USA > Ohio > Licking County > Centennial history of Licking County, Ohio > Part 6
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A POLITICAL WHIRLWIND.
A most extraordinary political excitement pervaded Licking County, as well as the country at large, during the year 1840-the year of " the log-cabin-hard-cider-and-coon-skin campaign." As in- dicated, it was not a local but a general tornado raging with more or less fury, in all the States of the American Union, but in none of them was the hurricane wilder than in Ohio, and in no locality did it rage more furiously than in "Old Licking." The people were wont to meet in immense crowds, and became intensely excited under the
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
declamatory harangues of wranglers, demagogues and stump orators. The inflammatory appeals of the party press of the country, address- ed to the passions, super-added to the fanatical and exciting speeches of the heated partisans, and candidates for public offices, roused the people as they had never been roused before, and worked them up to fever heat, producing a state of wild delirium among them, hitherto unparallelled in the history of the country and never after- wards approached in infuriated fanaticism. The stormy passions of the masses were lashed into uncontrolable fury, who often displayed an intensity of feeling wholly unknown before, and manifested a degree of extravagance and wildness in the discussion of political questions that was a marvel to the few sober-minded men of both parties, that remained in a measure unaffected in the midst of the frenzy that had siezed upon the multitudes. These abnormal mani- festations characterized one portion of the people, while the other portion, little, if any less excited or delirious, erected their lofty hickory poles, surmounted them with huge hickory brooms, and displayed living roosters in various ways and in every conceivable manner, as the representative of antagonism to the coon, while their speeches about equaled in defamation of character the ribaldry of the doggerels sung by the former. And all this hullabaloo, this frantic madness, resulted from a determination of the party of the first part, to prevent the re-election of Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson, and substituting for them General William H. Harrison and John Tyler-this and nothing more! The question was, shall we elect General Harrison or Martin Van Buren President? Licking County decided by about 200 majority in favor of the latter. The great gathering of the clans during the year, was in Newark, on the 4th of July, Thomas Corwin being the Whig orator of the occasion, and John Brough the Democratic. Sam. White and Joshua Mathiot were the chief local orators of the former and B. B. Taylor and James Parker of the latter.
The delirium manifested itself in the oft-repeated gathering to- gether by the populace, in immense meetings, at distances so remote as to necessitate an absence of a number of days to the partial neglect of their usual avocations. The further irrational manifestations of the excited crowds while going to, and returning from those monster meetings, as well as while present at them consisted of singing songs and rolling balls-of riding from place to place in canoes on wheels, and of hauling with oxen or horses, from town to town, miniature log cabins, erected upon wheels partially covered with coon-skins,
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LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
(the ridge-pole of the roof being generally embellished with one or more live coons, ) and to whose corners were clinging, by way of adornment, full grown statesmen, nibbling at corn-dodgers or sections of Johnnycake, and sipping at a gourd of hard-cider, and at intervals singing, on the highest attainable key, doggerel songs in the interest of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." A few of the Trades and Indus- tries and Arts were also represented in miniature, on wheels, at the great Conventions, and temporarily operated, sometimes while in motion. Some large log-cabins, built of heavy logs, and furnished with buckeye-chairs, were built in which to hold neighborhood meet- ings, and in front of which the trunk of the largest accessible buck- eye trec was erected, surmounted with a cider-barrel and a gourd attached! One of these log-cabins, with the usual adjuncts, was erected in Newark and used for many months for the practice of the oratory, the eloquence, the minstrelsy peculiar to that year.
GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS.
Abstract of votes cast by Licking County, and for whom, at the varions Gubernatorial elections held since the County was organized.
CANDIDATES.
YEAR.
TOTAL VOTE.
ISIO.
Return Jonathan Meigs
220
Thomas Worthington
179 399
IS12.
Thomas Scott
433
Return Jonathan Meigs
206 639
ISI4.
Thomas Worthington
553
Othniel Looker
5 558
ISI6.
Thomas Worthington
640.
James Dunlap.
20. 660
ISIS.
