USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 87
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August 24, 1889, the Ohio Military Academy was about to be started in Portsmouth.
August 30, 1889. Harsha & Caskey were putting up a flour mill; G. D. Wait a furniture factory, and the Portsmouth Stove and Range Works a stove foundry.
September 23. 1889, the Ohio Military Academy opened with 21 cadets, under Colonel Bressler. J. I. Hudson was one of the instructors; Dr. D. B. Cot-
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640
THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH.
ton was the physician, Rev. H. L. Barger, the Chaplain, and Prof. A. M. Straub was Instructor in Music.
December 7, 1889, Captain Enos B. Moore retired from the river.
December 28, 1889, the Gaylord Rolling Mill was sold to the Burgess Steel and Iron Works.
Angust 23. 1890, the "Times" changed to an eight-page, seven-column paper from a four-page, nine-column paper.
July 21, 1891, the last horse car passed over the Portsmouth Street Railway.
October 17, 1891, the Portsmouth Street Railway and Light Company asked the City Council for the right to build the Street Railroad.
October 17, 1891, the Indian rock appeared in the river. G. H. Gharky saw it in the river in 1841. It is in the river nearly opposite the Water Works.
March 19, 1892, Company H, Fourteenth O. N. G. was fully armed, uni- formed and equipped.
April 16, 1892, John Brushart was proposing to erect an Electric Rail- way in Portsmouth.
September 24, 1892, franchise was granted to Electric Street Railway by City Council.
January 28, 1893, Vallee Harold sold out his interest in the "Times" to J. L. Patterson.
June 20, 1893. the Citizen's Savings Bank suspended and made an assign- ment to A. T. Holcomb and Frank M. Smith. Reopened July 24, 1893.
July 20, 1893, work on the Portsmouth Electric Railway was begun.
July 29, 1893, the Y. M. C. A. rented Mrs. Barton's property at 15 West Second Street.
January 20, 1894. the Portsmouth Street Railway and Light Company obtained the contract for lighting the city for ten years for $4,500 per year.
February 7, 1894, the City Council were to meet at the Little Building on Court Street for the last time. Prior to 1871 it had met -in the Massie Block. From 1871 to 1873 it met in the Mayor's office. From 1873 to 1894 it met in the Little Building on Court Street. From 1894 to the present time it lias occupied the Kricker Building.
March 26. 1894. the publication of the "Daily Times" was begun.
June 8, 1894, 'Company H was ordered to Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio.
June 16, 1894, Tracy Park was to be beautified. The fence was to come down and the green house to go out.
June 21. 1894, Captain N. W. Evans took a picnic to Buckeye Station, the oldest house in Ohio.
March 30, 1895, the women registered to vote for the first time in Ohio. February 1. 1896, the new Christian Church, on the Northwest corner of Third and Gay streets, was completed and occupied.
March 7, 1896, the "Times" first began the use of a typesetting machine. May 22, 1896, the old town well was uncovered in the paving of Market Street. It was found 18 inches below the surface covered with a great rock. It had not been filled and was over 30 feet deep. It was dug to supply the Jail and Court House with water. The well was covered over in 1826. Johnl G. Peebles drank out of it before that. James Hannahs remembered it well. It was walled with brick and in good condition. It was twenty feet from the Southeast corner of the Biggs House.
July 9, 1896, Council resolved to build a new Engine House on Seventh Street to cost $2,800.
August 2. 1896, at noon Sunday, Standard time went into effect in Ports- mouth.
June 4. 1897, there were 64 saloons in Portsmouth and 4 outside of the City in the County. The Dow tax was $23,800, $350 each. Of this amount the state received $7,140, the County $4,760, and the City $11,900.
June 10, 1898, at Pine Grove Furnace, in a grove, Mr. and Mrs. John G. Peebles celebrated the sixty-second anniversary of their marriage.
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INTERESTING ITEMS.
June 21, 1897. Hon. A. C. Thompson was appointed President of the Com- mission to revise aud codify the penal laws of the United States, under act of June 4, 1897.
August 11, 1897. Captain William Moore and his wife. Elizabeth Frances Smith. celebrated the r golden wedding. They were married at the old stone house in Alexandria. The celebration was at Henley, the home of their son- in-law, R. R. Peebles.
September 2, 1897, Portsmouth had long distance telephone for the first time.
February 22, 1898. Mrs. Katherine Foley died, aged 98 years. She came from Ireland in 1850. She was never sick and never took a dose of medicine in her life. She spent sixteeen years of her life in England before coming to the United States.
