|
At this first meeting of the Cleveland
Roundtable, the ten founders decided to “go slowly in adding to our roster.”
They met again in January at Kiefer’s Restaurant on Detroit Avenue and West
25th Street. Temporary Chairman (i.e. President) Grant appointed Cullen,
Clark, and Rutter to a Committee on Bylaws. In the end, membership was to be
opened only to males, ironically since Cullen had first heard of roundtables
from a woman. Forty years later, Clarke remembered those days:
Our guiding light from an organizational
standpoint was a wonderful guy in Chicago named Ralph Newman, who for many
years owned a bookstore in the Loop which concentrated on Civil War literature
at a time when no one seemed to care very much.
One of those founders [of the Cleveland
Roundtable] was a crusty, conservative Englishman who believed that the South’s
loss was a tragedy of history. The second was a flaming liberal from Ohio who
believed that Robert E. Lee should have been hung as a traitor. The third
founder was, and still is, a charming fellow who could steer a compromise
between the extreme views of the other two.
So Ken Grant, the Englishman who never would
have freed the slaves, George Farr, the iconoclast who not only [would] have
freed them but helped them destroy the plantations..., and John Cullen the man
who understood it all… with help from Bill Schlesinger and my own imperfect
draftsmanship, got this club underway.
Once word circulated about the new
association, requests to join went well beyond the original limits favored by
many in the group. By February, membership had been allowed to reach thirty
and then fifty in March. At that point, Grant persuaded a majority to limit
membership to fifty. However, Roy Smith Jr. quit because the number was too
large. Those applying for Roundtable membership had to be sponsored by members
then approved by the Executive Committee. Members could be expelled for late
payment of dues or missing too many meeting. Those on a waiting list had to
persevere until the expulsion, resignation or death of a member.
The February meeting was supposed to have
been held in Kiefer’s Restaurant, but the ceiling collapsed, and Cullen
arranged a change of venue to the Petite Café in the Carter Hotel on Prospect
Avenue. Grant was formally elected President, though some members may have had
misgivings voting for him. Grant was distantly related to Robert E. Lee, and
although a life-long northerner, “his heart” was with the Confederacy.
Columnist for a Cleveland newspaper, Howard Preston wrote an article called
“Grant on Lee’s Side” which featured the man whose vocation was Director
of Accounts and Budgets for the National Carbon Company:
He has followed the Mississippi Campaign,
retreated with Gen. Johnston from Chattanooga to Atlanta, traced Sherman’s
march to the sea and up the coast. He is a regular at Gettysburg and has
paraded up and down the Shenandoah Valley. He’s been at Shiloh and Vicksburg
and was surrounded by fog on Lookout Mountain.
His recreation room is decorated with
Confederate flags and pictures of Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Collecting
Lee pictures almost is a separate hobby although it is dwarfed by his
collection of…sheet music written before 1920… A final note to confuse the
issue – his favorite song among the oldies is not “Waiting for the Robert
E. Lee.”
Unfortunately in April of 1957, Grant died
after undergoing minor surgery. George Farr, Jr. took over the presidency and
was reelected the following year. He had given the first roundtable talk at
the January, 1957 meeting: “Civil Law in Southern Court.” There were a
number of firsts during those early years of the Roundtable. Bruce Catton was
the first non-member to speak before the group. Catton’s topic was “Civil
War-Influence on Social and Political Outlook.” The first field trip
occurred in September of 1957 when members went to Antietam, Harper’s Ferry
and Winchester. On April 15, 1958, the first “movie night” took place: “Robert
E. Lee” and “The True Story of the Civil War.” The first debate was held
on November 17, 1958. The topic was “The Turning Point of the Civil War.”
Mrs. S. Dannett was the first woman to speak. On January 17, 1961, her subject
was “Union Women under the Guns,” an appropriate title for an all male
group.
Catton also had the distinction of becoming
the first honorary member of the Roundtable and the speaker for the first “Ladies
Night.” A month earlier, the group decided not to have all their meetings
“exclusively stag affairs” when many members asked to bring their wives. A
crowd numbering over a hundred enjoyed Catton’s “numerous anecdotes
[which] made the evening an important one in the short history of the
roundtable.” Dr. Schlesinger, however, was disappointed: “Catton, a great
writer, a lousy speaker.”
