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 74

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 74

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The panic of 1875 brought financial ruin to him. He gave up his home and his last dollar, and in 1874, with his wife and one unmarried daughter, removed to Washington, D. C., to accept a home proffered them by one of his sons. In May, 1876, he received an appointment to a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department, which position he held during the remaining six years of his life.

The distinguishing features of John Pennywitt's character were un- swerving honesty, absolute integrity of purpose and unflinching adherence to the truth. He never told a lie. He was an absolute stranger to de- ceit. A near neighbor, Peter Thompson, saw him grow from infancy to manhood and clearly recognized this trait in his character. Once upon a time this old gentleman had occasion to repeat a statement made by him, and a bystander expressed some doubts of its truth. This aroused his Scotch ire and he burst out in tones of indignation, "I know it's true, for John Pennywitt himself told me." From this incident he became gener- ally known as "John Pennywitt himself." Higher tribute than this can not be paid to human character. Those who knew him well never doubted a word that he uttered.

He was self-educated and his education was thorough and practical. Notwithstanding his limited opportunities for attending school he became familiar with all the common branches of learning, and in mathematics he was superior to many college-bred men. He taught many terms in the public schools. Algebra, geometry and surveying he mastered without a teacher. He became widely known as a land surveyor, and in contested cases his surveys were accepted by the courts as thoroughly reliable.

His remains rest in Odd Fellow's Cemetery in Manchester. His fun- eral was one of the largest ever witnessed in the county. By his side sleeps the partner of his life's joys and sorrows. Adams County may justly be proud of such a son.

Reuben Pennywit

was born May 31, 1817, the fourth child of Mark Pennywit, who reared his family on Gift Ridge in Adams County. He had six brothers and each of them was more than six feet tall. In youth, he delighted in feats of strength. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church ' at Quinn Chapel at its dedication, December 20, 1842, a church built on the old Pen- nywit home, and largely by the contributions of the family.

On April 3, 1839, he married Miss Jane Cooper, of Brown County, Ohio, who survived him. They had nine children, eight of whom were

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living at the time of the death of their father. They were Captains Wylie and Alfred; George and Mary of Manchester; Captain Samuel Pennywit, of Natchez, Mississippi; Mrs. Edward McMillan and Mrs. J. P. Duffey, of Cincinnati, and Joseph W. Pennywit.

He died February 10, 1892. In his Christian charatcer, he was pre- eminent.

Colonel James Poage.

This name is identical with the Scotch Pollock, or American Polk or Pogue.

Robert Poage landed in Philadelphia in 1738 with his wife, Elizabeth, and nine children, Margaret, John, Martha, Sarah, George, Mary, Eliza- beth, William and Robert. A tenth child, Thomas, was born to them the next year. The second son, John, above named, married Mary Blair, who was a sister of the Rev. John Blair and Rev. Samuel Blair, of Pennsylvania, and William Lawrence Blair, a lawyer of Kentucky. Robert Poage located his family within three miles of Staunton, Virginia. John Poage, Robert's son, had six sons and two daughters. The subject of our sketch, the fifth son, was born March 17, 1760, near Staunton, Virginia. All the sons were eminent men, surveyors, and counted wealthy for their time.

Martha, the third child of Robert Poage. the emigrant, married Michael Woods, who located in the Valley of Virginia, in 1734, She was born in Ireland in 1728, and died in Ripley, Ohio, in 1818. She was the mother of eight children, all of whom grew to maturity, married and had families. Mary, her daughter, born February 18, 1760, was married to Col. James Poage, March 10, 1787, and died at Ripley, Ohio, in April, 1830.

Ann, daughter of John Poage and Mary Blair, married Andrew Kin- caid. She and her husband died about the same time, leaving six young children, three of them daughters, whom Col. Poage took and reared as his own. They grew to womanhood in Ripley and all three of them married.

Robert Poage, grandfather of Col. James Poage, established his resi- dence within three miles of Staunton, Virginia, on a tract of 772 acres, and he acquired much larger tracts afterward. He and his wife were well ed- ucated and strong Presbyterians. He led his family in Bible reading, sacred song and prayer, every morning and evening, never permitting any press of business to interfere. Sunday afternoons, his wife led all the chil- dren of the family, visitors and callers in the study of the Bible and of the shorter catechism, while he attended to the chores. This Sunday afternoon study was made very interesting and was kept up in the family of his son, John Poage, and his son-in-law, Rev. Woods.

