History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 78

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The Pease building was occupied about one, year, when the lodge was removed to

the Morehouse building, owned by Theodore Clapp, on the southeast corner of Front and Garrison streets. Here they remained about two years, when they again removed to a room in the third story of Buckland's "old block," on Front street. This room they occupied from 1850 to March, 1870, when another change was made to the present large, commodious, and beautifully appointed rooms in the Foster block, Front street.

The lodge continued to increase in membership until 1876, when, numbering one hundred and sixty-two contributing members and thirty-five past grands, some of the brotherhood evidenced a desire to withdraw and form a new lodge. In June of the same year the matter took tangible form in the institution of McPherson Lodge, No. 637, with twenty-nine charter members, a history of which will appear elsewhere in this work. Since that time both lodges have worked harmoniously together, as brothers of one great family, in cherishing the sentiments and diffusing the divine principles of friendship, love, and truth.

The following summary has been care- fully compiled from records and annual grand lodge reports, from February 5, 1847, to July 1, 1881, and is approximately correct:

SUMMARY.

MEMBERSHIP.

Contributing members January, 1850 37

Admitted by initiation from January, 1850, to

July, 1881 270

Admitted by card from January, 1850 to July,

1881 73

Admitted by reinstation 20

Total membership to July, 1881 400

Withdrawn by card 104

Dropped 114

Died 26

244

Present membership. 156

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

RELIEF.

Number of brothers relieved to July, 1881 344

Number of widows relieved to July, 1881 9

Number of brothers buried by the lodge 24

Total 377

Amount paid for relief of brothers from Jan-

uary, 1847 to July, 1881 $4,731.10

Amount paid for relief of widows 89.93

Amount paid for burial of deceased brothers 639.40

Amount paid to charitable purposes 73.50

Total $5,533.93

FINANCE.

Minimum receipts from 1847 to 1881 $23,192.66

Expenses from 1847 to 1881 18,866.03

Balance $4,326.88

List of Past Grands to July, 1881, in nearly the regular order: N. S. Cook, D. H. Hershey, W. M. Stark, John Bell, R. P. Buckland, sr., John L. Greene, sr., C. R. McCulloch,* James S. Fouke, O. A. Roberts, J. F. R. Seibring, W. H. Morgan, James H. Hufford, G. W. Steele, G. C. Canfield, S. Buckland, D. L. June, C. M. Fouke, I. M. Keeler, T. Clapp, D. W. Krebs, S. Buckland,* John McKee, N. Haynes, John Flaugher, J. R. Bartlett, L. Gelpin, E. H. Underhill, Joseph Rumbaugh, George Reymond, John Bell,* John P. Moore, Aaron Bennett, L. M. Jackson, Charles H. Krebs, H. L. Pennell, H. R. Shomo, S. P. Meng, A. D. Wiles, C. K. Phelps, B. W. Lewis, James Kridler, D. L. Camfield, Henry Lesher, James H. Fowler, F. K. Tetter, David Otto, George Beck, Henry Stacy, S. E. Anderson, H. R. Tucker, G. M. Tyler, John T. Beck, J. C. Rosebaugh, T. F. Seigfried, R. Hermon, William Foresythe, John Treat, John L. Greene, jr., D. S. June, T. M. Hobart, H. R. Finefrock, M. A. June, C. E. Reiff, E. H. Morgan, I. Walborn, Samuel Brinkerhoff, Henry W. Kent.

Following is the present list of Past Grands of Croghan Lodge, July 1, 1881:

R. P. Buckland, sr., C. R. McCulloch, James H. Hafford, S. Buckland, D. L. June, I. M. Keeler, E. H. Underhill, Jos. Rumbaugh, John P. Moore, George J. Krebs, H. R. Shomo, B. W. Lewis, David Otto, George Beck, Henry Stacy, S. E. Anderson, H. L. Pennell, M. R. Tucker, John T. Beck, T. F. Seigfried, R. Hermon, William Foresythe, John Treat, John L. Greene, jr., D. S. June, T. M. Hobart, H. R. Finefrock, M. A. June, C. F. Reiff, E. H. Morgan, I. Walborn, Samuel Brinkerhoff, Henry W. Kent.

M'PHERSON LODGE I. O. O. F.

