- written by Jeanne Doan, Assistant Director

The Warren County Historical Society began 2019 with lots of plans: a series of Lunch and Learn presentations, new programs, and traditional events. Then came Covid-19. No one predicted what a dramatic effect it would have. At the time of the shutdown, the Archaeology and Native American Artifact room, on the ground floor of the museum, had become a depository for overflow from other storage spaces.

During the shutdown, volunteer time was used effectively to clean and reorganize multiple storage spaces. The now clutter-free artifact room badly needed a make-over. Damp, dark, and outdated, the room cried out for help. Enter Mr. Doug Baird, a specialist in fossils and Native American artifacts.
 
After inspecting all the artifacts in the display cases and boxes in the vault, Mr. Baird informed us that WCHS has "the finest collection of fossils and Native American artifacts I have seen outside of the Smithsonian."

WCHS staff and volunteers have been working hard to clean, repaint, and rearrange. Display cases were resurrected from the basement of Glendower. Mr. Baird and his assistant sorted and relabeled the artifacts. The project was completed late November.
 
We want to extend our thanks to everyone who has been key to this transformation. The Harmon Museum looks forward to unveiling our new comprehensive display honoring our ancient Ohio beginnings.

December 18th saw the close of the exhibition of the work by the Cincinnati Brush and Pallett Painters Society (Oct 30 - Dec 18 2020). Established in 1963 as the Brushettes, The Brush and Palette Painters is "a group of women committed to creating art in a supportive environment, painting En Plein Air as conditions allow." These talented women created a showcase of their finest work, 135 pieces, for display at Harmon Museum. They also came to paint, on site, several times during their exhibition.

On this day, December 14th, in 1887, Wood, Harmon & Co began selling the properties in the first ever sub-division. William Elmer Harmon knew the American dream was to own land and had an idea to make that dream accessible to even low-wage earners. Sub-diving a large property. Harmon said of the plan, “It is simply the installment plan applied to real estate and I am sure it will work.” Harmon's younger brother, Clifford, and uncle, Charles Wood, agreed and pooled their money together ($3,000) to purchase land south of Loveland. ​There, they founded the first sub-division, Branch Hill. The 200 lots sold out in four days.

​Carrie Nation: “Lebanon is The Vilest, Wickedest Town Of Its Size I Have Ever Been In.”
 by  John Zimkus, WCHS Historian/Education Director
 
Carrie Nation was a flamboyant temperance advocate, and one of the most famous women in America at the turn of the 20th century. She was colorful in her actions, almost always having a hatchet in one hand, and the Bible in the other. She was, however, not very colorful in dress, typically wearing stark black-and-white clothing. She was in many ways bigger than life. She stood 6 feet tall and weighed about 175 pounds.
She was born Carrie Moore in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1846. She got the last name of Nation in 1874 when she married David A. Nation. He was her second husband and 19 years her senior. David was an attorney, as well as a minister. (He first husband was a young physician, Charles Gloyd. She left him after a few months of marriage because of his alcoholism.)
 
Carrie Nation began her temperance work in Medicine Lodge, Kansas when she started a local branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. On June 5, 1900, she felt she had received a heavenly vision. Responding to the revelation, Nation gathered several rocks — "smashers," she called them — and proceeded to Dobson's Saloon. Announcing "Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard's fate," she began to smash the saloon's stock of liquor with her stones.
 
Carrie’s husband joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, "That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you.” The couple divorced in 1901. By that time, she was nationally known for her attacks on the “demon rum.”
 
Between 1900 and 1910, she was arrested some 30 times for her "hatchetations," as she called them. Nation paid her jail fines with the money she earned from lecture-tour fees, sales of souvenir hatchets and hatchet pins, and photographs of herself. The sale of souvenir hatchets, at times, earned her as much as $300 per week.
 
Carrie, because of her barroom destructive ways, was physically assaults numerous times. Many saloons across the country erected signs in their establishments with the slogan — "All Nations Welcome But Carrie.”
 
In the fall of 1904, The Warren County Fair Association announced that “Mrs. Carrie Nation” would be a “Special Attraction” at the Warren County Fair that year. She was scheduled to speak at 2 p.m., on Wednesday, September 21, 1904, the second day of the four day fair.
 
Lebanon’s Western Star newspaper, on September 22, reporting on her speech said that Carrie “at once grabbed a cigarette from the mouth of a youngster and proceeded into a short address in which she poured broadsides into the saloons.” It said the fairground crowd “jeered and hooted at her.”
 
