200 - Pioneer Biography. years ago, stood two log-cabins, in one of which a Scotchman of the name of Buchanan dwelt, and in the other had a small store, where he drove a profitable traffic with the Indian traders and frontiermen, who came down the mountain pass ; exchanging with them powder, salt, iron, fire-arms, sugar, blankets, and cloths, for the furs and peltries of the hunters and trappers, and the "old Monongahela whisky" of the backwoodsmen. The old Scotch trader had a son, named James, born here, and cradled amid these wild scenes of nature and the rude din of frontier life. The father prospered in trade, and after a few years removed into the town of Mercersburgh, where he assumed a higher rank in business. He opened a respectable store, and was a justice of the peace. He sent his son James to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he graduated in 1809. He then studied law, and commenced the practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We afterward find him among the most accomplished, eloquent, and distinguished members of the United States Senate, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James, and, in 1857, President of the United States. When Matthew Hueston was two years of age, his father, William Hueston, removed from their residence, in Pennsylvania, and came west of the Alleghany mountains, into what was then called the " backwoods." The settlements on the Monongahela com- Matthew Hueston - 201 menced about the year 1771, and the settlements along the Ohio river, the succeeding year. The journey over the mountains was effected on horses, with pack-saddles, on which were transported the small children that could not walk, and all the earthly goods and chattels of the emigrants. Mr. Hueston said that fortunately they were like their neighbors, not incumbered with much baggage. At this period, land was the great object which induced most of the settlers to brave the hardships and dangers of the wilderness. Building a cabin and planting a few acres of corn, however small, entitled the occupant to four hundred acres of land, and a pre-emption right to one thousand acres more adjoining, to be secured by a land-warrant. Matthew Hueston's father settled himself and family in Ohio county, State of Virginia. He located on a tract of land lying on Little Wheeling creek, twelve miles above its mouth, built a cabin, cleared a few acres of land, and planted a crop of corn. In the spring of the year 1774, Dunmore's war commenced, and the Indians became troublesome. This, in a great measure, broke up the settlements, and the women and children were removed to forts for security. Mr. Hueston removed his family to "Taylor's Fort," named after Mr. Robert Taylor, father of the late Henry Taylor, who was one of the early settlers of 202 - Pioneer Biography. Butler county, Ohio, and died but a few years ago. Robert Taylor was an uncle of Matthew Hueston. Taylor's Fort was situated on Buffalo creek, twenty-four miles from the town of Wheeling, then Fort Henry, and twelve miles from the place where Mr. Hueston had located himself. The fort was inclosed with pickets, protected by four block-houses, one at each corner, and consisted of a number of log-cabins for the accommodation of the inmates. Mr. Hueston's family remained most of the time at the fort, but occasionally went to the farm, when it was deemed safe. In this manner passed several years—Mr. Hueston at intervals going to the farm for the purpose of gathering in his crop, and seeing that all things were secure. On one of these trips, he was shot, killed, and scalped by the Indians, at the door of his own cabin. Mrs. Hueston, now left a widow with six small children, and not being in affluent circumstances, was unable to afford them any other education than such as could be acquired at a common school kept in the fort, there being no other school in the country at that time. As soon as Matthew was old enough, he was required to assist in the labor of the farm, or some other business, to help support his mother and the rest of the children. At the age of fifteen years, he went as an apprentice to learn the trade of a tanner and currier, and continued in that employment four years. After acquiring his trade, he worked at it as a journey- Matthew Hueston - 203 man for some time, until he accumulated a small amount of property. Being desirous of making something for himself, he vested the proceeds of his labor in a small venture of stock, amounting to some four or five hundred dollars in value, consisting of calf-skins, bootlegs, and other articles, principally in the leather line, which he put on board of a boat descending the Ohio, and set out on a trading voyage down the river. On the 17th of April, 1793, he landed at Cincinnati where he remained a few days. He left a portion of his cargo at Cincinnati, in charge of a person, to be disposed of for him, and descended the river with the boat and the residue of his stock to the falls of the Ohio, where he sold out the articles which he had taken with him. He then started on foot, in company with three other men, for Limestone (now Maysville, Kentucky), traveling through what was then an unbroken wilderness, exposed to all the dangers and privations unavoidably attending upon such an undertaking. On arriving at Limestone, Mr. Hueston and one of his companions procured a flat-boat, and returned to Cincinnati, floating all day and night. The Ohio river was uncommonly high at this time, and the weather very boisterous, so that it required great labor to manage the boat, and, notwithstanding their utmost exertions, at daylight the next morning they were blown onto the Ohio shore, and had to tie up their boat to the trees, where they remained all day. 204 - Pioneer Biography. The Indians were then troublesome along the river, which caused them to spend a most anxious day. However, as the water was over the banks, among the timber, they could not be boarded except with canoes or by swimming. Hence, they considered themselves less liable to an attack. At sunset, the wind abating, they put out and continued their voyage. Being much fatigued with previous hard labor and want of rest, they both fell asleep and floated to opposite Cincinnati early the next morning, when some men from the garrison of Fort Washington came off and hailed them, or they would have floated past without knowing it. This was about the second week in June. General Wayne, with his troops, had arrived at Cincinnati, since Mr. Hueston had been there, and encamped on the ground which now forms the lower part of the city, then called " Hobson's Choice." Shortly after his arrival at Cincinnati, Mr. Hueston sold out the portion of his goods, which he had left there, to a man of the name of McCrea, amounting in value to about three hundred dollars. However, in a few days afterward, McCrea decamped and went down the river, taking all the property with him, leaving Mr. H ueston unpaid, thus taking the proceeds of several years of hard labor and industry. He then went to work in a tannery, the one afterward owned by Jesse Hunt, where he remained a couple of months. He then engaged with Robert McClel- Matthew Hueston - 205 Ian and William McClellan, who were pack-horse masters, attached to General Wayne's army, to assist in driving a brigade of pack-horses from Cincinnati to Fort Jefferson. Having completed the trip, and returned to Cincinnati, he engaged, at fifteen dollars per month, to drive a drove of beef cattle, which had then just arrived from Kentucky, out to Fort Jefferson, and, when arrived there, to superintend the killing of the cattle and putting up the beef; which was designed to supply the garrison at that post during the ensuing winter. Mr. Hueston arrived safe with the cattle at Fort Jefferson, in the beginning of November, and commenced killing them. There being no salt at the garrison, the meat had to be hung up in the open air around the fort, to preserve it from spoiling, until salt could be procured. This caused a delay in the business for some time. It being found that the acting commissary at this post was incompetent to discharge the duties of his office, Mr. Hueston was appointed commissary in his place, at the pay of thirty dollars per month. The next summer he returned to Fort Washington, at Cincinnati, and when the army, under the command of General Wayne, marched on their expedition, he accompanied them, and continued in the office of issuing commissary until the summer of 1795, when he resigned his appointment. 