History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 108

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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After coal, iron is beyond doubt the most valuable mineral product of a State. As the material of manu- facture, it is the most important. What are called the "precious metals" are not to be compared with it as an element of industry or profit. But since no manufact- ures can be successfully carried on without fuel, coal becomes the first material element of the arts. Iron is unquestionably the next. Ohio has an iron district ex- tending from the mouth of the Scioto river to some point north of the Mahoning river, in Trumbull county. The whole length is nearty two hundred miles, and the breadth twenty miles, making, as near as we can ascertain, four thousand square miles. The iron in this district is of various qualities, and is manufactured largely into bars and castings. In this iron district are one hundred furnaces, forty-four rolling-mills, and fifteen rail-mills,

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being the largest number of either in any State in the Union, except only Pennsylvania.

Although only the seventeenth State in its admission, I find that, by the census statistics of 1870, it is the third State in the production of iron and iron manufact- ures. Already, and within the life of one man, this State begins to show what must in future be the vast re- sults of coal and iron, applied to the arts and manufact- ures. In the year 1874, there were four hundred and twenty thousand tons of pig iron produced in Ohio, which is larger than the product of any State, except Pennsylvania. The product and the manufacture of iron in Ohio have increased so rapidly, and the basis for increase is so great, that we may not doubt that Ohio will continue to be the greatest producer of iron and iron fabrics, except only Pennsylvania. At Cincinnati, the iron manufacture of the Ohio valley is concentrating, and at Cleveland the ores of Lake Superior are being smelted.

After coal and iron, we may place salt among the nec- essaries of life. In connection with the coal region west of the Alleghanies, there lies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, a large space of country, underlaiu by the salt rock, which already produces immense amounts of salt. Of this, Ohio has its full proportion. In a large section of the southeastern portion of the State, salt is produced without any known limitation. At Pomeroy and other points, the salt rock lies about one thousand feet below the surface, but salt water is brought easily to the surface by the steam engine. There, the salt rock, the coal seam, and the noble sandstone lie in successive strata, while the green corn and the yellow wheat bloom on the surface above. The State of Ohio produced, in 1874, three million five hundred thousand bushels of salt, being one-fifth of all produced in the United States. . The salt section of Ohio is exceeded only by that of Syracuse, New York, and of Saginaw, Michigan. There is no definite limit to the underlying salt rock of Ohio, and therefore, the production will be proportioned only to the extent of the demand.

Having now considered the resources and the products of the soil and mines of Ohio, we may properly ask how far the people have employed their resourses in the in- crease of art and manufacture. We have two modes of comparison-the rate of increase within the State, and the ratio they bear to other States. The aggregate value of the products of manufacture, exclusive of mining, in the last three censuses was: in 1850, sixty-two million six hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars; in 1860, one hundred and twenty-one million six hundred and ninety-one thousand dollars; in 1870, two hundred and sixty-nine million seven hundred and thirteen thousand dollars.

The ratio of increase was over one hundred per cent. in each ten years, a rate far beyond that of the increase of population, and much beyond the ratio of increase in the whole country. In 1850, the manufactures of Ohio were one-sixteenth part of the aggregate in the country ; in 1860, one-fifteenth part; in 1870, one twelfth part. In addition to this, we find, from the returns of Cincin-

nati and Cleveland, that the value of the manufactured products of Ohio in 1875, must have reached four hun- dred million dollars, and, by reference to the census tables, it will be seen that the ratio of increase exceeded that of the great manufacturing States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Of all the States ad- mitted into the Union prior to Ohio, Pennsylvania alone has kept pace in the progress of manufacture. Some little reference to the manufacture of leading articles may throw some light on the cause of this. In the pro- duction of agricultural machinery and implements, Ohio is the first State; in animal and vegetable oils and in pig iron, the second ; in cast iron and in tobacco, the third; in salt, in machinery and in leather, the fourth. These facts show how largely the resources of coal, iron and agriculture have entered into the manufactures of the State. This great advance in the manufactures of Ohio, when we consider that this State is, relatively to its sur- face, the first agricultural State in the country, leads to the inevitable inference that its people are remarkably industrious. When on forty thousand square miles of surface, three millions of people raise one hundred and fifty million bushels of grain, and produce manufactures to the amount of two hundred and sixty-nine million dollars (which is fifty bushels of breadstuff to each man, woman and child, and one hundred and thirty-three dol- lars of manufacture), it will be difficult to find any com- munity surpassing such results. It is a testimony, not only to the State of Ohio, but to the industry, sagacity and energy of the American people.

