Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 137

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

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On leaving the army at the end of the war, General Boynton entered journalism, and almost immediately hecame the Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette. His kcen, incisive efforts in that line gave his journal a national reputa- tion. He was soon put at the head of the Washington Bnrean, in which a syndi- cate of several leading papers was formed, and to-day he is regarded as at the front in his profession ; one of the most noted, loved, feared and respected of journalists. General Boynton's great quality in the army was his high courage, that was ani- mated by the purest and deepest patriotism.

His distinguishing characteristic as a journalist is his sterling integrity, inspired by a sense of justice, that can be appealed to at all times. He is feared by knaves of all sorts, for his singularly incisive style, backed by his courage, makes him terrible in his assaults on wrong. He has driven some of the worst lobbyists from Washington, and is feared as no other man ever was by the entire lobby. General Boynton's latest achievement was the selection and dedication of the Chickamauga battle-field as a public park. He was greatly assisted in this by General Henry M. Cist, of Cincinnati ; but General Cist, with the frankness of a true soldier, gives General Boynton full credit for this great work. The post-office nearest the battle-field has been called Boynton, and ere long a bronze bust will mark the place where he so gallantly fought, in token of the affectionate feelings and admi- ration of his brother soldiers.

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HAMILTON COUNTY.

MAJOR DAVID ZEIGLER.

Originally an officer under Frederick the Great and then of the army of the American Revolution, Commandant of Fort Washington and the first President or Mayor of Cincinnati .- Written for this work by MARY D. STEELE, Dayton.

" In the Indian border warfare, between 1788 and 1795," says Rosengarten, in his 'German Soldier in the Wars of the United States,' " a leading figure was that of DAVID ZEIGLER, whose story is typical of that of many of our early German soldiers." He also " won great praise" for conrage and military ability during the Revolution, and took much pride in having the best drilled company in the regiment. He began his military career as an officer in Frederick the Great's army, and also served in the Russian army in the reign of Catherine Second, dur- ing the campaign against the Turks, which ended with the cession of the Crimea to Russia. Major Denny states, in his " Military Journal," that Zeigler was also at one time in the Saxon service.

DAVID ZEIGLER was born at Heidelberg in 1748. He emigrated to America in 1775, for the purpose of entering the Revolutionary army. In June, 1775, he was commissioned third lieutenant in Captain Ross's company, which was recruited in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and immediately sent to escort a supply of powder, of which Washington's army was desperately in need, to Cambridge. On the 25th of June, 1775, Zeigler was pro- moted first lieutenant and adjutant of Col. William Thompson's battalion of riflemen. This regiment was more than half made up of Germans, and was "the second in Penn- sylvania to enlist for the war under Washing- ton." January 16, 1777, Zeigler was com- missioned first lieutenant of a company in the First Pennsylvania Continental Infantry, and December 8, 1778, was promoted captain. From his promotion till the end of the Revo- lution he served as senior captain in this famous regiment, which General Wayne said, "always stepped the first for glory." It dis- tinguished itself in the battles of Long Island, Brandywine, Monmouth and Bergen's Point. The same day that he was commissioned, Captain Zeigler was made Brigade Inspector of the Pennsylvania Brigade Department of the South.

Once during the Revolutionary war he was taken prisoner. The following account of the adventure is given by the American Pioneer : General Samuel Findlay, Major Zeigler, late of Cincinnati, the first marshal of Ohio, and Major Thomas Martin, were captured by the British and imprisoned in Philadelphia. They made their escape, Martin killing the British officer in pursuit with a club. Reach- ing a Dutchman's house, Major Martin passed Zeigler-who was a Prussian-for a Dutch doctor, who, by making pills of bread mixed with a little spittle, cured the landlady and escaped a bill of charges. A niece of the major often related this story, but she said that he cured the landlady with hair powder, shaken from a powder-puff which he carried in a box in his pocket. His powder-puff fig- ured in many a joke at a later date. He was very witty and fond of a good story, and nu- merous humorous anecdotes about him used to be in circulation among his old friends.

In 1780, just before the mutiny of the troops at Morristown, when an effort was at last being made to satisfy their just demands, Zeigler was appointed by Pennsylvania State clothier and issuing commissary of State stores, and was sent to President Reed with an estimate of the clothing needed for the troops by Wayne, who ended his letter with the words : "Captain Zeigler will be able to inform your excellency of matters I don't choose to commit to paper."