Ethan Allen Brown 915.
James Dunlap 71. 986.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
1 820.
Ethan Allen Brown 864.
William H. Harrison 238. IOS. 1210.
Jeremiah Morrow
I822.
William W. Irwin 993.
Jeremiah Morrow
Allen Trimble.
371. 238.
1602.
1824.
Jeremiah Morrow 1155.
Allen Trimble . 521. 1676.
IS26.
Allen Trimble 2092.
Alexander Campbell
16.
Benjamin Tappan II.
John Bigger 6.
2125.
IS28.
John W. Campbell 1791. 1065.
2856.
1830.
Robert Lucas. . 1224.
1077.
2301.
IS32.
Robert Lucas 2059.
Darius C. Lyman . I 599. 3658.
IS34.
Robert Lucas 220I.
James Findlay . I390. 3591.
IS36.
Eli Baldwin 2578.
Joseph Vance 2136. 4714.
Allen Trimble
Duncan McArthur
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LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
1838.
Wilson Shannon 3162. .2218. 5380. Joseph Vance
1840.
Wilson Shannon. 3580. Thomas Corwin 3353.
6933.
1842.
Wilson Shannon 3485. 2755.
Thomas Corwin
Leicester King
193. 6433.
IS44.
David Tod. 3856.
Mordecai Bartley .3443. 299.
7598.
IS46.
David Tod
3175.
William Bebb 302 1. 278.
6474.
IS4S.
John B. Weller 3438.
Seabury Ford
3269.
6707.
1850.
Reuben Wood
3485.
William Johnson
. 2759. 222.
6466.
1851.
Reuben Wood
3286.
Samuel F. Vinton
2546.
Samuel Lewis
201.
6033.
I853.
William Medill
. 3454.
Nelson Barrere II36.
Samuel Lewis 1072.
5662.
Leicester King
Samuel Lewis
Edward Smith
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
I855.
William Medill 2530.
Salmon P. Chase . 2128.
Allen Trimble
722. 53So.
1857.
Henry B. Payne 3556.
Salmon P. Chase . 2855.
Philadelphus Van Trump 147. 6558.
IS59.
Rufus P. Ranney . 3438.
William Dennison . 3030.
646S.
IS61.
Hugh J. Jewett 3582. David Tod 3014.
6596.
1863.
John Brough . 3842.
Clement L. Valandingham 3839. 7681
1865.
George W. Morgan 3So4.
Jacob D. Cox. 3152. 6956.
1867.
AAllen G. Thurman . 4441. . 3155.
7596.
Rutherford B. Hayes
1 869.
George W. Pendleton 1106.
Rutherford B. Hayes . 3107. 7513.
IS71.
George W. McCook 4298. Edward F. Noyes. 3115. 12. 7425.
Gideon T. Stewart
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LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
1873.
William Allen 4115.
Edward F. Noyes 2749.
Gideon T. Stewart
143.
Isaac Collins
56.
7063.
IS75.
William Allen 5142.
Rutherford B. Hayes
. 3617. S759.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS OF LICKING COUNTY.
[Inadvertently omitting two names in giving the list of Licking County's Presidential Electors, on page 27, we give the list again. this time in full, as follows.]
Daniel Humphrey served in
IS56
James R. Stanbery
6.
I S64
William D. Hamilton IS6S
Isaac Smucker
IS72
Edward M. Downer ..
1876
MAIL FACILITIES AND POST OFFICES.
The advance in Mail facilities, and the increase in Post Offices from time to time, well illustrate the growth of our County. During the first five years after the first settlement of the County, Zanesville was our nearest Post Office. Newark was then made a post town, and some years thereafter a Post Office was established in Granville. A weekly mail, carried on horseback, supplied these offices. A Post Office was established at Utica about IS15, and not long thereafter one was established in .Hanover at Chester Well's, and another be- tween Newark and Utica, called Newton Mills. These were the principal offices before 1825, except those at Johnstown, Vandorn's, and Homer, numbering eight in all, which were chiefly supplied by the two mail routes, one crossing the County East and West, the other North and South, run by two-horse, and sometimes four-horse stages, twice a week. After IS28 came the ponderous, fast-going four-horse coach, running daily at about seven miles per hour. After- wards came the packets, and the pony express-now we have our principal mails carried daily or twice a day. in Rail Road Cars moving
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
at the rate of thirty miles an hour. Our Post Offices now numbering thirty-five in all, there being one or more in almost every Township of the County, so that probably not a single man in Licking County but lives within less than five miles of a Post Office.
