History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 14

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

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"The Underground Railroad system," con- tinues Professor Siebert, "was far more exten- sive than was generally supposed. There were branches through all the zone of Free States

*Biographical History of Eastern Ohio.

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from New England to Kansas and Iowa; while in the Southern States there were at least four great lines of travel from the South to the North used by the fugitives. One was that along the coast from Florida to the Potomac. The second was that route protected by 'The great Appalachian range and its abutting moun- tains, a rugged, lonely, but comparatively safe route to freedom.' This line was one much used."

Richard J. Hinton, in his book on "John Brown and His Men," tells us that Harriet Tubman, the remarkable black woman who made her, escape from the South unassisted when a young girl, and then gave herself to the work of fetching out others, "was a constant user of the Appalachian route." Her people lovingly called her "Moses," and John Brown introduced her to Wendell Phillips by saying, "I bring you one of the best and bravest per- sons on this continent, General Tubman, as we call her." Harriet Tubman is said to have as- sisted, in all, several thousand slaves to free- dom.

The valleys of the Ohio and the Missis- sippi constituted the third great channel of the fugitive slaves travel northward, while the fourth route ran from the Southwest slave sec- uon through Kansas, Iowa and Northern Illi- nois to Chicago.

Professor Seibert declares there were not less than 23 ports of entry for runaway slaves along the Ohio River front of this State. Thir- teen of these admitted the fugitives from the 275 miles of Kentucky shore on our south and southwest, while the other 10 received those from the 150 miles of Virginia (now West Vir- ginia) soil on our southeast. From these ini- tial depots the Ohio routes ran in zigzag lines, trending generally in a northeastern direction, linking station with station in mysterious bond, until a place of deportation was reached on Lake Erie. One of these way stations was Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, and another was Salem, Columbiana County.

ADVENT OF THE "ANTI-SLAVERY BUGLE."

A power in the molding of the anti-slavery sentiment of the county-although not always

wielded with the greatest possible wisdom- was the Anti-Slavery Bugle. The paper was published as the weekly organ of the Ohio American Anti-Slavery Society, afterward the Western Anti-Slavery Society. The first half- dozen issues of the new journal were published from New Lisbon, when the office was removed and permanently established in Salem, where it was issued regularly for upwards of 18 years,. or, until 1863, when, the announced purpose for which it had been established, the emancipation; of the slaves, having been accomplished, it sus- pended. The first regularly employed editor- was Benjamin S. Jones, with J. Elizabeth Hitchcock-who later became Mrs. Jones-as. associate. The following announcement ap- pears in the first number of the paper, on June- 20, 1845 :

"In extending to our readers our first greet- ing, we by no means intend to disparage our,- selves that they may exalt us. Though you man consider our garb rather homespun, and our style somewhat homely, yet we come be- fore you with no humble pretensions. Our mission is a great and glorious one. It is to preach deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison door to them that are bound;' to hasten in the day when 'liberty shall be proclaimed throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.' Though in view of the magnitude of this enterprise, we feel that the intellect and power of an angel would be but as a drop in the ocean of Truth, by which the- vilest system of oppression the sun ever shone upon is to be swept away, yet knowing as we do that our influence is cast with Justice and Hu- manity, with Truth and the God of Truth, our pretensions are far from humble, though our talents may be justly so considered. He who professes to plead for man degraded and im- bruted, and to strive for the elevation of the crushed millions of his race; he who professes- to labor for the restoration of manhood to man, and for the recognition of his divine nature, makes no humble pretensions. It is true, our Bugle blast may not fall upon your ears with all the sweetness and softness which so well becomes the orchestra of an Italian or French opera company ; but we intend that it shall give·

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no uncertain sound, and God aiding us, we will blow a blast that shall be clear and startling as a hunting horn or battle charge, and we trust trust that its peals shall play around the hill- tops, and shall roll over the plains and down the valleys of our State, until from the waters of the Ohio to those of the mighty Lakes, from Pennsylvania, on the east to Indiana on the west, the land shall echo and reecho to the soul-stirring cry of 'No Union With Slave- holders.' "

