Ohio University’s past is hidden in markings and engravings all over the Athens campus. The date on the tall, stone “Ohio University 1804” monument near Peden Stadium is a reminder of the institution’s birth, while the names adorning Irvine, Lin dley and Putnam halls are those of scholars who brought learn-ing and knowledge to a small frontier community.
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| Daniel signs his book at an October reception.
Photo: Rick Fatica |
“Athens really has had an interesting and worthy history that needed to be recorded,” Daniel says, adding that the last book on the city’s history was compiled in the mid-1800s.
“The book changes the way one looks at the town and gives a sense of what went before,” says Gill Berchowitz, senior editor at Ohio University Press, which published the book. “It explores how one era has given way to the next, linking the past to the present very effectively.”
Published in early October to celebrate Athens’ bicentennial, Daniel’s book is the result of a decade of research from newspaper clippings, institutional archives, census records and personal diaries of the first Athenians. More than 150 historical photographs accompany the spirited text, showing the pitfalls and pleasures of life in Athens 200 years ago.
In 1800, three years before Ohio became a state, the Ohio Company’s Rufus P utnam laid out the village of Athens in a bend of the Hocking River. Ohio University, which was to become the area’s intellectual center, was born out of a contract between the Ohio Company and Congress.
In the days of the frontier, few men were able to leave their plows in the field to pursue higher education. So although the university was officially founded in 1804, it didn’t grant its first baccalaureate degrees until 1815 — to the students Thomas Ewing of Lancaster and John Hunter of Circlevill e.
According to Athens, Ohio: The Village Years, Ohio University began operation in 1808 as a secondary school, and by 1815, still fewer than 10 students were enrolled, most of whom were children and adolescents. The university did not implement formal baccalaureate instruction until 1819, a year after the campus’ first instructional building was struck by lightning and minor repairs had to be made after a downpour doused the ensuing fire.
Daniel’s work examines the important role of Ohio University in Athens’ political and intellectual development while remembering the people who gave Athens life. He highlights the home and community activities of the townsfolk and also looks at the effects natural disasters, slavery and a mental illness asylum had on the town.
Daniel, a resident of Athens since 1957, is working on a second volume that will chronicle Athens from 1920 to 2000.
— Clare Warmke, BSJ ’98
