USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 59
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Eli Zaring made his appearance upon this planet January 16, 1836, in Plain township. He had the advantages of an early edu- cation under instructors like Hon. J. H. Downing, General Thomas F. Wildes, and others, and soon prepared himself for teaching. He attended Vermillion Institute in Hayesville, in 1856, and has taught three terms of school. He was married to Mary A. Stevick August 20, 1857. Mr. Zaring has frequently held township offices, holds a notarial commission, does considerable conveyancing and is an accurate and careful business man.
General Thomas McMillen .- In 1778, in Adams county, Pa., was born the subject of this sketch. When three years old he emigrated to the neighborhood of Pittsburg. In the year 1791, an act of Congress imposing duties upon domestic distilled spirits gave rise to what was called the "Whisky Insurrection," which was only quelled by the display of a large military force after two ineffectual proclamations by the President. Pittsburg being the headquarters of the insurgents, General McMillen was an eye wit- ness to the scenes which transpired upon that memorable occasion.
At the age of twenty-six he enlisted as a soldier in his country's defense, then at war with Great Britain, and was honored with the command of a company. He, with his company, were stationed at Erie during the winter of 1812 -- 13, while Commodore Perry was fitting up his fleet, with which in the following September he
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gained so signal a victory over the British squadron under com- mand of Commodore Barclay.
In the spring of 1814 he emigrated to the State of Ohio, and in 1816 was elected in Wayne county a Representative in the Legis- lature of that State-was afterwards elected Senator, and served eight years successively in one or the other capacity. When first sent to the Legislature the seat of Government was only accessible on horseback from his residence in Wayne county, there being most of the way merely a path through the wild forest.
In 1840 he emigrated to Iowa, and located at Mt. Pleasant, and in 1842 was chosen from Henry county a Representative in the Territorial Legislature, where he rendered most important ser- vice in getting up a revised Code of Laws.
He died at his residence near Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, January, 1852. When he came to Wayne county he settled near Millbrook, and entered the farm now owned and occupied by George Strock, Esq., one of the popular and standard men of Plain township.
John Nimmon, one of the Associate Judges of Wayne county, came in at a very early day and lived on the farm now owned by Dr. Battles, of Shreve, it including at that time the present site of Millbrook.
JAMES DOUGLASS.
James Douglass, although a native of Pennsylvania, was of Scotch-Irish parentage, and belonged to a family which was char- acterized by robust manhood, great physical power and extreme longevity. His earlier years were spent in Tuscarora valley, Pa., on whose rugged hillsides he toiled, and where he acquired those habits of industry and diligence which distinguished his whole career.
He was married to Miss Elizabeth Wallace, of Juniata county, Pa., April 27, 1827, being then thirty-six years of age. She was born near Cookstown, in County Tyrone, Ireland, December 25, 1802, and, with her father's family, emigrated to America in 1810. Their voyage to the New World was tedious and tempestuous, and performed at a crisis of extreme public peril, as a war was in progress between France and England, the latter not hesitating to board all vessels at sea, and cause impressments into its naval and military service. They landed at Baltimore, and immediately di- rected themselves to Juniata county, Pa., where her parents lived and died.
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Soon after their marriage she embarked with her husband to the then far and fabled West, to taste its privations and promises, locating on the spot where faded the bloom of her mature life, anc where was triumphantly unfolded the sublime lesson of a death whose terrors were defeated. Here she encountered the sterr trials and hardships which uniformly beset the first settlers of al new communities, but performed her part with unfaltering forti tude, never despairing, never surrendering, but hopefully anc buoyantly looking forward to the beautiful to-morrow of better days. She was a woman of much intelligence, sweet and com posed disposition, tender sensibilities, ardent attachments anc many social and domestic virtues. Though passionately devotec to her friends and family, she was wont to withdraw from then when sacred volumes would be read, and when she would questior her soul and call for the strength that is the answer of the as cended prayer.
