History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 18

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1302

USA > Ohio > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 18

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).

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party carried the state for Harrison in 1836 and 1840. Under President Jackson, from 1829 to 1837 party lines began to be closely drawn, but prior to that time there had been no special difference between the two parties.

The first mention of Crawford county in regard to political matters was in the Colum- bus Gazette of July, 1824, when a meeting was held at Columbus in the interest of Henry Clay. At that meeting Henry Brown of Franklin county was appointed the Clay elec- tor for this district, and Joseph Chaffee of Crawford county was present and was placed in charge of the Clay interests in this county. Chaffee lived in Tymochtee township. That year practically all were Clay or Adams men in this county, as at the election in 1824, Ma- rion county, of which Crawford was a part, gave the following vote: Adams 87; Clay 54; Jackson 13. The formation of parties can be seen by the presidential vote of 1832, when it resulted in this county: Andrew Jack- son, dem., 557; Henry Clay, whig, 259.

The exciting campaign in Ohio and in this county was the presidential election in 1840, when William Henry Harrison ran against Martin Van Buren, the latter being the demo- cratic candidate for re-election. Pages of history have been written about the campaign of 1840. It was the first political "tidal wave" that ever swept the country. From 1829 to 1840 Andrew Jackson had been president, fol- lowed by Martin Van Buren, and the demo- cratic party was strongly intrenched in power ; the whigs were demoralized, their principal issue being anti-Jackson. On December 4, 1839, they met at Harrisburg, Pa., and nomi- nated Gen. Harrison for the presidency, with John Tyler of Virginia for vice president. Van Buren's colleague was Richard M. John- son, of Kentucky, who in the war of 1812, had won the final battle of the Thames in Canada, when the British were defeated and Tecumseh was killed. Harrison, as the hero of the war of 1812, was the idol of the then great rising northwestern territory, but in the east the business interests and the newspapers made light of his candidacy; soon after the Harri- son nomination, the editor of a Van Buren paper at Baltimore, Md., visited General Har- rison at his country home at South Bend, Ind., and was cordially received and hospitably en-

tertained by him. He published an account of his trip, spoke slightingly of Harrison's abil- ities, and stated that he lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider, and had no desire to be president, and neither had he the ability to fill the position, and concluded by stating that if the people of the country would only fur- nish him with a liberal supply of crackers and sufficient hard cider he would be contented to live in his little log cabin for the remainder of his days. Every Van Buren paper in the east published the story with great relish, and it was copied in the western organs. Then the storm broke. In all of the great northwest that Harrison had rescued from the Indians the people remembered the log cabins that had been their first homes; they still kept the hard cider for the hospitable entertainment of their guests, and many still lived in the little log cabins. The northwest rallied to their idol, the log cabin and the buckeye became their rallying cry, and the hard cider was free everywhere. A meeting was called at Colum- bus for February 22, 1840, and although it was the dead of winter, when the day arrived over 15,000 people assembled in that city of 6,000 population, and every house was thrown open to entertain free every guest. Every county within a radius of a hundred miles sent monster delegations, some hauling log cabins for fifty miles over the miserable roads. Nearly a hundred went down from Crawford county. Heavy rains had swollen the streams, and the roads were almost impassable, but there were miles of paraders, with their in- numerable log cabins, and heading the pro- cession was a reproduction of Fort Meigs erected by Harrison, and defended by him in 1813, and on the front flag staff Harrison's reply to General Proctor's demand for its sur- render: "Tell General Proctor when he gets possession of the Fort, he will gain more honor, in the estimation of his King and coun- try, than he would acquire by a thousand capitulations." There were speeches; and the hard cider distributed free at every house, with barrels of it at every street corner, kept up the enthusiasm, and also prevented any ill effect from the intemperate weather.

Of course they passed resolutions, a column of them, glorifying themselves and their can- didate, and denouncing, and criticizing the

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opposition, and one resolution, not political, but future events demonstrated it was the shrewdest of politics. It was a resolution recommending that "the young men of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, West- ern New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia celebrate the next anniversary of the raising of the siege of Fort Meigs, in June, 1813, on the ground occupied by that fort."

