'Don't give up the ship'

Editor's note: This story appeared in a June special section to commemorate local history for America 250. It's a famous message, scribbled on a piece of scrap paper. "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop," Oliver Hazard Perry wrote on the back of an old envelope in a bulletin sent to his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. It was Sept. 10, 1813, and Perry had just destroyed a British fleet in a bloody battle on Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay. It was arguably the most decisive battle of the War of 1812 and it ended the British threat to Ohio and other northern areas of the U.S. The U.S. commander, Perry, was just 28 when he won the battle. He was only 34 when he died from yellow fever. Exhibits and monuments in our area recall his famous victory and there are many monuments and place names in the U.S. that honor Perry, including Perrysburg, Ohio. Perry never wanted to win his most famous victory on a freshwater lake. He had hoped to engage the British in an ocean battle, and settled for the Great Lakes theater of war when he could not find other opportunities. Perry was born in Rhode Island in 1785. He decided on a naval career at age 13 and served on various ships in the U.S. Navy. He got married in 1811. When the War of 1812 broke out, he asked the Navy for a posting at sea. When he could not obtain one, in desperation he contacted an old friend, Isaac Chauncey, who was the American commander for the Great Lakes. It was an opportune request, as Chauncey needed an experienced commander, and Perry was put in command of a group of ships being built in Erie, Pennsylvania. Once the new flotilla was complete, Perry was ready to confront the British navy that was operating on Lake Erie. The Battle of Lake Erie was fought on Sept. 10, 1813, near Put-in-Bay. The Americans had nine ships versus six for the British, but the British had more cannons, with 63 guns versus 54 for the U.S. side. At about 11 a.m., Perry raised a morale-boosting flag on his flagship, the Lawrence. It had the words, "Don't Give Up the Ship." Perry's friend, Captain James Lawrence, had commanded the frigate Chesapeake, which lost a battle against a British ship, the Shannon, on June 1, 1813, only a few months before the Battle of Lake Erie. Dying from his wounds, Lawrence told his officers, "Don't give up the ship!" Perry ordered the battle flag made after hearing of his friend's death. When the two fleets collided on Lake Erie, the advantage at first went to the British, who had longer-range guns. The Lawrence, Perry's flagship, became a wreck with four out of five men killed or wounded. Refusing to surrender, Perry and a small group of men rowed to his other main ship, the Niagara, which had so far not participated in the battle. Perry raised his 'Don't Give Up the Ship" flag and sailed the Niagara into the fight. Although the Americans seemed to be in bad shape, the British weren't doing well, either. The British commander, Robert Heriot Barclay, was badly wounded, and most of the main British officers were also killed or badly hurt. With less-experienced officers in command, the two main British ships, the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, collided and became entangled. With the two British ships unable to maneuver, Perry took advantage, blasting the ships with one broadside after another. The four main British ships surrendered and the two smaller ships were pursued and taken. Writing in pencil on the back of an old envelope, Perry scribbled his famous victory report to his boss, General William Henry Harrison (who later was briefly a U.S. president). "Dear General:"We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."Yours with great respect and esteem,O.H. Perry." With the British fleet wiped out, the United States now had control of Lake Erie, ending the British threat to Ohio. Much of the earlier part of the War of 1812 (1812-1815), pitting the United States against Britain and Britain's allies, had been fought in Ohio. Fort Meigs, near Toledo, was besieged by British forces in late April and early May of 1813. In the Battle of Fort Stephenson, fought on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 of 1813, U.S. forces commanded by George Croghan defeated a British army. Birchard Library in Fremont is located on the former site of Fort Stephenson. "Old Betsy," a cannon Croghan used to blast British soldiers attempting to storm the fort, was later acquired by the City of Fremont and now sits outside the north entrance of the library. The outcome of the Battle of Lake Erie also made it easier for the United States to take the initiative. Perry could transport American soldiers and supplies across the lake. American forces recaptured Detroit and defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames in Canada. During that battle, the famous Native American war chief, Tecumseh, a British ally, was killed. Perry survived the war and was involved in various controversies. For example, he fought a duel in 1817 with his ship's Marine officer. According to the National Park Service account, "The Marine fired first from four paces and missed; honor was satisfied when Perry refused to pull the trigger." Perry was only 34 when he died of yellow fever in 1819 aboard a ship while returning from a diplomatic mission to Venezuela. Visitors