That the anti-slavery doctrine, such as was taught by the Bugle in those days, was treated jy many as rank fanaticism, is shown by an extract from the New Lisbon Palladium of June 20, 1845 ;

"Jane Elizabeth Hitchcock and Benjamin S. Jones delivered themselves, in this place, on last Monday evening, of speeches, abusing in the most unmeasured terms the American churches. Miss Hitchcock, in point of talent, will not compare with Abby Kelly; and as for modesty she is a slander upon her sex. We have now Miss Kelly and her, man Friday, and Miss Hitchcock and her man Jones, traversing this State, endeavoring to poison the minds of the people on the subject of abolition. Their efforts will be ineffectual; for, fortunately, they carry the antidote with them. Go and hear them, and, our word for it you will be com- pletely and forever cured of the kind of aboli- tion advocated by them."

On several occasions during the early '50's the visits of spies or slave-owners to Salem making search for fugitives almost resulted in riotous demonstrations by the people. Late in January, 1850, a spy visited the town, claim- ing to be an agent of an anti-slavery society near Marietta, and obtained a definite clue to the whereabouts of two or three escaped slaves. As to whether the fugitives were being har- bored in Salem or vicinity at that time there is no record at this late day, for the anti-slavery workers were not prone to publicity at that time. At any rate, the first week in February found two slaveholders from Virginia at Coast's hotel, on Main street, looking for their. human property. A small riot ensued, and the

Virginians were fortunate to escape without suffering violence. The Anti-Slavery Bugle of February 9th, telling the story of the visit, says in part :

"The villians arrived about noon and rode leisurely through Main street to the West End, where they turned north and made for a small house about a quarter of a mile from the vil- lage, in which lived a colored family. The name of these man-hunters were Archibald Paul and Samuel Mitchell, his son-in-law. On reaching the house, they attempted to coax the inmates to a parley, representing that they had come (kind souls!) to offer them a chance to go back to 'Old Virginia,' having understood that they were in a suffering condition. A colored woman came at once to the village and gave the alarm and forthwith a considerable multitude started for the scene. The kidnappers, finding that the colored people were too widely awake to be caught by their smooth professions, started back toward the village, where they were met by a company of indignant citizens, who followed them to Coast's hotel, where they dismounted. * The scoundrels went into the hotel where they took a horn of whis- key, and treated certain fellows, who were suffi- ciently degraded, to liquor at their expense. After a while they mounted their horses and rode off toward New Lisbon."

So incensed was the populace over this visit, according to the papers of the time, that an indignation meeting was held on Friday evening of the same week in the Second Bap- tist Church. "According to previous notice," says the Bugle of February 16th, "a large number of the citizens of Salem, without dis- tinction of party or sex, assembled to express their indignation at the outrage and insult which had been committed upon the moral sensibility of the people of Salem by the recent visit to our town of two slaveholders and one of their emissaries for the purpose of searching out some of their alleged fugitives."

A committee on resolutions, consisting of Jacob Heaton, James Barnaby, Dr. Abel Carey, Jonas D. Cattell and Dr. Joseph Stanton, was appointed, and at an adjourned meeting, which

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roved a very enthusiastic one, a lengthy re- ort full of vindictive denunciation of slavery nd all its methods, was unanimously adopted.

BARRED FROM MEETING HOUSES.