After the mutiny the First Pennsylvania, of which Harmar was now colonel, was sent to Virginia, where it distinguished itself at Yorktown. January 4, 1782, it joined Greene in South Carolina, remaining a year and a half, and being present at the investment and surrender of Charleston.

In June. 1783, it returned by sea to Phila- delphia. Major Zeigler was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati ; an honor which he valued highly. In a beautiful miniature in our possession, painted on ivory by Pine, at Philadelphia in 1799, he wears the Conti- nental uniform, and the gold eagle badge of the Society, fastened by its blue ribbon to the breast of his coat.

After the disbandment of the Continental army Congress raised a new regiment. of which Harmar was made colonel and Zeigler was commissioned captain of one of the four Pennsylvania companies, August 12, 1784. In September the four companies marched for Fort McIntosh, twenty-nine miles below Pittsburg, where they remained till the fall of 1785, when the regiment was reorganized and Zeigler went to Pennsylvania to recruit. He returned in November with his company to McIntosh, leaving there in the spring for Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami. A high flood led to the abandon- ment of this fort, and another of the same name was built at the Rapids of the Ohio in July, where Zeigler remained till winter. In January, 1787. his company and two others were at Fort Harmar -- " officers and men in close quarters."

In the summer of 1787 Zeigler accompa- nied Harmar on his Western expedition. for the purpose of treating with Indians and de- ciding difficulties among settlers about public

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and private property. They went by water from what is now Louisville to Port St. Vin- cent or Vincennes, Indiana. Zeigler's com- pany returned on foot through the woods to Fort Finney near Louisville. Here, October 28, Harmar received his commission as brig- adier-general, and the troops left at once by water for Fort Harmar, where they spent the winter. The regiment was only enlisted for a year, and in the spring Zeigler went East to recruit. He returned to Harmar Septem- ber 9, escorting from Fort Pitt Gen. Butler, Capt. O'Hara, and the friendly chief, Corn- planter, with about fifty Seneca Indians, who came to negotiate a treaty with the United States Government. Major Denny says that "Zeigler and his party were received with a salute of three rounds of cannon and the music ; " and Buel says, "We saluted them with our field-pieces, which they returned with a running fire from their rifles."

"Soon after we left the Point," Dr. Cut- ter writes in his 'Journal,' "saw the soldiers and a number of Indians, expected from Fort Pitt, coming down on the other side of Kerr's Island. We crossed the river and met them. Captain Zeigler commanded the company of new levies of fifty-five men. There were about fifty Indians in canoes lashed together. The soldiers were paraded in a very large boat, stood up on a platform, and were prop- erly paraded, with the American flag in the stern. Just as we got up to them they be- gan to fire by platoons. After they had fired, the Indians fired from their canoes singly or rather confusedly. The Indians had two small flags of thirteen stripes. They were answered from the garrison by train, who fired three field-pieces ; flag hoisted."

Zeigler was noted as a drill-master and dis- ciplinarian, as well as for personal bravery. Major Denny says in his " Military Journal :" " Zeigler is a German, and has been in the Saxon service previous to our late war with England. Takes pride in having the hand somest company in the regiment ; to do him justice, his company has been always con- sidered the first in point of discipline and ap- pearance. Four-fifths of the company have been Germans. Majority of the present are men who served in Germany." In fierce and cruel engagements with Indians, in which half the army was killed, he exhibited the coolness and courage which were character- istic of him. On one occasion, duty obliging him to remain for some time stationary on a spot exposed from every direction to the bul- lets and tomahawks of the savages, he seated himself on the stump of a tree, took out his pipe, filled and tranquilly smoked it, appar- ently utterly fearless of danger and oblivious of the harrowing sights around him.

In December, 1789, General Harmar left Marietta for Fort Washington with three hundred men, leaving Captain Zeigler at Fort Harmar with twenty soldiers. Those who remained received their pay the day before Christmas, as is shown by Captain David Zeigler's receipt, dated December 24, for the $859.45 paid himself and his company. which

is still preserved. In September, 1790, Har- mar undertook the expedition against the Indian villages, near the present city of Fort Wayne, which ended in a retreat to Fort Washington. The real object of the cam- paign was however accomplished by a party of 600 militia, under Col. Harden, including fifty regulars commanded by Captain Zeigler. They burned the deserted villages, destroyed corn, fruit trees, provisions, and all the prop- erty of the Indians. After disbanding his army, Harmar resigned his commission and demanded a court of inquiry, which met at Fort Washington, September 15, 1791. Capt. Zeigler was one of the principal witnesses. He attributed the defeat to the insubordina- tion of the militia. Harmar and Zeigler were warm friends through life.

