This Month @ ONU

April 1, 1976 – Groundbreaking for Wilson Art Bldg.

April 1, 1973 – Groundbreaking for King-Horn Center

April 1, 1995 – Freeman Annex to Dukes Memorial dedicated

 

 

(L to R) C.H. Freeman's daughter, Pres. Freed, Susan Insley (Trustee) A&S Dean Hawbecker

 

 

April 2, 2004 – Arbogast Building in downtown Ada burns, ONU students & staff lose housing

 

April 3, 1928 – Funeral of Sen. Willis ('93 and ONU faculty member)

 

 

April 5, 1997 – Ground broken for addition to Taggart Law Library

April 7, 1941 – Clappers are stolen from bell tower in Hill Bldg.

April 9, 1866 – Henry S. Lehr began leaching in the Ada Public School – conducted his “select

                           school,” the predecessor of ONU, after classes

 

 

April 10, 1949 – Pres. McClure resigns for health reasons. Died June 1, 1952 at his home in

                             Florida

April 11, 1941 – Northern opens a $12,000 dormitory in the former S.M. Johnson residence

                             behind Hill

April 12, 1973 – Cornerstone laid for King-Horn

April 17, 1971 – Wesley Center dedicated

 

 

April 17, 1991 – beginning of dedication ceremonies for Freed Center

April 20, 1903 – first classes held in Dukes Building

 

 

April 22, 1941 – Two 50 lb. bell clappers from Hill Bldg. turn up in the lobby of the Cleveland

                             Plain Dealer

April 21, 1968 – Five University Place (former Alpha Sigma Phi house) opened

 

 

April 22, 1907 – Former Pres. Leroy A. Belt dies in his home in Kenton

 

 

April 23, 1994 - The Zeta Sigma chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta was established at Northern

April 27, 2009 – First LGBT course added to ONU’s curriculum

March Display: The Great Black Swamp

March’s library display is about the Great Black Swamp and surrounding marshes, which are important to the history of this area of northwest Ohio. The Swamp was roughly the size of Connecticut before being drained. Virtually none of the Swamp is left.

Tom Rumer, author of Unearthing the Land: The Story of Ohio’s Scioto Marsh, is appearing at ONU in April. He is a native of Kenton, Ohio.

Earliest known photo of the Great Black Swamp

The landscape of northwest Ohio was formed by melting ice and the glacial lakes left behind in its wake. Because of the low gradient (3 feet fall per mile) to the northeast, the flat lacustrine plain evolved into a large swamp. A massive swamp forest with huge hardwoods, broken only sporadically with intermittent wet prairies and savannahs, dominated the landscape. Both prehistoric and historic Indians farmed the flood plains of the Maumee River and its tributaries: Auglaize, Tiffin, and Blanchard rivers. The geography of the swamp retarded major settlement up to the Civil War. The 1859 Ohio Ditch Law, a harbinger of drainage legislation nationally, created a cooperative system for individuals to petition county government to surface drain the area. Simultaneous to the surface drainage projects, a massive effort was underway timbering the former swamp forest. Virgin timber for the fleets of America and Europe, grade lumber for the farms and the emerging cities of the area, stave wood for the barrel and stave mills, and the left-over slabwood to fuel the hundreds of clay tile mill kilns dotting the counties of the swamp nearly denuded the landscape of these giant trees. The family-owned clay tile mills allowed underdrainage to transform the swamp into Ohio's most contiguously farmed and productive region. 

The Scioto Marsh, located on SR 195 near McGuffey, was the largest of three extensive marsh areas in western Hardin County. It was formed in the low basins left by the last retreating glacier 10,000 years ago. It covered more than 16,000 acres and was thought to be a source of malaria by the early settlers. A drainage project was begun in 1859, and the remaining peat-ladened soil helped make this rich agricultural area. 

The village of McGuffey was named for John McGuffey, who in the 1860s first attempted to drain the Scioto Marsh. McGuffey was once the center of the national onion trade due to the rich organic soil in the wetland.

