Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 52

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 52

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The " White Burley" Tobacco, which is a highly valued as a superior chewing tobacco. It was first discovered about the year 1860 by

native of this county, is of fine quality and

BROWN COUNTY.

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Joseph Foos on the farm of Captain Fred Kantz. Foos had procured some little bur- ley seed from George Barkley, which, when it came up, produced plants some of which were almost milk-white. This led him to suppose that they had been damaged, but they grew as vigorously as those of a darker color. Therefore, when transplanting, he set out the white ones also. They grew and matured, were cut and hung by themselves, so that they could he distinguished. When cured they were very bright and fine in texture and

of such superior quality that more of the seed was procured and planted with the same result, and from these plants the seed was saved. Thus originated the famous " White Burley " tobacco of Brown county, from which the farmers of that section have reaped such rich harvests. From it is made the celebrated brand of Fountain fine-cut of Lovell & Buffington, also the Star plug of Liggett & Myer and many other popular brands.

In Georgetown is pointed out the mansion in which lived one of the most emi- nent and eloquent men of his time in the State, General Thomas Lyon Hamer. It was through him that U. S. Grant received his appointment as a cadet to West Point.

He was born the son of a poor farmer in Pennsylvania in the year 1800, but passed his

THOMAS LYON HAMER.

boyhood on the margin of Lake Champlain, where he was an eye-witness of the naval ac- tion fought by McDonough, which, with its triumphant result, inspired him with a taste for a soldier's life. At the age of seventeen he came to Ohio with his father's family, and then struck out for himself as a school-

teacher, beginning at Withamsville, Clermont county, a poor boy, with only one suit of clothes, that the homespun on his back, and a cash capital of " one and sixpence." Later he taught at Bethel, where he boarded in the family of Thomas Morris, the pioneer lawyer of Clermont county, who befriended him. He occupied his spare hours in studying law and commenced the practice in Georgetown in the year 1820, which he continued until June, 1846, at which time he volunteered in the Mexican war. Being an active member of the Democratic party, he sympathized in its war measures. He was elected Major of the First Regiment Ohio Volunteers, and re- ceived the appointment of Brigadier-General from the President before his departure for the seat of war. In that station he acquitted himself with great ability up to the period of his death. He was in the battle of Monterey, and on Major-General Butler being wounded, succeeded him in the command. Ile dis- tinguished himself on this occasion by his coolness and courage. General Hamer was endowed with most extraordinary abilities as an orator, advocate and lawyer. He repre- sented the district in which he resided six years in Congress, and distinguished himself as an able and sagacious statesman, and at the time of his death was a member-elect of Congress. His death was greatly deplored, being in his prime, forty-six years of age, with a most promising prospect of attaining the highest eminence.

Georgetown will be known for all time as the boyhood home of Ulysses Simp- son Grant. He was born in Clermont county, but as his parents removed here when he was a mere infant only about a year old, his childhood impressions were made and his early loves formed in this then little village in the valley of White Oak creek. His parents were of Scotch descent ; his great-grandfather, Noah Grant, was a captain in the early French wars, and his grandfather, Noah Grant, a lieu- tenant in the battle of Lexington.

The school-house of Grant's boyhood is yet standing, but in a dilapidated condi- tion ; and this now old ruin doubtless was the scene of this anecdote told by a biographer. When he was quite a little fellow he had an unusually difficult lesson to learn. "You can't master that task," remarked one of his schoolmates. "Can't," he returned; " what does that mean ?" "Well it just means just that

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you can't." Grant had really never heard the word before and began to hunt it up in his old dietionary. At last he went to his teacher and asked, " What is the meaning of can't ? the word is not in the dictionary." The teacher explained its origin and how it came to be corrupted by abbreviation, and then to impress an

Photo. by Henry K. Hannah, Artist, 1886. THE GRANT SCHOOL-HOUSE, GEORGETOWN.

important truth upon the minds of his young pupils he added : " If in the struggles through life any person should assert that you can't do anything that you had set your mind upon accomplishing, let your reply be, if your work be a good and law- ful one, that the word can't is not in the dictionary." Grant never forgot the inci-

Photo, by Heury K. Hannah, Artist,

THE GRANT HOMESTEAD AND TANNERY, GEORGETOWN.

dent. He not only conquered his studies, but, in after years, he often replied to those who declared he would fail in attaining his object, that the word " can't" is not to be found in any dictionary.

