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"' And glory, like the phoenix in its fires, Exhales its odors, blazes, and expires.'"
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
WAR OF 1812.
It was proposed originally that this work, as giving special prominence, though far from exclusive attention, to the days of "the fathers," should contain a list of all the soldiers of the war of 1812. But success has not crowned efforts in this direction. The recollection of the few sur- vivors is unreliable and incomplete ; the statements made by those supposing themselves informed contradictory. Repeated applications to the War Department were de- clined, with information that, while answers will be given in relation to individuals, when company, etc., are given, lists will not be furnished or allowed.
There are reports that, at the outset of the war, a con- siderable number of citizens, chiefly from the south and west parts of the county, joined a company that was being raised by Lewis Cass. This detachment was surrendered by Hull, and sent home on parole.
Under a requisition from the governor, Judge Isaac Evans responded with a full company, marching to Frank- linton (across the Scioto from Columbus), where they were mustered into service, and furnished with uniforms and United States muskets. They were in the forces of Gen- eral Harrison. Their period of service was six months.
There is information of a company in service, under command of Captain Isaac Meredith, raised in the north- western part of the county.
Captain Tanner is reported to have taken a company from the southern part of the county, and mention is also made of Captain Beard's company.
By the kindness of Matthew Johnston, Esq., the muster- roll of Captain Adam Johnston's company is here given.
MUSTER-ROLL OF CAPTAIN ADAM JOHNSON'S COMPANY OF RIFLEMEN,
Detailed for the protection of "the Mansfield frontier," under command of Colonel Charles Williams, by order of Return J. Meigs, Governor of Ohio :
Adam Johnston, captain ; William Morrison, lieutenant;
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Abraham Miller, ensign; Thomas Foster, first sergeant; John M. Miller, second sergeant ; Frederick Markley, third sergeant ; Robert Culbertson, fourth sergeant; John H. Miller, first corporal; Zebedee Baker, second corporal ; John M. Bantham, third corporal ; John D. Moore, fourth corporal.
Privates-Samuel Morrison, Edward Miller, Isaac M. Miller, Michael Miller, Isaac Hoagland, George Arnold, James Bucklew, John Baker, Matthew Bonar, Joseph Neff, Allen Moore, Benj. Workman, James Winders, John Me- Kean, Windle Miller, John G. Miller, Isaac G. Miller, George Mccullough, Daniel Miller, Joseph McFarland, Andrew Lybarger, Henry Carr, Matthew Williams, John Steer- man-24.
It will be observed that this force was a volunteer rifle company. The men, as they went out, wore new yellow hunting-shirts, trimmed with white fringe, and each carried his own trusty rifle and tomahawk and scalping-knife. The company was summoned to the field under the impulse given by the account of the massacre of the Copeland fam- ily, near Mansfield, by some Indians. It was mustered into service August 25, 1812, and mustered out September 25th of the same year.
Colonel Charles Williams went along with the force in the capacity of scout and general adviser, and in expectation of taking charge of a regiment, if occasion might offer or ne- cessity require.
Thomas L. Rue was with the force as sutler, and Dr. S. Lee was the mustering-in surgeon.
One of the sentinels of the company shot a cow, mistaking it in the dark for an Indian. An Indian, supposed to be a scout, was discovered behind a tree and killed and scalped, the scalp being an adornment of one of the riflemen for years afterward.
In addition to those whose names appear in the foregoing list the following are reported as having rendered service in the war of 1812: Peter Moore, Charles Miller, John G. Pigman, Thomas Johnson, Richard Johnson, Andrew Me- Clain, Samuel Elson, Francis Smith, W. R. Clark, James
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Williams, Levi Magness, George Magness, Richard Fowler, Rezin Baker, Richard Hawk, Isaac Shambaugh, James Oglesby, James Wiley, Elijah Neweum, James Butler, Robert Corbit, Thomas Butler, Joseph Soverns, and Isaac Meredith.
Some of the saltpeter used for making powder for the war of 1812 was collected a few miles south of Roscoe. The " caves " formed by projecting rocks had in the decom- posed stone on their floors a great deal of nitrate of lime, which, being leached with wood-ashes and exposed to the air and sun, gave nitrate of potash, a high-priced material in those war times, wherewith to make powder.
MEXICAN WAR.
