USA > Ohio > Adams County > A history of Adams County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, including character sketches of the prominent persons identified with the first century of the country's growth > Part 45
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Upon his return from Texas, Col. Mitchell married a lady by the name of Fowke, by whom he had a number of children, and one of whom, Richard-evidently a chip off the old block-got into trouble with a man in Ripley by the name of Tomlinson, whom he killed on the spot. Tomlinson was a prominent newspaper man, and a relative of the Wylies, of Brown County. The bloody affair took place on the very night that John Morgan escaped from the Ohio penitentiary. Tomlinson's son, the Hon. Byers Tomlinson, late a member of the Ohio state legislature from Lawence County, is now publishing the Highland Register at Hillsboro.
Fourth of July Celebration, 1825.
The Village Register, then published by Ralph M. Voorhees, con- tained the following account of the Fourth of July celebration held at West Union, in 1825:
The Fourth of July was celebrated in this place in a very handsome and becoming manner by Captains McClain's and Cole's companies and a large collection of the county and village.
The military, after going through the necessary forms and par- ades, marched into the court house, where the Declaration of Independ- ence was read, and a very appropriate oration delivered by D. P. Wilkins, Esq. After which the procession marched to Browning's Inn, where they partook of an excellent dinner prepared for the occa- sion. Major J. L. Finley, a revolutionary patriot, acted as president, and Col. John Lodwick, as vice president of the day. After the cloth was removed the following toasts were drank :
The Day We Celebrate.
The Constitution of the United States.
The Heroes and Patriots of the Revolution.
The Memory of Washington.
Literary Institutions.
The President of the United States.
The Congress of the United States.
The Army of the United States.
The Navy of the United States.
Agriculture. Internal Improvements.
Domestic Manufactures.
The American Fair.
Volunteers.
By A. Hollingsworth-Ohio River and Lake Erie-May they soon roll their floods together, inviting population to their banks, and cheer- ing commerce to their crystal wharves.
By John McDaied-The memory of General Pike.
By James Rodgers Bolivar-The champion of South American Independence.
By Benjamin Paull-Gen. Andrew Jackson-The favorite of the friends of American Independence-the terror of those who would de- stroy the purity of our political institutions.
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By D. P. Wilkins - Major J .L. Finley, president of the day - Among the last of the revolutionary patriots.
By John Lodwick-The brave Major Croghan and his compan- ions in arms, 183, who defended Fort Stephenson against the British and Indian army of 1,200 men, commanded by Gen. Proctor and Col. Elliott.
By G. W. Sherrard-American Freemen-May they appreciate their liberty and perpetuate their freedom.
By A. McIntire-The Representatives in the next State Legisla- ture-May they at the critical period discharge their important trust.
By H. K. Stewart-The Fiftieth Year of American Independence -May this be a year of jubilee to the oppressed sons of Africa, and may slavery be expelled from the nation before the next fourth of July.
By Robert McDaied-May the members of the West Union Light Infantry feel that fire of patriotism, and that just pride and honor which fills the bosom of every true republican.
By John Patterson-The Citizens of the United States-"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."
By A. Cole-D. P. Wilkins-The orator of the day.
By Henry Steece-The Goddess of Liberty-May the smile of her countenance be the Polar Star, to direct the weary traveler to the man- sion of rest.
By John Fisher-The Second Tuesday of October next-In the election of officers may the citizens of Adams County consult their best judgments, and not be influenced by clerical, medical, or political knaves and quacks. .
SCOURGE OF ASIATIC CHOLERA. Cholera in West Union in 1835.
June 28, 1899, was the sixty-fourth anniversary of that first awful scourge of Asiatic cholera in West Union. At that time West Union was an inland village of scarcely four hundred people. Then, as now, it was the county seat.
