Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 57

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 57

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Harlem Springs is six miles southeast of Carrollton ; it has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren church, and before the war it was quite a resort for invalids to partake of the water of its chalyb- eate springs ; among the visitors of note were Robt. E. Lee and Edwin Stanton. Here is the Harlem Springs College, founded in 1858, John R. Steeves, president ; three instructors ; pupils, twenty-one males and eleven females.

366

CARROLL COUNTY. THE FIGHTING McCOOKS.

MAJOR DANIEL MCCOOK.

Head of the " Tribe of Dan."

DR. JOHN McCOOK. Head of the "Tribe of John."

The Ohio McCooks acquired a wide popular reputation during the civil war as the "Fighting McCooks." In the various current notices of them they are spoken of as one family, but were really two families, the sons of Major Daniel McCook and Dr. John McCook. Of the former family there were engaged in military service the father, Major Daniel McCook, Surgeon Latimer A. McCook, General George W. McCook, Major-General Robert L. McCook, Major-General A. McD. McCook, General Daniel McCook, Jr., Major-General Edwin Stanton McCook, Private Charles Morris McCook, Colonel John J. McCook-ten in all. Another son, Midshipman J. James McCook, died in the naval service before the re- bellion.

Of the latter family there were engaged in the service Major-General Edward M. McCook, General Anson G. McCook, Chaplain Henry C. McCook, Commander Roderick S. McCook, U. S. N., and Lieutenant John J. McCook-five in all. This makes a total of fifteen, every son of both families, all commissioned officers except Charles, who was killed in the first battle of Bull Run, and who declined a commission in the regular army, preferring to serve as a private volunteer.

The two families have been familiarly distinguished as the "Tribe of Dan" and the " Tribe of John."

I. The Daniel McCook Branch. Major Daniel McCook. Martha Latimer.

Major Daniel McCook, the second son of George McCook and Mary McCormack, was born June 20, 1798, at Canonsburg, Pennsyl- vania, the seat of Jefferson College, where he received his education. On August 28, 1817, he married Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer, of Washington, Pa. In 1826 they removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr. McCook was an active member and an elder for many years of the Presbyterian church of Car- rollton, organizing and conducting as super- intendent the first Sunday-school of that church.

At the beginning of the war he was in

Washington, D. C., and, although sixty- three years of age, at once tendered his ser- vices to President Lincoln. Each of his eight sons then living also promptly responded to the call of the President for troops. When the rebel general. John Morgan, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCook was stationed at Cincinnati, and Joined the troops sent in his pursuit. Morgan undertook to recross the Ohio river at Buffington island. Major McCook led an advance party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the skirmish that took place he was mortally wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove cemetery near Cincinnati.

He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot, and an earnest Christian. He

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possessed a most gentle and amiable disposi- tion, combined with the highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great force of character. He ruled his household in the fear of the Lord, and died as he had lived in the active performance of his duty.

His wife, Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer and Mary Greer, was born

MARTHA L. MCCOOK.

at Washington, Pa., March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, but on the father's side they were English, coming originally from Leicestershire.

During the war of the rebellion Mrs. Mc- Cook was in a peculiarly difficult position. Her husband and sons were all in the service. No battle could take place but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each succeeding year brought death to a member of her family upon the battle-field. Her husband and three sons were thus taken from her; and the others were so frequently wounded that it seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft of her entire family. Her life during these long years of anxiety was well nigh a continuous prayer for her country and for her sons that had given themselves for its defence. This patriotic woman well illus- trates the heroic sufferings endured by the women of the Republic no less than by the men.

Mrs. McCook died November 10, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of her age, at New Lisbon, Ohio, surrounded by her surviving children and friends, and was buried beside her husband in Spring Grove cemetery, Cin- cinnati.

The children of the above are as follows :

1. Latimer A. McCook, M. D., was born at Canonsburg, Pa., April 26, 1820. He was educated at Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine with his unele, Dr. George McCook, a physician of great skill and emi- nence, and received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. He entered the army in 1861 as assistant surgeon, and

was soon promoted to be surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first regiment, Illinois volunteers, known as " John Logan's regiment."