On the first call for troops for the Mexican war, more than a hundred citizens of Coshocton county sprang to arms, although the whole State of Ohio was asked to fur- nish only some 2,400.
On the 5th of June these embarked on a canal-boat at Roscoe, destined for the "Halls of the Montezumas." Upon reaching Camp Washington, near Cincinnati, a full company was mustered into the service, and became part of the Third Ohio regiment.
A considerable number of the Coshocton boys went into what was commonly spoken of as the Union company, made up of soldiers from Muskingum, Morgan, and Cosh- octon counties.
The full Coshocton company was officered as follows : Captain, Jesse H. Meredith ; First Lieutenant, J. M. Love ; Second Lieutenant, S. B. Crowley ; Third Lieutenant, Jos. D. Workman. Seven of this company were lost by the casualties of war. This force was under General Taylor, but was not in any considerable battle.
There was also a considerable number of Coshocton county boys in Captain Hart's (afterward Captain Irvine's) company, which became part of the Fourth Ohio regiment. This was raised under the call for troops in 1847. The term of service of the first forces was one year, and they
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met at Cincinnati the second lot of soldiers .* The latter were in several of the sharpest engagements of the war, being with General Scott.
It is reported that there are now in the county only seven Mexican war survivors, the rest having died or removed. Joseph Sawyer sports the medal of the Veteran Associa- tion, a handsome bronze shield, made out of cannon cap- tured in the war.
THE WAR OF 1861-5.
The people of Coshocton county, as those of all other localities, were watching with intensest interest the occur- rences of the winter of 1860-61. Whatever the personal sympathies, political attachments, or peaceful proclivities, none were indifferent. When Lincoln, in the latter part of February, passed through the town of Coshocton on his way to the national capital, he was greeted by an im- mense throng of anxious citizens. The news of the fall of Sumter caused hereabouts as elsewhere a thrill that passed and repassed along the nerves of the people. Many of the settlers had come from south of Mason and Dixon's line, and had tender recollections of their old homes and the people therein. But the war spirit was not wanting, even among these, and as promptly as in any county the masses of the people were up in arms. Under the first call of the presi- dent, two companies of men were enlisted for three months' service. One of them was commanded by Captain James Irvine,t and the other by Captain R. W. McLain. They were mustered into the Sixteenth Ohio Regiment, of which Irvine became colonel, John D. Nicholas taking command
* Charles McCloskey, of Coshocton (now of Steubenville), at the time of the Mexican war, was a soldier in the regular army, and one of the storming party or " forlorn hope" at the capture of the City of Mexico, when he was terribly wounded, and for a long time near to death. Upon his return to Coshocton, after his recovery, a salute was fired by some of his old comrades, and, by the premature discharge of the cannon, Joseph Sawyer and John Richards lost each an arm, car. ried away by the rammer.
+ R. M. Voorhees, Esq., lays claim to having been the first man to put his name on paper in the recruiting of this company. It is said that N. R. Tidball claims the same distinction.
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of the company. The regiment, as will be remembered, was sent to Western Virginia, and smelled a little powder at Philipi. These forces were sworn in for three months' service, and rendered it. Before this time was up, how- ever, it became manifest that the suppression of the rebel- lion was to be no ninety days' job. Promptly, Josiah Given, Esq., who had seen service in the Mexican War, set about raising another company for three years' service, under the second call of the president, and in a little time another hundred of the youth and strength of Coshocton county were mustered in, and became part of the Twenty- fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. There soon fol- lowed another hundred, entering the Thirty-second Regi- ment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with Captain Stanley, First Lieutenant C. C. Nichols, and Second Lieutenant Geo. Jack. Then, indeed, were the piping times of war. At every cross-road was a recruiting station. Within a few months, nearly a thousand men were recruited. The most of these were mustered into the Fifty-first and Eightieth Reg- iments Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which rendezvoused at Camp Meigs, near Canal Dover. In the Fifty-first were Companies D, F, H, and I, commanded respectively by Captains John G. Patton, D. W. Marshall, John D. Nich- olas, and James Crooks, and about one-half of Company C, commanded by Captain Hesket, was also made up of Cos- hocton boys. Of this regiment R. W. McLain was made lieutenant-colonel, and D. W. Marshall, adjutant, both of Cos- hocton county. In the Eightieth Regiment there were three companies and a considerable part of a fourth. The com- missioned officers of the three companies were as follows : Company F, Captain Pren Metham; First Lieutenant James Carnes ; Second Lieutenant F. H. Farmer : Company G, Captain Wm. Marshall ; First Lieutenant Peter Hack ; Second Lieutenant John Kors : Company H, Captain G. W. Pepper ; First Lieutenant John Kinney ; Second Lieu- tenant J. W. Doyle. The major of this regiment was Richard Lanning .*
* He was killed at the battle of Corinth, Miss., October 4, 1862. He was connected with one of the old families of the county ; was a
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While the Fifty-first and Eightieth were being collected, J. V. Heslip raised a considerable squad in this county, for the Sixty-ninth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and R. W. Burt, formerly a resident of the county, came up from Newark and enlisted a few Coshocton boys for a regiment being raised in Licking county. In the summer and fall of 1862, four companies were raised for the Ninety-seventh and One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiments Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry. Of one of those in the Ninety-seventh, E. Shaffer was captain, Martin Weiser first lieutenant, and G. W. Smailes second lieutenant. Of the other, C. C. Nich- ols was captain; N. McLain first lieutenant, and C. H. Matthews second lieutenant.
