PUBLIC LIBRARY
FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., INO.
GENEALOGY COLLECTlOt^
';e/\/
3 1833 02398 9590
Gc 977. ] Oh2999zz v, 10
|Ohio arch ological and
historical quarterly
OHIO
ARCHAEOLDGICAL AlTlJ HISTORICAL
PUBLICATIOI^
Vo lume 10
09
a.
PREFATORY NOTE TO VOLUME X.
THE tenth volume of the pubhcations of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society, which is here-
with issued in book form, includes the quarterlies of the
Society previously published as numbers i and 2 for July and Oc-
tober, 1901, and numbers 3 and 4 for January and April, 1902,
The material put forth in this volume is sufficiently indi-
cated in the table of contents. The authoritative character of the
articles is satisfactorily evidenced by the names of the writers. It
is the aim of the Publication Committee to publish no article ex-
cept upon some subject worthy of permanent preservation and
heretofore not exhausted by other writers. Also, that the con-
tributor shall be some one of acknowledged scholarly attainments
and possessed of reliable information. The demand for the pub-
lications of the Society increases greatly each year. They are
now sent to many of the leading libraries of the country, as well
as to most of the prominent historical societies. These volumes,
however, it should be distinctly understood, though published
under the auspices of the State, are not for gratuitous and mis-
cellaneous distribution as are many of the reports of the state
departments. We think it is pertinent to remark here that these
publications give am.ple testimony of the valuable work the So-
ciety is accomplishing, and of the personal interest and efficien*
care and direction given its affairs by the Trustees and Officers.
E. O. Randall, Secretary.
Columbus, Ohio, April, 1902.
(Hi)
INDEX TO VOLUME X.
PAGE
Monument on the Site of Fort Washington 1
Rev. L. B. Gurley, D. D. By N. B. C. Love 21
The Battle of Lake Erie. By Mrs. John T. Mack 38
Fremont in History. By Miss Julia M. Haynes 49
Prehistoric Earthworks of Richland County. By A. J. Bau^hman... G7
Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Society 12
Report of the Curator of the Society. . By W. C. Mills 78
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition (July 18, 1901) 123
Colonel Thomas Cresap. By Mrs. Mary Louise Cresap Stevenson.. 146
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. By Rev. I. F. King. D. D 165
The Firelands Historical Society. By Rush R. Sloane, President. . 220
Ohio, The Site of the Garden of Eden 225
President William McKinley 232
Genealogy of William McKinley. By Rev. A. Stapleton 236
The Shaker Community of Warren County. By J. P. MacLean,
Ph. D 251
The Pioneer Poet Lawyer. By N. B. C. Love, D. D 305
The Siege of Fort Meigs. By H. W. Compton 315
John A. Bingham. Address of Hon. J. B. Foraker 331
Thomas Morris. By James B. Swing 352
Lake County and its Founder. By William Stowell Mills, LL. B. .. 361
The Revolutionary Soldier in the Valley of the Little Miami. By
William Albert Galloway 372
St. Clair's Defeat. By Frazer E. Wilson 378
Mound Builders' Fort Within Toledo's Limits. By S. S. Knabenshue 381
The Sorrow of the Nations. By John P. Smith 385
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. By E. O. Ran-
dall, Ph.B.. L.L.M 395-
The Firelands Grant. By Clarence D. Laylin 435
Frontispiece — Adena Mound 451
Excavations of the Adena Mound. By William C. Mills, B. Sc 452'
Some Errors Corrected. By Charles E. Slocum, M. D., Ph. D 480
Notes — Geographical. By R. W. McFarland , LL. D 486
The Great Seal of Ohio. By S. S. Knabenshue 489
Editorialana — E. O. Randall,
Land Bill Allen ^^
Northwest Under Three Flags 1^^
Blennerhasset Redivivus -^^^
Dream of Empire |-^
Early History of Auglaize County 120
(V)
vi Index to Volume X.
PAGE
Ohio Educational Monthly l-'l
Ohio Society S. A. R 121
William McKinley 244
Israel Williams 249
Soldiers in the American Revolution 250
Historical Studies 388
"The Sign of the Prophet" 389
Blennerhassett Again 390
The Great Seal of Ohio 392
Harpers Monthly and Seroent Mound 393
Pioneers of Fairfield County. 394
Tablet on Serpent INIound 492
Bonaparte Almost a Buckeye 494
"The Scotch-Irish in America" 496
"Records of tne Past" 497
"Down Historic Water Ways" 497
"Story of the Western Reserve" 498
Honorary an 1 Life Members of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society 499
ILLUSTRATIONS FOR VOLUME X.
PAGE
Location of Fort Washington 2
Plat of Fort Washington 3
L. B. Gurley 21
Mrs. I. E. Lawrence 46
Col. Geo. Groghan 49
"Land Bill" Allen 98
North America in 1650 (Map) 104
North America in 1750 107
Ohio Building at Buffalo 123
John Eisenmann 12J
Hon. C. L. Swain 124
Hon. W. S. McKinnon 126
Hon. S. L. Patterson 144
Flag of the State of Ohio 144
Cresap's House in 1770 150
John Wesley 166
Barbara Heck 167
Francis Asbury ; 168
Peter Cartwright 175
Cabin of the Rev. R. R. Roberts 176
The First Methodist Meeting-House in Ohio 186
Rev. William Nast, D. D ! 188
White Brown's Barn 189
First Methodist Church in Columbus, 209
Diagram of Ohio Conferences 1901 (Map) 210
Asbury on Horseback 218
President William McKinley 243
Oliver C. Hampton 252
Meeting House of Shakers (looking north) 266
Exterior View of Office of Shakers 283
Largest Residence Center Family of Shakers 288
Ne Vi Cow Barn of Shakers 291
Rev. Jos. R. Slingerland 300
Eliz. Downing 303
^lary G. Gass 303
Emily Robinson 303
Fort Meigs (Map) 316
Hon. John A. Bingham 332
The Bingham Monument 337
Hon. J. B. Foraker 350
(vii)
viii Illustratio7is for Voluvie X.
PAGE
Monument of Gen. Paine 362
Mound Builders' Fort within Toledo Limits 382
Land Grants and Charters (Map) 423
Greenville Treaty Line (Map) 429
First Divisions of Northwest Territory 432
Firelands (Map) 443
Excavations of the Adena Mound —
Adena Mound 451
Figure 1 453
Figure 2 456
Figure 3 457
Figure 4 457
Figure 5 458
Figure 6 458
Figure 7 458
Figure 8 459
Figure 9 459
Figure 10 461
Figure 11 461
Figure 12 462
Figure 13 463
Figure 14 463
Figure 15 464
Figure 16 464
Figure 17 465
Figure 18 466
Figure 19 468
Figure 20 469
Figure 21 470
Figure 22 470
Figure 23 471
Figure 24 471
Figure 25 473
Figure 26 474
Figure 27 475
Figu.e 28 476
Figure 29 477
Figure 30 478
Fort Defiance 481
Great Seal of Ohio 1866 489
Present Seal of Ohio 489
OHIO
Archaeological and Historical
PUBLICATIONS.
MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF FORT WASHINGTON.
Ceremonies at the Unveiung of Monument,
1 789-1808.
The monument erected in Third street, between Broadway
and Ludlow street, in Cincinnati, to mark the site of Fort Wasli-
in.gton, was unveiled on June 14. It was qi^ected by a committee,,
representing patriotic societies in Ohio, as follows :
]\Iaytlower Descendants — Mrs. Frank J. Jones, Mr. Herbert
Jenney, Mr. W. H. Doane.
Colonial Dames of America — Mrs. M. Morris White, Miss
Anna K. Lewis, Miss Fanny Bryce Lehmer.
Colonial Wars — Mr. J. W. Bullock, Mr. N. Henchman
Davis, Mr. Howard S. Winslow.
Cincinnati Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution —
Mrs. Brent Arnold, Mrs. Frank W. Wilson, Mrs. Peirce J. Cad-
walader.
Cincinnati Chapter Sons of American Revolution — Dr.
George A. Thayer.
Sons of the Revolution — Dr. William Judkins, Dr. Andrew
Kemper, Mr. Robert Ralston Jones.
Cincinnati Chapter Children of the American Revolution —
Mrs. Lowell F. Hobart.
War of 1812 — yirs. T. L. A. Greve.
•2
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Loyal Legion— :^Iajor W. H. Chamberlain, Col. W. A.
Cochran, Col. A. W. McCormick.
There are upon the monument two tablets ; upon the upper
•one is the following inscription, surrounded by thirteen stars.
This Tablet
Erected by the Patriotic
Societies of Ohio
Marks the Location of
Fort Washington
Built 1789
Demolished 1808
MDCCCC
â– ^iitrfE:=-ir:-^_
Upon the lower tablet is a plan, showing the location of
Fort Washington with reference to the neighboring streets,
â– drawn by Mr. Robert Ralston Jones, of the U. S. Engineer's
•office of Cincinnati.
Bugle. Call — "Reveille." by the buglers of 2nd U. S. I.
Star Spangled Banner, by the band of the 1st Reg. O. N. G.
Prayer, by Rev. George A. Thayer.
Monziment dn the Site of Fort Washington.
Mr. Herbert Jenney, chairman of the committee, said in
introducing General Cowen :
To-day has no significance in the history of Fort Wash-
ington, but it is our National Flag Day, the anniversary of the
day — June 14, 1777 — on which the American Congress in ses-
sion at Philadelphia, established by its resolution,
That" the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alter-
nate red and white: that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue
field, representing a new constellation."
Arch
Street
DIMENSIONS OF FORT
200 fix 200 ft
>;=?-— Third =^^=^^^Street=^-=r
FORT
L r^ ^ - J ^^
Although the independence of the states had been declared
nearly a year before, this resolution is the first recorded legis-
lative action relating to a national flag for the new sovereignty.
The thirteen stripes were not a new feature; the flag of the
thirteen united colonies raised at Washington's headquarters at
Cambridge January 2, 1776, had the thirteen stripes as they are
to-day, but it also had the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew
on a blue sfround in the corner.
4 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
There is said to be no satisfactory evidence that any flag
bearing the union of the stars had been in pubhc use before
June, 1777.
It is a pleasant incident, that through the courtesy of the
Cincinnati Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu-
tion, we have with us to-day a fac-simile of the flag which was
displayed on January 2, 1776, from Washington's headquarters
at Cambridge, and it is another pleasing incident that the com-
mittee has been able to arrange for the ceremonies of the un-
veiling of the monument, before you to take place on the first
''Flag Day" in the twentieth century.
There are two prominent jurisdictional periods in the his-
rory of the United States Reservation, bounded by Broadway,
Fourth street, Ludlow street and the river, in which Fort Wash-
ington was built, and within the lines of the fort we are now
assembled. The first of these two periods was the jurisdiction
of the United States. It seemed eminently fitting to the com-
mittee that the one to speak to you to-day should be officially
connected with our National Government, and one has been
chosen who served in the War of 1861-5, was brevetted Brigadier-
General U. S. Volunteers, was granted leave of absence to be-
come Adjutant General of Ohio, and did more than any other
individual to place the "one hundred day men" from the State
of Ohio so promptly and well equipped in the field as to merit
and receive the commendation of the War Department; then
he became Assistant Secretary of the Interior during General
Grant's administration, and was Special agent of Indian afifairs
in the West, is now a member of the Order of the Loyal Legion,
and the very efficient Clerk of the United States Circuit and
District Courts in the Southern District of Ohio ; the records of
proceedings had in that Circuit Court in 1829 locate the site of
Fort Washington.
It is with great pleasure that the committee present? to vou
General Benjamin Rush Cowen, who will tell us what the monu-
ment before us means, and what it is to us.
Monument on the Site of Fort Washington. 5
ADDRESS OF GENERAL COWEN.
Ladies and Gentlemen: — I congratulate you on account of
the auspicious circumstances under which we meet here this
afternoon to assist in the performance of a patriotic duty. Our
national condition is such as to justify expressions of pride and
displays of patriotism. The remarkable achievements of our
fleets and armies have excited the wonder and admiration of
brave men the world around, and have exalted this Nation into
a great world power with which other nations have found it
necessary to reckon in their future schemes of conquest. In
military and naval prowess, in diplomacy and statecraft, in wise
and sagacious legislation, in productive industries and in methods
for the promotion of the greatest good to the greatest number,
we stand to-day a united Nation, at peace with all the world,
the peer of the proudest, the champion and exemplar of the
rights of man and the ripe product of a true civilization.
From this standpoint, as we look backward across a hun-
dred years of our history to the event which calls us here to-
dav, let us Strive to evoke some useful'lessons from the succes-
sive steps in our evolution.
If it be true as was said by a Grecian writer twenty-three
centuries ago, that "History is philosophy teaching by exam-
ples," we should be able to evolve from the scenes enacted in,
and the influences which radiated from this place a hundred
vears ago an entire system of ethical philosophy. Looked at
from the standpoint of this day of great things the Fort Wash-
ington of 1789 may seem a trifling and unimportant incident in
the history of a nation now in the very front rank of the world
powers. But that was a time of beginnings, of experiments in
government, of doubt, even whether this was really to become
a nation in the later and larger sense of the word.
Fort Washington at the time of its erection was the most
considerable military post in the Northwestern Territory. It
marked the dividing line between the conditions of our country ;
between civilization of the East and the barbarism of the un-
known West. Its importance is indicated by the fact that three
of the Commanders-in-Chief of the Army of the United States
6 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
were stationed here from time to time. During the occupancy
of the fort it was the scene of the most important miUtary opera-
tions of the time. From this point was organized and sent out
the unfortunate expedition of Josiah Harmar in 1790, against
the hostile tribes of the Northwest. Here, also, in the following
year the army was organized, and equipped under Arthur St,
Clair, which met with the disastrous defeat on the banks of the
Wabash, and it was this fort the survivors of that ill-fated ex-
pedition sought, in their humiliation, as a city of refuge.
From here in 1794 went out that other army under the
hero of Stony Point, the "lion hearted," "Mad Anthony Wayne,"
Commander-in-Chief, an army of 2000 regulars and 1500 Ken-
tucky militiamen, by which the decisive battle with the allied
tribes of the Northwest at Maumee Rapids was fought and won.
I say that battle was decisive, because it gave peace to an
exposed line of frontier extending from Fort Pitt to the southern
boundary of Tennessee, and in fact it marked the close of the
revolutionary war ; because the Indians who took part with
Great Britian in that struggle never laid down their arms until
the great victory of 1794.
After that victory we find in command here a. young Vir-
ginia subaltern who had been a stafY oiificer of Wayne, in his
campaign of 1794, and who filled a larger place in the public
eye for the next forty years, as a successful soldier, secretary
and governor of Indiana Territory, member of Congress, United
States Senator and President of the United States, William
Henry Harrison, whose descendants have honored his illustrious
name and lineage.
Here came the gallant hero of "Old Vincennes," George
Rogers Clarke, who did so much to make the frontier a safe
dwelling place and who, to our shame be it said, died in pov-
erty and obscurity.
From this point went out with the Wayne expedition Rufus
Putnam, of noble lineage and honorable memory as soldier and
jurist whose posterity to this day arise to call him blessed.
But it is a task beyond my power to perform and it would
overtax your patience were I to attempt to name all, or many
of those who bore a part in the stirring scenes enacted here
Monumeyit on the Site of Fort Washington. T
in that early time. With those who fell in battle and those
who fell in single-handed fights with the savage foe, many hun-
dreds in number, they are for the most part the unknown heroes
and martyrs who with no hope of fame or gain gave their lives
as a witness to the pervading love of country and of kind.
Now that a century has elapsed and our country has be-
come great beyond the wildest- dreams of those who built Fort
Washington and defended this frontier will not the memory
of their daring and suffering revive in our hearts the love of
country and of all who live within our boundaries ?
To find the lessons which this event has for men of to-day
we must look beyond the mere incident which this monument
is designed to commemorate to find if possible the causes which
made the labors of those men productive of such grand results..
Fort Washington was a way-station, so to speak, in the
rapid triumphal march of our civilization athwart the continent,,
which, beginning at tide water on the Atlantic early in the
seventeenth century, is now, at the dawn of the twentieth cen-
tury, pluming itself for further and bolder flights westward from,
the vantage ground of the Pacific slope. So rapid was that
movement that whereas at the time of building Fort Washing-
ton the center of population was at tide water at Baltimore,,
only sixty years later it was within a mile of this spot.
The men who built and those who garrisoned the fort
and those who went from here to drive a savage foe from our
borders were no mere carpet knights. They realized the needs
of the times and went direct to their object. They did not stop
to discuss any theories as to the "consent of the governed,"
but, recognizing the fact that this fair land was destined to be
the home of a civilized people, they proceeded direct to their
purpose, which was to remove every obstacle that lay in the
way of that consummation.
They were pioneers of that civilization which, in all lands
and under all conditions is most masterful. Wherever they
plant the foot the latest progress in science and art springs up.
wherever they plant their home all that is best in our latter
dav civilization takes root and grows and flourishes.
8 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatio7is.
Most of those men had passed through the hardships of
the colonial wars or of the revolution and had profited by that
•experience. They were at once yeomen, soldiers and statesmen ;
living epistles of a new faith and fit founders of a new system
of government "of the people, by the people and for the peo-
ple." In this faith they lived and in it many of them died. The
honor of tlieir achievement is this country and its institutions
which we enjoy. The fruit of their efforts is our glorious herit-
age.
Did time permit I might tell in fuller detail how those men
braved the dangers of the forest and subdued it to the uses
of an advanced civilization ; how civil order prevailed even be-
fore there was any semblance of organized power by which the
various functions of government could be exercised. Such was
in fact their self-governing capacity that, with none of the ordi-
nary appliances for the maintenance of private and public rights
they held them secure and gave of the'ir scanty means for their
support. Jealousy of power and envy of the superiority were
subordinated to considerations of public and private good, in-
suring submission to laws intended only for their own happiness.
Not only did these men do battle with the forces of nature
and establish a stable government, they fought and destroyed
the savage tribes, their predecessors in the ownership and occu-
pancy of the soil, without a thought of any effort at "benevo-
lent assimilation." This latter was by no means the least of
their achievements. From Massasoit, King Philip and Pow-
hatan down to Ouray, Sitting Bull and Geronimo every gen-
eration and every nation of Indians has produced men of mark.
The Narragansets, the Pequods and the Iroquois are extinct,
King Philip, Powhatan, Red Jacket, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Logan,
Black Hawk, Cochise, Captain Jack, Sitting Bull, a grim pro-
cession of fearless and indomitable heroes, many of them men
•of striking statesmanship and diplomacy, have stalked across
the pages of our history proving their humanity by leaving
behind them one more trail of blood. They were .forest bred ;
reared in the shadow of our mountains, their familiar music the
thunder of our cataracts, their daily haunts our forests, our
'.lakes and our rivers.
Mo7i.ume??t on the Site of Fori Washington. 9
It is this American climate, this teeming soil and this life
giving- sunshine of ours which we must rely on to make and
continue us a great, free, liberty loving and God fearing people
that produced the race we have supplanted, whose deeds of
valor should place them beside the Saxon and the Greek in
history.
What was the secret of this success against such fearful
odds ? Who were the men who wrought the mighty change ?
^^'hat was their origin, their equipment, their inspiration?
\\'e shall see that they and those who came after them were
allied in blood with all the older states and with all the civilized
nations of the world. Drawn here by that mysterious afifinity
of our better nature for truth and freedom, no word is spoken
in any civilized language but we may claim in it a family in-
terest, see in it a family tie.
Much has been said and VvTitten about the great advantage
of purity of race in the organization of society and government,
but it is the unquestioned lesson of history that those nations
w^hich have become most powerful are composed of mixed races.
Cross-breeding produces the best results. It fortifies, rein-
forces, improves the stock, and mental development is most
robust and practical in the sound body. Given a proper climate,
and a kindly soil as we have here and the conditions are pro-
ductive of the best results. In fact, the descendants of emi-
grants, under favorable physical, moral and intellectual condi-
tions are always physically, mentally and morally stronger than
those from whom they sprung. Every native of this soil was
the descendant of some man more enterprising, more energetic,
more venturesome than his neighbor who thought it best to
stay at home.
In Ohio we had some five centers of original settlement by
people of different origin. At this point known as the "Symmes
Purchase," lying between the Great and the Little Miami Rivers,
the pioneers were chiefly from New Jersey, with a dash of
Huguenot, Swedish, Holland and English blood. East of us
in the Mrginia Military District, with its center at Chillicothe.
the first settlers came principally from Virginia and were of
English lineag*e, with a tincture of Norman and Cavalier. At
10 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Marietta, the first settlement in Ohio, the pioneers were from
Massachusetts and other New England states. Their fathers
were Enghsh Protestants who emigrated thither in search of
religious freedom. In ihe century and a half since their migra-
tion from Europe they had drawn widely apart from the Vir-
ginians and the other colonies and acquired an individualism all
their own. On the "Seven Ranges," so called, extending from
the Ohio River north to the fortieth parallel, being the first
of the surveys and sales of public lands in Ohio, the first set-
tlers were of Pennsylvania, some of the Quaker stock introduced
by William Penn, others of Dutch, Irish, Scotch and Scotch-
Irish. On the Western Reserve they were of Puritan stock,
from Connecticut, with center at Cleveland. West of the "Seven
Ranges" to the -Scioto River and south of the Greenville Treaty
line was the United States Military Reservation, where the first
settlers were holders of bounty land warrants for military service
and they came from all the states and from beyond the sea.
Longfellow says of the Puritan colony: "God sifted three
kingdoms to find the seed for this planting."
He seems to have sifted every civilized nation to find seed
for the planting of Ohio and the contiguous territory.
These centers were necessarily isolated, self-centered, and
had all they could do in their struggle for subsistence and their
battle for life. They occupied those positions with all the pecu-
liar prejudices and predilections of^ men of dififerent races and
conditions, though withovtt animosity, because engaged in a
common cause. A majority of them had taken part in the revo-
lutionary war. This gave them courage to meet the difficulties
of pioneer life, in which they were almost constantly in a state
of war until the peace of 1815. Many of them took part in the
campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne. More than a
thousand had lost their lives in those campaigns and in isolated
attacks from Indians. Every man had his rifle and knew how
to use it. Neither idleness nor luxury sapped their energies.
Their food was coarse but plentiful and healthful. The self-
reliance and energy, so necessary to the equipment of the pio-
neer, and which these men possessed in an eminent degree, were
intensified and developed by the sense of the responsibility which
Monument on the Site of Fort Washington. 11
political democracy compels and the sense of hopefulness which
social democracy imparts to the humblest and the most obscure.
The wars in which they had engaged, like all wars, were
wasting horrors, but they were not without their compensations.
Few men go to war for a great principle, or in defense of their
homes, whose character is not strengthened. They become more
sturdy, more self-reliant, more self-respecting, more courageous,
and these qualities affected those communities to a noticeable
degree.
In the war of 1812-15 the soldiers came together from all
those communities in a common cause and the barriers of preju-
dice were broken down. They rapidly coalesced socially, be-
came better acquainted, more homogeneous and the result was
more frequent intermarriages.
Of course none of the leading men of the time of Fort
Washington were natives of the soil of Ohio. Governor Tifhn
was English ; Governor Worthington was of Virginia ; Governor
Meigs was from Connecticut ; Governor Morrow was from
Pennsylvania ; General Harrison was from Virginia ; Governor
McArthur was from New York ; General Cass was from New
Hampshire.
The different elements which we have seen constituting the
population at that time, elsewhere in the older communities
widely separated by racial and religious prejudices, social rank
or otherwise, here were mingled, acting and reacting upon each
other, so that each community presented in itself an accurate
epitome of the national life. So that men of that time illustrate
the operation of the peculiar forces that wrought their trans-
formation.
Following the peace of 1815, the influence of the West,,
twenty years later to become so masterful in the national life,
began to be felt in the national councils, through the native
element.
It is noticeable how the men of the East, accustomed to
rule in public affairs, stood aghast at the intrusion ; how the staid
and formal conservatism of the older states was startled at the
impending change which they saw setting in from the West,
and which they looked upon as the decadence, the beginning of
12 Ohio Arch, and His, Society Publications.
a permanent demoralization of our politics. However much
men may now deprecate some of the methods of that rude _pe-
riod; however much they may regret that the stately dignity
and method of the Adamses, the Madisons and the Jeffersons
could not have been projected into the aggressive virility of the
West, we now know that the change was not a decadence, but
a renaissance, great and perilous as may have been some of its
crudities and errors. These men showed themselves possessed
of that wonderful assimilative faculty peculiar to the English
stock.
A recent writer endeavors to show that the pioneer work
for every race has been done, not by the ablest and most cul-
tured, but by the strongest and the most enterprising, and this
may explain the masterful influence of those stalwart and vigor-
ous pioneers.
The old order was done away with. A new Nation had
made its entrance on the world's stage and it must be freed'
from every trammel of Old World glamour and superstition.
The men thus produced were best equipped for the task and
though they may have entered upon the work v.dth much of
the daring and recklessness of youth, they were determined to
work out for the Nation a destiny of its own. In short our
institutions were born of our necessities, which should inspire
faith in their endurance.
It was a day of experiments, of risks, yet there was nothing
but good at the basis of the new plan in the hearts of those
whose duty it became to exploit it. As in Verona long ago,
"the weakest went to the wall," but the stalwart survivors waxed
strong and took courage under the invigorating tonic of danger
on a virgin soil and in the broad light of a new day. Out of •
the apparent confusion they builded a structure founded on the
natural rights of the people without a pretext of mystery or
miracle.
Recovering from the war of 1812-15 the native element
began to assert itself in public affairs, the legislature reflecting
the character of the people, at once took advanced ground in
favor of free schools, canals, roads and official honestv. The
progress of two generations thereafter showed enormous ad-
Mo7iunient on the Site of Fort \Vashi7igto7i. 13
varices in all directions ; in wealth, in numbers, in intelligence,
but the tremendous uprising of 1861, when 320,000 of Ohio's stal-
wart sons rallied to the support of our imperiled nation, showed
that our people had taken to heart the lessons of their fathers
and had not become effeminate. .
And to-day, when our trade interests are reaping the benefit
of that perfect freedom, political and conventional ; that freedom
of the individual to work out his own destiny unhampered by
government control, or by considerations of caste, the results
of the efforts of the fathers which have given us hope, ambition,
purpose and practical energy, in contradistinction to our com-
mercial rivals who are still under the dwarfing influence of
caste, resulting in slow progress in, the adoption of improved
methods, we see additional evidence that we are not deterior-
ating, but still profiting by the lessons of that early time.
It is the conclusion of many careful students that a democ-
racy is the ultimate evolution of government, and it has been
well said that there is nothing beyond it but anarchy. It there-
fore follows that it is here that restless and desperate men will
make their stand in their great struggle to live without govern-
ment.
We should therefore bear in mind that this evolution is of
God, and that in the future as in the past He will continue to
so order that those institutions alone which are founded and
administered in justice and equity will be favored in the final
consummation. Our only safety lies in the maintenance of that
spirit and influence without w'nich no spot of earth has yet been
found fit for decent human occupancy.
In studying the different steps in our progress it is inter-
esting, even startling, to observe that no great hiunan want
sprang up without the means being at hand to supply it. Xo
sooner had we acquired the Louisiana Territory than Fulton was
ready with his steamboat to explore its ten thousand miles of
navigable rivers and transport to their banks and teeming savan-
nahs a busy and enterprising people, and we became the greatest
steamboat nation of the world.
No sooner had the restless and wandering spirit of the old
Saxon and Teuton seized upon the modern German and Celt
14 Ohio Arch, and His, Society Pziblications.
than the miglity arms of this great valley were open to receive
them and we became the greatest agricultural nation of the
world.
No sooner had the remote trading posts of our western
rivers grown into towns thaa the vast spaces of intervening
prairie and forest were spanned with railroads, and when steam
became too slow for the oncoming tide of progress Morse was
ready with his invention and the lightning of Heaven became
their swift messengers. Thus were our distant Mexican ces-
sions bound together with bands and nerves of steel and we
became the greatest railroad and telegraph Nation.
And if I may be permitted to invade the domain of prophecy
I will venture the prediction that. our recent insular acquisitions
will as certainly make us the greatest naval Nation of the world.
So that what at the outset of our recent involuntary expansion,
appeared a difBcult and dangerous problem will as surely
strengthen us where alone we are weak.
The lessons we have been considering, however, relate to
the tests of adversity, of sacrifice, of hardship, but the tests of
success being more subtle, and more insidious, and more search-
ing, and this is a day of phenomenal prosperity. The financial
center of the world is shifting to this country. We have a new
earth, new forces in operation and a new type of man, who is
rapidly reorganizing the world.
Nations decay and the path of history is strewn with their
ruins, but where a nation is built on such broad and deep
foundations and is administered by the worthy sons of the ad-
mixture of all the Anglo-Saxon stocks I predict that its deca-
dence will be in the far distant future. There is no limit to our
prosperity and welfare if we are true to these lessons and these
institutions. In short, we have nothing to fear except from our-
selves.
Seeing the efficiency of the women of the Societv of the
Mayflower, of the Colonial Dames, of the Daughters of the Revo-
lution, of the Children of the Revolution and of the War of
1812 in the erection of this monument, and in other enterprises
of similar character the question has been asked : "What have
women to do with such functions?" "Their ofiice is of peace,
Monument on the Site of Fort Washington. 15
of home, of family and can have nothing to do with wars and
the stirring events which attend the hfe and work of the soldier
and the pioneer. That war and its attendant horrors are 'the
white man's burden,' of which women know nothing and with
which they can have nothing to do."
Nay ! Nay ! War has been the white woman's burden since
long before Persian and Greek fought at Salaftiis and Marathon. .
Every forward movement of the race where sacrifice and hard-
ship were to be incurred has been sanctified by woman's tears.
Every footprint along the bloody trail of civiHzation has mixed
with it the blood that has oozed from the hearts of sad eyed
women whose burdens, though quietly and patiently borne,
vi^ere none the less hard than those of the men behind the guns.
So that any recognition of the heroism, the sacrifices and the
suffering of those times would be incomplete if it failed to men-
tion, with deepest respect and highest honor that glorious rear
guard which, through days of toil and nights of horror and
anxiety kept the home swept and garnished against the coming
of the highpriest ; kept the little flock safe folded against the
coming of the shepherd; kept the gaunt wolf from the door.
The mother, the wife, the sister, the daughter, the sweet-
heart of that time, who
"With no one but her secret God
To know the pain that weighed upon her,
Shed holy blood as e'er the sod
Received upon the field of honor."
Let the memory of that grand army of noble women ever
be held in veneration wherever men assemble to commemorate
heroic deeds.
Monuments not only contribute to our civilization, they
mark its progress and degree. No nation can afiford to lose
its monuments, and works of art. They keep green the memory
of patriotic services and of personal virtues. They have always
been potent factors in the darkest ages to prevent society from
lapsing into barbarism or falling into decay.
Were the monuments of Greece and Rome destroyed even
now the world would feel the loss, not only to learning and the
16 Ohio Arch. a)id His. Society Publications .
arts, but to virtue and patriotism. It nearly concerns the honor
and the welfare of our people that this spot be marked by some
fitting structure which should recall the history and inspire all
who look upon it.
History informs us of no people who ever attained and con-
served permanent power, or achieved greatness who neglected
to reverence their ancestors and who did not demonstrate such
reverence by fitting testimonials.
Thus we have erected and this day dedicated this monument
that it may tell to those who come after us of our gratitude
to those who throiigh hardship and sacrifice wTought out our
independence.
Those who have contributed to this work represent every
war in which our people have engaged, from King Philip to
the recent war with Spain, and every race from which this Nation
sprang. They are proud of "their ancestry ; of their deeds of
daring and of suffering; of their success at government build-
ing; of their virtues and their talents, and they have builded
that pride into this humble monument. Its construction has
been a labor of love, and it will stand as an evidence of the
lasting influence of those forces which wrought our mighty
success.
Long may our Nation stand the champion of human rights
the exemplar of human freedom, and the advocate and repre-
sentative of the brotherhood of man, the federation of the na-
tions and the peace of the world.
Hail Columbia — by the band of the 1st Reg. O. N. G.
Mr. Jenney said, prefatory to the unveiling:
In 1791 the Second Regiment, U. S. I., was stationed in
Fort Washington. It was with General St. Clair in his cam-
paign, and was a part of General Wayne's army in his expedition
against the Miamis. It participated in the War of 1812, in the
Mexican War, in the War of 1861-5, was in Cuba during the
war just closed, and then in the Philippines, where two of its
battalions are now; its other battalion recentlv returned from
the Philippines and is now stationed at Fort Thomas under the
Moyiiiment oji the Site of Fort Washington. 17
command of Maj. J. R. Clagett. We have with us to-day
troops from that regiment, and after no years have intervened,
representatives of that regiment are again standing vi^ithin the
lines of Fort Washington. The Second has always done, and
always will do, its duty wherever it may be placed, and we most
heartily welcome those from that regiment, and from Fort
Thomas with us here to-day.
Those who have not attempted to locate historical places
cannot appreciate how difficult it is to accurately fix their sites
after the lapse of a few years. A number of persons have, at
different times, attempted to definitely fix the site of Fort Wash-
ington within the reservation. Mrs. Peirce J. Cadwalader, a
member of the committee from the Cincinnati Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, found a i:lue which,
investigated by Mr. Robert Ralston Jones, a m.ember of the
committee from the Sons of the Revolution, with much original
investigation on his part, resulted in definitely settling the bound-
ary lines of the fort. In recognition of her discovering this
clue, Mrs. Cadwalader has been chosen to unveil the monument,
and she will be assisted by Maj. J. R. Clagett, of the Second
U. S. I., the regiment stationed in the fort in 1791.
Unveiling of the monument by Mrs. Pierce J. Cadwalader, assisted
Maj. J. R. Claggett, 2nd U. S. I.
Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, by the band of 1st Reg. O. N. G.
Mr. Jenney said, in presenting the monument to the City
of Cincinnati.
There are a few points in the neighborhood to which your
attention is especially called.
The angle in the house line on the other side of the street
is practically the center of the fort where stood the flag-stafT.
After the fort was abandoned, the United States divided
and sold the land in the reservation to different persons, and
the jurisdiction over that land then passed to the City of Cin-
cinnati, and that is the second prominent jurisdictional period in
the history of the land upon which the fort was located. Th^>
Vol. X — 2
18 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
house No. 429 was built and occupied by Dr. Daniel Drake,
the pioneer in medicine here, and the most prominent and dis-
tinguished man in his profession west of the AUeghenies during
his life. In the north wall of the parlor of this house, between
the windows and close to the ceiling, is a medallion portrait of
General Washington, embedded in the wall, modeled, it is said,
by a resident artist.
No. 423 was built and occupied by General Jared Mansfield,
the First Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and
afterwards owned and occupied by the Hon. Rufus King, who
died a few years ago.
The Lorraine building covers the site of Mrs. Trollope's Ba-
zaar, spoken of in Anthony Trollope's North America, and it
covers the ^uthwest angle of the fort.
When Maj. John Doughty, in 1789, selected the site of
Fort Washington the surrounding territory was really a wilder-
ness. A few persons had settled in the neighborhood upon the
"Symmes Purchase," and the principal object in establishing
the fort was to protect them. The number of settlers rapidly
increased in this and other eastern parts of the territory, and
thirteen years after the establishing of the fort the State of Ohio
was carved out of the Northwest Territory and admitted into
the Union. When Fort Washington was established it was a
frontier post, but since its establishment the western boundary
of the United States has been extended to the Pacific Ocean
and the jurisdiction of this government has been extended across
the Pacific and over Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.
The monument before you the patriotic societies of Ohio
now present to the City of Cincinnati as locating the site of Fort
Washington, which was built when this section of the countrv
was a wilderness, to protect those who had crossed the moun-
tains and floated down the Ohio River to settle here. May it
be a reminder to us, and to those who come after us, of our
indebtedness to the brave pioneers who opened this section of
the country to civilization ; and may it increase our love for this,
our country, which extends its protection over its citizens where-
ever they may be.
Momiment on the Site of Fort Washington. 19
We had expected that our ]\layor, ^Mr. Fleischmann, would
be with us to-day, but he is unavoidably absent, and is repre-
sented by the Hon. Charles J. Hunt, the Solicitor of this city.
Will you now, Air. Hunt, as the representative of the City of
Cincinnati and on its behalf, accept this monument from the
patriotic societies of Ohio which have erected it ?
Hon. Charles J. Hunt, in accepting the monument on be-
half of the City of Cincinnati, said :
il/r. Chairman: — The efforts of your committee deserve not-
only appreciation and grateful acceptance, but also emulation
by the authorities and citizens of the City of Cincinnati. This
monument, marking a place of central interest in our local his-
tory, will teach us to look upon our city not only as a structure
of brick, stone and iron, as a convenient place of abode and
of business, but also a city with a local history, full of event-
ful and even romantic interest.
As we love our friends, not only for what they are, but for
what they have been and have done, so we will love our citv.
not only for what it is, but for its past. Its present ministers
to our physical and intellectual necessities, but its past appeals
to our sentiments, without which, in their various forms, home
is but a habitation, family but kinship, and country but a locality..
In the older states and countries, places of historical interest
are to the student of history replete wath the life and action
of long ago. So this spot, marked by this miniature block
house in stone, suggestive in its very form of the perils of the
frontiersman, will present to our mental visions scenes of the
life which centered here more than one hundred years ago.
Protected from the savage foe by a few widely separated forts
such as Fort Washington, the frontiersmen, in less than a life-
time, dotted a continent wath thriving settlements, now mighty
cities.
It is natural that this monument should be erected by the
societies represented by your committee. Your societies repre-
sent every important epoch and crisis in American history.
They are representative of the men and women who stamped
their characteristics upon the age in which they lived, and to
whom we owe the origin of almost all distinctive American.
20 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
thought, as well as that fostering influence and patriotism which
molded and preserved our institutions through the stress of
partisan and sectional strife. Xo sacrifice of time, labor, even of
life itself, was too great for them to make in behalf of their faith,
their principles and their countr;-. To such men and women
we owe to-day all that makes glorious the name "America."
Of such men and women were the leading pioneers who wrested
this locality from the Red men's dominion, and as from a society
such as those your committee represents, Cincinnati received
its very name, it is eminently proper that from you to-day Cin-
cinnati should receive this monument, w^hich, as often as we
pass this way, will compel us to pay tribute to the American pio-
neer.
In the absence of Mayor Fleischmann, and on behalf of
the City of Cincinnati, I accept this monument, and I can assure
you that the gratitude of our citizens will be expressed in its
future care and preservation, and in the increased love for our
city which will result from this constant reminder of our city's
interesting past.
America, by the band of the 1st Reg. O. N. G.
Bugle Call, "Retreat," by the buglers of 2nd U. S. I
Rev. L. B. Gurley, D. D.
21
REV. L. B. GURLEY, D. D.,
Pioneer, Poet and Preacher.
BY X. B. C. LONE, D. D.
Rev. L. B. Gurley was born in Norwich Conn. He lived'
there seven and a half years, and learned his A B C's in the school
house where Lydia Sigourney, the poetess.
conned her earliest lessons.
His father was a silversmith and a Meth-
odist local preacher. He worked in his fath-
ear's shop a-nd on the farm until he entered
the ministry. During this time he had the
advantages of winter schools, and a compre-
hensive library of books of the very best Eng-
lish literature, embracing history, biography,,
travels, romance, poetry and theology. He-
practiced a great deal in composition, both
L. 3 GTRLEv. lu prosc and verse. He was the author of the
first poem published in northwestern Ohio, in the fourth number
of the "Sandusky Clarion."
Dr. Gurley was a born poet. His talent evinced itself early.
\\'e do not know what his early advantages were. It is not the
purpose of this article to narrate the incidents of his life. He
was born of Irish parents. They came from Wexford county,
Ireland, and were intelligent and possessed of considerable
means.
Of Mr. Gurley.- as a poet, I write. Before me is a collection
of his poems in manuscript, eighty in number. Only a few
have been published. These are found in the "Ladies' Reposi-
tory" of forty years ago, the "Western Christian Advocate."
"Delaware Gazette" and other secular papers. They were writ-
ten beginning in his early youth and the last one when over
seventy years old.
Several of the poems are epics of considerable length. There
is continuity of thought in all his productions. His imagery is
so true to nature that one continuallv recognizes it as something
-22 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Pjiblications .
seen, heard, lelt in the observations and experiences of life. I
do not claim that his poems are perfect, or that he is a great
poet, but a poet. I heard Bishop E. Thompson speak of him
as the poet of nature, and regret that he had given so little time
to the claims of the goddess of the muses.
Judged by the arbitrary rules of English versification he
may be open to adverse criticism, but by the emotions awakened
in the soul as one reads his poems, he will be honored as a
true poet of nature.
Had he given his life to literature he would have been to
American poetry what William Wordsworth was to the English,
bringing the infinite in nature within the range of the vision of
the ordinary mind's grasp, and revealing the ever varying beau-
ties of the visible world.
There is much real poetry not in verse, and a vast deal
of verse that is not poetry. Indeed many great poets have been
indifferent versifiers.. There are beautiful gems in his poems,
which awaken in the mind pleasing emotions, and having read
them once, one wishes to read them again.
He should rank with the poets who clothe the common and
familiar with grace and beauty, and who see the truth and
grandeur of things, although manifested in com.mon forms. Filled
with charity, benevolence and love, he saw these continually in
his environmicnt.
"His present mind was under fascination, he beheld a vision
and adorned the thing he saw."
He was reared in northern Ohio, on the Sandusky Bay,
and his eyes and ears were familiar with the sights and sounds
of the lakes, rivers, forests and prairies. The following, from
the poem, "To Sandusky Plains," in pentameter, is full of truth
and beauty. We quote only a few lines. It was the first poem
published in northwestern Ohio.
"Thy plains, Sandusky, and thy green retreats,
Thy perfumed flowers and their opening sweets;
How bright the scene to fancy's richest glow,
As years shall roll and ages onward flow,
And lofty groves in sweet sufi^usion grow."
Rev. L. B. Gzcrley, D. D. 23
Then he described the "Winding Stream Beneath the Leafy
Shade," on the*bay:
"Thy Bay, Sandusky, lovely murmuring deep,
Whose midnight rolling rocks thy sons to sleep.
Thy waters pure our rock bound waters lave.
And mingling join proud Erie's swelling wave."
In the next stanza he speaks of the proud steamers, and com-
pares them with the Indian's barque :
"Once was the light canoe thy only pride,
Smoothe on the surface did it swiftly glide,
Once did thy waves in heathen darkness roar.
And thundering dash thy solitary shore."
The conchiding stanzas of the poem is a prophecy of the
civiUzation that shall come to these plains when men of a supe-
rior race shall "Improve these wilds." His little poem entitled
""£nV" is very pretty :
"Bright lake roll on thy silvery tide,
Thy voice ^s sweet to me,
How oft we've wandered by thy side,
And heard thy minstrelsy.
I love thy loudest thunderings,
When deepest tones are given.
Thou mighty harp of thousand strings,
Swept by the hand of Heaven.
Thy breezes fanned my youthful cheek,
Thy waters cooled my brow,
I've heard thee in anger speak.
And in thy murmurs low."
After describing the lake of a calm summer evening he says:
"Thou mind'st me of that peaceful rest.
The stormless scene of Heaven.
Here where my earliest prayers and vows.
First rose at evening,"
"I'll ne'er forget thy wave-worn shore.
Where'er my feet may roam ;
Thy sheltering rocks and midnight roar.
Close by my childhood home."
24 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
The spring he portrays with an artist's hand.
He speaks of by-gone ages, of the "Proud riations born and
passed away," over whom time "has spread its pall of silence
o'er their fate, and left them wrapped in mystery." Then he
tells of the Indians who were their successors :
"Here plumed warriors from the strife returned
Have gathered oft to cool their massive brows ;
Here wildwood maids in whose pure bosom burned
Love's holy fire, have pledged their solemn vows."
The following stanza is used preparatory to a prophecy of
the future : .
"mission of the spring."
Written by the side of the White Sulphur Spring, Delaware, Ohic
"The stars that watched thee in the long ago,
Are nightly mirrored on thy bosom still,
Thus constantly thy pearly waters flow.
Thy heavenly appointed mission to fulfill.
That mission now is linked with work sublime
Of mental and moral culture high,
For faith and science here through coming time
Shall light the lamp of true philosophy.
Full many a youth in manhood's early prime,
Shall quafif delicious coolness from thy breast,
And maidens fair at summer evening time.
Shall gather here in robes of beauty dressed."
"Indian Summer on the Sandusky Plains" is graphically
portrayed ; Tho. Buchanan Reed's "Closing Scene" is not more
beautiful and true. I give only a few lines :
"Now the Indian Summer reigns ; that autumn air
Is fanned by lazy winds. The yellow sun
Sheds soft and mellow light. The forest now
Is draped in gorgeous robes of thousand hues.
And wrapped in misty veils, and waves in the breeze.
The noise of clattering blackbirds now on wing
Is heard. The whirring pheasant echoes from the grove.
The fattened squirrel leaps from limb to limb.
And chatters saucily to passers-by ;
While the proud woodcock with his crest of flame.
Drums on the blasted tree; and deep and far
The rattling echoes of tlie wood resound"
Rev. L. B. Curley, D. D. 25-
He then tells of the "Graceful swan" and the "Wild geese
which wedge-like cut the air," in their southern flight, and the
wild pigeons which follow, "In long and shadowy lines, for far
ofif climes."
Also of the various wild beasts, and especially "The antlered
deer which leaps from the tangled grass." As night comes over
this fine picture the pioneers are startled ; they see
"A sight terrific, beautiful and sublime,
High towering smoke in darkened columns whirle,
The flickering flashes of the fitful flame.
Gild their black spirits with floods of golden light."
He continues in this same strain, delineating the prairie
fires, until one can see the
"Broad sheets of flame, borne on the winged breeze,
Send forth their glazing rockets far and wide around."
All hands are set to work firing the prairie just outside the
fields where far out the
"Encountering billows meet in conflict fierce —
As maddened by resistless height, they leap,
And clash and tower and rush and wave on high
Their fiery banners to the fitful breeze."
After all is over the
"Field of conflict shows the naked earth,
Like city sacked and burned, its glory gone,
And not a withered blade or flower.
To wave the requiem of the pillaged land."
"The Fair Fugitive" is a poem of thirty-four stanzas. The
first verse is suggestive :
"Minnie was the lovely daughter.
Of a mother doomed to toil :
Where the white magnolia blossoms,
And the orange shades the soil."
Minnie was favored with a home in the planter's family
where she was reared in luxury, and a mind finely cultured re-
ceived all that art and science could bestow. She had
^6 Ohio Arch, aiid His. Society Publications.
"Auburn hair and lips of coral.
Afric's blood no eye could trace.
Sixteen summers had passed o'er her,
Girlhood's ripening charms were seen,
Passing lovely was the maiden, ,
Graceful form and gentle mien."
"Minnie's master was her 'father." A lordly slaveholder with
plenty of money bought her, and when the bill of her purchase
was given her, she for the first time realized her sad fate. That
she was a slave
"As she read, a deathlike pallor.
Blanched her fair and virgin cheek.
Then one mighty soul-born struggle,
And she smiled submissive meek."
When the night came she sought the fields and river, and
on its brink she left her jewels and her best clothing, and hast-
ened on northward. The father, seeing her clothes next day
supposed she was drowned, and filled with remorse, threw the
money at the rich lordling's feet. For many nights she traveled
onward and rested through the day,
"Till her weary limbs had borne her
From her native home afar."
"As she lay concealed one morning
A young sportsman passed that way,
And he spied the tall reeds waving
Where the trembling Minnie lay."
He fired into the "Wild Beasts' lair"' and wounded the
maiden. He carried her to his father's house and after weeks
of careful nursing by mother and sisters of the young man,
Minnie was well again, and became his bride. Her father, hear-
ing of her, and of her marriage, sent her freedom, and made
her his only heir. She was with him in his dying hour, and
all her father's slaves were given her, and then she freed them.
Afterward
"Happy Horace and his Minnie
Far from slavery, in their home ;
Blest with children, wealth and honor,
Brightening jovs around them bloom."
Rev. L. B. Gurlcy, D. D 21
No doubt during the first half of the century Dr. Gurley
had seen and aided many slaves onward to the land of freedom,
on the "underground railroad."
Perhaps the best descriptive poem is ''Wapayana."' This
maiden was the daughter of a chieftain who dwelt on the San-
dusky. She was
"The fairest of the forest maidens,
With her tresses dark and long,
Peerless in her maiden beauty,
Child of genius and of song."
She would
"Sing the wild strains by minstrels taught her,
Sing of deeds brave warriors wrought.
Sing of prairie flowers and forests,
Sing as whispering fancy taught,
â– And her tones were wild and witching.
Such as in sweet dreams we hear ,
From the fairy isles of fancy
Softly floating on the ear."
A pioneer, formerly a man of wealth, with his wife and only
daughter moved to the Sandusky. The daughter was of rare
culture and excelled in singing and playing the guitar. The
music of the guitar and singing of Orpha attracted the atten-
tion of the Indian maiden as she wandered along the Sandusky.
The two met and became fast friends, and
"Orpha taught the Indian maiden
How to touch the light guitar,
How to strike its sounding wires,
To sing of love and war."
After a while the Indian maiden, Wapayana, became the
wife of a western chieftain. He took her to his far ofif home,
in his bark canoe, to
"Rugged peaks where hemlocks tower,
Caverns vast and forests wild,
Where the eagle feeds his nestlings,
Where calm beauty never smiled "
28 0/iio Arch, and Hu. Society Publications.
Two or three years had passed, and Orpha. alone on a
summer evening with her guitar,
"Sought a lonely vineclad hawthorn,
Such as might have made the bower.
When the sinless pair of Eden
Lived their first and happiest hour."
Then she sang the pioneer song:
"What though I have left the sweet home of my childhood
Yet dear to my heart is its memory still.'"
Ere she had completed this song there sprang upon her
two warriors, and took her captive. They captured her father
also, while her mother, left behind, died of grief.
Reaching the far Indian settlement, the father was doomed
to die, and as he laid his head on the log, the daughter, wild
with despair, fell on her father's neck and wept. Her father
asked her not to weep but to play and sing once again for him.
This she did, the Indians meanwhile gathering around :
"While she sang a grand procession
Came to join the sacred dance,
Came to see the pale face tortured —
All with solemn step advance."
The chieftain and his fair bride were in the company, when
the latter recognized Orpha and her father, and sprang to the
rescue. With tears she pleaded for the pale faces, but the chief-
tains urged that they die. They rehearsed the wrongs the In-
dians had suffered. While the council was proceeding, the In-
dian bride took the guitar from Orpha, and
"Sang of deed renowned in storj'
When the tribe triumphant stood ;
Sang of trophies won and glory.
Rousing all their martial blood."
Then she sang of the "Great Spirit" who "Loves the braves
whose hearts can pity helpless captives doomed to die."
Rev. L. B. Gi.irley, D. D. 29
The braves were moved. They were filled with wonder,
they ihought that the "Great Spirit" had inspired her. A par-
don was granted ;
"So the tones of Wapayana,
Hushed man's raging wrath to rest."
"Thus Orpha's death-doomed father,
Rescued by her light guitar."
Perhaps we have given enough of Dr. Gurley's descriptive
poetry to indicate something of his pictorial power in portraying
natural phenomena.
At a later period in his life, while standing under Niagara
Falls, he wrote a poem on "Music" :
"When from the golden urn above,
God bid his richest blessings flow.
He sought one peerless gift of love.
To bless the new-born world below.
Then from her angel home on high,
He called the fairest goddess down.
And music came, child of the sky,
And bliss of Paradise to crown.
Sweet goddess of the harp and lyre,
The winding vale and sylvan grove
Have echoed to thy strains of fire
Stirring the pulse of war or love.
Where shines the sun or beams a star.
Thy voice is heard o'er the sad and free..
On Alpine mountains bleak and bare,
And emerald islands of the sea.
She stands where mighty waters pour
Their paeans to the listening sky,
Niagara's eternal roar
Lifts up its deep-toned bass on high."
Then he speaks of the music of the ocean "roused by tempest
wrath," "while the echoing thunder sings" in response.
30 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatio7is,
The next verse tells us of the music soft and loWc
"Where streamlets flow in forests deep
Where plumed birds and insects rove,
Where naiads dwell and wood nymphs sleep.
She pours her cheery notes of love."
From the forest he enters the home where
"She breathes her gentlest lullaby,
Her childhood sinks to rosy rest.
And cheers with softest harmony,
The care-worn mother's anxious breast."
Even on the battle field he sees the goddess Music,
"Where Freedom's banners wave she stands,"
"But richer still her notes of praise,
In churches of the living God."
And
"When death's pale angel shakes his dart-
She waits beside the sufferer's bed,
And smooths with lofty strains the heart.
As gently sinks the dying head."
The climax of the poem is reached
"When the eternal gates of light
Unfold to greet the rising sotil,
Songs burst through all those regions bright.
And loud the angel anthems roll."
Nor shall there be one silent tongue
In all the white-robed beings there;
But strains by saints and seraphs stmg
Shall fill and sweeten all the air."
A man who could in an hour write a poem like this, when
under the exhilirating power of one of nature's wonders could,
had he traveled abroad, and given his time to poetical composi-
tion have added largely to the best literature of the age in which
he lived. He had his admirers, and had he listened to them,
he would even after he was fifty years old have devoted his
talents to writine-
Rev. L. B. Gur/ej, D. D. 31
Bishop Ed. Thompson was one of these admirers and inti-
mate friends, and after he was bishop, and before his last mar-
riage, he was an inmate of Mr. Gurley's home.
I quote two stanzas from a poem on the death of Rev.
Uriah Heath, one of the pioneer preachers of central and southern
Ohio:
"We know him when summer flowers shall fade.
Or ripening harvests greet the sight.
When yellow leaves shall strew the glade.
Or day decline to coming night.
But who can tell when at the door.
The noiseless step of death shall fall ;
Or voices from the shining shore
The viewless spirit hence shall call?"
He wrote many short poems. From some of these I quote.
"To My Portrait" was written no doubt in his declining years.
The portrait, an oil painting by the brother of his first wife, is
the one he addresses. The same artist executed the statue of
Commodore Perrv in Cleveland.
"Thou image of my manhood years,
I gaze upon thee now ;
And think how faded years have left
Their traces on my brow.
Art wrought thy form while one looked ®n.
Who smiles on me no more ;
Companion of my early toils —
She walks the shining shore.
Thou mind'st me of a thousand joys —
What precious memories rise !
The echoes of departed years
Like voices from the skies."
One of his best short poems. "Com.e Sit Upon this Chair.
My Love," was written probably in the vigor of his middle life :
^2 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
â– 'Come sit upon this chair, my love,
The hallowed past review.
And call to mind the happy hours
When this old chair was new.
For many a cherished hope has fled,
And heart friends dear and true
Like summer flowers have passed away,
Since this old chair was new.
\Mien this old chair was new, my love,
Another was my bride.
Proudly swelled my throbbing hearty
As she stood by my side.
For me, she left her city home
So trustingly and true,
To bless with joy my wildwood cot
When this old chair was new.
The tangled grass now wraps the grave
Where sleeps her mouldering form,
And buried deep in silence now,
The heart that once was warm.
Thou art in her place, O my love,
As trustingly and true.
Thou art loved as loved was she,
When this old chair was new.
When this old chair was new, my love,
The stars in yonder skj^
Shone brightly, and they still shine on, I
As rolling years pass by.
So let the love that lingers in our hearts
Gild all life's journey through;
And both be happy, &s was I
When this old chair was new."
Dr. Gurley was always a happy man. I never saw him
despondent. He always looked on the bright side. This poem,
which I give here in part, is suggestive of this trait in his charac-
ter. When he was an old man, and after he had from choice retired
from the active ministry, when in attendance at a session of
Central Ohio Conference, I met him one day in the vestibule
alone and as I shook his hand, said to him :
"Dr. Gurley. since you have left the pastorate, how does it
look on the shadv side?"
Rev. L. B. Giuiey, D. D. 3o
He replied: "]\Iy dear Brother Love, yon are mistaken, I
am on the bright side now, and you and the younger brethren
are on the shady side. To me the evening time is bright. It is
radiant all about me. I am in the land of singing birds, bloom-
ing flov^^ers and bright anticipations. ^ly sunset is golden, mv
hope is for the morning, the night cometh, a star-lit night, and
the morning of the eternal day. I am on the bright side."
I give his thought and words as nearly as possible. When
he was fifty-four years old, he wrote :
"The years flow on and the snowflakes fall
Though silently upon my head.
But still my heart beats free and warm
Though many a cherished hope is dead."
On his sixty-fourth birthday, he was still the same hopeful,
cheerful Christian :
"Soft is the silent tread of time,
And noiseless are his restless wings ;
Yet deep his footprints and sublime
His impress on all earthly things."
He then speaks of time's devastations amoi'ig the empires
of the world :
â– 'His touch the hoary empires shake," and he tills the ty-
rant's heart with dread, breaks ofif chains, encourages Freedom
in her work, gives light to lands in darkness while "Eternal
truth with potent sway has ushered in a glorious morn."
In this poem he refers to himself only in one stanza :
"Be hushed, my 'soul, nor start to think
How far my weary feet have trod,
Away from life's bright rosj^ brink
Toward eternity and God."
"The Cottage Girl" is a little gem of poetic description:
"Her form is free, her step is light,
Her lucient eyes are soft and bright
And rich clustering curls that deck
Her glowing cheek and snowy neck;
And sweetly floats her silvery song
At morn the dewy flowers among.
Vol. X — 3
34 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
The cottage girl, a stranger she
To pomp and pride and coquetry,
As free from care, as free from guile.
For grief a tear; for love a smile.
Ah, who could trade that humble home
For countly hall or castle dome?
These two stanzas are suggestive of the tone of the others.
The last stanza of the poem, "The Setting Stars," sounds famil-
iar, but it is original with Dr Gurley :
"For every golden star which sets
Beyond our view at even
Descends to rise on other worlds.
And gild a brighter heaven."
During the dark days of the Rebellion he wrote "The De-
cisive Battle" :
"A nation waits, and wait's to shout
The long wild notes of victory won ;
Or waits to hear with bated breath
The sad, sad wail of Freedom gone."
The whole poem is good, arid portrays well the uncertain
feeling that existed for a time all over the north, when the best
and most helpful felt like saying:
"O, who can tell a nation's fate
Hanging in 'the balance ; who can say
For glory or shame, we wait —
Our darkest or brightest day."
"OW John Brozvn" was written during the time appointed for
his execution, December 2, 1859.
In his mind Mr. Gurley saw the soldiers waving plumes,
he heard the martial strains of music, and saw the cavalcade
bearing the "Old honored veteran to his fate," but casting a
glance over the whole land he saw "Millions of sad hearts
weeping," and "Fair Freedom gathering up his ashes for her
keeping." Then as years rolled by he saw another sight, de-
scribed in the last stanza :
Rev. L. B. Gurley, D. D. 35
"And when o'er Afric's fettered sons
Fair Freedom's Flag shall tower;
On its torn page thy name shall be
Illustrious in that hour." ^ ^
There were not many at that time who expected to live
to see such a prophecy fulfilled, and yet how bitterly fulfilled
in a half a decade of years, and from that date and to-day,
"While John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave.
His soul goes marching on."
"Dream Visits'' contains some beautiful thoughts. He was
permitted to see into the borderland, and in company:
"Is one among the shining band
Whose image lies within my breast."
"Oh she was pure and true and good,
With spirit kind and trusting
Through years of toil and care she stood
Heaven's richest, fairest gift to me."
She was now among the angels, but in his dream once again
"We walk beside the murmuring rill.
Or sit beneath our favorite tree.
Recalling precious memories still
Of those earth never more shall see."
But it was a dream, and are not the pleasures of earth that
are past only as dreams that vanish ever more ?
"Then come my dear departed love,
Come as I seek my nightly rest.
Not robed as those who shine above,
But in thy earthly beauty dressed.
The ruby lips bewitching smile
Thy silken tresses floating fair, ^
Thy gentle tones that knew no guile.
And everv charm that lustered there.
36 Ohio Arch, ayid His. Society Publications.
But when is loosed the silken chord,
And broken is the golden bowl,
And at the Master's welcome word
I yield in death my trusting soul ;
Then meet me on the shining shore
With robes as bright as God has given,
When earthly scenes are mine no more
My eyes can bear the light of heaven."
Two patriotic poems, "'Independence Ode' and "A Free West,"
are full of lo3^alty and piety; for a more patriotic citizen than
Mr. Gurley did not live during- the rebellion.
His poems to his daughter and wife are fraught with poetic
â– beauty and feeling. The former commiences with :
"Be as the star whose steady light
Guides wanderers through the gloomy night;
Or like the fragrant gale which brings
Ambrosial odor on its wings."
And latter ends : . '
"And when we heave the parting sigh.
To seek a fairer home on high,
O may that hour of victory
Be evening's tranquil hour."
His poem on the death of "Dred Scoff would bear record-
ing entire. His story is a history. The victim of the odious
fugitive slave law and the cruel decision of Judge Taney by
which slavery was made national.
"Thou art free at last, thy name is known,
Child of the sable ories ;
Where'er our flag in mockery waves
O'er Afric's fettered sons.
Though earthly courts man's dearest rights,
• May trample in the dust ,
And perjured lips to justice sworn,
Pronounce decrees accursed.
Rev. L. B. Gurley, D. D. El
No power above shall rectify
Such cruel Tyranny,
When man pronounces man a slave,
God writes that man is free.
Terrific thought that gifted minds
On earnest honored seat
Should cringe to power and basely seek
Man's sense of right to cheat.
Decrees by earthly senates passed.
Opposed to truth and love
Are stamped with God's veto seal
In Heaven's courts above.
If measure meeted out to man
Such measure brings again
What doom awaits the reckless hand,
That rivets slavery's chain.
Death placed his signet on thy brow,.
Heaven called thy spirit home,
And thou canst well await the hour,.
Till thy oppressors come."
The third and last hnes are not. as good in thought as
the other parts of the poem.
The last short poem is on "Life" :
"My life has been a sunny stream
O'r beds of golden sand
Still flowing onward through the vale
Amid the flowering land.
The friends of youth were fair and true
Their names to memory dear,
Still linger far adown life's stream
And still thy spirit cheer.
To sow the golden grain of truth
And wait the sun and shower,
Has been the labor of my life
Through many a weary hour.
To reap the ever whitening fields
. And shout the harvest home
Have filled with joy my manhood's prime-
And shall for time to come."
38 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.*
September lo, 1813.
BY MRS. JOHN T. MACK.
It was a fair morning in September, a gentle . breeze was
blowing down the lake, rippling the water.- A little American
fleet lay peacefully at anchor in the beautiful island-locked bay
of South Bass Island, its brave young commander and sturdy
men anxiously waiting for the sign of a coming hostile sail.
A few days before, with the Union Jack vauntingly flying, they
had passed the British forts at Maiden, up at the head of the
lake, behind which, under cover, lay the British fleet. The
challenge to come out and fight in open water had been un-
heeded, and Perry and his men were waiting for something to
turn up.
The sun was just coming up in a cloudless sky behind the
slopes of the islands, when a messenger knocked at the com-
mander's cabin door. The British fleet was in sight, coming
down the lake. "The day has come at last !" exclaimed Lieu-
tenant Elliott as he climbed up the side of the flagship Lawrence
to get his commander's order. "The one we have long been
wishing for," responded Perry. Quickly the plan of action was
decided. Hurried orders were given. On the ship Lawrence,
up from the halyards, rose the great blue flag, bearing to the
breeze the dying words of the brave James Lawrence : "Don't
give up the ship" — words that so soon were to be the sign by
which a great battle was to be won and the fame of an American
boy made immortal.
What a little fleet it was to win so great a victory ! — Meas-
ured by modern standards of engineering warfare but a mere
handful of small sailing vessels, rudely constructed ; compris-
ing, all told, but nine boats, some carrying but one or two guns,
and all onlv fiftv-four. The most effective of these were as
* Paper read by Mrs. Jno. T. Mack, of Sandusky, at the Second Annual
Ohio State Conference Daughters of the American Revohition, Colum-
bus, Ohio, October 31, 1900.
The Battle of Lake Erie. 39
short in range as a pistol. One warship of Dewey's fleet could
have torn them all to shreds. The crews numbering, all told,
only about 400, were made up almost entirely of untried sailors
and landsmen. But they were brave men, stirred with the
spirit of patriots, and fired by love of country. Their com-
manders were all young officers, few of whom had seen actual
service, but they felt that their nation's honor was in their keep-
ing. How true it is that a righteous cause is half the victory
already won.
The British fleet, on the other hand, was commanded by
officers of experience in naval warfare. Commodore Barclay
had seen service with the great Nelson in ocean warfare, and
lost an arm in one of his battles on the Nile. His fleet com-
prised six vessels, three less than Perry's in number, but carry-
ing sixty-six guns of longer range and larger calibre. Seamen
trained to the service stood behind them and before the masts.
Out from the little bay sailed Perry and his fleet, into the open
water to the westward. The British fleet was slowly, but de-
fiantly, coming down the lake upon them. The breeze dying
away delayed the encounter. Close action was what young Perry
wanted, and so it proved also wished his opponent, the brave
Captain Barclay.
Not long had they to wait. Swinging hither and thither,
their sails hanging lifeless, the little fleet of American vessels
was indeed at the mercy of the wind— too far away to get into
action, they could not come up to help the Lawrence, on which
Perry had led and was soon to be under the British fire. At
a quarter before twelve the British commander opened fire from
his flagship, the Detroit. A gun from the Lawrence repHed,
but the shot fell into the water. It had carried scarcely two-
thirds the way of its mark. Another shot from the British tore
through the Lawrence and the brave Lieutenant Yarnell stag-
gered bleeding, but rose to take his place again defiantly at the
guns. Under such a fire, now joined in by the other British
ships, stood the dauntless Perry and his determined crew, until
the Lawrence was torn and riddled, and stripped of sail and
mast, and the dead and wounded covered the decks and crowded
the hatchways.
40 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Ptiblications .
It was a terrible suspense ! With the rest of the American,
fleet too far away to help, waiting a favorable breeze to bring
them up to the ill-fated Lawrence fighting solitary and alone.
There was no thought, however, of surrender. All Perry was
seeking was a position where he could fight back. The Law-
rence had ceased firing. 'Tt is wasting powder and shot," ex-
claimed its commander. But God did not desert him — dark
though it looked. Soon the Lawrence drifted in among the
British boats — every brace and bow line shot away, and not a
sail left to work. But her carronades were within range of the
enemy's boats, and their shot began to tell. Down came the
topmast of one of the English brigs. With seven guns that
Perry found he could use, her motto flag still flying, the Law-
rence stood her ground with thirty-two English guns concen-
trated upon her. It was a terrible ordeal, but the men on the
Lawrence kept at it, as if to fight was the only thing to do,,
no matter what their fate.
Perry realized that to surrender the Lawrence would be
a death blow to all chance of victory and held on. His men
realized it as well as he. English shot went clear through the
Lawrence; man after man at the guns was torn to pieces. Soon
the brave Lieutenant Brooks fell. Again and again was the
resistless Yarnell wounded, only to leave his post for the sur-
geon below, after the repeated order of his commander, only
to return again. Four times was he wounded. How fortunate
it was that in this terrible encounter of the Lawrence, Perry's-
life was spared. The dying words of Brooks were prophetic :
*Tf Perry's life is saved he'll win us out of this." In that swift,,
single-handed engagement of the Lawrence with the entire British
fleet, every American officer save Perry was wounded or killed,.
and three-fourths of the crew.
In the two hours of awful suspense and terrible conflict,.
a slight breeze had sprung up and the other vessels of Perry's-
fleet began to move slowly toward the line of battle. Unable
to shift his own ship, now completely disabled and riddled, Perry
seized upon a new plan. It came like an inspiration as he looked'
out toward his now slowly moving boats, still too far away.
He ordered the little vawl boat manned. Two men who were-
The Battle of Lake Erie. 41
helping the surgeon care for the wounded and dying below had
to be called, so shattered was his force on deck, and leaving
the brave Yarnell in command he ordered down the motto flag,
wrapped it about his arm and was a moment later being rowed
away to the Niagara, the shot flying about his little craft and
cutting the water ail about him. This suddenly conceived, and
as suddenly executed act of Perry marked the supreme moment
in the great battle. It turned the tide of victory. The lowering
of the motto from the Lawrence had, as it were, taken the enemy
by surprise ; the firing from their ships for the moment ceased.
They looked only for the surrender fl?g to be hoisted. Once
on board the Niagara, the motto flag, "Don't give up the ship,"
went swiftly up its halyards, and fluttered in the breeze as de-
fiantly as a few moments before it had waved above the dead
and dying on the decks of the Lawrence. Cheer after cheer
went up from every American boat ; the breeze seemed to catch
the inspiration, and on, now swept the boats, the valiant Perry
leading with the Niagara, his new flagship,- right in among the
British vessels. The battle raged fierce and hot on every ship.
"Order close action !" commanded Perry, and the brave Elliott
obeyed. "We're all right now," cried an old battle-scarred tar,
as he saw Perry take command on the Niagara. Even the shat-
tered ship Lawrence, almost deserted, had caught the spirit of
victory. LTp to the masthead had Yarnell hoisted the Stars
and Stripes — her colors were at the peak. "Don't give up the
ship !" rang in the ears of the brave Yankee seamen, and they
fought with a desperate valor, daring and dash that fairly stunned
the Red Coats. Their fire was swift, sure and terrible. Vessel
after vessel of the British was in turn attacked, riddled, stripped
of her masts and sail, and left helpless.
We all recall the words of Dewey as he gave the quiet
command to fire at Manila. So Perry, nearly a century before,
with like coolness, standing on the forward deck of a mere toy
boat compared with Dewey's great Olym.pia, said :
"Have you the range there, Judson?" "You may fire."
The final encounter was soon over.
"Cease firing." came the order from Perry, as the smoke,
clearing awav, revealed a British ofBcer coming to the bulwarks
42 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
of his disabled vessel, waving a white flag — that blessed harbin-
ger of peace.
"Call away a boat," he said, "and put me on board the Law-
rence. I will receive the surrender there."
Wounded men crawled to the ports to greet their victo-
rious commander, and tears filled his eyes as he stepped upon
the deck of his own vessel baptised in the blood of his country-
men. When British officer after officer of the defeated fleet
came forward to offer his sword, the hero of Erie, in quiet recog-
nition said : "I request that you will keep your sword. It has
been bravely used and worn.'"
Grant at Appomattox was filled with like charity for a fallen
foe. Somehow the spirit of liberty and of free institutions tends
to nobility of soul. This was the simple message of Perry to
his general in command, written upon the back of an old en-
velope :
U. S. Brig Niagara, off. the Western Sister, Head of Like Ene :
Sept. 10, 1813, at 4 p. m.
Dear General : — We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two
ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.
Yours with great respect and esteem,
O. H. Perry.
When the count was taken after the battle it was found
that twenty-two men had been killed and sixty-one wotuided
on the flagship Lawrence ; two killed and twenty-five wounded
•on the Niagara ; on the Scorpion two killed, and one on the
Arion ; three wounded on the Caledonia, Somers and Trippe,
making a total loss for the American fleet of twenty-seven killed
and ninety-six wounded. The British loss in this battle was
greater — forty-one being killed and ninety-four wounded. Twice
had the British officer in command, Commodore Barclay, been
wounded, and rendered helpless by injury to the only arm he
had. The dead sailors of both fleets, each wrapped in a sailor's
shroud of a hammock with a round shot at his heels were buried
in the waters of Lake Erie. The next day the six dead officers —
Midshipmen Henry Laub and John Clark and Lieutenant Brooks
of the American fleet, and Captain Finnis, Lieutenant Stokes
and Lieutenant Garland of the British fleet — were placed in
The Battle of Lake Erie. 43
rudely constructed coffins and following a solemn procession
of boats, rowing minute strokes to the sound of the solemn dirge
of the band, were conveyed to the shore of Put-in-Bay Island
for burial. The officers and surviving crews of both fleets fol-
lowed and about the open grave stood the victorious Perry,
supporting upon his arm the torn and shattered form of the
brave Commodore Barclay.
The Battle of Lake Erie marked a turning point in the
life of the young and struggling republic. It settled forever
its supremacy upon the lakes that separate it from British ter-
ritory. It did more than that. It opened the way for the vic-
torious march of General Harrison and his army into the enemy's
territory to the north, and made possible the settlement of the
vast territory of the West and its development into the sister-
hood of states that now crown our flag with their cluster of
forty-five stars. That battle, though small both in numbers and
instruments of warfare, was . yet one of the great sea battles
of the world — great because fought with a bravery and daring
that startled the world — led by a commander who showed him-
self to be one of the world's heroes, and great because stupen-
dous and far-reaching in its results.
Nearly four score years and ten have passed since the Battle
of Lake Erie was fought and won. The graves of the six brave
officers who lost their lives in that battle still remain unmarked
by the nation. The spot where they sleep is but a few rods
from the shore at the southern end of the village park of Put-
in-Bay. For years only a willow tree marked it. Later a single
chain supported by plain posts surrounded the sacred mound.
The frosts and storms of time have shattered the willow that so
many years swung and tossed above them as the blasts came
sweeping in from ofif the waters where as foe to foe they had
fought and fallen. Only a stump and a few ragged limbs now
remain. Two or three years ago the people of Put-in-Bay se-
cured from the government eight condemned cannon and eighty-
five shells. They raised by private subscription, entertainments
and otherwise about S500, paid the transportation on the cannon
and placed them along the walk leading past the mound looking
out over the bav and lake. The shells were built up in tlie form
44 OJiio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
of a pyramid over the graves of the dead heroes. Some years
ago a bill was introduced in Congress by Hon. S. R. Harris,
of Bucyrus, making an appropriation for a monument at Put-
in-Bay. At the last session of Congress, Hon. Melville Bull,
the member from the Newport district, Rhode Island, where
Commodore Perry was born and lies buried, introduced a bill
appropriating $25,000 for the same object.
The bill was reported favorably by the committee at the
last session of Congress, and it is now pending on the calendar
of the House. In a letter to the writer of this article Congress-
man Bull, under date of October 28, says :
"I am hopeful of securing its consideration and passage
at the next session of Congress. Anything you and others at
Sandusky and Put-in-Bay can do to assist my efforts will be
greatly appreciated."
I give below the bill introduced by Mr. Bull and the re-
port of the committee recommending the passage of the bill :
A bill providing for the erection of a monument at Put-in-Bay, Ohio,
commemorative of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and those who par-
licipated in the naval battle of Lake Erie on the tenth day of September,
eighteen hundred and thirteen.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United.
States of America in Congress assembled : That the sum of twenty-
five thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, out of any
money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the erection of a
monument at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to the memory of Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry and the men who fell or participated in the naval battle of
Lake Erie, fought near Put-in-Bay, Ohio, on the tenth day of Septem-
ber, eighteen hundred and thirteen: Provided; That the money appro-
priatijd as aforesaid shall be expended under the direction of the secretary
of the navy, and the plans, specifications, and designs for such monu-
ment shall, before any money so appropriated is expended, be first ap-
proved by the secretary of the navy: And provided further. That no part
of the sum hereby appropriated shall be so expended until the Monument
Association of Put-in-Bay. Ohio, shall procure not less than one-half
acre of ground, located at or near the burial place of the officers and men
who were killed in said battle of Lake Erie, upon which to erect said
monument ; and which site for said monument shall be procured without
cost to the LTnited States, and the title to be vested in the L^nited States.
Mr. Cummings. from the committee on the library, submit-
ted the following report :
The Battle of Lake Erie. 45
The committee on the Hbrary, to whom was referred the bill (H. R.
124) providing for the erection of a monument at Put-in-May, Ohio,
commemorative of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and those who par-
ticipated in the naval battle of Lake Erie on the tenth day of September,
1813, having considered the same, beg leave to report as follows:
The naval battle of Lake Erie, in which the American fleet under
Commodore Perry defeated the British, is one of the most glorious events
in our history as a nation. Perry was but 27 years of age; the timbers
of his fleet were still green ; his men were for the most part raw recruits.
The British force was formed of veterans and commanded b}^ Commodore
Barclay, who had served under Nelson at Trafalgar. The victory was
won by the desperate valor and consummate skill of the noble young sea-
man and his hardy followers. It established our supremacy on the Great
Lakes, went far toward retrieving the disasters we had suffered on land,
and aided in securing the important results that followed.
The remains of the American dead were buried on what is now Put-
in-Bay Island. A willow tree marks the spot and is all there is to com-
memorate the memory of these noble men and their gallant victory. Your
committee believe that an enlightened and grateful people should express
their gratitude, respect and affection by a suitable memorial. The merit
is not in the cold bronze or stone, but in the warm memories, the grateful
feelings, the noble aspirations that it will stir in every true American heart.
No site can be more fitting than that where these brave men fought
and where those who fell now sleep.
Your committee therefore recommend the passage of the bill.
It is indeed fitting that the simple story of the valor and
the sacrifice of the brave men who fell in the great battle on Lake
Erie be perpetuated in endtiring marble and bronze, that the
future generations of Americans may observe the lesson and
have kindled afresh in their breasts love of our common coun-
try, and loyalty to the republic founded by the fathers, and for-
ever established in the sisterhood of nations by the heroes of
1776 and 1812.
\\'e read that next winter Congress is to be asked to ap-
propriate $10,000 to raise from Misery Bay at Erie and pre-
serve the Niagara on which Perry won his great victory. I
hope it will be done. These landmarks of great events in the
nation's life cannot be too sacredly cherished and preserved.
But over and above all inanimate things let us fittingly com-
memorate the heroes who laid upon their country's altar their
lives and thereby vouchsafed to future generations the rich herit-
age of a f'"":' ".n'l 'supreme republic.
46
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
LAUAXHING THE SHIP.
BY IDA ECKERT-LAWRENCE.
[This poem was written by Mrs. Lawrence and read by her as she
stood by President McKinley, upon the occasion of- the launching of the
"Ohio'" at San Francisco, May 18, 1901. Mrs. Lawrence is a native of
Richland county, Ohio, and now a resident of Toledo. She is the
author of the well-known little volume of poems entitled "Day Dreams."]
I.
Oh! Star of empire! thou that went before
The pilgrim, in the misty days of yore,
When glad, the Son of Progress left the
throne.
To pioneer Hesperian shores alone —
We owe to thee, with every passing hour,
A new world-life and liberty and power.
With bosom bare, and limbs of sturdy
brawn.
The manly youth ran thro' the early
dawn —
His buskined feet touched light the troubled
deep.
His quest, to wake a dreaming world
from sleep.
By sandy shores, o'er Alleghany's crest,
He paused to hear the valley's purring rest.
Far to the West, the flood-tides ceaseless measure
Broke o'er his soul in waves of living pleasure.
MRS. I. E. LAWRENCE.
IL
Through the wild primeval forest.
Crept the youth with wondrous meaning'
Blazing trees for future heroes —
Waving wands with wizard seeming.
From the wigwam, came the cabin;
Birds soon flew the rifles crack;
And the plying locomotive
Drove the saddened red man back.
Laicyichhig the Ship. 47
'Round the camp-fire chieftains marvelled
That the nature-dream was o'er;
Followed they the deer and bison,
Toward a friendly sun-down shore.
From the ashes of the cabin,
Mansions, farms and cities grand —
Lowly kine, and high-bred people
Sprang to bless this happy land.
Spirit-of-Ohio — goddess —
Ruled this land of inspiration ;
And the son of Progress wed her —
Lo ! their, children lead the nation.
Proud the sire, — but discontented;
Undismayed — quailed not the wrack —
With his offspring, bold as Hector,
Drove the frontier border back.
III.
Afar, where the famed Golden Gate,
Swings low at the close of the day,
Bronzed Progress sits moulding a queen ;
War's arbiter — fresh for the fray.
With furnace and smoke and fire,
With tackle and block and blow.
In steel, men clothe this bold desire,
In a fleece of flame below.
With hands that are horny with toil.
And a patient steady tread,
The ranks of men file in and out
To gather their harvest of bread —
With hammer and forge and flame.
With rivet and bolt and blade ,
They bind her ribs to her monster frame.
'Tis a giant that man hath made.
Dark faces emboss with the glow
Of sunlight, o'er labors well done.
Men's arms gather strength with each blow
And the men and the ship are as one.
They know that the forges red glare
Touch oft where the higher sparks lay —
With cheers on the lips of the men.
They'll sigh when the ship heaves away.
48 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications. .
Erect in her great wooden stall,
She yearns for her kingdom, the sea;
The Spirit-Ohio shall sever her chains,
And bid the fair captive go free ;
To cut the brocade of the deep,
To walk by the feel of the land.
As Love fondly lingers round sleep.
So Faith puts her seal on her hand.
PERORATION.
Plunge out in thy baptismal fount
Oh ! ship of the magical name ;
Ride firm o'er the wave in thy pioneer way,
As men in the highway of fame —
Our men in the highway of fame.
If like a proud sea-gull, thy fate,
To ride on the billows away.
Over fathomless depths where the sea-monsters mate,
And fight o'er the flotsam of prey —
From lost vessels, the flotsam of prey —
The guerdon that hangs round thy name
And the sons of our bountiful soil ,
Shall smite thy proud turrets with rancorous flame,
If thou dost e'er shame her with spoil —
Dost shame her with ill-gotten spoil.
Sail out on the high seas of State,
If foul blows the South wind or fair ;
With homes to protect and the nation defend.
Our sons and our ship will be there —
Brave as Perry our ship will be there.
May the lust of the nation be lost
In Life's tide, where the deep soundings are;
Then Captain fear not, with our ensign on high.
To follow the pale of His star —
With cannon to follow His star.
Let Mercy stride free o'er the deck.
And Love from the bridge draw the sword ;
Then firmly thou'lt scourge, with thy thunderous might,
The foe with the help of the Lord —
Wilt win with the help of the Lord.
Fremont in History. 49
FREMOXT IN HISTORY.
BY JULIA AI. HAYXES.
The Sandusky country, in aboriginal history, possesses a
pecuHar charm and fascinating interest. During that period
of years which fills western annals with the story of intrigue
and bloody conflict, the plains and prairies
of the Sandusky valley were the home of the
most powerful and most generous of the sav-
age nations.
Less than a century ago, these plains,
now covered by a thriving city, presented an
I interesting variety of the scenes of Indian
life — primitive agriculture, rude cabins, canoe-
building, amusements and the council fire.
COL. GEO. CROGHAN. Tradition goes back a century farther, and
makes the locality of this city the seat of a still more in-
teresting people ; a people who, for a time, preserved ex-
istence by neutrality, while war, which raged with shocking
ferocity, effected the extinction of the neighboring tribes. Noth-
ing is known of the aboriginal occupation of Ohio previous lO'
1650, but, according to a tradition of the Wyandots, during the
long and bloody wars between the Eastern and Western tribes,
there lived upon the Sandusky, a neutral tribe of Wyandots.
called the Neutral Nation. They occupied two villages, which
were cities of refuge, where those who sought safety never failed
to find it. These villages stood near the lower rapids of the
Sandusky river, where Fremont now stands. This little band
preserved the integrity of their tribe and the sacred character
of peace makers. All who met upon their threshold met as
friends, for the ground upon which they stood was holy. It
Paper read before the Ursula Wolcott Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution, of Toledo, at Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Ohio,
June 30, 1899, bj' Julia M. Haynes, daughter of Col. William E. Haynes,.
Fremont. O.
Vol. X — 4
'50 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
was a beautiful institution ; "a calm and peaceful island looking
out upon the world of waves and tempests." The Wyandot
tradition represents them as having separated from the parent
stock during the bloody wars with their own tribe and the Iro-
quois, and having fled to the Sandusky River for safety. The
tradition runs, that, at the lower rapids, two forts were erected,
â– one for the Iroquois or Six Nations, the other for their enemies.
These traditions, handed down along the generations for nearly
two centuries, may, perhaps, be inaccurate in detail, but the
.general fact of the existence of two such towns, near the head
waters of navigation on the Sandusky River, is entitled to as
much consideration as any other fact of early Indian history.
Just when the Wyandots finally migrated to the plains of
the Sandusky, is not known. Colonel Smith, in his narrative,
•claims to have visited, in 1757, a town on the "Little Lake" —
which was the name given Sandusky Bay — named Sunyendeand,
which was probably in Erie county. Although he ascended the
river, he makes no mention of a village at the lower rapids.
"When we came to the fall of Sandusky," says the narrative,
"we buried our birch bark canoes, as usual, at a large place,
.for that purpose, a little below the fall ; at this place the river
falls about eight feet over a rock, and it was with much difficulty
that we pushed up our wooden canoes." The Wyandots were
the guardians of the great council fire ; they alone had the privi-
lege of sending their messengers with the well known creden-
tials, wampum and tobacco, to summon other tribes to meet
their uncle, the Wyandot, when an important subject required
â– deliberation.
The Wyandots were the keepers of the Grand Calumet,
.and were acknowledged to be at the head of the great Indian
family. Lower Sandusky became the principal war seat of the
Wyandots, and "Tarhe, the Crane," the principal war chief,
lived here until Wayne's victory and the treaty of Greenville
in 1795. Crane led his warriors from Lower Sandusky against
General Wayne, and he, himself, carried the Grand Calumet.
The first mention of an Indian village at Lower Sandusky
IS made by Colonel Bouquet, in his report of 1764. where he
speaks of the Wyandot village "J^'^^<iu6"'n"<^"ndeh," near the
Fremont in History. 51
falls of the Sandusky, on an Indian trail leading from Fort Pitt
in a northwesterly direction. We have no satisfactory knowl-
edge of this Indian village which occupied the hill, rising to-
ward the east from the head waters of navigation, until about
1780 when the well known borderer, Samuel Brady, at the sug-
gestion of George Washington, came here as a spy, to learn,
if possible, the strength of the Indians and the geography of the
country. The name Sandusky is derived from the language
of the Wyandots. The pronunciation of the word was "Sa-un-
dus-tee." Its signification has been a matter of some question
and dispute, but, according to the best authorities, it meant
"Water within water pools," or a river or water course where
water stands in pools. The name having this peculiar signifi-
cation, in early times, was used to designate the whole country
along the Sandusky River, and the village at this point was
called Lower Sandusky.
Affairs at Lower Sandusky during this long period of border
war, extending from the opening of the Revolution to the cele-
brated victory of General Wayn'e, possesses a peculiar interest.
This was an important military center, and every narrative re-
lating to the place is a glimpse into the enemy's camp. The
Wyandots had corn fields all along the river bottom, which were
cultivated by the squaws and boys, each family having a small
field with no fences between them. The plains now covered
by the lower part of the city of Fremont were cleared land when
first seen by white men and, except the tract used for the village,
the councils, the racing and gaming, bore corn season after sea-
son. The northwestern part of Ohio being almost an impene-
trable swamp, the Sandusky river became the common thor-
oughfare of all the Ohio tribes. War parties usually came to
this point on foot, or on horses captured in the white settle-
ments, and, when captives were to be taken further, as most of
them were, canoes were used for transportation. Probably more
captives were brought to Lower Sandusky than to any other
place in Ohio. This place was a retreat where prisoners were
brought and disposed of, many being sent to Detroit and Canada.
So far as is known, not a prisoner was tortured here at the stake,
and in most cases captives who had passed the gauntlet safely
52 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
and bravely, were kindly treated. A certain class of writers,,
who depend upon a vivid imagination to supply deficiencies of
information, have made the Indian gauntlet an institution of the
most shocking cruelty. It is true, severe tortures were often
mflicted upon prisoners, the degree depending much upon their
fortitude and presence of mind, for no people admired bravery
as the Indians did. But the gauntlet was rather a place of
amusement than punishment, unless the offence had been one
worthy of particular revenge. The gauntlet track of the Wyan-
dots, here at Lower Sandusky, has been almost positively located,
on what is now North Front street in this city. According to
the description, the lines of the savages extended from the corner
of Front and Croghan streets, to the old Kessler House corner,
and the council was probably held on the site of the business
blocks on the west side of Front street. The fact that Daniel
Boone was brought through Lower Sandusky, v/hile in captivity,
is worthy of mention, because of the celebrity of that unequalled
hero of border annals.
About the year 1780, a party of negroes was captured by
the Indians, in Virginia, and brought to the Sandusky River,
where they were held as slaves. They were placed in charge
of a peninsular tract of land, about six miles down the river,
which they cultivated for the Indians, no doubt to the great
satisfaction of the squaws, upon whom devolved all the menial
labor. The peninsula became known as "Xegro Point," or in
common parlance "Xigger Bend." a name which is familiar to
us all, and which it has retained ever since — a period of a centurv
or more.
It should be remembered, that, in their treaties and con-
veyances of the Great West to Great Britain, the Indians did
not part with their title to the land. They simply placed them-
selves under the protection of Great Britain and their lands
were to be held in trust for them and their heirs. Hence,' the
Indians were justified in contending for the possession of their
inheritance. True it is. they had no title papers, signed by man
or by any human authority, but they believed that the Great
Spirit had given them their happy hunting grounds, and when
they saw the ''pale faces" settling and building on their domains,
Fremont in History. 53
and killing the game which was given them to live upon, they
were roused to resistance. They had no court to try their titles,
but that court of last resort, the court of force, a trial by wager
of battle and their arguments were not made by attorneys, but
by the rifle, the tomahawk and the scalping knife. The recital
of their cruelties curdles the blood with horror, — the burning
of Colonel Crawford in 1782, the destruction of St. Clair's army
in 1 79 1, the butchery of Harmar's men, were attended by scenes
and incidents of indescribable cruelty. The final contest over
the right to occupy the Northwest took place on the banks of
tlie Maumee River in 1794, in the battle of Fallen Timbers, and
had a powerful influence in settling the title to the lands in San-
dusky county. By the treaty of Greenville, the Indians ceded
to the United States, among other parcels of land, "Two miles
•square at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River," — which was
the first land in Sandusky county ceded by the Indians to the
â– United States. The tract was afterwards surveyed by the United
States, and the lines of that survey are now the boundary lines
of the city of Fremont. It is a fact worthy of note, and one of
which we may well be proud, that the title to every foot of
Ohio soil wa,s honorably acquired from the Indians.
WAR OF 1812.
About seventeen years after the treaty of Greenville, the
war commonly called the War of 1812, between the United States
and Great Britain, was declared.
We, of Fremont, are fortunate in having here, in our midst,
preserved nearly in its original form and appearance, by the
thoughtfulness which set it apart and adorned it as a park, the
place of one of those picturesque events of war, which from
the first, fastened the public attention. It was not necessary
to dig it out of oblivion, and there was no danger that any one
should say that local pride had magnified a thing, which the
world had forgotten. In every history of our countrv it has
T^een caught up by the historian, as a brilliant picture with which
to enliven his pages. Fort Stephenson was from the first an
historic place, and :\Iajor Croghan's defence of it. was recognized
54 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
as an heroic act, worthy of being described in the noblest words
that history can use.
In 1813 there was no city of Fremont. Even Lower San-
dusky, as the spot was called, had not yet become a civilized
town, and only marked the place, where a village of Wyandot
Indians had long been known. Fort Stephenson covered the
pretty knoll now occupied by the City Hall, Birchard Library
and the Monument. But what was it? A feeble earthwork,
surrounded by a ditch and stockade, with a little block house at
the southwest corner, which served as a sort of a bastion to
sweep the ditch. Its garrison was a mere handful of men ; its
only artillery a single six-pound gun. No legalized white set-
tlement had, at this time, been made on the lake shore in Ohio,
west of the new village of Cleveland, as the tide of civilized
migration had only lately crossed the Ohio. The whole north-
western quarter of the state, therefore, was Indian territory, and
its tribes, confederated by the genius of Tecumseh, a man of
no ordinary power, were banded with the red nations of Indiana
and the great West, to resist the further advance of the whites.
The forts were only isolated outposts, in the midst of the hostile
territory, built to protect the communications of the army, with
the more distant posts at Chicago and Detroit. For this pur-
pose Fort Stephenson was built, here at Lower Sandusky, on
the hostile si;de of the river, so that a crossing might always
be in the power of our troops. Here was the promise of a
frontier place of importance, both for trade with the Indians, in
times of peace, and a depot of supplies for interior settlements,
as they might be formed. The name Stephenson was probably
given to the fort, owing to the fact that Colonel Stephenson
at one time commanded the post, and it is supposed to have been
built under his direction in 1812. The walls of the fort were
made of logs, some round and some flat on one side, averaging
about eighteen inches thick and ten feet high, set perpendicu-
larly in the earth, each picket crowded closely against the other,
and sharpened at the top. The walls inclosed about one acre
of ground, on a bluf¥ formed by the hills, bounding the valley
of the river on the east, and a ravine, running in a northeasterly
direction, cutting through the bluf^ north of the fort. After
.Fremont iyi History. SS-
Major Croghan arrived at Fort Stephensorc he labored day and
night to place it in a state of defence. He had a ditch six feet
deep and nine feet wide dug around it outside, throwing the-
earth against the foot of the pickets, and grading it sharply-
down to the bottom of the ditch. Later in the year an addi-
tional area, equal to the area of the original fort, was added
to the enclosure. In order to prevent the enemy from scaling
the walls, should they succeed in leaping the ditch, Major
Croghan had large logs placed on the top of the fort, and sa
adjusted that the least weight would cause them to fall from
their position, and crush all who might be below. Fort Steph-
enson was wisely located to give protection to our growing set-
tlements, and to become the nucleus of a vigorous colony. It
is only when we remember all this that we fully appreciate its
military importance, and the necessity of holding it with a firm
and determined grasp.
About this time, the English, taking advantage of the dis-
satisfaction of the Indians, as they supposed they had the right
to do. made alliance with them, and gave Tecumseh the rank
of a general in their army. Out of this alliance, grew the great
peril of the frontier. Only a little while before, the fort where
Chicago now stands had surrendered, upon a promise of pro-
tection to the lives of the garrison, by the English, but the sav-
ages had disregarded the agreement which the English troops
were not strong enough to enforce, and the prisoners had been
massacred. A still more fearful and hopeless peril lurked about
the cabin door of every white settler of the West. Even death
by the tomahawk and scalping knife seemed mercy itself com-
pared to the atrocious tortures which all the tribes, but the Wy-
andots, were in the habit of inflicting upon their captives, and
of which we have so fearful a picture in the blood-curdling story
of the capture and death of Colonel Crawford, a little earlier in
our history. It may well have been, that the expectation of such
a fate, if they surrendered, nerved the hearts and arms of ]\Iajor
Croghan and his little garrison, to dare any fate but that, and
to resolve to die. if need be, but never to be taken.
Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison, a wise and brave man. who„
both before and afterward, signalized his courage and his skill.
56 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
was in command of the department at this time, with headquar-
ters at Fort Seneca, or Seneca Town, as it was sometimes caUed,
about nine miles south of Fort Stephenson. Several days be-
fore the British had invested Fort Meigs, General Harrison,
with Major Croghan and some other officers, had examined the
heights which surround Fort Stephenson and, as the hill_ on the
opposite side of the river was found to be the most commanding
eminence, the General had some thought of removing the fort
to that place, and Major Croghan declared his readiness to un-
dertake the work. But the General did not authorize him to do
it, as he believed that, if the enemy intended to invade our ter-
ritory again, they would do it before the removal could be com-
pleted. It was then finally .concluded that the fort, which was
calculated for a garrison of only 200 men, could not be defended
against the heavy artillery of the enemy ; and that, if the British
should approach it by water, which would cause a presumption
that they had brought their heavy artillery, the fort must be
abandoned and burned, provided a retreat could be effected with
safety.
In the orders left with Major Croghan, it was stated,
"Should the British troops approach you in force, with cannon,
and you discover them in time to effect a retreat, you will do so
immediately, destroying all the public stores. You must be
aware that an attempt to retreat in the face of an Indian force
would be vain. Against such an enemy your garrison would
be safe, however great the number."
General Harrison had been for a short time at Upper San-
dusky, several miles further south, hastening the assembling
of a little army with which he hoped to take the aggressive, and
was sorely disappointed by the slow rate at which his reinforce-
ments could thread the paths of the new country. Three or
four hundred dragoons were all he had when the news of Proc-
tor's expedition reached him. A regiment from Kentucky was
on its way but had not yet arrived. On the evening of the 29th
of July General Harrison received word from General Clay,
that the enemy had abandoned the siege of Fort Meigs and, as
the Indians on that day had swarmed in the woods around his
â– camp, he entertained no doubt but that an immediate attack
Fremont in History. ' 57
was intended, either on Fort Stephenson or Fort Seneca. He
therefore called a council of war, consisting of Generals ]\Iac-
Arthur, Cass, Ball and others, who were unanimously of the
opinion that Fort Stephenson was untenable against heavv ar-
tillery and that, as the enemy could bring, with facility, any
quantity of battering cannon against it, by which it must ine-
vitably fall, and as the post contained nothing the loss of which
would be felt, that the garrison should not be reinforced but with
drawn and the place destroyed. In pursuance of this decision
the General immediately despatched the order to Major Croghan,
directing him to abandon Fort Stephenson at once, set it on
fire and repair with his command to headquarters. This order
was sent by a Air. Conner and two Indians, who lost their way
in the dark and did not reach Fort Stephenson until 11 o'clock
the next day. When Major Croghan received it he was of the
opinion that he could not then retreat with safety, as the Indians
were hovering around the fort in considerable force. He called
a council of his ofificers, a majority of whom coincided with him
in the opinion that a retreat would be unsafe, and that the post
could be maintained against the enemy, at least until further
instructions could be received from headquarters.
Such a command, as Major Croghan had received, probably
seemed to a young officer, to imply a suspicion of his valor or
his capacity, and, stung perhaps, by this view of it Alajor Croghan
sent back a reply which well nigh cost him his commission.
He said: "Sir, I have just received yours of yesterday, 10
o'clock p. m., ordering me to destroy this place and make good
my retreat, which was received too late to be carried into execu-
tion. We have determined to maintain this place, and by
heavens we can." Major Croghan was at once relieved of the
command and ordered to General Harrison's headquarters in
arrest, but when the General saw the man, and knew that his
confidence was that of true courage and no mere vaporing,
he easily accepted the explanation that the terms of Croghan's
reply had been worded with the expectation that the dispatch
might fall into the enemy's hands, and that in that case he wished
to impress them with the danger of an assault; and he sent
58 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the young hero back to resume his command just as the British
entered the river.
The portrait of Colonel Croghan, which, through the kind-
ness of General Hayes, was placed in Birchard Library, and with
which we, of Fremont, are so familiar, well bespeaks the char-
acter of young Croghan, and his singular beauty of person.
Only twenty-one years of age, full of the hardy courage of the
frontier, an experienced woodsman, you can not look upon that
face without feeling that it represents one of nature's noblemen ;
full of intellect and feeling, as well as of soldierly courage and
hardihood. It was a happy conjuncture for his country when
the time and the man thus came together.
A reconnoitering party, which had been sent from head-
quarters to the shore of the lake, about twenty miles from Fort
Stephenson, discovered the approach of the enemy, by water,
on the evening of the 31st of July. They returned, by the fort
after 12 o'clock the next day, and had passed it but a few hours
when the enemy made their appearance. The Indians showed
^"hemselves first on the hill, across the river, and were saluted
by a six-pounder, the only piece of artillery in the fort, which
soon caused them to retire. In about half an hour the British
gunboats came in sight, and the Indian forces displayed them-
selves in every direction, with a view to intercept the garrison,
should a retreat be attempted. The six-pounder was fired a few
times at the gunboat, and the fire was returned by the artillery
of the enemy. A landing of their troops, with a five and a half-
inch howitzer, was effected about a mile below the fort and
Major Chambers, accompanied by Dickson, was dispatched to-
wards the fort with a fiag, and was met, on the part of Major
Croghan, by Ensign Shipp of the Sixteenth Regiment. After
"he usual ceremonies, Major Chambers observed that he was in-
structed by General Proctor to demand the surrender of the
fort, as he was anxious to spare the effusion of human blood,
which he could not do should he be under the necessitv of re-
ducing it. by the powerful force of artillery, regulars and In-
dians at his command. Ensign Shipp replied that the com-
mandant of the fort and its garrison were determined to defend
it to the last extremity, and that no force, however great, could
Fremont in History. 59
induce them to surrender, as they were resolved to maintain
their post or to bury themselves in its ruins.
Dickson then said that their immense body of Indians
could not be restrained from murdering the whole garrison,
in case of success, and urged them to surrender and prevent
the dreadful massacre that would be caused by their resist-
ance. Mr. Shipp replied that when the fort was taken there
would be none to massacre, as it would not be given up while
a man was able to resist. The enemy now opened their fire
from their six-pounders in the gunboats and the howitzer on
shore, which they continued through the night with but little
intermission and very little effect. The forces of the enemy
consisted of 500 regulars and about 800 Indians, commanded
by Dickson, the whole being commanded by General Proctor in
person. Tecumseh was stationed on the road to Fort Meigs,
with a body of 2000 Indians, expecting to intercept a reinforce-
ment on that route. Major Croghan, through the evening, occa-
sionally fired his six-pounder; at the same time changing its
place often to induce a belief that he had more than one piece.
As it produced very little effect on the enemy, and he was desi-
rous of saving his ammunition, he soon discontinued firing.
The enemy had directed their fire against the northwest angle
of the fort, which induced the commander to believe that an
attempt to storm the works would be made at that point. In
the night Captain Hunter was directed to secretly remove the
six-pounder to a block house, from which it would rake that
angle. The embrasure was masked and the piece loaded with
a double charge of slugs and grape shot.
Early in the morning of August 2 the enemy opened fire
from their howitzer and their six-pounders, w^iicii ciiey had.
landed in the night and planted in a point 01 woods abour 250'
yards from the fort, which convinced Major Croghan that they
would endeavor to make a breach and storm the works at that
point. He therefore strengthened that place as much as possi-
ble, with bags of flour and sand, which was so effectual that the
picketings in that place sustained no material injury. Late in
che evening, when the smoke of the firing had completely en-
veloped the fort, the enemy proceeded to make the assault.
60 " Ohio Arch, and His. Society Piiblications.
Two feints were made toward the southern angle, where Captain
Hunter's lines were formed, and at the same time a column of
350 men was discovered advancing through the smoke within
twenty paces of the northwestern angle. A heavy, galling fire
was now opened upon the enemy from the fort, which threw
them into some confusion. Colonel Short, who was at the head
• of the principal column, soon rallied his men and led them with
great bravery to the brink of the ditch. After a momentary
pause he leaped into the ditch, calling to his men to follow him,
and in a few moments it was full. The masked port-hole was
now opened and the six-pounder, at a distance of thirty feet,
poured such destruction among them that but few who had
entered the ditch were fortunate enough to escape. Colonel
short, while ordering his men to cut down the pickets and give
the Americans no quarter, fell, mortally wounded, and, hoisting
his white handkerchief on the end of his sword, begged for that
mercy which he had a moment l:)efore ordered to be denied to
his enemy.
A precipitate and confused retreat was the immediate con-
sequence of the encounter, although some of the officers at-
tempted to rally their men. The other column, led by Colonel
Warburton and Major Chambers, was also routed in confusion
by a destructive fire from the line commanded by Captain Hunter.
The whole of them fled into an adjoining wood, beyond the reach
of our arms. During the assault the enemy kept up an inces-
sant fire from their howitzer and five six-poimders. They left
Colonel Short and twenty-five privates dead in the ditch. The
number of prisoners taken was twenty-six, most of them badly
wounded. The total loss of the British and Indians was 150.
The loss of the garrison was one killed and seven slightly
wounded — Samuel Thurman, the one man of the garrison who
was killed, met his death through his desire to shoot a red coat.
â– He climbed to the top of the block house and. while peering
over, a six-pound ball from the enemy's cannon", took ofT his
head.
The assault lasted only about half an hour. The dark
storm cloud that had been hovering over the West passed north-
ward ; a gentle breeze from the southwest bore the smoke of
Fremont hi Histo}y. 61
battle far away over the forest, toward Lake Erie, and in the
lonely twilight of that memorable Sabbath evening the brave
young Croghan addressed his gallant little band with eloquent
words of praise and grateful -thanksgiving. As the night and
the silence deepened, and the groans of the wounded in the ditch
fell upon his ears, his generous heart beat with sympathy. Buckets
filled with water were let down by ropes from the outside of
the pickets and. as the gates of the fort could not be opened'
with safety during the night, he made a communication with the
ditch by means of a trench, through which the wounded were
borne into the little fortress and their necessities supplied.
