History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 38

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 38

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In the meanwhile, just as parties seemed to have settled down to a placid state of rontine existence, another disturbing element was brought into the political arena, and rapidly acquired a commanding influence. Anti-slavery sentiments were cherished by the adherents of

both parties, but, though cherished to a greater or less extent since the date of the Missouri Compromise, they had been kept in abeyance, and all political action based on them was strongly deprecated by all alike. But the specter would not down at such bidding. Soon after the founding of the Western Reserve Col- lege at Hudson, in 1828, the Ohio Observer was established as the organ of the Presbyterian Church, and brought its weekly discussions of colonization and emancipation before its numer- ous readers in this county. In 1833, Oberlin College was established in Lorain County, and its radical attitude in relation to the crime of slavery kindled the flame that faintly burned into a conflagration. An anti-slavery society, few in numbers but powerful in influence, was established in Medina about the same time. Among its members was Timothy Hudson, a man of considerable property, and popular throughout the county, who published a small paper devoted to the dissemination of auti- slavery literature. To the sum of these influ- ences should be added The Constitutionalist, the paper established by Judge Carpenter, which had taken advance grounds on the ques- tion of slavery from the very first. With such influences at work among a people of Puritanic convictions, it was impossible to keep the ques- tion in political subjection.

In the local campaigns of 1837 and 1838, there were evidences of a near uprisal of the anti-slavery sentiment, which finally came in 1839. At the Whig convention that year, a disposition was manifested on the part of some of the more conservative members of the party to rebuke the radical wing for their outspoken utterances. The challenge thus thrown down was readily accepted by the anti-slavery lead- ers, who declared in open convention, that no nominec of that body could be elected, who did not subscribe to anti-slavery sentiments. The practice then was to hold two conventions on the same day-a delegate convention, in which

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the nominations of the party were made and a ticket arranged, and a mass convention, to which the action of delegates was reported. This accomplished, the presiding officer of the dele- gate body repaired to the mass convention, where he submitted the ticket prepared for the indorse- ment of the larger assembly. The result of the deliberations of the delegate convention, after the bold utterance of the anti-slavery leaders, was the nomination of Mr. Carpenter. When his name was announced to the mass convention, it was his first intimation of the honor that had fallen on him, and he hastened at once to call the attention of that body to his position on the anti-slavery question, and to warn none to indorse him under any misappre- hension of the facts. To crown the confusion of the conservative leaders, Mr. Carpenter was heartily indorsed, and elected by a handsome majority. In the succceding year, the Whigs nominated Albert A. Bliss, of Elyria, another pronounced anti-slavery man, and elected him, Birney getting in Medina County in the same year, eleven votes for President. In 1841, Mr. Bliss was re-elected from Lorain, and Lorenzo Warner from Medina, both pronounced anti- slavery men. In the succeeding year, however, the Democrats succeeded in electing their can- didate, Richard Warner, of Sharon, without any concessions to the anti-slavery element. There were several causes contributing to this result, though it in no sense indicated a change in public sentiment.

In 1828, Lorain County had been associated with Medina in a Joint-State Representative District. In the former county the influence of Oberlin had been very effective in molding the sentiment of the home society, and so long as the relation of these counties remained un- disturbed, the anti-slavery branch of the Whigs controlled the party organization. In 1842. under the new census, the Whigs of Medina were thrown upon their own resources, and the more radical members of the party, distrusting

the majority, withdrew and voted with the "Liberty party," or refrained from voting at all. About this time, also, the controversial war waged against the theological and political dogmas of Oberlin had reached its culminating point, many of its enemies advocating and hoping for the rescinding of the college char- ter by the Legislature, and many of the Whigs voted for the opposition candidate to express their dissent from its theological tenets. It was freely charged by the Whigs that Warner would vote to rescind the charter with the hope of thus forcing their recalcitrant members to support the regular party candidate. The re- sult, however, was rather to lose votes for their candidate as indicated above, but, to his honor be it said, Mr. Warner indignantly denied the imputation, and, when the matter came up in the legislature, worked and voted against the measure. Mr. Warner was re-elected to the Forty-second Assembly, and in 1844, Earle Moulton was elected by the Whigs. He was elected for a second term and was succeeded by Mr. H. G. Blake, who served two terms. Both of these gentlemen were Anti-slavery Whigs. In the meantime, the Free-Soil party had absorbed the "Liberty men," and, having secured the balance of power, received over- tures from the Democrats. Without any dis- tinct coalition, however, James C. Johnson was elected in 1848, by the Democratic organi- zation, though many of the younger members were Free-Soil in sentiment. Early in the fol- lowing year, Aaron Pardee, of Wadsworth, after consultation with many of the Free-Soil leaders in the county, issued a call for a convention of all persons opposed to slavery, making the ground of union so broad that large accessions were received from both of the dominant par- ties. There was at least one bond of union between the Free-Soil and Democratic organiza- tions in their hostility to the Whigs, and, the younger Democrats gaining control of the ma- chinery of their party, the convention resulted

