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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM.
The New England Putnams have their descent from a common ancestor, John Putnam, who came from Buckinghamshire, England, in 1634, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. He had three sons—Thomas, Nathaniel, and John. Rufus Putnam was descended from Thomas, his father, Elisha, being the son of Edward, the son of Thomas. The celebrated Israel Putnam was also a grandson of Thomas, and, therefore, cousin to Elisha, the father of Rufus.
The Putnams seem to have belonged to that respectable middle class that has furnished to the world so many of its best workers and most useful citizens. In his old age, Edward, the grandfather of Rufus, said "he could say with the Psalmist, 'I have been young, and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread,' except from God, who provides for all; for he bath given the generation of my father Agur's petition, neither poverty nor riches, but hath fed us with food convenient for us, and their children have been able to help others in their need."
Elisha Putnam, the father of Rufus, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, November 3, 1685. He married Susanna Fuller, of Danvers. In 1725 he, with his wife and three children, moved to Sutton. After he removed to Sutton three sons were born to him, of whom Rufus, born April 9, 1738, was the youngest. The Rev. Dr. Hall said of him, "Deacon Elisha Putnam was a very useful man in the civil and ecclesiastical concerns of the place. He was for several years deacon of the church, town clerk, town treasurer, and representative in the general court or colonial assembly of Massachusetts. He died in June, 2745, in the joyful hope of the glory of God."
Misfortune set its mark upon Rufus before he had half started on the journey of life. His father died when he was but little more than seven years old. To the little boy the loss of such a father was a calamity that could not be measured, and the consequences were as lasting as his life. The first two years of his orphanage were passed in the home of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Fuller, in Danvers. During this time he went to school and learned to read, and thus secured the clue to the labyrinth of knowledge. But evil days were in store for him. In 1747 his mother married Captain John Sadler, and Rufus went back to his home. But it was a home without a father, for Captain Sadler but illy supplied the place of the good man that death had taken away. He was illiterate himself, and, what was worse and more to be deplored, he despised learning. He neither sent Rufus to school, nor allowed him opportunities to learn at home. No books were furnished him, and if by chance he succeeded in getting them, he had but little opportunity to use them. His aspirations were scoffed at, and his efforts to quench his thirst for knowledge at living fountains were ridiculed and derided.
Captain Sadler kept a house of entertainment, and by diligent waiting upon guests, Rufus sometimes became the happy possessor of a few pence. These he invested in ammunition, and with the help of an old shot-gun, killed partridges, which he sold. With the proceeds of the sale he bought a spelling book and an arithmetic. From these, without help or guidance, he learned what he could. There were discouragements thrown in the way of his doing this. He was not allowed even the faint light of a tallow candle to enable him to use, in his own behalf, the long winter evenings. But worse than this, and harder to bear, was the ridicule with which he was visited for his endeavors, from the man who stood to him in the place of a father. Yet all of this did not make him give up his determination to know. There is something very pathetic in the way this little fatherless boy struggled to obtain. knowledge in the face of discouragements that might well have appalled the stout heart of one who was older than he.
In his latter days he wrote out some of the main facts in his life for the benefit of his children and their descendants. The paper is yellow with age, the orthography is often incorrect. But there is a pathos in his simple, direct statements in regard to his early aspirations that no fine writing could equal. He says: "After I was nine years old I went to school in all only three weeks." Yet, not deterred by either abuse or ridicule, he went as far as the "Rule of Three" in arithmetic, and learned to write so as to be intelligible.
In March, 1754, when in his sixteenth year, he was apprenticed to Daniel Mathews, of Brookfield, to learn the trade of millwright. He says : " By him my education was as much neglected as by Captain Sadler, except that he did not deny me the use of a light for study in the winter evenings. I turned my attention chiefly to arithmetic, geography and history ; had I been as much engaged in learning to write well, with spelling and grammar, I might have been much better qualified to fulfil the duties of the succeeding scenes of life, which in Providence I have been called to pass through. I was zealous to obtain knowledge, but having no guide I knew not where to begin nor what course to pursue. Having neglected spelling and grammar when young, I have suffered much through life on that account." From sixteen to nineteen he was engaged in learning the trade of a millwright, interspersed with more or less farming. How much soever his mental faculties may have suffered from neglect, the physical powers were surely in a most prosperous condition. He had at eighteen the slature and strength of a mature man. He was nearly six feet in height, with brawny limbs and great muscular power. He was as good as the best in every part that required strength of muscle or power of endurance.. A brave heart beat in his bosom, in which abode the high resolve to act manfully and well the part that should be allotted to him in the drama of life. Always faithful, always on the side of the right, as he construed it, from the beginning to the end of his varied career, he was never known to prove recreant to a trust or fail to meet dutifully and well any just requirement. He was in every way well
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fitted for the life of peril and adventure that a common soldier in a frontier army was compelled to encounter. The time drew near when he was to lay aside the implements of trade and husbandry and take up the weapons of war.
Hostilities began between England and France in 1754. Accounts of military adventure formed the staple of conversation in the long winter evenings during his apprenticeship. The prowess of his father's cousin, Captain Israel Putnam, especially took hold of his imagination and made him emulous of the glory that seemed to rest upon the heads of heroes. As soon as the time for which he was indentured expired, when only nineteen, he enlisted as a private in a company, the term of service in which was less than a year.
A journal of this campaign was kept by the young soldier, in which the events of each day are worded, often without note or comment. The ravages of time have spared this journal, and the exact and methodical manner in which it is kept, are prophetic of the careful and thorough work that would distinguish the life, that as yet in great part, lay before the writer. Captain Lamed's company marched to Stillwater in Julie, and from thence to Fort Edward. There seems to have been but little actual service performed during the campaign, which ended in October, and Mr. Putnam returned home in February. He spent the remainder of the winter there and in the spring enlisted again in a company commanded by Captain Joseph Whitcomb and belonging to Colonel Ruggles' regiment, which rendezvoused at Northampton, Massachusetts. They started for Albany June 3rd, and reached Greenbush June 8th. Mr. Putnam says in his journal, "from Northampton street to this place was through a wilderness, with but one house in the whole distance, except the little fort above mentioned." What a change since then! The young soldier was not destined to see much of the honor or horror of war during this campaign. The regiment was discharged in October. Mr. Putnam went home and spent the winter and in the spring enlisted for the third campaign. During this time of service he was promoted to the post of orderly sergeant. He was in Colonel Ruggles' regiment, and went to Ticonderoga. He was, however, during the whole campaign compelled to work on mills or blockhouses instead of doing military duty, which was that for which he had enlisted. He did not think it just right, and he determined to leave the service. He passed the winter of 1759 in New Braintree working on a farm of fifty acres which he had bought with the avails of his savings while in the army. He gave his time to farming and building mills for a time, but meanwhile he was diligently studying practical surveying, in which he was assisted by Colonel Timothy Dwight. He soon became sufficiently master of the business to leave other things and devote himself to it. His thoroughness and exactness made it easy for him to find employment.
In 1761 Mr. Putnam was married to Elizabeth Ayres, daughter of William Ayres of Brookfield. She died within a year, and after a few months their infant son was laid beside his mother.
In January, 1765, he was married again to Persis Rice, daughter of Zebulon Rice, of Westborough, Massachusetts. He lived on the small farm he had previously bought until 1780, when he purchased a large farm in Rutland, Massachusetts. There was upon it a spacious house, which is still standing and in good repair. This property belonged to a Tory, and was confiscated, which enabled Mr. Putnam to purchase it on favorable terms.
During a considerable part of the years 1772 and 1773 Mr. Putnam devoted his time and effort to an enterprise that at the time excited much interest in New England. Soon after the close of the French and Indian war, General Lyman was sent to England by Colonial officers and soldiers, for the purpose of securing, if possible, from the British government a grant of land as a reward for military service performed during the war. He was detained there several years, making vain endeavors to obtain that for which he went. He returned in 1772. A meeting of "The Military Adventurers" was called in Hartford, and General Lyman assured those concerned that an order had been passed by the king in council, authorizing the governor of West Florida to grant lands in that province, to Colonial officers and soldiers in the same proportion and manner as had been given elsewhere to his Majesty's regular troops. As they had been liberally provided for in the provinces assigned during the war, the prospect seemed good that the Colonial officers and soldiers would also reap a reward for duties well done.
General Lyman brought no written vouchers to make the grant sure, but it was thought that the word of a king was a sufficient word. The company, therefore, appointed a committee to explore the country, and lay out the tracts to be divided among the adventurers. The associates of the military company chartered a sloop, in which the exploring committee sailed from New York January to, 1773. Rufus Putnam and his father's cousin, Colonel Israel Putnam, were two of the committee. They entered the bay of Pensacola March 1st. Governor Chester and his council received them kindly, but no order for a grant of land to the Provincials had yet arrived. This was discouraging, but they took comfort in the hope the order had been delayed, and would yet come. The committee, therefore, set about their explorations.
Among the papers left by General Putnam, which are now in the safe-keeping of the Marietta College library, there is a carefully prepared plan of the Mississippi river, with all its windings and eccentricities, to the mouth of the Yazoo, which was as far as their explorations extended in that direction. Nearly four months were occupied in the thorough examination of the country, which was also extended to a considerable distance up the Yazoo. When the committee returned to Pensacola early in July, they were chagrined and disappointed to find that the expected order had not yet been received. Governor Chester, however, took the responsibility of making an offer of lands upon terms that it was thought upon the whole best to accept, and preparations were made to begin a settlement. Accordingly, when the
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committee returned, they made so favorable a report in regard to the soil, climate, and conditions of the country that several hundred families from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other parts of New England, embarked for West Florida to find there new homes for themselves and their children. Unfortunately for them Governor Chester, in October, received orders from the Crown to neither sell nor grant lands upon any conditions until the King's further pleasure should be signified. Thus, when they reached the place, the land office was closed to the poor immigrants. Some of them spent all they had in getting there, and it was late in the season to return, even if they had the means to do so. In this emergency the governor kindly allowed the immigrants to take possession of any unoccupied lands they could find. Many of them, on account of change of climate and exposure, sickened and died, and to the greater part the venture was an unprofitable one. Mr. Putnam was occupied more than eight months in these explorations, and for his time and services received the munificent sum of eighty dollars, which was also to cover his expenses.
The cloud, big with portentous evenls, that had been hanging over the colonists burst in 1775. Rufus Putnam had too brave a heart and was too zealous a lover of his country to sit tamely by and see other men struggle for liberty and all that was dear to them. He girded on his sword at the first onset and it was not laid aside until peace again smiled upon the land. He entered the army as lieutenant colonel of a regiment commanded by Colonel David Brewer. The regiment was stationed at Roxbury, and was attached to the corps of General Thomas.
Colonel Putnam had not long to wait for a chance to give efficient aid to the cause he had so zealously espoused. After the battle of Charlestown, June 17th, the patriot army was in a most exposed situation. There were no fortifications to protect the town and nothing but a board - fence as a shelter for the army in case of an attack, which they had reason to expect at any moment. It was decided in a council of officers, that some kind of defence should at once be commenced. But where was the engineer who would plan the works and superintend their erection. It was one of the misfortunes connected with the situation of the colonies, that they were destitute of men skilled in the arts of war. There were no schools for training them, and in previous wars the colonists had, to a great extent, been subordinate. They had obeyed; those with whom they were now at war had commanded. Colonel Gridley was sent for, but he was needed at Cambridge, where he was, and could not be spared. No other engineer was known. Officers who knew the ability of Colonel Putnam, and knew also that he had been employed to some extent upon fortifications under British engineers during the French and Indian war, spoke of him as a man capable of doing what was needed. He protested—said that he had never read a work on fortifications, and was altogether unqualified to undertake to do what it was needful to have done. But no excuses availed, and he was too good and too patriotic a man to refuse to do the best he could when the need was so urgent. He then went to work and traced lines in front of Roxbury toward Boston and various other places on the Roxbury side, particularly toward Sewall's Point. While he was occupied in doing this, Generals Washington and Lee came and examined the works and expressed their satisfaction and entire approval, which greatly encouraged Colonel Putnam. General Lee thought the works at Sewall's Point much better constructed than those on the Cambridge side. Colonel Putnam laid out works at Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, and late in the fall the Norton Cobble hill, near Charlestown mill-pond. He says in his Memoir, "in the course of this campaign I surveyed and delineated the courses, distances and relative situation of the enemy's works in Boston and Charlestown with our own in Cambridge and Roxbury. In December he went with General Lee to Newport, where he laid out some works, particularly a battery from whence to command the harbor, and some works near Howland's ferry, to secure the communication of Rhode Island with the mainland.
During the months of January and February, 1776 General Washington was anxiously considering the situation with a view to finding some solution to the problem as to what would be done to change the aspect of things. Lord Howe occupied Boston with an army of eight thousand well organized and well appointed troops. These would be supplemented at any time by others from the ships of war that rode gaily in the harbor. Large reinforcements were expected in the spring. This fact emphasized the necessity of speedy action. Meanwhile the winter was passing pleasantly to the officers and soldiers of the British army, who were not only well housed and fed, but the officers especially were finding their pleasure in occupations and amusements suitable to their tastes, without being over scrupulous as to ways and means. The old South church was turned into a riding school, and Fanueil hall converted into a theatre for amateur acting. With war chests well supplied, a national treasury upon which to draw, there was every reason why hope should be exultant. The circumstances were greatly different in the Patriot army. The troops had been paid to December, but had received nothing since, nor did there seem to be anything as the Lasis for the hope that they would be paid in the future. There was no national treasury—there was not even a national government. There was no money, and what was worse there was no credit. The soldiers were poorly clad, badly sheltered, and the army was deficient in all the munitions of war. One hundred barrels of powder was all there was in store, and there was no artillery except what had been captured from the enemy. It seemed impossible either to drive the enemy from the city or to attack him therein; and it was very galling as well as inconvenient to have him retain possession of the most renowned city in the whole country. The necessity for doing something seemed urgent, and the anxious question was, what? What was possible; what was wisest and best? After much anxious thought and careful examination it was decided, if possible, to take possession of Dorchester heights and erect fortifications which would command both city and har-
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bor. Howe would then be compelled to either evacuate or come out and fight. There were great difficulties in the way of doing this, but as being the only thing possible, it was decided that it was best to undertake it. Preparations were carefully and promptly made. The night of the third of March was selected for the attempt. Everything was reduced to system. Each man knew his place and exactly what was expected of him. The ground was frozen to the depth of eighteen inches, but hay was spread over the surface so that the three hundred carts that went to and fro with material could go noislessly. The men worked with a will and in silence. In the morning the result was manifest. Strong redoubts looked down on the cily and harbor from the tops of two hills. "Perhaps there never was so much work done in so short a space of time." When Lord Howe saw what had been accomplished in a single night, he declared that it must have taken twelve thousand men to do it. He saw at once that his position was untenable. At first he was inclined to risk an engagement, but obstacles intervened and he chose to evacuate. He sent a messenger to Washington to say that he would withdraw if he would be allowed to do so without molestation. General Washington was only too glad to get rid of the enemy upon such terms This was the first substantial gain made by the Patriot army, and then and there, by the aid of an unskilled and untaught engineer, the corner-stone of American Independence was laid. General Putnam's account of the part he acted in this grand drama is very interesting. While the commander in chief was anxiously revolving the question as to what should be done, he called a council of the officers and laid the matter before them. The decision was, fortify Dorchester heights. But there was no engineer capable of laying out and superintending so important a work. Colonel Putnam was mentioned, and what he had already successfully done spoken of. He was invited to dine with General Washington, and after dinner the matter was talked over. Colonel Putnam expressed his reluctance to undertake the work because of his ignorance. He had read nothing on the subject, and was altogether unacquainted with scientific rules. But such was General Washington's confidence in his ability and good judgment that he would accept of no excuse, and Colonel Putnam was compelled to consent to do the best he could. On his way back to his quarters he called on General Heath, and while there he chanced to see lying on the table a book entitled Muller's Field Engineer. He asked General Heath to lend him the the book, and the request was rather uncourteously answered in the negative. But Colonel Putnam persisted, and finally General Heath consented to his taking it. The next morning, upon examining the book, Colonel Putnam found a description of chandeliers, and at once decided that that was what he wanted, and immediately drew a plan for fortifying Dorchester heights. The plan was approved and executed, and the result was the evacuation of Boston by the British army.
In March, 1776, General Washington ordered Colonel Putnam to go to New York by way of Newport, where he assisted Governor Cook in constructing works for the defence of the town. He reached New York April 2nd, and was appointed chief engineer, with orders to lay out works for the protection of New York, Long Island, Fort Washington, etc. He gave himself wholly to the business, working not only during the day, but oftentimes a considerable part of the night. Already General Washington seems to have had more confidence in his skill and ability than he had in any other man. During the summer he received the following letter:
August 11, 1776.
Sir: I have the pleasure to inform you that Congress have appointed you an engineer, with the rank of colonel, and pay sixty dollars per month.
I am, Sir,
Your assured friend and servant,
G. WASHINGTON.
In regard to this appointment, Colonel Putnam, with characteristic modesty, remarks: "My being appointed engineer by Congress was wholly unexpected. I had begun to act in that capacity through pure necessity, and had continued to conduct the business more from necessity and respect for the General than from any opinion of my own abilities. True it is that after my arrival in New York I had read some books on fortification, and I knew much more than when I began at Roxbury, but I had not the vanity to suppose that my knowledge was such as to give me the first rank in a corps Of engineers. Yet my experience convinced me that such a corps was necessary to be established. Therefore, near the last of September, I drew up a plan for such an establishment, and presented it to General Washington, and which he transmitted to Congress with a recommendation concluded in these words: 'I commend it as a matter worthy of their consideration, being convinced from experience and from the reasons suggested by Colonel Putnam, who has acted with great diligence and reputation in the business, that some establishment of the sort is highly necessary, and will be productive of the most beneficial consequences."
The need of well-taught as well as skilful engineers, was greatly felt. Those that came from France seemed not to have learned from their books the knowledge necessary to make new and unexpected applications. In Colonel Putnam, therefore, General Washington found what he sorely needed and could not find elsewhere—a man with will in plentiful measure, with good, sound, common sense, great industry, unbending integrity, and an intuitive knowledge of the way to adopt means to ends, so as always to accomplish the thing he sought to do. We shall see that he was always in demand. He had no chance to be idle. When the army was in winter quarters he was laying out roads, superintending fortifications, or in some way advancing the cause he had so zealously espoused.
In October of the year 1776, Colonel Putnam, by his shrewdness and energy, was enabled to do a very important service for the army and the country. A large quantity of valuable stores had been placed at White Plains, by order of the commander-in-chief, under the impression that they would there be secure. They were guarded only by three hundred militia. Colonel Put-
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nam was sent out upon a reconnoitering expedition, with a force of some fifty men as a guard. He soon satisfied himself that what he wished to do could be better done without soldiers to attract attention. He therefore dismissed his guard and sent them back, and set out alone. The country was strange to him, for he had never been there before, and he knew that the inhabitants were generally tories, so that it was not safe for him to stop and make inquiries. The enemy had a considerable force at New Rochelle, only nine miles from White Plains, and there were good roads between the two places. On the other side was the Hudson river, upon which were five or six armed vessels belonging to the enemy. With careful scrutiny, and skilful avoidance of danger, he saw and took in the situation. The principal depot of supplies for the American army was at the mercy of the enemy, who had but to reach out his hand and grasp the tempting prize. It was only the entire certainty that he could take it when he wished that made him delay. After a full survey of the situation, Colonel Putnam set out on his return to headquarters, near Kingsbridge. He had ten miles to ride, and reached there about 9 o'clock in the evening, and reported to General Washington, who, he says, "complained very feelingly" of the difficulty of getting correct information in regard to the country and the situation of affairs. Colonel Putnam had made a sketch of the country, and showed the danger there was of losing the stores, upon which so much depended. He was sent with orders for immediate action to Lord Sterling's headquarters, which he reached at 2 o'clock in the morning, and before daylight a detachment was on its way to White Plains, where they arrived about 9 o'clock. "Thus was the American army saved by an interposition of Providence," but that "interposition," the machinery, was the fidelity, and courage and shrewdness of Colonel Putnam.
In December he left the engineer corps, and took the command of a Massachusetts regiment, much to the regret of General Washington, who said in a letter to Congress, "I know of no other man even tolerably well qualified for the conducting of that business. None of the French gentlemen whom I have seen with appointments in that way appear to know anything of the matter."
After recruiting his regiment in Massachusetts in the summer of 1777 Colonel Putnam joined the brigade to which he belonged, near Fort Edward.
There was a dark cloud hanging over the north at this time. Burgoyne, at the head of seven thousand troops and a large number of Canadians and Indians, had invaded western New York, coming over the old war path through Vermont. Another large force, under Sir Henry Clinton, was expected to come from the southward, by way of the Hudson river, to meet them. Ticonderoga, the Gibraltar of the north, had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The fall of this fort sent an electric shock through New England. Consternation and alarm spread over the land. Troops were hurried forward to prevent, if possible, a worse disaster that might be impending. Affairs culminated in the battle of Saratoga, which Burgoyne was forced to fight before Clinton could join him.
This battle turned the tide in the concerns of the new nation, and success seemed ere long to be assured.
Colonel Putnam acted well his part in the battle. He was posted in front of the German reserves, and showed great bravery and military skill in the management of his troops. Kosciusko was at this time at the head of the engineering department in General Gates' army, and showed his appreciation of the skill and good judgment of Colonel Putnam by often consulting him in regard to matters pertaining to his business. After the surrender of Burgoyne, Nixon's brigade, to which Colonel Putnam belonged, went into winter quarters at Albany.
Early in the following year, 1778, Colonel Putnam was ordered to West Point to superintend the erection of fortifications at that important point. A French engineer had been employed, but his work was so unsatisfactory that it was thought best that another should take his place. He went at the head of his regiment and went to work with his usual energy both to undo and to do. The French engineer had laid out the main fort on an extreme point next the river. Colonel Putnam abandoned it and simply placed a battery there to annoy the enemy's shipping. The principal fort was built by his own regiment under his superintendence, and named by General McDougal, Fort Putnam. It is on a rocky eminence and commands both the plain and the river. It is said that even now engineers and those learned in the art of fortification from European countries wonder and admire when they see the plans that were made and the work that was done by this self-taught millwright. Colonel Putnam was occupied in laying out and constructing the defences at West Point until June. In July he marched to White Plains and united his regiment with the main army under the commander-in-chid There was but little more active service performed during the campaign, and in September the army was broken into divisions and that of General Gates, to which Colonel Putnam belonged, was sent to Danbury, Connecticut.
But Colonel Putnam was the possessor of abilities that very effectually kept him from being laid on the shelf with idlers. When there was no fighting to be done, there were surveys to be made and plans for defence. He was employed for some time in laying out roads in the vicinity of Danbury, and later in the season with General Greene, he made reconnoisance along the Hudson river. When this was done he obtained a furlough to visit his home, where he had not been since December, 1777, more than a year.
Mr. Putnam with his family of small children, the oldest not more than twelve, lived on a farm of fifty acres and those acres not of the richest and best. Colonel Putnam's salary was meagre and not promptly paid. When it was paid the currency in which it was done was so greatly depreciated that it was inadequate to meet the wants of the family. Mrs. Putnam eked out their scanty income by the diligent use of the distaff and the needle. Rigid economy prevailed in the household and industry that would seem a marvel to some of their descendants. If the fathers of the Revolution deserve credit for patriotism the mothers should also share in the renown;
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much they did and more they endured; and inasmuch as patient waiting is more difficult and harder to endure than active serving, they are worthy to be held in grateful remembrance as having had a large share in securing for us the inheritance of a free country, blessed with civil and religious liberty.
In July, 1779, Colonel Putnam was sent to do special service in the examination of Stony and Verplank's Points, previous and preparatory to the attack upon the former so successfully and brilliantly made by General Wayne. He encountered many difficulties in performing this duty, but as usual accomplished what he had set out to do with great skill and carefulness. Soon after this, he was appointed to the command of a regiment of light infantry in the brigade of General Wayne, made up of the very elite of the army.
The greater part of the winter of 1780 he spent in Boston in endeavors to obtain from the legislature redress of grievances for the officers and soldiers in the army. Their sufferings, for want of pay and necessary supplies, were extreme, and had reached the point when endurance seemed no longer possible. The officer of General Nixon's brigade had, by an unanimous vote, chosen Colonel Putnam to represent their interests and intercede for them, both with Congress and the legislature of Massachusetts. He was partially successful in securing relief, and received a note of thanks for the help he obtained.
General Washington seems fully to have appreciated the trustworthiness as well as the ability of Colonel Putnam, and he lost no opportunity of manifesting his interest in him, and his desire to do for him whatever lay in his power. In the Memoir written by General Putnam, he speaks modestly, but with just pride, of the sincere and unwavering regard shown him, by the commander-in-chief. During this year he consulted. him in regard to the best plan for arranging a military peace establishment. Colonel Putnam drew up a plan in which he went very much into detail. In 1782 he had become dissatisfied with the service, and was about to retire, but he was made a brigadier-general, and his promotion left him without an excuse for leaving the service. But the war was over, and peace was again come to shed gladness over the land. Early in 1783 General Putnam resigned his commission, and went back to his farm and to surveying. But it was not easy for him to be content with the interests of so narrow a life, after being accustomed to act in stirring events that took hold upon public interests. In June, 1783, a petition signed by two hundred and eighty-three officers was presented to Congress, asking for a grant of land in the west. General Putnam addressed a letter to General Washington, enforcing the terms of the petition, and begging him to use his influence with Congress to induce them to act promptly. In this letter he very forcibly and clearly presents arguments in favor of immediate action. The arguments were drawn from both the needs of the officers and the best interests of the country. He says the probability is that the country between Lake Erie and the Ohio will be filled with inhabitants. He goes on to say that he thinks there are thousands that would emigrate thither and settle if Congress would grant favorable terms, and urges the necessities of officers and soldiers as a reason for immediate action. General Washington seconded him with all the influence he could bring to bear on the subject, but all was not sufficient to overcome the inertia of Congress. Nothing was done at that time. The history of General Putnam's connection with the Ohio company and the great work that he accomplished in superintending the establishment of the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory is given elsewhere, and will be omitted here, except the brief statement of a few facts to fill out the outline of his life.
While in this waiting posture, General Putnam was employed by the State of Massachusetts to survey a tract of land bordering upon Passamaquoddy bay and so entire was the satisfaction felt with the manner in which the work was done that in 1785 he was again employed by the legislature to survey their eastern lands. While he was thus engaged, Congress waked up enough to take action in regard to the proposed settlement in the west, and appointed General Putnam to superintend the work of surveying and laying out the land. But he felt himself in honor bound to keep his engagement with the State of Massachusetts, and at his request General Tupper was appointed in his place. April 7, 1788, forty-eight colonists with General Putnam in command landed at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, and began the settlement of Marietta. General Putnam administered the affairs of the colony with good judgement and wise forethought. There were educated men among the colonists, graduates of Havard and Yale—men who had filled honorably and well high positions, and it is proof, if proof were wanted, of the rare endowments of General Putnam, that he, without the training of school or college, among these men was facile prince's. Always cool and clear-headed, he was one to be depended on in emergencies. Inflexible in his integrity, just and upright in all his dealings, it was safe to commit to him any interest no matter how important. It is not strange, then, that he was so often employed to conduct difficult negotiations and manage business, when sound judgment and unimpeachable honesty were necessary to success. It is especially noticeable that in everything he tried to do he always succeeded. There is no failure on record in any enterprise he ever undertook, when the plans and execution were in his own hands.
He went to work at once, as soon as the colony arrived, to arrange securities for them in case of hostilities on the part of the Indians. The wise forethought shown in this, probably saved the colonists in the Indian war that broke out in 1791 and continued for five years.
General Putnam presided over the first court held in the territory and gave the charge to the grand jury in an appropriate and impressive manner. In 1790 he received a commission as judge in the United States court, and in the same year moved his family, consisting of his wife, six daughters, two sons, and two grand-children, to Marietta. In May, 1792, General Putnam was made a brigadier general in the United States army.
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He accepted the duty under protest. The first duty assigned him under his new office was to "attempt to be present at the general council of the hostile Indians, about to be held on the Miami river, of Lake Erie, in order to convince them of the humane disposition of the United States, and thereby to make a truce, or peace, with them." Accompanied by the Rev. John Heckewelder, he went to Post Vincent. He succeeded in making a treaty of peace and amity, which was signed by thirty-one kings, chiefs, and warriors, who represented eight of the Wabash tribes. This treaty was of great importance, as it detached a large body of warriors from the war party, though the Shawnees and Miamis were still too much elated by their recent victory over General St. Clair to be induced to sign the treaty.
Soon after this General Putnam resigned his commission as brigadier general, but he was not allowed to retire from public service. Colonel Pickering, the postmaster general, wanted to establish a line of boats to carry the mail from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. The arrangements were placed under the superintendence of General Putnam, and so wisely and so well was the business managed, that the boats continued to make their regular trips during the Indian war, with the loss of but one life. And again, when a road was wanted to connect Wheeling with Limestone, now Maysville, General Putnam was appointed to superintend the laying out of the same. And finally, through the influence of General Washington, he was made surveyor general of the United States, an office of great responsibility, requiring much wisdom and good judgment to properly' meet its requirements. Large tracts of land were to be surveyed and put into the market, grants to be laid out, and many delicate and difficult duties to be done. But he was sufficient for all these things, and discharged the duties of the office with honor to himself, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, until 1803, when he was removed by President Jefferson. He says, in regard to his removal: "I am happy in having my name enrolled with many, who have suffered the like political death, for adherence to those correct principles and measures, in the pursuance of which our country rose from a state of weakness, disgrace, and poverty, to strength, honor, and credit."
In 1802, General Putnam was elected by the citizens of Washington county as one of their representatives in the convention called to form a constitution for the new State. He did good service therein in fighting against the introduction of slavery, which, notwithstanding the prohibition in the ordinance of 1787, was kept out by a majority of only one vote.
In 1807 he drafted a plan for a church which was large and imposing for the time. He gave his services in superintending its erection, and also very liberal contributions in the way of money. The church is still used by the Congregationalists for their regular place of worship. He took great interest in establishing a Bible society in the county, and also in establishing a Sabbath- school, which was a new thing in the young west. He felt the want of educational advantages in his own early life so keenly that he was always ready to lend a helping hand to any effort to provide ways and means to save others from the evils that he suffered. While yet in Massachusetts, he was one of the corporators and trustees of Leicester academy one of the best and earliest started in the State, and to it he gave liberally of his means. In his new western home the cause still lay near his heart. But a brief period was allowed to pass after the Indian war was over before he was at work to get the "Muskingum academy" started and in working condition. This school was organized in 1798, and was the first in which anything higher than the common English branches was taught in all the great northwest, now so dotted with high schools, academies and colleges. He was elected in 1801 by the territorial legislature, one of the trustees of the Ohio university, the first college established in Ohio. He felt a warm interest in securing endowments and getting the college upon a solid foundation; and then, when all these things were acomplished, his public work was done. Surrounded by his children and their children, with a thriving community to bear witness to his wisdom and far-seeing philanthropy, honored with the respect of all who knew him, and cheered by the gratitude of those he had benefitted, he waited in serene old age for the summons to again start for a new and better country. The companion with whom he travelled the journey of life for more than half a century was called before him. Mrs. Putnam died in 1820, but his maiden daughter, Elizabeth, devoted herself to his comfort and did all that love and care could do to make his last years happy. At length his summons came. He died in 1824, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He was borne to his rest and his remains laid down in the "Mound cemetery" in Marietta, under the shadow of a monument erected by a forgotten race to chieftains of their, own, who had, perhaps, in their day, done deeds worthy of commemoration. He left numerous descendents, who are God fearing men and women, useful citizens and many of them active workers in the cause of Christ.
It is scarcely necessary to sum up the character of the man whose life has been so inadequately sketched. His work is his best epitaph. He was not brilliant, he was not quick, but he had good common sense in abundant measure, united with sound judgement and clear discrimination. When he saw what was needed to be done, he was wise in the selection of the means to secure the desired end. His integrity was never called in question, he was always found on the side of the right, and no good cause was ever brought before him from which he willingly turned away. His personal appearance was imposing. He was courtly in his manners, after the old style of gentlemen, though oftentimes a little abrupt, as is the way of the Putnams. Being a much experienced man, he was very interesting as well as instructive in conversation. He had a large fund from which to draw, for he had seen much of distinguished men and of many remarkable events. He could say, if he would—quorum magna pirs fui. A granite monument recently erected by his grandson, Colonel W. R. Putnam, marks the place of his rest. It has this inscription:
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GEN. RUFUS PUTNAM,
A Revolutionary officer, and the leader of the colony which made the first settlement in the Territory of the Northwest at Marietta, April 7, 1788.
Born April 9, 1738.
Died May 4, 1824.
Persis Rice, wife of
Rufus Putnam,
Born November 10, 737,
Died September 6, 1820.
The memory of the just is Blessed.
The children of General Rufus Putnam were: Ayres, born 1761, died 1762; Elizabeth, born 1765, died 1830; Persis, born 1767, died ; Susanna, born 1768, died 1840; Abigail, born 1770, died 1805; William Rufus, born 1771, died 1855; Franklin, born 1774, died 1776; Edwin, born 1776, died 1843; Patty, born 1777, died 1842, and Catharine, born 178o, died 1808. William Rufus married in 1803, Jerusha Guitteau. Their son William Rufus Putnam, jr., was born June 13, 1812. Edwin Putnam married a Miss Safford and had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. Susanna married Christopher Burlingame. Abigail married William Browning, of Belpre. Persis married Perly Howe, of Belpre. Martha married Benjamin Tupper, of Putnam (now Zanesville). Catharine married Ebenezer Buckingham.
REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL, D.
The interest which a majority of those who consult this volume, have in Dr. Manasseh Cutler centres in his splendid services for the New England Ohio company and his immeasurable influence for good, as exerted through the ordinance of 1787, of which much has been already said within these pages, but it is desirable that in a work devoted to the history of a settlement, of which he was one of the founders, a personal sketch of the man should be given to convey, however inadequately, some idea of his life, his talents, and his worth.
