Trail Angel Spirit Guides of NIA
Trail Angels are people who go out of their ways to make life a little (or sometimes a lot) better for trail users. Spirit Guides are forces or aspects of life which teach, warn, support, comfort, remind and reveal things that we need to learn about ourselves in order to grow. These Ohioans provide inspiration for the Adventure. (Most of this biographical information is courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Grandma Gatewood, (October 25, 1887–June 4, 1973), of Gallipolis Ohio, was an American ultralight hiking pioneer. After a difficult life as a farm wife, mother of eleven children, and victim of domestic violence, she became famous as the first solo female thru-hiker of the 2,168-mile (3,489 km) Appalachian Trail (A.T.) in 1955 at the age of 67. She subsequently became the first person (male or female) to hike the A.T. three times, after completing a second thru-hike two years later, followed by a section-hike in 1964. In the meantime, she hiked 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Oregon Trail in 1959. In her later years, she continued to travel and hike, and worked on a section of what would become the Buckeye Trail. The media coverage surrounding her feats was credited for generating interest in maintaining the A.T. and in hiking generally. Among many other honors, she was posthumously inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame in 2012.
Colonel Charles Young (March 12, 1864 – January 8, 1922) of Wilberforce Ohio, was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the regular army until his death in 1922. As a soldier, diplomat, and civil rights leader, Charles Young overcame stifling inequality to become a leading figure in the years after the Civil War when the United States emerged as a world power. His work ethic, academic leadership, and devotion to duty provided a strong base for his achievements in the face of racism and oppression. His long and distinguished career as a commissioned officer in the United States Army made him a popular figure of his time and a role model for generations of new leaders.
When the United States entered World War I, segregation was entrenched in military culture as well as civilian society. It put barriers up to prevent African Americans from enlisting. Despite this, about 380,000 African Americans served in the U.S. military during the war. Colonel Charles Young was the highest-ranking African American Army officer in 1918. Despite an impressive leadership record, the Army refused Young’s request to command troops in Europe. Military leaders told him he was not healthy enough to serve. To prove his fitness, Young made a difficult ride on horseback from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio to Washington, D.C. His brave display failed to persuade the Secretary of War. Young did not lead soldiers in Europe, but he fought for respect on the Homefront. https://dailymontanan.com/2022/02/01/the-1896-ride-of-the-buffalo-soldiers-through-yellowstone-national-park/
John Glenn - Astronaut, of Cambridge, OH, later as Senator from Ohio was an early supporter of the founding of the Little Miami State Park Trail.
Judith Resnik - Astronaut, of Akron OH An American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Neil Armstrong - Astronaut, of Wapakoneta OH, 1st man on the Moon, now that was an adventure!
Steven M. Newman of Bethel OH (born May 31, 1954) is an American world trekker, public speaker, freelance writer, author, and adjunct professor. From April 1983 to April 1987, he walked solo around the world and became popularly known as “The Worldwalker.” The author or co-author of three books, he has given over 2,300 speeches to universities, schools, churches, companies, and other groups. The longest hiking trail in Ohio's state park system, the Steven Newman Worldwalker Perimeter Trail, has been permanently renamed after him, and he has been honored with that state's highest award, as well as with a doctorate in humanities.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper and served as president of his high school's literary society. Dunbar wrote a number of poems about winter and snow, including “A Winter's Day”
The Wright Brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912) of Dayton Ohio were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, 4 mi (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills. The brothers were also the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing powered flight possible. The brothers gained the mechanical skills essential to their success by working for years in their Dayton, Ohio-based shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles, in particular, influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle such as a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.
Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the pre-eminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, in which a pan tribal confederacy fought several battles with the nascent United States, he was an important predecessor of the famous Shawnee leader Tecumseh.
Al Roker - who worked in Cleveland at WKYC Channel 3 from 1978-1983 before leaving for New York City, Al is known to turn his daily commute to work at the Today show into an adventure by riding his Brompton folding bicycle to work.
John Chapman (September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845), better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Ontario, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples. He was also a missionary for The New Church (Swedenborgian) and the inspiration for many museums and historical sites such as the Johnny Appleseed Museum in Urbana, Ohio.
Simon Kenton - a late eighteenth-century legendary frontiersman and soldier in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio who survived winter expeditions by digging a hole the size of his head in the ground with a small hole at an angle for air. He then started a fire with white oak bark and squatted over the hole with his cloak, making a teepee. Along with his friend Daniel Boone respected by the Native Americans for his courage. Buried in Oakdale cemetery, Urbana.
Hope Taft, Former Ohio First Lady, is a long-time advocate of scenic rivers. “The Little Miami River has gotten a lot cleaner in the last 50 years, but we can’t forget about it,” says Taft. “The river plays a big part in our health, safety, recreational enjoyment and our quality of life.” With husband Bob Taft, Hope was an early supporter of the creation of the Little Miami State Park Trail.
Albert Belmont Graham (1868–1960) was born near Lena, Ohio. He was a country schoolmaster and agriculture extension pioneer at Ohio State University. Graham taught at an integrated rural school in Brown Township, Miami County. Later, Graham worked at the United States Department of Agriculture as the Federal Extension Director. On January 15, 1902, Graham held the first meeting of the agriculture experiment club in the basement of the A. B. Graham building in Springfield, Ohio (now called the A. B. Graham building). Through his diligent efforts, A. B. Graham is considered the impetus for founding the 4-H program across the United States. He may have been ahead of his time regarding equality. The first clubs included white, black and Hispanic children, and he did not limit club members to traditional topics. He taught girls gardening and boys cooking.
