A Very Ge-hi-Ho-Ho-Ho Christmas

Christmas at Gehio Headquarters

Christmas wasn't always what we think it was. Many folks have a notion that the celebration of this holiday was some scared static thing that degraded in modern times. If there was a War on Christmas, it was really that way from the beginning...by Christians.
The first Christians didn't celebrate Christmas at all and it was about 400 years before we see any evidence that they did. And when they finally did it was mainly to replace the last traces of pagan worship practices in the Holy Roman Empire.

The first Christmas in America at Plymouth on December 25, 1620, went unobserved. "Foolstide" as they called it, was considered by these non-Catholics as sinful, immoral, wasteful and pagan in origin with no Biblical basis and was thus banned. Many Protestant groups in the US and Britain disapproved of any celebration of Christmas which was punishable by fines in those days.
Throughout the 18th century, Christmas was celebrated or not in the US in various ways depending on your ethnic background and geographic location but was still not that big of a deal. Easter was where it was at.
In 1820, the American author Washington Irving published the popular book "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.". It was a collection of essays notable for "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but also included five Christmas themed stories which depicted long abandoned English festival traditions supposedly dating back to medieval times. Then there was the popular Clement Moore 1823 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" aka "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" which borrowed from Irving and help popularize Santa Claus.

However, the modern notion of "traditional" Christmas took hold in the Victorian era after the English author Charles Dickens published the popular goodwill story "A Christmas Carol" in 1843 and revived some of the same old holiday traditions. Dickens cites Irving's stories as an influence. Americans also adopted some of these practices after having shunned all things English for many years after the American Revolution. Christmas was more or less a second-rate holiday in England prior to Dickens and Dickens' book wasn't in wide circulation in the US until after the American Civil War. Easter was still the main event in the Christian religion at that time. Christmas Day didn't even become a US Federal holiday until 1870. That was about 1,520 years after Rome did.

At the "first" church Christmas Tree sign

So what does this have to do with Ohio history or geocaching? The first Christmas tree displayed in a church in America was allegedly in 1851 by German pastor Henry Schwan in Cleveland OH at Zion Lutheran Church. I saw it on a sign there once when I was geocaching many years ago. I did a bit more research and found that this immigrants tradition was not entirely welcome.

A local newspaper called this Christmas tree "a nonsensical, asinine, moronic absurdity." It editorialized against "these Lutherans . . . worshiping a tree . . . groveling before a shrub" Worse, it recommended that the good Christian citizens of Cleveland ostracize, shun and refuse to do business with anyone "who tolerates such heathenish, idolatrous practices in his church."
"A tree in the chancel?" roared an indignant man. "What kind of a minister are you?". So they basically called for a boycott because they were offended by differing views. Some things never change. keep in mind that this part of the 19th century was an era of violent anti-German sentiment, especially in Ohio.

Obligatory Cleveland Christmas stop

So what's odd is that many of the practices of what people perceive as a traditional Christmas with the food and the trees and the caroling and even the church services themselves came from the Victorian era which was really a throwback to the Middle Ages. Oh, and I have to point out to the "Xmas" haters that the use of X as a symbol for Christ is rooted in Greek from 1000 years ago and most certainly does not "take the Christ out of Christmas". So chill out on that one.

I'm definitely not trying to be a humbug here. Celebrate Christmas how you want. Secular or religious or a combination of both. Say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas". Sing "Silent Night" or "Jingle Bells". Write Xmas or Christmas (it's the same thing, see above). Go to church on Christmas morning and/or open presents from Santa. Or don't do anything. If you are going to complain about the secularization of modern Christmas, blame Irving and Dickens. Their beloved 19th-century stories not unlike most popular 20th-century Christmas movies such as A Christmas Story or the Grinch aren't anything about the birth of Christ and are more about giving, hope, and redemption...and sometimes ghosts and good food.

The Great Big WHH Presentation!

I broke my "at least one blog post per month" rule for the first time in seven years, but it was for a good cause.
My writing and research energy over the past two months was being used for a presentation I mentioned here before. In May 2018, I was recommended by my friend Mark Fischer to Meg Riestenberg to give a talk to a local nature conservation group Meg belongs to in Lawrenceburg IN called the Oxbow. Mark had given previous talks here on Geocaching and the 2017 Solar Eclipse. I'd never done anything like this before but after some trepidation, I accepted as I felt I was up to the challenge.

This was more of a nature interest group but Meg said they enjoy hearing about local history too. A captive audience! The idea I came up with for them was "Tippecanoe and Trivia Too!". This would be a talk about the local ties that William Henry Harrison had to the Ohio Valley. I also decided to bust some of the myths that surround his life. To keep folks engaged, I added in a mini trivia night similar to the ones that are popular in many bars nowadays. I decided that the winning team would get the theme appropriate gift of a six-pack of Cincinnati made Hard Cider from March First Brewing.

one of the team bookmarks

I volunteered Mark to help out with the logistics of the trivia. He came up with a clever and time efficient way to divide up teams. The added bonus was a way to plug my blog and have a takeaway souvenir that could be used as a bookmark.

On the evening of the presentation on October 9th, we arrived a bit early and found no one there yet. What are two geocachers going to do to kill time? Hmmm. Once we grabbed a couple of caches, one with a spectacular view of the Ohio River I must say, we headed back to the Lawrenceburg conference room and I got all set up. After some Oxbow updates by Jon Seymour and Meg Riestenberg and an introduction by Mark, I gave my presentation.

