USA > Ohio > Wayne County > Commemorative biographical record of Wayne County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 49
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Prominent among his achievements in Con-
gress was the obtaining of the enactment of legislation by which sections (610 acres) of the public lands could be divided and sub- divided into 320, 160 and SO acres, thereby enabling the early settlers to enter, or pur- chase, such number of acres of the public do- main as was suited to the usually limited capital they had for investment. This meas- ure, of itself, so advantageous, liberal and beneficent in its provisions, secured to him a universal commendation, and the descendants of the hardy pioneers and first settlers should yet cherish his name in grateful recollection.
He supported Mr. Adams for the Presi- dency in preference to Gen. Jackson, and notwithstanding the cyclone of excitement that grew out of Mr. Adams' election, such was the powerful grasp which Col. Sloane had upon the affections of the people of the dis- triet that he was elected a fifth time to Con- gress in the fall of 1826, and although the excitement alluded to continued to gather strength for the succeeding two years, yet such was Mr. Sloane's popularity that in the Congressional race of 1828, he was beaten by only a very meager majority.
In 1829, after the expiration of his service in Congress, he was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Wayne County. This position he held for seven years, his commission bearing date March 5, 1831. In IS#1 the Legislature appointed him Sec- retary of State (of Ohio) for a period of three years, in which capacity he served the pub- lie with his proverbial efficiency and ability.
The last offico which he held was that of Treasurer of the United States, by appoint- ment of President Fillmore, the salary then being $3,000, as against $6,000 at present. We herewith subjoin his commission, the property of his grandson, John Sloane Bis- sell, bearing the signature of the President and that of Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State:
MILLARD FILLMORE.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
To all who shall see these presents, Greeting:
KNOW YE. That, reposing special trust and con fidence in the integrity, care and ability of John Sloane, of Ohio 1 Treasurer of the United States .... and do authorize .do appoint him
* Written by Beu. Douglass.
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and empower hint to execute and fulfill the duties of that office according to law, and to have and to hold the said olhee, with all the rights and emolu- ments therenuto legally appertaining nuto him, the said John Sloane, during the pleasure of the Presi- dent of the United States for the time being and until the end of the next session of the Senate of the United States, and no longer.
In Testimony whereof I have caused these letters to be made patent and the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.
Given under my band at the City of Washington, the twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and fifty, and of the independence of the United States of America the Seventy-fifth.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
By the President. DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State.
During the war he was colonel of militia and an enthusiastic and patriotic supporter of the war, advancing his own private funds to feed and clothe and otherwise aid the soldiers who were in needy and distressed circumstances.
We insort a letter addressed to him from Duncan MeArthur, a Major- General of Mili- tia, M. C. 1823-25, and Governor of Ohio 1830-33, which speaks for itself.
Freie Hinn, Jan. 25, 1813.
Dear Sir :- I have at length a leisure moment to attend to your business referring to the receipts and necounts which you have enclosed to me. I find that there were three hundred and sixteen (316) men who drew money, or rations, from you to en- able them to return home, and that the distance to their respective homes (the most of them being from Col. Findlay's Reg't.), would average fifteen days (15). It is certain it would have taken some of those men a longer and some a shorter time to reach their homes; but as it can make no difference to Government in the total amount, I can see no impropriety in fixing the return at the average time.
At fifteen cents (15) per ration it will about cover the amount which you were so kind as to ad- VauCe.
Indeed, all must acknowledge that the men never would have reached home had it not been for your
We may well say, that "a friend in need is a Friend indeed." Be assured, sir, that your kindness will never be forgotten by those who experienced it; and I trust the Government will not hesitate to remunerate you for the amount which you actually advanced. With thanks and gratitude, I am, dear sir.
Very respectfully yours, DUNCAN MCARTHUR.
Col. John Slonue.
Not only did Mr. Sloane bear the rank of Colonel in the military service of the period, but he was the counselor and confidential ad- viser, not only of the Governor or Governors, during the struggle, but of the military leaders as well. His overshadowing abilities in civil life introduced him to, and gave him prominence in, the martial arena, and in the camp and council, his advice, good offiees and sound judgment were in frequent reqnisi- tion.