All who were able preferred, of course, to follow their de-
feated comrades and many others were carried from the vicinity
of the fort by the Indians, particularly tlieir own killed and
wounded. About 3 o'clock in the morning the whole British
and Indian force commenced a disorderly retreat. So great was
their precipitation that they left a sailboat containing some
clothing and a considerable quantity of military stores, and the
next day seventy stands of arms and some braces of pistols were
collected around the fort. Their hurry and confusion were
caused by the apprehension of an attack by General Harrison,
of whose position and force they had probably received an ex-
aggerated account.
It was the intention of General Harrison, should the enemy
succeed against Fort Stephenson, or should they turn his left
and fall on Upper Sandusky, to leave his camp at Fort Seneca
and fall back to the latter place. But by the firing on the even-
ing of the 1st he discovered that the enemy had nothing but
light artillery, which could make no impression on the fort,
and he knew that an attempt to storm it. without making a
breach, could be successfully repelled by the garrison. He
therefore determined to wait for the arrival of 250 mounted vol-
unteers, approaching by the way of Upper Sandusky, and then
to march against the enemy and raise the siege if possible. He
sent scouts to ascertain the situation and force, but the woods
were so infested with Indians that none of them could proceed
near enough to the fort to make the necessary discoveries. About
9 o'clock in the evening Major Croghan had ascertained, from
â– 62 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatio7is.
their collecting about their boats, that the enemy were preparing
to embark and had immediately sent word to General Harrison,
who, determined to wait no longer for the reinforcements, im-
mediately set out with the dragoons for Fort Stephenson. The
road by which he came follows an old Indian trail, meandering
the river all the way until it approaches Fremont, where it passes
through Spiegel Grove and, winding around through the town,
turns northwestward toward Fort Meigs and the Maumee. It
was known as the "Harrison trail" and, though crooked and
sometimes almost impassable, was at least a guide through the
Black Swamp, which travelers could follow without fear of losing
their way.
General Harrison reached the fort early in the morning,
having ordered Generals MacArthur and Cass to follow him,
with all the disposable infantry, at that place. Finding that
the enemy had fled entirely from the fort, so as not to be reached
by him, and learning that Tecumseh was near Fort Aleigs with
2000 warriors, he sent the infantry back to Fort Seneca, lest
Tecumseh should make an attack on that place. In his official
report of this affair General Harrison observes that: "It will
not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications that
he has been baffled by a youth who had just passed his twenty-
first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle.
Gen. Geo. R. Clarke."
"Too much praise," said Major Croghan, "can not be be-
stowed on the officers and privates under my command for their
gallantry and good conduct during the siege." The brevet rank
of Lieutenant-Colonel was immediately conferred on Major Cro-
ghan by the President of the United States for his valorous con-
duct on this occasion, and his gallantry was further acknowledged
by a joint resolirtion of Congress, approved in February, 1835,
presenting to him a gold medal and a sword to each of the offi-
cers under his command.
Of the life of Colonel Croghan we know very little, except
that he was a native of Kentucky, having been born near Louis-
ville in 1 791. His father. Major Wm. Croghan, was a native of
Ireland and a gallant soldier of the Revolution. He received a
â– good education, graduated at William and Mary College in Vir-
Fremo7it in History. 63
ginia, and soon afterward began the study of law. In 1811 he
volunteered as a private, was appointed aide to General Harrison
and distinguished himself in the battle of Tippecanoe. After the
declaration of war with Great Britain he was appointed Captain
in the Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry and was made Major
in 1813. He again distinguished himself at the memorable
sieges of Fort Aleigs, and in July, 1813, was placed in command
of Fort Stephenson. He was made Inspector General of the
Army in 1825, and in that capacity served with General Taylor
in ]\Iexico in 1846-7. He died in New Orleans in 1849.
The Fort Stephenson fight was typical of its period. It
was, at once, part of the struggle for independence and a type
of the desperate conflict of the frontiersman with savage hordes,
with wild beasts and with the unsubdued wilderness itself.
Immediately associated with Colonel Croghan's victory are
the frontier names of the pioneer history of the West — General
Harrison, Commodore Perry, General Cass, General MacArthur,
Governor Meigs and a long list of other men, whose names were
household words in the homes of the first settlers of this region,
were all closely identified with the military events which hinged
upon the brilliant victory which was gained here and which
decided the struggle for the vast and noble territory which is
tributary to the Great Lakes of the Northwest.
General Sherman, in speaking several years ago, of the
strategic value of the triumphant defence of Fort Stephenson,
said: "The defence of Fort Stephenson by Croghan and his gal-
lant little band was the necessary precursor to Perry's victory
on the lake, and of General Harrison's triumphant victory at the
"Battle of the Thames." These assured to our immediate an-
cestors the mastery of the Great West, and from that day to this
the West has been the bulwark of the nation..
The heroes of the Revolution have all passed away, and
very few of the War of 18 12 are still living. Sergeant Wm.
Gaines, about fifteen years ago, was the only sur\^iving mem-
ber of Croghan's brave band and now, he too, has joined the
silent majority.
We still have with us, however, the old iron gun that did
such faithful service on that bright August day, nearly eighty-six
(j-l Ohio Afc/i. and //is. Society Publicaiio7is,
years ago. After the War of 1812 it was sent to the Government
Arsenal at Pittsburg, and remained there until about 185 1,
when Mr. Brice J. Bartlett, then mayor of Fremont, conceived
the design of procuring the old gun as a relic, to be kept at
the place it so greatly aided to defend. He sent a soldier who
had helped use the gun in Fort Stephenson to Pittsburg, to
identify it by some peculiar mark on the breech and, by per-
sistent effort, finally succeeded in locating it and orderetl it sent
to Lower Sandusky. But there were then several vSanduskys
and, by some mistake, the old gun was sent to Sandusky City,
where, I believe, there never was a battle. But the Sandusky
people wanted to keep the gun and a sharp controversy arose
in regard to it. They, however, it is said, to secure the gun
against seizure, buried it. But Mr. Bartlett, not to be foiled,
employed a detective, who, finally learning where the gun was
buried, and aided by others, went to Sandusky, uncovered the
cannon and brought it back to its old resting place. The garri-
son, it is said, named the gun "Good Bess." In 1852, on August
2, at a celebration of Croghan's splendid victory here, Mr.
Thomas L. Hawkins, a Methodist local preacher, who was also
a poet, read a poem wdiich was a salutation to the old six-pounder,
in which he addressed her as "Betsey Croghan," a name by which
the gun has ever since been known. In another poem on Colonel
Croghan's victory at Fort Stephenson, this poet calls the gun
"Our Bess."
Historically, the heart of the city of Fremont is Fort Steph-
enson Park, with its City Hall, its monument and its public
library, while the historic Betsey Croghan and other disused
cannon add a sterner touch to the scene.
Within the memory of many present citizens of Fremont
the place was little more than a frontier settlement, and the few
houses scarcely more than huts and shanties. The change in
the past fifty years has been striking, and even the name of
the place is not the same, for in 1850 it was changed from Lower
Sandusky to Fremont, in honor of the famous "Pathfinder."
SPIEGEL GROVE.
Spiegel Grove, whose hospitality we now enjoy, is also a
storied region full of charm and legend for the student of the
Fremont in History. 65
past. What the term means is a question often asked and sel-
dom answered. Spiegel is the German word for "Mirror" and
in the uncleared, boggy woods of fifty years ago, one could
probably see his reflection almost anywhere in the tangled swamp
land. As the mirror has long been a symbol of superstition,
so the myths and legends have always hung thick about the
old woods.
The place was purchased many years ago by Mr. Sardis
Birchard, one of our most honored citizens, the uncle and guard-
ian of our great citizen, ex-President Hayes, and was by him
named Spiegel Grove. Here Mr. Birchard passed many years
of his life, and here the young attorney, the Colonel, the General,
the Representative, the Governor and the President used to come
to visit, until, after his retirement from the presidency, General
Hayes enlarged the house and brought his family here for per-
manent residence. His delight in the place was always very great.
He was acquainted with every tree and shrub in it. He set
out choice varieties, sent him from China and Japan and the
isles of the sea, and he gathered historic -plants from everywhere.
Here he would show the visitor a weeping willow with a famous
pedigree, its ancestors running back to Washington's grave at
Mount Vernon ; and to Napoleon's at St. Helena ; farther on,
a sapling from an acorn of the charter oak ; and in another place
venerable oaks, under which an ancestor camped during the
War of 1812, or to which was tied a captive maid by the In-
dians, while a swift runner went to Detroit to obtain her re-
lease. Here also General Hayes set out the "Lucy Hayes
Chapel," in young walnut trees, and in almost every direction
are beautiful vistas through the woods and across the valley,
and the identical drive to which I have before alluded down
which General Harrison brought his troops in 1813, on his way
to Fort Stephenson.
BIRCHARD LIBRARY.
"The opening of a free public Hbraiy," says James Russell
Lowell, "is the most important event in the history of any town,"
and as this was what Mr. Sardis Birchard, the generous founder
Vol. X — 5
t)t) Ohio Arch. a?id His. Society Publications .
tjf our public library, wished to do for the people of this county,
he was moved in 1873 to set aside the sum of fifty thousand
dollars for the establishment of Birchard Library.
At an early day after the village of Lower Sandusky was
chartered, it was suggested that the site of the fort should be
purchased and preserved as a memorial of those who so bravely
defended it, and an act of the Legislature empowered the village
to do so, but the owner of the property being unwilling to sell
it, the project was for the time abandoned. Among those who
had been particularly desirous that the site should be purchased
by the city, was Mr. Birchard. It was his earnest wish that
the library should be located on the site of the old fort, and
that the city should own the ground for a park.
General Hayes, and a few other public spirited citizens,
interesting themselves in the matter, the whole block was pur-
chased at a cost of about thirty thousand dollars, and the Library
Association and the city are now joint owners of the square.
The citizens of this place, it seems to me, have shown com-
mendable zeal in doing. themselves, without any outside assist-
ance, that for which other cities have asked appropriations from
the State.
The people of Fremont have dedicated the ground so hero-
ically defended by Major Croghan and his brave men to their
memory forever, and have further consecrated it, by erecting
upon it a stately monument which, for years to come shall tell
the unadorned tale of their sacrifices, and, ages after the ston.e
itself has crumbled into dust, history shall transmit the record.
Surely, the occasion is worthy a monument to the skies
and the granite soldier looking down from its summit is a proper
guardian for the site of Fort Stephenson, one of the most mem-
orable of all our historic places.
Fremont. Ohio, June 30, 1899.
PRE-HISTORIC EARTHWORKS OF RICHLAND
COUNTY.
BY A. J. BAUGHMAN.
Secretary Richland County Historical Society.
"Here stand mounds, erected by a race
Unknown in histor}' or in poets' songs."
In our own county we see evidences of a pre-historic people
whose origin and fate are unknown. We know of them only by
the monuments they reared in the form of earth-works, and as
these principally are mounds, we call the people who made them
"Mound Builders." The term is not a distinguishing one, for
people the world over have been mound builders, more or less,
from generation to generation.
In no other country are earth-works more plainly divided
into classes than here in America. In softie places fortified hills
and eminences suggest the citadel of a tribe or people. Again,
embankments, circular or square, separate and in combination,,
enclosing, perhaps, one or more mounds, excite our curiosity, but
fail to satisfy it, and we ask, "Are these fading embankments the
boundaries of sacred enclosures, or the fortifications of a carnp^
or the foundations on which were built communal houses?"
In the Blackfork valley — especially the part taken from Rich-
land and given to Ashland county — there are numerous inounds
and other earth-works, but only a few can be considered in the
limit of this paper.
On the southwest quarter of section 17, Green township, half
a mile northwest of Greentown, there was in the years agone a
circular embankment embracing about half an acre of ground.
The embankment was about five feet in height in' the days of old
Greentown. There was a "gate-way" to the west, about twelve
feet wide. In the center of the enclosure there was a mound into
which excavations were made about fifty years ago to the depth
of nine feet, which appeared to be the depth of the artificial work..
Coal, wood and feathers vcre found in the lower strata.
G7
€8 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicaiions.
Within a mile east of Greentown there was a similar em-
bankment, embracing an acre of ground, but there was no mound
within this enclosure.
The Parr "fort" was a circular earth-work, about seven feet
high and twelve to fourteen feet in diameter at the base. It en-
closed an area of about three acres. Very near it on the east side,
stood a large mound, from which copper beads and stone imple-
ments have been taken. About 70 years ago the late Dr. Hen-
derson had these mounds opened, and in them were found human
bones, decayed wood, charcoal, a stone pipe and a copper wedge.
The wedge created quite a sensation at the time, as it was sup-
posed to be gold.
The Darling "fort," in the Clearfork valley, below St. Johns,
was another earth-work containing nearly three acres. When
iirst discovered by Judge Peter Kinney, in 1810, its embankments
were about three feet high, covered with forest trees centuries
old. In this "fort," stone axes and other implements were
found.
There is a small mound at the northern limit of the city of
Mansfield near the "Medicine Spring." It is about fifteen rods
in length and five in breadth. This mound or knoll is, perhaps,
a natural elevation, although some think it is an artificial mound
â– on account of its geometrical proportions and its geographical
alignment, and its "eastern position" suggests that it might have
been built for an altar upon which to offer religious rites. It is
not known that any exhumation has ever been made, and the
origin of the knoll, whether natural or artificial, is a matter of
conjecture.
The Lafiferty mound, about which there is so much specu-
lative query as to whether its formation was of geological or
archaeological origin, with about an equal division of opinion, is
situate four miles east of Bellville, on Uriah Lafferty's farm.
The mound is 100 feet in height and its base covers an area
of six acres. It is oblong in shape, extending east and west, and
is as symmetrical as though it had been planned by an architect
and rounded with a mason's trowel.
The size of the mound does not preclude the probability that
it is an artificial earth-work, for Nebuchadnezzar built a mound
Pre- Historic Earth-Works of Richland County. 69
four times as high within the walls of the city of Babylon, to
please a caprice of his wife.
As the Lafferty mound has never been opened nor scientific-
ally examined, theories as to its origin and formation are largely
speculative.
The valley in which the Lafferty mound stands has been
called the garden-spot of Richland county, and is as beautiful in
its scenic landscapes as it is rich and productive in its soil.
From the summit of the mound, the view to the west is one
of enhancing beauty. In the distance, hill-tops notch the Ftorizon
and lift their green crowns in a summer day, through the clear,
soft atmosphere into the azure sky, making a landscape view of
unsurpassing loveliness.
There is an ancient earth-work two miles east of Mansfield
that is but little known by our people of to-day, although it was
surveyed and mapped by the county surveyor in October, 1878.
It is situate on the Balliett farm, and is approached by the road
leading east from the top of the Sherman hill, and is the most
noted of its kind within the present limit of Richland county.
These works are upon an elevation at the east side of the
head of Spook Hollow, and consist of an opal-shaped embank-
ment or fort 594 feet long, by 238 feet wide in the center, and
contains two and two-thirds acres. Southwest of the fort, 710
feet, there is a spring at the side of the ravine from which a
copious flow of water issues in all seasons of the year.
Directly south of the "fort," upon the side of the hill leading
to the old stage road, is the furnace which is an excavation walled
with stone like a well and is called a "furnace," as charcoal,
charred bones and evidences that fire had been used there were
found at the bottom of the drift with which the place was filled.
This "furnace" is about five feet across, is circular in form and
its uses and purposes must be conjectured.
At the east side of the fort there were a number of depressions,
varying from four to twenty feet, but they have been so filled up
in the tilling of the land as to be nearly obliterated. In excavat-
ing one of these depressions at the time of the survey, at a depth
of eight feet, a drift was struck leading toward the fort. Geo-
graphically, the "fort" was platted upon longitudinal lines and
70 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
upon geometrical measurements, and the depressions were vari-
ously located with relative mathematical distances, all giving evi-
dences that the people who planned and made and occupied these
works were well advanced in mathematics.
Since their day and occupancy large forest trees have grown
upon these earth-works — trees of at least six centuries' growth.
These works are relics of that pre-historic age of which much
has been written and but little is known. The perspective view
•of the fort in the outline is still discernible from the road, and
the location was well chosen, as it commands a fine view of the
valley opening to the south. Looking over and beyond Spook
Hollow, which with its weird traditions, lies at the base of the
hill, a valley of gardenlike loveliness is presented and the land-
;scape picture extends for miles, embracing the hills in the far
distance, amid which the spire upon the church steeple at Cesarea
•can be seen.
What connection, if any, existed between the Mound Builders
•and the Indians is yet unsettled. But it appears certain that many
years before Columbus discovered America, the Mound Builders
had settlements here in Richland county, as these ancient earth-
-works attest. ' That the people were not unacquainted with war
is shown by their numerous fortified enclosures. These motmds
.and other anticiuities give us some knowledge of a people that
lived here when civilization was but in the dawn in Europe. The
history of our own country is at least as interesting as that of the
land of Pharaohs, or of storied Greece, for here we see evidence
â– of an ancient culture, as well as the footprints of a vanished
people.
It is claimed by writers that the Mound Builders were of
Asiatic origin and were, as a people, immense in numbers and
well advanced in many of the arts. Similarity in certain things
indicates that they were of Phoenician descent. Of the Mound
Builders, we have speculated much, and know but little.
A local writer claimed that the Richland-Ashland mounds do
not belong to the pre-historic class — that they were made at a
more recent period, that they were built in the 17th century by
the Eries to protect their people from the invasions of the Iroquois
.tribe.
Pre-Historic Earth-Works of Richland County. 71
When Judge Kinney and party felled trees that had grown
upon the earth-works at the Darling "fort," the "growths"
show^ed that the trees had been growing there several centuries
before the war between the Eries and the Six Nations. The same
is true of the "fort" near Spook Hollow, and at other places.
When looking at the past, let us recognize the fact that na-
tions as well as individuals pass away and are forgotten.
Some of our mounds were used as sepulchres for the dead,
and should not be desecrated — even in the interest of historical
research and investigation.
An old-time poet wrote :
"Oh, Mound! consecrated before
The white man's foot e'er trod on shore.
To battle's strife and valour's grave,
Spare ! oh , spare , the buried brave !
"A thousand winters passed away,
And yet demolished not the clay.
Which on yon hillock held in trust
The quiet of the warrior's dust.
"The Indian came and went again ;
He hunted through the lengthened plain;
And from the mound he oft beheld
The present silent battlefield.
"But did the Indian e'er presume.
To violate that ancient tomb?
Ah, no! he had the soldier's grace
Which spares the soldier's resting place.
"It is alone for Christian hand
To sever that sepulchral band,
Which ever to the view is spread.
To bind the living to the dead."
Some may say why attempt to roll back the flight of years
to learn of a pre-historic people, for the search-light of investiga-
tion makes but little impression on the night of time. We have
no data on which to base an estimate as to the antiquity of man,
but we can contemplate the great periods of geological times,
and the infinite greatness of the works of creation, as disclosed
by Astronomy, with man's primeval condition, as made evident
by archffiolog}-, and exclaim : "What is man that Thou art mind-
ful of him !" '
SIXTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE OHIO STATE
ARCH^OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
[It has been usual heretofore to delay the printing of the proceedings
of the annual meeting for the yearly report of the secretary to the Gover-
nor and the Society, made at the end of the calendar year. But hereafter
the report of the annual meeting will appear in the succeeding issue of the
Quarterly. — Sec'y.]
The Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State xA-rchseo-
logical and Historical Society was held in the parlors of the Y.
M. C. A. Building, Columbus, Ohio, at 2:30 P. M., April 26,
1901. The following members were present:
Prof. C. E. Albright .
Judge J. H. Anderson
E. H. Archer
Gen. John Beatty
Geo. F. Bareis
Gen. R. Brinkerhofif .
Prof. Geo. A. Chambers
Judge M. D. Follett
Hon. C. B. Galbreath .
Hon. Stephen R. Harris
Hon. R. E. Hills
Hon. Geo. U. Harn .
Gen. Warren Keifer .
Rev. I. F. King
Rev. N. B. C. Love
Hon. A. R. Mclntire
Prof. C. F. MartzolfT .
W. A. Mahoney
W. H. Miars
Dr. D. L. Moore
Prof. Warren K. Moorehead
Prof. B. F. Prince .
E. O. Randall
Dr. J. C. Reeve
Dr. W. H. Scott .
Col. W. A. Taylor .
Rev. H. A. Thompson
Hon. E. E. White .
Edwin F. Wood .
Prof. G. Frederick Wright
Gen. George B. Wright
Columbus.
Columbus.
Columbus.
Columbus.
Canal Winchester.
Mansfield.
Columbus.
Marietta.
Columbus.
Bucyrus.
Delaware.
Columbus.
Springfield.
Columbus.
Deshler.
Mt. Vernon.
New Lexington.
Columbus.
Wilmington.
Columbus.
Saranac Lake,"N. Y.
Springfield.
Columbus.
Dayton.
Columbus.
Columbus.
Dayton.
Columbus.
Columbus.
Oberlin.
Columbus.
72
Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 73
Gen. Brinkerholt presided. E. O. Randall, Secretary, was
called upon for the minutes of the previous annual (Fifteenth)
meeting. The Secretary explained that the minutes of that
meeting, held on February i, 1900, were inscribed in full in his
minute book, and would require lengthy reading if given in de-
tail. A synopsis of the material part was incorporated in his
Sixteenth Annual Report of the Society to the Governor, made
January i. 1901, and printed in the Society's Quarterly for Jan-
uary, 1901, page 383, et seq. The Secretary then read that con-
densed report. This report of the proceedings of the previous
annual meeting was received and approved. The Secretary then
supplemented his report by extended remarks upon the more im-
portant features of the past year's work. He reminded the So-
ciety that we still do not own the Ridge Tract comprising some
twenty acres at the northern end of Ft. Ancient. He hoped that
would be secured at the proper figure at the earliest possible mo-
ment. The Society had in its Quarterly for April, 1901. com-
pleted the ninth volume of its publications. It was probably the
best volume yet issued. The last legislature (74th) had appro-
priated the sum of $5,600 for the reprinting of the annual vol-
umes, I to 8 inclusive — each member of the General Assembly
to receive ten complete sets for their personal disposal. Those
books had been printed and sent to the respective legislative
members. Circulars had been sent at the same time to the mem-
bers, requesting that as far as possible they distribute these vol-
umes to the libraries, schools and colleges. This many of the
members reported they had done, returning to the Secretary lists
of the recipients. This output meant the distribution of 1.500
sets or 12,000 books of the Society throughout the state. It
would be a great educational feature and a great impetus to the
work of the Society.
In the Summer of 1900 the Secretary made a tour of visita-
tion to the State Historical Societies of the eastern, middle and
middle western states. A full account of this tour was given in
the October Quarterly of 1900, page 243. The finding of that
trip is that nearly all of the states visited have provided, in some
way, spacious and costly buildings or suitable quarters for their
societies. In that feature most of those states surpass us. Our
74 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Ohio Society, however, is superior to any other in the country in
the archaeological line of work, and in the extent and value of
its museum collection. We have long ago outgrown our quar-
ters. But no state, excepting possibly Wisconsin, is so generous
in its appropriations, as is Ohio to our Society. Our Legislature
is prepared to grant us almost any reasonable request. Probably
no State Society in the Union, however, is doing as much prac-
tical work as ours, and certainly no one is disseminating his-
torical, archaeological and biographical literature in the quarters
where it will be appreciated and felt to the extent that we are
now doing. Our literature is not confined to our book shelves,
but is going broadcast among the readers and scholars throughout
the state and indeed more or less throughout the country.
The last Legislature also appropriated a certain sum to de-
fray the cost of publication of an "Archaeological History of
Ohio." This had been prepared by Mr. Gerard Fowke, and was
now in the hands of the printers and will appear some time in
July or August. It will consist of tv/o volumes, some 400 pages
each, and be elaborately illustrated. The charge for this book
will be $5.00. In this connection the Secretary stated that there
was a great demand for a complete subject index of our published
nine volumes. He hoped the Trustees would see their way clear
to engage a competent person to prepare this index.
It is probably known to all that the Trustees of Harvard Uni-
versity had passed the title of Serpent Mound to our Society.
A custodian, Mr. Daniel Wallace of Sinking Springs, had been
selected, anu was now residing at, and overseeing the Mound and
Park, which are being renovated and placed in cleanly and attrac-
tive condition. Arrangements were being made to erect a tablet
somewhere in the Park, which will publicly acknowledge the
transfer of the property. The. Society is indebted to Prof. F. W.
Putnam, of Harvard University, for the successful accomplish-
ment of this transfer.
Prof. W. C. Mills, our Curator, is not present, and will make
a report later of his year's work in archaeological exhumations.*
â– This report of Mr. Mills follows these proceedings of the annual
meeting. See page 78 seq.
Sixteenth Annual Meetmg. 75
He is at present in Buffalo putting in place our Society's exhibit,
in the building devoted to Ethnology and Arch£eolog}\ He is
being assisted by Mr. A. B. Coover, one of our members. The
Pan-American Exposition authorities were so solicitous for our
exhibit, that Dr. A. L. Benedict, Superintendent of the Archseo-
logical and Ethnological department, came to Columbus to per-
sonally negotiate for our exhibit at the exposition. The exposi-
tion managers'meet the expense to our Society for this exhibition.
The failure of the Ohio Centennial at Toledo, cut off the hope
of our Society for a building in that direction. Advices were
were coming in on all sides that we go before the Legislature next
winter and ask for an appropriation for a building for our So-
ciety. The time seems to be ripe for this result. The Ohio State
University needs a library building, and the State Library Com-
mission, also need, and will probably ask for a building. It is
wise that we "get together" and avoid such conflicting interests
as would likely lead to failure by all parties.
This suggestion of the Secretary was discussed by President
Brinkerhoft' and others. It resulted in the appointment of E. O.
Randall, Dr. W. H. Scott, Hon. C. B. Galbreath, Gen. J. Warr.-n
Keifer and Prof. G. Frederick Wright, as a Committee of five on
Permanent Building. Said Committee to confer with the other
parties desirous of a building and outline the proper policy for the
Society to pursue before the coming legislature.
Secretary called the attention of the members to the progress
of the Society in its increase of membership. At the last Annual
fleeting, ten life members were elected, and since that time, up
to the present date, the Executive Committee had received 35
more life members.
The Secretary reported that on March i, 1901, Governor
Nash appointed Gen. George B. Wright of Columbus and Hon.
Israel Williams of Hamilton as Trustees of the Society, to serve
until 1904. They succeeded themselves. The Trustees, elected
by the Society, whose terms expire at this time, are Gen. Brin-
k'erhoff. Hon. M. D. Follett, Hon. D. J. Ryan, Rev. H. A. Thomp-
son and Hon. R. E. Hills. The Chair appointed a Committee of
five on nomination. This Committee reported in favor of Gen.
Brinkerhoff, Hon. AI. D. Follett, Hon. D. T. Ryan. Rev. H. A.
76 OJiio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Thompson and W. H. Hunter. These to serve until the Annual
Meeting in 1904. (Mr. Hills declined re-election.) The nominees
of the Committee were elected. Prof. J. P. MacLean, Ph. D., of
Franklin, was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
the Hon. John Sherman, whose term would have extended to the
Annual Meeting in 1902.
Mr. Bareis, Chairman of the Ft. Ancient Committee, made
a verbal report concerning their work during the year. The
Committee or its members had made several trips to the Fort to
supervise the work being done by Mr. Warren Cowen, the cus-
todian. They had been much pleased with his services ; the
embankments and park enclosure were never in better condition
or more attractive appearance. Thousands of persons have vis-
ited the Fort during the year. Under the instructions of the
Committee Mr. Cowen was now graveling the road through the
Fort ; setting out an orchard ; and taking special pains to beau-
tify the Park for the coming season.
Messrs. Moorehead, White, Keifer, Anderson, Wright, Love,
Reeve and others expressed their satisfaction over the work of
the Society during the year just closed, and over the bright prom-
ise of its still greater progress in the future.
The Secretary thanked the trustees and members for their
courtesy and assistance accorded him, and emphasized the desire
that any of the members at any time make any suggestions occur-
ring to them or confer with him concerning the work and welfare
of the Society.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES.
At the conclusion of the meeting of the Society the Trustees-
held their Annual Meeting. The following were present :
Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, Hon. M. D. Follett, Hon. R. E. Hills,
Rev. H. A. Thompson, E. O. Randall, George F. Bareis, Judge
James H. Anderson, Gen. George B. Wright, Prof. G. Frederick
Wright, Prof. B. F. Prince, Hon. A. R. Mclntire, Rev. N. B. C.
Love. Gen. G. B. Wright acted as Chairman, E. O. Randall as
Secretary. The following ofificers were elected for the ensuing
year: Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, President; Gen. G. B. Wright. Jst
Vice-President; George F. Bareis, 2d Vice-President; E. 'v^.
Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 77
Randall, Secretary; Hon. S. S. Rickly, Treasurer; Edwin F.
Wood, Assistant Treasurer ; W. C. :\Iills, Curator and Librarian.
The following were selected as members of the Executive
â– Committee (in addition to the officers) : J. H. Anderson, G.
Fred Wright, A. R. Mclntire, B. F. Prince, D. J. Ryan and H.
A. Thompson. Gen. Brinkerhoff assumed the Chair and made a
fitting speech on his re-election. He feh honored at being again
chosen. The Society has rapidly advanced the past few years.
It was now an established power in its line of work, and the
State should be proud of it. He thought greater things were
in store. The meeting adjourned.
In the evening, in the auditorium of the Columbus Board of
Trade, Prof. G. Frederick Wright delivered a lecture to the
members of the Society, and their invited guests. Probably no
finer audience ever gathered upon a similar occasion in the city.
The large hall was completely filled by the most cultured people
of the Capital City. Prof. Wright's subject was "The Heart of
Asia, Past and Present, including new geological evidences of
the Flood." Prof. Wright had just returned from a year's
journey in Asia and other portions of the Orient. He had much
to say that w^as new and interesting concerning the prehistoric
mounds and other archaeological remains of the regions through
w^hich he traveled. His trip had attracted the attention of the
leading scientists of the world. His lecture was illustrated by
a la'rge number of stereopticon views, the photos of which were
taken by his party. Prof. Wright's lecture was an event quite
unique in the history of the Society, and afforded an evening of
great pleasure and profit to his auditors. Thus closed the six-
teenth annual meeting of the Society.
REPORT OF THE CURATOR OF THE OHIO STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BY W. C. MILLS, B. SC.
[This report covers the period of the work of the Society in the
Archaeological Department and the Museum from January, 1900, to the
last Annual meeting of the Society, held April 26, 1901.]
Tc the President and Trustees of the Society.
Gentlemen: — It gives me pleasure to make my annual
report upon our archaeological explorations and the condition
of the museum and library of the Society.
field work.
My own field work during the last two seasons was con-
fined to the well known Baum Village site, which is situated in
Ross coijnty, Ohio, just across the river from the small village
of Bourneville, and is located upon the first gravel terrace of the
Paint Creek valley. This village site embraces a very large
pyramidal mound, which was examined a number of years ago
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution at Washing-
ton. A complete report of these explorations is found in the
twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, i890-'9i.
At that time the village site was not explored but was known
to exist, as the following extract from the twelfth annual report
will show :
"This mound is situated upon the edge of the first general
bottom of Paint Creek, which, though protected by huge levees,
is annually inundated. In overflow time the smaller circle of
the adjoining enclosure is almost entirely submerged and the
summit of the mound is the only land visible above a broad
expanse of water. Around the mound upon all sides, particu-
larly to the east, are traces of former Indian occupation, nu-
merous fragments of pottery similar in texture, fabrication and
ornamental feature to those found in the mound, bestrewed the
plowed ground. These were intermingled with the valves of
mussel shells, pitted stones, shell disks, human bones, arrow
heads, perforated stone gorgets, and a large quantitv of chipped
flint." ' ' 78
Sixteenth Amiual Meeting 79
This village site was first made known by several local col-
lectors who lived in the immediate vicinity, i. e. Mr. W. R.
Reran and Mr. K. VV. Stretcher. Both of these gentlemen have
private collections which were secured in the immediate vicinity."
In 1897 Mr. Moorehead did some work in this village and in
the same year Mr. Coover, of Roxabell, also did some exploring
in this place. During the summer of 1899 I carefully exam-
ined the section of the village which lies directly south of this
mound ; then a portion lying directly north of the mound. Dur-
ing this season I had five men at work. During the season
of 1900 the work was carried on directly east of the mound, and
here our greatest finds were made. The village site probably
extends over ten or more acres of extensive bottom land, which
at one time was covered with a growth of large trees of various
kinds. The land is now owned by Mr. J. E. Baum, who kindly
granted us the privilege of working in this village. He not only
granted us the privilege, but has in very many ways aided us
in the work.
About three-fourths of a century ago Mr. Baum's grand-
father cleared this land and it has been practically in cultivation
ever since. From twelve to thirty-six inches of leaf-mold and
alluvial deposit overlie the thin stratum of hardpan ; directly
beneath this hardpan is found gravel. Less than two acres
of this village site has been dug over inch by inch. Many objects
have been discovered. ' Some with the skeletons, which are
usually found at a depth of from two to two and one-half feet ;
seventy-three skeletons have thus far been discovered. These
have been carefully removed and brought to the museum, to
increase our valuable pathological collection. There have been
found with the skeletons a number of bone implements, celts,
drinking vessels, ornaments, but so far no vessels of pottery have
been found in these mounds. In several instances broken
pieces of a large size were found buried near the skeleton. Pipes
of various shapes and celts from various kinds of stone have
been found near the skeletons, associated with various imple-
ments such as knives, drills, celts, stone hammers, grooved
axes, etc.
80 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
It is, however, to the singular "Ash Pits" which have been
discovered in great numbers in this village, that I wish to call
particular attention. These ash pits, as they have been well
named, are circular excavations, from three to four feet in
diameter and from four to seven feet deep. Most of these pits
have a greater diameter at the bottom, though a few have been
found that have the same diameter from top to bottom. The
object for which they were made, I think, was for the purpose
of getting rid of the refuse of the village, for here are thrown
animal bones, broken pottery, perfect and broken implements,
ashes from their little homes. These pits are in a number of
cases in close proximity to each other. The average pit may
be said to contain ashes in more or less definite layers. With
these ashes near the top, bones and pottery fragments can be
found. After removing the contents of the upper third of the
pit a stratum of fine white ashes is found, which in some cases
is only a few inches in thickness, while in others it is more
than two feet, sometimes this mass of ashes will cpntain a thin
stratum of sand or clay, and sometimes the bones of animals
and turtles will be completely mixed with these ashes. Very
frequently below the mass of ashes are found burnt stones, and
very frequently burned bones of various animals. Through the
whole mass in these ash pits, from the top to the bottom, are
found bones of fishes, mammals, reptiles, and birds, and imple-
ments and ornaments of bone, stone and shell. The bones of
the larger species of mammals, such as the elk, bear and deer,
are usually broken into small fragments. In one pit fifty-nine
carapace of the small land turtle, cestudo Virginea, were re-
moved. A careful memoranda of all the bones taken from one
pit was made. This pit measured three feet seven inches in
diameter by five feet ten inches in depth and contained 375
bones. Of these bones thirty-five per cent, were of tne Vir-
ginia deer (ocloloileus Virginianus) ; ten per cent, were of the
wild turkey (meleagris gallopayo") ; ten per cent, of fresh tmios,
two species represented (unio plicatus). and (unio alatus) ; five
per cent, of the raccoon (procyon lotor) ; five per cent, of the
black bear (ursus Americanus); five per cent, of the box turtle
(cestudo Virginea), the remainder of the bones in this pit were
Sixteenth An7i2ial Meethig. 81
divided about equally between the groundhog, wildcat, opossum,
beaver, rabbit, wild goose and great horned owl. As a rule
shells of the unioniadae are found in great numbers. From one
pit alone, 170 shells were taken, many of these valves have a
large circular hole cut near the center. These are mostly unio
placitus. These were no doubt used for hoes. In one pit fif-
teen of these perforated valves were taken out. Some of them
were in a perfect condition, others with their edges almost worn
down, to the hole and others broken, still others show that they
have not been used at all. Among the animals so far found and
positively identified are the Virginia deer (ocloloileus \'irgin-
ianus), raccoon (procyon lotor), black bear (ursus xA.mericanus),.
wolf (canis occidentalis), beaver (castor Canadensis), wild goose
(branta Canadensis), wildcat (lynx ruff us), (sic), musk rat
(fiber zibethicus), mink (putiorious vison), grey fox (urocyn Vir-
ginianus), opossum (didelphys A'irginianus), wild turkey (me-
leagris galloparo), trumpeter swan (olor buccinator), bald eagle
(haliantus leucocephalus), box turtle (cestudo V'irginea), elk
(cervus Canadensis), great horned owl (bubo Virginianus), otter
(lutra Canadensis), rabbit, barred owl, and the Indian dog..
The bones of the old Indian dog were found in great numbers,,
and there is no doubt but that this dog was one of their do-
mestic animals, for it is known that dogs were domesticated
long before the earliest records of history, their remains being
found in connection with the rude implements of the ancient
cave and lake dwellers all through Europe. However, the his-
tory and description of the Indian dog, in the ancient times,
is yet a subject far from solution. The remains of the dog
found in this village site are described by Professor Lucas, of
the Smithsonian lAstitution at Washington, as being a short
faced dog, much of the size and proportions of a bull terrier,
though probably not short haired. Professor Lucas says he
has obtained specimens apparently of the same breed from the
village sites in Texas and from old Pueblos. Professor Putnam,
of Harvard University, for more than twenty years has been
collecting bones of dogs in connection with pre-historic burials
in various parts of America, and a study of the skulls of these
Vol. X — 6
'S2 Ohio Arch, mid His. Society Publications.
dogs found in the mounds and burial places in Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and New York, and from the
great shell heaps of Maine, show that a distinct variety or
species of dog was distributed over North America in pre-
Columbian times. Apparently the same variety of dog is found
-in the ancient site of the Swiss Lake dwellers at Neufchatel,
also in the ancient tombs of Thebes in Egypt. Professor Put-
nam further says: "This variety of dog is apparently identical
with the pure bred Scotch Colhe'of to-day. If this is the case
the pre-historic dog in America, Europe and Egypt and its per-
sistence to the present time as a thoroughbred is suggestive of
a distinct species of the genus canis, which was domesticated
several thousand years ago, and also that the pre-historic dog
in America was brought to this continent by very early emi-
grants from the old world."
He further states : "That comparisons have not been made
with dogs that have been found in the tribes of the Southwest,
the ancient Mexicans, and with the Eskimo."
According to Professor Lucas' observations the dog found
in the Baum village site would differ somewhat from the dog
found in other parts of Ohio, and would resemble those found in
the Southwest.
In the pits are also found many, and often very large pieces
•of pottery, but so far not a single whole vessel has been found,
although in several instances pieces of pottery from the same
pit were carefully boxed and brought to the museum and in a
few instances I have been able to place the pieces together so
.as to fully restore the vessel. However, a few small cups made
^of the pottery clay, apparently moulded in the hand, have been
found. These are in a perfect state. In several instances large
lumps of clay bearing marks of the basket in which they were
carried to the village were found. These have been carefully
brought to the museum and are now placed on exhibition.
A large number of implements made of bones and of deer
and elk antlers have been found. Those made from the elk
antlers were no doubt used for digging and for agricultural pur-
poses. Some of these are quite large, being three inches broad
and ten inches long, and having a sharp cutting edge resembling
Sixteenth Ayimial Meeting. 83
very much the stone celt which is found in the same village.
Another form of implement made from the antlers is the arrow
point. These are made by drilling a hole for the entrance of
the shaft and for attachment, the other end being worked to
a sharp point. Some of the larger ones had an extra hole drilled
in the side ; these were no doubt used for harpoons in catching
the large freshwater drum, and other fishes whose bones are
found in the ash pits. Another form of implement which was
found in great numbers in this village, is the scraper, made
from the leg bone of the deer and elk. These singular, longi-
tudinally grooved bones, have very sharp edges, beveled on the
inside, and were no doubt used in preparing the skins of ani-
mals for use in making clothing, etc. By constant use these
bones became worn down and would break in the center at the
thinnest point. The broken halves of these implements have
been found in great numbers. In one ash pit twenty-seven of
these broken scrapers were removed. We also found a number
of the bones showing the stages of manufacture through which
the implement passed before it became fit for use as a scraper.
The most common bone implement found in this village is the
awl. These are of all sizes, ranging in length from two to nine
inches. A number of the largest and most elegantly made awls
were manufactured from the bones of the deer and elk. The
largest w^ere usually ornamented and had but one point, while
some of the smaller awls were double pointed. These awls may
have been used for various purposes. One of the most common
bone awls is the one made from the tarso-metatarsus of the wild
turkey. During the summer more than 200 of the perfect speci-
mens were taken from these ash pits. Some of these awls are
decorated with notches, others with incised lines, and all are
highly polished. Another favorite bone used for making these
awls was the fibula of the raccoon. A great many awls were
also made from the shoulder blade of the deer and elk, but
very few of the awls of any kind had perforations for attach-
ment. The bone needles found in this village site are usually
about six inches in length. They are made from the rib bones
of various animals, usually the deer and elk, as a number o.
ribs from these animals showing the various stages of manii-
84 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
facture of the -needle, have been found. This needle is per-
forated at one end. Among the other objects made of bone
is the bead. These are made from the hollow bones of birds,
especially the wing bones of the great horned owl and wild
turkey. Some of the beads are made of cylindrical bones and
these are usually marked with notches and with incised lines.
Great numbers of beads were found upon the skeletons of chil-
dren, varying in ages from two to ten years. Some of the pits
would contain from fifty to one hundred of these beads. The
fish hooks found in this village are of great mterest, for a full
description of the fish hook I refer you to volume 9, page 520,.
of the Society's publications.
Arrow and spear points, some five inches in length, drills,
scrapers, and other chipped implements of stone are very com-
mon, and are usually made of fiint obtained from the flint quar-
ries at Flint Ridge, Licking county, Ohio, although a few speci-
mens of the Kentucky flint have been taken from the pits, yet
we could practically say that all the flint used in this village
was obtained from the Ohio quarries. The most abundant kind
of arrow point is the small triangular point not over one and
one-half inches in length. These were most abundant in the
pits. Two varieties of grooved axes were found. The greatest
number found were of the variety having the groove entirely
around the pole, the other kind is known as the ax, grooved
on both faces with the back hollowed and usually in a straight
line. The celts were more abundant than the grooved axes, and
a great many very beautifully formed and polished ones were
found. The hammer stones were found in great numbers. The
largest number taken from one pit was fifteen, some of these
hammer stones were pitted, while others were perfectly round.
A number of very large stone mortars were procured. One of
these taken from an ash pit is quite large, the bowl being eight
inches in diameter. I wish to call your attention to the discov-
ery of a large amount of corn and nuts that were found in these
pits. Some of this corn was still attached to the cob, but in
no instance did we find any great quantity of it in one place. In
one pit about a peck of corn was found, which had evidently been
covered by a woven fabric, as small particles of this fabric were
Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 85
intermingled with the corn. I submitted the grains and seeds
to Prof. J. H. Schaffner, of the Ohio State University. Depart-
ment of Botany, for identification. The following is the Hst:
Corn, Zea mays L.
Great quantities of the eight-rowed variety were found.
The cobs were usually about one-half inch in diameter. An-
other variety was also discovered which had ten rows and a verv
much thicker cob. The grains and cobs were in a good state
of preservation, having been charred. In several instances grain
and seeds were found in large pieces of broken pottery and were
well preserved. Finding the corn in so many of the pits shows
that it largely produced the food of the camp.
Quantities of charred papaw seeds (asimina triloba L)
Dunal, and the wild hazelnut (corylus Americana) Walt, were
secured from a number of pits, showing that these were largely
used for food.
Quite a quantity of the seeds of the wild red plum (prunis
Americana ) Marsh, were also taken from the pits. These were
in a number of cases, associated with papaw seeds and the shells
of the chestnut (castanea dentata) Marsh, Borkh.
Great quantites of the shells of the butternuts (juglans cine-
rea) L., and the black walnut (juglans nigra) L., were discovered.
These were usually found associated together, but in several in-
stances they were found separated, the butternuts being more
abundant than the walnuts.
Three species of hickory nut were procured, but none of
these were in such quantities as the butternuts and black wal-
nuts. The three species found were as follows : Hicora minima
(Marsh), Britt., hicora ovata (Mill.), Britt., hicora laciniosa
CMx.), Britt.
Several specimens of beans, phaseolus (sp.), and also a
specimen of the grape, vitis (sp.), were found in the material,
but it was not possible to tell whether the beans were one of
our wild species or cultivated.
The list of objects taken from these pits, which is far from
being complete, is sufficient to show that anything used by the
people who lived in this village is liable to be discovered in the
8t) Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
pits during future explorations. We hope to continue the work
until the village is thoroughly examined.
At the bottom of three of the pits and under the usual mass
of animal remains, broken pottery, shells and the usual mass
of ashes, were found perfect human skeletons. But these pits
containing the human skeletons were not as deep on the aver-
age as those containing nothing but the refuse. Yet in some
of the very deep pits the skeletons of very young infants have
been found. The pits revealed, in all, seventeen of these very
small baby skeletons, and in every case these were perfectly pre-
served when imbedded in the ashes. A few were found that
were buried in the soil outside of the pits, but these were so much
decayed that not a single bone could be saved, while near by
would be the skeleton of an adult perfectly preserved. The
thousands of specimens procured by the field work have not
as yet been placed on display, on account of the crowded con-
dition of the museum.
THE MUSEUM.
During the past year much has been done in the internal
work of the museum. Room number 7, which is adjacent to
the main gallery of the museum, was set aside by the trustees
of the university for our use and this room has been devoted to
the display of historical relics, photographs, drawings, paintings,
etc., and many of the historical specimens that w^e exhibited in
the library and office have been removed to this room.
The number of visitors to the museum is steadily increasing
as its character is becoming better known. Hardly a day passes
that I am not called upon to answer questions of visitors from
various parts of the State. Many schools and classes, and espe-
cially those of Columbus, also visit the museum, and when pre-
viously notified of such visits, I have endeavored to make them
profitable to scholars. Also various organizations that have
met in the Capital City have visited the museum in a body, and
in a number of instances I have called upon students, who have
aided me in the field, to act as ushers and they have gladly
assisted me in the work of conducting parties through the
museum.
Sixteenth A^imcal Rfeetmg. 87
We contemplate the purchase of new cases for the west:
side of the museum, and hope to have every available space
occupied by new cases to accommodate as much of the material
as is possible. The museum work is naturally very slow and
exceedingly tedious. Every specimen is carefully examined and.
•studied and only the very best material can be placed on exhi-
bition on account of our cramped condition.
It is my intention during the coming year to make a new-
catalogue of the entire collection and this, as you are well aware,,
will require a great deal of careful work.
LECTURES ox AXTHROPOLOGY.
The great interest in Ohio archaeology manifested by the'
students of our university induced me to offer, the past winter,
a free course of "Lecture Studies" in anthropology, and more
than one hundred students of the university and teachers in the
high schools of the city have availed themselves of this oppor-
runitv. The subjects discussed in this course of twelve lectures,
were :
1. Fire; Discoverv and making of tire: Condition of man
without fire.
2. Uses of lire,! heat, canoe-making, cooking, etc. Influence
of fire socially. The hearth locates the home.
3. Food : How obtained and eaten ; Examples of people whc
eat raw food; Storing of food, cooking and pre-
serving.
4. Cannibalism ; Cause of : Cannibals surpass their neigh-
bors in civilization.
5. Agriculture ; Its beginning and influence.
6. Domestication; Origin and influence upon mankind.
7. The Stone Age. The meaning of the term. Divisions
in Ohio.
8. ]\Iodes of making the stone tools. Influence of stone
working upon society.
9. Use of metals. Its beginning as shown in America,
mines, etc. Bronze Age; Where did it prevail?
The Iron age in Africa.
88 OJiio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
10. Dress and adornment. Origin of dress. Origin of orna-
ment.
11. -viounds and their builders. Description of all the great
mounds in Ohio.
12. Milage Sites ; Refuse Heaps, and Ash Pits.
This course of lectures and the personal attention given to
visitors has naturally taken much of my time. I cannot but be-
lieve that they are such as you would wish to have continued
with such limits as will prevent neglect to the duties of the
]\Iuseum and arrangement and care of the collection. In the
last named duties I have been ably assisted by Miss Lane and
Miss Coutellier. While in my office much of the time has to be
spent in routine work, in correspondence and in making out de-
scriptive labels, and in giving my attention to so many minor
details that I find it impossible to mention everything in this
â– connection.
DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM.
As is well known to you the explorations which have been
successfully prosecuted by the Society have naturally caused a
large increase in the number of specimens received at the Museum
during the past year, to which are to be added a great number of
donations which come from various parts of the State and from
people who are interested in the building up of our Museum.
To Mr. Wilbur Stout whose home is in Sciotoville, Scioto
County, Ohio, but who is now a student at the Ohio State Uni-
versity, we are indebted for a valuable series of objects, obtained
from near his home in Sciotoville. Among the most interesting
â– of these objects are large hoes, made from a ferruginous sand-
stone which is obtained in the neighborhood. Mr. Stout says that
these hoes are found in great numbers in his vicinity. The splen-
did collection he has so kindly donated makes a very valuable
addition.
From j\Ir. C. R. Wilson, Circleville, Ohio, we have received
a collection of implements such as celts, arrow and spear points,
etc., which were obtained from the site of an old Indian village
near that city.
Mr. A. B. Coover of Roxabell, Ohio, a life member of the
Society, has continued to send to t'"e ^.luseum from time to time,
Sixteenth Aymual Meeting. 89
•such specimens as he could secure in the vicinity of his home.
He also obtained a very interesting skeleton near the western bor-
der of the county, which was removed by himself and at his own
expense. The skeleton was covered with red ochre. With the
skeleton was found a fine grooved ax: 'W.x. Coover also collected
several fine pipes from the vicinity of Frankfort. Mr. Coover
has shown a continual interest in the Museum and a desire to do
all in his power in furtherance of its objects and purposes. I
must further say that all his labors have been gratuitous.
]Mr. James Scott of Portsmouth, Ohio, presented a Spanish
coin which was found along the Little Scioto at Wheelers ]\Iill,
near Sciotoville.
Hon. X. W. Swayne, of Toledo, a prominent attorney of
that place, and a life member of the Society, presented a unique
pipe which was found in Central Michigan. Pipes and other
implements and ornaments of this character have brought forth
a flood of discussion, as a few years ago according to Prof. Kel-
sey, a number of specimens which he had obtained from Wyman,
Michigan, were pronounced frauds. Yet I am inclined to think
that the pipe procured by ^Ir. Swayne is not one of the modern
manufacture.
To Air. Aimer Hegler of Washington C. H., we are in-
debted for a number of specimens procured from a gravel bank
not far from his country residence, which is about eight miles
from Washington C. H. The skeletons removed by INlr. Hegler
were covered with a red paint, similar to those found by Mr.
Coover. With the skeletons were found two large grooved axes
made of diorite. These were also coated with this red paint,
also two large tubes made from fire clay, one of which in a per-
fect state is five and one-half inches in length, one and one-fourth
inches in diameter at the larger end, and three-fourths of an inch
at the smaller end, with a hole having a diameter of one inch
tapering at the small end to one-fourth of an inch in diameter.
The other one w^hich is somewhat larger was broken when it was
removed from the grave. A number of arrow and spear points
were also taken out, all in a perfect state. All implements taken
from this gravel bank are coated with this red paint.
Among other gifts I take pleasure in mentioning those by
90 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
]\Ir. W. D. Beaumont of Alexandria, Licking County, Ohio, who
sends several specimens from the Rowe Farm which is about
one-half mile from Alexandria. A few years ago Mr. Beaumont
lost his collection by fire. This was one of the largest collections
in Licking County, and had been preserved with great care, the
locality of all the finds being accurately noted. This collection
was on exhibition in the window of one of the business houses
of Alexandria, when the building took fire and the collection
mainly burned. Mr. Beaumont gathered up the few remnants
and sent them to our Museum for safekeeping. Since that time
he has been adding to the collection, which has now grown to
several hundred specimens.
Mr. E. F. Preston of Alexandria, presented a number of
specimens taken from the Colville mound, located on the out-
skirts of the village. From this mound was taken a number of
very fine specimens of slate ornaments, celts, arrow and spear
points.
From Mr. Jacob L. Bowsher, Adelphi, Ross County. Ohio,
we received a collection of fifteen skeletons, taken from a gravel'
bank, which is located near his home, and from which he was
removing gravel. Mr. Bowsher obtained a number of very fine
specimens from these burials. I was notified of the finds, and
visited the gravel bank and with the aid of Mr. Bowsher and his
two sons removed several skeletons. With one of the skeletons
a very fine awl made from the metacarpal bone of the deer, was
found. Mr. Bowsher also found some very interesting speci-
mens of pottery resembling those taken from the Baum village,
near Bourneville, Ross County, Ohio.
Prof. Samuel W. Collett, who has a very interesting and
valuable collection from Indiana, also a number of very fine speci-
mens taken from Sioux Indian graves in Dakota, has deposited
his collection for safekeeping in the Museum. The specimens
taken from the Sioux graves were procured near Cham"berland.
South Dakota, and were taken from an old Sioux Indian burying
ground, and consist of a number of bracelets, made of heavy
copper wire one-eighth of an inch in diameter, also a number of
bracelets varying in width from one-half to one inch, and orna-
mented with incised lines and scrolls. Some arc rjade of copper
Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 91
and some are made of silver. A large number of copper and
silver disks two and one-fourth inches in diameter were found.
Great quantities of beads made of bones, shell, glass and copper ;
the old hunting knife ; the flint and steel which was used in mak-
ing fire in those early days ; these are all in a good state of pre-
servation, and the collection is very valuable and complete.
To Mr. Joseph Balo, Virginia Township, Coshocton Co.,
Ohio, we are indebted for a very large stone pestle, 15 inches in
length, and made from variegated slate. This is the largest
specimen made from that material that we«have in the Museum.
From Mrs. Honor Runyon, 88 West Woodruff Ave., Colum-
bus, we have received on deposit a very old copper teapot, brought
to Ohio in 1806, from Trenton, New Jersey, by Mr. Jonathan
Hunt of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
We have received from Mr. Day of Xenia, Ohio, a number
of very good skeletons. They were procured from a mound near
the city of Xenia. They are quite an addition to our large col-
lection of skeletons.
To Mr. J. M. Swank, General Manager of the American Iron
and Steel Association, we are indebted for a fine collection of
knives made from the first steel ever manufactured in the United
States, and this comes from Cincinnati, Ohio. A full and inter-
esting history of these knives will be found in chapter XLTV of
Mr. Swank's history of the "Manufacture of Iron in all Ages."
To Mr. F. M. Benner, Lisbon, Ohio, we are indebted for
the lower mandible of the fossil Peccary, and the metacarpal bone
of the deer. These were found in connection with a large mas-
todon that was discovered while making excavations for the
erection of a bridge. These specimens are interesting in two
ways, first that they were found associated with the bones of
the mastodon, and second that the fossil Peccary is the second
found and recorded in the State, the first having been found near
Chillicothe.
From Mr. B. F. Smith of Stewart, Ohio, was received
samples of some noted wood from every state in the union. From
these pieces he made the gavel used at the Republican National
Convention, at Philadelphia, June 19th. 1900.
92 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
We are greatly indebted to Hon. Emil Schkip of Lowell,
Wyandot Co., Ohio, for a section of a log taken from the cabin
of Chief Crane, the chief Indian of the Wyandot tribe. He was
born in 1742, near Detroit, and died in 1818 near Cranetown,
Crane Township, Wyandot Co., Ohio. He was Grand Sachem
of his tribe and the most influential in securing the ratification of
the Greeneville treaty which he ever after observed.
From Hon. Eugene Lane, Columbus, Ohio, we have received
a very large collection of shells, fossils, and various historical
relics. The shells were mostly collected along the Pacific sea-
board, the historical relics were collected from all over the United
States. These wnll soon be arranged in cases.
LIBRARY.
During the year many books and pamphlets have been re-
ceived, both in exchange and as donations. The number of bound
volumes received was^ 1,202, the number of pamphlets received
1500, atlasses 3, maps 3. Of these 588 bound volumes were gifts,
614 were received in exchange. The Societies and Institutions
contributing were 126 in number, individuals 42.
I have been ably assisted in the work of the library by Miss
Pearl Coutellier, who has been looking after the accessions. One
can see an appreciable increase in the volumes, during the year,
when it is taken into consideration that not a single cent has been
used in the purchase of volumes and all have either been donated
us or received in exchange.
The Society is indebted to Baker's Art Gallery, Columbus,
Ohio, for the following large photographs, size 22 by 28 inches :
President William McKinley; Hon. Allen G. Thurman (life
member and first President of the Society) ; Hon. John Sherman
(life member and Trustee) ; Hon. Joseph B. Foraker (life mem-
ber) ; President R. B. Hayes (life member and President) ; Rev.
Dr. William E. Moore (life member, Trustee and Vice-Presi-
dent) ; Ex-senator Calvin S. Brice (life member and trustee) ;
Ex-governor Charles Foster (life member) ; Ex-governor George
Hoadley ; Ex-governor James E. Campbell ; Ex-governor Asa S.
Bushnell (life member) : Dr. Edward Orton (Hfe member) ;
Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden (honorary and I'-fe member) ; Dr.
Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 9-5
Thomas :\Iendenhall ; Dr. James H. Canfield ; Gov. George K.
Nash (life member) ; Gen. R. Brinkerhoff (life member and
President); E. O. Randall (life member, Trustee and Secretary).
These are all hung on the east wall of the library.
Prof. J. A. Bownocker, Ph. D., has presented the Society
with a plaster bust of Dr. Edward Orton.
During- the year more than 200 students of the University
have availed themselves of the use of this library.
The heirs of the late Mrs. A. A. Graham, have deposited
with the Society their library, wdiich is composed of 91 volumes.
A list of these volumes has been made but not accessioned.
The following is a list of the persons who have made dona-
tions to the library, since my last report, with the number of vol-
umes each gave :
BOUND
VOLUMES
Fred. J. Heer 38
Thos. W. Kinney 1
Prof. Herbert Osborn • 3
W. C. Mills 50
Prof. Stephen D. Peet 1
Prof. John B. Peaslee 1
Bishop B. W. Arnett 4
Chas. Geo. Carnegys 1
Isreal Williams 1
Clarence B. Moore 7
R. A. Smith 1
E. O. Randall 60
Chas. Wm. Burkett 1
E. F. Wood 11
Col. Wm. A. Taylor 1
Clark Bell 10
Gen. Henry A. Axline, Adj. Gen. of State 23
Hon. Chas. Kinney, Secretary of State 8
Hon. W. W. Miller, Secretary State Board of Agriculture 26
Hon. W. S. Matthews, Insurance Commissioner 15
Hon. Frank S. Monnett, Attorney-General of Ohio 9
Hon. W. D. Guilbert, Auditor of State 20
Prof. C. O. Probst, Secretary State Board of Health 12
Gen. Geo. B. Wright 50
J. W. Tweed 15
Prof. Lewis D. Bonebrake, Commissioner of Common Schools 15
Gen. Roeliff Brinkerhoff 4
i^4
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatio7is.
BOUND
VOLUMES
Gen. J. Warren Keifer 2
Prof. Warren K. Moorehead 1
Samuel Calvin 3
James M. Swank 2
Miss Harriet Townsend 16
Prof. J. A. Bownocker 1
Gerard Fowke 9
Pres. W. O. Thompson 1
Hon. J. W. Knaub, Commissioner of Labor 11
B. B. Herrick 20
D. W. Williams 1
JMarshall Field 2
Hon. J. J. Lentz, through the U. S. War Department 129
EXCHANGES.
The following is a list of the Publications and Institutions
with which we interchange, showing the number of volumes
.and pamphlets we now have on hand.
BOUND PAM-
VOLUMES PHLETS
American Museum of Natural History 10 13
American Historical Association 11 ....
American Academy of Political and Social Science 10 14
American Philosophical Society 7 6
Academy of History and Antiquity 3 2
American Catholic Historical Society 6 3
American Antiquarian Society 21 4
American Numismatic and Archaeological Society 1 2
American Antiquarian 15 17
American Geographical Society 13 2
American Iron and Steel Association 7 1
American Catholic Historical Researches 8 8
Bussy Institute 1 4
Buchtel College 2
Boston Public Library 9 6
Buffalo Historical Society 1
Buffalo Society of Natural Science 5 ....
Bowdoin Public Library 5 32
Berea College Library 1 16
Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society 9
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 1 2
Bureau of Ethnology 19 ....
â– Cincinnati Society of Natural History 15 19
Sixteenth Annual Meeti7ig.
95
Canadian Institute
Chicago Historical Society
Congress International d' Anthropologic et d' Archae
ologie Prehistoriques
Colorado College Scientific Society
Columbia University
Case Memorial Library
Connecticut Historical Society
Colorado Scientific Society *
California Historical Society
Chautaquan
Cornell University
Dedham Historical Society
Davenport Academy of Natural Science
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Elgin Historical and Scientific Association
Franklin Institute
Field Columbian Museum '
Firelands Historical Society
Fairfield County Historical Society
Ceneological and Biographical Society
Ceographical Club of Philadelphia
Geographical Society of the Pacific
Hampton Institute Library
Harvard University Library
Harvard University Observatory
Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio
Iowa State Historical Society
Iowa Agricultural Society
Iowa Masonic Library
Iowa Academy of Science
Iowa State Historical Department
Illinois State Historical Library
Indian Rights Association • • •
Johns Hopkins University
Kansas State Historical Society
Kansas Academy of Science
Library Company of Philadelphia
Long Island Historical Society
'Library of Congress
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Missouri Historical Society
BOUND
VOLUMES
1
PAM-
PHLETS
4
7
1
5
1
17
1
14
11
7
1
12
28
16
27
33
2
1
11
12
2
14
6
2
5
1
3
3
5
2
3
2
1
30
5
12
96
OJdo Arch, and His. Society Publicatioyis .
BOUND PAM-
VOLUMES PHLETS-
Maine Geneologioal Society 2 1
Massachusetts Historical Society 12 3
Missouri Botanical Garden 11
Medico-Legal Journal 1
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society 7 ....
Miami University 1 • • • â–
Massachusetts Society Sons of American Revolution 1
Minnesota Historical Library 1
Montana State Historical Society 2 24
McLean County Historical Society 2 3'
New York State Library 1
New England Free Trade League 30'
New York Public Library 3 12
New Haven Colony Historical Society 5 1
Northern Indiana Historical Society 3-
New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory
Schools 2 ....
Nebraska Historical Society 2 2'
New England Society City of Brooklyn 1
New Hampshire Historical Society 2 1
Newberry Library 2'
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society 3 2
National Civil Service Reform League 1- 54
National League for the Protection of the Family 12'
New York Historical Society 4 ....
New London County Historical Society 1 ....
New Jersey Historical Society 22 ....
Nantucket Historical Association 10'
Ontario Historical Society 3 4
Oneida Historical Society 4
Oberlin College Library 20'
Old North-West Genealogical Society 1 5
Ohio Agricultural and Experiment Station 17
Peabody Museum 4
Pennsylvania Historical Society 6 2'
Pratt Institute 4 12
Rhode Island Historical Society 12 1
Rochester Historical Society 1
Rochester Academy of Science 2 3
Redwood Library and Athenaeum 5
Smithsonian Institute 26 ....
Sound Currency 10
Staten Island Natural Science Association 9'
Sixieeiiih AnmiaJt Meeting.
97
BOUND PAM-
VOLUMES PHLETa
State Charities Association of New York...... 2 ....
Southern Historical Society 9 ....
Southern California Historical Society 4 i
Scotch-Irish Society of America 9 ....
Society of the History of the Germans in Maryland 1 ...
Texas Historical Association 3 5
Trinity College Historical Society 3
University of California Library 3 'i'J
University of Toronto Library 2 1
University of Pennsylvania, Department of History 10 9
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Archaeology
and Palaeontology 16 10
University of Michigan Library 3 4
University of Chicago Press 4
University of Toulouse 6
United States Geological Survey 31 ....
Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society 2
Virginia Historical Society 6 5
Wisconsin State Historical Society 11 2
Western Reserve Historical Society....- 8 15
Wyoming Historical and Geological Society 2 ....
Western Reserve University 5
Washington State Historical Society 4
Wagner Free Institute 2 1
Washington and Lee University ^
West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society 3
Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 9 2
Yale University Library 5 t-
Yearly Meeting of Friends ^
In conclusion I wish to express my appreciation of the
encouragement and support I have received from the officers
and members of the Society.
June I, 1901.
Vo^ X — ■?
EDITORIALANA.
VOLo X. No. J. t(Cr^l^*^^o^ JULY, J90J.
"LAND BILL" ALLEN.
We have been asked for the "facts" concerning "Land Bill" Allen.
The facts are sparse and soon stated. The fiction is aipple and almost
unprecedented. The myths and popularly ac-
cepted beliefs concerning Allen's career were
sufficient to place him in the distinguished cat-
egory of Homer, William Tell and the "Man in
the Iron Mask." The curious individual known
P**^ V ^ ^^ "Land Bill" Allen was George Wheaton
^^*f ^ \) Allen. He was born in Windham, Conn., May
p"^ 17, 1809, and died at Columbus, Ohio, Novem-
ber 29, 1891, in his eighty-third year. He was,
^ for a generation or more previous to his death,
IV^Jlkji^^^ almost universally believed to have been the
Y^^^^^^^^H^Y originator of the idea, the author of and the
\^$^^^^w^f chief promotor of the Homestead law finally
1.ANDDILL Allen, passed by Congress, May 20, 1862, and securing
to certain qualified citizens the right to enter upon 160 acres of unappro-
priated lands at $1.25 an acre and after five years' actual residence to
own it. Hence his sobriquet "Land Bill." Many supposed he was in
Congress and introduced the act. Many confounded him with congress-
man, Senator (1837) and Governor (1873) William Allen of Ohio, who
was widely called "Old Bill" Allen, "Rise Up William" Allen and "Fog
Horn" Allen.
George Wheaton Allen was never in congress, the legislature or
any public office great or small. He never had anything to do, in the
remotest degree, with the Homestead Act, any of its attempted pre-
cursors or subsequent amendments. That he was credited . with being
its father is one of those historical phenomena that proves the fruitful-
ness of fiction and the unreliability of popular rumor. He who skeptically
said "Teach me anything but history for that is always false," must
have had in mind some such incident as "Land Bill" Allen. His early
youth was spent in New England, in Connecticut, Rhode Island and
New York. His father was a tailor, industrious, thrifty and well to do.
George had the benefit of a fair education and served as apprentice in his
father's business and later as apprentice in the printer's trade. He came
to Ohio in 1829 and first settled in Worthington, north of Columbus.
98
Editoriala na. 99
A year or two later he movea to the capital city (Columbus) and started
a notion store in connection with which he became a peddler and auc-
tioneer, claiming to be the pioneer in Ohio of that calling. It was prob-
ably about this time (1833) while engaged as a peripatetic peddler that
he became interested in the land bill question. On his handsomely
appointed peddler's wagon in conspicuous letters was painted, "Land
Bill Allen," and "A home for all." With this vehicle drawn by two
horses he drove throughout the country into the southern and western
states, crying and selling his wares, and with the tail end of his wagon
for a "stump" proclaiming and advocating the land bill scheme. In his
latter years he claimed, and it was believed by all and probably at last
by himself, that he had expended some $60,000 in arousing sentiment
for and in trying to get the Homestead Bill passed ; that from a compar-
atively rich man he became a financial wreck in behalf of his fellow men.
He never had any property of value, as far as can now be learned, but
true it is that his possessions were finally reduced to a little cabin in Plain
township (Franklin county, near New Albany) in which he lived (from
before the war, '61-5) until 1891, when his home was sold for taxes at
Sheriff's sale. The unfortunate man became a wanderer, dependent
upon the generosity of friends. Efforts were made by benevolent people
in various parts of the country for his relief. Offers of aid came from
Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, even Oklahoma Territory and the
Pacific coast, and the New England States. In some instances he was
tendered admission to charitable homes. These he declined. The remit-
tances were small and of slight avail and he was finally compelled, a few
months before his death, to seek shelter in the Franklin county infirmary,
where he died on the date above given.
His death was conspicuously and pathetically noticed by leading
papers throughout the land. He was heralded as a hero martyr to the
cause of humanity — "a public benefactor to whom this country owed
a vast debt of gratitude, which, alas, was never paid; one who had
contributed loyally to the betterment of mankind and helped thousands
to secure property and prosperous homes," etc., etc. His death elicited
sympathetic messages from far and near, especially from workingmen,
western settlers and labor societies. The representatives of organized labor
in Columbus with laudable intent met and arranged for the funeral. They
purchased a lot in Green Lawn Cemetery for his interment, and on the
day of his funeral (December 2) the remains, in a casket of black cloth
and silver mountings lay in state from 10 a. m. until 1 :30 p. m. in the
rotunda of the capitol building. This honor awarded the memory of the
deceased is one rarely bestowed ; for a generation but three other instances
are recorded; that of President Lincoln, of Thomas Jones, the sculptor,
and of J. A. MacGahan, the war correspondent. The casket of the
deceased was covered with floral tributes. On the top rested a sheaf
â– of wheat and a pillow of roses and chrysanthemums with the words in
purple immortelles, "Home, Sweet Home." Hundreds passed through
100 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Ptcblications.
the rotunda to view the remains. The funeral services were held in the
First Congregational Church, where before a large and interested audience
Rev. Washington Gladden delivered an address in which he paid truthful
but kindly tribute to the deceased. In that discourse the public were
disabused of the prevalent credence concerning "Land Bill" Allen. It
is to the statements then made by Dr. Gladden and a subsequent article
by him in "The Century," as well as to Mr. Henry C. Filler, formerly
Superintendent Franklin County Infirmary, that we are mainly indebted for
the sources of this article.
The truth concerning George W. Allen was a revelation to the general
public, and particularly to the community in which he had lived and was
personally known. That he was entitled to the claims he made for
himself concerning the land bill, was absurd, as any investigation might
have easily established. The idea of the homestead act originated about
the time of Allen's birth. Many schemes were bruited abroad, and
indeed proposed in congress, from 1814 to 1828 and then on, involving
the granting under various conditions of portions of land for cheap or
free settlement. Petitions from various sections of the country were from
time to time sent to Congress in advocacy of a homestead law. In 1814
the representative of Franklin county in Congress \/as Reverend and
Colonel (he was both) James Kilbourne of Worthington. A sketch of
this Congressman Kilbourne in Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography says:
"The proposition to grant lands in the northwest territory to actual set-
tlers, originated with him and as chairman of the select committee he
drew up the bill for that purpose." This was the first Homestead Act
introduced in Congress. It was nearly fifty years before any such act
became a law, but -Colonel Kilbourne seems to have been the first to have
presented the plan to the National Government.
The granting of free homes from and on the public domain became
a national question in 1852, when the Free Soil Democracy in their
national convention inserted in their platform, the demand "that public
lands shall be granted free of cost to landless settlers," Galusha A.
Grow (Penn.) became the special champion of the measure in Congress.
When George W. Allen came to Ohio, as already noted, about 1830,
he settled in Worthington. Colonel Kilbourne was then in the Ohio
Legislature and it is surmised that Allen got his homestead idea from
Colonel Kilbourne, and adopted it as his own, at least that he thought
and talked it until he regarded and believed it his own, as one
writer says : "He assimilated the homestead idea until it was flesh of his
flesh and bone of his bone, and it became very soon the one thing for
which he lived and moved and had his being." He not only preached it en
his peddling trips, but he wrote letters to prominent personages, to
Webster, Clay and Calhoun. He printed tracts and pamphlets and dis-
tributed them right and left.
He became sincerely and strenuously imbued with the belief that he
was the "original simon pure" Homestead author and promotor. He was-
Editorialana. 101
self-deluded. It became his .monomania. He was more Simplician than
Charlatan, though a curious mixture of both.
The Ohio legislature in 1850 enacted the Homestead Exemption
Law — granting homestead of certain value or a certain amoimt of prop-
erty exempt from the reach of creditors. Allen it was claimed was instru-
mental in securing the passage of this law, but that is only another of the
Allen myths. There is no evidence that he had anything to do with it.
Indeed he is not the sort of a character to have accomplished the things
attributed to him. He lived an aimless and largely useless life, eking
out a mere subsistence and displaying abilities and ambitions far too
mediocre to be influential. His auction rooms in Columbus, which were
located on High street, near Town, were the reputed scenes of "a good
deal of buffoonery, for our hero was not a dignified personage. In fact
he was the butt of the wits and practical jokers of the town.' His auctions
were often very farcical performances, for articles would be run up by the
eager bidders to the most astounding price, but the man who made the
last bid could never be identified. But the auctioneer was always good-
natured. He never lost his temper. He joined in the laugh which was
raised at his expense and went on with the sale as best he could. Many
stories are told illustrating his simplicity, his lack of ordinary shrewdness,
the easiness with which he could be imposed upon, and the uniform
belief is, that nothing could provoke him to resentment or malice, that
his heart was full of kindness and his speech always friendly and gracious."
Such was "Land Bill' Allen. He died friendless and alpne. the
ward of his county. At his death no relatives near or remote could be
found. His wife had died many years before at New Albany, Franklin
county. He doubtless innocently enjoyed the attainment and contem-
plation of his pseudo fame. Many men have had credit for more and
deserved less.
THE NORTHWEST UNDER THREE FLAGS.
Mr. George Moore, of Washington, D. C. is the author of an histor-
ical work, recently published by Harper Brothers, entitled 'The North-
west under three flags" (1635-1798.) It is a most admirable, accurate
and complete resume of the history of the occupation and development
of the great Ohio Valley from the earliest French settlements to the
establishment of the Northwest Territory, under the famous ordinance
of 1787. Mr. Moore recounts a delightful and thrilling story of the con-
flicts between the aboriginal inhabitants and the Latin race (French)
usurpers; then between the French and English and finally between the
two divisions of the Anglo-Saxon race, the English and the Americans.
We know of no one book that covers the movements of these import-
ant events so compactly and clearly as does the volume of Mr. Moore.
He is a close and careful student. He has examined in great measure
102 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
the original documents, and sources of information as well as consulted
the leading authors upon the periods of which he treats. So much does
this work contain that is pertinent to Ohio that we give space to a brief
digest of his chapters, frequently quoting his language.
UNDER THE FRENCH FLAG.
Mr. Moore begins with the entrance of the "Unknown waters of the
broad St. Lawrence," by Jacques Cartier in 1534, under the patronage
of Francis I, who "viewed with alarm" as the politicians say, the dis-
coveries the English and Spanish were making in the new world. Sub-
sequent French voyages and discoveries are passed over till that of Samuel
Champlain (1603) "the Father of New France" who was the first white
man to look ofif across the waters of Lake Huron. He planted the col-
ony of Quebec (1608), discovered Lake Champlain, and in 1620 was
appointed by the King (Louis XIII) Governor of Canada. Then follow
rapidly the western water discoveries (1618-42) and navigations of
Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior by Champlain's
associates or successors, as Brule, Nicolet and Joliet. These were the
early days of the Jesuit- Missions and the straggling and struggling settle-
ments of New France along the great water ways from the St. Lawrence
to the straits of Mackinac and beyond. The Indian contested the encroach-
ment of the French, but the intrepid fur trader and the zealous mis-
sionary were not to be dislodged, though the war of the savage and the
civilized races was to continue for a century and a half. "In the year
1G43 the entire population of New France numbered not to exceed three
hundred souls, whereas the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut and New Haven banded together could count a popula-
tion of 24,000." But the adventurous French merchant, like Radisson
and dauntless missionary like Marquette, pushed on West while the New
England colonies were growing apace on the Atlantic coast and the Eng-
lish peltry purchasers were getting their hold on the region of Hud-,
son's Bay. The Hudson Bay Company took corporate form about 1670
under Charles II, whose cousin Prince Rupert and associates instituted
the monopoly. New France therefore occupied the St. Lawrence and
great Lakes territory. But farther west the pious priest and peltry trader
ventured ; across lakes and by portage to the head waters of the Wiscon-
sin river, down which they floated "till caught and whirled along by
the on-rushing Mississippi, then accomplishing a discovery that in the
words of Bancroft 'changed the destinies of tJie nations.' " The Mis-
sissippi discovery was by Louis Joliet in 1673; De Soto, the Spanish
adventurer, had penetrated the southern interior from Florida, and dis-
covered the mouth of the Mississippi in 1541. Louis Frontenac was ap-
pomted governor general of Canada in 1678. In 1679 La Salle, in the
Griffin, sailed the waters of Lake Erie, bearing "the royal commission
to establish a line of forts along the great lakes whereby to hold for France
Editorialana. 103
all that rich far country." He looked forward to a chain of forts and
trading posts stretching from Quebec along the Great Lakes and thence
down the Mississippi to its mouth. In pursuance of this ambitious aim
La Salle passed through Lake Huron and Michigan, descended the
Illinois river and the Mississippi to its mouth, which he reached in 1681 ;
naming the valley of this river Louisiana, and claiming it for his sov-
ereign, Louis XIV.
An interesting chapter is devoted to the founding of the settlement
and fort on the Detroit river by Cadillac in 1701. This was regarded
by the King of France and governor-general of Canada, as the strategic
point of the west. It commanded the water traffic between the lakes, and
was the best point defensive and offensive for war operations with or
against the Indians. For more than a century Detroit was the historic
storm center of the northwest.
"The daring enterprise of the French trader and the devoted heroism
of the French missionary in their discovery of the Northwest have been
related. Up the rapids of the St. Lawrence, through the chain of the
vast inland seas, and down the rushing waters of the Mississippi swept
the tide of French discovery. With the exception of a strip of land
lying along the Atlantic and extending scarcely a hundred miles back
into the wilderness, the continent of North America at the middle of
the eighteenth century belonged to his most Christian majesty by the well
recognized right of discovery and occupation. In- the court of nations
it mattered nothing that the soil was in the actual possession not of
Frenchmen but of Indians, and that the foot of white men had never
trod more than the smallest fraction of the country over which France
claimed domain. While recognizing the policy of conciliating the Indians,
France nevertheless, claimed the exclusive right to acquire from them,
and to dispose of, the land which they occupied, and to make laws for
the government of the country."
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH COMPETITION.
In the year 1498, more than a third of a century before Jacques Car-
tier's little vessel ploughed her way up the broad St. Lawrence, the
Cabots (John and Sebastian, under Henry VII) discovered the continent
of North America and sailed as far as Virginia.
"Acting under their charter to discover countries then unknown to
Christian people, and to take possession of them in the name of the King
of England, these bold adventurers laid the foundation of the English
title to the Atlantic coast. It was not until the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, however, that France and England followed up their dis-
coveries, and began to perfect their respective titles by actual occupa-
tion of the regions discovered by their venturesome navigators."
In 1585 the picturesque Sir Walter Raleigh got permission from
Queen Elizabeth for his Captain Richard Grenville to found an English
104
Ohio Arch, aiid His. Society Publicatiotis .
NORTH AMERICA IN 1650.
Editorialana . 105
colony on Roanoke Island, in the present state of North Carohna, "the
first English settlement established on the continent of North America."
This colony was abortive. In 1607 the Jamestown (Va.) colony became
the first permanent English settlement in America. Under its charter
of 1609 this company "became possessed in absolute property of the
lands extending along the sea coast two hundred miles north and the
same distance south from Old Point Comfort, and into the land through-
out from sea to sea." Again in 1620 came the time honored Pilgrims
under the charter of the Plymouth Company, to which had been con-
veyed "all the lands between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of
North latitude." In course of time the special charters of these colonies
were either annuled or surrendered, and the title to the lands reverted
to the crown, to be disposed of from tiine to time as his majesty might
see fit. in creating colonies along the Atlantic.
"These early grants of land, stretching from the known Atlantic
back through unknown regions to the illusive South Sea dreamed of by
adventurers through the ages, comprised within their infinite parallels
all the Northwest save only the upper two-thirds of the present states of
Michigan and Wisconsin. The lines of Virginia included the lower half
of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois ; Connecticut, by virtue of her charter,
claimed the upper half of that territory; and Massachusetts likewise ob-
tained the shadow of a title to the southern half of Wisconsin and of
the lower peninsula of Michigan. However, it was not until the treaty
of 1763 brought these regions within the actual possession of the British
crown that the claims of Connecticut and Massachusetts could be made
even upon paper. New York, too, had unsubstantial claims to the Ohio
country, based on the conquests of its allies, the Iroquois."
Virginia seemed to be the center that attr^acted the most enterpris-
ing English colonists, and to have sent forth the ventursome settlers into
the northwest. Virginia was on the frontier lines of westward pioneer
emigration.
FIRST OHIO COMPANY.
The year 1748 found George Washington making surveys in the
Shenandoah Valley, and obtaining his first experience of border life and
border people. "In this year 1748, while th^ rich lands of the garden of
Virginia were being laid off and populated, the enterprising men of the
colony put their heads together to secure the territory beyond the Alle-
ghanies, but still within the chartered limits of the province. The prime
mover in the scheme was Thomas Lee, the president of his majesty's
Virginia council, and witfi him were associated, among others. Lawrence
and Augustine Washington, half brothers of George. The London part-
ner was Thomas Hanbury, a merchant of wealth and influence. Taking
the name of the
106 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
OHIO COMPANY,
the associates presented to the king a petition for half a million
acres of land on the south side of the Ohio river, between
the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, with the privilege of
selecting a portion of the lands on north side. Two hundred
thousand acres were to be taken up at once; one hundred families
were to be seated within seven years, and a fort was to be built as a
protection against hostile Indians. The king readily assented to a pro-
position which promised an effective and inexpensive means of occupy-
ing the Ohio Valley, which was claimed by the French by right of dis-
covery and occupation. These claims France was just then in a mood
to make good." "Before the company's agent could take the field, France
had decided upon her course of action. While the French government,
either at home or in Canada, could do little to prevent individual Eng-
lish traders from wandering at will through the forest towns, the forma-
tion of the Ohio Company under royal sanction, proposing as it did to
carve a half million acres out of what the French regarded as their
domain, was not a matter to be tossed to and fro like a shuttlecock between
the Cabinet at Versailles and the Cabinet at St. James."
CELORON DE BIENVILLE.
The French proceeded to take the only course open to them. They
occupied the Ohio Valley in force. Preliminary to more active military
operations, the Chevalier Celoron de Bienville, at the command of Galis-
soniere, commander in chief of New France, was sent to take personal
possession of the Ohio. Celoron with a band of more than two hundred
French officers and Canadian soldiers and boatmen, proceeded "along the
shores of the fitful Lake Erie, and the flotilla of twenty-three birch bark
canoes skimmed its rapid way during the summer of 1749. Striking across
the country to Lake Chautauqua, the barks were launched on that water
and thence a path was found to the headwaters of the Allegheny river.
Floating down Lhe Ohio the fleet stopped now to treat with the Indians,
and to tack upon some tree or again to bury at the mouth of some trib-
utary a head plate inscribed with the flower-de-luce, and bearing a legend
to the effect that thus the French renewed their possession of the Ohio
river, and of all those rivers that flow into it, as far as their sources, the
same as was enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed by the preceding
kings of France," etc. Dropping into slang, this tin plate posting was the
"lead pipe cinch" of the Gauls.
From the Ohio the party of oc-cupation made its way up the Miami
to Lake Erie and thence to Quebec. In many Indian villages Celoron
found English traders. These he sent back to the colonies with warnings
not to again trespass upon French territory.
Editorialana,
107
NORTH AMERICA IN 1750.
108 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
CHRISTOPHER GIST.
Nothing daunted by the theatrical expedition of Celeron, the Ohio
Company, in September, 1750, called from his home on the Yadkin that
shrewd and hardy pioneer, Christopher Gist. No better selection could
have been made. Gist's instructions directed him "to go out as soon as
possible to the westward of the great mountains, in order to search out
and discover the lands upon the Ohio River and other adjoining branches
of the Mississippi down as low as the Great Falls thereof." He was to
observe the ways and passes from the mountains, the width and depth of
the rivers, what nations of Indians inhabited the lands, whom they
traded with and of what they dealt. In particular he was to mark all the
good level lands so that they might be easily found, for it was the pur-
pose of the Ohio Company to go all the way down to the Mississippi, if
need be, in order not to take mean broken land. Gist set out from
Colonel Cresap's on the Potomac in Maryland and followed the old Indian
path up the Juniata. He was twenty-one days reaching the Seneca Village
of Logstown on the Ohio, eighteen miles below Pittsburgh. At Beaver
Creek Gist fell in with Barney Curran, an Ohio Company trader, and
together they crossed the country to the Muskingum, where they found an
Indian town of a hundred families over which was flying the English flag
raised there by George Croghan, who welcomed Gist. Gist then pro-
ceeded to the Scioto Creek, where they came to a Delaware Village, and
at the mouth of which they found the Shawnees. Gist, accompanied by
Croghan, then turned north and after a journey of one hundred and fifty
miles, came to the town of Tawightwi, afterwards known as Piqua on the
Miami, in the present Ohio county of Miami. It was then the capital
of the powerful western confederacy, the strongest Indian town in that
part of the continent. Gist proceeded down the Scioto and then down the
Ohio nearly to the present site of Louisville, whence he returned home
through the valley of Cuttawa, or Kentucky. In June, 1752, the Indians
met Gist and the Virginian Commissioners at Logstown, and in spite of
the French intrigues made a treaty whereby the Ohio Company was
allowed to make settlements south of the Ohio and to build a fort at the
forks of that river. Thus far the project of the Ohio Company had fair
prospects. The Indians were well disposed to the English, and colonial
traders overrun the entire country from the very gates of Montreal to the
Mississippi, but the French were not idle, and Celoron, now command-
ant at Detroit, in 1752, was ordered to drive the English traders from
the Miami Villages and thus to realize his occupation of the Ohio country
in 1749. Meanwhile Duquesne, one of the most distinguished French
generals in the war then waging in the colonies between the French and
the English, prepared to cut ofif the English from the Ohio country, and
early in the spring of 1753, with a mixed force of English troops, Cana-
dians and Indians, numbering not far from 1500, set out from Montreal
Editor ialana. 109
and in due time reached the harbor of Lake Erie, then known as Presqu
Isle, now known as Erie. There he buih a post, then advancing they
built another at La Bouef Creek and a third at Venango on the Allegheny.
GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE OF VIRGINIA.
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, who had become a member of the
Ohio Company, was not slow to see that the plans of the corporation would
come to nothing if once the French were allowed to reach the Ohio.
He resolved to send a messenger to ascertain the force of the French and
to deliver to their commanding officer the demand of Virginia that all
French troops be withdrawn from the country included within the char-
tered limits of that colony. The messenger selected for this delicate and
arduous task was Major George Washington, then a sedate youth of
twenty-one, who had held the position of Adjutant General in the Vir-
ginia malitia since he was nineteen. Washington left Mt. Vernon, secured
the services of Christopher Gist and proceeded to Logstown, where they
met the Half King of the Six Nations, who had previously told the
French that they had no business in that country. As between the
French and the English, the Indians might well side with the former,
(says Mr. Moore): because the French never contemplated the posses-
sion and cultivation of the lands, but merely the establishment of trading
stations. The French proposed to trade with the Indians, the English
colonies proposed to dispossess them. Eventually the English policy
came to be but a continuation of the French, while the policy of the
colonists was either to acquire by purchase or by force and to bring under
cultivation of the lands that formed the hunting grounds of the Indians.
It may be admitted that the French policy was more just to the Indian :
but the Scotch-Irish, the Germans, the Swiss and the other people of
Europe, escaping the intolerable conditions of the Old World, could not
be stopped in their rush to make homes for themselves in the fertile
wilderness of America. Moreover, there was much truth in the replj
of the French commander to the Half King, that the land did not belong
to the Indians, for the French had taken possession of the Oliio while
the present tribes were dwelling elsewhere. The Indians (then iniinh-
itating that section) had come there since the French discoveries and
claims. The tribes were at war with one another. "To maintain the
richest lands on earth as a game preserve for a few savages, when
hundreds of thousands of civilized beings were seeking homes and
liberty might be theoretical justice, but certainly was not consistent
with the strongest impulse of human nature." On December 4th. (1753),
Washington and his party, attended by the Half King and other chiefs,
reached Venango, an old Indian town near the junction of French Creek
and the Allegheny. Here were more parleyings betweeii the Virginians,
the French and the Indians. Washington's journal of this expedition to
the Ohio being sent to the Lords of Trade and by them pnlilishod in
110 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
England, aroused the nation to a sense of the peril in which English terri-
tory was placed by the advance of the French. The immediate result was
an order from the Lords of Trade addressed to the governors of the colo-
nies to meet and consult and take united action against the encroachments
of the French and to renew their covenant with the Six Nations. Governor
Dinwiddle at the same time put Virginia under war footing, and shortly
the war was well on, the details of which we cannot follow, though
interesting. This order of the London Lords of Trade to the colonies to
unite was an unwitting suggestion of their power in union, and Benjamin
Franklin, at the convention in Albany, presented a well worked out plan
for the definite union of the colonies under a governor to be appointed
by the crown. And now (February, 1755) General Edward Braddock
appeared on the Potomac, as the commander in chief of His Majesty's
forces in America, and marched with his army towards Fort Duquesne,
which he arrogantly asserted he would easily take and drive the French
back to Montreal.
braddock's defeat.
The result is school boy history; how the French, Canadians and
Indians, a motely mixture under the command of De Beaujeu, met and
ignominiously defeated Braddock, who, happily for his fame, found a
brave death amid disgraceful defeat. Braddock's failure was the begin-
ning of the fame of Washington, who fought by his side in that memor-
able encounter. The defeat of Braddock brought down upon the defen-
sive settlers the stealthy raids of the relentless savages who with fire and
scalping knife would drive the frontier back to the Atlantic. Throughout
the Indian towns of the Ohio were distributed the captive wives and
children of the murdered backwoodsmen.
UNDER THE ENGLISH FLAG.
Then followed the expeditions of Johnson and Shirley which were
scarcely more fortunate than that of Braddock. Desperate was now
becoming the situation for the English power in America, and in Europe
matters were still worse. But the tide finally turned ; the Anglo-Saxon
was to win. Wolfe's brave victory at Quebec, followed by the capitula-
tion of Montreal (September, 1760) gave with it the dominion of the
Northwest from the- St. Lawrence to the Mississippi ; the transfer of power
in the Northwest from the French to the English flag. But far away
from the scene of hostilities, the little French colony at Detroit stolidly
continued on its accustomed way regardless of coming changes. In the
recesses of the Northwest the French, aided by the Indians, still disputed
the territory with the invading English.
Editor ialana. HI
CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
Mr. Moore then devotes an interesting chapter to the Pontiac con-
spiracy and war. Pontiac, a North American Indian chief of the Ottawa
tribe, was the staunchest ally of the French. In 1762, he formed a coal-
ition of many western tribes, which, at his instigation, attacked various
English garrisons and western settlements. He besieged Detroit without
success in 1763, the same year that the treaty of peace was signed at
Paris between the English and the French, which treajty closed the Seven
Years War, or the French and Indian War, as it was known in British
America. The result of this war to England was the cession by France
of her American possessions to the English nation. Canada became
an English possession, the province of Quebec was created, and a
military rule of eleven years followed, when in 1774, the Quebec Act
was passed, extending the Quebec province to the Ohio and Mississippi.
The English home government decided, as one of the results of their new
acquisition, "that within their respective colonies, governors and councils
might dispose of the crown lands to settlers, but no governor or com-
mander in chief should presume, upon any pretense whatever, to grant
warrants of survey or pass patents for lands beyond the bounds of their
respective governments, and until the King's pleasure should be further
known, the lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which
fall into the Atlantic, were especially reserved to the Indian tribes for
hunting grounds. The valley of the Ohio and the country about the
Great Lakes was not open to settlement or to purchase without special
leave and license, and all other persons who had either wilfully or inad-
vertently seated themselves upon any land within the prohibited zone
between the Allegheny and the southern limits of the Hudson Bay Com-
pany's territory, were warned to remove themselves from such settle-
ments. In order to put a stop to the 'great frauds and abuses that had
been committed in purchasing lands from the Indians to the great preju-
dice of our interests and to the great dissatisfaction of the Indians, and to
convince the Indians of the justice and determined resolution to remove
all reasonable cause of discontent,' no private purchases of Indian lands
within the colonies were to be allowed, but all such Indian lands must
.first be purchased by the representatives of the crown from the Indians in
open assembly. Trade with the Indians was to be free and open to all
British subjects, but every trader was to be required to take out a license
and to give security to observe such regulations as might be made for
the regulation of such trade. Fugitives from justice found within the
Indian lands were to be seized and returned to the settlements for trial."
"Si;ch was the first charter of the northwest, if charter is the correct
word to apply to an instrument that created a forest preserve and pro-
vided merely for the apprehension and deportation of rogues and tres-
passers."
112 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
To the new provinces was held out the hope that in time they might
grow into the status of colonies each with their popular assembly
instead of an appointive council, and within their borders English law
was to prevail, but the northwest was to be treated simply as the roaming
place of savages. While the partition of North America was engaging the
attention of the three great nations of Europe, the people of the colonies
were eager to occupy the new regions won by their valor. The members
of the Ohio Company, whose enterprise had been rudely checked by the
French occupation of lands patented to them, at once set about estab-
lishing their rights. To this end, Colonel Thomas Cresap made over-
tures to the chivalric
HENRY BOUQUET,
the British commander at Fort Pitt. He wished also to enlist Bouquef
in the enterprise of the Ohio Company. Bouquet pointed out that the
British engaged not to settle the lands beyond the Allegheny and that
no settlements on the Ohio could be permitted until the consent of the
Indians could be procured, and Bouquet further issued at Fort Pitt
(October 30, 1761) a proclamation in which, after referring to the
treaty which preserved as an Indian hunting ground country to the
west of the Alleghenies, he forbade either settlements or hunting in the
western country uiTless by special permission of the commander-in-chief
or bj^ the governor of one of the provinces. As might be expected, Bou-
quet's proclamation gave rising uneasiness in Virginia, as it seemed to
obstruct the resettling of lands which had been taken up by patent under
his majest}' and from which the settlers had been driven back by the
late war. Bouquet was bound to keep the "vagabonds and outlaws,"
as he called them, out of the Indian territory, claiming that this was not
only in accordance with the treaty, but for the express purpose of quieting
the Ohio Indians by confirming to them the right to occupy their lands
north of that river, and Bouquet was justified in using all means in his
power to compel the observance of the contract, but the task was beyond
the ability of any commander. Meanwhile, the Indians throughout the
Northwest had become aroused at the encroachments of the whites and
were prepared to defend their country against the invaders. Indeed they
besieged and secured several of the forts occupied by the English, and
an encounter took place between the English troops under Bouquet and
the Indians at Bushy Run, which made Bouquet the hero of the fron-
tiersmen and brought to his standard innumerable volunteers for an
expedition to the Ohio towns. In October, 1764, Bouquet's military
expedition set out from Logstown. Turning to the west, his little army
entered the Indian country, a region of trackless forests, filled with
unknown numbers of the subtlest savages east of the Mississippi. Mr.
Moore then gives a detailed account of Bouquet's expedition to the Mus-
kingum and his encounters with the Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Ottawa,
Chippewa and Wyandotte Indians and his return to Fort Pitt. Bouquet's
expedition was followed by the voyage of discovery of
Editorialana. 113
GEORGE CROGHAN
to the Illinois country in the summer of 1765. Croghan's mission to the
Illinois having paved the way for the peaceful occupation of the British,
Captain James Sterling and a hundred Highlanders descended the Ohio ;
and five years after the surrender of Detroit, on October 10, 1765, St.
Ange de Bellevive, commander of the French at Fort Chartres, had
the mournful honor and secret relief of hauling down the last French
flag in the Northwest. Then follows the disputes and conflicting claims
of the Six Nations in the east and the other Indian tribes of the west
for the title or right to the lands between the Allegheny and the Ohio.
FORT ST.\N\VIX COUNCIL.
Finally in September, 1768, a great council was held at Fort Stanwix,
on the present site of Rome, New York. There the representatives of
the English government and the various Indian tribes came to an agree-
ment that for six thousand dollars in money and goods, the Indian title
to Kentucky, West Virginia and the western portion of Pennsylvania
should be transferred to the English crown. Thus the way opened for a
new colony beyond the Alleghenies. But the Indians occupying portions of
the ceded lands were reluctant to yield possession and border conflicts
ensued, particularly along the Virginia and Kentucky frontier.
DUNM ore's w.\r.
A considerable number of Virginians had settled along the Ohio
below Fort Pitt, thereby encroaching on the lands of the Delawares and
Shawnees. Dispute also arose between Pennsylvania and Virginia as to
their dividing line. The Indian border war finally burst forth in 1774,
when Governor Dunmore of Virginia placed himself at the head of a body
of troops and with General Andrew Lewis in subordinate command,
proceeded to the banks of the Kanawha near Point Pleasant, where they
with eleven hundred men, met the allied Indians led by the Shawnee
Chief Cornstalk. After a desperate all-day battle, one-fifth of the whites
were either killed or wounded, while the Indians withdrew with a loss
â– of about forty killed. Eager to follow up his dearly bought victory.
General Lewis crossed the Ohio and marched his army to the Pickaway
Plains whither he had been summoned by Lord Dunmore. Lewis de-
manded a peace treaty. The great Mingo chief, Logan, refused to enter
the council and when Lord Dunmore summoned him, he sent as a reply
that famous speech which has been the model for each subsequent gen-
eration of school boys. Cornstalk's counsel prevailed and the Indians
submitted to peace.
Vol. X — 8
114 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
QUEBEC BILL.
The British policy of maintaining the Northwest as an Indian hunt-
ing ground was a failure, moreover, even such law abiding citizens as
Washington never took seriously the proclamation of 1763, as prohibit-
ing settlements beyond the mountains, but steadfastly maintained that the
Ohio country was within the chartered limits of Virginia. In the treaty
of 1763 Great Britain acknowledged a limit to the western extension of
her sea board colonies, by accepting the Mississippi river as the boun-
dary of her American possessions. The Atlantic colonies acceded to this
curtailment of their western limits; but when by the King's proclamation
which followed, the colonies found themselves confined to the seaward
slope of the Appalachians, their western extension made crown territory
to be given over to the uses of the Indians, there were signs of discon-
tent. To keep the opposition within bounds and once more to apply a
territorial check, the Quebec Bill in 1774 was passed by Parliament, by
which the Northwest territory was partially taken from the colonies and
placed under the jurisdiction of the crown with certain obnoxious features
of control. Under the provision of the act Detroit was made the capital
of the territory northwest of the Ohio, and civil officers were selected
according to the spoils system then at its height in England. This Que-
bec Act was one of the factors that caused the Revolution. In spite of
petitions to repeal it, it continued in operation until 1791, when a new
government was given to Quebec and Canada was divided into Upper
and Lower Canada. Then follows the American Revolution, which it is
not the province of Mr. Moore to follow in detail. He confines himself
to the events in and effecting the Northwest, and the part played by the
Indians and the frontiersmen who were prominent, like the Girtys,
(Simon, James and George), and McKee and others. In the Revolu-
tion Virginia took the lead, which she had always taken in the western
region and her expedition under
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK,
rendered it easier for the American Commissioners, who negotiated the
treaty of 1782, to include this ample domain within its American Union.
Clark saw that so long as the British held Detroit, Kaskaskia, Vincennes
and the commanding forts, so long would England be able to keep up
an effective warfare along the rear of the colonies. Under instructions
of Governor Patrick Henry, of Virginia, George Rogers Clark raised an
armament of some two hundred volunteers and woodsmen, and in May,
1778, started on his famous campaign, which took his party amid many
perils and adventures through the northwest. He took from the English
Kaskaskia and Vincennes, relieved Cahokia and invaded the country of
the Shawnees and defeated the Miamis. It was the conquest of Illinois
Editorialaiia . 115,
for the colonists. To his wise valor and military genius was due more
than to any other the securing of the Northwest to the new republic.
Clark's capture of Vincennes and the Illinois posts paralyzed the Eng-
lish efforts to carry on an offensive campaign on the frontier of the United
States and confined their efforts to petty warfare in the shape of I idiaa
raids against the Ohio and Kentucky settlements.
SPAIN S CLAIMS.
Spain takes a hand in the affairs of this period. In 1779 she declared
war against England and seized the English posts of Natchez, Baton
Rouge and ^lobile ; and these stations, together with St. Louis, gave
Spain practically the control of the Mississippi Valley. The records of
the Americans during these events are not free from stain, as must be
acknowledged in the massacre of the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten
by the soldiers of Colonel David Williamson m 1782. The warlike torture
and death of Colonel William Crawford by the Indians, near Upper
Sandusky, in the same year, was one of the savage retaliations, not with-
out some justification.
The end of the American Revolution (1783) did not settle all the
difficulties of the situation in the northwest. England had neglected to
provide for her Indian allies, who had devoted themselves to her cause.
England refused to surrender the northwestern posts according to the
terms of peace. She insisted on holding the posts to protect her fur trade
with the Indians, and as a guarantee to secure the claims of the Loyalists
who were to be indemnified for their losses. By the retention of these
frontier posts. England forced the United States into Indian wars that
continued even to the close of the war of 1812. Moreover, the Indians
regarded the country between the Ohio and the Great Lakes as their own
territory, within which no European power had rights. Neither France
nor England, they claimed, had ever acquired title, hence they could
pass none.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
No one appreciated this situation better than President Washington,
who was himself a large owner of Ohio lands, but whose concern for the
expansion and strengthening of the nation was of such a character as
to make his personal interests not a bias, but simply a means of knowl-
edge. More closely than any other man then living he had been identified
with the beginnings of western conquests. As a young man he ha.d played
a large part in wresting the northwest from France; and now in his
maturer years he was to direct those forces which were forever to bind
that territory to the United States.
116 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
The result of the American Revolution gave the great northwest to
the United States, but at once opened many conflicting claims between the
states as to respective rights to the newly acquired territory. For be it
remembered the original states had charters for the land as far west as
it might go. It was now proposed that the various states yield to the new
national government these western claims ; which the government might
sell for thfe common good and out of which new states might be created.
This cession on the part of the various states followed, and the great
territory of the northwest was government domain subject to later dis-
position.
UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG.
â– 'How the French discovered and possessed the Northwest; how
England wrested New France from her ancient enemy ; how George
Rogers Clark made partial conquest of the territory for Virginia ;. how
the tfeaty-makers won extensive boundaries for the new nation ;, and
â– how 'at the instance of Maryland, the claimant state, and especially Vir-
'|[iinia, by "the most marked instance of a large and generous self-deniail,'
made cession of their lands to the general government — all these things
have been told. It now remains to discover how this vast empire larger
than any country in Europe save Russia, was to be governed and peopled.
For the most part this immense region was an imbroken wilderness;
â– but tales of the richness of its alluvial soil, and its accessibility by means
of noble streams and great inland seas, had caught the ear of people
made restless by the possibilities opened up by a magnificent peace at-
tained after a prolonged and wasting war."
On July 13, 1787, Congress passed the famous ordinance establish-
ing the Northwest Territory and its government.
"On the very day that Virginia made cession of her claims. Thomas
Jefferson came forward in Congress with a plan for the government of the
ceded territory. There were still three obstacles in the way of exercising
jurisdiction: First, there were controversies with Spain as to the west-
ern boundary and the navigation of the Mississippi. Second, England
still held military possession of the frontiers ; and third, the ceded ter-
ritory was occupied by numerous hostile tribes of Indians. With the
exception of the reservations made as to territory by Virginia, and as to
both territory and jurisdiction by Connecticut, the United States suc-
ceeded alike to the jurisdiction and to the title to unoccupied lands. That
is to say, the power to grant vacant lands within the ceded territory, a
power that had formerly resided in the crown, or the proprietary gov-
ernments created by the crown, now passed, by reason of the state ces-
sion, into the possession of the government of the United States ; and to
the general government belonged the exclusive right to extinguish, either
Editor ialana . 1 17^
by purchase or by conquest, the Indian title of occupancy. It is import-
ant to remember this fact, as it is the key to the otherwise perplexing
subject of Northwestern afifairs."