Robert Poage was one of the first Magistrates of Augusta County, and on several occasions entertained General George Washington. His son, John, father of James, the founder of Ripley, accompanied Col. Washing- ton on the Braddock campaign and became much attached to him. Robert, the emigrant, died about March 6, 1774, and his will was probated that year in Augusta County.

John Poage was County Surveyor of Augusta County, Virginia, about thirty years and was Sheriff in 1778. He was a strong Presbyterian and died in the faith. He gave each of his children a large family Bible, sev- eral of which are still in existence. His will was proven in Augusta County, Vrginia, April 22, 1789. General Washington himself requested the Poages to aid in securing the Ohio Valley to the people of the United

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Colonies. In accordance with the request, William Poage, uncle of Col. James Poage, moved to Kentucky in 1778, and there lost his life in an Indian campaign, leaving seven children.

Col. James Poage went to Kentucky in 1778, but there is no authentic account of his movements from that time until his marriage in 1789, except that he was engaged with surveying parties, and in protecting the families of his relatives from the incursion of the Indians. Sometime in this period, he was at the head of a surveying party and sometimes he com- manded several. His work was fraught with great dangers. No men were permitted to accompany his parties except those expert in the use of a rifle. A number of hunters accompanied the parties to provide food. The furs of the animals were carefully preserved and packed. The most efficient scouts were obtained to guard against Indian attacks which could be expected at any time. Danger often compelled several surveying par- ties to keep together. The head of a single party would be called a Captain. When several parties worked together, their chief was called a Colonel, and James Poage often commanded consolidated parties, and it was in this way in which he obtained his title of Colonel. Few Western surveyors did more work in dangerous localities than Colonel James Poage and yet he was . never involved in any serious encounter with the Indians. He was always on the lookout for them and Indians will rarely attack an enemy except by surprise. Col. Poage could not be surprised by any of them. Whenever he encamped his party or parties, he took such precautions that he could not be surprised, and his men had implicit confidence in him as a com- mander. When he met the Indians openly and peaceably he always treated . them fairly and with justice and kindness, and he had their respect. He did work with surveying parties in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Considerable of this work was done after his mar- riage. When at home he devoted himself to farming and stock raising. He could get more work and more willing work out of his farm hands and slaves than any man of his times, except his brothers, George, William and Robert, who had the same traits. Another feature of those who worked for him, whether free or slaves, was that they would be as faithful in his long absence from his home as during his presence. He took an interest in everyone who worked for him, and whenever occasion required he would turn to and perform manual labor in that perfect manner he expected it to be done for him. He had a tact with his servants that could be imitated by no one and which cannot be described.

He first resided in Clarke County, Kentucky, and represented that county in the Legislature of 1796, but most of his time in Kentucky he was a resident of Mason County. He disliked and was opposed to human slavery. In 1804, he took up one thousand acres of Survey No. 418 in Ohio, along the Ohio River, the center of which contains the town of Rip- ley, and here he made his home and laid out a town, which he named Staunton, for Staunton in Virginia. He located this tract because he wanted to free his slaves, and to do it, had to remove to a free state. Dur- ing his residence in Ripley, he was distinguished for his liberality and hospitality, but he always lacked ready money. However, that was the case with everyone in that time, but was the hardest on those disposed to be liberal. He always entertained all the visiting ministers. All dis- tinguished visitors were his guests. It was rarely his family sat down to

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a meal without guests. Every Virginian passing that way felt in duty bound to visit him, and he felt in duty bound to entertain everyone from his native State. Frequently he had so many visitors at one time, that his daughters all occupied one room and his sons all occupied the hay loft. So lavish was his hospitality that often tea, coffee and sugar were lacking at his table, but neither he nor his wife ever apologized for these deficiencies or were less cordial to their guests for the want of them. His daughters and his wife, from flax, wool and cot- ton, made nearly all of the clothing for the entire family and fitted it as neatly as a modern tailor.

For his services in surveying Virginia and General Government, he was granted 40,000 acres of land, half near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and half that quantity near Cairo, Illinois. On this he paid out a large amount of taxes, and his executors abandoned this land after his death for want of funds to pay taxes and bring it into the market.

