Ohio History Journal

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the intriguing thing about Grant's career being that his fame

rested largely on his military achievements though Grant himself

was a man who neither liked war nor, on the technical side at

least, knew very much about it.

Speaking in a pleasing, staccato manner, Patterson captivated

his audience with his fund of seldom-heard stories, the interest-

ing sidelights he threw on well-known historic events, and his

ability to sum up in a few revealing words the personalities of

our Presidents.

Most of his tales were humorous ones, appreciation for which

was shown in the repeated laughter heard in the hall. One of

his most effective stories was that of the interview granted, per

force, to Anne Royall, intrepid newspaper woman of the early

nineteenth century, by John Quincy Adams, who bathed in the

Potomac while the dauntless reporter waited on the bank and,

seated on the presidential habiliments, noted down Adams' grudg-

ing replies to her questions on the United States Bank.

Hearty applause marked the conclusion of Patterson's lecture.

Speaking for himself, the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Society, and attenders of the Ohio History Conference,

Johnson thanked Patterson for the stimulating and entertaining

evening he had given his listeners.

 

General Session, 10:00 A. M., April 8, Ohio State Museum,

Frank A. Livingston, Presiding

The first speaker of the morning was Miss Mary A. Stone,

of Cambridge, Ohio, president of the Guernsey County Historical

Society, and a teacher for fifty-one years.

 

GENEALOGY: A STUDY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

By MARY A. STONE

The work of an historical society becomes more important as the

years pass. The pioneers who saw the beginnings are gone, and their

children who heard from their elders' lips the stories of the past are going

very rapidly. In the future, history must be written by the younger gen-

eration. The writers must make thorough scientific research and investi-

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gation. The full meaning of any movement is not understood by the actors

in the movement. Time gives perspective that enables interpretation. The

duty of the present day historical society is two-fold: to collect and pre-

serve records and to inspire the younger generation to further research

and. the writing of history. Each must interpret his own time by under-

standing the past. A great opportunity and a great responsibility is ours.

We are citizens of the vast Mississippi basin. A wise man said some forty

years ago: "This wide territory has furnished to the American spirit

something of its own largeness" and "this sense of space is an explanation

of many features in American character."

Many years ago a famous scholar from University of Cambridge,

England, said, as he looked over our wide prairies, rolling hills and noble

streams: "This will become the seat of the greatest empire the world has

ever known." He did not know American ideals, aspirations or traditions.

He little dreamed of the influence of the wide open spaces upon the

American spirit and the love of freedom.    He could not foresee our

democracy. The Middle West is a powerful factor in the nation. Immi-

gration played its part. Ports in the northern colonies were not open to

all peoples and religions, so many in the early years landed in Pennsyl-

vania, Virginia and Maryland, and as immigration moves on parallels

and the colonies where they landed were fast filled up, Scotch-Irish, Eng-

lish, Welsh, French and other Europeans, soon came to the West and the

Mississippi basin became the "melting pot of America." Assistant Attorney

General McMahon said recently: "The source of our power is the protec-

tion of our individual rights" and a writer on national defense declares "the

best way to promote world peace and good will is to make the American

experiment more and more successful." This gives great importance to

the development of personality. That has ever been a serious problem to

parents and teachers. I am old-fashioned enough to believe in heredity;

the best personality, I believe, is one in which the influences of heredity

and environment are well balanced and blended.

America needs now more than she has ever needed before, a return

to the ideals of her founders, "the faith of our fathers."

 

"We must safe-guard her standards

The vision of her Washington,

The martyrdom of her Lincoln

With the patriotic fervor of the Minute Men

And the soldiers of her glorious past."

 

Why study genealogy?     It seems unnecessary to explain to this

audience.

Dr. O. W. Holmes said, "Every man is an omnibus in which all of

his ancestors ride." Is it not worth while to be acquainted with our pas-

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sengers?    I heard a new reason a few days ago. A Cambridge man, Mr.

A, who likes history and scorns genealogy was passing the home of his

friend, Mr. B, one morning. Mr. B rushed out to show his friend his lineage

which he had just received from one of the bureaus that offers to send

your family tree for $2 or more. Mr. A looked at it and said, "What

value is it to you?" Mr. B answered, "Well, I expect some day to go over

there and I should like to know whom I am going to meet."