He was the warm personal and confidential friend of Henry Clay, and his admiration of him was reciprocated by the deepest respect of the brilliant Kentuckian. They conducted a private correspondence for over twenty-five years, and Mr. Bissell has carefully pre served many of these letters, which remain unpublished. Those written by Col. Sloane, and the replies to those written by Mr. Clay, approximate very closely, in strength of ex- pression, purity of language, vigor of thought and occasional pungency of style to the stan- dard of Mr. Clay.
As is expressed, directly and indirectly. in these letters, Col. Sloane was his truest, best and most steadfast friend; his counselor and advisor in matters of State and National concern, and this feeling of warmest friend- ship continued to exist until the curtain of time was dropped and both actors disap- peared.
We introduce brief extracts from two con- fidential letters:
LEXINGTON, KY., Angust 12, 1823
My Dear Sir :- I received your favor of the 29th inst. requesting a copy of the Journals of the con- vention of our State, containing the votes of its members on the subject of slavery.
My opinions are unchanged. I would still in Kentucky, support a gradual comneipation: so I would in Missouri. The question, I think in any State, is a good deal affected by the proportion of the African to the European race. In this State I do not think it so great us to endanger the purity and safety of society. But, I nevertheless believe that this question of emancipation of slaves, as our Federal Constitution now stands, is one exclusively belonging to the States respectively, and not to Congress. No man is more sensible of the evils of slavery than I am, nor regrets them more. Were I the citizen of a State in which it was not tolerated. I should certainly oppose its introduction with all the force and energy in my power; and if I found myself nuhappily overruled. I would then strive b)
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incorporate in the law, by which their admission was authorized, the principles of gradual emanci- pation.
In thus disclosing to yon, my dear friend, most freely and frankly my past and present sentiments, I pray you to understand the communication for yourself alone. It does not appear to be proper or delicate that I should be received in any way to tes- tify on the subject of my own opinions. Yon are capable of justly appreciating this feeling. My in- formation on the other subject of your letter con- finnes to be from all quarters highly encouraging. I reserve the details of it for the occasion when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you. In the meantime I remain
Faithfully your friend, II. CLAY.
The Hon. John Sloane.
ASHLAND, Oct. 4, 1831.
My Dotr Sir :- I received your agreeable favor of the 24th, which breathes a spirit of perseverance and cheerfulness quite exhilarating in comparison with the despondence to which some have yielded themselves.
I really should feel some embarrassment in a choice between Andrew Jackson and an anti-mason candidate with his exclusive, proscriptive prin- cinles. I should fear that it would be a mere ex- change of tyrannies, with this difference, that the old one is a volcano, nearly exhausted, and that the new one might prove to be a fresh volcano, emitting a stream of political lava for an indefinite duration of time and of boundless extent.
In reference to the extinction of the public debt, I have thought, when it does ocenr.
Ist. That we may dispense with duties to the amount of the ten millions which constitute the sinking fund.
21. That the policy of protection should be pro- served unimpaired, and enforced by additional leg- islation, if necessary.
3d. That, consequently, the duties to be dis- pensed with should be on objects not coming into competition with the products of our agriculture or our manufactures.
It is possible that articles on which duties are paid may not be found sufficient to dispense with ten millions, without touching those which onght to pay duties for the sake of protection. I believe they can, but I have not by me a Treasury report froin which to make an estimate. But it must be recollected that in proportion as our manufactures flourish and extend, the importation of rival foreign articles will diminish, and the consumption from increased population will hardly meet that dimi- nution. Should the importation, however, not be checked from that cause, it would prove that the duty for protection was inadequate, and in that case the obvious remedy would be an angmentation of the duty.
As to internal improvements I never have thought that a cent of duty ought to be paid, or continued for their promotion. But as in any prudent ar- rangement of the tariff a deficit of revenue ought to be provided against by imposing duties enough,
and as, from the fluctuations of commerce, an oc- casional surplus of revenue would arise, this surplus should be applied to internal improvements. After the payment of the public debt, the proceeds of the public lands, I think, ought to he appropriated to the same object.
For two causes the Western States ought to have more of this fund than any other section:
1st. The public lands lie here, and improvements tend to enhance the value of them.
ed. The Western States have no direct interest in a navy or fortifications. They have that com. mon interest which each part has in the prosperity of the whole; and so have the maritime States an interest in the improvements made in the West. *
These views are confidentially communicated for an exchange of opinions and not for any eye but your own. I ought to add that the charter of the B. of the U. S. should, in my opinion, be renewed, on equitable conditions; and, perhaps, the bones might also be appropriated to internal improve. ments. *
Your friend,
II. CLAY.
IIon. John Sloane.
