The history of Ohio includes many thousands of years of human activity. What is now Ohio was probably first settled by Paleo-Indian people, who lived in the area as early as 13,000 B.C. A fossil dated between 11,727 and 11,424 B.C. indicates they hunted large animals, including Jefferson's ground sloth, using stone tools. Later ancestors of Native Americans were known as the Archaic peoples. Sophisticated successive cultures of precolonial peoples indigenous peoples, such as the Adena, Hopewell and Fort Ancient, built monumental earthworks as massive monuments in which to bury their dead; some of which have survived to the present.
By the mid-18th century, a few American and French fur traders engaged historic Native American tribes in present-day Ohio in the fur trade. American settlement in the Ohio territory came after the American Revolutionary War. The Congress prohibited slavery in the Ohio Territory. Ohio's population increased rapidly, chiefly by migrants from New England, New York and Pennsylvania. Southerners settled along the southern part of the territory, as they traveled mostly by the Ohio River. Yankees, especially in the "Western reserve" (near Cleveland), supported modernization, public education and anti-slavery policies. The state supported the Union in the American Civil War, although antiwar Copperhead sentiment was strong in Southern settlements.
After the Civil War, Ohio became a major industrial state. The Great Lakes brought in iron ore and provided a route for exports, as did railroads. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the fast-growing industries created jobs that attracted hundreds of thousands immigrants from Europe. In World War I Europe was closed off and whites came from Appalachia, while African Americans came from the states to the South. The cultures of its major cities became much more diverse with the traditions, cultures, foods and music of the new arrivals. Ohio's industries were integral to American industrial power in the 20th century. Economic restructuring in steel and other manufacturing cost the state many jobs in the later 20th century as heavy industry declined. The economy in the 21st century has seen the loss of many manufacturing jobs, and a switch to service industries such as medicine and education.
Video History of Ohio
Prehistoric indigenous peoples
The Late Archaic period featured the development of focal subsistence economies and regionalization of cultures. Regional cultures in Ohio include the Maple Creek Culture(Excavations) of southwestern Ohio, the Glacial Kame Culture of western Ohio (especially northwestern Ohio), and the Red Ochre and Old Copper cultures across much of northern Ohio. Flint Ridge, located in present-day Licking County, provided flint, an extremely important raw material and trade good. Objects made from Flint Ridge flint have been found as far east as the Atlantic coast, as far west as Kansas City, and as far south as Louisiana, demonstrating the wide network of prehistoric trading cultures.
About 800 BC, Late Archaic cultures were supplanted by the Adena culture. The Adenas were mound builders. Many of their thousands of burial mounds in Ohio have survived. Following the Adena culture was the Hopewell culture (c. 100 to c. 400 C.E.), which also built sophisticated mounds and earthworks, some of which survive at Hopewell and Newark Earthworks. They used their constructions as astronomical observatories and places of ritual celebration. The Fort Ancient culture also built mounds, including some effigy mounds. Researchers first considered the Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio to be an Adena mound. It is the largest effigy mound in the United States and one of Ohio's best-known landmarks. Scholars believe it may have been a more recent work of Fort Ancient people. In Southern Ohio alone, archaeologists have pinpointed 10000 mounds used as burial sites and have excavated another 1000 earth-walled enclosures, including one enormous fortification with a circumference of about 3.5 miles, enclosing about 100 acres. We now know from a great variety of items found in the mound tombs - large ceremonial blades chipped from obsidian rock formations in Yellowstone National Park; embossed breast-plates, ornaments and weapons fashioned from copper nuggets from the Great Lakes region; decorative objects cut from sheets of mica from the southern Appalachians; conch shells from the Atlantic seaboard; and ornaments made from shark and alligator teeth and shells from the Gulf of Mexico - that the Mound Builders participated in a vast trading network that linked together hundreds of Native Americans across the continent.
Two culture groups who claim Ohio as an ancestral homeland are the Dhegihan Sioux (A culture group consisting of the Osage, Omaha, Kaw, Ponka & Kwapa nations from the modern day states of Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas & Oklahoma.) & the Choctaw & Chickasaw Muskogean peoples. Neither group were in Ohio as of the 16th Century, when colonization of the Caribbean and early exploration of the continent began. Many Siouan peoples claim direct connection or descent from the Hopewell. They joined forces with Algonquians who were also displaced--mainly the Illinois Confederacy--to dislodge the natives on the west side of the Mississippi, who were most likely connected to the Caddo peoples and the Mississippian Culture. Meanwhile, other Siouan people crossed Appalachia, driving off other Algonquian groups on the east coast and setting up shop in modern-day Virginia, eventually managing to spread south to the Carolina coast and back west to Ohio.
Archaeology and the oral histories of Iroquoian, Siouan and Algonquian peoples shows that during the 12th-13th centuries, Iroquoian people migrated into the St. Lawrence River Valley, then divided themselves into three separate groups--a Huron ancestral group who migrated north of the Great Lakes, an Iroquois group who went south of the Great Lakes & a third Tuscarora-related group straight down the east coast. According to scant details surviving from the Susquehannocks, the Iroquoian nation who existed from New York to Maryland, they once came from a River Valley to the west, but were driven back east to their known territory by enemies. It was assumed that the Mississippi River was meant by those who wrote it down, however no Iroquoians were ever in that region--but were in Ohio. The Iroquois Book of Rites by Horatio Hale also seems to back this up & elaborates that Iroquoians occasionally also referred to the Ohio as being the same as the Mississippi. That being said, they do note that they merged with other peoples once across Appalachia & studies from the north claim that those northern Susquehannocks descended culturally & linguistically from the Mohawk.
All Siouan peoples are known in Iroquoian oral tradition as the Talligewi, or Alligewi. (This is probably more accurately written as Adegowe in the modern Iroquois vernacular. ) Talligewi is translated as Mound Builder, but it could be more literally translated as "They piled it/ those." It is also said to be the origins of the word Allegany, when taken as Adegoweni. It is also noted that a tribe who was probably the ancestral Erie Nation went to war with a group of Adegowe in what is now northern Ohio & drove them to migrate far to the south, merging with a similar group of people who lived between the Gulf of Mexico & the Tennessee River at the time. This appears to have been the ancestors of the Saponi/ Tutelo & the tribe with whom they merged should have been the common linguistic ancestors of the Catawba & Biloxi peoples. It should also be noted that it is believed that the Cherokee autonym, Tsalagi, is a variation of the same word. The origins of that are still hotly debated today. However, it is important to note that Hale based his Iroquois Book of Rites on earlier works by Iroquois natives who knew English as a second language & they appear to commonly refer to the Siouan peoples of the Ohio River Valley interchangeably as either Alligewi or Cherokee. The origins of the actual Cherokee, who are also an Iroquoian-speaking people, do not seem to appear in the book.
Ohio natives - 17th century
Among the first French explorers was a cartographer, Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin, who had learned that a group known as the Mosopelea had been known to reside between the Muskingum River & Scioto River in the southeast reaches of Ohio. They called this region Masopeleakicipi (Siouan, but uncertain in translation) & the Ohio River the Oligin (Oh-ree-ghih. Bountiful River.) However, they had been destroyed & the people fled. As the French attempted to colonize & further explore the Mississippi River, they rediscovered the tribe living in what is now Arkansas. They were considered a Siouan speaking society. Other names include Houspe, Ofo & Ofogoula. A single remaining work in their language, A Dictionary of Biloxi & Ofo, seems to show that they were unrelated to the nearest confirmed Siouan people--the Tutelo, of Kentucky & West Virginia. This may lend more credence to the theory that the Fort Ancients were also a Siouan speaking society & starts to show what may have happened to them. The Dictionary of Biloxi & Ofo also notes that, for a while, French Missionaries in the region seemed to think that the Houspe & Ofo were two separate peoples. Most historians seem to think this was a mistake. Either way, there is later one tribe referred to with both names. Many early explorers also note that the Ohio River Valley was littered with remains of abandoned & destroyed villages, which they approximated with that of the Siouan stock.
Baptiste's map also names another group, known as the Casa, living north of the Muskingum River. It is not known who they were, but they were most likely connected to either the Fort Ancient or Monongahela Cultures. Assuming the above concerning the Mosopelea, it is important to note that the word closely resembles "Kansa," the Algonquian word for the Siouan-speaking peoples of what is now Arkansas & Missouri. Both managed to exist up to the early 17th century and are believed to have merged into a single, continuous culture group by that time. The Monongahela Culture--primarily from West Virginia & Pennsylvania--are also known to have once held land in that general area.
Also Siouan were the Fort Ancient of southwest Ohio & Central Kentucky, between modern day Cincinnati and Chilicothe, Ohio. There was almost no contact with whites whatsoever before the Beaver Wars & seem to have been more or less extinct by the end. Before the 17th century, there seemed to be a mixing of the cultures of the Eastern Siouans, the Fort Ancient & the Monongahela. Many of them could be the phantom Cherokees who existed throughout West Virginia & Kentucky in the early 18th century.
