HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICK AWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 225 such an able and faithful friend and contributor as is " Pontiac," and we know our readers will miss, as much as we, his daily-offered banquet of legislative intelligence, comments and gossip, prepared with so prodigal and practical a hand." Early in 1858, Judge Thrall commenced a series of editorials for the Sandusky. Register, then owned and edited by Henry D. Cook, which ran through the Most part of the year, and so able were they, that they soon attracted public attention to that paper, giving it a prominent State representation. A Whig, at the birth of the -Republican party, Judge Thrall naturally espoused its principles, and his advocacy of the cause assisted in laying the foundation for its superstructure, which, in the future, was to achieve such greatness. Day after day, either in his masterly editorials or correspondence, he elucidated the motives and objects of the new organization, while also firing effective broadsides into the rapidly-sinking Democratic ship, thus doing good work all along the whole line. It is largely true, that the Republican party had its birth in Ohio, and Judge Thrall's powerful pen performed yeoman's service to this party, of which Salmon P. Chase was the founder, continuing in the good work during his two gubernatorial terms. Governor Chase was soon attracted by Judge Thrall's rare ability and honesty of purpose, and took pleasure in honoring him with special positions of the most delicate trust. These were the days of free and independent banking in Ohio, and under the laws of the State the institutions had to be inspected from time to time, by some one appointed by the governor. Reports would get abroad as to the standing of some one of them, when a special and searching investigation would have to be made, both of which tasks Judge Thrall was frequently called upon to perform, and as his reports were sent in to the governor, he more and more saw how perfect a trust he might repose in him. Under Mr. Chase's administration, it was discovered that there was collusion between the State auditor and treasurer, of previous administrations, by which large sums of money were stolen from the State. To prevent a recurrence of this, it was thought best to establish an intermediate office between them, as a check upon each, which the legislature did, under the name of the comptroller of the treasury. The qualities needed for the faithful performance of the duties of this office, will at once suggest themselves to the intelligent reader. There were, of course, numerous applicants for the place, among which Judge Thrall was not one.' He was, however, appointed by Governor Chase, and afterward elected by the people, serving the State faithfully in this position from 1858 to 1862. In March, 1864, he was appointed by Governor Brough, and in 187o, by Governor Hayes, one of the trustees of the Central Ohio lunatic asylum, which position he held until his death. To a mind endowed as was Judge Thrall's, ever seeking new avenues to fields of active benevolence and usefulness, it is not singular that the claims of the Masonic fraternity should have commended themselves to his understanding and appealed to his highest instincts, as we have already found they did, early in his life, thus adding to his means of furthering the highest needs of mankind in works of benevolence. His Masonic record is as follows: He was initiated into Pickaway Lodge, No. 23, at Circleville, on the third of May, 182o. He served as secretary, junior warden, senior warden, and master, from the time he was eligible until he moved to Columbus, in 1846. In 1841, as deputy grand master, he officiated in organizing Columbus Lodge, No. 3o. Two years after his removal to Columbus he was elected master of that lodge, and re-elected for seven years afterwards. In 1823 he was the representative of this lodge to the grand lodge of Ohio. In 1825 and 1829 he was grand junior deacon of the grand lodge of the State, and in 1834 was grand junior warden, and from 1835 to 1843 was deputy grand master, when he was elected most worthy grand master, and served as such until 1846. In 1848 he was grand orator of the grand lodge of Ohio. In 1834, 1836 and 1837 he was grand king, and in 1839 grand high priest of the grand chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Ohio. He was puissant grand master of the grand council of Royal and Select masters of Ohio from 1838 to 1842 inclusive; also president of the order of high priests in the years 1843 to 1846, inclusive. He was one of the original members of the association of Masonic veterans, of which he died president. Having been advanced to the order of knighthood in 1835, he was faithful in attendance at the annual conclaves of the grand encampment to the close of his life. He was elected grand captain-general in 1848, and grand master in 185o. In 1856 he was a representative to the grand encampment of the United States. The reports from which we have taken most of the foregoing, says: " In addition to these various official positions, and during the long period of fifty-three years of devoted active service as a mason, and thirty-eight years of equally incessent service in the ranks of christian knighthood, lie was charged, by virtue thereof, with the most important and responsible duties on committees, etc., etc., and his advice and counsel, on important occasions, were largely sought by his companions, and never in vain. " It rarely falls to the lot of a single individual to attain such a multiplicity of honors as were his; yet the esteem and confidence reposed in him by his companions were never betrayed. He exemplified in his life the exalted characteristics of the true gentleman, devoted mason, and courteous knight," As a writer on Masonry, Judge Thrall was distinguished. At times he was eloquent, and his productions were ever characterized by sound, practical thought, clothed in language free from ambiguity. Long before his death he had come to be regarded as a patriarch in the annual Masonic assemblies, and so charming was his companionship, that he was always the general favorite of old and young. As a lecturer on Masonry, Judge Thrall was greatly in demand, and whenever it was possible for him to do so, he responded to such calls. In 1861 he was called.to Circleville, to participate in the funeral exercises of one of its pioneers—'Squire James Bell, by name—and while there he was smitten with dyphtheria, which well nigh proved fatal, and from which he never fully recovered, finally, some years later, succumbing to the results of this disease. 29 226 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO. While he must have been a considerable sufferer for several years before his death, not even his family knew it. He was always at his place in church, daily indulged in long walks with the erectness and freedom of movement of early manhood rather than the stooping posture and slow pace of old age. But there came a time, a year before his death, when the walks grew few and short, and there was an evident effort to lift himself along, and even before this there had come another symptom of decline—he no longer was weekly seen in any of the Masonic conclaves. He was, of course, greatly missed, and when asked why he did not attend the lodge meetings, the answer of this brave old gentleman was that he was getting so heavy it was too much of an effort to carry himself up the three flights of stairs to the lodge room. There might have been the faintest dash of sadness in his noble face when she gave this answer, but if so, it was rather at the thought that he would no longer be able to enjoy his lodge privileges than over his growing infirmities. He never brooded, and strikingly true was this of the last seven years of his life, when out of employment and thrown upon his own resources. His well stored mind was a fund of pleasure to him as well as a delight to those with whom he was surrounded. The fact is, he never ceased being a student. It was his habit to constantly pore over some book of useful information—history, all the scientific studies, especially those of languages; and Worcester's dictionary was a companion that he never seemed to tire of. Then, how he enjoyed his grandchildren ! and his relatives and friends as often as they were thrown together. His pastime and only game was backgammon, and so fair was he in all his .dealing that he made no exception in this; and so when he saw his opponent making what he considered a misplay, he insisted upon correcting it. And thus with books, his own children and their friends and relatives, and backgammon, he past his last years. One would have said to have seen him that they were constant gala days. If he had trouble or care, as he might have had, or physical pain, as he certainly did, no one was ever the wiser for it. That he controlled himself perfectly, was seen when his son, Captain Thrall, adjutant general on General Rosecrans' staff, in 1863, was borne to his last resting place in the cemetery, and upon his return from the funeral, quietly seating himself, with his torn and bleeding heart, and without the flinching of a Muscle, narrating his brave boy's career on paper for publication in the next day's newspapers. He had one regret, expressed often in his last year, that his early education had not been more thorough. Sitting upon his steps at night, he would look np at the stars and long to know more of astronomy; and then the derivation of words bothered him, and yet hardly so, as he made researches, clumsily,.it is true, because of his lack of early scientific education, until he found them; all this with the zeal and enthusiasm of the diamond hunter, and indeed they were the veriest gems to this knowledge-seeker. Thus cheerfully, uncomplainingly, Judge Thrall passed away, June 7, 1873, at the ripe age of seventy-five. His burial was under the auspices of the grand lodge of the State—a convocation of celebrated knights templar being the especial escort. SAMUEL D. TURNEY, M. D. [This biography is in part a condensation from, and in part the words of, a memoir of the late Dr. Turney, prepared by his friend, and professional brother, J. H. Pooley, of Columbus.—EDs.] The subject of this sketch, the late Dr. Samuel Denny Turney, was horn in Columbus, Ohio, December 26, 1824. He belonged to a family of French Huguenot extraction, and which has proved by the men it has produced for successive generations, that it was no mean race. We, as Americans, care little at heart, notwithstanding occasional foolish out- breaks of adulation that seem to speak otherwise, for the vain distinctions of rank and title; and yet we are not without our proper pride in good family connections, and freely endorse the sentiment, "other things being equal, give me blood." And many a fine strain of family, seeking freer outlook and fairer chance in the western world, has left its impress, indelibly and for good, upon our composite American race. Of all of these, none have produced worthier sons, or deserved better of the adopted country, than the French Huguenots. Dr. Turney's father was a physician, who was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1786, and removed to Ross county, Ohio, in 1800. He commenced the practice of medicine in Jefferson, Pickaway county. He removed to Circleville about the time the town was first laid out, in 1810; removed from Circleville to Columbus in 1823, where he practiced until his death, in 1827. The following notice of Dr. Daniel Turney, published in one of the local papers at the time, deserves insertion here: "The deceased was an eminent physician and surgeon, and for many years an arduous and successful practitioner in both departments. The distinguishing characteristics of his mind were firmness, and energy, and ardor in the practice of his profession. Confident in the resources of the healing art, and in his own mind, he never remitted exertions while life remained. His intimate acquaintance with the diseases peculiar to our climate, arising from a sound medical edu cation, and long extensive practice; his energy, and promptitude, and resources, in alarming and complicated cases, as well as his great personal success, render his death a public calamity, which has caused the deepest sensibility. As a skillful and successful practitioner, Dr. Turney has left few, if any, superiors in the State. He was of plain, unaffected manners, generous and liberal as a man, and without the least tincture of avarice in his composition." This sketch, meager as it is, is not without interest, as it shows whence came some of the traits of his son, which made him so eminently successful in the same arduous profession. Youngest of a family of four, left an orphan when thus a mere infant, he grew up under his mother's fostering care without the paternal restraint, so wholesome in its influence, and without those means for a thorough education which he would probably have enjoyed had his father lived. Well for him he had a good mother; one of the many whom the world knows not, save as the results of their lives are seen in noble and worthy sons who rise up in the after time to call them blessed. Her name was Janet Stirling Denny, daughter of General James Denny, an officer of the war of 1812, and one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio. Even as a child—almost as an infant—the young Samuel showed strong indications of a character of his own. He was distinguished in the earliest days of his boyhood by his love for books and study, and showed the rudiments of that love for art and the beauty of nature, which was a strong characteristic in his mature years. He attended the common schools and the high school, and, after finishing the course at the latter, he went, through the kindness of M. J. Gilbert, esq., who owned a scholarship there, to Milner Hall, at Kenyon college, Gambier, for two years; at the expiration of this short course, being thrown upon his own resources, he became clerk in the drug store of Sumner Clark, in Columbus, working faithfully by day, and studying by night, being his own principal teacher—now, as always, laboring for the much coveted knowledge that comes so easily to some, and is so little prized. In 1840, the family moved back to Circleville, where he spent the rest of his life. He now entered, as clerk, in the store of Ruggles & Finley, and, having determined upon his future profession, he read medicine assiduously, in all his spare time, at first without anybody knowing what he was about, latterly under the direction of Dr. P. K. Hull. He attended lectures at Starling medical college, during the session of 1849, HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 227 and 1830, and at the University of Pennsylvania during 1850-51, graduating from the latter college in April, 185x. He immediately entered into practice in Circleville, where he continued to exercise his profession to the end of his life, with the exception of the time spent in the army during the civil war, and a short vacation of a few months, spent in Europe.- He was married, June 17, 1851, to Miss Evalina McCrea, who died in 1870, by whom he had two children, a daughter, who died in childhood, and a son, Harry, who lives to mourn his father's loss and emulate his virtues. However popular he became afterwards, and no man could be more so, he found a young physician's life, at first, a hard struggle. He had refused a partnership with an older practitioner, proudly desirous of winning his own way. He won his way, professionally, by a hard and long struggle, and became one of the most trusted guides and advisers. He was in partnership before the war, first with P. K. Hull, and subsequently with Dr. A. W. Thompson. Dr. Turney was never a politician, but he always had opinions, and the people among whom he lived always knew what those opinions were. He was an Abolitionist before the war, even a violent one. His ardent temperament and inborn love of liberty, could not tolerate even the thought of human slavery ; and, though these sentiments were by no means popular then and there, he was not the man to flinch from them on that account, but rather the one to die for them, should occasion demand, and this his neighbors and fellow-citizens knew right well. At the opening of the war he was the first surgeon to tender his services to the State, and, until it ended, he was in continuous and active service. He was first attached as surgeon to the Thirteenth regiment of Ohio volunteers, June, 1861 ; commissioned assistant surgeon of volunteers by the United States, February, 5863 ; surgeon of volunteers, March, 1863 ; and lieutenant-colonel by brevet, for faithful aid meritorious services, in 1865 ; and he was medical director on the staff of General H. P. Van Cleve, division and post medical director of hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and held other high and honorable positions, which bore the amplest testimony to his patriotism, devotion to duty, and professional efficiency. The surgical history of the war, that noble monument of life- and limb-saving surgery, bears ample testimony, among that of others, to the labor and skill of Dr. Turney. Had he been so disposed, he might have recorded many more cases, as treated by him, in that treasury of American military surgery; but he was ever reticent of trumpeting his own fame, either by tongue or pen. The cases given in the " Surgical Volume," so, called, parts I and II, sufficiently establish his skill as a surgeon and physician. At the close of the war he returned to Circleville, and, in partnership with Dr. A. W. Thompson, resumed his practice, which in a few years became the largest and most lucrative ever enjoyed by any member of the profession in Pickaway county. It was particularly in eke department of surgery his services were, during this period, demanded, so much so that nearly, if not quite, all of this business passed into his hands, and the important operations of lithotomy, tracheotomy, ovariotomy and amputation, necessary within the circuit of his practice, were all performed by him. An intense student, keeping pace with all the reforms in diagnosis and practice, his ideal of resources of the medical art, was never attained ; and yet when baffled, such was his infinity of resource, that, instead of ever surrendering to his enemy, disease, he nobly sustained the strife, and yielded only in the presence of the conqueror, Death himself. Dr. Turney was made surgeon-general of the State of Ohio, in 1868, by Governor Hayes, and again, in 1872, by Governor Noyes—compliments well deserved by his eminent ability and public services during the war. He was appointed professor of physiology and pathology in Starling medical college, Columbus, Ohio, in 1867, but only lectured during one season—that of 1867-68—his large practice precluding the possibility to further devotion to this department of duty. He was very diffident, too, and seemed to have but little confidence in himself as a speaker, but, at a later period, he resumed professorial functions with great success. His partnership with Dr. Thompson was dissolved by mutual consent, January 1, 1874. Retaining a large practice, and devoting himself actively to it, his incessant labor began to tell upon his health. In June, 1875, warned that he must either take a vacation or soon desist altogether, he went to Europe. He remained abroad until 1876--not a sufficient length of time to thoroughly recuperate—and, on his return, immediately entered practice. He was first in partnership with Dr. C. A. Foster, but, in 1877, went into partnership with Dr. A. P. Courtright, with whom he was associated until his death. In the fall of 1876 he was appointed professor of diseases of women and children, in Starling medical college, which chair he fiilled with great and increasing acceptance to the close of his life. He was only spared to give one completed course of lectures, and a part of another. Dr. Turney was, in every sense, a cultured physician--diligent, conscientious, generous ; and many kind professional charities endear him to the memory of that class of patients unable to pay for their doctor's services. As an operator he was fearless, quick, and characteristically nervous and impatient of delay or negligence on the part of an assistant. He was extremely modest, and had a repugnance to professional or other display. In person Dr. Turney was of medium size, rather slender, but of symmetrical proportions, and endowed with great muscular strength and agility. As the portrait which accompanies this sketch well shows, his face was handsome and expressive, and yet, so constantly and quickly did it change that no picture could show it at its best. Dr. Turney was not a member of any church, but that he was of a deeply religious nature, none who knew him thoroughly could doubt. In this connection, and as a fitting conclusion to this sketch, we reproduce the following extract from a letter of Rev. James T. Franklin, Episcopal rector of St. Stephen's church, Middlebury, Vermont, formerly of St. Phillips, Circleville : " Having just learned, and that with great sorrow and grief, of the death of Dr. S. D. Turney, I ask the privilege of expressing my sense of his worth and of our loss. It was with joy and pride that I called him friend, and it is with a deep sense of bereavement that I write. The fast-falling tears of many Who loved him are a tribute to his worth. It was my happy lot to know him intimately, and I loved him dearly. His was