Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 144

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

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Then grandly glows the mighty dome, While silence rests on earth below ; Save where the distant tides of life In dying murmurs faintly flow.

Then soft and sweet, bright isles of' bliss Seem floating in an ocean sky ; A spirit realm of light and love- The happy immortality.

In mantling night the vision melts, While worlds afar their glories spread ; And thus alike through mists and stars The soul of man is upward led.

The wondrous orb, great source of light, To other lands glad morning brings ; Day never ceases with his work,

Nor Time to speed with aging wings.

Ride with a Doctor .- The next point was to get back to Scio, so I took the ridge road ; thought I could, notwithstanding the lame- ing blow of the mail-bag, manage to walk there. In a few minutes I was overtaken by a gentleman in a buggy, with a little two- year-old girl on his lap, and I accepted his invitation to a seat beside him. It was Dr. George Lyle, a country physician, edu- cated in Cincinnati, and I found knew some of my medical friends there. He told me he had been a schoolmate of Custer. He de- scribed him as an apt scholar, a leader among the boys, mischievous and full of practical jokes ; withal very plucky.

One evening, at some lecture where the audience were on the ground floor, a ragamuf- fin of a boy unable to get in flatted his nose against the window pane and made wry faces at George, whereupon the latter drove his fist through the glass into his face. The next day three boys accosted him, saying they were going to thrash him. He replied by drawing a pocket-knife, saying-"I will fight all three of you with my fists if you will come one at a time, but if you come all at once you shall have this," at the same open- ing the blade. The boys pursued the topic no farther. "Das Schweigen ist ihr bester Herold."

Presently the road narrowed to a mere lane, now in the woods and then in the open, when some flies lit behind the horse's ears, when he stopped the vehicle, stood upright, gathered the lash and stock tightly in his hand, and with the tautened curve thus made at the end of the whip, slowly, care- fully slid it under the offending insects. They respected the hint for the time, but came again. when he stopped the carriage, got out and gathering twigs of leaves from the woods put them as a defence in the trap- pings of the horse's head. Then the little one said something in its baby tones, making a request, I did not hear what, when he again went into the woods and returned with flowers in his hands and love in his heart, and taking her in his lap we soon descended a hill, made a turn and then were in Scio.

A TALK WITH JOHN GILES OF SCIO.

After supper in the tavern at Scio, I was enjoying a quiet smoke, when I heard a voice at my side. It was that of an old man of about seventy years of age, who had accosted me. He was in his shirt-sleeves, tall, patriarchal white beard and hair, blue eyes, fresh complexion and expression of great amiability. It was John Giles, of Scio. He wanted to tell me what he knew about the Custers, and I let him. The original spelling was Kuster. Their first ancestor in this country

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HARRISON COUNTY.

was from Hesse-Cassel, came over in the Revolutionary war time and fought " mit de Hessians."

Emanuel Custer, the father of the General, was a blacksmith and justice of the peace. "My wife and Squire Custer are consins," said he, "and he married us." I used to keep school, and taught George his A, B, C; his father and myself were always great friends. George was irrepressible as a hoy. One thing I recollect. His father and myself were walking by a barn yard, when we heard a child screaming; a moment later little George, then a boy in his frock, appeared bursting through a line of currant bushes, with a huge gander fastened by his talons to his back. George had been attracted by the sight of young goslings, and going for them the gander had alighted on him and was whipping him with his wings.

"Ahout this time we organized a military company, 'cornstalk militia,' in New Rum- ley, and the child followed us about all day. From that moment his passion to become a soldier originated and grew with his years. His family tried in vain to dispel this am- bition. He desired to go to West Point, but his father told him as he was personally a Democrat and Mr. Bingham, the member of Congress in whose power it lay to obtain a cadet warrant, a Whig, he would not give it to him. How he obtained it Mr. Bingham had told me only two days before this con- versation with Mr. Giles.

"I received," said Mr. Bingham, "a let- ter from Custer, then at school at Hopedale, in Greene township, asking for the appoint- ment. This was about the year 1857. Its honesty captivated me. It was written in school-boy style. In it he said that he un- derstood it made no difference with me whether he was a Republican boy or a Demo- crat boy-that he wanted me to understand he was a Democrat boy. I replied, if his parents consented, I would procure it for him.

