Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 154

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

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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).

A miner, John Stewart, who was crip- pled by an accident in a mine in Scotland many years before, was working with his son William in one of the farthest workings of the mine, when they received notice of the danger. They immediately started for the shaft, but their progress was so slow, that prospect of their arriving there in time was very discouraging. The son assisted the father's feeble steps, being passed on the way by men and boys hurrying to escape, who urged them to hasten, telling them again and again of their danger. This increased their excitement, hindering rather than assisting them ; the poor old crippled father, losing all courage, sank down by the way, giving up all hope and resigning himself to his fate urged his son to leave him and seek his own safety. "I am auld an crippled, Willie, and of nae account in the warl ; nae wo th ony sacrifice ; gang awa an save yoursel or we'll baith perish. You are young and strang an may have mony years tae live ; gang awa, Willie, an save yoursel ; I canna eoom.' "I wanna le you, fayther. Coom, I'll help you alang, and we'll baith get out," was the reply.

After repeated efforts the old man was in- duced to try again, but again sank down in despair, and in most piteous accents in his broad Scotch dialect urged his son to leave him and seek his own safety. Paying no attention to the old man's importunities, William would again with encouraging words and earnest pleadings get the old man up and make a little more progress towards the shaft.

Finally, after much toil and persistence, they both reached the shaft and were hoisted out in safety.

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY MANUFACTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN OHIO.

The following very valuable article was written for this work by the venerable WILLIAM C. HOWELLS, father of Wm. Dean Howells, the author. It was writ- ten and sent under the date of Jefferson, Ohio, December, 1887, when he was eighty years of age. In an accompanying letter, he wrote us : " I have endeav- ored to say enough to give the proper information, and to avoid saying anything

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of which I did not feel reasonably certain ; yet it is hardly to be expected that, after a lapse of seventy years, many errors will not have occurred :"

Quaker Enterprise .- My father emigrated from Brecknockshire in South Wales, in 1808, landing at Boston. I was then just one year old. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of woollen goods. In 1812 he was at Waterford, Lou- don county, Va., having made his way to that point from Boston, when he made the acquaintance of a Quaker, Joseph Steer, who had a large flouring-mill and water-power on Short ereck, about eighteen miles from Steu- benville and four from Mount Pleasant. This was a Quaker settlement of considerable im- portance, and the wealth and influence of that locality were chiefly in their hands ; and they were not excelled by any in all useful enter- prises that tended to improve the then new and growing country. Along the little river of Short creek they had built flouring-mills, salt-works, and a paper-mill of no mean capacity.

Joseph Steer sought to supply a needed woollen manufactory, and he engaged my father to put it in operation.

Passengers Transported by the Pound .- In the spring of 1813, as soon as the roads were in proper condition, my father engaged with one of the " Waggoners of the Alleghenies," for our passage from Waterford to Browns- ville, Pa., which was the usual place of changing shipments from wagons to boats, on the way to Ohio. The wagons used in the transportation of goods on that route were large and heavy, drawn by teams of four, five, or six horses. They would hold and carry 5,000 to 9,000 pounds, and movers took passage in them as they would in boats for themselves and household effects. The wagon in which we travelled was one of the five- horse class, owned and driven by one Thomas, not Mr. Birchard, who did not drink whisky or swear at his horses, which my mother re- garded as virtues of high esteem. At this time he had loaded nearly full at Alexandria, and took us on to complete the cargo. I very well remember that mother, my sister, brother, and myself, were weighed at the time our goods were loaded on, and all charged for at so much per pound, though I forget at what price, if I ever knew. My father had a pony, which he rode in company with the two wagons that travelled together, for mutual help over bad places and steep hills, when they joined teams. The trip was necessarily a slow one, as twenty miles was a long day's drive.

Keel Boat Travel .- Arriving at Browns- ville, we gladly stopped to rest and wait for a boat. We happened upon a new flat boat, which was being floated to Pittsburg, in which we found unbounded room, after the cramped journey in the wagon. At Pitts- burg we changed to what was then called a keel boat ; a kind of barge about the size of a canal boat. In it we soon floated the eighty miles to Warrenton, at the mouth of Short

creek, then a thriving village, and an impor- tant point for building flat boats, and loading them with flour and other produce for the New Orleans market. Three miles up the creek brought us to our destination, and we took our position as Ohioans seventy-five years ago.