to Sandusky and Put-in-Bay can learn more about the Battle of Lake Erie. The Perry's Victory & International Peace Memorial is one of the main tourist attractions in Put-in-Bay. Visitors can go to the top of the memorial, a 352-foot pillar, and learn more about the battle at a visitor center. An exhibit at the Maritime Museum of Sandusky also has information about the battle. Visitors can stand behind a carronade — a replica of a type of naval cannon the U.S. used in the battle — and view a mural showing what the battle looked like in a decisive moment, when the two main British ships entangled their rigging. The Perry Monument can be viewed at Presque Island State Park, near Erie, Pennsylvania, where Perry's flotilla was built. Numerous place names and works of art still remember Oliver Hazard Perry. Ohio. Dozens of places in the U.S. are named for Perry. Ohio, for example, has Perrysburg and Perry County, Perrysville, North Perry, Perry, Perrysburg Township and Perry Township. Sandusky has Perry Street and Cleveland has Oliver Hazard Perry Elementary School. Civil War hero McPherson was from Clyde The U.S. Civil War generated many personal tragedies. But it's hard to find a sadder story than the saga of Gen. James B. McPherson, a Clyde native killed in action before he could finally marry his longtime fiancée. McPherson, born in Clyde, graduated first in his class at West Point in 1853. He was stationed in California in 1859 when he met Emily Hoffman, a Baltimore native who had come west to help care for his sister's children. A photo of her apparently has not survived, but she is described as being a beautiful, blue-eyed blonde. The two became romantically attached and a wedding was planned, but in 1861 the Civil War began and McPherson's services were needed for the Union army. Letters show that McPherson felt a patriotic duty to help preserve the Union. He spent much of his career serving in the West under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, helping Grant in important battles such as Shiloh and the capture of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg. When Grant became the commander-in-chief, McPherson's immediate boss became General William Sherman. After some time, McPherson commanded the Army of Tennessee. By 1864, the war had gone on for three years, and McPherson and his fiancée were impatient to finally get married. McPherson asked for leave to go to Baltimore for the wedding and it was granted, but Sherman then revoked the leave, feeling that McPherson was needed for the important campaign to capture Atlanta. The wedding never took place. On July 22, near Atlanta, McPherson rode ahead of his troops on a country road when Confederate skirmishers appeared about 50 feet away. The rebels yelled, "Halt!" McPherson wheeled his horse around and tried to escape, but shots rang out and the general fell from his horse. Sherman later wrote to Hoffman that McPherson's troops heard a loud volley and saw McPherson's "fine black horse came out with two wounds, riderless." The general apparently died moments after being shot. When Rebel soldiers asked one of McPherson's aides who they had killed, they were told, "Sir, it is General McPherson. You have killed the best man in our army." In his memoir, Grant wrote that McPherson was "brave, accomplished and noble-hearted." Sherman was also a great admirer of McPherson. "Everybody loved him," sums up Gene A. Smith, museum curator for the Clyde Heritage League. McPherson was either the highest-ranking officer or the second-highest-ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the Civil War, possibly only behind Gen. John Sedgwick, who was killed in 1864. Emily Hoffman learned the news of her betrothed's death in a telegram sent to her pro-Confederate family in Baltimore. She immediately went to her room and locked the door. She spent the next year in the room, in seclusion. She never married and died in 1891. McPherson is remembered by many monuments and place names in much of the U.S. McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., located near the White House, has a statue of the general riding a horse. The town of McPherson, Kansas, and McPherson County in Kansas is named for McPherson. Troops from Kansas served in the Army of the Tennessee, which McPherson commanded. A monument in Atlanta marks where McPherson died. Atlanta also has Fort McPherson. Nebraska has McPherson County and also Fort McPherson National Cemetery. But there's nowhere in the U.S. where McPherson is remembered more than in Clyde. McPherson is buried in Clyde, at McPherson Cemetery, which is named after him and which is dominated by a big monument with a statue of McPherson at the top. The dedication ceremony in 1881 for the monument featured a speech by President Rutherford B. Hayes, another Union officer from Ohio who also became a general in the course of the war. That cemetery is located at the intersection of U.S. 20 and Ohio 101. The General McPherson House, McPherson's boyhood home, is also located near the intersection. The Clyde Heritage League owns the McPherson House, and also has the Clyde Museum, which also houses artifacts associated with the general. And U.S. 20, the big highway that runs through Clyde, is also known by another name: McPherson Highway. McPherson's name is also featured at Clyde's McPherson Middle School, where a framed picture