History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 38

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985


USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 38


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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beyond Richmond. They were covered over with quilts, as if hauling dressed hogs. To all inquiries he replied he was loaded with meat. He reached Richmond about five o'clock A. M. and in turning a corner struck a rock and upset the sled, spilling the "meat" out in the snow. He ordered the blacks to right the sled and get in, and then he covered them again, drove on through the city and, two miles beyond, delivered the "meat," and came back to Richmond to feed his team. At another time, while taking one runaway to Richmond, and they were all taken after night, he drove up the Eaton and Richmond pike, and about midnight came to a toll-gate, near where the Campbelltown road strikes the pike; it was closed. Tom knew the keeper of the toll-gate was a strong supporter of slavery, and he ordered the black to sit as far back in the buggy as possible. As the gate-keeper came out, he handed him exact toll to Richmond, and he unlocked the pole and let it up and then stepped forward, asking "who is with you," trying, in the darkness, to see the other man, when Tom spit in his face, whipped the horse and was gone. He came home another way.


At another time, some two miles northwest of Eaton, on a star-lit night, a man stopped him and tried to see into the buggy. Tom shoved the muzzle of an old-fashioned pepper-box revolver in the fellow's face, and he jumped backward and exclaimed, "No, I don't like pepper." Neither did Tom; he drove on.


At one time, the slave hunters came to West Elkton on the hunt of a couple of runaway black women from Kentucky. It was during the fall, and there was an apple party at Richard Randall's, just east of the village, and about eleven P. M. they were getting ready to go home. The girls had put on their bonnets and veils, when the slave hunters, headed by a United States deputy marshal, came into the house, and compelled every girl to raise her veil, using force on one or two, so they could be sure they were white. It made every young man present a rank Abolitionist ever afterward.


Near Morning Sun one evening, two or three landed and were put away. Next morning, a man rode up at great speed and notified the man that a party was coming that day from Hamilton searching for runaways, when a young man shouldered his rifle, and with the negroes disappeared in the hills of Hopewell creek. In about two hours the hunters came with a dog, and he started on a trail. After going a half mile or more he met the young man coming back carrying a couple of squirrels; when he saw the dog he surmised its purpose and promptly shot it, pretending that he was afraid and thought


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it was after him, as he had hunted that way; the squirrels confirmed his story. The negroes got away.


These stories and many others I have heard related by men who took part in those troubles, and whose veracity I never heard questioned by friend or foe.


At the settlement of the county, rattlesnakes were very numerous, and the early settlers were in constant fear of them, especially for their children. The snakes were very much more numerous in some localities than in others. When the settlers began to raise hogs in large numbers the rattlesnakes began a rapid decrease, because hogs, especially the old woods breed they then had, are the most deadly foe of the rattlesnakes.


Dr. Christian Sayler, of Gratis, related, that in the early day, the Morn- ingstar hill, just where it starts to break down to the north, was called Rattle- snake hill, because there was a small cave, yet visible, leading back into the Clinton rock, which was found to be much infested with rattlesnakes. They seemed to gather there every fall, and spread from there every spring. About the time of the 1812 War, the citizens set a watch one spring when the weather began to get warm, and when the watch notified them that the snakes were beginning to make their appearance in numbers, they kept a detail of eight or ten men there for several days, to hunt the woods around the hill, and watch the cave. During the time they succeeded in killing over four hundred rattlesnakes, after which the neighborhood seemed to be much less affected by the pests. Some of our old men still call it Rattlesnake hill.


As illustrating the homesickness that must have seized some of those early settlers, Ebenezer Paddack, of Jackson township, some thirty years ago told the writer the following incident: About 1830, a man of forty years of age, who resided in Virginia on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge moun- tains, moved with his wife and some three or four children to Jackson town- ship and rented a farm; but the great level stretches of land made him lone- some, and within a year he desired to go back, but could not readily find a buyer for the property accumulated. After three or four years, he made a public sale, retaining horses and wagon, and it so happened that he found no bidder for three large camp kettles. He heard that Mr. Paddack desired to get some kettles, and he walked about a mile next morning to the house to inquire. A bargain was made; Mr. Paddack counted out the money and paid him. As he walked from the door he faced the sun and throwing up his head, he exclaimed, "Old Virginy, I smell you now." He went back.


