I grew up in a small town in northern Ohio named New London. There were 2,000 residents and one stop light. I noticed when I was in elementary school, that many of the adjacent towns shared names with towns in Connecticut. Also, it took me years to say the names correctly, I said Greenwich (Green-which) as in Ohio, instead of Greenwich (Gren-ich) as in Connecticut. I did some digging and found out that the towns were in the Firelands District.

            The Firelands district was reserved for families that had their homes burned by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. At that time, northern Ohio was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. About thirty Connecticut towns and villages were moved to the Firelands, but very few people relocated there, due to conflicts with the Native Americans.  

            After the War of 1812, in 1815 people started to migrate to the area and clear the woods for farming. Since the district borders Lake Erie, many of the small towns on the lake became important shipping areas, which increased even more after the canals were built. Once the railroad came through, the Firelands were known for farming and manufacturing. Many of the small towns have New England style homes. It is interesting to note that Cedar Point was part of the district also. Many of these records are held at the New London Library and the Norwalk Library. On a side note, the New London Library was built in 1915 has a grant from Andrew Carnegie.  

           

Fairfield Heritage Association

The next topic I would like to talk about is the Fairfield Heritage Association in Lancaster, Ohio. It was created in the 1970 by seven women who wanted to take action and preserve the local historic houses, which included the birth home of General William T. Sherman. Through fundraising they were able to restore their first project, the Georgian home. It was a great example of Georgian architecture, which they wanted to save. Today, the house serves as a museum, where the volunteers don period costumes and explain to the guests the function of the various rooms.

The Georgian

            In 1982, the Sherman birth home was transferred ownership the Fairfield Heritage Association from the State of Ohio. The home opened as a museum in 1983, and they stated,      “the philosophy which guided the restoration of the house was that the period rooms were to be a re-creation of the Sherman family home, a home that reflects their life and circumstances, not just a collection of handsome period rooms and furniture.” The volunteers in this house also wear period costumes and guide guests.

The Sherman Home

            One of the houses that the association does not own because it is a private residence is the Ewing Mansion. The Ewing Mansion is a few doors down from the Sherman home, a steadily worn path by Sherman because he spent so much time there as a youth. The patriarch of the house was Thomas Ewing, the first Secretary of the Interior, appointed by President Taylor. Sherman went on the marry Ewing’s eldest daughter Ellen.

The Ewing Home

            I was friends with a woman that lives there today, and it is a spectacular home. It is rumored that Ewing hosted Abraham Lincoln there one night. Whatever the real story is, it is still a great house.

            Through the dogged determination of a few ladies, many reap the rewards by having their local history preserved.

The Chabot Family

            While interning in Michigan I processed a French-Canadian family’s papers from turn the turn of the 20^th century. The Chabot family immigrated to Lake Linden from Quebec in the 1890s. Once settled in, the family had five children. The collection was interesting because of the types of material that they kept, it seemed unusual. Besides French-Canadian newspapers from town, they kept booklets on how to raise squab.

            The Squab catalogue boasted that this type of profession was good for the elderly and feeble. There were various other publications on other types of poultry, but it just seemed strange to me, since there were no pictures of the family. They lived in Lake Linden, and were one of the few families that did not work for the copper mines, they worked in general and clothing stores. Lake Linden was and is still a small community populated by the French-Canadian decedents, which is also a farming community.

            It made more sense after I read the accession log. The family that moved into the Chabot house in the 1990s was cleaning out the attic and found these papers. The materials there were intentionally left behind, they were papers that were unimportant. It made me think, what conclusions people would draw from the materials that I left behind? Now when I start to process the collection, I think to myself, were these left behind on purpose?         

A Christmas Story House Museum

As Christmas quickly approaches, I thought I would write about one of my favorite Christmas movie and one man’s action that turned an iconic house into a museum. I am of course talking “A Christmas Story” from 1983. The film is from Jean Shepherd’s book “In God we trust: All Others Pay Cash.” The director was scouting 20 different cities that could resemble a town from the 1940s, and he settled in Cleveland. The rest they say is history, but in 2004 Brain Jones bought and restored the house to resemble the way it looked in the movie. Jones bought the house off of Ebay for $150,000. In 2006, the house opened as a museum and was a great success, with 4,000 visitors its first weekend.

