Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 25

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

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Manufactures and Employees .- Brown, Bonnell & Co., merchant iron, 1,870 hands ; The Arms Bell Co., bolts and nuts, 182; Enterprise Boiler Works, steam boilers, etc., 26 ; William B. Pollock & Co., steam boilers, etc., 55; William Tod & Co., engines, etc., 92; The Youngstown Carriage Manufacturing Co., carriages, etc., 93; Heller Bros., doors, sash, etc., 16; The Lloyd-Booth Co., foundry and machine work, 41 ; Homer Baldwin, flour, etc., 10; George Turner, iron fencing, 3; Youngstown Stamping Co., tin-ware, 102 ; George Dingledy, planing-mill, 32; Forsyth Scale Co., U. S. standard scales, 23; A. S. Williams, sash, doors, etc., 4 ; Hem Rod Furnace, pig-iron, 60; Youngstown Lumber Co., planing-mill, 13 ; Youngstown Stove Manufacturing Co., stoves, 30 ; Youngstown Rolling Mill Co., merchant iron, 425; Cartwright, McCurdy & Co., merchant iron, 635 ; John Smith's Sons, ale, beer, etc., 20; Youngstown Steam Laundry, laundrying, 12; Brier Hill Iron and Coal Co., pig-iron, 175 ; Youngstown Steel Co., washed iron, 50 ; Homer Baldwin, flour, etc., 12; Mahoning Valley Iron Co., merchant iron, 1,255 ; American Tube and Iron Co., wrought iron pipes, etc., 421 .- State Report, 1888. Population in 1880, 15,435. School census, 1888, 8,084. F. Treudly, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $5,554,500. Value of annual product, $8,968,760. Census, 1890, 33,220.

In the history of Mahoning county, Mr. David Loveland gives a sketch of the beginning of the manufacture of iron in the Mahoning valley, an industry which has created a city almost continuous for a score of miles along the stream.

It was commenced by two brothers, James and Daniel Heaton, men of enter- prising and experimenting disposition. In 1805 or 1806 they erected a furnace on Yellow Creek, near Mahoning river, about five miles southeast of Youngs- town, which soon went into active operation. Connected with and belonging to the furnace proper were about one hundred acres of well-timbered land which supplied the charcoal and much of the ore for the works. It was called the Heaton furnace. The "blast " was produced by an apparatus of peculiar construc- tion and was similar in principle to that produced by the column of water of the early furnaces.

After this furnace had been in operation for some time, James Heaton trans- ferred his interest to his brother Daniel, and built the second furnace in this valley

BRIER HILL FURNACE.

Vast

ENG GOMME - My.

Meacham & Sabine, Photo., 1890.

YOUNGSTOWN, 1890.

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at Niles. Daniel continued at the old works, and manufactured considerable iron, much of it consisting of stoves, large kettles, and other castings, the appearance of which would be rude for these times. About this time a third furnace was built on Yellow creek by Robert Montgomery, about half a mile below the old Heaton furnace. Both furnaces went to ruin after the year 1812.

YOUNGSTOWN. (Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.)

Youngstown is the name of both city and township. The name is from John Young. On April 9, 1800, the Connecticut Land Company sold the township to him. According to tradition he had located in the township about 1797.

He made a plot of the town that year. It was recorded August 19, 1802, with the date and name of "Youngstown, 1797." John Young was born at Peterboro. New Hampshire, March 8, 1755 ; was married to Mary Stone White, the daughter of Hugh White, the founder of Whitesboro, November 23, 1801.

Brier Hill, so long famed as the place of the Tod family, is two miles northwest of the centre of the city. In this summer (1890) the city limits were extended so as to include it. At Brier Hill are three blast-furnaces, which were erected by Gov. Tod, and are still owned and operated by his family. They have what is called a wash-metal plant where the pig-iron is resmelted, put through a process that relieves it almost entirely of the phosphorus, which is very injurious in making steel.

COAL-MINING IN MAHONING COUNTY.

The system of mining in Mahoning valley, owing to the conditions under which the coal was deposited, is peculiar and curious. The coal, which is the lower bed of the State series, is subject to sudden changes of level, and is found disposed in long, narrow and serpentine basins and troughs. The low ground in a coal bed is called a swamp by the miner, and, owing to the structure of the swamps found in these mines, peculiar mining skill is required to guide and direct the subterranean excavations.