The Petun, an Iroquoian-speaking people who were originally believed to have only been focused in the area between Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls, controlled all the territory from the Genesee River in New York, to the Alleghany River, to the Cuyahoga River. This seems to be corroborated between two regional maps from 1641 (in which experts seem to associate the name Khionontateronon with the Petun) ) & 1684 (in which Franquelin labels the Kentatetonga as having existed north of the Alleghany River.).
There was also the Erie, whose autonym was Riquechronon, or Long Tail People. Their territory seems to have started at modern day Sandusky, Ohio, and went east to the Cuyahoga River. A petroglyph site at Kelley's Island, just north of Sandusky and within Lake Erie, has been approximately dated between 1200-1600 AD & is most likely theirs. They may have once held lands even further east into Pennsylvania before the Petun moved into the region & linguistic analysis seems to show that they descended directly from the Seneca people. The Ojibwe, an Algonquian nation from Michigan's northern peninsula, claim in their oral histories wars against the Cat-- another nickname for the Erie-- coming from Lake Huron. Given this, they may have once held lands in either Michigan or Canada at one time, and may have even held land along the east shores of Lake Huron during the Colonial period.
It is also believed that the Mascouten--an Algonquian people closely related to the Miami & Anishinaabe--controlled northwest Ohio, north of the Maumee River. It is difficult to surmise from the poorly made maps of the region exactly where the borders of their nation had been, but they seem to have angled northwest to Lake Michigan, then around its southern shore to an unknown point. They were represented as the Gen D'Feu (also simply Du Feu, or 'Assistaeronon' from the Huron language.) on several early French maps dating to the 1640s-1650s. The earliest known is from 1641, approximately five years after the first explorations in the region. On another map by Vincenzo Coronelli from 1688, they seem to have migrated down to the Wabash River.
The 1641 map also appears to show the Sauk living along the west shores of Lake Erie. Another map shows the Fauk there and the Sauk further north, around Saginaw Bay. Both are believed to have migrated into the region from eastern Canada due to some sort of conflict. Their language appears to most closely resemble Ojibwe, or Anishinaabe-mowin, so this is probably their origin.
The Miami, also known as the Kickapoo (pronounced Kee-gah-boo), controlled territory in Ohio which started between the Maumee & Auglaize Rivers, angling southwest. This being said, they are first labelled as the Ontarraronon, or Lake People (from the Huron language), on the oldest regional maps. Given that Lake Michigan could not be meant & there seems to be an empty spot in northwest Ohio, they most likely controlled the Lake Erie shoreline between the Maumee & Sandusky Rivers prior to the Beaver Wars. This also means that the fact that they are the Ontarraronon & Lake Ontario bears a similar name is purely coincidental.
Beaver Wars
Early French explorers had already passed through the Great Lakes region as far as modern day Wisconsin, therefore France had claimed every part of the continent of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains. However, this place had neither been fully explored, accurately mapped out, or settled.
The Beaver Wars seem to have begun primarily due to out-of-control colonial expansions on the east coast and poaching leading to fewer animals for native peoples in those regions to trap for food or fur trade. European powers renegotiated the issue, but too late. Natives began ranging further and further inland in search of furs. This soon led three powerful nations, the Huron, Iroquois & Susquehannocks to begin battling one another over control of the Ohio River Valley by the 1620s. Things became even worse for the Iroquois when the eastern-most tribe, the Mohawk, seceded from the confederacy and became their enemy. Worse for Ohio peoples, other tribes who wanted in took the long way around through southern Michigan and attacked into Ohio from that direction before these tribes could even penetrate the region. In the end, the Iroquois destroyed the Huron and cut off the Susquehannocks from the region by 1630, then began their own war. There may have also been some influence from Europeans that affected the outcome, but this is unclear who, what, or how. By the end of the century, it primarily became a major boon for the English.
As far as can be assumed, tribes such as the Neutral Nation, Sauk & Fauk, crossed the Detroit River into Michigan and attacked the Mascouten & Miami. The Mascouten and the Miami were driven southwest. Some of the first known maps from the region appear in the 1640s. It is clearly seen that names associated with the Neutrals appear both along the northern shore of Lake Erie & beyond the Ohio River. If true, this would mean that the Neutrals were the ones who pushed the Mosopelea west to Arkansas.
After wars with other tribes in the east, the Iroquois destroyed the Petun in 1632, then the Erie (and Neutrals). A tribe known as the Guyandotte (Also known as the Tiontatacaga & Little Mingo ) from West Virginia appears to have been an offshoot of Petun, given the resemblance between Tiontatecaga & the Petun autonym (what they called themselves), Tiontati. It's possible that the Iroquois fought the Eries & Neutrals all the way down the Ohio River, then across it. They are later known in Virginia as the Westo. The Iroquois then moved on the southern Michigan, driving off the Fauk & Sauk and beginning attacks on other tribes across Lake Michigan. Annoyingly, though, since the area hadn't been mapped accurately, the British just guessed how much land their Iroquois subjects had conquered, leading to claims that ignore the existence of many tribes.
Upon reaching Michigan, it appears that the Iroquois also broke the Miami & Mascouten tribes, who scattered in every direction, throughout what are now the states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota & Iowa. While names like Miami & Mascouten were still occasionally used, disparate tribes included the Wea, Atchatchakangouen, Pepicokia, Mengakonkia, Pinakashaw & Kilatika. It appears that most of these tribes may have been made up of mixtures of the two original tribes. They were also often referred to collectively as Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois (in which they were lumped in with the actual Illinois Nation) & Ouiatenon.
As to the Wyandot of northeast Ohio, it appears that after the Iroquois destroyed the Huron, they shattered into nomadic subgroups and spread out throughout the entire Great Lakes region, between Lake Erie & the Mississippi River. When the Petun migrated to Canada, it created a rallying point for the tribe to reassemble. However, some were apparently captured by the Iroquois. These Hurons were turned into a vassal tribe of Iroquois and were left alone, so long as they obeyed. They were told where to settle and were given a specific job to do which would aid in the Iroquois' conquest. This finally shows how the Iroquois were able to push their war as far as they did and for as long as they did. Note that, later, a group of Erie suddenly appear in western Pennsylvania, decades after they had been removed, and merged with the Iroquois. It is possible that there were several such vassal tribes who, over the final decades of the war, were either destroyed or switched sides.
The war appears to have ended by the 1680s, which seems to roughly correspond with the arrival of the Lenape & the first Dutch settlers in northeast Ohio. It also probably corresponds to the Anishinaabeg (Now allies of the French) splitting up, with the northernmost group migrating down to the region north of Lake Erie. This group eventually claimed land in northwest Ohio, as well. In the U.S., they were known as the Odawa & in Canada, they were known as the Mississaugas. Between the two, the Iroquois were cut in half.
The French had moved into gear at every possible opportunity throughout the late 17th century, sending out expeditions to map out the Great Lakes, discovering the source of the Mississippi River (Which they named Sioux Tango, at the time) & establishing the colony of Illinois. They secured alliances with tribes of the Mississippi River region by declaring the Iroquois a common enemy, then led a massive coalition of Native & French troops up the Ohio River Valley.
Many Miami breakaway tribes allied with the French, although some did not. Those who did gained new political & economic advantages which allowed them to start bringing other tribes back into line with them. By the end of the century, the tribes were able to return to the Indiana/ Michigan/ Ohio region as two new tribes-- the Miami & the Wea. The new Miamis settled in the general area where the states of Ohio, Michigan & Indiana meet.
In 1701, the French moved to end the war and make peace with the Iroquois, establishing borders at the Niagara River & what is now the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. With the continued expansion of the English, The Iroquois were soon moved to sell most of their extended lands to the English through a series of treaties, who built forts along said border, while the French occupied themselves by ringing Lake Erie with military forts as well. This event also saw the Ohio Wyandot isolated from them on the French side of the border, where they finally cut their ties, became their own tribe and began expanding throughout former Erie territory.
The last major event of the 17th century involved a nomadic, migrating tribe called the Shawnee. They had split off of the Powhatan early in the century and migrated into Maryland & Pennsylvania as the native Susquehannock were decimated by war & illness and lost much of their western territory. Once the tribe arrived at the Ohio River, they migrated down through West Virginia. They mostly resettled in West Virginia until the Shawnee Wars of 1811-1813. However, they did side with the French. Allegedly, a group of them migrated clear across Ohio to the Ohio-Indiana border to aid French Native allies and never returned. They soon became known as the Piqua Shawnee, the second of the four main tribes.
Ohio natives - 18th century
While they arrived shortly beforehand, the Lenape, also known as the Delaware, were undoubtedly the largest group of Natives in Ohio during the 18th century. Originally from Lenapehoking (modern day New Jersey), they were slowly forced out, first as New Netherland was conquered by New England, then by the sons of William Penn, who had a distinctly different idea of them then their father had. In an event known as the Walking Purchase, Penn's sons purchased large amounts of Lenape land, possibly from village appointed spokespersons who didn't really have much of a right to do so. A later court hearing upheld the invalid contract and many natives were sent west. Soon after they were followed by Dutch settlers of the Moravian Church, who also felt persecuted by the cultural shift towards English & they appear to have been given legal jurisdiction over the Lenape at this point. While first spreading south along the Ohio River, the Lenape soon began a long migration west. By the American Revolution, they were noted as existing in the general area between the Scioto and Sandusky Rivers. During this time, unable to fully back a single side, many Algonquin natives of the Ohio region were deemed traitors by English & Patriot alike. See further information below.
