USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 57
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While meetings were being held all over the country and definite plans of action were being considered, the gun was fired that was heard around the world-the die had been cast, the attack had been made on
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Fort Sumter. On April 12, 1861-so soon after the inauguration of a new President, had been inaugurated a war; it was domestic strife with men and brothers fighting each other; it was worse than fighting a com- mon enemy-this war to the finish among the people of one country, and the question was whether or not it should be rent asunder or remain one country ; it has already been said that Lincoln's call for troops met with response in Allen County. Its past history is proof of the fact that there is fighting blood in Allen County. It is in the "military group" of Ohio counties.
There must always be a planting of moral and patriotic ideas before there is personal or national advancement and the human voice in appeal- ing song has always had telling effect in stirring people to action; the songs growing out of the Civil war have never had a parallel in Ameri- can history. The New England Puritan conscience was aroused by William Lloyd Garrison, Joshua R. Giddings, Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell and Julia Ward Howe, and the printed page-poems and song, the winged arrows of God's truth were unlimited in their effectiveness ; there was a revival of the feeling of accountability to God as a result, and it spread all over the country, Allen County being in line with the rest of the world. When Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's great story : "Uncle Tom's Cabin," made its appearance in serial form there were Allen County men and women who never needed to read it again. It was one of the great human agencies in bringing about the emancipation of the negro.
Some one has said that if he could write the hymns of a nation, he would stand responsible for its religion, and the same holds good with reference to patriotism ; the song writer teaches the morals of the nation, and such war songs as: "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," "The Army and Navy Forever," and "Hail Columbia," enable the people to come up to Bunker Hill, Lexington and the later struggles fully under- standing their significance; some of the war songs of the past were as effective in promoting enlistments, and arousing men and women to deeds of sacrifice and heroism as the telling patriotic addresses from the recruit- ing officers. Sometimes it is necessary to inspire optimism in order to tide a nation over a crisis. The American flag has never been carried into any war without righteous cause-an assertion repeated so many times in the opening days of the World war, and it never yet has trailed in defeat ; when the aged men of the Civil war heard the country's call, they were only boys and when emancipation became the outstanding question January 1, 1863, and there was another call for men and the men of the North invaded the South to remove the shackles of human slavery, Allen County volunteers were again among them.
The story of Israel Putnam, who left the plow in the field to join the Colonial forces, has always had its influence in American history ; pro- fessional men, business men, mechanics and farmer boys alike responded to the call for troops from Allen County ; while some went out for only three months at the beginning, there was never lack of men to fill the quota ; in the four years war, Ohio met every demand and Allen County had its part in supplying soldiers ; while the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts were all filled with sentiment toward the soldiers leaving for the fortunes of war, after a few months they all settled down to the stern realities ; some one said of the Civil war era: "Everybody knows that had it not been for the loyal women of America we would be a divided nation today." The women "carried on," then as in the recent conflict ; while they did not hear so much about surgical dressings they "scraped
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lint," and God bless them-some of the same women frequented the Red Cross workrooms again; there were Clara Bartons among them, and surgical dressings were no trouble to any of them.
No doubt many a maimed arm would have been saved with better hospital facilities in the Civil war; there were army nurses who followed the regiments, but they lacked many working facilities that are now known to humanity. In the annals of the Welsh community, D. D. Nicholas relates that on May 14, 1864, he was wounded with a minnie ball tearing away part of the skull, and that he lay three days in a field hospital among hundreds of others who were wounded and dying, and finally all were placed in freight cars and sent to Nashville ; he was placed in Cumberland Hospital eight days after the injury, and it was eight more days before his wound received attention from a surgeon ; the ride of 300 miles on a freight train with no attention and little food or water, was a severe test of human endurance. The Sanitary Commission of the Civil war was unable to accomplish all that has been accomplished by later relief organizations.
