A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 22

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 22

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party was formed, he had remained in it, he would have made a signal success, and no doubt, if he had, he could have had any offices he desired.

His relations to his professional brethren were very cordial. He will long be remembered as one of the most brilliant lawyers of Southern Ohio.

Joseph Miller

was born in Chillicothe, in September, 1819, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. He was Prosecuting Attorney in 1845-46, and as such prosecuted Henry Thomas for the murder of Frederick Edwards. In 1856, he was elected by the Democratic party, to represent this district in the 35th Congress; and to this day, he has been the only man born in Ross County, who ever represented a district, of which Ross Coun- ty formed a part, in the Congress of the United States. During his term the contest for and against the extension of slavery into Kan- sas and Nebraska was raging. Miller voted with the south on this subject ; and as a considerable number of his party had, by this time, become heartily tired of pro-slavery pretension and arrogance, his re- election became obviously impossible. But after he had been defeated President Buchanan, in March 1859 appointed him as Chief Justice of Nebraska Territory. In 1861, his successor was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln ; and Mr. Miller returned to Ohio, in very bad health, and died May 27th, 1862.

Carey A. Trimble

was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, April 13, 1813. He was the fourth son of Governor Allen Trimble. He received a classical education and graduated at the Ohio University in 1833, and from the Cincinnati Medical College in 1836, and was demonstrater of anatomy in that in- stitution from 1837 until 1841. His health failing, he retired from his profession and devoted himself to farming. He was elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress in 1858 from the Tenth District, composed of Ross, Pike, Jackson, Scioto and Lawrence Counties. He was re- elected to the Thirty-seventh, in 1860, from the same District. He married Mary, daughter of Governor McArthur. They had one daughter, Nancy, who married W. M. Madeira. His first wife died and he was married the second time to Ann P. Thompson of Harrods- burg, Kentucky, and they went there to reside. The date of his de- mise is not known.

Hon. Wells A. Hutchins

was born October 7, 1818, in Trumbull County, Ohio. His father was Asa Hutchins and his mother was Hannah Bushnell, both from Con- necticut. Consequently he was a Yankee. His father was a Colonel in the war of 1812, but died at the early age of forty-five, leaving his widow with eight children to face this cruel world. Our subject was

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then twelve years of age. In 1831, he worked on a farm for $25.00, for his entire year's services, and from that time was entirely dependent on himself. His mind was quick and active and he never failed to make the best of the situation about him. At eighteen, he had qualified himself for a teacher. He went to Corydon, Ind., and taught in a se- lect school for eight months. With true Yankee thrift he saved $900 from his teaching. He took it home and used it in payment of his expenses while studying law.

He read law at Warren, Ohio, with the Honorables John Hutch- ins and John Crowell and was admitted to the bar in 1841. In the Spring of 1842, he came to Portsmouth. He had been at Steubenville, and was on a steamboat on his way down the river to go further west. On the steamboat he met L. N. Robinson and his brother J. V. They persuaded him to get off at Portsmouth and he did so. He went into Squire Lorenzo C. Goff's court and liked the way he saw justice ad- ministered. The first Sunday he was in Portsmouth, he went to the Methodist Church where Hibbs' Hardware store now stands. He ac- companied his friends, L. N. and J. V. Robinson. The men and wo- men sat apart and he noticed a pretty, back eyed, black haired girl in "the amen corner" He asked who she was, but his friends the Robin- sons passed the question and when the services were over the Robinsons waited near the door with young Hutchins and as the pretty girl came near, they introduced Hutchins to her as their sister, Cornelia. Mr. Hutchins married her February 23, 1843. The vestigia of Mr. Hutc- The first official record we have

hins in Portsmouth are numerous. of him was in the Spring of 1842. The tax assessor guessed off his income at $100.00. He must have risen in public esteem very rapid- ly for the next year it was guessed off at $500.00. In 1845, it was $800.00, in 1847. $1,000, and in 1849, $1,500.00. In 1842 and 1844, he was on the Whig Central Committee. In 1843, he leased his office of the city for $32.00 per year.