Around 1750, many members of the Iroquois Confederacy--particularly those affiliated with the Seneca and Cayuga branches--left New York and moved into the Ohio River valley, becoming known primarily as the Mingo Nation. They tried to stick to the Ohio River as others affiliated with the Wyandot followed the Lenape west. The Shawnee had been largely pressed into West Virginia. The Little Mingo may have stayed in the same area of West Virginia until this time & may have merged with them when they came to the region, which is suggested in Seneca oral tradition.
The Wyandot did not move far. Their center only shifted from Cleveland, Ohio, to Sandusky, Ohio. There, the Episcopal Church set up a fairly successful mission for them. Upon conflicts with neighboring tribes around 1718, the Miami relocated deeper into Indiana to be closer to the Wea. When English influence began seeping into the region between 1730-1750, the Miami & Wea dealt with them more & more as they were forced continuously west. Losing power & fearing the Miami had switched sides, the French attacked the Miami & Wea around 1752, causing them to switch over to the English & aid in the eventual destruction of what was left of the Illinois Colony.
Immediately following the American Revolution, all the Native Peoples of the western Great Lakes region of the United States, spurned on by the British, attempted to confederize and declared a war of secession against the United States. This was referred to as the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) & involved the Wyandot, Shawnee, Odawa, Ojibwe, Potowatomi, Lenape, Miami, Illinois & Cherokee. It was also known as the Ohio War & Little Turtle's War. Essentially, upon the defeat of the British, Loyalists fled the country. This war was, apparently, a sort of 'parting gift' for the new nation, as Loyalists & British soldiers sold much of their remaining arsenals to the western native peoples. Some British soldiers actually joined the Indian armies and refused to cede land to the Americans. It is also interesting to note that both Lewis & Clark, as well as the eventual U.S. President, William Henry Harrison, were all veterans of this forgotten war.
Ohio natives - 19th century
When the United States set up its government, they chose to technically claim lands already owned by various Native American tribes--including those still in Ohio at the time--yet continued to treat them as if they were sovereign nations in asylum. These included the Catawba, Mohican, Schaghticoke, Lenape, Seneca, Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Miami, Shawnee, Wyandot, Odawa & Iron Confederacy. In this agreement, they vowed to allow for the continued advancement & preservation of native culture, set up bureaus to see to their welfare & security, secured their borders & created job & trading opportunities for their people. However, much of the American public seemed to be jealous of this & would continuously violate Native peoples. This included conmen selling lands within Native territories they did not own, smugglers & criminal organizations using native lands for cover & trying to hire their people, racial violence & political & legal maneuvering to strip natives of valuable assets. The United States chose early in the 19th century to begin convincing tribes to migrate to other lands west, for their safety & welfare. There appears to have been a great deal of debate at the time as to whether this would ensure their survival, or hasten their destruction, but it eventually culminated in the passing of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which was initially meant to quell disagreements that could have led to further war between the Cherokee & the state of Georgia, however it was quickly used to move all natives in the eastern United States west. As soon as it started, it created a landslide effect, with many representatives of the government among various Indian tribes desperate to convince them to settle & move west before they began to see the new act as a threat & become hostile. This is one of several primary reasons as to why native culture faded away in the eastern U.S.
Starting at around the same time as the War of 1812, the Shawnee entered war with the United States over land rights, under the famous Tecumseh. During this time, they were steadily pushed west, down the Ohio, then the Mississippi, into the Ozarks. There, Tecumseh and other leaders were killed and the Shawnee settled in what is now Oklahoma.
By the turn of the century, many of the Lenape peoples had been driven up along the Miami on the Ohio border. They were removed to the Missouri country through the Treaty of St. Mary's in 1818. After the Louisiana Purchase, the United States took over an extremely convoluted relationship which had existed between the Spanish, French & a native group, the Caddo, who lived throughout Arkansas, Louisiana & Texas at the time. Within the first few decades, the Caddo were settling almost entirely in the U.S., though still held extensive lands in Texas. The Spanish, who had expended a great deal of time & effort to woo the Caddo felt slighted & continuously negotiated for them to return to Texas, even going so far as to deed to them further lands in the region that they hadn't previously owned. This also created a border dispute which nearly caused Spain to declare war on the United States at the time & was resolved through treaties that allowed the odd circumstance to continue. By this, the United States convinced the collective Caddoan peoples to allow surplus natives who had been relocated to the Ozarks to settle upon their unused lands in Texas without much issue--including Lenape &, later, the Seneca. They would go on to blend their cultures with the burgeoning American & Mexican cowboy cultures. Unfortunately, in an apparent effort to draw Indians into the Texas Revolution without appearing to violate their treaties, several false-flag attacks began in Texas against Texans & American soldiers which were blamed on the highly influential Caddo, who had been publicly warned to stay out of the conflict by the U.S.. While the United States was able to influence the new Texas government to later adopt a similar Indian strategy, relations between these peoples never really recovered & most of these Indians were slowly pushed north into Indian Territory--modern day Oklahoma.
Also, the Ottawa turned over the last of their land in Ohio and Michigan to the United States after the War of 1812 and these peoples' either retreated back into Canada, or were sent to the plains. The Mingo Seneca were driven to Missouri, between 1832 and 1838. Many of those sent west then split, some moving to Texas, which was then still a part of Mexican territories.
The Wyandot were the final tribe to leave the state in 1843, having apparently waited until the resolution of the Texas Revolution. They moved to Missouri and largely began breaking down and merging with American society, although some did eventually end up in Indian Territory, and others were granted a permanent reservation in Missouri. Those who broke away attempted to aid in the founding of the Nebraska & Kansas Territories in the hopes of creating more havens for displaced Native peoples. While this was not successful, there are still large amounts of descendants of these peoples to this day.
Native populations today
See also List of Native American peoples in the United States
There are currently decent-sized populations of Seneca, Saponi, Lenape, Tutelo, Miami and Shawnee in the state, however they are not all federally recognized, or connected to a federally recognized, tribe. Despite this, the State has offered limited tribal recognition to many of them. Tribal members are not required to live on reservations in order to retain status, and there are currently no reservations for native peoples within the state today. Also, a large amount of Ohioans today claim ancestry of Cherokee, Blackfoot (clearly, Saponi, aka Eastern Blackfoot, is meant), Chippewa (Odawa) & Shawnee, as well as from various Iroquoians groups.
Genetic studies
Modern studies show 80% of cranial samples from Hopewell remains indicate a cephalic index in the range of being dolicocephalic. Analysis of Hopewell remains indicate shared mtDNA mutations unique with lineages from China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia, while bone collagen from Eastern North American native remains indicate maize was not a large part of their diet until after B.P. 1000. As of 2003, maize had only been discovered at one archaeological dig site in Ohio.
French, British and Native Americans
In the 17th century, the French were the first modern Europeans to explore what became known as Ohio Country. In 1663, it became part of New France, a royal province of French Empire, and northeastern Ohio was further explored by Robert La Salle in 1669. Fort Miami near present-day Toledo was constructed in 1680 by New France Governor-General Louis de Buade de Frontenac.
During the 18th century, the French set up a system of trading posts to control the fur trade in the region, linked to their settlements in present-day Canada and what they called the Illinois Country along the Mississippi River. They built Fort Sandoskรฉ by 1750 (and perhaps "Fort" Junundat in 1754).
By the 1730s, population pressure from expanding European colonies on the Atlantic coast compelled several groups of Native Americans to relocate to the Ohio Country. From the east, the Delaware and Shawnee arrived, and Wyandot and Ottawa from the north. The Miami lived in what is now western Ohio. The Mingo formed out of Iroquois who migrated west into the Ohio lands, as well as some refugee remnants of other tribes.
Christopher Gist was one of the first English-speaking explorers to travel through and write about the Ohio Country in 1749. When British traders such as George Croghan started to do business in the Ohio Country, the French and their northern Indian allies drove them out. In 1752 the French raided the Miami Indian town of Pickawillany (modern Piqua, Ohio). The French began military occupation of the Ohio Valley in 1753.
Seven Years' War
By the mid-18th century, British traders were rivaling French traders in the area. They had occupied a trading post called Loramie's Fort, which the French attacked from Canada in 1752, renaming it for a Frenchman named Loramie and establishing a trading post there. In the early 1750s George Washington was sent to the Ohio Country by the Ohio Company to survey, and the fight for control of the territory would spark Europe's Seven Years' War with the French and Indian War. It was in the Ohio Country where George Washington lost the Battle of Fort Necessity to Louis Coulon de Villiers in 1754, and the subsequent Battle of the Monongahela to Charles Michel de Langlade and Jean-Daniel Dumas to retake the country 1755.