He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, and, while caring for the wounded of his regiment during action, he was himself twice wounded-once in the trenches before Vicksburg, and again at Po- cataligo bridge, in Gen. Sherman's move- ment northward from Savannah. He sur- vived the war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23, 1869, from general debility resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his service in the army, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincin- nati.

2. George Wythe MeCook was born at Canonsburg, Pa., November 2, 1821. He graduated from Ohio University, at Athens, and studied law with and afterwards became the partner of Edwin M. Stanton, the great war secretary, in Steubenville. He served as an officer in the Third Ohio regiment through- out the Mexican war, and returned as its commander. He was attorney-general of the State of Ohio, and edited the first volume of "Ohio State Reports." He was one of the first four brigadier-generals appointed by the governor of Ohio to command the troops from that State at the outbreak of the rebellion, but the condition of his health prevented him from taking any command that required ab- sence from home. However, he organized and commanded for short periods several Ohio regiments.

He was the Democratic candidate for gov- ernor of Ohio in 1871, but his health broke down during the canvass, and he was com- pelled to abandon the campaign. He, with the Rev. Dr. Charles Beatty, were the larg. est contributors to the erection of the Second Presbyterian church, at Steubenville, Ohio, of which he was a trustee. He died Decem- ber 28, 1877, and was buried at Steubenville.

3. John James MeCook, born at Canons- burg, Pa., December 28, 1823, was educated at the United States Naval Academy. While serving as midshipman of the United States frigate "Delaware" off the coast of South America he was taken ill with a fever follow- ing long-continued exposure while on duty. He died March 30, 1842, and was buried in the English burying-grounds at Rio Janeiro. Admiral Farragut in his autobiography pays a high tribute to the personal character and ability of Midshipman MeCook.

4. Robert Latimer MeCook, born at New Lisbon, Ohio, December 28, 1827. He studied law in the office of Stanton & MeCook, at Steubenville, then removed to Cineinnati, and in connection with Judge J. B. Stallo secured a large practice. When the news reached Cincinnati that Fort Sumter had been fired upon he organized and was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Ohio regiment, among the Germans, enlisting a thousand men in less than two days. He was ordered to West Virginia, put in command of a brigade, and made the decisive campaign there under Mc-

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Clellan. His brigade was then transferred to the Army of the Ohio, and took a most active part in the battle of Mills Spring, in Kentucky, where he was severely wounded. The rebel forces were driven from their lines by a bayonet charge of Gen. MeCook's bri- gade and so closely pursued that their organ- ization as an army was completely destroyed. Gen. McCook rejoined his brigade before his wound had healed, and continued to com-

GEN. ROBERT LATIMER MCCOOK.

mand it when he was unable to mount a horse. His remarkable soldierly qualities procured him the rank of major-general and command of a division.

He met his death August 6, 1862, while on the march near Salem, Alabama. He had been completely prostrated by his open wound and a severe attack of dysentery, and was lying in an ambulance which was driven along in the interval between two regiments of his division. A small band of mounted local guer- illas, commanded by Frank Gurley, dashed out of ambush, surrounded the ambulance, and discovered that it contained an officer of rank, who was lying on the bed undressed and unable to rise. They asked who it was, and seeing that the Federal troops were ap- proaching, shot him as he lay and made their escape, as the nature of the country and their thorough familiarity with it easily enabled them to do. This brutal assassination of Gen. McCook aroused intense feeling through- out the country. The murdered commander was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, and his devoted soldiers and friends, at the close of the war, erected a monument to his mem- ory in Cincinnati.

5. Alexander McDowell McCook was born on a farm near New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, April 22, 1831. He entered the United States Military Academy, at West Point, and graduated in the class of 1852. At the opening of the war he was promptly made colonel of the First Ohio regtment,

which he led among the very earliest troops to the relief of the capital, and commanded at Bull Run, or Manassas. He became a brigadier-general in September, 1861, and commanded a division under Gen. Buell in the Army of the Ohio. He was made a major-general for distinguished serviecs at the battle of Shiloh, and was placed in com- mand of the Army of the Cumberland, with which he served during the campaigns of Perryville, Stone River, Tullahoma, Chat- tanooga, and Chickamauga. Gen. McCook subsequently commanded one of the trans- Mississippi departments. He is now colonel of the Sixth regular infantry.

