USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 43
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His opinions are characterized by commendable catholicity, yet there is unction and earnestness in his convictions. But, most of all, his business is his charmed circle. It is here where he mani- fests his power. He binds his energies in the quiver of his will, and hurls them with the precision of Indian arrows. His execu- tive ability is of a fine order. What he undertakes he proposes to finish. He strikes his irons only when they are at white heat ; then every blow counts one. He wants gas in the city because it brings light; banks, because they are the light of commerce; a university, because it bears a shining torch in its hand.
He has great elasticity of constitution, a superabundance of good feeling, and a sunshiny gaiety of imagination. He is a warm friend, a cool and dignified enemy. In conversation he is original and animated. When aroused his tongue vitriolizes his speech, though he inclines to give his opponents a wide berth. His correct and upright business habits, his probity and integrity, have anchored him safely in the confidence of the public.
ANGUS McDONALD.
Angus McDonald was born February 7, 1818, at Woodside, in Aberdeenshire, then two miles from the city of Aberdeen, Scot- land, but now a portion of said city, and the birth-place of the father of Patrick Henry, the celebrated Revolutionary patriot. His father, a Highland Scotchman, still living, was born it 1798, in Fort Augustus, Invernes-shire, a large maratime county of Scot- land, extending across the island from sea to sea, and traversed its whole length from south-west to north-east by the Caledonian Canal. He is now living in Aberdeen. The genealogical tree is strictly and emphatically Highland Scotch. They descend from a rugged, stalwart and powerful ancestral line, the family being a branch of the McDonald clan of the Highlanders, who bore for their motto a Bloody Hand with a triple cross, and the armorial inscription, "per mare, per terras"-through sea and land.
* Written in 1874.
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The name is as familiar in the annals of Scotland as that of Kenneth, Gregory, Malcolm, Macbeth, Duncan or Montieth. The father of A. McDonald, as might be expected, was a soldier. He inherited the martial spirit from a line of warriors, and the very force and bent of his inclinations would drive him to the soldier's tent. At the age of seventeen he entered the British army, joining the 42d, under Colonel Macara, Scot's Royals-"the Black Watch"-which was brigaded with the 92d and 44th regiments, and which was commanded by General Picton at the battle of Waterloo.
On the first day of the fighting at Quatre Bras, June 16, 1815, his brigade suffered most severely. They were stationed near the farm house of Quatre Bras, and were the object of a most destruc- tive fire, as the French had the advantage of the rising ground, while they were covered to the shoulders among tall rye, so that they could not return the volleys with precision. A desperate charge of French cavalry succeeded, which was resisted by each of these regiments separately, each one throwing itself into a solid square. The approach of the enemy being partly concealed by the nature of the ground, the 42d was unable to form a square in the necessary time. Two companies were, therefore, instantly swept off and cut to pieces. Some of the men stood back to back and maintained an unyielding conflict with the horsemen until they were cut down. Here the veteran Colonel Macara, of the 42d, and the Duke of Brunswick fell. Here, also, Mr. McDonald was wounded, having been shot in the head with a musket ball. He was subsequently discharged, on this account, from the military service, and receives until this day a pension from the British Gov- ernment. After the battle his family, hearing no tidings of him, and not having been reported at the hospital, came to the con- clusion that he was killed, and for six months went in mourning for him. It was a terrible and overwhelming surprise to them, after the lapse of that time, to see their soldier son, then a young man of 17 years, make his appearance at the family door. After his retirement from the army he became manager of a cotton factory at Printfield, where he sojourned for 30 years, when he removed to Aberdeen, and engaged in business with his son David, who visited A. McDonald in the summer of 1870. He was married to Margaret Monro, of Rosshire, a Highland Scotch lady, by which marriage he had 8 children. In July, 1843, Mr. Ronald McDonald came to America to see the country and visit his son, then living
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at Massillon, Ohio, where he remained until May, 1844. Having contracted the ague, he left the country in disgust, saying, "I would not live here if you would give me all the country between Zoar and Massillon. You feed mercury to your people, sir ; don't I know what mercury is ?"
