USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 40
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In 1877 he was complimented by President Hayes by being appointed one of the honorary commissioners to the Paris exposition.
Mr. Cowles has now been connected with journalism for over a quarter of a century. The experience of his paper has been like the history of all daily papers. It had sunk previous to his being connected with it over thirty thou- sand dollars. The first nine years after he had taken hold of it it sunk over forty thousand dollars more, and at the end of that time it commenced paying expenses, eventually resulting in his being able to pay off every cent of indebtedness. Its business has increased tenfold under his administration, and it has also the largest daily circulation of any paper west of the Allegheny, with the exception of two papers in Chicago, one in St. Louis, and two in Cincinnati, and is more than double the circulation of any Cleveland paper. When he commenced his editorial career his staff consisted of himself, one associate, and one city editor. Now it is cou- posed of hinself as chief editor, one managing, two assistant editors, and an editor cach in charge of the commercial, city, literary and dramatic, and telegraphie de- partments, also one in charge of the Washington branch office, and four reporters, twelve in all. When the Leader was first started it was printed on a hand-press, at the rate of four a minute on one side. In 1847 it was printed on an Adams steam-press, at the rate of twelve a minute on one side. In 1854 it was printed on a single-cylinder press, at the rate of thirty a minute on one side. In 1863 a double-cylinder press did its work, at the rate of fifty-six a minute. In 1874, to meet the growing circulation, an additional donble-cylinder press was added. In 1877 the most wonderful printing machine the world has yet seen was added, at an expense of thirty thousand dollars, which has printed an eight- page paper both sides at once, the top of the pages delivered cut, the two halves pasted in the centre, and the whole folded, all in one operation, at the rate of as high as two hundred and twenty a winnte, equivalent to four hundred and forty a minute on one side! This was the only press in the world at the time it was set up that would do all that amount of work simultaneously, it might be said.
The foregoing statistics are given for the purpose of illustrating the success achieved by Mr. Cowles as a journalist. His chief characteristic as an editor is his fearlessness in treating all questions of the day without stopping to consider " whether he will lose any subscribers" by taking this or that side, and, like most men of his decided views, he has bitter enemies, who do not hesitate to do all in their power to attack him by fair and foul means, as well as warm friends. His great ambition is to have the Leader take the lead in the work of reform, the promulgation of progressive ideas, the elevation of humanity to as high a scale as possible, and to oppose in every shape tyranny and injustice, whether of church, state, capital, corporation, or trade unions, and at the same time to make it the most influential paper in the State, if not in the west. Hence the great cireula- tion of the Leader.
His success was the more remarkable on account of his laboring under the great disadvantage of being afflicted from birth with a defect in hearing, which
Edwin Wlowles
99
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
cansed a peculiar impediment of speech that no parallel case lias been found on record. Until he had reached the age of manhood the cause of this impediment Was not discovered. Professor Kennedy, a distinguished teacher of elocution, be- came interested iu his case, and, after an examination, he discovered that he never heard the hissing sound of the human voice, and consequently, not knowing that such a sound was in existence, he never made it ! Many of the consonants sounded alike to him ; that is, he was obliged to be governed by the motion of the lips and the sense of the word to ascertain the sounds of " b," " p," " d," " t," " v," etc., the vowel sound of "e" being hcard without any trouble, but not the governing sound, which makes the consonant. He never heard the music of the bird, and, until he reached the age of twenty-three, he had always supposed that kind of music was a poetical fiction. He never hears the upper notes of the piano, violin, organ, or the fife iu martial music, but can hear low conversation without any trouble, provided the pronunciation is distinct. Hc has frequently put his ear close to a cage containing a pair of canary birds, and, although he could hear them fly, not a note would reach his ear. He would get up at five o'clock in the morn- ing iu the month of June, and go out into the field and listen with all his night, endeavoring to hear the music of the birds, but with no better success, although he could hear all notes below the seventh octave. He never could distinguish the difference between the hard and soft sounds of letters, consequently he would mix those sounds to some extent. In other words, up to the time he was twenty-five, the sounds of other people's pronunciation sounded precisely the same in his eur that his own pronunciation did to them. He has been able to improve his pro- nunciation greatly, and has taught himself to make the hissing sound mechanic- ally, but he never hears that sound himself. Owing to his peculiar pronunciation and deafness, he was the butt of his fellow-printers while learning his trade with Mr. Harris, during his younger days, and many a hard-fought battle did he go through to defend himself from abuse. He fought grown-up journeymen as well as apprentices of his own age, and out of all who were in the habit of abusing him on account of his physical impediments not one ever prospered, and most of them became their own enemies.