Difficulties of New Manufacturing Enter- prises .- The destruction of Mr. Steer's flour- ing-mill deranged his plans as to manufac- turing ; and the woollen mill was limited to machinery adapted to country custom, card- ing and spinning machine, fulling-mill, etc., in a small way. Though a child, I very well remember that this new business was started under very great difficulties. Many of the parts of the machines had to be made by local mechanics. For the spinning "jenny," a blacksmith forged the spindles, and finished them with grindstone and files ; while a tin- smith, a cabinetmaker, a turner, and one or two ingenious general workers made the other parts. My father superintended the job ; made the drawings, etc. ; and in due time, before winter set in, the little factory was in operation.

Early Manufactures of Southeastern Ohio. -My father moved his family into Steuben- ville in 1816, when I had just entered upon my tenth year. I was a rather forward boy, and especially interested in manufacturing and mechanical work, of which I had a good conception for one of my years, so that now I have a good recollection of what I then saw. When recurring to that time-say August, 1818, and onward for a few years-I am rather surprised at the variety, as well as ex- tent, of manufactures in which the people of Southeastern Ohio and the adjacent parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania were engaged. The town of Steubenville, whose inhabitants then numbered about 2,000, was a centre of these operations that was typical in its way of the whole. The chief manufacture of the place was woollen cloths, carried on by a company, formed about 1812, on a more ex- tensive scale than any in the State, or west of the Allegheny mountains, at that time.

An Enterprising Pioneer .- The leading man in this enterprise was Hon. Bezaleel Wells, who was the original proprietor of the town, which was laid out in 1797, and who represented the county in the first Constitu- tional Convention in 1802, and who really spent his life and fortune in developing that part of the State. Mr. Wells associated with him in this undertaking several men of cap- ital and enterprise, among whom were James Ross, of Pittsburg ; William Dickinson, of Steubenville ; and a Mr. Patterson, of whom tradition said that, after great anxiety to see this factory in operation, he died simulta- neously with the starting of the engine. My father having been engaged as wool-grader in the concern till 1826, I had an opportunity

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of observing, and was familiar with its gen- eral work.

Losses Through Improvements in Machin- ery .- About 1818 another firm was organ- ized, of which the late Judge and Senator Tappan was a member, that was known as B. Wells & Co., which continued until about 1827, when the business passed into other hands. It was for a time managed by Mr. Wolcott, of Akron, the father of the late Judge Wolcott, who changed the style of the product to a less expensive kind, and made it pay its way for a time.

It was successful in the manufacture of great quantities of good cloth, and cheapen- ing the cost to consumers, who were largely the people of the State, and making a mar- ket for good wool ; besides introducing greatly improved brands of sheep. As a profit to those who invested money, it must have been one of the worst of failures. The original cost was necessarily very great ; while the in- troduction of new machinery and new styles of working every year absorbed a great part of the profits. I well remember, when very young, being impressed with the terrible losses that were evident to me, in the dis- carded machinery that filled every vacant spot of the ground and buildings-the result of changes that came in constant succession from year to year. This was not the result of dishonesty or very bad management. It seemed to have come of the crowding growth of improvements, which often made it econ- omy to cast aside a machine of real value. To this may be added successive fires, panics, and money depressions following the war of 1812. This factory and its various buildings occupied about ten acres, near the west end of Main street, a little east of the two fac- tories afterwards built by James and Eben- ezer Wallace.

The establishment of Messrs. Wallace, started under better auspices and in better times, sncceeded, and has done well. The Wallaces, availing themselves of a valuable vein of coal underlying the town, some twenty-five years ago sunk a shaft to it, which not only supplied them with fuel but became a source of material profit.

Cotton Cloth Factories .- About the time of the commencement of the old woollen fac- tory, another company pnt in operation a steam flouring-mill and cotton factory in a small way, both in adjoining buildings and propelled by the same engine, on the bank of the river at the foot of Main street. The cotton department was confined to carding and spinning only, producing yarns used in home-made linseys, carpets, and satinette warps, etc. It was discontinued about 1821. Soon after this date two cotton mills, on quite an extensive scale, were built ; both of which prospered permanently in the manufacture of yarns and unbleached cotton cloths.

