PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES


John Amen


was born April 9, 1799, in Botetourt County, Virginia. He was the oldest son of Daniel and Katherine (Heistand) Amen. He, with his parents, came to Ohio about the year 1808. They traveled in a four-horse wagon. They settled in Highland County, near Fast Monroe. They lived there a few years when his father bought some land a mile south of Sinking Springs in Adams County, and built the stone house that still stands there, and removed to it in about 1812. There the boy, John, lived until he was grown. He attended district school in winter time. His was a

rather hard and uneventful life. When twelve years of age, he drove a team of four horses and sometimes oxen, hauling pig iron from Marble furnace to the Rapids Forge, a foundry owned by John Benner, near Bainbridge, a distance of twenty miles, starting at four o'clock in the morning and returning the same day or night. His life was all work, no lay. When twenty-one years old, he left home to work in the store of his brother-in-law, David Johnson, at Georgetown, for the sum of four dollars a month and his board. He saved his earnings and when twenty-four years old, he married Melinda Craighead, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer living two miles from Georgetown. Mr. Craighead was a Kentuckian with aristocratic notions. He thought the young clerk was no match for his daughter, but the young people were their married, making the trip to the minister's, both riding horseback on one horse. Soon after marriage, they went to the old stone house, making their home with rents his parents for several months, until a cabin was built for them on a farm owned by Daniel Amen, two miles north of Sinking Springs, where they lived and worked about six years, when, on account of failing health, he and family came to Sinking Springs, where he engaged in business for more than thirty years, enjoying the quiet village life. He was a great reader. Though very economical, he did not stint himself or family in reading matter. In politics, he felt a great interest, but had no desire for office. He was an Abolitionist when it was dangerous to own being a friend to the slave people. His house was a station on the underground railroad from which no slave was ever caught. He was fearless when he knew he was right. On one occasion, a family of seven slaves were brought into the community. A large reward was offered, and the pursuers or slave catchers were close behind them. Fearing to trust his son or any young person to carry them on, he had two fiery horses hitched to a covered wagon, and although he was a small man, and alone, drove away


(503)


504 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY


just after dark, loaded the family in the wagon and hurriedly drove them to Marshall, eight miles north, when another party took charge of them. He used a to boast he had helped more slaves to liberty than any one near, and that he never had one captured in his charge. He member of the Presbyterian Church and held the office of deacon for sixty years. In the year 1865, his wife died. After her death, he sold his old home and went to reside with his three married daughters, all of whom lived in Portsmouth, Ohio. He had one son, Daniel, who died when thirty years of age, leaving two sons. The oldest, Harlan P. Amen, is president of Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, and the younger son, J. J. Amen, is a prosperous business man in Missouri Valley, Iowa.


The last four years of John Amen's life were spent at South Salem, Ohio, at the home of his eldest daughter, Mrs. E. McColm, who had removed from Portsmouth. He died at the age of eighty-eight, on December 27, 1887. Unto the last week of his life, he read the dail papers with all the interest of a young person. His last vote was for Governor Foraker. The fall before he died, he was taken to the election by a granddaughter. He was proud he had helped to elect the Highland County boy for Governor. His daughters are all living, Mrs. McColm in Norfolk, Nebraska; Mrs. P. J. Reed, in Cody, Neb., and Mrs. C. Gillilan at Sinking Springs, Highland County, Ohio.


James Anderson.


Of all the men who have lived in Adams County, none has enjoyed this life more or made it more pleasing to those around him than the subject of this sketch. James Anderson may have had fits of bad temper but the writer never saw him in one or ever heard of him having one. He was always brimful and running over with good humor. He always persisted in looking at the bright and cheerful side of things and was always ready to laugh and to make those about him laugh. Trouble rolled away from him like water rolls away from a duck's feathers. The writer never knew him until he was between fifty and sixty years of age and the foregoing describes him then. His acquaintance from twenty five to fifty would have been precious and valuable. He was a man to drive away despondency and to lift the world up. He had the keenest sense of humor of any man of his time in the county and yet he met and performed all the serious duties of life as a man and Christian should. Nature endowed him with great natural and physicial vigor and he never wasted any of it, but expended it in proper channels.


He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1796. His parents brought him to Adams County in 1807. They took up their residence one mile north of west Union and there he resided until 1866 when he removed to Sardinia where he made his home until his death, May 11, 1886. His father was Robert Anderson and his mother was Elizabeth Dickey, both from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother died in Adams County and are buried in the Old Trotter graveyard near the Wilson Children's Home.


Mr. Anderson was married June 2. 1831, to Mary Baird, sister of Robinson Baird, and daughter of James Baird, a brother of Judge Moses Baird. She only survived until May 7, 184o. By his wife, Mr. Ander-


PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 505


son had the following children : George Washington, who married a daughter of Wade Baldridge ; James Newton, William Henry, John, Elizabeth, and Mary. Washington is deceased. His widow and family reside at Webb City, Missouri. James Newton resides in Tulare, California; Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. Theo. Smith, of the same place. Mary is deceased. She died at Santa Cruz, Cal. Col. William H. died at McLean County, Illinois.


On November 7, 1844, he was married to Isabella Bryan Huggins, widow of Zimri Huggins. She had the following children by her first marriage: Nelson A., and Herman W.


To the last marriage were born the following children : Irwin M.: Benjamin Dickey, born June 8, 1847, residing at Santa Cruz, Cal.; and Martha Caroline, born February 12, 185o. She married J. Porter McGovney. He died and she married Frank Major. They reside at Salmon City, Idaho.


Mr. and Mrs. Anderson reared the three sets of children without a jar. They all got along happily together. Mrs. Anderson had the same happy and genial disposition as her husband. When the furnaces were opened in Adams County, Mr. Anderson did a great deal of work for them in hauling iron to the river and supplies to the furnaces. He was a man never ambitious for public honors or offices, but he had a prominent place in the militia because his talents deserved it.


On June 26, 1838, he was commissioned by Governor Vance as Major of the First Cavalry Regiment, First Brigade, Fighth Division of the Ohio Militia, and on August I, 1839, he was commissioned by Governor Shannon as Lieutenant-Colonel of the same regiment. When it is remembered that he was elected to those positions by those who knew him best, the honor will be more appreciated.


In 1862, he was selected as Captain of the "Squirrel Hunters" and took his company to Aberdeen to repel Morgan's Raid. James Anderson had a wonderful memory. He could remember every incident of his life and everything which had ever been told him. He was fond of telling of David Bradford's celebrated drive down the Dunbarton Hill. Bradford, who had a coach at Dunbarton, just repaired, wanted it down at the Sample Tavern at the foot of the hill. It was winter and the hill was covered with ice. He hitched two horses to the coach in front of the tongue and drove them from Dunbarton down the hill to the Sample Tavern. Bradford said it was a poor horse that could not keep out of the way of a coach. While Mr. Anderson was fond of telling humorous stories, yet he was a most earnest and conscientious man. He was anti-slavery. He was first a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was brought up an Associate Reform Presbyterian and adhered to that faith all his life. He was an older for over thirty years. As a farmer, he lived comfortably and easy. He was not the man to worry himself to make money. He was honest and honorable in all his dealings. His life was a more valuable lesson than that taught by the Greek Philosophers, for he was up to their ideas and was a Christian beside. In August, 1886, his widow removed to California, where her son, Benjamin D., resides. She was born July 2, 1806, and died May 6, 1896.


506 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY


Rev. James Arbuthnot


was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, December i, 1796. His father, James Arbuthnot, came from Scotland when quite young and married Mary White, whose parents came from North Ireland. James Arbuthnot grew up to manhood on a farm in Ohio County, West Virginia graduated from Jefferson College in 1820; attended the Theological Seminary at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was licensed to preach by the U. P. Presbytery of St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1823. He commenced his ministerial work at New Athens, Harrison County, Ohio, the same year and organized the academy at that place which in a short time grew into a college. In 1827, he moved to Savannah, now in Ashland County, Ohio, where he preached until 1840 when he moved to Greenfield, Ohio, and preached half the time there and the balance of the time at Fall Creek until 1851 when he moved to North Liberty, Adams County, where he founded the North Liberty Academy. He remained at North Liberty until 1854, when he moved to Unity in the same county. and was pastor of the U. P. Church there for twenty years until compelled to quit preaching on account of old age. He was married December 30, 1823, Eliza to Armstrong, who died April 23, 1846. To this union there were born ten children, nine daughters and one son, namely : Nancy, Frances M., afterwards married to George M. Thurman ; Ann F., afterwards married to Dr. W. P. Spurgen; Maria, Clara N., Ada, afterwards wife of Rev. J. G. McKee; Mary, Celia, afterwards wife of A. R. Clark ; Sarah J. and James A. The daughters are all dead and his only surviving child is Col. James A. Arbuthnot, of Brookfield, Mo.


Rev. James Arbuthnot died at his home at Unity, April 18, 1880, in his eighty-fourth year. He was a man of strong convictions and would never consent to compromise anything which he felt to be right. He was one of the original Free Soilers and voted for Binney and Hale as the Free Soil candidates for President. Rev. D. McDill, D. D., said of him.. "He was a wise, good, unassuming, godly man. He made no claims to oratory, but in preaching, spoke plainly and deliberately. His sermons were instructive and edifying. All who knew him recognized his sincerity and goodness."


Rev. James Arbuthnot married for a second wife Mrs. Mary Watt in 1848, who died in 1876. She had a daughter who married Rev. N. R. Kirkpatrick at Ada, Ohio, and another who married R. P. Finley, of Youngsville, Ohio.


Rev. William Baldridge.


The Reverend William Baldridge was born in Lancaster County, Penn., February 26, 1761. His parents were from Ireland and members of the Irish Covenanter Church. The year after his birth they removed to the banks of the Catawba River in Lincoln County, N. C., where he resided until 1776, when he joined a cavalry company and served as a soldier during the Revolutionary War. Of this period of his life, the most interesting of all, we have no record, but front the course of his after 1ive, we know that he did his duty as a soldier, conscientiously, and faithfully. He did not consider that in his seven years' service to his country, he had done more than his duty or that he deserved any special commendation therefor. After returning from the war, he prepared for college under and the instructions of Rev. Robert Finley, and attended Dickinson College


PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 507


in Carlisle, Penn., where he graduated in 1790 at the head of a class of twelve. Immediately after his graduation, he took up the study of theology, privately, with the Rev. Alexander Dobbins and studied under him one year. The second year of his theological studies he pursued under the Reverend Doctor Nesbit, of Carlisle, Pa. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Pennsylvania, Associate Reformed, in 1792. and fined ordained by the same Presbytery in 1793. On July 17, 1792, he was married to Rebecca Agnew. She was born December 12, 1772.


On October 18, 1793, he accepted a call to two churches in Rockbridge County, Virginia. One of them was a mile from the Natural Bridge. It has long since disappeared, the building destroyed and the congregation dissolved. His other church was Ebenezer, about five miles northeast of Lexington. He labored as regular pastor of these two churches, both Associate Reformed, until 1803 when his pastoral relation them was dissolved, but what was an anomaly in Presbyterian practice, he remained their stated supply until 1809, when he removed to Adamss County, Ohio, to accept a call as pastor to the Cherry Fork and West Fork congregations. In 1797, he was moderator of his synod and delivered an important judicial decision in a case before that body. During his residence in Virginia, he was twice offered the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, but declined each time on the ground that it was his duty, as he saw it, to remain in the pastoral work. From 1803 to 1809, many of his congregation had emigrated from Virginia and located in Adams County, Ohio, at either Cherry Fork of West Fork. These former parishoners of his secured his call to the two churches of the two localities. During his residence in Virginia, he been a faithful and acceptable pastor and had been endeared himself to his people, and while there, the following children were born to him and his devoted wife: James R., May 22, 1793; Alexander H., January 13, 1795; John Y., December 20, 1796; William S., May 1, 1799; Samuel C. and Rebecca G., twins, February 18, 1801; David A., May 25, 1803; Wade, August 25, 1805; Agnew, December 5, 1807. With these eight boys and one girl and his wife, he made the journey overland to Ohio, in June, 1809, and locating at Cherry Fork at the age of 4c. He spent the remainder of his life there. The following children were born to him and his wife Rebecca, in Ohio: Joseph G., June 16, 1810; Ebenezer W., August 1, 1812; , William, August 17, 1814; Mary Jane, October 26, 1817, at whose birth the mother died. This daughter, Mrs. Mary Jane Waller, a widow, is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Julia Tappan, at Avondale, Ohio, the last survivor of her brothers and sisters.


On May 16, 182o, Rev. William Baldridge married Mrs. Mary Logan Anderson, a widow, and by her became the father of two children, Benjamin L., born February 9, 1821, and Nancy M. October 18, 1822. His daughter, Rebecca, married Joseph Riggs, December 8, 1819, a very

prominent citizen of southern. Ohio, and by him became the mother of a numerous family of sons and daughters, the former of whom and their descendants have distinguished themselves in financial circles, in the ministry, at the bar and on the bench. Of the Reverend Baldridge's sons,

Samuel C. and Benjamin L. became ministers and Alexander H., Agnew and Ebenezer W. became physicians. Of the literary works of the Rev. Baldrdge, we have but three sermons which were published in the As-


508 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

sociate Reformed Pulpit. These indicate that he was a fine sermonizer. But he especially excelled in pastoral work. He knew all the members of his congregation, and all their children by name, and knew their peculiarities. He made his pastoral visits regularly in each family and gave religious instructions in such manner as to make it attractive, and to fasten it to remain in the minds of those he visited. The Rev.. Marion Morrison, now residing at Mission Creek, Nebraska, relates an incident one of his visits to his father's, Judge Morrison's house, in which he heard a conversation between an older brother and the Rev. Baldridge, in which the latter sought to induce his brother to take a college education with a view of entering the ministry. This conversation so impressed young Morrison, then eight years of age, that he, in consequence thereof, took a college education and entered the ministry where he has labored successfully all his life. The Rev. Baldridge died in the midst of his labors on October 26, 1830.

 

Sixty-nine years having elapsed since his death, oblivion has claimed much that we would like to know of him, but the fact that he held but two pastorates in his lifetime; that he resigned the first and that death alone removed him from the other, speaks well of him as a minister Sixteen years in the same churches in Rockbridge County, Virginia and twenty-one in Adams County, Ohio, covered his ministerial work. He preached well in the pulpit and cared well and effectually for his people in their homes. The fact that Cherry Fork church grew an prospered during and after his labors in it speaks well for his work. The fact that for years past and that today the church at Cherry Fork is large and prosperous ; that its influence is well recognized in the county in its Presbytery and Synod; that it has sent out so many grand men and women to other parts of the country, is largely due. to the labors of the Rev. William Baldridge between 1809 and 1830. He took the church four years after its organization and builded it for twenty-one years.

 

But while he was an efficient pastor, teacher and guide in churches the for thirty-seven years, he did something even greater than that. He reared a family of twelve sons and two daughters to be godly women, to be goodly man and citizens and to take honorable and, prominent place in the world's work. Moreover, he laid the foundations of character in his sons and daughters, so deep, so wide, so strong in piety and moral truth that after seventy years, his descendants are men and women of the same stamp of moral worth, high character and sterling piety that he bore himself. Could he have done better as a life work than herein related? We think not. He performed his work so well and so thoroughly that it will last so long as descendants of his survive to illustrate and exemplify it. He sleeps in an unknown and unmarked grave in the Chreey Fork Cemetery.

 

Michael Baldwin

 

was a very marked and memorable member of our earliest bar. He came of a Connecticut family of note. One brother, Henry Baldwin, of Pennsylvania, was one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ; another, a wealthy planter of Tennessee ; a third lived in Connecticut.

 

Michael was admitted to practice here in 1799, and at once forced recognition of his energy, learning and sparkling intellectual gift; and

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 509

 

almost as speedily developed his uncontrollable love of liquor, fun and frolic. He soon distanced all competitors for legal business save William Creighton, Jr., whose patient industry still retained him the larger and by far more lucrative practice. As between the two, it was the race between hare the and the tortoise again, and with the same inevitable result. One of the malicious stories of that day was, that certain other lawyers became so jealous of Baldwin's popularity and business success, that they encouraged the latter's passion for drink, so that his career might be shortened as much as possible.

 

In 1803, '4, '5, and '6, Baldwin, notwithstanding his dissipation, did a large amount of work. But from the latter date, there is a rapid decadence of his practice apparent in the records of the Court, and, by 1808, his name but rarely appears, save only as defendant in suits for tavern bills, borrowed money, and applications for the benefit of the insolvent law. We learn from Safford's "Life of Herman Blennerhasset" that Baldwin had been the United States Marshal for the State of Ohio, and he was that he was much embittered against President Jefferson for depriving him of that office. Aaron Burr advised Jacob Blennerhasset to retain Judge Burnett, of Cincinnati, and Baldwin, for the defense of both themselves in the trials for high treason, which they expected to undergo before the courts of Ohio, but which trials never took place. In a letter written to his wife, under date of December 17, 1807, Blennerhasset says : “I have retained Baldwin and Burnett. The latter will be a host with the decent part of the citizens of Ohio; and the former a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he properly styles his 'bloodhounds.' "

 

It is very suggestive of the character of Baldwin, that at almost every term of his practice we find this entry upon the journal: "Ordered that Michael Baldwin, one of the attorneys of this Court, be fined ten dollars for contempt of Court, and be committed to jail until the. fine be paid." Poor brilliant, boisterous, drunken, rollicking Mike! By reason of commitments for contempt of court and capiases for debt, he became familiar indeed, with the inside of the old jail which stood at the northwest corner of Second and Walnut Streets.

 

He was a member of the Constitutional Convention and tradition asserts that he wrote almost the entirety of the first Constitution of Ohio in the bar-room of William Keys' tavern, using a wine keg for his seat, and the head of a barrel of whiskey for his desk. A queer origination, truly

for the organic law of such an empire as Ohio grew to be, before that Constitution was superseded!

 

He was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1803, 1804 and 1805. Fond of gambling, of course, for he seems to have had all the modern accomplishments. It is told that he opened a game of vingt et un for the benefit of such members as craved excitement. Baldwin, being banker and dealer, of course, won all their money and most of their watches. The party broke up and went to their several rooms, drunk, long after the "wee sma' hours" of the night-.

 

Mike, used to such life, was in the Speaker's chair, on time, next morning, rapped the House to order, and proceeded with business. A call of the House was soon demanded, and the fact made officially apparent that there was no quorum present. The Speaker sent out the Sergeant-at-arms for absentees, and that officer, in the course of an hour or two,

 

510 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

filed into the hall and in front of the Speaker's chair, some dozen or more of the half-asleep, and only partially sobered, gamesters of the night before. Thereupon Baldwin rose, and with dignified severity of manner, began to reprimand them for their negligence of the trusts reposed in them by their constituents, and reminded them of the great cost per diem to the infant State, of the sessions of the General Assembly, etc., until one of the party of culprits broke abruptly in upon the harrangue, with the exclamation, "Hold on now, Mr. Speaker! how the hell can we known what time it is, when you have got all our watches !"

 

At the June Term, 1804, the tavern-keeper, William Keys, sued Baldwin upon an account which aggregated twenty-five pounds, thirteen shillings, ten pence, a copy of which account is filed. Every item in it save three, was for drinks in one form or another—brandy, spirits raw, bowls of toddy, punch, treats to the club, etc. The three exceptional items were suppers for himself, for which he was charged one shilling and six pence for each. But with each supper there appears a charge of three shillings for a pint and a half of brandy—a proportion of drink to meat which strongly reminds one of the bill rendered by Dame Quickley to Sir John Falstaff.

 

"Drinks for the Club" were undoubtedly Mike's treats to the "Blood hounds," an organization of the rough and fighting men of that day which Baldwin had gotten up and which he controlled. The "Blood hounds" did his electioneering and fighting for him; and more than once delivered him from the jail by breaking in the door, or tearing an end out of that structure.

 

His brothers twice attempted to relieve him from the embarrassments of his debts, and for that purpose, sent him bags of coin amounting to a considerable sum. On these occasions, it is said he hired a negro for porter of the money, and went around to his creditors seriatim, allowing each one, irrespective of the amount of his account, to have one grab into the open-mouthed bag until it was gone.

 

His name appears in the records of the court for the last time in the early part of 1811, and he undoubtedly died soon thereafter.

 

His widow survived him for many years, and when not less than seventy years old, contracted a second marriage with Adam Stewart, of this county. An old citizen, Speaking to us of "Kitty Baldwin" in her prime, remarked, "I tell you, she was the proudest widow that ever walked the streets of Chillicothe."

 

Robinson Baird

 

was born in Pennsylvania, October 6, 1792. He was the son of a farmer. His father had twelve children, of whom our subject was the eldest. His Christian name was his mother's maiden name. He obtained his education partly in Pennsylvania and partly in Ohio. His parents were born in Pennsylvania, but they came to Adams County and occupied rented farms for awhile. As soon as could be done, our subject's father bought a farm five miles from West Union and two miles from Bentonville, where Robinson Baird was reared to manhood. He always felt the want of a more complete education, and for this reason he took a great interest in the public schools. He very frequently served as local school director of his district

 

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Robinson Baird was a very strict Presbyterian. He was brought up that way and never wandered from it. He believed in the strict observance of the Sabbath and practiced it. He was a Soldier of the War of 1812, was out both winters of 1812 and 1813, and endured many hardships. His Colonel was John Bryan. In politics, he was a Whig so long as that party existed. As a Whig, he voted for John Quincy Adams, when he was a candidate for President. There were only two others in his township who voted for Adams. He was a member of the American party when it was in existence, and afterwards of the Republican party.

 

He was married to Elizabeth Williamson, the third daughter of Rev. William Williamson, on June 13, 1815. She was born in South Carolina, on July 14, 1795. There were born to them ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Their oldet son, James T., was born March 18, 1816. He married Elizabeth Parker, July 1, 1842. He was a millwright by occupation, and was killed in St. Louis while working in a steam mill by the bursting of a boiler. He had two sons who were in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Nancy M. was born October 31, 1820. She married James McIntire, April 26, 1842. Major McIntire served in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry during the Civil War. He is now deceased. His widow survives him with a large family of children. Another daughter, Jane W. Baird, was born March 25, 1823, and married A. H. Mehaffey, September 2, 1846. Her daughter, Catherine, born March 20, 1825, was married to Jacob Mosier, May 27, 1846. A son, Thomas W. Baird, was born May 4, 1827. Joshua M. Baird, born October 5, 1829, married Margaret Graham, June 24, 1852. Harriet N. Baird, born November 7, 1833, married John L. Summers, February 28, 1855. Elizabeth V. Baird, born May 7, 1836, married Charles Fitch.

 

Robinson Baird died March 26, 1870. His wife survived him until August 17, 1876. Mr. Baird never sought public office, but was content to live the simple life of a farmer. He has numerous descendants, scattered over the United States, and from those known, we would say that he impressed upon them the same serious, honest, upright character which he bore all his life.

 

Samuel Grimes Bradford

 

was born in West Union, December 3, 1813. His father was Samuel Bradford and his mother, Ruth Shoemaker. They were married August 11, 1811, by Job Dinning. Her father was Peter Shoemaker, who lived below the iron bridge, and whose will was recorded in 1799. Samuel Grimes Bradford was Sheriff of Adams County in 1812 and 1813.

 

In October, 18, he was appointed Recorder of Adams County to succeed General Darlinton. On the seventh of July, 1813, he was Captain of a militia company. He left a deed partly recorded and started with his company for the war. He never returned. He died August 13, 1813, in the army and is buried at Urbana. His widow was married June 1, 1815, to Col. Samuel R. Wood, by whom she had five children, Mrs. S. P. Kilpatrick, of Dunbarton; Mrs. George Sample, of Cincinnati ; Mrs. Rev. Lock, of Illinois; Mrs. Herdman, of Iowa; David Wood, of Newoirt, Ky., and. Frank Wood, of Urbana, Ohio. David, the brother of our subject, who married a daughter of Rev. John Meek, lived and died in West Union. He, his father, General Bradford and his mother, Barbara Grimes, are buried in the stone enclosure in Branson's field just

 

512 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

north of the village cemetery at West Union. General David Bradford was one of the most important factors in the early settlement of Adams County. He owned a number of lots in the town of Washington and sided there while it flourished, and when it collapsed he went to West Union. When West Union was located he bought lots 10, 11, 18, 19, 65 and 75 at the opening sale. He built the Bradford House in 1804 and from that time until his death, kept tavern there. He was County Treasurer of Adams County from June 6, 1800, .until June 6, 1832. As he died in 1834 at the age of sixty-nine, he very nearly had the treasurer’s office for life. In 1804, he was made a Quartermaster General of the militia. He was a very popular man, and from holding the County Treasurership so long without any complaint, must have been a very honest one, but we must get back to our subject, his grand-son, Samuel G. Bradford. He clerked in an iron store in Cincinnati when he was about nineteen years of age for James M. Baldridge. When he was twenty years of age, he returned to West Union. He was married here on November 6, 1834, to Amanda M. T. Tapp. By her, he had six children Francis A., wife of Henry B. Woodrow, of Cincinnati; James H. Bradford, of Winchester ; Jennie, the wife of Gabriel McClatchy; Matilda, who died a young woman ; Harriet, widow of Capt. George Collings of Indianola, Iowa, and Samuel N. Bradford, who lives in West Union. In the same year, he Succeeded to the management of Bradford's Tavern now the Downing House. He conducted it until 1840, when he leased in. He contributed $200 to the erection of the Maysville and Zanesville Turnpike. In 1835, he took a drove of horses to Mississippi and sold them. On his return, he purchased the George Darling farm, formerly owned by Major Finley and moved there. His wife died May 2, 1847. In 1849, he returned to West Union and engaged in the tannery business with Edwards Darlinton.

