When did Ohio officially become a state?
By Bob Robinson 

GREENVILLE – “Why was General Anthony Wayne called “mad?” 

“No one really knows,” said Allen Hauberg, docent for Garst Museum, in a recent meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Greenville. 

He said he thought possibly that it was the result of being a revolutionary war hero and a strict disciplinarian. The Indians called him the general who never sleeps. Or it could be because of actions like when Wayne caught five soldiers who had deserted, Hauberg noted. Wayne said the soldier who volunteers to shoot the other four will be allowed to live. 

“Marion Morrison, whom we all know as John Wayne, had actually taken his name from the general,” Hauberg said. 

Wayne was also noted as the general who is buried in two places: Erie, Pa., and Radnor, Pa. 

Hauberg said Wayne’s son wanted to move the body but after uncovering it discovered it had not decomposed. 

“He had him dissected, boiled him down to just bones, and then returned the skin, entrails, tools used to the original grave,” he said. “The bones are buried in Radnor.” 

Hauberg’s presentation to Kiwanis was about Darke County’s unique history and how it has been preserved at Garst Museum. The various venues at Garst include Annie Oakley, Lowell Thomas, Crossroads to Destiny and more. 

It also included miscellaneous historical trivia and anecdotes. 

How is it that Ohio has an additional lake port at Toledo? Hauberg said to look closely at the line; it does not run true east and west. This section of land was originally thought to be part of Michigan, he added. 

“Michigan and Ohio almost went to war over it. Both groups had armed militia stationed in the area at one time,” Hauberg said. 

The issue was sent to Congress and, because Ohio was a state in 1837 while Michigan was only a territory, Ohio won. The Michigan group was appeased by giving it two-thirds of the land in the upper peninsula. 

Most people who are familiar with Zachary Lansdowne knew that he commanded the ill-fated Dirigible USS Shenandoah. Did you also know that it flew exactly two years to the day it was launched? Hauberg asked. Sept. 4, 1923, crashed Sept. 4, 1925, killing the crew of 14. 

“It did make a flight over Greenville on Oct. 24, 1924,” Hauberg said. 

Annie Oakley is famous for her marksmanship and performing skills; she is also erroneously thought to have been a “loose” woman, Hauberg noted. This came about because a woman who had been arrested for her nefarious behavior gave her name as Annie Oakley, he added. 

Hauberg told the group that the Hearst papers published the story. Annie sued 55 newspapers. She won 54 of them; the one lost was because the paper had printed a retraction. 

Then there’s Ohio. When did it officially become a state? 

“Which president signed the official papers making Ohio the 17th state of the union in 1803? Pres. Jefferson was in office at that time,” Hauberg said, “but it wasn’t him.” 

Hauberg added there was a disagreement over boundaries between Pres. Thomas Jefferson and the territorial governor at the time, Arthur St. Clair. A territory had to have 60,000 population to become a state; St. Clair’s ‘vision’ didn’t have enough people at the time so Jefferson’s won. Ohio’s statehood was simply taken as implied with Jefferson’s boundaries, Hauberg said. 

“When Senator Bender was making plans for our sesquicentennial of our statehood, it was discovered that we had not proceeded in the proper manner. 

“In 1953, the proper paperwork was finally delivered to Washington on horseback and turned over to Congress, which in turn passed it with favor to Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower. He signed Ohio into statehood in August that year.” 

At the time, many wondered why we were paying taxes. Others wondered if the eight “sons” of Ohio had served legally as Presidents of the United States. 

Published courtesy of The Early Bird