USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 113
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In Champaign county the feeling against the enforcement of this feature of the fugitive slave law had become so intense that the officers serving the warrants were in danger of violence. Ministers of the gospel and many of the best and most responsible citizens of Urbana said to Judge Baldwin, Judge Corwin, Judge Brand and Sheriff Clark, on the day of arrest : "If you do not want to go, sny the word, and we will protect you;" feeling that the conflict was inevitable, and might as well be precipitated at that time. These men, however, counseled moderation, and were ready and willing to suffer the inconvenience, expense and harassment of prosecution for the sake of test- ing this feature of the slavedrivers' law, and also in the hope and belief that it would make it more odious, and secure its early repeal or change.
The cases of I'dney Hyde and J. C. Brand were selected as test cases, representing the two features-that of Hyde for refusing to assist in the arrest of a fugitive slave. and that of Brand for Interference with a United States officer in the discharge of duty. The district attorney was assisted by able counsel, and the most eminent lawyers of the state were secured to conduct the defense, when after a long and stormy trial, the jury failed to make a verdict. The contest had now lasted nearly or quite a year, and all parties were becoming tired of it. The patriotism actuating both sides, though being of a different character and order, was entirely exhausted, and the glory to be obtained would now be left for others yet to follow. The Kentucky gentleman who had stirred
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up all this racket in his effort to get possession of his $1,000 in human flesh and blood now stepped to the front and proposed to settle the trouble if he could have $1,000 for his Ad White, and the cost in all the cases paid. This proposition was readily neceded to, and the money paid, and the cases all nolled by District Attorney Matthews The deed of Ad White was made in regular form by his Kentucky owner, and now forms one of the curious and interesting features of the probate court records of Champaign county.
Thus ended one of the greatest conflicts in the enforcement of the fugitive slave law, which did much toward crystalizing public sentiment against the extension of slavery. . These scenes transpired in 1857, and nearly all of the prominent actors have passed away. Ad White was notified of his freedom, and at once returned to Mechanicsburg. where [1881] he is still residing, borne down by hard work and age, but ever cherishing the memory of those who gave him shelter and protection when fleeing from oppression and seeking freedom.
MASONRY AND MEASLES.
The idiosyncracies of men reveal themselves in many ways. A man may be perfectly sane on a thousand things and have some one particular hobby which may make him appear "queer" to people who do not know him. Another man may go through life regarded as being absolutely sane in all respects and then leave a will devising his estate in such a manner as to make his relatives and friends wonder that they never questioned his sanity. We are all queer in some ways-some of us more queer than others-but a former Champaign county resident must be given the palm for having devised a will which has no parallel on the local records.
David McAlexander, an estimable citizen and a loyal member of the local lodge of Masons, was threatened with the measles and thinking that the dread disease might prove fatal proceeded to prepare his last will and testa- ment. His faith in his Masonic brother is strikingly shown in the way he addresses him, and also in the drawing of the square and compass which is made a part of the will as recorded. The complete will as recorded on May 26. 1868, follows:
Sir Henry Idle, I am about taking the mensles and I don't know whether I will get over them or not and if not I want to settle up my business, to sell all that I have at public sale and payable to my just debts and yourself for trouble and I want you to set my Iand off to them as it is laid out in the plat and I want you to do it and no other man if you please on the square [here is a crude drawing of the square and compass emblematic of Masonry] and compass to all of my children as is laid out in the plat each one 31 acres except Jeremiah and his will be a little more pay all of my just debts & funeral expenses these favors I ask of you as a brother master mason. So farewell to meet you in heaven.
March 19, 1866.
DAVID MCALEXANDER.
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OLD-TIME CAMP-MEETINGS.
There are many still living in Champaign county who cherish distinct recollections of the old camp-meeting ground, which continued to attract thousands of people annually from 1866 until the hundreds of cottages which had grown up over the spacious grounds were burned in 1904. The fire on the night of November 17, of that year, closed the history of a veritable institution in Champaign county.