To show the flight of time and the passage of events, we note the public officers and some of the prominent citizens. Robert Lucas was then governor of the state, and Thomas Morris, of Clermont, and Thomas Ewing, of Fairfield, were the United States senators. Thomas L. Hamer, of Brown, represented the county and district in congess. Gen. James Pilson, of Brown, was state senator, and John Patterson was a member of the house of representatives from Adams. Hon. John W. Price was the presiding judge of the court of common pleas, and Robert Morrison, Samuel McClannahan, and Joseph Eylar were the associate judges. William Kirker, Jacob Treber, and Seth Van Meter were the county commissioners. Gen. Joseph Darlinton was the clerk of the courts. James Smith was county recorder. Leonard Cole was county auditor, and James Hood county treasurer. Joseph W. Laf- ferty was postmaster, and kept the office on the corner of Mulberry and Cherry streets, where James Moore formerly resided. Rev. John P. Vandyke was the minister of the Presbyterian Church; Rev. James
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Caskey of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and Rev. John A. Baughman and Maxwell P. Gaddis of the Methodist Church. Rev. Dyer Burgess was residing in West Union at that time, in what is now the Palace Hotel. The village had but one physician, Dr. William B. Willson, who resided on the lot where Jacob Pflaummer now lives; but he had a medical student, Dr. David M. McConaughy, lately of Man- chester. Dr. T. P. Hamilton, a son-in-law of Mrs. Jane Armstrong, was there as a physician, but left when the cholera appeared and went to Ripley. The lawyers of the place were the Hon. Nelson Barrere, later of Hillsboro; George Collings, afterwards common pleas judge, and father of the present Judge Henry Collings; James Keenin, whose subsequent history is unknown to the writer; and Daniel P. Wilkins, who was one of the victims.
Alexander Woodrow and William Carl were undertakers and made coffins. The only newspaper published in the town was the Free Press, owned by Recorder James Smith and Robert Jackman, and was edited by James Carl. John Sparks was then conducting the West Union Bank. The merchants of the village were Wesley Lee, Samuel Mccullough, and James Hood. The grave digger at that time was Samuel Ross.
Of those named as citizens of West Union sixty years ago, all have passed away. There are only nine persons now residing in West Union who were living in 1835. These are Joseph Hayslip, Sam- uel Burwell, Sarah Boyles, Margaret Darlinton, Louis and Mary O. John- son, Mrs. Caroline Worstell, and William Allen and wife. Of those there during the scourge, but now residing away, only one is surviving at the date of this article, David Sinton, of Cincinnati, who is in his ninety-first year.
The cholera had ravaged Maysville, Ky., in 1832, and had been in Cincinnati. Many citizens of Maysville and Cincinnati had spent the summer in West Union, and in the country, believing that the cholera would not come there. While, therefore, the citizens dreaded the cholera, and regarded it as a visitation of God, they hardly expected it to appear in their village. The people, however, had cause to appre- hend its visitation. In 1833 Miss Sallie Sparks (nee Sinton), wife of John Sparks, the banker, had died at Union Landing. On the fourth of June, 1835, Alexander Mitchell, father of R. A. Mitchell, of Ports- mouth, Ohio, and of Mrs. Samuel Burwell, had died of it at Maysville, Ky. His widow is now living at Portsmouth, Ohio, at the age of 93, and is in good health. Mitchell was only thirty years of age, and left four children. He was a miller on Brush Creek. He died at Mays- ville, Ky., on his way to Cincinnati. Dr. William Voris, who was with him when he died, a young man of 33 years, living at Brush Creek Forge, went on to Cincinnati, and was there taken with the dread di- sease, and died on June 7. He left a widow, the daughter of Col. John Means, and three young children, daughters. Both Mitchell and Voris were well known, and their tragic deaths created a profound impression on the village of West Union. There were many sad forebodings. The spring was backward and cold; there was much damp weather; the weatherboarding of the houses collected an unusual amount of
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green moss on the northern sides. The spring birds came as usual, but the martins departed before the cholera came.
Thursday before it appeared-June 25, 1835-there had been a heavy rain, the hardest ever known. Heavy wintry looking clouds hung in the sky. On Saturday afternoon Daniel P. Wilkins noticed an ominous looking cloud, and on going home at evening remarked to his wife that the cholera had come, and the strange cloud was its portent.
The Methodists had a quarterly meeting appointed for Saturday and Sunday. They held their meeting on Saturday and Sunday morn- ing, but after the morning meeting, all fled. In an ex- perience meeting on Saturday, Mrs. Hughes, who lived on the Robert Ellison farm, arose and stated that she did not fear man, cholera or the devil-all of which those who knew her believed to be strictly true. The connection in which she made this statement has not been preserved. The inference is that she did fear God, and Him only. The presence of the dread visitant was known on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock. It was known at that time that Mrs. Prudence Woodrow, a young married woman, the wife of Alexander Woodrow, a cabinet maker, as he was then called, had the disease. She was the first one to be attacked. She suffered all night, and died the next day, the fateful Sunday. She was buried at 5 P. M. Sunday. Mrs. Rebecca Moody was the only woman who attended her interment.
