USA > Ohio > Brown County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 31
USA > Ohio > Clermont County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 31
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
For him who can read the language of their mute appeals a stroll among the frail memorials amid the tented turf of Old Bethel is full of reminiscent thought. But the recent granite or the mossy marbles will have less attention from a curious visitor than the lichened slabs of sand stone, some prone in the sod or leaning with the hill, and some upholding names not soon to be forgotten by those who honor worth. Some who walked close together in life now lie near in death. Among such were three couples who were closely associated in the church and social affairs of Old Bethel. One was David and Nancy Vaughan White, who came there in 1804. The second was John and Catherine Vaughan Jenkins, who came in 1805. The third couple was John and Sarah Simpson, who came in 1818, and, all unmindful of the lofty destiny of their grand- son, Ulysses Simpson Grant, lived in a delightful fellowship to the end with those whose dust reposes with their own in an
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almost common group. Amid that pure association, Hannah Simpson was trained in the quiet sincerity and gentle sim- plicity that were most lovable among the characteristics of her famous son.
Samuel Ely came in 1805 to the mouth of Clover nearby, where his house sheltered sixteen children ; but Jonas Burnet, his neighbor, with nine children, did not come till seven years later. Jesse Justice, who joined with the Simpson farm on the north in 1806; but the lands to the southeast were taken still earlier by George Swing, whence a long line of teachers, divines and both State and National judges. In the same sur- vey-Walters', No. 926, of 2,000 acres-lived John S. and Susan Sheldon Johnson, the parents of my house and class- mate, William C. Johnson, a past commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, having retired as such in Sep- tember, 1899, with the highest honor that can be attained by a soldier of the Union. While but a young lieutenant in the Union Army, his after success in civil life proved him a proper person to be the third born in Clermont to hold the title of commander-in-chief with Generals Grant and Corbin. There is an inspiration in the success of those "country boys of Cler- mont" that should be held in special view by the youth of the region made notable by their effort.
At the Ohio Wesleyan University in the Clermont student group of four beginning in 1860, of which I was the careless Gallio, the first to reach the goal of life was the noble Captain William H. Ulrey, mentioned on a previous page as a grand- son of the pioneer, Jacob Ulrey, whose family worshiped at Old Bethel with the ancestors of commander-in-chief William C. Johnson, another of the four. Still another was James W. Swing, a descendant of the pioneer George Swing, who also worshiped there. After service in the Union Army, James W. Swing went to the Pacific coast, where his gifts of speech and song gained him much note in evangelic work. Another settler on the Walters' Survey was John Blair. whose family intermarried with David White's. The tract settled by Daniel Teegarden, in 1800, was occupied in 1813, by Captain Andrew Pinkham, from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Okey Vanosdol and Levi Tingley, both soldiers of the Revolution, formed a part of the congregation at "Old Bethel," although they lived
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on Poplar. In fact, the people gathered there from miles around and included Methodist families from both Williams- burg and Bethel.
The influence of that little country church starting with the enthusiasm of Rev. John Collins is typical of what was happening at various places in the county, only, that the results have become better known through the shinning suc- cess of the Grant-Simpson family. Others can be traced through much satisfaction. From that little congregation George P. Jenkins, a grandson of John Jenkins, the pioneer, entered the ministry and became a noted college president, and his son, Oliver, is a leading professor in the Stanford Univer- city, the wealthiest many times over of all the educational insti- tutions of America. The example of the first to heed the per- suasion of Collins was felt about Tuckerton, in New Jersey, for a generation, as is proved by the coming of the Petersons, the Johnsons, the Beebees, the Homans and other relatives and former neighbors, until lands farther west gained attention.
It is idle for those who would dispute concerning spiritual motives to decry the influence of the pulpit in promoting the early settlements. The theme of spiritual devotion runs all through the story of America from the discovery to the latest missionary appeal. Whether such zeal has conformed to the highest ideals or been soiled by paltry purpose, depends upon whether the questioning mind has been trained to doubt or belief. Without an opposing bias, the social instinct trusts in hope; and so the call of Faith to come to western wilds reached many willing ears. And when they had come to the promised land, a church was a rational, as well as a pious, source of satisfaction.
