advanced in years and with families, and holding responsible positions, the object of their brief services being mainly to garrison the forts, and thus relieve the veteran soldiers to reinforce Grant in Virginia, and enable him to crush the rebellion. Of these citizen soldiers Ohio supplied nearly half the number required—over 30,000 men—National guards, as they were called. The measure was most effective and their services most timely. It was a splendid contribution of the loyal West to the, cause of the Union.
Ohio had done more than her share in the war of the rebellion. When the Nation, striving only to enforce its laws and maintain its lawfully elected rulers, suddenly found itself plunged into a war that promised to envelop half its territory, it confided its "Grand Army" to the leadership of an Ohio General, Irwin McDowell. When, 'beaten, less by the enemy than by its own rawness, that army retreated in disorder from the field it had fairly won, and the panic of the first Bull Run seemed to freeze the currents of National life, another Ohio General, George B. McClellan, fresh from the first successful campaign of the war, was called in to restore public confidence and reorganize the army on the grander scale which the increasing perils demanded, while still another Ohioan, William S. Rosecrans, was left to assume McClellan's vacated command in the mountains. As the war expanded, the State continued to preserve a similar pre-eminence. Through three campaigns, the greatest of the National armies remained under the leadership of an Ohio General. This officer also succeeded the veteran Scott as General-in-Chief, in command of all the Federal armies. An Ohio General, Don Carlos Buell, commanded the great department which lay south of his native State, till, after pushing back the war from the border to the Alabama line, he was caught and submerged in its refluent tide, and another Ohio General was summoned from fields of victory in the Southwest to take his place. Another Ohio General, 0. M. Mitchell, after brilliant services elsewhere, commanded the Department of the South, until, in the midst of his labors death came to relieve him ; and when active operations in the department were resumed, it was reserved for another Ohio General, Quincy A. Gilmore, to destroy the fort around which the war had opened, and in whose downfall was written the doom of the Rebellion.
No less signal were the services rendered by the sons of the State through the whole duration of the war. Its close found another native of Ohio, Ulysses S. Grant, after a career as wonderful and as varied as that of any Marshal of France, in command of all the Federal armies, and hailed by popular acclaim our greatest soldier. Another, Philip H. Sheridan, rising from the rank of a Quartermaster, was foremost in forcing the surrender of Lee, and stood acknowledged the first cavalry General of America. Another, William Tecumseh Sherman, set aside for insanity at the outset, led the great consolidated armies of the West from victory to victory, till one of their successes decided a Presidential contest, and another, as they marched down to the sea, and swept like the destroying angel through the 'birthplace and home of secession, ended the war.
Other sons of the State had borne parts no less conspicuous in the National councils. One, at the head of the War Department, E. M. Stanton, illustrated by his fiery energy and his wonderful executive capacity all, and more than all, that has been said of the greatest war minister of the most warlike nation of Europe. Another, Salmon P. Chase, so well discharged the great duties of the Treasury Department that a leader of the rebellion had been forced at its close to say : "It was not your Generals that defeated us—it was your treasury." Another, Ben F. Wade, was the chairman of the committee on the conduct of the war, and another, Robert C. Schenck, maimed with honorable wounds received in the public service, passed from the field to take his place at the head of a committee which controlled the military legislation of the country. The people of Ohio gave to the nation, in its prosecu-
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tion of the war throughout its entire extent, their whole-hearted and unswerving support. They counted their greatest sons their treasures, and sacrificed them on the altar of right and justice.
At the close of the war, the State of Ohio had in the national service two hundred regiments of all arms. In the course of the war she furnished two hundred and thirty regiments, besides twenty-six independent batteries of artillery, five independent companies of cavalry, several companies of sharpshooters, large parts of five regiments credited to the West Virginia contingent, two credited to the Kentucky contingent, two transferred to "United States colored troops," and a large proportion of the rank and file for the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers. Of these organizations twenty-three were infantry regiments furnished for three months at the outbreak of the war, being an excess of nearly one-half over the quota allotted to the State. The quota was only thirteen regiments. The Government would not then accept more and so the State put them in the field on her own account. One hundred and ninety-one were infantry regiments, afterwards
IN SPRING GROVE CEMETERY
CINCINNATI
furnished in obedience to the several calls of the President—one hundred and seventeen for three years, twenty-seven for one year, two for six months, three for three months, and forty-two for a hundred days. Thirteen were cavalry and three were artillery regiments for three years. And of these three years' troops from Ohio, over twenty thousand re-enlisted as veterans at the end of their long term of service —to fight till the war should end in victory.
