USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 26
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He remained in the Receiver's office until March 4, 1819, when he resigned, having the fall preceding been elected to Congress. During the ten or twelve years he held the office of Receiver he became extensively known throughout the State. By his public spirit and enterprise among the settlers of a new country, his faithful attention to his office and his urbane manners to persons doing business with him, he acquired a universal and deserved pop- ularity, which manifested itself in his election to Congress in the fall of 1818, from a district embracing a large territory, over a prominent and talented competitor then holding the seat in the National Assembly. For ten years in that body he was a popular and influential member, maintaining and vindicating the interests of his district and the country with signal power and ability. In 1825 he supported Mr. Adams for the Presidency in preference to
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General Jackson, and notwithstanding the cyclone of excitement that grew out of Mr. Adams' election, such was the powerful grasp which Colonel Sloane had upon the affections of the people of his district that he was elected for a fifth time to Congress in the fall of 1826, and although the excitement alluded to continued to gather strength for the succeeding two years, yet such was Mr. Sloane's popularity that, in the Congressional race of 1828, he was only beaten by a very meager majority.
After his term expired in Congress, in 1829, he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, of Wayne county, on the 5th of March, 1831, which place he held for seven years. The Legis- lature in 1841 appointed him Secretary of State for three years, for which period he performed the duties of the office.
The last office which he held was that of Treasurer of the United States, by appointment of President Fillmore. During the war of 1812, he was a Colonel of militia, and an ardent and patri- otic supporter of the war, even advancing his own private funds to feed and clothe the soldiers who were in need. In all his official relations he discharged his duties with strict, scrupulous fidelity and distinguished ability.
After his return from Washington, in 1853, he sought retire- ment from public life, and repose of mind.
" Even those whom Fame has lent her fairest ray, The most renowned of worthy wights of yore,
From a base world at last have stol'n away. So Scipio, to the soft Cumaan shore Retiring, tasted joy he never knew before."
He died May 15th, 1856, at his residence in Wooster, after a short illness, aged 77 years.
The life of Colonel Sloane remains to be written. We have not space upon these pages to devote to it. He is a part, not of ours, but of the State's and Nation's history. The public confided in him, and showered upon him a pentecost of honors. The gov- ernment which he so ably served was not ungrateful to him, and we can not repress a feeling of pride as we record the appointment
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of a life-long citizen of Wayne county to the exalted position of Treasurer of the United States.
JOHN PATTON.
John Patton was born October 15, 1790, in Pleasant Valley, Huntington county, Pa.
In the month of June, 1808, he removed to Canton, Ohio, and there for a season pursued the occupation of a carpenter. From there, in 1809, he went to Wooster in company with a friend, who was engaged to build a small frame house for John Bever, on a lot adjoining the public square. On the arrival of Mr. Patton at Wooster, "the only white men," says he, "that we found were Benjamin Miller and his son, Abraham, who were engaged in a trafficking business with the Indians, and Matthew Reily and Jack Whitzel who were employed in excavating a mill site on Apple Creek, near Wooster, for Joseph Stibbs. Miller and another man, whose name I do not recollect, were building a log house. We all messed together in an Indian camp, enclosed with bark peeled from green trees, until Miller finished his house."
After the completion of Mr. Bever's house, Mr. Patton re- turned to Canton. The Secretary of the United States Treasury having directed the land office at Canton to be removed to Woos- ter, Mr. Patton was sent to the latter place, April 9, 1815, in charge of the office, in consequence of Colonel Sloane, the Re- ceiver, being detained by sickness. In the fall of 1818 he was ap- pointed postmaster of Wooster in place of Rev. Thomas G. Jones, which office he retained about II years. He was one of the As- sociate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas with John Nim- mons and William Goodfellow, the latter receiving his commission from Governor Jeremiah Morrow, in 1827.
From Wooster he went to Massillon and engaged in business with Hiram and Michael Wellman ; thence to Bolivar and Navarre, where his wife died about 1844. From Navarre he went to one of the Western States, where he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Win- chester. He died but recently.
