USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 42
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I have heard them in my youth from a naked savage, in the indignant charac- ter of a prince surrounded by his subjects, addressing the Governor of a British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hands as the notes of his unlettered elo- quence : " Who is it," said the jealous ruler over the desert, encroached by the restless foot of the English adventurer, "Who is it that causes its river to rise in the high mountains and empty itself into the ocean ? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in summer? Who is it that rears up the shade of these lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The same Being who gave to you a country on the other side of the waters and gave ours to us ; and by this title we will defend it," said the warrior, throwing down the tomahawk on the ground and raising the war sound of his na- tion. Here are the feelings of subjugated man all round the globe; and depend upon it, nothing but fear will control when it is vain to look for affection.
When exasperated, he has hurled passages as vigorous and vin- dictive as Burke when he said of Dundas:
With six great chopping bastards#, and each as lusty as an infant Hercules, this delicate creature blushes at the sight of his new bridegroom, assumes a virgin delicacy, or, to use a more fit, as well as a more poetical comparison, the person so squeamish, so timid, so trembling, lest the winds of heaven should visit too roughly, if expanded to broad sunshine, exposed like the sow of imperial augury, lying in the mud with all the prodigies of her fertility about her as evidence of her delicate amour.
He has often scorched the perjurer and villain as remorselessly as did Curran when he said of O'Brien to the jury :
Did you not see him coiling himself in the scaly circles of his perjury, mak- ing anticipated battle against the attack that he knew would be made, and spitting his venom against the man that might have given evidence of his infamous charac- ter if he dared appear ?
#Reports of Secret Committee.
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In his impetuous charges upon the violator of the marriage contract he has ascended to the majesty of mirthful eloquence, as did Phillips, in the Court House at Galway, when he said of *Blake :
It has been left me to defend my unfortunate old client from the double bat- tery of Love and Law, which, at the age of sixty-five, has so unexpectedly opened on her. Oh, gentlemen, how vain-glorious is the boast of beanty ! How misap- prehended have been the charms of youth, if years and wrinkles can thus despoil their conquests, and depopulate the navy of its prowess, and beguile the bar of its eloquence! How mistaken were all the amatory bards, from Anacreon downwards, who preferred the bloom of the rose and the trill of the nightingale to the saffron hide and dulcet treble of sixty-five ! * What a loss the navy had of him, and what a loss he had of the navy! Alas, gentlemen, he could not resist his affection for a female he never saw ! Almighty love eclipsed the glo- ries of ambition ! Trafalgar and St. Vincent flitted from his memory ! He gave up all for woman, as Mark Antony did before him; and, like the Cupid in Hudibras, he-
Took his stand Upon a widow's jointure land ; His tender sigh and trickling tear Longed for five hundred pounds a year ; And languishing desires were found Of Statute, Mortgage, Bill and Bond.
Oh, gentlemen, only imagine him on the lakes of North America! Alike to him the varieties of season and the vicissitudes of warfare. One sovereign image monopolizes his sensibilities. Does the storm rage ? the Widow Wilkins ontsighs the whirlwind. Is the ocean calm? its mirror shows him the Widow Wilkins. Is the battle won? he thins his laurels that the Widow Wilkins may interweave her myrtles. Does the broadside thunder? he invokes the Widow Wilkins.
A sweet little cherub, she sits up aloft To keep watch for the life of poor Peter.
In politics Mr. McSweeney has always been and is a steadfast Democrat of the old school. He adhered to the party throughout its long years of adversity and vicissitude with unflinching fidelity. But he is not a politician or an office-seeker. Had he been either, while he might have compromised his professional aspirations, he would unquestionably have commanded the highest office within the gift of the Democracy of Ohio. His political services are in great demand, but it rarely occurs that he can be induced to attend a convention or make a political speech. In 1860 or '61 he aston- ished the Democracy of Allegheny City, Pa., with a powerful and luminous speech, and in 1863 he electrified the convention which
#Blake was an officer in the English navy, and brought suit against Widow Wilkins, sixty-five years old, for a breach of the marriage contract and damages thereby sustained.
