USA > Ohio > Perry County > History of Perry County, Ohio > Part 10
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Shackleford reached Millertown during the night and camped on the ground where Morgan had rested his men in the afternoon. It can be seen that the Union General was here losing ground. His men were so completely exhausted and their horses were in such a condition that the progress was very slow. Richard Nuzum, ex-county commissioner of Perry county, went up to Millertown the next morning and found men sleeping all around. It was ten o'clock before the union forces left Millertown. Meanwhile Morgan had passed through where Corning now is, climbed the hill to the Chapel Hill Church, passed up to Porter- ville and then out of the county, camping for the night on Island Run in Morgan county. Morgan had pressed Henry Kuntz, a citizen of our county. into his service as his pilot. Several New Lexington men whose curiosity was greater than their prudence went out on the trail of the Confederates. Suddenly they
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rode into the camp on Island Run. Two of them were captured. They were taken along, but were allowed their freedom somewhere over in Guernsey county. Morgan crossed the Muskingum at Eagles- port. At this place a furnace-man from Logan, who had joined Shackleford at Nelsonville, was shot by a sharp-shooter, while he was reconnoitering on the high bluffs above the Muskingum. General Shackel- ford captured Morgan near New Lisbon in Colum- biana county. The Confederate leader, was impris- oned for several months in the Ohio Penitentiary from which he made his escape.
One of Morgan's men fell behind in our county. He was captured and taken to New Lexington, where he attracted considerable attention. He was sent to Camp Chase. Columbus, where Confederate prison- ers were kept during the war.
Morgan's Raiders took what they wanted, and if no objections were made to their wholesale appro- priations, no one was molested. In closing this account we quote from Colborn's History of Perry county.
" A plucky woman of Monroe township, who was riding along the road gave the raiders a piece of her mind. They did not retaliate in words, but gently lifted the lady from her saddle and appropriated her horse. Dr. W. H. Holden of Millertown, then on a tour of visits to his patients, was promptly relieved of his horse, but was kindly permitted to retain his saddle-bags, which he carried the remainder of the way on his arm, as he trudged homeward on foot. A farmer was hauling a load of hay along the road. His team was halted, the harness stripped from the horses in a twinkling, and there the farmer sat upon his load of hay. a much astonished and bewildered individual.
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There was a wool-picking party at the house of a farmer ; quite a number of ladies was there and sup- per was just announced. Morgan's men came in un- invited, appropriated all of the seats, and remarked that it was very impolite to take precedence of the ladies, but that they were in a great hurry and could not afford to wait. What they left in the way of eat- ables was hardly worth mentioning."
Population of Perry County.
1820
8,459
1830
13,970
1840
19,344
1850
20,775
1860
19,678
1870
18,453
1880
28,218
1890
31,151
1900
31,841
The census of 1860 and 1870 show a decrease in population. The first was caused by the removal of Californian gold-hunters, known as the "Fifty-Sixers." The second decrease was the result of the Civil War.
Constitutional Conventions.
In the Constitutional Convention that met in Cin- cinnati in 1851 and adopted Ohio's present constitu- tion, Perry county was represented by John Lidey, of Reading township. Mr. Lidey was a soldier in the war of 1812 and at one time represented Perry county in the lower House of the Legislature. In 1871 the people of Ohio again voted for a Convention. It met in 1873 and our county was represented by Col. Ly- man J. Jackson. Col Jackson was a descendent from New England Puritans and has the reputation of being
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
the First Volunteer from Perry County in the Civil War. At that time he was Prosecuting Attorney of the county, but resigned to organize a company of which he was Captain. He was afterward appointed Colonel of the 159th O. V. I. After the war he repre- sented the Fifteenth District, consisting of Perry and Muskingum counties, in the Ohio Senate. The Con- stitution of 1871 was never ratified by the people of Ohio became of the clause licensing the liquor traffic.
Col. James H. Taylor.
A history of Perry county would be far from com- plete if it neglected to say, at least, a few words con- cerning the man, who had, more than any other man, to do with the development of her great mineral re- sources. "Pomp and circumstance " too often at- tract our attention, and we give our honors to less de- serving persons. While on the other hand, there may be within our ranks, people toiling, unobtrusively and alone, whose labors will have greater results and be of more lasting benefit.