General Ulysses S. Grant III was perhaps the
most distinguished speaker to ever appear before the Roundtable. He was the
grandson of President Grant, a graduate of West Point, and a former member of
General Pershing’s staff. At the time, he was Chairman of the Civil War
Centennial Committee. On December 3, 1958, Grant talked on “The Strategy of
the Civil War and Ohio’s Contribution.” The following day after lunch at
the University Club, he went over plans for the observance of the Civil War
Centennial.
Starting in the 1960’s, the group began to
hold its meetings in the Hermit Club located on Dodge Court behind the
theatres on Cleveland’s Playhouse Square. In September of 2000, meetings
were moved to the Play House Club on 86th Street and Carnegie Avenue in
Cleveland. The second-floor Grand Hall had a stage, large fireplace, wood
paneled walls, leaded windows, and high-beamed ceiling. Those who remember the
room may still regret leaving the Hermit Club.
In the Grand Hall, the Cleveland Roundtable
celebrated its 25th anniversary with 99 members. Dr. Paul Schildt joined the
group in 1958 and later recalled those early days:
For a time in the past there was a friendly
rivalry for membership between the lawyers and the physicians. When new
members were introduced and the word “lawyer” was used the doctors all
groaned aloud; when the new member turned out to be a doctor the lawyers
called out in unison, “Oh, God, not another doctor!” Peace seems to have
prevailed.
During its first 25 years, the Cleveland
Roundtable had a number of notable speakers from outside the group. Talking on
Vicksburg, Ed Bearss, National Park Historian, spoke in October of 1962. Three
years later, Stephen Ambrose gave a speech on “West Point and the Civil War.”
Dr. Richard D. Mudd spoke in 1968 on his ancestor and the assassination of
Lincoln. At the first meeting of 1977, Allan Peskin, biographer of James A.
Garfield, gave a talk entitled “Mind of an Assassin.” The following month,
Mark E. Neely Jr. addressed the group about “Lincoln, the Constitution, and
the Union.”
Dr. Schildt remembered a meeting in
particular, when a member became upset with a speaker:
He was quite often out-spoken and his dinner
often consisted of very little food and a quadruple shot of Jack Daniels in a
water glass… A visiting speaker was speaking on “Civil War Prison Camps”
and expressed the mild opinion that certain northern prison camps such as
Elmira, New York and Johnson’s Island were almost as bad as Andersonville,
Georgia. At the conclusion of the speech, our out-spoken member jumped up and
declared in a loud voice, “I wish to protest those statements of the speaker
of the evening.” Ned Dower, who was presiding, said, “Sir, your protest is
duly recorded.” Ned rapped his gavel sharply… “Meeting is adjourned!”
We were all hearted by this neat solution of what might have been a bad
situation.
Roundtable members accounted for only
thirty-five percent of the speakers. On some occasions, the Civil War gave way
to other topics like “Luftwaffe Aces of World War II,” and “The Boston
Tea Party.” “Extra Sensory Perception and the Civil War” was one of the
more unusual talks. Besides ten debates, there were thirteen movie nights.
Among the films shown were “The Red Badge of Courage,” and Buster Keaton’s
“The General.”
LATER YEARS
Except for “Ladies Night” at the May
meetings, women still stood on the outside looking in at the all-male
association. Over the years, the topic had come up and “been soundly
rejected” by the Executive Committee. Private club or not, the times were
changing, but the Cleveland Roundtable was reluctant to change. In September
of 1993, Bob Battisti, Roundtable President, received a short, irate letter:
As a long standing member of the club (25
years!), I would like to express my feelings concerning admitting women to the
organization.
I am totally opposed to it.
At the risk of being labeled a male
chauvinist pig, I certainly like women but not at our meetings, nor especially
on our fieldtrips There is a certain male camaraderie established throughout
the years which I feel would be jeopardized by opening our membership to
females.
Answering the letter, Battisti said there
were no female applicants for membership at that particular time, but “I am
sure that some members would want to change to what is appropriate for 1993.”
The issue had come up at the previous Executive Committee meeting because of a
proposal to get area universities involved with the organization. “I very
much value your opinion and I certainly want you to continue to belong to the
group.”