Rev. Manasseh Cutler, son of Hezekiah and Susanna (Clark) Cutler, was born in Killingly, Connecticut, May 28 (old style), 1742. His father was a respectable farmer and the son spent his earlier years in the usual manner of a New England farmer's boy. He early displayed promising tokens of genius and made rapid progress in study. He prepared for college under the Rev. Aaron Brown—a Killingly preacher—and entered Yale in 1761. He graduated with high honor in 1765. In the following year he married Mary Balch, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Mary (Sumner) Balch. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1767, and pleaded a few cases in the Norfolk county, Massachusetts, courts, but having entertained, for some years, serious thoughts of entering the ministry, he began in earnest his theological studies in 1769, under the directions of his father-in-law, who was the first pastor of the South church, of Dedham, Massachusetts. In his diary under date of November, of the preceding year, appears an entry showing that he had even then given much consideration to the subject. He says: "Prosecuted my studies—began to make sermons. May God grant me his blessing in so important an undertaking, and make me servicable to the cause of religion and the souls of my fellow-men." After completing the course of study usual at that day he was ordained at Ipswich Hamlet (afterward Hamilton), Massachusetts, September 11, 1771. His pastorate here continued fifty-two years, until his death, in 1823. Dr. Cutler regarded himself as consecrated to the ministry and repeatedly refused opportunities to enter other, and very tempting, avenues of life. His labors in the church were very successful. The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth thus spoke of him: "Christ crucified was the great theme of his preaching. His public discourses were prepared in Gospel style, but with studied accuracy, argumentative energy, and persuasive pathos. They were serious and practical, rather than speculative and metaphysical; he could be a son of thunder, and a son of consolation; his object was to win souls to Christ, and to establish them intelligent, judicious, and exemplary Christians." Another writer has said of him: "As a preacher, he was grave, dignified, and impressive in manner, and select in the matter of his discourses. In doctrine, a moderate Calvinist, he steadily maintained the religious opinions with which he commenced his ministry, to the end of his life." Felt, in his history of Ipswich, Massachusetts, says: His voice in preaching was not loud, but distinct and audible to his congregation. . . . His style of writing was clear, perspicuous and strong." His published sermons are: "Charge at the Ordination of Rev. Daniel Story, 1798" (the first ordained minister in the northern territory). "A National Fast Sermon, 1799," "A Sermon before the Bible Society of Salem and vicinity, 1813," and "A Century Discourse of Hamilton Church, 1814."
Dr. Cutler became, while a young man, very fond of scientific study, and, later in life, it is not too much to say, was more distinguished as a scientist than any man in America, except Benjamin Franklin. In the early part of the Revolutionary war an American privateer captured and brought into port a British prize, contain. ing among other valuables a fine library, consisting chiefly of medical and botanical works. These books became the neucleus of what is now the Salem athaneum. The botanical department—a field till then but little cultivated in this country—being very congenial to Dr. Cutler's taste, engaged his eager attention. He prepared a paper on botany which the American Society of Arts and Sciences published in their memoirs, and which Dr. Franklin (as he himself afterward assured Dr. Cutler) caused to be republished in the Columbian Magazine, printed at Philadelphia. In the year 1785 Dr. Cutler published four papers in the Memoirs of the American Academy, in three departments of science—astronomy, meteorology, and botany.
Dr. Cutler, who had already taken degrees in law and divinity, soon after the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, became a student and practitioner of medicine. The regular physician of the hamlet had been called to active military service, and the people were obliged to send to neighboring towns for medical aid.
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In this exigency Dr. Cutler qualified himself to fill the place made vacant. In due time he acquired a high reputation as a physician, and in the treatment of some difficult cases his success became quite proverbial. Many valuable medical papers are preserved among his manuscripts. His knowledge of botany was blended advantageously with that of medicine. It may be remarked that one of his papers upon a topic of the former science was instrumental in bringing into use lobelia and other indigenous plants.
The public honors conferred upon him give some idea of the estimation in which Dr. Cutler was held as a man of literature and science—such an accumulation as is rarely annexed to the ministerial character. They rank in the following order: He graduated from Yale in 1765; received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard in 1770; was elected a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1781; of the Philosophical society, Philadelphia, 1784; and an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical society, 1785; received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale college, 1789; was elected member of the Agricultural society, 1792; of the Historical society, 1792; a representative to Congress from 1800 to 1804; an honorary member of the Linnnaean society, Philadelphia, 1809; president of the Bible society of Salem and vicinity, 1811; a member of the American Antiquarian society, 1813; and of the New England Linnaean society, 1815. Dr. Cutler was better and more widely known during his life as a scientist than as a preacher. And now the popularity of the preacher and the renown of the scientist are both eclipsed by the fame of the author of the ordinance of. 1787. As the agent who introduced and who secured the adoption of the clause in that immortal instrument which gave it the name of the Ordinance of Freedom, he organized the force which, swelling steadily and irresistibly as the years rolled on, changed the destiny of the Nation and of millions of human beings by barring its progress and so making possible the final overthrow of American slavery. Only in recent years has Dr. Cutler's name been covered with the glory of this great deed. But his agency in the formation of the ordinance—in the insertion and passage of the clause prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory—has been established beyond a doubt.
The events which led to Dr. Cutler's great opportunity, if not forming as long a train as that of the steps by which he was fitted to take advantage of the opportunity, were nevertheless numerous. It is not necessary that they should here be recounted. He took a deep interest in the success of the American patriots. He served during two campaigns as chaplain in the Revolutionary army. He was thus personally acquainted with many of the officers and soldiers in that noble body beside those who dwelt in Hamilton and its vicinity. When the great struggle was ended and independence secured, he deeply sympathized with the survivors who had sacrificed all but life itself in the battle. When a number of those men organized the New England Ohio company for the purpose of planting a colony in the west, and there retrieving their spent fortunes, he was elected a director. Subsequently he was appointed the agent of the company to negotiate for a purchase of lands from Congress. In June, 1787, he journeyed to New York upon his important mission. How perfectly he fulfilled and how mightily he exceeded the object of that mission has already been told in a lengthy chapter of this volume. He not only made the purchase on advantageous terms, but he succeeded, by the exercise of his splendid abilities, in planting upon that land to which the colony was to journey, and upon the soil of the whole Northwest Territory, the law of Massachusetts. He succeeded in securing the eternal prohibilion of slavery, and the enactment of wise. measures for the support of schools, and the ministry, and the founding of a university.
Dr. Cutler kept a journal during his visit to Congress. That journal (from which ample extracts are given in chapter VI of this work) contains much of the evidence of Dr. Cutler's agency in the formation of the Ordinance of Freedom, and is an invaluable historical document. It was not meant for the public eye, but to give his daughters a glimpse of the world beyond their quiet New England home. The diary was kept at the request of his daughter, Mary, who, as her father was about to depart, ran to him with a book in which she enjoined him, girl- like, to write not only of his negotiations, but to give descriptions of the people whom he met—of ladies as well as gentlemen—of costumes, entertainments, etc. The journal was many years afterwards in Marietta in the hands of Judge Ephraim Cutler. Portions of it were copied by Miss Julia Cutler, and this manuscript is now in the hands of Mrs. Sarah Cutler Dawes, of Marietta. The original was returned to New England and passed into the possession of Daniel Webster. After his death it was found among his papers by the Rev. Edwin Stone, of Massachusetts, who has been for many years engaged in writing a biography of Dr. Cutler, and who still retains the document. Such in brief is the history of this journal. It will, doubtless, some day be deposited in the library of Marietta college.
While his negotiations with Congress were pending Dr. Cutler journeyed to Philadelphia to visit Benjamin Franklin (a man, by the way, whom he resembled in tastes, talents and achievements, as will be seen, when the story of his life is fully told). James Parton, in his life of Franklin, introduces Dr. Cutler's description of this visit as one of the best contemporary accounts of the distinguished American. The following extracts from this description we reproduce as showing something of the character of the writer and the esteem in which he was held by Franklin.
The Journal reads:
Dr. Franklins’ house stands up a court at some distance from the street. We found him in the garden, sitting upon a grass plot, under a very large mulberry tree, with several other gentlemen and two or three ladies. . . . He rose from his chair, took me by the hand, expressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the city and begged me to seat myself close to him. His voice was tow; his countenance open frank and pleasing. I delivered him my retters. After he had read them, he took me again by the hand and with the usual compliments introduced me to the other gentlemen. . . Here we entered into a free conversation and spent our time most agreeably, untit it was quite dark . . . After it was dark we went
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 457
into the house, and he invited me into the library, which is likewise his study.
Here Franklin exhibited to his scientific friend many interesting objects,—a glass machine for representing the flow of the blood in the arteries and veins of the human body, a copying press, a long artificial arm and hand (his own invention) for taking books down from high shelves, and other devices and curiosities. Dr. Cutler continues:
But what the doctor wished principally to show me was a huge volume on botany, which, indeed, afforded me the greatest pleasure of any one thing in his library. It was a single volume, but so large, that it was with great difficulty that he was able to raise it from a low shelf and lift it on the table. But with that senile ambition, which is common to old people, be insisted on doing it himself, and would permit no person to assist him, merely to show us how much strength he had remaining. It contained the whole of Linnaeus Sytema Vegetabilium with large cuts of every plant colored from nature. It was a feast to me, and the doctor seemed to enjoy it as well as myself. We spent a couple of hours in examining this volume, while the other gentlemen amused themselves with other matters. The doctor is not a botanist, but lamented he had not in early life attended to the science. He delights in naturat history and expressed an earnest wish that I should pursue the plan that I had begun and hoped this science so much neglected in America would be pursued with as much ardor here as it is now in every part of Europe. I wanted for three months at least to have devoted myself to this one volume, but fearing that I shoutd be tedious to him, I shut up the volume, though he urged me to examine it longer.
He seemed extremely fond, through the course of the visit of dwelling on philosophicat subjects, and particularly that of natural history, while the other gentlemen were swallowed up with politics. This was a favorable circumstance for me, for almost the whole of his conversation was addressed to me, and I was highly delighted with the extensive knowledge he appeared to have of every subject, the brightness of his memory and clearness and vivacity of all his mental faculties, notwithstanding his age. His manners are perfectly easy, and everythingl about him seems to diffuse an unrestrained freedom and happiness. He has an incessant vein of humor accompanied by an uncommon vivacity, which seems as naturat and involuntary as his breathing He urged me to calt on him again, but my short stay would not admit.
Dr. Cutler, in the summer of 1788, visited the infant settlement which he had been instrumental in founding, for the purpose of attending a meeting of the directors of the Ohio company. He left Hamilton, in his sulky, July 21st, and arrived at Marietta August 19th. On the twenty-seventh of the month he performed the burial service for a child of Major Nathaniel Cushing, the first funeral among the settlers here. He preached on the Sabbath in the hall at Campus Martius; and was present in the same hall September 2, 1788, at the opening of the first court held northwest of the river Ohio, under the forms of civil jurisprudence, officiating as chaplain on that occasion. He was greatly interested in examining the ancient mounds, squares, and other earthworks at Marietta, which he thought were a thousand years old, and were made by some nation more civilized and powerful than any Indians known to exist in America. After his arrival in Massachusetts he wrote to General Rufus Putnam: "On my return home I found several letters from different parts of Europe. The most of them request me to send a particular account of the ancient works found in North America. These works seem to have engaged the attention of the literati in Europe, and I wish to gratify those with whom I have the honor to correspond, as far as possible. I must beg you to forward to me the surveys of the works at Marietta. Accurate measurements I find to be of consequence in their minds. Pray attend to the width of the openings, and the distances and relative situations of all the works to one another." Dr. Cutler gives an account of these remarkable earthworks in a note to his charge at the ordination of Rev. Daniel Story.
Dr. Cutler at one time contemplated removing his family to the new purchase, but after this visit he writes that he could not do so without making great sacrifices, and, although the country equalled, and in some respects much exceeded his expectations, especially as a grazing country, and he felt the warmest interest in the success and prosperity of the settlement, he finally abandoned the plan.
Soon after the peace made by General Wayne with the western Indians, in 1795, President Washington tendered to Dr. Cutler a commission as judge of the supreme court in the Ohio Territory, which he declined.
Although Dr. Cutler was not of the pioneers at Marietta, two of his sons, Ephraim and Jervis, were, and a. third, Charles, was also an early resident of Ohio. Another son died in infancy. Temple, the youngest of the four who lived to maturity, never removed to the west, and died in New England in 2857. Dr. Cutler had three daughters: Mary, who became the wife of Dr. Joseph Torry, of Hamilton; Elizabeth, who married Fitch Poole and lived in Danvers; and Lavinia, who married Captain Jacob Berry.
In the autumn of 1800 Dr. Cutler was elected a member of Congress, and again in 1802, when, having served two terms, he declined a reelection. His people entertained a high estimate of his talents and patriotism, and he accepted the honors conferred with the modest diffidence which true dignity inspires. Whether at home or abroad, his mind was intent on projecting great and good plans, consulting the benefit of generations to come; and his persevering genius rarely failed of carrying them into effect. In politics Dr. Cutler was a Federalist.
Felt's History of Ipswich (Massachusetts), says: "In person Dr. Cutler was of light complexion, above the common stature, erect and dignified in his appearance. His manners were gentlemanly; his conversation easy and intelligent. As an advisor he was discerning and discreet. . . . His mental endowments were high."
This great and good man having nobly fulfilled his life duty passed away July 28, 1823 at the ripe age of eighty-one years.
In a discourse delivered July 30, 1823, in Hamilton, at the interment of the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, by Benjamin Wadswords, D. D., he said: "All who enjoyed the privilege of an acquaintance with the Rev. Dr. Cutler knew that nature had been liberal of her gifts; enriching an elegant form with a penetrating and enterprising mind, capacitated for literary and scientific attainments, and with talents formed to shine on the public stage of life," and he adds, "his name will stand enrolled on the list of the early literati."
Dr. Cutler's old home in Hamilton remains, little changed since he dwelt in it, except that the beautiful gardens which he had in connection with the house have long since disappeared. In the village burying-ground
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is a monument to his memory bearing the following inscription:
REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL. , D.
He died July 28, 1823, in the 81st year of his age.
He was beloved for his domestic and social virtues.
His talents were of a high order. He was eminent for his Botanical, Medical, Political and Theological knowledge. He was a member of riterary and scientific societies in both Europe and America. After a useful ministry of fifty-two years in this place, he expired, with a firm and peaceful reliance on his Redeemer.
"They that trust in the Lord shatl be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth forever."
This stone is erected to his memory by his church.
On the reverse is the following:
Sacred to the memory of
MRS. MARY CUTLER,
Consort of Rev. Dr. Cutler, who deceased
Nov. 3, 1815, in the 73d year of her age.
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
GENERAL BENJAMIN TUPPER.*
The important part taken by General Benjamin Tupper in the measures leading to settlement at Marietta, makes his personal career a subject of general interest. He was born at Staughton, Massachusetts, in 738. While yet quite young his father died, and he was apprenticed to a tanner named Whitherton, in Dorchester. He left Dorchester at the age of sixteen, and lived on a farm at Easton.
He served as a private soldier in the French war most of the time for about three years. About this time he also taught school at Easton two or three winters.
He was married November 18, 1762, to Huldah White, of Easton. She was a woman of much strength and beauty of character, and was well fitted to be the companion of a public man during a trying epoch of history. A short time after their marriage they removed from Easton to Chesterfield, which continued to be the family residence until they came to Marietta.
Mr. Tupper, at the opening of the Revolution, was lieutenant in a militia company at Chesterfield, and under command of Major Halley, of Northampton, participated in preventing the supreme court from sitting under authority of the British Crown. He thus early joined the illustrious line of revolutionists. When the war had actually begun, he entered the service with the rank of major, and was an actor in the events which took place at Boston harbor.
Mr. Tupper was promoted to the colonelcy in 1776. He participated in the battle of Long Island. During the campaign of 1777, he served under General Gates. In 1778, he was under General Washington, and had a horse killed under him at the battle of Monmouth. In 1780, he served in the army of the Hudson. About the close of the war he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by brevet. When the war had closed, he returned to his family at Chesterfield.
The circumstances which brought him to the valley of the Ohio, the survey under the ordinance of 1785, his
* From a sketch written by his grandson, A. T. Nye.
visit to Fort Harmar, his conference with General Putnam and its result, are already known to the reader.
General Tupper's last military services were in the suppression of Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts, in which he performed an important part.
General Tupper came to Marietta with the first company of families, August 19, 1788. He served as judge of the court of quarler sessions until his death in June, 1792. His wife died at Putnam, Ohio, February 21, 1812.
Their family consisted of three sons and four daughters. Major Anselm Tupper died at Marietta, December 25, 1808 ; Colonel Benjamin Tupper died at Putnam in February, 1815 ; General Edward W. Tupper died at Gallipolis in 1823 ; Rowena, the oldest daughter of General Tupper, and wife of Secretary Winthrop Sargeant, died at Marietta in 1790 ; Sophia, wife of Nathaniel Wilys, esq., of Connecticut, died in October, 1789 ; Minerva, wife of Colonel Ichabod Nye, died at Marietta in April, 1836; the other daughter died young, before the family emigrated to Ohio.
SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS.
Samuel Holden Parsons was an honorable soldier and able diplomat during the early period of our country's existence. He was born in New London county, Connecticut, May 14, 1837. His father was Jonathan Parsons, a distinguished clergyman, and his mother was a descendant of Henry Wolcot, of Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard college, and studied law. His first appointment was to the position of colonial auditor with power to collect and adjust accounts. He became a member of the committee on western land claims in 1773. His diplomatic services in this connection were found of great service to his colony.
In 1783 he was made a member of the inter colonial standing committee of correspondence and inquiry. As a member of this committee he suggested to Samuel Adams the propriety of holding annual meetings of commissioners of the colonies to consult on their general welfare. Historians have attributed to Samuel Adams the honor of originating the American Congress, but a letter on file among the papers of Samuel Adams from Colonel Parsons proves him to have been the originator of the idea.
His strong and caustic pen was employed during the whole of the preliminary struggle with Great Britain in inspiring his countrymen with a spirit of resistance against oppression. The fact that a National Congress was first suggested by Colonel Parsons, has been referred to. It was through his diplomacy that the legislature of Connecticut was led to pass a resolution in 1774, recommending a meeting of representatives of the colonies. Massachusetts, with Samuel Adams in the lead, seconded this resolution. Colonel Parsons joined the lines at the opening of the war, and served, with distinction till its close, when he was retired with the rank of major-general. He had succeeded General Putnam in command of the
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Hudson River division, and was one of the committee which tried Major Andre.
In 1786 his ability as a diplomat was called into use when he was appointed to a place on the commission, to treat with the Shawnee Indians for extinguishing the aboriginal title to certain lands within the Northwestern Territory. The other members of the commission were Generals Richard Butler, of Pittsburgh, and George Rogers Clark, of Kentucky. The treaty was held January 31, 1786, near the mouth of the Great Miami, and resulted in the cession to the United States of a large tract of land, on which Cincinnati now stands.
General Parsons was appointed one of the supreme judges under the ordinance of 1787, and came to Marietta in May, 1788. In 1789 he was commissioned chief judge of the territory. In the fall of 1789 he went to the northern part of the State in the service of Connecticut, to treat with the Wyandots relative to their claim on the Reserve lands. While returning to Marietta, he was drowned in the rapids of the Big Beaver November 17, 1789.
JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM.
Americans patriotically cherish the. memory of the Revolutionary heroes. But in the character of James Mitchell Varnum we have a man whose services extend beyond the establishment of independence into the period of the establishment of government and the formation of constitutions, a man who devoted to the service of his country the talents of a ready commander, able lawyer and pure statesman.
James Mitchell Varnum was born in Middlesex county, Massachusetts in 1749, on the ancestral estate, which was purchased from the Indians and settled by Samuel Varnum in 1664. His life is briefly summed up in the published memoirs of the Bar of Rhode Island: "The career of General Varnum was active but brief. He graduated at Brown university at twenty; was admitted to the bar at twenty-two; entered the army at twenty-seven; resigned his commission at thirty-one; was member of Congress the same year; resumed practice at thirty-three and continued four years; was elected to Congress again at thirty-seven; emigrated to Ohio at thirty-nine, and died at the early age of forty." Varnum soon after admission to the bar acquired an extensive practice. He had a natural taste for military life, and his. keen mind doubtless foresaw the dark future of his country, for he joined the Kentish guards and was in 1774 appointed commander. This was one of the most celebrated companies of the colonial militia. Thirty-two of its members entered the Revolution as commissioned officers. Besides the commander among the number were General Green, Colonel Crary and Colonel Whitemarsh. The prominent part Varnum had taken in the colonial controversies and his position in the militia service caused him to be chosen to the command of one of the first regiments of infantry raised by authority of the colonial legislature. He afterwards received a commission from Washington. He served as colonel in Washington's division at Trenton and Princeton. In February, 1777, Colonel Varnum was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and served with distinction until 1779, when he retired to his own State which sent him to Congress in 1780. But we cannot detail his important public services. His power as a lawyer was shown in an important case which involved the destiny of the State. The idea took possession of the impoverished people, inexperienced in affairs of government, that money could be manufactured by State authority (an idea since several times revived). Laws had actually been enacted making it an offense finable by law to refuse to accept at par the worthless fiat money of an impoverished State. Interest had become as high as four per cent. per month, and all business was on the verge of ruin. This paper money system gave rise to a case which gave General Varnum a national reputation as a lawyer. The case in itself was simple. John Trevett bought meat of John Weeden and tendered him in payment State bills, which Weeden refused. The whole State was interested in this case. "If the complaint should be sustained by the judgment of the court all the commerce and business of the State would be destroyed and all previous obligations cancelled by this irredeemable trash," General Varnum's plea on this occasion was a masterpiece. He succeeded not only in having the laws adjudged unconstitutional, but the effect of his logic was so powerful that the dominant party was forced to a change of policy.
General Varnum became a member of the Ohio company in 1787, and was elected one of its directors. He was also appointed one of the supreme judges of the terrrtory. He left Rhode Island in the spring of 1788 and arrived in Marietta in June. He delivered the oration at the first Fourth of July celebration in Marietta. After coming to Ohio his health gave way. In the fall of 1788 he determined to go South in the hope of recuperating, but rapid decline saved him a death among strangers. He died of consumption January 10, 1789. His burial was attended with the ceremony due his high character and distinguished public services.
COMMODORE ABRAHAM WHIPPLE.
In the Mound cemetery at Marietta is a tombstone bearing the following inscription:
Sacred to the memory of
COMMODORE ABRAHAM WHIPPLE,
whose name, skill, and courage,
will ever remain the pride and
boast of his country.
In the late Revolution he was the
first on the seas to hurl defiance at proud Britain,
gallantly leading the way to wrest from
the mistress of the ocean her scepter,
and there to wave the star-spangled banner.
He also conducted to the sea
the first square-rigged vessel ever built on the Ohio,
opening to commerce
resources beyond calculation. *
* This inscription was written by Judge Ephraim Cutler, his warm friend and admirer.
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While Ohio is pointing with pride to her many great sons, she should not neglect to know the life, and honor the memory of the brave men who planted ripe civilization on her savage soil. The high position of so many of these among the celebrated men of the Revolution is a source of pride and congratulation.
Abraham Whipple, a descendant of John Whipple, one of the original proprietors of the Providence plantations, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1733. In early life he was drawn into ocean commerce, and attained to the command of a vessel engaged in the West India and St. Croix trade. He followed the sea for many years before the Revolution, during which he acquired a practical knowledge of navigation and an intimate acquaintance with the ocean and its harbors. Near the close of the French war he was given command of a privateer. During this period he exhibited qualifications which brought him into notice. He was brave and confident and his ready mind was never at a loss for an expedient. The reputation acquired during the French war drew him into the incipient acts of the Revolution. In 1772 he headed a company of his townsmen who burned an odious British schooner, stationed at Narragansett. bay, for the purpose of enforcing oppressive maritime laws. One thousand pounds was offered for the detection of the leader, and five hundred pounds for any member of the company. But England was at that time so universally hated that although more than fifty knew the secret none were found willing to inform. Historians generally consider the burning of the Gaspe, June 17, 1772, by Captain Whipple and the Providence company, the overt act of the Revolution.
Little Rhode Island was first to renounce allegiance to the British crown, and the first to send to sea under legislative authority a vessel of war. Two days before the battle of Bunker Hill, two sloops were purchased and armed, one with twelve the other with eight guns. The larger was placed under command of Captain Whipple, with ordets to clear the bay of British tenders, to the frigate Rose under command of Sir James Wallace, who blockaded the harbors and rivers, preventing a large number of homeward bound vessels from entering the port. Captain Whipple sailed on the fifteenth of June, down the Narragansett bay and attacked two of the enemy's traders. He forced one to retire and took the other a prize. This bold stroke cleared the bay and entitles Whipple to the honor of having fired the first gun at the British on the sea, in the opening of the Revolutionary war.
But to narrate the life of Commodore Whipple during the next seven years would be telling an important part of the naval history of the Revolution, and belongs to a book of wider scope. Our purpose here is to give the citizens of Washington county an idea of the National importance of one of the founders of society in their own State and community.
In 1782 he was excused from the service, and returned to his farm at Cranston. He was given command, in 1784, of one of the first merchant vessels sent to Great Britain after the peace. "To Commodore Whipple was given the honor of first unfurling the American flag on the Thames." After his return he again retired to his farm, and was a member of his State legislature during the first rage of the paper money lunacy.
In a pitiful petition to Congress, in 1786, he sets forth his financial condition. His grievances are similar to those of many others who took part in the battles for freedom, and in this age of pensions the prayer of the petition may not be uninteresting. After setting forth his military services, he says:
Thus having exhausted the means of supporting myself and family, I was reduced to the sad necessity of mortgaging my little farm, the remnant I had left, to obtain money for a temporary support. The farm is now gone, and, having been sued out of possession, I am turned into the world at an advanced age, feeble and valetudinary, with my wife and children, destitute of a house or a home that I can call my own, or have the means of hiring. This calamity has arisen from two causes, viz,: First, from my disbursing rarge sums in France and Charleston. In the former I expended in the service of the United States to the amount of three-hundred and sixty French guineas—a large part of that sum was appropriated to the pay of marine, the other part for sea stores to accommodate a number of gentlemen passengers sent on board by the commissioners to take passage for America, and for which I have never been recompensed; and, secondty, my having served the United States from the fifteenth of June, 1ns, to December, 1782, without receiving a farthing of wages or subsistence from them since December, 1776. My advances in France and Charleston amount in the whole to nearly seven thousand dollars in specie, exclusive of interest. The repayment of this, or a part of it, might be the happy means of regaining the farm I have been obliged to give up, and snatch my family from misery and ruin."
The whole amount due from the United States was about sixteen thousand dollars. He received in final settlement securities the nominal amount expended in France. He was forced to sell these securities at a discount of eighty per cent. This amount, however, enabled him to regain his Cranston farm, which he sold in 1788 and came to Ohio. During the Indian war he lived in comparative quiet in the house of his son-in-law, Colonel Sproat. He, indeed, considered the whites aggressors in the Indian country, and was inclined to deal with the red men as peaceably as possible.
In 1796, in his sixty-third year, he removed with his wife to a farm of twelve acres, located on the Muskingum, two miles from Marietta, and depended upon its productions and his own labor for a livelihood. The fact of his having gone to Havana with a cargo of produce, in 1801, will be found in the chapter on commerce and navigation.
In an, when failing health and reduced circumstances were oppressing him, he followed the advice of friends and applied to Congress for a pension. In answer to his petition he was allowed half the pay of a captain, which was at that time sixty dollars a month. The remaining years of his life were free from anxiety.
His sympathetic life companion was Sarah Hopkins, sister of Governor Hopkins, of Rhode Island. Their family consisted of two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter married Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, and the younger, Dr. Comstock, of Rhode Island. She never came to Ohio. John, the only son, left Marietta at an early period and followed a seafaring life. He never married, and with him the family name became extinct.
Mrs. Sarah Whipple died in October, 1818, in her
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eightieth year. Commodore Whipple died May 29, 1819, on his farm. He was a leading actor from beginning to end of that trying struggle which resulted in the establishment of our Nation. Impoverished, he struggled in later life in the midst of the events incident to the first settlement of the northwest. It is pleasant to reflect that his last years were spent in ease and contentment.
COLONEL ROBERT OLIVER.
It is a fortunate circumstance that so many of the colony of first settlers were men of superior character and ability. One of the most useful members of the Ohio company was Colonel Robert Oliver. He was born in 1738 in the north of Ireland. His parents moved to America while Robert was young, and settled on a farm in Worcester county, Massachusetts. His education was as good as the schools of that period afforded.
He entered the Revolution as a lieutenant, but at the close of the war had advanced to the position of colonel. He served under General Rufus Putnam in the campaign against Burgoyne, and was highly complimented as a disciplinarian. After the close of the war he again settled on a farm, where he lived quietly until 1786, when he volunteered to assist in putting down Shay's rebellion.
Upon the formation of the Ohio company he invested in two shares of their land and came to Marietta in the summer of 1788. The formation of the Millsburgh colony and the erection of Wolf Creek mills is Cully noticed in the chapter on Watertown.
In 1790 Colonel Oliver was elected to fill the vacancy on the board of directors of the Ohio company caused by the death of General Parsons. His services in that capacity were of great value, especially during the trying period of the Indian war.
Colonel Oliver was the colleague of Colonel Meigs in the first territorial legislature, and was selected as one of the council, which was composed of five representatives, nominated by the governor and commissioned by the President of the United States. In 1800 he was chosen president of the council. He served as colonel of militia, and judge of the court of common pleas. He served his township as magistrate until his death, which occurred in May, 1810.
The few persons yet living who knew him bear testimony of the high regard in which he was held, especially in Waterford, where his private life was known and appreciated.
MAJOR HAFFIELD WHITE.
The few old settlers of the community of Waterford whom time has spared to tell reminiscences of past events frequently mention the name of Major White. He was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, where, at the opening of the Revolution, he was an officer in a company of minute men. His company hastened to the scene of action as soon as the news of the actual opening of hostilities reached them, and arrived in time to pour a round of rifle-balls into the retreating British lines. He served as an officer in line and as commissary until the close of the war.
He became a member of the Ohio company in 1787 and acted as commissary for the first detachment to Marietta. His son, Peletiah, was one of the forty-eight who arrived April 7, 1788. In 1789, Major White, in company with Captain Dodge and Major Oliver, built the first mill in Ohio—Wolf creek mill in Watertown township. This property eventually passed under control of the White family. After the death of the major his son, Peletiah, managed the mill.
Major White was held in high regard by his customers, who were prejudiced by his affable manner and sterling qualities.
COLONEL EBENEZER SPROAT.
A distinguished character in the early history of Ohio is the tall sheriff who headed the procession at the opening of the first court in the territory, and whose imposing figure so impressed the Indians that they gave him the name of Hetuck (Big Buckeye). There is a tradition that from this circumstance the term Buckeye came to be applied to all Ohioians.
Colonel Sproat was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, in 1752. He had the advantage of early education and became familiar with the principles and practice of surveying. He assisted his father on the farm and was remarked for his strong vigorous frame. He stood erect six feet four inches tall. At the opening of the Revolution Mr. Sproat was given command of a company but soon rose to the position of major in the Tenth Massachusetts regiment, under Colonel Sheppard. In 1778 he became lieutenant colonel in Glover's brigade. It has been said that he was not only the tallest man in the brigade, but also the most complete disciplinarian. At the close of the war he retired to Providence and employed himself at surveying. While here he became attached to Catharine Whipple, whom he married. Colonel Sproat now turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, for which he was singularly unfitted. He was fond of company and freehanded, and as a natural result failed after a short period, losing his own fortune and his wife's patrimony. In 1786, Colonel Sproat was given an appointment on the survey of the seven ranges, and the following year was made one of the surveyors of the Ohio company's purchase. In the fall of that year he led a detachment to Simrell's ferry, where he superintended the building of the Mayflower. Colonel Sproat continued as surveyor for the company until 1791, when the Indian war prevented further operations. He held the position of high sheriff, under commission of Governor St. Clair, for fourteen years. He invested the office with all the dignity of ancient ceremony, which his commanding presence gave a peculiar effect. He always carried a sword as the badge of office. During the Indian war he served as paymaster of the troops. The family of Colonel Sproat consisted of his wife and one
462 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
daughter, who came to Marietta with Commodore Whipple. His daughter married Solomon Sibley, esq. Colonel Sproat was a friend of General Washington and an acquaintance of Lafayette. He was a staunch Federalist and saw the fall of his party with regret. He took a live interest in agriculture, particularly gardening. His garden covered nearly an acre of ground and was tastefully laid out in squares and walks. He died suddenly in February, 1805.
COLONEL RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.
Another of the celebrated spirits of the Revolution, and one, too, who figures prominently in the early history of Ohio, was Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. He was apprenticed a hatter in early life and afterwards had a shop in his native State of Connecticut.
Mr. Meigs was a member of the Colonial military company, of Middletown, and when the war became iminent was chosen captain. After the news of the first bloodshed at Lexington, Captain Meigs volunteered and was received into the service with the rank of major.
After his release he again signified his willingness to enter the service, and was commissioned colonel by Congress. He raised a regiment of volunteers, known in history as the "Red Cap regiment." The expedition of this regiment against Sagg Harbor, Long Island, is celebrated, and its conduct at Stony Point highly honorable. After the war Colonel Meigs returned to Middletown, where he remained until the formation of the Ohio company. His services were engaged by the company as a surveyor, and in the spring of 1788 he entered on the duties of his office. Before the territorial officers had arrived Colonel Meigs had drawn up a code of rules, which served for the government of the territory. After the organization of the government, under the ordinance of Congress he was made one of the associate justices and justice of the peace. He was also commissioned clerk of the court of quarter sessions and prothonotary of the court of common pleas.
Colonel Meigs was commissary of the clothing department during the treaty of 1795, at Greenville. It was through his exertions that Joseph Kelly, the boy captive, was restored to his mother.
Washington county was ably represented in the first territorial legislature by Colonels Meigs and Oliver. This was an important session, and Colonel Meigs' intimate knowledge of affairs made him a superior member.
In 1801 he was appointed by President Jefferson Indian agent in the Cherokee nation, where he removed and resided until his death, which occurred in 1823.
His family consisted of three sons—Return Jonathan, John, and Timothy. Colonel Meigs was held in the highest esteem in the army, in Marietta, and among the Indians, where he spent the evening of his busy life.
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
Arthur St. Clair, first and, practically, the only governor of the Northwest Territory, was born in Scotland in 1734.