Perry countians delight in telling about the dashing Sheridan, the versatile and brilliant MacGahan, the scholarly Zahm, the financier Elkins and the statesman, Rusk. But there lies in the New Lexington ceme- tery a man to whose memory every village in southern Perry, every coal mine and every railroad is a living monument. From 1865 to 1868, Col. James H. Taylor prospected over the hills of Perry county. He went from farm to farm, carrying with him an old carpet bag, in which he placed specimens of coal and ore. As ne went about digging here and there, and telling some old farmer that a wonderful vein of coal was on his
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
farm, he was looked upon as a sort of lunatic-but harmless. He met many a bland smile of incredulity.
His knowledge of mineralogy not only served him well in this pursuit but he was also a vigorous writer. As soon as he satisfied himself of the abundance of the mineral wealth, he began to write a series of articles for the Columbus, Cincinnati and New York papers. These attracted wide attention. The result was that capitalists began to be interested. Many discourage- ments attended the early development but when fairly started. the growth was phenomenal. Within ten years the population of the county had doubled. Shaw- nee, Corning, Straitsville and other villages sprang into existence. Furnaces were erected. Mines were opened. Railroads were built. Many of the men interested became millionaires. Among them were Gen. Samuel Thomas, Ex-Senator Brice, and Ex-Gov- ernor Foster. But the discoverer of all this wealthi and its chief promoter never received any financial reward. He and other Perry county associates had 125,000 acres of the best mineral land in the county, but the panic of 1873 came and they went down in the crash and outsiders reaped the harvest.
Col. James Taylor was born in Harrison township, this county, May 3, 1825. He descended from ances- tors who had always taken active interest in public affairs. His grandfather had served on the staff of Gen. Monroe in the Revolutionary War. His fatlier fought in the war with Mexico. He, himself, served throughout the Civil War. On the maternal side the blood of Simon Kenton, the celebrated Indian fighter and scout, ran through his veins. He had but limited educational advantages, such as came to most boys of his time. However he was a great student of history.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
This, with a most wonderful memory, made him au- thority on many subjects and eminently fitted him for newspaper work. The last fifteen years of his life were spent as editorial writer for the Ohio State Journal. In 1883 when Henry George was spreading his political theories he published a pamphlet in reply. This had an immense sale and provoked much dis- cussion. He died Jan. 25, 1891. He certainly de- serves to be called one of Perry County's prominent so11s.
Stephen Benton Elkins.
It is said that great men come from the hills. ยท If this statement were doubted, the incredulous would only need to glance over the history of southern Ohio and be convinced. With Somerset as the center, there can be found within a radius of fifty miles, the birth- places of more men of eminence than in any similar area in the United States.
Perry county has furnished her quota in this array of celebrities. The men and women who braved the terrors of frontier life, to build for themselves homes in a new land were of a hardy and thrifty character. Their children schooled in this "rough and ready" life, developed the iron nerve and the conservative temper- ment, that makes man master of situations.
From the rude homesteads on the hill-side farms of old Perry, have gone out into the various avenues of life, men, who have been the progressive factors in the building up of manv settlements in the great west and southwest. While they may not have attained to such a high eminence as some, yet they have filled their places and deserve no less credit for what they have done. It is with some degree of pride that we claim for Perry county, the birthplace of Stephen Benton Elkins.
STEPHEN B. ELKINS.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
He was born on a farm about three miles southeast of Thornville, in Section 13, Thorn township, September 26, 1841, His early years were spent here. Moving with his parents to Missouri, he partly educated him- self in the public schools. At the age of only nineteen he graduated from the University of the State, with first honors. He then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1863, joined the Union army, and served in the rank of Captain. Crossing the plains to New Mexico in 1864, he determined to win success in that sparsely settled border country. Seeing that his igno- rance of Spanish would be in the way of his ambition, he set to work and in one year was master of it. His clientage rapidly grew, and his popularity with it. For in less than two years after his arrival, he was elected to the territorial legislature. The next year he was made Attorney-General of the territory. The suc- ceeding year President Johnson appoin. 1 him United States District Attorney for New Mexico. While oc- cupying this position it became his duty to see that the law forbidding slavery should be enforced. This he did in such a decisive manner that it gave him greater prestige than ever. In 1869 he went into the banking business, thus beginning his phenomenal career as a financier. Investing his money judiciously in lands and mines, he became immensely wealthy. In 1873 he was elected Delegate to Congress from New Mexico and in 1875 he was re-elected.
