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 39
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Not far from the book of Buder County. It located # Varen, was at about that time begun a new amore- athon, khiran as the New Jersey congregation, from the foot of most of thei- ti mbers having come from that State. There he was asked to preach. and afterwards i
was settled as pastor of the Church on the 14th of June, 1814. The flock increased and multiplied, and he re- mained with it until April, 1821, when he began to preach in Hamilton and Seven Mile, places left vacant by the removal of the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace. He removed to this place in the following October. Here he stayed for sixteen years, during ten years of which he preached half his time at Seven Mile.
In 1830 a petition was sent to the presbytery by four of the elders, four trustees, and fifty members, asking for a dissolution of the relations existing between them. This was resisted by Mr. Monfort, who appealed to the synod, and received a decision in his favor. The dissat- isfied members would not take this answer as conclusive, and organized another Presbyterian Church in Rossville, both of the Churches flourishing. They were finally united in 1842, under the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas. Mr. Monfort resigned his charge in 1837, and removed to Mt. Carntel, Indiana, where he officiated as pastor for nine years. He then preached at St. Cter and Concord. in the Whitewater Presbytery, remaining with them for five years.
His bodily health, however, had grown weak, and he then ceased regularly to preach or take charge of a Church. For four years, however, be preached ocen- sionally, and at two different times, for three months each, he ocenpied the pulpit of the Church at Greens- burg, Indiana. He never was more useful than at these times. Mr. Monfort was a strong and fervent preacher. and to him many have owed their spiritual birth. Ho was for forty-eight years in the ministry, and he lost na opportunity of doing good. His plety was constant ; no one could be in his society, for a few minutes even, without knowing that he was a religious man. He dil not grow lax and idle as he grew ohl, but was willing To undertake new tasks. He began the study of the Hebrew language when sixty-one years of age, and kept it up until his death. He died June 18, Isso, aged seventy-two years. He had one daughter and that sons. all of the sons being ministers of the Presbyterian Church.
CHARLES K. SMITH
Few of the meu whe have Evol in this county have exerted a greater or better influence upon its foture than Charles Kilgore Smith, for many years a well-known ro-i- dent of Hamilton. He was born at the very beginning of Western civilization, and lived to see the humanizing effects of arts and letters spread over the whole of the North- western Territory, as this region was at his birth -- vow the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Ilinois, an I Wis- consin -- and was able to carry them still further, to lands beyond the original limits of the United States and to help set up there the machinety of government, per- Forming the same duty for Minnesota that was done in Ohio by St. Clair and Sargent.
The father of Charles K. Smith was one of those
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
enterprising 'men whe aided in setting the tide of emi- gration in motion. James Smith was born in Cumber- land County, Pennsylvania, then wild as Oregon is now, and removed to Ohio in 1792, in company with Gen- eral James Findlay, an old friend of his, with whom he formed a copartnership after landing at Cincinnati. Elected to several offices in succession, he was an occu- pant of the shrievalty when his son Charles was born, on the 15th of February, 1799. He gave the boy the best instruction the place afforded, and sent him, in 1812, to a grannar-school at Oxford, conducted by the Rev. James Hughes, a Presbyterian minister of excellent repute. Here for three years he was thoroughly taught in all the com- mon branches and Latin, but was withdrawn, for a brief time, during the second war with Great Britain, in order that he might aid his father in paying off the troops on the frontier. In 1815 he finished going to school ; but so great seems to have been his popularity and so solid his claims to respect that he was elected, in 1825, by the Erodelphian Society of Miami University, Oxford, which had succeeded to Mr. Hughes's school, as a member of their body. When he first went out to that town the country was a perfect wilderness; but he lived to see it fully cultivated, and the university strong and respected. James Smith had removed with his family from Hamil- ton County to Butler in 1805, settling upon seetion 21. St. Clair Township, at the confluence of Four-mile Creek and the Miami River.