The first attempt at civilization in Ohio was the Moravian missionary effort on the Tuscarawas. The second was made at Marietta, by soldiers of the Revolution, who largely fol- lowed the Congregational methods of Massachusetts. The next at Columbia, which was the second all white attempt in the State, was made by an almost purely Baptist band. "Den- hamstown," more religious than commercial in its nature, was a Baptist venture, and must be regarded as the introduction of Christianity into Clermont. The enterprise of Francis Mc- Cormick, James Sargent, Hatton Simmons, Philip Gatch, and
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John Collins was wrapped and bound with Methodistic faith.
The organization of the Baptist church at Bethel, in 1799, was followed in the Witham Settlement by the formation, on September 2, 1802, of a society known as the Ten Mile Baptist church. The membership included many of the pioneers for miles around. The Rev. William Robb and Rev. Maurice Witham were the preachers and the families of Ridley, Ben- nett, John, Reeves, Prickett, Donham, Lindsey, Layock, Fer- guson, Long, Gray, Gilman, McCord and Behymer-all of long continuance-furnished the members, of whom some were east of Twelve Mile, who in later times formed another society that eventually found a home in New Richmond, while the parent church became fixed in Amelia. While William Robb was promoting the Baptist faith, Alexander Robb hav- ing married Barbara Light came, in 1804, from near Pitts- burgh, to live north of what was to be New Richmond. His son, James, married Catharine, a daughter of Christian and Catharine Teegarden Husong, who were settled on the East Fork in Batavia township about 1804. The third son among the six children of James and Catharine was Charles Robb, whose literary talent has won a note that deserves lasting memory. His life began January 5, 1826, and went the way of a country boy, through a common district school, until he .was old and able enough to be a teacher, where he had been a pupil. He married early with a daughter of the neighbor- ing pioneer Fergusons. Under chance, he was a farmer and, in love with nature, he followed the plough to the end of the furrow. Taught by his own effort he gained the reputation of an earnest and thorough school master. When but twenty- two years old he joined with the progressive spirit that or- ganized the Clermont County Teacher's Institute, of which he was chosen the first secretary. When but thirty-one years old, he was nominated by the then young Republican party as State Senator from Brown and Clermont. Living on the border, he felt that duty called him to cross the river and set an example by enlisting with the First regiment of Kentucky Union volunteers, of which he was appointed commissary ser- geant-a course that was patriotic, but not favorable to pro- motion. After over three years' service, he came back to his farm. Meanwhile, guided by inborn aspirations, he mastered
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a fine, pure, graceful command of English expression, and became known as a pleasing speaker and a charming writer of elegant verse.
Long before the time of written speech, bards sang valorous hymns before the waiting battle lines, and lulled leisure with aesthetic song. Thus, as in other climes and ages, when the rude toil of the pioneers had filled their fields with plenty, the pipes of Pan began to please and the dawn of American poetry reached its fairest glow. But more recently, the "ornaments of wreath and rhyme" have had less notice amid "the madding crowd's ignoble strife" for place. Yet none of the time used their talent to better purpose than those who wrote the song that sweetened the life and strenghtened the will of the Na- tion, when millions fought for the sentiment of a Union and Liberty that should be one and forever. The splendid fame achieved by the masters of American poetry during the middle decades of the Nineteenth century inspired their fellow citizens with a peculiar pride in what could be done at home. Outside of a closely associated group of Atlantic writers favored by an older culture, a more special training, and a far larger popular sympathy, no other part of the Nation gave finer proof of the poetic principle than the Land of the Blue Limestone and the Home of the Blue Grass. Without seeking farther cause than may be seen along the waving line of hill tops or in the vales flecked by shadows from sailing clouds, it is enough to remem- ber that the land fostered the philanthropy of Thomas Morris and John Rankin; the piety of William B. Christie, William H. Raper, Randolph Sinks Foster and David Swing; the elo- quence of Thomas L. Hamer and Robert Todd Lytle ; the fade- less fame of Grant and the lofty rank of Corbin; the gentle worth of John M. Pattison; and the educational merit of John Hancock and Frank B. Dyer.
Among these, conspicuous among many whose endeavor has added luster to the Land of Old Clermont, Charles Robb ap- peared, not as a bard sublime,
"But as a humble poet
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer Or tears from the eyelids start."
