USA > Ohio > A history of Ohio, with biographical sketches of her governors and the ordinance of 1787 > Part 8
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From 1810 to 1825.
all assaults. With good sense the committee to whom the petitions were referred reported "that when said act shall have been tested by the touch- stone of experience, it will become popular, because its features are stamped with an enlarged wisdom, a liberal and enlightened policy." . Fifty years of experience and history have confirmed this. Im- provements and additions to the school system of Ohio have made it a structure of majestic power and good. It destroys all aristocracy and caste, and leaves no mark of distinction but that which is intel- lectual. Year after year the common schools of Ohio have increased in strength and numbers in a marvel- ous ratio. So thoroughly are the people interested in and attached to popular education, that no means are spared, that are necessary to a perfect condition. In 1886 the total expenditure for common school purposes was $10, 121,897, an amount greater than in any other state in the Union, excepting New York and Illinois. More than ten per cent. of all the money spent in the United States for educational purposes is expended in Ohio. She has a greater school attendance in proportion to her population than any other state.
In the conveniences of educational facilities Ohio has no peer in the Union. Her school-houses and grounds are valued at thirty millions of dollars, more than twice the whole taxable property of the State when Ephriam Cutler offered his first bill. To her teachers she pays over six millions of dollars annually. Out of this widespread education of the people has grown a demand for higher scholarship, consequently we find that Ohio possesses more col-
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A History of Ohio,
leges than any other state. The aggregate value of these colleges is $5,616,000; New York is the only state which exceeds this amount in college property. And all this is the result of the ideas so manfully and zealously contended for by Cutler, Atwater and Guilford. Little did they dream, in the most san- guine hour of their enthusiasm, that their schemes of "schools for all " would produce such magnificent results.
CHAPTER VII. 1825-1840.
LAFAYETTE'S VISIT-MORMONISM IN THE WESTERN RESERVE-THE FLIGHT OF JOSEPH SMITH AND HIS FOLLOWERS - THE FLOOD OF 1832 -THE TOLEDO WAR-THE NEW STATE HOUSE -THE CENSUS OF IS40 - THE LOG CABIN AND HARD CIDER CAMPAIGN -THE IMMENSE MEETING AT DAYTON.
Lafayette, the distinguished compatriot and friend of Washington, paid a formal visit to Ohio in 1825. He was received at Cincinnati in May of this year by Governor Morrow and his staff in the presence of 50,000 people. Amid the thundering of cannon and the acclamations of a grateful multitude, the friend of the Nation in its darkest and youngest hour, was welcomed by a new generation. It was truly a mar- velous scene. When last in America, sharing with Washington the hardships of the camp and the glo- ries of the field, the territory upon which he now landed was absolutely wild with savage beasts and
-
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From 1825 to 1840.
still more savage men. Since then a new empire in the West had grown up, cities had arisen where once forests grew, and the great unknown and uncivilized West of the Revolutionary era had developed into a territory of three and one half millions of people. To Lafayette it was indeed a soul-stirring sight. He loved the Republic and republican institutions wherever found. The new world received the Great Republi- can of the old, not only for the glorious help he gave in the Revolution, but because for liberty's sake he had since then suffered fines and persecution and im- prisonment.
Lafayette had arrived in this country the summer before, and his visit was a continual ovation from a grateful Nation unforgetful of patriotic memories. He was escorted to Cincinnati by the Governor of Kentucky and a splendid suite, and received as before stated by the Governor of Ohio. Among those promi- nently identified with Lafayette's reception were Gen- erals Harrison and Lytle, and Judge Burnett, a trio of pioneers who revived strongly the days of the North- west Territory.
An interesting incident occurred on this occasion. Among the thousands that welcomed the great guest on that bright May morning was a good German wo- inan who, years before, gave Lafayette a cup of milk and a three-franc piece as he came out of the fortress of Olmutz, where he had been long and cruelly impris- oned as a friend of liberty. Lafayette upon meeting her gave her an affectionate and tender greeting.
He could not find time in the press of his engage- ments to visit the interior of Ohio. Governor Mor- row accompanied him eastward as far as Wheeling,
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where he was received by the people of Virginia with similar honors and hospitality. Bidding him good- bye and God-speed, Governor Morrow returned to the State Capital.