Charles K. Smith came to Hamilton to live, upon the conclusion of his school-days, and entered the employ- ment of John Reily, then postmaster, clerk of the courts, and agent of several corporations and absentee property- holders. For two years of this the he acted as deputy- postmaster and clerk. In 1821 he was chosen recorder of the county, and continued in that occupation until 1835, being also, from 1827, treasurer of the county. He might have remained longer in these positions had he chosen ; but he voluntarily gave them up to become cashier of the Bank of Hamilton. There were then few banks of unquestioned responsibility in the West, al- though there were multitudes of irresponsible ones. The Bank of Hamilton was begun with large means, and was one of the few which had sufficient strength to resist the pressure put upon moneyed institutions by General Jaek- son during his war upon the United States Bank. It rode through the storm of 1837 triumphantly; but in 1842, on the 9th of February, it made an assignment. This was in consequence of new and stringent regulations in the law, but was also partly occasioned by the lack of surplus capital in the community. It is a well-known principle of banking that these institutions are chiefly valuable for acting as a reservoir to collect the spare earnings of the community. But in this case these condi- tions did not exist. Depositors were comparatively few, as not many had any surplus of funds, and borrowers Were needy and importunate.
Mr. Smith was a man of much geniality of dist- tion, and a great favorite with all classes of society. Il .. became prominent while yet under age for his contribu- tions to the newspapers, a habit kept up all his life. He was a member of the Thespian Society, which supported Mr. Forrest and Mrs. and Miss Riddle, on their visit to this town in 1823, and he frequently spoke prologues and made introductory specches in public assemblies. He was an early member of the Masonic order.
On his retiring from the bank he entered upon legal practice. He had previously studied law under John Woods, and had been admitted to the bar in 1840. In this new enliing he attained a fair measure of success. He was an attorney in the courte of several of the United States, and also became a member of the American Legii Association of New York. This was iu a day when such qualifications were not so common as now.
With his arlent and inquiring disposition it could not be expected that he should remain quiet in political mint- ters. He was heart and soul a Whig. He fought their batiles on the stump and in the press, and was one of the pillars of that party in this county. His treatment of opponents, however, was much kinder than is usually the rule, and he never lost or impaired the friendship of any worthy man on that account. He was present at ail assemblages of the party, and generally drew up the res- olutions, either alone or in conjunction with some one else. In 1848 he was named as an associate judge of the county, and was elected to that position in March by the General Assembly. This office was one of the survivals from an earlier age, but not because of fitness. The associate judge sat on the bench, but was not ex- pected to take any part in the trial of cases, and to leave the management of affairs entirely in the hands of the president judge. No law compelled it, but only the custom of the incumbents. This position did not suit Mr. Smith, and he speedily asserted his right to an equal share of the business of the court. When occasion re- quired, he manifested his dissent, and was sustained by the Supreme Court on appeal. The office, as it had been eondueted, was useless, and was abolished by the con- stitution of 1851. His position was for seven years, but he resigned it at the end of a year to accept an office from General Taylor, whose warm friend he was, and whose election he had striven with all his might to ae- complish. Under the limitation of the new constitution his tenure would have expired in another year. The abolition of this office was a change he was in favor of. and was one of many which he had pressed upon the attention of the Constitutional Convention. He had repeatedly addressed popular audiences upon the nes es- sity of a revision of our organic law.