The Treaty of Paris ceded the country to the Great Britain in 1763. During this period the country was routinely engaged in turmoil, with massacres and battles occurring among the tribes.
British Empire
British military occupation in the region contributed to the outbreak of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. Ohio Indians participated in that war until an armed expedition in Ohio led by Colonel Henry Bouquet brought about a truce. Another colonial military expedition into the Ohio Country in 1774 brought Lord Dunmore's War to a conclusion. Lord Dunmore constructed Fort Gower on the Hocking River in 1774.
American Revolution
During the American Revolutionary War, Native Americans in the Ohio Country were divided over which side to support. For example, the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Delaware leader Buckongahelas sided with the British. Cornstalk (Shawnee) and White Eyes (Delaware) sought to remain friendly with the rebellious colonists. There was major fighting in 1782. American colonial frontiersmen often did not differentiate between friendly and hostile Indians, however. Cornstalk was killed by American militiamen, and White Eyes may have been. One of the most tragic incidents of the war -- the Gnadenhutten massacre of 1782 -- took place in Ohio.
With the American victory in the Revolutionary War, the British ceded claims to Ohio and its territory in the West as far as the Mississippi River to the new nation. Between 1784 and 1789, the states of Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut ceded their earlier land claims to the Ohio territories to Congress, but Virginia and Connecticut maintained reserves. These areas were known as the Virginia Military District and Connecticut Western Reserve.
Maps History of Ohio
Territory and statehood
In 1787, the United States of America created the Northwest Territory under the Northwest Ordinance of that year. Ebenezer Sproat became a shareholder of the Ohio Company of Associates, and was engaged as a surveyor with the company. On April 7, 1788, Ebenezer Sproat and a group of American pioneers to the Northwest Territory, led by Rufus Putnam, arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers to establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. Marietta was founded by New Englanders. It was the first of what would become a prolific number of New England settlements in what was then the Northwest Territory. These New Englanders or "Yankees" as they were called, were descended from the Puritan English colonists who had settled New England in the 1600s and were members of the Congregationalist church. Correspondingly, the first church constructed in Marietta was a Congregationalist church which was constructed 1786.
Colonel Sproat, with his tall and commanding presence, was a notable member of the pioneer settlement of Marietta. He greatly impressed the local Indians, who in admiration dubbed him "Hetuck", meaning "eye of the buck deer" "Big Buckeye". Historians believe this is how Ohio came to be known as the Buckeye State and its residents as Buckeyes.
The Miami Company (also referred to as the "Symmes Purchase") managed settlement of land in the southwestern section. The Connecticut Land Company administered settlement in the Connecticut Western Reserve in present-day Northeast Ohio. A heavy flood of migrants came from New York and especially New England, where there had been a growing hunger for land as population increased before the Revolutionary War. Most traveled to Ohio by wagon and stagecoach, following former Indian paths such as the Northern Trace. Many also traveled part of the way by barges on the Mohawk River across New York state. Farmers who settled in western New York after the war sometimes moved on to one or more locations in Ohio in their lifetimes, as new lands kept opening to the west.
American settlement of the Northwest Territory was resisted by Native Americans in the Northwest Indian War. The natives were eventually conquered by General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. They ceded much of present-day Ohio to the United States by the Treaty of Greenville, concluded in 1795.
Furthermore, in regards to the Leni Lenape Native Americans living in the region, Congress decided that 10,000 acres on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio would "be set apart and the property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren ... or a society of the said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity."
The U.S. Congress prohibited slavery in the territory. (Once the population grew and the territory achieved statehood, the citizens could have legalized slavery, but chose not to do so.) The states of the Midwest would be known as Free States, in contrast to those states south of the Ohio River. Migrants to the latter came chiefly from Virginia and other slave-holding states, and brought their culture and slaves with them.
As Northeastern states abolished slavery in the coming two generations, the free states would be known as Northern States. The Northwest Territory originally included areas previously called Ohio Country and Illinois Country. As Ohio prepared for statehood, Indiana Territory was carved out, reducing the Northwest Territory to approximately the size of present-day Ohio plus the eastern half of Michigan's lower peninsula.
Statehood
With Ohio's population reaching 45,000 in December 1801, Congress determined that the population was growing rapidly and Ohio could begin the path to statehood. The assumption was the territory would have in excess of the required 60,000 residents by the time it became a state. Congress passed the Enabling Act of 1802 that outlined the process for Ohio to seek statehood. The residents convened a constitutional convention. They used numerous provisions from other states and rejected slavery.
On February 19, 1803, President Jefferson signed the act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. Congress did not pass a specific resolution formally admitting Ohio as the 17th state. The current custom of Congress' declaring an official date of statehood did not begin until 1812, when Louisiana was admitted as the 18th state.
War of 1812
Ohio played a key role in the War of 1812, as it was on the front line in the Western theater and the scene of several notable battles both on land and in Lake Erie. On September 10, 1813, the Battle of Lake Erie, one of the major battles, took place in Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay, Ohio. The British eventually surrendered to Oliver Hazard Perry.
Industrialization
Throughout much of the 19th century, industry was rapidly introduced to complement an existing agricultural economy. One of the first iron manufacturing plants opened near Youngstown in 1804 called Hopewell Furnace. By the mid-19th century, 48 blast furnaces were operating in the state, most in the southern portions of the state. Discovery of coal deposits aided the further development of the steel industry in the state, and by 1853 Cleveland was the third largest iron and steel producer in the country. The first Bessemer converter was purchased by the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, which eventually became part of the U.S. Steel Corporation following the merger of Federal Steel Company and Carnegie Steel, the first billion-dollar American corporation. The first open-hearth furnace used for steel production was constructed by the Otis Steel Company in Cleveland, and by 1892, Ohio ranked as the 2nd-largest steel producing state behind Pennsylvania. Republic Steel was founded in Youngstown in 1899, and was at one point the nation's third largest producer. Armco, now AK Steel, was founded in Middletown also in 1899.
Tobacco processing plants were found in Dayton by the 1810s and Cincinnati became known as "Porkopolis" in being the nation's capital of pork processing, and by 1850 it was the third largest manufacturing city in the country. Mills were established throughout the state, including one in Steubenville in 1815 which employed 100 workers. Manufacturers produced farming machinery, including Cincinnati residents Cyrus McCormick, who invented the reaper, and Obed Hussey, who developed an early version of the mower. Columbus became known as the "Buggy Capital of the World" for its nearly two dozen carriage manufacturers. Dayton became a technological center in the 1880s with the National Cash Register Company. For roughly ten years during the Ohio Oil Rush in the late 19th century, the state enjoyed the position of leading producer of crude oil in the country. By 1884, 86 oil refineries were operating in Cleveland and was home to Standard Oil, making it the "oil capital of the world", while producing the world's first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller.
Herbert H. Dow founded the Dow Chemical Company in Cleveland in 1895, today the world's second largest chemical manufacturer. In 1898 Frank Seiberling named his rubber company after the first person to vulcanize rubber, Charles Goodyear, which today is known as Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Seeing the need to replace steel-rimmed carriage tires with rubber, Harvey Firestone started Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and began selling to Henry Ford. The Ohio Automobile Company eventually became known as Packard, while Benjamin Goodrich entered the rubber industry in 1870 in Akron, founding Goodrich, Tew & Company, better known as the Goodrich Corporation in the present era.
By the late 19th century, Ohio had become a global industrial center. Natural resources contributed to the industrial growth, including salt, iron ore, timber, limestone, coal, natural gas, and the discovery of oil in northwestern Ohio led to the growth of the port of Toledo. By 1908, the state had 9,581 miles of railroad linking coal mines, oil fields, and industries with the world. Commercial enterprise began to prosper around towns with banks.
Innovation
William Procter and James Gamble started a company which produced a high quality, inexpensive soap called Ivory, which is still the best known product today of Procter and Gamble. Michael Joseph Owens invented the first semi-automatic glass-blowing machine while working for the Toledo Glass Company. The company was owned by Edward Libbey, and together the pair would form companies which ultimately became known as Owens-Illinois and Owens Corning.
Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the first airplane in Dayton.
Charles Kettering invented the first automatic starter for automobiles, and was the co-founder of Delco Electronics, today part of Delphi Corporation. The Battelle Memorial Institute perfected xerography, resulting in the company Xerox. At Cincinnati's Children's Hospital, Albert Sabin developed the first oral polio vaccine, which was administered throughout the world.
In 1955 Joseph McVicker tested a wallpaper cleaner in Cincinnati schools, eventually becoming known as the product Play-Doh. The same year the Tappan Stove Company created the first microwave oven made for commercial, home use. James Spangler invented the first commercially successful portable vacuum cleaner, which he sold to The Hoover Company.