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Mr. Patton was a man of intelligence, and in his earlier years was a sharp, ready political writer. He had good business habits, but was unfortunate in some of his transactions. He was a gen- erous and benevolent man.
GENERAL REASIN BEALL.
General Reasin Beall was born in Montgomery county, Mary- land, on the 3d of December, 1769. In a few years thereafter he accompanied his parents to Washington county, Pa., where they made a permanent settlement. This was probably in 1782, for in that year his father, Major Zephaniah Beall, was an officer in the unfortunate campaign made by a body of volunteer militia from Western Pennsylvania, under the command of Colonel Crawford, against the Indians of Upper Sandusky.
At the age of fourteen Mr. Beall entered the office of Hon. Thos. Scott, at one time a member of Congress, a gentleman of consid- erable note in the public affairs of Pennsylvania, and then Pro- thonotary of Washington county. With that gentleman he re- mained until he was 21 years of age, and on quitting his employ received the most flattering testimonials of good conduct. The privations which were experienced by the hardy and intrepid pioneers who first undertook to tame the forest west of the Alle- gheny mountains has no parallel in anything of the kind that has ever existed. Favored with no government aid or protection ; without roads other than such as they opened by their individual efforts ; having to scale a rugged mountain wilderness of more than an hundred miles in extent, on their arrival on the western borders for a long time they had to subsist mainly by the chase. But this was not all. The treaty of peace which acknowledged American independence brought no peace to them. The Indian nations, who espoused the cause of the British during the war, were not content to desist from their depredations upon the West- ern settlements ; and such was the inefficiency of the government, under the confederation, that it was not until the new organiza- tion, under the present Constitution, that measures were taken to
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repel their incursions. In 1790 an expedition was fitted out and marched against the Indians on the heads of the two Miamis.
The command of this corps was given to General Harmar. Mr. Beall served in this expedition as an officer in the Quarter- master's Department, and was with the army when a severe action was fought between a detachment under Colonel Hardin and the Indians near Fort Wayne in 1791. That expedition having failed of its object, the troops returned to the Ohio river, near where the city of Cincinnati now stands, and Mr. Beall returned to his friends in Pennsylvania. Subsequent to this General St. Clair marched a second force on the same route, and, unfortunately, met with an entire defeat. These repeated disasters determined the government to put forth all its energies in order to secure peace by the chastisement of the savages.
On General Wayne's being appointed to the command of the North-western Army, Mr. Beall received a commission as ensign, and after some time spent in the recruiting service, repaired to head-quarters, then at Legionville, on the north bank of the Ohio, near the site of the present town of Economy, in Beaver county, Pa. It was in the campaign which succeeded that Mr. Beall became acquainted with General, then Captain, Harrison, and subsequently President of the United States. Mr. Beall remained with the army until some time in the year 1793, when he resigned and again returned to his friends in Pennsylvania to consummate a mat- rimonial engagement of long standing. Soon after his return he married his late wife, then Miss Rebecca Johnston, with whom he lived till her death, in 1840. Like many enterprising men of his age, Mr. Beall fell in with the current of emigration, which has constantly set to the West, and consequently several times changed the place of his residence. In 1801 he removed to Steubenville, from which he emigrated in the fall of 1803 to New Lisbon, where he remained till 1815, in which year he removed to Wooster.
On his settlement at New Lisbon, he received the appointment of Clerk of the Supreme and Common Pleas Courts, which offices he held nearly the whole time he remained in the county. Al-
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though Mr. Beall had served but a few years in the regular army, it was sufficient to give his mind a military bias. Previous to the war of 1812, he took much pains to infuse into the militia of his county a military spirit, confidently anticipating that the difficulties then existing between this country and England would ultimately end in war. Soon after his settlement at New Lisbon, he was cho- sen Colonel of a regiment (being at that time the entire militia of the county), and in a few years thereafter a Brigadier General. The war of 1812 found him in that capacity. On the surrender of General Hull at Detroit, a general panic seized upon the people, many of them fleeing from their homes and seeking places of safety. In this state of things much confidence and expectation was centered in General Beall. He immediately organized a de- tachment, and in a few days put himself at the head of several hundred men, and marched to the support of the frontier inhabi- tants of Wayne and Richland counties, and ultimately continued his route to camp Huron, where he joined the troops from the Wes- tern Reserve, under Generals Wadsworth and Perkins. At that place they were visited by General Harrison, the Commander-in- Chief, who attended in person to the re-organization of the corps ; and as the whole was not more than sufficient for a brigade, the command devolved on General Perkins as the senior officer. After this General Beall returned home.
