HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 325 must have gone by an underground road." When the railroads came into the country the name was altered to suit the new situation. All Ohio was in the conspiracy. Several established roads existed. Most of the Ohio River towns on the Ohio side had organized groups ready to take care of any slaves who crossed. The harbor towns on Lake Erie were all prepared at a moment's notice to start the fugitive on the last lap of the journey to Canada and freedom. Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Fairport, Ashtabula and Conneaut all had their organizations. Traveling was of course done by night, one "conductor" taking up the journey after another, and great ingenuity was brought into play in the invention of hiding places by day. There is still standing, for instance, on the south side of the Mahoning River, about a mile and a half above Lowellville, on the edge of the little early settlement of Mount Nebo, a brick house which was an Underground Railroad station. In this house, as is a very common plan of domestic architecture, the stairway to the second story was directly over the cellar steps. A stranger who went "down cellar" might have noticed that above him was a sealed flooring, apparently completely closing the space under the stairway. The ceiling was only apparent, however, for it was really a trap door with carefully concealed hinges. In this narrow enclosure many a slave spent a day, while at times his pursuers searched the premises. The eastern Ohio counties were especially suited to the operations of the Railway, as we have already suggested, for two reasons : first, the short haul—less than ninety miles; second, the fact that the inhabitants were strongly imbued with the abolition sentiment. Again the fact that four harbors were available helped, for the pursuit could easily be confused almost at the start of the journey, and the route of the escape could be altered at any point. There is no pos- 326 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO sible way of calculating the number of slaves who reached Canada by this route, but it numbered into the thousands. Salem, as a first halting point, was ideal. It was an easy night's drive from the River, and the entire citizenry of the place was united in utter and complete defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law. The sentiment of the village was so strong, in fact, that any stranger who voiced sentiments favoring slavery as an institution was likely to find himself in bodily danger. From Salem north several roads diverged, and the slave who got that far could regard himself as reasonably secure. Of course, the whole proceeding was entirely outside the law. There was no doubt as to the legal duty of the local authorities, under the Fugitive Slave Law, to apprehend and hold any escaping slave until his master could arrange for his return to captivity. But one may search the court records of eastern Ohio in vain to find an instance of a conviction for this peculiar crime. In the rare instance that an indictment was returned, the accused person serenely stood his trial, with full confidence that no jury which could be impaneled in the jurisdiction would bring in a verdict of "guilty." In fact, if any pro-slavery man got on such a jury, he was very likely to vote for acquittal as loudly as the rest, in order to save, as the local expression has it, "his hide." Our forefathers regarded themselves, and justly, as a God-fearing law abiding people, but they had their reservations, when it came to obeying a law in which they did not believe. And, it must be confessed, their descendants are in much of the same mind. We must not leave early Salem without a word concerning the beginning of manufacturing industry in the village. The present prosperity of the place is due mainly to the fact that it became the scene of manufacture of various special- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 327 ties, mostly in iron and steel, which developed a nation wide market. One Thomas Sharp built a steam engine, mostly from parts carried across the mountains, as early as 1840. The firm of Snyder and Woodruff began the manufacture of stoves in 1847. In 1856 their original frame building burned, whereupon they replaced it with a better and larger structure of brick, and went on to larger production. The Buckeye Engine Works was established in 1851 by Sharp, Davis and Bonsall, an institution destined to a long and prosperous career. The other settlements of northern Columbiana County were slower in growth. The pleasant village of Columbiana had a store, owned by Jesse Allen, as early as 1812. Benjamin Hanna, grandfather of Senator Hanna, seems to have been a silent partner in this enterprise. Another store was opened in Columbiana in 1825, by William Moody, and a third by William Yates in 1831. There was a congregation of Hicksite Friends in the village in 1832, but it has long since ceased to exist. The pleasant little Village of Middleton, a few miles south of Columbiana, was the location of an Orthodox Friends meeting house from a very early date, probably 1803. Columbiana was incorporated as a village in 1837. It has never grown to city size, but still retains a fine citizenry, and is a delightful place to live. In Unity Township, now the northeastern corner of Columbiana County, there was a little