May

May 13: John Clem Dies

On this day in 1937, Brigadier General John Clem died and was later buried in Arlington National Cemetery. John Clem was born in Heath, Ohio and would become the last Civil War Veteran on active duty when he retired from service in 1915. A year after John Clem retired, Congress passed an act promoting him to Major General.

The fact that John Clem was afforded such honors, is only trumped by the fact that John Clem was actually born John Joseph Klem in 1851, making him just 9 years old when he first tried to enlist in the 3^rd Ohio Infantry in May 1861, just days after fighting began. John J. Klem actually changed his name to John Lincoln Clem to prove that he was a “Union Man.”

Having being rejected by the Ohio Infantry, John tried to enlist in the 22^nd Michigan that was also posted to Camp Dennison in Cincinnati. They too refused but John had no where else to go since his mother had been killed earlier the year before. John spent much of the next year or so hanging out with the boys from Michigan and when they departed from Cincinnati in 1862, John tagged along, taking on the tasks of drummer boy for the unit. Members of the company even began to pay him a monthly stipend of $13 out of their own pockets.

John Clem gained notoriety when the 22^nd Michigan took part in an engagement in Georgia that became known as the Battle of Chickamauga, the second bloodiest battles during the war. During this battle, it was reported that a Confederate cannonball destroyed John’s drum. The battle dragged on for 3 days and on the third day, things began to break down for Union forces. Many of the men in the 22^nd were captured. John escaped capture by fleeing back to Union lines on an artillery caisson. It was widely reported that a Confederate officer demanded John immediately surrender, but instead, the young 12 year old raised his weapon and fired at the officer striking him down. Once he got back to his own unit, John was advanced to the rank of Sergeant becoming youngest person ever to hold that rank.

After this encounter, John was later captured and held as a POW before being paroled 2 months later. When word of John’s daring escapade during the battle appeared in a newspaper, John Clem became almost an instant celebrity. Folks everywhere knew him as the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.

Before being discharged from the army at age 13, John Clem would be promoted to lance corporal.

Years later President Ulysses Grant would help the young man who served his country at such an early age, by personally giving his second lieutenant ‘s commission in 1871.

John Clem would once again see action during the Spanish-American War. In 1903 he became a Colonel and then in 1916 he left the U.S. Army once again after 53 years of active military duty. Twenty-one years later on this day and at the age of 85, John Clem, the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga died. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

May 10: President Hayes has First Telephone Installed in the White House

By John Merrill

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. Patent for the telephone. A year later the sitting President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, who was born in Delaware, Ohio, installed this new technology in the White House’s telegraph room. Several years earlier, Hayes first used a telephone in a call to its inventor, after which the future president was quoted to have said:

“It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?”

With such a new invention that was not widely accepted, one might wonder who President Hayes wanted to call or who would be calling him? In May of 1876 the only other number in Washington was to the Treasury Department. It would take a while before the first telephone exchange would be created. The White House phone number was #1.

It would take another 50 years before the telephone actually became a regular feature of the President’s desk when President Hoover had one installed in the Oval Office.

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May 9: Ohio’s Iconic Symbol

By John Merrill

What’s red white and blue, sometimes it is hoisted up one or two of the flag poles on the roof of Ohio’s statehouse, and oh yes, it’s not a flag?

On this day in 1902 the Ohio General Assembly enacted a bill authorizing the adoption of a new state flag. Till this day in Ohio history, Ohio did not have a state flag. Ohio had been a state for almost 100 years, but we had never taken the step of creating a state flag. But a year before this date, several historic events came together in such a way that the General Assembly felt compelled enough to adopt a new symbol for the Buckeye State – and those events happened in another state.

That state was New York where in 1901 the Pan-American Exposition was being held in Buffalo. The Exposition was a show place for countries from both North and South America. It also included exhibits from many states including Ohio. As part of the Ohio Exposition building, flew a new pennant designed by a Cleveland architect that he felt help draw attention to the building.

In 1900 Cleveland architect, John Eisemann, was the winning bidder for designing the Ohio Building for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Realizing that Ohio did not have an official flag, Eisemann went about creating a special flag to fly over the Ohio Building. It’s not clear whether Eisemann intended his creation to become Ohio’s flag or not. What he did want was something unique to fly over his building design. He even patented the flag with the U.S. Patent Office on July 23, 1901.