In the spring of 1813 President Madison issued his proclama- tion for a special session of Congress, and the seat for the north- ern district being vacant by reason of the death of Mr. Edwards, the member elect, General Beall was at a special election chosen to fill the vacancy. He served in Congress during that and the succeeding session, assisting, to the full extent of his abilities, in providing ways and means for a vigorous prosecution of the war, then rendered extremely difficult by the prevalence of a reckless party spirit in various portions of the country. But his domestic inclinations being strong, the Congressional life did not suit him.
The office of Register of the land office for the Wooster land
1
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district becoming vacant in 1814, General Beall was appointed, and resigned his seat in Congress.
The office of Register he resigned in 1824, when he retired from all public employment. At the great Whig Mass Conven- tion at Columbus on the 22d of February, 1840, he was chosen to preside over its deliberations, and was afterward chosen one of the electors of President and Vice-President, and had the honor, as well as the pleasure, of casting his vote in that capacity, for his old friend and military associate, General Harrison. This was one of the pleasantest incidents of his life, and was the last public trust he discharged for his fellow citizens, his death occurring on the 20th of February, 1843.
In disposition General Beall was peaceful and unobstrusive. His watchword was uprightness and fairness, for if there was any offense he condemned and hesitated to forgive it was that of dis- honesty.
He was munificent in his contributions to all objects of general interest, especially such as tended to the advancement of morality and religion.
General Beall was for many years a member of the Presby- terian church, and died in the full and calm conviction of its truth, reality and genuineness, together with an unshaken and moveless confidence, that he was a subject of that salvation which was pur -* chased through the atonement of the Author and Founder of our most holy religion.
HISTORY OF THE FIRST SCHOOLS OF WOOSTER.
About the first of June, 1814, the Rev. Thomas G. Jones and Joseph Eichar, Sr., went around among the people of the settle- ment to ascertain who would be willing to send their children to school. They found that all in the place, both boys and girls, would only make up a small school.
It was commenced in the block-house, on the site where the
* Written by Mrs. Joseph S. Lake.
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Wooster Female Seminary now stands. A little before this time a young lawyer, by the name of Carlos Mather, came from New Haven, Conn., intending to open a law office in the enterprising town of Wooster. But la ! there was no law business to do there. In those early times we had no need of locks or bolts; everybody was honest then. This Mr. Mather had been educated at Yale; was said to have been a finished scholar, a promising, industrious, good young man, wanting to be doing something to make our town a little better for his having lived in it, and possibly wishing to be doing a little something for himself. He was offered the situation, which he accepted, of the first schoolmaster. The first morning the school was opened the children first at their post were Enoch and Lucretia Jones (children of Rev. T. G. Jones), Eleanor and Nancy Eichar (daughters of Joseph Eichar); next came Wm. Nailor (Mrs. Judge Dean's brother), John Griffith (son of the church clerk), John Smith, Nancy Crawford, Josiah Crawford, Polly Welch, and besides these there came, also, the children of the very earliest settlers-almost semi-Indians. I can name only a few of them-the Driskels, Poes, Meeks and Feazles, etc. Al- low me to illustrate what I want to say of them by repeating a little anecdote we heard : Just a few days ago, at a school anni- versary, to show how susceptible children were to the power of kind words, the speaker told of three boys, picked up in the pur- lieus of this city, who were taken to the Industrial School. The teacher, in a kind, gentle voice, asked the first, "What is your name ?" He roughly roared out, "Dan !" The teacher said, in kind, silvery tones, "You should have said Daniel." To the sec- ond, "What is your name ?" He answered, "Sam !" "You should have said," added the teacher, "Samuel!" To the third, "What is your name ?" who gently replied, " Jim-uel !"
