Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 54

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 54

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COLUMBUS, MARCH 30, 1864.

TO JAMES CHRISTY, AKRON: The original Muster Rolls of the 29th are received at Adjutant General's office today. Akron is credited with eighty- six men. Hurrah !

J. J. HALL.

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

COUNTY, CITY AND TOWNSHIP BOUNTY TAX LAW.

In view of the fact that in the raising of local bounties, the patriotic and liberal were almost wholly the contributors, while the unpatriotic and illiberal, though enjoying equal benefits of protection to person and property, and the enhanced prices for their produce caused by the war, contributed little or nothing, the Ohio Legislature in March, 1864, enacted a bounty law, the first section of which, as follows, explains itself :

The commissioners of the several counties, and the councils of several cities, and the trustees of the several townships in this State, are hereby authorized (if they deeni the same expedient), in the year A. D. 1864, to levy a tax upon the taxable property of their respective jurisdictions, for the pur- pose of raising a fund to pay bounties to volunteers who have enlisted or shall enlist- in the military or naval service of the United States under either of the requisitions of the President in October, 1863, or Feb- ruary, 1864, for 500,000 additional troops, in the aggregate not exceeding one hundred dollars to each volunteer who shall have enlisted or may hereafter enlist therein under the said requisitions, and to pay and reimburse the counties, cities, wards, townships and individuals, all monies paid, pledged or subscribed by them respectively, as and for bounties to volunteers enlisted or who shall enlist under said calls within their respective jurisdic- tions as aforesaid.

A number of the townships of the county availed themselves of the provisions of this law, thus compelling the unwilling to share with the willing a small proportion of the extraordinary pecuniary burdens forced upon them by the exigencies of those troublous times.

SANITARY AND AID SOCIETIES. -

It will be utterly impossible to convey to the minds of the present generation the magnitude of the Soldier's Aid and Sani- tary operations, among the people of the Northern States, during the war. Not only were the families of the soldiers at home to be assisted, according to their several necessities, but the sick and wounded soldiers themselves, in the hospitals, were to be nursed and supplied with medicines, food, clothing, etc., suited to their varied conditions. To this end Soldiers' Aid Societies were organ- ized by the sympathetic and always patriotic women of almost every city, village and township throughout the entire North, through which immense supplies were forwarded, monthly, or oftener, each society endeavoring, as far as possible, to send its contributions to those localities where its own dear ones would be most likely to be the beneficiaries thereof.

Monthly reports of their contributions were published regu- larly in the BEACON, comprising many columns of solid nonpareil type, from which, as a sample of the whole, we quote as follows from the Copley District No. 3, report for August, 1864: Member- ship fees, $12.40; proceeds of dime parties, $11.60; grab parties, $7.25; Mrs. W. B., five pillow cases, two rolls bandages, outside for one quilt, one roll of cloth, one roll of cotton batting, three bottles of currant wine; Mrs. K., one quilt lining, batting and four blocks for quilt, four rolls bandages, one pillow, six pounds dried apples; Mrs. S., six bottles blackberry syrup, one roll old cotton, two pounds cherries, etc., the list containing the names of 57 ladies, with similar contributions, embracing shirts, drawers, dried beef, cheese, soap, towels, books, papers, fans, pin balls, etc., filling two good-sized packing boxes.

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PATRIOTISM AND PLEASANTRY.

A similar detailed report of the Akron Soldiers' Aid Society for the same month, summing up as follows: Two boxes sent to Cleveland, containing three shirts, thirteen pairs drawers, two boxes lint, one pair socks, five towels, twenty-five handkerchiefs, seven- teen bundles rags, sixteen pounds dried fruit, one bag hops, two packages of papers, twenty-eight magazines, one bushel onions. Two boxes sent to Hospital No. 1, Nashville, Tenn., containing thirteen fans, twelve towels, two quilts, five pillows, sixteen maga- zines, twenty-six handkerchiefs, eleven shirts, one bag hops, six- teen pin balls, three pairs slippers, two quarts dried currants, books, papers and rags.

GRAND WOOD AND PROVISION CELEBRATION .- As a further sample of the spirit which animated all our people, and of their desire to assist the families of those who were fighting for them at the front, a wood and provision celebration was organized, the glorious outcome of which can be best imparted to the reader of these pages, by what the writer then said of it, editorially, in the BEACON of December 24, 1863:

"The wood and provision celebration, on Thursday last, proved to be a mnost triumphant success. Notwithstanding the awful condition of the roads, and the forbidding aspect of the weather, the supplies began to arrive early, and at 11 o'clock, under the marshalship of George D. Bates, Esq., and his wide- awake assistants, the procession was formed at the corner of Howard and Market streets, and, headed by the Akron Guards and their fine band of martial music, proceeded up Market to Broad- way, up Broadway to Mill, down Mill to Howard and down Howard to Market, from whence the wagons proceeded to the sev- eral places designated by the committee for depositing their various contents.

