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Hillsboro Crusade Sketches
AND
Family Records
Gc 977.102 H55t 1152366
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
750
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00821 2620
Senator , Henry W. Blais. New Hampshire.
Sent by The family of Mro Eliza J. J. Thompson January 19th 1907.
· Villaboro Ohio.
.
MRS. THOMPSON.
Hillsboro Crusade Sketches
AND
Family Records.
BY MRS. ELIZA JANE TRIMBLE THOMPSON, HER TWO DAUGHTERS, AND FRANCES E. WILLARD.
" Keep thy purpose with courage, and preserve an upright intention toward God."-THOMAS A KEMPIS
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM.
1906.
--
COPYRIGHT BY MRS. MARIE T. RIVES AND MRS. MARY MCA. TUTTLE, 1906. (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
.
1152366
TO THE White-Ribbon Workers in all Lands This Halume is Aftertimately Bruirated. ELIZA JANE TRIMBLE THOMPSON.
HILLSBORO, OHIO, December 23, 1895.
HILLSBORO, OHIO, 1905-Rededicated by Family.
Southern BookCc - 7.50
THE FIRST WOMAN TEMPERANCE CRUSADER.
Mrs. Thompson was a sincerely modest woman, petite in stature, counted even timid and shrinking in disposition. She was pre-eminently domestic in her tastes, she loved her home, lived for her husband, her children, her neighbors, and her Church. She dwelt apart, in the village not in the metropolis, far from the garish scenes of life. How came this unexpected and distasteful fame to be thrust upon her ?
It can only be said that she had an open heart. Into it came the call of humanity which is the call of God. To her spiritually tuned nature the human and the divine were one and the same note. She answered it in the spirit of prophetic inspiration.
Raised in the aristocratic atmosphere of a gov- ernor's mansion, by her natural temperament unassert- ive, she broke the shell of conventionalism and did an unconventional thing. She led a band of women from the church door to the saloon door, and knelt with them upon the sidewalk. She maintained that vigil and siege of prayer until every saloon in the place was closed. Under the exemplary power of this unique deed began the Woman's Crusade, the most effective and far-reaching temperance movement the world has ever seen.
3
THE FIRST WOMAN TEMPERANCE CRUSADER.
The first White Ribboner deserves unstinted praise. No monument too tall or too snowy could ever be reared for her. Her immortal fame is assured. Wher- ever the Gospel of Temperance is preached throughout the whole world; this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
Davis H. Clark_ 2
PREFACE.
This little volume is rightly introduced by some early family history, which, in its beginnings, "took methods and formed habits of truth " which outlasted many vicissitudes, and still serves as a legacy to chil- dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
M. Mc. A. T.
This second edition of Hillsboro Crusade Sketches and Family Records, edited by the Rev. Davis Wasgatt Clark, D. D. (who was selected by Mrs. Thompson to be her literary executor ), has, through this fact, an ad- ditional authoritative and literary tone, which adds value to it as a publication. Dr. Clark is not only a representative Churchman, but an author of recognized ability, scholarly and crystalline in style : the presenta- tion of the additional materials in this second edition is consequently distinctive ; and the family desire to express grateful thanks for Dr. Clark's tribute of loyal friendship.
It is an interesting literary coincidence that Bishop Clark, father of Davis W. Clark, should have edited the Memoirs of Jane Allen Trimble, grandmother of Eliza Jane Trimble Thompson, which Memoirs were written and published in 1861 by the late Rev. Joseph M. Trimble, D. D.
HILLSBORO, OHIO, January, 22, 1906.
5
This book will have, one of these days, singular value as recording, on the spot as it were, a movement which will very surely be referred to more and more as the scenes depicted fall into the background.
BOSTON, 1896. HORACE. E. SCUDDER.
CONTENTS.
I.
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR,
MARY MCARTHUR TUTTLE. II.
HIS ONLY DAUGHTER,
31
MARY MCARTHUR TUTTLE.
III.
INTRODUCTION, .
53
REV. W. J. MCSURELY, D. D.
THE CRUSADE SKETCHES,
57
ELIZA JANE TRIMBLE THOMPSON.
IV.
MY MOTHER'S YEARS APPROACHING LIFE'S SUNSET, . 173
MARIE T. RIVES.
V.
MY FRIEND MRS. THOMPSON, AND THE PRESENT CON- DITION OF THE TEMPERANCE WORK, . . 193 FRANCES E. WILLARD. VI.
LETTER OF LADY HENRY SOMERSET,
. 207
7
8
CONTENTS.
.
Part II.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS FROM REV. D. W. CLARK . 3
MRS. THOMPSON'S POETIC THOUGHTS I
2II
II .
