Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 94

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 94

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).

Her first husband, Builderback, commanded a company at Crawford's defeat. He was a large, noble-looking man, and a bold and intrepid warrior. He was in the bloody Mo- ravian campaign, and took his share in the tragedy by shedding the first blood on that occasion, when he shot, tomahawked and scalped Shebosh, a Moravian chief. But retributive justice was meted to him. After being taken prisoner, the Indians inquired his name. "Charles Builderback," replied he, after some little pause. At this revela- tion, the Indians stared at each other with a malignant triumph. "Ha!"" said they, "you kill many Indians-you big captain-you kill Moravians." From that moment, probably, his death was decreed.

Near the town of Lancaster stands a bold and romantic eminence, about two

Drawn by Heury Howe in 1816.

MOUNT PLEASANT.

hundred feet high, known as Mt. Pleasant, which was called by the Indians "the Standing Stone." A writer on geology says in reference to this rock : " What is properly ealled the sandstone formation terminates near Lancaster in immense de- tached mural precipices, like the remains of ancient islands. One of these, ealled Mt. Pleasant, seated on the borders of a large plain, affords from its top a fine view of the adjacent country. The base is a mile and a half in circumference, while the apex is only about thirty by one hundred yards, resembling, at a dis- tance, a huge pyramid. These lofty towers of sandstone are like so many monu- ments to point out the boundaries of that ancient western Mediterranean which once covered the present rich prairies of Ohio."

591

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

It is a place much resorted to by parties of pleasure. The Duke of Saxc- Weimar, when in this country in 1825, visited this mount and carved his name upon the rocks. The lecture delivered before the Literary Institute gives a thrill-

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. VIEW IN MAIN STREET, LANCASTER.

ing narrative of the visit of two scouts to this spot (the famed Wetzel brothers) at an early day, their successful fight with the Indians, the recapture of a female prisoner and their perilous escape from the enemy. The incident was the founda- tion of a novel by Emerson Bennett, issued about 1848. The name of his heroine was Forest Rose.

J. J. Wolfe, Photo., Lancaster, 1886.

VIEW IN MAIN STREET, LANCASTER.

[Near the top of the hill on the left is the Sherman homestead, where in a then log-house were born Senator and General Sherman. The Ewing mansion and new court-house are near them on the sum- mit of the hill.]

LANCASTER IN 1846 .- Lancaster, the county-seat, is situated on the Hockhock- ing river and canal, on the Zanesville and Chillicothe turnpike, 28 miles southeast of Columbus, 37 from Zanesville, 18 from Somerset, 19 from Logan, 35 from

592

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

Chillicothe, 20 from Circleville and 27 from Newark. It stands in a beautiful and fertile valley, and is a flourishing, well-built town. It contains 1 Presby- terian, 1 Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 Lutheran, 1 Protestant Methodist, 1 Baptist and 1 German Reformed church, about 20 mercantile stores, 2 newspaper offices, and had, in 1840, 2,120 inhabitants. It has since much increased. The engraving shows the appearance of the principal street in the town. It was taken near the court-house and represents the western part of the street. The court-house is shown on the right and the market on the left of the view .- Old Edition.

Lancaster, at the intersection of the C. H. V. & T. and C. & M. V. Rail- roads, 32 miles southeast of Columbus. It has natural gas and a fine surrounding agricultural district. Its fair ground is one of the finest in the State and its fairs highly successful. County officers in 1888 : Auditor, Benjamin Deem ; Clerks, Wm. H. Wolfe, Wm. B. Henry ; Coroner, Wm. L. Jeffries; Prosecuting Attor- ney, Wm. H. Daugherty ; Probate Judge, John Theodore Busby ; Recorder, Robert A. Bell ; Sheriff, Benj. F. Price ; Surveyor, Chas. W. Borland ; Treasurer, Solomon Bader, Michael C. Miller ; Commissioners, Allen D. Friesner, Henry W. Gerrett, John Hozey. Newspapers : Ohio Eagle, Dem., Thos. Wetzler, editor and publisher ; Gazette, Rep., S. A. Griswold, editor ; Fairfield County Republican, Rep., A. R. Eversole, editor and publisher. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Catholic, 3 Lutheran, 1 Reformed, 1 Episcopal and 1 Evan- gelical. Banks: Fairfield County, Philip Rising, president, H. B. Peters, cashier ; Hocking Valley National, Theo. Mithoff, president, Thomas Mithoff, cashier ; Lancaster, S. J. Wright, president, George W. Beck, cashier.

