Tulsa Race Massacre (May 31-June 1, 1921) -- The Unspeakable Details of 100 Years Ago

 

“The Tulsa race massacre took place May 31 and June 1, 1921 – 100 years ago. It was one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. According to some historians, over 1,200 homes and buildings were destroyed by the violence, killing between 100 and 300 people.

“But thanks to white-dominated power structures in the city of Tulsa and state of Oklahoma, news about the massacre was wiped from many official sources for decades.

"Such insistence on erasing Black pain from a community's official history creates, by necessity, a shadow history kept among people of color and passed along, often by word of mouth. White America may have tried to forget Tulsa, but the massacre's details lived in the stories of Black survivors and their descendants, handed down like bitter family heirlooms.

“(Even worse, for a journalist like me, was to realize the role the media played back then — both in whipping up white fears about Black people through horrifically racist films and newspaper stories, while disappearing news of attacks and lynchings once white people took action.)”

(Eric Deggans. “3 Documentaries You Should Watch About The Tulsa Race Massacre.” NPR. May 30, 2021.)

When a large group of Black people showed up in Tulsa to stop the lynching of a young Black man unfairly accused of sexually assaulting a white female elevator operator – white crowds had been incited by incendiary, unfair coverage from The Tulsa Tribune – a white man tried to grab a gun from a Black man. A struggle ensued, the gun went off, and the white mob had their excuse to obliterate Black Wall Street over two days of brutal violence.

The Sequence of Events

The Tulsa Historical Society relates the following sequence of events on May 30 and June 1, 1921 (shown here in italics):

“On the morning of May 30, 1921, a young black man named Dick Rowland was riding in the elevator in the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a white woman named Sarah Page. The details of what followed vary from person to person. Accounts of an incident circulated among the city’s white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling.”

Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 67-year-old historian Scott Ellsworth says, “We think what happened was that as he walked onto the elevator, he tripped,”noting that particulars are still unclear a century later. As Rowland tried to break his fall with his hands, he may have grabbed Sarah Page’s arm. “She was startled so she screamed and he ran out of the elevator and out of the building.”

Ellsworth says that the police were called but “they didn’t seem to be particularly worried” that a crime had been committed, adding it’s doubtful that Rowland attacked Page: The two probably knew each other by sight. Because Rowland and many other Black teenagers worked as shoe shiners or at white-owned and white-patronized businesses, there were no bathroom facilities available to Black employees.

“So the white owner of the shoe shine parlor arranged for his shoe shiners to walk down the block to the Drexel building and to ride the elevator to the top floor where there was a ‘colored’ restroom,” said Ellsworth. “So this was something all of them would probably do once a day.”

Sarah Page “would never press charges against Dick,” further indicating an accident more than anything else, Ellsworth noted.

“There was a white store clerk in the Drexel building who heard the scream and saw Dick running out of the elevator,” he explained. “He then decided that Dick must have tried to assault her.”

(Scott Ellsworth. Death in a Promised Land. 1982.)

“Tulsa police arrested Rowland the following day and began an investigation. An inflammatory report in the May 31 edition of the Tulsa Tribune spurred a confrontation between black and white armed mobs around the courthouse where the sheriff and his men had barricaded the top floor to protect Rowland. Shots were fired and the outnumbered African Americans began retreating to the Greenwood District.”

The Tulsa Tribune, a white-owned newspaper in the city, immediately ran with the idea that a Black man had tried to assault a white girl inside an elevator, even though there was little evidence this had occurred, according to Ellsworth. An inflammatory front page article accused Rowland of identifying himself as ‘Diamond Dick’ to police – it also claimed he had stalked Page, in addition to tearing her clothes and scratching her face.

“There was no question that the article presented it as him trying to rape her,” said Ellsworth. Given no record of the editorial has survived, witnesses have reported that the Tribune’s editorial page was designed to incite readers to violence, featuring a writeup titled “To Lynch Negro Tonight.”

The effect of those words was immediate. “As soon as the Tribune hit the streets, within a half hour, there was lynch talk on the streets of Tulsa,” said Ellsworth. “What happens after that is a lynch mob then gathered and then things start to happen very quickly.”

(Lakshmi Gandhi. “Tulsa Race Massacre: Fact checking myths and misconceptions.” NBC News. May 30, 2021.)

“In the early morning hours of June 1, 1921, Greenwood was looted and burned by white rioters. Governor Robertson declared martial law, and National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa. Guardsmen assisted firemen in putting out fires, took African Americans out of the hands of vigilantes and imprisoned all black Tulsans not already interned. Over 6,000 people were held at the Convention Hall and the Fairgrounds, some for as long as eight days.”

The mere fact that Black veterans returned from World War I as decorated heroes stirred up particular and virulent anger among Tulsa’s white population.

As word of a lynch mob heading to the Tulsa courthouse to murder Rowland spread, a group of 25 Black armed veterans set up to protect his life.

“There's a Black vet that jumps up onto the stage at the Dreamland Theater and says, ‘Shut this place down. We ain't gonna let this happen here. There is not going to be a lynching,’” said Ellsworth, adding it is unlikely that any of the veterans actually knew Rowland. “But they knew that a racial brother was in dire danger, and so they risked their lives and some of them gave their lives to protect him,” he explained.

As the situation began to escalate, a second group of 75 veterans headed to the courthouse. “That enraged the whites,” added Ellsworth. “And that’s when the massacre began.”

The violence that followed was so horrific and traumatizing that many Black survivors never spoke of it to their children. Many Black Tulsans wanted to spare their children the trauma of what had occurred.

(Lakshmi Gandhi. “Tulsa Race Massacre: Fact checking myths and misconceptions.” NBC News. May 30, 2021.)

“Twenty-four hours after the violence erupted, it ceased. In the wake of the violence, 35 city blocks lay in charred ruins, more than 800 people were treated for injuries and contemporary reports of deaths began at 36. Historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died.”

(“1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.” Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. 2021.)

Caleb Gayle, of The New York Times explains the city's reaction at the time to the unspeakable massacre …

“As the fires (in Tulsa) died down and the embers smoldered, Tulsa quickly got busy fixing – or silencing – its reputation, with meetings, statements and gestures that signaled to Tulsans and the world that the worst was over.

“The city’s white ruling class let few cries reach the world; what did get out was the message that Tulsa was still open for business, still eager to grow and enable people to get rich from Oklahoma’s crude oil. The silence meant that investors and would-be recruits among the East Coast elites had nothing to worry about from Black Tulsans.

“And for some, the burning of Black Wall Street was a sign that, in the words of The Tulsa Tribune’s editorial pages, 'Tulsa has resolved that the crime carnival ends here and will be buried with the ashes of the “niggertown” that is gone.'

