Auroraadvocate.com - Kaleidoscope: 39 years ago, the trumpet first sounded in Tuscarawas Valley

by Ken Lahmers

Editor

Much has been written recently about the 40th anniversary of the day when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in Cleveland. That day of infamy was June 22, 1969.

It joins a number of other landmark days which are celebrating anniversaries this year -- Church in Aurora's founding (200 years ago), D-Day (65 years), Aurora Community Theatre's founding (50 years) and the Beatles first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (45 years).

Although many area residents might have seen the production, they probably don't know that "Trumpet in the Land," Ohio's first outdoor historic drama, is celebrating its 40th season. It debuted 39 years ago.

I'm very aware of it, because as a teenager in Tuscarawas County I kept a close eye on the process which led to its debut in the summer of 1970.

I attended several meetings when plans were being made. The drama tells the story of Christian Indians interacting with Moravian missionaries during the Revolutionary War.

The founding of the Ohio Outdoor Historical Drama Association was largely due to the efforts of Dover resident Rachel Bair Redinger.

An active participant in many travel and theatrical organizations and historical societies over the years, she was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1979.

Former Gov. John J. Gilligan appointed her to the Ohio Arts Council in 1973, and in 1995 she received the Ohio Humanities Council's Richard Bjornson award for distinguished service.

She worked extensively with the Delaware Nation Grand Council on North America Inc., helped the Delaware Indians re-establsh a village historical center and raised funds for the Lenape Ellis Island Memorial.

Redinger also played a part in the decision of fashion design/merchandising gurus Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman to donate their collections worth $5 million to the Kent State University Museum.

The Shannon Rodgers/Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising eventually was created at KSU.

In 1979, Redinger, a member of KSU's Chestnut Society, asked Rodgers to accept the Ohio drama group's Golden Rose Award. After she viewed their collection, she asked them to consider donating it to a museum connected with a university.

They chose KSU, and as they say "the rest is history."

More about "Trumpet"

Playwright Paul Green, who died in 1981, was hired to write the script for "Trumpet." He wrote several outdoor dramas, including his first -- "The Lost Colony" -- in 1937. It still plays near Manteo, N.C.

The idea for "Trumpet" began in 1964, when the Rev. Arthur Kirk of Akron saw an outdoor drama and believed one could tell the story of the Tuscarawas Valley's historic background.

Articles of incorporation for the OOHDA were filed in April 1967, and a beautiful amphitheater was built on a hill overlooking the Tuscarawas County Home and KSU's New Philadelphia Campus.

The first "Trumpet" performance was July 3, 1970. In 2007, the production attracted more than 15,600 viewers from all over Ohio and 47 other states.

I'm a life member of the OOHDA and attended "Trumpet" every year in its early days. I haven't seen it for the past 15 years, but hope to do so this summer.

The play chronicles the 1772 founding of Ohio's first settlement -- Schoenbrunn -- in what is now New Philadelphia. Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder arrived from Pennsylvania and converted the Delaware Indians to Christians.

A border renegade named Simon Girty and an Indian warrior named Captain Pipe were feared by both the Delawares and missionaries.

The Schoenbrunn saga took place in the middle of the Revolutionary War, and since the site was between two opposing forts -- Pitt and Detroit -- it put the Indians in danger.

After the war ended, the Delawares at Schoenbrunn moved about 10 miles down the Tuscarawas River to Gnadenhutten, where on March 8, 1782 they encountered the wrath of a band of American militiamen.

One by one, the Indians were massacred -- 96 in all -- and most people cannot watch "Trumpet" without getting emotional during the massacre scene.

President Teddy Roosevelt called the Gnadenhutten massacre "a strain on the frontier character that time cannot wash away."

To mark the centennial of the event, a 37-foot tall monument was dedicated June 5, 1882 near the Gnadenhutten cemetery. It stands to this day.

The wording on the monument, which I visited frequently as a youth and went back last summer to see, always has evoked emotions for me.

It reads: "Here triumphed in death ninety Christians Indians. March 8, 1782."

Today, Zeisberger rests in a small fenced in plot in Goshen, just down the road from New Philly, with a handful of other early settlers. The plot is beside the long-abandoned Goshen School.

"Trumpet" runs most nights except Sunday through Aug. 31. An affiliated play -- "The White Savage" -- is performed on certain nights.

Information is available by visiting www.trumpetintheland.com.

Other outdoor dramas

"Trumpet in the Land" spurred development of three other outdoor historic dramas in Ohio, with "Tecumseh" near Chillicothe coming just three years afterward.

In the 1960s while in Atlanta, Ga., the Rev. Frank Roughton Harvey wrote what became Ohio's third outdoor drama -- "The Living Word" -- a story depicting the life of Christ.

After moving to the Cambridge area, he and his supporters built the Living Word Amphitheater on his farm.

The drama eventually was turned over to a non-profit group and has continued ever since. Harvey and his wife passed away in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

Ohio's fourth outdoor drama -- "Blue Jacket" -- unfortunately has ended a 26-year run after its parent company filed for bankruptcy in May. The drama's last season was 2007.

That play, performed near Xenia, chronicled the struggles of Chief Blue Jacket and the Shawnee Indians as they fought Army forces trying to crush Indian resistance in southwest Ohio.

E-mail:

klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155