USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 48
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During 1854-55 he took an active part in the temperance re- form movement in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he took an active part in local and national politics, and established the reputation of being a powerful orator and debater. From April 1, 1857, to April 1, 1858, he traveled over 5,000 miles, 3,000 of which by private conveyance, and spoke over 200 times, principally upon temperance, slavery and Hebrew servitude. On the 12th of July, in company with General Spink, Hon. William M. Orr, Hon. Eugene Pardee and Hon. Martin Welker, he attended the State convention, as a delegate from Wayne county. In 1858 he was a candidate for Congress before the nominating convention, where he demonstrated great strength and popularity. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago convention, which nominated A. Lincoln. During all these years he was a constant correspondent
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of the Church Advocate, many of his contributions being masterly and heroic assaults upon slavery. He wrote upon a great variety of topics, such as Baptism by Immersion, Infant Baptism, etc., and in the possession of his family are valuable MSS. upon these and other subjects intended for publication.
He was married March 27, 1851, to Mary A. Bricker, of Cum- berland county, Pennsylvania. His oldest son, George U. Harn, is at the present time one of the editors and proprietors of the Mansfield, Ohio, Herald.
He was an acute, logical and profound thinker, a fluent and powerful debater, fearless of antagonists, and carrying his chal- lenge in his hand. He had the pluck of Murat, the courage of Turenne. Fear to him was a meaningless term. If he re- solved to go forward he would do so "though hell should gape and bid him hold his peace." He faced danger with the courage of conscience and intellect. The man who dared to utter such a sentiment-"Not that I seek death, but if such a sacrfice must be offered, let me be one who shall do his duty in the decisive hour," and who, when the decisive hour came, did die like a hero, has made an appeal for earthly immortality.
WOODHULL AND CLAFLIN.
The higher liberty of the soul! At "the other end of the avenue," freedom from all restraint! Free love is libertinism, libertinism is tragedy. Vary the key-note; introduce the charm- ing variations ; make use of the minor, or the major scale, the strain finally modulates into the melancholy finale, tragedy.
Helen elopes from her husband to be mistress of Priam's son. Troy in ashes.
Mark Antony dallied in amorous liaison with Cleopatra ; upon his own sword, that "quartered the world," he fell, while the poi- son of a deadly asp froze her blood.
Before Lucretia Borgia her admirers bowed in adoration, and promiscuously enjoyed her charms. What fates awaited them!
Notorious in history is the royal libertine of all the Russias; and who can tell the dark doom that fell upon the favorites of Catherine ? But the quarries of history need not be explored for illustration to make sure our proposition.
A pale girl in the corridor of the Treasury building at Wash- ington City, with fiery eyes, presents herself with outstretched
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hand, and in it a loaded pistol ; a puff of smoke is seen, and a bul- let tears through a young man's heart ; free love, with its license of libertinism, closes in tragedy.
A pocket handkerchief flaunts in the air; a wild crowd jams the street-the revolver has done its work ; a mangled body bleeds upon the curb-stone, and this is General Sickles' protest against free-loveism, and this is tragedy.
The Sheridan of dashing journalists allows the strange fatalism to possess him ; it insinuates with its delightful exterior the social circle, and in its firm and silky folds is caught a brilliant summer fly, ready to abjure most sacred vows; another pistol shot, a death- bed marriage, a bride of an hour.
A briber of Legislatures seeking to make lawlessness law, and judges pronounce injustice just, who sneered at prisons and penal- ties, at promises and pledges, at honesty and honor, whose im- mense commercial genius exhausted itself in thefts and frauds and cheats, who rioted and feasted and fattened upon stolen substance, who enjoyed beyond men, the higher liberty of the soul, and pranced wildly in the enchanting pastures of license, whose life was an amour and for whom Fate wove her webs from the eye- beams and voluptuous charms of a lovely woman, suddenly closes a rapid, wonderful life. On the stairway of a fashionable metro- politan hotel, the condemning bullet avenges the libertinism of free love. The end is tragedy.
These are but prominent illustrations. How many suicides, the causes of which are mysterious, might be but the discordant strains in this doleful finale, of which the introduction and theme are the voluptuous melodies of free love! If free-lovism prevails will not the tragedy be universal ?
" Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all."
A question arising whether these transcendentalists ever lived in Wooster we took the liberty of writing the following letter :
WOOSTER, OHIO, February 20, 1874,
VICTORIA WOODHULL, New York-Madam: With parties interested in the matter, there is now suspended in the chancery of opinion a question as to the fact of you and your sister Tennie C. Claflin having, at any time, been residents of our city. I will be gratified to have your statement relative to the subject in dispute. If it be true that you formerly lived in Wooster, when was it, and how long? You will greatly oblige me by answering this letter.
Permit me to subscribe myself, very cordially,
BEN DOUGLASS.
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The following was received in reply :
BEN DOUGLASS, EsQ .- Dear Sir: Both Tennie and I lived in Wooster, Ohio, during my tenth and eleventh years. A Dr. -, if still living, can tell you something of us. Yours, etc., VICTORIA C. WOODHULL.
We entertain no feeling or sentiment of pride in presenting to our readers the fact that these two grossest and subtlest of all the advocates of the monstrous social crime of the age once lived in our county, but it fell under the range of our work and we sought the information. They have a continent-wide fame as the exponents of their peculiar views, by which, if the civil, domestic and religious world were governed, there would be presented a disorganized mass that ultimately would bring on the age of un- bridled license and its natural consequence, universal anarchy and uproar.
MAJOR ENOCH TOTTEN.
Enoch Totten, son of Michael and Susan Totten, of Wooster, was born in Wayne county, March 23, 1836.
He was educated at Franklin College, Harrison county, Ohio, and afterwards removing to Wisconsin, began reading law with Judge Joseph Hawkins, of Waukesha. After the conclusion of his elementary studies, he began practice in the city of Milwaukee, in that State, where he continued until the breaking out of the war in 1861.
He enlisted in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment of Infantry, April 23, 1861, and in May was commissioned First Lieutenant. He entered the Peninsular campaign as a Captain, and was in the bat- tles of Williamsburg, Garnet Hill, Malvern Hill, the "Seven Days' Battle " before Richmond, the second Bull Run, Antietam, Fred- ericksburg, Gettysburg, Rappahannock, Wilderness, Spottsylva- nia, etc.
In the Wilderness, on the 5th of May, 1864, he was wounded in the foot and had his horse shot, and at Spottsylvania, May 10, 1864, he was struck four times, a minie-ball passing through his right hand.
He was at the head of his regiment, and while waving his sword and leading his men in a charge upon the enemy's third line of earth-works, in the darkness of the night, the unerring bullet struck his sword, wrenched it from his grasp, and tore violently
35
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through the hand that bravely held it. The wound being a most painful one and totally disqualifying him for further present ser- vice, he retired from the field and returned to Wooster, where he remained for a period with his parents, having served from the time of his enlistment three years and seventeen days.
Concerning Mr. Totten's courage and skill as an officer, we quote :
On Thursday, May 5, 1864, Major Totten was ordered by General Russell, in the middle of the forenoon, to take command of the third company of his regiment, and repel an assault of the enemy on the right of our line. Major Totten fought his men with the utmost gallantry and skill during the greater part of the day, though with himself and horse severely wounded at the opening of the fight, cap- turing a stand of colors and 266 prisoners. The prisoners outnumbered the effective strength of the whole of the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment. Major Totten refused to. leave his post, and distinguished himself in the fighting on each of the subsequent days, until, in an assault upon the enemy's breast-works, he was wounded and for- ever disabled. He had won a Brigadiership."
Major General Upton, of the United States Army, urged his promotion, assuring General Schofield of his cool courage and gallantry, and calling attention to the fact "that Major Totten's services have not as yet been properly rewarded."
He is now located in Washington City, D. C., engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He was married October 4, 1867, to Mary E. Howe, daughter of United States Senator Howe, of the State of Wisconsin.
Major Totten is another Wayne county boy that has made his. mark. He spent his earlier years upon the farm, acquired a thor- ough education at Franklin College, gravitated West, entered the legal profession, and soon rose to eminence at the bar.