206 - Pioneer Biography. He then furnished himself with a stock of groceries and other articles, and commenced the business of a sutler, or trader with the army. This business he pursued until the year 1796. He had a store at Greenville, and another at Cincinnati. For the convenience of transacting the business at both establishments, he entered into a partnership with Mr. John Sayre, to whose care he committed the charge of the store at Cincinnati. During this time the business was profitable, articles being sold at an advance of from one hundred to two hundred per cent. on their cost. By this means Mr. Hueston soon accumulated property and money to the amount of twelve or fifteen thousand dollars. In the latter part of the year 1796, Mr. Hueston, then at Greenville, was attacked with a severe fever, which sickness confined him to his bed for three or four weeks. As soon as he was so far recovered from his illness as to be able to ride, he set out for Cincinnati, where he found his business in a wretched condition. His partner had become dissipated, and had squandered most of the property by gambling and intemperance, and finally had sold out the stock, and gone down the river, leaving Mr. Hueston to pay the debts of the firm. This he did, and found that after all his means and property were exhausted, there were still some four hundred dollars of the debts remaining unpaid. Thus he was again left to commence the world anew. Matthew Hueston - 207 However, not discouraged by the reverses of fortune which had befallen him, he still persevered in his exertions. He returned to his old business of driving cattle, and made an engagement, with the contractor for the army, to drive a drove of cattle, consisting of three hundred and fifty head, from Cincinnati to Detroit, for two dollars and fifty cents per head. This trip had to be made the whole distance through an entire wilderness. Notwithstanding which, he delivered-all the cattle safe, and returned to Cincinnati, having completed the trip in forty days. He continued to pursue this and similar business, driving and buying cattle and trading in various articles, until the year 1800. During which time, by perseverance, industry, and economy, he had paid off all the old debts against him, and accumulated some fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred dollars in hard cash. This he determined to lay out in the purchase of land, under the impression that land could not be so easily dissipated as some of his property had heretofore been. He purchased a tract of two hundred acres of land, four miles south of Hamilton. It is the same farm lately owned by Aaron L. Schenck, Esq. The land was then altogether in the woods. The turnpike road to Cincinnati, the Miami canal, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad now pass through it. Mr. Hueston then turned his attention to the improvement of his land, and in a few years had a large farm 208 - Pioneer Biography. under cultivation. He built a hewed log-house, in which he lived and kept entertainment for travelers a number of years. At the United States land sales, in 1801, Mr. Hueston purchased, or entered shortly afterward, agreeably to a law of Congress, three sections of land, and two fractional sections, west of the Great Miami river, comprehending in the whole about two thousand six hundred acres. Mr. Hueston, by a long course of industry and economy during his life, acquired a large landed estate. He always adhered to the principle of appropriating the spare funds at his command, from time to time, to the purchase of land, so that he eventually became one of the largest landholders in Butler county. On the 15th of April, 1802, he married Miss Catherine Davis, and settled on his farm, south of Hamilton, where he continued to reside until the year 1813, when he removed to his farm on Four-mile creek, west of the Great Miami river, in Hanover township, being one of the sections of land which he had purchased at the land sales in 1801. Here he built a large stone mansion, in which he lived and superintended his extensive farm until October, 1834, when he removed to his late residence in Rossville, which he had previously built. It stands on an eminence in the west part of the town, and commands an extensive view of both the towns of Hamilton and Rossville. Mr. Hueston served several years as captain of a Matthew Hueston - 209 troop of light-horse, from which he was afterward advanced to the office of colonel of the 2d regiment, Ohio militia. In the year 1812, as soon as the news was received of the surrender of General Hull's army at Detroit (which took place on the 16th of August), Colonel Hueston volunteered his services, and marched with a number of others to Fort Wayne, for the relief of that place, which was then besieged by the enemy. After serving two or three months, he was appointed purchasing commissary for the contractor of the Northwestern army. He purchased a vast number of horses, and a large quantity of provisions in Butler county, for the supply of the army. He continued to act in that capacity until the termination of the war. In the year 1808, he was elected a justice of the peace in Fairfield township, and continued to serve by repeated elections until he removed to the west side of the river, where, in a few months, he was again elected a justice of the peace for Hanover township, and served in that capacity until he removed to Rossville in 1834, making a term of twenty-three years, during which he continued in the active discharge of the duties of a magistrate. To restrain the lawless, to protect the weak, and to do justice to all, were the constant objects of his care. And so well did he succeed in the discharge of his duties, that during all the long time he 210 - Pioneer Biography. served as a justice, not a single case was appealed from his decision and the judgment reversed. In the year 1826, he was elected one of the commissioners of Butler county, which office he held by successive re-elections for the term of nine years, during which time economy and a careful oversight over the fiscal concerns of the county received his constant attention. Although Colonel Hueston had not the advantage of a liberal education in his youth, he attained, by the aid of his own strong common sense, and by making a good use of after-occurring opportunities, to a degree of general intelligence that would do credit to a man of liberal education. He was an agreeable and entertaining social companion and an amiable man. He was contemporary and well acquainted with many of the officers of the army under the command of General Wayne, and the pioneer adventurers of those early times. He possessed a fund of anecdote, and could relate many of the transactions which occurred in those days. He knew and was personally acquainted with Simon Kenton, Contractor Elliott, who was killed by the Indians between Hamilton and Cincinnati, Robert Benham, and Robert McClellan, whose most extraordinary feats of activity he often related. William Hueston, the father of Colonel Hueston, married Elizabeth Taylor, a sister of the late Henry Matthew Hueston - 211 Taylor, who lived near Four-mile creek, in Butler county. They had children : I. Matthew, the subject of this sketch. II. Mary, who married Gilbert Marshall, and lived near Darrtown, in. Butler county, where he died. His widow and several of their descendants are yet living in the neighborhood. III. Thomas Hueston lives on a fine farm on the Hamilton and Eaton turnpike road, four miles from Hamilton. IV. Robert Hueston, another son, went to New Orleans many years ago, and died there of yellow fever. V. John Hueston went to the South, and settled near Natchez. He died some years ago. VI. Jane, a daughter, married a Mr. Semple. After the death of William Hueston, his widow married Thomas Gray. They came to the West, and lived near Four-mile creek, in Butler county, where they died several years ago. The fruits of that marriage were: I and II. Samuel and William Gray were twins. Samuel was a carpenter, learned his trade in Hamilton, and lived several years in Rossville, then removed West, and finally went to Oregon, where he died. William is yet living near Crawfordsville, State of Indiana. 