DISTINGUISHED LICKING PIONEERS.
WILLIAM DRAGOO was captured in the Monongahela country, in 1786, by the Indians, and taken to the Mad River, following a trail up the Licking and Raccoon Valleys, through Raccoontown, an Indian town on the Raccoon creek, situated near the present village of Johnstown. He lived with the Indians about twenty-five years and afterwards was long a Citizen of Licking County, dying some thirty years ago. He was married twice and raised two sets of child- ren, the first being half Indians, their mother being a squaw. Billy
Dragoo, as he was familiarly called, never wholly abandoned his half-Indian, half-civilized habits and modes of life, but continued to spend most of his time in hunting, fishing and trapping. He also continued, until near the close of his life, to wear silver ornaments in his nose and cars, with other Indian trappings and jewelry. Mr. Dragoo was an inoffensive man, esteemed by his acquaintances, and left some descendants, who still remain in our County.
PATRICK GASS had a temporary residence in Licking County. He had been a member of the celebrated Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia river, in the years 1804-05-06, and acquired an extensive reputation as the historian of said expedition. He died in Brooke County, West Virginia, April 2, 1870, in the ninety-ninth year of his age, having been for many years, the last survivor of that famous expedition.
JOHN SPARKS was also a member of the Lewis and Clark expe- dition, and lived for many years in Licking County. He died in IS46, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.
AMOS H. CAFFEE came to Newark in ISII, and was afterwards and until his death in 1862, a leading and public spirited citizen, and valuable man. He held the offices of Clerk of the Court, County Recorder, Post Master, Mayor of Newark and various other positions of honor. Mr. Caffee was patriotic to the core, and rendered some service to his country during the war of IS12, and none felt a deeper interest in the perpetuation of our republican institutions, and in the success of the Federal army during the Great Rebellion.
69
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
HON. WILLIAM STANBERY came to Newark in 1809, being then a young lawyer from New York city. He was a man of great talents and recognized as the leading lawyer of Licking County for forty years. Mr. Stanbery's professional services were in great demand, and he attained great distinction at the Bar. He also served in the State Senate in 1824-26, and in Congress from 1827 to 1833. Mr. Stanbery died at "Oakland," his country seat near Newark, January 23d, 1873, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was a native of Essex County, New Jersey, where he was born August 10th, 1788.
JUDGE FIDLER settled in Licking County in ISI1. He was a West Virginian, and spent a number of years before his removal to this County as an itinerant preacher. From IS01 to ISo7 he minis- tered to the Frederick, Pittsburgh, Erie, Clarksburg, Botetourt and Staunton circuits. He was elected an Associate Judge in IS13 and served as such until 1823. Judge Fidler left this County in IS35, and located in Miami County, where he died in 1849, at the age of seventy-one years. He was a man of considerable ability, and of fair character. His associates on the Bench of Judges were William Wilson, Henry Smith, William Hains, Anthony Pitzer and Zachariah Davis.
HON. STEPHEN C. SMITHI was a native of New Jersey, but settled in Muskingum County, before the war of IS12, served as Associate Judge some time, and as Adjutant in Colonel Cass' regi- ment. He also represented said County in the State Legislature in 1813-14 and 1815, and Licking County in 1826-27. He was a man of ability.
COLONEL JOHN HOLLISTER was a prominent settler near the mouth of the Rocky Fork, in 1806, and was a man of wealth and in- fluence, and made himself useful among the Pioneer settlers of our County.
