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 47
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Miss Bacon's account of the visit to her sister contains this :
" My visit to Mr. Carlyle was very rich. I wish you could have heard him laugh. Once or twice I thought he would have taken the roof of the house off. At first they were per- fectly stunned-he and the gentleman he had invited to meet me. They turned black in the face at my presumption. 'Do you mean to say so and so,' said Mr. Carlyle, with his strong emphasis, and I said that I did, and they both looked at me with staring eyes, speechless from want of words in which to convey their sense of my audacity. At length Mr. Carlyle came down on me with such a volley. I did not mind it in the least. I told him he did not know what was in the plays if he said that, and no one could know who
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believed that that booby wrote them. It was then that he began to shriek. You could have heard him a mile."
Miss Bacon's brother advised her to pub- lish her theory as a novel. He was in car- nest, but she found it hard to forgive him. Hawthorne saw her personally but once. She wrote to him from London : "I have lived for three years as much alone with God and the dead as if I had been a departed spirit. And I don't wish to return to the world. I shrink with horror from the thought of it.
This is an abnormal state, you see, but I am perfectly harmless ; and if you will let me know when you are coming, I will put on one of the dresses I used to wear the last time I made my appearance in the world, and try to look as much like a survivor as the circum- stances will permit."
Miss Bacon returned to America in 1858. It was found necessary to place her in an asy- lum, and a few months later she died. She is buried in her brother's lot at New Haven.
A REMINISCENCE .- I remember often seeing Delia Bacon in my youth in my native city, going in and coming from a private residence, wherein, in a private . parlor, that of Dr. Joseph Darling, an old Revolutionary character in old Revo- lutionary attire, she met a select class of young ladies, to whom she delivered her thoughts upon noted historical characters. She was somewhat tall and of a wil -. lowy figure; a very spirituelle appearing personage,attired in black, with simplic- ity and neatness, a strikingly refined and thoughtful expression, that always at- tracted my youthful gaze as something above the ordinary line of mortality. If indeed it be true that " this world is all a fleeting show for man's illusion given," it is a happy arrangement with some of us ancients, who have come down from a former generation, that we can reproduce from our mental plates, used in boyhood years of innocence, such an interesting variety of the genus woman, of whom to me Delia Bacon was among the celestials.
Delia had a younger brother, who narrowly escaped being Ohio-born, DAVID FRANCIS BACON, alike brilliant and erratic. He went out to Liberia, to serve as a physician to the colony which, it was thought by Henry Clay and other wise men of the day, would solve that early vexed question, " What shall we do with the negro ? "
David Francis soon hurried back, his nose on a snivel, thoroughly disgusted with an African Republic, under the statesmanship of exported plantation slaves. He published a book wherein he described his voyage over, and gave a sad ac- count of the loss at sea of a bright youth, closing with a poem of lamentation. He began the poem with a borrowed line, apologizing for so doing by stating his muse was like a pump gone dry. He always had to get a line from some other poet, to first pour in as a starter. Certainly a good thing to do if, when one gets on a flow, he can bring out champagne.
JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY was born in Windsor, Conn., December 22, 1822. Two years later his father, Henry Newberry, removed with his family to Cuya- hoga Falls. The last-named was a lawyer, a large landholder, and one of the Directors of the Connecticut Land Company, which he founded on land inherited from his father, Hon. Roger Newberry. Young Newberry graduated at Western Reserve College in 1846, and at Cleveland Medical College in 1848. Travelled and studied abroad two years ; then practised medicine at Cleveland until 1855.
In May, 1855, he was appointed assistant surgeon and geologist with a United States exploring party to Northern California. In 1857-58 he accompanied Lieut. Ives in the exploration and navigation of the Colorado river. In 1859 he trav- elled over Southern Colorado, Utah, Northern Arizona and New Mexico on an exploring expedition, which gathered information of great value concerning a hitherto unknown area of country.
June 14, 1861, although still on duty in the war department, he was elected a member of the United States Sanitary Commission. His medical knowledge and army experience led to his becoming one of the most important members of that Commission. (For a sketch of his valuable services on this Commission,
during which hospital stores valued at more than five million dollars were distributed, and one million soldiers not otherwise provided for received food and shelter, see Vol. i. "Ohio's Work in United States Sanitary Commission.")
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SUMMIT COUNTY.
