The Fort Meigs Bentley Lecture Series presents 'The Strategic Importance of Pickawillany'

Perrysburg, OH — Dr. Matt Schumann of Eastern Michigan University will speak on Thursday, Jan. 20, at Fort Meigs Visitor’s Center in Perrysburg on the historic improtance of Pickawilliany. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The subject of Dr. Schumann’s talk is The Strategic Importance of Pickawillany.

Pickawillany (present day Piqua, Ohio, on the Great Miami River) was a British trading station established by George Croghan in 1749, among the Miami Indians. It was also a significant hurdle in the French river route from the Great Lakes basin to the Mississippi River prior to the French and Indian War, 1754-1766. The town was destroyed in 1752 by French and allied Indian forces. Dr. Schumann will discuss Pickawillinay’s key roles in relation to British and French strategies both regarding trade and expansion and in limiting the influence of “the enemy” in the region.

Dr. Schumann teaches U.S., Western, and World history at Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College. He received his PhD from the University of Exeter in 2005 with a thesis entitled British Grand Strategy in the Atlantic System, 1754-1761. He is author of The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History and is currently writing another book on the geopolitics in the inter-war period, 1748 to 1756.

The lecture will be presented at Fort Meigs in the Visitor Center located at 29100 West River Road in Perrysburg, Ohio on Thursday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 PM. The program is sponsored by the Anderton Bentley Fund in memory of Christopher Perky, who served at Fort Meigs during the War of 1812. For more information on this and all of the events at Fort Meigs call 800-283-8916 or visit us on-line at www.fortmeigs.org or www.ohiohistory.org