Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 63

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 63

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).

Mr. Cumming was born in New Jersey in 1804. He studied law at the famous school of Judge Gould, on Litchfield hill, when the Beechers were living there, and in their bud- ding days ; was admitted to the bar of Clark county in 1831, which he left for the ministry in 1849. There is not in practice a single member of the bar save one in the wide range of Darke, Preble, Montgomery, Miami, Shel- by, Champaign, and Clark counties who was in practice when he was admitted.

Chat About Interesting People .- Mr. Cum- ming's acquaintance with interesting people has been unusual, and he abounds in anec- dotes. Old gentlemen who lived in the time of Tom Corwin love to talk of him, and he is not an exception. Corwin's father (said Mr.

Cumming) came from Morris county, N. J. ; his mother was a native of Long Island, and daughter of a sea-captain. Thomas was born in Bourbon county, Ky., was quite a lad when his father moved into Warren county, and settled on Turtle creek. It was a common thing for eastern emigrants to Kentucky, in moderate circumstances, through disgust of slavery to feel as though it was no place to raise a family, and so they moved to the north side of the Ohio. Such was the case with Mathias Corwin.

Anecdotes of Corwin .- Mr. Corwin was a farmer, and the services of his young son Thomas were at this time especially impor- tant. He told me that his older brother was clerk of court, and that he was extremely de- sirous of obtaining an education, and impor- tuned his father to that end. He replied that in the condition of the family he could not spare his services ; that he must remain with him and work on the farm. "A little while after this," continued Corwin, " I broke my leg. Competent surgical assistance was difficult to procure. Time passed very te- diously and life irksome, when one day I got hold of a Latin grammar, and I became so deeply interested that I committed it entirely by heart. This awakened in me with renewed vigor the desire for an education. I again importuned my father and he again denied me, whereupon I again, and purposely, broke my leg to get the leisure for study. Upon this, my father seeing the folly of opposing me, gave in, and I pursued my education with my brother."

His brother, Mr. Cumming said, was a good English scholar, and had a fair knowledge of Latin. All the teaching Corwin had was through him ; he never was a college man. Mr. Corwin acquired quickly and retained tenaciously. He was very proud of his Hun- garian descent, and regarded whatever talent he possessed as of that lineage.

It was extremely interesting when Mr. Cor- win returned from Congress to listen to his characteristic anecdotes of public men with whom he had associated. Being a Ken- tuckian by hirth, he was very fond of the society of Southern and Western men. He had a large circle of acquaintances ; his social nature was pre-eminent. His extraordinary dramatic power, his keen sense of the ludi- crous, was shown on these occasions. The mobility of his countenance was wonderful, and all was helped on by the movement of hands, head, and eyes, and when he laughed he set everybody else in a roar. When in Cincinnati he was in the habit of stopping over night at the Burnet House, and from his social qualities was wont to gather a knot of listeners around him. It is related of him that on one of these occasions the group sat out the entire night, and were only dispersed by the light of morning breaking in upon them. They were, however, about half-dead from their social intoxication. Nobody could get tired listening, he was so brilliant and witty.

Gen. Samson Mason (said Mr. Cumming) was of marked ability. He served several

404

CLARK COUNTY.

consecutive terms in Congress from this dis- trict. John Q. Adams in his "Diary " fre- quently in his writings speaks of him and in high regard. He had but a common-school education ; was born in 1793 in New Jersey, and came here in 1818 a poor young man. He had tarried for a short time at Chillicothe, made friends, and some noble spirit there had become interested in the young man and given him a horse, and he journeyed on his back to Springfield. He became distinguished in all the relations of life, and in 184I united with the Presbyterian Church, and was an active Christian, his heart all alive for doing good. In Fillmore's administration he was United States district-attorney for Ohio.

Charles Anthony, or General Anthony, as he was called (continued Mr. Cumming), was a prominent member of the bar here from 1824 to 1862. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, of Richmond, Va. In the Harrison campaign of 1840 he acquired great reputation as a stump speaker. He was United States Attorney for Ohio in the Har- rison-Tyler administration. He died in 1862 and was buried with Masonic honors. Hon. Samuel Shellabarger studied law here under Samson Mason and represented this district for several terms in Congress during the war era. His reputation for legal capacity and integrity is national. He has resided for many years in Washington. He is one of those characters that when spoken of the word "honest" is often coupled with the name.

The Frankensteins. - A very talented family in the way of art is the Frankenstein family. The parents emigrated from Germany in 1831, bringing with them four sons and two daughters. They lived in Cincinnati for many years, and since 1849 made their home in Springfield or rather what is left of them through the changes of time.