Industries and Employees .- E. Becker & Co., lager beer, 14 hands ; McAnespie & Co., cloth, yarns, etc., 10; J. B. Orman Bros., doors, sash, etc., 10; Peter Mil- ler & Co., clothing, 70; Beery & Beck, clothing, 74; Temple of Fashion, cloth- ing, 92; Sifford & Schultz, doors, sash, etc. ; Peet & Dennis, flour, etc. ; J. R. Mumaugh, flour, etc. ; Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co., agricultural imple- ments, 93; Hocking Valley Bridge Co., bridges, 14; C. & M. V. R. R. Shops, railroad repairs, 40; A. Bauman, crackers, etc., 13 .- State Report for 1887.

Population in 1880, 6,803. School census in 1886, 2,023; Geo. W. Walsh, superintendent.

On the 1st of February, 1887, natural gas was discovered, after prospecting about fifteen months, in the city of Lancaster, on the grounds in the south part of the city belonging to Dr. E. L. Slocum, who was the first to advocate the organ- ization of a stock company to bore for gas. At the depth of 1,957 feet a flow of gas of 100,000 cubic feet a day was discovered in the Clinton or limestone rock. This was named the Wyandot well, or Well No. 1. Since the discovery at the Wyandot well two other wells have been put down : the one is named Mt. Pleasant, or Well No. 2, and the other East End well, or Well No. 3. Well No. 2 has a flow of 900,000 cubic feet per day, and Well No. 3 over 1,000,000 cubic feet per day.

The pressure is 700 pounds to the cubic inch, being much higher than any in the State. Well No. 2 is 1,989 feet deep, and Well No. 3 is 2,023 feet deep. In all of those wells the gas was found in the Clinton shale or limestone rock. At the depth of about 1,900 feet a large flow of salt-water was found in each of the wells in the Niagara shale, which had to be cased off before boring could proceed. The Clinton rock at Lancaster is a highly crystalline limestone, included between two beds of rock, the upper one being a deposit of the famous fossil ore of the Clinton formation. The gas is regarded as being equal to any in the State. Two additional wells are now being put down : one at the Eagle Machine Works, and the other at the Becker brewery. Pipes are now being laid along the principal streets in the city, and all the manufactories, and some of the offices, hotels, and residences are already using it.

Lancaster has an unusual record in the line of illustrious men. First for our notice comes THOMAS EWING, who passed most of his youth in Athens county, under

M.T. Shum General

594

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

which head will be found details of his early life from his own pen. From 1816 to 1831 he practised law in Lancaster. He first entered political life in 1830, and served two terms in the United States Senate, viz., having been elected by the Whigs from 1831 to 1837, again in 1850-51 in the place of Thomas Corwin on the appoint- ment of the latter to the office of Secretary of the Treasury.

In the Senate Mr. Ewing wielded great power and introduced several important bills. In his last term he opposed the fugitive slave law, Clay's compromise bill, and advocated the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In 1841 he became Secretary of the Treasury under Harrison. Upon the death of the President, Vice-President Tyler invited the Cabinet in a body to remain. Upon the meeting of the extra session of Congress, having evidence that Mr. Tyler designed to betray the trusts and disappoint the hopes of the Whig party that had ele- vated him to power, Mr. Ewing indignantly resigned. He retired from public life in 1851 and resumed the law practice. He early won and maintained throughout life unquestioned supremacy at the bar of Ohio, and ranked in the Supreme Court of the United States with the foremost lawyers of the nation.

In strength and massiveness of intellect he was then and is to-day by many regarded as not having had an equal in the history of the State. In physical strength also he had but few equals, being a man of large frame and ponderous in body. We take the following items from the county history :

At one time, when Mr. Ewing was chop- ping wood in the forest, a pioneer Methodist preacher came along. By a recent rain the stream to be crossed was swollen. The mis- sionary was afraid to attempt to ford it. Mr. Ewing, being a young man, strong and tall, took the preacher on his shoulders, the horse by the bridle, and landed them safely on the other side of the stream, and then returned to his axe.

At another time, as he was passing the old court-house in Lancaster, shown in the view, a number of stont men were trying to throw a chopping-axe over it ; they had all in vain tried their power. Mr. Ewing halted just long enough to take the axe-handle in his

hand and send it sailing five feet or more above the steeple and then passed on.