While in Congress, Mr. Elkins was married to a daughter of Senator Henry G. Davis of West Virginia. In 1878, leaving New Mexico, he went to West Vir- ginia, where he began the development of coal lands. He gave up the active practice of law and devoted his
10 H. P. C.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
time entirely to the management of his business in- terests. While he lias become a millionaire, himself, yet he has done an immeasurable amount of good to the people of his adopted state, by causing the invest- ment of capital. In 1891 President Harrison appointed him Secretary of War, and in 1895 he was elected United States Senator, which position he yet holds.
He lives in a beautiful country home, "Hallie- hurst," at Elkins, Randolph county, West Virginia. This four story mansion stands on a mountain side of unusual beauty. It commands a magnificent view of the valley beneath and the forest and mountain peaks which frame the scene. In this magnificent home he spends his leisure among his books and friends. In addition to his many business duties he has not failed to drink at learning's fount, to become conversant with the best literature, and to make of himself a cultured gentleman in every respect. He is a man of strong and sturdy build, is more than six feet in height, has firm Features, and a large head set firmly on his shoulders.
Perry county has no reason to be ashamed of Ste- phen Benton Elkins, lawyer, financier, statesman and gentleman.
The Knight of the Pen.
On the 19th of May, 1900, there came to the village of New Lexington, a stranger. It was Stoyan Krstoff Vatralsky, a native of Bulgaria. He had just gradu- ated from Harvard University and was preparing to return to his home-land. Before going, however, he came to visit the grave of the man, who, is held most dearly in the affections of the Bulgarian nation. The citizens of New Lexington showed him every courtesy. He was taken to view the birthplace of his hero. In
THE KNIGHT OF THE PEN, MACGAHAN. (Courtesy of Rosary Magazine.)
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
the Court House he addressed the people in the follow- ing brief and expressive language :
"I do not come here in an official capacity; yet, in com- ing thus to honor the dust of MacGahan, I am a representa. tive of the Bulgarian people. We Bulgarians sincerely cher- ish in the grateful niche of our memory the name of Janarins Aloysius MacGahan as one of the liberators of our country.
"MacGahan and Eugene Schuyler, another true Ameri- can, were Bulgaria's first friends, and at the time she needed them most. They not only accomplished a great work for themselves, at an opportune time, but furthermore set in motion forces and influences that made other men's work more effective, thus rendering the achievement of her libera- tion possible. Had it not been for these American writers, their graphic and realistic exposure of Bulgaria's wounds and tears to the world, there would have been no Gladstonian thunder, no European consternation; no Russo-Turkish war; no free Bulgaria. It was the American pen that drove the Russian sword to action.
"Although he died at the early age of thirty-four, Mac- Gahan's life was far from being either brief or in vain. Measured not by years but by achievements, he lived a long life. Long enough to set history to the task of writing his name among the world's illustrious ; among the great jour- nalists, philanthropists and liberators of whole races. And I venture to predict that in the future his merits shall be more universally. more adequately recognized than hitherto. Bul- garia and Ohio must and will yet do what becomes them as enlightened states. Some of you, as I hope, shall live to sce a suitable memorial marking his resting place. Yet even now MacGahan has a prouder monument than most historic heroes -- his monument is independent Bulgaria. His name illu- mines the pages of Bulgarian history, and his cherished name is graven deep in the heart of a rising race : and there it shall endure forever."
After this meeting Mr. Vatralsky visited the burial place of the great American journalist and after strewing flowers upon the grave, laid the following original ode upon the mound :
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
TO JANARIUS ALOYSIUS MACGAHAN.
A pilgrim from the ends of earth I come To kneel devoutly at your lowly tomb : To own our debt, we never can repay : To sigh my gratitude, thank God and pray : To bless your name, and bless your name - For this I came.