Looking now to the commerce of the State, we have said there are six hundred miles of coast line, which embraces some of the principal internal ports of the Ohio and the lakes, such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, To- ledo and Portsmouth, but whose commerce is almost wholly inland. Of course, no comparison can be made with the foreign commerce of the ocean ports. On the other hand, it is well known that the inland trade of the country far exceeds that of all its foreign commerce, and that the largest part of this interior trade is carried on its rivers and lakes. The materials for the vast con- sumption of the interior must be conveyed in its vessels, whether of sail or steam, adapted to these waters. Let us take, then, the ship-building, the navigation, and the exchange trades of Ohio, as elements in determining the position of this State in reference to the commerce of the country. At the ports of Cleveland, Toledo, San- dusky and Cincinnati, there have been built one thou- sand sail and steam vessels in the last twenty years, mak- ing an average of fifty each year. The number of sail, steam and all kinds of vessels in Ohio is eleven hun- dred and ninety, which is equal to the number in all the other States in the Ohio valley and the upper Missis- sippi.

When we look to the navigable points to which these vessels are destined, we find them on all this vast coast line, which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Yel- lowstone, and from Duluth to the St. Lawrence.

Looking again to see the extent of this vast interior trade which is handled by Ohio alone, we find that the

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imports and exports of the principal articles of Cincin- nati amount in value to five hundred million dollars; and when we look at the great trade of Cleveland and Toledo, we shall find that the annual trade of Ohio ex- ceeds seven hundred million dollars. The lines of rail- road which connect with its ports are more than four thousand miles in length, or rather more than one mile in length to each ten square miles of surface. This great amount of railroads is engaged not merely.in transporting to the Atlantic and thence to Europe, the immense sur- plus grain and meat in Ohio, but in carrying the largest part of that great surplus, which exists in the States west of Ohio, the granary of the west. Ohio holds the gate- way of every railroad north of the Ohio, from the Mis- sissippi to the Atlantic, and hence it is that the great transit lines of the country pass through Ohio.

Let us now turn from the progress of the arts to the progress of ideas; from material to intellectual develop- ment. It is said that a State consists of men, and shows that no art or science, wealth or power, will compensate for the want of moral or intellectual stability in the minds of a nation. Hence, it is admitted that the strength and perpetuity of our Republic must consist in the intelligence and morality of the people. A republic can last only when the people are enlightened. This was an axiom with the early legislators of this country. Hence it was that when Virginia, Connecticut, and the original colonies ceded to the General Government that vast and then unknown wilderness that lay west of the Al- leghanies, in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, they took care that its future inhabitants should be an educated people. The constitution was not formed when the cele- brated ordinance of 1787 was passed. That ordinance provided that, "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of man- kind, schools and the means of education shall be for- ever encouraged;" and by the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of public lands in the Northwestern Territory, section sixteen in each township, that is, one thirty-sixth part, was reserved for the maintenance of public schools in said townships. As the State of Ohio contained a little more than twenty-five millions of acres, this, to- gether with two special grants of three townships to uni- versities, amounted to the dedication of seven hundred and forty thousand acres of land to the maintenance of schools and colleges. It was a splendid endowment, but it was many years before it became available. It was sixteen years after the passage of this ordinance (in 1803), when Ohio entered the Union, and legislation upon this grant became possible. The constitution of the State pursued the language of the ordinance, and declared that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision." The governors of Ohio, in successive messages, urged atten- tion to this subject upon the people; but the thinness of settlement, making it impossible, except in few dis- tricts, to collect youth in sufficient numbers, and impos- sible to sell or lease lands to advantage, caused the delay of efficient school system for many years. In the year 1825, however, a general law establishing a school

system, and levying a tax for its support, was passed.

This was again enlarged and increased by new legisla- tion in 1836 and 1846. From that time to this, Ohio has had a broad, liberal and efficient system of public instruction. The taxation for schools, and the number enrolled in them at different periods, will best show what has been done. In 1855 the total taxation for school purposes was two million six hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven dollars. The proportion of youth of schoolable age enrolled was sixty-seven per cent. In 1874 the amount raised by taxation was seven million four hundred and twenty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars. The number enrolled of schoolable age was seventy per cent., or seven hundred and seven thousand nine hun- dred and forty-three dollars.

As the schoolable age extends to twenty-one years, and as there are very few youth in school after fifteen years of age, it follows that the seventy per cent. of schoolable youths enrolled in the public schools must comprehend nearly the whole number between four and fifteen years. It is important to observe this fact, be- cause it has been inferred that, as the whole number of youth between five and twenty-one have not been enrolled, therefore they are not educated. This is a mistake; nearly all over fifteen years of age have been in the public schools, and all the native youth of the State, and all foreign born, young enough, have had the benefit of the public schools. But in consequence of the large number who have come from other States and from foreign countries, there are still a few who are classed by the census statistics among the "illiterate;" the proportion of this class, however, is less in propor- tion than in twenty-eight other States, and less in pro- portion than in Connecticut and Massachusetts, two of the oldest States most noted for popular education. In fact, every youth in Ohio, under twenty-one years of age, may have the benefit of a public education; and, since the system of graded and high schools has been adopted, may obtain a common knowledge from the alphabet to the classics. The enumerated branches of study in the public schools of Ohio are thirty-four, in- cluding mathematics and astronomy, French, German and the classics. Thus the State which was in the heart of the wilderness in 1776, and was not a State until the nineteenth century had begun, now presents to the world, not merely an unrivaled development of material prosperity, but an unsurpassed system of popular edu- cation.

