Mark Dawidziak makes a return engagement, this time with his wife, Sara Showman, to mesmerize as well as frighten as they present SHADES OF BLUE AND GRAY: Spirits from the Civil War.

Their one hour and twenty minute show will include ghost stories from South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Ohio, including a special section about Abraham Lincoln.

We apologize in advance if you are a little scared, but we know you will be thoroughly entertained.

The final program of the season, presented by MCH President Peter Cultice, includes stories about UGRR and abolitionist activity across the Muskingum River from Putnam, including stories about Joshua McCarter Simpson.

 A leader of Zanesville’s large and very active African American community, Simpson was born in Morgan county and educated at Oberlin. He worked as a businessman, herbalist, teacher, Baptist Elder, anti-slavery activist, UGRR operative, poet, and songwriter.

Cutltice noted that, “Simpson, often referred to at the time as J McSimpson, was also involved in a fugitive slave case tried in the Muskingum County Courthouse in Zanesville in 1859.” That court case, according to Cultice, “also involved the antislavery congregation of the Market Street Baptist Church.”

Prior Forum programs have featured stories about Putnam prior to the Civil War. But Cultice concludes the series with a more recent Zanesville story related to a significant chapter in America’s Civil Rights Movement, the story of Jackie Robinson.  

 Cultice also shared, “the MCH Board is very thankful for the generous financial support from the J.W. & M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation. We have worked many times with the Straker Foundation, and we appreciate their involvement in the Putnam district.”

“Vengeance is Mine” is the story of Bemino, called Killbuck, who was a Delaware war captain and medicine man who fought against the English during the French and Indian War. What separated Bemino from his Native contemporaries was his ability to speak English which he learned as a child at his home in what is now New Jersey. This unique advantage enabled Bemino to know what his enemy was likely to do, as he could think like them.

With a handful of warriors, Bemino was able to out-think, out-maneuver, and out-fight the men of the Virginia Regiment that Washington sent to destroy him on the Virginia wilderness frontier. Always one step ahead, Bemino avoided direct engagement against superior numbers. The results were catastrophic defeats for Washington’s men who unwittingly fell in well-planned ruses and ambushes.

The ambush of the Virginian militiamen at the Battle of the Trough in 1756, the massacre of Fort Edwards’s soldiers a month later, the ambushes staged in 1757 near Fort Cumberland, and the fall of both Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert in late 1758 were Bemino’s handiwork. Only when the French abandoned war against the English in the Ohio Country did Bemino cease his attacks and return to his father, Nettawattwees, at New Comer’s Town.

Program: Was It Treason?

by John Hyter

2024 Stone Academy UGRR Symposium:

Putnam Connections

A New Venue: The Historic Putnam Presbyterian Church

The Putnam Presbyterian Church was the religious center of the Putnam’s abolitionist community. Its founder’s support of Abolition and the Underground Railroad was based on their religious beliefs and led to the church’s founding in 1835.

The UGRR activity of church members is well documented in the Siebert Collection, county histories, and personal reminisces. The first pastor was William Henry Beecher, eldest brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. When Stowe visited in 1837, in a letter to her husband, she reported that half of Putnam’s residents were abolitionists. The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society held its 1839 Convention at the church. Frederick Douglass spoke there in 1843. However, the association and significance of the church to the Underground Railroad is best illustrated by examining contributions of some of its original members which included Matthew Gillespie, several Guthrie families, Horace and Lucinda Nye, Solomon and Lucy Hale Sturges, and Levi Whipple.

The church is a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site. It is listed on the National Register of Historic places as part of the Putnam Historic District, and is an Ohio’s Friends of Freedom Society location.

Online, mail-in, and telephone registration will begin on August 15th. Unlike 2023 when seating was limited, registrations will not be cut off. As in the past , the Symposium is open to the public free of charge due to the generosity of our sponsors, Park National Bank and North Valley Bank.

Symposium Program

Session 1: Frederick Douglass 

Speaker: Dr. Robert Wallace, Northern Kentucky University

Session 2: The Beecher Sisters 

Speaker: Christina Hartlieb, Executive Director, Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Session 3: Family Connections

Presenter: Tom Wolf , Ohio History Connection

Session 4: The Lane Rebels

Speaker: Timothy Kraus, Historian and Author

Session 5: Wilson Bruce Evans                    

Speaker: Carol Lasser, Emerita Professor of History, Oberlin College

Session 6: Margaret Garner                            

Speakers: Dr. Joan Ferrante and Dr. Robert Wallace, Northern Kentucky University

Increased interest in UGRR and Abolitionist activity in Putnam and a recommendation from the National Park Service has resulted in an effort to update Putnam’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NR). The original 1975 listing recognized the historic impact of Putnam at the local level. It was amended in 2004 to include Putnam’s importance at the state level. The 2024 update seeks recognition of Putnam’s national significance.