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BABY .
214
III
EPISODES
219
FRAGMENTARY WRITINGS
IV
222
V
GIFT OF PORTRAIT TO MEMORIAL ROOM
234
VI
VISIT OF THE FIVE HUNDRED DELEGATES
246
VII
PASTOR FELIX'S HYMN
261
VIII
EIGHTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY .
264
IX
ILLNESS AND DEATH
270
X FINAL REFLECTIONS 289
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT OF MRS. THOMPSON,.
Frontispiece
Facing page
"FOREST LAWN,"
40
" THE OLD HOME,"
M. McA. T., 42
THE LILACS AND CEDARS
. M. McA. T.,
46
PORTRAIT OF MRS. THOMPSON,
52
A DOOR LEADING FROM MRS. THOMPSON'S ROOM-
M. McA. T., 60
INTERIOR OF OLD CRUSADE CHURCH
62
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HILLSBORO, O., . . 138
FRONT VIEW OF "THE OLD HOME,"
. M. McA. T., 176
THE SOUTHERN PORCH,
M. McA. T., 178
THE PARLOR,
182
PORTRAIT OF FRANCES E. WILLARD,
194
PORTRAIT OF LADY HENRY SOMERSET,
206
9
IO
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Part II.
Facing page
PORTRAIT OF MRS. THOMPSON ABOUT THIS TIME, . . . 222
MRS. THOMPSON AS SHE APPEARED AT BALTIMORE CON- VENTION WHEN FLOWERS WERE GIVEN HER, . 226
JUDGE THOMPSON,
230
MOTHER THOMPSON WALKING ON THE SOUTHERN PORCH, 232
THE CRUSADE MEMORIAL ROOM, 234
AUDITORIUM LOOKING INTO CRUSADE MEMORIAL ROOM, 240 ORIGINAL CRUSADERS, . 254
VISIT OF THE FIVE HUNDRED DELEGATES,
256
THE HALL OF THE OLD HOME,
258
THE KITCHEN IN COLONIAL DAYS,
260
SOUTH VIEW OF MOTHER THOMPSON'S HOME,
262
I.
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
-
I. THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
"The strenuous soul hates cheap success."-EMERSON.
N TARRATIVES which begin with tomahawks and scalping-knives are not so sure of ar- resting attention in this advanced period of our American civilization as narratives which have to do with electricity and its effect upon poor criminals, or accounts of the advancements in marine architecture and how the "man-of-war" can best be built to withstand belligerents. But the tomahawk and scalping-knife were familiar sights to the pioneers of the eighteenth century, and, consequently, to the grandfather of our present chapter; and, finally, after many times witnessing the terrors of early warfare with these deadly weapons, he was himself attacked and killed by the Indians in the mountains of Vir- ginia in 1763, shortly after he and his family emigrated to America: so that a tomahawk thrown across our pathway at this period of our story is significant.
John Trimble belonged to the Scotch-Irish race, and was a believer in John Knox, the man born at Giffordgate, a suburb of Haddington, in
I3
14
FAMILY RECORD.
1505, and who, before his death in Edinburgh, 1572, knew what intense hardships meant, as well as remarkable experiences in affairs of Church and State. As a believer in Knox and lis uncompromising doctrines and wonderful zeal (which, an English ambassador said, "put more life into Knox than six hundred trum- pets"), our Scotch-Irish emigrant met his death as heroically as John Knox would have met any perpetrator of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. "At the time that John Trimble was slain, James his son, and his daughter Mrs. Estell, and a black boy, were taken prisoners. Mrs. Estell was sitting on a log, sewing ruffles on a shirt of her husband, when the Indians claimed her as their prize." "This marauding party was successfully pursued over the Alleghany Mountains by a party under Colonel Moffit, stepson of John Trimble, who surprised and routed the Indians and rescued the prisoners. James lived to aid in punishing, in honorable battle, the slayer of his father." "In 1774 he participated in the bloody and decisive battle of Point Pleasant."*
"At the very beginning of the Revolutionary War these savage tribes again took the field, and the frontier settlements became the theater of
* Memoir of Mrs. Jane Trimble, by Rev. D .. J. M. Trimble. Published in Cincinnati, 1861. Methodist Book Concern.