A 1960s reproduction of a 19th booze bottle with
the WHH Pez and the trivia team/bookmarks by Mark.
Presenter selfie with a couple of candid shots from the evening.

There were about 40 people in attendance (a full house!) for my one-hour presentation which was only 45 minutes short of Harrison's speech. On trivia nights they usually play a song while the teams ponder their answer. I had one technical glitch in that I had no audio for the first two trivia question songs. That was a pretty major component of the entertainment factor so that was a bit distressing. Three songs were renditions of 1840 era campaign songs by a man named Oscar Brand. Another was a W.H. Harrison inspired song by a band called The Executive Branch, and the fifth was a version of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" by They Might Be Giants. I finally got the sound figured out and I was pretty pleased with how it all went after that. The audience seemed receptive and engaged. They even laughed at my jokes. One where I said I was going to now read the two-hour speech but was told I didn't have time. My "parley animal" joke went over pretty well too. They even had a few of their own. For example, when it got misconstrued that the trivia answers would be based on something I said, similar to a quiz, I corrected this by saying they would be mainly multiple choice or true/false questions on something I hadn't covered yet. Someone then shouted, "so we really don't have to pay attention then??". That got a good chuckle from everyone including myself.

NWA inspired graphic 

I have to add that this might be the only public WHH discussion where NWA gets mentioned! Although I am pretty positive only one person got that reference.

I had thought of recording my presentation but decided against it so I have no video to show you here. My PowerPoint isn't really suitable for sharing either as it is mostly image based and I relied on my notes vs having so much text on the screen. I can share a few highlights though!

Several of the big myths I busted are written about on this very blog. The circumstances and cause of his death, the confusion surrounding the first photo of a President, and the popularizing of the word booze. I added a bit about the alleged death curse on US Presidents starting with Harrison sometimes attributed to Tecumseh and other times to his brother The Prophet. For local history, I highlighted the two homes in North Bend and talked about his time as a public servant in Ohio and Indiana and of course his military history in the vicinity during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

It turns out that my trivia questions were harder than I anticipated. This was my fault due to some red herrings I added since I thought the questions might be too easy. Here is a sample of the questions...Do you know the answers? No Googling!

To wrap things up I ended with the very amusing spoof of the Hamilton musical by Off The Top.

Afterward, several folks stuck around to chit chat with me. I learned of a few other local Harrison tidbits from a couple of attendees that I'll likely explore further. This was a pretty great experience for someone like me with almost no experience at public speaking. I have to highly recommend the book that helped me out a great deal in preparing for this called, Speak Easy by Maggie Eyre.

Huzzah!...as Harrison might say.

Review: The Wright Brothers

Gehio is 7 years old today. Here's a short book review of one of my favorite authors!

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I opted for the audiobook in 2016 because what more could I want? It's David McCullough reading a David McCullough book! Bonus: It tells the story of two great Ohioans whose name is familiar to many. I happened to be driving to Dayton during part of this and it made it all that much better seeing all the Wright references.
One thing I came away with about this book had nothing to do with airplanes. It was the technological jump made by the safety bicycle (vs the cumbersome penny-farthing). For the first time, people could travel great distances without the need of much money or expertise. It was a huge technological jump that often gets overlooked.
What's fascinating about the invention of powered sustainable air flight is the fact that so many people who had heard of all the dismal failures thought this was simply unobtainable and the Wright Brothers were big fat liars. In fact, a beekeepers magazine was the only periodical to run a story about the Huffman Praire flights near Dayton in 1904.
It is also so amazing that Orville lived until 1948 through bicycles to simple powered flight and finally seeing jet engines and the breaking of the sound barrier. Wilbur died in 1912 of typhoid.
McCullough's voice is sounding his age a bit but as usual, another great work from a great historian.

View all my reviews

Oxbows, Books, and Geocaches

This update has all the things that named my blog  "Gehio", Geocaching+History+Ohio

Thanks to the person who got me into geocaching, Mark Fischer, I was invited to speak at the Oxbow Tuesday Lecture on October 9th to discuss a local history subject of my choosing. The Oxbow is a wildlife conservation group in SE Indiana. Mark recently did a lecture on Geocaching which I attended. My name got mentioned as a local early area history expert for possible upcoming topics.  I haven’t firmed up my material yet but it will be in some way shape or form about William Henry Harrison regarding some myths and legends about his life and ties to the area. I'm going to have to brush up on some public speaking skills!

My reading has slowed down as the weather warmed up. I typically read on my lunch breaks and to be honest there have been lots of new geocaches near my office, so I’ve been indulging in that instead. I’m currently about 3/4 into an interesting book from the 1980s on Tekamthi called God Gave Us This Country. I ran across it by accident at the library.  Who the hell is Tekamthi??? The author insists on using what is believed to be Tecumseh’s Shawnee name before it became anglicized. The Shawnee language is actually a bit lispy and European speakers would remove this from the pronunciation as being somewhat effeminate. Ironic since the Shawnee were pretty fierce. One thing that is a bit jarring is the author insists on using the term “reds” and “red men” throughout the book. These are terms all considered dated and a bit derogatory to modern ears. Otherwise, despite the terrible cover and title, it’s a great read and well-sourced book that was previously unknown to me. In fact, I went ahead and bought a copy of my own just for the source notes. I've already made note of some Harrison info I wasn't aware of that will come in handy for the aforementioned lecture.