            For the past few years, they Christmas House Museum have held an auction for an overnight stay in the house over Christmas. So that you and your family can wake up and recreate scenes from the movie, for instance, like hiding under the kitchen sink. In 2010, the package was auctioned for $3,200. All of the proceeds from the auction go into a college savings plan for the museums children.  

            While not being your typical museum, it sure is a lot of fun. The traffic from the museum has brought in visitors from all over. They even detail how to get to the old Higbees in downtown. Although Higbees has been closed for years, they still do “A Christmas Story” window decoration.  Also, there are directions to the old Chinese restaurant, which is now a modern café.

            So if you are in Cleveland this winter, I would check it out!

            While I was traveling around and discovering Michigan this summer, I wanted to pay a visit to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Pointe to see if they had an exhibit on the Edmund Fitzgerald. Lake Superior is notorious for its winter storms that cause many ships to capsize. As a side note, in Munising were Pictured Rocks National Park is, there is a nearby tour given on a glass bottom boat, which takes you out to look at famous shipwrecks.

               I learned about the wreck from listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s song as a child. The Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin on November 9, 1975. On November 10 at about 7:00 PM, communication was lost to the Fitzgerald. Two cutters were dispatched on November 11^th to see if they could spot the Fitzgerald. After the cutters did not spot the iron ore ship, the navy sent fixed winged aircraft to search, but to no avail. All 29 members of the crew were lost at sea.    

            The following May, when the waters were less choppy, a cutter armed with sonar. They spotted something on the lake floor and sent in an underwater recovery vehicle and the name of the ship was clearly seen. There have been many stories on how and why the ship sank, but there is no offical cause listed. On theory is that it was hit by a rogue wave.

           In the 1990s a recovery effort was made for the ships bell. The bell has been restored and is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

Here are the Lyrics to Gordon Lightfoot’s song:

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

when the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more

than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,

that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed

when the "Gales of November" came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side

coming back from some mill in Wisconsin.

As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most

with a crew and good captain well seasoned,

concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms

when they left fully loaded for Cleveland.

And later that night when the ship's bell rang,

could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound

and a wave broke over the railing.

And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too

'twas the witch of November come stealin'.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

when the Gales of November came slashin'.

When afternoon came it was freezin' rain

in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'.

"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya."

At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,

(*2010 lyric change: At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said,)

"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"

The captain wired in he had water comin' in

and the good ship and crew was in peril.

And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight

came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes

when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.

They might have split up or they might have capsized;

they may have broke deep and took water.

And all that remains is the faces and the names

of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.

Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;

the islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario

takes in what Lake Erie can send her,

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know

with the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

in the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."

The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times

for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee."

"Superior," they said, "never gives up her dead

when the gales of November come early!"

Fort Meigs

The battles at Fort Meigs became turning points in the War of 1812 for the Americans.  These battles secured the Great Lakes for the Americans, and gave secure geographical boundaries that still exist today.  Fort Meigs was built by William Henry Harrison in February of 1813 to protect northwest Ohio from the British.

The War of 1812 was fought for the control of the west.  The fort was America’s center in the Northwest Territory.  When the British came to Fort Meigs they found it well supplied under the command of General Harrison.  The shooting lasted four days, once forces for Kentucky came, the British returned to Canada.  The second battle did not go in the way of the British either, since the Americans saw through the Indian’s attempt to draw them out. 

The fort was dismantled and rebuilt smaller after the battle on Lake Erie, and then burnt to the ground after the war was over in 1815.

The Ohio Historical Society started a renovation project on the fort in the 1960s to make it look like it did in the spring of 1813.  In the 1970s they opened a museum on the site, and in 2003 the renovations were finished.  The museum center hold exhibits on Ohio’s role in the war, and a classroom for workshops. 

The exhibit places things into context and shows the pivotal role Fort Megis played in the war.