A woman of great native strength of mind, of extreme force o character, of fervent Christian impulses, her counsels were alway: sought; and thus her life became a perpetual example, and her death a peaceful vindication of that holy religion which adornec and embellished all her days. She was an ardent lover of sacrec poetry, a faithful student of sacred history, and enjoyed a perfect familiarity with the Scriptures, which were her study and delight ful theme. She was an earnest member of the United Presbyteriar church, to which she belonged for nearly fifty years. Her death: occurred Wednesday morning, October 16, 1872, having attainec the Psalmist's limit of three score years and ten.
After his arrival in the new county the subject of this sketch settled in Plain township, about four miles west of Wooster, where he lived over forty years. He found his new home a solitude of stately trees, which were soon felled by his strong arms, wher. fields of waving corn and acres of nodding grain rapidly rewarded him for his toil and secured to him an independence. In his deal. ings with men he was scrupulously honest, and as true to promise as the needle to the pole.
Few men possessed good health to such an extraordinary de- gree as he. His physical frame was a model of muscular perfec- tion, and his constitution, until a short time prior to his death, was unimpaired by disease. There appeared to be no limit to his en- ergies, no exhaustion to his vital forces. Proverbially industrious,
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he taught economy and practiced it. Though sometimes seem- ingly austere, and even punctilious with men, no one who knew him doubted but under that brusque exterior there throbbed a warm heart and blossomed the kindliest of the domestic virtues -as in the regions of the North, under Polar snows, flourish flow- ers and plants of surpassing beauty. With his wife he had long been in communion with the United Presbyterian church.
He died on Saturday afternoon, November 16, 1872, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-two years. With him perished the last of the old family stock. On the 18th of October, he followed his wife to the quiet keeping of the tomb, and in just thirty days he was borne to his place of rest,
"To slumber while the world grows old."
By his marriage James Douglass had six children, viz: Eliza- beth C., Robert, publisher of this history, James W., Mary A., Ben and William W. James W. Douglass, his second son, died July 3, 1877. He was a successful farmer, a man of imposing ap- pearance, standing six feet two inches in hight, possessed of a fine intellect, discriminating judgment and rare social qualities, which secured to him the warmest friendship of all who knew him. He was a man of strict integrity, firmness and decision of character, and held a commission from the United States government in the Revenue service for several years, discharging his duties with fidel- ity and conceded ability. He was an earnest and zealous member of the Methodist church. His remaining family consists of his wife, Sarah A., and one child, Mary Elizabeth.
Hummeraby, n Bros & Co. Indole Litho Institute
Peu Douglas
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CHAPTER XXV.
BIRD'S-EYE AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Occupation of the People .- Agriculture .- The rural inhabitants of Wayne county are emphatically an agricultural population, the term agricultural having reference to husbandry, tillage or culture of the earth. Of Agriculture Rollin speaks :
It may be said to be as ancient as the world, having taken birth in the terres- trial paradise itself, when Adam, newly come forth from the hands of his Creator, still possessed the precious but frail treasure of his innocence ; God having placed him in the garden of delights, commanded him to cultivate it ; ut operaretur illium : to dress and keep it. Genesis ii., 15. That culture was not painful and laborious, but easy and agreeable; it was to serve him for his amusment, and to make him contemplate in the productions of the earth the wisdom and liberality of his Master.
The sin of Adam having overthrown this order, and drawn upon him the mournful decree which condemned him to eat his bread hy the sweat of his brow ; God changed his delight into chastisement, and subjected him to hard labor and toil, which he had never known had he continued ignorant of evil. The earth be- came stubborn and rebellious to his orders, to punish his revolt against God, and brought forth thorns and thistles. Violent means were necessary to compel it to pay man the tribute of which his ingratitude had rendered him unworthy, and to force it by labor to supply him every year with the nourishment which before was given him freely and without trouble.
From hence, therefore, we are to trace the origin of Agriculture, which, from the punishment it was at first, is become, by the singular goodness of God, in a manner the mother and nurse of the human race. It is in effect, the source of solid wealth and treasures of real value, which do not depend upon the opinion of men -which suffice at once to necessity and enjoyment, by which a nation is in no want of its neighbors, and often necessary to them-which make the principal revenue of a State and supply the defect of all others when they happen to fail. Though mines of gold and silver should be exhausted, and the moneys made of them lost -- though pearls and diamonds should remain hid in the womb of the earth and sea -- though commerce with strangers should be prohibited-though all arts, which have no other object than embellishment and splendor, should be abolished, the fertility of the earth alone would afford an abundant supply for the occasions of the public, and furnish subsistence both for the people and armies to defend it.