Hamilton Dunbar, aged 53, the father of the now venerable David Dunbar, of Manchester, Ohio, was taken sick late in the evening, and died about 4 o'clock the next (Sunday) morning. He was buried that afternoon in the Lovejoy graveyard. His body was taken out in a wagon, and those who attended the funeral followed behind on foot. This was the usual custom at that time, when hearses were unknown. Hon. Nelson Barrere was one of those who followed the wagon con- taining the body.
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Hamilton Dunbar's was the first death that day, though Mrs. Woodrow was the first one attacked. Mrs. Woodrow was the second one to die. She left four young children, Henry, Edgar, Andrew, and Prudence, all of whom lived to maturity, but the last three named have passed away. Henry is still living in Cincinnati. Samuel Mccullough, aged sixty, who came from Rockbridge County, Virginia, about 1816, was keeping a store in a frame building where Miller's and Bunn's drug store now stands. He had lost his wife the February previous, after a long illness of consumption, and was lodging in the rear of the store- room. He, too, was taken sick in the night. Cyrus Ellison, late of Ironton, was with him all night, and ministered to his needs as well as he could. Samuel Mccullough was the father of the late Addison Mc- Cullough, of Ironton, and William McCullough, of Sidney, Ohio. He died at-5 A. M. on June 28, and was taken for burial to Tranquility, Ohio, the same day.
John Seaman lived outside of West Union about two miles. On the twenty-seventh he was at work for Abraham Hollingsworth, exca- vating the cellar of the house where Miss Caroline Hollingsworth for- merly resided. He went home Saturday afternoon, expecting to re- sume work again Monday morning. He was in the prime of life, and
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the father of the late Franklin Seaman. He was attacked in the night, and died on the twenty-eighth.
John Hyde was a young man from Maysville, Ky. He was visit- ing in Adams County at different places. On Saturday afternoon, the twenty-seventh, he went to the residence of his brother-in-law, the late John Loughridge, four miles south of West Union, to spend Sunday. He was in excellent health and spirits, and sat up late that evening talking with the family. He retired as well as any one .At 2 o'clock on the morning of the twenty-eighth the cholera attacked him, and he began vomiting and had the most severe cramps. The rice-water dis- charges appeared at once, and he suffered until 10 o'clock in the morn- ing, when he died. He was buried that evening on the Loughridge farm. We have the account from the late John Loughridge, who re- sided in Manchester, and who was with him on that memorable day.
John Sinton, the father of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, was 71 years of age. He was taken with the disease and died on the twenty-eighth. David Sinton, his son, was then at Union Landing. He was sent for by a messenger overland, but did not reach West Union until two days after his father had been buried. John Sinton was buried on Sunday evening in the village cemetery.
Rebecca Cluxton was a young married woman, 19 years of age. She was the wife of Jedediah Foster, and the handsomest woman in the village. She was taken at noon on the twenty-eighth, and died that day, and was buried in the village cemetery. Her husband was engaged in the manufacture of chairs in the village. They were made at that time principally by hand, and not by machinery. Mrs. Foster was buried in an unstained poplar coffin at 9 A. M. on Monday morn- ing, the twenty-eighth. Her body was hauled to the cemetery in David Bradford's wagon. Mrs. Nancy Hollingsworth was with her from her attack until she died. She left a seven months old baby, a daughter, who grew to maturity and married Jedediah Foster. Her husband is living at Chester, Ky.
John H. Thomason, a boy aged 14, was taken with the disease and died on the 28th. The Thomason boy ate his dinner on Sunday and was taken sick right away. He died towards evening and was buried before dark on the same evening.