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AN OX STORY.


George D. Hendrix often told this story; once in presence of the writer, substantially as follows: That when white men first settled near Eaton, they found a large ox roaming the woods. He was a majestic animal with long-spreading horns, and only one eye, and having no known owner. He was supposed to have belonged to one of the wagon-trains hauling supplies to Wayne's army, or to the garrison of Fort St. Clair, and to have strayed away in the woods, and thus lost. He was caught by the early settlers ; easily tamed, and soon became very gentle. Many of the boys would climb on his back, the front boy guiding the old ox along the trail with a little switch, and when the house was reached the ox got a bite of the choicest feed the boys could find. Mr. Hendrix added, that as a boy he had often ridden the ox, that they all called "One-eyed." He was lent from house to house to help logging and plowing, and being so large and strong he easily drew his share of the load, and seemed so perfectly at home, at every and any house, that he was a general favorite, every settler seeming to feel an ownership. It was claimed that when he died he must have been some twenty-five years old. At his death, a large number of those pioneers turned out and buried him on Garrison branch, as one of them said, "a Christian burial."


About 1810 or 1811, the Indians abducted two little girls in Harrison township. one named Harper and the other Tharp. The trail was followed but lost, and no inquiry or search later brought any information, until, some fifteen or twenty years later, Harper learned that a white woman was with the Indians at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and supposed to have been taken from this county. He went there and. through an interpreter, established her identity as his daughter, but so thoroughly had her habits as an Indian become fixed that she refused to talk to her father and he returned home alone.


Some twenty-five years after the abduction, Mr. Tharp was informed by an Indian trader that a white woman was the wife of a Miami chief called Captain Dixon, near Marion, Indiana. Mr. Tharp went to the house of William E. Hendricks, a nephew of Colonel Hendricks, who lived near there and knew them. A meeting was arranged with the woman, who turned out to be his daughter. All his efforts to induce her to return were unavailing, she saying that she was too old to form new habits and that she would be ridiculed among the whites. Mr. Tharp came home alone. Captain Dixon was a drunken character who, some four or five years later, came home drunk,


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with a second wife and abused his white wife for objecting. The latter went to the Mississinewa river and drowned herself.


It is related of Henry Kesling, who settled just north of West Alexandria, about 1804-5, that about a year after he located he went into the woods to hunt a hickory pole to hoop a sugar-water tub, and saw one that he thought suitable growing just over a big log. He stepped over the log to cut it, when a black bear that was behind the log, surprised, no doubt, by his sudden coming, rose up on its hind feet, only four or five feet away, with a "woof," and of course, Kesling was surprised, too. With the instinct of self-preserva- tion, and without a thought of where to strike, he swung the axe, and, strik- ing as hard as he could at the bear, was fortunate in hitting it in a vital spot, when it fell dead at his feet. He dressed it and the family had bear meat for dinner; but he never hunted bear that way again.


A TALE OF A TURKEY.


James V. Acton came to Eaton from Virginia, about 1834. He was a lover of the rifle, and, of course, loved hunting. As illustrating the changes made, he related to the writer that, about a year after he came, while hunting one evening, he saw a flock of wild turkeys going to roost in the woods about the west line of Fred Earhardt's gardens and marked in memory the location. The next morning, before day, he quietly made his way to the location and, as daylight sifted down, he saw a turkey on the top of a tall oak, and as soon as he could sight his gun, he shot. The turkey flew to the southwest, but slowly descended. He was sure he had struck the bird and followed down the course, carefully searching for the turkey which he believed had only flown until life was gone. In the line was a cabin about three squares north of the depot, and while looking around the cleared patch of ground, the owner of the cabin came out and asked him what he hunted. He told of shooting the turkey and its flight : the fellow said, "I have your turkey," and went into the cabin and brought it forth. He had been making a fire in the fireplace, which contained an old-fashioned, wide chimney, when the turkey came tumbling down the chimney into the ashes. It had tried to alight on the chimney, when death overtook it. Uncle James took his turkey, but said that fellow had a number of turkey dinners later, and they became life-long friends. Every one who knew Mr. Acton will credit his story.


