Marker Dedication Honored Campbell and Schenck 
Two leading figures in national and state politics from Franklin were memorialized with an official Ohio Historical Marker during a ceremony Saturday, Sept. 24. The  marker honors Lewis Davis Campbell and Robert Cumming Schenck and was unveiled by Geoffrey Gorsuch.

Gorsuch is a former Franklin resident, who was very active in the Franklin Area Historical Society during the time he lived here, working on the Department of Energy's clean-up of the Mound facility in Miamisburg. He wrote a five-volume history of Franklin and Franklin Township's involvement in the Civil War in addition to three walking tour brochures and a driving tour pamphlet of the area and the book “Images of Franklin.” Although he now works for the DOE in New York state, he provided the funding and much of the research involved in making the marker possible.

Campbell was born in 1811 in a log cabin near the site of the marker.

He left Franklin to pursue a career in journalism in Hamilton, and his success in this venture and subsequent study of law paved the way to his election to Congress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1849 to 1858, rising to the leadership of Ohio's Know Nothing Party. During the Civil War he raised the 69th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served as its first colonel.

In 1866, President Andrew Johnson appointed Campbell U.S. minister to Mexico. Campbell was elected of the House for another term in 1870, defeating the man who is also memorialized on the marker, Robert Cumming Schenck.

Campbell died in 1882 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton.

Schenck was born in Franklin in 1809 and attended Miami University, going on to practice law in Lebanon and Dayton. He served in the U.S. House from 1843 to 1851 and resigned after contracting tuberculosis. He recovered his health in a diplomatic post in Latin America, returned to the U.S. and became an entrepreneur and was among the first Ohio supporters of Lincoln for president.. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed a general in the Union Army and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Second Manassus in August 1862. The next year Schenck returned to Congress after defeating Copperhead Clement Vallandingham.

During the war, Schenck headed Congress' Military Affairs Committee and after the war, the Ways and Means Committee. After his defeat by Campbell, Schenck was appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain by President Grant.

He died in 1890 and is buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery.

The only other Ohio Historical Marker in Franklin is in front of the 1805 log post office two blocks south of where the new marker will be placed.

Administered by the Ohio Historical Society, the Historical Markers Program enables Ohioans to commemorate and celebrate local history and learn more about the state. Designed to be permanent and highly visible, the historic markers are large cast-aluminum signs that tell stories about aspects of Ohio's history.

New Zealand Prof Spoke on Harding June 13
A university professor from New Zealand would seem an unlikely expert on one of Franklin's most famous citizens. But not only does John Moremon know his history, he has written a book in which the late Maj. Gen. E. Forrest Harding is an integral part.

Moremon was the guest speaker for the Franklin Area Historical Society's annual June dinner meeting. Monday, June 13.

Moremon is a military history and technology professor at Massey University. An Australian, he worked as a historian at Australia's Department of Veterans' Affairs and Australian Parliamentary library before moving to New Zealand in 2007.

He has visited the United Sates several times – but never to Ohio -- including 2010 when he was selected by the Department of History at the U.S. Military Academy to be a Fellow of the West Point Summer Seminar in Military History.