not a cold, impassive nature—sparks of righteous anger and indignation were showered upon the objects of his scorn and wrath; but I can testify to an amiability, a tenderness, a sweetness, a ove of all things beautiful, rare amongst men. His wide charity many will witness to, and his marked skill and usefulness all will acknowledge. " He talked often and freely with me of those subjects which are of the firs importance to thoughtful men, and I can declare that, whilst his mental clearness and power, and his thorough learning, forced him to abandon the superstitions imbedded in mush that passes for Christian doctrine, nevertheless he recognized and bowed down his soul before the great Father of spirits, `in whom we move and have our being.' He served and praised his God in acts of tenderness and love to his creatures. He did justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God. Who requires more ?" CALEB A'I'WATER. One of the most widely known of Circleville's residents was Caleb Atwater, minister, lawyer, educator, legislator, author, and antiquarian. He was, in fact, a man of national reputation. He won distinction by his able services in the legislature, in behalf of the causes of education and public improvements, and a wide fame through the publication of the results of his archaeological studies and his history of Ohio—the first ever written. He was horn on Christmas day, 1778, at North Adams, Massachusetts, and was the son of Ebenezer and Rachel (Parks) Atwater. His mother was of Welsh extraction. She died when Caleb was but five years old. His father placed the funds left for -the child's support in the hands of Esquire Jones, of North Adams, with whom the boy lived until he was eighteen year of age. About that time Williams college was founded, and the stir caused by the opening of the institution led the young man into reflections, which resulted in the formation of a strong desire for a liberal education. Although not of age, his guardian warmly seconded his plan of attending the school, and assisted him to do so. He passed through the college, and received the honorary degree of master of arts. The diploma given him is now thought to be in the museum of the Boston Antiquarian society. After leaving college, young Atwater removed to New York, where he opened a school for young ladies, and gave instruction to the daughters and sisters of a large number of personal friends. He studied for the ministry at the same time, and two or three years later was ordained to preach in the Presbyterian church. He married a Miss Diana, who lived but one year, and whose death was a very severe blow to him. His health failed, and as he was urged by his physicians to take up the study of law and practice that profession, instead of remaining in the ministry, he did so. He commenced studying with Judge Smiley, of Marcellus, New York, and in a few months was admitted to the bar. He then married Balinda, a daughter of Judge Butler. Engaging in a business which turned out disastrously, he was thrown entirely upon his own resources, and decided to seek out a field of usefulness in the great and but little known western country. He came to Circleville in 1815, and remained there until his death, March 13, 1867. He was occupied in the practice of law until chosen to represent Pick-away county in the legislature. Here he performed the services for which the people of Ohio have greatest reason to be thankful and to hold his memory in the most sacred reverence. The cause of popular education had all along occupied his attention, and when he was invested with the power of a legislator, he exerted, constantly and strenuously, all his influence to create such laws as would forever secure to the 228 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO. people of the State a plan for the education of their youth. He and his associates had a long and hard struggle to secure the embodiment of their views in a legal enactment, but they finally succeeded, and the result has been one of incalculable good. They laid the corner-stone upon which the fabric of our present system of common schools has been slowly and thoroughly built. Mr. Atwater was also one of that originally small minority in the legislature which started the movement for that vast public improvement—the canals. After the close of his term in the legislature, he was appointed to represent the United States in the treaty with the Winnebago Indians, at Galena, Illinois. His first literary production of general interest to the public was his contribution to the Archaeologica Americana, upon western antiquities, the result of studies begun in Circleville, upon his arrival there, and continued for some years—in fact, for his whole lifetime. He wrote, also, "A Trip to Prairie-du-Chien," "An Essay on Education," and last, but most important (if we do not except the book on western antiquities), an able and comprehensive history of Ohio. He was the confident and friend of the first, best men of his time in Ohio and the country at large, and numbered among his acquaintances many of the eminent scholars of Europe, who visited this country to study its antiquities, or, coming for other purposes, developed an interest in them. Mr. Atwater was a man of somewhat eccentric characteristics, but of large and genuine worth. He combined with culture, the qualities of exceeding kindness and of the most rigid conscientiousness. He was unselfish ; labored for the benefit of others—the masses and his neighbors—and exhibited but little desire for pecuniary gain or personal advancement. His character commanded the respect, and his talents and his employment of them, the admiration, of all who, personally or by reputation, had knowledge of his life and services. Caleb Atwater's second wife lived until about ten years previous to his death, and was the mother of six sons and three daughters : Butler, Douglass, DeWitt Clinton, Henry, George, Caleb, Belinda Ann, Aurelia, and Lucy. The only one living in Circleville is Belinda Ann (Mrs. William Foster). Aurelia (Mrs. Henry Coouts) lives in Kansas, *s does also the only living son, DeWitt Clinton. Lucy (Mrs. M. Brown) is in Gambier, Ohio. THE "ZIEGER FAMILY." Jacob Zieger, sr., emigrated from Pennsylvania (near Berlin) to this vicinity, about the year 1805, and located section nineteen—the identical tract of land now partially occupied by the city of Circleville. He was born in 1740, and married Judith, the widow of J. Sauer (or Sowers), of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Of this marriage there were eight children, as follows : Philip Jacob, born 2767, married Mary Easter; Catharina, horn 1768, married Colonel Valentine Keffer; Barbara, born 2772, married George Zimmer; Judith, born 1774, married Samuel Watt; Jacob, jr., horn 1776, married Susanna Easter; Philip, born 2778; Frederick, born 1784; Margaret, born 1787, married John Valentine. These sons and daughters occupied different portions of the Land, and cleared and improved it. Jacob Zieger, sr., donated, to "the director of the town" (whose office was one of importance for many years, but has now become obsolete), a considerable portion of the land on which the city is located, for public purposes. He ('Geiger) caused the court of common pleas of Pickaway county to pass an order to the director of the town (at their session, held in the second story of his son, Jacob's, house, in Circleville), which reads as follows : August, 1811. "Ordered, That the director reserve all the southeast bank, or fortification—elevation of the square on the circle—for county uses, and sell no lots including the same. And, further ordered, that he reserve lots number 115 and 116, for the use of the Lutheran and Calvanistic German congregations, for a church and burial." [See court records for x810 and x, page 12o]. These lot are the ones on which the Trinity Lutheran church now stands. COLONEL JOHN CRADLEBAUGH. Among the distinguished names of men now passed away, whose lives, wholly, or in part, were identified with the history of Circleville, few, if any, will be remembered longer, or with a more affectionate admiration, than that of John Cradlebaugh. His father, Andrew Cradlebaugh, about the year 1836, built the well-known "Canal Hotel," on Main street, which he kept for several years, and near which he also owned and carried on a tannery. John was born and educated in this place, and commenced here the practice of law, in which profession he immediately took a high rank. We regret that we have neither space nor time minutely to trace his remarkable career, from his entrance upon public life, as an Ohio State senator, to his death, under the shadow of a strange reverse, in 1878, at Eureka, Nevada. But we must content ourselves with the sketch of his life, character, and public services, embodied in the following eloquent funeral address delivered at his re-interment in Forest cemetery, on Decoration day, May 30, 1879, by the Rev. S. H. McMullin: " Before us lies all that is mortal of one whose earthly life was marked by no ordinary vicissitudes. A practitioner of the bar of this county, a member of the senate of this State, a federal judge in Utah, a territorial delegate to the national congress from the territory of Nevada, a colonel of volunteers, commanding the One Hundred and Fourteenth Ohio, a teamster, hauling ore from the mines of Nevada—such were the different phases under which he prosecuted his life work. It would be presumptuous in one who was an utter stranger to the deceased, to attempt any analysis, of either his personal or religious character. Of his civic services and virtues only can I speak, taking thus my humble part in the tribute due to departed worth. Born and bred in this city, he had the respect of all who knew him, and stood high as an advocate; meeting often, in debate, Jonathan Renick, Thomas Jones, Judge Hedges, Henry F. Page, P. C. Smith, and others. At the time of his appointment, by President Buchanan, to a federal judgeship in Utah, he was a law partner with Judge Hedges. His judgeship, and his services in the war of the Rebellion, are the prominent periods of his life. When, as a federal judge, he commenced his administration of justice in Utah, the hands of the saints were yet moist with the innocent blood of the Mountain Meadow massacre. A powerful hierarchy, prostituting the sacred names of God and the Saviour of mankind to infamous orgies of blood and lust, stood ready by every means to shield the miserable wretches who, as their instruments, had cut the throats of women and children. Any ordinary man would have sought to make a virtue of necessity, and shield himself behind forms, and compromise with what he could not overthrow single-handed. Heedless of the Danite band, that organization of assassins like unto the destruction that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noonday; regardless of threats of violence, and even of open war, Judge Cradlebaugh opened his court and brought the murderers to his bar. When he found that the deadly power of Mormonism paralyzed the arm of justice, by silencing jury convictions, he dismissed the juries, and, as a committing magistrate, commenced the task alone. He himself examined witnesses, made arrests in every quarter, and struck terror to the scared consciences of Mormon dignitaries. But for the imbecility, and even opposition, of those on whom he had a right to rely for co-operation and support, this one man, rightly discerning the signs of the times, would have done his part, and that not a small one, toward cutting out the foul ulcer which still hangs upon the body politic, swollen with all uncleanness, and festering with horrid lust. But the notes of another conflict were already in the air. The crisis was fast approaching which was to determine whether a government of the people should or should not perish from off the earth. When that crisis came, our friend was not found wanting. The motives of men are almost always mixed; times of excitement are not always, or generally, times of pure reflection; but when the booming of Sumter's artillery resounded through the land, delegate Cradlebaugh's heart was with the old flag. He had confidence in his country's past; he had hope for that country's future; he abhorred the ways of darkness and treason; he felt the grandeur of the call that bade him die, if need be, for God, and truth, and native land. Leaving his seat in the national congress, at a time when the northern border was full of those who secretly wished for peace at any price, he organized his regiment, and then returning to Washington, finished his term of office. He rejoined his command at Youngspoint, Louisiana, in February, 1863, and after taking part in the battles of Thompson Hills, Champion Hills and Ben River Bridge, he led his men in the first charge upon Vicksburg. Amidst a rain • of bullets, he received one in the mouth, which virtually ended his military career. Soon afterward he returned to Nevada. According to men's ordinary estimate of such things, he passed away under the shadow of reverses. But we may well believe that the spirit which did not quail before bloodshed here, or the bayonets of armed treason, carried him heroically through the duties of the comparatively humble station in which he died. It is the testimony of one who knew him well, that amidst all the exigencies of his varied career, he could not recall one mean or dishonorable act. And history has, to-day, for him its vindication, as we lay him in his final resting-place, in this beautiful city of the dead. What was said of those who died for others of old, we may also say of him; that committing indeed the uncertainty of success to hope, yet as to what was present to his view, he nobly confided in himself, and in his own exertions in action, preferring resistance, though accompanied with death, to safety, purchased by submission. For he both knew what ought to be done, and, in action, was keenly alive to shame, and even when failing in his attempts, was yet unwilling that his country should thereby lose the advantage of his valor, but contributed to it his noblest offering. It is fitting that he should lie here, where loyal hands shall keep his memory green; but for such as he, wherever their dust may mingle with the elements, the whole earth is a sepulchre." COLONEL VALENTINE KEFFER, a prominent business man and politician in Pickaway county for many years, emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1805, several years before the HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 229 county was organized, or the first strokes of the axe had marked the rudest outlines of the ground now included in the town of Circleville. Ile purchased the fractional section adjoining section nineteen, and lying between it and the Scioto river ; on which he resided till 1838, when he moved into town. Some years before leaving Pennsylvania he had married Catharina, the second child and eldest (laughter of Jacob Zieger. On the breaking out of the war of 1812, being identified with the militia of the county, he was appointed major, and accompanied General James Renick on an expedition to the northern part of the State. After his return to the settlement Ile was promoted to the rank of colonel, and, in 1813, he was elected to the State legislature, in which he served ten years—the last being in 1828. During all this time his popularity was so great that it was deemed little better than folly for any one to run against him. When the seat of government was first established at Columbus, there was not a stage coach running in Ohio ; and, as we now roll along in a palace railroad car on a smooth track, or in an easy-going spring carriage on a good turnpike, and view, on either side of us the cheerful homesteads, the wide fields of corn and wheat, and the fat cattle grazing in the green pastures, it is difficult to imagine our early representative, bestride a horse, threading his way among the brush toward the capital, armed and equipped with pistols and provender, and catching every sound with apprehension of danger. Colonel Keffer was also twice chosen presidential elector, casting his vote, the first time, for Jackson, and afterward for Van Buren. He was one of the original proprietors of the Circleville Watchman, the Democratic organ of the county, established in 1835, and had editorial charge of it for two or three years. He died March 9, 1852, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. A daughter of his married NI r. G. F. Wittich, one of the old residents of Circleville, to whom we are indebted for the substance of the above sketch, as also that of the Zieger family, on another page of this work. THE REV. JOHN DREISBACH, minister of the Evangelical Association, and for many years a resident of Pickaway county, was a descendant of Martin Dreisbach, who was born in 1717, in the earldom of Witgenstein, Germany, and came to this country in 1746, taking up his residence upon a farm in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. The emigrant, Martin Dreisbach, and his wife (Anna -Eve Hoffman), daughter of a teacher in Nausauseigen, had six children, Jacob, Henry, John, Martin, Margaret, and Catherine. The father died in 1799, at the age of eighty-two years, and the mother in 1789, at the age of sixty-five. Martin, their fourth son, and the father of the subject of this biography, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1764, and married Sabina Fred Buchs, (pronounced, as anglicized, Books) who was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1762. Martin died in 1831, in Pennsylvania, and his wife died in Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1849. They were the parents of six children. John Dreisbach, who became the prominent preacher, and of whose life we shall \give the particulars, was the eldest, and was born June 5, 1789. His brothers and sisters were Anna Eve, Susannah, Leah, Elizabeth, and Martin.' John Dreisbach was the son of pious parents. Both of them were for many years—from 1816 to the close of their lives—members of the Evangelical Association. It was natural that the son should inherit a religious nature. He obtained a rudimentary education, and at an early age exhibited the tendency which constantly grew stronger as he advanced in life and knowledge, and which made him one of the great forces in the building up of the Evangelical Association, and of christianity among the Germans. That was his life-work, and he labored in it with enthusiasm and zeal. Every leaf of the history of the Evangelical Association bears tribute to his influence and ability. He entered the ministry of this association in Pennsylvania, when eighteen years of age, as is asserted by some of his descendants, but probably when but seventeen, according to the early records of the church in Pennsylvania. The first mention of -.his name is as one of the four local preachers of the society, in 18o6. Young Dreisbach went out the following year as a traveling preacher, and thus began his career of widely extended usefulness. He was the fifth itinerant appointed, and during his first service in that capacity, was often accompanied by the famous founder of the association, the brave, zealous, conscientious, and much maligned Rev. Jacob Albright. Mr. Dreisbach wrote in his late years of Albright, as follows : "I derived great benefit from his paternal instruction and pious example, as well as from his fervent prayers, childlike confidence in God, and his humble resignation to his holy will. All this made deep impressions on my mind, and was highly useful to me afterward in my calling as a christian and minister of the gospel." Dreisbach was stationed in 1807, with another preacher, George Miller, upon the old circuit, which embraced about twenty appointments, and included parts of the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon, Lancaster, Berks, Bucks, Montgomery, Northampton, Lehigh, and Schuylkill. The next year he was transferred to the Northumberland circuit, where his duties were difficult and attended with great disadvantages and self-denial. About this time there arose a powerful storm of opposition, persecution and calumny against the association, and all of those who preached and labored in the cause.. The storm was directed principally against the Methodists, who were then increasing very rapidly, but the people generally, at that time, understood by the term "Methodists," also the Evangelical Association, the United Brethren, and all who held the same or similar religious views. A very bitter feeling of prejudice was developed. Libels were uttered, and as they obtained many believers, the feeling of enmity ran so high against the new and struggling church, that violence was often threatened, and some declared their willingness to take up arms against the people of the little flock, and exterminate them, if it were not contrary to the laws. An incident in the life of the Rev. John Dreisbach confirms what has been said of the bitterness against the preaching of the association. We obtain the facts from the Rev. W. W. Orwig's History of the Evangelical Association. In the month of August, 1808, it appears that the preacher returned from a general meeting near the Muelbach, in order to fill an appointment in the evening in Jonestown, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania; but as he had before been disturbed while preaching there, it was his intention to hold service, on this occasion, among his friends, without giving any public notice. "From fear, not of the Jews, but of heathen-like