John J. Zimkus, WCHS Historian/Education Director (featured in the July 2023 issue of the Medallion Newsletter) Mention the term “airship” and many people today may have no idea of what you are talking about. A few might know that you are referring to a dirigible, a lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power.
When you ask those familiar with the word “What was the world’s greatest airship disaster?” the vast majority of answers will probably be the horrendous explosion of the Hindenburg at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on the evening of May 6, 1937. Out of the total number of 97 passengers and crew on board, 35 were killed along with one member of the ground crew. Anyone who has seen the famous newsreel footage of the Hindenburg going up in flames and crashing to the ground find it hard to forget. Nor can they forget radio announcer Herbert Morrison’s emotional cry of “Oh, the humanity!” as he witnessed the airship’s devastating conflagration. As memorable as the Hindenburg disaster was, it was not the world’s greatest airship disaster. That unfortunate distinction belongs to the all but forgotten US Navy airship, the USS Akron, nearly 4 years earlier. Ninety years ago, within the first hour of Tuesday morning, April 4, 1933, off the coast of New Jersey, the Akron went down into the Atlantic Ocean. It lost 73 of its 76 crew and passengers. Also perishing were two sailors who were attempting to rescue the survivors of the doomed airship. The “blimps” that can be seen flying over sporting events today are non-rigid airships. Typically the only solid parts on them are the passenger car (gondola) and the tail fins. Both the Hindenburg and the Akron were rigid airships. They had an outer structural framework that maintains the shape and carries all structural loads. The major difference between the Hindenburg and the Akron was the lifting gas. The Hindenburg used hydrogen. It has a high lifting capacity and was ready available but, as the Hindenburg proved in 1937, it is also highly flammable. The Akron used helium gas. It has almost the same lifting capacity as hydrogen and is not flammable, but is rare and relatively expensive. The Akron was the first of a class of two 6,500,000 cubic foot rigid airship built for the US Navy. Construction began in October 1929 by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Company at the Goodyear Airdock in Akron, Ohio. The USS Akron (ZRS-4) was christened on August 8, 1931, by first lady Lou Hoover, the wife of President Herbert Hoover. It was 785 feet long, about 20 feet shorter than the Hindenburg. It had a cruising speed of 55 knots (63 mph) and a maximum speed of 69 knots (79 mph). The USS Akron was a “flying aircraft carrier.” The heart of the ship, and said to be “her sole reason for existing,” was its airplane hangar and retrieval system. In May 1932, the Akron first tested its in-flight handling of the F9C Sparrowhawk, launching and capturing the small plane from its “trapeze”. This light biplane fighter was an example of a parasite fighter, a small airplane designed to be deployed from a larger aircraft such as an airship or bomber. The Akron could nominally hold five of the F9C Sparrowhawk, but practically it was limited to three. On the evening of April 3, 1933, the USS Akron departed the Lakehurst Naval Station at 7:28 p.m. on a mission to calibrate radio direction finding equipment along the coast of New England. A few hours after taking off it encountered unexpected severe weather just after crossing the east coast of New Jersey. The weather did not improve when the airship passed over Barnegat Light, New Jersey. Wind gusts of terrific force struck the airship's massive airframe. Around 12:30 a.m. on April 4, the Akron was caught by an updraft, which was followed almost immediately by a downdraft. Ultimately a violent gust tore away its lower rudder cables leaving the nose of the airship tilted upward between 12 degrees and 25 degrees. The crew was unaware of how close the tail of the airship was to the ocean surface because of its "nose up” position and the altitude indication was inaccurate. In that precarious position, and with the control gondola hundreds of feet high, her tail struck the ocean and its lower fin was torn off. The Akron then rapidly broke up and sank in the stormy Atlantic. Most of the 73 casualties met their death by drowning and hypothermia. Shockingly, the crew of the USS Akron had not been issued life jackets, and there had been no time to deploy the airship's one and only rubber life raft. The safety gear had been transferred to another airship and had not been replaced. The crash killed VIP passengers Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics who was often referred to as the "Father of Naval Aviation"; and Commander Fred T. Berry, the commanding officer of Naval Air Station at Lakehurst and its Rigid