The Friends were not unanimous in their approval of the anti-slavery methods used. Strong opposition developed when a meeting was attempted at Columbiana, as shown by a letter published in the Bugle of February 9, 1849. The letter is dated at Columbiana, 2nd month, 2nd, 1849, and reads :

Friends Editors-I undertook to get a meeting at Middleton for Isaac Trescott and James Barnaby. The citizens are principally Orthodox Friends. There are in the village convenient for the meeting a few workshops, two school houses and one meeting house, but I found them all closed against the abolitionists. The district school house was built with the understanding that it should be used only for school purposes, and the Friends' meeting house and school house are barred against the . admission of free thought and free speech; there is nothing permitted in them but orthodox sectarianism. The Friends there do not understand the first rudiments of reform. The privileged among them can discuss Wilberism and Guerneyism in 'their meetings to their hearts' content, but the slave is not permitted to enter in their assemblies, nor is his prayer for mercy at their hands heeded. William Shaw and Elwood Chapman, two mechanics of Middleton, both members of the So- ciety of Friends, would not suffer me to put up notices of the meetings on their shop doors, assigning as a reason that the disunionists are infidels, and they did not think it would be right to encourage. anything of the kind. Richard H. Beason, a blacksmith, refused me the same privilege, because the people were opposed to having' an anti-slavery meeting in the village. I was also informed that Daniel Mercer, who is not a member of any de- nomination, said he would give 25 cents to assist in tarring and feathering Abby Foster if she ever came into the region again, and would be one of a company to do the deed; and his wife offered to cut open her feather beds to furnish a part of the material. There was, how- ever, one friend of humanity in the village, Isaac James, in whose house a meeting was held on the 27th ult., and which was much larger than was expected.' None of the old Friends were present, but quite a number of the young ones.

HIRAM RIGG.

Murder in a meeting house during an anti- slavery meeting in those days seemed to attract

no unusual attention. The issue of the Bugle of July 3, 1846, gives a naive report of one of these tragedies, though whether justice was ever meted out to the assassin the Bugle in subsequent issue fails to state. The letter given below was from one A. Bear, Jr., who seems to have been a prominent Columbiana County agi- tator in those days :

CRAWFORD COUNTY, OHIO, June 22, 1846.

Esteemed Friends-In laboring for the oppressed, I find great difficulty in getting the people to listen. So strong is their prejudice against the negro, they will not hear the advocates of this cause. Since I left Salem, some of my audiences have been very small. At Knox- ville, Jefferson County, I could obtain only a small house, which was filled by the women, the men standing in the street. Almost the entire village was out; the pro- slavery clan made much noise at a distance, but did not greatly disturb the meeting. At Richmond, the meeting was considerably disturbed. At Jefferson, Harrison County, I could get no meeting, for the people were all agog about the Mexican War. At Mount Eaton,. Wayne County, the rabble made so much noise that I could not be heard by the audience. The shouts of "Eggs! Nig- gers ! Hurrah for Texas!" were incessant. In going to my lodgings in company with two young men, some 20 or 25 of the mobocrats followed us, crying, "Egg him! Egg him !" and commenced throwing stones. On Friday evening I had a large meeting in the Methodist Church. I had not spoken more than 20 minutes when a rail was thrust at me through a window behind the pulpit. It did not reach me, but the occurrence disturbed the audi- ence very much. When order was restored, I proceeded with my discourse. The mobocrat, having entered the house, seated himself directly in front of the pulpit, and told me I was a liar, blackleg, etc. I remonstrated mildly with him, but he became more rude. Several men plead with him not to disturb the meeting, but he became more furious, and they put him out of the house. In a few moments he returned, and, with a brickbat, struck one of the men who had aided in taking him out. The missile was thrown with such force that the man dropped as if struck by a grapeshot. So singular was the sound produced by the blow, that I think his skull must have been fractured by it. After the wounded man had been seated in a pew, and while the blood was streaming from his head, the demon, finding he had not killed him, rushed through the crowd and seized him by the hair · in order to finish the work of death. He was quickly thrust away, and the wounded man removed to a room nearby, where he received the attention of a physician. The murderer here made another attempt and strove to

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break in the door, but was prevented. He then went into the pulpit (which I had left), seized a book and com- menced reading a sermon, but soon called the Methodists blacklegs, because they countenanced a blackleg. A person present seized a chair and struck at the villain five or six times, but was too low to reach him. He afterward sought for this man in order to kill him, until the time of his arrest, which was about 2 o'clock at night. It is said he had no grudge against either of these men. He had prepared himself during the day to do mischief at night, and I was the one against whom his attacks were to be directed. And I know not why I escaped unhurt, and that David Officer was the sufferer, unless it was because that ill-fated friend of humanity had aided in putting the villain out of the house. The next morning I visited the wounded man, and from appearances judged he could not long survive. I have since learned that he died a few days afterward, leaving a wife and five little children. He was an honest, inoffensive citizen, and posessed but little property.