He became a subaltern in the British army, and was detailed to America for duty during the French war. He was present at the storming of Quebec. In 1763 he was given command of Fort Ligonier, in Pennsylvania, where he settled and received one thousand acres of land. He sympathized with the colonies in their difficulties with Great Britain, and at the opening of the Revolution was given command of a regiment of continentals. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and before the close of the war was made major general. He had command of Ticonderoga when it was captured by Burgoyne, and was charged with everything reflecting on his honor as a military man, but a court-martial sustained his conduct and fully exonerated him. His military career although not brilliant was creditable.
In 1785 he was elected a representative of Legonier, where he settled after the war, to the Continental Congress, and was afterwards chosen president of that body.
The Northwest Territory was formed in 1787, and General St. Clair received the appointment of governor. His home in Legonier, Westmoreland county, was known as "Pott's Grove." He had made some improvements when his duties called him to Ohio. In the winter of 1790 he removed to Marietta with all his family, excepting his wife, who remained to superintend the homestead. His household at Marietta consisted of a son, Arthur St. Clair. jr., and three daughters—Louisa, Jane, and Margaret, and an aged colored woman who acted as cook. Arthur studied law, and engaged in practice in Cincinnati; Louisa was a young lady of eighteen; Jane was two years younger, "a girl of retiring manners and feeble constitution;" Margaret, the youngest child, died that year with fever. Louisa has been the subject of much comment. She was quick and vigorous both in mind and body. She seemed in her element amid the wild and dangerous surroundings of the period. She was often to be seen riding on a wild and spirited horse at full speed through the thick woods and over logs and streams. She was one of the best pedestrians at the garrison, and frequently came out victorious in walking or running races. She could shoot a rifle with the accuracy of a skilled woodsman, and was exceedingly fond of the chase. Although she had a passion for athletic sports, intellectual pursuits were by no means neglected. She had been educated with much care in Philadelphia.
Governor St. Clair was removed by President Jefferson a few months before the formation of the State Government in 803. He had suffered great financial loss, and the last years of his life were spent in poverty. He returned to his Pennsylvania farm and in vain appealed to Congress for a bounty. The legislature of his State recognized his services by voting him an annuity of three hundred dollars, which was afterwards increased to six hundred. He died on his farm in the Legonier valley, August 31, 1818.
ICHABOD NYE.
Ichabod Nye was from Tolland, Connecticut. His ancestors, both on his mother's side and his father's were
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English, and came from England to America in 1639. They were of those who came here to escape religious persecution. They first settled in Scituate, and then Barnstable, Massachusetts, the church to which they belonged coming over almost in a body. A part of the family after some years moved westward to Tolland, Connecticut. The father of Ichabod Nye was George Nye. His mother was Thankful Hinckley. George Nye owned a farm at Tolland on which he resided. December 21, 1763, Ichabod Nye was born. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a tanner in Hadley, for the purpose of learning the trade. In this it was considered he had an advantage not shared by his brothers who were reared on the farm. It is probable that he finished his apprenticeship, though he entered the Revolutionary army at the early age of sixteen. Among the names of Revolutionary soldiers found at the State house in Boston is the following: "Ichabod Nye, age sixteen, five feet, eleven inches high, black hair; Colonel Porter's regiment, 1779." He afterwards served in Colonel Sear's regiment, which belonged to the northern army under Gates. He was with this branch of the army during the campaign which terminated with the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga.
In 1785 Ichabod Nye married Minerva, daughter of General Benjamin Tupper. At the close of the war they were residing with General Tupper, at Chesterfield, Massachusetts.
General Tupper, immediately on his return from the army in 1783, made known to his friends and neighbors his intention to go to the western territory. They regarded it as mere talk on his part. He, however, immediately set about the formation of the Ohio company. Mr. Nye has- written: "I had engaged to come west to settle with him, and we began to prepare for the undertaking. Soon after the defeat of Shay I began to collect timber to build wagons, and went with a sleigh to Williamsburgh for timber of oak as there was none to be obtained in Chesterfield, nor was there a wagon fit for such a journey to be obtained in the State of Massachusetts, and but one man in our part of the State who could make one. I engaged him, however, and he built us two wagons, one for the family, or rather both families, and one for the goods and utensils belonging to them. With these we made our destination on the Ohio bank at Wellsburgh, Virginia, in company with Colonel Cushing and family, Major Goodale and family, and were joined there by Major Coburn and family, and his son-in-law, Andrew Webster and family. I left this company at Wellsburgh and came overland on the Virginia side with the horses and two hired men, reaching Marietta ten days before them." They descended the river in the Mayflower, which had been sent up for that purpose, and arrived at Marietta August 19, 1788. Their journey had occupied ten weeks, haying been detained at Wells- burgh waiting for Major Coburn.
When these families arrived in Marretta, Campus Martius was in process of building, but not finished. They occupied such houses as they could obtain near Campus Martius, generally small log houses. General Tupper soon put up a dwelling in the Campus Martius, on the southwest side, on the ground afterwards occupied by the residence of Ichabod Nye In September, 1788, Mrs. Nye wrote as follows to some friends in New England: "We now live in the city of Marietta, where we expect to end our days. We find the country much more delightsome than we had any idea of." And in November Miss Rowena Tupper writes: "The country has been so often spoken of that it is needless for me to say more than that it answers every expectation." In 1790 Mr. Nye began to sink vats for a tan-yard in the extreme northern portion of the town on Seventh street.
These vats were built from the timbers of the boat in which his brother, Ebenezer Nye, had descended the river, and were the first tan vats in the Northwestern Territory. This situation was during the Indian war, which soon followed, a hazardous one, but no attack was made upon him there. He afterwards sunk some vats near the upper end of Third street, but the ground was unfavorable, and he finally erected buildings near the corner of Seventh and Putnam streets, where the main building of the chair company now stands. At that time Putnam street was not opened beyond Fifth. It was at this place that the heaviest part of his business was carried on. His customers were from all parts of the surrounding country, and the reputation of the leather made there was of the highest character.
During the Indian war Mr. Nye lived in General Tupper's house in Campus Martins. His brother, Ebenezer Nye, with his family and Mrs. Kelley (a widow) with her children, lived in the southeast block-house. After the close of the war Ichabod Nye purchased the southwest block-house, which had been the residence of Governor St. Clair, and resided there until 1814. He owned four lots on the south end of the square, north of Scammel street, and he left the stockade and lived for a time in a house standing on the lot corner of front and Scam- met In 1820 he built his dwelling house on the stockade, where he resided during the remainder of his life, and where two of his sons have always lived until 1880. In 809 he erected the brick store on Putnam street, now (1881) occupied by Jacob Pfaff as a bakery. The upper story was used for the Masonic lodge hall; the lower story for a store. In the spring of 1810 he opened a store in this building, in which he kept dry goods, groceries, shoes—in fact such goods as were in demand. In August, 1813, he entered into a partnership with Mr. Charles Shipman, and they removed the goods to Athens and opened a store there under charge of Mr. Shipman, then a young man. In 1816 this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Nye reopened his store on Putnam street, Marietta. He had also formed, in 1805, a partnership with Colonel Benjamin Tupper, his brother-in-law, and they had opened a store in Springfield, now the Ninth ward of Zanesville, Ohio. He afterwards withdrew from this partnership, and established two of his sons in the mercantile business with himself, one under the firm name of I. & A. Nye, and the other A. Nye & Co. These were also in Springfield. He finally transferred the goods from the Marietta store and the store of I. & A. Nye, in Putnam, to Waterford, Ohio. In March, 1819,
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A. T. Nye took charge of the business there, and in 824 he purchssed the stock and continued the business under his own name. After 824, Mr. Ichabod Nye had no further interest in mercantile business.
Colonel Nye, as he was always called, having been commissioned in militia about 1804, was very little engaged in public business. He was a subscriber to Muskingum academy, and was always interested in educational matters. He was a member of the Masonic lodge in Marietta. In his youth his opportunities for obtaining an education were limited, but he was a man who read a great deal, and of the very best, and he also kept himself well informed on all public affairs. He had a strong and vigorous mind, and generally formed his own opinions. He was strongly attached to the administration of General Washington, and belonged to the Federal party as long as that party existed, and afterwards to the Whig party. He died November 27, 1840. His first wife, Minerva Tupper, died April 20, 1836. Their children who survived infancy were: Horace, Panthea, who married Rothius Hayward, of Waterford, Ohio; Arius, Anselm Tupper, Sophia, who married Rev. Cyrus Byington, of the Choctaw Mission; Rowena, who married William Pitt Putnam, of Belpre; Huldah, died June 22, 1838, not married; Ichabod Hinckley, Edward White. The only children who now survive (881) are Anselm T. Nye, born in Campus Martius, November 9, 1797, and Edward White Nye, born April 13, 1812. Ichabod Hinckly Nye, so well known and highly esteemed in Marietta, died at the homestead, on the stockade, in June, 1880. Colonel Nye married, in 1840, Mrs. Rebecca Howe Beebe, who survived him some years.
Ebenezer Nye, brother of Ichabod Nye, settled in Rainbow. His descendants live in Athens, Meigs and Muskingum counties. From these two brothers are .descended all of the name in southeastern Ohio, who are of English descent.
REBECCA GILMAN.
The centre of a circle of cultured intellects during the period of early settlement was Rebecca Ives Gilman, wife of Joseph Gilman. She was the daughter of Benjamin Ives and granddaughter of Hon. Robert Hall, under whose direction a fine mind was store with useful information, and a taste cultivated for polite literature. Her early associates were people of culture and education.
I Mrs. Gilman was bright and fascinating in conversation. Her friendship was much sought and highly valued. But she never permitted her polite studies to interfere with domestic duty. She is described as a model housekeeper and mother. After the death of her husband in 1806, she lived in her own house at Harmar until 1812, when she removed with her son, Benjamin Ives Gilman, to Philadelphia, where she died in 1820.
MRS. MARY LAKE.
The name of Mary Lake was for many years a household word in the pioneer families of Marietta. Her example both in the Revolution and here demonstrated the capability of a kind hearted, strong minded woman in seasons of distress. Mary Bird was born in Bristol, England, in 1742. At the age of twenty she married Archibald Lake, a seaman, and moved to St. John, New Foundland. Here he followed fishing until the place came into possession of the French, when he removed to New York and engaged in ship building. New York at an early period of the war was occupied by the British, and Mrs. Luke determined to be of use to her adopted countrymen, for she enlisted heartily in the American cause, deserted the city and went into the hospitals at Fishkill and then at New Windsor, where she was the comforting angel of many suffering soldiers. The war over her husband was at a loss for profitable employment, and welcomed the news of the opening of the new territory west of the Ohio, where he could find a home.
The family came to Marietta in 1789. Mrs. Lake's kindness of heart and skill in the sick room were soon found out. Her superior intelligence and purity of character, placed her in high esteem in the new settlement. In the spring of 1790 small-pox broke out in Campus Martius. Most of the physicians were young, and knew little of the disease. Her experienced services during this trying period were found of the highest value.
Mrs. Lake was a lady of intense purity, and wore all the graces of pure religion. She taught the first Sunday- school in the territory, and it has been said the second in America, but there is good ground for disputing this statement. After the regular preaching service, Mrs. Lake gathered the children about her and instructed them from the Westminister catechism and the Bible.
After the peace in 1795, she moved to the Rainbow settlement on the Muskingum, where she died in 1802, leaving an estimable family.
ISAAC AND REBECCA WILLIAMS.
During the toilsome period of early settlement two inhabitants of Virginia by kind offrces so endeared themselves to the residents of this side, that a sketch of their lives belongs in this volume. The village facing the mouth of the Muskingum bears their name.
Isaac Williams was born in Pennsylvania in 1737. In early life his parents removed to Winchester, Virginia, then a frontier town. He was fond of hunting, and soon became acquainted with the out of the way places of the wild country in which he lived. When he was eighteen years old the Colonial Government employed him as a spy to watch the movements of the Indians. He served in the army of General Braddock, and was connected with the military movements in the west during the French and Indian war. He was one of the first settlers of Brooks county, West Virginia. He removed west about 1769. He had previously visited the Ohio on hunting and trapping expeditions, which he
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made annually. He accumulated large tracts of land by making entries under the Virginia laws. Clearing and planting one acre in corn entitled the holder to four hundred dollars.
While residing in Brooks county he became acquainted with and married Rebecca Martin, a widow. Her first husband had been killed by the Indians.
Mr. Williams accompanied Lord Dunmore in his campaign against the Indians in 1774, and was present when the treaty was made near Chillicothe. Mrs. Williams had come to Virginia in 1771, and was living with her brothers near the mouth of Grave creek. While living here an incident occurred which proves that she was a very remarkable woman. She made an expedition to her sister's, fifty miles down the river, in a canoe. On her return, night overtook her, and she determined to go ashore and wait for the rising of the moon. On returning she found it necessary to wade a few steps to reach the canoe. When just in the act of stepping on board her foot rested on the cold, dead body of an Indian who had been murdered a few days before. Without screaming, she stepped into the canoe and rowed on her way homeward.
In the spring of 1773 Joseph and Samuel Tomlinson, her brothers, entered four hundred acres of land in the bottom opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, which they presented to their sister Rebecca, in consideration for previous services. In 1786, Fort Harmer having been built and garrisoned, Mr. and Mrs. Williams desired to occupy. their land. Saplings had grown on the clearing made fifteen years before, but the land was easily reduced to a state of cultivation.
This early settlement on the Virginia side was a fortunate circumstance for the early settlers of Marietta. Mr. Williams, by the time the New England colony arrived, had his farm under a good state of cultivation, and during the distressing famine of 1790 supplied the hungry pioneers on the other side of the river with corn, of which he had a large crop. Speculators, always ready to take advantage of people's misfortunes, urged him to take a dollar and a quarter a bushel for his whole crop. "Dod rot 'em," said the old man, "I would not let 'em have a bushel." When a purchaser came he proportioned the number of bushels to the number of members in the family, in order that he might be able to serve all alike. He charged no one more than fifty cents per bushel, the current price in plentiful years. In the fullest sense he improved his opportunity for doing good.
Rebecca was skilled in the healing art, and often relieved distressed pioneers and hunters by the application of simple remedies. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were always social, clever, and kind. They liberated their slaves in later years, and left them substantial tokens of friendship. Mr. Williams never missed an opportunity to indulge his passion for hunting, even in his old age. The citizens of Marietta mourned his death in September, 1820, as one of their own number.
COLONEL WILLIAM STACEY.
Colonel William Stacey, a man highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities, and honored for his services and sufferings in the cause of freedom, has many descendants yet living in the county. He was a native of Massachusetts, and when the outbreak at Lexington aroused American patriotism, he was the first member of the New Salem militia company to renounce his allegiance to the king. The company was reorganized, and entered the American service with Mr. Stacey as captain.
In 1778 Captain Stacey was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of Colonel Ichabod Alden's regiment of the Massachusetts line. He was with his regiment on the perilous campaign, in 1778, against the Indians and tories in the Cherry valley, New York, and was a witness of the slaughter of November 11th in Oneida county. Colonel Stacey was here taken prisoner, and was taken a distance of about two hundred miles to an Indian village near the present site of Geneva.
After a council of the chiefs he was sentenced to be burned. The Indians were under the command of Joseph Brant whom Colonel Stacey saw in the surrounding crowd, while the fires were being kindled under him. It is said that he gave Brant the sign of Free Masonry, and that chief, whose word was law, directed his release.
Colonel Stacey was held as a prisoner by the Indians for four years. After his release he returned to his farm at New Salem until 1789, when he removed with his five sons and one son-in-law with their family to Marietta. Two of the sons, John and Philemon, were victims of the attack on Big Bottom, January 2, 1791. John was killed, and Philemon was taken prisoner, and died in captivity. Gideon, the youngest son, settled in New Orleans, and established a ferry across Lake Pontchatrain. The remaining member of the family settled in this county.
After the death of his first wife Colonel Stacey married Mrs. Sheffield, a lady of high rank. He died at Marietta in 1804.
MAJOR ANSELM TUPPER.
Anselm Tupper, eldest son of General Benjamin Tupper, came to Marietta as one of the surveyors of the Ohio company, April 7, 1788. Previous to that time he had been in the western country with his father, engaged in the survey of one of the seven ranges.
General Tupper entered the service of his country immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill. At that time his son Anselm was very young, only thirteen, but he was with his father in an engagement on North river, in August, 1776. In 1779 when sixteen years of age, he received the appointment of adjutant in the regiment of Colonel Sproat, of the Massachusetts line, in which position he served until the close of the war. This regiment was engaged at Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth and other battles. Major Tupper enjoyed the confidence and personal friendship of his commanding officer.
Immediately upon their arrival at the Muskingum,
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in 1788, the surveyors began their work, and continued it until driven into the forts by the hostility of the Indians. During the Indian war Major Tupper lived in Campus Martins. He taught the first school opened there, in the northwest block-house. He was a man of intellectual ability, and especially in mathematics had the reputation of being a good scholar. He is said to have possessed a refined and polished address, and was of fine personal appearance and military bearing. An oil portrait exists, representing him when very young, in the uniform of the Massachusetts regimental officers. He was appointed post major of Campus Martius, and continued in this position during the war. He was the favorite of the officers in the garrison, especially of Colonel Sproat, and his wit sometimes in verse, seemed to give them great satisfaction, though at their expense. On one occasion, when Colonel Sproat was left behind in a foot race with Dr. Story, the minister, Major Tupper wrote some lines, in which the following gave a momentary offence to Colonel Sproat:
It was a point, they all gave in,
Divinity could outstrip sin.
Some poetic pieces were written by him in connection with Masonic celebrations, he being a member of the Masonic lodge. His verses generally had for their subject some local event, among others "The Indian Feast," to commemorate the dinner given to the Indian chiefs at Campus Martins. Another piece was a parody on the "Battle of the Kegs," and was called the "Battle of the Muskingum," a humorous account of the affairs which occurred at Marietta in connection with the capture of Blennerhassett's boats, usually called Burr's flotilla. This was published in a Lancaster paper, and afterwards in Safford's Life of Blennerhassett.
About 1801 Edward W. Tupper engaged in ship building in Marietta. One of his vessels, the Indiana, was built five miles up the Muskingum. Another, called the Orlando, was built at the foot of Putnam street, Marietta. The Orlando went out under the command of Captain Matthew Miner, and Major Tupper went out as second officer. The vessel arrived at New Orleans the fourth of July, 1804, and found the city in great commotion, celebrating the first fourth of July since the cession of Louisiana to the United States Government. They then crossed the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea, up to Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic. She was sold, and Major Tupper returned home by way of England. After his return to America he went to Gallipolis, to be with his brother Edward. His health failing, he returned home to Marietta, where he died, December, 1808, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Ichabod Nye. He is buried in Mound cemetery, by the side of his father, and near his old friend and commander, Colonel Sproat.
COLONEL BENJAMIN TUPPER.
Benjamin Tupper, youngest son of General Tupper, was born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He came to Marietta with his father in 1788. In 1802 he married Martha, daughter of General Rufus Putnam. For several years he was receiver of the United States land office at Marietta. In 1806 he removed to Springfield, afterwards Putnam, Ohio, and entered into a mercantile business with his brother-in-law, Ichabod Nye. He afterwards formed another partnership, which continued until his death, in 1814. Of his children but one is now (1881) living, Mrs. Catharine Munam, of Zanesville, Ohio. His only son, Benjamin, died some years since. His youngest grandson, Theodore Tupper, died on the battlefield at Shiloh, at the age of nineteen. His body was not recovered. In his death the name of Tupper became extinct in the family line of General Benjamin Tupper.
GENERAL JOSEPH BUELL
General Buell was not a member of the Ohio company, but he was a soldier who spent two years in the western country before the pioneers arrived. The greater part of those two years he spent at Fort Harmar. He kept a diary, in which he describes the country west of the Ohio and the people who were then in it, and mentions many occurrences which, though apparently of small moment then, are now eagerly sought for as matters of history. In trying to reproduce some of the events of his life, we shall not dwell upon his ancestry or early youth. He was from Killingworth, Connecticut, where he was born February 16, 2760. His parents were David and Mary (Hurd) Buell, and he was the second of their twelve children. His first ancestor in America was William (1630), whose eldest son, Samuel settled in Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut, in 1664.
At the age of twenty-two, in September, 1785, Joseph Buell conducted a company of ninety-four recruits for the army from Hartford, Connecticut, to West Point, in the capacity of orderly sergeant. At West Point the men were assigned to Captain Strong's company of Colonel Harmar's regiment. November 20th the company was ordered to the western frontier. They marched across the mountains and arrived at Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of Beaver river, on the Ohio, December 26, 1785, where they remained in barracks during the remainder of the winter. May 4, 1786, Captain Strong's company and that of Captain Zeigler embarked for the mouth of the Muskingum, where, on the west point, Fort Harmar had been built, though not completely finished, in the fall of 1785. They reached the fort on the eighth, but encamped outside at the edge of some woods until the tenth, when Captain Zeigler's company proceeded down the Ohio to the Miami, and Captain Strong's company moved into Fort Harmar.
On the twenty-seventh of May, 1787, Captain Strong's company was ordered to report at Post St. Vincent, now Vincennes. They descended the river in two keel-boats to Fort Finney, opposite Louisville, which they reached on the thirty-first. There they remained until July 8th, when they Started for Post St. Vincent, arriving there on
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the nineteenth. After a very sickly summer, in which nearly half the men were unfit for duty, they were ordered to return to Fort Harmar, at which place they arrived November 21st.
The succeeding summer was spent at Fort Harmar. Early in November Sergeant Buell obtained his discharge and returned to Connecticut.
In August, 1788, Sergeant Buell purchased four hundred acres of land of Judge Symmes, at half a dollar an acre, paying one-half in cash, the other half to be paid in one year. It was his intention when he bought this to settle in the Miami country, of which he writes, "I think it exceeds any part of the western world." Whatever may have been Mr. Buell's plans for ultimate settlement, he set his face toward home as soon as he had received his discharge from the army, and reached Killingworth November 27, 1788. After visiting his friends he taught school for three months, at the same time trying to perfect his plans for returning to the western country for settlement. February 15, 1789, he was married to Siba Hand. He seems to have felt much doubt about taking her into the new country, but finally decided to do so. He visited Mr. Joshua Shipman, of Saybrook, and bargained with him to furnish half the wagon and half the team which was to carry the two families to Ohio.. By the first of May, however, Mr. Shipman had given up the plan, and this, with other difficulties, led Mr. Buell to leave his wife in New England for two years. In May, 1789, he set out for Marietta with his brother, Timothy, aftewards sheriff of Washington county. Arriving safely at Marietta, Mr. Buell was joined by his friend, Mr. Levi Munsell, with whom he had been associated in the army, and they went to North Bend to join Judge Symmes' colony. Probably from fear of the Indians they soon returned to Marietta, many others leaving North Bend for the same reason.
In 1790 Messrs. Buell and Munsell opened a tavern at the Point, Marietta. This was a large frame building, and it was erected in 1789 on the lots at the corner of Front and Green streets. The frame of the building was made at the headwaters of the Ohio and floated down to Marietta. During the Indian war it was within the enclosure which formed the "Point" garrison. At this time Messrs. Buell and Munsell both lived there— Mrs. Buell having joined her husband in 1790, and Mr. Munsell having married a daughter of Colonel Alexander Oliver, of Belpre.
In 1795, peace having been declared, life was once more infused into the plans of the colonists; men left the garrisons and went to their farms; others engaged in occupations in town. Mr. Buell remained in Marietta, and built for his own residence, in 1801, a brick house, on the corner of Green and Second streets. This house is still standing, and is said to be the oldest brick house in the State of Ohio. He also built, a year or two later, the brick house on "Boiler corner." The tavern business was continued under the charge of Mr. Munsell, and became about 1801 very remunerative to the proprietors. Owing to the activity in the business of ship-building, many carpenters, calkers, and other artisans connected with the business came into Marietta, and they largely patronized this tavern. In August, 1807, there were five ships on the stocks at Marietta. Soon after, in consequence of the embargo, the business was suddenly discontinued, and several prominent business men failed and left Marietta, and laborers connected with them were obliged to seek employment elsewhere. The tavern business suffered in consequence. Mr. Munsell left Marietta in a few years, and General Buell died in 1812; but the tavern was kept as a public house by other parties until about 1830. In 1832 Mr. Joseph Holden, who had bought the property, pulled down the old frame and erected brick buildings on the lots, in which he engaged in a mercantile business. About thirty years after, these buildings were remodelled (having escaped the great fire of 1859), and finally became the property of the First National bank.
From the time that Mr. Buell decided to make Marietta his home he took an active interest in all that concerned the welfare of the town, especially in civil, political, and military affairs. In the early days of Marietta all were adherents of General Washington, and of his administration. A few years later party strife arose and Marietta people became divided in political sentiment. Mr. Buell became an adherent of Jefferson's administration. He was elected a member of the senate of the State of Ohio and served in the first, second, third and fourth assemblies-1803 to 1805. His military service had fitted him to take part in military affairs and he was appointed major general of militia, a position at that time a very responsible one. While he was major general the so called "Burr conspiracy" arose, and Marietta became the scene of considerable military activity. In December, 1806, General Buell received an order from the governor for the arrest of Blennerhassett and the prevention of cer min "acts hostile to the tranquility and peace of the United States,"—i. e. the departure of the boats intended for the Burr expedition from the Muskingum. Acting under this authority, General Buell, with characteristic energy and method, took measures to arrest the batteaux, which had been building at Judge Joseph Barker's, on the Muskingum river. "These boats," writes one who saw them, "were very frail, built like a skiff, sharp at both ends, and sided up with thin weatherboarding and covered. There were ten of them, of two or three tons each, and they were built under contract of Mr. Blennerhassett with Colonel Barker. They were called in derision 'Burr's flotilla.'"
One evening in December, 1806, the company of militia from the Point (there were two companies in Marietta), passed up Front street to the Washington street landing. They entered a building there and prepared to remain for the night. Their purpose was not understood by those who saw them, and rt was thought singular that the militia should be out at that hour. In the morning it became known that they had arrested nine of Burr's flotilla while attempting to pass down the river—one boat having gone on in the darkness.
A Marietta man, blind in one eye, named Clark Green, had sole charge of two of these boats to bring them
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down the river; two sons of Green, about eleven and twelve years old, managed another, and had one man each to work the balance—except one—and guide them. The boat which passed by had on it three young men from Belpre. The boats were taken by the militia down into the mouth of the run below Putnam street. They laid in the run until they began to decay, and in time men and boys broke them up and carried them off in pieces. A lot of parched corn taken from them was stored in General Buell's barn, and the academy boys used to go there and help themselves to it, filling their pockets. Mr. Blennerhassett made no effort to recover his property but was obliged to flee from his home.
After the arrest of the boats General Buell proclaimed martial law, and the militia was ordered to be in readiness to appear, "armed and equipped as the law directs," immediately on the firing of the cannon. There was but one cannon in town. In the guard-house, a building which stood on Ohio street just above the "Boiler corner,' a constant guard was kept. A gun was placed on the river bank, and all boats passing down the Ohio river were hailed and stopped; and as a further precaution all boats passing down the Muskingum were brought over to Marietta. These measures were taken in order to be prepared for any attempt to rescue the captured batteaux from the direction of Blennerhassett's island, and to stop any men or supplies which might attempt to pass down to aid Burr's expedition. The whole country from Pittsburgh to New Orleans was in a state of great excitement, and Burr made no attempt to resist but endeavored to conceal himself.
General Buell had no sympathy with Aaron Burr. When Burr was in Marietta, General Buell was living in a brick house* which he had erected on "Boiler corner! In this house he entertained Burr at dinner. Mrs. Buell in after years told her children that she ,"somewhat anxiously watched her husband on that occasion to see whether Burr's insinuating talk had any influence on her husband, and that he failed to enlist sympathy." In carrying out the orders of the governor, General Buell obeyed as a soldier, having no other idea than to do his duty. The position of major general he held until his death. Form 1803 to 1810 General Buell was associate judge in the court of common pleas. The appointment to this office under the State Constitution of 802 was made by the legislature.
During his life, and at the time of his death, he owned a large number of city lots in Marietta. At one time he owned nearly all of square No. 57, below the alley which connects Front street and Canal street, and the greater part of the square on which his dwelling stood, with parts of "Flat-iron square." These lots lying on Front, Green, Second and Ohio streets, are now many of them occupied by business houses. Other lots lay further out on Green street, beyond Fourth, and some on the plain. At the time of his death he also owned
* This house covered the same ground as the house which now stands on that corner. The present house was built by Mr. Woodbridge.
over two thousand five hundred acres of land in the counties of Washington, Athens, and Meigs.
General Buell died in Marietta, June 3, 1812. He is buried in Mound cemetery. Mrs. Buell died in 1831. Of their eight children, those best known in Marietta were: Daniel Hand, Hiram Augustas, Joseph and Siba (Mrs. William Slocomb).
Daniel Hand Buell, the eldest child of General Joseph Buell, was born October 1, 1790. His early childhood was spent in the garrison at the Point. When of a suitable age he was sent to New England to be educated, returning to Marietta when about twenty-one years of age, he spent the remainder of his life in that place. While he was still a young man his father died, and the management of the estate and the care of the family interests devolved chiefly upon him. In 1814 he was engaged in editing the newspaper called the American Friend, of which he was one of the owners. He was one of the founders of Marietta library in 1829, which was for many years an institution highly prized by the reading public. As a public man he stood high in the estimation of his fellow citizens, and held several important offices. He was for many years justice of the peace, and was mayor of the city. June, 1817, to October, 1834, he was county recorder. From 1825 to 1829 he was postmaster. In 1839 he was county commissioner. He was in the latter part of his life an earnest worker for the Episcopal church in Marietta, of which he was a member, doing much to aid it financially, and performing the office of lay reader when the church was destitute of a pastor. After a long and painful illness he died, October 12, 1843. His second wife, Theodosia Hall Buell, survived him and died in 1875. His sons became citizens of Marietta. Charles Ferdinand, the eldest, died June, 1881. He was a member of the Marietta bar. Edward W. and William H. Buell entered the drug business as partners when they were very young. They were also largely engaged as partners in the oil business for several years previous to 1869. Edward W. Buell died in May, 1875.
Hiram A. Buell, fourth son of General Joseph Buell, was born in Marietta, May 29, 1801, and was well known in that place when a young man. He was for some years in the recorder's office as an assistant, and was also engaged in other business in connection with his brother, Daniel H. Buell. In 1833 he left Marietta and went to Holly, in western New York, where he established himself in business as a merchant, with his brother, Joseph. This partnership, cemented by brotherly affection, was dissolved by the death of Hiram A. Buell, February 24, 1875.
Joseph Hand Buell, born February 22, 1809, the youngest child of General Joseph Buell, left Marietta and engaged in business with his brother Hiram, in Holly, New York, where he still resides.
REV. DANIEL STORY.
Dr. Cutler was happy in his selection of a chaplain for the Ohio company. Dr. Story was well qualified for the
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place which he filled for about fifteen years, first in the employ of the Ohio company and then of the Congregational church, or of the First Religious society as it was known.
He was born in Boston in 1755. Judge Story, the eminent lawyer, was his uncle. He graduated at Dartmouth college. Dr. Story's connection with the religious history of the early settlement has been sufficiently sketched elsewhere. His services in the ministry before coming to Marietta gave promise of usefulness and the choice of Dr. Cutler was received with great satisfaction. His sermons were logical and scholarly, his conversation interesting and his manners agreeable. The last two circumstances were particularly fortunate, for his salary was extremely meagre and generous friends had to be depended upon for relief. He was compelled to mortgage his property in New England to support his contingent expenses, and after death his estate was found insolvent. He severed his connection with the church as pastor March 15, 1804, on account of poor health. His death occurred on the 15th of the following December.
FREDERICK J. CUTTER.
Frederick J. Cutter, son of Lewis J. Cutter, sr., and Eve E. (Wagner) Cutter, was born in Watertown township, Washington county, Ohio, October 5, 1839. In the spring of 1842 his father moved to Union township, where he had bought a farm in the fall of 1841. Frederick remained on the farm with his father until the spring of 1854, when he engaged to drive team on the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, then building, about two miles below Harman He continued to work there until the August following, when he returned home.
In September, 1855, he began work for the Hon. W. P. Cutler on his farm about six miles below Marietta; continuing there until November, 1859. The last three winters he was with Mr. Cutler he attended school, doing chores mornings and evenings to pay for his board. In December, 1859, young Cutter went to Cincinnati and that winter attended Gundry's Commercial college. The next spring he was employed in a furniture store, where he continued until about December, 1860. Not being satisfied with the education received up to that time, he determined if possible, to find a situation where he could earn enough to pay expenses and go to school at the same time. About January, 1861, he secured a route of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, which he kept until June, 1865.
In the fall of 1861 he entered Herron's seminary in Cincinnati, which school he attended until June, 1864, when it was closed in consequence of the death of Prof. Herron, the principal. He then attended Professor Clive's private school in the same city, one year.
By the preparation thus obtained Mr. Cutter was enabled in i865 to enter the Sophomore class of Marietta college, graduating in 1868 with Rev. W. H. Pearce, now deceased, Professor W. G. Ballantine, and Theodore D. Dale, esq. Rev. D. W. Rhodes, Professor H. P. Smith of Lane seminary, Rev. H. M. Walker, Charles H. Turner and J. M. Fuller were also members of his class, but none of them, except Mr. Fuller; graduated at Marietta. Two of the winters while at college. he taught school to earn means to defray expenses. Mr. Cutter entered college largely upon the advice of Mr. Cutler, who, while the former was working for him, had kindly promised any necessary aid in getting through the college course.
For two years after graduating his time was divided between teaching school and working at home on the firm. In June, 1870, Mr. Cutter took entire charge of the home farm, his father, on account of age, being no longer able to attend to it.
In the fall of 1872 he began reading law with Hon. T. W. Ewart, in connection with his farm labor; and was admitted to the bar in April, 1875. After his admission he remained in the law office of Ewart & Sibley until December, 1876, when he engaged in the practice on his own account, so continuing until the present time, building up quite a good practice. He has also managed the affairs of the farm in connection with his law practice.
In the fall of 1873 Mr. Cutter was elected one of the managers of the Washington County Agricultural and Mechanical association, and continued to serve in that capacity, with the exception of one year, until March, 1880, when he was elected president of the association. In the fall of the same year he was reelected to serve for the year 1881.
