Ohio History Journal

REPORT OF THE FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL

MEETING OF THE OHIO STATE ARCHAE-

OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

HELD IN THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

BUILDING OF THE SOCIETY, MARCH 29,

1930.

 

 

MORNING SESSION

The Annual Meeting of the Society was called to or-

der by Secretary C. B. Galbreath.

In the absence of the President of the Board of

Trustees, Mr. Philip Hinkle moved that First Vice-

President of the Board of Trustees, Mr. George F.

Bareis, act as chairman of the meeting. The motion was

duly seconded and unanimously agreed to.

Director H. C. Shetrone stated that at nine o'clock

Mr. Johnson called him over the phone and stated that

he regretted that he could not be present at the meeting

as he had suddenly been called to Washington.

Chairman Bareis drew attention to the fact that the

meeting was a little late in assembling and excused him-

self from making an address at this time. He then

called for the Secretary's Report.

Secretary Galbreath read the following report:

 

SECRETARY'S REPORT

A little less than eleven months ago, we were assembled in

annual meeting in this place, but such have been the plans and

activities entered upon since then that it seems a much longer

time must have elapsed since our last conference.

(613)

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We have only to glance through the pages of Museum

Echoes to see how we have wrought and how we have grown.

A little before our last annual meeting there were manifestations

of an awakening. The issue for April 1929 carried the announce-

ment of unusual activity in the last General Assembly in recog-

nition of this Society. Three distinct measures were enacted,

adding that number of properties to the State under the custody

of the Society. Others were started with a promise of fruition

at the coming session. As a member of the House said to me,

the monumental and memorial spirit seemed to pervade the air of

the legislative halls, and whenever a bill of that character was

offered it was certain to have attached to it this phrase: "In the

custody of the Ohio State Archaological and Historical So-

ciety."

The Business Agent for which the Society had been striving

for two years past at last was provided for in the regular ap-

propriation, and the Curator of History which had been a dream

of the Society became a reality. With slightly enlarged appro-

priations and two wings the institution began to soar.

In the meantime, gifts continued to come to the Society--

the two major ones, the James E. Campbell Park, containing a

beautiful prehistoric mound, the gift of Mrs. Jessie Campbell

Coons, the daughter of the late Governor Campbell, for a little

more than six years the president of this Society--and the Wil-

liamson Mound in Greene County, the gift of David S. William-

son.

At the last session of the General Assembly the Revolu-

tionary Memorial Commission of Ohio was created, of which the

Director and Secretary of this Society were made members.

Early last September it made a week's tour across the state from

Cincinnati to Toledo via Hamilton, Lebanon, Xenia, Dayton,

Springfield, Bellefontaine, Upper Sandusky and Fremont, arriv-

ing at its destination on September 14, when it attended the dedi-

cation of the Monument to General Anthony Wayne on the site

of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, an event successfully and im-

pressively celebrated.

The Echoes conveys interesting and detailed accounts of the

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Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting              615

 

activity and growth of the Natural History and Mineral depart-

ments, of which detailed accounts will be found in the report of

the Director of the Museum. A most attractive feature of the

work of the past year has been the exhibits of Weaving, Light-

ing, and Ceramics--the last named of which is now open to the

public.

The Board of Trustees held a meeting on August 15, to con-

sider plans for "increasing the membership and permanent fund

of the Society." This meeting was called to hear plans proposed

by Director Shetrone. These were presented in a formal state,

ment which is recorded in the Minute Book. Briefly, the pro-

posal was to use a portion of the permanent funds of the Society

for this purpose. Attention was called to the fact that this would

require a change in the Constitution, which provided that only

the interest of the permanent fund could be used for such pur-

pose. A meeting of the Society was therefore called for Novem-

ber 16, 1929. This was held in response to the call. Seven thou-

sand dollars of the Society's Permanent Fund was set aside for

"Increasing the Membership and Permanent Fund."         The new

provision for membership reads as follows:

"Section 1. The Membership of this Society shall be designated as

follows: Benefactors, Patrons, Life Members, Sustaining Members, An-

nual Members, Juvenile Members, ex-officio Members and Honorary

Members.

"Section 2. Any person, organization or institution contributing to

the Society in the sum of $1,000 shall be designated a Benefactor. Life

contributors in the sum of $500 shall be designated as Patrons. Fees for

Membership in the several classes shall be as follows: Life Members,

$100; Sustaining Members $10; Annual Members $5; and Juvenile Mem-

bers $1. The fees of the last three classes shall be paid annually. Any

person who shall make a donation to the Society or contribute a service

the value of which shall be determined by the Trustees to be not less

than $100 shall be entitled to life membership."

Mr. Iowa D. Smith has been active as "Supervisor of the

Foundation and Endowment" and has also taken "charge of the

membership campaign." As the Constitution provides that the

Director of the Society shall have charge of "the increasing of

its membership and general fund," the reports of the Superin-

tendent of the Endowment Fund will be made through him. The

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616       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Secretary, however, is charged with "editing all the publications

of the Society" and for this reason he wishes to report that when

the campaign for membership and endowment was inaugurated,

he turned over, in large measure, the editing and publication of

the Echoes to the Foundation Department,, in order that it might

be used more freely by the Superintendent to promote the work

that he has undertaken.

A word perhaps ought to be added here in regard to the

publication of Pictorial Ohio. No funds for this booklet being

available from other sources, a proposition from the Standard

Oil Company has been accepted to publish the work. It will,

therefore, not appear as a publication of the Society and the Sec-

retary's connection with it will be voluntary. This gives the

Superintendent of the Foundation entire freedom to determine

what shall go into the publication--to use it to advance the im-

portant work that he has undertaken. The Secretary will at all

times be ready to the extent of his time and ability to render any

assistance desired in collecting material for Pictorial Ohio, or any

other publication designed to promote the interests of the Society.

The last General Assembly appropriated money for addi-

tional shelving in the new library wing of the Museum and

Library Building of the Society. Bids were received in accord-

ance with legal requirements and contracts for the installation

of shelving have been awarded. When this work is completed

it will barely accommodate the newspapers now waiting transfer

to the new shelving.

The work of the Library goes on steadily along the lines

described in previous reports. Books and bound pamphlets to

the number of 2,817 have been accessioned since the last report.

Of the 5,000 volumes presented from the private library of the

late William C. Mills, most of these accessions were made. Some

interesting genealogical items have been added by gift and pur-

chase.

The newspaper department continues to grow. At the last

Annual Meeting, the Secretary reported 16,017 volumes in this

department. Within the year 2,609 volumes have been added,

making the total 18,617 volumes. It is scarcely probable that so

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Report of the 44th Annual Meeting                 617

 

many will be added in the coming year, but there is an assured

annual increase of over 800 volumes. The experience of the past

year demonstrates that the room assigned to the library will be

somewhat speedily occupied. Of books and newspapers com-

bined, 5,426 volumes have been added within the year. A volume

of newspapers of average size occupies the space of many books.

The demand for room for the newspapers grows very rapidly.

Among the newspapers of noteworthy importance that have

been added within the past year are the following:

Worthington--The Western Intelligencer, July 17, 1811--January 17,

1814. This paper was the beginning of the Ohio State Journal. The file

includes Volume 1, No. 1. It was transferred to the custody of the Society

June 29, 1929, by Mrs. Helen B. Neff of Gambier, Ohio, her sister and

two brothers. Mrs. Neff is a descendant of Joel Buttles (Buttholph) at

one time editor of the paper.

Worthington--The Franklin Chronicle, January 7, 1820--September

24, 1821. The first issues of this paper were published in Worthington

and are included in this file. Until this paper came into the possession of

the library it was not known generally that a second newspaper was

published in Worthington prior to 1850.

This file was presented to the Society July 12, 1929, by Mrs. Ada

Griswold Safford, of Lancaster, Ohio, a granddaughter of Samuel A. Gris-

wold and a great-granddaughter of Ezra Griswold, who in the early history

of Ohio was identified with a number of newspapers.

The Delaware Patron and the Buckeye Eagle, listed below, were also

presented by Mrs. Safford.

Delaware--Delaware Patron and Franklin Chronicle, October 10, 1821

--January 12, 1828. This is a continuation of the Franklin Chronicle after

it had moved to Delaware, where it later took the name of the Delaware

Patron.

Delaware--The Olentangy Gazette, 1840.

Marion--The Buckeye Eagle, March 22, 1844--May 9, 1849.

Chillicothe--The Weekly Recorder, 1814-1815.

Columbus--The National Enquirer, 1827. Ohio Coon Catcher, cam-

paign of 1844. Evening Bulletin, 1860 [complete file of paper]. Columbus

Gazette, 1822-1824.

This file of the Columbus Gazette was presented May 25, 1929, by

Minter Armstrong, Columbus, Ohio, a grandson of Jeremiah Armstrong,

a member of the first council of Columbus and an early tavern-keeper of

the town.

West Union--Adams County Democrat, 1852-1859.

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618       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

On February 7 a notable meeting of the Society was

held in the auditorium. On that occasion Director Shetrone in

his introductory sentence said: "Ladies and Gentlemen: I think

there is no doubt but what this is an auspicious occasion and I

venture to assume that as time passes we shall look back upon

this day and think of it as the first Ohio Historical Conference."

The principal address on this occasion was delivered by Dr. Ben-

jamin Franklin Shambaugh, Superintendent of the State His-

torical Society of Iowa, editor of the Iowa Journal of History

and Politics, head of the Department of Political Science in the

State University of Iowa, editor of the publications of the State

Historical Society of Iowa, and president of the American Po-

litical Science Association. The informing and inspiring address

of Dr. Shambaugh will be published, with mention of other in-

formal addresses delivered on this occasion. In the evening Dr.

