The following has been submitted by the Logan County History Center.
By: Beth Marshall
In 1938, there was a sesquicentennial celebration to commemorate the Ordinance of 1797 that opened the Northwest Territory for settlement. As part of the celebration, O.K. Reames, a historian from Zanesfield, Ohio, wrote and directed a pageant called “Freedom on the March”. This was produced in conjunction with the “Northwest Territory Expedition”, which re-enacted the trek of the original pioneers from Massachusetts to settle the new territory.
According to Reames, “The essential purpose of the Northwest Territory Celebration is to recall to the minds and thoughts of all Americans the humble heroism and the constructive determinations of the plain American citizens who first determined the type of government under which they willed to live,”. The plan was to inspire Americans with “the courage and resourcefulness of those determined men from the east to settle the vast wilderness west of the Alleghenies”. It was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). There were 36 men from 11 different states, mostly college-age, in the caravan. Although most had some dramatic experience, they were chosen from over 700 applicants mainly for their “physical hardihood and general character”. One of those chosen was Robert Brown from Zanesfield, and another, Graham Johnson of Zanesville, was a descendant of one of the original pioneers who came on the trek with the Ohio Company. The caravan and pageant, under the direction of O.K. Reames, was recognized for historic correctness and authentic costumes.
The expedition started in Ipswich, Massachusetts, on Dec. 3, as the original pioneers had one hundred and fifty years earlier. After extensive research on what was needed, the oxen had been purchased in West Virginia. Tom and Jerry pulled the Conestoga wagon 650 miles from Ipswich to West Newton, Pennsylvania, only having trouble on icy modern pavement. The caravan was also accompanied by five horses purchased from the US Cavalry, and a dog named Buck (named for the dollar a day the men received) who joined the troop in Pennsylvania and stayed for the whole trip, even learning a part in the pageant.
The 8-part pageant was given every night except Sundays, with the 36 men portraying 114 characters. The group came to the Youghiogheny River where they stopped for forty-five days to cut down trees and build boats. The oxen proved very capable at pulling the large logs out of the woods. Poplar logs were used in making two dugout canoes, each twenty feet long and three feet in diameter. Thirty-nine oak trees were cut to furnish the lumber for five boats, the cutting and shaping done using hand-tools like those of the original pioneers. The largest boat, the “Union Galley”, was 15 by 30 feet with a cabin. They also built three flatboats. After floating down the Ohio River, they reached Marietta, Ohio, on April 1.
From April 3 through October 1, 1938, the caravan visited towns throughout the States of the old Northwest Territory, being followed by two trucks carrying costumes and a portable stage.
They arrived in Bellefontaine on May 13. The festivities started with a mammoth parade, featuring floats from each Logan County village that were designed to represent the date that community was established. Many bands, an original Wells Fargo stagecoach, and costumed mounted and marching troupes from all over the county participated. The unsuspecting caravan was greeted by a surprise when it was surrounded by local “Indians” as it entered the fairgrounds where the pageant was to take place. The “pioneers” were captured but later “permitted to live and smoke the pipe of peace” in an additional pageant of Logan County’s making. It was estimated that 7,500 people attended the “Freedom on the March” pageant that night.
The caravan proceeded through the states of the old Northwest Territory, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, giving the program six nights a week. They returned to Ohio in October 1938 after having presented the pageant more than 200 times, making the Bellefontaine celebration one memorable stop in a much larger commemorative journey.
It was estimated that between 7.5 and 10 million people saw the caravan during its travels. The Martins Ferry Daily Times said that “in duplicating, with such historical accuracy, the original expedition and in presenting pageants in portrayal of early Ohio history, the ‘Pioneers of 1938’ presented history in a manner calculated to impress the people much more forcibly than historians could ever hope to by the written word.”
Visit the Logan County History Center to learn more interesting aspects of Logan County History. The History Center is open for tours Wednesday – Sunday from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Admission is free.