Euell Gibbons (Sept. 8, 1911 – Dec. 29, 1975) was an outdoorsman and early health food advocate, promoting eating wild foods during the 1960s. Euell lived throughout the states of TX, HI, CA, WA, IN, PA. Ohio it seems was one of the few states Euell Gibbons didn’t live in, but sure enough he must have traveled through Ohio any number of times.
Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1936 – February 19, 2002) was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M.C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books and the Newbery Medal in 1975. Hamilton's lifetime achievements include the international Hans Christian Andersen Award for writing children's literature in 1992 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her contributions to American children's literature in 1995.
Little Turtle (Miami-Illinois: Mihšihkinaahkwa) (c.1747 — July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Northwest Territory," although he later signed several treaties ceding land, which caused him to lose his leader status during the battles which became a prelude to the War of 1812. In the 1790s, Mihšihkinaahkwa led a confederation of native warriors to several major victories against U.S. forces in the Northwest Indian Wars, sometimes called "Little Turtle's War", particularly St. Clair's defeat in 1791, wherein the confederation defeated General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 900 men in the most decisive loss by the U.S. Army against Native American forces.
Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) of Mansfield, Ohio, was an American author and conservationist. A bestselling novelist in the 1920s, he reinvented himself as a farmer in the late 1930s and became one of the earliest proponents of sustainable and organic agriculture in the United States. He won the Pulitzer Prize, founded the experimental Malabar Farm near Mansfield, Ohio, and played an important role in the early environmental movement.
Jemima Boone, daughter of Daniel Boone earned her own spot in the history books on July 14, 1776. That’s when a Cherokee-Shawnee raiding group abducted Jemima, aged 14, along with two other girls while they floated in a canoe near their Kentucky settlement. Demonstrating their own knowledge of frontier ways, the quick-witted teens left trail markers as their captors took them away—bending branches, breaking off twigs and leaving behind leaves and berries. Their rescue team, led by Daniel Boone himself, took just two days to follow the trail and retrieve the girls. The rescuers included Flanders Callaway, Samuel Henderson and Captain John Holder, each of whom later married one of the kidnapped girls. This event became such an integral part of frontier lore, author James Fenimore Cooper included it in his classic novel The Last of the Mohicans.
Prophet - Changing his name to Tenskwatawa (which means "the open door"), he began to preach that Shawnees must return to their own traditions, abandoning the use of the tools, clothing, weapons, and especially alcohol of white people. Instead, they should develop their traditional farming skills and refuse to accept anything from whites on credit. Tenskwatawa established a settlement at Greenville, Ohio, where a steadily increasing number of followers joined him.
Tecumseh - c. 1768 – October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history. Tecumseh recognized that by teaming up with his brother Tenskwatawa he could recruit more warriors for his own cause. Thus Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa joined forces, together promoting the goals of land shared in common by all Native Americans, and an alliance or confederacy that erased the boundaries and sometimes deep-seated animosities between tribes. Tecumseh was born at Oldtown not far from the Little Miami River along what is now the Little Miami Trail.
Bob Taft - As a state legislator he was an early supporter of the creation of the Little Miami State Park Trail. He went on to become Governor of Ohio. During his administration The Clean Ohio Fund, a $400 million state bond initiative was first approved by Ohio voters in 2000. It was overwhelmingly renewed in all 88 counties in 2008 with strong bipartisan support from the executive and legislative leadership. A public-private partnership, Clean Ohio restores, protects and connects Ohio’s natural and urban places by preserving open space and farmland, improving outdoor recreation, and cleaning up brownfields to encourage redevelopment and revitalize communities.
Grandma Joy & her Grandson Brad Ryan of Duncan Falls Ohio have visited all 63 U.S. National Parks. www.rachaelrayshow.com/articles/grandma-joys-road-trip-91-year-old-grandson-bra
Grandma Joy and Brad Ryan presenting "The Ultimate Trip: A Grandmother and Grandson's Journey to Visit Every National Park". This intergenerational duo from Ohio has visited all 63 National Parks. The journey began when Grandma (92) mentioned to her Grandson seven years ago that she had never seen mountains.
Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard (June 21, 1850 – June 11, 1941) of Cincinnati Ohio, was an American illustrator, author, youth leader, Georgist and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) of Cincinnati Ohio, was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the Beecher family, a religious family, and became best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions experienced by enslaved African Americans. The book reached an audience of millions as a novel and play and became influential in the United States and in Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings and for her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.
Wheeling Gaunt (1812 - 1894) Wheeling Gaunt, a slave born in Carrollton, KY, was the son of a white merchant and a slave mother who was sold down South when Gaunt was a small child. Gaunt bought his freedom from lawyer John F. Gaunt in 1845 for $900 and also bought his wife Amanda Smith Knight (b. 1821) and his brother Nick.
Wheeling Gaunt and his family moved to Yellow Springs, OH, where he became a wealthy man. Prior to his death, he donated nine acres of land to the city with the stipulation that the income from the land be used to distribute 25 pounds of flour to Yellow Springs' widows at Christmas. In the 1950s the amount of flour was decreased: the widows receive 10 pounds of flour and 10 pounds of sugar. The tradition has continued for more than a century. Statue in Yellow Springs
Huffy Huffman - Horace M. “Huffy” Huffman Jr., a bicycle company executive who is remembered for helping nonprofit organizations develop cycling trails in Dayton, Ohio and Traverse City, Michigan.
Captain Mary Becker Green (1867 - April 22, 1949), was steamboat captain of the Greene Line of river steamboats. She was the only female steamboat captain in Ohio. She died in 1949 aboard her boat, the Delta Queen, after leaving New Orleans. Her spirit is said to still haunt the ship. In 1988, Greene was inducted into the National Rivers Hall of Fame.