In politics Mr. Cutter has always been a Republican, beginning first to take an interest in politics during the memorable campaign of 1860. Since his graduation in 1868 he has been each year connected with campaign work in his county, either as a member of the central or of the county executive committees, having served as secretary of the former for 1876 and 1877, and of the latter from 1878 to 1881. In 1878 he was the Republican candidate for probate judge, but his party being in the minority in the county at that time he was defeated with the rest of the ticket. During 1877 and 1878 he served as deputy United States marshal for Washington county, which is the only office of a political nature he ever held. He drew up the application for, and was mainly instrumental in, securing the establishment of the Churchtown postoffice and the tri-weekly mill between Watertown and Marietta.
He also drew the petition for the division of Union township among the four adjoining townships, and the success of that project was due, in a great measure, to his efforts.
Mr. Cutter, in 1879, took quite an active and prominent part in the movement to build free bridges across the Muskingum river. He served as secretary of the free bridge campaign committee, with Dr. P. H. Kelley, of Waterford, as chairman.
In religion, Mr. Cutter was brought up in the Lutheran faith. He was at first a member of the German Lutheran church, of Watertown afterwards, of the English Lutheran church, of Cincinnati ; and, in the spring of 1874, he
470 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
transferred his membership to the Presbyterian church, of Watertown. While in Cincinnati, he was connected with the Union Bethel Sunday-school as a teacher, from February, 1860, to June, 1865.
His parents were both born in Durkeim, Bavaria, Germany, and came to this country in 1838. His father was born March 7, 1799, and died February 15, 1874. His mother, born January 23, 1807, is still living. There were five sons and seven daughters in the family, all of whom are living, except his brother William, who was a member of company B, seventy-seventh Ohio volunteers, and was killed in the battle of Jenkin's Ferry, on the Saline river, Arkansas, April 30, 1864. His brother Lewis was also a member of the same company, and was a prisoner for ten months in Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, having been captured at Marks Mills, Arkansas, April 25, 1864.
GOVERNOR RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.
The oldest son of Colonel R. J. Meigs was Ohio's first governor, R J. Meigs, jr., who was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in the year 1675. He graduated at Yale college in his twentieth year, and was admitted to the bar of his native State. In his younger years he was much given to writing poetry, but never had an ambition to come before the public as a poet. His compositions were generally of a light character, written for amusement and recreation. In 1788 he married Miss Sophia Wright and the same year came to Marietta, where he engaged in professional pursuits and farming.
After the organization of the State government, Mr. Meigs was elected chief justice of the Supreme court, which consisted of three judges. This situation was at that time difficult, as he was required to hold court in every county in the State once a year. He discharged the duties of this distinguished position until October, 1804, when he received the appointment of colonel and commandant of the upper part of the district of Louisiana which included the greater part of the Mississippi valley. In 1805, he was appointed one of the judges of the territory, a position more congenial to his tastes.
The seat of justice in Upper Louisiana, was at St. Louis. It once became the duty of Judge Meigs to pronounce sentence of death upon an Indian convicted of murder. After the execution on the same day a large athletic Indian whom he endeavored to prevent injuring some women and children on the street, assailed him with a tomahawk and struck him several times on the head, cutting through his hat at every stroke. At last seizing the Indian by the arm, he wrested the tomahawk from him and threw it away. Furious at this occurrence, the Indian sprang upon him like a tiger, Mr. Meigs being unable to retain a grip on his naked adversary. The Indian had a belt around him from which in the scuffle he attempted to draw a large knife. A young gentleman, Mr. Hammond, seeing the knife, half removed from its scabbard, and not doubting the purpose for which it was being removed, approached with a pistol and shot the Indian in the back. He let go the knife, started back and fell dead. This is one of a number of Governor Meigs' perilous situations. Once during the Indian war he narrowly escaped from an encounter with a party of Indians on the bank of the Muskingum. While at Detroit acting as diplomat for Governor St. Clair, he was one day leisurely standing on a boat. An Indian on the shore was aiming his rifle. At that instant a white man standing near, snatched the gun from the Indian's hands and shook out the priming. Upon one occasion while reviewing some troops at St. Louis, a salute was fired. A musket was fired, loaded with buck-shot, many of which passed through his vest, cravat and ruffles of his shirt, and one of his epaulets was cut away. This occurrence was altogether accidental.
While serving as judge in Louisiana his health gave way, and he returned to Marietta in 8o6 much enfeebled. In April, 1807, he was commissioned judge of the territory of Michigan. He resigned his commission in October and accepted the candidacy for governor of Ohio. This was one of the most exciting campaigns in the early politics of the State. His competitor was General Nathaniel Massie, one of the earliest settlers of the Scioto valley. Meigs received a majority of the votes but his election was contested on the ground that he had not been a resident of the State four years as required by the constitution. The contest resulted in favor of Massie. The contest did not seem to impair his popularity, for at the same session of the legislature he was elected supreme judge, and in September following was chosen to fill the unexpired term of John Smith in the United States senate. He was subsequently reelected senator for the full term.
The campaign of 1810 was one of the most bitter in Ohio political history. An act of the legislature increasing the jurisdiction of justices of the peace had been decided unconstitutional by the supreme court. Politicians endeavored to gain favor with the people by making the discussion appear to have been rendered in favor of a class and in opposition to popular rights. The majority in the legislature pandered to prejudice and passed the "sweeping resolution," a measure intended to remove a number 'of judges that their places might be filled by members of what was known as the "popular" party. Tammany societies were organized in different parts of the State for the purpose of making nominations and controlling the election. These societies were secret, and in order to insure fidelity an oath was imposed upon the members. General Worthington was their candidate for governor. The opposition was sensible of the necessity of making the strongest possible nominations. Senator Meigs was finally selected to make the race and was elected by two thousand majority. His inaugural address was remarkably strong. In it he enunciated a principle of his private life and public policy. "Public excellence ascends from domestic purity and just principles, extending from families to communities, enlarges the sphere of utility and give to patriotism its proudest devotion."
Governor Meigs' administration extended over a try-
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ing and difficult period. His management of affairs during the opening period of the War of 1812 was by no means free from criticism, but the honesty of his intentions and the wisdom of his general policy were recognized by the people, who a third time elected him to the chief magistracy of the State by an increased majority.
During his second term of office he was called, in 1814, by President Madison, to the position of postmaster general. He discharged the duties of this important position until June, 1823, when he tendered his resignation. It is not surprising that he was accused of mismanagement of public affairs. The criticism of political opponents is not necessarily an imputation against the character of an official. Governor Meigs had the confidence of Madison and Monroe. Mr. Monroe observed at the time of his resignation: "I have never had but one opinion towards you since the commencement of the war, when you were governor, and that was friendship. I believe you to be an honest man and a friend of your country. I wish you to retain your office as long as I remain President. If you resign it must be from considerations purely your own.".
After his resignation, which closed a long term of public service, Governor Meigs retired to his home in Marietta, where he died March 29, 1825.
Governor Meigs was held in high personal regard among the citizens of Marietta. He was the first post master, and is said to have been quite social among the friends of his youth without regard to their condition in life. He at one time owned a square of land on which he erected in 1806 the finest house in town. The house was not completed for several years afterwards. It is now owned by M. D. Follett. His land extended from Scammel to below the Congregational church lot on Front street. An old citizen relates an incident which proves him to have been large hearted. In, 1816 the corn crop was generally a failure, and those possessing this necessary article for food could command almost any price. It happened that Governor Meigs that year had an exceptionally good crop, for which speculators offered tempting prices. He directed that the corn should be sold at the low price of former years, and in small quantities, thus giving poor people an opportunity of supplying their families with this staple food.
On the stone erected to his memory is inscribed the following epitaph, written by Dr. John Cotton:
Here lies the body of
RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS,
Who was born at Middletown, Connecticut, 1765,
And died at Marietta, March 29, 1825.
For many years his time and talents were devoted
To the service of his country.
He successively filled the distinguished places of
Judge of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio,
Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio,
Senator in the Congress of the United States,
Governor of the State of Ohio, and
Postmaster General of the United States.
To the honored and revered memory of An ardent Patriot,.
A practical Statesman,
An enlightened Scholar,
A dutiful Son,
An indulgent Father.
An affectionate Husband,
This monument is erected by his mourning widow,
SOPHIA MEIGS.
EPHRAIM CUTLER.
Ephraim Cutler, the eldest son of Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, was born in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, April 13, 1767. At the age of three years he was placed with his grandfather, Hezekiah Cutler, in Killingly, Connecticut, and remained with his grandparents until their death, when, having lands in the Ohio company's purchase, he determined to remove to the Northwest Territory. He began this journey with his wife and four children on the fifteenth of June, 1795, and reached Marietta September 18th, having been three months on the way, and buried two of his children in the wilderness between Simrell's Ferry and Marietta.
The first location was at Waterford, where he engaged for a short time in mercantile business, but in 1799 he moved with his family to lands he owned in Ames township, now Athens county. In 1806 he located in Warren, and built the stone house which continued to be his residence until his death in 1853.
His life was one of great activity and usefulness. He contributed his full share to the work of laying the foundations of civil society and material prosperity in the section of country which he had chosen for a home.
He received, in 1796, the appointments from Governor St. Clair of captain of militia, justice of the peace and quarter sessions, and judge of the court of common pleas. In 1801 he was elected a member of the terrilorial legislature, and subsequently, in 1802, a member of the convention that formed the first constitution of Ohio. In the convention he took a prominent part in securing the adoption of the clauses that excluded slavery from the State, and made the encouragement of schools and education obligatory upon future legislatures.
In these matters of most vital importance to a new commonwealth he followed up, in practical application upon the soil of Ohio, the same principles of organic law that had been placed in the ordinance of 1787 by the efforts of his father, Dr. Mannasseh Cutler, when he negotiated with Congress for the purchase of lands for the Ohio company.
He also exerted himself successfully in introducing into the constitution a judiciary system, which; in opposition to a proposed Virginia plan, brought the courts of justice within convenient reach of all the people, instead of compelling them to resort with their suits to the political centre of the State.
He was appointed by the territorial legislature one of the commissioners to take charge of the school and ministerial lands in this part of the State, and to provide for their lease and improvement.
In 1819 he was elected to the legislature, where he devoted himself unceasingly to the accomplishment of two of the most important objects that ever engaged the attention of that body. One was an ad valorem system of
472 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
taxation—the other a system of common schools. Although the constitution had imposed a positive obligation upon the law making power to encourage schools, nothing had been done or attempted until he introduced the first bill in 1819, providing for a school system. He was a member of either the lower house or the senate until 1825, and had the satisfaction of seeing both of his favorite measures so far matured that it could be said that Ohio had systems of taxation and schools. These systems have both progressed in their application to growing wants, and have been perfected by subsequent legislation; but at no period of their progress was more ability, industry, and energy required than was given to them in their incipient stage by Ephraim Cutler.
In presenting the unjust burden imposed upon this section of Ohio by the prevailing system of taxation, under which lands in Hamilton county worth fifty dollars per acre paid no more tax than our land worth fifty cents per acre, Dr. Andrews in his History of Washington County thus alludes to Mr. Cutler's success:
In the winter of 1819-20 Judge Ephraim Cutler, a representative from this county, introduced into the legislature a joint resolution that property should be taxed according to its true value, which passed the house of representatives. 1n the fall of 1823 he was elected to the senate and again renewed his efforts to secure a reform in the revenue system. He was appointed the chairman of the committee on the revenue. The project of a canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river had come up, and Judge Cutler had succeeded in convincing the friend of that measure that it must inevitably fair unless based upon a broad judicious, and equitable system of taxation. To him more than any other are we indebted for the raw then enacted. The language of his cotemporaries clearly shows that he was regarded as the author.
Hon. Samuel F. Vinton writes from Washington, December 21, 1824: "We ought to offer up our most unceasing prayers that your pran for the equalization of taxes may at the same time be adopted. Without it, inevitable ruin would await the sparse peopled and sterile parts of the State. 1n fact, those parts of the State will be virtually ruined under the present system of taxation in defraying the ordinary expense of the Government.
Ingenuity, in my opinion, could not devise a system more unequal, unjust, and offensive. I am decidedry in favor of improving the inland navigation of the State by canals, if possible, but I hope you wirl perseveringly press upon the legislature your plan of taxation in conjunction with it."
The Hon. Eleutheros Cooke, in a letter dated Sandusky, October 13, 1828, thus speaks of Mr. Cutler's services: "As the author and founder of our new and excellent system of revenue and taxation, I shall ever consider you as richly entitled to the gratitude of the State. In this part of the country you are known as the author."
Caleb Atwater, in a letter to Judge Cutler, dated Circleville, January 22, 1825, says: "You are doing nobly, Press forward with your equal taxation, the school system. and the canals, and immortalize this legislature. What must be your sensations on the prospect you now have of carrying into effect the greatest objects ever presented to our legislature. Press forward I say in your career of doing good. Posterity will call you blessed."
Henry Dana Ward writes: Shrewsburg, Masachusetts, August 14, 1825. "I have heard from you and of you through my brother (Nahum Ward, esq., of Marietta), and have felt with you and for you in wishing your revenue and school bills into legislative being, and now rejoice with you in the commencement of the grand Ohio and Lake Erie canal; and pray that the school bill may go into as effectual operation as the revenue law. These are great works, long and ardently desired, and perseveringly labored for. You have borne a distinguished part in giving them life, and I hope they may long continue a source of satisfaction to you."
Nahum Ward, esq., writes, Marietta, Ohio, January 12, 1825: "We are greatly indebted to you for you services in the senate and all acknowledge it."
He was positive and earnest in his political views, and never swerved from his convictions upon questions of National policy. In his youth he adopted the principles that governed Washington, Adams, and their compeers, and thus incurred the stigma of Federalist. This, of course, was enough to shut his way to political promotion or success, but it is true that no man in Ohio, in 1825, stood higher as a statesman of integrity, ability, and comprehensive views of State policy than himself.
He was ever the active promoter of every useful public enterprise and accepted an appointment from the citizens of Marietta in 1837, and again in 1839, to visit Baltimore for the purpose of securing the examination of a railroad route to the Ohio river, with a view to making Marietta its crossing point.
In 1839, he represented the Whigs of this district at the National convention that nominated General Harrison for president.
In 836 he was a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church which met in Pittsburgh, and also in 1837 at their meeting in Philadelphia, at which time the separation of the church into Old school and New school took place.
He was early appointed a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio university at Athens, and gave the interests of that institution his constant and devoted attention for many years.
In all the private relations of life he was faithful and true to his personal obligations; as husband, father, neighbor, and friend. In 1828, he united with the Presbyterian church in Warren, then in its infancy, and continued as a member, ruling elder, and Sabbath-school teacher, to be during his life, one of its main supports and ornaments. On the eighth of July, 1853, he was gathered to his fathers—a shock of corn fully ripe.
He was one of the busy workers, who at the right time, and in their appointed sphere, "dug deep and laid broad the foundations of many generations." Such labors may not be heeded, may even be desecrated and destroyed—but history must make their record "well done."
HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT.
The story of Blennerhassett has been often told, and volumes have been written upon his romantic and melancholy career ; but as he was, in a measure, identified with the early history of the locality of which this work treats (though never a resident of Washington county), we propose giving a brief sketch of his life.
He was a descendant of one of the families most prominent among the gentry of Ireland, and was born in
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the year 1767, in Hampshire, England, while his parents were there upon a visit. Shortly after his birth, the family returned to their residence, Castle Conway, in the county Kerry. When Harman became of proper age, he is known to have been sent to the famous Westminster school, and he completed his education at Trinity college, Dublin, as a classmate of the celebrated Thomas Addis Emmitt. They read law together at the King's court, Dublin, and were admitted upon the same day, in 1790, to practice in the courts. Blennerhassett, however, being the heir expectant of a large fortune, paid but little attention to the law, but travelled considerably, and cultivated his tastes for literature, science, and music. His father died in 1796, leaving Harman his splendid estate. About this time he became involved in political troubles in Ireland, and resolved to cast his fortune in the new world, with the republican principles of which he was in close sympathy. Accordingly, he sold his estate to his cousin, Lord Ventry, and went to England, preparatory to removing to America. Here he married the beautiful and accomplished Miss Margaret Agnew, (daughter of the lieutenant governor of the Isle of Man), who was to share his beautiful island home upon the Ohio and his sad misfortunes. They arrived in New York in 1797, and in the fall of the same year, drawn by the fame of the western country, he came to Marietta, in which place he passed the winter. His time was spent in social pleasure and in seeking a location for a home in the vicinity. It is said that at one time he had a thought of building a castle upon Mount Dudley, being influenced toward that end by Dudley Woodbridge, esq. He finally, however, selected the island in the Ohio near Belpre, and fourteen miles below Marietta, with which his name has ever since been connected. The island was the property of Elijah Backus, and had been originally located in 1770 by George Washington, who owned an extensive tract of land upon the Virginia shore, just below, which was known as Washington bottom. The upper portion of this island, containing about one hundred and seventy acres, was purchased by Mr. Blennerhassett for the sum of four thousand five hundred dollars, in March, 1798. Soon after he moved to it with his wife and one child, and took up his residence in one of the block-houses that remained as a relic of the Indian war. In this block-house he lived for two years, while his mansion was in process of construction. The family residence near the upper end of the island was completed in the year 1800, and was the wonder of the western country. "It was built," says Hildreth, " with great taste and beauty, no expense being spared in its construction that could add to its usefulness or splendor." The main building was fifty-two feet long and thirty feet wide. Porticos extending in front half encircled a beautiful lawn, and connected with the central structure two large offices. The entire front measured over one hundred feet. Colonel Joseph Barker, of Belpre, was one of the architects and builders. The beautiful house was fittingly surrounded. The forest trees in the immediate vicinity were cleared away, the unevenesses of the ground were smoothed, and a lawn containing several acres was secured in front of the mansion, while gardens were laid off at either side and made rich with the bloom of every flower which was native to, or could be grown in, the climate. From the house to the head of the island a broad avenue was opened through the thick wood, affording a view of the river for several miles above. Carriage-ways and nicely gravelled walks led in and out among the forest trees, the planted shrubs and the well kept gardens. Bowers and grottos lent their beauty to the scene. Nature and art were combined to produce all that could be desired in a luxurious and tasteful home. Nor was the useful neglected. Beyond the ornamental gardens were planted fine orchards, and beyond these—occupying the central portion of the island—was a farm of an hundred acres of rich land, upon which grew bountiful crops. The farm was kept under the most perfect cultivation, and the gardens and grounds carefully tended by men who were skilled in their callings, and who had at their command a large number of slaves, which Mr. Blennerhassett, being within the jurisdiction of Virginia, was permitted to own. Within the residence of the Blennerhassetts all things were in keeping with the surroundings. The house was finished in a high style of art, and in perfect taste. The lofty ceilings were bordered with beautiful plaster cornices, or gold mouldings ; the floors Were covered with carpets of richest color, the walls with pictures and elegant mirrors. The furniture was massive and grand—the most beautiful that the foreign markets afforded. Mr. Blennerhassett had a large library, embracing all departments of literature, which he had bought in London, and an ample apparatus for making those experiments in natural philosophy and chemistry, of which he was fond. He spent much of his time in literary and scientific investigation, but devoted all of the attention that was needful to the beautifying of his wonderful home. Mrs. Blennerhassett, like her husband, was cultured and elegant. She possessed rare accomplishments, was very charming in conversation, and immediately became an admired favorite in the refined society of Marietta and Belpre. The Blennerhassetts often visited these places, and, by both their substantial qualities of mind and many graces, shone brightly in the social circles of the pioneers. When at home they were seldom without visitors, and they entertained their guests with all of the ease, dignity and elegance that good taste and culture, with wealth at their command, can exhibit. Domestic felicity was not wanting in their beautiful home. Husband and wife, according to all accounts, were exceedingly fond. Whether entertaining a gay throng of visitors, or secluded in their forest embowered and water-begin villa, their days passed joyously, and in an almost ideal happiness. But into this Eden the tempter came.
Aaron Burr made his first appearance in the west in the spring of 1805. He visited Mr. Blennerhassett and filled his mind with the prospect of a splendid land speculation in the far southwest—an innocent plan which concealed a scheme of foulest treason and revolution. The next summer he returned to the west again, visited
474 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
the island home and remained for some time in Marietta, a number of the leading citizens receiving him with marked attention, while others did not attempt to conceal their abhorrence of him as the murderer of Alexander Hamilton. Burr was now busy in developing his plans for dissevering the west from the east and founding a vast empire in the Mississippi valley and the Mexican provinces, but his design was carefully concealed under the pretense that what was designed was the colonization of a .rich country. Dark suspicions, however, were whispered about, that the wily and subtle schemer meant much more than he openly avowed. Interest in the proposed mysterious adventure ran high, and there was much of conversation upon the subject, and the newspapers were filled with communications approving and disapproving of Burr's plans. A series of articles of the former nature, written by "Querist" were severely censured by another series signed "Regulus," the authorship of which was unknown at the time, and for many years later, but which were undoubtedly from the pen of Jared Mansfield, who had located in Marietta in i803, having been appointed surveyor general of the United States by Jefferson.* But notwithstanding the very general opposition to Burr's schemes, the leader rallied around him, by his fascinating ways and persuasive tongue, many young men of the vicinity. His brilliancy blinded many people to the monstrosity of his character, and he made himself during his stay in Marietta an almost universal favorite. The lady who would not dance at the "Burr ball" in Marietta was regarded as a person who carried her prejudice altogether too far. 't It was not strange that Blennerhassett should have been beguiled by the artful plotter, nor that having once consented to enter into the project represented to him he should have become deeply interested in it, and devoted his time and money freely to its advancement.
Early in September, 1806, the contract was made for the building of the boats which were to convey the adventurers to their settlement. Mr. Blennerhassett became responsible for the payment and furnished money also for the purchase of provisions. By the last of October the public mind had become filled with vague apprehensions of danger. In the vicinity of Marietta many people began to look upon the preparations of Burr and Blennerhassett with curiosity not unmixed with disfavor. The attention of the general Government had been called to the fact that they were at work organizing an expedition thought by some to be inimical to the interests of the United States, and Jefferson had sent spies to watch the conspirators. The fact that Blennerhassett was entirely innocent of a design to do aught against the United States, was shown at this time. He called upon the Government agent, and talked frankly about the proposed settlement. The surmises of
*Personal Memoirs, by E. D. Mansfield.
+This lady, as we tearn from an obituary of her sister, Mrs. Margaret Patterson, published in a
Term Haute newspaper, was the rate Mrs. William Skinner. "She withheld her presence from the balt room and gave as a reason that Colonel Burr was plotting treason against the Government.
President Jefferson being communicated to the legislature, that body passed an act authorizing the governor, Edward Tiffin, who was at the State capital, Chillicothe, to call out the militia to capture and detain any boats descending the Muskingum or Ohio under suspicious circumstances. Blennerhassett, hearing of the action of the legislature, it is said, intended to abandon the cause in which he had engaged, but urged by his wife and a party of men who had, under Comfort Tyler, arrived at the island, with the purpose of joining the expedition, he unfortunately adhered to his original design. Under the legislative act, a company of militia was called out, placed under the command of Captain Timothy Buell, and stationed on the bank of the Muskingum, near the site of the stockade. A cannon was planted on the bank, regular sentries set day and night for several weeks, and every passing boat examined. Many amusing jokes were played upon the military during this campaign and the final capture of the half dozen small boats was made the subject of some ludicrous verses in imitation of the "Battle of the Kegs," by General Edward W. Tupper.
In the meantime the people had become much excited about the organization of the expedition, and there was a growing feeling in favor of seizing upon the persons and property of those engaged in it. Upon the ninth of December Blennerhassett learned that the militia of Wood county, Virginia, purposed arresting him, and upon the tenth he left surreptitiously, to join Burr. Colonel Phelps, in command of the Virginia militia, took possession of the island. Mrs. Blennerhassett was in Marietta at this time, and she returned to find her elegant house full of soldiers, who were making themselves at home in a very rough manner, appropriating to their own use whatever stores and liquors they needed, and destroying much valuable property. In a few days she left the once happy home, being assisted in her departure by A. W. Putnam, of Belpre. With her two little sons, Harman and Dominic, she pursued her way down the river to join her husband, and reached him late in January. The history of the expedition is well known. When it broke up Blennerhassett went to Natchez, Mississippi, and was shortly after arrested there. He stood trial and was acquitted. Starting north to visit his home, he was, however, again arrested and sent to Richmond. After ten weeks' imprisonment he was discharged, as no evidence of a sinister design toward the Government could be proven against him. One year from the time he had left it, he returned to the island where he had passed eight happy years of his life. The place was desolate. Property had been seized for debts. Many articles had been stolen. The slaves had escaped. The house had been gutted of its contents. Narrowly escaping a rearrest, Blennerhassett journeyed southward and rejoined his family at .Natchez. Purchasing a plantation near Gibson Port, Mississippi, he engaged in the growing of cotton, but the War of 812 put an end to that business. The plantation was sold for twenty-seven thousand dollars, which sum scarcely more than satisfied Mr. Blennerhassett's creditors. His island home was destroyed in 1811 by fire. Consequently the family removed to
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New York, where its head engaged in the practice of law. His efforts, however, were not attended with success. He was a ruined man. Subsequently he had fair prospects in Canada, and removed there in 1819, but ill fate attended him. Mr. Blennerhassett went to Ireland, thinking to avail himself of the benefits of a reversionary claim which he had never deemed worthy of prosecution during the period of his prosperity, but the claim was barred by the statute of limitation. Mrs. Blennerhassett found a home for a time in New York, where she was assisted by the Emmitts; she went afterward to Pennsylvania, and again to Montreal. Here she was joined by her husband. After a short stay the family went to England, and from there to St. Aubin, on the island of Jersey. Their next abiding place was the island of Guernsey, and there upon the first of February, 1831, the gifted, but impracticable, unfortunate Harman Blennerhassett passed away.
In 1842 Mrs. Blennerhassett revisited the United States with the hope of obtaining some redress from the Government which had impoverished, through undeserved prosecution, her husband, and by whose soldiers his home had been despoiled. Mrs. Blenerhassett brought her claim before the proper tribunal, and set forth the amount of damage caused by the Virginia militia, made out by Dudley Woodbridge, esq., of Marietta. This claim would doubtless have been paid, but just as the object she was striving to gain was about to be accomplished, Mrs. Blennerhassett died. Worn our with sorrow and toil and privation, she who had once been the mistress of the splendid house upon the "fairy island' passed away in a dreary tenement house in New York, attended only by her son, Harman, and a black servant, a former slave, who had accompanied her in all her wanderings, served without money, and been faithful through all. Mrs. Blenerhassett's later years were rendered sorrowful by more misfortunes than the loss of property, station, home, and husband. One of her sons proved almost an imbecile, and the other became a confirmed sot—a pitiful wreck, whose life ended in the Blackwell's Island alms-house in 1854.*
DAVID PUTNAM.
David Putnam, third son of Colonel Israel Putnam (of whom an account is given in the Belpre history), and grandson of General Israel Putnam, was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, February 24, 1769. He graduated at Yale college in the class of 1793. After his graduation, with the view of entering upon a mercantile life, he accepted a place on a vessel in a voyage to London in the winter of 1794. A journal kept at the time describes the seasickness and discomfort of the voyage, the abuse of an arbitrary and domineering captain, the disgusting association of an ignorant and wicked crew, and the utter distaste for the life on which he had entered. After a
*A pathetic account of the sorrows of Mrs. Blennerhassett, and the melancholy fate of the family, is given by Miss Maria P. Woodbridge, in Lippincott's Magazine for February, 1879. From it many of the foregoing facts are taken.
rough and dangerous passage, the vessel was wrecked on the coast of France, the officers and crew making a narrow escape to land. Here they were detained some months, mostly at the city of Nantes, with short rations and general distress, in the period of the French revolution, and the attempt to improve the morals and prosperity of the country, by the substitution of a tenth, instead of a seventh portion of time for rest and relaxation. The journal is a graphic description of the prevailing wretchedness. It says, March 4, 1795 .
Since we have been in Nantes, we have lived twenty of us in one chamber, have had two very scanty meals of victuats, one about 1s o'clock, the other at 8 in the evening, consisting of tripe, lights, a rittle veal, etc., all cooked after the French fashion, and a half pound bread per day. which we draw from the commissary store—for such fare the American consul pays one hundred and ten livres per day.
He availed himself of the first opportunity to return to the United States, and landed in New York July 2, 1795. On meeting an acquaintance, he was informed of the removal of his father's family (during his absence) from the home in Pomfret to the then distant Ohio, and says: "It was unexpected, it surprised, and in some respect agitated my mind--my plans were disconcerted. I returned on board, walked the deck, was pleased, disappointed and pleased again, was miserable, was alone, was happy."
Mr. Putnam's brief experience abroad, proved an effectual cure for a desire of mercantile life or foreign travel.
He taught school in Brooklyn, Connecticut, during the winter of 1795, and during the following year, made a brief visit to Ohio. He then, for about two years, pursued the study of law with Hon. Calvin Goddard, of Plainfield, Connecticut. On the sixteenth of September, 1798, he was married to Betsey Perkins, daughter of Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Plainfield. They came immediately after, on horseback, to Marietta, where he commenced the practice of law. He became the teacher of the Muskingum academy in Marietta, established about this time, the first institution of the kind in the Northwest Territory. He was postmaster in Marietta from 1800 to 1802. In 1805 he built the stone residence on Front street in Harmar (now occupied by a grandson), where he continued until his death in 1856. He became cashier of the Bank of Marietta at its organization in or about 1897 (General Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Paul Fearing, William Skinner and others, directors or stockholders), the business being done at his residence in Harmar until about the year 1815, when the bank was transferred to Marietta, and a new cashier appointed.
He continued in the practice of law nearly thirty years, and then retired from it, to an extensive agency which had devolved on him in connection with lands in the Ohio Company's Purchase. This he continued until the year 1845, when at the age of seventy-five, he relinquished it to his son.
He was a faithful adherent, during his active life, of the First Religious Society of Marietta. He donated the lots now occupied by the Congregational church and parsonage in Harmar, and was a liberal contributor to the erection of their meeting-house.
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Mr. Putnam had no aspiration for public life or political distinction, but in his sphere of a private citizen, was known, recognized and honored as a firm, reliable and intelligent friend of order, morals, education and religion.
He was the father of twelve children, only two of whom survive—his sons, Douglas Putnam and David Putnam, of Harmar.
He died at his homestead in Harmar, March 31, 1856, aged eighty-seven.
NAHUM WARD.
Nahum Ward came to the West so early that had he located almost anywhere else than in the primal settlement, he would have been in the strictest sense of the term a pioneer. Although not of the vanguard of the great army of peace he was one of the conspicuous figures in the ranks which closely followed. He was the pioneer of an era of advancement rather than a movement of population—an era of enlarged scope and great achievement. The inception of Mr. Ward's enterprises in the country round about Marietta, and the inauguration of the period of great improvements and material prosperity were nearly simultaneous. The subject of this sketch was the first man in southeastern Ohio who entered deliberately and determinedly upon a thorough system for the development of its landed interests. He conducted a colossal business, was identified with almost every progressive movement of his time and he made a deep impression upon the community in which he dwelt. It has been said of him by one who is shrewd in his estimates of men, that although he took no active part in politics and did not enter public life, he was probably the most prominent man in Marietta. Certainly he was one of its strongest and most notable characters.
Nahum Ward was born October 23, 1785, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He was a son of Thomas W. Ward and grandson of Artemas Ward, the first major general of the Revolutionary army—the officer to whom legitimately belonged the place accorded to Washington, and to whom it would undoubtedly have been given had not public policy suggested the appointment of a Virginian as commander in chief of the army. The subject of our sketch upon attaining suitable age attended Leicester academy and studied there several years, under the preceptorship of Timothy Fuller (father of that strange literary genius, Margaret Fuller, Countess D'Ossoli, who was the original of Zenobia in Hawthorn's Blithdale romance). After obtaining an education young Ward entered, as a clerk, the store of his uncle, a Mr. Brigman. Four years service in the village store gave him the rudiments of that splendid business knowledge which made him successful in later years. His experience as clerk was supplemented by two years of independent mercantile business, his father giving him in 807 the sum of five hundred dollars with which to open a store of his own. He seems to have become dissatisfied with the small scope which the management of the store afforded his abilities, and two years after he had opened it—in June, 1809—he set out for the then far distant west to seek his fortune. His objective point was Marietta, and he had in his possession a letter of introduction to General Rufus Putnam. One may easily imagine the reception given to a young man of Mr. Ward's character, coming to a comparatively new settlement well introduced and recommended. Very naturally he was encouraged to examine the country and given some facilities for so doing. He remained about six weeks; visited various portions of the Ohio company's purchase; acquired considerable information in regard to the lands for sale, and then returned to Shrewsbury, as he had come out—upon horseback. Shortly after his arrival in Massachusetts he received an appointment as deputy sheriff, and took up his residence at Worcester. He had doubtless formed, when in Ohio, a determination to return to the west at an early date, and it is not probable that he swerved for an instant from that purpose. At any rate he had not been long in Worcester before he began purchasing lands from Ohio company shareholders in that place and its vicinity. He had only a very small capital—the five hundred dollars which his father had given him, and the profits from two years' business in his store—but it was sufficient to secure a total of about five thousand acres of lands at the low prices then prevailing. Two years from the time of his first visit—in the fall of 1811—he again journeyed to Ohio; this time to become a citizen. He located in Marietta, which place was henceforth his home, until his death in the year 86o. Mr. Ward examined most of the lands already purchased within a few months from the time of his arrival, and after familiarizing himself with the country, made a trip to his old home in the winter of 1812-3, and bought several more tracts. During the first ten years of his residence in the country Mr. Ward's whole attention was given to buying lands, and he made no attempts to sell. He made annual visits to the east in the winter seasons until 817, and every year added to his possessions, until he had secured more than thirty-seven thousand acres of land, lying principally within the counties of Washington, Athens, Morgan, Gallia, Lawrence, and Meigs. He was more largely identified with the landed interests of southeastern Ohio than any other one man. His career in his chosen line of business was a successful one, and it could hardly have been otherwise with the possession of such qualities as were combined in Mr. Ward's nature. He was a man of sanguine temperament, and yet so well balanced with a kind of business conservatism that even with the great temptations that arose before him he steadily avoided all forms of wild speculation. His aim was to attain success by slow, sure, safe methods rather than sudden, daring venture based upon the turn of fortune. Yet no man could be more bold in following a line of action after it had once been decided upon; no man could more persistently push forward in a chosen pathway. He had an indomitable will, great energy, self reliance, and patience, and an uncommon development of common sense. Misfortune may come to a man who possesses
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these characteristics, but it will come only occasionally as the diversifying incident in a career which, as an entirety, is successful. Mr. Ward, while generally fortunate in his undertakings, met some reverses which no human foresight, however far reaching, could discover or forefend. One of the first of his measures for the settlement and improvement of his great tracts of land fell short of its full effect through circumstances entirely beyond his knowledge. Conceiving the idea that the Scotch would make an industrious, frugal, and intelligent element in the agricultural districts, he went to Scotland in the fall of 1822 for the purpose of bringing over a colony of the "canny people." He published in Edinburg a small pamphlet giving descriptions of the country, derived principally from the pamphlet of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, printed at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1787; from the works of Thomas Hutchins, United States geographer, and from the Ohio press. A letter from Return Jonathan Meigs, postmaster general of the United States and ex-governor of Ohio, and a note from the United States consul in Edinburgh were published on the inner leaf of the cover and served as Mr. Ward's credentials. Mr. Ward was so far successful in his measure that he induced about one hundred and seventy-five persons to emigrate to the United States and to the lands which he owned. But the season when they arrived—the summer of 1823—was one during which a terrible epidemic prevailed in Marietta and all the Ohio river region. Nearly all of the Scotch emigrants were stricken down with fever, and thus afflicted, and some of their number dying, these people began their life in a strange land. To the credit of Mr. Ward, be it said, that he was unremitting in his attentions to the unfortunate foreigners. He hired large public rooms for their comfortable lodging, and supplied them with medical attendance and nurses. Many of the descendants of these Scotch emigrants who settled on Mr. Ward's lands now live in Barlow and Wesley townships, and form one of the best elements of the population of Washington county.
