2025 Distinguished Lecture

We are pleased to announce that the annual Reeder Distinguished Lecture in Nineteenth-Century History will be held the evening of April 17, 2025. This year’s lecture will be delivered by Dr. Joseph M. Beilein, Jr., and is entitled “From Ohio Schoolmaster to Missouri Bushwhacker: The Strange Civil War of William Clarke Quantrill.”

Dr. Joseph M. Beilein, Jr., is a professor of history at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College where he teaches history courses on the Civil War, Revolutionary America, Gender, and Military History. He has authored or edited five books including A Man By Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill and the Search for American Manhood (2023) and Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri (2016).

Reeder Researcher at TCHS

The Reeder Endowment is proud to fund a paid Student Research Assistant position for senior History/English major India Gatts at the Trumbull County Historical Society. Through her work, India is playing a vital role in preserving the history of Warren’s Pioneer Cemetery. She has cataloged hundreds of cemetery records and approximately 400 photographs. She is also working to digitize the cemetery index so that it is searchable and available to the public. Even more exciting, she is developing an interactive digital map of the cemetery. Beyond her archival work, India is conducting extensive historical research on Pioneer Cemetery, utilizing newspaper articlesand land deeds. TCHS utilized her research to develop a Halloween cemetery tour, engaging the community and raising awareness of the cemetery’s historical significance. She also wrote a short history of the cemetery for the Tribune.

India says: “Working with TCHS has provided me with an experience that I cannot find in the classroom. It has introduced me to the field of applied history and allowed me to take a forgotten piece of the community and revitalize the public’s interest in it. By the end of my project, hundreds of people that were left behind over time will once again be a part of the community.”