Airship Training & Experimental Squadron. The two were aboard the flight as observers. Another passenger on the dirigible that lost his life was Lt. Col. Alfred F. Masury of the US Army Reserve. Masury was vice president and chief engineer of the Mack Truck Company and was said to be “a fan of rigid airships.” It has been speculated that the Akron’s commanding officer, Captain Frank C. McCord may have commenced and continued the flight in the bad weather “in an attempt to impress them.” Capt. McCord also perished in the crash. Losing such leading proponents of rigid airships sounded the death knell of the US Navy’s program. President Franklin D. Roosevelt commented afterward, "The loss of the Akron with its crew of gallant officers and men is a national disaster. I grieve with the Nation and especially with the wives and families of the men who were lost. Ships can be replaced, but the Nation can ill afford to lose such men as Rear Admiral William A. Moffett and his shipmates who died with him upholding to the end the finest traditions of the United States Navy.” Of the 76 passengers and crew there were only three survivors: the USS Akron’s executive officer, and second in command, Lieutenant Commander Herbert V. Wiley; Boatswain's Mate Second Class Richard E. Deal, and Aviation Metalsmith Second Class Moody E. Erwin. In July 1934, Lieutenant Commander C. E. Rosendahl, after interviewing the survivors and examining the evidence, published the article “The Loss of the Akron.” In describing what happened on the dirigible in the early minutes of April 4,1933 he wrote, “Plunging suddenly into very turbulent air, the elevator man [controlling the altitude) reported the ship falling rapidly, the bow slightly down. His altimeter read 1,100 feet, he reported. Lieutenant Commander Wiley, second in command and a veteran of scores of scenes aloft in thousands of flying hours, jumped from his station near the directional control to the elevator man's assistance.” “The elevator man” Lt. Cdr. Herbert V. Wiley assisted was my uncle - 27 year-old Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Joseph J. Zimkus. On May 22, 1933, Lt. Cdr. Wiley gave testimony before a Joint Committee of the US Senate and House of Representatives. When asked who was in the control car of the USS Akron on that fateful morning of April 4, he answered, “Captain McCord, myself, officer of the deck, Lieutenant Redfield, elevator men Swidersky and Zimkus; and . . . the rudder man.” He was then asked if both Swidersky and Zimkus were “experienced men?” He replied, “Yes. Swidersky was the better elevator man. He was a better elevator man than Zimkus, but Zimkus has considerable experience. He was no rookie.” He was asked to explain “What makes a good elevator man?” He responded that it was one who “could keep the altitude with less motion of the ship than another man. That is, he reacts to his observation and instruments quicker than another.” When asked if he thought “a good enlisted elevator man is just as appropriately at that elevator control as an officer?” “Better, sir.” Wiley answered. He then explained its “because he gets some experience, and the training is considerable . . . We hold schools of instruction for the men . . . and try to give them enough of the background and knowledge of these things so that they can act intelligently and know what is happening. I think all of our elevator men without question were thoroughly conversant with all those things.” “You are perfectly satisfied with the system of having an enlisted man on the elevator wheel and rudder wheel?” he was asked. “Yes, sir.” was Wiley’s reply. Shortly before the crash, the Akron was flying blind because its radio had unusually heavy static brought on by the storm. "As they passed over the coast,” Lynwood Mark Rhodes in a 1966 American Legion Magazine article wrote, “elevator man Joe Zimkus saw lights below stretching away like a gleaming necklace toward the north. The problem was to identify them. Rapid changes in course had made it difficult to get an exact position fix. Were they from Atlantic City - or Coney Island? If Coney Island, that meant the Empire State Building loomed ahead somewhere in the shapeless, churning fog.” Rhodes went on to say,“Jagged streaks of lightening crinkles the control car walls when, pitching and tossing, first up, then down, the Akron hit storm center in a few minutes later. Zimkus had had considerable experience in such storms but it took all his strength just to hold the wheel steady. Suddenly violent turbulence hit the ship. The wheel spun from his grip, out of control, its handles racing like the hands of a clock gone berserk. ‘The ship’s falling!’ Zimkus yelled. [Coxswain]Toney Swidersky, standing behind him grabs hold of one of the spokes, bracing himself as best as he could. [Lt. Cdr.] Wiley dashed from across the car to help. . .” Within minutes all were in the ocean. “Water rushed through the open port window of the control car, which was listing to starboard,” wrote John Toland in his article on the Akron in the 1961 book Early Air Pioneers; 1865-1935. “The torrent picked up Wiley and carried him out the starboard window. He felt a mass of rubberized fabric on top of him and knew that he was being dragged down with the ship. He swam under water until his lungs seemed about to burst. Then he surfaced. Lightning flashed and, in the brief glow, he saw the dirigible, her bow pointed in the air, drifting away.” At 12:55 a.m., the now unconscious Lt. Cdr. Wiley was pulled from the water. The body of Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Joseph Zimkus was never found. Soon after her loss, Navy divers located the Akron’s wreckage about a hundred feet below the ocean surface east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. In June 2002, the research submarine NR-1 revisited the airship's crash site, where much of her collapsed framework remained somewhat visible in the murky water of the Continental Shelf. My Uncle Joe was born on June 10, 1905, in Stamford, Connecticut. He was the oldest of seven children to survive to adulthood of Lithuanian and Polish immigrants, Frank and Dominica Zimkus. He was not quite 11 years old when my father, Edward W. Zimkus, was born. Eddie, as dad was called, idolized his older brother Joe. Young Joe was apparently not much of a student. An article on him in the Stamford Advocate newspaper after the Akron disaster states that Joe enlisted in the Navy in 1920 “soon after running away from Rogers school in Stamford. His stature was greater that his years, and he was accepted.” (I attended the same Rogers Junior High School as a 9th grader the school year before my family moved to Ohio in the summer of 1964.) The 1920 US Census, taken on January 20 of that year, lists Joe Zimkus as being 14 and employed as a “bell boy” at a hotel in Stamford. By December 26, 1920, Joe, now 15, was in the US Navy. On that day, navy records show that he was admitted as a patient to the US Navy Hospital in Hampton Roads, Virginia with the notation, “Fracture simple left clavicle (fall).” Prior to his duty on the USS Akron, Joe was assigned to the USS Mahan (DD-102), a Wicket-Class destroyer that was converted to a light minelayer on July 17, 1920. In 1930, Joe married Naomi Miller. I don’t know much about my Aunt Naomi. I do know that she and Joe were married in Philadelphia, and that she was born in Pennsylvania. Census records state that Naomi was 12 years older than Joe. Joe Zimkus was counted twice in the 1930 US Census. On April 5, 1930, Joe, age 25, is listed as living with Naomi, age 37, at 128 Ninth Street in Philadelphia. The “head of house” is Joe’s “brother-in-law” Joseph Nelson. Ten days later, on April 15, 1930, Joe Zimkus is recorded again. His “street address” for this entry is the “USS Mahan - Navy Yard Philadelphia PA.” Uncle Joe is said to have “joined the Akron crew when the dirigible was commissioned.” That would put it in the summer of 1931. In April 1933, at the time of the Akron disaster, Joe and Naomi Zimkus were living in Whitesville, New Jersey about 5 miles from the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst. On April 6, 1933, two days after the disaster, The Western Star, the Lebanon, Ohio weekly newspaper, had a front page article whose headline read “Nation Shocked by Akron Crash.” The article recalled that on October 16, 1931, “Thousand of residence of the Miami Valley” watched “the ill-fated Akron, queen of the skies and pride of the Navy’s air service” fly over on its final test cruise. “Residents of Lebanon were able to secure a plain view of the Akron for several minutes as she appeared and gradually faded from sight in the western sky. Students in the local schools were given a brief recess in order to obtain a glimpse of the giant dirigible.” In 1948, back in Stamford, Connecticut, Ed Zimkus and his wife of three years, Betty, were expecting their second child. If it was to be a boy, Ed wanted to name it after his long lost big brother. That year, however, a cousin of Ed’s, who lived about 10 miles away, had a son and named him Joseph Zimkus. That infant, however, was not named after Ed’s brother Joe. To avoid confusion, when a boy was born in early March 1949, Ed and Betty Zimkus decided to still name the child after Joe but reversed the order of his first and middle names. That’s how I became John Joseph Zimkus. PHOTOS 1 The USS Akron (above) 2 A portion of the group photo of the crew of the USS Akron. Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Joseph Zimkus is believed to be the sailor on the floor in the middle. 3 A newspaper photo of Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Joseph Zimkus published after the disaster. 4 Uncle Joe’s US Navy duffle bag and footlocker, which are in my possession.