Christians," the doors were locked and the window-shutters fastened on the inside before the preaching was commenced. After 230 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO. singing and prayer, Mr. Dreisbach began his sermon, but as the preliminary exercises had probably been heard by some of the adversaries, he had \proceeded but a brief time when a mob gathered, and forcing the doors and shutters open, entered the house, making a great noise and giving utterance to violent imprecations, putting a stop to the services. The preacher went among the crowd to restore order, but was seized by several ruffians and dragged toward the door. The lights were all extinguished and he was very roughly treated. The men who had seized upon him hallooed to their companions who were outside, "Boys, open the door, we have got him ;" and they replied, "Give it to him ; kill the priest !" Dreisbach was apprehensive cif the worst, and concentrating his strength, by a sudden effort he freed himself from the strong hold of the men and escaped from them. But he was still in the midst of the crowd in the pitchy darkness. As his assailants were groping around for him, cursing his escape, they accidentally bestowed several blows upon each other, and while they were thus engaged he slipped out of the crowd and the mob got out doors. Alarmed for the minister, some of his friends hastened out also, but were seized and much abused. The ringleaders in this mob were arrested. Rev. Mr. Dreisbach continued preaching in the Lancaster, Northumberland and Lebanon circuit, for many years. He received a tempting offer from Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist church, to join that denomination, but declined it on account of his affection for the Association. His allegiance to this organization was unwavering, although he could have many times bettered himself, in a pecuniary way at least, by joining a church of similar faith. The pay was small for a number of years—thirty dollars, then fifty dollars—sums insufficient to keep an itinerant in clothes, much less to meet other needs of self or family. In 1812 Mr. Dreisbach was placed in charge of the mission of New York, during which year he passed through many trials; among them, physical ailment, which rendered him incapable of' attending to his Ministerial duties, as he had formerly done. For a time he was threatened with entire prostration, but he passed through this trying period safely, and was, perhaps, only strengthened for the enlarged responsibility he was to bear. Almost the entire duty of managing the affairs of ten associations devolved upon him after 1812, and, instead of laboring in the older-established circuits, from that time forward he was engaged in laying out new circuits, farther west. In 1814 the conference elected the first presiding elder—the subject of this sketch. During 1815 he preached several times in Philadelphia, and in the following year he traveled westward as far as Buffalo and Niagara Falls, preaching at those places and in Canada with good effect. From this time onward the preacher's sphere constantly enlarged. He had compiled a catechism, which came into general use, and now, in conjunction with a brother minister, he arranged the German hymn book, and re-arranged and improved the "Articles of Faith and Discipline." In 1816 he was the leader in the movement to effect a union of the United Brethren and the Evangelical Association. In 1817 he preached (March 2d) the dedica tory sermon of the first church erected by the society at New Berlin, Union county, Pennsylvania. John Dreisbach constantly increased in popularity, both as preacher and man. In 1828 and 1829 he was a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, and, at a later period, was talked of as a candidate for governor of that State. He had no ambition for distinction, however, and no enthusiasm for any labor except that which would advance the interests of his church and the cause of christianity. He removed to Ohio in 1831, and bought a farm in Pickaway township. He paid but little attention to this, however, but continued his labors as a minister, beginning among his neighbors, and afterward having charge of the circuit which included Pickaway county. He was also stationed, for a time, at Dayton, and also at Chillicothe, and for several years was editor of the Evangelical Messenger, the organ of the association at Cleveland, Ohio. His life was one of unintermittent activity. His pen was constantly employed after he had, in his old age, ceased preaching, and he wrote a vast deal of matter, chiefly religious. Much of the material for the history of the association was gathered by him. With scarcely any thought for himself, but seeking constantly the advancement of the church and the spiritual good of his neighbors and of humanity in general, he labored on day after day, and year after year, until the close of his life. He died in Circleville, where the last years of his life were spent, August 2o, 1871, loved, respected, regretted and mourned by all. The domestic life of the preacher began in 1811, when he married Catharine Eyer, who died a little more than two years later, leaving two daughters--Salome, born January 13, 1812 (who married Henry Buchwalter, of Ross county, and is now deceased), and Elizabeth, born July 12, 1813 (now Mrs. Benjamin Steeley, of Pick-away township.) Mr. Dreisbach married his second wife, Fanny Eyer, a sister of the first, in 1817. The offspring of this union were five sons and four daughters, all of whom are living but three. Abraham E., born February 21, 1818, was a minister, and for many years a worker in the church. He died February 27, 1864. Isaac E., born March 28, 1819; married Lydia Hittel, and resides in Pickaway township. Catharine E., born August 17, 182o; married Rev. Louis Einsel, and lives near Lafayette, Indiana. Sophia E., born November 27, 1821, is the wife of Eli Loos, of Monroe county, Michigan. Jacob E., born March 17, 1823, became a minister, and is now president of an orphan institute at Flat Rock, Seneca county, Ohio. He married Catharine Wagner. Leah E., born October 28, 1824, married D. B. Wagner, and resides in Circleville. Martin E. was born September 8, 1826. He is a farmer, and has his home in Circleville. He married Elizabeth Reedy. Susannah E., born March 4, 1828, is the wife of George L. Kamp, of Woodford county, Illi- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 231 nois. John E. was born April 28, 1830, and died February 27, 1864. Fannie E. (now Mrs. L. C. Spickler, of Pickaway township), was born November 26, 1832. Martha E. was born November 7, 1834, and died November 25, 1876. She was the wife of Dr. W. C. Gildersleeve, of Hallsville, Ross county, Ohio. The owner of the old Dreisbach homestead in Pick-away township is Clifton R., a son of John Dreisbach, deceased. He is a farmer by occupation, and one of the best in his part of the county. He married Lina, daughter of Abraham Hitler. WILLIAM RENICK. The genealogy of the Renick family is only traditional. We learn from it that the progenitors emigrated from Germany, with many other families, to Scotland, to escape the religious persecution that then prevailed in the former country, and after a time, a part of them at least, removed to Colevain county, Ireland. In the meantime, the name had undergone a change from Rienwich to Renwich, probably to suit the dialect of the country. In the process of time, one of them was created a peer, and he purchasing all the property of his two brothers, they, with their father, emigrated to America. But the peer not being able to pay the purchase money at the time, engaged to send it to them within a specified period, which proved a fortunate arrangement for the brothers, as the vessel in which they embarked was robbed by the pirate, "Black Beard," but the money came safe to hand at the stated time. We here narrate an incident, said to have occurred on the passage. When the pirates boarded the vessel the old man Renick was asleep. The noise awakening him, he started to find out the cause of the confusion. He encountered the robbers in the act of opening a box of candles, and he exclaimed "Hoot toot; what is all this fuss about." The pirates said they would stop his mouth, so they thrust a candle down his throat. The brothers, with their father, first settled in eastern Pennsylvania—at least, until their money came. Afterwards they removed to Hardy county, Virginia, on the south branch of the Potomac river, and from that point their descendants scattered in various directions—some south to the James river, others to Gambier county, Virginia, and others still to the States of Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio. In the meantime the name had undergone two more changes: from Renwich to Rennick; and then later, one of the ns was dropped, making the name spell, as at present, Renick. There are traits of character in this large family which, with propriety, may be termed characteristic. Although the family has been in the country more than two hundred years, and scattered over many different and widely distant localities, in all of which, it is believed, could be found men of wealth and large influence, yet there appears to have existed among them from the first a singular unanimity of sentiment in eschewing a political life. It is apparent that they have uniformly been well nigh devoid of political aspirations, but seemed rather to have preferred a more retired, unpresuming and independent life, whilst of many of them it can be said with more assurance, that they have been, for the past two or three generations at least, very active, enterprising and highly public-spirited citizens, taking an active, if not a leading, part in every scheme or enterprise that presented a fair promise oT resulting beneficially, either to their respective localities or communities in which they resided, or to the country at large. William Renick, who was a direct descendant of the emigrants, was born and raised in Hardy county, Virginia, and was for a time deputy surveyor under Lord Fairfax, in surveying the southeastern counties of Virginia. By some accident he had his compass broken, and had to cease work until another compass could be ordered from London, England, which consumed some five or six months. His grandson, William Renick, of Circleville, Ohio, now has the latter compass in his possession. It is probably one hundred and twenty-five years old. William Renick had four sons and four daughters. The sons, Felix, George, Thomas, and William, came to the Scioto valley, from 1797 to 1803. All of them, previous to their final settlement, secured large and valuable tracts of land. The daughters all married, but remained in Virginia. Thomas Renick and his wife both died the same day, in August, 1804. William died in 1845, aged sixty-four years; Felix died in 1848, aged seventy-eight; and George died in 1863, aged eighty-seven years. George had three sons and three daughters. The sons, William, Josiah, and Harness, finally settled in Pickaway county, respectively, in 1826, 1828, and 1832; but all had done business in the county for years before, and have all been residents of the city of Circleville for many years. Mrs. N. J. Turney, one of the daughters, has also been a resident of the county and city for over thirty years. The other two daughters, Mrs. J. M. Terry, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Hugh Bell, of Chillicothe, were at one time also residents of the county, All the above mentioned sons and daughters of George Renick are still living. William Renick, the oldest son of George Renick, and subject of, this sketch, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, November 12, 1804. He commenced doing an extensive business at the early age of fifteen and a half years, on account of 'his father's delicate health at the time, imperatively requiring the assistance of his son. This circumstance necessitated an abrupt relinquishment of the son's further attendance at school, before his education, as had been originally designed by his father, had been completed, which was to have been a full classical education. At his majority he entered into active business life on his own account. His occupation was that of a farmer, including that of raising, grazing, and feeding of cattle on rather an extensive scale for those days, feeding some seasons as high as three hundred head of cattle in one year, on corn grown on his own land. Besides this he has driven and shipped to an eastern market a very large number of fat cattle in his time, and is now the oldest living drover west of the mountains, if not in the United 232 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO. States, having begun that occupation as early as the year 1820 . He purchased and brought from Texas twelve hundred head of cattle, in 1854, the first lot (1 Texas cattle ever brought north, at least, in large numbers, and was considered the pioneer drover in that trade, that has now grown to such enormous proportions. He was also the inventor of the present mode of construoting turnpike roads. For nearly three years he constantly importuned the directors of the Columbus and Portsmouth company, and finally succeeded in inducing them to adopt his plan, which from its cheapness and usefulness, has long since been the only plan of construction of all turnpikes now built in the west. Hitherto they had been too costly for private enterprise. This was the first road built of the kind, and it was only because the means could not be raised to build any other kind of graveled road, that the plan was adopted, not that the directors approved the plan. William Renick is a staunch Republican, and his articles to the press on the "Currency of the Country," "The Dollar of the Daddies," "Revenue Tariff," "Free Trade," Banks and Banking System," etc., have done much to mold popular opinion. He is a ready writer, and his communications on "Blue Grass," "Shorthorns," "Thoroughbred Cattle in Ohio,' "Early Cattle Trade in Ohio," etc., have been widely circulated and read throughout the country. Altogether, his life has been a very active, enterprising and highly public spirited one, although he has labored all the time from early age under the dire misfortune of a partial, and for the last twenty-five years, a total want of hearing. Mr. Renick has been three times parried, but has no living children. His only son died in 1855-,.. at the age of twenty-eight years, but unmarried. JACOB LUDWIG. Daniel Ludwig, the father of Jacob, was born in Perks county, -Pennsylvania, June 4, 1748. His parents, Daniel and Mary Ludwig, were natives of Germany. He was associated with Governor Joseph Heister in a store at Reading, Pennsylvania, for a number of years. In the fall of 1806 he emigrated to Ohio, with two-horse teams bringing his family, consisting of his wife and nine children, and a small stock of goods, with which he intended to open a store here. With this object in view, he erected the large brick house which is now the residence of Jacob Ludwig, in one portion of which the store was to be kept. But three of his sons, on whose aid he depended, died, and the store was never established, the goods being disposed of to the neighbors. The house alluded to-a view of which is elsewhere given-was built in 1809, and is, without doubt, the oldest brick house in Pickaway county. Mr. Ludwig, on his arrival here, purchased a half section of land, a portion of which is now owned by Jacob Ludwig, and subsequently entered lands in this and adjoining counties, until he became the owner of about three thousand acres. He was the original owner of the land on which the town of Logan, Hocking county, now stands. He was married three times: first, in 1778, to Appelona, daughter of Michael and Susannah Miller, who was born March 14, 1760. By this marriage were born the following-named children: John, born January 29, 1779 Christena, born November 27, 1781; Daniel, born October I I, 1783-died January 28, 1790; George, born September 3, 1785-died February 8, 181o. The mother died May 14, 1787. March 11, 1788, Mr. Ludwig married Eve, daughter of Casper and Rebecca Grissmer, who was born November 12, 1766. By her he had two children: Thomas, born January 15, 1789-died February 15, 1810; and Joseph, born October 1, 1790-died September 10, 1807. Mrs. Eve Ludwig died October 21, 1800. His third wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Shupert, whom he married in 1802. She was born March 3, 1776. To them were born the following children: Catharine, born July 7, 1803; Mary born November 3o, 1804; Jacob, born April 17, 1806; Elizabeth, born March 13, 1808; Rachel, born November 25, 1810; Susannah, born August 9, 1812. Daniel Ludwig died June 9, 1825; and his wife, Elizabeth, May 3, 1816. Jacob Ludwig, the subject of this sketch, was the third child and only son by the third marriage, and was six months of age at the time of the removal of his parents to Ohio. His education was obtained at the schools of the neighborhood in which he resided, with the exception of two years' attendance at a school in Circleville, of which Dr. Brown, now president of the First National bank, was the teacher. November 18, 1830, he was united in marriage to Evelina Morris, daughter of Henry and Charity Morris, who was born July 12, 1812. She died February 23, 1848. Seven sons and one daughter were born to them, as follows: Daniel, born November 23, 1831-married Julia Steeley, and has three children; Henry O., born December 16, 1832-married Amelia Galler; Isaac, born September 21, 1834, is unmarried ; George, born January 14, 1836, married Eliza Young, and has two children; John, born December 17, 1837 died April 7, 1848, from the result of an accident; Mary Elizabeth, born April 28, i839-married John P. Steeley, and has seven children; David S., born June 16, 1842- married Rosalie H., daughter of Isaac E. Dreisbach, December 26, 1872-they have three children; Jacob, jr., born January 27, 1848-died July 10, of the same year. Mr. Ludwig has resided in the house which he now occupies ever since it was built, in 1809-a period of seventy years. He enjoys a hale and hearty old age, and possesses the respect and esteem of all who know him. WILLIAM MARTIN. The subject of this sketch was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1800. When quite small, his parents emigrated to Ohio and settled near Hillsborough. Before many years elapsed, his father died, and before he was twelve years of age came the added misfortune of his mother's death. lie was thus thrown upon his own resources at a very early period of his life, with a mind uninformed, and with his HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 233 own way to work out a living in a new country. Perhaps this fact sharpened his mental capacity and taught him early to depend on his own efforts more than would have otherwise been the case, making him an exceptionally successful business man in after life. Soon after becoming twenty-one years of age he invested his savings in a trading venture to New Orleans by means of a flat-boat, which, at that early date, was the only manner of carrying the produce of the new country to a market. His venture proved successful, and he went . forward in business from this small beginning until, in a few years, while still a young man, he took a leading place among the great produce dealers and pork packers of Ohio. He made Circleville his headquarters, and was an extensive shipper of pork and grain to New Orleans and the South. He was well and favorably known on every steamboat and at every business point on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, between Portsmouth and New Orleans. About 1830 he formed a partnership with Samuel Rogers in the dry goods, grocery, and produce business at Circleville, with whom he was connected until 1846. In 1845 they engaged in the commission business in New Orleans, and at the end of that year Mr. Rogers retired from the business. Mr. Martin then associated with himself Dr. Stockwell, formerly of Lafayette, Indiana, and continued the commission business at New Orleans, Cincinnati, and New York. In 185o he removed to Decatur, Illinois, where he died in April, 1879, aged nearly seventy-nine years. He was married, about 1825, to Miss Comfort Hopkins, of Pickaway county, from whom he derived some property, which assisted him in his early business enterprises. They had six or seven children, nearly all of whom died in infancy. Mr. Martin was a shrewd, careful, methodical business man, and was very successful in his business ventures. Besides this, he found time to store his mind with history, poetry, science, and politics. He was well informed on the current events of the day, and had a vigorous mind, and a memory that retained what he read, so that he was able to converse intelligently upon any subject. His convictions were strong, and he had a reason ready for the faith that was in him. He was always ready to aid and assist the needy and unfortunate, and especially so when he saw a person making energetic efforts to help himself. He has assisted many poor and deserving men to obtain a start in business life, sometimes losing money in the effort to advance the interests of others; hut though this frequently happened, he did not lose faith in mankind, and ever stood ready to assist, with his means, a worthy man. Mr. Martin was of a class that is rapidly becoming extinct. He was tnily an "old fashioned gentleman," and was the personification of politeness. He retained the old-time ideas