 

On Ootober 29, 185o, he was married to Miss Sarah W. Smashea, who survives him. He continued the tannery business until 1851, when he drove a notion wagon through the country until 1853. From that date until 1863, he traveled and sold tinware for A. F. Shriver at Manchester. In 1864, he went into the sutler business with Thomas Ellison and remained with him until the end of the war. Then he went to Mississippi and raised cotton until 1868. After that, he engaged in the grocery business at West Union with his son, Samuel N. Bradford. After continuing that business for a short time, he took the mail contract between West Union and Winchester and drove a hack on it for four years. After that he conducted a livery stable in West Union until his death which occurred November 29, 1890.

 

In politics, he was a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was a large, fine looking man in old age, and in youth, he was handsome, He was genial and companionable. He was always ready to do a kind act for a friend. He was esteemed highly by all who knew him as a good man and upright citizen. What characterized him above his follow men was his love of children and of horseS. When Surrounded by children and encouraging their amusement, he was never happier. H always pleased to have good horses and to be looking after them. He was in his feelings and in his thoughts a relic of the older time in which

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 513

 

he was always delighted to dwell. He passed away in peaceful sleep— “ as one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams."

 

Moses Baird

 

was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1762. His father, James Baird, came from near Londonderry, in the north of Ireland. His mother was a Miss Brown, also from Ireland.

 

Moses Baird married Mary Adams, July 5, 1787, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a woman of remarkable natural endowments and of distinguished and cultivated ability. They had one son, Robert, born in sylvania, in 1788.

 

They located in Adams County in the rich Irish Bottoms, at Sandy Springs, on the Ohio River, and took up a tract about a mile square. Those who located with them were Joshua Truitt, William Early, Jonathan Kenyon, Abner Ewing, above, and John Adams, and Simeon Truitt, below.

 

They had in all thirteen children, twelve being thereafter born in Adams County, as follows: Margaret, 1781; Alexander, 1792; Elizabeth 1794; Polly, 1796; Newton, 1799; James A., 1801 ; John A., 1803; Joseph C. V., 1805 ; Harvey, 1807; Harriet A., 1809; Chambers, 1811 ; Susan A., 1814.

 

Moses Baird was one of the justices of the Peace of Adams County and one of its Common Pleas judges under the Territory. He was elected a Commissioner of the County in 1803 and served three years. He was elected an Associate Judge of the County February , 1810, served and until April 10, 1821. He died November 1, 1841, and is buried in the Sandy Springs cemetery. He was tall, slender and active. He had a light complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, was nearly six feet tall, wore side whiskers and shaved the rest of his face. He was an easy, fluent talker, clear and concise in his expressions. He was an excellent judge of human nature and could judge a man on sight. He had easy manners, was pleasant and approachable. He was a good farmer and manager. He lived like a lord on his mile square of land. He raised all the crops he required and had five orchards of apples, peaches, plums and cherries. He had a great lot of stock, horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. He had all manner of fowls. He grew his own flax and sheared his own wool and made it into cloth on his own farm. His wife was a woman of great social attractiveness. She was one of the pioneer doctresses and a noted mid-wife, and died April 13, 1835, of a putrid sore throat, (diptheria?) which came of attending a child which had the same disease. She and her husband were members of the Sandy Springs Church, and her religion was such that its influence could be felt by all who associated with them. Susan A., their youngest daughter, was the wife of James McMaster, who is living (1899) at Sandy Springs, aged eighty-four. Their youngest son, Chambers, has a separate sketch herein. Their first three children, Robert, Elizabeth Adams and James A., made themselves homes within the original tract taken up by their father. The others went elsewhere into the Great West, and the descendants of Moses Baird are a great multitude, whom the census taker could enumerate, but it would take him a long time and a great deal of labor.

 

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Rev. Dyer Burgeon.

 

In writing a sketch of a person, in order to understand his life fully it is sometimes well to begin several generations before he was born.

 

Dyer Burgess traced his ancestry to Thomas Burgess, who came from England to Salem, Mass., in 1630, but who settled at Sandwich, in Plymouth Colony. This Thomas Burgess is recorded by Dr. Savage as being a chief among them. In the church organized at Sandwich, Mass., in 1638, he was an original member, and he served the tow in every office, humble or honorable, from land surveyor to deputy at the Court at Plymouth. He becave a large landholder, and his patriarchal estate was still held by a lineal descendant in the sixth generation, in 1863 Thomas Burgess died February 13, 1665, aged eighty-two years. His grave was honored by a monumental slab, imported from England, Aaron Otis says that this was the first monument set up for any pilgrim of the first generation. So that while Dyer Burgess' ancestor did not come over in the Mayflower, he was only ten years behind the first settlement, and of the same stock as the Pilgrim Fathers, and it is easy to see where he got his obstinacy and firmness of purpose.

 

The genealogy of the Burgess family was published in 1865, by the Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, of Dedham, Mass. From this, it appears that Thomas Burgess, who came from England, had a third son, Jacob. He married a Miss Nye, and had a son, Ebenezer, born October 2, 1673 who married Mary Lombard. Ebenezer had six children, all baptized September 23, 1711. Among them was a son Samuel, married to Jedidah Gibbs, March 30, 1732, and they had eight children. His wife died March 10, 1732, and he married Deborah Berse, November 7, 1754, and had four children by her. Jabez Burgess, one of the eight children by the first marriage, married Hannah Lathrop, May 3, 1754, and removed to Tolland, Conn., in 1783.

 

Jabez had nine children, among whom was a son, Nathaniel, born March 4, 1758, and married to Lucretia Scott in 1781. They had six children, of whom the subject of our sketch, Dyer Burgess, was born December 27, 1784, at Springfield; Vermont, to which place his parents had removed in 1781. So that our hero had a long line of fine old Puritan ancestors, with Scripture names, and all of whom lived godly lives and died full of years, in the hope of the gospel.

 

Dyer Burgess completed a scientific course at Dartmouth College to which he afterwards added a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and medicine. He became interested in religion, and was ordained a minister at Clovernook, Vermont.

 

At the age of sixteen years, he began to preach as a Methodist minister, but finding his views more in accordance with Congregationalism he joined that church and studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Wines. He came to Ohio in 1816, and was received in the Miami Presbytery from the Northern Association of Vermont, September 2, 1817. At Piqua, he organized a Presbyterian Church in the latter part of 1816. In the following year, it united with Troy to secure Mr. Burgess' services as a missionary. Presbytery met in Springfield the first Tuesday in September, 1817, and the two churches, Piqua and Troy, wanted the Rev. Dyer Burgess to preach for them, which he agreed to do for six months, at a salary of one hundred dollars. At the end of the six months, the

 

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two churches gave him a call as a regular pastor. In his old age, the last journey he took was to attend, at Piqua, the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the church there. From there he went to the Presbyterian Church at West Union, Ohio. While in charge of the church at West Union, during a period of nine years, from 1820 to 1829, he resided across the street from the church in a frame house, directly east of that occupied by J. M. Wells, Fsq., and while there, he did his own cooking, except the baking of his bread, which was done by the ladies of his congregation and brought to his house.

 

In Adams County he was brought into contact with the Rev. Wm. Williamson, with Rev. James Gillilan and Rev. John Rankin ; with Mr. Carothers and Mr. Dickey, and with Col. John Means. These gentlemen were born and educated in South Carolina, and most of them had been slaveholders, but having conscientious scruples as to the wrong of slavery, they left their native state and came to Ohio.

 

In 1823, he, organized the Auxiliary Bible Society of Adams County. Rev. Wm. Williamson was its first president, and Mr. Burgess was its corresponding secretary. The society is still in existence.

 

He was a very earnest man, and not only was he a strong opponent of human slavery, but he was a very great advocate of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and opposed to secret societies. He was also opposed to the use of tobacco in any form.

 

He thought and felt so intensely that his expressions in public speaking and in preaching had a wonderful effect on his hearers. He was a man of much more than ordinary intellect and was an excellent preacher.

 

He first preached for seven years in West Union, Ohio, but it seems that his doctrine was too radical for the people there, and he ceased to be their pastor, and was succeeded by the Rev. John P. Van lyke, after which he preached in Manchester, Ohio.

 

One of Mr. Burgess' elders was Gen. Joseph Darlinton, the Clerk of the Courts, of Adams County. Darlinton when a young man in Virginia had owned slaves. He had one, Dick, who was a refractory and ugly fellow. He sold him and kept the money. Mr. Burgess got to hear of this, and said at one time, in a sermon that in his congregation was one who had the price of blood in his chest. It waS supposed that Mr. Burgess' strictures bore hard on. General Darlinton, who was not a pronounced anti-slavery man. Some one asked Mr. Burgess how General Darlinton stood his anti-slavery doctrine. "Oh," said Mr. Burgess, "he stands it like an ox."

 

About this time the Rev. Burgess formed an attachment for Miss Elizabeth Means, the daughter of Col. John Means. His suit was discouraged by the brothers and the family, as they thought she ought to do better than to marry a poor minister. The matter never came to a proposal, but on the twenty-seventh day of April, 1827, Miss Means married Dr. William M. Voris. This event was entirely unexpected to Mr. Burgess, and struck him like a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky.

At a solemn communion service season the Sunday following, he preached from the text : "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," and he preached with such pathos and depth of feeling that his hearers could not but believe that his idol had been shattered when Miss Means married Dr. Voris.

 

516 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

On March 19, 1831, he married Miss Isabella Ellison, the daughter of Andrew Ellison. She was a maiden lady of about his own age, and he married her in Cincinnati, where she was making her home with her brother-in-law, Adam McCormick.

 

The Rev. Burgess was very much opposed to secret societies. On June 5, 1831, he began the publication of a semi-monthly periodical at Cincinnati, Ohio, entitled, "Infidelity Unmasked."

 

There were twenty-four numbers of it; the last number appeared April 22, 1832. Mr. Burgess was the editor. It does not appear that he wrote any editorials of any consequence, but the periodical is made up chiefly of extracts from other periodicals of like character and from lectures and addresses against Masonry and slavery. The burden of the periodical is against Masonry, with an occasional article against slavery. In his prospectus, the editor states that he does not expect much patronage, that his object is that his work might appear in the Day of Judgement, and bear witness that he has not shunned the whole counsel of God, and that under the influence of the Spirit, he has undertaken to lift up the standard when the enemy comes in as a flood. He also stated in the prospectus, that, firmly believing that Masonry and slavery are identified, and that slavery is practical heresy of a damning character, he has, after a deliberately counting the cost, dared to undertake the difficult and responsible duties of editor of a periodical paper, the leading object of which is to clear the sanctuary of both of these abominations. He proceeds to say that he does not charge that all persons are infidels; but he does say, and will undertake to prove, if God permits him to succeed with the work, that Masonry is infidelity, organized and masked. He further declared that the paper would consist principally of extracts from other works which have been published in Europe and America, in which the principles of Masonry have been fully discovered and exposed.

 

Short communications on the subject of Masonry and slavery were thankfully invited; and would be inserted. The price of the periodical was $1.00 in advance. $1.25 in six months, and $1.50 at the end of the year. The bound volume consists of 384 pages.

 

At the close of the work on April 21, 1832, the editor states “I have now finished what I have steadily resolved on for more than twenty years. I have published my sentiments against the worst institution that ever subsisted; and I hope God will smile upon my poor labors. and make them a blessing to my acquaintances, and graciously accept of me, for Christ's sake.

 

"I have written but little for the paper, because I have always found abundantly more material ready prepared, in a style much superior to what I could produce myself. I have published but a small part indeed, of what I intend on the subject of slavery; and shall, if encouraged, continue to issue my paper in West Union, Adams County, Ohio, and to that place, I invite my correspondents to make their future communications.”

 

It appears from the periodical, that in April, 1831, the Editor secured the Chillicothe Presbytery to declare that it was unlawful and inexpedient to have its members connected with the Masonic fraternity. By his like influence, in October, 1831, the Synod of Connecticut declared that a connection with Masonry was inconsistent with Christianity.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 517

 

On page 266, of his "Infidelity Unmasked," Mr. Burgess has a letter of nearly two pages, addressed to Oliver M. Spencer, a prominent Methodist minister of Cincinnati, Ohio, on Masonry. It seems that Mr. Burgess had attended a Masonic funeral at Cincinnati, at which Mr. Spencer as was present as a Mason, and Mr. Spencer's appearance raised the choler of Mr. Burgess.

 

On page 26, June 26, 1831, he states that the Presbytery of Chillicothe the has made Masonry a term of communion, and that one person had argued to him that Jesus Christ was a Mason. He says that Christ Declared openly in the Court of Pontus Pilot (so printed in the newspaper), "In secret have I said nothing."

 

On June 1, 1830, Mr. Burgess delivered an address at the court house at West Union, Ohio, on the subject "Solomon's Temple Haunted, or Free Masonry, the Man of Sin in the Temple of God." His lecture was delivered at an anti-Masonic meeting. He took the ground that Masonry as (1) treason against the Government, (2) treason against God. He stated in his address that Washington in his youth took three degrees in Masonry, and then in his farewell address, raised his voice against all secret societies, and went to the Invisible World. He said that, on the strength of Washington's Masonry, thousands have been tumbled into the imaginary grave of Hiram Abiff, for the sake of stooping to folly, like Washington. He states that Masonry was first instituted June 24, 1717,

d that the Masons filled almost every office in the Republic. He spoke of the Masonic celebration of St. John's Day, as a "Gobbler's Strut."

 

It seems, from this periodical, that on the twenty-eighth of September, 1831, William Wirt, of Maryland, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, were nominated as anti-Masonic candidates for President and Vice President of the United States.

 

The book is largely filled up with letters from a Rev. Henry Jones, who signs himself a dissented Royal Arch Mason.

 

This Rev. Jones was expelled from King Hiram's Lodge in Waitseld, Vermont, on September 24, 1828, for unworthy and unmasonic conduct. On October 8, 1828, his church at Cabot, Vermont, had a meeting and highly approved of his conduct in leaving the Masons, and in their judgment, stated that the oaths and obligations of Masonry were no more binding on its members than the oath of Herod to slay John the Baptist, or that of the forty Jews who banded together to kill Paul. This Rev. Jones furnished no less than ten different papers for Mr. Burgess' periodical.

 

Rev. Burgess fought Masonry as a greater evil than slavery. He has been dead twenty-two years, and he survived slavery by ten years, but Masonry still exists in a renewed vigor. The Rev. Burgess was mistaken as to Masonry.

 

He wasted a great deal of superfluous energy on Masonry which had better have been doubled up on slavery and tobacco. On the subject of Masonry, Mr. Burgess was a fanatic ; but upon alcoholism, the use of tobacco and slavery, he was simply a thinker years ahead of his time.

 

His favorite text against secret societies was the language of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the eighteenth chapter and twentieth verse of St. John's Gospel in His answer to the High Priet: "I spake openly to the

 

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world and in secret I said nothing," and upon this text, he preach a most powerful sermon, which his hearers never forgot.

 

The Manchester Presbyterian Church took a Mason into full membership. Mr. Burgess remarked to Mrs. A. B. Ellison, that after that he would never again visit Manchester Church, or commune with it- and he never did.

 

To illustrate how strongly Mr. Burgess thought and felt on the subject of secret societies—when Abraham Lincoln was first a candidate for President, Mr. Burgess wished to support him, but would not do so until he had written to Mrs. Lincoln and received an answer to the effect that Mr. Lincoln did not belong to any secret society. Then he supported Mr. Lincoln's candidacy most heartily.

 

Directly after his marriage to Miss Ellison, which entirely revolutionized his finances, as she was wealthy and willing to spend her money for their joint enjoyment, he returned to West Union, and there built the property now occupied and known as the Palace Hotel, and immediately took possession of it. From that time on, until the death of his wife, the Rev. Burgess had no particular charge, but preached when and where he pleased. He and his wife lived in great state in their then elegrant home—as, when completed, it was the finest house in the county. They kept two pews in the Presbyterian Church at West Union, and these they had filled every Sunday. They entertained a great many visitors - usually had their house full of visitors, arid especially Mrs. Burgess’ relations. These she invited from far and wide and entertained them for a long period of time.

 

While living in this property, Mr. Burgess took it upon him to study Greek, which he had never studied before ; and while engaged in that study, he was so intent upon it, as he was upon everything else which he undertook, that he invited every minister far and near to make him a visit; and when the visitor arrived at Dr. Burgess' residence, he found found hat he was expected to read Greek with him and to Instruct him in that language At one time, when he was preaching in West Union, Rosanna, a colored nurse of Mrs. Ann Wilson's, had one of Mrs. Wilson's children there, as it was customary in those days to take the babies to church. This particular baby began to cry very loudly. Mr. Burgess paused in the midst of his sermon, and said in a commanding voice, "Rosanna, take that child out !" and out it went.

 

As before stated, he was a frequent visitor in the family of Col. John Means, and there he met, at one time, Maj. Barry, a young gentleman from Mississippi, who was a nephew of Col. Means, and who was making a protracted visit at his uncle's. Maj. Barry's father was an extensive slaveholder, and Mr. Burgess took pains to impress his view upon Maj. Barry, claiming that he was a mild Abolitionist. Maj. Barry was so impressed with Mr. Burgess' arguments, that he was almost willing to adopt the Abolitionist views himself.

 

Col. Means lived about three miles back of Manchester, and one Sunday, he and his family with Maj. Barry rode to Manchester to attend the Presbyterian Church there, and hear the Rev. Burgess preach. During his sermon, he remarked that a slaveholder was worse than a horse thief. This statement aroused Maj. Barry's ire, as his father, a most estimable man, was a slaveholder, and he arose and left the church.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 519

 

when he was about half-way out, Mr. Burgess thought he would emphasize the statement, and he said that a slaveholder was worse than ten sand horse thieves !

 

Maj. Barry wrote him a note the next day, and told him that if that was his mild Abolitionism he wanted none of it, and that he would be gratified to see him in purgatory.

 

The Rev. Burgess took his note, and called upon Mrs. Dr. Willson, Sr. and expressed himself horrified that one human being could wish her another in torment, and said to Mrs. Wilson, "He might as well have wished me in hell." Maj. Barry afterwards told Dr. Wilson that he could

see Burgess' throat cut from ear to ear and feel gratified at the sight.

 

Mr. Burgess was a most companionable man, and had a wonderful fund of humor. He had a happy faculty of clothing his thoughts in appropriate language, and his acrimonious denunciations were confined to his lectures and sermons.

 

When he was about to marry Miss Ellison, Aunt Ann Wilson, at whose house he was very intimate, rallied him about it, and wondered that he had not selected a younger and more handsome lady. Mr. Burgess replied that he loved youth and beauty as well as ever.

 

His wife died in their home, now the Palace Hotel, in West Union, November 3, 1839. She disposed of her property by last will and testament drawn by Hon. George Collings, father of Judge Henry Collings, of Manchester, Ohio. The will made no provision for Mr. Burgess except to give him two rooms in her house for life, but she had already given him a number of claims which she deemed a suitable vision for him.

 

In 1830, it was the custom everywhere in Adams County for the farmers to furnish whiskey for their harvest hands, and to distribute it freely among them. In that year, Mr. Burgess made a temperance address at Eenton's schoolhouse, on Gift Ridge, and his speech on that occasion was so powerful that it induced all the farmers on Gift Ridge to abstain from having whiskey in the fields during harvest, and since then it has never been used in harvest in that locality.

 

On one occasion when Mr. Burgess was going from Manchester to Cincinnati on a steamboat, "The Huntress," accompanied by his wife, a number of Kentuckians were traveling on the boat, and the Rev. Burgess took occasion to air his views on Masonry and slavery.

 

The Kentuckians, who were both Masons and slaveholders, proposed to hang him right there on the boat, and went so far as to secure a rope for the purpose and suspended it from the pilot house. Charles Stevenson, from Manchester, and John Sparks, of West Union, were on the boat, and the former was a Mason. Both of these and the Hon. John Rowan, of Louisville, interceded with the angry Kentuckians, and the captain of the boat saw that it would ruin his boat if a man were to be hung on it. The Kentuckians asked the price of his boat and wanted to pay it tor the privilege of hanging Mr. Burgess. His wife went on her knees and begged for his life. But Mr. Burgess himself asked for no quarter or mercy, and would not apologize a whit, or stop his denunciations. Had he lived in Joshua's time, he would have preferred a position upon

 

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Mount Ebal, rather than upon Mount Gerizini, for he was a master-hand at denunciation, when it suited his purpose..

 

The story is that the Kentuckians were the ones most to blame in the matter, but in truth the ones on the boat, who insisted most strenuously on the hanging of Burgess on that occasion were natives of Connecticut and of Ohio. Hon. John Rowan, himself a slaveholder, told Mr. Burgess on the "Huntress," that if he went below Cincinnati, it would be impossible for him to protect him. This incident occurred late in the thirties in this county. The friends of Mr. Burgess had him get off the boat at Ripley and give up his trip to Cincinnati.

 

His home in West Union, during the lifetime of his first wife, was called "Anti-Slavery Palace." The Abolitionists from far and wide visited him, and were always made welcome. The Rev. Stephen Riggs, Rev. Caskey and Mr. Longley were often at his home and studied with him.

 

In 1840, he left Adams County, and went to Washington County. He made his home there, and for a long time preached to the churches in Warren, Belpre and Watertown. In his sermons he always came out strong in his denunciatory parts. He as clear and pointed in his statements, and at times waxed eloquent. One thing is certain, no, one could go to sleep under his preaching.

 

On August 31, 1842, Mr. Burgess was married to Mrs. Elizabeth W. Voris, widow of Dr. William M. Voris, and the daughter of Col. John Means, and who was Mr. Burgess' first love. They were married at the home of her brother, Hugh Means, the former residence of her father in Adams County, Ohio. She was born in South Carolina in 1799 and came to Ohio in 1819 when her father came to this State to free his slaves. She was a noble Christian woman and lived a long life of sincere piety and good deeds. One of her daughters by •her first marriage was the wife of the Hon. Wm. P. Cutler, of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Burgess died February 28, 1889, in her ninetieth year, having lived with Mr. Burgess thirty years, and survived him nearly seventeen years.

 

In person, he was tall, over six feet high, straight as an Indian with a haughty courage. He was slightly inclined to corpulency. He had a large head, a high forehead, with heavy arched brows, and a square face with a great deal of determination expressed in it.

 

He was as fully opposed to the use of liquors and tobacco, as he was to Masonry and slavery.

 

At the age of eighty-three, in 1868, he had a severe attack of he was to considered typhus fever.

 

He was sick twelve weeks, and delirious most of the time. He regarded his recovery as wonderful, and writing to a friend, he said: "I seem a wonder to myself. Under Providence, I ascribe.my recovery to Mrs. Burgess. It is astonishing that she did not break down, but is still busy with domestic affairs. South Carolinians who could free their slaves and do their own work are most efficient laborers."

 

This last sentence refers to her father, Col. John Means, bringing his family and twenty-four slaves from South Carolina, in 1819, when Mrs. Burgess was twenty years old.

 

He says that the Abolition movement originated in Ohio, and that the two Mr. Dickeys of Tennessee, and himself, were the first projectors of

 

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the scheme, which at last succeeded. He also states that Rev. James Gilliland, Rev. Robert G. Wilson, and Rev. Samuel Carothers, were their earliest coadjutors. That they commenced operating in about 1817; that in 1818, he introduced a paper into the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia, which passed that body, and came near destroying him. He wrote to his cousin that those who would not speak to him then, would now willingly pass as having been friendly to the measure.

