Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

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There was little to be seen of the Alligator, the place was so overgrown with herbage, es- pecially hoarhound, "enough," said Mr. Bryant, in a professional way, for he was a druggist, "to cure all the colds in the United States."' Hoarhound is in some places cul- tivated by old ladies in their gardens. It is about two feet in height and looks not unlike catnip, indeed, belongs to the same family. It was in blossom. It blooms earlier than the catnip, is about two feet high and has a leaf only about half the size of the other, but has no such startling exhilarating effect upon puss.

From the Alligator we passed to Maple Grove, the new cemetery near the village, laid out about 1864, a very pleasant spot, with handsome monuments, a profusion of evergreens and luxuriant junipers full fifteen feet in height and in perfect graceful sym- metry. Also a new feature-low, bush-like trees, say twenty feet in height, completely enveloped in an outer garb of wild grape- vines, hanging to the ground and affording underneath an enticing arbor from the noon- day heat.

Thus ended my day among the graves. Shortly after my visit my obliging, gentle- manly companion, in the very prime of his life, fell sick unto death, when he, too, became a tenant of a grave.

BIOGRAPHY.

HOMER, near the north line of the county, has produced some much-noted characters. From Homer went ZENOPHON WHEELER, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. At Homer were passed the boyhood days of the ROSECRANS -the General and Bishop Rosecrans. The father of these two eminent men was Crandall Rosecrans, of Amsterdam ancestry ; the name in Dutch signifies a " wreath of roses." Their mother was Jemima Hopkins, of the family of the Timothy Hopkins whose trembling signature appears on the Declaration of In- dependence. They emigrated from the Wyoming valley to Ohio in 1808. The family lived in a double cabin.

While other boys were at play, they were noted for their studious habits. The general from youth was interested in religious study. He possessed an extraordinary memory, being

able to commit almost entire books. The family were Methodists, but he was event- ually converted to Catholicism, and influ- enced his younger brother, Sylvester Horton,

LICKING COUNTY.

to also adopt that faith. The latter graduated at Kenyon with distinguished honor, and died at Columbus in 1878, at the age of 51 years. "Bishop ROSECRANS' life was one of great simplicity and self-denial. All that he had he gave to the poor, and he was often obliged to walk long distances, even when in delicate health, because he had not the money to pay his car-hire. All the money that was in his possession at his death was two silver half-dollars."

In Homer, for a term of years, lived the CLAFLIN family, out of whose loins came those two women of strange, inexplicable career, then known respectively as Victoria and Tennie C. Claflin-the one now Lady Bidulph Martin, and the other Lady Frances Cook, and Viscountess of Montserrat as well, who live to-day in London in great wealth and high social distinction. No one could have anticipated such an outcome for two poor girls from a small Ohio village.

A lady of high respectability, now living in Newark, who was a school-mate with the daughters, and a neighbor breathing the same Homeric air, upon whom we called for information, said to us :

"The parents were originally, I believe, from Pennsylvania, the children born in Homer. The father went by the name of Buck Claf- lin. He was a lawyer in a small way, and owned a saw-mill. The mother was a Ger- man woman and a religious enthusiast. At revivals she was accustomed to walk up and down the aisle of the Methodist Church, of which she was a member, clap her hands,

and shout, ' Alleluiah !' At other times she dropped down on her knees in her garden and prayed in tones that went out over the neighborhood. This was about the year 1852. The children were curiously named-Queen Victoria, Utica Vantitia, Tennessee Celeste ; a babe that died Odessa Malvina, and two sons respectively Malden and Hebron. The last became a cancer doctor, travelled, and placarded the towns as Judge Hebron, the great cancer doctor. Victoria was then about 14 and Tennessee about 8 years old. There was nothing especially marked in these girls in intellectuality, that I could discover. The family were considered as a queer, slip-shod set ; never did anything like other people. To illustrate : They used sometimes to send to our house for milk ; instead of a bucket, they brought a green glass flask, which pro- voked my mother, who found it difficult to pour milk through a nozzle. The family were disliked exceedingly, when there came a catastrophe the saw-mill, which had been insured, was burned. How the fire origin- ated was a mystery. Upon this, the clamor against them became so strong that one night they left the town."

