Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 107

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

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II > Part 107

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Mitchell was still alive when found, was hastily conveyed to his father's house ; medi- cal aid was summoned, and by careful nursing he was restored to health, although he never re- covered from the effects of his terrible expe- rience. His feet and legs having been frozen, he was crippled to some extent. Mather suffered no permanent injury from the ex- posure.

Protection to a Slave .- In a biographical sketch of Captain Horatio Cox Hamilton,

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given in the " Union County History," is re- lated an account of his refusal to turn over to a jailer a slave that had sought protection from the Union army. It involves a ques- tion which was at the time a national one, and a subject for consideration in the cabinet of President Lincoln.

Capt. Hamilton was born in Irville, Muskin- gum county, O., September 24, 1830. When a boy of eight years he removed with his father's family to Richwood, Union county. He worked on his father's farm, spent two years in college at Delaware, taught school ; married, June 3, 1856, Edmonia Dawson, daughter of Dr. Nelson Dawson, of Putnam, O .; com- menced farming in Black Hawk county, Ia., in 1857 ; returned to his father's farm in 186] ; July 22, 1862, was appointed by Gov. Tod to raise Union county's quota of volunteers; Aug. 7, 1862, was elected captain in the 96th O. V. I. The regiment was assigned to the command of Brig .- Gen. S. C. Burbridge, and the bri- gade was attached to Maj .- Gen. A. J. Smith's division of the Thirteenth Army Corps.

Capt. Hamilton resigned from the army Aug. 9, 1863, on account of disease contracted in the service. Hiswifedied Jan. 29, 1877, and in 1879 he married Miss Molly Kendall, and they now live together in the village of Rich wood. Capt. Hamilton has partially regained his health.

The account of Capt. Hamilton's refusal to return the fugitive slave is here quoted from the "County History :

"The 96th O. V. I. reached Kentucky on the 1st day of September, 1862. It will be remembered that at this time there was a sentiment among the new recruits that slaves and slave property were being wrongfully pro- tected by the army, and that it was no part of a soldier's duty to protect rebel property, and catch and return slaves to their masters. It began to be noticed that negroes were turned out of our lines with an ever-increas- ing degree of reluctance ; also that Capt. Hamilton was the friend of the oppressed, and that he did not always obey an order to do so inhuman a thing as to turn a fellow- man over to his rebel master, even in obedi- ence to a positive command of a senior officer. Finally a boy, some fourteen years of age, came into the camp of the 96th Ohio, at Nicholasville, Ky., calling himself William Clay, and reporting that his master was a rebel, and that he had thrown an axe at him (Billy), and that he wanted protection. He found a friend in Capt. Hamilton, and re- mained with him, as a servant, for some time, until the army was ordered to move to Louis- ville. On the way, and as it passed through Versailles, a person dressed in the uniform of a Union soldier came, representing him- self as being on Maj .- Gen. A. J. Smith's staff, and that as such he ordered Capt. Hamilton to deliver the boy Billy to him to be turned over to the jailer as an escaped slave. This he refused to do unless the order came in writing from Gen. Smith in the ordi- nary way, being countersigned by Gen. Bur- bridge and Col. I. W. Vance, of the 96th O. V. I. This the fellow refused to get, but

notified him that he would be back in fifteen minutes with a detachment of soldiers, and that he would take the boy by force. Upon this the captain turned to his company, and told them that if it was going to be a question of force, that they might load their guns and prepare for the affray.

That order the company made haste to execute, and as they did so one company after another did the same, until, as far as one could see, the road seemed to glisten with the light of the sun as it was reflected by the several thousand ramrods which were being used to send home the ball that was intended to perforate the hide of any man who would attempt to take Billy by force. The effect of this preparation was that the staff officer gave up his notion of taking the boy by force at that time, but notified the captain that the affair would be deferred until evening, at which time the boy would be taken by force, and the captain put under arrest for disobe- dience of orders. This kept the matter brewing in the minds of the soldiers. As soon as the army was encamped for the night, the soldiers held an impromptu meeting, at which speeches were made and resolutions passed approving the course of Capt. Hamil- ton, and resolving that they would stand by him to the death. A committee was ap- pointed to inform him of their purpose, and he was soon waited on by a soldier who made known their action to him, and requested that, if any move should be made to take the boy by force, immediate notice should be given to the officers and soldiers whose names were found on a card which was handed to the . captain. This uprising of the soldiers, occa- sioned by the refusal of Capt. Hamilton to give up the boy Billy, had the effect to stop all effort in the Army of Kentucky to arrest or return slaves to their masters.

