We owe much of the history of the exploration and ultimate destruction of the Waller-Heinisch Mound to Clara Waller, who grew up on the property where it was located. She was the daughter of George A. Waller and the niece of Francis Cleveland, an artifact collector who produced the first topographic map detailing aspects of the Portsmouth Earthworks. Clara Waller was also an author, involved in the local literary scene of Gilded Age Portsmouth.

In March of 1897, Waller published an essay on "Prehistoric" Portsmouth in the Ladies Industrial Review, which was edited by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Young Men’s Christian Association and printed by the Times Publishing Company of Portsmouth.

In her account of the mounds and earthworks, Waller relates that the Waller-Heinisch Mound was first opened by Capt. Josiah Shackford, who is considered one of the founding pioneer's of Portsmouth. Shackford is credited with having suggested the city's name after his hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Waller writes: "Sometime between 1800 and 1815 Capt. Josiah Shackford, and a Mr. Clark, went about digging into these earthworks searching for hidden treasure, not bits of pottery, or shell, or metal upon which hinge history, but for silver and gold, and precious stones. They dug through the Waller Mound, leaving a hole which time gradually filled up, but which changed the conical shape somewhat." Clearly, the earliest of the "explorations" by Shackford and Clark were little more than looting enterprises in search of treasure, not knowledge or a deeper understanding of humanity's past in the Ohio Valley.

The Waller-Heinisch Mound survived largely intact until at least November 1886, when George Heinisch, the new owner of the property, announced that he planned to "dig down the mound and place the dirt on the rear of the lot." The Daily Times opined that "this will afford archaeologists an opportunity of looking for relics, signs and tokens of a former race."

According to Waller, "When Mr. Heinisch recently removed this mound several antiquities were found, one, a piece of pottery rudely made to represent a man's head; it was six or eight inches long. An implement was also found made of granite, highly polished and sharpened at both ends and about the size and shape of a miner's pick, save that there was no eye for the handle. When the bottom of the work was reached the remains of a hearth was discovered which showed that there had been fire upon it."

Waller’s account was essentially confirmed and expanded upon by Charles V. Wertz, with whom Waller, it should be noted, was familiar, the two having a shared his interest in the Portsmouth Earthworks. Writing in 1936, Wertz recalled speaking with the “laborers” who did the excavation and having viewed the artifacts that were taken from Mound as it was leveled.

“This mound," wrote Wertz, "has been partially opened previous to its removal, but during its removal the bones of three badly decayed skeletons were found which had been buried on an altar of burnt clay about eight feet long and four feet wide. Near these skeletons were found three very large granite celts or unproved axes, a stone carved in the form of a human face, a pocket or pit which contained eleven large thin knives or oval shaped spears, a fine clay pot decorated with circles and lines holding about a quart. Also found near this altar were parts of skeletons which had been left by the original excavators. I learned from the laborers that a great number of small beads were found mixed with the charcoal on the altar and an extra fine granite crescent shaped implement or ceremonial, also two flat slate pieces with double perforations. Without a doubt a great many relics were overlooked in the destruction of this mound.”

Writing over one-hundred and twenty-five years ago, Clara Waller emphasized the importance of the Portsmouth Earthworks and their archaeology, telling her readers: “It is by the light of a very dim torch that we invade the ‘Stranger People’s Country.’ In the total absence of all historical records … we can only follow the leading of suggestions given us by the pre-historic works which remain, and the various relics which they have been found to contain.” 

The artifacts that were recovered from the Waller-Heinisch Mound culturally date to the Middle and Late Woodland Periods, circa (200 BCE-1000 CE), which suggests a Hopewell origin, with the mound's further modification and use by Late Prehistoric peoples.

Many of the artifacts taken from the Waller-Heinisch Mound ended up in the private collection of George Heinisch, while a few others were acquired by Charles V. Wertz. In 1916, George Heinisch donated his collection to the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society in Columbus, where some eighty-eight items are preserved in their holdings. Currently, the Ohio History Connection, the successor of the original society, is not authorizing the public display of items from their Heinisch Collection. 

Thankfully, several of the Waller-Heinisch Mound artifacts from Charles V. Wertz's collection are on display at the Southern Ohio Museum and can be viewed in the Scioto Historical image gallery. Perhaps aware of these items, Clara Waller noted in her essay on prehistoric Portsmouth that “Charles Wertz, Jr. is the lucky owner of an unusually good collection of antiquities.”

Sources:

"George Heinisch ... to Dig Down the Mound," Portsmouth Times (27 November 1886). 

Clara Waller, “Pre-historic: Local,” Ladies Industrial Review (March 1897). For a digital copy of Waller’s article and the complete Review see Wandering Appalachia. https://www.wanderingappalachia.org/2021/09/22/1897-portsmouth-ladies-industrial-review/

Charles V. Wertz, “Ancient Man and His Works in and Around Scioto County,” Ohio Indian Relic Collectors Society Bulletin, No. 24 (June 1950): 20-29.

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Tremper Mound was constructed on the west terrace of the Scioto River, five miles north of its confluence with the Ohio. Built late in the first century BCE, which was quite early in the Hopewell Cultural era, Tremper Mound’s irregularly shaped 8-foot-tall mound was built on the burnt ruins of a large multi-chambered ceremonial building, enclosed by an oval earthen wall that was 500 feet across. Tremper Mound did not stand alone; it was part of a group of mounds and earthworks that were part of an even larger complex centered at the Mouth of the Scioto River. Known as the Portsmouth Earthworks, the complex spanned both sides of the Ohio River in three main centers of development.

Two separate ceremonial grounds and structures stood on the river’s south bank on the Kentucky side, roughly six miles apart. A third complex stood on the north bank of the river on the Ohio side (the site of modern-day Portsmouth), showcasing, among other features, two large and striking horseshoe mounds. Three walkways, each dramatically bordered with earthen walls, originated out of the Ohio complex. Today, nearly all of the Portsmouth Works on the Ohio side of the river lie buried beneath the city’s residential and business districts. On the Kentucky side, most of the earthworks were similarly destroyed by farming and the construction of residential subdivisions.

The nearly complete disappearance of Portsmouth Earthworks makes the preservation of Tremper Mound even more important, since Tremper is one of the few visible reminders of the splendid architecture and monumental art achieved by the Hopewell Culture in the Lower Scioto Valley.

The first surveys of Tremper Mound’s unusual shape led archeologists, including E.G. Squier and Dr. Edwin Davis, to speculate that it was designed as an “animal effigy.” Charles Whittlesey’s survey, which appeared in Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), labeled it as such. It was seen as a compliment to the Serpent Mound in neighboring Adams County, but an excavation led by William C. Mills in 1915 revealed that the mound’s conformation mirrors the shape of a multi-room structure buried beneath it. What had long been speculated as an animal shape was the result of the footprint of what has been termed a “Great House,” with wood posts that had been burned before being covered by the mound construction.

In Mills’ description of the Tremper Mound Great House, he noted that the site “had been occupied by a structure serving as a sacred place, in which the dead were cremated, their ashes deposited in prepared receptacles, and the doubtless intricate ceremonials accompanying these proceedings, including the depositing of implements and ornaments of the deceased, were carried out. The structure proper had been a large oval enclosure, approximately two hundred feet long and half as wide. A number of chapel-like additions, possibly to afford more space or to supplement that of the main structure, had been built from time to time. Upright posts averaging six inches in diameter, set into the ground to a depth of about two and one-half feet, formed the outer walls of the complex structure, as well as the partitions separating them into various compartments.”

When the Great House was actively used by the Hopewell, it was divided into chambers, each alcove’s outer boundaries defined by vertical wooden poles. Walls were likely filled in with natural fibers to provide privacy and to create defined space. Some of the chambers were dedicated to mortuary purposes, with the deceased being cremated, others had specially constructed basins that communally held the ashes of hundreds of community members. There was even a chamber that seemed to have primarily served as a kitchen, presumably to feed the attendees and workers. The Great House included fire pits, possibly for ceremonial fires, and a large communal cache of over 500 articles, surmised to have been left behind in honor of the dead. Many if not most of these articles had been ceremonially broken.

As was the practice of the Hopewell, the Great House was eventually burned to the ground and then heaped over with layers of earth to form Tremper Mound as we know it today. Later yet in time, as many as sixteen burials took place on Tremper Mound by digging graves into its surface, creating what are known as “intrusive burials.” These were the only non-cremated burials ever found at Tremper Mound and they represent a later indigenous era.

Mills’s Tremper Mound excavation produced large numbers of beads, gorgets (drilled stone ornaments), copper and bone adornments; mica and galenite crystals, plugs of stone for ear ornaments; hollowed out stone “boats” that were probably rattles, a 6-inch mica bear cutout, myriad pieces of unshaped mica, and remnants of woven fabrics. Perhaps the most remarkable of all the artifacts recovered were 136 stone smoking pipes, most of them broken. Of those able to be restored, 46 were plain pipes, many of them with tall bowls. These are considered by many to be the most beautiful of the plain Hopewell pipes. Remarkably, 60 of the restored pipes were animal effigy platform pipes, a discovery that sent ripples of excitement throughout the archaeological community.

Nearly all of the artifacts removed during the Mills Excavation ended up in Columbus, in the archives of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, which currently is not authorizing the public display of mortuary items from their Tremper Collection. Thankfully, a small number of items from Tremper Mound ended up in the local Collection of Charles V. Wertz, including a perfectly preserved dark pink, monitor-style platform pipe, which was gifted to him by Dr. William D. Tremper, who owned the mound site at the time of the Mills Excavation in 1915. This pipe and other Tremper Mound artifacts from the Wertz Collection are on display at the Southern Ohio Museum and can be viewed in the Scioto Historical image gallery.

Prior to the discovery of the Tremper Mound pipes, only one other cache of Hopewell effigy pipes had ever been found. It was discovered in 1846 by Squier and Davis when they were excavating Mound #8 of the Mound City Group, just forty-six miles to the north of Tremper Mound near present day Chillicothe. It was later determined that Tremper Mound was the older of the two caches, and of particular interest to archeologists was the fact that some of the Tremper pipes and the Mound City pipes were nearly identical in design.