March 17, 1898, James A. Cleaver was appointed Court Stenographer for United States Courts at Cincinnati.
April 26, 1898, Company H, Fourteenth O. V. I., left for Columbus. It - was a solemn day in Portsmouth. Schools were dismissed and all the soldiers of the War of 1861 escorted them to the Columbus train. Each member of Com- pany H carr ed a bouquet of flowers. They came down from their armory at 9:20 A. M. The City Police and Uniformed Knights of Pythias were in the pro- cession. Every band in town was out in the parade and the line of march was from Market Street to the Norfolk and Western Station. Six of the Company never returned, but died in the service. At the station, Company I, of the Seventeenth O. V. I .. of Ironton, was on the train.
May 10, 1898, Company H, Fourteenth O. V. I., was mustered into the United States service as Company E. Fourth O. V. I.
May 14, 1898, the Fourth O. V. I. was sent to Chickamauga Park.
June 10, 1898, John G. Peebles and wife celebrated the sixty-third anniversary of their marriage.
July 2. 1898, Natural gas ordinance was passed, but the parties to whom it was given never obtained any gas.
July 13, 1898. Joe Shafer caught a 63-pound cat fish in Indian Run, four feet two inches in length.
July 22, 1898, Company E, Fourth O. V. I., was ordered to Newport News to embark for Porto Rico.
July 22, 1898, L. D. York was to build a new rolling mill on the Chick farm.
August 7, 1898, was the fortieth anniversary of Miss Emma Bell as a teacher in the First Presbyterian Sunday School. She had been in the school forty-two years, two years as a pupil and forty years as a teacher. Of those present, Sam Johnson was her oldest pupil and his son Kenyon, age three vears, her youngest. Of those present that morning. 75 had been in her class. Sixteen hundred children had been under her care and eleven of the teachers had been in her class.
September 16. 1898, Hon. A. C. Thompson was nominated by the Presi dent to be United States Judge, Southern District of Ohio, in place of Judge Sage, retired. He took the oath of office September 22, 1898.
September 23, 1898, the Yorktown lots were drawn at the Opera House November. 7. 1898, Company H, which lett Apr:1 26. 1898. was welcomed home. Creed Milstead was Chief Marshal. G. A. R with drum corps. City ministers. Young Men's Institute, Ancient Order of Hibernians, High School Cadets. Excelsior Band, Uniformed Knights of Pythias, Fraternal Div sion of Red Men. River City Band, ex-members of Company H, Portsmouth Cycle Club, Fire Department and City Officials in carriages welcomed them home.
December 28, 1898, Judge A. C. Thompson sworn in after confirmation by the Senate.
January 5, 1899. Company H ordered to Columbus to be mustered out.
February 16. 1899, Mrs. Mitchell, mother of R. A. Mitchell, celebrated her nincty-third birthday.
April 30, 1899, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
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THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH.
May 18, 1899, the right to pipe gas to the City of Portsmouth was given to the Richland Company.
May 23, 1899, the "New" or Portsmouth Telephone Company applied for franchises in the city.
June 10, 1899, John G. Peebles and wife celebrated the sixty-fourth anniversary of their wedding.
June 17, 1899, Company G, First O. V. I. had its annual reunion. Of the 35 out of 90, living, 13 were present.
August 1, 1899, A. C. Thompson, Jr., appointed a F.rst Lieutenant of the Thirteenth Infantry.
October 30, 1899, the spider bridge over the Little Sc oto fell. Charles Brown was in it with a team of horses. His horses were killed and he was badly injured. The bridge was a combination of wood and iron, built eighteen years before.
November 4, 1899, the Street Railway began to lay a double track in the City.
January 17. 1900, Dr. J. F. Davis presented the Christian Church with a lot costing $900, for a parsonage.
August 22, 1900, the Burgess Steel & Iron Works sold out to the Crucible Company.
September 17, 1901, There was a great reunion of soldiers at Portsmouth, Ohio, for two days.
SECOND STREET LOOKING WEST OF COURT.
PART III. PIONEER SKETCHES.
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SCIOTO COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND JAIL.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
John Clinton Ashley
was born May 14, 1800, in Norfolk, Virginia. His father was Rev. Benjamin Ashley, a Baptist minister, ordained by the Portsmouth, Virginia, Association in 1803. His grandfather was William Ash- ley, who was master's mate in the State Navy of Virginia, during the Revolutionary War. These were all descended from Captain John Ashley of London, England, whose name appears in the second charter to the Virginia Colony in 1609, and whose descendants came to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1635.