Early Paper Miils .- At an early day the manufacture of paper was commenced in many places in the State, that seemed to do well, and made a full supply for the wants of the country. with the various kinds then in

use. There were mills at or near Cincinnati, Lebanon, Hamilton, Chillicothe, Columbus, Zanesville, Mount Pleasant, and Steuben- ville. Of course, they all made paper by the old hand-process, that had been in use from time immemorial, and was good enough for the world until the Fourdrinier process was introduced ; and these Western mills made a great deal of superior, fine paper. In 1816 the Mount Pleasant mill made the paper for the notes of the Bank of Mount Pleasant. The Steubenville mill, as I remember, had two rag-engines and three or four moulding- vats, and employed forty or fifty men and women-many more than are now employed in the mill with its ten-times increased power of production. This mill was propelled by a large low-pressure engine, as were the flour and cotton mills and the woollen factory. The business was carried on by John B. Bay- less & Co., who sold their paper at prices not much higher than it was sold thirty or forty years ago. I judge from the price of fools- cap, writing paper, that we used at school, which cost twenty-five cents a quire for a good article, not ruled. This mill was on the river bank, near where the Pen Handle Rail- road crosses.

On the river bank, a short distance below, there was an iron foundry, operated by Mar- tin Phillips. Connected with this, Adam Wise had a machine shop, where much of the machinery of the factory and mills of the vicinity was made or repaired. Mr. Wise also made the first plows of the country with iron mould-boards.

Extinct Trades .- On Main street, near Third, James Watt did a lively business as wheelwright, which meant the making of hand-spinning wheels for wool and flax, reels, etc., which trade is now extinct, and the wheels and reels that were to be found in every farmer's house in nearly constant use, are now retired to garrets or collections of bric-a-brac.

Another extinct trade was carried on by Daniel Kilgour, at the corner of Main and Fourth streets, which was the making of cut- nails by hand, but gave way to nail-making machines about 1825.

Next door to this was the watch and clock- making shop of Alexander Paxton, where he repaired watches and made brass eight-day clocks to order.

Measured for a "Roaram."-At the time I speak of, hats were made in shops as shoe- making and tailoring were done. Then, if a man or boy wanted a hat, it was bespoken, always two weeks in advance. As old boys well remember, the hatter measured his head and fitted him accordingly. The hats were made of wool or fur, or both mixed-the body of wool with the nap of fur, called a "roaram," a name well suited to the appear- ance of the hat. Fine hats were made with fur bodies and a nap of beaver or otter, These were really nice hats, and were worth the six to ten dollars they cost. Wool hats cost about a dollar, and a "roaram " $2.50 or $3. In that day the stiffening of Lats

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with gum-shellae was not in use, glue being used instead of water-proof gum ; and when overtaken with rain the hats would weaken down and bring the wearer to a "due sense of his unworthiness," for they would become flabby and the nap stick to them till they shone like a junk bottle after they became dry, besides "going to seed." as it was called. This made the hat an object of tender care, and led the wearer to carry in reserve an oiled silk or gingham covering, to be put on as re- quired. There were three hatters in town- Messrs. Hull, Odbert and Hoagland, each of whom helped me to a erown, as needed.

Mr. MeFetridge, whose trade is now also obsolete, made weavers' reeds, of reed-eane, to supply the many looms that were to be found in the farmers' houses all through the country.

Of general trades, there were the usual va- riety. I remember one earthenware pottery, three tanneries, carried on by Brice Viers, Samuel Williams and Hans Wilson ; six or seven shoe-shops and a like number of tailors, and one gunsmith, James Leaf.

An old paper that I have fixes the number

of merchants' stores at twenty-seven, and of taverns at sixteen.

Early Schools and Churches .- In the win . ter of 1816-17 there were two schools of the same order as our common schools, main tained by private subseription, as all schools then were, at $2.50 a scholar per quarter. One of these sehools, at which I was a pupil. was. taught by Rev. James B. Finley, and continued until it was overshadowed by the well-known school of Rev. Dr. Beatty.

At the beginning of 1817 there were three places of religious worship, where services were regularly held every Sunday : one Pres- byterian, with Rev. Mr. Hoagland as pastor ; one United Presl.gterian, Rev. Mr. Buchanan as pastor, and a Methodist Episcopal Church, forming a part of the Steubenville Circuit, with Rev. James B. Finley as presiding elder for the quarterly meeting district, the extent of which would astonish many of his breth- ren of this day. He lived in Steubenville, whence he made his fonr journeys on horse- baek, each year visiting, as extreme points, Zanesville, Norwalk, Cleveland and Warren, Ohio ; Beaver and Erie, Pa. ; and Fredonia, N. Y.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

Steubenville was named in a spirit of patriotism, from Baron von de Steuben, the drill master of the soldiers of the Revolution. He taught them to bring their muskets to the order by three motions in the slow style of the tactics of that day. He lies buried alone in the depths of a forest in Oneida county, New York, and in 1840 I walked twenty miles for the sole purpose of sketching his grave.

