History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 15

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

USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 15

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

EDWIN COPPOCK.

Edwin and Barclay Coppock were sons of Samuel and Ann Coppock, and nephews of Joseph Coppock. Rev. Joseph Coppock and Isaac Coppock were brothers. The latter died in Butler township about 1895. Isaac Coppock left one daughter, Mrs. Hopkins, who was liv- ing in 1905 near Damascus, Columbiana County.

Some time after the execution of Edwin Coppock, his body was brought to Salem, and

buried in Hope Cemetery.^ Joshua Coppock, uncle of the young raider, brought the remains home. The next day after their arrival at Mr. Coppock's house.in Butler township, there were over 2,000 visitors to the little farm house, and such a funeral had never been seen in Col- umbiana County as was given this young man, who fell a victim to what he regarded as a sacred principle.

At the edge of one of the main drives in Hope Cemetery stands a plain sandstone shaft, about ten feet high, bearing the simple inscrip- tion, "EDWIN COPPOCK." In April, 1905, the mound was bare of grass or flower; but at the base of the monument was a glass jar, con- taining faded flowers from the season previous -a silent token that some one had paid a pass- ing tribute to Edwin Coppock's memory. At the recurrence of each Memorial Day, the grave invariably receives its quota of flowers, though it is not officially honored as are the graves of the Civil War veterans that lie nearby.

Barclay Coppock, Edwin's brother, who es- caped from Harper's Ferry before John Brown and others of his men were captured, was hunted by men from Virginia, a reward of $4,000 having been offered for his body dead or alive. One of the hunting parties came to the house of Joshua Coppock, but did not find Bar- clay, for he was well guarded. After the break- ing out of the Civil War, Barclay entered the service and was employed as a recruiting officer in Kansas. He had gathered a large force of men and was with them crossing the Missis- sippi River, when the bridge over which they were passing fell, and all were drowned.

IN THE BORDER WARFARE.

Daniel J. Smith, the "Prophet of Mount Pisgah," who was living in 1905, hale and hearty at the age of 77, was an aggressive factor in the anti-slavery movement, no less than in the political history of Columbiana County, for more than half a century. In the spring of 1905 he was still active in the real estate business in East Liverpool. His career has been varied and characteristic of the man, as anti-slavery agitator, and agent and operator

109

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

of the "Underground Railroad;" aggressive in local and State politics from as early as the Whig and Know-Nothing times up to the first decade in the new century. He has been Whig, Know-Nothing, "Black Abolitionist," Republican, Prohibitionist, Greenbacker, Re- publican again and finally back into the forlorn hope of the Prohibition fold. In 1856 Smith went to Missouri and took a hand in the border ruffian warfare in which "Bleeding Kansas" was the stake for which the pro-slavery men of Missouri and the anti-slavery agitators of the times were contending. He was an ally and aider and abettor of John Brown, in that mem- orable period. He was with the party in 1857 that located the arms and other war munitions which had been stolen from the United States Arsenal at Liberty, Missouri, and secreted at Kickapoo, by the border ruffians-250 stands ·of arms, with one cannon, which was afterward known as "Jim Lane's Peacemaker." Jim Lane, Jack Montgomery and Dan Smith, with a small force of abolitionists, recruited by Lane at Leavenworth, Kansas, found these muni- tions and recaptured them. Smith later aided John Brown, financially and otherwise, in his work of freeing fugitive slaves, and in making their escape through Missouri, Kansas, and on to Canada. He also, personally, after his re- turn to Columbiana County, aided in running six slaves out of Virginia, by the "Underground Railroad" in this county, through to one of the stations on Lake Erie, and thence to Canada.

Smith had taken with him his wife and in- fant son, Josiah T Smith (a prominent busi- ness man of East Liverpool as late as 1905), to Missouri. His uncle, Col. George Smith, had a few years earlier taken 2,000 sheep from Columbiana County and located on a ranch in Caldwell County, Missouri. Colonel Smith became a slaveholder, and naturally a sympa- thizer with the pro-slavery men of the time. But he had been measurably instrumental in Daniel's going to Missouri; and as "blood is thicker than water," he stood by his nephew in the troubles which Dan's headstrong and outspoken aggressiveness led him into. Daniel had taken Horace Greeley's advice upon his arrival in Missouri, and had in 1857 taken up