On reaching Louisville, the army was ordered to go to Memphis and Vicksburg. The boy could not be taken, and the only thing that could be done was either to let him loose in Kentucky, to be seized upon and returned to slavery, or to send him home to Ohio. The latter the captain chose to do, but had to force his way across the river for fear of arrest ; but he finally reached New Albany, Ind., and bought a railroad ticket to Marysville for the boy, paying for it all the money he had and going $1.25 in debt. When the boy reached Richwood, it set everything in commotion. Some approved of the course pursued by the captain, others condemned. The party in opposition called a meeting, and resolved that the "nigger" should not be permitted to stay, and that they would return him to his master, etc. They also resolved that Capt. Hamilton should not be permitted to return to Rich- wood. The matter got into all the papers of the State, and of other States as well. Letters came to the captain from every quarter, some approving and some disapproving his course. One man, who was given to understanding the force of what he said, wrote him that it was supposed that an effort would be made to

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take the boy by force and send him back to Kentucky, but he said that the captain need not be alarmed, for that many thousands of men were armed and ready for any move that might be made to return the boy.

Billy Clay and H. C. Hamilton both live in Richwood at this time, and this story would not have been told if it had not been for the fact of its having had so important a part in the war in overthrowing the slave power, and in developing liberal and Christian sentiment at home.'

The name of OTWAY CURRY stood high among the people in the olden time as that of a man of singular purity and dignity of eharacter, and a poet whose verses illustrated the thoughts and emotions of a devout and reverent spirit.

He was born on what is now the site of Greenfield, Highland county, March 26, 1804, and when a lad of seven years came with his father, Col. James Curry, into what is now Union county. His father the next year, 1812, was summoned to Chillicothe as a member of the legislature ; an older brother went into the army to do battle for his coun- try, and the rest of the family remained on the farm with their prudent and patriotic mother. Alone in the wilderness, surrounded by savages, they were never molested, though often alarmed. On one occasion their horses showed every indication of fear; their dogs barked furiously, now rushing into the corn- field and then retreating with bristling hair · as if driven. The family, thinking that the Indians were near, decided to fight as well as pray.

The mother, in marshalling her forces, stationed young Otway and his brother Stephenson on guard, Otway at the house corner and Stephenson at the bars with loaded guns at rest and ordered them to take aim and fire as soon as they saw an Indian. Fortunately none appeared.

Otway learned the carpenter's trade at Lebanon, and followed that occupation for several years, part of the time in the lower Mississippi country. At this period he began writing verses anonymously for the newspa- pers, as "My Mother," and "Kingdom Come ;" these gained popular favor and won the life-long friendship of William D. Gal- lagher. He married Miss Mary Noteman, and eventually settled on a farm in Union county, where he courted the muses in the intervals of agricultural labor. In 1836 he was elected to the legislature ; again in 1837 and 1842. For a while he edited the Xenia Torch Light, and was associated with Gal- lagher in Columbus in the publication of the Hesperian, a monthly magazine of a high order, and therefore naturally of a short life.

In these years he studied the law, and

though entering the profession late evinced marked capacity. In 1850 he was elected a member of the second Ohio Constitutional Convention. In 1853 he purchased the Scioto Gazette and removed to Chillicothe, where he edited it for a year, and health fail- ing, returned to Marysville and resumed the practice of the law. In 1854 he was presi- dent of the Ohio Editorial Convention, and died February 15, 1855. He was one of the choice spirits of the Methodist church. The late Bishop Thomson wrote of him "as a man without a spot in his character, of strong domestie nature, whose home to him was a paradise :- a man of fervent picty, and his poetry as the song of a religious soul : a faith that brings heaven near to earth and man into fellowship with angels."

Mr. Curry was tall and well proportioned, with a broad, lofty brow, and an open counte- nanec. He was strikingly neat in his personal appearance, and careful and cautious in his speech and writings as though the eye of the Master was ever upon him in all his words and acts. Annexed is one of his poems, which has been a comfort to many devout souls :

THE GREAT HEREAFTER.

'Tis sweet to think when struggling The goal of life to win,

That just beyond the shores of time The better days begin.

When through the nameless ages I cast my longing eyes, Before me, like a boundless sea, The Great Hereafter lies.

