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By Jeff Fearnside, Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sentinel-Tribune (Bowling Green, OH)
07-21-95
"History is our memory," said Dr. Larry Nelson, director of the Fort Meigs State Memorial in Perrysburg.
Nelson was at the Wood County District Library recently to give a speech entitled, "The Military History of Wood County and Northwest Ohio." The program was co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library and Friends of the Parks.
"Our history is to us as a people, a culture, what your memory is to you," Nelson went on. He argued that history provides us with answers to the questions, "Who am I? Where am I going? How do I get there? What am I going to find when the journey is over?"
Nelson began his talk with an overview of the historical importance of this region.
"The Maumee Valley is very, very interesting," Nelson said.
In frontier times, creeks and rivers were used like highways. Because the Maumee River was a crucial link in a water route that ran from Upstate New York all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, control of the river was bitterly contested in times of war.
"A lot of blood was spilled to control the rapids," Nelson said. He indicated it was no coincidence that two of this country's most pivotal battles occurred near the rapids of the Maumee - the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Battle of Lake Erie.
Fort Meigs was built as a supply depot and a staging area for an invasion of Canada during the War of 1812, and Nelson understandably became enthused when speaking of the fort's significance.
"One of the things I like to talk about best is Fort Meigs."
William Henry Harrison built the fort and named it after the governor of Ohio at the time. "Even back then it was enormous," Nelson stated.
And the designer of the fort, a West Point graduate named Eleazer Darby Wood, was the namesake of our county. Nelson also related that the star-shaped base of the Statue of Liberty was once the location of another fort - Fort Wood, named after its designer, the same man who designed Fort Meigs.
During the War of 1812, Fort Meigs suffered through two sieges, both which resulted in American victories. After the invasion of Canada, the fort was torn down, and only a small garrison of men left behind to watch over it. The captain of the last 40 soldiers to "hold down the fort" was a Capt. Gibbs. His legacy lives on in Gibbs Street in Maumee.
Over the years the area was left unplowed by farmers who recognized its historical value, and the fort's earthworks survived well into the 20th century. Still, nothing else was done with the site for 93 years, until a group of Union Civil War veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic, erected the 101-foot tall obelisk monument that still stands today. That was in 1908.
In the 1960's the first archaeological work was done, and many artifacts were unearthed, from musket balls to iron door latches.
Nelson then showed a slide of his favorite artifact.
It was a large fragment from a bomb shell that exploded over Fort Meigs during one of its two sieges. He asked the audience to recall a line from Frances Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner," the one of "the bombs bursting in air." The audience correctly answered the war during which that song was penned: the War of 1812.
Thus, Nelson said, they had uncovered a fragment of a bomb identical to the ones that inspired our national anthem.
"Is that cool or what?" Nelson exclaimed, visibly moved by history. His enthusiasm seemed to spill over into the audience. One woman even expressed the wish that Nelson had been around to teach her history over 45 years ago.
"I might have learned something then," she said.
In addition to memory, Nelson also spoke of the values history provides. At the front of the Fort Meigs Memorial is a plaque describing it as being the site of the first Masonic lodge in Wood County - Army Lodge No. 24, Free and Accepted Masons. Nelson likes the reminder that plaque brings of the sort of values the Masons espouse, and to which most people aspire: charity, brotherhood, patriotism, sacrifice.
Slides shown by Nelson included several of the Fallen Timbers battle site. In a question and answer session after the talk, an audience member asked. "Are they going to move the site of Fallen Timbers?"
The question came in regards to work done by Dr. Michael Pratt of Heidelberg College, whom Nelson referred to, which has recently shown that the Battle of Fallen Timbers actually occurred about a mile north of the site currently designated.
Nelson answered that he didn't think the current monument would be moved, but that the National Parks Service has indicated an interest in the new site.
"It would fill a void in the selection of sites that they have right now," Nelson said. The reason is that the Parks Service has no park dedicated to Native American themes. The Battle of Fallen Timbers, however, is rich in Native American fact and lore.
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