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Because of the antique authors at hand, and few at that, of which Pope was read the most, his earlier work was too much encumbered by worn-out mythological illusions. But while in the army, absent from books, mingling with multitudes of men, and sharing in heroic actions, his thought gained a closer and natural touch with the life he wished to make a pleasant thing. He inherited what should have made his rural life in- dependent. Like Burns he was quick to learn and wise to know, with a soul that soared fancy's flights, but he lacked in prudence, and much of his fortune went to pay the debts of misplaced confidence in luckless friends. After leaving the army, until his death, on September 20, 1872, seemingly little was written because of broken fortune and spirit. In 1910, after nearly forty forgetting years, his niece, Mrs. M. L. Robb Hutchinson. has most worthily satisfied her own affec- tion and gratified many by collecting and republishing his works in a neat volume of two hundred and two pages, en- titled "Robb's Poems."
With no more fitting place within the scope of this work, it is well to include other literary mention in this connection. In the literary development before the Civil War, a congenial company of people in Southern Brown and Clermont formed a most delightful literary society known as "The Poet's Union." The first president was Dr. Thomas W. Gordon, of Georgetown, where he lived from 1850 as a noted physician, author, lecturer, editor and scientist of National reputation. With him, Robb was secretary. The "Union" promised much influence. But men were soon called to struggle on the tented field for a much larger Union, and the ladies gave their energy to many local soldier's aid societies.
Ten years before Mary E. Fee attained much attention to her poems, published under the pen name of "Eulalie." In 1854 her choicer writings were published in a volume with the pretty name of "Buds, Blossoms, and Leaves." In the same year she was married to John Shannon, of New Richmond. Shortly after, they went to the then "new country," Cali- fornia, where she entered on a prosperous literary career that soon ended in failing health and death.
As Charles Robb retired, a young woman from his neighbor
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hood, Eliza Archard, entered a career of most pronounced suc- cess in newspaper work. After achieving National fame with the initials "E. A.," she was married, in 1869, to Dr. George Conner, of Cincinnati. As her reputation as a writer ripened, a prevailing desire to see and hear the gifted woman made her appearance on the platform as a brilliant lecturer on social topics one of the memorable literary events of every circle that secured her presence. In no place was the greeting more ap- preciated than among the people of her nativity.
While the rustic muse of Brown and Clermont was promot- ing sweeter thought and kinder manners through the benign influence of the Poet's Union, the line of Lytle was adorning civic achievement with the polish of letters. Robert Todd Lytle, the second son of Major General William Lytle, born in 1804 in the Lytle home at Williamsburg, and a frequent vis- itor there after becoming a resident of Cincinnati, was not ex- ceeded in distinction by any man of his associated age. In 1828 he was a member of the State House of Representatives. In 1832 he was a member of Congress. He was a Major Gen- eral of the Ohio Militia. He was made Surveyor-General of Public Lands by President Jackson, who also appointed him to a position akin to that of Comptroller General of the Cur- rency. As a public man he was popularly called "Orator Bob," because of his graceful eloquence ; and, in party strife, he was considered the match for Thomas Corwin. When twenty-one he was married to Miss Elizabeth Haines of New Jersey, whence their only son, born November 2, 1826, was named William Haines. In social life, General Robert Todd Lytle was honorable, high minded and sincere, spurning trick- ery as the meanest of faults. He was generous and self-sac- rificing. In fact, he had all the virtues except being true to himself, when over-pressed by the all prevailing custom of his time. When every prospect was otherwise radiant, he was warned, because of failing health, to milder climes, and so died at New Orleans in his thirty-fifth year.
William Haines Lytle accomplished much that was worthy of his brilliant father and nobler grandfather, and also added features peculiar to himself. In the old Cincinnati College, of which his grandfather was a founder. he mastered the course as the youngest and first of his class. In his twenty-second
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year he was captain of a company in the Mexican war. In 1852 and '53 he was a member of the State House of Repre- sentatives. In 1857 he was the Democratic candidate for Lieu- tenant Governor. While defeated, his worth was handsomely appreciated by the successful Governor, Salmon P. Chase, who appointed him Major General of Ohio Militia, thus making him the third of the family to hold that high rank in Ohio. The young man, with an ample fortune to gratify a refined taste for simple elegance, had no desire for extravagant luxury or wasteful habits. Scorning all dishonorable association, he lived in sincerity as a quietly merry gentleman, enjoying a classic library with kindred minds, and loving life with ra- tional pleasure. He practiced poetical composition for his own keen delight in obtaining the choicest expression pos- sible for a pleasing thought. When finished, his poems were regarded with diffidence or as a personal affair in which strangers would not and need not be concerned. He did not write for publication. In "Lines to My Sisters," written in camp, and for them only, the motive of his composition truly appears :
"In vain for me the applause of men, The laurel won by sword or pen, But for the hope, so dear and sweet, To lay my trophies at your feet."