The cost of opening and equipping a mine in this region often exceeds $20,000, but the money usually is soon refunded. The mines have been more profitable than those of any other region in Ohio, owing partly to their proximity to Cleve- land and Lake Erie, but largely to the superior quality of the coal. Some of the mines, however, are losing concerns, owing to a variety of causes, one of which is the too abundant flow of water. The mine of the Leadville Coal Com- pany, situated three miles west of Youngstown, is an instance of this kind.

Difficulties of Shaft-Sinking .- The work of sinking this shaft was one of the most difficult and costly ever encountered in the United States, mainly by reason of the flow of water. The time occupied in sinking, in- cluding several long stoppages, was about two years and six months. The shaft was let by contract to three separate parties ; to the first at $20 per foot, the second at $35, and the third at $50 a foot, but each in turn threw up their contracts.

Messrs. Wicks & Wells (the owners) now concluded to sink the shaft by day-work, per- sonally superintending the operations. Pump- ing machinery was introduced capable of dis- charging 3,000 gallons of water per minute, but at the depth of 110 feet a large crevice in the rock was struck, from which the water rushed with such force as to throw the drill high up in the shaft and all the pumps were overpowered. They were all withdrawn and the shaft filled with water.

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Powerful Pumping .- After some weeks of stoppage all the pumps were again set to work, and the water pumped out down to the point where the pressure of the water and the power of the pumps were balanced. All the pumps were run to their fullest capacity for four weeks, discharging 3,000 gallons a minute, in the hope of emptying, or at least controlling, the feeders of water; but no impression was made. A very powerful pump, equal to the combined force of the six already in use, was procured. With this the water was mastered, but it became necessary to close up the crevice in the rock. This was done by filling with wooden blocks, well wedged in and caulked, and the water was finally shut off and controlled. The work of getting below the crevice was a labor of un- paralleled difficulty and danger. The work- men, suspended in buckets, and having scarcely room to turn around among the mul- titude of pumps, labored heroically, though drenched with water, which shot in great streams across the shaft. During the whole undertaking not a single accident occurred. The closing up of the crevice reduced the flow of water to 500 gallons per minute, and no further difficulty was experienced until the coal was reached.

In sinking this shaft six thirty-feet boilers, with thirty-six inch head, were used. The cost of the work, including the necessary sup- plies for sinking, was $71,837, and the whole depth of the shaft was but 187 feet.

Pumps again Overpowered .- As the vast volume of water encountered in sinking was dammed back over the heads of the miners, its liberation by a fall of the roof was only a question of time. Fifteen thousand square yards had not been excavated till the waters broke into the workings. All the miners escaped in safety, but the pumps were soon overpowered, and the shaft, with all its sub- terranean excavations, was again flooded. The mine remained idle for five years.

The Mine Changes Owners .- In the spring of 1880 the Leadville Coal Company was or- ganized, which bought out Wicks & Wells, the owners and projectors of the enterprise.

New and more powerful pumping machin- ery was put in place, and the water was low- ered to a depth of 136 feet, when the acci- dental dropping of a wedge into one of the pumps stopped operations, and the shaft again filled with water.

Narrow Escape .- In a few days the work of pumping was again resumed, and six weeks later the mine was pumped dry, and the miners, after an absence of five years, ventured down tlic shaft and commenced mining operations. The mine having but one opening, and the excavations that had been made requiring a second opening, as provided in the mining law of the State, an escape-shaft or travelling-way was sunk into the mine, for the egress of miners in case of accident to the hoisting-shaft. This travel- ling-way was completed only two days when the wooden structure covering and surround- ing the hoisting-shaft caught fire from a spark from the smoke-stack, and was burned to the ground. The miners found safe egress through the second outlet or travelling-way ; had there been but one opening, every soul under ground at the time of the fire would have speedily and inevitably perished.

Persistent Enterprise .- The fire, which oc- curred on the 21st of August, 1881, having destroyed all the buildings covering and sur- rounding the shaft, and disabled the hoisting and pumping machinery, all the subterranean excavations were again filled with water. The company at once commenced rebuilding the works and repairing the machinery, and on the 15th of October following the pumps were again started up, and a month later the mine was once more pumped dry. There is an excitement in mining unknown, perhaps, to any other industry ; hence, all the misfor- tunes of this ill-fated mine have not in the least daunted the courage of the mine-owners, or alarmed the fearless spirit of the miners, and work was resumed with the same degree of cheerfulness as in the beginning of the enterprise. The foregoing account is abridged from Dr. Orton's "Geological Report of 1884."