a hundred or two acres of land with the inten- tion of growing up with the country. Then his liking for a fight, as well as his inborn sym- pathy with the "downtrodden race," led him into the anti-slavery movement. Thencefor- ward he was a "spotted man" in Caldwell County. A neighbor of Smith-John Hender- son-had been killed by the pro-slavery "regu- lators," and several others had been tarred and feathered and run out of the State. The next victim, it developed, was to be Dan Smith. This was in 1859. A committee waited upon him, and forced an expression as to Smith's views on the anti-slavery movement, and the methods of the "regulators." That sort of forcing was easy with Daniel; and the result was that he was given 48 hours in which to "get out." Daniel was armed, and his house was a little arsenal; while his wife, a daughter of the late Hon. Josiah Thompson, of East Liverpool, could handle a gun almost as well as Daniel himself. The committee were or- dered out of the house; and they went. But soon a sympathizer warned Smith that the man had been named. who was to kill him, and he had better leave. He declined to be run off and declared he would stay and, if necessary, fight for his life. If the worst came to the worst, there would be more than one funeral, he said. His uncle, Col. George Smith, learn- ing the situation of affairs, intervened with the committee of "regulators," who had given Smith his warning. He told them that if his nephew had violated the law, he would lend his influence and assistance in every way to bring him to trial; but that from any lawless violence he would protect him with his own life. This brought the committee to bay at once; but the friends of Daniel, knowing that a tragedy was bound to follow, advised him to prepare to leave as soon as possible. Accordingly, after sending his wife and child back to friends in Columbiana County, he settled his affairs as best he could and returned to the scenes of his earlier labors a poorer, but doubtless in some sense a wiser man. Smith said afterward that at least one-half his invested resources in Mis- souri went, involuntarily on his part, to the support of the pro-slavery cause, through prac-

IIO

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

tical confiscation by his enemies. Col. George Smith, although a slaveholder in a slave State, when the War of the Rebellion broke out, came out squarely for, the Union and the old flag. Some years before going West he had repre- sented Columbiana County in the Ohio Legisla- ture, and after the war he served eight years as provost marshal of Missouri and two terms as Lieutenant Governor of the State. For, upwards of 20 years in all, Daniel J. Smith was an active member of the Western branch of the Ameri- can Anti-Slavery Society.

It is not intended here to enter upon the dark Civil War days of 1861-65 as they af- fected the county and its people. The historian of the Civil War has attended to that. It has

been said earlier in this chapter that Colum- biana County did her part bravely and well in giving of her sons to fight and die, if need be, to perpetuate the Union. Something in detail of what Columbiana County did in three wars. -that with Mexico, the Civil War and the war with Spain-is told in a later chapter. In the days preceding the firing of the first gun by the South the young members of the Friends' socie- ties of Salem and elsewhere learned so well the. lesson of the cause of abolition, that when Abra- ham Lincoln sent out over the land his first call for troops many of these young Friends disobeyed the mandates of the Quaker creed, and rushed hotly forth to bear arms against the slaveholder in rebellion against his country.

CHAPTER IX.

THE MILLS OF THE PIONEERS.

The Early Grist-Mills and Sawmills Went Hand in Hand-Small Streams in County Fur- nished Much Water Power-Advent of Steam Power-Decimation of the Virgin Forest-Many Woolen-Mills in the Past-Tanneries' Were Numerous in the Early Days-The First Paper-Mill in Ohio-Attempt at Cotton Manufacture Abortive- Distilleries Furnished "Old Rye" to Retail at 25 cents a Gallon-"Old Gange's" Daily Ration-Some Statistics.

The pioneers in course of time, here and there, built mills and factories, albeit they were crude and ` sometimes inefficient. Oxen and horses, and sometimes even men in some of the early days supplied motive power where streams did not abound, or where the water failed to give requisite force. But fortunately streams were numerous, and generally a sufficient water. power could be secured to furnish power nec- essary to operate these primitive industries. The grinding of grain, to furnish food' for man and beast, was naturally among the first needs of the early settlers. "Hand mills," says an old history, "were sometimes made and used for that purpose; and then, in Columbiana County, as in that far off land of sacred mem- ories, 'two women might be seen grinding at the mill.' These mills were very rude of con- struction, and their effect upon the grain was little more than, to crush it, without any pro- vision for bolting." The horse or ox power was furnished by the animals tramping on a tread-wheel. But these were soon supersede:1 by water power, and this later by steam. Ele- vators in grist-mills in those early days were practically unknown, the brawn of the miller making up for the defect. The grain must needs be lifted into the hopper, and when, it was ground and fell into a chest in a story