In this wise, to answer the promptings of a vastly sym- pathetic soul, he wrote his "Antony and Cleopatra," beyond all comparison the finest dirge in the English, or any other language. But for the earnest, almost forcible, intervention of his friend, William W. Fosdick, then "The Poet Laureate of the West," the manuscript would have been the only . evi- dence of its authorship which has been strangely misrepresent- ed as something done on the battlefield. But the fortunate . publication of the poem in the Cincinnati Commercial, on Thursday, July 29, 1858, settles all such controversy, although the fact has been strangely ignored.
Three years later, William Haines Lytle, as a volunteer for the Union, was winning the proud name of "The Soldier Poet of America," without whom no history of Old Clermont can be written. For though not a resident of the county, his line
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is woven into every page of its origin and his own. No ade- quate mention of his noble service and glorious death can be made within the limits of this work; and a justly curious reader must be referred to the Memoir by Professor Venable in the first edition of General Lytle's Poems, as published in 1894. Out of respect to the author's restraint, that was almost a foible, his poems have no commercial circulation. A limited edition vanished into the libraries of appreciating culture; and even critics of much repute are classing him among the "One Poem Poets." But no one blessed by the wand that gives a love for the beautiful can read the volume without admiration for the exquisite taste that pervades a score of
"Songs such as Grecian phalanx hymned When freedom's field was won, And Persia's glory with the light Faded at Marathon."
The departure of the youthful general from his home, glow- ing with happy memories and generous wealth, to dare the painful perils of many battles unto the supreme hour when his life paid the price for a brief delay that saved thousands in the dire defeat of Chickamauga, forms a story that none can study without wonder at the grandeur of his soul. If the noblest of chivalry and the purest of minstrelsy had wan- dered from the realms of romance to be mingled in a mortal design, no fitter type for the purpose could have been found than General William Haines Lytle.
Eighteen hundred and ninety-four also witnessed the col- lection, reprinting and publication of "Tracadie and Other Writings," by Charles James Harrison, an adopted son of Cler- mont, from New Brunswick. He soon gained such attention as a thorough select and public school teacher, at Boston, in Stonelick township that he was appointed one of the Board of School Examiners on June 7, 1870, and, on August 8, 1872, he was reappointed for a full term of three years. But in 1874 he was elected Auditor of the county, and, in 1876, he was re- elected, after which he returned to teaching until made to retire because of failing sight and hearing. While otherwise capable, he still lives at great age as the "Last L'eaf." where
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he can neither hear the voice nor see the tears of sympathy. But the metrical tale of Tracadie and other Poems remain
To prove "that in his prime Ere the pruning-knife of Time Cut him down,"
Scarcely a better man was found than the once witty Profes- sor Charlie Harrison.
Having digressed from a consideration of the pulpit some pages back for a look at Literature, I will now return to churchly affairs. The settlers on Bullskin and Indian Creek, in a territory now including more than four townships, were first supplied with a Methodist meeting house that stood a mile or more southwest of the site of Felicity, that was called the Hopewell church. That house, made of logs in 1805, was was probably used while the roof lasted, for the Methodists went to a house built at Felicity twenty years later for all de- nominations-a method then practiced. An exact date has not been found for the building of the Indian Creek meeting house, that was not. far from the Wood and Manning "Station." and that was called the Calvary Methodist church, but it was the next after "Hopewell."
