History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 44

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826

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In 1802, a Presbyterian minister, named Mc- Donald, came along and preached two sermons to the settlers in the Licking valley. In 1803, Rev. John Wright, also a Presbyterian preacher, de- livered two sermons in Newark. Thomas Marquis, another Presbyterian minister, gave the people of Raccoon valley a sermon or two during this year. During the autumn of this year, Rev. Asa Shinn, of the Methodist church, commenced preaching, ' as an itinerant minister, at Benjamin Green's, in

the Hog Run settlement, and before his year closed he there organized a society, or church, and that was the original, or pioneer church organiza- tion in the county. He, probably, sometimess preached in Newark also; certainly his successor on the circuit, Revs. James Quinn and John Meeks, did, and also formed a small church organization as early as 1805, which was the second in our county. The Congregational church of Granville, organized before the Granville colony left New England, was the third religious society of Licking county, and the Methodist society, organized in 1806, or a little later, near the Bow- ling Green, was, probably, the fourth. A Metho- dist society, near the eastern borders of this county, organized about the same time, and often ministered to by the Rev. Joseph Thrap, was most likely the next in order and the fifth in number. The Welsh Hills Baptist church was organized September 4, 1808, and was the sixth and next in order. In the autumn of the same year the First Presbyterian church of Newark was organized, and was the seventh in order, in the county, although there may have been a Methodist church organized earlier in the South Fork valley.

The Revs. Joseph Williams and James Axley were itinerating Methodist ministers in 1805. Rev. Peter Cartwright preached to the Methodist societies in 1806, as did also Rev. John Emmett. Rev. James Scott, a Presbyterian minister, also preached in Newark during this year. Rev. James Hoge, of the same denomination, visited and preached to the people of Granville during the year, as did also Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, of the Congregational church, and Rev. David Jones, of the Baptist church. In 1807, Revs. Joseph Hayes and James King were the itinerant ministers who ministered regularly to the Methodist churches hereabouts. Sometimes, too, Revs. Jesse Stone- man and Robert Manly ministered to them, as did also Rev. Levi Shinn. In 1808 the Revs. Ralph Lotspeitch and Isaac Quinn were the regular Methodist preachers. Elder James Sutton and Mr. Steadman appeared as Baptist ministers. Rev. Timothy Harris, a Congregational minister, took charge of the church in Granville this year and continued his ministration until 1822. His ordination there was conducted by Revs. Lyman

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Potter, Stephen Lindley, Jacob Lindley, John Wright and James Scott. In 1809 Revs. Ben- jamin Lakin, and John Johnson were the Metho- dist itinerants. Revs. Thomas Powell and John W. Patterson (Baptists), commenced their min- isterial services in Licking county. In 1810 the latter took charge of the Welsh Hills church, and in the next year of the Hog Run church, also. Rev. James B. Finley was the Methodist itinerant of the year 1810.

The following table exhibits the number, location and denomination of the churches at present in the county, the number of Christian societies, re- presented by one or more church buildings, being twenty-seven, twelve of them having each only one edifice, the others being divided among the re- maining fifteen denominations, forty being the highest number owned by any one, that being the Episcopal Methodist :

Rank in Numbers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27|

ing county, Ohio.

cation of Church edifices in Lick-

Number, denomination and lo-

Episcopal Methodist.

Baptist. .

Presbyterian. .

United Brethren.

Christian.

Disciples.

~ | Protestant Methodist.

Christian Union.

Lutheran (English)

Congregationalist.

Calvinistic Methodist (Welsh)

Universalist .

Catholic .

Protestant Episcopal ..

| United Presbyterian. . German Presbyterian. . Wesleyan Methodist. Welsh Congregationalist .

African E. Methodist.

Swedenborgian .

German Lutheran-

Reformed (German).

Free-will Baptist.

Reformed Presbyterian.

German Methodist.

Second Advent

No. of Churches in each Township.

TOWNSHIPS.

No. I. Bennington.

2. Bowling Green

3. Burlington.

4. Eden

5. Etna.

6. Fallsbury

7. Franklin.

9. Hanover.

IO. Hartford

JI. Harrison

12. Hopewell.

16. Lima. .

17. Mary Ann

18. Mckean

19. Monroe

20. Madison

21. Newark

22. Newton ..

23. Perry.

24. St. Albans.

Total

140 19 13 10

9 7 5 5 443 3 2

22IIIIIIIIIII I 140

The total valuation of church edifices in the county is three hundred thousand dollars, and they are supposed to furnish sittings for more than twenty thousand persons.