Mr. Cowles was ever active in all benevolent and charitable enterprises, giving liberally to them according to his means, and devoting the influence of his jour- nal to their support and encouragement. In 1875 he was chairman of the com- mittee of arrangements of the great calico ball given iu the immense carpet ware- room of Beckwith, Sterling & Co., for the benefit of the Relicf association and the two Protestant hospitals. Seven thousand invitations were sent out, and three thousand people, consisting of the élite of Cleveland, of northern Ohio, and west- ern Pennsylvania, were present. The uet profit of this grand entertainment was over five thousand dollars, and so perfect were all the arrangements that not one out of that iunnense crowd lost an article of wearing apparel in the cloak-room. It was the largest ball ever given in this country with, perhaps, the exception of the Jubilee ball, in Boston, in 1872. The following year he was chairman of the committee of arrangements of the grand bazaar for the benefit of the same hos- pitals, resulting in raising the sum of eight thousand dollars.
Mr. Cowles is wedded to his profession, and never expects to leave it for any other ; in other words, he expects to die iu the harness. Owing to the power of the press iu controlling public sentiment, backed up as it is by the aid of wonder- ful lightning printing machinery, the telegraphı, that great association for the col- lection of news, the associated press, the division of intellectual labor into different departments, and the fast railroad trains, he considers journalism, if only mauaged in the interest of religion, morals, humanity, and of doing the greatest good to the greatest number, the grandest of all professions. And it will be his aim to do his share in the work of elevating that profession to the highest planc possible.
Mr. Cowles was married, in 1849, to Miss Elizabeth C. Hutchinson, daughter of the Hon. Mosely Hutchinson, of Cayuga, New York. He had by this union six children, the youngest of whom died in infancy. His eldest daughter married Mr. Charles W. Chase, a merchant of Cleveland. His eldest son, Eugene, is a member of the Leader editorial staff, having charge of the Washington office as correspondeut.
EDWIN WEED COWLES,
physician, born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1794, removed to Austin- burg with his father, the Rev. Dr. Cowles, iu the year of 1811. His ancestors were all of Puritan descent, except onc line, which traeed its origin to the Huguc- nots. On the Cowles side he was descended from oue of three brothers who settled in the town of Farmington, Connecticut, in 1652, where his father was born. On his mother's side, who was a Miss Abigail White, of Stamford, Con- necticut, he was a dircet descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in New England. His grandmother on the Whites' side was descended from a
Huguenot, by the name of De Grasse, which name was subsequently changed to Weed. Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first clergyman who settled in Connecticut, was one of Dr. Cowles' ancestors. He was educated in the academy, Farming- ton, Connecticut, and was imbued by his father and mother with the highest principles of the Christian religion and love for his fellow-beings. He studied medicine with the late Dr. O. K. Hawley, of Austinburg, and after receiving his degree he practiced medicine iu Mantua, Portage county, Ohio, and in 1832 he removed with his family to Cleveland. In 1834 he removed to Detroit, and practiced there till 1838, when he returned to Cleveland, where he spent the remainder of his professional life, and made himself a high reputation both as a physician and a valuable citizen. His leading traits as a physician were the excr- cise of benevolence and fearlessness in the performance of his professional duties. These noble qualities werc thoroughly illustrated when that great scourge, the Asiatic cholera, made its first appearance in Cleveland the first year he settled there. This disease was introduced by the arrival of the steamer " Henry Clay," which sailed up to the landing at the foot of Superior street ; as usual in those early days, when there were no railroads and telegraphs, the crowd assembled at the landing to hear the news and to see who had come. As the boat neared the wharf the captain appeared ou the deck, and exclaimed that " the cholera had broken out among his passengers and crew; that several were dead and