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400 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES How that road passed under or over or around or through the difficult barrier between slavery and freedom was a carefully shared secret. Anyone aiding a fugitive slave was liable to crushing legal penalties, and also much personal violence from the southern masters, who put such opponents in one class as the most pernicious of thieves. Still, to the honor of humanity, there were men for the need, who dared the risks with no possible reward but an approving conscience, at last the finest of all praise. That there were men of superior intelligence who told the shadow fearing men the way to safety is certain. But how the fleeing were taught to find passes here and there throughout the length of the Potomac and the Ohio is still left unrevealed. How friends were known and enemies avoided ; how safety was preserved and perils were shunned ; in short, how the precious directions of freedom were gained and kept sacred by the lowly in spite of all the leagued oppression, has no sufficient explanation. The fugitives and their friends both practiced silence and circumspection. The runaways fled from the Flag of the Free and went, eyes north, to what the white people about them called the Land of Tyranny beyond the lakes. The lines of flight across the river front of Brown and Clermont apparently did not include the western side of Clermont, but the influence of the Fees and Sargents was felt in the southeastern part of Clermont, whence the travel by night was through or by Felicity, Bethel and Williamsburg, as straight northward as was safe either on the old Xenia road or by parallel paths. The eastern line went from Ripley by Red Oak and Russellville to Sardinia. The terminal of both lines was the Quaker association in Clinton, where safety was quite well assured. Over those two lines much valuable "property" escaped from the benevolent bondage of the Kentucky Blue Grass region. The promoters of such violations of "vested rights" were most heartily hated across the river as innovaters of immemorial, not rights, but wrongs. They were not only hated in Kentucky, where repeated rewards were offered for their capture dead or alive, but they suffered much obloquy at home. In the end, however, no one was more scorned and pitied than the "nigger hounds," the name given to those at home who joined in the pursuit of a fugitive or who gave in- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 401 formation against their neighbors in such relation. And, at last, it is safe to say that no memory has more respect in their sphere than is paid to those who worked on mercy's side. The most widely known was the Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, whose house on the hill above was a landmark for the fugitives far along the Kentucky shore and served also as a landmark in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to guide the flight of "Eliza." Rankin's nine sons were conductors on the "Underground." He himself was mobbed for daring to question the rights of slavery at Winchester, by an invasion of the room where he was speaking. He was also egged at Williamsburg, after a speech at the first brick school house. It should be told as a mark of a great change that his assailant died of disease in the Union army.. James Gilliland, Jesse Lockhart and Robert B. Dobbins, pastors of the Presbyterian churches respectively at Red Oak, Russellville and Sardinia, Dr. Bearce, at Decatur, and Dr. Wm. Beck, of Sardinia, were all actively philanthropic in their influence. The Rev. John B. Mahan was abducted to Mason county, Kentucky, on the charge of aiding the escape of slaves, although he had never been in that State. That trial was one of the arrogant acts of the slave power that angered the north for the utter destruction of slavery. Ex U. S. Senator Dr. Alexander Campbell was also a most determined opponent When caution required. the "passengers" were changed from one line to another, for the "agents" of both were in full accord. Robert E. Fee at Moscow, was one of the most alert of the "Directors." A light from one of his windows shone all of every night as a beacon to those wandering on the Kentucky hills. His doors were barred, and his family, girls and all, slept with loaded firearms in ready reach. His house was surrounded again and again by violent slave hunters. But with him as with all others near the river, policy required that no runaways should be found on the premises. Every arrival was hurried back into the interior as far as Bethel, if possible, where a strong resistance could be made. At Bethel the conductors were Isaac H. Brown, Benjamin Rice, Richard Mace and the Rileys, with an obscure but safe hiding place with the Vanosdols looking upon a retreat to the Elklick Hills. Of all, none was bolder or more aggressive than "Boss" 402 - CLERMONT AND. BROWN COUNTIES Huber. A guess at the number of fugitives "entertained" has no reliable base. A truthful man told me after the war that he had helped Huber to take food to seventeen at one time who had come in on both lines and had been detained by a storm. Another stated, in a very conservative form, that Huber had forwarded not less but many more than three hundred fugitives. His "engineer" or wagon master was Mark Sims, a mulatto, who was killed in full U. S. uniform at the battle of Sailor's Creek, Virginia. After Huber's death, the burden of the management fell upon Dr. L. T. Pease, for some five or six years. The last excursion over the road, and the only one seen by myself, was in the summer of 1860, when four stalwart young men went north armed with fine double-barreled shot guns, taken on account from their masters for several years' otherwise unrequited toil. The transaction seemed fair and judicious then, and it seems now that they were smelling the battle, not so far off. CHAPTER XVIII. OTHER FORMS OF SOCIAL EXPANSION. The Early Days of Masonry in Old Clermont—Clermont Social Lodge No. 29, Free and Accepted Masons—The First Fraternal Organization between the Little Miami and the Scioto—The Lodge now Ranks as No. 9 in all Fraternity North and West of the Ohio—"Refreshments"—The First Two-Story Hall and the First Brick School House Between Cincinnati and Chillicothe—Other Lodges—Early Schools Depended Upon Individual Effort—Subscription Schools—Select Schools — Academies — Seminaries — Presbyterian Schools—The Quail Trap Academy—Union Schools—Teachers' Institutes—Clermont's Share in the Institution of Graduation from the Common Schools—General Lytle's Donation of the Origin of St. Martin's—The Catholic Church—Organization of New Townships—The Founding of Towns—Steam Boats—Stage Lines—Wagon Trains on the Pikes—Droves—Practical Emancipation not Popular—The Early Case. The people thus advancing in spiritual, material, financial and moral ways were also undertaking a special form of social progress. First allotted by others, and then carried to fuller treatment as a self-imposed task, and whether worth the while or not, that social progress has been the subject of much earnest investigation on my part. The topic was first assigned as a contribution to Rockey and Bancroft's History of Clermont County. Twenty-five years later a request for an anniversary address was answered by what was published in the Clermont Sun in May and June, 1905, under the title of "The Early Days of Masonry in Old Clermont." At first thought, such a title may appear a narrow and even bigoted view of what is now a broad condition. But when the reader reflects that this included all that was known or practiced in fraternal ways by the first and second generations of Brown and Clermont, the facts will widen for the construction of what has followed. 404 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Then at the behest of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Ohio, a history of one of its most ancient Lodges was undertaken. which, after Many months, grew into a volume too large for any satisfactory condensation for these pages. That volume contains sketches and memoranda of quite five hundred people, from Milford to Ripley, in which the most notice is appropriately given to those of the most remote times. This indexed work, though unpublished, through a semi-public quality must eventually have some archaelogic interest ; and this mention will at least place its existence on record. For the book is kept by the Lodge in a fireproof vault, and is likely to sure many inundations and conflagrations. It must suffice, then, to say that in all the vast space between the Little Miami and the Scioto the beginning of fraternal societies was planted in the county seat of Old Clermont in the old stone court house on Thursday, June t, 1815, by the institution of Clermont Social Lodge, No. 29, Free and Accepted Masons. Although the original number, 29, is still retained, through the changes of almost a hundred years, this old Lodge, in point of continuous operation, has reached the rank of No. 9, in all that is north and west of the Ohio river. ,_The Lodge was organized by Amos Haines, Master ; William Waters, Senior Warden ; Obadiah Smith, Junior Warden ; George Ely, Senior Deacon ; Robert Haines, Junior Deacon ; Jacob Huber, Secretary, and Thomas S. Foote, Treasurer. The first applicant for membership was Colonel Mills Stephenson of Ripley. In four years the roll was adorned with, sixty names ; and in all the county, another sixty men more superior could not have been found. The meetings were held in the jury room, or second floor of the court house. Tradition and record both declare that the spirit was in full accord with the name—Social Lodge. "When met after long rides over the lonesome trails, the hours were happier after hunger was appeased. Few regular meetings, or any other kind, happened in the old jury room without 'refreshments,' simple as cakes with a cup-o'-kindness ; and. from the charges rendered, often more extensive—rude perhaps, but always a plenty. Jerked venison was even cheaper than beef dried by the big chimneys that imparted a flavor unknown in the days of 'smoke paint.' A wild turkey was CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 405 sometimes found on the way and brought to the tavern ovens by those who came to court and 'stayed over.' Genuine country cured ham was always obtainable. "The beverage, generally, was some water and enough whisky. The water is mentioned with economy, because it came from a long hidden well near the northeast corner of the court house, that may some day be rediscovered, and, in the rarity of such purity, may have its sparkling treasure sold in sanitary bottles at a greater price than was paid for the spirits' that flavored the punch sweetened with maple sugar and sprinkled with spices. Or, some other times, the compound was a creamy milk, mixed with beaten eggs and thickening rum made seductive with tree sugar, the most delicious of all regaling sweets. It is idle to deny or ignore that such things were. It was the custom of that time. Pleasure lulled wisdom into silence ; but, after awhile, the discerning sensed the danger, and seeing that their liberty was a stumbling block to the weak, they resolutely resolved to refrain from what made their brothers to offend. This became manifest in frequent motions to dispense with refreshments for the occasion; and finally it was resolved that henceforth no beverage but water should be brought into the Lodge. And thus, so far as found, Clermont Social Lodge became the first abstaining society in Brown and Clermont counties. But the name of Social continues and should last as long as the blood in the heart and the sap in the tree retain their energy." Delighted with prosperity they resolved to have a home. That resolution resulted in a two-story brick building oddly located on an alley at the east or back of In Lot No. 265, that once held Adam Snider's home. The building was the combined enterprise of the Masonic fraternity and a popular subscription for a school house. The first floor was for the school and the upper room for the Masonic Hall, which was "consecrated" by "Brother Rev. William Burke," Monday, December 27, 1819. About the same date the school left the log room made notable by William B. Christie, and the people at the county seat rejoiced in the possession of the first brick school house between Cincinnati and Chillicothe, and also the first brick hall. But such success inspired emulation. One year later, Lodge No. 54 was organ- 406 - CLERMONT AND BROWN. COUNTIES ized at Milford, and in another year Lodge No. 61 was organized at Bethel. These were followed in the next year, 1822 by No. 71; and No. 72 at Ripley and Georgetown. And thus, Free Masonry, as the model, was established where the Lodges, Chapters, Camps and Councils of many orders have prospered with much harmony and in large degree. The school below the first Masonic Hall, and in fact, the first hall of any, sort except the court house, was a "subscription school." There was no other kind until the State gave some aid in 1826. In some five years from that start, public opinion had so advanced that women could be employed as teachers receiving public money for pay. With the schools of our time, so largely taught by women, people are slow to believe that the condition has such regent origin. Yet, our boastful public schools have grown almost within memory. The fostering legislation seemed slow to gain, but in the end, the total has far exceeded the utmost expectation at the beginning. While more general advantage was slowly coming, the schools were a question of individual effort. The teaching was rudimentary and little of that. The log school house was replaced with frame and brick structures as the villages gained importance, but the oldest type was to be seen on the country roads after the Mexican war, and a few lasted into the dates of the Civil War. The impulse to build larger has resulted in our present convenience through gradual changes. The methods of instruction have also changed to conform to plans that promise the greatest benefit to the largest number. Still there are a few that kindly remember the more personal teaching that prevailed in the "Select Schools," the "Latin Schools," the Academies," and the "Seminaries," that lived wherever an impressive, earnest and generally competent person could gather a class and find a vacant room. The most noted of these for long continuance, large attendance and excellent instruction was founded at Clermontville in 1839 by Rev. Daniel Parker and wife, and continued by their lovable and accomplished son, Professor James K. Parker, and his wife, until closed on account of their age, in 1892. The story of that fine institution includes names that have become a part of our national history, but nothing in the relation would be more persuasive of its merit ,than the deep and abiding respect that CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 407 those worthy teachers have in the memory of their students. The Rev. John Rankin long conducted a most notable school at Ripley, on what was then deemed very radical plans. The Latin School, under Rev. James Gilliland, has been noted on another page. The Presbyterian preachers of that time were generally expected to furnish instruction, as well as doctrine. At one time, Rev. Ludwell Gaines, in a log house that was popularly known as "The Quail Trap Academy," in Goshen township, taught a class of seventeen young men, who each and all reached fine legal, medical and clerical distinction. That instruction was not accidental, but continued through several ;terms. For several years after 1849, Rev. Luke Ainsworth Spofford, aided by his daughter Lizzie, taught one of those "Presbyterian Schools". in. Williamsburg, of which the quality. may be judged from the fact that one of his sons became a supreme judge of Tennessee, another a United States Senator from Louisiana, and another was the world famous Ainsworth Spofford, Librarian of the Congressional Library. But all that class of schools