USA > Ohio > Ohio early state and local history > Part 3
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William Dennison, the first of Ohio's War Governors, was born in Cincinnati, in November, 1815. He was of New Eng- land ancestry on the mother's side. His father was a native of New Jersey, and was long and favorably known in the Miami Valley as a successful business man.
In 1835, Mr. Dennison graduated from Miami University and took up the study of Law in the office of Nathaniel Pendle- ton. In 1840, he removed to Columbus, where he practiced his profession until 1848, when he was elected to the Senate by the Whig Party.
This was the beginning of his public life, and for many years after he was continually in the service of his country. In 1856, he was a delegate to the Convention which inaugurated the Republican party, and the same year took a prominent part in the Convention nominating John C. Fremont for the Presidency. In 1860, he was elected Governor of Ohio by the Republican Party. In 1864, he was Chairman of the Conven- tion which renominated Mr. Lincoln, and was by him made Postmaster General, holding that position until 1866, when he resigned his portfolio.
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The War Governors of Ohio
In addition to his public life, he was a successful man of affairs and prominent in the Railroad and Banking interests of his State. He gave generously to the cause of education, Denison University, at Granville, Ohio, being especially bene- fited by his gifts. He died at his home in Columbus in 1882.
Governor Dennison was a man of fine social connections, tall, courtly, conspicuously elegant and easy in manner. In- deed, his very refinement and polish gave casual observers the idea that he was superficial-too much polish and too little sterling metal. And even after events had clearly shown that he had been misunderstood and his ability undervalued, the people of Ohio were slow to acknowledge his merits, and give him the credit he deserved. When he had served one-half of his term as Governor of Ohio, came the call to arms. Sumpter had been fired upon and that shot was heard around the world. Before the bombardment had ended, twenty companies were offered to the Governor and the tide of patriotic feeling was at its height. It was Governor Dennison's misfortune that the first rush of the war's responsibility fell upon him. His ex- perience in public affairs had been limited to a single term in the State Senate; and of military matters he was, in common with all the other officials, profoundly ignorant. But alone, without expert advice, and with only his devotion to duty and his own judgment on which to rely, he met the first shock of the contest; and amid almost inconceivable difficulties, made out of the raw material (for these twenty companies of volunteers were without arms, ammunition, equipment, or means of trans- portation) an army for the defense of his State.
It was through him that West Virginia was saved to the Nation. He assured the Unionists of that State that if they would break away from Old Virginia and adhere to the Union, Ohio would send the necessary military force to protect them. When Kentucky refused the call for troops, Governor Dennison said "If Kentucky does not fill her quota, Ohio will do it for her." He was in advance of even the General Government in his action for the defense of his own State. The question arose as to whether the militia of Ohio had a right to cross into Virginia, a State not yet actually seceded. "We can let
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The War Governors of Ohio
no theory prevent the defense of Ohio," was the Governor's answer. "I will defend Ohio where it costs least and accom- plishes most. Above all, I will defend Ohio beyond, rather than on, her border."
Ohio was poorly supplied with arms, and Governor Dennison succeeded in securing a supply from Illinois, and also proposed a plan for uniting all the forces of the Mississippi Valley under one Major-General. He successfully placed the loan authorized by the Million War Bill, thus supplying the sinews of war. He handled great sums of money beyond the authority of the law and without the safe-guard of bonded agents, and his accounts were honorably closed. We read all these statements now with no feeling but that of pride in the State and in the man who was able so promptly to take measures in her defense; but at the time they furnished naught but excuse for unjust censure. Whitelaw Reid's "Ohio in the War," sums up his administra- tion as follows: "Without practical knowledge of war, with- out arms for a regiment, or rations for a company, or uniforms for a corporal's guard, without means or time for preparation, manufacture, or purchase, in less than a month this adminis- tration had raised, equipped and sent into the field an army larger than that of the whole United States three months be- fore. The General Government was loud in its praise, and only within the State, was the note of censure heard."