As the outgoing president in May of 1994,
Battisti commented on a number of topics but one stood out above the rest:
We put the letter to the universities on the
back burner due to the gender issue. We said we would wait for the first
application from a female. As you know, we have one. Mike Dory will want an
answer as to what we do next.
Norton London, next Roundtable President,
called an Executive Committee meeting for June 8, 1994. According to the
minutes, they had to decide “whether the CCWRT should open membership to
anyone or maintain its present status.” Recently attending a conference of
Roundtables, London represented the only one that was a male-only group. “Those
that did allow women get more members, but not really many women… If the
organization is to grow, we will have to open up membership.”
Five opposed changing the Constitution: The
Roundtable was “meant to be for men only [and it] had a camaraderie and was
more in the nature of a social club.” Excluding women was not “a moral
issue.” The founders had wanted an all male group and the board “should be
sensitive to that desire.”
An equal number wanted to take the
restriction out of the Constitution: Discrimination against women, they felt,
could have a negative effect on “members who may run for political office.”
There is nothing “within the group that might be offensive and cause women
not to join.” The Roundtable should be “open to anyone with an interest in
the Civil War and that interest is not limited to only men.”
In January of 1995, a vote of the general
membership fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the
Constitution. However, the controversy would not go away. Dick Crews sent a
letter to members on March 31, 1997 which reopened the debate. He planned to
sponsor a female history teacher, for membership:
In the past, you have indicated that you
would like to see the Round-Table open to all who have an interest in the
American Civil War. Please make it a point to be at the April 9, 1997 meeting
to vote to remove the restrictive clause and make our Roundtable open to all.
Crews introduced his motion at the meeting,
but a majority of the members, many of whom were visibly upset, decided not to
consider it at that time because of the guests in the audience. President Dan
Zeiser suggested and received approval for a special meeting in June to
consider Crew’s motion. A month later, the Cleveland Roundtable celebrated
its fortieth anniversary. Dr. Schildt recalled another May meeting back in
1968:
Dr. Bill Schlesinger, who was a classmate of
mine in medical school, was a great president of the Round Table. On “Ladies
Night” Bill made a slightly ribald remark…and his wife looked askance at
him. Bill grinned out at the audience and said, “Later tonight we will have
what we call ‘A Moment of Truth’ in our house.” And his wife grinned
also at the audience and nodded her approval of his statement.
Whether this was the last Ladies Night in the
Roundtable’s history would soon be determined. Letters had been sent to the
entire membership, but less than twenty members gathered on June 4 at the
Hermit Club. John Sutula, Roundtable Secretary, recorded the minutes:
A motion was made to and seconded to change
the Constitution… After a spirited discussion, the vote was taken [by secret
ballot]. A 2/3-majority vote of the members is required to change the
constitution. The amendment passed with 16 yes votes and 3 no votes.
Within a week, the Cleveland Roundtable
confronted its own secessionists. A former President wrote to the Executive
Committee and resigned, not because he was “opposed to the change, but
rather, to the unfortunate way it was handled and communicated to the members
at large.” He was especially upset since there were only “nineteen members
voting on an issue that clearly should have been more representative of the
135 members…”
A few days later, two more former Presidents
sent a letter that also protested the process by which the Constitution had
been amended. “All of us who were in any leadership position vowed to not
make it [female membership] a divisive one.” They suggested that the
membership “revisit the issue” and then vote after “a rational
discussion…” Another vote was never taken, however, prompting one of them
to resign and declare: “In addition to being a Civil War student, I am also
a student of World War II. Remember Pearl Harbor!”
John Sutula, himself a former president,
disagreed with the critics “that the process used to amend the Constitution
was faulty… The method of raising the issue, announcement of the special
meeting and issue and the vote were all valid under the Constitution of this
Roundtable.” He went on to say that those who quit the association after a
legitimate and democratic procedure were the “divisive” ones instead of
those supporting the results of the special meeting. “Unlike Lincoln, we can
not use the might of the government to forcibly retain members in the
Roundtable. We can only appeal to their better natures to remain.”
The malcontents did not return to the group
but the losses were cancelled out with new members including women who would
make up eleven percent of the roster in 2001 and fifteen percent in 2006.
