history and descrip-

tion of the library and museum, and a brief biography of Webb Cook

Hayes I and his wife, Mary Miller Hayes.

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Historical News                     447

 

LAWRENCE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Ironton

G. W. Handley, Secretary-Treasurer

Arthur C. Dickens, who has been acting president of the society

for the past several months, is devoting much of his spare time to

promoting its activities.

A museum is being opened in the administration building of the

forestry service at Lake Vesuvius, located about five miles north of

Ironton, for which display materials are being gathered. Some 5,000

people visited Lake Vesuvius on one Sunday during the past summer.

 

 

LORAIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Elyria

Mrs. James B. Thomas, President

Mrs. Frank Ayres was recently appointed membership chairman to

direct an extensive membership campaign. Julian S. Fowler, librarian

of Oberlin College, has been appointed chairman of the program com-

mittee.

During the summer the members of the society were guests of the

Wellington members at a meeting in Wellington and of the Huntington

members at a meeting in Huntington.

 

 

MEDINA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Medina

Florence J. Phillips, President

At a meeting of the society on May 19 the following officers were

elected: Florence J. Phillips, president; Mrs. Mary Griesinger, vice

president, Florence Davenport, secretary; and Maynard Schafer, treas-

urer.

 

 

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF PIONEER RIVERMEN, Marietta

Frederick Way, Jr., President

Through the courtesy of Henry Oliver Evans, president emeritus,

and Franklin F. Holbrook, director, of the Historical Society of Western

Pennsylvania, the River Museum has recently acquired the papers of the

James Rees and Sons Company, builders of river steamboats. There

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448 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

are more than 30,000 items in the collection. They include, in addition

to the records of the firm from 1856 to 1931, much other material on

the Rees boats.

 

 

STARK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Canton

E. T. Heald, Secretary-Treasurer

The second volume of The Stark County Story, which will be entitled

The McKinley Era of Stark County, Ohio, 1875-1901, is scheduled for

publication on or about October 15. Like the first volume of the series,

it is a compilation of historical scripts broadcast over station WHBC,

Canton, with numerous illustrations, maps, bibliographies, and an index

added. The author is E. T. Heald, secretary-treasurer of the society.

 

 

SUMMIT COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Akron

Carl H. Pockrandt, President

The society is now sponsoring a fund-raising campaign for the pub-

lication of a new history of Akron and Summit County. The book will

be in two volumes and will concentrate on the history of the county

since 1891, the date of the last comprehensive history of the community.

The history will be written by Karl Grismer, a former Akron newspaper-

man and the author of histories of Tampa, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg,

Florida. Mr. Grismer is a native of Akron.

 

 

About Historians

 

Louis Filler of Antioch College has received a Fulbright award for

the academic year 1950-51. He will teach American history at the Uni-

versity of Bristol.

 

 

David Lindsey of the department of history and political science

at Baldwin-Wallace College has recently received a Ph.D. degree from

the University of Chicago. His thesis topic was Samuel Sullivan Cox,

1824-1899.

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Historical News                      449

 

An article by Fred A. Norwood on the "Attitude of the Anti-Nicene

Fathers Toward Greek Artistic Development" has been published in the

Journal of the History of Ideas.

 

George H. Fadenrecht has been appointed instructor in history at

Bluffton College to replace George Thielman, who is doing graduate

work at Western Reserve University.

A history of Bluffton College written by the faculty has recently

been published under the title Bluffton College, 1900-1950.

 

At Case Institute of Technology, Professor Stanton Davis and Ken-

yon Cramer have been working with members of the literature depart-

ment to organize a new four-semester course on Western Civilization

which is to begin this fall. The course will be given jointly by the

social studies and literature departments.

Thomas Baker has been promoted to the rank of associate pro-

fessor.