In 1851, he was the Whig candidate for the Legislature and was elected receiving 1,348 votes to 923 for Judge Joseph Moore. He sat in the first General Assembly under the new Constitution. In 1855, he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention from Scioto County. Lucins V. Robinson, George A. Waller and Milton Kennedy were the others. In 1856, he went over to the Democrats. He was elected City Solicitor, in 1857, and served until 1859, at $100, per year. In 1859, he was re-elected and served until 1861, at a salary of $150, per year.

In 1860, he was a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket in the Tenth District and was defeated. The vote stood Carey A. Trimble, Republican, 11,593, Hutchins, Democrat, 11,025, major- ity, 568. The vote in his County was Trimble, 2,210, Hutchins, 2, 148. In June, 1861, he was one of the committee to buy $5,000.00 in arms for the County. On August 7, 1861, when Company G. came

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home, he made the welcoming speech. On October 16, 1861, he was one of the Military Committee of the County.

In 1862, in the Spring, he went to Washington with a Committee to secure a government armory at Portsmouth. On June 16, 1862, he was tendered the Colonelcy of the 9Ist O. V. I., but declined. In the summer of 1862, he declared for a more vigorous prosecution of the war and was nominated for Congress on that issue. The vote in the district stood; Hutchins 8,605, Bundy 6,702, Hutchins plurality 1,903. In Scioto County the vote stood; Bundy, Republican, 1, 165; Hutchins, Democrat, 2,004. In September, 1862, he was Provost Marshal of the City, at the time of the expedition to Vanceburg to suppress a suppositious rebel raid.

In 1863, he changed his views about the war; and on July 27. 1863, he made a speech in Jackson, in which he stated that he thought the South could not be subdued ; and that the Country was about to become a military despotism. He denounced the arrest of Vallandig- ham. In 1865, in Congress, he voted for the repeal of slavery in the District of Columbia; and in February of that year, he voted for the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery. Sam Pike who had a news- paper in Chillicothe denounced him for this, in unmeasured terms. Pike said Hutchins had never been a Democrat and that from 1861, he had been a Republican in disguise. The article was a long one and was published in the Portsmouth Times, without note or comment. In 1864, he ran for a second term for Congress and was defeated by Mr. Bundy by the following vote in the District; Hutchins, Democrat, 7,793 ; Bundy, Republican, 11,732. In Scioto County the vote stood : Bundy, 1,930; Hutchins, 1,759.

In 1867, the Democrats nominated him for City Solicitor against Robert N. Spry, then a Republican. It was said at the time, that Mr. Hutchins did not know that he was on the ticket until after the elec- tion. The vote stood: Spry, 732; Hutchins, 651 ; a majority of 81 for Spry. In the same year he and W .K. Thompson were the only Democrats in Scioto County who voted for the amendment to the State Constitution, conferring suffrage on the negroes. While Mr. Hutchins acted with the Whig party during its existence, he was in reality always an old time abolitionist. When in Congress, it was therefore no wonder that he voted for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Con- stitution of the United States.

In 1868, he was appointed as one of a Committee to go to Co- lumbus and lobby for a new penitentiary to be established at Ports- mouth. The City appropriated $1,000.00, for this purpose and asked the County to appropriate as much more.

In 1870, the Council appointed him a Hospital Commsisioner, but he declined. In 1875, he was a Trustee of the Portsmouth Young Ladies' Seminary and a Director of the Scioto Valley Railway. In

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 183

1887, he was a Director of the Ohio and North Western Railroad. In 1880. he was a candidate for Congress for the last time. Henry S. Neal, Republican, was his opponent. The vote in Scioto County was Neal, 3,287 ; Hutchins, 3,378; Hutchins' majority was 91 votes.

In the District the vote stood Henry S. Neal, 17,208; Hutchins, 15,080; Republican majority 2, 128.

He died January 22, 1895, of a disease of the kidneys. Up to a few weeks prior to his death he had enjoyed excellent health and when taken sick, he expected to recover. When, however, his malady took a fatal character, he faced the inevitable, without a word. He had the most superb courage of any man who ever lived in Portsmouth, but it was not of the boastful kind. No matter what unexpected happened, he never expressed any consciousness of surprise or consternation. He was never perturbed. He was always calm and collected and never lost his equipoise. As a public speaker, he was slow, clear and logical. He had a pleasant voice and agreeable manner. He was employed in all important litigation in southern Ohio. For twenty-one years he car- ried on the litigation against the furnaces on the Branch road; and it is said the fees in these were $65,000. In the Scioto Valley case, he and Judge Olds had a fee of $40,000, allowed out of the fund, but what they received directly from their clients is not known. The Hunting- ton claim of $750,000, was worthless when the litigation began; but before it closed, they made it good, dollar for dollar, with interest.