Commencing in 1831, Mormonism flourished sev- eral years in Ohio. Its rise and development form an important, as well as an interesting, part of State history.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, known among his followers as the "Prophet of the Lord," came to Kirtland, then in Geauga, but now in Lake county, in February of that year. Under a revelation, which the prophet claimed to have received from the Lord in December, 1830, Kirtland was designated as the Promised Land. Accordingly, in January, Smith and his followers, numbering more than fifty families, migrated from Western New York. As they traveled to what they called, and believed to be, the New Jerusalem, the seeds of Mormonism were sown by the wayside, and many converts made. Amid prayers and singing and religious demonstrations, these duped devotees of a religious fraud entered Ohio. The new religion spread with marvelous rapidity. Smith, from all that can be learned of his life, was a worthless and cunning man. He saw with what avidity his doctrines were received by many of the ignorant, and from what he first perpetrated as a joke, came a structure of relig- ious enthusiasm and belief unsurpassed by any fraud since the days of the rise of Mohammedism. The origin and development of Mormonism is one of the most phenomenal occurrences in psychological history. "The Book of Mormon " appeared in 1830.
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From 1825 to 1840.
This Smith claims to have written from mysterious plates, which no man ever saw, but it was really a plagiarism from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding, of Conneaut, Ohio, about 1812. Spauld- ing's work was a story of the prehistoric tribes of America. By some means it came into possession of one Sidney Rigdon, of Kirtland, an erratic, elo- quent, and unscrupulous minister, well known throughout the Western Reserve. There can be little doubt that Rigdon and Smith, between them, concocted the " Book of Mormon " and Mormonism. It is known that Rigdon often left his home in Ohio, and absented himself for weeks at a time. There is indubitable evidence which proves that on these occasions he was in communication with Smith. Shortly after one of these visits, Smith dictated the " Book of Mormon " from his plates, lie said, but it was really from Solomon Spaulding's manuscripts which had been furnished him by Sidney Rigdon.
When Joseph Smith came to Ohio, Rigdon was his most zealous and effective apostle, and was soon made a High Priest. With ardor worthy of a bet- ter cause, this pair traveled and labored day and night for their new creed. Under their leadership it spread like wildfire, and Kirtland grew in population, wealth and importance. It was the Mecca of the new faith, and according to the wild dreams of Smith and Rigdon, it was to be the great City of the Saints. Streets were platted, and in the center of all was to be erected a great temple. For five years Mormonismi prospered in Ohio, and some of the sanguine visions of the faithful were realized, at least for a time. But they labored under disadvan-
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A History of Ohio,
tages, which only seemed to increase their zeal. On the 25th of March, 1832, Smith and Rigdon were seized by a mob at Hiram, stripped naked and tarred and feathered. Nothing daunted, Smith appeared next morning, which was Sunday, in his usual capacity as " Prophet of the Lord," having spent the most of the night in cleaning the tar and feathers from his body. Sidney Rigdon was rendered tempo- rarily insane by his treatment. A young man, just over thirty, came to Kirtland this year, whose life and destiny is now a part of the history of Mormon- ism. This was Brigham Young. He was a man of much native shrewdness, carnest in his purposes, yet eminently practical in worldly affairs. Smith saw at a glance the material before him, and Young was ordained to preach at once, and in three years after, at a conference held at Kirtland, he was selected as one of the Twelve Apostles.
The success of Mormonism reached its highest point in Ohio upon the completion of their great temple, which cost them forty thousand dollars. March 27, 1836, was fixed as the day of dedication. It was a day of mysterious and emotional enthius- iasın. For four days and four nights the Saints abandoned themselves to an exciting state of relig- ious fervor. Brigham Young and Joseph Smith were the chief among those present, and we are told that there were over four hundred elders and deacons in the temple; there were also gathered there thousands of people from all over northern Ohio. It really seemed as if they had reached the Promised Land ; Smith knew it, and the Mormons believed it.