Another and a good authority, writing to us from Homer, says :

"Buckman Claflin and family came from Pennsylvania about the year 1844. He was a man of much native genius, and became postmaster at Homer, and built a large, splendid grist-mill, and his daughters, Vic- toria and Tennessee, were ladies of unusual charms."

There died in Homer, April 28, 1889, WILLIAM KNOWLES, at the age of 83 years, where he had long been a resident. He was born in England, emigrated when a young man, and was always poor in purse, but rich in Christian faith, and for a long time brightened the toilsome labor of making brooms for the sup- port of a large family by venturing on airy flights in the realms of poetry. One of his poems, "Betsy and I are One," a sequel to Carleton's "Betsy and I are Out," appeared in the Toledo Blade, and received wide commendation." In a volume preserving the results of his winged excursions is another, wherein he epitomizes his own thoughts in the way of the desirable.

WHEN MY SHIP COMES HOME.

By William Knowles.

I'm building a splendid castle, With marble walls-and a dome ;

'Twill be finished in the summer- When my ship comes home.

I'll have beautiful statues and paintings From famous old Greece and Rome ; And costly carpets and mirrors -- When my ship comes home.

I'll have a grand old library, With many a rare old tome, Where I can feast with the Muses- When my ship comes home.

I'll have enchanting gardens, Where beauty delights to roam ;

With flowers, and fountains, and grottos- When my ship comes home.

I'll have carriages, horses, and servants, Who all at my bidding will come ; I'll have pastures for sheep and for cattle- When my ship comes home.

The good ship Phantom sailed Full fifty years ago ; My old friend Hope is the Captain, She'll soon be home, I know.

She has frequently doubled the cape, Where the wild hurricanes blow ;

Her crew are all brave and light-hearted- She will soon be in harbor, I know.

LICKING COUNTY.

She is freighted with untold treasure, A rainbow is spanning her bow ;

She's been gallantly plowing the ocean, And is homeward bound ere now.

Strong head winds have kept her from land- ing, Till my head is as white as the snow ;

There she comes through the foam of the breakers !

She will soon be in harbor, I know.

What hosts of kind friends then will meet me Beneath my magnificent dome ;

And beauty will smile as she greets me, When my wonderful ship comes home.

The needy shall feast on my bounty, The wolf fly from every door ;

There shall not be a tear in the county,- I'll be rich in the prayers of the poor.

Oh Fancy ! Thou friend of the beggar I On thy wings let me soar as I sing.

And though poor as Job's bony old turkey, I'm happier than many a king.

A portrait of Mr. Knowles, before us, fully bears out the concluding verse of his poem. It is the full front face of a happy old man, looking directly in yours ; at peace with earth and heaven, and who feels to his inmost heart-

"My conscience is my crown ; Contented thoughts my rest ;

My heart is happy in itself; My bliss is in my breast.

I feel no care of coin ; Well-doing is my wealth ; My mind to me a kingdom is, While grace affordeth wealth."

JUSTICE WILLIAM BURNHAM WOODS, of the United States Supreme Court, who died in Washington, May 14, 1887, was born in Newark, Ohio, August 3, 1824. He graduated at Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, in 1841, and from Yale in 1845, being the valedictorian at Yale. Two years later he was admitted to the bar and his oratorical powers attracted such attention that he was elected mayor of Newark in 1855, and sent to the Ohio Legislature in 1857 as a Demo- crat, being speaker in 1858-9. As the leader on the Democratic side, April 18, 1861, he succeeded in supporting the war loan to put Ohio on the defensive and had the vote made unanimous. In the following November he became lieutenant-colonel of the Seventy- sixth Ohio regiment. He served until the war closed, when he was mustered out with the rank of brigadier-general and brevet major-general. He was mustered out in Alabama, where he located and was a leading Republican. Returning to legal duties and political life, he was chosen a state chancellor for six years, but after serving in this position for two years was appointed circuit judge of the United States Court for the Fifth district, which office he held while residing in Mobile for a number of years. His promotion to the United States Supreme Court was made by President Hayes in 1880, and this position he filled most satisfactorily. He participated in the battles of Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Land- ing, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post (in which he was slightly wounded), Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta (July 22 and 28), Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station and Bentonville, and in the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson and in many minor affairs and skirmishes.