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Sylvia Outland, Art Curator
(featured in the July 2023 issue of the Medallion Newsletter) Earlier this year, the Ohio History Connection returned a portrait, to Harmon Museum, of James McDonald. As you can see from the before and after images, the portrait was in rough shape but has been restored by Old World Restorations of Cincinnati. It is not signed but we believe it can be attributed to Joseph Thoits Moore. Who was James Lawrence McDonald? Born in 1801 to a European father and a Choctaw mother in Mississippi, he was educated first in a nearby Quaker mission school. In 1813, at the age of twelve, his mother sent him to Baltimore to study under Phillip E. Thomas at the Quaker school there, who after a time, reached out to the Department of War, telling them of the possibility of using James to assist in the removal of Native Americans from tribal lands. Funded by the government, through the help of Secretary of War John C. Calhoon, McDonald continued his studies in Greek, Latin, philosophy, business, surveying and science. He was then pressured to pursue a degree in law, science or theology, but James wanted to return home to Choctaw territory to be close to his mother. However, in 1821 he began studying law under Ohio Supreme Court Justice John McLean, an early settler of Ridgeville, Warren County, Ohio and founder of The Western Star newspaper. James L. McDonald became the first Native American to be admitted to the Ohio bar in 1823. It is noted in the Western Star of July 12, 1823, “At the Supreme Court lately held at Dayton, Phineas Ross, Jesse Corwin, James L. McDonald and Thomas G Ward were severally admitted to practice a Counsellors, Solicitors and Attorneys in the Several Courts of Record in this state.” John C. Calhoon and Thomas McKenny tried to convince James to help assist in the removal of his native people. James refused and at that time returned to Choctaw territory becoming the first Choctaw lawyer and opponent of removal. In 1825 he was able to ensure the protection of mission schools, obtain high annuity payments and forgiveness of debts of the Choctaw. As an advocate of schooling, learning of social and cultural differences, and his experience of the harsh treatment he encountered during previous negotiations, James later came to believe that the only way for the Choctaw to survive was to agree to removal. In 1830 he signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. This treaty allowed those Choctaw who wished to, remain in Mississippi and become the first major non-European ethnic group to gain recognition as U. S. citizens. He stayed in Mississippi where he took his own life in 1831. Known for his Activism on behalf of the Choctaw Nation, McDonald’s work paved the way for future Native American leaders who were able to defend the rights of their territory using the American legal system. James Lawrence McDonald was an advocate and fighter for the rights and survival of his people and fought for them, their land and culture. His portrait is proudly displayed in the Harmon Museum. The portrait came to the Warren County Historical Society from Warren M. Miller of Hamilton, Ohio. He stated to Miriam Logan in a letter of February 1955: “Concerning the Indian painting which is in my possession, and the only one that I know of; it has never been photographed to my knowledge in my time…” “… It is very dark, and crudely patched in the region of the nose...” “You may tell Mrs. Phillips that I have seen to it in my will that it (the portrait) spends the remainder of its years in the Warren County Museum.” 1908 Buick Model D On display in Harmon Museum. Gift of the Ertle Family David Dunbar Buick, Walter Marrs and Eugene Richard started building the Model B automobile in Flint, Michigan in 1904. The Model D was the first full-sized Buick to join the smaller Model B in 1907. The Model D has a four-cylinder, 255.0 cubic inch T-head engine that was installed in the front with a rear-wheel drive and was one of the only cars with side valves that Buick made. The brakes on the Model D are mechanical with levers attached to the rear axel and drive shaft. FUN FACT: 1908 was the last year Buick used kerosene for their lamp headlights. Photographers Bill & Marty Welch are passionate about wildlife, and the wild places where they live. They have traveled to many remote locations, including photographing snowy owls on the windswept Saskatechwan prairies at minus 40° degrees, Iceland in the winter, and several hundred miles above the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
They have traveled over 600 miles on the Amazon River, as well as 414 miles up the Dalton Highway, to the Arctic Ocean, and then out to an island in the Beaufort Sea, to photograph polar bears and the northern lights. They love photographing birds, especially in flight, and have perfected many of the techniques needed to accomplish this. They have travelled to Homer Alaska for fishing bald eagles, South Texas and Galveston Island for the songbird migration, and British Columbia for the magificent Great Gray Owls. They also enjoy photographing songbirds, butterflies and other creatures that share their 10 acres, in Caesarscreek Township Ohio, with them. Learn more at their website: anaturalselection.net. (bio provided by the artists.) View Bill & Marty's work, and meet the artists, at the Closing Reception to their show, Wildlife & Wild Places, on July 21 at 6:30. Wildlife & Wild Places will be on display at Harmon Museum June 9 - July 22. Have you heard the most recent episode of Lebanon Public Library's podcast? We join hosts Dylan Posa and Barb Leitschuh talk about the Museum Shop. Come visit the Museum Shop for work made by local artists, artisans and authors! Listen to the episode by clicking here! In honor of Memorial Day, listen to the stories of those that made it home.
In Honor & Remembrance is a collection of conversations with over 35 veterans ranging in age from 27 to 96, covering wars and conflicts from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our painting has been cleaned and identified as a previously known Sir Thomas Lawrence! Lawrence was a British portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy. His work was popular during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This beautiful lantern, which now hangs in the front portico of Harmon Museum, is the product of the hard work of the Doan Family. Assistant Executive Director, Jeanne Doan, found a broken antique lantern in a box. took it home, and her family brought it back to life!