No marble shaft denotes your resting place ; Yet God has raised memorial to your work Of grateful hearts that stir a rising race. No longer subject to the fiendish Turk.
Your years, though few, to shield the weak you spent ; Your life, though brief, accomplished its intent : All diplomatic shylocks, bloody Turks. despite, 'Twas not in vain the Lord gave you a pen to write ;
Your Pen was followed by the Russian sword, Driven by force that you yourself called forth; So came the dauntless warriors of the North, And bondsmen were to freedom sweet restored.
Though still unmarked your verdant bed, rest you content : Bulgaria is free - bchold your monument! - STOYAN KRSTOFF VATRALSKY.
Archibald Forbes, one of the greatest of war cor- respondents, in his recent book, "Memories and Stud- ies of War and Peace," says : "My most prominent col- league in the Russo-Turkish war was Mr. Janarius Aloysius MacGahan, by extraction an Irishman, by birth an American. Of all the men who have gained reputation as war correspondents, I regard MacGahan as the most brilliant. He was the hero of that wonder- ful lonely ride through the Great Desert of Central Asia to overtake Kauffman's Russian army on its march to Khiva. He it was that stirred Europe to its inmost heart by the terrible. and not less truthful than terrible, pictures of what have passed into history as
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IHISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
the Bulgarian Atrocities. It is, indeed, no exaggera- tion to aver that, for better or worse, MacGahan was the virtual author of the Russo-Turkish War. His pen-pictures of the atrocities so excited the fury of the Sclave population of Russia, that their passionate de- mand for retribution on the 'unspeakable Turk' vir- tually compelled the Emperor Alexander II to under- take the war. MacGahan's work throughout the long campaign was singularly effective, and his physical ex- ertions were extraordinary ; yet he was suffering all throughi from a lameness that would have disabled eleven out of twelve men. He had broken a bone in his ankle just before the declaration of war, and when I first met him the joint was encased in plaster of Paris. He insisted on accompanying Gourko's raid across the Balkans; and in the Hankioj Pass his horse slid over a precipice and fell on its rider, so that the half-set bone was broken again. But the indomitable Mac- Gahan refused to be invalided by this mishap. He quietly had himself hoisted on to a tumbril, and so went through the whole adventurous expedition, being involved thus helpless in several actions, and once all but falling into the hands of the Turks. He kept the front throughout. long after I had gone home disabled by fever ; he brilliantly chronicled the fall of Plevna and the surrender of Osman Pasha; he crossed the mountains with Skobeleff in the dead of that terrible winter ; and, finally, at the premature age of thirty- four, he died, characteristically, a martyr to duty and to friendship. When the Russian armies lay around Constantinople waiting for the settlement of the treaty of Berlin, typhoid fever and camp pestilences were slaying their thousands and tens of thousands. Lieu- tenant Greene, an American officer officially attached
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
to the Russian army, fell sick, and MacGahan devoted himself to the duty of nursing his countryman. His devotion cost him his life. As Greene was recov- ering MacGahan sickened of malignant typhus; and a few days later they laid him in his far-off foreign grave, around which stood weeping mourners of a dozen nationalities."
In an issue of the New Lexington "Herald," of February, 1897, Judge Martin W. Wolfe penned an able article, in which he reviews the brilliant career of this famous Perry countian. We give the article in full :
"From many a district school house in our favored land have issued youths of humble origin. who by their virtues and attainments have adorned society and honored their coun- try. J. A. MacGahan, one of the most eminent journalists of the world, was a graduate of one of those colleges for the people. There are few, indeed, who have not heard of J. A. MacGahan, the immortal chevalier of the press. philanthro- pist, author, traveler, hero, patriot -yet few know of his origin, his early career and the general current of his life. so full of romance and stirring interest. Among the hills of Perry county (at a place called Pigeon Roost) J. A. MacGa- han was born of humble, but respectable Irish American par- entage, June 12, 1844. Of his youthful career history bears but little record, save that it was spent in the obscure labors of a farm. He received a plain. common school education, such as thre rural schools of the fifties afforded. In early life he evinced great fondness for penmanship and composition. In the former he excelled. in the latter he foreshadowed more of the fluency and power of the pen, which in after years im- mortalized his name. In short, he is a forcible illustration of the repeated fact that the germ of genius is often hidden in very common mould, and which springs up into glorious ef- florescence, at a time and in a place least expected by the common observer.