As early as May they started for the rendez- vous ; men left their farms and their factories, their stores and their shops, and through the forests and across the swamps they journeyed hundreds of miles on foot and on horseback in wagons and in log cabins, these latter being hung with coon-skins and covered with strings of buckeyes, and used as sleeping places dur- ing the night. And when the day arrived fully fifty thousand people were there from every state in the union, and the wagons were camped for miles around. Harrison spent the night at Toledo, a little town of 1,300 people, and on the morning of the day went on a little steamer to the fort he had so bravely defended a generation previous. People were weeks getting back to their homes, but from the west the excitement spread to the east, and the chief export of Ohio that year were the buckeyes, and the national drink was hard cider. It was, too, a cure for all ills; with a pepper-pod sliced into it it was a sure cure for rheuma- tism; mixed with willow-bark and iron-wood it cured fever and ague; with wild cherry added it became a tonic. It was the juice of the apple, and many a temperate man in his enthusiasm for the cause partook so liberally that when night came there was little differ- ence between a moderate and a heavy drinker.

It was at Columbus that Otway Curry, of Union county, who represented this district in the legislature in 1837 and 1838, wrote the first campaign song that was used in a cam- paign. It was to the tune of "Highland Lad- die," and commenced :

"Oh where, tell me where, was your Buckeye Cabin made ?

Oh where, tell me where was your Buckeye Cabin made ?

'Twas built among the merry boys who wield the plow and spade

Where the Log Cabin stands in the bonnie Buckeye shade."

Another of the songs was to the tune of "Rosin the Bow."

Come ye who, whatever betide her,

To freedom have sworn to be true; Prime up in a mug of hard cider, And drink to old Tippecanoe .* ·

On tap, I've a pipe of as good, sir, As man from the faucet e'er drew; No poison to thicken your blood, sir, But liquor as pure as the dew.

No foreign potation I puff, sir, In freedom the apple-tree grew, And its juice is exactly the stuff, sir, To quaff to old Tippecanoe.

Let Van* sport his coach and outriders, In liveries flaunting and gay, And sneer at log cabins and cider ; But woe for the reckoning day!

From east to west and from north to south the wave spread, and long before November came the one side felt defeat and the other scented victory. A tidal wave swept the land "For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." The mag- nificent democratic organization which six months previous had deemed defeat impos- sible was swept away by an uprising of the people, and even the democratic organ in Bal- timore that first started the sarcasm on the candidate and his log cabin and hard cider, was caught by the wave, and closed the cam- paign as a Harrison supporter. During the campaign many passed through Bucyrus on their way to the great demonstration at Fort Meigs, and among them none other than Har- rison himself, accompanied by Robert C. Schenck, a rising young lawyer from Dayton and an orator, He came over the Pike from Columbus speaking in Delaware and Marion, and stopped at the Union Hotel, then kept by Samuel Norton on the lot now occupied by Zeigler's mill. He spent the night here. Bucyrus had a Tippecanoe club and John Moderwell was the president and James Mar- shall the vice president. The club escorted him to the court house. The little building

*Tippecanoe was the popular name in the west for Harrison.

*Van Buren.

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was crowded. The meeting was presided ovef by Josiah Scott, then a rising young lawyer of Bucyrus. Robert C. Schenck addressed the meeting, and made a brilliant speech. Gen- eral Harrison was then introduced, but the crowd was a trifle unfriendly and frequently interrupted the speaker, but he bore the an- noyance with dignity and calmness, until a better feeling prevailed and he was allowed to continue.

The next morning he left for Sandusky where he took the little lake steamer for To- ledo. This was the first president ever in Bucyrus. Later in the campaign, in Septem- ber, Richard M. Johnson, the candidate for vice president was in Bucyrus, and addressed a large crowd. He was the guest of Congress- man George Sweney and was accompanied by Senator Allen and John Brough, and when he left for his next date at Mansfield, Mr. Sweney and a large number of Bucyrus poli- ticians accompanied him.

The wave that swept the country and landed Gen. Harrison in the presidential chair was of little avail to the whigs. Whether he could have built up a party is problematical, but he died shortly after his election, and Ty- ler became president, and in 1844 the demo- crats again returned to power. In 1848 the whigs were again successful with a war can- didate. They had opposed the Mexican war, but after the United States were victorious stole the democratic thunder by nominating the hero of that war, General Zachariah Tay- lor, and obtaining a presidential victory. Old "Rough and Ready" as he was called was just as his nickname indicated. One of his first messages congratulated congress with the ex- pression : "We are now at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." Taylor also died and Fillmore succeeded him. For years the whigs had been little more than an opposi- tion. But in their later years they had driven the democratic party to a defense of slavery. The democratic party had never recognized slavery as one of their party principles, but they were finally forced to its defense, a de- fense that almost killed them, and did kill the party that forced them into that position. For several years prior to 1854, a new party had sprung up of "Free Soilers," who were op- posed to any further extension of slavery; an