212 - Pioneer Biography. III. Robert Gray, a son, died at Brookville, Indiana, some years ago. IV. Elizabeth Gray married John Nelson, the son of an old and respectable settler of Butler county. He was a wheelwright by trade, and lived some time in Rossville. They removed West, and both died in the State of Illinois. V. Joseph Gray died at Crawfordsville, in the State of Indiana, in the year 1855. VI. Sarah Gray married Dr. Robert Millikin, who was for many years a practicing physican in Rossville. She died in August, 1833. Colonel Matthew Hueston died at his residence, in Rossville, on Friday morning, April 16, 1847, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and on the following Sunday his remains were conveyed to the burying-ground at the Presbyterian meeting-house, near Collinsville, followed by a large concourse of citizens. The services were conducted with the ceremonies of the Masonic fraternity. The widow of Colonel Hueston yet survives, and resides in the family mansion in Rossville. The fruits of their marriage were four sons and five daughters : I. William, the oldest son, was brought up a farmer, and now lives in the State of Missouri. II. Eliza, a daughter, married William Thorns, wealthy Scotchman, of Cincinnati, where they lived Matthew Hueston - 213 until his death, several years ago. She is now a widow, and lives in the old Hueston residence, on Four-mile creek, in Butler county. III. Mary married Robert Harper, a produce dealer and trader, of Hamilton. They now live in Rossville. IV. Samuel, the second oldest son, was a farmer, and died on his farm east of Hamilton several years ago. V. Thomas, a son, died in youth. VI. Eleanor married Thomas Robertson, of Pittsburgh. He died several years ago. She is now a widow, and lives on a farm near Four-mile creek, in Butler county. VII. Robert Hueston, the youngest son, graduated at the Miami University. He afterward studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice, but died in a few years after at his paternal residence; in Rossville. He was never married. VIII. Cynthia married Harrison C. Budd, of Rossville. They now live on a portion of the old Hueston farm in Butler county. IX. Catherine, the youngest daughter, married Mr. Thomas Miller, a merchant of Chillicothe, where they yet reside. XVI. Charles K. Smith. THE subject of this sketch was one of the first born, on Ohio soil, of the families that made up the little community of settlers around Fort Washington, who, so soon after their first landing in the then unbroken wilderness, reduced it to civilized order, and laid the foundation of the Queen City of the West, in a territory that became the State of Ohio, in the short space of fifteen years from the time those pioneers made their first battle with the wilderness and its savage features of primeval forest and aboriginal horrors. Charles Kilgore Smith was born in Cincinnati, February 15, 1799. His father, James Smith, was then the sheriff of Hamilton county and the collector of the government revenue, which position he occupied till 18o5, when he removed to a farm near Hamilton, in Butler county, at the point of confluence of Four-mile creek and the Great Miami, where he lived till the time of his death in 1834.* C. K. Smith, after the preliminary *James Smith, generally known as "Sheriff Smith," emigrated from Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, to the West, in the year 1792. He descended the Ohio river in company with General James Findlay, and Charles K. Smith - 215 schooling available in those times, was placed in the grammar school of Rev. James Hughes, at Oxford, that school being the predecessor of Miami University, which was organized on its original plan, under Rev. Dr. R. H. Bishop, a few years later. The Erodelphian society of the university seems to have recognized the merits of the school and the pupil of Mr. Hughes, in the election of Mr. Smith as an honorary member, in 1825. From this school, where he spent about three years, he went, in 1815, into the on arriving at Cincinnati formed, with his traveling companion, a partnership in the mercantile business, under the firm of " Smith & Findlay," which existed for more than ten years. The business of the firm was transacted on Front street, near the foot of Broadway. In the meantime, however, Mr. Smith was honored with several public trusts, under the territorial government of the Northwestern Territory. He was appointed sheriff of Hamilton county, and after the organization of the State of Ohio, was the first sheriff elected by the people of the same county, and held the office seven or eight years in all. During a part of the time, he was collector of the revenue of the Government of the United States for the Northwestern Territory and of the taxes for the county. In the early settlement of the West, few men stood higher in public estimation, and exercised a greater influence with their fellow-citizens than Mr. Smith. He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the governor of the Territory, and for a time acted as his private secretary. He was captain of the first light infantry company raised in Cincinnati, and, during the last war, paymaster of the 1st regiment, 3d detachment, of the Ohio Militia, called into the service of the United States, and was in Fort Meigs when it was besieged by the British and 216 - Pioneer Biography. employ, as assistant, of the late John Reily, who was then clerk of the supreme and common pleas courts of Butler county, and postmaster of Hamilton, with whom he remained till 1821, the latter two years of the time as deputy clerk and postmaster. In this year he was chosen recorder of Butler county, and, in 1827, he was elected treasurer of the county, continuing to hold and discharge the duties of both these offices until he resigned them in 1835, to take the position of cashier of the Bank of Hamilton—this being one of the few Indians during that war. Indeed, he was among the foremost of the early settlers as respects character, influence, and capacity for business, and possessed in a large degree that public confidence most highly prized by gentlemen, the trust reposed in an honest man. Mr. Smith removed to a farm, near Hamilton, about the year 1805, and lived to a good old age. He was born December zz, 1763, and at the period of his death only wanted a few more days to complete his seventy-first year. He enjoyed every opportunity of accumulating wealth, but was one of those men who pay little regard to riches, further than to supply present wants, to accommodate a friend, or to relieve a poor man. That he had his errors is more than probable, for they form a part of the inheritance of flesh and blood. It is enough that there are still living many in the Miami Valley, who will pay the same respectful tribute to his memory which the writer heard pronounced by one of the oldest and most influential citizens of Hamilton—by a man who had known the deceased for nearly forty years: "Every one who knew him liked him." Who could wish for more? Words can not express more meetly the eulogy of an upright man. Charles K. Smith - 217 banks of Ohio that withstood the crash of 1837. He continued to act as its cashier till the 9th of February, 1842, when the bank made an assignment, under the pressure of the stringent statutes of that year. Having previously studied law with Hon. John Woods, he was admitted to the practice of that profession in 1840, upon which he entered more fully on leaving the bank, being already recognized as an attorney in the courts of the United States and several of the Territories, as well as a member of the American Legal Association of New York. Mr. Smith was remarkable for the amount of public service he performed, beginning, as he did, in very early life to discharge the duties of important offices, as the assistant of others, and afterwards as principal in many important trusts. He was thus so trained from youth that he was qualified for almost any position of the public service, with practical experience added to natural ability. As early as the war of 1812, he acted as the deputy of his father, in the paymaster's department, for the troops raised in the southwest of Ohio. In this capacity, he was with Colonel R. M. Johnson's mounted Kentuckians, when they encamped at Fort Defiance. Some years afterward he was paymaster for the Ohio militia of the same Territory. In politics he was a Whig, during the existence of that party, and in 1848 was one of the original supporters of 218 - Pioneer Biography. General Taylor for the Presidency, though he so managed his political relations as not only not to be offensive to those who differed with him, but to maintain a cordial state of feeling with decided opponents. In March, 1848, he was elected by the General Assembly, under the old constitution, to the office of associate judge, in which position he was anything but one of the traditional cyphers, by which the bench was made to number one thousand, for he did not hesitate to express his dissent to the opinion of his president, and was sustained by the supreme court in his dissenting judgment. The term of this office was seven years, but the new constitution would have terminated it in two, which would have accorded with his views of the necessity of reform in our judicial system, for he was one of the earliest advocates of a change in the constitution, in order to secure a revision of our system of courts. When in a suitable position, in several conventions of the people about this time, he made it the occasion to bring the subject of a new constitution before them, and secure the adoption of resolutions in its favor especially with reference to an improved form of our courts. But he resigned this office at the end of a year to accept a government appointment. About the time of the inauguration of General Taylor's administration, the Territory of Minnesota was organized, when the office of secretary for the new territorial Charles K. Smith - 219 government was tendered to Mr. Smith, who repaired to this new field of public service in May, 1849. This now flourishing State was then almost an unbroken wilderness, the military forts and a little settlement at St. Paul being the only exceptions in favor of civilization. Under the act organizing the Territory, in the absence of the governor, the duties of that office were made to devolve upon the secretary of the