6. Daniel McCook, Jr., was born at Car- rollton, Ohio, July 22, 1834. He was rather delicate and over studious, and with a view to improving his health entered Alabama University at Florence, from which he gradu- ated with honor. He returned to Ohio with health greatly improved, and entered the law office of Stanton & McCook at Steuben- ville.

After admission to the bar he removed to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he formed a partnership with William T. Sherman and Thomas Ewing. When the war opened that office closed and each of the partners soon became general officers.

Daniel McCook, Jr., was captain of a local company, the Shields Guards, with which he

BRIGADIER-GENERAL DANIEL MCCOOK.

volunteered, and, as a part of the First Kan- sas Regiment, served under General Lyon at Wilson's creek. He then served as chief of staff of the First Division of the Army of the Ohio in the Shiloh campaign, and became colonel of the Fifty-second Ohio Infantry in the summer of 1862. He was assigned to the command of a brigade in General Sheri- dan's division and as such continued to serve with the Army of the Cumberland.

He was selected by his old law partner, General Sherman, to lead the assault on Kennesaw mountain. After all the arrange-

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CARROLL COUNTY.

ments for the assault had been made, the brigade was formed in regiment front and four deep. Just before the assault Colonel McCook recited to his men in a perfectly ealm manner the stanzas from Macanlay's Hora- tius, in which occur these lines :

Then out spake brave Horatius, The captain of the gate : "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods,

"And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast ? "

Then he gave the word of command and dashed forward. He had reached the top of the enemy's works, and was encouraging his men to follow when he was riddled with minie balls, and fell back wounded unto death. For his courage and gallantry in this assault he was promoted to the full rank of brigadier-general, an honor he did not live to enjoy, as he survived but a few days. He died July 21, 1864, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.

7. Edwin Stanton MeCook was born at Carrollton, Ohio, March 26, 1837. He was educated at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, but preferring the other arm of the service, when the civil war began he recruited a company and joined the Thirty- first Illinois Regiment Infantry, of which his friend John A. Logan was colonel. He served with his regiment at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, where he was severely wounded. In his promotion he succeeded General Logan, and followed him in the command of regiment, brigade and division throughout the Vicksburg and other campaigns under Grant, in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns and in the march to the sea under Sherman.

He was promoted to the rank of full briga- dier and brevet major-general for his services in these campaigns. He was three times severely wounded, but survived the war. While acting governor of Dakota and pre- siding over a publie meeting, September 11, 1873, he was shot and killed by a man in the audience who was not in sympathy with the objeets of the meeting, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery. Cincinnati.

8. Charles Morris MeCook was born at Carrollton, Ohio, November 13, 1843. He was a member of the freshman class at Kenyon College when the war began, and although less than eighteen years of age volunteered as a private soldier in the Second Ohio Infantry for three months' service. Secretary Stanton offered him a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but he pre- ferred to serve as a volunteer.

At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861,

he served with his regiment, which was cover- ing the retreat of the shattered army. As he passed a field hospital he saw his father, who had volunteered as a nurse, at work among the wounded, and stopped to assist him, the regiment passing on. As he started to rejoin his company young MeCook was

CHARLES MORRIS MCCOOK.

surrounded by an officer and several troopers of the famous Black Horse cavalry who de- manded his surrender. His musket was loaded, and he quickly disabled the officer, and, as he was highly trained in the bayonet exercise, kept the other horsemen at bay. His father seeing the odds against the lad called to him to surrender, to which he re- plied, "Father, I will never surrender to a rehel," and a moment after was shot down by one of the cavalrymen. His aged father removed his remains from the field, and they were afterwards buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cineinnati.

9. John J. McCook was born at Carrollton, Ohio, May 25, 1845. He was a student at Kenyon College when the war began, and, after completing his freshman year, enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Cavalry. He was pro- moted to a first lieutenancy on September 12, 1862, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Thomas L. Crittenden, com- manding a corps of the Army of the Ohio, which subsequently became the Twenty-first Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.

