Description: Helen Rhodes in front of the governor's mansion. Helen Rhodes, née Helen Rawlins (1915-1987), was the wife of the Republican Ohio governor James Rhodes. She served as Ohio's first lady for 16 years, from 1963 to 1971 and again from 1975 to 1983, longer than any other first lady in the state. James Allen Rhodes (1909-2001) was the 61st and 63rd governor of Ohio (1963-71, 1975-83) and the 44 mayor of Columbus, Ohio (1944–1952). His decision to send the Ohio National Guard troops to Kent State University campus in order to control protests resulted in shooting of students on May 4, 1970. He and Hellen Rowlins married in 1941 and had three daughters. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07756
Subjects: Rhodes, James A. (James Allen), 1909-2001; Ohio History--State and Local Government; Governors--Ohio; Mayors--Ohio; May 4 Shootings at Kent State University, 1970
Places: 358 North Parkview Ave., Columbus, Ohio
 

Description: This photographic portrait of Napoleon Jerome Alexander (N.J.A.) Minich was taken March 18, 1876, in Akron, Ohio. Born October 2, 1849, in Columbia, Pennsylvania, Minich worked for a series of newspapers in Columbia, Pennsylvania, Akron, Ohio, and Kent, Ohio. He founded the Akron Daily Argus and was the editor and proprietor of the Kent Saturday Bulletin. In 1909 and 1911, Minich was elected as mayor of Kent, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06353
Subjects: Newspaper editors; Newspaper publishing; Local government--Ohio; Mayors--Ohio
Places: Kent (Ohio); Portage County (Ohio); Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Alfred E. Kelley (1789-1859), who was a leading figure in state politics and became the youngest member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1814. He continued in public service as the first mayor of Cleveland beginning in 1815. His support of canal construction led him to become known as the "father of the Ohio canal system." Before long he realized the limitations of canals, and became a proponent of railroads in the 1840s and 1850s. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03985
Subjects: Canals--Ohio; Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development; Cleveland (Ohio); Ohio--Politics and government; Mayors--Ohio
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: Newton Baker (1871-1937) was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1871. Baker moved to Cleveland, Ohio, sometime around the turn of the century. He set up a law practice in the town and, in 1903, was appointed the city's Director of Law. Baker served as Democratic mayor of Cleveland from 1912 to 1916. He stepped down to serve as Secretary of War under President Woodrow Wilson. He appointed General John Pershing to head the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War. In 1921 he stepped down to return to his law practice but remained active in the Democratic Party. He died on December 25, 1937. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04088
Subjects: Mayors--Ohio; Ohio History--State and Local Government; World War, 1914-1918--Ohio; Cleveland (Ohio)
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph of Ellen Walker Craig, mayor of Urbancrest, Ohio, was taken in 1975. After serving on City Council for many years, she was elected mayor in 1971. Craig (1907-2000) was the first African-American woman in the United States to be elected mayor. During her four-year term as mayor, Craig worked to get funding for a community center in addition to housing and other modernization projects. After her husband James Craig's death Ellen Walker Craig married William Jones. The photograph measures 5.5" x 7" (13.97 x 17.78 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3256_4834586_001
Subjects: Ohio Government; African American Ohioans; Ohio Women; Craig, Ellen Walker, 1906 - 2000; Mayors
Places: Urbancrest (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image is an engraved portrait of Major Ebenezer Denny (1761-1882), Revolutionary War soldier and first mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this portrait, Denny is wearing a ruffled shirt and a high-collared waistcoat and coat. This engraving appears opposite the title page of his book "Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, An Officer in the Revolutionary and Indian Wars" (1859), published in Philadelphia. Denny was born March 11, 1761, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and joined the Continental Army in 1778. He witnessed the British surrender at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown (Yorktown, Virginia) and wrote a description of that event in his war journal. It is one of the most frequently quoted accounts of the event. After the Revolutionary War, Denny also witnessed two of the worst military defeats of U.S. military forces by American Indians: Harmar’s Campaign and St. Clair’s Defeat. Both events occurred in the Northwest Territory, in present-day Ohio. In fall 1790, Josiah Harmar, commander of the U.S. army in the Northwest Territory, was stationed at Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati). He received orders from Secretary of War Henry Knox to end the threat of American Indian attack in western Ohio. Harmar marched from Fort Washington with 320 regular soldiers and roughly 1,100 militiamen, primarily from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The militiamen were poorly trained and badly equipped, and the U.S. forces were soundly defeated in a series of battles with the American Indian forces led by Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle). Following Harmar's defeat, native attacks against settlers increased. In 1791, Major-General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, led another campaign against the American Indian tribes in western Ohio, hoping to succeed where Harmar had failed. Lieutenant Ebenezer Denny was St. Clair’s aide-de-camp. St. Clair ordered the construction of forts in what is now western Ohio. He and his men left Fort Washington in September 1791. After a two-day journey, the troops stopped and built Fort Hamilton. Then they advanced forty-five miles northward and built Fort Jefferson. From the beginning of his campaign, St. Clair had trouble with his poorly trained and demoralized troops. Although it was still early fall, his men faced cold temperatures, rain, snowfall, and insufficient food. Despite these problems, St. Clair continued to advance against the Miami natives. By November 3, his men had arrived on the banks of the Wabash River, near some of the Miami villages. The next day Little Turtle, along with Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket), led a large alliance of seasoned volunteer warriors from nine different American Indian tribes against the U.S. troops and soundly defeated them. In his account of the day’s events, Denny wrote, “The ground was literally covered with the dead.” The battle known as “St. Clair’s Defeat” remains the worst defeat of the U.S. Army at the hands of American Indians. On November 19, Denny left for Philadelphia, where he had the unenviable task of informing President George Washington and Secretary of War Knox of the defeat. Washington demanded that St. Clair resign from the army. St. Clair did so on April 7, 1792, but remained governor of the Northwest Territory. In 1794, Washington dispatched General Anthony Wayne to succeed where St. Clair had failed. Wayne defeated the Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. In 1795, most natives in modern-day Ohio signed the Treaty of Greeneville, relinquishing all of their land holdings in Ohio except what is now the northwestern corner of the state. Denny continued his military service until 1794, when he resigned his commission and settled near Pittsburgh. He entered local politics and held several offices before being elected the city’s first mayor in 1816. He resigned the office in 1817 because of ill health. He died in July 1822. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07028
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; American Indians--Warfare; Northwest Territory--History; Veterans; Mayors
Places: Carlisle (Pennsylvania); Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania);