Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 142

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

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I > Part 142

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

Archer,

1,009

785

Moorefield,

1840. 1,344

1,075

Athens,

1,435

1,221

North,

1,090

1,410

Cadiz,

2,386

3,116

Nottingham,

1,368

964

Franklin,

941

1,216

Rumley,

1,027

1,261

Freeport,

1,294

1,319

Short Creek,

2,023

1,831

Greene,

1,465

1,659

Washington,

1,004

1,211

Monroe,

896

1,364

Population in Harrison in 1820 was 14,345; in 1830, 20,920; 1840, 20,099 ; 1860, 19,110 ; 1880, 20,456, of whom 18,272 were born in Ohio; 915 in Penn- sylvania ; 341 in Virginia ; 54 in New York; 46 in Indiana ; 17 in Kentucky ; 230 in Ireland ; 104 in England and Wales; 30 in German Empire ; 10 in Seot- land ; 8 in British America, and 3 in France.

In April, 1799, Alex. Henderson and family, from Washington county, Penn- sylvania, squatted on the southwest quarter of the section on which Cadiz stands; at this time Daniel Peterson resided at the forks of Short Creek, with his family, the only one within the present limits of Harrison. In 1800, emigrants, prin- cipally from Western Pennsylvania, began to cross the Ohio river; and in the course of five or six years there had settled within the county the following-named persons, with their families, viz. :

John Craig, John Taggart, John Jamison, John M'Fadden, John Kernahan, John Huff, John Maholm, John Wallace, John Lyons, Rev. John Rea, Daniel Welch, William Moore, Jas. Black, Samuel Dunlap, James Arnold, Joseph and Samuel M'Fadden, Samuel Gilmore, James Finney, Thos. and Robt. Vincent, Robert Braden, Jas. Wilkin, Samuel and George Kernalian, Thos. Dickerson, Joseph Holmes, James Hanna, Joseph, William and Eleazer Huff, Baldwin Parsons, James Haverfield, Robert Cochran, Samuel Maholm, Hugh Teas, Jos. Clark, Morris West, Jacob Sheplar, Martin Snider, Samuel Osborn, Samnel Smith, and perhaps others, besides those in Cadiz and on Short Creek ; Thomas Taylor, John Ross, Thomas Hitchcock, Arthur and Thomas Barrett; Robert and Thomas Maxwell, Absalom Kent, John Pugh, Michael Waxler, Wm. M'Clary, Joseph, Joel and William Johnson, George Layport, William Ingles, Thomas Wilson, and perhaps others on Stillwater; John M'Connell, George Brown, John Love, William and Robert M'Cullough, Brokaw and others, on Wheeling creek.

Robert Maxwell, William and Joseph Huff and Michael Maxler were great

713

German,

1,349

1,311

Stock,

826

1880.

888

HARRISON COUNTY.

hunters, and the three former had been Indian spies, and had many perilous ad- ventures with the Indians. On one occasion, after peace, an Indian boasted, in the presence of Wm. Huff and others, that he had scalped so many whites. Towards evening, the Indian left for his wigwam, but never reached it. Being, shortly after, found killed, some inquiry was made as to the probable cause of his death, when Huff observed, that he had seen him the last time, sitting on a log, smoking his pipe; that he was looking at him and reflecting what he had said about scalping white people, when suddenly his pipe fell from his mouth, and he, Huff, turned away, and had not again seen him until found dead.

Beside frequent trouble with the Indians, the first settlers were much annoyed by wild animals. On one occasion, two sons of George Layport having trapped a wolf, skinned it alive, turned it loose, and a few days after it was found dead.

One mile west of the east boundary line of Harrison county, there was founded, in 1805, a Presbyterian church, called " Beach Spring," of which Rev. John Rea was for more than forty years the stated pastor. Their beginning was small ; a log-cabin, of not more than 20 feet square, was sufficient to contain all the members and all that attended with them. "Their log-cabin being burnt down by accident, a large house, sufficient to contain a thousand worshippers, was raised in its room, and from fifty communing members they increased in a short time to nearly 400, and became at one period the largest Presbyterian church in the State .- Old Edition.

Cadiz in 1846 .- Cadiz, the county-seat, is a remarkably well-built and city- like town, 4 miles southeasterly from the centre of the county, 115 easterly from Columbus, 24 westerly from Steubenville, and 24 northerly from Wheeling. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Associate (Seceder), and 1 Associate Reformed Church. It also contains 2 printing presses, 12 dry-goods, 7 grocery and 2 drug stores, and had, in 1840, 1,028 inhabitants.

