USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 10
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The immediate result of the raid was further to fire the Northern heart. The President had just issued a call for three hundred thousand more troops and an enrollment had been made for a draft, if quotas were not filled by volunteers. This raid stimulated volunteering, and by the time the draft was ordered in Ohio, most of the counties had filled their quotas. We have never seen a report of the full loss sustained by the citizens of Guernsey county, by this raid, as reported from time to time to the commission having the different classes of claims for adjustment, but they are now all paid.
Almost a new generation of people have come upon the stage of ac- tion since Morgan's rough raiders galloped through Guernsey, and the most of the "Cambridge Scouts" have passed their three score years, and "one by one are falling away, like leaves before the autumn wind."
"Ah, never shall the land forget How gushed the life blood of her brave, Gushed warm with hope and courage yet, Upon the soil they sought to save.
"Now all is calm and fresh and still; Alone the chirp of fleeting bird, And talk of children on the hill, And bell of wandering kine are heard.
. "No solemn host goes trailing by The black-mouthed gun and staggering wain; Men start not at the battle cry- Oh, be it never heard again."
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
When war was declared against Spain, by President Mckinley, in the spring of 1898, after the sinking of the battleship "Maine," men were wanted to enter the government's service for that war. As a rule, the state militia companies were largely used for that purpose.
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The local newspapers of Cambridge had several stirring articles on the war and one item, throwing light on the first real action here, reads as follows :
"The first patriotic demonstration for war against Spain was made by the citizens of Cambridge on last Friday evening. About seven o'clock Adam Broom's drum corps, headed by the United States flag, and followed by an enthusiastic crowd, marched up street to the Mc. and Mc. store, where young men recruit under H. F. McDonald. Stirring war speeches were made by Mayor Luccock and others to a large crowd of interested citizens, after which a number of young men signed the recruiting pledge. The recruits, old vet- erans and citizens, then marched down street to blood-stirring martial music."
Owing to the fact that there was no regular National Guard company within Guernsey county when this last war broke out, there were but few men who went from the county, save a few who served as members of the regular army.
TIIE CAMBRIDGE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.
Perhaps no better history can be given of this monument than the one written, at the time, by the editor of the Times, which follows:
Tuesday, June 9, 1903, will be remembered as an eventful day in the history of Guernsey county as long as any now living shall survive, and it will be a tradition as long as the monument of granite endures. The weather clerk had promised fair weather, and came very near to filling the bill, except that during the noon recess there were showers, which cooled the atmos- phere and gave an enjoyable after part of the day and a glorious evening.
Early in the morning all Cambridge was astir, and soon the crowd came from every quarter of the county as for a holiday of great sacredness of interest.
There was no parade on the program, nor band show. The Electric Park or Consolidated Band and the Winchester Drum Corps, with Superintendent Cronebaugh and Professor LaChat's High School Glee Club, gave the best of music, timed as directed, alternating with the addresses.
A little after nine thirty o'clock Editor David D. Taylor, chairman of the board of trustees of the Guernsey County Monumental Association, called the crowd at the Public Square to order and asked the people to stand silently while Rev. Dr. McFarland made the invocation. Mr. Taylor also presented Hon. Milton Turner to preside over the further exercises of the day, as chairman of the building trustees appointed by the county commissioners. Mr. Turner was greeted with applause, and spoke as follows:
"The history of this soldiers' monument is briefly this: About ten years (8)
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ago a movement was started to build a soldiers' monument by subscription. A charter was taken out, and an association formed under the name of the Guernsey County Monumental Association. Fifteen thousand fine litho- graphed life membership certificates were procured and a regular campaign opened up by holding meetings in each township of the county. The con- stitution provided that any man, woman or child, white or colored, could become a lifetime voting member upon the payment of one dollar. A vice- president was appointed in each township, and a book of blank certificates left in his hands to be sold to all who wished to become members. After the expiration of two years the books were called in, and did not show sufficient receipts to pay the expenses of the campaigns, so the project was abandoned and we went into the show business. A hall was fitted up in one of Colonel Taylor's buildings, and a series of entertainments were given during the win- ter by the ladies and gentlemen of the association. Star actors appeared on the stage in the persons of Hon. D. D. Taylor, Alfred Weedon, A. K. Broom, Capt. A. A. Taylor, J. C. Carver, and H. F. McDonald, supported by a strong coterie of the best ladies of the town. The public was entertained once or twice a week with a good performance for the sum of ten cents. Money accumulated slowly but surely, and the property man reported an accumula- tion of over four hundred dollars in paraphernalia, pictures, etc. But, alas, the dread fire fiend in the dead hours of the night stole upon us, and reduced the amphitheater to ashes. For six long years the movement lay dormant, until the monumental association again arose, Phoenix-like, and applied to the Legislature for a special act authorizing the county commissioners to levy a tax in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. The bill was pushed through the House by the Hon. W. L. Simpson, and Hon. J. E. Hurst did not let it stick in the Senate. The county commissioners acted promptly un- der its provisions and appointed three members of a building committee and the monumental trustees appointed three, as was also provided for in the act."
