USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 26
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Love interviews, proposals and betrothals are difficult to narrate and describe, especially by one who has neither witnessed nor passed through such scenes ; therefore, suffice to state sententiously that ere this couple parted they were engaged, looking forward to their marriage at the close of the war. And thus they separated, she to go to her quiet home: he to take his place in the ranks of the grand army of the Union as it went forth to put down the Rebellion. Thomas and Katharine met again six years later, but under very different and unlooked for circumstances and conditions.
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In one of the great battles of the war Thomas was wounded, captured and placed in a rebel prison, and for many months all that his friends in the North knew of him was that he was among the "missing."
During the interim other trouble was added to Katharine's sorrow. Her father's health failed and a change of climate-a trip to California-was rec- ommended. Katharine was to go with her father, and this she felt would place her still farther from her soldier boy lover whom, she confidently believed, still lived, and as she prepared for the journey she hoped each day that word would come from him on the morrow. But none came, and it was many months after she was on the Pacific coast ere word reached farmer Ream that his son was in Libby prison. Thomas lived through that terrible imprisonment, was finally exchanged, took his place again in the ranks, where he served until the close of the war. If Thomas ever wrote to Katharine after he was taken prisoner she never received his letters, and time and events drifted them still farther from each other and kept them apart.
Katharine's father's health came back to him and he concluded to make California his permanent home, and while the daughter rejoiced over her father's restoration to health, she still grieved for her lover and for two years was in doubt as to his fate. She, however, found comfort in her household cares and consolation in the observance of her Christian duties. She regularly attended religious services, and one Sunday evening she felt especially devout, and as she looked at the cross the chancel lights seemed like re- splendent stars casting a halo of glory upon the altar. She knelt and worshiped, forgetful of earthly cares and of earthly sorrow. But presently she was startled, imagining she heard her lover's voice in the Litany re- sponses. In vain she looked over the small congregation, but he was not there. She then realized that it was only a fancy or delusion caused by the mind being over-strained with anxiety and suspense-an auricular phantasm resultant from tension of brain and nerve.
After four years peace came again to the land and the boys in blue came marching home. Thomas was with the number and was the hero of the neighborhood in which his parents lived and was loved by the young maidens for the dangers through which he had passed.
Among the young ladies who smiled upon the returned soldier was one Ellen Moore, whose father during Thomas' absence had moved into the neigh- borhood and bought a large farm, whose broad acres bordered the valley and skirted the hills. Ellen, even as a girl, was as plain as her name, but was one of the most estimable of her sex. Ellen was the opposite of Katharine, for the latter was talented, brilliant and beautiful and capable of adorning any station in life.
The beautiful girl on the Pacific coast was neglected, if not forgotten. and Thomas Ream paid court to the matter-of-fact Ellen Moore, and within a year they were married.
In the meantime, Katharine Rolfe, hearing of Ream's return, waited long and impatiently for him to visit her. She had given him her love, had promised to become his wife, and how prayerfully, how hopefully, how despondently at times during the five long years she had waited for his return
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and for the fulfillment of his promise to make her his wife. But as he came not to her, she decided to go to him, feeling that she must see him once more and hear from his own lips that he still loved her. With this resolve she crossed the continent and arrived in her old home village on a Saturday night. The next day she attended church and a few moments after she was seated a bridal party entered, it being their "appearance" day. As they passed up the aisle Katharine saw that the groom was Thomas Ream, and a friend at her side whispered to her that the bride was Ellen Moore, that was.
This pen will not attempt to describe the feeling of disappointment, of chagrin and of sorrow that may have swayed poor Katharine's mind, or how the blow may have bruised her heart. Upon leaving the church, for a moment the eyes of Thomas and Katharine met, and what each read in the other's face is among the things that are sealed.
Thomas Ream and wife settled upon a farm, have prospered in life and seem to be happy.
As the purpose of this sketch is to state facts, not to explain actions, no cause can be given for Ream's actions in discarding the girl whom he had loved in his youth.