After the war, Dr. Newberry was appointed Professor of Geology and Paleontology at the Columbia School of Mines-a position he still holds. In 1869 he was appointed State Geologist of Ohio, filling this office till the close of the survey, making reports on all the counties of the State. The results of the survey are embodied in nine volimes, of which six are on geology, two on paleontology and one on the zoology of the State, with a large number of geological maps. In 1884 he was appointed Paleontologist to the United States Geological Survey. In January, 1888, the Geological Society of London conferred on him its Murchison medal.
He is a member of most of the learned so- cieties in this country and many in Europe. He was one of the original incorporators of the National Academy of Sciences ; has been President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and President of the New York Academy of Science since 1867, and President of the Torrey Botanical Society. The publications of Prof. Newberry are quite numerous, and include, in addition to his reports to the United States Govern- ment, the State of Ohio, and the Sanitary Commission, contributions to the scientific journals, and transactions of learned so- cieties, of which the titles number nearly two hundred.
JOHN S. NEWBERRY.
AN EDUCATIONAL HERO.
The northernmost part of this county is formed by two townships. That on the west is Northfield and that on the east Twinsburg. It has a village centre called Twinsburg, wherein stands on the village green a Congregational church and a Soldiers' monument, thus symbolizing God and Country.
When old Pomp took me over the State, I passed through this village and found it was an educational spot for children-boys and girls largely from farmers' families from the entire country around. They told me that in many cases chil- dren from the same family kept house and boarded themselves-the girls cooking for their brothers, and they chopping wood, kindling fires, and doing the rough work for their sisters. This struggling for an education among the young people aroused my sympathy. As Pomp bore me away, I felt I had a pleasant inde- structible picture for my mind's keeping. The good things are eternal. Then Twinsburg is not a bad name; it brings the thought of two at one time to coo and be loved.
From that period until now Twinsburg has been as a far-away picture in the dim remote. Now, on opening the county history, there comes a revelation of the great work done there in the carly years, starting out of the wilderness. Then, withal, a hero is behind it -- a great moral hero. The contemplation of one who liveth not unto himself alone swell's the heart.
SAMUEL BISSELL is of Puritan stock : his ancestors among the founders of old Windsor on the Connecticut. In 1806, when he was nine years old, he came with his father into the wilderness of Portage county, where he helped to clear up the woods. He was edu- cated at Yale, took charge of a then feeble Congregational Society at Twinsburg and taught school. The church grew under his ministrations, and after a lapse of fourteen years he gave up his pastorate and devoted
all his time to the "Twinsburg Institute." He has devoted himself to the institute for over fifty-two years, during which time more than 6,000 students of both sexes have been under his instruction. The details of his work are here given from the history issued in 1881.
It was in 1828 that he came to Twinsburg, when the Society erected a block-house for his family, and he took for his school a rude log-house twenty by thirty feet. It had for
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SUMMIT COUNTY.
windows three small openings in the logs, each with rude sashes and four small panes of glass. The furniture consisted of rude seats and desks hastily constructed. The dis- mal room had a broad fire-place, with chim- bey built of stones and clay. Ile thus began his work of philanthropy. The school was opened free of any charge to all young people desirous to attend, except from those dis- posed to pay, in which case the tuition for the term was to be two dollars. From the first it was a snecess. Three years later a combined church and school-house was erect- ed. In 1843 a large two-storied frame build- ing was secured, and in the lapse of five years two others. The reputation of the Twins- burg Institute was now so extended that he had about 300 pupils of both sexes largely from abroad. Seven teachers and assistants were under him, and the students wherever desired fitted for college. No charter was obtained and no publis money given-the entire institution rested upon the shoulders of one man. The ordinary tuition charged was two dollars for the term, and when the classics were taught never more than four dollars.
More than six thousand students have been in attendance at the institute during its con- tinuance, and out of these about two hundred have been Indians of the Seneca, Ottawa, Pottawatomie and Ojibway tribes. Minis- ters, statesmen, generals, lawyers, professors, physicians and artisans, in all portions of the country, trace the beginning of their educa- tion to the door of the Twinsburg Institute. A good library was secured, and literary and other societies were instituted.