The building committee are, in addition to Milton Turner, president ; I. A. Oldham, secretary; A. A. Taylor, treasurer; J. O. McIlyar, A. K. Broom and Thomas Smith, and their names are carved on the monument in the rear of the figure of the cavalryman, underneath the "Erected by the Monumental Association and Commissioners of Guernsey County, 1903."
In the midst of the reading by Mr. Turner, the monument was unveiled by himself and little granddaughter, Ruth McMahon, amidst the plaudits of the people. There was a hitch in the proceeding, but the veil yielded to some stout pulling, and the Glee Club 'sang the "Soldiers' Chorus."
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The response of the county commissioners accepting the monument was by H. W. Luccock, in his usual neat and eloquent manner. There fol- lowed a beautiful medley of national airs by the band, after which Gen. R. B. Brown, of Zanesville, made an impressive address. After further singing and music by the band and drum corps, there was a recess until two o'clock. The following is a brief account of the afternoon exercises :
Hon. Ralph D. Cole, of Findlay, the star orator of the last two Legisla- tures, made the oration of the afternoon. Senator Hurst telegraphed from New Philadelphia that he could not come. Freeman T. Eagleson was in- troduced by Mr. Turner as the next representative from Guernsey county. This sentiment, as well as his magnificent speech, was cheered to the echo. There followed speeches by Hon. W. L. Simpson, John L. Locke, and, in closing, Editor D. D. Taylor made an address. After more music, and a few remarks by Chairman Turner, Rev. Pope pronounced the benediction.
SOLDIERS' GRAVES.
(From Colonel Sarchet's Writings.)
The soldiers buried in the old graveyard, as near as we can now remem- ber, are : Of the Revolutionary war, Capt. Thomas Cook, Capt. James Jack, Thomas Lawrence, John Linn, Robert Moffett, Christopher Donover, Sr., and Robert Chambers; of the war of 1812, Maj. James Dunlap, Capt. James Harding, Capt. Cyrus P. Beatty, Lieut. Wyatt Hutchison, Lieut. David Burt, Privates John Hutchison, James Turner, Andrew McConehay, Andrew Mar- shall, James Kelley, Joseph Lofland, William Talbott, Rodney Talbott, Peter Stears, Peter Torode, John Bollen, John McKee, James Thomas and Christo- pher Donover, Jr., and of the Mexican war; John Clark.
Joseph Lofland was a soldier in the regiment of Col. Jonathan Meigs and was with the army of the Northwest when it was surrendered to the British at Detroit by Gen. Joseph Hull.
From the number of names we have given as buried in the old graveyard, which is perhaps imperfect, it will be seen that that neglected two acres con- tain as many soldiers' graves in proportion to area as does the city cemetery. It is a graveyard filled with the graves of heroes, heroes of the wars that gave liberty to the struggling colonies and the heroes who endured all the dan- gers incident to the pioneer settlement ; heroes all; let the dust of their shrines be the Mecca of the future city of Cambridge.
And besides the soldiers we have named there are buried in it: John Ferguson, one of the Irish Rebels of 1790; Francis Donsouchett, a soldier
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of the French army of the First Napoleon, and all of the pioneer settlers, the Gombers, Beattys, Sarchets, Tingles, Hollers, Bichards, Lenfestys, Hu- berts, McClenahans, Talbotts, Bells, Hutchinsons, Halleys, Stewarts and others.
