Ohio History Journal

LAYING CORNER STONE

OF

THE SOCIETY'S BUILDING.

 

On the afternoon of September 12, 1912, the Trustees and

officers of the Society laid the Corner Stone of the building

of the Society, located on the Campus of the Ohio State Uni-

versity.

The ground was first broken for the excavation on June 2₅th.

The weather on the day of the corner stone laying was ideal

and a goodly audience of the friends of the Society, including

many professors of the University, assembled to witness the

ceremonies. There were present, Prof. J. N. Bradford, the archi-

tect, and Messrs. L. V., W. B., and George Dawson of the

Dawson Construction Company, the contractors. The following

Trustees of the Society were in attendance: Prof. G. Frederick

Wright, Hon. D. J. Ryan, Col. John W. Harper, Prof.

B. F. Prince, Dr. H. A. Thompson, Treasurer E. F. Wood,

Curator W. C. Mills and Secretary E. O. Randall. Mr. Randall

acted as chairman of the occasion, the exercises of which were

as follows:

INVOCATION.

BY REV. H. A. THOMPSON.

Oh, King of kings and Lord of lords. we come reverently

into Thy presence this afternoon to implore Thy blessing upon

us and Thy presence with us in the exercise of this hour. We

confess our sins before thee, but at the same time we would re-

member that as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth

those who fear him. We thank thee for thy loving kindness

which has followed each one of us all along the journey of life.

So also we thank thee for the great nation which thou hast

established on this western hemisphere. We rejoice in the dis-

covery of this land and especially in its settlement, many years

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Laying Corner Stone of the Society's Building.  417

 

ago, by God-fearing men and women who left the old world,

to seek a new home where they could have freedom to worship

God. On reaching this continent, before they began to build

homes for themselves, they first of all on bended knees, dedi-

cated this land to God-to civil and religious liberty. Here they

sought to found a nation that should become a home for the op-

pressed of all lands; where men should have opportunity to de-

velop their God given powers under such benign influences as

should make them efficient servants of thine. We believe thou art

the builder and preserver of nations; "The powers that be are

ordained of God." Thou dost build up and preserve as seemeth

good in thy sight; and thou dost pull down and when men per-

sist in going contrary to thy teachings as is shown in the history

of the nations of antiquity which kept not thy Commandments

and so have been destroyed. They learned as all nations sooner

or later will learn that "righteousness exalteth a nation while sin

is a reproach to any people."

We confess with sorrow that we have not always lived up

to this high ideal of our forefathers, nor kept thy teachings as

revealed in thy holy word. At times we have oppressed the

poor; we have not dealt justly with the hireling; we have broken

thy Sabbath; we have given ourselves to the getting of unjust

gains, forgetting for the time that for all these thy God would

bring us unto judgment. Even when thou didn't chastise us,

thou didn't turn away in anger. In the dark hours of Revolu-

tion when at times men's hearts were almost ready to fail them,

thy eye was there upon us in mercy and we were kept from de-

struction. During the late Civil War when our very existence at

times seemed to hang in the balance, thou didn't chastise us in

mercy, and if the life of the Nation was preserved, in order as we

believe, that thy American people might become a beacon light to

the struggling nations of the earth; that here God would save us

a people who would deal justly with their fellow men.

So also we desire to thank thee for this goodly common-

wealth of Ohio under whose auspices and by whose authority we

are assembled here, on the 12th day of September, 1912; we

bless thee for our public schools and colleges and all our higher

Vol. XXI -27.

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418       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

institutions of learning; for the church and its living ministry

helping to point men to the highest spiritual life; for our courts

of justice and all the legal means we have for encouragement of

virtue and the discouragement of vice; for the law-making and

law executing powers of the land insofar as these instruments are

trying to follow the Master's ideals; for the force which leads

us away from the grosser things of life, keeps before us the high-

est ideals of manhood and womanhood and helps us to imitate

them for the great and good men who have been called from our

midst to serve the nation in various fields of usefulness, a ma-

jority of whom we believe have done honor to the Common-

wealth of Ohio.

And now we are about to lay the corner stone of a build-

ing which is to be the home for years to come of the Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Society. We are grateful that

more than a quarter of a century ago thou didst put it into the

heads and hearts of a number of patriotic citizens to organize

this Society, whose main purpose was to promote a better knowl-

edge of the history and resources of the State of Ohio. In faith

and hope they labored and today they are beginning to see the

realization of their hopes; we are grateful for the appropriations

of money on the part of the Governor and the Legislature of the

State, which provides for the construction of this building. When

citizens of the State shall come to know more definitely of the

work they have done, we believe they will all do them honor.

We ask the blessing of God upon the workmen who shall be im-

mediately concerned in the construction of the building, that not

a single life shall be lost in its erection. May these men have

continually in mind the thought that they are not simply earning

wages to supply their daily wants, but are also doing that which

we hope shall honor God and bless the people of this goodly

commonwealth.

And when this building is completed, as we hope it may be,

honestly and faithfully and without the loss of a single life, in

the not distant future, then into its spacious quarters shall be

gathered a large number of the archaeological remains of our

own and other states, on which tables of stone, as did Moses of

old, we shall read the record which God has thus made of him-

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Laying Corner Stone of the Society's Building.  419

 

self and ascertain the laws in accordance with which God con-

structed this physical universe. On its library shelves shall be

placed we hope thousands of volumes of books and manuscripts

in which skilled men have written of the people of our own and

other states, indeed of all nations, showing in unmistakable

terms how God has led the nations of the earth, and how men

in the olden times came to Jerusalem to see God's wonderful

work so in the years to come may not scholars and students, not

only from our own and other states, but indeed from the nations

afar off, gather here at this Mecca to read "God almighty's

thoughts after him." Thus life shall be made brighter, men

be made better because of this building and the things it repre-

sents, God be better known and loved by the children of men.

Bless this Society under whose auspices we are met; bless

the great Commonwealth of Ohio, whose people we here repre-

sent today; bless the American Nation which thus far has had

a wonderful history and which we believe God will preserve if

we are deserving for greater good in the world and keep us

ever obedient to thy righteous Law, until time shall be no more.

Amen.

MR RANDALL: We are assembled here to-day to observe

an occasion of supreme satisfaction and great rejoicing to the

members of our Society.

During the year 1875 a State Archaeological Society was

formed at the home of General Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Mansfield,

Ohio. The Society, through the efforts of General Brinker-

hoff, who was made president, received, from the Legislature, an

appropriation of $2,500, to be expended in making an Ohio arch-

aeological exhibit at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia.

Prof. John T. Short of the Ohio State University, was made Sec-

retary of the Society, and it flourished under his secretaryship

until his death, November 11, 1883, when the Society became

practically inoperative.

Governor Hoadly during his administration suggested a

revival of the Society, and a meeting for that purpose was called

to convene at the office of the Secretary of State, on February

12, 1885. On that date a number of prominent gentlemen, in-

cluding scholars and professors from various parts of the State,

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