Central Ohio Matters
Central Ohio Matters is a podcast where host Michelle Gatchell discusses the issues shaping Central Ohio's future. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders, visionaries, and changemakers driving progress in Central Ohio. These conversations provide insights into the challenges facing our communities and the solutions being developed to move them forward.
Central Ohio Matters covers government policies, healthcare challenges, housing and business developments, transportation solutions, education, and innovation. It is your guide to understanding and engaging with the pulse of Central Ohio.
You can listen to Central Ohio Matters on WVXG 95.1 FM (Marion and Morrow Counties) and WDLR 96.7 FM, 1270 AM (Delaware, Franklin, Marion, and Union Counties).
Also, find it on your favorite podcast streaming sites.
Central Ohio Matters
Delaware Ohio in 1776, One of its first residents saved George Washington's Life
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Revolutionary War connections run deeper in Delaware County than most residents realize. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Delaware County Historical Society Executive Director Donna Meyer reveals the fascinating links between our community and the nation's founding that have remained hidden in plain sight for generations.
When the cash-strapped new American government couldn't pay Revolutionary War soldiers with money, they compensated them with "bounty lands" - including what would later become Delaware County. The more prestigious your military rank, the more acreage you received. These land grants directly shaped our community's development, with many veterans selling their properties to speculators who would eventually establish settlements. Moses Bixby, the town's founder, acquired numerous such deeds before planting the town of Delaware in 1808. Even today, our street names - like Winter Street, named after Bixby's wife's maiden name (Witter) - reflect this founding history.
Perhaps most remarkable is the discovery that over 100 Revolutionary War soldiers are buried throughout Delaware County. William Warrington, interred at Mill Creek Cemetery near Ostrander, served as one of George Washington's personal bodyguards and reportedly intercepted poison intended for the general - potentially altering American history. Warrington, who fathered 17 children through four marriages, represents just one of countless stories waiting to be uncovered.
The Historical Society has launched several initiatives to celebrate America's 250th birthday, including mapping Revolutionary War graves, creating cemetery driving tours with costumed reenactors, and establishing a Student Ambassador Program for high school students. These young history enthusiasts complete volunteer hours with local historical organizations and attend special classes on America's founding to earn ceremonial graduation cords.
Explore this rich heritage yourself by visiting the Meeker Museum (housed in an 1823 home built by Revolutionary War veteran Forrest Meeker), the Nash House Museum, or the historic jail during First Friday tours. The Delaware County Historical Society offers walking tours, driving guides, and research resources to help uncover the revolutionary history hiding beneath our feet.
Connect with your community's revolutionary past and join in celebrating America's 250th anniversary through these upcoming events and historical explorations. Visit delawareohiohistory.org to learn more about how our local story intertwines with the nation's founding narrative.
Welcome to Central Ohio Matters , the podcast where we delve into the issues that shape Central Ohio's future . Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders , visionaries and changemakers driving progress in our region . These conversations offer insights into the challenges our communities face and the solutions being crafted to move them forward . Here are your hosts , michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers them forward .
Speaker 2Here are your hosts , michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers . So , ryan , we just had the 4th of July and you know everybody gets a little patriotic that time of year , and I thought I'd check into Delaware County Historical Society to see what we have to talk about . Patriotic , yeah , it's maybe past the 4th , but it is the holiday , 4th of July weekend , right ? Yeah , totally . And so joining us is Executive Director Donna Meyer . Hey , donna , thanks for joining us .
Speaker 3Thanks for asking .
Speaker 2Yeah , you know Delaware . We've had a president from Delaware . There's been a lot of things in history . People , if they look back , they can learn from Supposed . Supposedly we don't make the same mistakes we made before . Right , we hope not , but I thought it would be interesting to just take a look at some of the highlights that are patriotic in Delaware . Sure , no problem , you have a story about the Revolutionary War . Let's talk about how we're connected with that .
Speaker 3Okay , well , it's an interesting story . Of course , the country is really involved with America 250 . And we started hearing about this maybe two years ago , and I'm what America 250 is what it's the sesquicentennial of America , it's 250 years since America was founded , meaning when we say when America was founded , when the declaration of independence was signed , and then we did the whole war , before that we did the Boston Tea tea party .
Speaker 2So this , uh obviously created our independence from great britain okay so the declaration of independence was signed 250 years ago next year . Yep , it's a big deal .
