History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 110

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 110
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 110

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Here the members hold their meetings for worship every first day and every fifth day, except the weeks in which their meet- ings for discipline ocenr, when they attend at Stillwater, where they are still members. In the second story a small select pri- vate school is kept by one of their members a part of each year.

They have no resident minister here, generally sitting to- gether for silent worship, but are occasionally favored with the presence and services of their ministering friends from abroad and from neighboring meetings of their own society.

A. M. E. CHURCH.

The African M. E. Church was organized in September, 1863, with a membership of twenty-five persons. Immediately after the forming of a society the old machine works of Henry Nor- ris, on Sonth street, south side, just east of the railroad track, were purchased and fitted up as a place of worship. The cost of purchase, site and reconstruction of the building was eleven hundred dollars. The church honse is one story high, and will seat about two hundred and twenty-five persons.

The first itinerant preacher who held public services at this church was Rev. C. R. Green. The Rev. Solomon H. Thomp- son was the first presiding elder, who had this church under his charge.

Since the organization of the church it has had considerable fluctuation in the unmber of its membership. At one time it was as low as twenty-five to thirty, and at other times it has been as high as seventy-five to eighty. At present the church record shows a membership of fifty.

The stewards of the church at this time are: Jesse Eyuu, William II. King, Daniel F. Caliman.

Present Pastor-John W. Barber, a young man of fine promise.

NOTABLE MEN OF BARNESVILLE.

HON. JOHN DAVENPORT .- Among the old citizens of Barnes- ville who took a leading part in condneting its affairs, and whose lives have impressed the town and community for good. Hon.

John Davenport stands, perhaps, the most conspicuous. Mr. Davenport was born Jannary 9, 1788, in JJefferson county, Vir- ginia. Having received only a common English education, he was put in training for the trade of a merchant at Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia. On the 31st of March, 1808, he married a Miss Martha Coulson. In May, 1812, he entered into the mercantile business with one George Orrick, at Winchester, Virginia. The partnership lasted about two years, when it came to an end by the appointment of Mr. Orrick as cashier of the Valley Bank of Virginia, and Mr. Davenport as superin- tendent of a new wooleu factory, then just started on the Ope- quan creek, about six miles from Winchester. Here Mr. Daven- port remained nutil near the time of his coming to Barnesville in the fall of 1818.

Immediately on his arrival at Barnesville, he began the mer- cantile business in a room now a part of the "Frasier House." Shortly afterwards he united with himself in partnership Mr. Jolin Gibson, a native of Scotland, with whom he had formed an acquaintance at Opequan factory. Mr. Gibson had just then inheritd a patrimony in his mother country. In the year 1824, Mr. Davenport was elected representative for Belmont county in the Ohio Legislature. In the fall of 1826 he was elected to Congress for the two years ending 4th of March, 1829. While in Congress he was a warm friend of Harry Clay's high protec- tive tariff bill, and gave his vote for its enactment. He was in 1828 a candidate for re-election, but Jacksonism carried him un- der, and his opponent, Hon. William Kennon, elected. In 1830 Mr. Davenport was elected to the Senate of the State, and there by his vigilance seenred the election of Hon. Thomas Ewing, United States Senator. The vote on joint ballot, a strict party one, was so close that a vote changed from one party to the other elected this or that man. Mr. Davenport detected an error in tallying the vote, which, if it had passed nnnoticed, would have elected the opponent of Mr. Ewing. He called the attention of the joint convention to the error, which was promptly corrected and Mr. Ewing declared elected. At the next Legislature Mr. Davenport was elected an associate judge for Belmont county, which office he filled for the full term.

In the year 1848, Mr. Davenport removed to Woodsfield, Monroe county, O., where he began merchandizing once more. He continued in active business until two or three years before his death.

While Mr. Davenport resided in Barnesville, he dealt very ex- tensively in leaf tobacco. He also bought large quantities of ginseng, which he classified and shipped to Baltimore. It was on his advice that Mr. John D. Price hegan the cultivation of tobacco at Barnesville. Although Mr. Davenport's time was so taken up with business affairs, he did not neglect to take an ac- tive part in the religions and educational training of the people. For many years he was the chief pillar of support to the M. E. Church ; was the first superintendent of the first Sahhath-school of Barnesville, and more than auy one man helped to lay the foundation of that church here broad and deep. It was chiefly by his influence that the first public school house was erected. And by aiding poor worthy men to proenre lands, he gave speed to the settlement of the country and importance to the village.