Besides the inclusion of women, the characteristics of Roundtable membership
have undergone other changes in its history. Statistics are available for
select years 1980 - 2001, a period which saw the roster grow from eighty-two
to one hundred thirty-five members including businessmen and professionals
(46% - 26%); retirees (12% - 24%); physicians (17% - 3%); attorneys (15% -
16%); educators (4% - 12%).
* * * * *
The Cleveland Roundtable was founded at a
time when the Civil War was less than a century old. Along with the other
founders in 1956, Charles Clark was disturbed by the general opinion that the
long-ago war was now irrelevant:
Almost all the veterans were dead. We had
come through three wars and a number of depressions. Revisionist historians
were doing their dirty work and there really wasn’t a great deal of flaming
interest in the War Between the States.
All over the country there were attic trunks
filled with old letters and diaries. Down in Virginia, the Carolinas, the
Border States and elsewhere were cornfields and pastures where only local
legends kept alive the stories of the battles that had been fought there. I
will never forget seeing an unkept country lane in the Valley of Virginia at
the end of which, half-buried in the bushes, was a cracked stone memorial to
the Cadets of VMI who fell there at the battle of New Market.
With the Civil War Centennial on the horizon,
Clark believed “this lack of interest was soon to change and men like
[Ralph] Newman helped bring about a new sense of historical pride in the
United States.” For half a century, the Cleveland Roundtable has also helped
in this process by inviting Ed Bearss, James M. McPherson, Shelby Foote, Gabor
Boritt and other historians to share their knowledge with the membership.
A summary of meetings from 1957 through 1997
illustrates the varied programs on the Civil War era:
- personalities (109);
-
battles, tactics and strategy (72);
- political and social (34);
- Ohio and the
Civil War (19);
- logistics (12);
- Reconstruction (4).
Thirty-nine generals and twenty-seven politicians for the Union were the subjects of talks compared to
thirty-eight generals and seven politicians for the Confederacy. The Union
side of the war dominated the topics with 65% of the total.
Outside speakers (typically authors, historians, and educators) gave 66% of the talks. For the most part, these characteristics have continued
into 2006.
| LONG TIME MEMBER
Dr. David N. Wood joined the Cleveland Civil
War Roundtable in 1958. A retired physician from Rocky River, Dr. Wood shares
with Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, the same hometown of
Steubenville, Ohio. He has portrayed Stanton before a number of historical
associations including the Cleveland group on two occasions. After a
presentation for the Western Council for Historical Societies, a newspaper
article praised his performance: “Bedecked in top hat and an 1860 suit, the
alias Stanton enthralled the audience with a first person talk outlining the
life of the late Secretary of War. In short, Dr. Wood made history come a
live.”
|
|
 |
|
Dr. David N. Wood as Edwin M. Stanton
|
|
|
 |
|
Edwin Cole Bearss
|
|
VETERAN OF ANOTHER WAR
An honorary member for many years, Ed Bearss
has addressed the Cleveland Roundtable on twelve occasions. Members have been
amazed by his knowledge of the Civil War, but few of them may know of his
experiences in World War II. In April of 1942, he enlisted at the age of
nineteen in the Marine Corp. A year later, Ed was in the South Pacific where
he came down with malaria and was sent to a hospital in New Zealand. On
December 26, 1943, he took part in the invasion of New Britain and was
seriously wounded on the second day of the New Year:
I was on my knees when the first bullet
struck. It hit me in my left arm just below the elbow, and the arm went numb…
Then I was hit again, another sledgehammer blow to my right shoulder… There
were now dead men lying all around me… As I lay there bleeding I noticed it
growing dark, although it was only about noon.
The Japanese began shooting the wounded
Marines, but Ed was able to crawl away with “tracers screaming about an inch
above me.” “Another bullet grazed my butt and another hit my foot.” A
corpsman gave him a shot of morphine then with the help of their lieutenant
dragged him to safety. Corporal Bearss spent the next twenty-six months in
hospitals and was discharged in March of 1946. While recuperating, he had
renewed an interest in the Civil War by reading books on his favorite subject
from the library at the San Diego Naval Hospital. If not for his serious
wounds, Ed thinks he may have stayed in the Marine Corps.