BANQUETING THE CONTRIBUTORS .- " On delivering his dona- tions, each man was furnished with a ticket which admitted him to Tappan Hall, where the Ladies of the Soldiers' Aid Society had prepared a magnificent dinner, consisting of roast turkey, baked and stewed chicken, chicken pie, roast beef, pork and beans, mashed potatoes, turnips, cabbage, pickles and relishes in great abundance, bread and butter, pies, cakes, hot coffee, etc., etc. Not only were the 'multitude' abundantly 'filled,' but there remained 'many baskets full' of choice provisions for those for whose benefit the affair had been gotten up.

"The train consisted of fron 80 to 90 wagons, mostly from our own township, though quite a number from Copley, Coventry, Middlebury, Tallmadge, Northampton and other towns generously united, not only in swelling the dimensions of the procession, but the pile of supplies, also."

A list of the contributors, with the articles donated, and their value, occupies fully a column and a half, which may be briefly summarized as follows: Cash, $375; wood, 40 cords; coal, 15 tons; potatoes, 200 bushels; flour, 8 barrels; meat, 800 pounds; apples, 25 bushels; cabbage, 100 heads; beets and turnips, 10 bushels; wheat, 7 bushels; corn, 9 bushels; beans, 3 bushels; chickens, 16; orders for goods, $50; with dried apples, apple-butter, pumpkins, etc., the aggregate value being between $700 and $800.

PATRIOTISM AND PLEASANTRY .- Illustrative of the genial good nature with which these contributions were made, and of the

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

devices made for augmenting them, we quote as follows: "Mr. William B. Raymond banteringly proposed to Mr. Jacob' Ober- holser that he (Raymond) would contribute a barrel of flour if he (Oberholser) would wheel it around the square in the procession on a wheel-barrow, which challenge was promptly accepted, and duly executed. Messrs. James Mathews, George C. Berry and David A. Scott each proposed to perform similar feats, if the flour was furnished them, whereupon George W. McNeil, George Buel,. John Memmer, John L. Noble. John J. Wagoner, W. G. Robinson, William C. Allen, Charles R. Howe, Jacob Oberholser and others, chipped in from one to two dollars each, and purchased the flour; Mr. C. G. Auble, then clerking for Milton W. Henry and Jacob. Oberholser, offering to "tote " a hog upon his shoulder, in the pro- cession, if his fellow clerks would pay for it.

The hog was purchased and the four wheel-barrows, and their. plucky drivers, and the stalwart bearer of the " patriotic grunter," with festoons of red, white and blue ribbon depending from its- snout and tail, elicited rounds of applause along the line of march; our late patriotic colored fellow-citizen, William D. Stevens, bring- ing up the rear, with a pole across his shoulder from the end of which depended a nice large ham labeled " The Union," and underneath a lean and haggled ham bone labeled "The Southern Confederacy Played Out."

1864-RECRUITING IN THE REBEL STATES.

The experiences of 1864 were but a repetition of those of 1862 and 1863, only many times intensified, requiring the utmost exer- tion and vigilance on the part of the various military committees to secure correct enrollments and proper credits thereon, and to fill the various requisitions for nien. Not only were the services of from 90,000 to 100,000 National Guards accepted and faithfully rendered, but on the 18th dayof July, 1864, President Lincoln issued another call for 500,000 more men, who, under the then recent act of Congress, could enlist for one, two or three years, as they might elect, and designating September 5, as the day for holding the draft in districts whose quotas had not previously been filled.

The same act authorized the procurement of recruits, for filling the quotas of northern States, from the "contraband" and other loyal inhabitants of certain of the southern States, the third section reading as follows:

SECTION III. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the- Executive of any State, to send recruiting agents into any of the States declared to be in rebellion, except the States of Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana, to recruit volunteers under any call under the provision of this act, who shall be credited to the State, and to the respective sub-divisions thereof which may procure the enlistment.

