Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 53

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 53

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The town was alive in the war for the Union. As regiment after regiment from Cincinnati ascended the Ohio on steamers on their way to Virginia, the men, women and children thronged the river banks with cannon, flags

and music, checring on the volunteers. 1 deed, this was common in all the river towns on the Ohio side at the outbreak of the re- bellion. Ripley claims to have furnished the first company of volunteers for the suppression of the rebellion the 13th day of April, 1861 ; an Union meeting was in progress when news was telegraphed of the fall of Sumter. A. S. Leggitt, who afterwards gallantly fell at Stone river, at once wrote out a heading for an enlistment roll, and was the first to sign it, R. C. Rankin second, and in quick succes- sion eighty-one others. The officers selected were as follows: Captain Jacob Ammen, afterwards General Ammen, now of Ammen- dale, D. C. ; First Lieutenant, E. C. Devore ; Second Lieutenant, E. M. Carey, afterward Major in Twenty-third O. V. I., now de- ceased. At noon next day Captain Ammen started for Columbus, reaching there by noon on the 15th, by which time Mr. Lincoln had issued the call for 75,000 men.

Our readers will see in the view of Ripley, taken in 1846, on the summit of the hill a solitary house; it is there this moment. That house, in full sight from the Kentucky shore, was in that day as a beacon of liberty to the fugitives from slavery. It was the residence of Rev. John Rankin and the first station on the underground railroad to Canada : thousands of poor fugi- tives found rest there, not one of whom was ever recaptured. Among these were Eliza and George Harris, and other characters of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." While Mr. Rankin claimed to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, he never gave aid and comfort to those who enticed slaves to run away.

The ancestors of John Rankin were Scotch- Irish Presbyterians who emigrated to Penn- sylvania 150 years ago. His father, a soldier of the Revolution, settled in Jefferson county, East Tennessee, where John was born Feb. 4, 1793. He was educated at Washington College, including theology, and licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Abingdon, Va. He was, from his cradle, brought up a Recha- bite in temperance and an abolitionist. There was an abolition society in Jefferson county, Most Tenn., in 1814. While pastor of Cane REV. JOHN RANKIN. Ridge and Concord Churches, in Nicholas and Bourbon counties, Ky., in 1817, he first began to preach against slavery. Loathing the institution, he moved to a free land and from the same reason nearly all the families of his congregation at Concord did likewise, emigrating to Indiana, while he selected Ripley, where, from 1822 to 1866, he was pastor of the Presby- terian church. He was a great educator ; was president of the " Ripley College," so called, and his house was always filled with students in various branches, in- cluding theology. In 1836 he was for a time employed by the American Anti- Slavery Society to travel and lecture, and was often mobbed. "The aspect of a fierce mob-he once wrote-is terrible." He was also founder of the Free Pres- byterian Church of America, which excluded slaveholders from membership.

Mr. Rankin died March 18, 1886, at the extraordinary age of ninety-three years, one month and fourteen days, and lies buried in Maplewood cemetery,

339

BROWN COUNTY.

Ripley. He left living eight sons and two daughters. Seven of his sons fought for the Union under Grant. One of the seven, Capt. R. C. Rankin, now of Ripley, has at our request given us in a letter the following interesting reminis- cences of slave-hunters, abolition mobs, Gen. and Admiral Ammen and Gen. Grant, with whom he was a schoolmate.

The Slave-Hunters at Rankin's .- All that my father did in the aid of fugitives was to furnish food and shelter. ITis sons, of whom there were nine, did the conveying away. Some attempts were made to search our house. In March, 1840, four men from Ken- tucky and one from Ripley, with two bull- dogs, came to the house and were met on the porch by mother, of whom they inquired the way to Mr. Smith's (a neighbor of ours). On being directed, the spokesman, Amos Shrope, said, "Madam, to be plain with you, we do not want to go to Mr. Smith's, but there was a store broken open in Dover, Ky., and we have traced the thief to this house; we want to search for the goods and the thief." Mother replied, "We neither harbor thieves nor conceal stolen property, and you are wel- come to look through the house." On start- ing for the door my brother, Rev. S. G. W. Rankin-now of Glastenbury, Conn .- took down the rifle from over the door, cocked it, and called out, "Halt !" if you come one step farther 1 will kill you,' and they halted. My brother David and myself had not yet re- turned home from conveying the fugitives to the next station North, but were soon on the scene, when word was sent to town and in a short time the yard was full of friends. The hunters were not allowed to pass out at the gate, but were taken by each arm and led to the fence and ordered to climb, and they climbed !

