USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 37
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, Mr. Bishop's twenty-one years' connection with the Transylvania University was marked by no serious diffi- culties or disagreeable circumstances, so far as he was personally or officially concerned. Upwards of twenty young men, who were more or less under his special care during this period, afterwards entered the ministry, amt several of them rose to eminence. During one of the three years in which he considered himself as virtually suspended from the ministry, he devoted nearly all his
Sabbaths to the instruction of the negroes, and organized the first Sabbath-schools ever opened in Lexington for their benefit. He has been heard to say that this was one of the most agreeable enterprises in which he ever engaged ; and that in no other year of his residence in Kentucky bad ba so much evidence of the gracious pres- ence of the Holy Spirit in connection with his labors.
In October, 1819, Mr. Bishop, having dissolved his connection with the Associate Reformed Church, joined the West Lexington Presbytery in connection with the General Assembly. From 1820 to 1823 he officiated as stated supply to the Church in Lexington, which had been gathered by the labors of the Rev. James McChord; and his connection with this Church he seems to have con- sidered as highly favorable to both his comfort and usefulness.
In the Autumn of' 1824 be accepted the presidency of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and was innagurated on the 80th of March. 1825. Here be found a few Christian people who had been under the care of the Rev. James Hughes, for some years principal of the gava- mar school in that place; and the pupils of this he gathered and formed into a Presbyterian Church, and preached to theri regularly on the Sabbath in the college chapel, until the year 1831, when, as the result of a
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revival, in which Dr. Blackburn was the principal in- strument, the Church gathered so much strength that they undertook to build a place of worship and call a pastor. In 1825 he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the college of New Jersey.
In the great controversy which divided the Presbyte- rian Church in 1838. Dr. Bishop's sympathy and action were with the New School. In 1841 he resigned the presidency of Miami University, but held the professor- ship of History and Political Science until the Autumn of 1844, when his connection with the institution ceased. He theu removed to Pleasant Hill, a beautiful spot in the immediate neighborhood of Cincinnati, where there was already an academy which, partly through his agency, was now enlarged into a college, under the name of the "Farmers' College." Here he remained actively and usefully employed to the close of life. Dr. Bishop preached regularly in the chapel to the students as long as be retained the presidency of the university, but after that had no stated charge. He preached, however, very frequently during his subsequent years, and his last sermon was preached on the 15th of April, 1855, but two weeks before his death. As he left his house to preach this sermon he distinctly told his wife it would be his last. He heard his classes as usual on Thursday, and was just going to the college on Friday morning, when his strength failed, so that he was no longer capable of making an effort. He lingered until five o'clock Sabbath morning (April 29th), his usual hour of rising, and then died, as he had often expressed a wish to die, "in the harness."
On the 25th of August, 1802, just as he was on the eve of embarking for America, he was married to Ann Ireland, by whom he had eight children, five sons and three daughters. All his sons were graduates of Miami University. Two of them became clergymen, and one of them a professor in the university at which he grad- nated. Mrs. Bishop survived her husband but two seeks.
The following is a list of Dr. Bishop's publications : "Sermons on Various Subjects," 1808. (This was the fiist volume of sermons printed west of the mountains.) "Memorials of David Rice," with an Appendix, 1824; " Elements of Logie, or a Summary of the General Principles and Different Modes of Reasoning," 1833; "Sketches of the Philosophy of the Bible," 1833; " Ele- ments of the Science of Government," 1839; "The Western Peacemaker," 1839. He published. also, several occasional serious and addresses, among which was a sermon on the death of the Rev. James MeChord, 1820, and the address at his inauguration as president of Miami University in 1825. He contributed, aiso. lib- orally to several periodicals.