The school-house, also homestead and tannery, are within five minutes walk of the court-house. In the engraving of the two latter the homestead is shown on

Moss E

MOSSENG

U. S. Grant

Havanai Grant

el. R.Grund

GRANT AND HIS PARENTS IN THE WAR ERA,

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BROWN COUNTY.

the right, the tannery in the front. To the first a front addition has been made since the Grants were here ; the smaller and near part was the old dwelling, as it was when Grant was a growing boy and assisted his father in handling the hides. He was a lively, companionable boy, frank, generous and open-hearted, a leader and a favorite among the Georgetown boys. He was regarded as having good common sense without any especial marks of genius. When in after years he visited Georgetown he never failed to seek out the friends of his youth and greet them with bearty hand-shake and pleasant words.

REMINISCENCES OF THE PARENTS OF GENERAL GRANT, WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL'S CHARACTERISTICS .-- On our visit to Georgetown on our second tour over the State we happened not to meet with any who knew General Grant in his youth, now more than half a century ago. At the time of his decease we wrote our reminiscences of his parents, with a pen-portrait of him as he appeared to ns, which we here place on permanent record. One of his strong friends, for years associated with him in a post of honor, indeed was a member of his cabinet, pronounces it a just delineation of the qualities of this extraordinary man.

During the rebellion and for years after the Grant family lived in Covington opposite Cincinnati, and eventually Jesse Grant, the father, was appointed postmaster of that town. When the star of his son was rising he was a familiar figure on the platform at Union meetings in Cincinnati. I' sometimes saw him standing near the Gazette building where the people were wont to gather for the latest news from the armies in front in the periods of agonizing suspense.

Father Grant, as they called him, was a large man with high shoulders, about six feet in stature and plainly attired, giving one the idea of being just as he was, a useful, sub- stantial citizen. His complexion was florid, and his eyes were fronted by huge green glasses ; his whole appearance was striking. When the Union army was floundering in the mud before Vicksburg and millions were despairing under the long and weary waiting his faith never faltered. "Ulysses," he said, "will work until he gets a grip, and when he gets a grip he never lets go, and he will take Vicksburg."

One summer afternoon when Grant was President I had the experience of a personal interview with his parents and with each alone. I had published in Cincinnati, my then residence, and in connection with the late E. C. Middleton, a portrait in oil colors of Grant, and crossed the river to Covington to show a copy to them and obtain their tes- timony as to its accuracy. I first called upon the old gentleman at the post-office. He in- vited me in behind the letters, and on look- ing at the portrait was highly pleased, pro- nouncing it the best he had seen, and was glad to so attest. He was chatty and happy in my presence. Though sociality was natu- ral to him, I am inclined to think that the reflection that he was the father of General Grant, brought up so forcibly at that mo- ment, was the prime factor to produce an extra benignant mood.

Twenty minutes later I was in the presence of Mrs. Grant. Covington, like most towns in the old slave-holding States, had a slip- shod aspect. The Grants lived on an unat-

tractive, narrow street in a small, plain, two- story brick house close up to the pavement. An old lady answered my ring. It was Mrs. Grant, and I think she was the only person in the house. At the very hour when her son was being inaugurated at Washington, it was said. a neighbor saw her on the rear porch of her residence, with broom in hand, sweeping down the cobwebs.

She was in person and manner the antithe- sis of her husband ; a brunette with small, slender, erect figure, delicately chiseled fea- tures, and when young and simply Hannah Simpson must have been very sweet to look upon. Indeed, she was so then to me from her modest air of refinement and that ex- pression of moral beauty which increases with the years.

In my presence she was the personification of calmness and silence, and put her signa- ture beneath that of her husband without a word. I tried to engage her in conversation to hear more of the tones than simple replies "yes" or "no," and to see some play to her countenance. It was in vain. Believing that life is so short that one should omit no opportunity of trying to give pleasure to an- other, I said, "I think, madam, I am fa- vored this afternoon. There are multitudes in all parts of our country who would be highly gratified to have an interview with the mother of General Grant."