Mobbing of Rankin .- In the early days of abolitionism my father was lecturing to an audience in a grove at Winchester, Adams co., Ohio, when a mob of 200 men armed with clubs marched to the grove and their leader, Stivers by name, marched down the aisle and up on the stand, drew his club over father and called out, "Stop speaking or, - you, I will burst your head." Father went on as though nothing had happened, when Robert Patten, a large and powerful man, sprang forward and seized Stivers by the back of the neck and led him out, and that ended it. On another occasion father was hit with a goose egg ; it struek the collar of his coat and did not break until it fell, when out came a gos- ling. He frequently came home with his horse's mane and tail shaved, when he would calmly remark "it was a colonization reply to an abolition lecture."

The Slave-Hunters at the Lone Widow's .- On one occasion I was sent to go to the house of a lone widow, being told that there were three men in her house hunting "run- aways." 1 buckled on my revolver under my vest and proceeded thither. I knew one of the men, a desperate character, who had killed one man at Hamilton, Ohio, and had waylaid and shot another near his home in

Kentneky. I approached him first and asked him to leave the house ; after waiting a few moments and seeing he was not disposed to move, I put my hand on his breast to gently urge him out, when he ran his right hand in his pocket and grabbed his revolver ; but I was too quiek for him, and had mine cocked within three inches of his eyes and shouted, " Now if you draw your hand out I will kill you." He believed it and so stood, when one of his companions stepped up and slipped in his left hand an Allen, self-coeking, six- shooting revolver ; I exclaimed, "That will do you no good, for if you raise your arm I will put a bullet through your brain." He also believed that.

In this position we were found by John P. Parker, a colored citizen of Ripley, who came in soon after with a double-barrelled shot gun. In a short time a crowd gathered, and the "hunters " were taken before the mayor and fined sixty dollars and costs. I could mention many similar incidents. Through my mother I inherit the same blood that coursed through the veins of Gen. Sam Houston, of Texas.

The Ammens .- David Ammen, the father of Gen. Jacob and Admiral Daniel, came from Virginia and settled in Levanna, two miles below Ripley, and edited the first newspaper published in Brown co., Ohio. He was there when we came to Ripley in 1822. He soon moved to Ripley and there published his paper, the Castigator, and first published my father's letters on slavery in its columns. In 1824 and in 1826 he republished them in book form and received his pay in the way of rent, he living in one end of my father's house, a sixty-foot front, still standing on Front street, my father living in the other end. He was living there when "Jake," as we called him, went to West Point. Jacob Ammen was in Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, during the days of nullification in 1832 : after that he was eight years a pro- fessor in West Point. During this time Grant was a cadet there, and Jake told me that Ulysses would never have got through had he not given him special attention.

On the organization of the Twelfth Ohio volunteer infantry he was made the lieu- tenant-colonel, and that is the way I became first lieutenant, and on the expiration of his term he was made colonel of the Twenty- fourth Ohio volunteer infantry and com- manded a brigade in Nelson's division of Buell's army. It was he who got to Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing on Sunday, May 6, in time to fight two hours before dark. Beau- regard never came a foot farther after Am- men's brigade got in position. For this he was commissioned a brigadier-general. Jake, born in 1808, was the oldest of the family,

340

BROWN COUNTY.

and Dan, born in 1820, the youngest, with Mike and Eve between them.

David Ammen moved to Georgetown, O., and from there Daniel entered the Naval School. I have never seen him hut twice since, and then he came here and hunted me up, once by himself and once in company with Gen. Grant, who was always a personal friend of mine since he went to school here in Ripley before going to West Point. We were in the same class and once occupied the same desk. I am one year older than Grant, and Daniel Ammen must be two years older. Grant told me after the war that he always

had a warm regard for Dan Ammen, that he had saved his life when boys, bathing in White Oak creek, in Brown county, hence his promotion to admiral as soon as Grant be- came President.

Gen. Ammen was superintendent of the Ripley Union Schools for several years prior to the war, during his residence at this place, and while here he married his second wife, the widow of Capt. Geo. W. Shaw, a graduate of West Point. Her maiden name was Beasley. They now reside, as does Daniel Ammen, at Ammendale, D. C.