ARMORY, SPENCERVILLE
There were Red Cross nurses in the Spanish-American war in Cuba and in the Philippines, and in the Red Cross workshops of 1898, and again in 1917, the women of the United States did what their mothers and grandmothers had done in the Christian Sanitary Commission of the Civil war. The Red Cross sentiment cartoon, "Still the greatest mother in the world," is effective and the great organization is still functioning in the interests of soldiers. While the men and the boys are at the front, the women and the girls are never idle; everything on a war basis, senti- ment was not wholly banished as war relief under the leadership of the Sanitary Commission claimed the attention of the American women. They not only applied their energies to relief work, but they shouldered the responsibilities at home-the women of America have always been loyal.
While the daily newspaper had not yet made its appearance in Allen County save in the form of handbills issued for some time by a local publisher, in time of the Civil war there were Chicago, Cincinnati, Colum- bus, Cleveland and Toledo newspapers being read as there are today, although in most cases only the weekly issues, although there was railroad service ; when there was favorable news there was great rejoicing, the people gathering in groups to discuss it ; the women continued scraping
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lint for bandages, and there were public and private donations to the federal cause until after the fall of Appomatox. The people of Allen County understood this feeling of anxiety much better today than they did prior to April 6, 1917, when the United States Government formally declared war against Germany. In many of the churches Kipling's reces- sional, "Lest we forget, Lord, lest we forget," is sung as a mental sug- gestion ; there are those who will never forget because of vacant chairs. The same is true of all the wars; while Allen County soldiers were ready for the service on short notice, the Civil war was a losing game at first for the North; the little "before breakfast job" of overcoming the South
THE G. A. R. MONUMENT, LAFAYETTE
was prolonged, but as men were needed they were forthcoming from Allen and all the "military group of counties."
LOCAL GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC POSTS-The Civil war veterans have always kept in touch with each other through campfire meetings and state and national encampments, many going from Allen County to the national encampment in Indianapolis, A. D. 1920, and Lima has some- times entertained the Ohio Grand Army of the Republic meetings. Mart Armstrong Post which is sheltered in Memorial Hall commemorates a gallant captain who was killed April 6th, at the Battle of Shiloh, and who was active in organizing the first Allen County volunteer regiment ; it was organized April 19, 1882, with seventeen charter members, and Owen Francis was the first post commander ; recently W. D. Heffner has served as commander. The Woman's Relief Corps is auxiliary to Mart Armstrong Post ; it was suggested by Mrs. Olive Logan, wife of Gen. John
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A. Logan, and takes precedence among relief organizations; the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic is a split arising from the Veterans' Union which did not accept soldiers who had not seen real service; they must be blood kin to soldiers, and this asserted difference caused dissen- sions in Grand Army of the Republic and Woman's Relief Corps circles all over the country. At the time of the inquiry Mart Armstrong Post numbered forty members.
Because of their age most of the members of the different Grand Army of the Republic posts now live in the towns of Allen County ; the Memorial Hall in Lima is sacred to all of them; there is a tablet to the Grand Army of the Republic in the corridor with an army badge in bronze and with draped flags; the inscription reads : "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation evermore," and it represents the senti- ment of "the boys in blue" still remaining in Allen County. There is a tablet : "In Memory of Mart Armstrong, Post No. 202 G. A. R., who served from 1861 to 1865, and the Auxuliary W. R. C. No. 94, instituted in Allen County in 1885," and although it is in Van Wert County, Del- phos has pride in a monument erected in beautiful Library Park by Reul Post, Grand Army of the Republic. The Reul Post occupies quarters in the basement of the Delphos library. The inscription on the monument carries the information that it was built by Reul Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and other patriotic people in 1909; on one of the faces is the inscription : "We honor the dead; we inspire the living. Dedicated to our country's defenders and preservers; the men and women of 1861 to 1865. Liberty and equal rights for all now and forever."