was gradually but surely set aside by the State on February 21, 1849, by the act known as the Akron Law, which instituted the "Union Schools," that with slight change of legislation have passed into the "High Schools" of today. The school room in the first Masonic Hall at Williamsburg was the scene of the early school life of the famous Professor David Swing, whence he went to a college course at Oxford that fitted him for a distinguished part in liberal movements Although not understood then, as seen now, the time was ripe for more method in educational affairs. The chief direction of the movement fell to the teachers, of whom some met in 1848 in the home of Dr. A. V. Hopkins at Amelia. After several not quite successful attempts, the first real Institute was held on April To, 185o, at Bantam. The names of those who brought about this happy meeting form a list of singular merit. They were Professor and Mrs. J. K. Parker, of Clermont Academy ; John Hancock, later State School Commissioner ; Henry V. Kerr, later State Librarian ; George P. Jenkins, then conducting May Seminary at Bantam and, later, president of Moores College ; Charles Robb, the Poet ; L. French, J. C. Morris, John Ferguson, Ira McCollum, C. W. Page, Harris Smethurst, 408 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Miss Carrie Dudley, Miss Mary E. Bannister, and Miss Fairfield, all exceptionally successful teachers, who not only put their work in high favor at home, but also furnished an example for the teachers in Brown, that has had similar felicity. To my mind, the proudest day in the history of the Clermont County Teachers' Institute and of the Clermont County Board Of School Examiners, all combined in harmonious action, yet reached and not likely to be exceeded, was attained on Saturday, June 4, 1892, when the as yet experimental scheme of graduation from the Common Schools was forever settled by the example of Clermont county, which on that day gave a well earned diploma to each of one hundred seventy-four pupils who had been encouraged. to strive for the reward. It is to be hoped that no one will grudge the place in this history to record that those diplomas were given from my hand with a deep and abiding conviction that the ceremony was the logical, but long needed completion of the scheme of public instruction, from the first step to the kindergarten, to the last day in he university. And all the pride cherished in the performance was brightened, when reports confirmed that Clermont county alone had furnished quite one-seventh of the pupils graduated in all Ohio, on that crucial day. The story of that Revolution in Clermont was told and commented upon in the educational journals of the time and talked of as a new departure. Now, twenty years later, the plan is all but universally approved and adopted. While the social qualities of fraternal organizations were coming into action, the moral influence of the Catholic faith appeared upon the scene. And that appearance was due to the ever recurring interposition of General William Lytle, in the affairs of Old Clermont. Those for the first time learning his share in early events of lasting importance to the region, may question the choice of incidents or be disposed to think that his work has been unduly magnified. The narration of events should include their reason as well as their effects. While living in Cincinnati with the high esteem of all, Lytle met his neighbors with open hands for every call that promised a better citizenship. His gifts abroad do not belong to this work, except that in 1823, he deeded a tract of two hundred acres of land to the authorities of the Catholic Church in Cincinnati CLERMONT, AND BROWN COUNTIES - 409 for educational purposes. That tract of great natural beauty is now the site of the widely admired institution known as St. Martin's in Brown county. How St. Martin's came to be the chosen home of the Ursuline Convent, how a seminary had prospered and ceased, how the present magnificent academy for girls and young women has grown in beauty and reputation is far too long a story for this page. It is all better told in descriptions of the institution that can be had for the asking. For those of the faith, much is learned from the fact that Archbishop Purcell chose the place for his peaceful age. St. Aloysius' Academy for small boys is also a part of a general educational plan. Around this educational center is a population in a sympathy that sustains several churches and the influence extends to various churches in both Brown and Clermont. While admiring the scenic effects, one cannot refrain from wondering at the results wrought from the generosity of the man who brought the locality into such wonderful prominence. Every sub-division of the ancient domain, whether for towns or townships, is significant of the increasing demands of the civilization that was subjecting the forest to the plow. Huntington, Byrd and Eagle townships, with much larger limits than now had been taken from Adams to give ample form to the much larger part taken from Old, Clermont for the creation of Brown county. But the demand for a more restricted local government came first in Clermont, where the new townships organized were : Franklin, May 5, 1818; Wayne, March 15, 1819, and Goshen on the next day. Then the new authorities of Brown granted the townships of Franklin and Washington on December 2, 1822, and the townships of Jackson and Pike in June, 1823, and Sterling in 1824. Monroe was instituted June 9, 1825. Then Scott followed in 1828, and Jackson in Clermont, June 3, 1834, and Green, December 2, 1834. The last township laid in Clermont was Pierce, on December 8, 1852, and the finish in Brown was made in June, 1853, by the formation of Jefferson. Each of the modern townships was formed from some of the adjoining and sometimes protesting older organizations. But the custom of sixty years has reconciled all difference of opinion about conditions that promise to last always. 410 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Few rural sections remote from over mastering municipal control have a better convenience of village and hamlet centers that have grown according to the weeds of the country around. No other places in the region have the quality of adventure that pertains to young Lytle's determination to fix a place for settlers, rather than trust settlers to fix a place for him. And no other settlement was undertaken in the lofty spirit that brought Obed Denham to Bethel. Elsewhere, with few exceptions, the paper towns were seemingly commercial plans that often went "aglee." After Williamsburg and Bethel, and within the limits of Brown county, the next town was Decatur, in 1802, intended to profit by the travel between Maysville and Chillicothe, but the travel failed, and Decatur or "St. Clairsville," as it was first named, languished. The fine water power and ford at Broad Ripple induced the platting of Milford in 18̊6, but it was nothing but a milling station, until the State bridge and the turnpikes and then the railroad and then the traction lines brought the supremacy that, after a hundred years, now seems assured. A hope was seen for a town at Neville as far back as 1808, that a hundred years have not redeemed. Farther east, White Haven was laid out in a double sense in 1804, to be succeeded a dozen years later by Higginsport. The stir of the War of '12 seems to have incited a general desire for towns. Neville was revived in 1812, 'and Point Pleasant was announced, and Ripley took form. New Richmond was projected in 1814, and "Beautiful Allisonia," a year later. 1816 was the beginning of Aberdeen, Moscow, Chilo, and Goshen. Russellville and Felicity were started in 1817, Palestine in 1818, and Georgetown in 1819. Woodville was considered in 1828, Sardinia in 1833, Carlisle in 1834, Boston in 1836, Arnheim and Edenton in 1837, with Newtonville and Hamersville in 1838. In 1850, Mt. Orab began to be mentioned, and Paxton's was changed to Loveland. Amelia, Withamsville, Mt. Carmel and Fayetteville grew without a date, and most of the smaller places also had the same tranquil lot. The history of these towns has been detailed for other pages by actual residents, and from the talk of the actual, but no longer active Pioneers. It is futile to search for more. No regular steamboat went to and fro for passengers along the riverside till about 1830, and then the calls were not fre- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 411 quent. Most of such service was done by what would now be called tramp boats. The public conveyance of passengers through the interior was by stages. From a time unknown to a date not determined, a stage passed to and from Chillicothe to Cincinnati through Williamsburg. After 'Georgetown had gained importance, the travel turned in that direction to West Union and so continued well up to, if not through, the Mexican War. The line advertised by Joshua B. Davis came from West Union through. Decatur, Russellville, Georgetown, Hamersville, Bethel, Bantam, Perinsmills, Milford and Madisonville to Cincinnati. The stage was the kind with the body hung upon broad straps of leather to swing along after two or four horses, according to the state of the roads, or the size of the loads. When the pikes came, the uncertain tri-weekly stage gave place to the daily omnibus, and then travel so increased that daily trips were made down the river road and from Bethel down the Ohio Pike$ and from Williamsburg through Batavia and by Newtown, and from Fayetteville through Boston to Milford, and from far up the Wooster Pike down through Goshen to the trains at Milford. That was a time of bi-daily excitement along those pikes, for the 'Bus never passed either way without large attention to the speed and minute speculation at every stop, as to the number and quality of the passengers. The period also included the passing of four and even six horses to a wagon loaded with produce for the city market. At times such wagons in sight on the great Wooster Pike could be counted by the score. And the droves that caused Cincinnati to be nicknamed "Porkopolis," were fabulous in number. One of the novel sights about holiday times was the droves of turkeys stalking along to a fate both certain and helpless. Such were the scenes along the wonderful Wooster Pike, "Before the War," then the greatest commercial highway for displaying the inner wealth of Ohio. But the railroads have changed all that, and now the grass has grown towards the center until the narrow track on the broad way, despite the deep grades, looks like a country lane. Except for a local use, hardly more than a township needs, that once stupendous work of the State is almost as obsolete as the canals. The course of the road from Milford to Todd's Fork, that 412 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES became a part of that pike was crossed a hundred years ago by the "Upper road from Williamsburg by the John Charles Mill and on to Lebanon. That cross roads became the center of 'East Goshen,' " which was the scene of some incidents that present a view not quite like the ordinary northern conception of the Underground Railroad times. At that crossing in 1834, Dr. Samuel G. Meeks built a fine two-story brick house on a full basement story of smooth dressed, blue lime stone, making three stories in all. In its prime that house was the show place for many scores of miles on the then famous Wooster Pike. About 1837, the property passed to Captain Tubal Early, a relative of General Jubal Early, noted as one of Lee's greatest generals, until his crushing defeat by Sheridan at Winchester. Captain Early, a fine specimen of the tall and stately Virginia cavalier, came to Ohio to emancipate some two score slaves. While the theory was beautiful the practice, speaking with caution, was offensive to many otherwise philanthropic men of Goshen. A somewhat patriarchal disposition of the proud captain to advise and even direct some vagrant ex-bondsman, for whose good conduct the Ohio law had required his former master to become a bondman, afforded a pretext for criticism that soon become anything but mild. The fine home was made unhappy by a personal and then furious legal contention about a worthless scalawag, whose idea of freedom was a state of utter idleness. In the midst of the controversy, the bewildered emancipator passed to a peculiar tomb in the Goshen cemetery and left the case of Prejudice vs. Philanthropy to perplex his widow, Charlotte, until the depreciated house was brought to sale and she was driven south of the Ohio in search of sympathy for her folly in believing that truth alone will pay the price. One of the manumitted women died, leaving two little boys also fatherless. They were at once taken into the "Big Early House," until large enough to do some simple chores, requisite for both physical and moral health. Then sympathy for the enslaved and antipathy for their misunderstood guardian had a busy time taking downtrodden boys from where they were learning civility, in order to bind them out to the lowest bidders. One was fixed to learn the saving service of cleaning a tavern stable and the other was sent to the tender task of grubbing stubs in a CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 413 clearing. Of such freedom they were finally deprived by their Virginia mistress and taught to read and write much better than was common at that time. And when Mrs. Early went to Kentucky, one of the youths went with her into voluntary slavery in order that he might serve the good angel of his life. Verily, not many in the South knew the North, and few in the North could understand any of the South, and so both went stumbling on to dreadful strife. CHAPTER XIX. THE MEXICAN WAR AND THE GOLD FEVER. The Mexican War a Preliminary Campaign in a Greater Struggle—The Volunteers from Brown—The Company from Clermont and Brown—General Thomas L. Hamer, His Youth, Political Success, Oratory and Death in Mexico—Discovery of Gold in California—The Light Family—Dr. William Wayland Light, One of the Argonauts—A Deadly Fight. While Brown and Clermont were rapidly increasing in population, and while the people were clearing larger fields, making smoother ways, building better homes, contriving more convenience, seeking more trade, turning from canals, wondering at railroads, planting villages and shuddering at the thought of abolition, the country was moving steadily toward the Mexican War. In the light thrown back from what followed, the Mexican War takes the importance of a preliminary campaign in the greater struggle of a still longer strife to decide the supremacy between the systems of free and slave labor that had threatened the stability of the Union from the beginning. No premise of history is clearer than that war was waged with Mexico for the extension of slavery ; and no result is more conclusive than the utter confusion of the plans that overwhelmed the designs of its promoters. Measured by our standards it was still a time of inconceivable inconvenience. The country entered the strife with a spirit that was largely a question of distance. Those near gained a reputation for "eating fire," that did not extend to the more distant northerners, and thus the boastings of the promoters of slavery were assumed as evidence of superior courage. The correction of that mistake was a bitter lesson for the South. Although there was so little to urge and so much to repress the aspirations of free labor, Ohio answered the call of the President with more troops than went from any other northern State, for it was the first chance for the native horn to test the mettle of their hearts. 