USA > Ohio > Perry County > History of Perry County, Ohio > Part 11
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him the Order of St. Stanislaus for his personal bravery. The information which he gained during the progress of this expedition was afterward published by MacGahan in book form under the title. "Campaigning On the Oxus and the Fall of Khiva," and is the best book on Central Asia and nomadic life in our language.
"Another turn of the wheel found him lecturing before the geographical society of New York, then visiting his par- ents in Perry county, and in the fall of 1873 in Cuba report- ing the Virginius complications. In the spring of 1874 he was in London, whence he was ordered by the New York Herald to Spain to report the Carlist outbreak of that year. He joined the army of Don Carlos and accompanied it for ten months, continuing a voluminous and graphic correspondence with his journal during the progress of the campaign. While in Spain he fell into the hands of the Republicans, was mis- taken for a Carlist and condemned to execution, but his life was again saved by the interventions of the American minis- ter. Thence he went to England and in 1875 sailed with Cap- tain Young in the Pandora to the Arctic regions, making the last search undertaken for the lost crew of Sir John Franklin's expedition. On his return to England he published an ac- count of his experiences with the title, "Under the Northern Lights." which brought its author great renown.
"In the spring of 1876 while in London he read a brief dispatch in a newspaper of the commission of horrible bar- barities by the Bashi-Ba-zouks in Bulgaria. He had lived and worked in the East. and more clearly than any living man, recognized the hidden significance of this news from the Bal- kans. He determined at once to go to that country and wit- ness for himself and to the world the truth or falsity of these statements. He at once signed articles with the London Daily News and in June, 1876, took his departure to join the Turk- ish army in the capacity of war correspondent of his journal. The horrible evidences of the malignant cruelty which had characterized Turkish warfare in Bulgaria roused in the American feelings of the most intense indignation, and in vivid, soul-stirring words did this heroic man pour the whole strength of his powerful mind in the exposure of the most ghastly and wholesale massacres of modern times. Strong in his majesty as protector of the defenseless, MacGahan almost
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excelled himself. His revelations of the Bulgarian horrors, struck home to every heart. He cansed the pulse of Europe and America to quicken, and the hearts to bleed for the cruel- ty and barbarously oppressed Bulgarians. Never before had such enthusiasm been raised in the annals of newspaper cor- respondence. Concerning this extraordinary correspondence Mr. Alexander Forbes, long associated with MacGahan, says : MacGahan's work in exposing the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876 produced very marked results. As mere literary work there is nothing that I know of to excel it in vividness, in pathos, in burning earnestness, in a glow that thrills from heart to heart. His letters fired Mr. Gladstone into a con- vulsive paroxyism of revolt against the barbarities they de- scribed. They stirred England to its very depths, and men traveling in railway carriages were to be noticed with flushed faces and moistened eyes as they read them.' Lord Beacons- field, the premier of England, tried to whistle down the wind, the veracity of the exposures MacGahan made. He or- dered a fleet to the Dardanelles, and dispatched a British offi- cial. Walter Baring, to Bulgaria with intent to break down the testimony of MacGahan by cold official investigation. But lo! Baring was an honest man with a heart, and he who had been sent out to curse MacGahan, blest him instead alto- gether, for he more than confirmed his figures and pictures of murder. brutality and atrocity. England was compelled to repudiate her old ally: withdraw her fleet from the Bos- phorus without landing a man or firing a shot, and permit MacGahan to continue his memorable ride writing sheaves of letters and painting in cold type what he saw. To the pen of Perry county's gifted son, an All-wise Providence assigned the immortal honor of sustaining the dauntless spirits of the Bulgarians, and of exciting the profound, active and practi- cal sympathy of united Europe.
"Obscure, alone and unheralded, J. A. MacGahan entered on his task of exposing Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. Thou- sands of miles from the land of his birth. with the broad waters of an ocean between him and his home, this Ohio journalist, animated by that spirit of liberty inherent in an American, addressed himself to the apparently chimerical un- dertaking of striking the chains from off the lives of a race whom Turkish masters had almost succeeded in unmanning.