In his courtship with her, he looked hopefully forward to a professional career, in which he expected to succeed, for, as Bulwer wrote, "in the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail." But when he concluded to be a farmer, as his father was before him, then he wanted a wife whose mind would be content with counting the profits on butter and eggs, rather than attending club meetings, dances and theaters.
There may still be a romantic warm spot in Ream's heart for the Katha- rine of long ago, who has no connection with his present life.
The sad life story of Jane Swank is of general interest to the public and presents a peculiar case to the medical fraternity.
In the southern part of Jefferson township, a locality noted for the diversified beauty of its landscapes, as well as for the fertility of its soil. Jennie Swank passed her childhood and her youth at the family homestead of her parents, about midway between Butler and Ankneytown. She was a lovely girl and was beloved by her school mates and other acquaintances. She is of medium height, a brunette, but not of that pronounced type for whom men have been willing to cross swords and die.
When Jennie was yet in her teens, a young man from the Keystone state, with whose family the Swanks were acquainted, visited in the Swank locality, met the winsome Jennie, and then eye spake to eye and soul to soul, and then they realized the saying of the poet, that-
"There's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream."
Their betrothal followed, and soon afterward the young man returned to his home in the East, promising to soon return and make Jennie his wife. 'Tis useless to dwell upon or try to depiet their parting. Lovers separated before, have since, and the vicissitudes of life will part others, also; and
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such partings are, doubtless, somewhat similar with too much sameness in their stage settings to require narration in this sketch.
Weeks passed and lengthened into months, but no message came from the absent lover to the trusting maiden. What did it mean? Had he won her love and asked for her hand, but to cast them aside? No, she could not believe that, and in confidence she continued to watch and to wait. She went about her household duties in a mechanical way, while the future seemed to her young and over-burdened heart like a leadened sky to the way-tossed mariner, as fraught with omens of ill.
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Jennie reached that stage in her anxious expectations and of hopes unrealized, when a woman of a less trustful nature and of different mental endowments, would have turned from the avenues of disappointment to go forth into the world to seek a "career," when she had failed to get a husband and a home. But such thoughts did not occur to this poor girl. The realm of letters, the field of the arts, she knew not of, except as she may have read of them in her school books, and if thoughts and visions of a "career" or of the "new woman" came to her at all, they were in a dim, indefinite form, pointing only to a path that was too remote and inac- cessible for her to reach and tread. She had given the true love of her young heart to the man who had asked her to become his wife and whom she could not think was untrue to her. There may have been a difference in their stations of life, but love works mysteriously and by the alkahest of its subtle chemistry melts all distinctions in a common crucible. And as Jennie would look upon the betrothal ring her lover placed upon her finger, as they walked side by side in the fields where the cows grazed and the apples ripened, she doubted him not.
At last, after months of watchful expectations, she was informed that her father had intercepted her letters. If Jennie had not courage, her inno- cence and simplicity stood her in its place, and she confronted her father and accused him of his duplicity and baseness. An angry scene followed, Jennie announcing that she would go at once to the man to whom she was betrothed, and her father declared she should not go. The father had car- ried his opposition beyond the limit of her forbearance, beyond the wide margin of the love she bore for her parents, and a look of determination and of contempt came over her features as she braved the parental authority, and the father permitted his anger to get the better of his judgment and his love, and punished Jennie severely, whipping her unmercifully, it was said. What cause the father had for his opposition to the young man to whom his daughter was engaged, is not known, further than that he "hated him," and we hate as we do everything else, according to our nature. The defects of temperment, the clouded judgment and unreasonable prejudice extends to our likes and dislikes unconsciously.
The punishment inflicted upon Jennie by her angry father threw her into convulsions, and insanity and loss of speech followed.
The writer will not here attempt to give a dissertation upon the case, either pathologically, physiologically, or psychologically, but shall leave
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the discussion of the same to the learned profession to which it belongs, and to which it presents an interesting study.
