USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 33
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All that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom,
and, except in a few instances, the recitals have been confined to the pioneers.
A general history must record failures as well as successes ; vices as well as virtues : distress, suffering, and privations as well as pleasures, gratifications and enjoyments ; and evil as well as exemplary persons. Therefore, in presenting brief sketches of the careers of some of the per- sons who, in their generation, were prominent in Muskingum county affairs, a modification of the adjective employed in the prospectus has been deemed necessary.
Notorious is applied to a person generally known and talked of, but the fame is usually for evil actions and is commonly applied to a person without principle; notably is only less oppro- brious. Conspicuous signifies an elevation which is observed, and nearly all of our selected dead deserve more than such uncertain distinction. A person is eminent when he stands high in rank or office as compared with those around him, and is famous when widely spoken of as extraor- dinary for eccentricities or industry : renowned, literally, means frequently named with honor, and illustrious implies that the person is invested
with a splendor confirming the highest dignity, and suggests luster of character and actions. Distinguished means a separation from or eleva- tion above others, in public view, for talents or achievements, and while the succeeding list ranges from the notorious to the illustrious, it is thought that while not all are illustrious, at least all are distinguished.
WILLIAM H. BEARD
was identified with Zanesville in its infancy ; he was born in England, June 28, 1784, and came to America with his father's family, in 1800, landing at Philadelphia. The father could not obtain employment at his trade of calico printer, and came to Marietta, in 1801. In December. 1805, the family moved to a tract of land twelve miles from Zanesville, and W. H. assisted the father in clearing it for cultivation. During the evenings he studied spelling, arithmetic, geome- try, and surveying, and practiced penmanship. in which his father assisted him, and he secured a position in the engineering corps surveying in the Scioto valley. In 1810-1I he came to Zanes- ville and acted as clerk and barkeeper for Robert Taylor, who kept hotel on the Clarendon site.
The state capital was at Zanesville at the time. and Governor Meigs wanted an active and trust- worthy young man as secretary : Taylor recom- mended Beard and he was given the position and when Meigs was appointed postmaster general, in 1814, he appointed Beard to a clerkship in the department. Information was received at Wash- ington, February 14. 1815, that peace had been concluded with Great Britain, and Beard was selected to carry instructions to Gen. Harrison, commander-in-chief of the Western army, at Chillicothe, to cease hostilities ; the courier started from Georgetown and traveled by way of Rom- ney, Virginia, and Marietta, and arrived opposite Marietta after dark, with the river full of run- ning ice : he could not cross until morning, but delivered his dispatches during the day. The distance traveled was 450 miles, and would have been covered in two days and three nights had he not lost a night at the Ohio river : five horses were used and postmasters were directed to sup- ply him with the fleetest animals at command.
In 1817 he purchased a large tract near his father, and in 1821 resigned his clerkship and took a contract to carry mails between Zanesville and Lancaster, and established a stage line, which was later extended to Maysville, Kentucky. In 1833 he retired from the mail service, and in 1840 moved to Zanesville and became actively identified with the business of the town ; erected several substantial buildings, exercised a deep in- terest in its welfare, and was among the most enterprising citizens of his generation. He was
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essentially a self-made man, plain and unassum- ing, and his knowledge of men and affairs was so extensive his advice was sought and freely given ; he died December 8, 1870, respected and mourned by all.
HENRY BLANDY
was born in the city of Bristol, England, October 28, 1810, received a classical education in his native city, and came to the United States in 1832, and settled at Zanesville in the spring of 1833. He began operating the iron works at Dillon's Falls, but a year's experience demon- strated the unremunerative character of the busi- ness and he engaged in merchandising in Zanes- ville. A couple of years later he engaged in the foundry business on the site of the Union foun- dry, in Fountain alley, and later joined his brother Frederic, and erected a foundry on the site so long occupied in Underwood street and Elm. For a few years H. & F. Blandy confined their operations to foundry work, but in 1850 they began the manufacture of steam engines and machinery, which required an addition to the plant, and some of the first locomotives used on the Central Ohio railroad were built at the Blandy works. This class of machinery was not remun- erative and they devoted their entire attention to portable steam engines and saw-mills, in which industry they were the pioneers, and made the first successful portable lumber-cutting apparatus in the world ; they were very successful in this class of work and established a world-wide repu- tation, and after the Civil war opened an auxil- iary plant at Newark.
He was gentle and affable, but inflexible, pe- culiarly sympathetic, and was often imposed upon ; and was one of the city's most prominent and influential citizens and held many offices of trust and honor. He had been in declining health for some time and gave up business engagements only a short time before August, 1879, when he started for the Adirondack region ; he remained at a friend's house in New York to rest, but be- came worse and died in that city in that month, and his remains were brought to Zanesville and interred in Greenwood.
