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 78

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 78

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He worked with indefatigable zeal to acquire the Dakota language, and also the Canadian French, and was soon able to preach in both lan- guages.

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Practicing medicine to relieve their bodies, earnestly sympathizing with those in distress, undauntedly courageous in danger, he soon won the respect of the Indians, of the traders and of the Government officers. He often made long journeys to visit the sick, and was unceasing in his labors to win the savages to Christ. He entertained a great number of travelers and Government officials. He kept up his studies, and in his later years, he could translate from Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, with the same facility with which he read English. He kept up with the progress of improvement in medicine. He made himself familiar with the botany of the region, thoroughly studied the history of the Northwest, contributing many valuable papers to the Historical Society and the magazines. He was untiring in his efforts to secure the Indians their rights, involving a large correspondence with Indian Commissioners, with leading Senators and Representatives, and made several trips to Washington. His thorough good sense, and his reputation for absolute accuracy in the state- ment of facts, almost always secured him at least a respectful hearing.

His whole heart was in the work of winning souls to Christ. All his studies were subordinated to this end. In 1836, he organized a small native church at La-qui-Parle, the second Protestant church in the present State. He prepared a Dakota reader with the aid of the Ponds, and a part of the Bible with the aid of Mr. Henville.

By 1846, he and his helpers had built up a church of nearly fifty native members. It was his decided personal preference to remain, but he felt the call of duty in a request from the Kaposia band, and removed there, to where South St. Paul now is. This move probably hindered his work for the Indians, but it made him an influential factor in building up work among the whites. He preached the first Protestant sermon in the English lan- guage, and also in the French language, within the present limits of St. Paul, and secured for that place its first teacher, Miss Harriet Bishop, and its first minister of the Gospel, Rev. E. D. Usill, D. D.

The Indians having sold their land, he removed to Pajutazee, on the Minnesota, nearly thirty miles below Lac qui-Parle, in 1852. Here he labored until 1862. On August 18, the terrible outbreak occurred at day- break, thirty-eight miles nearer the white settlements. On Tuesday, the Doctor sent away his family, except his wife and sister, who were unwilling to leave him, hoping that by remaining, he might check the spread of the outbreak. The Christian Indians rallied around him, but it became evi- dent by night, that if they remained, they would be attacked by the hostiles, causing much bloodshed. Aided by Christian Indians, he escaped in the night, overtook his family, came near Fort Ridgely just after the second attack on it, and escaped safely to St. Peter.

Many were ready to cry that the mission work was a failure. All the other missionaries began to talk of leaving, but the Doctor and his son did not, for one moment yield to hesitation, but pushed their work with re- doubled zeal. However much the Christian Indians might be abused by excited whites, he knew that they had done all in their power to diminish the massacres, had aided hundreds in escaping, and had held the hostiles in check, diminishing, by more than one-half, the size of the war. Had every Christian Indian now gone back to heathenism, the effect of the work in diminishing this blow, would have saved to our country at least fifty times the cost of the mission.

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The Doctor lived to see more than one thousand communicants, mem- bers in the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, the direct result of the mission of himself and his coadjutors. The Episcopalians, build- ing on the foundation they had laid, gathered about as many more. In September, 1894, at a meeting of the Presbyterian and Congregational Dakotas, nearly two thousand were gathered together, earnestly planning for the spread of the Redeemer's Kingdom in their tribe.

The Doctor never removed his family from St. Peter. He spent his summers in missionary tours, his winters partly in correspondence with native pastors and other Dakota workers, and the various labors already alluded to, but chiefly in translating the Word of God. He was extremely anxious that the exact meaning of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures should be rendered into idiomatic Dakota. To this end, he spent almost as much time in revising the translation of Dr. Riggs, as in making his own. Dr. Riggs also revised his, and Prof. J. P. Williamson, son of Dr. Williamson, also revised nearly all. As a result, very few languages have as good a translation of the Bible.

The Dakota Dictionary, regarded as the best of any Indian language and originally prepared by the Messrs. Pond, owed very much to the pains- taking scholarship of Dr. Williamson, though it bears the name of its ed- itor, Dr. Riggs.