The upper half of the northern prolongation of Brown county, Perry town- ship; is one of the most interesting of spots to the Catholics of Ohio. In 1823 a little log-hut was built in the woods at St. Martin's for the use of the passing missionaries of the church, wherein to administer to the spiritual wants of the few scattered Catholic families of the neighborhood. In 1830 Rev. Martin Kundig, a young man of extraordinary zeal and energy, came and took charge of the mission in the then wilderness. There he lived for many months in a log- hut without a window and with no floor but the earth, " where," he in later years wrote, " I lived in solitude and apostolic poverty. It was a school where I learned to live without expense, for I had nothing to spend. I built eleven houses without nails or boards, for I had them not, and I cooked .my meals without flour, fat or butter." He thus founded St. Martin's Church, and the seed he sowed has borne fruit a thousand-fold. The now famed Ursuline Convent, with its school attached, at St. Martin's was founded in 1845 by a colony of French nuns and presided over by Mother Julia Chatfield, an English lady from the convent of Boulogne- Sur-Mer, in France.

The Most Rev. John B. Purcell spent the last few years of his life at St. Martin's, where lie his remains. This much beloved prelate was born at Mallon, County Cork, Ireland. His early years were passed under the care of pious parents and in the service of the church, receiving such education as could be obtained in his native place. At the age of eighteen he emigrated to the United States and soon after reaching Baltimore received a teacher's certificate from the faculty of As- bury College. For two years he was tutor in a private family living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At the end of that time he entered as a student Mount St. Mary's Col- lege, near Emmitsburg, in the same State. In 1824 he went to Paris to complete his studies at the Seminary of St. Sulpice. May 21, 1826, he was ordained priest by Arch- bishop DeQuelen, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. He returned to America to fill the chair of Professor of Philosophy in Mount St. Mary's College.

His learning and ability soon attracted the attention of his superiors, and on the death of the Right Rev. Edward Fenwick, Bishop of Cincinnati, in 1832, he was selected by the Pope to fill the vacancy, and October 13, 1833, was consecrated Bishop of the Cincin- nati Diocese, which then comprised the entire State. In 1847 the Diocese of Cleveland was erected and in 1868 that of Columbus.

In 1850 Bishop Purcell was appointed Archbishop, receiving the pallium from the Pope's hand the following year. In 1862 he visited Rome for the fourth time, at the invi- tation of Pope Pius IX. He sat in the great Ecumenical Council of the Vatican of 1869. He founded or established during his career many religious, educational and charitable in- stitutions. His reputation as an able theolo- gian and a scholar was far-reaching, while his gentleness and humility of spirit endeared him not only to those within the Catholic Church, but to the people of the State at large.

HIGGINSPORT is on the Ohio at the mouth of White Oak creek. It was laid out in 1816 by Col. Robert Higgins, a native of Pennsylvania and an officer in the American Revolution. In 1819 the families there were Colonel Higgins, Stephen Colvin, John and James Cochran, Mr. Arbuckle and James Norris. It has 1 Christian, 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Colored Methodist, 1 German Methodist, 1 German Reformed church. In 1840 the population was 393; in 1880, 862. It has 17 tobacco warehouses and about 30 tobacco-buyers who an- nually ship about two millions of pounds.

341

BROWN COUNTY.

ABERDEEN, on the Ohio, opposite Maysville, Ky., with which it is connected by ferry, was laid out in 1816 by Nathan Ellis, who, with James Edwards, Evan Campbell and James Power, all business men, were the first settlers. It has 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist and 1 Colored Methodist church. In 1840 it had 405 and in 1880 885 inhabitants. Lately the tobacco business has started new life in the place.

FAYETTEVILLE is on the east fork of the Little Miami, 36 miles from Cincin-

ARCHBISHOP PURCELL.

nati. It has 1 Methodist and 1 Catholic church, and in 1880 390 inhabitants. The site of the village was bought in 1818 by Cornelius McGroarty, a native of Ireland, and father of the heroic Colonel Stephen McGroarty, of the Ohio volun- teers in the rebellion.

RUSSELLVILLE, founded in 1817 by Russell Shaw, is 7 miles east of George- town, with a population in 1880 of 478 inhabitants. It has six or seven churches, the first of which, the Christian, was built about 1830, when, as was customary at that time, the women helped, bartered their chickens, butter and eggs, etc., for nails. The first seats were tree trunks with large pins for logs. The house was first warmed by burning charcoal in two large iron kettles.

342

BUTLER COUNTY.

BUTLER.