Fun Facts:

The fort is the largest reconstructed, wooden walled in the U. S., it used three thousand logs to wall the fort.

The county where the fort sits, Wood county, was named for Captain Eleazor Darby Wood.  He designed and supervised its construction.

The fort was not adequately supplied with cannon balls during the first siege, so Harrison told the men if they retrieved a British cannon ball they would receive four ounces (a gill) of whiskey.  The men in the fort received enough cannon balls for 400 gills of whiskey.

the Great Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio is about 1330 feet in length and three feet high.  Native American tribes see the snake as the fertile being, for bountiful crops.  The mound is shaped like a serpent about to eat an egg.  

Some think that the cave entrances around the mounds suggest the Adena people lived underground, which leads archeologists to believe there are artifacts waiting to be discovered.  (one theory)

People have done radiocarbon tests to date when the mounds could have been built, and there finding dates it back 900 years ago.  Back then the people from Fort Ancient would have been around the area, and they would have built the mound.  (Scientific results)

The significance of Serpent Mound and other ancient Ohio earthworks has garnered international attention. In 2008, Serpent Mound and eight other Ohio earthworks were selected by the United States Department of the Interior for inclusion on the United States’ Tentative List of sites to be submitted to United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to be put on the prestigious World Heritage List. If it is put on this list later at some time, the Serpent Mound will join the ranks of the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, Pompeii, Stonehenge, and the Taj Mahal—all of which are World Heritage sites. World Heritage status has the potential to elevate local and international awareness about the site's value, further encourage communities to protect and invest in their preservation, and increase potentially beneficial tourism to the site.

Interesting fact: the head of the serpent is in line with the setting sun during the summer solstice; and the coils may align with the sunrise of the solstices and the equinoxes.

Most of the mounds like this throughout the country have been eroded by farmers and rain, so the fact this one still stands is awesome.

fort on grounds of St. Clair's defeat

On December 23, 1793, Major Burbeck and Captain Alexander Gibson led a detachment northwest from Fort Greene Ville to the site of St. Clair's 1791 defeat. With the distance being about 23 miles, Wayne decided to build a fort at that site, Fort Recovery.
Upon their December 24 arrival, the legion immediately began burying more than 600 dead from St. Clair's defeat. On December 25, after burying the dead, the legion began construction of the new fort. Wayne named it Fort Recovery because of the nearby recovery of the battlefield, the dead soldiers, and most of St. Clair's lost artillery. (Wayne had previously considered naming it Fort Defiance or Fort Restitution.)
This fort had a square design with four blockhouses that were each 20-foot square. Each of the corner blockhouses were placed at an angle so that three of the sides faced outward. All four blockhouses were built simultaneously in case of an Indian attack. The palisades were 15 feet high and were made of strong and sturdy timber. The walls also had shutters on the musket portholes so that they can be closed when the muskets are being reloaded. The adjacent land around the fort was cleared for about 100 feet in all directions. Although most of the men returned to Fort Greene Ville on December 27, some stayed behind to finish the fort. After the fort was completed, Captain Gibson remained behind with 300 men to man the fort. Captain Gibson and his men built a projecting second story on each blockhouse and a cupola on each roof for lookout posts. The men also dug a tunnel to the Wabash River for water and built a 12-foot by 14-foot icehouse.
On June 30, 1794, after a supply convoy under Major William McMahon had arrived the fort the previous night, the Indians attacked the convoy. The Indians numbered nearly 2,000 warriors and the convoy party consisted of about 100 infantrymen and about 50 dragoons.
Soldiers from the fort ran out to assist the convoy but were overwhelmed by the Indians. The survivors all retreated into the fort. Most of the 300 pack animals were driven into the forest. The number of Americans killed were 22, including McMahon, Captain Hartshorn, and Lieutenant Craig. The number of Americans wounded were 30, including Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Darke.
Instead of looting the supplies, the Indians made a frontal attack on the fort and were repulsed with heavy losses. The Indians made another attack the following day and were again repulsed.
After their discouraging defeat, some of the Indian tribes from the northern Great Lakes region deserted and returned home. This desertion would mean fewer Indians for Wayne to fight.