It is not necessary to recite the well known history and nature of the
1787 ordinance.
THE (second) OHIO COMPANY.
The first Ohio Company organized in 1749, as we have seen, never-
came to fruition in its plans. Its schemes and efforts were lost in the
current of events with which it unsuccessfully struggled.
The war of the Revolution ended, Rufus Putnam returned to the little
Rutland, Massachusetts, farm-house, that today stands as a memorial of
him, there to scheme and plan the building, not of fortifications, but of
a state — "A new state west of the Ohio," as Timothy Pickering puts it.
In 1783 Putnam sent to Washington a petition to Congress signed by
228 officers, who prayed for the location and survey of the Western lands;
and the next year Washington writes his old friend that he has tried in
vain to have Congress take action. Appointed one of the surveyors of
ihe Northwestern lands, Putnam sent General Tupper in his stead ; and
on the return of the latter from Pittsburg, the two spent a long Jan-
uary night in framing a call to officers and soldiers of the war, and all
other good citizens of Massachusetts who desired to find new homes on
the Ohio. On March 4, 1786, the Ohio Company was formed at the
"Bunch of Grapes" tavern in Boston; and Putnam, Reverend Manassah
Cutler, and General Samuel H. Parsons were made the directors. The
winter was spent in perfecting the plan ; then Parsons was sent to New
York to secure a grant of lands and the passage of an act for a govern-
ment. He failed. Putnam now turned to his fellow-director. Cutler.
On July 27 Cutler found himself ihe possessor of a grant of five million
acres of land, one-half for the Ohio Company, and one-half for a private
speculation which became known as the Scioto Purchase.
While the officers of the new territory were virtually settled upon at
this time, it was not until October 5 that Congress elected Arthur St.
Clair governor; James M. Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons, and John
Armstrong, judges; and Winthrop Sargent, secretary; subsequently John
Cleves Symmes took the place of Mr. Armstrong, who declined the
appointment.
On August 29, Dr. Cutler met the directors and agents of the Ohio
Company at the "Bunch of Grapes" tavern to report that he had made
a contract with the Board of Treasury for a million dollars' "worth of
lands at a net price of seventy-five cents an acre; that the lands were to
be located on the Ohio, between the Seven Ranges platted under the
direction of Congress and the Virginia lands, that lands had been re-
served by the government for school and university purposes, according
to the ^lassachusetts plan ; and that bounty lands might be located within
the tract. The next day the plat of a city on the Muskingum was settled
118 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
upon, and proposals for saw mill and corn mill sites were invited from
prospective settlers. So it happened that the future State of Ohio was
planned in a Boston tavern.
On April 1, 1788, the Ohio Company embarked at Youghiogheny.
The flotilla consisted of the forty-five ton galley Adventure , afterwards
appropriately rechristened the Mayflower; the Adelphia, a three-ton ferry,
and three log canoes. A week's journey down the river Ohio brought them
to their landing place, known as Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum
and on the eastern side of that stream at its junction with the Ohio. First
to greet them was the famous Captain Pipe, a Delaware Indian, and with
him came the garrison from Fort Harmar to give a continental welcome
to the home makers. On the morning of the 9th of July following, the
boom of a boat's gun woke the echoes between the forest lined banks
of the broad Ohio in honor of the arrival at the capital of the Governor
of the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St. Clair. He was accom-
panied by other leading officials of the New Northwestern territorial
government.
CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST POSTS.
The Indians of the Northwest of Ohio and Illinois (to be) disputed
the ingress of the white man. The expedition and failure of General
Josiah Harmar ; the brief campaign and defeat of General Arthur St.
Clair are events not glorious in western annals and are soon told. Mr.
Moore's book closes with the campaign of the brave and brilliant General
Anthony Wayne who was chosen by Washington to retrieve the misfor-
tunes of Harmar and St. Clair. The story of Wayne's movements and
achievements has been often told. The result of the victory of Fallen
Timbers (near Toledo) was the treaty of Greenville. There Wayne
was visited by the various chiefs to whom he explained that the United
States had conquered Great Britain, and were entitled to the possession of
the Lake posts ; that the new American government was anxious to make
peace with the Indians ; to protect them in the possession of abundant
hunting grounds which would be apportioned to them, and to compen-
sate them for the lands needed by the white settlers. The Indians finally
acceded and the Greenville Treaty was accomplished. Though this treaty
yielded to the Americans the territory mainly of the Northwest, portions
of the tribes subsequently sought the aid of the Canadian English to
regain their hunting grounds, or assist them in the desperate but impos-
sible effort to stay the westward tide of American civilization. But these
efforts were futile, and the culmination of the war of 1812 forever sealed
the fate of England in the new territory and took away the last hope of
the Redman that he might again possess the Ohio Valley.
Editorialana . 119
BLENNERHASSET REDIVIVUS.
The Century for July (1901) contains an article by Therese Blenner-
Tiassett Adams on "The True Story of Harman Blennerhassett." The
author very briefly recites the history of the Blennerhassetts who built
that magnificent mansion on the historic island in the Ohio near Belpre
in the year 1798.* The article is valuable historically as authentically
stating that the main, if not sole cause of the departure from Ireland
and emigration to America of the Blennerhassets, was their social
ostracization, owing to the fact that the wife of Harman Blennerhassett
was his niece.
"Early in 1796 Harman Blennerhassett, then thirty-one years old,
married in England Miss Margaret Agnew, daughter of Captain Robert
Agnew of Howlish, County Durham, a young lady of eighteen. Her
father was lieutenant governor of the Isle of Man, and a son of General
James Agnew of American Revolutionary fame." The mother of Mar-
garet Agnew was Catherine, one of the sisters of Harman Blenner-
hassett. For this cause she (Margaret) was disinherited. The young
lady was absent at school; her uncle (Harman) was sent to take her
home ; instead of doing so he married her. He was thirty-one. The fam-
ilies on both sides— the Agnews and the Blennerhassets, forever after-
wards turned their backs upon the eloping couple. Harman broke the
entail established by his father Conway Blennerhassett, and sold his
share of the estate to Thomas Mullin, afterward Lord Ventry. He re-
ceived $160,000 in money. Besides this he was the recipient of an
income of $6600 and more, which belonged to the entailed estate as
a separate portion, which could not be transferred and the use of which
he had until death.
The connection of Blennerhassett with the Burr expedition is not dis-
cussed at any length. It is only admitted that Blennerhassett became
heavily involved financially in the schemes of Burr. "Blennerhassett's
reason" says the author, "for joining Burr was not that of adventure,
but to remove himself farther from those who knew him. He had family
friends who respected him through the position he occupied in his own
country. Among those who knew the sad story of his life, there were
not many on this side of the water, but the dread was with him always
that the truth would become known to his children."
Therese Blennerhassett Adams repudiates the generally promulgated
account of the extreme poverty and desolate "taking off" of both Harman
and Margaret Blennerhassett. "The abject-poverty tales of Blennerhas-
sett and his family serve well the purpose of romance but not of fact,
because they are untrue." Blennerhassett was well cared for till his death,
which occurred at Port Pierre, Island of Guernsey, February 2, 1831.
Margaret died June 16, 1842, in her sixty-fourth year "in the house
she herself rented and paid for" at 75 Greenwich Street, New York.
• See Volume I, page 127, Publications Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.
120 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
A DREAM OF EMPIRE.
One of the most successful additions to the list of historical novels
of the day is "A Dream of Empire or the House of Blennerhassett,'^
by William Henry Venable, author of "A History of the United States,"
etc. Mr. Venable is a resident of Cincinnati, a literateur and scholar well
known throughout the country. His little volume published by Dodd,
Mead and Company is a most entertaining narrative of the Blennerhassets
in America; their residence on the island in the Ohio, the Burr Expedi-
tion, the pathetic and tragic termination of the romantic and strange
career of Harman Blennerhassett and his beautiful and fascinating wife"
Margaret. Mr. Venable has accomplished his purpose admirably. He has
told the story of his subject clearly and most interestingly. He has
adhered closely to the historical events and yet has infused enough of
poetic and dramatic imagination to add a "fictional charm" so to speak to
the cold truth upon which his work is based. His delineations of the
characters of both Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. of Aaron Burr
and General Wilkinson are splendid literary portraitures — natural and
well sustained. The humorous character of Plutarch Byle is an exquisite
creation of an amusing and original personage who delightfully relieves
the reader of tedium or danger of weariness over the continuation of cal-
amities that befall the leading dramatis personac. Mr. Venable chose a
most fitting theme for his historical taste and literary ability. One can
get no better idea of the people and incidents of the Blennerhassett episode
than by reading Professor Venable's little volume. It has the atmos-
phere and rehabilitated environment of the times in which it is located.
EARLY HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY.
Professor J. D. Simkins, Superintendent Public Schools, St. Marys,
Ohio, is the producer of a little volume with the above title. Professor
Simkins has done a good thing. His book is accurate, reliable, concise,
packed with well settled information and put so as to be valuable to the
general reader and useful as a text book for the student. It presents
just the sort of material, in just the right manner, that our young people
ought to get. Professor Simkins goes back a good ways into the dim
and misty past "before man came into the world." He tells briefly of the
"shell people," the "Cave men," the "Mound Builders"; "prehistoric
Indians;" the different stone ages, polished, rough and tough; gives
us much concerning the life and pursuits of the Indians and a most
excellent and extended description of the various Indian tribes, particu-
larly the Miamis, Wyandots and Shawnees, that inhabited Auglaize
county. This part of Mr. Simkins' work is of interest to any student of
Ohio or of the Indian people. The author also presents in chronological
Editorialana. 121
order the numerous and important historical events that transpired in
his county. The little book is illustrated and has a large folding map
of the territory which it treats. Auglaize county was a sort of geogra-
phical and historical pivotal point in Ohio. It was the chief gate way
for Indians and whites between Lake Erie and the Ohio river for sixty-
five years (1749-1814). "The reader should remember that the Maumee
rises in the southern part of our county (Auglaize) south of Wapakoneta
and flows north into Lake Erie and that the Great Miami rises a few miles
further east and flows south into the Ohio. The source of the St. Mary
is really the source of the Maumee. Boats can ply on the Miami from
our county to the Ohio and on the Maumee from here to Lake Erie."
With only a few miles of portage there was water passage from the Erie
to the Ohio.
OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY.
The Ohio Educational Monthly in its number for July, 1901, cele-
brates the fiftieth anniversary of that publication. The burden of half a
century rests gracefully upon this time honored and highly esteemed
monthly. No publication in our state has ever exerted such a stimulating,
wise and wide influence in favor of all that is best and most progressive
in popular education. It has been an informing incentive to thousands of
teachers, who have profited by its pages. It has had a distinguished line
of editors and an innumerable host of illustrious contributors, and to-day
it represents the best thought, methods and tendencies of our splendid
state school system. We congratulate the Educational Monthly on its
semi-centennial birth year. It has the maturity of longevity without the
slightest symptom of antiquity. It is anything but archaic. It was never
so youthful in spirit or so forceful in effort as now, under the editorship
and proprietorship of Hon. O. T. Corson. The July number in question
is of course unusually interesting. It recites the history of the Monthly;
contains articles by many of the former editors and writers. Not the
least of its valuable features is the department of "Current History"
conducted by Professor F. B. Pearson : a concise statement or commen-
tary on the leading world events of the day. The Monthly is evidently
sharing the proverbial "prosperity of the day," for it is enabled to begin
the new half centurv at the reduced price of one dollar per annum.
OHIO SOCIETY S. A. R.
The anniversary of the battles of Concord and Lexington was fit-
tingly observed by the Ohio Society of the Sons of the Revolution at
Columbus, Ohio, on April 19, 1901. At the- business session in the
afternoon at the Chittenden Hotel, the reports of the various committees
were read, showing the year to have been the mOst prosperous in the
history of 'the Society. The membership during the year had increased
122 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
from 507 to 592. A committee was appointed to make arrangements for
the erection of small monuments, with appropriate inscriptions, at the
graves of the 3004 soldiers of the American Revolution who are buried
in Ohio, and whose resting places have never been designated in such
a way as to tell of their connection with the great struggle for liberty.
Congress in a recent session made an adequate appropriation for the mark-
ing of the graves of all soldiers of the American Revolution and the
committee appointed by the Ohio Society was instructed to confer with the
proper United States officials and carry out, as far as possible, the inten-
tion of the congressional appropriation.
A committee was also appointed to present a petition on behalf of the
Society to the next state legislature asking for the enactment of a statute
forbidding the use of the American Flag for advertising purposes, or
any manner which tends to deprive it of its patriotic significance.
The following officers were elected to serve for the ensuing year.
President, E. O. Randall, Columbus; Vice Presidents, Millard F. Ander-
son, Akroa; Dr. Edward Cass, Dresden; Hon. Edward Kibler, Newark;
Dr. William A. Galloway, Xenia ; Mr. Thomas F. Whittlesey, Toledo;
Secretary, Major Robert Mason Davidson, Newark; Treasurer, Mr.
Stimpson G. Harvey, Toledo; Registrar, Col. Wm. L. Curry, Columbus;
Historian, Dr. Lucius C. Herrick, Columbus; Chaplain, Rev. Julius W.
Atwood, Columbus; Board of Managers, Col. Moulton Houk, Judge
James H. Anderson, Mr. John Thomas, Mr. Gideon C. Wilson, Rev.
Wilson R. Parsons, Mr. William H. Hunter, Dr. O. W. Aldrich.
In the evening the Society held an elaborate banquet in the rooms
of the Columbus Club. Mr. Randall acted as toastmaster and the fol-
lowing program of toasts and responses was observed: Welcome Address,
Kenneth D. Wood; Response, Col. W. A. Taylor; "The Soldiers of '61
to 'Q^," Governor George. K. Nash; "Our Navy," Hon. Charles J.
Scroggs; "Our Army from 1776 to 1901", Gen. Thomas N. Anderson;
"Lexington and Concord," Judge Tod B. Galloway; "The Little Red
School House," Pres. W. O. Thompson; "Fort Washington," Col. John
W. Harper; "The Heroes of the Revolution, The Builders of the Buck-
eye State," Orlando W. Aldrich; "The Revolutior'^ry Soldiers in the
Valley of Little Miami," Dr. William A. Galloway; "How Nearly We
Escaped Being the Gallic Race," Dr. Edward Cass; "Our Flag," D. W.
iocke.
The Society decided to hold its next annual meeting at Columbus,
April 19, 1902.
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition.
123
OHIO DAY AT PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION.
JULY l8, I9OI.
Never was the "Rainbow City" more radiant, attractive or
active than on "Ohio Day," July 18, 1901, when thousands of
Buckeyes made pilgrimage from their native state to Buffalo and
proudly participated in the ceremonies and festivities of the formal
dedication of the Ohio Building.
OHIO BUILDING.
The Ohio Building, one of the finest and most admired state
edifices on the ground, naturally was the center of life, apart
OHIO BUILDING.
from the hours of the exercises in the Temple of Music. The
architect is Mr. John Eisenmann of Cleveland. Ohio. It is pure
white and stands out conspicuously among all state and foreign
buildings. It is TOO by 80 feet in extent, with a 20 foot colonade
124
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
running entirely around it and adding materially to the ground
space that it covers and to its majestic effect. Its style of archi-
tecture is Grecian. On the ground floor of
the building are the offices for the Ohio Com-
mission. There are also a woman's reception
room, furnished handsomely with specially
made oak furniture, and a gentleman's writ-
ing room, equally complete in appoiHtment.
The main feature of the ground floor, if not
the building, is the assembly-room, an apart-
ment 60 by 30 feet in extent ; although it will
accommodate 200 people without much
crowding, it was far too small for the
crowds of Ohioans who thronged the building on its dedication
day. Adorning the walls are pictures of President McKinley,
the late John Sherman, Senator Hanna,
Senator Foraker, Ex-Governor Bushnell,
Governor Nash and other of Ohio's fav-
orite sons. The wall and ceiling decora-
tions are unique with oriental plants ris-
mg from urns of Egyptian design. Gold-
leaf figures artistically in the color
scheme of the decorations in this room.
On the second floor are spacious living
rooms for the custodians of the building
and a private room for the entertainment
of distinguished guests. Hon C. L.
Swain is in active charge of the building
while Mrs. C. L. Swain gracefully fills the position of house
hostess. Miss Georgia Hopley is a permanent resident as the
accomplished correspondent of the daily papers. There are
three pianos, scores of comfortable chairs, cool breezes, pictur-
esque and fairy like views from the broad porticos, and in fact
everything to make the visitor feel at home and long to stay.
The building is most brilliant at night. It is lighted with actey-
lene gas, which gives a peculiar whitish light, a contrast to the
rich yellow of the incandescent lighting of the other buildings,,
which makes the Ohio Building stand out preeminent.
Ohio Day at Pa7i-America7i Expositio7i. 125
PUBLIC CEREMONIES.
The dedication day was in keeping with all else, bright and
balmy. The clerk of the weather must have been an Ohio man
or the descendant of one, for he could not have furnished a kind-
lier sun or a gentler air. The Bison City was in gala attire and
the Exposition, arrayed in all its "purple and fine linen," was in
its jolliest and gayest mood.
To the credit of the people from the Buckeye State it may
be said that their celebration of the day that had been set apart
for them was more general and more enthusiastic than that of any
other State at the Exposition. Men prominent in State and na-
tional affairs were there as well as the soldiery and the common
every day citizen, all bent upon one mission, that of swelling the
attendance of Ohioans and assisting to make the day a memorable
one. Pride was apparent on the face of every wearer of the
Buckeye and red ribbon.
The formal exercises of the day began with the starting of
the parade from the 74th N. Y. Regiment Armory in the center
of the city. The pageant, semi-military and semi-civic in char-
acter, was confined almost exclusively to Ohioans, although there
was a sprinkling of local people, city and county officials and
members of the Pan-American committees. The Eighth Ohio
Regiment, one of the best appearing bodies of citizen soldiery that
has ever paraded Buffalo streets and famous as being the "Presi-
dent's Own," constituted the military division of the pageant.
The civic division was made up as follows : Carriages containing
Gov. Nash of Ohio, President John G. Milburn of the Exposition
Company, Senator Marcus A. Hanna, Hon. Frank H. Baird of
Buffalo, the Governor's staff, the speakers of the day, the Ohio
Pan-American Commissioners and city officials.
The Eighth Ohio Regiment, the advance guard of the parade
and the official escort, arrived at the Lincoln Parkway entrance
at 11.20 o'clock and marched into the grounds, preceding Gov.
Nash and the other dignitaries. Near the Triumphal Causeway
the regiment dressed to the right ?.nd presented arms as the dis-
tinguished guests alighted from the carriages and marched to the
magnificent Temple of Alusic. Thousands of people who had
126 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatioyis .
gathered about the Esplanade to witness the arrival of the parade
cheered lustily as the guests marched to the Temple. At the
doors of the Temple the guests were welcomed by Director-
General Buchanan, His Honor Mayor Diehl, Treasurer Williams,
Harry Hamlin, H. H. Seymour and others. The only guest ex-
pected by the officials and who failed to appear to the disappoint-
ment of the multitude was Senator Foraker.
The Temple of Music was packed with a brilliant and enthu-
siastic audience. To the inspiring strains of martial music the
Ohio Commission, Honorables W. S. McKinnon of Ashtabula,
S. L. Patterson of Waverly and C. L. Swain of Cincinnati es-
corted Governor Nash and his party upon the platform.
The dedicatory exercises began almost immediately. Hon.
W. S. McKinnon, chairman of the Ohio Commission, called the
assemblage to order, and introduced the
Hon. Daniel J. Ryan of Columbus, chair-
man of the meeting, who spoke briefly,
acknowledging his pleasure at such a
general outpouring of Ohioans. He also
expressed cordial good will for the suc-
cess of the Exposition. Bishop B. W.
Arnett of, Wilberforce University deliv-
ered the invocation, after which the 65th
N. Y. Regiment Band played a selection.
Mme. Generva Johnstone-Bishop of Mar-
ion, then sang "The Holy City" in a man-
ner which elicited the applause of the
vast audience. The formal address of welcome was delivered
by Director-General W. I. Buchanan. The address was short
but appropriate and in a very few words Mr. Buchanan voiced
the sentiments of every citizen of Buffalo in welcoming most
heartily the citizens of the Buckeye State. He reminded the
Ohioans that 123 years ago last Monday, following a ban-
quet, which is one of the peculiarities of Ohio, civil government
was established in their State. The people of the State made a
good beginning and had kept up their record until to-day. It is
generally understood that when anything in connection with
civil government is required, all the people of this country have
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 12T
to do is to call on Ohio men and they can supply it. Mr. Bu-
chanan remarked that that he had the distinction in his boyhood
to run barefoot and tramp down hay in a haymow and walk
one and one-half miles to school in winter in the Ohio valley.
He said he retained most pleasant recollections of his boyhood
in Ohio. It was a great pleasure to welcome so many citizens of
that State. He expressed the hope that all would thoroughly
enjoy their visit and assured them of a most cordial welcome by
the Exposition and the people of Buffalo.
GOV. nash's response.
Gov. Xash made the response to the welcome. His speech
was short and enthusiastically received.
"It is said that there is a word in the Japanese language," began the
Governor, "which is spelled 0-h-i-o, and which means good morning.
Mr. Director General, the people of Ohio are here present to say good
morning to you. I also desire to express our sincere appreciation of
the splendid words the director general has uttered in regard to our
State. While we of Ohio are proud of our State, we cannot forget
that the State of New York is larger and older than Ohio. When we
think of the things which have come to us in the last year, our memo-
ries go back to the pioneers who built Ohio, who were the most patri-
otic, most deserving and most splendid people, who came from New
England, from Pennsylvania and from New York, and for its contri-
bution to the builders of our State we always shall feel grateful to New
York.
"We are proud of Ohio and its industries, its commerce and its
men ; so are you similarly proud of your great State of New York.
But there is one thing of which we are prouder than we are of our
riches; our splendid men. I am sure that you of New York are glad
that Ohio has given to the Nation William McKinley as President
(cheers) , just as w-e of Ohio are glad that you have given to the coun-
try a Vice President in Theodore Roosevelt. (Cheers.) We should re-
member our sole allegiance is not due to Ohio only, nor to New York
alone, but that we are only two of the forty-five States which make up
this great Nation.
"Mr. Director General, we thank you for this great exposition
which you have built here in Buffalo. Ohio desires in a small way to
show its appreciation of what you have done. She has erected a building
here, where, we hope, many thousands of our fellow citizens and of
128 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the citizens of all the states and the republics to the south of us may
spend many pleasant hours and may find rest and comfort. It is my
duty to turn our building over to the Pan-American, and in doing so I
express the sincere hope that your exposition may have the great success
which always should accompany efforts so earnest, so able and so mag-
nificent and wonderful in results as are those made by the officials of
the exposition and the citizens of Buffalo. I thank you for your attention
and I again wish you great success."
PRESIDENT MILBURN.
Gov. Nash's brief speech was applauded enthusiastically.
President John G. Milburn then accepted the Ohio Building
in behalf of the Exposition. He referred earnestly to the very
cordial encouragement and effective co-operation which had been
given to the Pan-American by the State of Ohio from the incep-
tion of the exposition project. He assured the Ohioans that their
assistance and their presence on their day was greatly appreci-
ated. It was only through such sympathy and co-operation as
had been extended by Ohio that the great purpose of the Pan-
American, the making better known to the people of South and
Central America of our people, and the making of them better
known to the people of this country, the bringing together of the
Americas, could be accomplished.
"Those of us engaged in this work," said Mr. Milburn, in
conclusion, "are sincerely grateful and the day will never come
when we will forget how Ohio stood by us and helped us to ac-
complish what we have done."
OHIO THE FIRST CHILD OF THE NORTHWEST.
The Hon. Charles W. Baker of Cincinnati followed with an
eloquent address upon the topic, "Ohio, the First Child of the
Northwest." He said:
"The fair fame of Ohio, as you may have observed, does not rest
merely upon the natural productions of her soil or the very many and
versatile results of her skill and labor.
"Ohio produces men — men of action. Men who can work and
plan. Men who can talk and think and fight ; and it would hardly be
a full and fair description did I not add, men who can and do hold office
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition, 129
"It has been so ever since Ohio became a State, nearly one hundred
years ago; for Ohio was not long in getting into the Union after it was
once well started, and she has had a great deal to do and say about
things ever since.
"Virginia used to be called the Mother of Presidents. Virginia
will have to be content with the title of grandmother now, for the other
distinction has passed from her. Ohio has assumed it.
"Nor are we without hope that the years of the future will still
justify this distinguished and distinguishing title.
"It is said at home that we have several very able men on both
sides who look not upon the mention of their names in connection with
the Ohio succession reproachfully.
"Did not the Twelfth Amendment forbid, we might furnish both
the President and Vice President.
"That inhibition is not nearly so forbidding that I should indulge
in such suggestion, however, as is the preamble of the Constitution,
which says that one of its objects is to 'insure domestic tranquillity.'
There would be no domestic tranquillity in Ohio, I mean constitutional
domestic tranquillity, with such a ticket. The most amiable of hopes
would not underwrite such an insurance.
"In New York you are said to have similar congestion and plethora.
Speaking as an Ohioan, I beg to say to you of New York, that when the
long roll is called and counted, the Ohio man will be in the first place,
and you may have the second only because the Constitution says we can-
not have them both.
"But, ladies and gentlemen, there are a great many persons in
Ohio who do not hold office, and, although they may be perfectly willing
to do so, are not particularly concerned about it as the chief end of life.
"They are represented in the material things you see about you,
that in this exposition stand for Ohio's industries and endeavor.
"Ohio was the first fruits of the Ordinance of 1787. That ordin-
ance was nr. merely the political creation of a Congress enactment, but
a solemn perpetual covenant between the thirteen Colonies and the people
of the Northwestern Territory, that slavery and involuntary servitude
should be forever prohibited within its borders, and, in its own language,
'religion, morality and education being essential to good government
and the happiness of mankind should forever be encouraged.'
"This vast Northwest, that in the ambiguous text of the treaty ceding
it, extended 'up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and
northwest,' radiated between the Ohio River and the lakes, to the
Mississippi, and was destined within fifty years to form six great States,
of which Ohio was the first, as she was the fourth after the thirteen
Colonies, to be admitted into the Federal Union.
Vol. X— 9
130 Ohio Arch, ayid His. Society Publicatio7is.
"She was settled by a commingling of people, a part entering from
the Northeast, type and descendant of the best Puritan blood of New
England, the other strain of migration entering from the South, bringing
the warm and chivalrous traits and characteristics of the cavalier, whose
ancestors had peopled Maryland and Virginia, while flung across her
central border as if to reinforce and fuse these varied elements, New
York and Pennsylvania lent Dutch and Huguenot, producing in the
amalgamation as great and strong and mighty a race of people as ever
trod the globe.
"It is not surprising that Ohio, like some central, shining sun,
scattering) light and heat and life, has sent in drifts and masses westward
and north and south and back again and eastward, men and women
who have won distinction in every field of opportunity and endeavor.
She has given Governors and Senators to other States, and judges and
statesmen to supreme courts and national assemblies. Her soil has been
the birthplace of Presidents whom other States have presented to the
Nation, as her own sons have been lifted to that high office by the
suffrage of their countrymen. She consecrated the brain and blood and
bodies of 500,000 sons to God and glory to preserve the Union, as she
gave the great commanders of that heroic struggle to country and to
history.
"Her artisans and mechanics have filled the earth with implements
and evidence of skill and genius. They invent them and then teach
mankind to build, as well as use, them.
"Her wood and iron-working machinery fills the markets of Russia
and the East. She sells her oil to India. Her wagons trek the dusty
roads of Africa, as her plows and reapers plant and gather the harvests
-of Australia.
"Go into any field of industry the wide world over, and on the
simplest, as well as upon the most intricate and delicate machinery
utilized, you will find the stamp of Ohio.
"Nature intended it should be so. Her valleys are beautiful and
prolific, the fairest the sun e'er shone upon; redolent with the fragrance
of the wild grape and cherry that still bloom and blossom beside culti-
vated orchards, and green and yellow with wheat and cornfields nodding
in the sunshine, keeping time to the music of the harvest. The Miamis,
fertile and picturesque, stretch away into the Scioto and Muskingum,
and these melt again into the Hocking, the Mahoning and the Tuscara-
was, that in turn touch the Cuyahoga and the old black swamp, fountain-
head of the Sandusky and the Maumee.
"Ohio is still qmong the first of all States in the production of
wheat and corn and other cereals, in grapes and fruit, in tobacco,
flax and hemp; in cattle and sheep, in hogs and horses, in every product
of the soil, Ohio is Arcadian. She is like some vast cornucopia filled
to the overflow with abundant harvests.
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 131
"Her hills, like her valleys, are prodigal in natural resources.
Not Alpine in height, but Apennine in beauty; full of coal and lime
and iron, of building stone and granite. They need but labor and the
-torch to start the smoking furnaces that pour out steel and iron in
endless torrent; to pile mountain high the diamonds that are black that,
put to crucible, with eager fire drive wheels and shafts and gearings
that crown human industry and give light and heat and fuel; to rear
aloft architrave and column upon foundations of stately edifices and
â– business blocks.
"We bore beneath the wheat and corn, and oil and gas and salt
bubble and burst surfaceward.
"Yonder upon the eastern border is a clay deposit that, aside from
tile and brick, deftly fashioned in the potter's hands, makes famous
Ohio's potteries.
"In our own city of Cincinnati the genius of a gifted Ohio woman
fashioned wares that in exquisiteness of blended color, fused and welded,
and in fineness of texture and finish, make Rookwood as famous and
as artistic the world over as Wedgwood, Majolica or Delft.
"Ohio stands the great connecting Isthmian way between all the
States. It was so of old, when the national pike joined the West to
the East. It is now, when the slow locomotion of wagon and stage
â– coach has given way to the iron horse speeding upon steel rails.
"All continental lines of travel cross her territory. Converging
as they come from eastern terminals, they traverse Ohio upon closely
drawn and almost parallel lines, and then diverging like loosened tan-
gents, they spread abroad from Texas to Oregon. All States pay tribute
to us. We levy tax on traffic and gather toll from trade as the com-
merce of the world crosses our borders. Little wonder is it that men
go forth from Ohio, carrying the dear old State in their heart of hearts.
Little wonder is it that in every city of any size in this Union, and in
many, very many smaller towns, there are Ohio societies that foster
and minister to the love and pride they bear her memory and her greatness.
"But I must not prolong this recital.
"New York may call herself the Empire State; Ohio is imperial, too.
"Pennsylvania may style herself the Keystone State; Ohio is key-
stone and arch.
"Alabama's name means 'Here we rest;' but Ohio is the abiding
place of all that stands for life, for home, for hope, for happiness.
"Those of us who were born on her soil, together with her adopted
sons and daughters, voice that triumphant outcry of devotion: 'Thy people-
shall be my people, and thy God, my God. The Lord do so to me and
more if aught but death part thee and me.'
132 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
Mrs. Bishop sang again. Her glorious voice was heard first
in Handel's "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth" and then in
"Comin' Thro' the Rye."
''these are my jewels."
Hon. Emrnett Thompkins, Congressman-elect from the 12th
Ohio District (Columbus) delivered an address replete with most
interesting historical and statistical information :
"Out of the days devoted to the exposition of the arts and the
products of the two Americas, this one is dedicated to Ohio, in order
that we, her citizens, should have special opportunity to make man-
ifest her worth to others and among ourselves to rejoice over her achieve-
ments and her status, and to hopefully contemplate, and find inspiration
for, the future. Ohio is a great State. One of the greatest of all the
States. That may sound like vanity and boastfulness. It is not. I have
heard many who never lived there, but who knew what they were talking
about, say the same thing. If such others so speak, why should it be
vanity or boastfulness for me to speak as they do? There are many
reasons for this conceded greatness, and reasons readily found and easily
understood.
"Location has had much to do in bringing about her present condi-
tion. It secured for her that sturdy and healthy pioneer population which
was richly capable of laying the civic and industrial foundations of the
commonwealth and the later population, descendant from these pioneers
or admitted from other places, which has builded wisely and well the
superstructure now resting so firmly and gracefully upon these foun-
dations.
"Many of the New Englanders at the close of the Revolution and
the establishment of the Union were content to stop where they were
and seek no further. The trials of the long struggle for independ-
ence had wearried them, and the magnitude of their achievements filled
their cups, so that they neither sought nor desired acquisition of ter-
ritory or change in conditions. Indeed, many of them believed and
urged that when the thirteen Colonies passed into the Union under the
Constitution the ultimate had been attained; that expansion of terri-
tory or migration of the inhabitants to outside fields were neither toler-
ated nor contemplated by the instrument and the spirit of the federation ;
that the Appalachian range was the western boundary for all time,
and that whatever lay beyond should be the uninvaded home of the
Indian and the undisturbed lair of the wild beast. In short, they denied
the right and propriety of growth or change. Even to this day there
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 133
are a few choice spirits who appear to think the same way, but hap-
pily for the country, they are growing fewer.
"To the contrary, there were many" New Englanders of other
moods, notions and spirit. They looked across the lines marking the
narrow geographical area of the original Union. They were active,
progressive, expansive. They had climbed to the top of the AUeghe-
nies and from this lofty crest beheld the mighty West. They saw the
vast and unexplored forests, the undulating plains, the sweeping rivers,
the plunging waterfalls and curling brooks, the fertile valleys and ore-
filled hills, the changing skies and moving seasons lying between them
and the western line of the continent, and their souls were filled with
ambition and thrilled with hope. These people organized different land
companies, one distinctly known as the Ohio Company, and receiving
large grants at low prices and much encouragement from the general
government, they moved away from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut, sturdy men and women they were, and crossed the moun-
tains, threaded their way through unmarked forests and floated upon
the bosom of great- rivers and their tributaries to stop at last within the
territory of what is now the State of Ohio. They stopped because they
had found that which they sought. These New Englanders settled prin-
cipally in the northeastern part and obtained lands which are still called
the "Western Reserve," and others in the southeastern part upon the
shares allotted by the Ohio Company obtained by it from the United
States. About the time of this invasion by the New Englanders,
another movement looking to the formation of Ohio had taken place.
That vast area stretching from Kentucky to the British Possessions had
been ceded by the State of Virginia and constituted what is ktiown as
the "Territory Northwest of the Ohio River." This passed under civil
control in 1788, when .Arthur St. Clair was inaugurated governor thereover
and upon this event great interest was aroused and Virginians, who were
always expansionists, left their native heaths and moving to the North-
west peopled the Symmes Purchase and the Virginia Military Survey,
where Chillicothe, our first State capital, is located.
"By these we see that the pioneers of Ohio, the first settlers,
they who laid the sills, who gave form and quality to our common-
wealth, were the sons and daughters of sturdy, conservative and wise
New England, and the sons, and daughters of the brave, powerful and
dashing Virginia. Could origin have come from richer or more fruitful
source? Could any territory have been opened and settled by better
stock? Ohio was the chosen ground of these adventurous and progress-
ive pioneers because she lay in their path. The early descendants of
these New Englanders and Virginians, leaving the ancestral cabins and
seeking other fields, in time covered the whole territory, and thus
meeting and mingling they combined the best qualities of the different
134 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications,
sections. Marriages between them were common, and as a result there
is not a day in the year nor a place in Ohio when and where you can
not find some person whose ancestors upon one side were from New
England and upon the other from Virginia.
"New England and Virginia! The leaders in the American Revo-
lution, the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the vigorous
advocates of the constitutional prohibition of slavery and the establish-
ment of the equality of all men before the law; ambitious, alert, pro-
gressive, wise and patriotic they mingled their blood, brawn and brains
upon the waiting and fecund soil of Ohio.
"The example set by these pioneers became effective and many
others left the East and Southeast to make their homes in the new and
wondrous land. Some, no doubt, had fixed their destination farther,
others no farther, but be that as it might have been, when the immigrant
reached Ohio he was attracted by her inducements, and there he stopped
and pitched his tent. Ohio is and always has been the gateway between
the East and the farther West. All immigrants and travelers passing
from one region to the other cross or touch her borders. The early
emigrant with his yoke of oxen, the later with his horses and "Quaker"
wagon, and the still later riding in the swiftly moving steam-drawn car,
seeking the "land of the setting sun," had to see Ohio, and seeing her
was caught by her charms and lingered with her.
"By reason of our location, so it appears, we have had opportunity
to arrest and hold the immigrant, domestic and foreign, and as a result
our population is composed of the best order of Americans and the best
classes of foreigners and their descendants, and all combine to give us
a citizenship unsurpassed in quality and in character.
"While location has had much to do in bringing about the present
condition of Ohio, there are other reasons to be considered, as supple-
mentary to and co-operative with location, and without which location
would have availed but little, and one is the material richness of the
State. No other like amount of surface in the whole Union contains
such variety of soil, forest and fruit trees, crops and stock, and equal
opportunity for profitable industrial enterprises.
"Old as she is, compared with other States, Ohio still has nearly
3,000,000 acres of timber-land, and among the trees growing thereon
can be found the oak, hickory, beech, poplar, sycamore, ash, chestnut,
cedar, elm and walnut, all sound and useful, and besides, not to more
than mention them, the dogwood, whose blossoms warn the farmer that
corn planting time has come, and the buckeye whose trunk made good
sugar-water troughs and a cradle for the baby in the early days, and
whose nuts furnished the nickname for our State.
"Of fruits there are raised all kinds, except such as grow only
in tropical climates, and if we have many summers like the present I
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 185
would not be surprised to See plantations of bananas, oranges and cocoa-
nuts growing there. In the year 1899, there were 315,486 acres of apple
trees yielding 11,077,213 bushels; 30,309 acres of peach trees yielding
146,636 bushels, and 3,178 acres of pear trees yielding 73,236 bushels.
In all, 348,973 acres of apple, peach and pear orchards yielding in the
aggregate 11,297,083 bushels of fruit, and 1899 was a bad year, too.
There are not included in the official record the number of acres or the
yield of plums, apricots, cherries and quinces. By the way, and I came
near overlooking them, there are grapes growing in Ohio — all kinds.
In 1899 there were 13,629 acres of vineyards, which produced 31,127,743
pounds of this luscious fruit, out of which 489,060 gallons of wine were
pressed and the balance were consumed by us, the small boy, the birds
and bees and yellow jackets.
"Compared to the sweeping and far-reaching prairies and plains
of the distant West, Ohio can not be called a distinctly farming district,
yet in 1899 out of her 19,471,926 acres owned and taxed, 10,239,866
acres were under cultivation, and 5,849,010 acres in pasture, and the
balance was forest and other land. Upon that acreage which was devoted
to farming and pasture, there were owned in stock and produced in
crops in that year 551,923 horses; 1,263,945 head of cattle and milk
cows; 1,339,113 hogs, and 2,176,716 head of sheep, from which were
clipped 13,017,052 pounds of good wool.
"There were harvested 41,469,703 bushels of wheat; 185,710 bush-
els of rye; 173,206 bushels of buckwheat; 33,296,912 bushels of oats.;
751,633 bushels of barley; 1,972,059 tons of hay and 749,225 tons of
clover; and there were dug 9,203,633 bushels of Irish potatoes, and
husked 111,159,200 bushels of corn. There were gathered 94,013 bushels
of sweet potatoes ; 669,475 pounds of broom corn (we sweep a good deal) ,
and 861,809 bushels of odoriferous onions. Of sweets there were not
a few, for there were yielded 250,245 gallons of sorghum molasses;
983,667 gallons of maple syrup, and the busy bees gave us 1,052,616
pounds of honey.
"But these are not all that came from our farms that year, and it
was not a highly productive year, either. The dairies gave us for the
market 40,590,560 gallons of milk; 5,861,896 pounds of butter and
15,293,536 pounds of cheese. How many pounds of butter and cheese
and how many gallons of milk were consumed at home, there is no
method of ascertaining.
"The poultry yards that year presented and had officially recorded
60,376,116 dozen of eggs, and, no doubt, as many dozen escaped the
eye of the statistician. These statements when assembled challenge for a
moment our credulit'r and stagger the comprehension, but they are true;
and all is not told, because, no doubt, many of the products of the
farm have never been reported.
136 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
"Great as are the agricultural and farming interests in Ohio, when
the soil so used is appraised for taxation at $599,678,045, there should
be added for our consideration before we can have an accurate notion of
what the worth of her ground is, the valuation of lots and lands lying
within towns and cities. Such lots and lands are appraised for taxation
at $674,526,676. And do not forget that real estate, as a rule, is
appraised for taxation at but 60 per cent, of its true value. Therefore,
it is fair to assume that the total value of real estate in Ohio in 1900 was
$2,125,672,860. Thus it is seen that mother earth, from whose' bosom
we came and to whose eternal embrace we must return, has been won-
drously generous to us and to our neighbors. She is man's best and
most steadfast friend. Let us not abuse or neglect her. Let us cherish
and nourish her virtues, so that everywhere within our borders she shall
wear a golden crown and be clothed in the richest and fruitfullest raiment.
"I trust that figures have not become tiresome. Before we can
comprehend the material wealth of our State it is necessary to consider
them; and to them already given must be annexed a few more, and I
:crave your indulgence.
"One of the most important factors in the wealth of a nation or of
a state is the employment of labor. The larger portion of the male popu-
lation of a district is devoted to manual toil. The 'hewers of wood and
carriers of water' constitute, probably, four-fifths of that population,
counting all departments ; and it is absolutely essential to the welfare of
the state that these men be engaged in fairly and justly remunerative
work, because when labor is prosperous and contented then, and only
then, all is well. It is to be regretted that we have no law compelling
manufacturers to report to the several executive departments of the
government the number of persons employed, their wages, and the
amount of capital invested in their enterprises, together with the pro-
ducts thereof. The statistics at hand for 1900 are such as have been
derived from voluntary reports and by such inspection as our officials
had the time to make. In the year 1899 there were inspected 3,782 shops
and factories, and the factories and shops reporting to the Commissioner
of Labor Statistics were 2,362, employing 149,388 persons, to whom
were paid $67,555,815.29 in wages. The amount invested in these estab-
lishments was $256,453,091, and the value of the goods manufactured
$305,061,085. The steel industries reporting to the same department
were 71, with a capitalization of $17,895,472, employing 21,314 hands,
paying them $12*673,188 in wages and producing $72,708,924 in goods.
This report seems meagre, indeed, when we realize that the chattel
wealth of the State exceeds one billion of dollars, and that in iron alone
there were blasted and sold on the market in one year 13,620,700 tons
of pig iron.
"The coal business cuts an important figure. Of the 88 counties
dn the State, 30 are coal producing. In 1899 there were 1,113 mines
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 137
operated; 28,028 persons employed, price of mining %^ cents per ton,
and 15,908,934 tons of coal were dug from the mines and sold on the
market. There is but one other State in the Union that can equal this
showing.
"Railroading demands notice. Railroads are the great developers
and civilizers. They open the country and carry prosperity and educa-
tion along with passengers and freight. Show me a State with but few
railroads and I will show you one where the people are ignorant and
lazy, and where the thistle and the briar reign undisturbed. But show
me a State with many such roads and I will show you one where the
people are intelligent and thrifty and where the land yields its utmost.
"In the year 1900 there were 87 companies operating steam rail-
roads in the State of Ohio, with 13,254 miles of track therein; with
$306,904,600 of capital stock, paying for that year $6,367,746.04 in
dividends, using equipment costing $573,674,616.86, earning for their
shareholders $86,049,117.88, employing 67,834 persons, distributing in
salaries and wages $37,190,857, and carrying 27,364,106 passengers and
123,639,177 tons of freight, and turned into the public treasury $2,187,23".^
by way of taxes on property, and $383,218 more by way of exactions foi
the mere privilege of doing business therein. All in the State of Ohio
and all in one year.
"Within the last few years a 'new Richmond' has entered the field.
It is the interurban railroad, operated by electricity. In every direction
these lines are reaching out and binding the country with the town, and
town with town, in quick communication. How many miles there are
already constructed I can not tell, because such companies are not yet
under the supervision of the Commissioner of Railroads, but the record
shows that 33 new companies were organized last year with capital aggre-
gating $10,352,000, and more are to follow.
"Banking has an important place. In the year just named we had
259 National banks, with total assets of $62,128,039, and State banks
and Savings societies, with valuation for taxation amounting to
$18,558,494. And it is fair to assume, although there is no way of
finding out exactly, that the deposits in these various banks and private
banks not reported, amounted to a billion dollars.
"So much for the material wealth of Ohio. That wealth which has
form, substance, weight and lasting qualities, but with all these she
would be 'poor as winter' if there was not something besides. That some-
thing can be supplied from social, moral and mental conditions. It
requires the educated mind, good morals and pure social qualities to
get the best out of material things. Have the people of Ohio such minds,
morals and social qualities? 'By their fruits ye shall judge them.' In
the year 1900 there were organized 317 benevolent and other social cor-
porations, and 98 churches, and 22 colleges and libraries. It can not be
138 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
ascertained with exactness how many churches, schools and libraries
there are in Ohio, but they are on every hand. We have four universi-
ties sustained by the public funds, and there must be more than 20 pri-
vate colleges. The school-houses are always in sight, and the State
appropriated $1,764,939 last year for their support, and there is not a
boy or a girl in all Ohio under 16 years of age who is not compelled by
law to go to school, and none so poor that he or she can not have books
and other necessaries, because the State will furnish them when there is
any need.
' 'Thereby abideth faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of
these is charity.' No State is kinder to or more thoughtful of her unfor-
tunates and afflicted than Ohio is. She has seven hospitals where the
sick in mind find care and comfort, and last year she gave $1,504,000
for their support. The deaf mutes, who can not voice their gratitude
nor hear the laughter of their playmates, are not left in ignorance; nor
are the blind from whose minds the glorious shapes and colorings of
the earth are shut out, suffered to remain in total darkness, for Ohio has
erected a noble institution of learning for each of them and appropriated
last year for the support of the former $145,000 and to the latter $85,000,
"To him who bore the heat of battle in his country's cause and is
now old and infirm, his State extends a generous hand and leads him.
to a beautiful Soldiers' Home at Sandusky, where with his old com-
rades in arms he can pass his closing days in comfort and in honor.
"Nor are the orphans of such men forgotten, because at Xenia
there has been established a large, comfortable and even magnificent
home for the orphans of soldiers and sailors. Besides these, there are
57 children's homes supported by taxation, and in every county and in
every city there may be found hospitals, nurseries, homes and retreats
for the infirm and the tender. Glorious State, none is more charitable
to and thoughtful of her unhappy ones.
"But these mentioned are not all. There are other sources from
which she draws her greatness. Ohio was organized as a State on the
29th day of November, 1802. She then had a population of 45,365, as
determined by the census of 1800. By the last census this population
had grown to 4,157,545, which is a million more than inhabited all the
colonies when they struck for freedom. This population, mighty as it
is, is tranquil, peaceful, and law-abiding. This condition rests upon the
deep, underlying and all-pervading spirit of patriotism. The love of
country — divine — eternal — which engenders respect for and obedi-
ence to law and public order. It glowed in the embers upon the first
settler's hearth ; it was heard in the ring of the ax as the pioneer sunk
it deep in the trunk of the shuddering oak ; in the song he sang as he
thrust the plowshare into the teeming earth ; in the stories he told when
night shut down, and with his children they sat in the cabin and read
Ohio Day at Pan-American Exposition. 139'
each other's faces by the Hght of the flickering knot; and from him,
fastening itself with unyielding hold upon each generation, through all
the intervening years with their vicissitudes, trials and tests, untarnished
and undiminished and only stronger, purer and sweeter, this spirit of
patriotism has come to us and is with us this day.
"Ohio has sent her sons to every battlefield where the liberty of
men or the relief of the oppressed was at issue. In the great Civil War
where liberty and the Union were at stake, she sent 310,654 volunteers
to the front. These brave sons were at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the
March to the Sea, at Nashville, at Chattanooga and at every spot where
the stars and stripes fluttered and the cannon thundered. And under
countless heaps of earth, all over the land of the South, by the side of
the weaving pine, beneath the mountain's frowning top, at the rifHed
brook, by ths lily-covered pond, they are sleeping on and on, waiting for
the final trump which shall marshal them for the Grand Review before
the Throne on High.
"What State in that mighty struggle equalled her in the commanders
furnished? Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, McPherson and the McCooks!
Where can their peers be found? The very sounding of their names
starts the war spirit and urges us to victorious combat. Their fame will
live as long as men inhabit the earth, and their praises will be spoken
wherever tongues articulate.
"In the late War with Spain, where the relief of the oppressed was
all we sought, Ohio paid her full share. Ten regiments rnarched forth
from the farm, the shop, the store and the office. Some were at Porto
Rico, some at Santiago, and the others chafing under the restraints of
the camp were all anxious to fire a shot. The first fully equipped and
ready for battle volunteer regiment in the United States to reach the
camp of mobilization was the First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which
pitched its tents at Chickamauga.
"Not in war alone has Ohio acquired fame and honor. Her sons
have left their deep impress in all the higher walks; in oratory, states-
manship, finance, at the bar, in the pulpit, and in art and letters. Who
could surpass the versatile Corwin, the scholarly and magnetic Garfield,
the rugged and convincing Wade, the edifying and classical Cox, when
listening thousands, rapt and eager, broke into echoing applause?
Whence came wiser statesman than Harrison, Hayes, Stanton and
Brough; greater financiers than Chase, Sherman, and the Rockefellers;
greater lawyers than Peter Hitchcock, the elder Ewing. Rufus P. Ran-
ney, Matthews, Swayne and Waite, and greater preachers than Ames
and Simpson? In the presidential chair Ohio has placed the two Harri-
sons, Grant, Hayes, Garfield and McKinley; in the cabinet. Meigs,
McLean, Cor\yin, Stanberry, Ewing, Taft, Dennison, Stanton, Chase,
Sherman, Foster, Day, Hay, Delano and Cox: on the Supreme bench of
140 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the United States, Chief Justices Chase and Waite, and Associate Jus-
tices Swayne and Matthews — distinguished all. To art she gave Powers
and his chisel, an4 to letters, Howell and Reid.
"To-day her sons are dwelling in every clime and every State and
territory in the Nation, sent thither to expend the strength and utilize
the genius drawn from their native soil, and they are doing it. Go
where you may — no matter how remote the spot — there you will find
the Ohio man and find him counting for something. In the Senate of the
United States and in the House of Representatives her sons are found
speaking for other and younger States ; in State offices throughout the
West, North and Southwest, Ohio "boys" are filling places of the highest
responsibility, doing honor to themselves and to their native State.
Way over in the Philippines, in our new possessions, with thousands of
leagues on sea and land between him and his home, Ohio's noble son
was, on the 125th anniversary of the Declaratoin of American Independ-
ence, inaugurated as first civil governor of the Archipelago. There in
the Orient, among the oppressed and the ignorant, amid the gloom of
four hundred years of unrelenting tyranny, the torch of enlightenment,
civilization and liberty was raised by the strong, kind and just hand of
William H. Taft, to go down in darkness no more forever.
"To the highest legislative body in the Union now, as in the past,
we make contribution to the ablest, most prominent and most effective
of its membership, from both the leading parties. And with all these,
ample in his strength, whose every artery is filled with romping blood
and every fibre thrilling with vitality ; in the noonday of his accom-
plished manhood, trained and well poised, Ohio has given to our coun-
try and to the world, one of the three greatest of all presidents, that
profound statesman, superb soldier and gentle Christian, William
McKinley.
"I have stated some but not all the reasons for Ohio's greatness.
It may be proper to add that her financial integrity has never been ques-
tioned from the days of "wildcat" banking to the gold standard, and her
credit is so good that she can borrow all the money needed at 3 per cent.
Her total State debt is but $450,000, bearing that rate of interest. More
than half of this will be paid next year, and the balance one year later.
So that by this day in 1903 Ohio will not owe one cent. It is fair to
mention another thing. Critics and reviewers say that all Ohio men are
politicians, and say, besides, that politicians are dishonest. They may
be half right. We may be all politicians, but the truth is that while
our State officials receive smaller salaries than are paid in States not
so large or so rich, but one breath of scandal or formal charge of crime
against State officials has ever stained her record in all her life. They
are, have been, and will be honest.
"And now the tale is told, and poorly told. More and better things
â– could be said and better said. The, field is a fruitful one and large.
Ohio Day at Pa7i- American Exposition. 141
More than a century of civilization and nearly a hundred years of state-
hood make a long stretch of time and offer unaccounted opportunities
for growth and development, and these have not been neglected. 'Tis
a mighty transition from the cabin of the pioneer to the mansion of
the day; and this evolution hath been wrought slowly, steadily, and
securely. The mind leaps the intervening years since the smoke of the
lonely fire curled through the gloomy forest and pauses to contemplate the
wondrous work of time and its generations of men. We proudly pon-
der over what has been accomplished and from the noble fabrics now
erected catch hope and inspiration. Let us go on waxing stronger, richer,
and better; and here and now dedicate our lives and aspirations to the
purpose of filling the years to come with achievements still greater than
those which glorify the present."
SENATOR MARCUS A. HANNA.
Senator Marcus A. Hanna was the last speaker and he re-
ceived an ovation. The plaudits that greeted him surpassed the
welcome accorded any other figure of the day. The genial and
good-natured Senator was in "fine feather" and entered most
heartily into the spirit of the occasion. His beaming features ex-
panded in a merry smile as he waited for an opportunity to be
heard. He spoke "ofif-hand" in his characteristic terse and force-
ful manner.
"I presume I would please this audience," said Senator Hanna,
"after Mr. Tompkins's lengthy and able speech, by simply adding bully
for Ohio and let it go at that. (Laughter.) I want to say a word about
this exposition and its practical results, however, even at the expense of
your patience. On behalf of all Ohio, I want to "thank the President of
the Pan-American Exposition Company, the Mayor of Buffalo, the citi-
zens who conceived the idea, and the Board of Directors who carried
it out, for making the exposition a success. I was here at the ceremo-
nies on Dedication Day. When I returned to Cleveland, it having been
advertised that I was here, I was asked what I thought of the exposi-
tion. Well, I had been here only one day — only one day, remember —
and I replied that you had a very nice Midway. (Laughter and cheers.)
"My text to-day' is 'The Commercial Relations of the American
Continent,' and we must not lose sight of the important, in contempla-
tion of the purely pleasureable. We must not lose sight of the business
side of the exposition, while 'flying the goose.' Coming at a time when
the commercial interests of the American people are becoming awakened
to the needs of the hour, coming at a time when the United States has
first taken its place in the front rank of commercial supremacy, the Pan-
142 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
American Exposition is destined to do much good. At this time, the
United States, the big brother, stands ready and willing to give its foster-
ing care to its sister republics in the South and Central Americas, and
all that is needed to result in a growing trade between them is some point
of contact."
Senator Hanna referred to the fact that the producing capac-
ity of the United States has exceeded the capacity of the country
to consume its own product. The country must look for new-
markets. The country has neglected its opportunity in the West-
ern Hemisphere. This is the chance. This exposition gives the
United States an opportunity to improve its relations with South
America. At the exposition, this country meets South America
as business men on change.
Senator Hanna quoted figures to show that during the last
decade relations with South America, instead of increasing, had
gone back. Why? For the want of contact.
"You can't do business with a country 100 miles away unless you
can establish some point of contact. To transact business, you must
have means of communication. Under present conditions, and I am
not advocating a merchant marine for political reasons, our goods must
be shipped to South America on foreign bottoms, going first to Europe
and from there carried to the point of destination on some regular line
of steamships.
"At this Pan American Exposition we should say to our friends
from South America, join with us in the establishing of regular steam-
ship lines between our ports and yours, join with us in the establishment
of regular ports of entry, join with us in the establishment of banks for
•exchange where credit can be given so that we will have thjs ambition
to trade with you and good will come to us both. We should ask our-
selves whether it is fair to neglect this opportunity to trade with South
America. We consume what they raise. There is a ready market there
for our goods. What we need is the machinery of trade that I have
referred to. Whenever we have the contact, we have been able to secure
the trade. (Applause.) You can no more stay the commercial progress
of the United States than you can stem the current of the mighty Niagara,
flowing past your doors. Let this Pan-American Exposition mark the
beginning of the movement when the people of the United States shall
see to it that nothing shall stand between the strengthening of relations,
political, social, commercial and friendly, between the United States
and the South American countries."
Ohio Day at Pa7i-America7i Exposition. 143
Prolonged applause followed the close of the Senator's stir-
ring and patriotic address.
OTHER FESTIVITIES.
The distinguished guests of the Ohio party were tendered a
luncheon at the Stadium, after the services in the Temple of
Music. There were present at the table, Governor George K.
Nash ; Senator M. A. Hanna ; Hon. John G. Milburn, President
of the Pan-American Exposition ; Hon. William I. Buchanan.
Director-General of the Exposition; Hon. Daniel J. Ryan, Ex-
Secretary of State ; Hon. W. S. McKinnon, Chairman Ohio Pan-
American Commissioners, and Mrs. W. S. McKinnon ; C. L.
Swain, Secretary Ohio Commission, and Mrs. C. L. Swain ; Hon.
S. L. Patterson, member Ohio Commission ; Hon. John A.
Shauck, Supreme Court of Ohio and Miss Helen Shauck ; Hon.
Frank H. Baird, Director Pan-American Exposition ; Col. C.
Barton Adams, Assistant Adjutant General (Ohio) ; General
Edmund G. Brush, Surgeon General ; Colonels Charles A. Craig-
head, William H. Morgan, Jerome S. Burrows, Melville M. Gil-
lette, Aides-de-Camp on the Governor's staff; Captain William
Winder, U. S. Navy ; Lieut.-Com. William E. Wirt. Lieut. Arthur
Devale, Lieut. Frank R. Seman, and Ensigns Nelson H. Young
and George F. Glass, Ohio Naval Reserve ; Lieut. Col. Charles C.
Weybrecht, Majors Ammon B. Critchfield, Frederick S. Marquis
and Frank C. Lee and Capt. Frank C. Gerlach of the 8th O. V. L ;
Hon. L. C. Laylin, Secretary of State and Mrs. Laylin; Hon.
Emmett Tompkins, Congressman, 12th Ohio District; Hon. C.
W. Dick, Congressman, 20th Ohio District; Hon. John
Eisenmann, Architect Ohio Building; Hon. A. L Voris, State
Insurance Commissioner ; Miss Georgia Hopley and Mrs. Andrew
Squires, Ohio Lady Commissioners to the Exposition; Mrs.
Genevra Johnston-Bishop; Judge U. L. Marvin; Mr. Amor
Sharp; Mr. Andrew Squires; John H. Scatcherd : ^Mr. H. ^L
Shellhamer; Hon. E. O. Randall. Secretary State Archaeological
and Historical Society and others.
There were no formal speeches but "after the Walnuts and
the Wine" Senator Patterson arose and in a few fitting words in
144
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
behalf of the Ohio Commission presented Governor Nash, as a
souvenir of the occasion, a beautiful silk flag of the State of Ohio.
Mr. C. L. Swain, on behalf of the Ohio
Commission, made a similar presentation
to Mr. Milburn, President of the Ex-
position. This flag was designed by
Mr. John Eisenmann, architect of the
Ohio Building, and was adopted by the
Ohio Commission. It is proposed to
ask the forthcoming legislature to ap-
prove it as the flag of the State.
The triangles formed by the m.ain
lines of the flag represent the hills and
valleys as typified in the state seal and
the stripes the roads and waterways.
The stars, indicating the 13 original states of the Union, are
grouped about the circle which represents the original northwest
territory and that Ohio was the seventeenth state admitted into
the Union is shown by adding four more stars. The white
circle with its red center not only represents the initial letter of
FLAG OF THE STATE OF OHIO.
Ohio, but is suggestive of its being the "Buckeye State." The
proportions and symmetry of the flag are such that it may be
shown in any position without afifecting its symbolism.
At 7 p. M., Governor Nash, Senator Hanna, Director General
Buchanan and a number of gentlemen in the Ohio party, includ-
Ohio Day at Pan-America7i Expositio7i. 145
ing the Ohio Pan-American Commissioners, were the guests of
Hon. Frank H. Baird at dinner at the Tower Restaurant. At
the same hour in the Ohio Building were held reunions by the
Kenyon College graduates on the grounds and by the alumni of
Ohio Wesleyan University. Following the dinner at the Tower,
Governor Nash and escort witnessed the dress parade by the
"President's Own" regiment and later the electrical illumina-
tion from the esplanada. The party then returned to the Ohio
Building where they enjoyed the elaborate fire works display,
also making a short visit to the Park Lake front while the pyro-
technic display was in progress. At 9.30 was held a general re-
ception at the Ohio Building, at which the Commissioners acted
as hosts and mesdames McKinnon and Swain and Miss Georgia
Hopley as hostesses. A large number of Ohio people were pres-
ent, including not only the distinguished Ohioans, but also many
of the foreign Pan-American Commissioners. It was the most
successful social function that has thus far been held at the Ex-
position. Certainly Ohio was handsomely treated at the Pan-
American and no less certainly did Ohio make a favorable im-
pression upon the splendid Exposition.
Vol. X— 10
146 Ohio Arch, and His Society Publications,
COLONEL THOMAS CRESAP*
BY MRS. MARY LOUISE CRESAP STEVENSON,
To write the history of Colonel Thomas Cresap is to write
the Colonial History of Maryland and Virginia and more or less
of Ohio. To recount the story of these colonies is, to tell the
story of the Revolution.
The rehearsal of that noble struggle would involve much of
the history of the great powers of Europe and you might con-
clude, we were like Tennyson's brook, and would 'go on for-
ever.' Therefore, we will try to give you only a snap shot at the
life and times of our hero. We will give you items here and
there, and leave you to develop the composite picture.
We believe, that when William the Norman invaded Eng-
land, he found the family of our hero on the ground. His char-
acteristics were essentially of the sturdy, faithful, "Cedric, the
Saxon" type ! His family was ever loyal to country and flag.
Kings came and went, and the days of Edward HI and the
Black Prince arrived. The British Lion was just the same, then
as now, only at that time, it was France, instead of South Africa
he was reaching for. The day of the famous "Battle of Cressy"
(1346) dawned, when Philip of Valois had 100,000 soldiers and
the victorious English only 30,000. Among these, it is said, was
the ancestor of our hero. Col. Cresap ; and for great bravery on
that renowned field his family name, whatever it may have pre-
viously been, for we cannot now definitely learn, was changed
to "Cressy." In due course of evolution (there is nothing new
under the sun, not even the doctrine of evolution) the name be-
came "Cresap."
Notice the first characteristics we discern in the heredity
of our hero, are loyalty and bravery. Loyalty to his country
though she was reaching for the lilies of France and playing a
*This paper on the life of Thomas Cresap was read by Mrs. Stevenson, a
double descendant of Colonel Cresap, at the Eluathan Scofield Reunion held at
the residence of Mr. Frank Tallmadge, Columbus, Ohio, August 7, 1901. Mrs.
Stevenson is a resident of Dresden, Ohio.— [Ed.]
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 147
landgrab game. The family have been ready to fight "pro patria"
ever since, and their coat of arms is a mailed head, and uplifted
right arm; Head in Armor, brains and bravery.
Years rolled on; the glorious protectorate of Cromwell was
over and Charles II, came to the throne in 1660. This was a
Revolutionary epoch. A little boy came to a Manor house in
Yorkshire about 1671, who was destined to outlive that merry
monarch, and several of his successors viz. James II, William and
Mary, Queen Anne, George I, George II and into the reign of
George III, some 17 years. The Yorkshire boy proved to be' a
sturdy youth. James II oppressed the people — preparing for
another Revolution, and many came to the Colonies to escape the
religlious upheaval and the power of the Vatican. Among these
we find our hero, Thomas Cresap, in the year 1686 — at the age
of 15.
We have said those were stirring times and a Revolutionary
epoch! Let us leave our hero, and glance at the times. In
Cresap's day. Louis XIV "Revoked the Edict of Nantes" and
scattered the best families of France to Germany, England and
our colonies ! In Cresap's day, Louis XV said, "After us the
deluge," and proceeded to prepare the way for the French Revo-
lution, that awful flood which swept the throne of his great grand-
son Louis XVI out of existence ! In Cresaps' day Peter the
Great went to scheol in Holland and taught his people ; revolu-
tionizing Russia ! In Cresap's day Peter's wadow, Catherine,
Empress of Russia, assisted Frederick the Great and the Em-
peror of Austria in the dismemberment of Poland, each nation
picking up a piece, much as the European nations now are looking
for curios — seeking rare bits of China ! During his life the great
Empress, Maria Theresa, settled the Revolution in her empire and
secured the throne of her fathers. So we might continue with the
revolution in Spain and the war of the Spanish succession and so
on indefinitely.
But we return to our hero, Col. Cresap. He had just arrived
in the Colonies and brought with him his bravery, love of country
and loyalty. He settled in Maryland, and began to "grow up
with the country. He became an Indian trader, like the Astors
and some other notables. He marked a wife (Hannah Johnson^
148 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
and astutely settled at Havre de Grace, thus having the rich valley
of the Susquehanna and the fur-bearing wilderness on the one
hand and the Chesapeake Bay on the other, ready to float his furs
to market.
He had a sterling honesty, that made and kept friends.
Daniel Dulany was his early and life-long friend. Col. Cresap's
•oldest son was named for this " Daniel " Dulany, and the many
Daniels in the Cresap clan testify not only to the Colonel's faculty
-of faithfulness, but to the heredity of the quality. Once a friend
always a friend. Charles Calvert, the iirst Protestant Lord Bal-
timore, but fifth of the title was Cresap's earnest friend through
life, and the feeling was reciprocated. Col. Cresap also made
friends with the Indians and they used frequently to visit in
the early days at his house, and called him "Brother Cresap."
He prospered at Havre de Grace and accumulated a large quantity
-of furs, which he shipped for England. Unfortunately, the
French captured the ship and furs. Cresap must begin over.
Nothing daunted, he went further into the wilderness, hoping
for better fortune and quicker returns. He obtained a Maryland
patent for 500 acres of land, up the Susquehanna, and built a
stone house. Here he expected to reside. But, "the best laid
plans of mice and men aft gang agley."
The Kings of England were exceedingly ignorant of the
•geography of this country. Much trouble and sore distress to the
•Colonist \vere the results of this ignorance. They suffered from
"over-lapping grants." These were frequently given ; we will
;speak only of the grants of Maryland and Pennsylvania. These
"Grants" were full of high-sounding phrases — and the land
I'granted was always worded — extending "West to the Pacific
Ocean," so generous ( ?) were the kings, and so little did they
know how far off the Pacific might be.
The original grant of Maryland had been promised to George
Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, by James I, but it was really given
to Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, by Charles I, in 1632.
The settlers were brought in 1645 by his brother, Leonard Calvert.
The title to the Province was confirmed, after the restoration
of the Stuarts, by Charles II, July 31st, 1661, to Charles Calvert,
.fifth Lord Baltimore (who was Col. Cresap's friend), and the
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 149-
grant took in Maryland's present boundary and the whole of the
40th degree of latitude. This same monarch, " who never- said a.
foolish thing, and never did a wise one," settled his indebtedness
to William Penn, by issuing another grant to him, which included,
a large amount of the territory already given to Lord Baltimore !
What a just and liberal king! As Penn's grant was dated Alarch,
4th, 1681, or 20 years later than Lord Baltimore's, it does not re-
quire a "Philadelphia lawyer" nor an Ohio one either, to foresee
the trouble and friction that would follow. Thomas Cresap's new
stone house and his 500 acres of choice land, were situated up the
Susquehanna ( at Wright's Ferry, near the present town of
Columbia, Penn.), and in the disputed territory claimed by the
Penns.
Our hero naturally, and warmly, espoused the cause of his
friend, Lord Baltimore. Certainly, to the unprejudiced and just
eye of to-day, Lord B. had the prior and the correct claim..
Cresap to his latest day, said — "If the son and successor of
Lord Baltimore had pursued the proper course, ^Maryland would:
have been the richer, by a large strip of territory," perhaps one-
third of Pennsylvania. Once when asked what he thought of
Philadelphia? He answered promptly — "Why, it is the finest,
city in the State of Maryland."
While the Baltimores and Penns were settling their contro-
versy, Cresap must be about the business of life. So at a great
sacrifice of house, land and improvements, he went West as far
as Antietam. There he again took out a patent for land of
1400 acres. He built another stone house, a kind of fort,
inclosing a spring, for use in case of trouble with the savages.
This he sold later to his friend, Daniel Dulany. Another
friend Lord Baltimore persuaded him, then, to go to the western
frontier. Scharf gives the reason : "This Thomas Cresap, usually
called the " English Colonel," was a much trusted friend and
agent of the fifth Lord Baltimore, and was sent to the west por-
tion of the Province to guard his interests against Lord Fairfax.
It was another case of overlapping grants. Thomas Cresap is
named in the Treaty of the Six Nations,' with the Province of
Maryland. (Dated June 30th. 1744.) The family of Colonel
Cresap C writes the historian), was therefore one of the oldest
160
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Maryland families, and from the time of the 'English Colonel'
until the present, have occupied a high position of the first families
of Maryland."
There, a little above the junction of the North and South
l>ranches of the Potomac, Col. Cresap made his permanent resi-
dence, and there he acquired an immense estate on both sides of the
Potomac, a part of which still remains in the hands of his descend-
ants. There he built his third stone house, rather fort, as he was
then at the extreme outposts of civilization. "Here he renewed
his acquaintance with the Washington family and soon became
one of the most distinguished pioneers of the West ; his name was a
.household word, not only among the whites, but also with the In-
dians." Scharf calls him " the guardian genius of the western
frontier," and adds, "that the settlers built close around
•Cresap's fort and when alarmed, fled into it." Cresap called his
place " Skipton," from his birthplace in Yorkshire.
cresap's house in 1770.
In person, Cresap was not large, but was firmly built, and
possessed of great muscular strength. Jacobs says: "Had
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 151
Providence placed Col. Cresap at the head of an army,
state or kingdom, he would have been a more conspic-
uous character, for he was not inferior to his contempora-
ries, Charles XII, of Sweden, in personal bravery, nor to Peter the
Great, whom in many things he much resembled, viz : in coolness
and fortitude and in that particular talent of learning wisdom from
misfortune and levying a tax upon damage and loss, to raise him
to future prosperity and success." Perhaps no trait in Colonel
Cresap's character was more highly estimated than his benevo-
lence and hospitality. In early times when hotels were few and
indifferent. Col. Cresap's house was open to all respectable
travelers, and they were made welcome to his table at Skipton
or Oldtown. as it was called later. His delight was to give and
receive useful information. This friendly disposition and warm
hospitality was not limited to the whites. The Indians called on
him in large parties, as they passed and re-passed North
and South on their expeditions. He kept a very large kettle for
their especial use and gave them a beef to kill for themselves,
each time they called ; for his liberality to them, they gave him
the honorable title of the "Big Spoon." The Indian Guide Ne-
macolin. had so strong an affection for Col. Cresap and his family,
that he spent much time there, and when he finally went away,
he brought them his son, " George ". to raise, and " Indian
George " lived and died in the Colonel's family.
Col. Cresap had a vigorous and comprehensive mind, and
was called to fill many public offices. He was County Surveyor
of Prince George's County, which then included, also, Montgom-
ery, Frederick. Washington. Allegheny and Garrett Counties.
He frequently represented this district in the Provincial or State
Assembly. And says Jacobs : " For clearness of understanding,
soundness of judgment and firmness of mind, he was esteemed
one of their best members." He served well his Province and
Nation, and through his services his descendants may be " Colon-
ial Dames ;" or. " Sons and Daughters of the Revolution."
Colonel Cresap had a fine constitution, and lived to be io6
years old. When 70 years old, he made the voyage back to En-
gland. Those were not the days of Ocean Greyhounds. A voy-
age then, meant much physical endurance and inconvenience, in
152 Ohio Arch, atid His. Society Publicatiotis.
1741, or 160 years ago. At the age of 100 he went partly by
sea and partly by land to Nova Scotia on business with a rela-
tive, Col. O'Ferrell, who a was a Colonel of the 22nd Regt. of
Infantry in Braddock's campaign, and returned safely without a
palace car.
BOUNDARY LINES.
While in London, at the age of 70, Colonel Cresap was com-
missioned by his friend. Lord Baltimore, to survey the Western
Boundary of Maryland, to decide which was the most Westerly
Branch of the Potomac — the North or the South Branch, a mat-
ter of dispute between Lord Baltimore and Lord Fairfax. The
survey was completed and Cresap drew the first map ever made
of these North and South Branches of the Potomac, showing the
course of the streams. And Cresap's survey, according to a Bal-
timore paper we saw last summer, is still the legal boundary of
Maryland. This map can be seen in Baltimore, as it is still ex-
tant. It was sent to Gov. Sharpe and is attested by his secretary,
Horatio Rideout, and on the map is this endorsement, by the son
of the Secretary (Henry Rideout) : "The Cresaps will be re-
membered forever."
THE OHIO COMPANY.*
We said Col. Cresap " had renewed his friendship with the
Washington family," which began in early life. In 1749, a small
company of gentlemen of wealth and influence in Maryland and
Virginia ( and a few in London), formed an organization called
" The Ohio Company." Among these men, were Gen. Wash-
ington, Col. George Mason and Col. Thomas Cresap. ( Mason
and Dixon's line was called from Col. Mason).
To quote from the historians : " There can be no doubt that
the exertions and influence of this Company, accelerated the ex-
plorations and settlements of the West. They were in fact the
Corps of Pioneers, that opened the way to that immense flood
of population we now see, spreading like a torrent to the Pa-
cific Ocean. The nation is under obligation to this company and
especially to the bold and enterprising spirit of Col. Cresap, for
an early knowledge and acquisition of the country west of the
Alleghenv mountains."
*This was the first Ohio Company not the later one that settled Marietta, 1788 — Ed.
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 153
In 1750 this company built a small stone house at
"Wills Creek," Cumberland, and stocked it with goods, fqr the
purpose of trading with the Indians, and the following year, one
of their number — Colonel Thomas Cresap, laid out and marked
a road from Wills Creek to the mouth of the Monongahela, now
Cumberland to Pittsburg. Col. Cresap with his usual judgment
called in an Indian to assist him, old Nemacolin. Scharf says —
"The work was so well done, and the route so well chosen, that
General Braddock with his army, afterward pursued this route,
which thence forward was called 'Braddock's road.' " Scharf
adds — "Col Cresap was one of the earliest settlers of Maryland,
and without exaggeration, was one of the most remarkable men of
his day." It should have been called "Cresap's road" but perhaps
the sad fate of Gen. Braddock, it being the last road he ever
traveled, helped to fix his name upon it. When the great "national
road," the wonder of its day, was built across the mountains, it too,
almost exactly followed Cresap's road. How glad would Col. Cre-
sap have been to have looked upon the magnificent arches of
solid masonry, across ravines and rivers, which still testify to
the splendid quality of the work done, over 60 years ago, and to
have looked upon the streams of travel and the relays of coaches,
changing every twelve miles, coaches which carried our earlier
Presidents to Washington. And then to have seen the railroads,
with millions of traffic. In laying out this road Col. Cresap was
a public benefactor, and worked for posterity and his name for
that should never be forgotten.
Soon after the road was completed to Pittsburg, the Ohio
Company made a settlement there, at their own expense.. His-
torians tell us, the peace supposed to have been assured by the
"treaty .of Utrecht 1713" was broken constantly, if not consecu-
tively. On this side the water, our poor colonists realized that
it was war off and on, for nearly 100 years. It was called vari-
ously, "Old French and Indian war," King James', King^ Wil-
liam's, Queen Anne's, Braddock's and Dunmore's war— but it was
all horrTd war. Our own Sherman named it rightly — "War is
hell." The sufferings that our ancestors endured, that we might
enjoy our free, glorious country, we can never rightly understand
or appreciate. France and England were ever striving for su-
154 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
premacy. France spared no effort to crush England, and claimed
nearly everything — and to hold it, enlisted the savages as her
allies, a measure which produced suffering unspeakable to our
ancestors — which would make the blood run cold even in this
July weather to relate. This we do know, England never would
have conquered France and wrested from her the Canadas but
for the colonies who loyally stood by her, and enabled her to hear
the shout "they fiy, they fly," at the siege of Quebec.
England's grant, of 600,000 acres of land to the "Ohio Com-
pany" — ("on the south side of the Ohio River, between the Mo-
nongahela and Kanawha rivers, and west of the Alleghenies,,), re-
opened the struggle. By the charter the Ohio Company was to
select its lands immediately. Soon after the Company made
its settlement at Pittsburg, the French with 1000 men fell upon
the defenseless works and took them, and called the place Fort
Duquesne. (April 1753.) Then they seized and pillaged the
trading posts of the Ohio Company all along the .frontier, and
roused the savages against the English colonists. It was then,
that Gov. Dinwiddle of Virginia, sent Washington to the "Com-
mandant at Pittsburg to remonstrate with him and to demand
the evacuation of the territory (Oct. 31, I753-)- The demands
of Virginia, delivered by Washington were not granted. Noth-
ing was left but war.
Gov. Dinwiddle then summoned together, the "House of
Burgesses," and sent a note to the British Secretary of State,
(Earl of Holderness) "stating the precarious, and dangerous con-
dition of the western frontier," as the western part of Maryland,
Virginia and Pennsylvania was then called. He also issued circu-
lar letters to all the English colonies, "to repel by force all at-
tempts by the French, to intrude upon the settlements within the
colonies." Then the Maryland Assembly met, and they decided, that
they were resolutely determined to repel any hostile invasion by
any foreign power."
General Washington came to Fort Cumberland on a tour of
inspection, and also visited Col. Cresap, his old friend, at his
fortress home of Old Town. Departing, after having inspected
the frontier, Washington left Col. Innes (the son-in-law of Col.
Cresap) at Fort Cumberland, in charge of the forces. Gov
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 155
Sharpe again called the "Maryland Assembly" together which
appropriated 6,000 pounds, "for his Majesty's use for the de-
fense of the colony of Virginia, attacked by French and Indians,
and for the relief of the wives and children of the colonists, who
put themselves under the care of the Government, etc."
On the passage of this act. Governor Sharpe immediately
notified Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, who recommended
"that Maryland raise a company of soldiers, to act in conjunc-
tion with the forces under Col. Innes, now at Cumberland."
Thereupon Gov. Sharpe issued a Commission to "Captain
Thomas Cresap, later called Colonel," who, writes the Governor,
"had behaved himself at all times, as a good servant of the Gov-
ernment, to raise a company of riflemen to serve beyond the
Alleghenies" July 25th, 1754. This Commission antedated Gen-
eral Braddock's arrival at Fort Cumberland by some months, as
he did not reach that fort until May loth, 1755. Scharfe relates
"When Gen. Braddock arrived at Fort Cumberland he
found a large body of troops there, and among the officers, were
those present, who- afterwards distinguished themselves in the
Revolution, viz : Thomas Cresap, Hugh Mercer, George Wash-
ington, Daniel Morgan, Horatio Gates and Thomas Gage."
The Indians were by this time laving waste all the frontier
settlements, instigated by the French. The family of Cresap, was
in a perilous situation, so he removed them to Conscocheage for
safety, but on the way was attacked by a party of Indians. They
were soon dispersed however, and he was not further molested.
Many families fled to Frederickstown and others to Baltimore.
After placing his family in safety, Col. Cresap obedient to Gov.
Sharpe, raised a company of volunteer riflemen, and among
them were two of his own sons, and marched to attack and repel
the Indians. This was April 23rd, 1756. We will quote from
the Maryland Gazette verbatim — "When they reached the mount-
ains, a little east of what is now Frostburgh, they saw a party of
Indians advancing. One of the riflemen firing too soon, alarmed
the Indians, and they fled as fast as they could into the thickets,
leaving their horses, and baggage which our people took and
brought off. Among their baggage, one white scalp was found.
156 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatiofis.
Colonel Cresap's son, Thomas Cresap Jr., chased one of the In-
dians nearly a mile, and gained on him, the Indian saw, he would
be overtaken, and they both fired at once. Young Cresap was
wounded, with a bullet and 7 buckshot, the bullet going through
his breast; the others coming up, he said, "Pursue the enemy,
don't mind me, I am a dead man," and he dropped down dead!
The Savage was also mortally wounded, but not yet dead, so
they dispatched him, with a tomahawk. They then buried the body
of young Cresap, as privately as possible, to preserve his scalp,
and the mountain where this tragedy occurred, has ever since
been called "Savage Mountain." His death was lamented by all
who knew him, he was a young widower, and left a little daughter.
From this wee lassie, only child of Thomas Cresap. Jr., are still
many descendants, and among the noblest in the land, and some
of them are present to-day, projectors of this re-union, being also
descendants of Judge Schofield.
The war was raging in earnest now. It might have been
settled, but abroad it was waged with fury by most of the Euro-
pean powers, and called there, the "Seven Years War." France
and England were fighting and the others joined in for various
reasons. Empress "Maria Theresa" allied herself with France
instead of England, because France had a grudge against Prussia,
and she hoped France would help recover "Silesia" — stolen by
the Great Frederick. Empress Elizabeth of Russia — daughter of
Peter the Great, fough twith them, zealously, against Prussia and
England, because Frederick had said of her, "Elizabeth is entirely
too fat and orthodox, and has not an ounce of nun in her com-
position." And so, because of revenge, and wounded vanity, and
stolen provinces and the coveting of one another's territory, by
these Kings, Queens, Emperors and Empresses — thousands of
miles away, our colonists on this side of the ocean must meet
death, by torture and scalping knife, and be burned in their
homes by yelling, painted savages. We would not go into the
horrid details, but the Indians claimed "that they took '50 white
scalps' for every Indian killed."
June 30th, 1756, Col. Cresap and his party, had another
skirmish with the savages. Pie had not forgotten the lamented
sleeper on Savage Mountain ; he enlisted another company of
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 157
volunteers, taking with him his two surviving sons Daniel and
Michael and a gigantic negro servant, belonging to him.
This time they advanced into the wilderness as far as a
mountain, a mile west of Grantsville. There, they met the In-
dians; a fight took place and the negro Goliath was slain,
and the mountain has been "Negro Mountain" ever since. An-
other mountain is connected with the ramily of Col. Cresap. It is
called "Dan's Mountain" and its summit "Dan's Rock." It was
named for Daniel Cresap, oldest son of Col. Cresap, because of a
daring and brave hunting exploit in his early youth, and it will
wear his name forever. It is near Rawling's Station, where stands
also Daniel's stone house. Dan's Mountain, though rugged, steep
and difficult of ascent is much frequented by tourists, but they
do not ascend on foot as Daniel marched up it. So the very
mountains testify to the bravery ofCol. Cresap and his family.
The troubles of our colonists increased. October loth, 1755.
the frontier men, gathered at Col. Cresap's and strengthened his
Block House for defense. Gov. Sharpe then ordered into service,
the militia of the eastern counties too. His order reads — "The
troops are to march to Frederick, where James Dixon, will fur-
nish them provision for five days, thence to the mouth of the
Conecocheague w^here George Ross will furnish subsistence for
eight days, or until they can reach Col. Cresap's, where they are to
assist in the protection of the frontier!" Once at Col. Cresap's,
the Governor seemed to know that they would be provided without
any special command. Still the war raged, and in large scalp-
ing parties the Indians were ravaging the whole frontier. It was
a concerted attack, and Washington wrote thus : "Another temp-
est has broken out on the frontier and the alarm spreads wider
than ever. In short the inhabitants are so apprehensive of danger,
that no families remain above Conecocheague road, and many
are gone from below. The harvests are lost, and the distresses
of the settlements are evident and manifold." On the loth of
July 1763, Col. Cresap wrote Gov. Sharpe for aid and men to assist
in repelling the savages. Said "his fort was filled with distressed
families who had fled to his stockade for safety, and they were all
in hourly danger of being butchered, unless relief was afforded."
His letter is a vivid picture of the sufferings of our ancestors, and.
158 OJiio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
is still in existence, preserved by the Historical Society of Mary-
land, and we herewith produce a certified copy:
Old Town July 15th 1763.
May it Please your Excellency
I take this opportunity in the hight of Confusion to acquaint you
with our unhappy & most wretched Situation at this time being in Hourly
Expectation of being Massicread by our Barberous & Inhuman Enemy the
Indians we having been three days Successively Attacked by them viz.
the 13, 14 & this Instant on the 13th as 6 men were shocking some wheat
in the field o Indians fired on them & Killed one but was prevented
Scalping him by one of the other men firing on them as they Came to
do it & others Running to their assistance. On the 14 5 Indians Crep up
to & fired on about 16 men who were Sitting & walking under a Tree
at the Entrance of my Lane about 100 yards from My House but on
being fired at by the white men who much wounded Sorrre of them they
Immediately Runn off & were followed by the white men about a Mile
all which way was great Quantitys of Blood on the Ground the white
men got 3 of their Bundles Containing Sundry Indian Implements & Goods
about 3 Hours after Several gunns were fired in the woods on which a
Party went in Quest of them & found 3 Beaves Killed by them, the In-
dians wounded one man at their first fire tho but slightly. On this Instant
as Mr. Saml. Wilder was going to a house of his about 300 yards Distant
from mine with 6 men & Several women the Indians Rushed on them
from a Rising Ground but they Perceiving them Coming, Run towards
my House hollowing which being heard by those at my house they Run
to their Assistance & met them & the Indians at the Entrance of my lane
on which the Indians Immediately fired on them to the Amount of 18 or
Twenty & Killed Mr. Wilder, the Party of white men Returned their fire
& Killed one of them dead on the spot & wounded Severall of the Others
as appeared by Considerable Quantitys of Blood Strewed on the Ground
as they Run ofif which they Immediately did & by their leaving behind
them 3 Gunns one Pistol & Sundry other Emplements of warr &c &c.
I have Inclosed ^ List of the Disolate men women & Children who
have fled to my House which is Inclosed by a Small Stockade for Safety
by which youl See what a number of Poor Soals destitute of Every Neces-
sary of Life are here penned up & likely to be Butchered without Imme-
diate Relief & Assistance & Can Expct none unless from the Province
to Which they Belong. I shall Submit to your wiser Judgment the Best
& most Effectual method for Such Relief & shall Conclude with hoping
we shall have it in time
I am Honnourable Sir
Your most Obedt. Servt.
Thos. Cresap.
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 159
P. S. those Indians who Attacked us this day are part of that Body
which went to the Southward by this way In Spring which is Known by
one of the Gunns we now got from them
The Maryland Gazette of July 19th, 1763, says: Fred-
ericktown has contributed to the support of men to be added ta
Col. Cresap's force, as we look upon the preservation of Cresap's
Fort at Old Town, to be of utmost importance to us, and a proper
check to the ravages of the Indians, and to keep the enemy at a
distance, and thus, shelter the whole province." July 21st, 1763,
the "Maryland Gazette" mentions "Cresap is not yet cut off,"
and later reports "ten men more were sent to his assistance.
The "Seven Years' War" ended in Europe, and with the
ceding of Canada to England by France on this side the sea.
(Sept. 1763.) Peace smiled on our long sufifering colonists for
a' few months. Then England forgot it was colonial valor
enabled her to conquer the Canadas ; so, lest the colonies grow
too strong, she began to oppress and repress them. In just a
year and a half or March 22nd, 1765, the odious "Stamp Act,"
was proclaimed. The colonies rebelled. In Frederickstown, the
Stamp distributor, was burned in efifig, The Governor called
the "Provincial Assembly" together. Among those present from
Frederick County, which then constituted western Maryland, the
first one named is Col. Cresap.
This "Assembly" adopted resolutions against the "Stamp Act."
They did not stop with that. Feeling was too high. In October,
1765. "The Sons of Liberty" organized under the leadership of
Col. Thomas Cresap. Nov. 30th, the "Sons of Liberty" assembled
at the house of Samuel Swearingen, whose two sisters "Ruth"
and "Drusilla," married Col. Cresap's sons Daniel and Thomas,
and whose daughter Elizabeth, wedded the Col.'s grandson. Daniel
Cresap Jr. ; (afterwards a Colonel in the Revolution). From the
residence of Samuel Swearingen, the "Sons of Liberty" marched,
two and two, taking up the coffin containing the "Stamp Act"
at exactly three o'clock, with drums, and banners, and civic officers,
and a figure in a chariot representing the Stamp Agent, (who
is named), and placards containing more truth, than compliments;
they marched through the principal streets, and arrived at the
gallows, on the Court House green, where the "Stamp Act" was
160 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications .
buried under the gallows, amid loud huzzas. Then one of the
"Sons of Liberty" read a paper, taken from the bosom of the
figure, in a loud voice, purporting to be the Confession and last
wishes of the Stamp distributor. After filling up the grave, the
acclamations were repeated and the procession re-formed, and
marched back to Samuel Swearingen's, where an elegant supper
was prepared, and a ball given to the ladies, who made a brilliant
appearance, and many loyal and patriotic toasts were drunk, and
the whole concluded with the utmost decorum." The result was,
the Stamp Act was soon rendered null and void in Maryland for-
ever, for through the influence of these Sons of Liberty, their
leader Col. Cresap, the Provincial Court of Maryland, March
31st, 1766 rescinded it. True, England repealed it March i8th,
but the news did not reach Maryland till May 22nd, 1766, and it
was already dead and buried. From this on, the mutterings of
the coming tempest or cyclone were heard. Lord Dunmore's
war broke out, instigated it is now believed by him and his agent,
with a view to the future enlistment of the Indians against the
colonists. He was an inveterate foe to the Revolution, and fore-
saw the inevitable, and used his power as Governor of Virginia
later on for Great Britain, and hoped by and through the aid of
the Indians to weaken the much enduring colonists.
At all events, the Indians were on the warpath again, de-
stroying the settlements and butchering the inhabitants.
Lord Dunmore formally declared war April 21st, 1774,
though Governor of Virginia, he sent a Captain's Commission to
Cap. Michael Cresap dated June loth, 1774, in spite of the fact
that the latter was a resident of Maryland.
As many petitions had reached Capt. Cresap from various
sections of the frontier, to come to their aid he accepted Lord
Dunmore's Commission ; raised a company and joined Maj. Angus
McDonald's command, and marched with them to attack the In-
dians, at their strong town of "Waccatomica," on the Muskingum,
where Dresden (Ohio) now stands. Like his father, old Col.
Thomas Cresap, Capt. Michael Cresap was ever ready to obey his
country's call. He was so popular, and so many men flocked to
his standard that after his own company was full, he filled com-
pletely that of his nephew, Capt. Michael Cresap, Jr., and partly
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 161
the company of Capt. Hancock Lee. They did their duty and con-
quered the Indians again, and Dunmore's war ended in October,
1774. It however was only the precursor of the Revolution. The
troubles with England had increased, the "tax on tea," the "Bos-
ton Massacre," and "Boston Port Bill," had exasperated the
people.
So Frederick County had another convention, June 20th,,
1774, and here again, we find our aged hero, Col. Cresap. This
convention suggested calling together the colonies. On the
22nd of June, there was a general convention at Annapolis, and
Cresap was a delegate there, and Maryland propsed the first Con-
tinental Congress, and elected the first set of delegates. The iSth,
of November, at Fredericktown was another meeting and CoL
Cresap is present. Jan. 24th, 1775, a county convention held at
Frederick. Col. Cresap is there, and is named as one of the "Com-
mittee of Observation" to carry the resolves of the American
Congress into execution, and to raise money for arms and ammu-
nition. The Provincial Convention had ordered $10,000, a large
sum of money, to be collected. A subscription was to be opened
in every "hundred" in all the counties. For Skipton Hundred,,
we find three names, and one is that of our aged hero. Col. Cresap..
The money collected was to be paid over ^larch 23rd 1775,.
just in time too, for April 19th "the shot was fired at Lexington
that echoed round the world," and set the colonies aflame with in-
dignation and patriotism.
The Maryland "Sons of Liberty" including Col. Cresap, were
all activity. They held meetings, and enlisted for service on the
field and at home. The heroic Colonel, so long called the "Eng-
lisli Colonel," always foremost for liberty, justice, and lovalty,
was now too aged to go himself, but, urged his sons and grand-
sons to take up arms and march to the front.
The Second Continental Congress, sent word to Maryland,
"you will get experienced officers, and the very best men that can
be procured, as well, from affection to the service, as for the honor
of the Province." In consequence of this command Mar>land
issued her first commission to Cap. Michael Cresap, the third son
of the brave Col. Cresap. Says Scharf: "Cresap's company
Vol. X— 11.
T.62 Ohio Arch, and His, Society Publications.
of riflemen was the first from the South to reach Cam-
bridge and join General Washington. After travehng 550 miles
over the rough and difficult roads of that period, they arrived
at their destination the 9th of August, making the march in 22
days, without losing a man. His riflemen were enrolled at Rox-
â– bury in Washington's command, August 13th." A letter from
.a gentleman of Fredericktown to Baltimore, July 19, 1775 says:
"Capt. Cresap with his brave company have marched — I need not
say anything of Capt. Cresap's undaunted courage. Not an Amer-
ican but knows him to be an intrepid warrior, and of course he
knows his men and has called them from the many." So pop-
ular was Capt. Michael Cresap that he enlisted enough for two
companies; he made his selection and kept 130; the rest were
added to other companies in the Regiment.
Colonel Cresap promised Capt. Michael to look after his wife
and little ones, and was exceedingly active in every way in helping
our country's cause. He stirred up three of his grandsons to also
go to the front in their Uncle's company.
We might quote from Brantz Mayer of Baltimore, be-
fore the Historical Society of Maryland.
"I have had the happiness of seeing Capt. Michael Cresap
marching at the head of a formidable company of upward 130
men, from the mountains, painted like Indians, and armed with
tomahawks and rifles, and dressed in their hunting shirts and moc-
'casins and though some of them have traveled nearly 800 miles,
ifrom the banks of the Ohio River, they seemed to walk as light,
and with as much spirit, as the first hour of their march." He then
â– describes their wonderful dexterity in rifle practice, standing up,
lying down, bending in a circle, in any position, and adds: "1
had the opportunity of attending the captain during his stay in
town, and observing the behavior of his men, and his manner
of treating them. It seems, all who go to war under him, not
only pay the most willing obedience to him, as commander, but
look to him in trouble as their friend and father, and he treated
them with kindness without losing his dignity. Among his men
were Michael Cresap Jr., Daniel Cresap Jr., and Joseph Cresap,
his nephews. Daniel Cresap Jr., became a Colonel and the others
were Lieutenants. The -old Colonel was soon bereft of his son
Colonel Thomas Cresap. 163
Capt. Michael who died in the service, but he felt then as ever,
"it is sweet and glorious to die for one's country.""
The old Colonel did not live to know the victory at Yorktown,
but saw it with the eye of faith, and never for a moment doubted
our ultimate triumph, and he labored for the cause of liberty and
country while he lived. His name is still held in reverence for
his brave achievements and sufferings which have helped to make
this great nation. All honor to him and his compatriots !
Col. Cresap's voice has echoed in the halls of Congress
through his descendants. On the Judge's Bench, and from the
legal forums, and in Legislative Assemblies, in most of our
States, including our own Ohio, his descendants have served with
the hereditary wisdom, for which he was so esteemed in the As-
semblies of the Province and State of Maryland.
His bravery did not expire on the battle fields of the Revo-
lution. In the War of 1812 through later Cresaps, his blood
flowed on the "Essex" upon the sea, and on the land too it was
shed.
In the Grand Army of the Republic, they marched with Sher-
man to the Sea. With Grant at Vicksburg, Shiloh and Appo-
mattox were many of his posterity, serving through the war, from
lieutenants in rank to generals. The commanding general of the
battle of Inka, and who served with honor through the war and
had charge of the Southwest Division later, was a grandson of
Col. Daniel Cresap of the Revolution, and great grandson of Col.
Thomas Cresap our aged hero, and he served until on "Fame's
eternal camping ground" he slept. (Gen. Edward Otho Cresap
Ord.)
In Cuba and Manila and in the home land, his children's
children to the seventh generation, fight for "old glory," and sup-
port the cause he loved and for which he suffered ; the cause
of liberty, loyalty, country. Still his characteristics follow his
descendants. Among the promotions to higher rank, made this
month by President McKinley in the Regular Army, were some
of Col. Cresap's descendants. What must have been the strong
remarkable character of Col. Cresap, who could so impress upon
his children to the seventh generation, his honesty, integrity, be-
164 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
nevolence, wisdom, courage, patriotism, loyalty to country and
to friends !
Up San Juan hill that awful day, we hear the voice of the
brave old Colonel in one of his latest descendants. "All who are
brave follow me," he would rush, upward and onward, shouting
that cry and leading his men, then rest a few moments, and again
that young voice would ring out — "All who are brave follow me,"
calling to his men, then run ahead again — "All who are brave
follow me," when nearly at the top and in the moment of victory.
It is also the spirit of his ancestor Col. Cresap, the "bravest and
tenderest" which impels him, as he regards a wounded Spaniard
with pitying eye, to turn to his men with the order — "Take that
Spaniard and carry him behind the block house, out of the fire," —
he was just in range and also in danger of being trampled to death
and, continues one of the men who received the command, "The
scoundrel listened, and then pulling out his pistol poked it in our
Lieutenant's face, and killed him on the spot, the brave boy, we
had been following all day, and, who in the moment of victory
had thought how he might save the scoundrel's life — and" con-
tinues the historian, "the leader of this scattered line, this forlorn
hope, that persisted in advancing through the leaden hail, was of
a family that has given many a brave soldier to our country, but
none braver than he" — "and so the officer wfe worshipped, lay
cold in death in the hour of victory." Shall we not hearken to
the will of this youthful scion of a brave house, we who are of
his blood, and though we lament the loss to our country of our
young hero, (Jules Gansche Ord, son of General Edward Otho
Cresap Ord), and with him descendants of the intrepid Col. Cre-
sap, shall we not love the starry banner and follow it where it
leads? mindful of the last message of that sweet young voice
"All who are brave follow me !"
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 165
INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM IN OHIO.
BY REV. I. F. KING, D. D.
[Dr. King is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University in the class
of 1858. He received the degree of D. D. from Miami University.
For forty-three years he has served in the ministry of his church and
for fourteen years was a presiding elder in the Ohio Conference.] —
Editor.
The recent celebration at Delaware, Ohio, of the one hun-
dredth anniversary of the introduction of Methodism in the State
of Ohio, has caused us all to review with interest the heroic and
self-sacrificing work of the fathers, and to wonder at the results
as they appear before us in diversified forms.
Men of all faiths have pleasure in gathering together facts
connected with religious movements. The present efifort is to
preserve, if possible, som.c important papers read on the above
named occasion and add some further interesting data for the
future historian. No other religious movement has perhaps so
generally and profoundly impressed the State as Methodism.
ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.
A sketch of the origin of the church, its introduction into
America, together with a careful survey of its local history
may be useful and interesting.
This branch of the Church had its origin in England only
thirty-seven years before the Declaration of Independence was
signed. And ten years before the united colonies dissolved civil
relations with Great Britain Methodism entered the new world.
Indeed the Wesleyan movement was only fifty years old at the
settlement of Ohio at Marietta in 1788.
The history of this Church in the state can be best understood
after a brief review of its origin and early history.
John Wesley, the son of an English clergyman, was born in
1703.
His mother's careful conscientious training, produced in her
son such high ideas as to Christian character, that her son readily
166
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
saw and felt the contrast in coming in contact with nominal
Christians after he left home influences.
The recoil he first realized in his associations in school and
afterward in college life, was marked. Neither his teachers nor
his preachers were as devout or spir-
itual as his standard demanded. He
and his brother, Charles Wesley, while
in Oxford University, united with
other like-minded young men in the
study of the Greek Testament and in
prayer, in such a methodical way as to
produce, as they hoped, the best re-
sult.^. They sought purity of heart and
life. Their collegemates in derision
called them "The Holy Club" and
nicknamed them "Methodists."
As these young collegians ad-
vanced in knowledge and experience in
the divine life, the more they saw that
the clergymen of their times were in-
different to spiritual realities. Indeed,
history verifies the views of the Wesleys ; and shows that these
men were idle and lifeless. In a formal way they served the
Church and looked more to "their livings" than their lives.
At the age of twenty-eight John Wesley had completed his
course of study at Oxford, and was ordained an elder in the
Church of England. In a freak of enthusiasm he came to
America, spending the time in the southern states, but soon found
he was in the wrong place, and returned to England. In the
mean time he learned from the Moravians that they, in the sim-
plicity of their faith, enjoyed a heritage of gracious favor with
God, not known at that time, in the established church. .He
determined also to possess like precious faith.
In reading Paul's letter to the Romans as to justification by
faith he "felt his heart strangely warmed." Immediately he
began to preach in this vein to his father's parishioners and the
prisoners at Newgate. The Church objected to the zeal of Mr.
Wesley He was refused the use of the churches. He betook
JOHN WESLEY.
First President of the British
Conference.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio.
I6T
himself to field preaching, and vast numbers of people followed
him, who soon enjoyed with him like satisfactory experience..
At Moorefield, as winter approached, his followers got possession
of a foundry, and it was used as the first shelter. It was really
an institutional church, for soon it had a school for the poor, a
library, a loan office, an old ladies' home, and an employment
bureau. As the work went on he introduced lay preaching.
This auxiliary aided in expanding the work materially. These
converts asked for the sacraments, at the hands of the Church of
England, but were denied.
About this time he announced the sentiment that "The
World is my Parish." He never left the Church of England and
never intended to establish a new
Church, yet he was forced to give the
lambs of his flock the sacraments.
Soon all England was filled with
his converts and also Ireland and
Wales. Irish emigrants reached Xortli
Ameri«„a who were of his converts. A
little company of them were in New
York. They began to degenerate and
when they met socially, instead of
prayer and Bible study, they engaged
in card playing.
i\Irs. Barbara Heck, a saintly
woman, came into their community
and expostulated with them, persuad-
ing them to burn their cards ; and she besought the Rev. Philip
Embury to preach in her private house to the company. This was
in 1766, when Mr. Embury organized the first class in America,,
consisting of Paul Heck, Barbara Heck, John Lawrence and his
wife and a colored woman named Betty. The first church in
America was built on John Street, New York, in 1768.
To aid the work in America, the Wesleyans in Leeds, Eng-
land, raised $350.00 missionary money which was applied to the
workers in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. The work
rapidly advanced in this country, and John Wesley gave it all
BARBARA HECK.
168 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the superintendence it was possible for a man in another continent
to do.
The established church declined to recognize the American
converts, as she had done in England and these "sheep in the wil-
derness," (as Mr. Wesley called them,) were without the sacra-
ments.
In 1771 Mr. Wesley sent over to America the Rev. Francis
Asbury, who was an elder. He held a conference in 1773 in
Philadelphia of ten preachers, and sent them out to the various
fields in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. At that time
there were 1160 members of the Church.
After the revolutionary war, Mr. Wesley found the people
could not get along at all in this country without an organization
separate from the Wesleyans of Europe. In 1784 he ordained
the Rev. Thomas Coke a bishop for America and sent with him
a letter to his people in America to ordain
the Rev. Francis Asbury also a bishop, which
was done late in December of that year in the
city of Baltimore. This was the origin of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in America. It
began free from ritualism and the many forms
of service which had accumulated about the
Mother Episcopal Church. It was Armenian,
not Calvinistic in its iaith. It had new ma-
chinery suited to new conditions. It would
be difficult to conceive of a Church, in or-
FRANcis ASBURY. gauizatiou and doctrine, better fitted to the
spirit and life of the American pioneers. It was Wesley's
aim to give the new continent primitive Christianity. It
stands to reason that this kind of a church with the fire
of Pentecost in the heart of its workers, would be well nigh
irresistible. The institutions of the Church itself and the
formation of nearly every society connected with it, is the
result of Providential opening and direction. This will be seen
as we look at the way in which each piece of machinery of the
Church came into use. At Bristol, England, Mr. Wesley found
money was necessary to meet the obligations on him, so he placed
eleven names in a class and appointed a man to see each one,
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 169
once per week, to collect a penny apiece to support the Church.