In 1876 the lodge had grown so large that it was thought better results could be secured by division. The Grand Lodge was applied to, and on May 11, 1876, a charter was issued to McPherson Lodge No. 637. The lodge was formally instituted June 29, 1876, with the following members: George J. Krebs, John W. Greene, John Pero, C. B. Tyler, John P. Thompson, S. P. Meng, A. Alfred, George Maycomber, W. B. Kridler, jr., Charles B. Greene, James West, Henry Coonrod, James Park, S. J. Ludwig, H. R. Bowlus, G. W. Heberling, Charles Thompson, Benjamin F. Evans, J. H. Robinson, James Kridler, Charles Moore, Henry Lesher, Frank Q. Ickes, S. A. Wilson, P. Knerr, Samuel Ridley, J. C. Rosebach, W. S. Witmer, and James S. Fowler.

FREMONT ENCAMPMENT

was chartered in May, 1855, with the fol- lowing members: D. W. Armstrong, T. G. Amsden, A. J. Knapp, Samuel Z. Culver, David Moore, A. D. Wiles, Theodore Clapp, J. F. R. Sebring, W. W. Seely.

Lincoln Lodge, Daughters of Rebecca, was chartered May 21, 1880.

In concluding this brief and abstract re- port, it affords great pleasure to he able to say that both lodges are, at the present, in a most healthful, progressive, and thriv-

* Passed the chair twice.

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ing condition, both in membership and finance.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,

RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES.

An able historian has observed that native talent is about equally distributed in all nations, but it goes to waste wherever the surroundings are not propitious. Intellectual strength, to be useful must have cultivation, and be associated with good moral qualities; great occasions are necessary to make it prominent in an individual. This is a somewhat abstract theory, but it is a legitimate deduction from the career of that one citizen of Sandusky county who has filled the highest office provided for by the Constitution of the Nation.

It is our purpose to give only a bare outline of the life of the ex-President whose home is within the limits of this city. His biography is beyond our scope, it is a part of the history of the country. But so much of his time, when not engaged in the performance of public trusts, has been spent here that a sketch of his career falls within the legitimate sphere of local history.

Rutherford B. Hayes is a descendant of George Hayes, a native of Scotland, who, after living for a time in Derbyshire, Eng- land, came to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century and located at Windsor, Connecticut. Rutherford Hayes, of the fifth generation from George Hayes, was born in West Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1787. He is spoken of as a man of florid countenance and sandy hair, as having a great fondness for athletic sports and of popular manners. He married, in 1813, Sophia Birchard, of Wilmington,

Vermont, a lady of fine intellect and lovely character. In 1 817 Mr. Hayes, with his family, came to Ohio, the trip being made in a covered wagon and consuming forty-seven days. They settled at Delaware, where, in July, 1822, Mr. Hayes died, leaving a wife and one daughter. Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born on the 4th of October following. The estate and management of family affairs was entrusted to Sardis Birchard, Mrs. Hayes's brother, who was then a young than, and took a loving interest in his sister's welfare. Mr. Birchard became very fond of his nephew, and at the age of twelve years took him under his immediate charge, sending him to school and afterwards to Kenyon college. During this school period Mr. Hayes spent a large part of his vacation time at the residence of this uncle in Fremont. His sister had married William A. Platt, of Columbus, and his Hither made her home in that city. - Mr. Hayes graduated from Kenyon with the first honors of his class. During the course he kept a diary in which is recorded not only casual events of college life, but his estimates of persons with whom he come in contact, and occasionally lets drop a remark about himself and his aspirations. Mr. William D. Howells, in his biography, observes concerning this journal:

There are few instances and none of importance set down in these early journals. What distinguishes them from other collegian diaries and gives them peculiar value in any study of the man, is the evidence they unfold of his life-long habit of rigid self-accountability and of close, shrewd study of character in others. At the end of the third year he puts in writing his estimate of the traits, talents and prospects of his fellow-students; and in a diary opened at the same time he begins those searching examinations of his own motives, purposes, ideas, and aspirations, with-out which no man can know other men. These inquiries are not made by the young fellow of nineteen any spirit of dreamy or fond introspection. Himself interests himself, of course, but he is not going to give himself any quarter on that account. He has

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

got to stand up before his own conscience, and he judged for his suspected, self-conceit, for his pro- crastinations, for his neglect of several respectable but disagreeable branches of learning; for his tendency to make game of a certain young college poet, who supposes himself to look like Byron, for his fondness, in fine, of trying the edge of his wit on all the people about him. Upon consideration he concludes that he is not a person of genius, and if he is to succeed, he must work hard and make the very most of the fair abilities with which he accredits himself. He has already chosen his profession and is troubled about his slipshod style and his unreadiness of speech, which will never do for an orator. He is going to look carefully to his literature, and takes an active interest in the college literary societies. .

