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May 18, 2023: Civil War Quilts will be presented by Meta Van Nostran, M.A., author, retired educator, lecturer and textile conservator. 7:00 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 320 2nd Street, Marietta

Civil War accounts are widely preserved in artifacts, books, diaries, newspapers, paintings, and even in the ancient art of quilts. Artisans in both North and South conducted craft fairs and bazaars to handcraft magnificent quilts that were auctioned to purchase wartime supplies. Confederate “gunboat quilts” were made for raffles to fund the purchase of three desperately needed ironclad gunboats. The U.S. Sanitary Commission prioritized the collection and distribution of cot quilts to address the urgent need for soldiers’ bedding. For soldiers on both sides, quilts provided comfort and spiritual solace for those a long way from home, facing the boredom of camp life, the horrors of battle, or, recovery in a hospital. It was important for these men to have a possession made by their wife, or mother or children. These quilts often expressed a fond memory or messages of comfort, love and inspiration. Ms. Van Nostran will review the use of historic quilt-making methods, fabrics, and images from the Civil War period.

 

Meta Van Nostran is a retired high school instructor and adjunct professor at Rio Grande University and Ohio University. She earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in education at Ohio University and studied textiles at The Glasgow School of Art. Ms. Van Nostran continues to be actively engaged in quilting as an instructor, curator, judge, and participant in exhibitions and competitions. Special interests include textiles research and conservation, including the restoration of antique and vintage needlework. She has authored two books: Quilts and Stories from the Time of the Civil War and Quilts and Stories from World War I to World War II: Transforming Traditions. She is currently a teaching artist at The Dairy Barn Arts Center, in Athens, OH.

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Monday, June 19, 2023:  Charlotte Scott Historical Marker Dedication

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The Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley will host a historical marker dedication ceremony on Saturday, June 17, 2023, to recognize Charlotte Scott, a formerly enslaved woman who lived in Marietta at the conclusion of the Civil War, for her initiative, generosity and vision that resulted in the first monument dedicated to the memory of President Abraham Lincoln.

 

Charlotte was born enslaved on the Scott Plantation near Lynchburg, Virginia.  It is believed that her birthdate was between 1803 and 1805.  At birth she was the property of Thomas Scott.  At the outset of the Civil War, Charlotte resided with Thomas Scott’s daughter, Margaret Scott Rucker, and her husband, Dr. William Parks Rucker, in Covington, Virginia.  Although a slave-owner, Dr. Rucker was devoted to the Union and openly collaborated with Federal army officers and scouts.  In 1862, Dr. Rucker was arrested by Confederate authorities, accused of treason, and held in prison to await trial.  While Rucker was imprisoned, President Lincoln directed the Union army to escort Margaret and the Rucker children to Marietta, Ohio for their safety.  Charlotte accompanied the family as a freedman, or former slave, and lived with them as a domestic servant.  After fifteen months in Confederate prisons, Dr. Rucker made a dramatic escape and after a harrowing flight to safety joined his family in Marietta.  As a freedman, Charlotte was compensated for her services and accumulated modest savings when the war ended.  When she learned of President Lincoln’s assassination, Charlotte “was in great distress” and declared, “The colored peoples have lost their best friend on earth!  Mr. Lincoln was our best friend and I will give five dollars of my wages towards erecting a monument to his memory”.  Dr. Rucker made strategic contacts that put Charlotte’s vision and donation into the hands of trustworthy fundraisers, including James Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission.

 

News of this initiative spread rapidly across the nation and by December 1865, more than $ 16,000 was raised – entirely from freedman, including many former U.S. Colored Troops.  President Grant unveiled the Emancipation Memorial in Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Park on April 14, 1876, the anniversary of the assassination, and Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony.  More than 25,000 people attended – including Charlotte Scott.  Abraham Lincoln and Charlotte Scott are the only names commemorated on the monument.  After the war, Charlotte lived as a free woman on the Scott Plantation until her death on January 24, 1891. 

 

The Charlotte Scott historical marker dedication ceremony will begin at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, June 17, 2023, at the First Congregational Church, 308 Front Street, Marietta, Ohio.  The event will feature music performed at the 1876 Emancipation Memorial dedication ceremony, and proclamations presented by U.S. Congressman Bill Johnson and Marietta Mayor Joshua Schlicher.  In addition, Marcia E. Cole, a re-enactor from Washington, D.C. will portray Charlotte Scott; and, Alicestyne Turley, Ph.D., an educator from Georgetown, Kentucky, will deliver a presentation entitled, “African Americans in the Civil War”.  Light refreshments will be served.

 

The dedication event is free and the public is welcomed.  