At the close of this campaign Zeigler was ordered back to Harmar, where he remained in command till St. Clair's expedition was organized. After his disastrous defeat St. Clair went to Philadelphia, leaving Major Zeigler, promoted December 29, 1791, at Fort Washington, where he continued in com- mand of the United States army for about six weeks. In January, 1792, a Congres- sional Committee was appointed to inquire into the causes of St. Clair's defeat. Major Zeigler was summoned as a witness, and in his testimony shifted the blame of the disas- ter from St. Clair's to the inefficient quarter- master's shoulders. In 1792, probably while in Philadelphia as a witness for St. Clair, Zeigler resigned his commission in the army.

He settled at Cincinnati, opening a store, where, according to a bill that has been pre- served, he sold "muslin, hardware, groceries, etc." He was a successful merchant, and made what at that day was considered a for- tune. He owned two shares in the funds of the Ohio Company and many acres of mili- tary bounty land ; but these wild lands were of little value, and his income was principally derived from his Cincinnati speculations. The territorial legislature incorporated the town of Cincinnati, January 2, 1802, and Major Zeigler was appointed president of the village. In 1804 he was appointed by Presi- dent Jefferson the first marshal of the Ohio district. From 1809-1811 he was surveyor of the port of Cincinnati. In politics he was a Democrat. Judge Burnet says in his "Notes :" "Only four individuals in Cincin- nati are now remembered who then (1800) advocated the election of Mr. Jefferson against Mr. Adams. These were Major David Zeigler, William Henry Harrison, William McMillan and John Smith."

In the spring of 1789 Captain Zeigler, then stationed at Fort Harmar, married, at Mari- etta, Lucy, youngest child of Benjamin and Hannah Coggeshall Sheffield. She was a native of Jamestown, R. I., and came to Marietta, Dec. 17, 1788, with her mother, then a widow. Mrs. Sheffield owned four shares in the funds of the Ohio Company. Judging from tradition and the printed testi- mony of friends, few pioneer women were more highly esteemed and influential than

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Mrs. Zeigler. Mrs. Ludlow writes from Cin- cinnati : "Major Zeigler said to me, on his first visit (April, 1797) : 'Our ladies are not gay, but they are extremely affectionate one to the other.' I believe he spoke the truth. Perfect harmony and good-will appear to exist in all their intercourse." Certainly this could have been truly said of Mrs. Zeigler.

Visitors to Cincinnati, when it was a mere village, were surprised by the luxurious man- ner of living, and the generous hospitality of the merchants and retired army officers who lived there. Major Zeigler shared the pre- vailing tastes and habits, and loved to enter- tain both friends and guests from abroad. A letter, written from Cincinnati in the fall of 1806, says, "The girls had a variety of amusements-plays, balls and tea-parties." A curious old ball ticket, addressed to one of these girls, dated Cincinnati, Feb. 17, 1809, and printed, as was then the fashion, on the

back of a playing card (the queen of hearts) is still preserved. The ball was given "in commemoration of Washington's birthday, at the Columbian Inn, on Wednesday evening, the twenty-second, at six o'clock. William Ruffin, E. H. Stall, J. Baymillar, J. W. Sloan, managers." Mrs. Ludlow, describing Cincinnati in 1797, says "that it was then a village of wooden buildings, with a garrison of soldiers. The society consisted of a small number of ladies, united by the most perfect good-will and desire for mutual happiness. The gentlemen were social and intelligent." For several of the gentlemen, among whom she mentions Major Zeigler, she felt "an al- most fraternal regard ;" a regard which others whom the kindly major, at that or a later day, welcomed with cordial and genial hospitality, shared with her.

Major Zeigler died at Cincinnati, Decem ber, 1811, aged sixty-three years.

PIONEER ART IN CINCINNATI.

BY CHAS. T. WEBBER.