416 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES The volunteers from Brown county were mustered in for one year at Cincinnati, June 22, 1846, as Company G, of the First Ohio Regiment. Their captain was Sanders W. Johnston ; but there is no need to use space in this work to perpetuate the names or particulars of each one of the company, for all that is to be found in the fine Roster, that Ohio has pub lished in honor of her splendid soldiering. The same is true of a second company enlisted from both Brown and Clermont, which was mustered in eighty-five strong, under Captain John W. Lowe, at Cincinnati, on September II, 1847, for one year, as Company C., of the reorganized Second Ohio Regiment. Besides the State Roster, Lieutenant Milton Jamieson of that company, published a fine story_ of its service and his personal experience. The Major of the Second Ohio, William Wall, who had been a cadet at West Point, was a citizen of Brown county. The hero of his town and county and region. and State in the Mexican War, and one honored and lamented by the nation was Thomas Lyon Hamer. A detailed account of a life so full of incidents as his cannot be combined within the scope of this history, where only lines can be given while pages would be a pleasant task. Born in July, 1800, and obtaining a fair schooling under parental care in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, he came with the family, then moving to Butler county, Ohio. But the boy stopped at the mouth of Nine Mile and took his first employment as the slender, red headed teacher of a school in the fall of 1817, at Withamsville. While there he borrowed some books on law of Hezekiah Lindsey, and some general books from Dr. William Porter, who were among the foremost men of that ,region. He came then to Bethel as a teacher of subscription schools. By one paper signed for seventeen pupils, on October 16, 1820, he agreed to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to each pupil for $2.00 for thirteen weeks. If grammar was taught, $1.00 more was to be paid, and the subscribers were to furnish a room and fuel. While thus employed, he became an inmate of the home of Thomas Morris then established as one of the foremost lawyers. Morris liked the youth and took all but parental charge of his studies. As compared with this day, Hamer's lot was tough. As compared with other boys of his CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 417 day, his chance was very fine. In 1821, when lacking four months of twenty-one years he went with Morris to the old stone court house in Williamsburg, where, after examination and with the certifying statement of Morris, he was admitted to the bar, although he had never been in a court house before. Six months later he went to live in Georgetown, where he practiced law, wrote editorials for The Benefactor and be. came deeply interested in politics as a study. He was a member of the General Assembly of the State, became Speaker of the House, and then three times a Member of Congress, where he ranked with the first. After achieving all this before the age of forty, he avowed the duty of securing comfort for his family, rather than fame for himself. He had a magical sway over men as an orator, and his aid on the stump was eagerly sought by the most distinguished men of his party. Before the age of forty, all that ambition craved was deemed possible, and his friends were only waiting his sanction to urge his name for the highest honors of State. He was in accord with what seemed the popular trend. He urged the Mexican War. The readiness of his county for the service was ascribed to his influence. He volunteered as a private and modestly consented to act as Major of his regiment. Within a week he was appointed a Brigadier-General by President Polk. He shared in the fine success of General Taylor's army at Monterey, September 23, 1846. On October 13, 1846, he was, without opposition, elected to Congress for the fourth time. But a constitution not strong was yielding to the unfamiliar service in a trying climate, and he died December 3, 1846, in what should have been the prime of his life, and was the dawn of his fame. For he had won fame abroad, and place beyond rivalry at home. After while all that was mortal of the boyish teacher, the skillful lawyer, the popular politician, the fascinating orator, the able statesman, the heroic general—the brilliant Hamer was brought from Mexico by the proudly sorrowful State and given to his people at home as a precious charge forever. Whatever any man may have planned, the immediate influence of the Mexican War was far beyond the wildest flight of fancy and something most confusing in all political calculations. For, judged by the acid test of financial gain, the most 418 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES important event of that period in American history was the discovery of gold in California. The immediate result in Brown and Clermont was a rearrangement of the plans of scores and scorer of the most ardent youths, who at once went farther than any had dared before. As soon as the lands had been taken and the price had increased, immigration sought the "new, countries." Soon after the War of '12, many crowded to the Wabash. Late in the '3os, Illinois was the cause of much interest. Ten years later, hundreds were starting for Iowa. But after 1849, the bolder were resolving to go where gold could be gained more quickly than by raising grain or herdrng flocks. No estimate is obtainable of the number who went from Brown and Clermont to California, some by the "Isthmus," and some across the "Plains," some to return, and not a few to stay. For lack of modern comparison the first to go were given the classical name of "Argonauts." Among these was one from Clermont and of a family with a story of more than ordinary adventure. John Light, a Revolutionary soldier, was the father of Jacob, Daniel and Peter, who had share in the border warfare of western Pennsylvania, that in full sense was a part of the Revolution. Jacob went with his wife to Detroit from which, after four anxious years, they retreated. Then in 1791, the three sons came to Columbia, where in July, 1792, Jacob was one in the party from which resulted the famous narrative of "Spencer's Captivity." Having come to the site in 1797, he platted the first part of New Richmond in 1813, to which Thomas Ashburn added the upper part in 1816. Daniel Light was shot through the body in an Indian fight, but recovered and raised a large family on Twelve Mile. Peter Light, previously mentioned as a territorial pioneer on Clover Creek, was County Surveyor for ten years and also the Sheriff ordered to imprison Thomas Morris for debt. His son, George C. Light, was County Surveyor for five years, and then a member of the State House of Representatives. He then acquired national reputation as a Methodist minister, and died in Vicksburg, on his birthday, February 27, 186o, aged seventy-five years. Peter Light's son, David, married Sarah Strickland in 1812, and their son, William Wayland Light, born July 29, 1817, was one of the "Argonauts," having gone to California with the first onset of the "gold seekers" in 1849. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 419 He had studied pharmacy with an older brother, George S. Light, but later, was finely successful in dentistry. But no ordinary employment could restrain his adventurous disposition from undertaking many hazards of fortune. He sent for his brother, Hopkins Light and for Julian, a son of their brother, George S., and gathering all his means into the venture, went into prospecting and mining schemes among the mountains of Sonora, in Old Mexico. That was amid the restless conditions following the French invasion of Mexico, and our Civil War. While seeking a richer place in the elusive lode, the three men with a Mexican chore boy, built a remote camping shack by a stream in which on June 25, 1868, Hopkins and Julian, while taking a bath were ambushed and killed by a party of eight lurking Indians, who took the moment that left their victims most defenseless. Flushed with success, the band rushed upon the hut, where Dr. Light was taking a much-needed rest, from which with no aid but the boy to load and hand out guns, he met the assailants with a fire that killed four and wounded others before they gave up the fight and left the white man victorious, but also badly wounded with a shot through one foot and several arrows sticking in his body. The rifle, powder horn and wounding arrows, with other pioneer relics of the family, are now among the priceless treasurers of Dr. Wayland Light's niece, Mrs. Georgie Girardey Strickland, who holds the ancestral lands of Peter Light. The fierce fight is in column with the bravest deeds of pioneer times from ocean to ocean. The story is not complete without stating that the mining interests were sold for an immense sum obtained and paid to a trusted agent, who fled and left the adventurous Dr. Light to gather another fortune in Sacramento and become president of the Sacramento Pioneers' Association, at his death, June 14, 1895. There is peculiar satisfaction in pondering this story of one of a large connection in Brown and Clermont as typical of their vast .traditions both at home and in both East and West, and in the romance of the Pacific coast. CHAPTER X X. IN THE CIVIL WAR. Change in Fashion and Custom—The Note of Preparation—The Roster of Ohio in the War—Those Who Heard the Call—The Terror of the First Tidings—The Fall of Sumter—A General Statement of the Organizations from Brown and Clermont—The Nearest Battle—The Morgan Raid—The Course of the Longest Single March on Record—The Conduct of the Raiders--A Fight for a Horse—The Story of Captain George Harris of Morgan's Artillery—The Reception of the Union Army in Pursuit of Morgan-The Difference Between the Armies—The General Service of the Troops from Brown and Clermont—When the Boys Came Marching Home. A wide, evident result of the discovery of gold in California was the impulse to the building of railroads. For, coolly considered, the Little Miami and the Marietta railroads were not built by the people of Clermont, but by foreign capital ; and the work was managed by non-residents and to connect distant points. Before the merit of travel by steam was made familiar to the mass of population, the Civil War overwhelmed all other intention and absorbed every interest. As that awful political, moral and social revolution went by, and when its marvelous heroism had passed into history, the people had put on new fashions and adopted a new mode of living. Men ceased to wear long hair combed into a huge roll on top with ends rolled under and made stable with pasty pomatums and glossy with perfumed oils. For some years the loveliest maidens approved the sensible change of the men by cutting off their braids and by looking their best in loose locks, which was only a phase in an experimental period in which everyone was testing the effect of something new. The brim of the outre "stove pipe hat" was narrowed to the proportions of the head, and the roofs that before barely edged the walls, were projected for a needed protection to the building. Sixty years ago the 422 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES floors, now polished and rugged, had rag carpets or none, except one in a hundred had a three-ply ingrain. The pretentious had a dozen silver teaspoons, a half dozen silver tablespoons and a Brittannia tea pot. The next in the social scale were provided, if not satisfied, with German silver or pewter spoons. Much of the cloth was homespun, and even the factory goods was cut and made at home. The bleaching of factory muslin helped to keep women busy. Those who deplore woman's present extensive occupation as wage earners are forgetful that invention has invaded and utterly destroyed the ancient custom where she was spinner, weaver and garment maker. This change was largely invoked and surely hastened by the American conflict, which was the most costly in tears and treasure that the white race has yet endured. The prodigious Asiatic slaughters of which there is no certain estimate, cannot be brought into a just comparison, for the annihilation of many millions more or less of them often wrote no change in a glorious progress. But the vast destructive energy of the war for the Union called forth the finest constructive ability that man has ever shown in both war and agriculture. It was the first real test of steam in war, and that test involved problems of which Napoleon never dreamed and which vastly modified the art of war that he practiced. All the world feels the change in navies that was inaugurated by the Monitor and the Merrimac. But popular intelligence has not yet sufficiently recognized the special strategy of war by railroads that was solved by Grant. A just review of the patriotic service of any considerable community should include the note of preparation, the tented field and the desolated homes. The scenes in Brown and Clermont during the strife for the Union were such as history proudly records of the whole wide Northland. There were hurryings to and fro, and gathering tears ; there was trembling distress and cheeks all pale and choking sighs ; there was mounting in hot haste, and mustering squadrons swiftly rushed to the ranks of war. And then there was grief for the unreturning brave, for there was none but had some friend or brother there. The insolent enemy professed equal contempt for the homegrown and scorn for the foreign born of the North. A mere CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 423 roll of the brave men who went forth to defend their chosen flag from such insult is beyond the limit of this work, which in no sense is a reprint of what can be found elsewhere. Ohio's proudly published Roster of her soldiers and sailors sets forth their service beyond the power of private enterprise. And yet, it must be regretfully admitted that ample credit has not been attained in every instance. The reason for this is found in the character of the volunteer service in which each individual attached himself to whatever organization seemed best. In this manner many crossed local lines in ways that cannot be followed by neighborhoods or even counties or states. But the State Roster, as far as the facts were stated on the company and regimental rolls, will keep the general enlistments as long as the book can be made to last. Yet whoever looks at any muster roll must remember that individuals and groups of volunteers often went far or came a long distance to be with special commands or chosen friends. And so remembering, the best that can be done is a general statement of such organizations as will guide a search of the most exact official sources. The eventful scenes of '61 are of such, vivid personal memory for many, that a writer may well ponder long in selecting thoughts to give younger readers an adequate impression of the conditions that inspired the golden age of our heroism. Yet,' many of the homes remain in which the Union soldiers were bred and taught a love of country that has peculiar example. For they fought, not for their own homes alone, but for an ideal of human rights that included another race with whom they did not live and would not mingle. The call for such extraordinary service from Brown and Clermont counties came to a population with the peaceful purpose of farming, and to the tradesman connected with that occupation before it was complicated with the infinite divisions of today. There was little or no corporate direction, and each one largely followed an independent course not easily realized when almost every branch of living is controlled by a company, directed by a union, or managed by a trust. The young men thus grown to glory in the utmost limit of personal freedom had no training in the value of the strict discipline that is an imperative requisite for military success. For many 424 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES years the greatest excitement of their happy lives had been found on the school boys' play ground, or in hunting and fishing within sight of their homes. The greatest public enthusiasm they had shared was the torch-light political processions that marked the presidential campaign of 186o. Unto a generation that otherwise might have organized peace societies and have given endless energy to every useful art, the fall of Sumter's flag was a signal for a strife