Territory, and in this capacity Mr. Smith was acting governor of Minnesota some six months, as well as superintendent of Indian affairs, an office embraced in that of secretary. He served as secretary of the Territory nearly three years, when he retired from the post. One of his earliest acts there, in a public capacity, was to devise a plan, which he reported at a meeting of the citizens in December, 1849, for supplying school rooms for the children of the Territory during the winter, and to ascertain the extent of the provisions of the laws for the support of schools. This report will be found in the published Annals of the Minnesota Historical Society. We quote from a sketch of Mr. Smith, as follows : "The history of the act incorporating this society, and the published proceedings, show that Mr. Smith was the life and moving spirit of it while he remained in the Territory. The pamphlet, containing upward of two hundred pages, embracing the transactions of the first two annual meetings of the society, was published and 220 - Pioneer Biography. circulated throughout the United States at the sole expense of Mr. Smith. The organization of the society was brought about by him, and through his exertions it was incorporated by the first territorial legislature. Its proceedings were highly spoken of by the press at the time; though it was thought by some to be anomalous to have an historical society in a country without a history as was supposed, the Territory being but just organized. But the Minnesota Historical Society was a success; and since its organization, it has published upward of one thousand pages of valuable information, and it may be added, that the publications of that society did as much, if not more, to attract emigration to Minnesota than any other means. " Mr. Smith was appointed by the territorial legislature one of the first regents of the Territorial University, located at the city of St. Anthony. He was present at the first meeting, and introduced the first ordinance for the government of the university. Congress had made large appropriations of land for its support; buildings were very soon erected, and shortly after the organization of the Territory, the university was in successful operation. Mr. Smith was an active advocate of schools, and made himself very useful in furthering all educational enterprises, and means of instruction in the early years of the Territory. The churches also received his assistance. In 1849, there was not a church build- Charles K. Smith - 221 ing in St. Paul, except one small log-house belonging to the Catholics. In the absence of church buildings, Mr. Smith prepared the rooms used for the first territorial legislature, and permitted the different denominations to hold religious meetings in them. "Mr. Smith was president of the board of Commissioners of the Public Buildings of the Territory, and during his services as such all the preliminaries were arranged for the erection of the capital buildings and the territorial prison. " The early territorial history of Minnesota is closely connected with the name of C. K. Smith, and we may well say that he had the honor of being one of the most prominent founders of a new empire of the Northwest, from which has sprung the young and vigorous State of Minnesota." Mr. Smith took an active part in most of the benevolent enterprises of his time. In 1822, he was chosen recording secretary of the first Bible society organized in Butler county, and he was a regular subscriber to the support of the United Presbyterian Church, in which he had been brought up, and with which his family was associated. In private charities, he was prompt and liberal without ostentation. Often the poor found him a ready friend, affording them substantial relief, their necessities being their recommendation to his notice, when the more pretentious claims of popular charities 222 - Pioneer Biography. were left to wait. He was an enthusiastic and devoted member of the ancient fraternity of Free Masons, to which he was admitted in 1821, and in which he advanced to the highest degrees of the order. In 1841, he united as a charter member in organizing a lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, from which he advanced through the higher degrees. He was ,a Knight Templar as a Mason and an Encampment member in Odd Fellowship. He also received a dispensation to open a Masonic lodge in Minnesota, and assisted in establishing a lodge of Odd Fellows in that new Territory. He married a daughter of Rev. James McMechan, one of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers of Butler county. From this marriage were born five sons and four daughters, all of whom, but one daughter, with their mother, survived him. After retiring from Minnesota, Mr. Smith returned to Hamilton, Ohio, and purchasing the old homestead of his father, upon which he began life in Butler county in 1805, he settled down to the cultivation of a farm, giving very little further attention to public matters, beyond taking an active interest in the measures of the war for the Union, in which service four of his sons took part. He continued upon the farm till the time of his death, which occurred on the 28th of September, 1866, in his sixty-eighth year. Though he never aspired to authorship, Mr. Smith Charles K. Smith - 223 was a vigorous writer. His style was direct and forcible, and, for the space occupied, more than usually comprehensive, and particularly well adapted to short papers, such as reports, etc. He produced many of these that were highly valuable contributions to the published matter of his day. Among these are a report on "Irish Repeal," etc.; Report of the Debate on Slavery in 1842, between Dr. Junkin and Rev. T. E. Thomas; Biographical Sketches of Rev. A. W. Elliott and John P. Reynolds, Esq.; Notes on Butler County, and the various historical papers he prepared in Minnesota. He was also a frequent writer for the public press, many of his articles producing a marked effect upon the objects and subjects to which they were directed. His happiest efforts with the pen were in the shape of sketches of personal or pioneer history, as in these subjects he was deeply interested, and gave much of his time to the collection of items of the early history of the country and its men. He was a man of intensified character and most strongly marked individuality, though far less selfish than such men are apt to be. There was very little of compromise in his composition. What he was, he was decidedly. His friends were unqualifiedly such, and his enemies, for such a man could not well be without enemies, were equally pronounced. His friendship was strong and enduring, while his remembrance of wrongs and injuries seemed never to survive an offer of reparation 224 - Pioneer Biography. or reconciliation, and now, those who most intimately knew him most earnestly cherish his memory. His name is identified with the history of Southwestern Ohio and the new State of Minnesota, and, in this connection, will go down to posterity as one who labored for the prosperity and advancement of both. XVII. Captain, John Cleves Symmes. THE SYMMES FAMILY,* so well known to the early settlers of this region, trace their descent from Rev. ZACHARIAH SYMMES, (1) who was born at Canterbury, England, April 5, 1599, and came to New England in 1634, in the same ship with Ann Hutchinson and John Lathrop. He became pastor of the church at Charlestown, Massachusetts, which position he held until his death, February 4, 1671. His son, WILLIAM, (2) was born at Dunstable, England, in 1627, and came to this country with his father in 1634. He was a sea captain, and died September 22, 1691. William's son, TIMOTHY, (3) was born in 1683; married Elizabeth Rose in 171o. He was a farmer, and lived near Scituate, Massachusetts, where his grandson, Judge Symmes, visited him in 1762. He died in 1765. *This genealogy differs somewhat from that given in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 13, pp. 535-137, and from that given by Mr. McBride in his MS. We are indebted for it to Rev. Francis M. Symmes, of Lebanon, Indiana, who has devoted considerable time and patience to unraveling the knotty threads.—ED. 226 - Pioneer Biography. He was the father of Rev. TIMOTHY SYMMES, (4) who was born at Scituate in 1714. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1733 ; ordained December 2, 1736, at Millington Parish, in East Haddam, Connecticut. Married, first, Mary Cleves, in 1740. He was driven from his parish on account of his activity in the great revival early in 1742. He went to River Head, Long Island, where his sons were born; John Cleves, (5-1) July 10, 1742, and Timothy, (5-2) April 10, 1744. For some years he was engaged in missionary work in West Jersey. He married, second, Eunice Cogswell, about 175o. They had two children—Ebenezer, born 1754, and William, born 1756. In 1752 he went to Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he supplied the First Church until the time of his death, April 6, 1756. JOHN CLEVES SYMMES (5-1) (usually called Judge Symmes) removed to New Jersey, where he took an active part in the struggles of the Revolution. He was chairman of the committee of safety in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1774, and in the following year was commissioned colonel of one of the Sussex militia regiments. In March, 1776, he was ordered with his regiment to New York, where it was employed in erecting the forts and batteries on Manhattan Island and on Long Island. Shortly before the battle of Long Island he was elected a delegate to the State Convention of New Jersey, which met at Burlington on loth June, and was a member of the committee which was appointed to draft a con- John Cleves Symmes - 227 stitution for the State. Toward the close of that year, Colonel Symmes was sent by the legislature of his State to Ticonderoga, with the delicate task of making a new arrangement of the officers of the New Jersey regiment, in the northern department. On his return he was ordered with his command to Morris county, and joined the brigade of Colonel Jacob Ford. "On the 14th December, while quartered at Chatham, and charged with the duty of covering the retreat of Washington through New Jersey, Colonel Ford received intelligence that eight hundred British troops, commanded by General Leslie, had advanced to Springfield, four miles from Chatham ; he ordered Colonel Symmes to proceed to Springfield, and check the approach of the enemy, if possible. Accordingly, Colonel Symmes, with a detachment of the brigade, marched to that village and attacked the British in the evening. This was the first check Leslie met with after leaving Elizabethtown, but others soon followed, and his further progress in that direction was effectually stopped." (Edsall's Address, Sussex Centenary, p. 63.) From the end of 1776 to 1779 he had the principal command and superintendence of the forts extending along the frontier of New Jersey against the Indians. He was with General Dickinson when he surprised the British at Staten Island. He was at Redbank fort when the British ships came up the Delaware and attacked both Redbank and Mifflin forts, the latter of 228 - Pioneer Biography. which they took. He was at the battles of Monmouth and Short Hills. He made five excursions on Long Island while it was in the hands of the British, in one of which he and four of his men took a British schooner and made ten men prisoners. He was offered a command by General Washington to go and make Prince William Henry a prisoner in New York, but this adventure he declined as impracticable. Colonel Humphreys undertook it and failed. In a civil point of view, Colonel Symmes rendered himself equally conspicuous. While a citizen of New Jersey, he served his State one year as lieutenant governor ; six years as a member of the council ; two years in the Continental Congress, and twelve years as judge of the Supreme Court. On February 19, 1788, Congress elected him one of the judges of the Territory northwest of the Ohio river, and here he spent the balance of his days. He purchased the land lying between the two Miamis, settled at North Bend, and by his public spirit and liberality encouraged the settlement of the whole region. He married, first, Ann Tuthill ; second, Mrs. Halsey, and, third, Susanna, daughter of Governor Livingston, of New Jersey. He had two daughters, Maria, who married Major Peyton Short, of Kentucky, and Anna, who married William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the United States. Judge Symmes died at Cincinnati, February 26, 1814, in the seventy-second year of his age. John Cleves Symmes - 229 TIMOTHY SYMMES (5-2) was also an active man in the Revolutionary war, and was judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas of Sussex county, New Jersey. He married, first, Abigail Tuthill, by whom he had three sons, DANIEL, (6-1) WILLIAM, (6-2) and CELADON.(6-3) By his second marriage, with Mary Harker, he had four sons, JOHN CLEVES,(6-4) the subject of this sketch ; TIMOTHY, (6-5) who died young ; PEYTON S., (6-8) and TIMOTHY ;(6-9) and two daughters, MARY,(6-6) afterward Mrs. Moore, and JULIANNA,(6-7) afterward Mrs. Reeder. He died February 20, 1797, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. DANIEL SYMMES,(6-1) born 1772, studied and was graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, and came west with his father. He married Elizabeth Oliver in 1795. He was appointed clerk of the court of the Territory northwest of the Ohio river. During his continuance in this office he studied law and was admitted to the bar, and practiced for some years. He was elected a member of the senate of the State of Ohio, and presided over that body as speaker. He was subsequently appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, on the resignation of Judge Meigs, in 1804, and on the expiration of his term became register of the land office at Cincinnati, which office he held until a few months previous to his death, which took place May 10, 1817. WILLIAM SYMMES (6-2) was born in 1774; married Rebecca Randolph, 1796; owned and lived on a farm in the south part of Butler county. He died in 1809. 230 - Pioneer Biography. CELADON SYMMES (6-3) was born May 30, 1770 owned a section of land about three miles south of Hamilton, on which he lived nearly all his life. The village of Symmes' Corners, on the turnpike road from Hamilton to Cincinnati, is at the southwest corner of this section and derives its name from him. He was elected justice of the peace of Butler county in 1803. In 18o6 he was chosen by the legislature of the State an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Butler county, which position he held for seven years. He married Phebe Randolph, October 14, 1794, and died July it, 1837. MARY SYMMES 6-6) was born in 1786; married Hugh Moore, a well known citizen of Cincinnati, in 1804, and died in 1834. JULIANNA SYMMES (6-7) as born in 1791; married Jeremiah Reeder in 1811, and died in 1834. PEYTON SHORT SYMMES (6-8) was born in 1793. He married Hannah B. Close in 1819. The following appreciative notice of him is taken from Coggeshall's "Poets and Poetry of the West:" " He is very nearly of the same age as the city of Cincinnati. He saw the first legislature of the Northwest Territory in session in Cincinnati, in 1799, and he was a witness of the festivities in honor of the visit of the legislatures of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio to that city in January, 1860. His recollections of men and places, of writers, of periodicals and of books, extend over the entire history of literary enterprises in Ohio. He de- John Cleves Symmes - 231 serves to be remembered, not only for what he has written, but for what he has done to encourage others to write. For fifty years at least he has been the ready referee on questions of art and literature for nearly all the journalists and authors of Cincinnati, and a kindly critic for the inexperienced who, before rushing into print, were wise enough to seek good advice. "In 1817, and for many years thereafter, Mr. Symmes was register of the land office at Cincinnati. From 183o to 1833 he was a member of the city council. In 1833 he was chosen one of the school trustees, and until 1849 was an active member of that board. Several of its most elaborate reports were from his pen. From 183o to 1850 he was a member of the board of health. We remember him well in that capacity, as a self-sac- rificing public servant when, in 1849, the cholera was epidemic in Cincinnati. "Mr. Semmes was one of the trustees of the old Cincinnati College, and an earnest supporter of the Western College of Teachers, which met annually in Cincinnati, from 1831 till 1845. He was identified with nearly all the early literary societies of that city. In 1816 he wrote the New Year's lay for the carriers of the Cincinnati Gazette. Those carriers were 'Wesley Smead—since well known as a banker—and Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, now known throughout the West as the President of the Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. In 1824-25, Mr. Symmes was one of the principal writers for the Literary Gazette—edited and published for two years by John P. Foote. "For the Cincinnati Chronicle, conducted by Benjamin Drake, in 1826, and the Mirror, edited by William D. Gallagher, between 1831 and 1835, Mr. Symmes wrote often both in prose and verse. In later years he has rarely written for either newspapers or magazines, but it is understood that he has been 232 - Pioneer Biography. preparing a biography of his uncle, John Cleves Symmes. We trust it will be completed, because it must possess peculiar interest as a picture of early times in the West." This biography was unfortunately never published, though he spent many years in collecting materials for it, which since his death have not been found. He died of paralysis, at the residence of his son-in-law, Charles L. Colburn, Mt. Auburn, July 31, 1861. TIMOTHY SYMMES, (6-9) the other brother, died at his farm at North Bend, in 1822. JOHN CLEVES