Mrs. Williamson died July 21, 1872. No couple were ever happier in each other, or mutually more helpful. Still cheerful, he did not, after this time, show the overflowing spirit of calm rejoicing, which, to his family, had always seemed to characterize him, even in the most troublous times. He completed his translation of the Bible in 1878. There was other work he would have liked to do, but the strain of work without his loved com- panion to solace him had worn him out. His great work was done, and the earnestness in this no longer sustaining him, he gradually failed, and June 24, 1879, fell asleep in Jesus, in his eightieth year. Four children survive him: Rev. John P. Williamson, of Greenwood, South Dakota, since 1860, a missionary to the Dakotas ; Andrew W. Williamson, Profes- sor of Mathematics, Augustans College, Rock Island, Illinois ; Mrs. Martha Stout, Portland, Oregon, and Henry M. Williamson, editor of the Rural Northwest, Portland, Oregon. His daughter, Nancy Jane, was a mission- ary from 1869 to her death in 1878, performing a grand work. His grand- daughter, Nancy Hunter, having lost her mother in infancy, was adopted and soon after his death began the same work, in which she is still engaged, the last three years as the wife of Rev. E. J. Lindsay, Poplar, Montana.

Dr. William B. Willson.

Dr. Willson was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1789. He studied medicine there and received his diploma from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He located at West Union in the summer of 1816, and the same year he was married to Ann Newton, daughter of Rev. Wil- liam Williamson. It must have been a case of love at first sight, as he was married soon after locating at West Union. He continued to practice med- icine at West Union until his death, July 21, 1840. Dr. Willson was an old-fashioned Virginia gentleman in every sense of the term. He stood high in his profession and as a citizen, and was a devout and faithful mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church. His home in West Union was on the lot

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now occupied by the miller, Plummer. As 2. man, Dr. Willson was in- clined to take the world easy. He did not trouble people with his opinions and did not desire to be inflicted with theirs. He was conscientious and worked hard. There were no drug stores in his day, and he compounded all of his medicines and consequently had to keep a stock of those on hand. He was the only practicing physician in West Union between 1816 and 1840, except Dr. William Voris, who was in West Union a short time. He would go at the call of a patient the coldest night in the year and would often ride eighteen or twenty miles in the most inclement weather, and it was to this exposure that he owed his early death. He usually had several young men students at his home, and among them were Dr. William F. Willson, his nephew, who has a separate sketch herein; Dr. Thomas Smith Williamson, also sketched herein; Dr. Hamilton; Dr. David McConaghy, and Dr. Henry Loughridge. His son was also a student with him. When he was out on professional business, his wife could compound a pre- scription as well as he. He often boarded a number of students in order to have them under his direct care. In that day, people did not send for a physician for every little ache and pain. They made it a rule not to send for one unless desperately sick, and then the physician was expected to ride furiously to reach the patient and to give him heroic treatment when he did reach him.

During the cholera epidemic in 1835, Dr. Willson was called away to attend a cholera case at some distance. A brother of the patient had come for him and was waiting to accompany the doctor. While waiting, the brother was attacked by the dread disease. It became a question what to do. In the dilemma, the Doctor consulted his wife. She at once proposed that she should take care of the case of the messenger, and would carry out the Doctor's directions, while he should visit the brother. This was done and her patient recovered.

Mrs. Ann Newton Willson, wife of Dr. William B. Willson, was born in South Carolina in 1793. Her father, already mentioned, is sketched elsewhere. After her husband's death, in 1840, she resided in West Union until 1851, when she took up her residence in Catlettsburg, and later, with her daughter, Mrs. Hugh Means, at Ashland, Kentucky, with whom she resided until her death. She had three full sisters and one half sister. Her full sisters were Mrs. Esther Kirker, Mrs. Robinson Baird and Mrs. James Ellison. Her half sister was Jane Williamson, who has a sketch herein. Mrs. Willson had much more will power than any of her full sisters. Her step-sister, Jane, was more like her than her full sisters in respect to will power. She might be said to have been an imperious woman, yet she had her own way without creating great antagonisms. Her great force of character she derived from her mother, who was a woman of the strongest convictions and great will power. Her mother's convictions on the sub- ject of teaching the Bible to her slaves caused her to defy the laws of South Carolina against teaching slaves to read, and when she could do it no longer, to take those slaves through the wilderness eight hundred miles and locate in another wilderness where she would be free to carry out what she believed to be right. The same spirit animated her daughter, Mrs. Willson, and she would stop at nothing to carry out what she deemed to be right. No sacrifice would be considered for a moment in deterring her from any course she deemed to be right and duty. She had unflinching

