Rev. Houston Bryan Perry, Sr. (1894–1983) and Ruth Van Buren (Morgan) Perry (1904–1998)
Ruth Evelyn Hodge is an American archivist, author, educator, and community activist who has furthered the advancement of African-American and United States military history research and writing during the 20th and early 21st centuries. "African-Americans played a great part in building America," she said during a newspaper interview in 2000. "The more people know, the better they understand and the better they get along."[1]
Born on April 27, 1937, in Fluvanna County, Virginia,[2] Ruth Evelyn (Perry) Hodge is the daughter of the late Rev. Houston Bryan Perry, Sr. (1894–1983) and Ruth Van Buren (Morgan) Perry (1904–1998).[3]
According to news reporter Pamilla Saylor, Ruth Perry was an avid student of history from the time of her early childhood "when she was taught that Pennsylvania was a 'salvation to the Underground Railroad.'" The topics she chose to write about in school frequently addressed important, but often overlooked moments of African-American history.[4] "Most members of Union Baptist [where her father served as the pastor when she was young] never knew Ruth's given name because at birth she had been affectionately dubbed with the moniker 'Precious' by her mom," according to curators at the Scottsville Museum in Scottsville, Virginia.[5]
In 1953, Ruth relocated with her parents and siblings to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where her father had been hired to become pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church. A 1954 graduate of Williamsport High School, she went on to complete her bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Lycoming College in 1958,[6][7][8] and then began her own family when she wed Marcus Lee Hodge (1930–2017) on September 26, 1959. A native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania and son of late Peter Andrew and Rachel Ellen (Humphreys) Hodge, her husband served in the U.S. Air Force and was later employed as a draftsman by Gannett Fleming and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The couple, who had met at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where her father was serving as pastor, became the parents of two children: Perrianne and Mark Andrew.[9][10]
Front gate, U.S. Army War College (Carlisle Barracks).
From the early 1960s through the early 1990s, Ruth E. Hodge utilized her strategic planning and archival skills to assist the United States Army with the documentation and preservation of its history. While employed in the U.S. Army War College Library (Carlisle Barracks) from 1960 to 1980, she was also a member of the Medical Science Liaison Society at Shippensburg University (1971).[13][14]
She was then employed by the U.S. Army Military History Institute (Carlisle Barracks) from 1980 to 1993.[15][16] During this period of her service, she also served as an Equal Opportunity counselor for her employer, and taught classes at Shippensburg University as an adjunct professor from 1981 to 1982.[17]
As the U.S. Army prepared to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, she was drafted to help with research, but soon realized that there was scant information "on blacks when it came to Army histories and school textbooks." After presenting a day-long conference for her colleagues in 1992 to raise awareness about this issue and pressing her superiors to do more, she was given the authority to organize a multi-day conference, which then led to invitations for her to present additional lectures nationwide.[18]
She also assisted authors with a variety of research queries during her tenure with the U.S. Army, including Robert F. Jefferson, who later thanked Ruth and others from the "United States Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks ... for their generosity and resourcesfulness" via the "Acknowledgements" section of his 2008 book, Fighting for Hope: African American troops of the 93rd Infantry Division in World War II and postwar America.[19]
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania State Archives tower (right) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 2010 (GFDL, CC-BY-SA).
Hired by the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1993 as an archivist, she became the Archives' African-American specialist. In 1997, she also became a consultant to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, and was able to secure grant funds to support the museum's launch of a program to record the oral histories of African-Americans who had served in the U.S. military during World War II. By the following year, she had also joined a steering committee which had been formed to plan special events related to the celebration of Cumberland County's 250th anniversary.[20]
As the 21st century dawned, she published her book, Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives.[21] According to news reporter Michael Bupp, Hodge "spent six years digging through 69,000 feet of archived documents to compile" the materials for her book during the summer of 2000.[22][23][24] During her research, she confirmed the enrollment of more than 10,000 African-American soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War. Interviewed in 2000, she recalled:[25]
I found evidence that nearly 20 men from Carlisle served with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.... It wasn't until Pennsylvania really got into a tight situation and needed as many troops as possible that Gov. Andrew Curtin noticed the number of blacks heading elsewhere to enlist.
