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 72
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February 8, 1813, he writes his friend, Robert, that he intends to leave Raleigh in the Spring and wants to come to Nelson C. H., if his friend thinks best. He is afraid the war is not pushed with energy and that the spirit of the nation has never been up to war pitch. He thinks there will be great difficulty in raising men and money and that the op- position to the war is so strong, and from the way in which the war was managed it will end in a separation of the Union and the destruction of our most excellent Constitution, though he will hope for better things.
February 24, 1813, he writes thanking his friend for full information as to the political situation. He doubts about purchasing spring goods, as the times are precarious. He thinks the Government will be com- pelled to repeal the non-importation law in order to get revenue, or otherwise levy taxes which will make it unpopular. He thinks in case of a repeal, goods would come in plenty through the neutrals. He thinks our privateers will not bring in many trips because the Brittish fleets will blockade Hampton Roads and other bays. He relates a duel between Thomas Stanley, of Newbern, and a Mr. Henry, of the same place, in which the former was killed by the latter. The cause of the duel was that Henry had paid attentions to Stanley's sister, and then dropped her.
May 20, 1813, he writes from Cecil County, Maryland, that he had made money by his venture in Raleigh. He went to Petersburg, Va., to change the State notes of North Carolina for Virginia as they would not pass to the north of that place and could not be changed at par, at any other place. He says goods were too high in Baltimore to purchase with any safety as the war might stop and drop prices. He informs his
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cousin that he has changed his state of life and married his cousin, Mary McVey ; that she is the only child and daughter of his Uncle McVey, who owns a fine farm on the main stage road from Philadelphia to Balti- more with some negroes and other property. "As to her qualities, you will no doubt think me a partial judge." He says her qualities justified his choice and her appearance pleased his fancy.
He says the injury done there by the British caused nothing but alarm and since the British went down the bay, politics have been more tranquil, but they are so divided on politics, they are continually on the jar.
He says the epithet "Tory," is brandished on all occasions and that all the entire party seems to be aiming at military despotism, if they could obtain it. He asks his friend's views of the political situation and to tell him how the elections have terminated in Virginia and how his specula- tion in flour has turned out, in view of the blockade.
The last letter is April 12, 1815. He writes that since the peace, prices of grain have fallen instead of raised and the public was disap- pointed. That wheat was only one dollar per bushel and other grain correspondingly low. He complained that times were dull. He wants his friend to secure him house and store-room at Nelson C. H. He de- sired to be informed as to the election and the result of the contest between Epps and Randolph. In every letter, he sends his regards to his wife and family, and his friends, and all the letters are written on plain paper, now yellow with age, and folded, sealed with a wafer seal and addressed on the fourth page. They are addressed to Robert Shaw, at Buckingham C. H., Virginia, and are marked "free." They mark the writer as a student of the times, deeply interested in political matters and a Federalist. His friend, Robert Shaw, no doubt, was of the same political faith. The letters of Robert Shaw to Samuel Mccullough have not been preserved.
Mccullough emigrated to Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1815, and from there to Adams County, Ohio, in 1816, where he followed the business of merchandising during the remainder of his life. His wife died February 6, 1835, at the age of forty-three, at West Union, Ohio, of consumption, after a long illness. He died on the eighth of June. 1835, of Asiatic cholera in his store in West Union on the spot where Miller and Bunn's drug store now stands. He was born May 5, 1775, and she was seventeen years his junior. They were the parents of Addison Mccullough, deceased, and of William McCullough, of Sidney, Ohio.
Samuel Mccullough, for the nineteen years he resided in Adams County, was a just and good man and respected by every one. He was quiet and unobtrusive in his views, but a reader and thinker who kept him- self well informed on all public questions. He was by instinct and train- ing a merchant. He knew the right time to buy and the right time to sell.
He was a successful merchant-always made money. He was trained to the business from boyhood and seemed to have a natural faculty for it. His son, John, died at Catlettsburg, Ky., in 1851. Addison died at Point Pleasant, W. Va., November 16, 1876. A son, George W., died in infancy. Mr. Mccullough lost his wife February 6, 1835, just a few months before his own tragic death of Asiatic cholera. The ashes of both repose in the cemetery at Tranquility, Ohio.