After Sumpter was fired he went into the military service of the Government, and at its close removed to Washington City, D. C., and resumed the legal practice. In the army he served for over three years, and until he was disabled by wounds from any further duty. His record as a soldier is certainly eventful and brilliant. By referring to the battles which we have enumerated, and many equally prominent are not mentioned, it will be noticed that he actively participated in the bloodiest engagements of the war. How he should have escaped annihilation is beyond speculation or conjecture, for he was ever at the head of his regiment, and a bet- ter or braver body of fighting men never went into the service of the nation than the 5th Wisconsin. Though not Colonel of the
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regiment he commanded it in all of its dashing and dangerous en- gagements, and was uniformly conceded to be the most efficient officer in its ranks. Its corps d'esprit is entirely and exclusively attributable to him. He should have been the Colonel of the regiment, and alluding to his tact and bravery in a single instance, Major General Upton declared he had won a Brigadiership.
At Gettysburg, where bronzed orators of war, with iron elocu- tion, plead as they had never done before; amid the deafening thunders of Antietam ; and in the Wilderness, that dripping altar of sacrifice over which the aching clouds took pity and sobbed in showers-in these, and other of the desperate and decisive colli- sions of the mighty struggle, he bore a heroic and conspicuous part, and vindicated his claim to a patriotic remembrance.
Major Totten was a true soldier, and
"A braver gentleman More active, valiant, or more valiant-young, More daring, or more bold,"
Never faced the dangers from which our natures shrink but which the brave man dares.
He is permanently located in the Capital city of the nation and deeply absorbed in the duties of his profession, in the range of which is embraced Government business and special practice in the United States Courts.
JAMES C. JACOBS.
James C. Jacobs was born in Wooster, April 4, 1832, and is the only surviving son of the family. He is a Buckeye, every inch of him, and, if he could have had the choosing of his place of birth, could not have well hit upon a better State.
He is a monarch in his business, a pontiff in the hardware trade .* If he aspires to no power to command or compel obedi- ence, it is not a waiver of his privilege; but it must be known, once and for all, that he is the center and circumference of his own house. It is said of him, by himself, that he is in no sense a classic scholar, carries no university parchment, and is in no pos- sible way master of Latin or skilled in Greek. He did, however, tunnel through the labyrinthine windings and mazes of E. Mor-
*1874.
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gan Parrott's prescribed curriculum, and at the age of fifteen anchored in full honors on the thither side of the academic course.
He then entered the hardware establishment of Captain J. H. Kauke, through the extended and varied gradations of which he has circulated, from cellar to attic. Henry Kirk White had im- mortalized himself in the poetic literature of the world and passed to his reward in a shorter life than the time which Mr. Jacobs has devoted to his business.
In his chosen field he made success the central idea, and he has achieved it. As a business man he has few superiors. With him there is no artifice in trade. His price of goods is the sale-mark. His business is the largest in his line in the county, and his rooms are, in their adaptation and appointments, among the best in Ohio. With him all is system, arithmetical precision and order. He is full of physical force, and has enough of intellect to vitalize it. There is a sort of George Law-ish energy and masculinity about him which signally characterizes him. A determination with him is more than half of its accomplishment. He possesses a good understanding and has strong personality. The world's idea is to judge an individual by what he has accomplished by his hands or brain, or with both. Every man brings into the world with him a certain amount of pith and force, and to that pith or force his amount of accomplishment is exactly proportioned. The em- ployment and utilization of these agencies have made Mr. Jacob's life a success. Success may come by accident, or overtake a man, but the millionth man is neither lucky nor caught. It is a sleek fox, hard to run down, and will slip through your hands if not held tight.
The observation of fixed maxims of business, in his case, worked its own solution. He has ever kept an eye upon his busi- ness. He knows more about his stock on hand than all his clerks put together. It is no pleasure for him to be idle, for when he wants amusement he goes to work; hence, when he is not in the counting-room he is at the counter. Moreover, he believes that "a pot that is stirred by another is ill-stirred and worse boiled." He is master of his business; knows exactly what he wants, and has the money to pay for it. He is an off-handed man, and makes a bargain while some men would be picking their teeth after a meal. He inclines to the cash system ; is his own counselor, though not insensible to kindly suggestions from without. He is never victimized by that bi-pedal visitant, the "runner," nor does he al-
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low such daws to peck at him long. He says yes or no, and means to a dot which one he says. After this all talk is superfluous. While he is strictly courteous he is immovably firm. He likes a huge, thundering no, about as well as anything else. He hates a yes, yes, man by the very positiveness of his nature and the steel that is in him. He could not well be a pretender, for there is too much grit in him. He would stand at the head of his profession, if he were selling sand-pellets. If he could have had his way he would have set all Cuba a-burning for the shooting of Captain Fry.