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.
The Grand Army of the Republic, which was formed all over the Northern states a few years after the Civil war, was early in the field in Guernsey county, and had various posts organized, but with the passing of these more than forty-five years since that conflict closed, the soldiers have died in such great numbers that only a few posts are in existence today, and the most of the fraternal interest is now centered at Cambridge, where the Cambridge Post was formed in the late seventies, went down and was reorganized in February, 1884, as Post No. 343. It now has a membership of about one hundred and fifty, but of this number only ninety-seven are in good standing.
The 1910 officers are: Commander, Alfred Weeden; senior vice-com- mander, D. T. Jeffries ; junior vice-commander, George H. Stottlemire; chap- lain, Dr. F. A. Brown; quartermaster, D. W. Nossett; surgeon, Stewart Harris; officer of the day, Joseph McGill; officer of the guard, James Al- baugh; adjutant, John Hamilton; quartermaster sergeant, C. F. Camp; sergeant-major, William Priaulx.
The past commanders include these: Charles L. Campbell, Hugh Mc- Donald, A. A. Taylor, Alfred Weeden, Henry Coffman, Robert Hammond, W. H. C. Hanna, J. C. Carver, R. H. Dilley, D. T. Jeffries and B. S. Herring. The deceased of this number are Messrs. Taylor, Coffman, Ham- mond and Herring.
At the old Cambridge cemetery there is a soldiers' square in which the annual Memorial services are held. In 1905 the Woman's Relief Corps caused to be erected a handsome monument dedicated to the "Unknown Dead." It is about twenty feet in height and properly inscribed.
William Reed was one of the soldiers from Guernsey county who par- ticipated in the famous battle on Lake Erie, in which Commodore Perry was hero, and in the fine oil painting of that lake engagement, now gracing the rotunda of the State House, at Columbus, the figure of the man manfully plying an oar, while his face was tied up with a handkerchief, with blood running down over him, is none other than this man, William Reed, of this county.
CHAPTER VIII.
EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTY.
Guernsey, in common with almost every county in Ohio, from the earliest settlement, sought to provide good schools, both of a private and public character. Liberality has been the rule from the days when lands were given for such purpose, even to the present time, when none but mod- ern buildings and the best of instructors are furnished to the people, cost what it does, and the taxpayers, as a rule, are not complainers of the amount of money thus expended.
Up to 1836, when the public school system was enacted by the Ohio Legislature, there had been no regular educational system, or regular public school building erected within the county. Private schools were taught in the various settlements. Anybody who desired to teach school got up a subscription paper proposing to teach a school for thirteen weeks, and the branches taught were the alphabet, spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. There were eight school districts formed before Cambridge was set off as No. 9 in 1836. The first school taught in the town, however, was in the winter of 1809-10, by John Beatty, a Virginian, and the brother of Zac- cheus Beatty, one of the town's founders.
The author of this work wrote the following concerning the first free school in Cambridge, for the columns of the Herald, in the autumn of 1902, and the same is the best authority now at hand on this subject :
FIRST FREE SCHOOL IN CAMBRIDGE.
Professor John McBurney handed to us an article of agreement, dated February 25, 1833, between Joseph Bute, John B. Thompson and John Hersh, Jr., directors of school district No. 7, in Cambridge township, Guern- sey county, Ohio, of one part, and Andrew Magee, teacher, of the other part, to-wit :
"The said directors agree to employ Andrew Magee, teacher of a com- mon school, in said district, for a period of three months, commencing the first day of February, and ending on the 12th day of May, free for all chil-
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dren between the ages of four and twenty-one years, agreeable to the thirty- fourth section of the Ohio school law, passed March 2, 1831, and in con- sideration of his services as teacher, they do hereby engage to pay over to said teacher, at the close of such quarter, the sum of seventy-five dollars, out of the school funds belonging to said district. And the said Andrew Magee agrees with the directors that he will teach the several branches of an English education specified in the certificate of qualification granted by the board of school examiners of Guernsey county, according to the best of his abilities-to keep the same open for school exercises from eight to twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and from one to four o'clock on the after- noon of each day of the week, Saturday afternoon excepted, from the twelfth day of February to the first day of April next, and from eight to twelve o'clock in forenoon, and from half-past one o'clock to five o'clock in the afternoon of each day thereafter, to provide at his costs for use of said school, the room, desks and fuel necessary, and moreover to use all reason- able diligence and attention toward the improvement of those attending school."