African American inventors based in Ohio achieved prominence. After witnessing a car and carriage crash, Garrett Morgan invented one of the earliest traffic lights; he was a leader in the Cleveland Association of Colored Men. Frederick McKinley Jones invented refrigeration devices for transportation which ultimately led to the Thermo King Corporation. In Cincinnati Granville Woods invented the telegraphony, which he sold to a telephone company. John P. Parker of Ripley invented the Parker Pulverizer and screw for tobacco processes.
Infrastructure
Ohio's economic growth was aided by their pursuit of infrastructure. By the late 1810s, the National Road crossed the Appalachian Mountains, connecting Ohio with the east coast. The Ohio River aided the agricultural economy by allowing farmers to move their goods by water to the southern states and the port of New Orleans. The construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s allowed Ohio businesses to ship their goods through Lake Erie and to the east coast, which was followed by the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the connection of Lake Erie with the Ohio River. This gave the state complete water access to the world within the borders of the United States. Other canals included Miami and Erie Canal. The Welland Canal would eventually give the state alternative global routes through Canada.
The first railroad in Ohio was a 33-mile line completed in 1836 called the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, connecting Toledo with Adrian, Michigan. The Ohio Loan Law of 1837 allowed the state to loan one-third of construction costs to businesses, passed initially to aid the construction of canals, but instead used heavily for the construction of railroads. The Little Miami Railroad was granted a state charter in 1836 and was completed in 1848, connecting Cincinnati with Springfield. Construction of a commuter rail began in 1851 called the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad. This allowed the affluent of Cincinnati to move to newly developed communities outside the city along the rail. The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad was given financial support from the city of Cincinnati and eventually connected them with St. Louis, while the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crossed the Appalachians in the mid-1850s and connected the state with the east coast.
The investment in infrastructure complemented Ohio's central location and put it at the heart of the nation's transportation system traveling north and south and east and west, and also gave the state a headstart during the national industrialization process which occurred between 1870 and 1920.
Water ports sprang up along Lake Erie, including the Port of Ashtabula, Port of Cleveland, Port of Conneaut, Fairport Harbor, Port of Huron, Port of Lorain, Port of Marblehead, Port of Sandusky, and Port of Toledo. The Port of Cincinnati was built on the Ohio River.
Following the commercialization of air travel, Ohio became a key route for east to west transportation. The first commercial cargo flight occurred between Dayton and Columbus in 1910. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport was built in 1925 and became home to the first air traffic control tower, ground to air radio control, airfield lighting system, and commuter rail link.
The Interstate Highway System brought new travel routes to the state in the mid-20th century, further making Ohio a transportation hub.
Urbanization and commercialization
With the rapid increase of industrialization in the country in the late 19th century, Ohio's population swelled from 2.3 million in 1860 to 4.2 million by 1900. By 1920, nine Ohio cities had populations of 50,000 or more.
The rapid urbanization brought about a growth of commercial industries in the state, including many financial and insurance institutions. The National City Corporation was founded in 1845, today part of PNC Financial Services. Cleveland's Society for Savings was founded in 1849, eventually becoming part of KeyBank. The Bank of the Ohio Valley opened in 1858, becoming known as Fifth Third Bank today. City National Bank and Trust Company was founded in 1866 in Columbus, eventually becoming Bank One. The American Financial Group was founded in 1872 and the Western & Southern Financial Group in 1888 in Cincinnati. The Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company was founded in Columbus in 1925, today known as the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.
Major retail operations emerged in the state, including Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, today second only to WalMart. Federated Department Stores was founded in Columbus in 1929, known today as Macy's. The Sherwin-Williams Company was founded in 1866 in Cleveland.
Frisch's Big Boy was opened in 1905 in Cincinnati. American Electric Power was founded in Columbus in 1906. The American Professional Football Association was founded in Canton in 1922, eventually becoming the National Football League. The Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 and presently is one of the world's leading medical institutions.
Education
Education has been an integral piece of the Ohio fabric since its early days of statehood. In the beginning, mothers usually educated their children at home or paid for their children to attend smaller schools in villages and towns. In 1821 the state passed a tax to finance local schools. In 1822, Caleb Atwater lobbied the legislature and Governor Allen Trimble to establish a commission to study the possibility of initiating public, common schools. Atwater modeled his plan after the New York City public school system. After public opinion in 1824 forced the state to find a resolution to the education problem, the legislature established the common school system in 1825 and financed it with a half-mil property levy.
School districts formed, and by 1838 the first direct tax was levied allowing access to the school for all. The first appropriation for the common schools came in 1838, a sum of $200,000. The average salary for male teachers in some districts during this early period was $25/month and $12.50/month for females. By 1915, the appropriations for the common schools totaled over $28 million. The first middle school in the nation, Indianola Junior High School (now the Graham Expeditionary Middle School), opened in Columbus in 1909. McGuffey Readers was a leading textbook originating from the state and found throughout the nation.
Original universities and colleges in the state included the Ohio University, founded in Athens in 1804 and the first university in the old Northwest Territory and ninth-oldest in the United States. Miami University in Oxford, Ohio was founded in 1809, the University of Cincinnati in 1819, Kenyon College in Gambier in 1824, Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1826, Xavier University in Cincinnati and Denison University in Granville in 1831, Oberlin College in 1833, Marietta College in 1835, the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware in 1842, and the University of Dayton in 1850. Wilberforce University was founded in 1856 and the University of Akron and Ohio State University followed in 1870, with the University of Toledo in 1872.
The first dental school in the United States was founded in the early 19th century in Bainbridge. The Ohio School for the Blind became the first of its kind in the country, located in Columbus.
In 2007, Governor Ted Strickland signed legislation organizing the University System of Ohio, the nation's largest comprehensive public system of higher education.
Social history
Religion
Rural Ohio in the 19th century was noted for its religious diversity, tolerance and pluralism, according to Smith (1991). With so many active denominations, no one dominated, and increasingly tolerance became the norm. Germans from Pennsylvania and from Germany brought Lutheran and Reformed churches and numerous smaller sects such as the Amish. Yankees brought Presbyterians and Congregationalists. Revivals during the Second Great Awakening spurred the growth of Methodist, Baptist and Christian (Church of Christ) churches. The building of many denominational liberal arts colleges was a distinctive feature of the 19th century. By the 1840s German and Irish Catholics were moving into the cities, and after the 1880s Catholics from eastern and southern Europe arrived in the larger cities, mining camps, and small industrial centers. Jews and Eastern Orthodox settlements added to the pluralism, as did the building of black Baptists and Methodist churches in the cities.
During the Progressive Era, Washington Gladden was a leader of the Social Gospel movement in Ohio. He was the editor of the influential national magazine the Independent after 1871, and as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio from 1882 to his death in 1918. Gladden crusaded for Prohibition, resolving conflicts between labor and capital; he often denounced racial violence and lynching.
Ethnic groups
Early Ohio state culture was a product of Native American cultures, which practically disappeared after 1790. The northeastern part of Ohio was settled by Yankees from Connecticut, and pioneers from New York and Pennsylvania. The Connecticut Western Reserve became center for modernization and reform. They were sophisticated, educated, and open minded, as well as religious. Some of the original settlers from Connecticut were Amos Loveland, a revolutionary soldier, and Jacob Russell. They faced a rough wildnerness life, where the common living arrangement was the log cabin. As the pioneer culture faded in the mid-19th century, Ohio had over 140,000 citizens of native New England origin, including New York. One of the New Yorkers who came to the state during this period was Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, whose church in Kirtland was the home of the movement for a period of time.
Other early pioneers came from the Mid-Atlantic states, especially Pennsylvania and Virginia, some settling on military grant lands in the Virginia Military District. From Virginia came members of the Harrison family of Virginia, who rose to prominence in the state, producing Ohio's first of eight U.S. Presidents. William Henry Harrison's campaign of 1840 came to represent the pioneer culture of Ohio, symbolized by his Log cabin campaign. The theme song of his campaign, the "Log Cabin Song," was authored by Otway Curry, was a nationally known poet and author.
Ohio was largely agricultural before 1850, although gristmills and local forges were present. Clear-cut gender norms prevailed among the farm families who settled in the Midwestern region between 1800 and 1840. Men were the breadwinners who considered the profitability of farming in a particular location - or "market-minded agrarianism" - and worked hard to provide for their families. They had an almost exclusive voice regarding public matters, such as voting and handling the money. During the migration westward, women's diaries show little interest in and financial problems, but great concern with the threat of separation from family and friends. Furthermore, women experienced a physical toll because they were expected to have babies, supervise the domestic chores, care for the sick, and take control of the garden crops and poultry. Outside the German American community, women rarely did fieldwork on the farm. The women set up neighborhood social organizations, often revolving around church membership, or quilting parties. They exchanged information and tips on child-rearing, and helped each other in childbirth.