He has little reverence for old land-marks, and believes every generation should put up new mile-stones. His mind is a kind of log-book, and he knows how far he goes every day. He is enter- prising, but scrupulously cautious. He conducts business alone, and is, therefore, his own keeper, and carries his own keys. What he don't tell his neighbors could not be crowded into a pamphlet. If you think he don't know what is going on, just ask him. If you imagine he don't think, state your hypothesis again, and cor- rect your mistake. He has laughed at "Uncle Toby" as well as the rest of us, and peeped through the " Man Who Laughs." He has got the nerve to read Reenan if he do not like him. He has glanced through the coffee-houses of the English wits, and taken a look at Tom Jones and Humphrey Clinker.
He is not a politician. One reason is, it is a race of the ras- cals; another, he has not time. He is plain in conversation, gen- erally self-possessed, and occasionally excitable. When aroused he does not run to his dictionary to select the best words or con- sult a lexicon for elegant phrases by which to express himself; what is uppermost comes first, and like a stone from the fire-wall of a building, falls straight to the spot. There is no circumlocu- tion about him; the nearest way to a point is the shortest way. If he were a surgeon, he would amputate the arm and then prove that he did the right thing. Were he to write a book, he would have neither preface nor introduction, not even an index, to it. To his friends he is true as his best steel. He will tolerate a folly in a friend, but will make little apology for it. His personal in- timacies are few, as all close relations are full of perils, nor does he dull his
"Palm with entertainment Of each unhatched, unfledged comrade."
His attachments to his kindred are generous and impulsively warm. His principles are as sound as his values, and his integrity as un-
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bending as the crudest iron. He despises humbug, yet he might be induced to go to Barnum's to whet his sense of it. He is go- aheadative, progressive, and likes to see the wheel on dry ground. If he can not draw the chariot himself, he will do his share of push- ing. He believes in all charitable and educational enterprises, contributes his share, and makes no parade of it. Like Bonner and Barnum, he believes in advertising.
Singularly enough, he is unmarried, but he arranges a home for the sake and sanctity of it. His assured prosperity entrenches itself in brick, which is at once an expression of his solidity and character. Although but a little over forty years of age, he has filled the work-measure of an ordinary life. He began at the bottom, stood upon the rim, and from the crescent guessed the sphere. The guess he has seen realized, and none better than he is entitled to enjoy it, and none more than his friends are willing that he should.
COLONEL JOSEPH H. CARR.
Joseph H. Carr was born in East Union township, Wayne county, March 12, 1842, but removed to Wooster when two years of age. During the period from 1847 to 1859 he attended public and select schools almost constantly, and in 1859 com- menced studying law.
On April 16, 1861, when the first call for volunteers was made, at the age of nineteen he enlisted as a private in the first company (E) organized in Wayne county for the 4th Regiment Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry. From corporal in Company E, he was promoted to the sergeant-majorship of the regiment, and at the age of twenty was appointed aid-de-camp on the staff of General S. S. Carroll, of General Hancock's famous second corps of the Army of the Potomac. He served on staff duty with that corps during the campaigns and battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg and in the suppression of the New York riots. He received special mention in general orders for distinguished bravery at the battle of Gettysburg.
In 1864 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 169th Ohio Regiment, and owing to the disability of the Colonel before leav- ing the State, the command of the regiment devolved upon him during its entire service. Its superior discipline is commended by Whitlaw Reid in his "Ohio in the War."
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From the private ranks as a soldier Colonel Carr rapidly rose to promotion, and attained the reputation of being a splendid drill and field officer. His efficiency upon the staff of Generals Mason and Carroll was freely recognized, and he possessed the confidence of them invariably, and who at all times relied upon his activity, zeal, patriotism and ability to execute any trust, however hazard- ous, which was devolved upon him.