William F. Zornow, who is leaving Case to assume a position at

Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, has had published the following

articles over the past year and a half: "Confederate Raiders on Lake

Erie: Their Propaganda Value in 1864," Inland Seas (Spring and Sum-

mer issues, 1949); "Some New Light on Fremont's Nomination at

Cleveland in 1864," Lincoln Herald (October 1949); and "Lincoln and

Chase: Presidential Rivals," Lincoln Herald (February and June issues,

1950). In September the California Historical Society's Quarterly will

publish an article of his entitled "Jeptha H. Wade in California: Begin-

ning the Transcontinental Telegraph," and the Kansas Historical Quar-

terly another entitled "The Kansas Senators and Lincoln's Re-election."

 

Frederick H. Jackson, assistant professor of history at Marietta

College, has resigned to accept a position at the University of Illinois.

Robert J. Taylor, who is completing his work for the doctorate at Brown

University, has been appointed instructor in history.

 

Ambrose Saricks, instructor in history at Ohio State University, has

been appointed to the history staff at the University of Kansas. Dr.

Saricks received a Ph.D degree from the University of Wisconsin last

spring.

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450 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Recent publications of members of the history department include

two articles by Harold M. Helfman: "Antecedents of Thomas Mott Os-

borne's 'Mutual Welfare League' in Michigan," Journal of Criminal Law

and Criminology (January and February, 1950) and "Twenty-nine Hectic

Days: Public Opinion and the Oil War of 1872," Pennsylvania History

(April 1950); articles by Robert H. Bremner: "The Civic Revival in

Ohio-Municipal Ownership and Economic Privilege," American Journal

of Economics and Sociology (July 1950), and "The United States and

Bremen," American-German Review (August 1950); a booklet by Fran-

cis P. Weisenberger entitled A Brief History of Urbana University

(Urbana Junior College); an article by Dwight L. Smith, "Wayne's

Peace with the Indians of the Old Northwest," Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Quarterly (July 1950); and an article by Eugene H.

Roseboom, "The Mobbing of the Crisis," Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Quarterly (April 1950).

 

 

During the summer Ohio University conducted a two-day Institute

on Far Eastern Affairs. Participants in the discussion were John K.

Fairbank, professor of history at Harvard University, Charleton Ogburn,

Jr., policy information officer of the bureau of Far Eastern affairs of

the department of state; and John F. Cady, associate professor of history

at Ohio University.

 

Lauren T. Johnson of the department of history at the University of

Toledo is on leave of absence doing graduate work at the University of

Southern California.

An article by Willard A. Smith, assistant professor of history,

entitled "The Background of the Spanish Revolution of 1868" was pub-

lished in the July 1950 issue of the American Historical Review.

 

 

At Western College John Long has resigned to take a teaching posi-

tion at Gila Junior College, Thatcher, Arizona, and Martha Wishard has

resigned to do graduate work at the University of Michigan. Appointed

either on a full-time or part-time basis are Eloise Gompf, James Carson,

and Phyllis Hoyt.

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Historical News                      451

 

The judges of the History Book Club have selected as their October

book-of-the-month, Society and Thought in Early America by Harvey

Wish, associate professor of history at Western Reserve University. The

book was published by Longmans, Green on September 10.

A. L. Davis, assistant professor of English at Western Reserve, and

Raven I. McDavid, Jr., of the University of Illinois, who are engaged in

research on a linguistic atlas of the United States and Canada, have

published an article on "Northwestern Ohio: A Transition Area" in the

April-June 1950 issue of Language. Dr. Davis spent the summer in a

linguistic survey of southern and southwestern Ohio.

 

 

Dorsey E. Walker, chairman of the department of history at the

College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce has resigned to

accept a position as director of the division of social science at Bethune-

Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida.

Paul J. McStallworth and Keith Churchman will spend a year's

leave of absence in graduate work at Ohio State University.

 

 

Otto Vik Ronninger has been appointed instructor in the history

department at the College of Wooster.

 

 

Edward J. Goodman has been appointed assistant professor of

history in the department of history and political science at Xavier

University.

 

 

Zenos Hawkinson has been appointed associate professor of history

at Youngstown College. Dr. Hawkinson received the Ph.D. degree from

the University of Chicago the past summer.

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