Shambaugh delivered an address on Abraham Lincoln, in which

he paid high tribute to the great emancipator. There was not a

sentence of detraction or carping criticism in this address. In

that respect it presented a delightful contrast to some of the so-

called "modern treatment" of historic characters.

I stated a moment ago that the Museum and Library Build-

ing has added two wings to the original structure, and that hav-

ing two wings it now soars. Not only does Museum Echoes keep

the membership and the general public informed as to the work

and projects of this Society, but this Institution has "gone on the

air." What the people of Ohio and other states are hearing these

evenings is not alone the virtues of Pebeco tooth-paste and the

Interwoven Pair, but also the rising importance of the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society. The Natural History

Department, the Department of Mineralogy, the Curator of His-

tory, the Superintendent of Foundation and Endowment, the

Business Agent, to say nothing of the Director and Secretary, are

abroad on the wings of the air these evenings and the world is

instructed in regard to the interests centering here. We are al-

ready crowding the advertisements into the background and com-

peting with jazz music for the favor of radio audiences. In the

language of the poet in these later days " the heavens are filled

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Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting        619

 

with shoutings" and in the midst of it all we can hear the Super-

intendent of Foundation and Endowment announcing that "it can

be done and will be done," and the Business Agent courageously

inviting the people to our "Out-door Museums," while the March

Lion is romping and roaring and shaking flakes and icicles from

his mane. It takes a courageous man to do that and such is our

enterprising Business Agent.

A few evenings ago a member of our staff tuning in for de-

lightful music was surprised to hear some one discoursing on

William Maxwell. In relating the incident to me she said: "I

thought you had a caveat on that subject, but I knew it was not

your voice." A little later I discovered it was Honorable Horace

E. C. Rowe, the Republican Representative from Democratic

Holmes County, whose presence in the last Legislature bore elo-

quent testimony to the fact that revolutions do not turn back-

ward.

In fact, the State is getting thoroughly aroused on the work

done here and amateur archaeologists are assaulting the mounds

to the consternation of our Director, who fears that if they are

not stayed and regulated the whole State will be upturned to

learn the contents of the some two thousand mounds that have

not yet been explored. We are a great institution and when we

attain the two-million-dollar foundation which we should have

and reap the larger celebrity that we should have through the

publication of Pictorial Ohio, we shall certainly not only soar, but

soar on elevated wings.

In all seriousness, the future of this Society was never more

rosy than it is today.

At the close of a most successful year it is sad to record the

departure of those who labored with us and materially aided in

promoting the progress of this Society.

In the Museum Echoes has been recorded the death of our

staunch friend and generous trustee, Mr. Claude Meeker. A little

later I shall offer a resolution attesting our appreciation and our

sympathy with the surviving members of his family.

On March 11, 1930, Miss Lucy Keeler, a woman with wide

literary reputation, a contributor to many of the leading maga-

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620       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

zines of our country, and the writer of a number of carefully

written historical monographs, which have appeared in the

Quarterly of this Society, died in the hospital at Fremont. Miss

Keeler was a woman of rare ability, high character and genial,

likeable personality. Her life had brought her into contact with

many official and literary personages of note. She had written

an autobiographical sketch which was to be printed only after

her death. This has appeared in the papers of Fremont and will

be published in full in the Quarterly of this Society.

Chairman Bareis next called for the Director's Re-

port. Director Shetrone read the following report:

 

DIRECTOR'S REPORT

During the past year, after a comprehensive survey of the

outstanding Museums of the country, your Director has centered

his energies and those of his staff in laying a broad foundation

designed to place this institution in the foremost rank as an edu-

cational agency. The development of this program has necessi-

tated the ignoring of unimportant details in favor of basic activi-

ties looking to quantity production and results. There has been

occasional tendency to misinterpret this policy; a tendency which

fortunately readily disappears when the plan is discussed and

explained. In its final analysis it is nothing more nor less than

the logical and sensible procedure employed by all up-to-date in-

stitutions; the outgrowth of experience, of trial and error.

Strangely enough, in this modern practice, the ultimate ob-

jective proves to be the means to the end; the child is father to

the man. Service--the rendering of service in order to secure

means for rendering more service. While the development of

such a program necessarily is a slow and involved process, it is

encouraging to know that results are both immediate and cumu-

lative. The most difficult thing perhaps is to avoid losing sight of

the larger objective by yielding to the temptation to dissipate

energy in obtaining the more immediate though less important

desiderata. The new idea builds for the future.

The service which the Society aspires to render to the public

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Report of the 44th Annual Meeting         621

 

comprises the collecting, preserving, recording, interpreting and

publishing of material and data concerning Ohio archeology, his-

tory and natural history; the making available of these to the

public through the central Museum and Library, its parks, its

publications and its educational extension service; the extending

of assistance and cooperation to other educational institutions,

schools, historical societies, patriotic organizations, and so forth.

The means to the end lie in the mutual cooperation and sup-

port of the public, as individuals and as organizations, and in

the securing of adequate funds for supplying personnel and plant.

Funds are to be expected, not alone from state appropriations,

but from memberships in the Society, and from bequests and en-

dowments from those in whom we may engender sufficient ap-

preciation to merit them. The logical aim of the Society in this

direction is an adequate Permanent Fund, to insure and per-

petuate the worth-while program of educational service which it

envisions.

The first step toward realization of this laudable ambition

was taken on November 16th last, when at a called meeting the

Society designated a specific sum from its institutional funds for

the creation of a department of Foundation and Endowment.

The action is experimental, to continue for the period of one

year. Mr. Iowa D. Smith, for many years an interested member

of the Society and a man of long training and successful ac-

complishment in industrial engineering and development, was en-

gaged as supervisor of Foundation and Endowment.

From the beginning of activities entailed in this new pro-

gram, the temptation presented by near-at-hand immediate results

of minor importance, has been in evidence. There are nuts on

the ground, to be sure, but the trees are hanging full; and by

first shaking the trees, the same effort required to harvest the

scattered offering will garner the full crop. And so individual

memberships, for the moment, have been overlooked. Instead,

the first half of the test year is being devoted to important con-

tacts with organizations and outstanding individuals; to the or-

ganization of local and county historical societies; to cooperation

with schools, educational institutions, patriotic organizations,

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622       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Four-H clubs and others; to an Ohio State Museum Radio Half-

hour, offered weekly by staff members and heads of departments;

to participation in the Ohio Radio School of the Air; to lectures;

in short, to the important matter of telling the State of Ohio who

we are, what we stand for, what we wish to do for our public--

and in doing it, insofar as present facilities will permit! The

latter half of the experimental year will be devoted to gathering

what fruits may be harvested from reaping where we have sown.

By always giving more than we expect to receive; by careful

preparation of the soil, conscientious planting and tending of the

crop, we are confident of the harvest.

Already without specific solicitation, a goodly number of

memberships in the various classes, at the increased rates, have

attended the generalized presentation of our program. It might

even be intimated that a generous material benefaction or two

have been suggested; and on the whole it would seem that ac-

complishments which originally appeared impossible, in less than

a year's time have become realities.

A matter of paramount interest to the Society and its mem-

bers is the newly organized State Conservation Department and

its program. Anticipating this situation, your Director and heads

of departments have participated freely in the development of the

conservation movement with the idea of conserving the Society's

interests in the matter of its parks and out-door attractions. A

careful digest of the Society's attitude was supplied to each mem-

ber of the new Conservation Council by your Director. In this

it was pointed out that this Society, as the first and for a long

time the only conservation body in the state, had secured and pre-

served numerous parks, many of them coming through its own

efforts and as gifts by its members and friends; that the Society

made a distinction as between natural resources and park sites

connected therewith, on the one hand, and Human History sites,

as historic shrines, on the other; and that the Society would ex-

pect to continue in control of Human History parks (historic and

archaeological) and to add from time to time to those already es-

tablished. Cordial replies from the Director of the Conservation

Council and several of its members concurred in this view and

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Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting         623

 

pledged the fullest cooperation by the Council. The Council asks

that the Society designate a committee for the purpose of co-

operation and joint consideration of park matters; and such an

appointment is recommended in this report. It is psychologically

most fortunate that the Society has had the services of Mr. Mc-

Pherson during the past year in placing our parks in condition

to exempt them from criticism.

Additional historic shrines, secured by the Society or in im-

mediate prospect, are: The Williamson Mound, near Cedarville,

donated by Mr. Williamson; the Miamisburg Mound, Montgom-

ery County, donated by Mr. Kettering; the Kilvert Mound, near

Bainbridge, to be presented shortly by Miss Kilvert; and the fol-

lowing properties, provided for by the recent Legislature: Fort

Jefferson, Darke County; Buffington Island Memorial, Meigs

County; Custer Monument, Harrison County; Campus Martius

Memorial, and additions to Schoenbrunn, temporarily in charge

of special commissions, are to be taken over by the Society when

completed.

A long list of accessions to the Museum's collection, the most

important of which is a fine collection of minerals presented by

Mr. Ralph H. Beaton, will be printed in a forthcoming number

of the Quarterly.

While it may seem somewhat ungracious not to accord at

this time a fuller measure of appreciation to the several heads of

departments and to staff members, for the uniformly good work

done during the past year, it may be taken for granted that such

appreciation is felt and acknowledged. In passing, it may be said

that Prof. J. S. Hine, as curator of Natural History, has made

notable progress in his department, particularly in securing the

presentation of a remarkable natural history habitat group, and

the promise of others, to be installed immediately; Dr. E. F.

Greenman, as curator of Archaeology, conducted a successful sea-

son's exploration in northern Ohio, securing typical collections

of Iroquoian material and effecting added appreciation and co-

operation on the part of the Society's members and friends in

that section of the State. His report is ready for publication,

pending some limited additional examination near Cleveland; Dr.