Cadiz was laid out in 1803 or '4, by Messrs. Biggs and Beatty. Its site was then, like most of the surrounding country, a forest, and its location was induced by the junction there of the road from Pittsburg, by Steubenville, with the road from Washington, Pa., by Wellsburg, Va., from where the two united, passed by Cambridge to Zanesville ; and previous to the construction of the national road through Ohio, was travelled more, perhaps, than any other road northwest of the Ohio river. In April, 1807, it contained the following named persons, with their families : Jacob Arnold, innkeeper ; Andrew M'Neeley, hatter and justice of the peace ; Joseph Harris, merchant ; John Jamison, tanner; John M'Crea, wheel- wright ; Robt. Wilkin, brickmaker ; Connell Abdill, shoemaker ; Jacob Myers, carpenter ; John Pritchard, blacksmith ; Nathan Adams, tailor ; James Simpson, reed-maker ; Wm. Tingley, school-teacher, and old granny Young, midwife and baker, who was subsequently elected (by the citizens of the township, in a fit of hilarity) to the office of justice of the peace; but females not being eligible to office in Ohio, the old lady was obliged to forego the pleasure of serving her constituents.

The first celebration of independence in Cadiz was on the 4th of July, 1806, when the people generally, of the town and country for miles around, attended and partook of a fine repast of venison, wild turkey, bear meat, and such vege- tables as the country afforded ; while for a drink, rye whiskey was used. There was much hilarity and good feeling, for at this time men were supported for office from their fitness, rather than from political sentiments.

About one and a half miles west of Cadiz, on the northern peak of a high sandy ridge, are the remains of what is called the " standing stone," from which a branch of Stillwater derived its name. The owner of the land has quarried off its top some eight feet. It is sandstone, and was originally from sixteen to eighteen feet high, about fifty fcet around its base, and tapered from midway up to a cone-like top, being only about twenty feet around near its summit. It is said to have been a place of great resort by the Indians, and its origin has been a subject of specu-

889

HARRISON COUNTY.

lation with many people. It is, however, what geologists term a boulder, and was brought to its present position from, perhaps, a thousand miles northi, embedded in a huge mass of ice, in some great convulsion of nature, ages since .- Old Edition.

CADIZ, county-seat of Harrison, 125 miles northeast of Columbus, is on the Cadiz branch of the P. C. & St. L. Railroad. County Officers in 1888 : Auditor, George A. Crew ; Clerk, Martin J. McCoy ; Commissioners, M. B. Frebaugh, Robert B. Moore, Andrew Smith ; Coroner, Charles Mckean ; Infirmary Direc- tors, John B. Beadle, John Barclay, John W. McDivitt; Probate Judge, Amon Lemmon ; Prosecuting Attorney, Walter G. Shotwell; Recorder, Albert B. Hines ; Sheriff, Albert B. Quigley ; Surveyor, Jacob Jarvis ; Treasurer, Samuel A. Moore. City Officers in 1888 : A. W. Scott, Mayor ; W. H. Lucas, Clerk ; William McConnell, Treasurer; Walter Whitmore, Marshal ; John C. Bayless, Chief of Police.

Newspapers : Flambeau, Prohibitionist, C. B. Davis, editor and publisher ; Republican, Republican, W. B. Hearn, editor and publisher ; Sentinel, Democratic, W. H. Arnold, editor and publisher. Churches : 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal. Banks : Farmers' and Mechanics' National, Melford J. Brown, pres- ident ; C. O. F. Brown, cashier ; First National, D. B. Welch, president ; I. C. Moore, casliier ; Harrison National, D. Cunningham, president ; John M. Sharon, cashier ; Robert Lyons, Richard Lyons, cashier. Population, 1880, 1817. School census, 1888, 592; O. C. Williams, school superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $20,000. Value of annual product, $28,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

Came last evening (June 7) from Steuben- ville by the P. C. & St. L. R. R., and thence by a short line of railroad eight miles to Cadiz, which I found much as I left it in the last days of February, 1847. The old county buildings looked as of yore. They were the last things I had sketched in Ohio on my tour of 1846-1847, and two days later I was in a stage-coach going over the mountains on my way home. I am told Cadiz bas a large proportion of colored people; on the cars were some finely dressed people of color. The place it is claimed contains more wealth than any other of its size in the State. The banking capital is especially large. Here reside families who having accumulated for- tunes from prosperous farming, largely wool- growing, and tired of the isolation of farm- life make it their permanent home. Among its good things is a public library of 4,000 volumes, which speaks well for the character of its population, and especially so for Mrs. Chauncey Dewey, its founder.