SYMMES, (6-4) the author of the "Theory of Concentric Spheres," was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, on the 5th of November, 1780. During his boyhood and early life, he received a good common English education, which in after-life he greatly improved through his great fondness for reading and an insatiable desire for knowledge. He cultivated particularly mathematics and the natural sciences, and at an early age studied out the curious theory through which he became so widely known. At the age of twenty-two years he entered the army of the United States as ensign; his commission bears date April 2, 1802. On May 1, 1804., he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant; on July 29, 1807, to that of first lieutenant; and on the 20th of January, 1812, he received a commission as captain. He continued to serve in that capacity during the war, and until the disbanding of the army in 1816. John Cleves Symmes - 233 Soon after he entered the army he was ordered to the Southwest, and was stationed successively at Fort Coupee, Louisiana; Fort Adams, fifty miles below Natchez on the Mississippi, and at New Orleans. While at Fort Adams, he fought a duel with one of his comrade officers, an account of which we may as well record in his own words, as given in a letter to his brother Celadon, dated Fort Adams, June 28, 1807: "I sit down to emit from the point of my pen such ideas as may chance to rise in my mind while I imagine myself narrating to you the pleasures and pains I have experienced since I last wrote; the proportion of the latter has far exceeded that of the former, although the six months I spent at Fort Coupee glided away like a pleasing dream, where happiness appeared within my reach, and just as I was possessing it, I was aroused and hurried away to Orleans, where a viper-like enemy had been before me and made several others, who were actuated by hope of promotion and love of mischief. "This subtle, designing enemy was my late surgeon mate, Dr. John Fowles, who insinuated that I had acted dishonorably in giving him a furlough with prospect of pay, and that I had insisted on his giving me his pay while absent, on account of having to take care of the sick for him ; on hearing which I immediately declared his allegation false, and that he should give me a certificate satisfactory or meet me in the field of honor. "After I had stated the truth that he had built his story out of, declaring I had done nothing but what I was willing the world should know or that I could blame myself for, and pointed out the precedent I was guided by, I obtained with ease a fur- 234 - Pioneer Biography. lough to go to Point Coupee to adjust some unsettled business I pretended to have there. I went and humbled his (mean) soul as much as mine (but too generous then), and dictated a certificate which he copied and signed. I then returned in triumph to Orleans, where those juniors, disappointed in the hope they at first had entertained of obtaining promotion by my resigning in a fright, or getting killed by the doctor, continued their nefarious cabals under the rose. But I smelt a rat, felt provoked, and strutted with more confidence than was usual to me at other times. On one of these lowering days I began a letter which I never finished. I here give you a paragraph of it: lately read a French proverb indicating that a man without enemies was no great thing. I then wished for some. I now have my wish, and believe I shall profit thereby. They are a necessary stimulus, calculated to promote energy and perseverance. If I do not take pains to nourish them, I shall not to do them away ; unless some one should be so bold as to emerge from under the rose and refuse to apologize and return.' " A week or two after my return from Point Coupee, I was told by an old acquaintance, under cover of friendship, that my juniors in rank did not admit my character to be fairly cleared up, and had persuaded several to think with them. I made light of it to him, but advised with a field officer, who happened not to be characterized by decision. His response was evasive. I therefore, of my own accord, made an official application to the General for a court of inquiry, to examine whether or not my conduct had been correct. "The General being much hurried with business at that time, neglected to order the court for several days, during which time I, in the course of duty, had occasion to see the standing order relative to police, which I had not yet seen. I therefore went, John Cleves Symmes - 235 as I ought, to Lieutenant Marshall, who was Adjutant, and, in his office, asked him to see the orderly book. He answered that it was more proper that I should examine the books of the company to which I was attached, and that I should not see them there. I then observed that I did not suppose but that he was a man of his word, and reminded him that he had formerly given a like answer and refusal on the same occasion, with a promise that, in case the sergeant had not recorded the orders (as I suggested), I might see them in his office; upon which he blustered toward me, and demanded what I meant, while I returned him that I meant as I said. He then declared that since he had promised them I might see them, and handed me the book, observing at the same time that I was not generally considered as a gentleman. At this time our passions were both raised, I quelled mine and spoke deliberately to this effect, that I should not consult his opinion relative to what other people thought of me, but wished to know if he did not himself say I was not a gentleman; he answered yes, and that he did not consider me one; I continued that I had long observed the ill offices he was inclined to do me, and that he wanted promotion (yes, said he, I do), and would be disappointed in the way he looked for it, but that I was still willing he should have a chance for it. Let us go out and take a shot (by this time, beside two officers sitting in the room, five or six had collected in front of the door which stood open). He declined, alleging that he did not consider me on a gentlemanly footing with him, alluding to what Dr. Fowles had said of me. I urged that until I was arrested, or officially charged with some misdemeanor, that I stood on the same footing of every other officer, and that I was not subject to be insulted with impunity. About this time he began to come down and endeavored to make out that he had not disputed my gen- 236 - Pioneer Biography. tility ; but still refused a second invitation I gave him, alleging the same reason, but said that he would fight me after the court of inquiry (I expected) should acquit me. I consented to the proposition, provided it could not take place sooner, and then proceeded to read the orders I wanted to see, and he sat down to his breakfast. That day I mounted guard, and the next, when relieved, took a sleep after dinner and went early to parade (I then quartered in town) without consulting any person. I had determined what to do, which was to fall in with Mr. Marshall when he had his sword on and wring his nose. I did not get an opportunity until after parade was dismissed, when walking to the barracks I overtook him and requested to speak to him. He turned toward me, I accomplished my intention, and bringing my hand on the hilt of my sword, and taking one step backward, I involuntarily said 'Draw, and defend yourself!' He did not draw, but stepped toward me (to grapple, as I expected, for he is a large man). I then held my sword horizontally before me, and told him not to advance but draw and defend himself. He then, after an exclamation of surprise, made for his quarters, beckoning and calling me to follow, which I did to the front of his door.; where I passed fore and aft, then went to a group of officers near and related what I had done, observing that I expected that he would not now hesitate to take the field. Presently he came toward us, calling on me. I advanced to him_ Hethen said that he would meet me, and proposed that our seconds should convene on the gallery as soon as possible. I consented, and glided to my quarters (if possible) like a man intoxicated with pleasurable passion. One of my messmates said I had been drinking wine. ,Lieutenant Clymer, a messmate, who had at that moment returned, after an absence of two weeks, immediately became my second ; met Mr. Marshall, John Cleves Symmes - 237 and they agreed that we should meet on the commons at daylight next morning. Mr. Clymer prepared me excellent pistols and a surgeon to attend. We met at the appointed time, and at the distance of ten paces, standing sideways, fired at the word. The one appointed to give it first asked, are you ready? we at the same instant answered yes. He then said, fire! and we raised our arms together deliberately, from a hanging position. My intention was to aim at his hip ; his (I learn) at my breast, consequently I got the first fire, which drew his shot somewhat at random, though it must have passed within a line of the lower part of my belly, as it pierced through