In these various organizations, as original members or as recruits, the State furnished for the National service, according to the figures of the United States Provost Marshal-General in his final report to the War Department, the magnificent army of three hundred and ten thousand, six hundred and fifty-four soldiers. The older, larger and more populous commonwealth of Pennsylvania gave not quite twenty-eight thousand more, while Illinois fell forty-eight thousand behind, Indiana a hundred and sixteen thousand, Kentucky two
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hundred and thirty-five thousand, and Massachusetts one hundred and sixty-four thousand. Nobly through all those years of trial and death did she keep the promise of the memorable dispatch of her first war Governor : "If Kentucky refuses to fill her quota, Ohio will do it for her."
It is conservatively estimated that Ohio sent to the front fully one-third of a million of men, and of these nearly all were volunteers. Only eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty had to be raised in Ohio by the draft during the whole course of the war. But the volunteers received from the people of the State, independent of Government pay and premiums, over twenty-three and one-half million dollars of local bounties. Their service was deadly. Eleven thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven of them were either killed or mortally wounded in action, of whom six thousand, five hundred and sixty-three were left dead on the field of battle. Thirteen thousand, three hundred and fifty-four died before the expira-
IN SPRING GROVE CEMETERY
CINCINNATI
tion of their terms of enlistments, of diseases contracted in the service. Thirty-seven Ohio soldiers out of every thousand fell dead or mortally wounded in battle. Forty-seven more died in the hospitals ; seventy-one more were honorably discharged, unable longer to perform the duty f soldiers, by reason of wounds or sickness incurred in the country's service, but also, forty-four out of every thousand deserted.
Ohio soldiers fought on nearly every battlefield of the war ; their bones, reposing on the fields they won, are a perpetually binding pledge that no flag shall ever wave over these graves f our soldiers but the flag they fought to maintain.
The arms of Ohio's sons in the field were sustained by the work of Ohio's daughters at home. As her soldiers were the first to gain victory, so her women were the first to organize a society. In five days after the fall of Fort Sumter the ladies of the "Soldiers' Aid Society cf Northern Ohio" organized at Cleveland, which eventually distributed food
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and clothing to the amount of a million of dollars. A similar organization was started in Cincinnati, which was alike successful, and every church and Sunday-school in the State became tributary channels to which flowed gifts to sustain the soldiers at the front. When the war closed more than one-half of her able-bodied men had taken up arms for the Union, and she had shown herself to have been the most efficient of all the States, supplying, as she had, the most successful Generals, the largest number of able men in the Cabinet of the President and in the councils of the nation, and a powerful army of a third of a million brave and loyal soldiers.
MUSIC HALL, CINCINNATI
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CHAPTER VII
Progress of Ohio after the Civil War
Ohio after the War of the Rebellion.—Two Ruinous Panics.—Tremendous Floods in the Ohio Valley.—Bloody Riot in Cincinnati.—Participation of Ohio in the Spanish War.—Ohio Soldiers in China.—Centennial Celebration of Ohio's Statehood at Chillicothe.—"The Mother of Presidents."— Statesmen from Ohio.—Population of the Buckeye State.
AFTER the cessation of hostilities between the North and South the Buckeye State advanced rapidly in agricultural and manufacturing development. Her fair skies are darkened by the smoke of myriads of chimneys ; her broad acres are dotted with prosperous farms ; thriving villages, towns and cities are to be encountered on every hand ; her mines are disgorging their hidden wealth ; a network of steam and traction roads convey her products to the marts of the world ; steamers plough the lake and rivers of Ohro in response to the demands of commerce and business activity. Her educational advantages are constantly improving; every sect in Christendom worships within the boundaries of the State, and her public school system is unexcelled. These are facts which make Ohio great—the most brilliant gem in the diadem of the Union.