Eminent Characters .- Cadiz is on a hill, as it should be, for it has been the home of some eminent characters. BISHOP SIMPSON, whom Abraham Lincoln said was the most eloquent orator he ever heard, was born here. SECRETARY STANTON began his law practice in Cadiz, and it bas been long the residence of JOHN A. BINGHAM, the silver-tongued orator of national fame. PROF. DAVID CHRISTIE, author of "Pulpit Politics " and "Cotton is King," was born in this county, edited a paper here, the Standard, and afterwards was a professor at Oxford. He and Simpson in their younger days were great

friends, and vied with each other in the writ- ing of acrostics. I knew Christie in the anti- bellum days -- a somewhat tall, large man. He had shaved his beard and dyed his hair, and he told me, because, in the eyes of the public, a man had about outlived his useful- ness if he showed signs of getting "snowed up." Judge John Welch (see p. 275) is also a native of this county.

Mr. Bingham has recently returned from Japan, where he has been twelve years our ambassador. I called upon him at his resi- dence early this morning, a plain, square brick house with a hall running through the centre. He personally answered my ring, and I made an appointment to meet him again in the afternoon. But we stood on the porch and talked some time. He is seventy-one years of age, a rather large gentleman, a blonde, with mild, blue eye and kindly face -- an elegant, easy talker, scattering unpremed- itated poetical similes through his speech. To illustrate, I had passed some compliments upon the beauty of the country around. whereupon he replied :

"MR. HOWE : if you can sketch for your book the hills which girdte this village and the fields of green and primeval forests, all scen under your eye from my door, you will have a picture of quiet beauty scarcely surpassed anywhere, certainly not in any part of this great country of ours, so far as I have seen, and I have seen much the greater part, nor in that foreign land, Japan, the 'Land of the Morning, famed for its landscapes."

BISHOP SIMPSON.

JOHN A. BINGHAM.

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

COUNTY BUILDINGS, CADI

891

HARRISON COUNTY.

Thinking that this speech of beauty about Cadiz from this eminent man should be pre- served for the gratification of its people after he had passed away, I wrote it from memory and presented it for his inspection on my second call, when he went on to thus com- ment : "The Japanese had called Japan the ' Land of the Rising Sun,' but the expression ' Land of the Morning ' I believe is original with me. We cannot tell from whenee thoughts come. They drop from the brain like rain from heaven. I used the expression in a speech I tuade at Yokohama in the fall of 1873, which was reported by an English gentleman. Mr. Dixon, and printed both in Japanese and English. Five years later Mr. Dixon published a work upon Japan and entitled it . The Land of the Morning.' The expression pleased the Japanese, and now it stands for all time."

He thought he could improve his little speech to me, and at my request, after some reflection, thus wrote in my note-book :

" DEAR MR. HOWE :

" The hills and primeval forest and green fields which girdle this village make a picture of quiet beauty which, I think, is scarcely sur- passed in any part of our country which I have seen, or in Japan, the Land of the Morning.

"JNO. A. BINGHAM. "CADIZ, OHIO, JUNE 8, 1886."

I give both for the benefit of the young, to illustrate the respective qualities of ampli- fieation and terseness in composition.

Animal Intelligence .- I now return to an incident in my morning call. As we stood at the door, in the mild rays of the early sun, two house-dogs came up to welcome me, Jack and Jake. Jack was a smart little black-and- tan, and observing my evident pleasure in their approach, Mr. Bingham said : "He has made the half circuit of the globe. I brought him from Japan, but he is a native of London ; his ancestry known way back to the time of Queen Anne. The other dog, Jake, is a Newfoundland, with a eross of the St. Bernard. As for him," and he said it with evident pride at the thought, "he is a native of this great State." Then be con- tinued : "It was a mystery to me how he got into the yard when the gate was closed, it swinging outward, and asking my little grand- son, he replied, 'Why, grandpapa, don't you know there is a knot-hole near the bottom ; he puts his nose in that and backs with it.' 'Then how does he get out?' 'Oh, he pushes !'". I might have told him, if I could have foreseen the fact, that one day I was to owu a dog that would open a door with a latch or one with a knob-the first by strik- ing, the other by placing his paws on each side of the knob and rubbing. And he is yet living, answering to the name of Black Ear, but we do not consider him as extra intelli- gent-that is, for a dog.