1
15
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
conflict between combined British and Indian forces and border troops. James Trimble com- manded a company of these border troops during the war. In 1784 he decided to make the Ter- ritory of Kentucky his future home, and accord- ingly organized an emigrant company, which grew in such proportions that it finally num- bered over five hundred souls. By the time it reached Bean's Station, a military commander, General Knox, of Revolutionary fame, was se- lected as leader. After traversing two hundred and fifty miles of wilderness, they reached Crab Orchard, Kentucky, November, 1784, and began to locate lands earned by military service." *
A late writer, who has been over this old wil- derness road, says: "It has every conceivable badness-loose stone, ledges of rock, bowlders, sloughs, holes, mud, sand, deep fords, and one day. in a wagon is enough to satisfy a man for life."
Our hero, the subject of this chapter, "the little governor," as he was afterwards called, was only twelve months old at the time re- ferred to. It is impossible to see him, as he is wrapped in homespun blankets, clasped in his mother's arms, who is on horseback in the cur- rent of an angry river, the bravest woman in a party of five hundred emigrants! She clasps her baby very firm with one hand, and holds on with
* See Memoirs.
2
16
FAMILY RECORD.
the other hand to the mane of her noble horse, and tells her other child to hold fast to her waist, and then plunges forward, arriving safely on the opposite shore, amidst the shouts of those who crossed before the, river became so dangerous. General Knox shouted to her that, "after. this, she should be his aid-de-camp and lead the women, as her husband, 'Captain James,' led the men." She made no reply, but knelt before the great army of people and offered a prayer of thanks to God for the narrow escape from death, amid their shouts and weeping.
When they reached Cumberland Gap, the old mountains looked dismal enough. "Twenty men were stationed by General Knox on the table- rock overhanging the 'Gap,' and twenty men were sent two hundred feet in advance of the main body of emigrants, which, as we have said, in all numbered five hundred souls. Two hun- dred of these were from Virginia, and the re- maining number from North and South Carolina. The rocky and uncultivated approach to the 'Gap' was covered, in some places, by cane, growing ten feet high and as thick as hemp." But most of the party feared the panthers and wolves more than the canebrakes. Yet the canebrakes are said to be very difficult to pene- trate, and in the extreme Southern States they grow to fifteen feet in height. "On the dividing
A
17
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
line of Kentucky and Virginia they first began to appear. They were indicative of rich land, and in many instances usurp the growth of timber. The deer and the bear were fond of the young, green leaves, and as apt to hide in one of these canebrakes as were the Indians."
General Knox sent out a reconnoitering party, which was attacked by wolves and panthers, and barely escaped the stealthy Indians. They were now fast arriving at the frontier post. Buf- faloes, bears, and deer furnished food for the people all winter .*
They settled on a farm in Woodford County, Kentucky, near Lexington-the famous Blue- grass Region-and there remained until they re- moved to Ohio in 1804. Captain James Trimble and his wife determined, after having lived in Kentucky for some time, to release their slaves. The captain presented his deed of manu- inission to the courts. It was twice refused, as an evil influence, which would exert itself over the servants of others; and not until young Henry Clay, with an eloquent request, had urged it, did the courts accept the noble deed. From that time (1802) there arose a friendship between Mr. Clay and the Trimble family, which continued during his life; and the correspond- ence between Henry Clay and Allen Trimble,
* Memoirs of Jane Allen Trimble.
18
FAMILY RECORD.
who was, of course, younger, contained much that is valuable in the political and social events of those years.
Captain Trimble, after having liberated his slaves, made arrangements to go to a free State in 1804. "He took with him some help, pur- chased lands in Ohio, cleared ten acres, put up a double log-cabin, planted a young orchard, and returned to Kentucky to prepare his family for the journey;" but, alas! was overtaken by sickness and died, leaving his wife and eight young children to find their own way to the free State .*
The only time before this calamity that we have seen our little hero was on the day when he crossed the angry river, held tight in his mother's arms, wrapped in his homespun blan- kets. Now he springs up, like a young Spartan, and cheers the sad and weary heart of his widowed mother, as she, with her “ eight father- less children, travels over the rough roads of this unbroken country for six weary days, until she reaches her home in the wilderness of Ohio." The few improvements Captain Trimble had been able to make rendered the spot dear to the heart of his faithfu. widow, as it was his last work on earth. A less brave, devout, and in-
* Facts related by Rev. J. M. Trimble in Memoirs re- ferred to.
19
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
telligent woman than Jane Allen Trimble would have tarried in the former circle with older asso- ciations; but the very face of the woman shows what firmness as well as tenderness centered in her nature.
The widowed mother and her eight children prospered. Their home was a resort for many interesting and intelligent pioneers, and even Indians, with their squaws and papooses, would come in and stay for a meal, stand their papooses up against the wall in their cases while shaking hands in good faith with the woman whom Gen- eral Knox had called his "aid-de-camp."