Henry Paddack, in the spring of 1806, settled on section 29 of Jackson township. His son Ebenezer Paddack, born in 1801, related to the writer in


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1885, the story of a journey taken by him in 1808 with his father, as illustrat- ing the traveling in those early days. His father planned to go to mill at the Bruce mill at Eaton, the boy begging hard to go along, and consent was given. Next morning he was called early, and at daylight they set out with two horses and a big wagon with two or three sacks of grain, and picked their way along the trail through the big woods, reaching the mill about 9 A. M. The horses were fed in the rear end of the wagon, while the father and son ate the lunch brought along, and waited for the grist, which was ready about three or four P. M. They immediately started on the return journey and got home just after dark, and the boy went to sleep at the supper table. It was nine miles only, but he said he had traveled many hundred miles since, in many kinds of conveyances, but no journey had left so deep an impression on his mind as that long one through the woods to the mill and back. I have known the round trip covered in the last year in less than forty minutes by automobile.


In the history of Preble county, the reader cannot but notice how liberal the early settlers were towards the religious bias of their neighbors, in fact, generally building Union or public churches in which every denomination could worship, when it was not otherwise in use. As illustrating the senti- ment then prevailing, I give the following verse given me by George H. Kelly, who received it from his father, who had often heard it sung in the old public church in Eaton, in those early days. If the poetry be not classic, the sentiment certainly is :


"My brethren, I have found a land, That doth abound with food as sweet as manna,


The more I eat, I find, The more I am inclined To sing and shout Hosannah.


I care not for your name, Religion is the same,


We all can meet together,


And as we pass along, We'll sing a Christian song,


We hope to live forever."


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THE COURSE OF A STREAM.


As illustrating the changes that nature is making, the following, related by Mr. A. L. Reid, who is well known over the county, and who was born and reared on the banks of the stream, is worth recording. Where Little creek crosses from section 15 into section 16, Jefferson township, it originally swung west around the hill through the farm now owned by Mr. Bragg, and after passing around the hill it flowed back into its present bed just north of the hill at the south ford. The old bed can now be plainly traced by the sand and gravel-channel through the fields. Before the-advent of white men, of course, the flow of the stream was much obstructed by fallen timber. The Indians related that beavers had built a dam near the hill, and the bank or low hill on the west extended east and joined the hill or ridge east of the creek. In this bank many muskrats burrowed and made their houses, prob- ably for many years. Finally, just before white men came, the Indians re- lated that a great flood prevailed all over this part of the county, probably the big flood of 1789, and the water seeped through the burrowed bank, and finally washed a hole through. Then the whole stream took the short cut and has now washed out a channel some eight feet below the former bed and, attacking the hill from the other side, washed it back some three hundred feet, leaving a sheer bluff some thirty feet high, where once the road ran over the hill. The early settlers related the story of the break to Mr. Reid's father, but the stream has washed the hill back at least one hundred and fifty feet within the memory of men yet living in the vicinity.


It is related that when the Bruce mill at Eaton was rebuilt, in 1810, into a three-story mill, the workmen hesitated about climbing to that dizzy height, overlooking the water, to place the rafters. The carpenter's wife nimbly climbed the ladders and walked around on the plates as though on the ground, then pulled a bottle of whisky out of her pocket, held it up and announced that any one who wished a drink, had to come up after it, and some half dozen went up. This story shows that woman and whisky could coax men into the most dangerous places in the days of those early pioneers, and they left many descendants who still dwell amongst us.