In 2001, she delivered a lecture on the life and work of Charles Franklin Moss, the early 20th-century Carlisle photographer who reportedly also created the design for Pennsylvania's state flag. The program was presented at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church as part of its 133rd anniversary celebrations in November of that year.[26]
Remaining active during her retirement, she presented a program regarding "Carlisle's African American Civil War Soldiers" at the Bosler Free Library in that city in November 2002 as part of the "One Book, Two Counties" program sponsored by Cumberland and Dauphin counties.[27]
In 2005, she played a key role in Carlisle's celebration of National African American History Month, helping to coordinate a February program at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church with the theme, "The Niagara Movement: Black Protest Reborn 1905-2005" for which Sheila Y. Flemming, dean of the School of Social Sciences and professor of history at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, served as the keynote speaker.[28]
She also spoke at the 2009 dedication of the historical marker for one of the first religious institutions to be built west of Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River – the Bethel A.M.E. Church at 131 East Pomfret Street in Carlisle – a church which also played a key role in the operations of the Underground Railroad during the American Civil War. Other presenters at the May 9 program included: Pennsylvania State Senator Pat Vance; the city's mayor, Kirk Wilson; the church's pastor, Rev. Troy Lynn Carr; and Barbara Harris, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.[29][30]
That same year, she and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary during a reaffirmation service which was held at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Carlisle.[31] Religiously, she and her family have been longtime, active members of that church. In addition to serving her congregation as a deaconess and church historian, she founded the institution's Robert C. Gaskill Library, naming it in honor of the first African-American appointed as commandant of the U.S. Army War College.[32][33][34]
Having lost her father and mother in 1983 and 1998, respectively, she also survived the deaths of her brother, Houston Bryan Perry, Jr., and husband, Marcus L. Hodge. Her brother died on August 9, 2014, and was laid to rest at the Cumberland Valley Memorial Gardens following a Homegoing Service at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on August 19.[35] She was then widowed by her husband in 2017 when he passed away at the age of 87 at their home in Carlisle on July 13. Following funeral services at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on July 19, he was laid to rest with full military honors at the Cumberland Valley Memorial Gardens.[36]
Awards
Front cover, Ruth E. Hodge's Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives (published, 2000).
Ruth E. Hodge has been the recipient of multiple honors during her lifetime, including the:[37]
Outstanding Alumnus, Lycoming College (1983); and
Black Women's Historians Award, Black Women Historians, Washington, D.C. (1993).
In addition, she was named one of "Carlisle's Finest" in 1991 by the Carlisle Evening Sentinel.
She also contributed content for a variety of materials created on behalf of her employers over the years, as well as to a series of publications produced by the Cumberland County Historical Society, including: 250 Years of the Arts; Faith Communities: The Religious Heritage of Cumberland County; and Pictorial History.[38]
Related Research Articles
Lycoming County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 114,188. Its county seat is Williamsport.
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; including suburbs in the neighboring townships, 37,695 live in the Carlisle urban cluster. Carlisle is the smaller principal city of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry counties in South Central Pennsylvania.
Anthony Township is a township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 866 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Loyalsock Township is a township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 11,561 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the second largest municipality in Lycoming County, in terms of population, behind the county seat, Williamsport.
Montoursville is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The 2020 census reported its population as 4,745. It forms part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Williamsport Regional Airport is in Montoursville.
Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 27,754. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 114,000. Williamsport is the larger principal city of the Williamsport-Lock Haven Combined Statistical Area, which includes Lycoming and Clinton counties.
Lycoming College is a private liberal arts college in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1812, Lycoming College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church but operates as an independent institution. Through its history, it has been an academy, seminary, junior college, and four-year college.
The Susquehanna Valley is a region of low-lying land that borders the Susquehanna River in the U.S. states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The valley consists of areas that lie along the main branch of the river, which flows from Upstate New York through Pennsylvania and Maryland into the Chesapeake Bay, as well as areas that lie along the shorter West Branch in Pennsylvania.
Cumberland County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 259,469. Its county seat is Carlisle.