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Addison Mccullough
was born in Adams County, April 25, 1817. His parents were Samuel Mccullough and his wife, Mary McVey, both from Cecil County, Mary- land. His childhood and boyhood were spent in West Union, where his father was a prominent and successful merchant. He was attending col- lege at Augusta, Kentucky, in June, 1835, when he was called home by the death of his father. He did not return to school but took charge of his father's business which he continued successfully in West Union, until 1847, when he closed it out and invested the proceeds in Star Furnace in Carter County, Kentucky. He was married in West Union on June 27, 1837, to Eliza Ann Willson, eldest daughter of Dr. Wm. B. Willson. He left West Union in the winter of 1847 and 1848 and removed to Catletts- burg, Kentucky. He was the financial agent of Lampton, Mccullough & Company, of Star Furnace, until 1854, when he sold a portion of his in- terest in the concern and purchased an interest in Hecla Furnace. At this time, he removed to Ironton, which continued his residence until his death. He continued his connection with Hecla Furnace until his death. His wife died December 16, 1868, at Ironton, and he died at the resi- dence of his daughter, Mrs. Ella Capehart, at Point Pleasant, West Vir- ginia, November 16, 1876. Both are interred at Woodlawn near Ironton
Addison McCullough was of a thoughtful and serious mind; he was religious by nature and instinct. In West Union, he lived in an atmos- phere of earnest and sincere religious influence. He joined the Presby- terian Church at West Union at an early age, and when there was a division in the church there on account of slavery, he, with the family of Dr. William B. Willson and others, went into a new church organiza- tion in which he and Dr. William B. Willson were made elders. He was highly respected and much loved by the people of West Union, and when he left there in 1848 there was universal regret and heartfelt grief. He was a loving and lovable man, and his practical charity while in West Union had endeared him to all. Soon after he located in Ironton, he was made an elder in the church there and filled that office until his death. Though a thorough business man, the church held his affec- tions and he was always present at all its services and social meetings. He was of a quiet disposition and spoke ill of no one. In the church meeting, he was earnest and fervent, eloquent in speech and prayer. He was a diligent biblical student and was faithful in his attendance in the teacher's meetings for the study of the Bible.
He was respected and esteemed by every one in Ironton as a model citizen and a true Christian gentleman. His death was like his life. His last illness continued eight weeks and he suffered much, but no com- plaint escaped him. The consolations of his religion made his final hours full of mental joy.
His children are Mr. Samuel Mccullough, born in West Union, now a resident of Washington, D. C., where he holds a government position ; Mrs. Julia Sechler, wife of Thomas M. Sechler, of Moline, Illinois; Mrs. Ella Capehart, wife of Hon. James Capehart, formerly a Congressman from West Virginia.
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William McColm
was born November 18, 1796, in Allegheny County, Maryland, and emi- grated to Adams County, Ohio, with his father, John McColm and family, about the year 1800, and settled on Gift Ridge. His brothers John, Malcolm, Matthew and David were all prosperous farmers, lived to a ripe old age, and have passed to their reward, excepting David, who lives near Bentonville.
William McColm married Lucy Turner, July 17, 1827, at New Rich- mond, Ohio. Their children were John T., Sarah, William S., the latter only of the three surviving and who resides at Portsmouth, Ohio. Mrs. Lucy McColm died at Clinton Furnace, December 24, 1833. The sub- ject of our sketch was married again June 24, 1835, at Buckhorn Furnace, to Martha Mclaughlin, to whom were born James A., Mary, Henry A., Matthew and Clay F., all of whom are deceased except Henry A., a resi- dent of New Comer, Delaware County, Indiana.
William McColm was the descendant of Scotch-Irish parents and showed their characteristics in all his walks of life; was a Whig in poli- tics; a Methodist Prostestant in religion and a square man in all his dealings. He was a clerk and afterwards a store-keeper in West Union from 1824 to 1833, when he was induced by the late William Salter and other owners of Clinton Furnace to take an interest in the furnace and act as store-keeper and furnace clerk. His investment in Clinton Furnace proving unprofitable, he moved to Buckhorn and later to Amanda Furnace, where he was employed in the same capacity as at Clinton.
