Bill Speer

If ever there was a mouthful of something, that word must be it. Since there is no way I want to try and spell the word more than once, let’s try this – are you ready to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday this year?

For a history geek like me, the thought of such an event is pure bliss.

I can just imagine the conservation taking place at Disney’s Hall of Presidents ahead of the celebration this summer.

Picture this scene of George Washington turning to Teddy Roosevelt and asking: “Hey Teddy, remind me again of what kind of tea did the American colonists want.”

“Well George, don’t you remember, they wanted liberty” Roosevelt chuckles as he nudges Washington in his side.

The 250th anniversary came up as one of our table conversations the other day with the group of men who I gather with each Friday morning for coffee and fellowship. My wife likes to tell friends the group attempts to solve world problems. I know better, as some of us have a hard enough time deciding between flavored coffee or extra bold.

At any rate, the conversation the other day centered around democracy and what it looked like then, what it looks like today and whether it still will exist 250 years from today.

As to the answer to the last question, you will be happy to know everyone agreed democracy not only will still exist, but it could also look a lot better than what it looks like today.

One of the guys took the anniversary discussion one step further by sharing with us that he and his wife were contemplating a trip to Boston in early July to celebrate Independence Day where the fight for freedom all began.

I must admit I was a bit envious. And it got me thinking that maybe something similar might be in order for the readers of this column and myself.

No, sorry, I can’t rent a bus and have you all join me on a pilgrimage to Boston. But why not this year sprinkle several history side trips here and there in observance of this historic occasion for our country?

After all, America’s 250th anniversary facts and figures can be found many places these days.

Let’s start this trip in the region where I now call home – Northwest Ohio. It is here where Colonel William Crawford was involved in the last battle of the Revolutionary War, which occurred in Wyandot County.

That’s right, the final battle of the Revolutionary War occurred about 25 miles from Findlay. While the treaty to end the war was signed in Yorktown Oct. 19, 1781, news of that historic event filtered slowly to the frontier, where skirmishes and Native American uprisings still occurred regularly.

A surveyor who also spent much of his adult life in the military, Crawford was a good friend of George Washington. After an ugly massacre of Delaware Indians near New Philadelphia and Dover, Ohio, now known as the Gnadenhutten Massacre, Native Americans on the western frontier in these parts were on the warpath.

Washington asked Crawford in 1782 to come out of retirement as a soldier and lead an excursion to the Ohio Territory to try and quell the hostilities between settlers and members of the tribes, who were aligned with the British.

In what must be one of the most barbaric treatments of a wartime prisoner ever known to man, Crawford and his men eventually were captured after a battle they were losing near Upper Sandusky. Weighing the odds, Crawford and his men attempted to retreat, but ultimately were captured. Crawford was tortured and burned at the stake by Delaware Indian Chief Captain Pipe.

Word of the torture and death of Crawford spread back to the 13 colonies, and it would be decades before relations between colonists on the frontier and Native Americans would be restored to some type of trust because of this incident.

A monument to the colonel can be seen five miles south of Carey on Ohio 199. While I have yet to visit, I will make it my first stop during this 250-year celebration in the weeks ahead.

I hope you’ll join me on this historical travelogue throughout the year.

And hey, did you hear the one about the Liberty Bell?

Yeah, that one is everything it’s cracked up to be as well.

Bill Speer is a former Publisher/Editor of The Alpena News. He can be reached at bspeer@thealpenanews.com