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"Honest, fearless and untiring, the pen of MacGahan re- cited those bloody chapters of Turkish cruelty, which roused the civilized world to indignant protest against the Sultan's ferocious spoliation, rapine and inhumanity.
"The callous Russian paled with anger; the sympathetic European wept the hapless fate of murdered sire and dis- honored matron. The Bulgarians heard the voice of God in the burning words of MacGahan's descriptive writings, and hailed him as the Messiah of their race, sprang to arms with the rallying cry of 'MacGahan, Liberator of Bul- garia !'
"In every hamlet he passed through he said: 'The Czar will avenge this! Courage, people, he will come.' And on leaving the unhappy Bulgarians he said to them: 'Before & ycar is past you will see me here with the army of the Czar.'
"This assurance was verified by the event. Soon after his arrival at the Royal Court of St. Petersburg. the decree went forth for the immediate mobilization of the Russian hosts at Kishenhoff, where they were reviewed by the Czar of all the Russias. Then the order to cross the Pruth was given as MacGahan had foretold; our knight errant rode with the advance guard.' The Russians, from the patient Moscovite to the Cossack of the Don, marched to battle for a nation's freedom, and the strange cry of liberty flew from lip to lip of their bearded legions. The eloquent appeals of MacGahan became battle cries for the victorious mountaineers of Bul- garia as they charged with the irrestible force of Alpine avalanches, the reeling fronts of Moslem columns. The most valiant of Russians. intrepid Skobeleff, and the most devoted leader of Bulgaria's risen hosts were alike inspired to deeds of deathless heroism by the noble utterances of MacGahan; their sanctified blades flashed Christian freedom as they cleft the turbaned heads of brutal Turks, and with holy ardor Tartar, Russians and Cossack sought immortality among the thickest battle, that a circling world might recite the heroic requiems of their American composer, historian and wor- shipped chief.'
"Through the changing fortunes of the war grave and gay, MacGahan passed alike the idol of the Russian army and the Bulgarian people. The assault at Skobeleff on the Gravitza redoubt was immortalized by his pen. When
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Plevna fell our hero was in the van during the mad rush toward the Bosphorus. The triumphant advance was never checked until the spires and minarets of Constantinople were in sight, Bulgaria was redeemed, and the power of the Turk in Europe was broken, the aggrandizement of Russia was complete-and all because J. A. McGahan had lived and striven.
"Scarcely had the rolling thunders of war ceased and the sunlight of peace burst upon the disenthralled country when his eventful career suddenly came to a close. While preparing to attend the international congress at Berlin, he was stricken down with a malignant fever, and died at San Stefano, a suburb of Constantinople, after a few days' illness, June 9, 1878.
"On his death a bright star went out from the firmament of genius but the results of his efforts will endure as long as Christianity. It is not too much to say that this dauntless Perry county boy. who was laid in his all-too-premature grave on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, still lives in the hearts of grateful millions, whose spirits have been stirred within them by the touching pathos of his eloquent pen.
"In Bulgaria's story and legend, MacGahan's memory will eventually find its truest record. In the little principality his name is enshrined on the hearts of people as Liberator ; on the anniversary of his death, prayers for the repose of his soul are -aid in every hamlet throughout Bulgaria; and to the sweetly melancholy strains of the folk-songs the story of his labors is to-day sung by the Bulgarian peasant.
"MacGahan was principally the man for the place and times in which his lot was cast. He was a type of a class of journalists whose names can be numbered on the fingers of one hand - Russel, Sala, Stanly, Forbes, MacGahan. But the greatest and noblest of them all was J. A. MacGahan. of Khiva, and San Stefano.
