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 28
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Manufactures and Employees .- C. W. Tschumy, furniture, 7 ; Blue & Halter, sulky cultivators, 10; Lehir Brothers, agricultural implements, 32; Edgerton & Sheldon, sash, doors and blinds, 18 ; The Clous Shear Co., shears and scissors, 94; The Herbrand Co., gear irons, 12; D. June & Co., engines, etc., 56; Koons Brothers, flour, etc., 4; Van Epps & Cox, flour, etc., 9; McLean R. R. Spike Co., railroad spikes, 75; Thomson-Houston Carbon Co., carbon, 79; Fremont Drop Forge Co., carriage hardware, 20; Fremont Canning Co., canned corn, etc., 85; Fremont Electric Light and Power Co., electric light, 4; A. H. Jackson, bustles and hose, 190 .- State Report, 1888.
Population, 1880, 8,456. School census, 1888, 1,957; W. W. Ross, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $715,800. Valne of annual product, $718,300 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. Census, 1890, 7,140.
Heckewelder, the missionary, in his " History of the Indian Nations," do- seribes a scene he witnessed at the Indian village at this place, near the close of the American Revolution, which is regarded as the best description extant of the or- deal of Running the Gauntlet. He precedes his special description with these remarks :
Much depends on the courage and presence of mind of the prisoner. On enter-
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ing the village, he is shown a painted post at the distance of from twenty to forty yards, and told to run to it and catch hold of it as quickly as he can. On each side of him stand men, women and children, with axes, sticks and other offensive weapons, ready to strike him as he runs, in the same manner as is done in the European armies when soldiers, as it is called, run the gauntlet. If he should be so unlucky as to fall in the way, he will probably be immediately despatched by some person longing to avenge the death of some relation or friend slain in battle ; but the moment he reaches the goal, he is safe and protected from further insult until his fate is determined.
In the month of April, 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at Lower San- dusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a trader to Detroit, I witnessed a scene of this description which fully exemplified what I have above stated. Three American prisoners were brought in by fourteen warriors from the garrison of Fort MeIntosh.
As soon as they had crossed the Sandusky river, to which the village lay adja- cent, they were told by the captain of the party to run as hard as they could to a painted post which was shown to them. .
The youngest of the three, without a moment's hesitation, immediately started for it, and reached it fortunately without receiving a single blow ; the second hesi- tated for a moment, but recollecting himself, he also ran as fast as he could, and likewise reached the post unhurt.
The third, frightened at seeing so many men, women and children with weapons in their hands, ready to strike him, kept begging the captain to spare him, saying he was a mason, and he would build him a fine large stone house, or do any work for him that he would please.
" Run for your life," cried the chief to him, "and don't talk now of building houses !" But the poor fellow still insisted, begging and praying to the captain, who at last finding his exhortations vain, and fearing the consequences, turned his back upon him, and would not hear him any longer.
Our mason now began to run, but received many a hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the ground, which, if he had fallen, would have decided his fate. He, however, reached the goal, not without being sadly bruised, and he was, besides, bitterly reproached and scoffed at all round as a vile coward, while the others were hailed as brave men, and received tokens of universal approbation.
TRAVELLING NOTES. A DAY AT SPIEGEL GROVE.
On my original visit to Fremont, then known as Lower Sandusky, I made the acquaintance of a young man several years younger than myself, which has been lifelong and I feel mutually regardful, Mr. R. B. Hayes, a young attorney then just beginning to practice the law. Associated afterward for years in the Cincin- nati Literary Club, we learned to know each other well, living our lives in the same great current of events and thoughts that have marked this century's march in the ever-broadening, brightening line of humanizing intelligence and action.
Naturally such a visit as mine interested a young man born when Ohio was largely a wilderness, and living on the very spot that had signalized a great vie- tory by its pioneers over British redcoats and their yelling, sealp-hunting, red- skinned confreres. Connecticut, my State, long before had sent ont her sons, largely farmers' sons, to perambulate the "new countries" on trading ventures. That was before the ingress of any of the youthful Isaaes and Jacobs and Abrams of Judea on the same ventures.