of the general hangs in the school hallway. McPherson is mentioned in the school's annual Veterans' Day assembly and the general is discussed in the eighth-grade U.S. history class, said the school's principal, Ryan Fretz. Smith, the Clyde museum director, said the General McPherson House was built in 1834. McPherson's family occupied the house in 1835, and the future general lived there until 1842. The home was a private residence until 1995, when Harry and Wanda Meyer donated it to the Clyde Heritage League under the condition that it be restored to its original 19th-century state as much as possible. The Clyde Museum at 124 W. Buckeye St. in Clyde is open from 1-5 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday from March to November. The museum's exhibits include information about another former Clyde resident, author Sherwood Anderson, who wrote the classic work of fiction, "Winesburg, Ohio." The McPherson House is open by appointment only, but individuals or small groups who want to request a tour may contact Smith at curator@clydemuseum.org. Crawford's death part of national story Located just off Highway 199 near Carey sits a small park with big historical implications, linking rural Ohio to a pivotal and painful chapter of early American history. Col. William Crawford, born in Virginia in 1722, is remembered largely for the brutal circumstances of his death. But before that moment, he lived six decades as a soldier, surveyor and frontier leader during a period of escalating conflict between American settlers and indigenous nations. From 1775 to 1783, American colonialists fought the British Empire for independence. Although the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, major fighting continued until 1781 and the war was formally ended in 1783, according to Britannica. While the war raged along the eastern coast, Indigenous nations in the Ohio Valley faced their own struggles, fighting for both freedom and survival. Jason Edwin Anderson, writing in a 2023 article for The Journal of the American Revolution, noted that Native nations were forced into impossible choices as both colonial American and British forces encroached on their lands. "Torn between allying with the British or the American colonists, the Indians of the Ohio Country were faced with a dilemma, which side would best defend their lands and their way of life?" Anderson said. "The Ohio Country became the scene of violent conflict between the British Army and their Indian allies, the Continental Army and their Indian allies, and the American settlers who simply wanted western lands." Some tribes aligned with the British, others with the Americans, but many viewed both sides as threats to their sovereignty and survival. Even George Washington advocated aggressive action against tribes he considered hostile, essentially encouraging his troops to beat them into submission. Anderson cites Washington's directive that if Native nations could not be persuaded to ally with the Americans, they should be "reduced to the necessity of remaining quiet." Tensions escalated in 1782 after a series of frontier raids. In response, a militia led by Colonel David Williamson attacked the village of Gnadenhutten, killing 100 elderly men, women and children, according to the Library of Virginia. Ohio Valley tribes responded to the massacre with more raids. Enter Col. William Crawford, a man who was not a part of the Gnadenhutten attack but who was sent to finish it once and for all. Given 500 men to suppress all future attacks, Crawford clashed with Wyandotte warriors on June 4, 1782. Reinforcements arrived for the Native forces the next day and by nightfall, Crawford's command had collapsed. During the retreat, he was separated from his men and captured with several others. Allan Eckert's 1967 book, The Frontiersman, recounts Crawford's capture and subsequent execution at a Delaware village along Tymochtee Creek, north of what is now Upper Sandusky. Though historians debate the exact location, a monument now stands near the site to mark the event and its historical significance. "On June 11, Crawford and the other ten prisoners were marched to the main Delaware village, called Big Spring, on a bottom land on the east bank of Tymochtee Creek, about eight miles above its mouth at the Sandusky River," Eckert said. "Crawford was now taken by five of the Indians, stripped of all clothing and led to a thick post projecting fifteen feet from the ground. His wrists tied tightly behind him." Crawford was beaten bloody with sticks and fists by several natives. On June 13, Crawford pleads with Simon Girty, a friend of the Wyandotte people, to help him, to no avail. Eckert plays out the narrative further. "Numbly, Crawford nodded. 