Godfrey N., the second son, born in 1820, died in 1873, was the most noted of the family. The great work of his life was his panorama of Niagara. He spent the greater part of the time between 1844 and 1866, twenty-two years, in depicting the scenery of the falls on canvas in all seasons of the year, in the coldest wintry weather, and alike in summer, by day and night, and from every conceivable point.

In 1867 he visited Europe, sojourning a while in England, painting some English scenes, and spent a season in company with his younger brother, Gustavus Frankenstein, among the Alps. On their return to London it was acknowledged that Mont Blanc and Chamouni valley had never before been painted with such power and beauty.

After an absence of two years he returned to America, in April, 1869, and in the fol- lowing autumn he went to one of his cherished streams, Little Miami river, near Foster's Crossings, twenty-two miles from Cincinnati, and painted Governor Morrow's old mill, two views of it, one looking up the stream, the other down the stream.

The loveliness of these two scenes is inde-

scribable. The following season, 1870, finds him again in the same vicinity, fairly throw- ing the sunshine on the canvas. In the month of January, 1871, the artist met with a severe loss in the death of his mother, from the effects of which he never fully recovered.

In the autumn of the same year he went to the White Mountains, accompanied by his sister Eliza, where they both painted from nature. In November, 1872, he painted his last scene from nature, Mad River, Fern Cliffs, three miles from Springfield, Ohio. He contracted a cold, which culminated in a very brief, severe illness in the following February, lasting ten days, and on the morn- ing of February 24, 1873, he breathed his last. His industry was wonderful, and he possessed one of the largest collections of landscape paintings in the world, never hav- ing parted with but one of his original pictures.

THE FRANKENSTEIN HOMESTEAD.

The Frankenstein homestead is a pictur- esque spot, the house old and brown. It is half enveloped in shrubbery, and when, after making a sketch, I approached the place I found the yard filled with lilacs about ready to spring into bloom. His sister answered my knock with pallet and brush in hand, an earnest, busy little woman. It was near dusk, and she seemed almost too much ab- sorbed in her painting even to talk. I tried to get a smile on her face, but there was no laugh in her. This was Eliza, the youngest of the family, who had always accompanied Godfrey on his sketching tours, and he often said the most peaceful, happiest moments of his life were those when he and she together went to paint from nature. There was a calm enthusiasm in her talk about her brother that was extremely pleasing. The love of a sister for a brother is better than houses and gold, and this one said that her brother was not only the greatest landscape painter that America ever had, but the greatest the world ever knew. Perhaps he was. Who knows? It took a Ruskin to show mankind the great- ness of Turner. One thing is certain, a more devout student of nature than he could not be. His pictures are very beautiful and original. They are generally small and as painstaking as anything of Messonier, and no artist ever had more enthusiastic admirers than some of those who possess his works. They say they are a continual feast, always lift them into the realms of the beautiful.

405

CLARK COUNTY.

Godfrey Frankenstein was simple-hearted, guileless as a child, and modesty itself. In his dying moments he was heard to utter a few low words in German. It was a prayer to the God of love to receive his spirit. I knew Godfrey Frankenstein. Once in a call at my fireside among other things he told me this ancedote of a child. "Tommy Wat- kins," said he (the name is hypothetical), "is a very comieal five-year-old boy in our neighborhood. In their front yard was a noble peony in bloom, and, missing it, his mother inquired if he knew what had become of it. 'Mother,' he replied, looking up honestly in her face, 'I picked it; I can't tell a lie. Now, ain't I like Georgie Wash- ington ?' His mother, in a spirit of pride, mentioned it to one of the neighbors, where- upon the latter burst into a laugh, saying : ' It is no such thing ; I saw Jimmy Williams pick it as he was coming home from school.'"

Worthington Whittridge, artist, was born in Springfield in 1820. Francis C. Sessions, in his paper on "Art and Artists in Ohio," says of him :

"As soon as he was of age he went to Cincinnati to go into business. He failed in almost everything he engaged in, and finally determined to become an artist. Putting himself under instructions, he soon began to paint portraits. At that time there were a number of artists residing there, and there were a number of citizens who were interested in art and artists. Among them were Mr. Nicholas Longworth, Mr. John Foote, Mr. Charles Stetson, Hon. Judge Burnet and Griffin Taylor. To these gentlemen much credit is due for so many artists springing up in Cincinnati and for the lead Cincinnati has taken as an art centre in the West. Whitt- ridge soon left Ohio and went to Europe, studying in the galleries of Düsseldorf, Bel- gium. Holland, Rome, London and Paris, and finally settled in New York in 1859. We remember to have seen in the Paris Ex- position, in 1878, two of his paintings, 'A Trout Brook ' and ' The Platte River,' which attracted much attention and were among the best in the American exhibit. He is a great lover of nature.

