Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 110

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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In Burton I made the acquaintance of an ex-soldier of the Union army, MR. E. P. LATHAM, whose history is a wonderful ex- ample of pluck and will power. He was early in the war in the Cumberland moun- tains, under the command of Gen. Morgan, where, while assisting in firing a salute from a cannon, both of his arms were blown off above the elbow. Yet Mr. Latham feeds himself, drives a fast-going horse in a buggy around Burton, keeps the accounts of a cheese factory, writes letters, manages a farm, and superintends a Sabbath-school.

At table his food is prepared for him, and he feeds himself with a fork or spoon strapped to his left stump, his right stump being par- alyzed ; he drives with the reins over his shoulder and back of his neck, guiding his horse, turning corners, etc., by movements of his body ; and writes with his mouth.

As he wrote the specimen annexed in my presence I describe it. 1. He placed himself at the table, and with his stump moved paper and pen to the right position. 2. Picked up the pen with his mouth and held it in his teeth, pointing to the left. 3. Dipped it in

688

GEAUGA COUNTY.

the ink. 4. Brought his face close to the table and wrote, dragging the pen across the

NG COMY

MOST

E. P. LATHAM, EX-SOLDIER, O. V.

paper from left to right. He had such con- trol of it that by the combined use of his lips and teeth he turned the point so as to bring

the slit to its proper bearing for the free flow of the ink. In the engraving it is reduced one-third in size from the original.

His right stump is useless, being without sensation ; he cannot feel a pin prick. It is, indeed, an inconvenience. "In winter," said he, "before retiring I am obliged to heat it by the fire, otherwise it feels in bed like a clog of ice-chills me. I have not been free from pain since my loss; I don't know what it is not to suffer ; but I won't allow my mind to rest upon it-what is the use ? I have now lived longer without my hands than with them, yet to-day I feel all my fingers." Then he bared his left stump and showed me the varied movements necessary for picking up and grasping things in case the remainder of his arm and hand had been there.

I persuaded him to give me a specimen of his handwriting, saying that he ought not to withhold the lesson of his life from the public ; that it would be of untold benefit to the young people as an illustration of the principle never to despair, but to accept the inevitable and work with what was left ; that these seeming disasters were often of the greatest benefit. "Yes," said he, "I know

Burton This at 2nd 1886 Mr Henry Houve my Dear Sir

Howing last both of my arms in the way for the union each just about the elbow I have acquired The art of writing by holding my peu in my mouth of which This is a sample

Respectfully

de Latham Late of The 9th: ohio Battery

SPECIMEN OF WRITING WITH A PEN HELD IN THE MOUTH, BY E. P .. LATHAM, AN ARMLESS EX-SOLDIER OF THE UNION ARMY, NOW OF BURTON, OHIO.

it; but for this, I might to-day be in the penitentiary."

Mr. Latham is rather tall, erect, slender, with an intellectual and somewhat sad expres- sion, the result I presume of never ceaseing pain. I once met while travelling a young man, a stranger, whose every breath was in pain, one of his lungs having when diseased become attached to his ribs; his expression was like that of Mr. Latham's.

Mr. Latham has a family and enjoys life be- cause his mind is fully occupied with pleasant duties. A French author, in writing a book

entitled "The Art of Being Happy," finally summed it in three words, "An absorbing pursuit ; " and this Mr. Latham has. Then he can pride himself on being original ; does things differently from anybody else. A lady said to me, "I was one day walking behind Mr. Latham, when a sudden gust of wind blew off his hat ; with his foot he turned it over, bent down and thrust in his head, arose and then walked away independent, as though he felt that was the proper way to put on a hat." And it was for Mr. Latham.

689

GEAUGA COUNTY.

CHARDON IN 1846 .- Chardon is the county-seat, 170 miles northeast of Co- lumbus, and twenty-eight from Cleveland. It was laid out about the year 1808, for the county-seat, and named from Peter Chardon Brookes, of Boston, then pro- prietor of the soil. There are but few villages in Ohio that stand upon such an elevated, commanding ridge as this, and it can be seen in some directions for several

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VIEW ON PUBLIC SQUARE IN CHARDON.

miles : although but fourteen miles from Lake Erie, it is computed to be 600 feet above it. The village is scattered and small. In the centre is a handsome green, of about eleven acres, on which stands the public buildings, two of which, the court-house and Methodist church, are shown in the engraving. The Baptist church and a classical academy, which are on or face the public square, are not

E. D. King, Photo., Chardon, 1887. BUSINESS BLOCK ON PUBLIC SQUARE, CHARDON.

shown in this view. Chardon has six stores, a newspaper printing office, and in 1840 had 446 inhabitants .- Old Edition.