below, the miller would put it into a sack in quantities proportionate to his strength, carry it upstairs and pour it into another hopper from which it was run into the bolt, and through it into a chest below, ready to be divided and sacked for delivery to the customer. "The stones used for grinding in most of the earlier mills were very imperfect grits obtained from some of the western ranges of the Alleghanies, and with some of the fragments of millstone to be seen on the banks of some of the streanis upon which mills used to stand, are to be found multitudes of fossil shells." Flour ground by the stones of the early days would hardly pass inspection in the markets to-day; but it hau the advantage of being even more wholesome and nutritious than the fine brands of the mod- ern mills, where it is claimed by many "the life is ground out of the grain" by the fine modern bolting and "patent processes."

EARLY DAYS OF THE GRIST-MILL.

While in those early days the streams which were so important a factor in furnishing mill power, were far from perennial, yet they "went dry" less frequently than they were wont to do in the later days when the hillsides and yal- leys were denuded of the primeval forests.

II2

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

Ensign's "History of Columbiana County," referring to the first grist-mill built in Colum- biana County, says :

"The first grist-mill in the county was built by Joseph Fawcett, on Carpenter's Run, just below the present site of East Liverpool. The second grist-mill was built by John Beaver on Little Beaver Creek, one and a half miles from the river. Opposite the grist-mill Beaver built a sawmill, which was the first sawmill in the township. The second sawmill was built by Joseph Fawcett at Jethro, just below East Liverpool. A steam sawmill was erected about 1830 by William Scott and John Hill on the Ohio River, about where Manley & Cart- wright's pottery now stands. The mill was, not long after destroyed by fire."

About 1805 John Emerich, having built his log cabin in Butler township, where later the settlement of Valley was located, built a small grist-mill and started the busy wheel. From that time up to 1905 a grist-mill has been in constant operation on or near, the same site, passing through many hands. John H. Stan- ley is said to have carried his grist five or six miles to this mill for over 50 years-for many of these years on horseback-which was in the early days the more usual means of convey- ance of wheat, corn and rye to the mill, to be returned, in the form of flour, corn-meal and bran, by the same means of conveyance. So inadequate were the milling facilities at certain periods in those early years, and so irregular the running at times from a shortage of water power, that it was sometimes necessary for a customer to keep a grist at the mill constantly, that he might be sure to get his turn.

Among the earlier grist-mills in Center township was the one built in the first decade of the past century-almost on the site where the old stone mill which was still standing near Lisbon at the beginning of the new century- by Edmund Hays, and to the northeast and ad- joining the corporation William Harbaugh built a grist-mill about 1815. This in later years was converted into a distillery. The mill built by Edmund Hays was destroyed by fire in 1845. At that time it was owned by Daniel Harbaugh, who, a few years later rebuilt the

structure, and in 1870 sold it to John S. Hun- ter. This mill was still, in 1905, being oper- ated by the firm of Hunter & McCord.

About 1830 James Culbertson started a grist-mill in section 17, which he later disposed of to Abram Brandeberry and. Stephen Hen- dricks .. Joshua Bowman purchased it in 1870 and removed it to a site on the State road, add- ing steam power in 1874. This mill; and a sawmill a little farther up the stream, were still being operated near the close of the cen- tury by Joshua Bowman.

On the middle fork of the Beaver, in the southwestern corner of Middleton township, Samuel Conkle erected a grist-mill in 1830, and later a sawmill. These were later the prop- erty in turn of James Gaston, Thomas Whit- acre and Philander Gaston. Philander. Gas- ton still owned and operated them in 1905.

The well known Moultrie flour-mill at Moultrie, in West township, was built in 1875. by John Widle and George W. Newmacher.

THE THUNDER-GUST MILL.

At a very early date in the past century William Laughlin built on Brush Run, section. 13, what was popularly known as a "thunder- gust mill," most of the work upon which he di:l' with his own hands. In this mill a hand-bolt. did duty for some years.

It may not be amiss to explain the signifi- cation of the term "thunder-gust mill." In many streams the water would get so low in dry seasons as to keep the grist-mill idle much of the time. So when a "thunder-gust" or a heavy rain-fall would come, the swollen stream, which would be one result, would start the mill for a time; and then there would be a scramble among the patrons to see who would get their grists attended to first.

