According to the Worthington.org site on this day in Worthington Ohio:
"It is difficult to imagine the peaceful village of Worthington near the battlefront of a war with a foreign power, but some 175 years ago that was very much the situation. This frontier settlement was less than ten years old when U.S. and British trade disputes led Congress to declare war June 18, 1812"
Time goes on the Worthington Historical Society obviously penned that in 1987....
I had to look up what the War of 1812 was about.... who was fighting who for what. I must have learned in school. I love history, but wars were never my favorite part of history. The Revolutionary War and the Civil War are easier for me to understand than the War of 1812. Refreshing my memory about the War of 1812....
Tecumseh (born near what is now Xenia Ohio) fought with the British against the Americans. The monument on Lake Erie to Perry's victory was the War of 1812... but the monument is called the "Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial" it is a monument to peace between Britain, Canada and the US. The monument is 5 miles from the world's longest undefended border.
The War of 1812 was to keep the British from conscripting Americans into the British Navy (how could they do that?) It was because the British did not want the US to trade with France (how could they do that?) The war was to establish (or reestablish?) the right to the Northwest Territory (what is today Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin?) People used to believe the US wanted Canado too... and was fighting for land in Ontario... in the War of 1812 but that idea is no longer popular.
There is a video on This Day in History for June 18, 1812 that I tried linking here but it's so so slow.
I may get the War of 1812 confused with the French and Indian Wars too (which were before the United States became the United States... and were skirmishes over the colonies... in those colonies.) Worthington was settled by people from Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Enough. In the words of the famous spiritual "Down by the Riverside'
" Well, I ain't goin' to study war no mo',
Well, I ain't goin' to study war no mo',
Well, I ain't goin' to study war no mo' "
The City of Worthington today is a thriving community, a northern suburb of Columbus that treasures it's history. The Old Worthington neighborhood in the heart of the City of Worthington is the village of Worthington that was founded in 1803.
Old Worthington Historic District
Worthington a New England Village in Central Ohio
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