Notes from my Knapsack 1-15-2026

Notes from my Knapsack 1-15-2026
Jeff Gill

America 250 in Ohio has much to celebrate
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In 1976, President Gerald Ford oversaw a grand national celebration of our Bicentennial, the two hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

People then pointed out we had begun to act independently before the document was approved by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and long after Thomas Jefferson had left the country to represent us in France, the Constitutional Convention in 1787 really established our nation.

You could even get bogged down in John Adams writing down that July the Second would be the future celebration of national independence, after the bulk of signatories had put their, um, John Hancocks onto the formal declaration he had helped Jefferson and Ben Franklin to draft. But no matter.

July 4, 1776 has long been the day we celebrate as our nation's birthday. The centennial was an occasion all over the still not-quite coast to coast country; our 38th state, Colorado, came into the union in the middle of the year 1876, though after the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June. Licking County's new courthouse still has tall bold numbers on four sides to hearken back to the founding even as we celebrated the centennial that year.

And yes, I remember the bicentennial quite well. (Sigh.)

So we come to the Semiquincentennial, or Quarter Millennial observation, if you are willing to be that optimistic about our future. 250 just looks significant, and while I like to celebrate history all the time, in any quanta, a 250th feels right. Denison University has a 195th anniversary coming in December of 2026, and a bicentennial in 2031 I trust we'll mark in Granville.

The America 250-Ohio effort has been present and active in Licking County, and around the state, for some time; their executive director Todd Kleismit has been at various meetings in Granville to help encourage us to prepare for this year, and so we have. In the village, we've been working with the Licking County Historical Society on a 250 Passport project that Howard Long has put good work into, and he's been present as Billie Zimmers has helped chair our community efforts, which you'll hear about all year and then some.

The Newark Earthworks nearby got to be one of Ohio's earliest events around America 250 on January 2nd, and with the Granville Historical Society, I get to talk a bit about the interesting question of what was going on here 250 years ago, in the years directly leading up to 1776. Wyandot and Shawnee and Delaware indigenous people were here, and a few others you might not have expected, but I'll talk about that on Wednesday, Jan. 21st in the Granville Historical Society Museum at 115 E. Broadway. Please consider attending!

They will be distributing some of the materials our Granville group for America 250 have developed for this entire year, with special themes and programs each month, with January about "firsts" logically enough. In June, I get to offer some programs about our history with parks and preservation, and you'll hear more about that soon enough, along with all our other monthly themes in 2026.

Like the best history, it will be both fun and educational!


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he has a deep and wide love of history in many forms. Tell him what times past most interest you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.