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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 353 CHAPTER VIII. THE DISTINGUISHED DEAD. SEVERAL of the following brief sketches are the only biographies ever given 0 to the public of their subjects. If some of them appear meager, it should be remembered that the facts stated in the most imperfect sketches were only obtained after patient research. It is believed that these brief sketches will be found to possess something more than a local interest. The subjects were men who either took a prominent part in the early settlement of the Miami country, or participated in the early conflicts with the Indians or in the last war with England, or were prominent in civil affairs. Some of them were men of na- tional renown, of whom no complete biographies have ever been published. To the writer, the preparation of this chapter, which is intended to preserve the names and to record the services of some of the departed worthies of a county which, in its early history at least, was celebrated for the number of its great men, has been a labor of love. ROBERT BENHAM. This pioneer and soldier, whose name is familiar to readers of the early history of the Ohio Valley, was born in Pennsylvania in 1750. He was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and, after the close of that straggle, became one of the early settlers in Symmes' Purchase. He is said to have built, in 1789, the first hewed-log house in Cincinnati and to have established the first ferry over the Ohio at Cincinnati February 18, 1792. He served under Hamar in his campaign against the Indians, was in the bloody defeat of St. Clair and shared in Wayne' s victory. About the commencement of the present century, he settled upon a farm southwest of the site of Lebanon, which was his home until his death. He was a member of the first Legislature of the Northwest. Territory and of the first Board of County Commissioners of Warren County; in the latter capacity, he served several years. Judge Burnet, who served in the Legislature with him, says: He was possessed of great activity, muscular strength and enterprise; had a sound, discriminating judgment and great firmness of character. He was the grandsire of the accomplished Mrs. Harriet Prentice, of Louisville." Joseph S. Benham, his son, became a distinguished lawyer and orator of Cincinnati, and delivered the oration on the reception of La Fayette at Cincinnati. Robert Benham died early in the spring of 1809, and was buried at Lebanon. a troop of cavalry following his remains to the grave. The most interesting event in the life of Capt. Benham is his survival after being wounded at Rodgers' defeat, and his life on the battle-field. Strange as this story is. its truthfulness has been indorsed by Judge Burnet and other careful historians. The account below is from Western Adventures:" "In the autumn of 1779, a number of keel-boats were ascending the Ohio under the command of Maj. Rodgers, and had advanced as far as the mouth of Licking without accident. Here, however, they observed a few Indians standing upon the southern extremity of a sand-bar. while a canoe, rowed by three others, was in the act of putting off from the Kentucky shore, as if for the Purpose of taking them aboard. Rodgers immediately ordered the boats to be 354 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. made fast on the Kentucky shore, while the crew, to the number of seventy men, well armed, cautiously advanced in such a manner as to encircle the spa where the enemy had been seen to land_ Only five or six Indians had been seen, and no one dreamed of encountering more than fifteen or twenty Indians. When Rodgers, however, had, as he supposed, completely surrounded the enemy, and was preparing to rush upon them from several quarters at once, he was thunderstruck at beholding several hundred savages suddenly spring in front, rear and upon both flanks. They instantly poured in a close discharge of rifles, and then, throwing down their guns, fell upon the survivors with the tomahawk. The panic was complete and the slaughter prodigious. Maj. Rodgers, together with forty-five others of his men, were quickly destroyed. The survivors made an effort to regain their boats, but the five men who had been left in charge of them had immediately put off from shore in the hindmost boat, and the enemy had already gained possession of the others. Disappointed in their attempt, they turned furiously upon the enemy, and, aided by the approach of darkness, forced their way through their lines, and, with the loss of several severely wounded, at length effected their escape to Harrodsburg. "Among the wounded was Capt. Robert Benham. Shortly after breaking through the enemy's line, he was shot through both hips, and, the bones being shattered, he fell to the ground. Fortunately, a large tree had lately fallen near the spot where he lay, and, with great pain, he dragged himself into the top and lay concealed among the branches. The Indians, eager in pursuit of the others, passed him without notice, and, by midnight, all was quiet "On the following day, the Indians returned to the battle-ground, in order to strip the dead and take care of the boats. Benham, although in danger of famishing, permitted them to pass without making known his condition, very correctly supposing that his crippled legs would only induce them to tomahawk him upon the spot in order to avoid the trouble of carrying him to their town. He lay close, therefore, until the evening of the second day, when, per ceiving a raccoon descending a tree near him, he shot it, hoping to devise some means of reaching it, when he could kindle a fire and make a meal. Scarcely had his gun cracked, however, when he heard a human cry, apparently not more than fifty yards off. Supposing it to be an Indian, he hastily reloaded his gun, and remained silent, expecting the approach of an enemy. Presently, the same voice was heard again, but much nearer. Still, Benham made no reply, but cocked his gun and sat ready to fire as soon as an object appeared. A third halloo was quickly heard, followed by an exclamation of impatience and distress, which convinced Benham that the unknown person must be a Kentuckian. As soon, therefore, as he heard the expression, ' Whoever you are, for God's sake answer me!' he replied with reedit ess, and the parties were soon together. "Benham, as we have already observed, was shot through both legs. The man who now appeared had escaped from the same battle with both arms broken. Thus each was enabled to supply what the other wanted. Benham, having the perfect use of his arms, could load his gun and kill game with great readiness, while his friend, having the use of his legs, would kick the game to the spot where Benham sat, who was thus enabled to cook it When no wood was near them, his companion would rake up brush with his feet and gradually roll it within reach of Benham's hands, who constantly fed his companion and dressed his wounds, as well as his own, tearing up both their shirts for that purpose. They found some difficulty in procuring water at first, but Benham at length took his own hat, and, placing the rim between the teeth of his companion, directed him to wade into the Licking up to his neck and dip the hat into the water (by sinking his own head). The man who could walk was thus enabled to bring water by means of his teeth, which Benham would afterward 355 - BLANK 356 - SIGNATURES HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 357 dispose of as was necessary. In a few days, they had killed all the squirrels and birds within reach, and the man with the broken arms was sent out to drive game within gunshot of the spot to which Benham was confined. Fortunately, wild turkeys were abundant in those woods, and his companion would walk around and drive them toward Benham, who seldom failed to kill two or three of each flock. In this manner they supported themselves for several weeks, until their wounds had healed, so as to enable them to travel. They then shifted their quarters and put up a small shed at the mouth of the Licking, when they encamped until late in November, anxiously expecting the arrival of some boat which would convey them to the falls of the Ohio. "On the 27th of November, they observed a flat-boat moving leisurely down the river. Benham hoisted his hat upon a stick and hallooed loudly for help. The crew, however, supposing them to be Indians, at least suspecting them of an intention to decoy them ashore, paid no attention to their signals of distress, but instantly put over to the opposite side of the river, and, man- ning every oar, endeavored to pass them as rapidly as possible. Benham beheld them passing him with a sensation bordering on despair, for the place was much frequented by Indians, and the approach of winter threatened them with destruction unless speedily relieved. At length, after the boat had passed him nearly half a mile, he saw a canoe put off from its stern and cautiously approach the Kentucky shore, evidently reconnoitering them with great sus- picion. He called loudly upon them for assistance, mentioned his name and made known his condition. After a long parley, and many evidences of reluc- tance on the part of the crew, the canoe at length touched the shore and Ben- ham and his friend were taken on board. "Their appearance excited much suspicion. They were almost entirely naked, and their faces were garnished with six weeks' growth of beard. The one was barely able to hobble upon crutches, and the other could manage to feed himself with one of his hands. They were taken to Louisville, where their clothes (which had been carried off in the boat which deserted them) were restored to them, and, after a few week& confinement, both were perfectly restored." It is stated in "Western Annals," that Benham afterward bought and lived upon the land where the battle took place. His companion, whose name is given as John Watson, afterward lived at Brownsville, Penn FRANCIS DUNLEVY. This distinguished pioneer was born near Winchester, Va., December 31. 1761. His father, Anthony Dunlevy, emigrated from Ireland about the year 1745, and afterward married Hannah White, a sister of Judge Alexander White, of Virginia. Of this marriage, there were four sons and four daughters, Francis being the eldest of the sons. About the year 1772, the family removed from Winchester to what was then supposed to be Western Virginia, on the West of the Alleghany Mountains, and settled near Catfish, in what is now Washington County, Penn. In this frontier settlement, during the Revolu- tionary war, there was great exposure to Indian depredations. The men of the new settlements were ''frequently called upon as volunteers, or by drafts, to serve in longer or shorter terms of military duty for the protection of the frontiers. Young Francis Dunlevy served no less than eight different times in campaigns against the Indians before he was twenty-one years old. He volunteered as a private October 1, 1776, before he was fifteen years of age. His company erected a chain of block-houses on the Ohio River, above What is now Steubenville, and scouted in pairs up and down the Ohio River 358 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. for the distance of twelve miles. During this tour of duty, he was sent with others down the river twelve miles, and assisted in protecting a settlement at Decker's Fort, in Virginia, while the inhabitants gathered their corn. This tour of duty lasted about seven weeks, and he was discharged on the 20th of December. In July, 1777, young Dunlevy served fourteen days in the militia at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) as a substitute for his father, who had been drafted for a month and had served the first half of it. The notorious Simon Girty was in the fort at this time and an officer of the militia, this being the year before he deserted to the Indians. In March, 1778, young Dunlevy again volunteered and served a short term; on the 15th of August, he was drafted, and served one month, and, in October, he again volunteered and served six weeks. lie was again drafted on the 25th of August, 1779, and served about five weeks along the Alleghany River. In the spring of 1782, he again volunteered to serve against the hostile Indians, but the contemplated movement was abandoned, and he was permitted to return home in a few days. The most remarkable event in the military life of Francis was his service in the disastrous campaign of Col. Crawford against Sandusky, in May and June, 1782. In Dunlevy's declaration for a pension, made in 1832, and now on file in the pension office, he gave a clear and concise account of the expedition. This declaration is frequently cited in C. W. Butterfield's history of Crawford's campaign against Sandusky, in which work a fuller account of Dunlevy's military services will be found than can be here given. At the battle of Sandusky, Dunlevy was engaged with an Indian of huge proportions. The Indian, as evening approached, crept carefully and cautiously toward Dunlevy through the top of a tree lately blown down and full of leaves. Getting near enough. as he supposed, he threw his tomahawk, but missed his aim and then escaped. This Indian was afterward recognized by Dunlevy, as he believed, in "Big Captain Johnny," who, in the war of 1812. was with the friendly Shawnees at Wapakoneta. "In a campaign," writes A. H. Dunlevy, " in which I served under Gen. William Henry Harrison, in 1812 and 1813, I frequently saw this Indian. He must have been seven feet in height. He 'as as frightfully ugly as he was large." In Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, it is stated that Dunlevy made his way, in company with two others, through the woods from the scene of Crawford's defeat, without provisions, to. Pittsburgh, but Mr. Butterfield states that Dunlevy's application for a pension disproves the statement. Although young Dunlevy's school days were often broken into by his military duties for the protection of the homes of the whites, he managed to obtain a good education. In 1782, he was, for a short time at least, a pupil of Rev. Thaddeus Dodd's Latin and mathematical " log-cabin" school in Washington County, Penn. He was then described as " a young man of superior talent and amiable disposition." As soon as peace was secured, he went to Dickinson College. He became a fine classical and mathematical scholar, and ,could read and write the Latin language with ease. He was at one time a student of divinity under Rev. James Hoge, of Winchester, Va., and afterward taught a classical school in the same State. About the year 1790, he moved with his father's family to the vicinity of Washington, Ky. In 1792, he moved to Columbia, where he opened a classical school in connection with John Reily, afterward of Butler County. After Wayne's victory, this school was moved up the Little Miami some ten miles. In 1797, he came to the vicinity of Lebanon and continued his school until 1801. It is believed that he was the first teacher of the ancient languages in the Miami Valley, and also the first in Warren County. In September, 1799, a special election was held for the purpose of