village, called Unity, founded by Robert Veon in 1810. Here Henry Forney opened a tavern in 1820. Unity, however, never grew beyond the hamlet size. A little south of Unity, nearly on the state line, Thomas McCalla and William Grate laid out a town plat in 1828, naming the place Mechanicsburg. For some reason, about 1832 this name was changed to East Palestine. This 328 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO settlement began to show growth after 1835, when Robert Chamberlain made a large addition to the original plat, which became the principal portion of the village. Edward Allender opened a store here in 1830. Robert Chamberlain himself, however, opened a general store under the name of Chamberlain and Company, which continued to be the leading mercantile establishment of the place for many years. A third settlement in Unity Township, New Waterford, dates back to 1851, but its importance came in later years. The original five northern townships of Columbiana were transferred to Mahoning in 1846, as we have already noted. The western of these, Smith, had an early attachment to the neighboring Stark County City of Alliance, and little history to record until after the Civil War. Goshen and Green townships remained suburban neighbors of Salem after the formation of the new county. In Beaver Township the Village of North Lima was founded in 1826 by James Simpson. North Lima has remained as it began, the local center of a fine farming community, largely Pennsylvania German in ancestry. In Springfield Township, in the southeastern corner, nearly on the Pennsylvania line, Peter Musser, already noted, began his settlement before 1810. A pleasant little stream flowed through the neighborhood and on out into Pennsylvania, and on this stream Musser built a mill, which fact gave the place its early name of Musser's Mill. Musser added a small store to his mill business a little later. Another store was opened by James Wallace in 1815, and a mill by John Miller (an appropriate name) in 1825. After Peter Musser's death the name of the village was changed to Petersburg, in his memory. Springfield Township grew in population faster than the other townships near it, the inhabitants being nearly all HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 329 Pennsylvania Germans. Two other prosperous settlements grew into being, New Middletown and New Springfield, both dating back about to the year 1825. Springfield Township has remained both prosperous and industrious, the present population consisting largely of the descendants of the original Pennsylvania Germans. CHAPTER IX STARK COUNTY. Lying west of Columbiana County, and having no peculiar reason for settlement by any individual group of settlers, like the Connecticut men in the Reserve, Stark County was slow in development. Before the coming of the Ohio Canal there were no large settlements in the county. Several hamlets strove for possession of the county-seat, the decision in favor of Canton being made on account of its central location, and probably also on account of the influence of Bezaleel Wells, who, though never a resident himself, was more influential, perhaps, than any local inhabitant. Naturally, Stark County's founders were of various origins, geographically and racially. The largest individual group, perhaps, were Pennsylvania Germans. Backwoods Virginians and Pennsylvania Scotch Irish also were represented among the early inhabitants. Almost no element of settlers from New England are to be found in Stark. Osnaburgh, lying just east of Canton, was the most prosperous settlement in the county during the early years. This village might have been the county seat, as it was in good location, and had an earlier start than Canton, but the first proprietor, one Joseph Leeper, had a character which caused opposition rather than support to his claims for consideration. Leeper's reputation for honesty was not questioned, but his convivial habits gathered around him a group of prospective settlers who did not encourage the more sober - 330 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 331 minded emigrants to settle. Leeper was the keeper of the village tavern, and was a regular customer at his own bar. An early traveler records that on stopping for the night at the Leeper tavern, he was offered as a lodging for his horse the privilege of tying to a fallen beech tree, and for himself either the floor of the loft or a corner by the fireplace on the ground floor. Three brothers, Rudolph, Stophel and Abraham Bair, were the most prominent of the early settlers in Osnaburgh and Paris, the adjoining township on the east. Rudolph Bair was a most valuable citizen. While a resident of the old Jefferson County he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1802, and afterwards a representative in the state legislature from Columbiana and Stark counties. Canton, however, soon outgrew Osnaburgh. The court house was built in the corner of the public square, in 1816, on land donated by Bezaleel Wells. This building was about fifty feet square, two stories high, built of brick, with a roof pitched four ways to a central belfry, or tower, surmounted by a weather vane with the date, 1816, inscribed upon it. The bell in this belfry served Canton for many years, as a fire-bell, school-bell, dinner-bell and curfew. This court house sufficed Canton and Stark County for many years, additions