USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 25
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brought at an early date to Chillicothe. The following facts in regard to it are from a correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette :
Cattle raising was an industry of great importance in Ohio prior to 1850. The remoteness of the settlements from markets in the carly days of the century made the price of grain so low that the most profitable disposition that could be made of it was to feed it to cattle. So, on the rich bottom lands of the Scioto, the business of raising cattle for the Eastern markets commenced nearly eighty-five years ago.
In the early days cattle were not sheltered, but were kept in open lots of eight or ten acres each, and fed twice a day with unhusked corn and the fodder. The waste was picked up by hogs. This practice, introduced in Ross county, is still in vogue throughout much of the West. The method of securing corn after maturity by cutting off the stalks near the ground and stacking them in shocks in the field where it was grown, also originated with the raisers of cattle in the Scioto valley.
The first English cattle that came to Ohio or to the West were from Patton's herd, and were driven from Kentucky to Chillicothe.
In 1804 the first herd of cattle ever taken to au Eastern market was driven over the mountains to Baltimore by George Renick, of Ross county. The business thus commenced soon grew to large proportions. The old Ohio drovers who visited New York stayed as a rule at the Bull's Head Tavern, which was kept by Daniel Drew, and stands on the site of the Bowery Theatre.
The man who gave standing and system to the raising of stock was FELIX RENICK. He was in many ways a remarkable man, and he filled a great many positions of usefulness and responsibility. The family is of German origin. Felix Renick was born in 1771, and first came to Ross county in 1798. He was a fluent and instructive writer, a man fond of books, and was President of the Logan His- torical Association, and one of the first As- sociate Judges of Ross county ; and to his other accomplishments added a knowledge of surveying. He made the historical map of the Indian towns on the Pickaway plains shown in Pickaway county in this work.
The first regular stock sale in Ohio was held October 26. 1835, at Felix Renick's farm. In 1834 Mr. Renick, after much labor, organ-
ized the Ohio Company for the purpose of bringing thoroughbred cattle from England.
The stock of the company proved to be ex- cellent property. Ile, in company with two others, went to England in 1834 and pur- chased a number of thoroughbred cattle.
Ilis home at High Rock farm, in Liberty township, at an early day, was the scene of many a festivity. Dinner parties, dances and fox hunts were of frequent occurrence. His favorite anthors were Shakspeare and Addi- son, from whom he quoted not infrequently.
He was killed in 1848 by a falling timber, and his death was widely and heartily la- mented.
Mr. Reniek was slender, of medinm height, low-voiced, gentle in manner, but with great energy and determined will.
The Madeira Hotel, in its palmy days, was one of the most famous hotels in the West, and exceeding rich in its historic associations. It was two stories in height, but covered a large space of ground; was on the corner of Paint and Second streets, and was destroyed in the great fire of 1852.
The original building was a residence. About the year 1816 the Branch Bank of the United States was first located in a portion of it. The property eventually fell into the hands of Col. Johin Madeira, who in 1832 enlarged it, and made it famous. Chillicothe at that time was on the regular line of travel between the East and Southwest. It gained a national reputation and numbered among its guests some of the most distinguished men of the time, as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Wm. H. Harrison, De Witt Clinton, Lafayette, and the Mexican gen- eral, Santa Anna, on his way to Washington after his capture.
"Mine host" Col. JOHN MADEIRA, a man of splendid physique and great business capacity, was born in Woodstock, Culpeper county, Va., April 14, 1798. When fourteen years of age he came to Ohio with his father,
and before he was twenty-one kept a hotel in Chillicothe. He was a leading spirit in the development of the city and county ; country turnpikes, the Ohio canal, railroads, banking and education received the benefit of his ser-
-
GENERAL NATHANIEL MASSIE.
FOUNDER OF CHILLICOTHE.
THE CHILLICOTHE ELM.
187- 198
ROSS COUNTY.
189
vices. He married a daughter of Felix Ren- ick, and died in 1873.