School district No. 7 comprised all of the town of Cambridge west of the public square, extending north to Wills creek, and west and north of the National road to the Adams township line. Moses Sarchet was the clerk of the district, and Ebenezer Smith treasurer. At that time Joseph Bute resided in the old David Burt house, which covered the front of the lot now occupied by the Burgess, Schaser and Zanhiser properties. John B. Thompson resided in a small frame house on the lot now occupied by the Hutchison block. Jolın Hersh was then editor and proprietor of the Guernsey Times, and resided in a frame house, corner of Steubenville avenue and Seventh street, on the lot now the residences of Dr. C. A. Moore and Rev. Dr. Milli- gan. The Guernsey Times office was in a small frame house on the same lot. The school was in the old Masonic building on North Seventh street. Moses Sarchet resided in the Burgess house, corner of North Eighth street and Steubenville avenue, and Ebenezer Smith resided on North Sixth street, in what was known as the Hersh house, and later the site of the Gooderl house.
This quarter of three months' free school was the first altogether free school in Cambridge township, and at the same time there was a school in District No. 6, which comprised the east of the township for a considerable distance east. At all the schools, heretofore, the state school fund was ap- plied for the payment of teachers, but was not sufficient, and the residue was made up by levying a percentage on each scholar in attendance, which had to be collected by the teacher.
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The paper on which the article of agreement is written is well preserved, and should be kept in the school library, as a record of the first free school in Cambridge. The writer was a scholar in the school taught by Andrew Magee, and twenty-two years later was married by Rev. Andrew Magee, so that with him he began a school life and matrimonial life.
OUR SCHOOLS.
Continuing, the same writer says of the schools in general :
Charles Marquand in early days taught a school in a house on the Kirk- patrick lot, on Wheeling avenue and South Ninth street. He was a good scholar and a first-class penman. Some of the scholars of this school after- ward filled some of the county offices. One of these, Jacob G. Metcalf, was an ambidexter, writing a good legible hand, as the records of the county will show. Judge Joseph D. Tingle and Moses Sarchet, Esq., were, per- haps. the last living scholars of the Campbell school. Mrs. Nancy B. Noble, Mrs. Nancy B. Albright, Mrs. Samuel H. Oldham and Mrs. Margaret Thompson were scholars of the Marquand school. These schools were all subscription schools. After these, there was a school taught by John W. Kipp, in a part of the Ogier house on Wheeling avenue. This school was party paid by the state school funds and partly by assessment per scholar. Kipp was the compiler of a spelling book, called "Kipp's Speller." This book and tuition could be paid for in trade : bees-wax. gentian, furs and snake root were regarded as cash, and were the staple articles at that time. A file of the first volume of the Guernsey Times, 1824, will show an advertisement of the "Cambridge Academy," William Sedgwick, teacher. This academy was located on the brow of the hill on the Harris lot, Wheeling avenue, in a small frame building. An eccentric old German, Elias Entz, had a saddle and harness shop in the front room, and the academy was in the rear. Entz was a teacher, as well as Sedgwick, and while Sedgwick, in the rear, was teaching the young idea how to shoot, Entz, in the front, was teaching the ravens how to talk, and notably one "Bony." whose fame as a talker was known from east to west along the old Wheeling road, afterward the National road. It may be that this academy was of great advantage to "Bony," and that his ravenship when on his perch in the saddler-shop gathered in the A B C's and I O U's as the groundwork for his afterward successful raven scholar- ship. "Bony," when out on his perch in front of the shop, would help the teamsters drive up the hill by clucking. "Get up there." "Whoa haw," "Go
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up." etc. He would whistle up the dogs, and then cry, "Go home, you whelps." He would cry out to pedestrians, "Stop!" and then laugh at their surprise. And while all this was going on, the old German would be stitching away, enjoying the fun as prompter behind the scenes.
