USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 38
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Willis and Morris, of the Home Journal, once the court paper of New York city, the columns of which teemed with the sweet lyrics of Francis and the gracious melodies of Metta, pronounced her as amongst the most brilliant of our female writers. Edgar Allen Poe, leering from the soul-chaos and spirit charnel which begat the "Raven," classed her with the most imaginative of our poets. Her poems are characterized by a marvelous individuality and great strength of diction, as well as a signal originality of thought and uniqueness of versification.
In 1853 she was married to Jackson Barrett, of Pontiac, Michi- gan, to which State she had removed the previous year; thence a few years later she went to the sunset side of the Father of Floods, and is now on the western slope, "where rolls the Ore- gon." She has written much prose, some beautiful poetry, and a tragedy entitled " Azlea," instinct with the fire of the drama. Here is a stanza-a rare gem indeed-which we extract from "The Post Boy's Song :"
" Like a shuttle thrown by the hand of fate, Forward and back I go; Bearing a thread for the desolate To darken their web of woe; And a brighter thread to the glad of heart, And a mingled one to all ; But the dark and the light I can not part, Nor alter their hues at all."
Francis obtained a divorce from Mr. Barrett, and is married a second time to a Mr. Victor, brother to the husband of Metta. Lux- uriating in the soft, grateful climate of the Pacific Coast, breathing its thrilling, invigorating mountain air, inspired by its weird and wondrous scenery, the snow-turbaned Sierras, the enchanting Dalles and the impetuous Columbia-the Canyon Wizard of the
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North-her muse will quaff the foaming Parnassian wines, and strange, indeed, will it be if poesy is not enriched, and prose en- throned, as upon some Shasta summit, by the exquisite sorcery of her pen.
Metta, like her sister, was a precocious child, and attended with her the Wooster schools. At fifteen she composed a ro- mance, founded upon the supposed history of the dead cities of Yucatan, entitling it "The Last Days of Tul." Jointly eulogizing the sisters, N. P. Willis writes concerning them :
" We suppose ourselves to be throwing no shade of disparagement upon any one in declaring that in ' Singing Sybil,' her not less gifted sister, we discern more unquestionable marks of true genius, and a greater portion of the unmistakable inspiration of true poetic art than in any of the lady minstrels-delightful and splendid as some of them have been-that we have heretofore ushered to the ap- plause of the public. One in spirit and equal in genius, these most interesting and brilliant ladies-both still in the earliest youth-are undoubtedly destined to occupy a very distinguished and permanent place among the native authors of this land."
Metta's nom de plume was the "Singing Sybil." A glance at her numerous productious, prose and poetical, humorous and satir- ical, presents a striking record of faithful and unremitted labor. She is surely a woman of singular endowments, and her career has been a most remarkable one. "The Senator's Son; A Plea for the Maine Law," produced at the age of twenty, shared an unpre- cedented success, and thousands of copies were acknowledged by foreign publishers.
In July, 1856, she was married to O. J. Victor, removing the following year to New York City, since which time she has been devoted to miscellaneous literary labor and authorship.
Wooster may well cherish a consistent pride over the recol- lection that these two stars of song received most of their educa- tion at our public schools. The world is better for their rich thoughts, vivid creations and jeweled fancies. We confess to a pleasing fascination in the perusal of their song, or in following the silent glidings of their trusty shallops over the deep blue lakes that sit like coronals in dim and haunted waters. Many of our citizens remember them. "Body and Soul," by Metta, is a divine communion. The annexed excerpta will illustrate :
"A living soul came into the world- Whence came it ? Who can tell ?
Of where that soul went forth again, When it bade the earth farewell ?
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A body it had this spirit knew,
And the body was given a name. *
* *
* *
Whether the name would suit the soul The giver never knew,
Names are alike, but never soul, So body and spirit grew Till time enlarged their narrow sphere Into the realms of life,
Into this strange and double world,
Whose elements are strife.
JOSEPH H. DOWNING.
Joseph H. Downing, a native of Belmont county, Ohio, removed with his parents to Wayne county in the autumn of 1826. The following season the family settled upon a farm in Wayne township, three miles north-east of Wooster, where the subject of this sketch remained with his parents until their deaths, in 1838 and 1839.