"It will be long before one so gifted shall wear his mantle as an equal. A few years ago the government of the United States removed his remains to Perry county, the place of his nativity and early home, where with appropriate civic ceremonies they received honorable sepulcher in a soil con- secrated to liberty. In the language of a versatile writer, I trust that a suitable monument will be erected over his
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mortal remains, but no matter of what materials it may be composed, it cannot be so enduring as the fame of him it is built to commemorate. When it begins to crumble and decay, and centuries perhaps have passed, pilgrims to this spot, descendants maybe of the very people he did so much to free, will again and again repeat the story of the modest Ohio boy, who was born and brought up amid these hills, but who became hero, sage, philanthropist, and whose mis- sion and influence embraced the world and encircled the globe.' "
On March 5th, 1884, a resolution passed the Ohio House of Representatives providing for a committee to consider the question of the removal of the remains of MacGahan to his native land. On April 12th, of the same year, a resolution passed the Senate pro- viding for a committee of four, to consist of the Presi- dent, or President pro tem. of the Senate, the Speaker, or Speaker pro tem of the House, Hon. John O'Neil, Senator from this district, and Hon. H. C. Greiner, Representative from Perry county, to visit the Secre- tary of the Navy at Washington and request that a war vessel be ordered to Constantinople for the re- mains of the distinguished American.
This committee at once visited Washington. The success of its mission can be best portrayed in the disinterment with great honors, of the body, May Ist, and under the direction of Admiral Baldwin, the re- mains of this noted Perry county boy were placed on board the United States steamer, Quinnebaugh and transported to the steamer Powhatan, on the arrival of the former vessel at Lisbon. The latter vessel reached the port of New York, August 2Ist.
The New York Press Club, through the columns of the city papers of August 25th, gave notice that the
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following program would be carried into effect, in honor of this chivalric knight of the pen :
"Early on Tuesday morning the committee of the club, accompanied by a guard of honor consisting of eight gen- tlemen who acted as correspondents during the late war, will proceed to the Navy Yard and formally receive the re- mains from the naval authorities. The body will arrive at noon at some point in the city, hereafter to be designated. where a procession will be formed. The remains will then be conveyed to the Governor's room in the City Hall. Mem- bers of the Press Club, the Ohio committee, relatives and admirers of the deceased and journalists generally are in- vited to assemble at the Press Club at 11 o'clok a. m. From that point they will proceed to the point of landing on the New York side and join the committee in the procession to the City Hall. There the body, in charge of the guard of honor. will lie in state till half-past four p. m. At that hour the guard will be relieved by pallbearers representing the different city journals, who will escort the remains, the Ohio committee and relatives to the Pennsylvania Railroad depot at the foot of Cortlandt street."
The remains of MacGahan arrived at Columbus, Wednesday, August 27th accompanied by P. A. Mac- Gahan, brother of the deceased, Representative Grei- ner, Senator O'Neill and Hon. John Ferguson. They were met at Union depot by an immense concourse of people. The United States Barracks Band, headed the procession, which was composed of the military of the city, G. A. R. Posts, police department, state and city officials, Governor's guards, and members of the press acting as pall-bearers. The hearse was drawn by six white horses to the Capitol, where the body lay in state. Governor Hoadley, on behalf of the State of so many great sons, received the body with a most elo- quent tribute to the heroism of one who had carried the lesson of true Americanism to a foreign land. The
BIRTHPLACE OF MACGAHAN.
THE RESTING PLACE OF BULGARIA'S LIBERATOR.
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Governor showed impressively how MacGahan was by nature an opponent to oppression, that he died young, but not untimely, and his remains had been re- turned to the home of his fathers, and Ohio would preserve and honor them.
The remains in charge of the committee reached Zanesville, Thursday, August 28th, where they were received by a committee of the Press, G. A. R. Post, and a large concourse of citizens. The remains were deposited on the day following in Mt. Calvary Ceme- tery vault, until the time of final sepulture at New Lexington, Thursday, September II.
Of the exercises attending the final interment, we quote from the New Lexington "Tribune" :
"All day Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday till 9 o'clock the casket lay on an elevated platform in the center of the court room, faithfully guarded by members of the New Lexington Guards, detailed for the purpose. One guard, uniformed and armed, was constantly stationed at the head, and another at the foot of the casket. Another was stationed just outside of the court room door, at the head of the stairs, another at the outside door of the Court House, and still another at the gate leading into the yard.