of business integrity and honesty, which are now-a-days too frequently laid aside in the haste men make in the effort to become rich. His obligations were always promptly paid, and his creditors satisfied in full of all their demands. It would be well if the lessons taught by the lives of such men in everyday life were more fully heeded and patterned after by the men of the present day. JOHN GROCE. John Groce was born in Frederick county, Maryland, and emigrated, when a young man, to the west, settling in Jefferson, of this county, before Circleville was laid out or was known as a town. In the year 181I, he returned to his native county, and on April 25, was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, of Louden county, Virginia, and immediately thereafter again came west with his wife, and settled in Circleville, where he lived until his death. There were born to them seven children, as follows: Charles (who died in his twenty-second year), Lydia, Bentley, Caroline (who died in infancy), John, Mahlon (who died at the age of twenty-two years), and Elizabeth Ann. His wife died August 8, 1824, leaving him with a family of young children to care for. In 1827 he married Mrs. Margaret Wolfley. He died March 18, 1834, in his fifty-fifth year. John, the third son, and subject of this sketch, was born January 18, 1818, at Circleville, this county. At the time of his father's death he was in his seventeenth year. Thus left dependent upon his own resources, it became necessary for him to do for himself. He sought, as council, his father's -most intimate friend, the late Matthew McCrea, and the advice was given as follows: "John, go to a trade. It will learn you habits of industry, and if you don't want to follow it when you become a man, you need not." Taking this sound advice, he immediately went to learn the saddling business with the late John A. Wolfley, commencing the same year, in April. He continued at his trade, as apprentice and journeyman, until the spring of 1839, when, on the thirteenth day of June, he commenced the business for himself, at Kingston, Ross county, Ohio, on a capital of eighty-five dollars. The same year, December 19th, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Graham, who was born September 25, 182o. There have been born to them five children: infant daughter, born March 31, 1841; Mary Elizabeth, born July 26, 1842; Ellen Gillett, April 24, 1845; Jennie, September 27, 1847; Charles Erastus, born July 26, 1851. Mary Elizabeth married Bennett Foresman, October 20, 1864. They have had two children: John Philip, born October 3, 1866, and William Bennett, born August 3, 1873. Ellen Gillett married Frank M. Shulse, October 22, 1868. They have two children : Charles Groce, born July 22, 1869, and Emanuel Edgar, January 13, 1879. Jennie married Lemuel Boggs, October 20, 1870. They have two children: Nellie Groce, born January 12, 1872, and Margaret Cook April 5, 1876. Mr. Groce continued in his business at Kingston for nine years, meeting with fair success. But having become strongly impressed with the idea that he could do better at other business, and feeling that Kingston was not the place to make the venture, he, with his little family, moved to Circleville, in August, 1848, immediately going into the grain and pork business in connection with the late R. D. Atwater. In July, 1852, he also took an interest with Mr. Atwater in the dry-goods business. In the fall of that year he went to Milton, Indiana, to pack pork, while Mr. Atwater attended to the business in Circleville, the interests at both points being the same. Mr. Atwater dying in December, of the same year, and the business proving largely losing, it left him without capital. But being energetic and hopeful, with nothing to lose and all to gain, he proposed to Mr. Atwater's executor to take the stock of goods on five years' time, which was readily assented to, and taking Mr. Jacob Helman, also without capital, as a partner, went vigorously to work to retrieve losses. In the fall and winter of 1853-54 he again went into the pork trade alone, and, profiting by his past experience, he was fortunate in the venture, so that he was enabled to protect his dry goods notes as they matured from year to year. He continued in the dry goods and pork business until the year 1860, when he exchanged his dry 234 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO. goods to the late E. B. Olds for a block of buildings, and has since carried on the pork trade with great success. November 12, 187z, he associated with himself his only son, Charles E., and the firm has since been known as John Groce & Son. One who has been his companion from boyhood, and is well qualified to judge of his many virtues and sterling qualities, says of him : "Mr. Groce is eminently a self-made man. Left at an early age without the example and counsel of a father, and possessed of but an ordinary common-school education, he started out in the battle of life. But whilst, he lacked these advantages, which are generally so necessary to success, he did possess qualities of mind which were gradually developed and made the groundwork of a successful business life, and that was a determination to study out and become master of any business he might undertake to prosecute. That has been fully demonstrated in the almost national reputation he has attained for his manner of curing meats, and particularly hams. Mr. Groce is a man of very positive convictions, and when once an opinion is formed, it is held with firmness, and yet not without being willing always to give a reason for his opinion. He has always been identified with every public enterprise, and has contributed as much as any citizen to build up our city, as his large and well-appointed pork house and fine residence demonstrate. He took an active part in securing subscriptions for the purchase of the grounds of our beautiful Forest cemetery, and has been one of its directors from the beginning until the present time. He was a member of the national convention that nominated R. B. Hayes for president of the United States, and is now chairman of the Republican central committee of this county." CAPTAIN JOHN H. GROCE was one of the worthiest of the many young men of Pickaway county, who gave their lives for their country, and a man whom, had he lived to mature years, would doubtless have won, through his superior talents, high distinction.. He was the son of Bently and Matilda V. Groce, and was born in Circleville, April 13, 184o. His education was partially obtained under the teaching of Hon. James A. Garfield, and was very thorough and complete. He was a young man of intellectual tastes, a successful teacher, and intended to practice the profession of law. He had intense patriotism, and so it came about that when the war of the Rebellion began, he was one of the very first to answer the call for volunteers. He went out as a member of company G, Second regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, for three months, and was appointed orderly sergeant. After the elapse of a short time, he, in connection with Jacob W. Taylor,. enlisted a company of men to serve three years, or during the war. Their company was assigned to the Thirtieth regiment, and Mr. Groce was elected its first lieutenant, his commission bearing date of August 22, 186r. Immediately after being mustered into service, the regiment was ordered into West Virginia. Lieutenant Groce did not go, however, but returned home upon a furlough, with orders to recruit for the service. He joined the force in a few days after, and soon received the appointment of adjutant of the regiment. On the nineteenth of November, 1861, he was promoted to the captaincy of the company he had enlisted. He served in that capacity until June, 1864, when he was appointed assistant inspector-general of the Second brigade and Second division, under General Lightburn, in which position he remained up to the time of his death. He was engaged in numerous skirmishes, in the early part of the war, and at Vicksburg commanded a fleet of boats, under the eye of General Sherman, and was eminently useful in protecting the crews compelled to run the gauntlet of the rebel shore batteries. In this capacity he first attracted the attention of General Sherman, whose confidence he ever after held. After taking an active part in various expeditions, he was selected, in 1863, to lead the " forlorn hope," on the second of May, in the storming of one of the rebel forts of Vicksburg. He commanded one hundred and fifty men, whose duty it was to make the assault and lay a bridge over a ravine in the interior of the works. His command was assailed with a terrible fire, but neither he nor his followers quailed in the performance of their stern task. All of his men were killed, except twenty-three, and he himself was painfully and dangerously wounded. He lay in the trenches until night, when,. faint from the loss of blood, he made his escape to the Union lines, amid a perfect shower of bullets. He was generously complimented for his bravery by General Blair and other officers. Being unfitted for duty, he came home on a furlough, where he remained until his wound was partially healed. It was during that furlough that he was presented with a sword, in token of his friends' appreciation of his gallantry in the memorable siege of Vicksburg. He returned to the army the following winter, joining the force at Larkinsville, Alabama. His active spirit led him into numerous encounters with the enemy, in one of which he severely injured his wounded arm. With his regiment he returned home on a furlough, but went back to the south, just after the battle of Resaca. From this time he was attached to McPherson's corps, and participated in all of the principal battles up to the fall of Atlanta and the battle of Jonesboro. He participated in Sherman's march to the sea, and was, with others, especially detailed to storm Fort McAllister. Whenever there was a deed to be done which required especial courage and daring, he was certain to be employed. It was at the storming of Fort McAllister that he lost his life. He fell by the shot of a sharpshooter, while in advance of his division, reconnoitring the enemy's works, December 13, 1864. He was buried near the spot where he was shot down, and after the army obtained possession of Savannah, his remains were sent to his home and friends by his friend, Captain Earnest. Captain Groce was emphatically a military man, and well deserved the name, "bravest of the brave." He went to the front fearlessly, though with premonition of death, and no persuasion of friends could deter him from remaining in the service as long as there was need for men to bear arms in their country's defence. He was popular among the people of Circleville, and the same qualities that made him generally liked and respected by them, caused him to obtain and hold the love of his men in the army. His death was a severe blow to his parents, whose solace lie was, and was deeply deplored by the whole people of the town which had been his home. He died in his twenty-fourth year. T. C. SMITH. Talmer Cone Smith was born in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York, July 31, 1823. His parents, Joseph Otis Smith and Harriet, nee Cone, Smith, were descended from the best New England stock—his father being named for his grandfather, Joseph Otis, who was a brother of the celebrated James Otis, of Boston. Joseph Otis was descended from John Otis, who, with his family, came from Hingham, in Norfolk, England, in June, 1635, and Edward Doten, who came over in the Mayflower. His great-grandfather, Ignatius Smith, emigrated from Wales to Massachusetts early in the eighteenth century. His mother's family was of English descent, leaving England and settling in Connecticut, in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The subject of this sketch received a good academic education, working on the farm during the summer, where his father was born, and on which his brother, Mark H. Smith, now lives and owns, until he arrived at majority, when he emigrated to Ohio. He studied law with the Hon. Henry W. Smith, of London; was admitted to the bar in December, 1846, by the old supreme court of Ohio. He opened a law office in Circleville, Ohio, in April, 1847, where he has practiced ever since. From 1849 to 1856 he was in partnership with Judge Thomas C. Jones, now of Delaware, Ohio. He was elected city solicitor in the spring of 1855, and re-elected in the spring of 1857, holding the office four years. He was elected prosecuting attorney in the fall of 1855, and held the office one term. He never sought for office, but his great desire and aim was to wholly devote his time and energy to the labors of his HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 235 profession. He practiced in all the courts of Ohio and in the circuit and supreme court of the United States, meeting successfully the best lawyers in the State. He has one of the largest and best-selected law libraries in Ohio. In December, 1858, he married Miss Sarah Osborn, a daughter of Ralph Osborn, who was auditor of State from 1815 to 1823, and of Jeannett, the eldest daughter of General James Denny, a gallant officer of the war of 1812. Miss Denny's first husband was Dr. Daniel Turney. The fruits of this union are three daughters—Jeannett S., Mary O., and Harriet O. During the war of the Rebellion T. C. Smith was a member of the military committee of Pickaway county, giving freely of his time and money to sustain the government in its time of need. EDWARD SMITH. The beneficent tendency of our free American institutions finds no more striking exemplification than in the successful career of Mr. Edward Smith and his younger brother, Joseph P., with whom he has been in partnership almost ever since he attained his majority. He was born in county Down, Ireland, September, 1826; his parents, Patrick and Rose Anna (Quinn) Smith, belonging to the honest and hardy yeomanry of that prolific isle. While he was yet in infancy, his father emigrated with his family to Toronto, Canada, where the father died in the latter part of 1832. For six years the heroic mother supported the family by her own exertions, thus, by her example, as well as by her careful training, cherishing in her boys those habits of industry and self-reliance which became the basis of their good fortune in after life. In 1836 she married Bernard Riley, who was also from Ireland. He seems not only to have been a good husband to her but also a true father to his step-sons, since they remained with him until his death, which occurred in 1850—nearly three years after Edward became of age. In 1837, about a year after the mother's second marriage, they removed to Lockport, New York, where they remained a little over two years; and from that place, in June, 1840, they came to Circleville, which was to be the scene of their future labors and successes. Mr. Riley was a farmer, and accumulated considerable personal property by laboring for others, renting land or working it on shares, but never purchasing. Previous to his death the two Smiths—Edward and Joseph—had become familiar with the broom-corn business (in which they have since acquired both wealth and fame) by working for the Eaton brothers, the pioneers in this branch of business in Pick-away county. [For the details of this business the reader is referred to what is said of it under the head of "Manufacturing Interests," in another place. Immediately after their step-father's death, the two brothers purchased all his personal property at public sale, on a credit of nine .months, John Boyer being the administrator. They then rented land of Thomas Huston, which they cultivated one season on shares. In November, of the same year (1850), Edward went with the Eaton brothers-- who had left the broom-corn business and gone into iron mining in northern Michigan—to assist them in their operations, taking with him four horses and harness. There he stayed till February z, _1855, when, having become satisfied that mining was not his "best hold," he sold out his horses and harness to the Eatons, and took their note in payment. Then he and two other young men started, on snowshoes, for the lower part of Green hay, over eighty miles, camping out every night for a week, the snow being some five feet deep on an average. From there he walked on the ice to Green Bay city, which occupied another week; thence by coach to Milwaukee, where he stayed over night, and the next morning started on foot for Chicago, where he arrived in about three days. There he stayed over night, and then took stage to Michigan City, which, at that time, was the farthest point west reached by rail. There he took the cars to Columbus, and thence to Circleville by coach, arriving the latter part of February, having been three weeks making the trip.. He immediately made arrangements to go to farming with his brother, working land one season for Mr. Huston—partly on shares, and partly by the acre for three dollars per acre. In the fall of that year (1851) Mr. George Chrysler, of Lockport, New York, came west to engage parties, well acquainted with the business, to raise broom-corn for him. He was referred to the Smith brothers, who entered into a contract to supply him with the corn from two hundred acres of ground. In the following spring they rented this amount of land of Mr. Huston, which they cultivated in broom-corn that season, according to their contract. The crop amounted to over seventy tons, which they baled and shipped to Mr. Chrysler, at Lockport, New York. This may be considered as the beginning of their remarkable career in the broom business, which has not only swept wealth into their own coffers, but has also swept want from the door of many poor and industrious families. An enumeration of the parcels of ground purchased by Mr. Smith at different times, and constituting his present landed estate, will not be uninteresting : the nine acres, in the center of which stands his fine suburban vilia, was purchased of John Cradlebaugh, March 17, 1860, for one thousand six hundred dollars ; December 9, 5859, he bought of Governor Morgan, of New York, one hundred and ninety-seven acres, for thirteen thousand dollars ; five acres, lying contiguous, in the corporation of Circleville, being added in 1862—bought of John Fleming, for five hundred and fifty dollars ; June 2, 1862, he purchrsed of William Hughes thirty-eight acres, for two thousand five hundred and nineteen dollars ; May 24, 5867, of the C. & M. V. R. R., eleven acres, for nine hundred and fifteen dollars and sixty cents ; November 54, 1867, of Dr. A. W. Thompson, fifty-six acres, for seven thousand eight hundred and forty dollars. The land owned by the two brothers, in partnership, consists of one farm of five hundred and twenty acres, lying in Jackson and Wayne townships ; the other, of three hundred and thirty-three and one-half acres, known as " the Robert Foresman farm," bought October 9, z869, belongs to E. Smith. Mr. Smith received his education in private schools in Canada and New York ; also, for two winters, in the old public school of Circleville, and finished with one month's tuition under old Mr. Brittan, who, in 1847, had a private school over Samuel Rogers' store. He has never had any political aspirations, but he has been, for many years, a member of the Circleville city council, and is now, for the second term, president of the corporation. He was married in February, 1855, to Sarah A. Lynch, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Sharkey) Lynch, who came to this part of Ohio about the year 5841. Her father was a native of Ireland, and her mother of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had seven chidren, named)' in the order of their birth) as follows: Elizabeth and Rosa (twins), Mary, Joseph S., Anna, Edward E., and James I. Of these, Rosa, Mary and Anna died in infancy. The rest are still living. Mr. Smith is an active member and a most liberal supporter of the Roman Catholic church, as may be seen in the history of St. Joseph's church, Circleville, related on another page of this volume. JOSEPH P. SMITH. The reflections made in regard to the business character and career of Edward Smith, apply with equal force to his younger brother and partner, named above. Though quite unlike, personally (Joseph having considerable the advantage of his brother in physical proportions), the brothers, nevertheless, strongly resemble each other in their sterling qualities of mind and heart.   J. P. Smith was born in Toronto, Canada, in the month of March, 5835. He followed the fortunes of his family, which have been briefly related in the biography of his brother Edward ; and, at the age of nine years, found himself in Circleville, which was to be his home for nearly the whole of his subsequent life. There he lived and labored with his step-father (attending school part of the time, during the winters) till the latter died, in 5850, and afterwards in partnership with his brother, till the early part of 1856—when he removed to Berne township, Fairfield county, where he had rented "the old Thomas Ewing farm" for three years. Here he devoted himself mainly to the raising of broomcorn, to which business it would almost seem he was predestinated by a sort of fatality which he could not escape. But his devotion to his business, assiduous as it was, did not prevent him from giving due attention to another still more important—the one, in fact, to which every business avocation in life should be held as merely subsidiary— viz. : the formation of a home and the support of a wife and children.   