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nerve, great self-reliance and most excellent judgment. These qualities stood her in good use in aiding her husband in the practice of medicine. In the cholera scourge of 1835, she went from house to house, caring for the sick with untiring energy. She had no fear of the disease, and her great will thrice armed her against it, but unlike the Rev. Burgess, she did not defy the dietary of cholera times. In assisting her husband, she ac- quired an unusual knowledge of remedies, and never hesitated to apply or use them in emergencies when her husband was absent.

She was an ardent Abolitionist, outspoken on all occasions. Her earliest impressions of the institution of slavery set her against it. She was a born reformer and had she lived in the days of the martyrs, she un- doubtedly would have been one of the principal ones among them. While she was chiefly self-educated, she was always an earnest, eager learner and desired to impart to others those truths so dear to her and the con- templation of which filled her soul. It was her delight to share with others whatever she possessed of material or spiritual good. She had no pride or vanity. She was free from self-consciousness and was never troubled for an instant as to what the world thought of her opinions. She was guided by her own conscience and reason, enlightened by her strong re- ligious faith. She was aggressive at all times for what she believed was right. Her stern faith took the practical form. She was always desirous of doing good for others. As old age came on, the strong-willed woman became the indulgent grandmother. The old earnestness and zeal never abated but they were tempered by a large tolerance, a wider sympathy and a gentler spirit. She was always ambitious to be doing good herself, and wanted to see her friends about her, and particularly her young friends. doing something in the service of religion. That spirit within her never abated with her years, but continued until her demise. The writer, as a child, knew her as an aged woman, but he always felt that she carried sun- shine with her and had that feeling whenever in her presence, and she made this same strong impression on others which she made on children. Of all women who have lived in Adams County, there are none who have done more good or have been more useful in their day and generation.

William F. Willson, M. D.

William F. Willson, M. D., was a citizen of Adams County from 1836 to 1851. He was born near Fairfield, Rockbridge County, Virginia, Sep- tember 9, 1815, of staunch Presbyterian, Scotch-Irish stock. His father was James A. Willson and his mother, Tirzah Humphreys. He was edu- cated in the schools of his native county. When he was twelve years of age, an event took place which determined the whole course of his life. About twenty-five or thirty years prior to this, a farmer named Steele in Rockbridge County had died leaving a few negroes and a large sum of debts. By an agreement between the Widow Steele and her husband's creditors, they agreed to wait until the increase of the negroes would pay their debts. Among the Steele negroes at the time of his death was a likely young woman. She contracted a slave marriage with a negro, Harry Moore, the property of a neighbor, and had given birth to sixteen children before the time came for the sale required by the creditors of Steele. The wife of Harry Moore and his sixteen children from a babe in arms to grown youths were put on the block, with twenty-three other negroes, and sold.

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Harry Moore was compelled by his master to be present and to hold his small children in his arms while they were roughly handled by the brutal traders and to see the persons of his daughters, women grown, indecently exposed on the block. Young Willson knew all of Harry Moore's chil- dren and had played with them many a time. He was a great friend of Harry's as a boy is often friendly to his inferiors. Young Willson came to the scene first as Harry was holding in his arms a four-year-old child, which was being auctioned off. The great tears were streaming down Harry's cheeks, and the child seeming to understand the situation, was weeping also. Willson looked on the scene and the flood gate of his tears was opened. He being free to go where he chose returned and hid himself to conceal his sympathy and grief. As soon as he could dry his tears, he came back to the scene, but could not contain himself and wept afresh. He had been brought up to believe slavery was a divine institution or- dained of God and sanctioned by Holy Writ, but he then and there resolved it was a wicked and cruel institution and that he would never live in a state which tolerated it, after he was free from his father's dominion. He so informed the latter. and though the father tried to dissuade him and per- suade him to remain in Virginia as the support of his old age, he would not give up his resolution. It was strengthened by a subsequent private interview with his friend, Harry, who told him God would bottle up his tears against his old mistress who sold his wife and children away. Wil- liam Williamson at that time became an Abolitionist and anti-slavery and remained such till his views were carried out in the midst of the Civil War. He had an uncle who had located in West Union, Ohio, in 1816, and to him he determined to go as soon as he was of age.