Those Connecticut young men each bore, suspended by a wooden yoke from their shoulders, huge square tin-boxes, containing their stock in trade, when they made their way from house to house among " the heathen of the South and West," disposing of their varied notions, such as kerchiefs, laces, finger and ear-rings,
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blue, crimson, and yellow beads, gilt-washed for necklaces; faney-colored silks and blazoning calicoes, printed in what they called thunder-and-lightning colors ; ribbons, tapes, thimbles, silver-washed and shining; hair-combs and brushes ; hair-pins and pins not hair ; needles warranted not at all and needles " warranted not to eut in the eye ;" buckles, buttons and bodkins. And when there was a pressing demand, nutmegs, neatly turned in wood ; hence the expression as of yore applied to Connecticut, " the Nutmeg State." These, when used, must have been as necklaces, after having been drilled and strung for "the heathen " aforesaid. Now and then, too, Connecticut sent out a schoolmaster in advance of a home- grown supply of that useful article. Such, on their arrival in the woodsy wilds, found no lack of material for the enforcement of knowledge at their very founda- tions, according to the precept of the ancient sage, Solomon.
It was true I had come from Connecticut, but it was on another mission the like of which had not there been seen. It had touched the imagination of the young man. In after years he said he felt I was a second Heroditus, travelling the land to gather its history. The feeling might have had its uncomplimentary drawback, inasmuch as the great Heroditus had been charged with having been the most unwholesome, prolifie pater familias known-the "Great Father of Lies." Still, I think not ; for, since the day of publication of "Howe's Ohio," he has always had a copy within easy reach of his writing-desk, and I verily be- lieve in his often reaches he has felt, as he grasped it, that he held Truth herself, mirror and all.
Ere coming to Ohio a second time I was invited by Mr. Hayes to pause at Spiegel Grove before starting over the now largely wood-shorn steel-ribbed land. My arrival was Nov. 21, 1885, at this writing over five years gone.
T'he homestead at Spiegel Grove was built by his uncle, Sardis Birchard, in 1860, to which additions have since been made by Mr. Hayes. The name given by Mr. Birchard is peculiarly adapted to its inhabitants-the "Grove of Good Spirits." It is about half a mile inland from the town in a level coun- try, in the midst of a forest of some thirty aeres. Around the mansion, which is at the rear and approached by a long, winding walk and drive, are some of the noblest of forest trees. The soil is of the richest and some of the trees immense, the growth of centuries, and still vigorous ; others are in decay, with their trunks only standing, yet interest from the clustering leaves of the vines which, planted by loving hands, at their base wind around their scraggly forms, and flutter in the passing wind like youth dancing around hoary old age, and trying to make old bones feel young again.
The mansion is a spot of public interest. To learn how and where the family live of one who has been at the head of this great nation is a wise curiosity. We are marvel- lously alike, sparks from the one great benig- nant source, and our conditions here but mere temporary arrangements, I verily be- lieve, for something higher which, when at- tained, we indeed may feel this truly is life ; the other was "a make believe," but good as far as it went.
On another page is a general view of the home, with a ground-plan showing the inter-
nal arrangements of the lower story. The house is of briek, ceilings of ample height, and the rooms spacious. It is well lighted everywhere; the furniture being largely of oak and other light-hued wood helps to ren- der all within bright and cheery. Not the least attraction is the long spacious veranda, over 80 feet long, where, on summer even- ings, the family and friends were wont to gather for social intercourse ; or, on mornings after breakfast, for the ladies and gentlemen, arm-in-arm, to take a few turns up and down, and then part for the various duties of the day. And the days were filled with them, and largely by Mr. and Mrs. Hayes with mat- ters of public welfare; and so their days were days of cahn and peace.
The chief rooms are the reception-room and the study, which both go under the gen- eral name of the library. In effect they are one room, no door separating, only an arch near the hall-end some 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. The reception-room is a place of elegance ; pictures on the walls ; marble busts, life-size ; portraits of notables on easels ; large, beautifully illustrated works on the tables, with here and there a dainty booklet that is a charm to hold, and whose leaves, as you turn page after page, may sparkle with gems of fancy and the heart. These, as they catch your eye, may lift you ont, as I once heard a broad-brogued pious Scotch Presby- terian pronounce it, " Lift you out of a vain and desateful wurld."