Edward Whitacre and sons built a saw and grist-mill in 1808 on the narrows of the west fork of the Little Beaver, south of where Guil- ford now stands. In 1810 Nicholas Miller built one just below that point. Hugh Hillis. and Joseph Bailey purchased Whitacre's mill, and ran it until 1846 when it was abandonedi. George Brown put up a grist-mill in 1810 on,

I13

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

the site later occupied by Grim's mill. In 1808 James Craig, who laid out Hanover, built a saw and grist-mill, which in 1817 was pur- chased by William Kennedy and Arthur Lock- ard, who put into it the first buhrstones seen ir. those parts. In 1811 Amos Frost located in Hanover township, and in 1814, built a saw and grist-mill on the west fork of the Little Beaver.

As early as 1811 William Crawford built a combined saw and grist-mill below Williams- port, in Madison township. Aaron Brooks built a grist-mill on the west fork of the Beaver, and in 1847 sold it to one Hamilton. Later still it was removed to Wellsville and changed to a steam mill.

The first grist-mill of any sort in Middle- ton township was one built by John Leslie, in which corn was ground by hand power. The. first grinding by water power was done by Benjamin Wright, about 1801. He had a small. corn-mill on Brush Run, near the west line of section 24.

About 1802 Aaron Brooks erected, on the Little Beaver, what was the first grist-mill in St. Clair township. The water power on the Little Beaver was good and lasted most of the year; and so, at different periods, many saw- mills and carding-machines were built and op- erated along its tortuous course.

Of one of the substantial old mills of the county, Ensign's history says: "Jonathan Fawcett built in 1841 the stone mill which stands on a branch of the middle fork of Bea- ver Creek (Salem township). The mill is 40 by 61 feet in size, and five and a half stories high. The foundation is laid 25 feet below the level of the road. The walls are four feet thick for 12 feet of its height, and thence decrease to three feet and two feet in thickness. The prop- erty was leased in 1836 for 99 years, with privi- lege of renewal. It is now (in 1879) in pos- session of B. Raney."

In 1804 Levi Blackledge built a grist-mill on the middle fork of Beaver Creek, in Salem township where the mill of Uriah Teegarden stood 100 years later. The following year he built a sawmill just below the grist-mill, which in 1816 was replaced by a larger and more per- manent mill, which did duty for three-quarters of a century.

Near the beginning of the century-earlier than 1810-owing to the excellent water power of Bull Creek, grist-mills were built above and below what was later the town site of New Waterford. Most of these had gone out of business prior to the close of the 19th century ; but some of the old structures stand, as do. others in other parts of the county, monuments to the industry and thrift of past generations.

Christ & Roos about 1848 built a water- power grist-mill in New Waterford. A few years later it passed into the hands of the Silli- mans, who added steam power. In August, 1865, it was destroyed by fire. In 1873 James. Scott, who had owned and operated a mill on Big Bull Creek from 1867 to 1873, erected on the old site of the burned mill the "Tip Top Mills." Three runs of stones were installed in the new mill, the motive power being both water and steam. Samuel C. Scott, son of James Scott, was proprietor of and still oper- ated the "Tip Top Mills" in 1905. Their ca- pacity was then 60 barrels per day. Steam power was generally introduced, at least in the larger mills of the county, about 1858.

To go back a little-the great-grandfather of Samuel C. Scott had built, in 1808, the stone mill at Mill Rock, which was still running in 1905, "almost as good as new" after nearly a century of service.

An Italian named Fishel, who settled in Washington township in 1804, built the first grist-mill in the township on the site now known as Clark's Mills. In this primitive mill the flour was sifted through a cloth tacked upon a box frame. The first grist-mill of any im- portance, however, in Washington township, was built in Salineville in 1838 by James Farmer and Isaac Kirk. In the '70's and '80's it was owned by J. G. Lacock & Company, and later by other parties. This old mill was still being run, in 1905, by Strabley & Faloon. The mill in its time has done a large business, hav- ing a capacity of 16,000 barrels a year. In 1877 McGarry, Black & Company built a grist- mill near the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad station. It had a capacity of about 25 barrels a day, and was still being run in 1905 by Mc- Garry & Black.

"The Ohio Flouring Mill" was started by.

II4

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

Faloon Brothers, also in 1877. They operated two runs of wheat buhrs and one chopping buhr, having a capacity of over 20 barrels of flour a day. It went out of business about 1900.

In 1806 Daniel Swearingen built a grist- mill on Little Yellow Creek upon the farm of his son, E. Swearingen. In 1810, higher up on the same stream, Joseph Ritter built a grist-mill, on the site afterwards occupied by John C. Smith's "California Mill."