There is a foolish vain pride of ancestry that collects famous names

and boasts of rank and wealth but there is a proper pride in ancestors of

high ideals, of loyalty, courage and industry, ancestors of noble ideas and

deeds. I see no dividing line between genealogy and history. History is

the activity of the people who were living at the time described.

We should honor in our lineage not only heroes and persons notable

but also the faithful toilers who lived, worked and died "unhonored and

unsung." American youth need to know the joy of working and of

bearing one's part in the general welfare. Once a worn out teakettle lay

in the corner of a shed with some disabled and dismantled locomotives.

The teakettle said, "Well, brothers, don't be downhearted; we played a

useful part in our day and may comfort ourselves thinking of our achieve-

ments." "What is that old tin-whistle talking about over there in the

corner? Who are his brothers?" said one locomotive. "Let me tell you,"

said the teakettle, "with all your pride you will not own me as a brother;

I am your father and mother, for whoever would have heard of a locomo-

tive, if it had not been for a teakettle?"

The Latin poet, Horace, had no pride of ancestry because his father

was a Roman slave, but those who pointed the finger of scorn at him died

in obscurity, while the poet is immortal.

The Chinese have held longer to their unchanging traditions than

any other people through an ancestor worship of a mistaken type.

The Athenian youths were very early sworn to uphold the ideals of

their fathers.

The Bible is full of genealogies, and there we find an illustration of

the passing of it over to the children. In orthodox homes of the Hebrews

a portion of the Scripture was placed in a tiny box or case, fastened to the

side of the door frame and each member of the family as he passed

through the door, touched the box with the finger tip and remembered the

sacred words; the little ones were required to repeat them aloud. At the

Passover, in each home, when the ceremonials are over the youngest boy

present asks of the oldest man, "Father, what mean these things?" and the

history and interpretation are given in detail.

Alfred the Great, famous Saxon king, required the monks to trace

his lineage back to Adam and write it in the old Saxon Chronicle; there

it is today--if you can get your line to Alfred, you can go on to Adam.

The old English also passed the traditions over to youth. Those who

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had the allotting of lands took with them lads whom they whipped with

rods as they went round the lots, so they would remember the boundaries.

This was called "beating the bounds."

I heard a speaker say the Pueblo Indians near Santa Fe had kept more

of their original traditions and customs than any other American Indians.

A picture painted at the artist camp near-by will explain that--it is the

"Solemn Pledge"--two tall dignified Indians stand in the foreground. Be-

fore them  is a twelve-year old boy, with serious face; he is pledging

himself to keep the ancient tradition. A younger boy stands by him drink-

ing in every word. When his time comes, I am sure he will pledge himself

gladly. Dr. Jay H. Nash of University of New York wrote recently: "No

great nation has developed leisure and lived. Get a hobby!" What more

fascinating hobby than genealogy?

When I was invited to speak here today, it was suggested that I give

some of my own experience. If I give too much of the personal, pray

pardon me on account of that request. I shall speak first of home experi-

ence as we were the children I knew best, and we were just ordinary

children; what would interest us would be interesting to other children. I

always feel sorry for children who grow up without the association with

their grandparents. It is perhaps because we were so unusually blessed

with them, that my sister and I became fascinated with both history and

genealogy. Our parents died in their thirties, but all four grandparents

lived to be more than the three score and ten. We lived with our father's

parents, and, my grandmother's older sister, "Auntie" Bassett, lived with

us and mothered us through our childhood.     Besides, we visited our

mother's parents and two great grandmothers and one great grandfather--

three golden weddings among them, which we helped to celebrate! What

stories they could tell! How we delighted in them! Grandma and Auntie

told about their journey to Ohio in 1828, from Keene, New Hamp-

shire, by big wagon to Troy, New York, by Erie Canal to Buffalo, by

Lake Erie in a great storm to Sandusky and again big wagon to what is

now Keene, Coshocton County, Ohio; of the grandfather left in the New

Hampshire home, lame from a wound at Bunker Hill; of the other grand-

father, a Minute Man at Lexington and Concord, and of his wife born in

the Wayside Inn which her grandfather built. Our grandfather told of

his Civil War experiences, of his father in 1812 and his grandfather with

Washington at Valley Forge, and how his tiny grandmother rode horse-

back from Culpepper, Virginia, to Valley Forge with supplies for her hus-

band and brothers, and how from York, Pennsylvania, she carried a letter

to General Washington, which told of a plot against him. We saw and

handled pewter plates, samplers and other heirlooms. We had candle

moulds and Grandma made some "tallow dips" for us. Grandpa tapped a

maple tree and let us make some maple sugar. He sowed a patch of flax

in our back yard and went through all the processes to the linen thread. I

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am sure you have guessed why I am telling all this. These are the things

children love to hear and see--true stories of olden times, heirlooms and

how things were done in the past. We should keep alive an interest in the

life and customs of olden time. Every child in Ohio should visit the Mu-

seum here, Schonbrunn and Marietta. Every high school boy and girl should

see Washington, D. C.