Steubenville is well situated, the best river town, steamboat men say, of any town on the Ohio, and because on the second plateau, and thus above the highest floods. The scenery around is impressive. In its rear high hills rise rounding in majestic curves. Opposite, close up to the West Virginia shore, is a steep wooded bluff, some 600 or more feet in height, its npper part an overhanging precipitons cliff. Down the river the view is expansive with bounding hills and never-returning waters. One may well term this as the gateway to the charm- ing scenery of the Upper Ohio.

A Sort of Lubberland .- The city has an old-time look-little or no ornate architecture -but there is comfort everywhere. It is similar in its social aspects and appearance to Marietta and Chillicothe. The country around langhs in its fatness-nobody starves. Going into a restaurant for dinner, there was placed before me on a side table some nine- teen dishes-1. Roast beef, very tender, Ohio grown. 2. Excellent coffee. 3 and 4. Cucumbers and onions. 5. Corn. 6. As- paragus in milk. 7. String beans. 8. Cab- bage, boiled. 9. Tomatoes, stewed with toast. 10. Rhubarb. 11. Potatoes warmed in milk. 12. Cold bread, butter. 13. Warm biseuit. 14 and 15. Rhubarb and cherry pie. 16. Ice eream. 17, 18 and 19. Vanilla and choco- late, with strawberries-and for all this but twenty-five cents charge. On my tour over Ohio forty years ago no such variety was any- where seen, and not onee a napkin at a meal, and eatable butter almost never-but no

charge for smelling. In no one thing has there been a greater improvement than in food. Lubberland seems to be heaving in sight for this people, and yet they don't all seem happy.

The track of the Cincinnati & Pittsburg Railroad runs on the river bank in front of Steubenville. The first person I met on my arrival to welcome me was Mr. J. J. Robin - son, the station agent, at whose residence I ealled on an errand. His house stands with its rear to the rail traek and river, near by the station. His home lot is 120 feet broad and 180 deep. The house, on an elevation fifteen feet above the lawn, occupies the farther end and fronts on a street. A line of Lombardy poplars, 120 feet in length and twelve feet apart, stands as sentinels on the river front of the lot. They were set out in 1878, being then saplings but two inches in diameter and ten feet high ; yet in 1884 they had attained a height of sixty feet, which he cut off

Davison Fillson, Photo.

BOYHOOD HOME OF STANTON.

From the old edition of 1846.

FEMALE SEMINARY, STEUBENVILLE.

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twenty feet from the top. Now (1886) they are forty-five feet in height, in luxurious foliage. On V.I.P 321 I speak on the subject of the poplar more fully. Around some of the home lots in the upper part of the town are very long lines of poplars hundreds of feet in length, making a very imposing ap- pearance. I know nothing of the kind equalling it. The casy swaying of the top of the poplars in the wind and the glinting lights on their branches are pleasing. But it is a solemn. tree-does for graveyards and melancholy blue states of the mind.

A Lesson in Ornithology .- Mr. Robinson's house has a veranda eighty feet in length on the second story facing the river. As he took me from the sentinel poplars across the lawn, through the shrubbery, grape vines and blooming roses to the veranda he said : "Come ; I want you to see my birds." At that moment a peacock spread his tail at my feet and gave an infernal screech-"Look ! admire my tail !" "That," said he, "is better than any watch-dog or policeman that can be got. Nothing can enter my yard at night but he sounds the alarm. He is ever faithful. Unlike a watchman, he never falls asleep on his post, and, unlike a dog, can never be seduced from duty."

Taking me on to the veranda, there in fifteen cages were nineteen birds chirping their joy. Among them English black-birds, golden oriole, canaries, mocking bird, Irish lark, Irish thrush, cat-bird and red-bird- nearly all foreign birds. The Irish lark has a voice of a peculiar rollicking nature. "Soars up in the air," said Mrs. Robinson, a black-eyed lady, with a merry laugh.