in the way of county offices being made from time to time. Canton's first jail was a log structure with two cells. In 1830 a better jail was built, of stone and brick, half jail and half sheriff's residence. Pioneer education in Stark County progressed faster than in other parts of east central Ohio. There was an academy building built on the site of the first one-room school about 1816. This was a four-room, two-story brick building, plain but comfortable for those times. It was used as an academy or high school on week days, and as the first home of the 332 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Methodist Episcopal Church on Sundays. This building stood until 1845, when it was razed, and a more modern building erected in its place. The beginning of what was to lead to collegiate education in Stark County was at Mount Union, a village lying on the line between Washington and Lexington townships, just south of the City of Alliance. Here, about 1825 a school was opened with some pretensions to higher education. From this beginning grew Mount Union College, an institution to be described at length in a future chapter. The first newspaper of Stark County, and one of the oldest in the state still to continue, is the Stark County Repository. The Repository was founded in 1815, by John Saxton, the first number being issued on the 30th of March. The Repository was Canton's only newspaper until 1819. In that year a paper printed in the German language, called the Westliche Beobachter, which may be translated "Western Observer," was published by Edward Shaffer. This paper continued until 1828, when it was discontinued, and succeeded by the Vaterland's Freund, published by Solomon Sala and Christian Lehmus. This paper continued until 1846. It was succeeded by the Ohio Staat Bote, which continued into the Twentieth Century. The Repository's first rival in the English tongue was the Stark County Democrat, established in 1828 by Joseph W. White. The Democrat was first issued at Paris, in the eastern side of the county, but in 1829 White moved it to Canton. Six weeks after the removal White sold out to James Allen. In 1830 Allen moved to Massillon with his printing establishment, and continued the publication, under the name of the Massillon Gazette, taking John Townsend, as partner. This paper continued into the Twentieth Century, changing its name later to the Massillon News. STORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 333 The Stark County Democrat was reorganized in 1834, by a Mr. Bernard. This time the paper continued through various vicissitudes, until modern times. To return to the Repository; it is still in publication, thus claiming a record as one of the oldest newspapers in the state in point of continuous existence. The Farmer's Bank of Canton was organized in 1815, with directors as follows: Thomas Hurford, John Shorb, John Meyers, William Fogle, Winana Clark, James Hazlett, Philip Slusser, Jacob Meyers and George Stidger. John Shorb was elected president, and William Fogle cashier. In 1818 the bank had a capital stock of $33,710. A dividend of four percent had been declared in 1817, but the bank was soon afterward beginning to feel the effects of the financial stringency of 1819-20. The principal reason for the trouble was the fact that the bank had issued a large amount of its own paper currency, and was being crowded by creditors holding this currency and demanding its redemption. This was a custom of the time among western banks, and led to the downfall of many of them. In 1818 the Farmer's Bank suspended specie payment. Strenuous efforts were made to restore the bank's credit but of no avail. In March, 1821, the bank was sold out, house, lot and fixtures, at public auction. The earliest church organizations in Stark County seem to be the Lutheran or German Reformed faiths. The first congregation in Canton was a combination of these two. They began the construction of a little church building in 1810, on lots donated by Bezaleel Wells for church purposes. As they were doubtful as to their right to keep sole possession of these lots, they moved, under the direction of their first pastor, the Rev. Anthony Wier, a Lutheran minister, to a site on East Tuscarawas Street, where they built a church. 334 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO The two congregations separated in 1818, the Rev. Benjamin Foust becoming pastor of the Reformed group, but they occupied the same building until the early sixties, constructing a new brick church for their joint use in 1822. Canton early had an organized parish of the Roman Catholic Church. A number of the early settlers were Roman Catholics of German descent, most of them coming to Canton and vicinity from Baltimore. Among these were the families of John Shorb, the president of the Farmer's Bank, and Andrew Meyer, who was the proprietor of several thousand acres of land, enclosing Meyer's Lake, still a popular summer resort. Catholic missionaries caused the organization of Saint John's Parish, probably the oldest parish in the Diocese of Cleveland. The first pastor of this parish was the Rev. Father John A. Hill, a young Englishman who was commander of a regiment at Waterloo. Hill and his wife were converted to the Catholic faith, with the extraordinary result that he entered the priesthood and she a convent. He came to America as a misionary priest, and they