Hello, Everyone! I’m so excited to tell you that the children's book my friends, at the museum, wrote about me is available now! Full of richly colored images, Finnegan and his Magical Tale follows everyone's favorite fluffy museum greeter (that’s me) as I take a group of children on a tour of Harmon Museum! Whimsically written by Donna Summers and beautifully illustrated by Emma Horne, it’s furry fun for kids AND adults! You can buy my book at the Museum Shop inside Harmon Museum, Come say hi while you're here! -Finnegan (Harmon Museum's Official Greeter) One of the most historic buildings left in Warren County is the Greentree Tavern, located on the corner of St. Rt. 741 and Greentree Road. It was built in 1813 by Ichabod Corwin, the founder of Lebanon.
Rookwood Pottery is an American Art pottery company, located in Cincinnati, and founded in 1880. It was extremely popular until the Stock Market crash of 1929. and eventually closed in 1967. In 2004, it was revived, the new American Art pottery company taking the name and building on the old site.
The Warren County Historical Society has an extensive collection of original Rookwood Pottery on display at Harmon Museum. A Trailblazing Lebanon Educator by John J. Zimkus, WCHS Historian and Education Director Louisa Jurey Wright is known by many as the first and, as of this writing, the only female superintendent in the history of the Lebanon public schools. She is also known for having an elementary school in town named after her in 1960. (It has since been demolished.) For over 140 years, her name has appeared on the list of superintendents who have guided the tax supported schools of Lebanon, Ohio since the early 1850s. During her lifetime Louisa Wright has been called "a woman of strong intellectual ability,” “a most excellent and highly educated lady,” and “a lady of superior culture and refinement and excellent Christian worth.” During the 1867-68 school year, however, when she was fulfilling the duties of the superintendent of schools in Lebanon, one thing she was never called was “superintendent.” Louisa Jurey was born on July 18, 1842, in sparsely populated Tymochtee Township, Wyandot County, Ohio. It was in the same rustic farm house in which her mother, Anna Drake Jurey, was born in 1819, some 23 years earlier. It was also the same house in which her mother married a Virginia-born farmer named John Jurey. Lou, as she was called by her family and friends, received her earliest education in a local country school. Like many successful students in the mid-1800s, once she reached the equivalent of an eighth grade education, she was hired to teach the younger children at her community school. The young and attractive Lou Jurey was always said to be optimistic. “She could see the bright side in the development of the human race,” it was observed years later. This was, and still is, a desirable attribute for someone who aspires to be an educator. With that goal in mind, in 1861, she went off to receive a formal education in Lebanon, Ohio. The village was located about 130 miles southwest of her home. The school she attended was the South-Western Normal School. It was founded only six years earlier in 1855 by Alfred Holbrook. In 1881, the school adopted the name by which it was best known, the National Normal University. By then it was the largest normal school, or teachers college, in Ohio. Louisa graduated in 1863. The Eighth Annual Closing Exercises of the South-Western Normal School took place on Thursday, August 3, 1863. Although there were 304 pupils enrolled in the school that year, many of them in the preparatory department, only seven graduated — two men and five women. As part of that day’s program, each of the seven graduates delivered an oration before Alfred Holbrook conferred upon them their diplomas. Louisa’s topic was “The Utility of Mathematics.” After graduation, she went off to teach in Paris, Illinois where her family had relocated. Paris is near the Indiana border, about 210 miles west of Lebanon, and about 12 miles north of the National Road, today’s US 40. After one year of teaching in Illinois she returned to Ohio. Once here, she taught for two years at the one room school house in Genntown, about 2 1/2 miles northeast of the center of Lebanon on the Lebanon & Waynesville Pike. In 1865, Louisa Jurey was hired to teach in the public schools of Lebanon Ohio. Besides her classroom duties, she was chosen to be the assistant to Lebanon School Superintendent Charles W. Kimball. She was paid $500 a year, which, adjusted for inflation, would be around $10,000 today. It was at this time the Lebanon school board became concerned that the district had no “regular course” of study for the “advanced department,” those students in the higher grades, and the primary department. As The Western Star, Lebanon’s weekly newspaper, reported years later, “Miss Jurey was chosen by the board to prepare a course of study for every department. The system prepared by her was afterwards adopted, with some modifications.” In the first decade of the 20th century, several letters from T. V. Blackman, from Pittsburg, Kansas, were published in The Western Star. He had worked at the newspaper almost 