On June 1, 1840, he was appointed Treasurer of Scioto County in place of John Waller, who refused to qualify. He was elected to that office in 1841 and re-elected in 1843, 1845, 1847 and 1849. He quali- fied for his sixth term, June 3, 1850. He died on his farm in Washington Township, September 7, 1850, while an incumbent of the office of County Treasurer. His wife died in Portsmouth, Ohio, April 9, 1890, and both are interred at Greenlawn, at that place.
Mr. McColm was a member of the Methodist Prostestant Church of Portsmouth, Ohio, during his entire residence in that city. His congrega- tion met at the house of Mrs. Sill, on Fourth Street, before the church on Fifth Street in the rear of Connolly's store was erected. He was always a Whig and anti-slavery. He was a strong advocate of temperance, being a member of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which flourished in his day
Major Joseph McKee
was born at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania, in the year of 1789 and remained with his parents until 1807, at which time he emigrated to Cabin Creek, Kentucky, where he resided for four years, when he removed near the mouth of Brush Creek in Greene Township in Ohio. He was in the War of 1812, in which he served until December 24, 1814. On returning from the war he engaged in keel-boating salt down the Ohio River from the Kanawha Saline to Louisville, Ky. In 1828, he was made Major in the Second Regiment, First Brigade, Eighth Division of the Ohio Militia. He was married in 1812 to Miss Margaret Eakins, who resided near the mouth of Brush Creek. There were thirteen children born of this marriage, nine boys and four girls, Elizabeth, Susan, James, Mary, John, Joseph, William, Priscilla, David, George, Wilson, Rebecca, and Richard. Seven
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of these sons served in the Union army in the late Civil War. Our sub- ject shouldered his gun in 1864 to assist in resisting General John Mor- gan's Raid, at which time he was seventy-five years of age. He served nine years successively as Justice of the Peace in Greene Township, dur- ing which time he solemnized numerous marriages. Mr. McKee was an elder in the Christian Church, and lived up to his profession. He was regarded as a good neighbor and citizen, and ever ready to help the poor and needy. He died near Waggoner's Ripple, at the age of ninety-two years and twenty-nine days. His wife, Margaret McKee, died seven years earlier. He was the grandfather of the Sheriff, James W. McKee, who was the son of David Mckee, now residing at Wichita, Kansas, having removed there from Adams County in 1882. Joseph McKee was a Jeffersonian Democrat of the strictest sort, and his grandson, Sheriff James W. McKee, is recognized as one of the most reliable leaders of the Democrat party in Adams County.
Mary Barbara Minick.
Our subject was born May 29, 1795, between Spires and Manheim, in Bavaria, Germany. Her maiden name was Foerst. We are not advised as to her parents or early history, but she was born and reared a Protes- tant, and in 1826 identified herself with a division of the Prostestants, a branch of the Lutheran Church, believing in a deeper and more exalted piety. This branch or division of the German Prostestants were of sim- ilar views to the followers of John Welsey as compared to the Church of England. They had many meetings for prayer and conference, and Mrs. Minick was one of their most enthusiastic adherents. She was married in 1815 to John Peter Minick, or Münch, as it is properly written. We believe a correct translation in English would be Menken. Her husband was born April 9, 1792. They had two children born in Germany. Peter Minick was a soldier under the first Napoleon for a short time, in the campaigns where the Germans last supported his standard. He and our subject lived in Germany and kept house until 1830, when she was thirty- five years of age and he thirty-eight. It was while she was living in Ger- many that she had an experience given to none since the days of Elijah. When she was a young married woman, aged thirty-one, and in a time when she had been attending meetings of the pietists faithfully for some weeks, she fell down in her own house with a hemorrhage, and was found in an unconscious condition by her husband. She was put to bed and lay in an apparently unconscious state for six weeks, though, as she afterwards told, she was conscious towards the last, but was unable to move or speak.