. He has to accuse himself, at the age of nineteen, of be- ing a boy in many things. Even after he is legally a man, he shrewdly suspects that the law will have deceived itself with regard to him. He also finds that he is painfully bashful in society, but that great relief may be found by making fun of his own embarrassments. It is a frank, simple, generous record, unconscious even in its consciousness, and full of the most charming qualities both of heart and mind.

While at college, Mr. Hayes, with all his introspection, did not foresee the course of his life. He resolved to devote to law his exclusive attention. "But a little later," runs the biography from which we have already quoted, "we find that he has aspirations which he would not conceal from himself, and of which one may readily infer the political nature from what follows. But what follows is more important for the relation it bears to his whole career than the light it throws on any part of it. 'The reputation I desire is not that momentary eminence which is gained without merit and lost without regret,' he says, with a collegian's swelling antithesis; and then solidly places himself in the attitude from which he has never since faltered: 'Give me the popularity which runs after, not that which is sought for.' So early was the principle of his political life fixed and formulated. Every office he has had has sought him; at every step of his advance- ment, popularity, the only sort he has cared to have, has followed him. He is and has always been a leader of the people's

unprompted choice."

Mr. Hayes graduated in the class of 1842, and began reading law the same year in the office of Thomas Sparrow, of Columbus, a contemporary of Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin, and William Allen. He afterwards attended the law school of Harvard college, from which he graduated in 1845, and was admitted to the bar at Marietta. Returning to the home of his uncle in Fremont, he formed a partnership with R. P. Buckland for the practice of law. This partnership continued two years. Mr. Hayes then accompanied his uncle Birchard to the South, the trip having for its object the recovery of the tatter's health. In 1849 the young lawyer opened an office in Cincinnati, and for some time had the experience of most young professional men in a city. He was all the while, however, by diligent .reading, preparing for future emergencies. He had, in fact, always been a close student, going through book after book, seeking to know the facts and ideas contained in them rather than paying attention to the author's art and style of composition. He read pretty much everything of importance in current general literature. He has carried this habit of reading through life, except during those periods too fully occupied by public duties.

It was through a circumstance of ex- ceptional good fortune that Mr. Hayes was given an opportunity to show his powers as a lawyer, and to earn standing as a practitioner. His first case in Cincinnati was his defence of an idiot girl, who had been arraigned for murder. The half daft creature was brought into court to answer to the charge, and, being without money or friends, had made no provision for an attorney to defend her. Judge Warden was then common pleas judge, and was on the bench when the case was called. The case was such an undesirable one, and the

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

accused such an unprepossessing client that none of the attorneys present were anxious to undertake the defence. The judge, finding the poor girl had no counsel, asked the bar who should be appointed to defend her. Mr. Hayes, then almost a stranger in the court room, was singled out as a proper person to undertake the undesirable case. After making some inquiry concerning the character and fitness of the young barrister, the appointment was made, and after a short preparation on the part of the defence, the trial proceeded. The case was tried with vigor on both sides. Mr. Hayes' argument was particularly strong, and at once gave him a reputation as a lawyer. From that time he enjoyed a remunerative practice. In 1856 he declined a nomination for judge of the Hamilton county Court of Common Pleas. Two years later he. became a candidate, and was elected to the office of city solicitor of Cincinnati, to which, on the expiration of his term, he was re-elected.