There is a soldiers' monument at the head of High Street in Lafay- ette, erected in 1903, by the citizens of Jackson Township and dedicated to the memory of her soldiers of 1861 to 1865, and there is a flagstaff by it ; the American flag often floats from it. Back of the monument is a bit of sward inclosed with an iron fence; inscribed on the monument is the following :
"Ah! Never shall the land forget, . How flowed the life blood of her brave, Gushed warm with hope and courage yet Upon the soil they fought to save."
Fair Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Spencerville still has a "small handful" of veterans in its membership; there were always some who did not affiliate. Spencerville has an armory as a meeting place for the Grand Army of the Republic, which was built in 1914, by the state at a cost of $20,000, because of the activities at the time of Company F of the Second Ohio Infantry. There is a post with small membership in Bluffton. There are Sons of Veterans and the 'Lizabeth Turner Tent Daughters of Veterans in Lima is very effective as a patriotic organiza- tion assisting the Grand Army of the Republic and Woman's Relief Corps in many ways. The veterans of all wars-Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of Veterans, Spanish-American and the American Legion all have headquarters in Memorial Hall. Allen County makes no distinc- tion with reference to its soldiers.
After the close of the Civil war the Ohio Assembly repealed the national guard law; the people were tired of war and its desolation; the military spirit was at a low ebb everywhere, and remained dormant till 1870, when reaction set in and companies of infantry and batteries of artillery were organized again. The military spirit asserted itself, and better provision was made for disabled soldiers in state and national homes; there were occasional riots and the country recognized the need
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of military protection ; on January 4, 1875, Luther Melancthon Meily, who was an eighteen-year-old boy, organized the Melancthon Light Guards which was attached to the Eleventh Ohio Regiment, Ohio National Guard, as Company C July 6, 1876, and in 1889 the Melancthon Light Guards became the Lima City Guards; in 1884, the Melancthon Guards was sent to Cincinnati to help quell a riot; after participating in the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Lima City Guards was mustered out of service. It was again organized as Company C unattached infantry, and November 2, 1899, it was attached to the Second Regiment Infantry, Ohio National Guard.
While Allen County soldiers distinguished themselves in the Civil war, they also enkindled a flame of patriotism that has lived in the succeeding generation ; there were merited promotions and there were privates who objected to promotion from the ranks; to them $13 a month did not seem like profiteering, and among the Grand Army of the Republic veterans still alive are men who marched with General Sherman from Atlanta to the sea, and the campfire stories never wane in interest for them. The Blue and the Gray-today the world sees visions of another color ; query for the boys of '61: is there a soldier blue overcoat in Allen County today? Some of the members of the Grand Army posts would like to see one again. There were soldiers returning from the Civil war and the public square in Lima was full of people to welcome them, when on April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theater in Wash- ington by an actor, John Wilkes Booth; in the twinkling of an eye the jollifying changed to a demonstration of sadness-a gloom overspread the town and the whole country.
There are two cannons on exhibition-one in the courthouse square in Lima, and one in Woodlawn Cemetery, that revert to the type of firearms used in the Civil war; they had been used in the coast defense service in California, and they were shipped to Lima from there; they were pro- cured through the effort of Dr. George Hall, who conducted the corre- spondence, and who induced the Allen County commissioners to pay the freight from the California arsenal ; the cannon in Woodlawn was fired on July 4, 1900-the last big Fourth of July celebration in Allen County. The report wakened up the town, and it was learned afterward that it was a dangerous experiment, the cannon having been condemned at the arsenal. They are silent monitors of the warfare of the past. There are different munitions of war today.