'My fate is then fixed and I must prepare to meet death in its worst form.'" Indeed, Crawford met death's worst form. He was shot at, his ears were sliced off and the ground under him was burned until he was scarred and blistered. Crawford begged Girty for death, to end his suffering. When he was refused, he begged God. When the natives finally tired of the torture, they built a fire under him and thrust him into it. As Eckert said, "so ended the life of Col. William Crawford." Crawford's death became one of the most widely publicized frontier killings of the era, fueling settler outrage and shaping early American memory of the Northwest Territory conflicts. But for the Native nations of the Ohio Valley, the episode reflected a deeper truth: they were fighting not for conquest but for survival. Caught between empires, repeatedly displaced and facing settlers moving westward, Indigenous communities endured the consequences of a war they did not want and could not avoid. The Crawford monument near Carey stands today not only as a reminder of one man's fate, but as a symbol of a broader and often overlooked struggle that shaped the region's history. Findlay was 'a Founding Father of the state of Ohio' Shelly Coonrod is conducting research for what is believed to be the first book on James Findlay. The namesake of Fort Findlay, which later became the city of Findlay, is known for his military service in the War of 1812 and his public service in the Cincinnati municipal government and later United States Congress. "He really was a Founding Father of the state of Ohio," Coonrod said. She is working closely with the Cincinnati Museum Center, whose archives on the history of Cincinnati and Ohio include 1,500 documents on Findlay. Coonrod is making her way through transcribing the documents, the earliest of which dates to 1794. She has given PowerPoint presentations on this history at the Jones Mansion in Findlay and will soon give one in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where Findlay was born. She said residents of Mercersburg, which she described as similar in size to McComb, have been eager to help her, as have scholars in Cincinnati. Findlay (Oct. 12, 1770-Nov. 28, 1835) studied law in Cincinnati and was admitted to the bar. He served as a member of the Territorial Legislative Council, as United States Marshal in Cincinnati beginning in 1802, and as president of the Cincinnati Town Council from 1804 to 1806 and from 1810 to 1811. Findlay was a general in the state militia. He served in the War of 1812 as colonel of the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, later being promoted to brigadier general of the state militia. His brothers also all served in the military, Coonrod said. Following the war, he was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to Congress, serving from 1825 to 1833. When the state militia merged with the U.S. Regular Army, Brig. Gen. William Hull was in command of their march toward Canada in 1812. With a general already in place, Findlay agreed to be demoted to colonel, Coonrod said. "Don't get me wrong, he has an ego…. But he's more patriotic than anything," and was willing to step back to help, she said. Hull was highly respected for his service in the Revolutionary War, but there are reports of him acting erratically during the march north to Fort Detroit, Coonrod said. He surrendered Fort Detroit to the British without hesitation, and was later charged with cowardice, neglect of duty and treason. Findlay gave testimony against Hull at the trial. Hull was sentenced to death, but President James Madison commuted his sentence due to Hull's Revolutionary War service. Fort Findlay, which later became the city of Findlay, was named in Findlay's honor. Joy Bennett, curator and archivist at the Hancock Historical Museum, said Findlay never saw the fort that bore his name, as he had left with Hull for Detroit before much of the stockade had been built. As a member of Congress, Findlay worked on legislation related to the National Road, the United States' first great federally financed highway. Findlay Market in Cincinnati, Ohio's oldest continuously operated public market, is also named for Findlay. Conrood said one of its current board members is a descendant. Findlay Market's website states that the market house was built on land donated to the city of Cincinnati by the estate of Gen. James Findlay and his wife, Jane Irwin Findlay. Today it is home to more than 50 full-time merchants selling meat, fish, poultry, produce, flowers, cheese, deli, ethnic foods and more, the website states. While it's hard to determine someone's personality by reading documents 200 years later, Coonrod believes Findlay to have been "fun." He enjoyed the arts, including the theater and literary societies, and helped to found Cincinnati's first library. She said he was also known as "a snappy dresser." "He very strongly believed in helping out your neighbors," she said. She found testimonials among the documents where others who served with Findlay in the state militia talk about all that he had done for them. Findlay and his wife had no children, but took in several nieces and nephews. "He basically was a helper," Coonrod said. "If you needed it, he would help you." Coonrod, who received her bachelor's degree in history from the University of Findlay in 2002 before returning to school to earn a Master of Arts in Christian Counseling from Winebrenner Theological Seminary in 2017, is a mental health counselor by profession. She said researching Findlay is allowing her to continue to explore her passion for history. She intends to someday compile her research into a book. Coonrod added that her two fields – mental health and history – are not as different as people may think. Both, she said, involve learning about people. "It's the same questions: Who are you? Where did you come from?" she said. She said she's grateful to those who have assisted her in her work on Findlay. "This has been like a dream come true," she said.