As a husband and father, he was kind and affectionate. He was a magnetic kind of man and his family obeyed him implicitly. He exer- cised a wonderful influence among those around him, securing their con- currence in his judgment and direction about matters. But above all things, he was distinguished by his robust, cheerful piety. His life and example tended to make other men believe and embrace his faith. A num- ber of his letters breathing that earnest spirit of piety, his chief charac- teristic, are still in existence.

His children were as follows: Martha, born in Virginia, February 17, 1788, married George Poage, son of Gen. George Poage, her uncle. Died in Brown County, Ohio, between 1855 and 1860. No descendants. John C. Poage, born in Virginia, April 19, 1779, married Mary Hopkins. No children. Andrew Woods Poage married Jane Gray, died April 19, 1840, at Yellow Spring, Ohio. Mary and James, twins, born March 25. 1793. She died in Ripley in 1821 and he in 1820. Robert Poage, born February 4, 1797, married Sarah Kirker, had children. Died in Illinois, February, 1874. His oldest son, James Smith Poage, is a minister of the Gospel. Elizabeth Poage, born April, 1798, married Isaac Shepherd, a minister, died in Ripley, Ohio, July 30, 1832. No children. Ann born May 5, 1800, married Alexander Mooney. Died near Russellville, Ohio. Margaret, born September 10, 1803. Married Rev. Thomas S. William- son, died at St. Peter, Minn., July 21, 1872. Had ten children, the three eldest died in childhood and are buried in the old cemetery at Ripley. Three sons of the remaining seven survive. Rev. John Poage William- son, D. D., Missionary to Dakota ; A. W. Williamson, Ph. D., Professor of Mathematics, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois; H. M. William- son, Editor of the Rural North West, Portland, Oregon. Also, one daughter survives, Sarah, born March 4, 1805, married Rev. Gideon H. Pond, died at Bloomington, Minn., 1854. Had seven children, of whom six survive. Thomas, born at Ripley, Ohio, June 1, 1808, died there August, 1831.

Rev. George Poage, born June 18, 1809, married Jane Riggs, died in Colorado in 1807. Had six children, of whom only one survives, but had a number of grandchildren, all surviving.

As a farmer and stock raiser. Col. Poage had no superior and was suc- cessful in obtaining the best crops and the finest cattle and horses.

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HON. JAMES H. ROTHROCK

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In what proved to be Col. Poage's last sickness, he was prevailed upon to go security for a large sum for a woolen mill in which he had invested money. After his death, the mill failed and his estate was called on to pay the debt. Want of capacity to make the note might have been suc- cessfully pleaded, and his executor and legatees were so advised, but his children declined and the debt was paid by his estate. However, it was this that made the executor abandon the lands owned by him in West Vir- ginia and in Illinois. Finally enough was saved out of his estate to give each one of his children a fine farm.

This is the story of the founder of Ripley, and the materials were accessible to have made it more elaborate in details which would have been as interesting as any given. His ashes repose in the old abandoned cem- etery of Ripley.

James H. Rothrock

was born at Milroy, Pa., in 1829. In 1838, his father removed to Mt. Leigh in Adams County, where he took up wild woodland. Our subject attended schools three months each winter and the remainder of the year he spent in aiding his father subdue the wilderness. Thus he spent ten years, but in that time was schooled in humanity. His father was a Binny Abolitionist and his home was a station on the Underground Railroad. The next station north was Flat Run in Highland County, and in the ten years, from his ninth to· his nineteenth year, our subject piloted not less than three hundred slaves between the stations on their road to freedom. That work was a good lesson for the boy and helped make the man. From 1848 to 1850, he attended an academy at Felicity and taught school. From 1850 to 1852, he attended Franklin College at New Athens, Ohio. In 1852, he went to West Union and began the study of the law under the late Edward P. Evans, father of the writer of this sketch. During the time he was studying law, he taught school to earn his living. In the spring of 1852, he and Alexander Woodrow were the only two persons in West Union who cast their votes for John P. Hale for President. In the spring of 1854, he and his preceptor went to Columbus, where he was ad- mitted to the bar. He at once located in Greenfield, in Highland County, where he began the practice of law. Here, on the fifteenth of October. 1855, he was married to Miss Austie Foote. That same fall he was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Highland County and served one term. He was a candidate for re-election in 1857, but was defeated. He removed to Hillsboro in 1858 and remained there until 1860, when he re- moved to and located in Tipton, the county seat of Cedar County, Iowa. In 1861, he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and served part of the time as Speaker, pro tem. In July, 1862, he was appointed Lieutenant- Colonel of the 35th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and in that organization dis- tinguished himself by signal bravery in battle. General William L. Davis, in speaking of the attack on the rebel works at Vicksburg, in which the 35th Iowa participated, said: "Lieutenant-Colonel Rothrock sprang to the front, ordered the regiment to charge, and, taking the lead, with hat in one hand and sword in the other, the Thirty-fifth went into that awful shower of lead and iron. The line was repulsed everywhere with fearful slaughter. No braver man than he ever drew a sword or held the affec- tion of his soldiers more strongly." However, his constitution was broken down by the hardships of the service, and he was compelled to resign in