Angus McDonald, the subject of this sketch, is the eldest son and the eldest child of the family. In his earliest boyhood he first made the experiment of labor and tasted of the fruits of toil. When but seven years old he entered the cotton factory at Print- field, and here he remained until he was fourteen, when his business was somewhat changed, as he was put into the Grand Holm foundry, at Woodside, where an opportunity was offered and where he ac- quired a knowledge of his trade of moulder. In 1838, he went to London, but in that boisterous maelstrom, that cyclone of contend- ing human forces, he found little enjoyment. Being then but twenty years of age, he abandoned the thronged metropolis of the world, when he set out for Liverpool and commenced work in what was then called Berry's foundry, and while engaged in this establish- ment he first conceived the intention of coming to America. After pursuing his work for some time in Liverpool he returned to his home, at Aberdeen, on a visit, when he was married to Kate Din- widdie, of his native Woodside.
In February, 1840, he set sail for the United States for the pur- pose of making observations of the country, and with the design of returning to Scotland should he not be favorably impressed with the country, and calculating to remain if it suited him. After thirty-five days passage he planted his feet upon the soil of the New World, and hearing of Massillon, repaired thither with but little delay, finding employment immediately with Messrs. McMil- len & Partridge, as foreman in their foundry. With these gentle- men he remained one year, at the end of which time they were unwilling that he should leave them and he, being satisfied with the country and its remunerations of labor, resolved to stay, where- upon he sent for his wife and child, who arrived in Massillon in the spring of 1842. In that foundry he served in the capacity of fore- man for seven years, but on account of his wife's illness, and the malaria so prevalent there at that time, he concluded to come to Wooster, where he arrived February 12, 1847.
Of the eleven children born to Mr. McDonald but seven re- main. His four sons, William, Angus, David and Harper, are severally in his employ, and assist in conducting his business.
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Mr. McDonald is now sixty years old, and considering the fact that his more vigorous years were spent in the severe and nerve- testing discipline of the moulder's room, he is nevertheless well- preserved and well conditioned, hearty in body and healthy in mind. We pronounce him a good specimen of the Highland Scotchman-all he wants is the costume to sustain the character. He is a grain of good Scotch seed that has fallen upon a responsive soil; or perhaps we had better say, he is a graft upon our New Worldtree which, under the influence of genial suns and rains, produces our choicest fruit. Upon his tongue there is perceptible the Scottish accent. And for all this, we can say, Amen; for as the local expounder of Robert Burns, he can the better interpret him to us and draw us nearer to the soul and spirit of his poems by lending a truer understanding of their charms and beauties. He hails from a country that has been and is the nucleus of human intellect. A closer analysis of him would discover that, not only his tongue but his thought, his conduct and character, are accent- uated with the Scotch. Thackeray says, "to have your name mentioned by Gibbon is like having it written on the dome of St. Peter's." To have been born on the soil that produced a Scott, a Burns, a Thomas Erskine, a Haddington, or John Brown, is in itself a kind of renown.
He is five feet ten and a half inches high, of corpulent, but athletic frame, and weighs over 200 pounds. He has a broad, square, intellectual face, lighted up by a pair of keen, blue eyes, and a heavy burgherly chin, indicative of will-force, and the ener- getic, affirmative man. His brow is arched, and presents traces of the pencilings with which Nature adorns her best works; his cheeks are full, fleshy and ruddy as the blossoms of the June clover. There is a sedate dignity and complacency in his counte- nance that is seldom ruffled, which, under all circumstances, is the best expression of the human soul. In him is seen the-
" Lord-Burleigh look, serene and serious ; A something of imposing and mysterious."
If excited, he has considerable facility in concealing it. A machinist himself, he allows but little jar or friction among either his physical or mental cogs and wheels. Simplicity and plainness characterize his dress. A solid, but unostentatious gold chain, and a gold watch-an heir-loom of generations in the family-con- stitute his jewel ornaments. He sustains the port of a well-bred
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gentleman ; is urbane, decorous and polite. He is free, flexible, and fluent in conversation ; is well familiarized with the history and literature of England, Scotland and America. He has been at the Hustings, passed up Grub street, and can talk for hours and days upon the Mermaid and Literary London.