On my to-do list is another book I recently became aware of called The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. I guess it could be titled “Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About the Whigs But Were Afraid To Ask”. It’s 1300 pages! Oh, and the print is tiny. At the rate I read it may take me as long as the Whig party existed to finish it. So far, everyone I know that has this book never read the whole thing. Regardless, this doorstop will at least serve well as reference material. Oh and a tip to used book buyers.

I also picked up an interesting old title called The Intimate Letters of John Cleves Symmes and His Family. I've seen reference to this early 20th-century book many times where Cleves is mentioned. Don't get too excited. These aren't like the Harding letters. "Intimate" in this case just means "personal". No extensive bio of this important man to the history of the Ohio Valley exists due to most of his letters and journals being burned in a fire. Some say it was arson. There were many lawsuits against the man due to his questionable land business dealings.  The letters that do exist were compiled here from some of his recipient's collections that survived. It sort of humanizes a person that tends to be just a static character in the story of others without any idea of his personal thoughts. One weird thing I learned. Cleves kept referring to a daughter he called "Nancy". He only had one daughter named "Anna" (who married William Henry Harrison) so that was confusing. It turns out "Nancy" was originally a nickname for "Anna". I never knew that.
I got this and the Whigs Tecumseh from AbeBooks for just a few dollars each with free shipping. Ironically I've learned this has been owned by Amazon since 2008 but Amazon's used prices were very high for each of these. I'll be shopping there more often for good used book deals!

Speaking of geocaching, the reason so many new caches are getting published around town and my reading has slowed is that a major Geocaching event called GeoWoodstock 2018 will be held May 26th, 2018 at Coney Island in Cincinnati. This event is expected to bring over 5000 geocachers from all over the world. In fact, a geocacher from France contacted me about carpooling from their Airbnb since I have a cache near the event. I had to politely decline as I don’t really know my full schedule for that day, but I will be attending! How could I not be with "my people" that day?

In personal geocaching news, I'm currently sitting at find 6,408 and have had some interesting cache runs lately. Lot’s of new FTF’s (First To Finds), including a Wherigo (a first FTF of this type if you will). That makes FTF 101 for me. Mark Fisher and I hit not one or two, but three “tunnel” caches in so many weeks. These are caches where you go into a large drainage tunnel, usually with a flashlight. The photo to the left is (eventually) 400' into a tunnel and about that many feet below I-74. I used to be pretty adverse to doing these. In one of them, I was ankle deep in water. Those were some fun adventures!

See you in June!

Fine Young Cannibals

no mention of the cannibalism

I scooped up a random book last month called The First Frontier by Scott Weidensaul. It promised “The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America”. That sounded like something for me to chew on! It turned out to be a marinade of forgotten American history through the mid-1700s. It contained all sorts of interesting morsels I didn’t know about. This post is about one of the more savory ingredients.

The author mentions a Miami chieftain named Memeskia who had a village near modern Piqua OH called Pickawillany. I’ve been there before and if you can get past the 20th-century scramble of strip malls there is a lot of palatable history there. In the early part of the 18th century, the Miami aligned themselves with the French who were battling the British for control of these new (to them) lands. Memeskia was known to the French as La Demoiselle, which translates literally to “young lady”. It is believed that this was a grandiloquent translation of his Indian name which meant "dragonfly", both meaning impulsive and unpredictable.

Over the years the native people had become on reliant French and British traders for goods and allied themselves with one or the other. The Native Americans provided animal skins and furs in return for a thriving European market. These arrangements were often choppy. Memeskia broke with the informal Miami/French coalition believing he and his new village could gain more power and prestige by serving the British. Now essential British trade items such as weapons, cloth, food, and metal cooking items were now being produced in the Colonies to the East and thus becoming better and cheaper than imported French goods. This change in alliances earned the chieftain the new name of Old Briton.

Needless to say, this steamed the French who feared the idea would boil over into bands of other Miami and they would slowly lose control of New France to the British. Tensions were simmering to a boil. Eventually, a full course attack was ordered on Old Briton's village. On June 21st, 1752 the village was attacked by a blended force of pro-French Ottawa, French Canadians, and Ojibwa led by Charles Langlade, a French/Ottawa fur trader. Cheddar-heads may know this name from local history class as "The Father of Wisconsin".

photos courtesy of remarkableohio.com
because mine are terrible

This story sounded familiar to me since I had been to Piqua a few times. There is an Ohio historical marker there for this battle as it was a flashpoint to the French and Indian War. The marker states rather blandly that after Langlade and his men destroyed the village, “Memeskia was executed”. 
That's it.
They left out the spicy part.
As it turns out, Old Briton was ritually cannibalized in front of the survivors. Yep. They boiled him in a pot and gobbled him up. No mention of a side dish.
Unfortunately, I was unable to drum up any more bits about this post-battle dinner party because the primary source does not offer any. As it turns out two of the six English that were taken prisoner, Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, two English traders who were hidden during the attack told what happened at Pickawillany to Captain William Trent (the founder of Trenton NJ). He, in turn, wrote to Governor Dinwiddie of colonial Virginia on July 6th, 1752:
"They killed one Englishman and took six prisoners, one Mingoe and one Shawanees killed, and three Twightwees (an alternate term used then for the Miami); one of them, the old Pianguisha (Memeskia's Miami band) king, called by the English Old Britain, who, for his attachment to the English, they boiled, and eat him all up. "
There is also an August 1752 letter from the Miami that formerly resided at Pickawillany delivered by Burney to the Governor of Pennsylvania, still asserting their allegiance to the English. It said in part, "Brother Onas*...we saw our great Piankashaw King taken, killed, and eaten within a hundred yards of the fort before our faces".