It was during these three memorable years on " the old Ewing place,"   236 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   that is to say, in the month of November, 1856, that he was married to Miss Susan P. Bish, in Lancaster, her native town. Her parents, Martin and Magdelene fish, were of the good old Teutonic stock, having emigrated from Germany and settled in this part of Ohio, at an early day.   The results of this marriage are shown by the following goodly list of children: 1, Edward S., born August 31, 1857; 2, Mary M., born August 16, 1859—died September 24, 1860; 3, Francis C., born January 27, 1862; 4, Cecelia C., born February 13, 1864; 5, Charles, born March 14, 1866; 6, William, born March 27, 1868; 7, Susan, born August 17, 1870; 8, Anna E., born November 11, 1872; 9, Joseph, born March 2, 1875; 10, Rose, born July 3, 1877.   After his three years on "the Ewing farm," Mr. Smith came back to Pickaway county and carried on the same business, by himself, for one year, in Harrison township; after which, in i860, he returned to Circleville and renewed, with his brother, the partnership which has continued ever since.   It was in the spring of this year [186o] that he met with an exciting and tragic adventure, which' is well worthy of being put on record, and which shows that the ordinarily unevenful life of a farmer may sometimes become as perilous as that of those "who go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters."   Those who have seen the Scioto only in its placid moods, can have but a faint conception of what it is capable of becoming when swollen with rage by the torrents of rain which sometimes deluge the whole length and breadth of its fertile valley. The freshet of April, 1860, will long be remembered by many of our readers who lost valuable property, or still more valuable friends, in its angry flood. The land owned or cultivated by the Smiths, west of the river, was nearly all inundated, and the whole country around had the appearance of a vast lake. At a distance from the river the water had surrounded some barns and other out-buildings where was stored a large quantity of farm implements and property of various kinds. Mr. Smith and three other men—Joseph Levering, Wm. Monahan, and Daniel Carrol—set out to see what they could do to prevent this property from being carried away. They started from the aqueduct in a skiff. Near this point the river had broken through the levee built along its western side to protect the low lands from inundation, but affording no protection against a flood like this, and the water, rushing through the crevasse made a stiff current away from the river for a long distance. The boat, in getting out of the river into the lake beyond, fell into this rushing current, struck against the bank, was swamped, filled with water, and sunk. Mr. Smith, who, one might think, would have, like Falstaff, "a sort of alacrity in sinking," struck out boldly for a box-elder tree which stood some distance off, reached it, clambered up into it, and was saved. Levering, trying to follow him, was swept away by the current and drowned. Monahan first tried to save himself by climbing upon the levee, but the water washed him off and carried him past the tree in which Mr. Smith had saved himself, to the neighborhood of one a little farther down. This he made a desperate effort to reach, but failed, and he, too, was drowned. Carrol managed to cling to the boat, which had not sunk beyond his depth, and there maintained himself till help arrived and rescued both the survivors from their perilous situation.   The estimation in which Mr. Smith is held by his fellow-citizens is seen in the fact that he has been elected several terms member of the city council. He has also been township trustee, and is at present a member of the board of trustees of the State asylum for the insane at Columbus. Like his brother, he is a devoted and liberal member of the Roman Catholic church; is president of the St. Joseph's total abstinence society, and also of St. Joseph's benevolent society, in said church.   Besides the property held in partnership with his brother, Mr. Smith owns the beautiful private residence in Circleville, of which a fine lithographic view is given on another page of this volume. We should consider this family history incomplete if we neglected to state, in conclusion, that the excellent mother of these two remarkable men survived to a good old age to witness and enjoy their prosperity, being tenderly cherished in her declining years by her two grateful sons, who inherited largely from her those rare endowments which have made them not only successful business men, but also honored and useful citizens. She died October 13, an, aged about seventy-five years. Her loss was not only deeply lamented by her sons, but by a large circle of friends.   DR. KINGSLEY RAY.   The subject of this sketch was born in Munroe county, New York, October 20, 1797. He was the first of the children of Dr. John Ray, who settled in western New York about the year 1795, having emigrated from Massachusetts, when the country was an almost unbroken wilderness from Albany to Buffalo. The first wife of Dr. John Ray was Betsey Kingsley. In Ontario county he acquired a very good reputation as a physician, and died at Pittsford, New York, at the age of forty-seven years.   Kingsley Ray received his medical education at Dartmouth college, New Hampshire. He was a pupil of Prof. R. D. Mussey, and graduated in August, 1821. After spending two years in his native county, in the practice of his profession, he removed to Franklin county, Ohio, where he had a very successful practice for fifteen years. From this county he went to Delaware, in the same State, remaining eight years, and thence, in the year 1845, to Circleville, where he now resides.   For several years after he came to Ohio, there was not a bridge across a stream in Delaware and Franklin counties. The roads were in such a condition as to make it necessary to travel on horseback eight months in the year. The month of September was known as the "sickly   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 237   month." The summer or 1823 was attended with an unusual amount of sickness throughout the state. Violent remittent and intermittent fevers prevailed. On the first day of September, 1823, which was one of the hottest of the season, he got on and off his horse twenty-three times—several of his patients living miles apart. But though the fevers, during that year were prevalent and so severe, yet the proportion of fatal cases was, by no means, as great as in the following year.   In the early part of the doctor's practice, intermittent fevers were treated with various remedies, the crude Peruvian bark, which had then long been in use, being one of them. But in April, 1824, there was brought to Columbus an ounce of quinine, of which Dr. Ray was so fortunate as to procure one-eighth part, for trial. The introduction of this alkaloid, which contains, in its most condensed form, the medicinal principle of Peruvian bark, soon revolutionized the practice, not only of Dr. Ray, but of the entire medical fraternity.   In the spring of 1826, having become thoroughly established in his professional practice at Worthington, Franklin county, our young practitioner returned to western New York, for the sake of bringing back ,a bride to his home in the then "far west." This "chosen one" was Miss Mary Mason Lathrop, to whom he was married on the twelfth of March, at Lima, in Livingston county. An account of the ancestry of this beautiful and accomplished woman may be found in her biography, recorded in another place. At present we must confine ourselves to a history of the Ray family.   The married life of Di. and Mrs. Ray has heen identified with the State of Ohio (that part of it which constitutes the Scioto valley) for more than fifty years; twelve years having been spent at Worthington, Franklin county; eight years at Delaware, and thirty-three years at Circleville. While they have had their part in the hardships and discomforts incident to a professional life in a half-settled country, they have both seen, and participated in, the development and steady growth of the State, in the building up of churches, schools, libraries, and whatever else tends to the promotion and diffusion of truth.   They have had eight children; only three of whom survive. We give a necessarily brief notice of each:   1, Elizabeth L., born in April, 1828. She was a young lady of unusual talent, especially in music. She married Mr. Handy; died July 20, 1861, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 2, Frances Jane, born in June, 1830—died in early childhood. 3, Janette Miller, born in March, 1832; married Mr. Long in 1852. She was of a sweet, domestic, christian character. She died in New York city, February 1, 1854. 4, John Eleazer, born February 16, 1834. He was possessed of fine qualities of mind and heart. Having a natural aptitude for finance, he was placed, at sixteen years of age, with General Hoel Lawrence to learn the business of banking. But, on the breaking out of the rebellion, he could not remain deaf to the call of his country, and entered the army in 1861. He was made captain in the Thirteenth Ohio infantry; was wounded and taken prisoner at Stone River.; fought through those terrible days at Chickamauga. After the battle of Chick amauga, he resigned his commission as captain in the Thirteenth Ohio volunteer infantry at Jonesboro, Georgia, and returned to his chosen profession, in which he had no superior. He had a finely cultivated mind, and a kind and sympathetic heart. He was a churchman from principle, and at Winona, Minnesota, where he last lived, he contributed much, both in time and money, toward the completion of the beautiful Episcopal church in that City, of which he was elected junior warden. He died in New York city, March 8, 1876. 5, David Brainard, born March 25,---T-86. He was graduated with fair scholarship from Kenyon college, when nineteen years old. Then, with boyish enthusiasm he went west, where he had a rather trying experience in locating land as a "squatter." Concluding that that was not his fort, he taught for a while at Galena, Illinois, doing church Work with and for Dr. Benedict, rector of the Episcopal church in that city. Then he accepted a professorship in the military institute at Frankfort, Kentucky, but resigned on account of the civil troubles in 1-861. He then settled down to the study of divinity in the "Divinity School" at Phiadelphia, and for ten years has been the devoted and successful rector of Grace (Episcopal) church, at Harlem, New York city. 6, Leigh Richmond, born in October, 1839. He is a man of integrity and christian principle, leading an unmarked but useful life, at Zanesville, Ohio. 7, Louisa, born in January, 1842. She married the Rev. J. F. Ohl, in 1862, who is now rector of the Episcopal church, in Zanesville. 8, Edward Mason, the youngest, born in January, 1846; a lovely child who died at the age of seven years.   Mr. and Mrs. Ohl have five children, named, in the order of their birth, as follows: Josiah K., Frank McK., Louisa R., Frederick Robertson, and an infant, to be named Mary, after her maternal grandmother. At the late commencement at Gambier his alma mater conferred upon Mr. Ohl the honorary degree of doctor in divinity. Mrs. Ohl is an energetic woman and a good and prudent mother. Possessing, as she does, large executive ability; there will be no lack, in her life-work, of a comprehensive activity. She will be known most in the rearing of a christian family, in planning for the relief of the poor, and in the various benevolent works of the present day.   Dr. Ray, the patriarch of the goodly family so hastily sketched above, is still, though in the eighty-second year of his age, in good health, and in the full possession of all his mental and physical faculties. Since the close of the war he has not practiced in his profession ; but the pleasant competence by which his old age is surrounded, and the grateful affection with which his many patients continue to speak of him (some of them alive to-day, humanly speaking, through the exercise of his care and skill), bear ample testimony to the success of his professional career. In his deportment toward his patients he was attentive and sympathetic. From principle he always responded to the calls of all classes alike, and he was never known to oppress those who were in straitened circumstances. The money on his uncollected bills would have made him a richer man in this world, but he   238 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   is quite content that it should be added to the treasures laid up for him in the world to come.   During the last thirty years he has been a member (active, consistent, and liberal) of the Episcopal church, and he is looking forward, with the calm assurance of a christian hope, to the time, now in the course of nature not far distant, when he and the loved companion of his youth shall rejoin then- children and their pious ancestors and friends, who have preceeded them to the blissful repose of paradise.   MRS. MARY M. RAY.   Mrs. Mary Mason (Lathrop) Ray is descended from a long line of Puritanic ancestry, reaching back seven generations, on the maternal side, to Major John Mason (1630) who, besides holding many public offices of trust, successfully subdued the Pequot Indians, and secured peace to the colony of Connecticut. Succeeding generations of the Mason family have furnished honorable names to New England history—such as the late Hon. Jeremiah Mason, of Boston; the late Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, also of Massachusetts; the late Mrs. Elijah Boardman, of Milford, Connecticut; the Hon. George P. Marsh, of Vermont, author, and resident minister to Florence, besides many others.   On the paternal side, the first ancestor known was (five generations back) named Hopestill Lathrop (or Lothrop), who, with his wife, Elizabeth, lived in Tolland, Connecticut, during the first years of the last century. Their son Melatiah, and his wife, Mary Hatch, with a family numbering nine sons and seven daughters, moved to Duchess county, New York. The unique, and almost ludicrous adherence of those old Puritans, with large families, to the practice of giving Scripture names- to their children, is seen in this family—the nine sons alluded to being named as follows: Simon, Walter, Meletiah, Ezra, Ichahod, Josiah, Ebenezer, John and Eleazer. Of these, Simon was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. They all, as well as their seven sisters; lived to old age, and of their posterity it may truly be said, "their name is legion." Successful men, as tillers of the soil, this hardy brotherhood has left a rich legacy to the succeeding generations now spread over all the land. Strong christian principle, intellectual strength, patriotism, temperance, and more than ordinary domestic virtues are the distinguishing characteristics of this race. Among them have been many scholars, and literary men, college professors, etc., for whose names, even, we can not find space.   Philander Lathrop, one of the fourth generation from Hopestill Lathrop, and father of "our heroine," was born in New Canaan; State of New York, in 1776. He emigrated, when a youth, to Hartford, Washington county, where he was employed as merchant's clerk by his brother-in-law, Daniel Mason, esq., and afterward became a partner with him in business. In 1798 he married Elizabeth Mason, of Franklin, Connecticut, the venerable Samuel Nott, D.D., officiating. They had four children, of whom only the youngest, now Mrs. Dr. Ray, survives. We have room for no more than a very brief sketch of this family, as follows:   1, Horace, born in January, 1800 ; he is well remembered in Columbus, the scene of his busines life, as Dr. Horace Lathrop, a man learned in his profession, endowed with rare mental gifts, especially with that of an engaging and graceful conversation. He died of cholera in 1849, leaving a daughter, Mrs. J. D. Osborn, of Columbus, and a son, Martin 1). Lathrop, of Chicago. 2, Eliza Maria, born April 16, 1801. In early womanhood she married the Rev. Eleazer Lathrop, a distant cousin, of the same original stock. She was a woman of rich endowments of mind, and the associations of her married life were favor- -able to a large christian development. She and her husband both died in 1834, leaving an only son, Henry D., five years of age, who (being a natural scholar), by dint of hard labor, in teaching others, and hard study in teaching himself, secured his baccalaureate degree at Gambier, about the year 1848. Some years later he studied theology in that same well-known "school of the prophets," which also, subsequently made him a doctor of divinity. After filling various important and useful situations (for the enumeration of which we have neither time nor space) he accepted a call to the rectorship of the Church of the Advent, San Francisco, where he spent eleven successful years as a faithful laborer in the sacred ministry. Now, his fifty-first year finds him at the head of a flourishing school for girls at Eureka, Humboldt county,, California, where he is also rector of the parish. 3, John Mason, born in September, 1804, a promising youth, who died at the age of twenty-one years, leaving no other record than that of an amiable and good life. 4, Mary Mason (now Mrs. Ray), born in Hartford, Washington county, New York, in 1806. In 1815, her father moved to Lima, Livingston county, where they continued to live until she married Dr. Kingsley Ray, in 1826, and emigrated to Ohio.   The early years of Mrs. Ray were spent in a country home, where her time was divided between attendance at the common district school, and the duties of home-life on a farm. This part of her history serves to show that the intellectual and social graces flourish as well when grafted upon the native stock of a country training, as when reared exclusively in a city atmosphere, which has been thought to be best adapted, if not, indeed, absolutely essential to their germination and growth. At the age of fourteen she was sent to a select school in the town of Lima, where the advantages previously enjoyed were enlarged by the addition of history, rhetoric, chemistry, etc. At seventeen she went to Geneva, New York, to attend a classical school (which has since grown into Hobart college), under the very able management of the Rev. Dr. McDonald, the Rev. John Alonzo Clark (author of "Walks about Zion"), and others." Being always inclined both to study and observe, these opportunities were not misimproved—one and a half years closing the period of her school life.   At the age of fifteen Mrs. Ray connected herself with the Presbyterian church; but, in later life, she found,   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 239   along with her husband, what has proved to them a more congenial home, in the church known as Protestant Episcopal.   In May, 1872, she visisted Washington city, Baltimore, and various localities in Virginia; and in December, of the same year, she left the Atlantic seaboard for a trip across the continent, and a visit to San Francisco, in company with her nephew, the Rev. Dr. H. D. Lathrop. The novel scenes, incidents, and experiences of that trip, and of her seven months' residence on the Pacific slope, were to her a source of almost youthful enjoyment, and added largely to the intellectual treasures which render her conversation so charming and instructive. For, like her gifted brother, the late Dr. Horace Lathrop, she excels in that enviable talent, which makes her society a source of perennial delight to her friends. During her residence in California she became deeply interested in the "Chinese problem," taking active part in a mission Sunday-school, organized for the benefit of young Chinamen. She takes a more hopeful view of their future in this country, than is usually entertained.   Mrs. Ray devotes herself, with active zeal, to every benevolent enterprise which commends itself to her judgment and conscience; and even those who disagree with her as to questions of policy, cannot but express their admiration for the heroic courage which often characterizes her zeal.   We close this imperfect sketch with the following tribute to Mrs. Ray, by one of her devoted friends:   "A good and useful woman, with most remarkable endowments.of mind and character, improved by high christian culture, producing those graces that adorn society, the church, and the world—such is our friend to those who know her well. We who thus know her feel the power of her single, earnest faith—the calm might which it inspires—the beauty and reward of a life 'hid with Christ in God.'   "She is a tower of strength to the friendless and sorrowing ; wise and prudent in counsel, ready for every good word and work. We might speak of her noble ancestry—their noble deeds--the chivalry and valor of the men nurtured by mothers fit to inspire sons with the spirit of a noble life--a life that makes 'the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.'   "We might tell how, at life's sunset, in the shadow of the day's decline, she stands looking back at the graves of her household, where the little children were put away tenderly, with white hands folded—how the older ones followed, the friends we best loved, cut down in the prime of life, while standing on the brow of the hill, with bright eyes looking to a happy future. But for all this, silence is the most expressive language.   "We feel more than the words can express, while drawing this brief sketch of one who has made its welcome at her ingleside, and infused into her hospitality so much sweetness and christian courtesy.   " May she live long to bless her husband, children and friends. And when the last Saturday night comes, that brings her in from life's week of toil and care, may it usher in for her the eternal Sabbath of rest, in those celestial gardens where angels walk and seraphs are the wardens."   DR. MARCUS BROWN   was born July 5, 1797, at Colebrook, Litchfield county, Connecticut. His parents were Frederick and Catharine (Case) Brown, both of English extraction. His father was of the fifth generation in descent from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim Fathers who, on the twenty-first of December, 1620, landed on the "stern and rock-bound coast " of New England. His grandfather, John Brown, was a captain in the revolutionary war, and died of camp fever in hospital, in New York city, a little before its evacuation by the patriot forces, in 1776. His ancestors, like most of the good old New England stock, were tillers of the soil.   Dr. Brown came west with his father in 1816, settling in Wadsworth, Medina county, in this State; his mother having died at Colebrook in his early infancy, about the year 180 1. The father purchased a farm in Wadsworth, upon which he lived some twenty-nine years, and then moved to Circleville to live with his son, where he died in 1848.   The son continued with his father at Wadsworth three years, then went to Somerset, in Perry county, where he entered upon the business of teaching, having fitted himself for this profession in the common schools of his native State. He taught but one year in Somerset; then one year in Salem, Ross county ; and then one year in Bainbridge, same county, after which he established himself in Circleville, where he continued four years. He was one of the pioneer teachers of private schools in this place, and is now remembered only by a few of the oldest inhabitants, as a faithful, conscientious, and thoroughly successful teacher. He taught only the common branches, and his school averaged, in attendance, about forty pupils, during the four years of its continuance. While thus faithfully performing the duties of a teacher, he was gradually preparing himself for the medical profession, studying Latin under Joseph Olds, and pursuing his medical studies with Dr. Erastus Webb, one of the earliest, most skillful, and most successful physicians in Circleville. Having been admitted to practice, he entered upon his new profession in 1825, at Williamsport, in the western part of Pickaway county. After practicing very successfully for five years, he decided, in order to keep pace with the constant progress and improvements in medical science, to attend a course of lectures in the Ohio medical college. This lasted for about four months, when, taking a diploma from that institution, he returned to Williamsport, where he continued six years longer, with a practice and a popularity constantly increasing. His "ride," performed exclusively on horseback, extended over twelve miles. In sickly seasons he found it necessary to keep a relay of three horses, and almost always had two.   In 1836 he returned to Circleville, where he continued the practice of his profession till the fore part of the year 1850, when he retired formally, and, as he supposed, permanently, from practice. But the Asiatic cholera breaking out in July, of that year, he resumed practice, and continued 'during the prevalence of that disease, which was very severe, as the people of Circleville well remember. After the death of Dr. Webb, which occurred in the year 1848, he was the leading practitioner in Circleville, and his permanent retirement, in the latter part of •1850, was a source of great regret to a large circle of friends.   After retiring from the practice of medicine, Dr. Brown commenced the business of banking, in connec-   240 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   tion with what was known as the Pickaway county savings institute. He became president, and O. Ballard cashier—offices which they have respectively held in the same institution, under different names, till the present time. It is worthy of note that the present assistant cashier, William M. Drum, has been in the employ of the same institution since x851, and the present teller, E. P. Garaghty, since 1854. Of this bank, which is now known as the First National bank of Circleville, the reader will find an account under the head of "Banks," in the history of Circleville.   About the same time that Dr. Brown went into the business of banking, he purchased a farm on the Royalton turnpike, which he carried on for five or six years. During that time, in 1851, he attend; the World's fair in London, and brought back the st and the finest Norman horse ever imported to this part of Ohio. During a second trip to Europe, made in 1867, he, in company with 1'. C. Bigelow, purchased and imported five horses of the same stock; and the following year the same parties imported four others, all of which have much improved the breed of draught horses in this and other western States.   On his second European tour, in 1867, he was accompanied by his niece, Miss Kate Brown. They spent three weeks in Paris, during the French exposition, when the gay capital was in all its glory; visited Brussels, Cologne, Mayence, Weisbaden, and Frankfort. They spent some time in Switzerland and Italy, dropped anchor in the Golden Horn, at Constantinople, and passed up the Bosphorus to Sebastopol. Returning, they visited the principal points of interest in Asia Minor and the Holy Land. From Joppa they took steamer to Alexandria and Cairo; passed Algiers and Gibraltar, Madeira, and the Bermudas, and thence to New York, where they arrived on the ninth of November.   The doctor gave up his farm in 1854, and formed a partnership in the drug business with Mr. George H. Fickardt, which continued till 1877. This arrangement, however, Nits merely for the profitable investment of surplus capital, as he never gave any personal attention to the concern.   It will be seen, from this brief sketch, that uninterrupted prosperity has attended Dr. Brown's business career. But the same Providence, through whose ordering such unusual success has marked his financial history, has seen fit to order that his domestic life should be overshadowed by an equally unusual degree of adversity.   While teaching at Salem, in Ross county, he was married, November 30, 1820, to Miss Sarah Close, who was born in the same county, June 27, 1800. They had three children—two daughters and a son. The former both died in infancy ; the latter, named Marcus Aurelius, was born August 13, 1824. Being a boy of unusual promise, his father destined him for the medical profession, and spared no pains or expense in his education. He was graduated, with high rank as a scholar, at the Miami university. Three years later he took his degree in medicine at the Jefferson medical college, in Philadelphia, and immediately entered upon the practice of his not only destined but chosen. profession, with his father, in Circleville. But this pleasant partnership continued but a little over one year. The son was already taking high rank as a physician, and the father, with natural and justifiable pride, was enjoying, by anticipation, his long career of usefulness and distinction, when all these fond hopes were rudely shattered by the hand of death. His son died in 1848, at the early age of twenty-four years. Thus, in one year, he was made fatherless and childless. His wife dying in 1859, the desolation of his household seemed complete. But "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." His domestic calamities, remediless as they seemed, were not without alleviation; for over the home so sadly bereaved his favorite and accomplished niece now gracefully presides. But his friends say that it was chiefly his disappointment in the death of his son which made him weary of the practice of medicine, and led him to abandon it at the early age of fifty-three years.   Although it may unquestionably be said of Dr. Brown, as truly as of any other successful business man, that his success is due to his financial ability, yet one incident in his career will serve to show that good fortune in investment is as necessary to success as skill in management. In 1836, after eleven years' practice as a physician, find. ing himself with a surplus accumulation, amounting to fifteen hundred dollars in gold, he went west to invest it in real estate. He visited Chicago, then a village of less than two thousand inhabitants. Although there were some, even then, who had great hopes of the infant "queen of the lakes," yet its low, marshy and unhealthy situation was much against it, capital was still shy of it, and city lots and adjacent lands were, consequently, cheap. The doctor could have bought with his money what, before this time, might have made him a millionaire, but the prospect seemed too unpromising. He therefore went to Hennepin, in the same State, invested the whole of his fifteen hundred dollars in two town lots, kept them over twenty years, paying taxes on them every year, and finally sold them for less than five hundred dollars! This by no means impeaches his prudence and foresight, but it shows conclusively that what we call luck enters largely into what we call success.   Dr. Brown has never sought or held any political office, and says that he has always been too much occupied with what seemed to him more important business.   He is a firm believer in christianity, and has been for many years a member and an office-bearer in the Presbyterian church. Those who know him most intimately speak in the warmest terms of his benevolence and kindness of heart. Of no one was it ever more characteristic to "do good by stealth," and no one would more certainly "blush to find it fame."   CAPTAIN SAMUEL W. McCULLOCH.   One of the bravest, most gallant and promising of that great army of young men who fell in defense of their country in the war of the rebellion, was born in Circleville, Ohio, February 17, 1835. He entered the service as a private in Captain Sage's company, Forty-third regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, in October, 1861, and joined the encampment   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 241   at Mount Vernon. He was subsequently transferred, and promoted to a second lieutenantcy in Company D, Thirteenth Ohio volunteer infantry and followed that gallant regiment through all of its fortunes and misfortunes, participating in the great battles of Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and, under Sherman, in all the engagements up to the time of his death. While leading a charge, on the twenty-seventh day of May, 1864, Captain McCulloch was struck by a ball, which shattered both of his jaws and lodged in his right shoulder, causing his death the following day.   Captain McCulloch was regarded by his superiors in rank as an officer of great courage and skill, and the most important movements were entrusted to his execution. His courage never failed him at the critical point, and had he lived till the close of the war, would have attained high rank and distinction as a military man. He possessed great decision and energy of character; was intelligent and social, and his moral qualities were above reproach.   NELSON J. TURNEY,   of Circleville, was born in Circleville, November 7, 1820. Mr. Turney is a direct lineal descendant of a French Huguenot family, who were driven from France in the latter part of the fifteenth century by papal persecution, a short time prior to the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. Three brothers—Daniel, Peter, and Adam Turney—leaving a considerable property behind them, fled their native country, and landed in Philadelphia in 1668. Nelson J. is a great grandson of Daniel Turney, the French refugee.   Henry Turney, son of Daniel and grandfather of Nelson, removed to Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, Virginia, where he married a lady named Endley, of German descent. The fruit of this marriage—six children—all died young, excepting Daniel, the father of Nelson, who was born at Shepherdstown, August 16, 1786. Henry removed from Shepherdstown to Chillicothe, Ohio, about the year 1800, where he followed the occupation of potter, and died in 1812.   Daniel Turney, the father of Nelson, studied medicine at Philadelphia, and graduated there, and began the practice of his profession in the village of Jefferson, Pickaway county, in 1806. Dr. Daniel Turney was married to Miss Janet Stirling Denny, a daughter of Major-General James Denny, November 5, 1816. The fruit of this marriage was four children—Henry, Nelson, Isabella, and Samuel—but two of whom, Nelson and Isabella (now Mrs. McCrea), are living.   Nelson's maternal grandfather, General Denny, was one of the most prominent of the pioneers of the northwestern territory and of Ohio, and served with distinction in the war of 1812 with Great Britain. He was of Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent, and was bbrn in Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1767. He was married to Miss Isabella Barr, of Wheeling, Virginia, in May, 1797, and removed thence to Marietta, in a keelboat on the Ohio river, long before the era of steam navigation. Mr. Turney's mother was born at Marietta, April 11, 1798. General Denny removed to Chillicothe in 1799, and to Pickaway county in 1807. General Denny was a government surveyor and locator of government lands. He owned the Fredonia newspaper, the first paper published in Pickaway county, in 1811 and 1812, the paper being edited by a Mr. Richardson. In 1813 he was clerk of the courts in Pickaway county. He entered the United States service in the war with Great Britain as a major, and rose, by promotion, through the several grades to the rank of major-general. He was present, and was surrendered by Hull, at Detroit. He died in Philadelphia, November 23, 1815. Few men of his time filled a larger or more honorable position in the history of the new State than did General Denny.   The Huguenot emigrants to America contributed as much, if not more, in proportion to their number, to the culture and prosperity of their adopted country, as any other nationality. They gave an impetus to the cause of independence during the long struggle of the infant colonies, and no less than three of the seven presidents of the Ppiladelphia convention during the revolutionary war were of Huguenot parentage; to wit, Henry Laurens, John Jay, and Elias Bondinot. Wherever they settled, they and their descendants speedily became men of mark in some way in their respective occupations and professions. In this respect Dr. Daniel Turney, the father of Nelson, fully vindicated the purity of his descent, and the superiority of the race, in the skill, intelligence, and energy with which he practiced his profession. He was a surgeon in the United States 'army in 1812, and he rapidly attained eminence, both as a physician and surgeon, in the army and in his subsequent civil practice, where he was an arduous and successful practitioner. His distinguishing characteristics were firmness and courage—qualifications indispensable to the successful surgeon. To these qualities he added remarkable energy and zeal, and he followed his profession, as all successful men must—from an intense love of, and devotion to it. A firm believer in the almost unlimited resources of medical science, he never relinquished his efforts to save while life remained.   His thorough educational training and his steady pursuit of the study of the diseases peculiar to the climate of southeastern Ohio, gave him a mastery over them, which was shown by his unusually successful practice; while his promptness and energy in alarming cases gave him a prestige in his profession which rendered his untimely death, which occurred in 1827, an almost irreparable loss, no less to the community than to his family.   In manner Dr. Turney was unaffected, earnest and generous, having in his nature no taint of selfishness. But on the contrary, he was liberal and considerate to all, ever regarding himself as the minister of the afflicted, whom he served often without the slightest prospect of compensation. At the time of his death he left a widow and four children, the oldest but ten years of age.   Nelson's brother, the late Dr. Samuel D. Turney, who died in 1878, was an eminent man in his profession, having served with distinction during the war of the rebellion as surgeon of volunteers, and as medical director. He was brevetted for meritorious and distinguished services. He was also surgeon general of Ohio, under Governors Hayes and Noyes, and was also a prominent and popular member of the faculty of the Starling medical college, at Columbus, Ohio.   Nelson was educated at the public schools and at the   242 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   academy of Dr. Washburn, in Blendon, Franklin county. By the death of his father, Nelson was thrown upon his own resources, and when fifteen years of age he was employed as a clerk in the Columbus post office, under Belah Latham, an intimate friend of his father, and the father of Hon. Milton S. Latham, one of the California millionaires of the present day. In 1837 he entered the long established house of Fay, Kilbourne & Co., of Columbus, of which firm the late Dr.' Lincoln Goodale was a member, and the original founder. Here he remained until 1840, when with his mother and her family he returned to his native town and entered the establishment of H. & W. Bell, where he remained until appointed by the board of public works as collector of tolls for the Ohio and Erie canal at Circleville, and in that position he remained until a change of political management resulted in his being rotated out of office. In 1843 he entered the employ of the celebrated firm of Neil, Moore & Co., the extensive and widely known stage coach proprietors. In those days that firm wielded a power in the State and nation scarcely inferior to that now exercised by the larger lines of railway, as all the mails and passengers were transported from the seacoast to the Mississippi valley by these and similar lines of coaches ; and, at the time of which we write, there were but two unimportant lines of railway in the State. The reader, whose memory extends back to the days of stage coaches, cannot have yet forgotten the thrill of awe with which he gazed upon the huge swinging vehicle with its living load, drawn by four shining, prancing steeds, as it whirled through the village streets, nor the stirring tones of the driver's bugle, which was wont to waken the echoes of the quiet night, with its note of warning to the drowsy hostler, or the still drowsier postmaster, warning them to be quick about changing horses and mails, under pain of the driver's severest displeasure, expressed in language more forcible than polished. The drivers of those days, the only heroes of that time who remain' bright in memory, have long been stranded in quiet church-yards, or forced to the far west by the overflowing tide of emigration and railway travel, where they may be occasionally found scaling the giddy grades of the Rockys and the Sierras, or dashing through the teeming California valleys. Here, in Ohio, they exist only in the memory of the middle-aged citizen, whose boyish heart was wont to swell with pride if he were in the enjoyment of a nod from the royal knight of the whip, and who would give a thousand miles of travel in a palace car to have one more swing at the tail of a flying coach, hanging to the streaming straps of the loaded "boot."   While Mr. Turney was in the employ of the stage company a difficulty occurred with a Missouri company, and he was forthwith dispatched to Missouri with a full equipment of coaches and horses, to run an opposition line in that State, and bring the western company to a realizing sense of their temerity in assuming to run counter to the will of the more powerful Ohio corporation. This prompt action of the Ohio company brought the Missouri company to terms when Mr. Turney had only reached Indianapolis, and he was at once ordered north with his outfit, and distributed the horses and coaches along the' lake shore, between Sandusky and Detroit, where he established a line, with headquarters at Toledo, where he remained in charge of the business until the spring of 1844. He then returned to Columbus, remaining in the employ of the stage company until the following year, when he removed to Philadelphia and entered the wholesale dry-goods house of Messrs. Miller, Cooper & Co., where he continued until the following year, when he returned to Ohio. He was then married to Miss Dorothea Renick, daughter of George Renick, esq., of Chillicothe, and engaged in the mercantile business on his own account at Circleville, where he remained until he sold out his business and removed to Chillicothe. In 1850 he returned to Pickaway county, where he engaged in farming on an extensive scale, giving his attention more particularly to stock-feeding. Twenty years after, with the intention of retiring from all active business, he sold his farm and removed to Circleville, where he built the beautiful and commodious house in which he now resides.   