Scotland, Scottish ballads, rare, old unfathered fragments, queer and quaint legends, form an interesting chapter in his antique acquisitions. In addition to his large stock of general knowledge he has made many scientific acquirements. In the field of geology he has spent hours of profitable leisure and delight. On his shelves lie the books of his great countryman, "the representative man of Scotland," as Tom Brown chooses to call him, "the stone- mason of Cromarty," the immortal Hugh Miller. In these vol- umes of the Great Interpreter of the Rocks, he discovers prolific sources of thought and study.
Mr. McDonald is a practical, well-balanced, firm-purposed man. He seldom loses his self-possession, has much force of character, sagacity, decision, logical acuteness and great alertness of faculty. What he has accomplished he can put down to his own credit. In the mountains of his Highland home he found no buried gold. When he slept Fortune filled not his pillows with her treasures. He lived to toil and toiled to live. He has forged and beat out his life by the blows of his arm. He conducts the largest, most intricate and most ramified business in the county. There is true sandstone grit in him. In his reapers and mowers are not found all of the steel; his blood has steel in it. He is the personation of uniformity. He is clean-shaved to-day, was yesterday, and will be to-morrow. The sun in his comings is not more regular than his habits, nor does the moon pay her quarterage with greater pre- cision. With him it is always twelve o'clock at noon. His watch must say this, or he will get one that will. His steam-whistle is Shrewsbury clock and Greenwich time in all the city. His ma- chine shops are models of method. It is an army of captains and subalterns, governed by West Point discipline. When "time" is called the work begins, the loungers are left out.
Mr. McDonald is a Democrat, but in no sense a politician. Had he sought promotion in this field, he likely would have achieved it, for he has the elements of popularity, as well as strength of self-assertion. During the rebellion he was a staunch supporter of the Government-was what was called "a War Dem- ocrat." He was appointed by Gov. David Tod a member of the
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WOOSTER-WATER WORKS.
Military Committee, and served with an emphasis of patriotic zeal in every position the appointment conferred. In those dark days,* when the great manufactures of the country languished, he con- fronted financial depressions and revulsions with Spartan resolu- tion. Prostrations and oppositions were met with manly vigor, and Samson-like, he carried off the gates that were swinging to imprison him. Looking only to the main chance, he fought to the front.
Though he stands now on the Pisgah hights of three-score years, he has, as we may infer, much of life and the first enjoy- ments of its decline before him.
To the blue skies of his native Scotland he has often turned the wishful eye, but, since his departure from it, has never visited the scenes of his childhood. In a strange land and among strangers he took up his abode, and here he has dwelt with us, building him- self up with the ideas of the great Republic, interlacing himself with its giant industries and imbibing the inspirations of its insti- tutions. Under their influences he has raised a family, which are entwined with the affectionate and benevolent goodness of his heart, and here he has constructed a name that will not soon van- ish from the eye or the memory of man. His instinctive gener- osity-for "he downa see a poor man want "-and enterprising spirit will live and be cherished when he shall have passed the por- tal and the river.
As Burns said of Gavin Hamilton-
" May health and peace, with mutual rays, Shine on the evening of his days."
WOOSTER WATER WORKS.
The first water works established in Wooster were constructed under a contract negotiated between the original proprietors of the town and the County Commissioners, bearing date May 13, 1811. The conditions of the contract were that the county-seat should be permanently located at Wooster, and, among other specifications, it was agreed that the proprietors were to bring "the water of the run, which at present runs through the town in pipes of sound white oak timber of a proper size, well bored and laid, and raise the water ten feet above the surface at the center of the town."
# 1874, when this was written.
32
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
This contract was complied with by the proprietors, and water was delivered to the town of Wooster conducted through these pipes from 1815 to 1829. When the authorities of the town un- dertook to repair the pipes conveying the water one of the lot- owners through whose premises the pipes were laid prohibited them from so doing by an injunction of the court, and from that time no further attention or effort was made to sustain the enter- prise.