"He was at West Point but three years. Such was the want of officers at the begin- ning of the war, that his class, hefore gradu- ating, were commissioned ; he as Lieutenant of Cavalry in a company commanded by Captain Drummond, son of Rev. Dr. Drum- mond, of this place (Cadiz). He was in the first battle of Bull Run. The day after I saw a young officer ride up to my door in Washington and dismount. He had long, yellow hair hanging like Absalom's. He came up to me and introduced himself as Lieutenant Custer. Up to that moment I had never seen him. In the December be- fore he had passed his twenty-first birthday. He said : "Mr. Bingham, I have been in my first battle, and I've come to tell you I've tried not to show the coward."

Mr. Giles told me he was a soldier in the Potomac army, and at one time was in camp near the command of Custer. "One even- ing," said he, " I heard footsteps approach- ing my tent ; a moment later in came General Custer to see me. He inquired why I had not called upon him. I replied, I had so desired, but I thought it would not do ; he had now got to be a great man, a General, and I was only a common soldier. "Humph," he rejoined, "I thought you knew me bet- ter, that I was above all such nonsense as that, especially with an old friend, and the friend of my father." And then he play- fully added : "I expect the old man is the same darned old Copperhead yet, aint he ?" I had to acknowledge I thought he was.

Mr. Giles took me to his cottage, close by, and showed me finely framed and colored portraits of the General's parents. In his simplicity-stranger as I was-lie wanted to loan them to me. It seemed like sacrilege to accept his offer-would not take such a responsibility of their safe-keeping, even had I wanted them.

Custer's father had a large, strong-look- ing face, with a straight, firmly set mouth. On seeing that expression one could easily imagine how, having been born a Democrat, he had set that mouth of his grim and de- fiant to die one. From him it was that his son got his light golden hair, and the impulse that belongs to that temperament. The portrait of the mother was in profile. She was a brunette. The whole air of the woman showed a high degree of refinement, with a. tinge of sadness resting upon her counje .. nance. "She never had," said Giles, "any especial social opportunities, but she was a born lady, thoughtful, dignified and always inspiring high respect. At the time of the massacre, with Custer was killed his two brothers, Thomas and Boston, both offi- cers, Captain Calhoun, her brother-in-law- that is, her sister's husband-and Mr. Reed, a civilian, on a visit to the General ; also Louis Clem, younger brother of Johnnie Clem, the drummer boy of Shiloh. The mother never rallied from the terrible blow ; it broke her heart, and she sank and died. The father is still living in Michigan, and is of a naturally cheerful temperament ; but as long as I knew him, on any allusion to the death of his sons, he would swell up and leave the room.

As I pass these notes over to the printer, I copy from a note-book : "Died July 13, 1889, John Giles, of Scio :" that is, three years after this talk with me.

We annex some items, mainly from Whitelaw Reid's "Sketch of Custer," wherein are given some of the brilliant points of his brilliant military career. At the battle of Williamsburg he accompanied the advance as aid-de-camp under

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HARRISON COUNTY.

Gen. Hancock, and captured the first battle-flag ever captured by the army of the Potomac. . . . He was the first person to cross the Chickahominy, which he did by wading up to the armpits in the face of the enemy's pickets. . . . At Gettys- burg he held the right of the Union line, and utterly routed Hampton's cavalry. In this battle he had two horses shot under him, and in the course of the war eleven horses. . . . At the battle of Trevillian Station five brigades attacked his one. Against such odds he fought for three hours. His color-bearer was shot, when the flag was only saved by Custer tearing it from its standard and conceal- ing it around his body. . . . At Winchester he took nine battle-flags, and took more prisoners than he had men engaged. . . . When Sheridan arrived at Cedar creek, after his famous ride, he said, "Go in, Custer." Custer went in, drove the enemy for miles, captured a major-general, many prisoners, and forty-five pieces of artillery. For this he was brevetted Major-General of Volunteers. It would be beyond our limits to recapitulate his many successes ; but he was the first to receive the white flag from Gen. Lee, and Sheridan presented Mrs. Custer the table on which Lee signed the surrender. . . . He never lost a gun or a color ; he captured more guns, flags, and prisoners on the battle-field than any other general not an army commander, and his services throughout were most brilliant.