ZACHARIAH ALBAUGH Was a Revolutionary soldier, and was a long time resident of Newton Township, where he died November 9th, 1857, at the ripe age of more than a hundred years!
THOMAS MCKEAN THOMPSON was an early settler and a gentle- man of extensive information and wealth, and exercised considerable influence in moulding the character of the people of Mckean Town- ship. He served the County as one of its Commissioners from 1822 to 1825. In his intercourse with mankind he was affable, polite, and made himself interesting in conversation. He came from Pennsyl- vania where he served a number of years in the capacity of private
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
Secretary to Governor Mckean. He gave the name to the Town- ship.
COLONEL CORNELIUS DEVINNEY was a man of mark in Mc- Kean Township. He was a Virginia gentleman of the""' Old School" -affable and pleasant in his manners, genial, companionable, intelli- gent, of good conversational powers and a man withal of sterling integrity. My recollections of him are of the kind I cherish for men of frankness and candor.
ELIAS HOWELL was also a leading man. He was a well-inform- ed gentleman who acquired great popularity among the people, and influence and power over them by his affability, politeness and sociality. He was collector of taxes from 1824 to 1827; Sheriff from 1826 to 1830; State Senator from 1830 to 1832; and a member of Congress from 1835 to 1837. He lived many years in Mckean Town- ship and died therc.
THEOPHILUS REES, a Welsh gentleman settled on the Welsh Hills in 1802, and was regarded as the Patriarch of his countrymen within our County. He was a man of some education, of integrity, of intelligence, good morals, of excellent Christian character, and of great usefulness. He was one of the original members of the Welsh Hills Baptist Church, organized September 4th, ISOS. His death took place in February, 1813, at the age of sixty-six years.
DR. JOHN J. BRICE settled in Newark in 1803, and for the entire period of more than one generation sustained himself in an extensive practice of his profession. He was from Western Virginia, and had been a student of the distinguished Dr. Benjamin Rush. Dr Brice acquired large wealth and died in advanced life. He was the cotem- porary of Colonel Robert Davidson, David Moore, John Cunning- ham, Benjamin Briggs, Colonel W. W. Gault, Amos HI. Caffee, Jona- than Taylor, Joshua Mathiot, William Stanbery, Judge Searle, Stephen McDougal, Judge Fidler, Bradley Buckingham, Stephen C. Smith, Judge Davis and other prominent early-time citizens of Lick- ing County.
WILLIAM O'BANON Was a man of great industry, energy and enterprise and became a successful agriculturalist and stock-raiser. His intelligence, frugality and thorough devotion to business were re- warded with eminent success in the acquisition of property, for he had attained to the general reputation of the largest land owner in our County, at the time of his death, which occurred when he had reached about the seventy-third year of his age. Judge O'Banon was one of the early-time Justice's of the Peace of Madison Town-
71
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
ship, and served as an Associate Judge of our Common Pleas Court from 1825 to 1839, a period of fourteen years. He discharged his official duties with fidelity, and through life sustained a good reputa- tion. He was distinguished for the qualities that characterized the better class of our early pioneer settlers, and was faithful in the dis- charge of his duties as husband, father, citizen, neighbor, and friend. Judge O'Bannon settled upon the banks of the Shawnee Run in 1803, and remained there more than fifty years, and until the period of his death.
BENJAMIN GREEN and RICHARD PITZER, son-in-law of the former, left their mountain home in Allegheny County, Maryland, in 1799, and came to the Northwest Territory. They spent one year near the mouth of the Muskingum, and in the Spring of ISoo settled on Shawnee run, two miles below the junction of the North and South Forks of the Licking. Here they remained two years and both settled in Hog Run Valley. The first named was a Revolution- ary soldier, and both were first-class Pioneers. It was at the cabin of Mr. Green, where, in 1804, Rev. Asa Shinn organized the Pioneer Church formed within the present limits of Licking County. Mr. Green became a Baptist Minister and died in IS35 at the ripe age of seventy-six years.