He served in the campaigns of Perryville, Stone River, Tullahoma, Chattanooga and Chickamauga with the Western armies, and in General Grant's campaign with the Army of the Potomac, from the battle of the Wilder- ness to the crossing of James river. He was commissioned a captain and aide-de-camp of the United States Volunteers in September, 1863, and was brevetted major of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services in action at Shady Grove, Virginia, where he was severely and dangerously wounded. He was afterward made lieutenant-colonel and colonel

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for gallant and meritorious services. Colonel McCook still survives, and is a lawyer en- gaged in active practice in New York city.

1I. The John McCook Branch.

John McCook, M. D. Catherine Julia Sheldon.

Dr. McCook was born and educated at Canonsburg, Pa., the seat of Jefferson Col- lege ; was a man of fine presence, genial nature, and a physician of unusual ability. . His wife was born at Hartford, Conn., of an old New England family, and was a woman of rare culture. She was remarkable for her gift of song and musical attainments, and her fine intellect and sprightly manners. She greatly excelled in reading aloud, and taught her sons this art, instructing them also in declamation and composition, before these branches were introduced into the schools of the neighborhood. She was particularly fond of poetry, and could render from memory chapters of Scott's "Marmion " and "Lady of the Lake," as well as the poems of Burns. Her influence was decided upon the character of her five sons.

Dr. McCook practiced medicine for many years in New Lisbon, Ohio, whence he re- moved to Steubenville. He was an ardent patriot, and, although a lifelong Democrat, joined the Union Republican party, and gave the whole weight of his influence and service to the support of the government during the civil war. He died just after its close, Octo- ber 11, 1865, at the headquarters of his son, General Anson G. McCook, in Washington, D. C., during a temporary visit, and was buried at Steubenville, Ohio, by the side of his wife, who had preceded him just six months.

He united with the Presbyterian church of New Lisbon, Ohio, together with his wife, after the birth of all their children. The latter were baptized on the same Sab- bath by the late Dr. A. O. Patterson. Dr. McCook was a warm friend of Sunday- schools, and was Superintendent for years of the school of the First Church of Steuben- ville, under the late Dr. H. G. Comingo.

The children of the above are as follows

1. Major-General Edward Moody McCook, born at Steubenville, Ohio, June 15, 1833. He was one of the earliest settlers in the Pike's Peak region, where he had gone to practise his profession, law. He represented that district in the legislature of Kansas, before the division of the Territory. He was temporarily in Washington in the troubled era preceding the war, and by a daring feat as a volunteer secret agent for the govern- ment, won such approbation that he was ap- pointed into the regular army as a lieutenant of cavalry. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was appointed major of the Second In- diana cavalry, rose rapidly to the ranks of colonel, brigadier and major-general, and, after brilliant and effective service, retired at the close of the war, with the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel in the regular army. His most difficult and dangerous service, perhaps,

was penetrating the enemy's lines by way of diversion previous to Sherman's march to the sea. He returned from this "forlorn hope," having inflicted great damage upon the enemy, defeated and captured a large number, whom he was compelled to release, and retired in the face of Hood's entire army. He resigned from the regular army to accept the appointment of United States minister to the Sandwich islands. He was subsequently twice appointed governor of Colorado Territory by President Grant.

2. Brigadier-General Anson George Mc- Cook was born in Steubenville, Ohio, Octo- ber 10, 1835. He was educated in the public

MAJOR-GENERAL ALEX. McDOWELL McCOOK.