The funeral was one of the most general that ever occurred in the city ; business houses were closed, and the court house bell tolled the melan- choly intelligence that his remains were being followed to their last resting place by thousands of his former townsmen. One hundred and twenty-six carriages, in addition to the hundreds on foot in the funeral procession and on the thronged sidewalks, evinced the respect of the public for the deceased manufacturer.
DANIEL BLISS
was born in Warren, Massachusetts, April 10, 1761, and was brother in law to Dr. Jesse Chand- ler, who located at Putnam. Dr. Bliss came to Beverly in 1804 but the climate was uncongenial and he removed to what is now Chandlersville, and proposed relinquishing his profession and engaging in agriculture but as there was no physician his neighbors demanded and he rendered service. He was the sole physician for more than a score of years and ex- tended his practice to the neighboring counties of Guernsey, Morgan and Noble: his skill was remarkable and his manner was so genial and so conducive to favorable results, that his presence was esteemed as efficacious as the drugs contained in his omnipresent saddle bags : he was a man of strong convictions and was fearless in proclaim- ing them; carried his confidence and cheer to the sick room and diverted his patient's thoughts to other subjects than their physical condition; in his dealings with his fellows he was upright and received the respect to which he was so entitled ; his death occurred March 17, 1842.
ALVA BUCKINGHAM
was born at Ballston Springs, New York, March 20, 1791, and was brother to Ebenezer Bucking- ham, founder of the Buckingham business inter- ests at Putnam ; he accompanied his parents to Ohio when they settled about two miles from Coshocton, in 1799, and in 1802 moved with them to Athens county. In 1810 he became assistant to his brother Ebenezer, at Putnam, and upon the death of his brother Stephen, in 1813, he managed the business a couple of years ; he be- came a member of the firm of E. Buckingham & Co., April 6, 1816, and in 1821 built the brick home on Moxahala avenue now occupied by his son, James.
When his brother Ebenezer was killed, in 1832. the firm was dissolved and reorganized as A. Buckingham & Co., with Solomon Sturges as partner, and it dissolved in 1845 and was re- formed as Buckingham and Sturges, by the eldest sons of the two former partners. Alva Bucking- ham was one of the founders of the Putnam Classical Institute, in 1835, and in 1850 construct- ed the first grain elevator at Chicago, with a ca- pacity of 75,000 bushels, which was known as the Fulton elevator. In 1865 he took up his residence at New York, where his wife died on September II, 1867, and her remains were brought to Zanesville and interred at Woodlawn ; eleven days after the death of his wife Mr. Buck- ingham also died and was laid by her side.
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He was a courteous, methodical business man of the highest integrity and his private life was pure and simple as his public life was successful, and prominent.
EBENEZER BUCKINGHAM
was a son of Ebenezer and Esther Buckingham, and was born at Greenfield, Conn., February 9, 1778, and was drowned by the falling of the Y bridge at Zanesville, August 21, 1832. In 1796, when only eighteen years old, he arrived at Mari- etta and the first house at which he applied for work and food was the residence of Gen. Rufus Putnam, where he was set to chopping wood ; his industry and intelligence pleased the General and he was engaged at other work and remained with him in his surveys of the Northwest Territory ; his aptitude for mathematics made him a skilled surveyor and he was assigned to various difficult surveys, being instructed and encouraged by the General. In 1805 he abandoned the field and opened a trading station at Putnam, in which he was successful and April 6, 1816, formed the firm of E. Buckingham and Company, with his broth- er Alva, and brother-in-law, Solomon Sturges ; he was twice sent to the Ohio Senate and was a Commissioner of the Ohio Canal fund, and ne- gotiated its loans upon more favorable terms than had been secured by the state of New York. He was a man in whom the fullest confidence was re- posed and in no instance was it misplaced.
LEWIS CASS
was the son of Jonathan Cass, who came to Ohio in 1799 and settled at Dresden ; the father had been an officer in the regular army, and when the family moved to Ohio, Lewis, who was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, October 9, 1782, read law and was admitted to the bar at Marietta ; he was second lawyer to settle at Zanesville, and was first prosecuting attorney of the county, an office he held until he went into the army in 1812. In 1806 he was representative in the General Assembly, and drafted the address to the president expressing the views of the Ohio Legislature on Burr's expedition, and was author of the bill under which Burr's boats and supplies were seized.