After Mr. Daveuport removed to Monroe county, he was elected an associate judge for that county,'and remained in that office until the new Constitution did it away. . He died on the 1stk day of July, 1855, and was buried in the graveyard of the M. I .. Church at Woodsfield.

DR. CAROLUS JUDKINS, the first resident physician in Barnes- ville, was born in North Carolina' in the year 1767. Having studied medicine he located in Virginia, near the North Caro- lina line, where he soon received a very herative practice. But detesting slavery he determined to move to the then wilds ofthe great West. So in the year 1810 he came to Barnesville, opened an office and at once hegan his eminent career as a physician and surgeon. His brother Joel came with him and in the same year started the first, hatter's shop in the town, on the lot where Thos. C. Judkins' drug store now stands. The town was small and the country very sparsely settled ; the roads new and but little beaten and many of them mere " bridle paths," rendering the cabins of the settlers difficult of access, but Dr. Judkins with that energy, perseverance and philanthropy which always so strong- ly marked his life, urged on in the prosecution of his profession until his business became remunerative. Besides his profes- sional income, he had when he first came to the town invested his surplus money in the cheap lands adjacent open to entry, and they were rapidly rising in value, The circuit of his general

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

practice had a radins of twenty miles every way abont the vil- lage; and he was often called in consultation to McConnellsville, Cambridge, and Mt. Pleasant.

About the year 1820, Dr. James Stanton, father of the late great war officer, Edwin M. Stanton, became his partner. The partnership continned two years, when Dr. Stanton located in Mt. Pleasant. While this partnership subsisted an incident o(- curred that finely illustrates the humanity of Dr. Judkins as a physician.

A yearly meeting of the Friends, of which denomination the Doctor was a member, was in progress at Mt. Pleasant, and as their patients were none of them dangerously ill, Dr. Judkins went to Mt. Pleasant to attend the meeting, leaving Stanton in charge of the sick. Now among the sick there was an old col- ored man named Robert Peters, and who, when Dr. Judkins left, was in the worst condition of any of the sick. Dr. Judkins had not been in Mt. Pleasant forty-eight hours, when near sundown of the second day Stanton put in an appearance. Judkins in- stantly asked him about the sick. "Oh, well," said Stanton, "all ont of danger but Peters and he'll die anyhow, so I thought I'd come to meeting too." Judkins without saying a word got his horse, mounted it and riding all night arrived at Peters' house at daylight. He found the old colored gentleman much worse ; but by prompt treatment restored him to health.

In the year 1824, Joel, the son of Dr. Judkins, became asso- ciated with him in the practice of medicine and the people to dis- tingnish him from his son called the father the " old doetor," and from that time on he was known by no other name.

Nicholas, another son of the " old doctor," having read medi- cine, in 1835 became associated with his father and brother in its practice. This partnership continued until the death of Joel in 1839; but the practice was carried on by the remaining mem- bers ot the firm until 1840, when the "old doctor" withdrew from active service, leaving Nicholas alone to practice the pro- fession. In 1845, Dr. Nicholas Judkins retired from the prac- tice to devote his talents to other business.

Those Drs. Judkins were members of that family of Judkins scattered so numerously over the West and South. Many of that family have adorned and shed lustre upon the medical pro- fession, and all of which have been so successful in wielding the mysteries of the healing art that it has become a proverb among the people-" that to be born a Judkins is to be born a doctor.

During the long professional career of the " old doctor" sev- eral other physicians located at Barnesville or "native to the manor born" rose np in her midst to practice medicine. All of them were successively greeted with a kind and hearty welcome by the " oll doctor" and his sons. Being conscious of their own abilities and seenre in the confidence of the people and naturally above envy they entended a helping hand to all brother physi- cians who made their advent among them.

"The "Old Doctor" was born in the Friends' Communion, and continued to fellowship with that sect until the division occasioned by Elias Hicks occurred. He adopted the views of Hicks, but ceased to worship with either branch of the di- vided denomination. He died October 24, 1854, in the 87th year of his age, and was buried at the Friends' Stillwater burial ground. .