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the fall of 1863. In 1866, he was nominated and elected District Judge. He served as such nine years, when the Governor of the State appointed him to the Supreme Bench to fill a vacancy. He was elected for the suc- ceeding term and re-elected until he voluntarily retired after twenty-one years' service. His opinions are found from the 41 to the IOI Iowa Reports.

When he retired from the Supreme Judgeship, Judge H. E. Deemer. one of his associates, on the Supreme Bench, said of him: "He is a man of good, common, hard sense, who took his diploma from the school of ex- perience, and has risen to his present proud position through honest and earnest endeavor. A man who has the best judgment upon important questions of any man with whom I ever came into contact. a man who is king among men. He gave thirty years of continuous judicial service to his State, seven years in the District and twenty-one years on the Supreme Bench. His work as a jurist was painstaking and thorough. He never wrote an opinion without the most conscientious research. He did his best every time."

The strength of his decisions were not only recognized in Iowa, but in Ohio as well. In the latter State, his old friends of the bar always sought out his decisions and were proud to cite and rely on them as the best law. To the Hon. N. M. Hubbard, his fellow townsman, we are indebted for an estimate of his character, which is most accurate. He said of Judge Rothrock: "His chief characteristics are probity, common sense and an unbiased judgment. His opinions were the result of reasoning, never of feeling. His decisions not only convinced the successful party that they were the law, but convinced the losing parties that their causes had been decided rightfully. His opinions are contained in sixty-one volumes of the Iowa Reports. They are models of compact statements, and clear analysis, which lead to irresistible conclusions. His language is plain. simple and terse Saxon. He was not a great scholar, nor of any consider- able literary attainments, but he had the remarkable faculty of expressing himself in plain English so as to be clearly understood and to convince the reader by his forceful reasonings. He is a good talker, a better listener, and of rare judicial talent. The people of lowa, without dissent, honor him as one of its first citizens and most eminent jurists."

The wife of his youth died April 9, 1893. He has three sons, Edward E., born in 1850; James H., in 1869. and George L., in 1873. The writer. as a boy, went to school to him in West Union while he was a law student. He was then a boarder at the home of his preceptor, and there the writer became acquainted with him. When this history was projected, he opened a correspondence with the Judge and several pleasant letters were ex- changed. The Judge looked forward with pleasure to the time when he could read of his Ohio friends, those of his childhood and youth in this history, but alas! that was never to be! Those years of leisure to which he and his family looked forward with pleasure were never to be lived by him. November 17, 1898, he wrote: "My race is nearly run. After three score and ten, there is little left but to wait the end." When he wrote those words, he little realized how near he was to the end. He died on the fifteenth of January, 1899. His funeral was honored by the at- tendance of the Governor and Supreme Judges of the State and by numer- ous distinguished citizens as well as by his townsmen. He has left a grand

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and noble memory, and those who knew him in Ohio in his boyhood and young manhood, cherish it equally with the citizens of Iowa, who knew him so well. Adams County is proud of the history of his life.