When serving as Treasurer of the United States, Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, was Secretary of State; Thomas H. Ewing, Ohio, was Secretary of the Interior; Tom Corwin, Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Charles ME. Conrad, Louisiana, Secretary of War; William A. Graham, North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Nathan K. Hall, New Jersey, Post- master-General, and John J. Crittenden. Kon tneky, Attorney-General. In Ohio, the name of Col. Sloane was as familiar as that of Worthington, or Ruggles, or Tappan, or Morrow, or Burnet, or Ewing, or Corwin, or Allen, or Medary-men who have attained distinguished honors in the pantheon of the State and Nation. Throughout Ohio. and. especially, in the northern and eastern part, he acquired an enviable eminence as a con- troversialist and debater, and engaged in the hottest bouts and collisions with champions from the lists of his political adversaries. In joint discussion he was an expert, subtle, dangerons and aggressive opponent, and, though not in the true sense an orator, ho charmed his hearers with a strong and steady flow of solid English, that, like the river Zairo, swelling onward forever, palpitatod beneath the red eye of the sun.
As a newspaper contributor and political essayist he acquired deserved reputation, and
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in the columns of the old files of the National Intelligencer, Washington, D. C., to which statesmen and scholars have contributed from the time of Hamilton, Jay and Madison, to the day it ceased to exist, are to be found vigorous and stately productions of his pen. His diction was unmistakable, elastie, incisive, direct, and frequently of acid sharpness- never distorted into tortuosities or eased and slated over with metaphors and tropes.
His invective cut through tissue and lodged in the bone and marrow. He assaulted an enemy with a dauntless energy, and his courage, at times tantamount to fierceness in an onset, had a gentleness of spirit, which, however, "laughed at the shaking of the spear."
In State and National campaigns his voice was " never inaudible amid the wildest dis- sonances" of the conflict. In the conten- tions of the contest of 1810, when Gen. Win. Henry Harrison was in the field, and when chivalrous belligerents on either side drew their brightest steel, he obeyed the war- whoop and the beat of drum, and sprang to the fight like a Gladiator, his lance lifted high in the front of the assaulting column. To Col. Sloane, Gen. Harrison was an ideal man, in the fact, that he possessed moral and intellectual greatness, and more, the greatness of patriotic action.
Col. Sloane remained in Washington until 1853, when he returned home, seeking ro- tirement and repose of body and mind.
Even those whom Fame has lent her fairest ray, The most renowned of worthy wights of yore, From a base world at last have stol'n away,
So Scipio, to the soft Cumaon shore Retiring, tasted joy he never knew before.
Ile was married to Miss Ruth Hardgrave, of Pennsylvania, and by this union ten children resulted, all save two growing to manhood and womanhood. Mrs. Delia Sloane is the only survivor, and holds at this thne a position in the Pension Department at Washington.
He died 15th of May, 1856, at his rosi- dence in Wooster, after a short illness, aged seventy-eight years.
The life of Col. Sloane, his publie service to the State and Nation, his speeches, letters, and journalistic contributions should, and we
have no doubt will, bo collected and given to the public. He had an extensive, intelligent and prolonged contact with the world, and his experiences were on the best side of life. His allegiance to the truth was sincere, and his integrity and honor above reproach. He was a patriot and true man. A pioneer in the State, crossing its threshold before it had been admitted to the sisterhood of the Union, he lived to see a very torrent of population pour into its extensive regions, which in his younger manhood he had traversed as a howling wilderness, that has been unparalleled in the records or march of time. His early years and his maturer strength were conse- crated to his country. His conceptions of freedom and its institutions were imbedded in his brain as truths, and entrenched in his character as sentiments. A partisan, to some extent himself, he found much to oppose in government and men, as he did Jackson and his systems, which he antagonized, as he would have the ideals of Rousseau. But he had confidence in the free institutions of his country, and had full faith in freedom, for his faith in it had not been corrupted by ex- perience in blood. He possessed the deep thought which explained principles, the com- prohensive thought which regarded relations, and the fertile thought which devised meas- ures.
His life was a long one of public service, and he bore to the grave a character which envy cannot tarnish -a true patriot and an honest man.