Each meeting will feature a program about Putnam History as well as an update on the status of the NR update including related Q&A and discussion. The program theme for the Inaugural Season is Old Putnam: Stories That All Americans Can Relate To, Regardless of Where They Live.

The Putnam UGRR Forum, made possible by the generosity of the community-minded J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation, is open to the public free of charge.

PROGRAM TOPIC: Putnam Women: Social Reform, Abolition, and the UGRR

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: History becomes Herstory in this program about the Hale Sisters, Lucinda Belknap Nye, Sarah Guthrie, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others.

SPEAKERS: Lacey Bonar Hall and Dr. Larisa Harper

Come listen to and learn about Mark Twain in Ohio.

Mark Dawidziak has performed and discussed Mark Twain throughout Ohio at more than one hundred venues. Although Mark acknowledges that his late friend, Hal Holbrook, was the best “Mark Twain”, join us as we watch Mark go in and out of character.

You will be thoroughly entertained and learn how Mark Twain almost made Ohio his home.

Civil War Music

Performed by Steve and Lisa Ball

CWR is open to the public free of charge

Increased interest in UGRR and Abolitionist activity in Putnam and a recommendation from the National Park Service has resulted in an effort to update Putnam’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NR). The original 1975 listing recognized the historic impact of Putnam at the local level. It was amended in 2004 to include Putnam’s importance at the state level. The 2024 update seeks recognition of Putnam’s national significance.

Each meeting will feature a program about Putnam History as well as an update on the status of the NR update including related Q&A and discussion. The program theme for the Inaugural Season is Old Putnam: Stories That All Americans Can Relate To, Regardless of Where They Live.

The Putnam UGRR Forum, made possible by the generosity of the community-minded J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation, is open to the public free of charge.

NATIONAL REGISTER UPDATE: The focus will be on the Statement of Significance including Putnam’s role in America’s First Civil Rights Movement.

PROGRAM TOPIC: Coming to Blows: Mob Violence in Putnam in the 1830s

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Stories about anti-Abolitionist violence prior to the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society state conventions held in Putnam in 1835 and 1839 including “The Battle of the Bridge” and attacks directed at Quaker activist Henry Howells.

SPEAKER: Charlotte McElroy, MCH Trustee and Treasurer

Increased interest in UGRR and Abolitionist activity in Putnam and a recommendation from the National Park Service has resulted in an effort to update Putnam’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NR). The original 1975 listing recognized the historic impact of Putnam at the local level. It was amended in 2004 to include Putnam’s importance at the state level. The 2024 update seeks recognition of Putnam’s national significance.

Each meeting will feature a program about Putnam History as well as an update on the status of the NR update including related Q&A and discussion. The program theme for the Inaugural Season is Old Putnam: Stories That All Americans Can Relate To, Regardless of Where They Live.

The Putnam UGRR Forum, made possible by the generosity of the community-minded J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation, is open to the public free of charge.

PROGRAM TOPIC: Putnam’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Sites

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: An overview of the historical integrity and verifiable UGRR connections of Putnam’s five NTF sites as well as other pre-Civil War structures.

SPEAKER: James Geyer, retired MCH Museum Director, author of Putnam Network to Freedom Nominations

Increased interest in UGRR and Abolitionist activity in Putnam and a recommendation from the National Park Service has resulted in an effort to update Putnam’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NR). The original 1975 listing recognized the historic impact of Putnam at the local level. It was amended in 2004 to include Putnam’s importance at the state level. The 2024 update seeks recognition of Putnam’s national significance.

Each meeting will feature a program about Putnam History as well as an update on the status of the NR update including related Q&A and discussion. The program theme for the Inaugural Season is Old Putnam: Stories That All Americans Can Relate To, Regardless of Where They Live.

The Putnam UGRR Forum, made possible by the generosity of the community-minded J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation, is open to the public free of charge.

PROGRAM TOPIC: Birthplace of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The focus of the first program is the shift in attitude and change in strategy in the movement to end slavery.

SPEAKER: Peter Cultice, local historian, UGRR researcher, Muskingum County History Board President.

THE LEGACY OF THE 1913 FLOOD

         … As expressed in an editorial appearing in the Zanesville Signal, April 5, 1913

One thing this great disastrous flood has done – it has brought the people closer together. It has shown us that after all we are just one great big family. It has taught us to be more charitable to one another. It has let us know much good there is in human nature. It has shown the big-heartedness of our neighbors. It has illustrated the delight in helping one another. It has temporarily at least blotted out race, religion, and creed. It has shown our dependence one upon another.