never met again. The First Presbyterian Church of Canton was organized formally in 1821, with Rev. James McClean as pastor. Financial difficulties resulted in the withdrawal of Rev. McClean, and the church was without a pastor until 1825, when the Rev. J. B. Morrow was called from the theological seminary. Morrow stayed with the congregation until 1830, when the church began the construction of a building on the Wells lots, abandoned by the Lutheran Reformed group years before. Morrow became discouraged and left the church. It was revived a little later by Rev. Timothy M. Hopkins, who established it on a permanent footing. Philip Slusser, one of the earliest Canton pioneers, was probably the first resident who belonged to the Methodist Episcopal faith. The Methodists held occasional meetings until 1824, when Canton became a regular station on a Meth- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 335 odist circuit. The congregation built a little church on Eighth Street in 1833. The Methodist Church prospered in Canton from that time on. Baptist churches were organized in Waynesburg, in Pike Township and in Massillon at an early date. No congregation existed in Canton, however, until 1849, when John Danner and wife removed from Massillon to Canton, and with several others formed a Baptist congregation, the first pastor being the Rev. John Winter, of Sharon, Pennsylvania. The Disciples seem to have had no early permanent organization in Canton or elsewhere in Stark County. The permanent organization of a church of Disciples in Canton came about 1851. This was largely due to the personal efforts of the great Alexander Campbell himself. Canton was incorporated on January 30th, 1822. The first mayor was John Myers, founder of an important Canton family. The first trustees, or council were: James W. Lathrop, president; Samuel Pennywell, recorder; and Joseph Robb, Christian Palmer, Jacob Rex, James Hazlett and John Sterling. John Buckius was street commissioner, and George Stidger, fire marshal. Before the Ohio Canal was definitely laid out the only settlement on the site of the present City of Massillon was the little Hamlet of Kendall, the scene of the organization, in 1826, of the "Kendall Community," a semi-socialistic organization planned after the methods of Robert Owen, the great Scottish philanthropist. This institution was bravely begun, but like so many others, soon failed. The soil of Ohio seems to be favorable to the sprouting of such enterprises, but not to their continuance. Massillon was laid out in 1825. The reason for its existence was the coming of the canal, which had avoided Canton, due mainly to the lack of interest, or opposition, of the citizenry. Massillon soon became a place of great importance. 336 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO It was the wheat shipping center for several surrounding counties, being locally known as the "Wheat City." The wagons of wheat came in daily in an almost constant procession, and canal boats heavily laden carried the wheat to Cleveland or Cincinnati, thence to be shipped to all parts of the Eastern United States. These were the days of Massillon's greatness, and while the canal has ceased to exist the solid foundation of prosperity created then has continued until now. Flour milling was the pioneer manufacturing business in Stark County, as in nearly every other part of Ohio. The first mill in Canton was built by John Shorb in 1832. This mill continued in operation for many years. Johnson and Pennock built a grist and saw-mill on the Mahoning River at Williamsport in 1818. James Duncan built a mill at Navarre shortly after the opening of the Ohio Canal, using the water of the canal for power. Philip Slusser had a saw and gristmill on the Nimishillen Creek as early as 1808; perhaps the first mill in Stark County. Lewis Rogers built a grist-mill on Newman's Creek in Tuscarawas Township in 1812. Ezekiel March built a mill in Washington Township in 1820. Marsh was the first settler of this township, a very powerful man physically and mentally. Many stories are told of his physical courage, which resulted in fights for the cause of righteousness. There were two potteries in Canton in the early days, both manufacturing stoneware. They were operated by two cousins bearing almost the same name, Adam A. Shorb and Adam L. Shorb. Some other pottery operations came into existence, but this was never a large enterprise in Canton. The business which really made Canton's start toward prosperity was the manufacture of agricultural machinery. The first manufacturer of these implements in Canton was Joshua Gibbs. He was a native of New Jersey, and in HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 337 his youth learned the business of plow making in Trenton. He patented a plow in 1836, known as Gibb's barshare plow. This plow was the principal item of his manufacture in Canton. It became very popular in the West. The Gibbs family continued the manufacture of plows in Canton into the present century. Some time about 1835 Colonel Ephraim Ball, then residing in Greentown, Lake Township, had brought to his attention a new type of threshing machine. At that time the common method of threshing in Ohio was the primitive flail, little improved from the days of ancient history. Colonel Ball was so much impressed with the new machine that he resolved upon its manufacture. With the assistance