that changed the course of time. Again the waiting fates struck the choicest hour for mortal hopes. The careful students of the unrolling charts for the ships of state across the troubled seas of international politics know that the Union Army fought for more than Grant dreamed, or Lincoln planned. Meanwhile the masters of invention, after providing railroads for the rapid transportation of the freedom-giving armies, also made haste to furnish the locomotive with a guiding spirit. For without the telegraph the railroad engine would be a blind and destructive giant. The most momentous message that had traversed those all but celestial wires was the call to rescue Sumter. A pious mind may delight in believing that a gracious Providence was still directing the preparation of material and spiritual means so that both should be ready at the appointed time that combined mortal good and divine design. Ah, who was living then that can forget those rural homes, piled with plenty, blest with the bounty of fruity orchard, decked with bloom and clad with clambering vine, amid waving harvests bordered with daisied pastures, where the lazy 'herds wore winding paths to spicy groves o'erspread with sunny flecks on heaven's serenest blue? Who but those who heard can tell the terror of the first tidings of the war for ears that rarely knew a chiding voice? And who but those who felt can guess the ruin that marked the rush of raging wrath ? For those who saw that wondrous time, memory peoples the past with visions more real than the throng of daily life ; for we know whence the phantoms come and why they beckon us back to view the race that won the goal of deathless fame. Again we hear the pealing bells, the shrilling fifes and the boding drums, while glowing speech is answered with fervent pledge of volunteering bands. Again we see the bustling preparation, the quivering farewells and CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 425 the solemn departings. Again we see the growing camp, the irksome drill, the steady tramp, the hasty march to the front with all the pomp of fine array and waving flags. Again we see the shrouding dust and the weary bivouac of shelterless ranks and watch the sick go stumbling from the line. Again the fires' of battle flash, and again we hear the piteous yes of prison life and see the countless dead entrenched in shallow graves. The threatened destruction of the Union suddenly assumed the direst form of war as the clocks in the towers of Charleston struck four on the morning of Friday, April 12, 1861, which was the carefully preconcerted moment for the bombardment of Fort Sumter. All day the finest cannon that a treacherous Secretary of War could find and order there from the national arsenals, hurled the most destructive missiles of that date against one of the important forts that had been built to defend the integrity of the Union against foreign aggression, and not as a menace to the ungrateful people that grew proud and rebellious under the protection. The hot hail of over two thousand bursting shells ceased with night fall, but began again with the dawn of Saturday. One by one the guns of the few defenders were dismounted or buried beneath the toppling walls and soon the inmates were forced to cease resisting and fight the fires that were consuming their quarters and stores. For the rebellious artillery was served by men who knew the range and had the skill. The flagstaff was shot away and the colors fell without a helping hand. When Major Anderson and his little band had fought their fight to a finish, it was an unconditional surrender, for there was no authority that he would recognize beyond the conditions that forced them away. On Sunday morning, April 14, when the news came to Washington City, President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand men to help him repossess the ruined fort and restore the fallen flag. And then with brief and simple pathos, he warned all offenders to cease their evil plottings against the Union within twenty days. The infatuated South mocked his call and jeered his advice with equal scorn. Without Sunday papers and with only evening mails, the news that confirmed vague rumors came mainly in the Cincinnati daily papers printed on Monday morning. On 426 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Tuesday morning, April 16, the mournful tidings went about the village streets and began to stream along the country lanes. The first call for defenders of the Union was bravely answered in Brown and Clermont counties. Ripley gained the honor of making the first response. While the citizens had gathered at the Third Street Methodist Church of that day and were discussing the exciting conditions, a telegram was read announcing the fall of Fort Sumter. The meeting adjourned at once to Armstrong's Hall, where a company volunteered for the Union, under Captain Jacob Ammen, who started the next day to Columbus to report the action to the governor and obtain orders. They were mustered in as Company H of the Twelfth Ohio, and Captain Ammen was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Ohio. The ardent youth of Williamsburg assembled in the "Middle Hall" or school room of the Masonic Hall, and joining those who had answered the larum of the court house bell in Batavia, formed the "Clermont Guards," that was mustered in under Captain, later Major, Julius Penn, Sr., as Company E of the Twenty-second Ohio. The "Felicity Guards," previously organized at Felicity, was quickly recruited to the limit along the county line from Bethel southward and mustered into the Twenty-Second Ohio, as Company I, under Captain Farron Olmstead, who later on was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifty-ninth Ohio. The "Union Guards," another organization at New Richmond, was filled from the river side and mustered into the Twelfth Ohio, as Company C, under Captain Watts McMurchy. A force of thirty from Georgetown went to the Twelfth Ohio under Carr B. White, who was made Colonel of that regiment. These companies were obliged to decline volunteers from other localities, of whom some found a place in other companies, so that nearly five hundred from the region of Old Clermont answered the "First Call." This can be safely calculated, as several times the quota for the population of the district. Under the call for men to serve three years, Company C, under Captain William T. Beatty, was mustered in the Second Ohio Infantry from northwestern Clermont. Company I of that regiment also included many Clermont men. The Twelfth Ohio, reorganized for three years, included Company C, under Captain Watts McMurchy and Captain Liggett's CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 427 company from Brown. The next considerable number was the full Company K of the Twenty-seventh Ohio, from both Brown and Clermont, about Williamsburg. The Thirty-Fourth Ohio was organized on the Olive Branch Fair Ground and largely recruited from both counties ; Captain S. R. S. West's. Company A, being from central Clermont. While another company was being recruited at Ripley by Captain C: W. Boyd. Captain J. B. Hopkins recruited Company A of the Thirty-sixth Ohio. The Thirty-ninth, although a Cincinnati regiment, obtained many from the counties to the east. The Forty-eighth Ohio was recruited largely in northern Brown, and many in Clermont who did not secure officers at home. Company G of the Fiftieth was from Clermont. The Fifty-ninth was organized at Ripley, and was distinctly from Brown and Clermont counties, with a record second to none for long marching and hard fighting. There is no need to locate the companies for those who are familiar with the pioneer names. The Seventieth Ohio was largely from Brown county. Clermont furnished a company of sharpshooters, C, for the Seventy-ninth Ohio. Clermont gave three and Brown two companies of a hundred men each to the glorious but ill-fated Eighty-ninth Ohio. Glorious because that regiment held Snodgrass Hill, the key to Rosecrans' retreat on the fatal Sunday of his failure at Chickamauga, held that forlorn hope from eight in the morning until night came, ill-fated, because when the work was done for which the sacrifice was ordered, and when the retreat was safe, then, in the fullness of so much suffered for others, the lines of gray that had vainly charged again and again against the steady boys in blue, at last flanked the position and made them prisoners. Eight full companies of the One Hundred Fifty-third Ohio for a hundred days were from Clermont. Brown sent a company to the One Hundred Eighty-ninth Ohio, and Clermont had Company I in the One Hundred Eighty-fourth Ohio. Numerous detachments were credited to both counties as the recipients of bounties, but whether residents or not was uncertain then, and still more so now. Major C. G. McGrew and Captain H. B. Teetor recruited many men in northern Clermont for the Fourth Ohio Cavalry. Still later, Captain W. H. Ulrey took a large detachment to 428 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Company M, Second Ohio Cavalry, that was commanded by Colonel, afterwards General, A. V. Kautz, of Brown county. Company A, Captain E. G. Ricker ; Company I, Captain W. H. Fagaly ; Company M, Captain John Henry, and Captain Trounstein's company, and a large portion of another company, all of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, were enlisted in Clermont and Brown; The Seventh Ohio Cavalry was organized at Ripley, and besides many from Brown, took Captain Ira Ferguson's company from Clermont. The Fourth Ohio Independent Cavalry company, with John. S. Foster, was almost entirely a Brown county organization. Company L of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry, under Captain Asbury P. Gatch, was mainly recruited in Clermont. Several detachments were recruited for the Artillery service, and a goodly number went in the Naval service on the river gun boats. No pretense is made that this exhibit of organizations is complete, for it is not. County Rosters were not made when such might have been fairly successful, and now the task is impossible. Although the river patrolled by gun boats was a defense against hostile incursions, it was also regarded as a possible scene of battle. And so it was in 1862, when Bragg's invasion of Kentucky included Kirby Smith's demonstration against Cincinnati. That movement comprised attacks along the river from Foster's to Maysville, in the first weeks of September. Of those attacks, the most serious was that of Colonel Bazil Duke, on Augusta, with three hundred fifty men of the Second Kentucky Confederate., Cavalry. Duke records a loss of twenty-one killed and eighteen wounded in that battle, which was the severest that came near the region of our story. The excitement of those September days in 1862 brought the militia of northern Brown to a short, uneventful camping on the Ripley Fair Ground. But the unexpected and most exciting stroke of all fell nearly a year later, and, for reasons not appreciated at the time, is still remarkable as "Morgan's raid through the North." A few analyzed facts will help one to read other accounts of that famous march with better perception of the distorted details published at the time. John Morgan's cavalry force was organized soon after the terrible Confederate defeat at Shiloh, which was so little understood at the time, that nearly CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 429 all the North except Lincoln, thought that Grant's army was destroyed. But Lincoln and all the South knew that a grim, strong, resolute power had suddenly, boldly and successfully been thrust into the vitals of the Confederacy, across two States and over two hundred miles deep. It was the perception of such strategy that made Grant, and the lack of it that said there was no general but Lee. To harass Grant's lines of supply was Morgan's duty, that was performed with skill and daring for a year or more, until at last the forces .gathered for his destruction, made a march north seem better' than a return southward. Morgan accepted the chances of the game, and all but won by crossing the Ohio on July 8, 1863, at Brandenburg, whence he went "Horse trading" through Indiana, until he went into camp late on Sunday night, July 12, at Sunmam, in Ripley county. From Sunmam, he started at 5 a. m., on Monday, July 13, with what he considered the most difficult problem of all the expedition at hand,, which was to pass Cincinnati, guarded by a force much superior in number and in position, with the railroads to the city for bringing more troops. To pass this danger, he marched all day Monday threatening in various directions to deceive and to conceal his main march, which was forced with no rest all through Monday night and Tuesday morning and through the day, until Williamsburg was reached by the vanguard about 4 p. m., and by the main army, through several hours later. The main route was by Harrison, and thence by roads that touched Glendale on the north, and the outskirts of Cincinnati on the south, and finally converged above Camp Dennison, and thence went by Miamiville, Mt. Repose, Williams Corners. and Boston. At Williamsburg, part of the force camped on the Bethel road from the bridge to the hill, part in the town and part on the roads to Boston and Batavia. The reveille sounded at 3 a. m., Wednesday, July 13, and by a little after 8 o'clock in the morning the rear guard had passed. Because the bridge had just been burned in memory of Boerstler Huber's record in the Underground Railroad, they went down to the ford by the "Old Dug Way," mentioned many pages back, and galloped over the hill on the road to Mt. Orab, whence the route went by Sardinia and Winchester to Jack 430 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Town or Dunbarton, in Adams county. From there on Thurs day, they marched to Piketown ; on Friday they went on through Jackson to Wilkesville, in Vinton county. From theft they went fighting by Pomeroy to Chester by i p. m., where a fatal stop of an hour and a half caused them to reach the ford on the Ohio at Portland at 8 p. m., of Saturday "In solid darkness." But for that stop, or with a clear night, the would have crossed the Ohio and found sympathy. From Mt. Repose, a battalion detoured by Batavia and came back to the army at Williamsburg, where another detachment went southeastward by Georgetown, with intent to make the impression that they were trying to cross the river. But Buffington Island, or Lee's army was Morgan's objective from the start. A generous and successful foe must admire the audacity, and wonder at the narrow margin between the failure and the success of the expedition. Such thoughts will grow respectful after learning that the march of ninety-five miles from Sunman to Williamsburg ranks as the longest, the most continuous, the most prodigious march ever made by so large a body of troops, of which history has any account. Small companies or individuals have gone farther in less time, but small companies march more easily, for the speed is much impeded by larger numbers. The condition of the men at the end of that hot, dusty ride of thirty-five hours without sleep or rest was one of intense weariness or their conduct might have been more boisterous. With few exceptions, the men were quiet and civil. Some irrepressibles broke into the stores and wasted the goods with little apparent purpose, except to destroy. Bolts of calico and cloth were taken by some who held one end while his horse was urged to make the bolt into a trail in the dust. In this way thousands of yards were wantonly ruined, other articles were carried a little while and then thrown away. The destruction of the stock was ruinous in some instances and in other places the disturbance was little or none. But the most wasteful soon stopped the game, and, after finding something to eat and feed their horses, sank into deep sleep with little talk with each other' and still less with the citizens. The chief effort was to find a better horse for the next day's march. Protection for the