The Methodists were the first denomination to organize, being in 1804; the Congregationalists were the second, being in 1805; the Baptists and Presbyterians the next, being in 1808; the Cove-

nanters organized in 1813; the Lutherans in 1817. The others afterwards. .

There are at present within the county limits twenty-five miles of turnpike, being the National road running across the southern part of the county: and about the same number of miles of canal; both of these great internal improvements being built

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6 6 3 4 5 4 3

6 5

3 8

14. Liberty

15. Licking.

25. Union. .

26. Washington.

. .

8. Granville

13. Jersey.

. .

Albright.

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

between the years 1825 and 1835. There are at present about one hundred miles of railroad in the county, as follows: Straitsville division of the Baltimore and Ohio road, ten miles; Central Ohio division of Baltimore and Ohio road, thirty-two miles; Northern division of same, thirteen miles; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis, twelve miles; and the Ohio Central road (the new road not yet completed, passing through Granville), about thirty miles.

A most extraordinary political excitement perva- ded Licking county, as well as the country at large, during the year 1840-the year of "the log-cabin- hard-cider-and-coon-skin campaign." As indicated, it was not a local but a general tornado raging with more or less fury, in all the States of the American Union, but in none of them was the hurricane wilder than in Ohio, and in no locality did it raeg more furiously than in "Old Licking." The peo- ple were wont to meet in immense crowds, and became intensely excited under the declamatory harangues of wranglers, demagogues and stump orators. The inflammatory appeals of the party press of the country, addressed to the passions, superadded to the fanatical and exciting speeches of the heated partisans, and candidates for public offices, roused the people as they had never been roused before, and worked them up to fever heat, producing a state of wild delirium among them, hitherto unparalleled in the history of the country and never afterwards approached in infuriated fanaticism. The stormy passions of the masses were lashed into uncontrollable fury; often dis- played an intensity of feeling wholly unknown be- fore, and manifested a degree of extravagance and wildness in the discussion of political questions that was a marvel to the few sober-minded men of both parties, that remained in a measure unaffected in the midst of the frenzy that had seized upon the multitudes. These abnormal manifestations char- acterized one portion of the people, while the other portion, little, if any less excited or delirious, erected their lofty hickory poles, surmounted them with huge hickory brooms, and displayed the living rooster in various ways and in every conceivable manner, as the representative of antagonism to the coon, while their speeches about equaled in defam-

ation of character the ribaldry of the doggerels sung by the former. And all this frantic madness resulted from the determination of the party of the first part, to prevent the re-election of Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson, and substitute for them General William H. Harrison and John Tyler-this and nothing more. The question was, shall we elect General Harrison or Martin Van Buren President? Licking county decided by about two hundred majority in favor of the latter. The great gathering of the clans during the year was in Newark, on the fourth of July, Thomas Corwin being the Whig orator of the occasion, and John Brough the Democratic. Sam. White and Joshua Mathiot were the chief local orators of the former, and B. B. Taylor and James Parker of the latter.

The delirium manifested itself in the oft-repeated gathering together by the populace, in immense meetings, at distances so remote as to necessitate an absence of a number of days, to the partial neglect of their usual avocations. The further ir- rational manifestations of the excited crowds while going to and returning from those monster meetings, as well as while present at them, con- sisted of singing songs and rolling balls-of rid- ing from place to place in canoes on wheels, and of hauling with oxen or horses, from town to town, miniature log cabins, erected upon wheels partially covered with coon-skins (the ridge-pole of the roof being generally embellished with one or more live coons), and to whose corners were clinging, by way of adornment, full grown states- men, nibbling at corn-dodgers or sections of john- ny-cake and sipping at a gourd of hard cider, and at intervals singing, on the highest attainable key, doggerel songs in the interest of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." A few of the trades and industries and arts were also represented in miniature, on wheels, at the great conventions, and temporarily operated, sometimes while in motion. Some large log cabins, built of heavy logs, and furnished with buckeye chairs, were built in which to hold neigh- borhood meetings, and in front of which the trunk of the largest accessible buckeye tree was erected, surmounted with a cider-barrel and a gourd at- tached. One of these log cabins, with the usual adjuncts, was erected in Newark and used for

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

. many months for the practice of the oratory, the eloquence, the minstrelsy peculiar to that year.