It was true, I felt it, and it was a pretty thing to say. Not by a word or an expres- sion of countenance did she show that she even heard me. Yet I was glad I said it. A duty had been performed. and it revealed a trait of character. From her General Grant must have got his immobility that on occa- sions when common civility demanded vocal signification showed in a reticence that was painful even to the bystanders. Neither inother nor son could help it.

The faculty of social impressibility is ne- cessary to every human being if they would widely win souls and fully fill their own. Conversation must be had for life's happiest, best uses, when eye speaks to eye, heart to heart, and the varied tones wake the sonl in

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sympathy. Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln had words of cheer for everybody, and henee were widely loved. When Henry Clay was defeated for the pres- idency strong men bowed and wept; when Lincoln was assassinated the whole nation writhed in agony. There was then no such love for Grant. It was because of his ex- treme reticence and that grim, fixed expres- sion of face that gave no sign of the warm affections that were within. Few, we found, cared to have his portrait, while for those above named, together with the portraits of George and Martha Washington, there was a great demand. Years later this was changed : Grant himself grew social and won more the affections of the people, as they learned his sterling moral qualities.

An analysis of the character of a great man always interests. It never can be only partially done. We never can fully compre- hend ourselves, much less so another. Grant's moral qualities were of the best. They were modesty, magnanimity, self- repose, a total absence of vanity, self-seeking, jealousy, or malice. He loved truth and purity. His patriotism and sense of justice were so strong that he would elevate a per- sonal enemy to a position if he was the best man for the public use. No man better loved than he, but his dreadful reticence al- lowed him to illustrate this only by acts. His mind was simple, direct in its action, and he had it in the perfect mastery of an iron will.

His memory was like a vice. His topo- graphical memory and capacity bordered on the marvellous. When in camp he soon knew the position of every brigade, the name of its commander and the whole country round with its roads, hills, woods and streams, and then it was all before him as a map on the table. During the siege of Vicksburg he heard of a Northern man living in the vicinity, a civil engineer familiar with the whole adjacent country from his surveys therein. He sent for him and adopted him in his military family. That gentleman af- terwards said he never met such a head for a civil engineer as that of Grant's.

This faculty made him superior to every other commander, so that with his breadth and clearness of views he could make his combinations and move his men on the field of battle with a well-calculated result, almost as certain as fate. He cared less than most commanders to discover the plans of his ene- my. He had his own which they could not foresee, and his involved continued move- ment. Therein he acted on the knowledge that the greatest courage is with him who at- tacks, and that even a musket ball in motion is worthy of more respect than a cannon ball at rest. His faculty of concentration was so great, his nerves so rigid, that mid showers of bullets and the skipping of cannon balls he was as calm as on parade. Moreover, he had the invincibility of the faith that the Confederaey would ultimately totter and erumble, and the business of each day was to

hasten on the time by action for the rising of that dust. So he kept pounding away, and proved himself to be God's hammer to break up slavery.

It was well for the amenities of that dread- ful struggle that the commanders on both sides had been largely personal friends, youths together in the same military school, brother officers in the same army. Grant felt this bond of sympathy when Lee came into his presence to lay down the sword. And Lee deserved magnanimity in that hout of humiliation. I chaneed to make the ac- quaintance of a Virginian, an elegant young man, who had been an aide of Lee. He told me that one evening at table early in the war the officers of his military family were speak- ing in no measured terms of indignation of a Virginian, perhaps it was General Thomas, for remaining in the Union army, when Gen- eral Lee rebuked them, saying, "You do him a great wrong, young gentlemen, in de- nouncing him. He has acted from the same conscientious sense of duty as you have, and is worthy of your highest respect in his decision."

Grant's mind was strong, but, from his want of imagination, severely practical, dry and naked. An older brother of mine, in the long past, a eadet at West Point, told me that when listening to a lecture there on the properties of a globe he found he could not comprehend it. Through his obtruding im- agination that globe was enveloped in a blue flame, the result perhaps of the early theo- logie teaching which I happen to know he had. With Grant I venture to say when he came later to the same study the globe was as elear as a ball of crystal. He liked West Point for its mathematics mainly. What on earth can be drier ? Even "the Pons Asi- norum " is over a dry bed.