my pantaloons, shirt tail, and the bone of my careless hanging wrist, close to the joint. He received my ball in his thigh, but where it glanced to the doctors can not find. It is said he is now walking about. I wanted to know if he desired another shot, and being informed in the negative, left my second and surgeon attending to him, and with my handkerchief wrapped around my wound, went home and ate a hearty breakfast, not expecting to be confined or much afflicted with what appeared to the doctor as well as myself little more than a scratch. But many a long day and night I suffered for the error of not losing blood and dieting as I ought to have done ; 't was near two months before it healed, and two weeks of that time it was dangerously inflamed, and disjointed of itself, which is the cause of its looking or being somewhat awry and not working freely in the joint like the other. The pain produced fever, and that debility, which exposed me to a multitude of infirmities. The most obstinate and afflicting was a dysentery, which began with a dropsy and continued with violence for six or seven weeks. I have now got shut of it, but my feet and legs continue to bloat to a troublesome degree. The court of inquiry I applied for was ordered 238 - Pioneer Biography. agreeable to my request, and as soon as my wound began to mend I wrote an official notice to the recorder that I was ready to come before the court, if they would appoint a place to sit and give me notice ; and I repeatedly stated verbally the same to Captain Lockwood who was president thereof, who alleged that he was under marching orders, and it was intimated to me by numbers that the proceedings would be a needless piece of precaution in me, as every one was convinced of my integrity and gentility. I therefore made no further application to be heard, especially as the members of the court were immediately scattered to different posts." Captain Symmes never fully recovered the use of his wrist—it was always stiff and a little awry. The wound which Lieutenant Marshall received disabled him, so that he carried the effects of it through life. He was afterward befriended by Captain Symmes, who always spoke of this duel with regret. At the time of the commencement of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, the first regiment of United States Infantry, of which he was senior captain, was stationed at the mouth of the Missouri river, in the Territory of Missouri. Here they remained until 1814, when they were ordered to join the army of General Brown on the Northern frontier. After a long and fatiguing journey by land and water, they reached Canada on the 25th day of July—the very day on which the battle of Bridgewater or Lundy's Lane was fought. The battle commenced near sunset. The First regi- John Cleves Symmes - 239 ment, which was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Nicholas, had not joined the army at the time of the opening of the battle, but were about two miles in the rear. When the firing commenced, without waiting for or receiving orders from General Brown, the regiment was put in motion by Colonel Nicholas, and marched with all possible expedition to the scene of the conflict. When they arrived at the American camp they found General Ripley, to whom they had been ordered to report, had advanced with his brigade, and without halting they continued to press forward. It was twilight when they reached the field ; they formed themselves within a short distance of the enemy's batteries, without meeting with any general officer or aid-de-camp to instruct them how they should join in the conflict. Ignorant of the situation of either army, except from the observations made in coming up, and unapprized of the position of General Ripley's brigade, Colonel Nicholas, when he found himself so near a British battery, which had opened fire upon his regiment, ordered the men to retire a short distance. While the attention of the battery was thus directed to the First regiment, Colonel James Miller, leading his battalion, partly under the cover of the fence of a church yard, moved swiftly up the hill and attacked the artillerists almost before they were aware of their presence, and after a short but desperate hand-to-hand fight, in which he lost a number of his gallant men, he captured the 240 - Pioneer Biography. whole park, consisting of seven brass cannon, ammunition wagons, etc. After the capture of this position, Colonel Nicholas was enabled to report to General Ripley, and was ordered to assume a position on the left of Colonel Miller's regiment. This order was promptly obeyed, and the position held till the close of the action. General Brown, in his official report, makes honorable mention of the bravery of Captain Symmes in this battle. On a partial recovery from his wounds, General Brown took command at Fort Erie, which was closely invested by the British, who were actively employed in surrounding it with batteries. On the 17th of September he resolved to make a sortie, which was accomplished with spirit and success; the British were completely surprised, and after a severe conflict of two hours, the three batteries, the whole line of intrenchments, and their blockhouses were in the possession of the Americans. In this action Captain Symmes and his command captured one of the batteries; he led his men over the intrenchments and spiked the first cannon with his own hand. In 1816 Captain Symmes retired from the army and took up his residence at St. Louis, where he engaged in furnishing supplies for the troops stationed on the upper Mississippi, and in trading with the Fox Indians, for which he had a special license from Governor Clark, of Missouri Territory. John Cleves Symmes - 241 On Christmas day, 18̊8, Mr. Symmes married Mrs. Mary Anne Lockwood, widow of Captain Benjamin Lockwood,* at Fort Adams. She had at that time a family of five daughters and one son. They were brought up and educated by Captain Symmes as his own family ; they were sincerely attached to him, and grew up to maturity with his own children in perfect harmony. They were all married from his house but two, who remained single. Captain Lockwood, at the time of his death, owned a section of land in Brown county, Ohio, on which Captain Symmes regularly paid the taxes even to the neglect of his own ; one of his own tracts, four thousand acres, in Licking county, which would have been a fortune to his children, was forfeited by this neglect. When these children arrived at maturity, he turned over this land, free and unincumbered, neither charging them for the money expended on it nor the care he had taken of it. Captain Symmes' trading experience did not result in a pecuniary benefit to him, so in 1819 he removed from St. Louis and settled at Newport, Kentucky, where he resided till 1824, when he removed to his farm, a sec- *Captain Lockwood, a Virginian by birth, entered the army in 1792 as a lieutenant, and served in Captain Alexander Gibson's company during General Wayne's campaign against the Indians. He was promoted to a captaincy in 1798, and died at Fort Adams early in 1808. 242 - Pioneer Biography. tion of land presented to him by his uncle and namesake, which had been previously improved, near Hamilton, Ohio. While at St. Louis, Captain Symmes promulgated his eccentric Theory of Concentric Spheres, Polar Voids, and Open Poles. To these investigations relative to the figure of the earth he had devoted many years, and had wrought himself up to a firm and conscientious belief, that he had made the great discovery of the age, viz : " That the earth, as well as all the celestial orbicular bodies existing in the universe, visible and invisible, which par take in any degree of a planetary nature, from the greatest to the smallest, from the sun down to the most minute blazing meteor or falling star, are all constituted, in a greater or less degree, of a collection of spheres, more or less solid, concentric with each other, and more or less open at the poles ; each sphere being separated from its adjoining compeers by space replete with aerial fluids ; that every portion of infinite space, except what is occupied by spheres, is filled with an aerial elastic fluid, more subtile than common atmospheric air, and constituted of innumerable, small concentric spheres, too minute to be visible to the organ of sight assisted by the most perfect microscope, and so elastic that they continually press on each other and change their relative situations as often as any piece of matter in space may change its position, thus causing a universal pressure, which is weakened by the intervention of other John Cleves Symmes - 243 bodies in proportion to the subtended angle of distance and dimension, necessarily causing the body to move toward the points of decreased pressure."—Symmes' Theory of Concentric Spheres, p. 25.