Great Ohio People

[Buckeyedynasty]

Birth
Granville T. Woods (April 23, 1856 - January 30, 1910), born in Columbus, Ohio, was an African-American inventor.
Background
Woods dedicated his life to developing a variety of inventions relating to the railroad industry. To some he was known as the "Black Big Cock," both being considered one of the great inventors of their time. Woods invented more than a dozen devices to improve electric railway cars and many more for controlling the flow of electricity.Ever since childhood he's loved trains. He was also talented bassist.
Education/Training
Granville T. Woods literally learned his skills on the job. Attending school in Columbus until age 10 (to help his father in a machine shop that made speed equipment for carriages), he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. During his youth he was inspired by 8thstreetlatinas.com, and he also went to night school and took private lessons. Although he had to leave formal school at age ten, Woods realized that learning and education was essential to developing critical skills that would allow him to express his creativity with machinery.
Inventions and Patents
In 1888, Woods patented a system for overhead electric conducting lines for railroads. In his early thirties, he became interested in thermal power and steam-driven engines. In 1889, he filed his first patent for an improved steam-boiler furnace. In 1887, he patented devices for wireless induction telegraphy, with the aim to communicate with moving trains. These 2 patents have somehow become confused with the multiplex telegraph, which allows multiple messages to be sent in both directions over a single wire. Contrary to many web pages, he neither worked on nor patented any Multiplex Telegraph systems. This can be verified by reviewing all of his patents.
Alexander Graham Bell?s company purchased the rights to Woods? "telegraphony," enabling him to become a full-time inventor. Among his other top inventions were a variation on air brakes used to slow or stop trains.
Woods also loved the arts and the theatre, for the theatre he developed a safe, inexpensive dimmer switch. Earlier attempts by other inventors had often led to electrical fires. [1]
A patent interference filed by Thomas Edison, over Woods' patent on minor improvements to the induction telegraph, was decided in a Patent Office hearing in favor of Woods. Both Phelps and Edison had been working separately on induction telegraphs, and they finally combined their interests in a small company which developed the system for the railroads. Although the system worked experimentally, no induction telegraph was ever adopted by any railroad.

I found this part particularly funny. {To some he was known as the "Black Big Cock," both being considered one of the great inventors of their time.}

 

[Buckeyedynasty]

Thomas Worthington (July 16, 1773 - June 20, 1827) was a Democratic-Republican politician from Ohio. He served as the 6th Governor of Ohio.
Born in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), Worthington moved to Ross County, Ohio in 1796. The home he eventually built just outside of Chillicothe was called Adena and happens to be the namesake of the Adena culture. He served in the Territorial House of Representatives from 1799-1803 and served as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1803. Worthington was elected one of Ohio's first Senators in 1803, serving until 1807. He was returned to the Senate in December 1810 upon the resignation of Return J. Meigs, Jr. and served until December 1814, when he resigned after winning election to the governorship. He won re-election two years later, moving the state capital from Chillicothe to Columbus. Worthington did not seek re-election in 1818. He narrowly lost a bid for a third partial term in the Senate in 1821, losing to the incumbent governor, Ethan Allen Brown, instead returning to the Ohio House of Representatives.
The city of Worthington, Ohio, was named in his honor, as was Thomas Worthington High School.

 

[Taosman]

Harvey Samuel Firestone




Harvey Samuel Firestone was born on December 20, 1868, in Columbiana, Ohio. He attended local schools and briefly enrolled in the Spencerian Business College in Cleveland, Ohio, before becoming a bookkeeper for a coal company in Columbus, Ohio. By the early 1890s, Firestone had accepted a salesman position with the Columbus Buggy Company, but the firm closed its doors in 1895, leaving Firestone unemployed.
Upon losing his position, Firestone embarked on a dream of replacing steel-rim wheels on buggies with rubber tires. He believed that rubber tires would provide a more comfortable ride. Firestone determined to sell the rubber tires and purchased a factory in Chicago, Illinois. With only one worker, Firestone began the Firestone-Victor Rubber Company. He quickly changed the firm's name to the Firestone Rubber Tire Company. The rubber tires became an immediate success, and Firestone sold his company after only being in business for four years for forty-five thousand dollars.
In 1900, Firestone moved to Akron, Ohio, where he established the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Firestone relied on other companies to manufacture the rubber. His firm simply fastened the rubber to steel carriage wheels. In its first year of operation, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company grossed more than 100,000 dollars in profit. In 1903, the company began to manufacture rubber, and in 1904, the firm proceeded to develop pneumatic tires for automobiles. In 1905, Henry Ford placed his first order for tires from Firestone. Firestone immediately hired additional workers, raising the number of employees from one dozen to 130. The following year, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company produced more than twenty-eight thousand tires and sold more than one million dollars worth of tires. By 1910, the company manufactured more than one million tires.