He had no ear for music. Every tune was alike to him. Varied, weirdly-pleasing sensations that arise in the soul of some na- tures were probably weak in him, such as come from listening to the wind sighing through the pines, the murmurings of the mountain brook, the cooing of the doves un- der the eaves, the chirp of the crickets and the nightly disputes of certain innocent, harmless insects who appear to have before them their especial question of the ages, whether " Katy did " or "Katy didn't."

He seemed weak in the perception of the beautiful as derived from the contemplation of nature. It was a great deprivation, such will say who find exquisite enjoyment and lift their hearts in gratitude as they feel the be- Dign presence of the universal spirit in the sparkling dew globule, the trembling leaf and the sweetly-tinted flower. To many a heart this love is a great panacea in a time of woe. They feel in the midst of sore struggles that the world of beauty is still theirs. But for this reflection they might sometimes seek relief in suicide. "Life," they will say, "is yet mine ; it is the great possession."

During the eight years of his presidency, I was personally told by the librarian, Grant never entered the library of Congress, and

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there is no evidence that his information ex- tended much into the leaves of books. I do know that the brightest of our men in ideas, such scholars and thinkers as Woolsey, Em- erson, etc., were not his companions, but he seemed largely to find them in the lower strata of the kings of money and lords of fleet horses, gorgeous in their settings, lux- urious and materialistic in their lives.

Grant had the sense of moral beauty. He loved goodness and was incapable of an in- tentional wrong. Not an oath nor an impure expression was heard from his lips. He was as strong in his friendships as in his will, and he had that highest quality of citizenship, deep, fervent devotion to his own family. His dislike of exaggeration, his modesty, his calmness of spirit and honesty of purpose are shown in every word he wrote or spoke. His memoirs, when published, will be found as charming from their terse simplicity and crystal clearness as the narratives of Defoe. Every child will comprehend every word. Grant's absence of imagination and his power of concentration gave him a clear view of facts, while his marvelous memory gave him therein full breadth of comprehension, so that each fact would fall in at one view and in its relative place of importance.

His calmness was so serene that no intrud- ing emotion could disturb the perfect action of his judgment. Having no imagination, he never appealed to it in his soldiers, nor did they want it. War was with them busi- ness, not poetry. A poet was not wanted as commander of the Army of the Potomac, no matter what the direction for which the soul of John Brown was heading ; nor a looking- glass commander with his mind upon spread- ing epaulettes and bobbing plumes.

He was a thoroughly independent, self- poised thinker, and in his simplicity and originality of expression often made two or three words do the work of an entire sen- tence. A notable instance of this was given when General Butler was imprisoned by the Confederates in the peninsula formed by the junction of the Appomattox with the James. He wrote that he was "bottled-up," two words that so comically expressed the dilemma he had been in that the public laughed at the quiet humor :

He was bottled tight, Was bottled long ; 'Twas on the Jeems, So goes the song.

'Twas there he fumed, "Twas there he fretted, 'Twas there he sissed And effervesced.

Grant's attachments to his friends was one of his best traits. Many public men, through selfish fear of the charge of nepotism, will allow those bound to them by the strongest ties of kindred to suffer rather than help them to positions which they know they can worthily fill. No such moral cowardice can be laid to his charge. He was alike phys- ically and morally brave to the inmost fibre.

A well-known illustration of his tenderness and strength of affection was shown by his grief on learning of the death of the young and brilliant James B. McPherson, who fell in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 22d, 1864, "when he went into his tent and wept like a child ;" and later in the letter which he wrote to the aged grandmother of the lamented general, when he said : "Your be- reavement is great, but cannot be greater than mine."

Such a sublimely pathetic and morally beautiful picture as that presented by Grant in his last dying work is seldom given for human contemplation. To what fine tender strains the chords of his heart must have vibrated, and how inexpressibly sweet this life must have seemed to him in those sad, mel- ancholy days as he sat there, seated in the solitude of his chamber penning his legacy, while the warming sun shot its golden stream- ers athwart the carpet at his feet, and the air was filled with the joy of short-lived buzzing insects, shown by their low, monoto- nous notes reverberating from the window- panes. Could the world to which he was hastening offer to his imagination, when he had cast aside his poor, suffering body, any- thing more beautiful than this?