The prosperity and development of the State of Ohio during the period following the Civil -War and the close of the first century of her Statehood were interrupted by two panics, in the '7os and '90s. Both cast a gloom over the whole country, bringing with them the crash of many of the great business and financial institutions, and carrying in their wake misery, want and suffering for millions of people. The spread of these panics was only confined by the limits of the United States, and Ohio suffered her proportion.
The most important events in the history of Ohio in the last quarter of the first century of her existence as a State were the tremendous floods in the Ohio valley in 1884; the bloody Cincinnati riot, in April of the same year ; the participation of the Buckeye State in the Spanish-American War and the Centennial Celebration of Ohio's Statehood in May, 1903, at Chillicothe, the first capital of Ohio.
Disastrous floods have visited the Ohio valley since time immemorial ; in fact, when the first settlers arrived at Columbia, a part of the present Cincinnati, the lower lands had been transformed by the flood into a lake of considerable size, but never before in the memory of men did a flood have such tremendous dimensions as that of 1884. The year previous the Ohio River had reached a stage of sixty-three feet and seven inches, causing considerable damage. During the summer and fall of that year the stream had never overstepped its borders, and on the 14th of December, 1883, the stage of water in the Ohio River amounted to but ten feet and seven inches. On that day a heavy snow fell in the valleys of the Ohio River and its tributaries. All through the month the river rose rapidly, until, on the 28th of December, it had reached a stage of forty-nine feet and six inches at Cincinnati. On the 29th cold weather set in, checking the waters in the upper regions. All during the month of January, 1884, except on the 14th and 15th, when a heavy snow fell, cold weather prevailed. This was followed, on the 30th of January, by a general thaw and heavy rains. On that day the stage of water registered at Cincinnati only fifteen feet and nine inches, but a rapid rise followed. Two days later the waters of the stream had reached a height of thirty-one feet and three inches and continued to rise until on the 14th of February, 1884, they had advanced to the phenomenal height of seventy-one feet and three-quarters of an inch. The losses caused by this disastrous flood were tremendous.
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Every river town and city, from East Liverpool to Cincinnati, not only suffered the loss of property of incalculable value, but also the loss of many human lives. East Liverpool, Steubenville, Mingo Junction, Marietta, Pomeroy, Middleport, Gallipolis, Ironton, Portsmouth, Manchester, Cincinnati and hundreds of villages and hamlets situated on the banks of the river were totally, in some instances, or partially submerged. In Cincinnati the yellow waters washed the buildings on Third street, while in many lower parts of the city only the roofs and chimneys of factory and residence buildings were visible. On the 14th of February the flood had reached its summit ; then the waters receded, after having caused damages amounting to many millions of dollars and the loss of many human lives.
LAST RESTING PLACE OF JOHN SHERMAN
MANSFIELD, OHIO
A year of misfortune for Cincinnati was that of 1884. After the flood came the riot, resulting in the destruction of the Hamilton County Court House and the loss of more than fifty lives. The cause of the riot was the leniency of the Hamilton County courts in dealing with criminals, especially those guilty of capital offenses. Crime ran riot in the city—one murder was followed by a more appalling one. In March, 1884, there were not less than twenty-three murderers in the Hamilton County Jail, most of whom had received very light punishment or were awaiting new trials. It seemed impossible that justice could be dealt out in the courts of Hamilton County, and it was an open secret that juries could be bought like cattle. Rich and influential criminals need not fear. They were exempt from punishment. The conditions were such that human life had hardly any value in Cincinnati. A change had to come, even though the costs were to be paid in blood. The frenzy of the citizens knew no bounds when, on the 24th of March, 1884, another farce was played in the criminal courts of Hamilton County. In the winter of that year a terrible murder had shocked the community, when a drayman, William Kirk, was slaughtered for the miserable
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sum he had in his pockets, and the body thrown into the Millcreek, a brook west of the city. The murderers, William Berner, a white man, and Joseph Palmer, a mulatto, were arrested soon afterwards. The white, Berner, was tried first, and notwithstanding convincing evidences and an open confession, was found guilty of "manslaughter" and sentenced to but twenty years in the penitentiary.