The intelleets and passions of our animals, as far as they go, I believe, are identical with

our own ; and it is certainly enlarging to us to study their qualities and be pleased with their joys. And as for the insect world, we are of those who can stoop down and watch with solid satisfaction a procession of ants, bring- ing up huge stones from out their under- ground habitations.

Furthermore, if one could not come into this world as a human being but could as an ant, he should be advised to embrace the op- portunity, as thereby he could aet as a teach- er, illustrating, as an ant certainly does, the good effects of systematic industry which, in the case of the ant, seems cheering. For if not, after having deposited his stone, why should he hurry back, fast as his little legs can carry him, for another ?

An Old Contributor .- I called to-day upon Mr. W. H. Arnold, editor of the Sentinel, who remembered my former visit ; his age at the time six years. His father, Mr. William Arnold, who died in 1874, aged seventy-six, contributed about all the historical material for my article on HIarrison county. He was a native of Fayette county, Pa. ; came here at the age of twelve; was justiec of the peace thirty-three years, during which time he married 300 couple. In the war of 1812 all his brothers were in the army, and he, being too young for service, made gunpowder for the soldiers during every winter of the war. Powder was then very searee, and as the government seized it wherever they could find it, and he could get a higher price for it in Steubenville, he took it there and sold it. The hut where he made it was about half a mile north of the town. He was a remark- ably fine rifle-shot : one moonlight night he shot eleven wild turkeys near his powder-mill.

Bishop Simpson's Early Days .- On in- quiry, I learn that the house in which Bishop Simpson was born (June 20, 1811) stood on the site of the National Bank. He derived his name, Matthew, from his bachelor uncle, Matthew Simpson. He was a State Senator for many years, and by profession a school- teacher and a man of superior acquirements ; a walking encyclopædia ; unprepossessing in appearance ; small head and body. He lived to a great age, dying somewhere in the nine- ties. To eke out a living he manufactured reeds for the old hand-loom for home-made linen and jeans, and sold them to the coun- try people, who wore homespun. The Bi- shop's father died when he was two years of age, and his uncle became his foster-father and took great interest in the lad. To his care the Bishop got his intellectual bent.

An old citizen, Mr. H. S. MeFadden, says to me: "The Bishop was an awkward, gawky, barefooted boy, and, when about seventeen, so shy that he was afraid of so- ciety, and so miserable in health that it was supposed he would soon perish of consump- tion ; tall of his age and round-shouldered. He wrote acrostics for the Harrison Tele- graph, and was fond of visiting the printing- office. The people here were astonished at his suceess in life."

The Itinerant's Nest .- On a corner near the

892

HARRISON COUNTY.

border of the village I was pointed out a long, low, old cottage, in which Bishop Simp- son passed many of his boyhood days. It was then the home of William Tingley, his mother's brother, a man of note in his day. He was for forty years clerk of court, was prosperous, had excellent sense, and some sheep-raising man-it must have been-told me he was in his day the "bellwether" of the Methodist church here.

The sight of an old time weather-beaten structure like this, brown as a rat too, is al- ways picturesque. This was particularly so, from its associations; attached to it and facing the street was another cottage of a single room in front, overgrown with vines. This the good man built solely for the accom- modation of travelling Methodist ministers, a nest for itinerants. As I entered it, I felt, from its peculiar moral associations, I was more blessed than to have entered a palace. Here many a brother in Israel, in the olden time, after ambling for many a weary mile through the wilderness on his little nag, often eating parched corn for his sustenance, and preaching the same old sermon a thousand times, has looked forward to this little nest provided for him by Brother Tingley as one of the choice havens, where he could rest under the protecting wings of a brother's love, and smoke his pipe in peace.

Comic Anecdotes .- This advent of the itinerants to the cabins of the pioneers, in the lonely wilderness condition of the country, was always a great blessing aside from their especial mission as spiritual messengers. They were eminently a social body of men,

and were welcomed with a hospitality that knew no bounds. Of course they had bouncing appetites. Their outdoor lives in- sured that, especially with their occasional fasts, when lost or belated in the wilderness. To feed them well was the pride of the log- cabin dwellers ; whenever they tarried forays were invariably made upon the poultry. So certain was this that the term "chicken- eaters" was often applied to the circuit riders. Many comical anecdotes were told in this re- gard, and none enjoyed them better than the circuit riders themselves.