When we acquired, in 1803, by Jefferson's purchase, the vast extent of ground west of the Mississippi River. it could scarcely have been expected by the wisest and! most discerning man living, that the current of emigra-
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tion would, within a half-century, overleap that grest river at the Northwest, and begin a commonwealth which should last as long as the English race. Those of us who were children when the act was passed making the Territory of Minnesota are not now beyond middle age. Before we shall reach our threescore years and ten that State will embrace more inhabitants than Greece in her palmiest days, or as many as the united colonies had in 1776, when they shook off the yoke of Great Britain. We have no age of cloud and doubt in our history, such aus had the Greeks. Our annals mount to the fountain- head, and are not lost in legends of Theseus, Hercules, and the interference of the gods. Our adventurers are known, and their names will be preserved for centuries. When this act creating the Territory of Minnesota was passed, Charles K. Smith was made its secretary. This office is equivalent to that of lieutenant-governor and secretary of state in older communities, and is charged with responsibility. Mr. Smith went to his new field of duty in May, 1849. There were no settlements, except- iug one at St. Paul, begun a month or two previous, and one or two military garrisons. The whole engine of gor- ernment was to be set in motion. In addition to the duties of his office, he, for some six months, discharged those of the governor, who was absent, and whose place he took. He was also superintendent of Indian affairs. He discharged these various obligations with ability and success, receiving, in addition, the approval of the in- habitants of the Territory. He found no schools when he went there, but did not rest until public provision had been made for their establishment, as well as carry- ing them through the Winter. He was the founder of the Minnesota. Historical Society. We are indebted to a friendly pen for a description of his exertions in its behalf :
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versity. located at the city of St. Anthony. He was present at the first meeting, and introduced the first ordi- nance for the government of the university. Congress had made large appropriations of land for its support ; buildings were very soon erected, and shortly after the organization of the Territory the university was in sue- cessful operation. Mr. Smith was an active advocate of schools, and made himself very useful in furthering all ed- ucational enterprises and means of instruction in the early years of the Territory. The Churches also received his assistance. In 1840 there was not a church-building in St. Paul, except one small log house belonging to the Catholics. In the absence of church-buildings Mr. Smith prepared the rooms used for the first territorial Legisla- ture, and permitted the different denominations to. holl religious meetings in then.
" Mr. Smith was president of the board of commis- sioners of the public buildings of the Territory, and dur- ing his services as such all the preliminaries were arranged for the erection of the capitol buildings and the territorial prison.
"The early territorial history of Minnesota is closely connected with the name of C. K. Smith, and re may well say that he had the honor of being one of the most prominent founders of a new empire of the Northwest, from which has sprung the young and vigorous State of Minnesota."
He was an indefatigable worker. He had a love for public employment, and did an immense amount of gra- tuitous labor. He received an excellent training with Mr. Reily, and his subsequent life increased and accent- uated his thoroughness and love of detail. It has already been remarked that he aided his father as paymaster in the war of 1812. This was with Colonel Richard M. Johnson's mounted Kentuckians, while lying at Fort Defiance. He was the recording secretary of the first Bible Society organized in this county, which was in the year 1822. He was an attendant at the services of the United Presbyterian Church, of which his wife was a member, and contributed liberally to its funds. He gave the lot on which the First Presbyterian Church now stands, and assisted the Catholics with money and advice when they first sought to ereet a building in Hamilton. Other Churches also knew his generous hand. In the hard years in which labor nearly ceased and the crops were deficient, no one gave more largely to the poor than he, nor with less pretense.
" The history of the act incorporating this society and the published proceedings show that Mr. Smith was the life and moving spirit of it while he remained in the Territory. The pamphlet, containing upwards of two hun- dred pages, embracing the transactions of the first two --- annual meetings of the society, was published and circu- lated throughout the United States at the sole expense of Mr. South. The organization of the society was brought about by him, and through his exertions it was incorporated by the first territorial Legislature. Lis pro- weilings were highly spoken of by the press at the time, 1 though it was thought by some to be anomalous to have a historical society in a country without a history, as was Among the labors that he performed, and performed well, were sketches of deceased pioneers in the county newspapers. He bad a wide acquaintance with them, coming, as he did, to the county just at the cloze of the first decade of settlement. and never neglected any op- portunity that night be offered to learn about their hard- ships and trials and the growth and development of their communities. He give many of the papers at his die- supposed, the Territory being but just organized. But the Minnesota Historical Society was a success; and since its organization it has published upwards of one thousand pages of valuable information, and it may be added that the publications of that society did as nach, if not more, attract migration to Minnesota than any other means. " Mr. Smith was appointed by the territoria! Legisla- tre one of the first regents of the territorial uni- ' peal to the Cincinnati Pioneer Society, and gathered
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
newspapers and books from which the future annalist could draw largely for facts relating to the Northwest. He at one time entertained the idea of writing a history of Butler County, and made numberless memoranda with that aim in view. Some of these were published in the Intelligencer forty years ago, under the title of " Notes on Butler County." They comprise the first systematic at- tempt to reduce the unwritten memories of the early set- tlers to form, and to place thiem in print. And the present writer must acknowledge his obligations to this source, and the uniform courtesy he has met with from the surviving members of the family in the use of these materials. They are both rare and valuable. Mr. Smith also wrote largely on other subjects. Few years passed in which he did not contribute to the local journals, many of these articles producing a marked effect upon the public mind. He never wrote from a love of dis. play, but only from a desire to inform and preserve. In both these aims he was successful. His style was clear and compact, never descending to personality. Among other subjects, he made a report on Irish Repeal ; Re- port of the Debate on Slavery in 1842 between Dr. Junkin and the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas; Biographical Sketches of the Rev. Arthur W. Elliott, Dr. Daniel Mil- likin, John P. Reynolds, Esq., and historical articles for the Minnesota Historical Society.