 

In 1857, he addressed an open letter to the Free Presbyterian, when it was proposed that they should return to the old church. He said: “It is proposed that we return to Egypt. Some of us, at least, have no hankering after garlic. We pledged ourselves, in the name of Christ, not only not to sustain human slavery, but also only not to sustain secret conspiracies ; either the curse-bound Danites of the Mormon's or any other conspiracy so bound. We pledged ourselves, also, not to sustain at the Lord's table, self-destroyers ; whether the instrument of destruction was the pistol, alcohol or that specific poison, filthy tobacco. Shall we violate that pledge "

 

Until the age of eighty-three, his faculties retained their vigor. In 1867, he attended the semi-centennial of the church at Piqua, Ohio, and there he contracted a severe sickness, which affected his mental faculties, but did not affect his general health.

 

His memory of passing and recent events was gone on his recovery, but he could repeat whole chapters of the Bible, and page after page of favorite old authors. He could give a rational and clear exposition of almost any scriptural passage. His power in prayer was unaffected to the last. Thus while in the last five years of hiS life, his communications with earth were cut off ; his connection with Heaven was clear to the last. He died in 1872 at the age of eighty-eight.

 

Why have we brought forward anew the memory of this man of God? Because in his time and in his place, he was the First Apostle of Personal and Social Purity. Because when the use of whisky and tobacco were almost universal, he had the courage to preach against them and depict their evils. Because when the national conscience was debauched and demoralized by that great curse of slavery, he had the discernment to see the evil of it, and to be the first to denounce it. Because he was a man of enlightened conscience, and had the courage to preach according to its dictates. Because he lived as he preached, and exemplified his ideas in a long and useful life. Such men should not be forgotten. The record of their good lives should be graven in living characters on the memory of each generation following them, and so long as the record is remembered, our people will seek the right, and try to follow it as Dyer Burgess did in his eighty-four years.

 

Nicholas Burwell

 

was born near Winchester, Virginia, September I1, 1794. He learned the shoemaker's trade as a youth at Winchester, and while residing there was in the War of 1812. In 1815, he and Murtaugh Kehoe, also a young shoemaker, came to the West from Winchester, Virginia. They floated down the Ohio River and landed at Portsmouth, Ohio. Kehoe was favorably impressed with the place and resolved to remain and did so. Burwell thought two of the Same trade should not locate in the same

 

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town, and he went on to Limestone, now Maysville. There he heard of West Union, then a new town, only eleven years old, and he went there and set up in the business of shoemaking. He lived there five years when he was married to Sarah Fenton, daughter of Samuel Fenton, of Gift Ridge, one of Adams County's pioneers. They were married April 19, 1820. She was born September 22, 1802. The minister who performed the ceremony was Rev. Greenbury Jones, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers. On this occasion, Rev. Jones alluded to them as children, owing to their youthful appearance.

 

Nicholas Burwell and his wife went to housekeeping in West Union and lived there all their lives. Their oldest child was Elizabeth, born May 5, 1821, and married Joseph West Lafferty, May 24, 1838. Their oldest son, Samuel, was born November 20, 1822. He is the veteran editor of the Scion and was married to Margaret Mitchell, March 30,1848. William Burwell, the second son, was born October 20, 1826. He married a Miss Murphy of Buena Vista and is now deceased; Martha Ann born January 16, 1830, married Ellis Bottleman, April 12, 1854; Edward was born January 26, 1834; Michael Henry was born February 26, 1839, and is now deceased. Mary, the youngest daughter, married Smiley Lockwood, May 23, 1860. She is now a widow residing at Winchester.

 

Nicholas Burwell conducted a shoe shop in West Union all his life. He was contemporary with Judge Byrd and knew him well. The judge took a fancy to Mr. Burwell's cow at one time and gave him $50 for her, I an extravagant price at that time. Nicholas Burwell was one of the pillars in the Methodist Church at West Union. He always attended all its services week days and Sundays and never missed one. He was particularly punctual at the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. The other pillars in the church whom the writer remembers, were Abraham Hollingsworth, Adam McGovney, William R. Rape and William Allen. They were always present as well as Burwell. The latter always felt well assured of his eternal salvation. At many of the meetings, he would get very happy. He was enthusiastic in his devotion to the church. With him, it was always first. Fverything else was secondary. He was a thin spare man, wore a silk hat and went along the street with his head slightly bowed as if in a deep study. He was cordial with and genial to every one. His likes and dislikes were very strong, a trait inherited by all of his descendants. He was often given to hyperbole in common conversation, another family trait, but he was honest and an honorable man, a good citizen and a good Christian. He feared the Lord but nothing else. He was active and energetic, very fond of physical exercise. Within a few months prior to his death, he walked from Manchester to West Union. In his old age, he was as good a walker as any boy. He entered into rest in all the triumph of his faith, July 1, 1879. His wife followed him, January 14, 1885. They rest side by side in the old cemetery at West Union, waiting the sound of Gabriel's trumpet.

 

John Belli

 

was a citizen of the world. His father was a Frenchman, his mother a native of Holland, and he was born in Liverpool, England, in 1760. He received a good education in England in a military school. When he came of age, he was in Amsterdam, Holland, and received his coming off

 

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age papers from the estates of Holland and West Friesland. When he undertook to start to the United States, it was from Paris, France, and he had a letter of recommendation from John Jay. He came over with a Mr. Francis Bowers, of Ostend, a merchant who was bringing over goods. His letters of introduction were to Mr. Josiah Watson, of Alexandria, Va. He had been studying about the United States and had become filled with the extreme Republican notions of that time. In theory of government, he was a rabid republican ; in his own personal relations, he was an aristocrat, though he was hardly conscious of the fact. Mr. Jay, in his letter, described him as a young man worthy of trust. He came alone, without any members of his family. He landed at Alexandria, Va., in May, 1783. That was then an important seaport. He engaged in business there as a clerk at first, and afterwards as a merchant, and remained there until the spring of 1791, a period of eight years. Of his life in and Alexandria, we have no account, but he formed a number of valuable and important acquaintances in that time, among whom were Col. Alexander Parker and Gen. George Washington.

 

In October, 1791, Gen. Knox, then Secretary of War, sent him to the Northwest Territory on public business. What his functions were does now clearly appear, but it was of a confidential character.

 

On April 18, 1792, when he was in the Northwest Territory, President George Washington sent him a commission as Deputy Quartermaster on the General Staff of Wayne's Legion. This commission is in the hands of John Belli Gregory, his grandson, at Fontana, Kentucky. It is on parchment, illustrated, and bears the original 'signature of President Washington and Secretary of War, Henry Knox. The commission does not state his rank, but it was that of Major, hence his title. He went by of Pittsburg, then called Fort Pitt and down the Ohio River to Fort Washington. Gen. Knox gave him a letter dated September 30, 1791, directed to the Deputy Quartermaster at Fort Pitt, stating that he was to have transportation down the Ohio River as he was on public business of great importance. He went direct to Fort Washington, where it appears he was stationed until the time of Wayne's expedition against the Indians.

 

There is preserved a list of the Quartermaster's stores he had on hand at Fort Washington, November I, 1783. Mr. Gregory also has in his possession a letter addressed to Major John Belli from Gen. Anthony Wayne, in answer to one of May 3o, preceding. He tells the Major that he is glad he has been successful in purchasing cattle ; that 300 per month will be required independent of accident ; that he must forward those on hand by first escort. That he has three weeks' supply for the Legion, nor can he think of advancing with less than 600 or 800 cattle, which would not be more than ten weeks' supply, should they all arrive safe. He stated that the wagons would set out from Fort Jefferson the next morning for Fort Washington under a good escort, commanded by Major Hughes, and they were not to be delayed at Fort Washington more than forty-eight hours, to be loaded with tents, intrenching tools and axes. Also he was to send such hospital or ordinance stores as he had been provided with, together with all the hunting shirts, or shirts and tools that were in his possession. Also, that his own private stores were to be forwarded under a select guard, which he will request Major Hughes to furnish from his department.

 

524 -HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

He was directed to use as many private teams as could be obtained which, with the use of the water transport, when a favorable rise may happen in the Miami, would enable him to forward the grain to Fort Hamilton, which the Quartermaster General bad required. He was not to lose a moment in mounting the dragoons and furnishing all the necessary accouterments. He was also to be furnished with $2,000 in specie, and $8,000 in good bank bills to be replaced by his department. He was told that every arrangement would be made by his department for a forward move ,by the first of July. He wished the Major every success in his purchases and supplies of every nature in the line of his department and signed himself, "I am sir, your most ob'dt humble serv't., Ant'y Wayne.”

 

As soon as the expedition was successful, Major Belli, went east and settled his accounts with the department. He returned with some $5,000 and bought 1,000 acres of land at the mouth of Turkey Creek and placed a man named Wright upon it, who cleared up a part of it, built a log house and planted an orchard. This was the first settlement in Scioto County, though the historian, James Keyes, disputes it, and says the first settlement was near Sciotoville, by the Bousers and Burts.

 

He laid out the town of Alexandria, at the mouth of the Scioto River and gave it its name for Alexandria, Virginia, where he had first landed in this country, and had spent eight years. He Spent considerable time in and about Alexandria as the agent of Col. Wm. Parker, for whom he located much land in Scioto County. In September, 1797, he was appointed Recorder of Adams County and held the office until October, 1803. He was a Justice of the Peace for Adams County, appointed by the Judges of the General Court, April 28, 1801, and his commission is in existence.

 

It seems he spent a great part of his time in Kentucky. He evidently did not and could not attend personally to the duties, of the office Recorder of Adams County.

 

On the twenty-first of March, 1800, he concluded some very important business in Kentucky, for on that date, he was married to Miss Cynthia Harrison, a cousin of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison. Her father Samuel Harrison, was a very prominent man in Kentucky, and a large slaveholder. He owned the site of the town of Cynthiana, Ky., and laid it out. He named it for his twin daughters, Cynthia and Anna, born just before the town was platted. On his marriage, Major John Belli moved to his land at the mouth of Turkey Creek. He named his home, “Belvedere," and he kept a carriage and horses and traveled in style. In every county of the territory, there was a Colonel of the Militia and a Major Nathaniel Massie was the Colonel of the Adams County Militia and John Belli, the Major.

 

On August 29, 1804, he was commissioned by Edward Tiffin, Governor of Ohio, Major of the Second Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Ohio Militia.

 

During the time that the town of Washington was flourishing as the county seat of Adams County, Major Belli was there much of the time. When he was absent, I do not know who attended to the duties of his office as Recorder, but have an idea it was General Darlinton, who was always ready to do anything to accommodate his neighbors.

 

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Major Belli had five children, four daughters and a son. His daughter Eliza was born December 3, 1809. She married Moses Gregory, October 20, 1826. Her son, John Belli Gregory, who was a citizen of Scioto County for many years, at one time, member of the Board of Public Works in this State, and afterwards its Engineer, resides at Fontana, Ky., and has kindly loaned the editor of this work the papers of Major Belli. His son, Hiram D. Gregory, is a lawyer at Covington, Ky.

 

Major Belli, after 1803, devoted his whole time to the improvement of his land on Turkey Creek, though he was a land owner in many places. He at one time owned a large tract near New Hope in Brown County. In 1806, he built him a large two-story frame house on his land at the mouth of Turkey Creek, but did not live to enjoy it. In October, 1809, it was taken with one of those fevers against which it seems the pioneers could not contend, and he died and was buried on the river bank near his home. His widow continued to reside there until 1838, when her home, built by the Major in 1806, was accidentally destroyed by fire. She removed to Illinois where she died in 1848. In 1865, the Major's grave was washed by the river and Mr. Gregory had his remains exhumed, and reinterred in the cemetery at Friendship. A picture of the Major is in the possession of Mr. Gregory. It represents him with powdered wig . And a continental coat, faced with red.

 

Major Belli was a gentleman of the old school. He never changed his dress from the style during the Revolution. While he lived among backwoodsmen, he always had his wig and queue, wore a cocked hat, coat with facings, waist coat, knee breeches, stockings and shoe buckles. His queue was carefully braided and tied with a ribbon, and this was his style of dress at all times.

 

While he believed himself to be a Republican, as the term was understood in his time, he had pride enough for all the aristocrats in the neighborhood. He was a disbeliever in slavery and it is thought his location in the Northwest Territory and his maintainance of his residence here, was on account of his repugnance to that peculiar institution. His wife's slaves were brought to Ohio and freed, and this through his influence.

 

Daniel Boyle.

 

John Boyle, father of our subject, was born on the banks of the river Boyne, in Ireland, a Roman Catholic. His wife, Sarah Wilson, was a reared a Presbyterian. Her father was a linen merchant, a wealthy man for his time. He never forgave his daughter for her marriage, but she adhered to her religion and converted her husband to it.

 

Our subject was born on the banks of the river Boyne in 1787, and emigrated to this country with his father, mother, brothers and sisters when he was eight years of age. The family located first at Shippensburg, Pa., and afterwards moved to Greensburg, in the same state, where his father died. John Boyle reared a family of nine children. Daniel , had a common school education and was apprenticed to the tin and coppersmith trade in Pittsburg. His master's name was Hampshire. At the close of his apprenticeship, in 1817, he married Margaret Cox, then residing in Pittsburg, but a native of Carlisle, Pa. Daniel Boyle worked at his trade in Pittsburg and in New York and Philadelphia. He walked from Pittsburg to Philadelphia no less than seven times. In 1819

 

526 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

he came down the Ohio River from Pittsburg in a flatboat with his wife and household goods. Mr. Boyle left the boat at Manchester and came to West Union when the town was fifteen years old. He opened out the tinning business and carried it on there with the exception of a short time until near his death..

 

He bought a part of lot 67 on the corner of Main and Cherry Streets where he resided until his death. In 1829, he rented his premises and removed to Cincinnati where he and John Sparks kept an iron store. David Sinton was a clerk for them at a small salary. This venture was not profitable, and he returned to West Union after one year, where he continued his tinning business until 1872. When a young man, he made general trading trips to the South as was common at that time. While on one of these trips, he was an eye witness to the New Madrid earth-quake in 1811.

 

He was a Justice of the Peace of Tiffin Township from January 10, 1835, until 1838, and one term was sufficient for him. He possessed the strictest integrity. He was frugal and unostentatious in his manner. He always tried to do his duty by his neighbors, and in the several choler a scourges he and his family remained in the village and did all in their power to minister to the sick and dying and to aid the families of the victims. There were born to him and his wife nine children, three sons and six daughters. Of these, Sarah, the eldest daughter, resides in the old homestead. She bears the burden of years with grace and honor. She possesses that stering character of her father, hers by birthright, and is respected and honored by all who know her.

 

Daniel Boyle had excellent tastes. He was fond of music, being a player on the flute and clarionet. He was also a great reader and particularly of historical subjects. He took the Cincinnati Gazette from its first issue until his death. In politics, he was a Whig and a Republican. In his religious attachments, he was a member of the United Brethren Church. His faith was strong and he was devotedly attached to his religious principles. He departed this life in the peace of God, May 29, 1874. His aged wife followed him August 26, 1876. He was a just men who loved to render to every one his just dues. He left a memory of which his family can be proud and which posterity would do well to hold in lasting remembrance.

 

Charles Willing Byrd

 

was born in Westover, Charles City County, Virginia, on Monday, the twenty-sixth day of July, 177o, at one o'clock in the morning, so reads the record in the old Westover Bible. He was the second son and the seventh child of the third Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, Charles City County. His mother, Mary Willing, was born. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the tenth of September, 1740, and was the daughter of Charles Willing, and his wife, Ann Shippen, of that city. His father was a Colonel under General Washington in the early part of the Revolution, but died when his son was but seven years of age. Thus 1eft in his mother's care, she sent him at an early age to her brother-in-law. Thomas Powell. Mr. Powell, who married Mrs. Byrd's sister, was a member of the Society of Friends, and from whom Judge Byrd imbibed many of his views in regard to slavery, temperance, physical, moral and religious culture, for which views he was noted in his day. Thus we have

 

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the friends' ideas grafted on the old cavalier, fox hunting and rollicking, Virginia stock. One of the reasons his pious mother gave for putting her son under this influence to be educated was on account of the skepticism and infidelity that had crept into the old college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, where all the preceding Byrds who had not been educated in England, had attended college.

 

Judge Byrd received his entire academic and legal education in the city of Philadelphia, and was a finished scholar and a gentleman of rare polish and elegance. He pursued his law studies in Philadelphia with Gouverneur Morris. He knew intimately, through his mother's family, the Hon. Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. Directly after his admission to the bar in 1794, he went to Westover to spend the summer. There his brother-in-law, Benj. Harrison, wrote him that

Robert Morris wanted an agent to go to Kentucky and take charge of his lands there and bring them into the market ; and to any one who would do so, he would give him a salary of one thousand dollars a year, and he urged young Byrd to take the appointment and go to Kentucky at once.

He did so and Robert Morris gave him a power of attorney, the original of which is in the hands of the Judge's descendants. He went to Lexington, Kentucky, and there met the family of Col. David Meade of Chaumiere, who had removed from the estate of Maycox, Prince George County, Virginia, opposite Westover and whose family were intimate friends of the Byrds. Col. Meade had four young daughters, and it was very natural that young Byrd should fall in love with one of them, which he proceeded very promptly to do, and on the sixth day of April, 1797, which was Easter Sunday, and which Judge Byrd, in his quaint way, called the “Day of his Resurrection," he was married to Sarah Waters Meade, the second daughter of Col. David Meade. Her eldest sister married General Nathaniel MasSie, the founder of Manchester. After his marriage, he returned to Philadelphia and remained there until he was appointed by President Adams, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, which appointment was made in January, 1799. He held this munificent office at a salary of $400 a year, until he succeeded General Arthur St. Clair as Territorial Governor, and retained that position until 1802, when the State was organized and Governor Tiffin took charge on March 4, 1803. His commission as Secretary of the Territory in which he was sworn in as Secretary by Arthur St. Clair is in the possession of his family. On the third of March, 1803, he was appointed by President Jefferson, United States Judge for Ohio and held that position until his death on the eleventh day of August, 1828. During the time he was Secretary of the Northwest Territory and Federal Judge, up to June, 1807, his residence was on Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, which was then known as Byrd Street. The Presbyterian Church now stands on what was part of his home. Judge Burnet, Nicholas longworth arid George Hunt were among his many friends. The father of the late Vice President Hendricks kept a school in his vicinity. On June 8, 1807, he bought from his brother-in-law, Gen. Nathaniel Massie, a tract of six hundred acres in Monroe Township, Adams County, Ohio, being known as Buckeye Station and Hurricane Hill. He took up his residence there at once, at a point on the ridge overlooking the Ohio River, a romantic spot where there is a fine view of the Ohio both up and down stream, and under

 

528 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

which the river almost directly flows. He held this property until August 15, 1817, when ne conveyed it to John Ellison, Jr. In 1811, Nathaniel Massie, of Hillsboro, Ohio, lately deceased, then a boy of six years, in company with his father and mother, visited his uncle Judge Byrd at Buckeye Station. Mrs. Byrd, nee Sarah Meade, died February 21, 1815, and was buried at the Station. Judge Byrd removed to Chillicothe and lived there one year. He went to West Union in 1816 and resided there until March 16, 1823, when he removed to Sinking Spring, in Highland County, where he had bought a large tract of land and built a brick house. He resided there until his death.

 

While residing in West Union, on March 8, 1818, he was married to Hannah Miles, a widow with four children. He believed the water of the "Sinking Spring" in Highland County, to possess remarkable medical properties, conducive to health and longevity, and so persuaded was he of this, that he bought the property having the spring thereon and built a fine brick mansion there, which is standing to-day. It seems that notwithstanding he had been reared in the elegant home in Westover and moved in the highest circles at Philadelphia, he had a strong taste for the primitive and quiet life he found at Buckeye Station at West Union and in the wild country of Highland County. He was very strict in the observance of Sabbath and would not, on that day, ride to church on horseback. He had a very strong liking for the principles and teachings of the Shakers, as appears by his will.

 

Unlike the typical Virginian, he was a total abstainer from all kinds of liquor, in an age when whiskey, was pure and temperance societies unknown. He was very temperate in his eating, and guarded the digestion of his children in a manner unknown to the mothers and fathers of this day. He kept small silver scales by his plate, upon which he weighed every article of food which they ate, allowing a certain quantity of fat sugar, and phosphates, with each portion. He had peculiar ideas as to the preservation of life to longevity, and yet, died suddenly at the compartitively early age of fifty-eight, when he had never been seriously sick in his life. He was engaged in the trial of a mail robbery case when he took his final sickness. His associate, Judge Todd, of Kentucky, took sick at the same time and they both died within an hour of each of other. The cause of the death of these two judges is a mystery to this day. The children of his first marriage were all born between 1798 and 1810, and were Mary Powell, Kidder Meade, William Silonwee and Evalyn Harrison. His daughter Fvalyn married her cousin and raised a family. She has two daughters now living at Nicholasville, Mrs. Anna Letcher and Miss Jane Woodson. The children of his Second marriage were Jane and Samuel Otway, both deceased. Samuel Otway died at the age of forty-five, and left a son, William 0. Byrd, who died a few years since at the age of forty-one.

 

While a resident of West Union, Judge Byrd lived in the property opposite where Mrs. Sarah W. Bradford lives, and afterward in the Judge Mason property on Mulberry street, where Mr. Riley Mehaffey now lives.

 

Judge Byrd kept a diary from 1812 to 1827. He writes nothing about his doings in the courts, the lawyers he met, or the judges with whom he sat, but a great deal about his diet. It appears that he was a

 

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dyspeptic, and suffered with a disordered stomach, and that his private thoughts were largely about his diet and the better preservation of his health. He was constantly making experiments in dieting on himself and his children. He notes Judge Todd's opinion as to medicines. Had he lived in our day, he would have been called a crank. At one time, he thought river water was the best and had three barrels of it hauled to his house for his use. At another time, he thought "McClure's well in West Union was the proper water to use. At another time, he thought the water at Yellow Springs was the best, and when he became convinced that the Sinking Spring water was the best, he bought property there and made it his home. He refers to Judge John W. Campbell in his diary on the subject of grape culture only. He refers to the Rev. Dyer Burgess on Free Masonry. He speaks of his horses which he named Dolly, Paddy and Pau1. The latter was named after a blacksmith who shod them all, and who was probably an ancestor of the Pauls of Bloom Furnace. At one time, when he was riding to Chillicothe, Dolly shied at a black hog along the roadside. He then had black hogs painted on his barn door where she could shy at them at her pleasure. He, at another time, became of the opinion that ammonia was healthful, and he had a seat fixed in his barn and about spent a great deal of time there where he could inhale the fumes of it from the stable.

 

The judge was very fond of sauer kraut and made frequent mention of it. Another vanity of his was boiled pullet. He had a horror of bile on the stomach, of jaundice and of epilepsy, and frequently writes of these, though it does not appear that he was ever afflicted with the latter. Occasionally, he wrote about the Frie Canal and of canals projected in Ohio and frequently gave figures and statistics.

 

In November, 1826, he gave an item of seventeen dollars, traveling expenses from Philadelphia to Maysville, Kentucky ; five dollars for tavern bills from Pittsburg to Maysville, and eight days allowed for the trip. At times he contemplated joining the Shakers and would sit down and write in his journal his reasons pro and con. One of his reasons, con, was the weakly state of his health, which would or might render it injurious to him to take such a diet as they use, and to rise hours before day as they used to do and sit by their stoves. Evidently the Judge liked good things to eat and to lie abed of mornings. Another reason, con, was that if he joined the Shakers, Hannah could get a divorce from him under the laws of Kentucky, and could marry again and probably would, and that would be sinful in her. Evidently he did not consider the sin of leaving Hannah and his family. His son, Samuel, said that his whole idea of the Shakers arose from a disordered stomach, which was no doubt true. Here is a tribute to hiS wife: "Mrs. Byrd. this morning after sunrise and before ten o'clock in the morning, April 23, 1827, after dressing and washing herself, got breakfast, consisting of excellent coffee, with hot bread and butter, milked three cows, disposing of the milk in the unusa1 way ; washed up the breakfast things ; made three pies ; dressed and washed the little boy (Samuel) ; made up other bread, working it over a great deal, setting it away to rise a first and second time ; and churned our butter; all these nine several things after she was dressed and had washed her face and hands, between sunrise 2.nd ten o'clock in the morn-

 

530 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

ing, and without any help from Catherine or any. one else." We pause to inquire where the Judge was and what he was doing all the time he was making these observations. We very much suspect he was in bed.

 

August 22, 1822, he writes that he has put $1,400 in the hands of William Russell, to trade in, to be invested in merchandise, the profits of which he was to account for on fair and just principles and the money was to remain in his hands for four years. He writes that Mr. Russell had purchased $4,000 worth of merchandise and expected it on in one week's time. The same day he wrote that Mr. Sparks stated that in two months last past, he had sold $3,000 worth of goods. On February 26, 1822, he wrote that he had bought 39 1/4 pounds of beet sugar at 27 ½ cents per pound.