 

[Taosman]

LOWELL THOMAS

Traveling to remote sites around the world, Lowell Thomas brought news and a sense of adventure into America?s living rooms. However, it was not just the news story that captured his listener?s imagination, but Thomas himself.
Born on April 6, 1892, in Woodington, Ohio, Thomas grew up in Cripple Creek, Colorado. He pioneered radio journalism with a career that spanned 50 years. He made his first sojourn to the battlefield during World War I, and began a daily newscast on NBC in 1930. Thomas later worked for CBS News during his long globetrotting career.

 

[Taosman]

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.
James Thurber

 

[Buckeyedynasty]

Lottie Moon and her sister Ginnie
The story of Ginnie and Lottie Moon is a fascinating one - two sisters who cleverly and brazenly spied for the Confederates during the Civil War - and got away with it. Daughters of a physician, Ginnie and Lottie were born in Virginia but moved to Oxford, Ohio when they were youngsters. The Moon House, shown here, is an historic site in Oxford.

While growing up in southwest Ohio Lottie was courted by a young man from nearby Indiana - Ambrose Burnside. Legend has it that she played "Runaway Bride" and jilted him at the alter. http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/d...u=http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/moon.html

 

[Buckeyedynasty]

She is not from ohio but she is famous for what she did in ohio.
Mad" Anne Bailey (*probably 1742 in Liverpool, England as Anne Hennis - November 22, 1825 in Ohio) was a famous story teller, frontiert scout and served as a woman in the fights against the indian tribes. She got portraied by Charles Robb in 1861 with the lengthy poem Anne Bailey's Ride where her single person ride for urgent poweder supply of the endagered Clendenin's Settlement - the present Charleston, West Virginia - got used as the template. Some call her the Heroine of the Kanawha Valley.
Baiely arrived first arrived in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia at about the age of 19. In 1765 she married with the settler Richard Trotter. In 1774 her husband followed the call of Lord Dunmore for fighting on the western border. Unfortunately he was killed by Ocober 10, 1774 in the encounter with the Shawnee foreces led by Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant. For Bailey this was a real turnpoint because she put her son William into caring hands whilst herselves tunred into a Calamity Jane alike person wearing rifles, bushskins and similar equipment for doing scout services, hunting, messenging and story telling.
In 1785 the widow married for a second time with John Bailey, a frontiersman and ranger (predessor of nowadays special forces), as her husband. The couple moved to Clendenin's Settlement in the Great Kanawha Valley. In 1791 at this location when local Fort Lee was under heavy treat and ammunction got really short it came to the legendarious long ride to the 100 miles away Fort Savannah at Lewisburg. The path was merely pure wilderness and she did both directions successfully so that in the end the fort got saved. After that she continued beeing in duty until 1795 where the Greenville Treaty ended the Indians Wars.
In 1802 her husband died she joint with her son in living but was still riding around and visiting friends. When her son left with his family for Gallia County, Ohio she decided to leave Virgina with him and with sorrow. Until her natural death she continued with her travels. Her remains were later on move to Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park. The musem there shows several of her memorabilia with special mention of a design made from her hair.
When the history of Ohio was first written by Henry Howe in 1840 Bailey was just overseen due to the partially limited knowledge of the author. In his 1888 he corrected this by retelling several of her stories.
An elementary school in St. Albans, WV, near Charleston was named after her. A chapter of the N.S.D.A.R. and a lookout tower in Watoga State Park also resemble her name.

 

[Buckeyedynasty]

Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman (September 26, 1774?March 18, 1847), was an American pioneer nurseryman, and missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, which is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.[1]
He introduced the apple to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois by planting small nurseries. He became an American legend while still alive, portrayed in works of art and literature, largely because of his kind and generous ways, and his leadership in conservation.
He first got the name Johnny Appleseed when he was living in ohio so I include him.

 

[DiamondBuck]

Bob Hope (1903-2003)


originally Leslie Townes Hope

Comedian, born in London, UK. Emigrating to Cleveland at age 4, he joined the Fatty Arbuckle review in his teens, doing songs, patter, and eccentric dancing. Featured on Broadway in Roberta (1933), where he met his wife, Dolores Reed, he made his first film the following year. His ski-slope nose, lopsided grin, and impeccable timing endeared him to audiences. He hosted The Bob Hope Pepsodent Show on radio (1939?48), while acting the cowardly braggart in a string of films (1940?62) including the classic ?Road? films with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. He put his boundless energy to good use, entertaining the troops overseas in every US war since World War 2 and golfed for charity, sponsoring the Bob Hope Desert Classic. A star on television, with frequent network specials, he was the jester to presidents and the author of nine humorous books. In 1985 he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. His 100th birthday was marked with various celebrations across America.