Gen. Custer was nearly six feet in height, of great strength and endurance, broad- shouldered, lithe and active, with a weight never above 170 pounds. His eyes were blue, his hair long and golden. At the age of twenty-three he was made a brigadier- general ; at twenty-five a major-general, the youngest man of his rank in the army. Reid says : "For quick dashes and vigorous spurts of fighting he had no superiors and scarcely an equal. His career was disastrously closed in an attack, on the 25th of June, 1876, on an Indian encampment, on Little Horn river, in Montana, when his command of 277 cav- alrymen were overwhelmed by about 1600 Sioux Indians, under Sitting Bull, and mas- sacred to a man-not one spared to tell the tale. The old chief, a year or two later, was asked at a conference the particulars, where- upon Sitting Bull replied, "I do not know where the Yellow Hair died."

Gen. Terry, who commanded the forces of the expedition, in all amounting to about 1,400 infantry and cavalry, and against whose implied orders the attack had been made, arrived with the main body upon the scene a day later. He ordered the burial of the slain, and in 1879 it was made a national cemetery.

MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D., was born in Cadiz, 20th June, 1811, and died in Philadelphia, Pa., 18th June, 1884. His father died when he was two years of age. His uncle, from whom he was named, was a man of literary ability and gave his mind a literary bent. He graduated at what is now Allegheny College, and at eighteen became a tutor. He first began the practice of med- icine ; and then, at the age of twenty-two, entered the ministry, the Pittsburg Confer- ence. He preached first on the St. Clairs- ville Circuit ; in 1837 became Vice-President and Professor of Natural Sciences of Alle- gheny College, and in 1839 was chosen Pres- ident of Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw)

University, Greencastle, which position he held for nine years and gained great popu- larity.

Appleton's "Cyclopedia of American Bi- ography" says : "His eloquence made him in great demand on the pulpit and on the platform. His personal qualities gave him an extraordinary influence over students, and made him efficient in raising money for the endowment of the college. In 1844 he was elected to the General Conference, and in 1848 he was re-clected. He appeared in 1852 in the conference as the leader of his delega- tion, and at this conference he was made bishop."

In 1857 he was sent abroad as a delegate to the English and Irish Conference of the Wesleyan connection, and was also a delegate to the World's Evangelical Alliance which met in Berlin.

His preaching and addresses made upon this tour attracted great attention, particu- larly his sermon before the alliance, which extended his fame as a pulpit orator through- out the world. After its adjournment he travelled through Turkey, Palestine, Egypt and Greece. In 1859 he removed from Pitts- burg to Evanston, Ill., and became nom- inally President of Garrett Biblical Institute. Subsequently he removed to Philadelphia. His powers as an orator were displayed dur- ing the civil war in a manner that commanded the admiration and gratitude of the people.

President Lincoln regarded him as the greatest orator he ever heard. and at his funeral in Springfield Bishop Simpson offi- ciated. He made many addresses in behalf of the Christian Commission, and delivered a series of lectures that had much to do with raising the spirit of the people. His official duties took him abroad in 1870 and 1875. Iu 1874 he visited Mexico. At the ŒEcumenical Council of Methodists, in London, he was selected by the representatives of all branches to deliver the opening sermon. After the

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HARRISON COUNTY.

news of the death of President Garfield he delivered an address at Exeter Hall. He was selected by the faculty of Yale to deliver a series of addresses before the students of the theological department, which were pub- lished as "Lectures on Preaching " (New York, 1879).

In later years his appearance was patri- archal. His eloquence was simple and natural, but increasing in power from the beginning to the close. It was peculiar to himself and equally attractive to the ignorant and the learned. One of his natural advantages was his remarkable voice. When he was at his best few could resist his pathetic appeals. Though his eloquence is the principal element of his fame, he was a man of unusual sound- ness of judgment, a parliamentarian of re- markable accuracy and promptitude, and one of the best presiding officers and safest of counsellors. He was present in the General Conference in Philadelphia in 1884. Though broken in health, so as not to be able to sit through the sessions, his mind was clear and his farewell address made a profound impres- sion. Bishop Simpson published " Hundred Years of Methodism" (New York, 1876), and "Cyclopedia of Methodism " (Philadel- phia, 1878, 5th ed. revised 1882). After his death a volume of his "Sermons" was edited by Rev. Geo. R. Crooks, D.D. (1885). A window in his memory is to be placed by American admirers in City Road Chapel, London, where John Wesley preached.

JOHN A. BINGHAM, late United States Minister to Japan, sometimes called "the silver-tongued orator, " and so long and highly eminent and useful in the councils of the na- tion, was born January 21, 1815, in Mercer,

Pa. In his childhood he resided four years in Ohio ; then passed two years and a half in learning printing in Mercer ; was then educated in the Mercer Academy and Frank- lin College, and in 1840 came to Ohio and followed the practice of the law. In the Harrison campaign he took an active part as a Whig orator, and twice held public discus- sions with Edwin M. Stanton, having been challenged by him.