 

On December 19, 1822, he made an estimate that a single man may dress decently for thirty-three dollars per annum, including washing, mending, shoes, handkerchiefs and a hat, and for thirty-seven dollars, he may, if he lives in a rented room, with another, get his whole living in addition, his rented room, his washing, his bedding, and his bread and water, included, full total, seventy dollars. What a thing for our young men to look back to, that the young man of 1827 could live for seventy dollars a year. On February 26, 1823, he was living on venison at two cents a pound. Mutton, at the same time, was four and a half cents a pound. It was then fifteen days' passage to Maysville from New Orleans, and that it cost fifteen dollars to go from Maysville to Pittsburg. On June 10, 1822, he devotes two full pages to General Darlinton's, Mr. William Russell's, and Judge Campbell's culture of grapes. In June, 1822, he writes that it takes Paul, the smith, an hour to make nails and fit a pair of shoes and put them on, the shoes being made previously. He devoted a great deal of space in his journals to his children. His objection to a frame house, he wrote, was that it was an ice house in winter and an oven in summer, which has a tendency to produce derangement of the bowels. The Judge had the house at Buckeye Station in view when he wrote that. He gives a great deal of good advice to his children, but it is so much like what has been stated that we leave it out.

 

I have endeavored from the light afforded me, which is meager, to form an estimate of the character of Charles Willing Byrd, first United States Judge in Ohio. There are some strange contradictions in it. Had his father lived, there is no doubt he would have been reared a typical Virginian of the first families, But his father dying at the age of forty-nine, when he was but seven years of age, and his mother being a Philadelphian and having brothers and sisters living there, he was sent to Philadelphia and placed under the care and instruction of a Quaker who it seems had sufficient influence to mould his character. It was there he received his ideas against the use of liquors and against human slavery. His ideas of Republican simplicity were partly from his own and partly Mr. Jefferson, his personal friend and friend of his father and mother, I have not been able to secure any of his writings except his will, and some of his journals.

 

That he was a gentleman in the fullest, highest and the purest sense of the term, there can be no doubt. A tinge of sadness was no doubt cast upon his life by the death of his father, and the extraordinary and almost

 

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inconsolable grief of his mother, which he was compelled to witness. His habits of prudent economy can be attributed to the fact that his father's estate was largely impaired by debts made by a course of liberal and reckless living incident to his day.

 

He had been a witness to the curse of slavery in Virginia, of its wastefulness and destruction of fine estates and that embittered him against the institution. Then his instruction in Philadelphia was that the institution was a positive sin. His mother was compelled to live in a less expensive house in order to extinguish the debts of his father and that intended to impress upon him the importance of economy and simplicity in living.

 

When he went to Kentucky, a young man of twenty-seven years, it was natural that he should visit the friend and neighbor of his father, on James River, Virginia, Col. David Meade, then living at Chaumiere Du Prairie, nine miles from Lexington. It was quite natural that he should be well received there and that he should fall in love with and marry the daughter of Col. Meade, whose social standing and his own were equal.

 

It was natural that he should receive the appointment of Secretary of the Northwest Territory from President John Adams. From, one of the best families of Virginia and protege of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, that followed.

 

It was natural that he should receive the appointment of United States Judge from Jefferson, for the latter knew him as a scion of one of the most prominent families of Virginia, and in sympathy with his Republican notions of simplicity, which he had imported from France and which were much in vogue in those days.

 

There is, however, one feature of his character I cannot understand. He had been residing in Cincinnati on Fifth Street from 1798 till 1807. His eldest child was but nine years of age and he had five younger. He bought a tract of 700 acres of land in the then wilderness of Adams County and moved there, where he resided till 1815, or about that time. Why he should want to take his wife and young children into this wilderness, when he had a life position, which required him to discharge his duties in the large cities, seems strange

 

Judge Campbell, one of his successors, when appointed, resided in County but moved to Columbus where he was required to hold court. On the other hand, Judge Byrd, after having occupied his office for four years, removed to the country and continued to reside there for the remaining twenty-one years for which he held the office of Judge. At Buckeye Station, he could see all the steamboats or craft which passed up and down the river and could take boats to Cincinnati or points up the river. Being a Virginian he loved the country, as the English, their ancestors do, and have always done. At that day, few, if any, Virginian gentlemen would live in cities or towns, who could live in the country.

 

Why he removed to West Union in 1815, we cannot conjecture, unless on account of the death of his wife, he desired to see more of society. He resided in Chillicothe for one year, but did not seem to like that place and returned to West Union. In traveling from his home to hold his courts, he went from West Union through Dunbarton, Locust Grove and Bainbridge to Chillicothe. Sinking Springs was on his route, and hav-

 

532 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

ing tasted the water there, he became satisfied there were some wonderful qualities in it, though it was not considered peculiar before, nor has anyone since Judge Byrd's time regarded it as anything extraordinary. He however, had the water brought to him at West Union for some time and finally purchased the property on which the spring is located, built a home there, which was an extraordinary one for his clay, and resided there until his death.

 

The home is still standing and till lately was occupied by his grandson, William Otway Byrd. The neighborhood of Sinking Springs was, in 1825, much more remote from haunts of men than Buckeye station and why Judge Byrd, who had been reared in the most elegant society, and in his youth and young manhood had moved in the best circles of Virginia and in the city of Philadelphia, then the metropolis of the United States, who had moved in the best society in Cincinnati, should want to seclude hmself and family in the wilds of Highland County, seems unaccountable.

 

His childish and youthful ideas of religion were derived from two sources, that of his father and mother who were attached to the Episcopal Church, and from his uncle, Mr. Powell, of Philadelphia, who was a Quaker.

 

It seemed the Quaker ideas predominated with him, and at the time he wrote his will he appeared to think the Shakers had the true ideas of religion.

 

None of his decisions have been reported. McLean's Reports do not begin until 1829, the year after his death, and no reports on his circuit were published during this time.

 

He sat in the celebrated case of Jackson vs. Clark, 1st Peters:, page 666, when it was tried in Columbus, Ohio, in July, 1826, and the decision of the Circuit Court was affirmed in the Supreme Court.

 

The generation which knew Judge Byrd personally and that which followed him has passed away and thus the avenues to a knowledge of the character are closed. Had any of his decisions been reported, or had we any of his writings, or were there extant any of the books he had written, we could judge of him is very meagre but as it is, our judgment of him is very and narrow. Tradition tells us that he was learned in the law and had the training of a complete and thorough education. He was evidently a good judge, or we should have heard to the contrary. He must have had a large capacity for business, or Robert Morris would never have entrusted him with an important mission on his own private business in Kentucky. President John Adams had a good opinion of him and his abilities or he would not have appointed him Secretary of the Northwest Territory. President Thomas Jefferson must have had a good opinion of him or he would not have made him United States Judge.

 

Stephen Wilson Compton

 

was born September 25, 1800, in Harrison County, Kentucky. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Harper) Compton. His parents emigrated from Virginia in 1790. His mother's (Elizabeth Harper) father was the original proprietor of Harper's Ferry in Jefferson County Virginia. Samuel Compton settled in Adams County where Dunkinville now stands in about 1806. When old enough to be apprenticed, he was

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 533

 

indentured to William Roff; of West Union, to learn the saddler's trade and served out his indenture. At the end of his apprenticeship, he traveled about and worked at different places, including Newport, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, which then had a population of only 20,000 people. When in Cincinnati, he worked on Main Street when there was only one building on it, on the west side of the street between Fourth and Fifth Streets, the old Presbyterian Church.

 

He married Harriet Donalson at Manchester in 1826 and settled that in town. He engaged in the saddler's business there in all its branches and carried it on there until 1844. He was a rapid and expert workman is in his business. Owing to the sparsely settled condition of the country, he sometimes made more work than he sold, and then he would travel about and dispose of it by barter, trading with the merchants and taking their goods in exchange for his work, as much of the business of that time was transacted in that way, owing to the scarcity of money.

 

In 1844 he bought a farm near Winchester and removed to it and remained there until 1857 when he removed to the vicinity of Hillsboro. He resided in Highland County until 1860 when he removed to a small farm in Harveysburg, Warren County, Ohio. He had seven children, all of whom lived to maturity. His oldest son was named Israel Donalson, after his wife's father. He entered the service of his country on the fourteenth of August, 1862, in the 79th O. V. I. as First Lieutenant of Co. H, at the age of 33. He died at Gallatin, Tennessee, December 31, 1862.

 

His daughter, Ann F., married William Crissman and lives near Eckmansville, Ohio.

 

Samuel W. lives at Fayette, Fulton County, Ohio. He enlisted at the age of 28, on the nineteenth of April, 1861, in Co. F, 2d O. V. I., for three months' service, and was mustered out June 19, 1861. On the same day he enlisted for three years in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., and served until the first day of July, 1864.

 

A daughter, Mary J., unmarried, lives at Stout's P. O., Ohio.

 

Another daughter, Carrie, married J. N. Patton, and lived in Washington D. C. She died some three years ago.

 

A son, Joseph William, now a clerk in the Postoffice Department in Washington, D. C., enlisted in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., for three months' service, on June 19, 1861, at the age of twenty-one. He was mustered on July 11, 1864.

 

The youngest son, John Donalson Compton, who is Deputy United States Marshal at Covington, Kentucky, living at Dayton, Kentucky, enlisted in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., January 28, 1861, for three years and was transferred to Co. H, 23rd O. V. I., July i, 1864. In July, 1864, the 12th O. V. I. was consolidated with the 23rd O. V. I. and the new organization called the 23rd O. V. I. He was discharged from this service August 8, 1865. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Compton's four sons all served in the army in the Civil War.

 

In 1866, he sold his farm in Warren County and removed to Stout's P. O. in Adams County, and engaged in the grocery business. He was postmaster and resided there until his death in 1882, at the age of eighty-two He is buried at Manchester, Ohio. His widow survived him until 1893, when she died at the age of eighty.

 

534 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

He always tok an active interest in politics, but never sought or held any public office with the single exception of school trustee. He felt a great interest in education, desiring to provide the advantages which were denied him in his childhood. He had no school education but was able to keep his accounts and correspondence very creditably. He was first a Whig and afterward a Republican when the latter party was formed. He was very loyal during the war and had no toleration for those who were not. He was anxious that all his sons should serve their country and while he could not go in the service himself, he did all he could to promote the comfort of those in the field and to aid and encourage them in their services. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and lived up to all that implies. He was a man of strict integrity, honorable in all his dealings and in his intercourse with his fellow men. He had the respect and good will of the entire community in which he resided. He was a useful citizen and his life's work is best exemplified in his sons and daughters, who are all honorable and useful members in the community.

 

John Campbell.

 

The earliest ancestor of which we have any account was Duncan Campbell, of Argyleshire, Scotland. He married Mary McCoy in 1612 and removed to Londonerry in Ireland the same year. He had a son John Campbell, who married in 1655, Grace Hay, daughter of Patrick Hay, Esq., of Londonderry. They had three sons, one of whom was Robert, born in 1665, and who, with his sons, John, Hugh and Charles Campbell, emigrated to Virginia in 1696, and settled in that part of Orange County afterward incorporated in Augusta. The son, Charles Campbell, was born in 1704, and died in 1778. In. 1739, he was married to Mary Trotter. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was the historian of Virginia. His son, William, born in 1754, and died in 1822, was a soldier of the Revolution, and as such had a distinguished record as a General at King's Mountain and elsewhere. He married Elizabeth Willson, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, a member of the distinguished Willson family. They had eleven children. Their son, Charles, was born December 28, 1779, and died September 26, 1871. He was married September 20, 1803, to Elizabeth Tweed, in Adams County. He had five sons. The third was John Campbell, of Ironton, born January 14, 1808, in Adams County, Ohio.

 

The Willson family intermarried with the Campbell family, who also have a distinguished record. Colonel John Willson, born in 1702, and died in 1773, settled near Fairfield, then Augusta County, Virginia, was a Burgess of that county for twenty-seven years. He once his held court where Pittsburgh now stands. His wife, Martha, died in 1755, and both are buried in the Glebe burying ground in Augusta County, Virginia. His brother, Thomas, had a daughter, Rebekah, born in 1728, and died in 1820, who married James Willson, born in 1715 and died in 1809. This James Willson, with his brother, Moses, was found when a very young boy in an open boat in the Atlantic Ocean. They were accompanied by their mother and a maid. The mother died at the moment of rescue and the maid a few moments after. The captain of the rescuing ship brought the boys to this country where they grew up, married and spent their lives.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 535

 

James Willson had a large family of sons and daughters. His daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1758 and died February 27, 1832, married William Campbell, the Revolutionary General. Her brother, Moses, was father of Dr. William B. Willson, of Adams County, who has a sketch in this work, and also of James S. Willson, the father of Dr. William Finley Willson, who also has a sketch herein. Judge John W. Campbell, United States District Judge, who has a sketch herein was a son of the Revolutionary General, William Campbell, who removed from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790 and from Kentucky to Adams County, Ohio, in 1798. Our subject was a resident of Adams County from his birth until 1857, when that portion of Adams County where he resided was placed in Brown County. He was reared on his father's farm and received what education he could obtain at home. He clerked for his uncle, William Humphreys, who had married his father's sister, Flizabeth, at Ripley, in 1828. After learning enough of the business, as he thought, he induced his uncle to go in partnership with him and they started a store at Russellville, Ohio. Here John was popular with every one and would have succeeded, but the place and business was too slow for him. He had $600 up and he sold out the business and put his capital in the steamboat, “Banner," of which he became clerk. The boat was in the Cincinnati and Pittsburg trade. After his second trip on the steamboat, he made up his mind that was not his vocation. While coming down the river on this trip he met Robert Hamilton, the pioneer master of the Hanging Rock iron region and made inquiries for any opening in the iron business. Mr. Hamilton invited him to get off at Hanging Rock. He left the boat and accepted a clerkship at Pine Grove Furnace. This was in 1832. Mr. Campbell was anxious to stand well in the estimation of Mr. Hamilton. Shortly before his steamboat venture, he had met in Ripley, a young lady named Elizabeth Clarke, niece of Mr. Hamilton's wife. He fell in love with her. She made her home with her aunt, Mrs. Hamilton, who was a daughter of John Ellison and a sister of William Ellison, of Manchester. Naturally, Mr. Campbell would accept an invitation to go to Pine Grove Furnace. He was ambitious to succeed as a business man and he believed he could do so under Mr. Hamilton's teaching. He wanted to marry his niece, who stood to Mr. Hamilton as a daughter. He succeeded in both purposes. The next year, 1833, he took an interest with Mr. Hamilton in building the Hanging Rock Forge at Hanging Rock. The same year he and Andrew Ellison built Lawrence Furnace for the firm of J. Riggs & Co. This year was formed the celebrated partnership of Campbel1, Ellison & Company, of which he was a partner and which continued in existence until 1865. In 1834, he and Robert Hamilton built Mt. Vernon Furnace and he moved there and became its manager. The furnace was the property of Campbell, Fllison & Company for thirty years and largely the source of the fortunes made by the members of that firm. It was at this furnace Mr. Campbell made the change of placing the boilers and hot blast over the tunnel head, thus utilizing the waste gases, a method after generally adopted by all the charcoal furnaces of on that region and in the United States.

 

On March 16, 1837, he was married at Pine Grove Furnace to Miss Elizabeth Caldwell Clarke, already mentioned,1and they began housekeeping at Mt. Vernon Furnace.

 

536 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

In 1837, he had an interest at Vesuvius Furnace, and he induced the other owners to test the hot blast principle. This was the first hot blast put up in this country and though it met with srong opposition through expectation of bad results, the experiment proved satisfactory in producing an increased quantity of iron for foundry use. Mr. Campbell was always among the first to project any useful enterprise. He was 1argely concerned in the first geological survey of the State, and by reason of his study of local geology he purchased lands extensively in the Hanging Rock region with a view to future development of their mineral resources.

 

In 1845, he left Mt. Vernon Furnace and took up his residence at Hanging Rock.

 

In 1846, he and Mr. John Peters built Greenup Furnace in built. Kentucky, and in 1846, Olive Furnace, Ohio, to which was added Buckhorn. In 1847, he built Gallia Furnace, and in 1848, he and others built Keystone Furnace. In 1849, while residing at Hanging Rock, he evolved the project of establishing the town of Ironton. The Ohio Iron and Coal Company, composed of twenty-four persons, was formed. Twenty of the organizers were iron masters. He became the president of the company and was its soul, so far as a corporation is capable of having a soul. The company purchased forty acres of land, three miles above Hanging Rock, and undertook to form a model town and succeeded as near as anyone has ever succeeded. Mr. Campbell gave the town its name, "Ironton." He was one of the projectors of the Iron Railroad which was designed to make the furnace, north and east of Ironton, tributary to the town. In 1850, Mr. Campbell moved to the city of Ironton which thereafter was his home during his lifetime. The same year he purchased La Grange Furnace. The same year was built in Ironton the foundry of the firm of Campbell, Ellison & Co. In 1851, Mr. Campbell became one of the founders of the Iron Bank of Ironton, afterwards changed to the First National Bank. In 1852, he was one of the organizers of the Ironton. Rolling Mill, afterward the New York and Ohio Iron and Steal Works. The same year he took half the stock in the Olive Furnace and Puma Machine Shops. The same year he purchased the celebrated Hecla Cold Blast Furnace. In 1853, he became one of the largest stockholders in the Kentucky Iron, Coal and Manufacturing Company, which founded the town of Ashland, Kentucky.

 

In 1854, he, D. T. Woodrow and others, built Howard Furnace. The same year he built a large establishment to manufacture an iron a beam plow, and also built Madison Furnace. This year he took stock in the Star Nail Mill, one of the largest in the country and now known as the Belfont Iron Works. In 1855, he, with V. B. Horton, of Pomeroy, organized a company and built a telegraph line from Pomeroy to Cincinnati. In 1866 he organized the Union Iron Company, owners of Washinton and Monroe Furnaces, and was its president for many years. From his majority he had been opposed to the institution of slavery, and was an Abolitionist. His opinions on the subject of slavery were no doubt largely formed by his associations with Rev. John Rankin and men of his views, but as he grew older, his views against the institution intensified. His home was one of the stations on the Underground Railroad, and there the poor, black fugitive was sure of a friendly meeting and all needed assistance.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 537

 

Mr. Campbell acted with the Whig party, and after its death, with the Republican party. He was a delegate to the State Republican Convention in 1855. He never sought or held any public office until 1862 when, in recognition of his great and valuable services to the Republican party and to his country, President Lincoln appointed him the first Internal Revenue Collector for the Eleventh Collection District of Ohio and he served in the office with great fidelity and honor until October 1, 1866, when he was succeeded by Gen. B. F. Coates.

 

In 1872, Mr. Campbell reached the height of his fortune. He was then worth over a million of dollars. Up to that time he had invested in and promoted almost every enterprise projected inside the circle of his acquaintance. He had not done this recklessly or extravagantly, but from natural disposition to promote prosperity.

 

In 1873, the Cooke panic overtook the country and from that time until 1883, there was a steady contraction in every enterprise with which Mr. Campbell was connected. In 1880, it was largely through the influence and work of John Campbell that the Scioto Valley Railroad was completed to Ironton and eastward.

 

In 1883, the Union Iron Company failed. For years Mr. Campbell had sustained it, and for some time had been endorsing for it personally, hoping to sustain its waning fortunes, but its failure was too much for him and he was compelled to make an assignment in his old age, but he went down with that grand and noble courage, which in his youth and middle life had caused him to go into every business venture. No one who knew Mr. Campbell ever thought any less of him on account of his failure, but he had the sympathy and good will of every man who had known him in a business way. His changed financial condition never affected the esteem in which he had been held or lessened, .in any way, the great influence he held in the community. He survived until August 30, 1891, but owing to the condition of business affairs and his advanced age was never able to retrieve his lost fortunes.

 

In the case of Mr. Campbell, it is most difficult to make a just and true character estimate which will ,truly display the man. He had so many excellent qualities that there is danger that all may not be mentioned. He had a wonderful faculty of looking forward and determining in advance what business enterprises would succeed. The writer does not know a proper term by which to designate this feature of his character. He could and would predict the success of a proposed business venture when all others were incredulous. He lived to see his business judgement verified. He never hesitated to act on his judgment of the future, and personally, he was never mistaken or wrong. He had a wonderful influence over his fellow men. He could bring them to his views and induce them to carry them out. He was never haughty or proud he was approachable to all. He took a personal interest in all men of his acquaintance who tried to do anything for themselves. He was always the friend of the unfortunate. The colored people all loved him. In the slavery days no fugitive ever called on him in vain. He was sure of aid, relief and comfort in Mr. Campbell. His judgment was incisive. He examined a matter carefully and made up his mind, and when once made up, he was immovable. He possessed a most equable temper. He never got impatient or angry. Under the most trying circumstances, he

 

538 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

was calm and gentle. He was, in his time, by far, the most conspicuous figure in the Hanging Rock iron region. He was identified with every public enterprise in Ironton from the foundation of the town. Many of the important industries in Ironton owe their success to his excellent judgment. No one went to him to enlist him in a worthy public enterprise who did not succeed. No meritorious appeal for aid was ever made to him and refused by him. He was always ready to aid any deserving man or association of men, either in business or charity. The universal sorrow expressed on the occasion of his death and funeral show how he stood among his fellow citizens. There was a public meeting called to prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the community. The bar of the county met and passed resolutions, though he was never a member of that body. The city council also met and made public record of its sentiments. He had the confidence, the respect, the esteem and love of the entire community. The attendance at his funeral of itself demonstrated the regard in which he was held. No greater funeral was ever held in Ironton. The city police were mounted, the city and county officials and the bar attended as bodies. All the church bells were tolled and all business suspended. It was well that the whole city mourned, because to John Campbell, more than to anyone else, was it indebted for its existence and its prosperity. In the space allotted in this book, justice cannot be done to the career of Mr. Campbell. We have given and can give but a partial view of his career and character. His wife survived him. They had five children, three daughters and two sons, who grew to maturity. His eldest daughter was Mrs. Henry S. Neal, who died before her father. His second daughter is Mrs. William Means, of Yellow Springs, Ohio. His daughters Emma and Clara are both now deceased. His son, Albert, resides at Washington, D. C., and his son, Charles at Hecla Furnace. His wife died November 19, 1893.

 

Col. Daniel Collier

 

was one of the pioneer of Adams County who came to the Northwest Territory in 1794. He was born in January, 1764, and died on his magnificent farm on Ohio Brush Creek, where he is buried, April 17, 1845. His wife was Elizabeth Prather, born December 9, 1768, and who died August 4, 1835. She bore him twelve children: James, John, Thomas, Daniel, Joseph, Richard, Isaac, Sarah, Elizabeth, Katharine, Luther and Harriet. The latter was born September 17, 1815, and married Andrew Ellison, a son of James Ellison, a native of Ireland.

 

Col. Collier selected the site of his future home on Ohio Brush Creek while with Nathaniel Massie and others surveying in that region. The lands five hundred acres, were purchased from Gen. William Lytle, who held military warrants of Jonathan Tinsley, John Shaver and George Shaver, Virginia Line, Continental Establishment. The site of the homestead is on an elevated terrace some forty acres in extent formed in the geological, past by a drift of conglomerate in Ohio Brush Creek. The general level of this terrace is about twenty-five feet above the bottom lands along the creek, and from it a fine view of the valley presents itself for miles up and down the stream. At the base of this drift several fine springs of most excellent water wells forth. The one across the public road opposite the Collier residence afforded the water supply for the old still-house

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 539

 

owned by Col. Collier. There was a fine young poplar sapling near it which young Tom Collier climbed and bent over while the Colonel and his wife were temporarily absent from home. On his return Thomas received a "grubbing" for the supposed destruction of the young poplar. That sapling is now a most beautiful and stately tree.

 

Col. Collier was prominently identified with public affairs of Adams County in his time. He was commissioned Colonel of the Third Regiment First Brigade, Second Division, of Militia by Governor Samuel Huntington, December 29, 1809. He served in the War of 1812 and was in the engagement at Sandusky. On May 2, 1814, Acting Governor s Thomas Looker, endorsed Colonel Collier's resignation as follows : "The resignation of this commission accepted on account of long service, advanced age and bodily infirmities."

 

Among Col. Collier's old tax receipts in possession of one of his grandchildren, is one dated September 8, 1801, for one hundred and twenty-five cents, his land tax for that year. Subscribed by John Lodwick, Collector for Adams County. In 1811, the tax on the same land was nine dollars as shown by the receipt of Thomas Massie, Collector.

 

Rev. James Caskey.