inmates was very CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 431 generally granted to homes that would furnish a reasonable number of meals ; and the contract was kept so that it was common to hear families say we had such and so many at our house. My father's home escaped all molestation by entertaining. Captains Ray and Hines and "Parson" Moore, who asked a blessing of the table—such was the introduction given—and the treatment rendered. But the stable and mow and crib did not escape so well. After fifty smoothing years, the events do not appear so very terrible. Some things were laughed at then and may be now. Solomon Mershon, a farmer, having lost his horses, came into the camp, southeast of town, and finding' one, asserted rights, which were as earnestly denied by a stalwart man in gray or something said to be gray when new. The dispute soon became quite personal, and, with some suggestion from others, it was agreed that the rights of property should be decided by an honorable, fair fight between the claimants. A space was cleared among hundreds of admiring Confederates, into which the two took their place, and at the word, pounded each other, according to the rules agreed upon, until the Confederate was forced to quit, whereupon the victor was mounted on his rightful prize, which he rode away through round after round of "Rebel yells." And, protected by a strong sense of American humor, the horse was not taken again. One of the strange incidents without any known parallel in those most eventful times, occurred in Williamsburg on that night, when Captain George Harris, in command of General Morgan's artillery, renounced the Confederate service, and through my personal assistance, was enabled to reach General Burnside and be restored to his father, who was a notable officer in the Union service. The story has been told all over the English-speaking world as "A Romantic Tale of Morgan's Raid," which was first published on July 12, 1892, in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, and then reprinted times without number. How the fine-looking youth had been schooled in the State University at Nashville and became a Lieutenant of the cadet corps, that was ordered to guard the State buildings ; how he went with his corps to Corinth, in the wild retreat before Grant, and then turned back to deal heavy blows at Shiloh ; 432 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES how his battery went with Morgan' through his fierce destruction of Union wealth and strength ; how his college friends were seldom seen ; how in lonely thoughts or amid the roar of battle, the question, "If father is there ?" would rise ; how he determined to quit it all and tell his tale to General Burnside, his father's friend, and how fate appointed me to help his need—all that was a tale too complex for credence in those doubtful days. And so the story was kept unknown to all but a chosen few at home. Yet it was true in every particular stated, and many more. Captain Harris was permitted to attone his Confederate service, and after taking the oath of allegiance to his father's flag, was sent abroad because of failing health that was not restored ; for he died at sea in sight of land a few months after the great "Raid," and was buried in a church yard pertaining to London. A soldier of the Union, whose naive seems lost, while in the act of getting a cup of coffee, was entangled in the double tree and dragged under the wheels of a heavy ammunition wagon somewhat above and in front of the John Kain Tavern, which Morgan had used for his headquarters during his stay. The injured soldier was carried into the office room on. Third and Main, where he died that night, being, so far as known, the only fatal casualty of the war that occurred in Brown and Clermont. No just account, however brief, should fail to mention the joyful reception of the pursuing Union Army. As the last Confederates went up the hill toward Mt. Orab, Sergeant, afterwards First Leiutenant John Quincy Park, of the Second Ohio Cavalry, rode down the old court house hill with the glad tidings that Hobson's men, ten thousand strong, would pass through in the afternoon and would want something to eat, after which he greeted his parents and sisters and fell to sleep, for he had been riding two nights and the day between—so strenuous was the flight and pursuit around Cincinnati. With no telephones and automobiles and with all the horses taken, no one knows how they spread the news that "The Army" was coming, and wanted anything and everything to eat. But the response came early and kept coming all the afternoon from miles and miles around. Everyone counted it a shame to do nothing for "Our boys." Ham was CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 433 boiled and bacon fried, or either way with haste, while ovens were redolent with beef and poultry butchered to make a Union holiday. Pies and cakes were baked in every home and also biscuits by the bushel, for there was no time for salt rising loaves or yeast rolls. Boards were lifted into tables stretched on barrels or boxes along the curb on either side of Main street for squares., Buckets of coffee and pitchers of milk kept coming from here and there. The miracle of the loaves and fishes was seemingly repeated as the orderly ranks of the Defenders came riding by with lifted caps and dipping flags, while groups of gaily ribboned girls gathered and sang the rally calls and battle hymns of freedom. Some dismounted and ate at tables, kings of the feast. But except these few, the many scarcely more than swerving from the column, took what was extended by eager hands and rode on with no perceptible halt in the precise array of the fine review. The pageant was rare to northern eyes, for, fortunately, few places there were so visited. Those who saw the difference in the two armies, one in the full panoply of war, and the other scant of all but their arms, must have seen the shadow of the coming surrender. One impression then remembered now is that with all the difference in purpose they were Americans with a full share in the common heritage of courage and humor. The large majority of the invaders behaved with a civility that was only marred by their skill in trading horses and now and then in swapping hats or boots. And even in that, the difference was sometimes gravely balanced with confederate currency, which on minute examination was found to be a northern reprint. As the natural line of attack took the northern troops by the shortest distance toward the enemy, the volunteers from Brown and Clermont were generally marched by way of Cincinnati and thence by Chattanooga, with occasional divergence to the great battle scenes on either hand. Out of such service, certain great battles may obtain a familiarity that obscures perception of the importance of the immense movements and terrific conflicts in other regions of the prodigious strife between the States. While the majority went straight to the South, only a few comparatively were drawn to the more severely contested and yet more doubtful eastern battles. The war for the Union not only involved the most momentous 434 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES question of government but it also exacted the utmost exertion of the people whose energy accomplished more in a generation than had been done in ages for the refinement of mankind. The battlefields of that vast revolution were many and are famous, and it should be a grandly solemn memory that most of them have been consecrated by their blood. In spite of dismay at the long lists of youth untimely withered or dead, the grim purpose of the North .grew stronger and stronger to float the flag forever. While Lee was pondering surrender, recruiting was continued through the winter with inceasing resolution. But when Spring came to green the graves of the slain, "The Cruel War Was Over," and the "Boys came marching home"—home where wondering children would watch their coming and lead the shouting throng—home where the proud citizens would voice the joy of their victory—home where the dimpling shadows would fall by paths that led from winding roads to the open doors of the holy rooms of sinless boyhood—home where rosy sisters would stretch their welcome arms—home to meet the rapture of a father's gladness and the bliss of a mother's love—home perchance to bear the message spoken by somebody's darling, when the flag glimmered in dying eyes—home to cheer the mourner with tales of valiant duty nobly done--home to saunter along leafy lanes with whispered vows to sweetest hearts. But who can tell the price of the tears and the cost of the blood? CHAPTER XXI. THE WONDERFUL STORY OF GRANT. The John Simpson Home—The House at Point Pleasant—Jesse Grant Clears Eleven Hundred Dollars in Twenty-two Months—The Home in Georgetown—Jesse Grant—The First Brick School House in Georgetown—Boyhood—Fondness for Horses—A Daring Rider—A Fine Example of a Well Raised American Boy—Attracts the Attention of Teacher John D. White. General Hamer and Senator Morris—At West Point—Excels all in Horsemanship—Hazed at Home—His Remarkable Reserve—The Teaching of Solitude—His Vision of War—His Patient Courtesy—The Simplicity of His Sincerity—The Gentle Quality of the Man—His Kindness in Victory. His World-wide Triumph—How He Rendered Good for Evil—His Tomb in the Center of the World—Lieut.-Gen. Henry C. Corbin. As the past recedes into a vanishing vista, and as actions of vivid instant interest seize attention, a broad historic view of the successive scenes blends the stir for free soil, the answering opposition of the Mexican War for the extension of bondage, the discovery of American gold, the War for the Union, and the extinction of slavery, into one prodigious era of progress. The truly great actors in that progress in the region of Brown and Clermont played their parts so well that the leading man of each scene held the stage with rare continuity, until his successor was required. William Lytle, the explorer, founder and promoter of Old Clermont, only relinquished his task when it was ready for the master political builder, Thomas Morris. Morris in turn trained and inspired Thomas L. Hamer to the ambition that made him a hero in the strife where his life was the costliest payment for the victory that rounded out the southwestern frontier and won the gold of California. Then, as if to give perpetuity to his influence, Hamer's last signature as a member of Congress confirmed the nomination of Ulysses Simpson Grant as a cadet at West Point. 436 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES In 1805, Thomas Page came from Burlington, New Jersey, to be a part of the Jersey Settlement, founded by Rev. John Collins. In 1807, on the west Fork of Poplar Creek in Tate township, he began a brick house that was enlarged in 1811, so as to be one of the most substantial houses in all the country for many miles around. In 1815, Page went to Point Pleasant, where he built the third house, opened the first store, and established a tannery. In the fall of 1818, John and Sarah Simpson came from Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, to Tate township with a well grown family, and made their home in the house built by Page. Meanwhile, Jesse R. Grant came from Ravenna, Ohio, to work at his trade in a tannery at Bethel. There were no foolish frills on those people who expected to succeed with labor on the farm or in the shop. Nor were they low spirited, for they were associates of the first and took part in the best that was doing. On June 24,1821, Jesse R. Grant and Hannah Simpson were married in her father's home, which has thus become famous as the John Simpson home, where Hannah had grown as a lovely, unpretending country girl, who never lost the sweet simplicity of her ways. Yet, she was not unknown, for only six months before, she was the bridesmaid of Julia, the daughter of Senator Thomas Morris, at her marriage to the brilliant Dr. John G. Rogers, where the noted and eloquent Rev. George S. Light was the minister. These young people rated as simply good with none better. When housekeeping quickly began, the young couple went down to the mouth of Indian Creek and rented the tannery, built by Page, and not a log hut as often told, but a strong frame house, covered with good full inch Alleghany pine, and containing two nice rooms with a cellar, where none of their simple needs were stinted. The wife came from a home a few miles away, teeming with pioneer abundance. The husband overflowed with a sagacious energy that cleared fifty dollars a month. There, on April 27, 1822, a boy was born, whose main name was Ulysses. The other name was much discussed then and long after. After twenty-two months at Point. Pleasant, Jesse Grant found that he had cleared eleven hundred dollars, of which one thousand was in silver, which proves that he was one in a thousand. He then left the mouth of Indian Creek and went across to White Oak, where the new CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 437 county seat of Brown was to be. There he started with the beginnings of Georgetown and grew with its growth. From his coming in the Spring of 1823, until his return to Bethel, in 1840, little of any business consequence in Georgetown escaped Jesse Grant's critical attention. For seventeen years were to pass in Brown county, before the Grant family returned to Clermont. Of the eleven hundred dollars taken to Georgetown, a part was used to build a small two-story brick house, one of the first brick houses in the place. With a hope of expansion it was set well back from the street. A brick tan house was built. Still later a farm was bought, and the horses for its use were the constant companions of the growing boy, who rode and broke the colts. He drove them single and double, and as soon as he could hold the plow handles, he followed in the furrow. He hauled bark for the tannery, and wood for the many fires, and delivered the products of the farm and shop. From ten to seventeen he did all that a man would have done in the same duties. He detested the tan yard, but was obedient to its requirements. But all work afield or with team was cheerfully done. His father's carriage was in frequent request for the travellers, and this afforded not only the most pleasing of all service, hut developed an intuitive sense of topography that in after life was one of his rarest gifts. Ulysses Grant was constantly taught by a careful father that industry guided by brains is the key to success. Yet, it was not all work and no play. It was common to see "Lyss" standing on his horse galloping to and from the farm. While the boy grew, the father prospered. The house was soon built out to the original plan, and when finished, was so far above the average that it brought envy upon the owner. Injustice has been done to Jesse Grant by those who never took the trouble to learn the truth. He has been called unstable, because he moved from town to town, yet, every change was profitable. He was called illiterate, yet, he read everything with prodigious memory from Pope's Homer to the Messages of the Presidents, which were the limits of human inquiry in the Georgetown of his day. He was a master of vigorous correspondence, and his penmanship is marvelously like that of his son. His virtues were integrity, industry, firmness, frugali- 438 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES ty and a boundless confidence in his family. No one doubted his word or liked to oppose his iron will. Once in an official meeting of his church, he found himself in a minority of one, that no discussion could change. "Very well," he said, "you take your way and I'll go mine." Then picking up his hat, he walked out with the appearance of having received a vote of thanks. Still, he was generous, when his way was not in question. His chief defect was a loquacious vanity that often exceeded the approval of his neighbors. Ulysses saw this defect and went to the opposite in cultivating his chief and beautiful inheritance from his mother, than whom no rarer flower of modesty has ever bloomed. In most other respects, father and son were much alike. Everyone in Georgetown loved Aunt Hannah and liked Lyss ; but there were many. crows to pick with the boss Of the tan yard. Some hundred rods away on the brow of the hill south of the Grant home was a little red brick school house of a once common type. But of them all, not another can show such ample fruits. For it not only trained Grant, but also another Major-General of the regular army, an Admiral and a Commodore of the navy, two Brigadier-Generals, and more fine officers, judges and members of Congress than could have stood together on its platform. It can not be said that these men owed promotion to their illustrious school mate, for some gained place sooner than he. That school house was once the kindgom of Teacher John D. White, the father of General Carr B. White and Member of Congress, Chilton A. White. Under Teacher White, and with his sons, Ulysses Grant spent seven or eight winters in an unrelenting struggle with the rudiments, for his father was not careless about those things. He was not studious ; horse boys never are. But he excelled in mental arithmetic, of which his perception seemed intuitive. He filled the slates of the smaller boys with pictures of wonderful horses—running, leaping, neighing horses—and flowers and pretty things. He was best with pen or pencil of any in the school. He also studied grammar until he almost believed that "a noun is a name of a thing." Hannah Grant so t rained her boy that he could truthfully write near the close of his tumultuous life that he never uttered a profane word. He is one of three West Pointers of whom that can be told. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 439 Stonewall Jackson was the second. The name of the third is not handy. He was a quiet, amiable, shrinking, yet well possessed boy, who never did 'much that was wrong, because he was kept very busy doing that which was right. After his team and colt were fed and groomed, and wood was sawed and carried in, and supper was over, there was just time enough before early breakfast for hearty sleep. Running around at night was not forbidden, because it was not a question in his busy home. He was sent to spend his fifteenth winter in a boarding school at Maysville and his sixteenth winter in another school at Ripley, where he thumbed the books already learned by heart, while he longed to be with his horses. The real benefits of a fine practical example for American boys have been marred by the published bosh about Grant's meager opportunities: His physical, moral, mental and business training was that of an excellent, comfortable family of the great common people, where nothing useful was beneath his attention and nothing worthy above his ambition. Thomas Morris fostered a debating society in Bethel in which Thomas L. Hamer and Jesse R. Grant were ardent members and actors. In a similar society at Georgetown, the debates between the Jacksonian Hamer and the Whiggish Grant became too personal for close friendship. The Free Soil democracy of Morris formed another angle of difference in which there was little political hope for the Whigs. After this condition had grown more strenuous, Mrs. Bailey tearfully told Mrs. Grant, across the garden fence between their homes, that her son had failed at West Point. Mrs. Grant sorrowfully mentioned the confidential news to her husband, who took a much less sympathetic and far more personal interest, for the next mail took a request to Senator Morris for the appointment of Ulysses to the vacancy so opportunely discovered. Morris replied that the appointment belonged to Hamer to whom the request must be made. With characteristic determination to follow any earnest purpose, Jesse Grant reluctantly but resolutely wrote to Hamer for the appointment. Meanwhile, with earlier information of young Bailey's failure, Hamer wrote to Teacher John D. White, asking him to suggest a boy for the vacancy, and the name returned by Teacher White 440 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES was Ulysses Grant. Senator Morris, mindful of the worth of John Simpson, the excellence of Hannah, and the forceful nature of Jesse Grant and remembering the bright, modest lad, went to Hamer to urge the appointment, saying that he rarely failed in sizing boys, of which Hamer himself was a proof. Thus influenced by real affection for his old patron and law perceptor, by Teacher White, and by the chance of making the independent tanner a suppliant, Hamer consented, but required, as was just, that an application should be made directly to him. Grant's application was not received by Hamer until the closing hours of his Congressional duties, of which the last was to sign the nominating papers which were sent to Grant at Georgetown. Hamer traveled home faster than his letter, and, as neither knew how the other stood, both were chagrined and stood apart. Grant thought his request refused, while Hamer considered the father ungrateful. The arrival of the letter put the affairs straight. But in making out the appointment, instead of Hiram Ulysses, Hamer forgetfully wrote Ulysses Simpson, which the War Department refused to correct, and so it was accepted. The boy born in Clermont, who went from Georgetown after sixteen years of happy, wholesome, vigorous, innocent growth there, and who thus entered the door of eternal fame, was a full-set and healthy body with shoulders that drooped beneath a large head with a heavy suit of reddish brown hair framing a round face of fair, but slightly freckled, complexion. The height over all was hardly more than five feet, and the effect was that of an undersized but independent country lad. There was much strength in the full chin, but the blue eyes, with a shade of hazel, had a sad, appealing, almost pathetic expression that easily changed to one of amiable interest which revealed how much he obtained from that pure, gentle, serene person, whom all but her own children called "Aunt Hannah," because they could not call her mother. He showed neither enthusiasm nor indifference. What he had to do was done. At school he had much of the abstracted manner of later life. After "sums were worked or pictures were done, he would fold arms over the slate upon his bosom and sit with bowed head for an hour unless called to action. This was so absurd to the restless boys around that they hit CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 441 upon the fatally alliterative nickname of "Lazy Lysses," which he heard with silent contempt ; for daily and yearly, he was doing more hard work than any two of them ; and in that musing brain was growing the fiber of the most amazing energy. Yet, the boys all liked this warrior who never quarreled. When school was out they crowded to feed the bark mill, while he reclined upon the sweep behind the circling horse, a model of careless unconcern. He did not want to go to West Point, for he doubted his preparation, and only yielded to parental authority. But he wished to travel. A course at college is the guiding hope of all aspiring youth, but the chivalrous romance of American boyhood is to have a place at West Point or Annapolis. None but those who have tested realize the fierce competition. Every class contains boys whose swaddling clothes were marked "M. A." or "N. A.," and who were bred for the Military or Naval Academy. Their education under experts is intended not only to get them in, but also for the much more difficult part of keeping them there. Many, previous to admission, have been taught through much of the course. In theory, all cadets have an equal chance ; but for a boy without special training there is much disadvantage. The twelve thousand writers of All Gull have heightened their contrasts by recording that Grant was a mediocre at West Point. He had not an hour of special training. He had not seen an algebra in Georgetown, and he knew not a word of French. Yet these were the first branches in which he had to contend in the first year with one hundred and six classmates. Of that number, one-third were collegians and two-thirds were of much broader study than his own. Like many before and since, he quickly saw that he could not stand high in his class. He wasted no time in useless repining. He asked no favors, but accepted every event with the complacency of a fatalist. He conned every lesson once through and let it go. In this way much time was found for permitted hours in the library, where a hoard of utmost value was gained that did not count on the merit roll. For that general course of reading, he deliberately, knowingly sacrificed several possible numbers in his class. At last: it was seen that the little cadet with a big head and shy ways was doing his work without much apparent effort. If this be mediocrity, it is not the common 442 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES kind. Still the exquisite nettings of his mental fibre were not discovered. He soon wrote home : "This is the most beautiful place I have seen. I. mean to stay, if I can—if not, the world is wide." In the summer of 1841, the regular mid-course cadet's furlough of ten weeks was joyfully spent at home, where his friends saw that he had grown six inches taller in two years, and that he was as straight as a cadet should be. In the year before, after gathering a property that had a cash value of about Fifteen thousand dollars, Jesse Grant had moved to Bethel, where he did not try to hide his prosperity. For, as the chance came, he bought the house which Senator Morris left in order to practice law in Cincinnati, after leaving the Senate. That house was not only the finest in Bethel but the best in all central Clermont. Such exaltation of the Grants was more envied than neglected. Witless of all but the pleasant life, the cadet went back to routine and to his graduation, which could ,not be brilliant, but should be respectable. One incident was to happen that would have made him a prince in the days of chivalry. The horse alone of animals is the companion of man in war, and the sympathy between the steed and his rider is not born of art. All the superiority gained over him by hard study or long training, vanished on the parade ground in the charge of squadrons or the rush of batteries, where he charmed them all with grace and skill. There was no possibility suggested by the riding masters that was beyond Cadet Grant's execution. He was the best rider in his class, most likely the best ever at West Point, and probably had no superior in the armies he ordered or vanquished. There was a horse at West Point then called York, and shunned by all other men. At the graduating exercises the last act of the diffident Cadet Grant, before all the dignitaries, as if to seal the mutual sympathy of steed and rider, was to make a running leap with the famous horse over a bar that marked six feet and two inches above the level, which stands the unsurpassed record of West Point, and, so far as is certain, of the world. When the "Class of '43" went to the chapel for their graduating address it was known that only thirty-nine were left out of the hundred and six who started, and of these, Uncle Sam Grant, as he was called, was No. 21, with a reputation of hav- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 443 ing been indolent in class work and somewhat addicted to idle reveries. But no account was taken of the general reading accomplished, which was not equalled by any of the class and which was of priceless value in the wide compass of his afterlife, in which nothing that could have been learned from the school books was omitted. As seen under the fierce light that shone around the summit of his fame as a soldier, as a peacemaker, and as an author, Grant appeared successively as a man finely equipped for the duty. Beyond doubt much of this was due to the library at West Point and a sketchy reading habit there formed. The appearance of Lieutenant U. S. Grant of the Fourth Infantry in the fine uniform of a regular officer was a sensation too profound for the comfort of a portion of Bethel. The young man had worthily won his honors, and was wearing the uniform of their libertres, and was heir to the titles and glories of Washington and Jackson. A like incident had not been seen there before or since. Morris was absent, but the occasion was not neglected. Through his modesty and common sense Grant escaped hazing at West Point, as scarcely no other cadet. That mortification came at home. His shy way with strangers was construed into haughtiness. The committee "to take him down" procured some nankeen to match the sky blue of his trousers and the darker blue of his coat, and had the stuff shaped after the military fashion, and duly braided with strips of white muslin. The stalwart hostler of the tavern across the street from the Grant home was induced to wear the costume, that was embellished with a lofty stovepipe hat, and bare feet. The fact that he was five years older and fifty pounds heavier made the affair seem safer, as he tied a sheepskin on a horse bridled with ropes, and began the racket which called the Grants from the table to the door to find a yelling rabble lining the street, over which the fellow was making mock parade. The Lieutenant found temporary relief in calming his furious father. His life shows no finer instance of self-control than during this insult to the man and his uniform. His own account says, "I spent the rest of my leave elsewhere." The full meaning of the line does not occur to one reader in a thousand. After that he so disliked personal display that he wore a private's overcoat all the way to Appo- 444 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES mattox. The incident forms the principal mention of his native county in his "Memoirs." But he does not tell all. Upon any return to the Bethel home, the miserable travesty went through such variations as foolish envy could invent, and never was there a more innocent object. On returning from the Mexican War with a promotion and two brevets for gallantry, he brought a Mexican boy, Idiom he was kindly teaching. Once, in a playful mood, the boy leaped up and stood behind the Captain, riding along, for the boy was also an expert rider. As soon after as possible, the hostler mounted and rode the street with a dog swung at his back. Captain Grant grew still more reserved in a habit that no tumult could provoke, that no gaze could pass. For this, baffled curiosity sought revenge by calling him apathetic—a chip in a resistless current—a spiller of blood where he had more lives in the balance of trade. But beneath this mask was a man so kind and gentle, so honest and truthful, so modest and deferential, that he bound his friends with cables of steel. And with this, he was as sweet of thought and pure of speech as women think their lovers are. In a life so minutely scanned by eager writers, no part has been more obscured than his visits home, and yet they had much significance. In 1852 he came to secure the help of Philip B. Swing, afterwards United States Judge, in an effort to be a teacher in the Hillsboro Seminary, for which he was anxious to resign. Lawyer Swing rated him roundly for such folly and declined to help. After that no visit is of mention, until June To to 15, 1861, when he contemplated a partnership in a bakery at Camp Denison. On June 16, 1861, he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry. Although he had served with distinction, that service had been so distant and his life so modestly reserved and unpretentious, that a personal search through every accessible file of the newspapers of Brown and Clermont failed to find a mention of his name before that. After that, for twenty years, the story of his life is largely a history of America for the time. That obscurity was not lost time for him. For all that is sublimest comes out of solitude. Grant's seclusion at that time is not so wonderful as it was necessary for his evolution. Whether in the crumbly furrow, the lonely road or the crowded CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 445 street, he gained the teaching of visions. For the plain man who eschewed poetry lived in a realm of shadows, where he saw the gathering of squadrons and dusty trains of massing columns or watched the creeping lines of deploying divisions, or traced the ebb and flow of battle, as if it were all one vast field of observation. He knew the nomenclature of war and the technic of maneuvers, as Morphy knew the cabalistic symbols of chess without board or men. He could make people feel that they saw the battles which he described. He had the heritage of energy from a tireless father, and benevolence from an angelic mother. He had no politics but patriotism, no idol but duty. All others were trammeled by a record or dazzled by a future. Above and beond all, he had the imagination of battle, that flew to decisions for which others groped. After three years of mighty war had lifted him to the command of all, he had no false fancies about the superior bravery of sections. His wonderful vision of war comprehended the prodigious forces engaged in a single purpose that must go on to the end without ceasing. In the first week of May, 1864, twenty-four army corps moved their lines forward. Sherman climbed the mountains and started for the sea. Mead forded the Rappahannock and began an all summer battle. There is, no need to tell how or what they did. The result is known. Although he must have felt that every step was toward the pinnacles of lasting fame, Our Hero from Clermont and Brown never rode for show—never ordered troops or trains aside for the passage of his escort, but went here, there and everywhere, dressed according to the weather, in a fatigue blouse or common overcoat of a private, often alone, seldom with more than one orderly, and courting silence rather than applause. The lesson from the Bethel hostler made one full dress uniform last through most of the war. Yet he was not careless of his rank, which was protected with dignity and composure. The patient courtesy was only less remarkable than the face that concealed every emotion he did not choose to reveal. But the gentle pleading eyes that lived in the cold set features told that he dreaded war. When the stately Lee, in fine full dress, was asking for terms, the victor, in common clothes, soiled by a long, muddy ride to the scene, glanced at his opponent's cherished sword, a splendid trophy, and wrote, 446 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES "Your men will keep their side arms" ; and then, with another dash he said, "Your men will need their horses to put in a crop, they can keep them." The world has known no greater victory, and time has seen no finer terms of peace. He had vanquished the Confederates with arms and then captured their honor with kindness. When no longer so much needed in the lofty rank of General of the United States, which was instituted as a special testimonial of national love and respect, he was elected President because the people would have no other before him. As President his policy was tersely stated in one of those laconic phrases for which he was noted : "Let us have peace." The eight years' service in the White House was followed by a trip around the world, which became the triumph of the nations. Through twenty years his life was through such throngs as never gathered around the thrones of earth. In East or West, in North or South, and round the world, men forsook all other mirth, and mothers held their babes aloft to see the hero pass. Of all that is told of the most romantic of actual careers, few are so wonderful for brilliant victories and diverse fortunes as Grant of Clermont and Brown. And when he was dead the Nation buried him in the center of the world, where the Hudson meets the sea and where gratitude for his service has built the finest of American tombs. The sentiment that would ignore and forget the unpleasant objects to any attention to the mocking horseplay at Bethel. But the great General thought otherwise and gave immortality to the incidents by a circumstantial account in the second chapter of his "Personal Memoirs," where he explicitly states that le never recovered from the impressions made by the affair. Justic to him and to many personal friends about Bethel requires that still farther mention should be made in proof of his fine nature in both giving and taking a joke. Amid all the complexities when he came to Chattanooga to change the reverse at Chickamauga into the wonderful victories of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Grant's all but intuitive grasp of detail soon included the Fifty-ninth Ohio, with many familiar Brown and Clermont names. Among these was the sounding combination of William Harrison Scott, which caused the successor to the suggested glories of the CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 447 name to take thought. An orderly was sent with an extra horse to bring the said Scott to headquarters, forthwith and without explanation. When the mysteriously arrested and badly bothered Scott was ushered before the famous General, the ex-hostler found himself alone with the victim of his fooleries, that ceased to seem funny as the majesty of the change was realized. But the amiable officer doffed the iron mask, re' newed an old acquaintance, asked questions about comrades, and the folks at home, ,and incidentally heard a private's opinion of the situation in general, and the particular lack of rations, that had put the regiment on half allowance and even less. "Where is your haversack?" said Grant. "Haversack !" said the private. "Yes, haversack ; where is it ?" sternly spoken as if something was wrong. "Oh, I never wear that when I call on the Commander-in-Chief," was the ready answer ; for, as stated in the "Memoirs," the hostler was "possessed of some humor." "Well, you'll wear one when you leave," and so, one was filled with what could be furnished at headquarters and proudly worn away as he was taken back to the regiment. Having noted that the man was failing, the General ordered an examination that resulted in an honorable discharge on November 20, 1863, which sent Scott back to Bethel to do penance for his pranks and alternately hymn the praise of Grant the rest of his days. As he came to power, Grant was neither remiss nor lavish, but judicious in remembering his Brown and Clermont friends. His most notable appointment from the region, and one beyond reproach, was that of his father's attorney, Philip B. Swing, as a judge of the United States Court at 'Cincinnati. As long as men are curious about those who achieve greatness, travelers will come to the Pleasant Point by the mouth of Indian Creek and muse upon the fascinating story of Grant. But intelligent interest will change to wonder at the bounty of fate in adding more to the historic note of the rustic locality. From attendance at the birth of General Grant, Dr. Rogers was called directly before returning home to attend the birth of Mary Ann Clark, of Irish ancestry, who married Shadrach Corbin, born April 4, 1816, and a son of Nicholas and Nancy Corbin. Nicholas Corbin, born in 1784, came with his parents, 448 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES John and Mary Inlow Corbin, from Wales to Maryland in 179o, and in 1800 to Monroe township. On September 15, 1842, and somewhat back among the farms near Point Pleasant, a son was born to Shadrach and Mary Corbin and named Henry Clark Corbin. Henry grew up as a farmer boy, went to the district school and then to Parker's Academy. Needing money for the study of law, he taught school and, while so employed at Newtown, in Hamilton county, enlisted thirty men for the Eighty-third Ohio, but, in the muster of the regiment, he was rejected to make room for a favorite of other officers. Thus put upon his mettle, he recruited another detachment, with which he entered the Seventy-ninth Ohio as a second lieutenant, and did such service that, on March 13, 1865, when but twenty-two and a half years old, he was breveted a brigadier-general. Upon the disbandment of the Union Army, the young general entered the regular army, on May II, 1866, as a second lieutenant of the Eighteenth infantry, and by hard won promotion through forty years, on April 14, 1906, was appointed lieutenant-general—the highest rank in the military service of America. Thus is one township and in what was one rural school district of Clermont county, two commanders in chief of our army were born. CHAPTER XXII. AFTER THE GREAT WAR. The Care of the Unfortunate—The World is Growing Kinder—The Progress of Charity—The Old Poor Houses—The Modern Infirmaries—The Children's Home—Free Pikes—The Toll Gates a Fading Memory—Agitation for a Central Railroad—The Gore Route—The Stimulating Effect of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad—The Narrow Gauge Era—Samuel Woodward—Two Roads or None—The Cincinnati and Eastern—The Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth—Branch Roads and Traction Lines—The Telegraph and Telephone—Men Careless in Pursuit of Pleasure—Peace and Plenty Accepted Without Wonder—Disaster Causes Amazement—The Circuit of the Rain—Water in Geologic Times—Floods Avoided by the Mound Builders—Shanoah Town—The Flood of 1773—Modern Floods—The Flood of 1913—The Ohio Hundred Year Book—U. S. Senators and Members of Congress from Brown and Clermont—Cemeteries—The Highest Value of History—Our Absent Population. Since men began to plan, power has provided palaces for the mighty, religion has pierced the skies with airy spires, and selfish wealth has lolled in soft array. Greed still guides the way of empire. But true philanthropy brings gladness where hope has ceased to smile. No feature of our age is more indicative of worthy progress than the care of the unfortunate. Whoever has, read history with profit knows that the world is growing kinder. The kindness of the performance measures the progress of society. There may have been a state of original happiness, when all loved each other as themselves, but, if so, it did not last into historic time. The emergence of every race from the obscurity of savagery is a disheartening story of pitiless neglect for the weak. In the swift chase for food, the feeble were left to perish, and in the fierce strife of hunger only the strong could get a gorge. There was no law but force. 450 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES In the forecast from dire experience, even maternal instinct shrank from the hateful future and gave a puny child a quick relief from a hopeless life. In dim belief it seemed better to die quick than starve long. The bloom of charity is found on a plant of slow growth that is still budding with promise. A few of the oldest can remember when the unfortunates, regardless of age or sex, were sold at public auction. If there was a prospect of profit from the victim, the bidder paid the price for a chance. But if the case was helpless and hopeless, the charge was given to the one who would or could bid the lowest. It was a species of slavery, and the system was so scandalous that only the neediest or greediest would bid. The anti-slavery agitation growing out of the discussion of the Missouri Compromise of 182o caused comparison between the black slaves of the South and the "white slave's" of the North. Meanwhile, the laws that made a debtor liable to imprisonment were made odious and swept away in Ohio, by a movement largely urged by Thomas Morris. At last on March 5, 1842, Ohio took a long step forward by authorizing a board of directors to look after a "poor house." The first decided move in Clermont was made in 1854 by the purchase of a farm about a mile out from Batavia on the pike to Williamsburg, which was exchanged for the present farm of one hundred and twenty acres, where a house was built in 1857 and another for the insane in 1867, which were lost by fire in 1877. Then in 1883, at a cost of forty thousand dollars, the county completed the present building, which is a credit to the State. The movement for a permanent provision for the unfortunate in Brown county began as far back as 1828 and has continued with increasing comfort. While the buildings are not so elaborate as in the sister county, the individual receives the essentials of food, warmth and clothing, with liberal judgment. But in the provision of a "Children's Home," Brown has so much to her credit, that Clermont has contracted there for the care of her needy children, rather than try to give them equal care within her own borders. In that home the weak and deserted are revived and restored for the march of life, and society is doubly blessed in the mercy that is learned and the good that is gained. As the Civil War passed by, civic advance required better roads, and the era of free pikes began. Once, when few in CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 451 number and short in extent such improvements could be easily named as notable examples of public enterprise. They have at last become so numerous that the subject can be more readily presented by telling where other pikes are needed ; and a period has been reached m hen maintenance is a larger problem than construction. Free pikes probably had a larger development at first in Brown than in Clermont, where the toll pikes had the priority, and controlled the important bridges. The toll roads, with few exceptions, were in the direction most convenient for markets. That was mostly to and from the river in southern Brown, or north and south. But in Clermont the trend was to and from Cincinnati, or east and west. In the decade of 1870 this was bettered here and there. During the next decade the pikes from the Clermont towns were extended eastward to the county line, which united the systems of the two counties into a gratifying convenience. The cross pikes in both counties have been added year by year and every stream and water bridged until an enumeration of the various improvements, how ever brief, would fill pages, and not conform to this work. At last not a toll gate can be found in the region, and the full meaning of the word will soon be obscure. Agitation for a railroad through, instead of along or by, Brown and Clermont, began before the Civil War. Much was expected from the direction of Hillsboro, when that town was seeking a way to Cincinnati. An elaborate preliminary survey was made that came down through Williamsburg, but could not be bent to include Batavia. The plan was called the "Gore Route," from the name of the engineer in charge, and was much discussed until the Hillsboro road took a line of less resistance and went by Lynchburg to the Marietta road at Blanchester. After that, even hope offered no relief to the "pocket," which was the term sometimes used to describe the position of Adams, Brown and Clermont counties. Now and then a rumor started talk about the Gore Route, but no one did or could do more than talk. Hope looked eastward, but the resolution in 1869 of that city to build the Cincinnati Southern, and the progress of the work, fixed much attention and made the thought of building railroads familiar. One of the popular fashions of that time was the construction of 452 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES narrow. gauge roads, by which steam transportation could be obtained in smaller degree at much reduced rates. Other things had been cheapened. People were willing to believe that a previous failure to get a high priced road was fortunate when something good enough could be had much cheaper. After that theory had started and before it had been tried out, the trackless region east of Cincinnati was chosen for an experiment. In the fall of 1875 the field was inspected. The visit may have been sooner. In late November and through December, 1875, the people in Clermont were given a fine course of instruction on the merits and cheapness of narrow gauge construction as compared with the demerits and great cost of the broad gauge plan. The teachers of the opportunity were Samuel Woodward of Morrow, Ohio, and George Wilbur; and all that they said and