choos- HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 359 ing two additional members from Hamilton County in the Legislature of th Northwest Territory. Mr. Dunlevy believed that he was duly elected one o the two new Representatives, but the House, by a majority of one, decide against his claim to the office and gave the seat to Isaac Martin. This wa probably the first contested election case north of the Ohio. At the regula election, in October of the next year, Mr. Dunlevy was elected one of the seve Representatives from Hamilton County, and served in the Territorial Legislature, which met at Chillicothe November 23, 1801. In this Legislature, h .acted with the anti-Federalists, who opposed the continuance in power of th Territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair, and who succeeded in securing for the Territory an early admission into the Union as a State. In 1802, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, receiving the highest number of votes of nearly 100 persons voted for in Hamilton County. He took prominent part in the proceedings of the convention. One position taken by Mr. Dunlevy during the deliberations in framin the first constitution of Ohio deserves to be particularly noticed. Born in Slave State and having himself seen the evils of slavery, he looked with abho rence on every system of human bondage. In the convention, he not on: voted against every attempt to introduce slavery in a modified form in the ne State, but he went further, and was one of the minority who favored equal political rights for all men without regard to color. He voted in favor of the motion to strike out the word white from the constitution, so as to give ti right of suffrage to colored men, but this principle of justice and hums equality he did not live to see embodied in the constitution and laws of Ohi At the first election in the State, he was elected a member of the Senate the Legislature. Before its adjournment, this body selected him one of t: three President Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the term of sev years. This position he held fourteen years. His circuit was the Southwester and at first embraced ten counties. He rode on horseback over the ungrad and bridgeless roads of a new country, and displayed his indomitable ever, in promptly meeting his appointments, sometimes swimming his horse over t swollen streams rather than fail in being present. In the fourteen years was Judge, it is said, he never missed more than one court. In his early ca: paigns against the Indians and his extensive travels in new countries, he has become so expert a swimmer that he thought nothing of swimming the Ohio its greatest flood. At the close of his second term as Presiding Judge, being poor and havi involved himself as security for some of his friends, he felt compelled to engaged in the practice of law for the means of sustaining a large family depended upon him. For more than ten years he was indefatigable in his legal pursui attending the courts of several of the surrounding counties. At the age seventy, after more than fifty years of labor as a soldier, pioneer, legislat framer of .a State Constitution, Judge of Court and practicing lawyer, he retir to spend in reading and study, the years which might be allotted him bey( threescore and ten. Judge Dunlevy was an active and prominent member of the Baptist Church. Both his parents were zealous Presbyterians, and Francis being their eldest son, was intended for the ministry of that church. But while a student divinity, he arrived at the conclusion that pedobaptism and sprinkling instence of immersion were unauthorized in the Scriptures. Much to the mortificat of his parents, as well as his brothers and sisters, he was compelled to becc a Baptist. His brother John became a prominent Presbyterian preacher Ohio and Kentucky, and afterward, a Shaker, being the author of "The Manifesto,'' which is regarded as the strongest work ever written in support of 360 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. doctrines of the Society of United Believers. Francis abandoned his intention of becoming a minister, believing he had not evidence of a special divine call to that office. He was a member of the Columbia Baptist Church, in 1792, and assisted in organizing the Miami Baptist Association, and, it is said, drew up the articles of faith agreed upon by that association. In the church at Lebanon he had his membership for more than forty years. "He was a Calvinist, firm' and unyielding, but without any tendency to Antinomianism. In the division of the church at Lebanon, in 1836, on the missionary question) he made a long and earnest appeal to the members, giving the history of the church from its organization. The anti-mission movement, he said, was but Antinomianisrn in principle, and a step in contradiction to the-whole history of the Baptist denomination in Ohio. He warned the advocates of the anti-mission movement of the destructive consequences upon them as a Christian denomination. He. told them that he had seen a similar stand taken by Baptist Churches in Virginia fifty years before that time, and the result was that in twenty years or less those churches had become almost extinct and that the same consequences would as surely befall those churches which would adopt anti-missionary sentiments." His opposition to slavery continued through life. Being among the few of his time to avow openly and publicly the equality of all men, white and black, he was thereby subject to much odium and abuse. But he never flinched from embracing and avowing the truth, however unpopular. He was one of those who advocated liberal civil, religious and political privileges for all men of whatever name, country, color or religion. In many respects, he was a remarkable man. Judge Burnet, who knew him well, describes him as "a veteran pioneer of talents, liberal educa- tion and unbending integrity." He possessed a remarkable memory, retaining whatever he heard or read with great accuracy. He retained his mental facul- ties in undiminished strength to the last. The last years of his life were passed chiefly in reading. A translation of the Bible in Latin was his frequent companion. He died of pleurisy November 6, 1839, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Francis Dunlevy was married at Columbia to Mary Craig in 1792. His children were Anthony Howard, a lawyer at Lebanon; John Craig, who prac- ticed medicine at Hamilton, Ohio, for twenty years, and died in 1834; Rebecca White, who was married to Dr. Rigdon; Maria; Jane, who was married to Jacob Morris; and James Harvey, who was admitted to the bar in 1827, and made a tour through the South with his father, and died the same year in Louisiana. The surname of the subject of this sketch was by him uniformly written "Dunlavy." and thus it is signed to the first constitution of Ohio, and in the journals of the courts over which he presided; but "Dunlevy," having been adopted by his descendants as the correct orthography of the family name, it has been followed in this work. On this point, the eldest son of Judge Dunlevy, writes: "The family were originally from Spain. The name, which is properly Donlevy, has since been written variously, according to the vowel sounds of the different countries in which the family was scattered—sometimes Donlevy; by others, Dunlevy, and again, Dunlavy." JEREMIAH MORROW. This pioneer and farmer-statesman was born October 6,1771, in what is now Adams County, then York County, Penn., not far from the place where the great battle of Gettysburg was fought. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage. His HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 361 father was a native of Pennsylvania, but his more remote ancestors were Irish by nativity, Scotch by extraction and Covenanters in religion. The name Morrow is a modification of the Scotch surname Murray, an older form of which is Moray, and it is certainly known that in the family of the subject of this sketch the modification was made in this country soon after the middle of the last century. The grandfather of the subject of this memoir, whose Christian name also was Jeremiah, emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to America, about the 1730; he died in 1758, leaving one son and several daughters. His only son John Morrow, was a farmer and a man of influence in his neighborhood. His name appears in the history of York County as Commissioner in 1791, 1792 and 1793, before the organization of Adams County. He died in 1811, having lived to see his eldest son elected for the fifth time a Member of Congress from the new State of Ohio. The early instruction Jeremiah received in the local schools did not extend beyond the rudimentary branches of reading, writing and arithmetic; to these, however, he added an acquaintance with some of the higher mathematics and surveying, by attendance, when a young man, for one summer, at a school of a higher order. Perhaps the most important part of his intellectual education was the result of a habit of industriously reading the best books within his reach, which he continued through life. He grew up a young man with a better education than his associates, of robust understanding and a mind stored with a fund of useful information. Without an acquaintance with the rules of technical grammar—the English language not being taught grammatically in the schools of his boyhood--he acquired the power of expressing his thoughts on paper in a style always clear, generally correct, and, while free of rhetorical ornament, sometimes characterized by elegance and grace. This capacity of fully conveying his thoughts, proved, in after life, of incalculable advantage to him, as well while serving as a member of the Legislature in the woods of the Northwest Territory, as when chairman of a committee in the halls of Congress. In his twenty-fourth year, he determined to seek his fortunes in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio. He arrived at the village of Columbia, now a part of Cincinnati, in the spring of 1795. Remaining here two or three years, he worked at whatever he could find to do in the new settlements; he raised corn on rented ground in the fertile valleys about Columbia; he surveyed land, and, for a short time, taught school. Having determined to locate in the Miami country, he contracted with Symmes for the purchase of lands on the Little Miami, about twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth. The purchase price was $1.50 per acre. In the winter of 1796-97, Mr. Morrow, Thomas Eally and John Parkhill, who had determined to settle in the same vicinity, surveyed their lands, enduring the privations of camp life in a wilderness in a winter of unusual severity. On February 19, 1799, Mr. Morrow was married to Miss Mary Parkhill, who was born in Fayette County, Penn., July 8, 1776. They began pioneer life in a log cabin about half a mile from the Little Miami River. The forests around their rude home were almost entirely unbroken; their neighbors were few; the church they attended was at the Mill Creek settlement, twelve miles distant. One day their cabin was destroyed by fire, with every article of household convenience it contained. The settlers for miles around gathered together not long after, and, in a single day, erected a new house in place of the burned one, constructing it, as all the first homes of the Pioneers were constructed, of round logs, clapboard roof and puncheon floor. In 1800, Mr. Morrow was first called into public life, being chosen to a seat in the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, and attended the session Which met at Chillicothe November 23,1801, and in that body favored the formation of a State government. In 1802, he was a member of the convention 362 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. which formed the first constitution of Ohio and was Chairman of the committee which reported the fourth article of the constitution on " Elections and Electors." In 1803, he was a member of the Senate in the first Legislature of Ohio, and, in June of the same year, was elected the first Representative in Congress from Ohio. Having resigned his office as State Senator to accept that of Representative in Congress, Mr. Morrow was summoned early in the ensuing autumn t0 attend a special session of Congress convened by the President, and made the first of sixteen journeys from his home to the national capital to attend the annual sessions of Congress, in as many successive years, all of which he performed on horseback, for almost the entire distance. He took his seat as a member of the Eighth Congress October 17, 1803, the first day of the called session. He continued a Representative in Congress for five successive terms; each time he was a candidate for re-election, leading his opponent by a decided majority. During this period of ten years, he was the only Representative of Ohio in the Lower House of Congress. After the State was divided into six Congressional Districts, he was chosen by the Legislature a United States Senator, for six years, from the 3d of March, 1813. His election to the highest legislative council in the world was a triumphant one; of eighty-one votes on the joint ballot, he received sixty-three. During the long period of his uninterrupted service in both Houses of Congress, his course was marked by the most scrupulous and unwearied application in the discharge of his public duties. He was always at his post; he was present on the first day of the session; he attended all the committees to which he was appointed; he was punctual at every place where duty called him. He never acquired distinction by powers of oratory and debate—those showy talents, which, in this country, more than any other, attract and dazzle popular opinion; but he had the capacity of administering public affairs with sound judgment, energy and industry. His talents were useful in the committee room, in drawing up a report, in the presentation of facts and figures and in casting the intelligent vote. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands in both Houses of Congress; almost all the laws relating to the survey of the public land domain, during the period he was in Congress, were the productions of his pen.; and his opinion on any question connected with this important branch of the public business uniformly commanded the respect of Congress. As he was about to leave the Senate, Senator Crittenden pronounced him the " Palinurus of the Senate in everything that related to this important subject;" and Henry Clay, in his great speech on the Public Lands, in the Senate, twelve years after, thus eulogized his administration of these interests: "No man in the sphere within which he acted ever commanded or deserved the implicit confidence of Congress more than Jeremiah Morrow. A few artless but sensible words, pronounced in his plain Scotch-Irish dialect, were always sufficient to insure the passage of any bill or resolution which he reported." His term as United States Senator expired March 3, 1819, and he retired to private life, believing that his public career had closed. He had not sought official station, and had been elected to high offices without any effort on his part; he was now content to retire to the management of his farm and his mill. The next year he was solicited to allow his name to be used as a candidate for Governor; this he felt compelled to decline, as his friend, Gov. Ethan Allen Brown, who was serving his first term as Chief Magistrate, was a candidate for re-election. Before the succeeding election for Governor, he accepted the office of State Commissioner of Canals. In 1822, he was a candidate for Governor and was elected. His principal HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 363 opponent was Allen Trimble, who, before the election, became Acting Govenor, on the election of Gov. Brown to the Senate. Questions of national pays politics seem to have had little influence in this election, some counties casting their lmost their entire vote for favorite candidate. Mr. Morrow received a majority n the southwestern part of the State, and in the township possibly his own. Two years after, he was re-elected. He took the oath of which he resided but a single vote was cast against him, and this vote was 'office, and delivered his inaugural address December 28, 1822. So few were the duties devolving upon him, under the constitution he had assisted in framing, that during the four years he held the office of Governor, when the Legislature was not in session, his presence was only occasionally required at the State Capital, and the greater portion of his time was spent on his farm, ninety miles distant from Columbus. The chief themes of his annual messages were the Common School System and Canal Navigation. The law authorizing the construction of the Ohio State Canals was passed at the same time as the school law, the two measures being carried by a union of the friends of each. Ground was first broken in the construction of the Ohio Canal at Newark, on the 4th of July, 1825. Gov. De Witt Clinton. the distinguished advocate of Canal Improvement, was present, by invitation of the Commissioners, and, after appropriate and imposing ceremonies, Gov. Clinton and Gov. Morrow each took a spade and removed the first sod in a work which connected the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie. On July 21, Goys. Clinton and Morrow broke ground at Middletown for the Miami Canal. In 1825, it became the pleasing duty of. Gov. Morrow to welcome La Fayette, the nation's guest, to Ohio. La Fayette arrived at Cincinnati May 19, 1825, and his formal welcome to Ohio was truly a grand demonstration of popular enthusiasm, in which 50,000 grateful people participated. At mid- night, La Fayette embarked on the steamer Herald, for Wheeling, to which place Gov. Morrow accompanied him. At the October election, succeeding his retirement from the office of Gov- ernor, he was unexpectedly elected State Senator from Warren County, to fill a vacancy. In accordance with his rule never to seek nor decline office, he ac- cepted the position, and the next winter occupied a seat in the Legislature. At the Presidential election of 1828, his name was placed at the head of the Adams electoral ticket in Ohio. In 1829, he and Thomas Corwin were elected Representatives, from Warren County, in the Legislature. Being a strong opponent of the policy of the administration of Gen. Jackson, Gov. Morrow represented his Congressional District in the National Republican Convention, which met in Baltimore Decmber 12, 1831, and nominated Henry Clay and John Sargent for President and Vice President; and the next year he headed the electoral ticket in Ohio for these men. The last Legislature in which he served was that of 1835-36. This Legislature granted the charter for the Little Miami Railroad, and, for several years following, he devoted much of his time to the enterprise of constructing this, the first railroad in the Miami Valley. He was from the beginning a leading spirit in the work, and the President of the company. Amid all the doubts, delays, discouragements and financial embarrassments under which the road was constructed, his courage never gave Way. On July 4, 1839, he laid the corner-stone of the Capitol at Columbus. The address he delivered on this occasion has been much admired. In 1840, he was elected a Member of Congress, to succeed Hon. Thomas Corwin, resigned, and served three years. He was then seventy-two years old. "My old associates," he said, "are nearly all gone. I am acting with another generation. The courtesies which members formerly extended to one another, are, in a great measure, laid aside, and I feel I am in the way of younger men." 364 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. He declined a re-election, and never consented to be a candidate for a public office again. He declined a seat in the Constitutional Convention, in 1850, saying that " he had assisted in framing one constitution, it was worn out, and he was worn out with it. The new one ought to be formed by those who would live under it." He continued, however, to serve as President of the Board of Trustees of Miami University. His interest continued in the church and in the school until the last. The winter before he died, old as he was, he traveled across the State to attend an educational convention. His last days were passed in peaceful retirement, in a plain dwelling, on the bank of the Little Miami, not far from the spot where he had built his pioneer cabin. He retained the full possession of his mental faculties, and was able to use his extensive library or pour out in conversation the rich treasures of his memory, until his last brief illness. He died as he lived—a Christian; he was buried without ostentation, and in a country graveyard a plain tombstone, not larger nor costlier than those around it, marks his resting-place, bearing the simple inscription: " Jeremiah Morrow. Died March 22, 1852, aged 80 years 5 months and 16 days." The career of Gov. Morrow was one of the happiest and most pleasing in the history of the West. Building his cabin in the frontier woods, with no ambition but to seek an honest livelihood and do good to those about him, he rose to distinction by the force of his own sound judgment and sterling worth, filled with honor the highest offices in the gift of the people of his State, passed an honored and serene old age in peace and content, and died without a blot on his fair fame. In person, he was rather below the medium height, strong, compactly built and active, with dark hair and animated eyes. In his dress, he was negligent, but the story of his receiving La Fayette in his working clothes is not true. He had a strong relish for the facetious, and told a story admirably. He never was above labor with his own hands, and, when Governor of Ohio, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar found him on his farm engaged in cutting a wagon pole. With a kind and obliging disposition, he was greatly beloved by his neighbors, yet he could say no with decision when necessary, and would not violate a principle to oblige his best friend. He made it a rule never to become surety of another in a business transaction. He served as President of a railroad without compensation, but he would not help to pay for printing tickets to elect himself to Congress. He disdained to employ a public position for private ends. The friend of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and the younger Adams, and the supporter of their administrations, he never sought or secured an office or a contract for any of his relatives. Long at the head of the Public Land System, he never engaged in land speculation, and died in possession of a little more than a competency. JUDGE M'LEAN ON GOV. MORROW. The writer believes that he cannot better conclude this sketch than by quoting Justice John McLean's estimate of Gov. Morrow, as given in a letter to Robert F. Adair, of Kentucky, dated at Cincinnati August 10, 1852. McLean and Morrow were well acquainted. They lived in the same county for several years, and boarded at the same house in Washington, McLean being a Representative and Morrow a Senator: " Gov. Morrow was an extraordinary man. He was not classically educated, but he had read much and reflected much on what he had read and observed. He was modest and retiring, and seemed not to appreciate his own talents. No man was firmer in matters of principle, and on these, as indeed in matters of detail, he always maintained himself with great alpity. His mind was sound and discriminating. No man in Congress who served with him had a sounder 365 - PICTURE OF JOHN PERRINE 366 - BLANK HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 367 judgment, His opinions on great questions were of more value, and were more appreciated in high quarters, than the opinions of many others, whose claims of statesmanship and oratory were much higher than his. Mr. Jefferson had great reliance in him, and Mr. Gallatin gave him, in every respect, the highest evidence of his confidence. "There never sat in Congress a man more devoted to the public interests, and of a fairer or more elevated morality. He was noted for his industry and strict attention to the interests committed to him. Though a decided friend and supporter of the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, he never cast an aspersion upon his political opponents. He was firm in his party views and action, but his opponents were treated courteously, and he never failed to command their respect and confidence. He enjoyed wit in a high degree, and his mind was well -tored with the actions and sayings of distinguished men with whom, in the course of his long service, he became acquainted. His memory was tenacious, and, although his utterance was slow, his remarks in conversation and in speaking were characterized by strong sense. He was a most interet&ting companion. It is believed that no one ever doubted his integrity or candor.  "Rufus King, Henry Clay and every leading member of Congress, esteemed him most highly. He bore his honors so meekly that no one envied his high reputation. As little selfishness could be found in him as in any other human being. In his last session in Congress, he found that he belonged to the past age--an age where the leading men were generally, if not universally, possessed of high talent and of a noble patriotism, which gave elevation to the action of their country. He had not kept up with the progress of Young America. He was a stranger to the spoils system, and knew nothing of those impulses which a hope of public plunder produces. He felt no desire to prolong a service which in former years had deeply interested him, but had become irksome and disgusting. He carried to his retirement melancholy fore bodings of the future. "It will be a most happy thing for the country if our young politicians should form their principles by such a model as Jeremiah Morrow. This would bring back the Government to its old way-marks, and make it what it was intended to be, a government of the people It would dispense with the machinery now used, not so much for the good of the country as for the success of a party. "Mr. Morrow, early in life, became a member of the Associate Reformed Church, and his whole life was consistent with this profession. His unassuming manner and fine sense invited the confidence and affection of all his acquaintances. He was impelled by a nature upright, noble and generous. His acquaintances carried with them, from every interview with him, some new thought or fact worthy of being remembered. He lived more than eighty years. His end was peaceful, as the end of such a life ever must be." MATTHIAS CORWIN The subject of this sketch was a prominent and influential pioneer and the father of Gov. Thomas Corwin. He was born in 1761, in Morris County, N. J.; removed with his father to the Redstone country, in Pennsylvania, thence to Bourbon County, Ky., and thence to what is now Warren County, Ohio, in 1'798, and settled on a farm near where Lebanon now stands. He was one of the first Justices of the Peace in Warren County; a member of the first Board of County Commissioners; Representative in the Legislature by annual elections for ten years; Speaker of the House at the sessions of 1815 and 1824; 368 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. and Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1816 to 1824. He was also appointed by the Governor one of the appraisers of damages on the Miami Canal at its first construction. These important public positions, held by him without his own seeking, are sufficient to show that he had the confi.. deuce and respect of his neighbors and acquaintances. The following facts, illustrative of his character, are derived chiefly from the history of the Miami Baptist Association. He was through life distinguished for his probity. He carried his notions of honesty much further than men generally do, condemning every shade of concealment or act calculated to deceive, as no better than direct fraud. All speculation, in the common acceptation of the term, was in his view wrong. He lived as a matter of choice on a farm, and took great pleasure in making it a pleasant home. In his habits, he was industrious, regular and abstemious, and did not permit any under his control to spend time idly. By this industry, he was able to raise and educate a family of nine children. He was always a peacemaker, and very often selected as an arbiter to settle disputes between neighbors. All had the fullest confidence in his integrity. The office of Justice of the Peace he restored to its original intention of settling disputes, as well as constraining peace, and sometimes to effect this object, he resorted to measures, which, if not strictly legal, were always really just. It is told of him, and doubtless truly, that a suit once being brought before him by a man who had been grossly defrauded in a trade of watches, he required both of the watches to be placed on the table before him as the evidence was given, and, the fraud being palpable, as he gave his decision, he took up the two watches, declared the contract of exchange void on account of fraud, and then restored to each his original watch. Judge Corwin was a member of the Baptist Church at Lebanon for a period of thirty Years. During most of that time he was the principal and most active Deacon of that church. When at home he was always at his post, and so constant was he in attendance at the meetings that if he was at any time missed when at home, it was known that something unusual had detained him. He was frequently one of the messengers of the church in the associa- tion, often a messenger of the association to some corresponding body. In the minutes of the Miami Association, the name of no layman occurs so frequently. as that of Matthias Corwin. As in society, so in the church of which he was so, long a member, the greatest confidence was placed in him and much deference. was yielded to his opinions. He possessed that firmness and independence of mind which led him to investigate all opinions for himself before he adopted them. He was, therefore, slow to receive any new dogma on any snbject. This gave him, in the eyes of those not well acquainted with him, the appear- ance of being bigoted and prejudiced, but such was not his character. He is described