In the case of Olive Applegate vs. W. Kinney & Co., where an attempt was made to hold certain citizens as quasi partners, growing out of the failure of the Kinney Bank, in the argument, Col. Moore spoke three days. Mr. Hutchins closed to the jury and spoke one hour. He carried the jury with him and won the case. That case was prob- ably the greatest of his legal victories.

Mr. Hutchins was intuitively a lawyer. While others had to get out their points by long and close study, his came to him intuitively. He could look into a case and say at once what principles would deter- mine it. His plan was to take the governing principle in a case, which would determine it in his favor and urge that strongly to the Court or Jury. But one thing he could not do. When he was on the wrong side of a case, he could not conceal his consciousness of the fact from the Court and his fellow members of the bar. The result of this peculiarity was, that when he was on the right side of a case, he was irresistible.

He was the best illustration of a self composed, self contained, self reliant man ever known to the writer. No matter with what he was confronted, he expressed no surprise and treated it as though he had been studying it and had expected it for ten years He had his private griefs enough to have crushed many men, but he never gave the slightest indication of their burden to the public. He never preached any philosophy, but his philosophy far exceeded that of any of the

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ancient schools. He never speculated why he came into the world, nor concerned himself about his going out. He undertook to meet every situation as it came to him and to make the best of it.

He was never known to lose his equipoise. When confronted with death, he met it with the utmost composure; and never undertook to give a single direction on account of it. While his Republican neigh- bors did not like his political course, they were all his friends. He was a man of great liberality. He would have given away his last dol- lar in charity. He was always in favor of public improvements and public enterprises.

Socially he was courteous to all and liked by all. Although a very positive man, he was positive in a way which gave no offense. He was a gentleman of the old school. He was always at his best before the world. He scorned an ignoble action. He was not a user of tobacco or liquors. He belonged to a class of gentlemen which has forever passed away,-an admirable type of lawyer, man and citi- zen; one whose life was an inspiration to those about him.

Hezekiah Sanford Bundy

was born August 15, 1817, in Marietta, Ohio. His father was Nathan Bundy, a native of Hartford, Conn. His mother was Ada M. Nichol- son, of Duchess County, New York, where they were married. In 1816, they removed to Marietta, Ohio. Two years later, Mr. Bundy's father settled near Athens where he leased college land and cleared and improved it. His title, however, proved invalid. He was killed in 1832 by the falling of a tree. In 1880, his wife died at the age of eighty-one years. Of their three children, our subject is the only one who reached maturity. In 1834, he located in McArthur, and in 1837, went to Wilkesville, where he married Lucinda, daughter of Zimri Wells. In 1839, he moved back to McArthur, where his wife died in December, 1842, leaving three children; William Sanford, Sarah A., wife of Major B. F. Stearns, of Washington, D. C .; and Lucy, now Mrs. J. C. H. Cobb, of Jackson County.

From 1839 to 1846, Mr. Bundy was engaged in merchandising in McArthur, Ohio. In 1844, he married Caroline, daughter of Judge Payne, of Jackson County, and in 1846, moved to the old home of his father-in-law, which he afterwards purchased and where he con- tinued to reside until his death. His second wife died in 1868, leaving two daughter's : Julia P., now the wife of Senator Joseph B. Foraker, of Ohio, and Eliza M., wife of Harvey Wells, the founder of Wellston. Mr. Bundy was again married in 1876 to Mary M. Miller, who surviv- ed and still occupies the old home.