Along its brimming bosom Perpetual summer smiles, And gathers like a golden robe Around the emerald isles.

There in the long blue distanee, By lulling breezes fanncd,

I seem to see the flowering groves Of old Beulah's land.

And far beyond the islands That gem the wave serene, The image of the cloudless shore Of holy Heaven is seen.

Unto the Great Hereafter- Aforetime dim and dark-

I freely now, and gladly, give Of life the wandering bark.

And in the far-off haven, When shadowy seas are passed, By angel hands its quivering sails Shall all be furled at last.

The manager of " the Associated Press," Mr. WM. HENRY SMITH, journalist, is from Union county. He was brought here in 1836 by his parents when a child, three years of age, from Columbia county, New York, where he was born

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December 1, 1833. Francis F. Browne, author and editor of the Dial, thus out- lines his career in "Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography :"

Mr. Smith had the best educational advan- tages that the State then afforded. He was tutor in a western college, and then as- sistant editor of a weekly paper in Cincinnati, of which, at the age of twenty-two, he became editor, doing also literary work on the Liter- ary Review. At the opening of the civil war he was on the editorial staff of the Cin- cinnati Gazette, and during the war he took an active part in raising troops and forward- ing sanitary supplies, and in political work for strengthening the government.

He was largely instrumental in bringing Gov. John Brough to the front as the candi- date of the United Republicans and War Democrats ; and at Brough's election, in 1863, he became the latter's private secretary. The next year he was elected secretary of the State of Ohio, and was re-elected in 1866. He retired from public office to establish the Evening Chronicle at Cincinnati, but, his health giving way, he was forced to with- draw from all active work. In 1870 he took charge of the affairs of the Western Associ- ated Press, with headquarters at Chicago. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes collector of the port at that city, and was instrumental in bringing about important reforms in customs methods in harmony with the civil service policy of the administration.

In January, 1883, he effected the union of the New York Associated Press with the Western Associated Press, and became general mana- ger of the consolidated association.

Mr. Smith is a student of historical sub- jects. He is author of "The St. Clair Pa- pers " (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1882), a biography of Charles Hammond, and many contribu- tions to American periodicals. He has partly completed (1888) a " Political History of the United States." By his investigations in the British Museum he has brought to light many unpublished letters of Washington to Col. Henry Bouquet, and has shown that those that were published by Jared Sparks were not correctly given.

Mr. Smith is of Scotch-Dutch descent, through both the male and female line. His father, William DeForest Smith, was a na- tive of Litchfield county, Connecticut, where his family had settled about 1639. Mr. Smith's mother was Almira Gott, daughter of Deacon Story Gott, a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army, who was a descendant of Daniel Gott, who emigrated from Scot- land and settled in the Connecticut Valley before the year 1690. After the close of the Revolutionary war Lieutenant Gott removed to Columbia county, N. Y.

At the northwest corner of Broadway and Dey streets, New York, stands the first of the tall buildings erected in that great metropolis. Here are the headquarters of the Western Union Telegraph Company and of the Associated Press. From this building radiate the business nerves of the whole world. Mr. Smith's office is on the fifth floor, but the editorial and operating rooms are on the eighth floor, and it was here that I found that gentleman surrounded by the men whose business it is to disseminate intelligence. Perhaps nowhere else in the world is such a striking contrast presented between the past and the present as in this place : for here are to be seen in practical operation the wonderful products of electrical science which bring into close relations all nations. I invited the executive head to put aside the contemplation of war rumors from St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris, and of the acts of "a strictly business administration " at Washington, for a chat about him- self and his recollections of Union county, and here follows the substance of the interview :

RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY DAYS IN UNION COUNTY.

" Both branches of my family are of the oldest of the Connecticut settlers, and mingle frecly, Dutch, Scotch and English blood. There are intermarriages with Johnsons, Stoddards, DeForests, Gotts, Wilcoxes, etc. The DeForests are de- scended from Isaac De le Forest, who came to New Amsterdam about 1635. The ' History of Ancient Woodbury' records many good old-fashioned names, but none more so than of my father's family. Thus, William DeForest, son of Ly- man and Elizabeth DeForest Smith, born 1805; Lyman, son of Bethel and De- liverance Smith, born December 17, 1780; Bethel, son of Thomas and Patience Smith, baptized March 2, 1755, etc., until the founder is reached.