His earlier years were spent in the severe labors of the farm, and with all the rough and hard experiences of felling forests, swinging the woodman's ax, cutting cord-wood, rolling logs, etc., he soon experienced memorable participation. After the death of his parents, instead of obtaining a release from work, or having his labors mitigated, they but multiplied and became more op- pressive. A mere lad in his teens, three members of the family younger than he and dependent, with the conflict for a living to be met, the alternative of toil had to be confronted. With a compre- hension of the situation remarkable for a youth of his years he resolutely faced the responsibility, believing with Franklin that "Diligence is the mother of good luck, and that God giveth all things to industry."
For several years he was a day-laborer, a hireling by the month, in his neighborhood, and until he was twenty-one years of age did not average over three months of schooling per year. His surplus moneys and earnings were judiciously invested in such books as, in his judgment, would most materially aid him in attaining a use- ful and practical education. His appreciation of the value of time . and the necessity of improving it, early manifested itself, and in his boyhood, his leisure, and the intervals between hard labor, were sedulously employed in reading and study. By this process of in- dustry, aided by the limited opportunities afforded him by the pub- lic schools, he succeeded in acquiring a good English education.
Hammerstein Bros & Cn Indpls Incho Institute.
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WOOSTER-CHURCHES.
In 1843 he entered the Canaan Academy, where he profitably devoted two years to the study of Latin, philosophy, mathemetics, etc., his determination to take the full collegiate course only being thwarted by a general failure of health.
In the year 1848 he commenced the study of law, under the care and direction of Hon. Ezra Dean, of Wooster. In 1853 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, and was a member of the House of Representatives during the session of 1854-there being but one session during his term. From the spring of 1854 to 1860 he was engaged in teaching school, and during the latter year he was admitted to the practice of law, by the Supreme Court of the State. In May of that year he opened an office in Wooster and began practice, forming a partnership with Ben Douglass.
In August, 1862, he was appointed Captain by the Governor of the State, and commissioned to recruit a company under one of the startling calls, for "300,000 more." In seven days precisely from the date of his commission, his company was full and subject to orders. On the 29th of August, 1862, he took his company to "Camp Mansfield," Ohio, and on the 14th of October he was mus- tered into the United States service, as Captain of Company "A," 120th O. V. I. He bore his part firmly and with unflinching fidelity ; shared the perils and privations of his men-in-arms; par- ticipated in all the battles of Chickasaw Bayou and at Arkansas Post, saw open and close, "the bloody testament of war." As a consequence of exposure and subjection to the malarial influences which decimated regiments, brigades and divisions of the army in that locality during the winter of 1862-63, he became prostrated and so seriously diseased as to render him wholly unfit for military duty, whereupon, in the spring of 1863 he was honorably dis- charged from the service. He returned home, wasted and emaci- ated; a mental and physical wreck; a living, breathing skeleton; with an imperfect recognition of his own family and friends, and by physicians and all who saw him, pronounced a hopelessly pros- trated and doomed man. By most careful medical attention; by constant vigilance of family and friends; by the exercise of an he- roic patience and fortitude on his part, and after nearly a year's suffering and confinement, he sufficiently recovered to again enter upon his profession. It may be remarked of Judge Downing that he never has been fully restored to health, and that the fang of the malarial monster of the Mississippi has never relaxed its hold on him.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
In a few years after he had resumed the practice, and in the fall of 1866, quite unexpectedly on his part, he was appointed, by Governor J. D. Cox, of Ohio, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the third subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District of the State of Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Wm. Sample. After the expiration of his Judgeship he returned to the legal practice, continuing therein until 1872, when he was elected Judge of the Probate Court of Wayne county. At the termination of his official duties, in 1876, he engaged in his old professional pursuits, forming a partnership with Charles M. Yo- cum, Esq.
He was married to Elizabeth C. Douglass, daughter of James Douglass, of Plain township, October 14, 1850, by which marriage he has three living children, to wit: Mary A., wife of William Liddell, and Edward and William Downing.