DAVID TOD, the second of Ohio's War Governors, was born in Youngstown, February 21, 1805, and died there November 13, 1868. He was the son of Governor Tod, an eminent man who was born in Connecticut, graduated at Yale, and emigrated to the Northwest Territory in 1800. He was Secretary of the Territory under Governor St. Clair ; was a State Senator after the organization of the State of Ohio. He served as Judge of the Supreme Court from 1806 to 1809, and occupied other important positions. He rendered gallant service in the war of 1812 at Fort Meigs, serving as a lieutenant-colonel.

David Tod was admitted to the bar in 1827. As a lawyer he was very successful, and com- mencing penniless, he soon accumulated a fortune by his talents and industry. He had a strong love of politics and was an able campaign speaker. In 1838 he was elected as a Democrat to the State Senate ; in 1840 gained great reputation as an orator while

canvassing the State for Van Buren. In 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for Governor, being defeated by 1,000 votes ; from 1847 to 1852 he was United States Min- ister to Brazil, under President Polk's ad- ministration ; returning to the United States he rendered' very effective service in the campaign resulting in the election of Presi-

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dent Pierce; in 1860 he was a delegate to the Charleston Convention, was chosen vice- president of that body, and presided over it when the Southern wing of the party with- drew.

Whitelaw Reid says in "Ohio in the War :" "The executive and business talents of Mr. Tod were conspicuously evidenced as the President of the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad, the construction of which he was one of the first to advocate, and with whose success he became identified. To Mr. Tod, more than any other man, belongs the honor of inaugurating the steps which led to the development of the vast coal mines of the Mahoning valley.

" Before and after the meeting of the Peace Congress at Washington in February, Mr. Tod warmly advocated the peace meas- ures, and the exhausting of. every honorable means, rather than that the South should inaugurate civil war. But from the moment the flag was shot down at Sumter he threw off all party trammels and was among the first public men in the State who took the stump advocating the vigorous prosecution of the war till every rebel was cut off or sur- rendered. From that moment, with voice and with material aid, he contributed his support to the national government. Beside subscribing immediately $1,000 to the war fund of his township, he furnished Company B, Captain Hollingsworth, Nineteenth Regi- ment, Youngstown, their first uniforms."

In 1861 he was nominated for Governor of Ohio by the Republicans, and elected by a majority of 55,000.

His administration during the most trying years of the war was zealous, painstaking and efficient. His continued efforts for re- cruiting the army, his fatherly care and sym- pathy with Ohio soldiers in the field and their families at home ; his vigorous measures to repel invasions of the State, are the distin- guishing features of an able administration.

Ohio in the War" closes an account of it with the following words : " He made some mistakes of undue vigor, and some of his operations entailed expenses not wholly nec- essary. But he was zealous, industrious and specially watchful for the welfare of the troops, faithful in season and out of season. He was at the head of the State in the dark- est hours through which she passed. He left her affairs in good order, her contribu- tions to the nation fully made up, her duties to her soldier sons jealously watched, and her honor untarnished."

After the close of his term of service he retired to his farm known as " Brier Hill," near Youngstown, which formerly belonged to his father, and which he repurchased after he began to accumulate property, from those who had come into its possession. As a boy, David Tod was always ready for fun, and many amusing anecdotes are told of his pranks. We give the following from the 'Pioneer History of Geauga County :" "On one winter day, when a deep cut had been shovelled through a snow-bank to give access

to the school-house. Tod led some of his schoolmates to fill the cut with wood, so that when the schoolmaster returned from dinner he was obliged to climb the pile to get to the school-house." On another occasion he played a decidedly practical joke on "Uncle John " Ford, the father of Governor Seabury Ford. John Ford was an eccentric genius of much sterling worth. "The spirit of humor overflowed with him, and when Brooks Brad- ley drove the cows up the lane at night, they would dash back past him, heads and tails high in air, and run clear to the woods. Brooks, as he chased back after the fright- ened cattle, did not see 'Unele John's' old hat down in front of his bent form, shaking out from behind a stump in that lane." He played some trick on David Tod, afterwards Governor of Ohio. David sawed the top bar over which "Uncle John " leaned when he poured the swill to his pigs. "Dave" and his companions watched the next time "Uncle John " fed, and when well on the bar it broke, and he fell, with pail and con- tents, among the hogs. A suppressed laugh from an adjoining fence corner hinted to " Uncle John" how it happened ; but he climbed from the mess and said nothing. He saw only one thing in Tod that he called "mean."