While historian at Vicksburg Military Park,
Ed married Margie Riddle, a native Mississippian whose ancestor had fought for
the Confederacy. She shared with her husband the same passion of teaching and
writing books on the Civil War. Mrs. Bearss recently died and the Cleveland
Roundtable will be making a donation in her memory to The Civil War
Preservation Trust.
|
|
 |
|
Johnson’s Island Prison in 1864, Sandusky
Bay, Ohio
|
The Cleveland Roundtable has traditionally
been concerned with endangered Civil War sites. The membership in 2002 gave a
generous donation to the Friends and Descendants of Johnson’s Island. David
R. Bush of Heidelberg College, who spoke to the roundtable in 2004, is the
chairman of the association dedicated to the archaeological investigation and
preservation of this historic site
|
|
Notable
Events of 1956, the Year the Founders First Met
The Federal minimum wage is increased to
$1.00 per hour.
The average American income is $1,700 (after taxes).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sets a new high of 500.24 points.
Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco are married.
The Andrea Doria sinks.
The Soviet Union crushes the revolution in Hungary.
Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba.
The United Kingdom, France and Israel invade Egypt in an attempt to seize
the Suez Canal.
Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic.
Dwight Eisenhower (and Richard Nixon) are re-elected.
Pepsodent toothpaste
begins its “You’ll wonder where the yellow went” ad campaign.
Jif peanut butter is
introduced. (“Choosy mothers choose Jif.”)
Clairol begins its
“Does she or doesn’t she” ad campaign. (“Only her hairdresser
knows for sure.”)
Wheaties boxes are introduced for Duke Snider, Bob Cousy and Bobby Lane.
Elvis Presley makes his television debut on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
Hit songs include:
- “The Great
Pretender” by The Platters
- “Why Do Fools
Fall In Love?” by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
- “Memories Are
Made Of This” by Dean Martin
- “I Walk The
Line” by Johnny Cash
- “Blue Suede
Shoes” by Carl Perkins
- “See You Later
Alligator” by Bill Haley and His Comets
- “Tutti Frutti”
by Little Richard
- “Heartbreak
Hotel” and “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley.
Popular television shows are:
- I Love Lucy
- The $64,000 Question
- The Ed Sullivan Show
- Dragnet
-
Gunsmoke
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- I’ve Got a Secret
-
The Millionaire
- The Jack Benny Show
- General Electric Theater
- The Red Skelton Show
Academy Award
winners are:
- Best Picture: Around the
World in 80 Days
- Best Actor: Yul Brynner (The
King and I)
- Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman
(Anastasia)
- Best Song: “Whatever Will
Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" (The Man Who Knew Too Much)
The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn
Dodgers 4 games to 3 to win the World Series. In game 5, Don Larsen of the
Yankees pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. For the fifth
time in six years, the Cleveland Indians finished second to the Yankees in the
American League.
The New York Giants win the NFL championship over the Chicago Bears, 47 to
7. For the first time in their eleven-year existence, the Cleveland Browns
have a losing record.
The Philadelphia Warriors win the NBA
championship 4 games to 1 over the Fort Wayne Pistons. The Cleveland Cavaliers
will not come into existence for another 14 years.
The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
is awarded to Werner Forssman, Andre Frederic Cournand and Dickinson W.
Richards for showing how to insert a catheter into the heart. (Forssman
performed his first cardiac catheterization on himself.)
The Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to
William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain for their
research on semiconductors and for the invention of the transistor.
1956 births:
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
- Larry Bird
- Joey Buttafuoco
- Carrie Fisher
- Mel Gibson
- Dorothy Hamill
- Tom Hanks
-
Anita Hill
- Karen Hughes
- Richard Karn
- Martina Navratilova
- Paula Zahn
1956 deaths:
- Bela Lugosi
- Connie Mack
- A.A. Milne
- Jackson Pollock
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias
The last surviving Union soldier of the
Civil War, Albert Woolson, dies at age 106. Walter Williams, (allegedly) the last
surviving Confederate soldier, will die in 1959.
Samuel J. Seymour
dies. Seymour was the last surviving person who was present in Ford’s
Theater at the time of the shooting of Abraham Lincoln.
- Compiled by
Dave Carrino |
|
|