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nominated Clement L. Vallandigham. For a number of years he has been in the habit of making a rousing rallying speech to the Democracy of Wooster on the Monday night before the election, when a park of Gattling guns let fly their whizzing contents to hiss and burn through the ranks of the enemy.
He has, however, chosen the law as his field, and he has not mistaken his employment.
His great Irish prototype, O'Connell, desired to be King of Ire- land; McSweeney aspires to sovereignity in the empire of law.
BENJAMIN EASON.
Benjamin Eason was born May 5, 1822, in Wooster township, Wayne county, Ohio, in a log cabin, standing then where is located the present residence of Jeremiah R. Naftzger, a few rods to the north of the old Stibbs mill, and just across Pittsburg avenue. His father being a mill-wright, at this time was pursuing his profes- sion, and it may be remarked a highly needful one at that period, he having assisted in building the Stibbs carding mill. At the age of two years his father moved to Perry township, now in Ashland county, but then in Wayne, where he remained until 1832, when he removed to Plain township, and purchased the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch, at Springville, in Plain township.
The boyhood and earlier years of Mr. Eason were spent with his father upon the farm, where he participated in the unpoetic activities of rural life, and where hard physical toil brought brawn to his hands, and where the harvest sun smote his cheek and printed thereon its swarthy bloom. He now had advanced to his twenty-first year, but although pursuing the healthful routine of the farm, he had not been neglectful of books, mental discipline and study. Having availed himself of such educational advanta- ges as the times afforded, and by processes of self-tutelage such as are known only to the instructor of himself, he next entered upon the worthy career of teacher of the district school. Hope told him a flattering tale, and whispered, "Persevere, be faithful, true to friends, steadfast in principle, unbending in integrity, and success will crown your efforts."
The record proves that hope held out no treacherous beacon. For a period of five years continuously he prosecuted the vocation of teacher, achieving local reputation as an adept in that profes- sion. These five years of experience as public instructor were
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appreciated by the parents of the youth whose culture and expan- sion he sought, but they were none the less years of training and development to him. Five years in the school-room has its equiv- alent only in two years in the university. If he was the educator of the children, he was likewise his own pupil. Here was oppor- tunity for unfolding his own faculties. During these years he applied himself assiduously to history, English literature, etc., selecting such authors as Rollin, Dick, Gibbon, Hume, Josephus, Hazlitt, Talfourd, Shakspeare, Massinger, etc. Surveying also claimed a portion of his leisure moments, as he designed, at some future time, to more fully explore that department of mathematical science. His immediate aim and ambition was, by this course, to acquire the qualifications of a first-class teacher, not allowing his knowledge to be circumscribed by the mere text-books or inci- dental volumes of the school library.
Moreover, he occasionally looked in upon the pages of Black- stone, contemplating them as so many crucibles in which were assayed golden grains of law, and with the ultimate anticipation of one day being able to sift these grains. He taught his first school in what was called the Branstetter district, and though but nineteen years of age, commanding as good a salary as his older competitors. It was in this way that he acquired his first capital and made his first money. At the age of twenty-six he was elected Justice of the Peace for Plain township, serving in this capacity until the spring of 1850, when he was seized with "gold fever," and resolved on a passage to the sun-down side of the con- tinent. With his brother, Alexander Eason, he joined the Den- nison company, composed of about forty men, all from Wayne county, and on the IIth of March of said year they left Wooster for California. The trip was made overland with mule- teams, Mr. Eason appearing in the role of one of the drivers, the party arriving at Placerville, fifty-five miles east of Sacramento, on the Fourth of July, 1850. Salt Lake City was embraced in the passage, where, much to their amusement, they tarried for four or five days. In the Golden State he remained until the following winter, mining, trading, speculating, etc., when he returned home by steamer plethoric with the imbibitions and experiences of fron- tier life-expansive with the blood-freezing narratives of the "'49-ers," and with eyes still ablaze with scenes of border blood- shed and lawless cruelty.
