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 46

Author: Evans, Nelson Wiley, 1842-1913; Stivers, Emmons Buchanan
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: West Union, O., E.B. Stivers
Number of Pages: 1101

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 46

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

of Cherry Fork. Had the facts upon the subject now known, been known then, Col. McIntire's family might have been saved and if that could not have been done, the lives of all the others who died in that vicinity, would certainly have been saved.

The cholera also prevailed at Jacksonville (Dunbarton P. O.) in August, 1849. Dr. Cephas Little died of it. He was about the age of 60. Dr. Wheaton, about the same age, also died of it. Samuel Elli- son, about the same age, died of it. Abraham Wisecup, an aged man, also died of it: Samuel Thomas, aged about 60, died of it. William Thoromon's wife died of it. These deaths all occurred within a period of a few weeks. The victims were all buried within a few hours after death. Dr. Andrew Barry Jones went to the village after the death of persons above named. There were several cases after he came, but all recovered.

The Cholera in West Union in 1851.

At that period, the pestilence was looked upon as the visitation of God. People dreaded it as such and felt helpless before it. They felt prepared to die when it attacked them and many died from fear of the disease. Had the people in West Union known what we know now, they could not only have prevented the scourge, but have stayed it after its outbreak. . In 1835, in 1849 and in 1851, it was in each instance brought from Cincinnati. West Union then, as now, had no sanitary regulations. It was built on a hill and its entire soil, below a few feet, is underlaid with solid limestone. There is no way to drain the town ex- cept by surface draining. The vaults are nowhere over three to four ieet deep and their contents can drain into the wells and may do so. The writer believes that all cases of typhoid fever in the village might be traced to this scource. Just before St. John's day in 1851, Francis Shinn, then auditor of the county, and one of the most prominent and popular men in the county, went to Cincinnati to procure supplies for a. Masonic celebration which had been planned for that day. Wilson Prather also went at the same time. The weather had been sultry and rainy for some time before the outbreak and during the pestilence it rained frequently and torrents poured down. The Masonic celebration was held June 24, 1851 in the court house yard. Mr. Shinn had ex- hausted himself in his trip to Cincinnati and in his work on the day of celebration. He at that time resided at the southeast corner of Walnut and Market streets in the property afterwards used by J. W. Lafferty for carding machines. He went home on the evening of June 24th, tired and worn out and that evening was attacked with cholera, the first case in the village. A great many people rushed in to see him and to tender their sympathies and services. This continued until his death, early in the morning of June 26th and until after his death and funeral, the people of the village flocked to his house. It was arranged that he should have a public Masonic funeral on the 27th, which was given him. Mrs. Margaret Buchanan remained in his home from the begin- ing of his sickness until his funeral. Then she and her husband and child drove overland to Chillicothe, Ohio, and remained there until July 9th, when they returned home. There was no further case of the disease until July Ist, when George Shinn, the father of Francis Shinn, who had been

Digitized by Google

379

MISCELLANEOUS

at his son's house on a visit, when the latter was taken sick and had remain- ed over until after his son died. The father was sick but a few hours and died in the early morning hours of July 2d. On July 6th, Mrs. Eliza- beth Lytle, mother of Mrs. Frances Shinn, and who had been visiting there, took sick and died. On the 7th, Francis A. G. Shinn, a son of Francis Shinn, took the disease and died. Thus four persons died in the same house.