The first physician so coming to Barnesville in order of time was

DR. BENNETT .- He was a man of large capacity and many at- tainments, but was eccentric and erratic, and therefore failed to seenre a remunerative practice. He came. to the town in 1823 and remained nntil 1829, and then left. While making this his home he joined the Mormons, then deserted them, writing a book in opposition to the Latter-day Saints. Having invented a tomato pill which was to cure all ills to which flesh is heir, he chsappeared from view.

DR. AFFLECK .- About the year 1825, the second of those phy- sicians, Dr. John Gladstone Affleck, located here. He was by far the most learned physician that ever resided in Barnesville. but, having a large fortune, and being a perfect cormorant after knowledge, the dry, monotonous drudgery of the profession could not be endured by him, and he soon abandoned it. He removed to Somerton about the year 1830; from there to Bridge- port, where he continued to live until his death, a few years ago. While he lived in Barnesville he and Dr. Bennett. formed a part- nership for the practice of medicine, and opened an office on the lot where the west portion of the Albert House now stands, but they failed for the reasons already given.

DR. HOOVER .- In 1833 the scarlet fever scourged Barnesville and vicinity as an epidemic. In the midst of its ravages Dr. Isaac Hoover, a young and promising physician came to Barnes- ville from St. Clairsville, Ohio. He at once obtained a good practice, which in a short time, by the death and the retiring of the Drs. Judkins, became very extensive. He continued a snc- cessful carcer here until 1868, when he removed to Bellaire, O. There he met with nothing but disappointment, under the pres- snre of which his mind gave way, and for several years his life was a blank. His son Thomas, a young physician of the finest promise, having secured a good practice at Columbus, O., took charge of his father and family. Dr. Isaac Hoover died at Co- lumbns in 1878, and was buried in Sonth Cemetery, Barnesville.

DR. WILLIAMS .- The now venerable Dr. Ephraim Williams settled at Barnesville in 1837, and began the practice of medi- cine. The overshadowing presence of Dr. Hoover for a while dimmed the lustre of Dr. Williams' career, but being one of those rare and priceless characters, whose worth becomes mani- fest in spite of circumstance and fate, he finally triumphed, and for over thirty years has had a practice worthy of his large abilities and high attainments.

DR. MACKALL .- In 1845 Dr. John T. Mackall, having studied medicine with Dr. Hoover, opened an office and solicited public patronage. The professional life of Dr. Mackall illustrates the fact that there are exceptions to the rule " that a prophet is not without honor only in his own country and among his own kin." for he gradually obtained a large and lucrative practice, and held it for over a quarter of a century. He was without doubt the most skillful practitioner among children that has ever blessed Barnesville. He died in 1875, honored, respected and loved by all, and leaving a character behind him as a man worthy the emulation of anybody.

SAMMY WILLIAMS .- Among the notable characters of Barnes- ville, and withont a notice of whom the history of the village would not be complete, was Sammy Williams, a colored gentle man. He was for many years a star of the first magnitude in the local heavens of the town, and shone with a sparkle and a flame both unique and oscillating. Sammy was horn some- where in the "Old Dominion," but where he, like many of the old plantation slaves, never knew. He came to the vicinity of the town in the year 1847 with a wife and many children, and at once arose to local notoriety as an alleged violator of the public peace. Sammy had a strange look, and wondrons tales of his ferocity had put the people in a ferment. The officers were afraid of him, and approached his cabin with the same timidity that amatenr hunters do the lair of a lion. Sammy came to the door to meet a volley of stones thrown at him with the power of fright and with the aim of a rifle. Sammy fell: was bound and in triumph brought before a justice. Scarred and bleeding the old man sat, while the charge against him was read and the testimony rehearsed. The "State" failed and Sammy was once more restored to liberty and his family.

In a few days Sammy, by a rapid transition from a criminal at the bar, became heralded as a preacher. His preaching, like the prosecution against him, came to nanght. The lining ont of his first hymn did the business for him. Our readers may be ahle to recognize the old familiar hymn even by his rendering, which was as follows :

"God moves in a 'sterions way His wonders to reform ; He plants one foot on the sea and the other The sandy shore side."