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624       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Harlow Lindley, as curator of the Department of History, has

made himself indispensable in securing material and data, and in

the work of organizing and cooperating with other historical so-

cieties; Mr. H. R. Goodwin, as registrar and staff artist, has been

indefatigable and most efficient, while Mr. H. R. McPherson, as

business agent, has succeeded in placing our numerous parks in a

creditable condition. The task which he assumed a year ago, as

those who have had the welfare of the parks in mind must ap-

preciate, was little short of disconcerting, but his energies have

been applied to excellent advantage. The condition of our fine

building is sufficient tribute to Mr. S. L. Eaton, superintendent

of maintenance, who, with his efficient force, not only maintains

appearances but even effects major repairs, at a great saving to

the Society. Mr. J. S. Waite as cabinet-maker is all that could

be desired, as evidenced by the high quality display cases and

other equipment which he produces. Credit is tendered also to

Miss Cotton, book-keeper; Mr. Binning, photographer; Mr. Gos-

lin, assistant in Archaeology; Mrs. Bell, clerk, and others for

their loyal support.

Special mention must be made of the success of the Mu-

seum's extension service. Service to the public schools of Co-

lumbus has been continued and is constantly growing under the

able management of Prof. J. C. Hambleton and Miss Olive Clev-

enger, as teachers. The work of Mrs. Margaret Cope, as super-

visor of extension has found notable expression in a series of

special exhibitions covering such timely subjects as weaving and

fabrics; the evolution of artificial lighting; exhaustive display

of Ohio maps; and, now current, the development of pottery-

making. Mrs. Cope's efforts during the past year have been one

of the Museum's greatest assets, and her time has been donated

gratis.

And now for a glimpse into the future. The publication

and exhaustion of a booklet entitled Scenic and Historic Ohio,

by this Society, created and left unsatisfied a public demand for

information on Ohio's out-door attractions. Casting about for

ways and means to meet this public demand, a solution has been

found, as follows: There being no Society or state funds avail-

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Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          625

 

able for the purpose, the idea presented itself of asking some one

or other of our great industrial concerns to finance the project.

Investigation showed that museums the country over are recog-

nizing the importance of permitting organizations reaping great

financial rewards from public expenditures to turn a portion of

their surplus back to the public. The idea was submitted to the

Society's trustees by letter; all but two or three replied, and of

these replies all excepting one were favorable to the plan.

In view of the fact that the Standard Oil Company of Ohio

has been interested for some years in disseminating information

regarding outdoor Ohio, and since the Company is so obviously

able financially to participate in such undertakings, the appeal

was made to them. Their acceptance was immediate, and the

sum of $45,000 was designated for publication of the first of a

series of three cumulative booklets to be entitled Pictorial Ohio.

New editions with new and additional information and illustra-

tions, will be brought out in 1931 and 1932, and the fourth year the

three numbers will be combined in a single exhaustive book. For

the publication, the State Board of Education has furnished illus-

trations, and this Society has effected the compiling and editing.

The booklet will carry no advertising other than the names of the

Society and the Department of Education as compilers and editors

and the Standard Oil Company as publisher. Fifty thousand or

more copies will be supplied to the Society and to the Depart-

ment of Education for free distribution to members and public

schools of the State.

Again, a unique project bids fair to materialize in the near

future--an aerial survey of the State's outdoor attractions, in

order to secure a large series of aerial photographs of scenic, his-

toric and archaeological sites for educational purposes.

Best of all, perhaps, is a project which will mark the culmina-

tion of the Society's almost one-third of a century's archaeological

explorations. This is nothing less than a moving-picture film, and

probably a talking film, of the actual exploration of an important

Ohio mound. Supplementing this will be a filming of a pageant

in which the lives of the Mound Builders will be reconstructed,

The basic idea underlying this project, which is now practically

Vol. XXXIX--40.

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626       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

insured, is the furnishing of movie films for educational pur-

poses, particularly for the Society and for the public schools and

educational institutions of the State.

Someone has said that habit is a chain that binds. Certain

it is that the amending of a constitution, whether it be federal,

state or otherwise, is proverbially a difficult matter. However,

progress sometimes demands change, even in constitutions.

Most of you have been sensible of the handicap which the

name of our organization has imposed. Those of us directly

connected with administration and with public contacts are ex-

tremely aware of this condition. The name Ohio State Archae-

ological and Historical Society has been a good one; it has served

a very definite purpose; but I wish to suggest, at this time, that a

change in name is desirable.

The newly evolved condition was ably expressed at the re-

cent annual convention of the American Historical Association,

when Dr. James Harvey Robinson, its president, declared that

"what we used to call prehistory (archaeology) is now recognized

as honest-to-goodness history."

Suggestion that the word archaeological be dropped from the

name of our organization, coming from a historian or other than

an archaeologist, might sound like treason; but with no least

abatement of my life-long ardor for things archaeological, and

with a full determination to continue adding to the prestige which

archaeological exploration has brought us, I make bold to submit

the recommendation that effective as of January, 1931, this or-

ganization be known simply as the Ohio Historical Society.

The advantages accruing from this simplification of name

will be evident to all. "Historical" properly includes history

proper, archaeology or prehistory, and natural history; the world

has accepted this designation and I believe that you will want to

take this advanced step.

The recommendation of the Director, relative to

changing the name of the Society was briefly discussed.

On motion of Mr. Philip Hinkle, duly seconded, the

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Report of the 44th Annual Meeting                627

 

recommendation was referred to the Board of Trustees

for consideration.

Chairman Bareis stated that the terms of certain

members of the Board of Trustees had expired and ap-

pointed the following committee to nominate their suc-

cessors: Mr. Joseph C. Goodman, Mrs. Ivor Hughes.

and Mr. Tiffin Gilmore.

The appointment of the nominating committee was

followed by a brief discussion in regard to the terms of

trustees. The explanation given was that they serve for

the period for which they were elected and until their

successors are duly chosen.

The Chairman called for the Treasurer's Report.

Treasurer E. F. Wood then read the following re-

port:

TREASURER'S REPORT

REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE OHIO STATE ARCHAE-

OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR THE

YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31st, 1929.

 

RECEIPTS

Life  membership  dues .......................                                                                       $425.00

Active membership dues .....................                                                                     410.50

Interest on Permanent Fund ..................                                                                  1,315.00

Interest on other funds.................                                                                              212.70

Contributions:

Black  bear  fund .........................                                                                     575.00

Dawson bird library fund ................                                                             2,691.00

Battlefield of Fallen Timbers .............                                                           717.00

Mrs. Jessie Campbell Coons (James E.

Campbell  Park) .......................  1,742.18

Refunded by State Treasurer

Geo. Rogers Clark Monument ............                                                          110.50

Geo. Rogers Clark Memorial Commission..                                               151.11

Advances from time to time for wages,

postage, travel expense, field work, etc..                                               2,509.26

Subscriptions  ............................                                                                      39.15

Books  sold  ..................................                                                                               676.76    $11,575.16

• 15
 

628         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Total receipts from State Treasurer on various

appropriations:

House    bill   No.   502 ....................                     67,784.31

House    bill   No.   510 ....................                     94,348.54

House    bill   No.   513 ....................                     2,153.62  164,286.47

Transferred from permanent fund for expenses

incident to endowment and foundation fund   5,725.00 5,725.00

Cash on hand December 31, 1928 ..........................         8,972.21

 

Total  ...........................................                    $190,558.84

 

 

DISBURSEMENTS

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

Salaries .....................................                                       $50,532.76

W ages  ......................................                                     4,725.69

Household supplies and equipment ............                           779.92

W ater,  Gas  and  Electricity ...................                           659.10

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment ..........                          19.90

Educational Supplies and Equipment.........                        8,845.15

Archaeological Field Work ..................                                498.32

Natural History Field Work.................                             2,169.71

Office Supplies and Equipment ...............                         4,645.17

Postage .....................................                                          358.60

Print paper..................................                                        223.99

Printing  ....................................                                      1,030.48

Motor Vehicle ...............................                                      939.33

Travel Expense ..............................                                     928.17

Communications .............................                                    334.60

Building  Repairs  ...........................                                     733.53

Building Materials ..........................                                  1,401.84

Additions to Museum and Library Building....                    43,817.76

Expenses of Annual Meeting .................                              263.75

Refund of Active Membership ................                             2.00

Refund  of  Books  Sold ........................                               8.00

Annual Audit ..............................                                         75.00

Sundry Expenses ...........................                                      20.14

Endowment and Foundation Fund Expense....                       550.00    123,562.91

 

 

DIVISION OF SPIEGEL GROVE STATE PARK

Salaries   .....................................                                     5,913.33

W ages    .....................................                                        113.65

Fuel         ........................................                                     596.40

Water, Gas and Electricity ...................                            1,263.31

• 16
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          629

 

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment   ..........                         83.98

Office Supplies and Equipment.................                             94.38

Postage   .....................................                                         10.00

Printing  ....................................                                          13.00

Travel Expense .............................                                       55.20

Communications ..............................                                    56.25

Building Repairs ............................                                       766.03

Building Materials ...........................                                     2,250.04     11,215.57

 

DIVISION OF FORT ANCIENT PARK

Salaries .....................................                                            520.00

Wages ......................................                                            493.85

Agricultural Supplies ........................                                       4.35

Office Supplies ..............................                                         5.35

Postage .....................................                                             1.00

Printing  ................................                                              40.50

Motor Vehicle ..............................                                        30.25

Communications ............................                                      24.45

Building Repairs ............................                                        19.35

Building Materials ..........................                                       136.95

Insurance ...................................                                           66.50     1,342.55

 

DIVISION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS

Salaries .....................................                                            1,070.00

W ages    ......................................                                        142.60

Water,    Gas  and  Electricity ...................                           122.88

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment..........                            30.83

Office Supplies and Equipment ................                             24.80

Postage .....................................                                             2.00

Printing .....................................                                           13.00