D C. CURRY & CO. D. C. Curry and Jerome Curry are the senior and junior members, respectively, of the firm of D. C. Curry & Co., general dealers in lumber and extensive manu- facturers of sash, doors and blinds, etc., the largest establishment of the kind at
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Wooster, Wayne County. James Curry, the father of these gentlemen, was a na- tive of Westmoreland County, Pa., born in 1817, came to Holmes County, Ohio, in- 1837, and thenee moved to Wayne County, in 1853. His school training was such as the average boy in his day received, and early in life he learned the trade of carpenter, which he followed until coming to Ohio. He was carpenter on the first steamboat that ploughed the Missouri River, and which was stranded at the point on the river where Leavenworth, Kas., now stands. In 1835 he went to Texas. In Hohnes County he followed house and barn building, and while there married, in 1837, Eliza Cooper Rowland, daughter of John and Mary Rowland, and a native of Cumberland County, Pa. Seven children were born to this union, all but one of whom are yet living; their names are as follows: John R., born February 18, 1839 (now deceased) ; D. C., born September 25, 1841; Margaret, born October 11, 1843 (married to C. T. Parks, and now residing in Akron, Ohio); Wellington (born May 5, 18.15, now in Bowling Green, Ohio) ; James M. (born November 6, 18-19, now in Denver, Col. ) ; Mary, born July 6, 1853 (now Mrs. F. J. Young, and a resi- dent of Wooster, Ohio) and Jerome, born April 5, 1855; all natives of Holmes County, Ohio, excepting Mary and Jerome, who were born in Wayne County. In
1853 the family came to Wooster, where the father embarked in the lumber trade, laying, in a comparatively humble way, the foundation of the present affluent con- eern. June 9, 1884, he departed this life at the age of sixty-eight, respected and honored by all who knew him. He was an active worker in the ranks of the Re- publican party, and held several positions of trust. He was at one time mayor of Wooster and several terms a member of the city council: was one of the trustees of the Girls' Industrial Home, in Dela- ware County, Ohio. His wife, Eliza Row- land Curry, was descended of an old fam- ily who came to Pennsylvania at an early date, when it was a slave-holding State. They owned slaves, and about 1821 man- umitted all they then possessed, some nine in number. Her grandfather Cooper was a soldier in the Continental army, and wintered at Valley Forge with Washington. His brother was in the British army and they met at Valley Forge, where the lat- ter was persuaded by his brother to join the patriot lines. After the war the grand- father proceeded down the Mississippi to the Gulf, but he was taken sick, dying at Cape Girardeau, Mo. Grandfather Row- land was a soldier in the War of 1812. Mrs. Curry's father came to Holmes County, Ohio, in 1815, and settled on a quarter see- tion of land on which he set to work to build a cabin. Soon after arrival in the county
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his wife died, leaving the responsibility of nine children to Eliza ( the future Mrs. Curry ). the eldest in the family, then only nine years of age. About that time, when the building of the cabin was com- pleted, all the provision Mr. Rowland had in his humble home for himself and little ones was $1.25 in cash, and a bushel and a half of salt. Miss Eliza Rowland re- ceived only nine weeks' schooling, but she improved every opportunity, and by close observation and natural acumen soon be- came quite an apt scholar. At the age of twenty-two she married Mr. James Curry, and May 3, 1874, she passed peacefully from earth.