“The city’s mayor, T.D. Evans, eagerly assented. 'Let us immediately get to the outside fact that everything is quiet in our city, that this menace has been fully conquered and that we are going on in a normal condition,' he told the Tulsa City Commission, the predecessor to the Tulsa City Council.”

(Caleb Gayle. 100 Years After the Tulsa Massacre, What Does Justice Look Like? The New York                                                                     Times. May 25, 2021.)

The Destruction

According to CNN's film – Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, debuting on CNN and streaming on HBO Max (May 31) – 191 Black-owned business stood in the Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” before the massacre, including one of the finest hotels in the country.

Tulsa, and Oklahoma more generally, was becoming a destination for Black people who wanted a better life. All over the state around the turn of the 20th century, Black townships were springing up — more than 50 of them by 1920. An article in The Muskogee Comet, a Black newspaper, from June 23, 1904, proclaimed that the Tulsa area “may verily be called the Eden of the West for the colored people.”

Not all was paradise, as Caleb Gayle explains …

“But if Eden was Black Tulsans simply going about life on their own terms, it was not free of evil. Senate Bill 1, the first law passed by the new State of Oklahoma in 1907, was a Jim Crow act that segregated Black Oklahomans from everybody else. It prohibited Black and white passengers from occupying the same railroad cars – and then was extended to ban the sharing of public and private spaces throughout the entire state.

“The deep division between Black and white Tulsa, the very reason for the high concentration of Black people in Greenwood, was in part a response to these governmental measures. But it took extralegal violence to crush the rise of enterprising Black Tulsans.”

(Caleb Gayle. 100 Years After the Tulsa Massacre, What Does Justice Look Like? The New York Times. May 25, 2021.)

Greenwood was home to a thriving community of entrepreneurs, artists and working professionals who lived alongside service and domestic workers. On Black Wall Street – derided by whites as “Little Africa” or “N——-town” – Black workers spent their earnings in a bustling, booming city within a city. Black-owned grocery stores, soda fountains, cafés, barbershops, a movie theater, music venues, cigar and billiard parlors, tailors and dry cleaners, rooming houses and rental properties: Greenwood had it.

The White mob destroyed the district in what experts call the single-most horrific incident of racial terrorism since slavery. Over 18 hours, between May 31 and June 1, whites vastly outnumbering the Black militia carried out a scorched-earth campaign against Greenwood. Some witnesses claimed they saw and heard airplanes overhead firebombing and shooting at businesses, homes and people in the Black district. Roughly 10,000 Black residents were displaced from the neighborhood where they’d lived, learned, played, worked and prospered.

(Aaron Morrison. “100 Years After the Tulsa Massacre, the Damage Remains. Associated Press. May 25, 2021.)

These days, there are fewer than a dozen Black-owned businesses in that same area, now reduced to a block-long main drag with modest establishments like a barbershop, health clinic and coffee shop.

Generations of Black wealth were erased in the massacre. Tulsa's racial segregation and the struggle of its Black community remain. Some Black-owned businesses operate today at Greenwood and Archer avenues. But it’s indeed a shadow of what has been described in books and seen in century-old photographs of Greenwood in its heyday.

No white person has ever been imprisoned for taking part in the massacre, and no Black survivor or descendant has been justly compensated for who and what they lost.

Attempts to force Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma to take some accountability for their role in the massacre suffered a major blow in 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear survivors’ and victim descendants’ appeal of a lower federal court ruling. The courts had tossed out a civil lawsuit because, justices held, the plaintiffs had waited too long after the massacre to file it.

History's broad trends can feed into a singular disaster. As Southern states ratcheted up racialized violence and racially oppressive laws to snatch back Black voting rights, a generation of Black veterans who had served America in World War I were no longer willing to accept the indignities of indiscriminate racial oppression.

Now, a few living massacre survivors —106-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, 107-year-old Viola Fletcher, and 100-year-old Hughes Van Ellis — along with other victims’ descendants are suing for reparations. The defendants include the local chamber of commerce, the city development authority and the county sheriff’s department.

“What happened in Tulsa wasn’t just unique to Tulsa,” said the Rev. Robert Turner, the pastor of Vernon AME Church. “This happened all over the country. It was just that Tulsa was the largest. It damaged our community. And we haven’t rebounded since. I think it’s past time that justice be done to atone for that.”

(Aaron Morrison. “100 Years After the Tulsa Massacre, the Damage Remains. Associated Press. May 25, 2021.)

“There was no memorial to it in town. Teachers made no mention of it, not even during a half-semester devoted to local history. The white schoolboy Scott Ellsworth of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was left to wonder what the city’s darkest secret could be.

“'As a 10- and 11-year-old, I would occasionally hear older adults, neighbors, talking about what we then called “the riot” and they would always lower their voices or change the subject,' recalls Ellsworth, now 67. 'I started to catch wind of these stories about bodies floating down the Arkansas River, machine guns on the roofs of town, but you couldn’t really find out anything about it.'”

(David Smith. “‘They didn’t talk about it’: how a historian helped Tulsa confront the horror of its past.” The Guardian. May 30, 2021.)

Author Scott Ellsworth started a search for the unmarked mass graves of victims but it stalled in 2000 due to political wrangling. The effort resumed at the request of the city mayor in 2019. With a combination of hard work and luck, 12 fragile pine coffins and remains were found in what had been the city’s most important cemetery at the time of the massacre.

Settling Ohio -- Tomahawk Claims, Treaties, and Pioneer Squatters

 

“It was only after the peace in 1795 that immigrants began settling on both sides of the Scioto River, some having titles to their lands, such as those on the West Side, and others on the East Side who simply squatted on Congress Lands.

“In 1799, these squatters petitioned Congress, asking 'that protection might be afforded to actual Settlers,' to ensure that the lands they had improved would not 'pass into the hands and become the property of such as have undergone no toil, nor run no Risk to improve it, nor probably will ever plow, sow, or contribute to improve or to support society in that part of the world.'

“Congress refused to recognize the so-called 'tomahawk rights' of the squatters and many were ultimately forced off their improvements.”

(Andrew Feight, Ph.D. “Settling the Scioto Valley.” Scioto Historical.)

Have you ever heard of “tomahawk claims” and their relevance to the settlement of what would become the State of Ohio? Who settled this state legally? Illegally? Of course, the land had been occupied by Native Americans for centuries before the white man explored and settled the region. But, what about European discovery and citizens' claims to the land?

Before and after the Revolution, four of the new states – Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York – claimed land in the Ohio Country and beyond. As settlers pushed west after America’s victory over the British new forts were constructed to protect settlers and deter potential land squatters.

White settlement of the Ohio Valley was a chaotic process. Virginia's issuance of land warrants to military veterans set off a speculative boom. Legal claims, often staked without an actual physical presence, were contested by those claiming squatters' rights.

