Freedom Twp. – The Freedom Township Historical Society has an exciting guest speaker for our August meeting. Danny Back, a nationally known expert on river history, steamboats, and canals, will give a presentation on Ohio’s Canal Era: 1832-1913 at 7 p.m. Aug.13. We are expecting a large crowd so this meeting will take place at the Shalersville Town Hall at the intersection of state Routes 44 and 303. The presentation covers the construction, operation, and decline of the canals and includes many rare and unique scenes of life along the canals. Mr. Back’s many accomplishments include presenting programs aboard the Delta Queen and other historic steamboats, appearing in the PBS documentary “Take the River, and consulting with several museums and historical societies. Mr. Back donated an extensive collection of rare steamboat and river history books to Southeast Missouri State University to create the Dan Back River History Collection and developed the Life on the Ohio River History Museum in Vevay, Ind.
This event will be co-hosted by FTHS and the Shalersville Historical Society and is free and open to the public. We will be taking up donations for Shalersville’s museum and our one-room schoolhouse renovation. If you need a ride, call Judy Thornton at (330) 527-7669.
FTHS is partnering with the Freedom Community and Park Boosters and the First Congregational Church of Freedom for our second annual Freedom Fall Festival from 10 am to 4 pm Sept. 28 at Freedom Center. Once again, there will be one-room schoolhouse tours, a Civil War Camp, a Country Gospel band, a halo station, a craft show and pumpkins for sale. New this year will be K-9 demonstrations, health screenings from UH Portage, an Elvis impersonator, and cloggers. There’s also going to be an all-new cow-chip bingo contest, which will raise funds for FTHS and the park boosters. We’ll have tickets available for that starting at the Freedom Community Picnic on Aug. 18.
Thanks to author and historian Julie Thompson for a wonderful presentation on her new book “The Hunt for the Last Public Enemy in Northeastern Ohio: Alvin ‘Creepy’ Karpis on His Road to Alcatraz” at our July meeting. Ms. Thompson’s talk included a re-enactment of the Great Garrettsville Train Heist with recent Hiram College graduate Abigail Stevenson portraying “Creepy” Al and Phillip McCoy portraying a train conductor. Also a big thank you to Julie’s husband, Ed, who skillfully handled tech duties.
Thanks to Freedom resident Kathy Cain who donated a vintage ladies hat and hat box from the former Spencer’s Millinery in Garrettsville.