REV. JOSEPH THRAP came from the "Monongahela country," in 1805, and settled near the Eastern borders of our County. He was a Methodist minister and a man of integrity, influence, character and fair abilities, and made himself extensively useful. He died in Muskingum County, May 12 1866, aged ninety years.
MAJOR ANTHONY PITZER Was a native of Virginia, removed to Allegheny County, Maryland, and from thence to the Hog Run settlement in ISO3. He patriotically and gallantly served his coun- try in the war of 1812, and secured the confidence of the public to the extent of repeated elections to the Legislature, which body also elected him an Associate Judge in IS16. He died May 14th, 1852, at the age of eighty-six years.
ALEXANDER HOLDEN, EsQ., was a man of decision and marked character, an early settler, who held many offices of trust and responsibility, and was a leading man in Licking Township for many years. He was elected to the Legislature in ISOS.
REV. THOMAS DICKSON BAIRD, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark from IS15 to IS20, was a man of marked charac- teristics and of great intellectual power. He was a native of Scot- land, and possessed one of those massive, logical minds, the
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
Dr. Chalmer's sort of intellects so rarely produced. Probably Rev. Asa Shinn and Bishop Hamline are the only men of all who ever ministered steadily to Licking County congregations that attained to greater distinction, or who gave evidence of possessing equal intel- lectual force and vigor.
JUDGE HENRY SMITH was one of Licking County's early and useful citizens. He came in 1804, and was one of the Judges of our Common Pleas Courts from 1809 to 1823. He died in advanced life. His widow who was an admirable Pioneer woman, survived him until October 22, 1867, having attained the great age of ninety- seven years. Mrs. Priest, a near neighbor of Mrs. Smith, and like her, an early Pioneer, also died near the same time, at the great age of over one hundred years!
And it would be inexcusable in me if I failed to make honorable mention in this connection of Mrs. Catharine Stadden, to whom we are largely indebted for the preservation of many of the facts given in this Centennial History of our County. She was a first-class Pioneer woman, very liberally endowed with intellect and memory, and placed us under many obligations by her readiness to communi- cate whatever of knowledge she possessed, relating to the early history of the Licking Valley. Mrs. Stadden settled here in the year 1800, and died July 3d, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age. She was the wife and widow of Isaac Stadden, the first elected Magis- trate within the present limits of Licking County.
PROMINENT MEN OF LICKING COUNTY.
I have already given brief sketches of some of our Pioneers, or those who acted prominent parts in this County during the first half of our country's Centennial period. It may not be amiss also to give the names of some of those who commenced their career here during the first half and finished it during the last half of the Century. Con- spicuous among this class were Captain Bradley Buckingham, David Moore, Isaac Stadden, Colonel Robert Davidson, Rees Darlinton, Benjamin Briggs, Major John Stewart, Colonel W. W. Gault, John Cunningham, Esq., Stephen McDougal, Sereno Wright, Major Elisha Warren, Judge Bancroft, William Hull, John Van Buskirk, Captain Samuel Elliott, William Gavitt, Captain Willard Warner, James Gillespie, James Holmes, Colonel William Spencer, Richard Lam- son, Peter Schmucker, Amos H. Caffee, and many others.