He was colonel of Ohio volunteers, in the war of 1812, and the first American soldier to step upon British soil after the declaration of war ; broke his sword at Hull's surrender rather than deliver it to his captors : after exchange he became a colonel in the regular army and rose to the rank of Brigadier General by the close of the war in command of the territory of Michi- gan. At the peace he was appointed governor of Michigan and remained in this office and that
of superintendent of Indian affairs for eighteen years, during which period he negotiated twenty- two treaties with the Indians, secured cessions of large areas of western lands, constructed roads, created counties and built forts. He invested in extensive tracts of land at Detroit and became immensely wealthy from the increase in value by the growth of that city.
He became Secretary of War in Jackson's cabinet, and went to France as United States' minister ; in 1845 he was elected Senator from Michigan and resigned in 1848 to accept the democratic nomination as president, an honor he would doubtless have achieved but for the per- sonal hostility of Martin Van Buren. He was re-elected to serve his unexpired term in the Federal Senate, and re-elected in 1851. Bu- chanan called him to the cabinet as Secretary of State, and when that dotard of a president re- fused to reinforce Fort Sumter, at the com- mencement of hostilities, Cass resigned in in- dignation and was a warm Union man during the war, and lived to see the national arms victorious. He died at Detroit, June 17, 1866, and went to his grave full of years and rich in well earned honors. He was able, pure and scholarly, and as an orator and writer was logical and persuasive.
DR. JESSE CHANDLER
was second physician to locate at Putnam, where he arrived in 1804: born in Vermont, in 1764, he had practiced his profession several years before coming West. and at once came into extensive practice, as Dr. Mathews was so oc- cupied with private business he gladly welcomed relief. The physician in the pioneer days visited over the entire county, and sometimes into ad- joining ones ; there were no pharmacies and remedies were carried in the saddle bag's ; neither were there roads and the horse was relied upon to pick his footing over the narrow trains and bridle paths that led from house to house. Vil- lage visits were from twenty-five to fifty cents. according to the character of the remedy, and perhaps the standing of the patient ; country visits were $1.00, including the medicine, and as the trips were often as far as twenty-five miles the income was by no means commensurate with the time and talent required. The pay was usu- ally in corn, oats, hay, potatoes, etc., with oc- casionally money.
During the severe scourge of small-pox. at Putnam in 1809. a dozen or more young men. without friends or home, were attacked. and Dr. Chandler converted his home into a hospital, re- ceived the homeless and nursed them to health. without compensation.
During the winter of 1813-14 an unknown disease took epidemic form at Putnam: the at-
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tack began with congestive chill followed by un- consciousness, and death ensued in a couple of days. For want of a better name it was called the cold plague, and only a few of those attacked recovered. Dr. Chandler threw all his energy into the fight with the unfamiliar malady and himself fell a victim to its virulence, at the age of fifty.
He was a typical physician, fearless and self- sacrificing, and met death as he had disease, without a tremor.
DANIEL CONVERS.
Perhaps no pioneer of Zanesville was more familiar with the Indian life and character than Daniel Converse, whose father settled, in 1789, near Fort Freye, which stood near the present Fair Grounds, at Beverly.
April 29. 1790, Daniel, then a boy of sixteen, barefooted and unarmed and prompted by curiosity, accompanied three armed men into the adjoining woods to cut a tree to obtain a hoop for a drum : having selected a suitable tree one man began felling it and sent the other men to watch for Indians; one man did go but the other remained near by talking to the chopper while Convers held the worker's gun and am- munition. While thus occupied they were at- tacked by several Indians, and the party fled to the fort, Convers seeking a thicket but ran into an ambush of the savages and was taken prisoner, the men reaching the fort. Fearing pursuit by a rescue party, the Indians scattered through the woods to deceive pursuers, and met later at an agreed-on point, and although the succeeding night was dark and rainy, the forced march was continued until a late hour. Convers was unused to such fatigue and slept on the march; when a halt was made no fire was built and the prisoner was bound to a tree and the ends of the rope placed under the bodies of his sleeping guards.