Judge Downing is now in the full vigor of his manly years, his intellectual faculties susceptible of their highest play and most vig- orous exertion. He stands six feet and one inch in hight, is well proportioned, has a reflective forehead, a meditative and expres- sive face, overgrown with a massive and luxuriant crop of hair. He is, by every rule of construction, emphatically "a self-made man." His life is an exposition of what work, industry and reso- lute purpose can and may accomplish, and presents some features worthy of thoughtful consideration by all men, especially young men. He began life friendless, penniless. His education he obtained himself; he toiled for it, struggled for it. There was, as his biography exhibits, a force in him, and a terrible one it is when properly directed ; it is the will-power, the motor of action. He determined to do and be, and he succeeded. Why this suc- cess? He had an exalted aim; he pursued it with close, persist- ent application ; he allowed no man to impeach his integrity ; his character was as sensitive to suspicion as the tenderest flower to the touch of a profane hand. He inclined to plod and study, which he did incessantly, nor was he ashamed to work. To the assur- ance of success he furnishes more of the testimony of labor.
" Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
As a school-teacher he has left his impression upon the county, and not a few men, who, to-day, occupy enviable positions in com- munity, ascribe to him the inspiration of their aims and destiny.
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As a representative in the Ohio Legislature, he was a working, vigilant member. A logical, matter-of-fact speaker and debater, when he arose to a question, he spoke to the point and with clearness. He discharged his duties with a steadiness, ability and firmness always equal to the occasion, never allowing himself to be seduced into chicanery or duplicity by the hopes of ulterior ends.
His career as Judge of the Common Pleas, though short, was one, nevertheless, to which he can refer with satisfaction. In this character he manifested a rare combination of urbanity, inflexibil- ity, courtesy and independence; an admirable self-control ; a pa- tient spirit of endurance; a sharp, instinctive repugnance to what was wrong, balanced by a superior conception of right. His dis- passionate, discerning reason; his sober judgment; his fearless inclination in the direction of the right, were acknowledged by his compeers, and elicited the applause of the bar.
As Judge of the Probate Court, he was accessible, dignified and just, performing his duties to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and the public.
As a lawyer, in the trial of causes he wins the confidence of the jury, the esteem of adverse counsel, and commands the re- spect and attention of the court. His professional integrity is not called into question. In the defense of a knave or rascal he never compromises his character by an undue or inordinate desire for his acquittal. His legal opinions are characterized by clearness and accuracy. His speeches are groupings and condensations of law and fundamental principles, and in his efforts at the bar he never descends to blackguardism. Law to him is a supreme philosophy, which he studies with delight, and, animated by an exalted sense of the dignity and grandeur of his profession, he addresses him- self to the higher feelings and principles of human nature. He re- lies more upon investigation than genius. His mathematical brain makes him a calculator, and he is strong in concentrations and analyzations. He conducts his excavations at the roots of a legal proposition with the calm assurance of a woodsman digging out a tree. He bores through a labyrinth of reports and judicial de- cisions with the patience of the engineers tunneling through the Sierras. Tie him to a pyramid of figures, and he will burst the tether and climb to the top of it. There is no cant or senti- mentalism about him. He has no fancy for the fanciful, and the birds of his imagination were caged when they left the nest.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Poetry, tropes, figures of rhetoric, similes and metaphors concern him but little. He deals in facts and the principles of the legal science. Thought always predominates over expression. He is a lawyer of matured intellect and ripe judgment, and, by industry, energy and perseverance, has achieved an honorable distinction at the bar.
As a man and citizen Judge Downing is universally respected. He is noted for his uniform courtesy toward his fellow-men; his personal integrity ; his generous and sympathetic nature ; his con- sistent and temperate life ; his zeal in the cause of education ; his private charities and benefactions. In morals and religion he is fixed and firm. With him there is a right and a wrong. Between the affirmative and the negative there is no border-land with him. You can not hover with him upon the confines of truth, or wander in the maze of a probable argument. He always keeps the path. You can not make excursions with him, for he sets you right. His taste never fluctuates. His morality never abates.