Governor Dennison's fate was indeed a singular one. The honest, patriotic discharge of his duty brought upon him the most severe criticism. To a man of his sensitive temperament, this injustice was most agonizing; but he was too proud to complain or attempt explanation, and bore in silence the cla- mor and censure which beset him. With the end of his ser- vice, he began to be appreciated. Those who came after him were able to walk by the light of his painful experience. He was the most efficient aid and counsel to his successor. Though no more than a private citizen, he was recognized as Ohio's most able spokesman in the departments at Washington. The State at last began to look upon him as one of her leading men, and thus tardily did he come into his own-as a man just, faithful, and patriotic.
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The War Governors of Ohio
The Honorable David Tod, was Governor Dennison's successor in office, entering upon his duties as Governor of Ohio in 1862. He had been the candidate of the Democratic Party in 1844, and had come within one thousand votes of his election, had been a successful stump orator, and for nearly five years United States Minister to Brazil. His business sagacity was unquestioned. For some years he had been engaged in iron manufacture and was also president of The Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad; and to him belongs the credit of opening up the vast coal fields of the Mahoning Valley.
Governor Tod was an earnest patriot, and ready at the call of his country to drop business, political issues and party connections. His popularity in politics and his successful career as a lawyer and man of business, had won for him in advance the confidence of the people, and he entered upon a path which the trials of his predecessor had smoothed for him.
The legislature was now fully aroused to the magnitude of the War, and gave him hearty support. He retained the three chief officers of Governor Dennison's staff-men trained by the experience of that first crowded year, and able to give him expert advice and assistance. Governor Dennison had es- tablished military committees in every county to aid in recruit- ing the regiments not yet complete. The work of the first year of the War had been constructive, and now there was little to call forth either admiration or censure. There was no opportunity to redeem a State or adopt independent war measures; but what there was to do Governor Tod did syste- matically and promptly. He proposed the plan of organizing and disciplining the Ohio Militia. This work was the basis of the organization which enabled Governor Brough, at scarcely two days' notice, to throw to the front in the critical hour of the Eastern Campaign, the magnificent reinforcement of forty thousand Ohio National Guards. The great task of organizing and drilling was but well begun, when came the famous Morgan Raid, suspending systematic work of all kinds and plunging the State into a heroic effort to check this swiftly moving, destructive foe.
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The War Governors of Ohio
Throughout his term of service, Governor Tod was watch- ful, zealous, and pains-taking, to a degree not common among officials of any grade, and his defeat in the effort for re-nomina- tion did nothing to lessen his efforts in behalf of the army. He was untiring in his suppression of minor raids on the border. The gratitude of the entire State is due him for his care of the wounded soldiers. Again and again, he urged upon the Sec- retary of War the necessity of discharging and sending to their homes the soldiers no longer fit for duty. To the last hour of his official career, he served faithfully the people who had elected him. His life is typical of the time and the country. Beginning life without a penny, he won fame and fortune by his industry and talents. He practiced law with signal suc- cess for fifteen years, and as a criminal lawyer, was famous throughout the West. At the close of his administration, he retired to his home at Brier Hill, a beautiful estate which had once belonged to his father, and which he had greatly enlarged and improved.
Governor Brough, in his inaugural, paid a most graceful and fitting tribute to his predecessor, and to his arduous labors in behalf of soldiers and country.
In January, 1864, John Brough became Governor of Ohio, after a campaign which is remembered as one of the most excit- ing in the history of the State. He came in on the topmost wave of popular enthusiasm, backed by a majority such as no Governor of the State before ever received, and sustained by a public confidence that refused no demand and hesitated at no sacrifice. John Brough had been one of the most honored names in the Ohio Democracy. He had founded and edited the great party organ-The Cincinnati Enquirer-had won fame as State Auditor, had been tendered foreign missions, and even a place in the Cabinet of a Democratic President. He retired from active political life in 1848, and in 1853, was elected President of the Madison and Indianapolis Railway, then one of the great lines of the West. In 1863, when the Civil War was at its height, and when the Southern sympa- thizers, led by Clement L. Vallandigham, were openly defiant, Mr. Brough appeared at Marietta, his boyhood home, and
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there made the historic speech which resulted in his election as Governor of his State. As a public speaker, he had few rivals. Clear, fluent, logical, and at times impassioned and eloquent-Whitelaw Reid says of him: "He was impetuous, strong-willed, indifferent to personal consideration, having his own standard of integrity." His administration was con- stantly embroiled, now with a sanitary commission, then with the officers in the field, lastly with the surgeons; but every struggle was begun in the interests of the private soldier as against the neglect or tyranny of their superiors, in the inter- ests of the men who fought as against those who shirked, in behalf of the families of the soldiers in the field. Never was knight of old more unselfishly faithful in the defense of the defenseless.
