Ohio History Journal

136   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

tainly have an interest in historical background. I hope that each

of these papers will be deposited with the secretary of this sec-

tion and I want to say that from what I have heard we will want

to publish as nearly all of them as possible. I would like to have

at least abstracts so that in the course of the year we can carry

this out and make the discussions a matter of record. The Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society was organized and is

supported by the state of Ohio with one specific function and

that is to collect and preserve Ohio history in every way.

We appreciate very much the sort of experiment that we have

had this year--a united historical interest of various types into

this one historical conference. This is no longer the meeting of

the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society--this is the

Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, the historical

society of the medical profession, the Columbus Genealogical

Society, and the general session of the history teachers of colleges

and universities of the State. As you know, the annual dinner of

the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society is to be held

at six-fifteen at the Faculty Club of the Ohio State University

and all of those participating in the conference are invited. Fol-

lowing the dinner will be an address by Mr. Grove Patterson,

editor of the Toledo Blade. Tomorrow morning there will be a

joint session of the Columbus Genealogical Society and the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society in the Auditorium of

the Museum. Those of you who can get away from your pro-

fession and be present are most cordially invited to attend.

DR. FORMAN: Is there any other business to come before the

group? Will all those appearing on the program kindly turn

their papers over to Dr. Paterson?

The session adjourned.

 

Annual Dinner Session of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, 6:1₅ P. M., April 7, Faculty Club,

O. S. U., H. C. Shetrone, Presiding

The Annual Dinner of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, held at 6:15 P. M., April 7, at the Faculty Club

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OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE: PROCEEDINGS         137

 

of the Ohio State University, was attended by over fifty persons,

representing the various organizations cooperating in the Ohio

History Conference. H. C. Shetrone, director of the Society,

presided, introducing Mrs. Janet Wethy Foley of Akron, New

York, who gave an address on "An Adventure in Genealogy,"

in which she related her own and her husband's experiences in

adopting genealogy as their profession.

 

 

General Session, 8:00 P. M., April 7, University Hall, O. S. U.,

Arthur C. Johnson, Sr., Presiding

The general session of the Ohio History Conference, held

Friday evening, April 7, in University Hall, Ohio State Uni-

versity, consisted of an address on "Tales of the Presidents, or

Gossip of History," delivered by the editor of the Toledo Blade,

Grove Patterson, enthusiastically introduced to an audience of

approximately two hundred persons by Arthur C. Johnson, Sr.,

president of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

Patterson warned his audience that what he had to say would

not be of great importance, that he would deal largely with

trivialities, but, he hoped, trivialities which would prove as in-

teresting to his hearers as they had to him.

After sketching briefly the rise and growth of political parties

in the United States, he turned to a survey of American Presi-

dents from George Washington to Theodore Roosevelt. An ac-

complished raconteur, he had evidently selected his material with

care, for the anecdotes which he related were all illustrative of

the thought which served as theme to his address: "The big

doors of history swing on little hinges." This they did, he as-

serted, at the time of Lincoln's election, caused in part at least

by these three apparently unrelated things: Stephen Douglas's

dislike of the climate of Cleveland; Lincoln's fatherly concern

over his son's poor academic record at Harvard; and Horace

Greeley's hatred of William H. Seward.

Patterson dwelt at some length on the career of Grant, whom

he considers the most interesting of all the Republican Presidents,

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