Judge FREDERICK GRIMKE was the most noted of the characters that for years made the Madeira House their home. He was born in Charleston, S. C., Sept. 1, 1791, of Huguenot stock. Ilis father was a jurist of eminence, an officer of the Revolution, and a member of the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. His brother, Thomas Smith, was a reformer, with advanced ideas upon temperance, non-resistance, and educa- tion : he was much respected and beloved. His two sisters were driven from South Caro- lina on account of their Abolition views. One of them, Angelica, went to Cincinnati during the anti-slavery trouble at Walnut Hills, and soon married the brilliant Aboli- tion lecturer, Theodore D. Weld. The judge was educated at Yale, came to Ohio in 1818,
and from 1836-42 was a Judge of the State Supreme Court, and then resigned, to devote himself to philosophical studies. He pub- lished an "Essay on Ancient and Modern Literature, " and a work on the " Nature and Tendeneies of Free Constitutions." When he died the nation was in the midst of the civil war, and, believing the Confederacy would be established, he left directions that one copy of his work should be deposited with the Government at Washington, and a second copy with the Confederate Govern- ment at Richmond. He was a slender, deli- cate man, neatly attired, and, with the often shy habits of scholars, made scarcely any ac- quaintances. He never married, and, what was sad, when he was buried, and from the Madeira House, not a woman followed his remains to their last resting-place.
THE CHILLICOTHE ELM.
In the rear of the parsonage of the Walnut Street M. E. Church in Chillicothe, stands an ancient elm of huge dimensions. By my measurement I found its girth, one foot above its base, to be 28 feet 6 inches, and three above its base, 22 feet 7 inches. Learning that Dr. W. F. Hughey, of Bainbridge, years ago lived in the parsonage and knew more of its history than any one living, I wrote for and obtained these details under date of April 9, 1886. "I was sent to Chillicothe in the autumn of 1871, as pastor of the Walnut Street M. E. Church. Soon after I took a measurement of the 'Big Elm' one foot above the ground and found it 27 feet 8 inches. I also took two measurements of the spread of its top; one from north to south and the other from east to west. The first was 140 feet, the second 135 feet ; covering an area of about 55 square rods."
"It is a historic tree, under which tradition says Logan, the Mingo Chief, generally held his council. I was informed by Dr. MeAdow, a local preacher of the M. P. Church, since dead, that the early settlers of Chillicothe found the remains of human bones among the coals and ashes beneath the tree, when they first came to the place. I credit this report, for he was the oldest native-born Chillicothean living at the time he told me.
I cannot remember the names of the par- ties who were married in the shade of the ehn, nor the minister who married them. I did not have a study in the " Big Elm," but my boys and those of Mr. D. Pinto, Mr. W. Recd and Dr. S. Dunlap built a platform up in the tree in the summer of 1872, large enough for half a dozen chairs, where they used to study during the hot summer days. I sometimes took my books up there during the afternoons, in order to enjoy the breeze which could not be felt in the yard below. This platform was reached by two ladders, one from the ground to the forks of the tree, and the other from there to a door in the platform."
This must be the largest elm in girth in Ohio. Some years ago I investigated the subject of the more famous New England elms, and obtained data of their age and size and could not learn of one known to have ex-
ceeded two centuries. The Chillicothe elm is on a moist spot of ground, and I am told is " the white or swamp elm, which in exceed- ingly tough, almost impossible to split," and perhaps far slower in growth than other kinds. Among the New England elms the famous ehn is on Boston Common, said to have been planted about the year 1670, by Capt. Daniel Ilenehman. On a map of Boston published in 1720, it is shown as a large tree. It is now gone, but in 1844, five feet from the ground its girth was 16 feet. In 1837, Oliver Wendell Holmes measured the Northampton elm five feet from the ground and made it 24 feet 5 inches in cir- cumferenee. In 1846, Ralph Waldo Emer- son and Horace Mann measured the Johnston elm, which at the smallest place was 22 feet, and threw up a prodigious weight of branches, twelve in number and each equal to a tree.
The Cambridge elm, under which Whit- field preached and under which Washington is said to have first drawn his sword on taking command of his army, is still standing. It is less in girth and must be about 200 years old. Not one of the famous New Haven elms has yet reached 16 feet in girth by my measurement, and the oldest is only about a century from its planting.
The living giant of the New England ehns is the great elm in Broad street,
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ROSS COUNTY.
Wethersfield. James T. Smith, before whose house it stands, under date October 10, 1883, sent to me its then dimensions, "Girth at 3 feet 3 inches above the ground, 22 feet 5 inches ; girth of its four branches, 16 ft. 8 in. ; 11 ft. 6 in .; 10 ft. 3 in .; 8 ft. 7 in. Diameter of spread of branches north to south, 150 feet, and east to west 152 feet. Circumfer- ence of branches 429 feet. It is about 135 years old and was set out by John Smith of Withersfield. I measured it and found it 96 feet in height. A limb had been broken out in the middle that was several feet higher. Yours truly, James T. Smith."