It is often said that there was more religious fervor in the early history of the county than is manifested in these latter years. Those who recall the stirring scenes which accompanied the camp-meeting of fifty years ago at the old grounds south of Urbana will unhesitatingly say that our forefathers, if not more religious than their grandsons of today, at least made a more ostentatious showing of what religion they did have.
The beginning of the use of the ground which later became known as the Urbana Camp-Meeting Ground dates back several years prior to the actual acquisition of the tract by an association. A search of the records in the recorder's office shows that the twenty-five acres in section 15, township 5, range 11, was purchased from Henry B. McCompsey sometime in January or February, 1866. At least the deed for a tract of this size at this particular location was recorded on February 14, 1866. It appears that McCompsey did not have a clear title to the land, or rather that his title was in danger because of his inability to meet certain obligations. The land was actually sold by the sheriff at the court house door and bid in for two thousand five hundred and thirty dollars by the trustees of the "M. E. Camp Ground Asso- ciation". George B. Coulter, Ronald Donaldson, James D. Hedges, J. I. Wilson, Andrew Runyon, A. C. Deuel and A. R. Hedges. An act of the Legislature which was passed at the request of W. R. Warnock, then state senator from Champaign county, provided for the incorporation of a com- pany which should have the power to manage the affairs of such an organ- ization as it was planned to organize. The original intention of the pro- moters of the association was to conduct it solely for moral and religious pur- poses. and not with the idea of deriving any financial profit from it. Fol- lowing the purchase of the grounds in 1866 tents were used to house the people who gathered there and later the construction of cottages began. These grounds are located about two miles south of Urbana on a farm now owned by Nina B. Kite. Year by year the grounds had been improved; additional cottages and other buildings were erected, until by the time of the fire on November 17, 1904, there were at least two hundred and seventy-five
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cottages on the grounds and a number of other buildings, all of which, with the exception of one small cottage and the children's pavilion, were com- pletely destroyed by fire. The loss of buildings alone was estimated at three hundred thousand dollars, while the fire destroyed hundreds of valuable trees. Of course, there was a considerable amount of household furnish- ings, all of which were lost. There was a large tabernacle with a seating capacity of eight thousand, filled with park seats, and this was swept away with all the cottages. There was very little insurance on any of the buildings and the fire may be said to have brought the career of the old camp-meeting ground to an abrupt close.
A volume might easily be written about the old camp-meeting ground; about the hundreds of inspiring religious meetings; about the hundreds of political gatherings; about the thousands of picnics and festive occasions of every conceivable description-all of which found a cordial reception in the beautiful grounds. Were it possible to visit one of those picnics of half a century ago it would be better than taking a trip to the best circus in Urbana in 1917. Just as many interesting things would be seen, even though it was our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, who made up the picnickers. But those days are gone forever and all that can be done now is to preserve an account of an institution which meant as much to the people of Champaign county a half a century ago as the fairground does today. The old camp-meeting ground witnessed national gatherings and under its beautiful maples there gathered representatives of practically every state in the Union.
In 1901 those in charge of the grounds added the chautauqua feature and as soon as the Dayton, Springfield & Urbana Electric line was built through to Urbana the company began to lay plans to build a spur to the camp-meeting ground. The fact that the company was willing to build a line about two miles long, which could be used at the most only three or four months in a year, is some indication of the number of people they expected to haul over the line. The building of the electric line to the ground stimu- lated the interest in its maintenance and everything pointed to a new era of prosperity in the history of the place. But man had reckoned without one factor which is no respecter of the rights of people. The fire came and the buildings went. The labor of three generations was swept away in a few hours. The fact that very few owners of property on the grounds had any insurance is no doubt responsible for the ultimate decision of the board of trustees to decide not to attempt the retention of the grounds. President
(72)
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George Hitt and secretary R. S. Pearce canvassed the situation thoroughly and announced that it was the sense of the board of trustees that the grounds be placed on sale. The twenty-five-acre tract was sold on September 8, 1905, to Sherman Huston, and he transferred it to Joshua Kinna, who sold it to Nina B. Kite, the present owner, in 1909, for two thousand two hundred dollars.