The benevolence of Mr. Bissell was such that he not only greatly lowered the tuition, but even educated hundreds at his own ex- pense who were unable to pay their own way. He was accustomed to give such students a few light chores to do, and these trifling duties were so divided and subdivided that the work was more in name than in reality. It is related that on one occasion Mr. Bissell having gone to extremes in this respect, some of the students thus detailed grumbled about having more to do than others. Consider- able ill-will was thus incited. One morning Mr. Bissell arose at his usual hour, five o'clock, and, beginning with these chores, completed the entire round before the time for opening the school. Not a word was said ; but the act spoke in volumes to the fault-finding students, who, after that, vexed the car of the principal with no more grum- blings.
Among the Indian youth was George Wil- son, a Seneca, about whom a great deal has been said. He became a fine scholar-supe- rior in many important respects to any other ever in the institute. His presence was fine and imposing, and he displayed rare gifts in
logical force and fervid eloquence. Mr. Bis- sell says that the quality of his eloquence, the unnsnal power of his intellect and the force of his delivery, resembled in a marked man- ner those of Daniel Webster. He afterward became chief of his tribe, and was sent to represent their interests to the New York Legislature and to the New York Historical Society, receiving from the latter several thousand dollars for his people, who were in a starving condition in the West.
Another one, named Jackson Blackbird, or " Mack-a-de-bennessi," was an Ottawa, and a direct descendant of Pontiac. He excelled in composition, and composed a comedy, three hours in length, that was presented by the societies of the institute publicly to large audiences with great success. Mr. Bissell became known throughout the Reserve for his philanthropy in the cause of Indian educa- tion. Some two hundred were educated at the institute, from whom no compensation worth mentioning was ever received. All their ex- penses were paid-including board, tuition, room, fuel, light, washing, books and station- ery, and some clothing-at the fair estimate of $200 each a year. This expense, borne by no one except the Principal, estimated at these figures, has amounted during the his- tory of the institute to over $40,000, Almost as much has been expended on indigent white youth ; and when the cost of erecting the various buildings is added to this, the total amount foots up to the enormous sum of over $80,000 ; all of which has been borne by Mr. Bissell. To offset this not more than $12.000 have been received from all sources.
When the rebellion ensued the institute received an almost ruinous blow. Several of the buildings were sold to pay its debts. From the materials of the wreck he saved a few hundred dollars, obtained a loan of $1.500, and erected the present stone build- ing, largely doing the manual labor himself, he then a man of seventy years. Without any previous experience he put on the roof, made the doors, window frames, etc. The entire,cost was about $8,000. "Not only," says the 'County History,' "was the under- taking gigantie, but its wisdom may be doubted. The institute is likely to fail alto- gether when the Principal's hand is removed by death from the hehn.
"Mr. Bissell is now almost penniless, and is compelled to teach for a living at the age of more than eighty years. Considering the invaluable service he has rendered the village and township in the past ; how scores of' peo- ple now living there have been the recipients of his generous bounty; how patient self- denial and faith in God have been the watch- words of this venerable old man; it is un- questionably due from the citizens to provide him with at least the necessaries of life."
JOSHUA Srow was from Middlesex county, Connecticut, and was born in 1762. He was the proprietor of the township of Stow, surveyed in 1804, under his per- sonal supervision, by Joseph Darrow, of Hudson. In our first edition it was
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SUMMIT COUNTY.
stated Stow was a member of the first party of surveyors of the Western Reserve, who landed at Conneaut, July 4, 1796. (See V. I., p. 252.) Augustus Porter, Esq., the principal surveyor, in his history of the survey, in the Barr manuscripts, gives the following anecdote of Mr. Stow, who was the commissary of the party :
A GENUINE SNAKE STORY .- In making the traverse of the lake shore, Mr. Stow acted as flag-man ; he, of course, was always in advance of the party ; rattle- snakes were plenty, and he coming first upon those in our track killed them. I had mentioned to him a circumstance that happened to me in 1789. Being with two or three other persons three days in the wood without food, we had killed a rattlesnake, dressed and cooked it, and whether from the savory quality of the flesh or the particular state of our stomachs, I could not say which, had eaten it with a high relish. Mr. Stow was a healthy, active man, fond of wood-life, and deter- mined to adopt all its practices, even to the eating of snakes ; and during almost any day while on the lake shore, he killed and swung over his shoulders and around his body from two to six or eight large rattlesnakes, and at night a part were dressed, cooked and caten by the party with a good relish, probably increased by the circumstance of their being fresh while all our other meat was salt.