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PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. STATISTICS. POPULATION AT EACH CENSUS.


Year.


Ohio.


Preble County.


1800


45,365


1810


230.760


3.304


1820


581,295


10,237


1830


937,903


16,29I


1840


1,519.467


19,482


1850


1,980,329


21,736


1860


2,339.51 I


21,820


1870


2,665,260


21,809


1880


3,198,062


24,533


1890


3.672,316


23.421


1900


4.157,545


23.713


1910


4,767,121


23,834


POPULATION OF COUNTY, AS GIVEN BY STATE REPORTS OF UNITED STATES CENSUS. THE POPULATION OF TOWNSHIPS INCLUDES VILLAGES THEREIN.


Townships and Villages-


1820


1840


1860


1880


1890


1900


1910


Israel


838


1.547


1,631


1,799


1.580


1,440


1,401


College Corner (in county)


841


1,290


1,213


1,161


1,038


978


942


Jackson


615


1.260


1,578


1,296


1,213


1.255


1,157


Jefferson


876


2,164


1,842


2,244


2,069


1,916


1,946


New Paris


842


790


870


Somers


1,171


1.820


2,061


2,172


1,869


1,823


1,839


Camden


836


901


865


729


694


732


Washington


1,562


2.459


3.166


3,961


4,566


4.875


4,913


Eaton


255


1,176


1,807


1,823


2,067


1,781


1,741


Eldorado


West Manchester Est.


1,931


2,136


2.150


2.011


1.941


1,792


West Elkton


216


215


230


Gratis 'illage


3.89


375


410


Lanier


1,096


1,618


1,738


1,916


1,824


1,919


2,075


Twin


865


1,675


1,890


1.965


1.835


1,929


1,998


West Alexandria-All


815


1,706


2,217


2,085


2,620


2,778


672


Lewisburg


400


Verona, Est. in County


Total County


10,237


19,482


21,820


24,533


23,421


23,713


23,834


I


!


I


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


1


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2.853


Harrison


486


560


1,030


575


740


3,187


Monroe


303


365


358


321


450


Gratis


1,000


846


905


899


Gasper


2,934


3,155


198


Dixon


183


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PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.


TAX DUPLICATE VALUES FOR 1914.


Township.


Acres


Farm


Land.


Value.


Average


Per Acre.


Personal


Property.


Village.


Real


Estate.


Personal


Property.


Israel


22,880 $ 1,846,140 $ 76.72 $ 502,760 College Corner_$ 120,760 $ 100,630


Dixon


22,570


1,889,760


81.78


583,670 New Paris


403,870


409,910


Jackson


21,570


1,913,600


84.68


1,076,930 Camden


489,460


405,520


Jefferson


22,095


1,610,680


71.76


1,118,730 Eaton


2,754,910


1,681,400


Somers


22,279


1,470,390


64.36


660,680 Eldorado


151,460


180,100


Gasper


14,883


840,580


55.85


510,610 W. Manchester_


204,600


258,440


Washington


28,032


2,374,120


83.95


1,023,630 West Elkton ___


79,770


34,650


Monroe


22,054


2,029,870


91.15


1,022,600 Gratis Village_


114,860


46,190


Gratis


23,166


1,621,640


69.64


472,290 W. Alexandria_


774,690


486,560


Lanier


22,837


2,005,560


86.33


781,060 Lewisburg


532,680


376,910


Twin


22,032


1,884,250


82.97


827,610 Verona


121,720


178,230


Harrison


22,347


2,171,410


91.08


1,087,380


Totals


266,695 $21,679,190


$9,668,050


$5,848,780 $4,158,540


Grand total, $41.354,560, and 1,783 dogs. Total tax levy for 1914, $388,811.02. Average value per acre for county, $79,05.


State 25, 180,416 acres; average value, $63.78.


CROPS RAISED AND STOCK OWNED IN 1913, AS RETURNED BY ASSESSORS.


Township.


Corn,


bushels.