More recently the subject of supplying the city with water from the springs of Mr. Reddick to the north of the city became a mat- ter of grave and earnest consideration. May 14, 1874, G. Gow and John Brinkerhoff, civil engineers, gauged the stream and found it sufficient to protect the city against fire. The work being inau- gurated the reservoir was constructed under the supervision of G. Gow during the summer of 1875, by throwing a dam across the ravine immediately below the springs, thus raising the water to the depth of 18 feet. No further labor was performed until the spring of 1876, when the present works were commenced and conducted through the summer of 1876, under the immediate and energetic supervision of John Brinkerhoff, civil engineer.
In the construction of the system the pipe used was 3,989 feet of twelve inch, 4,988 feet of ten inch, 6,432 feet of eight inch, 26,024 feet of six inch and 4,844 feet of four inch pipe, in all 46,277 feet, or over 8 miles of pipe.
The total cost of pipe and special castings was $36, 390, the en- tire cost of the works being $76,256.27. Improvements have since been made, making an additional cost of about $10,000. The sur- face of the water at the reservoir is 128 feet above the public square. The water from 88 fire-plugs, located on the lines of the streets, can be projected to various hights, ranging from 40 to 100 feet above the surface by the force of gravity alone. Gravity being the agent acting in the propulsion of the water, the expense of running the works is merely nominal. The supply of water is suf- ficient for all the wants of the city, and under improvements intro- duced by M. M. Smith, Superintendent, during the summer of 1877, the water delivered in the city is pure spring water.
The works are now the most popular of any enterprise in which Wooster has engaged. Many citizens were at first, however, very hostile to their construction, to the extent of presenting writ- ten remonstrances to the City Council, condemning the project generally, predicting its failure to supply water to the city. But,
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notwithstanding such serious resistance, the Council proceeded en- ergetically with the work, ending in success greater than the most sanguine anticipated. The active Councilmen in this were Angus McDonald, Jacob Stark, R. J. Cunningham, B. Barrett, J. K. Mc- Bride, J. J. Stevenson, Mortimer Munn, D. W. Immel.
O. F. JONES.
Ohio F. Jones was born in Wooster, November 28, 1822. His earlier years were spent with his father in the village and upon the farm, during which time he had advantage of the educa- tional opportunities that were afforded at that period. At the age of eighteen he went to Fredericksburg, attending the institution there, then under the supervision of Edward Geary, brother of Ex-Gov- ernor Geary, of Pennsylvania. He afterwards went to McGregor's Academy at Wadsworth, Medina county, Ohio, and thence to Brown county, Ohio, where he entered upon the study of law with General Thomas L. Hamar, of Georgetown, a gentleman of ex- traordinary abilities as orator, advocate and lawyer, a soldier of the Mexican war, who at the battle of Monterey distinguished himself for coolness and courage, and when Major General Butler was wounded, succeeded him in the command.
He was admitted to practice in May, 1846, and the same year entered into partnership with Judge Ezra Dean, establishing a joint or branch office at Ashland. This partnership terminated the ensuing spring, when he removed to Wooster and formed a partnership with John McSweeney, which continued for eight years. In the spring of 1855 he engaged in professional relations with Hon. George Rex, which ran through a period of eighteen years, and until the elevation of Mr. Rex to the Judicial honors of the State.
After the lapse of several years, in 1877 he received J. R. Woodsworth into partnership with him in practice, which profes- sional relationship still exists. Mr. Jones' entire time and energies since his attainment to manhood have been devoted to the study and prosecution of the law. At a suitable age he was placed in the office of General Hamar, one of the most brilliant men of his time, and an intimate friend and associate of his father, who had served cotemporaneously with him in Congress. It is therefore evident that his opportunities when a student were of the most
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favorable character, and it is inferable that his mind, to a degree, caught the bias of his great preceptor.
His first partnership with Judge Dean was of brief duration, but between him and the old patrician gentleman there existed the most cordial mutual relations. During the eight years of profes- sional relationship with Mr. McSweeney is when the latter rose to be the central light along the headlands of the law.