In the National Whig Convention of 1848 he proposed a resolution which it was thought too dangerous to adopt, but which was the key-note to his subsequent course, viz. : " No more slave States ; no more slave Territories ; the maintenance of freedom where freedom is, and the protection of American industry." He was first elected to Congress in 1854, and served in all sixteen years; in 1873 he was appointed by Grant Minister to Japan, where he resided until the advent of Mr. Cleveland's administration.

In the sixteen years of his service in Con- gress he served on the most important com- mittees. For four years he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was chairman of the managers on behalf of the House on the trial for the impeachment of President Johnson. He was author of the first section to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Cou- stitution, save the introductory clause thereof. He was appointed special judge-advocate for the trial of the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. He was given other important official trusts, spending in all eighteen years in Washington, giving unwearying labor to the nation in its most eventful period. Besides his many speeches in Congress, he has spoken in half the States for " the Union and Constitution."

FREEPORT is eighteen miles southwest of Cadiz, on the C. L. & W. Railroad, and on a branch of the Tuscarawas river. Newspaper : Press, independent, Mc- Math & Williams, editors and publishers. Churches : one Methodist Episcopal, one Presbyterian, one Friends. Population, 1880, 387.

Scio is on the P. C. & St. L. Railroad, nine miles north of Cadiz. It is the seat of Scio College, E. J. Marsh, president. Newspapers : Herald, independent, Herald Printing Company, editors and publishers ; Collegian, students of Scio College, editors and publishers. Churches : one Presbyterian, one United Pres- byterian, one Methodist. Bank : Scio (Hogue & Donaldson); R. S. Hogue, cashier. Population, 1880, 509.

BOWERSTON is on the P. C. & St. L. Railroad, eighteen miles northwest of Cadiz. Newspaper : Gazette, independent, Charles G. Addleman, editor and pub- lisher. Churches : one Methodist, one United Brethren, one Lutheran. Popu- lation about 500.

JEWETT is on the P. C. & St. L. Railroad, seven miles north of Cadiz. First house was built in 1803, by George Dowell. The village was laid out in 1851, by John Stall, and called Fairview. Name was changed to Jewett in 1881. Churches : one Presbyterian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Lutheran Evangelical. Population about 600.

NEW ATHENS, on the St. Clairsville and Cadiz pike, seven miles south of Cadiz, is the seat of Franklin College. Bank : John Dunlap, Jr. Churches: one Presbyterian, one United Presbyterian, one Protestant Episcopal. School census, 1888, 156.

DEERSVILLE is twelve miles west of Cadiz. School census, 1888, 99.

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HENRY COUNTY.

HOPEDALE is six miles northeast of Cadiz. It is the seat of Hopedale Normal College; president, W. G. Garvey. School census, 1888, 106.

HARRISVILLE is ten miles southeast of Cadiz. Churches : one United Pres- byterian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Methodist Protestant. School census, 1888, 143.

HENRY.

HENRY COUNTY was formed April 1, 1820, from old Indian territory, and named from Patrick Henry, the celebrated Virginia orator of the revolutionary era. Area about 430 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 102,558; in pasture, 5,377; woodland, 49,895 ; lying waste, 1,064; produced in wheat, 487,986 bushels ; rye, 80,539 ; buckwheat, 1,319 ; oats, 303,186 ; barley, 14,787 ; corn, 938,584 ; broom corn, 275 lbs. brush ; meadow hay, 10,945 tons; clover hay, 4,670 ; potatoes, 59,647 bushels ; butter, 435,113 lbs. ; sorghum, 6,338 gal- lons ; maple syrup, 1,037 ; honey, 9,131 lbs .; eggs, 598,334 dozen ; grapes, 2,967 lbs. ; sweet potatoes, 17 bushels; apples, 22,883; peaches, 706 ; pears, 456 ; wool, 40,811 lbs .; milch cows owned, 5,480. School census, 1888, 8,337; teachers, 225. Miles of railroad track, 80.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

Adams,

188

Marion,

1,202

Bartlow,

1,064

Monroe,

1,148

Damascus,

489

1,415

Napoleon,

609

4,504

Flat Rock,

476

1,701

Pleasant,

1,773

Freedom,

1,235

Richfield,

857

Fredonia,

105

Richland,

542

Harrison,

1,372

Ridgeville,

1,119

Liberty,

1,946

Washington,

1,249

Population in 1840 was 2,492; in 1860, 8,901; in 1880, 20,585; of whom 15,721 were born in Ohio; 712 in Pennsylvania; 457 in New York; 181 in Indiana ; 145 in Virginia ; 17 in Kentucky ; 2,106 in German Empire; 140 in Ireland ; 140 in British America ; 127 in England and Wales; 116 in France ; and 21 in Scotland. Census of 1890, 25,080.