As these men reported weekly to Mr. Wesley, he learned of some
who were in distress, some were sick, and some were becoming
weary in well doing. So he received the suggestion of turning
the matter around and making the primary object religious in-
struction and spiritual development, with a leader to meet his
class weekly and look after the spiritual welfare of each and
receive from each a little contribution for the Church and poor.
Two or more classes form a society, and in America as many
societies as are needed are clustered together to support a pastor.
This makes a pastoral charge. As these increase an assistant
preacher is added. The preacher in charge has authority to re-
ceive and dismiss members and is responsible for the administra-
tion of discipline.
When a society becomes large enough to support a pastor,
it is formed into a station. Twelve or more circuits and stations
are clustered together and form a district. And from two to ten
districts usually form an annual conference. An official l)oard
governs the local society. A quarterly conference exists in every
pastoral charge. An annual conference with a bishop to preside
admits pastors into it, and receive reports from them, from year
to year. And every four years an equal number of ministers and
lay-delegates are elected to the general conference, which is the
law-making body of the Church. Class leaders are appointed by
the pastors. Exhorters are selected by the official boards, and
are subject to the quarterly conference. They may conduct
prayer meeting in the absence of the pastor and in early years
they went forth wherever needed and pressed the people to 'for-
sake sin, and turn to God. Local preachers are those ministers
who preach and are not subject to the appointment of the Bishop,
but reside in one place and act as substitutes for regular pastors
in their absence, and they preach usually without compensation
wherever invited or needed. The Bishops found in superintend-
ing the work, that in their absence there was need of supervision
of the work of the Church ; to discover new fields not occupied,
to look up supplies for vacant pulpits and to give the sacraments
to the people where the minister was not ordained. So men,
from time to time, were appointed as presiding elders. These
170 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
officers the bishop calls into his councils to aid m distributing the
ministers to the several churches.
By the year 1790, under Bishops Coke and Asbury, the work
had spread from Boston to Rochester, N. Y. From Philadelphia
to Wheeling and south to Charleston, South Carolina, and south-
west to Nashville, Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky.
The itinerant Methodist preacher had followed the emigrant
and the pioneer miner was closely pursued by them. In 1791
John Wesley died, having preached 52 years. He had travelec
on horseback 250,000 miles and had preached 42,000 timet.
There were in England 52 preachers and 125,000 members anc
in the United States there were 200 preachers and 38,000 mem
bers. It will be seen that Mr. W^esley was not a destructioms,
but a constructionist. In all this development of work undei '
\v-va, which would have prompted any other great leader in tht
world, to have withdrawn from the parent organization, and him
self become the head of a new Church, but on the contrary hr
continued unto death a member of the established Church of Eng
land.
Of him it has been said, "his frame was of adamant and hie
soul a flame of fire." Among the reasons for his great success wa-.
the strong conviction which possessed him in youth and ccrr
tinued unabated to the end of a long life. Under the impulse oi
this mighty power he was ready to spend and be spent.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AS A FIELD FOR CHURCH WORK.
Hail to the "Great Northwest," as it stood in the days of our grandsiiesT
Vast tei itorial realm, and fresh as at dawn of creation, —
Fair as »^he Garden of Eden, and fraught with fertility boundless, —
Cradle 01 five great States, of imperial riches and glory !
Hail to its limitless forests, unscathed by the ax or the firebrand;
Solemn, majestic, the pillared and leafy cathedrals of nature,
Organ'd with anthems ^olian, choired by invisible spirits.
Mightiest sylvz. sylvarum that e'er awed the realm of mortals!
Hail to its prairies, rolling in billowy oceans of verdure.
Silt of pre-Adamite seas, and richer than Nile's inundations.
Gemmed with blossoms by millions, as bright as the stars in the heavenS;
Waiting to teem with culture and bread for a world's population !
Hail to its far-flowing rivers, voluminous, countless, and pouring
Introduciion of Methodism in Ohio. 171
Floods unexhausted, prolific, the highways of travel and traffic:
Vast Mississippi, Ohio, Maumee, Wisconsin and Wabash,
Bright Illinois, Rock River, Muskingum, St. Clair and Scioto —
Streams unnamed and unsung, all yet to be famous and classic !'
Hail to the five Great Lakes, the American Mediterranean,
Fresh as the mountain springs, and blue as the azure above them,.
Deep as the seas, and as wide, with room for the fleets of the nationSv
Bearing to-day on their bosoms a commerce that rivals Atlantic's !
Hail to the air of this realm, its climate, inspiring and tonic !
Hail to its quarries and mines — its iron lead copper, and carbon.
Limestone and freestone and grindstone, to sharpen the sword or the
plowshare ;
Oil from the flinty rock, and gas from retorts subteranean —
Factors for industries vaster than ever the Old World astounded !
Such was the "Great Northwest," as it stood unexplored and unpeopled.
Stretching from blue Alleghenies to far-ofif Father of Waters ; —
Such in its virgin perfection, a continent's garden and glory.
Fairest cluster of gems in the New World's diadem destined.
—Geo. L. Taylor's Ohio Centennial Poem in Western Christian Advocate.
In 1800 the Ohio River was regarded as the extreme frontier
of America, constituting the dividing line between the white and
the red man. No line was sufficient to form a barrier against
the invasion of both parties. The white man was as frequently
the aggressor as the Indian, and many were the scenes of suffer-
ing, carnage and massacre witnessed along this border line.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States
by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between
the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers and north to the northern
limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now
embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wis-
consin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of
the Mississippi river.
After New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut had sur-
rendered their rights in this territory, in 1787 Congress passed
a famous ordinance for the protection of this territory, which
is recognized by all to-day as a masterpiece of statesmanship. It
vindicated the principles of the thirteen colonies and provided
that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in the
territory. It contained also the following: "religion, morality,
and knowledge being necessary for good government and the
172 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
happiness of mankind, schools and the means for education shall
forever be encouraged."
From two directions came emigrants to this territory. From
the east, coming from the Red Stone country of Pennsylvania.
Also the settlers had found the Cumberland Gap, and though
it had passed on to Tennessee and Kentucky, and from these
states had turned northward toward the Ohio river. Many of
these last named came north from conscientious motives, so as to
be out of slave territory. When they came to the valley of the
Ohio, they did not find it a place of habitation, but a hunting
ground. The savage seemed not to take in the situation when he
saw the white man or even his cabin, where the wife and children
could be seen.
But the sight of the block house and the stockade was a
challenge for conflict. Most of the preachers who came in the
wake of these pioneers had more or less army experience and
knew well how to use a rifle. Most of the people were the sons
or the grand-sons of the Revolutionary soldiers. Of course,
these were refugees and adventurers.
But the new soil of Ohio received the best seed of the
nation. Of those who came 89 per cent were of American birth,
only 1 1 per cent foreigners, and of the foreigners two-thirds were
Germans. But it is true that of these men, when they had passed
the bounds of their old home society, and were in these regions
where they felt no restraint, many became rough and some be-
came seriously wicked. Of course, these emigrants brought with
them the views of religion taught them by their parents. Many
were Calvinists, a few were Armenian in faith. Many were Bap-
tists, some Episcopalians, others Universalists. There were some
pronounced Atheists. It was quite difficult for church workers to
keep apace with these travelers. The Methodist preachers often
went in bands of two, mounted, with arms and food for a day or
two, hoping to find shelter at night at some friendly cabin, for
courage and hospitality were prime virtues in these wilds. Gen-
erally the preacher was treated with respect and found a hearty
welcome. Sometimes they camped in the roads and took turns
in keeping watch, while others slept. The doctrine that the
Gospel provides salvation for all men, and that salvation is from
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 173-
all sin, and that each may know that he is saved and that each
should witness the fact, commended itself to the common sense
of the people. So in the main Methodism found an easy right
of way. It is true that many of the ministers were masters of
the art of controversy, and polemic theology.
ORIGIN OF CAMP MEETINGS.
We quote from the Rev. J. B. Finley's Pioneer Life :
"In the spring of 1800 one of the most astonishing and
powerful revivals that has been known in the western country
occurred. The commencement of this work is traceable to the
joint labors of two brothers named McGee, in Cumberland
County, Kentucky, one of whom was a Presbyterian and the
other a Methodist preacher. They commenced laboring to-
gether every Sabbath, preaching, praying, and exhorting alter-
nately. This union was regarded as quite singular and excited
the curiosity of vast multitudes who came to the place of the
meeting to hear two men preach who held views in theology,
supposed to be entirely antagonistic. Nothing was discovered
in their preaching of a doctrinal character, except the doctrine of
man's total depravity and ruin by sin, and his recovery therefrom
by repentance and faith in Christ. All were exhorted to flee
the wrath to come and be saved from their sins. The word
which they preached was attended with the power of God to the
hearts of listening thousands. The multitude which flocked from
all parts of the country to hear them, became so vast that no
church could hold them, and they were obliged to resort to fields
and woods. Every vehicle was put in requisition, carriages,
wagons, carts, and sleds. Many came on horseback and larger
crowds still came on foot.
As the excitement increased and the work of conviction
and conversion continued, several brought tents and they were
pitched on the g;ound and remained day and night for many
days. This was the origin of campmeetings.
In 1804 the Cane Ridge Campmeeting took place. In the
mterim between the McGee meeting and this there were frequent
successful campmeetings. Mr. Finley gives the results of this
meeting m these terms : "Language is too poor to give anything
174 Ohio Arch. a?id His. Society Piiblications .
like an adequate idea of the sublimity and grandeur of the scene.
Twenty thousand persons tossed to and fro like the tumultuous
waves of the sea in a storm, or swept like the trees in the forest
under the blast of the wild tornado, was a sight which my eye
witnessed but which neither my pen nor tongue can describe.
Good judges were ready to admit that there were extravagances
to be found in these meetings which should be condemned, but
all was not wild fanaticism. The main trend of the work was
that of God's Spirit on the hearts of the people. Thousands
were genuinely converted to God." The Cumberland Presby-
terian Church had its origin at this time and place. It was at
these altars that young preachers, who in after years came to
Ohio to labor, got their hearts aflame. It took bold, courageous
and untiring Christian zeal to break down the strongholds of sin
in these western wilds. For rivers were to be swum, hunger,
thirst and weariness to be endured and penury to be faced.
From this source came the consuming fire which was in the bones
of the men who first preached in the northwest territory. Here
men had conviction that Christ died for all men; that salvation
was in their reach, and it was their duty to offer mercy to all.
DRESS AND HABITS OF PIONEERS.
Let us now turn our eyes to the homes, habits and costumes
and customs of the people these early Ohio pastors served.
With the better classes the costume was buckskin trowsers,
a hunting shirt, a leathern belt around the waist, a scabbard and
a big knife fastened to their belt. Some of them wore hats and
some wore caps. Their feet were covered with moccasins, made
of dressed deer skins.
They did not think themselves dressed without their powder
horns and shot pouch or the gun and tomahawk. They were
ready then for all alarms, whether it came while at home or on
the way to or at church. The first settlers could not have sus-
tained themselves had it not been for the wild game that was in
the country. This was their principal substance and this they
took at the peril of their lives; and often many of them came
near starving to death. Wild meat, without bread or salt, was
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 175
often their food for weeks together. If they obtained bread, the
meal was pounded in a mortar or ground on a hand mill. Some-
times it was grated on a tin grater.
Rev. James B. Finley writes that when he set up for house-
Iceeping near Bainbridge, Ohio, "with the aid of brother John
I built a cabin in the forest, my nearest neighbor being three
miles off. Into this we moved without horse or cow, bed or
bedding, bag or baggage. We gathered up the leaves and dried
them in the sun ; then picking out all the sticks we put them into
â– a bedtick. For a bedstead we drove forks into the ground and
laid sticks across, over which we placed elm bark. On this we
placed our bed of leaves and had comfortable lodging. The
nearest mill was thirty miles distant. The Rev. Peter Cart-
wright speaks thus of the meal made in the
mortar. "We stretched deer skin over a hoop ;
burned holes in it with the prongs of a fork,
sifted our meal, baked our bread, ate it, and
it was first rate eating, too. We raised or
gathered from the woods our own tea. We
had sage Bohea, cross-vine, spice and sas-
safras teas in abundance. As for coffee, I
am not sure that I smelled it for ten years.
We made our sugar from the water of the
maple tree, and our molasses too. These were
great luxuries in those days." In another peter cartwkight.
place he records the fact that he traveled for ten years as an
itinerant preacher before he was invited to sleep in a plastered
house. This occurred in the house of Governor Edward Tiffin,
of Chillicothe.
THE TYPICAL CABIN
Was built of round logs, chunked and daubed, enclosing one room
fifteen by eighteen feet. There was but one door and opposite
it a window, which, if it had not glass in it, had a four light sash
covered with oiled paper, or if neither of these, there was a
wooden shutter, which was opened in day time and closed at
night. The door was of split plank or puncheon, hung on
wooden hinges with a wooden latch which was fastened within
176
Ohio Arch, ajid His. Society Publications.
to a string, which in day time protruded without through a
small hole, but at night was drawn within. On the interior the
floor was of puncheons, the hearth was of rock, of nature's own
hewing. The fireplace was wide and deep enough to receive
logs eight and ten feet long. There was an iron crane in the chim-
ney or a wooden pole, to which was attached a chain which below
ended in a hook to which swung an iron pot used for many pur-
poses. The other cooking utensils were a skillet, iron tea kettle,
a wooden tray for kneading bread. Next to the window a plain,
cheap dining table and on it the linen table cloth folded up, and if
there was no stand in the house the Bible and hymn book lay
there too. In the rear of
the room stood a bed with
a valance around its legs
to conceal the trundle-
bed, used by the children.
A few shelves at the left
of the fire-place, resting
on wooden pins, contained
the dishes. And on the
other side of the fire-
place, there too, were
some shelves which con-
tained the clock and a few
books. A chest or box
contained the linen and
clothing of the family, ex-
cept a few larger gar-
ments which hung on pins
in the wall in the rear.
Over the door rested the
CABIN OF THE REV. R. R. ROBERTS.
'^rt.o entered the Baltimore Conference in 1802. He
lived in this cabin from 1805 to 1808, while en-
gaged in his regular work of preaching. It
was also his episcopal residence for some
years after he became bishop.
beside the chest or possibly bureau,
gun on a rustic rack. A rough ladder reached the loft, in the
rear of the room, and up there were the supplies for winter for
man and beast. There too were walnuts and hickory nuts, some
dried fruits and garden seeds, with a few tools, among them a
cross-cut saw. Also in this loft were deposited cast-oflf garments
and some disabled furniture.
Introduction of MetJwdisni in Ohio. 177
The roof of the cabin was covered with clap-boards held
to their place by ridge-poles. The chimney was built up ten feet
high with stone and mortar and finished out with sticks cemented
together with dried mud. Beside the chimney next to the door
was the dog kennel. The means of conveying supplies from the
«ast was at first on pack horses.
HIGHWAYS.
In forming a new road to any point, the hatchet was used
by the pathfinder who cleaved the bark oflf the trees in pieces as
large as the hand. Thus, as he went, he blazed the way. After
this the logs and smaller trees were removed, so that wheeled
vehicles could pass. After the roads were made passable, then
•came the ox-team and following these came the covered wagon
drawn by horses. It was essential to the comfort of emigrants
passing westward to have a road cut out, and at proper places
have wells dug in order that man and beast could be supplied
with water. So in 1796, under the direction of the general gov-
ernment, the Zane trace was made from Zanesville, Ohio, to
Maysville, Kentucky ; and the first man to pass over it with a
wagon was Mr. William Craig.
LIVE STOCK.
To keep the cows from wandering ofT to remote places where
it would be difficult to find them, each pioneer who could aft"ord
it, had a bell fastened to the neck of his cow, so she in moving
her head would make it ring. -Another valuable provision for
the advantage of the pioneer was the marking of live stock, such
as cattle, hogs, and sheep by holes or scores in the ears. Each
citizen could select his own mark and register the same with a
county ofificer, and in this way he was able to identify his prop-
erty. For in those days stock had the freedom of all unfcnced
forests.
An Ohio minister, as late as 1852, while attending general
•conference in the city, of Boston, noted with surprise the cleanli-
ness of the city, and much of this he discovered was due to the
city ordinance which prohibited stock from running at large in
the city.
Vol. X.— 12.'
178 dhio Arch, and His. Society Publicatioyis .
In our age we are liable to think that the conditions of the
present existed in the past. The contrast between the past and
the present in Ohio is exceedingly great.
J. B. Finley says that the first Presbyterian minister in
Chillicothe was Rev. Robert W. Finley and the first Methodist
preachers were Revs., Harr and Tiffin. The first physician was
Dr. Samuel McAdow, the first legislature met under a sycamore
tree on the banks of the Scioto river near the foot of Mulberry
street. In this connection it may be of interest to state that the
first steamboat made its trip on the Ohio river in 1811, and steam-
ivas not applied to vessels on Lake Erie until 1818. The first
railroad in this state began running trains in 1841.
PLACE OF WORSHIP.
Of necessity the place of worship with the pioneer was his
cabin. Near the little window was set a small stand with a
Bible and hymn book. These books were also always in the
saddle bags of the minister. The preacher's seat was a split-
bottomed or husk-bottomed chair. Next to the wall were ar-
ranged blocks, on which were placed wide, smooth rails or boards
for seats, and in an inner circle near the minister were a few of
the elderly worshipers in chairs. There being few hymn books,,
the minister lined the hymns. All kneeled during prayer.
After the sermon was ended, a class meeting, concluded with an
invitation to join the Church; and in most cases the services did
not close without an appeal to men to cease the life of sin
and then and there repent of siri and surrender to God. It was
the exception to hold a service without at least one conversion.
The people came to the services plainly clad and no one stayed
away because his garments were not of a fashionable cut. If the
meeting was at night, the people did not start home without light-
ing their torches at the fire, ( for friction matches were not then in
use). A few persons had tin lanterns with a bit of candle. In
many cases the forests were so swampy that ladies especially,
frequently wore the rough heavy shoes to a spot near the church,
then took off the heavy shoes and put on the lighter ones, which
had been carried in hand to that spot. The exchanged shoes
were deposited in a fence corner or under the bark of some log.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 179
And on the return home another exchange was made; in this
way good shoes were kept looking well for many years.
FIRST PREACHING.
The following accurate authentic account of the introduction
of Methodism into the North West Territory is from the pen of
Mr. Samuel W. Williams of Cincinnati, Ohio:
"The first preacher in the great west was Jeremiah Lambert,
who traveled the Holston Circuit in 1783. Four years later the
work was extended, comprehending the Nollichucky Circuit and
the entire state of Kentucky and the Cumberland region.
At the same time two new circuits were formed near the
headwaters of the Ohio : the Clarksburg and the Ohio, the latter
lying in Virginia, between Wheeling and Pittsburg. Of these
the first was manned by Robert Cann and George Parsons, and
the other by Charles Connoway and George Callanhan. A few
families had crossed the Ohio river into what was generally
called the Indian country but was to be known as "the North-
western Territory" and for protection built a block-house on the
river at Carpenter's station.
For some time the frontiers had been without alarm ; but in
September, 1787, the Indians made an inroad upon the settlement
and killed part of the family of Mr. McCoy. Some of
the settlers made their escape and fled to the block-house, where
all the families were soon collected for safety.
In four or five days thereafter one of the preachers on the
Ohio Circuit preached at the cabin of Regin Pumphrey in Peach
Bottoms, Va., about a mile and a half from the station.
Eight or ten persons from that point had crossed over the
river to attend the service, and at its conclusion earnestly be-
sought the young preacher to come to the station and preach for
them in the afternoon at the block-house. A council was im-
mediately held on the subject but the majority of the preacher's
friends deemed it unsafe for him to go. After a few moments
of deliberation however, he determined for himself and turning
to the applicants said: Return and make what arrangements
you can; and if providence permits, I will visit you at four
o'clock.
180 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicatio?is.
When the preacher (George Callanhan) reached Carpenter's
Station, a place about a mile above the present village of Warren-
ton, Jefferson County, Ohio, he found a congregation already
assembled including some of his hearers in the forenoon. Fif;
teen or twenty hardy backwoodsmen, armed with rifles, toma-
hawks and scalping knives, stood on the outside of the assembly
as protectors against an alarm. After the service was ended a
pressing invitation was given the preacher to visit Carpenter's
Fort again, and he cheerfully acceded to the request.
During his stay on the Ohio Circuit, which was about four
months longer, a number of persons from the opposite side of the
river applied for admission into the society, and they were regu-
larly enrolled in a class.
This was perhaps the first Methodist preaching within the
boundaries of Ohio — certainly the first of which we have any
definite knowledge — though it is claimed that Joseph Hill had
preached in Ohio a year or two previous.
In the southwestern part of the state the earliest Methodist
sermon was preached by Francis Clark, a local preacher from
Danville, Ky., and the pioneer of Methodism in that state. He
visited Fort Washington in 1793 and like St. Paul at Athens "his
spirit was stirred within him" when he beheld the godless-
ness of the troops and the wickedness of the citizens. Through
the intervention of a friend, he obtained the privilege of preach-
ing in the fort, where he delivered his message from God faith-
fully and fearlessly. Two years later James Smith, likewise a
local preacher from Richmond, Va., crossed the Ohio river at Cin-
cinnati (November 15, 1795) and the next day preached at the
cabin of Mr. Talbert, about seven miles from the city on the
road to Hamilton. Mr. Smith was a kinsman of the venerable
Philip Gatch and came to Ohio on a prospecting tour. Mr. Tal-
bert met him and with genuine hospitality insisted on his staying
over night at his home where Mrs. Talbert baked him provisions
for his journey. In the evening his host gathered a few of his
neighbors and Mr. Smith spoke to them from Luke 2, 10, the
angelic announcement to the shepherds of Bethlehem. To these
hearers his words were indeed "good tidings of great joy."
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 181
So far these Methodist movements in Ohio were sporadic
and no efforts seem to have been made by the traveUng minis-
ters to estabhsh societies or stated preaching in that territory
until 1798, when John Kobler, who had been appointed presiding
elder on the Kentucky district, was directed by Bishop Asbury
to go over the river and form a regular circuit.
\"alentine Cook was at the same time sent from Baltimore to
take Air. Kobler's place on the district. The two men met om the
Holston Circuit, July 28th, and Mr. Kobler having given; his
successor all the information needed to prosecute the work, set
out for his new field of labor. On August ist he crossed the
Ohio at Columbia, a small village near the mouth of the Little
Miami (now included within the corporate limits of Cincinnati),,
and the same evening he reached the cabin of Francis McCormick
a local preacher from Virginia, near Alilford. Here he received
a hearty welcome, and the next day, to as large a congregation
as could be collected, he preached and read the general rules of
the society. He also met the class of members which had been
gathered by Mr. McCormick and appointed Philip Hill the
leader.. As this was the first regularly organized class in Ohio
it may be well to record the names of those composing it. They
are : Philip Hill, Ambrose Ransom, Francis McCormick, Joseph
Gest, John Hill, Philip Catch, Ezekiel Dimmitt, William Salter,
Philip Smyzer, and their wives with Jeremiah Hall. Mrs. Temper-
ance Raper and Tom. a colored man whose last name history
does not give — in all twenty-one.
Most of the members belonging to the first class in Ohio
went from three to eight miles every week to attend class meeting
regardless of the weather and their number speedily increased.
Philip Hill, who had been appointed to take charge of this class,
was a model leader. It was his custom to visit the members
. three or four times a year at their own homes, and he always in-
troduced his visits with singing and prayer, after which he closely
questioned all the household present on the subject of practical
and experimental religion. With such watch-care there was no
room for backsliding ; and the influence of that society extended
far and wide. Clermont county became>the hive of Methodism
in southern Ohio.
182 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
After spending five days in this place Mr. Kobler took Fran-
cis McCormick for a guide and the two proceeded up the Little
Miami to its sources, visiting the newly formed settlements in
the valleys of Mad River and the Great Miami, touching at Day-
ton, Hamilton and Franklin and returning to the place of begin-
ning by way of Fort Washington. There was then in Cincinnati
only a few log cabins clustered under the hill, one store and a
printing office outside the fort ; but Mr. Kobler could find no
â– open door to deliver his message of salvation in what is now the
center of a vast population. The territory which he passed over
he formed into a two-weeks circuit, with eight or ten appoint-
ments.
Mr. Kobler remained here less than a year, when, at the con-
ference which met May 17, 1799, Lewis Hunt was appointed his
successor. In the same year and month that Mr. Kobler left,
Robert Manley crossed the Ohio River opposite Marietta, and
stopped at the home of William McCabe on the stockade. On
the following day (April 7th), he preached in McCabe's cabin
and closed with a social prayer meeting. He then organized a
class of six persons, to wit : William McCabe, John and Samuel
Protsman, and their wives. On the loth of the month he visited
Wolf Creek and Waterford and there also formed classes. Thus
we have two or three beginnings of Methodism in Ohio and at
•points widely separated.
Mr. Hunt's health soon broke down and Henry Smith was
sent by the presiding elder, Francis Poythress, to take his place or
at least relieve him in his work. Mr. Smith reached Milford
•on September 14th and the next day set out to seek Mr. Hunt.
He found him on Mad River near Dayton, at the house of Wil-
liam Hamer, who had been appointed leader of the first class
formed in that section. Mr. Hunt had so far recovered his
health as to be able to prosecute his work, and accordingly they
arranged with each other for Mr. Smith to proceed to the Scioto
•country while Mr. Hunt remained in the Miami region. The
former then proceeded on his travels through southern Ohio,
in various places preaching and forming classes, and on October
1st he came to the house of Colonel Joseph Moore, a local preacher
irom Kentucky, who had settled on Scioto Brush Creek. Here he
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 183
found a society of Methodists already organized by that intrepid
and zealous pioneer who made the first clearing in that part of
the territory. Soon after he began his improvements. Neigh-
bors flocked in and when Mr. Smith visited him the society had
become so numerous that no private house was large enough to
hold the congregation that came together for worship. In this
emergency Colonel Moore gave a piece of bench-land, not far
from the creek^ for a meeting house and burying ground, and in
August, 1800, before Mr. Smith left the new circuit, the neigh-
bors assembled, cut and hewed the timber and erected the first
Methodist church in the Northwest territory. A son of Colonel
^loore who died so lately as November, 1884, at the advanced age
of ninety-four years, helped to haul the logs with which it w^as
constructed. He was then ten years old. In process of time the
log church fell into decay and was abandoned. The members
scattered and went to other places for worship ; but in the burying
ground surrounding it, still sleep the remains of many of the
old pioneers. Recently the old place has been reoccupied and a
neat frame church has been erected in its stead-a memorial of the
faith and work of the fathers.
From this point Mr. Smith proceeded up the Scioto Valley
preaching as he went, and on the 14th of October he rode into
Chillicothe. Mr. Smith preached in Chillicothe the next day
after his arrival ; but it was not until the following July that he
organized the first society of Methodists in that town. This be-
came an important center in the early history of our church in
Ohio, and it gave to the state at least two Methodist governors.
The introduction of Methodism into Cincinnati was on this
wise : In 1803 John Collins, at that date a local preacher residing
on his farm in Clermont county, came to Cincinnati to purch?se
salt and happened to enter the store of Thomas Carter. After
making his purchase he inquired whether there were any Meth-
odists in the town. Mr. Carter replied that there were, and he
himself was one. So overjoyed was Mr. Collins at this unex-
pected information that he threw his arms around Mr. Carter's
neck and wept, thanking God for the good news. He then pro-
posed to preach, and inquired whether there was any place where
he could do so. Mr. Carter offered him a room in his own
184 Ohio Arch, atid His. Society Publications.
house and at night he preached to a company of about twelve-
persons with manifest power and to the great deHght of his
hearers. Mr. Carter's residence was on Main street, near the
river, and in one of its upper rooms were gathered all the Meth-
dists that Cincinnati then had.
Upon Mr .Collins' departure next morning, he promised to
use his influence with the preachers traveling the Miami Circuit,
adjoining Cincinnati, to take that place as one of the points
on their work.
At the western conference of 1803, held at Mount Gerizim,
Ky., William Burke was made presiding elder of the Ohio Dis-
trict extending from the Muskingum and Little Kanawha Rivers
to the Great Miami and John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were ap-
pointed preachers on the circuit named. When Mr. Sale, at the
solicitation of Mr. Collins, visited Cincinnati in 1804, he found a
small class already formed, consisting of eight persons but not
regularly enrolled.
He preached in a public house kept by George Gordon, on
Main street, between Front and Second, and after preaching,
formed the members into the first properly constituted class, ap-
pointing James Gibson leader.
Eight persons composed it, to wit : Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair,.
Thomas Carter and wife, with their son and daughter (after-
wards the mother of Governor Dennison of Ohio) and Mr. and
Mrs. Gibson. The town was thenceforward made a preaching
place and was visited regularly every tw^o weeks by one of the
circuit preachers. The society in Cincinnati prospered and im-
creased; and in 1806 or 1807 they built their first church, a stone
edifice on the site of the present Wesley Chapel the north side of
Fifth street, between Broadway and Sycamore."
Confirmatory of the statement of Mr. Williams, as to the
planting of Methodism in Marietta is the following from the pen
of the Rev. Samuel Hamilton of the Ohio conference found in
the Methodist Magazine of 1830. He says:
"In 1799 Reese Wolfe, a circuit preacher in Virginia, looked
across the Ohio river and contemplated with regret a vast terri-
tory with flourishing settlements on which a Methodist preacher
had never set foot. The Rev. Robert Manly of the Baltimore
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 185
conference, who was his assistant, was sent as a missionary and
on the 20th of June, 1799, preached the first Methodist sermon
in Marietta."
The following letter is also confirmatory, but gives a little
different date :
Chillicothe, O., March 20, 1880.
Rev. Robert W. Manly:
Dear Sir : — I here send you an important document of
your father's family. In looking over my ancient manuscripts
by Colonel Flint, which agrees with my early father's of 1788-99.
I turned up the following which I engraft in my Muskingum
Pioneer, which will go to press this year :
Hopewell, Muskingum County, Ohio. — The Rev. Robert
Manly, the first ordained Methodist minister of the Northwest,
crossed the Ohio river from Williams' Station, opposite Marietta,
on the 6th of April 1799; stopping with William McCabe on the
stockade. The next day being Wednesday the 7th of April, he
preached in McCabe's cabin and closed with a social prayer
meeting. He then organized a class of six persons viz. : William
McCabe and wife. John and Samuel Protsman and their wives.
On the loth of April he visited Wolf Creek and Waterford and
organized two classes. This is a true copy from the original
manuscript.
RuFus Putnam."
Some further facts concerning the Rev. Robert Manly may
be read with interest :
His remains now lie in the Asbury cemetery, Hopewell
Township, Muskingum County, Ohio; though they were de-
posited first in the Hamilton cemetery, which is located about a
half mile east of Asbury church. His son, Jesse L. Manly,
had his remains removed and a tombstone erected and he dictated
the following w^ords which are inscribed on the marble shaft:
"Rev. Robert Manly the first itinerant Methodist minister who
preached west of the Ohio River. He died December 20. 1810,
in the forty-fourth year of his age."
The Rev. James Ouinn preached his funeral sermon, a copy
of which mav be found in the Christian Monitor of 1816.
186
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Piiblicatioyis.
Summing up the whole matter we find that the first Metho-
dist preaching in Ohio was in Warrenton, Jefferson County, in
1787, by the Rev. George Callanhan. The first preaching in Cin-
cinnati was by the Rev. Francis Clark in 1793. The first preach-
ing at Marietta was by the Rev. Robert Manly in 1799, when a
THE FIRST METHODIST MEETING-HOUSE IN OHIO.
class was formed. In 1798 the first society was formed at Cincin-
nati and in 1800 the first Methodist Church was built in the North
West Territorv on Ohio thrush Creek,
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio.
187
The following table gives the date, I think, accurately of the
laying off of the principal older towns of the state and it gives
the date of the introduction of Methodism in those towns. To
some minds there may be seeming inaccuracies in the last named
dates for it often occurred, that preaching began in a place, and
even a class formed, before the society was incorporated into a
circuit.
Names of Cities.
en laid
Methodism
when
introduced.
1788
1799
1791
1817
1796
1800
1796
1827
1797
1800
1798
1799
1798
1804
1799
1808
1799
1814
1799
1800
1800
1800
1800
1808
1800
1820
1801
1814
1801
1810
1788
1793
1802
1818
1802
1803
1802
1805
1802
1803
1802
1803
1803
1811
1803
1810
1803
1813
1803
1805
1804
1809
1804
1810
1805
1819
1805
1812
1805
1806
1805
1807
180(i
ISIO
1806
1814
1806
1807
1806
1817
1806
1817
1806
1806
1808
1818
1808
1814
1808
1809
1808
1812
Marietta
Gallipolis. ..... .
Chillicothe
Cleveland
West Union
Steubenville . . . . .
Franklinton
Dayton
Ravenna
Zanesville
Athens
Lancaster
Painsville
Warren
Newark
Cincinnati
Middletown ....
Youngstown
Lebanon
New Lisbon
St. Clairsville
Xenia
Cadiz
Portsmouth. . .
Springfield . .
Hamilton
New Philadelphia
Jefferson
Mt. Vernon
Bainbridge
Urbana
Eaton .
Salem
Barnsville
Canton
Cambridge
Hillsboro .'
Chardon .
Wooster
Troy
Greenville
188 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications .
INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM— Concluded.
Names of Cities.
en laid
out.
Methodism
when
introduced.
1808
1812
1808
1814
1810
1809
1810
1811
1810
1810
1810
1817
1810
1817
1812
1813
1813
1812
1814
1812
1814
1807
1815
1815
1816
1818
1816
1820
1816
1819
1817
1818
1817
1811
1817
1840
1818
1818
1819
1824
1819
1819
1820
1820
1821
1829
1821
1822
1821
1822
1821
1825
1823
1824
1825
1825
1825
1824
Delaware ......
Mansfield
Circleville .....
London
Wilmington
Washington C. H.
Burlington
Columbtis
Marysville . . . . .
Piketon ....
Somerset
Woodsfield.
Norwalk
Pomeroy
Ashland .
Jackson
Sandusky
Elyria .
New Lexington . .
Sidney
Georgetown . . . .
Batavia
Finley . .
Tiffin
Bucyrus
Marion
East Liverpool . . .
Toledo
Lima
The expression, the introduction of Methodism, usually
means that some pioneer offered to a minister the use of his cabin
for services. When the services were held, opportunity to unite
with the Church was given ; a class was formed of the members
and probationers ; such classes were never smaller than six persons
and if their were much more than twenty the organization was
called a society. Often such societies had preaching, at first not
oftener than once in two months ; then advanced to a sermon each
month, then a sermon every two weeks, then once a Sabbath, and
finally grew to sustain preaching twice each Sabbath.
This explanation, well understood by old Methodists, will
help to solve the apparent discrepancies, as to the date of organ-
izing Methodist Churches.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio.
189
When the pastor went to the annual conference, he, by the
law of the Church, was required to bring a plan of his circuit to
te handed to his successor. The following schedule is a sample :
PIvAN OF MUSKINGUM CIRCUIT, MADE AUGUST 29, 1823.
Day of the
week.
m 3
Q
Preaching place.
Official list.
Sundaj'
Monday
Tuesday . . .
"Wednesday .
Thursday. .
Friday .... .
Saturdaj'
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday . . . .
Wednesday .
Thur.=day. ..
Friday
Saturday. . . .
Sunday . . . .
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday .
Thursday . ..
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday .
Thursday. . .
Thursday . . .
Friday
Saturday. . . .
Sunday "
Sept. 21 .
22.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
1.5.
16.
16.
17
,18.
19.
Putnam
Rest
Headley's
Simpson's
Rest
Rest
Rest
Dickerson's
Rest
Card's
Wigginbottom's .
Sain's
Springer's . . . . .
Lenhart's
Asbury Chapel . .
Hitchock's
Teals
Fate
Chaplin
Harris'
Hopkin's
Aikin's
Sailors
Edwards
Wesleyan Chapel
Wilson's
Beall's
Hametta
Butt's
Putnam
â– Teachers.
Deacons.
Alexander McCraken, I
John Wilson, j
Samuel Wilson, )
Samuel Aikins, |
John Goshen,
Martin Tate, /
John Wilson,
Thomas Ijams,
Elijah Ball,
Samuel Chapman,
John Jordoii,
Wm. Armstr ng,
Wm. Heath,
Elijah Collin,
David Fate,
Jona Witham,
Robert Aikins,
David Edwards,
David Butt,
M Putnam,
David Sherard,
James Kelly,
Elders.
Stewards.
Exhorterc
Number of members, 760.
The Baptist Church was the first to organize in the State
which occurred in 1790. The Presbyterian followed in 1791 and
the Congregationalist in 1796.
As emigrants followed the rivers and the streams, so we
find the itinerant minister pursuing the same track. So we see
John Kobler in the Miami valley, Henry Smith in the Scioto,
James Quinn in the Hocking and Robert Manly in the Muskin-
gum. It was not until 1808 that a town is mentioned, and that is
Marietta.
190 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
SALARY OF PREACHERS.
By a law of the Church through all these years a single man's
salary was $100.00 per year, and a married man's was $200.00.
If in the interim between sessions of the annual conference a
married man should lose his wife by death, immediately he was
placed at the salary of a single man. But in many cases, I fear
in most cases, the full amount was not paid. Peter Cartwright
reports that in 1806 he received but $40.00. The Rev. T. A.
Morris, (afterward Bishop Morris) for twelve of his first years,
received an average salary of only $160.00. The Rev. Henry
B. Bascom (another who became bishop) in preaching during
his first year traveled on horseback five thousand miles, preached
four hundred times and received only $12.10. By some means,
Adelphi Circuit in 1823 paid its pastor the meager sum of $7.00.
In those days Bishop Asbury's salary was only $64.00 per year.
Father Smith who died in Indiana a few years ago, relates
that his first twelve years preaching was in Ohio and in Indiana
and that the average salary for that term was $27.50, and says
there were plenty of people in those days who claimed, that all
who preached did it for the money that was in it.
In 1814 the Rev. Jacob Young records that the people of the
state got a mania for banking. In that year there were in Jef-
ferson county alone seven banks. This he also says was followed
by a fad, to project and lay off towns and cities. * In some cases
they were located on hill tops, others in valleys, or on plains,
and in many cases so near together, that it was only one mile
from one paper town to another. Each town had its public
square for public buildings. While all the people made sacri-
fices for the church, yet we must record that the pastors had
this virtue in an eminent degree. They have always been as
President William H. Harrison characterized them — "A body of
men who for zeal and fidelity in the discharge of the duties they
undertook are not exceeded by any other in the whole world. I
have been a witness of their conduct in the western country for
nearly forty years. They are men whom no labor tires, no scenes
disgust, no danger frightens in the discharge of their duty. To
gain recruits for the Master's service they sedulously seek out the
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 191
victims of vice in the abodes of misery and wretchedness. Their
stipulated pay is barely sufficient to sustain them while they per-
form the service assigned them. If in the period I have named
a traveler on the western frontiers, had met a stranger, in some
obscure way, assidulously urging his course through the intricacies
of the tangled forest, his appearance staid and sober ; and his
countenance indicating that he was in search of some object in
which his feelings were deeply interested ; his apparel plain but
entirely neat, and his little baggage adjusted with peculiar com-
pactness, he might be certain that stranger was a Methodist
preacher, hurrying on to perform his daily task of preaching to
separate and distinct congregations ; and should the same traveler,
upon approaching some solitary unfurnished and scarcely habit-
able cabin, hear the praises of God chanted, with peculiar melody,
or the doctrines of the Savior urged upon the attention of some
six or eight individuals with the same energy and zeal that he
had seen displayed in addresses to a crowded cluirch of a popu-
lous city, he might be certain, without inquiry, that it was the voice
of a Methodist preacher."
In admitting men into the ministry, the standing inquiry has
been, is he called of God; has he gifts, graces and usefulness.
And the effort of this branch of the Church has ever been to
spread scriptural holiness over the land. The objective point
was. not to get the people to adopt a creed, so much as to persuade
men to cease to do evil, and learn to do well. The leading object
was to save men. For thi? the preachers were ready to spend
and be spent. Their purpose was to go not only to those who
wanted them, but to those who needed them most.
MANIFESTATION OF ZEAL.
While the lives of these pastors were full of examples of
snatching men "as brands from the burning," we here briefly out-
line one or two as specimens.
One pastor in the midst of a revival season was called out
before breakfast to visit those who sought his counsels and pray-
ers, and he made eight pastoral calls to penitents seeking sal-
vation, before ea4:ing his breakfast.
192 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Near Ripley, O., the Rev. Granville Moody in company with
a class leader by the name of Howard, was out making pastoral
visits; while on their way afoot to the home of an aged brother
of the Church, they were passing a little grove of trees, through
which passed a stream of pure water. There they met the mar-
ried son of the man whom they were about to visit. He was car-
rying a sack of potatoes and was in company with his wife and
three small children. These young parents were not Christians.
Mr. Moody asked the parents if they were in possession of the
â– comforts of religion. The wife answered, they were not, but
wished they were. In a little while both parents kneeled by the
brook, were baptized and the children were also baptized, a few
minutes afterward, and the whole family, in company with the
pastor and class-leader, reached the paternal home rejoicing in a
new found peace and joy.
Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, April
3rd, 1755. At the early age of 16 he had an afTray with a rival
lover, whom he supposed he had killed; and then he made
his escape across the Alleghenies and became a companion of
Daniel Boone and other early pioneers of Kentucky. He took
part in the war against the Indians and the British, and here ad-
vanced to the rank of Colonel. Having learned that his rival was
not dead, he returned to his Virginia home in 1782, and afterward
returned to Kentucky with his father's family. In about 1788, Mr.
Kenton became acquainted with Rev. Mr. Finley, and thirty years
after that, they met at a camp-meeting on Mad River, Ohio. Mr.
J. B. Finley says : — "On Monday morning he asked my father to
retire with him to the woods, having gone beyond the sound of
the voice of the worshipers, he said, 'Mr. Finley, I am going to
communicate to you some things which I want you to promise me
you will never divulge.' The reply was, Tf it will affect none
but ourselves then I promise to keep it forever.' Sitting down
on a log the General commenced to tell the story of his heart, and
to disclose its wretchedness, what a great sinner he had been,
and how merciful God had been in preserving him amid all the
conflicts and dangers of the wilderness. While he thus un-
burdened his heart and told of the anguish of his sin stricken
spirit, his lips quivered and tears of penitence fell from his eyes.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 193
They both fell on the earth and cried aloud to God for mercy and
salvation. The penitent was pointed to Jesus as the Almighty
Savior, and after a long and agonizing struggle the gate of
eternal life was entered. The old veteran sprang to his feet and
made the forest ring with shouts of praises to God in the glad-
ness of his soul. He outran Mr. Finley to the encampment. His
appearance starded the whole company of people, and by the time
Mr. Finley reached the encampment, an immense company had
gathered around him, to whom he was declaring the goodness of
God, and his power to save. Approaching him Mr. Finley said,.
'General, I thought we were to keep this matter a secret.' He
instantly replied, 'O it is too glorious for that. If I had all the
people of the world here, I would tell of the goodness and mercy
of God.' He died in Logan County, April 29th, 1836."
Bancroft the historian well says, 'These ministers stood in
mountain forests of the Alleghenies and in the plain beyond them,
ready to kindle in the emigrants' heart who might come that way,
without hymn book or Bible, their own vivid sense of religion."
They had no study, with library gown and slippers. They
seized a book wherever it might be found, and read as best they
could. Much of the reading was on horseback, and at nights
they sat with their backs to the fire on the hearth, and happy were
they, if they had a quiet home and plenty of pine knots to replenish
the fire with. A stand with a lard lamp or candle was an unusal
luxury.
In their work, they knew no rich, nor poor. They sought
the people, the souls of the people. This was, and is, and always
will be, the work of the true pastor.
This seed sowing yielded an abundant harvest, for the poor
of our generation are the fathers of the rich in the next..
Also these men did not seek for people in the towns and cities
only where churches may more easily be established, but they
carefully and conscientiously cared for the people of the rural
regions as well. The circuit system was well adapted to supply
the wants of the farming districts. This department has also
proved remunerative, for now when the people flow from the
country into the towns and cities, the Methodistically trained
Vol. X.— 13.
194 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
people reinforce the city churches, by the addition of many of the
most valuable members.
Some have asked why did not the early Methodist Bishops send
highly educated men into the field? And why did the Church
get along without academies and colleges in the West, until 1825,
when Augusta College in Kentucky was established?
The Rev. Dr. R. S. Stevenson answers, "Let us ask another
â– question of another arm of service in the world's civilization.
Why did not Paul Jones use a modern iron-clad and rapid firing
cannon when he compelled the British frigates to haul down their
flag? Why, to come closer home, did Oliver H. Perry, the
twenty-seven year old commander of the little fleet on Lake Erie,
not wait till he could, get a couple of ships, fresh from the eastern
docks, rather than hasten to the woods near the shore, cut trees
and finish out his complement of vessels from the green timber
of the woods? He managed somehow to get the word to his
superior "We have met the enemy and they are ours." In some
such way our resourceful fathers enlisted and drilled a great host
that in these later days has had the proud distinction of leading
all other denominations of America, in academic and collegiate
educational privileges. It is the providential plaji of this branch of
the Church to train men in the ministry, not for the ministry.
From these causes has come the saying that "Methodism is
the most successful movement to save men known in the history
â– of the Christian Church."
From the beginning of this work, the members of the Church
were arranged into classes of about twelve persons. Where there
Avas more than one class it was called a society. When a suffici-
ent number of classes and societies were clustered together to
support a pastor, it was formed into a circuit. Often there was
one assistant pastor, and sometimes there were two. At first
the Circuit systems were almost universal, and even when cities
grew the Circuit system still obtained for rural societies were at-
tached. As population increased and single congregations were
strengthened Circuits were divided and subdivided until the num-
ber of appointments now seldom exceed eight. This Circuit
system also served as a means of theological training for the
young ministers, who were under the watchful eye and counsel
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 195
of the older and were thus directed in their studies and all their
plans. The exercises of the class meeting, developed and exhib-
ited the talents of the members. The men who seemed to have
gifts, grace and usefulness were licensed to exhort, and those in
this office who showed proficiency were given license to preach,
and served first as local preachers ; and from this last named class
the conference selected the men for the pastorate. Those who
were admitted into the Conference were for two years on trial,
. so that at the end of this' term the members of the Conference
might know that they were worthy and adapted to the work.
Also the young preacher had this time to consider the doctrine and
economy of the Church, and thus know whether he believed the
one and was in hearty accord with the other.
THE WYANDOT MISSION.
On this subject we publish here for the first time the very
admirable address by Rev. E. D. Whitlock, delivered at Delaware,
June 27), 1898:
There is something spontaneous, if not sporadic, in much of Chris-
tian work and Missionary enterprise.
There appears to be a holy lawlessness with men, who, animated
by a strong and ardent love for the welfare of their fellow-beings, found
growing missions and generate new and better civilizations.
And this phase of events possesses a luring power for the man whose
imagination is quick and in whose nature there may be a tendency toward
adventure and speculation.
History is replete with inspiring surprises and enchanting romances
of the beginning and development of schemes for the improvement ot
peoples; all history is, unless it be those records which concern them-
selves chiefly with bare dates and with the boundary lines enclosing
nations and countries.
And not until one studies history as he would follow the noble stream
from its modest source to its great outlet, will the sudden and the unex-
pected put on the form and face of the prophetic and the providential.
This spontaneity and suddenness in the transpiring of things char-
acterize the appearance and achievements of individual men as well as the
occurrence of events epochal and era-making in the world's great annals.
For men, many of them, who have wrought nobly and with glori-
fying successes in the world, have seemed to come upon us unawares,
unannounced and unprophesied.
The skies seem to open and let them down, and lo! before wc have
time to breathe full and deep, they stride forth and astonish us with
196 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
their abilities and deeds ; or the ground of circumstance and opportunity
and providence breaks open and up they spring, new geniuses to fight
battles which shall immortalize their swords, to found new republics
which shall emblazon on the granite of events their names, or to inaugu-
rate and establish moral and Christian enterprises which shall embody
their splendid personalities.
Prophets and apostles, statesmen and warriors, poets and singers,
legislators and orators, benefactors and reformers, teachers and preachers
— servants all of the Most High and builders for all centuries — consti-
tute these inspiring surprises of history, appear in the role of persons
who have leaped forth from unseen and unknown places to push the
world up higher and to lead the race on farther.
From the skies or ground of providence! ah! that explains their
presence, accounts for their services to men, solves the mystery of his-
tory, and holds the key to that innermost chamber in the palace of
events, wherein the spontaneous is seen to give way to an ordained order,
the sporadic to a regularity as fixed as central suns, and the sudden to
a germinal force in things as certain of existence and animation as that
the earth revolves on its axis.
My subject is in part, at least, an illustration of these observations.
Who that reads the history or accounts of the Wyandot Mission has
not been impressed with the sudden and the unexpected in the occur-
rence of marked events and in the development of world wide plans for
the race's weal?
With what small things Providence is able to accomplish a great
deal ! With what feeble forces can he reverse the seeming order and
logic of affairs! With what meager and inconsiderable resources can he
supply the world with the living bread and the water that satisfieth!
A Christian mission among a few Indians! A man, the mission-
ary, whom none of us would have chosen and commissioned to plant in
such apparently uncongenial soil so goodly a tree as now flourishes in all
belts of the globe!
It will be impossible within tlie limits of this brief paper to do
more than advert by reference and mention to that tribe of Indians, who,
in the providence of God, furnished the opportunity for the founding of
a Christian mission, which under the fostering care of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, has been elaborated into a scheme of world-wide
missionary operations.
Just yonder along the banks of the Sandusky River, in what is
now Wyandot County, Ohio, and at Upper Sandusky, the county seat
of Wyandot County, in the early years of the present century were gath-
ered and settled a few hundred Indians, called the Wyandots.
For centuries these Indians had made Canada and Michigan and
Ohio their hunting and camping grounds ; over their hills they had chased
the wild game, along their great lakes and water-courses they had kin-
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 197
•died their camp-fires, through all their forests they had made the war-
whoop reverberate.
We see them around Quebec and Montreal; at Mackinaw and
Detroit; along the Ohio and the great Miami; and now at Upper San-
dusky.
Originally they were of the family of the Iroquois and the Hurons
of the French writers.
When the French settled in Canada this nation or tribe of Indians
was in possession of this whole country.
They were a numerous, bold and warlike people, and were con-
sidered the strongest and oldest tribe of all the Northern Indians, and
consequently were called the "Great Fathers."
In alliance with other tribes they engaged in fierce and deadly war-
fare with the Iroquois, and were by them finally reduced to a remnant
â– of their original numbers and to a mite of their former strength.
Just at what date or time this tribe established for themselves a
camping place and a center of operations at Upper Sandusky, is not
known.
But it is definitely stated that by a treaty, concluded at the foot of
the Maumee Rapids, September 29, 1817, Hon. Lewis Cass and Hon.
Duncan McArthur, Commissioners on the part of the United States,
there was granted to the Wyandot tribe a reservation of twelve square
miles in Wyandot County, the center of which was Fort Ferree, at Upper
Sandusky, and also a tract of one mile square on the Cranberry Swamp,
on Broken Sword Creek.
Here for a period of twenty-six years, or until they were trans-
ferred in 1843 to a reservation in Kansas, the Wyandots lived, leading
for the most part a peaceable life and cultivating the ruder arts of
mdustry.
Their principal chief was Captain Pipe, son of the chief who was
so officious in the burning of Colonel Crawford.
At the time of their departure for the far West, some time in July,
1843, the Wyandot tribe numbered between six hundred and seven hun-
dred souls.
Though a bold and warlike nation, the Wyandots were, neverthe-
lesss, a humane and hospitable people.
A proof of their humanity is found in their treatment of their pris-
â– oners, the most of whom they adopted into their families, and some in
the place of their own chiefs; and as a result, the greater part of the
tribe was at the time of their settlement at Upper Sandusky very greatly
intermixed by marriage with our own people, as the families of Brown,
Zane, Walker, Armstrong and others would indicate.
Two or three facts in the history of this tribe furnished a basis for
â– Christian work among them.
198 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
In the first place, they had intermarried with the whites, and while
this fact furnished the opportunity and the temptation to them for
indulgence in many of the gross vices to which their superiors had long
been addicted, it, nevertheless, had a tendency to soften in the Indian
that wild and savage disposition so universally his trait, and thus render
him more readily susceptible to the gracious influences of the Gospel.
In the second place, the religious belief of these Indians constituted
a vantage ground in the efforts of the missionary to reach them.
They believed in a Supreme Being. Indeed, some of the accounts
concerning them tell us that they believed in two gods, one for them-
selves and one for the whites.
And, judging from the success the Almighty has had in managing
the two races for a long period now, it does not seem at all strange
that such a belief of the necessity of ample omnipotence for the Red
Man and his supplanter should have been one of the religious tenets of
the Wyandets.
They also asserted their belief in a system of future rewards and
punishments, in the divine inspiration of men, and that God had revealed
himself and great truths also to their own prophets with the command to
believe and to do them.
As in thinnest soil there may be adequate vitality to insure some
beautiful growth, so in the instincts, intuitions, convictions, associa-
tions and deeper yearnings of these Indians, there was a basis for Gospel
impression and truth ; soil to receive the Word of Life and a possibility
and promise, though dim, of the Christian life among the Wyandots.
It was to this tribe on their reservation at Upper Sandusky, in the
year 1816, that John Stewart found his way.
Stewart was a inulatto, born free, in Powhatan County, Virginia,
of parents whose claim was that Indian blood coursed their veins, but
of what tribe Stewart was unable to say.
The parents of Stewart moved to Tennessee, leaving their son in
Virginia. Some time afterwards he followed them, and later while on
his way to Marietta, Ohio, was robbed of all his property.
Stewart had become addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors,
and the habit and effects of his intemperance were so marked and uncon-
trolable that upon one occasion he resolved to commit suicide. But
from some cause, he retracted his destructive purpose and was pre-
served, as if by miracle, to begin a noble and far-reaching work for God
and humanity.
Through his early religious surroundings and influences he mibibed
a deep prejudice to the Methodists. But one evening as he chanced to
pass along the street in the town of Marietta he heard the voice of prayer
and song, issuing from a house or building nearby. It proved to be a
Methodist prayer-meeting. He drew nearer and listened, and after a
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 199
severe struggle with his deep rooted prejudice and his evil conscience, he
ventured to go in.
It was not long until, under the melting power of Christian song;
and the awakening energy of the Holy Spirit, that he was induced to
disclose his real state of mind and heart. Upon hearing his recital of
feeling and experience these new-found friends persuaded him to attend
a camp-meeting, held by the Rev. Marcus Lindsay, near Marietta. Upon
that camp-ground and at its rude but consecrated altars the Holy Spirit
kindled a divine fire that soon warmed and blessed the troubled soul of
Stewart with new and celestial life.
Suddenly he felt himself under an unspeakable sense of heavenly
joy and rapture of being. Thrills of peace and rest, as when rich melo-
dies of song pour themselves into the soul of the lover of music, pervaded
the whole being of Stewart, producing indescribable experience of pardon
and renewal; and John Stewart, an unlearned man, with no antecedent
education or training, w-as born into son-ship with God and thrust into
the service of the King of Kings.
Suddenly, then, as if from some one near him, a voice clear and
strong began its wooings and behests in the soul of Stewart to an active
service in the spiritual interests of his fellow-beings.
He first united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, then he pon-
dered deeply the new and sudden impulse, springing up in his heart to
preach.
He then heard a voice as of a woman, praising God, and then
another as of a man, saying, "You must declare my counsel faithfully."
Christ and His bride were calling him into the kingdom of service.
Then again the voices seemed to call to him from the uorthwest and,.
without debate or hesitation, he started, led by an unseen hand and
commanded by the voice of Him who never errs, to Goshen, a town on
the Tuscaraw^as River. Here he found a Moravian establishment among
the Delawares, and from them he learned something of the Indians farther
to the north, and in this direction he set out finally reaching the reser-
vation of the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky.
What a task confronted him and what obstacles rose up before him!
Himself a fresh convert, possessing no education, save that he could
read and write and sing, uninured to such scenes and surroundings as
met his -eye, ignorant of Christian methods and processes, knowing
nothing of the language spoken by those whom he had gone to instruct
and benefit - a Saul without armor!
And yet not so; for he had been genuinely and gloriously converted,
the Holy Ghost was shed abroad in his heart, he was full of holy zeal
and enthusiasm, he had with him the sword of the Spirit which is the
Word of God, and he felt that he was divinely moved and called to preach.
When Stewart arrived at the Wyandot reservation, he went at
once to the house of the United States Indian Sub-agent, Mr. William
200 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Pnhlications.
Walker, Sr., who at first suspected him of being a run-away slave, but
upon hearing from Stewart the simple and honest recital of his conver-
sion and religious experience, both Mr. Walker and his .estimable wife,
a woman of considerable education and of interesting character, became
the firm and lasting friends of both Stewart and his work.
Mrs. Walker, from the fact that she was half Wyandot and because
lOf her strong influence among the nation, was able to render Stewart
very timely and valuable assistance, especially in the commencement of
ihis labors.
Stewart, at the suggestion of Mr. and Mrs. Walker, found an
â– interpreter in the person of a colored man, by the name of Jonathan
Pointer. Pointer was taken prisoner when a small boy, and through long
and intimate association with the Indians had so thoroughly mastered
iheir language as to render him an adept in interpretation.
At first when asked by Stewart to act as his interpreter, Pointer
declined, emphasizing his refusal, not only by declaring his religious
unbelief, but by ridiculing Stewart's attempts to turn the Indians from
their old to a new religion. Afterwards, however, he yielded his objec-
tions and consented to interpret for the missionary while he would preach ;
•and thus a skeptic became the unwitting instrument of heralding the
iblessed tidings of salvation.
Stewart's first congregation consisted of only two old Indians,
Big Tree and Mary, and though disheartened at first he continued to
preach to increasing numbers, and was soon joyously rewarded for his
efforts and faith by witnessing the conversion and reformation of
many persons who, because of their position and influence, gave a hope-
ful impetus to the beneficent work already begun.
Among the first converts under his preaching were Jonathan Pointer,
the interpreter, Mrs. Walker and her sons, and the chiefs John Hicks,
Between-the-Logs, Mononcue, Scuteash and others whose names are not
given. •
Stewart continued his efforts among the Wyandots, with occasional
intervals of brief absence for a number of years his more active labors,
probably, terminating with the year 1821, when through the personal
endeavor and generous aid of Bishop McKendree, in giving and col-
lecting fimds, a tract of sixty acres of land, adjacent to the Indian reser-
vation was purchased for one hundred dollars and given to Stewart, a
patent having been obtained for the land in his own name. Here John
Stewart, the founder of the first mission of the Methodist Episcopal
Chuch in Ohio, resided until his death, in 1823.
He was buried in the graveyard of the Mission Church at Upper
Sandusky amid the dust of many of the red men, whom his voice melo-
dious in song and earnest in appeal had won to a better path and to a
holy life.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 201
Many were the difficulties and discouraging circumstances that this
heroic and tireless missionary of the cross was compelled to encounter
while in the prosecution of his heavenly mission.
One of them was the previous pernicious instruction of the Indians
"by the Roman Catholics. He found it no easy task to overcome the
decided influence which prejudice and bigotry, prevalent through Cath-
olic teaching, had exerted among them.
Another embarrassment was the deprecation, in the esimation of
the Indians, of his work and ministerial office, which had been brought
about by the presertce and persistent efforts of certain missionaries, during
a temporary absence of Stewart.
These missionaries, finding that Stewart had won considerable sue
cess and favor among the Wyandots, made overtures to him to join
their Church, accompanying their proposition with the promise of a
good salary.
But he declined their offer on the ground of his objections to the
doctrines they held.
They then demanded of him to know his authority as a Aletho-
dist Missionary, and as he held no other credentials than an exhorter's
license he told them he had none ; and thus it became known that he was
without authority from the Church to exercise the ministerial office, al-
though he had solemnized matrimony and baptized both adults and chil-
dren, believing the necessities of the case fully justified his action.
He was partly discouraged by this circumstance and placed at no
small disadvantage before the people on account of it.
The traders and missionaries asserted that he was an impostor.
Stewart at once determined to remove every cause for such lack of ample
authority to carry forward the work in all particulars.
It was now the winter of 1818, and while on a visit to some Indians
at Solomonstown, on the Great Miami, he formed an acquaintance with
a Robert Armstrong and with some Methodist families that lived near
Bellefontaine, Ohio. From them he learned that the quarterly meeting
of the Bellefontaine Circuit was to be held near Urbana.
He went at once to the place of quarterly conference, accompanied
by some Indians, with a recommendation from the converted chief and
others as a suit^ible person to be licensed as a local preacher in the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Moses Crume being presiding Elder.
A letter published in the accounts of the Wyandot mission, by James
B. Finley, and signed by the Rev. Moses Crume, states that the venerable
Bishop George was present at the quarterly conference, and approved its
action in granting license to John Stewart.
Thus by a church polity sufficiently flexible to be adapted to all
emergencies the cavils of would-be missionaries, who sought to under-
mine the work of this man of God, were forever put to silence.
202 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
This mission was made a part of the regular work of the Church
at the Ohio Annual Conference, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 7, 1819.
The Rev. James B. Finley was appointed presiding Elder this year of
the Lebanon District, which extended from the Ohio River to the Canada
line, and comprised as a part of it the Wyandot mission.
John Stewart was appointed missionary to the Wyandots, with the
Rev. James Montgomery as assistant.
A collection of seventy dollars was raised by the preachers of the
conference for the support of the mission, and James B. Finley, Rus-
sell Bigelow and Robert W. Finley were appointed a committee to aid
the mission.
Shortly after his appointment as assistant to Stewart, Mr. Mont-
gariiery was made subagent to the Senecas, and the presiding elder em-
pkryed Moses Henkle, Sr., to fill the vavancy.
Mr. Finley states in his notes that the first quarterly meeting for the
mission was held in the house of Ebenezer Zane, a half white, near Zanes-
field, Logan County, O.
Some sixty Indians were present, among whom were Between-the-
logs, Mononcue, Hicks, and Scuteash, while Armstrong and Pointer
were present to act as interpreters.
Among those who served the mission either as missionaries of teach-
ers, or as both, besides the names already given, were the Revs. Chas.
Elliott, William Walker, Lydia Barstow, Jane Trimble, Harriett Stubbs,
the Rev. Jacob Hooper and his wife, the Rev. J. C. Brooke, the Rev.
Tames Gilruth and among the last to be appointed was the Rev. James
Wheeler from the North Ohio Conference, in 1839.
Soon after the Rev. James B. Finley come to the mission he built a
log mission and school house.
In this mission house the Indian maidens were taught to cook, bake
and sew, while outside, in the field, at anvil and bench the young men
were taught the trades of civilization. This was the first industrial school
founded on the continent and it, of course, in Ohio and under the auspices
of the ]\Iethodist Episcopal Church.
A few years later, in 1824, a better and more substantial structure
was erected of blue limestone from government funds, the Rev. Mr.
Finley having permission from the Hon. John C. Calhoun, then Secre-
tary of War, to apply $1,333.00 to this object.
And here within the hallowed precincts of this modest meeting
house for nearly twenty years the Indians met to worship God and within
the shades of its sacred walls they buried their dead.
For a while after the removal of the Wyandots to their reservation
in the West the building and the grounds were sacredly guarded and
kept up, but they were soon forgotten, for none seemed to be charged
with the responsibility of protecting this shrine of worship and this sepul-
ture of the dead; and the roof fell in, the walls crumbled, and the tomb
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 203"
stones, white sentinels by the departed, were allowed to fall down and
become the prey of curious relic seekers.
In 1888 the General Conference, at its session in New York, re-
solved to restore so far as possible the buildings and grounds to their
original appearance, and to further and consummate this worthy object
the sum of $2,000 was appropriated from the Missionary treasury.
The rehabilitation of this memorable building and these hallowed
grounds was begun and completed in 1889, and in September of the same
year, during the session of the Central Ohio Conference at Upper San-
dusky, appropriate and interesting ceremonies and exercises were ob-
served in commemoration of the Mission and its remarkable history, the
Rev. Adam C. Barnes, D. D., presiding and addresses by <he Hon. C. C.
Hare, Bishop John F. Hursh, D. D., General Wm. H. Gibson, the Rev.
L. A. Beet, D. D., and the Rev. E. C. Gavitt, D. D., the Rev. R. B. Pope,
D. D., offering prayer, and the Rev. N. B. C. Love, D. D.. reading a his-
torical sketch, and Mother Solomon singing a Christian song in the
Wyandot language.
There was present on this occasion an aged and venerable woman
who lived in an humble home north of the town. She was a full-blooded
Indian, the daughter of John Gray Eyes, a noted chief of the tribe. She
was born in 1816, and when in 1821 the Rev. J. B. Finley opened the
Mission school, Margaret Gray Eyes was the first little girl to receive
its instructions.
When the Wyandots went west in 1843, she went with them, but on
the death of her husband, John Solomon, some years afterward, she re-
turned to Upper Sandusky, and here amid the scenes and associations
that had most largely interested and influenced her life she lived quietly
and alone.
Of all the Indians that bade farewell to the dear church, in 1843
she was the only one present at its restoration, and the only one living in
Ohio and the last of the Wyandots. Mother Solomon died in 1890 and
was buried in the wooded cemetery that surrounds the Church.
Much credit should be given the Rev. N. B. C. Love, D. D., of the
Central Ohio Conference for the active and assiduous part he took in
preparing the way for this notable occasion, and to secure the property
to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Wyandots on leaving for the West conveyed, by deed, the prop-
erty to the church, but the deed was not recorded.
Dr. Love in the year 1886 while pastor of our Church in Upper San-
dusky, found this deed among some worthless papers in an obscure place
in the Church basement, and had it placed on record. The deed was
signed in behalf of the Wyandots by Andrew W. Anderson, Joseph
Cover, Alexander Miller, Alexander Armstrong. Luther Mackrel and
Henry Jackquis. principal chief, as trustees, and witnessed by Joel Walker,
Secretary of the council, and the Rev. James Wheeler, Missionary.
•204 Ohio Arch. a>id His. Society Publications.
The discovery of this instrument removed all doubt and dispute
as to the title of the Church to the property, and provided an unob-
structed path for the action of the General Conference of 1888, whereby
funds were secured to renew and renovate the building and grounds and
make them monumental of the great work there accomplished in the name
of the Master.
The history of the Wyandot Mission and its founder is the history,
in epitome, of the visible Church of God. This mission stands for all
the great spiritual forces of the Kingdom of Christ, is representative of
that burnmg zeal and restless evangelism which are to overrun the world
with the gospel of light and purity, is an embodiment of that spirit ot
personal consecration and sacrifice, which make martyrs, inspire evan-
gelists, and spread world-wide the civilization of the cross, is a miniature
picture of that mighty host and that marching Church that are to make
the kingdoms of this world the Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.
Just think of it ! John Stewart an uneducated Negro the spiritual
father of some two hundred aborigines within six years from the time
he preached his first sermon to two old Indians, the instrumental cause
of the moral reformation of more than half of the chiefs in the tribe he
was trying to evangelize, the intrepid John Baptist of that great army
of missionaries that lead forward the militant hosts of Zion, the inspira-
tion of that tremendous movement which has already awakened the dead
senses of the Pagan nations to higher ideals and nobler aspirations.
Hail thou saint crowned ! Thou art dead but thou speakest !
Our two and a half million of members are on the tramp, our
hundreds of mission stations are keeping guard at the front, the Mission-
ary life of the Church is more than ever divinely animated, and soon
the continents of the old world and isles of the sea will clap their hands
for joy, praising Him who was dead but is alive forever more!
GERMAN METHODISM.
The Rev. William Nast, who was born in Stuttgart, Ger-
many, in 1807, emigrated to the United States in 1828, and in
, ,______.^, 1835 was a professor of Greek in Kenyon Col-
; lege, Ohio. In 1835 he became a Christian,
; and after a severe struggle of mind, attempted
to preach to the Germans at Newark and then
at Cincinnati.
Soon the work spread. In 1837 he organ-
ized the first German society. This work has
now extended throughout the United States
and has gone back into Germany, Switzerland
Iiitroductio)i of Methodism in Ohio. 205
Scandinavia, and the results are most marvelous. In less than
65 years we find in America more than 580 Methodist pastors
preaching in the German language. And there are in this land
more than sixty thousand members and more than forty-five
thousand Sabbath school scholars. And in foreign lands there
are 197 pastors who have under their watch care 38,000 members
and 51,000 Sabbath school scholars. What man in any age can
show a greater following wrought out before death than Dr.
Wm. Nast? There are not less than yyy preachers and more
than 100,000 Church members from this one man's planting.
-^?*
â– ~ -^ r^-4^i:-Z*tr^^"- '
WHITE BROWN S BARN.
About the year 1805, one Mr. White Brown, a devout and
substantial Methodist, built a commodious barn on his farm, 16
miles north of Chillicothe. It was a part of the purpose of Mr.
Brown in putting up this structure, to afiford to the people a
place for worship in the warmer weather. For many years this
building was used for preaching and other services. In the
early part of the last century Bishops Asbury, McKendree,
George, and Whatcoat, preached in it from time to time as they
made pilgrimages through the forests of Ohio. Also Lotspeich,
Cartwright, J. B. Finley and Lorenzo Dow preached there.
Many of the fathers of the Church in Ross and Pickaway coun-
ties were converted there, and very many precious seasons X){
grace were enjoyed there. After the barn had been used for
some twenty years in this way, on a chilly autumnal day, some of
the younger people suggested that the community should build
a church. Some of the fathers responded : "What ! leave the old
barn? Never." But in due time a church was built, known as
Brown's Chapel.
!206 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
NEWARK
While the Rev. J. B. Finley was serving the Knox circuit
in 1810, he reached Newark. As no home was open to him
for preaching, he used the bar-room of a tavern. He says:
"When I stepped into the door I found the room full, and many
were crowd&d around the bar drinking. It looked more like the
celebration of a baccachalian orgie than a place for the worship
of God. But I had made an appointment and I must fill it at all
hazards ; and as the Gospel was to be preached to every creature
my mission extended to every place this side of hell. I procured
a stool and placed it beside the door and cried at the top of my
voice, 'Awake, thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and
Christ shall give thee life.' For thirty minutes I labored to show
my audience that they were on their way to hell and as insensible
of their danger as if locked fast in the embrace of sleep. When
I was done warning them of their danger and inviting them to
come to Christ, I took my horse and rode to brother Channels.
The bar-room folks sent me word if I came again they would
roast me, but notwithstanding I made another appointment to
preach in the court house. When the time came I preached in
the court house to an orderly congregation and at that time
formed a class." This was the beginning of Methodism in the
metropolis of Licking County.
GRANVILLE.
In the summer of 181 1 a great camp meeting was held on
the Thrap farm about a mile east of Irville in Muskingum County.
At that meeting both Bishops Asbury and McKendree were
present and preached. One W^m. Gavit, of Granville, was pres-
ent with a ward he had charge of who was an habitual drunkard.
Indeed the inebriate was in such a condition that all means failed
to cure him. Mr. Gavit was not a believer in Christ himself
but he had heard much of the results of conversion to tranform
men. So he went to the Thrap camp meeting taking with him
this desperate character, who was under his guardianship. The
result was before they reached Granville again, or soon after,
both Mr. Gavit and his ward were converted. Mr. Wm. Gavit
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 207
invited the Rev. Jas. B. Finley to preach in his house in 1811,
when a class was formed, the beginning of Methodism in Gran-
ville. Mr. Gavit's sons Elnathan and Ezekiel, became noted
ministers in the M. E. Churcli.
FAYETTE COUNTY.
The first quarterly conference ever held in Fayette County was
held at the residence of Joel Wood, twelve miles north of Wash-
ington, Solomon Langdon was presiding elder. Ralph Lot-
speich was pastor and Joseph Hains was assistant. This
was in 181 1. Two years after this Jesse Rovve, a local preacher,
held services in a house near the place, where Sugar Grove
Church now stands. The result of his labor was the formation
of a class of which he was the leader ; the remaining names are
as follows : Jane Rowe, Patsy Rowe, Lucinda Priddy, and John
King.
About this time the first class was formed in Washington.
Daniel Hollis was the first class leader and the Rev. John King
his assistant. The names of this primitive class are as follows :
Phebe Johnson, Mother PTankins, Tamar Scott, Mary Hopkins.
Mary Pope joy, Mary McDonald, Susan Flesher, Samuel Loof-
borro, Ruda Neely, and Barbara Hubbard, a colored woman.
After using private houses as a place of worship for a number of
years the court house was used. Then a building on Market
street, just west of the former residence of Richard Millikan was
used. Afterward a brick church was built near the building last
named, but it was poorly constructed and was soon condemned
and in 1843 the frame church now owned by Judge H. B. May-
nard was built, costing $1,400. Then followed in 1867 the brick
on the corner of London and Market street, and finally in 1895
the present structure.
MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
The Rev. Robert Manly was a member of the Baltimore
conference. He preached in Marietta, in 1799, the first Metho-
dist sermon in the Muskingum Valley. He was the spiritual
father of the Rev. John Collins. In about 1805 he married Eliza-
beth Hamilton, who was the eldest daughter of William Hamil-
208 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
ton, who emigrated from the east to Muskingum County, Ohio,
in 1806, and when he reached the farm he had entered, he and
his family left the wagon and built a fire and prepared in the
unbroken forest their evening meal. After it was served he had
family worship in which he consecrated himself and family to
God and he dedicated his farm to God. After he built a cabin
he invited Methodist ministers to hold services in it. Here the
Rev. Ralph Lotspeich preached in 1807 and formed a class which
was the origin of Asbury society. This farm is located on the
Cooper Mill road, named for Joseph Cooper, who after this event
built a mill west of this farm on Jonathan's Creek. In this com-
munity the Rev. Robert Manly died in 1810.
Just north of this, and about a mile east of Irville on the
Thrap farm, in the year 181 1 a camp meeting was held and there
were present at it both Bishops Asbury and McKendree. Dur-
ing the meeting Rev. Samuel Hamilton was converted, who after-
wards was one of the leading ministers of Ohio. About that
time Rev. James B. Finley was the pastor of that circuit and he
fomed a class at Dillon's Falls. When he went to that com-
munity he found the people given to gross drunkenness. After
the pastor had preached and held a few services he formed a
class composed of John Hooper, Jacob Hooper, J. Dittenhififer,
and Samuel Gassaway, a colored man. Finally a church was
built and Bishop McKendree dedicated it. This was the origin
of what is known as Finley society in White Cottage Circuit.
In 1840 the Methodist society at Brownsville was worshiping
in Mr. J. Fluke's wagon shop. That year a church was built and
the Rev. Samuel Hamilton dedicated it.
COLUMBUS.
In 1 8 14 the proprietors of the city of Columbus, John Kerr
and Lyne Starling, Alexander McLaughlin and James Johnson,
donated a lot to each of the three denominations in the field at
that time, viz. : the Presbyterian, the Protestant Episcopal and
the Methodist Episcopal. For the Methodists was selected the
lot on which the Public School Library now stands on Town
street. The first church building on this site was an unpreten-
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 209
tious structure built of hewed logs. The records of the Trustees
indicate that the building cost $157.53^.
This structure was occupied as a place of worship in 1815,
but evidently was not finished, as the records show that on Sep-
tember 29th, 181 7, the Trustees appointed
a committee "to have the meeting-house
chinked and daubed and under-pinned
and to appoint a suitable person to keep it
in order."
As this was before the days of pub-
lic school houses, this church was used
for school purposes also for some years,
and the little society received annually a
small sum for rental from the school au-
thorities of the city. This building was
FIRST MKTHODisT CHURCH ^^y 20x25 fcct. In iSiS an addition
IN COLUMBUS. was put to it of 20 feet. All of this was
superceded in 1825 by a brick structure costing $1,300. In 1853 the
buildmg now used for a library building was built and when it
was enclosed, some seats were improvised and the first State Re-
publican Convention of Ohio was held in it. This building was
used until 1891, when the present structure on the corner of
Bryden Road and Eighteenth street was built.
In 1829 the first Methodist Sabbath School was organized in
this church with fifty-eight scholars.
CHANGES IN CONFERENCE BOUNDARIES.
The Western conference was one of the six conferences of
the United States. It was organized in 1796. It embraced all
of the North West Territory, Kentucky, Tennessee, and included
all our districts in the Mississippi Valley.
In 1812 the Ohio conference was organized and also the
Tennessee, from the vast territory once called the Western con-
ference and from this date the last mentioned name disappears
from church chronicles.
The Ohio conference then included all the North West Ter-
ritory and the part of Virpinia that is now included m the West-
ern part of what is now known as West Virginia. It also in-
Vol. X.— 14.
-210
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
eluded a district in the northern part of Kentucky. In i8l6 the
Kentucky part was given to Tennessee. In 1820 a few districts
from Western Pennsylvania were added. But in 1824 the Pitts-
burg conference was formed and that embraced not only the dis-
tricts in Pennsylvania, but several districts in the eastern pan of
what is now known as the State of West Virginia and one or two
) toLeoo,
DIAGRAM OF OHIO CONFERENCES 1901.
in Ohio. By the year 1840 the Michigan conference was con-
stituted.
That same year the North Ohio conference was also formed.
It embraced that part of the state north of Sidney and Mt. Ver-
non. It was not until 1850 that the West Virginia conference
was formed which embraces the territory now in that state. In
1856 the Central Ohio (at first called Delaware) conference was
formed by dividing the North Ohio conference, leaving to the
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 211
last named conference the territory east of the Sandusky river
and the new conference has the territory in the northwest part
•of the state, west of said river.
In 1852 the Cincinnati conference was formed by dividing
the Ohio conference, giving the new conference the territory west
â– of the cities of West Union and Washington Court House.
Finally in 1876 the East Ohio conference was formed sub-
stantially of the Ohio territory once in the Pittsburg conference.
A large part of the Central German conference is in this
state and one or two districts of the Washington (colored) con-
ference is in this state.
The outline map on the preceding page gives the boundaries
of the five English speaking white conferences.
EARLY REVIVALS AND CAMP MEETINGS.
An address delivered at the Centennial Celebration of Ohio
Methodism at Delaware, Ohio, June 23d, 1898. by Charles H.
Payne. D.D., LL. D.
The genius of Methodism determined its methods and secured its
results. Revivals were and are an inseparable feature of Methodist econ-
omy and Methodist life. Indeed, Methodism itself, historically, is a
revival. As such it began, grew, flourished, conquered, and as such it
will continue to win its extending victories. It was, and is, a quickening
of spiritual life, a revivification of dead souls; an application of vitalizing
truths to human character and human needs, making the dead to live,
and the living to triumph. Broadly viewed, one might say that every
church in Methodism was the product of revival efforts, and every success
a triumph of the revival spirit.
In all the world Methodism has had no nobler field, and won no
greater triumphs than in the royal State of Ohio. In the number of
church organizations and church edifices it to-day leads every State in
the Union, and in the number of its communicants it is almost abreast of
New York, which has a population nearly twice as large. In its majestic
march of a hundred years, every step has been taken to the music of
genuine evangelism.
All the phenomena of Methodism are accounted for by its essential
character, by its Doctrines, its polity and its Spirit.
I. The doctrines of Methodism are a revival of the primitive teach-
ings of the early church. Those doctrines brought to eager hearers de-
liverance from bondage, they sounded the bugle-call to freedom, to manlv
independence. Small marvel is it that they met with so cordial a reception
and general response. With the glorious truth of freedom the early
212 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Methodist preachers mingled the solemn fact of personal responsibility.
The substance of their oft-repeated appeals was: "You are guilty sinners,,
and need to be saved ; you are redeemed sinners, and may be saved to-
day ; you are free and voluntary sinners, and must alone accept the re-
sponsibility of a refusal to be saved."
These lightning flashes of truth into the minds and souls of men
carried conviction deep and pungent, and revivals were a logical result.
So long as these fundamental truths are iterated in the ears of men, so
long will the same logical results follow. An evangelical church will
never cease to bear evangelical fruits.
II. The polity of Methodism also helped to make revivals, with all
their increments of numbers and strength, an inevitable result of the
proclamation of truth. That polity was always marked by two character-
istic features : Aggressiveness and adaptability. Its aggressiveness pushed
it to the fartherest cabin on the frontier; it introduced a system of evan-
gelical propagandism of a higher order and a holier character than the
world has even seen since the time of the apostles. It put the emphasis on
the word "go/ and woe betide the church when the emphasis shall be
shifted from "go" to "come."
Methodism went everywhere, following the trail of the adventurer
into the deep forest, and reaching the settlement of the hardy pioneer,
on the outposts of civilization. It never waited for royal reception to
be given to it; it never lingered for communities to be formed or churches
to be built and a formal call to be extended. No adventuresome pioneer
could get beyond hearing of its solemn call to repentance and a new
life.
The historian of Methodism tells of an itinerant in one of the
Southern States wending his way through the deep forest and reaching
a little opening where he found a woodman felling trees, having but just
reached the spot with time to put up a hastily improvished cabin for his
family. The woodman was hailed by the itinerant, who asked if he could
preach in his cabin. "What," said the astonished pioneer, "are you here?
I lived in Virginia and a Methodist preacher came along and my wife
got converted. I fled into North Carolina where I hardly got settled,
another Methodist preacher came along and some of my children were
converted. Then I went to Kentucky ; but there they followed me and I
thought this time I would get beyond their reach, and now I have hardly
got to this settlement till, here is another Methodist minister wanting to
preach in my cabin !" "My friend," said the itinerant, "I advise you to
make terms of peace with the Methodist preachers, for you will find
them everywhere you go in this world, and when you die, if you go to
heaven, as I hope you will, you will find plenty of them there ; and if you
â– go to hell, as you will if you don't repent, I fear you will find a few of
them there !" The man thought it better to surrender. This incident
reveals the aggressive character of early Methodism. May it never lose
its aggressiveness.
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 213
But its flexibility and adaptability to circumstances were an equally
marked feature of early ^lethodism. It knew nothing of a settled order
â– that could never unbend, even to save a human soul. Its aim was to pull
man out of the fires of the hell of sin in this life, and it went where
the fires were burning most fiercely, and used such methods as the exi-
gencies of the case seemed to call for. It was seeking results and methods
were always a secondary consideration. Hence the introduction of camp-
meeting. As revivals had been a logical necessity of Methodism, so camp-
meetings were a physical necessity. They were first introduced in Ken-
tucky, in 1798, by two brothers named Magee, one of whom was a Metho-
dist preacher, and the other a Presbyterian preacher. They were not
introduced by previous purpose or plan. People flocked to hear the word
in such numbers that there was no house large enough to hold them,
so they went into the woods, and thus gradually these gatherings took on
a more permanent form. Methodism with its ready adaptation to cir-
cumstances, grasped the situation, seized the opportunity and utilized
this new form of reaching the masses.
With the crude condition of society, unaccompanied by the refinmg
influences of advanced civilization, these meetings were attended by some
marked physical phenomena. Men were struck down and fell to the
ground in a helpless condition remaining sometimes for hours. This
was but an incident of the time, belonging to the period, and passing
away with the period. These phenomena were not peculiar to Meth-
odist meetings; they had. been observed in England and Scotland, and,
to some extent, in the great revival under Edwards in New England.
The informalities and seeming irregularities of the camp-meeting brought
them into disfavor with our Presbyterian brethren, as they did with the
English Wesleyans. But American Methodism, with what we believe
to have been a clearer insight and broader vvnsdom, saw the ephemeral
character of the accompanying evils, and the permanent character of the
good resulting from camp-meetings, and continued to use most success-
fully this popular and providential agency for carrying forward its great
work in the wilds of the West. The wisdom of this course has been
•abundantly justified by results. These results are seen in the multi-
tudinous successes, builded into the entire structure of Methodism' through-
out the whole country. What a splendid pulpit did the camp-meeting
afiFord for the fervid oratory of the legio tonans, the thundering legion
of that day. Vast masses of people, sometimes estimated at from fifteen
to twenty thousand, were swayed by. the eloquence of those mighty men of
God. Jacob Young, J. B. Finley, Peter Cartwright. and many an other of
like character, were at their best in these gatherings in the woods. There,
too, was Russell Bigelow, seraphic preacher, who charmed and captured
his wondering audiences: the classic Thomson with his polished period
and energetic influence; the soaring Bascom, who put his audiences mto
utter amazement that a mortal man could send forth such a torrent of
â– eloquence; John P. Durbin, the weird magician, who held his hearers as
214 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
if under the spell of a necromancer ; Randolph S. Foster, a very Samp-
son among pulpit giants bringing down hundreds under a single sermon;
and Simpson, matchless orator, under whose burning words the mul-
titudes sprang to their feet and listened awe-struck and spell-bound. But
time fails me to name even the leaders of this royal host of preachers.
What a battery did the camp-meeting afford for bombarding the forces
of Satan, and how the enemy fell under the fire ! Fortunate was it for
Methodism that she did not discard this mighty enginery of spiritual
warfare.
III. But the spirit of Methodism, quite as much as its doctrines
and its polity has been a potent cause of its marvelous success. Metho-
dism through all its early years was strongly marked by a passion for
saving men. It possessed what has been aptly termed the "enthusiasm
of humanity." The weapons by which it has won its mighty victories are
prayer and appeal. It besieged heaven and laid siege to the souls of
men. Its greatest victories have been won in the closet and at the altar
of devotion. That was a significant act when Kobler, the first regular
itinerant minister of Ohio, landing on the banks of the noble river, dropped
upon his knees and offered a fervent prayer to heaven. That act con-
secrated to Methodism Ohio's soil, and presaged the glorious victories
that have followed.
The great revivals that have marked the history of Ohio Methodism,
— and indeed, the Methodism of the whole country, have been inspired,
directed and consummated by this dynamic force; That marvelous man of
God and pre-eminent revivalist James Caughey, who led many thousands
to Christ, traced the secret of his wonderful success to the work done
upon his knees in his closet. When but a lad just beginning to preach
the gospel," the- speaker walked ten miles for the purpose of having an
interview with Mr. Caughey. He was chary of his time, and it was not
easy to obtain an interview ; but once in his presence the lad timidly said :
Mr. Caughey, I have walked ten miles that I might learn of you the
secret of success in winning men to Christ." He turned his beneficent
face toward me, and with intense seriousness replied, "My young brother,
it is knee work, knee work, knee work !" That lesson has never been
forgotten. It would have been worth infinitely more than the price it
had cost a walk of many thousand miles. The fathers of Methodism
learned that lesson well, and by its application won victories, and chal-
lenged the admiration of the unbelieving world.
There still lingers with us that remarkable soul winner, William
I. Fee, who probably enjoys the high distinction of bringing more per-
sons to a personal acceptance of Christ than any other living man.
Has the time come for a change of doctrines, or policy, or spirit?
Not in essentials. The doctrines of Methodism are essentially true, and
need only restatement in the language of to-day. The fathers preached
in the language of their day, and as demanded by their times. So must
we. The policy of adaptation we do well to remember and to apply
Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 215
agencies and methods suited to the demands of our times, as did the
heroic fathers in their day.
The spirit of early Methodism that led to its revivals, inspired its.
entire work, and pervaded all its adherents, is the one pre-eminent
essential of present and future success. Has this spirit departed from
Methodism? Were the former times really better than these? The re-
vivals of to-day may not be exactly the same type as the revivals of those
more primitive times, nor is this essential. Are these revivals in our times
as effective, as productive of genuine and abiding results? We believe
there are ; not only in the churches throughout our whole domain, but
in the colleges, the schools, where the flower of the young people; of the
church are gathered, are these revivals still prevalent. The' place in
which we are now assembled has witnessed such revivals again and again.
We have had the high honor of participating in revivals on this spot, as
deep, as genuine, as all persuasive in their spirit, as any in which the
fathers have participated, or any that have existed from the days of Saint
Paul until the present hour — revivals in which literally hundreds of
young people within the course of a few weeks were brought into a living
fellowship with a living Christ; and hundreds of others were lifted up
into higher planes of consecration and service. Let us not close our
eyes to the glories of to-day while we recognize the glorious history of
the past.
What of the future? Methodism has but just fairly begun her con-
quering mission. We hear much about "old fashioned" Methodism, and
we honor it : but unless our church has been recreant to her trust, unless-
she has fallen out of God's plan and order, new-fashioned Methodism
ought to be, — and is. of a better type than the world has ever before seen.
The old fashion was good, all honor to it. The new fashion must be
better, if true to God's call. If there are not always' the same manifesta-
tions, there may always be equally glorious results. Following the wisdom
of the fathers, we must not hold too tenaciously to fixed methods. Methodism
adopted the camp meeting thrust upon it providentially and by its adop-
tion won victories. Presbyterians discarded it, and suffered loss. Now
in many localities another change has come, and to the camp meeting for
purely religious purposes other objects, intellectual, social, sanitary, and
even recreative, are added. In tnis new movement it is significant, also
that Methodism led. Martha's Vineyard was the first to change the form
to the newer type, and [Martha's Vineyard has always been Methodistic.
Chatauqua led the way in the new order of summer gatherings. That,
too, has its origin in Methodism. Ocean Grove maintains in a permanent
way both the new and the old form, being a resort throughout the summer
for multiplied thousands seeking its retreat for intellectual, social, or
health purposes, while it retains the old fashioned ten days camp meeting
with blessed spiritual results.— substantially the same is true of some Ohio
camp meetings. The evolution of the camp meeting has caused its adop-
tion in a modified form by our brethren of other denominations. Metho-
216 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
dism "will do well to hold fast all that is good in this institution, with
whatever wise modifications the times may demand.
Never was there such an opportunity as now confronts the Metho-
dist Chtrrch; never was there such an imperative call upon her to go for-
ward to her solemn mission in the twentieth century. It would be a
.great mistake for Methodism to admit the sentiment, sometimes advocated,
that a revival church cannot be a complete church, cannot do the full,
comprehensive work of a church. That idea is unscriptural, unphilo-
sophical, unhistoric. Methodism from the beginning has united revivals
â– and education. May these holy allies in the work of redeeming men
never be separated. Her educational work must be pushed forward in the
â– coming century as never before, but never to the neglect or her revival
"work, and her revival work must be pushed forward, but never to the neg-
lect of here educational work.
Methodism must also meet the new demands of giving to the world
the gospel of personal and of social salvation, and of demonstrating to
men that these are not antagonistic, but harmonious and inseparable. The
salvation of the individual Methodism must always seek in the future, as she
has sought in the past; but she must never forget that the salvation of
•society, and the bringing in of the kingdom of God, in all that pertains
to social order and well-being, is the ultimate end, and that these ends
by no means conflict with each other, but are mutually helpful and sup-
plemental.
The Methodist Church above all other churches, ought not to be
afraid of uniting spiritual work and social reform work under the same
inspiration and direction. No church in the world has more strikingly
illustrated the proper blending of all these forms of Christian endeavor
than has Methodism. The famous "Holy Club" at Oxford, in which were
all the first Methodi*sts, were all cultivated students, tutors and pupils in
the greatest of the world's universities, and they were also pietists and
philanthropists. They met together to study the Greek Testament, to
promote personal piety, and at the same time united in feeding the poor,
visiting the sick, and caring for the prisoners. John Wesley began his
work in the old "Foundry" in London with almost every feature of a
modern institutional church. While revival flames were kindled in every
heart, and revival work was in full progress, these early Methodists also
â– maintained a day school for poor scholars, a dispensary, where thousands
of poor people received medicine ; they furnished skilled surgeons to treat
the unfortunate ; a reading room ; an employment bureau ; and a loan
fund, not much unlike that which Dr. Greer to-day maintains in New
York City. For us in' these days, facing the great social problems brought
to light in the evolution of society, to turn our backs upon work of this
kind for fear that it will militate against the spirituality of the church,
is to discount early Methodism, and to set at naught the example of our
illustrious Founder. Ohio Methodism enters upon the new century with
:a heritage of unsurpassed value and wit'i a corresponding resonsibility to
lutrodiiction of Methodism in Ohio.
217
cultivate the goodly heritage and transmit it with large increments to
future generations. Never was the call of God more clearly heard than
that which now sounds in the ears of Ohio Methodists to go forward.
The church so highly honored in the century now completed should
imitate the devout Kobler and falling on her knees reconsecrate the soil
of Ohio to prominent Christian purposes, and rededicate herself to bring
an answer to her own prayers. That reconsscration must surely include
the fullness of her powers, and the abundance of her possessions. â–
There is, indeed, an imperative call upon Methodism, not only in this
distinguished state, but throughout the entire connection, to enter upon
the new century with a free will offering to God of a generous portion of
what God has given to this favored people. Such an offering of fully
a million dollars for Ohio, and not less than ten million dollars for the
whole connection, would be a worthy commemoration of a distinguished
event, and a hopeful prophecy of a century of greater victories yet to come.
Let our motto be all for Christ and Christ for all.
In 1798 the Rev. John Kobler was the only Methodist min-
ister in the North West Territory and the total membership
numbered ninety-nine. Now there are in
States.
gcccc
CO
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Michigan ......
Wisconsin
N. W. Territory'
1,063
659
991
670
337
231,492
148,904
146,344
79,553
32,559
3,120
638,892
214,889
124,725
143,868
94,418
28,849
$ 8,865,481
4.014,318
8,010,891
3,756,245
1,794,829
606,749
$26,441,764
Those who know most of the character and work of the
early Methodist ministers of the state will say of the following
eulogy, by Rev. Dr. Fletcher Wharton, that it is not overdrawn :
"He helped to make the sour mud-swamps and the bristling
brier patch of the early days into the fruitful meadow of to-day.
His message and spirit have contributed to the best life of the
Republic and have transformed many a wild western settlement
into a garden of the Lord. The historian of the future will have
more to say of the Christian evangelist of the early times than
those of the past have sarid. These early Methodist preachers,
218 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
these circuit riders, who are just now finally disappearing, were
providential men. They mysteriously answered to times big
with opportunity. They strangely, almost unaccountably, ap-
peared at a critical hour in the life of this young nation. When
we have found out all the causes that lie in the springs of human
action, we have not then entirely accounted for these men. Think
of it. They were in the fields plowing, in the shops manufactur-
ing, behind the counters trading, in the courts pleading, in the
sick chamber prescribing, in the woods clearing. They were for
the most part men of no special educa-
tion, men who had grown up in ob-
scurity, without anticipation of great
responsibilities and with little thought
of anything outside of daily toil.
"Under the sway of an impulse, fitly
named divine, they abandoned the
plow in the furrow, and the iron in the
forge, the goods on the counter, and
the ax and the saw, and began to
preach. Literally without purse or
ASBURY ON HORSEBACK gcrip they go at God's command
to the wilderness. They boldly push on from settlement to
settlement with fervid trembling lips shouting the message of
Christian righteousness and redeeming love to every outpost and
human habitation on this continent.
"Future generations will have been made nobler by their
message of God's truth, wnl see as we do not the colossal char-
acters they were. These men who have been, are already com-
ing to be pictured in the imagination of men. In that picture
is the noble horse, with proudly lifted head, tossing his mane to
the wind with intelligent eyes and wide forehead and broad
chest netted with silken veins, sleek limbs and shining flanks,
with dainty feet, lightly picking his way over tangled paths. His
easy rider is clothed with the old time great coat and leggins and
Buffalo shoes and heavy gloves. The bronze of the wind is on
his face, his keen eyes flash, his lips set firm and a mild resur-
rection light in his countenance. Under him are his saddle-bags
bulging with clothing and ■^me books for the people — while the
k;
m^
^u
ft
F^fiivii
introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 219
great trees of the forest bow to him as he rides swiftly on to his
appointment through the woods.
"The old time Methodist preacher was a providential char-
acter. It will take at least another hundred years for the world
to find him out. To the world at large these itinerants will stand
as civilization builders. These preachers never for a moment
let the Nation forget God. Tireless as the feet of love and faith
they hurried from community to community, on street corners,
and in grove and school house and humble church, preaching
Christ, lifting up the standard of the righteous of eternal love.
At the impulse of the message they bore to the listening multi-
tudes, wave on wave of revival of Christian feeling and faith
steadily swept over the country. With a wild rugged eloquence,
almost unmatched in the history of public speech, they pleaded
with men against their sins, turning the hearts of thousands to
ward God. Under the power of their appeals wild, lawless com-
munities, whose pastimes were drunken bouts, whose humor was
the brutal infliction of pain, where God and human goodness
were almost totally discredited, under the force of the appeals
of the itinerant these communities were transformed into so-
cieties of beautiful domestic life. And out of them have come
much of the strength and the character of the Nation to-da^^"
220 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
THE FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BY RUSH R. SLOANE, PRESIDENT.
1857-1901.
Early in the spring of 1857, steps were taken to secure a
meeting of Pioneers of the Fire Lands for the purpose of friendly
reunion, and to devise plans to effect a permanent organization
for collecting and preserving a record of the incidents and history
of the settlement of the Firelands.
The first meeting was held at the Court House, in Norwalk,
Huron County, Ohio, May 20, 1857.
An adjourned meeting was held at the Court House, in Nor-
walk, Ohio, June 17, 1857, ^^^^ the draft of a constitution was
made and adopted.
After twenty-one years of successful wofk and many of the
pioneers having passed away, it was feared that a few years
more would witness the abandonment of the society, and recog-
nizing the fact that while generations are passing away history
is accumulating, it was thought best to incorporate the society
with its old name, under the laws of Ohio, and this was done
on the 9th day of June, 1880, and the home of the Society was
fixed at Norwalk, Ohio, at which place it has its library and
museum, at present in temporary quarters, but expects in the
near future to erect a suitable building for all its purposes, for
which object quite a fund is already secured.
The membership of our Society is constituted of annual mem-
bers who pay one dollar a year in advance, or as a life member
five dollars in advance. All members shall be entitled to one
copy each of all new publications of the Society issued during
the first year of their membership, and by the payment of an
additional five, making it ten dollars, in advance, a life member
will also be entitled to one copy of The Firelands Pioneer, pub-
lished since 1861. Honorary members may be elected by vote of
the Society. And the Society is supported by its membership
fees and from the sale of The Firelands Pioneer.
The Firclands Historical Society. 221
The history of the name of our Society often causes inquiry
which it is not necessary to explain to our members, and yet we
do no injustice to the intelhgence of the pubHc by briefly stating
the origin of the name "Sufterers Lands or Fire Lands." They
embrace a half million acres of land located in the west part of
the Western Reserve of Ohio, and were granted in 1792 by the
State of Connecticut to those who had suffered loss or damage
bv fire or otherwise, from the incursions of the British during the
Revolutionary War, in Danbury, Norwalk. New London. Green-
wich, Fairfield, Ridgefield, Groton, New and East Haven, in Con-
nectictit.
They include all of the Western Reserve townships within
the limits of the original county of Huron, as organized and
established by the act of February 7. 1809.
On January 16, 18 10, Cuyahoga County was organized and
Huron County attached to it for judicial purposes. And by the
act of January 24, 1824, establishing the county of Lorain, the
"Firelands" were again all included in the old county of Huron,
and to-day are embraced within the limits of Erie and Huron
Counties, excepting the townships of Ruggl^s, in Ashland County,
and a part of the township of Danbury, in Ottawa County.
On these lands and on the west bank of the Huron River,
about two miles below the town of ^lilan, over one hundred
years ago was founded a Moravian mission, called "New Salem."
and was one of the first white settlements made within the
limits of what is now the State of Ohio. What a grand and
noble record has been given to the world by the pioneer settlers
upon these lands.
While these pioneers were felling the forests and building
log school houses and churches at the cross-roads, they were
often compelled to face the savage Indian in defense of
their wives and children and cabin homes, or to join the im-
mortal heroes who gained victory and glory at Fort Stevenson
and Fort Meigs, or upon the waters of Lake Erie, under Perry.
They have given to our nation in times of war a McPherson.
a John Beatty. a Lawton, and in times of peace as well as war
as statesmen and financiers, John Sherman and Jay Cooke. As
222 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
inventors, an Edison ; as artists, Frank H. Thompson and Charles .
Curran.
In 1857 the pioneers of the two counties of Huron and
Erie met at Norwalk and organized "The Firelands Historical
Society," the chief purpose of which was to collect and preserve
in proper form the facts constituting the full history of the
"Firelands" and to secure an authentic statement of their re-
sources and productions of all kinds. The Society, which has
a charter, was not organized for profit, and yet no corporation
has ever declared richer of greater dividends.
And what has this Society done?
Its meetings, quarterly and annually, have been regularly
held. Its publications, thirty-five numbers or volumes, and in
number of pages exceeding those of any historic society in Ohio
or in the West. These publications, devoted to the early history
of the Firelands and of the State of Ohio, include 4,386 pages
of valuable early history, most of which was never in print before,
and contain full and complete mernoirs of thirty-two townships
reported by original pioneers in those townships. It has collected
valuable books, papers, pamphlets and writings along special lines
which cannot now be duplicated.
It has also many bound volumes of newspapers, in which
both the local as well as the general history of the State and
country is preserved for the use of investigators and historians.
Its collection of maps, many made by the original surveyors, will
be of great value in settling matters of facts and early land titles.
It has a large collection of genealogy which is often con-
sulted for early family history.
The museum collection embraces a large number of Indian
relics, nearly all found within the Firelands. The selection em-
braces rare fossils and petrifactions which possess great interest
to the geologist and student, and tend to confirm the theory
that the shores of Lake Erie at some remote period extended
further south than they do now.
There are original letters from our early statesmen and
warriors, from Generals Washington, Green and Harrison, from
Cass and Chase, from Grant and Garfield and from those of the
present day.
The Firclands Historical Society. 223
There are guns and pistols, cannon and rifle balls, musket
ball and grape shot, powder flasks and pocketbooks picked up
on the battle fields of all the wars in which our country has
engaged, and also numerous mementoes of the battle on Lake
Erie on September lo, 1813.
During the existence of our Society since May, 1857, it
has exchanged its publications with a number of state historical
societies, thus spreading broadcast the early and important events
of our section of Ohio, both in peace and war, which go so far
to make up and complete the grand and glorious history of the
state of Ohio's century of growth, and which mark its trans-
formation, step by step, from a wilderness into its present pros-
perous condition.
In the Society's publications are to be found the able, in-
teresting and eloquent addresses of such pioneer citizens and
distinguished men as Eleutheros Cooke, Elisha Whittlesey, E.
Lane. Charles Whittlesey. John Sherman. Piatt Benedict. Joshua
R. Giddings. L. B. Gurley, President R. B. Hayes. General L.
V. Bierce. P. N. Schuyler, Clark Waggoner. G. T. Stewart,
and others; these addresses being of great interest and value
and never published elsewhere.
The industry and work which has accomplished these results
and kept this Society alive and active during all these years
since 1857, can better be appreciated than described.
Our publications also include the obituaries and memoirs of
many hundreds of our pioneer citizens, the most reliable sources
of local and state history. These eye witnesses of early events
in our state are nearly all gone, and as yet the history of Ohio
in the past century has not been written. Taylor, Butterfield,
and King have furnished valuable general data concerning the
state. Taylor is wholly devoted to the ante-territorial period
and the other two giving but few' pages to the progress and
history of the state during the first century of its existence.
If this glorious and heroic period of Ohio's history is ever
written, and it must be. it cannot be full and complete without
the papers, maps, pamphlets and over four thousand pages of
published reminiscences of the Firelands Historical Societv. The
224 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
collecting and preserving of these scatterd materials have been
and will continue to be the life work of our Society.
With a faithfulness not often equalled, never excelled, our
Society has jealously guarded its trust and done its work. The
only regret is that more has not been accomplished. But such
work as we have done will, we believe, in the words of the Ger-
man couplet regarding history and its record :
"Landmarks be these, that are never to perish,
Stars that will shine on the darkest day."
The following are the present officials of the Firelands His-
torical Society :
Hon. Rush R. Sloane, President, Sandusky, Ohio.
Hon. So A. VVildman, First Vice President, Norwalk, Ohio.
A. J. Barney, Second Vice President, Milan, Ohio.
C. W. Manahan, Treasurer, Norwalk, Ohio.
Hon. C. H. Gallup, Librarian, Norwalk, Ohio
Dr. A. Sheldon, Secretary, Norwalk, Ohio.