" My earliest recollections ? I plucked a bunch of fox grapes in the garden of James C. Miller, in Union township, in 1836. It was in that hospitable family

WM. HENRY SMITH, Journalist and Manager of the Associated Press.

OTWAY CURRY, Journalist and Poet.

EIE

THE UNION COUNTY COURT-HOUSE, MARYSVILLE.

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that we, the new emigrants from the East, were made welcome until a house could be provided for ns. Compared with others, our people could hardly be called pioneers. My uncle, Dr. Benjamin Davenport, had induced my father to leave the Housatonic Valley for the fertile plains of the West, and he naturally sought a neighborhood where friends had previously located. The Colvers, Millers and Davenports were of kin, and by courtesy we were recognized as 'cousins ' of these pioneer families. Our people had travelled in a Conestoga wagon, procured at Wilkesbarre, Pa., over the mountains to Pittsburg, thence by boat to Marietta, thence np the Muskingum to Zanesville, and thence across country in the wagon to the Darby Plains in the southern part of Marion county. We became citi- zens of the village of Homer, which was then an active and intelligent centre, much frequented by the citizens of the contiguous parts of Madison and Cham- paign counties. Then Homer had a saw mill, one large general store, a woollen and carding mill, with a spinning jenny, an extensive furniture manufactory and various other industrial shops. To these my father added a wagon and carriage manufactory, the first in the county, or, indecd, in that section of the State, for the manufacture of fine buggies and carriages. Later a second store and a large cheese factory were added. Cincinnati was the principal market for the cheese, which was transported in wagons and exchanged for merchandise. But time and a new civilization have obliterated all this activity, as there is not a trace left, and town lots have been merged into the adjoining farms.

" Pennsylvania and Virginia had the honor of supplying the first of the pioneers for the southern part of Union county. The Darby Plains-originally a prairie country-was a favorite Indian hunting-ground. Along the banks of the Little Darby were found great quantities of arrow heads, stone hatchets and other Indian relics ; while along the Big Darby were bu * 1 grounds, some of which I explored when a boy. The first settlers in 1808 tound the plains dotted with small patches of timber, chiefly bun-oak, jack-oak and hickory, plum thickets, etc., surrounded by a rank growth of tall grass. This was not changed much in 1836, as the amount of cultivated land was small. The number of inhabitants then in Union township did not probably exceed five hundred, and half of these resided in Milford Centre, which I believe was the first village to be laid out in the county. Here was located the post-office, to which the denizens of Homer repaired for their mail, and the mill which supplied the flour for bread. Not unfrequently in the spring of the year, when the black prairie roads were bottomless, the citizens of the southern part of the county found both mental and physical food run un- pleasantly low. In the same section now are to be found free gravelled turnpikes equal to the best in any country. I have a personal satisfaction in this, inasmuch as the free turnpike law under which these roads were made received legislative sanction, after vigorous opposition, at my earnest solicitation when I was Secretary of State. But to return to our subject : Mitchell, Ewing, Curry, Reed, Snodgrass, Gabriel, Woods, Irwin, Stokes, Porter, Robinson, Witter, Winget, and McDowell were names connected with the beginning of civilization in that part of the county. Later New England and New York sent a larger number whose influence was controlling in social life-Sabine, Bigelow, Keyes, Fairbanks, Colver, Miller, Coo- lidge, Howard, Burnham, Hathway, Reynolds were representative names of this second immigration ; and thenceforth the increase was from the East ..

" The citizens of Union county were amongst the most intelligent in the State. The land they cultivated was very rich and productive, and although they were deprived of many luxuries, they lived comfortably and enjoyed life. I am speak- ing of the 30s and 40s. Farm wages were low, 37} to 50 cents a day being the ruling rates ; and yet there was prosperity. Of course there was exchange or barter, which rendered a liberal supply of currency less necessary. Cattle-raising was carried on extensively, and vast droves were annually taken across the moun- tains for the Eastern markets by Fullington, Stokes and others. This business secured for our section a better supply of money than was possible in other sec-