The general's study is in reality the library. All the walls to the ceiling are filled with books. He has some 11,000 under his roof, and half of them are there. As illustrating his intense regard for his country and people some 6,000 of them are upon American
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history and biography. ITis study is his place of work. His desk is at the extreme north and where the light comes, for his writing and reading, over his left shoulder and down from the skylight above, and there is nothing to prevent the spirit of Spiegel Grove from watching and ministering to him in his labors.
My arrival was in the mid forenoon. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hayes were in. The latter was absent in the village but was the first to arrive and with a friendly greeting took me into the study, and was about to drive off a pair of greyhounds that lay stretched on the rug before the blazing grate- fire, thinking they might annoy me, when I begged her not to disturb them in their comt- fort, and she did not, so when an hour later she took' my arm for the dining-room and with the others following, those animals brought up the rear, but where the luxurious creatures went I knew not.
No one could be in the house long without feeling that it was a place where love and cheerfulness reigned supreme. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hayes seemed as an elder brother and sister to their children, and each to the other were only Rutherford and Lucy. Each possessed the same characteristics, a love of the humorous, their minds receptive and looking for the pleasant things that each new-born morning may bring on its bright white wings.
Such natures run to reminiscence and anec- dote. In one instance, when at the social board, Mrs. Hayes arose from her seat at its head and acted out an incident in a sort of pantomime to impress the point of an amus- ing story. Her voice was low and musical, and her flow of good spirits as from an ex- haustless rippling reservoir. One incident she gave to illustrate the reputation at an early date of the lower Scioto Valley for malaria, that when the first railroad trains passed through Chillicothe, the conductors were accustomed to stop and call out to the passengers, "Twenty minutes for quinine."
Mr. Hayes brought to the table one of my books wherein was an extraet from Victor Hugo's " Les Miserables," which led him to say, when they first got hold of that work they were in Virginia idling their time in a winter camp. Not knowing with cer- tainty the pronounciation of its title, some of the officers around termed it " LEE'S MIS- ERABLES. "
He also read from its pages an incident of my personal history, the scene of which oc- eurred when I was a young man, travelling on foot over the State of New York in 1840 for my book on that State. This I repeat here as printed :
" I was footing it with my knapsack on my back over the hills near the headwaters of the Susquehanna when I was overtaken by an elderly grave-visaged man in a grey suit rid- ing on horseback. 'Good morning,' said he, and then in soleinn tones added 'are you a professor, sir ?'
"Thinks I, 'this man sees something un-
common about me, and I rather think his head his level-he probably imagines I am one of the sage Pundits of Yale or Harvard on a scientifie tour of exploration,' and there- upon in pleased tones I replied ' Professor of what, sir?' Judge of my surprise when he answered, 'Professor of religion.'"
At this unexpected finale Mrs. Hayes gave one of her low full-toned merry laughs.
I have said the study was a place of work, it was also a favorite gathering spot on even- ings where the family gathered before the grate to talk down the hours and Mrs. Hayes was ever there joining in with pleasing words and merry laugh. On the evening of my arrival Mr. Hayes varied the entertainment, taking from a basket varied kinds of apples one after another, peeling and quartering each and passing them round to sample and obtain judgment as to their respective qualities. And as the evening progressed we talked our recollections of the old Cincinnati Club, be- fore the war, and of the good times we had when at our monthly socials where we usually closed by some forty or more joining hands all ronud and singing " Auld Lang Syne."
The next morning after breakfast I was standing before the grate cogitating when Mrs. Hayes came in and said; " Mr. Howe, I don't know but what I may be rather hard on you, but I want you to go ont and see my cows ; they are beauties."" So she put on her shawl and rubbers and picked up somewhere an ear of corn. As we stepped out of the hall door into the yard she sent forth a loud. trumpet-like call that went forth like the call of an Alpine shepherdess. Instantly every feathered thing about the place gave an answering ery, and it seemed to me as though they must have numbered hundreds, so strongly did the varied orchestra of mingled sonuds fill the air ; some from far and some from near, almost under our feet. The guinea hens and pea-hens screamed and came run- ning up with their speckled backs, and the pigeons and turkeys sent forth their varied airs and clustering around her followed to the barn while she wrenched the corn from the ear and cast it to the right and left as we rapidly proceeded.