Mr. Smith was a popular man in his community. Although sometimes the victim of a pasquinade in the opposition papers, from which he could not well escape, being so prominent a man on his own side, he never was attacked with that envenomed bitterness which other men felt. He loved his friends warmly, but hated his enemies with equal warmth. He would not injure the latter, but he despised them. Those who knew him longest liked him best, and when once he became a friend he was so always. He had a warm affection for fraternal societies. He was admitted into the ancient and honorable order of Free Masons as soon as he arrived at age, and remained with them all his life-time, being advanced to the highest degrees of the order. When in Minnesota he opened a Masonic lodge. In 1841 he united as a charter member in organizing a lodge of the Independent Order of Old Fellows, advancing in this through the higher degrees ; and in Minnesota he assisted in establishing a lodge of Odd Fellows there. He was a Knight Templar as a Mason and an encampment member in Odd Fellowship.
home until the time of his death, which occurred on the 28th of September, 1866, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
On the 21st of November, 1827. he married Miss Eleanor A. MeMechan, daughter of the Rev. James McMechan, an carly Presbyterian minister of this region, and a native of Ireland. Mrs. Smith survived him, dying March 6th, 1879. He had by this marriage five sons and four daughters, of whom but one died before the father. They are as follows: Mrs. Marcella S. Webb ; J. William C. was captain of the Butler Pioneers in the Twenty-sixth Regiment O. V. I., in the late Rebellion, died in 1873; Ada died in 1836, aged three years ; Charles- Kilgore, colonel and assistant quartermaster in the war, died in 1870; Edward Hudson, Ellen A., Jesse C., Mary Florence, and Park W. Mary Florence Smith was mar- ried to Edward W. Schenck, and had four children, Ginevra Eleanor, Zenaide C., Jessie L., and Charles K. Jessie L. died in August, 1871, and Charles K. in April, 1875, in the third year of his age.
WILLIAM DAVIDSON.
The Associate Reformed Church in Hamilton might have esteemed itself fortunate in its pastors. The Word of Life has rarely been anywhere set forth with more clearness, or its conclusions urged with more thorough- ness, than by its first pastor, or by the one who succeeded him, and whose name is at the head of this biographical notice. Their influence was not confined to their own congregations, but extended through the entire county, and beyond its limits,
The Rev. William Davidson was born on the 2d of October, 1817, in Brooke County, West Virginia. He received little education at schools during his early boy- hood, but had the assiduous care and watchfulness of his parents, who grounded him in the most necessary por- .tions of learning. When he had arrived at the age of' thirteen he was sent away from home to Liberty. Penn- sylvania, where he stayed two years. He then went to Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, where he com- pleted a regular collegiate course. As he was designedl for the ministry he received in addition instruction from the Rev. J. O. Neal, pastor of a Church at Short Creek. Virginia. Here he spent his days and nights over the Bible, acquiring a wonderful! knowledge of it, and ever after being able to quote from any portion with telling effect. The Bible and a few other explanatory works constituted the whole of his text-books.