ELISHA WHITTLESEY was born in Washing- ton, Conn., October 19, 1783, and died in Washington City, January 7, 1863. He was brought up on a farm, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1805. He removed to Canfield, O., in June, 1806. During the war of 1812 he rose to the rank of Brigade-Major and Inspector under Gen. Perkins, and was for a time aid and private secretary to Gen. Harrison. On one occasion he was sent with a despatch from Gen. Harrison on the Maumee to the Governor at Chillicothe, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, part of it through the Black Swamp and regions in- vested with hostile Indians ; it was a perilous undertaking but he accomplished it faith- fully.

In 1820-21 he was a member of the Ohio Legislature. He served in Congress continu- ously from 1823 to 1838, when heresigned. His scrupulous honesty is evidenced by the fact that during this service he would receive no pay when absent from his seat on private busi- ness.

He was one of the founders of the Whig party ; was appointed by President Harrison in 1841 auditor of the post-office department, resigning in 1843. In 1849 was appointed by President Taylor first comptroller of the treasury, from which office he was removed by President Buchanan, but reappointed by President Lincoln in 1861 and held office until his death.

As comptroller he was painstaking, watch- ful and efficient ; his whole time and study were directed to the public good. In 1847 he was appointed general agent of the Wash- ington National Monument Association, re- signing in 1849, but was shortly afterwards called upon to manage its affairs as president,

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which he did until 1855, contributing greatly to the success of that enterprise. He was a staunch supporter of Christian doctrines and enterprises, and throughout all his life his conduct was governed by the highest prin- ciples. The distinguished Col. Chas. Whit- tlesey was his nephew, and it was his pride that he was his nephew, such was the exalted character of the uncle.

For many years he kept a diary of current events, a journal or autobiography, which ought to be compiled and given to the public.

JOHN M. EDWARDS was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1805. He was great-grand- son of Jonathan Edwards, the great theo- logian, and son of Henry W. Edwards, a Governor of Connecticut and United States Senator. He was a graduate of Yale, prac- tised law for a number of years in New Haven and made extensive visits through the South in the interest of the estate of his uncle, Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin.

Later, together with a number of young men from Connecticut, he visited the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio, in which his father, Governor Edwards, had considerable posses- sions through Pierpont Edwards, who was one of the original proprietors. Most of these young men remained in the Western Reserve and helped form that highly intellectual community of which Garfield, Giddings, Wade, Tod and Whittlesey were representa- tives. Mr. Edwards had many important positions and was connected with various news- paper enterprises during his life and was one of the founders of the first newspaper pub- lished in the Mahoning Valley. He wrote frequently for publication, principally on his- torical subjects. He was the leading spirit of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society and collected a large amount of valuable informa- tion concerning the early history of Ohio and its people. He was a deeply studious man and a learned and ahle lawyer. He died suddenly at his residence in Youngstown, December 8, 1886, aged 81 years.

un/

FATHER. JUDGE JAMES BROWNLEE.

DAUGHTER. KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD.

KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD, the poetess of patriotism, is the daughter of Judge James Brownlee, of Poland, where she was born. While yet in her " teens," in 1859, she was married with Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood and early became associated with him in journalistic work, writing items, reading proofs, and then sometimes

With dainty fingers deftly picked, Their clean-cut faces ranged in telling lines, The magic type that talks to all the world.

As a school-girl in Poland she had shown fine literary capacity, and if there is

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anything that could have given added brightness and breadth to her intellect it was just this employment of journalistic work, coming, too, just at the opening of the stupendous events of the great civil war.

Her youthful husband enlisted and the old Covenanters' blood in her veins became heated by the spirit of intense patriotism, which soon found expression in patriotic verse, which has thrilled multitudes and started many a glistening tear.

