Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 43

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 43

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).

It was his suggestion to plant the levees with shade trees, and the first trees were selected by him and planted under his direc- tion. But the chief work for which the city is indebted to him is the foresight which se- cured the admirable site for the Woodland Cemetry before it was appropriated to other uses. In 1840 when the Cemetery Association was organized public attention had not been generally called to the importance and desira- bility of rural cemeteries, and the suggestion at that time of a rural cemetery for Dayton was in advance of the times. Woodland Cemetery is the third rural cemetery in order of time in the United States, preceding Spring Grove at Cincinnati three years. To Mr. Van Cleve the honor is due of suggesting the cemetery, and persistently carrying it through to completion.

Mr. Van Cleve was of large size and very fleshy, weighing over three hundred pounds. Calling one evening at a friend's house, a bright little boy of four years was evidently much puzzled, and, after walking around him and viewing him on all sides approached with the inquiry, " When you was a little boy, was you a little boy?" The joke was so good that Mr. Van Cleve used to tell it on himself.

Mr. Van Cleve died September 6, 1858, at the comparatively early age of 57 years. Although holding no official position at the time of his death, the City Council adopted resolutions of respect for his memory and ap- preciation of his great services to the city.

Mr. Van Cleve was a great admirer of Corwin, and when he was a candidate for Governor in the Harrison campaign he wrote and published in the "Log Cabin," this enthusiastic song, which illustrates the affection of the Old Time Whigs' for their " Wagon Boy."

SUCCESS TO YOU, TOM CORWIN.

Success to you, Tom Corwin ! Tom Corwin our true hearts love you !

Success to you, Tom Corwin : We've seen with warm emotion,

Ohio has no nobler son,

Your faithfulness to freedom's cause,

In worth there's none above you !

Your boldness, your devotion.

And she will soon bestow On you, her highest honor.

And we'll ne'er forget

That you our rights have guarded ;

And then our State will kindly show Without a stain upon her.

Our grateful hearts shall pay the debt, And worth shall be regarded.

FRANCIS GLASS, A. M. who taught school in Dayton, in 1823-24, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1790, and came to America with his parents when cight years old. His father was a teacher at Mt. Airy College, Philadelphia. Francis

394

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Glass was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in his nineteenth year. He married young, and, pressed by the wants of an increasing family, he emigrated in 1817 to Ohio. He removed from place to place, having schools at various times in Warren, Miami and Montgomery counties.

There is something pathetic in the story of this enthusiastic and guileless scholar, who, amid the hardships of pioneer life and the bitter privations of poverty, never for a moment lost interest in classical study. Mr. J. P. Reynolds, -see Clinton County-one of his pupils gives a graphic description of a pioneer school-house and its teacher Francis Glass.

He says : "The school-house now rises fresh in my memory. The building was a log cabin with a clap-board roof, but indiffer- ently lighted-all the light of heaven found in this cabin came through apertures made on each side of the logs, and then covered with oiled paper to keep out the cold air, while they admitted the dim rays. The seats or benches were of hewn timber, resting on up- right posts placed in the ground to keep them from being overturned by the mischievous urchins who sat on them. In the centre was a large stove, between which and the back part of the building stood a small desk, with- out lock or key, made of rough plank, over which a plane had never passed, and behind this desk sat Professor Glass when I entered the school. There might have been forty scholars present. The moment he learned that my intention was to pursue the study of langnages with him his whole soul appeared to beam from his countenance.

"The following imperfect sketch drawn from memory may serve to give some idea of his peculiar manner :- ' Welcome to the shrine of the muses, my young friend, Salve! Kaipe! The temple of the Delphian god was originally a laurel hnt, and the muses deign to dwell ac- cordingly, even in my rustic abode. Non humilem domum fastidiunt umbrosamve ripam."

Mr. Reynolds gives more to the same effect, but this may suffice. It was Glass' great ambition to write and publish a "Life of Washington " in Latin, and when Mr. Rey- nolds met him he had nearly completed the work. Mr. Reynolds, who highly esteemed him, furnished him the means to remove to Dayton in 1823, and there the life was com- pleted and the manuscript delivered to Mr. Reynolds, who agreed to assist him in finding a publisher. Lengthy proposals of publica- tion fully describing the work were printed in

the Cincinnati and Dayton papers, but with- out result. His friend, Mr. Reynolds removed from Ohioand was absent for several years, and during his absence Francis Glass died. With his inextinguishable love of the classics, shortly before his death he published in the Dayton " Watchman" a Latin ode on the death of Lord Byron, which was prefaced by the following introduction :- " To the acade- micians and scholars in the United States of America, especially of those who delight in literary pursuits, Francis Glass, A. M., wishes much health."