Failing as a criminal and preacher, Sammy began to spade gardens, run errands and do chores for the grandees of the vil. lage. Peaceably and quietly he plodded on in this business for several years, "lost to sight but to memory dear." While so employed his wife died, and his children, one by one, went away and were lost to view. But Sammy, disgusted at the monotony of his solitary trade, and goaded by that unconquerable love of public observation so common to many American citizens. bursted forth at full blow a stump-speaker and auctioneer. Now Sammy, shrewder than most stump-speakers, knew how to seenre an audience ; it his wisdom failed, wares cheap and flashy would not, to draw the people about him. So for many years he spoke his speech and cried his wares to the people. His speeches included the cream of the town's gossip, while his wares embraced everything from a broken crock to a wasted hand-bill. His rostrum and his presence became as ubiquitous in the village as were the placards of "patent medicines."

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

At first he attracted much attention, but like all good things, too long enjoyed, the people grew tired of Sammy and passed him withont heed. The boys, wearied out of patience, began to pelt him with "brick-bats. sticks and stones." It mattered little to Sammy whether anyone listened to bim or not, but by way of imprecation for their want of appreciation, he now began to end every speech with the letters W. R. N. T. rapidly spoken in a deprecating tone. The boys canght the que, and as he jour- neved from "siump to stump" about the town, they pelted him the more, and the more they pelted him, the more he yelled W. R. N. T. So on, year after year, Sammy spoke his speech and cried his wares, and made the circuit of the village, being pelted by boys and he rebnking them with W. R. N. T.

Wben Sammy began to be a stump-speaker and anctioneer he said he was eighty-three years old; and from that time to bis death. ask when you might, "How old are you, Sammy ?" and he would reply, "jnat eighty-three." But Sammy grew old in spite of "83" and began to totter toward the grave. And as be did so, he forsook the thoroughfares of men and went to the by- ways and hedges, the copses and the thickets, and clearing a patch here and a square there, started a few hills of corn and pumpkins on the grow, to perish in the weeds. He picked up a scanty living among the charitable, and found lodging in out- houses, hay-mows and the "spacious temple of nature.

At last he contracted the habit of building fires at his clear- ings and bivonacking there for the night, with the stars, or the clouds and the rain, or the frost and the snows as companions of his slumber. One frigid night in January, 1867, this habit gave him his summons to his final home. Half frozen when found be was kindly given shelter by Mr. Daniel Barr in his coal shanty with fires and comfort. But hepatization of Sammy's lungs had taken place by the cold and in great pain he lived a few days and then breathed his last. A number of our best citi- zens provided him with a snit of clothes, a decent coffin, then bore him to his grave and buried him in his eternal resting place at South Cemetery.

Mr. James Orr, one of the " lost lights of the world," has pre- served Sammy's memory in the following verses, which will suf- ter nothing by a comparison with the best efforts of the masters of song :

"Sam. Williams yielded up his breath When in the frozen arms of death : Whatever now his state may be He died a W. R. N. T.

No more with naughty boys he'll meet While promenading Barnesville street, When brick-bats, sticks and all these Fell fast on W. R. N. T.

No more we'll hear his joyful song Celebrate the woods along, And hill and vale and rock and tree Resound with W. R. N. T.

When he flew up to Heaven's gate St. Peter said in a lordly state, "I ask, sir, what your name may be?" Sam. said "I'm W. R. N. T."

St. Peter rubbed his nose a while And on poor Sammy cast a smile, And turning round his large gold key Said "walk right in, W. R. N. T."

A Quaker friend a seat had made, And shaking hands with Sammy said, "Thy smell will not discomfort me, Thee's welcome, W. R. N. T."

Let critics who may scoff and laugh At Sammy's simple epitaplı Hope their future state may be As good as W. R. N. T.