One of them, whom one may call Brother Brannen, as the story goes, who used to amble on his nag through Eastern Ohio, early in the century, was especially favored with gastro- nomic powers. His voice and person were huge as his appetite, and he seemed proud of his eating capacity. He used to say that "a turkey was an unhandy bird-rather too much for one person and not quite enough for two." On an occasion he stopped at the cabin of a widow, who was of course all aglee to give him the best she had. After a little the good brother, going out to attend to his nag, was attracted by the sound of a child crying, and tracing his way by it found the widow's son, and he perhaps her only son, seated behind a corn-crib with a chicken under his arm. "What's the matter, sonny?" said he, in tender tones. "I am crying," he replied, "because mother sent me out for this chicken, and what between the hawks and the circuit riders it is the last chicken left on the place."

A WALK AND A SHEEP-TALK.

Last evening, June 9, near sunset, I took a walk with Mr. Stewart B. Shot- well, and ascended Boyle's Hill, half a mile west of the town. As we neared the summit a flock of sheep in their timidity descended the other side. We could see over a large part of Harrison county. Cadiz loomed up pleasantly on a companion hill. Under our eyes was the great dividing ridge, on one side of which the flowing waters descended and made their way into the Tuscarawas, on the other into the Ohio. The view was a succession of rolling grass-carpeted hills interspersed with forests. A warm rain had clothed them in the richest green, on which flocks of sheep were grazing. Down in a little modest valley a train of cars was approaching Cadiz on the short junction railroad. Dwindled by distance and our height, it seemed as a little toy affair, a child's plaything, playing bo-peep as it dodged in and out from behind the hillocks that at times hid it from view. The sky was somewhat overcast and the setting sun was red- dening a mass of striated clouds over a scene of pastoral beauty.

Bah !- As we stood there on the very summit enjoying the scene to the full, and talking largely about sheep, there was a panse in our conversation, and we were about to leave, when I was astonished by a loud Bah! I then saw what had before escaped my eye. The sheep, which had fled at our approach and got out of sight, had taken courage and again mustered to the number of hundreds in a huge triangular mass on the grassy slope below us. At its very apex, and not sixty feet away, was the bellwether of the flock, all of which had stood in silence looking up at us, and apparently listening to our conversation; and I could not help thinking that this startling bah ! from the bellwether was expressive of his

893

HARRISON COUNTY.

contempt at our conversation upon wool. By this time the shadows of evening were settling upon Cadiz, but I could discover nothing Spanish in the air.

Sheep Statistics .- Harrison, by the statis- tics of 1880, to the square mile leads all other counties in Ohio in the number of sheep and production of wool; the number of sheep was 209,856 and pounds of wool 1,090,393. Licking county, Ohio, which has nearly double its area, exceeded it about one-quarter in sheep, having been 251,989. Venango county, Pa., had 461,120 sheep and produced 2,416,866 pounds of wool. This we believe is the largest sheep-producing county in the Union, while Harrison ranks the third. Ohio is the greatest sheep-producing State. Its number in 1880 was 4,902,486, sheep clip 25,003,756 pounds ; next was California, 4,152,349 sheep, clip 16,798,036 pounds ; Texas 2,411,633 sheep, clip 6,928,019 pounds ; Michigan 2,189.389 sheep, clip 11,858,497 pounds ; New Mexico 2,088,83] sheep, clip 4,019,188 pounds. Missouri and Wisconsin next lead each with less than a million and one- half of sheep. The entire number of sheep in the United States exclusive of spring lambs was, in 1880, 42,192,074, or a little less than one sheep to one person.

"Wool," said Mr. Bingham, "is the prime clothing for man. As sheep increase civilization advances." Beside carrying a blessing in the way of warmth and clothing, there is a good moral thought in the fact that wool is the natural outgrowth of an animal divinely chosen as the type of inno- cence and amiability. "Feed my lambs." And then the care of sheep seems to have a reflex action upon the owners in the charac- ter of their visitors and the things they see, as is illustrated by the old hymn :

"While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground,

The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around."

Job, I take it, is an especially interesting character to this people, he owned so many sheep : in the early part of his life 7,000, and in the latter part 14,000, and they tell me he ought to have lived in Harrison county, for the climate is so healthy that he would have escaped at least one of his evils -boils.

Great as were Job's possessions, there are to-day in Australia sheep ranges, the prop- erty of single owners, whereupon are raised over 150,000 sheep ; 20,000 is but a moderate sized range. Three acres there is generally allowed for a single animal, sometimes ten acres. Sheep are not seen there in flocks, owing to the scant herbage ; there sheep con- sequently are scattered over vast areas, a range for a flock of 200 requiring as much land as an Ohio township. What may seem strange, one may travel over a station where- upon are tens of thousand of sheep, and not have over three or four of the animals in one view in any place.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 142

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