A greater part of this county is covered by the famous " Black Swamp." This tract reaches over an extent of country of one hundred and twenty miles in length, with an average breadth of forty miles, about equalling in area the State of Con- necticut. It is at present thinly settled, and has a population of about 50,000; but, probably, in less than a century, when it shall be cleared and drained, it will be the garden of Ohio, and support half a million of people. The surface is generally high and level, and "sustains a dense growth of forest trees, among which beech, ash, elm, and oak, cotton wood and poplar, most abound. The branches and foliage of this magnificent forest are almost impenetrable to the rays of the sun, and its gloomy silence remained unbroken until disturbed by the rest- less emigrants of the West." It is an interesting country to travel through. The perfect uniformity of the soil, the level surface of the ground, alike retaining and

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HENRY COUNTY.

alike absorbing water, has given to the forest a homogeneous character : the trees are all generally of the same height, so that when viewed at a distance through the haze the forest appears like an immense blue wall, stretched across the horizon. It is yet the abode of wild animals, where flocks of deer are occasionally seen bounding through its labyrinths. Throughout the swamp, a mile or two apart, are slight ridges of limestone, from forty rods to a mile wide, running usually in a westerly direction, and covered with black walnut, butternut, red elm, and maple. The top soil of the swamp is about a foot thick, and composed of a black, decayed vegetable matter, extremely fertile. Beneath this, and extending several feet, is a rich yellow clay, having large quantities of the fertilizing sub- stances of lime and silex. Lower still is a stratum of black clay of great depth. The water of the swamp is unpleasant to the taste, from containing a large quan- tity of sulphur ; it is, however, healthy and peculiarly beneficial to persons of a costive habit, or having diseases of the blood. The soil is excellent for grain and almost all productions-garden vegetables and fruit thrive wonderfully. We were shown an orchard of apple trees, some of which had attained the height of twenty feet, and measured at their base twenty inches, which, when first planted, five years since, were mere twigs, but a few feet in height, and no larger than one's finger .- Old Edition.

The foregoing description is copied from our original edition, issued forty-three years ago. In the meantime this entire region-the Maumee valley-has under- gone extraordinary changes. Napoleon, the county-seat, was then so insignificaut that our entire description was contained in three lines : "Napoleon, the county- seat, is on the Maumee river and Wabash canal, 17 miles below Defiance, 40 above Toledo, and 154 northwest of Columbus. It is a small village, containing about 300 inhabitants."

Knapp, in his history of the Maumee valley, published in 1872, has given some valuable historical items, in regard to both town and county, which we here copy :

"Napoleon was platted in 1832, and the first dwelling, a log-cabin, erected that year. By the census of 1830, two years previous, the entire county had but 262 inhabitants, and its tax valuation in 1823 was but $262. The following were residents of Napoleon in 1837 : Judge Alexander Craig, James G. Haley, Gen. Henry Leonard, James Magill, John Powell, Hazell Strong, George Stout, and John Glass. There were three small frame houses, the others being made of logs. The first house erected in the place was a log-cabin, twelve by fourteen feet, and was offered to the public by Amos Andrews as a tavern.

"On the usual road, on the north side of the river, between Maumee city and Fort Wayne, thirty-five years ago [1836], after leaving the former place, the first house the traveller would meet would be at Waterville, six miles above Maumee city, where he would find five or six dwellings. Passing up seven or eight miles farther, he would reach the tavern of Mr. Tiehean, a half-breed Indian. The next house, eighteen miles above, would be in a group of three or four, standing at Providence ; thence he would reach the hospitable house of Samuel Vance, occupying the site of a farm which was found by Wayne's army in a high state of cultivation, in 1794, and which was then known as Prairie du Masque, and now as Damascus. This point would bring the traveller twenty-seven miles above Maumee city. The next house, about two miles above Damascus, was a tavern and trading-post owned by John Patrick. Three miles above this the traveller would reach Napoleon, where he would discover the settlers above enumerated.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 144

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