Unforgettable Ohioans

Randy McNutt

Description

Captivating portraits of extraordinary individuals Famous Buckeyes are recognized by practically everyone. They range from presidents and inventors to aviators and astronauts. But other important Ohioans have been unfairly forgotten over the years. To find them, the authors of Unforgettable Ohioans dug beneath the layer of well-known names to discover a cache of remarkable individuals whose lives had significant national or international impact. They won't show up on the top-ten list of most famous Ohioans, but their stories are nonetheless intriguing and important.Randy and Cheryl Bauer McNutt introduce us to David Harpster, who became "the Wool King of America," as the newspapers of his day called him, and drove a significant segment of the nation's economy; Lucy Webb Hayes, the future First Lady who sacrificed her comfort and safety-even the safety of one of her children-to become a "mother" to hundreds of injured Union soldiers during the Civil War; Zachary Lansdowne, the Greenville naval officer who became an expert on lighter-than-air craft and commanded the airship USS Shenandoah when it crashed in Ohio in 1924; Benjamin Hanby, the Westerville songwriter whose hit songs comforted both Rebel and Yankee soldiers-and still entertain us each Christmas season; Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, the smooth singer from Blue Creek who helped establish modern country music and later died in the same airplane crash that claimed the life of Patsy Cline; and Moses Fleetwood Walker, the Steubenville baseball player who came out of Oberlin College to become the first black player in the major leagues-in 1884. The lives and achievements of these and other extraordinary Ohioans are featured in this fascinating and entertaining book.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Local history
• Midwestern United States
• History of the Americas
• Ohio

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631011863
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

UNFORGETTABLE OHIOANS
UNFORGETTABLE
OHIOANS
Thirteen Mavericks Who Made History on Their Own Terms
Randy McNutt and Cheryl Bauer McNutt
Black Squirrel Books ™
Kent, Ohio 44242
BLACK SQUIRREL BOOKS ™
Frisky, industrious black squirrels are a familiar sight on the Kent State University campus and the inspiration for Black Squirrel Books™, a trade imprint of The Kent State University Press.
www.KentStateUniversityPress.com
© 2015 by The Kent State University Press, Kent Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014049489
ISBN 978-1-60635-235-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA
McNutt, Randy.
Unforgettable Ohioans : thirteen mavericks who made history on their own terms / Randy McNutt and Cheryl Bauer McNutt.
    pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-235-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ∞
1. Ohio—Biography I. McNutt, Cheryl Bauer, 1953– II. Title.
F490.M45 2015
977.1—dc23
2014049489
19 18 17 16 15     5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to the memories of our parents,
Ruth and Frederick Bauer
Kay and William McNutt
CONTENTS
Preface
1 Caesar, Frontier Explorer
2 Benjamin R. Hanby, Christmas Composer
3 James W. Denver, American Adventurer
4 David Harpster, the Wool King
5 Lucy Webb Hayes, the Soldiers’ Friend
6 Moses Fleetwood Walker, Writer-Ballplayer
7 Zachary Lansdowne, Airship Commander
8 Blanche Noyes, Champion Aviatrix
9 Clayton Brukner, Aviation Tycoon
10 Mildred Gillars, Traitor and Teacher
11 Lloyd Copas, Cowboy Singer
12 Sydney Nathan, Music Man
13 Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–Winning Author
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
Ask any Ohioans to name five famous Buckeyes and they could probably quickly come up with Neil Armstrong, Orville and Wilbur Wright, John Glenn, and Thomas Edison. They also might be able to name a few of the eight Ohioans who have occupied the White House. The better informed might also list shooting expert Annie Oakley, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Tecumseh, the Native American warrior who never surrendered. In fact, Ohio has such an abundance of famous people and history makers that it’s nearly impossible not to know something about some of them; their accomplishments and quirks have been chronicled and passed down through generations until they’ve become almost legendary.
But Ohio is a large state with a long history and plenty of fascinating people who have been overlooked over the years. We wanted to find some unforgettable Ohioans who accomplished something—good or bad. To do so, we had to dig into our research a little deeper, visit more sources, and travel more back roads, but the project was worth it. You may have studied some of these people in school, heard about their legends, flown in their airplanes, read their books, and sang their songs without ever realizing their Ohio connection.
We chose them based on our own interests—and simply what we consider fascinating stories. To us, the story is everything, more important than race, gender, occupation, or anything else. So we went with the best stories we could find—we went with the entertainment. Our only criteria: the subjects had to live in Ohio for a significant time, or be attached to the state in a special way—whether artistically, professionally, culturally, or otherwise. And, finally, more important, any person included in our book must be dead.
Unforgettable Ohioans profiles the lives of an eclectic group of men and women from diverse backgrounds. Some grew up in rural areas; others came from cities. Some were formally educated; most of them were self-taught. A few were quite young when they experienced success; some did not excel until they were elderly. Several were prominent throughout their lives. One was so elusive that he is considered a frontier legend. The majority of them spent most of their time in Ohio. They were national—or in a few cases international—history makers. Their eras range from the late eighteenth century until well into the twentieth.
Not all of these people were “good guys.” One of the most unapologetic traitors of World War II grew up in Ohio and—even more surprisingly—returned to live here after being imprisoned for treason. Not all of our subjects accomplished all of their goals. The commander behind one of the worst dirigible disasters in U.S. aviation history was a young Ohioan who died much too early while pursuing his vision. The composer of several famous songs died in his early thirties, before he could write more hits.
But all of these unforgettable people have one thing in common: their stories contain elements of wonder. At some point, you’ll be amazed at their accomplishments, or determination, or just plain audacity. And you’ll say, “I never knew he came from Ohio” or “I’ve heard of her, but I never knew she did that .”
We hope that after you read their stories, these people will be as unforgettable to you as they have become to us.
 