In December, 1836, he started for Ohio, traveling to Charleston, West Virginia, by stage; thence down the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers by boat to Manchester, where he landed January 3, 1837. He walked from Man- chester to West Union by the old road up Isaac's Creek and over Gift Ridge. At the Nixon place, he sought refuge from a heavy rain, but ran into the small-pox and retreated in an undignified manner, the only time in all his life he did anything unbecoming the dignity of a Virginia gentle- man. At West Union, he was welcomed at the house of his uncle, Dr. William B. Willson, who had married Ann Newton, a daughter of the Rev. William Williamson. Here he found sympathy with his views on the institution of slavery, for both his uncle and aunt were pronounced in their anti-slavery sentiments. He taught school in West Union in the old stone schoolhouse, which stood where John Knox now resides, for twenty- two dollars per month. He read medicine with his uncle who was then the only physician in the place and who resided in a dwelling formerly standing on the site of the present residence of Jacob Plummer. In May, 1839, he located in Russellville, Brown County, to practice medicine, but in July, 1839, he witnessed a brutal fight on the streets, which the bystand- ers seemed to enjoy, and he concluded that that was no place for him and left. In August, 1839, he located at Rockville, Ohio, and remained there until August, 1840, and some of the most pleasant hours of his life were spent there. He enjoyed the society of James and John Loughry, James McMasters, Judge Moses Baird, Rev. Chester and their families. At that time. Rockville was more prosperous than it ever was before or has been since, because at that time there was a great deal of boat building going

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on there and the stone business was flourishing. In May, 1840, his uncle, Dr. William B. Willson, of West Union, was suffering from quick con- sumption and was compelled to give up his practice. At his request, Dr. William F. Willson came to West Union and located to take up his prac- tice. His uncle died July 21, 1840, in the fifty-first year of his age. When he came to West Union, Dr. Willson brought with him his letter from the Presbyterian Church at New Providence, in Rockbridge County, Va., and lodged it with the church in West Union, where he attended regularly. Among the worshipers was a niece of Gen. Joseph Darlinton, Adaline Willson, with black hair and black eyes and very comely to look upon. The Doctor fell in love with the young lady and on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1840, he was married at the residence of General Darlinton by the Rev. John P. Vandyke, then the minister of the Presbyterian Church at West Union. There were present at this marriage Gen. Joseph Darlinton, his sister, Mrs Margaret Edwards, Mrs. Ann Willson, the Doctor's aunt, and her daughters, Eliza McCullogh and husband, Addison McCullogh, Miss Amanda Willson (since Mrs. Hugh Means), Miss Sophronia Will- son, Davis Darlinton and wife, Newton Darlinton, Doddridge Darlinton and wife and Mrs. Salathiel Sparks, then a widow, and directly after the wife of Gen. James Pilson. Of that company but one survives, Mrs. Hugh Means, of Ashland, Ky.

In 1845, Dr. Willson and his wife, Mrs. Ann Willson, his aunt, Ad- dison McCullogh and wife and Mrs. Noble Grimes withdrew from the Pres- byterian Church at West Union and joined the New School. A church was organized at West Union and Doctor Willson and Addison McCullogh were made elders. From December, 1848, until April. 1849, Dr. Willson conducted a drug business at Pomeroy, Ohio, but with the exception of that period from May, 1840, until April, 1851, he practiced medicine at West Union. From the spring of 1849 till April, 1851, he was associated with Dr. David Coleman in the practice, under the name of Willson and Coleman. In the spring of 1851, the Doctor's health broke down, and he retired to Grimes' Well to recuperate, and was there during the cholera epidemic of 1851 in West Union.