In his early life, he attended for a short time a private school under the charge of David Pratt, of Athens, but his schooling ceased when he was fourteen years of age. In 1846, he commenced the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1850. In the fall of 1848, he

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was elected to the legislature from Jackson and Gallia Counties and voted to repeal the Black Laws. In 1850, he was elected to represent Jackson, Athens, Gallia and Meigs Counties in the House. In 1855, he was elected to the State Senate to represent the present seventh sen- atorial district. In 1860, he was a presidential elector from his con- gressional district and voted for Abraham Lincoln. In 1862, he was the Republican candidate for congress from the eleventh district of Ohio, but was defeated by the Hon. Wells A. Hutchins by 1,900 votes. Two years later he was a candidate against Mr. Hutchins and defeated him by a majority of 4,000. In 1872, he was a candidate for the 43rd congress in the same district and defeated Samuel A. Nash by a large majority. In 1874, he was again a candidate, but was defeated by Hon. John L. Vance, of Gallipolis. In 1893, he was a candidate for congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Gen. Wm. H. Enochs, and was elected. Upon Mr. Bundy's retirement in March, 1895. he was given a banquet and reception at Jackson, Ohio, which was attended by Gov. McKinley, and State officers, Senator Foraker, Ex-Governor Foster, General Keifer, General Grosvenor, and many others of national prominence; and to Mr. Bundy on that occasion was given one of the grandest tributes ever witnessed in Ohio. He repre- sented Scioto County in the State Senate and in his three terms in con- gress.

In 1843, he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was one of the first lay delegates from Ohio to the general con- ference. In 1848, he bought the farm where he died and since then was largely engaged in the iron and coal interests in Jackson County, Ohio, and owned Latrobe and Keystone Furnaces. He also at one time owned Eliza Furnace.

His son, Wm. S. Bundy, served in the 18th O. V. I. during the first three months of the civil war. He then enlisted in Company G. of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and was wounded Sept. 20, 1863, at Beans Station in Tennessee. In January, 1864, he was sent home on account of his disability and on March 22, 1864, discharged for the same reason. After his return from the army he married Kate Thomp- son, and had one child, the present Wm. E. Bundy, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. He died from the results of his wound January 27, 1867, and his wife was killed in December 1868, by being thrown from a horse.

Hezekiah S. Bundy was always remarkably popular among the furnace-men of his county and district. They were for Bundy for con- gress at any time and at all times. He was an excellent campaigner. While he was not trained and never sought to train himself in the arts of oratory, yet he was an entertaining and effective speaker The peo- ple came to hear him and were always pleased and instructed. Mr. Bundy was well informed in every detail of public affairs, and had a good memory. He had a remarkable treasure of illustrative anecdotes

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from which he could draw at any time. His reminiscences were always delightful He thoroughly understood human nature, and always kept in close touch with the common people. On the floor of the House. or in committee, he was familiar with the public business, and always performed his duties creditably to himself and acceptably to his con- stituents. On all public questions in congress while he was a member, he was usually in advance of the march of public sentiment, especially was this true of reconstruction measures. As a business man he did much to develop the iron and coal industries in the region where he lived. He enjoyed to a remarkable extent the confidence and esteem of all who knew him and was universally mourned when he died at his home in Wellston, Ohio, December, 12, 1895.

John T. Wilson.

The words of Miss Edna Dean Proctor's poem are ringing in my ears. She inquires whether the heroes are all dead ; whether they lived only in the times of Homer and whether none of the race survive in these times? The refrain of the poem is; "Mother Earth, are the heroes dead?" And then she proceeds to answer it in her own way, and answers it thus :

"Gone? In a grander form they rise. Dead? We may clasp their hands in awe."

Then comparing our modern heroes with those of Homeric days. Jason, Orpheus, Hercules, Priam, Archilles, Hector, Theseus and Nes- tor, she continues :

"For their armor rings on a fairer field Than the Greek and the Trojan fiercely trod : For freedom's sword is the blade they wield, And the light above is the smile of God."

We have heroes in these, our days, who will compare more than favorably with those of the Homeric, or any subsequent times : but having known them as neighbors and friends, and having associated with them from day to day, we do not appreciate them until death has sealed their characters, and then as we begin to study them it be- gins to dawn on us that they too have done things which canonize them heroes.

Till since his death, we believe the public has not fully appreciat- ed the character of Hon. John T. Wilson, a former congressman of the tenth (Ohio) district, though it is his record as a patriot, and not as a congressman that we propose especially to discuss.

He was a hero of native growth. He was born April 16, 1811, in Highland County, Ohio, and lived the most of his life and died with- in ten miles of his birthplace. His span of life extended until the sixth of October, 1891, eighty-five years, five months, and twenty days, and in that time his manner of life was known to his neighbors as an open book.