Wheat,


bushels.


Tobacco,


bushels.


Horses,


number.


Cattle,


number.


Hogs,


number.


Autos,


! number.


Israel


236,670


50,456


4,200


873


1,439


5,579


31


Dixon


328,460


78,400


25,200


883


1,417


6,870


54


Jackson


282,100


66,300


73,100


651


1,103


4,946


40


Jefferson


173,106


34,176


56,440


828


1,323


3,406


50


Somers


143,590


49,594


29,000


573


1,337


3,144


33


Gasper


132,355


45,152


86,240


576


912


3,072


18


Washington


295,480


74,583


456,370


1,433


1,895


6,206


152


Monroe


236,335


58,771


393,316


1,218


1,634


4,365


67


Gratis


141,760


56,953


288,100


890


1,256


3,485


43


Lanier


213,191


78,449


698,532


975


1,378


4,227


74


Twin


183,325


63,220


720,830


1,098


1,831


3,695


49


Harrison


151,365


43,216


554,400


1,393


1,689


4,221


65


Totals


2,517,737


699,270


3,385,728


11,328


17,214


53,223


676


To which must be added 1,084 mules.


Oats, 210,826 bushels.


Butter, 649,680 pounds.


Eggs, 758,095 dozen; 19,000 tons of hay; sheep, 5,296; while in 1880 sheep were 13,428. In 1906 tobacco, 8,310,000 pounds. In 1911, 6,866,610 pounds. Automobiles, January 1, 1915, 1,143


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HON. ANDREW L. HARRIS.


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MRS. CAROLINE C. HARRIS.


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BIOGRAPHICAL


GOV. ANDREW LINTNER HARRIS.


Of all the living citizens of Preble county, the best known throughout the country is former Governor Andrew Lintner Harris, a distinguished soldier of the Civil War, a widely-known and able member of the Ohio Gen- eral Assembly, lieutenant-governor several terms, a member of President McKinley's industrial commission and finally head of the Ohio state gov- ernment. Governor Harris always has been one of the most beloved men, not only in the county of his origin and where he now lives, but throughout the state and nation where he is so well known. His life has been full of public service and he may now enjoy the reflection and self contemplation of a career that has been well spent. Governor Harris's life has been suc- cessful in a large degree, but he has never won success that he did not first richly deserve.


Governor Harris was born in Milford township, Butler county, Ohio, November 17, 1835, the son of Benjamin and Nancy (Lintner) Harris, both natives of Ohio, who were the parents of seven children, Andrew Lintner, Margaret Ann, who was the wife of Robert Brasier and who died in 1867; Eliza Jane, deceased, who was the wife of Levin T. Murray, and four who died in infancy, Joseph, Margaret Ann, Marietta and Elizabeth.


Benjamin Harris was born in Cincinnati but moved to Butler county with his parents about 1814 and there grew to manhood and married. In early life he was a school teacher and later a farmer. In 1838 he moved to Preble county and settled in Dixon township, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land and reared his family. He died there in 1872 at the age of sixty-nine. His wife died in 1891. Both were reared as Presbyterians. Benjamin Harris held several minor township offices and was a member of the school board. He wrote with a quill pen and was a beautiful penman, often being called upon to do writing for others. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and had the faculty of fine composition. He was a rheumatic invalid and suffered with this af- fliction for many years.


The paternal grandparents of Governor Harris were Joseph and Jane


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(Kirkpatrick) Harris. Joseph Harris was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and married Miss Kirkpatrick in Cincinnati in 1802, she also being of Irish descent. They were pioneers in Butler county, Ohio, where they spent their last days. Joseph Harris was a salesman in young manhood and later a farmer. He was married three times, his first wife being Jane Kirkpatrick, to which union were born three sons and one daughter, Ben- jamin, Robert, Esther and Thomas. His second wife was Rachel Hornaday and to that union three children were born, John, Joel and Rachel. His third wife was Nancy Logan and by that marriage there were four children, William, Joseph, Harvey and Jane.