Brough had many statesmanlike qualities. His views of public policy were usually broad and liberal. He was rigidly honest, plain even to bluntness. People thought him ill- natured, rude, and hard. He was not. He was simply an honest, straight-forward man, devoted to his duty. That he lacked polish was perhaps unfortunate for him; but in time those with whom he came in contact, did him justice.
One of his earliest efforts as Governor was to secure a sys- tem of promotions. Governor Tod had worked without system, promoting now according to rank, and again in spite of it. But Governor Brough was a man of methods. He must work on clearly defined plans, or not at all. His noted general order No. 5, regulating the promotion, was the fertile source of many of the troubles which embittered his administration and turned the officers of his army against him. But he de- fended his policy stubbornly and was utterly unable to curry favor at Columbus or any other political center. In spite of his unpopularity with his officers, he had hosts of friends among the private soldiers and in the State-men who could overlook all minor considerations in their admiration for his splendid ability, incorruptible honesty and the wonderful zeal and foresight that had marked his services to the State. They urged him to be a candidate for re-nomination. For a time he hesitated, then wrote his friends that he was unwilling to make
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the effort. He believed that it would be better for the Party to have a candidate who would arouse less personal hostility, and that he could not enter the contest. And the few words with which he concluded his address in declining the re-nomina- tion were soon to be verified. "I doubt much," he wrote, "if my health would stand the strain of a vigorous campaign, while increasing age strongly inclines me to retirement and rest for the few years that may yet remain to me." But the Govern- ment had other views. Secretary Stanton wished to retire at the close of the War, and both he and Mr. Lincoln held Governor Brough the man fittest to succeed him as Secretary of War. But this was not to be. In the midst of his labors, his health gave way. Worn by unremitting labor, profoundly shocked by the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, and the victim of an accident to his foot and ankle, he became alarmingly ill. Gangrene took place in the injured ankle, and on the 29th of August, about six months before the end of his term of office, he died at his home in Cleveland.
Of his administration it may be said, that it was the most vigorous, the most unpopular, and at the same time the most able, with which Ohio was honored throughout the War. His faults and errors, history does not attempt to conceal. They rarely injured the public service, and they scarcely mar the memory he has left us, of ability and patriotic devotion, incorruptible honesty and untiring undustry.
The Passing of the Red Man
By MISS NORA CRUM
N an organization whose membership is based on the services rendered by their ancestors in establishing the Independence of the United States, it seems most fitting that this paper should begin with the Indians which their ancestors met in making the first settlements in this country.
We, probably, will never definitely know how the American Continent happened to be peopled with Indians, although the Book of Mormon claims to have the facts concerning it. On account of its lack of authenticity, we cannot accept that. All records are authentic, beginning with 1492, when Colum- bus discovered the New World and took several Indians back to the Court of Spain as a proof of his discovery.
For one hundred years after the discovery, much exploring was done, but not until 1605 was a permanent settlement made in the New World. Then in 1607, began what Woodrow Wilson in his "History of the American People" is pleased to call the "Swarming of the English." Settlements were made rapidly, after the people once learned the ways of the pioneer's life.
The Indians welcomed the first colonists and for forty years these two races, so unlike and yet both the offspring of the "Crown of Creation," lived side by side. Chief Massasoit and his tribesmen, the Wampanoags in Massachusetts, and Powhatan with his tribesmen, the Powhatans in Virginia, stand out as shining examples of the big-heartedness of the Indians when there was land enough for both the white man and the red man.