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In that time, living as a country store-keeper and farmer, and resisting all temptations to be swallowed up in city life, if such temp- tations ever came to him, he accumulated a fortune of about a half a million of dollars, which, before, his death, was devoted principally to charitable work ..

· To attempt to sum up his life in the fewest words, it consisted in trying to do the duty nearest him. He was never a resident of a city except when attending to public official duties, and to expect a hero to come from the remote country region about tranquility in Adams coun- ty, Ohio, was as preposterious as looking for a prophet from the reg- ion of Nazareth in the year one; yet the unexpected happened in this instance.

Until the age of fifty, he had been a quiet unobtrusive citizen of his remote country home, seeking only to follow his vocation as a country merchant and to do his duty as a citizen; but it was when the war broke out that the soul which was in him was disclosed to the world. He showed himself an ardent patriot. When government bonds were first offered, there were great doubts as to whether the war would be successful, and whether the government would ever pay them.

No doubt ever occured to Mr. Wilson. He invested every dollar he had in them and advised his neighbors to do the same. He said if the country went down, his property would go with it, and he did not care to survive it ; and if the war was successful, the bonds would be all right. As fast as he made any money to spare, he continued to in- vest it in government securities. In the summer of 1861, he heard that Captain E M. DeBruin now, in Hillsboro, Ohio, was organizng a company for the Thirty-third Ohio Infantry Regiment, and he went over to Winchester and arranged with Rev. I. H. DeBruin, now of Hillsboro, Ohio, that his only son and child, Spencer H. Wilson, then 19 years of age, should enlist in the company, which he did, and was its first sergeant. and died in the service at Louisville, Ky., March 4, I862.

In the summer of 1861, Mr. Wilson determined that Adams Coun- ty should raise a regiment for the service. He did not want to under- take it himself, but he believed that if Colonel Cockerill, of West Union, Ohio, would lead the movement it could be done and he sent Dr. John Campbell, now of Delhi, Ohio, to secure the co-operation of Co !. Cockerill.

This was not difficult to do as Col. Cockerill felt about it as Mr Wilson. It was determined to ask Brown County to co-operate, and Col. D. W. C. Loudon, of Brown, was taken into the plan, and the Seventieth Ohio Infantry was organized in the fall of 1861. Mr. Wilson undertook to raise a company for the regiment and did so, and it was mustered in as Company E.

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The Captain, the Hon, John T. Wilson, was then fifty years of age, and he had in the company three privates, each of the same age, and one of the age of fifty-five, so that the ages of the five members of that company aggregated 225 years. Hugh J. McSurely was the pri- vate who was past fifty-five years of age when he enlisted in Capt. Wil- son's company. He is the father of Rev. Wm. J. McSurely, D. D. late pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Hillsboro, Ohio.

Capt. Wilson's company was much like Cromwell's troop of Ironsides, it was made up of staid old Scotch and Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians, who went in from a sense of duty. Col. Loudon, of the Seventieth O. V. I. says that Capt. Wilson did more to organize the Seventieth Ohio Infantry than anyone else. At the time he went into the service, he was physically unfit, and could not have passed medical examination as an enlisted man. He had an injury to his leg, from the kick of a horse years before, that greatly disabled him, but he wanted to go and felt that he owed it to his friends and his country to go. He would consider his own physical unfitness.

He led his company into the sanguinary battle of Shiloh. His personal coolness and self possession inspired his company, and he held it together during the entire two days battle.

During the march to Corinth, after Shiloh, he was taken down with the fever, and by order of the surgeon was sent north. At, Ripley. Ohio, he was taken much worse, and lay there for weeks, delirious and unconscious, hovering between life and death. Owing to the most careful nursing, he recovered. He was not able to rejoin his regiment until September, 1862, at Memphis, Tenn.

Col. Cockerill was in command of the brigade, and made him brigade quarter-master, so he would not have to walk; but it was ap- parent that he was not fit for service; and it was imperiling his life for naught. Col. Cockerill and Lieut. Col. Loudon both told him he could serve his country better at home than in the army, and insisted on his resigning and going home. He resigned Nov. 27, 1862. Col. Loudon says his record was without a stain, and none were more loyal than he.

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 22

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612