of three brothers he entered on the new business. The machine, however, was not portable, and difficulties with the horsepower used, together with financial troubles, prevented any success to the brothers for several years. In 1840 they decided to turn their attention to the foundry business, and succeeded in casting successfully plow shares and other iron articles, in spite of ridicule and opposition from their neighbors. Their financial troubles continued, but in spite of them the brothers succeeded in operating the foundry for several years. Ball also turned his attention to the manufacture of reapers, which were fairly successful in operation. In 1851 the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad was surveyed through Alliance, Canton and Massillon. Its eastern terminus was at Pittsburgh, its western at Crestline. In a year or two the Ohio and Indiana Railroad joined Crestline with Chicago, and the whole became the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago. This railroad meant prosperity to all the towns along the line. Colonel Ball immediately saw the necessity of locating on the railroad. His partners sold their share of the business to Cornelius Aultman, and the firm of Ball, Ault-man and Company moved to Canton. Here they began the 338 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO manufacture of reapers, mowers and other agricultural machinery, building the foundation of a great business. In 1858 Ball sold out his interest to Aultman and went into business for himself. The business then became known as C. Aultman and Company, under which name it continued to build prosperity for Canton. Another firm, which was a pioneer in the manufacture of agricultural implements in Massillon, was organized by three brothers, Charles M., Nathan S., and Clement Russell. These brothers came to Massillon in 1838, and started manufacturing threshing machines and other farm machinery. In all seven Russell brothers joined this firm, which was known as C. M. Russell and Company. In later years they added to their business the manufacture of stationary and portable engines: They were largely responsible for the later development of Massillon. Alliance, located on the extreme eastern border of Stark County, was an insignificant village until the coming of the railroad. It was incorporated in 1854. The original cause of its growth was the building of the railroad, as it was in the proper location for the construction of railroad shops. The coming of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad was the direct cause of the prosperity of Stark County. Coming as it did at the time when the opening of the West meant prosperity to all parts of the country, this railroad was of the utmost value to all the towns on or near the line. At this point, just before the Civil War, it is appropriate to leave the history of Stark County her pioneer period being ended, to take up the new phase after the war. BOOK FIVE The Civil War Period CHAPTER I THE OPENING OF THE CONFLICT It is not within the province of this work to discuss at any length the battles and campaigns of the Civil War. Our purpose is to give a brief account of such men as our district produced who were among the leading figures in the conflict, to give credit to the rank and file of the soldiers who took part in it, and to give the account of such happenings as are worthy of note in the district during the period. In the discussion of the history of the years from the War of 1812 to the Civil War we have attempted to show how Northeastern Ohio grew in anti-slavery sentiment until it became one of the strongest supports of the abolition cause. It is well known that the Whig Party never had any coherence in party principles. It was composed of many and discordant elements united only in one point, that of opposition to the dominant Democratic Party, so that it can only be defined as the opposition party. The two presidents elected as Whigs were, one a Virginian transplanted early in life to Ohio, with a record as a warrior which brought him credit, but no great experience in the problems of major statesmanship; the other, a soldier, honest but simple, with an almost - 339 - 340 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO accidental fame which made him a winner in a presidential campaign in which he took little part, with an incoherent platform which he never understood. On the problem of slavery Harrison probably never had very pronounced views either way, while Taylor was himself a southerner and a slave-holder. Neither one lived long enough after inauguration to develop a policy of government; it is doubtful if Taylor ever had any. The great Whig leaders, Webster, Clay and Adams, fought their battles on the floor of Congress, and lesser men than either them or their great opponents filled the Presidential chair from Jackson's retirement to the Civil War. This lack of coherence and unity of purpose could only result in one end, the breakup of the party. When this breakup came about, with the Compromise of 1850, such strong abolition centers as Northeastern Ohio naturally looked for leaders to such men as were firmly opposed to the institution of slavery. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was to them a betrayal into the hands of the enemy, and they gladly welcomed the formation of the Republican Party, as a union of all the foes of slavery; Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings and Anti-Slavery Whigs, into one united group, with the abolition of slavery as their eventual goal. Men like Giddings and Wade embraced the principles of the new party with ardor, and while Tod, probably the most capable and far-seeing statesman of them all, remained in the Democratic ranks until after the conventions of 1860, he was ready in 1861 to abandon his disrupted party and to offer himself as a champion of the principles for which the North stood, and as a supporter of Lincoln's administration. How far the fanatic abolitionists of the North were responsible for the disruption which resulted in secession will probably always be a subject for controversy. Certainly, their hot and open advocacy of the abolition principles HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 341 aroused a corresponding determination on the part of the slave holding South to maintain the institution, if necessary, by withdrawing from the Union. Certainly, every slave who reached Canada and freedom by way of the Underground Railroad made one more angry slave-holder who regarded himself as having been deprived of his property by organized criminals, defiant of the law. By 1860 the situation had arrived at the point where the Democratic Party was unable to hold itself together, to say nothing of the nation as a whole. The Republican Party was the one united political group in the nation, and its strength was wholly in the North. That the peculiar institution of the Electoral College enabled the Republicans to carry the election of Lincoln, although in a minority of more than a million votes, is a fact that may seem to be almost a Providential intervention. Certainly such a result was not within the calculations of many of the Founders when the Constitution was drafted. While our voters of Northeastern Ohio gave large majorities to Lincoln it does not seem that they had any great confidence in him. He was not of their blood; neither the Connecticut Yankees nor the Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish claimed kinship with him. What they knew of him did not reassure them much. His Cooper Union speech was largely overlooked; his series of debates with Douglas were to them negligible features of a local conflict; they had heard of him as a successful backwoods lawyer with an effective gift of low humor—funny enough, but not the stuff of which great statesmen are made. Charles Farrar Browne, who, under his pseudonym of Artemus Ward was the favorite humorist of the neighborhood, had poked his fun at the candidate with a friendly satire which amused, but did not add to their confidence. When South Carolina seceded, and the cotton states followed in rapid succession, many of the more violent abolition- 342 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO ists were of a mind to let them go. The more far seeing of the inhabitants of the neighborhood, of course, could see that a frontier made up of Lake Erie on the north and the Ohio River on the south would place our particular territory in an attenuated and dangerous position. But the attitude of the nejghborhood was one of waiting. Lincoln's prolonged silence, listing from Election Day to Inauguration Day, did nothing to quiet their apprehension. When the inauguration train rolled along the lake shore on its wandering road to Washington a few enthusiasts cheered at the various stations, but there was no great demonstration of enthusiasm. When that train came back, four years later, bearing the body of the hero, men stood in the fields with bared and bowed heads, as it passed, in that grief so deep it cannot speak. But now, in 1861, they were still waiting. The unanswerable logic and divine language of the great First Inaugural was the first real inspiration they received. Then came the episode of Fort Sumter, and the call to arms. Northeastern Ohio sprang to arms. The young men of the district flocked to the recruiting offices. The militia mobilized, and Ohio prepared for war. Through all the years the old militia organizations had been maintained, but their training as actual soldiers was negligible to the point of non-existence. Their meetings were in places as rare as one day in a year; a day in which they killed an hour or two, had a speech or two, listened to the band and spent the rest of the day in festive celebration. There was no discipline worthy of the name. Officers were elected by popular vote, or appointed on account of political prestige—the two worst ways to officer a military organization. As has always been our custom, America prepared for the war after it started. The first enlistments, it will be remembered, were for ninety days. Few of these men got as far as the actual fight- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 343 ing in that time. Such as did were rudely awakened. At the end of the ninety days, to their credit be it said, most of them re-enlisted for three years, or the duration of the war. The country settled down, on both sides, for a long and bitter conflict, a war which, as it turned out, was to be carried on to the point of utter exhaustion. It is time to leave off these generalities, and take up the details important to this history. CHAPTER II GOVERNOR DAVID TOD It seems to us appropriate that the first of the Civil War chapters should be devoted to the story of the greatest