a number more were down with it, and for God's sake to send a doctor aboard !" This announcement created a panic in the crowd. They all scattered and fled in every direction,-many taking their horses and flecing into the country. _ 1 messenger went hurricdly to the office of Dr. Cowles, and with a frightened cx- pression of countenance informed him that his services were needed,-that "the boat was filled with the dead and sick." The doctor promptly started for the boat, and exerted himself immediately with all his power to alleviate the suffer- ings of the sick. At a meeting held previously by the citizens of the then village of Cleveland it was voted, with only two dissentient votes, that no boats having the cholera aboard should be allowed to come into port or land their passengers, for fear of contagion. The two who opposed this inhuman act were the late Thomas P. May and Dr. Cowles. Under this action of the citizens the " Henry Clay" was obliged to leave. Dr. Cowles volunteered to accompany the sick and look after them, and in spite of the remonstrances of his friends, who believed he never could get through alive, he accompanied that charnel-ship to Detroit, and remained on it until everything possible had been done to relieve the sick and to fight down the death-dealing scourge. His predominating trait was love of jus- tice to all-the high and low, rich and poor. This sense was strongly developed in his hatred of the system of slavery, which, as he expressed it, "violated every commandment in the decalogue, every principle of justice, all laws of human nature, and destroyed the foundation of a common humanity." He was one of the first who came out publicly and avowed themselves " abolitionists," at a time when it was considered disgraceful to be called by that term. He was one of the oldest members of the "old Liberty Guard," and many a poor fugitive slave has he aided to freedom via the underground railroad. As a politician he was some- what prominent. He supported the old Whig party down to the time he voted for General Harrison, in 1840. In 1841 he joined the " Liberty party," the germ of the present Republican party.
In all the walks of life he was distinguished for moralacctitude, honesty, and incorruptible integrity. As a gentleman of general information he rarely, if he ever did, meet with his peer, for, like John Quincy Adams, he never forgot what he read, and it was this gift that made him the remarkable conversationalist and controversialist that he was. He was a devout and active member of the Cou- gregational church, and one of its most valued supporters. He was married in 1815 to Miss Almira Mills Foot, a lady of great force of character, of amiable disposition, and of a most affectionate nature. She was born in Norfolk, Connec- ticut, in 1790, and was descended from Nathaniel Foot, the first settler of Wetli- ersfield. She was a half-sister of the late Joseph B. Cowles, of Anstinburg, and of the late Hon. Samuel Cowles, who died in Cleveland in 1837. She died in 1846. After the death of his cousort Dr. Cowles spent his remaining days among his children, who vicd with each other in endeavoring to promote his comfort aud smooth the ways of his declining days. He died in June, 1861, at the residence of his son, Mr. Edwin Cowles, in Cleveland. Had he lived only one and a half years longer he would have witnessed the great desire of his heart, -the abolition of slavery. As it was, like Moses of old, " he died iu sight of the promised land."
Dr. Cowles had six children. His first child, Samuel, died when three years of age. His second, Giles Hooker, dicd in Cleveland, aged twenty-three years, leaving four, who are living,-Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, of Butler, Missouri ; Judge Samuel Cowles, of San Francisco, California ; Edwin Cowles, editor of the Leader, Cleveland ; and Alfred Cowles, one of the publishers of the Chicago Tribune.
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100
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
BETSEY MIX COWLES .*
Among those whose strong convictions and outspoken zeal in the cause of humanity made Ashtabula County famous in the history of the State, not one did muore, in proportion to opportunity, than the subject of this sketch, Betsey M. Cowles. Born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1810, she was brought an infant to Austinburg, when her father, the Rev. Dr. Giles Hooker Cowles, re- moved his family thither.