He has been a member of the United Presbyterian church of Wooster for thirty-five years, and an elder since 1850.
JOHN BRINKERHOFF.
The common ancestor of the Brinkerhoff family in America em- igrated from Holland and settled in what is now New York City in 1638. The island of Manhattan, which is now entirely occupied by the great city, was discovered September 3, 1609, by Hendrik Hudson.
The settlement of New Amsterdam was commenced in 1613; in 1621 the Dutch West India Company commenced operations, and it is claimed in 1626 the whole island was purchased for $24.00; in 1652 New Amsterdam was incorporated, and the government passed from the West India Company into the hands of two Burg- omasters and five assistants called Schepens, and one Schout or Sheriff; in 1664 the English took the province, and the name was changed to New York.
It will thus be seen that the common ancestor above referred to, of the Brinkerhoff family, came to America before the title of New York had been conferred upon the great seaboard city of the Western World ; fifty years before James II. had abolished the rep- resentative system; seventy years before the slave market was established in Wall street ; eighty-seven years before the New York
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Gazette was published, and 137 years before the farmers of Concord raised the war shout of the Revolution.
His name was Derickson Brinckerhoff, and his wife's maiden name was Susanna Dubbles.
The ancestor of the Wayne county, Ohio, branch of the family was born in the city of Philadelphia, and there married a Scotch- Irish woman named Campbell. He had three sons, George, Daniel and William, all of whom are deceased, the latter dying at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
Daniel, the second of these three brothers, had three sons, John, James and William, the latter for many years one of the distinguished educators of the State, and now Principal of the McNealy Normal school. James is a resident of the county, an industrious and prosperous farmer and an excellent citizen.
John Brinkerhoff, the oldest of the three sons, was born June 9, 1813, and was educated near Dillsburg, York county, Pa., at a pri- vate institution. Two of his instructors were men of marked and decided ability, and for whom their pupil has ever entertained agreeable memories and a high regard. He began his career as a teacher at the early age of eighteen, near Mechanicsburg, Cumber- land county, Pa., where he remained one year, when he removed with his father to Wayne county. Upon his arrival in Wayne county he very naturally inclined to the occupation for which he had best qualified himself and began teaching in Canaan township, where the village of Golden Corners now stands.
He was married November 18, 1833, to Rebecca Sommers, the issue of which union being three sons, George S., Daniel O. and Joseph William Brinkerhoff. The two oldest served in the Union army, George in the 47th Indiana regiment, Daniel in the 4th Ohio, who after a service of nine months became prostrated with fever, was brought home and died. Joseph W. Brinkerhoff, the youngest, is practicing medicine in Burbank, Wayne county.
After a married life of 18 years nearly his wife Rebecca died, and he was united in marriage a second time, November 17, 1852, to Miss Mary Robison, daughter of William Robison of Wooster township. Mr. Brinkerhoff is a resident of Wooster and is one of the intelligent, enlightened, upright, honorable and substantial men of the city.
We do not know the number of terms of school he has taught in Wooster and the community since his advent to the county, but he has been, if not exclusively devoting his time to it, identi-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
fied with some educational enterprise of the people, either as County Examiner, Superintendent, teacher, Trustee or committee- man.
The genius of the public schools has pursued him and haunted him until there was scarcely any escape from its influence or bland- ishments. The vigor of his manhood has been spent in the school- room, and the skill of his drilled brain has, through long and toil- some years, been employed in endeavor to educate the youth sub- mitted to his care and inspire them with lofty and laudable ambi- tions. He has performed his duty and can not fail to know it. In the sphere of teacher he possessed singular fitness, and to all its situations he readily addressed himself.
He must be written down as one of the successful teachers of Wayne county. He seems to have enjoyed the natural as well as the acquired qualifications of the teacher. He had a just, well- balanced confidence in himself and in his ability. His moral na- ture was sufficiently enlightened to impart to him a keen concep- tion of his duty, and his conscience forbade him shrinking from it. He was also, by his very composition, a very determined man, and this determination communicated force and momentum to all his actions; hence, with his strong moral convictions, his clear sense of duty, and his resolute nature, he established government, erected order and asserted the manhood of the teacher. His name is permanently associated with the High, Graded and other schools of the city of Wooster. With the teachers of Wayne county he possesses a remarkable influence, and especially with the younger class, who dwell upon his words and highly value his counsel. As County School Examiner he was deservedly popular.