In 1861, when the Allen County soldiers were responding to Lincoln's call, there were no steam whistles and quick methods of communication ; when there was a call to arms the recruiting officers were busy rounding up the volunteers, but the onward march of civilization has changed things ; in 1898, when the call came again a number of young men in Allen County had received a military education-in time of peace prepare for war, and "Remember the Maine" electrified the whole countryside. When there was a call for volunteers in the Spanish-American war, the young men of Allen County responded instantly ; all that was required of them was to raise Company C of the Second Regiment Ohio National Guard to war strength, and Allen County volunteers had the routine of camp life for one year at Kenton, Columbus, Chickamauga Park-and it was through no fault of theirs that they did not see active service ; they were in the training camps almost before the community was aware that a mili- tary company was leaving Allen County ; the grapevine messages seemed to reach eligible young men without difficulty, and in short order they were United States soldiers ready to go to the rescue of the Cubans.
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It was a year of uncertainty for the Spanish-American soldiers in the training camps in 1898, and while it did not mean more than a year's absence from their homes for many of them, they offered themselves a living sacrifice upon their country's altar ; in many instances modesty pre- vents them from speaking of their military experiences-say they did not have any, but for a time there was patriotism in the air, when it seemed that Cuba needed them. In the quiet of Allen County little is said about it, but the Civil war soldiers living in the national homes are inclined to reflect unjustly on the Spanish-American veterans; they all had military training, and splendid physiques and manly bearings are the result from it. Allen County suffered the loss of one man, John Gottfried, who died in a Knoxville hospital; when there was a banquet given the soldiers there was one vacant chair in his honor. Military discipline and drill -- the manual of arms and the uniform-all have their part in the trans- formation. Capt. Peter McCown (colored) who served in the regular army, and is now retired with pay, was at San Juan Hill when Col. Theo- dore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were there. He is a Spanish- American veteran whose military honors rest lightly upon him, and he has refused political recognition-prefers the quiet life of a civilian in Lima, to a diplomatic post in Liberia. Captain McCown is posted on military tactics, and has nothing to regret from having been a United States soldier.
DECORATION DAY-The first Decoration Day in the United States was May 30, 1868-three years after the close of the Civil war; it was suggested by General Logan and at the same time his wife organized the Woman's Relief Corps of America; it was the Great Lincoln who in a speech at Gettysburg, exclaimed : "We here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain," and when Decoration Day comes round the soldiers in all wars unite in the sad service. The 1920 Decoration Day service in many communities presented the spectacle of the veterans of three wars marching in the same procession to lay flowers on the graves of the soldier dead; there were the battle-scarred standard bearers of 1861, the Spanish-American warrior of 1898, the khaki-clad youths of the World war, all with brave and thankful hearts paying tribute to those who had made the supreme sacrifice-who had gone "over the top" in their own life history.
There were flowers on the lowly mounds in all of the cemeteries. "Battalion! File left. Counter march," and every grave was singled out and there were flowers on spots sacred to absent sleepers; there were flowers on the water for all who lie buried in watery graves anywhere, and there were sad hearts of relatives unable to visit the overseas ceme- teries, for Allen County suffered the loss of soldiers in the World war ; the Flanders requiem reads: "And we shall keep true faith with those who lie asleep, with each a cross to mark his bed," and in many house- holds there are sad hearts because of sons and brothers who sleep beneath the poppies in France. The poet has said :
"And down in the corn where the poppies grew, Were redder stains than the poppies knew,"
and while some have had bodies consigned to them, others are content to leave them where they fell in the line of patriotic duty.
THE WORLD WAR-While some have objected to the use of the word civil in designating any war, and suggest the War of the States, because the slavery question involved the free and slave states in conflict, others like to say War of the Nations rather than World war; a few nations were not involved and world includes all nations. The War of the
Vol. I-29
ONE MEMORIAL DAY IN LIMA
.......
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States, and the War of the Nations involved very different warlike condi- tions ; a nation of storytellers was an outgrowth of the War of the States; there were not so many daily newspapers then to claim attention, and young and old alike enjoyed the recitals of their adventures by the soldiers who spent the best of their lives in the service. A grateful republic still holds them in remembrance; a nation was plunged into sorrow and debt because of human slavery ; northern homes are desolate because of those who lie buried in the battlefields of the South; the whole civilized world knows the sorrows of war; in France, England and Belgium there have been burial ceremonies connected with the bodies of unknown soldiers in honor of all the unknown dead; the desolations of war-none can forget them. When the soldiers in blue talked with those in gray as they lay dying on the fields of battle, they buried their differences as they told of homes and friends ; they were of the same country ; they had interests in common, and death made them brothers again.
