USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 23
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William Marsh; on the square from Ninth street to the Orme Hardware Company building, south side Wheeling avenue, were the cabins of Thomas Lenfesty, Mrs. Hubert, Maria and Charles Marquand, and to the westward, across the alley, on the present J. M. Ogier lot, was the cabin of his grandfather, William Ogier. With the exception of three cabins, located on the north side of Wills creek, south of the present Pennsyl- vania railway depot, which were outside the original plat, the aforenamed buildings constituted the town of Cambridge at that time.
EARLY BUSINESS PROSPECTS.
The following, written in 1839, shows the business outlook of Cam- bridge at that date :
For some years past there has been quite a change in the business of this place. It is now no uncommon thing to see the streets thronged with horses and wagons, groaning under the loads of produce brought for the purpose of trading or for sale. There are seven stores in this place, which sell annually about fifty thousand dollars worth of goods, and it may not be out of place here to remark, that goods can be bought in Cambridge as cheap, at retail, as they can be purchased on the river Ohio or in the Atlantic cities. It will be discovered, by reference to our adver- tising columns, that they keep up their assortment-a stock amongst which can be found any article now in general use.
Besides the fertility of the soil, its peculiar adaptation to the raising of wheat and grazing cattle, the citizens of the valley of Wills creek have the good fortune to be blessed with salt wells in abundance, which article can be had here at half the price it sells for in other portions of the state.
Coals of an excellent kind can be found in all the hills which surround our place. The veins are generally from three to five feet, and the coal is easily and cheaply obtained by -mining.
Nor is Cambridge deficient in morals, nor unthankful for its great natural comforts and advantages. We have four churches, which are generally well filled on the day of rest. We have also an academy in quite a flourishing conidtion. Although it has been opened but a few months, yet thirty-five or forty students may be found within its walls- and lastly, though not least in point of consequence or usefulness, we have a public library, containing between seven and eight hundred volumes of well selected books.
The past dry summer-so dry, indeed, that the mighty Mississippi
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dwindled to a mere streamlet-convinced our citizens of the necessity of erecting a steam flouring mill. Three gentlemen have associated them- selves together for that purpose, and have already commenced opera- tions. It is contemplated to have sufficient power for carding, fulling, manufacturing jeans, sawing, etc. It is expected that this mill will be finished against the period water mills usually stop for want of their "peculiar element." The erection of this mill will not only be a great advantage and convenience to the citizens of the county generally, by creating an increased demand for wheat as well as regulating the price of that article, but it will, at the same time, vastly increase the business of this place-a place, we are inclined to think, that will ere long be of considerable commercial importance .- Guernsey Times, January, 1839.
THE OLD MARKET HOUSE.
At one of the sessions of the city council, an ordinance was intro- duced-whether passed or not is not remembered-for the submission to the electors of the city the question, whether bonds to the amount of five thousand dollars should be issued for the purpose of erecting a city market house. It may not be amiss to give a little of former market house history. At the June session of county commissioners in 1827 a grant was given the citizens of Cambridge to erect a market house on the public grounds anywhere south of the court house, so as not to obstruct the view of the court house from the main street. At the time there was no building of any kind on the Davis corner nor on the Central National Bank corner. The only buildings near the court house were the old log jail on the east, located partly on what is now East Eighth street, and a log house located on West Eighth street where the Brant- hoover and Johnson building is now located. The market house was located south of the jail and was partly on East Eighth street as now bounded. A reference to the original town plat will show that there were no streets marked through the public grounds. The street south of Main and south of the public grounds was called Market street. Why this first market house, built by the proprietors of the town and its citizens, was not located on Market street of the town plat, we have no means of knowing. The market house was built of brick, with pillars of brick on the sides, arched from pillar to pillar, with arched entrances at the south and north ends, and was in dimensions forty by twenty feet. The roof had a wide projection from the square of the building on either side.
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Between the pillars were the sale counters, and at the butchers' stalls were the cutting blocks and hanging racks. The stalls were rented to the butchers and regular country hucksters. There were regular market days, and the market was under the charge of a market master. On other than market days people from the country displayed what they had for sale at the market house by paying a small sum for the privilege. As Col. Z. A. Beatty was the largest stockholder, his son, John P. Beatty, was the market master, and as the Colonel was in the salt manufacturing business, he kept in the market house salt for sale by the barrel or less quantity, which was kept in a salt box.
