The namesake of Riley Creek - Sea Captain James Riley - will be in Bluffton for Sunday's GOBA actitives. He will talk about his experiences, which include surveying Riley Creek and traveling across the globe.
His talk, open to the public, is at 5 p.m., either outdoors in GOBAville, along Rosenberger Drive and Elm Street, or in case of rain, in Marbeck Center. (Captain Riley is also known as Dr. Darrell Groman.)
We asked the good captain to tell Icon viewers alitle about himself. Here's what he told us:
The title of my presentation, for years has been...
"History Comes Alive! with little-known facts about Sea Captain James Riley and How the Creek was Named."
The history books from upstream Riley Creek in Bluffton's 100th, 125th and 150th celebrations all report the same information: "Surveyor Named Riley. The final survey was completed July 20, 1820, by one, James Riley. It is supposed that Riley Township (of Putnam County) may have been named for him, and perhaps, Riley creek."
That's it, folks. James Riley, Surveyor.
However, if you would take a canoe downstream eight miles to Pandora and read the history books from Pandora and Putnam County, then you would learn a few more little-known facts about "old Captain Riley, of whom history gives some striking narratives." (Judge J. Y. Sackett in Putnam County Pioneer Reminiscences Nos. 1 and 2 of 1878 and 1887.)
It was actually Captain Riley's son, James Watson Riley, who at age 19 fell into the rain-swollen Deer Creek near the confluence with the Blanchard River, during the actual July 1820 survey of the new Putnam County, and almost drowned.
James Watson was the son of Sea Captain James Riley, who had been appointed to be Deputy Surveyor by the 4th Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory Edward Tiffin, the first and former Governor of Ohio.
Sea Captain Riley had written the national best-seller book, "Riley's Narrative ..." of the shipwreck of his brig The Commerce off the coast of West Africa.
John Locke Scripps, published Abraham Lincoln's authorized biography for the presidential campaign of 1860. Of the six books which influenced Lincoln as a teen-ager growing up on the western frontier in Illinois, "Riley's Narrative" was the sixth. This was one of the most significant books during the ante-bellum regarding slavery.
James Watson Riley, the son of the famous sea captain James Riley, couldn't swim and almost drowned in the rain-swollen Deer Creek, much like the creek has risen during this week's rainstorms.
The teen-ager survived. And, the surveying party could laugh about it later. Someone else in the surveying party took the surveyor's map, crossed out "Deer Creek" right on the spot and penciled in "Riley Creek." Edward Tiffin eventually approved the official name-change of the creek.
"History Comes Alive! with little-known facts about Sea Captain James Riley and How the Creek was Named."
Come listen to Darrell Groman, dressed as how James Riley, as a deputy surveyor may have looked in 1820 and learn more little-known facts from ... Along the Banks of the Riley."