40 years earlier and was now a newspaperman in Kansas. Blackman wrote about his fond recollections of growing up in Lebanon. In one he explained, "My parents named me Theodore and this they corrupted to the name of Thode. When my playmates and school fellows in the old days wanted to ‘start something,’ they called me ‘Toad.’” In a letter published on May 7, 1908, he confessed that, while he was a student during the 1866-67 school year, he was one of a half dozen or so “young scoundrels [who] used to harass this good lady . . . Miss Lou Jurey.” In another letter published later that year, he exclaimed a “more mischievous gang never lived. I wonder if she has ever forgiven us for the many sorrows we caused her.” As a student, T. V. Blackman may well have had a crush on his young Lebanon Union School teacher, Miss Lou Jurey. She was only eight years older than her admiring pupil. His fond feelings for her may have lingered for several decades after leaving her classroom, for he mentioned her in several of his letters to The Western Star. Also in a 1908 published letter, Blackman recalled December 31, 1866, the day the county infirmary on S. East Street caught on fire. “I ran away from school to help haul the old side brake fire engine from the Washington Hall building to the scene,” he remembered. “We backed the engine down upon the pond by the ‘mad house’ and pumped water on the flames. The next morning I had to explain my absence to Miss Lou Jurey, my teacher.” He also told how, at a school “assembling,” late in the school year, it was announced, “Miss Jurey was to marry Captain Lot Wright.” Blackman went on, “After dinner [school lunch] all of us were in our seats demurely studying our lessons. On the blackboard on the east side of the room, was the admonition, ‘Remember Lot’s Wife,’ and when Miss Jurey saw it she was somewhat startled, as might be surmised. An attempt was made to find who had written it, but nothing was ever proven.” “Lot’s wife” is in reference to a passage in Genesis 19 of the Old Testament in the Bible. In it, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back upon the destruction of the wicked city of Sodom after being warned by two angels not to do so. (The exact words, “Remember Lot’s wife” were spoken by Jesus in Luke 17:32 in the New Testament.) Louisa Jurey, and her Lot, Captain Wright, were married in her mother’s home in Paris, Illinois on Wednesday evening, July 17, 1867. Lot Wright was born on February 16, 1839, near the small town of New Garden, in Columbiana County, in eastern Ohio and was of Quaker heritage. He began his formal education in Alliance, Ohio. In 1860, he became a student in the South-Western Normal School. He helped pay his way through school by teaching two winters in neighboring counties, one year in Butler County, and the other in Clinton County. It was while attending school in Lebanon, that Lot Wright first met his future bride, the lovely and intelligent Lou Jurey. In the summer of 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, 24-year-old Lot Wright enlisted as a private in Company I, 79th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In December 1863 he was promoted to sergeant. On June 22, 1864, he was severely wounded in the right leg in the Battle of Kolb’s Farm near Atlanta, Georgia. Six days later, on June 28, while still recovering in an Army hospital, he was promoted to the rank of captain and given the command of newly organized Company D, 100th Regiment, US Colored Troops. Because of his injuries, however, he was not able to join his unit until August. He commanded his men in the Battle of Nashville, where, on December 16, 1864, he was wounded again. According to an August 20, 1868 newspaper article, “a considerable portion of his right hand was shot off." He was mustered out of the army in August 1865. For the rest of his life, even though he would hold many important positions, he was often referred to as “Captain Wright.” During the summer of 1867, the public schools of Lebanon were showing some growing pains. A small article in the September 5, 1867 issue of The Western Star stated, “BABIES TO BE KEPT AT HOME. The primary department of the union school is so crowded that the board is compelled to refuse admission to all children under six years of age.” Another problem was that the longest serving Lebanon superintendent of schools up to that point, Charles W. Kimball, was in poor health. He had held that position for nine of the last 13 years, but could no longer continue. The school board turned to his assistant, the newly married Mrs. Louisa Wright, to take up his duties. She would be paid the identical amount per year that was given to Superintendent Kimball - $800. In today's money that would be about $16,000. She would now be in charge of the recently painted five-year-old Union School, located on what is now Pleasant Square Park; the separate school for Lebanon’s African American students, which was constructed in 1861 where New Street meets North Lane today; and all the students who attended the schools. The one major issue facing Louisa Wright as the superintendent of the Lebanon Public Schools was that, in the fall of 1867, there was no such