Joseph Smith applied to the Legislature for
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117
From 1825 to 18.10.
authority to start a bank at Kirtland, but the charter was refused. He had a revelation that lie should do so for the good of the Church, and, regardless of the refusal of the Legislature, he organized the "Kirt- land Safety Society Bank." Smith was president and Sidney Rigdon cashier; the capital was five thousand dollars. It exercised banking powers as freely as if it had been incorporated, and issued its bills with the assurances of future payment and that the Lord would take care of them. The financial panic of 1837 proved disastrous to both bank and people. The general spirit of speculation spread through the Church, and with it came dissensions and schisms. The creditors of the Mormons began to close in upon them. In January, Joseph Smith with others, was sued for many thousands of dollars by creditors at home and abroad. As a last resort they were compelled to mortgage the Temple to secure delay and forbearance. But it was in vain ; the financial tide was against them, as it was against the whole country, in 1837. On the heels of credi- tors, came Smith's personal enemies, and we find in March that himself and Rigdon were arrested for acting as bank officers. In October a jury of Geauga county found them guilty. While the case was pending in the higher courts, whither it had been taken in error, Smith received a "revelation" com- manding himself and Rigdon to leave for the West beyond the jurisdiction of Ohio laws and courts. It need scarcely be told that the "revelation " was cheerfully obeyed. Under the cover of night, Jan- uary 12, 1838, the Prophet and Sidney Rigdon mounted fast horses and fled from Kirtland to be-
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A History of Ohio,
yond the Missouri River, where the Mormons were gathered in great numbers at a town called Far West.
They were soon followed by those who remained faithful. Brigham Young had left some time before. The great Temple fell into the hands of the " Reform- ers," a Mormon sect opposed to Smith. Thus did Mormonism and its false Prophet fade out of Ohio history.
In 1832 occurred the remarkable and devastating food in the Ohio River, which worked so much destruction to Ohio property and business. The summer and fall of the previous year were very rainy ; in those seasons there fell in the Ohio Valley three feet of rain, whereas that fall was the usual one for the entire year. Snow fell heavily in the moun- tains, so that when the breaking up of the winter arrived in February additional falls of snow and rain found the Ohio River high in its banks and rising rapidly. In the last ten days of January there fell sixteen inches of snow, then for twelve days came a rain of eight inches accompanied with a warm tem- perature. The result was an immense inundation. The destruction and devastation which followed is simply indescribable. To the damage and danger of property was added the terror and helplessness of the people along the river in the presence of a calamity no human means could avert or lessen. At Marietta on Saturday and Sunday, the rith and 12th of February, the river was a floating mass of ruins. Dwelling houses, stables, haystacks, boards, timber, trees and farming implements, all piled in confusion, floated down the stream. In one place where their
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From 1825 to 1840.
progress was impeded, these accumulated ruins heaped up to the height of thirty feet. At an island below Marietta over thirty buildings were crowded upon each other by the resistless flood. In some of these were complete stocks of country stores. An instance is known of a barn that floated one hundred miles and landed at Long Bottom, Meigs County, with a horse safely resting within. Much stock was drowned, and the whole territory along the river was a sad scene of devastation. Outside of the towns, the loss in Ohio was estimated at about five hundred dollars per mile. The destructiveness of the flood seemed to have penetrated the interior of the State. The continued rains filled all the rivers to overflow- ing. The Maumee, the Great Miami, the Scioto and other streams of less importance leaped their banks, destroying bridges, mills, fences, stock and produce.
In the cities and towns, especially in the river counties, the loss was incalculable. In Cincinnati five hundred families were driven from their houses and a half a million dollars worth of property destroyed. The two days of distress are thus described by the Cincinnati American :
" Thursday, February 16, 1832 .- The river still continues on the rise -it is undoubtedly sixty-four feet above low water mark. Yesterday it rose at the rate of an inch an hour. From six o'clock last even- ing to six this morning, we should think at the rate of an inch an hour. The 'Amulet,' from above, reports that we may expect twelve or fifteen inches more. It was falling above the Great Kanawha, and was at a stand below. It rose several inches while
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A History of Ohio,
the boat was at Maysville. Yesterday afternoon, we took a boat, in company with a number of others, and rowed to the lower part of the city ; the scene presented cannot easily be described. It was painful to witness destruction on so vast a scale-some houses upset, others in imminent danger; the water reached the roofs of the more humble, and the win- dows of the second stories of good frame houses. Flat-boats loaded with women and children, furniture, and live stock, were busily engaged in Race, Vine, Elm and Walnut streets. The paper-mills appeared to be in the middle of the river, if river it could be called; skiffs were passing in every direction. We returned by way of Front street. The fine houses flooded, the lower part of the street deserted-and the second stories occupied by those nearer to Main street - boat loads of furniture from Water street formed a melancholy tout ensemble. Two of the workmen at Fift's foundry were drowned last night ;; they ran down into the cellar at the time the embank- ment gave way to save some effects ; the water rushed in with such fury as to render escape impossible. There is a report of two or three children being taken from a floating cabin, but we cannot trace it to an authentic source."