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It was the noblest of the Roman pursuits in the days of Roman prosperity. It was diffused everywhere they went and followed in the train of their victories. Princes and ministers supported and encouraged it. The descendants of Numa, next to the ador- ation of the gods and reverence for religion, recommended noth- ing so much to the people as the cultivation of lands and the propagation of cattle. Books were written and precepts on agri- culture were given by kings to posterity. Pliny says:
The earth, glorious in seeing herself cultivated by the hands of triumphant he- roes, seemed to make new efforts, and to produce her fruits with greater abundance ; that is, no doubt, because those great men, equally capable of handling the plough and their arms, of sowing and conquering lands, applied themselves with more at- tention to their labor, and were of course more successful in it.
Consuls, dictators, even the great Cincinnatus, "in whose breast the destinies of a nation lay dormant," were taken from the plow. The rustic Cato applied himself with industrious ardor to his farm. His neighbor, Valerius Flaccus, one of the most power- ful men of Rome, would go to the cities in the morning to plead the causes of those who employed him, and then would retire to the fields, where in dingy clothes he would toil with his servants, sit down with them at the table, eat of their bread and drink of their wine. A Roman Senator once said to Appius Claudius, by way of contrasting the farm upon which they then stood with the magnificence of his country houses :
Here (said he) we see neither painting, statues, carving, nor Mosaic work; but to make such amends, we have all that is necessary to the cultivation of lands, the dressing of vines, and the feeding of cattle. In your house everything shines with gold, silver and marble; but there is no sign of arable lands or vineyards. We find there neither ox, nor cow, nor sheep. There is neither hay in the cocks, vintage in the cellars, nor harvest in the barn. Can this be called a farm? In what does it resemble that of your grandfather and great-grandfather?
Cicero asserted "that the country life came nearest to that of the wise man; that is, it was a kind of practical philosophy."
In exalted strains, in his Georgics, Virgil celebrates its pleasures:
Ah! the too happy swains, did they but know their own bliss ! to whom, at a distance from discordant arms, earth, of herself most liberal, pours from her bosom their easy sustenance. If the palace, high raised with proud gates, vomits not forth from all its apartments a vast tide of morning vigilants; and they gape not at porti- cos variegated with beauteous tortoise-shell, and on tapestries tricked with gold, and on Corinthian brass; and if the white wool is not stained with the Assyrian
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drug, nor the use of the pure oil corrupted with Cassia's aromatic bark; yet there is peace secure, and a life ignorant of guile, rich in various opulence ; yet theirs are peaceful retreats in ample fields, grottos and living lakes; yet to them cool vales, the lowings of kine, and soft slumbers under a tree are not wanting. There are woodlands and haunts, for beasts of chase and youth patient of toil and inured to thrift ; the worship of the gods, and fathers held in veneration; Justice, when she left the world, took her last steps among them.