M. E. SUNDAY SCHOOL.

The first Sunday School in Barnesville was opened in the year A. D. 1827 under the management of the good men of the town at Archibald Cole's school room, then on the lot now occu- pied in part by the residence of Rev. Robert Boyd, with Samuel J. Mummy as its superintendent. The books and lessons were the same as those of the "every-day" schools. So disorderly

did this school become that in a few months it was altogether abandoned. Some time in the spring of 1828 the Rev. - , Alex- ander, a Presbyterian clergyman of Moundsville, Va,, whose business it was to organize such schools wherever he deemed it proper, visited Barnesville and established the Sunday school which has continued to exist to this time. It was held at the M. E. Church, but was non-sectarian in its character. Hon. John Davenport was chosen its first superintendent, but his ex- tensive business engagements soon forced him to resign the sta- tion, wherenpon Nathan John was elected its superintendent. Mr. John continued to be its superintendent until the fall of 1835, when he removed from the village. John Gibson was chosen his snecessor. From the organization of the school to that date it was under the patronage of the American Sunday School Union; but during Mr. Gibson's term of office, by the advice of Rev. James C. Taylor it was brought under the con- trol of the M. E. Sunday School Union. In 1836 Mr. Gibson, hav- ing been called to Scotland on business, resigned his office, and Mr. Isaac Hager was chosen to the place. During Mr. Hager's superintendency the Rev. Robert Boyd established the first Bible class and introduced a system ot uniform lessons. In 1837 Ben- jamin Davenport was elected superintendent, and at once en- tered on the work with the determination that the school should prosper beyond that of any previous years. Hle inaugurated "treats," "festivals." "dramatic entertainments," and celebra- tions of National and Church anniversaries in and by the Sun- day school, and made gratuitous distribution of Sunday school papers among the scholars, so that in a very short time the scholarship arose from seventy-five to nearly donble that number and a profound and permanent interest in the school was estab- lished with both sebolars and the public. And so strong did the esteem of the children and the people become for Mr. Day- enport, because of his zeal and labors in behalf of the Sunday school, that they with one accord called him by the endearing name of " Uncle Benny," which name be still bears with the meek dignity of a venerable Christian gentlemen. Mr. Davenport continned to be the superintendent of the Sunday school until the year 18-, when William A. Talbott was chosen his successor. Within a few years the school superintendency has rapidly changed hands from Mr. Talbott to John McCollin. Rev. Samnel Price and back to Wm. A. Talbott again.

The Hon. John Davenport, while the superintendent of the school in the year 1829, furnished it gratuitously with neat lit- tle hymn books, bound in blue paper, and called the M. E. Sun- dlay School Hymn Book. These little books continued to be used in the school until the breaking out of the rebellion, when a more stylish order of things was introduced, and with that a fancy singing book, with the hymns all set to music.

About the year 1830 the Bible Society of Barnesville, auxil- liary to the American Bible Society, having purchased a very large lot of leather bound quarto Bibles, found that it could not dispose of them, so it very kindly donated several hundreds of these Bibles to the unsectarian Sunday School, as instituted by the Rev. Alexander. Many of those Bibles are still kept well preserved as sacred souvenirs of the good old days of Nathan .lohn and "Uncle Benny."

In the year 1820, the " foreign missionary" society of the M. E. Church was organized. Each annual conference is required to establish auxilliary societies and cach quarterly conference di- rected to appoint a committe, with the preacher in charge of circuit or station as chairman, to devise ways and means to further the collection of funds for missionary purposes. About the year 1862, Mr. Benjamin Davenport, the then superintendent of the Barnesville Sabbath school, invoked the consent of the quarterly conference of Barnesville station to organize the school into a missionary society auxilliary to the "foreign missionary " socie- ty of the M. E. Church as an aid for the collection of funds. The consent of the quarterly conference was cheerfully given and " Uncle Benny" proceeded to so organize his Sunday school. So, ever since that time, the first Sunday of each month is " mis- sionary Sunday," when moneys are collected from each class for missionary purposes. The amount of money so collected often reaches $1,500 per year. These contributions are reported to the annual conference, separate and apart from all other contri- butions for missionary purposes.

From the establishment of the first Sabbath school in Barnes- ville up to the year 1836, colored children and persons were free- ly admitted to all the privileges of the school, but being or- ganized into classes distinct from the whites. In 1836. there were three or fonr classes of colored folks in the school. But the excitement and consequent prejudice excited by abolition movements at that time made it repulsive to the colored people

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

to be so closely associated with the whites that it became im- possible to retain them in the school, as all efforts in that direc- tion were abortive. The present officers of the M. E. Sunday school, are George E. Hunt, superintendent ; William Judkins, secretary ; Joseph Price, librarian, and John W. Sunderland. treasurer. Scholars enrolled, 300. Average attendance, about 200.

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 110

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728