Large numbers of German Americans arrived from Pennsylvania, augmented by new immigrants from Germany. They all clung to their German language and Protestant religions, as well as their specialized tastes in food and beer. Brewing was a main feature of the German culture. Their villages from this period included the German Village in Columbus. They also founded the villages of Gnadenhutten in the late 18th century; Bergholz, New Bremen, New Berlin, Dresden, and other villages and towns. The German Americans immigrating from the Mid-Atlantic states, especially eastern Pennsylvania, brought with them the Midland dialect, which is still found throughout much of Ohio. For instance, in Philadelphia water is pronounced with a long o versus the normal short o, the same as in many areas of Ohio. African Americans of the Underground Railroad began coming to the state, some settling, others passing through on the way to Canada. Universities and colleges opened up all over the state, creating a more educated culture.
By the last half of the 19th century, the state became more diverse culturally with new immigrants from Europe, including Ireland and Germany. The Forty-Eighters from Central Europe settled the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, while the Irish immigrants settled throughout the state, including Flytown in Columbus. Other immigrants from Russia, Turkey, China, Japan, Finland, Greece, Italy, Romania, Poland, and other places came in the latter years. Around the start of the 20th century, rural southern European Americans and African Americans came north in search of better economic opportunity, infusing Hillbilly culture into the state. Newer ethnic villages emerged, including the Slavic Village in Cleveland and the Italian Village and Hungarian Village in Columbus. Howard Chandler Christy, born in Morgan County, became a leading American artist during this century, as well as composer Dan Emmett, founder of the Blackface tradition. Ohio's mines factories and cities attracted Europeans. Irish Catholics poured in to construct the canals, railroads, streets and sewers in the 1840s and 1850s.
After 1880, the coal mines and steel plants attracted families from southern and eastern Europe. By 1901, the Midwest (Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio) had absorbed 5.8 million foreign immigrants and another million by 1912.
Immigration was cut off by the World War in 1914, allowing the ethnic communities to Americanize, grow much more prosperous, served in the military, and abandon possible plans to return to the old country. Flows were very low between 1925 and 1965, then began to increase again, this time with many arrivals from Asia and Mexico.
Popular culture
Industrialization brought a shift culturally as urbanization and an emerging middle class changed society. Athletics became increasingly popular as the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, started playing at that level in 1869, and football leagues emerged. Bathhouses and rollercoasters became a popular past time with the opening of Cedar Point in 1870. Theaters and saloons sprang up, and more restaurants opened. Entertainment venues opening in Cleveland included the Playhouse Square Center, Palace Theatre, Ohio Theatre, State Theatre, and the Karamu House. Langston Hughes grew up in Cleveland and developed many of his plays at the Karamu House. In Columbus they opened the Southern Theatre in 1894, as well as their own Palace Theatre and Ohio Theatre, which hosted performers such as Jack Benny, Judy Garland, and Jean Harlow. The Lincoln Theatre hosted performers like Count Basie. The Taft Theatre opened in 1928 in Cincinnati.
The Roaring Twenties brought prohibition, bootlegging and speakeasies to the state, as well as the swing dance culture. Cincinnati became the headquarters of the "king of bootlegging" George Remus, who made $40 million by the end of 1922. The Anti-Saloon League had been powerful and Ohio, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union was still headquartered there; the Ku Klux Klan was active in the 1920s. However these organizations steadily lost influence after 1925.
Depression years
During the 1930s, the Great Depression struck the state hard. The Superman character was developed by Cleveland residents Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the spirit of the Jewish Golem during the rise of the Third Reich. Many of the comics portrayed Superman fighting and defeating the Nazis.
Artists and writers emerged from the state, usually on the way to Hollywood, including "king of the cowboys" Roy Rogers, Roy Lichtenstein, Zane Grey, Milton Caniff, Art Tatum, and George Bellows. Alan Freed, who emerged from the swing dance culture in Cleveland, hosted the first live rock 'n roll concert in Cleveland in 1952, and the state produced some of the original popular musicians, including Dean Martin, Doris Day, The O.Jay's and The Isley Brothers.
Ohioans loved the movies, and five Academy Award-winning films were partly produced in the state, including Terms of Endearment, Traffic, The Deer Hunter, Rain Man, and Silence of the Lambs.
Civil War
During the Civil War (1861-65) Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats under Clement Vallandigham and openly opposed President Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.
The third most populous state in the Union at the time, Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army, third behind only New York and Pennsylvania. Nearly 7,000 Buckeye soldiers were killed in action. Several leading generals were from the state, including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan.
Only two minor battles were fought within its borders. Morgan's Raid in the summer of 1863 alarmed the populace. Ohio troops fought in nearly every major campaign during the war.
Prison camps
Its most significant Civil War site is Johnson's Island, located in Sandusky Bay of Lake Erie. Barracks and outbuildings were constructed for a prisoner of war depot, intended chiefly for officers. Over three years more than 15,000 Confederate men were held there. The island includes a Confederate cemetery where about 300 men were buried.
Camp Chase Prison was a Union Army prison in Columbus. There was a plot among prisoners to revolt and escape in 1863. The prisoners expected support from Copperheads and Vallandigham, but never did revolt.
Veterans
Ohio has been involved in regional, national, and global wars since statehood, and veterans have been a powerful social and political force at the local and state levels. The organization of Civil War veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic, was a major player in local society and Republican politics in the last third of the 19th century. The American Veterans of Foreign Service was established in 1899 in Columbus, ultimately becoming known as the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1913. The state has produced 319 Medal of Honor recipients, including the country's first recipient, Jacob Parrott.
In 1886, the state authorized the creation of the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky and a second one created in 2003 in Georgetown to provide for soldiers facing economic hardship. Over 50,000 veterans have lived at the Sandusky location as of 2005. Since World War I, the state has paid stipends to veterans of wars, including recently authorizing funds for soldiers of the Gulf and Afghanistan wars. The state also provides free in-state tuition to any veteran regardless of state origin at their colleges.
Politics
Rebellion of 1820
In 1820, the legislature then passed legislation which nullified the federal court order as well as the operations of the Bank of the United States within their borders. The state ignored further federal court orders, writs, and denied immunities to the federal government. Their actions were considered the complete destruction of federal standing in the state and an attempted overthrow of the federal government. Ohio forcefully applied their iron law against the federal government until 1824, when the United States Supreme Court ruled they had no authority to tax the federal bank in the landmark case originating from the state: Osborn v. Bank of the United States. They then followed by passing an act in 1831 to withdraw state protections for the Bank of the United States.
Although the nullification of 1820 in Ohio was inspired by resolutions passed in Virginia and Kentucky in 1798 and 1800, the language of their resolution from 1820 would find its place in South Carolina's nullification of 1832 and secession articles of southern states in 1861.
Sovereignty
The rebellion of 1820 firmly rooted the tradition of sovereignty in the state. In 1859, Governor Salmon P. Chase reaffirmed that tradition, stating: "We have rights which the Federal Government must not invade -- rights superior to its power, on which our sovereignty depends; and we mean to assert those rights against all tyrannical assumptions of authority." Following the War of the Rebellion, the debate over ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments reignited the sovereignty movement in Ohio. General Durbin Ward stated: "Fellow citizens of Ohio, I boldly assert that the States of this Union have always had, both before and since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, entire sovereignty over the whole subject of suffrage in all its relations and bearings. Ohio has that sovereignty now, and it cannot be taken from her..."
As recently as 2009, the tradition re-emerged, with an Ohio sovereignty resolution passing in the state senate, and signatures being collected to place a state sovereignty amendment on the ballot in 2011.
Anti-slavery
Ohio's roots as an anti-slavery and abolitionist state go back to its territorial days in the Northwest Territory, which forbade the practice. When it became a state, the constitution expressly outlawed slavery. Many Ohioans were members of anti-slavery organizations, including the American Anti-Slavery Society and American Colonization Society. Ohioan Charles Osborn published the first abolitionist newspaper in the country, "The Philanthropist," and in 1821, the father of abolition Benjamin Lundy began publishing his newspaper the Genius of Universal Emancipation.
Ohio was a key stop on the Underground Railroad where prominent abolitionists played a role, including John Rankin. Ohio resident Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous book Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was largely influential in shaping the opinion of the north against slavery.
Ohio in national politics
As a closely contested state, Ohio was the top choice of Republicans, and often also as Democrats, for place on the national ticket as candidate for president or vice president.
Between Lincoln and Hoover, every Republican president who did not gain the office by the death of his predecessor was born in Ohio; Ulysses Grant, although born in Ohio, was legally a residence of Illinois when he was elected.
By electing so many of her sons to the presidency, Ohio gained a role in politics disproportionate to its size. Several reasons came together. Ohio was a microcosm of the United States, balanced closely between the parties, and at the crossroads of America: between the South, the Northeast, and the developing West, and influenced by each. Its ethnic, religious, and cultural elements were a microcosm of the North. Its cutthroat politics trained candidates in how to win. A leading Ohio politician was "Available"--that is, well-suited and electable. Thus, in most presidential years, the governor of Ohio was deemed more available than the governor of the larger states of New York or Pennsylvania.