Of those in the One Hundred and Twenty-second, B. F. Sells and Dr. O. C. Farquhar were captains, Joseph Work and G. H. Barger first lieutenants, and James M. Sells and - - Anderson second lieutenants. About the time these companies were being raised, Colonel James Irvine, com- missioned to raise a regiment of cavalry, secured some fifty men in Coshocton county, who were mustered in the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. In the summer of 1863, a draft was ordered. The enrollment reported, in August of that year, three thousand and nine persons in the county subject to military duty. Of these some eight hundred were of the second class (between thirty-five and forty-five years of age, and not subject to duty until the first class, from twenty- five to thirty-five, was exhausted). On the day fixed for examination of claims for exemption, there was a pretty good mass-meeting in the public square in Coshocton. Many claims were justly made and allowed. The horrors of the draft were largely diminished as the whole process was better understood. The results of it in securing sol- diers in Coshocton county are not readily accessible ; but it is believed that they were not widely different from those in the country at large, as follows : On the 19th of October, 1863, the provost-marshal general reported that of every
farmer in earlier years; afterward studied law, and was prosecuting attorney of the county when commissioned. He was about fifty years of age. His body was sent home, and lies in the Coshocton Cemetery.
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one hundred and fifty men drafted, thirty never reported, being thoroughly disinclined to the service or confident of their legal right to exemption. Of the one hundred and twenty reporting, seventy-two were excused. Of the forty- eight held for service, twenty-four paid the commutation, sixteen furnished substitutes, and the balance, being eight, went to the field. In an effort to arrest drafted men in Crawford township, three men were shot. A few of the citizens of Coshocton county, excited by stories of personal outrage and official mismanagement, gathered their old shot-guns, and repaired to Napoleon, Holmes county, whence fearful accounts of resistance to the draft were soon sent out; but no Coshocton county blood was there spilled.
An incident of the Napoleon excitement was the march of a detachment of bronzed soldiers, in charge of a small gun, which had been sent by the governor to Napoleon, down the Walhonding valley to Coshocton, where they took the cars for Camp Chase.
During the Morgan raid excitement Coshocton became the depository of the treasures of the banks of Cadiz, which were brought hither and put in the vault of Joseph K. Johnson & Co.'s bank. Morgan, on his way to Columbus, after his capture, spent a few minutes in Coshocton.
The men drafted or going as substitutes were allowed the privilege of going into companies and regiments in which their friends and associates were, and the ranks of some of these were thus increased. The generous provision made by the township for the relief of the families of those in the service, and the bounties offered, bore their fruits in the enlistment of many scores of men in the sum- mer and fall of 1863; and, while no new organizations were formed, several hundred men went during that season out of Coshocton county into the military service.