Communications .............................                                     51.72

Building Repairs  ...........................                                        16.63

Building Materials ...........................                                      150.29     1,614.75

 

DIVISION OF SERPENT MOUND

Salaries    .....................................                                         400.00

W ages    ......................................                                        250.25

Agricultural Supplies ........................                                       .75

Office Supplies ..............................                                          4.00

Printing  ....................................                                           13.00

Communications .............................                                      24.25

Building Materials ...........................                                      462.84

State  Architect  ............................                                       166.91     1,322.00

• 17
 

630          Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

DIVISION OF SCHOENBRUNN PARK

Salaries  ....................................                                          1,050.00

Wages ......................................                                           1,067.70

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment..............                       378.50

Office Supplies .............................                                         4.90

Postage .....................................                                            4.14

Printing  ....................................                                           13.00

Motor Vehicle ..............................                                         8.30

Traveling Expense...........................                                      45.74

Communications ............................                                       7.95

Building Materials ...........................                                    161.63       2,741.86

 

DIVISION OF LOGAN ELM PARK

Salaries .....................................                                             50.00

Wages ......................................                                           255 30

Agricultural Supplies ........................                                      25.62

Office Supplies ..............................                                        1.00

Printing  ....................................                                           13.00

Communications .............................                                      36.00

Building Materials ..........................                                     162.43        543.35

 

DIVISION OF BATTLEFIELD OF FALLEN TIMBERS

W ages  ......................................                                         1,265.24

Household Supplies and Equipment ...........                            12.00

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment.........                            139.60

Educational Supplies and Equipment ..........                         189.27

Office Supplies and Equipment ...............                               54.01

Postage .....................................                                            75.70

Print Paper  .................................                                         12.58

Printing  .....................................                                        372.37

Travel Expenses .............................                                    336.56

Communications .............................                                      15.71

Building Materials ..........................                                     382.76

Monument ...................................                                       17,414.75

Roadway    ...................................                                       2,750.00

Landscaping .................................                                       736.00

Fence .......................................                                           275.00

Dedication Expenses .........................                                  598.60     24,630.15

 

DIVISION OF FORT ST. CLAIR PARK

Salaries .....................................                                          1,100.00

Wages ......................................                                             60.75

Agricultural Supplies ........................                                   395.55

Office Supplies ..............................                                        1.00

• 18
 

Report of the ₄₄th Annual Meeting                   631

 

Printing  ....................................                                          27.75

Motor Vehicle ...............................                                      190.84

Building Materials ..........................                                      354.76

Shelter-house  ...............................                                      380.31      2,510.96

 

DIVISION OF GEO. ROGERS CLARK MONUMENT

Wages     ......... ............................                                        372.30

Repairs    .....................................                                         3.05        375.35

 

DIVISION OF FORT LAURENS PARK

Salaries   ....................................                                          886.64

Wages     ......................................                                        145.15

Agricultural Supplies ........................                                    465 74

Office Supplies ..............................                                       2.55

Printing  ....................................                                          21.50

Motor Vehicle ..............................                                       5.35

Building Materials ...........................                                     213.24      1,740.17

 

 

DIVISION OF FORT AMANDA PARK

Salaries    .....................................                                         80.00

Wages     ......................................                                        95.65

Office Supplies ..............................                                       1.00

Printing  ......... ............................                                        13.00

Building Repairs ............................                                       24.12

Building Materials ..........................                                      722.16        935.93

 

 

DIVISION OF MOUND CITY PARK

Salaries    .....................................                                         510.00

Wages     ......................................                                        193.45

Agricultural Supplies and Equipment..........                            717.25

Office Supplies and Equipment ................                             1.00

Printing  ....................................                                          14.50

Building Repairs.............................                                       509.18

Building Materials ..........................                                      528.78      2,474.16

 

 

DIVISION OF BIG BOTTOM PARK

Wages  ......................................                                           24.36

Office Supplies ...............................                                      1.00

Printing  ....................................                                           13.00

Building Materials ............................                                     2.30         40.66

• 19
 

632          Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

DIVISION OF SEIP MOUND PARK

Wages ......................................                                               5.60

Office Supplies ...............................                                        1.00

Printing  .....................................                                            13.00

Building Materials ..........................                                      42.90

Taxes .......................................                                              9.58

Cash Advanced to H. C. Shetrone, Director...                       386.82        458.90

 

 

DIVISION OF JAMES E. CAMPBELL PARK

Wages ......................................                                           306.12

Landscaping .................................                                       229.42

Improvements ...............................                                     1,582.53    2,118.07

 

 

Cash advanced:

Geo. Rogers Clark Memorial Commission..                   151.11

For sundry purposes and later refunded...                       2,509.26

For sundry purposes to be refunded .......                       291.32          2,954.69

 

Transferred to Permanent Fund...............                                                 425.00

Cash on Hand December 31st, 1929

Current Fund ...........................                                     3,407.58

Battlefield of Fallen Timbers Fund .......                        1,745.62

James E. Campbell Park Fund............                               23.61

Endowment and Foundation Fund.........                        5,175.00       10,351.81

 

TOTA L  ........................................                     $190,558.84

 

On motion of Mr. Hinkle, duly seconded, the report

of the Treasurer was accepted and placed on file.

Secretary Galbreath read the following Memorial

Resolution on the death of Mr. Claude Meeker and

moved its adoption.

 

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION IN TRIBUTE TO

MR. MEEKER

WHEREAS, Since the last meeting of this Society, Providence

has removed from  us and other earthly associates our fellow

member and friend, Claude Meeker, who departed this life De-

cember 6, 1929, and

• 20
 

Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting        633

 

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker was deeply interested in the work

of this Society, liberal in its financial support, and for a number

of years a member of the Board of Trustees, therefore

Be it Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Meeker this Society

has sustained the loss of a generous patron, the State and City of

Columbus a public-spirited, upright citizen, and all who were so

fortunate as to know him a kindly, sincere and faithful friend,

Be it further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be

engrossed and sent to the surviving members of his family with

assurances of our sincere sympathy with them in their very great

bereavement.

The motion was duly seconded and the resolution

was unanimously adopted.

After the adoption of the resolution, Chairman

Bareis stated:

It has been truly stated that Mr. Meeker was a liberal mem-

ber of our Board. At one time, I remember, he bought a library

for this Society for which he paid $5,ooo.oo and presented it to

us; and I know of other benefactions.

Mr. Goodman, Chairman of the Nominating Com-

mittee, reported the following nominations: For term

expiring in 1931, Mr. Albert Spetnagel; for terms ex-

piring in 1932, Dr. W. O. Thompson, General Edward

Orton, Jr., and Colonel Webb C. Hayes.

On motion of Mr. Hinkle, the report of the com-

mittee was adopted and the Secretary was directed to

cast a ballot for the candidates named. This the Secre-

tary did and the nominees were declared elected, the

entire membership rising to their feet to emphasize the

choice.

Mr. Goodman raised the question in regard to no-

tices of the Annual Meeting. The notice had been

printed in Museum Echoes but it was his opinion that a

• 21
 

634       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

written notice should be sent to each member of the

Society.

The Secretary stated that the constitution did not

specifically require notice by law. After some discussion

and the statement of the Secretary that the notices had

not only been sent out in Museum Echoes, but that the

Trustees each had written notice and one hundred and

fifty other written notices had been sent to as many

different members, Mr. Wood moved that the Secretary

be directed in the future to send a special written notice

of the Annual Meeting to each member of the Society.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Goodman and

unanimously agreed to.

The term of Trustees of the Society was again dis-

cussed at some length but no action was taken, as in the

opinion of a number of members that was not necessary.

Chairman Bareis then made some remarks that may

well be published here as his annual address. He said

in part:

I have no speech, but I hear things going on here and it re-

minds me of something I noticed in the development of the Mu-

seum of this Society. Of course I have been here a great many

years; I think it is 46 years. I have been Chairman of the Mu-

seum Committee and I have told so often that I could have liter-

ally carried this Museum in my hat at one time. It was when

Mr. A. A. Graham was Secretary down in the State House, in

the little room up-stairs. He had all the relics, five or six pieces

and a couple of pistols on his desk, and he and Dr. Hatton were

running a lecture bureau. They had Stanley here and other per-

sons. I went up there one day and there were several there, and

they began putting the relics in their pockets. I said, "Don't do

that, fellows; that is the collection of the Archaeological and His-

torical Society." That is the way we saved the day.

This is a wonderful Museum. All you need to do is to visit

it. Some time ago I visited the Museum of the Pennsylvania

Historical Society in Philadelphia. Of course I saw some won-

• 22
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting         635

 

derful things. When it comes to archaeology, I doubt if there is

a better collection in the world today than we have in this Mu-

seum. People come from all over the country. These newspaper

files in the Library are available and valuable. You find people

here every day going through these files. So after all, if you are

looking for obituary notices, or the date of a marriage, you can

find it absolutely correct in the newspapers published when that

happened. People are here from the United States Congress get-

ting data for publication of biographical sketches of former con-

gressmen and senators. It is fine to have the sources of this

material.

A few days ago I was down to visit with Curator Hine of

the Natural History Department. He is overcrowded and asks,

"When will your Society build this other wing so we can show

this material ?" Then go down to the Neil House and stand around

there a little while and find some member of the Legislature say-

ing, "I got you that other wing, are you ready for another?" We

can get it by simply asking for it. I remember the day when

Mr. Randall and myself would slip around the door of the

Finance Committee and when we got anything we had to ask for

it; now the Finance Committee comes in here and says, "Gentle-

men, what do you want?"

This is a wonderful Society. It is a great honor to be a

member of it and further it in any way.

Secretary Galbreath gave a few illustrations of the

use made of the newspaper files by patrons through cor-

respondence and personal examination.

The appointment of committees was next briefly con-

sidered.  On motion of Mr. Wood, seconded by Mr.