Thus, eight persons died that Sunday when the disease appeared, and all within six or eight hours from the time they were attacked. The village was at once shut up; no one went in and no one came out except the Armstrong family, whose members went to Ripley. The country people would not come to the village for their mail or any- thing else. The citizens, as much as possible remained in their homes, and did not go out, except to minister to the sick, or to bury the dead. They would eat no fruits, believing if they did, they would be attacked with the cholera. They lived chiefly on bread and milk. There was one notable and noted exception; this was Rev. Dyer Burgess. He went everywhere and told the people that slavery was worse than the cholera. He circulated his abolition tracts right along, and wherever he could nurse the sick, or pray with them, or minister to their needs in any way, he would do so, and it made no difference whether the persons ministered to were friends or enemies. He alone, of all the
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people in the village, ate all the fruit he wished; and to show his con- tempt for current theories during the scourge, he sat in his front door and ate publicly, a whole dish of sliced cucumbers, which, at that time, were believed to be sure death. Rev. Burgess had defied public senti- ment so long and so vigorously as to slavery and masonry, that it was no difficulty with him, to defy it as to cholera.
On June 30th, Levi Rogers died. He was a farmer northwest of the village. He had been a chair-maker in West Union. He was buried in the Kirker Cemetery. On July Ist William McGovney died:
On July 7th, Susan Hollingsworth, a girl of twelve years, the daughter of Abraham Hollingsworth, died. She was sick only eight hours. During the pestilence, the father and mother visited all the sufferers and ministered to them.
On July IIth, Daniel P. Wilkins died, aged thirty-seven. He was one of the lawyers of the village, and the father of Mrs. John Eylar, and the grandfather of Mr. John A. Eylar, of Waverly. He was attacked at ten o'clock in the morning of July 11th. Dr. Willson was called but failed to arrest the course of the disease. Rev. Dyer Burgess called at eleven o'clock, but did not remain because he saw no pros- pect of a favorable termination of the case. The victim's pulse ceased to be noted at the wrist one hour after he was attacked. At 3 P. M. there were several standing around him and he remarked that "A regiment of men could not console a dying man at such an hour as this."
He continued to sink until 8 P. M. when he died.
On the following day, July 12, Roland Dyer died at the age of thirty-two. He was a stage driver and a single man. On July 13th, Col. John McDade died; he was a well known citizen and had been. sheriff of the county.
Death then rested from his labors until July 29th, when he took Mrs. Sarah Armstrong. At the beginning she had gone to Ripley to escape the disease. After the death of Col. McDade, she came home, opened her house and died.
On August 3rd, Captain John Vance died. He was the last vic- tim, and the sixteenth one who died; and at this point the scourge was stayed.
Those were the primitive days. All of these victims were buried with their feet to the east, in shrouds, made of white jaconet. Mrs. Wm. Killin made the most of them. The family in which the death occurred purchased the material, and the usual price of making was one dollar, a great sum in those days. No person in West Union was buried without a shroud, till in 1849. Wesley Lee was the first person in West Union ever buried in a suit of clothes.
Alexander Woodrow, William Carl and Robert Wood were coffin makers of that day. The coffins were all made to measure after death ; were usually made of walnut, and plain, waxed or polished as parties ordered.
Coffins were not lined and hearses were unknown at that time; but even then the custom of carrying the corpse on a bier borne on men's shoulders, had ceased. The dead were hauled to the cemeteries in a common road wagon, and the mourners or friends, walked be-
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hind. The cholera funerals were attended only by a sufficient num- ber to make the interment,-usually three to four, and there were no religious exercises whatever.
There were two persons in the village, reckless dissipated men, who at this time showed themselves heroes. They were David Brad- ford and Samuel Ross. They went everywhere, ministered to the sick and dying, and attended the funerals. They did not hesitate to ex- pose themselves in any manner to the risk of the disease. They vied with the Rev. Burgess in their good offices in every family which had the disease. There were no paid or trained nurses in those days, and the nursing and care of the sick was a voluntary matter. These three persons came forward and made themselves the cholera nurses of that time. Samuel Ross dug most of the graves. The latter has been for- gotten but his good deeds are no doubt perserved by the Recording Angel.
Oblivion is fast claiming the record of the time. No one contem- poraneous wrote it up, and in searching for information, I have been met on every hand by failure and disappointment. Most of the old people, who could at one time, recollect it, have their faculties so af- fected by the infirmities of age, that they cannot recall it; and those who might have recollected, have forgotten, and the facts here pre- sented, were obtained only after the most long continued and faithful research.
The Cholera of 1849.