In the fall of 1863, some seven volunteer military com- panies were, by state authority, organized and drilled un- der the name of Ohio National Guards. On the 25th of April, 1864, these were ordered by the governor to take the . field. They rendezvoused at the fair-ground in Coshocton,
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and after a few days proceeded to Columbus. After inspec- tion, some five hundred men were selected out of the nearly seven hundred men, and two companies were placed in the One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment, and three in the One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment. The companies in the One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment had the following commissioned officers : Captains L. B. Wolf and Caleb Wheeler ; First Lieutenants John Weatherwax and D. L. Lawson ; Second Lieutenants B. F. Leighninger and On the staff of the regiment was A. H. Fritchey, quartermaster. Of the One Hundred and Forty- third Regiment, John D. Nicholas was lieutenant-colonel. The commissioned officers of the companies were as follows : Captains N. R. Tidball, Jno. L. Dougherty, and Jas. Ririe ; First Lieutenants D. F. Denman, A. J. Stover, and James Crawford ; Second Lieutenants John Willis, D. Rose, and Nat. Elliott. They were mustered into the United States service, May 13, 1864, and mustered out September 13th, of the same year,
A few men were secured in Coshocton for the gun-boat service. Dr. S. H. Lee and Dr. A. G. Brown, of Coshoc- ton, and Dr. Edwards, of West Carlisle, represented Cosh- octon in the medical department, and Rev. G. W. Pepper, of the Methodist Episcopal church at Keene, was chaplain, as well as captain of a company. And there was no arm of the service that did not find some of its strength in the warm hearts and brawny arms of Coshocton county boys .*
It is not in the plan of this work to trace the career of those entering the military service after leaving the county. They were absorbed in the larger bodies of which they became part, and the record of these is in the general his- tory of the war. They were given by the county to this service, and most of them proved worthy representatives of it. It is estimated that in all there entered the service
* Major-General William Burns, of the regular United States army, and Lieutenant Poe, of the United States navy, were born and bred in Coshocton county.
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nearly twenty-five hundred men, and of these between three and four hundred fell by the casualties of war. There is not a graveyard in Coshocton county but holds the ashes of some of them, and scores of them rest in " the south-land."*
To promote enlistments and serve as counselors in rela- tion to all military matters, the following persons acted, by appointment of the governor, as a military committee for Coshocton county : A. L. Cass, Houston Hay, Seth Mc- Lain, J. D. Nicholas, and D. Rodahaver. Soldiers' aid so- cieties were formed in almost every school district, gather- ing up comforts and delicacies for the camps and hospitals in which were the " boys." Rev. A. McCartney, of Keene township, and Joseph Elliott and Rev. C. W. Wallace, of Coshocton, visited the " Army of the Cumberland " as dele- gates of the United States Christian Commission.
* In the Coshocton Cemetery is buried a young Confederate soldier, who died in the cars when near Coshocton while being transported as a prisoner of war.
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Bible Society, S. S. Association, etc.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BIBLE SOCIETY-S. S. ASSOCIATION-TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTS-SECRET ORDERS.
THE Coshocton County Bible Society was organized in April, 1830. It has distributed by sale and gift some six thousand dollars' worth of Bibles and Testaments in the county, and paid over to the American Bible Society for its benevolent work in the home and foreign field some twelve hundred dollars.
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION.
Some ten years ago, a county sunday-school association was formed, but after a brief period became extinct. W. H. Robinson was Pres .; Dr. E. Sapp, V. P .; J. Glover, Treas. ; J. R. Johnson, Cor. Sec .; W. J. Moffit, Rec. Sec. In the summer of 1876, a new association was organized. Pres., Joseph Frew ; Sec., L. Disney; Treas., J. G. Magaw.
TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTS.
The various temperance movements of the country at large have always been to greater or less extent engaged in by the people of Coshocton county. And in few regions has there been either more need for the work or more faith- fulness in it. Records which, if given in detail and in such way as to make the account one of personal and local in- terest, would perpetuate family shame and mortify personal and local pride, tell in general that Coshocton county has contributed its full quota of victims to " the monster evil."
From the days of the Washingtonians, on through Sons of Temperance, Cadets of Temperance, Good Templars, Women's Leagues, there have always been those to " lift up the standard against the enemy." The records of many of these organizations and societies are not now to be had, and it is not deemed best to make herein transfers from them, at best only partial.
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The following facts may be noticed :
In early days, every shop, tavern, and trading-place sold whisky. In 1820, there were not less than thirteen such places in Coshocton county, then including the lower half of Holmes county, and having a population of 7,086.