This habit of calling up the feathered tribe was common with her. At times the doves came from the cotes quite a distance away when they fluttered over her head and alighted upon her persou. Even the wild birds of the grove received her attention, for she was wont to minister to them in their timidity by placing food in covert places where they could eat and be not afraid.
On our arrival at the barn, lo ! the Jerseys were gone. They had been taken off to nibble awhile in the yet green pasture. Mrs. Hayes, however, showed some snow white goats from the mountains of Cashmere, and what the children would call a "cunning " little calf.
We returned to the house, and when in the middle of the great hall, happening to cast her eyes down she exclaimed, " How neglect- ful I have been not to have had your shoes
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blacked, please take them off," and then opening a closet door brought out a pair of slippers and dropping them at my feet, bore away my shoes for their blacking.
Some few minutes elapsed and I was stand- ing alone in the study musing, when its hall door opened and in tripped an old aunty with a turban on her head bearing my shoes nicely polished. She was slender and neither black nor white ; but there was no mistaking, she was "Ole Virginny " all over, and an " Aunty." She came in tripping, a lively old creature, a-grinning and with a quick jerky courtesy dropped the shoes at my feet ; then started for the hall door. I called her back, and placing a coin in her hand, she again grinned and repeated her jerk, with a "Thank you, sah," darted off, she richer by a piece of silver and I by a nicely polished pair of shoes.
As the door closed I again fell to musing, thinking of the good woman whose qualities had just been illustrated to my experience. The secret of her character was her ineffable spirit of love. It went everywhere ; to the wee little flower at her feet, the birds, the animals, and especially to human beings. She yearned to do them good, saw brothers and sisters in them all, wanted to fill them with the joy she felt, and sympathized with their wants with a spirit that was divine. Had she been with Christ when he wept over Jerusalem she would have wept with him.
Old men who knew her when she was a child in the town of Chilicothe, when her name was spoken, smiled as with a beautiful memory and followed with words of praise. One incident which I know to be true of the many of her blessing career, I here relate as written by Mr. Henry L. Detwiler, from El Paso, Texas, and published in the St. Loni's Globe- Democrat.
I wish to relate a little circumstance which came under my own observation more than twenty-four years ago, while Mr. Hayes was Governor of my native State, Ohio. One day while passing up State street in Columbus, I saw a woman sitting on the curbstone, and a dozen or more small boys were teasing her. She was very drunk, apparently. About the time that I reached the spot a carriage drove up and stopped near the scene. A lady looked out of the window, and, taking in the sitna- tion at a glance, opened the carriage door, got out, walked up to the drunken woman, and, speaking kindly to her, asked her to take a
drive with her. The drunken woman, in a maundering way, complied, and was assisted to the carriage and driven away. After they had gone I asked of a bystander who the lady in the carriage was, and he told me it was the wife of Gov. Hayes.'
My day at Spiegel Grove ended. Mr. Hayes first took me in his buggy to show me around the town that I might see what a place of thrift and comfort it had become. I could but admire its broad streets, its neat cleanly homes, the graceful spire of the Catholic church, modelled after one on the Cathedral at Milan, 240 feet in height, the Birchard library and its patriotic relics, the calm flowing river, with its embosoming island, etc., but all this took time, so when we neared the depot the express was starting out, and had got some 200 feet away when he arose and signaling they paused for me, and I was borne on my way with new pictures to hang on " memory's walls." And more new ones came quick, for going westerly through the Black Swamp Forest Region I could but be as- tonished to see what an Eden it had become since when in 1846 I had threaded its mazes on the back of " Old Pomp."
"Into every heart some rainy days must fall."-Longfellow.
June 25, 1889, was a sad day at Spiegel Grove. The beautiful mother and universal friend, whose living presence had been a light and a love was no more. The Nation sorrowed.