Mrs. C. W. Boalt, Corresponding Secretary, Norwalk, Ohio.
Biographer Huron County, Dr. F. K Weeks, Clarksfield,
Ohio.
Board of Directors and Trustees :
The President and Secretary, ex-officio,
J. M. Whiton, Wakeman, Ohio.
Hon, C. H. Gallup, Norwalk, Ohio.
R. M. Lockwood, Milan, Ohio.
D. D. Benedict, Norwalk, Ohio.
Publishing Committee :
Hon. C. H. Gallup, Norwalk, Ohio.
Hon. L. C. Laylin, Norwalk, Ohio.
Hon. J. F. Laning, Norwalk, Ohio.
Biographer Erie County, John McKelvey, Sandusky, Ohio.
Ohio, the Site of the Gardeyi of Edeti. 225
â– OHIO, THE SITE OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
THE SERPENT MOUND, THE HOME OF ADAM AND EVE.
THE THEORY OF REV. LAXDON WEST.
[The following article is not exactly archaeology nor history though
it contains something of each. It is, however, so unique and entertain-
ing that we reproduce it as it has been given to the public in the daily
press.] — Editor.
Here is food for the "higher critics," the Egyptologists, arch-
aeologists and the Biblical students of all classes. The Garden
of Eden, it seems, is now definitely located. The site is in Ohio,
^'Adams" county, to be more precise. The discoverer is the Rev.
Mr. Landon West of Pleasant Hill, also in Ohio.
The famous Serpent Mound of Ohio is the key to the whole
discovery, according to the Nezv York Herald. No object that
has ever been discovered possesses for archaeologists such intense
and varied interest as this curious earthwork. Since 1849, when
it was first accurately surveyed by Messrs. Squire and Davis, it
has been a Mecca for archaeologists from all parts of the world.
Volumes have been written about it, and every theory conceivable
by the mind of man has been advanced as to the purpose of the
vast work. Now, it has a new and vivid interest.
It has been called a shrine and an alter, a cemetery and a place
for worship, it has been shown to be an idol and a place where
human beings were sacrificed — all to the perfect satisfaction of
the learned persons making the various guesses.
The character of this mound is so unique and totally different
from any of the other remains of earthworks left by the so-called
Mound Builders that every utterance made in relation to it in-
stantly attracts the notice of the scholars. Professor Putnam of
Harvard university prepared an exhaustive account of the mound
and gave his theory as to its significance. It was through his ef-
forts that the mound was saved from total destruction. In 1887
he visited it for the first time and was powerfully impressed with
Vol. X.— 15.
226 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
its tremendous significance. He impressed the college authorities
with the value of the mound, and later it passed into the posses-
sion of the college. Later in 1889, it was formally presented by
Harvard college to the State Archaelogical and Historical society
of Ohio.
Professor Putnam conducted extensive explorations in the
hope of learning the true character and significance of the work
and made examinations which revealed something of the great
age of the mound. It is held by some that undoubtedly it was
old before the Chinese wall was built and that it was finished and
disintegrating when the children of Israel slaved in Egypt. It
is also probable, judging from the condition of the soil that covers
the figure, that it was part of the "things universal" that were
overwhelmed by the flood.
The Rev. Landon West of Pleasant Hill, O., a prominent
and widely known minister of the Baptist church, has just out-
lined a theory concerning the creation and significance of the
mound widely different from all those of the scientists. He be-
lieves that the mound itself was created by the hand of the
Creator of the world, and that it marks the site of the Garden
of Eden. He believes that the mound is purely symbolical and
has no significance relative to the religion or worship of any race
of men, but is intended to teach by object lesson the fall of man
and the consequences of sin in the Garden of Eden.
The Rev. Mr. West was born and lived to manhood near the
mound. Early in life he conceived the idea that the mound was
not an object of worship nor a place of sacrifice, nor for inter-
ment, nor yet a spot where the tribes of the earth came together
to discuss the affairs of the primitive nations. He conceived it
to be a mighty object lesson to give expression to some great
event that had occurred in the history of mankind. If intended
for an object lesson, its meaning was too plain and palpable for
discussion or argument. Plainly it was meant to illustrate the
'.'first sad event" in the Garden of Eden, the deception of the
woman by the serpent, and man's subsequent expulsion from the
Garden and all the attendant ills of sin, pain and death. All of
these, he maintains, are adequately expressed by this Serpent
Mound.
Ohio, the Site of the Garden of Eden. 227
The jaws of the serpent are wide open, as if in the act of
swallowing- the oval-shaped fruit there situated. The Rev. Mr.
West declares that it represents the fruit with which Satan be-
guiled and tempted Eve. It is a very good representation of a
gigantic plum or lemon or some such fruit as grows upon a tree.
The Bible refers to the fruit of the tree with which Satan, that
old serpent, did tempt Eve by telling her it was good to eat.
How could this very idea and circumstance of deception be better
represented on the part of a serpent, inquires this scholar, than to^
show it in the act of itself eating fruit, when it is well known that
serpents do not eat fruit? The Rev. Mr. West maintains that
the situation of this oval object, which scientists term an altar,
at the wide open jaws of the serpent would appear to deny their
claim that it is an altar. Reason indicates a contrary theory;
that the open jaws were meant to betray the purpose of the ser-
pent to swallow the fruit. Else why should the jaws be open?
The only meaning of the open jaws, he asserts, is to show the in-
tention of the serpent to swallow the fruit. This portion of the
mound represents the deception ; the writhings and twisting of the
body indicate the pangs of death and physical suffering.
It would seem that this perplexing and mysterious image was
created to express an idea, and is, therefore, purely symbolical.
What it symbolizes can be surmised only from the image itself
and any supporting history that may be found. If it be. con-
ceded that the serpent mound is symbolical of man's fall in the
Garden of Eden, and the Rev. Mr. West, after years of study, is
confident that it expresses no other lesson, then the question
arises, how did this prehistoric race obtain knowledge of that
event ?
The Rev. Mr. West arrives at the conclusion that this great
work was created either by God himself or by man inspired by
Him to make an everlasting object lesson of man's disobedience,
Satan's perfidy and the results of sin and death. In support of
this startling claim the Rev. I\Ir. West quotes Scripture and re-
fers to Job 16:13 : "By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens ;
His hand hath formed the crooked serpent."
He also applies the discoveries of Professor Putnam to es-
tablish his theory. Professor Putnam learned that the depth of
'228 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.
soil on the image was equal to that covering the surrounding
country and was of similar properties and composition. This
important discovery justified the statement that the work itself
'had been created prior to the formation of the soil which now
covers the earth. This discovery, however, by no means fixes the
time of the serpent's creation. It merely establishes the fact that
the soil covering the image had never been disturbed by the hand
•of man. The tremendous ridge which constitutes the super-
structure, if it may be go called, must have been formed long be-
fore the beginning of the slow process of the soil formation by
nature in her never ending task of creation.
That the mound is co-existent with the hills and valleys
that surround it and make the vicinity a veritable paradise of
beauty is not claimed by the Rev. Mr. West. But the scientists
have shown that it is older than the soil that gives life to the
trees and verdure, and therefore, according to general belief, it
must have been washed by the waves of the flood, since the agent
removed the antediluvian soil from its resting place. The Rev.
Mr. West does not claim that the image was created in the day
when the world was made, but subsequently, when the Creator de-
sired to place before the eyes of mankind an object lesson ex-
pressive of the power and wiles of Satan as manifested in the
Garden of Eden, and at the same time and in the same image to
portray the pains and penalties of sin and the enduring pangs of
death.
The noble dimensions and perfect proportions of this ma-
jestic figure suggest to his mind the hand and intelligence of a
divine Creator with limitless resources. It is on a high ridge or
Tocky cliff that thrusts itself into the peaceful and lovely valley?
like the prow of some mighty ship into a calm sea. The ridge
points to the north and extends back into a smiling land sugges-
tive of peace, happiness and security. The head of the serpent
lies upon the point of rock and the winding coils of the body
reach back a thousand feet to the south, where the tail terminates
in coils thrice repeated. The oval object, representative of the
forbidden fruit, is a hundred feet long and has a depression in the
center. The size of the jaws is proportionate to the size of the
figure, exact as in nature, which has been ascertained bv measure-
Ohio, the Site of the Garden of Eden. 229»
merits of living- serpents. The surrounding country is beautiful
beyond description. Rich valleys stretch away beside three shin-
ing streams, which converge near the great serpent. These three
streams are interpreted as typical of the Holy Trinity — Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
The image portrays the desception in the attitude of the ser-
pent in the act of eating fruit ; pain and death are shown by the
convolutions of the serpent, just as the living animal would betray
pain and death's agony. The third chapter of Genesis is the only
written history the world has of the fall of man and the cause that
brought about his ruin. There are other references to it in the
prophecies and revelations and all of these accounts agree and
compare in a singularly close way, this student says, with the
lesson imparted by the great serpent. That this remarkable con-
formity could have been effected by beings ignorant of the great
lesson actually symbolized, ^Ir. West holds, is ridiculous. That
the image antedates the arrival on this continent of any European
discoverer who could have brought the story of the creation and.
of man's fall is likewise an assured fact, he declares.
After many years he learned that the Bible nowhere says that
the Garden of Eden was located in Asia, and that its statements-
wall not conflict with the theory that the Garden was actually in
the \\'estern hemisphere. The events of Eden occurred at a very
early time in the histor}^ of the world, long before the time de-
scribed by any historian. Moses is the only writer of history who
describes the Garden of Eden and the events that occurred
therein. The time when he wrote was 2500 years after the cre-
ation. He received this information from no written word, but
from the inspiration of the Lord. No man was alive who knew it
before Moses. The Rev. Mr. West affirms it to be his belief that
the figure of the serpent was drawn by the hand of the Creator,
and that x\merica is, in fact, the land in which Eden was located.
Note Genesis 2:8; H Kings 19:12; Ezekiel 27:23; 28:13; 31:8,
and 29:18.
A curious and not unimportant consideration in connection-
with the mound is the fact that a crook was made in the northern
line of the county containing the figure, in order tliat the entire:
230 Vhio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
work might be contained within the county, which was established
in 1790.
"This figure," says Rev. Mr. West, "is the most ancient
record of history known to exist. It shows first sin and its im-
mediate results as Moses also records them, and up to the time
of the flood, which occurred in the year of the world 1655, it gave
an actual object lesson and record of Eden and its events. But
after the flood and until Moses, in the year 2500, the record of the
creation, of the fall of man, of death, and of the flood, as well
as of all other events retained till now of the history of the world,
was taught and obtained only by tradition. Yet during all that
time this perfect illustration of thought and of history was in ex-
istence, created beyond doubt to portray the one sad event and to
mark the spot where God's Word and that form of teaching were
.first given to the human family. All that Job says of the event
he learned by tradition, and no less than 2500 years after its oc-
currence.
"All that education, science, history, revelation and art can
do to illustrate the thoughts of intelligent beings either on earth
or in heaven has not been found to excel in clearness this ser-
pent image in setting forth the one event in Eden's garden.
"This serpent figure was made long before the first copy of
God's book was printed, yet it supports the written or inspired
history of the human race. Will any one say that those who de-
signed the serpent mound did not have in mind the event of sin
and death as it occurred in the Garden of Eden ? "
VIEW OF PROFESSOR W. J. m'gEE OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
The serpent mound is prehistoric. We do not know just
how old it is, but we may judge that it is not more than 1000
years old, nor less than 350 years. It was built, presumably, by
the Indians who occupied that region at the time when it was first
â– discovered by the whites. The white pioneers found the pre-
:sumptive descendants of the builders of the serpent mound still in
possession of the territory on which this mighty monument to
their ancestors' religious faith had been erected.
Of the important place which religion held in the lives of
these people we may judge _rom the mighty monuments they left
Ohio, the Site of the Garden of Eden. 231
behind them as memorials of their faith. Aluch of their time
was occupied by a series of elaborate ceremonials, celebrated an-
nually, in the course of which they danced, feasted and busied
themselves wdth the building of mounds. Quite frequently these
mounds were gigantic effigies of animals, and in this fashion
were represented the bear, wolf, otter, eagle, crow and other
animal "totems" or tutelaries of the class and tribes ; the largest
of all is the serpent mound of Adams county, Ohio, which is
about looo feet long.
These effigy mounds do not seem to have been built for
burial purposes. In the serpent mound nothing worth mention-
ing has ever been found. The mounds are purely symbolic.
The snake was sacred, an object of veneration or worship; so,
likewise, were the other animals represented. Savages commonly
attribute to wild beasts special potencies, associating them with
the supernatural, and extend toward them a kind of worship.
It is probable that the building of the serpent mound ex-
tended over a number of years, and that the work was taken up
annually, on the occasion of a certain festival. Thus it underwent
a progressive enlargement and extension through a considerable
period, the plan growing as the structure developed. Judging
from the observed habits of Indians, the method of construction
was simple, women bringing the earth in baskets on their backs,
and the men managing and superintending the task. Incident-
ally there were feasting and dancing ; it was all part of a cere-
monial corresponding in character to the "Green Corn Dance" of
the modern Iroquois or the "Dog Feast" of various Algonquin
tribes.
232 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
PRESIDENT WIEEIAM McKINLEY.
MAIN EVENTS IN HIS LIFE.
William McKinley was born at Niles, Trumbull County,
Ohio, and was descended from Scotch and Irish ancestry. James
and William McKinley, the heads of the two branches of the
McKinley family in this country, one in the Southern, the other
in the Northern States, came from the north of Ireland. James
was the father of David McKinley, the great-grandfather of
the late President.
James McKinley settled in York County, Pennsylvania. His
son, David McKinley, served with honor in the Colonial army in
the Revolutionary War. David's second son, James, married
Mary Rose. The Roses were of English extraction. To James
and Mary Rose McKinley were born twelve children, of whom
William McKinley, the father of the President, was the second
child. He was born November 15, 1807, in Mercer County,
Pennsylvania. He moved to Canton, Ohio, and when he was
L'wenty-two years of age he was married to Nancy Allison, by
whom he had nine children, the late President being the seventh
child.
At the time of President McKinley's birth, his father was.
managing an iron furnace at Niles, Ohio. Later the family re-
moved to Poland, Ohio, where William McKinley, Jr., attended
the public school and the academy, an institution of advanced
grade for that period. He applied himself to his studies with
such diligence and success that at the age of seventeen he taught
a term of school in what was then known as the Kerr District. The
funds he acquired by teaching he expended for further tuition
for himself and other members of the family in the Poland
Academy. He was hardly sixteen years of age when he united
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He at once took up the
duties of a Christian life and faithfully filled them to the end. At
the age of seventeen he entered the Allegheny College, but his
health becoming impaired, he shortly returned to Poland.
The Late President. 23$
At the commencement of the Civil War he was among the
first to enhst. With him enhsted his cousin, Wilham McKinley
Osborne, now General Osborne, the American consul-general in
London, who gives the following account of their enlistment :
"There was great excitement at that time, and hundreds of
people followed the soldiers. Will and I were among them. We
drove in a buggy over to Youngstown, and there saw the com-
pany leave for Columbus. On our way back to Poland that night
we discussed the matter together and decided that it was our duty
to volunteer, and we thought that the men who staid would be
despised by the community.
"When we reached home Will told his mother what we had
concluded to do, and she at once replied : 'Well, boys, if you think
it is your duty to fight for your country, I think you ought to go.'
A few days after ths I left Poland for home, and told father that I
wanted to go to the army. I knew he would allow me to go, as
Aunt Nancy advised. I was not disappointed. My father was
a Democrat, but he was a liberal man. He told me I could do as I
wished, and he gave me some money (it was gold, T remember)
to fit me out. Will McKinley left Poland, and we went to Cleve-
land together. From there we went to Columbus and enlisted at
Camp Chase. General Fremont swore us in. Our enlistment was
in cold blood, and not through the enthusiasm of the moment. It
was done as McKinley has done the most things of his life, as
the logical offspring of careful conclusion."
Young McKinley soon distinguished himself for courage and
ability. At a gatherng at Lakeside, Ohio, July 30, 1891, the late
Ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes told the story of the young
soldier's spirit and exploits.
"Rather more than thirty years ago," said General Hayes,
"I made the acquaintance of Major McKinley. He was then a
boy, had just passed the age of seventeen. He had before that
taught school, and was coming from the academy to the camp.
He with me entered upon a new, strange life — a soldier's life—
in the time of actual war. We were in a fortunate regiment— its
colonel was William S. Rosecrans— a graduate of West Point, a
brave, a patriotic, and an able man, who afterward came to com-
mand o-reat armies and fight many famous battles. Its lieutenant-
234 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Pziblications .
colonel was Stanley Matthews — a scholar and able lawyer, who,
after his appointment to the Supreme Bench, the whole bar of the
United States was afterward convinced, was of unsurpassed ability
and character for that high place.
"In this regiment Major McKinley came, the boy I have de-
scribed, carrying his musket and knapsack.
"Young as he was, we soon found that in business, in execu-
tive ability, young McKinley was a man of rare capacity, of un-
usual and unsurpassed capacity, especially for a boy of his age.
When battles were fought or service was to be performed in war-
like things he always took his place. The night was never too
dark ; the weather was never too cold ; there was no sleet, or
storm or hail, or snow or rain that was in the way of his prompt
and efficient performance of every duty.
"When I became commander of the regiment, he soon came
to be upon my staff, and he remained upon my staff for one or
two years, so that I did literally and in fact know him like a
book and loved him like a brother. From that time he naturally
progressed, for his talents and capacity could not be unknown
to the staff of the commander of the Army of West Virginia,
George Crook, a favorite of the army he commanded. He wanted
McKinley, and of course it was my duty to tell McKinley he
must leave me. The bloodiest day of the war, the day on which
more men were killed or wounded than on any other one day,
was September 17, 1862, in the battle of Antietam.
"The battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were in
the ranks and preparing for it. Without breakfast, without coffee,
they went into the fight, and it continued until after the sun had
set. The commissary department of that brigade was under
Sergeant McKinley's administration and personal supervision.
From his hands every man in the regiment was served with hot
coffee and warm meats, a thing that had never occurred under
similar circumstances in any other army in the world. He passed
tmder fire and delivered with his own hands, these things, so
essential for the men for whom he was laboring."
The records show that William McKinley, Jr., enlisted as a
private in Company E of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer In-
fantry, on June 11, 1861 ; that he was promoted to commissary ser-
The Late President. 03.5
geant on April 15, 1862 ; that he was promoted to second lieuten-
ant of Company D on September 23, 1862; that he was promoted
to first lieutenant of Company E on February 7, 1863; that he
was promoted to captain of Company G on July 25, 1864; that he
was detailed as acting assistant adjutant-general of the First Di-
vision, First Army Corps, on the staff of General Carroll; that
he was brevetted major on March 13, 1865, and that he was mus-
tered out of the service on July 26, 1865.
"For gallant and meritorious services at the battles of Ope-
quan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill," reads the document com-
missioning young McKinley as brevet-major, signed, "A. Lin-
coln."
On his return to Ohio at the close of the war, McKinley en-
tered upon the study of law in the office of Judge Glidden at Po-
land, and later pursued a course in the Law School at Albany,
N. Y. He was admitted to the bar in 1867, and then began the
practice of his profession at Canton, Ohio, henceforth to be for-
ever associated with his name as the center of a home-life truly
ideal. He was united in marriage to Miss Ida Saxton, of Canton,
January 25, 1871. Two children, both of them girls, were born to
them. Both died in early childhood.
Onlv two years after taking up his residence in Canton, Mr.
McKinley received the Republican nomination for prosecuting at-
torney, and though the county was hopelessly Democratic, he
Avas elected. He was elected to Congress in 1876, and served con-
tinuously from 1877 until March. 1891. He was elected governor
of Ohio in 1891, and re-elected in 1893 by a plurality of 80,995.
He was elevated to the Presidency, November 3, 1896, and re-
elected November 6, 1900. His administration covers the most
eventful and important chapter in our National history since the
period of the Civil War. Under the guidance of his firm but be-
nign hand the Nation has entered upon a new era of abounding
prosperity and world-wide prestige.
236 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
GENEALOGY OF WILLIAM McKINLEY.
r
BY REV. A. STAPLETON.
[The following genealogical sketch of President McKinley was pre-
pared by the Rev. A. Stapleton, of Carlisle, Pa. We give it as it was
originally published in the N eiv York Sun.\ — Editor.
"It should be a matter of regret to all true historians that the
campaign histories of President McKinley were erroneous in
several important genealogical details. The data herein given
may be relied on as correct, as they are the result of researches in
the court records and other authorities still extant.
"The ancestors of President McKinley belong to that sturdy
race of people called the Scotch Irish, so called because in 1607
King James I located a large number of Scots in the northern
part of Ireland on lands from which the Irish had been evicted.
These settlements were gradually augmented by immigration un-
til eventually the Scotch-Irish element predominated in this re-
gion. They were staunch Presbyterians in faith and in the course
of time developed traits and peculiarities so marked as to almost
stamp them as a distinct race.
'Tn course of time this noble people were overtaken by many
hardships, which as the successive failure of crops, besides very
unsatisfactory civil and religious conditions. Their only source
of relief was in immigration to America, in which they were en-
couraged by agents of the American colonies. After 171 5 the
immigration became very extensive, the chief port of arrival be-
ing New Castle on the Delaware, below Philadelphia.
"The Scotch-Irish being citizens of the British realm tHeir
arrival is not a matter of record like that of the Germans, Swiss,
Dutch, etc., who are designated as foreigners in the colonial
records, and were required to subscribe to an oath of allegiance
upon arrival, besides a subsequent naturalization. Hence it fol-
lows that citizens of the realm are more difificult to identity than
foreigners by the historian. Our only recourse is in tax lists,
land warrants, court records, etc.
Genealogy of William McKinley. 237
"In the case of President McKinley, we have an undisputed
record to his great-grandfather, David McKinley. We know
that he was a revolutionary soldier, that he was born in York-
county, Pa., that he removed to Westmoreland county after the
revolution, and in 1814 to Ohio, where he died. In the cemetery
of the Chatfield Lutheran church in Crawford county, Ohio, may
be seen two modest granite markers with the following inscrip-
tions : 'David McKinley, Revolutionary Soldier. Born 1755;
died, 1840,' and 'Hannah C. Rose, born 1757; died, 1840.'
"David McKinley was the father of James, born September
19, 1783, married Mary Rose, of Mercer county. Pa., and re-
moved thence to Chatfield, where he purchased a farm, on which
he died. He was the father of William McKinley, sr., born in
1807, and died in Canton, Ohio, in 1892. The latter was the
father of President McKinley. Hannah C. Rose, buried by the
side of David McKinley, was the great-grandmother of the pres-
ident. She was also the great-grandmother " former Mayor
Rose, of Cleveland.
"For the history of the family prior to David, the soldier,
we must rely on the court house records at Lancaster, and York,
Pa. From various documents and entries we think the evidence
incontrovertible that David McKinley, the head of the clan Mc-
Kinley in America, landed at New Castle, and located in (now
Chanceford township, York county. Pa.), in 1743. At that time
he was well along in life. He was accompanied by his wife,
Esther, and three sons, John, David, Stephen, and a daughter,
Mary. There are frequent references to these sons in the county
archives.
"The immigrant was a weaver by trade, but, like all thrifty
artisans of that day he secured a good homestead. It is possible,
but not probable, that he arrived in the province earlier than 1743,
but in this year his name first appears on the records in a warrant
for 316 acres of land on a beautiful elevation overlooking the
Susquehanna river in the distance.
"That he was a man of enterprise is shown in the fact that in
1749 he circulated a petition for a public highway, which he also
presented to court. The following year he was made supervisor
and doubtless had the task imposed on himself to engineer his
238 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
road to a completion. His name occurs frequently in the most
honorable way, showing him to have been a man of unusual
probity and worth as a citizen.
"David McKinley, the immigrant, died intestate in 1757,
leaving his wife and children as already named. His daughter
was intermarried with Samuel Gordon. The settlement of the
estate shows personal property to the value of £220, or $1,100,
besides the plantation, which was divided. Later, however, the
son John (who, with his mother, was the executor), purchased
the entire estate.
"This leads us to the consideration of the second generation,
viz., John McKinley, eldest son of the immigrant. Before en-
tering upon details we here throw out the precautionary statement
that the names McKinley and McGinley are both contemporan-
eous and interchangeable in our early records, owing to the care-
lessness of scribes. They were however separate families in
York county. The McGinleys proper came from James Mc-
Ginley, who died in York county in 1755, leaving an only son
John. No relationship is known to have existed between the
families, although remotely it might have been the case. The
president's ancestors, so far as we have ascertained, always wrote
their name as now.
"Resuming our narrative of the McKinleys, John, son of the
immigrant, was born about 1728 and in his day was one of the
foremost men of York county. He became a large landowner and
frequently figures in important business transactions. When hos-
tilities broke out with the mother country he staunchly supported
the revolution and was made wagonmaster for Chanceford town-
ship by the committee of safety. He died on his estate Februar)
18, 1779, being survived by his widow Margaret, an only son
David, great-grandfather of the president, and daughters Esther,
Jean, Elizabeth and Susan. The widow subsequently married
Thomas McCulloch. She died in the winter of 1781.
"This leads us down to David McKinley, grandson of the
immigrant and great-grandfather of the president. He was born
on the old homestead in Chanceford township, May 16, 1755. In
1776 he enlisted in Captain Reed's company of Ferrymen in the
war of the revolution. This was the Seventh company of the
Genealogy of Willia7n McKiyiley. 239
Eighth battahon of York county miHtia. The miHtiamen, it
should be remembered, were called out in emergencies and were
drafted in sections for active service, making what were then
called tours of service. In this way nearly all the militia of
Pennsylvania saw many tours of service, much hard fighting, and
the most perilous kind of military life.
"The local historians of York county had been in corres-
pondence with the president respecting his York county antece-
dents. He had expressed himself as much gratified by their re-
searches and interest in his ancestry and faithfully promised at an
opportune time to visit the scenes of his ancestral abode. Sev-
eral dates for the proposed visit were partly agreed on, and great
preparations for the visit were in prospect, when the critical
events preceding the outbreak of the Spanish war compelled suc-
cessive postponements of the visit.
"As a matter of interest we may add that a muster roll of the
company of which his great-grandfather was a member, and ever
since the revolution in the possession of the descendants of
Colonel John Hay, was some years ago presented to the presi-
dent and received by him with many expressions of delight and
satisfaction."
LINE OF DESCENT OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY FROM
MAcDUFF, THANE OF FIFE.
(From "The Scotch Ancestors of President McKinley.")
' 1. Duncan MacDuff. Maormor of Fife, born about A. D. 1000;
killed Macbeth December 5, 1056.
"Lay on Macduff!
And damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'"
— Shakspearc's Macbeth.
2. Dufagan MacDuff, styled second Earl of Fife.
3. Constantine MacDuff, styled third Earl of Fife, died 1129.
Judiciary of Scotland, "a discreet and eloquent man."
4. Gillimichael MacDuff. fourth Earl of Fife, died 1139.
5. Duncan MacDuff. fifth Earl of Fife. Regent of Scotland. 1153,
died 1154.
6. Seach (Gaelic for Shaw) MacDuff, died 1179. Commander of
the army of King Malcolm IV, which quelled the Insurrection of Moray,
1161. Called Mac-an-Toi-sic (son of the chief of foremost), which
240 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications .
became the surname of the family. Founder and first chief of Clan Mac-
intosh. Married Giles, daughter of Hugh de Montgomery, and had
7. Shaw Oig (the younger) Macintosh (died 1209 or 1210). Sec-
ond Chief of Clan Macintosh and governor of the Castle of Inverness
for 30 years. Battle of Torvain. Married Mary, daughter of Sir Harry
de Sandylands and had three sons, of whom
8. William Macintosh married Beatrix Learmouth and had
9. Shaw Macintosh, fourth Chief of Macintosh, who married in
1230, Helena, daughter of William, Thane of Calder, and died in 1265.
"Cumhadh mhic a' Arisaig."
10. Farquhar Macintosh (killed in duel, 1274), fifth Chief of Clan
Macintosh; Macintosh warcry, "Loch na Maoidh." Married Mora of
Isla, daughter of Angues Mor and sister of Angus Oig, the "Protector
of Bruce."
11. Angus Macintosh or Angus mac Farquhard, born 1268, died
1345 ; married in 1291-2, Eva, daughter and heiress of Gilpatrick, the son
of Dugall Dall, who was son of Gillichattan-Mor, the founder of Clan
Chattan. and became captain or leader of the Clan Angus, was a staunch
supporter of Robert Bruce and took part in the famous battle of Ban-
nockburn, in 1314.
12. Ian (Gaelic for John) Macintosh.
13. Gilchrist Macintosh, sometimes called Christi-Jonson or Gil-
christ mac Ian (Gilchrist, son of John, from which comes the name of
Johnson).
14. Shaw Mor (Great) Macintosh, or Mackintosh, whose pedigree
is given in the ancient manuscripts as Shaw mac Gilchrist mac Ian mac
Angus mac Farquhar, etc. (Mac being the Gaelic for son), was leader of
the victorious thirty at the battle of the North Inch of Perth, 1396, which
Sir Walter Scott so graphically describes in his "Fair Maid of Perth."
15. Seumas (James) Mackintosh, the Chief of the Clan, killed at
memorable battle of Harlaw, 1411, "the final contest between the_ Celt
and Teuton for Scottish independence." Ballad : "There was not sin'
King Kenneth's days," etc.
16. Allister Ciar Mackintosh obtains the estate of Rothiemurchus
by deed, 1464, and is called "Shaw of Rothiemurchus" ; married a daugh-
ter of "Stuart of Kinkardine."
17. Fearchard (Farquhar) Mackintosh, forester to the Earl of
Mar, appointed Hereditary Chamberlain of the Braes of Mar, 1460-1488.
Married a daughter of Patrick Robertson, first of the family of Lude,
Chief of Clan Robertson or Clan Donnachie, descendant of "Erie Patryk
de Atholia." His sons called Farquhar-son.
18. Donald Farquharson. The Piobrachd. Rallying cry of Clan
Farquharson, "Carn na Cuimhne." JMotto : "Fide et fortitudine." Mar-
ried a daughter of Robertson of the Calvene family.
19. Farquhar Beg (Gaelic for little), married into the family of
Chisholm, of Strath Glass. Erchless Castle, the family seat.
Gejiealogy of William McKinley. 241
20. Donald Farquharson married Isabel, only child of Duncan
Stewart, commonly called Duncan Downa Dona, of the family of Mar.
21. Findlay (Gaelic Fionn-laidh), commonly called Findlay Mor,
or Great Findla. Killed at the battle of Pinkie, 1547, while bearing the
royal standard of Scotland. First wife a daughter of Baron Reid, of
Kinkardine Stewart, by whom he had four sons, who took the name of
Maclanla. The Gaelic form MacFhionn-laidh (meaning son of Findlay),
being pronounced as nearly as English spelling can show it— Mac-ionn-lay,
or Mach-un-la. Clan MacKinlay Suaich-ean-tas, or badge is Lus-nam-
ban-sith, the fox glove. Old motto of the clan: "We force nae friend;
we fear nae foe." Tartan or plaid.
22. William AlacKinlay died in the reign of James VI (1603-1625).
Had four sons, who settled at "The Annie," a corruption of the Gaelic
Anabhain-fheidh," meaning "The ford of the stag," which is near Callen-
der. in Perthshire.
23. Thomas ( ?) MacKinlay. or at least one of the sons of William
No. 22, the eldest of whom was John. Thomas is known to have lived
at "The Annie" in 1587.
24. Donald or Domhniul ^lac Kinlay, who was born at "The
Annie," is known to have been a grandson of William No. 22.
25. John (Gaelic Ian) MacKinlay, born at "The Annie" about 1645;
had three sons ; Donald, the eldest, born 1669 ; "James, the Trooper"
(born probably 1671), and John, born 1679.
26. "James, the Trooper," went to Ireland as guide to the victorious
army of William III at the Battle of the Boyne, 1690. Settled in Ireland,
and was ancestor of a large portion of the Irish McKinleys.
27. David McKinley, known as "David, the Weaver," born prob-
ably in 1705 ; exact date of his immigration to America not known, as the
records of New Castle, Delaware, where most of the early Penn.sylvania
settlers landed, were destroyed by the British during the Revolutionary
war. He settled in Chanceford township, York county. Pa., probably
before 1745, in which year a tract of land was granted to him. He died
in 1761.
28. John McKinlay, died in 1779. Served in the Revolutionary war
in 1778, in Captain Joseph Reed's company, York county militia.
29. David McKinlay, born May 16, 1755, in York county, Pa. : died
August 8. 1840, in Crawford county, O. Served in the Revolutionary war
in the companies of Captains McCaskey, Ross, Laird, Reed, Holderbaum,
Sloymaker, Robe and Harnahan. As a member of the "Flying Camp"
he was engaged in the defense of the fort at Paulus Hook (now Jersey
City. N. J.), and skirmish at Amboy in 1776, and in the skirmish at
Chestnut Hill in 1777. He married in Westmoreland county. Pa., Sarah
Gray.
30. James McKinley, born September 19. 1783. Married "Polly"
Rose about 1805. Resided in Mercer county. Pa. Became interested in
Vol. X.— 16.
242 Ohio Arch, ajid His. Society Publications.
the iron business early in "the thirties," and run a charcoal furnace for
a number of years at Lisbon, O. Elder in the Lisbon Presbyterian church
from 1822 to 1836.
31. William McKinley, born in Pine township, Mercer county. Pa.,
November 15, 1807; died in 1892. Manager of the -old furnace near New-
Wilmington, Lawrence county, Pa., for 21 years. Married Nancy Allison
in 1829, and resided at Poland, O. Was a devout Methodist, a staunch
Whig, a good Republican and an ardent advocate of a protective tariff.
32. William McKinley, born January 29, 1843, at Niles, O.
Attended Poland academy. Entered Allegheny college, 1860. Private
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer infantry, June, 1861. Shouldered the
musket, carried the knapsack, and "Drank from the same canteen." Pro-
moted to commissary sergeant August, 1862 ; second lieutenant, Septem-
ber, 1862 ; first lieutenant, February 7, 1863 ; captain, July 25, 1864 ; brevet
major of the United States volunteers, 1864. Mustered out with the
Twenty-third Ohio July 26, 1865. Admitted to the bar, 1867 ; prosecuting
attorney, 1869. Married January 25, 1871, Miss Ida Saxton. Defended
coal miners of Stark county, 1875, clearing them of an unjust charge.
Elected to congress 1876, and served 14 years. Governor of Ohio 1891
and 1895. Elected president of the United States 1896.
Numerous articles having appeared in the press, claiming that Presi-
dent McKinley's grandfather was born in Ireland — some papers even illus-
trating what they claim to have been his bijthplace, it is but justice to
say that ancestors Nos. 27, 28 and 29 are proven by the records of York
county, Pa.
EDITORIALANA.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
Elsewhere in this Quarterly we report at some length the interesting
ceremonies held on Ohio Day, July 18, at the Pan-American Exposition.
Little did we suspect on that joyful day that
in two brief months a terrible tragedy would
transform the bright banners, bedecking the
buildings into the "trappings and suits of woe."
On Friday, September 6, President McKinley at-
tended the Exposition and in the afternoon while
holding a public reception in the Temple of Music,
he was cowardly shot by an anarchist assassin.
The details of the dastardly crime have been told
in hundreds of papers and magazmes. The skill and
science of surgery could not avail and on the
morning of September 14, at 2.15 o'clock in the
residence of Hon. John G. Milburn, President of
the Pan-American Exposition, the soul of William McKinley took its
flight to the realm of the great unknown. As Mr. McKinley was an
influential promoter of the State Archaeological and Historical Society,.
and the personal friend of the writer, it would be a dereliction not to-
give expression in the pages of this Quarterly to our respect and reverence
for the illustrious departed.
William McKinley was no common man ; we may not be wrong if we
say that he was, taken altogether, the greatest man Ohio has produced
and given to the nation. We present in another part of this Quarterly
the main facts in his life, but even that is hardly necessary for the chron-
ology of his career is a household tale, known to all, as familiarly, per-
haps at this moment better known, than that of Washington or Lincoln —
how he sprang not from the aristocratic station of the one or the lowly
level of the other, but from that best and most fortunate portion of our
social order — the middle class, whence comes the sinew and the strength
of our nationality. In youth he received a fair education in the best
schools of his day and locality. But his enduring discipline — better than
which any academy or university could confer — was that purpose to right
living and high thinking which his gentle and strong mother imbedded
in his boyhood mind. He never became a deep scholar or a learned
man — in the bookish sense — but he brought with him at his birth.
(243*
^244 Ohio Arch, arid His. Society Publications.
prudence and wisdom. He was from the start appreciative of, and am-
bitious for, the advantageous attainments of the student and he entered
college, but on its threshold his course was stayed by his country's call
to arms. How promptly he answered that call ; how faithfully and loyally
he discharged that duty history has duly recorded. The war over he
returned to the pursuits of peace and made law his chosen profession.
In this he at once displayed great ability, aptness and promise, which
his fellow citizens recognized by electing him prosecuting attorney of
his county. Then follows those famous fourteen years in Congress — iwhen
to his many rare natural qualifications he added those of varied experi-
ence and wide observation in the affairs of the state and the methods of
men. It broadened and matured him. He revealed and developed those
powers that characterized his public life — the simple and clear logic of
his thought and argument, his polished but practical style of oratory. He
concentrated his efforts — he chose a line of labor and adhered thereto —
he did not scatter — the great temptation of talent and versatility. He
selected as the special subject of his studies the manufacturinig indus-
tries of the country — their history, condition, and their advancement and
enlargement by the policy of tariff protection. He became the master of
his theme and the champion of its cause, and though he came in contact,
on the floor of the house, with the strongest minds and most skilled
speakers of his day- — he steadily but surely advanced to the very front
rank of his congressional compeers. Then came those four memorable
.years as Governor of our great state, when he tested and confirmed his
executive abilities. During this period also, throughout the country he
continued, in his persuasive, eloquent way, to persistently and forcefully
advocate his political views. The commercial and financial condition of the
country were in his favor — he was the one man of the hour — and his
countrymen elevated him to the highest position in their gift — to the mosi
â– exalted office in the civilized world. He was fully equipped and equal to it.
He not only faithfully fulfilled his promise to the people, but he was sud-
denly called upon to guide the government through a foreign war ; through
dangers of the most delicate and far reaching international diplomacy;
■through the embroglio of European rivalries — a very vortex of unex-
pected world entanglements — but he did this all, shrewdly, successfully,
splendidly — so that by his statecraft, integrity, strategy and kind firmness,
our Flag was raised to the pinnacle of earthly glory and our Nation
promoted to the vanguard of earthly powers. He was vindicated — re-
warded by an overwhelming reelection — and then the crash of the assas-
sin's bullet — land a prosperous, happy and rejoicing people were as with
the lightning's flash plunged into inexpressible woe and despair.
And what was this man that, though we knew him long ago, ap-
parently now, so summarily bursts upon our view resplendent and revered?
It is not oi:r province to even touch upon the political career and achieve-
ments that alone would have made him illustrious if not immortal. We
Editorialana. 24S
wish to speak only of him as we saw him and he appeared to us. William
AIcKinlc}^ was born the favorite of nature in outward form and feature.
In manhood he had not a stalwart nor majestic frame like Chase or
Garfield. But he was molded in a well proportioned physique — sustained
with staunch and unfailing health. He had a dignified and distinguished
bearing that made him seem taller than he really was. He stood erect
and moved with an energetic, nervous step, that suggested force and alert-
ness. His handsome head rested firmly and closely upon broad shoulders ;
his chin was slightly elevated ; and he looked his interviewer squarely
in the face with a frankness and directness that encouraged the timid or
cowed the bravado, as the case might be. His face was Napoleonic in
contour, as the comic and caustic papers delighted to caricature, — his
features were clean cut and classic — deep set, piercing eyes — they were
gray, the prevailing color we are told in intellectual men, but they beamed
with a kindly light. His countenance in conversation wore a genial and
amiable smile, but when in repose it was thoughtful and serious with
almost a tinge of sadness. His voice was soft and sympathetic. He was a
goodly man to look upon — a striking personage — such an one as any
passing stranger would look again to notice or ask the name of, feeling
sure he must be no ordinary person. He walked the earth with the con-
fident conscious tread of royal manhood — and all voluntarily ac-
knowledged the divine right of his manly kingship. He had to an extra-
ordinary degree that indefinable but irresistible quality called "personal
magnetism." He cast a potent spell over all within the circle of his pres-
ence or the range of his influence. But in manner, thought and speech,
he was simplicity itself — there was no affectation — no posing — no officious-
ness — no self-sufficiency — no assertive superiority — no eccentricity — never
a suspicion of egotism or self-centered satisfaction. Though not erudite,
he was an orator of the scholarly type. His enunciation was pleasing and
strong, distinct and resonant — his thought logical, straightforward com-
mon sense ; his diction simple, smooth, polished, but not ornate — there was
no juggling of words and parleying with phrases; few flowers of speech;
no wit, humor or anecdote — no pyrotechnics, but there were popular senti-
ments and beautiful expressions in direct, plain, Anglo-Saxon, rhetoric.
His gestures were graceful and subdued. He was intensely in earnest ; he
had a message for the occasion and the audience and without flourish or
pretension or pedantry, he delivered his declaration as if it were worthy
their hearing and he was its properly chosen mouth piece. Logic and
reason and justice were his weapons. They were sufficient. He never
appealed to the prejudice, passion or the emotions of his auditors. Dem-
agogy was as foreign to him as vice was to his habits. A great element
of his leadership was his lofty, unflinching and unqualified patriotism— he
loved, adored his country — it was the one object of his devotion and ser-
vice. He believed the Americans were the chosen people of God, as were
the Israelites of old— that the children of this great American republic
246 Ohio Arch. a?id His. Society Publications.
were entrusted by the ruler of nations with the leadership of Christian
■civilization — that was the dominant idea of William McKinley and his
enthusiastic and confident expression of that loyal belief aroused the most
patriotic response in the hearts of his countrymen. He loved to please —
it pained him to hurt the feelings of anyone no matter how humble.
He was ever considerate of the feelings of others — ignoring, if possible,
their failings and weaknesses. William McKinley was a true born
gentlemen — one of God's noblemen, he could never have been otherwise —
of him the lines are literally true:
"His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him,
that nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'this was
a man.' "
Because he was amiable and gentle he was accused of weakness —
this was in his political career the one tremendous indictment — ^he was
weak. Never was there a falser charge. That is the awful arraignment
by the political puller, the office seeker, the disgruntled and the imprac-
ticable—if he cannot attain his object — the appointing power is weak.
The thoughtless and the ignorant and the prejudiced confuse weak-
ness and fairness. We have seen this exemplified in many a public
man — notably Mr. McKinley's predecessor, most intimate friend and
acknowledged model in character and beliefs, Rutherford B. Hayes.
It was our privilege to know Mr. Hayes intimately as well as Mr.
McKinley. Mr. Hayes was a fair, impartial, just man, who carefully
heard both sides, weighed all the testimony and calmly chose that
course which was for the best of all concerned. Hence he was charged
with being weak. But fairness, justness, gentleness is not weakness, far
from it, it is the very essence and basis of strength and firmness. Was
Lincoln weak because his great heart responded to the tearful plea of
the mother for the condemned boy? Was Grant weak because at Appo-
mattox he spared Lee's humiliation by graciously declining the preferred
sword? No, no, gentle sympathetic humanity is not weakness. "The
bravest are the tenderest." "The loving are the daring." Was William
McKinley weak when at the Chicago Convention in 1888 he might have
had the nomination but refused it because he felt in honor bound to
Sherman. Was he weak at the Minneapolis Convention in 1892, when as
president of the convention he was again urged to take the nomination
and nought but honor stood in his way. It is strong to do right, it is
weak to do wrong. William McKinley was wondrously endowed with
political sagacity and tact. He was a master in the art of handling and
moulding men — in appeasing, conciliating, but the exercise of that power-
ful and dangerous faculty by him was never at the sacrifice of truth and
integrity. He loved honors but he loved honor more. While he was a
masterful diplomat — there was never the taint of duplicity or dissimilation
— it was not the scheming of a Richelieu or a Wolsey. Mr. McKinley
Editorialana. 247
coveted the praise and approbation of men; all rightly constructed men
do — it is a stimulus to efifort and an encouragement to success — but he
wanted it above all else to come to him through merit. He would wear
no spurs that he had not honorably won. He was long headed, watch-
ful, patient, he could wait — he was an eminent example of the poets
words — ("All things come to him who waits." While with tremendous
powers of self-control he could bide his time, he was however an "oppor-
tunist." He had that sensitive oracular discernment that could see and
seize the opportunity. That is akin to genius. He knew unerringly
when his chance was at hand and he improved it — he never failed to catch
"the tide in the affairs of men which taken in the flood, leads on to
fortune." He had a prophetic soul — he could foresee the logic of events —
he believed in the correct outcome of things — he w?s a pronounced
"optimist" — that was his principal philosophy and a part of his religion.
Indeed in some of his conversations with us he seemed almost a "fatalist."
But he believed in man and he believed in God. At all times and places
he acknowledged the power and beneficence of Christianity — but he did
not wear his piety upon his sleeve "for daws to peck at." Like Lincoln
he implicitly trusted in a higher power but it was not natural to him to
publicly unveil the shrine of his inner temple. . Here too he was greatly
misunderstood and grossly illtreated. He was accused of cant and hy-
pocrisy. How could a man who was such a successful politician be a
genuine Christian? asked the skeptical. Now the world knows better —
Listen to this from the pen of one who neither admired nor believed in
McKinley before the awful deed: "Mr. McKinley was lifted on the
operating table, stripped for the dreaded ordeal. The doctors were ready
to administer ether. The President opened his eyes and saw that he
was about to enter a sleep from which he might never wake. He turned
his great hazel eyes sorrowfully upon the little group. Then he closed
the lips. His white face was suddenly lit by a tender smile. His soul
came into his countenance. The wan lips moved. A singular and almost
supernatural beauty possessed him, mild, childlike and serene. The sur-
geons paused to listen. A prayer left his lips. "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done." The voice was soft and clear. The tears rolled down Dr.
Mynter's face. The President raised his chest and sighed. His lips
moved once more. "Thy will be done."— Dr. ]ilann paused with the keen
knife in his hand. There was a lump in his throat. "For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory." The eyelids fluttered faintly,
beads of cold sweat stood on the bloodless brow— there was silence. Then
science succeeded prayer. If there is a nobler scene in the history of
Christian statesmen and rulers than this, I have not heard of it."
No leader was ever so admiringly, so trustfully followed. You do
not need to go far to learn the secret of his success. His sincerity, sim-
plicity, purity, unsullied honor, charming personality, courageous candor
and unselfish, limitless patriotism, made him the most universally re-
248 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
spected and revered president since that one who was first in war, first
in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. No American was
more genuinely mourned and regretted — no man in history was ever so
widely honored. The countries of Europe and the nations of the Orient
offered tender tribute to his memory. The very governments which he
compelled to fear and respect our flag, voluntarily acknowledged his good-
ness and greatness — and bewailed his untimely death. Unquestionably he
had fewer enemies than any other man who ever filled the chair of our chief
magistracy. Many years ago when a traveling student in Germany we
paid visit to the famous battle-field of Leipsic, where (in 1813) the great
Napoleon, at the head of an army of nearly 400,000 soldiers met the
enemy in far less numbers and suffered merciless and disgraceful defeat.
It was the beginning of the dimming of the lustre of Napoleon's star of
Empire. He was beaten because he was wrong. He was contending at
countless cost of life and property solely for his own self aggrandizement.
And then close by we were permitted to stand on the field of Lutzen (1632)
where in the Thirty Years' war that incomparable leader and Christian
King, the grandest figure of the 17th century, Gustavus Adolphus. led his
little Swedish army of praying soldiers against the immense host of allied
forces under Wallenstein. Gustavus Adolphus against tremendous odds,
was victorious because he was contending for liberty of conscience and
freedom of worship, but he laid down his life on that battle field, and says
Schiller in his graphic portrayal of that event, speaking of the character of
the Swedish leader. "In everything their lawgiver was also their example.
In the intoxication of his fortune he was still a man and a Christian,
and in his devotion still a hero and a King." These are words which
might be said of the martyred slain who sleeps in his simple sepulcher
at Canton. The great Napoleon reached the highest summit of human
power and glory, but it vanished with his life and is naught to-day but a
reminder of the emptiness and the insufficiency of worldly position and
personal prowess. The cause for which Gustavus Adolphus perished at
Lutzen went on, like a mighty conqueror, in the hearts of every lover of
truth and freedom. And to-day, we in America, are the inheritors of the
righteous result of that battle.
Our memory crowded with his eventful and rapidly passing life,
and our senses stunned with the last tragic act, we stand in terror
and in anger no less than unutterable sorrow — and with feelings almost
of resentfulness at Providence, we ask why was this man of all
others to be thus the victim of the foulest crime that the fiends of
Hell ever committed. It is folly for us to attempt to fathom the causes
or purposes of an infinite law. In his death the president was greater
than in life — the pain almost stifling his speech he expressed a kindly wish
for the assassin — ■"'let them do him no harm." Does it not recall that
tragedy of all tragedies on Calvary — "Father forgive them for they know
not what they do." But William McKinley passed to immortal heights,
Editor ialana. ' 249
where we shall regard him with worshipful admiration and reverence.
Though decorated with all the honors a nation — a world — could bestow,
there shines through all the man — the noble spotless man.
There is no incident in history to our mind like that journey from
Washington to Canton of the funeral train. The catafalque, upon which
rested the body of the illustrious dead, occupied the center of a spacious
car — the sides of which were glass. It was brilliantly lighted at night,
so that for a long distance the interior of the car and its hallowed con-
tents were plainly visible. As that train sped on through the darkness
of night — winding its way over hill and through dale and past the busy
haunts of men — all spectators gazed silently and sadly at the strange and
solmen sight. Vast numbers in dense cities crowded to the track and in
bared heads and bated breath stood by. And in the open country — in the
gloom of midnight — and the gray of the early dawn, the begrimed miner,
the belated traveler, — the sleepless farmer, — on the hillside — in the valley,
stood motionless or fell on bended knee and uncovered in reverent sorrow
as the bright passing light of that car mterior spread its rays athwart the
adjacent fields. Will not the stainless life; the honorable deeds and shining
character of that man shed their sweet influence ihroughout our nation,
and bring cheer and courage to generations yet unborn — not only in this
land, but throughout the wide, wide world?
"Unbounded courage and compassion joined,
Tempering each other in the victor's mind.
Alternately proclaim him good and great.
And make the hero and man complete."
ISRAEL WILLIAMS.
Hon. Israel Williams one of the earliest members of the Ohio State
Archsological and Historical Society and for many years one of its trus-
tees, died September 9, 190L at the St. James Hotel, Denver, Colorado,
where he was temporarily stopping, being engaged in looking after ex-
tensive mining investments in which he was interested.
Isreal Williams was born in :\Iontgomery county. Ohio, .\ugust 24,
1827. His parents were William and ^Mary Marker Williams. Subsequent
to their settlement in :Montgomery county the family removed to Cham-
paign county, where Israel, one of the nine children, spent his boyhood
days. He received his early education in the country schools until the age
of eighteen; then left the farm and taught school to obtain means to
pay for further education. Attended the high school at Springfield and the
college at Granville, now Dennison University; graduated at Farmer's
College in 1853 ; read law with Gunckel and Strong at Dayton. Ohio, and
graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 1855 in which year he was
also admitted to the bar. In 1856 he took up his residence m Hamilton,
250 • Ohio Arch, and His. Society Ptiblications .
Ohio, where he opened a law ofifice in the Beckett Block which he occupied
continuously until the time of his death. He pursued an extensive and
lucrative practice. For many years prior to and during the Civil War, he
was the proprietor and editor of the Hamilton Intelligencer. Mr. Williams
was an ardent loyalist and warm supporter of President Lincoln and took
a very active and prominent part in aiding Governors Tod and Brough in
their efforts in behalf of the union cause. Mr. Williams was ever a pub-
lic spirited citizen, assisting in all movements for the betterment and ad-
vancement of his community. For several years he was a member of
the city council at Hamilton. He possessed a scholorly mind and devoted
considerable attention to the study of geology, mineralogy and archaeology.
In the early days of the Archaeological and Historical Society, Mr. Wil-
liams took an active interest in its welfare and progress, contributing some
valuable papers to the meetings of the Society. He collected a very
large and valuable cabinet of archaeological specimens which he donated
to the Society and which are now in its Museum at Orton Hall. He was
appointed by Governor James E. Campbell, a trustee of the Society in 1892
and was reappointed by Governors McKinley, Bushnell and Nash, the
appointment by the latter being on March 1, 1901, for a term of three
years. He had served continuously for nearly ten years.
Mr. Williams was mari-ied to Miss Maggie Wakefield, a native of But-
ler county, Ohio, on January 9, 1860, and leaves surviving him the widow
and four children, Mary, Nina, and Stella, three daughters, all of whom are
married and John W. Williams, his only son, who is now an active young
business man in Hamilton, Ohio.
Mr. Williams was a genial, courteous gentleman of the olden type.
He was a lover of humanity, the friend of all, a delightful companion ; an
upright and forceful man ; his life was well spent and his fellow citizens
paid fitting tribute, in the last sad rites, to his memory. He was buried
at Hamilton, Ohio, September 13, 1901.
SOLDIERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
We have had several inquiries for a statement of the number of
troops engaged in the American Revolution. From the best authority
obtainable we learn that the total enlistments during the eight years on
the American side were 233,771; this number represents the reinlistments;
the actual number of men who saw service in the army was not more than
150,000; the largest American army at any one time was 38,000; average
American army 30,000 ; American army at Long Island and Yorkstown
was 16,000 and 17,000 respectively ; number of battles and skirmishes 87 ;
largest loss at any one battle to the American army was at Germantown,
October 4, 1777, where there were 1,073 in killed, wounded and missing;
largest number in the British army at any one time was 42,000.
The Shaker Couimunity of Warren County. 251
THE SHAKER COMMUNITY OF WARREN COUNTY.
ITS ORIGIN, RISE, PROGRESS AND DECLINE.
By J. P. MacLean, Ph. D.
INTRODUCTION.
Located three miles west of Lebanon, Ohio, is the seat of the
bishopric of the Shaker communities west of the Allegheny
Mountains. The tract of land possessed by them is irregular in its
boundaries, and embraces 4,500 acres of as rich soil as may be
found in the state. Its location meets the approval of the most
critical eye. The postcffice is known as Union Village, but to the
surrounding country it is known as Shakertown. The people who
own this tract of territory are honored and respected by their
neighbors. The land has been brought under a liigh state of cul-
tivation, and the buildings are commodious, well constructed with
all modern improvements. The Shakers number about forty-five
souls, who take life quietly, and enjoy all the luxuries they desire.
The office, where resides the ministry, is one of the finest executive
buildings in America, and furnished more luxuriously than any
business office in the state. Notwithstanding the fact that here
we may find nearly every desire that an upright mind might de-
mand, yet the community is growing less, and apparently its days
are numbered.
On Monday, May 20, 1901, I called upon Dr. Joseph R. Slin-
gerland, first in the ministry, who has both special and general
charge of all the western communities of Shakers, for the purpose
of obtaining all the facts relative to the transactions of the mob of
1810, and further to see if I could secure the privilege of examin-
ing the archives of the recently extinct community at Watervliet,
near Dayton. During the conversation I was informed that there
was a MS. history of the Union Village community. Requesting
the loan of the MS., it was placed in my hands, with liberty to
make such use of its contents as I might deem advisable.
252
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications^
SHAKER MS. HISTORY.
The MS. history of the Shaker community of Union Village is
type-written and covers 221 pages of foolscap, and the product of
one who was a member for eighty years. It is entitled, "A history
of the principal events of the Society of Believers, at Union Vil-
lage, commencing in the month of March, 1805, containing a toler-
ably explicit account of most of the scenes of the said society on-
ward. Compiled both from memory and the several journals kept
in the society from the beginning. By O. C. Hampton, who was
a member of said society since 1822." The MS. can hardly be
said to be a history. It is simply an epitome of each year's trans-
actions as viewed by the com-
piler, Oliver C. Hampton,
born April 2, 181 7, died
March 29, 1901, becoming a
Shaker through the conver-
sion of his father in 1822,
having held important posi-
tions ever since his early life,
not the least of which was
that of schoolmaster, and sec-
ond in the ministry until a
short time before his decease,
possessed all the information
relating to the community he
loved so well. However, he
did not possess the ordinary
instincts so essential in an
historian. His MS. is disap-
pointing in many respects.
The manners, customs, cos-
tumes, etc., we only learn when said expressions were ordered
discontinued. Besides this, there is often a want of clearness
which not only confuses the reader, but leaves the account so
broken as to make it unintelligible to the uninformed reader.
The account that follows is based on the Hampton MS.
OLIVER C. HAMPTON.
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 253
ORIGIN OF THE SHAKERS OF UNION VILLAGE.
The wild carnival of religion of 1800, 1801, but better known
as the "Great Kentucky Revival," thoroughly shook and even
prostrated the Presbyterian and Methodist churches that came un-
der its influence. The effect was felt in the valley of the Great
Miami ; and although one hundred years have elapsed, still the
Presbyterian church within the last named region has not recov-
ered from the stroke. After the revival had spent its force we
find the Rev. Richard McNemar, who had been a prominent figure
in the movement, preaching at Turtle Creek church, at Bedle's
Station, now Union Village. The noise of the revival reached
the Shakers at New Lebanon, New York, who, in consequence of
which, sent three missionaries — John Meacham, Benjamin S.
Youngs and Issachar Bates — to the southwest as a propaganda.
On March 22, 1805, having traveled the whole distance on foot,
they reached the Turtle Creek church, and first went to the house
of Malcolm Worley, a wealthy and influential man, and on the fol-
lowing day visited Rev. Richard McNemar. The first convert
was Malcolm Worley and Richard McNemar soon after.
On the ensuing Sunday, after the arrival of the missionaries,
Benjamin S. Young and Issachar Bates attended the public meet-
ing of the Revivalists, or Newlights, as they were later called, and
by permission read the following letter :
"The Church of Christ unto a people in Kentucky and the adjacent
states, sendeth greeting: We have heard of a work of God among you;
Who worketh in divers operations of His power, for which we feel
thankful, as we have an ardent desire that God would carry on His
work according to His own purpose. We know that God's work as
it respects the salvation and redemption of souls, is a strange work
which He hath promised to bring to pass in the latter days. We also
know that the servants of God have been unde.- sackcloth and darkness
since the falling away of the Apostolic Order which from the time of
Christ's ministry continued about four hundred years; since that time
Anti-Christ has had power to reign in Christ's stead, and hath 'set up
the abomination that maketh desolate,' spoken if by Daniel the prophet,
and which, according to the Scriptures, Christ wa3 to consume with
the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
But not to tarry on those things we will come to matters in the present
day. The time being nearly finished, according to the Scriptures, that
Anti-Christ should reign, and time fully come for Christ to make His
254 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
second appearance, God, out of His everlasting goodness and mercy
to His creatures, in the fulness of His promises, raised up to Himself
witnesses* and gave unto them the same gills of the Holy Spirit that were
given to the Apostles in the day of Christ's first appearing. The light
and power and gifts of the Holy Spirit were so convincing, especially
in the First Pillar, attended with the word of prophecy in so marvelous
a manner, that every heart was searched and every rein of those that
heard was tried. The loss of man and the way and work of salvation by
Christ in the present witnesses appearing so unspeakably great, that
although we had been a people that were greatly wrought upon by the
spirit of God, and were looking for the coming of Christ, yet the light
manifested in the witnesses showed us that we were unspeakably short
of salvation, and had never travelled one step in the Regeneration
towards the New Birth. For it showed us that it was impossible for
those who lived in the works of natural generation, copulating in the
works of the flesh, to travel in the great work of regeneration and the
new birth. And as these witnesses had received the revelation in this
last display of grace of God to a lost worldthey taught and opened unto
us the way of God which is a way out of all sin in the manner following:
First. To believe in the manifestations of Christ in this display of the
grace of God to a lost world. Secondly. To confess all pur sins ; and
thirdly, to take up our cross against the flesh, the world, and all evil;
which (counsel) we, by receiving and obeying, from the heart, have
received the gift of God which has separated us from the course of
this world and all sin in our knowledge, for twenty years past and
upward.
We, therefore, as servants of Christ and children of the resur-
rection, testify to all people that Christ hath made his second appearing
here on earth, and the poor lost children of men know it not. We
know there are many among the wise and prudent of this generation
who are looking for the coming of Christ in this latter day, who entirely
overlook the work of God as the ancient Jews did, in the day of Christ's
first appearing ; for Christ has come and it is hid from their eyes and
we marvel not at it, for Christ said, T thank Thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and revealed them unto babes.' But as the work of God which
has wrought mightily in us to purify us from the nature of sin, has
been progressive from step to step, as we were able to hear, from
one degree to another, we cannot write particularly in this letter. We
hope and trust you will be so far informed as will be necessary for your
salvation. We feel union with the work of God that is among you
as we have heard, and have a desire to communicate something to you
that will be for your good. The light of God in the Gospel has taught
us the straight and narrow way that leadeth to life, and not only so,
but has given us to see the devices of Satan that from ages past down
to this day when God hath given His Holy Spirit to enlighten and con-
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 255-
vert the children of men, of sin, Satan would also work to heal their
wounds slightly and to lead them into by and forbidden paths, if possible,
to dishonor and destroy the work of God, even in them that God had
enlightened and called to be his witnesses. We have had a great desire
that some of you might have visited us before now, and we have been
waiting for some time to know the mind of God in relation to you.
We now, out of duty to God and our fellow creatures, have sent three
of our brethren unto you, viz., John Meacham, Benjamin S. Youngs,
and Issachar Bates, who, we trust, will be able to declare things more
particularly, and to open unto you the way of life which is a way out
of all sin — a way that the vulture's eye never saw and the fierce lion
never passed. Receive them, therefor, as messengers of Christ and
friends to your salvation.
Written in the church at New Lebanon, in the Township of Canaan,
County of Columbia, and State of New York, December 30, 1804.
Signed in behalf of the Church,
David AIe.\cham.
Amos H.\mmond,
Ebenezer Cooly."
The second convert was Anna JMiddleton, a slave, who was
received just as cordially as though she had been white and free.
Richard AIcNemar, wife and children were received on the 24th of
the following April. On May 23 the first meeting of the Believ-
ers was held on the farm of David Hill, about a mile southwest of
Union Village. During the year 1805, or shortly thereafter about
sixty families had united, together with many unmarried persons
of both sexes and. all ages, making a total of about 370 persons.
On June 29, Elder David Darrow, Daniel Mosely and 'Solo-
mon King arrived at the home of Malcolm Worley, the first
named having been ordained and sent by the leading authority of
the parent church at New Lebanon, to take charge of the newly
forming commimities in the West.
REIGN OF D.WID DARROW, 1805-1825.
The history of the Shakers of Union Village is essentially the
history of the one who was first in the ministry, which office is
practically that of a bishop. The selection of the ministry has al-
ways been made by the ministry of New Lebanon, and afterwards
confirmed by vote at Union Village.
256 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications:
For a period of 20 years David Darrow was the head of the
western ministry, and most faithfully bore the burdens of his call-
ing, with an upright and conscientious integrity. He possessed
that desirable combination of qualities of firmness, justice, and
unswerving righteousness, blended with charity and tenderness,
which added to his wisdom or foresight, made him just such a
leader as the infant colony required. The success or failure of
the entire movement rested upon the shoulders of this man. He
became a father to his people, and in his hands were placed their
temporal, spiritual, moral and intellectual welfare. The people
had been brought out of the Calvinism of Knox, and now entered
into a different faith, and different manners and customs. Elder
Darrow must direct the new ship amidst breakers and other dan-
gers until he safely brings it into a haven of stability. The coun-
try was comparatively new, the people lived in log houses, and the
. state of society was somewhat primitive. The herculean task was
undertaken, and the work fully accomplished. While it was nec-
essary for Elder David to begin at the very foundation and build
carefully and substantially, yet it was absolutely necessary that
his hands should be strengthened. To this fact the New Lebanon
ministry was fully alive. To his assistance they sent Eldress
Ruth Farrington, Prudence Farrington, Lucy Smith, Martha San-
ford, Molly Goodrich, Ruth Darrow (David's daughter), Peter
Pease, Samuel Turner, Constant Mosely and John Wright, all of
whom arrived at the residence of Malcolm Worley on May 31,
1806. All of these remained in the West except John Wright,
who returned in the following August. Eldress Ruth Farring-
ton, before leaving New Lebanon, was appointed as the First in
care on the Sisters' side and to stand in the lot with Elder Dar-
row. On the 5th of the following June all the brethren and sis-
ters who had come from the East, removed from Worley's house,
which had been the headquarters, to their dwn premises, which
they had purchased of Timothy Sewell, which had some log cabins
on it. This now was called the Elders' Family. However, they
soon erected a frame building and moved into it at what was
termed the South House. On December 6 following Peter Pease,
Tssachar Bates and others purchased a farm owned by Abraham
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 257
La Rue, which was afterwards turned over to the Trustees of the
Society.
It would be difficult to picture the trials endured by the early
Shakers, and the constancy of their leader. Many heavy sacrifices
had to be made, and much physical as well as mental and moral
trials were endured. But little of their land was cleared and the
living poor, and some years must elapse before the comforts of life
could be secured. The church cheerfully faced all these trials,
economized what they had and patiently endured privations in
victuals and clothing, — too often exposed to severe and inclement
weather. Everything of a mechanical nature was scarce, and in
many instances must be created on the ground. Even these must
be postponed until mills could be built in order that machinery
could be constructed for the manufacture of many things of im-
mediate necessity. All this took time, patience and hard labor, as
well as suffering. Through this formative period their zeal in
their faith did not abate nor their love towards one another grow
cold. Under the guidance of David Darrow, within a few years,
they were in advance of the neighboring vicinity, and from the
superiority of their productions they received the highest prices
in the markets. Any article manufactured by the Shakers was to
be relied on. The prestige thus gained carried a ready sale to
them for anything from a basket to a fine carriage. Their up-
rightness in this temporal line, in time, forced a due regard for
their religrious convictions. All this cannot be ascribed to their
own unaided zeal, for there was more or less of an influx from
the mother church. It is related that "on August 15, 1807, Elder
Constant Mosely returned from Wheeling whither he had gone
to meet the following persons from the East, viz : INathan Ken-
dal, Archibald Meacham, Anna Cole, Lucy Bacon, and Rachel
Johnson." Joseph Allen, a good mechanic, arrived on December
4, from Tyringham, Mass. "On May 26, 1809. Constant Mosely
returned from New Lebanon, -and with him Hortense Goodrich,
Comstock Betts, Mercy Picket and Hopewell Curtis."
The genius and inspiration of David Darrow and his coadju-
tors may in part be realized, when it is considered that the colony
passed through rapid changes in many ways. From log huts to
Vol. X— 17
'258 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
frame buildings, and thence to substantial brick buildings for
dwellings, with all other necessary improvements. A minute of
the gigantic undertaking shows a saw mill in 1807, and a new
•one in 1808; a new church in 1809, with its successor in 1818;
the West frame dwelling in 1813; the East house in 1816; the
large brick dwelling, a few rods north of the church, in 1820. In
.short, all the families. East, West, North, South and Center were
â– established under Elder Darrow. In 1819 the population had in-
• creased to about 600 souls, among whom were blacksmiths, ma-
:sons, stone-cutters, carpenters, tanners, fullers, clothiers, cabinet-
. makers, tailors, weavers, carders, spinners, etc., etc., all of whom
were employed in their favorite vocation. All the clothing,
boots, stioes, etc., used by the community were made by its own
members. Besides all this, their land produced nearly all their
living, animal, vegetable and fruits.. Tea and coffee were not
then used, and the beverages consisted of spice brush, sassafras
root, sage, etc., all grown on their lands. The sugar was pro-
duced from the maple tree, and some years 5,000 pounds were
manufactured. The fields produced large crops of corn, flax,
wheat, rye, etc. Such was the organization that the society
may be said to have lived within itself.
Upon first view it might be inferred that a people so peace-
able, and who lived so much within themselves, would be left to
work out their own destiny. But it was not so. Religious rancor
:and hatred are the most intolerable. Although persecution was
bitter enough, but not carried to the same extent as experienced by
the eastern communities. Mobs assembled at Union Village in
1810, 1812, 1813, and 1817; but as these will form a special pa-
per, this reference must here suffice. The saintly Eldress Ruth
Parrington and Eldress Martha Sanford received blows fom a
cowhide in the hands of one John Davis.
Discouragements arose from various sources, among which
were the accidental burning of buildings containing crops, the work
of incendiaries, and the perfidy of members. The most notable in-
stance of the last was the case of John Wallace, one of the trus-
tees, who in 1818 left home avowedly going to Columbus, under
pretext of a business engagement, but turned his course to Cincin-
nati, borrowed $3,000 of the United States bank, signed the note
The Shaker Comuiunity of Warren County. 259
•"'Wallace and Sharp," leaving the society to pay the debt,— a large
l)urden for that period. Wallace annoyed the community as late
as 1832, for in that year, with a company of his fellow apostates,
he took possession of the grist mill, but was dislodged, and then
tried to have the brethren indicted by the grand jury.
One of the misfortunes that the Shakers have been heir to,
during the period of their whole history, is that of lawsuits, al-
though they have ever tried to avoid the same. As early as 181 1,
one Robert Wilson, an apostate, commenced suit against Elder
Darrow for $250, which was decided in favor of the latter by the
Supreme Court. In 1816 a case in Chancery was brought by one
Jonathan Davis, which was decided in favor of the Shakers.
, Lawsuits also grew out of the mob of 1817.
The Shakers have always been opposed to war, but notwith-
standing have been forced to suffer. About the 8th of September,
1 81 3, Elder Samuel Rollins, Elder David Spinning, Robert Bax-
ter, William Davis, Jr., Adam Gallaher and Samuel McClelland
(the last two from Busrow), were drafted into the army, — the
country then being at war with England. They were required to
join the detachment under Major Frye at Lebanon, but on the
I ith were furlowed. On the 18th they were marched under guard
to Dayton. On the 22nd they returned home, but on October i
they were taken to Lebanon under pretense of having deserted,
and on the 3rd were marched to Xenia; thence to Franklinton,
and then to Sandusky. No amount of authority or coercion could
force them to shoulder arms, so on November 24 they were dis-
charged, and returned home where they were received with great
rejoicing.
While the worldly interests of the community were looked
after with consummate care, yet the special feature announced
and looked after was the moral and spiritual. The church was
the sole object of the organization. It was not until 1812 that at-
tention towards gathering the Society into "Church Order," ac-
cording to the pattern of the mother church at New Lebanon, was
•carefully considered, and acted upon. We find that in this year,
the ministry, consisting of David Darrow, Solomon King, Ruth
Farrington and Hortense Goodrich, occupied the upper part of
the church building, and on the 15th of January the first covenant
260 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
of the church was signed by all the members who were considered
eligible to such a privilege. In brief, this covenant required every
signer to surrender totally, together with all possessions, and an
absolute consecration to the church, in obedience to the ministry
and deacons of the Society, and to practice strict celibacy. Then
arose the Children's Order, the Youths' Order, and the Gathering
Order, as well as the church proper. Among the rules early
adopted was, that, just before Christmas, in every year, all hard
feelings and all disunion must be put away and reconciliation com-
pletely established. Then, thus united, Christmas was celebrated
by singing, dancing, feasting and giving of presents.
The missionary spirit was fully exercised, but appears to have
practically died out on the demise of Elder Darrow. All move- ,
ments are most energetic in their infancy, but appear to crystal-
lize on gaining a firm foothold. As early as 1807 a report reached
the Believers that a religious revival had broken out among the
Shawnee Indians, located at Greenville. Immediately (March 17),
Elder David Darrow, Benjamin S. Youngs and Richard AIcNemar
set out to visit the tribe, and endeavor to persuade them to receive
the testimony. During the following month of August the tribe
was visited by Issachar Bates and Richard McNemar. During
the two visits the Shakers gave the Indians $10 in money, and
loaded 20 horses with the necessaries of life which they delivered.
But no Indians were gathered. Missionary work was prosecuted
during 1807, wherever an opening was offered. In 1808 the mis-
sions extended to Straight Creek, Ohio, into Kentucky and In-
diana, where Societies were formed — the last named having a
great trial, especially from the soldiers and Indians. North
Union near Cleveland, was established in 1822, in Watervliet,
near Dayton, in 1810, and Whitewater, near Harrison, in 1824.
The Societies at Straight Creek, and Eagle Creek, were short-
lived. In 1824, a mission was sent to Zoar, in order to interest
that colony, who then practiced celibacy.
The Shakers were subjected to experiences of revivals. Dur-
ing the month of February, 181 5, an extraordinary revival per-
vaded the church. It received the name of "War-time." The
worship was attended with many displays of muscular exercise,
•such as stamping, shaking, vociferating and shouting, besides the
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 261
usual exercises of dancing, marching, singing, etc. It continued
for many months, and was ascribed to the manifestation of war
between Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and his angels,
spoken of in Revelations. On May 9, 1824, a very large con-
course marched along the principal street singing and praising
God and manifesting great joy and thanksgiving. On the 12th
of the following September there was another joyful march and
demonstration.
The first school for the education of the youth was opened
November 10, 1808, with John Woods for instructor of the boys,
and Malinda Watts for the girls. The teaching of the sexes sep-
arately was thought to be more in keeping their mode of life and
discipline, but after many years this plan was abandoned. But
very few books were in their possession, and in 18 16 those in use
were the New Testament, Webster's spelling book, and the
branches taught were the elementary principles of grammar, arith-
metic, spelling, reading and writing.
On June 15, 1808, John , McLean, of Lebanon, Ohio, com-
menced, for the Shakers, a book, entitled "Christ's Second Ap-
pearing." The object of this book was to inform the public, as
well as novitiates, of the faith, doctrines and discipline of the
church. In 1823 this book was republished at Union Village.
The Hampton MS. makes no mention of the fact that in 1819,
there was published a 16 mo. of 175 pages, a book entitled "The
Other Side of the Question. A Vindication of the Mother and
the Elders. By order of the United Society at Union Village,
Ohio." It is possible that forgotten tracts were also published.
Under date "Miami Country, State of Ohio, August 31, 1810,"
Benjamin Seth Youngs published his "Transactions of the Ohio
Alob, called in the public papers 'an expedition against the Shak-
ers.' " This also escaped Elder Hampton's attention. He nnist
have been aware of the fact that Richard McNemar, in 1807, at
Union Village, then called Turtle Creek, wrote his history of "The
Kentucky Revival," a work of unusual interest, even to those who
do not espouse the Shaker faith.
On October 28, 1821, the Society sustained a great loss in the
death of Ruth Fjirrington. As first in the ministry on the sisters'
lot, she had so won the hearts of the people that they called her by
262 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the endearing name of Mother. She died of dropsy, which caused
her great suffering, but was borne with patience and Christian
rectitude.
Rachel Johnson, who was standing second in the ministry,
was elevated to the place made vacant by the demise of Eldress
Ruth, and on October 30 Eunice Serring was promoted to the sec-
ond place.
David Darrow had won the confidence and esteem of his peo-
ple, who called him, even to this day, "Father David." His faith-
ful years of labor told upon his frame. After failing in health
for some time, he departed this life June 27, 1825, aged 75 years
and 6 days. His loss was irreparable. His funeral was largely
attended on the 28th, and was a very solemn and weighty occasion.
Richard McNemar composed a poem of fifty-six lines in com-
memoration.
INTERREGNUM 1825-1829.
Experience has taught governments that an interregnum is a
period of uncertainty if not of danger. It proved both to the So-
ciety of United Believers. The death of Father David left a
membership of about 500 souls. His arm had been strong and
his heart warm with love. He had kept the believers in subjec-
tion. His presence no longer felt, the smouldering embers burst
forth into a flame. There was both a revolt and a dangerous
schism which marked the period.
Among the first Shakers were men of education, but these
were few in number. The intellectual status of the church was
not of a high discriminating order. Consequently there was a
pronounced antagonism to every kind of literary, scientific or
other intellectual attainment. The first members generally
brought in their families. The children on reaching maturitv,
although able to read and write, now demanded greater attain-
ments than had been allowed. The number of books and period-
icals permitted by the Trustees was extremely limited. But few
books, outside their own publications, could be found among
them, and only one or two periodicals, for the entire community.
A demand not only for greater facilities, but also for a paper pub-
lished among them for the use and entertainment of the Society at
The Shaker Comuninity of Warren County. 265.
large. The newspaper was allowed and issued in manuscript.
The revolt of the younger members, also culminated in the with-
drawal from the Society of many an ambitious person. Many of
the children of the pioneers sought homes among strangers. This
has been followed more or less ever since, and defections came to
be looked upon as a probable occurrence.
The history of the Christian church has demonstrated that
schism is the most disastrous of all the dangers that lurk within
her folds. The first schism at Union Village broke out in 1828,
which w^as projected by Abijah Alley. Having become unrecon-
ciled to the condition of things as administered, he openly opposed
the existing authority. He was borne with, and attempts made
to reconcile him, but all efforts failing, he was suspended. He
persisted in his efforts and persuaded quite a large number to take
sides with him. With some of his followers he withdrew and
attempted to found a similar institution with broader views. Not
having the means nor the capacity for such an undertaking his
enterprise collapsed.
The Shakers have been prone to prophecies and revelations.
In 1827 there came among them from Canada Daniel Merton and
Jason Shepherd. The former, in that year, after fasting for three
days, made the following prediction : "At the present time the
church is in great peace and prosperity, and it seems as if nothing
could arise to disturb her tranquility. But a change will come
over her, and many will prove unfaithful and drop out from her
ranks. Sorrow and adversity will visit her and desolation and
defection wall be such that even the most faithful and devoted
among you will begin to forbode the entire annihilation of the
church. But this destruction will not take place, but after she has
reached the lowest level of her adversity, she will arise and move
to a higher culmination of glory than at any previous period, and
to the highest reachable in that day."
In 1827 the Society at West Union, Indiana, was broken up,
owing to the malarious district in which it was located. The
members were distributed — as each one elected — among the
societies at Union Village, Watervliet, Whitewater, in Ohio, and
South Union and Pleasant Hill in Kentucky.
264 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Owing to the prevalent idea that changes in residence should
be effected, the order went forth in 1828 that the South Family
should break up and be dispersed among the other families of the
church, and their building to be occupied by the West Frame Fam-
ily, which in turn was to be occupied by a family selected from
among the younger Believers. The East Family, or Gathering
Order, to be removed to the North Lot building, and from there
many to be removed to the West Frame. The East Family to be
occupied mostly by children, but furnished with a regular elders'
order and care-takers.
The monotony of Shaker life was relieved on July 16, 1825,
by a visit from Henry Clay, which was repeated on the i8th by
another visit, accompanied by a number of persons from Lebanon.
On the 22nd a visit was made by Gov. Geo. Clinton, of New York ;
Gov. Morrow, of Ohio ; General Harrison and others, who had
teen attending the celebration of the opening of the Miami Canal
at Middletown. On May 2, 1826, the Duke of Saxony paid a
Tisit with his retinue.
REIGN OF SOLOMON KING, 1829-1835.
On the 3rd of November, 1829, the ministry and elders held
a meeting to fill the vacancies caused by the death of Elder David
Darrow and the removal of Eldress Eunice Serring to White-
water. It was decided to appoint Joseph Worley to live in second
â– care, with Elder Solomon King, and Nancy McNemar to fill the
second place in the ministry with Eldress Rachel Johnson. The
announcement was made to the full church a few days later, and
was fully endorsed by said church.
In 1830 the order of the ministry, elders, trustees, and family
deacons was as follows :
Ministry — Solomon King, Joshua Worley, Rachel Johnson.
Nancy McNemar.
Elders — Center House : Daniel Serring, Andrew C. Hous-
ton, Eliza Sharp, Molly Kitchel.
Elders — Brick House : William Sharp, James McNemar,
Anna Boyd, Caty Rubert.
Elders — North House: Abner Bedelle, Joseph C. Worley,
Charlotte Morrell, Betsy Dunlavv.
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 265
Elders — South House: Stephen Spinning, Daniel Davis,
Elizabeth Sharp, Nancy Milligan.
Elders — West Bbick House: Eli Houston, John Gee, Jr.,
Caty Boyd, Charity Slater.
Elders — Square House: Nathaniel Taylor, Clark Valen-
tine, Malinda Watts, Martha Houston.
Elders — East House : James Smith, Jacob Holloway, Anna
Bromfield, Peggy Knox.
Trustees, or Office Deacons: Nathan Sharp, Henry Valen-
tine, Ithamar Johnson, Polly Thomas, Betsy Dickson.
Family Deacons: Thomas Hunt, William Davis, Amos Val-
entine, Daniel Miller, William Runyon, Samuel Holloway, Jesse
Legier, Betsy Wait, Betsy Patterson, Rachel Duncan, Susannah
Miller, Jenny Slater, Janna Woodruff, Esther Davis.
The above arrangement has reference only to the church
proper. At that time there were three other families, viz : the
North Lot, the West Lot, and the Grist Mill. The last named,
although belonging to the church proper, was not supplied with a
regular order of elders, but were under the spiritual care of the
Center House elders. Also a family formerly lived on the south
side of the Lebanon road, about a quarter of a mile from the cross
road. It was a school or children's order, and broken up in 1828.
The population at this time (1830) consisted of 238 males (two
of w^hich were colored), and 264 females (six being colored).
The beginning of the year 1831 showed the Society composed of
1 1 families, named as follows : Center, Brick, North, South, East
House, West Brick, West Frame, West Lot, North Lot, Square
House, and Grist Mill. The first four of these was considered
the church proper ; but the two Mill families — Square House and
Grist Mill — were under the care of the church, and worshipped
with them. The three next may be termed, intermediate fami-
lies, although they were under the temporal care and control of
the Trustees. The North Lot and West Lot were novitiates, or
as called in that day, Gathering Orders. Additions, from time to
time, were being made, but it was observed that they were not of
the same substantial material as the older stock. The year 1831
saw a greater decimation of numbers than heretofore experienced,
the causes being assigned as follows : First, the gradual wearing
266
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
off of former inspiring testimony of the Word ; second, the re-
ception of unsteady characters.
Most of the houses of the Society were now built, and many
of the conveniences known in that day, for a pleasant and easy
life, were enjoyed by the community, even to many of its luxuries.
Yet all this worldly inducement was insufficient to attract adher-
ents to the fold.
The church had always been a temperance institution. In
1820 Richard McNemar composed a poem on the question. In
1832, in order to save medicinal expense, the younger members of
MEETING HOUSE (LOOKING NORTH).
the Society proposed to use their peppermint and other oil mills
for the purpose of distilling apple brandy. The older and more
experienced of the members looked with serious apprehension
upon the matter. It was abandoned. Cider was a common bev-
erage, but afterwards was rejected.
On June 30, 1835, Nathan Sharp, the principal trustee, witn-
drew from the Society, taking with him a valuable horse and
equipage ; also an unknown amount of money, papers, etc. This
defection was a heavy shock to many of the novitiates and younger
portion of the community, producing more or less of a want of
confidence in the stability of the institution. On the 14th of Sep-
tember, the ministry and elders being convened in council, for
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 267
the purpose of inquiring into the affairs of the office, relative to
Nathan Sharp, who had absconded, united in declaring that he
was divested of all his power, and that all his transactions, after
his departure, relatmg to transactions concerning the Society oi
its property are unauthorized and void, and that William Runyon
has been placed m the office of trustee of the tempcralities of the
church.
The Hampton MS. practically leaves the reader in the dark
relative to the method of conducting the affairs of faith and the
constitution of the church, until the year 1829, when the full text
is submitted. A history of the Shakers is of no special value
without a sample of their logic and the transcript of their constitu-
tion. A circular letter with a new edition of their constitution,
from the ministry of New Lebanon, was read on the 27th of De-
cember, 1829, and submitted to the consideration of the church,
and on the 31st the church covenant was signed by the church
members. The whole is here transcribed :
" The Covenant or Constitution of the United Society of Believers
commonly called Shakers * * * ' Come let us join ourselves to the
Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten.' Jeremiah."
A brief illustration of the principles on which the Covenant of the
United Society is founded. When man by transgression lost his primi-
tive rectitude, he then lost the unity of his true interest both to God and
his fellow creatures. Hence he became selfish and partial in all his views
and pursuits. Instead of feeling it his interest and happiness to honor
and build up the cause of God, and benefit his fellow creatures, his
feelings were turned to exalt and build up himself at the expense of
the happiness and peace of his own species, and the loss of his union to
his Creator. The object and design of the Covenanted interest of the
Church and the covenant relation of this institution by which it is main-
tained ; are, to regain the unity of that relation to God and that social
order and connection with each other which mankind lost at the begin-
ning ; and to place it upon that solid foundation which cannot be over-
thrown; so that its blessings, and effects may be felt and enjoyed by all
who are willing to build on that foundation as an ever-living Institution.
It is a matter of importance that those who are admitted into this Insti-
tution, should not be ignorant of the nature of such an understanding;
— that they should know for themselves the principles and practice of the
Institution, and learn by their own experience what are the requirements
of the Gospel. In a Church relation founded on true Christian principles,
268 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
one faith must govern all the members. Their interests must be one, and
all their plans and pursuits must be regulated by one head or leading
influence, and tend to one general end and purpose, according to that
unity of faith manifested in their written covenant. For as a body with-
out a head possesses neither life nor power ; so a Church without a head
or leading power, cannot support its existence, much less maintain the
life and power of the Gospel. In the first associations of Believers, in
America, their first object was to locate themselves near together, for the
benefit of religious worship and protection. And having determined to
submit to the government of Christ, according to His revealed will to
them, and to devote themselves to the service of God, and the mutual
benefit of each other, they found it most convenient for their purpose,
and more conformable to the example of the primitive Christians, to
bring their property together and unite it in one consecrated interest for
the mutual benefit of the Institution.
Agreeably to this plan, the idea of a united interest was introduced,
and the property was entrusted to managers in whom they had full con-
fidence, and who were considered faithful, capable and trusty. A Gos-
pel government in things spiritual and temporal was then established
upon its proper foundation. It is proper to remark here, that the founda-
tion of the real estate of the Church was laid, and a large portion of it
was made upon property which was devoted and consecrated by persons
who have since left the world. And it was the special object and desire
of these persons, as expressed in their last wills and testaments that it
should forever remain a consecrated interest, devoted to the sacred pur-
poses for which it was given, and which are expressed in the covenant.
Another portion of this united interest has been made up of the conse-
crated property and labors of those who are still living and faithful in
the sacred cause. Hence it is obvious that the Society can never appro-
priate this consecrated property to any other uses without violating the
sacred wills and defeating the pious interest of the consecrators.
The government of Christ in His Church is a Divine government,
and all who justly expect to be benefitted by it, must come within the
bounds of its protection, acknowledge its authority and approve and yield
obedience to its requirements ; for it is a truth confirmed by the experi-
ence of all ages, that a government whether human or Divine, cannot
be beneficial to those who will not acknowledge its authority and come
under its protection. Every Divine Institution emanating from God, who
is the God of Order, is necessarily formed according to some consistent
principle. The Church of Christ must therefore be established upon a
foundation which cannot admit of a precarious or uncertain tenure. Di-
vine Providence for wise purposes, has permitted all earthly governments,
in some way or manner, to emanate from the people: — but whenever
Infinite Wisdom has seen fit to establish a spiritual or religious govern-
ment for the benefit of His covenant people, it has necessarily originated
1
The Shaker Coiiimunity of Warren County. 269
from Divine appointment ; and its continuance has been signally blessed
by an overruling Providence. This is clear from the records of the Script-
ure. God appointed Moses, and established him a leader of the tribe
of Israel, and by Divine Revelation Moses appointed Joshua to succeed
him. Altho' these things w^ere done under the law, they evidently pointed
to a Gospel government, which was more clearly manifested under the
ministration of Jesus Christ, and confirmed by His Word and works.
'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. As
my Father has sent me, so send I you.' Jesus Christ appointed His
Apostles as the visible head and leaders of His Church ; and the Apostles
appointed their successors, 'and ordained Elders in every Church.' And
while the government of the Church was kept on this foundation its
purity was preserved; but when thro' the influence of human wisdom,
the rulers of the Church come to be elected by vote then were produced
those imhappy diversions by which the true union of the Church was
broken, its orders destroyed 'and the power of the Holy people scat-
tered.' But when the second manifestation of the Spirit of Christ came
forth in the revival of the true faith and precepts of the Gospel for the
restoration and establishment of the true nature and order of the Church,
then the same Divine Order of spiritual government was again revised.
Hence the ]Ministerial Institution must be considered as originating from
Divine authority: — Of course the appointment of the Ministry is, in
reality, a Divine appointment, given through the preceding Ministry and
confirmed and established in the Society by the general union and appro-
bation of the Church; and when duly established, the first visible author-
ity, together with the necessary powers of government are confided to
them. Hence to this authority, all final appeals must be submitted for
decision. As regulation and good order are the strength and support of
every Institution, so they are essentially in all concerns of the Society.
Hence arises the necessity of Elders, Deacons and Trustees, to conduct
the various concerns of the Church and Society, which fall under their
respective jurisdiction.
It is the province of the Elders to assist in the spiritual administra-
tion and government of their respective families or departments. The
Superintending Deacons or Acting Trustees, are the constitutional dep-
positories of the temporal property which forms the united and conse-
crated interest of the Church, and the official agents for the transaction of
temporal business with those without. And as the governing power is
vested in the Ministry, and supported by the general union of the So-
ciety, it is therefore very important that the Elders, Deacons and Trus-
tees in all their concerns should maintain a proper union and understand-
ing with the Ministry and with each other. The present Order of the
Church was first established at New Lebanon in the year 1792, under the
ministration of Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright, who were considered
as the founders and spiritual leaders of Church Order m this day of
â– 270 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Christ's Second Appearing. Under their ministration Ministers and Elders
were appointed, to whom were entrusted the more immediate charge and
protection of Believers in the different Societies. Deacons were also ap-
pointed to officiate as acting Trustees of the temporal concerns of the Be-
lievers who were then collecting into families, and getting into the order
of the Gospel. In this appointment David Meacham and Jonathan Walker
were the first in temporal trust and took the charge of superintending
and regulating the consecrated interest and property of the Church ; and
by their labors and union, its temporal affairs were brought into order.
As a preliminary to the establishment of Gospel order in the Church,
the members thereof entered into a solemn Covenant with each other to
stand as a Community, and keep the way of God, in Church relation
for the mutual support and protection of each other, in their Christian
travel, both in things spiritual and temporal. In this Covenant they freely
gave themselves and services, together with all their temporal interest to
the service of God, for the support and benefit of each other and for such
â– other pious and charitable uses as the Gospel might require. As the light
of the Gospel increased, in the Church, and the necessity of further im-
provements opened to view, it was found expedient to renew the Cove-
nant, in order to renew its written form.
Though we consider the law of Christ planted in our souls, as more
valid and more binding upon us, than written laws, creeds or covenants
because on our obedience to this law, depend all our hopes and happiness
— here and hereafter ; — yet while our temporal prosperity remains under
the influence of human laws, written instruments may serve to protect
•it against all unjust and unlawful claims from those without, and against
any infringement from the lawless invaders of our just and equitable
•rights and privileges. The written Covenant however, is but a transcript
of the internal principles and law of Christ which govern and protect
this Society.
It is worthy of remark that the first Covenant into which the mem-
bers of the Church unanimously entered, was verbal: — yet it was made
in good faith; and being considered by them as a sacred contract which
was religiously binding upon them, it was conscientiously kept. In 1795
it was committted to writing and signed by all the members. In 1801 it
was renewed with the addition of some amendments that were found by
experience to be essential. In March, 1814, it was again renewed with
further amendments, and its written form considerably improved. But
in all its amendments and improvements the original and main object
of the Covenant has always been kept in view, and the substance of it
preserved entire.
It is now more than sixteen years since the last Covenant was exe-
cuted. During this period the Church has passed through many trying
scenes, gained much valuable experience in things spiritual and temporal.
Hence some further amendments are found necessary, to make the written
Tlie Shaker Community of Warren County. 271
Covenant more complete in its provisions, and better calculated in its
form for a general Covenant applicable to all the branches of the Society,
where Gospel order is established : to protect the Church and its mem-
bers in their religious and consecrated rights and privileges, and to give
all concerned a more clear and explicit viewr of its nature and principles.
It is therefore agreed that the Covenant of 1814, be renewed, and
its written form revised and improved as in the following Articles.
New Lebanon, April 30, 1830."
" The undersigned, Ministry of the United Society at New Lebanon,
having duly examined the following Covenant which has been recom-
mended to the Society, and agreed to: — and regularly signed and sealed
by the members of the Church, do hereby approve of and recommend the
same as a general Constitution for the Church at New Lebanon and Wa-
tervliet, and also for the United Society in all its branches, wherever
and whenever they may be prepared to adopt it.
New Lebanon, April 30, 1830. Ebenezer Bishop, Rufus Bishop,
Mary A. Landon, Asenath Clark."
COVENANT OR CONSTITUTION.
PREAMBLE.
We, the Brethren and Sisters of the United Society of Believers
(called Shakers,) residing in the County of Warren, and State of Ohio,
being connected together as a religious and social Community, distin-
guished by the name and title of^ — The Church of the United Society at
Union Village, which for many years has been established, and in suc-
cessful operation under the charge and protection of the Ministry and
Eldership thereof: — feeling the importance of not only renewing and
confirming our spiritual covenant with God and each other, but also of
renewing and improving our social compact, and amending the written
form thereof: — do make, ordain and declare the following Articles of
agreement as a summary of the principles, rules and regulations estab-
lished in the Church of said United Society which are to be kept and main-
tained by us, both in our collective and individual capacities, as a Cove-
nant, or Constitution, which shall stand as a lawful testimony of our
religious Association before all men, and in all cases of question in law,
relating to the possession and improvement of our united and consecrated
interest, property and estate.
ARTICLE I. OF THE GOSPEL MINISTRY.
We solemnly declare to each other and to all whom it may con-
cern, that we have received, and do hereby acknowledge as the founda-
tion of our faith, Order and government, the testimony or Gospel of
272 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Christ, in His first and second appearing; and we do hereby solemnly
agree to support and maintain the same as administered by the Founders
of this Society, and kept and conveyed through a regular Order of Min-
istration down to the present day; And although (as a religious Society)
we are variously associated, with respect to the local situations of our
respective Communities ; we are known and distinguished as a peculiar
people, and consider and acknowledge ourselves members of our general
Community, possessing one faith, and subject to the administration of
one united and parental government, which has been regulaily supported
from the first foundation pillars of the Institution, and which continues
to operate for the support, protection and strength of every part of the
Community.
Section 2. Their Order and Office.
We further acknowledge and declare, that for the purpose of pro-
moting and maintaining union, order and harmony throughout the various
branches of this Community, the Primary authority of the Institution
has been settled in the first established Ministry at New Lebanon, there
to rest and remain as the general center of union by all who stand in
Gospel relation and communion with this society. The established order
of this Ministry includes four persons, two of each sex.
Section 3. Perpetuity of Their Office and How Supplied.
We further acknowledge and declare, that the aforesaid primary
authority has been, and is to be perpetuated as follows, namely, that
the first in that office and calling possess the right, by the sanction of
Divine Authority, given through the first Founder of the Society, to
appoint their successors, and to prescribe or direct any regulation or ap-
pointment which they may judge most proper and necessary respecting
the Ministry, or any other important matter which may concern the wel-
fare of the Church or Society subsequent to their decease.
But in case no such appointment or regulation be so prescribed or
directed, then the right to direct and authorize such appointment and
regulations devolves upon the surviving members of the Ministry in
Counsel with the Elders of the Church, and others, as the nature of
the case, in their judgment may require. Such appointments being offi-
cially communicated to all concerned, and receiving the general appro-
bation of the Church, are confirmed and supported in the Society.
Section 4. Of the Ministerial Office in the Several Societies
OR Communities.
We 'further acknowledge and declare, covenant and agree that the
Ministerial Office and authority in any Society or Community of our
faith, which has emanated or may emanate, in a regular line of order,
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 273
from the center of union aforesaid, is, and shall be acknowledged, owned
and respected as the Spiritual and primary authority, of such Society or
Community, in all matters pertaining to the Ministerial Office. And
in case of the decease or removal of any individual of said Ministry, in
any such Society, his or her lot and place shall be filled by agreement
of the surviving Ministers, in counsel with the Elders of the Church and
others, as the nature of the case may require, together with the knowl-
edge and approbation of the Ministerial authority at New Lebanon afore-
said.
Section 5. Powers and Duties of the [Ministry.
We further acknowledge and declare, that the Ministry being ap-
pointed and established as aforesaid, are vested with the primary author-
ity of the Church and its various branches; hence it becomes their special
duty to guide and superintend the spiritual concerns of the Society, as
a body of people under their care and government; and in connection
with the Elders in their respective families and departments, who shall
act in union with them, to give and establish such orders, rules and regu-
lations as may be found necessary for the government and protection of
the Church and Society within the limits of their jurisdiction; and also
to correct, advise and judge in all matters of importance, whether spirit-
ual or temporal. The said Ministry are also invested with authority, in
connection with the Elders aforesaid, to nominate and appoint to office
Ministers, Elders, Trustees and Deacons, and to assign offices of care
and trust to such brethren and sisters, as they, the said Ministry and
Elders shall judge to be best qualified for the several offices to which they
may be appointed : — And we hereby covenant and agree that such
nominations and appointments being made and officially communicated
to those concerned, and receiving the general approbation of the Church
as aforesaid, or the families concerned, shall thenceforth be- confirmed
and supported until altered or revoked by the authority aforesaid. .
ARTICLE IL INSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.
Section \. The Object and Design of Church Relation.
We further acknowledge and agree, that the great object, purpose
and design of our uniting together as a Church or body of people in
social and religious compact, is, faithfully and honestly to occupy and
improve the various gifts and talents, both of a spiritual and temporal
nature, with which Divine Wisdom has blest us, for the service of God,
for the honor of the Gospel, and for the mutual protection, support, and
happiness of each other, as Brethren and Sisters in the Gospel, and for
such other pious and charitable purposes as the Gospel may require.
Vol. X— 18
274 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Sectiox 2. Who are Not Admissable into Church Relation.
As the unity, purity and stability of the Church, essentially depend
on the character and qualifications of its members ; and as it is a matter of
importance that it should not be encumbered with persons not duly quali-
fied for that distinguished relation: — therefore, we agree, that no mem-
ber of any company or association in business or civil concern ; no co-
partner in trade ; no person under any legal involvement or obligations
of service; no slave nor slave-holder, shall be deemed qualified for ad-
mission into the covenant relation and communion of the Church.
Section 3. Preparation for Admission into the Church.
In order that Believers may be prepared for entering into the sacred
privilege of Church relation, it is of primary importance that sufficient
opportunity and privilege should be afforded under the ministry of the
Gospel, for them to acquire suitable instruction in the genuine principles
of righteousness, honesty, justice and holiness; and also that they should
prove their faith and Christian morality by" their practical obedience to
the precept of the Gospel, according to their instructions. It is also in-
dispensably necessary for them to receive the uniting Spirit of Christ,
and to be so far of one heart and mind, that they are willing to sacrifice
all other relations for this sacred one. Another essential step is, to settle
all just and equitable claims of creditors and filial heirs; so that what-
ever property they possess may be justly their own. When this is done,
and they feel themselves sufficiently prepared to make a deliberate and
final choice to devote themselves wholly, to the service of God, without
reserve, and it shall be deemed proper by the leading authority of Church,
after examination and due consideration, to allow them to associate to-
gether in the capacity of a Church, or a branch thereof in Gospel order;
they may then consecrate themselves, and all they possess, to the service
of God forever and confirm the same by signing a written Covenant,
predicated upon the principles herein contained, and by fulfilling on their
part, all its obligations.
Section 4. Admission of New Members.
As the door must be kept open for the admission of new members
into the Church, when duly prepared, it is agreed that each and every
person who shall at any time after the date and execution of the Church
Covenant, in any branch of the Community, be admitted into the Church,
as a member thereof, shall previously have a first opportunity to
obtain a full, clear and explicit understanding of the object and
design of the Church Covenant, and of the obligations it enjoins
on its members. For this purpose he or she shall, in the presence
of two of the deacons, or acting Trustees of the Church, read said
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 275
Covenant, or hear the same distinctly read; so as to be able, freely,
to acknowledge his full approbation and acceptance thereof, in all its
parts. Then he, she, or they^ as the case may be, shall be at liberty to
sign the same, and having signed and sealed it, shall thenceforth be en-
titled to all the benefits and privileges thereof, and be subject to all the
obligations required of the original signers: And the signature or signa-
tures thus added, shall be certified by the said Deacons or Trustees,
with the date thereof.
Section 5. Concerning Youth and Children.
Youth and children, being minors, cannot be received as members
of the Church, in its Covenant relation; yet it is agreed that they may
be received under the immediate care and government of the Church,
at the desire or consent of such person or persons as have a lawful right
to, or control of, such minors, together with their own desire or con-
sent but no minor under the care of the Church can be employed therein
for wages of any kind.
ARTICLE III. OF THE TRUSTEESHIP.
Section 1. Appointment, Qualifications and Powers
OF THE Trustees.
In the establishment of orders in the various branches of the Society,
it has been found necessary that superintending Deacons or agents should
be appointed and authorized to act as Trustees of the temporalities of
the Church. Deaconnesses are also associated with them to superintend
the concerns of the female department. They must be recommended by
their honesty and integrity, their fidelity and trust, and their capacity for
business. Of these qualifications the Ministry and Elders must be the
judges. These Trustees are generally known among us- by the title of
Office Deacons, and being appointed by the authority aforesaid, and sup-
ported by the general approbation of the Church, they are vested with
power to take the general charge and oversight of all the property, estate,
and interest, dedicated, devolved, consecrated and given up for the bene-
fit of the Church; to hold, in trust, the fee of all lands belonging to the
Church; together with all the gifts, grants and donations, which have
been, or may be hereafter dedicated, devoted, consecrated and given up
as aforesaid; and the said property, estate, interest, gifts, grants and
donations, shall constitute the united and consecrated interest of the
Church shall be held in trust by said Deacons as acting Trustees —
in their official capacity, and by their successors in said office and trust
forever.
'276 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Section 2. Duties of the Trustees.
It is and shall be the duty of the said Deacons or acting Trustees
to improve, use and appropriate the said united interest for the benefit
of the Church in all its departments, and for such other religious and
charitable purposes as the Gospel may require; and also to make all just
and equitable defence in law, for the protection and security of the con-
secrated and united interest, rights and privileges of the Church and
Society jointly and severally, as an associated Community, as far as
circumstances, and the nature of the case may require. Provided never-
theless, that all the transactions of the said Trustees; in the use, manage-
ment, protection, defence and disposal of the aforesaid interest, shall be
for the benefit and privilege, and in behalf of the Church or of the Society
as aforesaid, and not for any private interest, object, or purpose what-
ever.
Section 3. Trustees to Give Information and be Responsible
TO Ministry and Elders.
It shall also be the duty of the said Trustees to give information to
the Ministry and EJders of the Church, concerning the general state of
the temporal concerns of the Church and Society committed to their
charge ; and to report to said authority all losses sustained in the united
interest thereof, which shall come under their cognizance; and no dis-
posal of the real estate of the Church, nor any important interest, in-
volving the association in any manner, shall be made without the pre-
vious knowledge and approbation of the Ministry aforesaid; to whom the
said Deacons or Trustees are, and shall at all times be held responsible
in all their transactions.
Section 4. Account Books and Books of Record to be Kept.