American party, who held that Americans must rule America; and the abolitionists. The Free Soilers at the start drew largely from the democrats and later from the whigs; the Americans and abolitionists from the whigs, and in some cases the whigs became the third party. In 1854 the many discordant elements that opposed the democratic party got together with a firm and pronounced declaration to stop the inroads of slavery. The free soil democrats and the abolitionists practically all united with the new party, and about two-thirds of the whigs. At least one- third of the whigs went bodily over to the democratic party declining to follow such ad- vanced ground on the slavery question. In 1853, the democratic vote in Crawford for governor was 1778, the whig vote 525, and the free soil vote 306. The whigs had gone to pieces. In 1855 under the new alignment the democratic vote was 1710, the republican vote 1,449 and the American vote 24. Many well known democrats in Crawford county, who had held office and been leaders, joined the new party, and democracy in turn re- cruited its ranks from life-long whigs. Since then it has been a straight fight between the two great parties, with an occasional new party springing into existence to cast a few votes, and then drift back to one or two other of the two great parties. At one time the populists rose to several hundred votes in the county, but they finally found a home in one of the two leading parties. The prohibition- ists have been faithful for years, but their vote has been drawn from both parties and has been recently light, many years ago their highest figure being about three hundred. In the past few years the socialists under various names have had tickets in the field, taking their following from both parties but mostly from the dominant one. In a few local elec- tions their vote has been such as to indicate that if the increase continues they are a power to be counted on.

When the war started in 1861, it was heart- ily supported by both parties, but as time passed the republicans being in power in the national government were receiving accessions of strength, which bid fair, when the war reached a successful conclusion, to wipe out the democratic party. And the democratic

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party soon changed to a severe criticism of the conduct of the war, and later came out in bitter opposition to it. The Republicans, to make the line more marked, headed their ticket in this state with the word Union and the party was known as the Union Republican party. In the winter of 1882 one of democ- racy's brilliant orators, Clement L. Vallandig- ham, was so severe in his strictures on the government that he was arrested for treason, and banished from the country, first trans- ported across the line as a present to his friends in the south. From there he went to Canada. The democratic party in this state were up in arms against the administration for the arrest and banishment of their leader and insisted the rights of "freedom of speech" as guaranteed by the constitution were being suppressed. They called their next convention at Columbus to select a candidate for gover- nor, and there was an outpouring of the people; over two hundred went down from this county ; other counties turned out in force : there were delegations from everywhere, and in the neighborhood of fifty thousand indig- nant and protesting democrats assembled at the capital. It was a great outpouring of the people, and there was no building large enough to hold the crowd, but the problem was solved by having the convention outdoors in the state house yard. With the greatest enthusi- asm Vallandigham was nominated by acclama- tion for governor. Crawford was conspicuous at this convention. The headquarters were at the American house, and the evening of the nominations a ratification meeting was held, and ex-Senator George E. Pugh, the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and many others made speeches, most of them too mild for the anti-war faction of the party and the excited crowd, besides which the speeches were temp- erate from the fact that dozens of United States marshals were present with instructions to arrest any one guilty of treasonable utter- ances. The speeches were therefore tamer than the Crawford county men had been ac- customed to, and they set up a call for "Jack- son." Abner M. Jackson was a natural born orator, pleasant, affable, the friend of every- body, and the idol of the democracy of this county. The crowd caught the name and Jackson came forward to speak. He ex-

pressed his opinion on the generals, the war, the government, and the president, with the same freedom and force he had been accus- tomed to do in Crawford county. He was a brilliant orator and set the crowd on fire, and the cheers and applause he received showed he was the orator of the evening, and if his speech had been made the evening before there is no question he would have received the nomination for lieutenant governor. At the conclusion of his speech, policy called for an adjournment of the meeting.

A severe campaign followed, processions miles long attending every meeting. Pugh took up the fight for his party, his leader being absent in Canada; party bitterness ran high; nearly every meeting created trouble owing to the intense earnestness of both sides, and in the end Brough was elected by 60,000 exclu- sive of the soldier vote which was 41,000 more. A law had been passed which allowed the soldiers in the field to vote. The Craw- ford soldier vote was Brough, union, 268; Vallandigham, democrat, 24. On the county ticket the Union vote was some forty less. In the vote as reported from the field 57 votes were thrown out for informality, of these 49 were for Brough and 8 for Vallandig- ham. In 1865 the soldier vote was not counted in this county.