At the end of six weeks, she died, or apparently died. Her physi- cians, her nurses and her friends thought she was dead, and she was dressed for burial. At that time, in her neighborhood, it was customary to keep the dead three days where circumstances permitted it, and this was done in her case. At the end of that time, some of her friends thought they saw signs of life, and she was kept a day longer. On the fourth day, her funeral was set. and the bells rung for that purpose. Her friends as- sembled and the funeral services were held. When the funeral proces- sion was about to start, she came to life and was taken out of her coffin and put to bed. She was very weak and feeble for a long time, but finally recovered her health entirely, and when she did, she related this wonderful experience :
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While apparently unconscious in her six weeks' sickness, she was con- scious most of the time, and knew what was going on about her. She could hear what was said, but could not communicate. She felt the ap- proach of death ; she noticed the cessation of circulation in her extremities, and the approach of it to her heart. Then she became unconscious. Then, the first thing she knew, an angel approached her and took her in charge. She had no sense of the time she traveled with him through space, but found herself in an outer court of a great pleasure garden or park. There was like lattice work before her, and beyond that, were a great company of happy people, surrounding a loved object. She could hear the most rapturous music and singing of the multitudes. At another place within the inner court, she saw a company sitting about a table. Their faces shone so she could not look upon them, and was compelled to take her eyes from them. Among those she saw in the inner court was the face of a young woman friend of hers, who had attended the pietist meetings with her. She made a request of her guide to be admitted to the inner court. but he said, "No, you must return to earth and preach Christ a period longer before you can be admitted." She then seemed to be spirited away by four angels and let down to earth as it were in a sheet.
As soon as she was able, after her return, she told her vision. People came from all the surrounding country to see her and converse with her. In relating her vision, she predicted the death of her friend, whose face she had seen in Paradise, and it took place within a year, but she died in the triumph of faith. Mrs. Minick believed in this heavenly vision as much as she believed in her own existence. To her it was as real as anything which ever occurred to her, and it influenced her entire life. The angel's message was ever as fresh to her and ever as important as the day she re- ceived it, and she followed it to the last of her life.
She and her husband had heard of the United States and longed to go there. His experience with the service under the great Napoleon satisfied him and made him wish for America. So he and his wife and two children came to the United States in 1830. They located at Piketon, Ohio, where they lived several years. Then they moved to West Union, Ohio, where they spent all of his life and most of hers. She lived in the little brick house just opposite the Pflaummer residence, then Dr. Wm. B. Willson's residence. She believed that cleanliness preceded godliness, and her home was always scrupulously neat and clean. She and her husband had and kept a most wonderful garden. A self-respecting weed would not grow in it, and none were ever seen in it, and all of the vege- tables grew just as though they thought it their duty to do so to please her. One room in her house she had fitted up for religious meetings, and many were held there, the services being conducted in her mother tongue. She had an occupation. She was a doctress and nurse and followed her profession most faithfully. In the cholera of 1851, she went among the patients everywhere, and her services were thought equal to those of the regular physicians.
She was the mother of four children, two sons and two daughters, the youngest born in this country. She was a woman of the most earnest and devoted piety. She believed in her religion, and she lived it every day. Her whole life, day by day, was a sermon and an argument in favor of her faith. While she never mastered the English language fully, she
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would attend the Methodist revival meetings, and she enjoyed them very much. She could not express herself to her satisfaction in English, and was often, at these meetings, requested to sing in German. She was always pleased to do so, and everyone felt the spirit of her hymns. She was always reluctant to tell the Heavenly Vision, as she knew many were skeptical about it, and only related it where it was appreciated, but to her it was real. She had all the faith and love of St. John, and the zeal and enthusiasm of St. Paul. She was respected and loved by all who knew her. Her husband died August 19, 1870, and her pleasant home in West Union was broken up. After that she lived with her grandchildren until the tenth of April, 1883, when her Heavenly Vision was realized. She and her husband rest in the old South cemetery at West Union, waiting the sound of Gabriel's trumpet. Her life was full of usefulness, of good deeds, and she was a minister to the souls of all who knew her.
