Ohio History Journal

HISTORICAL NEWS

Historical Societies

 

DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Delaware

Wilbur Main, President

The society has been holding regular monthly meetings on the

third Monday of each month. At the meeting in February R. B.

Powers gave a paper on genealogy. Mrs. John J. Swickheimer

spoke at the March meeting on the early history of Radnor

Township.

In April the first number of a mimeographed bulletin was

published for the purpose of publicizing the society by describing

its aims and early programs.

 

HAYES MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, Fremont

Watt P. Marchman, Director of Research

Certain physical improvements at the Hayes Memorial Library

and Museum, long needed and very much welcomed, include instal-

lation of asphalt-tile covering on two main floors in the building,

and the installation of five modern museum cases. The new cases

contain displays pertaining to the life and times of President and

Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes.

Accessions to the museum and library during the past three

months include the following: an iron spur and a small mallet from

the Civil War period, presented to the museum by Sidney Miller,

Fremont; a file of the Chicago Daily Times, August 1876-January

1877; a file of the New York Weekly Tribune, January 1880-

December 1882; the records of the Matinee Musical Club of

Fremont, 1903-35, 5 vols., deposited in our library by Harriet

Billau, Fremont; 99 original letters from various correspondents

addressed to George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly,

1877-84, and 26 miscellaneous pamphlets on the election of 1884,

and 40 newspaper clippings from his library; an original letter

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HISTORICAL NEWS                    315

 

written by Lucy Webb Hayes to Laura P. Mitchell, June 25, 1881;

and a holograph letter of R. B. Hayes to J. R. Hawley, November

28, 1876.

Photostat and microfilm copies of source materials added to

our library manuscript collections include photocopies of 24 letters

and several notes written by R. B. Hayes, Lucy Webb Hayes, and

Webb C. Hayes, I, 1865-89, to General and Mrs. James M. Comly,

from the Comly Collection in the library of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society; microfilm copy of the R. B.

Hayes and Sardis Birchard letters, 1850-92, in the Guy M. Bryan

Collection, Archives Collections of the University of Texas Library;

photostat copies of a letter by R. B. Hayes to B. F. Jackson, May

16, 1889, and a warranty deed, R. B. Hayes to W. B. Kridler, Jr.,

March 28, 1890, courtesy of the Clyde Public Library, Clyde;

photostat copies of letters from R. B. Hayes to Salmon P. Chase,

March 21, April 11, and June 29, 1861, from the Salmon P. Chase

Papers, Library of Congress; photostat copies of 3 Hayes letters to

Dr. Charles F. Thwing, April 3, May 22, 1891, and to Dr. E.

Bushnell, April 8, 1891, in the library of Western Reserve Univer-

sity, Cleveland; and a microfilm copy of the rare book by John

Wallace, entitled The Carpet Bag Rule in Florida (Jacksonville,

Fla., 1888), courtesy of Mrs. Alberta Johnson, Librarian, Florida

Historical Society.

 

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Cincinnati

Virginius C. Hall, Director-Librarian

This organization celebrated its annual spring meeting with a

special exhibit on the Ohio River at the Taft Museum. The exhibit

was opened on April 29 with an evening meeting of the society and

friends at the Taft Museum. Display materials for the exhibit from

the collections of the society were supplemented by contributions

from citizens of Cincinnati and boat models from the River Museum

in Campus Martius Museum, Marietta. These models were shown

through the courtesy of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer River

Men and the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

[The editor of this Quarterly would like to call to the attention

of its readers the new Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical

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316   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Society. Edited by Lee Shepard, it has been enlarged and presents

a new format. The April issue of 64 pages is devoted to the

history of the Ohio River and its tributaries and contains sixteen

plates of river scenes and related subjects.]

 

HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF OHIO

H. B. Diefenbach, State President and Chaplain General

The society held its midyear social meeting in Akron on April

5. The meeting was well attended. The annual meeting will be

held September 18 in Mansfield.

 

KNOX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Mt. Vernon

Charles V. Critchfield, President

Robert C. Wheeler, newspaper librarian of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, gave an address before the

society on March 23 on the subject, "Old Firearms." A display

of his own collection and of other firearms brought from the Ohio

State Museum was supplemented by the collections of H. F. Hitch-

cock, J. B. Blackburn, D. W. Horn, and Carl Barcus, all of Knox

County.

 

LOGAN COUNTY ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

Bellefontaine

Guy W. Furbay, Secretary

Present officers of the society are Herman C. Marmon, presi-

dent; Raymond LeVan, vice president; Guy W. Furbay, secretary;

Guy Inskeep, secretary.

It is planned to enlarge the monthly bulletin and publish it

annually.

 

MAHONING VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Youngstown

Donald J. Lynn, President

The officers of the society for the present year are the following:

Donald J. Lynn, president; Mrs. Henry A. Butler, first vice presi-

dent; Joseph G. Butler, III, second vice president and assistant

treasurer; Mrs. Franklin B. Powers, third vice president; Mrs.