His death occurred August 24, 1824, after an illness of about three weeks.

In 1835, the "Life of Washington," through the instrumentality of Mr. Reynolds, was published by Harper Brothers. It forms an openly printed volume of two hundred and twenty-three pages. That such a work in Latin should have been written by a country school teacher remote from libraries and com- pelled to teach an ungraded school for his daily bread is certainly one of the curiosities of literature. Eminent scholars have pro- nonnced the style terse and vigorous, and the Latin classical. It was introduced into many schools as a text book, and the writer (Robt. W. Steele) remembers its use in the Dayton Academy in 1838. It is now out of print and rare, but a copy may be found in the Dayton Public Library.

Another remarkable literary production is that of which Mr. Addison P. Russell writes as follows :- " I have in my possession a very well preserved copy, in English, 'Of the Imitation of Christ,' by Thomas A. Kempis, printed in this place (Wilmington, O.), by Gaddis Abrams, in 1815. Think of it ! A religious classic printed in the wilderness, in the midst of milk-sickness, floating logs and rattle-snakes."

GEORGE CROOK, General United States Army, son of Thomas Crook, was born in Wayne township, Montgomery county, Ohio, September 8, 1828, and died in Chicago, March 21, 1890.

He worked on his father's farm and attended school until nineteen. In one of his early campaigns Robert C. Schenck was a guest at the Crook farm house, was attracted by the boy, and appointed him a cadet at the West Point Military Academy. He was graduated July 1, 1852, and for a number of years was on duty with the Fourth Infantry in California.

He took part in the Rouge river expe dition in 1856 and commanded the Pitt river expe-

dition in the following year, being wounded by an arrow in one engagement with the hos-

GEN. ROBERT C. SCHENCK.

COL. ROBERT PATTERSON.

GEN. GEORGE CROOK.

296

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

tiles. At the breaking out of the civil war he held a captain's commission, and returned East to become colonel of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry. He served in the West Vir- ginia campaigns, in command of the Third Provisional Brigade, until August, 1862, and was wounded in the action at Lewisburg. His next service was in Northern Virginia and Maryland, during August and Septem- ber, 1862, and he especially distinguished himself at Antietam, being brevetted lieu- tenant-colonel in the regular army for his services.

In 1863 he was serving in Tennessee, and in July of that year he was transferred to the command of the Second Cavalry Division. After various actions, ending in the battle of Chickamauga, he pursued Wheeler's Con- federate Cavalry from the Ist to the 10th of October, defeated it, and drove it across the Tennessee with great loss. In February, 1864, he assumed command of the Kanawha district of West Virginia, where he was al- most constantly in action of one kind or an- other. In the autumn of the same year he played a prominent part in Sheridan's Shen- andoah campaign, and received the brevets of brigadier and major-general in the United States army in 1865 for his gallant and effec- tive conduct. From March 26 until April 9 he had command of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, and was engaged at Dinwid- die Court-house, Jettersville, Sailor's creek and Farmville, and was present at the sur- render of Appomattox.

He was mustered out of the volunteer ser- vice January 15, 1866, and was subsequently commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Twen-

ty-third Infantry, since which time his scr- vices have been intimately associated with Indian campaigns. He conducted them so successfully that he gained the sobriquet of "The Great Indian Fighter." In 1872. when assigned to the Arizona district to quell Indian disturbances, he sent an ultimatum to the chiefs to return to their reservations or " be wiped from the face of the earth."

In 1882 he forced the Mormons, squatters. miners and stock-raisers to vacate the Indian lands and encouraged the Apaches in indus- trial pursuits. In the spring of 1883 the Chiracahuas intrenched themselves in the fastnesses of the mountains on the northern Mexican boundary and began a series of raids. Gen. Crook struck the trail, and, instead of following, took it backward, penetrated into and took possession of their strongholds, and as fast as the warriors returned from their plundering excursions made them prisoners. He marched over two thousand miles, made four hundred prisoners, and captured all the horses and plunder.