A REMINISCENCE .- Joshua Stow became a noted character in Connecticut, to which he returned after his Ohio experiences. He was a strong old-style Demo- crat, and one of the first in the State to start the cry, " Hurrah for Jackson !" which he did so lustily that Old Hickory made him postmaster of the little town of Middletown.
In the summer of 1835 I was a rod-man in the party who made the first survey for a railroad in Connecticut. The country people over whose farms we ran our lines were greatly excited at our advent. They left their work and came around ns, and looked on with wondering eyes, calling us the " Ingun-neers." But few had been one hundred miles from home ; scarce any had seen a railroad ; had but a faint idea of what a railroad looked like. Our operations were a mystery, especially the taking of the levels. A dignified gentleman, the head of the party, Prof. Alex. C. Twining, peering through a telescope, and calling out to the rod- man, "Higher ?" "lower !" "higher !" "a tenth higher !" "one hundredth higher !" "a thousandth lower !" "all right !" accompanied by a gyration of the arm, which meant screwing up tight the target ; then came the reading of the rod, " Four-nine-seven-two." Remember these were old times, indeed, when let- ters cost from ten to twenty-five cents postage ; before prepaid stamps on letters were known, and then when they did come into use the mucilage was so poor that sometimes they were lost, which led to a profane wag of the time writing under one, " Paid, if the darned thing sticks !"
One of our lines of exploration was made three miles west of Middletown. One morning there approached us, as a looker-on, a queer-looking old man. He had come from his farm perhaps a mile away. He was short and stout; had a most determined expression of countenance; was attired in gray from head to foot ; wore a gray roundabout jacket, and a shot-gun was hanging by the middle from his hand. This sort of Rip Van Winkle figure was bent over and dripping with water. Just before reaching us, while crossing a brook on a rail, the rail turned and he tumbled in. This was Joshua Stow, or, as called by the people at the time, "Josh Stow." He was then just seventy-three years of age ; a man who had found rattlesnakes a savory diet, hurrahed for Gen. Jackson, and gave his name to one of the prettiest and most romantic spots of land in Summit county.
It is a remarkable fact that the very township which Mr. Stow purchased and named after himself to show to posterity that such a man as Joshua Stow once lived should prove to have been about the most prolific in Ohio in its snake product. The County History thus states :
Rattlesnakes were very numerous, and a great pest to the first settlers of Stow town- ship. The "Gulf" at Stow's Corners was
filled with these reptiles, and it was many years before they were killed off. So nu- merous were they and so dangerous, that the
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settlers took turns in watching the rocks to kill all that came forth. This was done on sunny days in early spring, when the snakes first came from their holes to bask in the sun.
Watching for Snakes .- It fell upon Mr. Baker to watch the gulf one Sunday, when Deacon Butler was holding a class-meeting in a log-cabin close by. While looking down into the gulf, Mr. Baker saw a large number of rattlesnakes crawl from a erevice in the rocks and coil themselves in the sun. When it seemed that all had come forth, Mr. Baker dropped his eoat near the crevice, and with a long pole prepared for the purpose, pushed the garment into the opening. He then de- scended to the rock, and killed sixty-five of the venomous reptiles.
Dad's Achievement .- The first intimation that the worshippers had of what had taken place was made known by a son of Mr. Baker, who ran to the log meeting-house at the top of his speed, crying out with a loud voice : "Oh, dad's killed a pile of snakes ! dad's killed a pile of snakes !" This ad- journed the meeting, and the members re-
paired to the gulf, to continue their thanks for the victory over the ancient enemy of mankind.
A Mother's Terror .- One day, when John Campbell was away from home, his wife placed her little child on the floor, with a cup of milk and a spoon, and closing the door went a short distance to one of the neighbors' on an errand. She soon returned and, step- ping up to the little window, looked in to see what her baby was doing. There sat the child upon the floor, while close at its side was eoiled up a large yellow, repulsive rattle- snake. It had erawled up through the craek of the floor, and, when first seen by Mrs. Campbell, was lapping or drinking the milk, which had been spilled by the child. . Just as the mother was taking her first lightning survey of the fearful sight the child reached out its spoon, either to give the reptile some milk or to touch its shining body with the spoon. The mother gave a piercing seream, and the snake slid down a crack and disap- peared. Mr. Campbell came in soon after- ward, and raising a plank of the floor, killed the snake.