A Stable in a Hollow Tree-Dr. Toland Jones, of London, writes to me, that when he was a lad he heard his father statc "that just after the war of 1812, a friend of his, named Timmons, I think, used the hol- low stump of a sycamore as a stable for two horses. It was near the mouth of Deer creek in Ross county. He had cut down the tree some ten feet."
Monster Grape Vine .- Up to about the year 1853, when it was cut down by a care- less woodman, there stood about one and a quarter miles west of Frank fort, on land be- longing to the MeNeil family, near the north fork of Paint creek, one of the largest, if not the largest grape vine on record. It was de- stroyed by cutting down two trees to which it was attached. In 1842 it measured 16 feet in circumference, 10 feet from the ground ; 20 feet up it divided into three branches, each of about 8 feet in girth. The height was about 75 feet and the greatest breadth, 150 feet, by actual measurement. The grapes were the small hill variety, and yielded annually several bushels. It was growing very rapidly when destroyed: it then yielded by estimate about 8 cords of wood. These data are on the authority of Rev. L. C, Brooks of West Rushville, Fair- field county.
STATE SEAL.
I
F THE
EA
ST
S
GREA
TEOF
TH
(1802)
" In the acts of the first session of the first General Assembly, held under the first constitution of Ohio, in 1803, which were printed by Nathaniel Willis, grandfather of the poet, a description of the State Seal is found in a law pre- seribing the duties of the Secretary of State, who was, at that time, William Creighton. The act says : 'The Secretary of State shall procure a seal, one inch and a half in diameter, for the use of each and every county now or hereafter to be created, on which seal shall be engraved the following device : On the right side, near the bottom, a sheaf of wheat and on the left a bundle of seventeen arrows, both standing erect in the background, and rising above the sheaf and arrows a mountain, over which shall appear a rising sun. The State seal to be surrounded by these words : The great seal of the State of Ohio.'"
The seal was then made. The picture of the seal as it was used by the State in 1846 and as it appeared in our first edition is shown above. The canal boat could not have been on the seal as originally made ; but the date 1802 undoubt- edly was.
The date 1802 was that on which the peo- ple formed and adopted a State Constitution, and they thought they had put on the robes
of sisterhood. The sister States in Congress assembled did not learn of this officially until early the next year, when they gave it their
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ROSS COUNTY.
official recognition. On this ground a scholarly claim was put forth a few years since, that Ohio was not a State by the date of a year, when she thought she was. Sun- dry aged persons for the first time were told they were born in the Northwest Territory. It was a very disturbing, unhappy element : it was discussed by the Ohio Society of New York an entire winter and finally exhausted by about a tie opinion, deciding nothing. No date now appears on the State seal : gone also is the canal boat, perhaps it was scuttled by some designing enemy of the canals. Gone also is the water. Not a drop any- where for navigation, nor for thirst, but the mountains are still there; the morning sun still peeps over the land, and under its pres-
ent light the children for the first time read in their school histories, that Ohio was not a State of the Union until 1803. According to this, what a delusion their fathers lived under.
It is claimed that the mountains on the seal were copied from the Mount Logan range. This range is shown on our view of Chillicothe, with which the reader can com- pare and correctly decide.
According to tradition Logan had a cabin on Mount Logan and was murdered there ; but this last statement-as to the place of his death-is rendered extremely doubtful by the evidence from Henry Brisch (see Pick- away and Seneca Counties).
BIOGRAPHY.
ALLEN G. THURMAN's carly days were spent in Chillicothe, his parents set- tling there six years after his birth, in Lynchburg, Va.
We have given an outline of Judge Thurman's career in our Franklin county chapter, but some allusion to his early life is here in place. His father was an itinerant Methodist minister, who had to give up preaching on account of poor health. In 1825 he built the house on the north side of Main street, still stand- ing, in which Allen spent his younger days. Judge Thurman's mother was a re- markable woman, with many fine qualities of both intellect and heart. Upon her devolved the training of two of Ohio's statesmen, her brother, Gov. Willian Allen, and her son Allen G. She had received a liberal edneation, was of studious habits and well fitted to perform the task which fell to her lot. It is said that her son resembles her in personal appearance and qualities ; he has borne testimony to the value of her instructions in saying, that " I owe more to my mother than to any other instructor in the world."