In the fall of 1851, he located at Ironton, Ohio, where he continued to reside the remainder of his life. In Ironton, he connected with the Presbyterian Church in 1852, and the same year was made an elder which office he held until his death. He represented his Presbytery in four dif- ferent synods. He attended four general assemblies as a delegate and four more as a visitor.

While Doctor Willson would not live in Virginia and while he and his people there differed about slavery, yet he loved to visit his old home in that state. In April, 1843, he took his wife there and they remained till June. They traveled the whole way in a carriage.

In 1846, he and his wife again visited his childhood home in Virginia, traveling the entire distance upon horseback.

In 1853, he was called to Virginia by the sickness of his mother. trav- eling by river to Guyandotte and thence by stage the remainder of the way. He had hoped to see his mother alive, but when he reachd there she was dead and buried. There were a number of young negroes about the place and the Doctor asked that one be given him and he selected a boy of nine named Sam and took him with him to Ohio, solely for the purpose of giv-

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ing him his freedom. Sam was as full of fun and glee as a young healthy animal and had a natural genius for cookery. Notwithstanding the Doc- tor's abhorrence of slavery, he consented to be a slaveholder for a week in order to get Sam out of Virginia. He kept Sam for seven years and taught him to read and write and cipher and gave him such further instruction as he could. In 1860, he sent him to Cincinnati to learn the carpenter's trade. Sam could sew and do any housework as well as any woman. He always kept himself neat, clean and well dressed. Whenever the Doctor visited Cincinnati, Sam would buy a number of things for "Miss Adaline," as he called Mrs. Willson. Those articles were usually ladies' clothing or apparel and he could always select them with consummate taste and antic- ipate Mrs. Willson's wants. Sam always took good care of himself. He never married and is now living in New Orleans.

The Doctor, on the occasion of the last visit to his father in Virginia prior to the Civil War, had a great argument with his father, who was strongly pro slavery in his views and in favor of the Rebellion of the South. In this discussion, the Doctor predicted the Civil War and all its dire con- sequences to the South, including the abolition of slavery, but his father could not be convinced. They separated never to meet on earth, as James Willson died in 1864, but the Doctor lived to see all his predictions verified, During the war he was very kind to his Southern male relatives who, with · the exception of his father, were all in the Confederate army and several of them prisoners at Camp Chase. To those who were prisoners, he sent money, clothing and necessaries, but at the same time no one was more loyal or devoted to the Union cause than he.

After the war he practiced his profession in Ironton until the infirm- ities of age compelled him to desist.

The Doctor and his wife were loved by the entire community, but es- pecially was their church devoted to them. On the twenty-eighth of Oc- tober, 1890, the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage was celebrated by the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church in Ironton, and it was a most notable occasion which would require an article as long as this. Of those present at their marriage, all had passed away except Mrs. Hugh Means, Miss Sophronia Willson and Rev. Newton Darlinton. The two former were present on the fiftieth anniversary.

From 1890 until 1898, the health of the Doctor gradually failed. He was subject to vertigo and was liable to fall at any time and he had to give up his profession, but all the time he was the same cheerful, agree- able person he ever had been. He always welcomd his friends and made them feel refreshed and rejoiced that they had called. He loved to speak of those dear friends who had gone before, but never repined. On the eleventh of February, 1898, his wife passed away and he survived until the twenty-ninth of May, when he, too, received the final summons and an- swered it. After the death of his wife, an invalid in bed most of his time, unable to walk or stand alone, requiring an attendant all the time, he never complained. He often spoke of the great change which he felt was com- ing, but to him it was but passing from one room to another. He was ready at the Master's call and it came silently and gently. He passed from sleep to its twin, Death, and the chapter of his life was closed. He was a fine example of the old-fashioned Virginia gentleman, kind and courteous to everyone and quick to appreciate what would please those about him

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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 78

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