After her talk, Carrie traveled the quarter mile or so south to the heart of Lebanon. She “made a round of the business houses and saloons,” the village’s highest concentration of bars was on E. Mulberry Street in 1904. As she visited the area, she proclaimed the Bible “was her hatchet” on that day. Carrie Nation remained in Lebanon for two more days, leaving on Friday, September 23, 1904.
 
According to The Western Star, “Carrie Nation’s opinion of Lebanon was not such as would give the town a good recommendation unless people will consider the source. She said, ‘Lebanon is the vilest, wickedest town of its size I have ever been in.’” The newspaper went on to say, “Carrie behaved so badly on the streets that the Marshal [Elmer E. Smith] finally ordered her out of town.” The paper then proclaimed, “She was voted not only a freak but a nuisance.”
 
Carrie Nation’s visit to Lebanon, Ohio did not turn out all bad for her. It was estimated that she sold $100 worth of souvenir hatchets at 25 cents each. One hundred dollars in 1904 would have a buying power of about $3,000 today.
 
Carrie Nation died in 1911, nine years before the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution went into effect on January 16, 1920. It prohibited the sale or manufacture of alcohol in the United States. Despite her campaign against the evils of liquor, some historians believe “the establishment of Prohibition was the efforts of more conventional reformers, who had been reluctant to support her.”
 
She was such a dynamic force 120 years ago, that if the question was put of US citizens back then, or even today, “Which individual did the most to bring on Prohibition?” — I am sure, the answer overwhelmingly would be Carrie Nation.

The following Western Star article was taken from our archives.

​May, 1882. "Waynesville, Ohio, May 29. Although this is an old settled neighborhood, and the primitive snakes in the main, have long since disappeared; except the black, garter and rattlesnake and occasionally some of other species, we are once in a while greeted with the report of some monster of this uncanny tribe.

For several years it has been reported that the track of one above the town, of unusual size, had, on different occasions, been seen in the dust, where it had crossed the pike. This report made the timid fearful, while the generality of the people did not seem to fear or care anything about it; and it has been reserved until yesterday to develop one of the most remarkable specimens ever seen, in or out of snake season, and the story thereof is so well authenticated that the more incredulous of the neighborhood on big snake stories are forced at last to lend an attentive ear.

About one mile north of this place is a little village called Crosswicks, in which several colored families reside. Among the rest is John Lynch, who has two boys, Ed. And Joe, aged respectively thirteen and eleven years. These boys were at a small creek on the south side of the village fishing, yesterday. After sitting on the bank a short time they heard quite a stir among some old reeds, grass and brush behind them, and on looking round they saw a huge monster approaching them rapidly. They screamed and, paralyzed almost with horror, started to run, when the snake, or whatever it might be—for they never saw aught like it before; came close up to the older one, and suddenly throwing out two long arms, or forelegs, seized the boy in its slimy embrace, simultaneously producing two more legs, about four feet long, from some mysterious hiding place in its body, and dragged the boy some one hundred yards down the creek to a large sycamore, twenty-six feet in diameter at the base, hollow, and with a large opening on one side. Through this aperture the monster attempted to enter with the boy who by this time was almost dead with fright and unable to make any resistance.

Three men—viz., Rev. Jacob Horn, George Peterson and Allen Jordan—were quarrying stone a short distance above where the boys were fishing, and hearing their screams and seeing the creature yanking one off, hurried in an attempt to rescue the child. They reached the tree just as the snake, who, failing in its first attempt to drag the boy into his den, became alarmed, probably by the cries made by its pursuers, unfastened its horrible fangs and dropped the more than half dead child to the earth. The little fellow was picked up and carried home, and Dr. L.C. Lukens, of Waynesville, summoned to attend him.

In the afternoon about sixty men, armed with clubs, dog, axes, &c., gathered around the sycamore-tree and concluded to cut it down and destroy its fearful tenant. They began cutting, when, becoming alarmed for his safety, the formidable snake leaped from the aperture, threw out its fore and hind legs, erected itself about twelve or fourteen feet, and, with the velocity of a race horse, crossed the creek and ran up a small hill, climbed over a rail fence, breaking it down, and, continuing north a mile, followed by the pursuers, until he reached a hole in a large hill under a heavy ledge of rocks. Some of the men and dogs were so terrified at the beast’s first appearance that they only thought of getting out of the way. But the braver portion followed until the frightful thing made good his retreat underneath the ground.