 

Rev. James Caskey was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, March 8, 1807. His father, James Caskey, was born in County Derry, Ireland, February 21, 1773. He married, in Ireland, Peggy Anderson, born February 21, 1770, emigrated to this country and located in Rockbridge

County, Virginia, about 1787. He re-immigrated to Ohio and located at Cherry Fork in 1811, where he spent the remainder of his life. Our subject attended Miami University and graduated there in 1831. He studied theology part of the time at the Associate Reformed Theological Seminary Oxford, Ohio, and afterwards at the seminary of the same church at Alleghany. April 30, 1835, he was licensed to preach by the First Presbytery of Ohio and was ordained and installed as pastor of the West Union and Russellville churches the same year. During his residence in West Union, he was quite intimate with the Rev. Dyer Burgess, and held the same views as did the latter in regard to slavery. He resigned the church at West Union in 1838 and moved to Ripley, in Brown County. He resigned the church at Russellville in 1831. He was the pastor of the United Presbyterian Church in Ripley, Ohio, from 1838 until his death, February 9, 1854. He was married May 21, 1839, to Isabel Wallas, a daughter of Judge Wallas, of Urbana, Ohio, and left two children, Mrs. Margaret C. Roberts, of ma Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass., and James D. Caskey, of No. 2713 Twenty-second St., Minneapolis, Minn.

 

He was a very fine preacher, preparing his sermons with care. For years he was Clerk of the Presbytery, and his records were always prepared and recorded in a very neat style. He was a pleasant speaker. His style of sermonizing was attractive; his language was comprehensive and his reasoning always logical. As a man, he was exemplary and he commanded the respect of all who knew him. He was but forty-seven years of age when he died and his career of usefulness was cut short by the "Last Enemy." His ashes repose in the old cemetery at Ripley.

 

540 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

Leonard Cole

 

was born in Harford County, Maryland,, in 1788, the son of Ephriam Cole and his wife, Ada Mitchell. In 1793, his parents moved to Mason County, Kentucky, and in 1794 they joined Massie's colony at Manchester, and in 1795 his father located just south of West Union and built a home near Cole's Spring. The house is gone and the spring has been forgotten, but both were on the slope of the hill to the east of the Collings graveyard, looking down into the valley of Beasley's York. Here Leonard Cole grew to manhood. He was one of the early schoolteachers in West Union and instituted the reprehensible custom of flogging every boy in school if any mischief was done by a single one. He was a firm believer in King Solomon's rule as to the use of the rod and applied it to both boys and girls. As to the custom of flogging all the boys any mischief was done, that was kept up by the successors of Mr. Cole and the writer suffered from that custom with the other boys of his time. Mr. Cole always thought a boy never got a lick amiss, and if he did not deserve it at the time he received it, he would very soon afterward and he might as well have it in advance. Aside from his whipping proclivities, Mr. Cole was a very good teacher. He was a follower and disciple of Gen. Jackson. He was a Justice of the Peace of Tiffin Township from 1829 to 1832. He was a candidate for Auditor in 1825 and received 478 votes. Ralph McClure received 130 and Joseph Riggs 715, and was elected. In 1827, he was again a candidate for Auditor, and received votes to 876 for Joseph Riggs. He persevered in seeking the Auditor’s office, and when Joseph Riggs resigned in 1-831, he was appointed and served five months, October 3, 1831, to March 6, 1832. He was elected and served from March 6, 1832. to March 4, 1844, twelve years.

 

Mr. Cole was first married to a Miss McDonald, by whom he was the father of a large family of children. When first married, he was emphatically an ungodly man. He was opposed to his wife attending church, and she went secretly. Mr. Cole was at this time a fighting and drinking man. At one time he was indicted for seven assaults an batteries, all charged in one week. He got so dreadful that his wife could not live with him and left him. He did then what all prodigals did, shipped on a flatboat to New Orleans. He came back by steamboat and when the latter was a short distance below Memphis, in the night, it ran into a snag and sunk immediately. Cole swam to a snag. In the darkness, he feared he would not be discovered and would be left there to die. He vowed to the Lord that if rescued, he would devote the remainder of his life to His service. Soon after he was rescued, Mr. Cole went home hunted up his wife, and was reconciled to her. He joined the Methodist Church and lived a member of it the remainder of his life. He maintained family worship, but would interrupt it to drive the pigs out of the yard, to drive the dog out of the kitchen, to serve a neighbor with milk or for any other necessary work, and many tales are told of this peculiarity of his. When James Moore was courting Caroline Killen, he did it at the house of Leonard Cole, as he was forbidden at William Killen’s home. On one occasion, when Caroline Killen and James Moore were at Mr. Cole's, they were present during family worship in the evening. Mr. Cole prayed for those who were going to bed and for those who were going to sit up—Caroline Killen and James Moore.

 

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Mr. Cole acquired the confidence of the entire community after he joined the Methodist Church, and lived the life of a model citizen. His first wife died in 1838, and in 1839, he married her niece of the same name. There were no children of this marriage. In 1850, he removed to Brookville, Kentucky. where he died in 1857, and where he is buried. Mr. Cole was an intensely earnest man in all he did. When he was a drinking and fighting young man, he went into it with all the force of his nature. When he reformed, his devotion to the church and to good citizenship was as earnest as human effort could make it. He left many descendants, but none of them are known to the writer.

Allaniah Cole.

 

Ephriam Cole, a man of good English descent, married, in 1773, is Sophia Mitchell, of Maryland. It is said of them that as boy and girl they lived on adjoining plantations, on the Susquehanna River, near the Chesapeake Bay.

 

When the accounts of the adventurous conduct of Daniel Boone, in Kentucky, inspired the husband to follow that intrepid hero, the brave young wife was ready to leave a refined home, where her mother, although the proud descendant of the English Kents, had taught her daughters those homely virtues, which fitted the women of those times for the perils and hardships of pioneer life. It is needless to follow this resolute couple through the pathless forests, inhabited by red men, whose savage nature had been justly roused by the white men, who came to steal their lands and drive them from their homes.

 

At Williamsburg, Ky., where they made their home, Mrs. Cole was ever the ruling spirit of the family of three boys and five daughters.

 

In 1800, Allaniah, a fourth son, the subject of this sketch, was born. The remittance from Mrs. Cole's home and her untiring energy kept the family above want, and the girls as well as the boys were, for those times, well educated, but there came a time, shortly after the birth of Allaniah, that the parents felt that better times awaited them in Ohio. They located in West Union, a town settled by persons far above the average schools and churches, the best obtainable, were there and Allaniah did not fail to appreciate his mother's earnest desire to have him take advantage of all that was offered. At that early day, a college education meant a long journey eastward and a greater outlay of money than could be obtained by even the most prosperous. These West Union people determined to surmount the seemingly insurmountable difficulties and when their brightest sons and daughters were ready for a higher education, "Dewey's Grammar School" was awaiting them. This school must have been in advance of the so-called colleges which sprang up in other Ohio towns a little later, for we hear of no one being excluded on account of sex. Allaniah Cole was a student of "Dewey's Grammar School," where he became acquainted with Miss Nancy Steece, one of the girl students, who years after became his wife.

 

After leaving "Dewey's Grammar School," Allaniah's first business venture was the index to his character. Hearing that horses were bringing fabulous prices in New Orleans, he went to Mr. John Sparks, a wealthy citizen of the town, who directed him that he could buy, on time, as many horses as he could drive. Mr. Sparks said : "I'll go on your

 

542 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

paper, Al." It was then determined, and the nineteen-year-old boy was soon started on his long journey, over had roads, sometimes mere bridle paths, with his trusty men driving his fine horses. He arrived in New Orleans in six weeks, long rests having been needed to keep the horses in marketable condition. The venture was successful and Allaniah was soon at home paying every cent due his creditors, besides being able to show Mr. Sparks that his good offices had not met the too frequent ingratitude of beneficiaries. Years after Mr. Cole would speak to his children of Mr. Sparks' great kindness to him, when he had "nothing but his good name." After several similar expeditions south, Allaniah found himself the proud possessor of five thousand ($5,000) dollars. His next venture was at an iron furnace, in Lawrence County, where he learned the business, before he risked his precious, hard-earned five thousand.

 

In the beginning of the year 1828 he made his best and most successful venture, when he married the "Dewey's Grammar School" student, the daughter of Henry and Mary Anne Steece. Henry Steece was a German, who came early in the history of Pennsylvania to develop that iron center of the world. He was what, at the present time, would be called "the chemist of a furnace." When, toward the latter part of past century, marvelous accounts part of the great iron ore deposits, of Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, reached the Pennsylvania "iron men," Mr. Steece soon started with his family, consisting of wife, four sons and five daughters, down the Ohio River in a keel boat, to a landing (now called Manchester) twenty miles from their objective point, Brush Creek. It is recorded that Archie Paul and James Rodgers, afterwards distinguished "iron men," were on the ground to meet them, and that one at least, of the three furnaces—"Old Steam Furnace, Marble Furnace and Brush Creek Furnace"—was already nearly ready for the "Dutchman,” Henry Steece, whose valuable work was to terminate so soon. When Henry Steece's work was finished, his widow, who was already understood and appreciated as a woman of great intellectual and moral force, did not fair of the moral support of her husband's friends. While she in turn repaid their kindness with intelligent help that broadened their homes and kept their children fit companions for her talented boys and girls, whose discipline and education had added to her task of supplying their daily bread. Nancy, the youngest of the girls, was sent to West Union to Dewey's Grammar School, to board in the family of Mr. Armstrong a wealthy merchant. An illustration of the hospitality of pioneer times, as well as the desire of making their academy famous, it may be told that when the mother went to Mrs. Armstrong, to pay her daughter's board, she refused to accept payment, saying, "Nancy is the guest of my daughter. Keep your money."

 

About 1830, Mr. Cole bought the Old Forge, eight miles above Portsmouth, on the Scioto River, where he lived but two or three years, when he went to take the then great charge of Bloom Furnace.

While at Bloom, he was among the first to introduce the "Sunday Reform,” against the judgment of most of the furnace men, who felt sure that stopping the furnace from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday, would give the much dreaded "chill." Few, looking at these old furnaces today, could realize their past importance, the army of workmen, wood-choppers, ore diggers, lime diggers, lime burners, stone-coal miners,

 

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charcoal burners, besides the many employed on the immediate furnace grounds.

 

At Bloom, Mr. and Mrs. Cole, while accumulating what was in those days considered a large fortune, were unconsciously doing missionary work. The schoolhouse, of their building, was also the place of worship, and Mrs. Cole saw to it that the people were not neglectful of the privileges of religious as well as mental training.

 

A curious phase of that age, at the furnaces, was, notwithstanding the houses were of rough logs and the want of which is now considered necessary furnishings, the high style and strict etiquette of living, the table linen was always the finest and cleanest, the silver bright, the china beautiful, the glass clear, knives and forks polished after each meal. It is told of Mr. Cole, that when a young man appeared at his table, on a warm day, without his coat, he rose and waited: "Mrs. Cole always liked the gentlemen to wear their coats here." Needless to say the man put on his coat.

 

Mr. Cole, though not a drinker, kept the friendly glass, to drink with friends, but the arguments of a speaker of the first temperance society—The Washingtonians—convinced him, that total abstinence, on his part, was the only way to reach the many inebriate men of his employ, whom he had vainly tried to help. The evening of that temperance lecture, will be remembered today, if any one is living who witnessed . Mr. Cole's signing the pledge and inviting his men, who were present, to follow his example. Nearly all took the pen and many confirmed drunkards kept their pledge till the end of their lives.

 

In the Spring of 1842, at the urgent request of his wife, Mr. Cole retired from business and removed to West Union, to educate their young family, but in November of the same year, Mrs. Cole was taken ill, and in two weeks Mr. Cole was left with six motherless children.

 

In 1844, the family went to Kentucky, the ideal state of the Cole family. In the fall of the same year Mr. Cole married Miss Louisa Paul, a niece of his first wife. Miss Paul was a beautiful lady, of refinement, good judgment and common sense, who did what she could for the children of her adoption. After years of prosperity in the iron business of Kentucky, Mr. Cole returned to Ohio, on account of failing hea1th, living several years in Portsmouth, before returning to Bloom furnace, where he died in 1866.

 

Rev. John Collins

 

was born in Gloucester County, New Jersey, November 1, 1769. When a boy, the first money he earned was a dollar, and with that he bought a new testament and committed a large portion of it to memory. In his twenty-third year he went to Charleston, South Carolina, by sea and remained a year. In November, 1793, he was married to Sarah Blackman, who survived him. In 1794, he became a Methodist, though he had been reared a Quaker. At the time he joined the Methodist Church he was a major in the militia, but resigned soon after. Directly after this he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Church and he became, noted for his sermons as such. He traveled in west New Jersey, and in 1804 he came to Ohio and settled in Horse Shoe Bottoms, about twenty-five miles above Cincinnati, in Brown County. Before coming

 

544 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

to Ohio, he visited the Northwest Territory; in 1802, and then removed his family the next year. He continued to reside on his farm in Brown County until a few months before his decease, when he removed to Maysville, Kentucky, and resided with his second son, George Collins.

 

In 1804, he preached the first Methodist sermon ever preached in Cincinnati, to twelve persons, in an upper room. This was in the house of Mrs. Dennison. His text was, "Go ye unto all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, etc." His congregation were melted to tears by the pathos of his sermon and one person was converted and afterward became a local preacher. A short time after he formed a class of eight persons, of whom Mr. Gibson was the leader, and he was the only one of them whose circumstances admitted of his entertaining the minister. In 1807, Mr. Collins became a traveling minister, and was appointed to the Miami Circuit with the Rev. B. Lakin as a colleague. His wife prayed for his success during his absence at the time he had appointed for public worship at each appointment.

 

In 1808, Mr. Collins traveled the Scioto Circuit, and in 1809 and 1810, the Deer Creek Circuit, then the Union Circuit, embracing Dayton and Lebanon. At this time, 1811, there was no Methodist preaching in Dayton, and Mr. Collins was the first one to preach there. He organized a church there and caused an edifice for public worship to be built. This was the beginning of Methodism in Dayton. In Lebanon, he had a great revival and numbers were taken into the church. In 1812, he retired from the ministry and remained on his farm until 1819 when he was appointed Presiding Elder in the Scioto Circuit and continued in that office during 1820. It was during his eldership that Chillicothe had a great revival of religion. At one time, while preaching in Chillicothe, he preached with such impassioned eloquence that the congregation remained one hour after the benediction, and a Presbyterian, present, said the sermon was the most eloquent he had ever heard.

 

In 1821 and 1822, he was stationed in Cincinnati; in 1823 in Chillicothe, and in 1824, in Cincinnati. From 1825 to 1828 he was in the Miami District ; from 1828 to 1831. he was in the Scioto District. In 1832 and 1833, he was in the New Richmond District. In 1834, he was stationed in Cincinnati, and in 1834 and 1835 he traveled the White Oak Circuit, and this was his last work as an active minister. In 1836, he was superannuated, but visited about and preached as his strength permitted

 

He died on the twenty--first of August, 1845, in his seventy-sixth year, in the city of Maysville, Kentucky.

 

During the time of his activity in the ministry, the Methodist Church had not a more successful minister than Mr. Collins. He was unassuming and gentlemanly in his manners, instructive and religious in his conversation, and evinced so much interest in the spiritual welfare of his hearers that all who became acquainted with him, loved him. He was a great reader and thorough in his thinking. His biblical knowledge was complete and always available. He had an extensive knowledge of history and literature. His perceptions were quick and accurate, and his power of discrimination perfect. His mind was well balanced and his statements were deliberate and never necessary to recall or quality. He was a most perfect judge of human nature. There was never a suspicion of affection in his nature. He was always earnest, always sym-

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 545

 

pathetic, and the tones of his voice were captivating. He never preached without shedding tears and nearly always he caused weeping in his congregation. Nothing he said ever seemed premeditated. He always seemed to be full and overflowing with his subject. Above all, he was pathetic. When he described a situation or condition, his hearers felt it, and they sympathized with the subject just as he did. He did not teach the terrors of the law, but the love of the Gospel. His social intercourse with his fellow men was such, so gentle, so kind, so full of interest for those he met, so full of spiritual sympathy that it is said he preached more out of the pulpit than in it. His friends loved him and ed to be in his presence. Moreover, when he secured the affection of anyone, he never lost it. His personal appearance always made a favorable impression. His dress was always neat, always plain and Quaker like. Solemnity and benevolence were blended in his countenance which was always pleasing and impressive. His eyes at once tracked those who met him. His voice was full of melody, so full that, often when reading the opening hymn in his expressive manner, tears would come into the eyes of his hearers.

 

A daughter of his was the wife of Nathaniel Massie, Jr. She is buried beside her husband at the old South Cemetery at West Union.

 

James Mitchell Cole

 

was born August 26, 1789, in Harford County, Maryland. His father was Ephriam Cole, and his mother was Ada Mitchell, born in the same county, near Havre-de-gras. His grandparents on both sides were born in the same county. He came to Kentucky with his parents in 1793 where they located in Mason County. In 1794, they removed and located near West Union, Ohio, on the second farm near to the right on the old Manchester road, at one time occupied by Mr. Harsha. He had three brothers, Fphriam, Leonard and Allaniah, and three sisters, Ada, Zilla and Elizabeth. He was married in 1809 to Nancy Collings, daughter of James and Christian Collings, who was born in Manchester, March 16, 1794, in the Stockade. Her parents were also from Harford County, Maryland. James M. Cole was a soldier in the War of 1812, and obtained land warrant for 160 acres for military services. After his return from the war, he resided on a farm near West Union. From 1830 to 1833, he was one of the County Commissioners of Adams County. From 1833 to 1837, he was Sheriff of the county. In 1839, he removed to a farm opposite Concord, Kentucky, and resided there until 1850. He then purchased a farm in Lewis County, Kentucky, some miles below Vanceburg and lived there until 186o, in which year he died on the sixteenth of August. He was buried in the Collings cemetery, south of West Union. His wife died in March, 1861, and is buried by his side.

 

In politics he was a strong Democrat all his life, a follower of Andrew Jackson, and he and his wife were both earnestly and enthusiastically attached to the Methodist Church. He was of more than the average intelligence and had a very high sense of integrity. He possessed great wit and humor and fine conversational powers. His wife was a woman of extraordinary force and grasp of Subjects. She possessed the most wonderful fortitude and tenacity of purpose, and was never known to

 

546 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

lose her self poise. They reared z large family of sons and daughters. The sons have largely followed professional pursuits and have distinguished themselves. As most of them are sketched in this work, they are not further noticed here.

 

George Campbell

 

was born in New Jersey, January 3, 1778. His father was in the Revolutionary War and was wounded at the battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776, and died of the same in 1778. After his father's death, his mother moved to Kentucky and married a man named Peterson. In 1792, George, who could not get along with his step-father, ran away and went to the Stockade in Manchester. The settlers had him drive out their cows in the morning and drive them in at evening. In the Fall of 1793, on one occasion, when George was out in the forest to bring the cows in he saw a party of Indians who discovered him at the same time. They were lurking about to take a prisoner or a scalp. George at once setup a series of Indian yells and started for the Stockade. The Indian yell was as well understood by the cattle as by the settlers. The cattle took fright and went for the Stockade on the run. The boy also did the running he ever did in best his life, yelling in Indian style all the time, and he could imitate the Indian yell most perfectly. The result was as George expected. The settlers rushed out of the Stockade fully armed and met young Campbell. The Indians, unable to overtake George, and seeing the settlers, fled. Evidently they wanted to capture the boy as they made no attempts to shoot or tomahawk him. George grew to manhood in Adams County and spent his life there. He married Katherine Noland on September 15, 1803, and in 1804 settled in Scott Township, where he died October 30, 1854.

 

George W. Darlinton

 

was born November 18, 1793, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and died November 8, 1881, in Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, while on a temporary visit there and had therefore, reached the grand old age of eighty-eight years. He belonged to a family of remarkable longevity. His father, General Joseph Darlinton, died at eighty-seven, one brother at ninety, another at ninety-one, and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Van Deman, of Delaware, at eighty-six years. He was the second son of Gen. Joseph Darlinton. Not long after his birth, his father removed to the Northwest Territory, settling in 1797 near the present town of West Union. Here George remained with his father until he grew to manhood, gathering such an education as could be found in that pioneer life, and being thoroughly drilled in the strictest tenets of the Presbyterian faith, which never departed from him, for he lived and died in it. The General was never so busy in his struggles for livelihood, or in the discharge of his important official duties, but he could give his personal attention to the instruction of his children in all moral and religious doctrine. He was a firm believer in the shorter catechism, the Westminster confession and the Decalogue, particularly the fourth commandment. Many are the stories told,---doubtless problematical,—of the manner he required the observance of the Sabbath, such as fastening the bees in their hives or tying the dog's mouth on that day, but George thoroughly remembered his drilling on that subject, and all through his life he "remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Through the superior abilities of the

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 547

 

father, supplemented by the instructions of a mother of more than ordinary wisdom and literary tastes, he enjoyed many more than the usual educational opportunities for that day. He was inclined to mercantile pursuits, and about 1825 located at Newark, Ohio, and formed a partnership with his brother Carey in the dry-goods business. They were both gentlemen of fine personal appearance, of stately deportment, and of exemplary habits. During the life of this partnership, George secured a contract and constructed a portion of the Ohio Canal through Licking County. In a few years they dissolved partnership, Carey ultimately locating in Montana Territory, and George settling in Greenup County, Kentucky, where he continued to reside until his death. He enjoyed the utmost confidence of the people of Eastern Kentucky, serving for many years as Sheriff and Collector of Revenues of Greenup County. He was also engaged in the manufacture of iron, and at one time constructed an extensive manufactory for extracting oil from coal, but the great discovery of petroleum in the oil fields of Pennsylvania and elsewhere closed his new enterprise at a heavy loss.

 

At an early day, he was the owner of a few slaves, but an enlightened conscience told him it was not right to hold human flesh in bondage, so he took them across the Ohio River and purchased them a comfortable home, leaving them with the warning "that if they did not behave themselves, he would take them hack to Kentucky."

 

He was a most uncompromising supporter of the administration of President Lincoln in the war for the preservation of the Union. He endorsed the proclamation freeing the slaves, not only as a war measure but because he thought it was right, and as an old Henry Clay, Whig, he believed in the highest protection to American industries.

 

During his life of eighty-eight years, he saw the pioneers sweeping down the western slope of the Alleghanies, spread themselves over the whole of the Northwestern Territory, converting it all into new states in the Confederacy, and extending westward across the Mississippi to the extremist verge of the continent. The marvelous growth of the country in agriculture, in manufactories and in the sciences, as also in the improvement in the condition of all classes from the inventions and discoveries in his day, was the subject of frequent comment by him. He was universally beloved by old and young, and no one ever received intentional unkindness from "Uncle George." Many a young man was indebted to him for his unostentatious aid in some critical time in his life. He was a genial gentleman of the "old school," a good conversationalist, a pleasant companion, a warm friend and an honest man. There was a quiet humor about him that was at times refreshing. He was a man of most abstemious habits, so that he enjoyed exceptional health to the last. He believed in temperance in eating as well as in drinking. The strength of a constitution built up by a life of such temperance was well illustrated towards the close of his life. About six years before his death, he had the misfortune to fall and break his leg, but such was the healthfulness of his constitution that he was out walking with a cane in less than six weeks after the accident. He accumulated a handsome property, which he divided with most rigid impartiality among his relatives. He was never married. He died in the communion of the Presbyterian Church and was buried in the cemetery at West Union, where his father, mother and other relatives sleep.

 

548 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

Hyman Israel De Bruin,

 

son of Israel Hyman and Judith DeBruin, was born December 245, 1796, in Amsterdam, Holland. His parents were Hebrews and, by tradition of the tribe of Levi. They gave this, their eldest child, a thorough education, of which he made good use, and which proved a valuable legacy to him in a long and active business life.

 

His parents died when he was young. After attaining his majority he had a great desire to come to America, but with limited mean could not see his way clear. Just then he found a good friend coming to this country, who offered to advance his passage. He accepted the passage money, as a loan, and in October, 1819, he sailed for America. After a long and stormy voyage he landed at Philadelphia early in January 1820. His and his friend's destination being farther west, they made the trip over the mountains on foot and in an emigrant wagon, which they had procured that they might ride when tired of walking. The trip was a hard one, but they reached Pittsburg after many days. There they took passage on an Ohio River boat and after a tedious trip landed at Maysville.

 

A stranger in a strange land, Mr. DeBruin, with business intent, at once started out to find employment, and was soon rewarded in securing a position as bookkeeper in a large commission house owned by Andrew Mr. January, who accepted the obligation, which had been assumed by this kind friend from Amsterdam.

 

Mr. DeBruin had the contract made in legal form and entered upon his work, in his characteristic and systematic way. He was a fine man and a model clerk. He remained with his new employer several years until he had cancelled the obligation for his passage and save enough to go into business for himself. The friendship thus formed with Mr. January was never broken.

 

On March 14, 1832, Mr. DeBruin was married to Miss Rebecca Easton, daughter of Rev. Edward and Mary Faston, of Linconchire, England, who came to this country in 1820.