Thus is the name of another martyr added to those of Lovejoy and Torrey. Thus the anti-slavery enter- prise is irrigated by the blood of another friend of human rights. May his spirit rest in Paradise, and the blessings of God be on his disconsolate widow and fatherless little ones. Would it not be well for abolitionists to raise some funds for the unhappy widow and orphan children? She is entitled to aid, and the act would receive the blessing of God and the approval of the well-disposed in the land. I am yet in the field, and trust by the grace of God long to remain there. I sleep with my loins girt and my armor on, and I pray God that I may never, in the words of Judas Maccabees, turn my back on the enemy. Though our army is small, and the armies of Gog and Magog innumerable, yet let the handful of scorned soldiers of the Prince of Peace be true and brave, and they will triumph. The Lord God grant us victory. Sincerely your friend and co-laborer in the cause of humanity.

A. BAER, JR.

The motto of the Anti-Slavery Bugle was, -"No Union With Slaveholders." And so, pushing this, idea to its utmost though legiti- mate limit, the school of anti-slavery men and woman which was represented by the paper laid themselves liable at times to the charge of dis- loyalty to the Union. This tendency is shown by an editorial extract which follows, from the Bugle of August 11, 1848 :

"The editor of the Pittsburg Commercial Journal thus discourses in an article on the Dissolution of the Union: 'The very idea of a

dissolution of the Union should be spurned as treason; and the madmen who attempt its de- struction deserve alike our anger and our pity. An attempt by any one portion of the Union to dissolve the compact, could and would be sup- pressed at once.' Such sentiments are not un- frequently met with in political papers, and it appears to be taken for granted by a certain class of persons, not only that the Union should not, but that it cannot be dissolved; and they talk about compulsion as though the Federal government had a right to use it against a seceding State. If this position is susceptible' of proof, we should like to hear the evidence ; for with our present light, we must deny the existence. of a particle of authority on the. part of the United States government to compel an unwilling State to remain in the Union. The. powers of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the national government are all clearly defined in the constitution of the United States ; and as this government exists only by' virtue of delegated authority, it has no power to compel a State either to become a member of,. or remain in the co-partnership termed. the Federal Union, unless it can be clearly shown that such power has been conferred upon it by; the States themselves. .. But there is no such power enumerated in the constitution as be- longing to either branch of the government. Congress was empowered to declare what States might come into the Union, but not to chain them in eternal fetters as soon as they had entered. By the terms of the contract each States binds itself to submit to all the consti- tutional requirements of Congress, the judi- ciary or the executive-to yield obedience to. each section and article of the constitution .. * We claim then that the Federal. * Union is not the rat-trap some represent it to be, into which the victim is at liberty to enter or not to enter, as he sees fit, but when once in can never escape. It is rather a house, the door of which is opened by the proprietor to such who knock for admission, as he chooses to re- ceive, and who leaves all his guests at liberty to depart when they will, without troubling him to play the porter."

The agents of the Bugle in Columbiana

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County and vicinity in 1850 were given as fol- lows: David L. Galbreath and L. Johnson, New Garden ; Lot Holmes, Columbiana; David L. Barnes, Berlin; Ruth Cope, Georgetown ; Simon Sheets, East Palestine; A. G. Richard- son, Achor; Joseph Barnaby, Mount Union. James Barnaby was "publisher's agent." The negro population of the county in 1850 is given by the Bugle as 417; Jefferson County's at 497.