TOWN RIVALRIES OF A HALF CENTURY AGO.
The historian does not vouch for either the metrical or historical accur- acy of the following doggerel which appeared in the Urbana Citizen and Gusette, January 4, 1865. It is a fair sample of much of the local effusions of a half century ago.
MINGO ts. KENNARD.
Now, I'm not a poet nor a poet's son,
And what I am writing is only in fuu. From Mingo, a distance of a few miles west, A station is kept by Cowgill & Gest.
Vice reran, you know, as a learned man would say.
This station is kept by Williams & Gray. Now, I do not intend to take either one's part ; But the agent at Mingo has made the best start. Now the boys at Kennard have taken great pains
To do his surveying and they found the road chains. They did it free gratis, because they were able. And measured the distance from here out to Cable. For our postoffice they came here to plot it, They did it tip-top and Mingo has got It.
The Quakers felt interested in our affairs
And gave us a puff going through on the cars. They stood on the platform to get a good look, And saw a few girls and one little pup. They saw a warehouse as they passed it by. They said it wasn't finished, but that was a lie.
We are now to have a new station house. 1 am sorry at Kennard It is nix-cum-a-rouse. Should your house get on fire, as good Christians orter, All Mingo will be there to help carry water. If you wish to prosper and prosper you will You'll mind your own business and build you a mill. Ship off your cattle and ship off your hogs, And put up your mill and don't wait for logs Rise up with the lark and slip on your trousers; Put on your steam and saw up your houses, Put some money in corn, invest some in whent. Resolve in your hearts you'll never be beat.
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If you will search history you will find there a clause
Which says that the Mingos were a match for the Choctaws.
Then hurrah for Mingo! Down low in the bogs !
The mill and its owner with lots of good logs.
Logs pile rather different from those at Kennard-
They were brought here for sawing and are piled in the yard.
May his life be extended and happy and blest,
Ever ready to shake hands with Cowgill & Gest.
Boys, we forgive you, you have broken no bones,
Those living in glass houses should never throw stones.
Mingo, January 1. 1866, -BROAD GAUGE.
PASS THE MUTTON.
In the early history of the county there were many more sheep in the county than at the present time; in fact, for many years there were more than one hundred thousand sheep raised in the county each year and there were years when the number exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand. This is all the more striking when it is stated that in 1916 there were only fifteen thousand three hundred and fifty sheep in the county. In the early days wool was grown for the family clothing and sheep were considered as essential to a well-regulated farm as the hog is today.
Fifty years ago wool did not bring the price it did in the spring of 1917. Then wool often dropped to a price as low as fifteen cents a pound and mutton did not command any price at all, while in the spring of 1917 the wool clip brought from sixty to sixty-five cents a pound. The low price which wool brought in the sixties and seventies was the cause of the rise of a peculiar industry at Mechanicsburg. At that time sheep were such a drug on the market that John C. Baker conceived the idea of buying them up and killing them for their hides and tallow.
Some interesting facts concerning this unusual method of disposing of sheep have been gathered by W. H. Hunt, a member of the board of county commissioners. He has found that Baker opened a plant on the site of the old fair grounds adjoining Mechanicsburg, where he slaughtered sheep for their hides and tallow and gave away the carcass to the farmers who hauled them out on the fields and plowed them under for fertilizer. A few of the best hams were saved for meat, but mutton was at such a low price that it did not pay to try to dispose of it. The hides and tallow found a ready market and according to the best accounts the proprietor of the establishment soon built up a flourishing business. At one time Thomas J. Glendenning brought three thousand sheep to Baker and received from fifty cents to a
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dollar a head for them. The industry thrived until the price of wool and mutton reached the point where it became more profitable to dispose of them in the customary fashion.
THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY SALE IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
It takes all kind of people to make the world and one of the many differ- ent kinds to be found in Champaign county was the late John Eicholtz. This eccentric genius had a few traits of character not common to the most of people and it was the exhibition of some of these idiosyncrasies which drew to his farm after his death the largest crowd of people that ever attended a public sale in Champaign county. The following notice of the sale appeared in the Champaign Democrat the week following the sale:
URBANA, Ohio, November 22 [1883]-The public sale of the effects of the late wealthy eccentric, John Eicholtz, at his farm yesterday drew about five thousand people, the largest attendance at a sale.ever in this county. People came from all parts of the country to see the curiositles. The deceased's things were in a state of decay. Ten thousand bushels of corn. decayed from age, some of It twenty-one years old. Eighteen carloads from ten to twenty years old, has been shipped and about twenty carloads yet remain. One horse was sold for ten cents. A number of old horses were sold which had never seen a halter or harness. One horse was sold that had been con- fined uninterruptedly in his stall for eight years and had become blind from confine- ment in the dark pen. Remnants of almost every kind of agriculture implements ever made were on the farm. One of the vehicles of antedeluvian days was a wagon having solid wheels cut from a log. Eicholtz's father died a miser and left him a dollar in three sliver pieces made in the year John was born. These were inseparable pocket pieces until death. He died leaving an estate of over $100,000.
LINEAL DESCENDANTS OF METHUSELAH.
Living in Champaign county is undoubtedly conducive to longevity, for in past years three of its residents have become centenarians, the sum of their ages being three hundred and thirty-four years. Evidently the north- west corner of the county is more peculiarly adapted to long life than are other sections. for these three persons, Thomas Tipton, Sarah Bates and Richard Stanhope, were, respectively, residents of Adams, Johnson and Con- cord townships.
Thomas Tipton, the maternal grandfather of Gersham Wilkinson, a farmer of Adams township, was born in the eighteenth century near Balti- more, Maryland. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he lived about seven miles from Mount Vernon, in Fairfax county, Virginia, from which he enlisted in the patriotic cause about the last of June or the first of July,
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1776. In all, he served four years during the war, enlisting the second time from Frederick county, Virginia, and the third, from Botecourt county, the same state. He was under the command of General Washington when the letter retreated across New Jersey before King George's hireling Hes- sians in the winter of 1776-77. Later he fought under General Gates; and at the siege of Yorktown, he was first sergeant in Capt. John Galloway's company which was attached to Colonel Lewis's regiment. In the famous battle in the "buckwheat field," where he received several bullet holes through his hat, he was under the command of General Morgan. As was the prac- tice of the Revolutionary soldiers, he went home several times to see his wife and children when the combat lulled. After the war was over he came to Ohio and settled in Adams township. this county. While he was there a resident he was allowed a pension, allowed Revolutionary soldiers by the act of 1832. When he received his pension in 1838, he was then one hundred years old, but he lived to reach the extraordinary age of one hundred and eleven years, nine months and nine days. His body was interred in the old cemetery on the Johnson farm in Concord township.
In that same graveyard lies the remains of Richard Stanhope, a man who reached the most advanced age of any person in the history of Cham- paign county. He was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on March I. 1748, and died on September 20, 1862, having then reached the advanced age of one hundred and fourteen years, six months and twenty days. Rich- . ard Stanhope, who was a colored man, was beyond all question one of Gen- eral Washington's servants, and had in his possession until a few years prior to his death a certificate attesting the fact, in Washington's own hand- writing. During several of the hard-fought battles of the Revolution he was with General Washington, and from his participation in that struggle, he could show honorable scars. When his master died in 1799, he was at the bedside. Stanhope was also a participant in the War of 1812, and was present at Hull's disgraceful surrender at Detroit. At that time he was driving a four-horse team. On being ordered to drive his team to a certain point for delivery to the British, he positively refused to comply, unhitched his saddle-horse and made his way back to this county. Stan- hope was the father of twenty-eight children, most of whom were living at the time of his death. He was a resident of Champaign county for more than fifty years, where he always deported himself as a good citizen and an upright man. For ninety years he was a member of the Baptist church, having joined it in 1772.