In 1849 there were seven persons licensed, and some thirty indicted for selling without license.
In 1876, with a population of some 23,000, there are in the county forty-five drug-stores, saloons, etc., paying tax to the United States government on sales of liquor.
In 1856, there were two very large distilleries in Coshoc- ton county ; in 1876, none.
The first " raising " reported to have been conducted with- out liquors was that of John Shannon's barn, in Keene township, in 1834.
Lodges of Good Templars are at this date reported in West Bedford, Mohawk Village, and Coshocton; and Wo- men's Leagues in Warsaw, Jacobsport, and Coshocton.
Among the more noticeable movements, we mention two, partly because the record of these was more distinctly made and can now be readily traced.
In the month of March, 1870, in the village of Coshoc- ton, a meeting was called (and held in the Frame Presby- terian Church) to devise, if possible, some more efficient measures looking to the removal of the evils of intemper- ance from our community. After some discussion, it was resolved to put in the field, at the approaching spring elec- tion, a ticket pledged to pass and enforce the " McConnells- ville Ordinance," as it was commonly called, or some other of similar sort. Each of the great parties had al- ready presented its ticket. In due time, after a brief but vigorous campaign, the following " Citizens' Ticket" was elected : Mayor, Hiram Beall ; Clerk, H. O. Smith; Treas- urer, G. F. Cassingham; Marshal, John Taylor; Council- men, F. E. Barney, W. S. Tidball, Wm. E. Hunt, Geo. Ross, J. S. Williams, and Josiah Glover .* The average
* Thomas Campbell was appointed corporation attorney, and Nicho- las Tidball street commissioner.
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vote for the gentlemen on this ticket was one hundred and forty-three; the total number of votes cast in the corporation that year being three hundred and fifty.
The ordinance having been passed, and vigor displayed as to the enforcement of all temperance laws, four saloons were closed entirely, and the others put under much re- straint. But eminent legal · ability soon discovered weak places, and the delinquents always got the benefit of them, and of doubts. The tax-payers grew restive under the ex- penses of trials, etc., and public sentiment, never really as to majority, but only by plurality, on the side of this move- ment, failed to support the movement, and in due course put into the controlling municipal places those who, while preserving the form of the ordinance, had no sympathy with its spirit.
The recent famous " Crusade," or "Prayer Work," or " Women's Whisky War," as variously termed by the jour- nals of the day, may be said to have been commenced in Coshocton, February 15, 1874.
On the evening of that day (Sabbath) a mass meeting of " the friends of temperance " in the village of Coshocton was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to consider the new movement, and the propriety of inaugurating it here. The meeting was presided over by the mayor, and addressed by a number of speakers, the general drift of whose remarks was in favor of " the movement" already sweeping up from the southwestern part of the state, and immensely " written up " in the papers.
On the 21st of February (Saturday), " the visiting band " of women, led by the venerable Mrs. D. Spangler (after fre- quent conferences among themselves, and direct or indirect conference with those who professed that " the secret of the Lord was with them ;" and who, " knew that the Lord was in this movement," and that all the pains and toils would be light when the success was achieved), began their visi- tation of the saloons. The day was exceedingly stormy ; efforts were confined to pleading with those in the business
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to give it up. After some days, the prayer exercises were entered upon. Usually the ladies were allowed to come into the premises, the proprietor often, however, being out at the time. But at length the exercises were conducted upon the pavement, often in the chill March winds and amid the rain and snow. Meanwhile public meetings were held every evening, at which addresses were made by popular speakers more or less in sympathy with the work, and rela- tions of the experience of reformed drinkers and reports of the women's work were given in. At these great crowds were present, filling the largest rooms available-the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, Central Hall, the Presbyterian Church, and the Opera House. Morning prayer meetings of large proportions also were held. Pledges were circula- ted ; the newspapers and the lawyers were completely en- listed to put no hindrance in the way, but rather to help " the women," with whom, in their sorrows and general purposes, there was as yet almost universal sympathy, what- ever might be thought of some of the methods. Still, no " surrenders " were made, and it was evident, possibly with a view to what followed, that larger sales than ever were being made, especially by a drug store or two, whence flasks were being largely carried out, which probably came into play when the saloons were more closely guarded, or even practically closed.
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