The homely surroundings of pioneer life, its hardships and its pleasures, united with the culture and refinement which at that day always pervaded the atmos- phere of a minister's dwelling, served to develop a character singularly sweet and strong. Like all strong and energetic natures, an out-door life was a necessity to her childish happiness, and this built up for her the fine constitution and com- manding presenee which so greatly enlarged her sphere of usefulness in after- life.
Her struggle for an education was that ineident to those early days. We hear of her now at the district and now at the select school, or perhaps bending with anxious brow over the difficulties of algebra under the guidance of the young tutor of Grand River Institute ; but wherever found, the steady aim and unwaver- ing purpose of the student were clearly apparent. Like all great and generous natures, there was in her character a vein of mirthfulness and humor which ueither eare nor study could suppress, and which, bubbling out at the slightest provocation, made her an especial favorite with her companions. Her energy and independence fitted her for a leader, and she quietly took her natural place among her associates without assurance and without diffideuce.
Although her life-work was to be that of a teacher, her first essay in her pro- fession she never considered a success. When about seventeen years of age, the little brown school-house on the " East road" was without its aceustomed summer teacher. Some zealous committee-man asked the Rev. Dr. Cowles if one of his daughters might not take charge of the flock for the summer. He selected Betsey, on account of her " discretion," and the following Monday morning she went over to take possession. One weary week passed by, and at its close our young teacher took a direct line through the woods for home, simply remarking, when she arrived there, that she should not go back. Entreaty was of no avail, and her elder sister, Coruelia, completed the term. It is related that the five lunches sent by her kind hostess for her mid-day meal were found carefully put away in the little desk, together with sundry aud divers adverse opinions concerning the desirability of school-teaching.
The next year, however, she began in earnest, and taught a small school near Warren, in Trumbull county. In after-years it was her delight to gather around her a group of students, some of whom were about to try the unknown experiment of self-support, and relating her own experiences, eheerily say, " Now you can't possibly do worse than I did."
For several years she taught and studied alternately, until at last a friend, Miss Hawley, came on from New York, bringing with her the plan and organiza- tion of the infant-school system, which had been introduced into this country from England during the first decade of this eentury. Here was a field for which her nature was fitted, and she entered upon it with great enthusiasm. Her re- markable power over children, her profound sympathy with them, the faseination she seemed to exercise over them, all eame into play, and her " infant schools" were the wonder and the delight of the surrounding country. Grave divines and learued judges, mothers oppressed with cares, and business-men in the whirl of trade, all, indeed, who ever atteuded, look back to the hours spent in Miss Cowles' infant school, as the one glimpse of fairy-land amid the prosaic interests of life. The wonders of the lessons in natural history, the pathos of the Bible stories, and the glories of the "solar system," illustrated with various-sized cotton balls, carried by children, moving around in planetary orbits, live in memory still.
In 1831, shortly after her father's retirement from the ministry, there was held in Austinburg a four-days' revival mecting, such as were then common on the Westeru Reserve. Although carefully reared in the Puritan customs of those days, yet it was during this meeting that Miss Cowles for the first time made profession of that faith of which her life had ever been the expression,-her love and trust in her Saviour. With the majority of her associates she united with the church, and having been a leader in seeular things, she now became a leader in spiritual things. Her letters, written at this time, and for fifteen years thereafter, breathe the most devoted spirit of prayer and trust in Christ.
In 1835 her father died. According to the ideas of those days, a proper pro- visiou for daughters was held to be to billet them upon the brothers' portion, rather than provide for their separate maintenance. Hence Miss Cowles and her two sisters found themselves, by their father's will, eutitled to " support." It is needless to say that Betsey much preferred to support herself, and, although the
homestead and farm were by the brothers generously and equally divided from choice, yet it was evident that there must be a separation, eaused by a feeling of independence, among those who hitherto had lived so closely and so happily to- gether. As a result of this decision, Miss Betsey went to Oberlin, in order to prepare herself for the battle of life.