"The outer casket, a very beautiful one, was bought by the journalists of New York. The body came from Con- stantinople in a hermetically sealed leaden casket, in which it was placed at the time of the disinterment, and this of course was inclosed in the new one. Three large wreaths rested upon the casket, as it lay in the Court House here. Inscriptions upon ribbons attached showed that one was the gift of journalists of New York and another of the Press Club of the same city. The remaining large wreath was still unfaded and fresh, having been placed upon the casket after its arrival here by the widow and other friends of the deceased. On the casket was a handsome plate, bear- ing the inscription :
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J. A. MACGAHAN, Born June 12, 1844, Died June 9, 1878.
"At the head of the casket was placed a large photo- graph of the dead journalist as he appeared in life, in citi- zen's dress, and at the foot was a full-length likeness of him in the costume of a war correspondent, as he roughed it with the boys or slept or dined in the tents of generals. All day Wednesday and until late Wednesday night, and a good part of Thursday forenoon callers, embracing gentle- men, ladies, youths and children, streamed in and walked around the casket. passing from the right to the left, all gazing intently at the picture of the dead journalist, and many stopping to read the plate and the inscriptions attached to two of the large wreaths which rested upon the casket.
"A goodly number of business houses and private resi- dences had been draped in black with white intermingled Wednesday and many flags put out, but early Thursday morn- ing this became almost universal all along Main street, and also received more or less attention in other parts of the town. A beautiful arch was erected over Main street be- tween the Court House and Park, which was wrapped with alternate or intermingled flags and black and white, fes- tooned with wreaths of evergreen. Near the arch, and span- ning the same street, was stretched a large streamer, on which was printed in bold letters 'BULGARIA'S LIBERA- TOR.' Other large streamers were placed across Main street, erected by the G. A. R. Post, and proclaiming a welcome to their brethren from all parts who came to par- ticipate in the ceremonies attending the obsequies. The Court House and yard. the postoffice, St. Rose Church and New Lexington Cemetery were all appropriately decorated. Arches were raised over the cemetery gates, and over the head of the open grave on the MacGahan lot was placed a large banner. on which were painted the words, 'Rest in Thy Native Land.' Many of the decorations of business houses and private residences were very fine, and produced a pleasant effect. These decorations, in the aggregate, were
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much admired by visitors and received numerous compli- ments.
"At about 9:30 the casket was removed from the Court House to St. Rose Church, where the usual religious services were conducted by Bishop Watterson, of Columbus, assisted by a number of priests from St. Josephs and elsewhere. The Bishop preached an able and interesting sermon upon 'The Power and the Responsibility of the Newspaper Press.'
"Not one in twenty of the people in town could get into the church, and the heat was so oppressive that many who did get in were compelled to retire. About 11:30 the casket was brought from the church and the procession be- gan to form, under the direction of Hon. H. C. Greiner, assisted by several aides. The guard of honor consisted of a detachment of the New Lexington Guards. The procession moved along Main to Brown street, then down Brown to Cemetery avenue, then out along this avenue to the cemetery, then along the streets of the same to the southern part of the grounds, where the MacGahan lot had been selected by the committee for that purpose. Arrived at the open grave, the platoon of Grand Army men, who had preceded the pro- cession, formed themselves around the grave and speakers' stand in a circle large enough to accommodate the clergy, pallbearers, relatives, press, members of the legislature, etc., when the remainder of the procession opened ranks and let the hearse, clergy, relatives, etc., pass through to the grave. After the usual religious ceremonies, the people gathered around the stand that had been erected near by to be used for the public exercises. Hon. H. C. Greiner acted as chair- man. The exercises consisted of 'Eulogy on Life and Char- acter of J. A. MacGahan,' by E. S. Colborn ; poem, written for the occasion by W. A. Taylor; an address on the 'Office of the Newspaper Correspondent," by Judge Silas H. Wright.
"The number of persons present is variously estimated. Eight to ten thousand would in our opinion not be a wild estimate. It is safe to say that half as many people were never in town at any one time before. This county alone brought its thousands and the trains from east and west, north and south came in loaded down, the one from Zanes- ville and the east being unprecedented. Notwithstanding the
11 H. P. C.
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overwhelming crowds of people, the best of order was pre- served, and the proceedings and the events of the day were creditable alike to all, residents and strangers.
"The great event has come and gone, and the mortal remains of the famous Ohio boy, who perished so honorably and so bravely in a far distant country, now reposes in his native land, to be disturbed not again till time shall be no more.