The beginning of art in Cincinnati is to be accredited to FREDERICK ECKSTEIN, although possibly John Wesley Jarvis may have made a halt, so to speak, here at an earlier date ; but as Lexington, Louisville and later Columbus were his par- ticular haunts, he is hardly to be considered an habitué of the Queen City of the West. Eckstein founded his academy here in 1826.

Frederick Eckstein, a man of high education and culture, man of business and affairs, made art something more than a pastime, than an adjunct to the means of "getting along," as his pursuits therein were governed by the high and unselfish purpose of improving the taste and refinement of his neighbors, the early pioneers of the West, and of planting the civilization of his own native Germany in his chosen American home, although facilities for the practice of that branch of art, sculpture, in which Mr. Eckstein chiefly exhibited his superior skill, were exceed- ingly meagre, those productions which have been preserved will compare favorably with most of that which has followed.

To Mr. Eckstein Hiram Powers owed his first lessons, as well probably his first impulse, in the direction of art. Clevenger afterwards opened a studio in this place, and the three, Eckstein, Clevenger and Powers, were in constant contact and sympathy. Corwin, Minor Kellogg and Charles Soule, in painting, came later. The latter was a disciple and imitator of Jarvis, and executed many beau- tiful and strongly characteristic portraits. Like Jarvis, he used the camera lucida to make his drawings; hence he never became the master in drawing that he was in color, merely from the want of practice. He painted in Cincinnati and after- wards in Dayton. Waldo and Jewett, painting in partnership, were not of Cin- cinnati, but rather, in their Western experience, of Lexington; but as many interesting portraits of pioneer heroes came from their hands, less commercial than their association would seem to indicate, and as their work exerted a decided in- fluence upon the rising art, they should be mentioned here. Many of their heads, and some by their unknown compeers, are worthy, in their simple and untram- melled truth, of a place by the side of Holbein.

Jewett, of a Kentucky family, painted portraits of such remarkable truth, beanty of color and refinement, at the same time naturalness of composition, that their influence was felt in the formation of a taste here as well as elsewhere in the West. James H. Beard, still living, came to Cincinnati about 1830 or 1832; studied his art, portrait painting, here in nature's school and at the National Academy in New York. He made frequent visits to New Orleans and the South,

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painting portraits for the wealthy planters, entertaining them the while with in- imitable stories. He afterwards went to the dogs ; but his dogs lacking, perhaps, the refinement and dignity of those of Landseer, are so powerful in expression and consummate wit, sometimes almost human, that we are inclined to forgive him for the transfer of his artistic affections. His portraits were very fine; notably that of Mr. Gibson and also one of Durbin Ward.

Henry Worrall although, perhaps, more practically devoted to music than to the art of design, carried, with his intense and genuine love for the latter, such a genuine helpfulness, giving them his ever-ready tact and the strength of his manly arm over the rough ways, especially when their representative happened to be a talented and attractive girl, as most girls are to whom the muse of art is revealed, that the history of our art cannot be truthfully outlined without his honored name gracing the page. He was born in England and came to America when a mere boy and soon to Cincinnati. He came with almost the first canvass upon which some unknown artist might record his conceptions of the beautiful. Every scheme, looking to the better condition of art and the happier relation of its prac- titioners, was sure to find Worrall at the helm or trimming the sails for the pro- pitious breeze. To him, among many other enterprises for a similar purpose, we owe the first institution of the Cincinnati Sketch Club, out of which proceeded very many advantages to art. It had its influence in the evolution of nearly all the Cincinnati artists who have, in the last quarter of a century or more, exhibited particular excellence. The Sketch Club so formed numbered among its members Beard, Frankenstein, Mclaughlin, Mosler, Farny, Read, Quick, Lindsay and many others, who gave at each meeting a sketch in illustration of a subject pre- viously named, the sketches belonging to the member who on that occasion hap- pened to be the host. This club continued in excellent harmony until some preachers and wealthy merchants were introduced as honorary members, who, by an excess of goodfellowship and conviviality proved the unsuspecting club's un- doing. Previously its habits had been simple, as befitted a pioneer association of the West. Worrall carries the spontaneous germ of Sketch Club with him wher- ever he goes. He now lives in Topeka, Kansas, and there, at his word, a sketch club comes into being, with the additional grace of a membership composed of most beautiful and talented ladies.