Philip Rothrock

was born October 12, 1801, in Pennsylvania. His father moved to Mt. Leigh when he was eleven years of age. He went to school in the district school of the neighborhood and afterward at the North Liberty Academy. When the war broke out he raised a company for the 60th O. V. I. for one year and was appointed Captain, November 26, 1861. He served in the organization until November 10, 1862, and while in it was in several bat- tles and skirmishes, and was taken prisoner of war at Harper's Ferry in the surrender there. He remained at home until June, 1863, when he raised Company B, Second Ohio Heavy Artillery. While he was recruit- ing that, he and his brother, Joseph, and John Van Deman attended the North Liberty United Presbyterian Church and took communion. Philip said it would be the last time he would be with them and so it proved to be. His regiment was sent for service in East Tennessee. On August 18, 1863, he was wounded by an explosion of one of our old cannon at Cleveland, Tennessee, then used to repel an attack by the Rebel General Wheeler. The next day he was appointed Major but was never mustered. He was sent to the hospital where he remained until October 12, 1864, when he died. In November, his remains were brought to Mt. Leigh and reinterred.

He was married August 18, 1857, to Rebecca E. Shaw. There were two sons of this marriage, Joseph Lewis, born June 11, 1858, who is mar- ried and now resides at Washington C. H. He has two children. An- other son, Philip E., resides at Washington C. H., and is married. He is the father of four children, and is engaged in the hardware business there.

Philip Rothrock was a Presbyterian, and much devoted to his faith. He was a man of generous impulses, intensely patriotic, and had he sur- vived, he would have been a most valuable citizen in any community. His untimely death was much deplored by all who knew him.

John Stivers,

a son of William Stivers and Elizabeth King, was born near the city of New York in the year 1765. He had six brothers, Edward, William, Reuben, Peter, James and Richard, and three sisters, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Bergin of Bourbon County, Ky., who afterwards settled near Columbus, Ohio. In 1775, in order to escape the Tory allies of George III, in and about New York, William Stivers moved to Spottsyl- vania County. Virginia. There he was comparatively safe from Tory per- secutions, and during the Revolution he sent six sons to battle for the cause of Liberty, his seventh son, Richard, being too young to bear arms. John Stivers, the sixth son, volunteered in May, 1780, in Captain Robert Dan- iel's Company of Colonel Spencer's Regiment. Virginia Volunteers, when but little past fifteen years of age, for a period of service of five months. At the expiration of the term of his first enlistment, he again volunteered for a term of three months under Captain Robert Harris, of Colonel

Regiment. At the expiration of his second term of enlistment the war was practically over. Virginia was cleared of marauding bands of Tories,

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and Cornwallis and his British and Hessian forces were shut up in York- town to stay until they marched out to the tune of "The World's Upside Down," and he surrendered his sword to Washington.

In the year 1786, John Stivers married Miss Martha Neel, a daughter of John Neel, a Scotch emigrant, and settled in the forks of the Yough- iogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, in Westmoreland County, Penn- sylvania. There his family of eight children were born : Samuel K., Rob- ert, James, John, Matilda, who married Isaac Teachenor; Lydia, who mar- ried William Shaw; Washington, and Nancy, who married Enoch Moore. In 1799, he moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and soon there- after came to Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, and settled on Brier Ridge within sight of the old Methodist Church in what is now Lib- erty Township, where he continued to reside until his death in 1839. Be- fore coming to Ohio he and his oldest brother, Reuben, who settled in Bour - bon County, Kentucky, laid military warrants Nos. 6640, 6642 and 6643 covering 630 acres of land lying on Treber's Run, and on the East Fork of Eagle Creek in Adams County. The youngest brother, Richard, after- wards came to Kentucky and settled near Louisville, where he became one of the most prominent planters of that region. John Stivers was an active, vigorous man, both in body and mind, and took a deep interest in his day in affairs of county and state. He was a radical Jeffersonian Democrat in his political opinions, and he was a faithful member of the Baptist Church for nearly fifty years. In personal appearance he was a little be- low the medium in height, but very compactly built, and weighed in full and vigorous manhood about 165 pounds. He had dark hair, steel-blue eyes and regular features, and was of a buoyant disposition and pleasing turn of mind; yet he was not slow to resent wrong or a personal affront. It is related of him that soon after his first enlistment in the Revolution, that while resting with his company at a spring, a bumptious militia officer rode up and addressing him as "Bud," requested a drink of water. This so enraged the youthful soldier that he seized the officer and dragged him from his saddle and gave him a deserved pummelling for his impertinence. He and his faithful wife are buried in the old cemetery at Decatur, in Brown County, Ohio.

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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 74

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