One canary was sitting on its nest. It was her third brood. I got within a foot of the little creature as she was sitting there so happy and comfortable. She cocked up her little eye, as much as to say : "Oh, you get out. You are nothing but a man. You can know nothing of a mother's joy." Mrs. R. told me that the canary lays from four to five eggs, and that fourteen days after the laying of the first egg a bird is hatched, and then after that one daily. If it is a male bird it is surely a singer and will sing fourteen days from its birth. Canaries arc weancd in from fifteen to twenty-one days.

Just at that moment a train went thunder- ing by, when the peacock gave a screech. He always does, and they pass every half hour ;

yells at every child's laugh and spreads his tail ad libitum. At night he perches on a flat board nailed on top of a post, close by the back door, and performs sentinel duty, at every noise sending forth a screech.

Suffering Bennie Shaw .- While here I sketched a cottage, the once home of the long-suffering but happy Bennic Shaw, who was deaf and dumb, very near-sighted and paralyzed. It stands in a nook between two other buildings on a business strect in Steu- benville. I called there and had an interview with his mother, a sad-appearing woman, to learn the history of her boy. When he was eleven years of age he was taken sick, and, becoming paralyzed, lay on his back until he died, at the age of thirty-seven, November 2, 1884. During that entire period only his head and chest grew, his body below remain- ing as in childhood. The cottage in which he lived and the room in which he was con- fined were very small, the latter with only one window which looked upon a little garden wherein grew flowers. He was very near- sighted, could use but one arm, could not lift himself in bed nor turn his head, and yet on the wall were numerous pictures in water- colors of flowers, birds and other objects which he painted mostly from copies and quite handsomely. And how he was enadded to do them at all seemed almost incredible. His mother thus described it to me, first showing me a board ten by twelve inches : "We," said she, "tacked the paper on this board. He laid on his back in his cot by the window, the board resting on his chest. He held the top of the board with his two little fingers. With the other three fingers he painted. Owing to his near-sightedness he was obliged to bring the board within four inches of his face. He could not paint all over the board except by turning it around, so it was often wrong side up. As he could not turn his head, he had a mirror, which magnified and reflected the flowers in the garden which he studied and painted. It was always a wonder to me how he was able to paint, and so beautifully, and when I asked him how he did it his answer always was, and with a smile, 'God helps me. He loves me.'" His little room was a holy spot. His presence made it an atmosphere of love, and when any strangers came in he always wanted to know if they loved God and en- joyed him as he did.

Several days passed in Steubenville enabled me to gather from some old gentle- men some amusing reminiscences upon its historical characters, as Edwin Stanton, Senator Tappan, Thomas Cole, etc. One of these was Mr. James Gallagher, a tall, wiry gentleman, with some hesitation in his speech but none in his brains, who came here, in 1816, from Philadelphia, when a lad of ten years. He said :

Anecdotes of Ben Tappan .- I knew Ben Tappan well. He was very sharp. He had a large house-dog, which one day strolled into the shop of one Peters, a butcher, and seizing a nice roast of beef made off with it. Peters, on discovering whose dog it was, called upon Tappan, and put the question to him: "If a neigh- bor's dog enters my shop and steals meat, is he not legally held in payment ?" "Certainly he is," rejoined Tappan. "Your dog," continued Peters," has this very

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morning stolen seventy-five cents worth of meat from me, and I have come for the money." "Not so fast, Mr. Peters," replied Tappan ; " I don't give legal advice without compensation. As you are a neighbor, I won't be hard upon you. My charge to you in this case is $2.00. You must therefore pay me the difference, $1.25, and we will call it square."

BEN TAPPAN was a most audacious man, and I have no doubt his example had much to do with the formation of the character of Edwin Stanton when he, a youth, became his partner. In olden times our Common Pleas court consisted of a president judge for each judicial district, and three associate justices for each county in which the court was held. The presence of three constituted a quorum. At a court held here a Mr. Anderson, a very worthy man, was one of the judges. He lived three miles out of town, and was wont to come to court on horseback with his sad- dle-bags, with his own dinner in one bag and oats for his horse in the other. After a cer- tain noon recess Anderson failed to appear in time. Tappan, who was naturally impatient, arose to address the court, when Judge Hal- lock interrupted him : "Brother Tappan, there is not a quorum ; you will have to wait for Judge Anderson."' "Are his saddle-bags under the bench ?" "Yes." "Then," re- joined Tappan, "I'll go on with my plea ; they will do just as well." And he did. Soon Anderson came in, and heard the bal- ance of the plea. It is to be inferred its opening was in due time communicated to him by the saddle-bags.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 154

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