On July 9th, Horatio Cole, who lived at the foot of the hill on the Decatur road, whose system had been weakened by the free use of liquor, was attacked in the afternoon. He was taken to the Marlatt Tavern, and died at 8 o'clock that evening and was buried that night. On the evening of the 9th of July, Mrs. Margaret Lee Buchanan and her hus- band, John Buchanan and their child returned from Chillicothe, Ohio, where they had been staying for some days. All of them were feeling quite well, but on that evening Mrs. Buchanan was attacked by the disease in its worst form. She suffered the most extreme agony for a few hours and then died Mrs. Minnick attended her as a nurse and physician and said that no other case in West Union suffered as she did. She was only sick about six hours. On the 11th, Mrs. Mary Lafferty, an aged lady, died, and on the 12th, John Buchanan, husband of Margaret Buchanan, died. On the 13th of July, Thomas Prather, a boy, son of Wilson Prather, died, and on the same day, Ann Olivia Prather, a beautiful girl of fifteen years, his daughter, died. Thus eleven had died within fifteen days and in four families only, but many more had been sick with bowel disease and what they believed to be cholera. The princi- pal physician of the place, Dr. David Coleman, had been busy all the time and was almost exhausted. He had attended nearly all the cases, Dr. Sprague having left and gone to the house of his friend, Oliver Tompkins, on Gift Ridge, just after the outbreak of the pestilence. Mrs. Barbara Minnick acted as nurse and physician both during the epidemic and did most unremitting work. Both Dr. David Coleman and she earned their crowns and harps from Heaven, during the scourge, and are doubtless enjoying them now. It is a great pity that they did not each write out and leave behind them their experiences. During the fifteen days the disease first prevailed, the volunteer nurses were David Graham, Frank Hayslip, Porter Marlatt, Michael Mider, John and Wil- liam Holmes. The undertakers were George M. Lafferty, Joseph Hay- slip, Alexander Woodrow and William Carl. Lafferty and Hayslip were partners. Alexander Woodrow and William Carl had separate shops. They made all their coffins after receiving orders, except Mr. Woodrow who aimed to keep seven or eight ahead, but all were made of walnut by hand. Thomas H. Marshall and James R. Oldsen were the grave diggers at that time. Nelson B. Lafferty then a boy of thir- teen went everywhere, carrying messages keeping off flies, doing errands, etc. He exposed himself everywhere among the sick and dying and was untouched. It is largely due to his excellent memory that this article is as full as it appears.

After the funeral of Francis Shinn, there were no more public funerals of the cholera victims, and no religious exercises at them, ex- cept in case of Gen. Darlinton when Rev. Vandyke repeated a prayer at the grave. The only attendants at the funerals, subsequent to those of

Digitized by Google

380

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

Francis Shinn, were just sufficient to make interment. Many left the town after the 14th. Edward P. Evans and his wife had both been sick, and on the 15th, they took their son Wiley, and Mrs. Evans' mother, Mrs. King, and went to Decatur, Ohio, where they remained till after the plague was abated. When the disease broke out a second time on July 24th, there was a general exodus of the inhabitants and this by the advice of Dr. Coleman. About June 28th, David Graham went to Chillicothe, when his sister Ellen (now Mrs. Gowdy of Des Moines, Iowa) was teaching and remained a considerable time. Mrs. Minnick went to Chillicothe about the 28th of June and returned at the same time with Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan. David Graham told his sister, Ellen, on his arrival at Chillicothe, that if he took sick with cholera to send for Mrs. Minnick, then in the town, for she had been very successful with her little pills. '

The family of Col. Cockerill went to his father's at Mt. Leigh. Mr. and Mrs. McCauslen, just married the winter before, went to Aberdeen. Judge Smith's family went to Yellow Bud, and many others went into the country near by. Alex. Mitchell, then eighteen years of age, was an apprentice working for Lafferty and Hayslip, and saw much of the epidemic. Joseph W. Lafferty and his family did not leave, nor were they attacked by the disease, though persons died all around them. This can be attributed to the fact that as soon as the disease appeared, Mr. Lafferty consulted Dr. Coleman, obtained a number of remedies and kept them at hand. He fixed a diet for his family and all lived up to it. At the slightest appearance of any symptoms of bowel disease, he began giving remedies and as a result, he and his family all came out unscathed when their neighbors died. On July 24th, the cholera deaths began again and continued for nine days. On that day, Mary B. Prather, a daughter of Wilson Prather died. On the 26th, George Grant, her mother's brother died. On the 27th, Miss Margaret McCauley, Lewis Sanders, William Santee and Miss Caroline McCauley all died, the last three being young persons. On the 29th, Miss Caroline Lafferty (whose grandmother had died on the 11th) and Miss Alice Brooks Prather died. On the 30th, there were four deaths, Mrs. Jane Crawford, Mrs. Mary Hitchens, Francis M. Hayslip and his sister Margaret. The two latter died within five minutes of each other.

On the 31st of July, Andrew Haines died. On the first of August, Miss Cornelia Santee died. On the 2d day of August, Gen. Joseph Darlinton, Mrs. John Sanders and Robert Jackman, the postmaster and publisher of the West Union Intelligencer died, and there the disease stayed.