schools of New Lisbon, Ohio, and at an early age crossed the plains to California, where he spent several years. He returned shortly before the war, and was engaged in the study of law in the office of Stanton & McCook, at Steubenville, at the outbreak of the rebellion. He promptly raised a com- pany of volunteers, and was elected captain of Company H, which was the first to enter the service from Eastern Ohio. He was as- signed to the Second Ohio regiment, and took part in the first Bull Run battle. Upon the reorganization of the troops, he was ap- pointed major of the Second Ohio, and rose by death and resignation of his seniors to the rank of colonel. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, near Atlanta, he commanded a brigade. He was in action in many of the principal battles of the West, including those of Perryville, Stone River, Lookout Moun- tain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, etc. On the muster-out of the Second regiment, at the close of three years' service, he was ap- pointed colonel of the One-hundred-and- ninety-fourth Ohio, and was ordered to the Valley of Virginia, where he was assigned to command a brigade. He was brevetted a brigadier-general at the close of the war. He returned to Steubenville, whence, after

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several years' residence, he removed to New York city, his present residence. He served six years in Congress from the Eighth New York district, in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresscs. He is at present secretary of the United States Sen- ate.

3. Rev. Henry C. McCook, D. D., the third son, was born July 3, 1837, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and married an Ohio lady, Miss Emma C. Horter, of New Lisbon. He graduated at Jefferson College. He was a student in the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), Allegheny City, on the out- break of the rebellion, and having made an engagement to go West to spend his summer vacation, stopped at Clinton, Dewitt county, Ill. He was actively engaged in raising troops for the service until the first Bull Run battle, when he enlisted as a private soldier, stumped the county to raise troops, and was mustered into the Forty-first Illinois regiment as first lieutenant. He was appointed chap- lain of the regiment, and returned home for ordination by the Presbytery of Steubenville, Ohio. He served for less than a year, and resigned, with the intention of taking another position in the army ; but, convinced that he could serve his country better in a public position at home, he returned to his church at Clinton. He was subsequently a home missionary and pastor in St. Louis, Mo., whence he was called to Philadelphia in 1869, where he continues pastor of one of the most prominent churches of the East. He is author of a number of popular theological and eccle- siastical books, but is particularly known as a naturalist. His studies of the ants and spiders, on whose habits he has written sev- eral important books and numerous papers, have made his name well known among the naturalists of Europe and America.

4. Commander Rhoderick Sheldon Mc- Cook, U. S. N., was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, March 10, 1839. He graduated at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1859, and his first service was off the Congo river, Africa, whence he was sent home with a prize crew in charge of a captured slaver. From 1861 to 1865 he took active part in aggressive opera- tions before Newberne, Wilmington, Charles- ton, Fort Fisher, and on James river. At Newberne he bore an active and successful part in the battle on land. He offered him- self and the services of his marines to the land force in moving a battery of guns from his vessel. With this battery he took a con- spicuous part in the conflict, and had the honor of receiving the surrender of a Confed- erate regiment of infantry, probably the only surrender of this sort which occurred during the civil war. During his arduous service with monitors, particularly the " Canonicus" at Fort Fisher, he seriously injured his health.

He was engaged in the operations on the James river, and also in those ending in the surrender of Charleston. He attained the grade of commander September 25, 1873. His last service was in lighthouse duty on the Ohio river, on whose banks, in the family plot in the Steubenville cemetery, his remains are buried. Failing in health, he was retired from active service February 23, 1885, when he went to Vineland, N. J., seeking restora- tion of strength in the occupations of farm- life. His death was caused by being thrown from his buggy upon his head, sustaining injuries which resulted in suffusion of the brain. He married Miss Elizabeth Suther- land, of Steubenville, Ohio, who, with one son, survives him.

5. The fifth son and sixth child, Rev. Prof. John James McCook, was born at New Lis-

COL. JOHN J. McCOOK. (See page 368.)

bon, Ohio, February 4, 1843. He served as lieutenant in the First Virginia volunteers during a short campaign in West Virginia, a regiment recruited almost exclusively from Ohio. There were so many volunteers from that State that its quota of regiments was immediately filled, and many of its citizens entered the service with regiments from other States. He was at Kelleysville, one of the earliest engagements of the war. He grad- uated at Trinity College, Hartford ; began the study of medicine, but abandoned it to enter the Protestant Episcopal ministry. He was rector of St. John's, Detroit, and now of St. John's, East Hartford. He is distin- guished as a linguist, and is author of a witty booklet, "Pat and the Council." He is at present Professor of Modern Languages in Trinity College, Hartford.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 57

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