BUTLER COUNTY was formed in 1803 from Hamilton and named from General Richard Butler, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, who fell in St. Clair's de- feat. With his brothers he emigrated from Ireland to America before 1760, and was for a long time an Indian trader. Area, 460 square miles. In 1885 the acres cul- tivated were 149,560 ; in pasture, 28,864; woodland, 29,874; lying waste, 8,798 produced in wheat, 233,791 bushels ; oats, 542,322; corn, 3,335,595; broom corn, 176,190 pounds ; tobacco, 502,849 ; cattle, 18,817. School census 1886, 14,234; teachers, 208. It has 77 miles of railroad.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880. *

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

Fairfield,

3,580

14,692

Oxford,

3,422

3,644

Hanover,

1,680

1,352

Reiley,

1,758

1,499

Lemon,

3,065

6,775

Ross,

1,524

1,693

Liberty,

1,479

1,458

St. Clair,

2,307

1,252

Madison,

2,208

2,555

Union,

2,118

2,163

Milford,

1,868

1,884

Wayne,

1,562

1,728

Morgan,

1,726

1,884

Population in 1820 was 21,755; in 1840, 28,207; 1860, 35,840; 1880, 42,- 579, of whom 31,530 were Ohio-born.

Butler county has been termed "THE GARDEN OF OHIO." It is within the blne limestone formation and is one of the richest in the State. The Great Miami river runs through it. This valley here averages a breadth of twelve miles, and the soil of its bottom lands are of a deep black and famed for their immense crops of corn, while the uplands are equally well adapted to wheat and barley. The county is traversed by so many small streams that over 1,000 bridges are in use. The uplands are beautifully undulating, forming charming scenes of pastoral beauty. A large proportion of its popu- lation is of German descent. "Butler county," says Professor Orton, " stands scarcely second in productive power to any eqnal area in the State. No qualifi- cation certainly would be required if the valley of the Great Miami and that por- tion of the county lying east of the river were alone to be taken into account. This region might put in an nnquestioned claim to be styled ' the Garden of Ohio.'"

The route of St. Clair, in his disastrous campaign, in 1791, passed through this county. In September of that year Fort Hamilton was built at the crossing of the Great Miami on the site of Hamilton.

MIAMI. R.

FORT HAMILTON.

References .- A. The old fort built by St. Clair .- B. Addition. a. Officers' quarters. b. Mess room. c. Magazine. d. Artificers' shop. e, f, g. Block-houses. C. Bridge across the Miami, shown in the view of Rossville.

It was intended as a place of deposi

343

BUTLER COUNTY.

for provisions and to form the first link in the communication between Fort Wash- ington and the object of the campaign. It was a stockade of fifty yards square, with four.good bastions, and platforms for cannon in two of them, with barracks. In the summer succeeding an addition was made to the fort by order of General Wilkinson, which consisted in enclosing with piekets an area of ground on the north part, so that it extended up the river to about the north line of the present Stable street. The southern point of the work extended to the site of the Asso- ciate Reformed church.

The plan given of the fort is from the survey of Mr. James McBride, of Hamil- ton, made by him several years after.

The following items upon the early history of Hamilton are from the MSS. of James MeBride :

Major Rudolph at Fort Hamilton .- Late in the fall of 1792, an advance corps of troops, under the command of Major Rudolph, ar- rived at Fort Hamilton, where they wintered. They consisted of three companies of light dragoons, one of rifle, and one of infantry. Rudolph was a major of dragoons from lower Virginia. His reputation was that of an arbitrary and tyrannical officer. Some time in the spring seven soldiers deserted to the Ohio river, where, procuring a canoe, they started for New Orleans. Ten or fifteen miles below the falls of the Ohio they were met by Lieut. (since Gen.) Clark, and sent back to Fort Hamilton, where a court-martial sentenced three of them to be hung, two to run the gauntlet, and the remaining two to lie in irons in the guard-house for a stipulated period. John Brown, Seth Blinn, and - - Gallaher were the three sentenced to be hung. The execution took place the next day, on a gallows erected below the fort, just south of the site of the present Associate Reformed church, and near the residence of James B. Thomas.