The brothers Frankenstein, John and Godfrey, from 1832 to 1875 and 1881, are only to be spoken of in terms of the highest praise-Godfrey in landscape and John in all branches of art. . They were both born in Germany, but came to Cin- cinnati with their parents when small children. Godfrey was the younger and painted many beautiful landscapes, closely and carefully studied from nature, find- ing his themes all the way from the White Mountains to the Knobs of Indiana, including Niagara, of which latter place he painted hundreds of views, uniting most of them in a famous and very effective panorama. He was an affable and honorable gentleman ; qualities which, together with his acknowledged talent, secured for him many warm friends.

John, the elder brother, equally honorable and equally a friend of his fellow man, was not, unfortunately, of so equable a temper, but more nervous and some- what moody, was not always understood at his real personal worth ; no one know- ing him, however, could fail to appreciate his just impartiality towards other artists, or the fearless integrity with which, regardless of self-interest, he stood for the rights of man.

In his art his works show him to be pre-eminent, particularly in sculpture, his landscape studies and his painting of the human head in his happiest experiments (for experiment he often did), and in his drawing and painting of the human figure, he is beyond and above criticism. A consummate anatomist, an acute ob- server, there is nothing to be found in his works that has been carelessly con- sidered. His portrait of his brother Godfrey impresses me, as I remember it, as the grandest work of art I ever saw ; and his sculptures, particularly the head of

THE DEXTER MAUSOLEUM, SPRING GROVE.

LONGWORTH'S VINEYARD.

This drawing was made about 1856 of one of Longworth's vineyards on the Ohio hills, four miles above the city. The cultivation of the grape for wine has ceased, being found by change of climate unprofitable.

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McLean and also that of Dr. Mussey, have not been surpassed, if they have been equalled, in the last two thousand years. His painting led all that the later pil- grims to Munich have essayed, and his sculpture may stand, unbelittled, by the side of that of the Greeks in their best period.

There were several artists, now dead, who came upon the Cincinnati stage later than the Frankensteins. Thomas Buchanan Read, more celebrated as a poet than as a painter, exhibited, according to John Frankenstein, extraordinary genius in the commencement of his artistic career (about 1840), and attained very consider- able power, considering that his direct preparatory studies were curtailed by his more intimate and assiduous attention to his poetic muse. He wrote the war- ballad, "Sheridan's Ride," and afterwards painted a noble and spirited picture of . the subject. His portrait heads are characterized by a peculiar grace and refine- ment rather than by the exact rendering of the ordinary physical facts. His studies in painting never enabled him to embody in pictures the sublime, the pathetic, or even the beautiful, with that perfection or fullness of power which he has shown in his verse, and which, in many instances, enables him to abide in memory with the greatest bards that have ever lived.

J. O. Eaton, born Feb. 8, 1829, in Licking county, Ohio, came to Cincinnati about 1845, and attained prominence in portrait painting. Many of his best heads have not, in several respects, been surpassed. With good drawing, so far as the head and bust are concerned, and superb color, he had naturally, from the very first almost, a certain dexterity of handling that should set the neophytes of the present day who affect technique crazy with despair. His female heads are particularly lovely in pose, light and shade, color, and, more than all, expression. Lily Martin Spencer, a native of Ohio, worked in Cincinnati until abont 1855, and her works, mostly genre subjects, attracted much deserved attention and praise. Her later life has been passed mostly in New York, where she has been highly appreciated. Miss Gengembre, born in France of a talented family, her father having been a designer in the employ of the French government, distin- guished herself here by the beauty of her works, showing the way to more truth- ful process of study. She afterwards married Mr. Anderson, a talented engraver, and now resides in London, where her works are highly prized.

These great artists, and others possibly that escape my mind at this moment, have rendered a boon to mankind that will be more appreciated as time rolls on, and comparison is drawn between their works and those of artists working close by the protecting walls of the established schools of Europe.

Duncanson's landscapes were, on account of their peculiar poetical conception, much prized, not only in this country but in England and Scotland. Among the friends of the colored Americans (for Duncanson, a most genial gentleman as well as accomplished artist, was a light quadroon) they were in especial demand, find- ing favor with such cultured critics and outspoken believers that negroes have souls as Charles Sumner and his illustrious compeers in Europe.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 137

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