Subsequent to his arrival home, and in 1851, he was a candi-
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date for Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Wayne county, and was elected over his competitor, Henry Lehman; again being a candidate for re-election in 1854, with a similar successful result. In his official capacity he vindicated his conceded practical abili- ties, fulfilling his duties with fidelity and promptitude, achieving the reputation of an efficient officer, whose whole course was dis- tinguished by extreme cleverness, pliant urbanity and marked appreciation of the public confidence.
After this, and in 1858, he returned to his farm, but, as the sequel exhibits, was not allowed to long remain there, for in the ensuing autumn he was summoned from the farm to be the candi- date of the Democracy for the State Senate, in the then 28th Sena- torial District, composed of Wayne and Holmes counties, en- countering Robert Gailey as his opponent, over whom he was handsomely successful.
In that body he was an active, working member, invariably in his seat and shirking no responsibility. In the discharge of his Senatorial functions, while keeping in view the interests of his im- mediate constituents, he never forgot that he was sent there to de- liberate on the interests of the people of the whole State, as well as of his own district, and hence he persistently opposed unwise and improvident legislation, going upon the principle that we are too much governed by expediency. He served in two sessions during the term. At the expiration of his Senatorial term he once more returned to his farm-
"To study culture, and with artful toil To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands, The grain, or herb, or plant that each demands; To cherish virtue in an humble state, And share the joys his bounty might create."
This rural seclusion was of short duration. In 1862, when the formidable requisition for 600,000 additional troops was ordered, he at once proceeded to adjust his business that he might be ena- bled to enter the military service. He was commissioned Captain of Company E, 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and authorized to immediately begin the work of recruiting. To this purpose he vigorously addressed himself, and in a short time his company was organized and accompanied the regiment to Camp Mansfield, where they rendezvoused for several weeks. The regiment first went to Covington, Ky., was next ordered down the river to Memphis,
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Tenn., where they bivouacked several weeks, and thence to Vicks- burg, Miss., that Golgotha of Union soldiers on the mighty inland river. Here the 120th, as well as the 16th, participated in the dis- astrous battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, on the 28th and 29th of Decem- ber, 1862.
An incident occurred during this engagement which needs no comment from us and which we here introduce :
The 5th Iowa battery was engaging the enemy with but little apparent effect. Capt. Eason's quick mathematical eye discovered the inefficiency of the firing and immediately communicated the fact to Colonels French and Spiegel, when it was resolved to so inform the artillery officers. Capt. Eason at much peril sought the officers of the battery, made the suggestion, when the guns were so adjusted as to have the most deadly effect. From Vicks- burg they went to Napoleon, thence up the Arkansas to Arkansas Post, where a brief but bitter engagement resulted, the issue of which was the surrender and capture of the place. Captain Eason's company alone supported a section-two pieces of Foster's bat- tery-through the entire engagement, the 120th being the first to plant the flag on the ramparts of the enemy. This battle was fought on Sunday, February 11, 1863. The regiment next re- turned to Vicksburg. Here in the marshes and morasses of the Mississippi, disease invaded its ranks, and many a gallant life went out and many a gallant heart went down.
In the spring of 1863, on account of seriously impaired health, Captain Eason resigned his commission, abandoning his command at that point. Arriving home, he remained upon the farm for a period, assisting nature in her recuperating efforts, and strug- gling to restore his health. Not sufficiently recovered to engage in the severities of farm-labor, but desiring employment, in No- vember, 1864, he purchased the Wayne County Democrat office, conducting it as editor and proprietor. His connection with this journal is fully set forth in the history of the newspaper press of Wooster. After his relinquishment of journalism he repaired to his country residence once more, where he remained until April, 1870, when he came to Wooster, and with his son, Samuel B, whom he took into partnership with him, entered upon the prac- tice of law; also associating, two years thereafter, his son, B. F. Eason, in said partnership.
He was married May 25, 1843, to Miss Susan Branstetter, of Plain township, who, after a lingering illness, died August 6, 1872.
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He has four children, S. B., B. F. and Robert Eason and Miss Beulah Eason, who entered upon the University course the first year of its existence.