It will be watched for and killed if possible. It is described as being from thirty to forty feet long, sixteen inches in diameter, and the legs four feet long and covered with scales the same as the body. Feet about twelve inches long and shaped like a lizard’s, of black and white color, with large yellow spots. Head about sixteen inches wide, with a long, black forked tongue and the mouth inside deep red. The hind legs appeared to be used to give it an erect position, and its propelling power is in its tail.

Dr. Lukens said this morning that the boy, his patient, was badly bruised and scratched, horribly frightened, and that he lay in convulsions and spasms until three o’clock this morning, when he fell asleep, but frequently wakened with fright and terror, yet the Doctor thinks he will recover in a few days.

The foregoing is vouched for by the persons whose names are given above, and many more can be given if necessary, the material points having been furnished your correspondent by Judge J. W. Keys, one of our oldest and most influential citizens."

A message from the artist:

​"Every image tells a story...

Storytelling is a big part of what I bring to each photograph taken.  I am interested in capturing the mood, tone and feeling that express subject matter in its greatest light.  I have the patience it takes, and planning required to capture my imagery at just the right time to captivate the beholder.  These tactics were shared with me by my father who gave me my first camera, a shiny new Kodak "Hawkeye".  
​
At Ohio University I studied Photography and was also privileged to meet my lovely wife Joy who was an Interior Design major.  My photographic education also included portraits with models both indoors and outside.  Throughout each shoot, I impart the importance of storytelling by applying empathy through the lens of my camera.  Today, I find myself enjoying capturing the majesty of waterfalls and calm bold decoration of the American southwest.  I hope you enjoy these lovely images and that they take you to a delightful place.
 
I hope you enjoy my photography and decide to purchase one for your home, office, a friend. 

Sincerely,

Marshall N. Miller"

Marshall's exhibition begins August 7 and will run through August 29.

From the desk of John J. Zimkus
“Lebanon’s new museum” is the Glendower Historic Mansion. The story of Glendower begins in May 1843, when J. Milton Williams, Warren County’s prosecuting attorney, purchased just less than four acres from George Kesling. Here, within the next year or two, Williams had a home built for his family. It was the first of five mansions that would be constructed on the hill that would be called Floraville. All five houses were built prior to the Civil War. Floraville would not become part of the village of Lebanon until March 1862.
Amos Bennett, an early carpenter and joiner in Lebanon, built the home for Williams. Bennett was aided in building the house by a handbook. Prominent architects like Asher Benjamin, Minard LeFebre and John Haviland had written such books.
The mansion was erected in the Greek Revival style, which became popular in America in the 1820s. The Greek ideas of democracy, beauty and simplicity were considered fitting for this new republic of ours. The style appealed to America’s governmental leaders, who were looking for a suitable expression in architecture. They chose the Greek Revival style for many buildings in Washington, D.C.
It is believed Ebed Stowell of Lebanon fired Glendower’s bricks from native clay and the iron grill work came from George Bundy’s foundry. The center part of the home was built first. The two wings were added a few years later.
Williams, being very proud of his Welsh ancestry, called his home Glendower. He named it in honor of Owain Glyndwr, the last native Welshman to hold the title of Prince of Wales. In 1400, Glyndwr instigated the Welsh Revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England. It was Shakespeare who anglicized Owain Glyndwr’s name to “Owen Glendower” for his play Henry IV.
In 1868, the land south of Turtle Creek, which included Glendower, was deeded to Elizabeth Probasco Ward for $10,000. She was the wife of the famed orator and statesman J. Durbin Ward. He succeeded Williams as Warren County prosecutor and served valiantly in the Civil War. During the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga, on September 20, 1863, Lt. Col. Ward was severely wounded. As a result, his left arm was paralyzed for the rest of his life. In November 1865, he was brevetted brigadier general “for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Chickamauga.”
Ward called his new home Everton, after the small town in Indiana near where he lived as a child. Ward was very proud of his kitchen garden behind the house and was said to take “great delight in his suburban home.” His favorite room at Everton was his library, which contained “the largest and best selected collection of books of the private libraries of Lebanon.” It was said he loved “talking with [his] best friends, the old authors.” Ward died in the mansion in 1886.
In 1905, Joseph and Ladora Owens purchased the estate from the heirs of Ward’s widow, Elizabeth Probasco Ward. The house was put in Ladora’s name and not Joseph’s. Ladora was the daughter of Dr. Seldon Scoville, a Union Army surgeon and later a respected physician in Lebanon. The Owens family called their 1845 mansion by its original name, Glendower.
Ladora Scoville Owens was a prominent member of Lebanon society, being a charter member of the Turtle Creek Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as a charter member the Warren County Historical Society. She adored Glendower and loved to sing of its praises and share its history.
I.T. Fray, an architectural historian from the Cleveland Museum of Art, featured Glendower in his 1936 book Early Homes of Ohio. In the March 1938 issue of American Home, Glendower was described as an excellent example of “one of the important domestic types of early American Architecture.” Professor Ralph Fanning of the fine arts department at The Ohio State University included a painting of Glendower in his 1946 watercolor exhibition, calling it “one of the finest bits of Greek Revival architecture anywhere in the country.”
Ladora Scoville Owens died at age 90 in 1944. On January 25, 1945, Fred J. Wendt, widower of Ladora’s daughter Bessie, deeded the Durbin Ward House, as Glendower was sometimes called, to the Warren County Historical Society.
Nine months later, on October 21, 1945, Governor Frank J. Laubscher, in front of a thousand spectators, accepted the deed to Glendower on behalf of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, later to be called the Ohio Historical Society, from Harry C. Schwartz, chairman of the board of trustees of the WCHS. It operated for years as the Warren County Museum and then the Glendower State Memorial.
On December 3, 2007, the deed to Glendower was ceremonially returned to the Warren County Historical Society by Paul Layman of the Ohio Department of Administrative Services and Dr. William Laidlaw, Jr., executive director of the Ohio Historical Society. Accepting the deed was WCHS President Bill Dunning. The Warren County Historical Society had been managing the mansion for the state since 1982.
The Glendower Historic Mansion is still considered the finest Greek Revival restored mansion open to the public in Ohio.
** Matthias Corwin (1761-1829) is best known as the father of Tom Corwin, who grew up in pioneer Lebanon and served as the governor of Ohio, a U.S. senator, the U.S. secretary of the treasury and in many other local, state and national positions.
Matthias himself had a notable career. He was one of the first justices of the peace in Warren County; one of Warren County’s first commissioners; a member of the Ohio legislature, speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and an associate judge of the court of common pleas.
*** “Misses Mary (1868-1960) and Gertrude (1870-1948) Cropper” were the granddaughters of Tom Corwin and the great-granddaughters of Matthias Corwin.