During the prevalence of the disease in the village, the following persons died in the vicinity : Parker Young, Miss Mary Young, Miss Elt- zannah Owen, Arthur McFarland and Wilson Crawford. After the burial of Francis Shinn, all the victims were buried, within four hoursafter death. Gen. Darlinton died about 7 A. M. and was interred at 11 A. M. But four persons attended his funeral, Geo. M. Lafferty, the undertaker ; his son, Doddridge ; his grandson, Edward, and the Rev. John P. Vandyke. Four of the victims were buried by night; Horatio N. Cole, Mrs. Hitchens, Jane Crawford and Robert Jackman. Mrs. Hitchens was taken sick, in the morning and died in the evening. Between the 24th

Digitized by Google

881

MISCELLANEOUS

of July and the 2d of August, all places of business were closed. The most of the inhabitants had fled. The grass grew rank in the streets, except certain spots where great fires had been built and tar barrels burned for the purpose of purifying the air. The country people would not come into the village for any purpose, but would open the fields ad- joining and go around it. James Hood gave the key of his store to Dr. Coleman and told him of a barrel of brandy in his cellar and of the con- tents of the store and to help himself and others to any and all of it, and then left the town. Doctors Shackelford of Maysville and Van- meter of Ecksmansville, each spent one day among the cholera patients in West Union. During the disease, fruit and vegetables were avoided and the people subsisted on ham, bread, butter and tea. Mutton was thought to be a suitable diet in that time and was freely used. Mr. Abraham Hollingsworth undertook to and did supply mutton and mutton broth to the families having cholera cases, and he was a minister- ing angel during the disease. There was a feeling of gloom, of sadness and awe pervaded the community during the epidemic. Men and women moved about in silence. Each one lived every hour as though he or she expected the next call from the Fell Destroyer. Business was not thought of. In fact, there was no business except to attend to the sick and dying and to bury the dead as quickly as possible.

The fact that Joseph W. Lafferty and his family of five persons, breathed the same atmosphere and drank the same water as the cholera patients and remained through the entire thirty-seven days of the epi- demic without being attacked, speaks volumes for the virtue of pre- caution. Dr. David Coleman has left the statement that there were premonitory symptoms of the attack from 12 to 24 hours before the disease could be pronounced cholera, and that if the patient sought medical aid and relief at the very outset of the symptoms, he could be relieved in nearly every case, but if he waited until he had a well de- veloped case. the disease was more likely to prove fatal. The fact is that most of the victims would not apply for medical assistance until the disease was fully developed in them. Another fact was that many of the patients, when attacked, gave up at once to die and then died. Had every one taken precautions, there would have been but few deaths, but in those days, cholera was looked upon as a deadly disease and those attacked, at once gave up all hopes.

Gen. Darlinton had dreaded it since 1835. When attacked he at once succumbed. His great age, however, was a factor against him. However, while no age was spared, the young people furnished the greater number of victims. Dr. David Coleman went everywhere among the cholera patients. For ten days or longer of the plague, he was the only physician. He was not attacked, neither were any of his family. Mr. J. W. Lafferty, who took all the precautions sug- gested by Dr. Coleman, prevented his family from any attack. There is no doubt but that those who died, neglected precautions and prelimi- nary symptoms until the disease was fully developed in them and then it was too late. We now know that cholera is a germ disease. That by proper sanitary precautions both by the community and the individual, its attacks can be prevented. It is a disease which can only flourish where there is neglect of the proper preventives. No com-

Digitized by Google

382

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

munity in the state ever suffered with cholera as did West Union. For a long time after the epidemic of 1851, the whole town was depressed. It was thought that if cholera ever again visited the United States, West Union would be first to be scourged. Real estate, for several years after the cholera, was sold remarkably cheap, and it took years to bring the values back.