In 1900 Cleveland architect, John Eisemann, was the winning bidder for designing the Ohio Building for the 1901 World’s Fair called the Pan-American Exposition. Realizing that Ohio did not have an official flag, Eisemann went about creating a special flag to fly over the Ohio Building. It’s not clear whether Eisemann intended his creation to become Ohio’s flag or not. What he did want was something unique to fly over his building design. He even patented the flag with the U.S. Patent Office on July 23, 1901.

The Pan-American Exposition ran from May 1, 1901 to November 1, 1901. During those 6 months more than 8,000,000 visitors would pass through the gates each paying 25 cents for admission. Besides the debut of what would later become Ohio’s state flag, the fair also had a more tragic Ohio connection.

On September 6, 1901, former Ohio Governor, former Ohio Representative, and current 2nd term President of the United States, William McKinley, was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition. He would die just 8 days later.
In the following months and years after McKinley’s death, Ohio pay tribute to the fallen leader in various ways. One of those was the adoption of a special scarlet carnation worn by McKinley throughout his political career. Known as the Lamborn Carnation, the carnation became known as the “scarlet carnation” and three years later it became the official state flower as a “token of love and reverence to the memory of William McKinley”.

Original flag that flew over the Ohio Building at the Pan American Exposition.

The other was the adoption of the flag that was flying over the Ohio Building when the president was shot. Less than 8 months later, that flag would officially be adopted as Ohio’s flag which has been flying over public buildings since this day in 1902.

The Ohio state flag is the only “flag” of all the 50 state flags, that is not an actual flag. It’s really a swallow tail burgee, which means it is tapered like a pennant, but has the tip notched with a v-shaped cut out. The only other place the swallow tail burgee is commonly seen is on sailing ships, commonly seen on Lake Erie.

Ohio Statehouse with William McKinley Statue. The flag was used as a “communication tool” long before telephones, email and mobile devices, the Ohio flag is raised over the Statehouse when the corresponding legislative chamber is in session – raised on the north flag pole during Ohio Senate sessions and on the south flag pole during Ohio House of Representatives sessions. In the above photograph, the House of Representatives would be in session.

May 26: Colonel Crawford Moves Toward Ohio Country

By John Merrill

We were in the final years of the long drawn out American Revolutionary War. General Washington was afraid the British and their Native American allies would soon open a third front to the west of the American colonies. To prevent this he asked his long-time friend retired Colonel William Crawford who had only retired from active military service the year before to head a group of 500 volunteers into the Ohio Country.

Crawford was familiar with the Ohio Country. He had accompanied the younger George Washington many years before down the Ohio River on a survey expedition. Many years later he helped build Fort Laurens in northeast Ohio.

Sandusky Plains Battle Site Memorial — Sandusky Plains Crawford Capture Site Memorial

Crawford’s Expedition into the Ohio Country was to suppress a suspected stronghold of Wyandots along the Sandusky River using a surprise attack that he hoped would catch them off-guard. Unfortunately, British spies hand informed the British of the large expedition marching west from Fort Pitt and Native Americans from around Detroit moved south to reinforce the Wyandots. To complicate this expedition, many of the volunteers making up Crawford’s expedition had taken part in a massacre of Christian Delaware that had returned to their Moravian village where the militia captured them thinking they were part of a raiding party that had killed a young girl of a pioneer family. Although the massacre included killing all of the Delaware, one young man escaped the carnage by slipping out of the cabin and into the woods during the night. He would later identified some of the men involved in the massacre.

As Crawford’s expedition approached the Sandusky Plains on June 4 they encounter a combined force of Shawnee, Delaware and Wyandot. At the end of the first day of the engagement, the Americans seemed to have control of the field. The next morning a British force of Rangers reinforced the Native Americans. This tipped the scales in favor of the British and their Native American allies. Crawford sensing the balance had shifted, decided to withdraw his force south. A sudden attack by the Native Americans forced Crawford’s men into an unorganized retreat.

During the confusion of the retreat, Crawford’s horse collapsed and he was captured along with a few other men. After several days of extreme torture, Colonel Crawford was burned at the stake.

Crawford County was later named for the executed soldier.