CHARLES ROBERT WOODS, his brother,

was born in Newark, February 19, 1827, and died there, February 26, 1885. He graduated at West Point; served on the frontier till the outbreak of the war. He was appointed Colonel of the Seventy-sixth O. V. I., October 13, 1861 ; was at Fort Donelson and Shiloh ; commanded a brigade at the siege of Corinth ; led a brigade at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He was promoted for bravery at Arkansas Post, and mustered out of the volunteer service in 1866, a brevet major-general. He was familiarly called "Susan Woods" by the cadets at West Point, a sobriquet which clung to him in the army. He was a gallant and faithful officer and participated in every skirmish or battle in which his command was engaged. General Sherman once spoke of him as a " magnificent officer."

JAMES EDWARD ROYE (colored) was born in Newark, February 3, 1815, and was educated at the high school and at Ohio University at Athens. He kept a barber shop in Newark, but emigrated to Liberia in 1846, where he became a wealthy merchant and was the first Liberian to make shipments in his own vessel to the United States and Europe.

He was elected to the Liberian house of representatives, chosen speaker in 1849, was chief-justice 1865-68, and in 1870 was elected president. He attempted to usurp the office for a second term, but was condemned to im- prisonment. - While attempting to escape he was drowned, February 2, 1872, in the harbor of Monrovia.

SAMUEL WHITE was born in Granville, March 4, 1813. The history of his brief but brilliant career is well given in an address del- ivered by the Hon. Isaac Smucker, on the occasion of the Pioneer meeting at New- ark, July 4, 1885. "He early developed talents of a high order and was ambitious to acquire an education. He went to school on the Hills when opportunity offered, often barefooted, even in mid-winter, sometimes when snow covered the ground, although the school-house was a mile or more away. His method was to heat a small board quite hot, wrap it up, then start at his best speed

LICKING COUNTY.

toward the school-house and run until his feet became very cold, when he would lay his hot board down and stand on it until his feet became comfortable; then he would start again. There was a half-way house at which he stopped to warm up his board before arriving at the school-house. It would be safe to predict that such a boy would not go through life without an education."

In 1831 he was the first student to enter Granville (now Dennison) University, but left this institution to complete his education at Oberlin, on account of his views on the slavery question. In 1838 he began the practice of law. He became one of the editors of the Newark Gazette. Was elected to the Legislature in 1843 ; was a Whig candi- date for Congress in 1844, but died at Dela- ware, Ohio, July 28, 1844, and Columbus Delano, who took his place on the Whig ticket, was elected. Mr. Smucker says: "Sam White was a man of remarkable force and power as a public speaker ; he was fearless, independent, outspoken, frank, honest. never giving utterance to opinions he did not believe, and always ready to give expression to thoughts that he entertained without fear, favor, or affection." In the famous crusades of his time against slavery, intem- perance, and the abridgment of freedom of speech he was always in the front ranks, playing the part of Richard, the Lion-hearted, and playing it best when and where the fight was hottest."

On one occasion, in the western portion of Hartford township, "he, an overpowered, helpless victim, fell into the hands of a satanic, inhuman mob, who rode him on a rail, and inflicted upon him other indignities accom- panied by circumstances of humiliating degradation ; many of the mobocrats even favoring the proposition to blacken him with lampblack and oil, and threatened to inflict still other and more offensive indignities upon him, which, if those fiendish mobocrats had not relented and moderated their ferocious temper, would have ended in murder."

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT was born in Granville, May 5, 1832. He entered the book-store of his brother-in-law at Buffalo, in 1848, and four years later removed to California and established a branch store. While there he gathered an immense amount of valuable books and documents relating to the early history of the Pacific coast. He also preserved much pioneer and other valu- able historical matter, which was dictated to him or his assistants, by pioneers, settlers, and others. His valuable library numbers nearly 50,000 volumes. His business affairs were prosperous, and in 1868 he retired from the management of his business, and has since been engaged on a series of publications, embracing the history of the whole Pacific coast

from Central America to Alaska. This com- pleted work will consist of thirty-nine vol- umes, about half of which have already been published.

