Clark County Historical Society at the Heritage Center

06/20/2026

It’s time for a on new donations! We recently received a Shriner's uniform from Akbar Temple #41 in Springfield, that once belonged to Millard Michael "Mike" Dixon, Sr.

Mike Dixon was a Springfield native who served 26 years in the U.S. Army and was deeply involved in his community. He was a Mason and Shriner, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Ohio Memorial Chapter, and former president of Strivers. He was known as a man who put family first and left a lasting impression on everyone he met. He passed away in 2021.

Akbar Temple #41 has long been a cornerstone of Springfield's Black community, and this uniform is a tangible piece of that legacy.

We want to remind people that Juneteenth and Fatherfest celebrations are continuing today, June 20, from 11am–7pm at the Gammon House Underground Railroad Historic Landmark, a fitting day to reflect on the broader history and community a donation like this represents.

06/19/2026

Today is Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America.

Though President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, declaring all enslaved people free, the news traveled slowly across a nation still torn by war. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and delivered word to more than 250,000 enslaved people that they were finally free.

African Americans began celebrating Juneteenth as early as 1866, but the holiday didn’t receive federal recognition until June 17, 2021, when President Biden signed it into law, making it the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.

Tomorrow from 11am-7pm you can join with the community to celebrate Juneteenth & Fatherfest at the Gammon House Underground Railroad Historic Landmark.

The day will be packed with family fun and activities, great food and local vendors, community organizations sharing resources (find us under the big tent!), and more. You can visit the historic Gammon House and walk along the newly upgraded Discovery Trail, exploring local Black history and beyond. We hope you can make it there!

06/18/2026

Yesterday's Where Is It Wednesday photo comes with a small confession: the image we shared wasn't actually from our local area. We showed a group gathered around a plaque with the text deliberately obscured since we didn't want to give the location away too easily. As expected, most of you guessed local spots, which is usually how we roll. This week, though, we'd stumbled across an intriguing photograph in our archives and fell down quite a rabbit hole trying to learn more, and to figure out whether there's any local connection to a picture that is decidedly not local.

Guesses included Ferncliff, Cliff Park, and Snyder Park, and, almost as a throwaway, someone mentioned that it reminded them of Gettysburg. Because it is.

Handwritten on the back of the photograph it reads:
"This group represents a group of Signal Corps men and their families placing a tablet on Little Round Top, Gettysburg, Pa. battlefield, marking the spot where Signal Corps officer Hoslette fell, and others of his Signal Corps squad, on the 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg — endeavoring to signal the Union Army commander the importance of the position as a key to the Gettysburg battle. The tablet was dedicated June 1919, marking the spot where these Signal Corps men fell."

That inscription sent us searching. One thing that struck us immediately once we began researching: the sheer scale of documentation surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg. The National Park Service manages 1,320 monuments and markers across the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District, and remarkably, you can find all of them online. Wikipedia has a breakdown with exact coordinates, photographs, and details organized by Union and Confederate forces, by state and regiment, and by individual honorees. The Historic Marker Database include maps, photographs, and historical context, and more. It's a remarkable rabbit hole in its own right.

The name on the back of the photo puzzled us at first, but we figured it out: the inscription refers to Lt. Charles Edward Hazlett, a native of Zanesville, Ohio, who commanded Battery D of the 5th U.S. Artillery. Hazlett was killed on July 2, 1863, the second day of the battle, while tending to the mortally wounded Brigadier General Stephen H. W**d on Little Round Top. A monument dedicated in 1889 honors both fallen soldiers and stands just a few steps from where the 1919 photograph was taken.

We still aren't sure why this photo lives in our collection, and information about who originally donated it has been lost to time. Our best theory was a local connection, like someone from Clark County who served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. We did find lists of Ohioans present with the Signal Corps on Little Round Top during the battle, but no direct Clark County link turned up. It's possible that a veteran who served there later settled in our area. Unfortunately, no one in the photograph is identified, which makes that trail harder to follow.

The handwritten note dates the photo to June 1919, but we believe that's a slight error. According to The Gettysburg Times, the U.S. Army Signal Corps plaque was actually dedicated on May 16, 1919. During the Civil War, the Signal Corps served as the tactical eyes and ears of the battlefield, operating flag and telegraph stations. Under Captain James Hall, they played a key role in securing Little Round Top for the Union. The plaque is mounted on "Signal Rock," one of the main Signal Corps stations during the battle. We think that the photograph shows what is believed to have been the last formal gathering of U.S. Signal Corps veterans, with twenty-seven former members in attendance.

The photo provides a slice of history, and we realized quickly that there is far more information out there, even if we didn’t find exactly what we wanted. If you have any insight into this photograph, we'd love to hear from you.

06/17/2026

It's time for a WHERE is it Wednesday! Can you tell us where this is?