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in another, a little later, in which the Demo- crats and Free-Soilers formed a coalition and nominated for Representative to the Legisla- ture Philip Thomson, an old "Liberty man" and one of "the seven thousand" who voted for Birney in 1840. There was no little dissat- isfaction expressed at this arrangement by the older members of the Democratie party, but they were eventually wheedled or forced into a support of the ticket. The Whigs, recogniz- ing the power behind the throne, nominated Hal- sey Hulbert, another Birney man, but the die was cast that doomed them to defeat. Mr. Thom- son could have been re-elected, but, declining the honor, and the older members of the Dem- ocratic organization resuming power, the coali- tion fell to pieces, and Mr. James C. Johnson was elected by the Democratic organization in 1850, and re-elected in 1852. In 1853, the Whigs achieved a final victory. In this year they nominated Dr. Edwin H. Sibley, an anti- slavery man, who was opposed by Francis D. Kimball as the regular candidate of the Dem- ocratic party. The latter organization was not heartily unanimous in the nomination of its candidate. He was an earnest temperance man and strongly imbued with anti-slavery sentiments. This nomination was looked upon as due to the prevailing influence of the younger portion of the party, and many of the older members felt greatly dissatisfied. The result was that E. A. Warner was announced as an independent candidate, and divided the strength of the Democratic party. Barney Prentice represented the Free-Soilers and received a eon- siderable vote.

The passage of the "Nebraska Bill " in the winter of 1853-54 heated the political elements of Medina to the fusing point, and carly in the following spring a convention was called to protest against this extension of slavery. This eall brought members of all parties together at the court house, and, though disagreeing as to the means to be employed to rid the land of the

curse of slavery, they were thoroughly united against its further extension. The result of this gathering was a call for a delegate conven- tion, a little later, to put a ticket in the field which should express the sentiment of the combined anti-slavery forces. Among the representative men of the different political ele- ments in the later convention, were W. H. Can- field and M. C. Hills, Whigs ; F. D. Kimball, Democrat ; Timothy Burr and Nathan Nettle- ton, of the Liberty party. After an interchange of views and a formulation of their purposes, the following ticket was nominated and subse- quently elected : For Probate Judge, Dr. Henry Warner (Democrat); for Auditor, G. W. Tyler (Liberty) ; for Sheriff, John Rounds (Whig) ; for Recorder, S. J. Hayslip (Whig) ; for Clerk, O. S. Codding (Whig); for Commissioner, Will- iam Crane (Democrat). Since then the Repub- lican organization has been uniformly success- ful by a majority ranging from 500 to 1,200 votes. Up to 1824, this Representative District included Portage and Medina, from which two members were sent after 1819. During the four years previous to 1828, Medina was alone, when Lorain, then newly organized, was joined with this county for representation until 1841 ; since then Medina alone has constituted a representative district. The State Senatorial District has been subject to little change since the organization of the county. " After the or- ganization of Portage County (of which Medina was a part), in 1808, David Abbott was elected Senator in October of that year to represent the counties of Geauga and Portage in the Senate of the Eighth General Assembly, held at Chillicothe, and in the Ninth, which convened at Zanesville, the first Monday in December, 1810, he represented Geanga, Cuyahoga and Portage. He also represented the same constituency in the Tenth General Assembly, held at the same place. In October, 1812, Peter Hitehcock, of Geauga County, was elected Senator to repre- sent the eounties of Geauga, Cuyahoga, Portage