May 25: Space, the Final Frontier

By John Merrill

May 25: On this day more than a few decades ago, the space race got a big boost. A little sci-fi movie filmed mostly on sound stages in England, was released with some much ballyhooed publicity that would become the new model for film releases. As word spread, lines, long lines began forming outside of theaters.

The media sensed there was something about this movie that was different, and at a time when the United States was still reeling from a catastrophic war, a failed presidency, the energy crises, gasoline shortages, high crime rates… the country was ripe for escape from bad news and this little movie with its quirky characters and special effects was the answer. Not only did it provide a summer of entertainment, it created an idea that imagination was something to be sought and cherished.

The movie’s producer said he wanted to create a contemporary movie based on the old episodic movies he remembered as a kid where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black; if only it were that simple.

At the time George Lucas had no inkling that his sci-fi thriller he called “Star Wars” would become a cultural icon not only in America but the entire world. Before its release, the studios didn’t have faith in the movie, much less believe that it was a franchise opportunity. They sold the rights to all future sequels and merchandise to Lucas. I imagine an executive decision regretted more than a few times in the years since.

star-wars4-poster — Original pre-release Star Wars poster.

Several years later, President Reagan revealed his Strategic Defense Initiative which the press mockingly referred to as his Star Wars Initiative. Yet, so popular was that movie that even the political powers in the USSR understood the term and its implications. Their Soviet Empire had been hopelessly lost in the space race and feared the Americans were on the verge of actually having some of those military weapons on display for all to see in the hit movie. They surrendered and when President Reagan asked the Kremlin to tear down the wall in East Germany, they realized it was futile to resist the power of the American space program. Certainly there were other contributing factors, but isn’t it delicious to give credit to a movie?

On this day in 1977, the movie that would become one of the largest grossing box office hits, Star Wars, was released. It received 7 Oscars, grossed close to $800 million, created new mega-stars worthy of any galaxy. Even before the hit movie had moved on to second run theaters, production was already underway for the next two episodes. Today, those episodes are still being released to hungry fans, many of which are grand children of those who witnessed this first release.

Even more surprising is the fact that sixteen years earlier on this very day a young president made a speech before congress asking for support of a new program that would put a man on the moon within the decade which happened on July 20, 1969 when Ohio born astronaut Neil Armstrong, became the first human to leave a footprint on the moon.

Even more amazing is that when President John Kennedy addressed Congress on this day, we had only just recovered our first man in space, Alan Shephard, less than 3 weeks earlier. His flight into space lasted just 15 minutes, but it was long enough to inspire an entire country to go to the moon and back and make a movie like Star Wars seem feasible a few years later.

May 19, 1749: Ohio Company Chartered

By John Merrill

On this day in 1749, the King of England granted a charter to the Ohio Company (which is not to be confused with a later company called the Ohio Company of Associates). This charter included several 100 thousand acres of land west and south of where the Ohio River is formed at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (where Pittsburgh is now located) that could be sold by the company.

Although the King granted this land to the Ohio Company it was land already claimed by the French, and inhabited by 1000s of Native Americans. While the Native Americans had no concept of land ownership, the French did and when the Ohio Company began building trading posts in the area the French didn’t take kindly to these actions. The result of these incursions into their land claims eventually led to armed conflict between France and England.

In Europe this war was known as the Seven Year War. In North America, it was known as the French and Indian War (movie buffs will remember the movie The Last of the Mohicans and the book written by James Fenimore Cooper, was about this war). This conflict pitted many Native Americans against Great Britain and the colonists. Finally in 1763 a treaty between Great Britain and France was signed. This treaty ceded all of the French land claims east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. France still held claim to the land west of that river. The Native Americans were promised that English colonists would remain east of the Allegheny Mountains.

This war was expensive for both France and England and in response to the cost, England began imposing heavy taxes on the American colonists. This led to claims by the Americans “taxation without representation.” It would later be the cause of a number of riots in Boston, and the famous “Boston Teat Party.” Eventually, it would result in the American Revolution.

After the French and Indian War, the Ohio Company had to be dissolved since the land west of the Allegheny Mountains it was formed to sell, was now off limits. Another company with a similar goal was formed after the American Revolution. This company was called the Ohio Company of Associates which actually set off and laid claim to lands west of the mountains and created the first seat of government in the Northwest Territory at a village they named Marietta after Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France.

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