Mr. Eason, though barely having attained the meridian of life, it will be observed is one of the old citizens of Wayne county. He has lived in our midst, grown up with us, and witnessed our growth, so that we contemplate him as a past reflex of us-a type of the earlier, as well as of our more modern civilization. He has been over fifty years a citizen. He is interlaced, intertwisted and intertwined with our people and our institutions. When he was a boy there were few school-houses and scant facilities for education. There were no railroads, no telegraphs-electricity was as yet in the Franklin bottle-couriers conveyed the intelligence of the day- steam-boats were clumsy swimmers, and steam but an unruly mechanical factor-stage-coaches were the order, and the man on horseback the avant-courier of a Presidential pronunciamento.
Is it a wonder that he espouses the cause of education-that he exclaims, "More school-houses, better teachers and better ventila- tion !"-that he wants railroads, endorses an Associated Press, and subscribes for the morning papers! Education has no more liberal and earnest patron than this man. He has erected a monument in Plain township to this cause. He aided in getting up the first school-house in Wayne county under the new school law of 1852. People's College is a product of his will. It has probably sent out more school teachers than any other district school in the county, nearly twenty of its pupils now being graduates of colleges and universities. The object of education, he believes, is to unfold and develop; it should be specific and practical; it should not be an accumulation of facts, but a development of capacities.
A backward glance at these lines reveals the fact that Mr. Eason is decidedly self-made. His helps have all been from him- self. He made himself and has not been made by others-that is, brought his powers up to the work which he saw them adapted to; they grew from the center and organized as they grew, and hence all the efforts of his life went out on the lines of the relations of their individuality to the world and its affairs. He was not college- bred, and, as a consequence, his life is real and not borrowed. His life shows him to be a believer in work ; he believes in universities, too, but does not assume that a college is a mill that will take in every dunce and grind a genius out of him.
He is too practical to swallow that. He is of opinion that men
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develop and make themselves to a great degree. He is sure that the best book-keepers are those that are manufactured in the count- ing-room. He affirms that there is no theory about cutting cord- wood, only to go to the woods and work it out. So he wisely concludes that every man's powers have relations to some kinds of work, and whenever he finds that kind of work which he can do best, he finds that which will give him the best development, and that by which he can best build up or make his manhood. The world to him is a working world-a serious, earnest, hard-working world. He likes to see men with aprons on and sleeves rolled up. He is a man of decided and pronounced opinions, has personality and is not afraid to assert it at the proper time, but then is not obtrusive. He has the faculty of not "supposing" and "inclin- ing to think," but of knowing and believing; his disposition is not to live by hearsay, but by clear vision. While others hover and swim along in the grand Vanity Fair of the world, blinded by the mere "show of things," he tries to see things themselves. He never throws overboard anything that will be of use to him. He is not noisy or turbulent, but does his own thinking, and makes no fuss about it.
His experience has made him cunning, and he avoids traps that older people fall into. There is foresight about him, and plenty of secretiveness. He thinks he can manage a secret better himself than by calling in neighbors to assist him. He is charitable to the poor and a liberal giver to deserving enterprises. Socially he is affable and genial. His heart never freezes over in the coldest weather. He is fond of anecdote, and will fling a joke at you with as sure an aim as a Mexican will his stiletto. On the stump he is a matter-of-fact speaker and logical debater. He is a mathematician, a financial scholar, a thorough accountant, and in business punctiliously accurate.
He is about six feet high, well built, has a methodizing, com- prehensive eye, an ingenuous expression of countenance, is whole- souled, big-hearted, not effervescent or exhaustible-in sooth, a fair type of American manhood.
All in all, we pronounce him a man of far-reaching thought, of shrewdness, of calculation and stability of execution ; of scru- pulous business habit, with perspicacity and forecast of results, having enough of faith in himself to obey the authority of his own judgment.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
DAVID ROBISON, JR.