"Friday morning, February 17 .- The work of de- struction still continues-the river having reached nearly to lower Market street; when we issued our first circular, no one presumed it would reach higher than Columbia street-but all calculations have failed. 'It is still on the rise, it is still on the risc,' is all that is said or known. All kinds of craft are put in requisition -- tubs, boxes, canoes, flats, 'dug-
121
From 1825 to 1840.
outs,' skiffs, yawls, etc. The scene is as lively as a 'regatta' at Venice, though we may not boast of a Bravo or an Antonio. We ought to except a baker. who manages his trough with wonderful dexterity. We cannot enumerate half the sad calamities rumor is bringing in. The river, as it sweeps by with its accumulated waters, carries with it the wreck of its desolation. A church passed the city with the steeple standing, bound for New Orleans we pre- stime-a poor market. Excellent frame houses float along, with hay-stacks, rails, etc., leaving the farm stripped of every vestige of cultivation. The lower Mill creek bridge started yesterday morning. Ham- ilton and Colerain bridges have floated off, and the bridge over White River in Kentucky. The Ken- tucky River is backed up to Frankfort, sixty-four miles above its mouth. Newport, opposite to Cin- cinnati, was pretty well afloat-the water having reached nearly to the windows in the second story of the United States Arsenal. Covington does better, some dry land being discernable."
Entire villages along the Ohio were depopulated. From Steubenville to Cincinnati every town, except- ing Gallipolis, was compelled to suspend business. The flood of 1832 was the highest that had afflicted the inhabitants of the Ohio Valley since 1772.
The flood of 1772, which is the earliest we have any account of, was five feet higher than that of 1832. "After General Wayne's treaty with the Indians in 1795," says a pioneer writer, " the natives frequently visited the settlement at Marietta for the purposes of trade. Seeing dwelling houses erected and improvements making on the bottom lands, the
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A History of Ohio,
aged Indians, with a shake of the head, would point with their hands to the elevated branches of the sycamore trees on the banks of the river, saying they had seen the water that high, and at some future day the white man would see it there also. All who heard it at that time believed it to be an Indian hyperbole; but recent events proved the Indian legend to be true." In 1784 there was a memorable flood, and it was preceded by the same conditions as all the great freshets in the Ohio river. . Heavy and general winter snows and spring rains made it of alinost the same height as that of 1832.
The dispute between Ohio and Michigan, which had been going on for several years, over the bound- ary line between those two states, culminated in 1835. It resulted in actual warfare between them, as far as military preparations, enlistments and cam- paigns can constitute war. Fortunately there was no blood shed. The war, for it was known through- out the country as the " Toledo War," was the occa- sion of much ill-feeling and bitterness between the states concerned, and of anxiety to the United States. In order to understand the controversy properly, a review of certain events is necessary.
In the Ordinance of 1787, which provided for the government of the Northwest Territory, the north- ern boundary of what now constitutes Ohio, Indiana and Illinois was declared to be a line dividing the United States and the British possessions, but the Ordinance contained the further provision that " the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall find it expe- dient, they shall have authority to form one or two
123
From 1825 to 1840.
states in that part of said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." Afterwards, in 1802, in the act giving Ohio the right to forin a State Constitution, Congress described the northern boundary of the proposed state, as follows :
"On the north by an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running east after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it shall inter- sect Lake Erie, or the territorial line, and thence with. the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line."