position in the district as superintendent! How this was possible was explained in another brief article in that same September 5, 1867 issue of The Western Star. “Although the office of superintendent has been abolished Mrs. Lou Wright, principal of the high school, has general supervision over all the departments.” The official reason for not calling her “the superintendent” is not known. It may very well be that the prevailing thought among the men who made up the school board was that a woman, in the mid-19th century, should not hold such a position of authority. It might be seen as unseemly. The solution then, to them, could have been to let her act as the superintendent; pay her as if she was the superintendent; but not actually call her “the superintendent.” That way the fact that she was a “female” superintendent of schools would not draw attention. Whatever she was called, principal or superintendent, during the 1867-68 school year, Louisa Wright did have an achievement during her tenure in that role that no one had achieved before her. In 1868, under her guidance, Lebanon High School had its first three graduates, all female, - Ida Hardy, Ada Wood, and Minnie Van Harlingen. Lebanon High School would not have another graduate until 1872, four years later. In a June 24, 1915 article in The Western Star entitled “Lebanon's School Past and Present,” the comment is made, “The fact that [Louisa Wright] was offered a reappointment by the Board for the second year [as principal/“superintendent”] speaks for her success, but ill health required her to decline.” This statement may not be totally accurate. After going one year without technically having a superintendent, the Lebanon Board of Education decided it was time to have one once again. The Western Star on July 23, 1868 reported, “SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS The school board last week elected to the position of superintendent of the Lebanon Union School, for the ensuing year, W. H. Pabodie, for seven years Principal of one of these Cincinnati Public schools and more recently superintendent of the public schools of Peru, Ind. Mr. Pabodie is a graduate of Brown University. He was highly recommended to the board as a scholar and teacher and has had much experience in the management of graded schools. We commend the action of the board and securing for this position a classical scholar, as the superintendent will have charge of the High School, and all the branches necessary to fit a pupil for college can be pursued in that department.” William H. Pabodie was paid almost twice as much as Louisa Wright, $1,500 a year. He served as the Lebanon superintendent of schools until the summer of 1870. At almost the exact time in 1868 that Lebanon High School had its first graduates under Louisa Wright, Captain Lot Wright finished his education, and received a BA degree from the South-Western Normal School. Also in 1868, Lot Wright, a Republican, began his long political career when he was elected Warren County treasurer. He was reelected in 1870. In 1876, the voters of Warren County selected him to be their county clerk of courts, and then reelected him twice. In 1883, he was appointed United States Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio and served over two years in that capacity. Finally, in 1894, and in 1896, he was elected probate judge of Warren County. In the meantime in 1868, Louisa Jurey Wright, who left teaching after only five years in the classroom, turned her attentions to raising a family and supporting her husband. In a brief biography of “Judge Lot Wright” in the book History of the Republican Party in Ohio, published in 1898, it was said of Louisa Wright, “She has been to her husband a most able companion and helpmeet [a helpful partner] on life's journey, both in times of prosperity and adversity.” Lot and Lou had two sons, Willard Jurey Wright, born in 1875; and Raymond Garfield Wright, born in 1880. Raymond was named after Lot’s friend, and soon to be US President, James A. Garfield. Both boys attended Princeton University and became lawyers. Willard eventually was elected a Warren County common pleas court judge. Willard’s son, Louisa's grandson, was the famed mid-20th century industrial designer Russel Wright. His American Modern dinnerware was in production for two decades in the mid-20th century and grossed over $200 million in sales, earning it the title of the best-selling mass-produced dinnerware ever manufactured. For most of her adult life Louisa Wright was a devout and active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Lebanon. Beginning in the late 1880s, she was also was a member of the W. C. T. U., the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In 1882, after living on the east side of Cherry Street between Main and Mulberry in Lebanon for years, Lot and Louisa Wright bought a newly constructed house on the northwest corner of Orchard and East Street – 214 E. Orchard Ave. It was in this house, in the Floraville neighborhood on a hill south of downtown Lebanon, that Lot and Louisa raised their two boys. It was also here where Lot Wright died a 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 22,1900.