06/15/2026

Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, has a local connection through co-founder Leroy N. Van Horn, once a Springfield resident. Born in Delaware County, Ohio, he enlisted as a musician in the Civil War with the 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry before moving to Springfield in 1870. In 1894, he co-founded the American Flag Day Association and helped stage Flag Day programs throughout Chicago's schools. He died in Chicago in 1907 but was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery's GAR mound. President Wilson issued the first national Flag Day proclamation in 1916, and it became an official holiday under President Truman in 1949. The Heritage Center's collection of flags includes an 1861 34-star flag, a 38-star flag (1877–1890), and an 1893 flag quilt from the local White Rose Club featuring 1,224 embroidered names.

06/13/2026

It's time for a on new donations! Earlier this year we received a large donation of materials that included this Cat's Meow miniature wood block print of Central United Methodist Church at High and Center.

The earlier building for that church on that spot was completed in the late fall of 1863 and it was the third building constructed by the congregation, which was the earliest Methodist Episcopal Church established in the area; High Street Methodist, Grace Methodist, and St. Paul Methodist, and Clifton Avenue Methodist were each organized from there.

The Central congregation outgrew the two story building after about fifty years, so in May 1912 they removed the old building and replaced it with a much larger one that opened in 1914. For a few years after the church was there, it was the Central Community Center.

More recently, the beautiful building was renovation and reimagined as lovely event space, The Springfield Metropolis. It is also has commercial space and is the home to the The CCLC and MVCDC and The Nehemiah Foundation.

We love all the local Cat's Meows out there (and other local miniatures that are not made by that company). In our collection now we have 28 different ones, representing local historic buildings, churches, schools, and more. We keep a running list of what we have so we know when someone offers to donate one we DON'T have. We love adding to the collection!

06/12/2026

These sweet pups were recently donated to the collections at the Heritage Center. These promotional “doggy banks” for collecting your savings came from the Guardian Bank in Springfield. Other similar banks appear to be from the 1960s, but it’s unclear the details about when these were popular. If anyone has any memories or can offer insight, they can contact [email protected].

06/11/2026

Yesterday's What Is It Wednesday was a little different from our usual posts. First, the item shown isn't actually part of our collection. Second, we genuinely weren't sure what it was! The piece was brought in by local researcher Dave McWhorter of the New Carlisle Historical Society, and while we had our theories, we couldn't say with certainty what we were looking at.

As always, we skipped including anything for scale (we like to be difficult like that!), which led to a wonderfully wide range of guesses. Our two most popular answers were cannonball and musket ball, the same guesses we initially had ourselves. A few of you suggested a shot put ball or a tiny BB, which makes sense without a size reference. Our favorite guesses? An Iron Age Magic 8 Ball, an old-timey Pokéball, and a bowling ball. Very creative, folks!

So, what do we actually know? We had a few key clues: it was found in a field on the east side of Medway-Carlisle Road, it measures about 2 inches across, and its weight ruled out the most common guesses. It seemed too large and heavy for a musket ball, but too small and light for a cannonball. Interestingly, when Dave first brought it in, we didn’t immediately remember that the very same piece had been shown to us about five years ago, and we'd had the exact same conversation then. Both times, we landed on the same conclusion: this is most likely a mill ball.

A little digging through Google and various online discussion threads confirmed that mill balls turn up in farm fields all the time and are frequently mistaken for military artifacts. Historically, they were used as grinding media inside agricultural machinery, and over time, they simply fell off (or out) and worked their way into the topsoil.

For some context and comparison, we've included:
• A photo of the Battle of Piqua display on the second floor of the Heritage Center, which features actual cannonballs recovered from the battlefield
• A photo of the Civil War tree limb, riddled with cannonballs, that we loaned for a 2012 Civil War exhibit at Carillon Park
• An online reference photo of mill balls
• A few additional photos that give a better sense of scale

Thanks for your great guesses, everyone!

06/10/2026

It's time for a WHAT is it Wednesday! Can you identify this object?

06/09/2026

Our collections at the Heritage Center help to document 60 years of great entertainment at the park, thanks to the Springfield Arts Council! We've already saved for the archives a copy of this year's 60th Anniversary schedule brochure and will be adding the full program too, once the Summer Arts Festival officially kicks off this upcoming Thursday!

We'll be ready to set up our chairs on summer mornings and are looking forward to another great year of evenings in the park. We're especially excited to be out there for the America 250 celebration on July 3 with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra - OH, which coincides with the National Trail Parks and Recreation District's Buck Creek Boom fireworks!

What are YOU looking forward to most this year?

The event many local residents plan their evenings, weekends and even vacations around is having a landmark birthday in 2026, and everyone is invited for its five-week party.
The Springfield Arts Council’s 60th Summer Arts Festival will mix national, regional and local attractions spread over 22 days to continue a tradition that helps define this community’s summer season. The Broadway in the Park presentation of “Tarzan the Musical” will launch the season at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 11.

Shows will be at Veterans Park Amphitheater, 250 Cliff Park Road, and will begin at 8 p.m. unless noted otherwise. Admission remains free, with free-will donations accepted at each show’s intermission.

Link in bio to read more.