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

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and Ashtabula in the Eleventh General Assem- bly, and took his seat in that body on the 7th of December, 1812, the session couvening at Chillicothe again. He continued to repre- sent the same counties as Senator during the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth General Assemblies, and was elected Speaker of the Fourteenth. In October, 1816, Aaron Wheeler and Almon Ruggles were elected Senators from Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Huron and Por- tage Counties. They took their scats in the Fifteenth General Assembly, which convened in Columbus on Monday, December 2, 1816, and were both continued in the Sixteenth Gen- eral Assembly. In the Seventeenth, Aaron Wheeler and John Campbell were the Senators, and in the Eighteenth John Campbell and Al- mon Ruggles represented the same territory which now included Medina County as an or- ganization."* From this point Portage and Medina Counties were associated together as a Senatorial District, until 1828, when Cuyahoga, Medina and Lorain were formed into a district. This arrangement continued until 1836, when Melina and Lorain Counties were constituted a Senatorial District, a union which has contin- ued to the present, and is known as the Twen- ty-seventh Senatorial District of Ohio. Under the apportionment of 1871, a full ratio for rep- resentation in the State Senate was fixed at 76,146 inhabitants. The Twenty-seventh Dis- trict, comprising the counties of Medina and Lorain, had a total population of but 50,400 ; the Twenty-ninth District, comprising the counties of Ashland and Richland, had a total population of 54,449. The two districts not having, separately, population enough to entitle them to a Senator, were, therefore, eonsolidated under the title of Joint District No. 27 and 29, whose joint population entitled them to six Sen- ators in ten years. The apportionment com- mittee assigned one Senator as the quota for the first four terms, and two for the fifth. The Sen-

ators elected to represent this district have been James A. Bell, of Medina, for the first term ; Andrew M. Burus, of Mansfield, for the second and third terms ; Thomas M. Beer, of Ashland, for the fourth term, and Mr. Beer and R. A. Horr, of Lorain, for the fifth term.

The Congressional District, of which Medina County was a part, changed so often, and Me- dina's share in its history was for many years so unimportant, that it may properly be sum- marized in a few words. Suffice it to say that, among the more important members of Cou- gress, in which Medina has been most interested, were Elisha Whittlesey, John W. Allen, Sherlock J. Andrews, N. S. Townsend, Philemon Bliss, H. G. Blake, Judge Welker and James Monroe. Of these, the only eitizen of Medina County was HI. G. Blake, and him the people delighted to honor. Coming to the county when a mere lad, he rose, by his own unaided efforts, from a farmer's boy to the positions of clerk, mer- chant, lawyer and statesman. Cordial, sympa- thetic and generous in his social intercourse, active and self-reliant in his business, eonscien- tious and liberal minded iu his political earcer, he won the loving esteem of his friends, and commanded the respect of his foes. April 8, 1876, he was attacked with the congestion of the lungs, which ultimately developed into pneumonia, and, notwithstanding the best med- ical aid, he died, on Sunday, the 16th inst., in the fifty-seventh year of his age.

We take the following sketch of his life from the Medina Gazette of April 21, 1876 : " Har- rison Gray Blake was born March 17, 1819, at New Fane, Windham Co., Vt. His parents were also natives of that State, and had four children, Mr. Blake being next to the youngest. The melancholy and yet heroic death of his mother has become historical, and been cele- brated in the literature of the century. In De- cember, 1821, Mr. Blake's father and mother started from their home in a sleigh to visit friends, their journey leading over the Green

* Medina Gazelle, January 3, 1879.

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Mountains. The mother had an infant of a few months' age with her, who is still living, and from whose lips only yesterday we heard the story repeated-Mrs. Rebecca De Groat. The party was caught in a snow-storm ; the road beeame impassable for their sleigh, and they abandoned it, unhitehing the horse and pro- eeeding on horseback. The cold was intense, and their sufferings were severe. Night was eoming on, and the father, leaving his wife and child with the horse, hastened on foot to seek assistance. His cries were heard at a house in the mountains, but, owing to a misapprehension on the part of the family that it was another person, whom they knew to be out, and who did not need their help, they did not respond. In the morning, Mr. and Mrs. Blake were found. He was lying in the snow but a few hundred yards from his wife, his feet frozen, and so nearly uneonscious that he could only hold up his hand, with two fingers opened out, to indi- eate that there were other sufferers. Mrs. Blake was found totally unconscious and frozen in every limb ; but the child was alive, and sleeping, wrapped in the clothing which its mother had taken from her own body to pre- serve its life. They were carried to the nearest house, and restoratives applied. The mother gasped onee after being taken into the warm room, but she died without showing any other sign that she lived through the horrors of the night. It may be mentioned, in this eonnec- tion, that, in one of his eampaign tours, while H. G. Blake was speaking in Holmes County, a couple of old men introduced themselves to him as members of the party who rescued his parents in the mountains.