The Whig victory of 1840 was, in the opinion of its leaders, a crushing blow to the Democracy. So badly was the party defeated that it was doubtful if it ever again could rally, "unless with a change of name or a change of principles." During the ad- ministration under Van Buren, the country was plunged into one of its financial crises-its curren- cy ten, fifteen, and sometimes twenty-five per cent. below par, and the laboring man had his wages cut down almost to a starving point. In May, 1837, less than three months after the administration commenced, every bank in the United States, with few exceptions, suspended specie payments, and refused to redeem its wild-cat issues of notes. Had the President been firm the banks would not have had the vantage ground. But the treasure of the people was locked up in bank vaults-the govern- ment had nothing with which to pay its debts or its current expenses, and President Van Buren called Congress together in extraordinary session. Then the banks were masters of the situation, and the President had a stormy four years of office.

General Harrison, who four years before had but seventy-three electoral votes for President, against one hundred and seventy-six for Van Buren, at the election of 1840 had two hundred and thirty-four electoral votes to sixty for Van Buren.

The popular vote for Harrison and Tyler showed almost as overwheming a majority as that of the Electoral colleges. The leading and more think- ing men of the party who achieved this unprece- dented triumph were afraid they had an elephant on their hands that they could not manage. But the men who voted to make times better, who were promised "two dollars a day and roast beef" if Harrison was elected, and but "six and one- fourth cents a day and a sheep's pluck" under Van Buren, were jubilant. They demanded a universal rejoicing-a day of jubilee for the salvation of the country. In many places they did rejoice with bonfires, illuminations, the firing of cannon, and with other demonstrations of joy. In Newark the rejoicing was to be one that would astonish the natives, and it did astonish them-to be an illu- mination of the whole country, as far as the town could be seen, by a unique bonfire, and it was a

unique one. Around the public square, in the center of the town, on each of the four streets, they planted innumerable barrels of tar, digging holes so as to cover one-third or one-half of the barrel. The heads were knocked in, and shavings and pieces of dry wood, all well smeared with tar, were placed on top. The whole county was ad- vised of the grand event to come off on a particu- lar night, which, after consulting the almanac, they found would be a dark one, without any moon. From all the country round-in wagons and bug- gies, on foot and on horseback-came the de- lighted Whigs, brimful of joy and expected satis- faction.

The night was an excellent one to show off a bright light, for the almanac was correct-there was no moon. The fire was applied to the shavings, and soon a bright blaze of fire was around the square; the jubilant Whigs cheered, and all seemed happy. But their joy was transient. As soon as the shavings and light wood burned down to the tar the light was absorbed by a suffocating smoke, and the square and the whole town were enveloped in it. Efforts were made to rekindle the tar by the addition of more fuel, but as the pine wood and shavings burned out the smoke be- came greater than ever. The Whigs were crest- fallen; the Democrats who ventured out were elated. As if by a sudden impulse, every sup- porter of Van Buren that owned or could borrow a lantern of any kind put a lighted tallow candle in and went out to see what they called the "gloomination." The fires had to be extinguished, and for days the smell of tar was in and around the town of Newark. The Whigs were the worst- bored men ever seen in that region. The mere mention of the grand illumination acted as quickly as the sight of a red shawl does on a mad bull, exciting them to rage. But in the end the tables were turned, the biters were bitten.

The death of General Harrison, after being president one month, devolved the executive office on Vice-President Tyler. He was made the scape- goat for the violated promises of good times which came not.

Ohio in 1840 elected Thomas Corwin over Shannon for governor, by a clear majority of over sixteen thousand votes, an immense majority in

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

that day when the vote of Ohio was much less than half that which is now annually given.

In 1842 the same candidates for governor were again in the field, and Shannon beat Corwin by a plurality of nearly two thousand, and the Dem- ocracy from, what Governor Wood called, "be -· nighted Ashtabula to intelligent Hamilton county," were uproariously happy. During the contest they worked to "right the wrongs of 1840 in 1842," and to their great surprise they were successful. Remembering the faux pas of the Whigs two years before, in their celebration at Newark, when their illumination was but a "gloomination," the Lick- ing county Democracy declared their intention of showing the silly Whigs how to do the thing right.