The local papers in speaking of the funeral services | of Dr. Bishop, stid :
versity-of which he was for a long time president-di- rectors of Farmers' College, instructors and pupils, with a numerous concourse of friends, attended his remains to their final resting-place on earth. Members of the Bur- ritt Literary Society, preceded by the directors, bore the body to the college chapel, where religions exercises were commenced by Rev. Professor Cary. Dr. Allen. pro- fessor of Lane Seminary, delivered an elegant and in- structive sermon from the text, Second Timothy, fourth chapter, seventh and eighth verses, 'I have fought a good fight,'" etc. In the course of his remarks he read a portion of his will, to the effect that being then (14th May, 1855) seventy-four years of age and much reduced in strength, though of sound mind, ho first gave, as he always had attempted to do, his soul to God, and he expected to be received as was the thief ou the cross. Sec- ond, his body after death to the directors of Farmers' College, to be placed in a plain coffin, and then inclosed in a strong square box and deposited in an artificial motmul in a designated spot in the college-yard, to consist of sue- cessive layers of earth and sand, not to be less than eight feet. solid measure. No artificial monument to be erected on it, unless it should be a few evergreens or shrubbery. Another portion of the will spoke of the aged wife he left behind him. He commended her, during the few remaining years of her life, to the friends of Farmers' College. During the fifty years she, with him, bad assisted in the education of young men, she had. on principle, uever spent any thing for entertainments, but devoted all for the tuition and books of those needing assistance.
Dr. Scott, late president of Miami College, and long connected with the deceased in educational efforts, gave personal testimony to the worth and noble efforts of Dr. Bishop. His personal history he gave with interest, mentioning that, "during the changes and controversies originating in skeptical views among those controlling that (Miami) university, there was always one who nobly stood by the faithful Christian soldier, Dr. Bishop, and that was the national statesman, Henry Clay. He con- tinned to implore the directors to retain Dr. Bishop, for, if they did not have one praying man in the university it surely would go down."
WILLIAM BEBB.
William Bebb, who was governor of this State during the Mexican war, was born on the Dry Fork of White- water, in Morgan Township, December 8, 1802. His father, Edward Bebb, enigrated from Wales, Great Britain, in 1795, traveled across the mountains to the valley of the Miami on foot, purchased in the neighbor- hood of North Bend an extensive treet of land, returned to Pennsylvania and married Miss Roberts, to whom he had been engaged in Wales, and, with his bride, riding in a suitable convoymer, again crossed the mountains,
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" Yesterday a number of the Alunmi of Miami Uni- | and settled on his land in what was then but a wilder-
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ness. He was a man of sound judgment, and, in com- mon with many of his countrymen, of a joyous and ever- hopeful disposition. His wife was a lady of culture and refinement, and her home in the valley of the Miami, with no near neighbors, was a great change from her previous life. There were, of course, no schools near to send her children to, and this was matter of grave concern to the parents, and the son was, in conse- quence, taught to read at home. In those years the Western Spy, then published in Cincinnati, and distrib- uted by a private post-rider, was taken by his father, and William read with avidity the contents of it, espe- cially the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. A strong desire to acquire a better education induced him to make extraordinary efforts, and in this matter he was much assisted by Mr. David Lloyd, a graduate of a col- lege in Philadelphia, who resided in the neighborhood. Bebb began teaching school at Oury's school-house, in the village of New Haven, Hamilton County, and after- wards at North Bend, the residence of General Harrison. He remained in this latter place a year, during which time he married Miss Sarab Shuck, the daughter of a wealthy German resident of the village.
Proving a success as a teacher of boys, he conceived the idea of extending bis usefulness, and resolved to open an extensive boarding-school on part of his father's large place and farm, some two miles north of the Oury's school-house. With the assistance of his father and the encouragement of his neighbors, who had much confidence in him and his learning and ability, and with the good- will and ait of some Cincinnati friends, he had a large and commodions two-story-and-a-half frame house and additions erected on the banks of the Dry Fork of Whitewater. The large building consisted of a middle two-and-a-half story house, and commodious wings on each side one-and-a-half story high; one of these, the northern wing, being devoted to himself and young fam- ily as a dwelling ; the other, the southern wing, being the school-house, and dormitory for the boys above. The center building contained a large dining-hall, entered from a beautiful covered portico, reached by a flight of steps extending the whole length of the building, and as large a dormitory for the boys immediately above, and rooms and large kitchen at the rear. The whole house _was painted white, adorned with blue. Thus situated, Mr. Bebb began his boardingschool abont the year 1827 or 1828, and, being an energetic man. he began to pros- per, and his school was soon filled with papils and board- ers from the boys of Cincinnati and elsewhere. This was the first and pioneer boarding-school in the vicinity of Cincinnati. It was distant just twenty-five miles from that city, and it was reached by tolerably good roads for those days, either by way of Millerock and Colerin townships, through the town of Venice on the Great Miami, or through Green and Miami and Crosby town- ships, through the villages of Cheviot, Miamitown, and
New Haven. In and about the locality, particularly on the Dry Fork Creek, there were a great many large, full-foliaged, and grand syeamore-trees, and Mr. Bebb named the place Sycamore Grove. This name became celebrated in Cincinnati and throughout the country, and Bebb's school and Sycamore Grove became a distinguished place. He carried on his school until the end of the year 1832, when, being filled with ambition to make a still greater mark before the public eye, he gave up his well- established school.