The maternal grandparents of Governor Harris were Andrew and Rachel (Lytle) Lintner, the former being of German and the latter of Irish descent. They were married in Butler county, but moved to Preble county in the early thirties. Andrew Lintner was a farmer and lived in Dixon township near a little village called Sugar Valley. To this couple were born eight children, Sarah, Nancy, Robert, Thomas, Margaret, James, William and Loretta. Both Andrew Lintner and his wife died in the year 1845, both then being past middle age.


.Andrew L. Harris was about three years old when he came with his parents to Preble county. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, at- tending the country schools. He later attended Miami University at Ox- ford, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated in 1860 with the de- gree of Bachelor of Science. He read law in 1860 and 1861 for self im- provement. He then began preparing for spring work on the farm, when the three months' call was made by President Lincoln for soldiers in the Civil War. The call was made on the 15th of April, and Governor Harris enlisted on the 16th. The company was accepted on the 17th, this company being Company C. Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Harris served four months, being mustered out on August 18, by expira- tion of his term of service. He had entered as a second lieutenant and was promoted to captain in the service. As soon as he could adjust his business affairs, Captain Harris took a commission to recruit another company and speedily recruited Company C, Seventy-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and but he served until January 15, 1865. On January 12, 1863. Captain Harris was promoted to the rank of major. In the terrible struggle at Chancellors- ville, his regiment did gallant service. Col. Robert Riley was killed, and as a consequence of his death Major Harris was promoted to the head of his regiment May 3, 1863. On July 1, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Harris had command of the Second Brigade of the First Division


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of the Eleventh Corps and distinguished himself and commanded in a dar- ing charge. His command was under hot fire for three days and was the first to enter Gettysburg after the battle. The Seventy-fifth Regiment lost heavily and its colonel was badly wounded. On August 18, the Ohio Brigade was placed in the trenches of Morris Island and there remained until the fall of Forts Wagner and Gregg on September 7. On the night of September 6, 1863, Colonel Harris, with nine hundred selected men, was detailed to make the assault on the sea front with instructions to march against the works at daybreak, but the enemy observing the operations, abandoned the fort. In February, 1864, Colonel Harris, with his regiment, was sent to Jacksonville, Florida, where the regiment was mounted, there- after doing gallant cavalry service until mustered out.


In May, 1864, Colonel Harris went to the headwaters of the St. John and Kissimme rivers and destroyed a large amount of cotton, salt and other Confederate stores. He also captured five thousand head of beef cattle, and all this was accomplished without the loss of a single man. On August 14, 1864, Colonel Harris was sent by General. Hatch on an expedi- tion to the rear of the enemy with only two hundred men. It was an im- prudent expedition, but Colonel Harris obeyed orders and took a few prisoners. He was met by a large force and was compelled to ride night and day to keep out of the hands of the enemy. On August 17, he halted at Gainsville to rest, supposing himself to be temporarily secure, but was soon attacked by fourteen hundred men. As a retreat was out of the ques- tion, he had to either cut his way out or surrender. The odds were seven to one, but desperate as was the chance, Colonel Harris succeeded in getting away with one half of his little band. Colonel Harris was a brave, fearless and gallant officer. He took every precaution to save his men, yet when duty called he never faltered, and again and again he was in the thickest of the fight, where his own valor and daring inspired and encouraged his followers. He was mustered out of service as colonel of the Seventy-fifth Ohio on January 15, 1865, and on March 13. 1865. was breveted brigadier- general for gallant conduct on the field of battle. General Harris participated n many battles of the war, and in all the battles of his regiment except the attle of Cross Keys, Virginia. Among the battles in which he was engaged vere McDowell, Virginia, on May 8, 1863, the second battle of Bull Run, le battle of Chancellorsville, the battle of Gettysburg, the siege of Fort Vagner, South Carolina, and others. He was wounded at the battle of IcDowell and was permanently disabled. He also was wounded at the bat- : of Gettysburg.




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