Speaker 3So , um , I started thinking , well , wonder , I mean , even though ohio wasn't even a state till 1803 and del hadn't been created until 1808 , there had to be something going on here in 1776 . So I started to reach out to some different people and it seemed like the county wasn't really doing a whole lot for that . So I said , well , somebody should do it . And then the person that I thought of was me . So what happens when you have ideas ? So I said , well , we can do this . So I first started to do some investigating and trying to figure out what Delaware County was like in 1776 . So a lot of people think there was nobody here , nothing going on .
Speaker 3Um , when european settlers came here , american indians were already living here . Um , the land is now delaware county , had wyandotte's shawnees lenape , which is better known as the delaware indians , and the seneca cayuga tribe , which is known by some people as mingo mingo indians . So the united states military district . Um , this was land that was given to Revolutionary War soldiers in gratitude for their service , and so a lot of Delaware County was given to these soldiers as part of payment for their service . We had over 600 Native Americans living on the banks of the Olentangy River in what is now Mingo Park . We didn't have any Native tribes that lived here for a long time . They were kind of migratory . But anybody that lives over there close to Mingo knows that there's tons of arrowheads . My sister and brother-in-law farm over there um off the the bank of the old teenager river and they every time they plow , the kids and I always run out there to find some really neat arrowheads oh cool um .
Speaker 3So the land grants were known as bounty lands and depending on what your rank was during the military , that's how much land you got . So , for example , a major general could really could receive 1100 acres . Um colonel got 500
Revolutionary War Connections in Delaware
Speaker 3acres , privates got 100 acres . So at the end of the revolutionary war , understandably , the soldiers were like , okay , I just risked my life , now are you going to pay me ? And guess what ? The United States didn't have any money . So they thought this was a really good answer .
Speaker 3So Moses Bixby was a significant figure in the founding of Delaware . Everybody's heard of Moses Bixby in the new Bixby County building out on 521 . Being the new Bixby County building out on 521 . So he acquired a large number of these land deeds and he planted the town of Delaware in 1808 . He had a buddy named Henry Baldwin who also helped him Henry Street and Moses Bixby's wife's maiden name was Witter W-I-T-T-E-R . But they changed it to Winter , so that's how we got Winter Street . It has nothing to do with a season .
Speaker 3So people were given these lands and they weren't from here , obviously , and they're like somebody you know , don't give us this property . What do we do with it ? Do we want to move to Ohio ? Maybe not , so they sold their land , sometimes extremely cheap . There's also the Ohio Company . So if you recall your Ohio history back in eighth grade , they were basically around Marietta and they were land speculators . So people would sell them land and they would in turn sell the land to someone else . For example , where my office is is the Meeker Museum , the barn at Stratford off Stratford Road next to Turkey Hill . So this land was part of a 624 acre property that was given to Forrest Meeker in exchange for his military service , and Forrest Meeker came to live on the land and built this beautiful house built in 1823 , that my office is in .
Speaker 3So , yeah , so people who were given this land they didn't really necessarily want to live here , so they in turn sold it , resold it , resold it . These were land speculators and some of the lands that were granted to the Revolutionary War soldiers were still areas claimed by Native American tribes , so that was an issue . Sometimes the early land surveys were inaccurate , causing future disputes over land ownership , and it was just a really an interesting , interesting thing . So we started doing some research and we started thinking what would people want to know ? Of course , who ? The natives were here , but also the Revolutionary War soldiers themselves . Natives were here , but also the Revolutionary War soldiers themselves , and I was astonished to learn that we have over 100 graves of Revolutionary War soldiers here in Delaware County . That blows my mind . So some of them did when they got the land , came here to live or moved here later with their families .
Speaker 3One of the most famous Revolutionary War soldiers is a man named William Warrington , and William Warrington is buried at Mill Creek Cemetery , which is over near Ostrander , and William Warrington was a really interesting guy . He was married four times times and had 17 children Holy cow , that's no exaggeration . William Warrington was one of George Washington's bodyguards and he supposedly intercepted some poison that was meant for General Washington during the war . I don't have the details and I've only found one or two stories about this , but he basically saved Washington's life , and so you think about what would that have meant for the country if George Washington had died before he was born .
Speaker 3One of the most interesting stories in addition to that is he was a bodyguard and Martha Washington came to visit George Washington . Of course they had , you know , soldiers and guards and stuff at the gates and William Warrington said I need the passcode . And she laughed and she said well , I don't know what that is . And he says I'm sorry , I can't let you go forward until you know the passcode . So Washington came out and whispered it to his wife and then she said the passcode and Warrington let her come in and he said that was the only time he really heard General Washington laugh . He said that was the only time he really heard general washington laugh . So that was kind of a cool story . So if anybody's ever mill creek , there's a really neat um stone that tells this whole story .