The subject of this sketch received a good common school educa- tion. At the age of seventeen he removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he entered as an apprentice in the bookbinding business. After completing his apprenticeship, he continued in the business as a jour- neyman till the spring of 1826. He was very religious in his nature, and gave much time to the study of the scripture and to religious work. He became a member of the Disciples ( Campbellite) Church, and was one of the eight persons who organized the first Disciples Church in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1817. 'He decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, and devoted all his spare time in study- ing for the ministry. In 1820, he married Miss Mary Ann Kirk- patrick, of Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, (who was also one of the eight persons who assisted in organizing the first Disciples Church in' Pittsburg.) a young lady of Scotch-Irish descent, born October 25, 1800, died October 26, 1861, and was buried in the cemetery near Masterston, Monroe County, Ohio, by the side of her daughter Mary. She was a devoted wife and mother and in every sense of the word a help to her husband. In the spring of 1826, he removed with his wife and three children to Portsmouth, Ohio, and established a bookbinding business on what is known as the McDowell Corner. In 1831, he established the first soap and candle manufactory in Portsmouth, in which he was passably successful. At that time candles were made by the "dipping" process. In 1830, he was pres- ent and assisted in organizing the Scioto County Bible Society, and was one of a committee of three to draft by-laws for the government of the Society. In 1837, John C. Ashley was a candidate for County Assessor on the Democratic ticket and was second in the race. Azel Glover, who was elected had 234 votes and Ashley 154.
In 1837, he was elected a Justice of the Peace for Wayne Town- ship; and also served two years as a Trustee of the Township. He
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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.
continued his studies for the ministry, studying particularly the Greek language, which materially assisted him in his work. He preached at "McCoy's," about 4 miles north-east of Portsmouth, at "Elijah Musgrove's," about six miles above Portsmouth ; also in a church at the mouth of the Little Scioto river. In 1842, he decided to give all of his time to the ministry, and received letters of ordination as an elder and evangelist. His work until 1850, was in Meigs, Athens, Washington and Monroe Counties, in south-eastern Ohio, where he established a number of churches, teaching school and lecturing on temperance during the winter months. In 1850, he removed to Illinois, where he continued his ministerial work in the section of country from Carmi to Walnut Hill, where he died in August, 1855, and was buried in the little church yard cemetery about one mile south-east of Walnut Hill. He had eight children, five sons and three daughters, viz :
James M., has a sketch in this volume. John K., born in Pitts- burg, July 4, 1824, studied medicine with Doctor Carpenter in Athens, Ohio, practiced in Masterston, in Monroe County, till 1852. He moved to Illinois in that year, and practiced his profession in Wayne City, and other towns in that vicinity, and is now, ( 1902), practic- ing his profession in Fairfield, Illinois. Benjamin, was born in Pitts- burg in January, 1826. He learned the baking and candy making business in Cincinnati, Ohio, and established a business in that line in McConnellsville, Ohio, where he died in 1847. William was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1828; learned the cigar business in St. Louis; served in the Mexican War, and was a U. S. deputy surveyor in Col- orado from 1861 to 1880. He is now ( 1902) living on a farm near Hope, Idaho. Mary Jane was born in Portsmouth in 1831, died and was buried near Masterston, Monroe County, Ohio, in 1849. Eli M. was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, May 28, 1833, was educated at the Western Liberal Institute at Marietta, Ohio; engaged in the drug business in Toledo, Ohio, from 1854 to 1861 ; removed to Colorado, arriving in Denver June 17, 1861 ; was chief clerk of the U. S. Sur- veyor General's office in Colorado for seventeen years, was President of the Denver Board of Education in 1875, was President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1887, was Chairman of the Republican State Committee in 1891 and 1892. In 1886, he organized the Wes- tern Chemical Company, and was elected its President. which posi- tion he holds to the present time ( 1902). John Clinton Ashley was severely strict and conscientious in his ways. His religion was of the old-fashioned sort, and he appeared particularly to believe in the adage, "spare the rod and spoil the child," in his manner of bringing up his children, and while conscientious and unselfish, would now be thought extremely strict. Financially he was always in moderate circumstances, and not very successful. He was in every sense of the word a "self-made man", was a "born teacher" and very successful
JOHN CLINTON ASHLEY.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
in teaching school, in preaching and in temperance work. He gave the greater part of his life to the cause of Christ, "preaching the word", and baptising in "His name," and surely deserved the plaudit of "Well done, good and faithful servant."
John S. Baccus.