The next important contest was in 1867, when the state was called upon to vote on an amendment to the constitution giving to col- ored people the right to vote, the republicans favoring the proposition the democrats oppos- ing. The amendment was beaten in Ohio by forty thousand, but the republicans carried the state by a small majority.

In 1872, the democrats made no nomina- tion for the presidency, meeting at Baltimore and indorsing Horace Greeley, who had been nominated by the Liberal republicans at Cin- cinnati. This took over to the democratic ranks less than a hundred in this county, ow- ing to their intense bitterness against the administration of President Grant, but event- ually most of them returned to the republican party.

Party lines remained the same in this county until 1887 to 1891, when the Peoples Party sprang into existence, an organization principally of farmers comprising men of

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both parties, but later coming largely from the democrats. It ran for a few years, and its members later drifted back to the old parties, the democrats getting the better of the drift.

So strong had the populistic tendency be- come, that that party dictated the democratic presidential nomination and platform in 1896, which caused the nomination of a gold demo- cratic ticket made up of those who still be- lieved with Andrew Jackson on the money question. Many joined this party, but when it came to vote, they mostly voted for McKin- ley. In the last few years the Socialists under various names have had an increasing vote, especially in the cities, and both the great parties have been drifting toward the adop- tion of many of the milder views of the Socialists.

The first constitution was adopted when Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803, with a proviso that a constitutional convention could be held every twenty years to submit a new constitution to the people. In 1830 there was no desire for any change in the constitution, so no constitutional convention was held.

In 1850 a constitutional convention was held, the delegate from this county being Rich- ard W. Cahill of Vernon township. The new constitution was submitted to the people in June, 1851, and was adopted, the vote i11 Crawford county being 1,441 for and 399 against, a majority for of 1,042. It carried every township except Auburn and Dallas, los- ing in Auburn by 22 and in Dallas by 8. When this constitution was submitted a sep- arate proposition was submitted to the people as to whether the sale of liquor should be licensed in the state. License was defeated. On this question Crawford's vote was, for license I, 121, against 592; majority for 529. License carried every township excepting four, Bucyrus giving 17 majority against, Jackson 57, Texas 4, and Tod 5. The next constitu- tional convention was in 1870, when Thomas Beer was elected the delegate from this county without opposition. The constitution was submitted to the voters on August 18, 1874, and defeated by 147,284. Three other propo- sitions were submitted separately but all were defeated overwhelmingly, excepting the licensing of the liquor traffic, and this was defeated by only 7,286 majority in the state.

In 1851 the majority against license was 8,982. In Crawford county in 1874, the vote was 1,107 for the new constitution, 2,283 against. On the propositions submitted separately the vote was: For minority representation 945, against 2,241; for railroad aid 225, against 3,043; for licensing liquor traffic 2,212, against 1, 187.

In 1812 the third constitutional convention was held, and at the election in October 181I, George W. Miller was selected as the delegate.

The following is the vote of Crawford county for governor, the years 1828 and 1832 being the presidential vote: * Indicates the candidates who carried the state:

1824-Allen Trimble, nat rep ... . 83

*Jeremiah Morrow, dem .. 32 II5

Trimble plurality ..... 5I

1826 *Allen Trimble, nat rep .. 339

John Bigger, dem. ...

3 342

Trimble plurality . . .

336

1828 -* Allen Trimble, nat rep .. 217

John W. Campbell, dem. 165 382

Trimble plurality .. ....

1830 -* Robert Lucas, dem. . .

355

Duncan McArthur, nat rep 109 464

Lucas plurality 246

1832 -* Andrew Jackson, dem. 557

Henry Clay, whig. 259 816

Jackson plurality . 298

1834 -* Robert Lucas, dem. 528

James Findlay, whig. . 325 853

Lucas plurality . 203

1836-Martin Van Buren, dem .. 702

*Wm. H. Harrison, whig. 677 1,379

Van Buren plurality .. 25

1838 -* Wilson Shannon, dem ... 948

Joseph Vance, whig ..... 626 1,574

Shannon plurality. 322

1840-Wilson Shannon, dem ... . 1,204

*Thomas Corwin, whig .. 994 2,208

Shannon plurality. . 220

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY

1842 -* Wilson Shannon, dem. . . 1,308 1863-Clement L. Vallandigham, Thomas Corwin, whig ... 778 2,086 dem . . . 2,948 *John Brough, union rep. . 2,157 5,105

Shannon plurality . 530

1844-David Tod, dem. 1,67I *Mordecai Bartley, whig. 1,123 Leicester King, free soil. 4 2,798