"The family was broken up by this event, and H. G. Blake was taken by Mr. Jesse Rhoades to raise. They lived in Salem, Wash- ington Co., N. Y., until 1830, when Mr. Rhoades removed to Guilford, this county. There young Blake, a lad of eleven years, worked on a farm, elearing up new land, for several years-study-

ing, as he had opportunity, by the fire-light, lamps and candles being an expensive luxury. During his boyhood, he at times was sent to school in the winter, but he never had the ad- vantages of aeademy or eollege training. Mrs. Blake met him the first day he came to Guil- ford, and their childhood was passed together, as near neighbors. For one year in Seville he studied medicine with Dr. Mills, and there is no doubt, if he had adopted that profession, he would have become an eminently successful physician.

"In 1836, he came to Medina aud went into the store of Durham & Woodward as elerk, at the same time turning his attention to the study of the law, and afterward reading under the super- vision of Judge J. S. Carpenter. The store was kept on the corner where the Phoenix Bloek now stands, and it is worth mentioning that from that time to his death, as elerk, merchant, attorney and banker, Mr. Blake was always in business on that eorner. As a boy, he was bright and active, always able to " hoe his own row," and helpful to his mates. He was a reader of solid books, having little or no taste for fiction or poetry.

" Several years after he entered the store, Mr. Woodward retired from the firm, and young Blake was taken as partner, and, later, be- came sole proprietor. For many years he con- tinued in business as a country merchant, being associated at different times with Messrs. Chappell, G. W. Tyler, George Munson, C. J. Warner, Charles Booth, Chester Colburn and others.

" The law firm of Blake & Woodward was es- tablished about 1859. It has been, successively, Blake & Woodward; Blake, Woodward & Cod- ding ; Blake, Woodward & Lewis ; and, at the time of his death, was once more Blake & Woodward. As a business man, Mr. Blake was energetic, punetual in all his appointments, and liberal in all his dealings. His off-hand, ready wit ; his fine conversational powers ; his

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reliability ; and his democratic tastes and habits, made him a great favorite-everybody knew him and liked him. After retiring from the mercantile trade, and ceasiug to take the active interest in politics which distinguished his earlier life, he established the Phoenix Bank, first as a private bank, and later as a Na- tional bank. He was cashier of the institution, a large stockholder, and gave to its manage- ment his best efforts. Twice during his aetive life, his business property was destroyed by fire-first, in 1848, and again in 1870. Each time the bloek on Phoenix corner was swept away, and each time it was rebuilt larger and better than before. His will was indomitable, and adversity seemed only to incite him to greater endeavor. To his counsels, encouragement and cxample, as much as to any other cause, Me- dina is to-day a pleasant, substantial town, in- stead of a mass of ruins and rookeries. We have not allowed spaee to fully speak of his ability and characteristics as a lawyer. He was one of the oldest and most-sought-for at- torneys of the county.

"From a very early period of his life, Mr. Blake took an interest, and, for the most part, a very active interest, in politics. He was a stump-speaker when a mere boy, and is said to have been a good one. In 1836, when Harrison was first run by the Whigs for Presi- dent, Mr. Blake took an active part in the cam- paign, advocating Harrison's election from the stump. Again, in 1840, he was a host in that memorable campaign-rousing that enthusiasm which bore 'Old Tippecanoe' on a grouud swell into the White House. From that time forward, lie was thoroughly identified with the Whig party, and afterward with the Republican party. He was a popular and an effective speaker. Few could arouse the enthusiasm of a crowd equal to Blake; yet he never con- sciously used the tricks of oratory to provoke applause, or shammed a sentiment he did not feel. The secret of his influence as a speaker

was alone in his intense earnestness and sin- cerity.