GIVING THE NEW PLAN A TRIAL .- Under the provisions of this act, the trustees of the several townships of the county met at the Court House, on Friday, July 22, 1864, to devise ways and means for carrying it into effect. Col. Simon Perkins was called to the chair, and a resolution was adopted that, under the pro- visions of the township bounty tax, heretofore spoken of, the trustees of the several townships borrow upon their official bonds the sum of $100 for each man wanted by their respective townships, John E. Hurlbut, of Richfield, being selected as Summit county's-

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OUR QUOTA AGAIN FULL.

agent to procure said enlistments, and preparations were immedi- ately commenced for carrying this plan into effect, all the town- ships reporting on the following Monday, and placing in the hands of Col. Perkins the sum of $100 for each man needed to fill their several quotas under the call.

In the meantime, however, it transpired that only one agent for each Congressional District was to be appointed, and 011 Saturday, July 23, the military committees of the three counties composing the Eighteenth Congressional District-Summit, Lake and Cuyahoga-met at Cleveland, and selected Mr. C. E. Wilson, of that city, as such agent.

A NOVEL BUT PROFITLESS SCHEME .- At this meeting of the military committees, a Doctor DeLaney, of Pittsburg, submitted a proposition to fill the quota of the district for $100 per head, in addition to the Government bounty, the doctor to deposit $5,000, as a guarantee for the faithful performance of his agreement, and the bounty money not to be paid over until the recruits had been accepted and mustered in. The contract was closed with the doctor, and he and Mr. Wilson proceeded to Columbus, and obtain- ing proper authority from Gevernor Brough immediately started for the South, but with what result may be inferred from the following paragraph from an editorial penned by the writer, in the BEACON of August 11, 1864:

Although we have nothing definite as to how the person who took the contract of filling the quota for this district in the rebel States, is getting along, we understand that the regular constituted agent, under whom the contractor was to operate has intimated that but little can be done from the fact that other localities, represented there, were offering from $100 to $150 greater bounties than he was authorized to pay. We would again beg of our people to urge forward the matter of obtaining volunteers at home, and of laboring, one and all, for reducing the quotas to the lowest possible limit by the 5th of September. A large number of volunteers can be obtained within the time specified, if the people, en masse, take hold of the matter in earnest. Let it be done by all means.

AT WORK IN GOOD EARNEST .- Seeing the impossibility of seeur- ing our quota, (about sixty men), for Portage township, by the plan indicated, a rousing meeting was held at Tappan Hall on Monday evening, August 22, 1864, to take measures for securing the nec- essary recruits at home. To this end it was resolved that every enrolled man in the township should contribute $30 to a fund, which, with the amount provided by the trustees, would give each recruit a local bounty of $400, in addition to the Government bounty, and if the entire quota could not be raised by this means, each man drafted, who had thus contributed his $30, should draw the like sum of $400 from said fund as a bounty to himself, or with which to hire a substitute. A week later it was announced that Cuyahoga Falls, Richfield, Northampton and several outside towns had raised their full quotas, and that Portage township had recruited and mustered in about 40 men.

Other portions of the State being equally vigilant and suc- cessful, the draft was deferred until September 24, 1864. Previous to the day named, Portage and most of the other townships of the county, had filled their quotas, and the others nearly so, the four or five townships finally drafted, all furnishing the requisite number of recruits before the examinations of the drafted men were com- pleted, the BEACON of October 13, 1864, editorially saying : "Every township in this county has filled its quota and not a

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

drafted man from Glorious Little Summit has gone into the army. Let us rejoice, not only that we are able to send our full proportion of soldiers to fight the rebels in the South, but that we have also a sufficient number of men still left to defeat the rebels at home, through the ballot box, by a largely increased majority."

The draft throughout the State all passed off quietly, though in the midst of a very heated Presidential campaign, and in spite of the persistent threats of the "copperheads " that another draft in Ohio should never take place, the entire draft for the State being but 9,006 men, the excess of recruits raised in certain local- ities giving to the State a small credit on the final call.

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE!

December 19, 1864, Secretary Stanton announced to the country, by telegram, that President Lincoln had issued a call for 300,000 men to make up for the deficiency occasioned by credits to the several states under previous calls; the requisition to be filled by February 15, 1865. Hon. Alphonso Hart, State Senator for Summit and Portage counties, introduced a bill, which was passed into a law, authorizing city councils and township trustees to levy a tax to the extent of $200 on each recruit necessary to fill their respective quotas, on any call of the President subsequent to July 18, 1864, and to borrow money upon city and township bonds .in anticipation of the collection of such a tax.

The several quotas of Summit county announced under this. call were: Bath, 24; Boston, 15; Copley, 24; Coventry, 16; Cuyahoga Falls, 15; Franklin, 30; Green, 25; Hudson, 15; Middlebury, 6; Northampton, 9; Northfield, 14; Norton, 18; Portage, 115; Richfield, 13; Springfield, 25; Stow, 10; Tallmadge, 12; Twinsburg, 3.