David Morrison
was born September 16, 1807, in Pennsylvania. He was a nephew of John Loughry. He went from Pennsylvania direct to Rockville to engage in business under Mr. Loughry. He was married to Martha Mitchell, the daughter of Associate Judge David Mitchell, on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1835, by Rev. Elcazor Brainard, and they went to house- keeping in Rockville. He remained with John Loughry from about 1831 to 1841 as a superintendent of the business of quarrying and shipping stone. From 1841 to 1847, he was engaged in boating on the Ohio River. He owned a tow-boat and a number of barges and engaged in transporting heavy goods on the Ohio River. He would load them on barges and tow the barges. From 1851 to 1859, he resided in Covington, Kentucky. He bought the Judge Mitchell farm, now owned by his sons, Albert R. and James H. Morrison, and removed there in 1859, and resided there until his death, though he never was at any time a farmer, but was always engaged on the river. He was a large man, weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds and was always active and energetic. He died suddenly March 23, 1863, from the effects of an operation on his eyes. His wife survived him until March 18, 1886. They both rest in the Mitchell cemetery on the hill overlooking the home of Judge David Mitchell, her father. They had the following children: Mary, wife of Loyal Wilcox, residing in Kansas. She has a large family and a son and daughter married. Armour Morrison resides in Chicago and is engaged in the life insurance business ; Albert R. Morrison married Elizabeth McMasters, and resides in the old home in Nile Township, Scioto County ; James H. Morrison, the second son, resides in Portsmouth, Ohio; Charles W. Morrison, the young- est son, is a teacher of music in the conservatory of music at Oberlin Col- lege, and has been so engaged for twenty-three years. He went there as a young man to study music and after he had completed his studies there and in Europe, he was engaged to teach there and has remained ever since. The sons are all like their father-active, energetic and industrious men.
Judge Samuel Mcclanahan.
Robert McClanahan and Isabelle, his wife, came from Ireland and purchased land on which West Union is now located and while it was still a part of the Northwest Territory, they donated or sold the land for public
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buildings to the county. Their son, Samuel, was born on the fifteenth of February, 1797. He was married to Mary Armstrong, December 14, 1815, and located on the farm west of West Union, where he lived until 1864 when he removed to North Liberty, Ohio, and died March 5, 1882. Isabelle, his daughter, married William McGovney, May 9, 1839. He was elected Associate Judge of Adams County in 1831 and served one term. He was a practical surveyor and did a great deal of work in the way of land surveying. He was also a school teacher and County Examiner and was one of the first School Examiners in the county. He died November 5, 1881.
In politics he was a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republican. He was a strong temperance advocate. He set the example of total abstinence by refusing to use liquor at a barn raising or in harvest, and to show his harvest hands it was not to save money, he offered to pay each one the amount extra for the cost of the whiskey they had formerly been furnished.
He was a Presbyterian, a ruling elder in the church for many years, the Associate Reformed and afterwards the United Presbyterian. He was liberal in his views and spiritually minded. In the last few years of his life, there was but one book to him-the Bible. He read it four times in four years, and said that each time he re-read it there was some- thing new. 'His mind was clear to the last. In his final illness, he spoke calmly of his approaching end, and passed away in the confidence of Chris- tian faith.
In his personal appearance Judge McClanahan was a remarkable figure, and in his old age he was one of the best types of the patriarch, with his long flowing beard and dignified bearing. He was a man among men and respected by the entire community for his sterling virtues.
William McGarry
was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1757, and emigrated to Virginia in the Spring of 1777. He enlisted the same spring as a private in Captain Wood Jones' Company and served afterward in Captain Benjamin Hoomes' Company, Second Virginia Regiment, commanded by Col. Wil- liam Febiger, in the Revolutionary War. His enlistment was for a period of three years.
He was in the battles which occurred during the time of his services in New Jersey and about Philadelphia, but a large part of the time his duties consisted in hauling supplies to the army.
He came to Ohio in 1795, directly after the peace of Greenville, and bought two hundred and twenty-five acres of ground on Poplar Ridge, in Tiffin Township. This land is now owned by W. J. and B. Grooms, Caleb Malone and Mr. Deitz. He left the blockhouse at Manchester and lo- cated on land in Tiffin Township when there had not been a single tree cut down in the township and none outside of Manchester. He cleared off a patch of ground and built a pole cabin and moved his family into it. There were plenty of wolves, bears, wild turkeys and deer in the forest at that time, and a great many roving Indians.
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