Chardon, county-seat of Geanga county, is on the P. & Y. R. R. It is beau- tifully situated on a hill, and together with Bass Lake, three miles, and Little Mountain, seven miles distant, is somewhat of a summer resort. County officers

690

GEAUGA COUNTY.

in 1888 : Anditor, Sylvester D. Hollenbeck ; Clerk, Brainard D. Ames ; Coroner, Will J. Layman ; Prosecuting Attorney, Leonard P. Barrows ; Probate Judge, Henry K. Smith ; Recorder, Charles A. Mills ; Sheriff, Wm. Martin ; Surveyor, Milton L. Maynard ; Treasurer, Charles J. Scott ; Commissioners, David A. Gates, Lester D. Taylor, Joseph N. Strong. Newspapers : Republican, Republican, J. O. Converse, editor and proprietor ; Democratic Record, Denton Bros. & King, editors and proprietors. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Congregationalist, 1 Baptist, and 1 Disciple. Bank : Geauga Saving & Loau Association, B. B. Woodbury. president, S. S. Smith, cashier.

Population in 1880, 1,081. School census in 1886, 321; Chas. W. Carroll, superintendent.

E. D. King, Photo. VIEW IN KING'S CHEESE FACTORY, CHARDON.

The term " Cheesedom," as applied to the Western Reserve, has led strangers to suppose that the dairy was the great source relied upon for the support of the farmers. This is an error, for in no part of the Union is mixed husbandry more prevalent, and when grass fails the farmers fall back upon their culti- vated crops and great variety and abundance of fruits. It is true cheese and butter making are the most im- portant industries.

The pioneer women were skilled in cheese-making in their Eastern homes, and when the settlers had enclosed and seeded their pastures, cheese-making increased. In the Centennial year 1876, the dairy productions of the county were, butter, 672,641 pounds ; cheese, 4,136,- 231. Only three counties in Ohio made more, but those were much larger in territory. In 1885, in this county was made, butter, 686,207 pounds, and cheese, 1,550,832 pounds. Ashtabula, Lorain, Portage and Trumbull now exceed it in cheese-making, though none of them come up to within three-quarters of Geauga's figures for 1876.

In 1862 began the great revolution in the manufacture of cheese, dairymen sending their milk to factories to be worked up by the co-operative system. In a few years every township had its one or more cheese factories, until they summed up about sixty in the county-a wonderful relief to the domestic labor of the women. Butter and cheese is now shipped direct from this county to Liverpool.

Process of Cheese Manufacture .- The milk is brought to the factory at morn- ing and evening of each day. Here it is weighed and strained into large vats surrounded by running spring water. It is cooled to about 60º F. and a suffi- cient quantity of rennet added to set the curd. The curd is then cut with knives made for the purpose, into small cubes and heated by steam to 90º F. Then the whey is drawn off and the curd salted, two and a half to three pounds of salt to 100 pounds of milk. The curd is then put into hoops and pressed for two hours, then the bandages of cheese cloth are put on and the cheese again goes to press for twenty-four hours, when it is taken out and goes to the curing-house, where it is rubbed and turned every day for thirty to forty days, when it is ready for market.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

Oct. 5 .- I came with a load of passengers early this morning in a public hack from Chardon to Painesville, distance ten miles. Chardon being on high table land, the clouds are apt to gather there, and so we started in mists which the sun dispelled and warmed us up and we went through a rich country of gentle hills and valleys. We passed orchards

and had the pleasant sight of men and boys in the trees gathering the many-colored ap- ples and stowing them away in bags hanging from the branches. I observed some noble hickories, and was pointed to a tree from which at a single season four and a half bushels had been gathered. The maples were but just beginning to blush. Geauga

691

GEAUGA COUNTY.

is the favorite home of the maple and its maple sugar industry the greatest in the Union, and the sugar excelling in qual- ity

Trout Streams .- Geauga has, with Erie, the distinction of being the only one of two counties that I know of in Ohio that has a stream of water so pure and cold as to be the native home of the speckled brook trout. In Erie the source is a cold spring at Castalia gushing forth from a prairie. In Geauga it is in the vicinity of where we are passing to-day, below the conglomerate rock, at the base of which the filtered pure water gushes forth in streams, forming the head-waters of Chagrin river.