Speaker 3Um , warrington was said to be a colonel but he wasn't . He never got higher than sergeant . Same thing is true with forest maker . You always hear , you always hear Forrest Meeker referred to as Colonel Meeker . He never achieved a rank higher than sergeant . I think colonel was like kind of like an honorary title . Like I doubt if Colonel Sanders was really a colonel . So a lot of times you hear about such and such talk about colonel and when I do the research I find they never were even up above a private . But it was just kind of a note of respect which is really kind of cool .
Speaker 2Yeah
William Warrington: Washington's Bodyguard
Speaker 2, so Warrington lived in Mill Creek area .
Speaker 3Yes , he lived over in that area . He's originally from Virginia and it's interesting that George Washington's bodyguards all had to be from Virginia , from the state of Virginia . I don't know why . Well , to be from Virginia , from the state of Virginia , I don't know why . Well , washington was from Virginia , so maybe he felt that those you know , his fellow countrymen were the ones that he trusted the most . Yeah , interesting , huh .
Speaker 3So there's two portions of land grants in Delaware County . On the eastern side they were called the US military land grants and that was divided by the Scioto River . So anything east of that were US military lands . Sometimes you'll do some research on property and it'll say US military lands and then all the land in Delaware County west of the Scioto , which isn't a whole lot , was called Virginia military land . So it's kind of separate . I don't know what the difference is . It might have been two different bills passed through Congress and said you know , this is what you get if you live here and this is what you get if you live here . So that's , that's really kind of interesting . We have lots of resources at our Crider Research Library website and that's on 157 East William Street and it's a research library and people can come and learn about their houses , learn about their property . Many times if you have new builds , people will come and say I want to know whose farm this was , and many times we can find pictures , and so that's really kind of cool . We have downtown .
Speaker 2Can you make an ?
Speaker 3appointment ahead of time or can you just show up ? You can show up . It's open on Sundays from 2 to 5 and Wednesdays from 10 to 12 and 1 to 5 . We do let our researchers go out for lunch , so you just go in . We have lots of people that can help . We have downtown businesses who I get calls all the time . People say well , what was my business in 1900 or whatever , and many of those buildings date back to the late , even mid 1800s , 1860s , 1870s , and so they want to know what business was there . Many times we can find pictures for them . I have one business owner who printed it and mounted it and she has it on the wall of her business downtown . Who printed it and mounted it and she has it on the wall of her business downtown . So that's really kind of cool .
Speaker 3So when we started thinking about what we want to do for this America 250 , we reached out to the Veterans Association that's headed by Brian Gallagher here in Delaware . We also reached out to the Daughters of American Revolution . We worked with several of those members and we also reached out to the Ohio History Connection , wanted to know what they were doing Some of the plans that we have , and it's almost like why reinvent the wheel ? We don't . We shouldn't do so . Some of the projects that we decided was first thing we wanted to do is to map the graves of the revolutionary war soldiers . Like I said there , we thought there was at least a hundred , and and every one of those graves are stories like william warrington there's lots of other stories out there , yeah .
Speaker 3So we started looking at cemeteries . We have representatives from all over Delaware County , including Harlem and Scioto Township and Radnor , and places where those soldiers were buried . So we wanted to find the list of the soldiers and many times they're coded by what war they were in . Um , obviously , revolutionary war was number one . Oak grove cemetery also has some revolutionary war soldiers , but they were um transferred from another cemetery and I'll I'll tell you about that in a minute .
Speaker 3Um , so we started to go through the list . We wanted to have volunteers that would go out into the cemeteries and be sure that that indeed that grave was there , because some graves are missing . I mean , some of these people were buried in 1820 , 1830s and so you know not a whole lot of those headstones , including if they're made out of limestone or sandstone , something really soft they don't really exist anymore or if they over , there's no family to claim them . So many times they're just pretty much ignored . So we started going around and trying to figure out where the Revolutionary War soldiers were buried , and we had wonderful cooperation from people in different county or different townships and also with Amy Wright who oversees Oak Grove Cemetery , and so we're able to do that . Ohio History Connection also hired somebody to find Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Ohio , which is really cool . So we're all comparing records .
Speaker 2So I have to imagine that took quite an effort .
Speaker 3That couldn't have been an easy thing to do . Many cemeteries already have a list , like online or something . I know Oak Grove has wonderful records . If you're looking for a great aunt Tilly , you can go on their website and find out where she's buried among the 25,000 people buried at Oak Grove .
Speaker 2What are the majority of these cemeteries managed by ?
