Trending
As a historian it is hard to describe the excitement that I feel about this Independence Day. Something about an anniversary is exciting but more than that, this day, this year in particular, feels different. Exactly 250 years ago on July 4, our nation was born with the Declaration of Independence. I think as a people it would hard to find a document more impactful on a personal and national level. Due to this document and the nation that was born as a result, my ancestors, and so many others, came to this country for the opportunity for a better life. They hoped, to pursue the ideals set forth in that document penned by Thomas Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That liberty was not easily won and it has cost many lives to hold on to during the last 250 years. Looking back at my great-grandmother, whose family goes back in this country longer than our nation, I am honored to have a few direct ancestors who fought to secure that independence. To name a few, Capt. John Van Bibber, Capt. William Cander Baskins, Col. George Reid and Daniel Boone. My wife’s family goes back just as far and can trace her ancestors to veterans including Revolutionary war hero Capt. John Glover of Marblehead, Mass., who personally saved Washington on a number of occasions, primarily at the Battle of Brooklyn, and who ferried him across the Delaware to attack Hessian forces at the battle of Trenton in December of 1776.
As a whole in our area, we are surrounded with Revolutionary War history. Hancock County is named for John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence; Brooke County was named for Virginia Gov. Robert Brooke, veteran of the war; Jefferson County is named for Thomas Jefferson; and Steubenville was named in honor of the fort that was named for Revolutionary war hero Baron Von Steuben. That history and connection with the revolution can go on and on in place names and other locations in our region. As far as veterans of the war who are buried here in Jefferson County, the Jefferson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society maintains a list on their website that documents all of those important patriots. For those looking here in our county for those types of records, a trip to their office is certainly an important stop.
To compile a list of all the Revolutionary War veterans who lived here or passed through this area would be a daunting task. We do know of many who were at Fort Steuben during the eight months or so the fort was in existence. I have often thought of how those veterans and soldiers celebrated the anniversary of our nation on July 4.
As far as the fort’s history is concerned, the soldiers weren’t here in July of 1786 or 1787. The earliest record I could find of the celebration, or rather the commemoration of July 4, in Steubenville was in 1807, thanks go to the efforts of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County to digitize our early newspapers. In the Steubenville Western Herald on Saturday, July 4, 1807, the editors of the paper commemorate the holiday and Declaration of Independence, only 31 years after its creation. They write, “From the Declaration of Independence hereunto annexed, you will learn that a Nation was politically born in a day. A Nation, whose rapid progress and improvement, in the arts and sciences, Agriculture and Manufactures; its addition of an unbounded extent of Territory, together with its vast and almost incalculable increase of wealth and population.- Stands this day without a rival … A Nation whose success in the improvements of the principles of Liberty, Equality and Independence, has not only filed the bosoms of the sons of Freedom with transports of joy, wherever dispersed, enslaved or oppressed throughout the Globe … A Nation whose, prosperous and happy Government, has invited the lovers of Liberty from the four quarters of the Globe. The oppressed of all nations.”
In 1807, there were still many veterans of the revolution living who could remember the events of 31 years earlier. The paper continues, “Again and for the thirty first anniversary of American Independence, hath the kind and indulgent God of Nature, brought us by the revolution of time, to that great and eventful day the 4th of July 1807. The birth day of America.”
The author of this piece did not participate in the struggle for independence but felt the weight of the day: “In those toils I had no share, in those dangers I had no part; but in real sympathy, I can pour out my spirit in the effusion of joy that ought to appear on this day. I can participate in the pleasures of the rising generations, an applaud the honor of the aged seers. I can render thanks to the saviors of our country. I can walk, and join in the emblems of liberty, and decorate the memory of deceased patriots, with annual boughs.” Clearly fervor for our nation and the cause of liberty were alive and well in Steubenville in 1807.
To the folks yet to come, the Revolutionary War and those who fought in it will be more of a distant memory, far from the current generation. However, the ideals of that movement, the ideals set out by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 are timeless. All men are created equal and we have certain unalienable rights, those of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And going back to the Western Herald of July 4, 1807, “Our sons and son’s sons shall enjoy our blessings, our land, our government and our patriots shall be remembered through ever ceasing time- Let libations be poured out in commemoration of the 4th of July, 1776. Tell in the streets, proclaim to the clouds, that we are and will be a free Democratical and Republican People.”
May God continue to bless the land of the free and the home of the brave.
(Zuros is the executive director of Historic Fort Steuben)