 

In July, 1833 when the terrible epidemic of cholera was raging in Maysville, Mr. DeBruin removed his family to Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, where he continued in the mercantile business until about 1854. Having gathered together quite a little sum, about sixty or seventy thousand dollars, he retired from business and lived a quiet life.

 

He became a member of the Methodist Church in January, 1844. He was class leader and superintendent of the Sabbath School for many years and was never absent from church or Sunday school unless out of town or sick.

 

There were born to these parents twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. Four died in infancy and two at the ages of thirty-four and thiry-two.. On February 12, 1898, the first born, Rev. Isreal Hyman DeBruin of Columbus, Ohio, passed away in the seventy-fifth year of his age. There are still five children living, three sons and two daughters. The youngest, a son, aged thirty-three, and the oldest about seventy-two.

 

Our subject's political affiliations were with the Whig and Republican parties. His first vote cast, on becoming a legalized citizen of the United States, was for James Monroe, for President. He was an ardent

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 549

 

admirer of Mr. Clay and voted for him three times for President. He voted the last Whig ticket in 1852 for General Scott. After that he voted the Republican ticket. His last vote for President was for Genera; Grant, in 1868.

 

Mr. DeBruin died at his home in Winchester, September 9, 1871, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His wife died on February 25th, in her seventieth year.

 

Israel Donalson

 

was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, February 2, 1767. His father moved to the County of Cumberland, in the same State, where he received his education. While too young to take any part in the Revolutionary War, he remembered much of it. It seemed he obtained a fair education prior to his twentieth year. In 1787, he left his home in New Jersey for the West, traveling alone and unaided. He first located in Ohio County, Virginia, where he remained until the Spring of 1790. In this time, he farmed, taught school and acted as Indian ranger and scout. In May, 1790, he went down the river on a flat-boat accompanied by a fleet of the same kind, and reached Maysville on June 1st. During that summer, he taught school at Maysville. That winter he formed the acquaintance of General Nathaniel Massie and in the Spring of 1791, went to reside in the Stockade at Manchester. In April, 1791, he, Nathaniel Massie and James Tittle went up the river in a canoe with a surveyor's chain and compass to do some surveying. They got ashore just below Wrightsville, near a large mound which stood on the river bank, but is now washed away by the river. There they discovered two canoe loads of Indians, almost in shore. The Indians discovered them at the same time. Donalson and his two companions started to run. He was in the rear, and as he went to jump a branch his foot caught in a root and he fell forward. Before he could rise, three Indians were upon him, and he was a captive. The Indians started on a march with him, and marched all day and for two or three days when they reached the camp of their tribe. Here they began to make an Indian of him, by training his hair Indian fashion, with turkey feathers and putting an Indian jewel in his nose. After he had been with them several days, he determined to escape, come what would. He slept between two Indians, securely tied , but he gnawed his thongs loose and crawled away one morning about daybreak. The Indians discovered his escape almost immediately, and pursued, but he escaped without arms of any kind. He reached Fort Washington about May 1st. He first met Mr. Wm. Woodward, for whom the Woodward High School is named, who took him to the Fort. Here he remained several weeks when he returned to Limestone and afterwards to Manchester.

 

Mr. Donalson was well qualified for a school teacher before leaving New Jersey. He took up this occupation at Manchester as soon as there was a call for a teacher, and he followed that with surveying, which he had also studied in the Fast, more or less all his life. He was in Wayne's Campaign against the Indians in 1794.

 

He married Miss Annie Pennyweight on Nevember 15, 1798, and had to go to Kentucky for that purpose, as there were no legal authorities to solemnize marriages in that part of the Northwest Territory at that time.

 

550 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

In 1802, Mr. Donalson was elected one of three delegates from Adams County to the first Constitutional Convention of Ohio. His associates were Joseph Darlinton and Thomas Kirker. The Convention met in Chillicothe on November I, 1802, and was in session until Novemer 29th, when it completed its work. The journal of the Convention is very meagre, as nearly all the work was done in committee of the whole and no record kept. On the question of inviting Governor St. Clair to address the Convention, he and his two associates voted "no," but the affirmative carried it nineteen to fourteen. He usually voted with his colleagues on all questions. On the question of a poll-tax, he voted "no," as did his colleagues. On the question of allowing negroes and mulattoes to vote he, Kirker and Massie voted "no," while Byrd and Darlinton voted “yes." He, also, with Kirker, Byrd and Darlinton voted "no" to the proposition of forbidding negroes and mulattoes to hold office in the State, or to testify against a white man. On the last day, sixty copies of the journal of the Convention and eighty-eight copies of the Constitution were ordered delivered to Israel Donalson for Adams County. We would like to know what became of the seven hundred copies of the journal ordered printed. Only four are now known to be in existence out of that number. Of those delivered to Mr. Donalson for distribution, none are now known to be in existence.

 

Israel Donalson was appointed postmaster at Manchester in 1801 and served until September 27, 1813. In 1808, he started a carding-mill in Manchester, but it does not appear how long he operated it. In the War of 1812, he went out in the general call for troops.

 

He was a resident of Manchester all his life, and was a devout member of and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of that place. He was Clerk of the Session for many years, and the records appear in his very clear hand. He was also frequently a delegate to the Presbytery of Chillicothe, which he first attended at Red Oak in 1825, and on September 4 and 5, 1849, he was last present at Eckmansville. Altogether he attended the Presbytery some nineteen times.

 

In 1847, there were but five survivors of the Constitutional Convention of 1802 living. Ephriam Cutler, of Washington County; Jeremiah Morrow, of Hamilton ; John Reiley, of Butler ; General Darlinton and Israel Donalson, of Adams. Cutler wrote a letter to each of the other four, and received an answer from each. Donalson's letter is May 20, 1847. He condemned the Mexican War then in progress. He wrote to Judge Cutler again on August 1, 1848. He spoke of his captivity among the Indians lasting a week and says from that day to this “my life has been one of turmoil." He says he has met with pecuniary 1osses but is thankful to God who sustained him. John Reiley died June 7, 1850; General Darlinton died August 2, 1851 ; Jeremiah Morrow died in 1852 ; Judge Cutler survived until July 8, 1853, and from that time until the ninth of February, 1860, Israel Donalson was the last survivor of the Convention. His picture in this book was taken at the age of ninety-one but he survived until ninety-three. He was a man of the strictest integrity, honorable in all his dealings and highly respected by every one. In his political views he was a Democrat and later a Whig.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 551

 

Hamilton Dunbar.

 

Andrew Dunbar, father of the subject of our sketch, was born in Winchester, Virginia. His wife was Deborah Mitchell, of the same place. They were married in Winchester, Virginia, about 1779, and several of their children were born there. They emigrated to Lewis County, Kentucky, in 1794, when their son, Hamilton, born August 28, 1782, was twelve years old. Here Andrew Dunbar adopted the business of trading along the river with a large canoe between Alexandria, Ohio, and Maysville, Kentucky. One night his boat capsized, and he was lost, leaving a widow, four sons and three daughters. At the time of his father's death, Hamilton was living on the home farm near Concord, Kentucky. Not long after the family moved to Adams County, Ohio. As it was a custom in those days that every boy should learn a trade, Hamilton selected that of a carpenter and followed it in Adams and joining counties. He entered the land east of West Union, on the Portsmouth road, where John Spohn formerly resided. He was married January 14, 1808, at West Union, Ohio, to Delilah Sparks, born January 1, 1792, in western Pennsylvania, a daughter of Salathiel Sparks. Mrs.

Dunbar died at West Union, Ohio, Auguste 14, 1828, and is interred in Lovejoy Cemetery. They were married at the residence of the bride's father in the property east of West Union where Thomas Huston formerly resided and afterwards owned by Hon. J. W. Eylar. Soon after their marriage, Hamilton Dunbar purchased the lot just opposite and west of the same Presbyterian Church and built the residence thereon in which he continued to reside until his death. The house is now occupied by Edgington. Mrs. Dunbar's brother, John Sparks, was a banker in West Union and died there in July, 1847. His wife was a sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the well known philanthropist.

 

George Sparks, her brother, died in West Union in 1842, leaving two son’s Salathiel and George. The children of Hamilton Dunbar are as follows: John Collins, born December 2, 1808, and died the following year; Ann, born November 21, 1809, and became the wife of Peter Bryant, of Kentucky, July 16, 1837, and died July 19, 1894; Grace, born December 6, 1812, became the wife of David Murray, April 22, 1829, and died in Georgetown, Ky., April 18, 1833 ; Agnes, born August 27, 1815, married April 3, 1838, John L. Cox, and is now living in Abilene, Kansas; L. William Willson, born November 16, 1817, and now resides at Locust Grove, Ohio; David Dunbar, born February 4, 1820; George Franklin, born August 3, 1822, and died at Ripley, Ohio, June 13, 1872 ; Johanna, born July. 4, 1824, married Jesse Fristoe in 1843, and died at Manchester, Ohio, May , 1866; John Sparks, born December 6, 1827, died at Sigonney, Iowa, June 14, 1866. In those days people believed is the e old scripture command to multiply and replenish the earth and practiced it.

 

Mrs. Hamilton Dunbar married at the age of sixteen and became other of mother nine children in the succeeding twenty years. She was a pattern of all domestic virtues known at that time, and died at the age thirty-six. Her husband survived her seven years, but did not remarry. Hamilton Dunbar did work for judge Byrd, while the latter was a resident at West Union. He built the manager's house at Union Furnace in Lawrence County. He built a dwelling house at Union Landing for

 

552 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

Thomas W. Means, and another dwelling house at Hanging Rock for Andrew Ellison. In West Union, he built a house for Peter Schultz being the home where Auditor Shinn died in 1851, of cholera, and afterwards, used by J. W. Lafferty for a carding mill. He also built the house, now occupied by W. V. Lafferty on Main Street, opposite the old Bradford Tavern. At the time he worked in West Union, carpenters went into the woods, cut down the timbers for cross-beams, sills and upright posts and hewed them with broad axes, got out the studding and rafters and roofed with lap shingles. As to all of the houses built by him work was done in this manner.

 

He also built the forge house for Sparks and Means, at Brush Creek—Forge Furnace. He also did the carpenter work on the home for Col. John Means, below Bentonville, and now owned by A. V. Hutson. But every carpenter has his last contract and Mr. Dunbar had his in the Hollingsworth House on Main Street in West Union, Ohio. He began work on that in June, 1835, and had begun on the excavation. John Seaman had taken the contract for the excavation and had worked all day on Saturday, June 27, 1835. He lived east of the village some two miles and had gone home that evening. He was in the prime of life and vigor. He had made all arrangements to go forward with the work on the following Monday, but that night he was taken with the cholera and died on Sunday, the 28th. He was the father of Franklin Seaman, Hamilton Dunbar had overseen the work on the Hollingsworth contract on Saturday, as usual, and had attended the Methodist Quarterly meeting on that day. He retired to bed in good health. Later in the evening he was attacked by the dread Asiatic cholera and died Sunday morning at four o'clock. He went out with the rising sun. At that time it cutomary to bury a cholera patient in a few hours after death. He was buried that afternoon at the Lovejoy graveyard. In those days there were no hearses, and the body of the deceased was taken out in a road wagon: The few mourners who attended the interment followed the wagon afoot. Nelson Barrere, of Hillsboro, was in West Union at that time and attended the funeral.

 

Hamilton Dunbar was the first victim of the scourge that year. He died in the house built by him directly opposite the old stone Presbyterian Church.

 

He was six feet high, of a large frame, weighed 180 pounds, had blue eyes and a fair complexion. He joined the Methodist Church a few years before his decease and was zealously attached to it. He was a man of great firmness of character and his family loved and respected him. With them his word was law. He was a Whig in politics and devotedly attached to his party, as earnest in politics as he was in all other things. His political guide was the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette

His sudden taking off was a great blow and loss to the young community then only thirty-one years old, which has not been entirely forgotten after a lapse of sixty-three years.

 

Rev. Robert Dobbins,

 

a pioneer of Adams County, was born in Northampton County, Pa., April 20, 1768. His father was William Dobbins, a native of Ireland. Young Robert was reared among the Friends in Pennsylvania, but in

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 553

 

1793 he united with the M. F. Church in whicli organization he became a noted divine. In his early manhood he worked on a farm and flat boated on the Ohio River. In 1791, he married Miss Jane Boyce, a native of Cannonsburg, Washington County, Pa., and in 1804 he removed with his family to the Fast Fork of Eagle Creek in Adams County, Ohio, where he purchased a farm now known as the Farly farm. There he reared a y of ten children among whom was a son, William Dobbins, who a noted school teacher in early days in Adams County. During his residence in Adams County, our subject rode the old Scioto Circuit and preached to the pioneer Methodist Societies in Brown, Adams, Scioto and Highland Counties. He was an associate of the Rev. James Quinn and Henry Bascom under Bishops Asbury and McKendree. It was Rev. Dobbins who successfully prevailed upon David Beckett to make a full confession at West Union on the morning of the day of his execution for the murder of Lightfoot, after Lorenzo Dow had exhausted his persuasive powers on the condemned and had failed to elicit from him a confession of the crime with which he was charged.

 

Rev. Dobbins was a preacher of great force, and his magnetic powers in the pulpit were most wonderful. In the pioneer days of Methodism in Adams County, he and the Rev. John Meek conducted camp meetings on Fast Fork of Fagle Creek on the Richard Noleman farm where thousands gathered to drink in the word of God from the lips of those eminent divines.

 

In the year 1818, the wife of Rev. Dobbins died at Horse Shoe Bottoms on White Oak Creek in what is now Brown County, where he had removed after disposing of his farm on Eagle Creek, and on June 24, 1819, he married Miss Jennie Creed, a daughter of Matthew Creed, of Rocky Fork, Highland County, and soon thereafter removed to Greene County, Ohio. While a resident of that county he represented it in the legislature from 1826 to 1829. In 1830, Rev. Dobbins associated himself with the Methodist Protestant Church because the office of Bishop in the M. E. Church had become repulsive to his democratic ideas of government.

 

In 1829, he removed to Sugar Creek, Fayette County, where he owned a large farm and where he spent the remainder of his eventful life.

 

In 1844 he was elected by the Whigs in the Fayette-Clinton district to a seat in the General Assembly of Ohio where he served with great distinction in those troublesome times in Ohio State affairs. He was then in his seventy-seventh year.

 

He is described as being of a stocky, heavy build, head very large, with blue eyes, a prominent nose, and pleasing countenance. He died January 13, 1860.

 

Andrew Barr Ellison

 

born in Manchester, December 19, 1808, the son of John Ellison, Jr., then Sheriff of Adams County, and Anna Barr, his wife. He was the eldest of a numerous family, and grew up and was trained as boys usually were at that time. From accounts we have, we believe that he, as a boy's usually were and his boy companions had more enjoyment than boys now do. At any rate, he had more sport in hunting. When he was about sixteen or seventeen years of age, he clerked in two different stores in West Union

 

554 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

for Thomas McCague & Company, and for Wesley Lee. At that time it was customary to set out a bottle of good old corn whisky and treat each customer. Young Ellison set out the bottles and glasses many a time, but did not drink himself. His father died a few months before he became of age, and in 1830 he went to Cincinnati and into the employment of Barr & Lodwick, who had a store there and one in Portsmouth. In 1832, he was engaged for a short time in their employment in Portsmouth and while there witnessed the great flood of 1832. Those of 1847, 1833 and 1884 he witnessed in Manchester. October 20, 1833, he was married to Miss Rachael A. M. Ennes, daughter of Judge Ennes, of Cincinnati.

 

In 1834, he took up his residence at Lawrence Furnace in Lawr County and was store-keeper and manager until 1840, when he removed to Manchester, where he resided thereafter during his life. In in Manchester he bought out the merchandising business of Henry Coppel and continued it until he went out of business in 1880, forty years. His store in Manchester, during its continuance, was one of the institutions of the county. It was known far and wide. Mr. Ellison kept all kinds of merchandise. If one could think of any article he wanted and could not find it in any other store in Adams County, he was almost certain to find it at A. B. Fllison's. He was the principal merchant in the county, and while in his time department stores were unthought of and unheard of yet he practically kept a department store. During the early period of his merchandising in Manchester, he and Thomas W. Means went East together to buy their goods every year. During his business carrier no one ever visited Manchester without having his attention called to A. B. Ellison's store and without visiting it. People went from all parts of the county to deal with him. His store stood on Front Street facing the river, and to all passing boats he and his store were familiar figures.

 

One of his most notable characteristics was his rugged integrity. He was plain and frank in manner even to brusqueness, yet he had an underlying vein of great kindness. His generosity was large, but with display.

 

His dress was always of the same style, black in color, low crowned soft hat, low cut vest and small pleated bosom shirt. His marked individuality caused him to be regarded as eccentric. He had but one price, if for his goods. If he could not sell any article at the price he marked on it, it remained unsold.

 

No one acquainted with his character ever attempted to jew down, but if a strager tried it, he was at once told, "This is my price, if you do not want the article, let it alone." After this lesson, the same person never tried it a second time. He had a great flow of spirits and keen sense of humor. The anecdotes floating about Manchester illustrative of his peculiarities, are legion, but one which will illustrate him well, is given : A customer owed him a note for merchandise long past due and which he had failed to pay after repeated duns. One day when this person was in the store, Mr. Ellison took him to one side and said to him in his peculiar brusque way, "If you don't settle with me, I swear I will tear that note of yours up. I won't have it." The manner in which this was done so impressed the customer with its awfulness that he actually paid the note at once.

 

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Mr. Ellison was a prominent Mason and took a great interest in the order. In sentiment, he was a Presbyterian, but was not connected with the church. He was always one of its most liberal supporters. No sketch of Mr. Ellison would be complete without mention of his loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. He never missed an opportunity to show a kindness to a Union soldier going to or returning from the war to their families at home. He watched the struggle with the most intense sympathy for the Union cause and with an unfaltering faith in the result. He had three daughters, Ann Fliza Herron, wife of Rev. R. B. Herron, a Presbyterian minister, but both now deceased ; Mrs. Susan Barr Drennan, wife of Samuel Drennan, Fsq., residing in Manchester, and Mrs. Rachael Shiras, wife of Peter Shiras, banker, of Ottawa, Kansas. Mrs. Herron left a son and daughter grown and the latter married. Mrs. Shiras has six children grown up, and some of them married. Mr. Ellison's wife died March 10, 1875, and thereafter he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Drennan, in Manchester. He retired business in 1880, and from business that until his death on the fifteenth of April 1888, he enjoyed the society of his daughter's family and his old friends, without any cares, till the end came, with peace.

 

He was a unique character, noted and talked of everywhere in Adams County, but highly respected by everyone for the most excellent qualities in his rugged character. He had the business qualities of his grandfather, Andrew, with the sterling virtues of his mother. All of Anna Barr's children were noted men and women, as a careful perusal of 's book will show.

 

Cyrus Ellison

 

was born in Adams County, August 16, 1816, the son of Robert Ellison, the third son of John Fllison, who emigrated from Ireland in 1785. Robert Ellison was married to Rebecca Lockhart. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. He had a family of ten children, his son Cyrus being the fourth son and the youngest child but one. The children were reared as all children of pioneer families were, and our subject had only such advantages as the schools of that day offered. He was, however, a great reader and student, so far as he could obtain books. His ideas of wisdom were those of the illustrious King Solomon. He believed "that out of wisdom came the issues of life." He began the world for himself at the age of seventeen years as a clerk in West Union, where he remained unti1 the age of twenty-four at a salary of five dollars a month and his board. He saved his money which he invested in Indiana Scrip, which was then known as "wild-cat money." The failure of the banks which issued the scrip depreciated his capital and gave him a severe blow, but his brother, John Ellison, loaned him $1,100 and he invested it in the mercantile business at Manchester, and he managed to make and save a considerable amount of money.

 

On September 11, 1845, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of Charles Stevenson, one of the prominent pioneers of Adams County, who had emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland. He maintained his home in Adams County until 1853 when he removed to Ironton, in Lawrence County, and became associated with the firm of Dempsey, Rogers & Ellison, the latter being John Fllison, his brother. This partnership owned Aetna and Vesuvius Furnaces and he became

 

556 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

their general agent until 1857, when he became a partner, the name of the firm being Fllison, Dempsey & Ellison. When the Lawrence Iron Works Company began business in 1852, Mr. Ellison was its manager and when that company was incorporated in 1862, he became its president and remained such until he retired from active business.

 

In 1857, he was one of the stockholders in the Ohio Iron & Coal Company, by which the town of Ironton was laid out. In 1872, he was one of the organizers of the famous Aetna Iron Works, at that time, largest iron furnaces in the United States. Mr. Ellison was a director in this company, and, at one time, its president. It purchased from the Ellison, Dempsey & Ellison Company, the old Aetna and Vesuvins furnaces and seventeen thousand acres of valuable timber and mineral land in Lawrence County. Mr. Ellison was one of the original stock holders of the Ironton Gas Company, and its president from January 25, 1876, to January 25, 1881. He was also at one time a stockholder in the First National Bank at Ironton, Ohio. With his brother, John Ellison, he was one of the builders of the Iron Railroad which connected the rich mineral fields of Lawrence County with the Ohio River, at Ironton. This was president of this road from 1859 to 1879.

 

In 1872, ten gentlemen, including Mr. Ellison and his brother John Ellison, met in the former's home and organized the First Congregational Church of Ironton, and built the present handsome structure. This church was dedicated without debt, owing to the liberality of the men who organized it.

 

Mr. Ellison, from the habit of extensive reading, kept up during his entire life, was a well-read man. He was a most entertaining conversationalist, and always, even in his last days, interested in current events. He was fond of traveling, and until the infirmities of age disabled him, he traveled a great deal.

 

From the time he came of age until the organization of the Republican party, he was a Whig. While he was never ambitious for, or sought office, he took a great interest in political matters. He was a wait leader in all enterprises which were for the benefit or development of his city and county, and was prominently indentified with all the iron interests of Lawrence County. His Superior executive ability, excellent judgment and natural discernment were the conditions of his success. In all the positions of trust which he occupied, and they were many, he discharged his duties with great ability and to the satisfaction of all those who had business connections with him.

 

He was a man of fine personal presence, about six feet, two inches tall, and well proportioned. He had fine regular features, light hair and flowing beard, ruddy complexion and deep blue eyes. In his associations with his fellow men, he evinced great natural dignity, and his presence impressed strangers on sight that he was a man of importance, which was strictly true. Socially, he was much liked by all who knew him, of genial manners and a gentleman of the old school.

 

From his first marriage, there were three daughters, Frances, who died in infancy ; Mary Adelaide, who married John Thornton Scott, son of Robert Scott. She has two sons, young men, who distinguished themselves in the late Spanish War. His third daughter, Rosa, is the wife of Charles Brunell McQuigg, son of the late Colonel McQuigg, of Ironton.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 557

 

He was an officer in the Ironton Regiment, 8th 0. V. I., during the Spanish War.

 

Cyrus Ellison's first wife died in 1864, and 187o, he was married to Miss Josephine Glidden, who survived him.

 

Mr. Ellison was, at one time, the possesSor of great wealth, but owing to the shrinkage of iron, his investments were lost, and at the time of his death, only his life insurance was left of all he had accumulated. He died on the sixteenth of February, 1897, at the ripe age of eighty years. He left behind him the memory of a life full of wonderful energy, a long vista of useful, happy years, and his bright and cheerful old age was crowned with his good work fully completed. His last years were d by the presence and companionship of his greatful and devoted daughters. He was interred at Woodlawn, near Ironton, but his memory will remain green, sweet and precious in the hearts of all those who knew him and who resepcted and loved him for his virtues year.

 

William Ellison

 

was born in Manchester, Ohio, June 19, 1796. His father, John Ellison, was born in Ireland in 1752, the son of John Fllison, born in Ireland, in 1730. John Ellison, father of our subject, located at Manchester and purchased land extensively. His wife was Mary Bratton, born in Ireland, September 28, 1767 and died in Manchester in her one hundreth year.

 

John Ellison and Mary Bratton were married in Ireland. They had eight children who grew to maturity and eight who died in infancy. He died February 21, 1826, at the age of seventy-four years. He made a will drawn by a clergyman, and after he was dead thiry years there was extensive and expensive litigation to construe it and determine its meaning Moral: Never have a will drawn by any other than a lawyer. From the time he came of age until 1831, our subject was engaged in the commission, shipping and forwarding business at Manchester, Ohio, in connection on with his brother, David Ellison. At that time he went to Lawrence County as the manager of Mt. Vernon Furnace and became a member of the firm of Campbell, Ellison & Company, known all over southern Ohio. He retained his interest in that firm until his death. He returned to Manchester in 1835 and from that time was practically retired from business. He was married to Mary Patton, of Ross County, in 1827. She died in 1828, leaving no surviving child.