Tod plurality 548

1846-David Tod, dem. 1,18I

*William Bebb, whig. 644

Samuel Lewis, free soil. . 22 1,847

Tod plurality . 537

1848-John B. Weller, dem. 1,558 *Seabury Ford, whig 751

Scattering 84 2,393

Ford plurality .. . 807

1850 -* Reuben Wood, dem. .1,055

William Johnston, whig. 538 1,593

Wood plurality. 517

1851 -* Reuben Wood, dem. 1,551

Samuel F. Vinton, whig. 683 2,234

Wood plurality . . 868 1853 -* William Medill, dem. . . . 1,778 Nelson Barrere, whig ... 525

Samuel Lewis, free soil. . 306 2,609

Medill plurality. . 1,253

1855-William Medill, dem ... . 1,710 *Salmon P. Chase, rep .. 1,449

Allen Trimble, amer .... 43 3,202

Medill. plurality . . . ... 261

1857-Henry B. Payne, dem .... 2,038 *Salmon P. Chase, rep ... 1,457 Philadelphia Van Trump,

amer 27 3,522

Payne plurality 581 1859-Rufus P. Ranney, dem. . . 2,258 *William Dennison, rep. . 1,530 3,808

Ranney plurality . 708 1861-Hugh J. Jewett, dem. .2,50I *David Tod, rep .. . 1,734 4,235

Jewett plurality

767

Vallandigham plurality. 791

1865-George W. Morgan, dem. 2,9II *Jacob D. Cox, rep ..... 1,759 4,670

Morgan plurality .. .. 1,152 1867-Allen G. Thurman, dem. . 3,497 *Rutherford B. Hayes, rep. 1,864 5,361

Thurman plurality . . . . 1,633 1869-Geo. H. Pendleton, dem. . 3,183 *Rutherford B. Hayes, rep. 1,631 4,814

Pendleton plurality . . . . 1,552 1871-George W. McCook, dem . 2,948 *Edward . Noyes, rep. . ... 1,690 Gideon T. Stewart, proh 26 4,664

McCook plurality .. . .1,258 1873 -* William Allen, dem .. .. 2,879 Edward F Noyes, rep. . 1,292 Gideon T. Stewart, proh 180 Isaac Collins, liberal. . 25 4.376

Allen plurality 1,587 1875-William Allen, dem. . 3,834 *Rutherford B. Hayes, rep. 2,064 Jay Odell, prob. 44 5,942

Allen plurality . .1.770

1877 -* Richard M. Bishop, dem. 3,498 William H. West, rep. . . 1,581 Scattering 177 5,256

Bishop plurality 1,917

1879-Thomas Ewing, dem ... .4,193 *Charles Foster, rep. . . . . 2,213 Gideon T. Stewart, proh I35 A. Sanders Piatt, peo ... 43 6,584

Ewing plurality . 1,980 1881-John W. Bookwalter, dem. 3,608 *Charles Foster, rep .... 1,967 Abraham R. Ladow, prob 256

John Seitz, peo.

56 5,887

Bookwalter plurality . . . 1,641

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1883 -* George Hoadley, dem. .. 4,457 Joseph B. Foraker, rep. . 2,478 Scattering 49 6,982

Hoadley plurality . . 1,979

1885-George Hoadley, dem .. . 4,269 *Joseph B. Foraker, rep. . 2,364 Adna B. Leonard, proh .. 297 John W. Northup, peo .. 25 6,955

Hoadley plurality . . .. . 1,905 1887-Thomas E. Powell, dem. . 4,258 *Joseph B. Foraker, rep. . 2,295 Morris Sharp, proh 227 John Seitz, peo 310 7,090

Powell plurality 1,963 1889 -* James E. Campbell, dem. 4,767 Joseph B. Foraker, rep. . 2,353 John B. Helwig, proh ... 222 7,342

Campbell plurality .... 2,414 1891 -- James E. Campbell, dem. . 4,400 *William Mckinley, rep. . 2,346 John J. Ashenhurst, proh I22 John Seitz, peo 428 7,296

Campbell plurality .... 2,054 1893-Lawrence T. Neal, dem. . . 4,IIO *William Mckinley, rep. . 2,678 Gideon P. Mackin, proh. 150 Edward J. Bracken, peo. 224 7,162

Neal plurality. . . . . 1,432 1895-James E. Campbell, dem. . 4,395 *Ada S. Bushnell, rep .. . . 2,557 Jacob S. Coxey, peo. . 535 Seth H. Ellis, proh ..... I54

William Watkins, soc. lab

5 7,646

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 18

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850- Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1302

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1302