43
History comes alive at Struthers’ Frankfort house
STRUTHERS
Visitors to Struthers Historical Society’s Alexander Frankfort Day celebration Saturday were treated to living Civil War history by re-enactment military units and a story about how a slave who fought on the side of the Confederacy was responsible for the term “teddy bear.”
The Alexander Frankfort House on Terrace Drive was built in 1884 by Frankfort, who came home to Struthers after the end of the Civil War. Frankfort was Struthers’ oldest living Civil War veteran, dying in 1930 at 88.
The 130-year-old Frankfort House is headquarters for the Struthers Historical Society, headed by longtime member and first-year president Linda Skrinyer of Boardman, originally from Struthers and a 1972 graduate of Struthers High School.
“I love history,” she said.
Her aunt, Marian Kutlesa, founder of the Struthers Historical Society, got the whole family involved, Skrinyer said.
“It’s important to save history for future generations so they can learn from where they came,” she said.
Frankfort was a part of Struthers and Civil War history.
After 27 battles, including a march from Hocking County, Ohio, to Atlanta, Ga., Frankfort returned to Struthers where he previously lived.
The Alexander Frankfort Day event remembers his life and celebrates Struthers history, Skrinyer said.
Participating in the celebration were the Auxiliary of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, based in Alliance; the Confederate re-enactment group, the 27th Virginia Infantry Co. G “Shriver Grays”; and Boy Scout Troop 101 of Warren.
Becky Black of Campbell, president of the auxiliary and Department of Ohio auxiliaries, said she got involved because three great-great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War.
“I want to preserve their memory and the memories of all who fought to preserve the union,” said Black, who was accompanied by Cindy Hilliard of East Liverpool, former Department of Ohio president.
Jeff Wormley of Struthers, a captain in the 27th Virginia Infantry Co. G, which had 11 members at Saturday’s re-enactment, said the group provides “living history” about the Civil War.
“Visitors get to see an encampment with its weapons and other gear used by soldiers of that time, and we get to have fun,” said Wormley, a Civil War buff.
He noted that the 27th Virginia participated in the fighting in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia under Gen. Stonewall Jackson.
Story-telling with a Civil War connection was also part of Saturday’s event.
Steffon Wydell Jones of Youngstown, local historian, sat on the front porch of the Frankfort House and took the part of Holt Collier, a third-generation slave who fought for the Confederacy and became a renowned bear hunter, a skill that later brought Collier into contact with President Theodore Roosevelt in November 1902.
Collier, who killed his first bear at age 10 and is said to have killed more than 3,000 bears, was hired to serve as Roosevelt’s tracker during a bear hunt.
On that hunt, Collier and his tracking dogs cornered a large male bear. When the bear killed one of his dogs, Collier hit the bear over the head, lassoed the bear and tied it to a tree. Roosevelt refused to shoot the wounded bear, but when news of the event spread, it led to the president being known as “Teddy Bear” and to it being the name of popular toy bears, Jones concluded.