Jennie is now over forty years of age and for the fourth of a century she has been an inmate of eleemosynary institutions, first in the county infirmary, then for several years in an asylum, from which she was returned as incurable, and for a number of years she was confined in a maniac's cell, but she is now given considerable liberty and assists in the work in the kitchen department of the infirmary. But for nearly all those years her tongue has been tied in silence, but she is now able to articulate "yes" or "no" so that they can be understood. Jennie has become somewhat stout, but her face shows evidence of the beauty of her youth.
Jennie wore her betrothal ring for many years, but it was finally lost and now she wears one she made of wire, to take its place. In the past she would hold up her white hand that visitors might see the band of gold that encircled her finger, as they looked at her through the iron bars of her cell. No trial through which she has passed has shaken her faith and trust, nor displaced her lover from the shrine whereon she had placed him, and where in her heart she doubtless worships him still.
A short time after Henry Swank had inflicted the punishment upon his daughter Jennie, he came to his death in a tragic way. While at work in the woods, in felling a tree, it careened upon the stump, struck Mr. Swank, inflicting injuries from which he died the following day.
But what of the lover? the reader may ask. If this were a romance, instead of a plain, true tale, the writer might attempt to evolve a romantic story, telling how this whilom lover has remained faithful and true to the girl, whom, in her insanity, has remained true to him still. But, to be truthful, we know naught of him.
But he doubtless looks back to that unfortunate engagement only as an episode of his boyish fancy, for the most of us know that the infatuations of youth are dispelled as the years of our age advance, and that love, such as young hearts imagine and poets paint, is but a myth.
"Man's love is of man's life a thing a part ;
'Tis woman's whole existence." -BYRON.
The death of Katherine Ebersole, the Jefferson township hermit, recalled the pathetic story of her life.
A young girl, gifted, handsome and wealthy, was wooed and her love won by a young man of her neighborhood and their wedding was to take place at the holiday season.
At that time Miss Ebersole owned a half section (section 32) of land- one of those fertile farms for which Jefferson township is so justly noted. Her' parents were dead and her brother was equally well provided for-owning one of the best farms on the far-famed Owl Creek valley, in Knox county.
Being engaged, Miss Ebersole, no doubt, indulged in day dreamings, and sought at times the seclusion of the forest for meditation and thought, and in the confidence she felt in the man of her choice, she was happy. To her love
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seemed to be effulgent in the air and to whisper in the rustling of the leaves, and that its demulcent influences o'erspread the earth. She was so true and devoted in her nature that it made her exacting and exclusive in her affections.
It has been said that there comes to every woman the vision of a complete life-a home life with the man she loves. He comes to every woman once- the man who could be supremely the husband of her soul-he, who beyond and above every other human being, might be to her what no other one could be in companionship and love.
To her mind her betrothed was all that was great, noble and manly, and she loved to pay him homage by her exquisite humility and contented sub- mission. She was glad that she was rich and that he was poor-that she had not only love, but wealth to bestow upon the man she had promised to wed. Miss Ebersole's character had been molded on the grand but simple lines of duty, and when the true character of the man to whom she was betrothed was revealed to her, when she was convinced that he had remarked that he "didn't care for Katy as much as for her property," she acted promptly and spurned the mercenary creature who had sought her hand that he might obtain her wealth. She lost him when she lost confidence in him. She then rose grandly to the high plane and dignity of true womanhood and discarded him forever.
He may have made the remark half in jest, for conflicting and complex influences may come into a man's life, and under peculiar circumstances he may say things which he does not half mean, or does not mean at all. But his remark struck beyond the limit of her forgivenness-beyond even the wide margin of her love. The lines tightened about her mouth, and a look of determination, if not of suffering, overspread her face. She realized that their lives must separate and that she must tread life's weary journey alone, and sufficient strength came to her to sustain her until life's end.
Another woman might have sought consolation and reparation in love for another, but Katherine could love but one and once. The "new woman" movement had not then been inaugurated, or she might have taken to the rostrum or stage to win a "career" because she had lost a lover.
The ordeal through which she passed burned the roses of love into ashes upon her heart, and from a loving, confiding creature she was metamorphosed into a Niobe and passed the remaining years of her life in anchoretical-like seclusion.