SAMUEL RYAN CURTIS was born near Champlain, New York, February 3, 1807, and died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, December 25, 1866. His parents removed to Ohio the year of his birth ; graduated from West Point, in 1831 ; resigned from the army the succeeding year, and studied and practised law in Newark. From 1837 to 1840 he was chief-engineer of the Muskingum river im- provements. In 1846 he was made Adjutant- General of Ohio, for the special purpose of organizing the State's quota of volunteers for the Mexican war. He served in that war as Colonel of the 2d Ohio, acting as Military Governor of Camargo, a large military depot, which he held February 18, 1847, against a large force of Mexicans, under General Urrea. In 1855 he commenced the practice of law in Keokuk, Iowa, and was three times elected to Congress : resigning in 1861, he be- came a major-general. He was a member of the Peace Commission in 1861. From Sep- tember, 1862, till May, 1863, he was at the head of the Department of Missouri, and that of Kansas, from January, 1864, till Feb- ruary, 1865. He aided in the pursuit and de- feat of General Price's army in 1864. From February to July, 1865, he commanded the Department of the Northwest.

His elder brother, Henry B. Curtis, who died in Chicago, November 5, 1885, was an eminent lawyer of Mount Vernon, active in public works, and an authority on banking and monetary affairs. He was instrumental in the selection of the site and founding of Kenyon College in Knox county.

ISAAC SMUCKER ranks among its early settlers, and one of the best known and most respected citizens of Newark. He was a native of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, born in 1807 and removed to Newark in 1825. He attended the common schools, and also had the benefit of a brief academical course of instruction. He has written many valu- able articles for county histories and other publications of a historical character ; also, for the Ohio Reports of Secretary of State, and for numerous scientific and miscellaneous periodical publications.

Mr. Smucker has served in public offices in the interest of common schools, and classical education as well. He was for sev- eral years a member of the State Legislature ; also, a member of the City Council and Board of Education. He was one of the Grant presidential electors in 1872, and since its organization, in 1867, has been secretary of the "Licking County Pioneer Historical and Antiquarian Society."

TRAVELLING NOTES.

A DAY WITH A PIONEER PASTOR, AND HIS GOLDEN WEDDING.

At Newark, a literary gentleman of the place, Mr. A. B. Clark, suggested that I should stop off on my way to Columbus at Pataskala, and see Rev.

LICKING COUNTY.

Timothy Winter Howe, the Nestor of the Presbyterian ministers in this part of Ohio, whose golden wedding he had three years before attended, and read a poem which he had written for the occasion.

Pataskala is a pretty name. It is one of the good things that came down to us from the ancient inhabitants. It is a name that can be sung; the last syllable, "la," is especially musical. The name does double duty-designates a branch of the Licking, and a village which has about eight hundred people. It is on the B. & O. and Pan Handle Railroad, half-way between Newark and Columbus.

I got off the cars at Pataskala, Wednesday morning, June 23, 1886. The name of the spot was so pretty that it made the alighting doubly pleasant ; and as I walked off in the midst of the sunshine and green things, it seemed as though every step sung a syllable- Pa-tas-ka-la ! In two minutes I had pa-tas- ka-la'd to a cottage. It stood in the midst of its own home acre, one hundred feet back from the road. A huge black walnut was on duty as sentinel at the gate; as I ap- proached it presented arms. Íts leaves rustled in welcome. Then behind and around the house was the orchard and garden with small fruits, which a good old lady there, three hours later, said to me, "are a great comfort to us."

The cottage has four rooms on the ground- floor, also a summer kitchen. The doors stood invitingly open. I entered, and was invited to a seat by a tall, fresh-looking grand- mother, who had enjoyed her golden wedding and was three years on her way to the diamond. Her face was yet all golden ; more than fifty years of a beautiful wedded life filled with good works had made it to shine as an angel's. I did not tell her who I was, but said I wanted to see Mr. Howe. Three minutes later a side-door to a bedroom opened, an aged head, with a part of a coatless body, was thrust through, and the words fell upon my ear : "If you have any business with me you will have to be quick, for I am dressing to go to the cars to meet an old friend I've not seen in thirty years." I replied, "I've no business ; take your time ; see your friend. I'm in no haste ; have the entire day.