Another centenarian was Sarah Bates, who, at the time of her death
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in 1913, was credited with being the oldest person in Ohio. She was a native of this county, having been born north of Millerstown, on September 30, 1804. Her father was one of the first settlers of Johnson township. At the time of her death in December, 1913, she was one hundred and nine years old.
WOODEN LEGS FROM CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good. The European War has cost millions of lives and thousands of arms and legs. Champaign county has the honor to furnish the material for some of the legs which will be used by the French soldiers who lost theirs in the great war. When Mad river was dredged there were a number of fine willow trees cut down. On the Urbana-Westville road, about a mile west of Urbana, just east of Mad river, there were a number of large willows cut down in the winter of 1916-17. The owner of the land, Charles F. Johnson, could find no market for the trees as timber and they were of small value as wood, but about the time the trees were cut down there happened along a man who had lost both legs. This man at once recognized the willow wood as being the best mate- rial for artificial legs and got into communication with a firm at Mount Sterling that was purchasing such timber. The result of the communication was the offer of one hundred dollars for all the trees. By the time this article is being read by the people of Champaign county the willows of Mad River valley will be doing duty "somewhere in France".
A COLLEGE BEQUEST IN WAYNE TOWNSHIP.
The fact is not generally known that Wayne township once contained a farm of one hundred and nine acres belonging to Bethany College, of West Virginia. This farm was about a mile west of Cable, the same now being owned by several parties, including tracts owned respectively by the Pennsylvania Railroad, D. J. and M. G. Corey, George and O. B. McCul- lough, N. B. Johnson and Nettie Jones. It was a part of Survey No. 4512. This tract was willed by Alexander Pickard to the college to be used in such manner as the latter might see best. The map of Wayne township which appeared in the county atlas of 1871 has this tract credited to "Bethel College", but a reference to the deed shows that it belongs to Bethany College. Pickard was an active member of the Christian church (Camp- bellite branch) and this explains the bequest. The land was sold by the college in 1881 for three thousand six hundred dollars and this ended the connection of the college with the county. .
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THE LYNCHING OF ULLERY.
There have only been two lynchings in Champaign county. The first was that of a tramp by the name of Ullery on Saturday night, January 16, 1876. Ullery appeared in Urbana on January 12, 1876, and induced a girl of ten years of age to walk with him outside of the city limits. There he ravished her and left her to come back to the city alone. The exposure and nervous prostration suffered by the little girl led to her death within a year. The tramp was caught at Marysville on the 14th by Dr. S. M. Mosgrove and Capt. John O. Dye and was brought back to Urbana and placed in jail. He admitted his guilt and when given a preliminary hear- ing before Mayor Brand on Friday morning, January 15, he was remanded to jail to await trial. On that night the jail was attacked by a mob, but was defended by the bravery of Sheriff Ganson. On the following night, Saturday, January 16, a mob of forty men attacked the jail, broke through the doors and bars, held the sheriff and his deputies, and finally reached the prisoner. The wretch was taken out in the court house yard, put on a box, given two minutes to prepare for death, and when the two minutes were up he was hung to a catalpa tree in front of the court house. No one was arrested for participation in the affair.
The body of the wretch was unclaimed and was buried in Oak Dale cemetery. A few nights later a group of young medical students were caught in the cemetery opening his grave in order to get the body. They were driven away, but not until after they had the body nearly exhumed. It was reinhumed and thus closed the last chapter in the affair.
THE LYNCHING OF CHARLES W. MITCHELL.
The first week of June, 1897, will go down in history as the most exciting week Urbana and Champaign county have thus far experienced. On Friday morning, June 4, 1897, there was enacted a scene in the court house yard at Urbana which has never had a parallel in the county; few. if any, spectacles have ever been staged in the state, or the United States, that will compare in dramatic intensity with the lynching of a negro on this peaceful June morning in 1897. It is not the purpose of this review to elaborate upon the gruesome story, nor to pass judgment one way or the other upon the proceedings of that eventful June week.
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