For some years within the memory of the writer the market house was continued, but gradually it began to decline. The market house became a place for country people to hitch their horses in or to, and on the old court days the athletes practiced in it the hop, step and jump, and pitched quoits in it on rainy days. On the old general muster days of brigade, regiment and company muster, in and around it were sold cider, gingerbread, apples and watermelons, and occasional fights were mixed in between the sales, and strolling auctioneers used it to cry off their goods. Salt having been kept in it, the town cows and cattle that roamed the woods and commons and old George R. Tingle's and Old Harvey's sheep resorted there to lick the pillars and sleep at night. It became a public nuisance. The pillars were half licked away, and instead of the citizens going there to market, they went there of mornings for their cows. The McCracken brick, now the Davis corner, and the Thomas S. Beatty brick, now the Hanna corner, had been built, and the Shaffner brick, now the Central Bank corner, was in building when it was thought the market house nuisance ought to be abated, but how, was the question. It was private property, constructed by a grant from the commissioners. There was no town corporate authority. Some young men, most all of whom are now dead, proposed to give Bill McMurray, father of Osmond McMurray of this city, five dollars and stand between him and the law, if, some time late at night, he being engaged to haul cordwood to town with a four-horse team, and a big, broad-wheeled wagon, he would hub one of the pillars and pull the market house down. The opportune time, a rainy dark night, Bill passed by it, and hubbed the southwest pillar, cracked his long blacksnake whip, and away went the pillar and down came the market house, and Bill and his team went on the run up Main street faster than the street cars go today. Col. 7. A. Beatty was then living; he made some threats, but nothing
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was done. The village of Cambridge was a little later incorporated .- Cambridge Herald.
CAMBRIDGE POSTOFFICE.
A postoffice was established in Cambridge in 1807. The first post- master was Cyrus P. Beatty, and then Nicholas Saithache, and from early newspaper files it is discovered that the postmasters who served in Cam- bridge after 1825 were as follows: 1826, George Metcalf; 1832, Jacob Shaffner was postmaster up to about 1840, when the name of William M. Ferguson appears at the end of the list of advertised letters; 1841, came Isaac Mellyar; 1844, William Smith; 1845, R. Burns; 1851-53, James M. Smith : 1853, James O. Grimes ; 1851-53, James M. Smith : 1853, James O. Grimes.
The following is a complete list of the Cambridge postmasters, in the order in which they served, regardless of the years each served :
I. Cyrus P. Beatty (1807). IO. Francis Creighton.
2. Nicholas Saithache. II. Edwin R. Nyce.
3. Jacob Shaffner. 12. William McDonald.
4. William M. Ferguson. 13. C. L. Madison.
5. Isaiah McIlyar. 14. WV. H. H. Mellyar.
6. William Smith.
7. Robert Burns.
8. James M. Smith.
9. James O. Grimes.
15. James R. Barr.
16. Alpheus L. Stevens, present incumbent.
In one of the old newspaper files the following schedule of the early- day stage lines and mail service has been discovered. The mail left Bradshaw (now Fairview) en route to Zanesville, via Beymerstown (now Washington), a distance of forty-five miles, making it in fifteen and a half hours. It was a tri-weekly mail service, the mail being carried on horseback. Fairview was laid out as a town in 1814. The card shows: Mail going westward, leaves Bradshaw every Monday morning, Wednesdays and Fridays, at just half past three in the morning, and arrives at Cambridge at eleven-fifteen in the morning; at Oliver, by four in the afternoon, at Zanesville at seven in the evening. The item above mentioned in the newspaper file was the reproduction of an old crumpled- up paper wrapped up with some pills in a box, the same having been carefully laid away decades ago by some careful housewife of Guernsey county.
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From the author's pen in an article written for the Cambridge Jeffersonian, in October, 1906, the following was written concerning post- office matters in this city :
"The west side of the lot, not No. 22, but No. 21, was not built on till 1848. The postoffice had been down street for many years. After the election of Gen. Zachary Taylor, President, it was claimed by the uptown citizens that the postoffice should be removed toward them. Peter Ogier had built by the home of Thomas Scott, the father of T. W. Scott, of this city, a postoffice building on the northwest corner of the lot. It was one story and contained two rooms.