William Perry Eveland was a missionary bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1912 and serving in the U.S. and in Southeast Asia.
The Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, officially the Harrisburg–Carlisle, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and also referred to as the Susquehanna Valley, is defined by the Office of Management and Budget as an area consisting of three counties in South Central Pennsylvania, anchored by the cities of Harrisburg and Carlisle.
David Frederick Wertz was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1968.
Peter Herdic (1824–1888) was a lumber baron, entrepreneur, inventor, politician, and philanthropist in Victorian era Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. He was the youngest of seven children born to Henry and Elizabeth Herdic on December 14, 1824, in Fort Plain, New York. Herdic's father died in 1826 and Elizabeth Herdic remarried shortly thereafter. She was widowed again prior to 1837 when she moved her family to Pipe Creek, New York, near Ithaca. Herdic attended school for just a few years while he worked on his mother's 50-acre (200,000 m2) farm. Herdic left his mother's farm in 1846 and arrived in Lycoming County later that same year, where he settled in Cogan House Township.
Williamsport was incorporated as a borough on March 1, 1806, and as a city on January 15, 1866. The city is the original home of Little League Baseball, founded in 1939 as a three-team league.
Daniel Hughes (1804–1880) was a conductor, agent and station master in the Underground Railroad based in Loyalsock Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. He was the owner of a barge on the Pennsylvania Canal and transported lumber from Williamsport on the West Branch Susquehanna River to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Hughes hid runaway slaves in the hold of his barge on his return trip up the Susquehanna River to Lycoming County, where he provided shelter to the runaways on his property near the Loyalsock Township border with Williamsport before they moved further north and to eventual freedom in Canada. Hughes' home was located in a hollow or small valley in the mountains just north of Williamsport. This hollow is now known as Freedom Road, having previously been called Nigger Hollow. In response to the actions of concerned African American citizens of Williamsport, the pejorative name was formally changed by the Williamsport City Council in 1936.
Patricia H. Vance is a Republican politician. She served as a Pennsylvania State Senator from the 31st district from 2005 to 2016. Prior to that, she served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 87th district from 1991 to 2004.
The National Weather Service State College, Pennsylvania is a local office of the National Weather Service responsible for monitoring weather conditions in central Pennsylvania. Open since May 1993, the office serves 33 counties and has about 25 employees.
Charles Franklin Moss (1878-1961) was an African American photographer and painter born in Winchester, Virginia. Moss' mother was born into slavery and his father was a mason. He showed interest in art early in his life and attended Cooper Union and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was the first African American member of the Professional Photographers of America and reportedly designed the Flag of Pennsylvania. Moss spent most of his life in Pennsylvania and his works were later featured in exhibitions. He operated photography studios in Carlisle and Harrisburg, and a painting studio in Pittsburgh. He and his second wife, Sarah Virginia Townson, raised a family of twelve children.
↑ Saylor, "State Archivist Rescues History", p. 7.
↑ "Hodge, Ruth E.", in "Lycoming College Authors." Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Lycoming College, retrieved online July 28, 2018.
↑ "Ruth E. Hodge", in "Class Notes", in Lycoming College Magazine, Spring 2003, p. 22. Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Lycoming College, retrieved online July 28, 2018.
↑ Saylor, "State Archivist Rescues History", p. 7.
↑ "Ms. Ruth E. Hodge, Chief Technical Services Branch" (contact information), in "Proceedings of the 29th Annual Military Librarians' Workshop", VI-4 (p. 106 of the 112-page PDF). Colorado Springs, Colorado: United States Air Force Academy, October 9–11, 1985 (retrieved online July 28, 2018).
↑ Saylor, "State Archivist Rescues History", p. 7.
↑ Saylor, "State Archivist Rescues History", p. 7.
↑ Watkins, Yazmin. "About Ruth Hodge," in "Carlisle History: A living history of Carlisle, PA." Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College, November 29, 2007 (retrieved online July 28, 2018).
↑ Saylor, "State Archivist Rescues History", p. 7.
"Guide to African American Resources" (online compilation based on Ruth E. Hodge's Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, retrieved online July 31, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