Prior to his departure for Scotland, Mr. Ward had disposed of some small pieces of land, but he still retained the greater part of his original purchases, and after his return he constantly added to his possessions. But he did not retain lands and simply leave them unimproved awaiting an increase in value. Had he done so his influence for the good of the country would have been much smaller than it was. His policy was to improve. It had been said of him that "he was not a mere pioneer farmer clearing a few acres for a home, but a pioneer prince, with large estates, improving them all, and at once benefitting himself, his tenants, and the entire community." Some idea of the magnitude of his business operations may be suggested by the statement of the fact that at one time he had one hundred and thirty-one tenants clearing and cultivating lands within the Ohio company's purchase, under his proprietorship. The title to over one hundred thousand acres of land in southeastern Ohio was vested in Mr. Ward during the period he dwelt in Marietta, which was about forty-eight years.
Personal interest, a laudable pride and public spirit combined, led this great land owner to make the most thorough and systematic improvements. His farms throughout the southeastern part of the State—forty or fifty in Washington county—could be easily distinguished by their fine buildirgs, neat fences, well cultivated acres, and general appearance of thrift. Along many of the country roads Mr. Ward set out shade trees. Taste and utility were alike thought of. He lent aid to the building of many country school-houses, and contributed liberally to every turnpike, bridge, or other improvement of value to the public.
The fact that nearly all of Mr. Ward's farms were improved before they were sold redounded to the advantage of the purchasers and the tenants by whose labor those improvements were made, having easy terms of rental, also prospered. In many cases the renters became owners. It was the theory of Mr. Ward that the best condition of the country was attained when the greatest number of people possible secured homes, and so becoming fixed, had a permanent interest in the welfare of the community. Most of his lands were sold in small parcels, and to men of small means. Many of the purchasers were people who had absolutely no capital but their industry. In selling to hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of this class, it was only natural that many cases should occur in which the buyer was unable to fulfill his contract. And it is a notable fact that in no one of these cases did the proprietor foreclose the property. In every instance he made a settlement with the occupant of the farm forfeited by non-fulfilment of the contract, either refunding any payments already made, or making suitable compensation for improvements put upon it. Hundreds of well-to-do farmers in southeastern Ohio, who bought their lands of Mr. Ward by paying annual instalments, can attest the perfect equity of his business method and the liberality of his terms. And yet he did not escape entirely the obloquy which usually bears upon the large land-owner and dealer. While he never brought suit for foreclosure against those who were unable to pay for lands, Mr. Ward left no legal means unused in his dealings with other real estate owners, and would contest a title, when he believed justice was upon his side, as long as a vestige of hope remained. Becoming the owner of nearly all the shares of the Ohio company, he obtained an amount of Georgia Revolutionary certificates, which, owing to an irregularity in their issue, had not been included in the partition of the company's property, and remained as its only undivided assets.
The value of the certificates was, of course, contingent upon their being recognized by the United States Treasurer. Mr. Ward had a firm faith in the equity of his claim, employed able lawyers, who amassed evidence in support of it, and spent a long term in litigation with the United States and upon his death enjoined in his will the continuance of the great suit. This determination to succeed in whatever he once undertook was a marked characteristic of Mr. Ward, and numerous instances illustrating it might be cited.
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Mr. Ward's justness in his business dealings with those who took up his lands or who were his tenants, has been already touched upon. It may be added that in his constant intercourse with even the poorest and humblest he exhibited a simple, natural affability which put them at perfect ease. He was a true friend of the laboring people and deeply interested in them. It was a favorite idea with him that the working man's holidays should be multiplied, within a proper limit, and that such a measure with the introduction of healthful entertainments in which they might participate would elevate their tastes and ambitions. Mr. Ward was by birth and education the equal of the highest class, and found pleasure in refined and cultured society; but it was with his equals that he exhibited something of those qualities which made him appear to many persons as unduly cold and reserved. His manner was dignified and courtly, and he was not a man with whom his associates would be familiar, but if his demeanor was one in which there was much of austerity it covered none but the kindliest feelings toward humanity in generaL He was doubtless an aristocrat of the old school at heart, but he possessed also the thoughts of the true Democrat, and his acts indicated one class of feelings as much as the other, Mr. Ward's personal appearance was an expression (if we may use the term) of his nature. It indicated strength, will, energy, and dignity. He was a sturdy man physically as well as mentally; about six feet high, erect in carriage, and well proportioned. His features were strong, clearly cut and expressive. Citizens who remember him speak of Mr. Ward's appearance as always being that of the gentleman. He was almost invariably attired in the sober but elegant broadcloth which one is accustomed by an association of ideas to regard as the appropriate dress of that generation of substantial, sterling men who have nearly all passed away in the last quarter century, and which one imagines so in keeping with their character.
We have said in the beginning of this sketch that Mr. Ward, while not properly a public character, was probably the most prominent man who lived in Marietta. His prominence was naturally obtained through the magnitude of his business operations and the simple strength and solidity of his character. He held no important public offices. He was a Federalist in politics (like most of the leading men of Marietta), and this fact prevented him from accepting in 81 z the position of Aid to Governor Meigs. While the office was in many respects attractive to him he could not consistently with his principles accept it. Had he done so he would doubtless have led a bright and useful career in the service of the State, as civil advancement would have been the legitimate consequence of military success—and success he could scarcely have failed to achieve, with his abilities and strength of purpose.
Mr. Ward's home was the house on the north side of Putnam street, between Front and Second, built by General Edward W. Tupper. When he purchased it, in 8 x 7, it was the largest and most elegant residence in Marietta, and an appropriate dwelling for a man of Mr. Ward's tastes and hospitality. Among other distinguished visitors whom he entertained here was Genera) Lafayette (See chapter XXXIV), whom he had visited in Paris, and whose visit to this country, by the way, was largely the result of Mr. Ward's solicitation and his representations of the deep interest that the people of the United States felt in him.
In 1845 his fellow citizens elected Mr. Ward to the office of mayor, a position which he retained for a long term of years. It was soon after his election that the first extensive improvements in Marietta were made. prior to this time there were no paved sidewalks in the village. It was through Mr. Ward that these were introduced and shade trees set out along the streets. He was unable, however, to carry out all of the plans which he deemed for the interest of the public.
The kindness of his nature was exhibited in the constant exercise of benevolence. Through various channels, religious and secular, private and public, he contributed aid to individuals and to causes. The greatest of his benevolent acts, however, was that which supplied the Unitarians of Marietta with a house of worship. He had been an adherent of the Unitarian faith from his early manhood, and in middle life began to labor zealously to establish a society of that denomination in Marietta. "At length," says a biographer, "as advancing years admonished him, that whatever was to be done, must be done quickly, he determined to build a church and organize a society, and leave the rest to this silent influence of the testimony of truth, and to the gradual softening of prejudice and increase of freedom." The church (upon the corner of Putnam and Third streets) was completed and dedicated with appropriate services, June 4, 1857, at a cost to Mr. Ward of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars. The edifice was donated to the First Unitarian society, and Mr. Ward, not resting, satisfied with what he had done, continued to promote, by every means in his power, the well-being of the society. Ever since his arrival in Marietta he had endeavored to further the growth of Unitarian sentiment by personal persuation and by the distribution of tracts. Whenever he prepared for a journey through the country he was accustomed to fill one of his saddle-bags with tracts of the American Unitarian association, which he gave to those with whom he came in contact. He always kept a supply of these tracts in his office, which he placed in the hands of his tenants and the men who purchased homesteads from him. His pastor, Rev. E. C. Guild, said: "A very large number were distributed in this way, making the more impression from the fact that a kind word and encouraging tone went with them. It is impossible to estimate the amount of influence exerted in this way, so widespread and deep-seated." Mr. Ward's religious convictions were of the most positive kind, and his devotion to the principles of Christianity, constant and unremitting. He passed away "with a faith as clear, and a confidence in the mercy of God as strong in death as it had been through life." His death occurred upon the sixth of April, 1860, and the funeral services were conducted upon the Sunday following, at the
Isaac Spaulding
The subject of this sketch was born in Townsend, Massachusetts, December 4, 1807. His father, Captain Isaac Spaulding, was a son of Lieutenant Benjamin Spaulding, a tineal descendant of Edward Spaulding, who came to America from England in 1630. His mother was Lucy Emery, a daughter of Lieutenant Emery of Revolutionary fame.
The early education of Mr. Spaulding was somewhat limited, owing to the fact tnat the large family and the limited means of the father prevented his being sent to college, while tne schools of his native village furnished but from six to eight weeks tuition per year. His father, Captain 1saac, in addition to being a good farmer, was also a cooper, and this trade be taught Isaac. At tne age of twenty, his father gave him nis option of taking his freedom, or of remaining on the farm until twenty-one, when he should receive one hundred dollars. He chose the former, and went to work in a cooper-shop for Captain Davis, of Townsend. At the expiration of a year, he went to Vermont and engaged in the manufacture of barrels and cheese-tierces for a dairyman. Finishing this contract, and being unable to get his pay from the, dairyman, he accepted a yoke of oxen as part pay, and set out for Massachusetts, driving his oxen before him over the Green mountains, a distance of over one hundred miles. In 1830 he married Elmina Kibling, of Chester, Vermont, whose parents had been drowned in the Connecticut river some years before. In 1832, Mr. Spaulding was elected a captain in the Second regiment of Massachusetts' militia, receiving his commission from Governor Levi Lincoln. In the same year he went to Lake Champlain, Vermont, and in company with two friends engaged in the cooper business. Tne company had the contract for furnishing nail kegs for a nail factory in Troy, New York. He continued to manufacture kegs for the Troy firm until December, 1834, when the death of his father recalled him to Townsend to take charge of his fathers’ estate.
Buying the interest of tne remaining heirs to his father’s estate, he remained at the old homestead until the death of his wife in 1838. Mr. Spaulding then rented the homestead and went to Pittsburgh., Pennsylvania, where he engaged in tne manufacture of pumps, associating with him m this business Silas T. Jewell, under the firm name of Spaulding & Jewell. While here he married Cynthia A. Matthews, of Pittsburgh, the wedding ceremony being performed October 24, 1839, by Rev. C. D. Battelle, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of the west. In the spring of 1840, he removed to Harmer, Washington county, Ohio, and engaged in the manufacture of pumps with his old partner, Silas T. Jewell. He conducted the business in company with Mr. Jewell for about two years, when he sold out his interest to Richard Pattin, Esq., and returned to Massachusetts to look after his property.
Purchasing a team of horses and a spring wagon, he set out from the Ohio river in company with his wife and infant daughter, Almina, in the early part of June, and reached the banks of the Connecticut about the first of July. The entire journey of about one thousand miles was completed in six weeks,
The dusty, and travel-worn appearance of the company frequently caused them to be mistaken for homeless wanderers by the villages and the route, and their kindly offers of help and sympathy had to be declined with thanks a number of times.
In 1843, Mr. Spaulding sold his farm to his brother, and determined to return to Harmar' Ohio. Being fully satisfied with his experience in a common road-wagon, he made the return trip with his wife and daughter by steam-boat and rail to Philadelphia, and thence to Pittsburgh by anal. Arriving at Harmar he resumed the pump business with his old partner, Silas T. .Jewell. This partnership, however, wets dissolved within a year, Mr. Jewell reeving, and Mr. Spaulding continuing the business. Mr. Spaulding continued the manufacture of pumps down to the time of the Rebellion, supplying the larger amount of pumps sold in eastern and southeastern Onio, and likewise supplying several dealers in Pittsburgh and Indiana.
Mr. Spaulding is a man of careful business habits, and by practicing the strictest economy has succeeded in accumulating considerable property. He has not, however, always been fortunate in his investments outside of his regular business, having lost more than ten thousand dollars in various ventures. He was one of the owners of the ill-fated Harry Dean that burst her boilers in the Ohio, and burned to the waters’ edge in 1861. He was arso a stockholder in the Mannar Bucket factory, which stock proved a total loss. His property at present consists of real estate in Harmer, farming lands in Washington county, Ohio, and western lands, and he is likewise a partner in the queensware establishment of Richards & Co., Zanesville, Ohio.
Mr. Spaulding had no issue by his first wife, but ten children were the result of his second marriage.. Of these four died in their infancy. Of those riving, Almina E., the eldest, is 1he wife, of Captain John A. Livesay, of the Pomeroy and Big Sandy line of steamers; Abbie B., is tne wife of Mr. A. S. Hale ; Mary S. was married in am to Professor John T. Duff ; Ella married Charles W. Jervney, who is engaged in the dry goods business with Bosworth, Wells & Co., Marietta ; and Sarah is tne wife of Lyman B. Fuller, who is engaged in the book-business in Marietta with C. E. Glines, Esq. Mr. Spaulding has but one son, Isaac, and he is yet unmarried.
Mr. Spaulding has never held a civil office further than to represent his village in the town council, and in other like capacities where his sound Judgment, and his conservative views have always been held in nigh esteem.
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church he had built and which is the noblest monument to his memory. The master workmen who had been employed by him in the erection of this edifice, in accordance with Mr. Wards expressed desire, bore his remains to the grave, in Mound cemetery.
We have omitted mention of Mr. Ward's domestic relations. His home was one of happiness, and his family ever received his closest attention and most loving ministry. His first wife, whom he married in the autumn of 1817, was Miss S. C. Skinner, daughter of William Skinner, a prominent pioneer merchant of Marietta. Mr. Ward had seven children, five of whom survived him. One daughter, Ann Maria, who had reached maturity, died in 1839, and a son, Lafayette, died in infancy. William S. Ward, the remaining son, who, after his father's death, carried on his business, died in 1871. He left a son and a daughter, Agnes (the wife of A. B. White, of Lafayette, Indiana). The family name became extinct with the death of the son referred to, William Nahum Ward, in March, 1874. The four daughters of Nahum Ward are Sarah C. (Mrs. W. L. Rolston), Mary E. (Mrs. Charles R. Rhodes), Harriet C. (wife of Goodrich H. Barbour, of Cincinnati), and Henrietta D. (widow of E. G. Leonard, of the same city). Nahum Ward's first wife died in 1844, and in 1848 he married Harriet Denny, of Worcester, Massachusetts, who survived her husband about twelve years, dying July 16, 1872, and leaving, by will, a large bequest to the church which Mr. Ward had founded.
JOSEPH HOLDEN.
Joseph Holden, for thirty years a prominent figure in the mercantile business, and for sixty years a universally respected and valuable citizen of Marietta, was born in Shirley, Massachusetts, December, 1769. He learned the carpenter trade and in 1803 came to Marietta. until 1807 he engaged in house-building exclusively, and after that time worked at the trade in connection with his mercantile business. He took a deep interest in building as long as he lived. In his old age he was frequently found where improvements were going on, offering friendly criticism. He opened a store in 1807, and continued in trade until 1837. He did business on an honest, straightforward liberal basis, and a large patronage enabled him to acquire a competence which was in after years, generously shared with the needy poor. Mr. Holden always had a place in the local political councils of his party, but never had aspirations for office. He was a Jeffersonian and in 1814 the majority party nominated him for county commissioner which he declined. He was afterwards appointed county treasurer, and discharged the duties of the office seven years. He became a Whig in Whig days, and his store was the place of meeting for the county politicians, when in town. Esquire Booth, Robert Johnson, Judge Rosing of Belpre, Judge Barker of Newport, and others were so often found there in consultation that the Brophy house, which was Democratic headquarters, named the store "Uncle Joe Holden's senate." He was a Republican after the organization of that party. Mr. Holden was for years a director of the bank, and was held as a careful and sagacious business man. He was always kind to tenants and lenient to borrowers. He was modest and often secret in doing good works. It was his habit to quietly assist worthy young business men particularly, when selfish opposition placed them in need of a friend. He manifested his public spirit in another way. So far as he was able to prevent it, no one was permitted to leave town on account of inability to secure property on favorable terms. He was always ready to sell, when by so doing he could encourage worthy enterprises. Mr. Holden died November 14, 1863 in the ninety-fourth year of his age. "As 'a fine old gentleman,' Mr. Holden was a model."
WILLIAM SLOCOMB.
William Slocomb was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, February 5, 1783. He came to Marietta, Ohio, as a resident in 816. "At this place he became a teacher, and for many years was regarded as the leading instructor of youth, and as a prime authority on school matters in the Upper Ohio valley. The scene of his labors was partly in Wheeling, West Virginia. A whole generation in these regions felt the beneficent power of his influence in this relation."
In 1817 he became superintendent of a Sunday-school, established in what was known as the Buell school-house, near the corner of Greene and Second streets, Marietta. He was probably the founder of this school, which was the third established in Marietta—that of Mary Lake, in Campus Martius, being the first, and that established in Muskingum academy, under the influence of David Putnam, esq., in May, 1817, being the second. Mr. Slocomb's Sunday-school was opened about two weeks later than that in Muskingum academy.
William Slocomb was reared on his father's farm, and in his early manhood was a practical farmer. The hopes and expectations of his youth—to obtain an education in some college—were disappointed, but his zeal in the pursuit of learning was not wholly repressed by untoward circumstances. He diligently used the means within his reach, and soon devoted himself wholly to teaching.
The difficulties under which he labored turned his mind to the consideration and devising some organization by which young men similarly situated in pecuniary matters might receive aid in the prosecution of studies, especially those desiring to labor in the Christian ministry. (He had made a profession of his faith in Christ at the age of seventeen.) With this object in view he was the leading instrument in the formation, in 1812, of the "Religious Charitable Society for the County of Worcester, Massachusetts," the principal design of which was the education of young men for the work of the ministry. This was one of the earliest movements in this direction in the country, and its influence, with that of some similar organizations, culminated' in the for-
480 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Mation of the American Education Society, in Boston, in 1816.
As before stated, Mr. Slocomb engaged in teaching when he came to Marietta. Failing health induced him to relinquish teaching. He then went into active business, at first engaged in the lumber business, afterwards in boots and shoes, in partnership with F. Buck. Books were soon added, as the call for them by the students of the college made such a business necessary in the town. Slocomb & Bigelow succeeded this firm.
William and S. Slocomb were, for a number of years, prominent merchants in Marietta. In 1844 William and S. Slocomb, with others, became members of the Marietta Ship company.
William Slocomb was intimately connected with the college during all his life here. He was a Presbyterian, but was for many years connected with the Congregational church, Marietta. He retired from business and removed to Rochester, New York, in 1855. "For seventeen years he officiated as elder in St. Peter's (Presbyterian) church, Rochester, and kept the records of the church until he was eighty years of age. On his ninetieth birthday he received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Three months later 'he fell asleep in Him who hath brought life and immortality to light, in the full exercise of his mental powers." He died in Rochester, New York, May 9, 1873.
NATHANIEL DODGE—JONATHAN CRAM.
Nathaniel Dodge was an older brother of Oliver Dodge, one of the first pioneers. He was from Hampton Falls, New Hampsheir, and came to Ohio in 1804. With him came his wife and four sons and two daughters. He purchased the brick house on Putnam street, of late years occupied by A. T. Nye, and which had been built by a Mr. Pool in 1802. Two of his sons—Oliver and Nathaniel—engaged in general mercantile business in Marietta. Oliver was in partnership with Augustus Stone, and afterwards belonged to the company which erected the Stone steam mill in Harmar. Nathaniel formed a partnership with Jonathan Cram, and opened a store on Ohio street. He afterwards removed to Parkersburgh and engaged in business there.
Mr. Cram moved his store to the Muskingum, just above where the Phoenix mills stand.
William Dodge, son of Nathaniel, was educated at Athens, Ohio, and died while studying for the ministry in 1825.
Dudley Dodge, another of his sons, died at the age of eighteen.
Nathaniel Dodge, jr., married Betsey Burlingame, granddaughter of General Rufus Putnam. They had no children.
Oliver Dodge married Eudocia Wing, of Lowell, Ohio, and the children of their only son live in St. Louis. There are none bearing the name of Dodge, who belong to the family of Nathaniel Dodge, living in Ohio now. The daughters of Nathaniel Dodge, who came to Ohio with him, were Rebona and Hannah. Rebona married Colonel Augustus Stone, of Harmar; Hannah married Daniel Bosworth, of Marietta. In 1816 Jonathan Cram, who had married his daughter Sally in New Hampshire, came to Ohio with his family—wife and three children— for permanent residence. He had previously visited his father-in-law here in 1807 or 1808, having with him at that time his wife and one child. Mr. Cram's household goods were sent out by way of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and Ohio river to Marietta. He, with his family, came by way of Clarksburgh, Virginia. Mrs. Cram and the children rode in a covered carriage, or gig. Mr. Cram and others in his employ had a large spring wagon. These were far more comfortable carriages than those in which the first pioneers came. Mr. Cram engaged in a successful mercantile business, and bought considerable real estate in Marietta, but he died at the early age of forty-one in 1821. His widow and children remained in Marietta. His sons became prominent citizens. John Oliver Cram, his oldest son, was a man of great energy, and became a leader in affairs relating to the improvement of the town. He established the mills now known as the Phoenix mills. He died at the age of forty-eight, November 7, 1860. Rebona, oldest daughter of Jonathan Cram, married A. T. Nye, of Marietta.
Nathaniel Dodge was a soldier of the Revolution on the sea, and was taken prisoner by the British and confined in the terrible Jersey ship. He belonged to a family who never seemed to know what fear was. He was a good citizen; firm in his support of law and order. At one time when certain parties threatened to turn the court out of doors if some of their guilty friends were punished for their crimes, Captain Dodge quietly attended the sittings of the court for several days, carrying a very heavy cane and sitting near the judges. His presence intimidated the disaffected parties, and no disturbance occurred. In common with all the Revolutionary soldiers who came to Ohio in early days, he was a firm supporter of General Washington and his administration, and belonged to the Federal party. In the Jackson campaign some of the Jacksonians in derision of his political views, and probably of his New England birth, stuffed a cannon with cod-fish and fired it off toward his residence on the other side of the Muskingum. (He was then living near Harmar). Probably the captain had his revenge on them for he was a man of wit and of resources. At one time his family, being married and settled in Marietta, formed a very pleasant family circle, but their lives were short, and he and his wife and children have long rested side by side in Mound cemetery. He died May 1, 838.
COLONEL JOHN MILLS.
John Mills was born in Marietta, in what was then the Northwest Territory, December 2, 1795. His father, William Mills, left Massachusets and came to this then four-year-old town in 1792. He was a captain in the regular army and was made commandant of the town,
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the war with the Indians having begun the previous year.
The mother of John Mills was a notable woman, of earnest religious convictions, of strong intellect and large heart. She was clear headed to see and warm hearted to do whatever good work came to her hand. Her gracious manners and her cordial hospitality made her house a pleasant place of refuge to the wayfarer in the new country, and the door of her "Prophet's chamber" always opened easily to give entrance to any servant of the Master. When she went to her grave, in a good old age, she left the legacy of a good and pure repute to be handed down from mothers to daughters in the town in which the greater part of her long life was spent.
John Mills was thus blessed with beneficent home influences. He also enjoyed such means of education as the young town afforded, but had nothing beyond. Judging from results, he must have made good use of his opportunities. When he was eighteen years of age he entered the mercantile establishment of Dudley Woodbridge, who was at the time a leading merchant, and for many years after a prominent citizen of Marietta. The ability and integrity shown by the young clerk gained the confidence and approbation of his employer to such an extent that in three years, at the early age of twenty-one, he was taken into partnership by Mr. Woodbridge and placed in charge of a new store.
In this new position, his unwearied attention to business, his good judgment, and above all his incorruptible integrity, gained for him the respect and confidence of those with whom he dealt, and in consequence a large and profitable business was built up, the profits of which soon enabled him to buy out his senior partner and become sole owner and manager. Colonel Mills continued in the mercantile business for forty years, associating with himself now and then a young man who as a clerk had gained his confidence, and whom in this way he could help to make a better start in life.
Colonel Mills never confined his energies and his interests to the building up of a fortune, in order to add to the comforts and amenities of his private life. He was made on too large a scale for that. It is safe to say that for more than half a century no enterprise has been started in the community where he has lived that promised to result favorably to the mental, moral, or pecuniary interests of the people, to which he has not given his thoughts, his interest, and his money. He has always been ready to put his shoulder to the wheel and give what impulse he could to every good cause, bearing in all things hit' full share of the burden, and generally making a liberal estimate as to what that share was. He has been a trustee in Marietta college from its establishment in 1835, and was the treasurer, without compensation, for fifteen years. His duty, as he construed it, in this position, was quite beyond the common. He paid out money, sometimes to the extent of thousands of dollars, when the treasury of the college presented the sight of that abhorred thing—a vacuum. Besides these temporary loans he has given outright to the village about twenty-five thousand dollars. But his counsel and his influence have been worth more to the institution than his money, acceptable as that has been. With an intellect acute and logical, it is one of his peculiarities to always provide for whatever difficulties there are in the present, or are likely to be in the future; and to know when breakers are to be approached often secures their avoidance. With judgment as cool and careful as it was clear, with an interest altogether untiring and never changing, except to increase in proportion to difficulties, he has always been ready to help steer the bark, no matter how rough the waters through which the craft was forced to go.
For more than forty years Colonel Mills has been efficient member of the Congregational church, through which his contributions have gone out to bless the world in all the channels through which the church has made its influence felt. Among the members of the church, he is, and always has been, one of the most liberal givers, both for the support of the church and the various objects it has sought to promote.
During fifteen years he was president of the Bible society in Washington county, and to this, as to every other good cause, he gave his earnest effort and efficient help.
The record of Colonel Mills in connection with banks and banking interests is one of which he might well be proud if he were ever proud of anything. The bank of Marietta, the first0National in the State, was incorporated in 1898. Of this bank Colonel Mills was chosen director in 1824. David Putnam, William R. Putnam, James Whitney, William Skinner, Colonel A. Stone, and Joseph Holden, all prominent men, made up the board of directors. It was something of an honor for John Mills, the youngest man in the board, to be chosen president of the bank in 1825. This position he retained until, by limitation, the charter of the bank expired in 1843. Colonel Mills was a director and a part of the time president of the Marietta branch of the State bank, established in 1845 and continued till 1863, at which date the Marietta National bank was organized. He was a director in this bank during its continuance. He is now (January, 1881) a director in the First National bank of Marietta. There have been diverse and terrible commercial crises during this long period, in which banks have gone down like ships in a raging sea, yet no bank with which Colonel Mills was connected has ever struck its colors, or declared itself insolvent.
Colonel Mills is the largest stockholder in the Marietta Chair company, and president of the same. This is the largest manufacturing establishment in the place, and gives employment to some two hundred and fifty laborers. This manufactory has been an invaluable benefit to many in the town who depend upon labor for their support.
During the recent years of hard times and scant employment, now happily over and gone, the work furnished by the chair factory kept the wolf from entering the door of many a home. In the days when ship-building was one of the industries of the place, Colonel Mills took an interest in it and gave it his influence and his aid.
He has been for years, and still is, president of the Marietta gas company.
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The town of Marietta, having two rivers, ready made, for travel and commerce, was thought by the average inhabitant to be sufficiently blessed for either and both purposes. But these rivers were nearly dry one part of the year, and frozen up another part, so that as modes of transit they were not so convenient as might be. To the far-seeing eye of Colonel Mills it seemed certain that there must be a surer and swifter way of coming and going, if this mother of the great State of Ohio were not to be left behind and looked down upon by her more enterprising and thriving daughters. Conviction led to of and to him as much as to anyone else was due the inception of the Marietta Sr Cincinnati railroad, the first to connect the place by iron bars with the outside world. The obstacles to the completion of the work were numerous, and the difficulties great, but the work was finally accomplished, though, as is often true, the pecuniary profits went into the pockets of those who came into the field at the eleventh hour and had no share in bearing the heat and burden of the day. The originators and chief executors of the enterprise lost every dollar they invested therein. As a reward for their labors and losses they have the comfort of feeling that they have been the means of bestowing a benefaction upon the community. Only this, and nothing more.
One of the leading characteristics of the subject of this sketch has always been a spirit of helpfulness. Quick to see a want, he has also a nice discrimination that shows him how and when to relieve it. There are many men scattered over the country who are ready to rise up and call him blessed for the helping hand he has extended to them in a critical time, when they would not have breasted the waves that were gaping to overwhelm them without the aid he gave them. And here, where his home has been for so many long years, there are many men who have comfortable homes, with the title deed in their own names, who are indebted to him for the timely aid which enabled them to secure the desired possession. A loan of a few hundred dollars, with easy terms of payment, has helped them to obtain the boon which otherwise would have been beyond their reach. And when a poor woman wanted a cow to assist her in the support of her children, she knew that he was the one to whom to go to get the help she needed, for had not her neighbor done the same and been successful? The fine humanity of the man is better shown in these private and unostentatious charities, of which no one knows but the recipient, than in those larger works of which the world cannot help taking cognizance. They also show that with a mind capacious enough to comprehend the largest interests and work out great problems to satisfactory results, there is also room for the small things of life, and those that affect the happiness of the lowly.
Colonel Mills has been twice married. First in 1824 to Deborah Selden Wilson, who belonged to a family noted for ability, and she possessed a full share of the family inheritance. She had the tact and energy and large mindedness that enabled her to fill well the position in which her marriage placed her. Well fitted to be a leader any where, if she chose, she curbed her ambition and made it subservient to ruling well her household, and making her guests, who were many, feel the charm of her cordial hospitality and ready appreciation of their wants and feelings. Her death, in 1842, was a sad calamity to her family, and a loss to the church of which she was a member, and the society which she had graced by her presence. She left three daughters, Martha Spencer Mills, who married the Rev. George M. Maxwell, D. D., and now lives in Wyoming, Ohio, and Sarah Mills, the wife of Colonel I. C. Elston, a banker in Crawfordsville, Indiana. In 1845 Colonel Mills was married to Dorotha Webster, of Newburyport, Massachusetts. They have two sons—John, who is in business in Marietta, and William Webster, who is connected with a bank in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Fortunately for him and for the world, the mother of the sons is still living; and now at the age of four score and five years, Colonel Mills presents almost an ideal picture of a serene and beautiful old age. His mind is as farseeing and shrewd as ever, a spice of humor, which has always given piquancy to his conversation, still shows itself; even the merry twinkle in his eye has not forsaken its place. He takes catholic views of all subjects, is never narrow, never confined in his sympathies by creeds or partial interests. His sympathies are as broad as the needs of humanity, and he takes an eager interest in all that concerns the world's progress. Of fine personal appearance, his graciousness is only equalled by his modesty, which has always encompassed him as a garment. He possesses the reverent respect of all with whom he has had to do, and the love of those who have had the privilege of drawing near to him. His pleasant home is surrounded by tasteful grounds, in which beautiful flowers, cultivated to a considerable extent by his own hands, love to give out their fragrance and show their beauty. But to him the crowning blessing is the companionship of her who is keeping step with him in the way that takes hold on eternal life—one for whom heaven is waiting, and who seems to have been lent to earth for a season, in order to show what manner of spirit they are of, who walk by the River of Life.
And so Colonel John Mills, full of years, of charity, of patience, of hope and of faith, is waiting for the summons to join the innumerable company of those who have fought a good fight, and have been received into the Home prepared for them, to go no more out forever.
ANSELM TUPPER NYE.
Anselm Tupper Nye, son of Ichabod Nye, pioneer of 1788, was born in the southwest block-house at Campus Martius, Marietta, November 9, 1797. This block-house had been the residence of Governor St. Clair, and was purchased by Ichabod Nye after the close of the Indian war. The mother of Anselm T. Nye was Minerva, daughter of General Benjamin Tupper. The first school he attended was kept by Miss Henrietta Morris in the stockade. All the public instruction which he received after leaving Miss Morris was obtained at the
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Muskingum academy. His first teacher there was David Putnam ; other teachers were David Gilmore, Benjamin F. Stone, Morris B. Belknap, Timothy E. Davidson. In 1816 he was a pupil in the academy six months under Elisha Huntington, a graduate of Dartmouth college. At that time he studied Murray's grammar, higher arithmetic and rhetoric. This ended his school days, but in 1817 he united with Mr. Huntington, Benjamin Putnam and Alexander Lawson in a reading club. The meetings of this club were held in the bank, usually called the old bank, which stood near the Meigs house, on Front street. Each member had selections to make and to read from good authors. A record was kept of books read. The benefit derived from this club was marked, historical, political and scientific works being chiefly read and discussed.