Goodman, the question of the standing committees to be

appointed annually was referred to the Board of Trus-

tees with authority to act.

Mrs. Margaret Cope reported that Miss Olive Cle-

venger, in charge of children of the Columbus Schools

who visit the Museum, is authority for the statement

that 15,700 children had visited the Museum since Janu-

ary, 1929.

• 23
 

636       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

On motion duly seconded, the meeting adjourned to

reassemble at 2 o'clock p.m.

 

AFTERNOON SESSION

Chairman Bareis, in calling the meeting to order,

said:

I am only the Vice-President of this Society. I was caught

napping this morning when I did not know I was to preside.

Therefore I have no speech to make of any kind, but I will con-

sume one minute simply to present Director Shetrone who will

present the speaker.

Director Shetrone responded as follows:

Ladies and gentlemen: I am trying hard to assume the place

for a moment, at least, of an employe and our honorable Vice-

President won't permit it, and insists that I am to present the

speaker; but I am going to distribute the honors around a bit.

The little program for today is a rather simple one in that it

is not particularly varied, but it is specially concentrated. The

fact that we have a single speaker is only offset by the further

fact that he is particularly capable and particularly able.

In presenting this program this afternoon we find ourselves

calling upon our neighbor state, Indiana, in a two-fold measure.

The speaker of the afternoon is one of Indiana's outstanding men.

We happen to have here in our own institution, as curator of the

Department of History, a former Indiana man, Dr. Lindley, who

was for a time closely associated with Dr. Coleman, and I take

pleasure in asking Dr. Lindley to present to you the speaker on

this occasion.

Curator Lindley then introduced the speaker as fol-

lows:

Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen: Some two or three

weeks ago I was favored by being asked to suggest someone to

appear as our speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society. I at once thought of a

man who was quite familiar from the point of view of a varied

experience with some of the problems that we are facing at the

present time in this state. I had in mind a man who had been

• 24
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          637

associated with not only academic work but state historical work

in years past, an officer of the Indiana Historical Society, and

editor of the Indiana Magazine of History, who for a time left

the state of Indiana and was engaged in educational work in one

of the colleges of Pennsylvania.

It was an opportunity that came to me a few years ago, when

leaving the state historical work in Indiana, to recommend Dr.

Coleman as my successor, feeling that he was eminently qualified

to advance the work in certain lines that needed to be developed.

He is acquainted with the problems of the State Historical. So-

ciety and their relation to the educational interests of the state.

In more recent years he had been closely associated with a move-

ment that had its inception in Indiana and which has grown to be

a national movement, promoted by the George Rogers Clark Me-

morial Commission, which has received, as most of you doubtless

know, an appropriation from the Federal Government looking

forward to one memorial to George Rogers Clark at Vincennes,

Indiana.

Dr. Coleman has been Secretary of this Commission prac-

tically from its beginning and I say it is a matter of particular

pleasure that I have an opportunity of introducing to my newly

made friends of the past year in Ohio, a former friend and asso-

ciate in Indiana who is at the present time Director of the In-

diana Historical Bureau, which corresponds to the state phases

of the work in this state, and the Secretary of the Indiana His-

torical Society, and who is quite at home in meeting our prob-

lems. Dr. Christopher B. Coleman, who will address you on the

subject of "Rediscovering the Old Northwest."

 

REDISCOVERING THE OLD NORTHWEST

 

BY DR. CHRISTOPHER B. COLEMAN

Some five years ago certain members of the Indiana His-

torical Society were led by accounts of celebrations of anniver-

saries of early revolutionary events in the East and by contrast-

ing neglect of an important historical site in their own state to

propose a movement for the observance of the one-hundred-and-

fiftieth anniversary of events connected with the acquisition of

the Old Northwest by the United States. After considering such

projects as an industrial exposition, a series of historical pageants

and the publication of historical literature, they finally adopted as

their goal the erection of an artistic and permanent memorial

• 25
 

638       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications which would embody in architecture, painting and sculpture the grateful commemoration by the citizens of the United States of the men and the movements which made the region northwest

of the Ohio River a part of the United States. After considerable reflection it seemed to these men that the one event which might well be chosen for their object was the campaign of George Rogers Clark in February 1779, and the one place which by loca-

• 26
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          639

 

tion and historical interest might well be the best place for a

permanent memorial was Fort Sackville at Vincennes which Clark

captured on February 23-25 of that year.

The first public notice of the project, however, brought out

the existence of a decided difference in opinion about the process

by which the Old Northwest became a part of the United States.

Three distinct points of view quickly emerged. The first was

that the Old Northwest, from  the beginning, belonged to the

English colonies in America, to Virginia under the Charter of

1609, to Massachusetts under the Charter of 1629, and to Con-

necticut under the Charter of 1662. Under this contention, in-

deed, a considerable part of the Northwest belonged to two of

these colonies at the same time. All three asserted their claims

vigorously and consistently; Virginia in its commission to George

Rogers Clark expressed the hope that the white inhabitants of

Kaskaskia would give "Evidence of their attachment to this State

(for it is certain they live within its Limits)," and in December

1778 recited in an Act of the Assembly that "several of the

British posts within the territory of this commonwealth, in the

country adjacent to the river Mississippi, have been reduced,

and the inhabitants have acknowledged themselves citizens

thereof."

A second point of view, set forth long ago by Lyman C.

Draper, Judge John Law, and William H. English and more

recently by James A. James and Milo M. Quaife, assumed that

after the Quebec Act of 1774 the country northwest of the Ohio

River was a part of the Province of Quebec, essentially a foreign

country, and that it was conquered from the Empire of Great

Britain by George Rogers Clark and his associates.

A third point of view, asserted vigorously by the late Clar-

ence W. Alvord, maintained that Clark and the other revolution-

ists did not in fact occupy the region between the Ohio and the

Great Lakes and that its cession to the United States in the

Treaty of 1783 was therefore not based on military possession.

It was due, Professor Alvord asserted, to the far-sighted states-

manship and generosity of the Earl of Shelburne, who thought,

by ceding this territory to the United States, to avert future wars.

• 27
 

640       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Dr. Quaife, though not entirely converted to this point of view,

withdrew his earlier allusions to Clark's "conquest of the Old

Northwest" and contributed to Professor Alvord's following by

asserting that Clark conquered only a small part of the territory

involved.

Here, then, was an interesting and important question which

had to be answered one way or another before going further, for

none of the group referred to wanted to celebrate one event when

another was really decisive, much less to celebrate something

which never really took place. How then was the Old Northwest

acquired by the United States?

The claims advanced under colonial charters fortunately are

not now seriously pressed. The cession of western lands by the

several states to the United States in Congress assembled, while it

was not a denial or repudiation of these claims, virtually deprived

them of weight even in a purely historical argument. The char-

ters which gave Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut claims

to the land west of the Ohio River had been so rudely dealt with

by the English government that long before 1774 they counted

for little more than makeshift argument.

The so-called Quebec Act of 1774 from and after the time

of its passage constituted the law governing all the dominions in

respect to the land concerned. This Act indubitably in English

law, and in fact, canceled the authority, if there was any left by

that time, which Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts asserted

over these lands. The administration in control north of the

Ohio and west of Pennsylvania was that of the Province of

Quebec and of the imperial government back of it. When the

Treaty of peace at the close of the War of the American Revo-

lution gave undisputed title to the Old Northwest to the thirteen

states whose independence Great Britain recognized, it marked a

transfer and change of title as compared with the situation cre-

ated by the Quebec Act.

How was this change affected? Was the transfer of title

a conquest or was it a gift? One must begin his answer to this

question with the observation that both points of view, as put

forth without reservation by their strongest advocates, are too

• 28
 

Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting          641

 

extreme. The northern part of the region in question was never

reached by a soldier in the American revolutionary army except

as a prisoner of war. Detroit and Michilimacinac, together with

the command of the Great Lakes, gave the British easy access

to it and control of its northern part throughout the war and in-

deed for twelve years after the treaty of peace. The Ohio River,

running along the southeastern edge of the disputed region, was

Clark's base of operations, and even that was neither safe for his

forces nor a sure protection against the invasion of Kentucky,

as witness Lochry's Massacre in 1781 and the Battle of Blue

Licks in 1782. At no time during the war, nor at its end, could

the Virginian and United States troops in any sense be said to

have possession of all the Old Northwest.

On the other hand, the evidence adduced in support of the

proposition that the Earl of Shelburne, when he might have

drawn the boundary of the United States along the Ohio River,

drew it through the Great Lakes instead, with the generous hope

that thereby he was laying secure foundations for permanent

peace between the mother-country and her independent daugh-

ters, is entirely too slender to explain the action. The most direct

evidence is a later statement by the Earl of Shelburne himself

that the good-will he had embodied in the Treaty had established

friendly relations which could not be undone. Concessions to the

thirteen states were in fact necessary as well as wise and it is

difficult to believe that any of the concessions actually made by

the British government, either before or after the crucial days of

the negotiation, were motivated by other than the usual considera-

tions; nor is it easy to see how, apart from actual demonstration

of control over the intervening region, the Great Lakes would

afford a more pacific boundary than the Ohio River would afford.

If the Earl of Shelburne thought so, the War of 1812 proved him

wrong.

The fact seems to be that the transition of this region from

the Province of Quebec to the United States was due to the in-

sistence of the United States, military as well as diplomatic in-

sistence, upon its possession. On July 4, 1776, at the time of the

Declaration of Independence, the British government was in un-

Vol. XXXIX--41.