of the sons of the Reserve whose service to the nation was principally in this period. It will be remembered that Judge George Tod was one of the most important and useful men of the period of settlement in the Reserve. He was one of the Suffield, Connecticut men, born there in 1773, of old New England ancestry. He graduated at Yale in 1795, was admitted to the Connecticut bar, married Sally Isaacs in 1797, and first came to Ohio in 1800. In 1801 he brought his family to Youngstown, and the Tod family has ever since filled a large place in the community. Judge Tod was a friend of Arthur St. Clair, and acted under him as territorial Secretary for a year. He made several trips to Washington during the years just preceding the formation of the state, kept the friendship of St. Clair without antagonizing his opponents, and played a pacific and useful part among the discordant parties who created the infant state. After the state was born, Judge Tod entered upon a long public career. In turn he filled the offices of township clerk from 1803 to 1804, state senator in 1804-5 and in 1810-11, and Supreme Court Judge from 1806-10. He was commissioned a major in the War of 1812, served with great honor - 344 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 345 in that unmanaged war, and retired from the conflict as a colonel. From 1815 to 1829 he was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of his district. In 1829 he retired from public life, except for one term a few years later as prosecuting attorney. During his early years he had acquired a large farm in the northwest corner of Youngstown Township. The neighborhood was known as Brier Hill, a name said to have been derived from the fact that it was largely covered with the prickly canes of the wild blackberry and raspberry. The entire farm now lies within the limits of the city of Youngstown. The name of Brier Hill still clings to the neighborhood, although the bramble bushes are long since gone. The farm was inclined to be barren and unproductive, and the Judge was a better lawyer than farmer, with the result that his latter days were involved in undeserved financial difficulties. His greater son was a better business man, and not only cleared up the financial difficulties but laid the foundations of a great fortune. Judge Tod died in 1841, and his wife in 1847. David Tod was the third child of the family, and the first to be a native of the Reserve; born at Youngstown on February 21st, 1805. His first schooling was in the old log school-house on the public square. Joseph Noyes, the friend of Jated Potter Kirtland, may have been his first teacher. George Tod subscribed for three pupils in J. P. Manning's school in 1818. David, then thirteen, was doubtless one of the three. But there was no opportunity for the boy to obtain a college education. Yale was far away, and money was scarcer than honorable service with his father. So young Tod did his best with the academic opportunities at hand, and at length entered on the study of the law under his father's direction. In this particular, at least, he was favored with a competent and wise instructor. 346 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Young David Tod was admitted to the practise of the law in Ohio in 1827, he being then twenty-two years of age. The county court then sat at Warren, and that was the principal location of his court work. He gained an early clientage in spite of his age. His qualities of value were his integrity and his knowledge of the law, coupled with a cool-headed ability to look into the merits of a case from both sides, and to arrive at a competent understanding of the merits of a case and the law on the subject. Of course, the Federalist Party had passed away during David Tod's infancy, and the Jeffersonian Democracy was riding high on the wave of popularity during the days of his youth. The four-sided campaign of 1824 came along just before he was twenty, and he became filled with enthusiasm for the character of Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory had a vast appeal to the youth of the young West. It was that appeal which largely carried him to success. John Quincy Adams, while a statesman and diplomat of the first rank, whose services to the nation cannot be overestimated, never had the quality of personal magnetism which attracts fanatical followers to his side. He seemed alien and cold to the western man. It was no wonder that young David Tod, and many another young man of Ohio, came into the Democratic Party under the Jacksonian banner. Judge Tod did not share his son's enthusiasm. His support of the Democracy was never enthusiastic, and he soon swung to the Whig side, under the leadership of Clay, Webster and Adams. While father and son remained united in the bands of paternal and filial affection, the older man never became reconciled to his son's departure from what seemed to him the true party of patriotism. But David remained a Democrat until the close of the 1860 campaign. He did not enter the political field in person until 1838, when he was elected to the State Senate. He was very active HISTORY OF NORTHERN OHIO - 347 in his support of Van Buren against Harrison in 1840, and was one of the leading stump speakers in that campaign, touring the whole state and making speeches in opposition to Harrison. This campaign work was especially displeasing to his father, who