My inability to locate what I deem to be a single interesting image of historical Ohio gives the lie I guess to what was to have been my intended thesis for National Ohio Day, that the Buckeye State was briefly an exciting place. Well, I stand by that premise even if I can’t find a way to depict it graphically. (And readers, please know that I am NOT seeking your input. I never am. If it was that hard for me to find a picture that I’m satisfied with, a rare and unrepresentative depiction that YOU select will hardly matter). By the way, I did sort of like this one, but somehow one senses that it doesn’t convey the whole story:
In the early 19th century, Ohio was the fastest growing part of the country, what I think of as the “First Wild West”, a place of river pirates, card sharps, con men, and the legend of Mike Fink. The region was rapidly bypassed however as the population continued to press all the way to the Pacific, at which point Ohio became part of something far less romantic and adventurous-sounding: the MID-west. With the exception of Goldilocks — and midwesterners — few are apt to get really pumped up about things that are middling. Which is why, as I say, this post will focus primarily on early days (with particular attention, as always, to show business).
In the end I chose the map that heads this post for my illustration because it reinforces the key takeaway about the State, which is that, from the beginning, there were two Ohios, a similar dynamic to that which obtains in the two states due west, Indiana and Illinois. These states straddle North and South. The top half of Ohio, adjacent Lake Erie, was settled by emigrants from New England, Western New York (themselves transplanted from New England) and Pennsylvania. They were Yankees. The bottom half of the state, on the Ohio River, was settled by the people nicknamed Butternuts, who came west from the slave states of Virginia and North Carolina. The northern region was a hot bed of Abolitionism. The southern region was pro-slavery, though the map illustrates why Ohio never broke into two: Kentucky did not secede, and Western Virginia broke off from the Old Dominion so it, too, could stay in the Union. The people in southern Ohio were thus physically separated from what became the Confederacy.
This post is part of a series I’m doing on certain U.S. States and thus far I have some sort of personal connection to the ones I’ve written about (Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida). The same is true of Ohio, else I might have skipped this state entirely, though maybe not. My first paid acting gig brought me to Cleveland and Akron. And it happened to be an educational theatre piece that taught me the history I will now relate, which does connect me to the state in a roundabout way.
Like New York (which once comprised Vermont), Massachusetts (which once included Maine), and Virginia (whose original land claims extended all the way to the Mississippi), tiny Connecticut originally claimed a strip due west of the state’s current border, all the way to the middle of the country. Quite early on, some of Connecticut’s immediate claims (Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley) were thwarted by New York. But they continued to attempt to assert sovereignty over what was on the other side. In the northern half of Pennsylvania; settlers from Connecticut and Pennsylvania actually fought a series of battles for control of the territory between 1769 and 1784 called the Pennamite–Yankee Wars.
When that was settled (in Pennsylvania’s favor), Connecticut conintued to claim the land west of it, including the northern section of Ohio, which was called the Western Reserve. For this reason, that part of the State retained a regional character established by its colonists. These former New Englanders and New Yorkers brought their religions, such as Congregationalism (which had evolved from Puritanism). Shakers founded Shaker Heights. From Western New York, Joseph Smith and his Latter Day Saints moved to Kirtland, Ohio from 1831 to 1838. From Pennsylvania came Quakers (hence this Oat Company) and many German denominations, including Lutherans and the Amish.
In 1800, Connecticut relinquished its claim on that area to the U.S. Government. It became part of the Northwest Territory, and from that was carved the state of Ohio (1803), named for the river that forms its southern border. But it’s the transplantation of people from Connecticut that connects me to the region. My Connecticut ancestry goes back to its founding, so essentially the early settlers of Ohio are my distant cousins. The so-called Father of Ohio, Rufus Putnam, was the first cousin of General Israel Putnam, for whom my mother’s Connecticut hometown was named. The Columbus born painter George Bellows, to whom I’m related through my great grandmother, had roots in that same corner of Connecticut.
Anyway, however, we should mention that prior to this sedate and orderly sounding transplantation, there was terrible strife. Before Anglo-Americans got their hands on the region it was part of French America (wrested from them in the French and Indian War,1754-1763). And there was much brutal and bloody fighting with local native tribes, a harrowing account of which Teddy Roosevelt provided in his four volume The Winning of the West. (More here).