• 29
 

642       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

disputed control of it. Clark's campaign in Illinois in 1778, his

capture in 1779 of Vincennes and of Lieutenant Colonel Hamil-

ton who was entrusted with the execution of the King's policy

in the western country, and his punishment of the Indians in

Ohio in 1780 and 1782 broke this control. While physically and

geographically Detroit was not touched, it became an outpost

whose possession was not much more decisive in 1782 than it was

in 1794. The influx of settlers into Kentucky and into the French

towns north of the Ohio after Clark's capture of Kaskaskia and

Vincennes told all who could read the signs of the times that the

Northwest was destined to be a part of the new republic. The

repulse of the British and Indian expedition down the Mississippi

in 1780 showed the impossibility of its recovery by any force the

British might hope to send to the far-off interior of North

America.

Thus in the negotiations for peace, the Americans carried

with them both their old claims to the western country and the

new interest in it kindled by Clark's heroic achievements. Both

made it impossible for them to negotiate a peace which would

destroy the possibility of the occupation of the West and deny

the land hunger which was one of the principal causes of the

Revolution itself. The British government which negotiated

with them, not only knew that its hold on the West was

broken, but felt all too keenly the strain and the unremunera-

tive expense of trying to hold remote posts with the aid of

insatiable Indian allies. The conclusion, then, has seemed

inevitable that it was the course of events between 1776 and

1783, rather than a generous impulse of the Earl of Shel-

burne, which gave the Northwest to the United States. The

course of events, though not altogether determined by the

activities of George Rogers Clark, was yet dominated to a

remarkable extent by the genius and the indomitable will of

the tall, athletic young Virginian. And the quality of the

man, the quality indeed of the whole western movement

which made the region between the Alleghanies and the Mis-

sissippi what it now is, nowhere shines forth in a clearer

light than in the campaigns of 1778 and 1779.

• 30
 

Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting         643

 

Clark conquered the wilderness and the flood, inspired

his men with an unshakable confidence that they were "su-

perior to other men and that neither the Rivers nor seasons

could stop their progress"; intimidated the Indians, and forced

the King's representative in the Northwest to surrender his

post and his force: an achievement unsurpassed in American

history in sheer energy and personal power. As dramatic as

it was significant, the capture of Fort Sackville may well

serve as the theme of the epic of the winning of the Old

Northwest. It holds the same place in the western movement

as Yorktown holds in the movement for independence.

With the tentative program of securing a nation-wide recog-

nition of the acquisition of the Old Northwest by celebration of

the capture of Fort Sackville by George Rogers Clark, and of

erecting upon its site "a permanent memorial commemorating the

winning of the Old Northwest and the achievements of George

Rogers Clark and his associates in the War of the American

Revolution," the Indiana Historical Society set out in 1926-27 to

interest other historical societies and the public generally in the

states formed from the Northwest Territory.

Here also an interesting question arose. In the case of Min-

nesota the boundary of the Old Northwest did not coincide with

the present state boundary.  It must be remembered that the

boundary as defined in the treaty of peace between the United

States and Great Britain drew an absolutely impossible line west

from the Lake-of-the-Woods west to the Mississipi River. The

source of the Mississippi lies many miles south of the Lake-of-

the-Woods. Nevertheless we must assume that that part of the

State of Minnesota which lies east of the Mississippi and a line

from its source to the Lake-of-the-Woods was a part of the Old

Northwest. Should Minnesota therefore be expected to consider

the War of the American Revolution as marking its acquisition

by the United States?

It took but a little sounding of public opinion to show that

Minnesota does not consider itself primarily a part of the Old

Northwest. Its historical development and its economic connec-

tions link it with the region beyond. It belongs to the far North-

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644       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

west, or if one can coin that expression, to the Mesopotamian

Northwest drained by the Mississsippi and the upper reaches of

the Missouri. Historic events along the Ohio are of compara-

tively little interest to the authorities and the public at St. Paul,

Minneapolis and Minnesota in general.

Giving up the idea of interesting Minnesota, the Indiana

Society began corresponding with societies and individuals in the

four other states which lie wholly within the Old Northwest

Territory--Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We soon

found that however much the three southern states, Ohio, Indiana,

and Illinois might regard George Rogers Clark as the patron saint

of their Americanism, he had not conquered the two northern

states in sentiment any more than he had reached them by force

of arms. We invited a leading historian of Detroit to speak

at one of our meetings upon the general theme of George Rogers

Clark. He chose as his particular subject, "Detroit and George

Rogers Clark," and developed his theme from the point of view

of the British inhabitants of Detroit during the Revolution and

their descendants. In a masterly historical address, he spoke

for Detroit, and dealt with General Clark as an invader of the

Northwest. It was a very interesting and stimulating line of

historical thought and perhaps a salutary corrective of the ex-

cessive enthusiasm of his audience, but it was an effective illus-

tration of one difficulty in arousing interest in Michigan in the

acquisition of the Old Northwest through the War of the Amer-

ican Revolution.

Another difficulty also became apparent. There is a hymn to

the effect that while storms rage on the surface of the ocean,

in the depths below quietness and stillness reign forevermore.

Michigan's attitude toward the two states on its south reverses

this situation. While on the surface and in the intercourse of the

present day the most peaceful relations prevail, down in the depth

of the historical consciousness of Michigan there still exists resent-

ment over the settlement of its southern boundary line. When

Indiana passed from territory into statehood it managed to chip

ten miles off the southern end of Michigan. Worse still, Ohio

succeeded in extending her own boundary northward in the 'thir-

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Report of the ₄₄th Annual Meeting          645

 

ties, at the risk of civil war, so as to include Toledo. Michigan

then had and now has, so far as its historical memory is active,

a grievance against the whole Northwest Territory proposition.

A similar situation prevails in Wisconsin. If American sol-

diers in the War of the American Revolution ever touched Wis-

consin soil, they did so only in a brief raid upon the Indians in

its extreme southwest corner, in retaliation for the British-Indian

expedition against St. Louis and Kaskaskia. The most tangible

connection of Wisconsin with General Clark's campaigns is the

possession, by the State Historical Society, of the great Draper

collection of manuscripts relating to it. Of this collection the

Society planned to publish a calendar as its contribution to the

sesquicentennial of his achievements, but thus far the Legislature

has failed to appropriate the necessary funds. Wisconsin, too,

has its grievance against the rest of the Old Northwest, for

Illinois went far beyond Ohio and Indiana by taking the land sixty

miles north of the original line drawn in the Ordinance of 1787,

and in the first territorial organization, through the southern tip

of Lake Michigan.

To Wisconsin as to Michigan the three older states have the

valid reply that the Ordinance did not really make the east and

west line at Lake Michigan's southern extremity itself the actual

division between the three states which it required and the two

additional states which it permitted, but merely provided that in

the region north of that line two additional states might be

formed. To put it another way, the two northern states could

not extend south of the extremity of Lake Michigan, but the

three southern states might extend north of that line. But it

much be admitted, that sound as this interpretation seems to be, it

did not satisfy, nor has it ever entirely convinced, those who

wanted a greater Michigan or a greater Wisconsin.

These states, moreover, passed through their formative stage

later than did Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. In the War of 1812 their

settlements were still merely outposts, so far from the developed

regions of the United States that they were temporarily lost to it

during that conflict. They advanced to statehood only when the

Revolution and the War of 1812 were echoes of the past rather

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646       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

than formative influences. Even in their historical circles, the

early French explorations in which they were the center of the

stage loom larger than the men and the movements of the gen-

eration of the old Northwest Territory.

Turning, then, from Michigan and Wisconsin to the older

states which were the scene of conflict in the Revolution and

which fought as part of the United States in the War of 1812,

we found that Illinois had led the way in scientific study of the

acquisition of the Old Northwest by the United States. The pub-

lication of the Kaskaskia and the Cahokia Papers with illuminat-

ing introductions by Dr. Clarence W. Alvord, and the two volumes

of George Rogers Clark Papers edited by Dean James A. James

have made available a wealth of material as yet unapproached in

either of the states to the east. But so far as the Illinois public had

been reached, it seemed interested only from the point of view of

its own state. It had rescued the French settlements on the Missis-

sippi from historical oblivion and the state now confined its at-

tention to the historical exploitation of those particular sites. In

this it is handicapped by the fact that the Mississippi River, in-

constant as it is mighty, undermined old Fort Chartres and

changed its course by overflowing into the Kaskaskia River some

miles above its old mouth, so that most of the ancient French

village is in the bed of the Mississippi and the rest of it is on

a lonely island entirely surrounded by the Father of Waters.

Also, the highways which man has built have left this whole

region to one side, where its visitors are limited in number--

historically a relic of old French days rather than a memorial

of the beginnings of the great Northwest Territory.

In Ohio, more than in any of the other states, the tradi-

tion of the Old Northwest has survived, or perhaps it would

be truer to say, has from time to time been revived. This is

only what one would expect. Here was the "promised land" of

the Ohio Company for the winning of which the Ordinance

of 1787 was put through the Continental Congress. Here is

Marietta, the first seat and center of the government set up in

the "territory northwest of the River Ohio."  Here are the

battlefields on which were beaten down proud Indian tribes which

• 34
 

Report of the ₄₄th Annual Meeting           647

 

for more than a generation stained the frontier with blood. Ohio

has not been unmindful of this. It has erected a notable monu-

ment on the site of George Rogers Clark's victor) over the

Shawnee, commemorating the destruction of their village on the

Mad River from which raids had been made into Kentucky.

Near the northern boundary of the state, at Put-in-Bay, Oliver

H. Perry in the War of 1812 destroyed the English fleet which

up to that time had controlled the Great Lakes above Niagara.

This was by far the most decisive victory of the United States in

that unfortunate war. Ohio did not neglect to insure that the

centennial of that battle was fruitful of a memorial whose lines

embody and set forth the aspiration, the energy and the courage

which created Perry's fleet and led it through blunders and haz-

ards to glorious victory.