Provided by John J. Zimkus, Historian & Education Director of the Warren County Historical Society

Primarily a self-taught artist (her college degree is in music), Lynda has taken equine sculpture workshops from Gwen Reardon, Kathleen Freidenberg and Karen Kasper, all at the Kentucky Horse Park; an AAEA workshop with Morgen Kilbourne in Aiken SC; a stone sculpture workshop from Annie Pasikov in Colorado; a figurative workshop from Philippe Farault at Philippe's classroom in Honeyoye, NY; a figurative sculpture workshop from Tuck Langland at the Scottsdale Artists School; and a painting workshop from Elin Pendleton at the Kentucky Horse Park. Lynda has also taken workshops or classes in mold-making, resin casting, patinas and drawing to improve her skills.

Lynda Sappington's work is internationally collected, and has been in galleries from California to Ohio to Florida to Wisconsin. Her sculptures are also in use as trophies all over the USA and in Canada, both as championship trophies and year-end awards. Three of her bronzes are at the Kentucky Horse Park: "Elegance" as a perpetual trophy in the Friesian Horse of North America (FHANA) headquarters, "Frolic" as a perpetual trophy in the US Dressage Federation (USDF) headquarters, and "Harmony" in the USDF Hall of Fame.

Lynda is not only an award-winning sculptor and photographer, but a writer, as well. The first edition of her book, "Sculpting 101: A Primer for the Self-taught Artist" sold out. The second edition, which has been completely revised and had two chapters added to it, is available through this website as well as Amazon.com and other outlets.  In 2014-17, she co-wrote "Best Horse Care Practices" with her daughter, Grand Prix rider and trainer Jennifer Truett, who is also the owner and head trainer at Dancing Horse Farm, Lebanon OH.  This book was published by Xenophon Press in 2018.

Of Lynda's many awards is the Joel Meisner Company Foundry Award from the American Academy of Equine Art. Her bronze, "Ecstasy" won Best in Show 3-D at the Black Stallion Show.

In 2011, Lynda created a life-size sculpture of the Friesian stallion, Nanning 374.  It was installed at Nanning's owner's farm in Wisconsin April 19, 2012.  A second casting of this piece was installed on a private farm in Ohio in 2013.

Three women, of varied backgrounds, joined together to become the nucleus of the women’s suffrage movement in Warren County: Lucile Blackburn Berry, Mary Proctor Wilson and Ladora Scoville Owens (once owner of Glendower Mansion).