Freelance surveyors and explorers from Virginia moved into the Kentucky country, claiming land and organizing settlements. Virginia formalized this claim in 1776 by creating the county of Kentucky. To complicate matters, some white squatters in defiance of Indian reprisals and British military policy, moved onto the north bank of the Ohio River. By the eve of the Revolution, European Americans were settled throughout the Ohio River Valley along the Indian communities, and the situation was highly unstable.

The Revolution cleared up some problems but created others. In the minds of the white American settlers, the concept of liberty that motivated independence from Great Britain also legitimized their desire for open access to western lands. Not surprisingly then, the end of the Revolution and the acquistion of the trans-Appalachian West by the new United States propelled even more waves of settlers into the Ohio River Valley.

(Amy Hill Shevitz. Jewish Communities on the Ohio River: A History. 2007.)

Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville

On August 20, 1794, near present-day Toledo, an American army commanded by General Anthony Wayne defeated an American Indian force led by Blue Jacket of the Shawnee at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. This victory, and the failure of the commandant of the British fort at modern-day Maumee, convinced American Indians living along the Maumee River to sue for peace.

In January 1795, representatives from the various tribes began meeting with Wayne at Greeneville, Ohio. The Anglo-American settlers and American Indians spent the next eight months negotiating a treaty that became known as the Treaty of Greenville.

On August 3, 1795, leaders of the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Ottawa, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Piankashaw, and Kaskaskia nations formally signed the treaty. The American Indians who became signatories agreed to relinquish all claims to land south and east of a boundary that began roughly at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. It ran southward to Fort Laurens and then turned westward to Fort Loramie and Fort Recovery. It then turned southward to the Ohio River.

The Indians, however, could still hunt on the land that they ceded. The whites agreed to relinquish their claims to land north and west of the line, although the American Indians permitted the Americans to establish several trading posts in their territory

Some American Indians refused to honor the agreement. White settlers continued to move onto the contested land. Violence continued between these two peoples. American Indian leaders like Tecumseh and the Prophet would emerge in the early 1800s to carry on the American Indian struggle to regain their lost land.

 

Tomahawk Claims

Battles and treaties aside, who was entitled to the land continued to be greatly contested as an ever-increasing number of people sought their share of Ohio lands.

“Tomahawk claims,” also called “cabin rights” – were an informal process utilized by early white settlers of the Appalachian and Old Northwest (Ohio, Michigan, etc) frontiers in the mid- to late 18th century to establish priority of ownership to newly occupied land. The claimant typically girdled several trees near the head of a spring or other prominent site, then blazed the bark of one or more of them with his initials or name.

Building a cabin and raising a crop of grain of any kind, however small, led to cabin rights, which were recognized not only by custom but also by law. The laws of the colonies and states varied in their requirements of the settler. In Virginia the occupant was entitled to 400 acres of land and to a pre-emption right to 1,000 acres more adjoining, to be secured in either case by a land-office warrant, the basis of a later patent or grant from colonial or state authorities.

Land bounties had been promised by colonial officials to all those who had served in the provincial forces during the French and Indian War (1754-63), but for those who could not qualify for such bounties, the practice grew up on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers of taking possession of unoccupied land without authority and establishing "tomahawk claims" which were widely respected and recognized among the earliest pioneers, and many of them were purchased cheaply by other settlers who did not want to enter into a controversy with the claimants who made them.

Some land-owners (e.g. in Virginia) voluntarily paid owners of tomahawk rights a trifle to get rid of them; others did not. The settlement-right to 400 acres was certified to and a certificate issued upon payment of ten shillings per one hundred acres. The cost of certificate was two shillings and six pence.

(Samuel T. Wiley. History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its Earliest Settlements to the present Time; with Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches. 1883.)

Attempts To Remove Squatters

In 1784, the Congress created by the Articles of Confederation, and in March 1785, Congress dispatched Colonel Josiah Harmar to the Ohio frontier to discourage illegal settlers or "squatters" from moving into Ohio as no land surveys had been performed yet, nor had the U.S. government started the work of selling the land.

Harmar described the evictions as a painful process as his soldiers had to force the settlers off their newly build homesteads and in his letters to Congress, Harmar asked that the land be surveyed and sold before the entire Northwest was overrun by "lawless bands whose actions are a disgrace to human nature.”

(Alan Brown. "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 93, No. 2. April 1969.)

Harmar faced great difficulty in carrying out his orders due to a lack of supplies and money to pay his men. Monetary issues plagued the government established by the Articles of Confederation throughout its brief existence.

In October 1785, Harmar ordered the construction of Fort Harmar near present-day Marietta. The stockade was located at the junction of the Ohio River and the Muskingum River. Rather than discouraging squatters, the fort encouraged illegal settlement as the migrants believed Harmar's troops would protect them from American Indian attacks.

Due to the small number of soldiers at his disposal, Harmar could not guarantee the settlers' safety. Most early settlements, like the Marietta, were built near the fort, so settlers could flee to the stockade for safety if American Indian forces attacked.

Here is an account from James Jesse Burns book Educational History of Ohio: A History of Its Progress Since the Formation of the State ...

“In the summer of 1786 numbers of men were found twenty miles north of the Ohio staking out claims and establishing tomahawk rights by burning trees. In 1787, a date of moment in American history, twelve cabins were burned and crops destroyed at Mingo bottoms. Before this, a subordinate of Harmer's brought to Fort McIntosh what now would possibly be called a 'stuffed census' of squatters along the Ohio and west of it. 'Not a bottom,' he declared, 'from Wheeling to the Scioto, but had at least one family.'

“Three hundred families were reported at the falls of the Hockhocking; as many more were on the Muskingam; fifteen settlers could be counted on the Scioto and the Miami. Ensign Armstrong reported that these were not nice, agreeable people; but what a pity it is in their rude, 'unauthorized' villages there was not some man with learning enough, and with a mind to do it, to have left for us the short and simple annuls of these poor, disagreeable, premature founders of a state.

“The doctrine of squatter sovereignty was laid very quickly before them by one of their first citizens, John Emerson, by name: and the rare document is preserved in the Journals of Congress.”

The document by Emerson states on March 12, 1785, notice was given of an election for choosing members of a conventions at the mouths of the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum rivers for framing of a constitution to govern the inhabitants. However, the convention was never held.

(James Jesse Burns. Educational History of Ohio: A History of Its Progress Since the Formation of the State. 2017.)

Owning Ohio Land

Brave pioneers or lowly squatters? Which were these earliest settlers? Should the government have granted those adventurers a right to have title to the land they improved or should that title be provided by the government by acquisition in some other means? For those naïve enough to believe putting down roots in those primitive days was as easy as staying on the land and surviving in the frontier of Ohio, a history lesson is in order.

Since the land was uninhabited, squatters often felt that anyone had a right to it. They believed that the land should go to the first person to live on it. Many of them thought this was true even if someone else already owned the land but did not live upon it. These squatters did not purchase the land from the rightful owners who were American Indians or the English government.

In 1783, the Articles of Confederation government prohibited settlement of the land in the Ohio Country without the approval of the states that claimed ownership. The squatters ignored the Congress.

The Ordinance of 1784, the Land Ordinance of 1785, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 resulted in most of this land becoming the property of the federal government. The government hoped to sell this land to pay its numerous debts. However, a large number of squatters already occupied the land. Thus, Harmar and others faced a huge problem.

Scioto County Settlement

In the first volume of William's American Pioneer, page 56, the late George Corwin of Portsmouth (1842) gave his recollections of the first attempt to settle there. It was probably not on the present site of the town but on the west side of the old mouth of the River Scioto near where the village of Alexandria is located.

The Western Reserve Historical Society reports … 

“Until the Ohio canal was constructed and an artificial cut made at Portsmouth no water discharged there from the Scioto at its ordinary stage. The site of Alexandria was very attractive, but the ground between it and Portsmouth is most of it subject to inundation. The late Robert B. McAfee of Kentucky stated to F. C. Cleveland of Alexandria , who was an engineer on the Ohio canal forty years since that there were whites on the Kentucky side of the Ohio opposite Scioto in 1773. Mr. Cleveland said there was a space of about forty acres at Alexandria which had been chopped, and when the early settlers came this space was coveted with a second growth of trees, standing among the stumps.

“This was probably the work of the parties referred to by Mr. Corwin. The four families who attempted to settle at the mouth of the Sciota in 1785, came from Redstone, Pa. 'They commenced clearing the ground to plant seeds for a crop to support their families, hoping that the red men of the forest would suffer them to remain and improve the soil.'

“The four heads of the families, – only one of whose names has been preserved went up the Scioto on a tour of exploration as far as Pee Pee Creek and encamped. Peter Patrick, one of the party, cut his initials upon a beech tree. Here they were surprised by Indians and two of them killed. Two of them escaped across the country to the mouth of the Little Scioto, just in time to meet a boat descending the Ohio for Post Vincent. This boat took the survivors from their intended home to Maysville, where the settlement was large enough to protect itself against their red enemies.

“From a letter dated Fort Mclntosh, June 1st, 1785, written by General Josiah Harmar to General Knox, Secretary at War, we take it there must have been another settlement on the Scioto, other than that referred to by Mr. Corwin. General Harmar says: 'The Shawanese make great professions of peace. The Cherokees are hostile, and have killed and scalped seven people near the mouth of the Scioto, about three hundred and seventy miles from hence.'

“In a letter to Col. Francis Johnston of Philadelphia, dated Fort Mclntosh, June 21,1785, General Harmar refers to the same event in these words : 'The nations down the river have killed and scalped several adventurers who have settled on their lands.'"

( Peggy Thompson. “Papers Relating To the First White Settlers In Oho.” Historical and Archaeological Tracts, Number Six. Western Reserve Historical Society. Cleveland, Ohio. July 1871.)

“The way, and the only way, to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each.”

– Tecumseh

The People's Defender (Adams County) -- What Wonderful Records Our Local Newspapers Used To Be

 

Local newspapers used to be so damned good – factual, informative, detailed, and, above all, interesting. Let me say that again … detailed and very interesting. I love to peruse old papers. They contain great stories that always entertain me. Often its the small, rather quirky news of yesteryear that catches my eye. The old days of detailed community reporting are gone, but it makes me wonder how the demise of the newspaper – local publications that were up-close and very personal – ever occurred.

Allow me to share some journalism from bygone days – stories from well over 100 years ago. Here is some of the news that hit the streets on just one day, January 20, 1910. All of these stories have been taken from the archives of The People's Defender (West Union: Adams County, Ohio). The paper back then was packed with wonderful information (7-8 pages an edition). It was stylish, and very well written. I hope you enjoy.

The People's Defender, January 20, 1910

Let's start with a doozy – a local scandal.

Headline: “Charlie and His Affinity Arrested in Pittsburg”

C.S. Pittinger, well-known Decatur citizen, left his wife and eloped with Miss Nita Williams, a pretty telephone operator at the Decatur exchange, were arrested at Pittsburg Friday and held for the Brown County authorities.

Mrs. Pittinger, who had asked for the police of various counties to look out for the couple, swore out a warrant for her husband on a charge of abandoning children but afterwards withdrew it and the couple were discharged.

This is not the first time the couple eloped. On former occasions when her husband returned, she readily forgave him. After leaving Decatur, Pittinger and Miss Williams went to Cincinnati, where they stopped at a hotel on Twelfth Street. The couple were recognized but could not be taken into custody. Pittinger is about 50 years old and Williams is about 25 years old.

In the divorce proceedings of the Pittingers in Georgetown a few days ago, Mrs. Pittinger withdrew her petition for divorce and the couple signed separation papers.

By the agreement, Mrs. Pittinger was given all the real estate, consisting of a large dwelling and business house and barn in Decatur, all personal property, notes, accounts, moneys, and credits, save about $800 deposited in the Citizens Bank, Ripley. Mrs. Pittinger has care and custody of minor children and Mr. Pittinger is enjoined from interfering with Mrs. Pittinger in the control of them. The court found Mrs. Pittinger to be the sole owner of 83 acres of land in Brown and Adams counties deeded to her by the defendant February 27, 1909.

Animals made the news.

John Slack lost one of his family horses by death a few days ago. A young horse of Mike Shope got loose and kicked Mr. Slack's horse injuring the animal to such an extent that it died a few hours later.

Headline: “In Wildest Portsmouth”

A catamount (medium-sized or large wild cat – panther or lynx?) rendered desperate by hunger, raided the hog pen at the Scioto County infirmary early Monday partially chewing up a fat porker. John Hall was awakened by the squeals of the hogs and got to the scene in time to save the rest of the porkers.

Scioto County Infirmary

The weather was extremely bad.

W.B. Evans, postmaster at Pink P.O, Adams County, was in town Tuesday and said that they had received no mail in the Pink neighborhood for a week, on account of the heavy snow, says the Portsmouth Times. At the top of Rome Hill, where the winds do rage all year around, the snow has drifted to a depth of 12 feet, according to Mr. Evans and the road is impassable.

(In Peebles) On account of the snow, T.A. O'Leary, our mailman, failed to make his rounds the latter part of the week.

Looking for work?

Wanted: Three or four men to make railroad ties on the farm of Wm. C. Gaffin near North Liberty. Will give 10 cents straight for streetcar and Panhandle ties. Small timber, all oak; a vacant house close to the woods to shanty in. There will be from 3,000 to 4,000 ties to be made. Call on address Wm. C. Gaffin, Bentonville, Ohio.

Spirits were making the news that day. And so was a mystery in West Union.

Now that President Taft has decided that whisky (sic) is whisky, there are people who would like for him to determine what is in the bottles that are shipped into West Union from the Cincinnati mail order booze merchants.

Note: On December 27, 1909 President William Howard Taft answered a question: “What is Whiskey?” The question of “What is Whiskey?” came about because of the Pure Food and Drug Act that went into effect on June 30, 1906. In order to define what would be “Pure” whiskey, the government had first to decide what was whiskey itself.

Was whiskey a distilled spirit from grain that was aged in oak barrels with only pure water used to adjust the proof, or was it also the spirit that was modified with neutral spirits, flavoring and coloring agents?

The Chief Chemist for the Department of Agriculture under Theodore Roosevelt, Harvey Whiley, decided that it was only the former. This upset the portion of the whiskey industry who were rectifiers – people who bought bulk whiskey and blended it with neutral spirits and other components to make a flavor profile that they could sell to consumers. This also upset the foreign whiskey importers because this decision meant that their Scotch, Irish and Canadian products could not be called whiskey but instead were to be called “imitation whiskey”. The complaints were filed in court and the legal process began.

Taft spent six months listening to both sides of the issue. People from both camps testified either in person or by written statement–E. H. Taylor, Jr., John G. Carlisle, Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, and George Garvin Brown among others.

Taft took the task seriously and looked at the question from every angle. (Taft, you may know, is the only person to serve as both President and, later on, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The man loved a good legal question, and he dove deep into this one.)

Finally on December 27, 1909 he issued his decision on the matter. Nobody liked it, but everyone accepted the decision. The straight whiskey people thought it did not go far enough and the rectifiers thought it went too far. The one big change that Taft made in his decision was that Neutral Spirits used in “Blended Whiskey” had to be made from grain and not molasses. Molasses was the basic ingredient for making rum, not whiskey. The decision defines what could be called “straight whiskey,” what was “blended whiskey” and finally what was “imitation whiskey.”

One hundred years later (and change) when a person reads the regulations for a straight bourbon or rye, they are reading the Taft Decision.

(Bob Eidson. “The Taft Decision.” The Bourbon Review. February 17, 2014.)

And, speaking of the President …

A recent report from the African jungles described the mightiest hunter since Nimrod as being delighted over having shot a bull elephant “with tusks weighing 110 pounds.” That is a great deal better than his “heir apparent.” is doing to the G.O.P. Elephant here in Ohio and in the nation, for Mr. Taft is merely worrying the poor old beast to death. It's just awful how dreadful it is. Either the Red Cross or the humane society ought to interfere.

Was this perhaps the beginning of controversy about Confederate monuments?

The most talked of statue in the country right now is that of General Robert E. Lee, the placing of which in statuary hall, brought protests from some of the GAR posts because of the Confederate uniform. Each state in the union is allowed two stature of distinguished sons in statuary hall. Virginia donated memorials to Washington and Lee. The legislature of Virginia stipulated that if the statue of Lee was not accepted, that of the first president should be withdrawn.

Note: In December 2020, the Lee statue was removed from the National Statuary Hall's collection. It's expected to be replaced by a statue honoring civil rights activist Barbara Johns.)

Other noteworthy tidbits from the paper …

Headline: “Old Sprigg: Rumors of a Lead Mine and an Old Indian's Secret in Circulation”

Many of our older people believe there is a rich lead mine in this township. An aged citizen of West Union raised in this township, now dead, once informed the writer that the secret was confined to him by an old Indian hunter, who swore him to the utmost secrecy under pain of death. From what we can gather from the old gentleman's story, the mine is located somewhere between Owl Hollow and the farm of S.R. Forman on Ginger Ridge. It might pay some of the younger generation to investigate.

“I see,” remarked Uncle Jerry of Peebles, “the life insurance companies have laid down a set of rules for making people live 15 years longer. I ain't going to pay any attention to 'em. The life insurance companies have got a good thing the way it is.”

A delightful fragrance that is not oppressive can be given a sick room by putting a little cologne in a saucer and setting fire to it.

The Scioto Salt Springs -- Giving Life to the Lower Scioto Valley

 

Local history buffs will appreciate this poetic description of the Lower Scioto Valley. It gracefully recalls the splendid natural beauty of our home …

“The present boundary of the Lower Scioto Valley was first made the home of the palefaces in 1795. That year civilization first secured it for its home. It was then a part of the territory of the Northwest, its eastern portion, east of the Scioto River, however, being included within the bounds of the new-made county of Washington. At that time Ohio could boast of but three counties within her limits – Washington, Hamilton and Wayne, the latter extending so far as to include all of the State of Michigan, besides other territory, and her county seat was Detroit.

“This country was the home of the red men, a home from which they were loth to part. God had given them this beautiful valley of the Scioto for their home. It was a migratory field for the restless buffalo; the elk and the bear roamed its wooded hills; the deer and wild turkey made it their home; the valleys and the upland were filled with small game; fish sported in the cool and pellucid (translucently clear) waters of its rivers and creeks, and in shadowy nooks, near bubbling springs and crystal fountains, the aborigines built their wigwams. It was a paradise for the hunter, and the Indians roamed lord of all.

“In 1795 the valley of the Scioto, with its wealth of forest and stream, with its high and rolling upland, bold bluffs and nestling valleys, became the property of the palefaces, and that which stood for centuries in its wild and rugged grandeur was, ere long, to assume a prominent place in the future of our State.

“The pioneers of Ohio, especially those who settled in the valley of the Ohio and its tributary streams, like the Scioto, Hocking and Muskingum, came generally from the older States which were upon the border, like Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, but not a few found their way from the Atlantic States, and from those composing New England.”

(History of Lower Scioto Valley: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. 1884. Reprinted 2007)

In this same volume, editors also recalled a lack of a natural crystalline compound vital to human existence. In the fertile Lower Scioto Valley, salt was very scarce.

“One of the greatest troubles that the pioneers had to contend with was the extreme scarcity of salt, and the high price of that essential article often caused severe privation. At the time of the first settlement of the Scioto Valley, it was sold for $6 to $8 a bushel, and had to be packed on horseback a great distance. As early as 1788, when the first colony arrived at Marietta, it had been rumored that salt springs existed on a stream, since called Salt Creek, which flows into the Muskingum River, near Duncan’s Falls, Muskingum County, and even during the Indian war a party was sent up the river from Marietta to search for them. The exploration was made at great risk, but the springs were not found. White men, held as prisoners by the Indians, had seen them make salt at these springs, and had noted their locality.

“An accurate description of the country having been gained from these persons, another exploring party of hunters and experienced woodsmen were sent out, a year or two later, to find the springs. This time they were successful, and brought back with them a small supply of the precious article.

“In 1790 a joint stock company was formed of fifty shareholders, at $1.50 each, making a capital of $75, with the object of buying castings, erecting a furnace, and manufacturing salt. Twenty-four kettles were bought at Pittsburg, and transported by water to Duncan’s Falls, and thence, on pack-horses, to the salt springs, seven miles further. A well was dug, near the edge of the stream, about fifteen feet deep, to the bed rock, through the crevices of which the salt water oozed and rose, though not very abundantly. The trunk of a hollow sycamore tree was fixed in the well to exclude the fresh water. A furnace was built, of two ranges with twelve kettles each. The water was raised from the well by a sweep and pole.

“The company was divided into ten sections of five men each, who worked in turns for two weeks at a time, and the works were thus kept in operation day and night, the men standing regular watches. They were thus able to make about 100 pounds of salt in twenty-four hours, using about 1,600 gallons of water. This was the first attempt to manufacture salt in Ohio, and the product was a very inferior and costly article. For several years all, of the salt used by the pioneers of the valley was brought from these works, and from the Scioto salt licks, in Jackson County, on pack-horses, of which an extended notice will be found in the Jackson County department of this work.”

( History of Lower Scioto Valley: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. 1884. Reprinted 2007)

Of course, salt is necessary for heart function, joint function, metabolism, and kidney function; without the correct balance of salt and minerals we would literally die. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the minimum physiological requirement for sodium is less than 500 mg a day – or less than the amount in one quarter of one teaspoon of table salt.

Thus, salt always has been extremely valuable. For example, in ancient Europe, salt and gold were traded evenly, pound for pound, and the English word “salary” refers to people being paid in salt. Humans started realizing the importance of salt in their diet in ancient times after they started cultivating their own farms and began relying less on wild game (which was the primary source of salt).

And, remember, in those days that Ohio was settled, many of foods were carried with people – not just pemmican and jerky, but also other snacks prepared for easy travel. This is one of many reasons that salt became one of the most sought-after commodities during those times – it was a preservative. Not iodized sodium chloride like the table salt of today, but real, whole salt from the oceans and salt flats.

Salt was also necessary to tan hides and to stabilize dyes. Without the ability to work hides, winters would have been unbearably cold and portable shelter would have taken a lot more effort to construct.

Salt was one of the most needed and scarcest commodities on the frontier. At the time of its exploration, Scioto Saline or Scioto Salt Licks along Salt Lick Creek in Jackson County was the most important mineral industry in Ohio. Scioto Salt Licks figured prominently in the development of Ohio.

So it was that the City of Jackson was "The Center of Early Salt Boiling.” Native Americans obtained salt here at the licks for at least 8,000 years and did so until 1795 when the Treaty of Greenville separated the Native American and European populations. Early pioneer settlers utilized the licks in the second half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, constructing salt furnaces that extended for four miles up and down Salt Lick Creek.

Note: Trade in salt may go back to the Hopewell era (roughly between 100 BCE and 400 CE). The McKittrick Earthworks were built by the Scioto Hopewell at this time, very close (less than half a mile) to spring of Salt Creek in Ohio, which were used by Native peoples to acquire salt into the historic period. (The Ohio Hopewell group were wealthy and able to buy or trade with other groups for these minerals. The currency used to acquire these exotic minerals is left to conjecture, but it might be as simple as salt.) We don't know if the Hopewell used salt for their food, though it is likely; what we do know is that they used it in their art, adding a patina to their copper.

(Daniel Troy Case and Christopher Carr. The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding. 2008.)

Original map of the center of the Scioto Salt Reserve as mapped by Eli Langham, 1798, by order of Congress, 1796.

One of the "Salt Springs" is shown to be in Section 19 on the north side of the meander. The other "Salt Springs" shown on the 1798 plat map made by Elias Langham was in the north end of the east half of Section 29 and specifically spotted along the north bank of Salt Lick Creek and east of the mouth of Sugar run.

There are a surprising number of references to the "Scioto Salt Springs" and "Scioto Salt Works" as they were known to the Native Americans, traders, and settlers until their decline about 1816. At that time “Salt Lick Town” became Jackson, Ohio.

(Emmett A. Conway, Sr. “The Scioto Salt Springs and the Scioto Salt Works. oldeforester.com. 1977.)

Salina Basin

Salt springs were also a natural gathering place for grazing animals. The Scioto Licks at Jackson exhibited all the characteristics of this activity, having been available for countless centuries – even preceding the Glacial Period when extinct animals inhabited the region.

The earliest method of obtaining salt used by Native Americans and early settlers was to dig shallow pits into the Sharon sandstone during low water when the rock was exposed in the stream bed. These pits would slowly fill with weak brine which was dipped out and boiled over fire. Pioneer salt boilers soon found out that brine would accumulate in pits up to thirty feet deep. These pits, or wells, were cased at the surface with a hollow black gum log in order to prevent an inflow of surface water.

Christopher Gist, a professional surveyor and explorer for The Ohio Company of Virginia (not the later Ohio Company from New England who settled Marietta), provides the first English description of the Scioto Salt Springs at Jackson when nine days later he had left the Pickaway Plains Indian town of Maguck for Lower Shawnee Town at the mouth of the Scioto River.

Gist's party of traders and Indian guides arrived at the Scioto opposite Higby after passing through "fine level Land to a small Town called Harrickintoms.” Gist recorded “The Creek being very high and full of Ice, We could not ford it, and were obliged to go down it on the SE side SE 4M to the Salt Lick Creek – about 1M up this Creek on the S Side is a very large Salt Lick, the Streams which run into this Lick are very salt & tho clear leave a blueish Sediment: The Indians and Traders make salt for their Horses of this Water, by boiling it; it has at first a blueish Colour, and somewhat bitter Taste, but upon being dissolved in fair Water and boiled a second Time, it becomes tolerable pure Salt."

The Moravian hero-missionary, the Reverend David Zeisberger, labored for fifty active years among the Delaware Indians. He described the characteristics and habits of the Native Americans during the Indian-White Contact Period in Ohio and the physical characteristics of Ohio geography. In this treasure-trove is his description of salt springs and the use made of them by Native Americans, Zeisberger relates the following:

"Salt springs are to be found both along the Muskingum and along the Ohio. Of this salt the Indians make little use; they prefer to buy it from the whites, even though they have to pay a high price for it owing to the fact that it has to be brought a considerable distance from the seaports. Moreover, they use very little salt and seem not to require it.  They often eat their food unsalted, even though they may have the salt, until they feel a longing for it.”