But is it not true that even in Ohio in the past decade, the

public generally is almost unconscious of the process by which the

United States acquired the Old Northwest? The battles in the

War of the American Revolution which made its acquisition cer-

tain are apparently regarded in the popular mind as matters

of local pride rather than as steps in the first march of

the states newly proclaimed independent toward the occu-

pation of the interior of the continent. The historical ex-

ploitation of these sites, desirable and patriotically stimulating as

it is, does not of itself engender that large intelligent conscious-

ness of the whole sweep of our development which it is one of the

missions of history to give. The organization of the territory and

the settlement of its eastern portion is here a better-known story.

The provisions made for the care and exhibition of the historical

landmarks and associations of Marietta are the admiration of

all visitors and, I can honestly say it, the envy of historical or-

ganizations elsewhere. Already, and none to early at that, con-

sideration is being given to the public and wide-spread observ-

ance of the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the beginnings of

the territorial organization and formal settlement of the Old

Northwest. But, so far as my own observations extend, I find

little public interest in the history or in the commemoration of the

• 35
 

648       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

acquisition of the territory, which to an outsider would seem

logically to precede the celebration of its organization.

When the Indiana Historical Society made a survey of its

own state, it found a wide-spread historical interest developed

in the celebration of the centennial in 1916 of its admission into

the Union. In addition to creating state pride this had rescued

from obscurity and suitably marked the site of George Rogers

Clark's home in Clarksville, just outside of Jeffersonville--the

only home of his own he ever had--the most permanent con-

nection he had with the great region he conquered. But it found

little popular consciousness of the fact that the West had been

the theatre of important operations during the Revolution--

almost no idea that the Northwest had then been acquired by the

United States. Among the hereditary societies the Indiana Society

of the Sons of the American Revolution has been holding its

annual dinner and meeting on February 25, the anniversary of

the surrender of Fort Sackville. The Daughters of the American

Revolution had previously given no special recognition to the ca-

reer and achievements of George Rogers Clark nor to the devel-

opment of the Revolution in the West.

One of the surprising things was that the earlier history of

the Old Northwest was so little known to the people of its

central state. George Rogers Clark, its central figure, was so

little known that he was usually confused with his younger

brother, William, of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Aside from

local considerations the expeditions of George Rogers Clark in

1778 and 1779 are of far greater importance in the history of the

United States as a whole; far more spectacular, far more dra-

matic, than the Lewis and Clark expedition, interesting as that is.

Yet when the first proposals were advanced for the commemora-

tion of the Revolution in the West by the erection of a memorial

in which George Rogers Clark was to receive recognition, the

response was apt to be a reference to the interest of the person

approached in the story of the Oregon country. If people living

in the heart of the Old Northwest betrayed this ignorance, per-

haps the Virginian can be excused who led an Indiana pilgrim

seeking the birthplace of George Rogers Clark near Charlottes-

• 36
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting         649

 

ville to a house bearing a marker inscribed "The Birthplace of

Meriwether Lewis."

The fact that the Old Northwest as a whole had a very slight

hold upon the minds of Indianans was demonstrated some years

ago when the State took no steps to participate in the erection of

the monument commemorating Perry's victory at Put-in-Bay. If

there had been any active consciousness of the significance and

unity of the region between the Ohio and the Great Lakes, In-

diana would certainly have been glad to give grateful recognition

to the victory which annihilated the British-Indian control of it

from which the whole frontier suffered.

The further progress of the commemorative movement to

which I have referred I will pass over rapidly. We turned to

political units rather than to historical organizations and the

voluntary interest of possible subscribers. In the course of a few

years the city of Vincennes and Knox County, of which it is the

county-seat, contributed more than $250,000 toward the purchase

of part of the site of Fort Sackville. A similar amount was de-

voted to the building of a boulevard from this site to Grouseland,

the historic home of William Henry Harrison, for a while gov-

ernor of Indiana Territory and then governor of Louisiana Ter-

ritory. The State of Indiana imposed a tax levy which produced

$400,000 for the completion of the purchase of the site of the

Fort and of the land necessary for a suitable park. The gov-

ernment of the United States in 1928 authorized an appropriation

of $1,000,000 for the erection of "a permanent memorial com-

memorating the winning of the Old Northwest and the achieve-

ments of George Rogers Clark and his associates in the War of

the American Revolution." The plan for the memorial was

chosen in an architectural competition running from October 12,

1929, to January 23, 1930. The winning design, by Frederick C.

Hirons of New York, is a classical model which gives every prom-

ise of producing one of the most notable historical shrines of the

United States.

My interest on this present occasion is not with the develop-

ment of this commemorative movement but with the revelation to

which it led of the absence of both knowledge of and interest in

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650        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

the subject of the Old Northwest. In previous generations this

subject occupied the attention of many writers, of historical so-

cieties and of other groups. This interest seems now to have

declined almost to the vanishing point. Its place perhaps has

been taken by the interest of each citizen in his own state. His-

torical societies have been organized within state lines and the

states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin severally

absorb the interest which earlier extended itself over the larger

territorial unit.

Surprised by this situation, I have been led to inquire if the

Old Northwest really did have, and does now have, any significant

unity. Are the earlier associations which clustered about the

Northwest Territory as a whole worth preserving? As the phil-

osophers would put it, is there any value today in the concept of

the Old Northwest?

I have come to the conclusion that the Old Northwest formed

such a definite geographical section and passed through so many

experiences common to the whole region that there is a great

loss, socially and historically, in ignoring its unity. There are

phases of our national history which cannot be understood, much

less satisfactorily taught, without taking into account the fact

that the people of the region between the Ohio and the Great

Lakes formed a group which had many interests and many dis-

tinctive characteristics of its own. Let me enumerate briefly some

of the factors which have led me to this conclusion. Their con-

sideration was to me a virtual rediscovery of the Old Northwest.

I. The Old Northwest holds a place in American history

as the first acquisition of land, the first territorial expansion of

the United States of America. As I have earlier asserted, when

the thirteen states declared themselves independent of Great

Britain the region northwest of the Ohio River was part of the

Province of Quebec. During the War of the American Revo-

lution or at least by the treaty which brought it to a close, this

region was acquired by the United States. Its acquisition insured

the opening of the interior of the continent to the new republic. I

need not emphasize here the importance it had as a bond of union

among the thirteen states at a time when they seemed to be des-

• 38
 

Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting         651

 

tined to fall asunder. Its possession as the common property of

the federal government acted as a cement to prevent the com-

plete disintegration of the confederacy. But more than this it

paved the way for the accession of territory beyond the Missis-

sippi. It was the first step of the new nation toward the Pacific.

It is possible that without the acquisition of the Old Northwest

the United States would have remained a seaboard nation, sur-

rounded by hostile colonial empires and that there would have

developed in North America, as there did in South America, a

considerable number of nations striving for aggrandizement

without any one of them attaining a commanding position. Of

the many movements and events which from the beginning con-

tributed to the present greatness of the United States, few are

more significant than the acquisition of the Old Northwest.

It is curious that this acquisition has not been celebrated as

have other subsequent acquisitions of territory, none of which,

significant though they were, approach this one in importance.

The centennial of the Louisiana Purchase was marked by the

project of a great World's Fair at St. Louis. The opening of

the Far Northwest was celebrated by the Lewis and Clark Ex-

position, which probably had much to do with the familiarity

of the public with the name of William Clark and the amalgama-

tion of George Rogers Clark with him in the popular mind. The

centennial of the acquisition of Florida was observed, in addi-

tion to other things, by a boom in real estate, the effects of which

reached all parts of the country.

Perhaps it was a mistake to expect the erection of a me-

morial at any one given place to commemorate in the mind of

the nation the addition of the Old Northwest to the United

States, but in this or in some other way the history and the sig-

nificance of this acquisition, the dramatic and heroic events

which led up to it, and the consequences which have grown out

of it, should be made known to the American people.

2. The organization by the United States of territories as

an intermediate stage between national domain and statehood was

an experiment first tried in the Old Northwest. It is not gen-

erally understood today how important this step was in the de-

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652        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

velopment of the American nation. The domain might have

been treated as government property to be held as a colony for

the benefit of the original parties of the union. The expansion

of the United States might have taken place through the exten-

sion of some or of all of the original states. It was only through

severe conflicts of opinion and of interest, through serious thought

and through gradual development that the idea of temporary

territories controlled by the federal government, differing from

colonies chiefly in the fact that they were temporary, came to

fruition. The Ordinance of 1787 has long been received as

second only to the Constitution of the United States in the place

it occupies in American history, but this importance has usually

been attached to the general principles of religious freedom,

popular education, and prohibition of slavery inserted into the

document. As a matter of fact, the establishment of these princi-

ples and their realization were affected not so much by the

Ordinance of 1787 as by the developments which took place in the

territories themselves. The provision for the governmental or-

ganization of the territory and for the subsequent creation of

sovereign states to be taken into the union on the same basis as

the thirteen original states was of greater political importance.

Provision has lately been made by the National Government

for the publication of a selection from the documents in Wash-

ington relating to the organization and development of the ter-

ritories from which states have been formed, especially from

those documents dealing with the relation of the Federal Gov-

ernment to the territories. When this collection is published it

will undoubtedly throw much light upon the development and

the working out of the plan by which the process of national

expansion has for the most part taken place. Outside the boun-

daries of the thirteen original states comparatively few of the

United States became a part of the nation without going through

a territorial stage. So important was the territorial organization

of parts of the West that it precipitated such conflicts as the

struggle over Kansas, not to speak of the earlier questions dealt

with in the Compromise of 1850.

It was in the Northwest Territory that the principles govern-

• 40
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          653

 

ing the later expansion of government in the United States were

worked out. Arthur St. Clair, William Henry Harrison and

Lewis Cass were the most important of the territorial governors.

They were empire-builders. The codes of law established for

the Old Northwest, the laws enacted by territorial legislatures

and the procedure of government were of importance not only

intrinsically but as precedents for subsequent times.