David Robison, Jr., fourth son of David and Elizabeth Robison, on January 22, 1830, first visited the planet on which so many millions fight, sin, agonize and die. Having availed himself of the educational privileges of the select schools of those days, at the age of fifteen he entered the dry goods firm of his father and his brother John, who were then partners in the mercantile business, as clerk, or rather as a general errand boy. With them he remained several years, diligently applying himself to business and prepar- ing for the sterner duties of advancing life. Not content, however, with the mental discipline and meager attainments of the village school, he resolved on giving wider scope to his intellectual facul- ties, and in the spring of 1849 he registered himself a student at the Western Reserve College, located at Hudson, Ohio. Here he remained for two years, when he returned to Wooster and em- barked in mercantile pursuits for himself.
In July, 1851, a partnership was formed with his brothers John and James, constituting the firm of Robison & Co., in the dry goods trade; at the same time another was entered into with James in the milling business at the Wooster Mills, under the style of J. N. & D. Robison, Jr. In 1854 he purchased the interests of the two brothers in the store and sold to James his share in the mill.
He was one of the incorporators of the Wooster Gas Company in 1856, and materially aided in the construction of the works. For a number of years he has been identified with the banking inter- ests of the community ; was associated with the private bank of Bonewitz, Emrich & Co. in 1867, and which was re-organized in 1868 and changed to the Commercial Bank of Wooster. He was one of the principal organizers of the National Bank of Wooster, commencing business January 1, 1872, and was its first President.
He was one of the incorporators of the Wooster University, a member of its Executive Committee; was active and assiduous in raising funds for the construction of the buildings and for its en- dowment; took a promnient part in organizing its Faculty and was one of its liberal and ready benefactors.
He was married September 1, 1853, to Miss Ann E. Jacobs of Wooster, eldest daughter of James and Elizabeth W. Jacobs, by which union they have two sons, both of whom are living, namely, James Jacobs and Willard Field Robison. He became a member of the Presbyterian church of Wooster, in April, 1858, his wife
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uniting with this denomination seven years prior to this, while at- tending school at Steubenville, Ohio. Mr. Robison is still engaged in mercantile speculation in Wooster* at the old stand where he embarked in business in 1845. His corner is about as well adver- tised and known, we were going to say, as Nasby's Confederate Cross Roads, and between the management of it and the Presi- dency of the Bank, he is restrained from indulging in any lingering whims of mischievous boyhood. As the narrative shows, he is a public-spirited, enterprising, projective man. By virtue of his very mental organization he is a progressionist. He has plenty of inde- pendence of character and many good reasons for it.
Had the metalic creeds of Westminster been burned upon his brain with a rod of iron he would not have carried the whole of the impression to his grave. He has faith enough, but then he thinks a great deal more than he believes. If he is not much over forty- five, he has arrived at a good many conclusions. He believes, for instance, that a man may carry a gold-headed cane and wear a wooden head. He is of the opinion that a man who is willing to pay will do so sooner than one that has the means to do it. He considers greenbacks in the vault more desirable than a note of 60 days, at 10 per cent., secured by mortgage, where the maker fails to meet it promptly at maturity. This is his, and a very wise con- ception of business.
He is a Wayne countian, and as indigenous to the soil as the massive elms in his door-yard ; but he has heard a fair share of the roaring of the outside multitude. He was not wholly educated at Hudson, but has learned much from the light of the conflicting flints of the world. The rifleman, before he enters upon the hunt and chase, puts up his target, which, for the time, is the object of his skill. He set up a motive, pinned up a purpose before he marched out against life, and now, in its exciting pursuits, it is constantly before him. He gave to life an aim, and no sooner was it done than the brain-children began unfolding it, as the rays of the morn- ing's light unfolds the convolvulus.
He consecrates himself to an idea-that idea is his business. He is equally at home at the bank as well as at the counter. He would have been correspondingly efficient in any chosen sphere of activity and labor. His judgment is sound, his propositions usu- ally supportable by facts and argument, with both of which weap-
#Removed to Toledo since this was written.
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ons he can adroitly and forcibly maintain himself against an adver- sary. What reasons may have influenced him against entering upon the legal profession we do not pretend to solve, but he would have made a lawyer, just as sure as you are born, and a good one, too.
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