"At an early age he left the parental roof to seek his for- tune. After a varied experience he went abroad to study the
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
languages. He was not only a good English scholar, but spoke readily the languages of Western Europe and was well versed in the Slavonic dialects of the East. When in 1870 the first thunder peal of the Franco-Prussian war rolled over Europe we see him at a law school in Brussels. Having had some experience as a writer he was attached to the staff of the New York Herald. He at once joined the army of Bourbake, witnessed its disastrous defeat, and with much danger and suffering, accompanied its retreat into Switzerland, a full description of which was given in his letters to the Herald. Though he did not achieve renown in that brief campaign, it burst the chrysalis of comparative insignificance and formed the first cleat to the ladder on which he speedily rose to the dizzy heights of fame. We next find him in Paris during the time of the Commune, writing vigorous and graphic descrip- tions of the scenes and incidents of that time. On one occa- sion he was arrested and was preserved from death at the hands of the infuriated Communists only by the intervention of the minister of his country. During the summer of 1871 he traveled through Europe and in the autumn of that year was in Russia, where information reached him that an assault was to be made on Khiva. It was Russia's boldest move to- ward India, and he was ordered by the Herald to accompany the army of the Czar.
"In the depth of an Arctic winter when a thick mantle of snow covered the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice- bound river under its monotonous pall, our intrepid hero set out from Saratof, on the Volga, moving southward to join the advancing column at Kazala, a distance of 2,000 miles. For six long weeks, when the mercury in the thermometer ranged from 30 to 50 degrees below zero, the journey con - tinued across the ice-bound Russian steppes, the Ural moun- tains, the boundless morasses and arid wastes of the tundri -- those broad, level, snowy plains over which the icy winds of Northern Siberia, capable of converting mercury into a solid body, came rushing down in furious blasts with an uninter- rupted sweep of a thousand miles and howling over the naked wilderness and around them as though all the demons of the stoppe were up in arms. And so the days passed until Ka -- zala is reached. only to find that the Russian column under the Grand Duke, Nicholas, had taken up its march and that the
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
campaign against Khiva was already well advanced. Then he prepared for what proved to be one of the most daring rides ever made by man. He was now in the heart of the myste- rious regions of Asia. It was a journey of six hundred miles through silent desolation, with three hundred miles of arid desert on which the gun glares fiercely down from the pitiless sky until the sands gleam and burn under the scorching heat like glowing cinders.
"To start almost alone in search of the Russian army, a mere speck on those huge steppes; with no plan possible, ex- cept to ride as far and as hard as might be; without knowing when one well is left, where the next drop of water will be found; with few provisions and those bad; with untrust- worthy guides and weak horses; enduring a broiling sun by day and a deadly chill by night ; sleeping on a poisonous upas- like weed, beneath which lurk scorpions, tarantulas and in- mense lizards or on the sandy floor of this desert ocean where eternal silence reigns, save the bark of the jackal or the howl of the hyena, as they sound dismally from time to time through the loud roaring of the storm; with the knowledge that the country was filled with beaten enemies, always glad to fall in with a stranger alone, and now especially fierce and envenomed; and the uncertainty of the reception when he reached his goal - such a feat may well have made the Rus- sians wonder. For twenty-nine days he wandered through the Kyzil-Kum in search of Gen. Kaufmann, chased by Cossacks sent in hot pursuit for his capture, but through his pertinacity, shrewdness and good nature he eluded them all as well as the Russian general who detained him at Khalata and by a cir- cuitous route joined the Russian army on the far-famed Oxus just as the advance guard was in a heated engagement with the Turcoman cavalry.
"In keeping with his characteristic fearlessness he dashed into the raging battle, wrote a description of it and completely won the admiration of the Russian soldiery and of that intre- pid leader. Gen. Kaufmann himself. Henceforth he accom- panied the Russian army and ere long stood before the gate of Hazar-Asp - the grand entrance into the city of Khiva. He was one of the first to enter the portals of that city, and his description of its capture stands on record as a masterpiece of its kind. Upon his return to Russia the Czar conferred on
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