His mind being essentially calculative, the range of its exercise could not easily be confined to the mathematics of the school room. With an excellent comprehension of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the calculus, etc., he practicalized his at- tainments in the domain of surveyor and civil engineer.
He was elected Surveyor of Wayne county in 1844, and has served officially in that capacity at differeat times nineteen years since then. His labors in this respect continue whether in or out of office, and his lines, angles and corners are trusty land-marks. He is as familiar with the science of quantities, mixed, pure or speculative, as he is with the sections or topography of the coun- ty. His valuable services rendered as engineer in the construction of the Wooster water works, and his remarkable fertility and
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exactness in the delineation of plans, contributed largely to the consummation · of that splendid enterprise of the citizens of Wooster.
While it is probable that the atmosphere of politics may not be cogenial to the olfactories of Mr. Brinkerhoff he has, nevertheless, upon several occasions been compelled to breathe it, and with, we believe, invigorating effect upon the body politic.
He was elected to the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, serving from January 4, 1864, to January 1, 1866. He proved himself to be a working, vigilant member, promptly at the post of duty, and keenly alive to the interests of his constituents and the welfare of the public.
It will be seen by this narrative that Mr. Brinkerhoff has passed his sixty-fourth year, an age to which but a decimal of the human race attain. By a life of strictest sobriety and temperance, of great evenness, moderation and method, not yielding to mental or physical excitements, unsapped by excesses, unvisited by the assaults of destructive passions, he is to-day in the very prime of manhood, the possessor of "a sound mind in a healthy body," with every faculty susceptible of its strongest tension and activ- ity. He is a man of powerful convictions, and when assured that he is right he will not be swerved from his opinion. He is a tangible, certain man. There are no fungus growths in his character. He is of a placid and hopeful temperament and in- dulgent and magnanimous disposition. He believes the world is better than moralists would have us admit; has faith in the destiny of man, withholding judgment against a brother rather than pronouncing it. He has a hearty amen for every good work, and in most cases leans to a verdict of "not proven." He belongs to the United Presbyterian church, of which he has been a lifelong and prominent member.
JOHN P. JEFFRIES.
John Parsons Jeffries, of Wooster, Ohio, the author of the "Natural History of the Human Races," is a lawyer by profession. He was born in Huntington county, Pa., July 19, 1815. His parents, Mark and Rebecca Parsons Jeffries, were both of old English stock, Quaker on the maternal side, whose genealogy can be traced for over two centuries, their immediate ancestors for sev- eral generations residing in Chester county, Pa.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
His early opportunities for education were only such as were attainable at that time, and this was procured at the select school, as the system of instruction was then not so diffusive and liberal as at this later day. However, by the exercise of indomitable energy and a determined will, he became a ripe scholar, profound lawyer and a man of means, and may properly and emphatically be ranked with our self-made men.
In April, 1836, Mr. Jeffries left his native place and settled at Wooster, May 14, of the same year, where he has ever since con- tinued to reside. . He was married in 1838 to Miss Jane McMoni- gal, second daughter of Andrew McMonigal, one of the early pioneers of Wayne county, the union resulting in five sons and two daughters, viz: Lemuel, Sarah Matilda, Linnæus Quinby, Joseph Oello, Delano, Viola Rebecca and Julian Parsons, all of whom are living, except Matilda, who married Samuel J. Price and died in Harrisonburg, Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1865.
His inclinations in early life were for mechanical pursuits, and for several years he followed the occupation of mill-wright, in which he was eminently successful. Possessed of strong native powers of intellect, that field became too narrow for him, when he turned his attention to the law, which opened up to his eager mind a larger range of study and thought. To the student, no profes- sion presents so vast a field for intellectual activity as the law. In its study and practice, philosophy, the arts and sciences are all brought into requisition.
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