"Men wanted for the army," always attracts the young manhood of the countryside; those posters are alluring, and soldier life has always afforded to some an opportunity of travel who otherwise never would have seen the world; sometimes parents favor the army on account of the rigid discipline they have themselves failed to bestow upon their sons ; they always recognize the manly bearing that comes from military train- ing ; sometimes they covet the splendid physiques and realize that the manual of arms develops them; sometimes it is an effort to escape unpleasant environment, but many times it is pure patriotism that prompts Young America to quit his home, and offer himself upon his country's altar. While the United States was last to get into the War of the Nations, and last to get out of it, the policy remains: "Trust in the Lord and keep your powder dry." While it only required three months for Allen County to prepare after the United States had declared war against Germany, more than two years have passed since the armistice and this country is not yet out of it.
While America may need to be fortified, some urge that it needs to be purified-that America's larger centers were just as wicked, April 6, 1917, as Paris or London or Rome-were just as vulgar as Berlin or Vienna, and that they remain unchanged after going through the purify- ing fire of war; some political economists charge that America has held aloof from helping make the peace of the world because of partisan poli- tics, and because of ambitious political spoilsmen ; some have charged this country with hesitating as to whether it shall do its duty by the rest of the world, or live to itself ; internationalism and nationalism are the ques- tions under consideration. Some one said in rhyme :
"Between you and me, in the last year or two, My ideals are not so sunny ; I'm about on the brink of beginning to think, We are more or less out for the money,"
and it is urged that under wartime conditions seemingly respectable men have abandoned themselves to making money greedily and spending it asininely ; respectable women copy styles from women far from respecta- bility ; the young people-a generation of butterflies-care only for excite- ment, change and money.
A nation or community, like the individual, will reap what it sows, sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind ; some of the problematic students say the world needed a shaking up long before 1914, when Germany started the pot to boiling, and that gross materialism is what still afflicts the whole world ; it seems that humanity still has some lessons to learn ; as a
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naughty child it requires a good many reprimands to bring it to an under- standing of things. Some people say they are in the world, but that they are not of the world. Allen County is in Ohio, and Ohio is in the United States, and the United States is still involved in the War of the Nations; however, this country never entered into any war through the motive of conquest. While arbitration seems the humane thing, the war record of Allen County is in no sense a reproach to its citizenry ; it will welcome the
FRONT
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THE LIBERTY TRUCK BUILT IN LIMA WAS THE FIRST TRUCK USED IN THE WORLD WAR
advent of universal peace even though the League of Nations does not seem to meet all of the requirements.
While fireless and wireless were economic terms in common usage, the people of Allen County learned about meatless, heatless and wheatless days after the beginning of the world struggle for supremacy. Platform speakers still reiterate that when the opportunity for profit is removed from the individual, and greed is expurged from the nations of the world, the question of war will then be settled for all time. With 81,000 Americans-fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, who fought and bled and died in France and Flanders ; with 81,000 Gold Star War Mothers in the United States, it follows that some of this sorrow was visited upon resi- dents of Allen County. Whe World war soldiers in France would say :
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"We are good soldiers because we are not soldiers," demonstrating clearly that they were with the Allies for a purpose other than conquest ; it was humanitarian wholly. America has never entered a war to enlarge its domain, and the American flag has never been unfurled in war only for the protection of civil liberty. While France may some time forget the American Expeditionary Force was ever there, the people of the United States have not forgotten the neighborly spirit of Lafayette. When Gen. John J. Pershing stood at the tomb, and exclaimed: "Lafayette, we are here," that assurance was heard round the world.
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