In the teacher-training department at Muskingum College in our social

studies classes, we required the teachers to develop a project they could

use in future in their schools. Some made scrap-books, some, collections of

pictures, card board villages of Indians or Pilgrims, etc. One Muskingum

County teacher made a collection of old time implements. Every boy who

saw it had to try the flail and then he would say, "It took a strong man to

thrash grain with that." A young man from Tuscarawas County began a

miniature Schonbrunn; he completed one cabin, the church and school; and

his pupils were to complete the project. Do you think children cannot

understand or appreciate these things? I fear we often underrate their

abilities in that line. Bobby, aged eight, used to come to enjoy my bird

books, readers, etc. One day I found him flat on the floor poring over a

Compendium of the Institute of American Genealogy. When I asked what

he was doing, he said he had a picture he wished I would explain--it was

an elaborate coat-of-arms in colors. I told him what I could about it and

to his surprise, his father brought out his family arms. Bobby brought it

over and together we studied its symbols and he kept it as a sort of mea-

sure of conduct and I believe it has helped him to become the fine young

man that he is now. In 1904, my sister and I took our five-year-old niece

to the St. Louis Exposition. One of her favorite places to visit each day

was the Independence Bell. One morning as we stood looking at it, the

policeman on guard said to us, "Let the little girl go under the rope and

put her hands on the bell." Margaret did not wait for us to tell her but

slipped quickly under the rope and patted the bell as though it were alive.

The policeman said a few days before he saw a little three-year-old boy

eyeing him as if, were he out of sight, he would do something, so he turned

his back and then turned quickly--the little boy had crept under the rope

and kneeling, was kissing the old bell. The guard said he had made up

his mind that all the little folks should have an opportunity to touch

the bell.

Last November I had some research at the Congressional Library;

before leaving, I visited once more the shrine of the Declaration of Inde-

pendence. As I stood before it thinking what the Signers must have felt,

the guard who has been there seven years said to me: "You love it, so do

I, but so many people care nothing about it. Very little children look at

it with awe and speak of it in whispers. From about the second grade to

the seventh, the children are interested and enthusiastic. From there on

through high school they are increasingly indifferent. I wonder why. Do

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you know?" I told him I did not know but I had some guesses--that

teachers become so accustomed to the same patriotic stories, they speak

without the enthusiasm they should feel and use. Some, impressing young

people with their own superiority, belittle the subject enshrined and, too,

the debunking of so many sacred things by newspapers does much harm.

As I came away he lifted his cap and said: "Thank you, you have given

me something to think about." I have thought about it, too, since, and I

think perhaps I omitted an important item. The high school boy does not

parade his emotions; perhaps his indifference, his flippant remark hide

real feeling.

In Washington, D. C., twin boys aged twelve won a contest for the

best verses on "Why I Love and Respect the Flag." Did they understand?

Listen !

"It's something that she stands for

That makes my heart beat fast;

It's the memory of her greatness,

The spirit of the past.

 

"A spirit great and glorious

That comes down through the years;

It makes my heart beat wild with joy

And eyes fill up with tears."

In August, 1936, I was retired after fifty years of teaching, the last

twenty-two years being in the teacher-training department of Muskingum

College. In order to be affiliated with the Teachers' Retirement Fund I was

required to teach an extra year. The Cambridge School Board gave me the

privilege and I taught my last--my fifty-first year, in a different building,

but on the same ground I taught my first. My position was an extra one--

I believe they called such jobs in the Revolutionary War supernumeraries.

Among other things, I had five classes of eighth grade boys and girls

in civics. The text-book was hard and dry, statistical; the students did not

like it. So we put into it a lot of local material--I had them draw North-

west Territory, Ohio, and the counties and roads, Guernsey County, the plat

of Cambridge in 1806, when all the streets were named for trees, and the

plat with twice as many lots in 1830. We had the photostat of the land

grant, too, giving the land, on which Cambridge is situated, to her founders,

Zaccheus A. Beatty and Zaccheus Biggs, signed November 6, 1801, by

Thomas Jefferson, President, and James Madison, secretary of state.