In this year, the cholera prevailed in three places in Adams County ; in West Union, in Jefferson Township and in Wayne Township. It had been fourteen years since the epidemic of 1835, and the people felt safer. In this case, as in that of 1835, the disease was brought from Cincinnati. Adam McCormick was one of the most prominent citizens of Adams County. He had married Margaret Ellison, the daugther of Andrew Ellison. He resided in the brick house, now the Palace Hotel. He owned numerous farms in Adams County and real estate in Cincinnati. He was a member of the Baptist Church in West Union, the most prom- inent layman in it, and superintendent of its Sunday school. He had come from Ireland, a penniless youth and acquired a fortune. He had been to Cincinnati to attend to business relating to his property there. He came home about July Ist. On the second he took the cholera, and early on the morning of the third, he died and was buried the same day. The Rev. Allgood, a Baptist minister, conducted his funeral services. Dr. William F. Willson was then practicing medicine in West Union. as was Dr. David Coleman, and they were in partnership. They at- tended him. He was 65 years of age and his death was a great loss to the community. Robert S. Willson attended his funeral on the third. At 9 A. M. on the fourth, he was taken violently ill, and suffered ex- tremely until 8 P. M., when he died. Dr. William F. Willson attended him, but was unable to give any relief or save him. He was 61 years of age and left a large family of sons and daughters. He was buried the next day in the village cemetery, and Rev. John Graham, D. D., then pastor of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church attended the funeral. On the 13th, Rev. Graham was taken sick with the cholera, and died with it on the 15th. He had a very severe case and suffered in-
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tensely. At the time he died, his son David, was lying seriously ill with the disease too sick to know of his father's death. The son, however, recovered. Rev. Graham had lived in West Union since 1841. He was of the brightest type of Christian character and was much beloved. He left a widow, two grown sons and three daughters. He received a pub- lic funeral and was buried in the village cemetery. On July 17th, the cholera broke out in Jefferson Township. James Scott, aged 61, died that day. Mary A. Mason died July 21st, David Mason died July 26, Margaret Mason died July 28, aged 27 and Samuel Mason died July 29th. These were in the eastern part of the township. John Edmin- ston brought the disease from Cincinnati to Cedar Mills. He had an attack of the disease as soon as he returned from the city and he re- covered, but three of the members of his family died. Then the widow Beatty and daughter had it. They both recovered. John Nichols and his child then took it. He recovered and the child died. Then three of Madison Bradney's children took it, but all recovered. Samuel Wal- lace, his wife and child had it. He and his wife died. His child re- covered. J. M. Fisher had an attack and recovered. There were two cases in the same vicinity in 1852. Isaac Smith brought it from Cin- cinnati and died July 19th. James N. Fisher, who recovered of it in 1849, died of it July 20, 1852. Dr. David Coleman attended all the cases at Cedar Mills in 1849 and 1852 except that of Isaac Smith.
The epidemic was brought to the vicinity of North Liberty in the summer of 1849. The germs were brought in the body of Samuel F. McIntire, who had visited Cincinnati. He was the son of Col. Andrew McIntire. He was 29 years of age. He took the disease and suc- cumbed in a few hours. His father, Col. Andrew McIntire, aged 63, died of it the next day, and his mother, Elizabeth McIntire, aged 62, died of it within thirty minutes from the death of her husband. Three more of the McIntire family had it, but recovered. They were S. Dyer Mc- Intire, Jane McIntire and L. Lindsey McIntire, two sons and a daughter of Col. Andrew McIntire.
John F. Wasson resided on an adjoining farm to that of Col. Mc- Intire. He and his wife and sons and daughters attended the family of Col. McIntire during their sickness of cholera. Samuel H. Finley and Margaret Wylie, a maiden lady, neighbors, were at the house of Col. McIntire during his sickness and on the occasion of his death. About August 10, 1849, the two latter each took the cholera and died. Fin- ley was aged 22 years and Miss Wylie, about 40. Samuel C. Wasson, aged 45, a brother of John F., took the cholera and died August 11th. His wife, Jane, aged 42, died of it on the 14th. John F. Wasson and his wife, Rebecca, both had it about August 10, 1849, and both recovered. James Park, a neighbor, also had it and recovered.
The course of these cases would prove clearly that cholera was prop- agated by germs or bacilli, and that the period of incubation is from a week to ten days. From F. McIntire's visit to Cincinnati until his attack, was about ten days, and those persons who took it from the epidemic in the McIntire family took it about ten days after their ex- posure to the disease at Col. McIntire's residence. No precautions were taken at that time to destroy the germs or prevent the spread of the disease. It is remarkable that there were not more cases in the vicinity
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