73
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
To give a measure of completeness to this Centennial History of Licking County, I beg leave also to bring to notice some of the gentlemen who have most conspicuously identified themselves with our County during the latter half only of the Centennial period now closing. Prominent among the list given under this head are Jona- than Taylor, Joshua Mathiot, and Daniel Duncan, who were all elected to Congress, as well as to other positions of honor and respon- sibility. Another trio of this class consisted of Israel Dille, Dr. J. N. Wilson, and Lucius Case, all men of intelligence, extensive informa- tion and talents who were largely influential in giving direction to public sentiment. They were original thinkers, zealous investigators, enthusiastic students. The two first named pushed their investiga- tions in the direction of Philosophy and the Natural Sciences, with
diligence and a good degree of success. The tastes of the latter led him to the study of Jurisprudence and Political Economy; hence he became prominent as a lawyer, and as an active and influential de- bater in the Constitutional Convention of 1851-52. Conspicuous also among our latter-half-century-men was he who was familiarly called Sam. White. He was an influential Legislator for a time, and more- over attained to the highest reputation among us as a popular Orator, and an unfaltering Friend of Freedom! Colonel B. B. Taylor too, for a brief space as Senator and political Orator, filled a large space in the public eye. James Parker and James R. Stanbery, also obtain- ed distinction as public speakers, not only at the 'bar and before political assemblies, but also as grave and dignified Senators. Among others of our modern Legislators were Samuel D. King, George H. Flood, P. N. O'Banon, Daniel Duncan, W. B. Woods, Charles Fol- lett, Willard Warner, Dr. Walter B. Morris, R. B. Truman, George B. Smythe, John F. Follett, C. B. Giffin, William Parr, William Bell, J. B. Jones, J. W. Owens, W. D. Smith, and others, who exerted a degree of influence, as members of our State Legislature.
Among those of our citizens other than Legislators who have "done the State some service," and acquired honorable distinction in other departments of the public service, or in"the line of their own chosen pursuits, are Presidents Pratt, Going, Bailey, Hall and Talbott, of Denison University; Judges Searle, Buckingham, Brumback and Follett; W. D. Morgan, T. J. Davis, M. M. Munson, L. B. Wing, A. B. Clark, Dr. J. R. Black, T. J. Anderson, Colonel William_Spencer, William P. Kerr, J. W. Webb, C. H. Kibler, Rev. Ebenezer Buck- ingham, Rev. Alexander Duncan, Dr. Edward Stanbery, Rev. H. M. Hervey, Rev. Isaac N. Walters, Dr. Daniel Marble, and many oflier's
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
that might be named, including the still living former residents of Licking County, Samuel Park, Esq., of Illinois, a voluminous and widely-known writer on various subjects; Dr. Z. C. McElroy, of Zanesville, a strong, vigorous, original thinker, and an extensive con- tributor to the best Medical Journals of Europe and America; and Dr. T. B. Hood, of Washington City, who made an honorable, widely- extended, and well-known reputation for himself while in the service of the Medical Department during the late rebellion, as well as since the close of the war, as an author, in the performance of his duties in the Surgeon General's Department of the Government.
And I also avail myself of this occasion to make mention of other gentlemen who were natives of Licking County, or resi- dents of it in early life, that attained to a good degree of distinction in other sections of our country, both in military and civil life. And first of those whose military services brought them prominently be- fore the country I name General Samuel R. Curtis, General William S. Rosecrans, General Charles Griffin, General B. W. Brice, General W. D. Hamilton, General Charles B. Woods, General Willard War- ner, and General William B. Woods. Of eminent Civilians those whose names occur to me at this moment, were Horatio J. Harris, a Senator in Indiana, and a United States District Attorney in Mis- sissippi; Ed. Roye, who attained to the position of President of the Republic of Liberia; James F. Wilson, long a distinguished member of Congress from Iowa; James B. Howell, a United States Senator from Iowa; General Willard Warner, a member of the United States Senate from Alabama; Hon. William B. Woods, a Judge of the Federal Courts in Louisiana and other Southern States; and George H. Flood. American Minister to the Republic of Texas: "Johnny Clem," a favorite Orderly of General Thomas' and now an officer in the Regular Army, also acquired a National reputation as the youngest and smallest soldier in the Union Army, as well as for gallant con- duct. Colonel W. H. Hollister, too has acquired wide-spread fame as one of the largest of American land-owners and stock-raisers. He is a native of Licking County, now a citizen of California. Thomas Jones, the Sculptor, and Rev. Dr. Rosecrans, the popular Roman Catholic Bishop, are also entitled to mention in this connection, the latter being a native, and the former a resident in early life, of Lick- ing County. Mr. Jones has been a resident of Cincinnati, for many years, and has a National reputation. Bishop Rosencrans is now an honored citizen of Columbus, enjoying the confidence of the entire community.
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