Our school was opened by reading a chapter from the New Testament. All who could read were arranged into a class. Our second lesson was from the introduction to the English Reader, which was our common reading book.
Mr. Mather was very popular in the town generally, and every-
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body entertained a high respect for him. We school children believed Mr. Mather knew everything. He would; not permit us to say the "master," neither would he allow the children to call names for short, such as "Bill," "Pete," "Bob," etc. After about a year and a half, our good, kind teacher began to talk of leaving Wooster. We all returned home with heavy hearts, after hearing this, and told the sad news to our parents. While we were talking, Priest Jones dropped in, and father told him that Mr. Mather was going to leave, and how sorry his children were to lose their good, kind teacher, and he was afraid that it would be no easy matter to fill his place. Mr. Jones said his children were much attached to Mr. Mather, and, besides, he had the faculty of making them feel pleased with themselves and all the world. The whole school believed Mr. Mather knew everything.
He said it reminded him of a little place up in the country, not far from Philadelphia. The settlers were greatly annoyed by some kind of a wild animal coming at night and carrying off their chick- ens. They finally resolved to go out en masse and try to capture it, whatever it might be. They did so, and caught a fox. They brought it in alive, when everybody was asleep, and put it under a hogshead, raising it a very little from the ground, to give it air. In the morning they soon had a crowd around it, trying to guess what was under the hogshead. After a little while one cried out, "The schoolmaster knows everything. If only he was here he could tell." He was brought there, and, taking off his hat, walked round the hogshead and knowingly said, "Well, and so the old fox is caught at last!" Then the whole crowd raised a tremendous shout. The boys, one and all, threw up their hats, and with one voice, roared out, " I knew the master could tell, for he knows every- thing."
Mr. Mather returned to New Haven, Connecticut, but he left the impress of his kindly, genial nature upon the children who attended his school at Wooster.
The next stirring event was, when Colonel Sloane came to Wooster, and bought the land, including the site on which the
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block-house stood, which, with its stockade, was taken down, all its heavy timbers removed, every vestige of this noted land-mark taken away. It was almost a sacred spot; in time of danger it had sheltered defenseless families from an attack of hostile Indians; in it Priest Jones had prayed like a prophet; the first church was constituted in it, while a few armed men stood guard to protect them from the scalping knife of the Indians; and lastly, in 1812 the first school was organized in it. Why ! O, why! had it to be torn down? Colonel Sloane wanted that beautiful lo- cation on which to build his family residence, and which, after about three years he did erect. It looked like a very grand man- sion to us in those days, and there Colonel and Mrs. Sloane dis- pensed a very generous and whole-souled hospitality.
From the year 1815 to 1817, several prominent families moved into Wooster, to-wit: Mr. William Larwill, General Reasin Beall, Colonel John Sloane, Judge Coulter, Mr. Matthew Johnston, Mr. Constant Lake, Sen., and Mr. John Wilson, and many others, too numerous to mention here. But as events shadowed forth, the most important arrival to us was a young man from the east, Mr. Cyrus Spink, a gentlemanly man, and very prepossessing in his personal appearance. While he was looking around, he was offer- ed, and accepted the situation of teacher in our school. The block-house was gone, and our school under our second teacher Mr. Cyrus Spink, was opened in the Baptist meeting house, a small wooden building, near the spring on the extreme north border of the town. Mr. Spink was an excellent teacher, and took great pains to improve our reading. The first thing in the morning was always the reading of a chapter from the New Testament. He promoted us from the Introduction to the English Reader, which was then our reading book.
Occasionally " Priest Jones," and sometimes Doctor Townsend and Mr. Larwill and others, would step in to hear us read. These visits contributed not a little to inspire us with confidence and self-respect. I well remember once, when Mr. David Robi- son, Senior, and Mr. Edward O. Jones called in, Mr. Spink called
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up the class in the English Grammar to read the Apostle Paul's noble defense before Festus and Agrippa. We all did our best, and after they had left our teacher complimented us, and took the book and read a few sentences himself, to show where there was room for improvement, and then remarked that "this was one of the most powerful speeches that we have in the English language." He then told us the next one would be the speech of Adherbal to the Roman Senate, imploring their protection against Jugurtha. When the time came, we read this great speech so well that Mr. Spink said he was "proud of us." Not long after this we were promoted to the Sequel to the English Reader. About this time Mr. Spink gave up his school, for which there was grievous mourning. He had received the appointment of surveyor, or a position in the land office, I don't remember which. Business men spoke of him as a rising young man.