In oratory he was not eloquent, but he could say more in fewer words than any one, and in that lay his great success. By some he was considered unsocial, as he seemed when his mind was at work ; but when once reached, his social qualities were warm, cor- dial and sincere. His mind worked on an ele- vated plane, leaving the impression that he knew little of the small affairs of life, but at the same time he could tell a farmer more about plows than he could tell himself. Dur- ing the latter part of his professional life his business was chiefly before the Supreme Court at Washington. Daniel Webster in his last years largely sought his aid in weighty cases. Among the anecdotes related of him it is said that after two eminent law- yers had argned a case before the Supreme Court for two days, he took but a little over an hour for reply and won his suit.

Mr. Ewing in 1861 was a member of the Peace Congress, and during the civil war he gave through the press and by correspond- ence and personal interviews his countenance and influence to the support of the national authorities. He died in Lancaster and was buried in the Catholic cemetery by the side of his wife Maria, eldest daughter of Hugh Boyle. Her death was in 1864. On the lid of Mr. Ewing's burial casket was engraved the following :

THOMAS EWING,

Born December 28. 1789. Died October 26, 1871.

The Ewing mansion stands on the summit of the hill on the corner to the left shown in the street view, and which until recently was the home of Mr. Ewing's danghter, Mrs. Col. Stcele. It is of brick : a solid, substantial edifice, com- porting with the memory of the giant among men who once made it his home ; of the memory of one of whom James G. Blaine, who in his youth was a visitor here, wrote on the occasion of his death to his daughter, Mrs. Ellen Ewing Sherman : " He was a grand and massive man, almost without peerc. With no little familiarity and association with the leading men of the day, I can truly say I never met with one who impressed me so profoundly." In an interesting article upon Mr. Ewing, Mr. Frank B. Loomis, late State Librarian, appends this sketch of his also eminent family :

"Thomas Ewing transmitted to his sons some of the fine and rare qualities that made him a great man. His four sons, Hugh,

Philemon, Thomas and Charles, have all distinguished themselves in various useful ways.

595

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

Hugh, Charles and Thomas Ewing were brave and successful soldiers in the war of the rebellion.

General Thomas Ewing has achieved po- litical prominence, and is now a lawyer of note in New York ; has been President of the Ohio Society there from its beginning.

General Charles Ewing, who was a man of much prominence, is dead.

Major-General Hugh Ewing was engaged in the practice of law at the outbreak of the civil war. In May, 1861, he was appointed by Gov. Dennison Brigade-Inspector of the Third Brigade, Ohio militia, with the rank of Major, and was stationed at Camp Denni- son until the 21st of June in the same year, when he enlisted in the three-years service and joined McClellan's army at Buckhannon,

THE EWING MANSION.

W. Va. He participated in a number of important battles. At Antietam he com -. manded a brigade at the extreme left which, according to Gen. Burnside's report, saved that wing from disaster.

Gen. Ewing commanded the Thirtieth, Thirty-second and Forty-seventh Ohio and the Fourth Virginia Infantry before Vicks- burg, and with this brigade led a gallant but unsuccessful movement on the city. The colors that were borne in that memorable charge are furled in the general's reception- room at his home. They are riddled with bullet holes and the battered staff bears many a scar.

In 1886 Gen. Ewing was appointed Minis- ter of The Hague. He is now living in pleasant retirement at Lancaster.

General Thomas Ewing, the third son of Thomas Ewing, was born in Lancaster, Au- gust 11, 1829. He was liberally educated, and is an alumnus of Brown University and of the Cincinnati Law School. In 1856 he removed to Leavenworth, Kan., and com- menced the practice of law. He soon be- came prominent, and for two years held the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State.

In 1862 he organized the Eleventh Regi- ment of Kansas Infantry, of which he was appointed colonel. At Pilot Knob he was engaged against several times his force in one of the most stubborn, and, in proportion to the number engaged, one of the most fatal conflicts of the war. He lost one-fourth of his available force, and, having to retreat, kept up a running fight for twenty miles. The campaign of a week was a remarkable one.

The enemy lost more than 1,500, while Gen. Ewing's entire force was but 1,060, and these largely raw troops. The result of Ew- ing's brave stand was to put an end to all attempts upon St. Louis by the rebels.