Judge Alfred Yaple has given the following instructive account of Judge Thurman's youth.
"Hle was then a small boy with what poets in pantaloons would denominate flaxen hair, and versifiers in crinoline golden locks, but what Governor Allen and common peo- ple call a towhead. Ilis mother was drilling him in his French lessons. She continued to superintend his education, directing his read- ing of authors even after he left the old . Chillicothe Academy, a private institution, and the highest and only one he ever at- tended until his admission to the bar. While attending this academy Thurman's elass- mates and intimates were sent away to col- lege. He could not go, for not only did his parents find themselves without the means to send him, but even required his exertions for their own support and the support of his sisters, a duty which he cheerfully and efficiently rendered, remaining single and at home for more than nine years after his ad- mission to the bar, giving a large part of his earnings toward the support of his parents and sisters.
The day his school companions mounted the stage and went away to college he was seized with temporary despair. Siek at heart he sought the old Presbyterian bury- ing-ground, and lay down upon a flat tomb
and wept. The thought that his tears were vain and idle came to him with force. He told his sorrows to a friend who chanced to be wandering among the graves, and closed his recital with the significant remark, "If my school-fellows come home and have learned more than I have, they must work for it."
"Old citizens still remember that a light, during this time, was often seen in young Thurman's room until four o'clock in the morning. He would never quit anything- until he had mastered it and made it his own. This particular trait he has possessed ever since.
In the acquisition of solid learning his academy fellows never got in advance of him, and he kept studying long after they had graduated. He taught school, studied and practised surveying, prepared himself for and · was admitted to the bar in 1835, and prac- tised his profession until he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1851.
WILLIAM ALLEN was born in Edentou, N. C., in 1807. His parents dying during his infancy, his sister, the mother of Allen G. Thurman, took charge of his rearing and education. In 1821 Mrs. Thurman removed
工
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ROSS COUNTY.
to Chillicothe, leaving her brother in an academy at Lynchburg, Va. Two years later he followed her and completed his education in Chillicothe. He commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Scott, and com- pleted it with Col. Edward King, with whom he was associated in a partnership after his admission to practice, when not yet 21 years of age. He was tall and impressive in ap- pearanee, with a powerful voice so penetra- ting that he was given the soubriquet of "Ohio gong." In 1832 he was elected to Congress by the Democrats by a majority of one. He was the youngest man in the Twenty-third Congress, but was recognized as a leading orator and made a strong im- pression in a speech on the Olio boundary- line question.
In August, 1837, he made a strong speech at a banquet in Columbus, which unexpect- edly led to his nomination to the Senate, to succeed Hon. Thomas Ewing. Before the close of his first term he was re-elected to the Senate.
In 1845 he married Mrs. Effie McArthur Coons, a daughter of ex-Gov. MeArthur, notwithstanding a strong personal dislike to the senator on the part of MeArthur. Mrs. Allen inherited from her father the old home- stead, "Fruit Hill." Governor and Mrs. Allen had but one child, Mrs. Seott.
In August, 1873, Senator Allen was elected Governor of Ohio, being the only candidate on his ticket not defeated. In 1875 he was renominated by the Democrats, but was de- feated on the "greenback " issue by R. B. Ilayes.
Gov. Allen died at Fruit Hill in 1879. Ile was said to have originated the political catch-word of 1844, "Fifty-four forty or fight," referring to the Oregon boundary question.
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An interesting anecdote is told of Gov. Allen by Mr. F. B. Loomis in the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette: "An old friend of Gov. Allen has just told me an anecdote which is worth repeating. The Governor was very . fond of his residence, Fruit Hill, and had caused a very spacious covered veranda to be built around it in order that he might have a sheltered place for walking when he chose to take it in that way. This veranda was uncommonly wide and often attracted atten- tion by reason of its great dimensions. One morning a Yankee book agent trndged out to Fruit Hill to sell a copy of some subserip- tion book of little value to the old Governor. The agent was not greeted very cordially, as Mr. Allen was not in the best of spirits, and as he turned to depart without having made a sale, he remarked : 'Governor, it appears to me you've got a mighty sight of shed- room around this house.' The allusion to the porches touched the old man's fancy, and he called the dejected agent back, purchased a book and invited him to dine with him,"
Among the interesting relies in Chillicothe is a large, fine, one-story, stneco house, cov- ering much ground, on the southeast corner of Water and High streets. The builder and
owner was WILLIAM CREIGHTON, JR., the first Secretary of State Ohio ever had, and who was twice a member of Congress. He came to Chillicothe from Virginia in 1799, and practised law here fifty years. He was large in person, clear-headed, social, a great admirer of Henry Clay, and with a boyish humor that sometimes found vent in practical jokes.