In 1861, when the first call for troops was made, Mr. Hayes offered his services, which were at once accepted by the Governor, and when the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organized, in June, he was commissioned major. He served under Rosecrans in West Virginia, during the summer and fall, part of the time being judge advocate on the General's staff. He was appointed lieutenant colonel November 4, 1861, and took formal command of the regiment at the opening of the campaign of 1862. The first great battle in which the Twenty-third participated was South Mountain, culminating in the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. The summer had been occupied in skirmishes and forced marches until August, when the regiment was transferred to McClellan's command. The enemy was driven from Frederick

City, Maryland, and on September 13 Middletown was reached. Here began the battle of South Mountain, in which Lieutenant Colonel Hayes, in command of the Twenty-third, led the advance. It was ordered at an early hour to advance by an unfrequented road, leading up the mountain, and to attack the enemy. The enemy, posted behind stone walls, poured a destructive fire of musketry and grape into the advancing column. Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes, Captain Skiles, and Lieutenants Hood, Ritter, and Smith were each badly wounded. Colonel Hayes' arm was broken. Out of the three hundred and fifty who engaged in the action, more than one hundred lay dead and wounded upon the field. The command now devolved upon Major Comly, and remained with him from that time forward. The enemy charged from the left and the regiment changed front on the first company. Colonel Hayes, with his wound half dressed and against the remonstrances of his whole command, again came on to the field and fought until carried off. Soon after the remainder of the brigade, came up, a gallant charge was made up the hill, and the enemy was dislodged and driven into the woods beyond. Three bayonet charges were made during the day, in each of which the enemy were driven with heavy loss. The Twenty- third participated actively in the battle of Antietam, which followed, being under command of Major Comly. In October the Twenty-third was ordered back to West Virginia, and on the 15th of that month Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was appointed colonel, in place of Scammon, promoted to a brigadier generalship. In December of that year Colonel Hayes was placed in command of the First brigade of the Kanawha division. During all that toilsome West Virginia service of more than a year, Colonel Hayes won,

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

not only the respect, but hearty friendship of his command. He exerted himself to make camp life agreeable and to relieve laborious marches, so far as possible, of hardships. The affection of members of the Twenty- third for their colonel is manifested yet at regimental reunions. In the battle of Winchester Colonel Hayes, commanding a brigade, took a conspicuous and important part. In this battle he exhibited rare personal bravery, which is a characteristic of the man and an important element of his success. He never hesitated, either on the field or in politics, to do what occasion seemed to require. At North Mountain, Colonel Hayes took command of the whole Kanawha division, and at Cedar Creek, where a horse was shot under him, his conduct was highly meritorious. Immediately after this battle Colonel Hayes, "for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek," was appointed brigadier-general, to take rank from October 19, the date of the last named battle. General Hayes was given command, in the spring of 1865, of an expedition against Lynchburg, and was making active preparations when the war closed. He was breveted major-general at the close of the war to date from March 13, 1865, for gallantry and distinguished services in West Virginia in 1864, and at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. He was engaged in much severe service and participated in many battles. He had three horses shot under him, and was four times wounded.

In the spring of 1865 there was a lull in the campaign in West Virginia, and many of the leading officers sought retirement from the service, which to them was be-coming wearisome. Several of the military friends of General Hayes desired that he should have a furlough or be advanced to a civil position of honor. A meeting was

called at Winchester in May, 1865, over which Colonel Devol, of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, presided. A resolution was unanimously and enthusi- astically passed, declaring that: "Gen-Hayes, in addition to possessing the ability and statesmanship necessary to qualify him in an eminent degree for chief magistrate of the State of Ohio, is a soldier unsurpassed in patriotism and bravery, he having served four years in the army, earning his promotion from major in one of the Ohio regiments to his present position."

This was the first suggestion of his name for Governor, and while the proposition was received with enthusiasm by the army, it met with earnest protest from him. General Hayes had previously, in October, 1864, been elected to Congress from the Cincinnati district. He had also protested against this nomination, and when informed of the unsolicited honor, he re-plied in a letter, since several times reproduced in political campaigns, in which he said: "I have other business just now. Any man who would leave the army at this time to electioneer for Congress ought to be scalped." Despite this protest, however, General Hayes was triumphantly elected by twenty-five hundred majority over Joseph C. Butler, a popular business man of the city. In 1866 he was re- elected by about the same majority over Theodore Cook. General Hayes was prominent in Congress rather for his usefulness then for the display of brilliancy. He was unobtrusive, and seldom took up the time of the House, even with a short speech. He was not ambitious to display oratorical ability, but his congressional career is worthy of great respect for the interest he took in the questions which at that time agitated Congress.