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HISTORICAL NEWS                         317

 

Ernest A. Goodman, recording secretary; Ada M. Rogers, corre-

sponding secretary; James L. Wick, Jr., treasurer.

The membership of the board of trustees was recently increased

from nine to twenty four.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society was organized Sep-

tember 10, 1875, and was incorporated under the laws of Ohio,

November 19, 1909. Its museum is located in the Reuban McMillan

Library, Youngstown.

 

 

THE OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

Columbus

Erwin C. Zepp, Director

At the annual meeting of the society, April 16, Dr. Carl Wittke,

dean of the graduate school, Western Reserve University, and

Captain Frederick Way, authority on the history of America's

rivers, were honored with life membership for their respective con-

tributions toward the preservation of Ohio's history. Dr. Francis

P. Weisenburger of the department of history, the Ohio State Uni-

versity, presented Dr. Wittke for the honor with the following

testimonial:

Carl Wittke is a native of Columbus and a graduate of the Ohio State

University. He received his master's and doctor's degrees from  Harvard

University. His academic career has been one of notable service to the state

of his birth. Beginning as an instructor in history at the Ohio State Univer-

sity in 1916, he rose rapidly to become professor and chairman of the

department from 1927 to 1937. Since then he has been professor of history

and dean at Oberlin College, and on May 1 he will become dean of the

graduate school of Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

He is the author of seven historical volumes, including a History of

Canada which has been issued in various editions both in Canada and the

United States; the standard history of the minstrel stage in the United States,

Tambo and Bones; and the best history of immigrant groups in this country,

We Who Built America. He is also the editor of Essays in History and

Political Theory, contributed in honor of Professor Charles H. McIlwain of

Harvard.

A leader of the historical profession, he has served as an editor of

various historical journals and as president of the Mississippi Valley Historical

Association. By appointment of Governor John Bricker he became chairman

of the Ohio War History Commission.

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318    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

He has also given unreservedly of his time and abilities for the advance-

ment of this society, which published his German-Americans and the World

War. Under the auspices of the society he was editor of the six-volume

History of the State of Ohio which is widely acclaimed as a model for

American state histories. He has contributed five articles and numerous book

reviews to the Quarterly. As a member of the board of editors and of the

board of trustees of the society he was ever alert to the responsibilities of his

position.

Hence on this occasion honor is paid to one who as an inspiring teacher,

a distinguished author, and a gifted administrator has added luster to his

alma mater, to his profession, and to the society which tonight pays him

homage.

 

Dr. William H. Hildreth of the English department, the Ohio

State University, presented Captain Way, reading the following

statement:

Captain Frederick Way, a Pennsylvanian, is in the highest sense a

citizen of the Ohio Valley. He has made history on its rivers and has written

history on their shores. He attended college at the University of Cincinnati

and at Carnegie Institute of Technology. But the school was too near the

river; he could still hear the steam-boat whistles. Soon he was steersman

on the Eugene Dana Smith. Since then he has always been on or near the

river. He has owned the Betsy Ann and the General Wood. He has piloted

tow boats on all the western waters. Recently he brought the stern-wheeler

Delta Queen up the Mississippi and up the Ohio to take her place in the river

traffic and he has been in charge of her outfitting and testing.

He has written three popular books which record life on the western

waters: The Log of the Betsy Ann; The Allegheny, of the Rivers of America

Series; and Pilotin' Comes Natural. Both river men and historians know

and respect his directories of river transportation: Way's Steamboat Directory;

Western Rivers Towboat Directory; and the Inland River Record.

He has been a leader in the preservation of the great valley's history.

He is a founder of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer River Men and of the

River Museum, a part of Campus Martius Museum at Marietta. He was

technical advisor in the setting up of the river museum. Much of the

material preserved therein was collected or donated by Captain Way, including

photographs from his great collection and models which he has built of

historic boats.

This society, therefore, tonight makes manifest its gratitude and respect

for the work of Captain Frederick Way.

 

Mr. E. Y. Wolford, a member of the historical society now

living in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, calls our attention to the hoax

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HISTORICAL NEWS                      319

 

of the Horn Papers. In 1945 the Greene County Historical Society,

Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, published the Horn Papers: Early

Westward Movement on the Monongahela and Upper Ohio, 1765-

1795, three volumes. The first volume purports to have come from

the diaries of Jacob Horn and his son Christopher and other

important original documents of the third quarter of the eighteenth

century.   The second contains more than 500 histories and

genealogical records of early families in the region.

Like many other publications, this Quarterly carried a review

recommending the Horn Papers (LV[1946], 307-308). Dr. Julian

P. Boyd, librarian of Princeton University, however, questioned the

authenticity of the documents. An investigation was urged by him

and Dr. A. P. James of the University of Pittsburgh. Thereupon,

a committee was organized under the sponsorship of the Institute

of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia.