Thomas Ewing's oldest daughter, Ellen Ewing, was married to Gen. W. T. Sherman in 1850. Mrs. Sherman has inherited some of her father's mental vigor and has mani- fested it in a literary, social and religious way. The Ewings are zealous members of the Catholic church, and Senator Ewing em- braced that faith a short time before he died. So the influence of this remarkable family has always been cast upon the side of effect- ive Christianity."

It is rare that so small a place as Lancaster has in its history two such famous families as the Ewings and the Shermans. The founder of the Sherman family, Judge CHARLES SHERMAN, was born in Norwalk, Conn., May 26, 1788. In 1810 he was admitted to the bar, the same year marrying Mary Hoyt, of Nor- walk. In the following year he came to Lancaster with his wife and infant child, and commenced the practice of the law. Their journey from their New England home was weary and beset with hardships, exposure, and danger, being obliged to

596

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

journey the greater part of the distance on horseback, carrying the baby un a pillow before them. The little boy carried thus was the late Hon. Charles Taylor Sherman, United States District Judge of the northern district of Ohio.

Charles Sherman, the father, was elected by the Legislature to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1823 ; here he remained over six years, when he died suddenly at Lebanon, Ohio, from cholera, while attending court, June 24, 1829. He was but forty-one years of age, and a man of fine legal capabilities. Mary Hoyt Sherman survived him many years. Their tombs are in the cemetery east of Lancaster.

Judge Sherman was the father of Hon. John Sherman, born in 1823, now of the United States Senate, and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, born February 8, 1820; also, Mrs. W. J. Reece, of Lancaster, and Frances, wife of the late Col. Charles W. Moulton, of New York, and other children-eleven in all. A sketch of Senator Sherman is given under the head of Mansfield, Richland county, which has been his home from early manhood. We here give a few paragraphs to WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN :

General Sherman, we believe, is the only eminent American named from an Indian chief. His father had seen and greatly ad- mired Tecumseh from his nobility of charac- ter and his humanity to prisoners, and he wanted one boy trained for the army. The name, considering the brilliant history of its recipient, is peculiarly appropriate, as in the Indian tongue it signifies the Shooting Star.

A few months after his father's death he was taken to the church to be baptized. The preacher, a Presbyterian, objected to baptizing him by the name of a heathen, Tecumseh. He wanted to call the lad simply William. He at once rebelled, saying, " My father called me Tecumseh, and Tecumseh I will be called. If you won't, I'll not have any of your bap- tism." The preacher yielded.

Judge Sherman's widow being left with a large family and her means of support slight, Hon. Thomas Ewing offered to adopt one of the boys and educate him. He consulted with the mother, and "Cump," as the gen- eral was then called, a sandy-haired youth, was selected. At the moment the future war- rior was playing with other lads in a neigh- boring sand-bank. The new home was only a stone's throw from his mother's, so the lad was in no danger from attacks of nostalgia. Beside he found in Mr. Ewing's little daugh- ter Ellen a pleasant playmate to vary the monotony of excursions to sand-banks, and who from the very happy intimacy thus be- gan eventually became the queen of his heart and home.

Mr. Ewing educated the lad and sent him when 16 years of age to West Point, where he graduated the sixth in his class. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and sent to Fort Moultrie, Charles- ton, thence in 1846 to California, where he rose to the rank of captain. In 1850 he went to Washington, and then married the eldest daughter of his friend and benefactor. Three years later, tired of the monotony of military life, he resigned, and from 1853 to 1857 had charge of a banking-house in California, and again for a short time in New York, but with smali success. Having studied law in the leisure of his army life, he united with his

brother-in-law, Thomas H. Ewing and Gen. D. McCook, who were establishing themselves in the law in Leavenworth, Kansas. The prac- tice of the profession not agreeing with his tastes, he was offered and accepted the posi- tion in 1859 of President of the Louisiana State Military Academy at a salary of $5,000 per annum.