In what is called the higher education, in the colleges and universities, embracing the classics and sciences taught in regular classes, it is the popular idea, and one which few dare to question, that we must look to the Eastern States for superiority and excellence; but that also is becoming an assumption without proof; a propo- sition difficult to sustain. The facts in regard to the ed- ucation of universities and colleges, their faculties, stu- dents and course of instruction, are all set forth in the complete statistics of the bureau of education for 1874. They show that the State of Ohio had the largest num-

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ber of such institutions; the largest number of instructors in their faculties, except one State-New York ; and the largest number of students in regular college classes, in proportion to their population, except the two States of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Perhaps, if we look at the statistics of classical students in the colleges, dis- regarding preparatory and irregular courses, we shall get a more accurate idea of the progress of the higher ed- ucation in those States which claim the best. In Ohio, thirty-six colleges, two hundred and fifty-eight teachers, two thousand one hundred and thirty-nine students --- pro- portion, one in one hundred and twenty-four; in Penn- sylvania, twenty-seven colleges, two hundred and thirty- nine teachers, two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine students -- proportion, one in one hundred and fifty; in New York, twenty-six colleges, three hundred and forty- three teachers, two thousand seven hundred and sixty- four students -proportion, one in one hundred and seventy-six; in the six New England States, seventeen colleges, two hundred and fifty-two teachers, three thou- sand three hundred and forty-one students-proportion, one in one hundred and five; in Illinois, twenty-four colleges, two hundred and nineteen teachers, one thou- sand seven hundred and one students -proportion, one in one hundred and forty.

This shows there are more collegiate institutions in Ohio than in all New England; a greater number of college teachers, and only a little smaller ratio of stu- dents to the population; a greater number of such stu- dents than either in New York or Pennsylvania, and, as a broad general fact, Ohio has made more progress in education than either of the old States which formed the American Union. Such a fact is a higher testimony to the strength and the beneficent influence of the Am- erican Government than any which the statistician or the historian can advance.

Let us now turn to the moral aspects of the people of Ohio. No human society is found without its poor and dependent classes, whether made so by the defects of nature, by acts of Providence, or by the accidents of fortune. Since no society is exempt from these classes, it must be judged not so much by the fact of their exist- ence, as by the manner in which it treats them. In the civilized nations of antiquity, such as Greece and Rome, hospitals, infirmaries, orphan homes, and asylums for the infirm, were unknown. These are the creations of Christianity, and that must be esteemed practically the most Christian State which most practices this Christian beneficence. In Ohio, as in all the States of this coun- try, and of all Christian countries, there is a large num- ber of the infirm and dependent classes; but, although Ohio is the third State in population, she is only the fourteenth in the proportion of dependent classes. The more important point, however, was, how does she treat them ? Is there wanting any of all the varied institu- tions of benevolence? How does she compare with other States and countries in this respect? It is believed that no State or country can present a larger proportion of all these instituions which the benevolence of the wise and good have suggested for the alleviation of suf-

fering and misfortune, than the State of Ohio. With three thousand five hundred of the insane within her borders, she has five great lunatic asylums, capable of accommodating them all. She has asylums for the deaf and dumb, the idiotic, and the blind. She has the best hospitals in the country. She has schools of reform and houses of refuge. She has "homes" for the boys and girls, to the number of eight hundred, who are children of soldiers. She has penitentiaries and jails, orphan asylums and infirmaries. In every county there is an infirmary, and in every public institution, except the penitentiary, there is a school. So that the State has used eyery human means to relieve the suffering, to in- struct the ignorant, and to reform the criminal. There are in the State eighty thousand who come under all the various forms of the infirm, the poor, the sick, and the criminal, who, in a greater or less degree, make the de- pendent class. For these the State has made every provision which humanity or justice or intelligence can require. A young State, developed in the wilderness, she challenges, without any invidious comparison, both Europe and America, to show her superior in the devel- opment of humanity manifested in the benefaction of public institutions.