as above the medium height, very stout, with dark skin, black hair and black eyes. He died of bilious fever September 4, 1829, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. The following is an extract from an obituary no- tice of Matthias Corwin, which is believed to have been written la: his intimate personal friend, Judge Francis Dunlevy: "Judge Corwin, no doubt, partook of the frailties belonging to humanity, but we think we have never known one within the range of our knowledge who had fewer faults. If we should search for them we know not where we would find one. He was not great nor learned, nor possessed of any dazzling talents to attract the admiration of the world; but he had qualities much more en- viable and enduring. He was the friend of the friendless, the comforter of the disconsolate, the affectionate and kind neighbor and relative, and, connected as he was through life, with religious, social and political communities, he was a, HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 369 guide and pattern in each. Such was the candor, the mildness, the uniformity of his conduct and so unexceptionable his walk and conversation, that even amidst party strife and sectarian controversy, he never knew an enemy. By all his name was respected, by those who knew him best and longest, we might say, venerated." JOSHUA COLLETT. This distinguished lawyer and Judge was born in Berkeley County, Va. (now West Virginia), November 20, 1781. Having obtained a good English education, he studied law at Martinsburg, in his native county. About the time he reached the age of twenty-one, he emigrated to the Northwest Terri- tory, and stopped temporarily at Cincinnati, where he remained about a year. While he was at Cincinnati, the first constitution of Ohio was adopted and Warren was created a county, with a temporary seat of justice at Lebanon. In June, 1803, before the first court had been held in Warren County, he established himself at Lebanon for the practice of law, and was the first resident lawyer in the place. Here, it may be said, he commenced the practice of his profession in which he afterward became distinguished, both at the bar and on the bench. Modest, diffident, unassuming and unpretending, to a degree seldom met with, he had great difficulties to overcome. He traveled the whole of the First Judicial Circuit, comprising the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont, Montgomery, Miami, Greene and Champaign, and was thus brought into competition with the older and distinguished lawyers of Cincinnati and the bar of the whole Miami Circuit. Notwithstanding the embarrassments resulting from his modesty and diffidence, and the learning and eloquence of his competitors, his knowledge of the law and his sound judgment made him a successful practitioner. In 1807, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit, a position he held for ten years, when he was suc- ceeded by his pupil, Thomas Corwin. The diligence, integrity and ability, with which he discharged the duties of this office, made him widely known and universally respected. In 1817, he was elected by the Legislature, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the term of seven years, and, at the close of his term, was re-elected. He continued on the Common Pleas Bench until 1829, when he was elected by the Legislature a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. His duties as Supreme Judge were onerous; he was compelled to attend courts in distant parts of the State, and to ride on horseback from county to county. At the end of his term, in 1836, he retired to his farm, near Lebanon, where he resided until his death. After his retirement from the bench, he permitted his name to be placed on the Whig electoral ticket, in 1836, and again in 1840, and, having been elected both times, he twice cast an electoral vote for his friend, Gen. Harrison. He was, for seventeen years, a member of the Board of Trustees of Miami University, and, during all that time manifested an earnest solicitude for the welfare of that institution. He was interested in the cause of education, and held for some time the office of School Examiner in Warren County. Judge Collett, on emigrating to the West, left in Virginia six brothers and one sister, who, about the year 1812, followed him to Ohio. Their descendants are now numerous in Clinton and Warren Counties. Joshua Collett, in 1808, married Eliza Van Home. William R. Collett, his only son and only child who survived him, was the leading spin i t in the organization of the Warren County Agricultural Society. He died on the farm he inherited from his father, July 19, 1860, in the forty-ninth year of his age. For the last twenty-five years of his life, Judge Collett was a member of the Baptist Church. He was a benevolent and kind-hearted man, and, though 370 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. an able lawyer and Judge, the crowning glory of his life was his spotless purity, his scrupulous honesty and his unsullied integrity. He died on his farm, near Lebanon May 23, 1855, and was buried at Lebanon. A plain tombstone was erected at the head of his grave, but it is now fallen to the ground, and is broken into several pieces. It bore this inscription: JOSHUA COLLETT. Born in Virginia in 1781; emigrated to Ohio in 1801; resided at Lebanon until his death, in 1855, aged 73 years and 6 months. Fifteen years a Lawyer, eighteen years a Judge of the Common Pleas and Supreme Courts of the State, as a man and a Christian, he maintained a character for Piety, Simplicity, Righteousness and Love of Truth, such as only the Fear of God and Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ can impart. JOHN McLEAN. This eminent jurist and statesman was born in Morris County, N. J., March 11, 1785. His father, Fergus McLean, was a poor man with a large family, and, four years after the birth of John, he removed to the West, settling first at Morganstown, Va., afterward near Nicholasville, Ky., and finally, in 1799, found a permanent home in what is now Warren County, Ohio. He opened and cleared a farm near Ridgeville, upon which he resided until his death, forty years afterward. His distinguished son afterward owned and resided upon this farm. The town of Ridgeville was laid out by Fergus McLean in the year 1814. John received a good English education, notwithstanding the straitened .circumstances of his father; he also studied the ancient languages, one of his teachers being Rev. Matthew G. Wallace, a Presbyterian clergyman. Desiring to study law, at the age of eighteen he went to Cincinnati and pursued his studies under the direction of Arthur St. Clair, Jr., a son of the Revolutionary General of that name, and a prominent lawyer, whose law office was at Cincinnati, but practiced at Lebanon and other places in the Miami Circuit. Young McLean, while pursuing his legal studies, supported himself by writing in the office of the Clerk of Court at Cincinnati. He also at times wrote in the county offices at Lebanon. Some of the early records in the court house at Warren County are in his handwriting. In his younger days, he wrote an excellent hand, and he is said to have been noted for his rapid work as a recording copyist. In the spring of 1807, he was married to Miss Rebecca Edwards, and about the same time commenced the publication of the Western Star, the first newspaper at Lebanon. In the autumn of 1807, he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Lebanon, editing his paper at the same time. About three years later, he disposed of his paper to his brother Nathaniel. He was successful at the bar, and such were his character and ability that, at the age of twenty-seven, he was elected a Representative in Congress from the district which included Cincinnati, although Warren County had for the preceding ten years furnished Ohio with its sole member of the Lower House of Congress. In 1812, the State was for the first time divided into Congressional districts. McLean was elected to represent the First District, composed of the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Preble. In 1814, he was re-elected unanimously, receiving not only every vote cast for Representative, but, what is re- HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 371 workable, the vote of every voter who went to the polls. He declined to be candidate for the United States Senate in 1815, when his election was con oidered certain, but, the next year, resigned his seat in Congress to accept th, position of Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, to which he had been unanimously elected by the Legislature of the State. He remained upon the Supreme Bench of Ohio until 1822, when Monroe appointed him Commissioner of the General Land Office. The next year, he became Postmaster General, am administered the affairs of this department with vigor, method and economy fo six years, under the administrations of Monroe and John Q. Adams. In 1830 Judge McLean was nominated by President Jackson, and confirmed by th Senate, to the most honorable position attainable by the American lawyer an jurist—Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. This position held for thirty years, and until his death. Judge McLean was first elected to Congress as a Democrat, in favor of th war with England, and a supporter of Madison's administration. He held position in the cabinet of J. Q. Adams during the Presidential election of 1828 and took no active part in the contest between Adams and Jackson, but bet the War and Navy Departments were tendered him by Jackson and decline( His opinions from the Supreme Bench gave him great popularity with the ant slavery people of the United States, especially in the Dred Scott case, in whit he dissented from the opinion of the court as given by Chief Justice Taw', and expressed the opinion that in this country slavery was sustained only local law. His name was prominently identified with the party opposed to tI extension of slavery, and was before the Free-Soil convention at Buffalo for ti nomination for President. At the National Republican Convention of 1856, 1 received 196 votes for the same office to 359 for Fremont. When Lincoln wm nominated in 1860, McLean also received a number of votes. When a young lawyer, John McLean was inclined toward skepticism i religion, but in 1811 he was converted under the preaching, at a private how in Lebanon, of Rev. John Collins, a pioneer Methodist preacher, and from thl time until 'his death he was a devout member of the Methodist Church. He edited the lives of two Methodist preachers—Philip Gatch an John Collins. In the last years of his life, his home was at Cincinnati, when he died April 4, 1861. He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery. THOMAS R. ROSS. Thomas R. Ross was born in New Garden Township, Chester Co., Pene October 26, 1788. He was the eldest child of Dr. John Ross and his wif Catherine Randolph. On his mother's side, he was related to John Randolph of Roanoke, Va. His parents were Quakers, and Thomas R. was educated in Quaker institution at West Town in his native county, and afterward studying law with his uncle, Thomas Ross, in Philadelphia. He opened a law office Chester County soon after his admission to the bar, in 1808, but in 1809 I emigrated to the West. stopping for awhile in Cincinnati, and in 1810 came Lebanon and practiced his profession. He was a forcible speaker, and, w withstanding the ability of the lawyers he encountered in the Miami Circu he rose to distinction. In 1818, Mr. Ross was elected a Member of Congre from the First Ohio District, which consisted of the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Preble, as the successor of Gen. William Henry Harrison. He was twice re-elected, and served as Representative in Congress from 18: Until 1825. Early in his Congressional career, Mr. Ross was called on to participate in one of the most exciting and agitating controversies in the history the country—that which was settled by the adoption of the Missouri Compro- 372 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. mise of 1820. Mr. Ross boldly opposed the compromise measures, which were really the work of the South, and were opposed by the majority of the members of the House from the non-slaveholding States. In 1824, Mr. Ross failed of a re-election, and was succeeded in Congress by Hon. John Wood, the district at that time being composed of the two counties of Butler and Warren. A personal friend of Mr. Ross, in an obituary notice, wrote of him as follows: "Associated in Congress with so many good and great men, it is not strange that his defeat for another term was to him a severe blow, and one from which he could never rally. The loss of his seat subjected him to a trial too great for him, and perhaps for any man of his ardent temperament. Truth requires me to say this much, and for years afterward he seemed to find relief from disappointed hopes only in the effects of stimulating drinks. Giving way to this indulgence, the appetite soon became uncontrollable, and for years his life was worse than a blank But, with an iron constitution and a mind still unimpaired, when friends had almost given him up, he determined to resist the destroyer, and, by the blessing of God, as he himself recognized, was en- abled to overcome this great foe to man's health and happiness. For many of his last years, he lived a temperate and considerate life, and was restored to the confidence and respect of his friends." He practiced law for some years after his retirement from Congress. In 1835, he was elected a Repre- sentative in the State Legislature. During the last years of his life, he re- sided on a farm one and a half miles east of Lebanon. During the last two years of his life, he was blind from cataract of the eyes. He died on the 28th of June, 1869, in the eighty-first year of his age. In 1811, Mr. Ross was married to Harriet Van Horne, a daughter of Rev. William Van Horne, a Baptist clergyman and a Chaplain during the Revolutionary war. She survived her husband, with a family of six children. THOMAS CORWIN. This eminent orator, statesman and wit was born in Bourbon County, Ky., July 29, 1794. He was the son of Judge Matthias Corwin, and, in 1798, came with his fattier to a farm near Lebanon. The ancestors of Thomas Corwin had moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, and thence to Kentucky. They had long lived on Long Island, N. Y. The original ancestor of the family in America came from England about 1630. David Corwin, an uncle of Thomas, claimed that his family was of Welsh origin, which may have been suggested by the fact that there is a town named Corwen in Wales. The statement has often been published, and, among other works, in the American Cyclopedia, that the family came originally from Hungary. This extraction seems to have been suggested by the similarity of the name to that of the Hungarian King, Matthias Corvinus. Thomas Corwin, in 1859, wrote to Rev. E. T. Corwin, author of the "Corwin Genealogy," that he had in his possession several letters showing the connection of the family with the Hungarian Corvinus, and that, at the time he read thorn, the account struck him as quite probable. Ile added: "I could never bring myself to feel interest enough in the subject to withdraw me from necessary labor long enough to enable me to form even a plausible guess as to the persons who might have been at work for ten cen- turies back in the laudable effort to bring me nolens volens into this breathing world on the 29th of July (a most uncomfortable time of the year), in the year of grace 1794." A full account of the early life and education of Thomas Corwin, by his schoolmate and fellow law student, is appended to this sketch. A summary of the leading events in his life will here be given. Commencing the practice HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 373 of law at Lebanon in 1817, he soon became a leading spirit in the courts oi four or five counties he attended. In 1818, he became Prosecuting Attorney ol Warren County, and served in that capacity for more than ten years. He said in the Ohio Legislature, in 1822: "In the prosecution, and sometimes in thE defense, of criminals, I have had frequent opportunities of viewing and considering the occult and secret sources of crime more distinctly than I possible could had I been an unconcerned observer. I will venture to assert that then is not, in the whole circle of society, a situation so favorable to the discovery of the true nature and causes of crime as a practice at the bar of a court of criminal jurisdiction." This was said in a speech against corporal punish ment. In 1821, he was first elected a Representative in the Legislature, am was re-elected in 1822, and in 1829. In 1830, he was first elected to Congress and served ten years. resigning in 1840, to become the Whig candidate fo Governor. The district he represented was composed at first of Warren am Butler Counties; afterward, of Warren, Clinton and Highland Counties. Ii 1840, he was elected Governor, but, two years later, when a candidate for re election, the Democratic party was successful, and he was defeated. In 1844 he was tendered a unanimous nomination by the Whig State Convention a candidate the third time for Governor. This he declined, and his name wa placed by the convention at the head of the Clay Electoral ticket in Ohio. I 1845. he was elected to the United States Senate, and served in that body unt July 22, 1850, when he became Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinet ( President Fillmore. At the expiration of that administration, in 1853, resumed the practice of law, having his office in Cincinnati, but retaining h residence in Lebanon. In 1858, he was again elected to Congress, and wi re-elected in 1860. In 1861. he was appointed by President Lincoln Unite States Minister to Mexico, which position he held until 1864, when he resigne4 He died at Washington City, December 18, 1865, from a paralytic attack, ar was buried in the Lebanon Cemetery. Mr. Corwin began his public life as a supporter of the administration Monroe. In 1824, he supported Henry Clay for President; in 1828, he an ported John Quincy Adams. He was afterward a firm supporter of the Wh party. After the rise of the Republican party, his views on the slavery question, which then agitated the country, continued to be in unison with the formerly advocated by him as a Whig, and differed considerably from thc both of the Republican and the Democratic party. He was, however, elect to Congress in 1858 and in 1860 by the Republicans. The reminiscences of Gov. Corwin, quoted below, give more informati concerning the early life and education of "the Wagoner Boy" than anythi yet given to the public. They are extracted from a paper read by A. H. Dr levy at a meeting of the members of the bar held in the court house in L4 anon soon after the death of Gov. Corwin: "I first met Thomas Corwin at a school taught by my father, about co. half mile west of where I now stand, in the summer or autumn of 1798. was then about four years old, and I a few months older. I then, of cour at this tender age of him and myself, saw nothing remarkable in him. I ways understood that he learned with great ease and rapidity, and remember have heard that he acquired a perfect knowledge of the whole alphabet the it day he came to school. We did not, however, long continue together in the school, and, as we lived some three miles apart, we had little more in time than a mere acquaintance for several years afterward. Our parents, however, belonged to the same church, and the two families were always intimate. the winter of 1806, or about that time, I again attended a school in which Corwin acquired nearly all the school education he ever had the opportunity 374 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. to enjoy. It was in this that his peculiar talent for public speaking was first developed. This school was taught by an English Baptist clergyman, the Rev. Jacob Grigg, of good education, and possessing great influence in exciting among his scholars the spirit of emulation and determination to excel, fe a greater extent than any school-teacher I have ever known. He encouraged school exhibitions--recitations of all kinds, and especially dialogues, and under his care and direction, they were not only attractive to the pupils, but to parents and the little public of Lebanon and vicinity, at that early day. For want of a hall, a bower was erected in front of the little schoolhouse (then standing on the spot now occupied by the parsonage of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lebanon), and its interior fitted up to suit the various plays to be performed on the particular occasion. It was in these exercises that I first noticed the development of Mr. Corwin's particular talent for oratory—that attractive manner and fine elocution which so distinguished him in after time. In a dialogue, then found in all our school books, by the common title of Dr. Neverout and Dr. Doubty, taking the character of the former, while his elder brother, Matthias, took that of Dr. Doubty, he gained universal applause. This was when he was but a little over twelve years of age, and yet I think it formed an important era in his life and history. " From that time, he had a strong desire for the advantages of a liberal education. But his father was poor, the owner of a small farm only, had a large family to support, and had concluded that he could make a scholar of but one son, and that was the elder brother, Matthias, called after himself. Matthias, therefore, was kept at school, and Thomas on the farm. To young Tom Corwin, as he was then and all his life familiarly called, this was a severe trial of filial duty; but he submitted patiently and labored hard and assiduously on the farm and business connected with it. Wagoning for our merchants, from Cincinnati, in certain seasons of the year, was an important part of the neighboring farmers' business. The roads were then merely tracks through the woods, with few bridges, and, in the new and fresh condition of the soil, often became deep and almost impassable. For mutual aid, in these trips, it was common for five or six teams to go together, ani young Thomas Corwin generally drove his father's on these occasions. It was here he first acquired the name of ' wagon boy.' He drove his four-horse team with great skill, and; as these wagoners camped at night in the woods together, this young wagon boy, by his ready wit and humor, contributed greatly to their entertainment when about their camp-fires, as well as on their tiresome journeys. It was said, too, if any team stalled in the deep roads of that day, as was not uncommon, Corwin's skill in managing a team was called into requisition to get out of the difficulty. " In the war of 1812, when Hull's disastrous surrender at Detroit exposed the whole northern frontier of Ohio to the combined attack of British and Indian forces, it became necessary to hurry an army to our outposts with all speed and without the possibility of furnishing supplies. In this emergency, it is known how rapidly Gen. Harrison hurried up a little army raised in Kentucky on the spur of the occasion and marched with unparalleled rapidity, all the way by land, to the relief of Fort Wayne, then besieged by a strong British and Indian force. The brother of Thomas Corwin Matthias, before named— commanded a company, of which I was a Member, in the Ohio Division of that little army, on which, now that Hull had surrendered all under his command, depended the defense of the Ohio and Indiana frontier, extending some four hundred miles. and embracing in its lines many strong and warlike savage tribes. Under these pressing circumstances, the farmers of Ohio were appealed to for teams and provisions to he carried to this now quite large military force, 375 - BLANK 376 - PICTURE OF JAMES PERRINE HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 377 so hastily collected together, and so destitute of supplies for their maintenance. Thomas Corwin, then barely eighteen years of age, hastened with his father's team, well loaded, to aid in this patriotic duty, and brought us supplies when camped on the waters of St Mary's of the Maumee. This may now appear a trifling performance, but it was attended with difficulties and dangers which those who did not see them can 'hardly realize. "Mr. Corwin continued on his father's farm until the year 1814, when he entered the Clerk's office of this county, then under the charge of his brother Matthias, who had before been admitted to the bar. This step was preparatory to the study of the law, and the next year, he and I together entered the law office of the late Judge Joshua Collett, of delightful memory, as pupils under his direction. From that time until our admission to the bar, in May, 1817, we were much of the time companions day and night; for more than twenty years, we were constantly, at the bar and in all the associations of life, together, and I think I knew Thomas Corwin better than any other man outside of his own immediate family. "It was a common custom, in the early settlement of this county, at least, to have debating societies, as then called, during the winter seasons, in almost every neighborhood. Lebanon had one almost from its origin, and when I first came to town to board, in 1809, all the men of talent, whether professional or not, were members of one of these debating clubs, and when Mr. Corwin and I commenced the study of the law, we entered one of these societies. Here Mr. Corwin very soon attained such pre-eminence as to give it more than usual attraction, and he gained for himself a high reputation for youthful eloquence. These societies formed almost the only recreations of this young law student. He seldom attended those youthful parties so common then and now, but con- fined himself to his studies with an ardor and industry unusual even in that day. By this persevering industry, he not only read the usual course of law prescribed at that time, and which was more extensive than has been required in later years, but he made himself master of English history, and, in a good degree, of the English prose and poetic classics. "At the May term of the Supreme Court, in 1817, we applied for admission to the bar. It was then the practice of the court to examine applicants themselves, in their presence, though they frequently called on members of the bar to take part in asking questions. For this purpose, we were taken into a large room of the principal hotel of the place, in the evening, after adjourn- ment of the court, and there, to my surprise, I found quite a gathering of ladies and gentlemen, who had come to witness the examination. Mr. Corwin's rep- utation had brought them there. Under these circumstances, the examination was a thorough one, and we were subjected to a severe ordeal. But Mr. Corwin at least passed it with triumph. His first speech before court was made soon after this, and was a pledge of his future distinction at the bar. "From this time on. Mr. Corwin was so well known here as to require no further remark from me. His genial temper, his kind and gentlemanly deportment at the bar, at all times and under all circumstances, you all know or have fully understood from others His liberal encouragement and generous aid to Young men in the pursuit of knowledge, and especially toward students of law, had no limit, but embraced all who manifested a desire for the acquisition of knowledge, and he had the great pleasure, during the last thirty years of his life, of seeing many of his pupils distinguishing themselves at the bar and in high places of public confidence. Many of them have been called away from the scenes of earth long before their tutor, but there still remain of the alumni of Gov. Corwin's law office a number almost equal to those of a respectable college. "Mr. Corwin came to the bar, as it now looks to me, in an auspicious time. 378 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. The men who presided in our highest courts and stood at the head of the bar at that early day have never been equaled since, as I think, for legal science or commanding eloquence. There are reasons for this which I may not stop here to explain. The Miami bar and courts had first such men as Judges Burnet, Me Lean, Collett, Crane, Hon. Thomas Morris, Nicholas Longworth, David K. Este and Thomas R. Ross. Soon after, Bellamy Storer, Nathaniel Wright, Salmon p. Chase, Charles Hammond, Thomas L. Hamer, John Woods, Joseph S. Benham, Robert S. Lytle, and others who might be named, but who have long since left us. It was the practice of early times to travel over the whole judicial circuit and the Maimi bar, as it was called, embracing the whole Miami Valley, then contained in one circuit, often met at the same courts to test their legal learning and their intellectual strength in arguments before the court and jury. Here, at times, was witnessed the greatest contest of minds that I, at least, ever beheld. This war of intellectual giants not 'Infrequently embraced some eminent men from the Scioto bar and other courts of the State, and at an early day, Mr. Corwin, in his practice, met Henry Clay, the great orator of the West; Philip Doddridge, deceased; Hon. Thomas Ewing, still living; the late Hon. John C. Wright. and others at the United States Courts held at Columbus, Ohio, and it is enough to say of any man that, among this array of great men and minds, Mr. Corwin was always acknowledged as an equal and a compeer. " Here, perhaps, I ought to stop, but I cannot forbear on this occasion to say some things more in reference to the character of this remarkable man. The world, judging from his speeches so widely published, judging from his long public life and attainment to so many high places, has no doubt set him down as a man of great ambition. But if he was more than ordinarily such, I never discovered it. It is possible I may have overlooked this trait in his character and judged him by too humble a standard. In our early reading, we much admired and often repeated poetic quotations, and among them, Beattie's Progress of Genius, one stanza of which I have often thought of since as strikingly depicting my own and the fate of many others of his early companions in our pioneer boyhood, but which, in his case, so eminently failed of truth. That stanza reads thus: "Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep, where Fame's proud Temple shines afar; Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime Has felt the influence of malignant star, And wag'd with fortune an eternal war— Checked by the scoff of pride—by envy's frown, By poverty' s unconquerable bar, In life's lone vale, remote, has pin'd alone, Then dropt into the grave unpitied, and unknown!" Yet Thomas Corwin, contrary to all the conditions of the poet, however true in general, did overcome all opposing difficulties--even "poverty's unconquerable bar "—and ascended those giddy heights until he stood calm and erect it that very temple of fame which shines so bright but at such unattainable heights to the millions who in every age attempt to reach it. But Mr. Corwin was not ambitious in the common acceptation of the term. The ruling passion of his heart was not so much distinction as to be useful--to be great as to be good. I know the world has not thus read him. His bluntness of manner at times, his severe invective at others, and his denunciation of whatever he deemed wrong, in public or private life, in government or in law, often impressed the stranger as having a sternness and severity of disposition which never belonged to him. He, indeed, possessed a heart of great tenderness, and his prevailing desire was to do good. He would not harm any one—but benefit all; and any attempt to injure or oppress, on the most limited scale, or HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 379 by the strong arm of official or national power, was sure to rouse his Opp; tien. Sometimes, when he saw so little regard for these high principle( rectitude, justice and humanity, by government, by men in high places, ; by the great masses who rule in this country, he would give vent to terri rebukes, and remind his friends of the Psalmist when he cried: " In my ht I said, all men are liars." This strong trait in his character furnishes a to many passages in his speeches, and particularly to that severe philii against the Mexican war. He looked upon all the claims we had trumped against Mexico. and the march of our army into Mexican territory for the purpose of provoking attack, as the mere pretexts to hide the settled deter nation of our then national cabinet to wage a war of conquest. and this, with the sole aim of adding slave territory to our domain. His soul deter the object and the low subterfuges by which that object was attempted t( concealed, and he gave vent to his feelings in that great speech—for whicl was ostracized for a time by the then ruling majority of the nation,. Bu more light has dawned upon the true causes of that war, the ban of that os cism has given way, and the time is not far distant when it will be deemed greatest speech of the age. " No, Mr. Corwin was not ambitious in the common sense of that ter and in the midst of all his success, his soul often sickened at the tins( worldly honors by which he was surrounded, and he looked upon the who mere shadows. What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue!' wat exclamation of an eminent man before him, and such was his estimate of hu greatness for many of the last years of his life." GEORGE J. SMITH. George J. Smith was born on the 22d day of May, 1799, near Newt in what is now Hamilton County, Ohio. He was the ninth and last chi Rev. James Smith, who emigrated with his family from Powhatan County to the territory northwest of the Ohio in the year 1798. Prior to his rer from Virginia, Mr. Smith had purchased a survey of land on the Little NJ River at the junction of Caesar's Creek with the river. As no improvement had been made upon the land, upon his arriv took up his temporary residence at what was called Middletown Station, bet Columbia and Newtown. Here the subject of this notice was born, and his father died in July, 1800. His widow, Elizabeth Smith, was left with a family of nine children, the eldest of whom was about eighteen years of Mrs. Smith remained with her family at the residence above mentioned the month of December, 1800, when she removed to the tract of land whic] been purchased by her husband, and upon which, in the meantime. a dwelling house had been partly constructed. The country was then almost entirely the population sparse, and the family was in consequence compelled to e many of the hardships and inconveniences incident to early pioneer life. the subject of this notice passed the years of his boyhood and youth. lal on the farm, and from time to time availing himself of such opportunities education as were then afforded. These, of course, were slender. As he advanced toward manhood. he attended a school taught in the neighborhood by a person of considerable attainments, where he diligently prose the study of the Latin language, in which he acquired a considerable of proficiency. During the whole of his after life, he retained his family with and fondness for the Latin. He was not acquainted with any other classic languages, and had no opportunities for studying the higher radios. As may well be supposed, his opportunities for general reading 380 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. youth were very limited, on account of the scarcity of books at that day, but his taste for reading was gratified to the full extent of the means afforded, Li April, 1818, he commenced the study of law, which he prosecuted under the preceptorship of Thomas Corwin. He continued his studies regularly until June. 1820, when he was admitted to the bar. In the following month, he commenced the practice of his profession at Lebanon: where he ever afterward resided. Shortly after entering the practice, he formed a partnership with William McLean, which continued for several years. Very soon thereafter, Mr. McLean was appointed Receiver of the Land Office at Piqua, and was afterward elected to Congress, and for these reasons gave but little personal attention to the business of the firm, which was conducted almost entirely by the junior member. In accordance with the custom which obtained in the profession at that day, he attended the courts in the other counties composing the judicial circuit. On the 9th day of April, 1822, Mr. Smith was married to Mrs. Hannah W. Freeman, the widow of Thomas Freeman, a former member of the Lebanon bar. This marriage union, which was one of singular felicity, subsisted for more than forty-four years, and until November 25, 1866, when it was termi- nated by the death of Mrs. Smith. In 1825, Mr. Smith was elected a member of the House of Representatives from Warren County, and took his seat as such at the session of the Legislature commencing December 5, 1825. He was again elected to the same position in 1826, and again in 1827. In 1828, he was a candidate for re-election, but at that time, political feeling was running high in view of the approaching contest for the Presidency, and Col. John Bigger (also a candidate for Representative) and himself, who were favorable to the election of Adams, were defeated by a majority of about fifty votes, their successful opponents being friendE of Gen. Jackson. During the session of the Legislature which commenced it December, 1828, and in February, 1829, Judge Joshua Collett, who was the the President Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, of which Warren County formed a part, was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, and thereupon Mr. Smith was elected by the Legislature to the office vacated by Judge Collett. This result was brought about through the influence of his friends in the Legislature, without any solicitation upon his part, and, indeed, wholly without his knowledge, he having been taken by surprise by the bestowal of the honor upon him. The judicial circuit was then composed of Butler. Warren, Greene, Clinton, Highland and Adams Counties. During his term of office, however, the counties of Highland and Adams were detached from the circuit and placed in another, leaving the first four named counties constituting his circuit. At that time, the only practicable mode of traveling was by riding on horseback. To this necessity he attributed the fact that a tendency to pulmonary disease which had manifested itself in his earlier life soon disappeared. and his health, which had been somewhat delicate, became robust. Judge Smith served a full term of seven years as President Judge. and, although a candidate for re-election, he was unsuccessful. Benjamin Hinkson, of Clinton County, having been elected as his successor. At the expiration of his term of office. there was a Democratic majority of ten or twelve in the Legislature, and it may serve to show the impression he had made by his judicial services to state that, although he was a decided and ardent Whig. his successful opponent, who was a Democrat, received a majority of but a single vote; and, although all of the counties in the circuit except Warren were represented in the Legislature by Democrats, yet all the Senators and Representatives from the counties composing the circuit supported Judge Smith. Soon after re- tiring from the bench, he resumed the practice of law, and formed a partner HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 381 ship with John Probasco, Jr., which continued until the election of the latter as President Judge, in 1850. In 1836, Judge Smith was elected a Senator in the Legislature from Warren County, and was re-elected in 1838, and accordingly served in the Senate two full terms of two years each. At the session commencing December 4, 1837, the Whigs then being in the majority in the Senate, he was elected Speaker of the Senate, and served in that capacity during, the session. At the next session of the Senate, he was nominated by the Whig members for reelection as Speaker, and received their support, but, the Democrats then being in the majority in that body, he was not re-elected. While a member of the Senate, and when on the floor he took an active and prominent part in all the more important parts of legislation, and served upon the Judiciary Committee, being the Chairman of that committee at one or two sessions. In April, 1850, Judge Smith was elected the Senatorial Delegate from the counties of Warren, Greene and Clinton to the convention which framed the present constitution of the State. He served in that body as a member of the Standing Committee on the Judiciary, and was constant and faithful in his attendance during the whole time the convention was. in session, but, owing to the state of his health, which had for a time become seriously impaired, was unable to take as active a part in the proceedings of the convention as he might otherwise have done. Believing that the new constitution, as adopted by the convention, contained some provisions that were liable to weighty objections, and others that he conceived to be in conflict with the constitution of the United States, he was not able to vote for the adoption of the constitution in convention or upon its final submission to the people for approval. After the termination of his law partnership with Judge Probasco, he took into partnership with him his son, James M. Smith, which continued until the latter entered upon the office of Probate Judge, in February, 1855. Another son, John E. Smith, then became associated with him in the practice of law. From the time when Judge Smith resumed practice in 1836, until February 1859, except when employed in public duties, he was actively and laboriously engaged in the duties of his profession. During the greater part of that time he regularly attended the courts in Butler, Clinton and Greene Counties. His business was large and exacting, and as a lawyer he was characterized by his patience, diligence, conscientiousness and fidelity to the interests of others that were intrusted to his care. In the summer of 1851, Judge Smith was nominated by a judicial convention for the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Third Subdivision of the Second Judicial District of Ohio. This nomination hd declined. In 1858, he was again nominated for the same position, and accepted the nomination, and was elected, his term of office beginning in February 1859. The counties composing the subdivision were Warren, Clinton, Greene and Clark. This office he held for two consecutive terms of five years On the 9th of February, 1869, he finally retired from the bench, having nearly reached the age of three score and ten years. After quitting the bench, he did not again re-enter the practice of law, although he did, on a very few occasions, accept employment from some of his old clients, and appeared for them in the trial of causes. Nevertheless, from force of long habit, he was, until prevented by the state of his health, as regular and constant in his attendance upon the sittings of the courts at Lebanon as he had been in former years when in active practice at the 'bar. The residue of his life was spent in that ease and comfort which he had well earned by- a long life of arduous professional labor and faithful public service, and was quietly and happily passed in the enjoyment of his books and of the society of his relatives and Molds. His tastes had always 382 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. been domestic, and, although a considerable part of his life was necessarily passed away from his home, he was always reluctant to leave it, and glad to return to it. For the last few years of his life, his health was considerably impaired. and, in consequence, he did not often leave his home; but occasionally he visi ited his relatives, many of whom dwelt on and near the spot where he had spent the days of his boyhood and youth, and these visits were to him the source of great gratification and pleasure. At length, on the 18th day of April, 1878, after a brief illness, his life was closed. Had he survived until the 22d day of the following month, he would have completed his seventy-ninth year. He died respected and esteemed by all who had known him, and it is believed that he was considered to have discharged all the public trusts that were committed to him with ability and fidelity, and creditably to himself, and with advantage to his fellow-citizens; and that his private life was regarded by all his acquaintances as a commendable example of uprightness, justice, conscientiousness and purity. Eight children were born of his marriage, of whom four died in infancy, and four (three sons and one daughter) survived him, and who are still living. JOSEPH WHITEHILL. Joseph Whitehill was born in Lancaster County, Penn., on the 30th of December, 1786. His family was of Scotch descent, but his immediate ancestors had lived for many years in Lancaster County. His father, Joseph Whitehill, removed with his family, about the year 1800, to Botetourt County, Va., and settled near Fincastle. Joseph Whitehill. the elder, died here in the year 1808. He had been in easy circumstances, but had met with reverses, and at his death his family was slenderly provided for. The subject of this notice, then a young man of twenty-one years of age, and the oldest surviving son of the family, took upon himself the care, direction and maintenance of the family, consisting of six sisters and a younger brother. The family occupied