The business career of Mr. Nye began when he was very young. In 1812 he was placed by his father in his store on Putnam street, during the absence of his brother, Horace Nye, the manager of the business in the northwest frontier, where he had gone as brigade major and inspector. While in this store, however, his spare time was occupied in the study of arithmetic, geography and history, without a teacher. Here he continued six months, and in 1813 was sent by his father to assist his brothers, who were engaged in the mercantile business in Putnam, Ohio. In 816 he returned to school for a time. In 1817, 1818 and a part of 1819, he was again in the store at Marietta. In 1819 he was placed by his father in charge of a stock of goods at Waterford, Ohio. In 1824 he purchased the stock of goods at Waterford of his father, and engaged in business under his own name. For several years after this, business was in a state of great depression. The sales of farm products were very limited. The only outlet for the products of this vicinity was down the river, and there was some trade with the Kanawha salt works, but money was extremely scarce. Nothing could be sent across the mountains at that time with profit, except wool, the expense of transportation being so great. The construction of the New York canal and the Ohio canal helped the country very much, opening a trade with the east which had not been enjoyed before. The Ohio canal was commenced in 1825, and the connection thus made with the Erie and New York canal gave a permanent market for western produce. From that time, wheat, flour and pork have been staple commodities of Ohio.
In May, 1826, Mr. Nye put his business at Waterford into the care of a young man, and came to Marietta to assist his brother, Arius, who had been appointed cashier of the bank of Marietta, supposing he could give a portion of his time to the business at Waterford. But his duties at the bank absorbed his whole time, and in the fall of 1828 he entered into a partnership with Dr. George N. Gilbert, of Belpre, and removed his goods from Waterford to that place, where a new store was opened under the name of George N. Gilbert & Co. At the end of four years, in consequence of a change in the proportion of capital engaged, the firm was changed to Nye & Gilbert; in 1836 the firm was again changed to Gilbert,
Tyler & Co. In 1840 Mr. Nye ceased to be connected with the business. In January, 1830, he entered into the foundry business, which is still continued under the name of A. T. Nye & Son, and of which an account is given elsewhere. In this business his brother, Ichabod H. Nye, was associated with him, and at a later date his nephew, Rothius Hayward. As all the business connections of Mr. Nye are elsewhere mentioned in this book, it is not necessary to enter into any detailed account of them here. From 1826 to 1838 he was assistant cashier of the bank of Marietta ; from 1838 to 1842, cashier, and from 1842 to 1847, clerk of the trustees of the bank.
He was a member of the Marietta Ship company, 1844 to 1848, and of the Marietta Bucket factory, 1847 to 1869, and in 1848 began under his own supervision the hardware business now known as the Nye Hardware company.
The public offices he has held are as follows: 1818 and 1824 to 1827, captain in the militia; for several years, beginning 1824, justice of the peace in Waterford; mayor of Marietta several years after 1836, and again in 1849, one year; 1856 to 1862, member of the city council of Marietta ; 1863 to 1868, city clerk; 1827 to 1833, county commissioner; and was also township trustee. He was one of the original corporators of Marietta library, founded in 1829. He is one of the trustees of Marietta college, having held that position from its foundation, and in his connection with the college has been trustee of the permanent charitable fund, and was for about thirty years financier of the college.
In February, 1833, he united with the Congregational church in Marietta, and in 1834 was elected deacon. He continued to hold that office until 1878, when he was elected by the church deacon emeritus. In connection with his duties as church member, he served as clerk from 1839 until 1873, and was for a number of years superintendent of the Sunday-school, having been a teacher in it from its first organization, in 1827.
About 1869, his eyesight having become very much impaired, Mr. Nye was compelled to retire from active business, his sons taking the management for him.
Mr. Nye has seen almost the whole growth of the State of Ohio. He was born before the old pioneers had passed away, and knew them. In everything that has been for the good of the town in which he has spent his life he has been a ready helper, advancing every moral and civil interest, and often the leader in important reforms. The cause of temperance has always had his support. He was among the first to aid in forming a temperance society in Marietta, and was perhaps the very first among the merchants to discontinue the sale of liquor in his business, having stopped in 1828.
Since retiring from active business he has contributed much to our local history in the preparation of historical articles published in the Marietta Register.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM.
Douglas Putnam, of Harmar, is the fourth son of David Putnam, and was born at the old homestead (the
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stone house still standing near the west bank of the Muskingum), April 7, 1806. He had five brothers and two sisters who lived to maturity, viz: Benjamin, Charles Marsh, Peter Radcliffe, David, George, and Catharine H., and Elizabeth. Mr. Putnam's christian name, it may be remarked, was derived from his grandmother, the wife of Dr. Elisha Perkins, who was originally a Douglas, and a descendant of the Scotch family of that name, famous in history.
Mr. Putnam's boyhood was passed at his home, but in 1820, at the age of fourteen, he was sent away to school. He attended academy in Plainfield and Norwich, Connecticut, and entered Yale college in 1822. He would have graduated from this institution with the class of 1826, but in the fall of 1825, his brother Benjamin having died, and his father's health being poor, it was deemed advisable that he should return to Marietta and assist him in his business. His father, in addition to landed interests of his own, had become agent for a large number of the non-resident shareholders of the Ohio company. The son, entering the office in 1825, remained for twenty years his father's assistant. He developed early those correct and exact business methods which, later in life, led to a very pronounced success. In 1845 his father transferred to him his entire business. During all the years since that time Mr. Putnam has carried on the real estate business, devoting the larger part of his time and attention to it, although many other interests have claimed a share. He was director for fifteen years of the old Cincinnati & Belpre railroad company, and with others labored zealously to secure such a location of the great east and west road as would give Marietta the fullest advantages of rail communication. He was a director of the old bank of Marietta, before its charter expired in 1842, and of the Marietta branch of the State bank; also a director in the Marietta National bank, and for a few years its president. The wooden ware factory, now operated by Putnam, Sons & Co., was established by Mr. Putnam, and during the past thirty years has been most of the time in active operation, benefitting the community by giving employment to a large number of men. The subject of our sketch was also interested for some years in the operation of an iron furnace in Vinton county.
The real estate business, however, conducted by him continuously and constantly for the past thirty-five years, has been, as we have already said, the principal field of Mr. Putnam's business activity and the chief source of the liberal fortune which he has amassed. Mr. Putnam has dealt almost entirely in the Ohio company's lands and has sold generally in small parcels to people who have made themselves homes. His business has thus been one of more solidity of character than it would have possessed had it been conducted on a purely speculative basis, and its profits if more slowly accruing have perhaps been surer than those which could have been obtained from a more rapid handling of property and heavier transactions. Doubtless the manner in which Mr. Putnam's wealth has been obtained has in some measure influenced him in the method of its disposition
He is conservative and careful; has always maintained an exactness of method in all of his dealings; and giving his personal attention to the details as well as to general features, has had a knowledge of his affairs far more definite than is usually possessed by men controlling equally extensive business. He has dealt directly with the men who have bought and settled upon his lands, and while usually enforcing with proper and necessary firmness the conditions of agreements, he has never been in the least degree oppressive in his measures nor taken undue advantages of a purchaser. Not an acre of the many thousands which have passed through Mr. Putnam's hands has been conveyed except upon terms which were intended to be just Few men in a business so beset with difficulties, by its very nature so frequently looked upon with a prejudice, could escape reasonable or unreasonable censure as Mr. Putnam has done.
But it is not alone as the substantial and successful man of business that we have to speak of Douglas Putnam. He has been a man of sterling worth to the community in which he has dwelt and filled a sphere of noble usefulness. The acts of his benevolence have been many, large, varied in their nature, practical and judicious. His use of money has demonstrated his worthiness of the possession of wealth. He was one of the founders of Marietta college and has ever been its steadfast friend, giving the institution the constant benefit of his influence, services and benevolence. His first gift to the college was two hundred dollars, his largest twenty-five thousand dollars and the total amount of his contributions has been upwards of fifty thousand dollars. The successive donations seem to have been increased in amount with the increase of ability to give. The maintainance and constant development of this line of benevolence has indicated a remarkable continuance of interest and a devoted friendship. While Mr. Putnam has been the largest donor to the college he has aided its advancement by other means. The trustees and the faculty have ever felt the influence of his sanguine hope for the future of the institution and his encouragement during the less promising period of its history. He has often in the time of need assisted the college by securing for it credit, and his practical business knowledge has been of large value in the management of its finances. Mr. Putnam was one of the first trustees of the college and has continuously served in that capacity during the period of its existence—over forty-five years. During most of these years he has been also a member of the executive committee. He has been secretary of the college from the first and has signed in that capacity every diploma that has been issued from 838 to 881 inclusive. Mr. Putnam's length of service to this substantial institution of learning, the varied forms of his assistance and the unswerving constancy of his devotion to its interests have rendered the relation one of peculiar and almost unique value and pleasantness. President Andrews has said that, without two such friends as Mr. Putnam and Colonel John Mills; Marietta college could scarcely have maintained an existence.
Many private acts of charity have been performed by
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Mr. Putnam, of which only the recipients and himself have had knowledge, and the church has also been a channel through which his benevolence has had a constant outlet. In this connection we may remark that he became a member of the Congregational church of Marietta soon after his return from college, in 1825, and remained one of its communicants until the organization of a society of the same denomination in Harmar, in 1840. He was for ten years a deacon in the Marietta church, and for the past forty-one years has held that office in the Congregational church of Harmar. He is well known in Congregational circles throughout the State. It is worthy of note that, while Mr. Putnam has been prominently identified with local charities, his philanthropy has also been directed to the broader field of the betterment of humanity in general. His reputation for benevolence has not been confined to his home. We find his name enrolled among those of the leading spirits of the great philanthropic societies of the east. Since 1851 he has been a vice-president of the American Home Missionary society, and is the third oldest upon the roster.
Since 1853 he has been a corporate member of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, and he is one of the vice-presidents of the American Missionary association.
Mr. Putnam has not been a public mar, in a political capacity. The people of Washington county elected him early in life as one of their commissioners, and he held that office by successive reelections for fifteen years. He has been affiliated with the Whig and Republican parties, but has taken only a citizen's interest in politics. While he has not sought elective offices, and has had a distaste for political preferment, he has occupied by appointment (or by election entirely unsought) several positions of honor and prominence for which he was peculiarly fitted. Thus, in 846, his knowledge of the lands in southeastern Ohio led to his choice as a member of the first State board of equalization ever constituted in Ohio, and he served by appointment of Governor Hayes, upon the board of 1870. Very appropriately, considering his extensive practical knowledge of the subject in general, he was appointed by Governor Hayes, in 1866, a member of the first board of State charities, in which capacity he served two terms, or until the efficiency of the board was annulled by the unwise refusal of the legislature to make appropriations for it.
Mr. Putnam has been married three times. His first wife, to whom he was joined February 16, 1831, was Mary Ann, daughter of Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth. She died in 1842, and upon May 16, 1844, Mr. Putnam married Mrs. Eliza Tucker, a daughter of Levi Whipple, of Putnam (now the ninth ward of Zanesville), Ohio. Her death occurred September 9, 1862. In 1867 Mr. Putnam was united, at Springfield, Massachusetts, with his present wife, who was Mrs. Sarah C. Dimond.
Mr. Putnam has been the father of seven children— five by his first wife and two by his second. Two died in infancy, and a third, Benjamin Perkins Putnam, in maturity, in the year 1870. Those now living are: Samuel Hildreth, who occupies the old homestead in Har mar; Douglas, jr., located at Ashland, Kentucky, in charge of a large furnace; Mary Hildreth (the wife of Dr. Frank H. Bosworth, of New York) and Lizzie, living at home.
The residence of Mr. Putnam was built in the year 1859.
WILLIAM PARKER CUTLER.
The Hon. William Parker Cutler, of Marietta, belongs to a family which in three generations has performed distinguished service for the State. He is the grandson of Manasseh Cutler, LL D., and the son of Judge Ephraim Cutler.
Mr. Cutler was born in Warren township, Washington county, Ohio, July 12, 1812. He became a member of the class which graduated from the Ohio university at Athens in 1833, but was prevented by ill health from advancing farther than the junior year in his studies.
He was elected by the Whigs a member of the Ohio legislature in 1844, and twice re-elected, He was speaker of the house in the session of 1846-47.
In 1850 he was a member of the convention that formed the present constitution of the State of Ohio.
In 1860 he was elected by the Republicans a member of the Thirty-seventh Congress. Mr. Cutler's public services have been of a high and noble kind. The measures which he has labored to promote have been great and good ones. It has been his splendid privilege to labor for and witness the final complete triumph of the principle of freedom which Manasseh Cutler made possible in the ordinance of 1787, and which Judge Ephraim Cutler assisted fifteen years later. It is pleasant to note that in Congress Mr. Cutler made ringing speeches in denunciation of slavery, and in favor of its abolishment before it was commonly considered that the overthrow of that evil would follow as a result of the war, and that in earlier years his influence was exerted in advancing public opinion upon the "peculiar institution." He has ever held the radical views upon the slavery question which might be expected from his parentage, if from no other source. In May, 1857, he was a member of the United States Presbyterian general assembly which met in Cleveland, and offered a resolution to that body designed to make the advocacy and support of slavery a subject of church discipline as contrary to its standards.
But not in political life alone has Mr. Cutler been useful to the community, in which he has lived, and to the State. He has been a zealous laborer in almost every line of moral and material improvement. The cause of education has always received his hearty support, both fn the exercise of influence and in financial aid. He has been for a long term of years a trustee of Marietta college. The church with which he is connected and others have had in him a warm friend, as has also every good institution of the community, every substantial reform and progressive movement. From 1847 to 1868 he was much engaged in promoting the construction of the Marietta Sr Cincinnati railroad, and during that period
486 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
he was either president or vice-president and general superintendent of the road. To no man have the people of Marietta and southeastern Ohio been more indebted for their railroad advantages than to Mr. Cutler. He was the prime mover in the establishment of the Hocking Valley railroad in 1867, and in the inauguration of the Marietta, Pittsburgh & Cleveland railroad enterprise, in 1868. Since then he has, as contractor, built over four hundred miles of railroad in Indiana and Illinois. His career of activity is not closed. What may be its achievements time will develop. That his remaining years will not be spent in idleness the character of the man and the nature of his past works are sufficient guarantee. Whatever the future may add, however much or little, it will be said of Mr. Cutler's life that it has been one of success-one of broad benefit to his fellow men, flowing from a conscientious devotion to the highest human duties.
Mr. Cutler married, November 1, 1849, Elizabeth Williamson Voris, daughter of Dr. William and Elizabeth W. (Means) Voris, of Adams county, Ohio, and granddaughter of Colonel John Means, who, "believing slavery to be a moral and political evil," removed from South Carolina in 1819, to Ohio, bringing his slaves with him, setting them free, and providing liberally for their support. Mr. and Mrs. Cutler have had six children, of whom but one is living. William Ephraim was born October 20, 1851, and died August 21, 1852, aged ten months. Annie Elizabeth, born July 24, 1853, died January 11, 1864. Sarah Julia, born January 10, 1856, is living with her parents. Ephraim Sumner, born April 9, 1858, died August 5, 1860. Margaret Jane, born January 9, 1861, died April 8, 1861. William Means, born January 29, 1867, died October 8, 1870.
time his natural aptness for affairs, and his willingness to do all he could for the college, resulted in the assignment to him of many of the incidental duties of the faculty, which belong to no one professor's work, and yet whose prompt and accurate performance is essential to the welfare of the college. For five years, from 1850 to 1855, he was the college treasurer. Upon the resignation of the presidency by Dr. Smith in ass, the trustees, without for a moment looking elsewhere, erected Professor Andrews, president of the college.
Twenty-five years have passed since he was inducted into this office. Forly-two years of service he has given to Marietta college. Of the four hundred and ninety-eight alumni of our college, President Andrews has known each one personally. 1t is doubtful if a similar record can be found in the annals of any of our American colleges.
There are few offices which bring with them heavier burdens and responsibilities than that of president of a college. The duty of instruction-the duty of government, the duty of general oversight and of financial management, all rest heavily upon the president.
The old students of Marietta never tire of telling of the excellence of Dr, Andrews, as an instructor of his masterly grasp of the subject, his clearness in unfolding it his power of interesting the student, and of inspiring enthusiasm, and above all of the influence of his example of thorough scholarship, in stimulating them to thoroughness in all their work. Undoubtedly it is in the recitation room that a college officer must show himself strong. The unanimous voice of his students for forty-two years has pronounced Dr. Andrews, STRONG.
In the discipline and general government of the college, President Andrews has been remarkably happy. Unyielding in essentials, he has yet been flexible in minor matters, and good order and thoroughly faithful study have been the rule. There have been but few serious cases of discipline, and none which have not readily yielded to his skill. The quiet assumption that the students have gathered here for study, and for gentlemanly conduct toward officers and fellow-students, has been largely successful in securing what was desired. The kindly greetings which Dr. Andrews finds awaiting him all over the land, when he meets one of the alumni, is a sufficient proof that the memory of college days recalrs him with only agreeable associations,
The growth of Marietta college in all the essentials of a sound institution of learning-sure and enduring, even if it has been slower than her friends would wish-estabrishes clearly the wisdom of the management of its affairs by Dr. Andrews.
It was indeed a fortunate day for Marietta college when President Mark Hopkins recommended I. W. Andrews to the trustees of Marietta as one from whom they might expect faithful and efficient service, We trust that for many years his strength may endure and his labors be continued in the interests of our Alma Mater.
ISRAEL WARD ANDREWS, LL. D.
"Israel Ward Andrews, son of William and Sarah (Parkhill) Andrews, was born at Danbury, Connecticut, January 3, 1815. After his graduation from Williams college in 1837, he taught an academy at Lee, Massachusetts, and was appointed tutor at Marietta college in the fall of 1838. In April, 1839, he was elected professor of mathematics, and in January, 1855, president."
Such is the autobiography furnished by the third oldest college president in the United States.
The following notice of Dr. Andrews understood to be from the pen of Professor George R. Rosseter, appeared in the College Olio of June 29, 1880, which date was the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession to the presidency of the college:
For many reasons we are expecting that the coming commencement will be of unusual interest. On each return of this fete day of our Alma Mater all her children and all her friends have their hearts warm with kindly feeling. Many an alumnus and many an old friend of the college will find a special reason for emotions both tender and joyful in the fact that at this commencement, Dr. Andrews will have filled out the term of twenty-five years in the service of the college as its president. Graduated at Williams in 1837, in 1838 Dr. Andrews came here as tutor. 1n 1839 he was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. For sixteen years he occupied this chair. During all this
DYER BURGESS.
Rev. Dyer Burgess was born in Springfield, Vermont, December 27, 1784. At the age of sixteen years, soon after his conversion, he began to preach as a Methodist minister, but finding his views more in accordance with Congregationalism, he joined that church and studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Wines. He was ordained at Colebrook, Vermont, but came to Ohio in 1816 and was received into Miami Presbytery from the Northern association of Vermont September 21, 1817. About this time he established the Presbyterian church in Piqua, Ohio. His early ministerial labors were in the southeastern part of Ohio. In 1840, he was employed to preach in Warren, Washington county. His first marriage was with Miss Isabella Ellison, with whom he lived in West Union, Adams county, until her death in 1829. In 1842 he married Mrs. Elizabeth W. Voris, but had no children by either wife.
For many years prior to his removal to Warren he was a member of the Chillicothe presbytery, the associate and peer of Dr. R. G. Wilson, president of the Ohio university, Drs. Williamson, Gililand, Carothers, Dickey,
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Rankin and others, leading and influential ministers of the Gospel in that region. These gentlemen were born and educated in South Carolina amidst the influences of slavery, and left their native clime in obedience to the dictates of an enlightened conscience, aroused to the evils resulting from that system. They were all strong men, and Mr. Burgess entered most heartily into their views upon the subject of slavery, and became the leading and prominent abolitionist of that day. He was a member of the Presbyterian general assembly of 1818, and presented a paper upon the subject of slavery, which led to the adoption of the celebrated declaration of that body condemning the whole system. His personal appearance and address were such as well qualified him to lead in the discussion of a subject that absorbed the attention of all, and at that time excited the positive hostility of a large majority of his hearers. At one time, while travelling on an Ohio river steamboat, a rope was prepared for his neck, from which he was saved only by the prompt and efficient interference of friends.
He was strongly enlisted in opposition to Masonry, and at one time published a newspaper in Cincinnati upon that subject. His views upon temperance and the use of tobacco were as positive as upon other subjects ; and boldness as well as the personal power that he exhibited in the discussion of all such topics gave him the marked characteristics of a radical reformer. Notwithstanding the energy and decisive persistency with which he supported his own views, often giving the impression of rancor and yet he was one of the most enjoyable of companions. Having an extensive personal acquaintance, and a memory fully stored with early reminiscences, he possessed also a most happy faculty of communicating his thoughts, while all acrimony disappeared by close contact in social intercourse.
He not only maintained his early literary acquisitions, but kept his knowledge of the classics bright by daily use of the Greek Testament, making it a constant and special study. His labors as minister of the Gospel were in the Presbyterian churches of Belpre, Warren and Watertown, although not confined to any as pastor. He died August 31, 1872.
His second wife was the daughter of Colonel John Means, who moved from South Carolina at the same time and for the same reasons that induced Drs. Wilson, Gilliland, Williamson and others to seek in Ohio a refuge from the evils of slavery. Colonel Means brought all his slaves with him to Adams county, gave them their freedom there, and supplied their wants until they could support themselves. Mrs. Burgess still lives with her daughter, Mrs. W. P. Cutler, a most intelligent lady, the liberal friend of the poor, whose Christian virtues and deeds reach back through more than half a century, and brighten the evening sky of a devoted and most useful life.
HARLOW CHAPIN.
It is a pleasure to outline the life of a prominent and wealthy man, whose success is the reward of earnest, honest and intelligent effort. Such a man is Harlow Chapin, of Harmar. The Chapin family in the United States is descended from Deacon Samuel Chapin, who emigrated from England and settled at Springfield, Massachusetts, and perhaps, more remotely, from a French Huguenot family of that name. The descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin number more than fifteen hundred individuals. Seymour Chapin his great-grandson, was related to the Seymours of Connecticut. He married Achsa Hulet, of Massachusetts, in 1802, and settled in New Marlborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where Harlow, the subject of our sketch, was born, November 29, 1804. The family consisted of five children, Harlow being the oldest. Levi L. lives in Medina village; Joshua died in Harmar, where he was engaged in business enterprises; Caroline L, wife of William C. Hall, lives in Medina; Electa, first wife of William C. Hall, died at Medina; and Oscar D., died at Saginaw, Michigan, where he had been engaged in the lumber trade.
In 1816 Seymour Chapin with his family emigrated from Massachusetts and settled in Medina county, Ohio, then a thick and almost unbroken forest. But little favored with opportunities for acquiring an education, Harlow yet advanced rapidly, especially in mathematics, for which he had a special aptitude. Hunting the game and fur-bearing animals of the forest was his favorite sport, and solving the abstract propositions of mathematics his favorite study. After completing a partial course at the school at Canton he began life for himself, first as a school teacher. Whatever he undertook was carried through with that spirit of determination and self- reliance which is an important element in the character of the man.
Mr. Chapin taught school at Massillon, Ohio, then a small village, for two winters. In 1829 he was given a place on the corps of engineers then at work on the Ohio canal. A field of labor for which he was peculiarly qualified was now open. Although received under a temporary engagement, his services were found too valuable to be dispensed with. Upon the completion of the canal he was given a section to superintend. This employment occupied his time until 1834, when he was called to Dresden, Ohio, to supervise the erection of a lock near that place. It was found expedient by the board of public works to enlarge the reservoir at Licking Summit, Licking county, and the supervision of this important work was intrusted to the man who seven years before, without any experience, was received to fill a temporary vacancy.
In 1837 an act was passed by Congress authorizing the improvement of the Muskingum by the construction of dams and locks. The most difficult and extensive of these works is at the mouth of the river, the contract for the construction of which was awarded to Mr. Chapin, for the sum, in round numbers, of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. After this contract had been fulfilled, he took two small contracts, on Ohio river im-
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provements, with which he ended his labors in that direction.
While engaged on the Ohio canal at Massillon, Mr. Chapin formed an attachment for Hannah Earl, daughter of Gilbertharp Earl, a highly respected farmer in the vicinity. She was born July 26, 1807. They were married October 23, 1833. Her brother, William Earl, will be remembered as an early merchant at Beverly where he managed a store owned by Chapin, Fearing & Earl. He is also well known among Odd Fellows, having for many years been secretary of the Grand Lodge of the State.
Mr. and Mrs. Chapin have had six children. Cornelia Maria, was born September 25, 1834. She was married, November 19, 1856, to William H. Crawford, and is now living in Bay City, Michigan. Sarah Earl was born July 20, 1836; she was married to Charles B. Collier, September 22, 1857, and resides in Philadelphia. Henry E. Chapin, born July 16, 1838, married Anna Chappelle, and resides in Bay City, Michigan. Arthur B., was born December 28, 1840; married Electa W. Barber, November 29, 1866, and lives in Saginaw City, Michigan. Charles Seymour was born October 25, 1844; died February 16, 1848. Leander R. was born May 9, 1848; married Anna Young, and lives in Harmar.
Mr. and Mrs. Chapin resided at Zanesville from 1834 till 1835, and at Hebron till 1837, since which time Harmar has been their home. Mr. Chapin in charge of a company of twenty-one men, crossed the continent in 1849, and engaged in. mining and dealing in stock in California, for a period of two years. Since his return he has been living in comparative retirement.
The citizens of Harmar have testified their appreciation of his character by electing him mayor of their village twenty-one years. Out of deference to his wishes they occasionally gave him a rest, during the period of one term, but at the end of that term he was again pressed into the service. Mr. Chapin was a member of the Electoral college of Ohio in 1844, and is proud of having cast a vote for the distinguished patriot and statesman, Henry Clay, who was at the time the most able representative of his political ideas. He was a member of the Constitutional convention of 873. To represent Washington county in a body of this character is no ordinary honor. His practical knowledge of public works and a long experience in business affairs, gave him a peculiar fitness for the place, which his fellow citizens recognize by voting for him regardless of party lines.
Mr. Chapin is a man of affairs and a close student of current events as presented and discussed in the public press. Dogmas and theories have little attraction for him. His intellect is deep enough and broad enough to solve the problems, which daily intrude themselves upon every active man, in a simple and practical way.
Grace and hospitality characterize the Chapin home. Mr. Chapin is strong in body, keen in mind and interesting in conversation. Mrs. Chapin, while physically not so fortunate, is a woman of rare beauty of character.
The California company, referred to above, is worthy of more extended notice. The discovery of gold, in 1848, caused an excitement in which the whole civilized world participated. This excitement in Washington county resulted in the formation of a company to carry on mining operations. Two boards of directors were chosen—one to watch over the interests of the company at home, the other to carry on operations in California. The Harmar board consisted of Darwin E. Gardner, agent; Henry Fearing, E. W. T. Clark, L Chamberlain, and Asa Soule, advisors. The California board consisted of Harlow Chapin, agent; Abijah Hulet and A. G. Hovey, advisors.
The object of the company was to send a party of men to labor in California for the company. The primary stock was to be at least three thousand dollars. The third article of the rules declared "At least twenty able-bodied men shall be selected by the company, who shall bind themselves to go to California and faithfully labor under the direction of the agents duly appointed, from the time of their departure from Harmar, in April A. D., 1849, until first of April, A. D., 1851." The party which accepted the pledge and left Harmar on the steamer Hamburgh, April 23, 1849, consisted of the following gentlemen: Harlow Chapin, agent; Abijah Hulet and Albert G. Hovey, advisors; Henry Clark, clerk; Charles Cutler, Gage H. Drown, Moses A. Williams, T. Johnson, Allen M. Crabaum, William Bisbee, William Irwin, Edward Hulett, Almer P. Soule, Henry Erehom, John Mills (of Virginia), E. C. Carter, Samuel R. Hammet, Jeremiah Evans, William Flick, George Roe and Paul Fearing.
The trip was made overland. Four of the party— Messrs. Hulet, Drown, Clark and Cutler—died of cholera on the way. On reaching California, representatives from almost every nation were found. They lived without law, in perfect peace and security for a time, but gamblers, roughs and robbers eventually came in, and a dangerous state of affairs followed.
CAPTAIN CAIUS MARCUS COLE.
The earliest account we have of the Cole family of which the subject of this sketch is a representative, shows that in the past century three brothers, Englishmen, settled on Long Island. They were attacked by Indians and fled to save their lives, one of them being killed by the pursuing savages. The two who were spared did not return to the dangerous locality they had
originally chosen for a home, but settled in New York State upon the Hudson river. John Cole was the son of one of these brothers. His son Asa was the father of Sardis, who was the father of Captain Cole of Harmar. Sardis Cole was born upon the Hoosac river, January 26, 1795. In 1799 his parents emigrated to the western frontier and locating at Wheeling, Virginia, were for two years or thereabouts residents of the historical old block-house at that place. The father, Asa, was during this period engaged in packing salt from the Atlantic
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seaboard over the mountains to Wheeling for Zane, the founder of the settlement. In the spring of 8o x the family became settlers on Indian Wheeling creek within the present limits of Belmont county, Ohio, and in 1806 they removed to Warren township, Washington county, where the father pursued the avocations of farming and keel-boating for a number of years. He finally returned to Belmont county, where he died. John Cole, the father of Asa, also settled in Warren township in 1806, and kept the tavern at the roadside on the river bank known as "the Half Way house," because about equidistant from Marietta and Belpre. Here he entertained the wayfarer and the stranger, and as was the universal custom in his time set forth the "gigger" of whiskey to his guests, until he passed away at the ripe age of ninety- five years, about 1817. His grandson, the young Sardis Cole, who was eleven years of age when the family came into Washington county, upon coming of sufficient age to care for himself, entered the then very common, popular and then lucrative occupation of keel-boating. He made trips up the Ohio to Pittsburgh and as far down generally as Cincinnati, and also engaged in the navigation of the Big Kanawha, plying between the salt works on that stream and the best markets on the Ohio. He finally located on the Kanawha, engaged in salt manufacture, and remained there until 1827 having a full experience of that peculiar phase of pioneer life. On leaving the Kanawha salt works Mr. Cole located at Briscoe run in Wood county, Virginia, five miles below Marietta, a locality settled principally by Germans and a place of considerable note on the river, though seemingly without cause. Briscoe Run post office was established in 1838 and Mr. Cole was commissioned as the first postmaster, and held the office as long as he lived. By occupation he was a cooper, but he combined with his trade several other kinds of employment such as there was need for in the little community where he dwelt. He is described as a very clever, social man, and one who, despite the rough surroundings amid which his early life was passed as a keel-boatman and a resident of the isolated salt-making colony on the Kanawha, he was not only noted for his strict integrity but for a correctness of deportment and a freedom from the small vices and careless habits of life which it might naturally be supposed he would possess. He died in the spring of 1871, having passed through the allotted three score years and ten, loved and respected by all who knew him. Sardis Cole married, in 1817, Mary Uhl, of Briscoe Run, who died at the age of sixty-one years, in 1858.
They resided for a few years after their marriage in Warren township, Washington county, in the immediate neighborhood of Judge Ephraim Cutler's homestead, and it was there that their second child, the subject of this sketch, was born, January 6, 1821. A sister, older, Jane Ann (Webb) and a brother younger, Arius Nye, are now living at Briscoe Run. Caius Marcus Cole was in his seventh year when his parents removed to the little village which was to be their permanent home. When he was about eleven years old his father began the business of keeping a wood yard for the steamers plying up
and down the river. He made some money at this business and invested most of it in land, the sterile, rough, rocky bank along the Ohio, valuable for little else than its stone and the timber it bore. The business of wooding steamers increased, and Briscoe Run became a favorite station among the river men. Before the subject of our sketch was twenty-one his father had practically turned over his business to him, and its prosperity was not abated under his management. He had become well acquainted with nearly all of the captains or pilots on the river, and was much liked by them. He slipped off occasionally upon boating trips "learned the river" easily, and at thirty years of age was a skilful pilot, (though he was never licensed to act regularly in that capacity until 1862.) It was natural that he should have a fondness for the water, and that he should take to it to gain a livelihood, for many of the Cole family before him had been watermen. Nevertheless, his whole attention was not given to river navigation. He became a jobber, and for years did a large business in furnishing, from his own land at Briscoe Run, building stone, to be used in Parkersburgh and Marietta. Among other extensive works, he built the fine landing at Marietta. Stone quarrying and boating were alternately or jointly his occupations. Since 1866 he has been a government contractor, and during a period of fourteen years has completed twenty-five contracts, of from five to twenty- five thousand dollars each, and he has now on hand two contracts on the Ohio, which amount to one hundred thousand dollars. The scene of the work is eighteen miles above the mouth of the river. Large dykes are there being constructed for the improvement of what is known to river men as the " grand chain," by turning the current from some very dangerous rocks to the smooth side of the bed. These dykes are to be each three thousand feet in length, and eight feet above low water. Mr. Cole's contracts have been both for construction and improvement of navigation through the removal of obstructions, such as snags, wrecks and rocks. This work, whether of one kind or the other, has always been done thoroughly, conscientiously, and to the complete satisfaction of the Government, and has made him an enviable reputation as a contractor. While the promptness and reliability which characterize the captain in his business affairs, have won for him the confidence of the government officials on the one hand, and the sub-contractors, furnishers of material and employes, upon the other, his strict probity of character has made him universally respected by those who know him simply as the man. He has been uncompromising in his devotion to principle, even when, by violating the rigid dictates of conscience, he might very largely have advanced his own monetary interests. As an example of his strictness in this respect, we may state that he does not believe it right to do any work upon Sunday, and when that day comes his boats and men must lie still. Even should he be journeying down the river to engage in the prosecution of some large and important work, the boat must be tied up at the shore before the last hours of Saturday night are gone, and the line not loosed until Monday morning. As it would be
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impossible to carry out so literal and rigid a Sunday law in the passenger traffic, the captain has always refused to enter into that branch of business, and for the same reason would not become the owner of the Marietta and Williamstown ferry. Something of the same inflexibility of principle is shown in his attitude upon temperance. He is himself a total abstinence man, and he will not employ men who are addicted to the drink habit, even though their indulgence might be only what would ordinarily be termed moderate drinking. It is probable that the influence of his example and counsel has done much good upon the river in this matter. Captain Cole became in early years a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. For the past eight years he has resided in Harmar, and during the greater portion of that term has been connected with the First Congregational church, of which he is now a deacon.