1592 depiction of Indian cannibalism

Historians have speculated it's possible that this act was a way to literally absorb Memeskia back into the pro-French body while also providing a simply gruesome warning to the others to not trifle with the French alliance. Memeskia's people did move back to French-controlled Indiana so I suppose they got the message loud and clear.

You may have noticed that Burney is connected with the only two written records of this account. In fact, most of what we know about the battle was from Burney.

Keep in mind that nearly all Indians were illiterate and many whites were at that time too, so we rely on literate white men for these written accounts. It's possible the cannibalism never occurred at all and was invented by Burney to drum up revenge against the dreaded French and their "savage" Indian allies. Military leaders were also known to inflate the size of the enemy in their reports. While Burney surely met with the Miami for the letter that was delivered later, he may have added on the gruesome story there as well. As an English trader with his livelihood at stake, this would surely be a motive. There are no written records from the only other white survivor, Andrew McBryer who died later in 1752. I have also found no specific recollections by any surviving Miami told to anyone else either way.

As far as plausibility, I'd heard of Indians consuming the hearts of freshly killed enemies to ingest the courage of the victim, in fact, this supposedly did happen to one of the other English traders here. But as far as I know, full on cannibalism was fairly uncommon and taboo among most American Indians. It did supposedly occur among the Iroquois and some Ojibwa bands. There were definitely Ojibwa in Langlade's force.
Food for thought.
Oof. You've noticed all the other culinary references in this post too right?

One wonders why the Ohio Historical Connection would leave out one of the most intriguing and sensational aspects of this battle on the sign? Maybe they felt there was not enough evidence to warrant its mention. But again Burney's account is the only one. Maybe Memeskia was simply killed during the battle versus "executed". No wonder many find history dull and boring. I think it's worth a mention as "alleged" or plausible. To think! Ritualized cannibalism right here in Ohio (possibly)! Wow! Teach that in a history class (or a sign) and folks might actually pay attention.

*a friendly term originally used by the Iroquois for William Penn extended to the current Governor. Onas means feather or quill.

additional reading and references: 
American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity by R. David Edmunds
The Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654-1994 by Stewart Rafert
Journal of Captain William Trent from Logstown to Pickawillany, A.D. 1752

Clarks, Corblys, Suttons, and Cold Plagues

Clough Cemetery in 2011, Gerard is the tall one

 There is a plant nursery near my office that I've passed many times called Greenfield Plant Farm. It sits at the corner of Clough (pronounced like "tough") and Hunley roads in Anderson Township close to the 1796 Miller-Leuser Log House. Their sign mentions that it's the site of the "James Clark Homestead". I never looked into that much, just a quick Google search but with such a common name, I didn't come up with much or think much more of it at the time.

I'd been aware of a nearby graveyard known as the Clough Baptist Cemetery (AKA Newton Cemetery and Wagon Train Cemetery) for a while thanks to geocaching. It's quite hidden away on quiet Bridges Road and nearly in someone's yard. The bulletin board at the front notes that several Revolutionary War Veterans are buried here and lists their names. That sort of thing always gets my attention.

Sutton's 1795 Log Home in 2011
(but not his SUV or DirectTV dish)

One resident is Jonathan Gerard who I had always assumed was the same John Garard (there are multiple spellings of this surname) who built the 1790 fortified station near the mouth of the Little Miami River now on Este Rd. It turns out he was a relative that came later.

Another is Stephen Sutton, one of the founders of Mt Washington in 1795. Sutton Road would be familiar to anyone in this area. Sutton's log house is still standing. But it's not like the aforementioned historic looking Miller-Leuser Log House. This is a private residence in the middle of a neighborhood with additions and siding added to it over the years making it a 3 bedroom home. Fortunately, in recent years an attempt has been made to make it look more...historic.

Then there is James Clark. It is believed he was a drummer boy at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown at age 16. I hadn't given this much thought until I tried to dig up more info on this guy. No pun intended. I ended up stumbling across a document buried in the website of...the Greenfield Plant Farm.
I'm sure you guessed it by now.

1802 Clark Stone House in 2009 - source

It's the same James Clark mentioned at the nursery and his 1802 stone house is still alive and well on the property. The article goes on to say it is likely the oldest standing stone house in the state of Ohio. It's sitting "right there" not far from the main road. Even a history nerd like me never saw it. Hidden in plain sight... like many geocaches. You can read the whole article here along with several photos of the house over the years. I unearthed a couple of other interesting tidbits.  Members of the Leuser Family (whose ancestors built the Miller-Leueser Log House) purchased this stone house in 1854 from the Clarks. It operated as a greenhouse and plant farm then just as it does today. Also, Hunley Rd was called Leuser Rd until at least 1926. I'd like to see proof of the drummer boy claim. I haven't been able to come up with any solid evidence though.