He remained in that position until he saw that civil war was inevitable and then sent in his resignation, with a letter which clearly showed that he read correctly the signs of the hour. This is the closing paragraph of the letter: "I beg you to take immediate steps to remove me as Superintendent the moment the State resolves to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thoughts hostile to the defence of the old Government of the United States." It will be seen by the foregoing sketch that Sher- man's experience had been a wide one. He was acquainted with many people in many parts of the country ; he was impressed with the notion (gained from his life among the people of the South) that the war was to be a long, bitter, and costly one; he went to Washington and had an interview with the President and Secretary of War. He laid his views before them, but they laughed him aside and thought him a crusty and excitable man. He failed to convince the Government that the struggle was to be something more than a temporary storm. Seventy-five thousand troops were called for, and Sherman ex- claimed, "You might as well undertake to extinguish the flames of a building with a squirt-gun as to put down this rebellion with three months' troops. We ought," said he, "to organize at once for a gigantic war, call out the whole military power of the country, and with its forces strangle the rebellion in its very birth."

The five years of bloody contest which en- sued demonstrated the truth and power of Sherman's prophecy. In the first battle of Bull Run Sherman was commander of a bri- gade in the regular army. He fought bravely and desperately. Two-thirds of the loss fell on his brigade. He was shortly made briga- dier-general of the volunteers which were sta-

597

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

tioned at Louisville. He had some trouble with newspaper correspondents, and the rumor that he was insane was set afloat. Sherman next distinguished himself at Shiloh. Rous- sean, in speaking of his conduct on that field, said, "No man living could surpass him," and Gen. Nelson remarked a few hours before his death, "During eight hours the fate of the army, on the field of Shiloh, de- pended on the life of one man. If Gen. Sherman had fallen the army would have been captured or destroyed." Gen. Grant added, "To h's individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle." Sherman's ser- vices before Vicksburg are well known.

He was next heard of thundering along the heights of Mission Ridge and Lookout Moun- tain. Here he added to his reputation and to his services to the country. In the spring of 1863 he began to prepare for his movement upon Atlanta ; it was a remarkable campaign, and again demonstrated his wonderful fore- sight and genius. It was followed by a still more important military movement, the Georgia campaign and the march to the sea. He cut loose from all that was behind him, burned his bridges, threw aside superfluous baggage, and marched without provisions into the heart of the enemy's country. He set at defiance many of the old and established maxims of warfare, and when his daring project was first made public the world was astonished.

" Military critics and warriors in this coun- try and in Europe predicted the destruction of his army. They said : 'The people of the South and on the line of his proposed march would hang about his army as light- ning plays along the thunder clouds.' These same critics declared 'that people would re- move all provisions beyond his reach, so that his soldiers must perish by starvation.' The British Army and Navy Gazette said : 'He

has done either one of the most brilliant or most foolish things ever performed by a mil- itary leader.' Sherman, however, trusting in Thomas and Grant, his own army, his own genius, and a favoring Providence, set duly out on his march. He drove before him the troops of the enemy, and in a short time cs- tahlished his headquarters in the Executive Mansion at Macon. The soldiers fared sump- tuously on the fat of the land. No army was ever more contented or in better condi- tion. The great column swept splendidly on through cities, villages and forests. It was a triumphal march. All opposition melted before them. Savannah was the next point to be gained, and Sherman was soon able to send the following despatch to the President of the United States : 'I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savan- nah with 150 guns and plenty of ammunition and about 25,000 bales of cotton.'

"So ended one of the most remarkable campaigns in the world's military history. To the prestige of his Georgia achievements Sherman soon added the glory of a successful campaign in the Carolinas. He swept on in his resistless way and practically received the surrender of Johnston at Raleigh, though the War Department fell out with him about his terms with the rehel commander, and finally sent Gen. Grant to arrange for the surrender of Johnston's army.

"Sherman was appointed lieutenant-gen- eral in 1866, and in 1869 hecame commander- in-chief. He has had ample justice done to the daring originality of design, the fertility of resource, the brilliant strategy and untir- ing energy, that made Gen. Grant pronounce him 'the best field officer the war had pro- duced.' He retired from the command of the army of the United States November 1, 1883.'

Of the many interesting characters that adorned our military annals not one occupies a warmer place in the affections of his countrymen; and, moreover, he has the singular distinction of refusing to become Chief Magistrate when it was freely offered. In the progress of the nation but a little time will elapse when the names of most of those on the long roll of its Presidents will be forgotten, but never that of the bold, gallant leader of the famous " March to the Sea."

It is in place here to give the famous army song which Sherman's veterans chanted on their victorious march. It was written by Adj. Byers, of the Fifth Iowa, while in the prison at Columbia, S. C., and being set to music, was frequently sung by the captives as a relief to the monotony of their prison life. After Wil- mington was taken it was sung in the theatre, producing immense enthusiasm.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 94

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