It is, and shall be the duty of the said Trustees or Official Deacons
'to keep, or cause to be kept, regular books of account, in which shall be
â– entered the debit and credit accounts of all mercantile operations and
ibusiness transactions between the Church and others ; all receipts and ex-
penditures, bonds, notes, and bills of account, and all matters per-
taining to the united interest of the Church ; so that its financial concerns
may be readily seen and known whenever called for by the proper au-
thority; — and also, a book or books of record, in which shall be re-
corded a true and correct copy of this Covenant; also all appointments, re-
movals and changes in office of Ministers, Elders, Deacons and Trustees;
all admissions, removals, decease and departure of members; together
with all other matters and transactions of a public nature which are neces-
sary to be recorded for the benefit of the Church, and for the preservation
»
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 27T
and security of the documents, papers and written instruments pertaining
to the united interest and concerns of the Church, committed to their
charge. And the said records shall, at all times, be open to the in-
spection of the leading authority of the Church, who shall appoint an
auditor or auditors to examine and correct any errors that may, at any
time be found in the accounts, and whose signature and date of inspection;
shall be deemed sufficient authority for the correctness and validity of the
facts and matters therein recorded.
Section 5. Trustees to Execute a Declaration of Trust.
For the better security of the united and consecrated interest of
the Church to the proper uses and purposes stipulated in the Covenant,
it shall be the duty of the Trustees who may be vested with the law-
ful title or claim to the real estate of the Church, to make and execute
a Declaration of Trust, in due form of law, embracing all and singular,
the lands, tenements and hereditaments, with every matter of interest
pertaining to the Church, which, at the time being, may be vested in him,
or them or that may in future come under his or their charge, during his-
or their Trusteeship. The said Declaration shall state expressly, that such
Trustee or Trustees hold si?«h lands, tenements, hereditaments and all
personal property of every description, belonging to the Church or So-
ciety, in Trust, for the uses and purposes expressed in, and subject to.
the rules, regulations and conditions prescribed By the Covenant or Con-
stitution of the said Church, or any amendments thereto which may
hereafter be adopted by the general approbation of the Church, and in
conformity to the primitive facts and acknowledged principles of the So-
ciety; and the said declaration shall be in writing, duly executed under
the hand and seal of such Trustee or Trustees, and shall be recorded in
the Book of Records, provided for in the preceding section.
Section 6. Vacancies in Certain Cases How Supplied.
We further covenant and agree, that in case it should at any time
happen that the office of Trustee should become vacant, by the death or
defection of all of the Trustees in whom may be vested the fee of the lands
or real estate belonging to said Church or Society, then, and in that case,
a successor or successors shall be appointed by the constitutional authority
recognized in the covenant, according to the rules and regulations pre-
scribed by the same; — and the said appointment, being duly recorded
in the Book of Records provided for in this Article, shall be deemed,,
and is hereby declared to vest in such successors, all the right, interest
and Authority of his or their predecessors in respect to all such lands,
property or estate belonging to the church or Society aforesaid.
278 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications,
ARTICLE IV. OF THE ELDERSHIP.
Section 1. Choice and Appointment of Elders.
The united interests and objects of Believers established in Gospel
â– order, requires that Elders should be chosen and appointed for the spirit-
ual protection of families, who are to take the lead in their several de-
partments, in the care and government of the concerns of the Church,
and of the several families pertaining to the Society. Their number and
•order should correspond with that of the Ministry. They are required to
be persons of good understanding, of approved faithfulness and integrity,
and gifted in spiritual administration. They must be selected and ap-
pointed by the Ministry, who are to judge of their qualifications.
Section 2. Duties of the Elders.
As faithful Watchmen on the walls of Zion, it becomes the duty of
the Elders to watch over their respective families, to instruct the mem-
bers in their respective duties; — to counsel, encourage, admonish, ex-
hort and reprove, as occasion may require; to lead the worship; to be
â– examples to the members of obedience to the principles and orders of
the Gospel, and to see that orders, rules and regulations pertaining to
their respective families or departments are properly kept.
ARTICLE V. OF FAMILY DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
The office of family Deacons and Deaconesses has long been estab-
lished in the Church, and is essentially necessary for the care, manage-
ment and direction of the domestic concerns in each family, order or
^branch of the Church. They are required to be persons of correct and
well grounded faith in the established principles of the Gospel ; honest and
faithful in duty, closely united to their Elders, and of sufficient capacity
for business. Of these qualifications the Ministry and Elders, by whom
they are chosen and appointed are to be the judges. Their numbers in
â– each family is generally two of each sex, but may be more or less,
according to the size of the family and the extent of their various duties.
Section 2. Their Duties and Obligations.
The Deacons and Deaconesses of families are entrusted with the
â– care and oversight of the domestic concerns of their respective families.
It is their duty to make proper arrangements in business ; to maintain
•good order; to watch over and counsel and direct the members in their
various occupations, as occasion may require; to make application to the
'Office Deacons for whatever supplies are needed in the several departments
•of the family: to maintain union, harmony and good understanding with
the said Office Deacons and Deaconesses; and to report to their Elders,
r
I
The Shaker Coiiiniuiiify of Warren County. 279
the state of matters which fall under their cognizance and observation.
But their power is restricted to the domestic concerns of their respective
families or departments, and does not extend to any immediate or direct
correspondence or intercourse with those without the bounds of the
Church : They have no immediate concern with trade and commerce ; it
is not their business to buy and sell, nor in any way to dispose of the
property under their care, except with the union and approbation of the
Trustees.
ARTICLE VI. PRIVILEGES AND OBLIGATIONS OF
AIEMBERS.
Section 1. Benefits and Privileges of Members in Church Relation.
The united interest of the Church having been formed by the free-
will offerings and pious donations of the members respectively, for the
objects and purposes already stated, it cannot be considered either as a
joint tenancy or a tenancy in common, but a consecrated whole, designed
for, and devoted to the uses and purposes of the Gospel forever, agreeable
to the established principles of the Church ; —
Therefore, it shall be held, possessed and enjoyed by the Church, in
this united capacity, as a sacred covenant right; that is to say, all, and
every member thereof, while standing in Gospel union, and maintaining
the principles of the Covenant, shall enjoy equal rights, benefits, and
privileges, in the use of all things pertaining to the Church, according to
their several needs and circumstances ; and no difference shall be made
on account of what any one has contributed and devoted, or may hereafter
contribute and devote, to the support and benefit of the Institution.
Section 2. Proviso.
It is nevertheless Provided, Stipulated and Agreed, that in case
any one, having signed this Covenant, shall afterward forfeit his or her
claim to membership, by renouncing the principles of the Society, or by
wilfully and obstinately violating the rules and regulations thereof, then,
and in that case, his or her claims to all the aforesaid benefits, privileges
and enjoyments, shall be equally forfeited.
Section 3. Obligations of Members.
As subordination and obedience are the life and soul of every well
regulated community; so, our strength and protection, our happiness and
prosperity, in our capacity of Church members, must depend on our faith-
ful obedience to the rules and orders of the Church, and to the instruction,
counsel and advice of its leaders: Therefore, we do hereby covenant and
agree, that we will receive and acknowledge our Elders in the Gospel,
those members of the Church, who are, or shall be chosen and appointed
280 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
for the time being, to that office and calling, by the authority aforesaid;
and also, that we will, as faithful Brethren and Sisters in Christ, conform
and subject to the known and established principles of our Community,
and to the counsel and direction of the Elders, who shall act in union as
aforesaid and also to all the orders, rules and regulations which, now are,
or which may be given and established in the Church, according to the
principles, and by the authority aforesaid.
Section 4. Duties of the Members.
The faithful improvement of our time and talents in doing good, is
a duty which God requires of mankind as rational and accountable beings,
and more especially as members of the Church of Christ — therefore
it is, and will be required of all and every member of this Institution,
unitedly and individually, to occupy and improve their time and talents
to support and maintain the interest of the same, to promote the objects
of this Covenant, and discharge their duty to God and each other, accord-
ing to their several abilities and callings, as members in union with one
common lead; so that the various gifts and talents of All may be improved
for the benefit of Each and all concerned.
Section 5. No Special Claims in Case of Removal.
As we esteem the mutual possession and enjoyment of the consecrated
interest and principles of the Church, a consideration fully adequate
to any amount of personal interest, labor or service, or any other contri-
bution made, devoted or consecrated by any individual; — so we consider
that no ground of action can he, either in law or equity, for the recovery
of any property, or service, devoted, or consecrated as aforesaid. And
we further agree, that in case of the removal of any member or members
from one family, society or branch of the Church to another, his, her,
or their previous signature or signatures to the Church or family Covenant
from whence he, she, or they, shall have removed, shall forever bar all
claims which are incompatible with the true intent and meaning of this
Covenant, in the same manner as if such removal had not taken place; yet,
all who shall so remove in union, and with the approbation of their Elders
shall be entitled to all the benefits and privileges of the family or order
in which they shall be placed, as they shall conform to the rules and regu-
lations of the same.
ARTICLE VII. DEDICATION AND RELEASE.
Section I. Dedication of Persons, Services and Property.
According to the faith of the Gospel which we have received, and
agreeable to the uniform practice of the Church of Christ from its first es-
tablishment in the Society, We Covenant and Agree to dedicate, devote
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 281
and consecrate and give up, and by this Covenant We do Solemnly and
Conscientiously dedicate, devote, consecrate and give up ourselves and
our services, together with all our temporal interest, to the service of God
and the support and benefit of the Church of Christ in this Community,
and to such other pious and charitable pjirposes as the Gospel may require,
to be under the care and direction of the proper constituted authorities
of the said Church, according to the true meaning and intent of the Cove-
nant, and the established rules and practice of the Church.
Section 2. Declaration and Release of Private Claim,
Whereas, in pursuance of the requirements of the Gospel, and in the
full exercise of our faith, reason and understanding, we have freely and
voluntarily sacrificed all self-interest, and have devoted our persons, ser-
vices and our property as aforesaid, to the pious and benevolent purposes
of the Gospel; — Therefore, we do hereby solemnly, and conscientiously,
unitedly and individually, for ourselves, our heirs and assigns, release and
quit-claim to the Deacons, or those who, for the time being, are the act-
ing Trustees of the Church, for the uses and purposes aforesaid, All
our private personal right, title, interest, claim and demand, of, in and
to the estate, interest, property and appurtenances so consecrated, devoted,
and given up: And we hereby jointly and severally promise and declare,
in the presence of God and before witnesses that we will never hereafter,
neither directly nor indirectly, under any circumstances whatever, contrary
to the stipulations of this Covenant, make nor require any account of any
interest, property, labor or service, nor any division thereof, which is,
has been or may be devoted by us, or any of us, to the uses and purposes
aforesaid, nor bring any charge of debt or damage, nor hold any claim,
nor demand whatever, against the said Deacons or Trustees, nor against
the Church or Society, nor against any member thereof, on account of
any property or service given, rendered, devoted or consecrated to the
aforesaid sacred charitable purposes. And we also ratify and confirm
hereby, every act and deed which we. or any of us, have acted or done
agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Covenant.
In confirmation of all the aforesaid statements, covenants, promises
and articles of agreement, we have hereunto subscribed our names and
affixed our seals, on and after this twenty-seventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord and Savior — one thousand eight hundred and forty-
one."
The above Constitution was the result of experience, owing
to the fact that undesirable members had been added from time
to time and who had made trouble on the score of property rights.
This Constitution is practically the same as that adopted in 1829
and no material change has been made since.
282 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Agreeable to the Constitution .of 1829, on March 18, 1830, all
the deeds and conveyances of land belonging to the Church (con-
taining at that time 3,642 acres), were collected for the purpose
of making out declarations of trust, which was accordingly done
and duly executed by all the Trustees.
The year 1830 was disastrous to both the Communities at
North Union and Whitewater, for a special record is made of
donations sent from Union Village. The year was marked by
some desertions from the ranks.
The years 1831 and 1832 were successful in the product of
corn, yielding 10,000 bushels for each year, but a disaster hap-
pened in the burning of the flax barn, the work of an incendiary.
The population in 1834 was 331. The year 1835 was one of
disaster and changes Caterpillars denuded the forest trees of
€very leaf and killed many. On the 9th of June the village was
visited by the most unparalleled freshet ever known. The water
fell to a depth of nine inches. All the mill-dams were swept away
or broken through. One-half the clothing, fulling and coloring
shops were swept away, and the oil mill shared a similar fate.
The tail-race of the great mill was filled with gravel and stones.
Much timber was carried off and the lands of the Big Bottom
were overflowed to a depth that would support a steamboat. The
leather in the tanyard floated out of the vats. The damage was
estimated at $25,000.
There were internal disorders that greatly afflicted the more
sedate and conservative. There was a manifest tendency to
looseness of discipline .and consequent disregard for good order
among the more giddy and thoughtless of the Society ; and even
some of the officers were not exempt from serious dereliction in
this matter. For a time it appeared that a crisis was approaching.
Many changes took place among the officers, and on October
4th Elder Solomon King announced that he would return East
for a season and that he had appointed Elder David Meacham his
successor, and on the 13th of the same month, in company with
Eldress Rachel Johnson, Eliza Sharp and Luther Copley, set out
for New Lebanon.
T'iie Shaker C'jmviimity of Warren County.
283
REIGN OF DAVID MEACHAM, 1 835 — 1 836.
The reins of government were assumed by David Meacham
on the day that Elder King took his departure. The Ministry
hving in the Meeting House now consisted of David Meacham
and Betsy Hastings, with Josliua Worley and Nancy McNemar
assistants. The advent of Elder Meacham and Eldress Betsy
gave great relief to the Society. While Elder King was a thor-
oughly good man, upright and pious, he did not possess the char-
acteristics so necessary for one in his position. The rebellious
EXTERIOR VIEW OF OFFICE.
and seditious met with a different reception with the new minis-
try, and were soon weeded out.
The heavy burden, which had grown to unbearable propor-
tions under Elder King — that of entertaining and receiving visi-
tors at the office — was done away with on October 7, 1835. It
also had an undesirable effect upon the younger and more
thoughtless members of the Society.
On November 30, Elder Meachem, accompanied by Elder
Matthew Houston set out for New Lebanon. On the 27th Stephen
Wells and David J. Hawkins arrived from the East, having been
sent to assist in regulating the temporal affairs of the Church.
After surveying the field, about the ist of January, 1836, it was
284 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
decided to make certain radical changes. This matter was put
to the vote of the Church and carried. It was decided to consti-
tute two interests of temporaUties in the Church ; and to this end
it was proposed that the first family should occupy the Brick
House, South House and North House, the South House to be
denominated the Second Order of the First Family. The second
Family was to occupy the North Lot buildings. The young Be-
lievers were to move to the West Section, and the West Brick and
West Frame families were to be the Gathering Order of the So-
ciety. The West Lot Family was to break up and move into the
West Brick and West Frame buildings. The East House Family
was to be scattered among other families and their former home
vacated. Two whole families were broken up and their homes
abandoned. The change began January 12th and required many
days before the work was completed.
The officers now stood as follows : Ministry †” David
Meacham, Joshua Worley, Betsy Hastings and Nancy McNemar.
Elders, First Order — Stephen Spinning, Andrew C. Houston,
Lois Spinning and Mary Hopkins. Elders, Second Order — Jo-
seph Johnson, John Babbit, Elizabeth Sharp and Nancy Milli-
gan. Elders, Second Family — Eli Houston, James Darrow, Caty
Boyd and Sally Sharp. Trustees, First Family — Daniel Boyd
and Ithamar Johnson. Trustees, Second Family — William Run-
yon and David Parkhurst.
On the 14th of February, 1836, a letter was read from Elder
Solomon King, who was still at New Lebanon, resigning his posi-
tion in the Ministry. The same letter stated that the New Leba-
non Ministry had appointed Freegift Wells, of Watervliet (near
Albany, N. Y.), to be first in the Ministry at Union Village.
The number of members at this time was 330, in the Church
Order 256, and 74 in the Gathering Order.
REIGN OF FREEGIFT WELLS, 1836 1843.
Elder Freegift Wells arrived at Union Village April 27,
1836, and on the same day was installed as First Minister of the
Society. On the Sunday following he received a hearty wel-
come. On August 7, Elder Freegift "bore a powerful and scath-
The Shaker Coniinunity of Warren County. 285
ing testimony against hidden iniquity and all manner of sin, con-
fessed or brought to light. Also the reading of newspapers on
the Sabbath.'' In 1842 the circulation of newspapers was inter-
dicted. On April 3, same year, "a very heavy restriction was laid
upon the Church, with regard to meats, drinks, medical and dom-
.€stic beverages, etc., under various degrees of limitation, accord-
ing to age and infirmity; the cause to commence on the loth in-
stant. Under these restrictions (with the above modifications),
the use was forbidden of pork, store tea, cofifee, tobacco and
strong drink." For fourteen years this was religiously kept,
when tea and cofifee were re-introduced.
During this reign, for the first time it is noted by our chron-
icler that the men wore drab clothing, which, doubtless, had al-
Avays been the custom. Every man made his own hat (until
1873), which was made of braided straw, and some of them were
so finely executed that they readily sold for $5 a piece. Fur hats
were purchased in the markets in 1837. It is also revealed that
there was a custom known as the "yearly sacrifice," which con-
sisted of a "general opening of the mind and confession of all
known sin, required, of all in the Society."
The year 1837 "was one of the most remarkable periods in
our whole history, at least up to this time. A remarkable revival
of religious zeal was prevalent throughout nearly the whole year.
The peculiar inspiration of the revival was that of pure love to-
ward each other, and a sorrow^ for our shortcomings in regard to
hard speeches and feelings toward one another. On Sabbath,
February 5, the Ministry attended meeting with us, at the Center
House, it being too inclement to use the Meeting House. Elder
Freegift read a discourse delivered by Mother Lucy Wright in
the East some years since. It was very solemn and impressive
and well adapted to our situation. He also strongly urged the
necessity of our gaining the gift of repentance of all wrong, and
in humiliation of spirit to labor for a deeper inward work. Alany
of the brethren and sisters were deeply afifected and wrought in
their minds and strove to lay hold of the gift. And this meeting
may be reckoned as the beginning of a very remarkable revival
and a time of peculiar refreshing in this place, together with the
286 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
preparatory work that preceded it. On the 12th the Church meet-
ing was, according to a journal kept at that time, 'one of the most
extraordinary of the kind we ever witnessed at this place. It was
attended with many mortifying and humiliating gifts, calculated
to unsettle and to free souls and enable. them to serve God in
spirit and in truth. Surely the spirit of the Lord is striving won-
derfully with this people ! This remarkable revival, thus inaugu-
rated, continued for many weeks without cessation, seeming to
grow more intense with every meeting. I have seen many meet-
ings wherein there was scarcely a dry eye, so overwhelmed were
we, not with sorrow, but with the love of God and tender feel-
ings toward each other. It seemed as though we never wanted to
break up, but remain to bless one another with our tender feelings
and forgiving spirit. I have seen, over and over, many parties
kneeling and asking each other's forgiveness for unguarded
words that had passed between them. I have noticed many times
the floor of the meeting house wet all over with tears after the
members had retired."
It was during the reign of Elder Wells -that Spiritualism
broke out among the Shakers and reached its highest tide. The
first notice of it occurred on March 25th, 1838, when two letters
from the East were read detailing the wonderful visions of Ann
Mariah Gofif, a girl of Watervliet, N. Y. On August 26th, in
church meeting, Elder Wells remarked upon the wonderful works
going on in other places, and added that it would eventually break
out among them. Immediately "many were taken under the
mighty shaking powder of the Spirit."
Oliver C. Hampton was a pronounced Spiritualist and
has much to say about the manifestations, and leaves us to infer
that astounding circumstances took place during the first seven
years of this phenomena ; but for the facts, and the instances and
special work, he refers the reader to " the several books," the
" Records " and the " Annals." It is claimed that the revelations
were caused to be made by Mother Ann Lee, who continued
among them until her final departure for Heaven; that even
Jesus Christ silently and unseen made a special visit among
them, and bestowed upon them " faith, charity and wisdom."
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 287
About the middle of :\Iay, 1839, "the Spirits of the Indians be-
gan to make their appearance to the Mediums, and this con-
tinued for many months."
Elder Hampton claimed that great good resulted from these
manifestations; and yet he tacitly admits there were many ex-
travagant features during the early period, for he remarks:
"In looking back over the whole ground covered by it, we
are able to see many things which happened during its advent that
were the consequences of a want of wisdom in the leaders of the
Society ; yet when these untoward features are allowed their
full weight and measure, there still remains a precious residuum,
partly outweighing all the more eccentric, in some cases, unfor-
tunate feature of this great work amongst us." Again he adds :
" About the latter part of !March, or beginning of April, of this
year (1839), the work thus far having been kept within the
limits of prudence and a Godly discretion, by the untiring efforts
of the good Ministry and Elders, now for a time took on a
phase, and was as it were pushed to an extreme, in several direc-
tions, which could not have been in unison with the Spirit of
our Blessed Alother ; but which the Leaders from some cause,
seemed unable or unwilling to interfere with, and embarrassing
the mediums; who also seemed conscientious to convey noth-
ing that did not come from goo"d and progressed spirits. But as
I am no pessimist, and have not one atom of faith in sending the
chronicles of ignorance, susperstition, or failure, down to future
generations ; and as recently, these indiscretions, were all finally
corrected, condoned and reconciled among all parties. I shall
draw the veil of oblivion over them, and let them rest in eternal
sleep."
The Hampton MS. is so vague on the subject of this phe-
nomena, and the subject, owing to its peculiar features among the
Shakers, so important, that I design preparing a special paper
on the subject. Hence I dismiss the subject here without further
reference.
On the 19th of February, 1843, the Church was notified
that Elder Freegift Wells, with consent of the Eastern Ministry,
had resigned his office of First Minister of Union Village, in
288
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
favor of John Martin, and would return to his former home at
Watervh'et, New York. On June 25, Elder Wells nominated
Jesse Legier to the second place in the Ministry, and on July 9th
took his final leave of the Society at Union Village, and set out
on his journey the 13th.
REIGN OF JOHN MARTIN 1843-1859.
According to the edict for the removal of John Martin, that
worthy stood in the Ministry since June 25, 1839. It was not a
LARGEST RESIDENCE. CENTER FAMILY
V
quiet reign, nor was there anything but might have occurred in a
period of sixteen years in any similar community. During the
incumbency of Elder Wells the large Center House was projected.
It was finished January 13, 1846. This is the most imposing
building ever erected in Union Village. The walls contain i ,000,-
000 brick. The next day after its completion the First Family
consisting of 170 persons, 112 of whom occupied the building,
took supper in it. Although the brick was burned on the Shaker
property and the timbers from their woods, and the greater part
of the labor performed by the Community, yet the expense was so
great that retrenchment was m.ade and economy strictly enforced
on the estate. During its erection a sad accident occurred, which
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 289
resulted in the death of Elder Andrew C. Houston, who, on Octo-
ber 7, 1844, fell from the third story and died the same day. His
death was not only a shock but also a great loss to the Society,
and by his attainments was equal to any office created by the In-
stitution.
^lalcolm Worley, the first Shaker convert in the West, and
the recognized leader of the " Great Kentucky Revival " died,
August 3, 1844, aged 82 years. His children, who had renounced
Shakerism, consisting of Joseph, Joshua and Rebecca, commenced
legal proceedings to recover the lands he had deeded to the
Church in 1812. The claim was put forth that Malcolm was not
sane. This suit dragged along until 1848, when the Supreme
Court decided in favor of the Shakers. The suit cost the latter
$1,200, and had they lost the case it would have taken the land
on which the principal buildings stand.
In 1843 the use of meat on Sunday was interdicted. The
question was seriously agitated of abandoning the use of
flesh altogether, but was decided that every person must be their
own judge. In 1848 all the hogs were sold, but afterwards a
few were kept to eat up the offal. In 1843 the raising of turkeys
was abandoned as a matter of economy.
As inventions increased and the population of the Soeiety
decreased, the various employments also changed. The stock
was now imported from abroad, and the Durham stock of cattle,
secured in England, gave the Shakers a great reputation for im-
proved brands. A spirit of speculation seized some of the com-
munity, but was frowned down by the older members. Garden
seeds and brooms became a great source of revenue. Development
and growth intellectually, were more or less active ; for the subject
of literature and the acquisition of books received more and more
attention, but resisted by the conservative leaders who held that
science was destructive to religion and dangerous to Christian
character.
Out of the Miller excitement of 1846, when it was declared
•that the time was at hand that all earthly things should end. there
was added 200 souls, whose minds liad been swept by the delusion.
Vol. X— 19
290 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
These people found relief in Shakerism, and constituted the great-
est accession ever had at one time. They were mostly sent to
Whitewater, were faithful and active adherents, and possessed
of the missionary zeal.
It has ever been a cardinal principle of the Shaker faith to be
charitable and benevolent. They have been exceedingly gener-
ous to the various communities when in distress, and also to
individuals appealing for assistance. During the great famine in
Ireland in 1847, the Society contributed 1000 bushels of corn.
That Quakers should become persecutors was not dreamed of
in our philosophy. On April 11, 1847, ^ Quaker girl, whose
father had died a Shaker, " went to Lebanon to choose a guardian,
and persisted in choosing Elder Hervey L. Eads in spite of all out-
side persuasions to the contrary and could not be turned from her
purpose. The Court had previously agreed that if the girl should
choose the said Elder Hervey, they would sanction the choice, and
turn the said girl over to him. This however they did not do,
and so her outside relations forced her away. She was taken to a
place about 14 miles distant, but ran away in the night, and was
back to the West Brick the next morning, having traveled the
whole distance afoot and alone. But a few days after, the Quakers
came and took her away by physical force and violence. And to
make assurance doubly sure, they sent her to the state of Michi-
gan, there to remain till she was of age. The persecuting spirit of
enmity shown by these Quakers on this occasion was astonishing."
During September, 1850, a sensation was caused about two
girls who had been bound to the Society, and on a writ of Habeas
Corpus were taken to Lebanon. After a full hearing before the
Court they were remanded to the custody of the Shakers. In the
early part of the year mob violence had been threatened (on what
pretext the Hampton MS. does not state), and even some des-
peradoes gathered at the cross-roads in a threatening manner.
An incendiary burned the cow barn at the West Brick, on
December 12, 1854, with all its contents, consisting of 22 cows and
4 calves.
April I, 1857, a tract of land, containing 1,500 acres, was pur-
chased in Clinton County, Ohio. The object was to start a
The Shaker Coiiimuiiity of Warren County.
291
colony, but as the enterprise proved a failure, some years later
the tract was sold for $30,000, — the purchase price having been
$18,000.
" Jehovah's Chosen Square " is first mentioned in tlie Hamp-
ton MS. for September 7, 1845. where the whole Society was
want to meet in the summer season, and tliere preached, announced
their faith, good resolutions, sang, marched, danced, etc., from
two to three hours, — then marched home singing most of the
way. This spot was an enclosed piece of ground of half an acre.
NEW cow BARN.
in the woods, about two-thirds of a mile from the Center Family,
to the North East.
During the reign of Elder Martin the population is given as
follows: In 1845 there were living at the Center House 107 per-
sons, 74 at the South and 76 at the North, or 257 in all ; in 1849
there were belonging to the First Order 153 persons, and 74 to
the Second Order, or 227 in all ; in December 1850 there were 164
belonging to the Center and y2 to the South Family ; in May 1853,
there were 241 members, and in April 1857 the membership num-
bered 264. "Up to this time, we had little foreboding of the fear-
ful decimation we were destined to experience in later times."
Owing to pronounced eccentricities exhibited by Elder Mar-
tin, in 1859, the Eastern Ministry having been consulted de-
292 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
puted Daniel Boiler, second in the Ministry at New Lebanon,
to visit Union Village. On January 30, 1859, Elder Boiler an-
nounced that Elder Alartin was released from the first gift and
Elder Aaron Babbitt should succeed him, with Peter Boyd as
second in the Ministry and Elder William Reynolds was placed
m the First Order of Eldership. These appointments were rati-
fied and confirmed by unanimous vote of the Church, and Elder
]\Iartin was directed to place his mantle upon Elder Babbitt.
REIGN OF AARON BABBITT, 1 859- 1 868.
Elder Aaron Babbitt, as First in the Ministry moved into the
Meeting House February 3rd, 1859. For the first time, in several
years, the Church Covenant was read, both to the First and Second
Orders, on the 27th.
Elder Babbitt was called to pilot the ship through the stormy
scenes of the Civil War. The war spirit, despite all efforts to the
contrary, seized possession of some of the younger members, who
enlisted. Others were drafted, and a fine imposed for not attend-
ing general muster. Through the machinations of Samuel J.
Tilden, the entire local conscription at New Lebanon, fell on the
Shakers. Secretary Stanton decided that the Shakers, as fast as
drafted should be furloughed, which was afterwards confirmed
by President Lincoln. Although the Shakers opposed war, re-
fused pensions and grants of lands for military services, observed
national proclamations for Thanksgiving or fasting and prayers,
yet they were not unmindful of the distress caused by such con-
flicts. To the Sanitary Fair, held in Cincinnati, in 1863, the
Shakers contributed the following: i| barrels tomato catsup, i
barrel sauer krout, 5 barrels dried apples, i barrel green apples,
4^ bushels dried sweet corn, 8 dozen brooms, 5 boxes garden
seeds, 10 gallons gooseberry sauce, and 5 gallons apple preserves,
— the whole valued at $158.50. Their energies were somewhat
paralyzed by being called upon to relieve the distress of their
brethren at South Union, Kentucky, who suffered from the horrors
of war.
Occasionally the Shakers have received members who had
gained considerable notoriety. In 1859 Richard Realf became a
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 293
member. He had been John Brown's secretary during the Kansas
troubles. He had undergone much suffering in estabHshing free-
dom in Kansas, and was often in the greatest of dangers. He
announced he was weary of the world and wanted rest. Being a
man of uncommon abilities, he was placed where he could rapidly
learn the thoughts of Shakerism. He soon became the greatest
preacher ever connected with Union Village, and was heard with
delight by both believers and unbelievers. His stay, however, was
brief. He soon longed for the ways of the world, became a
Major during the Civil War; afterwards was entangled by the
wiles of a woman and committed suicide.
In July 1859, an organized band of robbers, from Indiana,
made preparations to rob the community, but the design was ex-
posed by a member of the gang, and all necessary precautions
taken to thwart the purpose. About the first of March i860 quite
a large amount of wheat and clothing were stolen, and shortly
after a great number of shirts were taken. The thieves proved to
be apostates.
On March 4th, 1865 the Society lost by fire the Old North
House with its contents, which contained a tin shop, broom shop,
carpenter shop, shoemaker shop and sarsaparilla laboratory. The
loss was about $10,000. This loss was aggravated by the fact that
the Society was now $12,000 in debt. Although the constitution
forbid indebtedness, and many members were opposed to incurring
such a burden, yet the leaders decided that such, at times, was
wisdom.
Knitting machines were introduced in 1861. Previously the
sisters and girls wrought goods by hand, and their work was
sought for in the markets, knitted mittens and gloves sold readily
at $6 per pair.
The industries consisted of raising garden seeds, preserving
and packing herbs, manufacturing woolen goods, brooms, flour,
oils, extracts of roots for medicine, sorghum and of cattle. In
1862 there was manufactured 2 barrels of grape wine, 30 gallons
of currant wine and 60 gallons of strawberry for medicinal
purposes.
294 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
There were many things that agitated the colony during Elder
Babbitt's reign. The Shakers had taken great care of children,
but nearly all of them had left the community on arriving at lawful
age ; so that the care-takers were now few in number, and some-
what enfeebled by age. It became a serious matter whether any
more should be received. The questions of insurance against fire
and a change in the mode of dress were seriously discussed. In
1 867, owing to the depleted condition of numbers, there were grave
fears expressed that the Colony might become extinct. In 1867
the Eastern Ministry reprimanded the Community for regarding
a proposition to have the Society incorporated. " Can it be pos-
sible," say the Ministry, " that either the leaders of people of
Union Village, have lost sight of the only true Order of the
Church of Christ, and now wish to recede from their loyalty to
Gospel Principles, and instead thereof, introduce a wordly form
of Government ? We do not perceive that any temporal advantage
of importance would be derived from the introduction of laws gov-
erning corporate bodies, but we do see wherein it would sap the
foundation on which Christ's Church must stand. Should we
become a body politic, appointing our officers by ballot or vote,
we then should be left to drift with the worldly tide and the Pow-
ers of Earth and Hell w^ould most surely prevail against us. But
while we stand firmly on the Rock of Revelation, and maintain a
Covenant — consecrated whole, our sacred inheritance will re-
main secure from the ravages of worldly influences. Never, while
reason remains with us, can we extend the least toleration as
union toward permitting any Society of Believers to become an
incorporated body."
The population of the Church on March 17, 1859 was 255;
on January ist, 1865 it was 167, and 152 at the close of 1867.
On the 20th of July, 1868, the Eastern Ministry, then on a
visit at Union Village, divided the temporal interests heretofore
existing between the First and Second Orders of the Church,
and set ofT each Family to itself, as far as finances, lands and
houses were concerned. On the 26th, the same MinisTry an-
nounced that Elders Aaron Babbitt and Cephas Halloway were
released from their gift in the Ministrv, and should take the
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 295
Eldership at the First Family ; Elders Amos Parkhurst and Wil-
liam Reynolds should be the ^Ministry, and Elder Philip F. Antes,
to be First in the Eldership of the Second Family.
REIGN OF AMOS PARKHURST 1868-1875.
The reign of Elder Amos Parkhurst commenced on July 27th,
1868. It was not marked by any special occurrence, although
questions of vital interest to the Society transpired. The question
of great importance was that of indebtedness, but the manner
in which it was contracted does not appear. The blame is laid
largely on the shoulders of Aaron Babbitt. There had been a
large purchase of land, which the Hampton ]\IS. condemned,
owing to the paucity of their membership. Besides small tracts
there was purchased 257 acres, in 1864, at $70 per acre, and in
1869 another tract costing $9,000. In 1875 the indebtedness of the
Society amounted to $20,000, on which there was paid 8 and 9
per cent, interest. \\'hen the truth was revealed to the Society,
all w^ere appalled. Changes were at once made in the trusteeship.
Money, at a reduced rate, was borrowed from other Communities
of Believers, and the entire products of a portion of the estate
was devoted to the payment of the debt. This was placed in
the charge of Elder William Reynolds, and the first year liquidated
$2,000 of the indebtedness. In 1869, the woolen factory was dis-
mantled, as it could not compete with similar mills. August 6,
1870 an incendiary burned the large grain and stock barn, the
loss about $25,000.
During the months of May and June, 1870, Durham cattle,
to the amount of $11,535 was sold.
Singing school and instrumental music were introduced in
1870.
In 1871, a committee attended the Spiritualistic Convention,
held in Cleveland, and participated in the proceedings. The
Shakers and Spiritualists, on different occasions held conferences ;
but this was finally abandoned, for there was but little in common
between them.
The MS. first specially notices recreations in the memoranda
for 1871. During the whole period of their history the Elders
296 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
of the various Communities were given to visits. The general
members had their recreations in rides to neighboring towns,
picnics in the woods, and the Harvest ride was always celebrated.
The years 1873, 4 and 5 were marked by great agitation and
speculation about the revision of the Constitution. It was urged
that the leaders had two much and the lay members too little free-
dom, etc. It was left to Elder Hervey L. Eades of South Union,
to draw up a new Constitution. This production was so faulty
as to be rejected. During the depression in the money market,
in 1874, the Believers at Union Village gave away 4,300 meals of
victuals to the hungry poor.
On the 7th of July, 1875, Elder Giles B. Avery, second in
the Ministry at New Lebanon arrived at Union Village, and seven
days later the following changes took place : Eldress Sally Sharp,
who for many years had stood first in the Ministry was released,
and Eldress Naomi Ligier, was promoted from the Second to the
First place, and Eldress Adaline Wells, of Watervliet, Ohio, was
appointed Second in the Ministry. Elder Amos Parkhurst was
made -Second and Elder William Reynolds First in the Ministry.
REIGN OF WILLIAM REYNOLDS 1875-1881.
Elder William Reynolds became First in the Ministry on July
14th, 1875. This change appears to have been made owing to the
financial stress under which the Society was laboring. This dis-
tress was heightened by the failure of a bank in Lebanon, in 1877,
in which the Shakers had deposited the sum of $7,568, which was a
total loss.
This epoch notes three matters to the Shakers of much im-
portance, that came under discussion. From time to time much
commotion attended with acrimony, occurred between the pro-
gressive and conservative portion of the Society on the subject
of the wearing of beard. From the beginning it was the rule that
the beard should be shaved once a week, and oftener if the in-
dividual was so disposed. The Brethren of the progressives
thought to allow the beard to grow immunity would be secured
against throat and eye trouble. It was, after much labor and
discussion, permitted to those who plead health ; then allowed to
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 297
all within a certain prescribed mode; and, finally, the whole subject
was left optional. On January ist, 1881, at a business meeting it
was decided that some of the property should be insured. This
policy has ever since been carried into eiTect. Lively dancing and
the square step exercise had been a part of the religious exercises
from the beginning. May 27, 1880, it was announced that these
exercises would cease, owing to the decrease in numbers and the
members being too aged.
The intellectual improvement had received quite an impetus.
In 1 87 1 a Lyceum was established, which interested the younger
portion, and even some of the middle-aged. In it were taught,
grammar, composition, declamation, and correct language in ad-
dress. There were also rehearsals of comic and absurd pieces, as
well as recitations of serious, dictactic, poetic, and sententious
character. These proceedings were frowned upon by the Min-
istry, but in 1875, the Eastern Ministry being en a visit, after
witnessing an exhibition, gave it their approval.
The Shakers took advantage of the Ohio School laws, and
came under its provision, so that in 1879, there was a liberal
curriculum ; a Shaker teacher employed, which returned to the
Society $450 per year, which was not a large sum owing to
the taxes they paid.
An incendiary, on January 2, 1876, burned the North cow
barn with 39 head of cattle. This w^as supposed to have grown
out of a law suit about a rented peach orchard, which the Second
Society gained in Court, from an outsider. It was discovered that
the employment of hired help was not conducive to the best in-
terests of the Society. However, in later years, they were forced
to it.
Our Chronicler for 1878, remarks: "We began to feel
seriously, during this year, the want of more members and
greater efficiency and talent among those who from time to
time come in among us. They seemed to belong to a class that
were not in possession of either talent, or strength of purpose,
such as was necessary to the well-being and perpetuity of the
Institution, but we had to do the best we could with them, think-
ing they might answer the purpose of tiding over our depressed
298 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
condition, until better times might reach and favor us with better
material." The middle of the year 1880, the entire Society num-
bered only 162 souls.
For the year 1877, the Hampton MS. speaks on the subject
of funerals. " Our funerals have not thus far been described.
They w^ere, and are, devoid of all ostentation, and even the ground
in which we are interred, would never be suspected of being a
cemetery. It is leveled off and planted in forest trees, and the
spot where the remams of our dear friends lay, is not marked by
even a head or foot-stone. When one has deceased, the cadaver
is washed and wrapped in a shroud. At the proper time it is
placed in the coffin and allowed to be viewed by all who desire,
and especially at the close of the funeral. All who reasonably can,
are required to attend funerals, and if the weather is favorable,
also the burial. When the members are assembled, a solemn hymn
is sung, and then all are seated. The meeting is then addressed
by the Elder, or some one appointed to this gift. This is generally
followed by short and sententious discourse from any who feel
so disposed. In these expressions of sentiment, as well as that
of the chief speaker, an affectionate reference is had to the
merits and good qualities that were characteristic of the deceased ;
and also to the necessity of living a life here, that shall recom-
mend us to the Heavenly Home and the happy scenes to be en-
joyed by those who faithfully live in obedience to their highest
consciousness of right, while passing through the shades and
shadows of this rudimental sphere. The funeral lasts sufficiently
long to give every one an opportunity to speak who desires it, and
a second hymn, and a last view of the corpse closes the cere-
monies."
Eldress Sally Sharp died April 7, 1879, at the age of 80.
Nearly her entire life had been spent in the Society. For 39
years she was one of the Ministry, during 35 of which she was
First in the Order. She was just, upright and sincere, extremely
sympathetic, and took upon herself the sorrows and tribulations
of others.
Elder William Reynolds departed this life May 13, 1881,
deeply regretted by all. His whole life, after joining the Shakers,
The Shaker Community of Warren County. 299
was given to the upbuilding of the cause he had espoused. He
joined the Society in 1837, and died in his 67th year.
REIGN OF MATTHEW B. CARTER, 1881-189O.
The Eastern Ministry arrived at Union Village on June 9th,
1 88 1, and on the 15th appointed Matthew B. Carter and Oliver C.
Hampton to succeed William Reynolds and Amos Parkhurst.
The whole church, assembled for the purpose, sanctioned the ap-
pointment by the raising of hands.
The greatest event during the reign of Elder Carter, and
which distinctly marked the decline of Shakerism in the West
was the dissolution of the Colony at North Union, near Cleve-
land, after a career of 67 years. On May 23, 1889, the Union
Village and Eastern Ministry met the entire Society of North
Union, and then decided to break up the Colony and move the
members to Watervliet, near Dayton, O., and Union Village.
The dissolution took place on the 15th of the following October,
the greater part of the members going to Watervliet. The fol-
lowing December the North Union property was sold for $316,-
000. Then followed a long law suit. A part of the North
Union property was consecrated by "various members of the sur-
name of Russell. Certain heirs, not Shakers, brought suit to
recover the property. The court awarded the propert> to the
Shakers, after costing them $12,000.
Other disasters were encountered. On January 22, 1884,
the Elder at the West Frame Family, absconded with $500 be-
longing to that family, and probably appropriated still more.
On July 24, 1890, John Wilson, acting in the capacity of Farm
Deacon, took off and clandestinely sold $700 worth of stock and
left for parts unknown. In 1885. the Society commenced loaning
the Dayton Furnace Co. money, and all told $16,000. By 1890
they realized it was a case of misplaced confidence, and the work
of a shrewd lawyer. This loss was total. Added to all this there
must be mentioned a destructive cyclone that visited them on the
night of May 12, 1886. Several buildings were demolished, and
manv chimneys of other buildings were blown down ; hundreds
of acres of forest, ornamental and fruit trees were uprooted;
300
Ohio Anil, and His. Society Publications.
miles of fences blown away, and some stock injured. So great
was the calamity that it required quite a period to recover from it.
Foes within did incalculable damage. April 12, 1890, the
woodshed at the South House with a two story building were
burned. On the 29th the dwelling, wash-house, with all the
laundry machinery, and several outhouses were consumed.
This calamity broke up the old South House Family, whose
members now became scattered among other families. This
was considered the most disastrous occurrence which ever
happened in the Community. Believing that the fire was
the work of an incendiary, a detective was employed, who,
in a few days, caught the wretch in the very act of
trying to burn the West Frame Family dwelling. The vil-
lain was living among the Shakers. He confessed all and was
sent to the penitentiary for four years.
During February, 1884. a liberal donation was sent to the
sufferers made by the sudden rise of the Ohio River.
Elder Carter died suddenly July 24, 1890. Almost from
the beginning of his career among the Shakers he filled many
important places of care and responsibility. He was strictly hon-
est, modest and unassuming.
REIGN OF JOSEPH R. SLINGERLAND^ l890'
Dr. Jos. R. Slingerland.
The Ministry from New Lebanon
and Union Village, on August 21, 1890.
announced the following changes : Elder
Joseph R. Slingerland to be First and
Oliver C. Hampton Second in the Min-
istry. The first mention of Elder Slin-
gerland, in the Hampton MS. is for the
year 1888, when he is on a visit from
New Lebanon to all the Western So-
cieties. The second reference is for
April 19, 1889, when he arrives at
Union Village to make that his home ;
and on the 12th of the following May
was appointed Second in the Ministry.
The Shaker Coiiiiminity of Warren County. 301
Elder Slingerland is 59 years of age and joined the Shakers
51 years ago. His Hfe and philosophy is that of Shakerism in
which he believes implicitly. He has a broad mind which
no ism could thoroughly circumscribe. He strikes- out for him-
self and does his own thinking. He has read extensively and
keeps mentally abreast of the times. His mind is not only well
cultured, but his education excellent, besides havmg taken a
regular course in medicine. He is naturally reserved, but when
aroused or interested becomes animated and an excellent conver-
sationalist. His impulses are generous, but not blind to the fail-
ing of humanity. He is of the mental temperament, below the
average size, but not robust. With the exception of Elder Dar-
row, more has devolved on Elder Slingerland than any other
bishop of the Western Societies. With his sensitive nature he
has witnessed events which must have strained even his philoso-
phy. He was a principal factor in the management of the dis-
solution of the North Union and Watervliet Colonies ; and the
greater part of the burden rested upon his shoulders. The man-
agement of the law^suit over the North Union property rested
with him. During that litigation a singular circumstance took
place. It appeared that a vital point in the lawsuit was the
original covenant signed by the North Union members. Neither
this nor a copy could anywhere be secured. One night, in a
dream, he went to the now abandoned office of the North Union
Society, and in the northeastern room of that building he thrust
his arm to the pit in a pile of papers, and from the bottom drew
forth the desired document. The next morning he set out early
for North Union, so impressed was he by the dream. The train
arrived late in Cleveland. In the darkness he drove out to the
abandoned settlement, entered the building, felt around in the
darkness until he reached a pile of papers, thrust in his hand,
and pulied out a paper ; called for a light, and to his great delight
saw the desired paper.
It was during the month of October, 1900, that the Water-
vliet Community was dissolved, and its members, including those
of North Union, who had settled there in 1889, removed to
Union Village, and now constitute the North Family.
302 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
An effort was made in 1897 to start a colony near Brunswick,
Georgia, where previously, 7,000 acres had been secured. This
proved a failure. In 1898 the Society purchased over 40,000
acres in Camden County, Georgia, and placed on it a small colony,
mostly from Union Village.
The membership having not only greatly decreased (60 in
1897), but also in all the other Communities, and the majority
becoming old, the buildings began to show the effects of time
in so much so as to need repairs. Elder Slingerland supported by
the Eastern Ministry, although greatly opposed at home, in 1891,
set out repairs and improvements, on a gigantic scale. Modern
ideas and improvements now ruled the day. So extensive was
the plan that it required several years to consummate it. Not
only were the buildings looked after, but the same year ten miles of
hedge fence was contracted for, besides miles of wire fence placed
in order. The fields were now thrown into 100 acre lots. In
1893, pear, apple, cherry, peach and plum trees were set out to
the number of 1,900. In 1895, practically all the lands had been
rented, — the Society reserving the gardens and orchards.
A schism broke out in 1893, the nature of which is not
mentioned. It was finally amicably settled. The custom of
kneeling just before sitting down to dine, was abandoned in
1894. In 1895 the men were permitted to wear the hair in such
style as suited the individual. The wearing of caps by the sisters,
which had been rigidly enforced from the beginning, was aban-
doned in the same year.
The Hampton MS. ends with the year 1897.- "^^ ^^""^ com-
mencement of this year (1897), we had become so reduced, that
many serious thoughts were rife in the community as to the
continuance and perpetuity thereof ; if no better success attended
our efforts in gathering in persons from the world, to fill the
places of the fast declining members." It now became impos-
i:ible to fill all the necessary offices with suitable persons.
The MS. evidently is left in an unfinished condition. But
in a journal kept by Mr. Hampton, the record is brought down
to May 8, 1900. In this record we are informed that on January
.9, 1898, Oliver C. Hampton was released from his place as Sec-
Tht Shaker Community of Warren County.
303
Eliz. Downing.
ond in the Ministry, but continued preaching
until his death.
The ^Ministry at Union Village, at this
date (September 28, 1901,) is as follows:
First in the Ministry, Joseph R. Slingerland,
with second place vacant. First in the ]\Iin-
istry, on the Sisters side, Elizabeth Downing,
and Second, Mary Green Gass.
Elizabeth Downing, a direct descendant
of Oliver Cromwell, was born in Louisville,
Ky., in 1828, and has been a Shaker since
1840, living with the Community at Pleasant
Hill, Ky., until she was removed to Union Village in 1889, to suc-
ceed Louisa Farnham, as First in the Ministry, which occurred on
May 1 2th.
Mary Green Gass was born in England
in 1848, and from infancy has been a Shaker.
She was removed from Whitewater in 1897,
to become Second in the Ministry, having
been appointed February 21st.
To the present generation of Shakers the
name of Emily Robinson is sacred on account
of her many virtues. She became a Shaker at
the age of 8, and on May 12, 1889, was ap-
pointed Second in the Ministry and so con-
tinued until her death, January 17, 1897.
Thos who read my article on the Shakers
of North Union (Quarterly, July, 1900) may
be interested in the welfare of Clymena Miner,
who has been an Eldress since i860. She
saw the North Union Society in all its power,
and numbering 200 souls. She now sees the
remnant with but seven in number. Eldress
Clymena ]\Iiner was born in Painesville,
Ohio, December i. 1832; was taken to the
Shakers of North Union, by her mother, in
1839; removed to Watervliet, October 15,
Emily Robinson. ^gg^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ dissolution of that Socicty,
Mary G. Gass.
304 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
removed to Union Village, October ii, 1900, and is now in full
charge of the North or Second Family. Eldress Clymena is a
bright, vivacious lady, and is as pleasant a person as one would
desire to meet. She is well informed and an excellent conversa-
tionalist. She is devoting the remainder of her life to the care
of the people under her charge.
One of the most interesting characters at Union Village is
James H. Fennessy, who was born in Cincinnati in 1854, and be-
came a Shaker in April, 1882; Farm-Deacon in 1887, and Trus-
tee in 1898. In his honesty and business capacity the Society
has unlimited confidence. They believe that he will extricate
them from the most serious financial distress into which the So-
ciety has ever fallen. It is to be sincerely hoped that their ex=
pectations will be fully realized.
CONCLUSION.
As may be inferred the discipline of the Believers has been
greatly relaxed. Even assent to the Shaker faith is no longer
required. It is however demanded that the applicant for ad-
mission shall have a good moral character, and also to have a
healthy body and be under 50 years of age. Owing to the paucity
of their numbers, public meetings are no longer held and their
Meeting House is practically abandoned. Religious services are
now conducted in the chapel of the Center House. There appears
to be a general feeling among the Shakers of Union Village that
the days of their existence as a Community are drawing to a
close. The Shakers of the United States, from a membership
of 4,000 in 1823, have dwindled to less than 600 in 1901.
In closing I desire to state that I have received the utmost
courtesy, in the preparation of this article, from the Shakers of
Union Village. During its preparation I received a presentation
of a complete set of Shaker books, from the hands of Elder
Joseph R. Slingerland and Eldress Clymena Miner. By my so-
licitation, the former sent a selection of books to the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society. May these kind Shakers,
and all others of their faith, continue long in the land.
Franklin, Ohio, S'ept. 28, 1901.
The Pioneer Poet Lazvycr. 305
THE PIONEER POET LAWYER.
BY N. B. C. LOVE, D. D.
A volume lies before me, the property of the Wa-y Library,
Perrysburg, Ohio. It is called
'â– 'the forest rangers/'
It is a tale of the northwest wilderness of 1794. Wayne's March
and battles are a prominent feature, with possible incidents con-
nected therewith, both of fact and fiction.
The author was Andrew Coffinberry. Wright and Leg
were the publishers, Columbus, Ohio, 1842 I do not know
how large the edition, or the price, or popularity of the book. I
have knowledge of but two copies. I saw the author in Sidney,
Ohio, when I was a boy, in 1856, when he was 68 years old.
He came there horseback, dressed in Colonial style, excepting
the short knee breeches. He had a fine horse and his old style
and somewhat stately appearance attracted attention as he rode
through the streets.
Air. Coffinberry was born in IVIartinsburg, Berkeley County,
Virginia, August 20, 1788. His parents were German. They
moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1806, and to Lancaster, Ohio, 1807,
where he studied law, and to Perrysburg in 1836, when he acted
as the legal adviser of Governor Lucas in the "Michigan and
Ohio Boundary War."
Here, this year he was associated with Leonard B. Gurley,
the pioneer poet preacher, who was presiding elder of the Mau-
mee District, Michigan Conference.
As a lawyer Mr. Coffinberry ranked with his coadjutors,
such as Thomas Ewing, C. H. Sherman, William and Henry
Stanbery, G. B. Way, John C. Spink, H. S. Commager, M. R.
Waite and others. He had a grace and stateliness in court that
secured to him the title of "Count."
Judge James M. Coffinberry, Cleveland, Ohio, was his son.
sometime deceased. But it is not my purpose to write a memo-r.
Vol. X— 20
306 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
nor give incidents of his pioneer life in the practice of law in
Northern and Western Ohio, but to review his pioneer poem,
"The Forest Rangers."
In some parts it has real merit, but is quaint in its plot and
arrangement. Incidents, too, are introduced that clog instead
of beautifying the poem.
When it was written in 1842, Northwestern Ohio was largely
a wilderness. The Wyandot Indians were yet in their Sandusky
Reservation, and the various Indian tribes along the Maumee
had emigrated only four or five years before.
The poem is flavored with the aroma of the rivers, forests,
the wild, free life of the early Northwest, rather than with the
halls of learning and the environment of the culture of an older
civilization. It is divided into seven Cantos : The Capture, The
Narration, The March, The Hazard, The Rescue, The Prepara-
tion and The Conclusion.
In the Prelude, the primeval forests are described, and
a prayer offered to ,
"The sweet genius of the forest shade,
Where nature's treasures bloom,
And Flora decorates the glade."
Deign thy enchantment to impart,
To fan the latent flame
That swells and animates his heart,
A Bard without a name ,
Who fain would sing of wildwood fare,
The redman's vast retreat,
And paint its ills and terrors where
Its varied evils meet.
The first scene is on the x^uglaize River, where the
"Woodland warblers woke their lays,
Till the extended forest run
With joyous notes of Sylvan song."
Here we are introduced to a lone white man :
"A wildered stranger in the land,
All drenched with dew drops, reached her strand.'
The Pioneer Poet Lazcyer. 307
"He cautious trod the brushwood o'er,
Until he reached the River's shore,
Then bended low, his brows to lave
Beneath her cool and limpid wave,
To sooth and calm his fevered blood;
Then slaked his thirst from her pure flood-
Arising then, erect he stood,
And saemed the genius of the wood."
And as the poet scans him he exclaims :
"The man was six feet high in stature;
Genius and beauty marked each feature.
And whomsover glanced on him.
Discerned Herculean strength of limb."
His age seemed to be twenty- four years ; he was dressed
in dark green homespun, soiled with traces of blood. He seemed
intent on some important mission :
"The stranger here surveyed each pass —
Each inlet, copse and soft morass,
Observant still of every sound.
That woke the solitude around;
And every impress of the sand
His restless eye with caution scanned."
He then unpacked his sack and ate a hasty meal of har-
dened deer meat, then passed northward along the river's bank.
There is no mistaking here the Ranger of the Northwest
territory of a hundred years ago. And this stranger figures in
the poem to the end. Caution was necessary, for the Indians
were on the alert, and were congregating to meet Mad Anthony
Wayne. At the mouth of the Auglaize were
"Mustering strong the Kaskaskles,
Wyandots and Miamies,
Also the Potawatames,
The Delaware and Chippewas,
The Kickapoos and Ottawas,
Shawnoes and many strays
From almost every Indian nation."
These and other Indians had almost full occupancy of the
Northwest, and even after St. Clair's defeat up to the victory o£
â– 308 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Wayne. Many backwoodsmen and forest rangers, captured, had
been burned at the stake, or butchered in the presence of wife
and children.
"And thus the ruthless savage legion.
All the trackless Western region,
Save when the band of gallant Wayne,
Lay further westward in campaign."
Had full control. General Wayne's army at this time. May,
1794, was being augmented at Fort Wayne, where the City of
Fort Wayne now stands. At evening time the "Stranger" found
himself in the vicinity of an Indian village, Ockenoxy. It was
afterwards known as Sharloe, and was the old "Seat of Justice"
for Paulding County, Ohio.
A hungry panther followed the stranger as night drew on.
He was in a dilemma : a fire would protect from wild beasts but
would expose him to the Indians.
Just then, looking up a deep ravine,
"A hunter's fire he discried,
Then peering through with doubt and care.
He saw the hunter on his lair
Of broken bough all fresh and green,
Just wrenched from an adjacent linn."
The American "panther's eye behind him glared" and before him
the camp fire blazed. Then he resolved
"To rush on the human foe,
And life or death the truth to know."
And rushing up,
"By the nigh fire's flickering light
He saw the hunter's skin was white."
They were glad to meet each other and this second person, the
hunter, said, in the backwoodsmen's vernacular:
The Pioneer Poet Lawyer.
"Stranger, you're welcome to my fire,
Unloose your pack and set up nigher,
I tuck you for some Ingin whelp,
A sneaking around to get my skelp.
But then I thought it curious quite,
That my dog. Tray, should show no fight;
Well now sit down and dry your feet
While I get suthin' good to eat."
A conversation between the two followed, and the story in:
smoothly flowing rhyme is given. The hunter's story was in
brief : —
"I used to live on the Kenawas
Till burnt out by the devlish 'Tawas,
They killed my wife^ the poor, dear critter,
I never, never can forgit her."
His wife was not killed and burned in his cabin as he supposed
but was in captivity.
The supper prepared by the "hunter" for the "Stranger"'
friend was :
"Wild turkey reking from the coals,
And venison dried on slender poles,
Wild honeycomb as clear as air,
And water from the brook as fair.
Now furnished him a simple fast,
Most grateful to his hungering taste."
These together agreed to range the forest and hunt "In j ins.""
They found an open small prairie, and hid in some bushes that
they might see any one passing near.
They concluded, however, that it was better to find and
join the Army of Wayne, for
"Watch as you may that sooner or late,
You will fall a victim to their hate."
The Stranger tells his friend his story:
"1 go to seek a captive maid
And trust in heaven to give her aid
Wlith belief that General Wayne
In this dire strait, may lend some train,
I now persue this toilsome route
To range the wood and find him out.
â– 310 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
The maid and I were seized together,
As thoughtlessly we trod the heather
Between the River and the Bayou,
Along the margin of the Ohio."
He tells how he killed his captors and escaped, all of which is
sensational, yet no doubt true to life. He had thought himself
lost in the great forest, and was happy to know nearly where
he was.
The hunter's sympathy was aroused, and he said to the
stranger : —
"And so I will go with you through,
And help you hunt for General Wayne,
And if so be he gives you men,
To hunt your gal the wildwood through,
Then, stranger, I'll hunt with you too."
This hunter's name was Thomas Gibbs. As the two men and
Tray slowly crawled through the tangled woods, the dog silently,
indicated the nearness of Indians. The hunter put his ear hard
•on the ground, and said he heard three men walking, and, peer-
ing closely he saw the three about a hundred yards distant.
Picking their men, with two balls they did their work, and two
Indians fell. The third escaped.
Rushing up they found one dead, but the other only stunned.
He proved to be a white man in Indian costume, and was the
notorious Simon Girty. They were happy and continued toward
Wayne's Army, but were waylaid, and in turn were taken pris-
oners, and Girty taunted them with the horrid execution they
should receive.
The Poet leaves the rangers in captivity and takes the reader
to Girty's Point or Island, six miles above Napoleon, Ohio.
When the writer visited this historic scene thirty years ago, the
place belonged to Elijah Gunn. The island then was clothed in
great luxuriance of native timber, such as walnut, elm, poplar,
sycamore and linn, also a smaller growth of willows and iron-
wood. I have heard the early pioneers tell many interesting
stories of this location in the pioneer days, which I will not
Tepeat here.
The Pioneer Poet Lawyer. 311
At this place in 1794 was Girty's headquarters and to. this
point was "Juha" broug-ht, "A maiden of seventeen years" and
the married woman known as "Nancy." This woman was evi-
dently of Scotch-Irish origin and was a fair specimen of the
uncultured pioneer young wife, loyal, brave and kind.
"The matron's age seemed to be
Tween twenty-one and twenty-three ;
Her constitution firm and sound,
Her stature, graceful, tall and round.
Her visage though much weather tanned.
Was open, generous and blond;
Her eye with kind affection beamed.
And time had been when she was deemed
A rural belle, and did obtain
The praise of many a rustic swain."
And the young lady captive is described :
"The nymph was beautiful as light,
Her skin was almost alabaster white,
Save, to her cheeks was lent
The damask roses' richest tint.
Her lips when parted did disclose,
Two fair and perfect pearly rows.
Her silky inglets, jetty hue
O'er her fairneck their contrast threw;
Her raven brow in arch praise,
Lent grace and lustre to her eyes;
Those sparkling orbs of purest blue,
Evinced a kindly heart and true ;
Proportions of the fairest mould."
Oft repeated efforts at winning the hand and heart of this
beautiful captive were made by Girty, and by intimidation and
the persuasive powers of the matron w^ere, as Girty thought, in
the same direction, but without avail.
The matron was claimed by a high and honorable minded
Chief who saw only in her redemption money. The maiden had
a history. I give it briefly in part, epitomizing the poem :
"Her father's name was Henry Gray
And dwelt on Chesapeake bay."
312 Ohio Arch, and His. Societv Publications.
She .was sent to college and just a short time before her gradu-
ation her parents died, her uncle being executor and he dying,,
his son came into possession of the estate and business. This
cousin became infatuated with her. She had, however, fallen
in love with George Vernon, a fellow student. Her cousin by
intercepting letters and interpolating, secured an estrangement
between the young lady and George.
Her cousin selling out all the possessions, with his mother,
sister and Julia started for New Orleans, by the way of Wheel-
ing, promising the latter to set her off in Kentucky, so she
might live with an uncle. This promise he did not propose keep-
ing, and his sister told Julia all about his designs. These she
communicated to George by letter and pleaded with him to rescue
her. This he did by intercepting the flat boat and getting
aboard, he induced the cousin of Julia to tie the boat up until
he could confer with her, which was done on the Ohio side.
When ashore George and Julia were captured by the Indians
and carried by different captors into the wilderness. The story
is told in verse and often well, although much of it is rhyming
prose.
Julia ends the narrative saying:
"I saw not but as if entranced,
I felt myself with force advanced,
Far up the rugged wood crowned hill
By painted ruffians at their will."
The next division has to do with the marching of Wayne's
x'Vrmy.
The inroads of the Indians and their triumph over General
Harman's and Wayne's armies made them' insolent and ag-
gressive :
And a nation's tears and wrongs,
Roused to her aid heroic throngs,
To quell her border strife —
Into the forest depths they go,
And fight where lurks the foe,
Or cease with ceasing life.'
The Pioneer Poet Lawyer. 313-
V lyne's Army assembled ;
"Where the St. Joseph swept along —
And the St. Mary's poured her purHng tide."
And here the backwoodsmen,
"Each with his sack beneath his head,
Lay on simple greensward bed."
Which was more comfortable
"Than midst a sultry August air,
In a narrow crowded tent."
With the morning-;
"The doubling sounds of drum and fife.
Awoke a scene of busy life,
And did for the stern march prepare,
Along with Miami's banks where
They hoped to meet the lurking foe,
In steady cgmbat, blow to blow."
While the descriptions of the make-up of the Army, its
commissary clothing-, military drill, marching, amusements, etc.,
are often entertaining and instructive, I cannot use the space to
transfer them in this article.
The army underway plodded through sw^amps and forests,
planted a fort at Defiance, and soon sought and found the massed
Indian brows under Turkeyfoot at the foot of the Rapids — the
results are known. The poem at length describes all. During-
this time the captives w^ere with Girty's band. The stranger
and Gibbs the Hunter saw the captives bound to the stake and
the lighting of the fires about them, and slipping in the darkness
nearer from the river, filled their caps with water and with yells
and great noise rushed to their rescue and quenched the lighted
fires and their persecutors panic-stricken fled ; and the captives,
in the night, no one speaking a word, with their deliverers
reached Wayne's Army, which was then only a few miles distant.
The Forest Rangers turned over their captives. Next
morning when Gibbs called to see the captives, to his great
astonishment and joy, found Nancy, the matron, as one raised
from the dead, and his beautiful boy whoiri he had not before
314 ^ Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications-
seen. George Vernon calling a few minutes later recognized
Julia, his affianced, and —
"Julia was all blushing in her charms,
Was given to her lover's arms."
And thus ended all the toils and dangers
Of these praiseworthy "Forest Rangers.'
Simon Girty fought in the battle of the "Fallen Timber"
and wounded and branded by white men and red fled to Canada.
Here ends this early epic poem of the Maumee Valley. It
is worthy a place in the Library of all who delight in pioneer
literature, which gives correct and graphic views of this heroic
period of 1794. While a hundred years ago there were those
in the Northwest who wrote verses, most of which were the
crudest doggerels, yet an occasional gem fell from their pens,
but one only wrote an epic, Count Coffinberry. Critically there
is little to be said of the poem, it has faults and blemishes but
it is correct in rhythm, accent, rhyme, and flows as gracefully
along as the Miami of the Lakes in the leafy month of June.
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 315
T^E SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS.
BY H. W. COMPTON.
The construction of Fort Meigs by General William Henry
Harrison in the early spring of 1813, and its siege by the British
general, Proctor, and the renowned chief Tecumseh in May of
that year, was one of the important incidents in the war of 1812.
But few of those who now look at the ruins of Fort Meigs, slum-
bering upon the high, grassy plateau opposite the village of
Maumee, can realize the fearful struggle that took place amid
those peaceful surroundings from May first to May fifth, 1813.
The incessant roar of heavy artillery, the ceaseless rattle of mus-
ketry, the shock of arms in the onset of contending soldiers, British
and American, mingled with the piercing yells of Tecumseh's
infuriated savages, for five days and nights, during the frightful
siege, broke the quiet of the valley, now dotted with its peaceful
homes and prosperous villages. To understand aright the his-
toric importance of Fort Meigs' struggle in the War of 1812 it
will be necessary to review the events leading up to the construc-
tion of that important stronghold, recount the main events of its
successful resistance to armed invasion, and then point out the
beneficent result that ensued from the valorous defense by Har-
rison and his beleaguered heroes.
The War of 1812, or "Madison's War," as it was called by
unfriendly critics of the administration, was declared June eigh-
teenth, 1812. There was great opposition to the war in the sea-
board states, especially among the bankers, merchants and manu-
facturers. A war with England was greatly dreaded, as our weak
country was then just beginning to recover from its long and ex-
haustive struggle for independence and was beginning to reap
some of the fruits of peace and prosperity. Many believed that
we had nothing to gain and much to lose by a war with England,
as she had great armies in the field and practically ruled the seas.
But the provocation to war was great, and the national pride and
indignation of the Americans was roused to the highest pitch by
the insolent aggressions of England toward our commerce and
our sailors. England's "Orders in Council," in reprisal for
316
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
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The Siege of Fort Meigs. 317
Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, excluded our merchant ships
from almost every port of the world, unless the permission of
England to trade was first obtained. In defiance of England's
paper blockade of the world our ships went forth to trade with
distant nations. Hundreds of them were captured, their contents
confiscated and the vessels carried as prizes into English ports.
But this was not all. The United States recognized the right of
an alien to be "naturalized" and become a citizen of this country,
but England held to the doctrine, "Onc& an Englishman always
an Englishman." In consequence of this our ships were inso-
lently hailed and boarded by the war sloops and frigates of Eng-
land and six thousand American sailors in all were dragged from
our decks and impressed into the British service. In addition to
these insults and aggressions it was well known to the United
States that English agents in the Northwest were secretly aiding
and encouraging the wild Indian tribes of the Wabash and Lake
Superior regions to commit savage depredations upon our frontier
settlements. About this time an Indian chieftain of the Shaw-
anese tribe, Tecumseh by name, like King Philip and Pontiac
before him, conceived the idea of rallying all the Indian tribes
together and driving the wTiite men out of the country.
Tecumseh was of a noble and majestic presence, was pos-
sessed of a lofty and magnanimous character and was endowed
with a gift of irresistible eloquence. Tecumseh had a brother
called the Prophet, who claimed to be able to foretell future events
and secure victories and effect marvelous cures by his charms and
incantations. Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory,
was active in securing Indian lands by purchase and treaty for
supplying the oncoming tide of white men who pressed hard upon
the Indian boundary lines. Tecumseh and the Prophet sent their
emissaries abroad and organized a great confederacy which re-
fused to cede the title to the lands of the Wabash valley, as had
been agreed upon by separate tribes. They even came down into
the valley and built a town where Tippecanoe Creek flows into
the Wabash. Harrison, alarmed at these signs of resistance,
called the plotters to account. The Prophet, all of whose machina-
tions were based upon fraud and deception, denied everything.
But Tecumseh marched proudly down to Vincennes with four
318 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
hundred braves behind him and in the council, in a speech of great
eloquence and power, set forth the burning wrongs of his people
and asked for justice and redress.
When Tecumseh had finished, an officer of the governor
pointed to a vacant chair and said, "Your father asks you to take
a seat by his side." Tecumseh drew his mantle around him and
proudly exclaimed, "My father! The sun is my father, and the
earth my mother, in her bosom I will repose." He then calmly
seated himself upon the bare ground.
But the plotting and the intriguing among the hostile Indians
continued, Tecumseh traveling everywhere and inciting a spirit
of war and defiance. Harrison became alarmed at the formidable
preparation of the savages and marched from Vincennes with
ntne hundred soldiers to disperse the hostile camp at Prophet's
town on the Wabash at Tippecanoe, The chiefs came out to meet
him and with professions of friendship promised on the next day
to grant all that he desired. Harrison was deceived by this recep-
tion and encamped upon the spot which the chiefs pointed out.
In the dark hours of the early morning the treacherous Prophet
and his inflamed followers crept silently upon the sleeping soldiers
of Harrison, shot the sentinels with arrows and with frightful
yells burst into the circle of the camp. At the first fire the well-
trained soldiers rolled from their blankets and tents and with
fixed bayonets rushed upon their red foes. For two hours a
bloody struggle ensued, but the valor and discipline of the whites
prevailed. The Indians were scattered and their town was burned.
Tecumseh was not present at the battle of Tippecanoe, but the
Prophet, at a safe distance upon a wooded height, inspired his
braves by wild hallooings and weird incantations. His pretenses
were so discredited by the result of the battle that he was driven
out of the country and sank into obscurity. But not so with
Tecumseh. His heart was filled with rage and hatred against
Harrison and the American soldiers. He knew that war was just
trembling in the balance between England and the United States.
He immediately repaired to Maiden at the raouth of the Detroit
river and proffered the aid of himself and his confederacy against
the United States. This famous battle of Tippecanoe, fought in
the dark. X'ovember seventh. 1811, was really the first blow
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 31&
struck in the war which was openly declared in the following June.
The Indians now fondly hoped that the English would deliver
their country from the grasp of the Americans. And the English
on their part were profuse in their promises of speedy deliver-
ance and in their gifts of arms and supplies of all kinds. The war
in the west was indeed but another struggle for the possession
of the lands between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. And
had England won in the contest, not Tecumseh and his confed-
eracy would have had the hunting grounds of their forefathers
restored, but Canada would have been enlarged by the addition
of the Old Northwest to her own domain. It was far easier
for the United States to declare war than to prosecute it to a suc-
cessful issue. Our country was without an army and without a
navy and had but scanty means for creating either. England had
armies of experienced veterans and a vast navy. Ohio had less
than 250,000 inhabitants and her line of civilized settlements did
not extend more than fifty miles north of the Ohio River. What-
ever part Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky should play in the contest
must be done by conveying troops and munitions of war over a
road two hundred miles long through the wilderness.
As the campaign was planned against Canada these supplies
for the raw recruits of the west had to be transported northward
over roads cut toward Lake Erie and Detroit through the swamps
and tangled morasses of the unbroken forest. The line of contest
between the two nations was over five hundred miles long, extend-
ing from Lake Champlain to Detroit. The Americans held three
important points of vantage, Plattsburg, Niagara and Detroit.
The British hsld three on the Canada side of the line, Kingston,
Toronto and Maiden. At the latter place (now Amherstberg)
the British had a fort, a dockyard and a fleet of war vessels, thus
controlling Lake Erie. The Americans soon had three armies
in the field eager to invade and capture Canada. One under Hull,
then governor of Michigan Territory, with two thousand men,
was to cross the river at Detroit, take Maiden and march east-
ward through Canada. Another army under A^an Rensselaer was
to cross the Niagara River, capture Oueenstown. effect a junction
with Hull and then capture Toronto and march eastward on Mon-
treal. The third annv under Dearborn at Plattsburg was to cross
320 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the St. Lawrence, join Hull and Van Rensselaer before Montreal
and capture that city. The combined forces were then to march
on Quebec, take that city and thus complete the invasion and con-
quest of Canada. This fine program was not carried out. It
would have taken the combined genius of a Napoleon and a Caesar
to have executed such a plan of battle over such immense dis-
tances.
The plain truth is the Americans had in the field at this time
only raw, ill-disciplined troops and absolutely no generals with
abilities which fitted them to command such expeditions. Hull,
according to orders, crossed the Detroit River to Sandwich and
there in vacillating indecision dawdled away the time for several
weeks without advancing upon Maiden only a few miles away.
When he heard that Mackinac Island had fallen into British
hands he began to quake in his boots, and thought of retreating.
Soon he received news that an Ohio convoy destined for Detroit
had been attacked and was in danger of capture. This settled it.
Hull quickly retreated across the river to Detroit with all his
forces Avith no thought but for protecting his own line of com-
munication, for he had reached Detroit originally from Urbana
by a road which he had cut through the wilderness by way of
Kenton and Findlay. Brock, the brave and skillful British gen-
eral commanding at Maiden, immediately followed Hull across
the river and demanded the surrender of Detroit with threats of
a massacre by his Indian allies if Hull did not comply. To his
credit be it said, Hull refused, and the Americans prepared for
battle. Brock marched up to wathin five hundred yards. The
Am.ericans were ready and eager for the fray and the artillerymen
stood at their guns with lighted matches, wdien to the dismay
and shame of all, the Stars and Stripes was lowered from the
flag staff of the fort and the white flag of surrender was run up.
Hull had weakened at the last moment and had given up the whole
of ^Michigan Territory, and also Detroit with all its troops, guns
and stores, and even surrendered detachments of troops twenty-
five miles distant. The officers and soldiers of Hull were over-
whelmed with rage and humiliation at this cowardly surrender.
The officers broke their sw'ords across their knees and tore the
epaulets from their uniforms. Poor old Hull, it is said, had done
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 321
good service in the Revolutionary War, but he had reached his
dotage and his nerve had departed, and moreover he had a daugh-
ter in Detroit whom he dearly loved and on whose account he
dreaded an Indian massacre.
Hull's troops had also been greatly diminished in numbers,
the government had been negligent in reinforcing him and he was
confronted by about one thousand British soldiers and fifteen hun-
dred bloodthirsty Indians. These facts may have helped to lead
him into this shameful and cowardly capitulation. Hull was after-
wards courtmartialed and tried on three charges of treason, cow-
ardice and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was convicted on
the two latter charges and was sentenced to be shot, but was sub-
sequently pardoned on account of former services.
Another disaster in the West accompanied Hull's surrender.
When he heard Mackinac had fallen he at once sent Winnimac,
a friendly chief, to Chicago, and advised Captain Heald, com-
manding at Fort Dearborn, to evacuate the fort with his garrison
and go to Fort Wayne.
Heald heeded this bad advice. He abandoned the fort with'
his garrison of about sixty soldiers, together with a number of
women and children. He had nO' sooner left the precincts of the
fort than his little company was attacked by a vast horde of treach-
erous Pottawatomies who had pretended to be friends but who
had been inflamed by the speeches and warlike messages of
Tecumseh. The little band of whites resolved to sell their lives
as dearly as possible and defended themselves with the utmost
bravery, even the women fighting valiantly beside their husbands.
During the fray one savage fiend climbed into a baggage wagon
and tomahawked twelve little children who had been placed there
for safety. In this unequal contest William Wells, the famous
spy who had served Wayne so well, lost his life. Nearly all of the
little Chicago garrison were thus massacred in the most atrocious
manner. In the meantime Van Renssellaer's army at Niagara had
failed to take Queenstown and a part of it under Winfield Scott,
after a brave resistance, had been captured. Dearborn's army on
Lake Champlain passed the summer in idleness and indecision,
and accomplished nothing.
Vol. X — 21
322 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Thus closed with failure and disaster the campaign of the
year 1812.
January, 1813, opened with still another tragedy of the divest
character. General Winchester had been appointed to the chief
command of the army of the west after the surrender of Hull;
but this appointment raised a storm of opposition among the
troops, who desired General Harrison to be in supreme command.
Harrison was extremely popular among the soldiers. His great
energy and his remarkable military abilities were well known,
and, moreover, he was the hero of Tippecanoe. Accordingly,
in obedience to the popular demand, Harrison, in September of
181 2, was appointed to the chief command of the army of the
west. But Winchester still continued to retain an important
command, and in January of 1813 he marched his troops from
Fort Wayne and Defiance down the north bank of the Maumee,
over Wayne's old route, to the foot of the Rapids, in the hope
that he might be able to do something to repair the disaster of
Hull's surrender. On his arriving at the Rapids, messengers
from Frenchtown (now Monroe) informed him that a force of
British and Indians were encamped at Frenchtown and were
•causing the inhabitants great loss and annoyance. Winchester
at once set out for Frenchtown and on January nineteenth attacked
and completely routed the enemy at that place. Had he then
returned to the Rapids he would have escaped the terrible disaster
which followed. The full British force was at Maiden only
•eighteen miles away. A force of fifteen hundred British and
Indians immediately marched against Winchester and attacked
him early on the morning of the twenty-second. The battle was
fierce and stubborn. The Americans had no entrenchments or
protection of any kind and were overwhelmed by superior num-
bers. Those who were still alive, after a bloody resistance, were
compelled to surrender. Then followed such a scene of carnage
as has seldom been witnessed. Proctor, the British commander,
stood calmly by while his Indian allies mutilated the dead and
inflicted the most awful tortures upon the wounded. Even those
who had surrendered upon condition that their lives should be
spared were attacked by these savage butchers with knife and
tomahawk. The awful deeds that followed the surrender have
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 323
covered the name of Proctor with infamy and have made "The
Massacre of the Raisin" a direfnl event in history. When the
appalhng news of the massacre reached the settlements the people
of Pennsvlvania, Kentucky and Ohio girded themselves for
revenge. Ten thousand troops were raised for Harrison and it
was determined to wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender and
avenge the awful death of comrades and friends so pitilessly and
treacherously butchered on the Raisin. "Remember the Raisin,"
was heard in every camp and issued from between the set teeth
of soldiers who in long lines began converging toward the Rapids
of the Alaumee.
It was under such circumstances as these, with two armies
swept away and the country plunged in gloom, that General Har-
rison began with redoubled energ\^ to get together a third army.
He at first thought of withdrawing all troops from northwestern
Ohio and retreating toward the interior of the state. But upon
second thought he resolved to build a strong fortress upon the
southern bank of the Maumee at the foot of the rapids which
should be a grand depot of supplies and a base of operations
against Detroit and Canada. Early in Februarv' of 1813, Harri-
son, with Captains Wood and Gratiot of the engineer corps,
selected the high plateau of the ^laumee's southern bank lying
just opposite the present village of Maumee. As the British com-
manded Lake Erie this was a strategic point of great value and
lay directly on the road to Canada. Below it armies and heavy
guns could not well be conveyed across the impassable marshes
and estuaries of the bay. It was a most favorable position for
either attack or defense, for advance or retreat, for concentrating
the troops and supplies of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio and In-
diana, or for effectively repelling the invasion of the British and
their horde of savage allies from the north. The construction of
the fort was begun in February and originally covered a space
of about ten acres. It was completed the last of April, and was
named Fort Meigs in honor of Return Jonathan Meigs, then gov-
ernor of Ohio. The fort was in the form of an irregular ellipse
and w^as enclosed by sharpened palisades fifteen feet long and
about twelve inches in diameter, cut from the adjoining forest.
In bastions at convenient ansfles of the fort were erected nine
324 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
strong blockhouses equipped with cannon, besides the regular gun
and mortar batteries. In the western end of the fort were located
the magazine, forges, repair shops, storehouses and the officers'
quarters. Harrison knew that Proctor was preparing at Maiden
for an attack on the fort and that he would appear as soon as the
ice was out of Lake Erie. On April twenty-sixth Proctor arrived
in the river off the present site of Toledo with four hundred regu-
lars of the Forty-first regiment and eight hundred Canadians, and
with a train of heavy battering artillery on board his ships. A
force of eighteen hundred Indians under Tecumseh swept across
in straggling columns by land from Maiden. The British landed
at old Fort Miami, a mile below Fort Meigs, on the opposite side
of tlie river. Fort Miami was then in a somewhat ruined con-
dition, as the British had abandoned it shortly after Wayne's
victory eighteen years before. It was hastily repaired and occu-
pied by the British, Tecumseh with his Indians encamping close
by. The British landed their heavy gUns at the Watergate of the
old fort and laboriously dragged them up the long slope to the
high bank above. All night long they toiled in erecting their siege
batteries. With teams of oxen and squads of two hundred men
to each gun they hauled the heavy ordnance through mud two feet
deep from old Fort Miami to the high embankment just opposite
Fort Meigs. There, early on the morning of May first, the British
had four strong batteries in position, despite the incessant fire
which the Americans from Fort Meigs had directed tipon them.
These four batteries were known as the King's Battery, the
Queens Battery, the Sailor's Battery and the ]\Iortar Battery, the
latter throwing destructive bombs of various sizes. Harrison was
characterized by great foresight and penetration as a general.
On the night the British were planting their batteries, realizing
that he had an available force of less than eight hundred men, he
dispatched a brave scout. Captain William Oliver, to General
Green Clay, who he knew was on the way with a large force of
Kentuckians, to bid him hurry forward with his reinforcements.
On the same night he set his men to work with spades and threw
up the "grand traverse," an embankment of earth extending longi-
tudinally through the middle of the fort, nine hundred feet long,
twelve feet high and with a base width of twenty feet. The tents
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 325
were taken down and the little army retired behind the great
embankment and awaited the coming storm, which broke in fury
at dawn, on Alay first. The British batteries all opened at once
with a perfect storm of red-hot solid shot and screaming shells,
which fell within the palisades, plowed up the earth of the grand
traverse or went hissing over the fort and crashed into the woods
beyond. The soldiers protected themselves by digging bomb-
proof caves at the base of the grand traverse on the sheltered side,
where they were quite secure, unless by chance a spinning shell
rolled into one of them. For several days and nights the troops
ate and slept in these holes under the embankment, ever ready to
rush to the palisades or gates in case of a breach or an assault.
During the siege a cold, steady rain set in and the underground
bomb-proof retreats gradually filled with water and mud. The
soldiers were compelled to take to the open air behind the embank-
ment, where, having become used to the terrible uproar, they ate,
slept, joked and played cards. It is related that Harrison offered
a reward of a gill of whisky for each British cannon ball that
should be returned to the magazine keeper. On a single day of
the siege, it is said, a thousand balls were thus secured and hurled
back by the American batteries, which constantly replied to the
British fire, night and day, frequently dismounting their guns.
One of the American militiamen became very expert in detecting
the destined course of the British projectiles and would faithfully
warn the garrison. He would take his station on the embankment
in defiance of danger. When the smoke issued from the gun he
would shout, "Shot," or "Bomb," whichever it might be. At times
he would say, ''Blockhouse No. i," or "Main battery," as the case
might be. Sometimes growing facetious he would yell, "Now for
the meat-house," or if the shot was high he would exclaim, "Now,
good-bye, if you will pass." In spite of danger and protests he
kept his post. One day he remained silent and puzzled, as the
shot came in the direct line of his vision. He watched and peered
while the ball came straight on and dashed him to fragments.
On the third night of the siege a detachment of British, together
with a large force of Indians, crossed the river below Fort Meigs
and, passing up a little ravine, planted on its margin, southeast
326 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
of the fort, and within two hundred and fifty yards, two new
batteries.
The garrison was now subjected to a terrible crossfire, and
the Indians, chmbing trees in the vicinity, poured in a galling rifle
fire, killing some and wounding many of the garrison. On the
morning of the fourth of May, Proctor sent to Harrison a demand
for the surrender of the fort. Harrison replied to the officer who
bore Proctor's demand, "Tell your general that if he obtains pos-
session of this fort it will be under circumstances that will do him
far more honor than would my surrender." And again the cease-
less bombardment on both sides began. On the night of May
fourth Captain Oliver crept into the fort under cover of darkness
and informed Harrison that General Green Clay with twelve hun-
dred Kentucky militia v^as at that moment descending the
Maumee in eighteen large barges and could reach the fort in two
hours, but would await the orders of Harrison. The command
was immediately sent out for Clay to come down the river, land
eight hundred men on the northern bank, seize and spike the
British cannon and then immediately cross the river to Fort
Meigs. The other four hundred Kentuckians v\'ere ordered to
land on the southern bank directly under the fort and fight their
way in at the gates, the garrison in the meantime making sallies
to aid in the movement. Colonel Dudley, being second in com-
mand, led the van and landed his boats about one mile above the
British batteries on the northern bank of the river. He formed
his eight hundred men in three lines and marched silently down
upon the batteries in the darkness. The Kentuckians took the
British completely by surprise. They closed in upon the guns and
charged with the bayonet, the artillery men and Indians fleeing
for their lives. They spiked the British guns and rolled some of
them down the embankment, but unfortunately the spiking was
done with ramrods instead of with the usual steel implements,
and the British subsequently put the guns in action again. Had
the Americans now obeyed the orders of Harrison and crossed
the river and entered the fort all would have been well. But the
Kentucky militia were eager for a fight, and elated by their success
in capturing the batteries, they began a pursuit of the fleeing
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 327
Indians. In vain they were called to by friends from Fort Meigs,
who saw their danger.
Wildly the cheering Kentucklians dashed into the forest after
the flying savages, who artfully led them on. Then deep in the
recesses of the forest a multitude of savages rose up around them.
Tomahawks were hurled at them and shots came thick and fast
from behind trees and bushes. Realizing that they had fallen
into an ambuscade, they began a hasty and confused retreat toward
the batteries. But in the meantime the British regulars had come
up from old Fort Miami and thrown themselves between the river
and the retreating Americans. About one hundred and fifty cut
their way through and escaped across the river. At least two
hundred and fifty were cut to pieces by the savages and about
four hundred were captured. The prisoners were marched down
to the old fort to be put on board ships.' On the way the Indians
began butchering the helpless prisoners.
Tecumseh, far more humane than his white allies, hearing
of the massacre, dashed up on his horse, and seeing two Indians
butchering an American, he brained one with his tomahawk and
felled the other to the earth. Drake states that on this occasion
Tecumseh seemed rent with grief and passion and cried out, "Oh,
what will become of my poor Indians !" Seeing Proctor standing
near, Tecumseh sternly asked him why he had not stopped the
inhuman massacre. "Sir, your Indians cannot be commanded."
replied Proctor. "Begone, you are unfit to command; go and put
on petticoats," retorted Tecumseh. After this incident the pris-
oners were not further molested.
On the other side of the river events had gone quite differ-
ently. The four hundred who landed on the south bank, with
the help of a sallying party, after a bloody struggle, succeed >d in
entering the fort. At the same time the garrison made a briPiant
sortie from the southern gate and attacked the batteries on the
ravine. They succeeded in spiking all the guns and captured
forty-two prisoners, two of them British officers. After this an
armistice occurred for burying the dead and exchanging pris-
oners. Harrison prudently took advantage of the lull in the con-
flict to get the ammunition and supplies, that had come on the
boats, into the fort. The batteries then again resumed fire, but
B28 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications. .
the Indians had become weary of the siege, a method of warfare
so much opposed to their taste and genius. They had become
glutted, too, with blood and scalps, and were heavily laden with
the spoils of Dudley's massacred troops. So in spite of Tecum-
seh's protests, they gradually slipped away in the forest toward
their northern homes. Proctor now became disheartened by the
•desertion of his allies and feared the coming of more reinforce-
ments for Harrison. The Stars and Stripes still waved above the
garrison, and Fort Meigs was stronger and more impregnable
than ever. Sickness broke out among the British troops encamped
upon the damp ground and squads of the Canadian militia began
to desert, stealing away under cover of darkness. Tecumseh,
unconquerable and determined, still remained upon the ground
with four hundred braves of his own tribe, the Shawanese.
Few of the present day can know or even imagine the horrible
scenes that took place within the precincts of Tecumseh's camp
shortly after the massacre of Dudley's troops. A British officer
who took part in the siege, writing in 1826, tells of a visit to the
Indian camp on the day after the massacre. The camp was filled
with the clothes and plunder stripped from the slaughtered sol-
diers and officers. The lodges were adorned with saddles, bridles
and richly ornamented swords and pistols. Swarthy savages
strutted about in cavalry boots and the fine uniforms of American
officers. The Indian wolf dogs were gnawing the bones of the
fallen. Everywhere were scalps and the skins of hands and feet
stretched on hoops, stained on the fleshy side with vermillion, and
drying in the sun. At one place was found a circle of Indians
seated around a huge kettle boiling fragments of slaughtered
American soldiers, each Indian with a string attached to his par-
ticular portion. Being invited to partake of the hideous repast,
the officer relates that he and his companion turned away in
loathing and disgust, excusing themselves with the plea that they
had already dined. On the ninth of May, despairing of reducing
Fort Meigs, Proctor anchored his gunboats under the batteries,
and although subjected to constant fire from the Americans, em-
barked his guns and troops and sailed away to Maiden. But
before dismounting the batteries, they all fired at once a parting
.salute, by which ten or twelve of the Americans were killed and
The Siege of Fort Meigs. 329
about twenty-five wounded. Thus for about twelve days was the
beleaguered garrison hemmed in by the invading horde. The
Americans sufifered them to depart without molestation, for, as
one of the garrison said, "We were glad to be rid of them on any
terms."" The same writer says : "The next morning found us
somewhat more tranquil. We could leave the ditches and walk
about with more of an air of freedom than we had done for four-
teen days ; and I wish I could present to the reader a picture of the
condition we found ourselves in when the withdrawal of the
enemy gave us time to look at each other's outward appearance.
The scarcity of water had put the washing of our hands and
faces, much less our linen, out of the question, ^lany had scarcely
any clothing left, and that which they had was so begrimed and
torn by our residence in the ditch and other means, that we pre-
sented the appearance of so many scarecrows." Proctor appeared
again in the river ten days later, with his boats, and Tecumseh
with his Indians, and remained in the vicinity of the fort from
July twentieth to the twenty-eighth. This visitation constitutes
what has been called the second siege of Fort Meigs. Their force
this time is said to have consisted of about five thousand whites
and Indians, but they attempted no bombardment and no assault.
The Indians contented themselves with capturing and murdering
a party of ten Americans whom they caught outside the fort.
It was during this siege that the Indians and British secreted
themselves in the woods southeast of the fort and got up a sham
battle among themselves, with great noise and firing, in order
to draw out the garrison. But this ruse did not deceive General
Clay, then in command, although many of the soldiers angrily
demanded to be led out to the assistance of comrades who, they
imagined, had been attacked while coming to relieve the besieged
garrison. On the twenty-eighth Proctor and his Indian allies
again departed, going to attack Fort Stephenson, whose glorious
victory under young Crogan was one of the great achievements
of the War of 1812.
During the siege of Fort Meigs from May first to the fifth,
beside the massacred troops of Colonel Dudley, the garrison, in
sorties and within the fort, had eighty-one killed and one hundred
and eighty-nine wounded. The sunken and grass-grown graves
330 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
of the heroes who lost their Hves at Fort ^leigs are still to be
seen upon the spot.
The events that followed the heroic resistance of Fort Meigs
are no doubt too well known to require narration.
The famous victory of Perry in the following September
cleared Lake Erie of the British fleet. Proctor and Tecumseh fled
from Alalden and Harrison's army pursued, overtaking them at
the Thames. There the British were completely routed and the
brave Tecumseh was slain. This put an end to the war in the
West and Michigan and Detroit again became American pos-
sessions.
The important part which Fort Meigs played in the war can
now be seen. It was the rallying point for troops, and the great
storehouse of supplies for the western army. It was the Gibraltar
of the Maumee valley and rolled back the tide of British invasion
while Perry was cutting his green ship timbers from the forest
around Erie, and it was to Harrison at Fort Meigs that Perry's
world-famed dispatch came when the British fleet had struck
their colors oft' Put-in-Bay : '"We have met the enemy and they
are ours ; two ships, tv;o brigs, one schooner and one sloop." All
honor to old Fort Meigs ! The rain and the frost and the farmer's
plow are fast obliterating the ruins of the grand old stronghold
that once preserved the great Northwest for the United States.
Little remams there now, where the roar of battle broke the air,
and the devoted band of patriots stood their ground under the
shower of iron hail and shrieking shells that for days were hurled
upon them. Thq long green line of the grand traverse, with its
four gateways, still stretches across the plain and the peaceful
kine are browsing along its sides. And nearby, sunken, un-
marked, weed-grown and neglected, are the graves of the heroic
dead who fell in the fearful strife.
[The foregoing paper was read by Mr. Compton at the annual meet-
ing of the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association, at Bowling Green, Ohio.
August 16, 1900.— E. O. R.— Editor.]
JoJiii A. Biiigliaiii. 331
JOHN A. BINGHAM.
Address of Hon. J. B. Foraker on the Occasion of the
Unveiling of Monument in Honor of Hon. John A.
Bingham, at Cadiz, Ohio, October 5, 1901.
Mr. Cliainnaii and Fcllozv Citi.zcns:
The private life and character of John A. Bingham were
the special possessions of this community.
You were his neighbors and friends.
He came and went in your midst.
You were in daily contact with him.
You knew him under all the varying circumstances of his
long and eventful career.
You saw him tested by the trying vicissitudes of the tem-
pestuous times with which his most conspicuous public service
was identified.
You knew better than anybody else can his private life and
character, and time and again~ you honored him with your con-
fidence and attested your high estimate of his personal worth,
his integrity, and his splendid qualities of nature and heart.
It would be almost out of place for me to speak of him on
these points in this presence.
As to his public life, it is different. It is the common prop-
erty of the whole country — mine as well as yours. This monu-
ment is in its honor and this occasion calls for its review.
The first twenty-five years of his life were spent in prepara-
tion ; the last fifteen in retirement.
The other forty-five years that he lived were devoted almost
exclusively to the public service.
He entered upon his career with a mind all aflame with zeal
for the great work in which he was to engage.
He dealt with all the economic questions of his day —
finance, taxation, national banks, the tarifif, and public improve-
ments ; but the subjects with which his fame is linked were
slavery, secession, rebellion, and reconstruction.
To intelligently appreciate his work, we must approach it
as he did.
332 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Slavery was a disquieting subject when the Union was or-
ganized and the Constitution was adopted. It was only by com-
promise, aided and made possible by the hope, then generally
entertained, that slavery would somehow be soon abolished, that
success was achieved.
But slavery did not perish, as anticipated. On the contrary,
it grew in strength.
HON. JOHN A. BINGHAM.
The development of the cotton industry and the adaptability
to it of slave labor gave the South a new and an increased in-
terest in the maintenance of the institution. As a result, it soon
became a political question.
It assumed threatening proportions when the admission of
Missouri as a State to the Union, with a slave constitution, was
proposed in 1818.
The debates that ensued took on a sectional aspect which
was made permanent and intensified by the Missouri Compromise,
effected in 1820, according to which both Maine and Missouri
were admitted — one free and the other slave; and it was stipu-
lated and enacted that never thereafter should any State be
admitted with slavery north of 36'' 30' north latitude.
John A. Bingham. 333
Both Democrats and Whigs undertook to treat the hne so
drawn as a permanent settlement of the territorial rights of
slavery, and a period of comparative political peace followed.
For twenty years both Whigs and Democrats devoted them-
selves to business questions, and, so far as they were concerned,
succeeded in keeping slavery effectually in the background.
But God was marching on.
Wliile Clay and Jackson and their respective adherents were
battling over the issues they saw fit to make with each other, a
new political force was entering the arena, at first weak and un-
noticed except to be despised, but destined to grow strong enough
to overthrow both parties and compel reorganization on new lines
that had direct reference to slavery.
This new force assumed a party name and made its first ap-
pearance as a national organization in 1840, the same year that
]\lr. Bingham was admitted to the bar.
He was then twenty-five years of age, and blessed with a
thoroughly sound mind in a thoroughly sound body. His life
had been one of struggle and endeavor. It had strongly devel-
oped his great mental powers. He had a natural aptitude for
public affairs. This quality was intensified by the discussion of
the times. Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Van Buren, Ben-
ton, ]\Iarcy, Corwin, Chase, and their associates were the political
leaders then on the stage of action. When they spoke they
challenged attention and aroused all the mental activities that
men possessed.
The preparatory steps could not have been better ordered if
they had been taken with special reference to the famous log
cabin, coon-skin, and hard cider campaign that marked the year
of ]\Ir. Bingham's first appearance in public and made the hero of
Tippecanoe President of the United States.
There was intense excitement everywhere. All classes of
people talked politics and little else.
Mr. Bingham's tastes and acquirements were such that he
would have doubtless drifted into the discussion if conditions
had been normal, but under the circumstances that obtained, he
could not have kept out if he had tried.
334 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
He actively participated and at once attracted attention and
commanded respect for his ability, logic, and oratory.
That campaign, with all its excitements, was not, however,
of a character to call forth his full powers. The Whig party, to
which he belonged, had no platform except their candidate, and
only economic questions were involved in the discussion.
The great moral question that was so soon to absorb all at-
tention was kept in the background.
It appeared in the contest, but only as a little cloud on the
horizon no bigger than a man's hand.
It was represented by the Abolition party which then, for the
iirst time, placed a candidate in the field ; but he received from
all the States an aggregate of less than 7,000 votes. This did
not affect the result. It showed less strength than had been
conceded. It was thought the result would discourage the cause,
but its champions were resolute, determined men of a high order
of ability, who, acting upon conviction, had no thought of sur-
render.
Ridicule, derision, and mob violence — to all of which they
were subjected — only inflamed their zeal. The names of Owen
Lovejoy, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and many
others associated with them as leaders in this movement, were
soon to become familiar to the American people.
They were commonly abused, maligned, hated, and detested,
"but they held steadily to their work, commanded attention, and
constantly increased their followers.
Events helped them.
Harrison was dead and Tyler had succeeded to the Presi-
dency. He quarreled with the Whigs, who had elected him, and
undertook to secure the support of the Democrats by making John
C. Calhoun his Secretary of State. Calhoun disliked him, but
two considerations moved him to accept ; one was the opportunity
it gave him to serve the South by bringing about the annexation
of Texas and thus adding to the area of slave territory, and the
other was the chance it thereby gave him to overthrow Van
Buren, to whose leadership and candidacy for renomination as the
Democratic candidate in 1844 he was openly and bitterly opposed.
John A. Bingham. 335
He was not long in solidifying the South in favor of annexa-
tion. That brought the slavery question at once to the front and,
with singular fatality, destroyed both Clay and Van Buren.
To hold his strength in the North, Van Buren announced that
he was opposed to annexation. The result was that while he
had a majority of the delegates, the South controlled more than
one-third of the convention and, consequently, under the two-
thirds rule, his nomination became impossible, and James K.
Polk was made the nominee and Van Buren's leadership was
ended forever.
Mr. Clay was under the same compulsion. He could not be
elected unless he could hold his northern strength, and therefore
he opposed annexation. This gave him the nomination, and un-
doubtedly would have given him also the election if he had not,
in the midst of the campaign, to mollify the dissatisfied Whigs
of the South, written his famous Alabama letter, in which he
virtually retracted his former declaration, by naming conditions
tmder which he would favor annexation.
Until the writing of this letter, his position was satisfactory
to all the anti-slavery Whigs of the North: but his letter was
regarded as a virtual surrender of what had become the all-
absorbing question of the contest, and, as a result, thousands of
men who had become hostile to slavery broke away from a party
that no longer gave hope of earnest opposition to its aggravating
pretensions.
The result of the election depended on New York, and the
defection was so great in that State that, with the loss of the
heavily increased Abolition vote, the Whigs were defeated. The
â– electorial vote went to Polk, and he was made President of the
United States, in the interests of slavery, by the combined vote
of the Abolitionists and the slaveholders and their sympathizers.
The result was strangely and almost mysteriously reached,
but it was of most momentous character.
Clay was defeated, and the hearts of his followers were
broken. It seemed to them a strange and unjust dispensation of
Providence. They could not understand it. and for a time re-
fused to be reconciled. Men who had been watching, hoping, and
336 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
praying for the decline and extinction of slavery as necessary to
the peace and preservation of the Union, viewed the acquisition of
Texas with alarm and despair.
But the hand of God was in it all, and what was then so in-
comprehensible has been made plain by His unfolded purposes.
Except only then and in the manner in which it v^^as effected,
Texas probably never could have been peaceably added to the
United States. But however that may be, its acquisition was
the begmning of the "irrepressible conflict."
The issue w-as joined and the battle was to the death which
was to determine w^hether this country should be all slave or
all free.
The war with Mexico accentuated the dispute and made sec-
tional differences irreconcilable.
Although slavery was all the while at the bottom of the con-
troversy, yet it from time to time took on various forms of dis-
cussion.
Thoughtful conservative men taxed their powers and their
ingenuity to devise methods and measures to allay discussion and
appease the demands of public sentiment, but no sooner was one
question settled than another arose, and thus the tide, although
at time apparently subsiding, was constantly rising until, finally,
sweeping all before it, the dread alternative of arms was reached
and the ultimate settlement was made in blood.
The South, foreseeing that the North was outstripping her
in the growth of population and political power, and that the time
would inevitably come when she could no longer retain control
of the Government, espoused the doctrine of secession, according
to which any State had a constitutional right to withdraw^ from
the Union whenever it might see fit to do so. She intended by
this rule which she could and then destroy when control was
lost and on the ruins build anew with slavery as the chief corner-
stone of her structure.
At the same time arose the question of the rights of slavery
in the Territories, and John C. Calhoun, to give it a status there
and make more slave States possible, advanced the doctrine, of
which we have recentlv heard so much, that the Constitution fol-
John A. Bingham.
337
THE bin(;ham monument.
Vol. X — 22
338 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
lowed the flag, and hence gave the same protection to slave owner-
ship there that it gave in the States.
The Wilmot Proviso, the Lecompton Constitution, squatter
sovereignty, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision,
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas-Nebraska
Act are names and phrases that suggest the varying and succeed-
ing phases of the discussion and, subordinate questions and propo-
sitions, about which there is no time to speak adequately within
the limitations of this occasion.
It is enough to say they mark the character and the progress
of the political debates in which Mr. Bingham became an active
participator.
It is no exaggeration to say that they were the greatest ques-
tions the American people had dealt with since the Government
was organized, and the men who conducted the debate were the
ablest since the formative period of the Republic.
To attain prominence and distinction among them and be a
leader of such leaders was the uncommon honor Mr. Bingham
achieved.
In 1848, when he was but thirty-three years of age, he was
made a delegate to the National Whig Convention at Philadelphia,
and, by what seemed at the time a fruitless effort, made for him-
self, at one stroke, a national reputation.
It was known before the convention met that General Taylor
would be its nominee, but its platform declarations had not been
determined.
The slavery question was uppermost in the minds of all ;
yet both the Democrats and Whigs were anxious to evade it —
the Democrats, to save their strength in the North, and the Whigs
to hold their strength in the South. Accordingly, to the keen
disappointment of thousands of their respective followers, both
conventions practically ignored the whole slavery question.
The Whigs were saved at the election by the Free Soilers,
who drew largely from the Democrats but only slightly from
the Whigs because of their dislike of Van Buren, who headed
the movement as its candidate.
John A. Bingham. 339'
Taylor was elected, but his party was incapable because it did
not have the courage of its convictions.
It went to pieces while in power, as all such parties will, and,
with the humiliating defeat of General Scott in 1852, gave way
to the Republican party born of the people to do their will.
"All is well that ends well," and, therefore, measured by
what followed, it is well that the Whig party perished.
But if Mr. Bingham had been allowed his way, the Whig
party need not have died. It might not have elected Taylor, but
it would have marshalled later the triumphant forces led by
Lincoln.
He show^ed his grasp of the situation and his knowledge of
its requirements, as well as his convictions of right and his cour-
age to maintain them, when, in that convention, he offered the
famous resolution which you have carved on his monument, that
it may be linked with him in death as it was inseparable in life —
"no more slave states; no more slave
territories — the maintenance of freedom
where freedom is and the protection of
american industry."