a farm near the town of Fincastle. During the war of 1812, Mr. Whitehill. who was a Lieutenant in a militia company raised in Botetourt County, was ordered with his company to Norfolk, VA., to assist in the resistance of a threatened attack from the British at that place. He was engaged in this service for several months, and, during a part of the time, was in command of the company, on account of the sickness and death of his Captain. In 1815, the family determined to remove to Ohio, and accordingly, in November of that year, they left Fincastle and came to Warren County. The first winter succeeding their arrival here they spent on a farm in the neigh- borhood of Waynesville. In the spring of the following year, they removed to a farm near Lebanon. Some two or three years afterward, Mr. Whitehill con- tracted for the purchase of the farm in the vicinity of Lebanon lately owned by Jehu Mulford, and, in fact, made one or more payments for it; but, owing to the hard times following the war of 1812, he was unable to complete the payments, and was consequently compelled to give up the land, and to sacrifice what he had already paid, as well as the cost of improvements which he had made. He continued the business of farming in the vicinity of Lebanon until his removal to the town. On account of severe and long-continued attacks of rheumatism, which rendered him permanently lame, he was unable personally to work much at farming, and devoted a considerable part of his time to the employment of hauling produce and merchandise to and from Cincinnati, which, at that time, was a business of very considerable importance. In 1826, HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 383 he was elected Sheriff of Warren County, and, at the commencement ol terra of office, took up his residence at Lebanon. This office he held for consecutive terms. After the expiration of his term of office, he purchas farm about three miles north of Lebanon, to which he removed. In 1830 was elected a Representatvie from Warren County in the Legislature, and re-elected to the same position in 1831, and in 1832, and again in 1834, serving in that office, in all, four years. During his lass term of service in use of Representatives, he was elected Treasurer of State, and was at times re-elected, and held this office for four consecutive terms of three y each. Upon the commencement of his term of office as Treasurer of State removed to Columbus, where he ever afterward resided. Mr. Whitehill never married. His eldest sister, Jane Whitehill, who also remained un-married, resided with him. He acquired quite a large estate, but, by the failure of several institutions in which he has invested largely, toward the close of life the greater part of his property was swept away. His death occurred at Columbus, Ohio, on November 4, 1861, when he had nearly completed his seventy-fifth year. Mr. Whitehill was not a man of much knowledge of the sort that is dm from books, he having had but little time for the acquisition of that kit knowledge in his early life, which was one of labor and activity, rendered necessary by reason of the responsibilities imposed upon him, and to which reference has been made. But he was a man of strong sense and sound judgement. His disposition was frank and generous, and his manners were pop He enjoyed in an eminent degree the affection of his relatives and friends, the respect and esteem uf his acquaintances. JOHN PROBASCO, JR. The subject of this sketch was born in Trenton, N. J., January 19, He was the son of Rev. John Probasco, a Baptist preacher of Huguenot extraction, who moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio, in 1823. The removal was effected in wagons, and the family were on their journey just one month. mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Olden. She belonged to a family settled in New Jersey, and died at Lebanon in 1881, in her eighty-eighth having survived her distinguished son more than twenty-three years. John Probasco received a good English and classical education at Lob; He entered the Junior class at Miami University and remained one yea: waiting to graduate. Returning to Lebanon, he commenced the study of law, under the instruction of Hon. Thomas Corwin, then a Member of Coni He was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in the year For the four years subsequent to his admission to the bar, Mr. Pro devoted himself unremittingly to the study and practice of his profession. This was called for by his limited circumstances, for he did not inherit IN It was accordant, too, with his ardent love for the law, and was render dispensable by the competition he had to encounter. One of the earliest cases in which the extent of his talents and the vigor of his character were displayed was in a State prosecution against a man of influence and talents. The defendant was a lawyer of ability and considerable practice a member of the Lebanon bar; but he was violent and reckless temper, and unforgiving and vindictive in his character. While in Paroxysm of anger, he shot at a man who had given him some offense, ai recognized to the Court of Common Pleas to answer the charge of shooting with intent to kill. The offense was punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary. The Prosecuting Attorney happened to be distantly related 384 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. defendant, and was excused from appearing against him. Many of the bar were retained in his defense; others were unwilling to appear against him, as they had practiced at the same bar. The court appointed Mr. Probasco, the youngest member of the bar, as special prosecutor. He accepted the appointment and conducted the prosecution with masterly energy. Every effort of the able counsel of the defendant was unavailing, and he was found-guilty. On the 13th of February, 1838, Mr. Probasco was married to Mis. Susan Jane Freeman. She was the daughter of Thomas Freeman, Esq., who died in 1818, and who practiced law at the same bar with such lawyers as Judge Me_ Lean and Judge Collett, with great success. In 1840, Mr. Probasco was first called into public life. During that memorable period of political excitement which aroused the whole country, he was too ardent to remain inactive. A Whig from conviction and principle, he had ever been faithful to his party attachments, but he was too much devoted to his profession to mingle in the ordinary conflicts of politics. But when, in 1840, he was, though little more than eligible, invited by his party to take a seat in the Legislature of his State, he accepted the place. In the Lower House, to which he belonged, his party was largely in the ascendant, but the Democrats had a majority in the Senate. The most exciting question which divided the two parties was the banking system; and the Whig Speaker showed his appreciation of Mr. Probasco's abilities by placing him on the Standing Committee on Banks and Currency. This was posting him in the van of the battle, and he sustained himself triumphantly, though he was then in a legislative body for the first time, and though among the Democratic members was a large number of their able leaders, who have since been Governors, and Supreme Judges, and Members of Congress. His legal attainments were thus early very strikingly displayed in a protest which he put upon the journal against the passage of a bill whose provisions he alleged to be unconstitutional. He was re-elected in 1841, and was now in a minority. The same stormy conflicts were renewed, and he was still one of the leaders in shaping both the course of debate and the course of business. It was the intention of Mr. Probasco, at the close of his second term of service, to decline a re-election; but this design was changed by the events of an extra session held in July and August, 1842. Congress had delayed so long the passage of a law to apportion the members of the House of Representatives among the several States under the census of 1840, that the regular session of the State Legislature was ended before that apportionment was made. An extra session was therefore called to divide the State into districts for Congressional elections. That session proved to be the stormiest which had, up to that time, occurred in the annals of Ohio.. The parties were almost equally balanced in both Houses, although the Democrats had a slight ascendancy. The Whigs, under the lead of Seabury Ford, Robert C. Schenck and John Probasco, in order to prevent the Democrats from redistricting the State in a manner that would have left the Whigs almost without representation in Congress, adopted the bold, but questionable, policy of dissolving the General Assembly by tendering their resignations in a body, and thereby leaving both Houses without a quorum of two-thirds. The movement succeeded, and the two Houses were compelled to dissolve and go home without districting the State for Congressional purposes. However impolitic and revolutionary this movement may seem, since the excitement which produced it is past, it serves strongly to indicate the extent of party feelings at that period, and as strongly illustrates the energy and courage of men who could venture all their future prospects and hopes by lead ing in so daring a movement to defeat flip tyranny of a majority. Mr. Probasco now very naturally desired to have his course approved by 385 - DAVID BROWN (DECEASED) 386 - BLANK HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 387 his constituents, and was therefore a candidate for re-election. He was elected again, with scarce a decreased majority. In the Legislature, Mr. Probasco was always an active and laborious member, and introduced a number of important measures of legislation. He did frequently, considering the excitement of the times, but he was always speak to the ways listened to with great interest and attention, for he always spoke to the point. The solidity of his judgment and the determined energy of his character gave him his influence. He showed himself in debate rather a forcible and impressive speaker than a brilliant declaimer. He derived great improvement from the intellectual conflicts of his legislative life, and returned to the bar more fully prepared for the successful prosecution of his profession. From 1843, when he retired from the Legislature, for the subsequent period of seven years, Mr. Probasco devoted himself to the practice of the law with eminent success. This period of his life, quiet as it seemed to be, he spent so as to lay deeper and broader the foundations for a life of future usefulness. In February, 1850, though he had not been a candidate, he was elected, by the Legislature a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He remained upon the bench two years, when his term of service was cut off by the adoption of the new constitution. Having declined a re-election to the Common Pleas bench under the new constitution, he resumed the practice of law at Lebanon in 1852. He soon afterward, in partnership with Gov. Corwin, opened an office at Cincinnati. As a member of the Cincinnati bar, he at once took high rank, and was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in the city. But he was not long permitted to engage in the contests and achieve the victories of his profession in this new field f labor. A sickness, brought on by labor in the harvest-field of his farm in Illinois, cut off his life in the prime of his manhood and the midst of his usefulness. He died at his residence in Lebanon, September 18, 1857, in the forty-fourth year of his age. Judge Probasco was nearly six feet high, large and well proportioned, of robust health and vigorous constitution. Though not corpulent, he was of full -habit. His hair was black, his eye quick, sparkling and black, and his features and head well formed. His voice was sonorous, clear and distinct. Though warm-hearted and social, he was quiet and reserved in his manners. In company, he was rather a listener than a leading talker. He always evinced the tenderest attachment for his family, and spared no pains in the proper nurture and education of his children. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a man of the purest and most exemplary morals. J MILTON WILLIAMS. This distinguished member of the bar was born at Lebanon December 17, 1807. His father, Enos Williams, was an early teacher of Warren County, and held several important civil offices, and among others, that of County Recorder for a period of fourteen years. John Milton received a good English education. In his boyhood, he assisted his father in the Recorder's office, and also wrote in the office of the Clerk of Court. His handwriting was legible, bold and rapid, and the training he received as a copyist at the court house was of benefit to him in his future profession. He studied law with Judge George J. Smith, and, before he had reached the age of twenty-four years, on the 7th of June, 1831, was admitted to the bar at a term of the Supreme Court held at Lebanon, with Judges Peter Hitchcock and Charles R. Sherman on the bench. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, who had completed his legal studies under Thomas Corwin, was admitted at the same time and place. 