Past and Present on the Reserve .- Travelers by rail see comparatively little. My ride by hack was a refreshing change, an eye feast. In my original journey on horseback through the Reserve I was continually reminded of the Connecticut of that time by the large number of red houses, red barns and little district school-houses by the roadside, also red. Gone are these red things, and gone mostly are the people, and gone the country taverns with their barroom shelves filled with liquor bottles. The boys and girls of that time now living are largely grand-parents. Now the farmhouses are white or a neutral tint, many of them ornate, the creations of skilled architects; all of those hereabouts have porches either upon the main building or upon the addition. Labor-saving machines and implements and conveniences, both on the farm and in the dwelling, have saved much untold back-aching drudgery and given leisure for the more delicate things. Farm- ers' wives can any time pick up Harper's Weekly or Monthly and read an article on entomology, maybe an instructive one on the habits of the bumble-bee, and not feel as though they were committing a sin-en- croaching on valuable time that ought to be given to melting snow in a huge kettle hang- ing over backlogs, whereby to get water and worry through the week's washing.

The dreadful isolation and loneliness of farm-life is a thing of the past. Good roads have overcome this and brought town and country together shaking hands. Most fam- ilies have representatives in some neighbor- ing city or on farms farther west, and they often visit the old homestead, bringing their children, and renew the old ties. The cricket still sings somewhere around the premises, the doves still coo from the eaves ; the clover, fragrant as ever, finds them out and steals into their noses. Books, magazines are in every dwelling and education general; and social intercourse has changed and broadened their lives. Noah Webster lies alongside the Family Bible with the photographic album, wherein are absent friends and the latest arrival by the "limited express"-limited by the capacities of maternity. "Was there ever such a pretty baby?" The genus gawkey is no more and no longer one hears uncouth speech and expressions, such as : "I want ter kneow !"" "Dew tell," "I

kinder reckon," "Stun wall !" "Pale the keow !" etc.

Stage-Coach Talk .- Nearing Painesville, our way over the height of land was through winding ravines with their running streams, and one spot was pointed out to me by a gentleman by my side, where was nestled in a nook a homestead that seemed as a sort of paradise. "I had rather live there," he said, "as those people live in these sur- roundings than on Enclid avenue." He was of the law, a large man from Chardon ; re- minded me of Tom Corwin, whom I knew, and like him had a dark complexion and run to adipose ; and, as Corwin would have done, beguiled the way with amusing stories, and his budget was running over.

As we started out of the village, he said : "Some of us have been making a sort of social census of Chardon; the result is : three bachelors, four old maids (that is, count ing girls over 35 as such), five widowers and seventy widows." Thought I, if that is a quiz, I admire your ingenuity. If a fact, it is astounding as an earthquake. My cour- tesy led me to apparently take the shock, and so I put in "Why does Chardon so run to widows ? Was the town gotten up for them ?" "No," said he, "not exactly that ; they all have children and come from the country around to educate them, the schools and morals of the people are so excellent, and it is such a healthy pretty spot, with such abundance of everything and living so cheap."

Dropping the widows, we launched on to other subjects ; one was the false idea that young and inexperienced people have of men of high station and reputation. "I was," he said, "bred on a farm and knew nothing of the world. When a young man I jour- neyed to Columbus and called upon the Gov- ernor in his audience chamber in the State House. Ushered into his presence, I trem- bled as an aspen. He invited me to a seat, and I was in the act of sitting down in a chair, when a leg slipped out of its socket. "Hold on," said he, "let me fix that." Then he stooped to his knees and slipped the chair leg in its place. In a twinkling my awe vanished. I saw the Governor of Ohio, kneel- ing before me, was as other men; so when he arose I was as calm as a May morning. The governor was R. B. Hayes."

The timid, sensitive boy is of all others to be admired, for he has the first requisition of genius and heroism-impressibility. The old Athenians, that lovable people, had it to a superlative degree; and how heroic and intellectual were they and how exquisite their art, their architecture and statuary. Those creations of their genius seen under the ten- der blue skies of that soft, delicious climate, amid the moving figures of the beautiful Athenians arrayed in their simple loose gar- ments of white that swayed in graceful folds around their persons, must have completed a landscape that touched the rude Scythian brought into their presence with a sense akin to the celestial. The greatest, no matter how high their station, at times may be timid.

692

GEAUGA COUNTY.

Nothing is so dreadful to man as man. It is the world of intellect that at times awes the strongest. Intellect is of God, and its pos- session makes man godlike. One who had been a cabinet minister, a governor of a great State, and a soldier of national reputation, recently to a question of mine replied : " Yes, to this day I at times suffer from sensitive- ness, even just before I begin such a simple duty as questioning a witness in court." As he thus spake, my regard for him, which was high before, increased.

