Elizabeth Aultman Harter’s Lasting Legacy…Part One

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As part of my internship at the Ramsayer Research Library here at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, I was tasked with creating an exhibit for the display case in the library. The assignment was, “Share a story that needs to be told.” At first, researching possible ideas was overwhelming because there were simply too many stories to tell. After much thought and consideration about what kind of story should be told, the topic presented itself. The women who shaped Canton, Ohio have been largely forgotten in history and their stories need to be shared. Library volunteer Judy Cloud Pocock gave some guidance for this project. She suggested that Elizabeth Aultman Harter be included in the display case exhibit. Once Elizabeth’s life story started to be uncovered, it was clear that she was the woman who the exhibit should focus on.

Elizabeth Aultman Harter was an incredibly accomplished woman— and not just in her time. Her legacy still impresses to this day. Daughter of Canton, Ohio’s first millionaire entrepreneur Cornelius Aultman, Elizabeth left a lasting mark on Stark County. She and her stepmother Katherine Barron Reybold Aultman founded Aultman Hospital here in Canton, Ohio. Elizabeth served on the board of directors at the Aultman Taylor Company in Mansfield, Ohio. She also presided as one of the first presidents of Canton’s YWCA. Another thing that made Mrs. Harter so outstanding is that she, like her father Cornelius Aultman, was one of Canton’s greatest ‘silent’ benefactors, putting many young men through college who otherwise would not have had the opportunity. While she exceled in her professional career, she was also a strong woman in her personal life. When she was just eighteen, Elizabeth lost her birth mother Eliza Wise Aultman after a long-term illness. In her adult life, Mrs. Harter lost her first daughter Eliza when she was just six months old. Later, Elizabeth lost her only son Cornelius A. Harter when he was four. The passing of her husband George DeWalt Harter made Elizabeth a widow and single mother to four daughters by the age of forty-three. However, despite her successes and the hardships she overcame, her memory has faded from history. To bring her back to life, Ramsayer Research Library intern Alyia Marasco has uncovered her legacy to share her story. “Elizabeth Harter’s Lasting Legacy” will be displayed in the Ramsayer Research Library display case. The Library is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm for anyone who would like to view this new exhibit.

Meet Rebecca Davis…

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archivist, Bexley Ohio, Canton, Capital University, Digitization, findyourquest, findyourwhy, Glenoak High School, high school, History, Ida McKinley, Intern, major, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, morethanamonument, ohio, Photographs, Plain Local, Project, seekthethreads, St. Peter’s Catholic school, Stark County, volunteers, welcome, William McKinley

Podcast 

We invite our followers to get to know Rebecca Davis, one of our summer interns at the McKinley Presidential Library!

Rebecca was born here in Stark County and has lived here her whole life. Originally from downtown Canton, she now resides in Plain Township with her family.

She attended St. Peter’s Catholic School for elementary and then transferred to Oakwood Middle School for junior high. After graduating Glenoak High School in 2017, she enrolled at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio as a history major. When she is not at college, she is working at Donatos in North Canton and now volunteering at our museum.

Since she has lived here her whole life, she has always known about the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, but only attended as a visitor. Last summer, Rebecca and her mother came to our library to have some photos of old Stark County digitized. While they were here, they met our archivist, Mark Holland. Mark invited Rebecca to become a volunteer and after thinking about it, she decided to spend her summer with us as an intern, helping our team with various projects.

Currently, she is working on digitizing photographs of William McKinley and cataloging them with our software. She is a great addition to our team and we hope that she joins us again next summer. She has been here for only a couple of weeks, but she really has enjoyed her time so far  and she encourages more people to become volunteers because learning is a lifelong process. One of her favorite parts of volunteering here is that she gets to see photographs of what life used to be like and compare that information with what it is like to today.

We want to thank Rebecca for letting us interview her and allowing us to share her story on our social media. Our team at the McKinley Presidential Library loves being able to share stories of our volunteers with people outside of the museum and we want you to be a part of that!