THOMAS SCOTT was born October 31, 1772, at Old Town, or Skipton, Va., at the junction of the North and South branches of the Po- tomae river. When 17 years of age he was licensed by Bishop Asbury to preach in the Methodist church. He learned the tailor's trade ; was married to Catharine Wood in 1796, and while working at his bench she read "Blackstone" to him, and he thus studied law. Early in 1801 he came to Chil- lieothe and commenced the practice of law. In 1802 he was secretary of the Constitutional Convention. He was the first justice of the peace in Ross county ; was clerk of the Ohio Senate from 1804 to 1809, when he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. During his long career he occupied many publie offices, performing his duties with con- scientious, painstaking care, and always find- ing time to act as "supply " in the pulpit of the Methodist church. He had a wide rep- utation for learning and legal ability, and was retained in many important cases, receiving large fees for his services. He died in Feb- ruary, 1856 ; his worthy wife died some two years later.
MICHAEL BALDWIN was contemporary with Creighton, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. Ile was from that strong New Haven (Conn.) family of Baldwins, so prolific and talented in lawyers and judges. One brother was the eminent Judge Henry Baldwin, of the United States Supreme Court. "Mike," as he was commonly called, was a brilliant man of varied attainments, and soon was known throughout the Territory. For a time he did a large legal business, but it was an era when whiskey flowed like water, habits of drinking and gambling were ahnost uni- versal, and he became a confirmed sot. Gil- more, in his sketches of the bar, gives this : "He was a member of the first Constitu- tional Convention, and it is a common tradi- tion that he wrote almost the whole of our first constitution in the bar-room of William Keys' tavern, using a wine keg for his seat and the head of a whiskey barrel for a writ- ing table. If this tale is true, and it is by no means improbable, the instrument that was the fundamental law of this State for about half' a century had a queer origin.
" When the Burr expedition failed, Aaron Barr advised Blemerhassett to retain for their counsel in their trial for high treason, which they both expected, Judge Jacob Bur- net of Cincinnati, and Michael Baldwin, of Chillicothe. The trial did not take place, but Blemerhassett wrote his wife in Deeem- ber, 1807: "I have retained Burnet and Baldwin. The former will be a host with the decent part of the citizens of Ohio, and the
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latter a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he very properly styles his 'blood- hounds. '''
At almost every term of his practice at court would be entered upon the journal, "Ordered that Michacl Baldwin, one of the attorneys of this court, be fined ten dollars for contempt of court, and be committed to jail until the fine be paid." He was Speaker of the House of Representatives for its first three years, 1803-1804 and 1805. Fond of gambling, it is told that he opened a game of "vingt et un" for the benefit of his brother members. Upon one occasion, being banker and broker, he won all their money and most of their watches. When the party broke up it was near morning, and they re- tired to their several rooms, most of them drunk. Used to such a life, Mike was next morning promptly in the speaker's chair ; but there was no quorum. He dispatched the sergeant-at-arms for the absentees, and, after an hour of delay, they filed into the hall and in front of the speaker's chair -- some dozen or more of them half asleep and only partially sobered gamesters of the night before. Thereupon Baldwin rose and with dignified severity reprimanded them for their neglect of duty to their constituents, until one of the culprits, unable any longer to stand his tongue-lashing, broke forth with, "Hold on, now, Mr. Speaker! how the
can we know what the time is when you have got all our watches ? "
In the June term of court, 1804, the tav- ern-keeper, William Keys, sued Baldwin upon an account of £25 13s. 10d. These were mostly put down as "drinks for the club," Mike's treats to the bloodhounds-an organization of the roughs and fighting men, which he had gotten up and controlled, who did the electioneeering and fighting for him, and when he was put in jail for debt more than once broke in the door or tore out an end of that strneture and set him at liberty. Twice his brothers sent on from Connecticut bags of coin to relieve him from debt. , On these occasions, it is said, he hired a negro for porter of the money, and went around in turn to each of his creditors, allowing each one, irrespective of the amount of his ac- count, to have one grab in the open-monthed bag until all was gone. "Poor, brilliant, boisterous, drunken, rollicking Mike" died young. It was about the year 1811 and at about the age of 35 years.
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