In 1825 the Legislature passed a law requiring a tax to be levied for the support of schools. But it was eight or ten years after before even this fund came to be available for the payment of teachers, and then for not more than three or four months during the winter season. As we have said. the Kipp school had the advantage of this fund, but the law then only granted the power to levy, and levies were only made by the school boards to afford a sum for the part payment of teachers, leaving the parents who were con- sidered able to make up the balance. William Sedgwick was one of the early Baptist ministers of this section of Ohio, and often preached in Cam- bridge, and at the time of his academy taught a Bible-reading school on Sun- day in the grand jury room of the old court house, which was attended by old and young of all denominations, and as these were the days of contro- versy, as to election and reprobation, sprinkling and dipping, there were often some very spirited and angry discussions.
The first altogether free school began, within the knowledge of the writer, about the year 1834-35. Andrew Magee, afterward a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church in the Pittsburg conference, was the first teacher. This school was in the lower room of the old Freemason lodge, now a part of the McConehey building on North Seventh street. The floor was of brick, and the benches were of the primitive style, slabs with pins for support, and the desks for writing were rough boards pinned up around the wall on one side, at which those who were advanced to writing took turns. The teacher meanwhile mended the goose-quill pens, and set the copies, "Command you may your mind from play, every moment of the day." The ink, often made out of polkberry juice or copperas, was hung to the wall in a bottle. The day of ink-stands was not yet. The boy or girl who had a slate, or a real slate pencil, belonged to the "upper ten" of that day, and even the boy who had a piece of slate handed down from away back, and a soap- stone pencil, was a subject of some envy by those who had only a multipli- cation table roughly prepared on a piece of paper. This was the first step toward the slate, and when the slate came, how soon the average boy or girl became an artist, and horses, dogs, houses and kites often took the place of figures and brought to the back of the busy artist the ever-indispensable hickory, for it was by might and power the master reigned, his right no one to dispute.
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Prior to 1838, Richard Hatton taught several terms of three months' school. In the winter of 1837 or 1838 the town was divided, and there were two free schools, called the up-town and down-town. The down-town school was taught by a Mr. Lowry ; the up-town by an Irishman, William Latimore. At Christmas came the bar-out; this custom followed the free school. The day before. Christmas the terms of the treat, usually gingerbread, cider and apples, were written out and laid before the teacher for his approval or re- jection. If rejected, the next morning found the schoolroom in possession of the larger boys, the doors and windows well barricaded, and supplies of fuel and provisions laid up for a long siege. The demand to open the door by the teacher or directors was answered by a demand to sign the protocol. Sometimes the teacher succeeded in entering the house, and subduing the rebellion, but most generally the boys succeeded in holding the house until the besiegers surrendered. This was reversing the order of warfare; but sometimes some moat or breastwork was left poorly guarded, and a daring sally forced through an entrance, and the fort was taken and the boys led away to be beaten afterward with many stripes, and the little fellows on the outside, whose mouths had been watering for gingerbread and cider, looked on with hope deferred to some other day. On the day before Christmas, Lowry, whose school was in the basement of the old Methodist Protestant church, found the door barricaded and the boys in possession. He had re- fused to agree to the terms. He soon found an unprotected point, by an entrance through a trap door, from the church above, which he opened and bounded down into the room, and demanded surrender in terms as imperious as old Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, when he demanded the surrender of the fort in the name of the "Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," but the besieged didn't surrender. They pounced onto Lowry, and, opening the door, took him down the hill, overlooking the stone quarry, and, taking him by the arms and legs, they proposed to swing him over, counting "one, two, three," "and then, if no cry of surrender was heard, to let him flicker, but he cried "Cavy." The school was resumed, and the gingerbread, cider and apples passed around. At the up-town school, the old Irishman, Latimore, met with the same resistance. This school was in a log cabin that stood on the Milner lot, Wheeling avenue. Latimore soon decided that he would scale the fort and smoke the boys out. He got a ladder, and was soon on the roof, covering the chimney with clapboards off the roof. The boys did not long stand the smoke within, but bounded out and secured the ladder before Latimore could get to it, and they had him treed. After they had marched around less than seven times, he demanded that he be let down and he would
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