On the evening of that memorable day, the 28th of March, 1884, a mass meeting was called in Music Hall, attended by more than eight thousand people, among whom were many of the most influential citizens of Cincinnati, to protest against the mockery of justice in the courts of Hamilton County. "Something has to be done," said the speakers, and
PUBLIC LIBRARY BUILDING
TOLEDO, OHIO
"something has to be done" thought the people present, but if the speakers imagined that their speeches would lead to reform in criminal matters in a peaceable way, they had made a fatal mistake. There was a very dangerous sentiment among those present. The "resolutions" were read and adopted, and the speakers already congratulated themselves that they had started a successful, peaceable reform, when all at once the cry was heard: "To the jail!" Who was it that uttered the cry? Nobody knew, hut that cry, electrifying as it was, had changed the situation in an instant, and had forced action upon the thousands of excited people. "To the jail !" they repeated in thunderous tones, and soon a whole army of desperate men was on its way to the Hamilton County Jail.
Sheriff Hawkins, in the meantime, had given the riot call, but before police or militia could appear to this aid, the mob had reached and forced its entrance into the jail, vainly searching for the murderers. They did not find them, however. Berner, in anticipation of
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the action of the mob, the very same afternoon (had been removed to Columbus, and Palmer, who was neatly white, was not recognized by the searchers. Sheriff Hawkins and his deputies tried their best to defend the jail, but to no avail. Disappointed in their search, the mob became clamorous; a pistol shot was fired by an unknown party, which was followed immediately by a stifled cry. The first blood in the murderous riot had been shed—the bullet had pierced the heart of a youth of seventeen years. A hand-to-hand fight ensued in the hallways and on the stairs of the jail, when suddenly the points of many bayonets appeared. The first troops of the Ohio National Guard had arrived in answer to a hasty call by the Sheriff and were led through a secret passageway from the Court House into the Jail. After the arrival of the militia the mob was driven out of the building, but not until some more lives were extinguished by the bullets f the soldiers. Driven to the street, the mob began to lay siege to the jail, bringing to its aid barrels of coal oil. All efforts to burn the jail were frustrated by the militia, who fired volley after volley into the ranks of the rioters. The turmoil prevailed all night, and it was not until the next morning, when the last of the mob were routed and the squares surrounding the attacked building were in the possession of the militia and police. The day following, Saturday, was quiet, but soon after dark mobs began to attack the Court House and Jail. The fighting was more fierce than on the day previous, as the rioters came to the scene of action well prepared and well armed, and thirsting for revenge. Early in the evening Captain John J. Desmond was killed
SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT
CLEVELAND, OHIO
while defending the Court House. It soon became evident that the local police and militia were no match for the frenzied rioters and the Governor of the State was appealed to, but before reinforcements from Columbus, Springfield and other cities could arrive in Cincinnati, the Court House was a heap of smoking ruins, burned by the enraged populace. The fire not only destroyed the entire building, but also a great many documents of inestimable value. The last engagement between the rioters and the defenders of law and order took place Sunday night on Court street, but after a gatling gun had been brought into action, the streets surrounding the
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Jail were cleared and the riot came to an end. During the three days of fighting not less than forty-five people had lost their lives and about one hundred and fifty more were wounded, many of them fatally. The terrible Cincinnati riot brought a thorough reform into the courts of justice in Hamilton County, but at a frightful expense.