Speaker 3Cemeteries are generally managed by the township , though not exclusively . Obviously , oak Grove is managed by the city of Delaware . Most of the other ones are managed by the township , with one exception Liberty Presbyterian Church that's located on is it 257 , home Road , no 315 and Home Road . They discovered that this township discovered that the cemetery was on church land and so they said we're not going to mow it anymore and we're not going to maintain it . The church has to maintain it . So that caused a little concern with the church because I'm not sure they had the money to do it . But everybody else is like . I have family buried at Aller Cemetery in Concord Township and that cemetery is maintained by the township . So we started to look at the graves . Many of the tombstones , as I mentioned , were in very poor shape , so we're considering possibly what it would take to restore them . We also are having flags ordered . Many of these already have American flags on there , but we're getting larger flags that are 13-star flags , so people visiting the cemetery could see at a glance oh that's a Revolutionary War soldier , let's
Historic Cemeteries of Delaware County
Speaker 3walk up and learn about him . I mentioned , I was going to tell you about cemeteries in Delaware County , in the city of Delaware of course , when it was settled here in 1808 , one of the first things they did was they tried to figure out where they would bury people , and the very first cemetery was where the historic courthouse is , and that totally made sense , because that's high ground .
Speaker 3Some people say there were no burials there . I found evidence to the contrary , but in any case , the second one was established a few years later , where Selby Stadium is , and that's off henry street , and so a lot of people were buried there , which isn't a really good spot because it's close to the river . So , um they , that was a cemetery for a long time , and they built selby stadium in the late 1920s , and so they moved all those graves over to oak Grove Cemetery . But , oh gosh , they forgot some .
Speaker 3So , yeah , so they have . When the one of the schools , the colleges , that plays football for Ohio , at Ohio Westland against Ohio Westland , they have a joke and it's like the battle of the bones . So I know that they and it sounds horrible and I think it is horrible , it's irreverent , but that happens a lot . When I worked at WDLR radio and Sherry Fisher would remember this story , there was a drought and this would have been 91 , 92 . And somebody said , come with us and bring your camera .
Speaker 3So we went out to Alum Creek and we commandeered a fishing boat and we went out in the water just a little ways and you could see headstones , you could see coffins and that was a cemetery there that supposedly were to have been moved . But gosh , they forgot some , some . So it's really kind of sad . But we scooped the story and channel four landed a helicopter in our backyard and we handed them a like a cassette tape , like in the old days , and it was . They gave us credit for it . It was really kind of cool to think about that . We scooped that story , but it's still sad and I don't know that those graves have been moved completely .
Speaker 2So what other activities are planned for america 250 with for delaware ?
America 250 Plans and Projects
Speaker 3one of the coolest things that we're doing is a student ambassador program . So high school students from delaware county , any of the del Delaware County schools , are eligible for this program throughout 2025 and 2026 . We've had about 60 students that have enrolled in this program , and what it is is they are expected to have an understanding of the foundation of America starting in 1776 . And we want them to learn about not just the people that signed the Declaration of Independence , but all the people throughout American history that were involved in the independence of America . So what they do is they complete 10 volunteer hours within the Delaware County Historical Society Delaware County History Network . There's a number of groups in Delaware County that form this network and it includes , like , people from Radnor Historical Society , big Walnut Historical Society , and so these students have to volunteer 10 hours , whether that means helping to catalog , maybe dusting artifacts , whatever . Then the student ambassadors will complete time with four classes taught by local historians and teachers , and it's all related to the founding documents . So it's really cool . They come to the barn at stratford for these classes , um and you sign your child up for this sure if they're a junior or senior okay okay
Speaker 3and the students who complete the ambassador program get a gorgeous red , white and blue honor cord at graduation they can proudly wear . Now this um . This program is sponsored by the delaware county foundation , um . One of the members , one of the donors there , said I love this program , I want to donate the money so we've covered all the costs for the cords and we also pay the teachers to come and teach . So we're kind of on a hiatus for the summer . These kids really don't want to take classes now , but we'll kick up again in the fall . So if anybody is interested , please send an email to info at DelawareOhioHistoryorg , or give us a call or check out our website and we'll have more information on there . So that's one of the first things that we're doing in addition to the grave mapping project .
Speaker 2Donna , back when the bicentennial happened , I remember in our community there was a huge parade , and are we going to have a giant parade that all the communities are going to participate with .
