OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 239
moved that the members of the Society
assembled in annual busi-
ness meeting memorialize the members of
the General Assembly
and the members of the Finance Committee
in particular to make a
more careful study of the needs and
requirements of the Society
and give the biennial budget presented
more adequate considera-
tion and approval. The motion was
unanimously carried.
The Nominating Committee unanimously
recommended the
re-election of Arthur C. Johnson, Sr.,
Albert C. Spetnagel, and
George Florence to the Board of Trustees
for the regular three-year
terms from the date of election. The
Secretary was instructed
by the Chairman to cast the ballot for
each of the nominees.
Under miscellaneous business the
Secretary presented a brief
summary report concerning the activities
of local and regional
historical societies during the year.
REPORT ON LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
There seem to be fifty-six local,
regional and county historical societies
in existence in Ohio at the present
time. We have information indicating
that six local historical societies have
been organized during the year:
Alliance Historical Society; Defiance
Historical Society; Granville His-
torical Society; Lisbon Historical Society
(Columbiana County); New-
comerstown Historical Society; Bezaleel
Wells-Jefferson County Historical
Society.
In inviting all the societies to be
represented at the Annual Meeting,
a request was made that information be
given concerning outstanding ac-
tivities during the year. From reports
received the following facts are pre-
sented:
The outstanding activity of the Belmont
County Historical Society
during the year was the celebration of
the one hundredth anniversary of
the death of Benjamin Lundy with a
public meeting at St. Clairsville and
the unveiling of an historic tablet
erected on the St. Clairsville home of
Benjamin Lundy.
The Summit County Historical Society,
with headquarters at Akron,
has had a very worthwhile year. The
following is a summary of their
activities and certainly is suggestive
of what many other local historical
societies might do: more than doubled
their membership; created a me-
morial membership; sponsored an essay
contest on local history in the
history department of the University of
Akron (to be an annual award);
gave a reception for former Old Stone
School pupils at the Akron Art
Institute; sponsored a hobby and antique
show; celebrated the one hun-
240
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dredth birthday of Summit County at a
centennial banquet; carried on a
successful campaign to raise five
hundred dollars for the Restoration Fund
for the Old Stone School; made a special
effort to educate a wider public
to realize the importance of the work of
the historical society; and started
a series of bulletins of historical
data, the following already having been
issued--Historical Spots in Summit
County, Bibliography of Material about
Summit County History, and Historical Spots in Summit County Con-
nected with the War of 1812.
The Trumbull County Historical Society
reports as its chief activity
the completion of the interior
restoration of the John Starke Edwards-
Thomas D. Webb House in Warren.
The Western Reserve Historical Society's
most outstanding project
during the year has been the moving of
the society's museum into its new
building. A few of its collections which
had never been shown before are
now on exhibit. The library of the
society remains for the present in its
building on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland.
The old Bezaleel Wells Historical
Society at Steubenville, which
has not been functioning for a number of
years, has recently been reorgan-
ized under the name of the Bezaleel
Wells-Jefferson County Historical
Society. The new organization has
already taken steps to re-erect the old
land-office which was torn down many
years ago. However, at that time
the logs were saved and the office will
be set up on the property of the
county home.
The Newcomerstown Historical Society,
organized in January of this
year, has stated its purpose as
follows: (1) promotion of study and re-
search in the history of Ohio and
Newcomerstown and vicinity; (2) col-
lection, preservation, and publication
of facts about this area; (3) dis-
semination of historical information by
means of programs, newspaper
articles, cooperation with the schools
in the teaching of local history; (4)
cooperation with local libraries in the
building up of separate Ohio and
local history sections; (5) the
establishment of a local historical museum
when feasible; and (6) the marking of
places of local historic interest.
Its immediate interest is the erection
of a marker near the spot of the de-
livery of the first Protestant sermon in
the Northwest Territory by Rev-
erend Zeisberger, March 14, 1771.
The Ross County Historical Society
reports the following activities
during the past year: sponsored a
lecture by Dr. Wallace Nutting; con-
ducted tours of the museum by the
Standard Oil Company's "Let's Ex-
plore Ohio" group, and by members
of the Cleveland branch of the Na-
tional Archaeological Institute;
published the first issue of the Society's
bi-monthly bulletin The Recorder; held
a meeting commemorating the 121st
anniversary of the birth of William T.
McClintock, first president of the
society. Their most notable accession
during the past year was the William
T. McClintock Collection of historical
papers on early Ohio history, one
OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE:
PROCEEDINGS 241
item of which was a diary (1821-1826) of
Charles Willing Byrd, the last
Secretary of the Northwest Territory.
The Clark County Historical Society,
under the direction of Mr.
Arthur R. Altick, sent in a most
interesting report of the year's activities,
giving an account of additions to their
collections and a summary of ex-
ploration and field work. Mr. Altick
feels that the major accomplishment
during the past year was the inauguration
of an educational program in
connection with the public schools.
The Allen County Historical and
Archaeological Society's activities
are summarized in a very attractive and
model report submitted by the
Secretary, Mrs. Harry B. Longsworth.
Compiling historical records; com-
pleting data on Allen County's
ninety-eight cemeteries, on family records,
on Civil War diaries and Allen County's
incorporated societies have been
accomplished in addition to enlarging
and rearranging the society's mu-
seum.
A number of the local historical
societies had official representatives at
the annual meeting and it is hoped that
the representation will be in-
creased from year to year.
The next item on the program was a
paper by Dr. William
D. Overman, Curator of History.
THE RELATION OF A STATE HISTORICAL
SOCIETY TO
LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
By WILLIAM D. OVERMAN
Fifty years ago the president of the
Western Reserve Historical
Society addressed that organization on
the subject "New Methods of His-
tory".1 He praised the work of the
Johns Hopkins graduate school for
applying the scientific method to the
writing of monographs on American
history and government, and although
history is not an exact science, this
method has been pursued by American historians for over half a
century.
Original sources have been
re-interpreted in the light of new evidence and
views cherished by former generations
have been changed in the light of
modern research. But "each age
interprets the past to suit its own pur-
poses",2 and whether we
continue to write so-called "objective history" by
the scientific method, or whether we
adopt a philosophy of history, and it
appears that we are tending in the
latter direction, we must retain the
1 Charles C. Baldwin, "New Methods
of History," Western Reserve Historical
Society, Tracts, No. 78
(Cleveland, 1891), 209-13.
2 Carl
Becker, Everyman His Own Historian (New York, 1935), 169-70.