So great had been the strain upon the patriotic impulses and pockets of the people, that there was, for a time, a disposition to let the draft take its course, and let those liable to be struck by it either respond in person, or secure substitutes for themselves as best they could.

WAKING UP AT LAST-GLORIOUS RESULT .- But, fortunately, there were a few "Never Say Die" fellows in Akron, like Simon Perkins, John R. Buchtel, J. Park Alexander, George W. Crouse, Charles B. Bernard, David L. King and others equally patriotic, and similar resolute men in all the other townships of the county, who determined to clear their respective townships, and, if pos- sible the entire county, from a draft under the last call that would probably be made for troops, the rebellion being then upon its very "last legs." To this end, at a largely attended meeting at Tappan Hall, early in February, 1865, a committee, consisting of John R. Buchtel, George W. Crouse, J. Park Alexander and Charles B. Bernard, was appointed and given full authority to adopt such measures as they might deem advisable for filling the quota of Portage township without a draft.

THE ASSESSMENT PLAN ADOPTED. - A careful canvass of the village and township was had, and an assessment made upon every business and professional man, farmer and mechanic, according to his known or supposed ability to pay, which several parties were visited and kindly, but somewhat imperatively,

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A MAGNIFICENT OUTCOME.

invited to liquidate said assessments. Of course there were soine demurrers and pleas in abatement interposed, and some deep down though not very loud, damnatory expressions indulged in, but as a general thing all promptly "forked over" the amount thus demanded of them.

OVER THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS RAISED .- In less than a week, so energetic was the action of the committee, there was over $32,000 in cash in the hands of its treasurer, Charles B. Bernard, Esq. In the meantime it was found that by reason of not having received proper credits, and by the blunders of the enrolling officer in placing upon the list aliens and others well- known to be exempt from military duty, the quota for Portage township, as given above, was fully double what it should have been.

Permission having been received from the provost marshal of the State, on Saturday evening, February 18, to correct the lists on which the final assignments were to be made at 8 o'clock on the following Monday morning, by telegraphic arrangement with the enrolling board a special train, with a large number of enrolled men claiming exemption for alienage, disability, etc., proceeded to Cleveland on Sunday afternoon, the final quota of the township being fixed at 68, which was still something like twenty "more than it properly should have been, the other townships of the county remaining the same as stated above.

ENTIRELY "OUT OF THE WOODS."-The draft, though not formally postponed, was delayed to give such localities as were earnestly working to fill their quotas, by voluntary enlistment, an opportunity to do so. The committee paid to each home recruit a bounty of $500, and to outsiders such sums as might be agreed upon, the BEACON of February 23, 1865, announcing that 54 recruits, mostly citizens of Portage township, had already been mustered in and the good work still progressing favorably. Suffice it to say, that the balance of the recruits needed were duly obtained and mustered in, with a surplus in the hands of the committee's treas- urer of nearly $3,000, which, happily, not being needed for military purposes, having been mostly contributed by the citizens of Akron, was, with accrued interest, by request of the principal con- tributors, subsequently paid over to the Board of Managers of the Akron Library Association, as will be found stated in detail else- where, thus inuring to the intellectual benefit of the survivors of those of our citizens whose valor made such beneficient institu- tions among us possible, and to their sons and daughters.

OTHER TOWNSHIPS ALSO UP TO TIME .- The assessment system was also adopted by the recruiting committees of most of the other townships of the county, being generally acquiesced in, though in certain localities creating considerable friction and bad- blood, a frightful example of which is given in the chapter on Stow, by which two reputable citizens were deprived of life and the third consigned to a felon's cell.

"Bounty Jumping" so extensively prevailed, where men, after being accepted and duly credited and receiving their bounties, would desert before arrival at the front, to repeat the operation, under a change of name, in sonie other locality, it is very doubtful if one-half of those recruited outside of their own proper counties, ever reached the army, a condition of things largely

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

encouraged by the swarms of unscrupulous "Bounty Brokers" that infested Cleveland, and the principal cities of Ohio and other States, during the latter part of the war.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE REBELLION.

Summit's last quota was thus filled, and all her military obli- gations to the imperiled Government fully canceled. We can not definitely determine the exact number of men put into the field, as a county, or as separate townships, for the reason that the assessors' returns include but few of the original Three Months' men or the Hundred Day men, nor any of the recruits.mustered in under the last call, nor the number of men that were obtained in Cleveland and elsewhere, to fill our respective quotas, as above detailed.