The animals selected by the carvers of the Hopewell platform pipes were not just big game animals, nor were they only animals that were feared and admired for their power. These subjects included animals both great and small, mighty and modest - an entire rainbow of species representing the wildlife of the Hopewell culture’s home biome. The effigy platform pipes of Mound City and Tremper provide us with a field guide to the past - giving us a tour of the natural world as it existed 2000 years ago in the same environs we live in today.

Species represented on the effigy pipes included: Black Bear, Cougar, Bobcat, Porcupine, Opossum, Beaver, White-tailed Deer, Mink, Rabbit, Squirrel, Snapping Turtle, Box Turtle, American and Spadefoot Toad, Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Long-eared Owl, Screech Owl, Great Blue Heron, Sandhill Crane, Canada Goose, Carolina Parakeet, Bald Eagle, Bufflehead, Otter, Raccoon, Gray Wolf, Gray Fox, Domesticated Dog, and Cardinal.

Recent analysis of the stones composing the Tremper Mound pipes revealed that less than 20 percent of those tested were made from local Ohio stone, while 65 percent hailed from a northern Illinois quarry and 18 percent were made of a stone called catlinite from a Minnesota quarry, even though the Feurt Hill Pipestone Quarry was only a few miles away from Tremper. More puzzling yet is the fact that, unlike Tremper, the Mound City pipes were mostly carved out of native Ohio stone, including what is believed to be pipestone from the Feurt Hill Quarry.

Like many of their cultural counterparts, both modern and ancient, the Hopewell peoples embraced a world that was large, marvelous and varied; and they knew how to network and move resources around. They coveted “cool stuff” from far away with which to make their art: horns from Rocky Mountain sheep, shells from the Gulf Coast, copper from Michigan, and mica from the southern Appalachians. They imported silver, galena, turquoise, pearls, aragonite, meteoric materials and iron. Valuing what is rare and exotic is a universal human trait that was certainly well-expressed in the Hopewell era.

Viewing what remains of Tremper Mound and imagining the site’s Great House filled with people mourning and honoring their dead connects us across the millennia. And yet, it is important to remember that what we know about the Hopewell Culture is but a thin slice of the complexity of their artistry, traditions, and life skills. It is the Arc of Appalachia’s hope that protecting Tremper Mound will serve in a small way to expand our knowledge and appreciation of the past. The acquisition of the Tremper Mound property by the Arc of Appalachia and its transformation into a public preserve marks an important turning point in the history and preservation of the site and the larger Portsmouth Earthworks Complex.

In the words of Jarrod Burks, who has spent his career studying the archeology of the Scioto Valley, “Preserving the Tremper site is a rare opportunity to protect one of the most unique and carefully excavated mounds in Ohio. While we know a lot about what was found beneath the mound, the discovery of more details about this important early Hopewell site awaits further research in the grounds around the mound and relatively intact embankment that surrounds it. But this is only possible on the site if it is preserved. One could write many volumes about Hopewell ceremonialism simply based on what was excavated in 1915. Tremper is one of the earlier full expressions of this unique way of life that we refer to as Hopewell—especially the ceremonial side of it. It’s not only a sacred place worth preserving in its own right. It could also hold the key to understanding the origins of the Hopewell Culture in the Scioto valley.”

Tremper Mound is currently not open to the public. The Arc of Appalachia plans to open the preserve in 2023.

Sources

Jarrod Burks, "World Signifance of Tremper Mound Earthworks," Arc of Appalachia (2021).

Thomas E. Emerson, et. al., "The Allure of the Exotic: Reexamining the Use of Local and Distant Pipestone Quarries in Ohio Hopewell Pipe Caches," American Antiquity Volume 78:1 (January 2013), pp. 48-67.

William C. Mills, Exploration of the Tremper Mound (Columbus, Ohio: F. J. Heer printing company, 1916).

For more (including 15 images & 1 video) view the original article

Portsmouth's Mound Park lays claim to the lone remnant of the central complex of the Portsmouth Earthworks that once spread across the Ohio River over the modern communities of Portsmouth, Ohio and South Portsmouth and South Shore, Kentucky. The history of Mound Park spans over 2000 years of human activity at the mouth of the Scioto River.

All that survives today is a horseshoe-shaped mound, which was one of a pair that were the focal point of the earthworks complex. Caleb Atwater produced the first known sketch map of the earthworks in 1820, which caught the general scale and design of the complex, but omitted any reference to horseshoe-shaped mounds. In 1847, the archaeologists Ephraim Squier and Dr. Edwin Davis, working with Dr. Giles S.B. Hempstead, a local guide and expert on the mounds, recorded the first formal survey and description of the earthworks, which was published in their pioneering work Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. They recorded the earthworks as stretching along eight miles on either side of the Ohio River at the mouth of the Scioto River, with three groups visually connected by parallel alignments of earthen embankments.

Squier and Davis labeled these as Groups A, B, and C on their map, a naming convention that has been retained by archaeologists to the present. Group A is the rectangular works on the Kentucky side of the river on the first terrace above the floodplain, also known as the “Old Fort” by nineteenth century observers. Group B is the central complex on the high terrace on the Ohio side of the river, surrounding modern Mound Park. Group C is the concentric circle earthworks on the Kentucky side, east of the rectangular works, and on the first terrace over the floodplain (known as the "Temple Mound").

Squier and Davis made special note of a defining feature of this set of earthworks, which were the sets of parallel walls that apparently served to link the three groups. As recorded by Squier and Davis, the main element of Group B was a pair of horseshoe-shaped mounds situated within a semi-circular embankment. The horseshoe mounds opened to the south, and there were wide openings in the semi-circle to the east and southeast, with smaller openings at the west and northwest.

Two smaller U-shaped mounds were situated at the large openings, with their open ends oriented towards the openings of the large horseshoe mounds. A circular embankment was present directly east of the southern U-shaped mound. To the northeast of the eastern U-shaped mound, a short set of parallel embankments led northeast for a brief distance, with a mound at the northeast end of the southern embankment. Another mound was present to the northeast of the eastern horseshoe mound, outside the semi-circular embankment.

Further removed to the north, across a farm lane that is now 17th Street, was a circular embankment with an opening on the south side and centered on the center axis of the eastern horseshoe mound. Southeast of this circle was a long, singular, arcing embankment, leading southwest to the northwest set of parallel walls.

Another circular embankment was present to the west of the junction of the two sets of parallel embankments, with an opening to the east and on a central alignment that passes through the middle of the two horseshoe mounds and the eastern U-shaped mound.

A natural rise on the terrace is east of the horseshoe mounds, with one circular embankment south of the rise and another at the toe of the rise to the east. This second embankment enclosed a central mound and had an opening oriented to the east. Squier and Davis noted they thought the natural rise had been artificially modified, likely for use as an elevated platform overlooking the central earthworks.

The development of Portsmouth throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century removed nearly all visible traces of this complex earthworks. Today, only the horseshoe mound in Mound Park remains of the Portsmouth portion of the earthworks to remind us of this once-massive ritual center.

Adena and Hopewell Construction of the Mounds and Earthworks at the Mouth of the Scioto River

Earthworks served specific functions in Hopewell society, although this is the subject of robust debate amongst archaeologists. Most scholars tend to agree the general function of these constructions served as ritual centers for local, and perhaps regional, Hopewell communities, while there must have been variability in the ways that earthworks and mounds served local and regional communities. Earthwork construction by the Hopewell is linked to the earlier mound and simple geometric earthwork construction practiced by Early Woodland people (1000-100 BC), particularly the Adena cultural groups. Adena mounds range from low rises to large conical mounds highly visible on the landscape, often including multiple burials. Adena earthworks are usually circles with a single opening and an interior ditch, often with a central mound, and are often found in groups.

The archeaological record suggests that the Portsmouth Earthworks originated in the Early Woodland period as such a group of circles and mounds, then was expanded during the Middle Woodland by Hopewell people. The link between Adena and Hopewell cultures is not completely understood but it is probable that the Hopewell culture is an evolution of earlier Adena customs and practices.

The exact purpose of the Portsmouth Earthworks is unknown, but it is clear they were a major component of the ritual life of the Middle Woodland Hopewell Culture (ca. 100 BC-500 AD). The earthworks are the southernmost earthworks complex along the Scioto River. This complex likely had a special association with the junction of the Scioto River and Ohio River, perhaps serving as a gateway into the heart of the Ohio Hopewell homelands.

Like other earthworks complexes further up the Scioto River valley, the Portsmouth Earthworks probably served as a gathering place for both local families scattered across the landscape in small hamlets and for larger congregations of people from other river valleys across the region. Recent archaeological excavations at the park have recovered exotic materials from distant locations, including mica and crystal quartz from the North Carolina mountains and obsidian from the Yellowstone region, along with massive quantities of Ohio Flint Ridge chert.

Exotic material brought back from distant lands was used to make iconic works of Hopewell art, such as mica cutouts, huge obsidian blades, conch shell dippers and beads, copper panpipes and body ornaments, and necklaces of grizzly bear and fossil shark teeth. While none of these artifacts are currently known from Mound Park, it is likely that similar artifacts were made and used here.

Early Historical Occupation

Mound Park was originally part of the John Simpson farmstead, established sometime before 1819. John Simpson and his wife Mary Noel were among the first settlers of Portsmouth. They set up their farm just north of the large semi-circular embankments that enclosed the horseshoe mounds. As a carpenter, Simpson likely had a hand in the construction of many early buildings in Portsmouth. Later, in 1846, Azel Glover sold six acres of this parcel to the County Commissioners for use as an "Infirmary Farm."