The first meeting of what would become the Equal Suffrage League met in the Lebanon Opera House on April 22, 1912. After a committee was formed to nominate officers, Wilson was chosen as the first president and Owens as the vice president. Representatives from each township were selected and Berry was picked to represent Turtlecreek.

On June 27, 1912, the committee met at Wilson’s home at 108 N. Broadway, located at the northeast corner of Silver and Broadway (The Breakfast Club stands there now). There, the League arranged for the Dr. S. D. Fess, the Republican candidate for Congress in the sixth district and the president of Antioch College, to deliver a non-partisan address at the Lebanon Opera House. There, he put himself on record for the women’s suffrage proposal. Fess would win that election and later be elected a US senator from Ohio.

In 1912, multimillionaire real estate magnet and Lebanon native, William Elmer Harmon (you can learn all about him in a previous post) appointed his good friend, Owens, to be a board member of the newly established Harmon Civic Trust. Harmon had stipulated that at least two members of the Trust’s board of trustees must be women. Owens was one and Berry was the other. The League made arrangements with the Trust to hold regular meetings at Harmon Hall.

By 1914, Lucile Blackburn Berry was the president of the Equal Suffrage League. On July 23, 1914, The Western Star reported that the League had “held a very enthusiastic" meeting on July 17. At the meeting, Berry "...gave a report of the results of the recent circulation of petitions. There were 1,049 signatures obtained in the County." Wilson, along with another couple, the Chapmans, were chosen to present the petitions to the Secretary of State in Columbus. Nearly 150,000 names were signed to the suffrage petitions, 46,000 more than necessary.

The Western Star headline, on July 30, 1914, read, “Ohio Suffragists To Descend on State Capitol Today." And descend they did. At 4:30 that afternoon, bands accompanied suffrages from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron and other areas to form a procession that marched from the Ohio Suffrage Organization's Columbus headquarters, in the Chamber of Commerce Building, to Capitol Square.

Harriet Taylor Upton, the organization's president, spoke along with several others including the president of Ohio State University and Representative W. B. Kilpatrick. The counties presented their petitions and, as planned, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and Mary Proctor Wilson presented Warren County's.

Congress wouldn't draft the 19th amendment (giving women the right to vote) until 1919 but Ohio was quick to ratify it on June 16, 1919. The also passed a law stating that, if the amendment wasn't a law by the 1920 election, women would be about to view in Ohio regardless. However, by August of 1920, the amendment would gain the backing it needed (36 states) and pass into constitutional law. Thanks, in part, to a teacher (Berry), a newspaper editor (Wilson) and a socialite (Owens) who came together to fight for all Americans' right to vote, regardless of gender.

Learn more of the story at Harmon Museum's newest exhibit, "Women Leading the Way."

​In an effort to bring the museum to you, we'll be sharing our favorite pieces throughout #HarmonMuseum. Today we're sharing our 1908 #Buick. It's just inside the main foyer and often the first thing that draws guests' eye.

Our 1908 Buick was donated by the Ertel family (yes, as in Fields Ertel) in 1960. They had restored the Buick, with period correct parts, and would take it to shows and races. (We have a cabinet filled with their trophies and medals.) The historical significance extends beyond one family's love for speed. There Buick has no electrical components; from the gas powered headlights to the kerosene lamps and the air horn to the hand crank. 1908 was the last year before it all changed.

In 1909, Charles Kettering (yes, that Kettering) accepted a contract from Cadillac to invent a better means to start their cars. Enter the electric starter with electric lights soon to follow. It was Kettering's patent that allowed for batteries to be incorporated into automobiles as a power source. Pretty soon, every car company wanted to use this new design. (Kettering made his fortune as an inventor and author of many other patents.) Cars have changed a lot in the subsequent 110 years but we're still using batteries to start our cars and light our way.
Several mechanics have inspected the Buick (they always ask to) and we're assured it would still run. We won't take it out though for fear of the little rocks of the pavement road tearing up the undercarriage. So, for now, it'll live as it has for the past 60 years, on display in our Transportation Gallery. However, our recently retired Director, Victoria VanHarlingen purchased an antique bulb for the airhorn so, when you visit, you can honk it. 😋

A global pandemic. the likes of which have not been seen for 100 years, is now sweeping across America. As deaths are on the rise, infectious disease experts scramble to better understand the Coronavirus. All non-essential workers are sent home, closing small businesses and leaving many to wonder their next paycheck is coming from.  wonder their next paycheck is coming from. We will be collecting/archiving articles and images from this unprecedented time. A somber yet strong reminder that history happens every day.