3. The pioneer history of all of this region has a distinct

unity. From revolutionary times, when settlers from the thir-

teen states began to come into it, down to the admission of Wis-

consin into the Union in 1848, the Old Northwest passed through

a stage of development much emphasized since Professor Fred-

erick J. Turner wrote The Frontier in American History.

During this period the frontier gradually moved northwest from

the Ohio River until the area of established settlements reached

Lake Superior and the upper Mississippi River. Throughout

its progress, to a very large degree, the same general conditions

prevailed. Varying Indian tribes confronted the settlers, but

their attitude toward the whites, their habits of life and their

methods of trade and of warfare were much the same. They

presented also a decided contrast both to the Indians upon the

Atlantic coast and to those of the western plains. The geograph-

ical and topographical features of the country were so nearly

uniform that the conditions under which the settlers lived were

largely the same. In most places the country was wooded and

well watered. The existence of some open prairies and of re-

gions where the water supply was not plentiful made some local

differences but not enough to distinguish any one of the present

states from the others.

The settlers who occupied this region have often been called

the "typical American pioneers." Though they were by no

means all of English descent, the German and other European

stock which came here had already been established within the

United States for a generation or two. Though the southern

part of the region was settled chiefly by immigrants from Ken-

tucky, Virginia and North Carolina, there was a considerable

immigration from Pennsylvania and from New England which

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654       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

settled not far from the Ohio River. And though the north-

ern part was settled more largely by those who came from New

York and New England, the two streams, from southeast and

from northeast, mingled and united without serious friction and

often without any visible distinction between them.

The early settlements also were made throughout the region

along the streams and in the timber. The first shelters in nearly

all instances were log cabins, an inauspicious type of house, but

one made necessary by lack of time and materials for better

habitations.

From the Ohio River to the Great Lakes the food supply

was very similar. Everywhere settlers depended upon corn,

cattle and hogs largely supplemented by wild game. The hard-

ships and the unhealthful conditions of life brought the same

prevalent ailments and the same heavy mortality from Marietta

to Madison and from Cleveland to Cairo.

When tracts of land had opened to settlement there was

the same struggle everywhere for improvement in the means of

transportation. Wagon roads were built slowly and with great

difficulty. The national road from Wheeling through Columbus,

Indianapolis and Vandalia to St. Louis became one of the coun-

try's greatest arteries of commerce and travel. Various roads

between the north and south, such as the famous Michigan road

in Indiana, occupied the attention of the government for years.

To some extent in all five of the present states, but especially in

Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, there were the same disastrous at-

tempts to develop canals connecting the lakes with the rivers

and improving and extending the navigation of streams.

4. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society

has led the way in the appreciation and the study of the prehis-

toric peoples of the Old Northwest. Before the time of the

white man, before the time of the Indian tribes with which he

was familiar, the Old Northwest was inhabited by Indians known

to us today chiefly through the mounds which they left. As these

remains in the states of the Old Northwest are studied, it is to

be hoped that problems as yet hardly understood may be solved.

If the story of the prehistoric cultures in this region can ever

• 42
 

Report of the ₄4th Annual Meeting           655

 

be told it will throw a great deal of light upon conditions of life

and the forces which shaped the destiny of man upon this con-

tinent. It is at any rate clear that the states of the Old North-

west are unavoidably united in a common effort to understand

the remote past.

5. History and economics cannot be kept entirely apart.

It is, therefore, allowable here to point out that the five states of

the Old Northwest throughout their history have had, and at

the present time have, many social, political and economic inter-

ests which are identical.

This part of the country has suffered from an unwarranted

opinion that the eastern seaboard and the far Pacific states mo-

nopolize all the elements of national interest. The "Middle

West" is generally looked upon as lacking not only picturesque-

ness, but all points of distinctive interest. One of the younger

members of the literary set in New York City, at the close of a

series of lecture engagements is said to have expressed himself

thus:

O pack my grip for a trip in a ship

Where the scenery at least is variable!

For East is East, and West is West

But the Middle West is terrible.

 

I need not point out that such a reputation is a distinct dis-

advantage to any region. In this case it is unmerited and un-

necessary.  Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin

possess in abundance, natural scenery, sites of archaeological and

historical interest, and records of achievement which need only

concerted publicity to replace apathy and indifference by a health-

ful, lively enthusiasm. But if the natives themselves are ignor-

ant of their heritage how can we expect easterners and far-

westerners to recognize it?

The heroic and dramatic history of the Old Northwest is

an asset too valuable to be neglected. It is the common property

of the whole region. Corn Island, now no longer visible in the

Ohio River; Kaskaskia, even in its altered topography; Vin-

cennes, with all of its romantic associations; Detroit, checkered

in its early career and marvelous in its recent industrial develop-

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656       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

ment; Marietta, Cincinnati, Springfield, Fallen Timbers, Put-in-

Bay and the many other historic sites in Ohio rich in associations

with the Revolution and the opening of the West; all of these

places illustrate chapters in a common history which should

attract the interest of present-day citizens and draw larger num-

bers of visitors.

The Old Northwest, also, faces agricultural and industrial

problems, and problems of transportation and communication

which call for concerted action. In the absence of a regional

consciousness these problems are apt to be neglected, not only

by the National Government, but by the states concerned. Per-

haps it is only a fancy, but sometimes there seems to be a cer-

tain significance in the fact that it was the Old Northwest, the

region of the "typical American pioneer," that has played the

leading part in the production of agricultural machinery, of rail-

road equipment, of the automobile and of the airplane. Is it

possible that this same region, where floods and experiments with

canals have been almost equally disastrous, may some day work

out a solution of flood-control and canalization?

However, it is not the purpose of this address to convert

historical societies into promotional agencies.  It is enough to

point out the fact, now seemingly escaping public attention, that

the Old Northwest has not only a great history, but a real his-

torical unity, and that there is good reason for preserving and

encouraging the consciousness of its unity.

After his formal address, Mr. Coleman made some re-

marks which he concluded as follows:

This region has a real unity today as much as it had in the

past, a unity which it would be well for us to take into account.

Out of this territory which we acquired during the War of the

American Revolution have been carved five states which contain

more than one-fifth of the population of the United States today,

nearly one-fourth of the wealth of the United States, three of

the five greatest cities of the United States, according to the last

census, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. It determined the bal-

ance of destiny in the time of the Civil War. It gave the Presi-

dent who guided the country in that crisis; the general who won

the war to maintain the Union; and it has been the central stone

• 44
 

Report of the 44th Annual Meeting          657

 

in the arch of American life, economic as well as historical, down

to our own time.

Secretary Galbreath then made the following re-

marks:

Mr. Chairman, it is not late yet. You will pardon a word.

I was greatly interested in Dr. Coleman's reference to the con-

fusion in regard to the two great Clarks in history. It brought

to my mind a confusion in the mind of a certain statesman of the

two great Perrys. In the dedication of a Perry Memorial at

Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie, the gentleman, in describing the re-

markable achievements of Oliver Hazard Perry, stated that

Perry almost equalled that achievement when he opened Japan

to the commerce of the civilized world. This statement was

made in a carefully prepared paper by a Vice President of the

United States who was a citizen, at the time, of Indiana, and a

college graduate, born and educated in Ohio. He confused Oliver

Hazard Perry with Matthew Calbreath Perry, whose name, by

the way, should have been Galbreath.

Let me say a few words further: Ohio is in some respects

the most important state of the Northwest Territory, but it has

not contributed any to the Great Clark Memorial that is to be

erected at Vincennes. I was disappointed, as many Ohioans

were, that an appropriation was not made for that very worthy

project. We were celebrating the Clark Sesquicentennial over

here in Ohio and that interfered a little. The matter to which

our friend referred--the failure of Indiana to aid in the erection

of the great Perry Memorial up at Put-in-Bay--may have had

its influence. Indiana did not participate but I think that is no

reason why Ohio should not aid now, and I trust that when the

Legislature assembles again it will find it is not too late to join

Indiana in this wonderful movement.

It is reported that President McKinley made a wise remark

in answer to a statement of a political friend of his in the tide of

politics here in Ohio. This enthusiastic friend came to McKinley

and said, "Now is a good time for you to get even with that

fellow. We have the upper hand of him." It is said that Mc-

Kinley replied "I have noticed that those people who are always

trying to get even with somebody never get far ahead of any-

body." So I don't think it is our time to get even with Indiana,

but our opportunity to manifest a broad, patriotic spirit and join

with the state of Indiana in this worthy enterprise.

The meeting then adjourned.

Vol. XXXIX--42.

• 45
 

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUS-

TEES OF THE OHIO STATE ARCHAE-

OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

 

SOCIETY BUILDING, COLUMBUS, OHIO,

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1930.

The Board of Trustees of the Ohio State Archaeo-

logical and Historical Society met in annual session pur-

suant to call at 1 o'clock p. m.

In the absence of President Johnson, Vice-President

George F. Bareis presided.

Trustees present: Bareis, Orton, Wood, Spetnagle,

Goodman, Florence and Hinkle. Director Shetrone and

Secretary Galbreath were also in attendance.

The meeting opened with a discussion in regard to

the beginning and ending of the terms of members of

the Board of Trustees. On motion of Mr. Goodman,

the President of the Society was authorized and re-

quested to appoint a committee of one to consider the ad-

visability of a change in the Constitution to fix the limit

and term of office of trustees and report to this board at

some future meeting.

The election of officers for the ensuing year was next

in order. Mr. Goodman moved that the following offi-

cers be placed in nomination: Arthur C. Johnson, Sr.,

President; George F. Bareis, First Vice-President; Ed-

ward Orton, Jr., Second Vice-President; Edwin F.

Wood, Treasurer; Henry C. Shetrone, Director; C. B.

Galbreath, Secretary. Mr. Goodman then moved that

(658)

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