Two of the sons were sent to Philadelphia for their education. One became a physician, the other a merchant and a writer of history; another son, whose portrait shows a noble countenance, served in the War of 1812 as colonel, and after- ward was a United States senator; and a younger son was sent to a classical school in an adjoining State. Three sons were engaged in military serv- ice. Carey was appointed to a lieutenantcy in the regular army. The sisters married Virginians, Mr. John Nelson and Mr. James McCue. Mrs. Trimble was greatly aided in the management of the family by her son Allen, who afterward, as governor of Ohio, just twenty-one years after the arrival of the family at the log-cabin, distin- guished himself in his official duties. He served
20
FAMILY RECORD.
the State in various capacities for twenty-five con- secutive years. "Educational interests and in- ternal improvements of every kind were encour- aged and aided by him. Underlying all his success in life, and the very source of his power, was in- tegrity. He put a high estimate upon personal honor, and bequeathed his descendants a spotless name in public and private life."* He was very fond of showing to his grandsons an old silver soup-ladle, which had been made from some silver won the first and only time he ever played cards when a young man. He had it made, he said, "to remind him of his folly and of his vow never to play cards again for gain as long as he lived." He was equally self-denying on the temperance question, and while other men of his generation kept their wines and brandy on their sideboards, he never did, but made it a point, even when hurried in his executive office, to attend temperance conventions, and once took his daughter "Eliza" to Saratoga to the first National Convention. , This was after the time when, as a child of nine years, while attending a private school in Cincinnati, the desperate effort was made to kidnap the only daughter of the governor. At this time little Eliza was at Mr. Picket's school, in Cincinnati-a private school for girls, and she boarded with Mrs.
* Biographical Sketch, by Rev. John F. Marlay,
-
21
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
McKnight, on Fifth Street, between Sycamore and Main, where sixteen other girls boarded.
It was the second term of Governor Trimble's administration. A case very rare in those days of a inan killing his wife and two children oc- curred. The indignation was great; yet some hearts were sympathetic, believing the man to be not in his right mind. Although the law pronounced judgment of hanging, Mr. Alibone Jones, Dr. Daniel Drake, and others, got up a petition for the commutation of his sentence to lifetime imprisonment, setting forth the con- dition of the poor man. Governor Trimble, being very much inclined on mercy's side, ac- cepted the proposition, and the sentence was com- muted, and changed to life-time imprisonment. This caused much commotion and indignation among the rabble. Governor Trimble, Mr. Ali- bone Jones, and Dr. Drake were hung in effigy, and then burned, in the streets of Cincin- nati. George Lair, who had been for years in service in the governor's family, was at the present time a stage-driver between Hillsboro and Cincinnati. He was devoted to the children of his former employer. One of his favorite horses being disabled, he left his hotel and went to the stable to take care of it. As he watched by the side of his horse he heard a whisper- ing from men on the other side of the stall, who
22
FAMILY RECORD.
were making a plot to carry the little daughter of the governor off, conceal her in New Orleans, and keep her as a hostage until the governor would consent to have Burtsell hung. George discovered that they knew her boarding-place. He determined to go at daybreak to Judge John McLean's home, who was one of Governor Trim- ble's intimate friends. Finding from the butler, who met him at the door, that Judge McLean was in Washington, he went immediately to the house of Mr. George Jones, the father of Mr. Alibone Jones; for his wife, Mrs. Jones, and daughter had visited Hillsboro when George was coachman for Mr. Trimble. When Mrs. Jones became aware of the situation, she told George she would call at an early hour for Eliza, at the boarding-house, and take the little one for a drive. She assured Mrs. McKnight she had permission from her parents for a visit from the little girl, and would keep her several days.
When she had the child safely at home with her, she told her frankly the situation, and warned her not to leave the house, unless pro- tected by her husband or son. Mrs. Jones was much fortified to find great bravery on the part of the child. She wrote to Governor Trimble, that " Eliza was neither agitated nor frightened." She took her to the school in her carriage, and
23
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
acquainted Mr. Picket with the facts. Eliza sat quietly there, making quill pens with her old teacher, while Mrs. Jones went farther on her rounds that morning. When she called for Eliza, she found her as composed as any little philosopher.
Mr. Trimble wrote that, as soon as he could, he would devise a plan to get her home safely, but that he was advised by Dr. Drake and Mr. Jones not to venture into the city himself. Eliza remained with Mrs. Jones for two weeks, and then she was taken care of by Mrs. Judge McLean for three weeks, at the end of which time her little brother Cary and George Lair came in the stage-coach to take her home. They had to feign their names, and did not talk to each other on the journey. One day and a night were required for the journey from Cincin- nati to Hillsboro in those days, which now is made in three hours. The stage stopped in Williamsburg, and the little girl was put into a bed in a room next to the bar, where the men all night cursed her father.