The Republican State Convention of 1867 mot in Columbus in June. The

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importance of having a strong candidate was deeply felt throughout the State, and the country looked upon the approaching contest with interest. The Republican party proposed a suffrage measure, which, owing to race prejudice, accrued wholly to the benefit of the Democrats. Further than this, Mr. Pendleton had announced plausible and popular currency theories, then new to the people and well calculated to attract votes. The Republican convention made General Hayes its spontaneous choice for the head of the ticket, wholly without his solicitation. The Democrats further increased their strength which the popular side of two great issues gave them, by selecting for their candidate Allen G. Thurman. The canvass was vigorous on both, sides. The Democrats were on the offensive and pushed prominently the proposition to pay the bonded debt in non-interest bearing green- backs. Mr. Hayes resigned his seat in Con- gress, and early in August entered zealously into the canvass. He spoke in nearly every one of the eighty-eight counties of the State, opposing with all his force the position of his opponents with regard to the currency, and supporting with the same fervor the stand taken by his own party for equal suffrage. General Hayes is a campaign speaker of peculiar force and influence. He is not what is generally known as an eloquent speaker, yet he has canvassed this State several times, and drawn large audiences in the same towns at each campaign. His power lies in clear, bold, pungent statement, and he inspires an audience, with. confidence in the sincerity of his convictions. As a campaigner he belonged to that class who appeal to the reason of the wavering and doubtful. He fought a political battle on the issues rather than by working upon prejudice or inspiring faithful partisans with confidence of victory. In a cam-

paign without an issue General Hayes would have been out of place. The contest in Ohio in 1867 was a pivotal one with reference to the disposition of the National debt and the question of negro suffrage. The Republicans lost the Legislature, but General Hayes and the rest of his ticket were elected. The suffrage amendment was defeated, owing to its unnecessary disfranchising clause, but the principle had developed popular strength and subsequent triumph was assured.

Governor Hayes' administration com- manded the respect of the people of the State, and a second nomination was con- ceded long before the convention met in 1869. The Democrats adopted an ultra platform and nominated General Rosecrans for Governor. General Rosecrans, who was in California at the time, declined the position, and Hon. George H. Pendleton was selected as the opposing standard-bearer. The campaign was fought on issues growing out of the reconstruction measures of the Republican Congress, and attracted National attention. Governor Hayes was re-elected by a largely increased majority. His second administration was liberal and popular, as the first had been. As Governor he was eulogized by the leaders of both political parties.

General Hayes met his first political defeat in 1872, but it was a party and not a personal defeat. On the 31st of July a large number of Cincinnati Republicans united in the following letter:

Hon. R. B. Hayes:

Believing that it is the desire of the Republicans generally of the Second Congressional District, that you be a candidate for the nomination, and feeling that you would receive a larger vote from the district than any other person that could be agreed upon, we unite in respectfully asking that you accept a nomination for Congress.

General Hayes positively and unequivo- cally declined allowing his name to be

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used in connection with the candidacy, but in the face of protestation he was nominated, and to prevent dissension in the party accepted. He foresaw defeat from the start, but made a good canvass, and carried a much larger vote in his district than General Grant's vote for President a month later. Hamilton county was carried for the Democrats that year by five thousand majority.

In 1873 General Hayes was unexpectedly nominated by the President for Assistant Treasurer at Cincinnati, but declined the office, being desirous to return to his home at Fremont. He resumed his residence here in the summer of that year, and naturally enjoyed relief from more than twelve years of official care. The two subsequent years of his life were passed quietly and contentedly. But his party in Ohio was approaching an important political crisis. The October campaign in Ohio in 1875 was looked upon as the preliminary battle of the National contest of 1876. Far more import-ant interests than mere partisan advantage were at stake. Upon the issue of the contest depended, in an important measure, the character of legislation on the currency question. The question was similar to the one which General Hayes, eight years before, had been called from his seat in Congress to champion. Republicans of the State felt the weight of great responsibility, and discussed, with solicitude, the choice of a standard-bearer. The Democrats, two years before, had elected their candidate for Governor, and the year before carried the State by seventeen thousand majority. Business failures and general industrial depression made the theory of expanding the paper currency of the country extremely popular. In addition to this, discontent with the National Administration made Republicans indifferent. Seventeen thousand majority, the unpopular

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 78

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