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tions that depended upon grain-raising. There was less suffering on account of the mad tampering with banks during the 30s than in many other sections. We had schools, public and select, that ranked deservedly high, and in the promotion of these Jolin F. Sabine, James C. Miller, my father, and a few other public- spirited gentlemen were active and enterprising. And, in order to keep up intel- lectual activity, we had also a society at whose weekly meetings were discussed questions of public interest. I recall the names of three or four who displayed a good deal of ability in these forensic contests : Samuel and Hiram Colver, sons of the carly pioneer Samuel, young lawyers; Dr. Davenport, William Gabriel, Dr. Hathaway, Dr. Mann and Bushrod Washington Converse. The latter was a Vermonter, a Harvard graduate, with many rare natural gifts, including a most fascinating style of oratory. He was the head of our ' select school' at Homer ; but so wide was his fame he was invited to meet divines and politicians in other counties, in church and on the stump, in defence of religion and Whig politics. These public meetings were a striking feature of the civilization of that day, and an important influence in the education of the people. They would frequently last for days, and the arguments advanced by the speakers would be rehearsed and criticised in the family circle for weeks afterward. The intellectual activity in that country in those days was quite as great and of as high an order as that prevailing in the cities, where the advantages were greater. But the leaders in the Darby Plains country, living neighbors in Union, Champaign and Madison coun- ties, were no ordinary men. They came of the best American blood. Let me recall a few names as types : John F. Sabine came of one of the most widely- known New England families, and must have been born about the beginning of the century. He was a most charming gentleman, popular and influential. At his home were refinement, intelligent conversation, and the manifestation of a deep interest in everything that concerned the welfare of society. He was a model citizen, who was frequently called on to fill positions of trust. His two sons, Hylas and Andrew, have followed in his footsteps. The former has been a mem- ber of the Legislature and State Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs ; and the latter had a distinguished career as surgeon and medical director during the war of the rebellion. William B. Irwine, another popular and useful citizen, was a native of Virginia, and was born while Washington was still President. He was an ingenious man, and as surveyor ran the lines in a large part of the Vir- ginia military district. The families of Col. James Curry, Judge Mitchell and John W. Robinson were conspicnons in Jerome and Darby townships. Otway Curry, son of Col. James Curry, was associated with W. D. Gallagher in the pub- lication of The Hesperian, and was a fellow-poet whose verse is still repeated. Col. W. L. Curry, a grandson of the Col. Curry of Revolutionary days, was a gallant soldier during the rebellion, and is a leading citizen of the county to-day. So, too, is James W. Robinson, a descendant of John W., whose career at the bar, as member of the Legislature and of Congress, has been an honorable one. There has been a pretty wide scattering of the descendants of these early families. They have helped to build up new States or to develop others. The Colvers, Cooledges and Davenports went to Oregon and Washington. My brother, Chas. Warren Smith, resides in Chicago, and is one of the railroad magnates of our new civilization. For thirty-four years he has been conspicuous in that field of enter- prise, and has had under his control at one time as many as eight thousand miles of railroad. His administrative ability is of a high order. L. M. Fairbanks, son of Luther Fairbanks the pioneer, and most of his sons, are in Illinois. His son, Charles W. Fairbanks, a graduate of Wesleyan University of Delaware, married a daughter of Judge P. B. Cole, of Marysville, and resides at Indian- apolis. He is an able member of the bar, and has accumulated a large fortunc.

" You observe that my personal references have been chiefly to the settlers of the southern part of Union county. The northern part developed much more slowly, and the intercourse between the two parts was slight. As Marysville, the

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county-seat, increased in population and the machinery of county government was more extensively employed, there was a greater degree of homogeneity. The most conspicuous family in the northern part was that of the Rev. William Hamilton, a Virginian, who settled in Claibourne township, and was a father in the Method- ist Church. There were a good many sons born to this worthy man, some of whom have reached distinction. Dr. John W. Hamilton, the head of Columbus Medical College, and an eminent surgeon, I believe, is the oldest son. I. N. Hamilton and another son adopted the profession of medicine. But the 'flower of the flock' was Cornelius S. Hamilton, who possessed great intellectual and moral endowments. His energy, self-reliance and moral courage would have made him a leader in any community, albeit his lack of tact insured him a vigorous opposition. I remember him with warm feelings of friendship, as, while he was editing the Marysville Tribune, he encouraged me to write, and thus influenced my choice of a career. That was when I was fourteen years of age, and the friendship then formed continued during his life. His tragic death in 1867 cut short what promised to be a brilliant and useful public career. He was the first citizen of Union county to represent that district in Congress. Another able man who has reflected honor on Union county is Judge Philander B. Cole, who has often been called to high stations, and who commands the respect of all who know him.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 107

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