If the young nervous boy, who shrinks on hearing his name called in school, could real-

ize the grand truth, that when a sense of duty impels, that with action timidity van- ishes, and that he of all others will prove the most capable of heroic things, a great point would be gained for the world into which he has arrived for the express purpose of devel- oping himself and helping to make it better. "Why do you tremble so ?" said an old cffi- cer to a young lieutenant of Wellington's army just at the opening of a battle. "Do you feel bad ?"" "Yes, sir, I do," he re- joined ; "and if you felt as bad as I do you would run away.'

MIDDLEFIELD is about 30 miles east of Cleveland and about 25 miles south of Lake Erie, on the P. & Y. R. R. Newspaper : Messenger, Independent, C. B. Murdock, editor. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Wesleyan Methodist. Industries : 1 grist, 2 saw and woodworking mills, brick and tile, cheese factories, etc. Population in 1880, 325. The vicinity abounds in mineral springs. Geauga has several other small villages, as Parkman, 16 miles S. E. of Chardon ; Hunts- burg, 6 miles east, and Chester Cross Roads, in the northwestern corner of the county.

GREENE.

GREENE COUNTY was formed from Hamilton and Ross, May 1, 1803, and named from Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of the revolution. The soil is generally clayey ; the surface on the east is flat and well adapted to grazing, the rest of the county is rolling and productive in wheat and corn. Considerable water-power is furnished by the streams. It has some fine limestone quarries, and near Xenia, on Caesar's creek, is a quarry of beautifully variegated marble. The principal productions are wheat, corn, rye, grass, grass seed, oats, barley, sheep and swine. Area, 430 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 131,197; in pas- ture, 35,693 ; woodland, 34,544 ; lying waste, 6,668 ; produced in wheat, 362,749 bushels; oats, 183,639 ; corn, 2,560,852; flax, 72,500 pounds ; wool, 129,355; horses owned, 19,703 ; cattie, 18,986 ; sheep, 33,411 ; hogs, 30,191. School census, 1886, 9,027 ; teachers, 183. It has 87 miles of railroad.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880

Bath,

1,717

2,593

New Jasper,

1,013

Beaver Creek,

1,762

2,470

Ross,

1,310

1,335

Cæsar Creek,

1,730

1,174

Silver Creek,

2,435

2,155

Cedarville,

2,702

Spring Valley,

1,562

Jefferson,

1,643

Sugar Creek,

2,379

1,588

Miami,

1,230

2,733

Xenia,

5,190

10,381

Population in 1820 was 10,509; 1840, 17,753; 1860, 26,197; 1880, 31,549, of whom 23,747 were Ohio-born ; Kentucky, 1,645 ; Virginia, 1,377 ; Pennsyl- vania, 854 ; Indiana, 340 ; New York, 230; Ireland, 729 ; and Germany, 384.

The Shawnee town, "Old Chillicothe," was on the Little Miami, in this county, about three and a half miles north of the site of Xenia : it was a place of note,

693

GREENE COUNTY.

and is frequently mentioned in the annals of the early explorations and settlements of the West. It was sometimes called the Old Town.

In the year 1773 Capt. Thomas Bullit, of Virginia, one of the first settlers of Kentucky, was proceeding down the Ohio river, with a party, to make surveys and a settlement there, when he stopped and left his companions on the river, and passed through the wilderness to Old Chillicothe, to obtain the consent of the Indians to his intended settlement. He entered the town alone, with a flag of truce, before he was discovered. The Indians, astonished at his boldness, flocked around him, when the following dialogue ensued between him and a principal chief, which we derive from Butler's " Notes on Kentucky :"

Indian Chief. What news do you bring? are you from the Long Knife? If you are an ambassador, why did you not send a runner ?

Bullit. I have no bad news. The Long Knife and the Red men are at peace, and I have come among my brothers to have a friendly talk with them about settling on the other side of the Ohio.

Indian Chief. Why did you not send a runner?

Bullit. I had no runner swifter than my- self, and as I was in haste, I could not wait the return of a runner. If you were hungry and had killed a deer, would you send your squaw to towr to tell the news, and wait her return before you would eat?

This reply of Bullit put the bystanders in high humor ; they relaxed from their native gravity and laughed heartily. The Indians conducted Bullit into the principal wigwam of the town, and regaled him with venison, after which he addressed the chief as fol- lows :

Brothers :- I am sent with my people, whom I left on the Ohio, to settle the country

on the other side of that river, as low down as the falls. We came from Virginia. I only want the country to settle and to cultivate the soil. There will be no objection to your hunting and trapping in it, as heretofore. I hope you will live with us in friendship.

l'o this address the principal chief made the following reply,

Brother :- You have come a hard journey through the woods and the grass. We are pleased to find that your people in settling our country are not to disturb us in our hunt- ing; for we must hunt to kill meat for our women and children, and to have something to buy powder and lead, and procure blankets and other necessaries. We desire you will be strong in discharging your promises to- wards us, as we are determined to be strong in advising our young men to be kind, friendly and peaceable towards you. Having finished his mission, Capt. Bullit returned to his men, and with them descended the river to the falls.