had been a personal friend of Harrison since the War of 1812, and took his son's opposition sadly to heart. This campaign, however, although a lost cause, made David Tod a leader in the Ohio Democracy, and caused his party to nominate him for the governorship in 1842. He was defeated by the Whig candidate, Mordecai Bartley, by a majority of about 1000, while Clay in the same campaign carried the state by 6000, a result which indicates Tod's personal popularity, even in defeat. In the meanwhile Judge Tod had died. David Tod spent the years from 1841 to 1847 in improving the Brier Hill farm. A vein of good bituminous coal was discovered on the premises. Tod opened these mines, and thereby laid the first foundation of his fortune, which was later to be greatly increased by his pioneer work in iron manufacture and railroad building. From 1847 to 1852, however, he was out of the country. President Polk, on coming into office, appointed him minister to Brazil. This was a difficult and important position. The young emperor, Don Pedro II, had, on his arriving at majority in 1840, been crowned and heralded as a welcome ruler by his subjects, but the half civilized country was in a state of turmoil, menaced by influences from European nations without, and sporadic revolutionary movements within; which made the position of the American minister, as next friend and defender of the Monroe Doctrine, one requiring the finest diplomacy. Tod was equal to the task. He carried through the treaty negotiations which established a permanent understanding between Brazil and the United States, paved the way for trade relations profitable to both 348 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO sides, and came home at the end of his ministry with greatly increased honor and fame. During the years between the return of David Tod from Brazil and the campaign year of 1860, he was not engaged actively in politics. There is little record, during this time, of any participation on his part. This is the period of his activity as a pioneer builder of Mahoning Valley industry. The coal mines which he was operating on his rocky, barren estate were showing a pleasant profit. The problem of transportation had not been solved by the canal, and men in the Reserve were thinking about railroad building in the Forties. The Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad project was being agitated during Tod's absence in Brazil. He seems to have been interested in the enterprise from the start, although his exile must have prevented any really active participation. On his return, however, he became the leading figure in the direction of the affairs of the new railroad. It came at a strategic time, and was built over a strategic route, connecting the valley with the Cleveland district, and opening an iron highway from Youngstown to the Great Lakes. Tod was president of this railway corporation from the beginning until his death. As it is impossible to estimate the value of this railroad to the people and industry of Youngstown, just so it is impossible to calculate what Youngstown owes to Governor Tod. The railroad and the coal business were not his only interests. He was always interested in the extension of the iron and steel business, although he was so sagacious as to understand that this would necessarily be a small local affair as long as the only ore supply was that meagre outcrop of lean ore to be derived from the laborious delving into the outcrop along the hillsides of the Yellow Creek and Mill Creek gorges. So he was interested greatly in the opening HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 349 of the Lake Superior mines, and became a pioneer in that movement also, before his death. In 1860 he returned to the political field; not as a seeker for office, but as a member of the Democratic Party national convention. The story of that convention is part of every school history. When the first convention adjourned at Charleston, the northern members agreed to re-assemble at Baltimore. Tod was the chairman of this adjourned convention, which, after getting rid of a few remaining malcontents, nominated Stephen A. Douglas as the candidate of the northern Democracy. Douglas, as everyone soon realized, was foredoomed to defeat. On the election of Lincoln, Tod joined with his leader, Douglas, in giving his wholehearted support to the President-elect. When Lincoln went into office he had no more loyal unionist behind him than David Tod. When the war broke out William Dennison was governor of Ohio. He was elected as a Republican, in 1859, and served during the years of 1860 and 1861. The campaign of 1860, and the opening days of the war, therefore, were during his administration. He had been elected on a compromise basis, and had little of either support or admiration from the men of his own party, let alone the Democrats. It was one of those cases where anyone could be elected who ran on the dominant ticket. Men generally regarded Dennison as light weight, and inclined to society, rather than to sober business. As sometimes happens, however, he met the emergency of war so courageously and wisely, on the whole, that his enemies became his friends, and his friends learned to admire him. However, the opposition which had developed in many places, as the natural consequences of Governor Dennison's determined efforts to compel Ohio to carry on her part in