When troubles come and in times of disappointment and sorrow, aching and weary hearts are wont to seek solace and rest in the grave. Satan comes to us in our weakest moments and tempts us in the hour of our severest trials. And he may have tried to tempt this young girl to end all in death. If so, conscience held rein over desire and weakness, as she recalled the teachings of a Christian mother-that our life is not our own ; that we must accept its pen- alties, must bear its pains and burdens and fulfill its purposes, but that we have no right to cast it off, lest we thereby fail to reach that more exceeding and eternal life of glory of which this is but the faintest dawn. Paradise and heaven may seem afar off and almost impossible to attain, while this earth- life appears but a mockery to the over burdened heart. But
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"By faith we walk the narrow way That leads to joy on high."
Love and happiness beautify a woman's life, and as these were denied Miss Ebersole, we must with charity temper our criticisms of her after-course, for the cynicism into which she sank never developed into misanthropy.
It is stated by her neighbors that for several years thereafter Miss Ebersole lived somewhat after the manner of people in general, but as she grew older she became more morose and seclusive, and was an object of curiosity in the community and her doings were the gossip of her neighbors.
Her house stood at the west side of the new state road, about five miles south of Bellville. Finally, for more seclusion, she built a cabin further from the road. There was but little furniture in the house, and in an old chest she kept the bedclothes her mother had given her. A corner of the large hearth in front of the fire-place served her as a bed, a stone was her pillow and she covered herself with boards. Tenants tilled the farm and marketed its products. After the crops were gathered she raked the fields and gleaned, like Ruth of old, grain sufficient for her simple needs.
Although she lived in a condition of self-imposed penury and hoarded her bountiful gains, she did not grasp at possessions that were not her own, but exercised the most delicate discernments of justice and was conscientious and honorable in all her business relations. In speaking of herself she always used the plural pronoun, as "we are well," and like expressions.
Miss Ebersole was once robbed, and in the trial that followed she appeared as a witness in the Mansfield court room, and lawyers tried to make sport of her peculiarities. She finally became blind and was taken to her brother's, in Knox county, where she died a few years ago.
Death was to her but the burst of sunrise over the eternal hills, beyond whose summits they neither marry nor are given in marriage.
"THIE UNJUST JUDGE."
One of the most earnest advocates of the "Maine Liquor Law" in Mans- field was the late Hon. William Stevens, who with voice and pen ably presented the question of the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating drinks, which was very much agitated in Ohio in the early fifties.
Mr. Stevens was the author of a book of three hundred and fifty-two pages, entitled "The Unjust Judge ; or The Evils of Intemperance on Judges, Lawyers and Politicians; by a Member of the Ohio Bar." The work was published in Mansfield in 1854, and was printed at the office of the "Western Branch Book Concern of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America." The printing office was in the Drackert building, on South Main street. now owned by Mr.' Lorenz. Mr. Stevens at that time resided in a house now owned by J. H. Barr-the first house north of the Drackert building.
"The Unjust Judge" dealt largely with the dissipation which it alleged existed in the legal profession at that time. In his preface, Mr. Stevens stated that he had drawn upon the bench, the bar and the political arena for material
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from which to weave the web for the book, and that though some passages might appear pointed and personal, he disclaimed any such intention, but insisted that the work was aimed at the idiosyncracies of a class, and not at individuals. The following stanza of poetry upon its title page explains a motives and gives an incentive for the work:
"Go hear what I have heard- The sobs of sad despair- As memory feeling's fount hath stirred, And its revealings there Have told him what he might have been, Had he the drunkard's fate foreseen."
Mr. Stevens' book covered a wide range of thought, containing chapters pertaining to love, courtship and marriage, and on dissipation, degradation and crime. One of its most graphic chapters depicts a scaffold scene in which a man condemned to death was reprieved on the gallows after the black cap had been drawn over his face. The author portrayed scenes as actors represent characters upon the stage in theatrical presentations. He hit hard and, no doubt, sometimes ill-advisedly. His intentions may have been good, but his enemies claimed that his attacks upon certain members of the bar were made on account of enmity existing between them and the author. And now in reading the book fifty-four years after its publication, one is surprised that the lawyers did not take a more serious view of the attacks Mr. Stevens made upon them.