388 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. Young Williams was poor, and was compelled to rely wholly on his own, exertions. In after years, he wrote: "When I went out into the wide, wide world in business, on my own hook, I had two dilapidated shirts and a poor suit of clothes to match them. I opened my office in a cellar, with three musty. old Ohio statutes, given me by my old father, which he had held as a public officer. This was my entire stock in trade." He soon acquired distinction at the bar. Not long after he began practice, he became Prosecuting Attorney —a position he held for twelve consecutive years. He was candid with his clients, and never misrepresented a case in consultation to encourage litigation. He charged lower fees for his services than other lawyers of the same rank. His popularity and personal influence with the masses were very great. For several years, he had a larger number of cases on the dockets of the courts than any other lawyer of the county, and was the attorney on one side of almost every important case. He could readily sway the minds of jurymen, and in the examination of witnesses he exhibited consummate skill. In 1850, he IN as elected a member of the convention which framed the second constitution of Ohio, and in 1857 he was elected Representative in the General Assembly of Ohio as an independent candidate over the regular Republican nominee. He was Major of the militia, and was uniformly known as Maj. Williams. In politics, he was a Whig, and afterward a Republican. The last years of the life of Maj. Williams are a sad history, over the details of which it is best that the mantle of oblivion should be drawn. Habits of intemperance separated him from his wife and family, and brought him to misery and want before he was yet old. He saw the extremes of life. He rose from poverty and obscurity to wealth and distinction; he sank again to obscurity and poverty. When possessed of considerable means, accumulated by his own energy and ability, he erected for his residence one of the finest mansions which had, up to that time, been constructed in the county; he–die(i without a home. When the legal proceedings were commenced which took from him the ownership and control of his property, he wrote and read in the court in which he had practiced with eminent success: "God help me! I am. a miserable and ruined mans Let the curtains of oblivion rest over the whole. affair until that great day when all things shall be brought into judgment." He died July 21, 1871, aged sixty-four years, and was buried in the Lebanon Cemetery. GEORGE KESLING. The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia, and in 1797, when fourteen years of age, came with his father, Teter Kesling, to Warren County, which was his home until his death. Having only the limited opportunities for an education afforded in a new country, George acquired a fondness for reading and study, and the ability to express his thoughts on paper. He de- lighted to participate in the local debating clubs, and the native vigor of his Mind soon attracted the attention of his neighbors. In 1812, he was electea Sheriff of Warren County. This position he left to become a Captain in the war with England. In 1815, after the close of the war, he became a merchant in Lebanon, and continued in this business for many years. In 1819, he was elected a Representative in the Legislature, and served one year. In 1824, he was appointed by the Legislature as Associate Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas—a position he held for about ten years. Judge Kesling was a leading spirit in public improvements. Early in 1825, soon after the canal from Dayton to Cincinnati was projected, and before work had yet been commenced upon it, he was at the head of a party engaged in leveling and surveying routes to determine the practicability of a canal from. HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 389 3fiddletown to Lebanon, and, until the completion of the work, fifteen years later, he was the most conspicuous advocate of the enterprise. He was an early admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, and a stanch Democrat in politics until his death. In 1828, he became the editor of the De crat, a Jackson paper at Lebanon, which he afterward removed to Columbus, Ohio, and published there for a short time. At one time, he was before the Democratic convention as a candidate for the nomination for Governor, and was defeated by only a few votes. He was appointed, by President Jackson, Postmaster at Lebanon in 1831—a position he held for ten years. In 1840, he was appointed, by Gov. Shannon, a member of the State Board of Equalization. Judge Kesling was never married. He was a strong-minded man, with decided opinions, and a useful member of society. In his last years, his mental powers failed, and he died, after a protracted illness, at Lebanon, December 16, 1860, aged seventy-seven years. EPHRAIM KIRBY. This pioneer surveyor and soldier was born in New Jersey, midway between Trenton and Newark. Reaching his majority about the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he became a soldier in the struggle for independence, and continued in active service until it ended. Being a land surveyor, he was induced to seek his fortunes in the Miami Purchase. He was one of the colony led by Maj. Benjamin Stites, which made the first settlement in Symmes' Purchase, and laid out the town of Columbia. Kibby was in the boat which brought the party which made the first improvement at Columbia, and which landed near the mouth of the Little Miami in November, 1788. On the 7th of January, 1789, he was one of thirty persons who drew each one outlot and one inlot in the town of Losanteville, now Cincinnati. For several years, he was engaged as one of the surveyors in Symmes' Purchase, and was exposed to imminent dangers from the hostile Indians until Wayne's treaty of peace. He served in the campaigns against the' Indians, and in Gen. Wayne's army he was Captain of the rangers. Gen. Wayne, profiting by the experience of St. Clair and Harmar, determined to use the utmost caution in his movements to guard against being surprised. To secure his army against the possibility. of being ambuscaded, he employed a number of the best woodmen the country afforded to act as scouts or rangers. Capt. Ephraim Kibby commanded the principal part of this corps, and was commended in McDonald's Sketches as "a bold and intrepid soldier." On the restoration of peace, he resumed the business of surveying. It is known that in 1799 he laid out a road from Vincennes to the Great Miami River, and a published statement gave its length, on his authority, as 155 miles and 48 poles. The Western Spy of July 23, 1799, contained the following: " Capt. E. Kibby, who, some time since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday reduced to a perfect skeleton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when, by some means he was separated from his men. After hunting them several days without success, he' steered his course this way. He has undergone great hardships, and was. obliged to subsist on roots, etc., which he picked up in the woods. Thus far report." Capt. Kibby resided for some time in Columbia, in which place he is said to have built the first stone house. On the formation of Columbia Township, in 1791—the oldest township between the Miamis, and originally embracing parts of Hamilton, Butler and Warren Counties he was appointed, by the Court of Quarter Sessions, the first Clerk of the township. He also for a time resided in the village of Cincinnati. About the commencement of this century, he removed with his family to Deerfield or its vicinity. 390 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. During the storm of excitement which followed Aaron Burr's attempted expedition down the Mississippi, rumor, fear, partisan feeling and prejudice endangered the reputation of every man who had even an acquaintance with Burr. The storm was nowhere greater than in Ohio, and Capt. Kibbe, who had known Col. Burr as an officer in the Revolutionary war and had probably met him several times in Cincinnati, in order to protect his reputation, pub fished, in the Western Spy, an affidavit denying all connection with any scheme against the welfare of the Government. The published report of Burr's trial shows that Kibby was subpcenaed as a witness on the part of the Government, but he did not testify. His name is mentioned in the testimony of Gen. William Eaton, from which it appeared that Burr, in order to win Eaton over to his Mexican scheme, had indulged in loose talk to the effect that a majority of the people about Cincinnati were ready to embark in his expedition, and that " a Mr. Ephraim Kibby, late Captain of the rangers in Wayne's army, and a Brigade Major in the vicinity of Cincinnati, who had much influence with the militia, had already engaged the majority of his brigade, who were ready to march at Mr. Burr's signal." In 1802, Capt. Kibby was elected a member of the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, but the formation of a State Government prevented the Legislature to which he was elected from meeting. He was elected a member of the first Legislature of the State of Ohio, and served two terms. He had a large family, and his descendants in Warren County are numerous. Judge John F. Kibby, of Richmond, Ind., who is a native of Warren County, is his grandson. Capt. Kibby died April 22, 1809, aged fifty-five years, and was buried at Deerfield. JOHN BIGGER. This prominent legislator was a native of Pennsylvania and an early pioneer in the Miami Purchase. He contracted with Judge Symmes for the purchase of lands in the fourth range, northwest of the present site of Lebanon, and settled thereon, His purchase falling outside of the tract patented to Symmes, he was unable to obtain a deed for his lands until the passage of an act of Congress for the relief of persons who had made written contracts with Symmes, and whose lands were not comprehended in his patent. In 1802, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, but the Legislature to which he was elected never assembled, on account of the formation of a State Government. He was more frequently elected to represent Warren County in the Legislature than any other citizen of the county in its whole history. He was a Representative in the first State Legislature, and from 1803 to 1833, he was twenty times elected either a Representative or Senator in that body. In the session of 1821-22, he was Speaker of the House. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of Miami University. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature a member of the first State Board of Equalization, and became the President of that body. In 1824, he was elected a Presidential Elector on the Clay Electoral ticket, and in 1826, he was one of three unsuccessful candidates for Governor against Allen Trimble. Col. Bigger possessed powers of mind which enabled him to discharge the duties of the offices to which he was chosen with credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the community. He was known to be an honest man. He was esteemed for his integrity and uprightness of character, as well as his stability and sound judgment. He was an influential and useful member of the Dick's Creek Presbyterian Church, and served as Ruling Elder in that church from its organization until his death. An obituary notice of Col. Bigger says that " if any trait was exhibited more conspicuously than another, it was that which, in a very eminent degree, entitled him to the character of a peace- HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 391 maker ranker." He was the father of Gov. Samuel Bigger, of Indiana. After an illness of about ten days, he died on his farm north of Union Village, June 18, 1840. WILLIAM C. SCHENCK. William C. Schenck was born in New Jersey in 1773, and was the son of Rev. William Schenck, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Anna Cummings, his wife. He was a surveyor by profession, and came to Marietta in 1793, and to Cincinnati in 1795. In the winter of 1795-96, in connection with Daniel C. Cooper, he laid out the town of Franklin, and in 1801, with two associates, laid out the town of Newark, Licking Co., Ohio. In 1798, he was married to Betsey Rogers, of Long Island, and, with his wife, reached Cincinnati January 1, 1799, where they resided until about 1803, when they became residents of Franklin. He was elected Secretary of the Council in the first Legislature of the Northwest Territory in 1799. His name appears in the court records as Foreman of a Grand Jury of Hamilton County in 1799, and as Foreman of the first Grand Jury of Warren County in 1803. He served as a State Senator from Warren County in 1803,1804 and 1805, and Representative in the Legislature in 1821. In 1814, he was appointed by the Legislature a Commissioner for the perpetuation of the evidence of the original field notes of the survey of the Miami Purchase, the original notes having been lost in a fire, which destroyed the house of Judge J. C. Symmes. He died at Columbus, Ohio, while serving as a member of the Legislature, on his forty-eighth birthday, January 12, 1821. Gen. William C. Schenck left a large family, of whom the sole survivors, in 1881, were Gen. Robert C. Schenck and Admiral James F. Schenck, both of whom were born in Warren County. MICHAEL H. JOHNSON. Judge Johnson was born in Virginia November 10, 1769. Having received a better English education than was common at that time, he went, when a young man, to Kentucky, where he taught school. He soon afterward moved to the north side of the Ohio, and served as Quartermaster Sergeant under Gen. Wayne, and thus formed an intimate acquaintance with William Henry Harrison, an Ensign, a few years younger than himself. This acquaintance ripened into an ardent friendship. Their last meeting was at the Williamson House, in Lebanon, while Gen. Harrison was a candidate for the. Presidency. Johnson was one of the first settlers at Deerfield, being there as early as 1797. According to the manuscript notes of Judge R. B. Harlan, M. H. Johnson sold goods at Deerfield for Mr. Hinkson, and was the first store-keeper in Warren County. About 1801, he moved to the high ground immediately north of Hopkinsville, where he resided until his death. He was appointed Assessor of Deerfield Township, Hamilton County, Northwest Territory, and afterward, Auditor of Supervisors' accounts for the same large Township, embracing the greater part of Warren County. He received a commission from Gov. St. Clair as a Lieutenant in the Territorial militia. After the organization of Warren County, he was, in 1803, elected and commissioned one of the first Justices of the Peace of Hamilton Township, and discharged the duties of this office at intervals for about twelve years. He was the first Recorder of Warren County, and, after the creation of the office of Auditor, in 1820, he was the first person to hold that position in the county. In 1809, he was elected a member of the Senate of the General Assembly, and, in 1812, a Representative, serving, in all, seven terms in the Legislature between 1809 and 1819. In the last-named year, he was commissioned by Gov. Brown Collector of Taxes for the Second District. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature an Associate Judge, and served in that position for about ten years. 392 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY In politics, Judge Johnson was a Jeffersonian, or anti-Federalist, Bald afterward an active and ardent Whig. On election days, he was always to be found at the polls. He died at his home, near Hopkinsville, in the seventy. seventh year of his age. THOMAS B. VAN HORNE. The subject of this sketch was born in New Jersey June 1,1783, and came to Warren County in 1807. He was the son of Rev. William Van Horne, a Baptist clergyman, who served as Chaplain in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1807, at Pittsburgh, on his journey to Ohio. His remote ancestors were emigrants from the Netherlands. Thomas B. settled on a farm one mile east of Lebanon in December, 1807, where he engaged in the arduous labors of opening a farm in the forests. He was among the earliest volunteers in the war of 1812, and was placed in command of a battalion in Col. Findley's regiment, with the rank of Major, and was surrendered with Hull's army at Be. troit. He was soon exchanged, and received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the regular army, in which capacity he continued until the close of the war, being for a long time in command of Fort Erie. At the close of the war, he returned to agricultural pursuits. He was elected a Senator in the Legislature of Ohio in 1812, 1816 and 1817, and was afterward appointed, by President Monroe, a Register of the Land Office in the northwestern part of Ohio, which position he held until 1837. On returning from this position, he again established himself on his farm near Lebanon, where he remained until his death, a quiet and sober, but industrious and useful, citizen. He died September 21, 1841, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Lebanon.