Human annals fail to present the record of a single other of her sex, so widely beloved, so widely mourned. Had she been the mother in an humble laborers cabin she would have been the same good woman alike loved of God and the angels. Her lot was to become the first lady in the land ; all eyes rested upon her, all hearts paid her reverence. None other in such a position had illustrated such love and sympathy for the humble, the weak, and the suffering. She gathered the richest of harvests, the harvests of the heart.
Though her spirit has gone her memory re- mains, an unending benediction. Children yet to be as they enter upon this mysterious existence will learn of her and be blessed, and old age hopeful as it nears its end may look beyond and as her image arises to their vision feel "of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
BIOGRAPHY.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, Ex-President of the United States and General in Union Army, was born in Delaware, O., October 4, 1822. His parents, Ruther- ford and Sophia Hayes (Sophia Birchard) came to Ohio in 1817, from Windham county, Vermont.
He received his early education in the common schools, attended an academy at Norwalk, O., and in 1837 went to Isaac Webb's school at Middletown, Ct., to prepare for college. In 1842, he graduated at Kenyon college, valedictorian of his class. He studied law with Thomas Sparrow, of Columbus, O., was graduated at the Law School of Havard University in 1845.
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RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
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On may 10, 1845, he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, O., and began practice at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where in April, 1846, he formed a partnership with Hon. Ralph P. Buckland.
In 1849 he began to practice law at Cincinnati, where he soon attracted atten- tion through his ability and acquirements. On December 30, 1852, he married Lucy W. Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, a physcian of high standing in Chilicothe. In 1858 he was appointed city solicitor of Cincinnati, and served until April, 1861. On the organization of the Republican party, he at once became one of its active supporters, being attracted thereto by his strong anti-slavery sentiments.
At the outbreak of the war, he was elected captain of the military company formed from the celebrated Cincinnati Literary club. In June, 1861, he was ap- pointed major of the 23d O. V. I., and in July his regiment was ordered to West Virginia.
Gen. Hayes' very gallant and meritorious military career has been overlooked in the prominence given to his political life ; an examination of his record in the army shows that such brave, gallant and able service has rarely been equalled, even in the annals of the late war.
The following is from the Military History of Gen. Grant, by Gen. Badeau, 3d volume, page 101.
In all the important battles of Sheridan's campaign Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, after- wards nineteenth President of the United States, had borne an honorable part. Enter- ing the service early in 1861, as major of the 23d Ohio Volunteers, he was ordered at once to West Virginia, and remained there till the sminmer of 1862, when his command was transferred to the Potomac, and participated in the battle of South Mountain. In this action Hayes was severely wounded in the arm. Ile was immediately commended for conspicuous gallantry, and in December of the same year received the coloneley of his regi- ment, which had returned to West Virginia. He served under Crook, in the movement against the Tennessee railroad in the spring of 1864, and led a brigade with marked success in the battle of Cloyd's Mountain. After- wards, still in Crook's command, he joined Hunter's army in the march against Lynch- burg; was present at the operations in front of that place, and covered the retreat in the difficult and dangerous passage of the Alle- ghanies.
He was next ordered to the mouth of the Shenandoah Valley, and took part in several engagements between Early and Sheridan's troops, prior to the battle of Winchester. In that important encounter, he had the right of Crook's command, and it was therefore his troops which, in conjunction with the cavalry, executed the turning manœuvre that decided the fate of the day. Here he displayed higher qualities than personal gallantry. At one point in the advance, his command came upon a deep slongh, fifty yards wide, and stretching across the whole front of his brigade. Beyond was a rebel battery. If the brigade endeavored to move around the obstruction, it would be exposed to a severe enfilading fire ; while it discomfited, the line of advance would be broken in a vital part. Hayes, with the instinct of a soldier, at once
gave the word "Forward," and spurred his horse into the swamp. Horse and rider plunged at first nearly out of sight, but Hayes struggled on till the beast sank hopelessly into the mire. Then dismounting, he waded to the further bank, climbed to the top, and beckoned with his cap to the men to follow. In the attempt to obey many were shot or drowned, but a sufficient number crossed the ditch to form a nuclens for the brigade ; and Ilayes still leading, they climbed the bank and charged the battery. The enemy fled in great disorder, and Hayes reformed his men and resumed the advance. The passage of the slough was at the crisis of the fight and the rebels broke on every side in confusion.
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