The invention of the steamboat in 1807 and the opening of Erie Canal in 1825 excelerated the movement of people west. It is instructive to note the order of new states after the original 13 (14 including Vermont). The first new ones were Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803). It is useful to think of these three states as a single region, and this is where we can turn to the topic of show business. The Ohio is part of the same river system that includes the Mississippi. Though it goes as far north as Pittsburgh and beyond, the culture of slavery went with those paddle wheel river boats and their shipments of cotton and so forth. As fans of this show know, Cincinnati is in many ways a southern city. It’s right across the river from Kentucky, and plugged into a waterway that ultimately includes Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisana. Today, it’s a conservative place. Back then, though technically the “north”, it was a place where enslaved laborers were a frequent sight.
Thus it should be no surprise that the region played a role in the genesis of blackface minstrelsy. The so-called “Father of Minstrelsy” T.D. Rice had gotten the inspiration for his “Jim Crow” character while touring the Ohio Valley Region prior to 1832. Dan Emmett, composer of “Dixie” and founder of the Virginia Minstrels (1843) started out with a Cincinnati circus. Stephen Foster penned his first successful songs in Cincinnati, including “Oh, Susannah!” (1848). Cincinnati is also where E.P. Christy discovered Foster, and began to popularize his songs. Ironically, it would be New York City, far from cotton country, where the minstrelsy craze would reach its greatest apogee.
Showboats were also a major part of the region’s theatrical culture starting in the 1830s. Circuses, minstrel shows, melodramas, medicine shows, traveling dime museums, and vaudeville shows played the river circuit. Until quite recently the very last of these showboats, the Majestic (launched 1923) was docked in Cincinnati and still mounting productions. At present, its status seems to be in limbo.
Dime Museum impresario Colonel J. H. Wood started out in Cinicinatti.
For a time, there seemed to be a certain amount of cache for dime museum attractions to connect themselves with the Buckeye State as part of their branding. Witness:
Vantile Mack, The Ohio Fat Boy
Fanny Mills the Ohio Big Foot Girl
Agnes Thatcher Lake and her husband Wild Bill Hickok were based in Cincinnati for a time.
Annie Oakley was from rural Ohio.
The great humorist and monologist Artemus Ward, originally from Maine, found fame in Cleveland.
Another favorite subject of mine, 19th century actress Adah Isaacs Menken first came to fame as a poet in Cincinnati.
As for vaudeville, back in the day, there were B.F. Keith houses in Cincinnatti, Cleveland, Canton, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown. The Gus Sun Circuit was based in Springfield. The vaudeville comedy team of Clark and McCullough also hailed from Springfield, which is what I primarily knew the town for prior to the insane former President’s assertion that immigrants were eating dogs and cats there.
Speaking of Presidents, no fewer than eight come from Ohio: William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKInley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. (Not Grover Cleveland, though, notwithstanding his surname — he was from New Jersey). All but the Whig W.H. Harrison were Republicans.
There are scores (hundreds) of 20th century actors, singers, performers, writers and others who hailed from Ohio I might mention, but I’m not gonna. We gotta keep it sane. I will point just one, however, because he was so major. Bob Hope was from Cleveland. (Yes, I know he was born in England; he moved here when he was four, at which point he was from Cleveland).
We haven’t yet discussed the middle of the middle. The State Capital Columbus was founded in 1812, and located dead center, presumably so that it would be geographically and culturally equidistant to both the northern and southern factions. Like the nation’s capitol, it was started from scratch and consciously named after a major cultural icon, although I imagine there are those who would wish for a name change nowadays. Only recently (since the 1990s) has Columbus overtaken Cleveland or Cincinnati as a major population center. In fact, recent statistics are a little startling, given that one never hears anything about Columbus: it is the second largest city in the midwest after Chicago, and the third largest U.S. state capitol after Phoenix and Austin. The huge influx of population has come from recent immigration. (Ted Lewis was from Circleville, just south of Columbus.)
Lastly, I want to point out that Akron gave us Devo, Pere Ubu, The Waitresses, Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, and Lux Interior of The Cramps, and I STILL say that Cleveland is a really stupid place for the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. Memphis is the only place that makes any sense. Memphis will always be the only place that makes any sense.
And if I may end on a note of self-promotion: Boardman, Ohio is the hometown of Gary Hardcastle, who produced the Chain of Fools audiobook. On that account alone, the state deserves your reverence and respect.
For more on show business history please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous