OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 504 Today's Topics: #1 HAMILTON COUNTY PART 39 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 STATUS OF MY POSTINGS [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:51:28, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199907151951.PAA07194@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY PART 39 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe LL.D., 1898 HAMILTON COUNTY PART 39 Gen. ORMSBY McKNIGHT MITCHELL was born of Virginia stock, in Union county, Kentucky. When a four-year old boy he was taken to Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, by his parents. He was naturally of a studious disposition, and before he was nine years of age he was reading Virgil. At twelve years of age, the family being poor in circumstances, he was placed out to service as a boy in a store, and working mornings and evenings in the family of his employer. At a little less than fifteen years of age he received a cadet-warrant, and, with knapsack on his back, footed it a large part of the way from Lebanon, Ohio, to West Point, and arrived there in June, 1825, the youngest of his class, and with only twenty-five cents in his pocket. He resigned from the army after four years of service, and began the practice of the law in Cincinnati, in partnership with E.D. Mansfield, who wrote of him in his "Memoirs:" "Mitchell was noted at West Point for his quickness and ingenuity. My father, who was professor philosophy there, used to say: 'Little Mitchel is very ingenious.' He was more than that, for he was what you seldom see, a man of real genius. A great many people are spoken of as men of genius, but I never saw more than half a dozen in my life, and Ormsby Mitchel was one of them...He was my partner in a profession for which I think neither of us was well adapted; we were really literary men. The consequence was, Mitchel resorted to teaching classes, and I became a public writer. Both the young men joined Dr. Beecher's church, where Mitchel became noted for his fervid zeal at prayer meetings. In 1834 Mitchel was appointed professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy in the "College of Cincinnati," an office he filled admirably. When the project was entertained for building, what is now known as the Little Miami Railroad, he warmly encouraged it, examined the route, and with Mr. Geo. Neff prevailed upon the city to loan $200,000. Prof. Mitchel became its engineer. Three or four years of railroad engineering and attention to his college duties kept him busy. An enthusiast in astronomy he felt the lack of the means for instructive observation for himself and students, and conceived the project of raising the funds for a complete observatory. Neither Boston nor New York had an observatory. Was it likely that the people of a raw Western town would build one? Yes, for Mitchel could persuade them to do that great thing. And he saw the way. The only man in the world that could see it. He began by stirring up an interest in astronomy by delivering a series of popular lectures in the College Hall. The first night he had but sixteen to hear him. The next night they brought more, and so it kept on increasing until the whole city had been so aroused by his fervid eloquence that his closing lecture had to be repeated in a city church to an audience of over 2,000. It was a theme in which not one in a hundred had before felt the slightest interest. He spoke without notes. His religious instincts were very strong; he was all alive with feeling; he possessed great fluency and command of language, and he electrified his audience with this most sublime, elevating topic as probably no man living or dead had ever done before. At the close he stated his plan for building an observatory. It was by the organization of a joint stock company of 300 shares, the shares to be $25 each, in all amounting to $7,500 the shareholders to have certain privileges of admission to look upon the starry world. A few then subscribed, and he then called in person and besieged citizen after citizen until the 300 shares were taken. Then the professor visited Europe, to secure the instruments; his ambition swelling with his successes, he now resolved to make it the best observatory in the country. Two resolutions he formed, he said, contributed to his success. "First, to work faithfully for five years, during all his time from regular duties, and second, never to become angry under any provocation while engaged in this enterprise." These show the quality of "little Mitchel," who in person was only about five and one half feet in stature, erect, slender, wiry, but symmetrical, of a dark complexion, with a keen visage and regular features. He looked the embodiment of will power and nervous energy, and ordinarily was silent and thoughtful. He could find neither in London nor Paris such an object glass as he wanted; but at Munich was one unfinished that would take two years to complete, the price to be $10,000. He had but $7,500 to pay for building an apparatus. The people of Cincinnati must come further to his aid; and after an absence of only 100 days he was among them. The shareholders endorsed his action, he appealing to their local pride by his statement that, if they did so, their telescope would be excelled by only one other in the world. He remitted $3,000 to Munich to secure the contract. Mitchell then worked vigorously to secure the money to erect the building, to be put on a four acre lot given by Mr. Nicholas Longworth. Workmen were set to work digging for foundations, and preparing the material. On the 9th day of November, 1843, occurred the memorable event of laying the corner-stone, by the venerable John Quincy Adams, who was the orator of the occasion. The observatory seemed likely for want of funds to stop with its corner-stone, they being exhausted by the payment for the telescope. Next spring work was resumed with three workmen. But Mitchel kept up his courage. It is the beginning that costs. Will power, faith moves mountains. He worked with his own hands; induced some of the laborers to take part pay in shares. By March, 1845 the great telescope was mounted, and a sidereal clock and a transit instrument were given by Prof. Bache, of the coast survey. He had promised his services as astronomer for ten years free of charge, calculating upon his salary in the college for support. Soon the college was burnt, and he was out of business. Nothing daunted, he resolved to give popular lectures as a means of livelihood, and continue his labors at the observatory. He began at Boston. The first night the hall was but half full. "Never mind," said he to a friend, "every one that was here here to-night will bring a friend the next night." Great success followed. The problem of subsistence was solved. For years he devoted himself to his astronomical studies, was an admirable observer, and showed remarkable inventive genius. By these inventions he revolutionized the system of cataloging the stars. During 1854-9 he made nearly 50,000 observations of faint stars. He published the Sidereal Messenger, an astronomical journal. His own books were the Planetary and Stellar Worlds," his lectures on the Astronomy of the Bible," and in 1860 his last "Popular Astronomy." In his "Astronomy of the Bible" he boldly adopted the "Nebular Hypothesis" of La Place; but the theology which he learned from the stars was Calvinistic. In his final lecture, after showing that the universe was governed by immutable law, he concluded with this eloquent passage: "No, my friends, the analogies of nature applied to the moral government of God would crush out all hope in the sinful soul. There for millions of ages these stern laws have reigned supreme. There is no deviation, no modification, no yielding to the refractory or disobedient. All is harmony because all is obedient. Close forever if you will this strange book claiming to be God's revelation; blot out forever if you will its lessons of God's creative power, God's super-abounding providence, God's fatherhood and loving guardianship to man, his erring offspring, and then unseal the lids of that mighty volume which the finger of God has written in the stars of heaven, and in these flashing letters of living light we read only the dread sentence, "The soul that sinneth it shall surely die." In another place, in speaking of the power of the astronomer, he said: "By the power of an analysis created by his own mind the astronomer rolls back the tide of time and reveals the secrets hidden by countless years, or, still more wonderful, he predicts with prophetic accuracy the future history of the rolling spheres. Space withers at his touch, Time past, present and future become one might NOW." Up to the outbreak of the war the observatory remained the best equipped in the United States, and the reputation of Mitchel as an astronomer was alike high in Europe and America. Then came the rebellion, when he threw himself unreservedly into the conflict. At the fall of Sumter, at the great union meeting in New York, he was the most effective speaker. When he closed the scene that followed was indescribable. Men and women were moved to tears, voices from all parts of the vast hall re-echoed the sentiments of the speaker. In August Mitchel as appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers, head-quarters Cincinnati, where he at once, plunged into his new work with his old zeal, put the city in a posture of defence, supervised the erection of earthworks and drilled the gathering troops. Mitchell was popularly known in the army as "Old Stars." Whitelaw Reid says of him, "Amid the stumblings of those early years his was a clear and vigorous head. While the struggling nation blindly sought for leaders his was a brilliant promise. But he never fought a battle, never confronted a respectable antagonist and never commanded a considerable army. Yet what he did so won the confidence of the troops and the admiration of the country that his death was deplored as a public calamity and he was mourned as a great general." -continued in part 40 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:59:26, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199907152359.TAA12028@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: STATUS OF MY POSTINGS Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII Hello List, I want to update you on the status of my posts and discussions with The Ohio Genealogical Society. Mr. Fred Mayer, President of The Ohio Genealogical Society cannot give me an answer to my request to post from publications of Ohio The Cross Road of our Nation, Records & Pioneer Families (ORPF) with a copyright. He has stated that he will present this request to the "Board" which meets on July 24, 1999. I personally have done all that I can do at this point and now it is in the hands of the OGS. I have been told by numerous folks who have dealt with the OGS that I don't have a snowballs chance in h--l of getting them to approve this request. The major stumbling block appears to be that they believe in some way that it will deprive the OGS from profiting and the petty, possessive, "mine" mentality. I don't believe this to be true because the publications in question are no longer available for purchase and other societies have actually benefited financially because of information being made available on the internet. I find it disturbing that they are so possessive with information they request individuals to submit, and then claim it as "theirs". They, and all societies rely on individuals who are willing to submit information they have compiled free of charge for the societies publications. It is, and always will be a joint effort between societies and individual researchers. I understand the need for the OGS to profit from publications and have told Mr. Mayer that I would list the OGS's name, address, phone number and web site on all posts from the publications in discussion so that individuals would have the information as to whom to contact for additional information. This has been done with other societies and they have had an increase in sales of publications and membership. The OGS has the final decision on this matter since they hold the copyright on the publications in question. Without the approval of the OGS, I legally cannot post the information from the publications with a copyright that I own. You will be able to find the same information contained in these publications since they are public records, but you will have to know where to look. As I said, there is nothing more I can say or do. If you would like to see further information posted from these publications I would urge you to contact the following members of the OGS and voice you opinion prior to the board meeting on July 24th. If you plan on writing to the OGS, please do it NOW, don't wait, it may be too late to make a difference. Mr. Fred Mayer, President -fredmayer@email.msn.com Dianne Gilmore Young, 1st Vice President -dgyoung@juno.com Sunda Anderson Peters, 2nd Vice President -sunda@prodigy.com Karen Smith, 3rd Vice President -ksmith@greenapple.com I am still hopeful that an agreement can be reached that will benefit The OGS and researchers. I will post a note as to the decision made by the "Board" when I hear from Mr. Mayer. Gina -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #504 *******************************************