As a matter of history, it is interesting to recall that Mrs. George (Bank) Jones, as she was called, because her husband was a banker, was a Miss Alibone, of Philadelphia, and once, on her way from that city to Cincinnati, she took the route through Hillsboro. She carried gold and
24
FAMILY RECORD.
silver coin in her carriage to her husband's bank, and feared to stay at the hotel, so Mr. and Mrs. Trimble invited her to remain at their house, little supposing that she would return the kindness in the manner just related.
The first wife of Allen Trimble was Mar- garet McDowell, a clever woman, of great ani- mation of manner and good heart. They were married in 1806, in Woodford County, Ken- tucky. She was the sister-in-law of Mrs. General McDowell, who took so active a part in the Ohio Crusade. "Her father was Major Joe McDowell, a statesman and soldier in North Carolina of dis- tinction, one of the leaders of the North Caro- ina troops at King's Mountain-the fatal battle of the Revolution in the South. The great vic- tory won there over the British arms drove Corn- wallis into Virginia, where he was compelled to surrender to Washington, and the success of the Colonies' cause was assured. McDowell was then elected to the Convention which formed the constitution of North Carolina. For years he represented his people in the North Carolina Legislature and Senate, and, after many years of service in the National Congress, he moved to Kentucky, where his life closed, and where he left many debtors to his usefulness and high reputation in the future generations which still honor his memory."
25
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
Allen Trimble served in the War of 1812, under Harrison, and was commissioned major. William and Cyrus, his brothers, were also in this war; Colonel William A. Trimble being desperately wounded in the sortie at Fort Erie under General Brown, which caused him to re- sign his position in the army, and in 1817 he was elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Ohio. He died in Washington City in 1821, at the age of thirty-five, where the writer of this chapter recently visited his grave in the Senatorial Cemetery.
Allen Trimble took his seat in the first Gen- eral Assembly that ever convened in the city of Columbus, Ohio, and was returned seven suc- cessive terms, and in 1818-19 he was chosen president of the Senate. Those who can judge, speak within the limits of truth and justice when they affirm he was the ablest presiding officer the Senate of Ohio has ever had .*
The loss of his first wife was grievously felt by him and by his two little boys, Joseph and Mad- ison. In 1811 he became imbued with the spirit of a young and beautiful Quakeress, of auburn hair, mild blue eyes, and mild temperament, which, as Hamlet says, "doth give the torrent smoothness." Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow, were ele- gant, dignified Quakers, and she was educated to
* Biographical Sketch, by Rev. John F. Marlay.
26
FAMILY RECORD.
be a true woman. She was the mother of Cary A. Trimble, William H. Trimble, and Eliza Jane Trimble Thompson. There was in this marriage, cemented by religious sentiment and common interests in serious topics, a vast in- fluence, extended through long and useful years, until, as old people of eighty and seventy-seven, they smiled in mutual sympathy upon each other across their glowing fireside, and upon their chil- dren, grandchildren, and great - grandchildren, urging lessons of integrity, industry, and patience upon all who came in their way. Many a time has the writer of this sketch sat midway between these noble grandparents and read aloud the volumes of Washington Irving's "Life of Wash- ington," many instances of which were very familiar to their ears; so much so that they would interlace family legends and Revolutionary stories with the historical facts given by the author. A curious illustration of the patience and sagacity of Allen Trimble and his wife " Rachel" is the story of the two thousand dol- lars. One morning, in midwinter, they were startled, while making their toilet, by the old colored cook, "Patsey," giving a tremendous knock at their door, and calling out: "Hurry out here, Miss Rachel, for the Lord's sake !" Accustomed to all manner of people and events in those early days, Mr. Trimble opened the
27
THE MAKING OF AN EARLY GOVERNOR.
door halfway and saw James Brooks, one of his Fayette County farm superintendents, trying to push his way in, and, while grasping the hand of his employer, he cried out, "I'm a ruined man, governor. Here's all that's left," and he threw down on the table a mangled, wet, and hideous-looking pocket-book.
"That's just the way it looked," said he. "Betsey can swear to it, when I took it out of the gluttonous beast's throttle! That's the way it looked, and that's all that's left of the two thousand dollars!" And he clenched his teeth and said: "I'm at your mercy, governor; will work it out if it kills me!"
"Lock the door behind us," said Mr. Trim- ble. "Come, James, and have your break- fast, and after that we'll talk it over. Come, Rachel," said he to his wife; "lock the door and bring the key."
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