 

For those with interest, Marietta College will host a Juneteenth Commemoration from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Friday, June 16, 2023, at the Harrison Hall mall on campus.  The event will feature fellowship, a barbeque, and a panel of speakers, including Michael Crutcher who will portray Frederick Douglass and Marcia E. Cole who will portray Charlotte Scott.  The event is free and the public is welcomed.

 

Please submit any questions to cwrtmov@gmail.com.

July 20, 2023: General Moses: Stories from the Life of Harriet Tubman presented by Ilene Evans, M.A., former adjunct professor at Fairmont State College and Artistic Director at Voices From the Earth, Inc. 7:00 p.m. at The Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History is 137 Juliana Street, Parkersburg WV  26101

 

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland but escaped through the Underground Railroad to freedom in Pennsylvania in 1849. She became the most famous leader of this network and was known as “Moses” to the enslaved Africans and their descendants who she helped to freedom. This presentation is a first-person interpretation of Harriet Tubman ‘s achievements and uses songs of inspiration to energize the audience and demonstrate her passion for her role in the Underground Railroad. It is said that Harriett “never run her train off the track and never lost a passenger.”

 

Ilene Evans performs, lectures and conducts workshops throughout the US and abroad. She earned a B.A from Trinity College and studied theater and dance at the University of Wisconsin. She received her M.A. at East Tennessee State with an emphasis in storytelling. She has performed and taught dance, choreography, storytelling, voice and African American cultural arts. Ms. Evans resides in Thomas, WV where she is Artistic Director with Voices From The Earth, Inc, a theater arts organization that inspires interest in history, tradition, language and movement though the performing arts.

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September 14, 2023 – Unforeseeable Outcomes of the Battle of Port Royal by Tendaji Bailey, Program Coordinator, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor N.H.A., Beaufort, SC. 7:00 p.m. The Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History is 137 Juliana Street, Parkersburg WV  26101

Port Royal Sound was identified by the U.S. Navy as the ideal deepwater port to support the blockades of Charleston and Savannah. On November 7, 1861, the Battle of Port Royal secured Port Royal Sound and Beaufort, SC for occupation by Federal forces. More importantly, the battle set the stage for the unthinkable: 10,000 slaves abandoned to the Union army; Mitchelville, the first development on Hilton Head Island, hastily erected to care for and house these men, women and children; Penn Center, where missionaries came from the North to educate Mitchelville’s residents; the Port Royal Experiment, the first effort at re-construction; and the genesis of the Gullah Geechee culture. Mr. Tendaji Bailey, Program Coordinator, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor N.H.A., Beaufort SC, will introduce you to these unlikely developments and the profound impact that continues to resonate today.

 

Tendaj Bailey is Gullah Geechee and a native of St. Helena Island, SC. He attended Port Royal Elementary, The Humanities School Beaufort, and received the Spirit of Beaufort Award from Beaufort High School. After earning a B.A. in mathematics at Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA, he taught math to 7th and 8th grade special education students at a charter school in Brooklyn, NY. He has served as Community Intervention Coordinator for KAVI (Kings Against Violence Initiative) and the Covid pandemic led him to found a new venture, "Black Kids Love Math", to inspire and support a love for mathematics in children. He has returned to Beaufort to share all of the lessons he has gathered since leaving his hometown.

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Thursday, November 16, 2023 – Frederick Douglass’s Travels in Ohio, 1843 – 1856 presented by Robert K. Wallace, Ph.D., author and Regents Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. 7:00 p.m., St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 320 2nd Street, Marietta.

Frederick Douglass was born enslaved in Maryland. His birth date is not recorded. He escaped from his owner in 1838 and travelled to New York and then Massachusetts. There he rose to be one of the most acclaimed abolitionists in the U.S. Douglass had a keen interest in these activities in Ohio and travelled here repeatedly to address “the vital question of the age”. Robert Wallace is currently writing a book on Douglass and the Cincinnati Antislavery Society. He will speak about Douglass’ travels in Ohio from 1843 – 56, beginning with his first visit in 1843 and conclude with his coverage of the Margaret Garner tragedy in Cincinnati in 1856.

Robert K. Wallace is Regents Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY. He earned his B.A. at Whitman College and Ph.D. at Columbia University before arriving at NKU as an assistant professor in 1972. Professor Wallace has a passion for comparing literature to art and has authored several books including Jane Austen and Mozart (1983), Emily Bronte and Beethoven (1986), Melville and Turner (1992), Frank Stella’s Moby Dick (2001), and Douglass and Melville (2005). Each title compares an author to a musician, artist or political activist in a way not done before. Dr. Wallace received the 2019 UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement Award which recognizes exceptional intellectual achievement, contributions to the lasting value of the Commonwealth, and to advance education and creative thought.