If you would like information on how to become a volunteer, be sure to private message our page or call the museum at: (330) 455-7043

“African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History”

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African Americans of Canton, Archives, Book, Canton, findyourquest, findyourwhy, Geraldine Radcliffe, HallOfFameCity, History, Interview, McKinley Presidential Library, McKinley Presidential Library and Museum, morethanamonument, Nadine McIlwain, ohio, Ohio: Treasures of Black History, Process, Project, Research, seekthethreads, Stark County, Story, Treasures of Canton, welcome, Writing

Podcast 

Our team at the McKinley Presidential Library invite you to read about Nadine McIlwain and Geraldine Radcliffe, authors of “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” and members of our local community! Our volunteer Samantha Weaver spoke to them during their time here on Saturday, May 18th while they were at the museum to promote their book and share their story of how their book came to be.

Nadine McIlwain is a former teacher, that worked at Timken Senior High School for 25 years, she was also a principal. She is a writer herself and has published books before, mainly biographies. Geraldine Radcliffe, or Gerry, has worked in healthcare most of her life. She is a history buff and has had her work published in several medical journals.

Nadine and Gerry started this project in 2004 with the idea to writing about African-American history in Stark County. After some time, they decided that was too broad and chose to shorten the goal to just the history of Canton from 1805 to present day. They then formed a committee with some important people in Canton to see if the appeal was there. People were really interested and it started to take off with different stories and research. In the end, this book celebrates legends and prominent people who lived in Canton and Stark County and finally tells their stories through a historical narrative previously untold.

Nadine wrote the manuscript for the book and had to incorporate all of the personal stories into one big story to connect them. During this 5 year process, she chose to write about the positive events and people. As a historian herself, she knows that it is not fully authentic, but during a time where everything is publicized and made to be seen in a negative light, she wanted to take a different approach. The full process of completing the book took close to 15 years to complete and get published. There is a lot of research that went into this book, from authenticating family history and stories, to identifying the people in each of the photographs. It was not an easy process, but with the help of local organizations like ourselves and the Stark County District Library, they were able to find out about the local history and prove or disprove stories. When Nadine finished with the manuscript, they were able to find a publisher to look it over. The publisher agreed to publish the book, but Nadine had to shorten the manuscript from 800,000 words only 65,000 words and 84 photographs. She mentions that this was a hard process because she loved everything she wrote and wanted to include everything. She ended up shortening it, and the book “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” was published on April 13, 2019.

The personal process of the book was a big commitment and wasn’t easy. Both women say that it is important to get people involved because the process cannot be done alone. There are long hours of research that go into writing an accurate history book, especially when every aspect has to be proven accurate. Most stories were only spoken and passed down through the family, but were never formally written down. Every story is connected somehow and that is how people will find their own connections when reading the book. Nadine explains it as a giant spider web where one story leads to another and another and so on. You can start with one person, find out about their parents and their family and how they impacted the city just through that one person.  

One aspect that surprised both women while researching was finding out just how much history died as the result of integration and the demolition of African American neighborhoods and buildings in Canton. Gerry emphasizes how much time erases history and before it is completely gone, it should be written down somewhere. The telling of history makes you take a hard look at yourself and your own history. She asks herself “What will I leave after I die?” While she is here, she wants to leave a piece of herself to prove her existence. This book is that piece of her time here in the world.

As for future projects, both women do not believe that they will be the ones to write a Vol. II because of other ongoing projects. Nadine is working on another book herself and plans to continue writing for the rest of her life. She would like to begin writing young adult books in the future because she wants to reach out to a younger audience. As for Gerry, she also has a book in the works. Her book is about African American history vanishing as a community in Stark County and she has been in this process for the last 12 years. As we can see, there is no stopping these women and there will always be more to come from them.

We thank both of these wonderful women for coming into our museum to sell their book and tell their story. We hope that more people will be inspired and find the dedication to do as these women did and write a Vol. II or begin researching their own history so it can be passed down. Their book “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” can be found online and also in our museum shoppe for anyone who would like to purchase it.