In the same public square the Democratic leaders had collected a large quantity of dry elm logs, from ten to fifteen feet long. These they had split in long strips. Procuring the longest pole they could get, they fastened a couple of slips of light timber at a distance from the bottom suffi- cient to allow the pyramid of elm sticks to reach it. Above they had empty tar barrels around the pole, the lower end resting on the intended pyramid. The barrels, as they were put on the pole, were filled with shavings, straw, etc., all well saturated with tar and turpentine-and then the pole, thus decorated, was, with much difficulty, raised to a perpendicular and the end firmly secured in the ground. The pyramid of dry elm was then made by placing the upper end of the sticks against the cross-pieces at the foot of the barrels, with barrels, shavings, and other combustibles placed in its center and between the sticks, so as easily to be fired.

At the appointed hour, in the sight of thousands collected to see it, the mass was fired. Kike the evening of the Whig celebration, the night was a fine one. Not a breath of air was to be felt. In a few moments the fire found its way through the barrels, which acted as a chimney, and the flame shot upward, as a pillar of fire by night, until it almost seemed to reach the heavens. But the best laid plans "o' mice and men gang aft aglee." Just as it reached the highest point a breeze struck it, and the column of fire seemed gently to bend, until it finally wrapped the cupola of the court house, then one of the most costly in the State.

A panic swayed the crowd; for a moment men stood aghast, and a rush was made. The pyramid was torn down, and the pole with the barrels on it was promptly razed. The court house was saved, and with it, perhaps, other buildings, and that ended the Democratic illumination by bon-fire. If the Whigs, two years before, were chagrined at their failure to illuminate, the Democrats were doubly so in 1842 at their success. The one al- most smothered the town in tar-smoke; the other came near burning down the town to make a light. Terms were finally made between the parties. Each was to ignore in speech any mention of the ill-success of the other.

This manner of conducting a presidential cam- paign continued many years after 1840, though, perhaps, few were characterized with such intense excitement, bitterness of feeling and universal inter- est. Even yet the people are much given to bonfires and processions, cannon, music, pole-rais- ing, etc., in the conduct of political campaigns; but it would seem as if they were growing less conservative in this respect, and more and more inclined to listen to speech-making, and to indulge in the quiet reading of newspapers, and the form- ing of their opinions in less demonstrative and a more sober and sensible manner. The campaigns are being conducted more and more on the principle of appeal to the judgment and higher intellectual faculties, rather than the passions and prejudices.

The advance in mail facilities, and the increase in post offices from time to time, well illustrates the growth of the county. During the first five years after the first settlement of the county, Zanesville was the nearest post office. Newark was then made a post town, and some years thereafter a post office was established in Granville. A post office was established in Utica about the year 1815. A weekly mail, carried on horseback, supplied these offices. A post office was established in Hanover at Chester Wells, and another between Newark and Utica, called Newton Mills. These were the princi- pal offices before 1825, except those at Johnstown, Vandorn's, and Homer, numbering eight in all, which were chiefly supplied by the two mail routes, one crossing the county east and west, the other

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

north and south, run by two-horse, and sometimes four-horse stages, twice a week. After 1828 came the ponderous, fast-going four-horse coach, running daily at about seven miles per hour. Afterwards came the packets, and the pony express-now the principal mails are carried daily or several times a day, in railroad cars moving at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The post offices now number thirty- five in all, there being one or more in almost every township of the county, so that probably not a man in Licking county lives more than five miles from a post office.

The prominent men of the county are thus men- tioned by Hon. Isaac Smucker in his Centennial history; he forgets, in his modesty, to place his own honored name in the list:

" It may not be amiss to give the names of some of those who commenced their career here during the first half and finished it during the last half of the century. Conspicuous among this class were Captain Bradley Buckingham, David Moore, Isaac Stadden, Colonel Robert Davidson, Rees Darlington, Benjamin Briggs, Major John Stewart, Colonel W. W. Gault, John Cun- ningham, esq., Stephen McDougal, Sereno Wright, Major Elisha Warren, Judge Bancroft, William Hull, John Van Bus- kirk, Captain Samuel Elliott, William Gavitt, Captain Willard Warner, James Gillespie, James Holmes, Colonel William Spencer, Richard Lamson, Peter Schmucker, Amos H. Caffee and many others.