From the dawn of history the snake has had the first place as the symbol of deceit and subtilty, finding his first victim in our common mother. Nothing good in the common estimation has come from this reptile. It will therefore be new to many that the snake idea should have been pressed into patriotic service among the heroes of the American Revolution.
In 1844, when travelling over Virginia for my work upon that State, I called upon Capt. Philip Slaughter, at his home in Culpeper county, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. He was then some eighty-six years
THE
CULPEPER MINUTE
MEN
LIBERTY,
OR DEATH !
DONT TREAD ON ME
of age, and about the last surviving officer of the Virginia line of Continentals.
When the war broke out, Patrick Henry, the commander of the Virginia troops, re- ceived 150 men from Culpeper ; among them
was Slaughter, then seventeen years of age, who enlisted as a private. The flag used by the Culpeper men I drew from his deserip- tion, as depicted in the annexed engraving with a rattlesnake in the centre. The head of the snake was intended for Virginia, and the twelve rattles for the other twelve States. The corps were dressed in green hunting shirts, with the words "LIBERTY OR DEATH" in large white letters on their bosoms. They wore in their hats buck-tails, and in their belts tomahawks and sealping- knives, making a terrific appearance.
As illustrating the chivalrous feelings among the Virginia officers, the old hero told me that when he received his commission as captain, he then being but nineteen years of age, he indorsed upon it the name of the lady to whom he.was engaged, at the same time declaring it never should be disgraced ; and he added, with commendable pride, "it never was disgraced."
The prominent villages in Summit county are TWINSBURG, having, in 1890, `821 inhabitants ; PENINSULA, 562; and these others with less : Copley Centre, Clinton, Manchester, Mogadore, Richfield, Tallmadge, and Western Star.
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TRUMBULL COUNTY.
TRUMBULL.
TRUMBULL COUNTY was formed in 1800, and comprised within its original limits the whole of the Connecticut Western Reserve. This is a well cultivated and wealthy county. The surface is mostly level, and the soil loamy or sandy. In the northern part is excellent coal. The principal products are wheat, corn, oats, grass, wool, butter, cheese and potatoes.
Arca about 650 square miles. In 1887 the aeres cultivated were 117,169; in pasture, 150,722; woodland, 57,927; lying waste, 2,033; produced in wheat, 169,681 bushels; rye, 1,772; buckwheat, 5,950; oats, 656,908; barley, 1,017; corn, 142,617 ; meadow hay, 42,730 tons ; elover hay, 7,693; flax, 298,046 lbs. fibre ; potatoes, 147,697 bushels; tobacco, 200 lbs .; butter, 1,114,672; cheese, 1,974,098 ; sorghum, 349 gallons ; maple sugar, 93,028 lbs .; honey, 10,501; eggs, 457,815 dozen ; grapes, 15,185 lbs .; wine, 9 gallons; apples, 264,292 bushels ; peaches, 15,707 ; pears, 2,361; wool, 275,638 lbs. ; milch cows owned, 14,554. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888 .- Coal mined, 157,826 tons, employing 520 miners and 80 outside employees; iron ore, 11,622 tons. School census, 1888, 12,811 ; teachers, 435. Miles of railroad track, 248.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
Bazetta,
1,035
1,400
Johnston,
889
790
Bloomfield,
554
835
Kinsman,
954
1,224
Braceville,
880
1,019
Liberty,
1,225
4,058
Bristol,
802
1,162
Lordstown,
1,167
805
Brookfield,
1,301
2,559
Mecca,
684
950
Champion,
541
866
Mesopotamia,
832
742
Farmington,
1,162
1,152
Newton,
1,456
1,358
Fowler,
931
851
Southington,
857
916
Greene,
647
863
Vernon,
788
1,018
Gustavus,
1,195
936
Vienna,
969
1,994
Hartford,
1,121
1,382
Warren,
1,996
5,553
Howland,
1,035
762
Wethersfield,
1,447
6,583
Hubbard,
1,242
5,102
Population of Trumbull in 1840, 25,700; 1860, 30,656; 1880, 44,880; of whom 28, 459 were born in Ohio ; 4,627, Pennsylvania ; 1,127, New York ; 158, Virginia ; 88, Indiana ; 46, Kentucky ; 4,569, England and Wales; 1,665, Ire- land ; 894, German Empire ; 296, British America ; 182, France ; and 29, Sweden and Norway. Census, 1890, 42,373.
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