Speaker 3We may very well do that Also . In 1958 , you're not that old , I barely remember it One of the funniest things about that is they had a beard growing contest , which I think would be awesome , and then somebody got an award for the longest beard , the best looking beard , so that may very well happen . So we're also talking about immigrants , people who have stories . They came to the United States learning about what that experience was like . Yeah , we are possibly doing driving and walking tours and we want to do a driving tour of cemeteries where Revolutionary War soldiers were buried . We did a similar thing last year and the year before , but this is going to be Revolutionary War soldiers . So we got grant funding from the America 250 Ohio group and so we're going to purchase Revolutionary War soldier uniforms and we're going to have reenactors at the different cemeteries telling the story . So we'll have , for example , somebody at Mill Creek . They'll be dressed as William Warrington and they're going to say this is my life , and he'll probably try to gloss over the part that he was married four times . You know the , the wives . The wives died and so they didn't waste any time marrying again because they had all these kids to take care of . So the 17 kids is a lot . Yeah , so we'll . We'll have somebody um , we'll have somebody reenact probably six to eight different revolutionary war soldiers at the cemeteries and then they'll come back to the barn at Stratford where the reenactors will tell their story in a reenactment . So that'll be very cool .
Speaker 3We'll be at First Fridays . We'll be at the Delaware County Fair . Right now we're doing a series of programs on our agricultural history . We did one last month on Delaware County barns with a barn expert . It was very cool and he said you'll never look at barns the same way and I don't after his program . So we'll have posters . We're doing pull up signs on different aspects , and so we're possibly thinking about installing some historic markers , depending on what the budget is , and we hope to maybe clean and restore some of the tombstones of the Revolutionary War soldiers , and I do think there's funding for that . I mean , people really get into this and they really want to celebrate our country .
Speaker 2So yeah , all excited about that and I want to clarify . The bicentennial I was talking about was for Upper Arlington , Ohio , and it was in 1976 .
Speaker 3I thought you were talking about our bicentennial , which was in 1958 . That's why I said you're not old enough . That was a pretty cool event , yeah .
Speaker 2Donna , where does the majority of the funding come from for the Historical Society ?
Speaker 3We get no operating funding from the state , from the county , from the city , from the federal government . We rely on donations and memberships . When we have programs here once a month we pass the hat . People are usually pretty generous because we don't charge for our program . So we basically rely on the goodness of other people . Sometimes people will call and say I came to your program and I really want to support you and we really appreciate that . We've gotten over $2 million worth of grant funding from the state of Ohio to restore the barn at Stratford . It's 175 years old and had some significant structural problems , including a bad roof . So , working with our state senator Andrew Brenner , who's always been a friend of ours , we got funding from the state to restore that . We also get other grant funding from the foundation , from private and individual donors to support different efforts that we have . So we always have two or three projects going . County commissioners have also been very generous to us , but we can't use that money to pay the electric bill . That's the problem .
Speaker 2Right , so we only have about a minute 30 left . Tell people historical society wise . What are the things around the county to do ?
Speaker 3well , if you go to our website , you can see a driving tour on the underground railroad um , so you just get the kids in the car and drive around the different um . Almost all the structures are private , but you can at least drive by it . The Meeker House , which is where my office is , where our museum is , is also said to have been on the Underground Railroad . Our website is wwwdelawareohiohistoryorg and we have a link that you can go to . It's a tab that says walks and tours . We also have a brochure that's on Sandusky Street and one on Williams or Winter Street , so you can look at this brochure and learn all the history of all these buildings . Another thing that's really cool is
Historical Society Resources and Tours
Speaker 3you're probably not familiar with this , but there's a program out there that was developed by Marshall University and it's called the CLIO T-H-E-C-L-I-O . People can go on there and they can learn . There's probably 40 or 50 entries for Delaware , so you can go on there and look , pull up a building and it'll tell you the whole history of the building right there .
Speaker 2So that's , really cool yeah .
Speaker 3Our Meeker Museum is open the first Sunday of every month from 1 to 4 pm , and the Research Library and Nash House Museum is open on Sundays from 2 to 5 and Wednesdays from 10 to 12 and 1 to 5 . We also have the historic jail that we purchased a couple of years ago . That's open every first Friday , but we won't be open this first Friday because it's the 4th of July . I'm sorry . Last first Friday because it was the 4th of July , and so the first Friday in August will be the first time . It's a free tour and people love it . We have docents that tell all the stories , so come to that .
Speaker 2Fascinating . Well , dawn , I want to thank you so much for joining us and sharing all the interesting information about how we were part of the Revolutionary War , as far as after the war , and a little bit about our own history and the Indians that were here . Yeah , it's all fascinating , very cool . Yes , thank you , donna .
Speaker 1Thank you for having me . Thank you for listening to this episode of Central Ohio Matters . Be sure to like , share and download . We cover government policies , healthcare challenges , housing and business developments , transportation solutions , education and innovation . If you know of a good story we should be talking about , go to the radio station website and fill out a contact form Directed to Michelle Gatchel , host of Central Ohio Matters . Thank you .
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