more was told to willing believers. A meeting was called for New Year's, 1876, at the court house in Batavia. That meeting comprised citizens from the Round Bottom road, from Donnell's Trace east and west, and from the old State road, by Clough Creek.. No, the people of those localities would not have known what was meant by, a railroad meeting or by broad or narrow gauge. And the real difference between the two systems was not much plainer to those who came from Perintown, Mt. Carmel, Amelia and Mt. Washington, with Batavia in suspense and Williamsburg in wonder. There was no lack of spirit, but much need of harmony, for each and all of the scattered points wanted a narrow gauge through their place and by their door. When the fact developed that some must do without, the hills of Discord almost fell and filled the valley of Progress. The fact soon appeared that the question was not one railroad, but whether there should be two roads or none. Mr. Woodward stated that he would have nothing to do with a road feeding into the Little Miami road, his road must go into the city, with wheels on its own track. Then the hill people said they would have nothing to do with him, and the meeting dissolved into two.. The difference between no railroad and two was long and apparently fatal, but Clermont reached the decisive step on that afternoon. The first company was formally begun on January to, 1876, by Samuel Woodward, Milton Jamieson, George W. Hulick, CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 453 William Mansfield, George H. Wilbur, W. B. C. Sterling, George W. Gregg, Peter F. Swing, Charles H. Thomas, Byron Williams and W. A. Kain, who incorporated to build the Cincinnati, Batavia & Williamsburg Railroad, along the East Fork route. Soon after the charter was extended to Portsmouth, and the name changed to the Cincinnati & Eastern. The construction was so energetic by this rural company, with a subscription secured along the line that the narrow gauge trains were brought from the junction with the Little Miami road to Batavia on October 18, 1876, and to Williamsburg on March 1, 1877. Moving- steadily eastward the track approached the Brown county line on Saturday, March 24, 1877, and at about four p. m. Charles H. Thomas and Henry C. Kain laid the first rail and I drove the first spike of the first railroad in Brow n county. With the mutations of such enterprise, that road is now the Cincinnati division of the Norfolk & Western, one of the great railway systems of America, which is fully redeeming Brown and Clermont from the old reproach of not being on the railroad maps. The second Trans-County Railroad Company was incorporated in the winter of 1876 by Thomas Donaldson, Benneville Kline, John Carlisle, Chilton A. White, Henry W. Kimball, Joseph Clare, Paul Mohr, J. D. Kyle, Josiah Kirby, and H. W. Wellman, for the purpose of building a railroad from Cincinnati, through Mt. -Washington, Mt. Carmel, Amelia, Bethel, Hamersville, Georgetown and Russellville. After changes, this road is known as the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railroad. While of immense local advantage, the importance of through connections is delayed. The Old Cincinnati & Eastern Company built a branch to New Richmond, that after a few years was abandoned. Another branch was projected between Hillsboro and Georgetown through Sardinia that has been extended to Ripley. During the narrow gauge fever of 1876, a road was projected from Milford through Newtonville to Fayetteville and Hillsboro, that brought a locomotive to the Goshen Pike crossing, and then failed. Ten years later, the Chesapeake & Ohio brought their great railway along the Ohio on the Kentucky side. All this convenience of steam railways was supplemented during the first decade of the, twentieth century, by the exten- 454 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES sion or completion of electric traction lines, of which the most western runs through Milford to Blanchester ; another through Milford by Fayetteville to Hillsboro; a third from Cincinnati through Mt. Washington and Amelia to Bethel ; a fourth over the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth track to Russellville, with one branch to Batavia and another from Bethel to Felrcity ; and still another frond Cincinnati to New Richmond. With the probable extension of the lines eastward along the Ohio, and from the present terminals at Batavia and Russellville, no other rail tracks within reason are left to be imagined for either county. The telegraph has followed and even preceded the railroads and every desiring home with the price can have the accommodation of the telephone. While individuals are prone to repine at personal prospects. the great throng of mankind is intent upon pleasure though the path goes by the brinks of danger. The most mirth provoking wine gains it flavor from volcanic dust and the richest food is gathered where the waters return after the rain. Geology teaches that torrents have surged where rivulets only murmur now. All life is blessed or blasted as the shifting currents mass the clouds for rain or scatter them for drouth—so much and we are glad—a little more or less and we perish. A generation is passed in peace and plenty without wonder. The disaster of a day causes amazement. Yet the trouble flows from only a waver in the balancings of a ceaseless change. The creative force that lifted the Laurentian land and smoothed its gentle slopes for the happiest clime between torrid heat and frigid cold, also fashioned those fruitful slopes with the finest circuit of life. sustaining vapors that blesses any equal area of our wrnd swept world. The waters rising from the steaming sea and floating away to refresh the thirsty land, when touched by the condensing wand that scatters the pearly drops of plenty on the smiling plain have only reached the turn in the appointed journey whence they must go back through soaking fields and trickling springs, and be gathered by the babbling brooks for a flow to the sea. The circuit without which all design must fail begins with a flight through the measureless fields of upper air and closes with a fall to an all engulfing deep. Where so much must be done so soon, experience knows that the flight of the clouds CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 455 must often swirl in tempests, and the return of the rains must be piled in floods. Still, with each repetition, men wonder and make comparison and prophesy more evil. For many resent "The sweet influences of the Pleiades" and lift up a voice to the clouds against the abundance or lack of waters. All such opinion is as futile now as when Job darkened counsel by words without knowledge. Science and history agree in teaching that a lack of water is more probable than the reverse. Geologic investigation is rife with evidence of the once terrific flow of floods. Every wave worn hill or bed of gravel tells a tale of primeval floods. The Mound Builders kept well above the modern limit. Among those on the lowest level known are two or three on the rim by Newtown, which seem to have been outposts of the much higher village at Red Bank. Among modern Indians, the first and only known occupation of the Ohio river below the vicinity of Pittsburgh was made by the wandering Shawnees and Delawares, near the mouth of the Scioto, where Gist came in 1751 and named their recent settlement Shanoah Town. Fourteen years later, Shanoah was swept away and the Shawnees went up the Scioto to the safety of the Pickaway Plains. In June, 1773, the McAfee brothers, James, George and John, of Botetourt county, Virginia, came on an exploring expedition down the Ohio, then in flood that reached from hill to hill. They had intended to explore the Miami country, but the wild waste of water changed their purpose and they eventually went back into Kentucky from Louisville. By tradition that flood exceeded all that is known of the Ohio by some three or four feet. The settlement of Columbia and the plans of John Cleves Symmes at North Bend were changed by a "freshet" in January, 1789. After that only the lower lands were much disturbed until February, 1832, brought a flood of sixty-four feet and three inches. That was approached in December, 1847, by another of sixty-three feet and seven inches. No great difficulty was met for thirty-two years. Then the trouble began in February, 1882, with a little flood that was followed in February, 1883, by one that rose to sixty-six feet and four inches, and then on February 14, 1884, by seventy-one feet and three-fourths of an inch, the highest yet accurately measured at Cincinnati. 456 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES A study of the reports from other localities showed variations that resulted from different tributaries. What was greatest in one time or place was not so in another. People learned that the trouble of one region passed on to become the sorrow of another, as the floods of the Ohio joined others from the North and from the West and formed the vast volumes of the Mississippi, which is being leveed as a National necessity. The subsequent almost annual repetition of the annoyance here or there in widely distant regions has much apparently inconsequential attention. Men will not desert their richest fields because of occasional disaster. Such suggestion is riot creditable to American enterprise, and all discussion that is not comprehensive is apt to be disappointing. Meanwhile, a most recent experience has added much to local disquietude. On Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913, and in the equinoctial season, as was noted by some who believe that nature suffers then, a week of fine weather gave place to a heavy and lengthy fall of rain that in westward regions, especially in Omaha, was ushered by a fearfully fatal cyclone. The people of the old Clermont region were glad with the possession of an almost hourly steam and traction service for most of the townships, and the expectation of a speedy extension of the convenience to all. The rural neighborhoods were rejoicing in the promised improvement of the two main central highways east and west under the fostering care of the State, and all were pleased with the general prospect of better things for the public. Amid such felicity the pitiless rain fell upon all Ohio in a sheet of water that reached a depth in many gauges of eight and a half inches. By Tuesday the word went that cities along the smaller rivers were being ruined by torrents, and that thousands of lives were lost or in danger. Then the State was wrapped in the silence and suspense of no trains, no mails, no newspapers, no telegraphs, no telephones and bridgeless roads. Locally the disaster fell upon the Miami Valley from Loveland to the mouth of the East Fork, where the damage from the rushing current included bridges , and homes that had been free from any previous danger. As the water receded from the tributaries, the, flood in the Ohio began and all but CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 457 reached the record height of 1884. At some points the former marks were exceeded, and all insist that the damage along the Ohio was greater than ever before, because of the waves from untimely winds. The one thing to be remembered with pleasure is the fine sympathy which hastened to help the people that suffered all along the river front from Loveland to Aberdeen. Besides the Military Roster, Ohio has published an exhibit of those who have served the State in civil positions. That work, known as the Ohio Hundred Year Book, is so ample and elaborate as to preclude the need of such tabulation in these pages. But a look through the rolls of Congress will furnish names that have been familiar, and should be remembered. Much mention has been made of United States Senators, Alexander Campbell and Thomas Morris. They are the only citizens of Brown or Clermont who have held that exalted dignity. The first member of Congress from Brown was Thomas L. Hamer, also frequently mentioned. He was followed in 1839-40-41-42 by William Doane, of Clermont. Jonathan D. Morris, a son of Senator Morris, was a member in 1847-48-49-5o. Andrew Ellison, of Brown, served in 1853-54. William Howard, of Clermont, served in 1859-60. The next was Chilton A. White, of Brown, in 1861-62-63-64. R. W. Clark, of Clermont, followed in 1865-66-67-68. Twenty years later W. W. Ellsberry was a member in 1885-86. The next was John M. Pattison, of Clermont, in 1891-92, and the last was George W. Hulick, of Clermont, in 1893-94-95-96. Their united service in Congress amounted to nineteen terms, or thirty-eight years in all. All of those honorable men served both counties as one, except Dr. Ellsberry, of Brown, then in another district, and all have ceased from effort. The care of the departed, as well as the homes of the living, is a test of the means and taste of a time. When the people were few and lonely, and before a denser settlement gathered them in groups, the graves were made near by where sorrow could keep a constant vigil. As others- came, mourning was healed with the thought that those who had lived .in love should be together in death, so family burial places were set apart. As churches were fixed, grief brought its dead to rest where piety had taught eternal hope. As communities grew 458 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES stronger, society combined in selecting desirable cemeteries for which, and for all graves, benign laws have provided care and continuance. Thus spots consecrated by long-gone sorrow have become the scenes of much monumental attention. An example of such development is found where Green Lawn Cemetery has succeeded the pioneer Gatch burial ground, which in turn before was a part of a stupendous scene in the Mound Builders' age—a scene which is eloquent with warning that we are as shadows in a sweeping whirl of change. Milford has much but not a monopoly of such suggestion. The highway along the valley by Stonelick, Marathon and Fayetteville to Chillicothe, and the course by the Ohio have similar spots replete with reflection upon the heedless waste of natural wealth—the waste that is extirpating instead of cherishing the Blue Grass, which was and should be the natural, bountiful and fittest food for flesh in the Land of the Blue Limestone. Adverse critics rehearse the ravage of floods, deplore diminished crops, and cite that population does not increase. They arraign nature. They wail ills that can be cured. They distort truth. The highest value of history depends upon the lesson learned. All pride in the past, however glorious, is vain that does riot incite to noble purpose. The floods come from rain. And rain is the divinest blessing that has made the Ohio Valley a garden of the earth. With floods unused Egypt could not have been. With floods controlled the valley of the Nile was the cradle of civilization. No doubt the damage was great at first and many perished. But man learned and conquered. And man must learn again. Strife is the inexorable condition of progress. In the scramble for fickle coin instead of the stable wealth of fertilizing herds, the verdure has been withered in cruel crops of baleful hay, and the richest loam has fled from the blasting blight of tobacco in order to feed the teams and solace the fatigue of an all-devouring and little returning city. Wisdom warns man to love the future and cease to waste the land for selfish gain. Those sated with the lust of the city must be coaxed to bring their gain and revel on fruited hills and along clover bordered paths. The population of Brown and Clermont is not at a standstill, but growing wide and far. The tens of thousands born and bred CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 459 but not counted there are not lost but only away—some at a desk or pulpit, some ranching or mining, some marking new ways for commerce or hearing the Flag, some ruling a school or queening a home, but all turning at morn, noon and night to look from mountains or peer through clouds toward the Land of their Youth.