While the Methodists and Baptists were possessing points of lasting advantage in the western and central parts, the mor- al forces of Presbyterianism were advancing on the eastern side of Old Clermont. The minutes of the Transylvania Pres- bytery of Kentucky mention a meeting held on April 1, 1798. at Cabin Creek, near Maysville, at which a settlement of peo- ple living on Eagle Creek, Straight Creek and Red Oak Creek, asked to be taken under the care of the Presbytery, and be known as the Congregation of Gilboa. Over this charge the first minister is said to have been the Rev. John Dunlavy, a brother of Judge Francis Dunlavy, the first presiding judge of the first judicial circuit of Ohio. He served several regular appointments in Kentucky during 1797, after which he came over into Ohio, where he preached more terror than consola- tion. One of the most remarkable features of the frontier were the great "revivals," which, in some degree, seem to ad- vance as the Indian retreated. In considering that singular
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phase of "Muscular Christianity," the devout will find a spir- itual explanation, while the skeptical will offer something more material; but both will admit the fitness in the most remark- able of all such manifestations occurring at and about the Cross Creek district, west of Pittsburgh, whence went the fiends that made the horrible massacre at Gnadenhutten. For no other place in America had greater need of an awful repent- ance than Cross Creek. From that first large "Experience" of the kind in the Ohio valley, the strange custom, for it quickly grew common, spread southward to the upper Val- ley of the Cumberland. and then northward into Kentucky and across the Ohio. Wherever announced, the crowds gathered beyond the capacity of any building ; and so the meetings were held in the open air. In expectation of great things, the peo- ple came from far and prepared to stay long, which caused the gatherings to be called "Camp Meetings." Once begun, the plan was continued after the necessity had passed, and till after it had ceased to be regarded as a means of grace. When in full swing, under the sway of a popular preacher, the scenes at those meetings have little place or practice in the present pale of belief. The multitudes present, and the distance from which they came, have no parallel in the churches now. Under the spell of "conviction," the audience often fell prostrate upon the ground, where many passed into trances that lasted for hours. Others, amounting to hundreds at a time, went into convulsions, called "the jerks." The writings of the preachers show that the name of "jerks" was in frequent and solemn use intended to portray an intense form of piety. Others jumped, rolled or danced with a strength that spurned control. Some sang. shouted or yelled and even barked like dogs. Many re- ceived nicknames expressing the peculiar nature of their reli- gious enthusiasm, such as "roller," "jumper," or "shaker."
John Dunlavy was a master of the art of exciting that kind of repentance. He was the regular pastor of the Eagle Creek Presbyterian church, and, as such, he held the first full camp meeting in Ohio, beginning Friday, June 5, 1801, and lasting four days. He is mentioned in the History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, as "One of the most gloomy, reserved and saturnine men that ever lived. His soul seemed to be in harmony with not one lively or social feeling. There was no
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pleasure in his company." Yet he obtained such influence with honest, well-meaning, conscientious men, that when he became an acknowledged "Shaker" in 1804, and a leader in that ill- fated movement, over twenty families from Eagle Creek and Red Oak followed him to an almost utter extinction. Among these was the earliest of the pioneers of Brown, Belteshazzer Dragoo and his numerous family, except that the sons of age refused to go, and one of the minors refused to stay among the Shakers.
There was much unrest among numerous Presbyterians who stopped short of Dunlavy's example. Among these, most of the Eagle Creek congregation became "New Lights," who finally chose the name of "Christian church," which is else- where sketched in this work. The remnant of the Red Oak church refusing to follow the zealot, Dunlavy, retained the distinction of being the oldest church society in what is Brown county. In 1805 the Rev. James Gilliland became the pastor and filled that relation nearly fifty years, during which he maintained a much noted "Latin School," that gave a larger chance for many early students in the county. The Presby- terian settlers between White Oak and Indian Creek were so encouraged by occasional services at their homes, that a con- gregation, with the name of Smyrna, built a log church house in 1808, about one mile east of Felicity. Rev. Robert B. Dob- bins served as pastor and also preached to a small congrega- tion at Williamsburg. The Baptists appear to have organized on Upper Straight Creek in the early days of the State, but no exact date has been found. They also made an attempt on the Adams county side as early as 1806, near the site of Aber- deen. Otherwise than noted, the religious services were held at the homes most convenient for the people and the pur- pose until later than the war of 1812. Even in Bethel. with dedicated ground from the start, the first subscription for a meeting house was not made until 1816. In Williamsburg the only other town, preaching was made in the taverns, in the log court house or in the school house until 1810, when the new stone court house was available for large occasions.
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