This legend built on itself As the state set seven men to the White House and four more became Vice President. Many others won major patronage plums. Between 1868 and 1924, not only did Ohio supply the most presidents, it supplied the most Cabinet members, and the most federal officeholders. Ohio-born Rutherford B. Hayes (1876), James A. Garfield (1880) and Benjamin Harrison (1888) were each nominated from a convention that had deadlocked, and where the delegates chose to turn to a candidate who could carry Ohio. In each case they did, and won the presidency. According to historian Andrew Sinclair, "the potency of the Ohio myth gave its favorite sons a huge advantage in a deadlocked convention".
Progressive era
The Progressive Era brought about change in the state, although the state had been at the forefront of the movement decades before. In 1852, Ohio passed its first child labor laws, and in 1885 adopted prosecution powers for violations. In 1886, the American Federation of Labor was formed in Columbus, culminating in the passage of workers' compensation laws by the early 20th century.
Women's rights
Victoria Woodhull, the first female candidate for U.S. President in 1872, and U.S. Second Lady Cornelia Cole Fairbanks, credited with paving the way for the modern American female politician, were leaders in the women's suffrage movement. Ohio was the second state to hold a women's rights convention, the Ohio Women's Convention at Salem in 1850. The public voted on women's suffrage in 1912, which failed, but the state ultimately adopted the 19th amendment in 1920. Ohio-native and U.S. President William Howard Taft signed the White-Slave Traffic Act in 1910, which sought to end human trafficking and the sex slave trade.
The Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1893 in Oberlin, which saw political success with the passage of the Volstead Act in 1918.
Constitutional Convention of 1912
In 1912 a Constitutional Convention was held with Charles Burleigh Galbreath as Secretary. The result reflected the concerns of the Progressive Era. The constitution introduced the initiative and the referendum, and provided for the General Assembly to put questions on the ballot for the people to ratify laws and constitutional amendments originating in the Legislature. Under the Jeffersonian principle that laws should be reviewed once a generation, the constitution provided for a recurring question to appear every 20 years on Ohio's general election ballots. The question asks whether a new constitutional convention is required. Although the question has appeared in 1932, 1952, 1972, and 1992, the people have not found the need for a convention. Instead, constitutional amendments have been proposed by petition and the legislature hundreds of times and adopted in a majority of cases.
Ku Klux Klan
In the early 1920s the Ku Klux Klan attracted thousands of Protestant men into membership, warning of the need to purify America, especially against the influence of Catholics, bootleggers, and corrupt politicians. The Klan collapsed and virtually disappeared in Ohio after 1925.
Great Depression
Ohio was hit especially hard by the Great Depression in the 1930s. In 1932, unemployment for the state reached 37.3%. By 1933, 40% of factory workers and 67% of construction labor were unemployed. The state had previously supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, 1936, 1940, but his policies had grown out of favor with the state and they voted against him in 1944.
World War II
Ohio played a major role in World War II, especially in providing manpower, food, and munitions to the Allied cause. Ohio manufactured 8.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking fourth among the 48 states.
Cold War
Ohio became heavily anti-Communist during the Cold War following World War II. Time Magazine reported in 1950 that police officers in Columbus were warning youth clubs to be suspicious of communist agitators. Campbell Hill in Bellefontaine became the site of a main U.S. Cold War base and a precursor to NORAD. Anti-communist personalities emerged from the state, including Janet Greene of Columbus, the political right's answer to Joan Baez. Her songs included "Commie Lies", "Poor Left Winger", and "Comrade's Lament". Ohio was the scene of the Kent State Massacre, where four anti-Vietnam war protesters, part of a charging mob, were shot dead, by badly frightened and poorly trained guardsmen. As the cold war wrapped up, Ohio heavily supported the elections of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his peace-work contributions toward ending the conflict, who is the name-bearer of a highway in the Cincinnati area.
Ohio became an industrial magnet in the 1950s. By 1960, 10% of the population had been born in nearby Kentucky, West Virginia or Tennessee.
Native place names
Iroquoian
Many places in Ohio--including the state itself--carry names deriving from Iroquoian languages. Iroquois is an awkward language to translate. Having very limited parts of speech to divide words into--noun, verb and particle--means that words tend to be very long and complex, with differences in meaning often deriving from very slight changes in pronunciation. Also, due to the same issue, the language often takes a great deal of artistic liberty through the use of metaphor and altered word use to name things. Because of this, literal translations to English are often cavemanish, or seem nonsensical. Thus, many Iroquoian translations often rely heavily on folk etymology, deliberately using different words in a translation in the hopes of better clarifying the intended meaning. Below are places in Ohio whose names are as such, along with possible translations.
- Ohio - Ohi:yo (Oh-heee-yoh) - Although the Seneca dialect claims the word to mean "Beautiful River", neither the words, or parts of the words, for beautiful, or river, appear in this word. The more recently accepted Cayuga translation names it "Good Flowing Stream" from "O" (Oh)- pronoun prefix referring to 'it', "Hih" (Hee-huh)-v. to spill, & "Gihedenyo' (Gee-hey-den-yuh)- a creek, stream, or smaller amount of flowing liquid. The reason the word for creek is used is the proxy that, since the Ohio River flows into a larger river, it's still technically a creek to them. The word is contracted from its fuller form.
- Cuyahoga River-- ?- The Little Leak which Grows as it Wends Off. From Cayuga Iroquois; "Okahs" (Oh-gahh-hss)- to leak, "Niyo:hah" (Nee-yaoo-hahh)- to be little (in terms of amount, rather than size), "Ahdog" (Ahh-dowg)- grow, "E" (Eh)- To go a certain way, or to a certain place.
- Shenango River - ? - Unknown, although the name is definitely Iroquoian in origin. It seems to bear similarity to the names of several Iroquioan mythical creatures or entities. Shagono:'ae'yehta (Cayuga. Ss-hah-go-naoo--Ah-ey--Yey-hdah)/ Dakwana'eyeht (Seneca. Dah-gwah-naw--Ey-yeyht), which is the Flying Head. There is also Shagogawe:ha' (Cayuga. Ss-hah-go-gah-weeh-huh), the ferryman of the dead. The best possible translation could be "Blue Panther's Melt," as in spring the River is known to swamp it's banks and flood an area that often spreads up to a mile in either direction. The Blue Panther is the folk name for an Iroquois water deity, which is believed to have lived beneath the surface of Lake Erie. Many rivers in Northeast Ohio known for similar flooding phenomenon, but not to the same degree of square mileage.
- Grand River (Ohio)- Gihe'gowaneh (Gee-heh--Go-wah-neh)- Grand River/ Bighead River/ Proud River- There are similarly named rivers in the former territories of other Iroquoian nations. They share their name with an old Iroquoian Religious order, the Bighead Society, and probably had something to do with native religion. However, the Iroquois absorbed many other kinds of people--including Abenaki, Algonquin & Siouan--during a period known as the Beaver Wars. As such, they adopted many aspects of Tabaldak Animism (Abenaki Religion), Manitoo (Algonquin Religion) & Wocekiye (Siouan Religion), as well as Christianity, as their own and many old ways have been confused or lost. They now refer to their religion as Gwihwi:yo, or the Longhouse Religion.
- Tuscarawas County, Tuscarawas River, and Tuscarawas, Ohio, take their names from the Tuscarora People, one of the six tribes who currently make up the Iroquois Confederacy, who never set foot in Ohio. They originated from the coastal region of Virginia and North Carolina and currently practice the most unique variation of the seven surviving Iroquois languages. The Tuscarora were, however, best known for control of the hemp trade, which most peoples of the eastern half of the continent used for clothing and weaving, in lieu of cotton.
- Akron, Ohio - a city in Northeast Ohio, it takes its name from a sister city in New York. This city derives its name from the Iroquois languages, Tyo:akot (Seneca. Dyoow-awg-kot). Translated through Cayuga Iroquois, this may be "The Small Settlement"-- "Droda'" (Dlow-duh)- To live at a place, "A'" (ah)- small, in terms of size, & "Go'" (Go)- in total.
- Lake Erie- named for the French nickname to the Iroquoian tribe believed to have resided in Northeast Ohio, the Riquechronon.
Lenape and Algonquin
One of the easier native languages to master. Even though Algonquins were scattered in various pockets throughout the continent, their languages are all extremely similar. Below are place names in Ohio deriving from Algonquin, although this is mostly deriving from the Lenape, or Delaware, language.
- Pymatuning Lake - Fair travel upon this place. Translated through Ojibwe (please alter this if you know Lenape), "Bimi'ayaa"- to go along your way, "Ondin"- wind from a certain direction, & "-ing"- a relational prefix which can be translated as "upon," or "on top of."
- Mahoning Valley/ Mahoning River- ?
- Maumee River- (Miami language) The Miami name given to the Algonquin people who used to live in Michigan & Northwest Ohio.
- Chilicothe, Ohio- (Shawnee language) Chalakatha, one of the Shawnee bands. It is also believed that Chilicothe sits at the original meeting place of the Shawnee council fire, a common native equivalent to a European Union style of government which was usually situated on common ground, rather than any one village.