Night is over the great city and the stars with their silent eyes look down upon the tomb by the river as in the long ago they looked down there upon a wilderness scene when the prows of Hendrick Hudson moved past through the ever-flowing waters. And there the waters will continue to flow on and on until another great leader shall arise pre- pared for the last great conflict. And this conflict will not be one of blood, but intellect- ual and moral-one that shall adjust to the use of the toiling millions a righteous meas- ure for their labor in a land overflowing with wealth and abundance more than sufficient for the comfort and welfare of every deserv- ing one, even to the very last, the humblest son and daughter of toil. But victory will never ensue until character and not gold has become the general measure of regard, and the race has attained that high moral plane where no one can wield vast possessions and live under the withering scorn that would be- fall him if he lived for himself alone.

RIPLEY IN 1846 .- Ripley is upon the Ohio, ten miles from Georgetown, nine below Maysville, and about fifty above Cincinnati. The town was laid out about the period of the war of 1812, by Colonel James Poage, a native of Virginia, and first named Staunton, from Staunton, Va .; it was afterwards changed to Ripley, from General Ripley, an officer of distinction in the war. When the county was first formed the courts were directed to be held at the house of Alex. Campbell, in

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this town, until a permanent seat of justice should be established. For a time it was supposed that this would be the county-scat ; a court-house was begun, but before it was finished the county-seat was permanently established at Georgetown. The courts were, for a time, held in the First Presbyterian church, which was the first publie house of worship erected. Ripley is the largest and most business place in the county, and one of the most flourishing villages on the Ohio river, within the limits of the State. The view shows the central part of the town only ; it extends about a mile on the river. Ripley contains 2 Presbyterian, 1 Method- ist, 1 Associate Reformed, 1 New Light, and 1 Catholic church, 20 stores, 1 news- paper printing office, 1 iron foundry, 1 carding machine, 3 flouring mills, and had, in 1840, 1,245 inhabitants. The Ripley female seminary, under the charge of Wm. C. Bissell and lady, has about forty pupils. The "Ripley College " was chartered by the State, but not endowed ; it is now a high school, under the care of the Rev. John Rankin and an assistant, and has about forty pupils, of both sexes. This institution admits colored children within its walls; and there are quite a number of people, in this region, who hold to the doctrine of equal rights, politically and socially, to all, irrespective of color .- Old Edition.

Drawn by Henry Hore, 1846.

RIPLEY, FROM THE KENTUCKY SIDE OF THE OHIO.

Ripley is on the Ohio river about fifty miles southeast of Cincinnati. News- papers : Bee and Times, Republican, J. C. Newcomb, editor and publisher. Churches : 2 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Catholie, 1 Colored Methodist, 1 Colored Baptist. Banks : Citizens National, J. M. Gilli- land, president, E. R. Bell, cashier ; Ripley National, John T. Wilson, president, W. T. Galbreath, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees .- The Boyd Manufacturing Co., lumber, sash, etc., 65 hands ; Joseph Fulton, pianos, 23; J. P. Parker, machinery, etc., 10 .- State Report 1886.

Also saw and planing mills, foundry and finishing shop, threshing machines and horse powers, cigar factories, carriages, tobacco presses and serews, clod erushers, wire and slat feneing, etc. Population in 1880, 2,546. School census in 1885, 821 ; J. C. Shumaker, superintendent.

As long ago as 1827-28 steamboats were built at Ripley. in 1846, next to Cincinnati, it was the large pork packing place in the

State. It mostly went south in barrels, by flat-boats known as "broad horns," each of which carried from 1,000 to 1,200 barrels ; as

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many as ten to fifteen boats left here in a season for the cotton and sugar plantations ; all of this is now changed. Some of the old " broad horns " were built here ; hard work, . the sawing being done mostly by hand. Ripley is quite a horse market, and monthly on the last Saturday is "stock sales day," when the town is thronged. Thirty years ago horses in considerable numbers were exported to Cuba, and Cubans visited the place to bny horses. Ripley has about twenty tobacco merchants. "The Boyd Manufacturing Co., which does business at Ripley, Higgansport and Levanna, annually manufactures at the latter point about two miles below about 10,000 tobacco hogsheads in connection with their extensive planing mill there.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 52

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