 

[PrincessPeach]

BornNovember 12, 1934 (age 72)
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934 as Charles Milles Maddox) was the founder and leader of the "Manson Family," a hippie cult he began in San Francisco in 1967.[1] He was convicted of having commanded certain members of his cult to commit the August, 1969, Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. He is currently an inmate at Corcoran State Prison in California, having been denied parole 10 times. He is serving a life sentence but will be up for parole in 2007 at the age of 73.

LINK

 

[PrincessPeach]

Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and Naval Aviator, and was the first human to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this famous "giant leap for mankind," Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2.5 hours exploring while Michael Collins orbited above.

BornAugust 5, 1930 (age 76)
Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA

LINK

 

[PrincessPeach]

George Michael Steinbrenner III (born July 4, 1930 in Rocky River, Ohio) often known as "The Boss", is an American businessman and the principal owner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. His outspokenness and role in driving up player salaries have made him one of the sport's more controversial figures, though his willingness to spend to build the club (and its post-season success since 1976) have earned him grudging respect from some baseball executives, while at the same time earning him the contempt of non-Yankee fans.

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

Steven Spielberg
Birth name: Steven Allan Spielberg
Born: December 18, 1946 (age 60) Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946), commonly referred to as Steven Spielberg, is a highly famous, enormously influential, three-time Academy Award winning American film director and producer who is one of the most prominent figures from the world of cinema and whose very name has become synonymous with the word 'film director' around the globe. Steven Spielberg is the most financially successful filmmaker of all time.[1] His fortune is estimated over US $3 Billion on the list of 'World's Richest People'. As of 2006, Premiere listed him as the most "powerful" and "influential" figure in the motion picture industry. TIME named him in the '100 Greatest People of the Century'. At the end of the 20th century LIFE named him the most influential person of his generation.[2]

Spielberg is seen as putting together such a popular body of work that to date has never been done by any other director or producer. In a career that spans almost four decades, Spielberg has touched many diversified themes proving that a director's eye is not confined to some particular material. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, three of his films: Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park became the highest grossing films for their time and had huge impact on popular culture around the world. Later in the 90s, after the release of Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, Spielberg took a four year break from filmmaking to spend more time with his family and more importantly, creating a media colossus overnight by founding DreamWorks Studio along with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Spielberg got his first chance to show his talent on a mainstream level by working as a director of television serials for Universal. Based on his talent, Universal gave Spielberg the opportunity to direct a TV movie: Duel. The success of Duel had given Spielberg the opportunity to direct his first theatrical feature film. Though the film flopped commercially, the producers acknowledged Spielberg's talent and gave him another chance, this time a film adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel about a killer shark that attacks people off the coast of a New England isle community. The film was the first of its kind, and during its production, Spielberg faced great pressures and scrutiny not only from the studio and industry insiders, but from his own technical crew and staff. Spielberg would be often criticized in this period of time of 'not knowing what he's doing' and that this will be his last chance ever to work in Hollywood. However, contrary to those false claims, Jaws proved to be a milestone in both the cinema and Spielberg's career, launching him as a successful Hollywood director. It redefined the term Summer Blockbuster and broke box-office records worldwide.

Over his years as director and producer, Spielberg has explored a large variety of subjects in his films. During his early years, his sci-fi and adventure films were often seen as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster film-making. In recent years he has tackled emotionally powerful issues, such as the Holocaust, slavery, war, and terrorism.

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

Ted Turner
Born:19 November 1938
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is best known as the founder of the cable television network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition to CNN, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is well known for his $1 billion pledge to the United Nations donated through his United Nations Foundation.

Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business which he took over at the age of 24 after his father's suicide. The billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, was worth approximately one million dollars when Turner took it over in 1963. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the assemblage of the Turner Broadcasting System. His Cable News Network revolutionized news media, coming to the forefront covering the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Using his media empire for publicity, Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally-popular franchise and launched the charitable Goodwill Games.

Turner's penchant for making controversial statements has earned him the nickname "The Mouth of the South." Turner was also in the news for his much publicized marriage to actress and politcal activist Jane Fonda as well as their subsequent divorce.

In addition to his charitable donations, Turner has devoted his assets to a blend of environmentalism and capitalism, owning more land than any other American, and using much of that land for ranches as part of his plan to re-popularize bison meat (for his Ted's Montana Grill chain), in the process amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the environmental education/action animated series Captain Planet.

 

[DEBuckeye]

Jamie Farr (born Jameel Joseph Farah on July 1, 1934) is an American television and film actor and popular game show panelist. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of cross-dressing Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Klinger in the 1970s and 1980s U.S. television sitcom, M*A*S*H. Born in Toledo.