Captain Cole had the misfortune of losing his life companion and helpmeet upon the twelfth of November, 1880. She was a lady of most rare and estimable qualities, and her death was a sad loss to her husband and children. Her maiden name was Nancy Scott, and she was the daughter of John and Nancy Scott, who came from the vicinity of Wheeling, West Virginia, to Warren township, Washington county, in 1839. She was born on the eleventh of December, 815, and was consequently nearly sixty-five years of age when she died. Her marriage to Captain Cole took place in 1842. Eight children blessed their union. Nancy, the eldest, born November 20, 1842, married Leonard H. Robbins, and is now living in Lincoln, Nebraska; John Sardis, born December 31, 1843, was one of the many thousands of his generation who fell as victims to the civil war. He enlisted in the eleventh regiment, Virginia infantry, and was killed March 30, 1865, at Fort Baldwin on Hatchers run, re-named by the Federals Fort Harris, and his remains lie in the soldier's burying-ground at Petersburgh; the third child and second son, C. Mark, born January 2, 1846, lives in Warren township; Mary Ann, born November 6, 1847, married Thomas Tyrrell, and now resides in Nebraska; James Franklin, born June 16, 1849, and Amanda Jane, born December 27, 1850, are in Harmar; Horace Dryden, born May 4, 1853, is a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska; and Charles Arthur, born December 20, 1857, is a citizen of Harmar.
SETH HART, M. D.
About the middle of the seventeenth century Stephen Hart emigrated with his family from Scotland, and settled on the Connecticut river. At the place of their settlement there was a ford in the river, which became known as Hart's ford. The land which Mr. Hart owned and on which he settled, is now occupied by the flourishing capital city of Connecticut-Hartford.
Joel Hart, a descendant of Stephen Hart, lived in Hartford county. He married Lydia North, of Berlin, Connecticut, by whom he had four children.
Stephen settled in Illinois where he practiced law for a short time, and then engaged in fruit raising in Illinois and Florida; Lidia married Carlyle Olmstead; Mary married Salmon Baldwin; both settled in Oswego county, New York; Lidia is dead.
Seth, the second son, was born in Berlin, Hartford county, Connecticut, November 13, 1804. When he was two years old his father moved with the family to Delaware county, New York, at that time a new county, so that his youth was spent amid the experiences of pioneer life. Joel Hart died October 17, 1811, and Seth spent the next four years of his life at the home of his grandfather, Jedidiah North, in Connecticut, where he enjoyed school privileges. At the age of twelve he returned to Delaware county, New York, where he was placed under the instruction of a tutor and received a liberal education. He remained in New York, teaching school, studying medicine, and clerking in a drug store, until 1824, when he came to New Philadelphia, Ohio, and taught school during the winter of 1824-5.
Mr. Hart, in 1824, received a diploma certifying that he had read medicine three years and qualifying him to enter the practice, and in 1858 he received an honorary degree from an Eclectic college in New York. He came to Washington county in the spring of 1825, and on the ninth of April of that year opened an office in Watertown. He remained in practice until September 27th, when he returned to New York and attended a course of lectures at Fairfield.
He married, February 9, 1826, Vestie Curtis, daughter of Dr. Bildad Curtis, of Delaware county, in whose office Mr. Hart had 1ead medicine. Dr. Curtis was one of the leading physicians in Delaware county, and after coming to Watertown in 1827, he had a full practice until his death. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, October 31, 1775.
Mrs. Hart died in Watertown, March 22, 1827, leaving one child, Vestie Curtis, born December 1, 1826. She was married to F. H. Kemper, and lived in Cincinnati, where she died September 29, 1879, leaving one son and four daughters.
Dr. Hart married for his second wife, June 7, 1829, Mary Wilson, daughter of Deacon David Wilson, of Round Bottom, Waterford township. She was born in Waterford, July 8, 1798. She left eight children to mourn her death, which occurred June 14, 1863. Samuel, the oldest, was born June 7, 1830. He graduated at Cincinnati Medical college, and has since been in active practice. During the war he was surgeon for the Seventy-seventh regiment, and afterwards, army physician.
Mary Wilson was born November 26, 1831. She was married to James Nixon November 20, 1878, and resides at Ironton, Ohio.
Romeyn Beck was born November 30, 1833. November 11, 1856, he married Martha E. Metcalf, who was born September 22, 1834. He lives in Harmar. Henry L. and Samuel Munson were born October 11, 1835. Henry married Lucy Wolcott Deming, and resides in Warren township. Samuel Munson married October 6, 1878, Mary Roan. He is a practicing dentist in Marietta.
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David Wilson was born November 26, 1838. He married Mariam Cox December 23, 1865, and resides in Denver, Colorado. Lydia North, the youngest child, was born August 30, 1840. She has for many years been a successful teacher in the public schools of HaPmar.
Dr. Hart married for his third wife Ella Lula Hiett October 22, 1863. She was the daughter of James Hiett, of West Virginia, and was born December 28, 1842. She died February 6, 1865.
Dr. Hart married November 6, 1870, Elizabeth D. Marshall, daughter of Gideon Marshall of Morgan county. She was born September 30, 1830. They have one child, Minnie HaHa Grace, born November 8, 1872.
Dr. Hart practiced in Watertown from the spring of 1825 until 1836, excepting the time he was absent, attending lectures in New York. Since 1836 his office has been located in Harmar, with but two breaks. In 1865 he was called to Tennessee to assist his son at the army hospital at Telahoma. After the close of the war he remained two years. In 1869 he took charge of a mining enterprise in the Rocky Mountains and remained one year.
Dr. Hart, ever since entering the practice in 1825, has made a habit of keeping and preparing his own medicines. His first experience in compounding medicines was at a drug store at Palmyra, New York. Since then a long and busy life of practice has given him an intimate acquaintance with drugs and their use.
During the period of his practice in this county—more than fifty years—Dr. Hart has always maintained the highest reputation for efficiency as a doctor and integrity as a man. He is a man of vigorous physique and well preserved faculties. His life has been useful not only to himself and family but also to the community which he has served for half a century. His visits have been an inspiration to thousands of families in the hour of pain and distress, and his life has been an example of industry and uprightness. He joined the Presbyterian church at the age of sixteen. When he came to Harmar, he united with the Congregational church, where he still holds his membership.
CAPTAIN HIRAM BURCH.
Hiram Burch, of Marietta, one of the best known of Ohio river men, was born October 3, 1796, near Newtown, Connecticut, and is a son of- William and Grace (Northrup) Burch. His father was in early life a seafaring man. In the year 804 the family moved to Pittsburgh, and the father engaged in keel-boating. As soon as he was old enough young Hiram also adopted this avocation, and served as a keel-boat pilot before he had fairly entered his teens. In 1809 or 1810, his sister having married and located at Belpre, the lad removed to that place and it became his home, so far as one following the river for a living can be said to have a home. He served six months in the War of 1812, entering the ranks as a substitute. Although only sixteen years of age he was well grown, and his active life had made him muscular and hardy. As early as the year 1814 the young man engaged in the business of making, brick, which he followed for many years in Belpre, when not engaged upon the river. He was successively pilot, captain, and owner, and for many years combined the two latter functions. As a pilot he "learned the river" easily, and was regarded as one of the very best upon the western waters. In his later years, when he owned, either alone or in company with others, several steamboats, he made a great deal of money, but met with some reverses. In one case he lost a fine steamer outright, by the carelessness of employes during his absence. But the most remarkable of Captain Burch's misfortunes were those which occurred to him in person—accidents with which he met upon the river. He was four times blown up, yet, strange to say, except in the latest instance, his most serious inconvenience was the mere loss of situations by the destruction or disablement of the boats on which he was employed. The first experience that Captain Burch had in steamboat explosions was in June, 1816, when the Washington exploded her boiler at Marietta. Although this was a serious accident, and one in which several persons lost their lives, while others were injured, Captain Burch escaped unhurt. In 1817, however, he was slightly injured by the explosion of the Lawrence at Sugar Creek bend, below Cincinnati. The third miraculous escape was in 1819. Captain Burch was coming from St. Louis on the Kanawha, as pilot. Henry Fearing, of Harmar, was a passenger. When the boat was near the Guyandotte riffles her boiler exploded, and Captain Burch, who was upon the deck, immediately over it, was thrown a distance of nearly a hundred feet. He fell in the water and sustained no injury. In fact, he was able to assist a wounded man to the shore, and so save his life. In 1857, when the Harry Dean was blown up at Gallipolis, Captain Burch did not escape so luckily as he had in these former instances. He was frightfully injured, but his tough constitution, good medical attendance, and a very favorable condition of the weather, combined to restore him. The captain is a man of unusual strength and hardiness, and now, at the age of eighty-five years, retains his mental faculties and physical health in a very remarkable degree. He has led a retired life since 1857, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Iams.
Captain Burch was married February 8, 1821, to Nancy Whitney (daughter of Josiah Whitney), who was born in one of the old block-houses at Belpre, in 1798. She died December 7, 1855. Four children were the offspring of this marriage, viz: Lucy Amanda; Mary Whitney (Mrs. R. P. lams, of Marietta); Ellen Elosha, who married Henry Deming, of Watertown; and Sarah Frances, who married Robert A. Garrison, and lived at Ashland, Kentucky. Mrs. lams is the only one now living.
MARTIN DEWEY FOLLETT.
Martin Dewey Follett, esq., of Marietta, born in Franklin county, Vermont, is the son of John Fassett Follett,
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and grandson of Martin Dewey Follett. The family is an old New England one, some of its members having been prominent actors in the colonial movements and in the war of the Revolution. Captain John F. Follett removed from Vermont and settled in Licking county, Ohio, with his entire family, consisting of his wife and nine children. Of the six sons three are now engaged in the practice of law in Ohio; one of them, Judge Charles Follett, of Newark; another, Hon. John F. Follett, of Cincinnati; and the third, the subject of this sketch. Another son is Dr. Alfred Follett, of Granville, Ohio; and the others, George and Austin W. Follett, wool merchants in New York city.
Martin was but nine years of age when the family settled on an uncleared farm in a log cabin, where they lived until, by the labor of father and sons, a hundred acres had been cleared, a barn built, and a frame house, into which they removed. During this time he attended school or taught during the winters until he was twenty-one years of age. After this, having determined to se- sure a liberal education, he prepared for college, supporting himself meanwhile by his own labor, and in 1853 graduated at Marietta college, with the highest honors of his class. To defray expenses incurred in his course he engaged in teaching and taught in the public schools of Marietta, in Newark high school, and as tutor in Marietta college for one year, and was superintendent of the public schools of Marietta for two years, at the same time reading law.
He married in 1856 Miss Harriet L. Shipman, an old resident of Washington county. In 1875 he again married Abbie M. Bailey, of Lowell, Massachusetts. He has but two children living—both boys.
Mr. Follett was admitted to practice law at Marietta in the fall of 1858, and afterwards to the United States courts at Cincinnati. During his residence in Marietta, since 1851 (with the exception of one year in Newark), he has taken a deep interest in education in the city and county, holding for many years the position of president of the Washington County Teachers' association, and being for twelve years a member of the board of education of Marietta city.
Mr. Follett has been a member either of the Presbyterian or Congregational church since he was seventeen years of age, and is at present a member of the First Religious society (Congregational church) of Marietta, and a deacon of that body. He has served as Sabbath- school superintendent for the past three years, and occupied the same position in 857, 1858, and 859.
In 1879 Mr. Follett was sent by Governor Bishop as delegate from Ohio to the National conference of charties, which met in Chicago, and in 88o was sent by Governor Foster as delegate to the same body, which met at Cleveland; and at present he is counselor for Ohio of the National association for the protection of the insane and the prevention of insanity.
Mr. Follett represented this congressional district in the National Democratic convention of 1864, at Chicago, that nominated General George B. McClellan, for president. He was a candidate for Congress in 1866 and again in 1868. Both years he ran ahead of his party ticket in nearly every county in the district. In 1880 he was nominated by his party as a candidate for judge of the supreme court of Ohio.
HE continues in the practice of his profession in Marietta, with his elder son, A. Dewey Follett, as partner, and occupies the residence built by Governor Return Jonathan Meigs, which is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Muskingum river.
REV. DR. JOHN BOYD,
rector of the First Episcopal church of Marietta, is the son of John and Sarah (Pierce) Boyd, who emigrated from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in 1797. He located at first in Franklinton on the Scioto, opposite the site of the city of Columbus, but removed from there to Hillsborough, Highland county, two or three years later, and was the first physician in that place. The subject of our sketch was born in Hillsborough, December 6, 1823.
His youth was spent in his native town and in Gambier, Ohio. He finished his literary course at Kenyon college in 1844, and his health being poor, gave up for a time, intellectual work. As soon, however, as his condition had so improved as to make study possible, he went back and took a theological course, graduating from the seminary in 1850. On the fourth of August of that year, he was ordained at Mount Vernon, Ohio, by the Right Reverend Bishop Mcllvaine, and in the same summer he came to Marietta and began his labors with the church which still commands his services. His pastorate, which has extended through a period of thirty- one years, has been rich in rewards, and the church has prospered greatly under his charge. It was a young organization at the time Dr. Boyd became its rector, and small in membership. Now it is one of the most vigorous societies in the State. The length of Dr. Boyd's pastorate and the devotion of his energies to the church are remarkable. About 1870 he had a call to Trinity church of Columbus, which in all probability, had he been governed by personal ambition alone, he would have accepted. He refused the offer because, after careful deliberation, he felt satisfied that the field of his best influence was in Marietta, and with the church which at that time he had been ministering to for twenty years.
Dr. Boyd has been four times sent to the general conventions as representative of his diocese.
In the year 1845, Dr. Boyd was married to Eliza Sharpe, of Highland county, who is still living. They have had six children, four of whom are living.
REV. DR. WILLIAM ADDY,
the pastor of the Fourth Street Presbyterian church, of Marietta, was born in Montreal, Canada, August 11, 1836. He was a graduate from Union college, Schenectady, New York, in 1857, and from Union theological seminary, New York city, in 1861. He served his first
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pastorate at Windham, New York; removed to Franklin, in the same State, in 1866, and to Marietta in 1869. Most of the growth of the Fourth Street Presbyterian church has been made during the twelve years of Mr. Addy's labors, and it has been a growth of very considerable proportions. Mr. Addy has been, since 1879, a trustee of Marietta college. He was married December 25, 1866, to Mrs. Frances A. Barnes, of Franklin, New York.
REV. DR. T. H. HAWKS.
Dr. Hawks, pastor of the First Religious society (Congregational church) of Marietta, is a native of Charlemont, Massachusetts. He graduated from Williams' college in 1844, and from the Union theological seminary, in New York city, in 1851. His first pastoral charge was the Congregational church of West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he went immediately after graduating from the seminary. He was afterward located in Cleveland, Ohio, and since 1869 has been in Marietta, serving effectively his present society.
MAJOR JEWETT PALMER.
Jewett Palmer, third child of John Pemberton and Abigail Jewett Palmer, and father of the subject of our sketch, was born at Oxford, New Hampshire, May 8, 1797. He. enlisted at the age of sixteen, and served two years in the War of 1812. In 1818 he came to Ohio with his father's family, and with it settled in Fearing township, Washington county. Here, on the thirteenth day of March, 1822, he married Rachel Campbell, by whom he had eight children, each of whom lived to rear a family.
Jewett Palmer, youngest child of Jewett and Rachel (Campbell) Palmer, was born May 7, 1840, in Fearing township, Washington county. He is descended on the paternal side, from staunch old New England stock. The Palmers were among the early emigrants to New England, the head of this branch of the family being found at Rowley, Massachusetts, soon after the settlement of that place, in 1639. His ancestry on the maternal side is Scotch. William Campbell, his great grandfather, was born in Scotland, married there, emigrated to this country in 1766, and settled in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. His third child, William, was the father of Rachel Campbell, mother of our subject.
Jewett remained on the farm with his parents until his twentieth year, when he went to Chicot Pass, Louisiana, at which place he spent the winter of 1860-61, engaged in the lumbering business with a brother-in-law. During the winter political affairs grew more and more threatening, until, believing war to be inevitable, and desiring to be where he could cast in his lot with the defenders of the Union, he left, early in the spring of 1861, for Ohio. He arrived at his home in Salem, on the eleventh day of April. On the seventeenth, at Marietta, he enrolled himself as a recruit in Captain Frank Buell's company, afterwards company B, Eighteenth Ohio infantry, three months troops—this course seeming to afford the best opportunity of speedily getting into active service. At the expiration of its term of service, the regiment returned from the field the latter part of July, and disbanded at Marietta. On reaching home, he began recruiting a company for the Thirty-sixth Ohio infantry, then forming at Camp Putnam, Marietta, in which he was assisted by James Stanley, of Salem, a comrade in the three months service On the twelfth of August they went into camp with a company of ninety-eight men, recruited in eleven days. At an election of officers held on the nineteenth, he was unanimously chosen captain of the company. The regiment left for the field, via Parkersburgh, on the twenty-ninth, to join Rosecrans' forces on the Gauley river, in West Virginia. From this time his history and that of his company were substantially that of the offrcers and men of the gallant regiment, whose subsequent reputation for efficiency and valor was second to none in the armies of the Union.
He was promoted to major, to date from May 9, 1864; was severely wounded in the left thigh at Kernstown, Virginia, July 24th. On his return to the field, he lost a horse, shot under him while in temporary command of the regiment, moving to the front to repulse a recognizance, made in force by the enemy, at Cedar Creek. He participated in the famous battle of Cedar Creek on the nineteenth of October,--the last action in which the regiment took part. On the twenty-ninth of November he resigned his commission, and returned home.
In 1865 he was elected on the Republican ticket, clerk of the courts of Washington county, and was reelected in 1868. Declining a third nomination, he rementired from the office at the close of his second term.
On the nineteenth of September, 1866, he married Miss Saida M. Scott, only child of Theodore Scott, of Marietta.
During his second term as clerk, he entered upon the study of the law with Messrs. Ewart, Gear & Ewart, and in April, 1872, was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of the law at Marietta. In April, 1874, he was elected mayor of the city, and was reelected in 1876. He was chairman of the Republican central committee of Washington county during the years 1875-6, was one of the delegates from the fifteenth district of Ohio, to the National Republican convention, held in Cincinnati in May, 1876, and was one of Ohio's "Forty-four for Hayes," who stood by the governor, until he received the nomination. In November, 1877, he resigned the office of mayor, to accept the position of collector of internal revenue for the fifteenth district of Ohio, tendered him by President Hayes, which position he still holds.
GENERAL B. D. FEARING.
Benjamin Dana Fearing, the youngest son of Henry Fearing, esq., and Eliza Dana Fearing, was born at Harmar, Ohio, October 20, 1837. He is the grandson of Hon. Paul Fearing and Benjamin Dana, who was the son
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of John Winchester Dana and Hannah Pope Dana, the daughter of General Israel Putnam, and through his mother a lineal descendant of the fourth generation from General Israel Putnam. His early life was spent in his native place. He graduated at Marietta college in 1856, at the age of nineteen. During the five years following his graduation he was in business, first at Cincinnati and afterwards at Philadelphia. While on a visit to Cincinnati in the spring of 1861, news came of the firing upon Fort Sumter—then the call of the President for troops. There was a meeting of the citizens at the old stone church on Walnut Hills, to organize. He was at the meeting, and among the first to offer himself in response to the call of the President. The next day he selected from the companies being formed the one which he thought would soonest be ready, and telegraphed his father, "Have joined the Zouave guards. Leave for Columbus on eighteenth, at 6 A. M." The next day, the nineteenth of April, found him speeding away as fast as the iron horse could carry him to the fore-front of the battle. It seems a singular coincidence that 'twas on the same day of the same month, eighty-seven years before, that his ancestor, General Putnam, "left his plow in the furrow" and hurried off on flying hoof to Concord to repel the British and enter upon the war of the Revolution. Upon the organization of regiments at Harris- burgh, Pennsylvania, the Zouave guards became company D of the Second Ohio volunteer infantry. With this regiment they went to Washington, and thence into Virginia, under General Schenck. Here they remained, doing service until their term of enlistment had expired. They were then entitled to their discharge, but as a battle seemed impending they, by a unanimous vote, resolved to remain and share in it. On the day of the battle of Manasses they were detailed as skirmishers. At 4 o'clock A. M. they had brisk work with the enemy's cavalry, driving them over Cut run, and to the banks of Bull run where the line of battle was developed. In the subsequent events of the day, its wild and terrific experiences of battle, carnage, panic, rout and disaster they bore their full share.
During his three months service Fearing received his first promotion, being made forth corporal of his company. After the battle of Manasses the adjutancy of the Thirty-sixth Ohio was offered him by Hon. William P. Cutler, then member of Congress from his district. The offer was again pressed upon him at Columbus when being mustered out at Camp Chase, but was declined as he then expected to join the National guard regiment at Philadelphia.
He accompanied them into West Virginia, and there served in the double capacity of acting adjutant general to General Slemmer and as adjutant to Major Andrews, then in command of the Thirty-sixth. Here he remained for three months, devoting himself assiduously to the drill of officers and men, often spending eighteen hours a day in this service. The high standing this regiment subsequently attained was no doubt largely due to the drill and discipline learned in this their early campaign in West Virginia.
General Slemmer appreciating the value of his services, and recognizing his zeal and ability, recommended to the governor of Ohio, the appointment of Fearing to the colonelcy of the Thirty-sixth regiment. Major Andrews started for Columbus with the recommendation, but at the headquarters of General Rosecrans he was met by Captain George Cook of the Fourth regulars, who had already been appointed to the command of the regiment. Fearing continued acting as adjutant at Somerville with Colonel Cook until he received the appointment of major of the Seventy-seventh regiment Ohio volunteer infantry. He reported at once to Colonel Heildbud at Camp Putnam, and entered upon the duties of his command.
Immediately after the organization of this regiment, although as yet without equipments of any kind, it was transferred to Camp Dennison. The regiment had been in this camp but a short time when orders came from General Grant at Fort Donelson to "move at once and report to General Sherman at Paducah, Kentucky," and at the same time the inquiry "How soon?" The superior officers being absent Major Fearing replied, "In an hour;" and so prompt were his movements that his regiment was the first of all the nine ordered from Ohio to arrive at Paducah. He went thence with the main army up the Tennessee river.
While General Sherman was conducting an expedition for the destruction of railroad bridges near Iuka, Mississippi, a heavy shower flooded Yellow creek so as to render his return impossible. Fearing reported the danger and asked permission to build a bridge of boats. This was done with so much expedition and skill as to secure the highest commendation of his commander, and General Sherman ever afterwards "entrusted him with a large share of the bridging operations over railroads, over streams and in the construction of corduroy-roads through the great swamp lands."
At the battle of Pittsburgh Landing Colonel Hildebrand being in command of a brigade and the lieutenant colonel absent, the command of the regiment devolved upon the major. The regiment was stationed at Shiloh church, its line being across the main Corinth road. This Sherman regarded as the most important point of his position. Of this Fearing was aware and realizing the necessity of maintaining his post he held it with unyielding tenacity. The repeated charges of the enemy in their desperate efforts to capture Taylor's battery A, of Chicago, he repulsed with great gallantry, and thus held the battery till orders came for its withdrawal. The general commanding commended the regiment for its brave and determined maintenance of the position at the church, and for its gallantry in defence of the battery.
The official report of the brigade commander says: "Major Benjamin D. Fearing, who commanded the Seventy-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, was cool and brave, and acquitted himself with as much skill as an old officer of larger experience, and was not excelled by any other field officer who came within my observation."
Major E. C. Dawes, of the Fifty-third Ohio volunteer infantry, himself a participant in the fight, a gallant
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officer of cool and accurate judgment, writes: "I think the conduct of Major Fearing at Shiloh the most creditable to him and valuable to the cause of anything in his long service. The Seventy-seventh regiment held the key point in Sherman's first line of battle, and maintained this position long enough to enable McClernand's and Hulburt's divisions to get into action, and Major Fearing by his reckless personal courage held the Seventy- seventh regiment. The conduct of the major and of the Seventy-seventh regiment in that hell of fire has never been appreciated."
The casualties of the regiment, amounting in total to one hundred and sixty-eight officers and men killed and wounded, tells the story of its fighting. In the disasters which befell the regiment on the next day, the major was in a subordinate position, Lieutenant Colonel DeHass being then in command.
While at Fort Pickering after the capture of Corinth and return of the regiment to Memphis, Major Fearing received the appointment of lieutenant colonel of the Ninety-second regiment then being organized at Camp Putnam, Ohio. The first service of this regiment was in the Kanawha valley, where it had a "stirring period of marching and fighting."
In January, 1863, he joined the Army of the Cumberland at Nashville. In March he was made colonel of the regiment, Colonel Van Vorhes being compelled by sickness to resign. At Murfreesborough he was assigned to the Fourteenth army corps under General George H. Thomas. On the twenty-fourth of June he went to the relief of Wilder at Hoover's Gap. On the night of the eighteenth of September he made the march to Chickamauga. His regiment formed a part of the famous "Turchin's brigade" and with it passed through the terrible fighting on the nineteenth and twentieth. In this battle he was severely wounded, a minnie bill passing through the front part of his right and thick part of his left thigh. On the following day the enemy captured the hospital to which the wounded had been removed, but Colonel Fearing and four of his officers were saved by the coolness of his colored servant who carried them to an ambulance and drew them through a continuous fire to a point within the protection of our lines.
As soon as the condition of his wounds would admit of partial duty he was detailed upon courts-martial at Cincinnati and Louisville. During his absence his regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Putnam, a soldier and officer of spirit kindred to his own, made its memorable record in the storming of Mission Ridge. He returned to his regiment at Ringgold, Georgia, in March 1864. In May he went south, and with Turchin's brigade "fought through that wondrous campaign, a hundred days continuous fighting." He was in the "march to the sea." At Savannah, upon the recommendation of his corps commander, General J. C. Davis, he received a commission from President Lincoln as brigadier general by brevet, bearing date December 2, 1864, "for gallant and meritorious services during the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Savannah." He was assigned to the command of Colonel Daniel McCook's "fighting brigade," Second division Fourteenth army corps. At the battle of Bentonville when the enemy had broken the union left and centre, General Davis ordered General Fearing to move to the left and "check the enemy's advance," if it "cost him his whole brigade." The charge was glorious. The check was made. The action was terrible. Fearing's horse was shot under him, and a minnie ball tore away the thumb, the fore-finger, and part of his right hand. Van Horne, in summing up the history of the battle, says: "That the battle turned upon the action of the brigades of Mitchell, Vanderveer and Fearing, there can be no doubt. The two former did not give an inch of ground to the enemy, though thrown into single lines and compelled to fight in front and rear. The action of Fearing's brigade was not less important, as it disturbed and defeated General Johnston's combination to utilize for complete success his first advantage. General Fearing was brought in complete isolation for some time, without defences, and when his right flank was struck by the enemy with such force as to shatter it, he charged his front upon his left, rallied his shattered troops and held the ground essential to the stability of the new line. The latter dispositions and resistance by the whole command gave a symmetry and brilliancy to the conflict which have seldom found expression in such urgent improvision."
At the close of the war General Fearing was mustered out of the service at the age of twenty-seven years, having as a private taken part in the first, and as a commander of a brigade in the last, great battle of the war. He was offered the rank of major in the regular army, but declined. The battles in which he participated are memorable in the history of the war—Manasses, the battles of West Virginia, Shiloh, Catlin Mountain, Iuka, Corinth, Carthage, Hoover's Gap, Tullahoma, Catlit's Gap, Lane's Church, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Buzzard's Roost, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Etowah, Altoona Pass, Pine Knob, Kenesaw, Nicojack, Peach Tree Creek, Chattahoochee, Utoy Creek, Rough and Ready, Jonesborough, Atlanta, Savannah, through the Carolinas, Averysborough and Bentonville.
The biographical encyclopnaedia of Ohio says of the General: "As a field officer he was ever ready night or day for active service; was quick to seize upon all the salient points of a position for defence, attack or picket; was admirally careful in the selection of good camping ground; attended personally to the instruction and comfort of his troops; knew the men of his regiment by name, and also their qualities; possessed the ability which organizes rapidly and effectually in the camp or during action; was strict in discipline and under all circumstances was extremely wary in his measures to avoid surprises, while incessantly devising new measures to ensure the safety of his command; once engaged he never hesitated to expose it or himself, when extremities demanded a sacrifice."
For some years after the war, General Fearing was engaged in business in Cincinnati, but being compelled to withdraw from active labor, he returned to his old home
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in Harmar, where he now resides, devoting himself to literary pursuits, to his friends, and to caring for his health, still rendered precarious by the wounds of Chickamauga and Bentonville.
HIRAM LUTHER SIBLEY*
was born on a farm in Gustavus township, Trumbull county, Ohio, May 4, 1836. His immediate ancestry on both sides were of New England birth. The- mother, born at Colebrook, Connecticut, June 3, 1815, was the only daughter of Luther and Chene (Waters) Simons— the former born January 26, 1794, also at Colebrook, and the latter at Granville, in that State, July 22, 1795.
In early and middle life Mr. Simons was a farmer and school-teacher. After his daughter's birth he came to the Western Reserve, in Ohio. Joshua R. Giddings married a sister to his wife, and the families were long in intimate acquaintance.
For more than twenty years before his death, in consequence of an injury to the spine, Mr. Simons was unable to walk. Such, however, was his intellectual force and activity that, while prostrate in bed and suffering from incurable disease, he so mastered the science of medicine as to rank high in knowledge and skill with educated physicians of his time and place.
On the father's side the line is traceable to John Sibley, who came from England in the Fleet A. D. 1629, settling in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a selectman of that town, and went to the general court at Boston. His son Joseph, born in 1655, settled at Sutton, Massachusetts. Joseph's son Benjamin, born September 19, 1703, went to Connecticut, dying at Ashford, November 2, 1789. His last will contains these words: "I recommend my soul to God who gave it, my body to the dust, to be buried with decent Christian burial, nothing doubting but soul and body will be united at the last day, by the Almighty power of God."
Benjamin's son, Ezekiel, married May 3, 1753. From this union came a son, Ezekiel, born October 2, 1766. He went to the more fertile soil near Westfield, Massachusetts, where he reared a large family, the eldest of which, also named Ezekiel, was born August 27, 1789. Among the children of the latter was a son, Ezekiel, born at Westfield, Massachusetts, October 22, 1814. Not long after his birth the family removed to Genesee county, New York, and thence, about 1830, to Trumbull county, Ohio. There on the twenty-ninth of October, 1834, the younger Ezekiel married Phebe, the daughter, as stated above, of Luther and Chene Simons. The subject of this sketch was their first child.
In 1841, Ezekiel, jr., with his family, removed to Gallia county, Ohio, and in 1847 to Middleport, Meigs county. In 1855 he became a member of the Ohio conference, Methodist Episcopal church, with which body he is still connected, in active work.
Except home training, the early educational advantages of Hiram L. were limited to the common schools of the
* By O. B. Chapman, Pomeroy, Ohio.
time. At the age of thirteen he went to the trade of shoemaker. When sixteen, he got six months in a select school, earning enough in the shop, however, nights and mornings to pay for his tuition, board, and clothes. In 1856, another six months of school were added to those previously enjoyed. The winter following he taught his only term of school.
April 22, 1858, Mr. Sibley was married to Miss Esther Ann Ellis, eldest daughter of John R. and Elizabeth O. Ellis, of Racine, Meigs county, Ohio. From this union have come six children, three of whom are living—the oldest, William Giddings, graduating from Marietta college this year, 1881.
In the fall of 1858, Mr. Sibley, still working at his trade, began to spend his spare hours in the study of law. This continued until October, 86o, when he was elected clerk of the courts, for Meigs county, Ohio. During the canvas he was called upon to address a political club at Pomeroy. He spent the time in showing the position of the founders of the Government with respect to slavery, and especially as regards the doctrine that all men, regardless of race or color, are by nature equally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This principle, he claimed, affords the only justification for the Revolution, and of necessity, therefore, was declared by the "fathers," upon a clear apprehension of that fact. In this view, after referring to the almost absolute powers of the British parliament, and its assertion of the right to"bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever," the address said:
From this determination of the highest power to which they could resort, there was no appeal by any established forms of law. They might question its justice, and vehemently denounce the wrongs of its enforcement, as did Pitt; they might reason and philosophize upon its obvious impolicy, as did Burke; and in the eloquent, indignant sarcasm of Barre, they might hold up tne British government to the scorn and detestation of mankind, yet, as a question of mere legal and constitutional authority, with Lord Mansfield, they were compelled to admit its binding force upon them. Would it have answered the great end in view to assert—as Chief Justice Taney and Senator Douglas say they intended only to assert—the equal rights of white British subjects in America, with white British subjects in England? This, certainly, could avail them nothing, for the power which by existing law was the final arbiter, had declared against them. Their only hope therefore lay in resting their action upon some great principle, the assertion of which would justity them in rising above and resisting the long-established, lawful authority of the mother country. Our fathers saw and felt their peculiar situation. They appreciated the critical position in which they stood. Clearly comprehending the vast responsibilities resting upon them, conscious that every other resource had been tried only to meet with disheartening failure, were they not compelled to declare the natural right of every human being to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as the only doctrine upou which they could appeal to God for support, in resistance to tyranny, and with which they could justify their action before the judgement-bar of human opinion.
Mr. Sibley entered upon the duties of his office as clerk February 12, 1861, continuing, however, the study of law. The opening events of the Rebellion came quickly on. He was often called upon to speak at Union meetings, and in gatherings to call for volunteers. In August, 1862, feeling unwilling longer to ask others to go without entering the service himself, he accepted a second lieutenant's commission, dated the twelfth of that month, and helped enlist a body of men, who became
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
company B, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio volunteer infantry, going to camp at Marietta, Ohio. Mr. Sibley soon after resigned the office of clerk, and went with his regiment into West Virginia, as part of Major General R. H. Milroy's command. From November to April, 863, Lieutenant Sibley, in the absence of the regimental adjutant, was detailed to act in his place. In the latter month, also, he was recommended by the officers of his regiment for provost marshal of the Fifteenth congressional district of Ohio. The matter coming to General Milroy's attention, he wrote a letter to the provost marshal general saying:
I have known Lieutenant Sibley for the last six months, while with his regiment in my command, and have observed tnat he is an able, energetic, and efficient officer—always prompt and attentive to duty— a true gentleman of high moral character, and excellent business talents and habits. He is just the man for provost marshal—who will deal promptly with deserters and other delinquents—and I should be pleased to see him get the position.