In the 1860s and 1870s, the County Fair would be held on the site of the farm. In 1871, the Portsmouth Times reported on the preparations for the annual fair, noting that there were “several ancient mounds of peculiar formation” on the grounds. The main exhibition hall was built within the interior of one of the horseshoe mounds, and a racecourse was set up east of the mound, with a music stand on the rise where the WPA-built Shelter House is now located. A Dr. Straight was noted as the owner of the grounds at the time and had his residence there.

In 1871, the County Commissioners transferred the Infirmary Farm to the West Side, near Carey's Run, clearing the way for a new chapter in the site's history. 

Scioto County Children’s Home

The Scioto County Children’s Home was the county orphanage. The Portsmouth City Council set aside part of the City Hospital for the home in 1874.

And, in November of 1875, the Portsmouth Times noted that the old fairground buildings were being repaired for temporary use by the county's Children’s Home. The fairgrounds are shown south of Robinson Avenue on the 1889 map of Portsmouth, showing their movement away from Mound Park.

In November 1875, the orphanage was moved to the old infirmary farm and fairgrounds property on the current grounds of Mound Park. The old infirmary and fairground buildings were repaired for temporary use, while plans were launched to construct a new building to serve as Children’s Home.

Built atop the natural rise, overlooking the Horseshoe Mound, the new home burned in early 1876 before it was finished. After rebuilding, a three-story brick structure opened in 1877 in the same location. By 1892, seventy-five children occupied the Home, and the buildings on the grounds included the residence, a one-story schoolhouse, a laundry, a playhouse, two other outbuildings, and a windmill. All these buildings were in the southeast corner of Mound Park, where the 1930s shelter house and equipment shed are now present.

An early, undated nineteenth-century photograph of the home also shows what must be the small U-shaped mound that was on the property. Towards the end of the 1880s, city officials discussed the possibility of constructing an addition to alleviate crowding. By 1909, there was talk of relocating the facility, and with it was the first mention of converting the property to a city park, with the special notation to preserve the earthworks. Other options including selling the whole property for residential lots or building a new city hospital on the site.

Interestingly, a 1915 article discussing the disposition of the Children’s Home mentions “historical horse-shoe mounds” – so it is possible that the smaller U-shaped mound as seen in the undated photograph was still present. In 1917, the county commissioners resolved to divide the Children’s Home property into four lots and sell them to raise funds for a new home located in a more rural setting. However, this plan ran into resistance from residents of the Hilltop neighborhood and community groups who supported transforming the grounds into a public park.

The Labold family eventually purchased the entire plot and transferred the deed to the City of Portsmouth to explicitly transform the grounds into a new city park. Construction on a new Children’s Home near Wheelersburg began in 1920. The Children’s Home remained in this location until 1921, after which the location was converted to a public park, following the desire of many Portsmouth citizens.

The outbuildings of the Children’s Home began to be removed by 1922. For a time, various uses were considered for the residential building, such as conversion into a Community Club House for use by the various community organizations of Portsmouth. The Boy Scouts planned to convert the building to their local headquarters in 1923. In 1928, the Portsmouth Lions Club floated a proposal to demolish the old Children’s Home building and use the materials for a city museum on the same location, but it was razed later that year without any immediate rebuilding on its footprint.

Establishment of Mound Park

The park opened in 1921, serving mainly as an open green space at first. Although a nearby business named itself “Mound Park Pharmacy” the park was generally referred to as the Children’s Home Park in the early 1920s. Early improvements at the park include the construction of shelter houses and equipment sheds. In 1933, a shelter house was built on the old location of the Children’s Home, replaced in 1937 by a WPA-built stone veneer shelter house, and followed in 1938 by a stone workshop building. A stone “tool house” was noted as built near the roque court, itself installed in 1935.

The CCC sent men to assist with flood recovery in 1937 and they camped at Mound Park. In By 1939, a bandstand for concerts was built somewhere on the grounds, possibly within the horseshoe mound. In 1941, a 46-foot-tall flagpole was erected in the park just north of the shelter house.

Public Gatherings at Mound Park

Even when it was still the Children’s Home grounds, the park area was used by local groups for gatherings, such as picnics. In 1920, the Girl Scouts had a May Day festival attended by 150 girls from around Portsmouth. The Boy Scouts followed with their own Scout Show in 1923, which returned in 1924 and 1925 before moving to Labold Field in 1926 to take advantage of better facilities for handling crowds and events. However, the Boy Scouts still used Mound Park for smaller field events.

The Highland School inaugurated an annual Field Day at the park in 1921, with around 2,000 people in attendance. Portsmouth’s Community Chorus held free concerts in the park in the 1920s. The city held its own memorial service in Mound Park for the death of President Harding in 1923. During the warm weather months, many local churches held open-air services and picnics at the park and family reunions were a common occurrence.

In 1928, a band platform was erected in a shady section of the park for concerts; newspaper accounts suggest this platform may have been erected within the horseshoe mound, as concerts were held at the corner of Grant and Hutchins streets. However, a new band shell was proposed in 1942 to be erected between the mound and shelter house, which is another plausible location for the original bandstand.

Not all assemblies were benign. The Ku Klux Klan met for a rally and march through Portsmouth at Mound Park in late 1923; however, they were quickly arrested after refusing an order to disperse.

The park is still a focal point of outdoor activities for the surrounding neighborhood. Tennis, softball, and basketball games are played in the warmer months and the play structure is popular with local children. The 1930s shelter house is still used for gatherings and activities. Most recently, a park improvement project completed a paved walking path and the installation of several park lights to improve safety and access for the park. The ancient history of Mound Park is commemorated by a new monument and plaza northwest of the mound along Hutchins Street.

Sources:

Portsmouth Daily Times (1870-1941)

Evans, N. W. 1903 History of Scioto County. Self-published, Portsmouth, Ohio.

Holt, R. B. 1878 The Earthworks at Portsmouth, Ohio, U.S. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 7:132–137.

Inter-State Publishing Company 1884 History of Lower Scioto Valley, Ohio. Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago.

Portsmouth Public Library 2019b Henry A. Lorberg Telegram, 1928. Local History Digital Collection, https://www.yourppl.org/history/items/show/2093, accessed June 7, 2019.

Squier, E. G., and E. H. Davis 1847 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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Born in 1828 in Albemarle County, Virginia, John James Minor settled in Portsmouth, Ohio in the mid-1830s, not long after the city had expelled many of its Black residents during its infamous “Black Friday” enforcement of Ohio laws requiring African Americans to register with the county clerk and barring Ohio residents from hiring undocumented Black immigrants.

Whether born free or as a slave (the historical record is unclear), John J. Minor grew up in Portsmouth, married an African American woman from Kentucky, raised a family, built a successful barbershop business, and helped secure the charter of Portsmouth’s Trinity Lodge, No. 9, of Free and Accepted Masons. Minor would serve as the lodge’s first Worshipful Master, beginning in 1871.

US Census records help bring more of John J. Minor’s life in to focus. In June of 1860, John’s wife, Martha, was twenty-six years old. John’s “profession, occupation, or trade” was listed as “Barber,” while Martha’s was left blank. The couple had two children in their household, William, age six, and Joseph, age three. And both of these children had been born free in Ohio. The eldest, William, having been born in 1854, the year of John and Martha’s marriage. The Minors rented their residence, sharing it with another African American family, headed by Ellen Jones, a twenty-six year-old single-mother of two -- Mary, age nine, and Florence, age six. Ellen Jones and her children were recorded as having all been born free in Ohio. John J. The Minors reported that they owned fifty dollars worth of personal property, while Ellen Jones had none. Notably, all three of the adults in the dwelling, according to the Census enumerator, were able to “read & write.”

The earliest record of John J. Minor’s barbershop locates his business on "Second Street, between Market and Court,” in the heart of what is now known today as the Boneyfiddle District of downtown Portsmouth. From newspaper advertisements in the 1850s, business directories from the 1870s, and fire insurance maps from 1910s, Minor’s barbershop can be located and it is still standing at 542 Second Street.

In the 1890s, when Portsmouth’s central business district shifted from the Boneyfiddle to the intersection of Chillicothe and Gallia, John J. Minor followed. At the time of his death on 14 April 1895, Minor’s last barbershop was located on Gallia Street.

In 1894, when Ohio State University history professor Wilbur Siebert visited Portsmouth to research the history of the Underground Railroad in Scioto County, he came to town looking to interview Milton Kennedy, whom Siebert had been told, knew much about the operations from his personal involvement. At the time, Siebert knew nothing about the network of local African-American operators in the city and county who helped fugitive slaves across the river and carried them north to their next destination. Milton Kennedy had made a name for himself in local politics as an avowed abolitionist and had played a critical and early role in the establishment of the Scioto County and Ohio Republican Parties.

As the fates would have it, when Siebert visited Portsmouth, Milton Kennedy was out west traveling. It was, thus, only by chance that history professor would meet and interview John J. Minor. Writing in the first volume of the American Historical Review (April 1896), in an article entitled, "Light on the Underground Railroad," Siebert would recall: “I made the acquaintance of an intelligent colored man—a barber, J. J. Minor by name — himself an old-time 'agent' of the 'road,' who corroborated the report about Mr. Kennedy's connections with the underground work, and gave a straightforward account of what he called 'the regular line' up the Chillicothe pike seven miles, to the houses of two colored men (Dan Lucas and Joseph Love), and thence to a settlement of colored people in Peble township in the north central part of Pike County.”

Today Siebert's history of the Underground Railroad is often criticized for romanticing the operations and generating a distorted and miscolored image of the men and women who were involved in the secret, illegal work. However, it is thanks to Siebert's research that we know that Portsmouth’s Underground Railroad operations was the work of whites and blacks. It was a interracial network, one that operated in the shadows and whose history was once nearly lost and is now coming back into focus.

Siebert openned his 1896 article, noting: "The elucidation by new light of some obscure matter already reported, the verification by a fresh witness of some fact already discovered, gives at once the rule and test of an investigation such as this. Out of the many illustrations which might be given I offer one. Having grounds for believing that Portsmouth, Ohio, was one of the initial stations of an underground line of travel, I obtained, by correspondence with Mr. Henry Hall, the mayor of the town, a letter stating that Milton Kennedy and his brother-in-law Joseph Ashton had aided fugitive slaves in that neighborhood, and urging that I visit Portsmouth in order to get fuller information."