D. C. CURRY, the second born to Mr. and Mrs. James Curry, attended school in Wooster until 1857, in which year he com- menced to learn the art of printing in the office of the Republican, in that city, working as compositor until 1861. In the spring of that year the firing on Ft. Sumter forced President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, and Mr. Curry was among the first to respond, enrolling himself on the 23d of April, that year, as a member of Company C, Sixteenth Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, three months' service, and upon the ro-organization of his regiment he re-enlisted in October, 1861, in Com- pany H, three years' service. On May 19, 1863, he was wounded in the left arm and stomach at the first assault on Vicks-
burg, Miss., and October 31, 1864, he was honorably discharged. Returning to Wooster, Mr. Carry at once took the po- sition of engineer in his father's planing- mill, which stood on the corner of East Liberty Street and Beall Avenue; being given an interest with his other brothers in the concern. In the fall of 1867 the father and his three eldest sons-John R .. D. C. and Wellington-purchased the lum- ber yard and planiug-mill of Stibbs & Co., which they successfully carried on until 1871, under the firm name of D. C. Curry & Co., when the partnership was dissolved. by James Curry retiring, the sons retain- ing the new yard on North Street, the style of the firm remaining D. C. Curry & Co. February 3, 1576, they met with a dis- astrous fire-their planing-mill and sash. door and blind manufactory being entirely consumed, including all their machinery and a large stock of finished and untin- ished work. Their loss was over $20,000. with not a dollar of insurance. They im- mediately rebuilt, but were again met by the fiery element January 29, 1555, and April 13, 1887. They were carrying a small line of insurance, but their loss each time was from $12,000 to $15,000 above their insurance. After the fire of April, 1887, they purchased the machinery and leased the building formerly occupied by James Curry & Sons on East Liberty Street, where they carried on their busi-
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ness until the summer of 1889, when they rebuilt on their old site on North Street, adding the latest improved machinery necessary for their line of work. They possess the oldest and do the largest bus- iness in lumber and manufactured work in Wayne and adjoining Counties. December 24, 1868, Mr. D. C. Curry married Jennie J. Yergin, who bore him five children (four of whom are yet living ), as follows: Charles Y., born November 8, 1869; Blanche C., born October 11, 1871; Cora B., who died in 1875; William, born Sep- tember 9, 1877, and Rowland A., born April 3, 1884. Mr. Curry has always been an active Republican, and has been a member of the city council two terms. He is a member of the F. & A. M., K. of H. and K. O. T. M., and was commander of Given Post, G. A. R., in 1883.
furniture business, until 1885, in which year he became associated with D. C., forming the co-partnership which at present exists. December 23, 1875, Mr. Jerome Curry became united in marriage with Maggie J., daughter of Angus Mc- Donald, and a native of Wooster, Wayne Co., Ohio. Mr. McDonald was born at Woodside, Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1815, and is a son of Ronald McDonald, an old Waterloo veteran, who fought with the " Black Watch " ( 42d Royal Highlanders ) which, having formed square, so valor- ously and desperately sustained the re- peated charges of the French cuirassiers (Napoleon's heaviest cavalry) at the memorable engagement at Quatre Bras. Here two companies of his regiment, which, owing to the tall rye in which they were posted, were unable to form square in time, were utterly annihilated. Some of the men stood back to back and fought the horsemen until cut down: but the square once formed was never broken. Here Mr. McDonald was wounded in the head by a musket ball, on which account he was discharged with a pension, and his family, having no tidings from or of him, mourned him as dead; but some six months after the great battle the soldier boy (but eighteen years of age) to their overwhelming surprise appeared, alive and
JEROME CURRY, the youngest born to Mr. and Mrs. James Curry, was educated at the schools of Wooster, altending the junior year at the high school of that city. In 1570 he assumed control of a machine shop owned by his father and brothers, serving four years, and then for two years or until 1876, was associated with his father and brother in the furni- - ture business. Abont that time a disso- lution of partnership took place between his father and brothers, D. C. succeeding the other two brothers, and with him ' well, at the door of his old home. He Jerome found employment, on leaving the ' afterward became manager of a cotton
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factory at Printfield, near Aberdeen, in which he continued for about thirty years, when he moved into the city and com- menced business with his son David. He married Margaret Monro, a native of Rosshire, Scotland, who bore him eight children. In July, 1843, he came to America to visit his son 'Angus, then liv- ing in Massillon, Ohio, remaining until the following May, when he returned to his " native heath," not overfavorably im- pressed with the land of his son's adop- tion, on account of malaria and ague. This fine old hero of Quatre Bras died in 1884. His son Angus, the eldest in the family, worked in the cotton factory at Printfield, already referred to, till he was fourteen years of age, and then learned the trade of molder in the Grand Holm foundry, near Aberdeen, and after a so- journ there and in London, Liverpool and other places, returned to Aberdeen and here married Kate Dinwiddie, of his na- tive village, Woodside. In 1810 he came alone to America and almost direct to Massillon, Ohio, where he immediately found employment in a foundry, and in 1842 he sent for his wife and child. In 1817 he came to Wooster, having been driven from Massillon by the malaria so prevalent there. Of his eleven children, seven yet live, four of his sons assisting him in his business. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Curry,
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