During the two years following he had sole charge of the Indians, and during that time no depredation occurred. He set them all at work on their farms, abolished the system of trading and paying in goods and store-orders indulged in by contractors, paid cash direct to the Indians for all his supplies, and stim- ulated them to increased exertion. The tribes became self-supporting within three years. He was appointed major-general April 6, 1888, and soon after was placed in command of the division of the Missouri, with head. quarters at Chicago.

The Dayton Journal gives the following personal description of Gen. Crook :

He was quiet, unostentatious' and self-pos- sessed under all conditions, especially so in the presence of the enemy. In a fight he blazed, and looked the soldier that he was. His presence was confidence and inspiration to his command. But out of uniform he was so simple and unostentatious, almost shy, that those to whom he was unknown could not have suspected such a modest man to have been one of the great soldiers of the United

States army. His personal and social charac- teristics were very charming, and in congenial company he surprised people by the extent of his information and vigor of his discussion of public questions. But it is likely that he will go into the history of his country mainly upon the solid and brilliant reputation he ac- quired in Indian warfare. . No man in that service was so consummate a master of it as he was.

Gen. Sherman said of him :

" George Crook was always a man on whom we could depend," said he. "He was the most successful man in dealing with the In- dians that the United States ever had in its service. The Indians respected and trusted him, and he could bring them around or make them amenable when every one else failed. During the rebellion Crook had charge of the Second Cavalry Division, sta- tioned in Northern Alabama, and did excel- lent work. During my fifteen years as com- mander-in-chief of the army. I had ample opportunity to find out Crook's good traits, and I never found him anything but a man

who could be depended on in every emer- gency."

The story of the courtship of Gen. Crook is romantic. Early in the war Crook, then a captain, was stopping at the Queen City Hotel, Cumberland, Md. He was there as- sisting Gen. Kelly in organizing regiments and defending the State of West Virginia from invasion. Gen. Kelly was at the same hotel. The proprietor of the house was John Daily, who was also proprietor of Glade's Hotel at Oakland, Md., a famous resort. Mr. Daily had two daughters, the eldest of whom, Miss Mary, was a charming and pretty

297

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

girl. She had Southern sympathies, for her mother was a member of a notable old Vir- ginia family who lived at Moorfield.

During Crook's stay at the hotel he was ruch attracted by the young lady, but she was a spirited girl, and refused to be gracious to the Yankee, though at heart she liked him.

The eldest of Boniface Daily's children was a son James, who was devoted to the cause of the Confederacy. He took offence at the persistent and open attentions of Crook to his sister, and finally organized a band of about fifty young and daring spirits like him- self, and saw that they were well mounted and armed. When everything was ready about a dozen of Daily's band crept into the hotel after midnight, seized Gen. Kelly and Capt. Crook, gagged them, and in a few mo-

ments they were all on their way to Rich- mond. The Federal lines were passed with- out detection, and the prisoners were safely landed in the Confederate capital. After- ward they were exchanged.

Crook went into active service and was badly wounded. He was sent to Oakland with other wounded officers, and singularly enough was quartered at Glade's Hotel. Miss Mary then showed her true feelings, and nursed her brother's late captive through what at one time was thought to be a fatal illness. When he recovered he proposed. but was refused, her political sentiment still being in the ascendant. Twice after that the conqueror of Cochez and Geronimo attacked the fair fortress, and at last it surrendered. The General has been happy in his married life.