A reason assigned for the dissipation which then, as it was claimed, ex- isted to some extent among the members of the legal profession, was that: "Lawyers frequently attended courts in other counties, where they not only met their brethren of that particular bar, but also from other places, and often had to wait several days for their cases to be reached on the docket, and, in the meantime, they sauntered about town with time hanging heavily upon them; that while they were invited frequently to drink, they had in turn to treat, or be thought penurious, and in that way the drinking habit was formed unconsciously."
Many persons today regret that the lawyers of the Mansfield bar were shown in the bad light in which Mr. Stevens' book placed them. The facts are the Richland bar has ever been a credit to both the county and the state, and has always compared favorably with the bars elsewhere.
Mr. Stevens was a man of good character, was a good lawyer and a graphic writer. He was prosecuting attorney of Richland county two terms. His wife was a sister of the late John Larwill. The family removed to Kansas within a few years after the publication of the book. The first effective prohibitory law in the United States was enacted in Maine in 1851. The bill was drawn by Neal Dow, was known throughout the country as the "Maine Law," and the campaign in Ohio in 1854, involving a restrictive liquor law, was a stren- uous one, and resulted in the passage of a modified "Maine Law" in Ohio.
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THE MANSFIELD PRESS.
BY GENERAL R. BRINKERHOFF, FOR MANY YEARS THE DEAN OF THE MANSFIELD PRESS.
Of the various newspapers that have been published in the city of Mansfield I shall try to enumerate in their historical order with some personal recollections of the men who conducted them.
The first paper published in Mansfield was established in 1818 by John C. Gilkinson, the pioneer printer of the city, and whose son, Mansfield H. Gilkinson, was the first white male child born in Mansfield. I knew them both very well and they were excellent citizens. The name of the paper established in 1818 was "The Olive," and was only published about a year. I had a volume of it bound, which I gave the Memorial library soon after it was opened, but the volume has now disappeared.
The next paper was called "The Mansfield Gazette," and was established in August, 1822, by the late James Purdy who, through a long life was a leading lawyer and banker, and was always one of our most worthy citizens. The Gazette was Whig in politics. It was continued under Mr. Purdy's management for about ten years. Mr. Purdy gave me bound volumes of his files for the years 1826, 1827 and 1828, which I also presented to the Memorial library, but they are now in the Memorial museum, safely kept and properly cared for. For its day and generation the Gazette was a very creditable newspaper.
In 1830, Josiah L. Reed, of whom I know nothing, except that he started a Democratic paper in Mansfield called "The Western Herald," which he conducted for a year or two and then disposed of the plant.
In 1832, T. W. Bartley, Dr. Rentzel and J. C. Gilkinson formed a partnership and bought out both the Gazette and Herald, and commenced the publication of "The Ohio Spectator." The plant was soon sold to Henry Seymour, and then by Seymour to J. H. Hoffman, who with Rentzel con- ducted it to the close of the first volume, when it failed.
Thomas W. Bartley, then a leading lawyer in Mansfield, afterwards became governor of Ohio and later chief justice of the supreme court. In 1832 another paper was started in Mansfield called "The Richland Whig." Its publishers were John and Charles Boreland. But the Whig, like the Spectator, lasted only a year.
In 1836 the Spectator outfit was purchased by John Meredith and John Warnock, who continued it as a Democratic paper under the name of "The Ohio Shield." Upon Mr. Warnock's retirement from the paper, the name was changed to the "Shield and Banner," under the firm name of Meredith & Maxwell, who in 1841, sold the plant to John Y. Glessner, and the paper. remained under Mr. Glessner's ownership and control until his death in 1882, after which it was sold to the Hon. C. N. Gaumer, who enlarged its capacity in many ways and a few years later started the "Mansfield Daily Shield" in connection with the weekly edition. After a successful run of a dozen or more years, Mr. Gaumer sold the plant to the Shield Publishing company.
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