About the year 1805, the paternal grandmother of our subject, a widow then living in Pennsylvania, sold her little home in the Monongahela hills, and with the proceeds in her pocket, set out for the wilderness of Scioto County. She came down the Ohio river with a few others, bringing her horse and a light outfit, with which, after her arrival here, she made a journey on horseback to the Government Land Office in Chillicothe, Ohio, and entered Section 23 in Porter Township. This Section, consisting mostly of alluvial Pine Creek bottom lands above Wheelersburg, she divided between her four sons : Peter, Michael, Christian and James, the father of our subject. Here, James who married Nancy Smith, settled in 1806 and reared a large family. Elizabeth, his daughter married Jesse Alford, and went West. Catharine, another daughter of James, married Lemuel Cadot and reared a large family near Chaffin's Mill. Susan, the third daughter married William Finton. Sarah A., the fourth daughter married Rev. James M. Kelley, now living in Ironton, Ohio. Celin- da, the fifth daughter married Martin Beeson, and went to Metrop- olis, Illinois. Samuel, a son died in this county. Isaiah, another son, moved to Massac County, Illinois. John S., the subject of this sketch, was born in 1811, and lived and died on his farm near Wheel- ersburg in 1897. The Baccus family, like all others of that period who remained here, possessed the true pioneer spirit. Their wants were of the simplest and they kenw how to do with a little. The fact that stores were not accessible ; that they were compelled to make everything they required, huts, furniture, wearing apparel, bedding, leather, sugar, salt, meal, wooden ploughs and brush harrows; that there were no markets and practically no money except what they had brought with them, developed a spirit of self-reliant helpfulness of which the present generation can have no adequate conception. When a mill was erected in a pioneer neighborhood, it was an occasion for great rejoicing. The opening of salt works at Kanawha led to the forming of small caravans with camping outfits and pack-mules, which came from great distances to lay in a supply of this great nec- essary of life. Every man and every woman was a fabricant of ne- cessity, there being almost no division of labor in those sparsely set- tled communities, whereby one might be a carpenter, another a shoe- maker, a third a butcher and so on for the others. Hence everyone had a practical, many sided training bearing directly on the amelioration of the hard conditions, the scanty resources of pioneer life. Such were the experiences that fell to the Baccus family in common with
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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.
other pioneers, and through this many sided training the subject of our sketch came up. Being endowed with ingenuity and a quick mechanical eye, he early picked up a knowledge of carpentry which he pursued exclusively for a few years, and was of practical benefit to him all through life. He could make anything he needed in wood- work, from erecting houses to stocking plows, repairing wagons or fashioning a gun stock. Stone-cutting, bricklaying, harness-mak- ing, and innumerable things which usually call for expert skill he could neatly accomplish in less time often than the trained mechanic. His powers of endurance and capacity for turning out work were phenomenal. He sometimes had trouble to hire help because when working at his usual pace, men thought he was rushing them. One thing he never learned was the art of tanning, for when a small boy he was installed in a new pair of domestic buckskin trousers and these having got thoroughly wet by a fall in a creek, he never forgot the sorry plight in which the shrunken trousers placed him, and his early disgust for domestic leather clung to him. In 1836 he married Miss Emily Vincent of the French Grant and soon afterward moved to his Dogwood Ridge farm, then covered with heavy timber. He borrowed money at ten per cent to make a start and then began clear- ing and improving. He began with a horse and cart, but supplement- ed this outfit with a yoke of cattle. After paying off his first and only loan, he rigidly avoided debt, and in a few years began to have a bank account. His plan of life was to buy nothing that he could pro- duce, but to always have something to sell. His motto was, "Keep what you've got, then get a little more." In the days before the dog nuisance prevented farmers from keeping sheep, he would have his wool product spun in the house, which his wife would knit into stock- ings, and in the Spring sometimes sell fifty pairs at a time, the out- put of industrious fingers during the long winter evenings. And so he continued to work and clear land and improve his farm,, which in the meantime became a model of neatness and productiveness. He took pride in sending nothing to market but the best. His wheat must be the cleanest, his ears of corn the largest, his hay the greenest and brightest, his butter the yellowest and sweetest that could be pro- duced. And for fifty years he toiled and prospered, a conspicuous example in his neighborhood of what can be achieved in this land of opportunities, by ambition, industry, economy and a tenacious holding on to a chosen calling. The dominating element in his char- acter was his concentration of energy to the accomplishment of the matter in hand, whatever that might be. He would hardly rest day or night till the undertaking was in shape to be satisfactorily com- pleted. This trait was uppermost and controling in every situation, even in arranging some pleasure excursion. Of temperate habits, strong will, honorable principles, honest to the last cent in dealing, of strong convictions, just as positive and immovable when mistaken
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
as when right, a good story teller, with a grain of conceit that was sometimes amusing, such was John Baccus, a fine example of the kind of stuff which the sturdy pioneers of early days were made of.