"His most sueeessful pictures have been 'Rocky Mountains from the Plains,' 1870, owned by the Century Club; 'Trout Brook in the Catskills,' in the Corcoran gallery ; 'Old House by the Sea,' and 'Lake in the Catskills.'

"Mr. Whittridge retains a warm interest in Ohio. He says that the general judgment of artists is that Quincy Ward's 'Washing- ton,' on the sub treasury steps, is a noble and imposing work.

"He thinks that Ward a half century after his death will be classed with Canova and Thorwaldsen. Whittridge is a gray-bearded, dignified-looking artist, who seems scholarly and broadly cultured. He ranks in the first class of landscape painters, but there is noth- ing sensational about him. His social stand- ing is high."

A Veteran of "the Black Watch."-Now living in Springfield in the person of a re- tired army offieer is a gentleman who had in his youth the singular honor of being a soldier in the very first regiment of regular troops that ever trod upon the soil of Ohio. This gentleman is Col. Robert L. Kilpatrick, and he looks, as he is, every inch a soldier, tall, strongly made, erect, dark_complexion, with one of the strongest of Seoteh faees. He was born in April, 1825, in Paisley, Seot- land. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Forty-second Highlanders, the famous " Black Watch " regiment, the most famous in the British army. The regiment is most honorably identified with American annals. In the attack on Fort Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758, the Forty-second lost 600 out of 1,000 men. It was on Boquet's expedition and comprised nearly all the fighting force at the battle of Bushy Run in what is now West- moreland county, Pa., in August, 1763. The Indians attacked them in ambush, but by excellent generalship the Highlanders sue- cessfully charged them with the bayonet, giving the savages the severest defeat they had ever experienced. The next year, 1764, Boquet crossed over the river with this regi- ment into what is now known as Coshocton county, which thus became the first regiment of regular troops that ever trod the soil of Ohio.

For ten years Col. Kilpatrick was on for- eign service at Malta and the Bermudas, half the time as a non-commissioned offieer.

The Famous Fifth Ohio .- In 1858, being then a resident of Cineinnati, he organized the Highland Guards, a company of Seotch- men, who adopted the Highland costume. This formed the nucleus for the famous Fifth Ohio, which he commanded in several en- gagements. He lost his arm at Chancellors- ville. In 1870 he was retired from the regu- lar army with the full rank of celonel. His regiment was in six pitched battles and twenty-eight hard-fought engagements. There is a story told of an incident which occurred at the first battle of Winehester. The standard-bearer of this regiment was shot down, but before the stars and stripes trailed in the dust a soldier sprang forward and caught them, bearing them aloft again. He, too, was shot down, but a third hand grasped the flag and waved it in front of the battle. Once more the fatal bullet pierced the faith- ful heart of the color-bearer, and as he fell he cried to those who sprang to his assist- ance : "Boys, keep the colors up!" and these words ever after remained the motto of the regiment.

An Early Acquaintance .- On a near and preceding page is an engraving of the birth- place of Teeumseh and the battle-field in the valley of Mad river, where General George Rogers Clark fought and defeated the Shaw- nees : it is from a drawing I made in the year 1846. It was in the winter, the ground covered with snow and with benumbed fingers I took & hasty sketch. A bright, intelligent boy ten years old stood by my side who had been sent by his

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CLARK COUNTY.

father, a farmer near by, to point out to me the various objects of historic interest, and among them the hill called Tecumseh. Not

AN EARLY ACQUAINTANCE.

until on this second tour and in a lawyer's office (his own) in Springfield did I again meet my once little guide to the birthplace

and battle-field. Lo, what a change ! He had evidently fed well. The rich bottom lands of Mad river had not grown their vast crops in vain. In the interim he had at- tained to ponderous proportions and to great honors.

In his youth the advent of my book to his father's house had been a marked event. It was fuel for the fires of patriotism, and when a young man the flag he loved so well was shot at, trailed in the dust and spit upon, he was among the first of the indignant spirits that sprang to its rescue. The war ended. He had been in many battles, was wounded several times and peace found him a major- general. And the old flag, too, now for the first time waving over a land entirely unsul- lied, waving in the stiff, strong breezes of its perfect liberty, flapped its folds in joy.