"After the inauguration of President Taylor, March 4, 1849, this building was ready for occupation by the Whig postmaster, William Smith, who was soon after appointed. James M. Smith, his brother, was his deputy. He was known as "lame Jimmy Smith." It was divided into two rooms; the outside or waiting room was large, and the room for the boxes and office matter was large enough for the postoffice busi- ness of that day. There were seats around the room for the accommoda- tion of persons waiting for the mails to be distributed.
"At that time there were two daily mails, carried by the stage- coaches on the old pike; one from the east in the forenoon and one from the west in the afternoon, that began soon after the opening of the old pike. Before that the mails on the Wheeling road were uncertain as to their arrival, and not always daily. There were regular tri-weekly mails from Steubenville, over the grade road, carried in stages, but in the winter the mails were carried on horseback.
"The postoffice was kept there during the Taylor and Fillmore administrations. Some years later, the present drug room, now being remodeled, was built. Dr. S. B. Clark had succeeded the Nattels, and the store was known, both the old and the new room, as the Ogier and Clark drug store, down to 1857, when Peter Ogier became sole proprietor, the name being Ogier's Drug Store. After his death, it was continued by his son, the late John M. Ogier."
The first postmaster in Cambridge, C. P. Beatty, made a letter-box himself and it has served in such capacity ever since, with additional fixtures as the times demanded them. The postal route was then from Wheeling to Zanesville, and was established about 1808. Letters were first carried by travelers passing through the country. The postal rate was high and was fixed according to the distance carried. If from Phila- delphia to Washington, it was twenty-five to thirty cents. The first .
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post-boy to carry mail from Cambridge to Zanesville was John Magiffen, who became a soldier in the war of 1812, and is buried in the old Cam- bridge cemetery.
A POSTOFFICE "PRIMARY" INCIDENT.
Cold primaries in April sometimes grow warm, and the exciting one in this city April 2d with the Republicans was not an entirely new thing in Cambridge, excepting, perhaps, as to the use of whisky, money, etc.
We now record the account of a Democratic one that took place more than three score years ago. In April, 1840, the Cambridge post- office became vacant by the resignation of Jacob Shaffner, a Democrat, and the following public call was issued:
PUBLIC MEETING.
"The citizens of Cambridge and vicinity are requested to meet at the court house on Monday evening, April 20th, for the purpose of advising on a suitable person to be recommended to fill the position of postmaster in this place.
"A general attendance is requested.
"MANY CITIZENS."
This meeting was organized by appointing Joseph Stoner chairman. He was the father of Mayor Jim Stoner, of Georgetown, and John Bute, who was secretary, was an uncle of Capt. J. B. Ferguson, of this city.
It was understood that the persons voted for should be Democrats and the ones receiving the greatest number of votes should be recom- mended for appointment. The chairman's hat, a large, white wool hat, was the ballot box. The Whigs turned out in force, being in the major- ity, and decided that they would vote for William Smith, a Whig, who was deputy postmaster. Chairman Stoner, thinking there was some trick being played by the Whigs, declared the polls closed, put on his hat, ballots and all, and adjourned the meeting. The votes were never counted. While the leading Democrats were trying to agree on a candi- date to again be voted for and recommended for appointment, old Billy Ferguson had been quietly working, through his brother John, an official in Washington City, and before the next voting time arrived, old Billy received the commission and took charge of the office. The abrupt closing of the polls by Chairman Stoner had the effect of securing the appointment of the very man the Democrats were most opposed to, and Stoner was accused of usurping authority in the interest of Ferguson.
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The Democratic wrangle succeeding this appointment, for fear Van Buren might be re-elected, did not cease until General Harrison was elected, and Isaac McIlyar, a Whig, was appointed to the office succeed- ing Ferguson.
The Cambridge office became a postal money order office in the month of December, 1871, and the money order business that month amounted to two thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three dollars.
The money order business for the month of October, 1910, was fifteen thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty-six cents, received on orders isued from this point, and four thousand, three hundred and seventeen dollars on orders paid out from this office.
Cambridge had a free delivery of mail in the winter of 1898-99. At first there were three carriers, but today there are seven.
The first rural route was started from Cambridge in 1900, and it has increased to ten in 1910. The routes average about twenty-four miles each and give the farming community excellent mail facilities, allowing them to receive their daily papers the same as though they resided in the city.
The postal savings bank system was inaugurated at Cambridge at the close of 1910.
The office has been in its present quarters thirteen years.