In 1831 he rode to Columbus on horseback, where the supreme court judges examined him and passed him to practice in the State. He then removed to Hamilton, Butler County, and opened a law office, being for a long time in partnership with John M. Millikin, where he continued quietly and in successful practice fourteen years. During this period he took an active interest in political affairs, and advocated during his first, called the hard-cider campaign, the claims of General Harrison, and no less distinguished himself during that "Tippe- canoe and Tyler, too," campaign, in which the persons indicated were successful, and the Whigs, in 1840. for the first time succeeded iu electing their candidates. Four years afterward he was elected governor of the State, and the war with Mexico placed him, as the governor of Ohio, in a very trying position. As a Whig he did not personally favor that war, and this feeling was generally entertained by the party who made hin their leader in the State; but he felt that the question was one not of party but of cordial support of the general government, and his ear- nest recognition of this fact eventually overcame the danger that had followed President Polk's proclamation of war. His term of office (1846-48) was distinguished by good money, free-schools, great activity in the con- struction of railroads and turnpikes; the arts and industry generally were well rewarded, and high prosperity char- acterized the whole State. In 1847 Governor Bebb pur- chased five thousand acres of land in Rock River County. Illinois, of which the location : was delightful and the soil rich. Five hundred aeres were wooded, and consti- tuted a natural park, while the remainder was prairie of the best quality, with a stream of water fed by perpetua! springs. No man of moderate ambition conld desire the possession of a more magnificent portion of the earth's surface. Three years after making this purchase he removed to it, taking with him fine horses and a member of the choicest breeds of cattle, and entered upon the cultivation of this fine property. Five years afterward he visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe. In the birthplace of his father he found muy desirous to immigrate to America, and, encouraging the enterprise. a company was formed, and a trait of one hundred thon- sand aeres purchased for them in Last Tennessee, where he agreed to preside over their arrangements and the set- tlement of this land. In 1856 a party of the colonists arrived on the land, and Governor Bebb resided with
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them until the war of the Rebellion began, when he left the State with his family. The emigrants, discouraged by the strong pro-slavery sentiment, scattered and settled in various parts of the Northern States. On the inaugu- ration of President Lincoln, Governor Bebb was appointed examiner in the Pension Department at Washington, and held this position until 1869, when he returned to his farm in Illinois, and the peaceful pursuit of agricul- ture. His scale of farming was the cultivation of two thousand acres in a season, while another thousand formed his cattle pasture. While in Washington he received the appointment of consul at Tangiers, Morocco, but declined.
He took an active part in the election of General Grant, and the first sickness of any consequence he ever experienced was an attack of pneumonia following an exposed ride from Pecatonica, where he had addressed the electors, to his home. From this he never recovered, and, although he spent the following Winter in Wash- ington, occupied mainly as a listener to the debates in the Senate, he felt his vital forces gradually declining. Re- turning home the next Summer, and feeling that he was no longer able to superintend his farm operations, he purchased a residence at Rockford, and there resided until his death, which happened October 23, 1873. His widow still survives him, and has now reached the age of seventy-eight. She lives in Rockford, Illinois.
DAVID MACDILL ..