|  1  |
CAESAR
Frontier Explorer
On Ohio’s frontier, a legend grew around an escaped slave from Virginia known only as Caesar. Named, ironically or defiantly, after the powerful Roman emperor, he found war and freedom north of the Ohio River decades before Ohio became a state in 1803. Caesar’s story was part myth, part truth. Now, roughly 175 years after his death, Caesar’s name is still mentioned daily, yet no one knows exactly when and where he was born, who he really was, how he arrived in Ohio, and with whom he left, or why. He is a mysterious figure whose adventures were passed down through generations of Ohioans, leaving multiple, conflicting plots. As with a mythological creature, it was as if he inhabited four bodies—all the same man, but with different lives. This particular Caesar invokes the imagination and helps us understand more about the fate of escaped slaves.
In the late 1700s, the name “Caesar” was common among slaves. But this man was a pioneer in a sprawling, untamed region. His story is as much a part of Ohio history as any other pioneer tale, although it began a full quarter century before the territory gained statehood.
Two centuries of Caesar storytelling and retelling make it difficult to trace his lineage and timeline. Yet, his name lives on: at Caesar Creek State Park in Warren and Clinton counties as well as at several popular businesses, including the Caesar Creek Flea Market off Interstate 71 and the Caesar Creek Vineyards in Xenia. At the park’s attractive visitor center, a display board tells Caesar’s story—or what is known of it. “College students are interested in him, but the younger kids think he is either Julius Caesar or else the pizza [chain],” said Kim Baker, a park natural resources specialist ranger with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. “We try to tell his story to them as best we can. But we may never know the true story behind this fascinating man.”
Caesar as he might have looked in the 1780s. (Courtesy United States Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville)
According to the Ohio Division of State Parks, Caesar’s Creek was named for a black slave who had been captured by the Shawnee during a raid along the Ohio River. The Indians adopted the young man and eventually presented him with the valley where the state park is now located. He lived there during Blue Jacket’s days as Shawnee war chief, 1786 to 1795, and was said to have participated in raids against settlers.
In 1978, two hundred years after Caesar trekked through the early West, the federal and state governments built and opened the forty-seven-hundred-acre park that bears his name, as well as an adjacent twenty-five-hundred-acre wildlife site. The land and wildlife are preserved much as they were when Caesar lived there.
Warren County historian Dallas Bogan, once a Caesar skeptic, listed four different legends about the elusive frontiersman. The first is that he escaped from his southern owners and made his way to the Northwest Territory, where slavery was banned in 1787. There he lived in a cabin on the banks of Caesar’s Creek, about thirty-five miles north of the Ohio River. In the 1800s, some people of the area claimed Caesar had died by the stream and was buried there, but others believed he left for Canada on the Underground Railroad. Bogan’s second legend, gleaned from George F. Robinson’s 1902 history of Greene County, has it that in 1786 Caesar was the slave of an officer in an American army General Benjamin Logan had raised in that area to respond to the Shawnee’s theft of horses. But before the army could attack the Indians, Caesar escaped along a scenic creek and then took Kenton’s Trace, a route opened by pioneer explorer Simon Kenton that ran from Aberdeen on the Ohio River to the Shawnee’s major encampment. When he arrived, Caesar informed the tribe of the army’s intention. Indian leaders believed him, and soon after, as Bogan wrote, “the soldiers moved upon Old Chillicothe, destroyed crops, and burnt the village, but found the Indians had fled… . The creek afterwards was known as the creek where Caesar ran away. The General most certainly had slaves accompanying him, but was Caesar among them?”
Robinson noted that Caesar’s Creek was named for Caesar and said he learned this from Thomas C. Wright, who claimed he had heard the story from Simon Kenton himself. Kenton, along with Daniel Boone and Caesar, lived to old age in an era when most people didn’t—particularly on the frontier.
The third legend, Bogan wrote briefly, is that the creek took its name from the servant of an officer who served with the American army in the Warren County area in 1794.
Bogan’s fourth legend recounts that when the Shawnee held fellow frontiersman Simon Kenton prisoner, Caesar was living with the tribe. When Kenton pleaded with him for help escaping, the unusual-looking Indian refused. But perhaps the former slave empathized with the white captive, because h