"To give a measure of completeness to this Centennial his- tory of Licking county, I beg leave also to bring to notice some of the gentlemen who have most conspicuously identified them- selves with our county during the latter half only of the Centen- nial period now closing. Prominent among the list given under this head are Jonathan Taylor, Joshua Mathiot and Daniel Duncan, who were all elected to Congress, as well as to other positions of honor and responsibility. Another trio of this class consisted of Israel Dille, Dr. J. N. Wilson and Lucius Case, all men of intelligence, extensive information and talents, who were largely influential in giving direction to public senti- ment. They were original thinkers, zealous investigators, en- thusiastic students. The two first named pushed their investiga- tions in the direction of philosophy and the natural sciences, with diligence and a good degree of success. The tastes of the latter led him to the study of jurisprudence and political economy; hence he became prominent as a lawyer, and as an active and influential debater in the Constitutional convention of 1851-52. Conspicuous also among our latter-half-century_ men was he who was familiarly called Sam. White. He was an influential legislator for a time, and moreover attained to the highest reputation among us as a popular orator, and an un- faltering friend of freedom! Colonel B. B. Taylor, too, for a brief time as senator and political orator, filled a large space in the public eye. James Parker and James R. Stanberry also obtained distinction as public speakers, not only at the bar and before political assemblies, but also as grave and dignified

senators. Among others of our modern legislators were Samo- D. King, George H. Flood, P. N. O'Bannon, Daniel Duncan. W. B. Woods, Charles Follett, Willard Warner, Dr. Walter B. Morris, R. B. Truman, George B. Smythe, John F. Folkett C. B. Giffin, William Parr, William Bell, J. B. Jones. J. W Owens, W. D. Smith and others, who exerted a degree of T- fluence as members of our State legislature.

"Among those of our citizens other than legislators who hnv 'done the State some service,' and acquired honorable distitx- tion in other departments of the public service, or in the line of their own chosen pursuits, are Presidents Pratt, Going, Ba- ley, Hall, and Talbott, of Denison university; Judges Searir Buckingham, Brumback, and Follett; W. D. Morgan, T. J Davis, M. M. Munson, L. B. Wing, A. B. Clark, Dr. J. R Black, T. J. Anderson, Colonel William Spencer, William P. Kerr, J. W. Webb, C. H. Kibler, Rev. Ebenezer Buckingham, Rev. Alexander Duncan, Dr. Edward Stanbery, Rev. H. M. Hervey, Rev. Isaac N. Walters, Dr. Daniel Marble, and many others that might be named, including the still living former residents of Licking county, Samuel Park, esq., of Illinois, a voluminous and widely known writer on various subjects; Dr. Z. C. McElroy, of Zanesville, a strong, vigorous and original thinker, and an extensive contributor to the best medical jour- nals of Europe and America; and Dr. T. B. Hood, of Wash- ington city, who made an honorable, widely extended, and wel known reputation for himself while in the service of the medical department during the late rebellion, as well as since the close of the war, as an author, to the performance of his duties in the surgeon general's department of the Government.

"And I also avail myself of this occasion to make mention of other gentlemen who were natives of Licking county or resi- dents of it in early life, that attained to a good degree of dirtinc- tion in other sections of our country, both in military and civil life. And first of those whose military services brought them prominently before the country I name General Samuel R. Cur- tis, General William S. Rosecrans, General Charles Griffin General B. W. Brice, General W. D. Hamilton, General Charles R. Woods, General Willard Warner, General William R. Woods. Of eminent civilians those whose names occur to me at this moment, were Horatio J. Harris, a senator in Ind- ana, and a United States district attorney in Mississippi; Ed Roye, who attained to the position of President of the Republic of Liberia; James F. Wilson, long a distinguished member of Congress from Iowa; James B. Howell, a United States Sen- ator from Iowa; General Willard Warner, a member of the United States Senate from Alabama; Hon. William B. Woods, a judge of the Federal courts in Louisiana and other southen States; and George H. Flood, American minister to the Repub- lic of Texas; "Johnny Clem," a favorite orderly of General Thomas and now an officer in the regular army, also acquired a national reputation as the youngest and smallest soldier in the Union army, as well as for gallant conduct. Colonel W. H. Hollister, too, has acquired wide-spread fame as one of the largest of American land-owners and stock raisers. He is a na- tive of Licking county, now a citizen of California. Thomas Jones, the sculptor, and Rev. Dr. Rosecrans, the popular RD man Catholic bishop, are also entitled to mention in this com- nection, the latter being a native, and the former a resident in early life, of Licking county. Mr. Jones has been a resident of Cincinnati for many years, and has a national reputation Bishop Rosecrans was an honored citizen of Columbus, what enjoyed the confidence of the entire community."

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 44

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr. Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages: 826

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826