The Assessors' reports for 1865, purporting to give the names of all then or previously in the service from their respective town- ships, foot up as follows: Bath, 71; Boston, 140; Copley, 124; Coventry, 77; Cuyahoga Falls, 107; Franklin, 118; Green, 108; Hudson, 105; Middlebury, 63; Northfield, 109; Northampton, 87; Norton, 73; Portage, 443; Richfield, 76; Springfield, 145; Stow, 83; Tallmadge, 120; Twinsburg, 108,-total for county 2,157. Allowing one half of the last call to have been filled with home material, and counting in the Three Months' men of 1861, the Squirrel Hunters of 1862, and the Hundred Day men of 1864, we have an aggregate of not far from 3,000 men-citizens of Summit county-while those recruited elsewhere, would swell the grand total to at least 3,500, to say nothing of the hundreds who, after serving their original term of three years, re-enlisted as veterans, and were counted as so many recruits, in making up quotas, under subsequent calls.

LITTLE SUMMIT IN THE VAN.

The official report, at the close of the war, shows the status of the several counties of the State, in regard to the outcome of the final call, in which Summit compares favorably with her sister counties, as the following figures abundantly show: Summit- quota 363, recruits furnished 316, deficit (after receiving proper credit on former quotas) 4; Stark-quota 408, recruits 373, draft 5, deficit 30; Wayne-quota 357, recruits 279, draft 3, deficit 45; Port- age-quota 264, recruits 214, draft 25, deficit 5; Cuyahoga-quota 669, recruits 407, draft 13, deficit 249; Holmes-quota 197, recruits 157, deficit 70; Tuscarawas-quota 380, recruits 252, deficit 128; Knox-quota 349, recruits 206, draft 8, deficit 144; sixty-five counties showing an aggregate deficit of 2,827, sixteen counties an aggregate surplus of 88 and seven counties coming out even, making a net deficit in the State of 2,739.

BRIEF SPECIAL MENTION .- Many of Akron's volunteer soldiers, other than those mentioned in the foregoing sketch, deserve hon- orable mention for their devotion and heroism during the long and bloody struggle, but want of space and lack of proper data forbids. Without disparagement to others, however, may be mentioned the late Dr. George P. Ashmun, who entered the service August 14, 1862, as surgeon of the 93d O. V. I .; captured, contrary to all civilized rules of war, while caring for the wounded and dying on the field of battle, and confined in Libby prison for

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HONORABLE MENTION.

several months, resigning August 11, 1864; Dr. Charles R. Pierce, enlisting as surgeon of the 76th O. V. I., January 9, 1862, and after faithful service, both in camp and field, at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Milliken's Bend, Chickasaw Bayou and Arkansas Post, dying in the service, January 29, 1863; Dr. C. F. H. Biggs (father of Akron's well-known boiler-maker, Lester M. Biggs), entering the army as hospital steward of the Second Ohio Cavalry, in August, 1861, accompanying the regiment in its various opera- tions in Missouri and the Indian Territory, as elsewhere detailed; on account of excess of that class of officers, mustered out in Sep- tember, 1862; immediately re-enlisted as private, though perform- ing the duties of assistant surgeon for several months in 1864, in Cavalry Corps Hospital at City Point, Va., appointed assistant surgeon 4th Ohio Cavalry, in November, 1864, at Nashville, Tenn .; mustered out with regiment at close of the war.

TUDGE SAMUEL C. WILLIAM- SON,-born in Randolph, Portage county, Ohio, August 18, 1837; in 1854 entered preparatory school at Hudson, graduating from Western Reserve College in 1860; April, 1861, enlisted in 19th O. V. I., serving three months; Oct., 1861, enlisted in 18th U. S. I., serving as sergeant till wounded at battle of Stone River, in May, 1863. After several months leave of absence was promoted to second lieutenant and sent to Detroit and Grand Rapids as måstering and disbursing officer ; subsequently promoted to first lieu- tenant, and ordered on duty in the Provost Marshal General's Depart- ment, serving in Missouri till closing of office; then as post adjutant and inspecting officer at Benton Bar- racks and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as assistant commissioner of musters till January, 1867, when he was com- missioned captain of 42d U. S. I., and stationed at Hart's Island and Mad- ison Barracks, N. Y., until consoli- dation of regiment with the 6th, when he was placed on waiting orders and returned home. Here he completed his law studies with Tib- bals & Mckinney, being admitted to the bar in 1870. In October, 1875, he was elected Probate Judge of Sum-

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228