Ottawa County Museum Continues to Honor Purple Heart Veterans

 On August 7, 1782, in the waning days of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit. Prevented by the Continental Congress from granting commissions and promotions in rank to his soldiers, Washington hoped to encourage and honor meritorious service with this special award. The honored soldier was to wear “over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace and binding.”

After the war, the award of merit was nearly forgotten until the 20^th century when it was revived at the bicentennial of Washington’s birth. In 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the award for all armed services and also to be given posthumously. Congress chartered the Purple Heart Medal in 1958. Presently, more than 1.7 million Purple Hearts have been awarded to our armed forces.

David Barth, a member of the board of directors of the Ottawa County [Ohio]Museum is researching and collecting information and photographs of Purple Heart recipients with connections to Ottawa County. He is asking those who have received the award and the family members of deceased recipients to fill out a Purple Heart Registry form. Those forms will be included in a book that is updated twice each year – August and February.

Mr. Barth can be reached at drb360@gmail.com or by phone at 419-357-2057.

The Ottawa County [Ohio] Museum held its first Purple Heart Day ceremony earlier this year. Thirty-five recipients and families were honored. Their information was compiled in a book titled “Ottawa County’s Heroes: The Stories of the Life and Service of Those with Ties to Ottawa County who were Recipients of the Purple Heart Medal.” This resource book is available for viewing at each county library, Ottawa County Veteran Services Department, and the Ottawa County Museum (126 W. Third St., Port Clinton, Ohio) 

                    

The Purple Heart Medal criteria has gone through many changes over the years. Presently it is awarded to members of the armed forces wounded in combat with an enemy force, posthumously to next of kin of those killed in combat, and those wounded or who died while a prisoner of war (2008).

The Ottawa County Museum has the distinction of of being one of only 15 museums across the nation designated as a Purple Heart Trail Museum. The trail begins at Mount Vernon near the grave site of George Washington. Each trail museum maintains a database of Purple Heart recipients and creates a museum display. Each trail museum honors those who have received the medal at a ceremony held each August 7, the National Purple Heart Day.

John H. Martin: Buffalo Soldier

In July 1866, the United States Congress authorized the formation of the first peacetime all-black regiments in the U.S. Army. The regiments, composed of the 9^th and 10^th Cavalry and the 24^th Infantry (reorganized from the 39^th and 40^th) and the 25^th  Infantry (reorganized from the 38^th and 41^st).

According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas, the nickname derived from the Cheyenne warriors during the winter of 1877, who thought the soldiers fought like “wild buffalo.” However, Colonel Benjamin Grierson, who commanded the 10^th Cavalry, recalled the name much earlier, during the 1871 campaign against the Comanches. They thought the soldiers’ curly hair like that of the bison. Another source comes from the Plains tribes. They gave them the name because of the bison coats worn by the troops in winter. Eventually, all four regiments proudly became known as the Buffalo Soldiers.       

                                                       

Buffalo Soldier Statue at Leavenworth, Kansas

John H. Martin was born in 1848 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert and Emily (Hall) Martin. He had served with the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. His regiment, the 25^th Infantry, had disbanded along with other USCT in the fall of 1865. But Martin, like many USCT veterans chose to re-enlist with the newly formed black  regiments. According to his obituary, John Martin served as a musician in the 25^th Infantry for fifteen years.                     

The regiments were stationed at Army posts in the Southwest and on the Great Plains They fought during the Indian Wars, built wagon roads, constructed telegraph lines, protected settlements, served as scouts, and escorted the U.S. mail. Portions of the Buffalo Soldier regiments fought the Apache in New Mexico and pursued Victorio in Mexico. Despite their courageous service, many experienced racial prejudice from settlers as well as members of the U.S. Army. The first black commissioned officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers was Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point in 1877. At least 18 Buffalo Soldiers received the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars.   

                 

Lt. Henry O. Flipper
Courtesy of West Point

                                  

Following his service, Martin returned to Ohio. On November 4, 1885, he married Mary Ann Davison at Oberlin, Ohio, the daughter of James and Lucy Bell (Roberson) Davison, originally from West Virginia. The couple settled in Fremont, Ohio on Sandusky Avenue and then Whittlesey Street. Martin was employed for many years as a silver polisher at Claus Shear Works. They were the parents of five children. Mary Ann passed away in 1922. John Martin spent his final days at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Sandusky, Ohio. He died there March 26, 1926 at the age of seventy-seven. Both he and Mary Ann are buried in Fremont’s Oakwood Cemetery. The image below is courtesy of Find A Grave.

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The Grim Reaper

 “Mr. Leezen has the ague and the fever, Eliza the headache. Mr. Thomas Gallagher had the intermittent fever and his son the remitting fever. Many sick at the river at Green Creek. Mr. Rogers is yet hearty, but his housekeeper has another visit from the fever and ague.” These were just a few of the quotes from Josiah Atkins’ letters to his brother back in Ashtabula, Ohio.

In 1824, Josiah, a personable young man, had come to Lower Sandusky [Fremont, Ohio] to manage the sale of lands through the 20 miles of Black Swamp to Perrysburg, Ohio. The tracts were the last federal lands for sale in Ohio. Settlers ditched, grubbed, dug, chopped, and burned their way through a 120- foot right- of-way in the massive quagmire that would become the Maumee and Western Reserve Road.

Like the settlers, Atkins soon became sick himself. He wrote that he was at last freed from the shaking and fever. Yet, he told his brother, “I am not well – there is something hanging or clinging about my springs of life that tells me I am not well. My head is dizzy, my knees are weak, my breath is short. I am anything less than half such a man as I was when I came to this good and great city of Lower (than hell) Sandusky.”

Woodland Mosquito

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Some thought it was the foul air and the swamp's gases that was making nearly everyone sick. In reality, it was the ever present mosquitoes that thrived in the pools of stagnant waters. They were the culprits that spread malaria among these early pioneers. Many became so ill, they lay shaking in the cabins, unable to work or care for their families. More than a third who came gave up and moved on. No one really knows the exact death toll.

Mosquitoes carrying malaria not only brought death and misery to the settlers of the Black Swamp, but as far back as the Bronze Age, they contributed to the collapse of the Greek and Egyptian civilizations. For centuries mosquitoes harboring malaria had sapped the strength of armies. At the surrender of Yorktown, nearly half of Cornwallis’ soldiers were unfit for battle due to malaria. According to historian Amanda Foreman, the Panama Canal was only completed because of quinine and better mosquito control. In World War II, General MacArthur believed that for every one of his Pacific Theater divisions, two were unfit to fight because of malaria.

Today, the Grim Reaper continues to take its toll. Each year, more than 400,000 die from malaria throughout the world. Two thirds are children under the age of five. Welcome news has finally come! This year for the first time, the World Health Organization has approved a childhood vaccine against malaria!