Ross County Historical Society-Speakers Bureau

A native of Georgia, Jamie earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia. In 1983, he went to the Washburn/Norlands Living History Center in Maine where he gained experience in museum education, 19th century agricultural practices and the use of historic tools and implements. This is also where Jamie learned to drive horses for both farming and pleasure. In 1989, he moved to Ohio where he built and restored all types of horse drawn vehicles for Green's Carriage Restoration in Orient. Later, he became a full time agricultural interpreter for the Ohio Village in Columbus. As the Ross County Historical Society's collections manager, Jamie is responsible for organizing, conserving, and cataloging the Society's three-dimentional artifacts. These include horse drawn vehicles used in Chillicothe and Ross County.

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the heyday of horse drawn transportation. This slide program will explore life in Chillicothe during this era. The talk will focus on the variety of horse drawn vehicles used, the industries involved in supporting this type of transportation, and the buildings and and other evidence in Chillicothe that remain from this era.

Mrs. Gray is a native Ross Countian, a graduate of Ohio University, and a noted long-time local educator. She has been actively involved in the search for historical backgrounds of the families of color in southern Ohio. Her research has taken her to many of the eastern and southeastern states in search of facts that would shed light on this heretofore seldom and incompletely researched genre. She is at present a consultant for the "Getting Word" program, an oral history gathering project sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. Mrs. Gray is a past president of the Ross County Genealogical Society, a member of the board of directors of the Ross County Historical Society, and a member of the African-American Council for the Ohio Historical Society. She has collected African-American stories and performed them as living history in Chillicothe and surrounding areas. Mrs. Gray has been a lecturer on African-American topics for over 20 years and has spoken widely on the subject.

This program focuses on the struggle of a family of runaway slaves seeking freedom in the north while facing the fears, complications, and triumphs of the journey as well as selected signal songs ( songs give specific information to escaping slaves in their struggle for freedom ) are given to make this a historical and emotional experience.

A chronicle of how, where, and why African-Americans served in the Civil War. This lecture especially focuses on the men of color whose homes were in the Scioto Valley and gave up much to defend a country they considered theirs even though disenfranchised. It includes a display of pictures, documents, letters, and stories of these heroic and overlooked men.

A discussion of the lives and contributions of women of color in the Scioto Valley in the 1800s.

A native of Indiana, Al Heierman is a graduate of Purdue University with a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in structural engineering. He came to Chillicothe in 1954 to work on the construction of the Piketon Atomic Energy Plant. Mr. Heierman retired from Mead Central Research after 35 years and is a member of various historical societies and covered bridge associations throughout the country.

Covered bridges were once a common sight throughout the Midwest in general and Ohio and Ross County in particular. This program presents the purpose, design, construction and history of covered bridges and also discusses why these structures disappeared. Mr. Heierman's interest in the history of covered bridges extends from his background in engineering and he illustrates his remarks with drawings, photographs and color slides.

Lisa Uhrig Hess graduated from Huntington High School and Ohio University, Chillicothe with an associate's degree in human services. She came to the Ross County Historical Society in 1991 as a volunteer and later that year took the position of photo archivist. Lisa also recently assumed the duties as the membership coordinator. Lisa and her husband David reside on Vigo Road, Chillicothe.

The photo collection at the Ross County Historical Society contains over 12,000 photos as well as a large collection of negatives, slides and early photographs such as ambrotypes and tintypes. In this slide program designed to introduce the photo collection, examples of the Society's photographs will be shown, and categorizing and cataloging methods will be discussed. Category examples include: Schools, Street Scenes, Business and Public Buildings, Military and People. Photos of specific topics can also be shown if available.

Tom has been the director of the Ross County Historical Society since May 1993. Before that he was manager of Ohio Village, the Ohio Historical Society's recreated nineteenth century town in Columbus. Tom began his career in local history as the director of the Warren County Historical Society in Lebanon, Ohio in 1985 and was the historical agency consultant of Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office from 1987 to 1990. He holds a master's degree in museum and archival studies from Wright State University in Dayton. Tom has a number of personal history interests. He has spent the last ten years restoring two early nineteenth century homes and is also a fifer in the Camp Chase Fifes & Drums, a Civil War period fife and drum corps.

The historical society has received many rare and unusual artifacts during its one hundred years of existence. Many of these objects are currently on exhibit in the Society's museums. Many other items are stored away for future exhibits and research. Tom will reveal how broad the scope of the Society's collection is in a fifteen to twenty minute slide presentation. He will also discuss the historical significance of each object shown and provide information about the Society's current collecting interests.