We thus perceive that with the ancients it was catalogued with the most honorable and dignified of human employments. That it should constitute the employment of more modern people is but natural ; and especially so when we consider that the fertile regions of the New World embrace the new Egyptian corn-fields and wheat ranges of Mesopotamia. But to preserve the vitality and insure the fecundity of the soil the care and wisdom of the Ro- mans must be observed. Soils are not depleted of their fertility by changeable seasons, intemperate airs, or transformations of their constituent parts, or even a continuous and excessive tillage. Their weakness and exhaustion is the result of our own neglect, and is brought about by a reckless cultivation, an absence of necessary stimuli, and too frequently by passing the lands to careless and injudicious tenants. Hence we offer a word on
Fertilizers .- We presume there is no farmer in the county but makes more or less use of them. In reference to guano as a fer- tilizer, the great difficulty is the expense of procuring it, the principal sources of supply being the Peruvian Islands and British West Indies. During the decade ending June 30, 1870, there was imported into the United States 387,585 tons, valued at $5,992, 325, or at a cost of over $15 per ton at the port of shipment. Many years will doubtless elapse before it will be accepted by the farming community. In some of the States bone meal is substituted, and it has many eulogizers as an effective and profitable stimulant of the soil. But its production is accompanied with a large expense, as mills are to be built, the bones crushed by iron teeth or prongs arranged as in a bark-mill, and again run through a finer set of teeth. Leached ashes are excellent fertilizers for clover, and ren- der more mellow and friable all heavy clay lands. Statistics demonstrate that when applied to wheat, at the rate of 200 to 300 bushels to the acre, they increased the yield 100 per cent. Marl, which is simply an earth containing more or less carbonate of lime, is highly recommended, large quantities of which are found throughout the State of Mississippi. Germany supports by Gov-
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ernment the manufacture of artificial fertilizers, and Chicago for the last few years has been producing them and shipping East and South annually, from 6,000 to 8,000 tons. They are mainly pre- pared from material supplied from the slaughter-houses of the city. Swamp-muck is used in many localities, and with very grati- fying and compensatory results. When spread upon grass lands in the fall it induces an early and more vigorous growth in the spring, and materially augments the crops. Plaster is likely the cheapest of the fertilizers. It will even redeem lands that are so impoverished as to hardly produce any crops-to the extent, at least that the clover plant will take root, it being the great restorative of en- feebled soils. It is no longer a debatable question that clover, as a soil-stimulant, is indispensable to every system of rational hus- bandry. It has achieved the enviable reputation of being, not only an eminent fertilizer, but a consummate restorative to ex- hausted soils, and capable of resisting the storms and frosts of a Borean winter. It occupies an equality with the richest composts and strongest manures of the barnyard. It leaves the soil in a loose and loamy condition, and divests it of many foreign and ex- traneous growths.
Nothing is more appropriate, or better grounded in good sense, than the practice of plowing down a clover crop preparatory to the growing of wheat. For it is asserted, that the growing of clover is equal to deep plowing, as its long roots penetrate deeply in search of food for the stems and leaves, which, if plowed into the land, will undergo decomposition and leave near the surface ele- ments taken from the subsoil. Its leaves take carbonic acid from the atmosphere, and the plowing in of the crop augments the car- bon of a soil very materially, which changes the color and gives it greater capacity to absorb solar heat, and to retain moisture, ma- nures and ammonia, whether resulting from their decomposition, or absorbed from the atmosphere.
Aside from the clover-plant, our farmers rely chiefly upon the products of the stable and barn-yard for their fertilizers. These, if properly managed, would be far more valuable and available than they are. In many cases, they are not saved with that measure of care that their value demands; nor is that amount or quality of manure made from the straw and other debris of the barn-yard that could be from a more skillful management .* Its value is deterior- ated by rains falling on it and washing out its soluble fertilizing constituents. By analysis it is established, that this crude water-
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soaked material possesses less than one-half the money value and vitalizing power of the sheltered accumulations of the stable and barn. It is gratifying to note that our farmers are. devoting need- ful attention to it, and realize the importance of this subject. It is an axiom that they are beginning to understond, that constant ab- straction, without the pro quid quo, or putting back an equivalent to what is taken from the soil, must ultimately deplete and enfee- ble it.
Primitive Plows and Plowing .- The plow is doubtless the crea- ture of a very hoary antiquity. It was sometimes formed of the limb of a tree, and sometimes of the body and tough root of a sapling, the lower end being hewed to a wedge. The plowman occasionally worked the implement himself, but was oftener as- sisted by a team composed of a grown daughter and her mother, attached to the plow by rawhide or hempen thongs. The Egyp- tians, it is supposed, first made use of it. The plow of the ancient Britons was a rude and uningenious contrivance. When in use it was fastened to the tails of oxen and horses, and in this wise the the poor beast was compelled to drag it through the ground. An act of the Irish Legislature was passed in 1634, entitled, "An act against plowing by the tails," which forbade the barbarous custom, but it was still practiced in some parts of the island as late as the present century. The draft-pole was lashed to the tail of the ani- mal, and as no harness was employed, two men were necessary- one to guide and press upon the plow, the other to direct the ani- mal, which he did by walking backwards in front of the miserable creature, beating him on the head on either side, according to the direction required.
Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, was among the first to suggest improvements upon the plow in this country, and in a paper addressed to the French Institute, at- tempted the solution of the problem of the true surface of the mould-board and the establishment of rational and practical rules for its structure and form. In 1793 he made practical experiments upon his theories, and had several plows made in pursuance of them, and put them into use on his estates in Albemarle and Bed- ford counties, Va., with most satisfactory results.
In 1837, Daniel Webster invented a plow for work twelve and fourteen inches deep, cutting a furrow twenty-four inches wide, which is still in existence and was at the Centennial Exposition at
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Philadelphia. It is twelve feet long, with a landside four feet long. The mould-board is of wood, plated with thin iron straps, the beam being twenty-eight inches from the ground. It was intended for his farm at Marshfield, and required six or eight men, besides him- self, to manage it. He spoke of it in this way :
When I have hold of the handles of my big plow in such a field, with four pairs of cattle to pull it through, and hear the roots crack, and see the stumps all go under the furrow out of sight, and observe the clean, mellowed surface of the plowed land, I feel more enthusiasm over my achievements than comes from my en- counters in public life at Washington.
The results of modern invention have put such a variety of them in the market, and such is the degree of perfection and skill attained in their manufacture, that there is but little hardship associated with their application to lands. The ordinary cast-iron plow, with a span of horses, is usually sufficient for the purpose unless when the ground is baked and dry. In many places sheet- steel is substituted for cast-iron, with patent advantages in certain respects, as the weight of the plow can be reduced without much impairment of strength, but then they lack durability and become necessarily expensive to farmers. The cast-steel plow is also in- troduced, and its friends clamor for its ease of draft, durability, and its many valuable and economic points. The old barshare has become a fossiliferous relic of a past period. Sub-soiling has its champions, whose theories concerning this method of soil- procedure seem tenable, if not strictly practical. It is asserted that where the sub-soil plow has been used for four or five years following, the land is very perceptibly improved, and is more mel- low, and holds moisture better. Investigation on this question, we imagine, has not been pushed to the extent that the magnitude of it demands, nor will it likely be until the State shall do its duty by establishing an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm. The kind of plow, time of plowing, depth of same, etc., are conducted by our farmers, with but little regard to rule or sys- tem, as each one inclines to champion his own views, and be gov- erned by his own experience.
Rotation in Crops .- As we have before stated, along the low- lands of the streams of the county, and especially the bottoms that are subject to occasional overflow, the same crops can be produced for an indefinite number of years without serious mischief to the soil. On the farm of the late Lewis Thomas, west of Woos-
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ter, corn was produced on a tract of meadow for over twenty years without any sensible diminution of yield. Our farmers, however, pretty generally adopt the wiser plan of a judicious rotation, or alternation of crops. There is in this, not only common sense but much obvious philosophy, if pursued to its consequences, but which is beyond the scope and purpose of our work.
Architecture and Building .- The first mention of edifices that we have is found in Genesis, where Cain is represented as having "builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." It was built after the Lord had pronounced upon him the curse for the murder of his brother, and likely when he was a dweller in "Nod, on the east of Eden." Architecture, it may be said, is as old as the history of man, and the progeny of Cain, to whom the Bible refers the mention of most of the arts, carried this, undoubtedly, to a state of great perfection. Pro- tection from cold, heat, rain, winds and storms were primal neces- sities of the human race. The first buildings were but small huts, composed of branches of trees and imperfectly covered. The cot- tage of Romulus was thatched with straw. Afterward structures of wood were erected which suggested the idea of columns and architraves. Then came stone and brick for foundations and walls, and boards and tiles for roofs. The workmen became skilled, their tastes became educated, and they began to compre- hend the rules of proportion and the beauties of symmetry. Health, durability, convenience were chiefly consulted at first; then ornamentation and order, on a reasonable basis, and finally, pomp, grandeur, magnificence, highly laudable on many occasions, but soon strangely abused by luxury.
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