The Rev. David MaeDill, D. D., was born in the Northern District of South Carolina, December 27, 1790. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, though quite young, served as a soldier in the war of the Revo- lution, under Colonel Horry. The son in his youth en- joyed the advantages afforded by the Churches and schools which then existed among Scotch-Irish Presbyte- rians in the South. At the age of sixteen he had stud- ied as much mathematics as was then usually studied in college. He had a thirst for knowledge and a love of books.
In 1806 the MacDill family removed from Sonth Carolina to what was then regarded as " the far West," and settled in Preble County, Ohio. The country was almost an unbroken forest. A section of land, consist- ing of six hundred and forty acres, was purchased, and the work of erecting a log-house and other buildings and of clearing off the timber, mostly beech, was begun. In such work as this young David MacDill spent three years-teaching school, however, for three months during varh of those years. At the end of this time, being about nineteen years old. he commenced the study of languages under the Rev. William Robertson, at Leha- non, Ohio. He finished his literary course in Teamusy Iva- nia University, Lexington, Kentucky. Among his class- mater were the Rev. J. Finley Crowe, D. D., the founder of Hanover College, and the Rev. David Monfort, D. D.,
pastors for many years of the Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ohio. In 1813 he entered the Associate Re- formed Presbyterian Theological Seminary iu New York, then under the care of the celebrated Rev. Dr. J. M. Mason, one of the ablest pulpit orators of our country. Here he spent four annnal sessions, and had as fellow- students many who afterward became leading ministers in their respective Churches. He spent the Summer va- cations in teaching in the vicinity of New York. When he graduated, in 1817, from the Seminary, he delivered by appointment the valedictory address to his class. He was licensed to preach August 6, 1817. He began to preach in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (United Presbyterian) Church, in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, in October, 1817. He was ordained and installed pastor of the congregations of Hamilton and Concord, October. 1818. He continued in charge of these two congrega- tions for eight or ten years, and then demitted the Con- cord branch. The Concord meeting-house was about eight miles north of Hamilton, and just this side of Col- liusville. He continued pastor of the Hamilton Church until 1848, a period of more than thirty years. Daring the most of this time he preached three times each Sab- bath-twice in his own church, and once in a school- house or unoccupied church. . In addition to these labors he edited the Christian Intelligencer, a monthly religious periodical. He was also for many years (about twenty- four in all) a member of the board of trustees of Miami University, and was always punctual in attending its meetings. His influence did much to promote the pros- perity of that institution.
In 1848 he removed with his family to Sparta, Ran- dolph Connty, Illinois. Here he became pastor of the Union congregation, which, in a few years, became too large, in his opinion, to be cared for by one of his age. He resigned this charge, and removed to Monmouth, in order to edit the Western United Presbyterian, in 18.ST. He was appointed to this position by the synod of Illi- nois. He was now nearly seventy years of age. He continued to discharge the daties of editor until 1862, when he resigned. He died in Monmouth, Illinois, June 15, 1870, in the eightieth year of his age.
In regard to the character and talents of Dr. MacDill, the writer prefers to present the testiniony of others.
Professor Morrison, in his biography, says: "The fruit of his untiring labors in and about Hamilton is not all seen in the congregation he there collected, or the num. ber of persons brought into that branch of the Church of which he was a member. . . . The influence of Dr. MacDill was tel all over that country. . There was perhaps no man in Butler County who did more to mold public opinion for good than Dr. MacDill. He was over on the lookout for opportunities of doing good to men and advancing the glory of God." (Pp. 18-20.)
The following testimony of a contemporary editor is i also given : " As a writer he had few superiors. He was
Cham.i
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a skilful and cultivated logician, a profound and vigorous thinker, a general and accurate scholar, and a courteous and attractive Christian gentleman." The same writer speaks of Dr. MacDill's editorials as being "among the liveliest and best, specimens of thought and style any- where to be found." (Page 33.) Dr. J. B. Scouller, in the United Presbyterian Manual, says of him: "He wrote more for the periodical press than any man in the Church, having written very frequently during forty years for all the papers. The style of his articles was always clear, pointed, and terse, and the matter season- able and judicious. The same qualities characterized his preaching, while his manner was quiet and subdued. He was reverent and devout in the pulpit, and yet fre- quently indulged in sarcasm, of which he was a thorough master."