Major Uriah Barber
was born in 1761, in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1778, he enlisted in the Revolutionary War and the official record of his service will be found under the title of Revolutionary Soldiers. While he was out serving in the militia during the Revolution, the Indians surrounded his father's cabin, killed him and his family and burned the cabin.
In 1780, he was married in Pennsylvania to Barbara Cling- man, daughter of John Michael Clingman. The children born of this marriage were: Hannah, born February 10, 1783: John, Feb- ruary 23, 1785 : Samuel, July 5, 1787: Joseph, October 6, 1789; Na- thaniel, May 17, 1792; Nancy, March 23, 1794: Isaac, July 12, 1796. They were all born in Philadelphia. August 10, 1896, he landed at the mouth of Little Scioto and from there went on to Oldtown, where he resided till Portsmouth was laid out in 1803. His son, James was born March 16, 1798. Washington and Mary, twins, were born June 2, 1803. the first twin children ever born in Portsmouth. His son John was eighteen years old when Portsmouth was surveyed off in lots and carried a chain for Henry Massie, who gave him a lot for his services. John traded it off for a pair of boots. Massie offered Uriah Barber a lot in Portsmouth, if he would build on it and conduct a hotel. He accepted the offer and built a two story hewed log house and it was furnished and occupied before June 2, 1803, the date of the birth of his twin children, Washington and Mary. This house was built on lot No. 279. corner of Front and Scioto streets. It had a shingle roof and oak and clay chim- neys. The National Hotel was afterwards built on the same site. On November 21, 1803, on complaint of Judge Joseph Lucas, Uriah Bar- ber was bound over by Thomas Waller, Justice of the Peace, to keep the peace.
On December 10, 1806, he married Rachel Beard and the issue of this marriage were: Sarah, born July 15, 1808: Maria, March 5. 18II ; Michael, February 13, 1813: William E., August 17, 1817: Nancy, February 4, 1820: Laura, November 22, 1822; Joseph, No- vember 25, 1824. Major Barber and both of his wives believed in the eleventh commandment to multiply and replenish the earth and the result of it is, that one can hardly throw a stone in the. city of Portsmouth now without hitting one of his descendants. He made considerable money in keel boating and purchased 50 acres of land, then outside of Portsmouth, but now in it, and built him a home on the site of the George Ball residence, now occupied by Mr. Halder- man. While he visited Chillicothe, he became acquainted with Thom- as Scott. He had one fault which we will tell, even if he has been
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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.
dead 55 years. He was too easy about putting his name on the notes of others. He endorsed for Scott and lost most of it, but not all of his property. He became a Major in the Militia and hence his title was such. In 1809, he was a trustee of Wayne Township. He was out in the general call in 1812, but in what rank we are not advised. He was. a Jacksonian Democrat in 1824, but afterwards became a Whig. He was elected Coroner in 1812, and served most of the time until 1837. In the election of 1820, when elected, he had 411 votes. Ebenezer Corwine, 213 ; and H. Sumner, 68. In the election of 1825, he had 140 votes and Ruloff Whitney 15. In 1827, he had 487, all the votes cast. In 1829, he had 559 votes, no others cast. In 1831, the votes on this office stood Barber 360, David Enslow, 147; Sam- uel Gould, 88. In 1837, he had 351 votes and William Jones, 210.
When he lost his fifty acres of land, now the Glover and Dam- arin addition, be bought some land east of Lawson, now adjoining Martin Funk, and died there. He died Friday, June 26, 1846, and was buried in the Kinney graveyard the following Sunday, with the honors of war. One thousand people were present. Colonel Peter Kinney, then a militia Captain, with his Company, conducted the mil- itary ceremonies of the funeral and three volleys were fired over his grave. This was the first military funeral in Portsmouth. We have expressly refrained from mentioning his descendants, who are all respectable good people, because we could not spare the space neces- sary in this book. Many of them will be mentioned in their own sketches.
Joseph Brant, Senior,
was the son of Christian Brant and Elizabeth Ritter, both from Ger- many who came to Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1804, from Penn- sylvania. Here our subject was born January 13, 1813, and raised until he was nineteen, when his parents brought him to Scioto County. His father was a mill wright and was very ingenious. His father died in 1836 and his mother died in 1865, aged 97 years. She had recol- lections of the Revolutionary War. Joseph, Senior, was the first clerk of Valley Township and was a Jacksonian Democrat.
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