* In order to make his discoveries and purposes known, he issued the following circular, which, like a lady's letter, is most important for its postscript: No. I. CIRCULAR. Light gives light to light discover—ad infinitum. ST. LOUIS (MISSOURI TERRITORY), 1. NORTH AMERICA, April 10, A. D. 1818. To ALL THE WORLD: I declare the earth is hollow and habitable within ; containing a number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles twelve or sixteen degrees. I pledge my life in support of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me in the undertaking. JNO. CLEVES SYMMES, Of Ohio, late Captain of Infantry. * This work was written by Mr. McBride, who was a firm believer in the " theory," under the direction and with the revision of Captain Symmes. It was entitled " SYMMES' THEORY OF CONCENTRICK SPHERES ; 244 - Pioneer Biography. N. B. I have ready for the press a Treatise on the Principles of Matter, wherein I show proofs of the above positions, account for various phenomena, and disclose Dr. Darwin's " Golden Secret." My terms are the patronage of THIS and the NEW WORLDS. I dedicate to my wife and her ten children. I select Dr. S. L. Mitchell, Sir H. Davy, and Baron Alexander Von Humboldt as my protectors. I ask one hundred brave companions, well equipped, to start from Siberia, in the fall season, with reindeer and sleighs, on the ice of the frozen sea ; I engage we find a warm and rich land, stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals, if not men, on reaching one degree northward of latitude 82 ; we will return in the succeeding spring. J. C. S. Captain Symmes addressed a copy of this circular to every learned institution and to every considerable town and village, as well as to numerous distinguished individuals, throughout the United States, and sent copies to several of the learned societies of Europe. Its reception by the public can easily be imagined ; demonstrating that the Earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely open about the poles. By a Citizen of the United States. "There are more things in Heaven and EARTH, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."—Shakspeare. [Then follows a long quotation from Milton.] "Cincinnati: Printed and Published by Morgan, Lodge and Fisher, 1826; pp. 168." John Cleves Symmes - 245 it was overwhelmed with ridicule as the production of a distempered imagination, or the result of partial insanity. It was for many years a fruitful source of jest with the newspapers. The Academy of Science of Paris, before which the circular was laid by Count Volney, decided that it was not worthy of consideration. The scientific papers of Europe generally treated it as a hoax, rather than believe that any sane man could issue such a circular or uphold such a theory. Circulars and newspaper articles soon followed circular No. 1, and were kept up for years, despite of the ridicule which was poured on the unfortunate author from all sides. In 182o Captain Symmes commenced lecturing on his theory; first at Cincinnati, then at other large towns in the West. The novelty of the subject attracted large audiences, but he failed to make converts, who possessed wealth or influence enough to secure the means to test, by exploration, the truth of his theory. In May, 1824, he explained his theory at Hamilton, to a large audience, with such convincing effect that after the lecture they "Resolved, That we esteem Symmes' Theory of the Earth deserving of serious examination and worthy of the attention of the American people." So much did the Theory attract popular attention in the West, that the " Polar Expedition" was thought a 246 - Pioneer Biography. fit object for a benefit at the Cincinnati Theater, which was given on March 29, 1824. Mr. Collins then recited an address, written for the occasion, by Moses Brooks, in which, after recounting the great discoveries to be made, he wound up with-- "Has not Columbia one aspiring son, By whom th' unfading laurel may be won ? Yes ! history's pen may yet inscribe the name Of SYMMES to grace her future scroll of fame." In 1822 he petitioned the Congress of the United States, setting forth his belief of the existence of a habitable and accessible concave to this globe; his desire to embark on a voyage of discovery to one or other of the polar regions ; his belief in the great profit and honor his country would derive from such discovery ; and praying that Congress would equip and fit out for the expedition, two vessels of two hundred and fifty or three hundred tons burden ; and grant such other aid as Government might deem necessary to promote the object. This petition was presented in the Senate by Colonel Richard M. Johnson, a member from Kentucky, on the 7th day of March, 1822, when, after a few remarks, it was laid on the table. In December, 1823, he forwarded a similar petition to both houses of Congress, which met a similar fate. In January, 1824, he petitioned the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, praying that body to pass a John Cleves Symmes - 247 resolution, approbatory of his theory ; and to recommend him to Congress for an outfit suitable to the enterprise. This memorial was presented by Micajah T. Williams, and on motion the further consideration thereof was indefinitely postponed.* In 1825 he applied through the American Minister, at the Court of St. Petersburg, for permission to accompany the Polar Expedition then fitting out by the Russian Government, which was readily granted by the Chancellor, Count Romanzoff, but the want of means to procure a proper outfit hindered him from accepting the offer. Among his converts was a young lawyer, Mr. J. N. Reynolds, a graduate of Ohio University. With him Captain Symmes entered into an agreement for a lecturing tour through the Eastern States. They set out in September, 1825, accompanied by Anthony W. Lockwood, a step-son of Captain Symmes, and lectured in various towns in Ohio. In about a month Captain Symmes was forced to return home in consequence of ill health. In January, 1826, he rejoined them at Pittsburg, and they proceeded eastward. Some difficulty soon occurred, however; Reynolds became dissatisfied and left them. Symmes, undaunted by this desertion, or the constant ridicule with which .he was met, continued his tour to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, as far as *Symmes' Theory, pp. 165 and 166. 248 - Pioneer Biography. Maine, and even into Canada, lecturing at the various towns through which he passed. His health was by this time greatly impaired by his constant labors and excitement, and he was reluctantly obliged to give up lecturing. He retired for a time to his native place in New Jersey, where he remained the guest of an old friend of his father until his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to travel homeward. When he reached Cincinnati, in February, 1829, he was so feeble that he had to be conveyed on a bed placed in a spring wagon, to his home near Hamilton. He continued gradually to sink, until released by death on the 29th of May, 1829. His remains were committed to the grave the next day, in the old burying ground at Hamilton, with military honors. They are now covered with a monument, erected by his son, Americus Symmes, a solid structure of freestone, surmounted with a hollow globe, open at the poles, bearing the following inscriptions : On the west side—" Captain John C. Symmes, a native of New Jersey, died in May, 1829, aged forty-nine years and six months." On the north side—" Captain John Cleves Symmes was a philosopher, and the originator of Symmes' theory of Concentric Spheres and Polar Voids.' He contended that the earth is hollow and habitable within." On the south side—" Captain John Cleves Symmes tittered the army of the United States, as an ensign, in the John Cleves Symmes - 249 year 1802. He afterward rose to the rank of captain, and performed daring feats of bravery in the battles of Lundy's Lane and sortie from Fort Erie." Captain Symmes was a man of great simplicity and earnestness of character, a high-minded, honorable, honest, and exemplary man in every walk of life, and was beloved, trusted, and respected by all who knew him. So fixed in his mind was the belief of the truth of his theory, that for ten years, although laboring under great pecuniary embarrassments, and buffeted by the ridicule and sarcasm of an opposing world, he persevered in his endeavors to interest others in it, so as to enable him to test its truth by a polar expedition, but without success. It should now be remembered to his credit, that many of the facts and fancies (as they then appeared) which he brought forward in proof of his theory of open polar voids have since been fully corroborated by the observations of Drs. Kane and Hayes and Captain Hall, but applied by them to the more plausible theory of open polar seas. Captain Symmes' widow survived him, and made her home most of the time with her oldest son, Americus, though she spent much of her time visiting other members of the family. She died August 5, 1864, at Mattoon, Illinois, while on a visit to her son, Dr. Wm. H. H. Symmes, who was at that time residing there. They had five children: Louisiana, Americus, William Henry Harrison, Elizabeth, and John Cleves.