 

Mr. Ellison was married to Mary Keys Ellison, whose father, John Ellison, Junior, was a full cousin to William Ellison, on June 19, 1833. She was born January 25, 1812. They had the following children : Mary Ann, who married Rev. D. M. Moore; Sarah Jane, married Archibald Means ; Robert Hamilton, who has a separate sketch herein, and Julia, who married John A. Murray. William Ellison died November 1, 1865, and his wife, May 14, 1888.

 

William Ellison was six feet, three inches in height, thin and spare. He possessed great natural dignity and equipose of character. He thought much and said little. He was a man of the strongest convictions. Nothing could swerve him from a course he believed to be right. In politics, he was first a Whig, and then an Abolitionist. He was a Republican from the organization of that party and from that time, until 1864, took

 

558 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

an active interest in politics. In 1855, he and F. P. Evans were the delegates from Adams County to the State Republican Convention. He attended the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1856. He also attended the Republican State Convention in 1857 and was a member of the Committee on Resolutions. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Baltimore in 1864. He kept up all the activities of life as long as his health permitted. He joined the Presbyterian Church at the age of twenty and lived up to its teachings faithfully and conscientiously all his life. He was a superintendent of the Sabbath school for over thirty years and a ruling elder in the church for over forty years. He was never absent from Sabbath school, the church or the weekly prayer meeting unless he was sick or absent from home. It was a fixed principle of his life never to allow any secular business to interfere with his social or private Christian duties. He often contributed one-third of the minister's salary in cash and donated food, etc., equal to one-half more. The incidental expenses of the church, when not paid in full, were made up by him. For many years prior to his death he was regarded as the wealthiest man in Adams County, and he devoted much time to public and private charity. He was. constantly looking after the poor and contributing to benevolent objects, but it was all done quietly and unostentatiously. He daily visited the poor, the sick and the afflicted and administered to their wants, temporal and spiritual. He was much given to hospitality and was a most kind and generous friend. He had some grave financial troubles and some of the most harassing social troubles, but he bore them all with the greatest equanimity and fortitude. In them all, he was like Job—he sinned not nor charged Fod foolishly.

 

On his death-bed, his religion stood him well. He knew he was to die. He disposed of all his worldly business days before his death would not refer to it afterward. When he felt the near approach of the last enemy, he sent for all his family and bade them a calm farewell. Among them was his mother in her nnety-eighth year. He was as calm and self possessed as though death were nothing but the passing from one room to another. After giving a suitable message to each, he took his right hand and felt the pulse of his left wrist. After watching it for a moment, he said "Almost gone," replaced his right hand by his side and soon after died, most calmly. His faith in the religion he had lived was most complete. His dying hours were the most sublime of any Christian’s death in Manchester before or since. At his funeral all the people turned out and all the poor were there and wept at his grave. Then and not until then were his benefactions to the poor known and they were told by recipients themselves. The writer was at his funeral and the grief of those whom he the members had befriended seemed as great as those of the of his family. Till the people stood by his open grave, the extent of his good works in Manchester was not known. Thirty-four years passed since that memorable funeral and the place of William Ellison in the church and community of Manchester have not been refilled. No one who has come after him has been able to do the good he did. To say that William Ellison was the best citizen in Adams County in his time would offend none who were cotemporary with him, for all would con-

 

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cede it. It is to be hoped that the memory of his pure and upright life and his kind and good deeds may long remain fresh and green with the people of Adams County.

 

Edward Evans.

 

His great-grandfather, Hugh Evans, was a Quaker, came over with William Penn in 1682, and located near Philadelphia. He had a son, Edward, who located in Chester County. His son, Hugh, became a school teacher in Chester County, and Mad Anthony Wayne, when a boy of twelve years, was one of his pupils, and a very mischievous and unruly one. Hugh Evans also had a trade, as that was thought necessary in those days. He was a weaver as well as a school teacher.

 

Hugh Evans, the father of our subject, removed to what was then Cumberland, but is now Bedford County, Pennsylvania, about ten miles twelve Bedford borough on the Juniata River.

 

Edward Evans was born April 27, 1760, an only son. He had two sisters older than himself who died in young womanhood, but not before they had made themselves some reputation for attainments in vocal music. The family attended the commencements of Princeton College, and they sang in the commencement exercises.

 

Edward Evans spent his boyhood as the boys of his time did. He was fond of fishing in the Juniata River, and y from the time he was twelve years of age, often made trips alone to Hagerstown, Maryland, to obtain salt. In these trips, he usually took a train of twelve pack horses. He would carry the horese' feed in the packs in going over and leave it at stopping places where it would be used on his return. The salt, when bought to Bedford, was sold for as high as twelve dollars per bushel. In his sixteenth year, the Revolution began. Till that time, the family had been Quakers, but King George did away with that, and father and son abandoned that faith. Hugh Evans went into the war in 1776, and served two months, but he was lame and had to give it up. Then Edward determined to go and did go, and became a member of Captain Samuel Dawson's Company of Col. Richard Humpton's Regiment, 11th Pennsylvania. He spent that dreadful winter in the cantonments of Valley Forge. There he saw Mrs. Washington, where she visited the camp, knitting and sewing for the soldiers. He was at the Battle of the Brandywine, September 11, 1777. At Brandywine, the British had retired over a bridge across the creek. They did not have time to destroy the bridge, but filled it full of wagons, carts and debris to prevents immediate pursuit. Edward Evans was one of twelve detailed to clear the bridge under muskety fire of the enemy. The bridge was cleared, and not one of the twelve were struck, though the splinters flew all about them. The Continentals immediately charged across the bridge. He was at the affair of Paoli, September 11th, and at Germantown, October 4, 1777. Here his colonel had his horse shot from under him, but he took off the saddle, put it on another horse, and went on with the fight. In this battle, he was in the left wing, and claimed that the troops he was with were compellel to fall back, when it was not necessary because the officer in command was intoxicated. He waS near the battle of Monmouth on that hot Sunday, June 28, 1778, but having been on the sick list, his Captain ordered him to remain with the baggage, which he did, but he was in sight and hearing of the battle. He left the service for a time soon after the battle of Monmouth, and settled in

 

560 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

Rostaver Township, Westmoreland County, Virginia, called the Neck lying between the two rivers, the Youghiougheny and the Monongahela. He lived near Devore's Ferry on the latter river. There he married Jemima Applegate, daughter of William Applegate, recently located there from the State of New Jersey. The wedding was a grand affair for the time and one hundred persons sat down to the dinner.

 

Directly after his marriage, he and his wife went to housekeeping in the house of John Right, a Scotchman and a bachelor. Wright liked the young couple and made them many household utensils on his anvil. Among them was a fire shovel, now in the possession of the writer herself. Edward Evans, in 1785, emigrated to Kentucky, descending the Ohio River on a flat-boat with his wife, two children and house goods. He landed at Limestone, now Maysville, but went back to Washington, where he rented land of a Presbyterian minister. While residing there, he acted as an Indian scout and spy, from time to time, until the treaty of Greenville. In 1799, he removed to Adams County, near its western line. He lived near Red Oak and rented land until he could be suited in a purchase. In 1803, he bought 109 acres of land all in the unbroken. wildeiness, in what is now Jefferson Township in Brown County. He paid for this land in horses. When he went over the land after purchasing, he was unable to find any springs on it. He then went to his wife and wanted her consent to rescind the trade. She said, “No, it would make them a home and they must hold on to it," which they did. Afterward, seven good springs were discovered on the tract. Edward Evans built him a pole cabin and went to housekeeping, and as soon as he could, he built him a two-story hewed double log house and moved into it. He made all the chimneys he thought necessary and hauled a hundred loads of stone to do it. He resided on this farm until his death November 3, 1843. He at one time weighed three hundred pounds, but his ordinary weight was one hundred and eighty-five pounds. He was five feet, ten and a half inches tall, and in youth, had black curly hair. He had high cheek bones, broad forehead and regular features. He always carried himself very erect. In his youth, he had learned the art of distilling liquors, and at times, operated a stillhouse. He was the father of twelve children, six sons and six daughters. His wife had four sisters, all of whom married. Two of their husbands were Revolutionary soldiers, John Dye and Robert Wright, and they two and Edward Evans used often to sit together and recount their expeiences in the Revolutionary War. Each had served in different places during the war, one at sea and two on land.

 

When Edward Evans was about to die, he requested to be buried in the old-fashioned shroud, to be laid on a flat-topped cherry coffin and buried on his farm. All his wishes were complied with. In his family from 1862 to the pesent time, there were in alternate generations, a Hugh and an Edward. Hugh came over with William Penn. He had a son Edward. His son Hugh was in the Revolution. His son Edward the subject hereof. He had a Son, Hugh, who was a Mississippi River pilot. There was an Edward was among his grandsons and a Hugh among his great-grandsons. His wife, Jemima Applegate, died January 7, 1844. Her father, William Applegate, emigrated from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, and from there to Corydon, Indiana, where he died at the ripe

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 561

 

age of one hundred and five years. When one hundred years old, he walked into the woods with his rifle, and, without glasses, shot a squirrel in a tree. The descendants of Edward Evans were once numerous in Brown County, but are now scattered in many States of the Union. A great-grandson is one of the editors of this work.

 

Joseph Eyler,

 

the pioneer, was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, September 22, 1759. He was a son of George and Catherine Eyler who lived and died in that country. In 1777 he ran away from home to escape service in the army, and after walking 800 miles to the coast, shipped for the United States, arriving at Baltimore in the autumn of that year. From that time unti1 the period of his marriage little is known of him except that he was engaged as a wagoner, and accumulated enough to own a four-horse team and a "Cannestoga" of his own. In 1787 he married Mary Ann Rosemiller, a daughter of John George. Rosemiller, living in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The Rosemillers were wealthy Tories, and objected to their daughter's marrying the unknown and poor wagoner ; an elopement followed, and Mary Ann Rosemiller became Mary Ann Eyler. However, John George Rosemiller had other daughters "Ann" to cheer his declining years. They were Ann, Rose Ann, Catherine Ann, Barbara Annn, Elizabeth Ann, Julia Ann, Mary Ann, who eloped with Fyler, and a som named John George Lewis.

 

The breach in the domestic life of the Rosemillers made by the clandestine marriage of Mary Ann remained until her death. Her sisters had married well, and they never lost the opportunity to remind her of the fact, so that she and her husband shortly after the birth of their first child, the late Judge Joseph Eyler, of Adams County, removed to Bedford, Pennsylvania, then a frontier town from which goods were distributed to the settlements in western Virginia and Kentucky. It was a point where the young wagoner found ready employment.

 

In 1795, Joseph Fyler and his little family, in company with others come down the Ohio River by keel-boat and landed at the "Three Islands" where Nathaniel Massie had founded the town of Manchester. Eyler tended a patch of corn on the lower island that summer, and the following winter built a cabin on a tract of three hundred acres purchased near Killinstown. The next year, James B. Finley passed over Tod's old trace to the new settlement at Chillicothe and noted the fact that there was a “cabin near the present site of West Union, built by Mr. Oiler, but no one was living in it." Eyler's original tract is now owned by Sandy Craigmile, John Crawford, and Samuel McFeeters.

 

Joseph Eyler moved into his cabin in the year 1796. He then had four small children, Joseph, Mary, Sarah and Catherine, and there were born here John, Samuel, Martin, Henry, David, Lewis, George, and Elizabeth. Of these, Samuel, Martin, David, Lewis, and George died in Childhood and are buried at Killinstown. He cleared away the forest and soon possessed one of the best farms in that portion of the country. He was industrious and economical and accumulated considerable wealth for those times. He was frequently called on to serve in local official positions such as "lister" of property, being a man of good judgment and

 

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a great deal of common sense. From Killinstown he moved to a farm near Winchester, on what is now known as the "Massie Farm." He resided there a few years and then bought a farm near Berryville, in Highland County, where he conducted a distillery. He remained there until 1834, when he disposed of his property and removed to Brown County, on a farm now owned by his grandson, Carey C. Fyler, north of the village of Fincastle. Here he died July 29, 1839, and was buried in the Wilson cemetery about one mile east of the village of Fincastle. His wife survived until March 13, 1841.

 

In personal appearance Joseph Eyler was strikingly peculiar. He was five feet, five inches in height and weighed over three hundred pound. His complexion was very fair, hair dark, and eyes steel blue. He spoke English tolerably well, but preferred to use his native language when possible to do so. His household language, until his family was grown, was the German, and he always read and prayed in that tongue. It was the rule in his household to read a portion of God's Holy Word every evening, followed with a simple family worship in the way of prayer.

 

A strong trait of Joseph Eyler was his love of good horses, of which he always kept a number of the "largest and fattest." In pleasant weather he would turn them out to pasture, and as they galloped over the fields they fairly shook the earth. It was a common remark among his neighbors when it thundered, that "Joe Eyler's horses were having a romp."

 

William Evans

 

was born in Mason County, Kentucky, January 23, 1787, the second son of Edward Evans and Jemima Applegate, his wife. His father had emigrated from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 1781, and had located near Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. There until the close of the Indian War, he had been a farmer and acted as an Indian scout. In 1800, he moved into what was then the western part of Adams County, and resided until his death in 1843. William Fvans was reared on his father's farm. When the War of 1812 began he went into the service, and while there, formed a great friendship for Charles Kirkpatrick, who had been born in Virginia in 1777, and moved to Ohio in 1806. On the way returning in the summer of 1812, the company was waylaid by the Indians and Kirkpatrick was wounded. He died of his wound at Chillicothe, September 26, 1812, and his young friend, William Evans, remained with him and buried him. It was his sad duty to carry the news to Kirkpatrick's widow, which he did with so much address, that the next year, August 13, 1813, he married her. He reared her three children by Kirkpatrick, and they had ten more of their own, of whom the elder was Edward Patton Evans, herein noticed. He lived on the farm near Pilson's Mill, along Eagle Creek, which Kirkpatrick had owned at his death, and purchased it of his heirs. His wife died March 22, 1830, and he contracted a second marriage with Miss Harriet Taylor, of near Aber, deem Of this second marriage, there were four children. He survived the second wife and died February 13, 1873, at the age of eighty-six years.

 

William Evans never owed anyone anything. He kept out of debt, out of jail, and out of the penitentiary. He never sought or held any public office. He took the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette from its

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 563

 

first issue until his death. He never had a lawsuit, either as plaintiff or defendant. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church at Russellville, fifty years or more, and a ruling elder for forty years. He scarcely ever went away from home, and when he did, would always walk in preference to riding. He was a law-abiding citizen, who discharged his duties to his God and to his fellow men, and was content to live the life of a farmer all his days.

 

His children are as follows : Edward Patton, May 31, 1814, died Apri1 17, 1883 ; Samuel Jackson, born March 15, 1816, died February 27, 1842; Martha Ann, born March 15, 1818, died ; William Harvey, born January 6, 1820, now living at Thorntown, Indiana; Mary Juline, born December 12, 1821, married Scott Miller, of near Ripley, and was the mother of a large family. She died in 1876; heir husband survives. James Kirkpatrick, born February , 1824, died unmarried March 21, 1875;

an Nathan Evans, born January 27, 1826; Elijah Applegate, born May 7, 1828, died unmarried in 1851 near Spring Hill, Indiana; Lucinda and Louisa, twins, born December 29, 1829 ; Lucinda married James Martin. He and she are both deceased. They left a large family residing near

Lawrence, Kansas. Louisa married twice and is living near Stanwood, Iowa.

 

Of his second marriage, there were three daughters and one son : John Taylor, deceased, who was a soldier in the Civil War of 1861; Martha, who married John Pittenger, both of whom are deceased ; Mrs. Jemima McGregor, who resides near Russellville, Ohio, and Mrs. Thomas Logan, who lives in Russellville, Ohio.

 

Joseph Evans

 

was born in Mason County, Ky., April 2, 1796, the son of Edward Evans and Jemima Applegate, his wife, both of whom are fully noticed in the sketch of Fdward Fvans herein. At the age of four years his parents removed to Adams County, Ohio, and located in what is now the central part of Jefferson Township, Brown County. They located in the primeval forest, and Joseph, one of a large family of brothers and sisters, was brought up as boys of his time.

 

When Joseph Evans became a youth, there were three courses open to a young man in his situation. He could become a hunter, he could became a keel-boatman, or he could learn to still whisky. Joseph Evans chose the first of the three, and became a skilled hunter. This was in accordance with his natural tastes. He loved the solitude of the forest and the companionship of the inaminate objects of nature. Farming there was none. There was a contest with the wilderness, and all had to

engage in it whether he would or not. He early developed his taste for hunting and kept up the habit all his life. He was very successful in the it pursuit of game and an excellent marksman with the rifle. Like most of the early hunters he had a favorite rifle which he kept his entire life. He named it "Old Betsey," and it did him good service so long as he was able to use it. Once returning alone through the forest, at night, from a hunt, he was followed by a panther. He had just crossed a large log, and when he heard the panther mount the log, he turned and gave the wild beast the contents of "Old Betsey," and its final quietus. His wife, Matilda Driskell, was born November 16, 1802, in Mason County, and

 

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died August, 1863. Her people removed 'to Ohio, near his, when she was a child. They were married January 21, 1823, in Brown County, Ohio, and continued to reside there until 1829. In Brown County, four of their, seven children were born, and the other three in Indiana. Three of these are still living, Mrs. India Ann Jolliffe, of Nineveah, Ind.; Dr. John T. Evans and James Edward Evans, at Clay City, Clay County, Ill.

 

At fifty years of age Joseph Evans was six feet tall, weighed two hundred pounds, was of full habit, with dark hair, ruddy complexion and gray eyes. He always had perfect health. He never followed any occupation but that of farming. He was of a retiring and quiet disposition ; never sought publicity of any kind. In 1828, he visited Indiana and took up land from the Government in Johnson County. In 1829, he his family moved on to this land, where he resided until his death fifty-eight years later. He obtained a patent for his land November 6, 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson and no transfer of it of any kind was made until after his death, among his heirs. He lived a quiet and most unostentatious life, owing no one anything. He was never a member of any church, and politically he was a Whig and a Republican, though he took but slight interest in politics. He died October 9, 1887, aged ninety-one years. It cannot be said that he died of any particular complaint. The machinery of his body was simply worn out and stopped.

 

His son, John T. Fvans, studied medicine but has not practiced it for many years. He is a successful merchant and business man at Clay City, Ill. He stands high in the church of the Christian Disciples a takes a great interest in church work. He is also very prominent in the Masonic Order. In his political views he is a Republican. Surrounded. by an interesting family of children and grandchildren, he is aiming to fulfill the duties and obligations of a good citizen and a good Christian, and those who know him say he has succeeded well.

 

Simon Fields.

 

Among the first settlers on Ohio Brush Creek was Simon Fields, a soldier of the Revolution, whose grandson, Simon M. Fields, resides at the "Old Stone House" on Zane's Trace, near Dunkinsville. He was one of the founders of Methodism in Ohio,.being a co-worker with Josep Moore, the founder of Moore's Chapel, the first Methodist Meeti House in the Northwest Territory. Fields' Meeting House, now Stone. Chapel, was founded by him in 1798. He was appointed class leader of the pioneer society of Methodists on Ohio Brush Creek in 1799, and retained the office until the day of his death, at his old family place on Brush Creek, eight miles east of West Union. He was a very large and fleshy man, and, like the Revolutionary fathers, had positive opinions which ht dared to express on any subject in which he was concerned. He was an enthusiastic admirer of President Jefferson. He was shot through thi side by a musket ball while fighting British red-coats in defense of die Republic.

 

It was his custom on entering a church house to bring both hands together, slightly inverted, and say, "Bless the Lord" in a round full tone of voice. He always sat close up to the pulpit, just in front of the preachee and would exclaim, "That is the Gospel," if passages in the discours suited him; or "That is not the Gospel, brother; preach the Gospel!" if

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 565

 

the discourse did not meet his approval. He is buried in the family burial place on his old homestead on Ohio Brush Creek. His grandson, Simon M. Fields, erected a monument to mark his resting place on which is the following inscription: "Simon Fields, born November 9, 1757; died

November 9, 1832, '0, that men would pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. A faithful soldier of the Revolutionary War."

 

Simon Fields had a son, Wesley, who died under peculiar circumstances. He had enlisted as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was ready to go to the front. His horse was saddled and hitched in front of his home while he was bidding farewell to the family. He took suddenly ill and expired in a short time.

 

Capt. William Hannah.

 

John Hannah, the father of William Hannah, lived in Virginia. He was the maternal grandfather of John H. Kincaid, who was a prominent citizen of Adams County. Little is known concerning the early history of John Hannah except that he was a soldier of the Revolution, and the story is told of his having swam the Brandywine. As the incident has been mentioned in history, it must have occurred at a critical time and was to his credit.

 

William Hannah, one of three sons of John Hannah, was born September 13, 1770. He came from Virginia into Kentucky where he remained a short time, finally coming to Ohio and settling in Liberty Township at Hannah's Run. During a recent visit to the place, all that was found to remain of the old home was a small heap of stones which marks the place where the chimney stood. He then went to Cabin Creek where he conducted a ferry. After twelve years, he returned to Liberty Township and at Hill's Fork purchased 400 acres of land, all in woods. Here he remained and made his home. Part of the old homestead is still owned the family, having been in the David A. Hannah name eighty-seven years. Mr. David A. Hannah, of Hill's Fork, is the present owner of 134 acres, all in a good state of cultivation.

 

Captain Hannah was a soldier of the War of 1812 ; was made a Captain and served with distinction. The following anecdote concerning him has often been related by the members of the Hannah family. The incident occurred while the troops were in camp and mustering at Manchester, Ohio. One day while at dinner, on the banks of the Ohio, a deer was seen to come out of the woods on the Kentucky shore to get a drink. Seeing such a sight, the idea uppermost in the minds of the men was to gain the prize. It was next to an impossibility as it was not thought any one would be able to shoot the deer for the distance intervening was too great. However, Captain Hannah being a marksman of note was enged to do so and he accepted the challenged with alacrity. He

aimed at a mark across the river at about ten feet above where the deer was standing, the ball falling, broke the deer's back. The deer was then brought across the river in a canoe and it is needless to state that Captain Hannah remembered his friends. It is not known what became of the gun with which he shot the deer. The sword carried, by Captain Hannah is in the possession of David A. Hannah, his great-grandson.

 

566 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

Captain Hannah was twice married. His first wife was Martha. Moore, by whom he was the father of eleven children. Of these children, none are surviving, but their descendants are numerous in Adams County. Joseph and David M. Hannah, of Hill's Fork, and Aaron Moore, of Winchester, are grandsons of Captain Hannah. In this family in eat+ generation, there has been a William and a John.

 

One of Captain Hannah's sons, Aaron Hannah, was born in 1803.. He was a man generous to a fault, dispensing his means with great magnanimity. He married Mary Ann Aerl, by whom he was the father of ten children. Of these children, five are surviving. William Patterson Hannah, residing at Boulder, Col.; Isaaii Aerl Hannah, at Seaman, Ohio;. Mrs. Rebecca E. Kepperling, at Detroit, Mich.; Dudley A. Kepperling„ a prominent business man, Chicago, Ill., and Miss Edna Inez Kepperling, Principal of Custer School, Detroit, Mich:, are grandchildren of Aaron Hannah.

 

Aaron Hannah died December 189o, and is buried at Mt. Leigh, Adams County, Ohio. His father, Captain William Hannah, died September 10, 1849, and is buried at Kirker's cemetery, where several of hi children are buried.

 

Thomas Holmes.

 

His father, James Holmes, was born in 1790, in Lancaster County,. Pennsylvania. He was married to Nancy Shaw, une 28, 1791. He came to the Northwest Territory in 1800 and located in Adams County as a farmer. He died in 1833. He had fourteen children, all of whom grew. to maturity, and all of whom married and had families except one sots Silas, who died a young man. His son, William, lived on the hill west of West Union and died there many years ago, leaving two sons, William and Nathan, and a daughter. James Holmes' daughter, Nancy, married Salathiel Coryell and she was the mother of Judge James L. Coryell.

 

Thomas was the eldest son and child and was born in Lancater County, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1792. He was set to learn the cabinet maker's trade as a boy and youth, and did learn it, but never followed it, having taken up farming and followed that all his life. He went into the War of 1812. On his way home, his party was waylaid and ambushed by a party of Indians at a spring where they had stopped to drink, and his Uncle Shaw and another of the party were killed. The Indians es- caped after the first fire. He celebrated his safe return from the war by marrying Margaret McClanahan, December 23, 1813. She was born April 8, 1795. There were ten children of this marriage, as follows: James, born December 31, 1814, married Morella McGovney, November 5, 1840, died December 31, 1885. Fliza, born November 17, 1816, married James McGovney, February 20, 1840, died July 29, 1897. Nancy born October 27, 1818, married Richard W. Ramsey, 1838. John Holmes born November 3o, 1820, married July 22, 1846, to Elizabeth Treber died December 29, 1895. Rebecca, born October 15, 1822, married John McGovney, 1843, died February 25, 1879. Sarah, born November 28, 1824, married Crockett McGovney, December zo, 1849. She is the only one of Thomas Holmes' children surviving. She is now a widow residing at Manchester. Caroline, born December 14, 1826, married AndreA Alexander, October 12, 1848, died August 18, 1897. Margaret, born March 14, 1830, married James Clark, March, 1850, died in August. 1889

 

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Harriet, born August 2, 1832, died at the age of seven years. Thomas F. Holmes, born April 28, 1835, married Margaret Compton, 1857, died October 10, 1886.