"Mr. Blake, with a single exception, was uni- formly successful in his political career. In 1846, he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature, and re-elected in 1847, the terms of service being one year under the old Constitution. After that, he was twicc elected to the State Senate, at the last session being chosen Speaker, there being no such office then as Lieutenant Governor. The contest over the election of Speaker was protracted and bitter. The Free-Soil party was then coming on the stage, and held the balance of power in the Sen- ate. The Whigs and Free-Soilers finally coal- esced and elected Blake Speaker on the three hundred and first ballot. The balloting had been going on from the 13th to the 28th of December. The ill-feeling engendered during this pro- tracted struggle did not end with the conflict, but it rankled in the defeated party to such an extent that intimations and threats of resorting to foree to oust the new Speaker were frecly and openly made ; for days the Speaker carried defensive weapons to the chair, resolved to maintain at all hazards the authority with which he was intrusted. In 1848, Mr. Blake's support was early enlisted in favor of Mr. Van Buren, the Free-Soil candidate for President, and, although he voted for him, the campaign had not progressed far before his preferences were transferred to 'Old Zach Taylor,' and he was afterward an ardent supporter of his ad- ministratiou.

" Mr. Blake began his legislative work on the day he first took his seat in the Legislature by introducing a bill to repeal the infamous ' Black Laws' which then disgraced our stat- ute books. The measure was opposed by Val- landigham and his party, who succeeded in deferring the reform until years afterward. Mr. Blake served two terms in Congress. In 1858, Mr. Spink, who had been elected from this district to the Thirty-sixth Congress, died

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before that body met, and Mr. Blake was eleet- ed in his place, serving his first term under Buchanan's administration. In 1860, Mr. Blake was re-elected, serving through the Thir- ty-seveutlı Congress under Lincoln's adminis- tration. Iu this term, he was on the Commit- tee ou Post Offices, and, in that eapaeity, originated, reported and secured the passage of the bill which gave to the eouutry the present post office money-order system. This measure of itself is sufficient to place his name honora- bly in history so long as this piece of legisla- tion is remembered. He bore a eonspieuous part in the financial legislation of this period, and proved a praetieal and influential member in these most important Congresses. Of late years, he deelined to do much speaking, and seldom could be prevailed upon to go outside of the county in a politieal campaign. We eould eouut on him for two or three speeches in ordinary campaigns, at several points in the county, but eveu then he would insist that he was 'only an exhorter,' and not down for a set speech. He never carried his political prejudiees and antipathies into social or private life. Some of his warmest personal friends were of opposite political opinions.

" During Lineoln's administration, Mr. Blake was offered the governorship of one of the Territories, but declined it. He was in the military service as Colonel of the One Hun- dred and Sixty-sixth Regiment, serving in de- fense at Washington, in 1864. He was at one time Deputy United States Collector for this distriet, and for many years was successively ehosen Mayor of this village by the almost unanimous vote of the people.

" After a period of sickness, in 1872, it was the hope of his friends that he would eease his unremitting application to business and in- dulge in the reereatiou of travel; and his warm personal friend, Hon. James Monroe, without his knowledge, seeured for him the appointment from the State Department as

Consul General at Palermo, Sicily, the oldest historical towu in the world, filled with works of art, and in a elimate absolutely perfect. A year's residence there would have been a lease of life for a quarter of a century. The temp- tation was great, and the solicitations of his friends were urgent, but his devotion to bus- iness and his disinelination to go abroad pre- vailed, and he deelined the offer. Ilis name was prominently and generally mentioned iu the fall of 1875 in conncetion with the Repub- liean nomination for Governor, but he positive- ly declined to permit his friends to eanvass for him, his choice being Gov. Hayes. The Re- publican State Convention of 1876 placed him upon the tieket as Presidential Elector for the Eighteenth District, a distinetion which gave him unalloyed pleasure.

" We must not omit in this connection, while our columns are in mourning for our fellow- townsman who bore so distinguished a part in wider fields of action, to mention that, in his busy life, he found time to undertake the oner- ous eares and labors of the journalist. The files of the Gazette bear his honored name as editor. We have looked them over with pecu- liar interest, and find the impress of his ehar- aeter on every page. He slighted nothing. The planting of a tree on the village green ; the election of a Constable in the woodiest towuship of the county ; the disseetion of the latest tariff measure, or the policy of the Ad- ministration, each received due attention. He had the versatility and readiness of the born newspaper man, and he never enjoyed himself anywhere as he did in the sanetum or printing office, tumbling over the exchanges and gossip- ping about the 'busy world, its fluctuations and vast eoneerns.'

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 38

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014