September

Sept. 26: The “original” Johnny Appleseed is born

Jonathan Chapman was an eccentric American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apples to large parts of Ohio. During his lifetime (1774 – 1845) he became an American legend because of his journeys across Ohio and other areas as a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church.

Sometimes on his journeys he distributed pamphlets about the church and used the apple seed as a metaphor for the church. Other times he just read passages from his Bible.

Jonathan was frugal — he never let anything go to waste (an original green earth devotee). If left to his own means, he would never hunt or kill for food (an original vegetarian). He did trust in God to provide him with what he needed be it food or clothing (an original religious fanatic). However, unlike today’s youth, Jonathan Chapman had no desire to leave a lasting memory of himself. The only physical memory he wanted to leave were his beloved apple trees, which surprisingly, some are still growing in places yet today.

What we know about Jonathan Chapman today, or the name most of us know him by Johnny Appleseed, is known today because of what others remember of him and what they wrote and said about him.

On this day in, September 26, 1774, the boy who would become Johnny Appleseed was born.

Save

September 26: Old Man Eddie Becomes an Ace

By John Merrill

On this day in 1918, a young pilot that many of his flying buddies called the old man because of his age, accomplished a feat that would in the days and years to come earn him national honors. When Eddie first arrived in France the year before, he was assigned as a staff driver for General John Pershing because of his experience designing and racing cars back in the states. But being a chauffeur was not what Eddie had his mind set on.

Even though he was 2 years over the age limit, Eddie was accepted into the Army Air Service (thanks in great part to influential friends, many of whom he met back in Columbus, Ohio where he was born and raised).

After going through his air training, Eddie was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant and became chief engineer at the poorly prepared training base in Issodun. After making many improvements at Issodun, he was sent for training in aerial gunnery in Cazeau in the following January. He qualified as a candidate for training to become a combat pilot.

In February, Eddie was sent to Villeneuve-les-Vertus for advanced training and was assigned to the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron, the first all-American air unit to see combat.
Eddie had his first confirmed victory on April 24, 1918 and in May, became an ace, winning the French Croix de Guerre by shooting down 5 German airplanes. He was named Commander of the 94th on September 24.

The following day, on this day in 1918, Eddie was flying alone not far from Verdun when he spotted a couple of German reconnaissance planes being escorted by five fighters. Eddie slipped in behind the formation and began climbing until his plane wouldn’t go any higher. He then shut down his engine and began a steep dive right towards the enemy planes. When he came in range, he opened fire shooting down one of the fighters. Restarting his engine, he roared back up flying right through the scrambling formation taking aim at one of the reconnaissance planes which went down in flames as well.

Having lost the element of surprise, the overwhelming number of enemy planes began a concerted effort at shooting down Eddie. He would later recall that he “saw tracer bullets go whizzing and streaking past his face.” Eddie then withdrew from the combat and headed back home.

For that feat and his courage Rickenbacker would receive the Medal of Honor and the admiration of many Americans. Just 14 days later “old man” Eddie Rickenbacker would celebrate his 28th birthday. By war’s end, Eddie downed 26 enemy planes and given the title “Ace of Aces.”

Save

Sept 24: Blue Star Service Flag Officially Recognized by Congress

By John Merrill

On this day in 1917, Ohio congressman Ivory Emerson introduced the a flag to the United States Congress that can be displayed by a household when one of its members is currently serving in the armed services. Congressman Emerson lived in Cleveland and served 3 terms as a representative from 1915 through 1921.

Captain Robert Queissner of the Ohio National Guard had two sons, Charles and Robert serving in the United States Army on the front lines in Europe during the Great War. It was his idea for families of service members back home to show their pride in their family member’s service during active hostilities where American military forces are involved.

The flag quickly was adopted by military families during the war, and again when the United States became involved in World War II. During that war specific guidelines were developed that helped standardized its use.

The Blue Star Service Flag was to be in the same size ratio as the American flag. It has a wide red border with either a blue star or a gold star during any period of war or hostilities in which the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged. A Service Flag can display from 1 to 5 stars depending on the number of active service members currently serving. A special designation of the gold star is used if the family member dies while in service, regardless of cause, in a time of hostilities.

In 2010 Congress passed a resolution adopting the Silver Star Service Banner in which includes the red border and a field of blue with a silver star designating a family member that has been discharged from service because of wounds received during combat.

Save

Sept 19: President Garfield Dies from Gunshot Wounds

By John Merrill

garfield-train-depot — Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Terminal

On this day in 1881, Ohio born James A. Garfield died as the results of two gunshot wounds he received back on July 2, 1881 as the President was making his way through the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Terminal in Washington D.C. Here, Charles J. Guiteau, a crazy person who had been stalking the President because the President had not given him a government job.