The Baptist church that once stood adjacent to these folks final resting place was founded by Rev. John Corbly Jr, another name local residents will be familiar with due to Corbly Road. In fact, as Hunley (formerly Leuser) crosses Clough it becomes Corbly. As Corbly Road runs West it bends south and becomes Sutton Road toward the Ohio River. Rev. Corbly died in 1814 at age 46 of what was called cold plague, a new strain of influenza ravaging the US during the War of 1812 and characterized by severe shivering. They say you rapidly froze to death, hence the name. He and other members of the Corbly family are also interred here. The church was unused by 1905. The walls and roof collapsed in the 1930s. Most of the remaining stones were used to build a Methodist church on Kellogg Road in the 1950s.

As for the cemetery itself. Most of the stones are illegible, falling over or buried now. Anderson Township does it's best to keep it looking nice. I tried to get some updated photos for this post but Cincinnati weather in March was not cooperating.

Famous Ohio Indians glasses

Cornstalk, Little Turtle, Pontiac, Logan

In a recent post, I told you all about some Ohio Presidential glassware. This time it’s Ohio Indian glassware featuring Famous Ohio Indians: Blue Jacket, The Prophet, Tecumseh and Cornstalk (all Shawnee), White Eyes (Delaware), Little Turtle (Miami), Chief Logan (Mingo), and Pontiac (Ottawa). Each painted glass is 16 ounces and measures 6 1/2" tall and 2 3/4" across. It's clear that no attempt was made to resemble the person they are depicting. These are generic looking Indians but at least they appear to be an attempt at an Eastern Woodland look. In other words, there are no big Plains Indian war bonnets. I'll give them points for that.

very rare original box sighting

A funny coincidence. Eight Ohio Presidents, eight Ohio Indians. Both are also kind of loose with the "from". For example, of the Ohio Presidents, WH Harrison was born in VA but lived much of his adult life in Indiana. He ran for POTUS with his home state as Ohio and served in government there. Ohio and VA both claim him. For Grandson Ben, he was born in Ohio but served the state of Indiana and that state was his home state when he ran for President. Ohio and Indiana claim him. Grant was born in Ohio but lived most of his life elsewhere and Illinois was his home state. Ohio and Illinois claim him. You get the idea...

White Eyes, Tecumseh, The Prophet, Blue Jacket

Exact Indian birthplaces from that time period are hard to determine in many cases. Pontiac was likely born in MI although some think it was Defiance Ohio. Little Turtle was likely born in Indiana. Cornstalk and White Eyes, probably PA by birth. Logan was born somewhere East of Ohio, maybe WV. Most historians agree that the Shawnee Indians Blue Jacket, Tecumseh, and The Prophet were all born in Ohio. Regardless of those details, important aspects of all their legacies are tied to Ohio in some manner.

Oh, my. Here am debating the historical accuracy of frosted glass tumblers!

Blue Jacket

I'd originally seen an entire set at a local antique mall for $45 and I was kicking myself for passing it up. I ended up cobbling together my eight-piece set as individual purchases and Christmas gifts over a year or so. I certainly paid more than $45. Lesson learned

The set is from the late 1950s or early 1960s (I've never determined exact years) and was promoted by Bonded Oil. One glass was awarded for every $2.50 in gas purchased. Gas was about 25 cents a gallon then, but before you get too nostalgic on the gas price, keep in mind that with inflation that would be $2.10 a gallon in 2017 money. So roughly the same. I guess this was sort of like Kroger Fuel Points in reverse.

White Eyes

Unlike the Ohio President glasses, I’ve never been able to determine who made this series. A seller on eBay said Hazel-Atlas but that company had a distinct marking that I have not seen here. But as I’ve mentioned before, Ohio was one of the world’s leading glass producers so it’s pretty safe to say that given the context, they were made in Ohio.

I found a mention online that indicated that the art itself was done by Indian artist Acee Blue Eagle. The font in the heading is even the same as another collection he is known to have designed. That was an exciting development! However, I was able to quickly debunk that theory. I saw another article online that first appeared in an antique magazine in 1991. That person makes a good case that Blue Eagle had nothing to do with the Ohio glasses. They ARE very similar to a set of Oklahoma Indian glasses he painted and released in 1959 for a similar promotion by Knox Oil, but having been well known at the time, his artwork would have incorporated his name. The Ohio glasses are likely just a copycat design by another gas station chain capitalizing on mid-century America's Indian nostalgia thanks to movie Westerns and TV shows like The Lone Ranger.

Pitcher and original box - on my wishlist

There is also a 2-quart pitcher that goes with the set. I don’t have one and have never seen one in person. They show up on eBay from time to time. I'm hoping one shows up under my Christmas tree this year.

"c. Bonded" marking

For a while, I speculated that the pitcher was not really part of the set as it doesn’t have “Famous Ohio Indians” on it and also does not have “c. Bonded Oil Co.” anywhere like the glasses do. The artwork is even a bit different. However, I found that the original box with those words is printed on it. So the pitcher is definitely part of this set. Supposedly the pitcher was the bonus after you collected all eight glasses.

Now for a couple of unsolved mysteries.