ROBERT CUMMING SCHENCK was born in Franklin, Warren county, Ohio, October 4, 1809, and died in Washington, D. C., March 23, 1890. His ancestor, Roelof Martense Schenck, emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1650. His father, Gen. Wm. C. Schenck, was an officer in Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison's army, and one of the pioneers of the Miami valley. He died in 1821, and Robert C. was placed under the guardianship of Gen. James Findlay, of Cincin- nati. He was graduated at Miami University in 1827, and remained at Oxford as a tutor for three years longer, then studied law with Thomas Corwin, was ad- mitted to the bar and commenced practice in Dayton. He served two years in the State Legislature, and was elected to Congress as a Whig, serving from 1843 till 1851. President Fillmore then sent him to Brazil as minister plenipotentiary. While serving in this capacity he distinguished himself as a diplomat by taking a conspicuous part in the negotiation of treaties with Paraguay, Uraguay and Ar- gentine Republic. After two years in Brazil he returned to Ohio, but took no part in politics. When the civil war broke out he at once offered his service to the government, and was commissioned a brigadier-general by President Lincoln, May 17, 1861. He served with his brigade in the first battle of Bull Run. He next served in West Virginia under Gen. Rosecrans, and did some brilliant fight- ing at McDowell and Cross Keys. Gen. Fremont then intrusted him with the command of a division, and, while leading the first division of Gen. Franz Siegel's Corps, at the second battle of Bull Run, his right arm was shattered by a musket- ball. He would not allow himself to be carried from the field until his sword, which had been lost when he was wounded, had been found and restored to him. This wound destroyed the use of his right arm for life, incapacitated him for mil- itary service until December, 1862, when he took command of the Middle De- partment and Eighth Corps at Baltimore, having been promoted major-general September 18.

Gen. Schenck and Gen. Ben Butler had many similar characteristics-great ability, readiness, wit, humor, sarcasm, full information, boldness, originality and the like. Butler in command at New Orleans and Schenck at Baltimore had trouble with the rebel women.

Whitelaw Reid, in "Ohio in the War," tells how Schenck settled them :-

The men dared not insult the soldiers, but many women did, relying on their sex to pro- tect them. Finally they came to wearing rebel colors and displaying them upon the promenades, and upon occasions when such exhibitions were particulary annoying. With- out issuing an order patterned after General Butler's noted proclamation at New Orleans, he made a more skillful and much more dis-

creet use of similar means, which is thus described in Reid's "Ohio in the War :"

"A number of the most noted 'women of the town' were selected. Each was instructed to array herself as elegantly as possible, to wear the rebel colors conspicuously displayed upon her bosom, and to spend her time promenading the most fashionable streets of the city. Whenever she met any one of the

298

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ladies wearing the same badge she was to salute her affectionately as a sister in the un- holy calling, and for these services she was to be liberally paid. The effect was marvellous. In less than a week not a respectable woman

in Baltimore dared to show herself in public ornamented by any badge of the rebellion, and from that time to the end of Schenck's administration that particular difficulty was settled."

After performing effective service in the Gettysburg campaign, he resigned his commission on December 3, 1863, in order to take his seat in the House, to which he had been elected over Vallandigham. He was immediately made Chairman of Military Affairs, and during this and the following Congress his position enabled him to do good service for the Union cause. He was re-elected to the three suc- ceeding Congresses, and throughout these exciting times, during and after the war, he took a leading part in proceedings in the Honse.

Hon. James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years in Congress," says :-

"Robert C. Schenck was an invaluable addition to the House. He was at once placed at the head of the Committee on Military Affairs, then of superlative import- ance, and subsequently made Chairman of Ways and Means, succeeding Mr. Stevens in the undoubted leadership of the House. He was admirably fitted for the ardnous and difficult duty. His perceptions were keen, his analysis was extraordinarily rapid, his power of expression remarkable. On his feet, as the phrase went, he had no equal in the House. In five minutes' discussion in committee of the whole, he was an intellect- ual marvel. The compactness and clearness of his statement, the facts and arguments which he could marshal in that brief time, were a constant surprise and delight to his hearers. No man in Congress during the present generation has rivalled his singular power in this respect.

' He was able in every form of discussion, but his peculiar gift was in leading and con -. trolling the committee of the whole."

In 1871 General Schenck was appointed by General Grant Minister to Great Britain, in which capacity he served with distinction until 1876. It was during this period that he was appointed a member on behalf of the United States of the celebrated Joint High Commission, which assembled at Washington and effected a treaty providing for the Geneva Conference, a measure which, by the substitution of arbitration for war in the set- tlement of a serious controversy between two powerful and warlike nations, marked an era in the development of the spirit of a true Christian civilization.

On his return to the United States General Schenck practiced law in Washington, D. C., participating but little in public affairs. Throughout his public career he regarded Dayton as his home and took an active in- terest in its affairs. He was the real father of the National Home for Volunteer Soldiers and Sailors, being the first to suggest it to Congress, and securing the co-operation of General Benjamin Butler in the most benefi- cent public measure in the history of na- tions.