Mr. Turney still owns a farm of five hundred and twenty-five acres, lying a short distance west of Circleville, which is one of the model farms of central Ohio. He has taken a deep interest in agriculture for many years, and has striven, by all proper means, to encourage a higher standard of excellence in farm management. He was an active member of the county agricultural society from its first organization, and for many years its -president. He was also one of the most active and energetic members of the State board of agriculture from 1862 to 1870, and was president of the board during the years 1863 and 1864.   Mr. Turney was largely instrumental in developing the turnpike system of Pickaway county, and built the Circleville, Darbyville and London turnpike. He also superintended the building of the beautiful Masonic temple at Circleville, and was chairman of the committee of arrangements, June 2, 1879, on the occasion of its dedication, an event long to be remembered by the thousands of citizens of central Ohio who witnessed the imposing ceremonies and partook of the bountiful hospitalities of the Circleville Free Masons.   Few of the citizens of Ohio enjoy in a higher degree the respect, esteem and confidence of the people of Ohio than does Mr. Turney, and few are more deserving of confidence. His life has been well filled with positions of honor and trust, the duties of all of which he has discharged with remarkable fidelity and rare good judgment; and, singularly, all of his more important positions have been without compensation.   By appointment of Governor Brough, in 1864, he was a member of the military committee of his county during the most trying period of the war, when treason reared its horrid form at home to threaten and alarm. In that position he was most devoted and self-sacrificing. White-law Reid, in his "Ohio in the War," fully realized the importance of that valuable adjunct to the State military force when he said   "The services of the military committees throughout the war were   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 243   most valuable, as during all the years of the war there were enemies at home as well as at the front, who had to be met and overcome.   As a member of his county commttee, Mr. Turney was actively engaged in providing for the raising and equipment of the various contingents of troops which Pickaway county was called upon to supply, and otherwise aiding and sustaining the State executive in the darkest days of the civil war; and all this without other compensation than the consciousness of a patriotic duty faithfully performed. He was ever ready to respond to the calls of the governor to go to the front, where our stricken soldiers were languishing inhospitals, no matter at what sacrifice of time, or comfort, or pleasure. He was also actively engaged in the field during the memorable " Morgan raid."   In 1859 Mr. Turney declined the nomination to the Ohio house of representatives, and, in 1868, he was the Republican candidate for congress, but his district being overwhelmingly Democratic, he was defeated by a strict party vote. In his early youth and manhood he was a Whig in politics, and connected himself with the Republican party on its organization. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention which met in Philadelphia and nominated Grant the second time.   In 1871 Mr. Turney was selected by Hon. Columbus Delano, secretary of the interior, to go as a special commissioner to investigate the business of the Indian agencies of the upper Missouri river, including the Yankton, Santee, Cheyenne, and Grand River Sioux, and subsequently the agency at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the so-called "pine contracts" with the Menomonee Indians of Michigan. In the fall of the same year, in company with Hon. B. R. Cowen, assistant secretary of the interior, and Colonel J. J. Woods, of Kansas, he appraised the Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory west of 96̊ west longitude. In 1872, with Assistant Secretary Cowen and Major J. W. Wham, of Illinois, under appointment of the secretary of the interior, he visited the Teton Sioux, then under the leadership of the notorious Sitting Bull, and after spending three months near the upper Missouri river in Montana, with the wildest of the wild tribes, three hundred miles from any military force or station, and without escort or protection of any kind, led away three thousand of Sitting Bull's forces, and brought thirty of his most influential chiefs to Washington. In 1873, he served as chairman of the special commission appointed by Secretary Delano to investigate the lumber contracts made between Hon. E. P. Smith, commissioner of Indian affairs (then agent of the Leech Lake Indians), and A. H. Wilder, esq., of St. Paul, Minnesota.   In 1871 Mr. Turney was appointed, by President Grant, a member of the celebrated board of Indian commissioners. This board was provided for by an act of congress, and was to be filled only by men eminent for their philanthropy, who were to serve without compensation. They exercised a great influence in the conduct of the business of the Indian office, and ably seconded the efforts of the president and Secretary Delano to intro- duce reforms in the Indian service. The following named gentlemen constituted the commission : Felix R. Brunot, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, chairman; Robert Campbell, St. Louis; William E. Dodge, Nathan Bishop, New York; John V. Farwell, Chicago; George H. Stuart, Philadelphia; -E. S. Tobey, Boston; John D. Lang, Maine; Nelson J. Turney, Ohio, and Vincent Collyer, of New York, secretary. Mr. Turney served on this board until failing health compelled him to retire, in 1875.   He was appointed by Governor Hayes as trustee of the Central Ohio asylum for the insane, and served until the Democratic legislature of 1874 legislated the board out of existence.   On account of his well recognized business capacity and integrity, Mr. Turney was chosen assignee in bankruptcy of the estate of Mr. Lemuel Steeley, one of the largest estates in the Scioto valley. His management of the large interests thus committed to his charge in the very midst of the severest financial depression the country ever experienced, is one among the many evidences of his ability. To the satisfactory settlement of that estate his friends can always point with commendable pride.   Mr. Turney is unassuming in his manner, and somewhat undemonstrative in the expression of his opinions, but he is none the less firm in his convictions and unswerving in their support and advocacy. He is brave and generous to a fault, and neither danger, threats, nor ridicule can swerve him from what he thinks the path of right; but he is, at the same time, considerate of the opinions and feelings of others. In him the deserving young man, struggling for a foothold in the crowded occupations of life, has always found a friend, and while he has ever been liberal in his gifts and charities, few of his most intimate friends are aware of his charitable efforts. Neither bigoted nor puritanic in his creed or in his life, he has yet so demeaned himself as that his work will be able to stand the test of the Grand Overseer's square when it is presented for inspection. In all the positions he has filled, no one has, even for a single moment, had reason to doubt his integrity, and the sobriquet, "Old Honesty," which was, years ago, conferred • upon him by his associate members of the Ohio State board of agriculture, is the very best evidence of his character in that respect.   The writer has seen him placed in positions where men of ordinary courage and integrity would have hesitated as to their duty, but his clear sense of right and justice was never clouded by fear, nor in the slightest degree disturbed by threats. Regardless of mere personal danger, he always goes straight forward in the line of duty. In short, he fully demonstrates, in his own clearly defined and positive character, the purity of his descent from those sturdy French Calvinists who could leave home, and country, and fortune, under the bloody persecution of papal despotism, but could not surrender their freedom of conscience and the liberty to worship God in their own way.   244 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   SAMUEL ROGERS.   During the closing quarter of the last century, a considerable body of Germans, from Pennsylvania, attracted by the beautiful and fertile lands on the tributaries of the Shenandoah river, settled near Winchester, in Frederick county, Virginia. In that settlement, about the year 1798, Samuel Rogers, the subject of this sketch, was born. He was of German ancestry on his mother's side, and the prominent traits of his character were an inheritance from his mother's stock.   Although occupying a region highly favored by nature, and rich in agricultural resources, a number of these settlers, early in the present century, imbued with the restlessness so characteristic of the pioneers of this country, resolved to seek new homes in the young State o Ohio, and accordingly emigrated thither about the year 1806, locating in the neighborhood of the town, then in Fairfield, but now in Franklin county, known as Canal Winchester; the word "canal" being added to the name of this place many years subsequent to its foundation, to distinguish it from another Winchester in Guernsey county, Ohio.   The father of Samuel Rogers had died, and he accompanied his mother, who had married again, and his step-father, among the Virginia emigrants, to Ohio, and, although then but eight years of age, endured his full share of the severe trials of pioneer life. The energy, intelligence, and skill with which he performed the duties of his first employment—a hired hand upon a farm—secured for him, a few years later, the friendly interest of William and Christian King, then leading merchants of Lancaster, Ohio.   His father, not needing his services himself, hired him to a neighboring farmer when he was, probably, about ten years of age, by whom he was set to hauling logs for firewood, from the forest, with a team; having no assistance in the work, but required, by his own skill, to load the logs upon a sled, upon which they were drawn to the wood-pile. While engaged in this occupation, one of the Kings, in passing along the road, was attracted by the success with which a task so difficult and unusual for so young a lad, was performed; and, stopping to speak to him, was so much pleased with his intelligent deportment, that he became at once very much interested in him, and during this or some subsequent interview, asked him if he would not like to be a store-keeper—a question which he promptly answered in the affirmative.   In 1810, when about twelve years of age, he entered the store of a Mr. Crockett, of Lancaster. How long he remained there is not definitely known, or what agency, if any, Mr. King had in securing him the situation. Within a few years afterward, however, and while he was still a mere lad, he was taken into the employment of the firm of King & Bro. Here he devoted himself closely and faithfully to the discharge of his duties, gaining the entire confidence of his employers immediately.   The following incident will show the extent of responsibility, remarkable for one so young, with which he was unhesitatingly trusted, and will also illustrate the sagacity, and the energy and decision of character he already evinced :   In the early history of Ohio, commerce yet retained a great deal of its primitive character. Merchants were, to a considerable extent, compelled to barter their goods fob the products of the country, instead of selling them for ready money. In the usual course of business the wheat received in exchange for goods was ground into flour at the country mills, and then shipped on flat-boats to New Orleans to be marketed. In the spring of 1817, the firm of King & Bro. had accumulated a quantity of flour which they proposed to send to market in this way, transporting it on wagons from Lancaster to Circleville, where flat-boats were constructed to carry it to New Orleans. Before the preparations for shipping the flour were completed, the supercargo was disabled, by an accident, and it became necessary to select one to take his place. The Kings offered the responsible position to their young clerk, who, with promptness, accepted the trust. He made the long voyage successfully, arriving at New Orleans to find the yellow fever raging there. The panic-stricken population had almost entirely abandoned the city; business was utterly prostrated, and there was no market for the flour. No magnetic telegraph or railroads then existed, and communication by mail was slo and uncertain. It was impossible to delay action until the owners of the flour could be heard from. Some of the hands who had accompanied Mr. Rogers were attacked by the fever, and others deserted him. The emergency was we which called for prompt and decisive action, in order to prevent a ruinous, if not a complete loss; and having learned, through a commission house in New Orleans, that flour commanded a good price in England, he at once resolved to ship his cargo to Liverpool, and to make the voyage himself, keeping charge of the property committed to his personal care. He chartered a vessel, accordingly, and ordered the flour to be put on board, but was stricken down by the prevailing disease, while superintending the work. He did hot, however, abandon the voyage, but notified the captain that he would come on board as soon as the vessel was ready to sail. The captain was not willing to permit him to do so, and sent him word to that effect. Upon receipt of this reply, learning that the vessel was loaded, although greatly prostrated by the fever, Mr. Rogers hired some colored men to carry him on board the vessel, on a blanket, which they did, and dropped him on the upper deck. He then said to the captain, in his characteristic quiet, but determined way, "Sir, I want you to sail at once for Liverpool, in accordance with the terms of the charter-party which I hold. If you do not comply I will discharge you, and hire a captain and crew who will do so ; for the purpose of this voyage I own this vessel." The captain, overawed by the firm bearing and decided language of the young supercargo, hastened to obey his orders, expecting nothing else, however, than that he would shortly have to throw his dead body overboard.   The captain and crew kept aloff while the vessel was passing down the Mississippi to the gulf, rendering him no assistance, except to hand him, every morning, on the   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 245   end of a knife, a dose of calomel, and push a pitcher of lemonade within his reach. Upon entering the gulf, finding him still alive, the captain subjected him to the following heroic treatment: Passing a rope from a yardarm of the ship under his arms, he caused him to be drawn up until his body was erect, and then had the seamen pour buckets of water over his head until he fainted. He was then laid down on the deck of the vessel, where he slept long and soundly, and when he awoke the fever had left him. He now rapidly recovered his health, and in due time arrived at Liverpool, with his cargo of flour, which he disposed of at a price which made a handsome profit for his principals.   The fact that an American merchant was in Liverpool, from the distant wilderness of Ohio, at a time when less was known of the geography of our western frontier, by even the most intelligent Europeans, than is now known of the interior of Africa, or the jungles of India, excited great interest in that city, and the mayor paid him the high compliment of inviting him to dine with the leading merchants of Liverpool, a circumstance which speaks well for the impression which he must have made by his personal bearing and intelligence, upon the business men of that great emporium. It will be remembered that he was then only nineteen years of age. Unfortunately, the sale of his cargo upon profitable terms did not end the difficulties which attended his venture. Upon applying to his consignees for the money due upon the balance of account, he was informed, to his astonishment, that the entire proceeds had been drawn for, by his commission merchant, at New Orleans, his signature having been obtained, under some pretence, during his illness, leaving him without even the means for returning home. He determined at once to return to New Orleans to recover the money, if possible; and the merchants to whom he had sold the flour, had formed so favorable an opinion of him that they voluntarily loaned him three hundred dollars for his traveling expenses. Fortunately, the captain of the vessel, in which he had gone to England, was just ready to .sail for New Orleans, and Mr. Rogers embarked with him. The captain had formed a warm friendship for him, which was destined to be of great service to him in this emergency. He received, upon arrival in New Orleans, nothing but evasive replies from the commission merchant, whose shameless dishonesty had given so unexpected a turn to his venture; and it seemed probable that a settlement could be effected only by a protracted litigation. His friend, Captain McGregor, a bluff and resolute Scotchman, took a very earnest interest in the result, and determined to render all the assistance in his power in bringing the matter to an immediate close, by some satisfactory adjustment. He was an older man, and although, perhaps, of no more bold and decided character or capacity to meet difficulties than his young friend, was a man of wider experience in life. He accompanied Mr. Rogers to the hotel where the commission merchant was living, and finding him in his room, locked the door, putting the key in his pocket, and pointing a loaded pistol at the scoundrel, said to him, "Sir, you understand what we are here for." Refusal to corn- ply was evidently dangerous, and payment of the amount of the claim was promptly offered, by a draft on New York. The draft was, conditionally, accepted, and learning by enquiry of bankers in New Orleans that the draft was considered good by them, Mr. Rogers sailed for New York to collect it. Upon his arrival the draft was duly honored, and he set out upon the journey homeward, having purchased a horse to carry him back to Ohio.   Meanwhile, the Kings had heard nothing of his bold undertaking. Owing to the fact that he was prostrated by yellow fever, while preparing to embark for Liverpool, he had been unable to write before leaving New Orleans. Persons who had been with him at New Orleans, reported that he had been attacked by the fever, and that both he and the flour had disappeared, and, receiving this report, the Kings did not doubt but that he was dead and the flour lost. It happened that about the time Mr. Rogers was leaving the east for Ohio, Christian King set out from Lancaster for Philadelphia, also on horseback, to purchase a stock of goods for his store. Although a very intelligent man, Christian King had been reared in the prevailing superstition of the Pennsylvania Germans in those days—a belief in ghosts. When, therefore, one day, as he was riding along the lonely road across the Alleghenies, late in the evening, he net his young clerk, riding towards him on horseback, he did not for a moment doubt that he saw an apparition.   His further astonishment, when he heard the familiar voice in which he was addressed, can be imagined. Convinced of his mistake, and becoming satisfied that the man he saw was actually in the flesh, he dismounted, embracd him with wild delight, covering him with kisses, in the good old German fashion, and almost crushing him in his brawny arms, being a man of large frame and great physical strength. The story of the shipment of the flour to Liverpool, its sale, the attempted swindle at New Orleans, and the ultimate and fortunate outcome of the operation, the proceeds of which Mr. Rogers had with him, was soon told, and he accompanied his grateful employer back to Philadelphia, where the latter introduced him to his mercantile acquaintances, recounting, with great satisfaction, his adventure, and where, with this unexpected increase of means (some four thousand dollars—a sum of much more importance at that day than at the present time), a large stock of goods was purchased.   The first exclamation of Christian King, as he listened to the narration of this adventure, was: "Sammy, by the heavenly God, I will set you up in business!" He was -as good as his word, and, upon their return to Lancaster, Samuel Rogers, though not yet of age, was admitted as a member of the firm he had served so faithfully.   He remained for some years at Lancaster, a partner of the Kings, when he resolved to enter into business on his own account, elsewhere. For the purpose of obtaining information which would enable him to select a desirable business location, he made an extensive tour through the west, proceeding to Cincinnati, by way of Circleville and Wilmington, and thence to St. Louis, by way of Lawrenceburg, Evansville, and other towns. During his trip which was made throughout the entire distance on horseback,   246 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   he saw much of what was then our extreme western frontier, and made many observations which were of great value to him in his subsequent business career.   