4 smaller glasses - also on the wishlist

I've seen 4 smaller 4 3/4 oz glasses being sold sometimes with the pitcher and the eight large glasses which are: Little Jumping Rabbit, Princess Little Fawn, Little Princess Red Wing, Little Running Bear. These are all just generic names and cartoonish compared to the full-size glasses. None of them have a tribe listed or a mention of Ohio. I'm not really sure if they really go with this series or not but they do have “c. Bonded Oil Co.” on them and as far as I know, this is the only promotion like this that Bonded issued. They seem to be hard to find.

There may have even been a metal rack for the eight glasses but I've only seen one mention of that anywhere.

the lone Pontiac mystery glass

During my research, I discovered another oddity. Besides the eight glasses, there is a ninth “bonus” glass with the heading “Famous Ohio Indian” (note the singular), and “Pontiac/The Red Napoleon” at the bottom with a depiction of this chief but no tribal affiliation. It doesn’t have “c. Bonded Oil Co.” on it either. I’m not sure what the story is here. It's not the same artwork as the Pontiac in the full set but overall is similar in design. Perhaps it was prototype before the whole series was made? If so, I'm not sure why they would choose Pontiac. Tecumseh would be more "Ohio" than the others. This  Ottawa leader was active in Ohio but his birthplace is open for debate and most historians think he was born in Michigan where his famous rebellion occurred. Maybe it was because of the Pontiac car and these were gas station giveaways?   I have no idea and I was unable to find any more information.  I did, however, find one on eBay and snapped up this outlier for $13!

It’s one of my favorite glass collections. They are beautiful to look at and the set represents American Indians in the Ohio Valley from a time period I fell in love with many years ago.

Frosted Ohio Presidents

Never in my life did I think I would get excited about mid 20th-century frosted glass tumblers, but here I am blogging about it. Again. I now have several different sets of Ohio related drink-ware and I've posted about one them before. I learned from my previous research that Ohio was a leader in the glass industry from the late 1800's to the mid 20th century so there are many Ohio themed glasses from that period.

I started this next set of  "Presidents From Ohio" glass tumblers by picking up three of them for a good price at an antique mall several years ago. I've seen the rest on eBay but at $8-14 a piece plus several dollars for shipping that was going to set me back a bit to get the entire set of eight. I'm kind of a cheapskate. Another website had an incomplete set of 6 for $120. Ouch.

Thanks to the sharp eye of an old friend browsing at a local antique mall who sent up the Gehio signal (he texted me), yours truly is now the proud owner of an entire eight-piece set. The best part? Only $35!

This series was designed by Fran Taylor and produced by her company, Gay Fad Studios of Lancaster, OH which was open from 1945-1962. Fran obtained blank glassware from various Ohio manufacturers such as Hazel Atlas Glass in Zanesville and Federal Glass in Columbus. Another was Anchor Hocking which was a few doors down from Fran's Pierce Avenue studio. The blanks were then stenciled and hand-painted. Because I had duplicates, I compared them. I noticed that the coloring on the birthplaces is somewhat different. That makes each one is unique.

The 12-ounce frosted glass tumblers are 5" high with a rim diameter or 2-3/4". The front of each President’s glass features his portrait, a facsimile of his signature, and his years in office (or year of the month in W. H. Harrison's case) with “Presidents From Ohio” above, all in brown, while the back shows his birthplace* in brown with colorful accents. In all my research I've never been able to determine the exact year these were made. Perhaps the secret is contained within the two-volume 610 page book published in 2011, Gay Fad: Fran Taylor’s Extraordinary Legacy by Donna McGrady. At $150 that's too rich for my blood to find out. I'm not so much obsessed with Fran's entire impressive career and work as I am about this particular set of glasses. It would be nice to know how many were made since as I stated before, being hand painted, they are all slightly different.

*Since I am William Henry Harrison obsessed, I noticed that being a Virginian by birth, Harrison's is not a birthplace, but a home in Ohio when he was elected. However, he never lived in a home that looked like a log cabin. The same scene is used in grandson Ben Harrison's birthplace. Ben was born on William's farm in North Bend OH but it was more like a mansion. All the others seem pretty accurate.

I have a couple of other full Ohio related glassware sets to write about waiting in the wings, so look for that...

Muse Over Miami

Around the 2nd century BCE, the concept of the modern nation-state is a long way off. Most folks at this point identified with a particular tribe or clan. During this period the Romans were the first to call the people in the land we now call Germany, Germans, meaning spear man. By the 2nd century CE, they were called Saxons, whose name developed from the type of knife they carried, the seax. They called themselves Diutisg, meaning "of the people" which formed into Deutsche and Deutschland. This is what they still call themselves, while the rest of the world calls them Germans. In the 8th century CE the Franks and others called new seafaring invaders from this region Northmen or Norsemen. The kingdoms in Britain called them Danes which has unclear origins but is where Denmark gets its name. The Slavs to the East called them Rus, which meant "the men who row". This is where Russia gets its name. These raiders and explorers may have called themselves Víkingr. In the Icelandic Sagas, they use the phrase "to go on a vikingr" or to raid. The English variation "Viking" came along later.
By the 11th century, the seafaring Vikings encountered people they called Skraeling, believed to be ancestors of the modern Inuit, or Eskimo, the northernmost inhabitants of the New World. Skraeling meant "barbarian". This is ironic since that's what the English and the Franks thought of their Norse invaders. How's that? 12 centuries of European history in 300 words or less?