FIRST TELEGRAPH IN CAMBRIDGE.
"On Monday last an office of the National Telegraph Company was opened at this place, in the room over Nyce & Matthews' drug store, and James D. Hoge, of Zanesville, appointed operator. This will be a matter of great convenience to our citizens, and especially to our busi- ness men. For the information of our readers, we have procured from Mr. Hoge the following schedule of charges for telegraphing a dispatch of one to ten words, and the charge for each additional word:
"For ten words to Wheeling, twenty-five cents; Steubenville, Zanes- ville, Columbus, the same. From Cambridge to Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, thirty cents. To Louisville, forty cents; Baltimore, sixty-five cents; Philadelphia, seventy-five cents; New York, ninety cents; New Orleans, one dollar and eighty cents. Two cents per word for each word over ten."-From the Cambridge Times, 1854.
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GUERNSEY COUNTY, OIIIO.
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
Cambridge was incorporated in 1837 and had for its first officers: WV. W. Tracey, mayor; Moses Sarchet, recorder. This was for the "village" corporation. This continued until May 6, 1895, when the place had reached a population of five thousand, nine hundred and seventy- five and was then made a "city." The various mayors have served in the following order :
1838 J. M. Bell. 1840-Isaac McIlyar. 1875-Ross W. Anderson.
1841-Nathan Evans. 1878-1882-William M. Farrer.
1841-J. M. Bushfield. 1882-William Wharton.
1842-R. D. Solmon.
1842-J. M. Bushfield.
1885-1887-James E. Lawrence.
1844-1845-J. M. Bushfield. (No record to 1855.) 1890-1894-James R. Barr.
1855-1857-Nathan Evans. 1861-J. M. Bushfield.
1894-1896-J. C. Longsworth.
1897-1898-H. W. Luccock.
1898-1900-A. M. Baxter.
1900-1904-J. A. Smallwood.
1873-E. W. Mathews. 1904-1908-W. R. Bradford.
1874-E. W. Mathews.
1908-1911-R. M. Allison.
The city offices are now in leased rooms on the second floor of the Cambridge Building & Loan Company's block, on Wheeling avenue. They removed from the Burgess building to the present place in 1910; before that they were in the Taylor block for a number of years.
Since becoming a city the improvements have been many and of a modern city type. They are now over twelve miles of street paving and about twenty-five miles of sanitary sewers. The city now owns its water works system, constructed at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, with a stand-pipe pressure system. Bonds were issued for these works. and at present the city is about to enlarge its water works plant and secure more and better quality of pure water, the present supply coming from Wills creek.
The fire department is of the volunteer kind and is equipped with an old "steamer," many years in use, and a good hook and ladder equip- ment.
(17)
1874-Ross W. Anderson.
1883-1884-William Wharton.
1888-R. T. Scott.
1868-Moses Sarchet.
1872-Elza Turner.
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The streets are illuminated by arc lights furnished by the Midland Power and Light Company under a ten-year contract.
From the city extends out through the surrounding country the great National pike and other first-class macadamized roads.
The present officers of the city are as follows: Mayor, R. M. Alli- son ; clerk, C. L. Blackburn, who is an old and capable newspaper man; who is now serving his third term in this capacity; auditor, W. J. Hood; treasurer, W. W. Lawrence; solicitor, S. C. Carnes; director of service, E. W. Boden; superintendent of water works, J. I. Kidd; director of safety, J. E. Gregg; chief of fire department, C. C. Long; superintendent of cemeteries, Charles Campbell; chief of police, John A. Long; patrol- men, H. W. Merideth, John Middleton and J. W. Gilmore; Dr. W. T. Ramsey, health officer; city engineer, J. T. Fairchild. The city council is composed of the following: D. L. Rankin, president; J. B. Bratton, H. A. Forsythe and J. B. Clark, councilmen-at-large; T. W. Fowler, from first ward; M. Thorla, second ward; O. M. Bayless, third ward, and James B. Peters, fourth ward.