 

Thomas Holmes, the subject of our sketch, died October 25, 1866, on the premises just west of West Union, built by Rev. John P. Van Dyke, and now occupied by the Stewart family. His wife survived him until January 22, 1879. He lived an honorable, upright life. He was just in all his dealings. He was strongly attached to the Baptist Church and brought all his children up in that faith.

 

He was respected by all who knew him, and his death, like his life, was peace. The best commentary on his life are his children and grandchildren surviving him, all of whom are honorable men and women, striving to do the best for themselves and those dependent on them. While his life was uneventful, it was a record of every duty well done and a family well trained in their duties toward God, toward their neighbors and toward their country.

 

John Hood.

 

The Hood family is among the oldest families in Adams County, having come to the county when it was yet a dense forest and when the present county seat consisted of not more than a dozen houses. John Hood, the pioneer of this family, was born in Ireland in the year of 1769, of Scotch parentage. After coming to the United States, he located at Connellsville, Pa. Here in October, 1801, he married Hannah Page, daughter of Joseph and Ann Page, who was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, November 24, 1779. In 1806, John Hood, with his family, moved from Connellsville, Pa., to Adams County, landing at Manchester, May 5, having floated down the Ohio River in a flat-boat, then the only method of river navigation. At Manchester a misfortune befell them in the loss of their daughter, Hannah, who was a little more than a year old, having them with their eldest child, James. They located at West Union, where Mr. Hood engaged in the mercantile business. At this time he bought his goods in Philadelphia and they were hauled across the mountains in wagons. He built a two-story stone house on the corner now occupied by the drug store and dwelling of C. W. Sutterfield, where he lived and carried on his business. Four more children were born here, Maria, Joseph, Angeline and John Page, all of whom are now dead. Angeline became the wife of Andrew McClaren, of Brush Creek, Ohio; John Hood died in West Union, April 17, 1814, and was buried in Manchester. His wife died in West Union, November 19, 1863, at which place she was buried.

 

James Hood.

 

Perhaps no one has been more intimately associated with the history and the people of Adams County than James Hood. He was born at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, December 27, 1802, and moved with his is parents to Adams County, Ohio, in the spring of 1806. Ever since that time, with the exception of about fifteen months in Clermont County, 0hio, two years in Indiana and one year in Kansas, Mr. Hood resided in West Union. He learned the tanner's trade with Mr. Peter Schultz, and worked a number of years at that business in the yards now occupied by Jacob Plummer's flour mills. He then went to Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, where he worked nearly two years, at the end of which

 

568 - HISTORY OF' ADAMS COUNTY

 

time he turned over the business to Jesse Grant, father of ex-President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1826, Mr. Hood opened up a general store in West Union, in which business he continued until his retirement from active business life in 1868.

 

In 1831, James Hood was elected County Treasurer, defeating David Bradford, who had acted as Treasurer for more than thirty years. It was the boast of Mr. Hood that he was the first man to defeat David Bradford for Treasurer. He served for ten years and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Andrew Smalley. Mr. Hood was elected Treasurer as an Andrew Jackson Democrat, but fell out with the President because he vetoed the bill to make a national road of the Maysville and Zanesville turnpike. Had the bill become a law, it might have made a different town of West Union. He collected the taxes and kept the Treasurer's office in his store. His campaign expenses were, on an average, one dollar a year for printer's fees.

 

In 1857, Mr. Hood built the flour mills now owned by Mr. Pflaummer. He also built the house on Main Street, opposite the courthouse for a family residence, which is now occupied by William Wamsley, and the large building just west of it, for his store rooms, now owned by G. Crawford. By careful attention to business, Mr. Hood accumulated a large sum of money, and was known as one of the wealthy men of the county.

 

James Hood was twice married. His first wife was Mary Ellison daughter of Robert and Rebecca Ellison, to whom he was married December 2, 1828. She died May 9, 1838. The result of this union was John and Rebecca Ann, twins, Isabella Burgess, James and Hannah.

 

On January 9, 1840, Mr. Hood married Isabella Ellison, sister of his first wife, to whom were born the following children : Mary, Sarah, Caroline, Minerva and Samuel. She died January 8, 1862, and Mr. Hood never remarried.

 

When a young man, working at the tanner's trade, Mr. Hood, while wrestling with a young man, dislocated his ankle, which made him a cripple all the rest of his life. Politically, he was a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republican. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was the main pillar. His purse was always open when money was needed for the support of the church. He was a close Bible student and a writer of great strength. His writings were mostly of a religious nature and were printed in the West Union Scion and read with great appreciation by its readers. Mr. Hood was a modest man and all his writings were anonymous under the cognomen, "Ahiezer." If he had the opportunity, he would have made his mark as a poet, as he possessed the faculty of rhyming to an uncommon degree and often us at against his enemies to their no small discomfiture.

 

Mr. Hood had a common school education and was quite efficient in mathematics. For Several years he served as one of the County School Examiners of Adams County. He was the first man to introduce the sale of patent medicines in Adams County, from which fact he derived the title of Doctor. Mr. Hood departed this life January 9, 1890, and was laid to rest in the large vault he had erected for this purpose in his private cemetery in West Union, Ohio. It may truly be said of him that he lived in another age and with other people, for in his biography he says: “I

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 569

 

can look back to the time when West Union, Adams County, and even the

State of Ohio, was a dense forest. I can recollect the stately oaks, tall poplars, lofty walnuts and sugar trees and the thick undergrowth of paw-paws that covered the ground over which West Union is now built. At that time, we could hear the wolves howling around our cabins at night and see droves of deer passing through our town by day."

 

John P. Hood.

 

John Page Hood, the youngest child of Kohn and Hannah Hood, was born at West Union, Adams County, Ohio, December 6, 1813. His father dying when he was less than one year old, it became necessary for him to look out for himself as soon as possible. When about ten years old, he became connected with the Village Register, edited by Ralph M. Voorhees, where he learned the printing trade. He afterwards learned the cabinet making trade, at which he worked for several years. Later he clerked in the store of his brother, James. Then he engaged in the mercantile business for himself. He was postmaster of West Union during Lincoln's administration, 1861 to 1865. A few years after the close of the Civil War, he sold his store and was employed as book-keeper of the West Union woolen factory, which was then in a flourishing condition. He was cashier of the bank of G. B. Grimes & Company, when death overtook him. After a short illness, he died from heart failure, October 8. 1879, aged sixty-six years, leaving a widow and nine children, all of whom except the youngest were grown to manhood and womanhood and all are still living.

 

On December 5, 1837, John P. Hood was married to Sarah Jane McFarland, at the home of Rev. Dyer Burgess in West Union, Ohio, where, being a relative of Mrs. Burgess, she had been making her home for several years for the purpose of receiving the best educational advantages of the times. She was the eldest daughter of Duncan and Nancy McFarland, whose maiden name was Nancy J. Forsythe. Duncan McFarland, when eighteen years old, came from Ireland to this country with his uncle, Andrew Ellison of the Stone House, and settled in Meigs Township. The issue of the union of John P. Hood and Sarah J. McFarland was eleven children, Martha, the eldest, died at the age of thirteen years ; Angeline married Andrew Kohler ; Nancy J. married William H. Wright ; Ellen married George N. Crawford ; Anna B. married Dr. J. W. Bunn and Sarah B. married John M. Willson. There were five boys, John A., William, Albert C., and Oscar F. All except two of the children taught school. In Mrs. Hood's young days, the teachers of the county were mostly from the New England States, and it was her ambition to make teachers of her daughters.

 

In politics, Mr. Hood in his younger days, was a Whig. At the organization of the Republican party, he became a member of it, and so remained until his death. He was an active member of the United Presbyterian Church, in which he held the most important offices.

 

John P. Hood received a good education for the times in which he lived. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, possessing strong force of character and much native ability, and was known far and wide for his upright dealings and honesty. He was a kind husband and an indulgent father and found more pleasure in his home than any-

 

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where else. Born of Puritan stock and trained under the rigid discipline of the advocates of this doctrine, he became very methodical in all the manners and customs, and had the complete confidence of his fellow.

 

Rev. Greenberry R. Jones

 

was born April 7, 1784, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His father John Jones, emigrated from Maryland in 1768, and settled near Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Our subject was brought up in the Church of Fngland, but had never given any serious attention to religion until he listened to the preaching of Rev. Robert Wooster, who preached near Uniontown. T.here young Jones became a convert to Methodist. He had received a good education, and as a youth, he evinced a great deal of sensibility, and had a very equable disposition. He was the favorite of the family of children to which he belonged. He married Miss Rebecca Connell, daughter of Zachariah Connell.

 

He was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Church in 1810, and preached in the vicinity of his home until 1815, when he removed to Adams County, Ohio, and settled near West Union. He was admitted as a travelling minister in 1818, and removed to Hillsboro.. He preached on the Salt Creek Circuit for two years. For two years after that, he was appointed on the Scioto Circuit. After four years' service as itinerant minister, he was made a Presiding Elder. He had a strong, lively, and discriminating judgment. He came to the quarterly meetings with everything to learn and nothing to impart. He possessed a strong mind, and was bold and enterprising. He never stopped to calculate consequences.

 

From the Scioto County Circuit, he went to the White Oak Circuit two years as a minister. In 1828, he was made a Presiding Elder in the Miami District for four years. Cincinnati was in his district. Je was accessible to and agreeable in the social circle. He was always ardent and decided in his work. His conversation was plain and to the point. He uttered his thoughts with simplicity and great correctness.

 

In 1832 he was appointed an itinerant on the Hamilton Circuit, and moved to Hamilton, in that circuit. Here he lost his wife, and was married in 1833 to Mrs. Ross, of Hamilton, Ohio. He disposed of all his property in Adams County, and moved to Bethel, Clermont County, where became superannuated. However, a vacancy occurred in West Union Circuit, and he filled it. In 1839 his health was despaired of, and he was sick for a long time. He recovered, and accepted service on the New Richmond Circuit, then at Batavia, and afterwards at White Oak.

 

He was a good penman, and several times was Secretary of the Ohio Conference. As a business man, he was safe and reliable. He was twice a delegate to the General Conference. He attended the annual Conference at Marietta, in September, 1834, and while there was attacked with a colic, with which he frequently suffered. He was ill six days and died September 20, 1844, and was buried at Marietta. His death illustrated the faith in which he had lived.

 

Major Joseph L. Finley.

 

There is an old brown head-Stone in the center of the little village cemetery at West Union, which recites—"Joseph L. Finley was born February 20, 1753, and died May 23, 1839." Most of the people of West

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 571

 

Union and of those who have visited the cemetery or passed by have observed the stone, but do not know the story of him who reposes beneath, bit we propose now to tell it so that hereafter so long as this History is preserved, the head-stone will suggest its own history.

 

Major Joseph L. Finley was born on the date already given, near Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Princeton College in the class of 1775. He entered the Revolutionary War on the first day of April, 1776, as a Second Lieutenant in Captain Moorehead's Company, of Miles' Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment, organized under a resolution of Congress on July 15, 1776. He was made a Captain on the twentieth day of October, 1777, and his regiment was designated as the 13th Pennsylvania. He was transferred to the 8th Pennsylvania, July 1, 1778, and was made a Major July 20, 1780. He served until November, 1783, more than two years after the surrender of Cornwallis, and he was seven years and seven months in service in defense of his country. was in the battle of Long Island on the twenty-seventh of August 1776, and that of White Plains, the September following. He was at the battle of Brandywine in September, 1777; at Germantown, in October of the same year, and he was in the battle of Monmouth on that memorable hot Sunday, June 28, 1778. After that, he was sent with Gen. Brodhead to the western part of Pennsylvania in his expedition against the Indians. He subsequently saw much hard fighting. He lost his left eye in the service and was otherwise much disabled.

 

He emigrated to Adams County in 1815 and settled, first on Gift Ridge, and afterwards moved to the foot of the hill west of West Union, and died there. His wife was a. daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, a noted Presbyterian minister in the early part of the history of that church in this country. She was a woman of much beauty of person and nobility of character, and their daughters were likewise well educated and handsome. She was an aunt of Francis P. Blair, the famous editor of the Globe, of Washington, D. C. She was a sprightly woman, full of energy, and while small, was considered very handsome. She had the blackest of black eyes ; she wrote poetry-for the newspapers, and wrote several touching tributes to the memory of deceased friends. She has been particularly discribed to me and if I were to choose one of her descendants who resembled her as a young woman, I would choose Mrs. Dudley B. Hutchins, Portsmouth, Ohio, her great-granddaughter.

 

Major Finley and his wife were both members of the Presbyterian Church of West Union. He was a man of small stature, and in his old age his hair was silvery white. When he and his wife attended church at West Union, during the sermon he always sat on the pulpit steps, as he was somewhat deaf.

 

He had three daughters and two sons. His daughter, Hannah Finley the second wife of Col. John Lodwick, and the mother of a numerous family. Among her sons were Captain John N., Joseph, Pressley and Lyle Lodwick, and among her daughters were Mrs. Nancy McCabe, Mrs. Eli Kinney and Mrs. J. Scott Peebles. She died in 1827, twelve years before her father.

 

Another daughter, Mary Finley, married John Patterson, once United States Marshal of Ohio, and the father of Mrs. Benjamin F. Coates, of Portsmouth, Ohio. She was the mother of seven children.

 

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She was married in 1818 and died in 1831. The Hon. Joseph P. Smith late Secretary of the American Bureau of Republics, was her grandson. Margaret Finley married John Chipps and died young. She left a son, John Chipps, who died before his manhood and is buried in the West Union cemetery.

 

James Finley married a Rothwell. He died young and left several children. His wife contracted a second marriage with Samuel Clark, formerly a well known farmer south of West Union on the old Manchester Road.

 

John Finley, another son, married down South. No further account of him is known. A daughter of Mr. James Finley, Mrs. John Kincaid, resides at Hamersville, in Brown County, and another daughter resides in Dayton, Ohio.

 

Major Finley is described in an edition of the "Ohio Statesman” of May 28, 1838, as one of the truest of patriots and best of men.

 

Rev. John Graham, D. D.

 

The ashes of this eminent servant of God repose in the village Cemetery south of West Union on a hilltop which overlooks a wide expanse of plain in Liberty Township to the southwest, the rough hills of Jefferson Township to the east and the Kentucky hills to the southeast. To the north lies the village overshadowed by the Willson home to the northeast. No lovelier spot in the world for the respose of God's chosen ones and their ashes are all about him.

 

The generation now living in West Union do not know the story of life represented on the modest stone, which reads as follows:

 

Rev. John Graham, D. D.,

died July 15th, 1849,

In the 60th year of his age.

 

But to those who read this history and remember it, that stone hereafter speak and tell the noble life it represents.

 

John Graham was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania in 1798, His parents were Scotch-Irish. He was educated at the Philadelphia Academy under Doctors Wylie and Gray. He studied theology, in the U. P. Theological Seminary in New York City, and one of his instructors in the seminary was the Rev. John K. Mason, D. D. His training in the languages was most complete. read Latin, Greek and Hebrew as readily as English. He was licensed to preach in the United Presbyterian Church in 1819 and ordained August 3o, 182o. From August 20, 1820, until October 8, 1829, he was pastor of the Washington and Cross Roads Churches in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and at the same time he was Professor of Languages in Washington College.

 

In 1821, he made a trip to Ohio and, among other places, preached at Greenfield, Ohio. Here he met Miss Sarah Bonner and fell in love with her. The next year he returned and married her. She survived him until January 15, 1866, when in her sixty-sixth year, she was called away.

 

Rev. Graham was called to the churches of Sycamore and Hopkinsville, in Warren County, in 1830, and remained there until 1834. When

 

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there, Jeremiah Morrow, a former Governor of Ohio, was one of his elders. Mrs. Ellen J. Gowdy, hiS eldest daughter, who furnished many of the facts for this sketch, speaks of the many pleasant hours she and her brothers and sisters spent in the comfortable and cheerful home of the Governor. Mrs. Gowdy's parents, when the children were at the Governor's, would sometimes seek to curb their festivities, but he always insisted on their being permitted to enjoy themselves.

 

From 1834 to 1837, the Rev. Graham was in charge of the Greenfield and Fall Creek Churches and lived in Greenfield, Ohio. From 1837 to 1841, he resided in Chillicothe, Ohio, and was in charge of a boys' academy there.

 

In 1840, he accepted a call to the churches of West Union and West Fork in Adams County. Here he made his home in the dwelling now occupied by Salathiel Sparks. It was an attractive place on the hill north of the village and adjoining his church. His family circle here was unbroken until 1845 when his son John, aged nine, died. They called their home "Pleasant Hill," and it was an ideal home, as all their former neighbors and friends remember.

 

The home of the Rev. Graham, with his two sons grown to manhood, and three daughters, attractive young women, and all fond of society, was one of the places where the young people of West Union of that day met most frequently and enjoyed each other's society. Henry Graham, a son was at that time studying for the ministry, and his brother, David Graham, was a law student. His eldest daughter, Ellen J., afterwards married Rev. Gowdy of the same church, and now has a son a minister. But the home of the Rev. Graham had other visitors than the young people of the village. It was a station on the Underground Railroad and Black Joe Logan was one of the conductors. Rev. Graham kept horses and carriages and they were ever at the disposal of Joe Logan to carry fugitives further north. The writer remembers on one occasion when the horses of the Rev. Graham were taken out of his stable and turned loose and his carriage thrown over the cliff near his home by negro hunters, because they knew to what uses the horses and carriages had often been

 

Mrs. Gowdy speaks of her father's family occupying a part of the house of the Rev. Dyer Burgess (now the Palace Hotel) soon after they came to West Union. Rev. Dyer Burgess and Rev. John Graham were kindred spirits on the question of slavery. Mrs. Gowdy says that while in Mr. Burgess' house the younger children were in fear and trembling, for the house had been treated to unsavory eggs and heavy missiles by the friends of human slavery. The children all stood in awe of the Rev. Burgess.

 

One would think, naturally, that a minister's home would be a solemn place, but his daughter Ellen says of her father's home, "It was a jolly place, if it was a minister's house." The young men and women of West Union all thought so, for they spent a great deal of time there. One young lawyer in the town was there so often that one night some of the mischievous boys took down his Sign and put it up on the Rev. Graham's promises. The daughters, however, were agreeable and attractive and the young men were perfectly justifiable in their partiality for the minister's home. Mr. Graham was fond of vocal and instrumental music and often

 

574 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

 

played the violin. His family were all taught to cultivate music and together could and did carry all the parts.

 

If there is any point in the character of Mr. Graham on which more emphasis could be laid than another, it was conscience. He preferred to obey the law of God; shield and rescue the fugitive slave, even if thereby he violated the law of man and was compelled to suffer for it. He never failed to keep an appointment.

 

On July 1, 1849, he was in good health and in the full enjoyment of all his physical powers. Apparently, he had many years of usefullness before him. But the Dread Destroyer, the Asiatic cholera, was abroad in the land. On the fourth day of July, he had officiated at the funeral of Robert Wilson, who died of the cholera, and when he came home, he remarked that he had a singular dread of the disease. On the morning of July 13, both he and his son David were attacked with the disease. At that time, there was no particular fear of it and the neighbors came in numbers and tendered their ministrations. David, the son, though very near death's door, recovered, but the disease was too powerful for his father and on the fifteenth of July he passed away. He left two sons and three daughters.

 

The Rev. Henry Graham, his eldest son, is a minister at Indians, Pennsylvania, and the father of eight children.

 

David Graham, a lawyer at Logansport, Indiana, died in 1887. He left three daughters who reside in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Mrs. Ellen J. Gowdy, widow of Rev. G. W. Gowdy, resides at Des Moines, Iowa. She has one son living, a minister, and three daughters, one a teacher at Des Moines, one with her and one Mrs. D. B. Baker, whose husband is in the shoe business in New York City. This daughter is an artist as well as the one residing with her mother.

 

Mrs. Flizabeth F. Stewart, widow of R. F. Stewart, resides at Albany, New York. She has four sons, all in the ministry, and two deceased.

 

Mrs. Sallie M. Gordon, the youngest daughter of Rev. Graham, is also a widow. She has one daughter and two sons, both ministers. All three of Rev. Graham's daughters' husbands were ministers, and of sons, seven are ministers.

 

Abraham Hollingsworth.

 

In taking a review of early settlers of Adams County, the above name is not to be forgotten.

 

Near historic Winchester, Virginia, not a mile out of town, there stands a grand old stone house, surrounded on three sides by a clear, limpid, spring-fed creek, bordered by large shade trees. The stream is called Abraham's Creek, and was so named by Abraham Hollingsworth, who built the house before the Revolution. Across the stream to the left of the house is a stone flour mill as old as the stone mansion. The estate originally consisted of some four hundred acres, and was taken up by the Hollingsworth family about the time of Lord Fairfax's grant from Charles the Second. Lord Fairfax claimed his right to be prior, but the Hollingsworth of that day held out stoutly for his rights, and compelled a quitclaim from the English lord, who, though a lord by title, was a boor in his manners and style of living, and there have been Hollingsworths at Winchester from that day to this.

 

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 575

 

Here on the twentieth of August, A. D. 1782, the subject of our sketch was born. His father's name was Robert, born in 1744, and died in 1799. His mother was Susanna Rice, born August 24, 1751, and died in 1833. Abraham was the seventh child of his parents ; he had eight brothers and five sisters. The eldest son and child was born December 25, 1770, and the youngest December 13, 1796. These were the days when people believed in large families and had them.

 

The family to which Abraham Hollingsworth belonged, originated in the county of Cheshire in England, in the eleventh century. The name originally Holly'sworth. There were abundance of holly trees grown on the original Hollingsworth manor, in Cheshire, Fngland, and "worth" in original Saxon meant farm or fief, and "Hollyworth" meant Holly or manor or farm, and the family took its name from the manor. The family had and has a coat of arms in the Herald's College ; the shield contains three holly leaves vert, and the crest a stag's head. The motto is "Disce Ferindi Patienter"—Learn to endure patiently.

 

The stone house was started to be built by Abraham Hollingsworth, the great-grandfather of our Abraham. He made his will in September, and died in November. He must have owned an immense quantity of land, for he gave one son 25o acres, part of a tract of 1,050 acres which he owned on Opequan Creek. He willed to his son Isaac the stone house then unfinished, with the materials to finish it, and the lands which were with it. Isaac's son Robert was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. In England the family can be traced back to 1022, and in this country to 1682, when Valentine Hollingsworth, in England, came over with William Penn. There was a John Hollingsworth in England in 1559, who was a gentleman and occupied Hollingsworth Hall. He was an officer of the Herald's College. The Valentine Hollingsworth who came over with William Penn was the founder of the family in America. He was a Quaker as most of the Hollingsworths have since been. It seems he had a son Thomas married in 1692 in the form the Quakers , used and a certificate of the marriage, with the names of the subscribing witnesses, has been preserved and the following is a copy of it:

 

Whereas, That Thomas Hollingsworth, of ye county of New Castle and manor of Rockland, and Grace Cook of ye county of Chester, township of Concord, having declared their intentions of marriage before several monthly meetings of ye people called Quakers, held 12, 8, and 1, 14, 1691-2, at Concord in ye county of Chester, whose proceedings were allowed by said meetings.

 

Now these are to certify, all whom it may concern for ye full accomplishment of their said intentions, this 31 day of the first month, one thousand six hundred and ninety two.

 

Ye said Thomas Hollingsworth and Grace Cook appeared in an assembly of people, at a meeting for ye purpose, appointed at ye house of Nathaniel Park in Concord, and ye said Thomas Hollingsworth taking ye said Grace Cook by ye hand, did, in a solemn manner, openly declare that he took her to be his wife, promising through ye Lord's assistance, to be to her a loving and faithful husband until death should separate them. And then and there in ye said assembly Grace Cook did in like declare ye that she took said Thomas Hollingsworth to be her husband, promising through ye Lord's assistance, to be unto him a loving and faithful wife until death should separate them. And moreover, ye said Thomas Hollingworth and Grace Cook, (she according to ye custom of marriage assuming the name of her husband as a further confirmation thereof, did then and there to these presents set their hands, and we, whose names are hereunder written, being