As President Garfield entered the station on that Saturday morning, Guiteau stepped forward. He raised the weapon and fired the first shot which grazed the President’s right arm. Garfield cried out “My God, what is this?” and began to turn toward where the shot had come. Guiteau fired again striking the president in his back near the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord. Garfield collapsed on the dirty depot floor. For a moment the room was still and then it erupted in screams. beginning a never ending series of events that would ultimately cost the president his life.

From that moment on, the President’s life would be in the hands of a host of doctors, some of whom were almost by any standards incompetent, even by 1881 standards. This fact would later be brought out in Guiteau’s trial that it wasn’t him that killed the President, it was his doctors.

From the time of the shooting till the time of his death, some 12 different doctors poked and prodded Garfield’s into his wounds. Although in much of Europe the idea of bacteria and the infections that can come from bacteria was accepted medical knowledge, in the United States, the medical professional rejected this notion and ignored those precautions recommended to prevent bacterial infections.

garfield-doctors — LEFT TO RIGHT: Dr. Woodward, Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Reyburn, Dr. Barnes, Dr. Agnew, Dr. Bliss discuss Garfield’s condition.

In early September, Garfield was moved from the sweltering heat of Washington D.C. to Long Branch, NJ in hopes that the cooler temperatures might be beneficial. The improved environment found at the Jersey Shores may have benefited Garfield’s mental conditions, they did not improve his overall health. In fact, the bacterial infection in the President’s wound was slowly destroying him and at 10:35 P.M. Dr. D.W. Bliss confirmed the President had died. The 49 year old president died from a bacterial infection that spread to his blood. He had gone from over 200 pounds to just 135 at the time of his death.

Garfield Tomb at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland

It had been 16 years since the assassination of President Lincoln but in those years presidential security had not changed.That issue would not be addressed until after the assassination of another Ohio president, William McKinley who died just 4 days short being exactly 20 years from today, the day James A. Garfield died.

Save

September 15: Happy Birthday Will!

By John Merrill

On this day in 1857, William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati. I haven’t been able to find how much he weighed, but it is known that Will was a big boy. His mother Louisa Maria mentioned in a letter that at 7 weeks old her son Will couldn’t fit in any of the dresses made with belts because of his large waist and that he was “very large of his age.”

taft-1870 — 1870 class photograph. William Taft seated in the center

He grew up in Cincinnati, went to school at Yale where he became a heavyweight champion wrestler, and he was extremely fit throughout his adult life despite his size. He was 6 foot or so (sources vary between 6’0″ and 6’2″) and when he graduated from college he weighed a very muscular 243 pounds.

After graduating from Yale, Will returned to Cincinnati where he studied law. He also got involved in local politics. However, he always seemed to prefer law over politics. His goal was to become Chief Justice of the United States, but that didn’t fit with his wife’s idea of success.

Helen Herron, or Nellie as her friends called her, seemed to always have an eye on becoming the Chief Lady of the White House. When she was just 16 years old, she actually visited the White House when Lucy Hayes occupied the center of American power with her husband Rutherford. Lucy invited the daughter of her husband’s law partner to an afternoon social. After this engagement, Nellie wrote that she would much like to return to the White House someday… as First Lady!

Not long after the White House visit, Nellie met the young, but 4 year older, Will Taft, at a sledding party in Cincinnati. They hit it off in many different ways that eventually brought them together as husband and wife in 1886. While it is not certain what part she played behind the curtains, it is certain that she encouraged her husband to strive for higher achievements.

As young Will became an accomplished attorney, his life would increasingly be drawn to the political arena. After having been a state judge, Will became Solicitor General of the United States, a federal judge, he was appointed to oversee the American civil government in the Philippines, and later was appointed by President Teddy Roosevelt as his Secretary of War. Teddy would later in his term offer Will the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming Chief Justice of the United States.

He discussed this opportunity with Nellie who was adamantly opposed to the idea. Her idea was that since Teddy Roosevelt had already promised the nation he would not seek a second term, it would be wiser for her husband to seek the presidency. In her mind, you could always become a Chief Justice, but the odds of becoming President of the United States were extremely high.

So following his wife’s advice, the extremely large fellow from Cincinnati, William Howard Taft, was elected President of the United States, the largest man to ever sit behind the Oval Office desk. Having achieved her dream of becoming First Lady, it would take several more years before Taft achieved his dream of becoming Chief Justice.

It was during another Ohioans term in office that President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States where he would remain for the rest of his life. Taft would later write after becoming Chief Justice “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”

Today is the birthday of the only man ever to serve as President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Taft's boyhood home in Cincinnati is a museum today. — Taft’s boyhood home in Cincinnati is a museum today.