Lindsay Cameron built the grist-mill in St. Clair township in 1837, which still stood and bore his name in 1905. C. Metsch bought it in 1862, and operated it until 1891. In 1856 Josiah Thompson, S. Frederick and S. Jack- man built a mill at East Liverpool, which in 1870 they sold to C. Metsch, which the latter ran until 1892, when it was destroyed by fire.

A grist-mill was built in 1827 by Gwinn & Neff, on Front (or Water) street, Wells- ville, near where in 1905 stood the residence of Gen. J. W. Reillv. But this mill never achieved great success, and was run but a few years. Cameron's mill and Hibbett's mill, on Little Yellow Creek, near Wellsville, the former built in the first half, the second in the last half of the 19th century, were still old landmarks in 1905, but both of these, with scores if not hundreds of similar mills through- out the country, had long since gone out of the business, which the big trust mills of the coun- try had largely monopolized. The Jenkins mill, a small one, built in Wellsville in the early '50's, did a good custom work for many years. In the '80's B. M. Allison & Brother built a small model grist-mill in Wellsville, which in 1905 was still run by J. W. Russell.

SAWMILLS OF THE PIONEERS.

The sawmill was from the early days inti- mately associated with the grist-mill. About 1815 one of the pioneer sawmills of the north- ern part of the county was built on the farm of Henry Wintrobe, who entered section 8 in But- ler township. On the Wintrobe farm, later owned by Joseph Lynch, was an orchard oc- cupying the highest farming land site, by actual survey, between the Ohio River at its nearest point and Cleveland.

In 1815 William Wells, founder of Wells- ville, with his son James-who died when past 90 near the close of the century -- built on Lit- tle Yellow Creek, near where the big sheet steel mill later stood, the first sawmill in Yellow Creek township. But the sawmill which, of all those in the township, made and held the rec- ord for long service and large output, was that built some time before the '50's on the river bank near the foot of Ninth street, Wellsville, and operated for many years by Smith & Mc- Gregor, and later by Giles McGregor. It, how- ever, was torn down about the beginning of the new century to give place for fine resi- dences.

The water power, furnished by the several streams within the bounds of Elkrun township, was early an important factor in the industrial progress of the people of that township. En- sign's "History of Columbiana County" treats the subject at some length. The quotation fol- lowing is from this work :

"Among the first improvements of the water power of the township for milling pur- poses were those of Isaac James, on section 2. About 1810 he utilized the power of Little Bull Creek to operate saw and grist-mills which were carried on by the James family many years. The sawmill was abandoned about 1850, but the grist-mill is yet operated. On the same section but lower on the stream, John Snyder had a pioneer grist-mill which was destroyed by a storm and never rebuilt; and still lower down the stream Nathan Heald had a sawmill and Joseph Martin a carding-machine, both of which have passed away. These were suc- ceeded by a sawmill, which is now operated by John Raley (1879). On the north quarter of section 12 Joseph and Henry Morlan put up a sawmill in 1826, which, after being operated many years, was allowed to go down: and on the same section, near the township line, Jo- seph Morlan, Sr .. and his son Stephen erected a grist-mill in 1822. which, in an improved condition, yet remains the property of William Taylor. A sawmill was here built at a more recent period, and steam power has been sup- plied to operate both, supplementary to the water power. On section 2 a steam .sawmill

NORTH MARKET STREET SCHOOL, LISBON

BELL'S OLD MILL IN FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP'

RUINS OF THE MCKINLEY FURNACE IN CENTER TOWNSHIP

KARTEN GIG SADDLES, ETC.

HARNESS & SA04 K

BIRTHPLACE OF HON. MARCUS A. HANNA, LISBON (Born in the room under the sign "A. Arter")

117

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

has been operated during the past 20 years by Hiram Bell. In the eastern part of the town- ship, on Big Run James Brisbine started a saw- mill, a pioneer among mills, which has long since been discontinued, and at a point lower down the stream Joseph Henry erected a mill in 1846; which is yet carried on by him. On the northern part of section 35. John Cannon employed the power of Middle Beaver to oper- ate a grist-mill from 1812 to the building of the canal. when the mill site was destroyed. Above this point, on Pine Run, Christian Bow- man erected a sawmill some time after 1812, which was discontinued in about 10 years. In 1845 he put up another mill, farther up the stream, which has ever since been operated. In 1867 steam power was supplied. The present owner is William Armstrong.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 15

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