So you want to buy an old historic house and restore it to its original glory. Where do you begin, what types of problems might you encounter, and how can you afford to do it right? Tom highlights his ten year odyssey of restoring two early nineteenth century houses. He relates his understanding of early architecture, historic building techniques and materials, and his appreciation for maintaining the historic fabric of a building as major properties for successful rehab and restoration projects. Included are many slides that detailed the condition of the buildings before, during and after work is completed. His presentation is delivered with the sense of humor needed to undertake what can be a truly overwhelming project.

Pat Medert is a graduate of Chillicothe High School and Ohio University and was a teacher for thirty years. She writes a monthly column concerning local history for the Chillicothe Gazette and is the author of Chillicothe's Public Ground and Raw Recruits and Bullish Prisoners: Ohio's Capital in the War of 1812. She is president of the Ross County Historical Society and volunteers as the Society's archivist.

Through the use of slides, Pat relates how and why Chillicothe was founded by Nathaniel Massie in 1796. She discusses the early settlers and explains how they reached Chillicothe, journeying through unopened country. She also describes the influence of early Chillicotheans - Worthington, Tiffin, Baldwin, and Massie - in the formation of the state of Ohio.

When you read how the War of 1812 was fought, you cannot help but wonder how the United States kept from loosing the war to Great Britain. As it was, the conflict ended in a draw. Pat relates how the Ohio volunteers, who were untrained and undisciplined, nearly cost us the war, while at the same time, their heroic efforts actually won the war in the West by preventing the British from occupying northern Ohio and the Michigan Territory.

CHILLICOTHE'S CAMP BULL AND THE BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR --- Pat Medert

During the War of 1812, 300 British seamen, captured by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie, were confined at Chillicothe in a prisoner of war camp called "Camp Bull." Pat tells the unusual story of their confinement and the policy governing their care. Her information comes from contemporary accounts and government records that she has researched and organized.

Little is written about women's role in the development of Chillicothe and Ross County. They did not sit idly by, however. They made significant contributions to their community. Pat tells about their daily lives, what society expected of them, and their efforts to improve social conditions in their area.

Pat tells how the celebration of Christmas began with St. Nicholas and made the transition to Santa Claus. She relates how Clement Moore wrote A Visit from St. Nicholas and how so many of our Christmas customs evolved from that well known poem.

Lloyd Savage, the Ross County Historical Society's music archivist, is active in various types of music research. A traveler and lecturer, he is a former music supervisor and choral director of the city schools of Chillicothe and continues to serve as a choral adjudicator for the Ohio Music Education Association. He received his bachelor of music degree from Otterbein College and a master's degree from the University of Michigan. He has done additional studies at Shrivenham American University, England, the Ohio State University, and the Christiansen Choral School. His music teaching, conducting and accomplishments have earned him recognition in the International Who's Who in Music and Musicians, published in Cambridge, England.

"Music in the Civil War" allows the audience to see actual Civil War sheet music from our archives, hear the bugle played, listen to the speaker sing several songs, and then join in singing some of these songs from the speaker's book, Songs Sung and Heard by Buckeyes during the Civil War. This program has been presented to numerous Civil War Roundtables throughout Ohio as well as to Roundtables in the neighboring states of Kentucky and Indiana. It was also part of Ohio University's Elderhostel program on the Civil War.

The "Early Music of the Ohio Country" is a presentation of folk songs and other music connected with our state's emergence, bringing us forward to the Civil War times. Among the accompanying instruments used are the dulcimer, accordion, and the autoharp. From our archives, you will be able to see the Singing School Books, (some with shaped notes), and hear canal songs and other numbers which were sung during Ohio's development. Of particular interest may be the folk songs unique to Ross County - a Knockemstiff number as well as one which refers to Massieville.

Evelyn Walker graduated from Chillicothe High School and Ohio State University. She worked in biochemical research and in the medical products industry on the east coast until 1973. In that year, she moved to Berkeley, California and worked as a manager for Varian Associates, a producer of gas and liquid chromatographs. In 1987, she returned to Chillicothe and began to volunteer at the Ross County Historical Society. Since 1991, Evelyn has worked four to five afternoons a week in the McKell Library. She has frequently been heard to state that "being allowed to work with these books is a privilege."

The McKell Library contains over 14,000 books and documents. Its contents represent a time span of over 800 years - from 1130 to the present. Many of the books are rare and valuable, others are of interest to only a few, still others are sources of information for researchers, and some are just "interesting" in themselves.

In the program designed to introduce the library, examples from every period and most are are discussed and, in some cases, demonstrated. Programs that are devoted to specific areas of interest will be developed whenever possible. For example, a program for a bird watcher's club focused on showing two rare, but well known, books: Catesby's 1771 Natural History of the Carolinas, Florida and the Bahamas and Jones' Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio (1878). The contents of the library make it possible to cover a wide range of interests.