Un-American activities
The Ohio Un-American Activities Committee was a government agency which existed to collect information on citizens with communist sympathies, resulting in 15 convictions, 40 indictments, and 1,300 suspects. Governor Frank Lausche generally opposed the committee, but his vetoes were overridden by the legislature. The state forced their employees to sign a loyalty oath to defend the state against foreign and domestic enemies to receive a paycheck, including left-wing professors and Holocaust survivors Bernhard Blume and Oskar Seidlin. Ohio also barred communists from receiving unemployment benefits.
Recent
Today Ohio remains connected to the regional, national, and global economies. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the foreign-born share of Ohio's population increased from 2.4% in 1990, to 3.0% in 2000, to 4.1% in 2013. As of 2015, 49.7% of immigrants to Ohio were naturalized U.S. citizens. Immigrants have substantial economic importance to Ohio, as taxpayers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and workers. A 2016 study on immigrants in Ohio concluded that immigrants make up 6.7% of all entrepreneurs in Ohio although they are just 4.2% of Ohio's population, and that these immigrant-owned businesses generated almost $532 million in 2014. The study also showed that "immigrants in Ohio earned $15.6 billion in 2014 and contributed $4.4 billion in local, state and federal taxes that year."
In 2015, Ohio gross domestic product (a broad measure of the size of the economy) was $608.1 billion, the seventh-largest economy among the 50 states. In 2015, Ohio's total GDP accounted for 3.4% of U.S. GDP and 0.8% of world GDP. Ohio's GDP per capita in 2015 was $52,363, ranked 26th among the states in GDP per capita. From 2005 to 2015, " Ohio's economy grew more slowly than the U.S. as a whole, growing at an average nominal (i.e., not inflation-adjusted) annual rate of 2.6%, compared to the U.S. average annual growth rate of 3.2% over the same time period. From 2000 to 2016, "the pace of employment growth in Ohio has trailed the national pace..., except for the three-year period between 2010 and 2013."
Ohio had become nicknamed the "fuel cell corridor" in being a contributing anchor for the region now called the "Green Belt," in reference to the growing renewable energy sector. Although the state experienced heavy manufacturing losses around the start of the 20th century and suffered from the Great Recession, it was rebounding by the second decade in being the country's 6th-fastest-growing economy through the first half of 2010. Politically the state has demonstrated its importance in modern presidential elections, signed international cooperation treaties with foreign provinces and northern American states, has become involved in heated national disputes with southern American states, while producing national leadership. Its athletic teams are among some of the nation's best, and culturally the state continues to produce notable artists while building institutions enshrining its past. Educationally the schools are among the nation's top performers, and militarily Ohio's legacy continues into the present era.
Ohio's transition into the 21st century is symbolized by the Third Frontier program, spearheaded by Governor Bob Taft around the start of the 20th century, which built on the agricultural and industrial pillars of the economy, the first and second frontiers, by aiding the growth of advanced technology industries, the third frontier. It has been widely hailed as one of the nation's most successful government bureaucracies, attracting 637 new high-tech companies to the state and 55,000 new jobs with an average of salary of $65,000, while having a $6.6 billion economic impact with an investment return ratio of 9:1. In 2010 it won the International Economic Development Council's Excellence in Economic Development Award, celebrated as a national model of success. The state's cities have become hubs of modern industry, including Toledo's recognition as a national solar center, Cleveland a regenerative medicine research hub, Dayton an aerospace and defense hub, Akron the rubber capital of the world, Columbus a technological research and development hub, and Cincinnati a mercantile hub. Ohio was hit hard by the Great Recession and manufacturing employment losses during the most recent period. The recession cost the state 376,500 jobs and it had 89,053 foreclosures in 2009, a record for the state. The median household income dropped 7% and the poverty rate ballooned to 13.5% by 2009. By the second half of 2010, the state showed signs of rebound in being the nation's sixth-fastest-growing economy. During the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the state was at the center of the international political world in being a key battleground which played a crucial role in the elections of U.S. President George W. Bush. U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner of southwestern Ohio has emerged as a national political leader. Beginning in the 1980s, the state entered into international economic and resource cooperation treaties and organizations with other Midwestern states, New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec, including the Great Lakes Charter, Great Lakes Compact, and the Council of Great Lakes Governors. It became involved in heated national disputes with southern American states in 2009 and 2010, including Georgia over National Cash Register Company and Alabama over Wright Patterson Air Force Base, where southern lawmakers were accused of misusing federal funds and influence to "steal" Ohio jobs during the Great Recession.
Athletically, the state's teams are among some of the nation's best. The Ohio State University football team won the national championship in 2002 and 2014, and consistently competes for the prize annually. The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series championship in 1990 following their run as the Big Red Machine in the 1970s, as well as the National League Central Division champions in 2010 and 2012, while the Cincinnati Bengals appeared in the Super Bowl in 1981 and 1988 and have won the AFC North Division in 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2015. In 2016 the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals, in 2007 won the Eastern Conference Championship, and in 2009 and 2010 won the NBA Central Division championships. The Columbus Quest won the only two league championships in history in the 1990s, while the Ohio State University men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Final Four and national championship game in 2007.
In 1995 the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame museum opened in Cleveland, commemorating Ohio's contributory past to the art, including being the location of the first live rock 'n roll concert in 1952. The state is tied with Oklahoma and California for producing the most Miss America pageant winners through 2010 with six.
Ohio has 5 of the top 115 colleges in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report's 2010 rankings, and was ranked 8th by the same magazine in 2008 for best high schools. Overall, in 2010 the state's schools were ranked 5th in the country by Education Week. Militarily Ohio's legacy continues into the modern era, contributing over 200,000 soldiers to the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars.
See also
- American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory
- History of the Midwestern United States
- Ohio Lands
- Ohio Historical Society
- Buckeye (chicken)
- "Timeline of Ohio"
- City timelines
- Timeline of Cincinnati
- Timeline of Cleveland
- Timeline of Columbus, Ohio
- Timeline of Toledo, Ohio
Bibliography
Surveys and textbooks
- Andrew R. L. Cayton. Ohio: The History of a People (2002)
- Knepper, George W. Ohio and Its People. Kent State University Press, 3rd edition 2003, ISBN 0-87338-791-0 (paperback)
- Wittke, Carl, ed. History of Ohio 5 vol online
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr.; The Foundations of Ohio. Volume: 1. 1941. detailed history to 1802. online
- Jordan, Philip D.Ohio Comes of Age: 1873-1900 Volume 5 (1968) online
- Roseboom, Eugene. The Civil War Era, 1850-1873, vol. 4 (1944) online
- Utter, William T. The Frontier State 1803-1825, vol 2 online
- Weisenburger, Francis P. The Passing of the Frontier, vol. 3 (1941), detailed history of the 1830s and 1840s online
Specialized studies
- Blue, Frederick J. Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics (1987)
- Buley, R. Carlyle. The Old Northwest (1950), Pulitzer Prize winner
- Booraem V. Hendrick. The Road to Respectability: James A. Garfield and His World, 1844-1852 Bucknell University Press, (1988)
- Coffey, by Daniel J. Buckeye Battleground: Ohio, Campaigns, and Elections in the Twenty-First Century (University of Akron Press; 2011) 210 pages; studies the politics of five distinct regions in the state, esp. the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections and the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-253-33210-9 (hardcover); ISBN 0-253-21212-X (1998 paperback).
- Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)
- Maizlish, Stephen E. The Triumph of Sectionalism: The Transformation of Ohio Politics, 1844-1856 (1983)
- Miller, Richard F. States at War, Volume 5: A Reference Guide for Ohio in the Civil War (2015).
- O'Donnell, James H. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8214-1525-5 (paperback), ISBN 0-8214-1524-7
- Parker, Geoffrey Parker, Richard Sisson, and William Coil, eds. Ohio and the world, 1753-2053: essays toward a new history of Ohio (2005)
- Ratcliffe, Donald J. The Politics of Long Division: The Birth of the Second Party System in Ohio, 1818-1828. Ohio State U. Press, 2000.
- Rodabaugh, James H. "The Negro in Ohio," Journal of Negro History, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1946), pp. 9-29 in JSTOR
- Sisson, Richard, ed. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (2006)
Regional history
- Van Tassel, David D., and John J. Grabowski, eds. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (1987), also online
- Van Tassel, David D., and John J. Grabowski, eds. Cleveland: A Tradition of Reform (1986)
- Wheeler, Kenneth H. "Local Autonomy and Civil War Draft Resistance: Holmes County, Ohio" Civil War History, Vol. 45, 1999
Primary sources
- Tom L. Johnson. My Story Kent State University Press, 1993
- Phillip R. Shriver, Jr. and Clarence E. Wunderlin. eds. Documentary Heritage Of Ohio (2001)
References
External links
- Ohio Historical Society
- Ohio History Central - an online encyclopedia by the Ohio Historical Society
- Ohio in The Civil War
- Ohio Memory
- Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
- Ohio: A Sentimental Journey, WBGU-PBS collaborative documentary
- Ohio State Information - Symbols, Capital, Constitution, Flags, Maps, Songs
- Ohio Historical Sites
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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