When people asked where Gogi and I are having our exotic destination wedding – they did not expect the first word out of my mouth to be… Ohio.

A beautiful, lush, green place.  Full of history.  And famous people.

The official tree of Ohio is the buckeye tree. Which is why the football team at Ohio State are the Buckeyes.

Here is a list of some Ohio notables:

William J. Hale – Engineer and Inventor (link)
Neil Alden Armstrong astronaut, Wapakoneta
George Bellows painter, lithographer, Columbus
Willard H. Bennett inventor, Findlay
Ambrose Bierce journalist, Meigs County
Albert J. Beveridge political leader, Highland
Erma Bombeck columnist, humorist, Dayton
Bill Boyd / Hopalong Cassidy actor, Cambridge
William Jennings Bryan U.S. presidential candidate, Salem
William Meriam Burton inventor, Cleveland
Milton Caniff cartoonist, Hillsboro
Nancy Cartwright voice of Bart Simpson, Kettering
John R. Commons economist, Hollansburg
Hart Crane poet, Garrettsville
George Armstrong Custer army officer, New Rumley
Dorothy Dandridge actress, Cleveland
Doris Day singer, actress, Cincinnati
Clarence Seward Darrow lawyer, Kingsman
Ruby Dee actress, Cleveland
Hugh Downs TV broadcaster, Akron
Thomas Alva Edison inventor, Milan
John Evans physician, educator, Waynesville
Clark Gable actor, Cadiz
James Abram Garfield U.S. president, Cuyahoga County
Cass Gilbert architect, Zanesville
Lillian Gish actress, Springfield
John Herschel Glenn astronaut, senator, Cambridge
Ulysses Simpson Grant U.S. president, Point Pleasant
Zane Grey author, Zanesville
Warren Gamaliel Harding U.S. president, Morrow County
Charles Martin Hall inventor, Thompson
Rutherford Hayes U.S. president, Delaware
Benjamin Harrison U.S. president, North Bend
Robert Henri painter, Cincinnati
William Dean Howells author, critic, Martins Ferry
Charles F. Kettering inventor, Loudonville
Kenisaw Mountain Landis first baseball commissioner, Millville
Maya Lin artist, sculptor, Athens
Dean Martin singer, actor, Steubenville
William McKinley U.S. president, Niles
Toni Morrison author, Lorain
George W. Norris U.S. Senator, Sandusky
Paul Newman actor, Cleveland
Jack Nicklaus golfer, Columbus
Annie Oakley markswoman, Darke County
Norman Vincent Peale clergyman, Bowersville
Roy J. Plunkett chemist, New Carlisle
Tyrone Power actor, Cincinnati
Judith Resnik astronaut, Akron
Eddie Rickenbacker aviator, Columbus
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. historian, Columbus
Donalee L. Tabern inventor, Bowling Green
William Tecumseh Sherman army general, Lancaster
Steven Spielberg director, screenwriter, Cincinnati
Gloria Steinem feminist, Toledo
William H. Taft U.S. president, Cincinnati
Joyce Kimberly Tatro educator, Toledo
Tecumseh Shawnee Indian chief, Oldtown
Ted Turner broadcasting, Cincinnati
Lowell Thomas commentator, author, Woodington
James Thurber author, cartoonist, Columbus
Ernest H. Volwiler inventor, Hamilton
Raymond Elwin Weber webmaster, Toledo
Orville Wright inventor, Dayton
Cy Young baseball player, Gilmore

Ohio also has some notable foliage:

Be on the lookout for Poison Ivy!  http://www.poison-ivy.org/

It climbs trees, it grows like a bush.  Better safe than sorry – don’t touch if you are not sure what it is…

It creeps along on the ground – usually at the edge of the forest or edge of a field or roadside.

Ohio is also a place of faith and controversy.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“With God All Things Are Possible”

“With God All Things Are Possible” became Ohio’s state motto on October 1, 1959. A twelve-year-old boy named James Mastronardo recommended this quotation from the bible during a contest sponsored by the Ohio legislature in the early 1950’s to select a state motto.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit against Ohio and its state motto in 1997, claiming the biblical quotation violated the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees religious freedom separation of church and state. Federal courts allowed Ohio to retain its motto, ruling that the state motto does not endorse a specific God and therefore was not a violation of the first amendment. Four other states contain the word “God” in their mottos.