C.W. Goodyear is the author of “President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier” published in July, 2023. Mr. Goodyear is a graduate of Yale University and has appeared on Book TV. Historian Richard Norton Smith wrote for the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Goodyear has written “the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost 50 years and the most readable ever…”

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK, THE MUSKINGUM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, AND NORTH VALLEY BANK

Attorney Charles Braun II is the official President Benjamin Harrison reenactor for the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Library and Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Brown is a 1977 graduate of Indiana University School of Law. He also is a graduate of the F.B.I National Academy for police legal advisors.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK, THE MUSKINGUM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, AND NORTH VALLEY BANK

Dr. Ned S. Lodwick is a 1976 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He also minored in history at OSU. He served as Vice President of the U.S. Grant Homestead Association for 24 years. Dr. Lodwick also served as President of the Brown County Historical Society for 20 years and currently serves as the Society’s historian. In 2009, Dr. Lodwick was awarded the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums the “Outstanding Historian’s Achievement Award.”

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK, THE MUSKINGUM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, AND NORTH VALLEY BANK

Theodore Persinger is the Lead Interpreter for the Warren G. Harding Museum and Library. Mr. Persinger is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he earned a degree in history. Mr. Persinger works hand in hand with staff to research, give and write tours.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK, THE MUSKINGUM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, AND NORTH VALLEY BANK

Christine M. Weininger is the Executive Director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums located in Fremont, Ohio. She graduated from Otterbein with a B.A. degree in history and the University of Toledo where she obtained her master’s degree in history. Ms. Weininger also was the director of the Wood County Historical Center and the director/curator of the Wyandot County Museum for 9 and 7 years, respectively.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK, THE MUSKINGUM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, AND NORTH VALLEY BANK

Eric Sterner holds a BA from American University. He also holds two MAs from George Washington University. He is the author of Anatomy of a Massacre: The Destruction of Gnadenhutten, 1782, which will be the subject of his presentation. Come learn the story and history of Gnadenhutten, a village located in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. His second book will be on the William Crawford Campaign in 1782 and its disastrous outcome.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388

Dr. David Curtis Skaggs is Professor Emeritus of History at Bowling Green State university. He is the author or coauthor of a dozen books that include William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio County; Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy; and, Thomas Macdonough: Master of Command in the Early U.S. Navy. Professor Skaggs’ program is entitled “Combined Operation During the Lake Erie Campaign: William Henry Harrison and Oliver Hazard Perry’s Inter-Service Coordination of 1813.”

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388

Janet S. Shailer is a resident of Grove City, Ohio. She is the author of Images of America: Grove City; Images of Modern America: Grove City; and, one novel, The Austerlitz Bugle Telegraph: A King, A Goddess and a Chronicle of Deception. Her most recent book is Trouble on Scioto’s Waters: Soldiers, Frontiersmen, & Native Americans, 1725-1815. Mrs. Shailer will speak on her latest book and the significant, although perhaps unknown, history of the Ohio Country/Old Northwest Territory.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388

THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS.

Dr. William R. Heath received his BA from Hiram College and his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Professor Heath is Professor Emeritus at Mount Saint Mary’s College located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He is the author of three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led; Blacksnake’s Path; and, Devil Dancer. His work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the old Northwest won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Historical Nonfiction Book and the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best First Nonfiction Book. Professor Heath will speak on William Wells and the Old Northwest. William Wells is not as well known as Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett, but his contribution to the history of the Old Northwest and the Ohio Country is likely more significant than his better known counterparts.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388

THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS. IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 2023.

Dr. Glenn F. Williams is historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. He also has  served as historian for the Army Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission as well as for the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program. He is the author of Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois and Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era. Dr. Williams’ topic will focus on the causes and conduct of Lord Dunmore’s War, the last Indian War before the start of the American War of Independence. This was the last war that the soon to be new nation fought under the British flag.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388

Bob Hunter, a graduate of Ohio University, served as a sports columnist for the Columbus Dispatch the last 24 years of his more than 40 year career. Bob is the author of eleven books, including Players, Teams and Stadium Ghosts; Thurberville; and, A Historical Guidebook to Old Columbus. His latest book is Road to Wapatomica: A Modern Search For The Old Northwest. Bob will talk about his book and his journey across the Midwest in search of memorable moments from the days of the Old Northwest. Come learn what Bob learned, or, perhaps unlearned.

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSORED BY PARK NATIONAL BANK

The Zanesville Civil War Roundtable meets once a month for a presentation and discussion of a Civil War topic. Usually, a visiting speaker, sometimes and author or historian, will lead the program. The ZCWRT is open to anyone with an interest in history that would like to learn about our past. Come join us.

For more information, please call (740) 221-7388