Hog-Creek Marsh was located on SR 81, halfway between the villages of Ada and Dola. Comprising 8,000 acres of Brookston-Crosby soils, the marsh is named for Hog Creek which drains it. Once a shallow lake, cranberries, wild flags and grasses flourished here. Reclamation (1868) cost $13.00 per acre. Dredging was done by steam scow; lateral ditches were hand dug by spade. The original grade of 1/3" in 100' proved ineffective for onion, beets and potatoes. In 1949 restored drainage outlets breathed new life for today's soybean and corn agriculture.

Hoopla @ Heterick: Wednesday, March 12, 6-10 PM

    This Month @ ONU



March 8, 1838   – H.S. Lehr, founder of

Ohio Northern University, born



March 12, 1986 – Dedication of Renovated Presser Hall

March 13, 1866 – Lehr arrives in Ada (then called Johnstown)

 

March 16, 1923 – Polar bear adopted as Northern’s mascot
From cover of 1925 Northern

 

March 22, 1963 – Ground broken for McIntosh Center (cafeteria section opened earlier)

 

March 24, 2013 – Campus hit by a late season blizzard

Don't put those coats and scarves away just yet.

 



March 28, 1958 – ONU accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary

Schools - A joyful Pres. McIntosh Waving

 

March 31. 1995 – Freeman Annex, Dukes Building dedicated
Named in honor of Prof. C.H. Freeman

 

 

New Books and Media: January 2014

Books:
American labor's global ambassadors : the international history of the AFL-CIO during the Cold War / edited by Robert Anthony Waters, Jr., and Geert Van Goethem ; with foreword by Marcel van der Linden
Belgium and the Congo, 1885-1980 / Guy Vanthemsche, Vrije Universiteit Brussel ; translated by Alice Cameron and Stephen Windross ; revised by Kate Connelly

More after the break...

Library System Downtime

The library catalog, Polar, and off-campus access to databases will be unavailable on Monday, March 3, due to a hardware migration.

Thank you for your patience. 

Spring Break Hours

Hours for Spring Break will be as follows:

Friday, February 28   7:30AM  to 4:30PM
Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2  CLOSED
Monday, March 3 - Friday, March 7  8:00AM to 4:30PM
Saturday, March 8 CLOSED
Sunday, March 9  4PM to midnight

Library 1968

HAPPY 46th HETERICK!!

 

 

On Valentine's Day, 1968, the Heterick Memorial Library was opened for business.

 

 

A few days earlier, the entire library collection was hand carried from the old library in Presser Hall to the new building by students, faculty and administrators.

Pres. Meyer (L) Library Dir, J.W. Baker (R)

 

 

With considerable hard work, the materials were shelved and ready for use.

 

 





Amazon's 100 best books to read in a lifetime

Amazon recently published their list of the 100 books one should read in a lifetime. The list spans about the last 200 years and is listed alphabetically to denote no particular importance. Take a look and tell us by commenting on this post which book(s) you think everyone should be required to read. Or feel free to tell us about your favorite book.

Click on the link after each book to see availability.

5. Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning or Orphans!
http://olc1.ohiolink.edu:80/record=b19983732~S0

4. Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Soldier Boy.
http://polar.onu.edu/record=b1498507~S7

3. Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
http://olc1.ohiolink.edu:80/record=b19764062~S0

2. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time.
http://polar.onu.edu/record=b1061457~S7

1. George Orwell. 1984.
http://polar.onu.edu/record=b1362402~S7

Click on the link below for the full story and see the listing.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/living/amazon-100-best-books/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Proquest databases will experience downtime

On February 15, 2014 ProQuest will make improvements to its internal systems to accommodate a growing number of users and to reduce the need for future downtime. To minimize the impact these enhancements, it will be installed during an eight hour window of typically low usage from 10:00pm on Saturday, February 15th to 6:00am on Sunday, February 16th. During this time the following ProQuest products will not be available: ProQuest ProQuest Dialog ProQuest Congressional RefWorks