Great, but what does this have to to with Ohio history?

Fort not built by the Miami, also not in Florida

We all know that the general term Indian itself is technically incorrect. 15th-century folks thought they reached a shortcut to the East Indies.  Individual Indian tribal names can be as perplexing as European tribal names a half a millennium earlier before those groups formed into the nations of England, France, Germany, Denmark, etc. with a central authority.

We see similar names such as Cree and Creek, Dakota and Lakota, Mahican and Mohegan, for example. Are they the same tribes? Is there any relation? It can get complicated. To add to the confusion, different bands or septs within the same tribes sometimes used different or multiple names as well. I'm not going to research or attempt to explain them all in a mere blog post, but two tribes I've always found interesting are the Algonquian language speaking Delaware and Miami people.

Lord Delaware, definitely not Indian

Many times European explorers didn't bother with the difficult to pronounce or unclear indigenous name. This is true with the Lenni Lenape people who were renamed the Delaware by settlers. As is the case with many autonyms in the world, Lenni Lenape means original people. They also lived near a river named after Lord De La Warr, the first Governor of the Virginia English colony. So they were called the Delaware for many years. The state of Delaware derives its name from the same source. As settlers moved in, the Delaware people were pushed West to the Ohio Valley. Their descendants have since reverted to the name Lenape. There is also a town and a county named Delaware in Ohio.

Other times the modern tribal name is a European corruption of the tribe's autonym and/or a version of what one tribe, called another tribe. The Miami (or Maumee) people of the Ohio Valley, who incidentally are thought to be descendants of their Lenape or Delaware "grandfathers", fall into this category. So at least an attempt was made to use the correct name, even if it wasn't. More on that in a bit.

In the state of Ohio, we have the Maumee River, the Great and Little Miami Rivers. Places called Maumee, Miamitown, Miamiville. Miamisburg, New Miami, Miami County, Miami Township. A park named Miami Whitewater Forest. Miami University in Oxford OH. The British built Fort Miamis near Toledo. In Indiana and Kansas, there are similar cities, counties, and townships.

WTF?

Then there is Miami Florida...a thousand miles south of Ohio. What's the story here? I've read that the Suwanee River in Florida might be connected to the Ohio Shawnee who migrated south at one point. Did the Miami people do the same?

The French were the first Europeans to encounter this Algonquin speaking Maumee in the mid 17th century. Miami comes from Maumee, a French corruption of Myaamia, which meant downstream people. Another source says it meant allies. Either way, it appears to be a name given by another tribe. These are just examples of the names. It's actually a bit more complicated.

When those French explorers encountered the Myaamia, they recorded a confederation of six bands. The French did their best to distinguish each of them by calling them "Maumee of the Ohio (river)", "Maumee of the Lake (Erie)", Maumee of the Woods", etc. This group was also known by other names by other tribes. For example, the Lenni Lenape people probably called them Twightwee which has unclear origins. One theory regarding Twightwee is that it's a reflex of Twatwa which could be the original name of the Miami people. Twatwa itself might come from the sound their sacred bird the sandhill crane makes. Whichever it is, the Miami name stuck and the Miami use the name to this day.

One of the many "Miami's" in Ohio

Through warfare, disease, and consolidation in the fight for self-survival during the French and British years, many Miami bands merged. By the end of the 18th century, there were only three bands. The Miami people were then pushed into the modern state of Indiana by United States expansion. In 1846 due to forced relocation by the US government, the Miami moved to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. By the end of the 19th century, there was basically one band, the federally recognized Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. There have been efforts to legally recognize an Eastern group that returned to Indiana in the 20th century. Both of these modern groups consider themselves to be the same people.

flag of the Miami Nation
note the Twatwa 

So how is Miami Florida related any of this? In Florida's case, "Miami" derives from the native people of that area of southern Florida through the 1740s until they became extinct. The indigenous people there referred to the large lake in that area as Mayaimi, meaning Big Water (this is now Lake Okeechobee from the Hitchiti, another extinct tribe), so similar to the English with the Delaware, the Spanish called them Mayaimi. In other words, the names are just a coincidence and "Miami" was in use in the Ohio Valley well before Florida's Miami.

I was attempting to draw parallels between ancient European history and comparatively recent American history but that's where the similarities mostly end. American Indians seem to have a unique place in this world. Today there are over 500 federally recognized self-governing nations within US borders, however, they are not completely sovereign like the nation states of Europe. Federal tribes are technically citizens of the United States, the US state in which the tribe resides, and the tribe itself. The Old World eventually would have found and explored the New World. Had history taken different courses, perhaps if European discovery occurred earlier, or had the people in the Americas been better armed, or maybe just more resistant to devastating European diseases, it's possible there would be a large multicultural Indian nation-state or even several bordering the modern United States or a different modern nation altogether. Don't laugh, the idea of a US-run Indian state was considered (sort of) at least once...with the Lenape...in Ohio!
Quiz time.
What's the largest ethnic group in Ohio comprising 25% of the population? Hint: It's also the largest in the US overall...Germans!
Oh, and who loves Miami Beach?...Germans!