Intimately connected with public morals and with charitable institutions, is the religion of a people. The people of the United States are a Christian people. The people of Ohio have manifested their zeal by the erection of churches, Sunday schools, and of religious institutions. So far as these are outwardly manifested, they are made known by the social statistics of the census. The num- ber of church organizations in the leading States were: In the State of Ohio, six thousand four hundred and eighty-eight; in the State of New York, five thousand six hundred and twenty-seven; in the State of Pennsyl- vania, five thousand nine hundred and eighty-four; in the State of Illinois, four thousand two hundred and ninety- eight. It thus appears that Ohio had a larger number of churches than any State of the Union. The number of sittings, however, was not quite as large as those in New York and Pennsylvania. The denominations are of all the sects known in this country, about thirty in number, the majority of the whole being Methodists, Presbyteri- ans and Baptists. Long before the American Indepen- dence, the Moravians had settled on the Mahoning and Tuscarawas rivers, but only to be destroyed; and when the peace with Great Britrin was made, not a vestige of Christianity remained on the soil of Ohio; yet we see that within ninety years from that time the State of Ohio was, in the number of its churches, the first of this great Union.

In the beginning of this address, I said that Ohio was the oldest and first of these great States, carved out of the Northwestern Territory, and that it was in some things the greatest State of the American Union. I have now traced the physical, commercial, intellectual and moral features of the State during the seventy-five years of its constitutional history. The result is to establish fully the propositions with which I began. These facts have brought out:

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First. That Ohio is, in reference to the square miles of its surface, the first State in agriculture of the Amer- ican Union ; that, too, notwithstanding it has eight hun- dred thousand in cities and towns, and a large develop- ment of capital and products in manufacture.

Second. That Ohio raised more grain per square mile than either France, Austria, or Great Britain. They raised one thousand four hundred and fifty bushels per square mile, and ten bushels to each person. Ohio raised three thousand seven hundred and fifty bushels per square mile, and fifty bushels to each one of the pop- ulation; or, in other words, five times the proportion of grain raised in Europe.

Third. Ohio was the first State of the Union in the production of domestic animals, being far in advance of either New York, Pennsylvania or Illinois. The propor- tion of domestic animals to each person in Ohio was three and one-third, and in New York and Pennsylvania less than half that. The largest proportion of domestic animals produced in Europe was in Great Britain and Russia, neither of which come near that of Ohio.

Fourth. The coal-field of Ohio is vastly greater than that of Great Britain, and we need make no comparison with other States in regard to coal or iron; for the ten thousand square miles of coal, and four thousand square miles of iron in Ohio, are enough to supply the whole American continent for ages to come.

Fifth. Neither need we compare the results of com- merce and navigation, since, from the ports of Cleve- land and Cincinnati, the vessels of Ohio touch on forty- two thousand miles of coast, and her five thousand miles of railroad carry her products to every part of the Amer- ican continent.

Sixth. Notwithstanding the immense proportion and products of agriculture in Ohio, yet she has more than kept pace with New York and New England in the prog- ress of manufactures during the last twenty years. Her coal and iron are producing their legitimate results in making her a great manufacturing State.

Seventh. Ohio is the first State in the Union as to the proportion of youth attending school; and the States west of the Alleghanies and north of the Ohio have more youth in school, proportionably, than New England and New York. The facts on this subject are so extra- ordinary that I may be excused for giving them a little in detail.

The proportion of youth in Ohio attending school to the population, is one in four and two-tenths; in Illinois, one in four and three-tenths; in Pennsylvania, one in four and eight-tenths; in New York, one in five and two- tenths; in Connecticut and Massachusetts, one in eight and seven-tenths.

These proportions show that in the west, and not in the east, education is now advancing; and it is here that we see the stimulus given by the ordinance of 1787, is working out its great and beneficent results. The land grant for education was a great one, but, at last, its chief effort was in stimulating popular education; for the State of Ohio has taxed itself tens of millions of dollars be- yond the utmost value of the land grant, to found and

maintain a system of public education which the world has not surpassed.

We have seen that above and beyond all this material and intellectual development, Ohio has provided a vast benefaction of asylums, hospitals, and infirmaries, and special schools for the support and instruction of the de- pendent classes. There is not within all her borders a single one of the deaf, dumb, and blind, of the poor, sick, and insane, not an orphan or a vagrant, who is not provided for by the broad and generous liberality of the State and her people. A charity which the classic ages knew nothing of, a beneficence which the splendid hierarchies and aristocracies of Europe cannot equal, has been exhibited in this young State, whose name was unknown one hundred years ago, whose people, from Europe to the Atlantic, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, were, like Adam and Eve, cast out-"the world before them where to choose."

Lastly, we see that, although the third in population, and the seventeenth in admission to the Union, Ohio had, in 1870, six thousand four hundred churches, the largest number in any one State, and numbering among them every form of Christian worship. The people, whose fields were rich with grain, whose mines were boundless in wealth, and whose commerce extended through thousands of miles of lakes and rivers, came here, as they came to New England's rock-bound coast-

"With freedom to worship God."

The church and the school-house rose beside the green fields, and the morning bells rang forth to cheerful chil- dren going to school, and to a Christian people going to the church of God.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 108

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559