These sharp, decisive sentences, going to the very marrow
of the political contentions of the time, were rejected by the con-
vention, but they cut into the hearts of men and made the name
of John A. Bingham dear to every enemy of slavery.
They crystallized a sentiment and formulated a policy.
They appealed to the conscience and gave an intelligent and
inspiring purpose to political action.
It is difficult for us, in the light of the present, to realize the
full measure of credit to which Mr. Bingham is entitled for the
courage he displayed in thus firmly and explicitly taking such a
stand.
The evil of slavery, the curse it was to the country, and the
blessings that have resulted from its extinction, are all so manifest
that we are not surprised to learn that men were then opposed to
it; on the contrary, it seems so natural that it should have had
opposition that w^e wonder rather that anybody should have de-
540 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
fended it ; but prevailing public sentiment on the subject was then
radically different from that which it was destined soon to become.
The institution was recognized and protected by the Constitu-
tion. It could not be interfered with in the States without violat-
ing that organic law and also numerous statutory provisions that
had been enacted in its behalf.
It involved great moneyed interests and was upheld by
prejudices in its favor throughout the North as well as in the
South. It was like striking at the law, order, and peace of the
nation to attack or criticise it.
Some idea of the sensitiveness that prevailed with respect to
it is given by what has been said as to the disposition of the two
great parties and their respective leaders to keep it out of the
politics of the times.
Bingham had to brave all this and did.
He took the lead, while change of sentiment was inaugu-
rated by the discussion he provoked, yet four years later, when
1852 came, so little progress had been made that the Whig party
approved in its platform all the pro-slavery legislation that had
been enacted, expressly including the iniquitous fugitive slave law
"as a settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and
exciting questions" that had been raised in regard to slavery,
and pledged itself to "discountenance all efforts to continue or
renew such agitation, whenever, wherever, or however the attempt
may be made ; and we will maintain the system as essential to the
nationality of the Whig party and the integrity of the Union."
These declarations were intended to suppress the Binghams
and all the other troublesome agitators. They failed in their
purpose, but they show the deplorable state to which the Whig
party had been reduced by the cowardice of its leaders in the
presence of that great question.
They also shoV how far Mr. Bingham was in advance of
public sentiment and to what extent he was defying it ; they
show, too, how he was at variance with his party and practically
in rebellion against it.
It is easy for a young, ambitious man to go with the current
and stand in line with his party, but only the man with clear judg-
John A. Bingha'm. JMl
ment, conscientious scruples, and approved courage will disregard
these considerations and stand by his conceptions of right, truths
and justice.
That is what Mr. Bingham determined to do, and he did it.
He did not have to wait long for the reward of vindication..
It came with the birth of the Republican party, which espoused
the sentiments he had avowed and sent him to Congress in 1854.
at the early age of thirty-nine years.
His record there covers sixteen years of service so faithful
and so distinguished that its history is for that period by the
history of his party and his country.
He served on the most important committees and held the
most important chairmanships. He gave diligent and unremitting-
attention to all the work assigned him. He participated in all.
the debates that occurred and always showed a learnmg, a re-
search, an ability, a readiness, and an oratory that gave him a first-
rank among the great men of that great time. He was a veritable-
pillar of strength to the cause of treedom, the cause of the Union,
and the cause of reconstruction. His speeches were so numerous-
and so notable that anything like a proper review of them in detail,
would require a volume. But, as showing the political atmos-
phere by which he was surrounded, the spirit of bitterness that
entered into the debates in which he participated, and also to
show his ability, his eloquence, and his intense earnestness, one
of his earliest efforts may be mentioned.
The first session of Congress in which he sat as a member,
commenced in December, 1855.
The struggle of the slave power to capture Kansas and Ne-
braska was then ripening to its climax.
The question entered into the organization of the House of
Representatives, and many weeks passed, filled with angry debate,
before Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was finally chosen
to be Speaker over William Aiken of South Carolina.
Mr. Bingham took a modest, yet, for a new member, a very
prominent part in this struggle.
It was scarcely ended until he made his first formal speech.
Kansas v^as his theme, and it is enough to say that he did the
subject justice.
342 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
But a few weeks later, he thrilled with pride and enthusiasm
the hearts of his associates and followers throughout the nation
and correspondingly angered and inflamed his opponents by his
burning words of denunciation of slavery spoken in the debate on
• the resolution to expel Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, from
the House of Representatives, because of his brutal attack on
Charles Sumner, whom he struck down and beat almost to death
with his cane on the floor of the Senate for words spoken, as a
Senator from Massachusetts, against slavery and its aggressions
in the Territories.
This debate was one of the most bitter that preceded the war.
Mr. Bingham took the floor to make immediate answer to A^r.
Clingman of North Carolina, who, in common with his fellow
members from the South, who participated in the debate, had
most abusively spoken of Mr. Sumner and of all who sympa-
thized with the doctrines enunciated by him in the great speech
that provoked the assault.
The brutal character of this speech, added to the brutal as-
sault, had thoroughly aroused Mr. Bingham. It stirred him to
his very depths. As a result, he rose to the highest flights of
eloquence.
An extract will show not only his ability, his oratory, his elo-
quence, his fearlessness, and his powers of vehement invective,
but also the general character of the discussions of that time.
In the course of his speech he said :
"The brilliant and distinguished Senator from Massachusetts is
the subject of this assault — that Senator who, notwithstanding the
attempt of the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Clingman) to
defame him, holds now, and will hold, a large place in the affection and
admiration of his countrymen. That Senator, sir, denounced the auda-
cious crime which is being committed in Kansas. In his place as Senator,
he made a powerful and convincing argument against the unparalleled
conspiracy which is subjecting that young empire of the West to a cruel
and relentless tyranny — a tyranny which inflicts death on citizens guilty
of no offense against the laws ; which sacks their towns and plunders
and burns their habitations; which legalizes, throughout that vast extent
of territory, chattel slavery, ^ that crime of crimes, — that sum of all
villainies, which makes merchandise of immortality, and, like the curse
of Kehama, smites the earth with barrenness — that crime which blasts
â– .the human intellect and blights the human heart, and maddens the human
Johfi A. Bingham. 343
brain, and crushes the human soul — that crime which puts out the Hght
and hushes the sweet voices of home — which shatters its altars and
scatters darkness and desolation over its hearthstone — that crime which
dooms- men to live without knowledge, to toil without reward, to die
without hope — that crime which sends little children to the shambles
and makes the mother forget her love for her child in the wild joy she
feels that through untimely death inflicted by her own hands, she has
saved her offspring from this damning curse, and sent its infant spirit
free from this horrid taint, back to the God that gave it.
"Against this infernal and atrocious tyranny upheld and being
accomplished through a tremendous conspiracy, the Senator from Mas-
sachusetts, faithful to his convictions, faithful to the holy cause of lib-
erty, faithful to his country and his God, entered his protest, and uttered
his manly and powerful denunciation.
"That Senator, sir, comes from Massachusetts, where are Lexington
and Concord and Bunker Hill and the Rock of the Pilgrims — 'where
every sod's a soldier's sepulchre' — where are the foot-prints of the
apostles and martyrs of freedom — that State which allowed a trembling
fugitive, fleeing only for his liberty, to lay his weary limbs to rest upon
Warren's grave — that State whose mighty heart throbbed with human
sympathy for the flying bondman who, guilty of no crime under the
forms of law, but in violaton of its true spirit, walked in chains beneath
the shadow of Faneuil Hall, where linger the sacred memories of the
past and the echoes of those burning words, Death or deliverance."
It would be a pleasing task to cite and dwell upon many other
of the great speeches he made, but time will not permit. His
many important public services as counsel for the Government in
the causes he tried as Judge Advocate General by appointment
of Abraham Lincoln, whose confidence and friendship he enjoyed
to the fullest degree, must be passed over unmentioned for the
same reason.
So, also, the important and conspicuous service he rendered
as manager on behalf of the House of Representatives in the im-
peachment of Andrew Johnson.
This may be done with much less regret, because, notwith-
standing their distinguished character, they were transient in
their nature. His many permanent services are all important.
None can be mentioned and analyzed except with interest and
profit ; but one will suffice. It is undoubtedly his most import-
ant ; it is also characteristic of the man and representative of the
high plane upon which he labored.
344 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
The great purpose of his resolution of 1848, had been fully-
accomplished. The further extension of slavery had been stopped
by the advent of the Republican party to power, and the system
itself had perished amid the flames of war. That result had been
sealed by the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States.
The war w^as ended. Secession was dead and all men were
free, but it seemed as though statesmanship had but reached the
beginning of its troubles.
The changes wrought had given birth to new and most per-
plexing problems. Were the States that had been in rebellion in
or out of the Union ? And whether in or out, how were they to be
restored to their proper statal relations to the general Government ?
Under the Constitution as it existed before the war, slaves could
not vote, but, in determining the basis of representation in Congress
and the Electoral College, five slaves were counted as three voters.
There were no more slaves. They w'ere freedmen — a new
class. Should they be allowed to vote? And, if not, should they
be included in the basis of representation? And, if so included,
should the three-fifths rule continue or should each man be a unit ?
There was grave concern about the payment of the tremen-
dous national debt that had been contracted to save the Union and
serious apprehension on the subject of pensions for our soldiers
and the possible assumption, at some time in the future, of the
Confederate debt and the payment of claims for the liberation of
slaves that had been freed.
The peace of the country required a prompt and final settle-
ment of all these questions.
The policy of Andrew Johnson precluded any such settle-
ment, for his contention was that the States were not only inde-
structible, but that in every legal sense of the word, they were
still in the Union, and that no legislation of either a constitutional
or a statutory character w^as necessary to restore them to their
proper relations to the General Government.
Without waiting for Congress to take any action, he pro-
ceeded, by proclamation, to authorize the organization of pro-
vincial legislatures, and they in turn, selected United States Sena-
tors and provided for the election of Representatives in Congress,.
John A. Bingham. 345-
The extreme danger to which the country was subjected by-
such a pohcy was forcibly ihustrated when, as a resuh of it, Alex-
ander H. Stephens, late Vice-President of the so-called Southern
Confederacy, appeared in Washington at the opening of Congress
in December, 1865 — only a few months after Appomattox —
with a commission to represent his State in the Senate of the
United States, and demanded a seat in that body.
If a full representation of the rebellious States was thus to
be allowed in the administration of the Government, the friends
of the Union might speedily lose control of it, and thus, by ballots,
the forces of secession would be enabled to accomplish what they
had failed to do with bullets.
It was soon manifest that there could not be any reconstruc-
tion of the Union without Congressional action and that to make
the settlement of the war final, it would be necessary to embody
it in the Constitution itself, where it would be placed beyond
repeal or modification except by the sovereign power of the people.
Thus the 14th Amendment became necessary.
Some of the admirers of Mr. Bingham have claimed for him
practically all the credit of drafting that amendment and securing
its adoption. That is more credit than he is entitled to receive.
The 14th Amendment was, of itself, a great instrument sec-
ond in importance and dignity to only the Constitution itself. It
was not struck off in a moment by the hand of any one man, or
as the product of any one mind. Many men contributed to it;
many events led up to it.
But while Mr. Bingham is not entitled to the credit of sole
authorship, he is entitled to the very high credit of being one of
the very first to recognize its necessity and to take the initial
steps that ultimately resulted in its adoption.
He introduced in the House a joint resolution providing for
such an addition to our organic law. The record does not dis-
close the exact language be employed, but enough is given to
show that as to its principal clauses, his language was practically
the same as that finally adopted.
This is especially true as to the franchise clause. For this
provision, he is, no doubt, entitled to more credit than any other
346 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
man, and that is credit enough, for it is, indeed, credit of the
highest character.
The record shows, as might be expected, tnat other resolu-
tions similar to his and a number of forms of amendment were
introduced in both the House and the Senate, and that it was only
after consideration of all, by the proper committees, that, with
various changes, the amendment was finally adopted in the con-
solidated form in which it was ratified by the States.
It was a comprehensive instrument. It dealt with the public
debt to make it sacred; including pensions and obligations on
account of bounties to Union soldiers and provided against all
forms of denial or repudiation.
It prohibited the assumption by the United States or any
State of any and all debts contracted to aid the rebellion or for
payment for emancipated slaves.
It fixed the rule of eligibility to hold office for all who had
taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States
and had afterward participated in the rebellion.
It fixed the basis of representation according to the number
of authorized voters, but left it optional with each State to en-
franchise freemen or not ; the sole disadvantage imposed if they
did not, being a corresponding curtailment of representation or
diminution of political power.
This and the provision defining citizenship of the United
States were the most important provisions of the amendment.
All others were temporary in character, while these were for all
time. These two — citizenship and suffrage — were the great
crucial points in the settlement of the differences that had led to
the war and of rights and demands that had grown out of that
great struggle.
The propriety of defining citizenship of the United States is
so manifest that it may be dismissed without comment, other than
that it is a matter of wonderment that the Constitution, as origin-
ally framed, should have omitted so important a clause.
The right of suffrage conferred upon the negro and the basis
of representation established by the amendment must be con-
sidered together.
JoJin A. Bingliam. 347
The old basis of representation was manifestly no longer ap-
propriate. The slaves were free and must be treated as free
men. If they were to be counted at all in determining the basis
of representation, they must be counted as men and not as chat-
tels. The sole question was whether or not they should be in-
cluded at all in the enumeration.
The conclusion reached was that they should not be included
unless given the right of suffrage ; and that this right should be
conferred or not, at the option of each State.
Such was Mr. Bingham's provision, as originally proposed
by him, and such was the provision as it was incorporated into the
amendment as finally ratified and adopted. This was the sole
requirement as to the Negro miposed by the Government as a
condition precedent to the resumption by the rebellious States of
their full relations to the Government.
It left the whole subject of Neglo suffrage in their own
hands, to deal with as they saw fit. They could give it or with-
hold it. If they saw fit to let the negroes vote, they could count
them in determining how many Representatives they should have
in Congress and how many votes they should have for President
and Vice-President in the electoral college. If they did not let
them vote, they could not include them in the basis of repre-
sentation.
That this was a generous proposition and a fair one to the
South does not admit of argument. It was prompted by a desire
to speedily restore the Union and was made in the belief that the
South would show its appreciation for the spirit of generosity and
good will involved, by a ready and cheerful acceptance.
This expectation was disappointed.
Emboldened by the attitude of President Andrew Johnson,
the 'provisional legislatures he had called into existence and which
were composed almost entirely of ex-Confederate officers and
soldiers, rejected the amendment by a practically unanimous vote
and with evidences of scorn, contempt and hostility.
They had come to believe that they would be allowed to re-
sume their relations to the National Government without any
terms or conditions whatever, as the President proposed, and
348 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
that, so restored to all the sovereign rights of States in the Union^
they would keep themselves free to act without restraint or re-
striction of any kind.
It quickly developed that they had a program to practically
nullify emancipation by reducing the freedman to a worse con-
dition of slavery than that from which he had been released.
They inaugurated it by acts of legislation that provided heavy-
fines of $50 or $100, and other such amounts, to be imposed on
all who might be found loitering without work, and, m default of
payment, hiring them out — selling them — for six months or a
year, or other period, as the case might be, to the highest bidder.
The poor Negro, just emancipated, had neither work nor
money. By refusing him employment, he was compelled to
"loiter," and having no money with which to pay his fine, he was
"hired" to the highest bidder, who had no interest in either his
health or his life beyond the term for which he was hired.
Truly his last estate was worse than his first.
Many similar statutes were passed, but perhaps the most in-
excusable was enacted in Louisiana, where, among others, it was
provided that every adult freedman should provide himself with
a comfortable home within twenty days after the passage of the
act, and, failing to do so, should be "hired" at public outcry to
the highest bidder for the period of one year.
Such legislation was barbarous, inexcusable and intolerable.
It meant that if allowed to have their own way about it, that
defeated confederates would bring to naught all that had been
accomplished.
It was, therefore, not a matter of choice but a matter of com-
pulsion that impelled Congress. It determined to abolish the
provisional legislatures, divide the South into military districts,
and organize State governments and legislatures composed of only
loyal Union men, and then submit anew the 14th Amendment
for ratification.
This proposition — the famous Reconstruction Bill — excited
the most bitter, protracted, and the most important debate that
has ever occurred in the American Congress.
Mr. Bingham was at the very forefront in it all. From be-
ginning to end, he was untiring. His unwavering and masterful;
John A. Bingham. 349
â– support of the measure made him a conspicuous figure not only
in Congress, but before the whole nation.
The measure was passed. The Southern State. governments
were reconstructed. The 14th Amendment was re-submitted,
ratified and adopted.
There has been much angry criticism of the Republican party
for this procedure, intensified by the unsatisfactory character of
the carpet-bag State governments and legislatures — as they were
called at the time — that were thus temporarily forced upon the
South, but it has been without just foundation.
The men who were responsible for the reconstruction meas-
ure and the carpet-bag governments were the men of the South,
who, misled by President Johnson, undertook to dictate the man-
ner of restoring the Union, and, in that behalf, to put in jeopardy
all the results of the war, including the liberty and freedom of
the unoffending blacks who were, in a special sense, the helpless
wards of the nation.
It was in the same spirit and for the same reason that the
15th Amendment followed, providing that neither the United
States nor any State should den}- or abridge the right of any
citizen of the United States to vote on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
Had the 14th Amendment been adopted when first submitted,
as it should have been, there would not have been a 15th Amend-
ment, because it would liave been impossible, with the Southern
States restored to the Union, as the 14th Amendment proposed,
thereafter to have secured for a 15th Amendment a ratification
by three-fourths of the States, and thus would the whole subject
of Negro suffrage have remained, as was originally intended,
under the control of the States, with the option to each State to
grant or refuse it, as it might prefer.
If, therefore, there was fault in providing for universal man-
hood suft'rage, it must be laid at the door of the men who, reject-
ing the 14th Amendment and threatening to bring to naught all
the blood and treasure that liad been expended, created a necessity
for the more drastic measures that were adopted.
But there was no fault.
350 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Both amendments were right. The perverse bhndness and
obduracy of the South were but the Providentially designed pre-
cipitating causes necessary to excite the men upon whom rested
the responsibilities of that hour to the fearless and unflinching
performance of the full measure of their duty.
To our finite minds, much less good has come from the 15th
Amendment than we had a right to expect, but the time is coming
when the legal status thus given the black man will be his prac-
tically and universally recognized status in all the States of this
Union.
HON. J. B. FORAKER
What is right will ultimately prevail.
Until then the irrepressible conflict will continue. Human
liberty and human equality involve principles of truth and justice
that cannot be forever suppressed and disregarded. Efforts of
such character, whether by State or individuals, will but call
attention t9 the wrongs of denial and hasten the day of final
triumph.
These events mark an epoch in the world's history. The
humblest part in such achievements is highly creditable ; but to
have been a moving and controlling cause and factor, an eloquent,
uncompromising, and commanding leader and champion was the
high privilege and imperishable honor of John A. Bingham.
His work will stand as long as the Republic endures, and
through all the years it remains it will bring rich blessings to
millions.
John A. Bingham. . 351
His life drew gently to a close. His noontime was full of
storm and turbulence; his afternoon and evening full of quiet,
restful peace and beauty.
In Japan, as our Minister, he spent twelve years of great use-
fulness to his country. He opened the way for enlarged com-
mercial relations, and b^ his simple, straightforward American
manner, impressed a respect and regard for our civilization, of
which we are now reaping the reward.
Here, in his home, surrounded by family and friends, his last
days were spent awaiting the summons that, sooner or later, must
come to all.
This monument attests your esteem, your admiration, vour
love, and your affection for your neighbor, your townsman, your
friend and your great Representative in that great crucial time
when our national existence and our free popular mstitutions were
put to the sore trial of blood and relentless civil war.
Through the wisdom and the statesmanship, of which he was
representative, and also a large part, we were saved from disso-
lution and made stronger in union than ever before.
The war with Spain demonstrated how well the great work
had been done.
From no section came more prompt or more patriotic response
than from the South. The ex-soldiers of the Union and the Con-
federate armies and their sons marched side by side to meet a
common enemy and win a common victory ; and when our late
martyred President, in the midst of his great work, was struck
down by the assassin, our institutions sustained the shock without
a jar and the Government moved on without a tremor, none
mourning his loss to the nation more than the men who had
periled their lives for the stars and bars and the cause it repre-
sented.
Such tests as these show us the measure of our debt to the
men who saved this nation. They were not alone the gallant
soldiers and sailors who carried our flag to victory, but also the
men who, standing at the helm, guided the ship of State.
-352 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
THOMAS MORRIS.
BY JAMES B. SWING, CINCINNATI, O.
It is important that the memory of strong, brave men, who
have been conspicuous in their day, g^id influential for good,
should be kept green. There is nothing more inspiring than the
story of the life of an intellectual and moral hero.
There is a noble, a great name in the history of Ohio that
ought to be remembered and honored of all, but that is well-nigh
forgotten, a name that perhaps most of our young men never
heard, the name of Thomas Morris. I have heard that Hon.
George W. Julian, of Indiana, is writing a life of this man, and
can congratulate him upon the subject he has chosen, and con-
.gratulate the public upon the prospect of a valuable addition to the
biographical literature of the day. I anticipate a line tribute to
the memory of one who was remarkable for ability, force of char-
acter, eloquence, courage, and intense devotion to the cause of the
freedom and equal rights of all men.
Morris was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, January 3,
1776. His parents removed to West Virginia when he was a
child. They were very poor, almost as poor as the father and
mother of Abraham Lincoln, and he grew up as a poor boy would
in the mountains of West Virginia in that early day. He came,
with some emigrants, to Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1795, when
nineteen years of age, and settled at Columbia, where he became
a clerk in a small grocery, and at a smaller salary ; and while
there he was married to Rachel Davis, a daughter of Benjamin
Davis, one of the Columbia pioneers. He had grown to manhood
without educational advantages. It does not appear that he ever
went to school. His mother had taught him to read after a
fashion, and the chief, almost the only book of his childhood read-
ing, was the Bible. He afterward, though never a professedly
pious man, made most effective use of his knowledge of the Scrip-
tures in his public speeches, as Tom Corwin did, and as very many
of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen have done. His
mother also taught him to hate slavery, a lesson he learned well,
;as appeared in his after-life. She was a Virginia woman (born
Thomas Morris. 353
there), the daughter of a small planter, and her father had owned
a few slaves, but there was in her an intense hatred of the whole
system. It is very interesting, very fine, to see how his mother's
teachings were always with him afterward, consciously or uncon-
sciously molding his character and shaping his course in public
and private. Ah, the deep, quiet, almost unseen, but powerfully-
felt influence of the mothers upon the character of their children,,
upon men, upon nations, upon human history, upon civilization.
Jean Paul Richter says: "Never, never, has one forgotten his
pure, right-educating mother. On the blue mountains of our dim
childhood, toward which we ever turn and look, stand the mothers
who marked out to us from thence our life."
In the year 1800 he removed with his family to Williamsburg,
then the county seat of Clermont county, where he remained only
a few years. While there his poverty was extreme. He was once
arrested and imprisoned for debt under the old, senseless and
infamous law that provided for such imprisonment. After being
released from the Williamsburg jail he removed to Bethel, about
seven miles distant — then a small settlement in the woods. He
moved on a cold winter day. (I guess he had to move.) There
was snov/ on the ground, and so small was his stock of this-
world's goods that goods and family were all moved on a sled;
at one load. At Bethel he studied law, living in a cabin and
studying at night by the light of a piece of burning hickorv- bark,,
or of a clapboard. He read as much of general literature as he
could command, the best he could borrow in that community, a
few good old works scattered here and there — The Pilgrim's
Progress and Baxter's Saint's Rest, and the like. So limited was
his education that he then read poorly, but he had a mind that
took in all the meaning that was stored in the books, and he
practiced reading aloud with the utmost care, until he became a
most accomplished reader, a thing that can be said of few m.en
even in this day of schools and learning. I have heard my father,
who remembered him well tell of his fine, impressive reading.
After two years of the study of tiie law he was admitted to
the bar of that county, and developed so rapidly that he soon
became a leading lawyer there and in Southern Ohio, able to cope
with the strongest of the very strong lawyers who then honored.
Vol. X — 23
354 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
that great profession in this section of the state. Judge Burnet,
a great man, and many others like him, who "rode the circuit"
in those days, often met him in legal contests and found him a
foeman worthy of their steel. Ohio has had few lawyers more
powerful before a jury than Thomas Morris. He was not a rude,
uncouth lawyer, but became a clear, able, powerful reasoner, truly
•eloquent ; not wordy, but a master of strong English, and earnest
and impressive in manner. He was a remarkable cross-examiner,
and there are old men living in Clermont county now who well
remember the skill and power with which he could draw on and
then destroy a lying witness. I have been told by an able lawyer,
now departed, how he had seen him shrewdly entrap a perjurer,
blandly lead him into a trap, and then suddenly roar at him like a
lion and send him perspiring and disgraced from the courtroom.
He represented Clermont county in the Ohio Legislature for
"twenty-four years, part of the time in the House and part in the
Senate. That of itself seems remarkable in this day, when usually
one term is deemed too long for a man to serve. That was a day,
too, when the ablest men in the state deemed it a high honor to
be a member of the Legislature — day long gone by — and Thomas
Morris was one of the ablest of them all. He once said that he
had heard abler debates in the Ohio Senate than he often heard
:afterward in the Senate of the United States. His committee
ireports and speeches, and the measures he supported and opposed
in the Legislature, which are in part set forth in a very poor life
of him that may still be found on some old book shelves, show
that he was one of the giants there. He had as much as any
other man to do with the shaping of the early legislation of Ohio
in its most important features. He assisted with great vigor in
the repeal of the law of imprisonment for debt, under which he
had suffered confinement and humiliation in the old jail at Wil-
liamsburg.
He was the leading spirit in the Legislature in framing and
enacting the laws that created and firmly established our great
common-school system. There was, at the time, much opposition
to taxation for the general education of the people, and he was
once defeated in his candidacy for the State Senate chiefly because
of his successful efiforts in behalf of such legislation; but, as in
Thomas Morris-. 355
later years in far higher station, he would not swerve from his
ideas of duty and the general welfare for any personal or political
success.
He was an ardent advocate of the war of 1812, and was
the author of a resolution adopted by the Ohio Legislature,
pledging to the Federal Government the earnest support of Ohio
"in the vigorous prosecution of the present just and necessary
war, until a safe and honorable peace can be obtained."
In 1832, when the state of South Carolina declared her right
and attempted to nullify the tarifif laws of the United States, a
time of great excitement throughout the country, a time when
the state rights doctrine was loudly proclaimed, and threats of
secession were openly made at Washington, and when the states
were generally declaring themselves one way or the other, the
Ohio Legislature, under the leadership of ^lorris, stood fast by
President Jackson in his wise and patriotic stand for the Union.
Justice John AIcLean, whose memory is still honored as one of
the purest and ablest of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States, became alarmed at the spirit that so largely pre-
vailed among Southern members of Congress and their constitu-
ents, and wrote Morris an earnest but somewhat panicky letter,
setting forth what he believed to be the serious danger of a dis-
solution of the Union unless oil could be poured on the troubled
waters, saying: "I had rather see the tariff law suspended in
that state for a season than that one drop of blood should be
spilt," and urging very mild expression, if any, by the Legislature
of Ohio. He concluded his letter with these extraordinary words :
"If we shall be urged on by feelings of resentment, and in the
exercise of extraordinary powers attempt to crush the state of
South Carolina, there will be an end of our government in a short
time. I tremble at the gulf which lies before us. Shall this
glorious heritage, which is the admiration of the world and our
greatest pride, be destroyed ? I assure you our government is in
danger, and we should all contribute our best efforts to pre-
serve it."
Thus did even so able, wise and patriotic a man as Justice
John McLean advise the state of Ohio to temporize, to hesitate,
to speak in uncertain tones upon the great question of the very
356 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
integrity of the Union itself. But Thomas Morris was no more
capable of adopting such a tone than was Andrew Jackson him-
self. He had himself appointed a special committee by the State
Senate, to whom was referred "the ordinance of the South Caro-
lina Convention," and as such special committee he reported to
the Senate a series of resolutions as clear and broad in statement,
as ardent in patriotism, as profound in their expression of the true
theory of the frame of our government, as any declaration ever
adopted by any legislative body in the history of the country. I
beg leave to read these resolutions touching the greatest political
question that ever arose in the United States, as being honorable
to the memory of Morris, showing the grasp and calm wisdom
of his mind, the patriotism of his spirit, and his extraordinary
power of statement :
Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that we
view with the deepest regret the unhappy movements and apparent deter-
mination of the State of South CaroHna to nullify the laws of the General
Government, made in conformity to the Constitution of the United States.
Resolved, That the Federal Union exists in a solid compact, en-
tered into by the voluntary consent of each and every State, ar-d that,
therefore, no State can claim the right to secede from or violate that
compact; and however grievous may be the supposed or real burdens
of the State, the only legitimate remedy is in the wise and faithful
exercise of the elective franchise, and the solemn responsibility of the
public agents.
Resolved, That the doctrine that a State has the power to nullify
a law of the General Government is revolutionary in its character, and
is, in its nature, calculated to overthrow the great temple of American
liberty; and that such a course cannot absolve that allegiance which the
people owe to the supremacy of the laws.
Resolved, That in levying and collecting duties, imposts, and ex-
cises, while the general good should be the primary object, a special
regard should be had to the end that the interest and prosperity of
every section of the country should be equally consulted, and its bur-
dens proportionately distributed.
Resolved, That the first object of the American people should be
to cherish the most ardent attachment to the Constitution and Laws
of the Union; and, as a first and paramount object of a free people, we
should use every laudable means to preserve the Union of these States.
Resolved, That we will support the General Government in all its
constitutional measures to maintain peace and harmony between the
several States, and preserve the honor and integrity of the Union.
Thomas Morris. 357
And these resolutions, honorable to this great state, written
by Morris, were, under his leadership, adopted by both branches
of the Legislature, and from their spirit Ohio never departed.
Morris, while a member of the State Senate, was elected a
Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, which position for some
unexplained reason he declined. In the old book of which I have
spoken, mention is made of letters from judges of the Supreme
Court and other distinguished lawyers to him, expressing regret
at his declination. He was a Democrat, and was once nominated
by his party for the United States Senate at a time when the
Whigs were in the majority, so that he was not elected, and
afterward, in 1832, when he was elected. He took his seat in
the United States Senate in December, 1833, and, though modest
in bearing, he made a great record there. He opposed the United'
States Bank in several very weighty speeches, and made a strong
impression whenever he spoke on any subject. He joined issue
wuth John C. Calhoun in a debate that involved Calhoun's State
Rights — right of secession ideas — and made a very strong reply
to him, saying, as reported, that "he professed himself a State-
rights man, but had as high devotion to the Union as anyone, and
he did not agree with the view of the Senator (Calhoun) that
this republic was a confederacy of separate and independent
states. He considered the Constitution as "adopted and ratified
by the united voice of the people." To him the Constitution was
the supreme law of the land or it was nothing. This was in sub-
stance what he had previously said in his resolutions in the Ohio
Legislature. The speech was a statement — brief, clear, and com-
prehensive — of the answer to all the subtle arguments designed
to show that the Union was "a rope of sand." I venture the
opinion that the simple truth was not better stated through all
the long discussion on that vexed question.
]\Iorris distinguished himself chiefly in the Senate by his
bold opposition to slavery, and won what should be lasting fame
by a very great speech near the close of his term, in answer to
Henry Clay, upon slavery and the right of petition. On the 7th
of February, 1839, Air. Clay made a brilliant speech on the slavery
question, in which he deprecated agitation, appealed with all the
persuasiveness of which he was capable, to men and women and
358 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the press to cease all agitation, and opposed the receivmg of peti-
tions of Abolitionists while himself presenting the petitions of
slave-holders to the Senate. The speech made a profound im-
pression in the Senate and throughout the country. It aroused
all the lion in Morris. He waited two days for some other
Senator to make reply, but there was no other who dared take
up the dangerous controversy with the brilliant Kentuckian.
On February 9th, Morris, standing alone, as he said, with
none to help, made reply in a speech of great boldness, remarkable
eloquence, and smashing logic. It will stir one's blood and arouse
one's admiration to read it, even at this late day. Seldom has
there been a greater speech delivered in the United States Senate.
The logic of the case, as it had been stated, was all against Clay,
and Morris was a master of logic. Clay's speech was really much
better meant than it would seem at this distance. It was prompted
by patriotic motives. He feared for the Union. The hour had
not yet come for a trial of military strength between the North
and the South on the State rights question, the slavery question,
or any other, and Clay sought to preserve peace and unity. But
he did not dare to state his whole mind and motive, and was
driven by the exigencies of the case to resort to plausible and spe-
cious pleas, to unsound arguments, and to appeals that were not
supported by such reason as he dared to urge. Morris could not
dissemble. He saw with clear eye all the fallacies of the speech
and exposed them, one by one, with unanswerable argument.
His speech was in no sense a harangue, there was no attempt "to
tear passion to tatters," there was no mere invective, but his
strong reasoning glowed with all the fierce light of his fiery,
slavery-hating, and liberty-loving spirit. It was a remarkable
event, a Democratic Senator in 1839 making an anti-slavery
speech of great power in answer to the famous leader of the old
Whigs, and lifting high the banner of freedom.
Here are the closing words of the speech :
I do not know, Mr. President, that my voice will ever again be
heard on this floor. I now willingly, yes, gladly, return to my con-
stituents, to the people of my own State. I have spent my life among
them, and the greater portion of it in their service, and they have be-
stowed their confidence on me in numerous instances. I feel perfectly
Thomas Morris. 859
conscious that in the discharge of every trust which they have committed
to me, I have, to the best of my ability, acted solely with a view to the
general good, not suffering myself to be influenced by any particular
or private interest whatever, and I now challenge any who think I have
done otherwise to lay their finger upon any public act of mine and prove
to the country its injustice or anti-Republican tendency.
That I have often erred in the selection of means to accomplish
important ends, I have no doubt, but my belief in the truth of the
doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, the political creed of
President Jefferson, remains unshaken and unsubdued. My greatest
regret is that I have not done more for the cause of individual and
political liberty than I have done. I hope, on returning to my home
and friends, to join them again in rekindling the beacon fires of liberty
upon every hill in our State, until their broad glare shall enlighten
every valley, and the song of triumph will soon be heard; for the hearts
of our people are in the hands of a just and holy Being, who can look
upon oppression but with abhorrence, and He can turn them whither-
soever He will, as the rivers of water are turned. Though our National
sins are many and grievous, yet repentance, like that of Nineveh, may
divert from us that impending danger which seems to hang over our
heads as by a single hair. That all may^ be safe, I conclude that the
negro will yet be free.
We may search long among the distinguished utterances of
pubhc men and find none nobler than these closing farewell words
of Thomas Morris in the United States Senate — brave, honest,
eloquent, prophetic.
Morris knew well the consequences that would come to him.
He knew that his speech meant the ruin of all his political pros-
pects. The Democrats of Ohio, and the Whigs as well, were for
the most part embittered against him. An effort was made to
have the Legislature demand his resignation. This only failed
because his time had so nearly expired. He was bitterly assailed
in the next State Convention. He was hissed. There were cries
of "Throw him out!" He was not permitted to speak. They
would not hear him. Benjamin Tappan was elected to succeed
him in the Senate. Morris narrowly escaped a mob at Dayton,
where he was advertised to speak in the courthouse one evening.
Though he feared nothing, he was persuaded not to attempt to
speak, because the mob was organized and violent. Eggs were
thrown at him on the streets of Dayton that day. He was
assailed bv mobs elsewhere, notablv and viciously at Cleves. in
360 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Hamilton county. But none of these things moved him. Me
only rejoiced in such tribulation. He became a hero in the eyes
of the Abolitionists. Their papers were full of his praise. He
was invited to address their meetings in many cities. He was
nominated by the Liberty party for Vice President in 1843, and
while he lived did not cease to avow and advocate his abolition
.sentiments, not as a fanatic, but as a calm, earnest, wise, and
patriotic statesman — a statesman who rightly estimated existing
•conditions and looked far into the future.
"In the fullness of time" his prediction, that to the end
"that all might be safe, the negro zvould yet be free," was fulfilled
.amid clash of arms, rattle of musketry, roar of cannon, "banners
heavy with the blood of the slain." It was fulfilled, and North
and South are glad of it. They are united now. The Union is
safe.
Morris died at his home, near Bethel, December 7, 1844, aged
sixty-eight years — nearly sixty-nine. His grave, marked by a very
humble slab, may be seen in the shade of some old trees by the
roadside ; but there are few who pass that way who know it is
there. Written on the slab are these fine, true words : "Unawed
by power and uninfluenced by flattery, he v^^as throughout life the
fearless advocate of human liberty."
I have stated only a little of what he did, but enough to indi-
cate what he was. His life ought to be an inspiration to every
young man who is struggling with adversity, and a proof to every
one who doubts that there is a glory in devotion to principle,
tinder all circumstances, regardless of personal consequences,
-that surpasses any glory of riches or power.
Lake County and its Founder. 361
LAKE COUNTY AND ITS FOUNDER.
By William Stoweli. Mills, ll. b., of Brooklyn, N. Y.
historical address delivered in painesville, lake county, o.,
july 21, i9oi, at the ceremonies of the unveiling of
the statue of edward paine.
Mr. President, Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution :
Ladies and Gentlemen : — It is related that when the resi-
dents of a New England town proposed to pay homage to a
former townsman in a ceremony similar to this, a good old lady
of the village remarked that she couldn't understand why a monu-
ment should be erected to the memory of Deacon Tuttle; when,
of all the men of her acquaintance. Deacon Tuttle had the poorest
memory.
Although our object in assembling here is of broader sig-
nificance than that implied by the observation of the good woman,
the attractive Centennial prepared especially for this occasion has
anticipated well-nigh all there is to be said. What with the con-
tents of that Journal and the able addresses to which we have
listened with delighted interest, there is little left for me to say
beyond giving expression to the pleasure I take in the opportunity
of meeting friends in my native state.
However this may be, we may venture at this time to supply
a few new phrases for familiar facts.
The children of the twentieth century are to be congratulated
before they are born. Theirs is a rich and splendid heritage.
During the past twenty years, the Sons and Daughters of the
American Revolution have instituted historical inquiry which
has created enthusiasm for a knowledge of bygone generations.
There has never been so much painstaking and earnest work in
bringing to light the treasures left us by the patriotism of our
forefathers. The other hereditary societies, of which there are
a score or more, are lending a hand. History is in the air, and
coming generations will enter into possession of an abundant
harvest as a result. The enterprise of to-day, as manifested in
362 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
MONUMENT TO GEN. PAINE.
Lake County and its Founder, 363
the spirit of the times (wrongly named "imperialism" by its
opponents), is making clearer the patriotic duty of to-morrow.
To the zeal of the New Connecticut Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, seconded by the Sons of the Amer-
ican Revolution, we are indebted for the inspiration of this day,
and are met to pay tribute to a king among men.
To comprehend his kingship, it will be necessary to take a
view of Lake county in the first days of settlement on the Western
Reserve ; for it was with our county in its infancy that our hero
had most to do.
Perhaps the earliest event that history records with certainty
as transpiring within the limits of what is now Lake county
was the interview between the Indian chief, Pontiac, and Major
Robert Rogers and his "rangers" in November, 1760, at the
mouth of the Grand River, within three miles of where we now
stand. In those days the lands of Lake county, and, in fact,
of the entire country of the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley,
were claimed, and their ownership sharply contested, by the
dusky sons of the forest, the imprint of whose moccasins had
been planted over and over again on every square rod of our
farms.
A hundred and forty years ago, Pontiac. who, for power of
command over his followers, was unquestionably the greatest of
his race, beheld here a scene of inspiring grandeur. In the
stately trees of a primeval forest, he recognized a dignity that
completely harmonized with his unyielding nature. The beauty
of their graceful forms mirrored in the limpid waters; the majesty
of the unbridled storm, sweeping over lake and forest ; the experi-
ences in this untamed wilderness, that strike terror to the heart
of the civilized man ; these inspired in him that sense of uncon-
trolled freedom with which he led his warriors through the
trackless wood.
When first mentioned in history, therefore; three genera-
tions before it was christened, Lake county possessed charms of
landscape indescribable. Words are feeble as a means of pic-
turing the sublimity of that long, deep sleep of nature waiting
364 GMg Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the advent of a superior race which is fast fulfiHing its destiny
to cover the face of the earth.
Inseparably connected with Lake county in its earhest days
was the name of Edward Paine. It goes without saying that
two important considerations enter into every true estimate of
a career : the time when, and the place where the life was lived.
No just estimate of a man is possible that does not take account
of the political, social and religious conditions prevailing at the
time he lived. In a broad, but peculiarly true sense, the study
of the life of an individual is an exercise in analysis and com-
parison. It is one of the plainest of truths that greatness of
character lies in the power to improve conditions ; to use one's
surroundings as a lever with which to lift the world ; and an
individual is great just in the proportion of his capability to do
these things.
Although the hour is short, I call you to note the three
leading traits in the character of the man who was the founder
of what became Lake county. These qualities were conspicuous
in him, and were, indeed, indispensable to one having before him
the work which confronted Edward Paine. Note his patriotism,
his courageous spirit, and his v/ise eye to the future. These
primary traits of character, in whomever found, are the funda-
mental principles of the three functions of government. Through
love of country and the consequent desire for its welfare all laws
designed for public good are made. Wisdom and prudence
determine the justice and expediency of legislation, and the execu-
tion of the law depends upon courage of conviction.
Edward Paine's conduct proved his qualities. One hundred
years ago the Fourth of July (the day set for this celebration in
his honor) our hero was at Warren, participating in the first
formal celebration of Independence Day on the Western Reserve
of Connecticut. That was six days before the signing of the
bill by which the Reserve was made Trumbull county; and just
at the close of a period of nearly four years, during which the
settlers in "New Connecticut" had been without laws of any kind
to govern them ; when they had been left to the dictates of that
innate sense of right and duty as a guide ; but, for men of their
stamp this had been sufficient, and the harmony that prevailed
Lake County and its Founder. 365
during this period was a magnificent testimonial of the character
of the settlers on the Reserve, prior to 1800.
What was the attraction that could induce Edward Paine
to take the journey, on this sultry Fourth of July, of more than
fifty miles by the slow and tedious mode of travel of a century
ago ? The attraction was not at Warren ; it was in Edward Paine,
who had, as a lieutenant in the War of the Revolution, twenty-
five years before, fought to enforce the Declaration of Independ-
ence. What part he had in the celebration at Warren is not
definitely recorded ; but we may well believe it was a prominent
one. The sentiments of that declaration were echoed in the
hearts of those other heroes who had suffered privations in this
new land, and to whom Paine may have read the document itself.
Our country had but recently entered upon an era of real
independence. It could look to no foreign power for aid. The
death of Washington only six months before this time had
deprived the leaders in government of the counsel of the greatest
general and statesman of his time, in America, if not in the world.
General Paine's faith in his country's progress and destiny
made him one of the first to choose the Western Reserve as his
future home. He was one of the first half dozen to venture upon
this new soil in 1796, with a view to selecting a spot for settle-
ment. His ambition had led him beyond the borders of Con-
necticut, his native state ; and later had towered above the oppor-
tunities afforded by New York state, his adopted home ; and
when New Connecticut opened a door for men of his expansive
vision, he was one of the first to enter it.
The course pursued by this man at this time presents a
profitable study. Who are we, who cling to the old home, pre-
ferring its soft ease and enervating tendencies to the larger
opportunities in the great West, to which so many open doors
invite us? \Mio are we who shrink from the comparatively
few privations of frontier life, on the plea of age, even before
we have compassed a third of the years allotted to man ; and
in this stage of the world's progress, when inventions contribute
everywhere to the comforts of life ; when companionship itself
is transported on the wings of the telegraph and the raiKvay, and
civilization insures safety wherever our flag greets the eye?
366 Ohio Arch, cand His. Society Publications.
Behold this hero of a century ago, coming to this wild region
when past middle life ! The snows of fifty-five winters had left
their traces upon his brow when he came here to lay the founda-
tions of Lake county.
It is entirely fitting that this perpetual reminder of Edward
Paine should be placed here at the county seat ; for it was not a
village merely, that he founded, nor even a township of the size
with which we are familiar ; but, in truth, a county, and the
interest in this statue of the most active man here, the moving
spirit of a hundred years ago, is shared by every resident of Lake
county. Here, again, deeds indicate character. One hundred
years ago the tenth of July, Governor St. Clair signed the bill
to organize the county of Trumbull, comprising the entire
Reserve. In the new county, eight townships were formed, one
of which was Painesville, consisting of ten townships as they
now exist. They included three now in Geauga county and all
of Lake county excepting Madison. Edward Paine had been
here scarcely three months when his name was thus perpetuated.
As new counties were formed from the original Trumbull, begin-
ning with Geauga county in 1805, the regularly surveyed town-
ships took names, and the name, Painesville, was restricted to
the present township, and later given to the county seat.
, The ability and worth of Edward Paine was early recog-
nized. At the first session of the territorial legislature of Ohio,
after the organization of Trumbull county, Edward Paine was
the representative from the Reserve. No man of inferior quality
could occupy a position so honorable.
Lake county, when young, became a power in the land, and
this partly because of the power inherent in its lands. There
is a fine logic of events, the study of which reveals a natural
course, and the circumstances leading to the settlement of Lake
county are plainly to be seen.
No sooner had the survey been made of the Reserve lands
east of the Cuyahoga River, than the townships of our county
began to develop a history, and with that history Edward Paine
was perfectly familiar. We are under deep obligations to his
exercise of forethought at this time. The quality of the lands
of Lake county was brought to notice by the process of equalizing
Lake County and its Founder. 367
the land values of the Reserve. In 1796 the surveyors appraised
the townships, and then it was that Lake county^ to he, assumed
its place in the scale of values. Seven of its townships (all but
Leroy), 90 per cent of its area, were found to possess soil value
above the average. This cannot be said of any other county of
the Reserve. The significance of this comparison did not escape
the attention of Edward Paine, who, in the spring of 1800,
declined battle with fever, ague and starvation at the feeble settle-
ment of seven souls at Cleveland and preferred to begin a settle-
ment on the rich lands of the Grand River, that is, in the center
of the richest section of the Reserve as its lands were then
valued ; and to-day, the beauty, enterprise and prosperity of
Lake, the smallest county of Ohio, are abundant proof that
Edward Paine's choice was a wise one.
Here he lived to see the greater part of the township orig-
inally called Painesville organized into Lake county in 1840.
He walked these highways for more than forty years. It
is now two generations since he passed from mortal view. To
the cynic and the pessimist this is delay of tribute, but to the
student of mankind, it is manifest how strong was the life of
the man who, sixty years after his death, more than a hundred
years after he had passed the middle age, could so hold the hearts
of his townsmen, but few of whom are now left to remember
him personally.
Ought w-e not to say tozvnszvonienf for to them is due the
credit of suggesting this homage to a modest, noble soldier and
citizen. This is not delay ; it is evidence of the influence of a life.
It is not tardy recognition; it is proof that human souls make
impressions which time cannot eft'ace.
The courage that won from the oppressor the soil of America
for citizens of America ; that wrested the land of our homes from
the vagrant savage, w^ho, with selfish content, robbed unculti-
vated nature and contributed nothing to the help of his race;
that faced wild beast and slow starvation in the primitive forests,
was the kind of fortitude which characterized the pioneers of a
hundred years ago.
We can ill afford to forget their trials and their triumphs,
for upon their patriotism, their courage, and their forethought
368 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
depend all our possibilities. The historian will not forget that
the youth of to-day can learn no lessons more potent than those
which remind them of their obligation to the men and women
who opened our pathway. No history, either local or general,
is worthy the name that forgets this. No history, either of
Painesville, or of Lake county, can be complete that does not
recount the achieveme'nts of Edward Paine and his contem-
poraries.
But history is the record of yesterday. A century is but a
day. Sweeping beyond the vistas of historic time, the imagina-
tion may picture our lovely land, covered by that "mother of
continents," the surging sea ; may behold a bank of snow of slow
dissolving crystal, depositing the soil upon which we depend for
life itself ; may follow the receding shore of our Erie "millpond"
as it washed the sands into fertile beds for the forests that grew
to old age and died away to be replaced by others in countless
repetitions. We love this venerable land, and we bow in awe
before the Being whose hand hath shaped its beauteous form.
Endless gratitude would we, therefore, pay to the pioneers who
were instrumental in leading us hither, conspicuous among whom
was Edward Paine.
Old Erie, thy billows have crumbled the shore,
And scattered its frail shifting sands ;
For ages thy life-freighted gales have blown o'er
This dearest, this loveliest of lands.
Though fierce be the wrath of thy turbulent breast.
When storms ride thy foam-crested wave.
We love thy rude tempests ; we love thy calm rest
Thy sweet benediction we crave.
Our hero, behold thou, this blest Eden land,
The fruit of thy tenderest love,
The years since thy shallop first touched our wild strand
Are crowned with rich gifts from above.
Gaze thou on Old Erie, b}'^ time's restless tide
Borne on until lost in the sea.
Not thus were thy memory ; that shall abide
In this land of the brave and the free.
Lake County and its Founder. 369
GENERAL EDWARD PAIXE.
General Edward Paine, from whom Painesville takes her
name, was born in Bolton. Tolland county, Connecticut, in the
year 1746.
General Paine took an active part in the exciting times wliich.
preceded the war of the Revolution and was a Whig of the most
pronounced type.
When the war broke out he entered the service of the United
States as an ensign in a regiment of Connecticut militia. He
served in this capacity seven months, at the end of which time
the whole company was discharged.
He again entered the service in June, 1776, as first lieutenant
in Captain Brig's company, was ordered to New York, and was
in the army at the time of the retreat to White Plains.
At the expiration of his term of service, he was discharged
in December, 1776. In 1777, he was commissioned lieutenant of
the Fifth company of the Alarm List m the 19th regiment of
Connecticut militia, and later, in 1777, was made captain of the
same company and served as such until the close of the war.
Such was his revolutionary record.
In early manhood he moved from Bolton to Xew York state,
locating on a point on the Susquehanna river, whence he moved to
Aurora.
\\'hile living in Aurora, he served for several s?ss'ons as
representative in the State Legislature, and was made brigadier-
general of the militia. In the fall of 1796, he conceived the pro-
ject of making an excursion into Ohio for the purpose of trading
with the Indians. With this in view, he and his oldest son,
Edward Paine, Jr., started on a perilous journey. They readied
the mouth of the Cuyahoga, now the site of Cleveland, and
selected a place at which to establish themselves.
At that time there were but two white people living there,
lob Stiles and wife. General Paine remained there only long
enough to arrange matters so that his son might carry out the
plan of the journey, when he started on foot and alone to return
to his home in New York. His son remained at the mouth of the
Cuvahoga during the winter of that year and the following spring
Vol. X — 24
370 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
returned to the home in Aurora, and in 1798, went to Connecticut
and purchased, in Tract No. 3, one thousand acres of land, in
what afterwards, in honor of its first settler, was called Paines-
ville. In the summer, after the purchase had been made, Gen-
eral Paine prepared for the removal of his family to the site
which he had selected. He used his influence to induce a number
of friends to go with him as settlers. Among this party were
Eleazer Paine, Jedediah Beard, and Joel Paine, who were the
heads of families — the whole company numbering 66.
The start was made from Aurora, with sleighs, on the fifth
day of March, 1800, but it was the first of May before the fam-
ilies were able to reach here. After they arrived on Grand River,
General Paine and his little colony lost no time in getting to work.
He erected his first log cabin about one mile south of Lake
Erie and two miles north of Painesville, and later, on the same
site, built a more pretentious home, nothing of which now remains
but a few foundation stones opposite the present Shorelands.
The colonists found on their arrival that the Indians had made
some improvements, so the party, at the earliest seed time, planted
these cleared grounds and in due time reaped an abundant harvest.
As has been stated, Painesville took its name from General
Paine ; but his activity and his usefulness did not close with the
founding of this village. Twice he was elected to the Territorial
Legislature of Ohio, and as long as he lived was one of the
enterprising and influential men of the northeastern part of the
state. He lived in this, his new home, for a period of forty years.
At the advanced age of ninety-five years and eleven months,
on the 28th of August, 1841, he closed his life on the banks of
Grand River, revered, respected, and esteemed, not only by his
immediate friends and acquaintances, but by that large circle
of active and influential men of his day, who laid the foundation
of what is now the great and leading state of Ohio.
General Paine possessed in an eminent degree the traits and
characteristics which distinguished that large body of pioneers
who led the tide of immigration into the wilderness. These men
were of a class by themselves, and stand preeminent among the
pioneers of all preceding and succeeding times for the special
qualities of hardihood and adventure, united with intellectual
Lake County a?id its Founder. 871
powers and capacities of the highest order. They not only intro-
duced the plow-share into the virgin soil of the wilderness, but
they brought with them the Bible and the spelling book, the
artisan, the circuit preacher, and the school master, as co-ordinate
parts of their enterprise. A common man with the ordinary
muscular ability, courage, and inherent traits of his race, without
possessing intellectual attainments, cannot be the pioneer of intel-
lectual and refined social life. Edward Paine was not merely a
pioneer of a pioneer band ; but he was a leader of civilizing and
refining influences among his own associates, and hence these
first settlers that came into the town of Painesville brought with
them the seed of that intellectual development which has made its
public schools, its colleges, and its seminaries famous throughout
the land.
372 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
THE REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER IN THE VALLEY
OF THE LITTLE MIAMI.
BY WILLIAM ALBERT GALLOWAY, M. D., VICE PRESIDENT OHIO
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
In considering The Revolutionary Soldier in the Valley of
the Little Miami, I am impressed with the significance of the
territorial enactments which particularly designated his settle-
ment in this beautiful and fertile location.
The territory granted by King James I. to the company
which founded the colony of Virginia was very extended. The
first charter embraced loo miles of coast line, between the 37°
and 49° north latitude, with all the islands opposite, and within
100 miles of it, and extending 100 miles from the coast to the
interior, two subsequent grants elevated this cession to the dignity
of a territorial empire. The second grant extended along the
coast line 200 miles north and 200 miles south of Old Point Com-
fort, a breadth of 400 miles, which was maintained across the
continent to the Pacific Ocean, and embracing all lands to the
northwest of the Ohio River. To this immense territory a third
grant added all islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within
300 leagues of these coast lines. In the treaty of peace between
Great Britain and France in 1763 the Mississippi River became
the western boundary of Virginia. A few days before the Declar-
ation of Independence, Virginia ceded to Pennsylvania, North
and South Carolina and Maryland her rights to the territory now
occupied by these states.
In 1783, by act of her legislature, Virginia ceded all the com-
monwealth's rights to the territory northwest of the Ohio River,
except so much of this land as was located between the head-
waters and courses of the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers. This
land was specifically reserved for the legal bounties and rewards
of General George Rogers Clark, his officers and soldiers. The
commonwealth of Virginia, ever careful for the compensation of
her Revolutionary defenders, in this act defined, that this cession
should be "good lands to be laid off between the Rivers Scioto
and Little Miami." Years afterwards, when the riches and fer-
The Revolutionary Soldier, Etc. 373,
tility of this survey became known, the Supreme Court of the
United States interpreted that paragraph to include every acre
between these rivers, from their mouths to their sources.
We can at this distance of time more fully realize that this
garden spot in Ohio is indeed "good lands" and given to soldiers
whose "good valor" deserved and received the best reward in the
gift of the commonwealth of Virginia.
The valley of the Little Miami, near its headwaters, was first
seen by a considerable body of Revolutionary soldiers in 1780.
In this year and in 1782 and 1784 punative expeditions were
organized in Kentucky and sent out against Old Chillicothe, the
head village of the Shawnee Indians in the Little Miami Valley.
Two of these expeditions were led by General George Rogers
Clark, the other by Colonel Bowman. All three expeditions
approached Old Chillicothe from the south, by routes which
passed near the present site of Xenia. Imagine with me for a
moment the landscape which greeted the vision of these soldiers
as they came to the last of the gently rolling hills which margin
the south of this beautiful valley. Who can blame them if they
desired to possess this place for their own homes. Before
them lay a valley which nature had fashioned and enriched
when in one of her most partial moods. Bordered on each side
by gently rising hills, covered by splendid forest trees of every
indigenous hardwood, its fertile acres rich in growing corn lay
to the south as far as the eye could see ; with sinuous beauty the
waters of the river, now in sight, and again winding about the
foothills, followed the course of the valley, until both were lost
to vision in the distance. Halfway across the valley, closely sur-
rounded by a strong wall of pickets, stood the barrier to their
possession — Old Chillicothe. This was the home of Tecumseh,
the greatest western warrior chief, a statesman, orator, and later
a brigadier general in the English army. Only one of these
expeditions was successful,, and in the three, many brave men
lost their lives, but it is not surprising that those who returned
to Kentucky, at their firesides and their social gatherings, talked
of the time when they could return and possess themselves of a.
home in this portion of the Virginia Military Survey, to which
their Revolutionarv services entitled them.
374 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Many of them did return, for to-day we know of forty-five
of these heroes of the American Revolution who are peacefully
at rest beneath the warm and generous soil of Greene county.
In 1795 the power of the Shawnee Indians was broken, and
in 1797 the first settler located near the site of Old Chillicothe,
now Old Town, three and a half miles north of Xenia. He came
from Lexington, Kentucky, and brought with him his entire
iamily and a generous pioneer equipment. He was the writer's
great-grandfather, James Galloway. Fortunately I am able to
give, in his own words, the location of Old Chillicothe. Among
the court records of Greene county is a well-preserved record of
a trial to quiet title to certain lands in the Miami Valley. This
â– court was held on June 5, 1818, before Josiah Glover, master com-
missioner of the Superior Court of Greene county, at the resi-
'dence of Abner Reid, Oldtown, Ohio, three miles north of Xenia.
At this trial James Galloway deposed that he was a member of
the expeditions which came out from Kentucky against the
Shawnee Indians in 1780 and 1782, and in answer to the com-
missioner's question as to the exact location of Old Chillicothe,
he says : "I am now sitting within the enclosure made by the
pickets." The house, a two-story brick, in which this court was
held, is still standing near the south end of the village of Old-
town, 36 rods southwest of the Xenia and Yellow Springs pike.
This evidence was corroborated by other witnesses at the trial
who had been members of Clark's and Bowman's expeditions.
With this certain location of the picket enclosure within which
the council house of the Shawnees was located, I am able to estab-
lish the course of an additional and very interesting historical
event.
In 1834, Simon Kenton, while visiting his cousin, Orin
North, at Oldtown, gave the course of his famous "Run of the
Gantlet" as beginning halfway up the Sexton hill and ending at
the Council House door, across which he fell exhausted but safe.
Imagine for a moment a half-mile run between two rows of hostile
Indians, armed with clubs, tomahawks and hickories, each one
determined to get in a blow on Kenton's bare body as he ran
through the gantlet at the height of his speed. Only a powerful
and hardy man like Kenton could possibly survive, and he de-
The Revolutionary Soldier, Etc. 375
clared in 1834 it was the severest trial of his Hfe. This course
measures 155 rods, ahiiost a half mile, and lies south from the
location of the Council House.
"All the world loves a lover." It is the common touch of a
master which "makes the whole world akin." Romance and con-
quest have often met on common ground in history ; sometimes
one has softened the sting of the other. Old Chillicothe had its
conquest, and in due time its romance, also, but unlike the usual
romance, its effects were far-reaching both in the subsequent
saving of many American lives and in the possible loss to the
United States of all the territory which now lies north of the
Canadian line. Among a number of pleasing and opportune
communications from Colonel IMoulton Houk during the presi-
dency of the Ohio Sons of the American Revolution was a
valuable and suggestive little brochure entitled "A Bit of His-
tory." In it he makes reference to the oratory and humanity
of Tecumseh. the most distinguished man the Little Miami \"alley
has ever produced. The birthplace of this warrior chief, accord-
ing to his own statements to the writer's great-grandfather, was
about one mile northeast from Old Chillicothe, at a big spring
which is now a source of water supply to the Xenia Water Works.*
Rev. Benjamin Kelly, a white child prisoner, who was adopted
by the parents of Tecumseh and consequently was his foster-
brother, and who subsequently became a Baptist minister, also
gave this location as the birthplace of Tecumseh. I am aware
that history gives the honor of the birthplace of this distin-
guished Indian to Piqua, but this honor can be spared on evidence
to Old Chillicothe by the Great Miami Valley, for she possesses
New Carlisle, the birthplace and childhood of the most daring
and distinguished twentieth century soldier and of Revolutionary
ancestry — General Frederic Funston. In the family of James
Galloway, who removed from Kentucky in 1797 and settled
near Old Chillicothe, was an only daughter — the writer's grand-
mother. She was known then as a girl of remarkable mind and
personality, both of w^hich she retained in later life. This pioneer
* The birth place of Tecumseh is in great dispute. Drake, the historian
of Tecumseh, claims it was a few miles below Springfield and within the
present limits of Clark county.— E. O. R., Editor.
376 Ohio Arch. a7id His. Society Publications.
was himself a man of splendid mind and character and reflected his
personality not only on his children and associates, but also very
broadly on the early history of Greene county. It is not sur-
prising, then, that Tecumseh, who frequently returned to his
birthplace, should have formed a fast friendship with James
Galloway and have been his guest at all times when in this
vicinity. As the daughter, Rebecca, grew to young womanhood
this chief fell under the charm of her personality and the power
of her mind and in that valley, amid all the beauty of
forest and stream that nature can lavish on one landscape,
he learned that " 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never
to have loved at all." In Colonel Houk's little brochure he
quotes from Tecumseh's eloquent speech before General Har-
rison, and records the fact that although he arrived late at the
battle of Fort Meigs on May 4, 1812, he stopped the massacre
of Kentucky prisoners, who had been captured and turned over
to the Indians for slaughter, and he upbraided General Proctor
for permitting it. The use of excellent English, which distin-
guished Tecumseh's eloquent war and peace orations, reflected
the careful teaching of Rebecca Galloway. She read much to
him from the few books in her father's possession, corrected his
idioms of speech and helped him enlarge his vocabulary in Eng-
lish. She read to him from the Bible and taught him the white
man's belief in religion and future destiny, but the most signal
service this girl performed to humanity was to instill in Tecum-
seh, with every power of her artful character, the fact that the
massacre of prisoners after surrender, and helpless women and
children after capture, was against every law and sentiment of
humanity. History records that he accepted and maintained this
high ground in the years which preceded his death at the battle
of the River Thames. I leave the reader to infer how much love
may have done in this case for humanity. In speculating on
the results of the disasters to the American forces in 1812 after
Tecumseh and his forces had joined the English, I have been
impressed with the thought that love, ever powerful in the affairs
of men, may in this case have helped to set the Canadian boundary
as far south as it is to-day. Had this chieftain's love for the
paleface girl been successful he would never have gained the
The Revolutionary Soldier, Etc. 377
star of a brigadier general in the British army; he would not
have led 2,000 warriors against Fort Meigs, and in the absence
of his leadership and powerful personality in the events of
181 2-13 it would not have been possible for a Canadian historian
to record that: "No one can fully calculate the inestimable value
of those devoted redmen, led on by brave Tecumseh, during the
struggle of 1812, but for them it is probable we should not now
have a Canada."
The Virginia Military Survey was a post-bellum contribu-
tion to the war spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race. We are fond
of calling ourselves a race of peace, and our peace is indeed pro-
found in its progress and material advancements, but our mile-
stones in history are marked by war. It is after its wars that
the Anglo-Saxon race presses forward with irresistible force to
occupy new territory and extend free institutions. The Revolu-
tionary soldier in the Little Miami Valley was one movement
only in the evolution of the race's history. There he tarried, but
only for a day. With the war of i860 his descendants and suc-
cessors overflowed into Kansas and the great West, carrying
with them the characteristic liberty and progressive spirit which
was their historical heritage. The War of 1898 is drawing to a
close and history stands waiting to repeat itself. "Westward
the star of Empire has ever taken its course" for this irresistible
race. It is our manifest destiny, we cannot escape. It is our
hereditary command since the days of Sargon; ive cannot dis-
obey. We have expanded so long zve cannot stop. We have
advanced the flag so often, we do not now know how to pull it
down. Mountains and oceans, deserts and plains are no obstacle
to this advance ; it is the hand of the master from which there is
no escape. The Valley of the Little Miami, beautiful, fertile,
inviting, offered scarcely a momentary rest to an advance which
seems never to grow weary.
Let us not forget that we of the present generation are the
beneficiaries of all this patriotic past and the trustees of its glor-
ious and unfolding future, and may we ever execute this trus-
teeship like true sons of honorable Revolutionary sires.
SIS Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT.
AS TOLD BY AN EYE-WITNESS FROM ORIGINAL MSS.
BY FRAZER E. WILSON, GREENVILLE, O.
It is refreshing to read an original account of any important
battle, especially when the field of action is near at hand. Of the
600 survivors of St. Clair's unfortunate army probably quite a
number wrote narratives which have been lost or destroyed in
the wreck of time. The General's own report and the descrip-
tion of Benjamin Van Cleve have been published a number of
times arid we take pleasure in printing another from the pen of
a Mr. Thos. Irwin, deceased, of Butler County, Ohio, who was a
wagoner in the army. Mr. Irwin has a number of descendants in
Darke county ; among whom are David P. Irwin and Mr. William
Swartz, of Greenville. The manuscript is in the possession of the
latter gentleman, who kindly loaned it to the writer for copy and
publication. It reads as follows :
"The following is an account from the memory of the movements
of General Arthur St. Clair's army from Fort Hamilton to where said
army was defeated on the 4th of Nov.-^mber, in the year 1791:
"The army marched from Fort Hamilton about the last of Sep-
tember or first of October, on a straight line by the compass, to where
Fort Jefferson was built; encamped and lay there over two weeks, until
the fort was built and finished. Left there in October, marched to
Greenville creek, encamped and lay there one week. Marched from there
on the 1st of November and was attacked and defeated on the morning
of the 4th by the Indians. It was the opinion of the general and his
officers that the Indians would net attack an army where there was so
many canon with them. There wj-- three six pounders and three smaller
ones. On the day before the battle, about four miles on this side,
there was a general halt. Sojnething got wrong. The weather was
cold. During our stay us 'wagoners in front kindled up a large fire.
The general and a number of the officers collected round it to warm
themselves. They chatted on several subjects. One was whereabouts we
were. The general opinion was that we had passed over the dividing
ridge between the waters of the Miamis and St. Mary's — was then on
the waters of St. Mary's. Colonel Serjant had been in front, came up
while they were chatting, informed them that the advance guard had
chased four or five Indians from a fire out of a thicket and got part
St. Clair's Defeat. 379
of a venison at the fire. The chat turned upon the movements of the
Indians, as they had been more seen that day than on any day previous.
The gen'l observed that he did not think the Indians was watching the
movements of the army with a view to attack them. The officers present
concured with him in that opinion. We marched from there about 2
mile, halted to encamp. An express came up from the front gard,
stated that they had got to a fine, running stream and good place to
encamp at. We started and got there about sunset. I expect it was
near eight o'clock before the troops got fixed for lodging and cooking
their scanty mess of provision. There was several guns shot that night
by the sentries. Our orders was to have our horses up early on the
4th. We had to pass through the sentries. They informed us that the
Indian had been round part of the camp nearly all night. We got
part of the horses and part was stole by the Indians. The Kentucky
malitia, perhaps three hundred, was encamped 40 rod in advance on
the opposite side of the creek. The army was encamped in a hollow
square on this side of creek. The three six-pounders on the left on the
bank of said creek. The two lines was about 50 or 60 yards apart so
as the rear could come to the creek for water. A small ravine put into
the creek a short distance on the left from where the six-pounders was.
About sunrise on the 4th one gun was discharged some distance in front
of the Kentucky militia. In two minutes after there was upwards of 50
discharged, a yell raised and charges made on the militia. They re-
treated into the main camp, the indians in .pursuit. When the Indians
came within perhaps 60 yards of said creek they wheeled to the right and
left with a view to surround the army which they done in a very short
rime. After they got round I think within one hour and a half they
had killed and wounded every officer and soldier belonging to the
artilery. After the artilery was silenced I think the battle continued
another hour and half. During that time there was several charges
made but I think neither of them advanced more than 40 steps until
they returned. A retreat was ordered to be beat which was done by
a drummer but not understood. George Adams, who afterwards lived
and died in Darke county and was on that campaign I think as a spie.
St. Clair placed great confidence in him for former services. He was with
the gen'l. A short time before the army retreated he came to that part
of the line, near where the trace was, give three sharp yells and said —
"Boys let us make for the trace." — He took the lead, a charge was made.
I was within five or six feet of him. The Indians give way a few guns
was shot from both sides. When we had got perhaps about thirty rood
Adams ordered them to halt and form a line. They were then on the
trace and could not be stopped. The race continued perhaps 4 or 5 mile
when they slackened their pace and arrived at Fort JefTerson a short
time after sunset. The first regiment was there — had been sent after
deserters and to gard provisions. I expect on the day of the battle there
380 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications
was no provision on the way within 50 miles and then not much. The
wagoners had no guns while we lay at Jefferson and Greenville. I bor-
rowed a rifle to hunt with, could get none; time of battle got a musket,
bayonet, cartouch box with about 20 cartridges. Throwed the box away
and carried the cartridges in a large side pocket. The troops on that
campaign ought to have been trilled 8 or 10 months and learned them
how to handle a gun. I think a number never had handled a gun or
shot one. There was two excellent companies of artilary men command-
ed by Capt'ns Bradford and Ford. If they would have had a good breast-
work to shelter thmselves all the Indians that was there could not have
fazed them. That battle always reminded me of on of those thunder
storms that comes up quick and rapidly. The following is the names
of part of the officers that I had a knowledge of that was killed in that
battle on the 4th of November, 1791: General Butler, 1 — Col. Gibson, 2
— Major Furguson of artilery, 3 — Cap. Hart, 4 — Cap't'n Kirkwood, 5 —
Cap't'n Smith, 6 — Cap't'n Darke, 7 — Cap't'n Sarwinger, 8 — Lieut Spear,
9— Lieut Lukens, 10— Ensign McMichel, 11— Cap't'n Bradford of Ar-
tilery, 12 — Provisions was excedingly scarce. Nearly all the time we lay
at Greenville creek and on until the army was defeated the army was on
half rations and the beef part was not very good. Six spies was sent
from Greenville creek 2 days before the army marched from there —
went about a northeast course — heard nothing of the battle on the 4th —
."net with an Indian who informed them the army was defeated. They
returned to Jefiferson. There was four of the spies Chockta Indians —
they killed the one they met. Capt'n Ganoe who was afterwards gen'l in
Hamilton County was the surveyor.
THOMAS IRWIN, of B. C. Ohio.
There was six wagoners with the artillery and one cook. Two wagon-
ers and the cook was killed. Cap't'n Ford with the small pieces always
encampted on rear line right in rear of the large ones. The officers on
that campaign was as good as any that ever carried a gun. T. I.
(Spelling and grammatical construction according to MSS. — Punc-
tuation altered to facilitate reading.)
This account corresponds in its main points with that of
Gen. St. Clair, but being written from memory several years after
the battle, it is inaccurate in a few minor points of time, etc.,
and, on account of brevity, necessarily gives but an incomplete
and imperfect picture of the affair. It remains, however, an ex-
tremely valuable witness to the truth as given in the generally
accepted accounts and should be carefully and reverently pre-
served for future reference.
Mound Builders' Fort zvitliin Toledo's Limits. 381
MOUND BUILDERS' FORT WITHIN TOLEDO'S
LIMITS.
BY S. S. KNABENSHUE, TOLEDO, OHIO.
It will probably surprise most of the readers of the Quar-
terly to be told that there once existed an ancient defensive earth-
work on the banks of the Maumee, within the present city limits.
The writer was unaware of the fact until some time ago, when he
found a reference to it in a somewhat rare book — the first volume
of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, printed in 1848.
It is a copy of "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,"
by Squier and Davis. In the chapter devoted to works of de-
fence, is a section on such ancient forts in Northern Ohio, writ-
ten by Hon Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, whose archaeolog-
ical researches were both extensive and accurate. The follow-
ing is Mr. Whittlesey's account of the Toledo work:
"This work is situated on the right bank of the Alaumee
river, two miles above Toledo, in Wood county, Ohio." (It is
now in Lucas county, and within the city limits. The writer does
not know whether Mr. Whittlesey was in error in placing the
work in W^ood county, or whether the county line has been changed
since his account was written.) The water of the river is here
deep and still, and of the lake level ; the blufT is about 35 feet
high. Since the work was built, the current has undermined a
portion, and parts of the embankments are to be seen on the slips
a, a. The country for miles in all directions is flat and wet,
though heavily timbered, as is the space in and around this enclo-
sure. The walls, measuring from the bottoms of the ditches,
are from three to four feet high. The}' are not of uniform
dimensions throughout their extent ; and as there is no ditch on
the southwest side, while there is a double wall and ditch else-
where, it is presumable that the work was abandoned before it
was finished."
The site of this ancient work is on the East Side, a little
above the end of Fassett street bridge, and directly back of the
C, H. & D. elevator. The greater part is an unfenced common,
382
Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Ptibhcations.
directly north of the present residence of Mrs. Charles A. Crane,
to whom the site belongs. There is not a vestige of the old em-
bankment remaining. After the ground was cleared of trees,
it was cultivated, and the plow soon reduced the works to an
uniform level.
The only reminder of the work is the name of Fort street —
a short thoroughfare running east from the Ohio Central tracks
to Crescent street. If extended through westward to the river,
it would cut the center of the site. When it was laid out, the
work, was still in existence,
and the name given in conse-
quence.
Mr. Elias Fassett, w^ho
lives in the next house south
of the Crane residence, has
a vivid remembrance of the
old mound builders' fort as
it appeared more than a half
century ago. He says the
northern end reached the
river only a few yards south
of the end of Fassett street
bridge, and the embankment
on the southwestern side,
where there was no ditch,
crossed the present street
just at the corner of the
Crane front fence. When
the Fassett family settled where he now lives, the site of the fort
was covered with huge sugar maple trees. This grove of maples
extended some distance north of the three acres covered by the
works, and embraced about 200 trees. These were the only sugar
trees in that vicinity. This would point to the site having been
cleared of the primitive forest by the people who built the fort ;
for it is a well known fact that where an area is denuded of its
original forest growth, and afterward allowed to reforest itself,
the new growth is always of a dififerent species. It would 'ap-
pear that the soil becomes exhausted of the materials for that
i>'^^.^,.^^K,.^y^i^(3
Mound Builders' Fort within Toledo's Limits. 383
particular kind of tree, and others spring up for which it con-
tains appropriate nourishment.
Directly where the river road now runs, in front of the Fas-
set residence — or Miami street, to give it the official name — there
was originally an elevation, probably an artificial mound, of the
same date as the fort. A small oak tree, on the edge of the bluff,
marks its position. This mound was of nearly pure sand, and it
was used to level up the lot. In digging it down a half dozen
human skeletons were unearthed, all in perfect preservation, but
all buried face downward — a most unusual thing. These were
probably the remains of Indians of a later date, and not of the
race that erected the work itself. The mound builders usually
burned their dead; and the writer, in exploring their burial
mounds in Southern Ohio, has frequently found later Indian inter-
ments in these ancient mounds. They are easily distinguished,
for the mound builders deposited their burned remains of their
dead on the ground, and then raised a mound over them, the
relics being always found at the natural level, and in the center
of the mound ; while the Indian interments were made anywhere
on the elevation that suited the fancy of the burial party.
Mr. Whittlesey, in the chapter referred to above, describes
eight ancient works, of which the Toledo one is the most west-
erly, and all m Northern Ohio. Of them he says :
"Nothing can be more plain that that most of the remains
in Northern Ohio are military works. They have not yet beai
found any remnants of the timber in the walls; yet it is very s.^fe
to presume that pallisades were planted on them, and that wooden
posts and gates were erected at the passages left in the embank-
ments and ditches.
"All the positions are contiguous to water : and none of them
have higher land in their vicinity, from which they might in any
degree be commanded. Of the works bordering on the shore of
Lake Erie, through the state of Ohio, there the none but may
have been intended for defence; although in some of them the
design is not perfectly manifest. They form a line from Con-
neaut to Toledo, at a distance of from three to five miles from the
lake ; and all stand upon or near the principal rivers." * * * *
384 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.
"The most natural inference with respect to the northern
cordon of works is, that they formed a well-occupied line, con-
structed either to protect the advance of a nation landing from the
lake and moving southward for conquest ; or, a line of resistance
for people inhabiting these shores and pressed upon by their
southern neighbors. The scarcity of mounds, the absence of
pyramids of earth, which are so common on the Ohio, the want
of rectangular or any other regular works, at the north — all
these differences tend to the conclusion that the northern part
of Ohio was occupied by a distinct people."
According to Mr. Whittlesey, this work on the Maumee is
the most westerly of the defensive cordon of these ancient forts.
The absence of mounds, of which he speaks, points to a short
occupation, or to a very small population ; for the isolated mounds
were tumuli, or burial mounds. The writer knows of but three
in this vicinity. Two are on the road to Maumee, a short distance
this side of the Halfway House — one in a pear orchard, some
fifty yards west of the road, and and the other in the woods a few
hundred yards south. The third is in Ottawa Park, marked by
a clump of trees, on the crest of the hill west of the lower bridge.
The writer would like to be informed of the location of any others
in this vicinity.
The Sorrow of the Nations. ' 385
THE SORROW OF THE NATIONS.
In Memoriam \Vm. McKinley.
by john p. smith, sharpsburg, maryland.
[Corresponding Member of the Maryland Historical Society and of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society.]
There's darkness over every land —
Man takes his fellow by the hand,
The hearts of men now almost fail ;
For all the earth is one sad wail.
There's sorrow in the hut and hall.
Our land's enshrouded with a pall ;
The bells of death do sadly toll
The grief that overwhelms the soul.
Loved Britain's king of grace and worth.
The millions high or low in birth,
The proudest thrones of royal power.
Are one with us in sorrow's hour.
'Tis not that bloody-handed war —
Nor pestilence has swept our shore;
Our nation's head has fallen now,
Oh, God! to Thee in grief we bow.
O cruel, vile, accursed blow —
That laid our loved McKinley low ;
The world's great soul is bowed with grief ».
O Father! is there no relief?
Despite the earnest prayers and tears.
Despite the hopeful signs and fears;
The protest o'er our hero's fall,
Death cometh to him after all.
The kneeling millions wonder why
A righteous God should let him die ;
I Unceasing prayers for him ascend,
Our President, the nation's friend.
Vol. X — 25
386 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Thy fondest hopes were born to fade,
Thy beauty in the dust was laid;
Sleep, sainted spirit, sweetly sleep.
While countless thousands for thee weep.
O'er brightest scenes dark clouds descend,
Each glorious day has its swift end ;
The flame soars high but for to fall,
Night cometh to each one and all.
The blooni of beauty we possess —
Though love and life make tearfulness,
The shadow of the funeral pall ;
Is death which cometh after all.
"We love to think, though lost to view,
Of one so noble, grand and true,
Our President to us so dear.
Beloved by nations far and near.
"We know that thou hast entered rest,
With all the blood washed thou art blest;
In realms of Amaranthine bowers,
The gain is thine, the loss is ours.
"God's will be done," thy sainted breath
Proclaimed it in the hour of death,
Bright seraph angels beckon me,
"Nearer my Father, God, to Thee."
Thus with thy last expiring breath.
Thy spirit triumphed over death,
The victory gained, the crown is won,
Eternal life through God's dear Son.
For her who shared his hopes and fears —
His solace in declining years,
Oh, God! be Thou her strength and stay
Through this her melancholy day.
Conduct her safe, conduct her far
Through every ill and hurtful snare.
And when the storms of sorrow lower
Be near her with thy gracious power.
The Sorrozv of the Nations. 387
Mysterious is our father's way
Though we journey day by day,
Behind the clouds his face divine,
Like noonday's sun effulgent shine.
Be calm, my heart, and question not
The seeming strangeness of the lot,
Whate'er our Father God ordains,
We know the Lord Jehovah reigns.
Father, protect our native land
From anarchy's accursed hand;
Defend the lives of rulers dear
From day to day, from year to year.
Blot out foul anarchistic stain.
Let not a trace of it remain.
For traitors on this nation's sod.
Are traitors to Almighty God.
EDITORIALANA.
HISTORICAL STUDIES.
The value of historical knowledge and study is being more and more
appreciated, especially as relates to the beginning and career of our own
illustrious country and state. Concerning this subject Professor Wallace
N. Stearns of Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, makes some most
timely suggestions, which we herewith publish, cordially approving the
same and recommending their consideration by our readers and especially
by all educators.
"In endeavoring to illustrate the legends and traditions of classical
countries, we frequently have had recourse to the use of similar inci-
dents in the history of our own land. For example, the migrations that
have occurred in the dawn of European history become more vivid by
comparison with similar phenomena in the period of American history
prior to and contemporary with the advent of white men. But students
frequently are found to be more ignorant of the illustrative material than
of the point illustrated. Of the wealth of lore at our very doors, of
the richness of legend and tradition, of the abundance of romance and
adventure it is not necessary to speak here.
"But acquaintance with this material must begin early. These stories
are as entertaining and as profitable as Mother Goose, and far more
conducive to patriotism. Students, as they grow older, would learn to
feel more than a commercial interest in their country. Would not a
feasible plan for arousing such interest be : 1. To introduce into the
curriculum of the public schools the study of the beginnings of Ameri-
can history? A suitable manual for such work, comparable with text-
books, on Greek and Roman antiquities, would be a prime necessity. 2.
To arrange a reading course for systematic study. Representative vol-
umes might be included in the circulating libraries.
"Such a policy would create an intelligent interest in a subject, a
knowledge of which could not fail to react beneficially on the student.
"This plan would help the archseologist. Private collections, small,
but often valuable, are scattered and lost because the owners are ignorant
of the value of what they possess. The awakening of interest would lead
to the gathering up and preserving of these collections.
"This study would acquaint us with many ballads and legends now
practically forgotten, and further, we should have at our hand a story
replete with deeds of heroism and fortitude, of crushing failure and
triumphant achievements such as would fill with enthusiasm the most
apathetic."
(388)
Editorialana. 389
"THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET."
We have often wondered why Ohio has not been a more fruitful
field for the romancer than it seems to have been. Rich in archaeological
and historical lore ; the great arena of the Indian wars and contests be-
tween the French and English; the frontier of the westward moving civ-
ilization, Ohio presents fertile soil for the story writer. To a certain extent
this field is invaded by Dr. James Ball Naylor, of McConnellsville, Ohio,
in his historical novel "The Sign of the Prophet." The Prophet is the
famous Tenskwatawa, the one-eyed brother of the great Shawnee chief,
Tecumseh. The career of Tenskwatawa is weird and romantic as the
wildest dreamer could conjecture. The Prophet undertakes to rally, by
the assumption of religious and supernatural power, the western tribes
of Indians and confederate them in a great uprising movement against
the advancing white civilization. In this Tecumseh was his aider, if
not indeed his chief and leader. Dr. Naylor avails himself of this
splendid material for his work. His story opens at Franklinton,
now a portion of Columbus. One Ross Douglas, accompanied by a
Wyandot Indian, Bright Wing, adopted son of Leatherlips, goes to join
Harrison's army at Vincennes at the outbreak of the Indian War in 1811.
The thread of the story follows the trail of Douglas, who leaves Amy
. Larkin, his sweetheart, on the banks of the Scioto. The story is pathetic
and natural. Amy after the departure of Ross marries his rival, a scoun-
drel. George Hilliard. who abuses and deserts his wife. Douglas has
many hazardous and exciting experiences, as a brave and loyal soldier
in Harrison's army. He is captured and wounded and has escapades
varied and numerous enough to satisfy the most demanding taste for
perils and predicaments. He is ever accompanied by Bright Wing and a
faithful and almost humanly sagacious bloodhound "Duke." Indeed Duke
adds a peculiar charm to the story and is a most original feature of the
author's creation. In the war Douglas encounters La Violette, a Helen
in beauty, an orphan child of Canadian parents and adopted daughter
of the Prophet. About the time Douglas' affections have been thus
transferred, Amy appears under distressing circumstances, becomes sud-
denly widowed and Douglas has to make final choice between the
two loves, the old and the new. La Violette wins. It is a capitally
told story, carrying the reader steadily amid the life and scenes of
frontier warfare and Indian days. The battle of Tippecanoe, siege
of Fort :\Ieigs and other memorable events are accurately described.
Dr. Naylor has adhered closely to historical lines. His description of
the Prophet, his peculiar hold on his followers, and the final collapse of
his leadership and influence are presented in a most lifelike and pictur-
esque manner. Dr. Naylor's book should be read by the young especially;
it will give them all the adventures they ask for, while imparting to
them much valuable information and stimulating rather than destroying
390 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
a fondness for history itself. Dr. Naj'lor's book is having the large
sale it well deserves. It is published by the Saalfield Publishing Com-
pany, Akron, Ohio.
BLENNERHASSETT AGAIN.
In the July (1901) number of the Quarterly -wt made somewhat
extended allusion to the then current (July) Century article, by Theresa
Blennerhassett-Adams, entitled "The True Story of Harman Blenner-
hassett." In the same number we noticed briefly Prof. W. H. Venable's
historical novel "A Dream of Empire," which deals with the scenes and
personages involved in the career of the American Blennerhassett. We
hardly closed Prof. Venable's delightful volume before broadcast adver-
tisements called our attention to the story, just published by Charles
Felton Pidgin, U. S. A., bearing the title "Blennerhassett — A Romance."
Mr. Pidgin's book is a highly spiced account of the same epoch and
events treated by Prof. Venable. With the Blennerhassetts as the central
figures, the Colonel reproduces in rich, and at times, extravagant imagin-
ation, the romantic story of the unscrupulous Burr and his ill fated and
unsuspecting victim, Harman Blennerhassett. There are the well known
characters of Wilkinson, Hamilton, Jefferson, Aaron and Theodosia Burr,
the Blennerhassetts, Harman and Margaret, and the minor figures in
immediate attendance upon the principals in the so-called "Burr Con-
spiracy" and subsequent tragic ending of Theodosia. Prof. Venable
crowded a volume of history into a light, pleasing story — it had
the charm of romance without sacrifice to the reality or truth of
history. He gave us the personages in their actual characters. It
is a model in conception and execution of the best type of the his-
torical novel. Mr. Pidgin avowedly sets out to pervert history and dis-
tort characters. His book is an attempt to "whitewash" Aaron Burr and
blacken Alexander Hamilton. He would remove all odium thus far
resting undisturbed upon the loyalty and integrity of Burr. In this
heroizing process Mr. Pidgin naturally, under the circumstances, has to
resort to powerful stimulants and appointments in the shape of highly
wrought scenes; theatrical climaxes; "blood and thunder and blue lights";
that would do credit to the prize numbers of yellow backed literature.
Like the magician on the stage in the dazzling glare of electric effects,
and red velvet and gold tinsel trappings, Mr. Pidgin hopes to bewilder
the reader while he "presto, change," transforms some evil spirits into
white winged fairies and vice versa. And Mr. Pidgin is very clever ;
he is no mean necromancer. He is a consummate expert of his craft. He
is a gifted artist in style. He wields a poignant pen. The reader is
whirled along spell bound ; lays down the fascinating book and rubs his
eyes as' if coming out of a maze. In short, this story as related by Mr.
Pidgin is a strong "show" — it is a spectacular production, it is realistic,
but it is very far from being historic. ]\Tr. Pidgin in .his preface speak-
Editorialana. 391
ing of the historical basis of his book says: "Where the statement was.
one of fact, fact has been adhered to. Where the language is imaginative
such words have been chosen to express fiction as seemed to conform to
those used to convey fact; in other words, if the characters in this
romance did not do the things or say the words attributed to them, from
what they did do or say, it seems fair and proper to infer that they would
have done or said them had occasion offered, or circumstances been
propitious." Now that is a laudable statement — but in Mr. Pidgin's
hands it proves but dust for the public eye. In the heat of the last
gubernatorial contest (fall of 1901) we received a letter from a party in
a distant part of the state, inclosing a little campaign pamphlet containing
a series of malignant false charges against a prominent candidate. Our
epistolary interrogator wrote : "My dear sir, I know you are intimately
acquainted with the candidate this circular tells about. What I want to
know is, arc these facts true?" I hastened to assure my well meaning but
somewhat mixed seeker after veracity, that as a general proposition facts
were true. But the charges in the pamphlet in question were not facts —
they were fiction. That is the trouble with Mr. Pidgin's "facts" which
he uses as a basis for his "historical" novel. His facts are not true.
He has written a most fascinating and at times thrilling narrative. But
after his professions in the preface he wrongs his readers by misleading
them into the realms of pure fiction while calling it "historical." His
work is most entertaining as a novel, and he should have let it go at
thai. If he wanted to restore Burr to respectable standing — he should
have done it in an historical manner, by producing the evidence. This
soaping of historical figures, condemned to disgrace and obloquy, with
the sapolio of sympathy and condonement, is a dangerous fad. We have
read volumes claiming to be history, that Richard HI. never had a hump
on his back but was the very "mold of form" and a model of correct-
ness in character; that Henry VHI. was a paragon of patience, purity
and conjugal dutifulnetss; that Lucretia Borgia was a gentle, saintly
woman that would have swooned at the thought of killing a fly with
poisoned sugar; that Judas Iscariot was the truest and the best of the
twelve, and so on. We happen to be just now perusing a late volume
on Jean Paul Marat, the "Monster of the French Revolution," in which
work the author endeavors to prove that Marat was the most maligned
man of that fiery period ; stainless in his private life and actuated by the
loftiest principles of humanity, philanthropy and patriotism; a martyr to
the cause cf freedom, averse to blood and injustice; in short, that he was
the embodiment of an entire humane society of the latest perfected con-
dition and workings. These eccentric ebullitions are literary curios and
more or less fascinating, but must not be taken too seriously. Mr.
Pidgin has produced a most readable book, the plot is dramatic, the
scenes picturesque and graphic, the characters strong and distinct but the
atmosphere is not natural — too often the environment is forced, entirely
too stagy to be real. His attempt to elevate Burr to the rank of patriotism
392 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
and honor is not deserving of praise. The historical data are heavily,
conclusively against Burr. Burr was a man with the inordinate ambition
of Bonaparte and equally unscrupulous, cold blooded and selfish. There
was no sacrifice of friends or country or honor or truth or morality he
would not make for self-gratification and self-glorification. Burr was a
born intriguer and was associated with Lee and Gates in their schemes
against Washington. He was detected by the latter in gross immoral-
ities, and ever after he affected to despise the military genius and
noble character of Washington. He basely entrapped the simple minded
Blennerhasset. He wrecked his victim and cowardly deserted him when
the game was up. More than that, in the most dastardly manner he
scorned Blennerhasset in the hours of the latter's distress and disgrace.
No historical novel can right the wrongs committed by Aaron Burr,
though that novel be Written by so gifted and accomplished a writer
as Mr. Pidgin.
GREAT SEAL OF OHIO.
We have frequent inquiries concerning the Coat of Arms of the
State of Ohio and especially whether Ohio ever adopted the motto
Imperium in Imperio.
On April 6, 1866, the Legislature passed the following act:
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
Ohio, That the coat of arms of the state of Ohio shall consist of the
following device : A shield, upon which shall be engraved on the left,
in the foreground, a bundle of seventeen arrows ; to the right of the
arrows, a sheaf of wheat, both standing erect ; in the background, and
rising above the sheaf and arrows, a range of mountains, over which
shall appear a rising sun ; between the base of the mountains and the
arrows and the sheaf, in the left foreground, a river shall be represented
flowing towards the right foreground ; supporting the shield, on the
right, shall be the figure of a farmer, with implements of agriculture and
sheafs of wheat standing erect and recumbent ; and in the distance, a
locomotive and train of cars ; supporting the shield, on the left, shall
be the figure of a smith, with anvil and hammer ; and in the distance,
water, with a steamboat; at the bo.ttom of the shield there shall be a
motto, in these words : Imperium in Imperio.
Sec. 2. The great seal of the state shall be two and one-half inches
in diameter, on which shall be engraved the devise included within the
shield, as described in the preceding section, and it shall be surrounded
with these words : "The Great Seal of the State of Ohio." Vol. 63,
page 185.
On May 9, 1868, the Legislature amended the above act and passed
the following:
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
â– Ohio, That the coat of arms of the State of Ohio shall consist of the
Editorialana. 393
following device: A shield, in form, a circle. On it. in the foreground,
on the right, a sheaf of wheat ; on the left, a bundle of seventeen arrows,
both standing erect; in the background, and rising above the sheaf and
arrows, a mountain range, over which shall appear a rising sun.
Sec. 2. The great seal of the state shall be two and one-half inches
in diameter, on which shall be engraved the device as described in the
preceding section, and it shall be surrounded with these words: "The
great seal of the State of Ohio."
Sec. 4. The act passed April 6, 1868 (O. L. 63. 185), entitled an act
to provide the devices and great seal and coat of arms of the State of
Ohio, and said act as amended April 16, 1867 (O. L. 6-4, 191), be and
the same are hereby repealed.
It will thus be seen that the motto Imperium in Imperio only existed
during the short life of two year's. It may not be uninteresting to note
that the Legislature which adopted the "imperial" motto was a Repub-
lican one. while the repealing assembly was Democratic, being the same
Avhich elected Hon. Allen G. Thurman to the United States Senate.
The coat of arms practicallv as we now have it was origii.ally adopted
in year 1802 or soon after the State was admitted into the Union.
HARPERS MONTHLY AND SERPENT MOUND.
Harper's Monthly for January current, has an interesting article by
Prof. Harlan Ingersoll Smith. Department of Anthropology. Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, entitled the Great Pyramid. In this
sketch, which treats of a few of the most prominent archaeological monu-
ments in the United States, Prof. Smith describes Fort Ancient and the
Serpent Mound. After speaking of the preservation by our Society of
these valuable relics of a prehistoric day. Prof. Smith says: "It ( Fort
Ancient) is now preserved in a public park, like the Great Serpent, Ohio's
other famous aboriginal earth-work, and, like that, is controlled for the
public good and preserved for posterity by the Ohio State Historical So-
ciety. Nor should it be forgotten, that the good work initiated by Pro-
fessor Putnam of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, and followed by the
Ohio State Historical Society, is of the highest value to the countrj^ at
large and to future generations, as well as deserving of the highest praise
in our own time." We quote in full Prof. Smith's description of Serpent
Mound. "Of all these mounds, the Great Serpent appeals peculiarly to the
imagination. About its story, which is yet to be told, the fancy of the
twentieth century weaves traditions of serpent-worship in a forgotten ci-
vilization, or dreams of Eden and man's first disobedience. On the top of
a rocky promontory extending into the beautiful valley of Brush Creek, in
Adams county, Ohio, in the year 1848, Squier and Davis, the pioneers of
American archaeology, located the Serpent in a dense forest, and first de-
scribed it. .A.n earthen effigy, complete and symmetrical, the Great Serpent
394 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
measures from the uper jaw to the tip of the tail twelve hundred and
fifty-four feet, in folds so lifelike, as they rise near the head to a height of
five feet above the ground, that their very view inspires the beholder with
awe. In front of the mouth lies the outline of that part of this monumental
earthwork which has been called the Egg, around which open the jaws of
the Serpent as if in the act of swallowing. From the outer wall of this
small oval, or Egg, the tip of the Serpent's tail is four hundred and ninety-
six feet distant. The Egg is itself one hundred and twenty feet long and
sixty feet at its greatest width. The Serpent's jaws are banks of earth
seventeen feet wide each, and sixty-one and fifty-six feet respectively in
length. The distance across the open mouth, from lip to lip, is seventy-
five feet. In the centre of the oval there is now standing, as there has been
from time immemorial, a mound of burnt stones. This sacrificial mound,
or altar, perhaps, has in past years, been uprooted by white men in the vain
search for buried gold, but still preserves its identity ; at the bast of the
clifif upon which the Great Serpent was constructed similar stones showing
the action of fire in past ages have been found in comparatively recent years.
Fortunaty further depredations have been prevented by the purchase of the
Great Serpent and the surrounding land with a fund raised by private sub-
scription among the ladies of Massachusetts, who subsepuently transferred
the property to the trustees of the Peabody Museum in Cambridge. They
in turn made over the Great Serpent Park to the people of the state of
Ohio, v/ho now protect it by legislative enactment under conditions similar
to those to which the Fort Ancient Embankment is safeguarded." Prof.
Smith's article is accompanied by several excellent pictures of both Fort
Ancient and Serpent Mound.
PIONEERS OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
Mr. C. M. L. Wiseman, Author of "Centennial Lancaster." has just
issued a little volume on "Pioneer Period and Pioneer People of Fair-
field County, Ohio." Mr. Wiseman has performed his task in a most
pleasing and painstaking manner. Fairfield County is rich in historical
and biographical material. Mr. Wiseman has developed this in an accu-
rate and satisfactory way. Many of the most illustrious families in
Ohio's history are associated, either by birth or residence, with Fairfield
County. James G. Blaine, Thomas Ewing, William Medill, John
Brough, the Shermans, C. R. , John and Tecumseh. There is a very
interesting and valuable chapter on the Zane family. Ebenezer Zane
was employed by the U. S. Government in 1796 to open a road from
Wheeling, W. Va. to Maysville, Ky. Ebenezer with his Indian guide
"Tomepomehala" and perhaps others, inspected the route and blazed
the way. It was the famous "Zane's Trace." Zane's sons laid out the
town of Lancaster in the year 1800. Mr. Wiseman has wadt a decided
contribution to the historical literature of Ohio. The bonk is printed in
most creditable form by F. J Heer & Companv. Columbus, Ohio
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolutio7i. 395
OHIO IN EARLY HISTORY AND DURING THE
REVOLUTION.
BY E. O. RANDALL, PH. B., L. L. M.
Secretary Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society; President
Ohio Society Sons of the American Revolution.
No territory, in the new world at least, perhaps not in the
old, presents so much of interest, at once to the archsologist
and the historian, as the inland portion of America now and for
a century, designated as the State of Ohio. Ohio, or the land
thus labeled, has been the arena for the activities more or less
pronounced of two prehistoric races. The good book records
that the earth was created, lifted from chaos into form,
when the morning and evening was the third day. We there-
fore know that Ohio was born on Wednesday, but we have no
calendar at hand to tell us the month or even the year. Scientists
guardedly remark that the mundane origin which includes
Ohio was simply "eons ago." At subsequent periods there were
various "ddings" of a geologic character and then this fair state,
with other sections of the Northwest, was submerged under
fields of congealed water and the original "ice man" had a mo-
nopoly of surface affairs. Then nature repented, grew sympathetic
and warmed up and there was a great "melt" and the hills peeped
forth, the valleys grew green and the streams rippled and ran
their courses through the glad earth. At this point science,
ever nimble and wily, takes a sort of hop, skip and jump, and
suggests the ice man may have been succeeded by the "midden"
man or shell people ; but he is merely a "perhaps" in this locality ;
if he did ply his game, he left no chips and his entry and exit
are undefined though his pet animal, the mastodon, is occa-
sionallv discovered in skeleton form, beneath the Buckeye soil.
Doubtless the next tenant, and possibly the first one we really
feel sure about, was the mysterious mound builder. Ohio must
have been his favorite field, for i|: is dotted over, as is no other
396 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
state in the union, with thousands of his reHcs, many massive
and magnificent, well preserved monuments of his existence and
primitive life. He left no written record, but he made his in-
delible mark in graves, village sites and earthen structures of reli-
gious or military significance, "silent witnesses of a busy but
unfathomable antiquity" that unmistakably betoken an ambitious
and strenuous life.
As the mound builder seemed to recede from the haunts
of life, the great savage, known as the Indian, came into view.
.Somewhere between these two peoples, the moundmen and the
redmen, is to be located the line between the prehistoric and the
historic. To this wild and picturesque Indian Ohio was a chosen
hunting and camping ground ; here were his great rallying cen-
ters ; many of his numerous nations and tribes wandered over
its extent, or battled with each other for tribal supremacy and in
concert or singly combated their common enemy the pale face.
In Ohio the great Indian heroes, Pontiac, Cornstalk, Little Tur-
tle, Logan and last and greatest of all, Tecumseh, contended
for the rights and preservation of their people. It was here, as
nowhere else, between the majestic Ohio and the great lakes that
the terminal, tragic contest took place between the retreating
savagery of the forest and the advancing, invincible civilization
of Europe. Again the two great branches of this European
transplantation, the Latin or French, and the Anglo-Saxon or
British, transferred their interminable antagonism of the early
and middle centuries for superiority on the old continent to the
newly discovered world and the soil of Ohio was the scene of the
last bitter encounter. Then came the reckoning between the
divisions of the Anglo-Saxon, the English ami the American.
Ohio has thus been the greatest battle ground of American his-
tory and one of the chief battle grounds of all history. Her
inhabitants have listened in dire dismay to the war whoop of
many dififerent savage nations and have been subservient to the
banners of France, England and the United States. There is
no historical narrative comparable to it.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 397
UNDER THE FRENCH FLAG.
The adventurous and chivalrous French first claimed Ohio.
Under the patronage of the elegant and ambitious Francis I,
v^ho, as the politicians phrase it, "viewed with alarm" the dis-
coveries the English and Spanish were making in the new world,
Jacques Cartier (in 1534) navigated the unknown waters of the
broad St. Lawrence. Others followed till Champlain (1603)
"the father of New France," was the first white man to look
across the waters of Lake Huron. He planted the colony of
Quebec (1608), and in 1620 was appointed by the King (Louis
Xni) Governor of Canada. Then followed rapidly the western
water discoveries (1618-42), and the navigations of Lakes On-
tario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior by Champiain's asso-
ciates or successors, as Brule, Nicolet and Joliet. These were
the early days of the Jesuit Missions, and the straggling and
struggling settlements of New France along the great water
ways from the St. Lawrence to the Straits of Mackinac and be-
yond. The Indian contested the encroachment of the French,
but the intrepid fur trader and the zealous missionary were not_
to be dislodged, though the war of the savage with the civilized
races was to continue for a century and a half. The enterprising
French merchant like Radisson and the dauntless missionary
like Marquette, moved on into the trackless West while the
English colonies, content with religious freedom were growing
apace along the Atlantic coast. New France occupied the St.
Lawrence and the Great Lakes territory, but farther west the
pious priest and the pushing peltry trader ventured; across the
lakes and by portage to the head waters of the Wisconsin river,
down which they floated "till caught and whirled along by the
onrushing Mississippi," then accomplishing a discovery that in
the words of Bancroft "changed the destinies of the Nations."
Parkman graphically recounts how La Salle in the GriMn
sailed (1679-81) the waters of Lake Erie bearing "the royal
commission to establish a line of forts along the great lakes
whereby to hold for France all that rich far country." and pass-
ing on through Lakes Huron and Michigan, descended the Illi-
nois river and the Mississippi to the mouth, naming the great
398 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
valley through which he passed Louisiana, and claiming it for
his sovereign, Le Grand Monarque, Louis XIV. East of the
Mississippi all the land included in the triangle of territory from
Quebec west along the lakes to the head waters of the Mississippi,
thence along its course south to the Mexican Gulf, was claimed
by France, all except a strip of land lying along the Atlantic
coast and extending scarcely a hundred miles back into the wil-
derness, in which the claim of England for its colonies was
allowed to remain undisputed.
Thus the territory we call Ohio by right of discovery and
occupation was the property of that nation whose banner bore
the Lillies of the Bourbons. jN'Ieanwhile Spain had made land-
ings and settlements about the Gulf of Mexico and along the
Florida coast. Spain set up feeble and tentatious claims to
the territory between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, extend-
ing indefinitely north into the province of France. But no at-
tempt was made to make good this claim,
FRENCH AND ENGLISH COMPETITION.