Siebert's visit to Portsmouth provided "new light," which ultimately recovered the stories of John J. Minor, Joseph Love, and Dan Lucas, three African American operators on Portsmouth's Underground Railroad.

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Built in 1852 by Milton Kennedy, Portsmouth's most outspoken abolitionist, the building first housed Kennedy's feed store, which was an auxiliary to his dealings as a grain merchant. Before some major financial reverses in 1855, Kennedy was recognized as "the largest corn dealer in the state," purchasing tons of Scioto Valley corn for shipment down river to the Cincinnati market. He operated boats on the Ohio & Erie Canal and personally captained steamboats on the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers, transporting his grain and other goods, while helping facilitate his occasional work as an agent for the Underground Railroad. His brother-in-law, Joseph Ashton, a fellow abolitionist, would partner with Kennedy in his business endeavors, and also work as a conductor, helping transport freedom seekers to their next stop on southern Ohio's Underground Railroad. 

Milton Kennedy was born on 7 May 1811 on Wolf Creek in Washington County, Ohio, and at the age of eight, he and his parents descended the Ohio on a flatboat and relocated to New Richmond, Claremont County, Ohio. He first learned the tobacconist trade from his father, but switched professions, studying law and establishing a law practice in New Richmond. After Kennedy's first wife, Rosanna Israel, died in 1848, he decided to relocate to Portsmouth, where he quickly became known for his radical antislavery politics.

Originally a Democrat, Kennedy first voted for James G. Birney on the Liberty Party ticket in 1844. After moving to Portsmouth, he championed the Free Soil Party, voting for Martin Van Buren, its nominee in 1848, and, again, in 1852, when Kennedy was one of only seventeen county residents that voted for John P. Hale, "the abolition candidate for President." During this campaign, Kennedy organized Free Soil Meetings in Portsmouth and Lucasville, where he and his small band of brothers "were met with stones and stale eggs."

In 1855, Milton Kennedy was one of four delegates from Scioto County to the Republican Party Convention in Columbus, Ohio. The other delegates included Wells A. Hutchins, Lucien N. Robinson, and George A. Waller. Among the other delegates at the convention was James Ashley, the former Portsmouth resident, who was there as a delegate from Toledo. Thus, one could argue that both Milton Kennedy and James Ashley ought to be considered founders of the Ohio Republican Party. The next year, in 1856, Milton Kennedy attended the first National Republican Convention, which was held in Philadelphia. Once again, both Kennedy and Ashley attended this convention, and, thus, the two men can be considered founders of both the Ohio and the national Republican parties. 

In Portsmouth, Milton Kennedy, his sister, Matilda Ashton, and his brother-in-law, Joseph Ashton were all members of the Protestant Methodist Church. Known as the "Radical Church on Fifth Street," the history of this congregation is largely lost to time. In 1857, their larger denomination split over the slavery controversy, with the Portsmouth church joining the abolitionist faction that refused membership and communion to slaveowners. Ashton served as a delegate to the convention in Cincinnati and chaired the committee that drafted its antislavery resolutions.

Joseph Ashton's committment to abolition can undoubtedly be traced back to his family's Quaker roots, which connected him to "members of the devoted band that came to the New World under the leadership of the great Quaker [William Penn]. Ashton was born June 1st, 1805, at Cusky Old Town, five miles from Newcastle, Mercer (now Lawrence) county, Pennsylvania. His father was a major in the revolutionary army, and a man of considerable prominence in those stirring times. .... He afterwards participated in the Indian war in Ohio, and was at St. Clair's Defeat, and also Harmar's." In retrospect, it seems his family's Quaker pacificism did not survive the violent conflict of the American Revolution.

As a young man, Ashton moved to Pittsburg "and apprenticed himself to Samuel Walker, a noted steamboat builder, and learned the trade of ship carpenter. .... While in Pittsburg he married his ... excellent wife [in 1831]. She lived in Alleghany City, and her name was Matilda Kennedy, being a sister of Squire Milton Kennedy." At the time, Matilda was an active member of Pittsburg's Protestant Methodist Church and Ashton would tell his biographer that "one of the first things he did after getting married was to join the church."

In 1847, the Ashtons moved to New Richmond, Ohio, where Joseph managed a distillery manufacturing corn whiskey. In December, 1853, they moved to Portsmouth, with Joseph entering a "feed business" partnership with Milton Kennedy. "The firm was Kennedy & Ashton. Their place of business was what is now the Huston stone front, on Second street, though at the time the building stood alone and had a brick front. We believe Mr. Kennedy owned the building. The second story was the principal concert and theatrical hall of the place, and was called the ‘City Hall.’ The third story was the Odd Fellows’ Hall, and used by them for many years.”

Kennedy's and Ashton's involvement with the Underground Railroad was documented by Ohio State University history professor Wilbur Siebert, who corresponded with Milton Kennedy in 1896, not long before his death. Kennedy credited Ashton with assisting a larger number of freedom seekers than he had personally helped, but he did provide a detailed account of one instance that illustrated his own involvement and what can be described as the interracial nature of Portsmouth's Underground Railroad operations.

In 1852, "while employed on a steamboat," Kennedy assisted a runaway by accompanying him to Portsmouth and arranging with Edward Weaver, an African American confident, "to procure him a ticket" on the stage coach that ran from Portsmouth to Columbus, along what is now US Route 23.

Early in the Civil War, Kennedy "was in the Government service as captain of transports," commanding the SS Piketon on the Big Sandy River and the SS Patton on the Lower Mississippi." Ultimately, his work on behalf of the Republican Party paid off with a patronage appointment as Assistant Treasurer of the United States for Vicksburg, Mississippi.

As for Joseph Ashton, his biographer notes that when the Civil War began, "though far beyond the age for active military service," Joseph Ashton "obtained the appointment of wagon-master in the Thirty-Third regiment, but owing to objections on the part of his family [he] resigned the position." In 1864, he would join Milton Kennedy in Vicksburg, taking a position as a "Government clerk."

During the War, Kennedy's old "City Hall" (the second floor) was converted into a military hospital, providing care for US soldiers and sailors, whose units or boats passed through the city. In the early 1870s, the building was remodeled and given a stone facade (front) by Capt. Samuel Huston, a prominent local businessman, and his wife, Elizabeth Huston, who helped manage his affairs following the Civil War. Huston's fortune, in part, had been made in building and operating steamboats on the Ohio. 

In the Gilded Age, at different times, the Huston Stone Front, as it became known, was home to restaurants, law offices, a public hall for hosting concerts, dances, lectures, and other fundraisers. The building's second floor, what had once been known as the City Hall, and had housed sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War, served as an event hall, where Amanda Pursell and other Portsmouth women held programs to raise funds for the erection of the soldier's monument in Tracy Park. The Huston Stone Front, as it was known in the 1870s and 80s would also come to house the first shoe factory of what in time grew into Selby Shoes, Portsmouth's largest manufacturer of shoes in the early twentieth century. It was here, on the third floor, that Frederick Drew set up his first factory and where George Selby would first join the firm that would eventually take his name. 

Today, thanks to efforts of Jeremy and Maddie Burnside, the building has recently undergone a major renovation and restoration, including the addition of a modern elevator and new steel reinforcements to support the building's antebellum brick walls. In restoring and updating the building for the 21st Century, Milton Kennedy's original 19th Century structure and all the history that unfolded within its walls will be preserved, offering visitors a window into the city's multifaceted past.

Sources:

"Joseph Ashton. No. 33. Sketches of Representative Men of Portsmouth and Scioto County,” Portsmouth Daily Times (10 July 1886).

“City Hall of the Old Days Interestingly Described. Second Street City Business was Done Fifty Years’ Ago. Hall Was in Building Where Judge Calvert Now Has His Law Office,” Portsmouth Daily Times (3 October 1903).

“Milton Kennedy. No. 38. Sketches of Representative Men of Portsmouth and Scioto County," Portsmouth Daily Times (14 August 1886).

"Milton Kennedy Account of Abolitionist Activities," Wilbur H. Siebert Underground Railroad Collection, Ohio History Connection. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/siebert/id/8155

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The B. Glockner Building at 206 Market Street illustrates the contribution of German immigrants to the nineteenth century development of Portsmouth, Ohio. And the building's restoration -- following a fire in January 2016 -- has contributed to the cultural and economic revival of the city's historic Boneyfiddle District.

Tim Glockner (the great-great-great-grandson of Bernard Glockner, for whom the building is named) purchased the property in 2017, with the goal of celebrating the past, present, and future of the family business, which had its start in the building in 1874. What began as a hardware and cutlery store on Market Street would develop into an automobile dealership in the 1910s when Alex Glockner, son of Bernard and Magdalene began selling Chevrolets in Portsmouth.

Today Bernard Glockner is rightly celebrated as the founding patriarch of the Glockner business empire that includes dealerships throughout southern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky. "Bernie G." has become a "local legend," whose life is commemorated with a beer named in his honor. The creation of the Portsmouth Brewing Company (whose origins also are found in the city's German immigrant community), "Bernie G." is a Dortmunder Lager (4.5% ABV). The back label reads: "Here’s to Bernie, the historically hardworking people of Portsmouth, Ohio and everyone who believes in the American Dream.”

He was born in 1825 in the village of Bingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Bernard immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-two and settled in Portsmouth in 1847. His earliest days in the town are obscured by time, but he eventually found employment with J.L. Hibbs & Co., a hardware store located on Front Street.

In 1854, Bernard married Magdalena Beck, another native of Bingen, who had immigrated to the United States in 1853. The following year, she would give birth to their first son, Frank. Five more children followed.

Over the next two decades Bernard learned the hardware trade, established a reputation as a talented salesman and ultimately saved enough money to purchase the hardware business of another successful German immigrant, John Rottinghaus.

Rottinghaus had himself purchased the business from another earlier German immigrant, S. J. Meyer. And from reporting in the Portsmouth Times it appears that the hardware business purchased by Bernard in 1874, had its origins in April 1859, when Meyer and C. Brown “opened a new hardware store on Market Street.”

Bernard would successfully run the business for two years, before an untimely death in 1876. His widow, Magdalena, would then oversee the company’s business for nearly thirteen years before she was severely injured by a fall off one of the store’s step ladders. She may never have fully recovered from the accident — Magdalena Glockner died two years later in 1891.

Magdalena emerged as a pioneering Portsmouth business woman. After Bernard's death, she would change the company's name to M. Glockner & Sons. And following her death, son Alex would ultimately take the helm of the company and under his leadership bicycles, tractors, horse-drawn buggies, and eventually automobiles became the family's primary line of business.

In 1912, Alex opened the company's second and enlarged location at the corner of Gallia and Gay. Three years later he secured the firm's first automobile franchise from W.C. Durant of Chevrolet Motors. Beginning in September, coinciding with the city's annual fall festival, Alex Glockner advertised his first two models, a four passenger and a five passenger "touring car," selling for $490 and $750, respectively (the equivalent of $12,286 and $18,805 in 2018).

On October 12th, 1915, the Portsmouth Daily Times reported: "Alex M. Glockner was all smiles Tuesday when a carload of Chevrolet automobiles arrived at his address [on] Gay and Gallia streets. The car load consists of one Baby Grand and two of the ‘Four-Ninety’ models and they are now on display. No sooner had they arrived than a large crowd collected to view this famous make of cars, which considering their size and beauty, are generally regarded as exceptionally cheap in price.”

Today, Glockner's is recognized as "the oldest continuously owned and operated" Chevrolet franchise in the United States. And this original agency is now part of a "family of dealerships," which includes Honda, Toyota, Ford, GMC, Buick, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM brands, with locations in Portsmouth, Ironton, South Point, Waverly, Jackson, Chillicothe and Ashland, Kentucky.

With its humble beginnings in a mid-nineteenth century German immigrant-owned hardware store, the evolution of the business and the restoration of the B. Glockner Building illustrates how one family's entrepreneurial and civic spirit (and a commitment to historic preservation) can contribute to a city's longterm economic development.

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At the end of the 1926 season, Jacques "Jack" Creasy, at the age of 25, purchased the equipment of the Studebaker Presidents -- an amateur football team that had enjoyed moderate success and ignited the excitement of football fans in Portsmouth -- and sought out the financial backing of the city’s two largest employers: the Selby Shoe Company and the Whitaker-Glessner Company, owner of the Portsmouth Steel works in New Boston. By the end of August of 1927, Creasy had enough private commitments to call a public meeting for all parties interested in starting a new team.

"A Real Team on the Gridiron": Jim Thorpe and the Portsmouth Shoe-Steels

Held in the old City Building on Government Square, the Times reported that "Jim Thorpe, former Olympic star, one the best all-around grid players this country has produced, is in the city, to discuss with Manager Creasy the city’s prospects for a football team that will be able to hold its own with other teams in this section." Creasy’s vision was to anchor the squad with Thorpe as a player-coach. The chance to see Thorpe play in person would drive ticket sales and the former NFL superstar’s ability to recruit top-quality talent would ensure the team had a good chance for a winning season and regional championship.

James Francis Thorpe (May 22 or 28 1887 – March 28, 1953) was born near Prague, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), on the grounds of the Sac and Fox Nation. His birth name was Wa-Tho-Huk, which is most commonly translated as "Bright Path." At the time of first European contact in the 1600s, the Sac and Fox peoples inhabited the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan regions. After having fought against the United States in the Blackhawk War and losing, the nation was forcibly relocated first to Iowa in the 1830s and then, in the 1870s, to a federal reservation in what became Oklahoma. Jim Thorpe, as he would become known to the wide world, would be sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he played for the school's football team and gained national recognition as a two-time "All-American." Even before his Gold Medal performances at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, Thorpe was a nationally recognized athlete, known for his Native American ancestry and football playing prowess.

As an "All-American," Thorpe had been a member of the nation’s original fantasy football team. It was with Major League Baseball, however, where Thorpe first made a living as a paid athlete. Beginning in 1913, Thorpe played six seasons with the New York Giants. In 1915, during the baseball off-season, he returned to football and helped establish the Canton Bulldogs and what became the National Football League, serving nominally as the first President of the NFL from 1920 to 1921.

When Jack Creasy contacted Thorpe in the summer of 1927, the famed athlete, now age 41, was well into the first year of his retirement from professional football. He had led the Canton Bulldogs to three championships before moving to Cleveland, where he played for the NFL Indians in 1922 and 1923. Then, after playing three more seasons with various other NFL teams, Thorpe returned to Canton in 1926 for one last year. By then he was injury-prone and unable to play more than 30 minutes per game. "One must quit sometime," said Thorpe. "My earning days in athletics are at an end and while sports have been my livelihood, I really played for the love of competition. Now, I have a yearning to hunt and fish back with my people."

As has become a familiar phenomenon with great sports stars, Thorpe’s announced retirement proved temporary. Job offers would continue to come in. Jack Creasy pursued Thorpe, believing his name would draw attention to a new fully-professional Portsmouth team. By 1927, historian Carl Becker has noted, Thorpe had "lost the decisive edge of his speed and power," but he had gained "the experience of playing with eight different clubs in the NFL." His connection with the NFL and his ability to recruit from his extended network of professional players would help Creasy build a new, successful squad.

Following Thorpe’s initial visit to Portsmouth in late August of 1927, H. Coleman Grimes, the City Editor at the Times noted that "Thorpe is regarded as one of the greatest exponents of the game, and should his services be secured here it would mean that Portsmouth would be placed back on the football map." By all accounts, Thorpe’s first visit to Portsmouth had left him impressed with the community and Creasy’s offer — a 10-game contract that made him both coach and player for the new Portsmouth Shoe-Steels. The amount of Thorpe’s promised salary has been lost to history.

"Jim Thorpe Accepts Terms," read the Times’ headline. Thorpe telegraphed Creasy on September 8th: "Terms satisfactory. Will report to you not later than next Tuesday. …. I am coming to Portsmouth to play and coach the team and you can believe me, it will be a winner." Coleman Grimes of the Times proclaimed: "This means that Portsmouth at last will be represented by a real team on the gridiron. …. No other man could boost the game in the Peerless City as much as the colorful and well known athlete. …. Thorpe has played on some wonderful teams and needs no introduction to the football fans of the city. All he asks is their wholehearted support. He will get that and then some. Bring on the Tanks."

Thorpe arrived in the city on the 12th of September, just under two weeks before the season opener against the Columbus Clothiers. The Times reported, "Jim Thorpe, famous athlete, who will coach the team and represent Portsmouth on the gridiron this season, … will don the spangles tonight and take charge of the candidates in Mound Park. …. He is full of confidence and enthusiasm and already likes Portsmouth and its famous cooperative spirit." The Times called on "every loyal football fan … to buy a ticket and do his bit boosting the team to success."

After his first practice session on a field laid out on the hilltop’s Mound Park, Thorpe would finally speak with the local press: "I mean business and Portsmouth is going to have a real eleven this fall, It’s too early to do any forecasting. I’m not prepared to make any statement, and I’m not taking any chances on making any wild statement, but the material looks good and from every indication we are going to have not only a heavy team, but a fast one. A few nights of hard work will tell me better just how we stand. Every man has to work for a job on this squad."

Thorpe would put together the Shoe-Steels from some thirty players who turned out for a chance to make the team. Creasy ended up with a squad of talented and experienced athletes, drawn from Thorpe’s network and local veterans who had played for the Smoke House and Presidents.

Thorpe’s signing worked. It may be true he was often injured and when he did play it was for fewer minutes than earlier in his career, but the living legend of Thorpe gave confidence to the Portsmouth squad and boosted ticket sales. According to historian Carl Becker, "Creasy and Thorpe imparted to the community a sense of intensity, a determination to win hereto unknown in Portsmouth." Hope and "a determination to win" fueled the efforts of Jack Creasy and the backers of the Shoe-Steels.

For their team captain, Thorpe’s players chose Jake Pfau, a local baker and veteran of the Presidents and the old Smoke House teams. Jack Creasy would also suit up to be held in reserve as a substitute. The opening game would break local sports attendance records and fueled fans’ visions of a new concrete stadium and sports complex at Labold Field. Over 2,500 were in attendance on September 25th, 1927, to see the Shoe-Steels defeat the Columbus Clothiers by a score of 13-0.

Thorpe, it turned out, never played in the opener due to an infection on his left foot, which required multiple lancings. By doctor’s orders and at the behest of his teammates, Thorpe stayed on the sidelines, where he coached them to victory. Creasy, according to the listed substitutions, saw action as a Center in the second half. Coleman Grimes reported that "many fans were disappointed" by Thorpe’s absence on the field, but the Shoe-Steels "showed that they have real football stuff in them and a lot can be expected of them this season. There were few fumbles and play was fast, the team worked like a well oiled machine."

Thorpe would play the next Sunday and the team would have a winning record of 4-2 before their most anticipated game with the Ironton Tanks, who were undefeated at the time, with four wins and two ties. Interest in the rivalry ran higher than ever as game day (November 6th) approached. "Greatest Game in History to be played between Jim Thorpe’s Shoe-Steels and Tanks," read the headline for November 3rd, 1927. The Times noted "the rivalry of the two teams is far known and will draw football fans from all over the tri-state region. It will be the greatest football battle ever played in Portsmouth."

The Peerless City finally had a team (they hoped) that could topple the Tanks and lead them to a regional championship. In the days leading up to the game, Creasy signed new players to bolster his lineup, a practice that was not uncommon in professional football’s early days. The Times reported: "With the addition of the center and backfield players who arrived here Wednesday to start practice on the Portsmouth Shoe-Steels, the players feel confident." An estimated 4,500-5,000 fans showed up to see if Thorpe’s squad could finally defeat Ironton’s best.

Portsmouth fans would be disappointed, though. The Tanks shut out the Shoe-Steels 18-0. "Tanks Live up to Reputation; Win Easily from Portsmouth" read the headline the next day. Fans and players alike were shocked, but the river city rivals were scheduled to meet a second and final time just two weeks later.

Creasy and Thorpe worked furiously to recruit more players, pulling out all stops to give Portsmouth an edge. To add more size up front, the Shoe-Steels signed linemen Emil Mayer from Catholic University, as well as George Kidnerdine and Chal Joseph from the NFL’s Dayton Triangles.

The Portsmouth "Floodwallers" Defeat the Ironton Tanks (20 November 1927)

The rematch would be played in Ironton’s Beechwood Stadium. For the first time in the rivalry’s history, Portsmouth beat the Tanks by a score of 7-0. "Tell it to the Wide World, Shoe-Steels Beat Tanks 7-0," read the headline. The Portsmouth Shoe-Steels, according to Coleman Grimes, had "won back all lost laurels and redeemed themselves in the eyes of Portsmouth football fans when they decisively defeated the famous Ironton Tanks. For the first time this season the Tanks tasted the bitter dregs of defeat. For the first time in gridiron history a Portsmouth professional team defeated the Tanks.""After nine years of history that chalked up nothing but defeat after defeat for a Portsmouth gridiron representative, Jim Thorpe’s Shoe Steels, the River City’s 1927 organization came to Ironton yesterday afternoon with blood in their eye and fire on their cleats, and backed the Tanks into the shadows of defeat." Grimes concluded that the Portsmouth team had "displayed the best football ever shown on the local turf by a team bearing the colors of the Floodwallers."

The Times City Editor credited Thorpe and Creasy with putting together the team and whipping the "Floodwallers" into shape. "The gridiron loving populace doff their lids to Coach Jim Thorpe, Manager Jack Creasy and every member of the Steel-Shoes team. .... All season long Thorpe and Creasy insisted that ultimately they would mould a team together that would trounce the Tanks. That sounded like a yarn as it has on previous occasions but the trick was turned and before a record crowd in Ironton. What a grand and glorious feeling."

Thorpe’s Disappearing Act & the Valley Championship Game (4 December 1927)

The elated Shoe-Steels followed up their victory over Ironton with another win over the Columbus Bobbs (32-0). Then, with interest riding high, Creasy booked an eleventh game, a post-season match against the Ashland Armcos in a contest that would crown a regional champion. But Thorpe’s 10-game contract was up. According to historian Carl Becker, Thorpe "quarreled bitterly" with Creasy, who "offered him a raise but he refused it, sulking over a problem he would not publicly disclose."Before the championship game, Thorpe left Portsmouth, returning to his home near Marion, Ohio. He disappeared from local press coverage and into the pages of local sports history. Interestingly, on the day of the final game (Sunday, December 4th, 1927), a "special dispatch," headlined, "Portsmouth Plays Armcos at Ashland, Ky., Today — Jim Thorpe to Lead Invaders," was published in the columns of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The unnamed correspondent (who was most likely Coleman Grimes, himself) reported that "the game is being billed as the final for the Valley championship, inasmuch as the Armcos have played two ties with the once-feared Ironton (Ohio) Tanks, while Portsmouth has a clean-cut 7-to-0 victory over the Tanks, so that the result of today’s conflict should give the ultimate victors undisputed title to being monarch of the pigskin chasers of the valley."

Assistant Coach Walter Jean (a native of Chillicothe, Ohio) took over for Thorpe and, as a player-coach, Jean would lead the Shoe-Steels during their final match. Jean had joined the Shoe-Steels midseason, when Creasy recruited him from the Green Bay Packers. Meanwhile, Creasy worked furiously to shore up the team’s lineup and, with Jean’s connections, the Shoe-Steels booked more temporary players from Green Bay -- former Packers Joe Dunn, Eddie Kotel, Rex Enright, and Pid Purdy. But both Purdy and Enright were injured in an auto accident on their way from Wisconsin to Portsmouth. They never suited up and their absence may have changed the outcome of the game.

With some 3,200 fans in attendance at Armco Park in Ashland, but without Thorpe and his Green Bay reinforcements on the field, the Shoe-Steels lost a close 7-6 ballgame. "Creasy seemed on his way to building a team that had some standing in the community. His team had defeated the Tanks and enlisted some support from local newspapers and business interests, and had, apparently, solid players returning in 1928." Creasy, however, in the words of Carl Becker, "would never again see football played along the river shore."

The Death of Creasy and the Rise of the Spartans

Jack Creasy died unexpectedly at the age of 26, on July 14th, 1928. Following an emergency appendectomy at Portsmouth General Hospital, he contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. "Expressions of regret were heard on all sides Sunday over the passing of the affable, likeable, and courteous ‘Jack’ Creasy," reported the Times. "Few of his friends realized the seriousness of his illness and the announcement of his death came as a cruel blow to them."With only months to go until the next season, football fans scrambled to fill the void left by Thorpe and now Creasy. The Times reported that "hundreds of the fans and downtown coaches" were asking "who will carry on the well laid plans of Jacques Creasy in building another powerful football team in Portsmouth this coming season?" The question, according to Coleman Grimes had "become a regular topic of conversation in the smoke shops, on the street corners, and other popular gathering places. …. In Jack Creasy the football fans lost a champion whose greatest desire was to build a football team that could defeat any other team in the Ohio Valley. He came close to reaching his ambition when he headed the Portsmouth Shoe Steels last fall. There was a football team that all Portsmouth will remember and Creasy had planned an even better team for this coming season when the hand of death stilled the heart of that lovable young fellow."

Jack Creasy’s signing of Jim Thorpe, though mostly a publicity stunt, had worked. As player-coach Thorpe built on the successes of the the old Smoke House teams and the previous season’s Presidents. Thorpe and Creasy led the Shoe-Steels to a victory over the Tanks and a shot at the regional championship. And even though both men were no longer to be seen at Labold Field, Creasy and Thorpe had laid the foundation for professional football in Portsmouth and set the stage for the rise of the NFL Spartans.

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Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church (Allen Chapel - AME) is the city's oldest Black religious society. In March 1837, "Father Charleston" organizd the church in the "Old Wheeler Academy," which was located on the southwest corner of Fourth and Markets Streets.

The congregation's founding reflected the growth and relative prosperity of Portsmouth's African American community, whose residences, at the time, were concentrated north of the Academy building "on the lower end of Seventh Street, around near the river banks." The original members whose names have been passed down include: “Sofaxie Keels, Marina Barley, Kitty Kanan, Emily Wood, Robert Johnson, Polly Johnson, Anthony Hall and wife, Jeremy Delay and wife, George W. Johnson, Lewis Rogers, Martha Rogers, Toles Moore, David Coles, Patsy Coles, Christina Ross, and Francis A. Vaughn.”

Some of the founders had been born free, others had been emancipated by their former enslavers, and still others had purchased their own freedom. And members of the church would have undoubtedly been involved in assisting their fellow African Americans escape their enslavement and dodge pursuing bounty hunters. Counted among these heroic members of the AME Church was Joseph Love, who assisted freedom seekers when he lived just north of Portsmouth in Huston Hollow.

The existence of such a large black religious society at the time of its founding in 1837 is particularly noteworthy as the town's black population had faced a mass expulsion only six years earlier when township officials had enforced Ohio's discriminatory "Black Laws," expelling some eighty African American residents. Notwithstanding this dark history, the town's black population appears to have quickly rebounded and contributed to the town's overall growth in the 1830s and 1840s.

In 1842, the congregation acquired their own city lot and built a wood framed church on the north side of Fifth Street, between Court and Market. Within two years this structure was replaced with a more substantial brick structure. Thanks to the reminiscences of Betty Redman, who was a longtime church member, there is a description of the church's interior in the pages of the Portsmouth Times. "An aisle was in the center of the church and the pews were on either side. The church was equipped with heating stoves and was lighted with tallow candles placed in candle holders along the walls of the church. There were eight holders and each held two candles. The men occupied the pews on one side of the church and the women occupied the pews on the other."

In 1868, the congregation would move once again, purchasing what was known at the time as Spencer Chapel on Seventh Street, between Chillicothe and Gay Streets. This church structure had been originally built in 1853 by the city's German Methodist society and was named for Rev. R. A. Spencer, who had donated the lot on Seventh Street. In 1870, this was the location of Portsmouth's celebration of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

In 1920, the congregation built their present structure at Twelfth and Waller streets, naming it Allen Chapel, in remembrance of Rev. Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Sources:

Evans, Nelson W., "The African Methodist Episcopal Church," in A History of Scioto County, Ohio, Together with a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio (Portsmouth, Ohio, 1902), 529.

“Allen A.M.E. Chapel Opens Anniversary Week Sunday,” Portsmouth Daily Times (24 September 1927).

"The Fifteenth Amendment in Portsmouth: Grand Ratification and Speeches by White and Colored Speakers,” Portsmouth Times (30 April 1870).

"Pioneer Negro Resident Recalls History of AME Church," Portsmouth Times (6 August 1932).

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Packers coach Curly Lambeau entered the game with the NFL’s best record, 10-1-1, with only two games left in the season. If the Packers defeated the Spartans they would clench their fourth league championship. The Spartans sat at 5-1-4 in the standings, and were tied for second place with the Chicago Bears. A victory over Green Bay would lead to a scenario in which the Spartans could finish the season as league champions, a scenario that would nearly playout two weeks later when the Spartans met the Chicago Bears in the first ever postseason NFL championship game. With the 1932 season reaching its climax with the Packers game in Portsmouth, Spartans coach George “Potsy” Clark, his players, and their fans not only wanted a shot at the championship, they wanted revenge by denying the title to their greatest rival -- the “World Champion” Green Bay Packers.

The Iron Man Game of 1932 is the most widely remembered Spartan contest thanks to its role in setting up the first postseason playoff game in the league’s history, one that would resolve a tie between the Spartans and the Chicago Bears. In 1994, the residents of Portsmouth commissioned Robert Dafford to design and paint a mural memorializing what many consider the greatest moment in Portsmouth sports history. Painted by Robert Dafford, the mural depicts the leather-helmeted, Glenn Presnell -- the Spartans’ star halfback -- scoring a touchdown in front of a cheering homefield crowd, which has jumped to its feet in celebration. With between 13,000 and 17,500 in attendance, the game may also mark the largest crowd ever assembled in Portsmouth. Unfortunately for the team’s finances, crowds of this size were far from usual and the Spartans never again attracted a crowd as large as that which witnessed the Iron Man Game.

The franchise’s local owners needed regular crowds of between 6,000 and 7,000 to break even. Such ticket sales proved elusive and a large share of the gate money from the big games (like that with the Packers) was reserved for the visiting team. With limited ticket sales, along with the expenses associated with hosting games in Universal Stadium and the cost of maintaining a traveling team, the Spartans found it impossible to make a profit. After having lost money every year from their NFL birth in 1930 through the 1933 season, the team’s owners voted in 1934 to sell the franchise to investors in Detroit, Michigan, where the Spartans would be rebranded the Lions.

The rivalry between the Spartans and Packers predates the Spartans entrance into the league. Formed in 1929, the pre-NFL Spartans were coached by former Green Bay players and its roster included a number of men who had spent time playing for Lambeau’s Packers. The rivalry, however, truly took hold in the Spartans’ second NFL season in 1931.

The Game Not Played, the Championship Not Won

Harry Snyder, the business manager and largest shareholder of the Spartans, hired Potsy Clark to coach the Spartans for the 1931 season. Clark had originally made a name coaching in the US Army during World War I. In the spring of 1919, he led the 89th Division's football team to the American Expeditionary Forces Championship. With the peace he took up coaching at the college-level, first at Illinois University (1919), then at Michigan State University (1920), The University of Kansas (1921-1925), Minnesota (1926), and, lastly, at Butler University in Indianapolis (1927-1929).

Coach Clark brought discipline and a hard work ethic to the Spartans, and, held grueling training sessions and practices with little padding. “My experience in coaching college and professional athletes,” Clark once explained to the Portsmouth Daily Times, “leads me to believe that players properly trained and drilled do not demand heavy bunglesome pads. We need to protect the vulnerable spots, but not the body in general. The untrained boy must be taught the art of falling - later, blocking, etc.” Clark warned against unsupervised, unorganized play: “The untrained boy should not play football unless the play is properly organized. Pads will not prevent injuries to these immature, untrained lads.” Author Kyle Crichton described Clark as "a kindly fellow who is good to his family, pays his debts and always honks his horn when driving out of an alley; but as a football coach he belongs to the school which holds that a man who can't run a hundred yards in ten flat with a broken leg is a geranium." Players later mused that Clark's intensity was a result of "the old army spirit." 

With Potsy Clark at their head, the Spartans had an impressive line-up of recent college stars. All-American Quarterback Earl ‘Dutch’ Clark (Colorado College), Halfback Father Lumpkin (Georgia Tech) and Halfback Glenn Presnell (University of Nebraska), were the standout starters. Presnell had more recently been a member of the Ironton Tanks, a semi-pro team just 25 miles up river from Portsmouth. He even led the Tanks to upset victories over the Chicago Bears and New York Giants in 1930. 

The Ironton Evening Tribune reported that Presnell had signed with the Spartans for “a reported salary of $4,200.” Portsmouth punched above weight, paying top dollar for talent, and in some instances, offering higher pay than more established teams with deeper pockets. “Both Ironton and Portsmouth fans,” noted the Ironton Tribune, “look to Presnell to establish himself as one of the leaders in the national pro league. …. He is powerful on off-tackle smashes and end runs, a superb quick kicker and a passer of such excellence.” 

Presnell and Dutch Clark led the Spartans to the NFL’s second best record in 1931 (11-3), just behind the league leading Green Bay Packers (12-2). Before the start of the season, the two teams had agreed to play a late season game in Portsmouth, but the game had not been included in the official regular season schedule. Concerns about mid-December weather, which could drive down attendance (and gate receipts) had kept the game off the season’s official schedule. The game was understood to be “tentatively scheduled,” pending the weather. Football historian Carl Becker has noted, “At that time no one saw the Spartans as a contender for the championship.” Yet, when the Packers lost to the Bears on December 6th, placing their title in jeopardy, Green Bay’s Board of Directors decided to back out of the tentative agreement, canceling their appearance in Portsmouth, which had been scheduled for December 13th. 

The decision was announced following a contentious three hour meeting with Harry Snyder, the Spartan business manager, Packer officials, and Joe Carr, the League president. Harry Snyder telegraphed the news to Lynn Wittenburg, the Sports Editor at the Portsmouth Daily Times. Snyder held out some hope for a possible reversal of the decision: “Just concluded about three hours conference with Green Bay officials and Joe Carr, president of the league. Green Bay refuses to jeopardize its league standing by playing Portsmouth. They would give us no answer until after the Chicago game. Continued pressure is being brought by influential parties, however, and they may change their decision.”

The decision would stand and the Packers would be crowned the kings of the NFL for the third time, yet during the 1931 season they had never once played the Spartans, who ended the year with the second best record in the league.

Had the Packers lost to the Spartans, there would have been a tie with both teams ending the season with a 12-3 record. The Spartans hoped that if they could defeat the Packers in a season finale, they would go on to play the Packers, a second time, in a first-ever, postseason playoff game. It was not to be. Packer’s President L.H. Joaness announced: “We have won the championship and there is no logical reason why we should play Portsmouth. The directors of the Green Bay Football Corporation have voted against the game and Portsmouth has been so notified.” According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Joaness noted that “weather conditions might be unfavorable at game time and the crowd might be a small one and Green Bay would suffer a financial loss.” While Portsmouth fans viewed this as little more than a face-saving excuse, the finances of the Packers were nearly as bad as those of the Spartans.

Fans in Portsmouth, as well as sports writers across the country, were up in arms. The Associated Press reported “The Packers are only one game ahead of the fast traveling Portsmouth Spartans and to lay a clear claim to the title Green Bay will have to defeat the Portsmouth team.” When the Portsmouth Daily Times reported the news, Wittenburg ran it under the headline: “Green Bay Must Defeat Portsmouth Spartans to Have Clear Claim to Rag [League Title].” In bold print, the Ironton Tribune proclaimed: “Packers Keep Title Safe By Quitting: Lose to Bears and refuse to Meet the Spartans. ‘Champs’ Run Away From Deciding Game.” 

In his account of the controversy, historian Carl Becker concluded that “relations between the franchises, once cordial, now turned sour, the Spartans looking for revenge, the Packers haughtily ignoring them. Taking instruction from the affair, club owners hereafter became more careful in scheduling, defining clearly games that were on the league and had to be played. Giving greater formality to their task, they adopted a measure in 1933 turning scheduling over to a three-member committee appointed by the league president. They then had to ratify the committee's proposed schedule by at least a three-fourths vote. Never again was there a dispute over whether a scheduled game was tentative or official and had to be played. But the Spartans' fans would long remember and lament the game not played, the championship not won.” 

The Iron Man Game and the Spartan’s Revenge

The following season, the Spartans and Packers would meet twice and Potsy Clark and the Spartans once again found themselves high in the standings as the season was finishing up. Their 5-1-4 record left them tied for second place with the Chicago Bears. Meanwhile, the Packers and Curly Lambeau, once again, led the NFL with an impressive record of 10-1-1.

The Pack had beaten the Spartans in their first game of the 1932 season. Playing in Green Bay, Lambeau’s men soundly defeated the Spartans by a score of 15-to-0. Now, with the season coming to a close, they had to travel to Portsmouth to face off their sworn rivals. The Wilmington (Ohio) News-Journal reported on 30 November 1932, “‘Potsy’ Clark, Spartan coach, is drilling his 17 ‘iron men’ hard this week and with his scoring aces, ‘Dutch’ Clark, Glenn Presnell and Gutowsky, in the best of condition, grid fans will see pro football at its zenith.” The News-Journal reminded its readers that “the Spartans with five victories, one defeat and four tie games this season, are tied with the Chicago Bears for second place in the Joe Carr [NFL] loop, a position they held at the close of the 1931 season. Additional interest is attached to the game Sunday, by the fact that the Packers, scheduled to meet the Spartans at Portsmouth in the closing game of 1931, cancelled the contest.”

W. P. Minego, author of the popular “Huddle Whispers” column at the Portsmouth Daily Times, noted that “Lambeau is a wily, foxy, clever coach and he is not going to be caught napping Sunday. A victory here would mean pennant No. 4 for his club and a swell joy ride through the high spots in the colorful west.” A Spartan victory, on the other hand, would put an end to the Packer’s dream and realize Portsmouth’s own -- the chance for the Spartans to win the national championship in a postseason playoff.

In advance of the Packer game the Spartans ran advertisements promoting the contest as the “game that virtually decides World Championship.” “Let’s all turn out Sunday and back the 17 IRON MEN in their final battle for the WORLD’S CHAMPIONSHIP!” “Show your loyalty. Be there to cheer the ‘Iron Men’ to Victory and the Championship.” By December of 1932, the term “Iron Man” had come to refer to a footballer who played the full 60-minutes of a game, playing on both offense and defense. Portsmouth, being an old iron and steel manufacturing center, may have found the Iron Men nickname particularly apt, but whatever the case, the players were already being described as Iron Men in the press before the fateful game of December 4th. So-called 60-minute men were not unusual in the NFL before the 1940s, when league rules changed, allowing for unlimited substitutions and the fielding of two separate offensive and defensive teams. With limitations on substitutions and the expense of carrying two teams of players proving to be cost-prohibitive during Great Depression, Potsy Clark had seventeen Spartans on his roster in 1932, when league rules capped rosters at twenty-two.

According to the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, the Spartans were “known wide and near” as the “17 iron men” because “they have surged to the top with only six men available for substitutions. As the climatic game with the Packers approached, the Wilmington News-Journal reported, “‘Potsy’ Clark, Spartan coach, is drilling his 17 ‘iron men’ hard this week and with his scoring aces, ‘Dutch’ Clark, Glenn Presnell and Gutowsky, in the best of condition, grid fans will see pro football at its zenith.” The News-Journal reminded its readers that “the Spartans with five victories, one defeat and four tie games this season, are tied with the Chicago Bears for second place in the Joe Carr loop, a position they held at the close of the 1931 season. Additional interest is attached to the game Sunday, by the fact that the Packers, scheduled to meet the Spartans at Portsmouth in the closing game of 1931, cancelled the contest.”

The Portsmouth Daily Times reported, that “17 Portsmouth Spartans, Iron Men of the gridiron, [were] raging to get at the Green Bay Packers, their arch enemies, to avenge an old grudge precipitated last season when the Packers refused to risk their pro football crown by meeting the Spartans, their only rivals, in a game here, one that had already been tentatively booked earlier in the season. Portsmouth and Ohio Valley fans have waited months for the epochal battle which will take place at Universal Stadium.” 

As the pregame excitement grew, Lambeau and his team practiced in Columbus, where the Packers ran their drills on the grounds of a local high school. They would travel to Portsmouth by railroad and would be met by a rowdy crowd of Spartan fans when they disembarked at the N&W Railway Station. Football fans in Portsmouth were abuzz. City officials called on the police and fire departments to help control the flow of traffic and ultimately requested the assistance of the Ohio National Guard. The Daily Times reported that “Twenty members of Battery B rode their prancing steeds around the stadium” and noted that “it was probably the first time in the history of the pro circuit that the national guard had to be called out to keep back the crowd.” 

Harry Snyder and the Spartan organization were forced to build new seating and borrow stands from the nearby Selby Shoes and Portsmouth High School gyms. And indeed, two hours before kickoff, a massive traffic jam clogged the city streets. While some accounts place the crowd at over 17,500, others place the number around 13,000, with Universal Stadium holding between 11,000 and 12,000 fans, and an additional thousand-plus watching from outside the stadium, atop the floodwall that protected the stadium and its East End neighborhood from the mighty Ohio River.

Potsy Clark’s Immortal Eleven

At the start of the game, when the men lined up to run out on the field, Potsy Clark announced to the team, “I am going to start eleven men and the only way you're going to come off that field is if we have to carry you off.” Clark’s Immortal Eleven included: (1) Bill McKalip, (2) Ray Davis, (3) Maury Bodenger, (4) Clare Randolph, (5) Ox Emerson, (6) George Christensen, (7) Harry Ebdling, (8) Earl ‘Dutch’ Clark, (9) Father Lumpkin, (10) Glenn Presnell, and (11) Ace Gutowsky.

When the final whistle blew and the game was entered into the books, the Box Score recorded eight substitutions for Green Bay, none for Portsmouth. It was a smashing victory, 19-to-0, made all the more incredible by the fact that all eleven Spartan starters had played every down, offense and defense, for the full 60-minute game.

“Portsmouth Trounce Green Bay 19-0,” read the Daily Times headline. Portsmouth fans were ecstatic, not only had they beaten their rivals, they also set themselves up for a championship title run. “Portsmouth climbs into first place over the prostrate bodies of their enemy and will become world champions if Bears lose to Packers,” wrote Lynn A. Wittenburg. With much hyperbole and a flair for the dramatic, Wittenburg was unmatched in play-by-play commentary:

“A purple tornado, riding abreast a mile a minute gale of almost cyclonic fury swept out of the timbered hills of Southern Ohio Sunday afternoon at Universal Stadium before a record concourse of 12,000 frenzied fans and blew the Wisconsin Green Bay Packers far off the world’s football throne. As the mighty Packers toppled from their lofty seat, the Spartans took their place, reaching the highest pinnacle the football world offers, after years of battling misfortune, disappointment, reversed and great odds, pushing courageously and tenaciously onward to their coveted goal, Portsmouth’s victory insures the Spartans of at least a tie for first place.

“Eleven of Coach Potsy Clark’s 17 iron men blasted Green Bay from power, wrapped up the Packers in a 19-0 defeat shroud, packed them in a black creped casket, and laid them to rest in the football mausoleum. Not even a victory over the Chicago Bears next Sunday can resurrect them and restore them to the football kingship. Whether Portsmouth wins the pennant or not, the season is a complete success. The fans have their revenge by eliminating the Packers.” 

Some of the rhetoric played with popular Appalachian stereotypes of the time, suggesting that the Spartans embodied the feud violence commonly associated with the region. The Daily Times’ Wittenburg opined that the “Spartans fought their feud with typical hill savagery, they asked no quarter and gave none.” “Like a trained boxer who had planned his campaign thoroughly, the Spartans feinted and struck, dealing the Packer a staggering blow in the first round with a touchdown to the Green Bay chin on a 60 yard blow. Finding their foe groggy, the Spartans planted another punch on the button in the second round, a powerful 23 yard jab for another touchdown had the Packers all but out. Twice in the third round the Purple strove the land the finishing blow, but the lunges fell short. Twas the fourth round came the coup de grace. Touchdown number three caught the Packers in the solar plexus and they were carried off the field a once champion team knocked cold.”

In their original reporting on the game, the Portsmouth Daily Times, concluded, “Portsmouth has haunted Green Bay ever since the floodwallers entered the league. Results of the game will continue to haunt Green Bay's memory down through the ages. …. It was a gala affair. Depression was forgotten. No matter what the sacrifice to get those [tickets] that furnished entrance to the game, they were easily worth it and then some.”

After the game, Dr. W.W. Kelly, director of the Green Bay Football corporation, blamed a travel schedule that had worn out their players and some questionable officiating on important plays. "The team is pretty well battered and tired out,” he explained, “but we must not forget that they won nearly as many games as the Spartans and Bears put together.” Kelly insisted that “another factor which must be taken into consideration ... is the attitude taken by the spectators. In all my connection with professional football, I have never seen a crowd so unsportsmanlike and insulting as that crowd at Portsmouth.” 

Clark Hinkle, the Packer fullback, recalled that “the mood of that crowd was ugly. When we got off the team bus they threw oranges and eggs at us." According to Dr. Kelly, “from the moment the Packers arrived at the field, until the time they left, they were subjected to a barrage of epithets and collection of abuse which would have taken the heart out of any team.” And, he noted, “this unfortunate attitude was not confined to the male fans, but was general among the women as well." Dr. Kelly concluded: “All this, however, must not detract from the fact that the Portsmouth team is a smart one, and well coached. As conditions were, they deserved to win and the players themselves cannot be accused of any unsportsmanlike conduct. They played a clean game, and as results show, they outsmarted and outplayed the Packers.”

For many Spartan fans, the Iron Man Game is recalled as the greatest football game in Portsmouth sports history, when the “Purple Herd” proved that they were truly the best NFL team in 1932. They had defeated their rivals, the reigning “world champions,” denying the Packers their fourth NFL championship, and set themselves up to either take home the crown for Portsmouth or tie for first in the standings with the Chicago Bears. And, then, at the end of regular season play in 1932, when the Bears and the Spartans found themselves tied for first place, the teams agreed to meet in the first ever, postseason NFL championship game. Due to frigid weather and concerns about lackluster gate receipts the game was moved indoors, thus making it also the first indoor game in the league’s history. All of that NFL history had been made possible by the Spartans’ astonishing victory over the Packers in the Iron Man Game.

The Spartans victory over the Packers may never be forgotten, but without a league championship and the ability to draw more than 6,000-to-7,000 fans on a regular basis, the Spartans’ finances were in trouble. In retrospect, the Iron Man Game marked the zenith of professional football in Portsmouth. The Spartans would only play one more season in the River City.

In 1934, when the franchise moved to Detroit and became the Lions, many of the Spartan players continued their careers in the Motor City. Glenn Presnell would go onto score the Lion’s first touchdown. Dutch Clark, as quarterback, would lead the Lions to their first NFL Championship in 1935, enjoying the honors with a number of fellow, former Spartans. Clark would be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame with its inaugural class in 1951 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame with its inaugural class in 1963. Fittingly, Robert Dafford’s mural, which has done so much to keep Spartan history alive, notes that the NFL Spartans are “Gone But Not Forgotten.”

Sources

Kyle Crichton, "For Love and Money", Collier's (1 December 1934).

Carl M Becker, "Home & Away", The Rise and Fall of Professional Football on the Banks of the Ohio, 1919-1934 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998).

"Tentative Game is Vetoed by Directors of Football Corporation," Green Bay Gazette (30 November 1931).

"Packers Face Spartans in Crucial Game Sunday: Sunday Crowd to Set Record in Portsmouth. All Southern Ohio Excited about Championship Battle," Green Bay Gazette (3 December 1932). 

"Presnell Resigns at Russel; Signs with Spartans: Tank Ace will Wear Spartan Uniform During Full Season," Ironton Evening Tribune (8 February 1931).

"Packers Keep Title Safe by Quitting: Lose to Bears and Refuse to Meet Spartans," Ironton Evening Tribune (7 December 1931).

"Green Bay Must Defeat Portsmouth Spartans to Have Clear Claim to Rag," Portsmouth Daily Times (7 December 1931).

"Potsy Clark Urges More Training, Less Padding," Portsmouth Daily Times (14 February 1932).

"Packers, Spartans Eager for Fray: Spartans Raging to Settle Old Grudge with Wisconsin Rivals," Portsmouth Daily Times (4 December 1932).