In a few moments in he came, a slender, wiry old gentleman, eighty-two years old. I passed my card. He read it ; his face broke into a smile : "Why, I've heard that you were travelling the State, but I did not sup- pose you would call on me." But I did ; he was just the man I wanted to see-a vener- able father in Israel, who had set up his tabernacle in the wilderness, a great moral light, and had ministered to the same people for thirty-seven years, in joy and in sorrow, from the cradle to the grave. I told him I would leave him for a while. He could go to the cars for his friend ; that I wanted to see the village and look upon the shining face of the Pataskala. I made my way to the little stream. It wound around the remote border of the village and frisked by gardens and flower-beds, where the people were at work poking in the earth and tying up the vines. I found it scarce three rods wide and crossed by a covered bridge. It ran clear over a pebbly

bottom, and in places was so shallow that shining pebbles glinted in the sun.

A Witty Guest .- Returning to the house I found the old friend present, Rev. Dr. J. D. B. He was a very learned divine and professor from Madison, Wis .- could talk I don't know how many languages ; could talk good sense in each of them, while most people have a hard time of it to always talk good sense in one. He was on his way to meet his old classmates in Middlebury, from whence he had graduated fifty years ago. Such a visitor, full of learning and abound- ing in apt quotation and in cheery wit, would indeed have been an acquisition anywhere. He helped to make it a field-day in this open cottage of the orchard and the lawn. He told me one thing that was of especial inter- est, which if I had known I had forgotten ; that is, the inscription which is in Latin on the tombstone of Col. David Humphries, the aide of Washington, which is in the Hill- house Cemetery, at New Haven, Conn., was written by Prof. Jas. L. Kingsley, of Yale College. Humphries, while minister to Spain, introduced the Merino sheep into the United States and thereby rendered an in- estimable service. Mr. Kingsley, in this inscription, celebrates him as having imported the sheep with a vellere vere aures, i. e., "a fleece truly golden."

We sat down to the noon meal. I need not say how appetizing everything was : meats tender and brown, and vegetables and fruits fresh from the very grounds around, and with that indescribable flavor which will never keep long enough for use on any city- spread table. With two divines present it would have been unpardonable not to have had a blessing ; and so one of them raised his voice on high. I took occasion to speak of the decadence of the custom even in so- called Christian families, whereupon the professor expressed his regrets : such might be expected among swine who always eat without looking up, for, said he, this is accord- ing to the English proverb, "A pig has no prospects." A moment later the professor dropped another good thing. " What you leave on your plate is a sacrifice to Satan."

The meal finished, with its cheerful talk and happy faces, each in turn was called upon to repeat a verse. What mine was I need not say ; but there is one that will do for some travelling man like myself : "And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you." And if said travelling man is not

LICKING COUNTY.

pleased with this we copy some other scrip- ture for his edification and adoption. "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job." And this man_of Uz said, "For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are ponred out like the waters."

The verse-repeating finished each kneeled before his or her chair ; a short prayer of thanks went up and then all adjourned to the sitting-room adjacent, when to my request my venerable host gave me the following facts in his history which I repeat essentially as he related it, arranging them in the form of a personal narrative. It is valuable as illustrating the life of a class of men, now mostly passed away, the old-time country- settled-for-life pastor.

The Pastor's Story .- My father, Amasa Howe, was a soldier of the American Revolu- tion, and in the beginning of this century was living in Highgate, Vermont, where I was born, Saturday, May 12, 1804. In 1813, when I was a lad of nine years, he removed to Granville, this county, and there I was brought up and became a school-teacher. In 1828, when twenty-four years of age, I went into Virginia to teach school; but I was soon caught up and educated for the ministry of the Presbyterian church, in the Prince Edward Theological Seminary, where I graduated in 1832. I preached for several years in Amelia county. In the fall of 1833 I came north and married, on November 15th, Chloe Harris. She was the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Harris, the first minister of Gran- ville. We had known each other from child- hood and I took her back with me.

Slaveholders' Timidity .- After a while, consequent upon the Southampton insurrection in Virginia, by which many persons were killed by the slaves, and the continued growth of the anti-slavery sentiment, and agitation of the abolition project at the North, my situation became unpleasant. Rumors were prevalent among the common and more ignorant class that the abolitionists were coming south to kill the whites and free the negroes. I had been accustomed to preach to the whites in the morning and on Sundays and then after a short recess to the slaves. After a while rumors of dissatisfaction came to me for this and a talk of ornamenting me with a coat of tar and feathers reached my ears.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916