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At the close of this long reign of peace, the "swarming" of the Cavaliers began in Virginia during the reign of Cromwell in England from 1649-1660. Previous to the Cavaliers' coming to Virginia, the Puritans who had been persecuted in England, had gone to Holland as a refuge and, finally, to America in 1620.
When Charles I (1625-1649) came to the throne, the per- secution of the Puritans who had remained in England did not cease. In 1629 many of the Puritan leaders were imprisoned, and the King indignant if any one dared so much as protest. As a result, the second company of Puritans left England, not to go to Holland, but direct to America.
These two causes-the persecution of the Puritans, (1625- 1649) and the persecution of the Cavaliers from 1649 to 1660- caused the American colonies to make a remarkable growth. Where did they settle in the New World? On the Indian's hunting ground. They bought it legally enough, but when the Indians had to move they were forced back on the hunting grounds of another tribe; hence it was war with the Indian or the white man, and they chose the latter.
In New England, in 1637, the Pequot War was brought on by this cause, and was ended by the annihilation of the tribe. Forty years later, even after devoted missionaries, such as John Eliot, had won many of them to believe the true God, the practical teaching left them untouched, and they were only waiting for a leader to test the strength of the pale-faces to hold the land. In 1675 began the conflict to decide which would control New England. It is known in history as King Philip's War, and resulted in the annihilation of the Indian tribes in that locality.
In the Colony of Virginia, almost the same condition existed. The colonists on the frontier were continually har- assed by the Susquehannocks who had been driven from Pennsylvania into Virginia by their enemies-the Iroquois. The colonial government provided no defense and when the overseer and one of the favorite servants on Nathaniel Bacon's plantation were murdered, he took a company of men against the Indians in direct opposition to the Colonial Governor.
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All Virginia seemed to be at his command. He had practically exterminated the Susquehannocks before he heard that he and his followers were branded as outlaws. Bacon turned against the governor, a civil war resulted, and ended only in the death of Bacon in 1676. Thus at almost the same time was the Indians' power broken in the north and the south.
Only one more of the early colonies had any dealings of importance with the Indians-namely, Pennsylvania. The situation was much more favorable for this colony than any of the others. To the north of Pennsylvania, as far as Canada, the Iroquois held undisputed dominion. They were staunch friends of the English, no mountains hemmed them in and their territory was not yet encroached upon. This friendship was brought about by the jealously between the English and the French. The Iroquois and Canadian Indians, of which the Wyandottes and Hurons were a part, had warred for years, with the Iroquois always victorious. When Champlain began his explorations in the New World, he made friends with the Indians along the St. Lawrence. They begged him to furnish them with the white-man's thunder (fire-arms), in order to conquer the Iroquois. Accordingly, near Lake Champlain, the two tribes met-the haughty Iroquois was conquered for the time. To retailate for their defeat, no Frenchman was allowed to make explorations in the territory that is now New York and most of Northern Ohio, which can be readily noticed by the lack of French Geographical names.
The Iroquois were considered the fiercest of the Indian tribes and could only be compared to the Algonquins south of the Ohio. They had driven the Susquehannocks, the tribe south of them in Pennsylvania, down into Virginia, where they met their fate at the hands of Nathaniel Bacon and his followers in 1676. The Delawares remained in Pennsylvania, paid tribute to the Iroquois, and dared not lift a hand against the English, whom the Iroquois received and fought for as friends. June 23, 1683, William Penn made his famous treaty with the Indians, as with the leaders of an equal race. "The New Eng- land colonists had sought to be just to the Indians, but the Quakers added a kindness to justice and their peace was more
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lasting." The next year after this treaty had been made, there was a much more important treaty made with the North. This was the treaty made with the great Iroquois Confederacy at Albany, on August 2, 1684, to secure the frontiers of the English alike against the Indians and the French. No white settlement was safe without their good will. The French had sent missionaries to speak to them of God and the authority of the King of France, and used every means possible to bring about such an alliance as the English had secured at Albany.
