Virtual Program: John Y. Simon Day Annual Grant Lecture: The Boy Makes the Man

 The park is preparing for the bicentennial of Grant’s birth in 2022, and this year’s John Y. Simon program is “The Boy Makes the Man.” Ned Lodwick, long-time Vice-President of the U.S. Grant Homestead Association and Historian of the Brown County Historical Society has created three short videos on Grant’s early life in Georgetown, Ohio for our virtual program. Each video is closed captioned, and audio described. They will be available for viewing on the park’s website on Saturday, October 9 by 10 am. www.nps.gov/ulsg

Mr. Lodwick provides a virtual tour of the U.S. Grant Homestead that includes Grant’s boyhood home and the school he attended. He shares stories of Grant’ childhood, gleaned from multiple sources. He also describes the political activity of Brown County, Ohio that Grant would have known about as he was growing up. All these childhood events would impact the man who would eventually lead the US Army in saving the Union and then becoming the President of the United States.

Dr. Lodwick is a 1976 graduate of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. While at The Ohio State University he carried a minor in history. Upon graduation he returned to Brown County to practice veterinary medicine, which he presently continues. Dr. Lodwick has had a lifelong interest in Civil War and Ohio history. He has been the Vice President of the U.S. Grant Homestead Association and Historian of the Brown county Historical Society for many years. He compiled a children’s book of stories about young Ulysses “Lys” Grant’s childhood in Georgetown, Ohio, where Grant lived longer than anywhere else in his life. Dr. Lodwick was a recipient of the 2009 Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums’ “Outstanding Historian’s Achievement Award.” He also presented at the 2013 National Meeting of the U.S. Grant Association, leading and narrating an eight-hour bus tour of Southern Ohio’s “Land of Grant."

Each year the park hosts the John Y. Simon Day lecture. Dr. John Y. Simon was the editor of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Professor of History and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association from 1962 until his death in 2008. He edited 31 annotated volumes of Grant’s letters and papers. He also edited Julia Dent Grant’s memoirs and was the author or editor of over 100 articles on the Civil War, Grant, Lincoln, and Illinois history. His scholarship on Grant has been indispensable to the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. Harriet F. Simon donated her husband’s extensive book collection to the park in March 2010, adding over 2,000 monographs to the park library.

Fees

This event is free to attend.

Schedule

This is a virtual event and videos will be available beginning at 10 am on the park's website and will remain on the website for viewing.

Event Type

• Guided Tour
• Talk
• Virtual/Digital