When Ohio the same year adopted her Constitution, she designated in that instrument the same northern boundary as that named in the act of Congress, but seeing difficulty ahead, made this condition to the adoption of the boundary :
" Provided always, and it is hereby understood and declared by this Convention, that if the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie, east of the mouth of the Miami River of the lake, then and in that case, witli the assent of the Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of this State shall be established by and extend to a direct line running from the south- ern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most north- erly cape of the Miami Bay, after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami River aforesaid; thence north-east to the territorial line to the Pennyslvania line."
The difficulty can be seen at once. When Congress
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A History of Ohio,
passed the act of 1802, there was very little informa- tion as to the relative geographical positions of Lakes Erie and Michigan. The northern boundary line of Ohio as fixed by that act was an impossible line. Such a line instead of intersecting Lake Erie would pass several miles south of the lake and divide what now constitute Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. Con- gress never intended such a boundary line, but always recognized Lake Erie as the northern limit of Ohio. When Ohio discovered the uncertainty of the north- ern boundary, application was made to Congress for a survey of the line designated in the constitutional proviso of the State. Attempts were made in 1812 to survey the line under a resolution of Congress, but they were thwarted by the hostilities between our country and Great Britain, but in 1817 it was done. William Harris, under the instruction of the Sur- veyor General, ran the line which Ohio claimed as her boundary, and it was known in the controversy as the " Harris Line."
Harris reported his survey to the Governor of Ohio and the Land Office at Washington. On the 29th of January, 1818, the Legislature of Ohio promptly rati- fied and adopted the "Harris Line" as the northern boundary of the State.
In the meantime, the Territory of Michigan had been formed and its southern boundary fixed as in the act authorizing the Territory of Ohio to form a State government. The Territory of Michigan, therefore enforced her laws in, and claimed juris- dicton over, a strip of territory the whole length of the Ohio northern boundary. This strip was five miles in width at the west end, and over eight
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From 1825 to 1840.
miles at the east end. It was rich, agricultural land, but its chief charm was the harbor where Toledo is now situated. The citizens in the disputed territory soon addressed Governor Lucas, asking that some measures be taken by the Legislature of Ohio look- ing to state control. The Governor in a special mes- sage, presented the case, and on the 23rd of February, 1835, an act was passed extending the northern bound- aries of Wood, Henry and Williams counties to the " Harris Line." The same law provided for elections in the new townships formed by extension, and also for the appointment of three Commissioners to run and re-mark the line. Eleven days before this law was passed, however, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, hearing of the proposed action of Ohio, passed an act providing for the punishment of any person who should exercise or attempt to ex- ercise any official functions, or officiate in office within any part of the Territory. The penalty fixed was a fine not exceeding a thousand dollars, or imprison- inent, not exceeding five years, or both. This law was the result of a special message of Stevens T. Mason then acting Governor, which he sent to the Legislature when he heard of Governor Lucas's mes- sage on the same subject.
The state and the territory through the solemu acts of their Legislative bodies had now made an issue, and the question began to assume a serious aspect. Governor Lucas was a man of strong and stubborn character, slow, but determined in what he undertook. He was well-fitted by education and ability to take the lead in affairs of state. There was nothing impetuous about him, and every step he
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took in this affair he did advisedly. Notwithstand- ing the action of the Michigan Council, Governor Lucas appointed Uri Seely, of Geauga, Jonathan Taylor, of Licking, and John Patterson, of Adams, as Commissioners to run and re-mark the "Harris Line." Governor Mason, upon being advised as to what Ohio was doing, addressed General Joseph W. Brown of the third division of the Michigan militia in the following words :
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, DETROIT, March 9, 1835.
SIR :- You will herewith receive a copy of a letter just received from Columbus. You will now per- ceive that a collision between Ohio and Michigan is inevitable, and will therefore be prepared to meet the crisis. The Governor of Ohio has issued a proc- lamation, but I have neither received it, nor have I been able to learn its tendency. You will use every exertion to obtain the earliest information of the inilitary movements of our adversary, as I shall assume the responsibility of sending you such arms, etc., as may be necessary for your successful opera- tion, without your waiting for an order from the Secretary of War, so soon as Ohio is properly in the field. Till then, I am compelled to await the direc- tion of the war department.
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