After a full examination this committee reported as follows:

In view of the fact that intensive investigation failed to discover a shred

of evidence to substantiate the authenticity of the documents and, on the

contrary, found convincing evidence of their spuriousness, it is our opinion that

the primary material in The Horn Papers is a fabrication and therefore that

historians and genealogists ought not to rely on any data in Volumes I and II.

The interesting story of the exposure of this fraud in American

historiography is told in an article by Arthur Pierce Middleton and

Douglass Adair, "The Mystery of the Horn Papers," in the William

and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., IV, No. 4 (October 1947), 409-445.

 

STARK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Canton

E. T. Heald, Secretary-Treasurer

The Second Annual Report, January 1948, was published

recently by the society. It reviews the program for the past year.

The chief research project was the examination of records on the

laying out and incorporation of the various cities, towns, and

villages of Stark County. The historical committee has continued

to emphasize the collecting of family and church histories. Twelve

family histories, fifteen biographical sketches, and forty-one church

histories were received. Other historical records and items donated

to the society during 1947 totaled 940.

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Three quarterly publications were issued. The society also

published E. T. Heald's Bezaleel Wells, Founder of Canton and

Steubenville, Ohio, and assisted in the publication of Mary Jane

Richeimer's A Century in Education, the story of Massillon's public

schools.

The society gave a series of broadcasts over radio station

WHBC on the history of Stark County cities, towns, and villages.

This series will continue in 1948.

As of January 1, 1948, the society had 358 members, a gain

of 163 through the year.

 

 

WARREN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Lebanon

Gardner Townsley, President

The annual Historic Pilgrimage to old homes of Warren

County will be held on June 19 and 20. A special historical section

will be printed in the Western Star of Lebanon in connection with

the pilgrimage.

Meetings of the society are being held on the fourth Monday

of each month with speakers on subjects of historical interest.

 

 

WOMAN'S CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION, Marietta

Mrs. Nelle Greene, President

Officers of the association are Mrs. Nelle Greene, president, and

Mrs. Frank K. Schafer, vice president. Meetings are held on the

first Monday of the month, October through April.

 

About Historians

Dr. Freeland K. Abbott of the department of history of Miami

University will teach at Tufts College during the summer session.

Dr. William E. Smith will do research work in Philadelphia

and Washington, D. C., in the summer.

 

 

Dr. Louis Filler of Antioch College has accepted an invitation

from the department of history of the College of the City of New

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HISTORICAL NEWS                    321

 

York to teach at its summer session. He will also engage in research

while in New York.

 

Dr. George A. Washburne, chairman of the department of

history of the Ohio State University, died suddenly May 11. He

joined the department in 1918 as associate professor and became

chairman in 1938.

Dr. Harold J. Grimm was named acting chairman to serve the

remainder of the quarter.

Members of the department who have summer appointments

at other schools are: Dr. Grimm, University of Texas; Dr. Earl J.

Beck, University of Kentucky; Dr. Paul A. Varg, Colgate Univer-

sity; and Dr. Everett Walters, Ohio University.

 

Three members of the history staff at Wilberforce College of

Education and Industrial Arts contributed historical articles during

the first quarter of the year: President Charles H. Wesley, "Inter-

racial Aspects of the Negro's status in the United States," in Negro

History Bulletin, XI, No. 5 (February 1948), 108, 113-118; John

C. Alston, "Atlanta," in Ebony, III, No. 3 (January 1948), 19-24;

Reid E. Jackson, "The 'New' Wilberforce," in The Crisis, LV, No. 3

(March 1948), 74-77, 92-93.

 

Mrs. Annette Fitch Nelson of Jefferson was given special honor

and recognition at the Ohio State Conference of the Daughters of

the American Revolution, held recently at Toledo. Mrs. Nelson

was honored for her weekly broadcasts on historical subjects which

she has been giving over radio station WIVA, Ashtabula, for the

past ten years.

 

Dr. Albert T. Volwiler, chairman of the department of history,

reports that "Ohio University and the state department of education

will again sponsor next October a statewide contest among high

school students in the field of Ohio history, government, and citizen-

ship. Such an educational program yields returns which are difficult

to measure. Last year more than 5,000 high school youths took

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322   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the preliminary elimination test, and, of these, 105 took the final

essay examination. All did some thinking and reading about this

subject. Teachers in this field were also benefited. Books brought

home to read were frequently discussed and read by members of

the family of a contestant. If we assume that on an average each

student read two books in this field and that often his close asso-

ciates read all or parts of them, then the equivalent of approxi-

mately 15,000 readings in Ohio history, government, and citizen-

ship resulted. Such reading cannot help but leave some deposit

in the form of a greater interest and activity in behalf of good

government and an appreciation of the heritage left to our citizens."

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