The corporation has its own jail, located in the rear of the city offices, and it is provided with four steel cells, making secure those who have to be incarcerated.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The early history of the library in Cambridge is best told by the following correspondence in the Jeffersonian in 1879, and in the Times in 1903:
We have on our table at this writing a copy of the "By-Laws of the Guernsey County Library and Reading Room," adopted March 3, 1832, and printed by John Hersh, Jr., Cambridge. The society was in- corporated by an act of Legislature, passed February II, 1832, as at- tested by W. B. Hubbard, speaker of the House, and William Doherty, speaker of the Senate. James M. Bell was president; Ebenezer Smith, treasurer ; and Moses Sarchet, secretary and librarian. At the close of the little pamphlet is given an "Alphabetical List of Stockholders, March 7th, 1832," which we copy in full as follows:
John M. Allison, James M. Bell, John P. Beatty, Thomas S. Beatty, Allen W. Beatty, David Burt, Sr., David Burt, Jr., John Chapman, Thomas Cooke, Henry Clark, Wyatt Hutchison, John Hersh, Jr., Lamech Hawley, Gordon Lofland, Samuel Lindsey, Rev. Daniel McLane, George
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Metcalf, William McCracken, Andrew Metcalf, Robert B. Moore, Thomas Miller, Robert J. McClary, Seneca Needham, Isaac Parrish, Ebenezer Smith, David Sarchet, Moses Sarchet, Peter B. Sarchet, Wil- liam W. Tracey, Rev. William Wallace, John Woodrow, Nicholas Bail- hache, Hamilton Robb, John Bogle, John Nicholson, Richard Clark, James B. Moore, John Baldridge, John Ferguson, Levi Rinehart, John B. Thompson, John Clark, Joseph Bute, Nathan Evans, Samuel Wilson, Andrew Magee, B. A. Albright, Samuel Fish, Ansel Briggs. Of the above list, but five persons are known to be living, Moses and David Sarchet, and James B. Moore, who reside here, Rev. Andrew Magee, who now lives at Prairie City, Illinois, and Rev. Hamilton Robb, ex- treasurer of this county, who, with his aged wife, resides at Mattoon, Illinois .- Jeffersonian, 1879. .
In the fall of 1898 at a dinner party given at the home of the late Hon. Joseph D. Taylor, the library movement was taked of, and Mrs. J. D. Taylor began the canvass. She secured one thousand eight hundred dollars, taking life memberships in the association at twenty-five dollars. The first meeting of the Cambridge Library Association was held Feb- ruary 23, 1899. in the room now ocupied by the library, and which was given free for five years by Hon. J. D. Taylor. At this meeting John M. Amos was made president for one year, and John L. Locke, Esq., secretary. The one thousand eight hundred dollars secured by life mem- berships was expended for books and furnishings. At the meeting of the association held in April, 1901, the Carnegie libraries were talked of, and a committee to communicate with him was appointed. As repre- sentatives of this committee, A. R. McCulloch, Esq., and Rev. W. H. Weir went to New York, and learned the terms upon which the building would be donated. It was steady work from that time on. First the school board,, then the council, agreed to make the necessary levy, amounting in all to one thousand eight hundred dollars a year to keep up the library.
Then there was a hitch in regard to the desired location on Steuben- ville avenue, just back of the court house. This property belonged to the county, and a special act of Legislature was required to empower the commissioners to give this site. All this done, Mr. McCulloch notified Mr. Carnegie, and he received answer from him on May 12, 1902, that eighteen thousand dollars had been deposited to the credit of the Cam- bridge Library Association. Plans were decided upon, and bids taken, none being within the limit. Then some changes were made, and on
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last Saturday evening the bids were opened and the contract awarded to C. W. Dowling, of Williamsburg, West Virginia, for seventeen thousand, six hundred and thirty-eight dollars. The building is to be completed by August 15, 1903 .- Times, 1903.
Before the building was completed it was found that the amount donated was not sufficient to complete it, and Mr. Carnegie was asked to give the balance, which amounted to five thousand dollars more, which he kindly consented to do, making his total gift twenty-three thousand dollars. The formal opening of the library took place Novem- ber 17, 1904, with appropriate ceremony.
The present number of volumes in this library is seven thousand, five hundred. Its present officers are: F. L. Rosmond, president ; John M. Arms, secretary; M. S. Burgess, treasurer; M. Grace Robins, librarian; Jessie Grimes, assistant librarian.
On the front of the building one of the two inscriptions reads "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free."
THE CITY CEMETERIES.
The first burying ground in Cambridge of a public nature was the one located overlooking the valley, and now almost within the heart of the city. Of its lots and as to some of the persons there buried the following letter in the local papers a few years ago by Colonel Sarchet, will inform the reader :
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