Her Oberlin life was ever recalled with pleasure. She was one of the pioneer students, and her name occurs in the triennial catalogue as a member of the third class graduated from the ladies' course. When the time of graduation came she looked about her for a positiou as teacher. But none offered itself. However, quite undaunted, she determined to find one, and started bravely for the southern part of the State. As she used afterwards to express it, " Providence did not seem to open any door for me, so I pushed one open for myself." And we next hear of her at Portsmouth, Ohio, teaching a select school, the idol of her pupils and admiration of the community. She remained there three years and then re- turned to Austinburg to take charge of the female department recently added to Grand River Institute, and became its lady principal. The maples now growing in the grounds of the Institute are the living witnesses of her interest in the school, for she, with the assistance of the students, planted them.
About this time, through some of her friends in Stark county, she became per- sonally acquainted with the leaders of the anti-slavery movement. All her life long she had hated cruelty and oppressiou, and now eame the touchstone of ehar- aeter which should test the strength of her convictions. She realized that here- tofore she had but dreamed, had beheld vaguely, dimly, men as trees walking ; but now she was privileged to see aright. Through Austiuburg ran the turnpike north and south, and along this line from time to time came a fugitive from slavery. Women, telling the story of their wrongs, and bearing the marks of the whip upon their backs, were arguments which set soul aud brain on fire ; and the strong sense of right and justice, which had ever been her birthright, fired up, regardless of all expediency, all time-serving, all political relations, and, beariug directly to the heart of the question, cried out, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." She became what was then and is still known as a " Garrisonian abolitionist." It was her influenee more than that of any other person which brought to Ashtabula County that band of early workers in the cause of freedom,-William Lloyd Garrison, Stephen S. Foster, Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, Oliver Johuson, Lueretia Mott, and Abby Kelley,- who, by the force of their reasoning power and the might of their eloquence, suc- eeeded in planting in the minds of the people of Ohio a realizing sense of the horrors of slavery, resulting eventually iu that State taking the stand she did during the war of the slaveholders' rebellion.
Whoever remembers the events of those days must recall the strange apathy and conservatism of many of the churches, and the bold and almost fierce de- nunciations of the early reformers against them. For this reason it was feared that Miss Cowles, in her intense sympathy for the slave, and her vehement ab- horrence of oppression, had cut loose from the moorings of her early faith and drifted upon a sea of doubt and disquietude. To some degree, undoubtedly, this was true, but she never drifted away from the dictates of eterual truth and justice, but rather towards them. She did not give up her trust in God, for it was his justice she invoked. She did not drift from her religion, for her religious train- ing had taught her to trust in righteousness. She did not lose her reverence for Christ, since they who sold his children upon the auction-bloek, and they who palliated the deed, seemed to her to crueify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame.
A brief extract from an address delivered by Miss Cowles before the county anti-slavery society, held at Orwell iu 1845, will explain her true position on this subject.
The day before the meeting there eame to her home a poor womau, who had felt the eurse of slavery in all its bitterness, whose limbs bore the marks of the blood- hounds' teeth, whose soul, the deeper degradation of womanhood's dishonor. No wonder, then, that Miss Cowles' address burned with righteous indignation, and that she called upon God and upou mau to suppress the horrid traffie.
"We have," she says, " in our nominally Christian country, a system which robs mothers of their children and children of their mothers ; a system which robs wives of their husbands and husbands of their wives; a system which degrades and brutalizes woman, sells her for gold, and destroys the virtuous emotions of her nature; a system which robs man of his manhood, and extinguishes that spark of divinity which cmanated from the Almighty when He breathed into him a living soul. We have a system which is drinking out the life-blood of liberty, and, unless speedily prevented, will soon drain the last drop. We have a system which to-day chattelizes, brutalizes, and barters Jesus Christ Himself, in the person of his poor. 'For in- asmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
" To perpetuate this system the whole policy of our government is enlisted. To protect it, the teachings of Ilim who came to preach deliverance to the captive are wrested from their truc meaning, and men are taught to believe a lic,-that burdens, yet more grievous to be borue, may be hcaped upon them. To extend it, the treasury of our nation is drained; aud
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