While we did this, we had stories of the founding of the town and organi-

zation of the county. Some of them were descendants of pioneers and

brought in items of interest. This brought in genealogy and the pupils were

greatly interested; some brought in books of family history. One boy said:

"Oh, Miss Stone, I haven't any ancestors." Thereupon another one com-

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mented: "Like Topsy, he just growed up." I understood and said: "Your

father came from England?" "Yes." "Well, ask him about his people in

England." He did and his father had an English sister send the boy a

chart, then the boy who didn't have any ancestors had plenty of them.

We were looking forward to the Northwest Territorial Celebration

and a few minutes each day were given to current news about it. One item

that attracted much attention was to the effect that our roads being harder,

the ox team must be shod and how was it to be done. One boy referred

the question to his father and was told: "Your grandfather drove oxen, ask

him." Next morning the boy was there bright and early and he had a shoe

for an ox. Most of the boys and girls asked if it were broken, not think-

ing that for a cloven hoof a shoe is in two pieces.

In the spring of 1937, Cambridge celebrated the centennial of its incor-

poration; the Chamber of Commerce asked that the schools take some part.

The principals met and decided I should do the work. So while a substi-

tute met my classes, I went about to the elementary schools and gave six-

teen talks on the history of Cambridge. The children gave excellent atten-

tion and their interested faces and enthusiastic reception I can never forget.

Then the teachers asked for it in permanent form and I carefully prepared

this little book. Any labor or time I gave to its preparation or of the talks

has been richly repaid by their appreciation. One mother of a first grade

girl told me that the little one showed visitors her little history first and

then her dolls.  One rainy Saturday evening not long ago, someone

knocked at my door and there was a little boy, his face streaked with tears.

He said a little cousin had visited him that day and had liked the "little

Cambridge book" so much his mother had given his to the visitor. When

she found how her boy grieved at its loss, she sent him to see if I had any

more. I sent him away happy with another book.

The Northwest Territory Celebration resulted with us in the forma-

tion of a Pioneer Club and then the Guernsey County Historical Society.

I wish to give you an idea of one of our plans. We are planning to enter-

tain small groups of young people in each township; several of us will be

there with something historical to show and talk about. A friend who is

an invalid and cannot take part in this has promised to lend me for my

first party one of her treasures--a cannon ball picked up on the battlefield

after Braddock's defeat.

 

"What are all the prizes won

To Youth's enchanted view?

And what is all that man has done

To what the boy can do?"

 

It is my sincere belief after years spent in the schoolroom, that the

Youth of America is today as fine and true and noble as the world has ever

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known. Entrust the future to them. Teach them ideals of service and of

Christian citizenship. They'll not fail us. Throw them the lighted torches

and these will grow brighter as they climb the heights to endless day.

Said our beloved poet:

 

"The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."

and Emerson,

"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

So near is God to man,

When duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'

The youth replies, 'I can.'"

The second speaker of the morning was Mrs. Helen C. Hill

Sloan of Marietta, Ohio.

 

THE LURE OF THE PIONEER

By MRS. HELEN C. HILL SLOAN

 

PRESIDENT LIVINGSTON, MEMBERS OF THE COLUMBUS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

AND FRIENDS:

I bring you greetings from the little settlement at the confluence of

the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. There for over one hundred and fifty

years we have carried on our New England traditions, under the giant elms

and maples, which our pioneer forefathers, and successive generations, have

planted and cared for.

We hope you will all drive down to Marietta this spring, the red-bud,

and dog-wood along the way will be beautiful. Summer or fall, we will

have many things that will interest you, historically and genealogically.

I have been asked to tell of some phases of my work in Washington

County. As historian and genealogist for the Marietta chapter, Daughters

of the American Revolution, and member of the State Historical Activities

Committee of the Colonial Dames of America, it has been my duty to

acquaint myself with the various sources of information available in this

section.

Our court and church records date from the beginning of the settle-

ment in 1788. Local histories, private collections of manuscripts, letters, and

genealogies, including the journals of Rufus Putnam and the proceedings of

the Ohio Company, furnish accurate data and enable us to go back beyond

the Revolution to early colonial times.

It has been my especial interest to collate the lines of descent of these

early pioneers, in order that their names and deeds may be preserved and

their pedigrees established, and made available back to the immigrant ances-

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