Clyde museum has two 2 new exhibits, announces events

CLYDE — As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, a local museum in Clyde is taking part with special events and two new exhibits. The Clyde Museum, located at 124 W. Buckeye St. in Clyde, is open from 1-5 p.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays during the warm weather months. The next event at the museum, set for 6:30 p.m. May 12, will be a presentation on the War of 1812 in Northwest Ohio. Larry Michaels, of Fremont, will talk about the important battles that took place in Fremont and Perrysburg and on Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay. To learn about other upcoming events during the year, visit the museum's website at clydemuseum.org/events. Meanwhile, the museum also has two new exhibits for people who enjoy local history, museum curator Gene Smith said. The main new exhibit is about two winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor who hailed from Clyde: Charles McCleary and Rodger Wilton Young. McCleary, born in Sandusky County and buried at McPherson Cemetery in Clyde, enlisted as a private in the Union army in 1861 and fought in various bloody battles in the western part of the American Civil War. By 1864, McCleary was a first lieutenant who commanded a company. On Dec. 16, 1864, McCleary's troops stormed an important Confederate position during the Battle of Nashville. McCleary ran ahead of his troops and personally captured the flag of the 4th Florida Infantry Regiment. McCleary survived the war and later became Clyde's postmaster. He died in 1906. Young, who was born in Tiffin but grew up in Green Springs and Clyde, joined the Ohio National Guard in 1939. During the Battle of Munda Point in New Georgia in the Pacific, a Japanese machine gun nest attacked a patrol that included Young. Four soldiers were killed. Despite orders to withdraw and being wounded twice, Young attacked the machine gun position with his rifle and hand grenades, killing and wounding most of the enemy soldiers. Young died after he was hit again, but his actions allowed the patrol to get away without further casualties. Like McCleary, Young is buried at McPherson Cemetery in Clyde. Famed songwriter Frank Loesser wrote a well-known song, "The Ballad of Rodger Young," about Young. Smith said the new exhibits feature both of the actual Medals of Honor, personal possessions of the two war heroes and the sheet music for the song about Young. The exhibit is going over well, he said. "Everybody seems to love it," he said. The museum also has a new exhibit on African Americans who were born into slavery and who settled in Clyde. They were apparently welcome in the community and owned property in the area, Smith said. "We call it the Freedom Seeker's Exhibit," Smith said. He explained that Clyde was on one of the routes for the Underground Railroad, the clandestine effort to spirit slaves from the South and get them safely to Canada.