"The Nation, the State and the people of this county have heartily united in paying a just tribute to a brilliant genius, to a patient hard worker, to a brave, noble man, who lived and toiled for others more than himself; who freed a nation of people, who opened the way for the story of the Cross, and who, with young wife and child awaiting his return to Russia, stopped amid malaria and malignant disease to lay down his life for a friend. When qualities like these cease to attract the admiration and love of man or woman, the world will scarce be worth living in, and finis may be appropriately written upon its outer walls."
The grave of MacGahan has not remained un- marked. To the teachers of Perry county belongs the honor of placing at his grave, a mark that is as enduring as the fame of the one that rests beneath. It was fitting that the teachers of his native county, should do this for him, who himself was a product of her public schools.
At the Teachers' Institute, in August 1900, the present writer in a brief address, reviewed the life of this renowned citizen, and asked that the teachers take the initiative, in placing a fitting memento at his sepul- chre. He called attention to the many granite bowl- ders scattered throughout the northern part of the county and suggested that they would in many ways be appropriate for a memorial. The teachers at once took up with the idea and in a few minutes a collection was taken, sufficiently large, to cover the expenses of secur- ing the bowlder. Mr. George W DeLong of Corning
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and the writer went to Thorn township and selected a suitable specimen, which with the word MacGahan upon it, is the only marker for this chivalrous knight of the pen.
THE ARTICLE THAT CAUSED THE RUSSO-TURKO WAR.
This article was penned to the London Daily News by Mr. MacGahan. It is dated August 2, 1876, from Tartar Bezarjik.
Since my letter of yesterday I have supped full of hor- rors. Nothing has as yet been said of the Turks that I do not now believe; nothing could be said of them that I should not think probable and likely. There is, it seems, a point in atrocity beyond which discrimination is impossible, when mere comparison, calculation, measurement are out of the question, and this point the Turks have already passed. You can follow them no further. The way is blocked up by mountains of hideous facts that repel scrutiny and investiga- tion, over and beyond which you can not see and do not care to go. You feel that it is superfluous to continue meas- uring these mountains and deciding whether they be a few feet higher or lower, and you do not care to go seeking for mole hills among them. You feel that it is time to turn back; that you have seen enough.
But let me tell you what we saw at Batak. We had some difficulty in getting away from Pestara. The authori- ties were offended because Mr. Schuyler refused to take any Turkish official with him, and they ordered the inhabit- ants to tell us that there were no horses, for we had to leave our carriages and take to the saddle. But the people were so anxious that we should go that they furnished horses in spite of the prohibition, only bringing them at first with- out saddles, by way of showing how reluctantly they did it. We asked them if they could not bring us saddles, also, and this they did with much alacrity and some chuckling at the way in which the Mudir's orders were walked over. Finally we mounted and got off.
As we approached Batak out attention was drawn to some dogs on a slope overlooking the town. We turned
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aside from the road, and passing over the debris of two or three walls and through several gardens, urged our horses up the ascent toward the dogs. They barked at us in an angry manner, and then ran off into the adjoining fields. I observed nothing peculiar as we mounted until my horse stumbled, when looking down I perceived he had stepped on a human skull partly hid among the grass. It was quite hard and dry, and might, to all appearances, have been there two or three years, so well had the dogs done their work. A few steps further there was another and part of a skel- eton, likewise, white and dry. As we ascended, bones, skulls, and skeletons became more frequent, but here they had not been picked so clean, for there were fragments of half dry, half putrid flesh attached to them. At last we came to a little plateau or shelf on the hillside, where the ground was nearly level, with the exception of a little inden- tation, where the head of a hollow broke through. We rode toward this with the intention of crossing it, but all suddenly drew reign with an exclamation of horror, for right before us, almost beneath our horses' feet, was a sight that made us shudder. It was a heap of skulls, intermingled with bones from all parts of the human body, skeletons nearly entire and rotting, clothing, human hair and putrid flesh lying there in one foul heap, around which the grass was growing luxuriantly. It emitted a sickening odor, like that of a dead horse, and it was here that the dogs had been seeking a hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted them.
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