Lyceum Luncheon Speaker Series – The Clash at Sunday Creek: Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion

The Southeast Ohio History Center Lyceum Speaker Series presents a program on the some of the unrest in the Hocking Valley Coal Fields on Thursday, September 19^th at noon at 24 West State Street in Athens, Ohio.

Jobie Seimer, former Green Beret, Author and Military Historian will discuss his book The Clash at Sunday Creek: Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. Seimer’s talk, addressing the Battle of Corning (September 19, 1880), the first battle of the Ohio National Guard, will take place at the History Center on the 144th anniversary of the clash.

Seimer describes Southeast Ohio as a rugged region in the 1800s with an influx of migrants and immigrants who changed to landscape, the nature of life, and the local economy. Nowhere was this truer than in Corning and Rendville, mining towns reminiscent of the Wild West era. Gun duels, scandals, lynchings, and murders plagued these places, as intrepid European immigrants and tenacious Black miners relied on raw grit to survive rowdy saloons and perilous coal mines. These impoverished workers also took bold stands against affluent mine operators, leading to intense clashes with the Ohio National Guard.

Seimer will touch on the social interaction between Rendville’s Black and Corning’s Immigrant miners. Seimer will be selling copies of his book and be available for book signing.

Jobie Siemer is a military historian and combat veteran who is passionate about historical preservation in Ohio’s Little Cities of Black Diamonds region. While living in Corning, Ohio, he held the position of President Pro Temp for the village council. After completing his studies at Ohio University, he commissioned in the U.S. Army. As an infantry officer in the Eighty-Second Airborne Division and, later, as a member of U.S. Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets, he led numerous combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. After his military service, he earned his master’s degree in military history.

For more information on the Southeast Ohio History Center or about the Lyceum brown bag luncheon speaker series call 740-592-2280 or visit the web at www.southeastohiohistory.org.