All this while the Anglo-Saxon, the inveterate foe of the
Latin, was slowly but surely getting a firm foothold on the rug-
ged coast of the Atlantic and preparing to cross swords with
liis old time enemy for the conquest of the West. The Alle-
ghany Mountains were not to be his western limitation. The
Anglo-Saxon has always been for ample expansion. The An-
glo-Saxon has always been a land grabber and a land holder, and
in extenuation be it said, a land improver. In the year 1498,
more than a third of a century before Jacques Cartier's little
vessel plowed her way up the broad St. Lawrence, and before
Columbus had made his last voyage, the Cabots (John and Se-
bastian, under Henry VII) touched the continent of North
America and sailed along the shores from Labrador to the Ches-
apeake. In 1607 the Jamestown (Va.) Colony became the first
permanent English settlement in America. This was just one
year before (1608) the foundation of Quebec as the capital of
the New French Empire. It was a rteck and neck race between
the Gaul and the Teuton for American stakes. Under its char-
Ohio 'ni Early History and During the Revolution. 399
ter of 1609 the Jamestown company "became possessed in abso-
lute property of lands extending along the sea coast two hun-
dred miles north and the same distance south from Old Point
Comfort, and into the land throughout from sea to sea." In
1620 came the memorable Pilgrims under the charter of the
Plymouth Company, by which had been conveyed "all the lands
between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of North Lati-
tude." It is familiar history how other colonial settlements fol-
lowed under various forms of charter and patent, how many of
these charters called for land from the Atlantic to the unknown
limit on the West, how these colony claims often conflicted and
overlapped. The English settlers in the Atlantic colonies began
to look with longing eyes to the vast expanse beyond the Alle-
ghenies, to that- domain claimed by France. The pilgrim had his
keen puritanic eye on the Frenchmen. Virginia seemed to be the
center that attracted the most enterprising English colonists and
she sent forth the most venturesome settlers into the great north-
west, for Virginia settlements were on the frontier lines of west-
ward pioneer emigration. Virginia's claim of territory extended
west to the Mississippi, and north to a line covering most of
what is now Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The territory between
La Belle Riviere, as the French poetically called the Ohio, and
the waters of the placid Erie, was to be the storm center of the
conflict of the two great races over their respective claims, a
vast conflict that was in its consequences to determine, not merely
the career of these two peoples, but the destiny of the world.
FIRST OHIO COMPANY.
By the year 1748 the plucky and sturdy Pennsylvanians and
the belligerent and brave Virginians had worked their way well
up to the eastern foot hills of the last range of mountains sepa-
rating them from the promised land. The time for the Eng-
lish colonists to scale the great mountains and invade the coun-
try claimed by the enemy, had been slow in coming, but it was
sure to come. This year (1748) the first Ohio Company, con-
sisting of prominent Virginians and Marylanders. was organized.
The avowed purpose of this company was a real estate venture;
400 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
to speculate in western lands and carry on trade with the Indians.
It does not appear to have contemplated the settlement of a new-
colony. The company obtained from the English crown a con-
ditional grant of 500,000 acres of land in the Ohio Valley, to
be located mainly between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers.
Bienville's ( French) expedition.
The French proposed to head off this invasion of their ter-
ritory by the Ohio Company. They decided to occupy the Ohio
Valley in force. Preliminary to active military operations, the
Chevalier Celoron De Bienville, at the command of Gallissoniere,
then governor of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of New
France, was sent to take formal possession of the Ohio, conciH-
ate the Indians and thwart the English. Bienville, with a band
of more than two hundred French soldiers and boatmen, pro-
ceeded to the Alleghany river and in birch canoes floated down
the Ohio, stopping here and there to treat with the Indians and
to tack upon some tree, or to bury at the mouth of some tribu-
tary, a lead plate inscribed with the flower-de-luce and bearing
a "nota bene" to the effect that the French thus posted and filed
their title to the Ohio river and of all those rivers that flow into
it, as far as their sources. In the vernacular of the day, the
descendants of the ancient Gauls were asserting a "tinplate"
monopoly of the country. Bienville descended the Ohio as far
as the Miami then cut across the country by the Miami and
Maumee, thence by Lake Erie back to Montreal. His report to
the French governor was not assuring. Bienville had found
English traders scattered over the Ohio Valley and the Indians
generally well disposed to the English. He found an English
trading stockade near the present site of Piqua and another near
the mouth of the Scioto. Johnny Bull was not so slow, he was
in very conspicuous evidence.
gist's (English) expedition.
In order to checkmate this exploring and "claiming with
confidence" expedition of Bienville, the Ohio Company (1750)
sent Christopher Gist down the northern side of the Ohio, with
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution 401
instructions "to examine the western country as far as the Falls
of the Ohio (Louisville), to look for a large tract of good land :
to mark the passes in the mountains, to trace the courses of the
rivers ; to count the water falls ; to observe the strength of the
Indian nations." The Ohio Company was the original western
real estate boomer. Gist made the first English exploration of
Southern Ohio of which we have any definite detailed rei)ort.
Gist and his companions, among whom was the. Irish Indian
agent, George Crogham, followed the old Indian trail from Fori
Duquesne (Pittsburg) to the Shawanese town of Old Chillicothe
on the Scioto. They camped at the "great swamp," bed of the
reservoir, now Buckeye Lake, thence proceeded to the town of
Tasightwi, (Piqua) on the JMiami ; then the capital of the pow-
erful western Indian confederacy and perhaps the stron-^est
Indian town on the continent. Gist returned by the Miami to
the Ohio, thence home by way of Kentucky. The -exploring
tramps of Bienville and Gist were of thrilling interest. They
met Scotch Irish Indian traders in the deepest recesses of the
forest. Briton thrift knew no obstacle or opposition. These
preliminary outpostings through the primeval forest precluded the
racial encounter. The governor general of Canada ordered
Bienville, with sufficient soldiery to proceed from Detroit into
the Ohio country and expell the English traders. At the same
time General Duquesne was dispatched from Montreal with a
force of French troops to establish posts at Presque Isle (Erie)
on Lake Erie, Venango on the Allegheny river and other points
necessary to cut off the approach of the English from the East.
LOGSTOWN CONFERENCE.
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, a member of the Ohio
Company, saw the importance of counter work. He resolved to
send a messenger to ascertain the numbers and intentions of the
French and to deliver to their commanding officer an imperative
remonstrance against the Gallic occupation of the Ohio \'a!ley.
George Washington, then but twenty-one, but already familiar
with frontier life, was the envoy of that message. Washington.
Vol. X — 26
402 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
escorted by Gist, proceeded to Logstown, the Seneca Indian vil-
lage, eighteen miles below the present site of Pittsburg, and there
met (1753) the Half King of the six nations and the French
officer, St. Pierre, who represented Duquesne. It was a curious
council. The Indian chiefs claimed the country in question as
theirs; they had ordered the French away; the English, they
protested, had no better right, and both must cease "to poach on
their preserves ;" "the land belongs neither to the one nor the
other; but the Great Being allowed it to be a place of residence
for us," was the plaintive and pathetic plea of the intuitive In-
dian. The French reply to the Indian was, that the Indians had
no right of possession to the Ohio country, as the French had
taken possession of it before the present Indian claimants had
moved in, and that the occupant Indian tribes were often at
war with themselves over their respective possessions. The
English reply to the Indian was, that the Iroquois who had long
established rights by prowess, conquest and occupation, had in
various treaties ceded control of this land to the English. The
Iroquois had conquered the Fries (Northern Ohio) as early as
1656. Particularly in 1744 had the Iroquois deputies at Lan-
caster, Pa., confirmed to the English the territory "beyond the
mountains" in the Ohio Valley. Again at Albany in 1748, the
bonds binding the Six Nations and the English together were
renewed and strengthened, and in this the Miami Ohio Indians
had united. Well may we dwell upon this singular and unique
historic episode. Three great and powerful races as disputants
in a dramatic and eventful scene. The savage of North America,
the child of the unbroken forest "as free as nature first made
man," and the latter day Latin, wishful of the revival of the
faded laurels of centuries of conquest — the Latin whose glories
and triumphs reached back for two thousand years into the days
when the gods sat on Olympus ; and the Anglo-Saxon scion of
the Teuton, that race that rose across the Alps and from the frigid
fields of the North, like the thundering Thor they worshipped,
poured forth with irresistable front, rude warriors of bygone
ages, to trample beneath their feet "the grandeur that was
Rome." And now these two races, foes from days of fable, once
again in the Western wilds of the newlv discovered world, stand
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 40?
face to face while the redman halts trembling between. The
conference came to naught. There was no alternative. Wash-
ington reported results to the Lords of. trade in London. They
addressed to the governors of the colonies the advice to congre-
gate and consult upon united action against the usurpation of
the French. The Colonist Convention for the proposed purpose
was held at Albany, June, 1754. That convention failed of its
object, but was of paramount significance to the colonists be-
cause it was the occasion in which all unwittingly the mother
country had given her American children a suggestive lesson
in self government. Benjamin Franklin, who was present, con-
tributed to the assembly a well devised plan for definite union
of the colonies under a common governor to be appointed by the
crown ; a plan adopted by the convention but rejected by both
the colonies and the crown ; by the American colonies because it
smacked too much of monarchal prerogatives, and by the British.
ministry because there was in it too much of democracy.
UNDER THE ENGLISH FLAG.
The guage of war alone was to settle the alleged rights of
the various claimants. The Indian was to be ground between the
other two and a great historian says, "the issue at the opening
of the struggle was, which of the two languages should be the
mother tongue of the future millions of the great West —
whether the Romanic or the Teutonic race should form the seed
of its people." But the question soon became wider than the
West. France at this critical moment "had two heads — one
among the snows of Canada and one among the cane-brakes of
Louisiana ; one communicating with the world through the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf of Mexico."
These vital points wxre connected by a chain of military and
trading posts, feeble and few and far between, reaching through
the wilderness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between
Canada and Louisiana lay the Valley of the Ohio. If the Eng-
lish could seize that \"alley they would, Napoleonic like, sever
the enemy and cut French America asunder. The French
forces with the St. Lawrence as a base, began moving southward.
404 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
in the direction of the Ohio ; the Enghsh forces, with the seaboard
as a base, began moving northward toward the same destination.
These two moving Hnes converged at the Monongahela near the
forks of the Ohio, July 9, 1755. The French contingent con-
sisted of a motley mixture of Canadians and Indians, a thousand
strong under De Beaujeu. The blustering Braddock led fifteen
hundred British regulars. The cautious advice of Washington,
who was on Braddock's staff, was unheeded — the English were
ambuscaded and Braddock met a brave death amid a disgraceful
defeat. That battle was the initiative of Washington's career
• and fame. This was the overture to the French and Indian War.
It threw Europe even in a turmoil, and led there to the Seven
Years' War (1756-63), and was, as Macauley notes, the first and
only European war that began on this side of the ocean. We
cannot follow the fortunes of this interesting war. On the con-
tinent of the old world the contest was far-reaching. Mr. Green,
the historian, speaking of Pitt, at this time the genius of the
English cabinet, says : "He felt the stake he was playing for was
something vaster than Britain's standing among the powers of
Europe. Even while he backed Frederick the Great in Germany,
his eye was not on the Weser, but on the Hudson and the St.
Lawrence." As to America, the conflict terminated September
13, 1759, when the armies of Montcalm and Wolfe engaged on
the Heights of Abraham. John Fiske wrote of it: "The tri-
umph of Wolfe works the greatest turning point as yet discov-
erable in modern history." The next year witnessed the capit-
ulation of Canada. By the treaty of Paris (1763), in which the
results of the seven years' war were adjusted, France yielded
to England her American possessions east of the Mississippi and
north of the Great Lakes and along the St. Lawrence. Louisiana
west of the Mississippi went to Spain, which sided with France.
And Spain in turn ceded to England her Florida possessions.
The British flag floated over the Ohio Valley and the "tin plate
titles" of France were no longer valid.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 405
RESULTS OF BRITISH RULE.
The treaty of Paris signed, the poHcy of Enghsh suprem-
acy began to change. The dominating spirit of John Bull quickly
asserted itself. Previous to the war England had virtually
affirmed the principle that the discoverer and occupant of the
coast was entitled to all the country back of it; she had carried
her colonial boundaries across the continent from sea to sea,
and as against France, had maintained the original chartered
broad limits of her coast settlements. On that principle the col-
onies stood her in good stead — they fought France for them-
selves, as well as for the mother country. Moreover the grant
to the Ohio Company in 1748 proved that England then had no
thought of preventing over-mountain settlements or of limiting
the western expansion of the colonies. But now that France was-
vanquished and no longer to be reckoned with, it was different.
The courage and endurance the colonies showed in the war had
both pleased and disturbed the mother country; pleased her, be-
cause they contributed materially to the defeat of France, and
disturbed her because they portended a still larger growth of that
spirit of independence which had already become somewhat em-
barrassing. The eagerness with which the Virginians and Penn-
sylvanians were preparing to enter the Ohio Valley in the years
1 748- 1 754, told England what might be expected now that the-
whole country lay open to the ^Mississippi. The home govern-
ment undertook to meet the occasion with the royal proclamation
of October 7, 1763. In this arbitrary decree his Royal Highness.
King of England, declared in substance that the territory claimed
b}- France and now ceded to England, should still be kept apart
from the colonies and regarded as under the immediate domin-
ation of the crown, like the Province of Quebec. The coast col-
onies were not to profit by this "expansion" west save at the
"King's pleasure" — "the lands beyond the heads or sources of
any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic were especially re-
served to the Indian tribes for hunting grounds." In short —
soite of the charter or patent to the contrary — the Vallev of the
Ohio and the country south of the cfreat lakes was not open to
settlement or purchase "without special leave and license." All
406 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
settlers located there were notified to "move off." Trade with
the Indians was largely prohibited by required licenses and re-
strictive regulations. Thus the Northwest was won, not for
the colonies, but exclusively for the crown. Peaceful relations
with the Indians, the extension of the fur trade, and the safety
of the colonies, were the reasons assigned for this policy. This
"first charter of the northwest" meant the raising of a despotic
and military rule by Great Britain over the newly acquired ter-
ritory and an embargo on western emigration and extension. The
government thought this would placate the Indian, as it prac-
tically assured him unmolested continuance in his possessions.
But the unerring instinct of the untutored savage read the royal
decree between the lines to mean a new and strong mastery,
blindly dictated by powers beyond the great waters. The Indians
rebelled against the new masters of these domains and rose in
•open hostility, beginning with Pontiac's brilliant but futile con-
spiracy, which was met in turn (1764) by Bradstreet's expedition
against the Indians on the lakes and Bouquet's expedition to the
Muskingum, and his encounter with the Seneca, Delaware, Shaw-
nee, Ottawa, Chippewa and Wfyandotte Indians. The policy of
expansion-exclusion by England was stolidly and stupidly en-
forced. Plans and applications for new colonies and settlement
rights in the Ohio Valley were obstinately turned down by the
English council. This continued for eleven years, till 1774; that
year was memorable for several odious and decisive occurrences ;
it was the year of the Boston (closing) port bill, and the Massa-
chusetts bay bill ; but no one of these measures was more obnox-
ious to the colonists than the Quebec act. This act among many
impolitic and offensive features, gave certain religious rights to
the French inhabitants, in order to propitiate and attach them
by interest and sympathy to England and so to prevent their
making common cause with the colonists in case trouble should
arise with the latter. But what more directly touched and aroused
the English colonists, especially in the West, was the extension,
in the act, of the Province of Quebec on the North to Hudson
Ray, and on the Southwest and West to the Ohio and Missis-
sippi. The Northwest was sealed as peculiarly a province of the
•crown. The bars were raised and fastened as never before.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 407
To the colonies the fertile lands along and north of the Ohio
were an irresistible temptation. The Quebec act meant mischief
for all parties. It was inevitable that the colonies could not be
confined east of the Alleghenies. "Westward the course of
empire takes it way" is not mere poetry ; it is a national impulse.
OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION IN OHIO.
The year 1774 marked the real opening of the Revolution
in the West as in the East. On September 5, the first Continental
Congress met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, in the opening
of which Patrick Henry, of Virginia, struck the "key-note" by
saying: "British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the
several colonies ; the distinction between Virginians, Pennsyl-
vanians and New Englanders is no more. I am not a Virginian
but an American." The colonies were nerving themselves for
the first blow. It was the westerner, the frontiersman who
struck it. Moreover that blow was a double dealing one. It hit
the arbitrar}^ power of the oppressor while it staggered his chief
ally, the supporting Indian. The peace provoking Quakers of
Pennsylvania, no less than the contentious Cavaliers of Virginia,
invaded, in no small numbers, the Ohio country. Under the
Quebec act, these westward movers and settlers had trespassed
upon the British domain, the reserved lands of the Indian. Both
sides courted trouble. It came without delay. One of the prin-
cipal provocations was the atrocious massacre of the family of
the IMingo chief, Logan, bv the intruding whites. The border
Indian war burst aflame. The Earl of Dunmore, colonial governor
of Virginia was a descendant of the Stuarts and a Tory to the
core. But he was tenacious of Virginia's prerogatives and
claimed her jurisdiction according to her chartered limits. Vir-
ginia "applauded Dunmore when he set at naught the Quebec
act and kept possession of the government and right to grant
lands on the Scioto, the Wabash and the Illinois." Dunmore was
for "war." He decided to raise an army of three thousand to
be in two equal divisions ; one to consist of the more experienced
militiamen under himself, and the other of backwoods and fron-
tiersmen under General Andrew Lewis. While Lewis was mus-
408 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
tering his host of rude riflemen, Dunmore with fifteen hundred
soldiers proceeded to Fort Pitt, thence by flotilla down the Ohio
to the mouth of the Hockhocking, where he built a stockade
and named it Fort Gower. He then marched to the Scioto and
entrenched himself on the Pickaway Plains near the Indian town
of Old Chillicothe. He had with him as scouts, George Rogers
Clark, Michael Cresap, Simon Kenton and Simon Girty. Mean-
time the great Shawnee Chief, Cornstalk, had summoned some
twelve hundred, or more, daring braves and hastened with them
to the Ohio, which he crossed and met, on the Virginia side at
the Great Kanawha (Point Pleasant), on October lo. General
Lewis, who was advancing to join Dunmore. General Lewis
had some twelve hundred Virginian "soldiers." It might be
called a "pick up" army. The uniform of officers and men was
the individual costume of the frontier hunter. They wore fringed
shooting shirts, dyed red, yellow, brown and white ; quaintly
carved shot bags and powder horns hung from their belts ; they
had fur caps or soft hats and woolen leggings that reached to
the thigh. Each carried his own flintlock, tomahawk and scalp-
ing knife. They were "raw recruits" so far as military discipline
was concerned, but they were "fighters" from top to toe. They
knew ever}^ trick of the wily enemy. The battle was one of the
most bitter and bloody in the early history of the western coun-
try. It was hotly contested for several hours. But the Indians
were forced to give way. It was the first considerable battle in
which they fought without the aid of the French. The loss to
the Americans was great but their victory complete. It was a
purely American victory for it was fought solely by backwoods-
men themselves. They were not the king's "regulars" as at
Braddock's defeat. Has there ever been better soldiers than the
American volunteer? The results of this battle were of para-
mount importance. As Roosevelt says, it kept the Northwestern
tribes quiet for the first two years of the Revolutionary struggle.
and above all, rendered possible the settlement of Kentucky and
the winning of the West. Lewis with his victorious men crossed
the Ohio and pushed on to the quarters of Dunmore. A peace
conference was held with the Indians whose spirit had been
broken by their unexpected and decisive defeat. The crestfallen
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 409
braves assented to all the terms the "long knives," their con-
querors, proposed. They surrendered all claim to the lands south
of the Ohio. All the big chiefs were present at this conference,
save Logan, who refused to attend and addressed to Gen. John
Gibson, for transmission to Dunmore, that speech which ranks
with the first among savage outbursts of oratory. The expedi-
tion having been eminently successful, Dunmore's armv took
up its march homeward. On nearing Fort Gower a most inter-
esting and significant incident occurred. The news for the
first time now reached them of the convening and session of
the American Congress. The officers held a notable meeting
and passed resolutions, which were afterwards published ; they
complimented their general Dunmore ; they professed allegiance
to their king and the British crown, but added that this devo-
tion would only last while the king deigned to rule over a
free people, for their love for the liberty of America out-
weighed all other considerations and they would exert every
power for its defence, not riotously, but when regularly called
forth by the voice of their countrymen, and they expressed
their warm sympathy with the new Continental Congress-
Noteworthy action on Ohio soil, the valiant backwoodsman
and militiaman, from Virginia, the first of the colonies, pro-
claim their sentiments of freedom and independence. Not
only from the rock-bound coast and eastern mountain side, but
alike from the banks of the far Ohio was the call of freedom
heard and answered.
THE OHIO VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION.
How unfit England was in the days of George III to be the
possessor of the Ohio Valley, was shown by the course she pur-
sued from the close of the French war to the beginnmg of the
Revolution. She was first anxious to secure possession of the
Ohio and then reluctant to see it put to any civilized use. Her
.narrow and short-sigTited conduct concerning the great \\'est
was one of the chief causes leading to the war for independence.
The Revolution was inevitable. At Lexington and Concord
(April 19, 1775) was fired the shot that echoed around the world.
410 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
The die was cast. That echo reverberated across the Alle-
ghenies and adown the Ohio Valley. "Although a solitude and
because a solitude, the over mountain country had more at stake
in the Revolution than the Atlantic slope." On the sea board,
whatever the issues of the war, an Anglo-Saxon civilization,
though it might be greatly stunted and impoverished, was as-
sured ; but in the western valleys such few seeds of civilization
as had been planted were Galilean and not Saxon. Moreover,
there were great uncertainties and perils growing out of the re-
lation of that country to the Franco-Spanish civilization of
Louisiana, that vast territory stretching from the Mississippi to
the Pacific. Between 1748 and 1783 the western question pre-
sented three distinct phases. In 1748- 1763 it was the suprem-
acy of England or France in the west; in 1763- 1775 it was
whether the country should belong to the redman or the white
man; and in 1775- 1783 it was whether it should form a part of
the United States or of some foreign power.
Before the beginning of the French War the western In-
dians had been disposed to listen to the English envoys rather
than the French, but Braddock's blunder and rout gave them
a contempt for the British braves, and brought upon the Eng-
lish frontier settlements the brutal fury of the Western redmen.
"The Indians were products of the soil, like the trees and wild
game, but France could not transfer them (in 1763) with the
same facility to their new masters, the Saxon." The sagacious
â– savage understood perfectly well that the English were far more
dangerous to them than the French had been. The posting of
garrisons in the Western forts would surely bring to their best
hunting grounds swarms of colonists greedy for the lands and
proposing to be permanent occupants. The American Revolu-
tion in the Ohio Valley was a continuation of the French and
Indian War, the old conflict, renewed with some change of
parties. The infant and independent states find the savage power
of the Northwest arrayed against them as before ; France had
dropped out and England, the imperial England, had taken her.
place, succeeding to many French methods, even that of employ-
ing the tomahaAvk of the savage against her revolted colonies.
As England had employed the Hessians to do her fighting at the
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 411
front she proposed to engage the Indians to do her fighting in
the rear of the colonial territory. The fiendish proposition
of the British Ministry to secure the scalping knife in aid
of the mother country called out from Lord Chatham —
the great commoner — one of his immortal bursts of elo-
quence. It was also repugnant to the feelings of General
Howe, Commander-in-Chief of the English forces, and Sir
Guy Carleton, British Governor of the Province of Quebec, but
it was heartily approved by Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant Gov-
ernor and Superintendent at Detroit. The latter at once made
ready to use all the resources that his position gave him, to bring
upon the rear and flank of the rebelling states the only form of
warfare known in those regions. He subsidized the Indians.
Time and again he sent the war belt to the tribes, summoning
them to bloody forays that he himself had planned. His inhuman
instigation led to a hundred attacks upon outlying stations and
defenceless settlements. The situation in the Ohio Valley at this
period may have been in a measure a nondescript one. Between
the Ohio river, the Mississippi river and the Great Lakes there
were not more than five thousand white and Indian inhabitants
in all. â– It was a bizarre, guerrila warfare scattered over a vast
territory — the French more or less openly favored the colonists,
the Indians casting their lot with the crown authority. France
declared war ( 1778) against England. Spain also declared ( 1779)
war against England, and seized the English ports of Mobile,
Natchez and Baton Rouge, which stations together with St.
Louis, gave Spain practically the control of the Mississippi Val-
ley. So the little "tempest m a teapot," initiated in Boston,
December 16, 1773, had grown to an international warfare, em-
bracing the three greatest nations and disturbing the peace of two
continents. The events transpiring m the Ohio Valley during
the Revolution present a history as rich and romantic almost as
do the often rehearsed, and more prominent deeds on the Atlan-
tic coast. The thrilling careers of the Girtys, (Simon, James
and George), of McKee, Elliott and scores of others, read like
the tale of a most imaginative novelist, and include deeds of
adventure and daring equal to any annals of history or biography.
'412 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications
The great history of the United States has not yet been written.
When it is written, it will be by a Western man, and it will be
written with the Valley of the Ohio as tlie central basis and
proper point of view. The struggle for independence was being
waged not merely in New England, but also, and mercilessly,
in the Northwest and especially on the soil that later was to
constitute the Buckeye state. This is a striking and farreaching
fact, generally ignored, often from prejudice or ignorance, by
the writers who, with the least labor, confine their partial narra-
tives to the events more noticeable and graphic but hardly less
potent that transpired in the eastern and southern colonies. The
time will come when the warfare in the Ohio Valley, which was
an inseparable part of the Revolution will receive full justice at
the hands of the historian.* Theodore Roosevelt in his admirable
and accurate western history has the correct vision and justly
appreciates the richness and perspective value of this field. Vir-
ginia, the state which took the leading part in the Revolution,
occupied a two- fold position, she was the border state; she
touched the contest on the East, even to the sea board, and
reached well into the dense and trackless west.
EXPEDITION OF CLARK.
Under her auspices and the leadership of George Rogers
Clark, Virginia "broke the back" of the British power on
the Western line of the Colonies. Clark saw that so long
as I.he British held the commanding forts, Detroit, Kaskaskia.
Vincennes and the connecting stations, so long would England
oe able to keep up an effectual warfare along the rear of the
colonies and render abortive any victories the states might
achieve in New England. Clark presented his plan of conquest
to Governor Patrick Henry, George Wythe, George Mason and
* It is true that some recent works, such as those by John Fiske,
William H. English, Charles Moore, Justin Winsor, B. A. Hinsdale, and
others, give more or less detailed accounts of the occurrences in the
northwest during the period in question, but even these valuable works
fail to sufficiently emphasize the relation of the events described to the
American Revolution.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 413
Thomas Jefferson. He would win victories in the west that
should compare in importance with the colonial triumphs in the
east. Under instructions from Patrick Henry, Clark raised an
armament of two hundred volunteers and woodsmen, companies
of veritable Rough Riders, and in May, 1778, started on his
famous campaign. The history of Clark's expedition for bravery,
hardships, hair breadth adventures and escapes, for strategy
and warcraft, for generalship, intrepidity, patience and patriotism,
is equal to that of any similar effort in all the annals of iiiixed
savage and civilized warfare. Starting at the Falls of the Ohio, he
left the river at Fort Massac forty miles above the mouth, and
began the march into the interior. He took from the English
Kaskaskia and Vincennes and relieved Cahokia and mvaded the
Indian inhabitated interior. It was the conquest of the territory
of the Illinois and the Wabash ; it was to the Revolution what
Sherman's march to the sea was to the Rebellion. Though Clark
did not secure Detroit, his capture of Vincennes and the Illinois
posts paralyzed the English attempts to carry on an offensive
campaign on the frontier of the United States, and confined their
efforts to petty warfare in the shape of Indian raids against
the Ohio and Kentucky, settlements. To Clark's wise valor
and military genius was due more than to any other, the secur-
ing of the Northwest to the new republic. He won and held
the Illinois and the Wabash in the name of Virginia and of the
United States. Had the contest of the western frontiersmen un-
der Clark and other leaders failed, it is more than likely that,
though the New England colonies would still have achieved their
independence, the territorv of the Ohio and Mississippi Valley
would have continued subject to British rule, as Canada did
north of the Great Lakes. The result of Clark's warfare was
of incalculable importance in the course of the American
Revolution. Although Detroit remained in British hands the
flag of the Republic raised by Clark over the interior of the
Northwest was never lowered. No officer in the Revolution ac-
complished results that were so great or far reaching with as
small a force, as did General George Rogers Clark. Clark's
first and most famous campaign lasted till August. 1779. when
he returned to the Falls of the Ohio. Earlv in 1780, at the in-
414 . Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
stance of Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, Clark
built Fort Jefferson near the mouth of the Ohio. From there
he made various invasions into the Ohio interior against the
hostile and British paid Indians, driving them from their chief
quarters at Old Chillicothe, Piqua and elsewhere.
UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG.
The theatre of events now shifted to the heart of Ohio.
While Clark was pushing toward Detroit, with the intention of
eventually aiding him from the East or at least destroying the
Indian stronghold at Sandusky (now Upper Sandusky) Colonel
William Crawford, a personal friend of Washington, and Gen-
eral Lachlin Mcintosh, with the approval of Washington, erected
in the fall of 1778 two forts, Fort Mcintosh, near ihe present
limits of Ohio at Beaver, Fa., and Fort Laurens, on the west
bank of the Tuscarawas, in what is now the county of that name.
In 1778-9 General Mcintosh made an unsuccessful campaign
from Fort Pitt into the West and Fort Laurens was abandoned.
Ohio was now the hot bed of Indian movements and outbreaks.
Numerous invasions were made by the Americans to dispel or
destroy them. These more or less illy directed forays were made
from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg), the frontier military station and
headquarters of the States. By March, 1782, the Revolution
was virtually at an end ; but the Indian raids in the Ohio Valley
continued unabated, Detroit was still an English stronghold, and
indeed, so continued till 1796; moreover among the restless fron-
tiersmen at Fort Pitt there was talk and even plottings, of an
irruption into Ohio and the formation of an independent state.
To put a stop to both these disturbances, an expedition against
Sandusky (Wyandot county), in May, 1782, was inaugurated
under Colonel William Crawford. With a force of some five
hundred men he started from the present site of Steubenville.
It was but two months after the cold blooded slaughter of the
Moravian Indians . at Gnadenhutten under Colonel Williamson,
the great blot on American history. At the approach of the
Craw^ford army the various Indian forces w^ere rallied by the
British commander at Detroit, the distinguished De Peyster.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 415
Wyandots, Hurons, Pottawotamies, Chippewas, Ottawas, Shaw-
nees, Delawares and Mingoes, were enlisted and united by Brit-
ish bribes and influence. Captain William Caldwell led the
allied Indians and the British contingent. That unfortunate ex-
pedition, its details and disastrous end is a well known and oft
repeated story. Crawford's forces were overcome by superior
numbers and obliged to flee. Colonel Crawford himself was cap-
tured and brutally burned amid indescribable tortures at the stake.
The Indians and their friends, the British, seemed to possess
Ohio. Emboldened by their successes the redmen made daring
and destructive invasions into Kentucky and committed terrible
carnage at Blue Licks. General Clark once more took the war-
path, and with a force of one thousand riflemen in November,
1782, struck into the center of Ohio, drove the Indians before
him. and destroyed their leading towns on the Miami river. Old
Chillicothe, Piqua and other villages. This incursion also played
havoc with the British trading establishments, practically driving
the British out of the country. With this final brilliant and rapid
dash of Clark the Revolution in Ohio should have ended, for while
Clark was achieving the last victory, indeed almost on the very
day when he struck his last blow against the Indians, the prelim-
inaries of peace between England and America, were being signed
at Paris, November 30, 1782.
The war between England and America was indeed termin-
ated ; but for the Northwest and particularly Ohio, the peace
that had come to the New England States was not to be enjoyed
for many long years. The Revolution had but rolled up the cur-
tain on the tragedy that was not to close permanently for Ohio
until the treaty of Ghent, December, 1814.
THE WAR CONTINUED IN OHIO.
Ohio had been the scene in turn of the contests between the
Indian and French, the French and the English, the English and
the American, and now it was to be the arena for a third of a
centurv of the desperate and decisive struggle between the red-
man and the white — on the frontier of the advancing new Amer-
ican civilization and national lif:\ ^ ' t'le hills and in the val-
416 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
leys of the Buckeye state the noble I'edman took his stand to
stay if possible his manifest destiny ; to the white man he said :
"Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." The poor Indian at
every turn of events seemed to have prophetic intimation of his
doom. First he opposed the French, the first invaders of his
domain, then with the French he disputed the ingress of the
English, and then with the English he fought the colonists, and
at last, one ally after another having been repelled and driven
from the field, the lone Indian must unaided contend for his in-
vaded home.
The result of the American Revolution gave the great North â–
west to the United States, but at once opened many conflicting
claims between the states as to respective rights to the newly
acquired territory. For be it remembered the original states
had charters for the land as far west as it might go. The various
states were now asked to yield to the new national government
these western claims ; which the government might sell for the
common good and out of which new states might be created. This
cession on the part of the various states followed, and the great
territory of the Northwest was government domain subject to
government disposition.
THE (second) OHIO COMPANY.
While the states were yielding up to the federal government
their western claims, and Congress was wrestling with the prob-
lems which this newly acquired and vast territory created, im-
portant and interesting "domgs," as to Ohio, were transpiring
both East and West. In the fall of 1785 a detachment of United
States troops, under the command of Major John Doughty;
built a fort, on the right bank of the Muskingum at its junction
with the Ohio. With the exception of Fort Laurens, (1778)
it was the first military post erected within the limits of Ohio
(to be). The Muskingum fort was called Fort Harmar. The
first Ohio Company, consisting mainly of Virginians, organized
in 1748, as we have seen, came to naught. Its schemes and efforts
were engulfed in the current of events with which it unsuccess-
fully struggled. But Ohio was to be the Eldorado, the promised
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 417
land of the Revolutionary veteran and his descendants. The
cause of liberty triumphant, the Revolutionary officers returned
home to beat their swords into plowshares and engage in the
pursuits of peace. The distinguished engineer and manager.
Rufus Putnam, sought his humble Rutland (Mass.) farm house
to plan the building, not of fortifications, but of a state — "a new
state west of the Ohio." As early as 1783 he and associate offi-
cers had applied to Congress for the location and survey of
Western lands upon which the weary and impoverislied heroes
of the war might settle and build new homes for their declining
days. The Ohio Company was the outgrowth of this endeavor
to secure the bounty lands due and guaranteed for military ser-
vice in behalf of their country. But Congress needed time to
consider and properly act. On March i, 1786, the Ohio Company
was formed at the "Bunch of Grapes" tavern, Boston. Rufus
Putnam, Manassah Cutler and Samuel Parsons were made direc-
tors. Subsequently Winthrop, Sargent was chosen secretary. The
purpose of the company was to raise funds for buying lands be-
yond the Ohio, and locating thereon. Many of the foremost
men of the nation became members, if not to emigrate, at least
to hold stock and share in the success of the undertaking. In one
sense it was the inception of a patriotic and national enterprise.
In another aspect it was a real estate syndicate. A fund of a
million dollars, mainly in continental specie certificates was to be
raised for the purchase from the government of lands in Ohio.
There were to be a thousand shares of ten dollars each. A vast
tract thus secured was to be divided by equitable methods among
the share holders. The winter of 1786-7 was spent in perfecting
the plans. The negotiations between the company and Congress
were tedious and lengthy. Congress was busy with the all im-
portant question of a form of government for the Northwest
Territory.
ORDINANCE OF I787.
On July 13, (1787), the great "Ordinance of Freedom,''
as it is properly called, was passed by the Continental Con-
gress in session in New York. Next to the Federal Con-
Vol. X — 27.
418 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
stitution, which was adopted September 13, 1787, by the Con-
stitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the Ordinance
of 1787 is acknowledged as the greatest of all American legis-
lative acts. Daniel Webster said no one single law of any law-
giver, ancient or modern, had produced effects of more distinct,
marked and lasting character than this document.
Through the instrumentality of this ordinance the Northwest
Territory was to be opened and developed. But not without
great cost of effort and sacrifice, indeed of bloodshed and life
itself. The magnificent and fertile Ohio Valley that had been the
favorite haunt of the Indian, and which for two hundred years
or more he had "put to uses but little superior to those of the
buffalo, the bear and the wolf;" that the French adventurer and
claimant had used for purposes but little higher than those of the
Indian; and that the Englishmen had refused to use at all, was
now, says a noted historian, to be devoted to the greatest of
human purposes — was now to become the home of a progress-
ive people, excelling in all the arts of civilized life.
Ohio was the first and immediate product of that illustrious
legislation. Almost simultaneously with the passage of the ordi-
nance. Congress authorized (July 23) the Board of Treasury to
sell the Ohio Company a tract of land lying between the seven
ranges and the Scioto, and beginning on the east five miles away
from the left bank of the Muskingum. This tract was selected
by the advice of Thomas Hutchins, Esq., "geographer of the
United States." He considered it "the best part of the whole
western country." Thus the establishment of the great North-
west Territory and the settlement of Ohio were events of
twin birth. Says Mr. Poole, "the Ordinance of 1787 and
the Ohio purchase were parts of one and the same trans-
action. The purchase would not have been made with-
out the ordinance, and the ordinance could not have been en-
acted except as an essential condition of the purchase." That
is the New England Revolutionary survivors would not buy
the land unless a satisfactory government — one that meant free-
dom, education and religion — was secured, and Congress would
not have enacted the ordinance had it not been for the immediate
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 419
opportunity of making a large sale of the lands, at the same time
assuring their settlement by the staunchest patriots of New
England."
OHIO MAYFLOWER.
It was October 27, 1787, however, that the "bargain was
clinched" between the company and the national treasury com-
missioners. The agreement called for one and a half million
acres of land at sixty-six and two-thirds cents per acre. The
company, however, only came into possession of one million acres
or less, as some of the subscribers failed to pay for their certifi-
cates, and thus a portion of the land reverted to the government.
It was the spring of 1788, when the band of western pilgrims
had worked their way across the countr}' from New Eng-
land homes and had assembled at Sumrill's Ferry, on the
Youghiogheny river, some thirty miles above Pittsburgh. At
last all was ready, and the quaint little fleet floated down
the Ohio. It consisted of the forty-five ton galley, Ad-
venture, afterwards re-christened the Mayflower, the three ton.
ferry called the Adelphia and three log canoes. After a five days'
voyage this famous flotilla, that was to figure so largely in west-
ern history, arrived. April 6, 1788, at the mouth of the Mus-
kingum. "No colony in America." said Washington, "was ever
settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just com-
menced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength
will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers person-
ally, and there were never men better calculated to promote the
welfare of such a community." There were forty-eight men in
the Ohio Mayflower; they were made of similar stuff, if not the
same stock as the forty-one men who plowed the deep in the
original Mayflower and landed on the bleak New England shore
(1620). Both were Pilgrim stock "pithed with hardihood."
The voyagers of the latter pilgrimage founded the first colony
in Ohio, and called it Marietta. Their new home was pictur-
esquely pitched at the confluence of the Ohio and the Muskinsfum.
Oddlv enough in the precincts of their classically laid out town
was an imposing mound, the silent and mysterious monument
0+ that elder prehistoric race that roamed the forests or the fields
420 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
ere man's records began. Strange contact on this spot, of the
people buried in oblivion and the representatives of the Nev\^
American civiHzation — the race that is to be. Marietta was at
once the seat of government of the newly made Northwest Ter-
ritory. The first Fourth of July (1788) on Ohio soil, indeed in
the Northwest, was celebrated in genuine New England style.
Thirteen guns from Fort Harmar ushered in the Republic's
natal day, and the same rang through the hills at eventide. A
banquet was served in the "bowery" on the banks of the Mus-
kingum and toasts were drank. The menu on that memorable
occasion embraced almost exclusively buffalo and bear meat, ven-
ison steak and the wild game of the season. Delmonico never
did better. Several invited Indians were present, and wonder-
ingly enjoyed the festivities, all, it is said, except the cannon-
ading. The fort guns were unpleasantly suggestive. At dark
the fort was illumined, not with electric lights, but tallow dips
and bark fires. It was midnight ere the patriotism was extin-
guished.
ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR.
On the 9th of July the newly appointed territorial governor,
Arthur St. Clair, arrived at Fort Harmar. St. Clair was a vet-
eran soldier of both the French and Revolutionary Wars, a
trained officer and an accomplished gentleman, a Stirling patriot,
a personal friend of Washington, and president of Congress when
the Ordinance of the Northwest was passed. He was received
with all the ceremony and pageantry the infant colony could
supply. He was welcomed in the "bowery" by General Putnam,
the judges and secretary of the territory, and "prominent citi-
.zens" — many had arrived since .the first comers. And so the
governmental machinery of the great West was officially set in
motion. One of the first acts of the governor was to establish
Washington county, which was made to include nearly half of the
present Ohio. And now the tide of emigration set in. Another
land purchase, second only to that of the Ohio Company, was made
in 1787 — the Miami purchase of Symmes' tract of one million
acres, lying on the north bank of the Ohio between the two
Miami rivers. Three colonies were planted in this tract in the
Ohw in Early History and During the Revolution. 421
year 1788; Cc^nmWa, at the mouth of the Little Miami; Losanti-
ville, opposite the mouth of the Licking river; and North Bend^
at the farthest northern sweep of the Ohio west of the Kanawha,
For a time each one of these settlements aspired to the leader-
ship but the second, Losantiville, founded December 24, 1788,.
having been chosen as the seat of a military post, and also as the
county seat of Hamilton county, soon outstripped both its com-
petitors. It was renamed by St. Clair, Cincinnati, a name bor-
rowed from the celebrated society of Revolutionary officers of
which he was a prominent member. Here lived the Governor,
and here sat the first Territorial Legislature.
SCIOTO COMPANY.
A neighboring settlement that deserves more notice than
we can give it was the peculiar and .rather picturesque
colony of Gallipolis. This colony was an unfortunate out-
come of the Scioto Company, a sort of side issue of the Ohio
Company. This enterprise was instigated by William Duer, sec-
retary of the Government Board of Treasury. He was a schemer
that would do credit in his methods to the most advanced "pro-
motor" of to-day's western city "booms." Duer attached his
project in a way to the negotiations of the Ohio Company. Be-
sides the actual purchase made by the Ohio Company, Manassah
Cutler and Winthrop Sargent personally got from the govern-
ment "for themselves and associates" an option to further pur-
chase some three million acres adjoining the lands of the Ohio
Company. An interest in this "option" was granted to Duer, Tup-
per, Putnam and others. Joel Barlow was made agent for the
enterprise, and sent to Paris to seek customers. As the Scioto
Company really had no title, Barlow could only sell the "right
of pre-emption." Barlow arrived (June, 1788) in Paris amid
the ominous rumblings of the approaching French Revolution.
His American lands were exploited and advertised as havens of
profit and peace for the distracted and Bourbon burdened French-
men. For a year Barlow pushed his project. It was the popular
topic of the voluble French capital. Volney. the celebrated
French writer of that period, said "Nothing was talked of in every
422 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
circle but the paradise that was opened for • Frenchmen in the
Western wilderness, the free and happy life to be led on the blissful
banks of the Scioto." Curious coincidence of history, the denizens
of storm-ridden Paris looking to the forest fastnesses of Ohio as a
refuge from the horrors in store for them at home. While the
infuriated mob was leveling the Bastile, Barlow was disposing of
his option titles to deluded patrons and publishing pamphlets in
aid of the French Revolution. A French company for American
emigration was formed, called "the Company of the Scioto."
Some hundreds invested and sailed for their American possessions.
They were not constructed for pioneer pursuits. They were
artists and artisans, tailors, barbers and laundrymen, indeed,
many were "gentlemen of quality/' some with titles and the others
were skilled in only those occupations that polish the frequenter of
the drawing room. Life in a Parisian parlor was different from
life in the Ohio woods. The first invoice of these infatuated
Gallicans arrived at the site they called Gallipolis Oct. 20, 1790.
They were not the Frenchmen of the days of La Salle and Cham-
pjain. Their rosy dreams were soon dispelled. They were not
the possessors of an Eldorado but the purchasers of a "gold
brick." The Ohio Company, or leading members thereof, did the
best they could to help the strangers from France who found, in-
stead of a home, a titleless, howling wilderness, made more than
desolate by the prowling Indian. The lurid endurances of the
Reign of Terror would have been tame compared to their exper-
iences in unbroken forest with wild beasts and savage men.
They drifted on west to the French settlements, Kaskaskia, Vin-
cennes, Detroit and elsewhere. Some cast their lot with the Ohio
Company. Congress, in 1795, granted these defrauded emigrants
twenty-four thousand acres in Scioto county.
DIVERSE SETTLEMENTS IN OHIO.
Of the various phases and conditions of the eastern emigra-
tion Ohiowards, it is. not here pertinent to speak at any length.
The Virgina Military District, embracing six thousand five hun-
dred and seventy square miles of the fairest part of Ohio, be-
came the seat of a group of settlements, the families of which
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 423
were the Virginia veterans, entitled by service in the Revo-
lution to the homes in this land, for that purpose set aside by
the government. General Nathaniel Massie and Governor Dun-
can McArthur laid out the town of Chillicothe in this district.
These Virginia colonies drew to themselves numbers of able
principal
4and grants and surveys
and accomplished men who exercised a marked influence upon the
nascent society of Ohio. The Western Reserve was regarded
as the next center of early colonization within the limits of Ohio :
when with the other states, Connecticut (1786) ceded to the
United States her claim to the Western lands, she "reserved"
a strip along Lake Erie in the northeastern part of Ohio. It
was called New Connecticut or the Western Reserve and included
424 Ohio Arch, and His, Society Publications.
some four million acres. In 1796 Connecticut sold the Western
Reserve (exclusive of the Firelands) to the Connecticut Land
Company. General Moses Cleveland was the advance agent of
that company. He and his associates landed from New Eng-
land at the mouth of the Conneaut Creek, July 4, 1796. It was
the opening of emigration for New England and the Middle
States to northern Ohio. As General R. B. Cowen has concisely
noted in a recent address, "In Ohio we had some five centers of
original settlement by people of different origin. At one point
known as the 'Symmes Purchase,' lying between the Great and
the Little Miami Rivers, the pioneers were chiefly from New
Jersey, with a dash of Huguenot, Swedish, Holland and English
blood. East of it the Virginia Military District, with its center
at Chillicothe, the first settlers came principally from Virginia
and were of English lineage, with a tincture of Norman and
Cavalier. At Marietta, the first settlement in Ohio, the pioneers
were from Massachusetts and other New England states. Their
fathers were English Protestants who emigrated thither in search
of religious freedom. In the century and a half since their mi-
gration from Europe they had drawn widely apart from the Vir-
ginians and the other colonies and acquired an individualism
all their own. On the 'Seven Ranges,' so called, extending from
the Ohio River north to the fortieth parallel, being the first of
the surveys and sales of public lands in Ohio, the first settlers
were of Pennsylvania, some of the Quaker stock introduced by
William Penn, others of Dutch, Irish, Scotch and Scotch-Irish.
On the Western Reserve they were of Puritan stock, from Con-
necticut, with center at Cleveland. West of the "Seven Ranges"
to the Scioto River and south to the Greenville Treaty line was the
United States Military Reservation, where the first settlers were
holders of the bounty land warrants for military service and they
came from all the states and from beyond the sea."
These series of settlements are barely mentioned to exhibit the
diverse but admirable character of Ohio's first citizens in point of
time. They were mainly of the "best blood" of the early colonies.
The Vanguard of Ohio's pioneers were the heroes who had fought
for independence at a sacrifice of property and all worldly pros-
pects, and now sought to found a state worthy their last efforts
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 425
and fitting to be the home of their children. Ohio in its found-
ers is pecuHarly, almost exclusively the child of the American
Revolution. One difference between French and American' col-
onization in the Northwest is strikingly shown by the fact that on
April 7, 1788, when Marietta was founded the village of Sault
St. Marie was 120 years old. ' The Latin was a failure as a col-
onizer. He was not progressive. He was not a seizer of oppor-
tunit)'.
THE ENGLISH AND INDIAN WAR.
These scarred veterans of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Monmouth,
Stony Point, Saratoga and a hundred battles of the Revolution,
were not yet to enjoy the peace merited by their past honors and
patriotic labors. The Northwest Territory, the Ohio Valley, had
passed to the United States and had been opened to their people.
But the Indians were still in a large measure its occupants and
in some degree its possessors. Nor was the last enemy of the
American, the British, entirely expelled or even suppressed. The
Revolution, though some years since a "closed incident" to the
New England states, still dragged its weary length along the
frontiers of the great west. It will be recalled that according
to some of the articles (IV, V and VI) of the Paris Treaty
(1783) it was agreed that the creditors on either side should meet
with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in
sterling money of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted ; Con-
gress was to recommend to the state legislatures provision for
the restitution of all estates, rights and properties which had been
confiscated from the British subjects, etc. ; and there was to be no
future (after the peace) confiscations of property because of any
part individuals had taken in the War. As an indemnity or
security on the American part to the Brtish government for these
agreements. Great Britain for some thirteen years (1783-1796)
retained possession of a large part of our territory or at least
continued a dominion over certain sections by uninterrupted oc-
cupancv of numerous posts of fortified stations, and this in viola-
tion of England's promise "with all convenient speed * * *
to withdraw all their armies, garrisons and fleets from the
United States and from every post, place and harbor within the
426 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
same." These posts to which his Majesty still clung, with British
bull dog tenacity, were Michillimakinak, (Mackinac), Detroit,
Niagara, Oswego, Oswegatchie, (Ogdenburg), Point au Fer
and Dutchman's Point, and Presque Isle, (Erie), and at the mouth
of the Sandusky and Miami (Maumee) Rivers. While the pre-
tense of England for holding these posts was the fulfillment on
our side of the Treaty, the real causes were desire to retain the
advantages these points afforded for British agents to carry on
the fur trade and more especially for the purposes of perpetuating
from these centers the Indian hostility to the Americans. The
British government desired to keep control and influence over
the Indians to the end that the trade (fur) be secured and that
in case of war with America or Spain, the tomahawk and the
scalping knife might once more be called into requisition. Great
Britian hoped the league of states would prove a "rope of sand"
and would soon dissolve and an opportunity be afforded to bring
back the new republic to colonial dependence. The Indians were
assured of the friendship and sympathy of their former English
allies. They were given to understand that they would be cared
for. The Indian with this "moral" support at his back was not
long in renewing his protests at the occupation by the American
of his beloved Ohio valley. In studying the events of American
Western history from now (1783) to the close of the War of
1812 this British background must not be lost to sight. One of
the first duties with which Governor St. Clair was charged was
the negotiation of a treaty of peace with the Indians. In 1789
at Fort Harmar a treaty was concluded with several tribes located
in that vicinity, whereby the Indians relinquished their claims to
a large part of Ohio. But only certain tribes entered into this
agreement. Many others refused to be bound by it. They de-
manded that the whites should retire beyond (south and east)
of the Ohio. The long Indian War ensued ; in which the Red-
men had the sympathy, and at times the actual support of the
British. The Indians began to feel the pressure of the white
settlements in Ohio and elsewhere. They began, more or less at
the instigation of the British agents, to commit depredations and
destroy property and even lives of the settlers in Ohio.
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 427
harmar's expedition.
General Josiah Harmar, a Revolutionary veteran, was ap-
pointed Commander-in-Chief of the United States army Septem-
ber 29, 1789, and was at once directed to proceed against the
Indians. He centered a force of some fifteen hundred men at
Fort Washington (Cincinnati). His army consisted of some
three hundred regulars and eleven hundred "militia," which
really meant indiscriminate volunteers mostly from Kentucky,
aged men and inexperienced boys, many of whom had never
fired a gun; "there were guns without locks and barrels without
stocks, borne by men who did not know how to oil a lock or fit
a flint." With this "outfit" General Harmar proceeded (Sep-
tember 30, 1790), into the heart of the Indian country, around
the head waters of the Maumee and the Miami. The Indians,
less than two hundred, say the historians, led by the Miami
warrior Chief Little Turtle, divided the army, defeated and
routed them, Harmar, chagrined and humiliated retreated to
Fort Washington after suffering great loss of men. It was a
stunning blow for the New Republic, and created dismay and
terror am.ong the Ohio settlers. The Indians were highly elated
and emboldened to further and more aggressive attacks upon their
white enemies. It was now evident to the government that large
measures must be taken to establish the authority of the United
States among the Indians and protect their Ohio settlements.
Washington called Governor St. Clair to Philadelphia, and with
the approval of Congress placed him in command of an army
to be organized for a new Indian expedition.
ST. clair's expedition.
October 4, 1781, General St. Clair, at the head of some three
thousand troops, hardly better in quality than those under Har
mar. set out from Fort Washington. The plan was to proceed
northward along the present western line of the state and estab-
lish a line of forts to be properly maintained as permanent points
for military operation and protection. Forts Hamilton. St. Clair
428 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
and Jefferson, the latter near Greenville, were erected. But when
the expedition, now about twenty-five hundred strong, had reached
a branch of the Wabash in what is now Mercer county, some
thirty miles from Fort Jefferson, it was attacked by an allied
force of Indians, fifteen hundred strong under Little Turtle. It
was a desperate, irregular combat, the troops were completely
demoralized and panic stricken, and indulged in "a most igno-
minious flight," with the woeful loss of over six hundred killed
and two hundred and fifty wounded, a loss equal to that of
the American army at Germantown, when General Washington
suffered one of the worst defeats and greatest losses of the Rev-
olution. Great public odium rested on St. Clair, and he asked
that a committee by Congress be appointed to investigate his
conduct in the battle. It was done and the report fully exoner-
ated him. In all the story of Washington's life there is no more
human passage than that .which narrates how the news of this
calamity was received by him on a December day while he was
at dinner. It is related that on this occasion the dignified and
impassive president gave way to wrath and profanity. The In-
dian question had now become more serious than ever before,
and there was great danger of the disaffection spreading among
the Six Nations. The retention of the posts and the complicity
of the English agents and garrisons with the Indians, was cause
for much parleying between the American government and the
English cabinet. The people of New England were becoming
restless and impatient over the situation. An unsuccessful cam-
paign always brings trouble and condemnation upon the govern-
ment. The condition of affairs tested the sagacity and diplo-
m.acy of Washington, the wisdom of Congress and the patience
and confidence of the people. It was evident that the mutual
interests, and indeed, combined efforts of the British and the
Indians in Ohio, must be overcome by no indecisive measures,
before the Republic could achieve the territorial independence
which was thought to be assured by the Paris treaty of 1783.
Washington anxiously scanned the list of officers for a reliable
successor to St. Clair. The choice finally fell upon Anthony
Wayne, the dashing, intrepid hero of Ticonderoga, Germantown,
Monmouth and the stormer of Stony Point. The appointment
Ohio in Early History a)id During the Revolution. 429
caused the English some sohcitude. They had heard of Wayne.
Air. George Hammond, the Enghsh Minister to the American
government wrote home that Wayne was "the most active, vigi-
lant and enterprising officer in the American army, but his tal-
ents were purely military." But they were sufficient.
Wayne's expedition.
Wayne arrived at Fort Washington April. 1793, and by
October had recruited his armv and was readv to move. He
nvVAYN
cautiously crept his way into the interior as far as Fort Green-
ville, which he erected, and where he spent the winter, and from
whence he forwarded a detachment of several hundred to build
Fort Recovery, in commemoration of the defeat of St. Clair, at
that point. This fortification was attacked by the advancing
Indians, one thousand strong, under their puissant general Lit-
tle Turtle, who made a desperate charge only to be repulsed and
compelled to retreat. It was their first serious check. In Au-
gust, 1794. W&yne with his "Legion." as his army was called.
430 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
reached the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee. Here he
estabhshed another hnk in the chain of forts, named Defiance.
The Indian alHes had concentrated about thirty miles down the
river at the rapids of the Maumee, near the British fort, Miami,
one of the retamed posts and recently re-occupied by an English
garrison from Detroit, under the direction of John G. Simcoe,
lieutenant governor of Canada. Wayne's forces were three thou-
sand in number, by this time well trained, hardened and trusty.
The Indians with some three hundred Canadians and English
were as numerous. In the hope of avoiding the impending bloody
encounter, Wayne offered the enemy proposals of peace. Many
chiefs, the warriors and statesmen of their people, were present.
Blue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, was for war to the bitter end.
Jlis people, he argued, had crushed Braddock, Harmar and St.
Clair, and Wayne's turn was next. Little Turtle, the Miami, was
for peace. True, he allowed, they had defeated the other gen-
erals of the "long knives" and turned back their expeditions,
but Wayne was different. He had recently tasted of his valor.
Now they would meet foemen worthy their steel. But the British
had rallied the Indian courage and bravado ; had urged them to
confederation and a renewal of their claims for the Ohio coun-
trv ; and had nerved them to unrelenting resistance against the
usurping Americans. The British stockades of Fort Miami, like
a sheltering shadow, were close at hand, and the Indian cause
could not fail. There was no alternative but battle. The field
chosen was at the Falls of the Maumee on the wind swept banks,
covered with fallen timber. The ground gave the Indians every
advantage, as they secreted themselves in the tall grass amid the
branches and roots of the upturned trees. Wayne directed his
front line to advance and charge with trailed arms, to arouse the
crouching Indians fr®m their coverts at the point of the bayonet,
and when they should arise to deliver a close and well pointed
fire on their backs, followed by an instant charge before they
might load again. The savages were outwitted and overwhelmed.
They fled in wild dismay toward the British fort. Wayne's
triumph (August 20, 1794,) was complete, the brilliant and dash-
ing victory of Stony Point was won again. Wayne had become
the hero of the second Revolution in the Western wilderness,
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 431
as he had been the victor of early years in the historic fields of
New England. The name of Wayne was ever after a terror to the
savages. They called him the "Tornado" and the "Whirlwind."
He was mettlesome as the eagle, swift and unerring as the arrow.
The Indian warfare was shattered. Moreover, the Indians were
crushed and incensed at the perfidy of the British, who not only
failed to come to their assistance with troops from Detroit as they
had promised, but closed the gates of Fort Miami to them
on their panic stricken retreat from Fallen Timbers. At Green-
ville Wayne was visited by numerous chiefs and warriors to
whom he explained that the United States having conquered
Great Britain, were entitled to the peaceful possession of the
lake posts, and that the new nation was anxious to make terms
with the Indians to protect them in the occupation of abundant
hunting grounds and to compensate them for the lands needed
by the white settlers. The Indians were prepared to negotiate
but the British agents. John Graves Simcoe, Alexander McKee
and Joseph Brant, stimulated them to continue hostilities ; advised
the Indians to make pretense of peace so as to throw the Amer-
icans ofif their guard and thus permit another and more success-
ful attack. These Machiavelian British miscreants even advised
the Indians to convey by deed their Ohio land to the king of
England in trust so as to give the British a pretext for assisting
them, and in case the Americans refused to abandon their posts
and quit their alleged possessions and go beyond the Ohio on the
Wtst and South, the allied British and Indians might make a
general attack and drive the Americans across the river boundary.
It will thus be seen that England was still (1794) fighting
the Revolution and endeavoring to regain in Ohio what she had
lost a dozen years before on the New England coast and the in-
land western frontier. It is not claimed that the English minis-
try was a direct and intentional party to these mischievous machin-
ations, but it is certain that Canadian authorities and British agents
engaged in them and that the principal — the home government in
London — could have known and should have known and was thus
really responsible, if not immediately guilty. Indeed the Lon-
don government did know for the American government made
constant complaints. English history is replete with the acts of
432
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
treaty violation on her part. The practice did not cease with the
period we are deahng with. But the Indians began to reahze their
critical condition. They had learned at dear cost the power and
skill of the Americans and the trickery and treachery of the Brit-
ish.
GREENVILLE TREATY.
The famous Greenville Treaty was entered into in August,
1 795' between General Wayne for the United States and the repre-
sentatives, over eleven hundred in all, and some eleven leading Tn-
FIRSTOIVISIONS OF
NORTHWEST TERRITORY
dian tribes. The Indians for certain considerations, payments^
annuities, etc., agreed "to cede and relinquish forever all their
claims to the lands lying eastwardly and southwardly of a general
boundary line" — all of the present Ohio, save the northwest cor-
ner comprising about one-fourth of the state, which portion the
Indians held as a Reservation till 1818, when the United States
bought this land and the Indians then thereon moved westward.
Almost contemporaneus with the Greenville Treaty the Jay Treaty
between the United States and England was effected, which pro-
vided for the evacuation of the British posts in the United States
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 433
by June 1796. Thus the Revolution beginning with Dunmore's
War in 1774, lasted in Ohio for twenty- two years, till 1796. It
continued in Ohio for a period three times as long as in New Eng-
land, "^ut at last the American Revolution even in Ohio was
ended, and a period of peace and prosperous growth was per-
mitted. The settlements in the southern, eastern and northern
parts of the state multiplied apace. Rapid strides were made in
population and cukivation statewards. From the achievement
of national independence by the Treaty of Paris, 1783, to the pass-
age of the Ordinance of 1787 the great west so far as it was gov-
erned at all was governed by the Continental Congress. When
the new Federal government went into operation, March 4, 1789,
it became necessary to make sucli changes in the territorial stat-
utes as would conform them to the new order of things. For the
most part these changes were that the territorial officers should
hereafter be appointed by the President instead of by Congress. By
1790 the thirteen original states had each in turn ratified the new
constitution. Vermont joined the sisterhood in the following
year. Kentucky was the first of the western states to be received,
with Tennessee next.
OHIO ADMITTED TO THE UNION.
By the Ordinance of 1787 whenever the Northwest Territory
should contain five thousand free males, of adult age, the people
should be allowed to elect a legislature and enact all necessary
laws for the territorial government. The required population
having been reached, in pursuance of a call issued by Governor
St. Clair, a legislature was elected on December 3, 1798. There
were twenty-two members representing the nine counties into
which the territory had been divided, viz : Hamilton, Ross. Wayne.
Adams, Washington, Jefferson, St. Clair, Randolph and Knox.
The first legislative session convened at Cincinnati, September
16, 1799 and elected William Henry Harrison territorial delegate
to the National Congress. On account of the wide expanse of
countrv embraced within the Northwest Territory, it was found
difficult to administer the affairs of government in its remote parts.
To obviate this difficulty the Territory was divided by Congress
Vol. X — 28.
434 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
in 1800 into the territories of Ohio and Indiana, the latter having
its capital at Vincennes. Early in 1802 a census was taken in the
eastern (Ohio) division of the territory and it was found to con-
tain forty-five thousand and twenty-eight persons. The Ordi-
Tiance of 1787 required sixty thousand inhabitants to entitle the
•district to become a state and yet a petition was made to Congress
for a law empowering the inhabitants of that division to call a con-
vention and form a constitution preparatory to the establishment
of a state government. On April 30, 1802 an Enabling Act was
passed by Congress authorizing the call of a convention to form
a state constitution. The election was held, as provided in said
Enabling Act, to choose the members of the constitutional conven-
tion to meet at Chillicothe on the first Monday of November, 1802.
The convention assembled on that date. It was in session until
November 29. It agreed upon the form of a state constitution
and did not require its submission to the people, as this was not
conditioned by the Enabling Act of Congress. When the state
convention adopted the constitution for the proposed new state, it
also passed a resolution accepting the Enabling Act of April 30,
1802, by Congress with certain other alterations and modifications
which it asked Congress to grant. Congress formulated these
new concessions into a bill which it passed March 3, 1803, and
Ohio became the seventeenth state in the Union on March 1,
1803.
[The date when Ohio actuall}- became a state has been in grtat dispute,
but the better authorities agree upon March 1, 1803. For a full and satis-
factory discussion of this question see the article by Rush R. Sloane,
"When Did Ohio Become a State," Vol. IX, page 278, Ohio Archaeological
and Historical Publications — E O. R.]
The Firelands Grant. 435
THE FIRELANDS GRANT.
BY CLARENCE D. LAYLIX.
[This article is the outgrowth of a paper read before the Political
Science Club of Ohio State University. The discussion which followed
the reading of the paper among members of that club led to further inves-
tigation, the result of which is the article as here produced. — Editor.]
In treating of the settlement of new countries, the general
and proper method is to recite the history of its pioneer davs.
Without the efforts of the men who go into the forests and make
the first clearings, the development of the country is impossible.
But it has often been true that the history of a new land begins,
not with the first settlement, but rather with the first step which
made that settlement possible. A complete history of any re-
gion will include every act which bore upon its inception and
growth. So it has been with our nation. The history of Massa-
chusetts begins back in England ; and we are taken to Holland
before we finally reach the Western Continent, if we wish to trace
the history of New England through all its phases. A history
of Pennsylvania must include the circumstances under whicli
William Penn obtained his grant of territory. For, if there
were no record of that grant, land titles in Pennsylvania would
be set at nought. So it is with the opening of the western
lands. The 'AVestern Movement" was not all of it in the for-
ests and on the plains of the Mississippi valley. A considerable
part of it never got farther than some land office in the East.
This part of our early history is seldom given much notice, but
it is a part that must be reckoned with in order that every factor
contributing to the opening of the new country may have recog-
nition.
Among the regions of the west that were opened up in this
manner, there is none that has a more interesting and peculiar
history than the Firelands of the Western Reserve. Here, an ac-
count of the circumstances leading up to settlement is necessarv
to the understanding of the first facts of its historv, and some of
436 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
the features of its present situation. It is a fact more or less
widely known that the Firelands occupy, in general, the western
extremity of the Western Reserve ; it is also well known that they
were awarded by the state of Connecticut to the sufferers by fire
and otherwise from British raids during the War of the Revolu-
tion. But the full circumstances under which the grant was made,
and the manner in which it was taken advantage of by the
sufferersj together with the surmounting of the difficulties in
the way of the use of the land by the grantees are not matters
of common knowledge.
It has been implied that in treating this side of a historical
subject, it is best to find primary causes first. Therefore, in
order to get the proper perspective and starting point from which
to trace the history of the Firelands, it is necessary to give an
idea of the depredations which gave cause for their origin.
The State of Connecticut was at no time the theatre of the
active operations of the War of the Revolution. None of the
greater campaigns were carried on within its borders, nor is its
soil made sacred by any famous battle. But the war did not
terminate without leaving here, as well as elsewhere, evidence
of its existence in a trail of death and destruction. From its
position of isolation from a military standpoint, the state be-
came a convenient location for arsenals for the rather scanty sup-
plies of the patriots. But inasmuch as the British occupied
New York city during the greater part of the war, it was natural
that they did not allow these stores to be collected with im-
punity in a place so easy of access as Connecticut is from that
city. Nor were they to be expected to allow the sheltered ports
of the north Sound coast to be havens for the privateers which so
harried their commerce. It became necessary from their point
of view to destroy the supplies which kept accumulating in Con-
necticut. As for making a conquest of the colony, that was
out of the question, because of the intensely patriotic sentiment
of the people, 'and because of its settlement in a number of towns
of equal importance, rendering it impossible for a hostile force
of moderate size to control the colony from any one strategic
point. Consequently, their incursions took the form of raids of
destruction and plunder ; they struck swiftly, generally by night.
The Firelands Grant. 437
burned and destroyed what they could, and then retired be-
fore any considerable force could be gathered against them.
Nine towns suffered from the destroying expeditions of the
British. The first of these to be attacked was Danbury. This
town was a depot for the military stores of the colonists in the
early part of the war. In 1777, Governor Tyron, with two thou-
sand British troops, entered the place and destroyed the supplies,
together with nineteen dwelling houses, a meeting house, and
twenty-two stores and barns.
In 1779, an expedition of a rather more wanton nature was
made. Tyron, with three thousand troops, and a fleet of forty-
eight vessels, under command of Admiral Sir George Collier,
made a descent upon the coast at New Haven, and in the course
of the foray plundered and laid waste the towns of New Haven,
Fairfield and Norwalk. Upon this expedition, destruction of
property was accompanied by most revolting cruelty. In Fair-
field and Norwalk, but few houses were left standing. In New
Haven many of the inhabitants were slaughtered, and many more
treated with the utmost indignity.
In 1 78 1, a similar descent was made upon New London
and Groton, by an expedition composed largely of loyalist troops,
and commanded by Benedict Arnold, himself a native of that
very region. Arnold seems not to have intended the wholesale
destruction which actually did take place, and lays the almost
total annihilation of New London, the expedition against which
town he personally commanded, to an explosion of gunpowder.
But the inevitable result of a raid with even partial destruction
for its purpose ensued ; the whole commercial portion of the
town of New London was destroyed, and many of the dwelling
houses, also. Across the river, at Groton, the losses were of a
different nature. A hundred and fifty brave spirits of the town
occupied the little fort which commanded the place. They were
attacked by eight hundred British. Such defense was heroic,
but futile. After inflicting great loss upon the British, the few
that were left in the fort surrendered, only to be butchered by
their enraged conquerors. Eighty-five men were killed and sixty
wounded.
438 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Similar raids were made against the towns of Greenwich
and Ridgefield. Great suffering naturally resulted from these
raids. Many families were rendered destitute and homeless. It
was perfectly natural, therefore, for the new State to endeavor
to compensate those who had been losers in its behalf. Conse-
quently, the sufferers repeatedly petitioned the assembly for re-
lief. The state for a time afforded limited and inadequate aid
by abatement of taxes, but such measures fell far short of com-
pensating the petitioning sufferers for their losses.
Finally, in May, 1787, the memorialists made a special effort.
In unusually strong terms, they complained of previous neglect,
asserted the justice of their claim, and earnestly urged the atten-
tion of the Assembly. This petition was signed by one represen-
tative from each of the towns. This memorial attracted the at-
tention of the assembly to such a degree that a special joint com-
mittee was appointed, to which the petition was referred. This
committee consisted of one member from the upper house, and
five from the lower house.
This committee did not report until October, 1787. They
then said that for want of exhibits, certificates and vouchers,
they were unable to present either a correct statement of the
losses sustained by the various towns, or, on the other hand, of
the relief already granted to the sufferers by the state. But they
recommended that the houses, furniture, etc., destroyed by the
enemy ought to be paid for by the state, and at their just value.
Furthermore, they stated that, in their opinion, the only means
within the power and resources of the state was in the Western
Lands.
The report was approved, but no action was taken upon its
recommendation, on account of the lack of data upon which
as a basis they could make any compensation. The matter was
then seemingly lost sight of for a while, and action upon it was
postponed from session to session. -Meanwhile, the condition of
the sufferers did not grow any better.
Finally, in 1790, citizens of Fairfield and Norwalk presented
a new petition. Acting upon this, the Assembly appointed a com-
mittee of three to compile a full report of the losses of the peti-
tioners, and others who had underoone similar misfortunes, thus
The Firelands Grant. 439'
including all the sufferers within the scope of the instructions.
This committee entered upon its work immediately. By means
of taking sworn statements and vouchers, and with the aid of the
petitions that had been presented from time to time, with the
sworn statements accompanying them, the committee took a com-
plete census of the sufferers and return of the amount of chelr
losses. This task was a large one, however, and it was not until
May. 1792, that the work was so far completed as to enable the
Assembly to take action upon its findings.
This report ascertained the number of sufferers to- be about
one thousand, eight hundred and seventy, distributed as follows:;
Greenwich, 283 persons ; Norwalk, 287 ; Fairfield, 269 ; Danbury,
187; New and East Haven, 410; New London, 275; Ridgefield..
65, and Groton, 92 persons. The full list of sufferens, with losses-
appended, accompanied the report of the committee, and was-
incorporated in the action finally taken by the assembly. The-
nomenclature in these lists forms an interesting study by itself.
The peculiar characteristics of these names indicate in an inter-
esting manner some of the features of the life of the place and:
period. In the first place, the final "wood" and "ing" and many
other such points give a sure index to the sturdy English an-
cestry from which the bearers of such family names came. And:
then, the number of different family names in a list is small, and:
nearly every family is represented by several, sometimes many
heads of houses. Concerning the given names, too, there are a
few curious facts. One name seems to run in the family for
several generations, for we find many juniors, seconds and thirds,
with scarcely any middle names. And then there are of course
many of the quaint Old Testament names which characterize
the times.
The final loss aggregated £161,548, iis, 6id, or $538,445.26.
Of this amount. New London lost one-third, Norwalk and Fair-
field nearly a third more, and the remainder was divided among-
the other six towns. The average personal loss was $287.91, the-
individual losses varying from $8,845.31 to 42c.
The Connecticut Assembly upon the presentation of this re-
port, took immediate action. May, 10, 1792, in the form of the-
following- ofrant :
440 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
"At a general assembly of the State of Connecticut,
holden at Hartford on the second Thursday of May,
A. D. 1792.
"Upon the memorial of the inhabitants of the towns
of Fairfield and Norwalk, showing to this assembly that
many of the inhabitants of said towns suffered great
losses by the devastations of the enemy during the
late war, praying a compensation therefor, and a re-
port of a committee appointed by this assembly
at this session held at Hartford, in May, 1791,
to ascertain .... the amount of the losses of said memor-
alists, and others under similar circumstances
and also to ascertain the advancements which have been
made for sufferers by abatement of taxes or otherwise,
and to report the same, with their opinion relative to
the ways and means of aft'ording for the relief
"Resolved, By this assembly, that there be and here-
by are released and quit-claimed to the sufferers hereafter
named five hundred thousand acres of land belong-
ing to this State, lying west of the State of Pennsyl-
vania, and bounding northerly on the shore of Lake
Erie, beginning at the West Line of said lands and
extending eastward to a line running northerly and
southerly parallel to the east line of said tract . . . . , and
extending the whole width of such lands, and easterly
so far as to make said quantity of five hundred thousand
acres. ... to be divided to and among the said sufferers,
and their legal representatives where they are dead, in
proportion to the several sums annexed to their names, as
follows in the annexed list."
The grant was thus made, but the use of the land by the
:grantees was as far away as ever. Many problems had to be
solved before the suff'erers could obtain the value of the land. In
the first place, the land that had been ceded to them lay hun-
dreds of miles to the west, and was original forest, occupied by
Indians only. Their title to the land was very much involved
and was rather doubtful. When these obstacles should have been
removed, an equitable apportionment would have to be made. To
The Firelands Grant. 441
^accomplish all these difficult things required some sort of organ-
ization. Moreover, the sufferers were scattered through the dif-
ferent towns, and could take no united action.
The Connecticut Assembly solved the problem of organiza-
tion by a special act incorporating the sufferers into a body cor-
porate and politic. The preamble of this act, enacted in May,
1796, presumably at the suggestion or upon the petition of some
of the sufferers, after reciting the circumstances and terms of
the grant, says :
"The proprietors and grantees of said lands, and
their assigns reside in different towns, and cannot with-
out great charge meet together to transact business
necessary to be done, relative to securing the title to said
lands, ascertaining the bounds, preventing encroach-
ments, laying taxes to defray expenses, making arrange-
ments for settlement, or otherwise consulting and adopt-
ing measures for their mutual and joint interest."
The body of the act, laying down the scheme of organiza-
tion, follows. The title of the corporation was to be "The Pro-
prietors of the Half-Million Acres of Land Lying South of Lake
Erie." The plan of organization was to have its basis in annual
meetings of the grantees or their legal representatives in each
town. These meetings were to choose Agents, and these agents
were to constitute the board of directors of the land company
which was thus virtually formed. The representation of each
town upon the Board of Agents was to be determined by the
aggregate loss of the sufferers of this town. In like manner, suf-
frage in the local meetings was to be proportioned to the amount
of the individual loss. The board of directors was to have an
annual meeting, and to hold adjourned meetings, if necessary
to the transaction of business of the grantees, which was placed
entirely in their hands.
' Such were the general features of the organization of this
company, for the corporation amounted virtually to a land com-
pany. The balance of the act refers mainly to the fees of officers,
provides for the laying and collecting of taxes, — for the cor-
442 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
poration was a body politic as well as corporate, and arranges
details, such as the responsibility of individuals, etc.
Although this measure was enacted in May, 1796, it is im-
probable that the company did anything more than to keep itself
in existence for over seven years. The solution of none of the
main problems named in the preamble of the act, which stood
in the way of apportionment among, the sufferers and occupation
by them of the land, was attempted until an act incorporating the
sufferers under the laws of the new State of Ohio was passed
by the legislature of that state in 1803. In fact, it is probable
that little, if anything, was done by the Connecticut corporation ;
after 1803 the company operated exclusively under the laws of
Ohio, and accomplished practically all of the objects of its original
incorporation after that year. The reasons for this delay are
matters of conjecture. It was probably impracticable to make
any efforts under the laws of Connecticut, while it was certain
that a new state would be formed containing the territory of the
Firelands, and under whose territorial jurisdiction the title of the
land would have to be held. At the same time, the original
holders of the land, the Indians, were still disputing the title to
the same territory. Settlement was impossible without a conflict
with the natives. Inasmuch as the State of Connecticut was
directly interested in getting these matters of title to the Western
Reserve cleared up, as will be later described, it is unlikely that
the Firelands proprietors ever had anything to do in an official
way with taking the initiative in this matter. It is more likely
that they had to wait until the state had settled its part of the
matter before the company could proceed. By the time these
questions had been disposed of, Ohio had become a state, and
the Proprietors incorporated in that state, in order to secure the
title to their land. These reasons probably account for the seven
years of inaction on the part of the company. During this time,
the business transacted by the directors could scarcely have
exceeded in importance the collection of taxes of maintenance.
The Proprietors were incorporated in Ohio in May, 1803,
by an act of the legislature practically identical with the original
act in Connecticut. The few differences which we find arise from
the fact that the second act was a renewal, or ratification, made
Tlie Firclands Grant.
443
444 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
doubtless under the supervision of the directors of the company.
Thus the second act in some matters removed features that w^ere
probably superfluous, in others its provisions were made with
reference to the state of the company at that time. For instance,
instead of merely providing the method of election of directors,
the Ohio act names nine persons as the first incumbents, these
men probably being in office at that time under the old act. In
this manner there was no abrupt change in the affairs of the
company. We find that biennial elections of directors were sub-
stituted for annual elections by the second act. This was a change
made doubtless at the advice of the directors. The second act
fixes the representation of each town on the board arbitrarily,
while the first act provided that this representation should- be
proportional to the aggregate loss of the community; this is a
difference in form only, however, as the second act gave to each
town the number of agents to which it was entitled under the
first act.
It was after the Ohio incorporation that the work of the
company was taken up in earnest. The land was now more acces-
sible for settlement. The second incorporation gave the acts of
the company complete security. The way had been cleared for
them in matters in which the State of Connecticut necessarily
had to act first. Everything was ready for action. Henceforth
the history of the Firelands is a history of the transactions of this
company, which proceeded from this time as rapidly as could be
expected to a conclusion. With its internal administrative func-
tions we are little concerned ; but we are more directly interested
in the three distinct objects or operations of the incorporation,
stated, among the other reasons for the incorporation, in the pre-
amble of the Connecticut act, and expressly laid down in that
of the Ohio act. These three principal problems were : The
clearing of the title, the surveys, and the apportionment. It was
necessary first of all that the title be cleared, before it was pos-
sible to go upon the land for any purpose. Then surveys had
to be made, both to determine the extent of the land, and to
afford a basis for the apportionment. Then an equitable and
just distribution of the land among the sufferers and grantees
The Firelands Grant. 445
in proportion to the value of each claim, was to be the final work
of the incorporation. Each of these special lines of work afifords
an interesting subject for investigation.
By treaty with France in 1763, England's claim to what is
now Ohio was definitely established, at least so far as any other
European power was concerned. But her sovereigns had, at
one time and another, made conflicting grants of charters to
various land companies and colonies. Thus, James I granted to
the London Company the land extending two hundred miles
north of Old Point Comfort, "west and northwest." This grant
was made in 1609. In 1620, the same sovereign granted to the
Council of Plymouth all the land lying between the fortieth and
the forty-eighth parallels, which grant would naturally conflict
with the London Company's grant. Charles II in 1662 granted
to the Patentees of Connecticut the land from the present boun-
dary of Massachusetts to the sea on the south, to Narragansett
Bay on the east, and to the Pacific on the west. Two years later
the same monarch granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the
land between the Delaware and the St. Croix, without stipulation
as to western extent. It will be seen that these grants are very
conflicting, and that each of them included the strip since known
as the Western Reserve.
At the conclusion of the Revolution, the United States suc-
ceeded to the claims of England south of the St. Lawrence. Each
state continued the claims it had urged as a colony. Conflicts took
place before the Revolution was fairly over. Finally, bloodshed
occurred between Pennsylvanians and men from Connecticut
claiming land in Pennsylvania under the original Connecticut
grant. Foreseeing a condition of chaos and possible disruption
at the very outset, if these conflicts continued to occur. Congress,
under the Confederation, repeatedly urged the contesting states
to cede their claims to the central government. Virginia was
the first to comply. In 1784, she ceded all claims north of the
Ohio river, with the exception of a reservation for military lands.
Massachusetts followed, ceding all claims, this willingness to
part with her western lands being due to her possession of what
is now the State of Maine. Connecticut, having in mind no
scheme of military bounty, was yet loath to part with her western
446 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
claims, because of her limitations in the east. Consequently,
when she did cede, in May, 1786, the cession began 120 miles
west of the Pennsylvania line, thus reserving, by default of men-
tion, the remainder, lying between that longitude and the Penn-
sylvania line. Her view was that the acceptance of her cession
by Congress, without dispute on this point, secured to her a clear
title to the part not ceded. In other words, Connecticut believed
that Congress had by tacit understanding recognized her title
to the Western Reserve.
Now in 1795, the State of Connecticut had sold the remainder
of the Western Reserve, outside of the Firelands, to a land com-
pany, known as the Connecticut Land Company, in addition to
the Firelands grant of 1792. Meanwhile, the United States did
not share in the opinion of Connecticut as to the ownership of the
Western Reserve. In 1794 General Wayne culminated a war
with the Indians of the region by a victory at Fallen Timbers. It
was understood that this victory was to be followed by a treaty
with the Indians, which should definitely establish the boundary
line between the National Lands and those owned by the Indians.
The Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, extinguished the
Indian title to one-third of Ohio; but the treaty established the
boundary which it said should be between the lands of the L^nited
States and those of the Indians through what is now the Western
Reserve. This boundary ran along the Cuyahoga river, the Por-
tage path, and the Tuscarawas; what was to the east, according
to the treaty, was United States territory; what was to the west
belonged to the Indians. Connecticut claimed land lying on both
sides of the line. On the one hand, the Federal government, by
paying a remuneration for the land, expressly denied the claim of
Connecticut to that land. On the other hand, the state had
granted this land out to private corporations, one of which, at
least, paid taxes to the state for its title in the land.
In 1796, the Connecticut Land Company started its surveys
east of the Cuyahoga, on lands stated by the Treaty of Greenville
to belong to the United States. The surveys were speedily com.-
pleted, and sales of land and settlement at once began. The con-
flict was thus brought to a head. The claims of each party to
the dispute were twofold in nature. They embraced not onlv
TJie Firelands Grant. 447
the fee of the land, but also the right of jurisdiction within the
boundaries of the land. Congress, wishing to forestall any pos-
sible trouble, offered to compromise by allowing Connecticut to
keep the fee of the land, thus rendering the titles of the grantees
of the state secure, keeping for the central government the right
of jurisdiction over the territory in question. This offer was
made April 28, 1800. The state legislature accepted May 30,
and executed a deed of cession of judicial rights accordingly.
This cleared the title of that part of the Western Reserve
lying east of the Cuyahoga and the Portage path. But the re-
mainder, to the west, was still doubtful as to title. The State
of Connecticut had granted it out between two companies, but
the Treaty of Greenville stated that the ownership of the land
was with the Indians. It now devolved upon the Firelands Pro-
prietors to take action to clear this title. Heretofore, it had been
the State of Connecticut which had been acting in this regard.
Now whatever steps were to be taken must be taken by the com-
pany. Immediately after the Ohio incorporation, measures were
taken to bring the matter to a conclusion.
The proprietors first contracted, in company with the Con-
necticut Land Company, with one Wlilliam Dean, a man familiar
with the customs of the Indians, to manage the extinguishment
of their title. The next step was the application to the President
to appoint a commissioner to negotiate a treaty to be arranged for
by Dean, between the United States and the Indians. The Pres-
ident complied, appointing Charles Jewett. Under Dean's guid-
ance, Jewett, accompanied by Isaac ]\Iills for the Firelands Pro-
prietors, and Henry Champion, for the Connecticut Land Com-
pany, proceeded to Ft. Industry, on the Maumee river, and there
drew up a treaty with the Indians, extinguishing the Indian title
to the entire Western Reserve. Jewett represented merely the
treaty-making power. Four parties signed the treaty, the rep-
resentative of the government, the representatives of the two land
companies, and the Indian chiefs. The treaty stipulated that
the remuneration, $18,916.67, should be paid jointly by the two
companies. This operation cost the Firelands Proprietors $6,000,
which sum included the commission of Dean for performing his
work. This sum was provided for by the regular taxation
448 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Puhlications.
methods. The treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United
States, January 25, 1806. Thus, finally, after years of conflict
and dispute of a legal nature, and three years after the admittance
of Ohio into the Union, the title, of the Firelands was clear, and
the first portion of the work of the corporation was accomplished.
Having gained a clear title to the territory, the next under-
taking was the survey of the land. Taylor Sherman and Guy
Richards were appointed a committee to effect by contract the
survey of the lands, and to settle any dispute with the Connecticut
Land Company. The result of their labors was a contract be-
tween the two companies on the one hand, and John McLean
and James Clark on the other. These men were to run the west-
ern boundary of the Reserve, starting from a point on the forty-
first parallel, to be determined by the United States through its
engineer. They were then to take a traverse of the Lake shore,
with a view to the location of the eastern line of the Firelands,
so as to make the amount of land five hundred thousand acres,
as per the original grant. This contract was made December
16, 1805. Maxfield Ludlow, the United States engineer, fixed
the southwestern corner point, and a company of twelve survey-
ors commenced the work laid down in the contract. The gov-
ernment, however, rejected this survey, on account of an error
in Ludlow's calculations, which resulted in placing the corner
point about a mile too far west, thus including too much land in
the Reserve. This error had occurred in the connection with the
previous surveys that had been made east of the Cuyahoga, be-
fore the Treaty of Ft. Industry.
On the 19th of August, 1807, a new contract was drawn up
with Almon Ruggles, a member of the first party. Ruggles was
to make an entirely new survey. He was to ascertain the correct
southwestern point, place the eastern line, and run the land off
into townships five miles square, four sections to a township.
With respect to the irregular townships bordering on the lake,
he was instructed so to shape and divide them as to make them
approximately equal to each other and to the remaining townships.
Ruggles completed the work in a satisfactory manner, and his
surveys are the basis of the present boundaries of the Firelands.
There are some interestingf features connected with this sur-
The Firelands Grant. \\\)
vey. The error in the first survey had, as we have seen, causeil
the corner stake to be placed almost a mile too far west. The
nevv^ stake came in the then almost impenetrable swamp which
still remains in the southwestern corner of Huron county. The
minutes of Ruggles' survey as he approached this point read as
follows : " 1 17th mile west. We are in danger of our lives." "i i8t!i
mile west. Sat a post in Hell. I've traveled the woods for
seven years, but never saw so hideous a place as this." This
was two miles from the corner post. Another feature of the sur-
vey is evident from a glance at the map. The specifications for
the running of the western line were that it should be north and
south, parallel to the state line. These were also the terms
of the Treaty of Fort Industry. As a matter of fact, there is an
angular divergence 4° 40' to the west, and Ruggles' field-book
states that the line was so run, but gives no reason for it. The
eastern line is parallel to the western, and thus the townships are
not exactly square, as are those in the eastern portion of the
Western Reserve. This could not have been an oversight, and
it seems probable that there w^as an intention to cheat. There
is a tradition, handed down among official circles, but nowhere
in print, that this divergence was made in order to contain
within the limits of the Firelands the famous Castalia Sprin';s,
known far and wide among the Indians, which it was feared
the second survey would exclude. Of course there is no possible
substantiation for this theory.
Upon the conclusion of the surveys, the next problem wa-^
that of apportionment of the lands among the suflferers, or those
holding their claims by inheritance or purchase. This was the
objective point toward which the company had been working,
and the main purpose for which it was incorporated. The hold-
ers of claims had changed, both in number and in character.
Persons of a speculative nature had bought up the claims of the
original grantees, many of which had been sold for non-payment
of taxes or dues to the company. These speculators, however,
seem to have been recruited from among the ranks of the suffer-
ers themselves, or at least from the neighborhood.
On the thirtieth of September, 1808, a committee of four
Vol. X — 29.
450 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
directors was appointed to adopt a method of exact partition.
Their report formed the plan of apportionment adopted by the
agents on November 8th. The scheme was as foUows : The sur-
veys had divided the land as accurately as possible into thirty equal
townships, each containing four sections. The total loss was
i!i6i,548, IIS, 6|d. The value of each section was therefore fixed
at about one one-hundred-and-twentieth of this aggregate loss, or
ii,344, 7s. Each proprietor was to receive as much land in pro-
portion to the area of the section as the amount of his claim bore
relation to the total valuation of the section. The distribution of
land was made by lot. Everything w^as based upon the list of
sufferers annexed to the original grant. Inasmuch as the person-
nel of the claimholders had changed radically since the first
grant, made twelve years prior to the time of this apportionment,
there were two lists. The first list contained the names of the
original grantees, and formed the basis of the apportionment ;
the second list, headed '"Classified by", contained the names of
those who held these original claims by purchase or inheritance
at the time of the allotment. There were no large individual
lioldings, but often one man or group of men had enough land
to give them the preponderance in a township. Hence, we find,
among the names of the Firelands townships, together with those
of the old Connecticut towns, as, Norwalk, New London, etc.,
titles derived from the names of prominent landholders or direc-
tors. Because of the method of distribution by lot, a man hold-
ing several separate claims might have his land scattered in
dififerent sections of a township.
With the accomplishment of the apportionment of the land,
the work of the company came to an end. It only remained
for the directors to finish a few detailed matters in regard to the
location of highways, a work that had been begun as soon as the
surveys had been completed. Upon the completion of its external
labors, and the final settlement of its internal affairs, the board of
directors of the incorporated proprietors of the Sufferers' Land
finished its deliberations by asking that its minutes and papers
as an incorporation of the State of Ohio be preserved among
the records of Huron County. The board then adjourned without
day. The Firelands were ready for the Pioneers.
(451)
452 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
EXCAVATIONS OF THE ADENA MOUND.
BY WILLIAM C. MILLS^ B. SC.
{Curator Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.)
The Adena mound, so named by Governor Worthington, and
tJwned by his estate until a few years ago, was thoroughly exam-
ined by the Ohio State Archaeological and Hi-storical Society
under the direction of its curator during the summer of 1901.
The mound is located ig miles from the northwestern part of
the city of Chillicothe, in the valley of the Scioto River. Stand-
ing upon the summit of this mound one could see, looking di-
rectly to the north, the noted Mound City so named by Squier
and Davis, and examined by them in 1846; looking to the south
the Chillicothe group of mounds could be seen, which were ex-
amined by Fowke, Moorehead and others; directly to the east
could be seen the Scioto River, and to the west is the large hill
upon which is located the mansion called Adena, which was the
home of Governor Worthington. Near the hiound, and at the
foot of this hill, is Lake Ellensmere, which played a very important
part in the construction of this mound. In 1798, when Governor
Worthington came to Ohio, he purchased the land upon which
this mound was located, and it has since been owned by the heirs
until a few years ago, when it was sold to Mr. Joseph Froehlich,
consequently the mound had been preserved for more than 100
years. In the course of time the present owner found that it
was quite an expense to keep this mound in a good condition,
and as it occupied a large tract of fine alluvial bottom land, which
was valuable for agricultural purposes, he decided upon its com-
plete removal. On the 21st of June a contract was entered into with
Mr. Froehlich to remove this mound, the greater part of the soil
of which it was composed to be placed in a cut made by the B. &
O. Railroad, which is perhaps fifty yards away. The mound, at
the time work began, was 26 feet high measuring from the south
side, 26 feet 9 inches measuring from the north side, with a cir-
Excavations of the Adena Mound.
45b
cumference of 445 feet. The north side of the mound was cov-
ered with an undergrowth of small trees and briars, making it
almost impossible of ascent, while on the south side the mound
was not so densely covered and a path was easily made to the
top of the mound, where the work began. Until last year the
mound was covered with a growth of trees each ranging in diame-
ter from 6 to 18 inches, but these had toeen cut down and taken'
away by Mr. Froehlich. preliminary to the removal of the mound.
The outer surface of the mound was covered with a leaf
mould from 3 to 7 inches in thickness. As work progressed upon
the mound it was discovered that it had been built at two different
periods. The first period represented the original mound which,
Figure 1.
was 20 feet high with a base diameter of 90 feet being composed
almost entirely of dark sand, which was no doubt taken from
the small lake near by, known as Lake Ellensmere. The second
period shows the enlargement of the original mound on all sides.
On the south side the mound was only covered with a few feet of
soil, while on the north side the base was extended more than
50 feet ; this enlargement was carried up the side of the mourd
changing the apex between 12 and 15 feet This is shown in
Fig. I. The soil of the second period differed very much from
that of the first ; while the first was composed almost entirely of
sand and was of a dark color : the second part of the mound was
composed of sand of a ligliter color mixed with the soil of tJie
454 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
surrounding surface. In some places the sand was entirely ab-
sent, while in others but very little soil was mixed with it.
The mode of burial in the first period was far different from
that in the second. In the original mound no burials were found
until within five feet of the base line. The body at the time of
its interment was enveloped in bark or a coarse woven fabric
and then enclosed in a rude sepulcher made of timbers, ranging
in diameter from 3 to 17 inches. The sepulchers varied greatly
in size ; those above the base line were made by placing large
logs on each side of the body with a covering of small logs
placed over the top. The sepulchers placed on the base line were
usually made of a framework of timber, which had long since
decayed away but the cast of which was still retained in the hard
sand ; this enclosure of timber, measured from outside to outside,
was usually from 8 to 9 feet in length and from 5 to 7 feet wide
and from 18 inches to 2| feet high. They were constructed from
imhewn logs lain one upon another, and were then covered over
the top with logs that were smaller than those at the sides and
ends. After a period of time these logs would decay, and the
superincumbent earth would drop into the grave; with the sides
and ends supported and no support in the center this would natu-
rally form an archway of earth, which was clearly defined at the
time the mound was opened. In a number of instances the loose
earth was removed from the sepulchers disclosing large rooms,
some of which were 10 feet long and seven feet wide, with an
arched roof, being high enough for a man to stand upright in
them. In the second period the burials were much different, no
sepulchers were prepared for the dead and not one of the skele-
tons was covered with bark, and only one showed any trace of a
woven fabric, this being preserved around a copper bracelet.
The skeletons in the first period were much better preserved
than those in the second ; this was caused by the protection af-
forded the body, at the time of burial, by the sepulcher.
In the outer mound skeletons were found from the top to
almost the bottom, while in the original mound the skeletons
were all found within five feet of the base line and below this
line. However the implements and ornaments found in both sec-
Excavations of the Adena Mound. 455
tions of the mound were similar in every respect, but were more
abundant in the first period than in the second. In the first period
implements and ornaments were found with all the sepulcher
burials, with but one exception, which will be noted later. In
the second period quite a number of skeletons were found that
had no implements or ornaments of any kind placed with them.
The mound was removed in five-foot sections commencing
at the top. In the first section, which includes the apex of the
mound, we expected to find intrusive burials, but in this we were
disappointed. The earth was carted to the north side of the
mound in wheel barrows and thrown down its sides. In the
second cut a winding road was made up the side of the mound,
so that teams could remove the dirt, which was done by the use
of wheel scrapers. The soil was loosened with picks, and the
earth carefully examined, it was then shoveled back so wheel
scrapers could carr_y the dirt away. Whenever a grave was dis-
covered competent men were placed at work to remove the dirt
from around it with small hand trowels. All the skeletons were
photographed in place with the implements and ornaments found
with them. All changes in the structure of the mound, were also
photographed. A total of 33 skeletons was removed from the
mound, 21 occurring in the first period, or the original mound,
and 12 in the second period.
The first five feet of the apex of the mound was composed
of soil taken from the surface surrounding the mound. The soil
was first loosened by picks and then loaded upon wheelbarrows
and carted to the north edge of the mound where it was thrown
down the side. This section was carefully examined for intrusive
burials but none were found. Five feet from the edge, and al-
most on the base line of the cut, was found a chipped hoe, 5 inches
in length and if inches in width, which had evidently been lost
by the builders of the mound, as nothing was found near it to
indicate that it had been placed there intentionally. Near the
center of this section was found a small quantity of charcoal scat-
tered through the soil which had evidently been intermingled
with the earth at the time of its deposit there. A little past the
center to the south side was again found small particles of char-
456
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publicaticns.
coal, in this case a little pocket of ashes accompanied the char-
coal, and it looked very much as though a small basket of earth,
charcoal and ashes had been deposited together. East of the cen-
ter of the mound, and near the base line of this cut, was found a
very large pitted sandstone, pits occurring on both sides. The
stone was 8 inches long, 6 inches wide and 5 inches thick. This
sandstone was no doubt procured from the hillside near by, as
ledges of this rock are exposed in several places. See Fig. 2
which shows first cut of 5 feet.
Figure 2.
The second cut of five feet which was commenced at the
north side and carried through directly to the south, was far
more interesting than the first cut. This cut was composed al-
most entirely of earth and sand taken from the surrounding sur-
face, with the exception of the center, which was composed of a
compact dark colored sand, and so hard that it was necessary to
pick it down before it could be removed. Fig. 3 shows a photo-
graph of the dome-shaped sand which proved to be the top of the
original mound.
Near the center of this sand portion were found two frag-
ments of human bones consisting of one small piece of the right
Excavations of the Adena Mound.
457
femur and one small piece of the left humerus. A little past the
center of this sand portion was found a pocket of ashes and char-
end, the
Around
Figure 3.
coal ; in these ashes
parts of the meta
carpal bone of the
deer and part of the
humerus of the wild
turkey were found.
Just outside of this
sand center to the
east, and about four
feet from the top of
the five-foot cut, was
found the skeleton of
an adult, upon the
right arm of which
two copper bracelets
were found. These
bracelets were made
from a rounded piece
of copper tapering- to
almost a point at each
ends overlapping each other when bent around the wrist.
the bracelet was a quantity of well preserved woven cloth.
Figure 4.
468
Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
Figure 4. — Upon a finger of the left hand were found two copper
rings, and these were also made of hammered copper, formed into
a light copper wire, this wire was then bent twice around the
finger and formed what is known as the spiral ring. Figure 5. —
The skeleton was very much decomposed and but
very few of the bones could be saved. Around one
of the bracelets was found a quantity of woven cloth ;
this cloth was very nicely preserved, showing the
texture, etc. Figure 6. — Five feet to the east of this
Figure 5. |^j.gj- skeleton was discovered the skeleton of an ado-
lesent, upon the wrist of which were found two beautiful copper
bracelets, similar in every respect
to those found upon the first
skeleton, and having upon the
head a head-dress made of large
strips of mica cut into shape and
pierced with holes for attach-
ment. Figure 7. — Near the head
of this skeleton was found a
broken earthen jar which was
carefully removed. Near this jar
was unearthed a large square
block of sandstone with cup-
shaped depressions on one side.
Figure 8 shows the second cut
and the dome of the original
mound.
a.. ■1 .J- J. >U.»J. I ..»JU..*-.l.>^-_. 11.1 1
Figure 6.
The third cut
of five feet
brought to light
one skeleton .
This was found
near the east
side, 12 feet
from the edge of
Figure 7. the mound and
only one foot below the bottom of the second cut. No im-
plements or ornaments of any sort were placed with this skeleton.
Excavations of the Adena Mound.
459
It was in a bad state of preservation and only small portions of
it could be removed. Near the center of this section were a num-
ber of deer bones which had evidently been carried there with the
Figure 8.
sand. A number of shell hoes made of the fresh water mussel
(Unio plicatus), were scattered through the central portion of
the mound. These shell hoes were made by cutting a hole
through the shell for at-
tachment. Figure 9. —
The fourth cut of five
feet was very interesting.
Five skeletons were re-
moved from this section.
Fifteen feet from the north
side, and almost upon the
base line, two skeletons
were found lying side by
side ; both were adults, the
one beinsr a male and the
Figure 9.
other a female. No implements or ornaments were placed
with these skeletons but both were in a verv bad state of decay,
460 Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications.
but the arm and leg bones were removed in a very good condition.
A little farther in from the north edge was found another skele-
ton, upon the wrist of which were two copper bracelets; these
were quite small, in fact they had been hammered down so that
the wire of which they were made was less than ^ inch in diame-
ter; they were bent around the wrist, the ends overlapping each
other, very similar to those found in the second cut ; no other
implements or ornaments were found with this skeleton. On
the east side, and 2^ feet from the base of this cut, was found
the skeleton of an adult ; it was lying at full length, head to the
north; around the loins there was a coarsely woven cloth, but
very little of this cloth was saved owing to the advanced stage of
decomposition. No implements or ornaments of any sort were
found with this skeleton. Not far from the south side of this
cut was found the fifth skeleton ; this was very near the edge of
the mound and might have been an intrusive or secondary burial.
The skeleton was in a fair state of preservation, and the skull
and bones were carefully removed. No implements or orna-
ments of any kind were found with this skeleton.
The mound had now been removed to within six feet of the
base. Heretofore we had commenced each five-foot cut upon
the north side of the mound ; this was done to aid the teamsters
in removing the earth to the railroad cut. Of the last six feet
only two were removed, leaving the mound about four feet high
when the work was finished. The object was twofold; first, the
expense of removal of the last four feet; second, the owner
wished to have left a part of the mound to show at least where
it stood ; yet all of the dirt comprising the last six feet was care-
fully examined.
The work of examining the last cut was begun on the east
side of the mound. Commencing at the very edge and following
the base line it was soon discovered that this line gradually
dropped toward the center, showing that the earth had been re-
moved forming a hollow basin, in the center of which was dug
a large grave, 13 feet 9 inches long, 11 feet 4 inches wide, and 6
feet 9 inches deep, digging more than three feet into the gravel
below, showing that this was the beginning of this great mound.
The first skeleton found in this cut was that of an adult, found
Excavations of the Adena Mound.
461
within the original mound. This skeleton was placed in asepul-
cher made of logs; further examination of this sepulcher dis-
closed the fact that it contained another burial, the two burials
being parallel, but the skeletons being in reversed positions ;
both were covered with bark, but no traces of cloth were dis-
FlGURE 10.
cernable. These skeletons were the largest so far found, the first
one measuring 5 feet 11 inches, the second 5 feet lof inches in
length. On the right wrist of skeleton number one was found a
slate gorget. Figure 10. — Directly between the two skeletons was
found a tube pipe. Figure 11. — The pipe is made of clay, presum-
FlGURE 11.
ably fire clay. The whole is | inch in diameter, tapering to a
point where it is only -J inch. The pipe is 4 inches in length
and I inch in diameter. This sepulcher was constructed of un-
hewn timbers varying in length from 8 to 9 feet, and in diameter
from 6 to 12 inches, although in several graves very much larger
462
Ohio Arcli. and His. Society Publications.
logs were found. These timbers were laid one upon another to
a height of 2^ feet, other timbers were then laid over the top and
the dirt piled over all ; in time these timbers rotted away and the
superincumbent earth above would drop into the grave, and as
the sides and ends were supported, naturally the center of the
grave would drop in first ; this finally formed an archway of
•""^ffli
i.j>>4|^^^H
(
â–
'-â– '"â– i^"*--'
â– %.
\i
i
>
\
Figure 12.
earth above. Figure 12. The cast of one of the timbers form-
ing the rude sepulcher is shown in Figure 13. Skeleton number
three was found on the north side of the cut, near the base line.
It was very much decomposed. The only ornament found with
this skeleton was a bracelet made of bone beads. The skeleton
was that of an adult male.
Skeleton number four was only a few feet from number
three, but had a sepulcher made for it ; some of the logs which
Excavations of the Adena Mound.
46a
composed this sepulcher were lo inches in diameter. The bodv
had evidently been previously buried in some other place and
later transferred to this mound, as the skull was placed in the
center of the grave with the foramen magnum turned upward,
Figure 13.
and surrounding it were bones of the leg, arm, and vertebrae. At
one end were the cervical vertebrae and bones of the hand and
foot ; at the other end were the ribs and bones of the arm and
lower legs. Throughout the mass upward of 200 beads made of
Figure 14.
bone and shell were found. The covering over the top of this
burial consisted of three layers of bark the outside layer being
very heavy something like oak bark; the next layer was of a
t 