It is needless to say that Ohio played an important and highly patriotic part in the war against Spain in 1898. In the first instance, it was a distinguished son of the Buckeye State, William McKinley, who, as President of the United States, brought the war to a suc
cessful conclusion, the first war ever declared for humanity's sake alone. In the second half of the last decade of the nineteenth century the conditions caused by Spanish misrule in Cuba had become unbearable, and at last, after the blowing up of the battleship "Maine" in the harbor of Havana the people of the United States became aroused to a frenzy of excitement. The result was a demand of Congress, "that Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters." There could have been only one consequence to this demand—an immediate declaration of war. President William McKinley, though conservative in his views upon the subject of precipitating the country into a foreign war, was far-seeing and prompt in preparing for action, both on land and sea, and when the war broke out, our country was fully prepared for any emergency. Within six days after Congress declared that war existed, Admiral Dewey won a decisive victory in far-off Manila Bay, and destroyed the Spanish fleet. On the 23d of April the President called for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers and on the 25th of May, 1898; he called for seventy-five thousand more. The citizen soldiers were organized and in camps within a few days, and some of them were immediately hastened with the available regulars to Santiago, Cuba. Ohio had at the beginning of the Spanish war, John Sherman as Secretary of State, and 'William R. Day, as First Assistant Secretary of State. Day soon became the successor of Sherman, and he had the distinguished honor of negotiating the protocol, and as president of the treaty commission, the Paris treaty
FOUNTAIN SQUARE, CINCINNATI, 0.
Photo by Young & Carl, Cincinnati, 0.
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with Spain. Furthermore, Ohio had two of the most able representatives in the United States Senate, Joseph B. Foraker and Marcus A. Hanna, and these, and others in Congress from Ohio, supported the President with singular ability in preparation for and in proscution of the war with the utmost vigor. It was an Ohioan, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, who brought the situation to a climax, and caused the United States to change her position from neutral to hostile, and one other Ohio man, above all others connected with the United States army, is entitled to credit for efficiency and ability in speedily perfecting the organization and equipment of the regular and volunter forces for field service—General Henry C. Corbin. He had already made a good record in the Civil War, and, through merit, had been advanced to the rank of Brigadier General and Adjutant-General of the United States army. Throughout
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
TOLEDO, O.
these regiments, the the regular army and the navy were many of Ohio's sons. Ohio, as usual, had her full quota of officers and men in both, some of whom had won distinction in the Civil War. When President McKinley issued his first call, Ohio furnished four hundred and twenty-eight officers and eight thousand and fifty-two enlisted men, and under the second call seventy-three officers and six thousand, eight hundred and one enlisted men, including hospital and signal corps men, engineers and immunes—a grand total of fifteen thousand three hundred and fifty-four, a considerably larger number than her quota, based on population. Ohio had two commissioned general officers in the Spanish War from civil life. The State furnished ten infantry regiments, all of full strength, save the Ninth Ohio (colored), which had only one battalion ; one volunteer light artillery, and one volunteer cavalry regiment, and to the Second United States Volunteer Engineers two hundred and seventy-three men; to the United States Volunteer Hospital Corps, four hundred and sixty-one men; to the United States Volunteer Signal Corps, fifty men ; and four companies of United States Volunteers (immunes), four hundred and twenty men. Of Fourth, under Colonel S. B. Adams, saw service at Arroyo, Guayama and San Juan, Porto Rico; the Sixth, under Colonel William V. McMaken, at Cienfuegos and Santa Clara, Cuba ; and the Eighth, under Colonel Curtis V. Hard, at Siboney, Sevilla and San Juan Hill, Cuba.
The total deaths in all the Ohio volunteer organizations while in the United States service were thirty-seven officers and two hundred and twenty-three enlisted men. In the Spanish War, Ohio's officers and soldiers, with others from the North, were organized into brigades, divisions and army corps with those from the South, and all proudly and loyally affiliated, often under officers who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War. In February, 1899, an insurrectionary war broke out in the Philippine Islands, which required an army, both regular and volunteer, larger than had heretofore been necessary. Again Ohio furnished her full quota. During this war Brigadier-General Funston, U. S. A., an Ohioan, born at New Carlisle, Ohio, successfully executed a plan for the capture of Aguinaldo, the chief insurgent, which brought his activity in the insurrection to an end. Again the heroic sons of Ohio took part in actual warfare before the close of the nineteenth century, this time in far away China, during the Boxer movement. Ohio men
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participated in the battle of Tien Tsin, and were among those who marched to. Imperial China's capital and within its gates (i899) helped to dictate the release of the imperiled Christian missionaries, and exact guarantees for their future safety and the safety of the native Christians. During the Spanish War Ohio had also a number of officers and sailors on the battleships which participated in the actions at Manila Bay and Santiago. The most important offrcer from Ohio was Commander Edward P. Wood, who distinguished himself as the commander of the little "Petrel," which was attached to the squadron at Manila. The history of Ohio in the army and navy is one of honor and renown, of daring adventure and distinguished achievement.