Upon his return, he determined to locate at Circleville, regarding the place as one of the most desirable business points he had seen. This choice was influenced by the fact that the Ohio canal was about to be constructed, a circumstance which he saw would give him a profitable trade at this point, with those employed in the construction of the work, and foreseeing that after that great internal improvement Was completed, Circleville would continue to be an excellent point for mercantile business. The fact of its proximity to Lancaster, where his business standing and credit, the friendship of the Kings, and other acquaintances, would be a continued support, was also an important consideration. The permanent pros: perky of the place, its present wealth, and the fact that he was there able to accumulate a large fortune, by straightforward application and industry, is sufficient proof of the sagacity displayed in this selection of a business location.   Having removed to Circleville, he was, on the fourth of April, 1826, united in marriage to Miss Juliet M. Hollister, of Chillicothe, Ohio, by the Rev. Mr. Claybaugh, of that place. His wife was a lady of unusual intelligence, and possessed of many amiable traits of character and womanly virtues. Her christian character is spoken of as having been one of singular beauty and consistency, and the proofs abound that the sincerity of her profession was practically and thoroughly manifested in her life by deeds of charity and a tender sympathy for all in her neighborhood who were suffering from sickness, sorrow, or any other adversity. Her comparatively early death was sincerely mourned by the entire community, and her memory is warmly cherished by all who knew her.   The subsequent incidents in Mr. Rogers' life are chiefly those common to the careers of enterprising and prosperous merchants in western towns. He soon became, and was, for many years, one of the wealthiest citizens of Circleville, and, incidentally and directly, did much to promote the prosperity of the town and county in which he resided. At an early day he engaged in the business of shipping grain and packing pork. The firm of Rogers & Gregg was established, at Circleville, immediately upon his removal from Lancaster, Mr. Noah H. Gregg, his partner-, having also resided at Lancaster. The partnership lasted four years, when Mr. Gregg sold out to Mr. Rogers. William Martin was subsequently, and for many years, until his removal to Decatur, Illinois, in partnership with Mr. Rogers at Circleville, and in New Orleans, where he established a commission and forwarding house, which did a very extensive business with shippers in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries. James H. Finley, now of Chicago, Samuel H. Ruggles, R. D. Atwater, and others, were also, at later periods of his life, connected with him in business.   Mr. Rogers was one of the first stockholders and directors of the old Circleville bank, and subsequently sustained the same relations to the Pickaway County and Exchange banks and the First and Second National banks, peforming his duties as a bank director with the same fidelity and diligence with which he discharged - every trust imposed upon him. He constantly kept in mind the fiduciary character of the position, and always remembered that he was the guardian, not only of his own interests, but of those of all the stockholders of the institution.   He was not exempt from misfortune. After a long and prosperous business career, in consequence of endorsements in transactions for the benefit of others, he was overtaken by reverses, such as, unfortunately, befall the great majority of all who engage in mercantile pursuits. In these trying emergencies, his conduct was worthy of his character, and of his honorable name. He at once surrendered, for the benefit of his creditors, all of his accumulated fortune, the result of so many years of laborious enterprise, without any reservation whatever, beyond the small exemption allowed by the strictest construction of the law, and his great misfortune was sustained with fortitude and a remarkable cheerfulness, such as could only result from conscious integrity.   A marked trait in the character of Samuel Rogers, which is deserving of special notice, is that kindness of heart, which induced him to adopt the practice, early in his business career, of assisting young men, with whom he became acquainted, to begin business, by means of money and such recommendations as secured them the credit needed in making a start in business. He adhered to this custom until the financial embarrassments, which came upon him near the close of his life, put it out of his power any longer to do good in that way. There are still living many of those who experienced the benefit of his unselfish and generous aid, in beginning business for themselves.   One of the first obstacles with which persons are apt to meet in making inquiries into the family history of the self-made men who have been, and are still, so numerous in America, is the difficulty of obtaining genealogical information. It is not an infrequent occurrence for men who have attained eminence as business men or statesmen, to be unable to tell the precise time of their birth. In such cases, too, knowledge of ancestry is also generally wanting. These considerations must account for the absence of such facts from this sketch.   Thrown .upon the world when a mere child, the first lesson which Samuel Rogeis learned, was that of self-reliance. In those days, industrious habits were highly valued, and at a very early age children were called upon to share in the labors of their elders, to an extent now rarely known. Owing to this condition of the society in which he was reared, the subject of this sketch had, in his youthful days, but few educational advantages ; yet he, nevertheless, through his own exertions, became a man of very thorough mental culture.   When a mere boy, Samuel Rogers attended a country school, in Virginia, for three months, during which time he learned to read. Small as was his stock of school learning, it served as a key to unlock for him very extensive stores of knowledge. When he was only twelve years of age, he took his place behind a counter; his cir-   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 247   cumstances being such that he was obliged to educate himself during the leisure moments he could snatch from the strict demands of his daily business. He acquired a handwriting of that fine old style known as record hand. Specimens of his writing, in books of account, and in letters, seen by the writer of this sketch, have almost the accuracy and beauty of engraving. At an early age, he became, also, a thorough arithmetician, and an accomplished and scientific book-keeper. He did not, however, limit himself to the acquisition of such knowledge, merely, as his occupation as a merchant demanded. He had a taste for books, and, in the course of time, made himself familiar with many of the best classical writers in English and German. He studied the history of our mother country in the pages of Hume, and upon the shelves of his quite extensive private library, he accumulated a valuable collection of standard authors, as the result of his longing to gratify a cultivated taste for literature. He was a systematic reader of the best periodicals and public journals of the country; was a subscriber for De Bow's Southern Review, and Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, from the beginning of these publications, and also, for many years, of the Eclectic Magazine, and thus, by means of a memory unusually retentive, he acquired a stock of knowledge in regard to topics of financial, commercial, and general interest, which rendered him a very interesting and instructive companion for such persons of culture as his extensive business transactions brought him in contact with, and it was only his singular modesty which kept his acquirements in this respect from being more widely known.   Only his most intimate friends were privileged to know the full wealth of his mind. His conversational powers were of a high order. He was always listened to with interest, and what he said instructed. as well as pleased.   In his youth, he was carefully instructed in the principles of christianity, as taught in the Lutheran church, and was confirmed in that church in boyhood. Upon removing to Circleville, he became a member of the congregation of St. Philip's church. He was, from time to time, a member of the vestry, and frequently took an active part in the management of the parish. The very modesty and purity of his character seem to have caused him to be reserved in the matter of participating actively in the spiritual work of the church, although he was always a regular attendant upon the services, and devoutly engaged in the worship of the congregation. He often expressed his admiration of the beautiful liturgy of the Episcopal church, and of its wise and thorough adaptation to all the requirements of religious worship.   In the spring of 1868 he removed to Chicago, to make his home with his son, William K. Rogers. He suffered, however, a sudden attack of sickness, in the summer following, and died on the thirtieth of July, of that year.   In his domestic life, Samuel Rogers displayed the best qualities of a husband, and a father. His affectionate, devoted and noble traits of character in these relations were conspicuous. The remembrance of his tender devotion to the members of his family, often inexpressibly touching to those who witnessed it, deserves to be cher ished in the hearts of his friends, but properly forms no part of this public memorial.    He was, by nature, a gentleman in the best sense of the word. The grace and dignity of his manners resulted from an inborn grace of character, and the earnest desire, by which he was always animated, to deal justly, honestly, generously, and kindly, with his fellow-men.   The memory of such a life should not quickly perish from among men, and this brief record. is male by one who knew him well during the latter portion of his life, with the hope of perpetuating some of its well-known incidents. It is a story which belongs to the early history of our country; one which the altered circumstances of later times, changed as our social condition is in every material respect, will render less and less familiar—the story of the persevering toil and sterling merit by which one born to no advantages; without the aid and benefit of education at school; self-taught with respect to even the simplest rudiments of learning; with no resources, save his own innate force of character; no assistance, beyond that which his native worth secured, and for which he rendered always a full equivalent, advanced steadily and surely, step by step, through a long, honorable and useful career, to all the substantial attainments that are of essential value in human life; leaving to his children the priceless heritage of his good name, and for all, to whom the memory of his life is, for any reason, of interest, an example worthy of regard.   SAMUEL H. RUGGLES,   of Circleville, Ohio, was born at Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, June 8, 1821. His father, Samuel, and his mother, Anna H. Ruggles, were natives of Boston, Massachusetts. In early and middle life, his father was largely engaged in foreign commerce, but in the War of 1812 he suffered severe losses by the capture of his vessels by the public enemy; and, soon after the close of that war, he removed to the northern part of the State of New York, where he engaged, in a reduced manner, in agricultural and mercantile pursuits, and died at Lowville, New York, in 1834, leaving his widow with a family of five children to support and educate, with very limited means. Mrs. Ruggles was, however, a woman of much force of character, and displayed her good judgment by maintaining her son, our subject, at the Lowville academy until he had obtained a good English education. Then, and after her husband's death, she resolved to have that son seek, in this then comparatively new State, his fortune. In 1835, with his uncle, General H. Lawrence, she therefore sent him to Circleville, Ohio, where he was engaged as a junior clerk in the mercantile house of Rogers & Martin, with no promise of compensation beyond his living. Having, as the time went by, the natural longing of a lad who never before had been away from it, to return to his mother's home, he asked her consent to his doing so; but this she resolutely refused, and it is to this refusal ("the greatest trial of her life," as she subsequently characterized it on her death-bed),   248 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO.   that our subject attributes the beginning of his success in life; for, at the end of two years' faithful service in his business, his employers placed one hundred dollars to his credit, promised him promotion, as he deserved it, and one hundred and fifty dollars for the third year, with his board, lodging, etc. Then it was that his ambition to excel was stirred, and he resolved to accumulate, by saving at least two-thirds of his salary, and by investment, carefully directed, have his little surplus fund afford him some revenue. The result exceeded his expectations. The firm noticed his attention to business, and earnest effort to accumulate by the saving of his salary, and the means he took to increase it; and, after serving them eight years in all, they took him into partnership, with one-fourth interest in their wholesale grocery, grain, and pork-packing establishment, and in 1845, following the engagement of the firm in the commission business in New Orleans, with an increased interest in it, he was placed at the head of the house in Circleville, and in a few years afterwards, purchased the entire interest of his partners there. After 1852, retiring from the grocery and grain branches of his business, he devoted his attention almost exclusively to pork-packing until 1863, when, in the interest of his children, he began investing in farms and farm land lying in the vicinity, but remaining engaged in the pork trade, and so continuing during the subsequent fifteen years. While not refusing minor civil and local office, Mr. Ruggles has invariably declined that which would interfere with his regular business. Having shunned all speculative operations, indorsing the ventures of others, investments in fancy stocks, and joint stock companies, as, to use his own expression in speaking of these things, he would have shunned rattlesnakes, he has never sustained any of those losses which usually result from such engagements.   When Fort Sumter became the initial target for the guns of rebellion against constituted authority, he was among the first to assist in the fitting out of a company; and before the Federal armies had gained a single victory, he invested largely in government bonds. Subsequently he assisted in the organization of the First and Second National banks of Circleville, in 1863, and was at once elected a director, and subsequently continued to be re-elected annually to such office.   In 1859 Mr. Ruggles married Miss Catharine, daughter of the late Ralph Osborn, of Columbus, Ohio, a pioneer of distinction, and four children, Samuel Turney, Lizzie J., Nelson J., and Fannie M. Ruggles, have been the issue of this union.   Though not a member of any church organization, Mr. Ruggles habitually contributes to religious and charitable objects, and also earestly interests himself in every public enterprise that promises to benefit the community in which he resides.   A. C. BELL.   MRS. MINERVA R. BELL.   THE BELL FAMILY.   The founder of this family, James Bell, with his wife and children, emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, about 1807, where they remained until 1818 or '19, when they moved to Circleville, Ohio, where both James Bell and his wife died, a few years after their arrival. Their children were: William, Nancy, Jane, Margaret, Thomas. Mary Ann, James, and Elizabeth.   William Bell was born in Ireland, August 13, 1802, and when about five years of age came. with his father and mother to this country. He was married November 29, 1825, to Catharine Caldwell, daughter of Alexander Caldwell, who settled in Pickaway county, about 1800.   Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bell had eight children, seven of whom lived to maturity. They were: James, Jane, Alexander, Ruth, Thomas, Margaret, and Carolina Samantha. They lived one year on a farm now owned by Mr. Groce, in Walnut township, where their eldest child was born. They then moved to the Columbus pike, in the south part of Walnut township, where the remainder of their children were born, and where Mr. Bell died, April 30, 1851. Mrs. Bell remained in her own home until 1875, when she went to live with her son, A. C. Bell, in the north part of Circleville township. She is now seventy-seven years of age.   HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND PICKAWAY COUNTIES, OHIO - 249   A. C. Bell was born in Walnut township, Pickaway county, August 22, 1830, He was married, October 25, 1855, to Minerva Reber, daughter of Thomas N. Reber, of Wyandot county, Ohio. She was born in Fairfield county, March 5, 1834. They commenced housekeeping on what is now known as the James Corder farm, where they lived until the fall of 1861, when they moved to his present residence, on the north line of Circleville township. Mrs. Minerva Bell died October 15, 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Bell had nine children, as follows : Thomas R., Lucy K., Clara J., Charles, Flora, Rachel, Lyman A., Meta Minerva and Amasa, all of whom are living, and all but the two eldest remain at home. The two eldest live on a farm known as the Isaac W. Stage property.   After the death of his wife, Mrs. Minerva Bell, his came to live with him, where she still remains. She was mother born in 1802, in Jackson township, and was early taught to use the loom and weave the cloth used for clothing in those early days. Always fearless, she has often forded the Scioto river on horseback, and in a light boat. Her father lived on the bank of the river, near a ford called by his name, and where he kept a flat-boat for use in ferrying passengers across the river. She has often assisted in this duty. She now recalls the time, when, mounted on her horse, with her child in her arms, she swam the Scioto in flood time. Now, in the seventy-seventh year of her age, she has as distinct a recollection of the events of her early life, as she does of those that occurred at a recent date.   A representation of the home of A. C. Bell, with portraits of himself and wife, appear in connection with this sketch.   SALT CREEK.   Town number eleven, in range number twenty (Salt Creek), lies east of the township of Pickaway, and is bounded on the north by Fairfield county, on the east by Hocking county, and on the south by Ross county. It is one of the best improved townships in Pickaway county, and its appearance evinces the industry, thrift and increasing wealth of the inhabitants.   PHYSICAL FEATURES.   The surface of the township is generally quite rolling, and presents a picturesque appearance. In the eastern part it is somewhat broken and hilly, while in the southern, where there is more or less prairie, the surface is comparatively level.   The soil is fertile and is well adapted to the growth of wheat, corn, oats, clover and grass. Along Salt creek, and in the prairie portions of the township, are excellent corn lands, while the higher soil, which is underlaid with clay and slate, is more adapted to the growth of the small grains and grass.   The principal native varieties of timber were the oak, of several kinds, hickory, walnut, mulberry, cherry, buckeye, paw-paw and elm. In this connection we may mention that on the farm of John F. Mowery, in front of his house, is an elm, which, for size and beauty, is not to be surpassed by any other tree in the county.. The trunk Measures, above the swell of the roots, sixteen feet in circumference, and the branches, from one side to the other, one hundred and twenty-five feet.   * For the facts of the early history of this township the writer is mainly indebted to Samuel Lutz.   In the extreme northeast corner of section twenty-one, on the farm of John Karschner, is a stately elm which marks almost the exact center of the township, and which Mr. Lutz says he has often used as a starting point in his surveying operations. It was but a mere sapling when he first saw it.   The principal stream is Salt creek, which runs through, and gives name to, the township. It rises in Fairfield county, enters the township in section three, and, flowing southeasterly, leaves the township in the southeast corner, gathering up several tributaries in its course, the largest of which is Laurel creek, which is mostly in Hocking county. Moccason creek heads in Fairfield county, flows south near the east line of the township until reaching section twenty-four, where it runs into Hocking county, and finally empties into the Laurel. Plum run and Pike Hale run are the most important western branches of Salt creek, and have a southeasterly course. Scippo creek, a branch of the Scioto river, flows through the west part of section six and a part of seven, in the northwest part of the township.   GAME.   Deer, wild turkeys and smaller game were very numerous in the early settlement of the township. The killing of a deer was an ordinary occurrence with any man who could handle a gun at all ; and as for turkeys, several of them would often be bagged by a single shot. Wolves were plenty, troublesome and annoying, killing the sheep of the pioneers who were fortunate enough to have any, and rendering night hideous with their almost constant   32