Celibate Christian Communists in Ohio

kinda hard to read, see text to the right

Several years ago I was out and about in rural Southwestern Ohio when I came across an old Shaker Cemetery. There were a few individual markers in this relatively large graveyard but it was the large engraved stone in the center that got my attention. It read:
Erected by the Society of Shakers
White Water Village
An Order Of Celibate Christian Communists
To Honor the Memory Of The Members Whose Mortal Remains Are Interred in This Lot
1827-1916

All I really knew of the Shakers was the fact that they produced plain, durable, handcrafted furniture. Maybe similar to the Amish but with added holy roller flavor. That "Celibate Christian Communists" phrase piqued my curiosity. I set out to learn more.

One of those famous chairs

The Shakers were predominantly an 18th and 19th-century religion with origins in English Quakerism. Eventually, they came to America and established their own communities.

Officially they are called the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming and their worship services tended to be frenzied and ecstatic, hence the name "Shakers". The Shakers believed in equality of the sexes, the second coming of Christ, and communal living, which was called communism well before Karl Marx.
Overall they seem to fit in with 19th-century spiritualism. I've read of other communal religious societies from that time period such as the one in nearby ghost town Utopia, OH and the more famous Oneida Community in New York that claimed future President Garfield assassin Charles Giteau as a member.

It gets a bit more interesting...

Shaker Village to the North, looks nice but read the fine print

While identifying as Christian, Shakers did not consider Christ a deity but instead an agent of God. They believed men and women were made in God's image and equal. Since the first Christ was male, the second Christ would be female. They felt this already happened in the form of their religion's founder, English born former Quaker Mother Ann Lee, whose visions led her to this conclusion and brought her followers to America in 1774. Yup.
This belief meant women took leadership roles in the church. That in itself was a radical idea in 18th century America and seems progressive on the surface. The fact is, living spaces were still segregated as were schools and work-related roles. Separate but equal I guess.

Ok, that's great, now get to the sex part. Or lack thereof.

Additionally and probably the most puzzling of all, the Shakers believed all sex was a sin and celibacy was a path to God. This didn't just apply to church leaders or the unmarried. Everyone. Mother Ann Lee taught that sex was "the root and foundation of human depravity". That's a big drawback for a commune and had to be a hard sell when they got to that page of the brochure. In fact, they didn't even believe in marriage. I guess it was OK for others to be depraved because instead of sexual procreation to multiply their flock, the Shakers adopted orphaned children into their communities and relied on conversion of adults.

19th century Shakers shaking

The Shaker movement began on another continent in the early 1700s and virtually disappeared by 1920. That's a long run compared to other communal societies that tend to fizzle out after a few decades at best. While it's no surprise that Shakers went extinct, it seems surprising that it took so long.  If you aren't having babies then your membership is going to stall. As pacifists, they were conscientious objectors. They also didn't vote or generally participate in public life. This generated distrust from other Americans who expected otherwise. You would think all of the above would have done them in.
It was the US Civil War that brought on a rapid change that the Shakers could not adapt to. Major industrialization occurred in the postbellum era which started an economic decline for the Shakers. Folks were now able to purchase cheaper mass produced items instead of more expensive Shaker made goods. Membership started declining as new converts were hard to come by as the Shakers became less financially prosperous. Existing members left when they found the lifestyle too difficult to adhere to. Similar to the Amish, at age 21, folks could decide to stay or go. Additionally, adoption laws started to be reformed in the late 19th century. The Shakers were separatists in a closed society. Technological advances in transportation and communication such as trains and the telegraph altered the world and increased the difficulty of maintaining that separation.  Despite the popular notion, non-traditional Protestant Christian religions were not always welcomed in the US. Just read about the hard times of the early Mormons, Quakers, and Catholics in the US. We were even debating the idea of a Catholic President in 1960. What America really had going for it was land and plenty of it. Folks could spread out a bit and stay out of each other's way. For a while.
Another odd bit, The White Water Shaker Settlement which was active from 1824-1916, south of this cemetery attracted former Millerites who believed in the April 1843 Christ's Second Coming. Maybe you heard but that didn't pan out. The Shakers convinced some of these greatly disappointed Millerites that this already occurred in the form of Mother Ann Lee.

1816 Shaker text

As stated before, the Shakers were known for their simple furniture styles but they were also known for many inventions and improvements on existing items. Since they were a closed society they didn't patent anything. It's difficult to verify but some of the items attributed to the Shakers are the one piece clothespin, packaged seeds, dentures, and a circular saw. For some reason, there is a hydroelectric power station in Kentucky named after Mother Ann Lee. There was a Shaker village nearby but it seems strange to me that such a high tech power installation such as this would be named after the leader of an old-time religion.

The Shakers goal was to create a working Heaven on Earth during what they believed to be the time of the second reign of the Christ spirit while practicing the value of hard work. However, it is ironic their secular contributions such as furniture and labor-saving innovations will be their true legacy and not their Celibate Christian Communism.
The Shaker movement peaked during the Civil War with 6,000 members and dozens of villages. By the 20th century there were only 12 active communities and by 2017 there was one community in Maine with 2 members.They are still open to converts.


other sources and additional reading:
- Cincinnati Enquirer 04/07/1968 article on a man who lived at the village (scroll down to the OCR text)
- Ken Burns film on the Shakers