Execution of Deserters. ~ Fire hundred sol- diers were drawn up in arms around the fatal spot to witness the exit of their unfortunate comrades. The appearance of the sufferers at the gallows is said to have been most pre- possessing. They were all young men of spirit and handsome appearance, in the open- ing bloom of life, with their long hair floating . ver their shoulders. John Brown was said to have been a young man of very respectable connections, who lived near Albany, N. Y. Early in life he had formed an attachment for a young woman in his neighborhood of unim- peachable character, but whose soeial standing did not comport with the pride of his parents. He was forbidden to associate with her, and required to pay his addresses to another. Broken-hearted and desponding, he left his home, enlisted in a company of dragoons, and came to the West. His commanding officer treated him so unjustly that he was led to desert. When under the gallows, the ser- geant, acting as executioner, inquired why the sentence of the law should not be enforced upon him, he replied with emphasis, pointing to Major Rudolph, "that he had rather die nine hundred deaths than be subject to the command of such a man," and was swung off

without a murmur. Seth Blinn was the son of a respectable widow residing in the State of New York. The rope being awkwardly fastened around his neck he struggled greatly. Three times he raised his feet until they came in contact with the upper part of the gallows, when the exertion broke his neck.

Immediately after the sentence had been pronounced on these men, a friend hastened to Fort Washington. where he obtained a pardon from Gen. Wilkinson. But he was too late. The execution had been hastened by Major Rudolph, and he arrived at Hamil- ton fifteen minutes after the spirits of these unfortunate men had taken their flight to another world. Their bodies were immedi- ately committed to the grave under the gal- lows. There, in the dark and narrow honse, in silence, lies the only son of a widowed mother, the last of his family. A vegetable garden is now cultivated over the spot by those who think not nor know not of the once warm heart that lies cold below.

Running the Gauntlet .- The two other deserters were senteneed to run the gauntlet sixteen times between two ranks of soldiers, which was carried forthwith into execution. The lines were formed in the rising ground east of the fort, where now lies Front street, and extended from Smithman's corner to the intersection of Ludlow street. One of them, named Roberts, having passed eight times through the ranks fell, and was unable to pro- ceed. The attendant physician stated that he could stand it no longer, as his life had already been endangered.

Fate of Rudolph .- Some time after Gen. Wayne arrived at the post, and, although frequently represented as an arbitrary man, he was so much displeased with the cruelty of Major Rudolph, that he gave him his choice-to resign or be cashiered. He chose the former, returned to Virginia, and subse-, quently, in company with another gentleman, purchased a ship, and went on a trading voy- age to Europe. They were captured (it is stated) by an Algerine cruiser, and Rudolph was hung at the yardarm of his own vessel. I have heard some of those who were under his command in Wayne's army express sat- isfaction at the fate of this unfortunate man.

In the summer of 1792 two wagoners were watehing some oxen, which had been turned

BUTLER COUNTY.

out to graze on the common below the fort ; a shower of rain coming on, they retired for shelter under a tree, which stood near where the sycamore grove now is. Some Indians, who had been watching from under the covert of the adjoining underbrush, rushed suddenly upon them, killed one, and took the other prisoner. The latter was Henry Shafor, who, after his return, lived until a few years past two or three miles below Rossville, on the river.

Arrival of Wayne's Army .- In September, 1793, the army of Wayne marched from Cin- cinnati to Fort Hamilton, and encamped in the upper part of the prairie, about half a mile south of the present town, nearly on the same ground on which Gen. St. Clair had encamped in 1791. Here they threw up a breastwork, the remains of which may yet be traced at the point where the present road strikes the Miami river, above Traber's mill. A few days after they continued their march toward the Indian country.

Gen. Wayne detailed a strong guard of men for the defence of the fort, the command of which was given to Major Jonathan Cass, of the army of the Revolution, and father of the Hon. Lewis Cass, of the United States Senate. Major Cass continued in command until the treaty of Greenville.

Hamilton Laid Out .- On the 17th of December, 1794, Israel Ludlow laid out, within Symmes's purchase, the original plat of the town of Hamilton, which he at first, for a short time only, called Fairfield. Shortly after a few settlers came in. The first set- tlers were Darius C. Orcut, John Green, William M'Clennan, John Sutherland, John Torrence, Benjamin F. Randolph, Benjamin Davis, Isaac Wiles, Andrew Christy, and William Hubbert.

Previous to 1801 all the lands on the west side of the Great Miami were owned by the United States, consequently there were no improvements made on that side of the river, except by a few squatters. There was one log-house built at an early period near the west end of the bridge, now owned by the heirs of L. P. Sayre. On the first Monday in April, 1801-at the first sale of the United States lands west of the Miami, held at Cin- cinnati-a company purchased the site of Rossville, on which, March 14, 1804, they laid out the town. Mr. John Reily was the agent for the proprietors.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 53

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