With this great Confederacy most, if not all, of the Indians of Northern Ohio had affiliation. Old Chief Good Hunter of the Seneca County Indians, told Henry C. Brish, their sub-agent, that the Seneca County Indians were in fact the remnant of Logan's tribe.
Mr. Brish stated that he could not surmise why they were called Senecas. He never found a Seneca among them. They were Cayugas, Tuscarawas, and Wyandottes. Logan was a Conestoga, or Mingo, on his maternal side. The Wyandottes, or Hurons, were the old friends of Champlain, who had come from north of the Great Lakes into Michigan, and finally down into Ohio where we meet them in the history of Seneca county.
These Indians were faithful to England even during the War of the Revolution. In 1779 the colonists sent General Sullivan with a strong force against them, and their power was broken, but not permanently. They evidently continued to harass the frontier, for in 1783, Colonel Crawford's expedition, which is so vividly described in the Histories of Seneca County, was sent to subdue them.
During this time the Constitution of the United States was adopted, the officers of the government elected, and the United States became a Nation. The eastern colonists were crossing the Alleghenies and establishing homes in Ohio, and the eastern Indians were moving to new hunting grounds in Ohio. All this the Indians saw with a keen eye and deter- mined to drive out the settlers. Several expeditions were sent against the Indians, among those in command being General Arthur St. Clair, Ohio's last Territorial Governor. It was not until 1795, when a command under General Anthony Wayne
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so completely devastated the country and dispersed the Indian force which had held sway from Ft. Washington (now Cincin- nati) to the Lakes, that peace was made. He built a fort at the junction of the Auglaize and the Miami of the Lakes (Maumee) rivers, in the very heart of the Indian Country, to hold them permanently in check. He very appropriately named this Fort Defiance. In a short time the Indians de- manded peace. Eleven of the most powerful tribes met Gen- eral Wayne at Greenville, in what is now Darke County, August 3, 1795. At this time peace was made. This was the last great Indian War, with the exception of 1812, when the Indians aided the British.
One of the terms of the treaty was in force until recent years, namely-"perpetual annuities payable in merchandise or domestic animals, implements of husbandry, or other con- venient utensils, at the pleasure of the receivers." At this time, when the pale-faces were not so numerous, it was a very peaceful way of securing peace. In our modern civilization, there has been nothing that has caused the Indians to become shiftless as this abominable "paying in merchandise, etc." We need to rejoice that the Government, at present, pays only to old or disabled Indians. Old Sitting Bull, of the Sioux Tribe, had enough moral courage to dump a load of flour into the Mississippi River when he was to be bribed into making peace.
The land ceded by the Indians to the United States at the Treaty of Greenville, extended as far north as Fort Recovery in Mercer County, leaving northwestern Ohio still in possession of the Indians.
In 1817, on the Maumee (the Miami-of-the-Lakes), Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, Commissioners of the United States, met the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Wyan- dotte, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatrina, Ottawa, and Chippewa Tribes, when all their lands in the State of Ohio were ceded to the United States forever. Of this land, the Commissioners granted to the Chiefs, 30,000 acres, mostly within Seneca County. A year later, the Indians were granted 10,000 acres more, south of the first grant.
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The Wyandottes received a separate reservation, about twelve miles square, a portion of which lay in Big Spring Township, Seneca County, and the remainder in Wyandotte County. The Senecas took possession of their land soon after the treaty was made and began to build cabins. One of the conditions of the treaty was, "The United States was to estab- lish an agency near the reservation to provide for their wants in every way to assist in carrying into effect the conditions of the treaty." Rev. James Montgomery was the first agent. In 1819, he moved into the old Block-House of the fort which the Dolly Tod Madison Chapter, D. A. R., is making prepara- tion to mark. The fort was built by General Harrison in 1813. The Wyandotte Indians were allies of the English during the War of 1812, while the Senecas are generally credited with having remained neutral.
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