STEUBENVILLE, OHIO, IN 1905
On the 29th of November, 1902, the centennial celebration of the adoption of Ohio's first constitution took place at Chillicothe, the first capital of the young State of Ohio. This important event was appropriately celebrated by the unveiling of a tablet, marking the location of the first State House of Ohio, which is the site of the present Courthouse of Ross County. This tablet bears the following inscription : "On this site stood the first State House of Ohio, wherein was adopted the original constitution of the Commonwealth. November XXIX, MDCCCII." As the convening of that memorable constitutional convention, in 1862, which adopted the first constitution of Ohio, and its deliberations were an inseparable part of the proceedings by which Ohio was organized into a State, the centennial anniversary exercises may be regarded as a proper prelude to the celebration of the hun-
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dredth anniversary of Ohio's Statehood, in May, 19o3. Hon. Daniel J. Ryan, ex-Secretary of State of Ohio, and Trustee of the Ohio, State Archaeological and Historical Society, delivered the oration on "Ohio's First Constitution," and Honorable William T. McClintick made an address upon "The Men and Times of the First Convention." The celebration of the centennial of the admission of Ohio into the Union as a State opened at the Ross County Courthouse, at Chillicothe, at 9 o'clock Wednesday morning, the loth of May, 1903. At this session a medallion portrait of the first Governor of Ohio, Edward Tiffin, which was placed in a niche above the Judge's bench, was unveiled by Miss Emma Cook, a great granddaughter of Governor Tiffin. The exercises proper at the centennial, anniversary of Ohio's Statehood began at 10 o'clock of the same day, and Were held in a large tent, erected for the purpose in the beautiful Yocktangee Park, Chillicothe. An audience of some five thousand were assembled to participate. The addresses covered the entire history of the State of Ohio, from the time when the territory was a vast wilderness up to the beginning of the twentieth century. The centennial exercises took place under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.
THE OHIO RIVER IN THE GRASP OF THE ICE KING
CINCINNATI
Politically, Ohio is at present, as she has been for the years of her existence as a State, divided into but two parties, namely, the Democratic and the Republican, the latter the successor, since 1856, of the Whig party, which, with the death of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, became extinct. A distinguished American some time ago leaped into fame by saying, "Some men are born great—some are born in Ohio." To be born in Ohio is surely no handicap. The State of Ohio has the proud distinction of being the "mother of Presidents." Out of the twenty-six Presidents of the United States, five were born in Ohio, and one was an Ohioan by adoption. The history of the United States presents only one parallel for this eminence among th e States. Within the borders of Virginia seven of the Presidents were born. During the first half of her existence, Ohio furnished but one President of the United States, but he, a man typical of the Ohio spirit and a popular leader of civilizing influences throughout the new Northwest. Since the close of the Civil War every successful candidate for President on the Republican ticket, except President Roosevelt, has been a native of Ohio. Three of the Ohio Presidents died in office : William
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Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. The two latter died martyrs to their country from the hands of the assassin. Every one of the illustrious group had won their spurs on the field of battle for the Union, and had sharpened their lances in the halls of the Congress of the United States. They were men of wide statesmanship and National reputation prior to their elevation to the highest office in the gift of the American people. The country has signally honored Ohio in selecting her sons to guide the destinies of the great Republic ; Ohio has given of her best and truest whenever and wherever possible to give. The Buckeye State has furnished the following Presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.
Hardly less distinguished than the list of Presidents from Ohio is the number of those illustrious men who, coming from the Buckeye State, served their country as members of the different Cabinets. Their names are as follows :
