Five pieces of forgotten Cincinnati history found in the National Archives

You can't Google this stuff, but that doesn't mean you can't see it for yourself online.

The National Archives has thousands of letters and documents that offer a fascinating glimpse into Cincinnati's history. Even a quick browse will turn up things you'd never expect.

Here are five things about Cincinnati you might not have known, as gleaned from the archive.

Archive surprise No. 1: The Committee on Un-American Activities

In 1950, at the beginning of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy's campaign against communism, Cincinnati was the subject of a series of hearings held by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Several people from the area were labeled communists. During one hearing in July, three witnesses from Cincinnati were held in contempt by the committee for refusing to answer questions. Nearly all those in question were labor organizers or union leaders.

At the time, Cincinnati was marked as a hotbed for communist activity. Reports in The Enquirer, at the time, also named alleged communists and connected them to the fears outlined by McCarthy and others.

One labor organizer worked with employees at the Formica Insulation Co., American Tool Works, the King Machine Tool Co. and Lodge and Shipley. In a story about this man being an alleged communist, the reporter wrote: "these four plants were among those in Cincinnati the communists had marked for sabotage in the event of war with Russia."

Archive surprise No. 2: The time the feds raided a German society

"Schlaraffia" is a German-speaking society founded in the mid-1800s. Chapters exist to this day all over the world. But in 1918 during America's involvement in World War I, they became a target.

That April, federal marshals raided a schlaraffia meeting in Cincinnati and arrested six people: three actors, an artist, a newspaper ad salesman and a machinist from Lodge and Shipley (that place just couldn't stay out of the news).

The federal government had reported that these chapters were "a possible root of the German spy system," according to Enquirer reports at the time.

An Enquirer story from the time stated that, while not arrested, several high-ranking members of the group were prominent Cincinnatians. One leader said the group was basically just a place to speak German and sing German songs.

These six men and hundreds of others were recommended to be shipped off to internment camps, but a letter in the National Archives from a local special assistant U.S. attorney states that an investigation showed there was no evidence those arrested in southern Ohio should be detained.

Archive surprise No. 3: World Peace Flags

Also during World War I, a Cincinnatian designed a World Peace Flag "for all those opposed to German plans," the National Archives entry states.

Gabriel Mueller put four white stripes on the flag for peace and five red stripes to represent the "five races engaged in European war." A torch of liberty lit by the light of reason sits centered in a field of stars.

The Enquirer archives offer no insight into Mueller's World Peace Flag, but about 10 years later another Cincinnati claimed to have designed a flag by the same name.

In the 1933 obituary of Horace D. Jones, it states the 68-year-old planned to unveil his World Peace Flag at the All-Nations' Festival at Music Hall in April. But Jones died that March. His flag was white, black yellow and red, in equal parts, representing the races of the world. It also featured an arrow through a star and the earth signifying "the piercing of the hearts of mother who lost sons in wars."

Archive surprise No. 4: A group opposed to national women's suffrage

In June 1918, a woman-led group called "The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage" wrote to the Senate saying it represented 90% of Ohio women, but offered no evidence of that.

Among the signers to the letter were women from prominent Cincinnati families: Longworth, Shillito, Taft, Anderson and Harrison.

The group opposed a national law giving women the right to vote and its reasons for that stance. The first was World War I needed all the resources the country could muster. The war would end that November, but that was by no means evident in the months leading up to Armistice Day.

The group also cited President Woodrow Wilson, who said the matter was an issue that should be settled at the state level, not the national level. They also said most women don't want the right to vote.

"The great majority of women do not desire the ballot ... but rather consider it an exceedingly heavy and wholly unnecessary burden," the letter stated. "Politics would deprive our sex of its most precious possession, nonpartisanship and would herd women into political camps where womanhood would lose solidarity and be divided against itself."

Wilson would change would publically change his position on the matter just months after this letter was sent addressing the Senate that September. He said the passage of the 19th Amendment was vital to the war effort. His speech would not result in passage that year, but the amendment would pass the following year.

Archive surprise No. 5: The mark of Little Turtle

The lesser-known contemporary to the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket. Little Turtle was the leader of the Miami people. He and Blue Jacket fought with American forces to maintain control of what is now much of Ohio and Indiana.

Little Turtle and Blue Jacket fought together during the Battle of the Wabash, also known as the Battle of a Thousand Slain. People remember Gen. George Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn but historians say this battle near the Ohio-Indiana border remains the most decisive defeat in the history of the American military.

Under the leadership of Arthur St. Clair, 1,000 troops set off from Fort Washington (modern-day Cincinnati) in October 1791 on the ill-fated campaign to defeat the Miami. On Nov. 4, about 1,000 Miami, Shawnee, Delaware and Potawatomis fighters ambushed at dawn.

More than 600 troops were killed and more than 200 were wounded. "Camp followers," civilians who followed the march to provide support to the soldiers, were killed as well. In the end, 832 people were killed under St. Clair.

Anthony Wayne, who now is more famously known as Mad Anthony, was sent to finish what St. Clair couldn't, and he succeeded. The result was the Greenville Treaty. In exchange for annual payments, Little Turtle and the leaders of many other tribes signed over much of what is now Ohio.

The National Archive has the treaty on its website. Though faded, the mark of Little Turtle is still clear as is the signature of Anthony Wayne.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Five pieces of forgotten Cincinnati history found in the National Archive