Save

Sept. 14, McKinley: The President is No More!

By John Merrill

President McKinley delivering his speech to the exposition fair goers on September 5, 1901. In the crowd directly below him stood Leon Czolgosz.

For the past few days doctors feebly suggested the President might pull through. Newspapers were giving 2 hour updates of his temperature and heart rate. These reports were being posted on bulletin boards throughout the country wherever a telegraph office was located. On Thursday everyone was hopeful.

I have passed the best night of any since I was shot,”
McKinley told his fretful wife Ida.

Suggestions that it would have been better to have taken him to a hospital were scoffed at by the medical professionals in Buffalo. He is getting the best possible care here at Milburn House. “The president will recover,” said Dr. McBurney on Thursday. Dr. McBurney was one of several doctors attending the wounded president 24 hours a day.

In Washington D.C. plans were being made for a great celebration upon the President’s return to the capital. A great parade will be conducted from the railroad station up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The special train will be outfitted to transport the president once he is healthy enough for travel, but will be expected to travel slowly so as to not overly tax the President’s strength.

Officials that had gathered at Buffalo once they received news of the shooting on September 6, began departing on Thursday when it appeared that McKinley would make a full recovery.

On Friday evening (yesterday) there was an unexpected down turn in McKinley’s health. The President slipped into unconsciousness. Oxygen was administered. Some time elapsed before the President opened his eyes again. He motioned to someone to come closer and whispered “Mrs. McKinley.” Ida was brought in but he had again lost consciousness.

Knowing the First Lady’s unsettling manner of collapsing when faced with agitation, the doctors suggested she be taken outside the room again. Again the President opened his eyes, and again whispered “Mrs. McKinley?” and again she was called back. This time a chair was pulled closer to her dying husband. She sat down and clasped her hands around his.

Across the country newspapers had for several days been printing the President’s biography telling his life story, his accomplishments both in and out of office. Everyone already knew he was born in Ohio, had served in the Great Rebellion and had been governor of Ohio. They wanted to know the personal stories of people that knew the President before he was president.

Stories of how even as a boy he displayed his intellect and was able at 16 to help support his family by taking on a job as a district school teacher for $25 a month. Accounts involving McKinley and the Great Rebellion were plentiful and how, when the war came, he was one of the first to enlist as a private.

A few days after his enlistment, he, like so many other Ohio boys, boarded a train for Columbus. Here they gathered at the new Goodale Park until there was no room and no trees left. They then marched over to Camp Chase where McKinley became part of Company E of the 23^rd Ohio regiment. The sprawling fields at Camp Chase were dotted with 100s of canvas tents supplied by the state.

Here at Camp Chase which would in a few years become a confederate prisoner of war camp, among these 1000s of boys and young men, William McKinley’s intelligence was noticed and he was promoted from private to commissary sergeant and put on the staff of another future president, Rutherford B. Hayes. After the war, Hayes would be McKinley’s mentor and political adviser.

McKinley’s bravery at the Battle of Antietam was noticed by Hayes who wrote to Governor Todd of Ohio, who then responded by ordering his promotion. By the time McKinley was mustered out of service in 1865, he had become a Major, a title he held dear and honored to have achieved. As he told an old friend who asked what he should call him now that he was President of the United States. McKinley replied “You must still call me Major McKinley, for I won that title. These other titles are only temporary.” His wife would also call him Major.

On this Saturday morning in 1901, the 39^th President, the 6^th president from Ohio (3 of whom died while in office) would die in his bed at Milburn House in Buffalo, New York. Just before his death, McKinley whispered to his wife “God’s will, not ours, be done.” Ida McKinley, his most fragile wife of 30 years whispered back “For his sake, For his sake,” as she clasped both of his hands.

McKinley looked about the darkened room seeing the doctors and nurses, then spoke softly towards them and said “Good-bye all. Good-bye. It is God’s way. He will be done.” These became the last words of William McKinley, a man known for his eloquence as he slipped into unconsciousness for the last time. Sensing the end was near, Ida was quietly ushered out of the room for fear that she would collapse. At 2:16 A.M., Dr. Rixey placed his finger on the president’s neck. “It is over,” he said tearfully. “The President is no more.”

The gates at the Pan-American Exposition where the President was shot on September 6, were closed today and would not re-open until Monday morning. Twenty years later a new housing development would cover those same grounds once occupied by the Pan-American Exposition and a large stone would be place where the Temple of Music once stood. It still stands there today.

Save

Share This:

Share This:

Share This:

Share This:

Share This:

Share This: