BORN: 1987 OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Columbus In 1976, Ruth Awad’s father fled Abou Samra, Tripoli, Lebanon, to seek asylum in England during the Lebanese Civil War. After immigrating to the United States in the 1980s, he attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he met Awad’s mother. Awad’s mother, a nurse, painted as a hobby. …
Read More Ruth AwadOHIO CONNECTION: Resident Cleveland Born on April 26, 1834, humorist Charles Farrar Browne (aka “Artemus Ward”) grew up in Waterford Flat, Oxford County, Maine. His mother, Caroline Eliza Farrar Brown, was a freethinker descended from the first Puritan settlers of North America in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father, Levi, was a liberal-minded Congregationalist whose grandfather, Jabez …
Read More Charles Farrar Browne (aka “Artemus Ward”)BORN: 1971 OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Oberlin Born in London on April 5, 1971, to Muslim immigrants of Indian, Iranian, and Egyptian descent (political refugees from India), Kazim Ali became fascinated with poetry from his father’s eloquent readings from the Qur’an. After a residency in Jenpeg, Manitoba, between 1975 and 1979, Ali’s family relocated to Buffalo, New …
Read More Kazim AliBorn: June 12, 1844 Died: June 9, 1878 Ohio connection: Birth New Lexington Januarius A. MacGahan, considered one of the most influential journalist of the 19th century was born on June 12, 1844, near New Lexington, Ohio. The son of James and Ester (nee Dempsey) MacGahan, Januarius was only six years old when his father died, leaving …
Read More Januarius A. MacGahanBorn: May 25, 1909Died: February 8, 1993 Ohio connection: Birth Greenville Award-winning author Jean Gould was a prolific writer whose work included books for both children and adults. She is most well-known for her biographies of prominent figures in literature, theater, industry and politics. However, her early writing includes fairy tales, plays, and short stories …
Read More Jean Rosalind GouldBorn: 1941 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Three weeks after her parents, Paul (a psychoanalyst) and Ellen Bergman, arrived in the United States after fleeing the Nazi regimes of Central Europe, Carol Ascher was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Ascher and her family lived in Topeka, Kansas, until she was twelve. The comforts of that Midwestern existence were …
Read More Carol AscherBorn: October 15, 1917 Died: February 28, 2007 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus Born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger in Columbus, Ohio, as the oldest son of prominent historian Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Sr. and noted feminist Elizabeth Bancroft Schlesinger, he changed his name to Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. when he was a teen. Schlesinger graduated from Philips Exeter …
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Born: March 29, 1819Died: March 26, 1900 Ohio connection: Resident Cincinnati American Reform rabbi, author, and editor, Isaac Mayer Wise was born in Steingrub, Bohemia (now Lomnička, Czech Republic) in 1819, the son of Leo Weiss, a school teacher, and Regina Weiss. He was a prominent and influential rabbi in 19th-century America. A brilliant student, …
Read More Isaac Mayer WiseBorn: March 7, 1873Died: April 25, 1936 Ohio connection: Birth Cadiz Prominent drama critic and journalist, Percy Hunter Hammond was born in Cadiz, Ohio. Although his father was Cadiz’s leading merchant, at thirteen, Percy Hammond felt irrepressibly drawn towards newspaper journalism, and worked as a “printer’s devil” for his uncle’s newspaper, the Cadiz Republican. In …
Read More Percy HammondBorn: February 11, 1836 Died: July 2, 1918 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Minister, author, and social reformer, the Reverend Washington Gladden was born in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania in 1836. One of the most well-known writers of Congregational literature of his day, Rev. Gladden’s writings and actions earned him the title of “father” of the Social Gospel …
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