Dr. J. G. Monfort, editor of the Herald and Presbyter, speaks of him as follows: " Dr. MacDill was one of the ablest and best ministers this country has ever produced. His delivery was slow, and not impressive; but his ser- mons were models of rich, pure, accurate, and sound thought. For fifteen years, from 1820, we heard him preach almost every other Sabbath in Hamilton, Ohio, and no other minister has so excited our higher affections and' veneration. His reputation where he lived and labored is a sweet perfume."
Of course, such a thinker and writer would be an op- ponent of injustice and the advocate of true moral pro- gress. Dr. MaeDill was among the earliest advocates of temperance and anti-slavery views. It was for the special purpose of advocating anti-slavery principles that the Christian Intelligencer, of which he was the editor, was es- tablished in 1825. At that time it required some courage to be an anti-slavery man.
JOHN WOODS.
condition for cultivation. His son John, then in almost infancy, was reared in a log cabin, and as soon as his strength would admit, had to participate in the labors of the farm. He received such an education as the common schools of the country at that time afforded, which, by severe study at nights and such times as he could spare from hard laber on the farm, he improved, much to his advantage in after-life. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He was included in the last draft of the Ohio militia which was made in 1814, and was in the garrison at Fort Meigs when peace with Great Britain was proclaimed. On his return from the army he opened an English school in the neighborhood of Springborough, which he continued for one or two years;
From boyhood Mr. Woods had formed the resolution of acquiring an education and finally becoming a lawyer; and for the purpose of enabling him to carry out his design he contracted, for a certain compensation, to clear a piece of ground adjacent to where his father lived, as a means of support. He built a hut or camp on his clearing, and after chopping and mauling the heavy tim- ber all day, at night he often read and studied law in his rude cabin while others slept. He pursued his course of reading under the direction of Hon. John MeLean, who had been a member of Congress, and was after- wards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Woods prosecuted his studies in this manner for some time, and went regularly once a work to Lebanon, where Judge MeLean then resided, to recite to him and receive instructions. He afterwards devoted his time more exclusively to the study of law. Heving qualified himself for admission to the bar, and having undergone an examination touching his legal knowledge and abilities, he made application to the Supreme Court of the State, sitting at Dayton, in Montgomery County, at their June termi, 1819, and was admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law in the courts of Ohio. Afterwards, in January, 1825. he received a license as attorney and solicitor-at-law to practice in the courts of the United States.
Alexander Woods, father of John Woods, was a native of Ireland, born in the county of Tyrone, in 17GS. In 1790 he left his native land and came te tlie United States, and resided for some years in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. He afterwards came to the West, first to In August, 1819, he established himself in Hamilton, and, opening an office ou the 19th of that month, com. meneed the practice of his profession. The courts of Hamilton were then attended by some of the old and able lawyers from Cincinnati and Lebanon, with whom Mr. Woods had to come in competition. At his first attempts at the bar Mr. Woods said that he sometime: felt himself in rather an awkward predicament with a confusion of ileas; but, reflecting that but few of a large audience could immediately perceive what was sound sense or the reverse, that those who were capable of thus discriminating were probably the most generous and indhagent to youthfal erators, and that it was necessary. at all events, to succeed in bis profession, be made it a positive rule: never to sit down or to hesitate or halt. but to Kentucky, and afterwards to Warren County, Ohio; where he purchased a farm a few miles cast of the town of Franklin, which he improved, and on which he re- sided until the time of his decease. He died on the ninth day of January, 1848. He was married in 1793, in Pennsylvania, to Mary Robinson, who was born in 1762, and who died on the 16th of August, 1828, having become the mother of eight children. John Woods, the oldest son, and the subject of this sketeb, was born in Jonestown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the 18th of October, 1794. When Alexander Woods settled upon his land, in what is now Warren County, in the year 1797, the country was a primitive wilderness; the lotty trees had to be prostrated, and the dense forest cleared by hard labor, before the land could be brought to a fit | talk ou and go ahead. And be did go ahead. In 1820
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