More honors. His neighbors sent him to Congress, and he became Speaker of the House of Representatives, the only man from Ohio upon whom had ever been bestowed that great honor, and on every law that was passed for the uses of this American people was placed his extraordinarily bold signature, given as with the pen of a giant, generous in ink.

Still another honor! Gladstone, in the House of Commons, cited and adopted one of his decisions, a compliment never before paid to an American parliamentarian in all of Old England. This rule has since been

Marren Reefer

called by the general name of Cloture, which is the right of a Speaker to close debate and cut off purposely obstructive motions and questions and bring the house to an imme- diate vote upon the main question.

Leffel, the Inventor .- An old citizen here has given me some interesting items upon James Leffel, the great pioneer inventor of Springfield. He says, "He brought into his office his model of the first turbine water- wheel. He wore a plng hat and he carried it under a handkerchief in its crown. Leffel was a small man, with a rugged expression, always absorbed and could talk of nothing but his inventions. He invented, forty years ago, the first cook-stove, 'the Buckeye,' ever made in the State, and no better has suc- ceeded it. His machine for crushing gold- bearing quartz was a great success, while his water-wheel made the fortune of all who man- ufactored it. His oldest son Wright had the inventive talent of his father and in one of his trips to California with the quartz crusher was drowned. Mr. Leffel doted on him, and the blow almost broke his heart.

In Fern Cliff Cemetery Springfield has one of the most beautiful of burial places. It is just north of the town on the forest-covered,

varied surface hill that rises from the La- gonda on the north. The stream there is about six rods wide and gently curves around its base. The winding walk by its margin, the bold, limestone cliffs, the heavy growth of fern that grows so fondly at their base and in their crevices, the shadowing trees and placid waters render it one of the most pic- turesque, charming of spots, and then witha) comes the reflection, this so near a busy city and yet so calm and secluded. Nature is there to woo the spirit with her sweet delights, and that nothing may seem wanting two or three bridges hard by hang over the waters, while the spires of the college peer above the trees to show that human learning has come there for its most holy aspirations. I know of no other spot near a city so gem-like and exquisite.

Fern Cliff Cemetery was established in 1863. Many eminent citizens have been buried there; among them Thomas A. Mor- ris, Bishop Methodist Episcopal Church, who died in 1874, aged eighty ; Gen. Samson Ma- son, died in 1869, aged seventy-five; and we also mention Reuben Miller, who died in 1880, aged eighty-three, not for any especial eminence, still he had been county auditor for

CLARK COUNTY.

407

eighteen years and was a local elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was noted for his sunny disposition and his humorous versification. An epitaph, written by him-

self for himself many years before his death, is a most original production ; it shows that highest of all qualities, viz., genius ; but he lived and died probably without knowing it.

EPITAPH OF REUBEN MILLER.

[Written by him for his monument.]

Here lies a man-a curious one, No one can tell what good he's done Nor yet how much of evil ; Where now his soul is, who can tell ? In Heaven above, or low in hell ? With God or with the devil ?

While living here he oft would say, That he must shortly turn to clay And quickly rot- This thought would sometimes cross his brain, That he perhaps might live again, And maybe not.

As sure as he in dust doth lie, He died because he had to die, But much against his will ; Had he got all that he desired, This man would never have expired, He had been living still.

NEW CARLISLE, twelve miles west, of Springfield, on the I. B. & W. R. R., is located in a fine farming district. Newspapers : Sun, Republican, J. M. Huffa, editor and publisher ; Buckeye Farmer, agricultural, J. M. Huffa, editor and pub- lisher ; Farm and Fireside Friend, agricultural, J. L. Rust, publisher. Churches : 1 Christian, 1 Dunkard, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist. Bank : New Carlisle Bank, Jonathan V. Forgy, president, C. H. Neff, cashier.

Industries .- Fruit tree nurseries, bee supply manufactory, force and lift pump manufactory, creamery, and planing mill. Population in 1880, 818. School census in 1886, 359 ; J. B. Mohler, superintendent.

SOUTH CHARLESTON, twelve miles southeast of Springfield, on two railroads, O. S. and P. C. & St. L., is a fine village in a rich level country ; has several churches, two banks-South Charleston, John Rankin, president, Stacy B. Rankin, cashier ; Farmers' National, A. D. Pancake, president, Milton Clark, cashier ; and in 1880, 932 inhabitants.

ENON, seven miles from Springfield, on the Dayton road, had, in 1880, 362 in- habitants.

408

CLERMONT COUNTY.

CLERMONT.