Our next, and third teacher, was Mr. Samuel Whitehead. He was considered a scholar of the first order, and quite a distin- guished linguist; his object was to prepare boys and young men for college.
Enoch Jones, Edward and James Thompson, Joseph S. Lake, Elisha Garrett, of Garrettsville, Jabez Larwill, Thomas Jefferson Bull, of Kendal, and many other honored names, too numerous to mention in this brief history, attended this school. By this time the citizens had built a brick school-house for Mr. Whitehead, and so many educated men, so much culture and moral worth, took up their residence at Wooster, that it was considered the Athens of the West.
Our next and fourth teacher was the Rev. Thomas Hand, who came to Wooster from London, England, bringing with him his wife, a very accomplished lady, and his brother Samuel H. Hand, afterward of Jeromeville, Ashland county. Soon after his arrival, I think, in the autumn of 1817, the citizens of Wooster engaged him to take charge, as Principal, of the Wooster Female Seminary, that was to be, and which was. It was commenced on South Market street, in a house nearly opposite to where E. Quinby, Jr.,
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now resides, and was opened under very encouraging prospects. The three English readers-the Introduction, the English Reader, and the Sequel to the English Reader-were now laid aside, for which we were very sorry. The series of school reading books by Lindley Murray were the best I have ever seen in any school. Geography and history were our principal studies ; in ancient his- tory, especially, we made great proficiency. It was said of these young misses, by those who were supposed to know, that they were the most industrious and persevering students in the State of Ohio.
And now I have a kind of weird spell on me to embrace this opportunity of transmitting their names, or some of them, to pos- terity. Allow me to do so, viz: Hannah and Mary Sloane, daughters of Colonel John Sloane; Jane Thomson, sister of Bishop Thomson; Nancy and Harriet Beall, daughters of General Rea- sin Beall; Eleanor and Nancy Eichar, daughters of Joseph Eichar ; Emily C. Bull, of Kendal, Stark county; Ella Wilson, and other names equally deserving mention.
Near the beginning of the year 1819, the Rev. Thomas Hand, Principal of the Wooster Female Seminary, received a unanimous call to the pastorate of the Franklin Street Baptist church, in New York city, which call he accepted, and bade farewell to this model school. For the time being a part of the younger of the ladies were sent to Mr. Whitehead's school, but, alas ! for the older ones, that was the last of their school days in Wooster.
Following upon these events several schools were organized in the town of Wooster and in the vicinity. Mr. Alexander Mc- Bride's school-house was a well-known preaching place ; a short dis- tance south of town, and a little further on was Dunbar's school- house, and east of town Mr. Joseph Stibbs had a school near his mill.
In the summer of 1868 I stood upon the spot where the old block-house stood in Wooster over half a century ago ! But the friends of my youth were gone. I could have groaned aloud;
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" Where are they?" The distant hills might have given back the wail, and echo answered, "Where ?"
" Where are the friends that erst we knew, In youth's unclouded, sportive time, When rapturous moments swiftly flew Upon the wings of Time, And brows were yet untouched by care ? Where are they ? Echo answers, ' Where ?' "'
DR. JOHN CUNNINGHAM.
John Cunningham, M. D., was born in Washington county, Pa., February 19, 1792, his father emigrating to America from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1783, marrying soon after his arrival Miss Elizabeth Scott, daughter of Hon. Thomas Scott, the first representative of that district in Congress, during the administra - tion of General Washington. His death took place May 12, 1804, aged fifty- eight years. Dr. Cunningham graduated at Washington College, Pa., under the Presidency of the elder Dr. Brown, and began the study of medicine in the office of S. Murdock, M. D., where he remained three years, with the exception of the time engaged in attending the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, from which institution he graduated.
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