There were rescues of fleeing negroes and kidnapped fugitives later in the '50's on the southern side of the county. In 1853 N. U. Walker, for many years a leading manufac- turer of sewer, pipe two miles east of Wells- ville, and Alexander Wells, who was still liv- ing in the spring of 1905, rescued a negro boy who had been kidnapped. Two men brought the lad into Wellsville and took him on board a train which was standing at the Cleveland & Pittsburg station. Messrs. Walker and Wells happened to be nearby and their suspicions were at once aroused. They boarded the train and, while Walker engaged the men in con- versation, Wells took the boy by the hand and slipped him out of the car. Taking him to his store on Lisbon (now Third) street, Wells se- creted the lad in the cellar. After the train had made a 10 minutes stop, and' .Walker had talked with the kidnappers long enough to suit his purpose, the latter individuals looked about in consternation for their whilom charge, but without avail. Mr. Wells turned the boy over to Joseph R. McCready, who took him out to his farm in the "Scotch Settlement," where the young negro remained for 10 years, upon the lapse of which time President Lincoln's proc- lamation had done its good work for the colored man.

THE COPPOCK BROTHERS.

In a biography of John Brown, published as one of the , "Twentieth Century Classics," by Crane & Company, Topeka, Kansas, a brief sketch of each of the men captured with "Old Osawatomie" at Harper's Ferry, with their subsequent fate, is given. Two of the entries follow :

"No. 12. Barclay Coppock. Born in Sa- lem, Ohio, January 4, 1839, of Quaker parents, 6

who moved to Springdale, Iowa. Young Cop- pock was in Kansas a short time in 1856. Drilled in Springdale school. Although young, he seems to have been trusted by John Brown. Escaped from Harper's Ferry, and was killed in a wreck on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road, caused by Rebels, who sawed the bridge timbers partially off.

"No. 13. Edwin Coppock. Lieutenant. Born near Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio, June 30, 1835. Elder brother of Barclay Cop- pock. Hung in Virginia, December 16, 1859. Was brave and generous, honorable, loyal and true."

The Coppock brothers were children of Quaker parents, born and reared in the imme- diate vicinity of Salem. And it was the doc- trine imbibed early through their Quaker sur- rounding's, that "all men are created equal," that induced the brothers to join their fortunes with John Brown while he was yet battling for defenseless fugitive slaves in "Poor, Bleed- ing.Kansas." They went with him on his ill- fated raid into Virginia, and with him were captured at Harper's Ferry, October 17, 1859. Barclay escaped, but Edwin was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia, December 16, 1859. The charge under which he was indicted and con- victed, in common with John Brown the leader, and executed, was for "feloniously conspiring with each other, and other persons unknown, to make an abolition insurrection and open war against the Commonwealth of Virginia." On the same day, December 16, 1859, at Charles- town, were executed with Brown these four of his soldiers: Coppock, Cook, Copeland and Green. Two others. Stephens and Hazlett, were put to death in the same way later.

The last letter Edwin Coppock ever wrote was to his uncle, Joshua Coppock, then living in Butler township, Columbiana County, It is pregnant with prophesy long since fulfilled. It was written but three days before the young raider's execution, and reads as follows :

CHARLESTOWN, Dec. 13. 1859.

My Dear Uncle-I seat myself by the stand to write for the first and last time to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune. I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards mne,

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during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart, and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother, who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But I thank God he is free. I am thank- ful it is I who have to suffer instead of him.

The time may come when he will remember me. And the time may come when he may still further re- member the cause in which I die. Thank God, the prin- ciples of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades. They will spread wider and wider and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo through our land, bringing conviction to the erring and adding members to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering and to conquer until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom. I had fondly hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth that our beloved country is the land of the free and the home of the brave; but that can not be.

I have heard my sentence passed; my doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of these two days I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes. But that scaffold has but little dread for me, for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on that glorious day, when the slave shall rejoice in his freedom. When he, too, can say, "I, too, am a man, and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression." But I must now close. Accept this short scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the family. Kiss little Joey for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now, farewell, for the last time. From thy nephew,

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 14

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912