Mr. Sibley, with the regiment, was first under fire, at Moorfield, West Virginia, early in January, 1863. Most of the winter was spent at Romney, he doing the work of judge advocate in a court martial. In March the regiment moved to Winchester, Virginia. Here Mr. Sibley was appointed recorder of a military commission. While thus engaged he was prostrated with fever. Getting out for the first time, he was asking to be relieved from the commission, because of ill health, when the post was attacked by the advance of Lee's army, then on its way north. Too feeble to walk, he rode from the hospital to camp and joined his company. The regiment was not engaged until Monday, June 15th, when in retreat, three miles north of Winchester. In battle there, with part of his regiment, and about half of the command, he was made a prisoner of war. June 23rd, suffering still from sickness, Lieutenant Sibley entered the noted Libby prison, in Richmond, Virginia, where he remained until May 7, 1864, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia, and thence to Macon, Georgia, which place he reached May 17th. The last of July he went to Savannah, and on the thirteenth of September to Charleston, South Carolina, where, with other prisoners, he was placed under fire; that is, in the "shelled district" of the city, within range of the Union guns bombarding it. In this situation they remained until October 5th, when they were carried to Columbia, South Carolina, and located near the city in what became known as Camp Sorghum. December 10, 1864, in Charleston harbor, Lieutenant Sibley was exchanged. But his health was so broken by the semi-starvation and other hardships of his long imprisonment, that, in consequence of disability, he was honorably discharged, January 11, 1865. While a prisoner, Governor Brough had commissioned him first lieutenant.
April 54, 1865, Mr. Sibley was admitted to the bar at Pomeroy, Ohio. The next summer he did a few weeks' work as assistant assessor of internal revenue. This led to a position in the office of the district assessor at Marietta, Ohio, to which place Mr. Sibley removed in August, 1865. At the end of a year there, he began the practice of law, as one of the firm of Ewart, Shaw & Sibley. In 1867 he was nominated by the Republicans of Washington county as their candidate for prosecuting attorney. The question of negro suffrage was in issue. While a prisoner in Libby, Mr. Sibley had led a protracted and exciting debate in favor of giving the ballot to the colored man, and he heartily entered this canvas for the same proposition. But on a close vote the county was lost, and he was defeated. During the fall he delivered a speech which, on request, was written out for publication. We extract a few passages. After referring to the riot and bloodshed in the south, since the war, he said:
During such a deplorable condition of things, Congress assembled in December, 1866. The great problem of the session was still that of reconstruction. After much deliberation they framed the present plan. It has two features; the first is temporary, the other permanent. For the time being the Nation protects its loyal sons from rebel outrage, by the strong arm of military power. But in the nature of things this cannot be permanent. Military government, except as a necessity limited by the occasion, is incompatible with the genius of our Constitution, and the spirit of our free institutions. Some other mode must tnerefore be devised, by which, in accordance with the fundamental principle of self-government, the spirit of rebellion might be broken, the duty of loyalty cherished, and patriots everywhere protected in all the rights of American citizens. By what means could these ends be accomplished? Only, I answer, by the great protective power of free institutions everywhere—the ballot. By rebel proscription, under Johnsons’ policy, the large majority of Union men in the rebellious States, were denied the elective franchise. And by this alone, traitors ruled in those States. Hence, the permanent feature of the present plan, by which the southern patriot, black as well as white, is armed with the mighty power of the ballot. Thus military power was rendered but temporarily necessary in the south, and thus negro suffrage wisely became the mode of reconstructing the rebellious States upon aloyal basis, in the strictest accordance with the American idea of self-government.
Coming to the suffrage question in Ohio, he further said:
I do not hesitate to declare warmly in favor of striking the word white from our State constitution. It is demanded alike by the principles of free government, and by sound policy in the public administrations of the State. Political injustice is ever the ground of discord, and a perennial source of trouble. Hence to remove all difficulty—to put the "nigger question" forever at rest in our borders—as well as to conform our fundamental law to the idea of self-government, I approve and shall vote for the change. . . We tax negroes as other people. They fight for the country like white folks. They were everywhere brave soldiers, noble and true, who never faltered on any of the bloody fields where their lives were given, and their bones lie moldering with those of white comrades who fell with them, to "save us a nation." After calling for the help and accepting the aid of the colored citizens of Ohio, after putting upon them all the burdens of taxation that white men endure; can we draw a line of right between them and ourselves, and claim the ballot for our protection as men, while we refuse it to them? I think not.
Touching the subject of taxing United States bonds, this was said:
The fact is the Union party has upon this point followed in the footsteps of every administration that ever sold a National bond, and its action is sanctioned by precedents old and uniform, from nearly every Democratic administration in our history. Hence, if wrong here, it became so in following in the well-beaten tracks of all the old Democratic parties of the country. In pursuing this uniform policy of the Government, at the time these bonds were issued, I think the Union party acted wisely. Union statesmen, however, were sagacious enough to issue these bonds upon as short periods as would be at all compatible with National credit, so that when our day of triumph came—when National unity was established—when the Nation should be able thoroughly to organize and to handle its debt—the maturing bonds might be called in and replaced by a different issue, made subject to local or National taxation, or at a reduced rate of interest which would be equivalent to taxation.
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Late in 1867 Mr. Sibley and Hon. R. L. Nye formed a law firm which continued till 1869, when ill health compelled the former to retire. But health returning he resumed practice at Pomeroy, Ohio, in the fall of 1870, as one of the partnership of Paine & Sibley. Shortly prior to this, in response to an invitation of the Teachers' institute in Meigs county, he delivered an address upon the "Nature and True End of Education," which, by request of his hearers, was published. On the first branch of the subject, in summary view, this was said:
Bearing in mind now the distinctions made, separating from education the knowledge which is ever its genial companion, the system of motherly discipline under which it is obtained, the exhilerating mental activity without which it could not be born, and tracing it as an idea to its metaphysical root, we affirm it to be, in its essential nature, simply the volume of disciplined mental power, the aggregate of trained intellectual ability, called forth by the various agencies of the educational course, 1n this view the activities, learning, and dicipline of the curriculum are onry so many instruments used for the attainment of the great result. The enlarged, cultivated capacity evolved through these instrumentalities is the end to which they stand in the relation of means, and to reaching which it is their purpose to contribute. Education itself soars far higher than the learning of the books, its gaze reaches beyond the intellectual gymnastics of the schools. These are but favorable conditions for it, the shell in which its life begins, but out of which it breaks in fully entering upon its own career.
As to the true end of education we have this:
In virtue of a law penetrating to the centre of his being, fora man habitually to exert his powers for self alone, is moral debasement, spiritual defilement, and death. Selfishness is a malignant cancer in the best impulses and tenderest affections of the heart, a fatal blight upon the noblest desires and holiest aspirations of the soul. Like a darkness that can be felt, unress dispelled by the light and power of rove, it settles down upon the spirit, enshrouding it from the healthful, life-giving influences of goodness, and shutting up the soul to die from moral and spiritual inanition. Under this general law of his constitution, therefore, man is forbidden the use of the power of education for self alone. Hence, considered with exclusive reference to its subject, the true end of culture reaches beyond himself, and shrivelling moral and spiritual death confront him as the divinely ordained penalty for cripping the wings of education until its powers and ends are cooped in the narrow limits of his own soul. . . Wherever Christian thought has penetrated, and the best results of philosophical inquiry are known, the oneness of our race in nature and general capability is recognized and believed. Out of the notion of common endowment, and the idea of unity in origin, arises the conception of the brotherhood and social nature of man, with all their sequences of mutual obligations and duties, in virtue of which, if we live in obedience to the law of our being, we necessarily become reciprocating co-workers for the common good. Alike, therefore, upon the principles of philosophy snd Christianity, every one stands in correlated obligation with all his fellows to use his various abilities and powers for others as well as himself, so long as he remains a subject of social relations. . . . The educated man, as a member of society, by virtue of his moral constitution, is imperatively bound to use his culture for the elevation of his kind. He is to raise up those bowed down in ignorance, to establish the weak in knowledge, to open the eyes of the blind to truth, to aid in breaking the power and dominion of passion, and keep in the work of dispelling the thick clouds of prejudice that everywhere overshadow the uneducated mind. In brief, he is to consecrate his culture to the doing of good, and exalt it thereby into an instrumentality of human progress. Here the true social and individual ends of education meet as brethren to dwell "together in unity."
About this time, also, Mr, Sibley published some essays upon the constitutional law of Ohio respecting religious liberty. Looking back of the conceded rights of conscience to the principle upon which they depend, its true statement was considered to be this:
That before the State, or in the eye of the law, one man’s convictions, beliefs, or faith, in regard to any and all matters of religion, are equally sacred with every other man’s, no matter what their nature or character may be, and, therefore, with all other convictions, beliefs, or faiths, equally entitled to the protection of the law, and to the respect of the State authorities. This imports absolute equality before the raw in all matters of 1eligion, and utter independence of State authority as to religious convictions, beliefs, or faiths.
Passing then to a discussion on the rights of conscience, he said:
I.—What is a "Right of conscience," in the sense of our Constitution? We answer-
1. The right to entertain any opinion, conviction or faith, whatever, in regard to morality or religion, without question or molestation.
2. The right, also, to act in accordance with the opinion, conviction or faith entertained, so long as the conduct is consistent with an equal right in all others, and is not palpably destructive of social order.
II.—As to the condition of the citizen with reference to these rights, we affirm-
1. That in matters of conscience all persons are equal before the law.
2. And are entitled to full and adequate protection therein.
III. —The power and duty of the State in the premises, is-
1. To extend to every citizen the protection to which he is entitled, in the exercise of his rights of conscience.
2. Beyond that, to refrain from any interference whatever, in matters of conscience,
These propositions seem to us so nearly self-evident that we support them only by a reference to section seven, article 1, of our Constitution. That section, in its first clause, embodies the principle of our definition of the rights of conscience, and of the equality of all therein, by declaring the natural, indefeasible right of all men to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. This idea is fundamental in the controversy—is, indeed, the very tap-root of religious liberty. Logically following it, also, are certain restrictions upon the power of the State, which, if observed, renders its intervention in any matter of conscience; except to protect the citizen where his rights are assailed, morally impossible. No person can be compelled to support any form or place of worship, against his consent, " nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted." Finally, the General Assembly is directed to pass suitable laws for the protection of all religious denominations, in their chosen forms of worship. Hence, in view of these considerations, we feel justified in regarding the following as a correct altnough summary statement of the doctrines of our Constitution upon this question, viz.:
"That in rights of conscience all persons are equal, whether they be Christians, Jews, or Pagans; the State can interfere in no matter of conscience, except for the sole purpose of affording protection when its rights are assailed; and that all matters of religious belief, and of conduct in accord therewith, not inconsistent with equal rights in others, nor manifestly dangerous to society, are included in rights of conscience, and are legally open to every person in virtue of his religious freedom."
Finally in answer to a critic, was the following :
Your fallacy is, in confounding every conviction of conscience with a right of conscience. These are not always convertible. Either may exist in the absence of the other. A right of conscience, in legal and constitutional sense, is the right to entertain any opinion whatever, in regard to religion or morality, without question, and to act in accordance therewith, so long as the conduct is consistent with an equal right in all others, and not palpably destructive of social order. These rights the State obligates itself in the constitution to protect. Hence, when the conviction of conscience coincides witn the rights of conscience, the wgis of the constitution is thrown around it, but not otherwise. This distinction will dissipate a thousand sophistries, grounded upon a tacit assumption of the necessary and unvarying identity of a conviction with a right of conscience.
In April, 1874, Mr. Sibley returned to Marietta, and became one of the law firm of Ewart & Sibley. The summer following he discussed the, "license question," as connected with the adoption of the proposed new constitution. We quote:
To license an act is (1) to consent to and authorized; (a) to consent to and authorize the probable consequences of the act. Hence, a
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
license to sell intoxicating liquors, for common drinking as a beverage, is a consent to, and authorization of such sales, together with their usual and probable consequences. . . Another usual and probable consequence of selling liquor for common drinking, even to adults who are not habitual drunkards, is vice and crime. These cancerous sores upon the body politic radiate from the liquor traffic as their focal centre. They are so interwoven with the abominable business as practically to be inseparable, if they do not, indeed, coexist in the relation of effect to cause. Hence, so long as the liquor traffic continues vice and crime will remain—its natural, necessary concomitants, Therefore, to license it, is to consent to and authorize festering nurseries of vice and crime all over the State. . . . But, as clinching the pro-license argument, it is stated that free trade in liquors, within certain limits, now in fact exists. But how? We say by sufferance, merely; for lack of a public sentiment sufficiently powerful to destroy it. But what does license propose but to surround this practical free trade with the affirmative sanction of law? Any bond that license might exact from the liquor seller can be had now, by simply enacting the law requiring it, before he can begin selling at all. Every mill of tax that a license would bring may be levied by an excise, if the legislature so direct. Hence, all the fancied " responsibility" of the liquor seller, under the license system, about which its advocates prate so much, is equally attainabre under the no-license plan. The failure to burden the liquor traffic with special taxation, and bonds against illegal sales, is not from rack of power in the legislature, for that already exists, but because of unwillingness to exercise the power.
Mr. Sibley published an article on the questions connected with counting the electoral vote of 1876. After discussing what a counting imports, and the election of a president by the electors, he comes to the question of his election by the house of representatives. We extract this :
The exact point in issue is whether it rests with the State, or the house of representatives finally to determine the validity of an appointment of certain persons as electors. No express restriction upon the broad power to appoint electors, in any manner the legislature of State may direct, is found in the constitution. Nor is it qualified by necessary implication, unless in the right of the house to elect, in the one contingency, which will be noticed hereafter. Nevertheless, it is urged, that while the State appoints, the house is the final arbiter of the legal validity of the appointment of electors, under the laws of the State by which it is made. The grant is of the exclusive power, to the State, or rather, it is a declaration of power in the States which had never been conferred upon any department of the National government, a specification of power not delegated, and therefore reserved to the States 1espectively. Does it include the authority not onry to make the appointments in question, but also the right conclusively to determine their validity for all purposes ulterior to that fact? Argument seems inadequate to make tne proposition clearer than the fair import of the words of the constitution itself. The whole matter is referred to the State authorities. All regulations respecting the appointment of electors, except as to the day when made, and the disqualification of members of Congress, and others, for the position, are left to them. Had it been intended to vest in Congress the power to say whether or not the act of a State in appointing electors, conforms to its own laws—thus, in effect, making the assent of that body necessary to a regal appointment—some hint, at least, of so important an authority should be found in the constitution. But it is said that the house elects the President, in a certain contingency, and therefore it must determine when its right arises. But how? The answer to this requires one to follow the plain provisions of the constitution.
The appointment of electors by a State, is conclusive of their right to represent the State in the electoral college, The duties of their office are to vote for a president and vice-president, and to make, certify, and transmit, to certain officers, including the president of the United States senate, lists of these votes. The votes thus certified, the president of the senate is to open in the presence of the senate and house, when they "shall be counted." If upon the counting ol these votes no person has the majority required to an election in that mode then—and not till then—" from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, tne house of representatives shall choose immediately the President." Hence, if it obeys the constitution, the house decides upon its right to elect, sole- ly by the result of a count—the simple enumeration--of the votes of electors certified to the president of the senate,:and opened, by him in the presence of both houses. And this is all there is in the decision the house is to make. Certainly, by no necessary :implication does it involve the power to question the act of the State in appointing its electors —to declare the action of those officers void because of defects in their appointment, when the vice, if it existed, would be incurable—thus disfranchising the State, and drawing to the house alone the power it otherwise could not have—to elect the President.
So far, for the sake of clearness, and in order to show in strong light what are conceived to be the principles which should guide in this matter, the discussion has been confined to the assumed case of one set of electors, in each State, who, iu formal compliance with the raw of legitimate local government are accredited as such. Upon the state of facts this presupposed, the case is plain, on the theory of action set out. Furthermore, with these doctrines distinctly in mind, one is in position to consider other ;possible cases, which, in entire harmony therewith, may open to Congress, within certain limits, defined by the nature of each particular case, the right to inquire respecting the appointment of electors, and their action in voting for a President. For example, suppose what purports to be the votes of two sets of electors from one State are certified and transmitted to the President of the senate, in due form of law, and that the election of a President by the electors, turns upon the votes of that State. • • This condition of affairs is probable only when there is the formal existence of two state governments, as during the Dorr rebellion in Rhode 1sland, or the possible case, in view of the rate war, of a legal and insurrectionary government in the same State. • • For the purpose of ascertaining whether or not a lawful State government in fact had accredited certain persons as electors, where that is in doubt, and the genuineness of the votes certified as theirs, on the states of fact suggested, Congress would, we think, be authorized to look behind the certificates transmitted to the president of the senate. Evidently, however, the power arises ex-necessitate, and therefore upon principles perfectly settled. The extent of the inquiry it authorizes will be limited strictly by circumstances which gave it birth, and the end it is to sub- serve. Hence, in all cases, when the vote of a set of electors in fact appointed by the recognized lawful State government, is ascertained, the utmost limit of this extraordinary inquiry is reached, and the power that authorized it is exhausted. Confusion has worked into the discussion of this question, and the true principle of action has been clouded, in consequence of not distinguishing, upon the basis of their essentially different states of fact, the cases where Congress may look beyond the certificates of votes returned, and the ordinary one in which it cannot.
Upon the occasion of decorating the graves of Union soldiers at Marietta, Ohio, in May, 1877, Mr. Sibley wrote an address which was published, and from which we extract the following:
But with emotions aroused by the memories with which the associations of the hour come trooping upon us, may we not examine for a few moments the grounds of the honors we are paying our fallen brothers? Not everyone who dies deserves even to be remembered. There is a deep philosophy implied by the assertion that the "way of the wicked shall perish." . . Truly estimated, the wars and quarrels of kings and potentates, entitled to a place in history rank but little above the petty contentions of school-boy strife, except as they involve a question of public right or affect the interesls and welfare of communities and States.
We must not forget that rectitude is an inseparable element of true greatness. Doing right in the hour of supreme trial, at the greatest possible cost, has gradually come to embody our noblest conception of real heroism—the most exalted ideal of moral perfection in character—which, as in themselves a permanent power for good, through their influence upon mankind, justly entitle one thus worthy to high historic honors. The act performed may not seem to be intrinsically great; no more, perhaps, than that some poor widOw gives the last pittance she possesses, and which appears as her only earthly support, for the good of others. Or it is the noble deed of a common soldier, who with heroic purpose in itself sublime, and which shall be an inspiration to patriots for all time—
"Made way for Liberty, and died."
Yet history will preserve remembrance of names like these, and poetry embalm their acts in song, when the Alexanders, with all the
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
army of tyrants who scrupled not to "wade through slaughter to a throne," shall be forgotten!
Wno noble ends by noble means obtains,
Like good Aurelius let nim reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.
Our proposition is that the great act is of necessity a right act. Putting the other side of the truth here, wrong action, however abre or brilliant in daring and genius, tested by the highest criterion, racks an indispensable element of true greatness and one link in a title to the first honors of history. For a time, we agree, transcendent powers devoted to bad ends may excite admiration and secure a measure of renown. There is almost a fascination in the great poet's picture of the angel fallen, "who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." The frightful audacity of the act inspires a degree of respect for the dauntless courage which dared to undertake it. And thus it is, we presume, as to the homage paid certain characters in history, many of whose most famous deeds are in fact great crimes, but as the years roll on the meteoric splendor of wicked actions pales and fades. Later generations, aided by better and more elevated ideas of the end of life, estimate the fame of those whose names and acts come down to them, nearer their real value. By the operation of the laws of our moral being, we come to assign the honors of history not merely to great abilities or wondrous success in what men undertake, but more to the royal qualities found in intrepid uprightness of character— the genius for being right as well as able and successful in the affairs of life. The fond remembrances and spontaneous honors of generations to come will be more and more largely reserved for the real benefactors of the race, and for him who, when thrust into the furnace of some fiery trial or facing some mighty temptation, shall be found—
Among the faithless, faithful ' ;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified ;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from the truth.
We linger not to argue the righteousness of the cause in maintaining which these soldiers fell. The result of the dread ordeal of battle, to whose final arbitrament the south in frenzy appealed, and the nearly unanimous judgment of civilization, concur at this point; and we have no reason to think that posterity will not confirm their verdict.
It is right here, however, in the application of the principle we have endeavored to present and illustrate, that we touch upon the real grounds of distinction in the honors which history will confer upon the brave men who fell on opposing sides in this terrible struggle. They were all Americans. Speaking in general terms, both armies were equally heroic in the field. Upon the whole, perhaps their leaders will not be found to differ largely in military genius and skill. Yet the proud record of those who fought for the American Union, and human liberty, will shine in ever increasing brightness and glory when compared with that of our equally gallant countrymen behind whose line of battle were the flag of disunion and the clanking chains of slavery. Those who followed the nation's "banner of beauty and glory" were allied by their cause to the most exalted aspirations and hopes of the future, and consequently were fighting a battle for the elevation and progress of the race. Government by the people, for the people, was inwrapped with their success. On the other side was the principle of civil disintegration, the fact of human bondage—iron links which bound our brave but erring fellow-citizens to the dead body of a barbaric past. In truth, the Lost Cause was lost before its fight with arms began. The thing itself—disruption and slavery—was an anachronism. judged by the Moral sense of mankind, as well as the law of the land, the attempt to sustain it by war was a crime. The spirit of the age, the conclusions of the best political thought, and the high demands of the immediate future were all in league against this cause. It received no sympathy, and was entitled to none, from the toiling millions of civilization, but only the deceptive, baleful, friendship of tottering despots', or aristocracies whose very foundations were crumbling under pressure of the great ideas of popular government. Hence, though we saw it not, if faithful to our duty, the success of this cause was from the beginning impossible. NO human genius or bravery could save it. And for the same reasons the heroism of those who fell, its devoted victims in the carnage of battle, cannot lift them to the position in history forever to be occupied by the soldiers of "Liberty and Union," who in the mighty conflict "perished for the Right."
In the summer of 877, by a decisive majority of the Republican convention of Washington county, Mr. Sibley was declared its candidate for common pleas judge. His competitor, however, not abiding by the action of the convention, as it was supposed and implied by the circumstances that he would do, when the matter was submitted to its decision, in a triangular contest going to the fifty-eighth ballot, Mr. Sibley was defeated in the nomination, by a close vote, in the District convention.
At its-annual commencement for 1878, Marietta college conferred upon Mr. Sibley the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Excepting the period of his army service, and a season of bad health, Mr, Sibley on the stump has advocated the principles of the Republican party in every year from 856 to 88o, inclusive. During the late Presidential canvas he delivered a speech at Pomeroy, Ohio, which was published on request of gentlemen hearing it, and from which we extract a few passages:
The doctrines of State rights, or, more properly, State supremacy, as against the power and authority of the National Government, under the Constitution, have been in contest ever since that instrument was before our people for ratification. They constituted, indeed, the chief ground of opposition to its adoption; and when that could not be pre- vented, became the basis first of personal effort and then of party organization, designed by narrow and false constructions of the Constitution to emasculate the National Government of its legitimate powers and authority. The country was fortunate, however, from the first, in having able statesmen of National views, to combat the notions of State supremacy, declared by some, and point out the consequences of their general acceptance
But it is to the administrations of Washington that the country is most deeply indebted for the assertion and practical establishment of the powers and authority of the General Government upon the National principles embodied in the constitution. The laws enacted by Congress during that period provided for a National judiciary invested with the power of final, authoritative decision, in all cases at law or in equity, arising under the constitution itself, the laws of Congress, and treaties made by the Nation. They also armed the President with the authority and means of performing his sworn duty to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution," and of taking "care that the laws be faithfully executed." Moreover, as a matter of wise policy, Washington, against the bitter opposition of the State Rights school of his time, made the National constitution and laws supreme in fact, as they were in legal theory, by crushing, with military force, in 794, armed resistance to them in what is familiarly known as the Whiskey Insurrection of Western Pennsylvania. It was during this contest, felt at the time to be a crucial one between the friends of the constitution and the partizans of State Rights, that in answer to the suggestion in some way to "influence" the insurgents to submission, instead of compelling obedience to the laws, Washington expressed a truth of profound and vital import, upon which he also acted, by declaring that "influence is not government." Before his retirement from the Presidency, therefore, the true theory of the constitution and of National power had become essentially settled, not only in the letter of law, but in the vastly higher efficiency of its actual enforcement by the combined civil and military powe1 of the people acting in National capacity. The result was a second and most signal defeat of the advocates of State rights, or Slate supremacy, the first having been in the adoption of the constitution by the people. At a later period the same principles respecting the National authority and power were emphatically asserted and acted upon by the Supreme Courl of the United States, through the great Chief Justices Jay and Marshall; were sanctioned and carried into execution with patriotic vigor by the prompt, decisive action of Jackson in his conflict with State rights, as nurlification; and were made clear and intelligible, and thus immensely strengthened in the popular mind, through the masterly expositions of Webster. Thus vitalized, they from time to time overcame the "poritical heresy" of State supremacy, even when supported by the name and fame of Jefferson, the acute and subtle argument of Calhoun, the influence of a great party organization, and, finally, by an armed rebellion of unprecedented magnitude and power. Whether these principles, so potent for good in the past, can be made efficient to protect the citizen and preserve
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a pure and free balrot in National elections, as against open fraud, intimidation and murderous violence, under cover of State rights, is the great question now dividing the Republican and Democratic parties, and yet to be settled by the political action of the people.
John C. Calhoun may justly be characterized as eminently the metaphysician of our politics. Beginning public life as a politician rather of National than narrow State rights views, the circumstances of his political career finally carried him over to the full acceptance, and elaborate exposition and advocacy of the Jeffersonian dogmas of State supremacy. To comprehend the public life of this distinguished leader of political thought, one must understand that in the latter part of his public career he was wholly devoted to two objects—the perpetuation of slavery in the south, and the maintenance of southern control in the government of the nation. This, of course, made him what his public action in later life shows him to have been—an extreme section_ alist and bitter enemy to the idea of universal human freedom. In 1816 he had been favorable to and had voted for a protective tariff; but in 1832 the scheme of tariff protection to American industry had become in his opinion not only unwise and impolitic, but clearly unconstitutional. The secret of the change is easy to penetrate. Calhoun had the sagacity to see that the south, with its system of slave labor, could never successfully engage in manufactures, and that, aided by the protective system, the north would inevitably outstrip her in the closely contested race between the two sections for population, wealth, and poplitical ascendancy. Regardless of personal consistency or party relations, therefore, he attacked the idea of protection, and as a means of securing its defeat by the power of a single State, planted himself firmly upon the principles of State supremacy untruly termed State tights. On the tariff question, as we all know, he failed. Old Hickory even drove him into a corner, where he was compelled to vote for a tariff to save being arrested and tried for treason. But with the sagacity of one born to lead, and a courage which snatches victory front the very jaws of defeat, Calhoun suddenly changed his line of battle and organized a "Solid South" for negro slavery and southern sectional control of the Nation; or, in the alternative of failure in the lalter point, secession and a confederacy of slave-holding States.
No man more thoroughly understood the power of political ideas in the government of this country than Calhoun. At once, therefore, he set about the work of indoctrinating tne people with the notion that negro slavery was rignt, and the Democratic party with the principles of State supremacy. The labors of this great but misguided man in wnich his life was literally worn away, are not more astonishing in the magnitude of what, for the benefit of southern sectionalism and slavery, he undertook, than in the extraordinary measure of his .success. He ultimately broke down the scheme of protection which Henry Clay had fondly called the American system; he compelled the great parties of his day to bow in abject submission at the feet of the slave power, and pledge resistence to northern discussion of the sin and crime of slavery, and barely missed seeing nis most signal triumph in the adoption by the "Jackson Democracy" of lhose very principles of State supremacy which the old hero had put his foot upon, with such crushing effect, in 1830-32.
With the exception of one year Mr. Sibley has been in full practice as a lawyer since 1866. He has gained a high position at the bar in the counties where he has practiced, and, we believe, commands the respect of his legal brethren for ability, learning, and personal and professional integrity and honor. He has written arguments in a number of important cases in the supreme court of Ohio, and has appeared in oral and written arguments before the United States courts of the State. In a letter now before us, his powers are thus estimated by a distinguished member of the legal profession, who has known Mr. Sibley well ever since he began practice:
As a lawyer he is possessed of an unusual degree of aptitude for the analysis of complicated facts, and a very happy faculty of lucidly stating them. He readily masters legal principles, and is logical and accurate in their application. His style of composition is terse, chaste, and accurate. He is master of good English, in the true sense; that is, he uses good words, and no more of them than is necessary.
We merely add that Mr. Sibley is a forcible public speaker, but one who aims at clearness of statement and logical method rather than rhetorical display.
Since 1856 Mr. Sibley has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for ten years past has held the local relation therein. In 867 he was the delegate from Marietta to the international convention of Young Men's Christian associations at Detroit, Michigan. By the Ohio conference of 1879 he was elected alternate lay delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church for 1880. He is now the head of the law firm of Sibley & Ewart, Marietta, Ohio.
HON. THOMAS WATSON MOORE.
The subject of this sketch was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1825. His father, Joseph, was a well-to-do farmer of the region, and his mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Watson, sprang from a race of quiet but thrifty farmers of the same region. At the age of seventeen, young Thomas resolved to quit the life of farmer, and accordingly went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he engaged himself to the firm of J. B. Warden & Co., machine builders, and began to learn the trade of an engine forger. He served as an apprentice in the shops of this firm for four years, and then, his task being completed, he was employed by Messrs. Warden & Co. as a journeyman. In this capacity he served for the next two years, at the expiration of which he engaged as engineer on the steamer Northern Light, then plying between St. Louis and New Orleans. Remaining as an engineer on the Northern Light for a year, he next engaged in a like capacity on the Pennsylvania, a fine passenger steamer plying from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. In this position he remained only about a year, when he abandoned this kind of life and determined to engage in business on the land.
Within a year after completing his trade as an engine forger and while yet employed by Messrs. J. B. Warden & Co., Mr. Moore married, taking as his wife Margaret McClelland, of Pittsburgh. In January, 1850, this lady died, leaving two children: Mary, aged two years, and Margaret, but a few weeks old. These children lived bat a few years, Mary being three, and Margaret six years old when they died.
In the fall of 1849, a short time previous to the death of his first wife, Mr. Moore, by industry and frugality, having saved some twelve hundred dollars out of his earnings, came to Warren township, Washington county, Ohio, and invested the entire amount of his savings in a farm near what is now known as Tunnel Station, on the Old Line railroad. In April, 1850, Mr. Moore removed with his two children from Allegheny to his new purchase, and for the next four years engaged in farming and in buying and selling stock.
In April, 1853, Mr. Moore married a second time, taking as his wife Mary Green, daughter of Caleb Green, esq., of Washington county. As a result of this marriage, three children were born. The eldest,
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Julia Fremont, was born in August, 1856; she is now the wife of F. M. Reed, esq., the business partner of Colonel Moore, and is the mother of one child, Gertie May. Rowena Green was born in November, 1858, and Flora Rebecca in March, 1864. The last two are yet unmarried.
In 1854, when the construction of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad was in progress, Mr. Moore removed from his farm to the line of the road, and built what is now known as Tunnel station and a dwelling house adjoining. Here he opened out a line of general merchandise, and at the same time took a contract from thel railroad company. He remained here selling goods and filling out contracts for the railroad company until 1858. During these years Mr. Moore held a number of local offices, serving as justice of the peace for seven years in succession.
In 1858, he took a contract for constructing a tunnel near White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, on what is now known as the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad. At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, this work was still uncompleted, but Mr. Moore, foreseeing the difficulties likely to be met by an uncompromising Union man in that section, immediately sold out his interest in the contract and returned home.
About this time, the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad company determined to tunnel the hill near the station already spoken of, and the contract for this work was let to the Hon. W. P. Cutler and Mr. Moore. In July, 1861, the railroad company, for want of funds, suspended work on this tunnel, and Mr. Moore at once raised a company of one hundred volunteers in Warren and Barlow townships, and offered the services of himself and the company to the United States. They were accepted, and Captain Moore's company became a part of the famous Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry. He remained at the head of his company until the next. February, when the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad company, having secured funds for the completion of the tunnel above mentioned, demanded that the contractors proceed to finish their contract, and Captain Moore was compelled to resign his position in the army. This work was finished in 863. Shortly after its completion, Mr. Moore purchased his beautiful home on the banks of the Ohio, three miles distant from Marietta, where he has since resided. This home consists of about six hundred acres of land, upland and bottom, with forest and orchard interspersed here and there, the whole being kept in condition by a number of tenants, whose houses are built on the premises.
In the spring of 1864 Mr. Moore raised a company of National guards in Warren township, and held himself and company in readiness to enter the service whenever a call should be made. During the same spring he took a contract to build a portion of the Baltimore Short Line railroad, and had just entered on this work, when his military company was ordered into active service. His and a number of other companies rendezvoused at Marietta, May 2nd, where Mr. Moore was at once elected colonel of the regiment, and placed in command. The regiment was ordered to Harper's Ferry, and from there to Point of Rocks, via Washington City; from thence to Bermuda Hundred, where the regiment performed garrison service until their muster out of the service.
Colonel Moore was made commandant of the post at Bermuda Hundred, and to these important duties were afterwards added those of assistant inspector general
Upon his return from the service, Colonel Moore renewed the work on the Baltimore Short Line, which he completed in 1865. Finishing this work, he went to Missouri, buying a farm of one thousand acres in sight of Sedalia, and embarked in the stock business, at the same time assisting in the organization and establishment of the First National bank at Sedalia. In 1868 he abandoned the stock business, and went to Saginaw, Michigan, and engaged for the next two years in the lumber trade.
In 1870 Colonel Moore engaged in the business of merchandising in Harmar, which, together with his operations in farming, he has continued down to the present.
He has frequently been urged to accept office, which he persistently refused to do until 1879, when the exigencies of the party to which he is attached seemed to point him out as the proper standard bearer. Accordingly, he was nominated by the Republicans of the county for the legislature, to which he was elected by a handsome majority. During his service in the legislature, his conduct has been marked by conservative wisdom and practical common sense, and, to quote the editorial language of the Marietta Register, under date of April 28, 1881 " Washington county has not had a more efficient and influential member of the lower house for a long time."
In business affairs, the Hon. T. W. Moore has been singularly successful.
Beginning life without a dollar, he has amassed a considerable fortune. Every dollar of his wealth has been secured by means the most upright and honorable. Energy and fair dealing seem to have been his mottoes through life, and these have secured him, not only wealth and influence, but the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of friends.