With all the officers he sustained himself well, uniformly devel- oping splendid courage as a soldier and superior qualifications as a gentleman. His comrades-in-arms are ever willing and ready with assurances of his manly and heroic character, and the esteem in which he is held by them since "wild war's deadly blast" is over, is a sure attestation of his popularity when in the military service.
After the close of the contest and "gentle peace returning," he laid aside the sword and donned the civilian uniform. The Col- onel, though a gallant soldier of the Republic, enduring forced marches, sieges, battles, etc., always escaped capture, but on his arrival home we may not be allowed to speak so approvingly of his valor. A line of circumvallation encompassed him, he found himself encircled in the coils of the deadliest of all enemies; he could no longer resist the siege of a woman's eyes, and acting upon the principle that the truest heroism is oftentimes most flexi- ble, surrendered the hand that amid the smoke of battle had borne aloft the sword.
He was united in marriage in January, 1865, to Alice Hard, of the city of Wooster, and has re-enforced the legions of the Repub- lic by two sons, one of whom he names after his old commander, Carroll. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar, in the practice of which profession he is at present engaged.
Colonel Carr is a young man of ability, promise, and excellent business qualifications, whose public life is characterized by earnest- ness, industry and integrity. In his official positions since the close of the war, whether in the employment of the United States Government, or as City Solicitor, or as Auditor of the county, he has fulfilled his various duties with ability and fidelity. He is an affable, genial companion, a courteous gentleman, with strong social and domestic attachments-a good citizen and a good lawyer.
CAPT. A. S. MCCLURE.
A. S. McClure was born October 10, 1839, in the city of Woos-
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ter, Wayne county, and has ever since resided there. His earlier years were spent with his father, during which time, and after hav- ing attained to sufficient years, he attended the then village schools, availing himself of the facilities which were afforded for educa- tional culture, and manifesting an eager and earnest disposition for books and study.
At the early age of fifteen his accomplishments and proficiency in this direction justified a determination to enter upon a higher plane of intellectual labor and a broader basis of development. In conformity to this resolution, in the autumn of the year above men- tioned, he entered Jefferson College, Washington county, Pa., where for five years, or until the fall of 1859, he continued in pur- suit of his studies, although he did not graduate.
At college he distinguished himself for sharp application to his books; achieved prominence for his linguistic attainments, es- pecially for his proficiency in the Latin language, and the critical study of his own, which is singularly accurate and discriminating. In the literary societies of the college he took active interest, soon becoming conspicuous as an extemporaneous speaker, a fluent and logical debater, bearing away the honors of oration in the annual contest between the Philo and Franklin Literary Societies in Feb- ruary, 1856. On his relinquishment of college pursuits he soon determined, for temporary employment and as a means of a more varied discipline as well as recreation, to make some experiments in teaching. Insomuch, thought he, as for five years I have been a sort of consignee of the intellectual wares of other men, I will reverse the order, and assume the attitude of consignor of my own goods.
In pursuance of this resolve he directed his steps toward the "sunny South," and in the winter of 1859-60 opened a school on the plantation of Alfred J. Rowan, east of Natchez, State of Mis- sissippi. In April, 1860, he returned home filled with the ambi- tion of his youth, and entered at once upon the study of the law. Selecting as his preceptors Hon. Levi Cox and Hon. Martin Welker, he began to unravel the complex problems of Blackstone and Kent. Here he applied himself with indefatigable energy to the grand principles of the law, in the writings of its profoundest and deepest expounders.
He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1861, that spring so terrible to the nation, it being the initial year of the great Re- bellion. An Executive proclamation for soldiers for its suppression
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being issued, Mr. McClure was among the first from Wayne county to respond to that call. He at once enlisted as a private. in Company E, 4th Ohio Infantry, in the latter part of April, 1861, subsequently, on the 4th of June, re-enlisting for three years, at Camp Dennison, in the same company and regiment. There- after he was promoted to a Captaincy, and transferred to the 16th. Ohio Infantry in October, 1861. He was captured at the charge on Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, Mississippi, December 29, 1862, and held as a prisoner of war until the 20th of May, 1863, when he was exchanged at Harrison's Landing, James river, Virginia. He was discharged on account of expiration of term of enlist- ment, in Louisiana, in August, 1864, when he returned home and commenced the practice of law.
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