Her soldier lyrics have been printed in different languages, found a prized place in varied volumes : one, solely her own, "Camp Fire and Memorial Poems." These have been recited on every platform in the Union where the veterans of 1861-65 have had a part, particularly "Drummer Boy of Mission Ridge," "Forever and Forever," "The Old Flag," etc.

" Forever and Forever" recalls with lifelike vividness the opening scenes of the war. It thus begins :

When men forsook their shops and homes, and stood with troubled faces, From morn till night, from night till morn in dusky market spaces ;

When women watched beside their babes in anguish half resisted

Until the husky message came, "God keep you, I've enlisted!"

When all day long the drums were rolled in hateful exultation,

And fife and bugle stung with pain the pulses of the Nation ;

When woman's hand formed every star that flashed on field of glory,

When woman's tears were stitched along each stripe in jeweled story-

What said we then ? "Go forth, brave hearts! Go where the bullets rattle!

For us to plan, for us to pray, for you to toil and battle ! Ours to uphold, yours to defend, the compact none can sever,

And sacred be your name and fame forever and forever."

"The Old Flag" no true American can hear without a thrill. Its closing verse is especially fine, and in the coming higher and still higher glory of the nation, multitudes yet unborn in their love for it will regret that their fathers who fought were not with those who fought to save it. We give its closing verse :

O flag of our fathers ! O flag of our sons ! O flag of a world's desire !

Through the night and the light, through the fright and the fight, through the smoke and the cloud and the fire,

There are arms to defend, there are hearts to befriend, there are souls to bear up from the pall,

While thy cluster of stars broodeth over the wars that justice and mercy befall !

There are breasts that will clasp it, when tattered and torn, there are prayers to brood like a dove,

There are fingers to fashion it fold unto fold, and hands that will wave it above,

While the rub-a-dub, dub, dub, rub-a-dub, dub, is beating the marches of Love !

Mrs. Sherwood has ennobled her life by constant active public duties in behalf of those who suffered from the war ; as chairman National Pension and Relief Committee, Woman's Relief Corps (auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Repub- lic) ; chairman Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home Committee Department of Ohio; editor woman's department National Tribune, Washington, etc. Perhaps her proudest moment was when she was invited by the ex-Confederate Committee to write that poetical bond of Union for North and South, to be read at the ceremony of the unveiling of the Albert Sydney Johnston equestrian statue in New Orleans. This event took place April 6, 1887, and her poem delighted alike the Blue and the Gray ; and well it might, breathing, as it did, the spirit of unity and frater- nity, as these two verses alone evince :

Now five and twenty years are gone, and lo ! to-day they come

The Blue and Gray in proud array, with throbbing fife and drum ; But not as rivals, not as foes, as brothers reconciled

To twine love's fragrant roses where the thorns of hate grew wild. *

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O, veterans of the Blue and Gray who fought on Shiloh field, The purposes of God are true, his judgments stand revealed ; The pangs of war have rent the veil and lo his high decree : One heart, one hope, one destiny, one flag from sea to sea !

The object of this monument was not as an insignia of regret that the cause was lost, but as a memorial of the splendid heroism of its soldiers : and all honor that sentiment. In the case of Albert Sidney Johnston, he, although born in the South, was the son of a Litchfield county, Conn., country physician, and his heart was not in the Lost Cause. He loved the Union, and witnessed " with unalloyed grief the culmination of the irresistible conflict." Could his spirit have been pres- ent, it would doubtless have responded, " Yes, 'The Union forever and forever ; one heart, one hope, one destiny, one flag from sea to sea.' "

Among Mrs. Sherwood's varied poems is one historical, "The Pioneers of the Mahoning Valley," read at the meeting of the Pioneers at Youngstown, September 10, 1877. It begins at the beginning, when the "sturdy Yankee came," and marks the changes in the valley to our day and in thirty-three verses. Among them are these three, which certainly, to use an expression General Grant once used to compliment Grace Greenwood upon her "California Letters," as Grace herself told us, are "pretty reading :"

The axes ring, the clearings spread, The cornfields wimple in the sun, The cabin walls are overspread With trophies of the trap and gun.

And from the hearths of glowing logs The children's shouts begin to ring ; Or in the lanes and through the fogs They carry water from the spring.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 25

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