(History of the Northern American Indians published in the 1910 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Vol. XIX, pages 1-189.)

The Scioto Salt Springs were the most important source of salt in Ohio until approximately 1816 when it was found that you could drill a hundred feet or more and find richer brines than those which exuded from the surface of the earth. The race from then on is amply documented in the reports of the Ohio Geological Survey.

The first salt well west of the eastern mountains was on the Great Kanawha, where in 1807, a brine was found which only required 200 gallons per bushel of 50 pounds of salt. The first well in Ohio to be successfully drilled was at Gallipolis in 1809 where at 100 feet, they reached water of 400 gallons per bushel. Drilled wells at Jackson did not prove that successful, which led to the rapid decline of that source, as greatly increased demands for salt had to be met elsewhere.

(Emmett A. Conway, Sr. “The Scioto Salt Springs and the Scioto Salt Works. oldeforester.com. 1977.)

“A Roman religious ritual in which grains of salt were placed on an eight-day-old babe’s lips, prefigures the Roman Catholic baptismal ceremony in which a morsel of salt is placed in the mouth of the child to ensure its allegorical purification. In the Christian catechism, salt is still a metaphor for the grace and wisdom of Christ. When Matthew says, 'Ye are the salt of the earth,' he is addressing the blessed, the worthy sheep in the flock, not the erring goats.”

(Staff. “A Brief History of Salt. Time. March 15. 1982.)

Lucasville Grand Army of the Republic, Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, And a Dastardly Confederate Flag

 

“His (E.E. Ellsworth's) person was strikingly prepossessing. His form, though slight – exactly Napoleonic size – was very compact and commanding; the head statuesquely poised, and crowned with a luxuriance of curling black hair; a hazel eye, bright, though serene, the eye of a gentleman as well as a soldier; a nose such as you see on Roman medals; a light moustache just shading the lips, that were continually curving into the sunniest smiles.  His voice, deep and musical, instantly attracted attention; and his address, though not without soldierly brusqueness, was sincere and courteous.”

– John Hay, President Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary

I cringe at the sight of a Confederate flag – In Ohio? In 2021? I understand the history of the banner … the entire argument that the battle flag was never the “official symbol” and the need to protect heritage and all the rest. But, I know this enduring symbol stands for defiance and rebellion at the least, and, at the most, it is still representative of an ideal of whiteness and the social and political exclusion of non-white people – in a word, it screams “Racism!”

I see those who fly the flag now as folks who ignorantly see something redemptive in a very offensive piece of cloth. (And I say “ignorant” in the dictionary denotation of “lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about a particular thing.”)

Just a little background on the blog entry today …

Confederate symbols have not always been a part of American or Southern life. They largely disappeared after the Civil War. In fact, for several decades after the Civil War, the Confederate battle emblem was rarely displayed – typically only during tributes to actual Confederate veterans. It was not part of state flags or other official symbols or displays. The Confederate battle flag was so uncommon that in 1930, Sen. Coleman Livingston Blease had to have one specially made by the Daughters of South Carolina for him to display in his office.

It wasn’t until 1948 that the Confederate flag re-emerged as a potent political symbol. The reason was the Dixiecrat revolt – when Strom Thurmond led a walkout of white Southerners from the Democratic National Convention to protest President Harry S. Truman’s push for civil rights.

(Logan Strother, Thomas Ogorzalek, and Spencer Piston. “The Confederate flag largely disappeared after the Civil War. The fight against civil rights brought it back.” The Washington Post. June 12, 2017.)

Today's entry relates to the Confederate flag, my hometown of Lucasville, and to Ellsworth Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 382. The writing is an attempt to illuminate an important piece of history as it relates to the symbolic nature of the rebel banner and what it represented to Union troops during the before, during, and after the Civil War. So many Union veterans rest in our local cemeteries. I firmly believe we should continue to respect their memory and honor the rightful heritage of the United States of America. To me, that means understanding the real reason for the Civil War: it was fought over the moral issue of slavery, not for states’ rights or southern “honor.” And, any preservation of the Confederate flag should entail the weight of the banner.

So, please let me share this story. It is entirely true. Those who fought to preserve the union of the United States of America knew the facts, and they still call out from beyond the grave to those who will listen.

The Grand Army of the Republic

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a patriotic organization of the U.S. Civil War veterans who served the Federal Forces. One of its purposes was being the “defense of the late soldiery of the United States – morally, socially, and politically.” But into the earliest hour of well-worn peace after the war, there came the presence of disabled veterans, suffering families, and distressed homes. The aid to these came cheerfully the GAR.

Founded in Springfield, Illinois in early 1866, it reached its peak in membership (more than 400,000) in 1890. For a time, the GAR was a powerful political influence.

Membership declined as veterans died, but as late as 1923, 65,382 members remained. In 1949, six of the surviving veterans met at Indianapolis for the 83rd and last national encampment. In 1956, the GAR was dissolved; its records went to the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. and its badges, flags, and official seal to the Smithsonian Institute.

The GAR was very strong in Ohio. The state encampments attracted thousands of veterans and their supporters. Numerous GAR retirement homes existed in the state. One GAR home became the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home in 1870. The GAR established the home in 1869, and the state government assumed control of it in 1870 to provide Ohio veterans and their children with assistance.

The Ellsworth Post No. 382, Lucasville, Ohio, was chartered September 29, 1883. (Ohio Dept GAR Archives Ohio Historical Society)

And, here's where the story of Lucasville with its Ohio GAR gets interesting. It's all about Post 382's namesake, Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth (1837-1861). The name of No. 382 represents so much. And, the man and one particular Confederate flag remain firmly related in American history.

Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth

Ephraim Ellsworth was born in a little town of Malta, New York, on April 11, 1837. He grew up in Mechanicville, New York, and later moved to New York City, In 1854, Ellsworth moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he worked for a patent agency. And, then, in 1859, he became engaged to Carrie Spafford, the daughter of a local industrialist and city leader. When Carrie's father demanded that he find more suitable employment, he moved to Chicago to study law and work as a law clerk.

Ellsworth's young dream was to thoroughly reorganize the United States militia. He also dreamed of attending West Point, but a lack of money and proper education deemed that unfeasible.

In 1857, Ellsworth became drillmaster of the "Rockford Greys", the local militia company. He studied military science in his spare time. After some success with the Greys, he helped train militia units in Milwaukee and Madison. When he moved to Chicago, he became Colonel of Chicago's National Guard Cadets, with which he traveled at times, giving exhibitions and taking prizes.