But we now know that the experience of the town of 1851 need never be repeated and that cholera can never scourge the community again, unless the people fail and refuse to take the precautions which will surely keep the disease at bay. That they will do, and so the story of the cholera in 1851 will go down to posterity as a chapter that will never be repeated in the history of the town. There is no doubt the cholera germs were brought there by Francis Shinn and Wilson Prather from Cincinnati. There is no doubt but that the whole town was infected by the attendance at the house of Francis Shinn during his sickness and after his death, until his funeral, and by neglect to burn the dejections from the cholera patients. It was also fostered and helped by neglect of those taken sick to be treated in the earliest symp- toms of the disease, and many died of fear, believing the disease, once fully developed, was necessarily fatal. It will be noted that of the vol- unteer cholera nurses who devoted themselves without stint to the sick and dying, only one died, Frank W. Hayslip, and none but he took the disease,

If ever West Union should erect a monument to the memory of the victims of the scourges of 1835, 1849 and 1851, there. beside the names of the victims should appear the names of Dr. David Coleman, Mrs. Barbara Minnick and the volunteer nurses, David B. Graham, William Holmes, Porter Marlatt, John Holmes and Michael Mider. None of them considered their lives in their labor. No greater heroism was ever shown anywhere than by these persons. When most of the population left, they remained and did their work regardless of the consequences to themselves.

And may their heroic services be remembered as long as the town exists.

The Oldest House in Ohio.

There is a spot on the Ohio River four miles above Manchester whose natural beauty attracted the admiration of the untutored sav- ages who roamed the primitive forests before they had ever met the white men. There they visited and there they maintained an outlook up and down the Ohio River and over the adjacent country. There they buried their distinguished dead, whose graves are known to this day. But the Indians were not the only ones whom the spot impressed with its beauty. The first white man who ever visited it was so charmed by the natural beauty of the situation and surroundings that he immediately took steps to and did secure it as his own.

Gen. Nathaniel Massie visited this place in 1791, and so de- lighted was he with it that he proceeded to locate it as his own. It is a high, almost level plateau of land, even with the tops of the river hills around it, bounded on the south for a half mile by the Ohio River, on the east and west by the valleys of two small tributaries of the

Digitized by Google

----

---

383

MISCELLANEOUS

Ohio River, Donaldson's Creek, and Ellison's Run, and connecting at the north with Gift Ridge, a long and wide stretch of table land, parallel with the Ohio River for some miles. The southeast corner of this plateau affords a most magnificent view up the Ohio River, and valley for ten miles and over the fertile farms in Kentucky opposite. The view is much finer now than it was in 1791. Then there was nothing but forests everywhere, with the sparkling waters of the Ohio, like a silver thread amid the solid emerald; but besides the view up and down the river and across into the rich valley lands in Kentucky, there is now a view of the ridges, table lands, and forest covered hills to the north that is as entrancing as the views to the east, to the south and to the west.

Gen. Massie built a cabin of buckeye logs here on the southeast corner of the plateau and called it Buckeye Station. Here he came to hunt, to enjoy the grand views, to rest and recuperate himself. To secure his choice location from the Indians he took up the entire Gift Ridge to the north of it for four or five miles, with military warrants, and gave the land to those who would settle on it and thus placed a cordon between him and the hostiles. Massie was a brave man but he liked company when the Indians were expected. So captivated with his place was he that, notwithstanding the fact that he laid out Chillicothe in 1796, and then took up a fine body of land on Paint Creek, in Ross County, in the summer of 1797, he proceeded to erect a frame house on this place, when the erection of a frame house was a remarkable undertaking. The house is located about ten rods back of the cliff on the south, overlooking the Ohio River and. about five rods from the bluffs on the east overlooking Donaldson's Creek, where on April 22, 1791, Israel Donalson was captured by a band of Indians. The timbers and boards for the inside and out, and for the floors were sawed out by hand with whip saws, and every nail in it was made by a blacksmith on an anvil. The house is but one story, but has two marvelously fine chimneys, one single and one double. Those chimneys were built most substantially. They stand today as perfect as when, one hundred and three years ago, the mason gave them the last stroke of his hammer and trowel.

The front of the house is to the south, with a side front to the east. Two rooms face the east, looking up the Ohio, and between them is the great double chimney. To the west is a wing with a hall and one large room, with the other stone chimney at the west end. The hall fronts the south, and besides the door on each side are two windows to enable the inmates to inspect a guest before his admission After entering the hall, there is a door on each side, entering the east and west rooms. Entering the east room from the hall, we find a win- dow to the south and another to the east, with very small panes of glass. The walls of this room and the other two were lined with wide, primitive boards and ceilings only were plastered. The floors were made of wide old-fashioned boards, such as are now no longer seen. The fire-place, in the east room is a feature. It is four feet high from the hearth to the arch and eight feet wide. To the left of this fire- place, as one stands before it, is a closet under the stairway from the north room. To the right is a door leading into the north room.