Upon his return frota Minnesota Mr. Smith came to Hamilton, and bought his father's old homestead, upon The denomination to which Mr. Davidson belonged was the Reformed Dissenting Church, and to that body he applied for reception, being licensed by the presbytery in 1840, at a meeting held in the old ". Tent Church," mar the place of his nativity. To this whole denomination there had never been more than four ministers at wie time, and they were scattered far apart. Few in-tauers which he settled, giving little attention to public affairs, but much to his books and the duties of his farm. He was active and energetic in the prosecution of the war for the Union, and did all that he could to arous aud inform the public mind upon the real merits of the Con- test. Four of his sons went out to the army, one dying soon after peace was assured. Mr. Smith remained at | of societies of this size have been met with, but they are
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not altogether unknown. The Old Dissenters, in Scot- land, were without a preacher from 1600 to 1706, although they had a number of congregations. Mr. Davidson took carnestly hold of the work which he found to do, and at once began preaching in' routh- western Ohio and south-eastern Indiana. His labors were not confined to churches, but he discoursed in school-houses, barns, dwellings, and in the open air, meeting with much success.
He was married on the 28th of June, 1842, in Greene County, Indiana, to Mrs. Elizabeth Reynolds, and for some time after lived near the State line between Ohio and Indiana. He had congregations at Vienna, Indiana; at College Corner, which is in both States, and at Car- thage and Piqua, Ohio. To these places he rode ou horseback, the farthest being fifty miles, and two of the others not less than thirty. He counted no labor too severe to reach them, and to expound the Scriptures to those who might be gathered. He frequently stopped by the way and held services in addition to those at his four regular places.'
In May, 1843, he found that he was weakened by his inability to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's-supper, and he returned to West Virginia so that he might be ordained. This was done by the preshy - tery, and he soon returned to his Churches, where he labored until the close of the year 1847. His health had not been good all of this time, and his physical strength seemed at times overtasked, but he did not de- sist on that account. He was a man of eloquence, and his burning, fiery words will long be remembered in these places, as well as his shining example.
, In 1848 Dr. MacDill had grown weak, and deter- mined to remove to Illinois from Hamilton. Mr. David- son was chosen his successor, and came to this city to live in March of that year. He joined the Associate Re- formed Church, leaving the Reformed Dissenting, and ever after was a preacher in the Associate Reformed and United Presbyterian Churches, the latter being the she- ressor of the former. Dr. MacDill had served this con- gregation since 1816, and it was no light task to attempt to fill his place. In this, however. Mr. Davidson was successful, and the Church was never more prosperous. He toiled assiduously to strengthen the cause. No labor was too great to be undertaken for his divine Master. He did not content himself alone with his pastoral labor. He went wherever he was called. He did not refuse to vi-it those in sickness who when well had never listened to him, and he pronounced the solemn words of the Gos- pel at the grave of those who, when alive, attended no Church. The seed was sown everywhere.
He was not a mere sectarian. He labored for a union idf' al! Christians in essentials, believing that the saving of souls was of more importance than the promulgation of ereeds. Yet, on the other hand, he never uttered any of those phrases which are now so common -- phrases
which admit every act and every person. The Kingdom of heaven was not to be attained without striving for, and its laws were firm aud immutable. He compromised with no form of sin, nor did he withhold statements of his own belief because it might be unpopular. Slavery was properly characterized, even in those days before the war, when the truth could hardly be endured in pro- slavery Butler; intemperance and the use of intoxicat- ing drinks were denounced, although this was common ; nor did his tongue fail to reprove and condemn the other vices of that day and this. He gave au ardent and thorough. support to the war, believing it to be the cause 'of Christianity He addressed the volunteers as they were going, preaching discourses replete with the soundest patriotism, but saying nothing that was not also tinged by a deep religious feeling. It must not be disguised that the war was not popular here, but was looked upon with disfavor. He fought this tendency, and lost no op- portunity of showing the monstrous ingratitude and in- justice of those who supported the rebel cause.
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