The cause of his death was peritonitis brought on by a ruptured appendix. He had been confined to his home for only a few days. Judge Wright had retired from the probate court bench only two weeks prior to his death. The Western Star reported, “The funeral services were held on Sunday afternoon [February 25] in the Presbyterian Church with which the deceased had been so prominently identified.” Captain Lot Wright died six days after his 61st birthday. That was not the only tragedy to take place at the Wright home at 214 E. Orchard Avenue. On Wednesday, February 2, 1902, Louisa Wright and her son Willard where enjoying their noonday meal, when neighbors came rushing into their house. Unbeknownst to the Wrights, “fierce flames” were breaking through the roof of their home. The Western Star called it "the most disastrous fire which is visiting Lebanon for several years.” The origin of the blaze was in the attic and thought to be from the flue or pipes from the heater. It took over an hour to finally extinguish the blaze. According to the newspaper, controlling the fire was hampered by the fact "The fire companies [had] been allowed to disband during the past year and were not in good shape to fight an ugly fire, although the volunteers worked heroically.” The "richly furnished” Wright home was gutted and practically a total loss. The estimated damage amounted to $2336, approximately $79,000 in today’s money. Although the house at 214 E. Orchard Ave. was rebuilt, Louisa Wright is not believed to have lived there again. She instead made her home in a small house at 114 S. Cherry St. about two blocks away, near the Lebanon train station. She sold her Orchard Avenue house later in 1902. On March 14, 1903, Louisa Wright’s oldest son, Willard, married Harryet Crigler of Springfield, Ohio. In April 1904 their son Russel was born, followed two years later, in 1906, by their daughter Lizabeth Louisa, who was called “Libby Lou.” Willard built a large beautiful three-story Colonial Revival house at 238 Broadway in 1905. It was about two blocks west of the old Wright family home on Orchard Avenue on the Floraville Hill. There is no evidence to show that Louisa Wright moved into her son’s mansion. The local paper reported on Thursday, September 26, 1907, "Raymond Wright and mother left Monday for Seattle, Washington, where they will spend the winter in probably take up their future home.” Raymond, now a practicing attorney, would permanently settled in Seattle, over 2,300 miles away, and live there for over 60 years. About 6 months later, on March 5, 1908, The Western Star stated, "Mrs. Louisa J. Wright writes from Seattle, Washington, and renewing her subscription, ‘We do enjoy the paper, it is improving all the time.’” Louisa was ever the optimist. On February 11, 1909, the paper published one of the last letters sent from T. V. Blackman. He tells how he recently received a letter from Burwell Fox, one of the other “young scoundrels” who used to harass their teacher - Miss Jurey. Blackman states that Fox sent him current “Kodak” (photograph) of Mrs Lot Wright. The former “Toad” Blackman observed, "Like the rest, Mrs. Wright has had time whiten her hair, and add age to the once vigorous body; but the same sweet face is there, which we all loved, although we rascals who attended her school often caused it to wear a worried look.” On March 25, 1909, after spending a year and a half in Seattle, it was reported, “Mrs. Louisa J. Wright is expected home from Seattle, Washington next week.” The 1910 US Census records 67-year-old Louisa Wright living alone, and being the owner of one half of a duplex at 114 S. Cherry Street. A special gathering took place on Saturday, February 15, 1913, in Lebanon, Ohio. The group met in the “auditorium" of the five-year-old Lebanon National Bank building at 2 North Broadway. The occasion was the celebration of what would have been the 97th birthday of Alfred Holbrook, the beloved educator and founder of the National Normal University, the former South-Western Normal School. One of the speakers after the celebratory dinner was Mrs. Louisa Jurey Wright. Not only was 1913 the 97th anniversary of Professor Holbrook's birth (he had died in 1909), it was also the 50th anniversary of Louisa Jurey Wright graduating from the South-Western Normal School. The Western Star, in recording the event, said, “Mrs. Wright is a favorite with Normalites [students and graduates of the National Normal University], old and young, and can refer to the days gone by in a way that always adds merriment to the occasion.” Later than year, on October 5, 1913, at the first reunion of pupils and teachers of the Genntown School, Louisa Wright was one of several teachers who gave short speeches. Louisa Jurey Wright died on Monday, February 23, 1920, at the age of 77. She was living as a boarder at 217 W. Silver Street, between Water and Corwin streets. She died exactly 20 years and one day after the death of her beloved husband, Captain Lot Wright. Her funeral was held at the residence of her son, Judge Willard Wright, at 238 S. Broadway, at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 25, 1920. In the March 4, 1920 issue of The Western Star, the editor-in-chief, John Marshall Mulford, wrote an editorial entitled “Mrs. Louisa Wright.” It said in part: “Mrs. Wright and her husband were friends of the writer since his early boyhood, and many kind acts and helpful suggestions come to mind as we think of them. In their passing, two sincere friends are lost - rather, their familiar forms have passed from view, for friendship never dies, is never lost. . . .” Being a “Normalite" and a teacher, our earliest recollections, of Mrs. Wright is as an educator, and an ardent supporter of Dr. Holbrook's school of which she and her husband were graduates. . . As a teacher, and later as a patron of education, her voice always favored thoroughness in those branches of study she considered the formation of education, . . . “ . . . with her passing comes a recollection of her optimism, her faith, . . . and we but mourn her absence, realizing another good woman has entered Heaven.” |
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