CLERMONT, the eighth county erected in the Northwestern Territory, was formed December 9, 1800, by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair. The name was probably derived from Clermont, in France. The surface is generally rolling and quite broken near the Ohio, and the soil mostly rich. The geological formation is the blue fossiliferons limestone interstratified with clay marl, and mostly covered with a rich vegetable mould. It is well watered, and the streams furnish considerable water power. Area, 440 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 117,644 ; in pasture, 65,350 ; woodland, 31,265; lying waste, 13,662 ; produced in wheat, 65,387 bushels; corn, 1,219,477 ; and 3,152,566 pounds of tobacco, being alike with Brown, its neighbor, one of the finest and largest tobacco-growing counties of the State. School children enrolled in 1886, 11,028, and teachers 234. It has sixty- two miles of railroad track. The following is a list of its townships, with their population in 1840 and 1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

Batavia,

2,197

3,687

Pierce,

1,984

Franklin,

2,219

3,402

Stone Lick,

1,478

1,871

Goshen,

1,445

1,908

Tate,

2,292

2,754

Jackson,

883

1,761

Union,

1,421

1,992

Miami,

2,061

4,346

Washington,

2,102

2,876

Monroe,

1,617

2,101

Wayne,

976

2,164

Ohio,

2,894

3,531

Williamsburg,

1,459

2,336

The population of the county in 1820 was 15,820; in 1840, 23,106; in 1860, 33,034; and in 1880, 36,713, of whom 30,264 were Ohio-born.

The following facts in the history of the county are given as communicated for the first edition by Mr. Benjamin Morris ; this gentleman, by profession a lawyer, died in 1862, aged seventy-five years.

In June, 1804, and in the 19th year of my age, I came to Bethel, which, with Williams- burg, were the only towns in the county. They were laid out about 1798 or '99, and were competitors for the county-seat. When I came, Clermont was an almost unbroken wilderness, and the settlers few and far be- tween. In the language of the day, there were Denham's town, now Bethel ; Lytlestown, now Williamsburg; Witham's settlement, now Withamsville ; Apples', Collins', and Buchanan's settlements. The following are names of part of the settlers in and about Williamsburg, in 1804 :- Win. Lytle, R. W. Waring, David C. Bryan, James and Daniel Kain, Nicholas Sinks, Jasper Shotwell, and Peter Light. Wm. Lytle was the first elerk of the county, and was succeeded by R. W. Waring and David C. Bryan. Peter Light was a justice of the peace under the territorial and State governments, and county surveyor. Daniel Kain was sheriff, and later justice of the peace under the State government. David C. Bryan represented the county several years in the State Legislature, before he was a- pointed clerk. I was at Williams- burg at the sitting of the Court of Common

Pleas in June, 1804. Francis Dunlavy was the presiding judge, and Philip Gatch, Am- brose Ransom, and John Wood, associates, while the attendant lawyers were Jacob Burnet, Arthur St. Clair -- son of Gov. St. Clair-Joshua Collet, Martin Marshall and Thomas Morris.

The following are part of the settlers in and about Bethel, in 1804; Obed Denham- proprietor of the town-James Denham, Houton Clark, John Baggess, Dr. Loof- borough, John and Thomas Morris, Jeremiah Beck, Henry Willis and James South. John Baggess for many years was a representa- tive in the legislature, justice of the peace and county surveyor. John Morris was ap- pointed associate judge after the death of Judge Wood, in 1807 ; he was also justice of the peace, and one of the first settlers at Columbia. Houton Clark was one of the first, if not the very first, justice of the peace in Clermont. Thomas Morris practised law in the county about forty years, was a repre- sentative in the legislature, and once ap- pointed a judge of the Supreme Court. In the winter of 1832-33 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he acted a con-

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CLERMONT COUNTY.

spicuous part in the anti-slavery movements of the day. The most prominent political act of his life was his reply to a speech of Mr. Clay. He died suddenly, Dec. 7th, 1844 : posterity only can judge of the cor- reetness or incorrectness of his course. A neat marble monument marks his resting place, near Bethel. Jeremiah Beek and Henry Willis were farmers and justicecs of the peace. Ulrey's Run takes its name from Jacob Ulrey, who settled on its west side in 1798, and was the earliest settler upon it. The place is now known as " the Ulrey farm." Bred in the wilds of Pennsylvania, he was a genuine backwoodsman, and a terror to the horse thieves, who infested the county at an early day. Deer and bear were plenty around him, and a large portion of his time was passed in hunting them, for their skins. The early settlers around him received substantial tokens of his generosity, by his supplying them with meat.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 63

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