JAMES FINDLAY SCHENCK, brother of General Robert C. Schenck, was born in

Franklin, O., June 11, 1807 ; died in Day- ton, O., December 21, 1882.

"He was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy in 1822, but resigned in 1824, and entered the navy as a midshipman March 1, 1825. He became passed midshipman June 4, 1831, and lieutenant December 22, 1835, and in August, 1845, joined the " Congress," in which he served as chief military aide to Commodore Robert F. Stockton at the cap- ture of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Pedro, Cal. He also participated in the capture of Guaymas and Mazatlan, Mexico, and in October, 1848, returned home as bearer of dispatches. He was commended for efficient services in the Mexican war. Lieutenant Schenck then entered the service of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and commanded the steamer " Ohio" and other steamers between New York and Aspinwall in 1849-52. He was commissioned com- mander, September 14, 1855, and assigned to the frigate "St. Lawrence " March 19, 1862, on the West Gulf blockade.

"On October 7, 1864, he was ordered to command the "Powhatan" in the North Atlantic squadron, and he also received notice of his promotion to commodore, to date from January 2, 1863. He led the third division of the squadron in the two at- tacks on Fort Fisher, and was highly com- mended for his services. Commodore Schenck had charge of the naval station at Mound City, Ill., in 1865-6, was promoted to rear- admiral September 21, 1868, and retired by law June 11, 1869." (Ap. Biog. Ency.)

CHARLES ANDERSON was borne June 1, 1814, at Soldier's Retreat, his father's home, nine miles from Louisville, Ky. His father was an aide-de-camp to Lafayette. His brother Robert was the Major Anderson commanding Fort Sumter in April, 1861. Charles Anderson graduated at Miami Uni- versity, Oxford, O., in 1833. Studied law in Louisville and was admitted to practice. He removed to Dayton, and September 16, 1835, married Miss Eliza J. Brown, of that city. In 1844 he was elected to the Ohio Senate. His efforts in behalf of the colored race and for the repeal of the " Black Laws " made him unpopular with his constituency, and at the close of his term he made a tour

299

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

through Europe. On his return to Ohio he practiced law in Cincinnati for eleven years in partnership with Rufus King. In 1859 he went to Texas, and on November 20, 1860, he addressed a large gathering of people at San Antonio, advocating in the strongest and most pathetic language the perpetuity of the National Union. He re- ceived many letters threatening his life, and later was confined as a political prisoner in the guard-tent of Maclin's battery of artil- lery. He escaped to the North and was ap- pointed colonel of the 93d O. V. I. He was severely wounded at the battle of Stone River.

In 1863 he was nominated and elected Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with John Brough, and on the death of the latter suc- ceeded to the office of Governor. He is a man with a fine sense of honor, tall and ele- gant in person, of brilliant qualities, and the ideal gentleman personified.

THOMAS JOHN WOOD was born in Mun- fordville, Ky., September 25, 1823; was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy ; received the brevet of 1st lieutenant for gal- lant and meritorious conduct in the Mexican war, served in 1848-49 as aide-de-camp to Gen. Wmn. S. Harney. He served as captain in the First Cavalry in Kansas during the

border troubles, and on the Utah expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston till 1859.

In 1861 he was commissioned brigadier- general of volunteers and placed in command of a division ; took part in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, also the battle of Stone River. December 31, 1862, where he was wounded.

He commanded a division in the 21st Corps, Army of the Cumberland, at the battles of Chickamauga and Mission Ridge, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general for Chickamauga. He was engaged in the in- vasion of Georgia and was severely wounded in the action of Lovejoy's Station. He com- manded the 4th Corps in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, receiving the brevet of major-general for the latter. Ile was pro- moted major-general of volunteers in January, 1865, and was mustered out of the volunteer service September 1, 1866. He retired from active service with the rank of major-general June 9, 1868, and that of brigadier-general March 3, 1871. He is now a resident of Dayton. (Abridged from Ap. Biog. Ency.)

During the war period and until his death, June 17, 1871, at Lebanon, CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM was a resident of Dayton. A sketch of his career is under the head of Columbiana County, in our first volume.

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 II, Part 43

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