Some of this party of Bullit's shortly after laid out the town of Louisville, Kentucky.

The celebrated Daniel Boone was taken prisoner, with twenty-seven others, in Kentucky, in February, 1778, in the war of the revolution, and brought to Old Chillicothe. Through the influence of the British governor Hamilton, Boone, with ten others, was taken from thence to Detroit.

The governor took an especial fancy to Boone, and offered considerable sums for his release, but to no purpose, for the Indians also had taken their fancy, and s great was it that they took him back to Old hillicothe, adopted him into a family, and fondly ca- ressed him. He mingled with their sports, shot, fished, hunted and swam with them, and had become deeply ingratiated in their favor, when on the 1st of June, they took him to assist them in making salt in the Scioto val- ley, at the old salt wells, near, or at, we be- lieve, the present town of Jackson, Jackson county. They remained a few days, and when returned to Old Chillicothe, his heart was agonized by the sight of 450 warriors, armed, painted and equipped in all the para- phernalia of savage splendor, ready to start en an expedition against Boonesborough. To avert the cruel blow that was about to fall upon his friends, he alone, on the morning of the 16th of June, escaped from his In- dian companions, and arrived in time to foil the plans of the enemy, and not only saved

the borough, which he himself had founded, but probably all the frontier parts of Ken- tucky, from devastation.

Boone told an aged pioneer that when taken prisoner on this occasion, the Indians got out of food, and after having killed and eaten their dogs, were ten days without any other sustenance than that of a decoction made from the oozings of the inner-bark of the white-oak, which after drinking, Boone could travel with the best of them. At length the Indians shot a deer and boiled its entrails to a jelly of which they all drank, and it soon acted freely on their bowels. They gave some to Boone, but his stomach refused it. After repeated efforts, they forced him to swallow about half a pint, which he did with wry face and disagreeable retchings, much to the amusement of the simple sav- ages, who laughed heartily. After this medi- cine had well operated, the Indians told Boone that he might eat ; but if he had done so before it would have killed him. They then all fell to, and soon made amends for

694

GREENE COUNTY.

their long fast. At Detroit, he astonished the governor by making gunpowder, he hav-

ing been shut up in a room with all the materials.

Col. John Johnston, who knew Boone well, says in a communication to us :

It is now (1847) fifty-four years since I first saw Daniel Boone. He was then about 60 years old, of a medium size, say five feet ten inches, not given to corpulency, retired, un- obtrusive, and a man of few words. My ac- quaintance was made with him in the winter season, and I well remember his dress was of tow cloth, and not a woollen garment on his body, unless his stockings were of that material. Home-made was the common wear

of the people of Kentucky, at that time: sheep were not yet introduced into the country. I slept four nights in the house of one West, with Boone : there were a number of strangers, and he was constantly occupied in answering questions. He had nothing re- markable in his personal appearance. His son, Capt. N. Boone, now an old man, is serving in the 1st regiment United States Dragoons.

In July, 1779, the year after Boone escaped from Old Chillicothe, Col. John Bowman, with 160 Kentuckians, marched against the town. The narrative of this expedition is derived from Butler's Notes.

The party rendezvoused at the mouth of the Licking, and at the end of the second night got in sight of the town undiscovered. It was determined to await until daylight in the morning before they would make the attack ; but by the imprudence of some of the men, whose curiosity exceeded their judg- ment, the party was discovered by the Indi- ans before the officers and men had arrived at the several positions assigned to them. As soon as the alarm was given, a fire com- menced on both sides, and was kept up, while the women and children were seen running from cahin to cabin, in the greatest confusion, and collecting in the most central and strongest. At clear day-light it was dis- covered that Bowman's men were from seventy to one hundred yards from the cab- ins, in which the Indians had collected, and which they appeared determined to defend. Having no other arms than tomahawks and rifles, it was thought imprudent to attempt to storm strong cabins, well defended by cx- pert warriors. In consequence of the war- riors collecting in a few cabins contiguous to each other, the remainder of the town was left unprotected, therefore, while a fire was kept up at the port-holes, which engaged the attention of those within,' fire was set to thirty or forty cabins, which were con- sumed, and a considerable quantity of prop- erty, consisting of kettles and blankets, were taken from those cabins. In searching the woods near the town, 133 horses were collected.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 110

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006