Combined with his legal acquirements and conceded acumen in the trial of causes, he is a practical business man, with a projec- tive, mechanical mind, full of expediencies, fertile of contrivances and capable of taking a broad angled view of things. He is a good interpreter of human motive, and deduces from given circum- stances and situations certain results, which the strongest direct testimony sometimes fails to disprove. The forces, both mental and physical, which propel him are strong and well-defined. He is aggressive, and when he follows the beck of his resolution he is impetuous and belligerent. He is enterprising and zealous, associ- ating himself, at all times, with the best interests of his town and the community. He is social, genial and possessed of an inex- haustible revenue of spirit and humor. His friendships are firm and lasting when once made, though with him they are not "plants of hasty growth," but need the test and culture of good responsive soils. He exhibits the warmest adhesion towards his kindred-a distinct trait of the Jones family. He is independent in action, mind and thought, and maintains a "prudent empire o'er him- self."
He was married December 24, 1854, to Anna D. Barkdull, this union resulting in three children, Eleanor, Flora and Florence.
W. C. MOORE, M. D.
W. C. Moore, M. D., was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, June 1, 1822. His parents removed to Wayne county, and settled in Chester township, on the farm now owned by Robert Christie, in the year 1832. He remained with his father until he was twenty years of age, and at the expiration of this time, and in 1842, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Leander Firestone, then practicing in Congress village, Congress township. With Dr. Firestone he continued as a student of medicine for three years, engaging in school teaching in the winter seasons. After concluding his elementary readings, and having graduated, he be-
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gan practice with his preceptor in 1845, continuing there a year, at the end of which time he removed to Rowsburg, where he remained another year, the partnership continuing, when he re- turned to Congress village and remained with Dr. Firestone for ten years.
Dr. Moore, though not a politician, is especially popular with his party throughout the county, and in 1859 was elected by the Democracy to the Legislature of the State of Ohio, serving from January 2, 1860 to January 6, 1862. By his ability, genial man- ner and many qualifications as a member of that body, he acquired popularity both as a speaker and as a business representative.
In 1862 he removed to Wooster, since which time he has re- sided there. He was married to Louisa A. Hamilton, of Ashland county, Ohio, having but one child, Ernest Eugene Moore.
In his profession his skill is acknowledged, his good judgment being recognized by his competitors, as well as his kind care and sympathetic attention at the bed of sickness. His mind is bright, analytical, dissective, and he arrives at conclusions, or rather they are suggested and forced, not simply as a result of his logical premises, but by his actual and comparative knowledge. He is well acquainted with the philosophies of practice, as well as the principles of the medical science, and possesses all the elements of a good physician, which he is conceded to be.
His social developments are of high order, and his heart and soul are not hidden under ice, but lie near a warm, tropical sur- face, where they expand into sunshine and burst into flowers.
Dr. Moore is a man of refined and cultivated literary tastes, and inclines at times to float in Pierian waters. He believes, with Coleridge, that "poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language."
We select the following as a specimen of good Saxon song :
MOTHER.
[Thoughts suggested on visiting her grave in Wooster Cemetery, 1870.]
Mother, as here I breathe thy name my tears unbidden start,
And memories bright as rays of heaven come clustering 'round my heart ; 'Twas thee that taught my lips to lisp a little infant prayer, And pointing upward to the skies, informed me heaven was there ; And Scripture stories you'd repeat-tell how the good and wise, If faithful here, would live again immortal in the skies-
Until enraptured by your themes, for hours I've gazed at even, Expecting through some parting clouds to catch a glimpse of heaven.
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Tell me, my sainted mother dear, I now may ask of thee, Thou hast outstript me in the race, and art from bondage free, Oh! tell me whence that smile of heaven, that made thy face so fair ? It early won my infant heart, and still is imaged there; Dear mother, whence the radiant light that kindled in thine eye ? Was it of earth, or lustre lent from some fair realm on high ? And, mother, when that last sweet calm had mantled on thy brow, Was faith in full fruition then ? for thou canst tell me now.
Speak, mother-for full well I know thou never didst deceive ! You've told me of immortal joys, and shall I still believe ? Is the soul, indeed, unquenched by death ? unharmed by circling time ? Has man a higher destiny ? his home a brighter clime ? Then, mother, was the kindling ray that lit thy dying eye Occasioned by a glimpse beyond of that celestial sky ? Oh ! mother, dost thou sweep the lyre within that realm so fair ? What of the harpings of that clime ? for doubtless thou art there.
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