Digitized by

Google

384

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

Entering that we find a door and window to the east and a door and window to the west, the latter opening into a porch in the rear of the hall and west room. The fire place in this room was as capacious as that in the room north of it. The right of the chimney in the north room was a stairway leading to two attic rooms, sided and ceiled with boards over the north and south rooms. These rooms were quite small and no doubt had been used as sleeping rooms for guests. The porch to the north of the west room extended along it and the south end of the hall. The west room had the long stone single chimney, and over it an old-fashioned wooden-mantle of walnut, carved and figured, which, when the home was built, was the pride of the pro- prietor and the envy of his neighbors. The spaces between the outer weather boarding and the inner ceilings of the room had been filled with mortar. The floor boards, though very wide, were tongued and grooved and the weather boards were put on pointed instead of over- lapped. It is probable there had been additions to the house, but they were gone when we visited it. The grounds about the house were at one time tastefully laid out, and traces of the vanished beauty were still apparent. Two locust trees, the largest the writer ever saw, stand in front of the house to the south. They are each at least ten feet in circumference and not less than 100 years old. Between them had stood a monster cherry, and the trunk, prone on the earth, spoke of the grandeur when alive. At the northwest of the house, about ten yards distance, stands a living black heart cherry tree which measures thir- teen feet, six inches in girth. Its spreading limbs, projecting hori- zontally, are as large as ordinary trees of its kind.

While this house overlooks the one great highway, the Ohio River, and the other great highway, the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- road, with all boats and trains in view for miles, it is now one of the most inaccessible spots in the state. The hills in front descend sheer into the Ohio River without any shelf or bottom land within nearly a mile on either side of the property. It is only approachable by a road coming through farms from Gift Ridge in the rear and it is two miles from the station over the roughest and most primitive of roads, over stones and up and down hills to the nearest turnpike, or public highway. In early days when roads were of no consequence, it had a direct road to and from Manchester. The fact that the home is so out of the way has perserved it. Had it been upon a public highway, it would have been destroyed by fire, or torn down years ago. There are seven fine springs flowing from the hill- sides near the residence.

In a military point of view it is strategic. A fort on this property would command the Ohio valley up and down for miles, would com- mand the Kentucky hills to the south and the Ohio hills to the north. Fort Thomas, near Newport, Kentucky, should have been located here, and whenever it becomes necessary to have forts along the Ohio border, there will be one here.

At this place, Gen. Massie dwelt occasionally for the five years, from 1797 till 1802, but the shades of oblivion are so fast darkening the history of this hardy pioneer that little can be learned of his resi- dence at that time. Gen. Massie's wife was Susan Meade, of Chau-

Digitized by Google

885

MISCELLANEOUS

merie, Kentucky, formerly of Maycox, Prince George County, Va. Her sister married Charles Willing Byrd, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, succeeding Winthrop Sergeant and United States District Judge for Ohio from March 3, 1803, until August II, 1828. Judge Byrd bought this property, 600 acres, in 1807, of his brother-in-law, Gen. Massie, for $3,100, and moved there in June, 1807. He was then thirty-seven, and his wife was thirty-two, and his children were Mary, aged nine; Powell, aged 6; Kidder Meade, aged five; William Silonwee, aged two; and his daughter Evelyn, was born there in August, 1807. Judge Byrd had been born and reared at the princely estate of Westover, seven miles from Williamsburg, Va., and his wife on the large estate of her father, Col. David Meade, at Maycox, right opposite Westover. Both had been reared in all the luxury that the times of their childhood knew. From 1799 to 1807 they had re- sided in Cincinnati, then an insignificant village, and why Judge Byrd wanted to bring his young wife and babies to this wilderness, no one can now conjecture. Here he and his family saw the first steamboat descend the Ohio in 1811, and here his patient wife went to her ever- lasting reward on the 31st day of February, 1815, and was buried under a walnut tree some 200 yards from the house. Her grave is shown to this day.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 46

Author: Evans, Nelson Wiley, 1842-1913; Stivers, Emmons Buchanan Publication date: 1900 Publisher: West Union, O., E.B. Stivers Number of Pages: 1101

Author: Evans, Nelson Wiley, 1842-1913; Stivers, Emmons Buchanan
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: West Union, O., E.B. Stivers
Number of Pages: 1101