Ellsworth had studied the Zouave soldiers, French colonial troops in Algeria, and was impressed by their reported fighting quality. He outfitted his men in Zouave-style uniforms, and modeled their drill and training on the Zouaves. Soon, Ellsworth's unit became a nationally famous drill team.

When Abraham Lincoln made the journey to Washington for his first inauguration, Ellsworth was in his escort. Ellsworth had become friends with Abraham Lincoln back in Illinois – in 1860, Ellsworth had taken a job in Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield law office. Now, he became an Army Second Lieutenant in Lincoln's administration.

Following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate Army troops in mid-April 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for 75,000 volunteers to defend the nation's capital, Ellsworth raised the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (the "Fire Zouaves" 1,100 strong) from New York City's volunteer firefighting companies, and was then commissioned as the regiment's commanding officer.

On May 23, 1861, the regiment reported to Washington. Just hours after Virginia announced its secession, the unit joined a raiding party sent to retake the city of Alexandria for the Union.

On May 24, the day after Virginia voters ratified the state convention’s decision to secede from the Union, Ellsworth and his troops entered Alexandria, Virginia, to assist in the occupation of the city. As it happened, an 8- by 14-foot Confederate flag – large enough to be seen by spyglass from the White House – had been visible in Alexandria for weeks, flown from the roof of an inn, the Marshall House. For weeks this flag had been visible, including from Lincoln's second-floor White House office.

The regiment, organized only six weeks earlier, encountered no resistance as it moved through the city. James Barber, National Portrait Gallery historian notes, however, that “the Zouaves were an unruly bunch, spoiling for a fight, and when they got into Alexandria they may have felt they were already in the thick of it. So Ellsworth may have wanted to get that flag down quickly to prevent trouble.”

At the Marshall House, Barber adds, “Colonel Ellsworth just happened to meet the one person he didn’t want to meet” – innkeeper James W. Jackson, a zealous defender of slavery (and, says Barber, a notorious slave abuser) with a penchant for violence.

Ellsworth approached the inn with only four troopers. As Ellsworth spied the Confederate flag “flaunting from the roof” of the Marshall House Inn “in the very eyes of the government at Washington,” he, “with his own hands,” climbed up to take it down. As he descended the stairs from the cupola, banner in tow, Ellsworth was fatally shot by innkeeper Jackson – “the slug from the gun of the Virginia assassin driving into the loyal heart as it was stilled in death.”

As Ellsworth lay dying, one of his men found a gold medal on his chest with the inscription, “Non Sol Nobis, Sed Pro Patrio” (Not for Ourselves, but for Our Country). Jackson was shot and killed by Cpl. Francis Brownell of Ellsworth's regiment as Ellsworth fell.

In this way, the country’s premiere Zouave became the first conspicuous casualty of the Civil War, and, at the age of 24, Ellsworth became the first Union officer killed in the war. He also became a hero and martyr for the Union. When President Abraham Lincoln learned that Union Army Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth had been killed, the President exclaimed, "My boy! My boy! Was it necessary this sacrifice should be made?"

Lincoln's letter to parents Ephraim D. and Phoebe Ellsworth, May 25, 1861 …

“To the Father and Mother of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth:

“My dear Sir and Madam, In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here, is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to one's country, and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall. In size, in years, and in youthful appearance, a boy only, his power to command men, was surpassingly great. This power, combined with a fine intellect, an indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent, in that department, I ever knew. And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of the intervening period, it was as intimate as the disparity of our ages, and my engrossing engagements, would permit. To me, he appeared to have no indulgences or pastimes; and I never heard him utter a profane, or intemperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for so laudably, and, in the sad end, so gallantly gave his life, he meant for them, no less than for himself.

“In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address you this tribute to the memory of my young friend, and your brave and early fallen child.

“May God give you that consolation which is beyond all earthly power. Sincerely your friend in a common affliction.

“ – A. Lincoln”

A reporter from the New York Tribune happened to be on the scene; news of the shootings traveled fast. Because Ellsworth had been Lincoln’s friend, his body was taken to the White House, where it lay in state, and then to New York City, where thousands lined up to view the cortege bearing Ellsworth’s coffin. Along the route, a group of mourners displayed a banner that declared: “Ellsworth, ‘His blood cries for vengeance.’”

“Remember Ellsworth!” became a Union rallying cry, and Prominent individuals in New York called for the creation of a new regiment from the men of the entire state to avenge the young officer’s death. The soldiers were to come from every town and ward in the state, and be unmarried, no shorter than 5’8’’ and no older than thirty. The result was the 44th New York Infantry Regiment, which would gain the nickname of “Ellsworth’s Avengers.”

The regiment was organized in August 1861 and joined the Army of the Potomac in late October 1861 in Virginia. The regiment would gain glory for its gallantry at Gettysburg. It would also participate in the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. It was mustered out of service on 11 October 1864. Throughout its service to the Union Army, its battle cry remained: “Remember Ellsworth!”

According to Barber, “Throughout the conflict, Ellsworth's name, face and valor would be recalled on stationery, in sheet music and in memorial lithographs.” One side’s villain is another side’s patriot, of course, so Jackson was similarly celebrated in the South and in an 1862 book, Life of James W. Jackson, The Alexandria Hero.

(Owen Edwards. “The Death of Colonel Ellsworth.” Smithsonian Magazine. April 2011.)

Conclusions

Ellsworth’s death resonated so greatly throughout the North that it is somewhat shocking at how little-known his name is today. Perhaps history lessons like this would dampen the modern fascination with the Confederate flag and the Lost Cause – an American pseudo-historical, negationist ideology that advocates the belief that the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was heroic, just, and not centered on slavery.

Instead, we surely should remember and revere those heroic soldiers like Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, who preserved the Union we love today. A fictional, portrayal of the Confederacy continues to romanticize rebels and deny the central role of slavery and white supremacy in the conflict.

It is my wish that this story about that hideous Confederate flag and all of its evil symbolism reaches out to all, but especially to those who find its display appealing today. The heroic people who have defended our own United States “Old Glory” realize the freedom and justice woven into that fabric of red, white, and blue. So many in the Civil War died to remove the Confederate flag from our national conscience. Ellsworth was only the first … an estimated 364,510 followed.

“The beginnings of great periods have often been marked and made memorable by striking events. Out of the cloud that hangs around the vague inceptions of revolutions, a startling incident will sometimes flash like lightning, to show that the warring elements have begun their work …

“No one ever possessed greater power of enforcing the respect and fastening the affections of men. Strangers soon recognized and acknowledged this power; while to his friends he (Ellsworth) always seemed like a Paladin or Cavalier of the dead days of romance and beauty.”

– John Hay, President Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary (Published in July 1861, this excerpt from an article describes the rapid dissolution of the Union and the impending Civil War)

Lucasville GAR No. 382 Information