Passing through the Indian village at Upper Sandusky, the party reached Lower Sandusky, May 9th, with the captive in an exhausted con- dition : he suffered many cruelties and indignities from drunken and brutal members of the party, but was generally kindly treated and defended by the majority. According to Indian custom his captor could sell or kill him, and the former course was determined on, and he was disposed of to a Chippewa in exchange for a horse and some wampum; his purchaser had one son and two daughters, and Convers was adopted into the family ; they were kind-hearted people and Con- vers expressed his regard for the squaw by say- ing "She was as good a woman as ever lived." Having migrated to Detroit, Convers learned that an Indian trader named Riley, from Saginaw Bay, was at the settlement and conceived a strong
desire to see him and inform him of his cap- tivity ; July 14th the Indians were holding a grand dance and Convers started from the en- campment through a field of rye, which partially concealed him, and reached the house of a French- man, to whom he made known his condition and anxiety to meet Riley. The Frenchman secreted him and sent his son to Riley, who came after dark and while talking with Convers in the loft, a party of Indians entered the room below in search of the fugitive. His French friend denied all knowledge of him and when the Indians had gone Riley promised to send a horse at daylight to convey him to the fort; this was done and Convers was concealed during the day in a barn.
Riley informed the British commandant at the fort of Convers' escape, and the latter ordered his admission to the hospital, that he might re- cover his shattered health and be more secure, as the Indians maintained the search for him for several weeks. About the middle of August one of the few vessels plying the lakes, sailed for Niagara, and the commandant paid Convers' passage and gave him a letter to the command- ant at Fort Erie with instructions to send the boy from post to post, until he reached the United States. This was done cheerfully and kindly by all the British officers, who did everything to enable him to reach his home country, and he arrived among relatives, at Killingly, Connecti- cut, in the fall, and remained for three years at- tending school, arriving at Marietta in February, 1794.
He was deputy sheriff of Washington county, and carried the first mail between Zanesville and Marietta, and in 1803 became a resident of Zanes- ville and partner, with his brother-in-law, Joseph F. Monroe, in mercantile business at Main and Second streets. Monroe & Convers were among the town's most enterprising citizens and erected the first brick building in the town, at Main and Fifth streets; it was a one-story structure and their store was moved into it, an advertisement of permanency and prosperity which was recog- nized in that early day.
In person Mr. Convers was thin and erect, and in temperament affable and enterprising.
S. S. COX.
Samuel Sullivan Cox was born at Zanesville, September 30, 1824, and attended school at the academy ; later he was entered at the Ohio Uni- versity, at Athens, and graduated from Brown University in 1846; he studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar, at Zanesville, in 1849, and in 1853 moved to Columbus to become editor of the Ohio Statesman; in 1855 he went to Peru as secretary of the legation but returned in the fol- lowing year to become Representative in Con-
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gress from the Columbus district, and served four terms. In 1866 he moved to New York and engaged in the practice of law but in 1868 was sent to Congress from an east side district and was returned for twenty years, his only un- satisfied ambition being failure to achieve the speakership to which he several times nearly at- tained ; the one cloud upon his memory in his "copperhead" sentiments and his opposition to the administration during the Civil war ; in 1885 President Cleveland appointed him Minister to Turkey, and he died at New York, September 10, 1889.
His rare and superabundant wit and humor were described as "a medicine for the alleviation of human woes ;" as a lecturer he was brilliant, as an orator he possessed great force and origin- ality, and as an author was widely known, and his brilliant description of a daily phenomenon gave him extended notice and secured for him the sobriquet of "Sunset" to which his intitials so readily conformed.
He traveled extensively in America, Europe and Africa, and was a Regent of the Smith- sonian Institution. The life saving service was established largely through his efforts and he was the especial champion of the letter carriers, whose compensation he had fixed and at equitable rates with an annual vacation of fifteen days without deduction of pay ; a day's work was limited to eight hours and extra compensation was allowed for additional service. A bronze statue, of heroic size, costing $10,000.00, was erected at Astor Place, New York, upon which was in- scribed :
"Samuel Sullivan Cox, the Letter Carriers' Friend. Erected in Grateful and Loving Memory of His Service in Congress, by the Letter Car- riers of New York, His Home, and of the United States, His Country. July 4, 1891."
In 1905 the statue was removed from its down- town location to a more desirable and appro- priate site further up town.
REV. JAMES CULBERTSON
was born and passed his boyhood in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, was educated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and pursued his theo- logical studies at Mercersburg and Pittsburg, and was licensed to preach in 18TI by the presbytery of Carlisle. He came West, in 1812, as a mis- sionary, and reached Zanesville, where he was in- stalled pastor of the united congregation of the Presbyterian church of Zanesville and Spring- field, December 24, 1812. His pastoral duties were performed until the summer of 1844, when his health failed and he asked that an assistant be called, which was done in August, and he preached but one sermon afterwards, in Novem- ber of that year, but was regular in attendance at divine service.
He was a man in whom the Christian character had deep root ; his every day life was a sermon to those who came in contact with him, and al- though strongly attached to his own denomina- tion, and a man of great influence in its coun- cils, he was unsectarian and strictly catholic. His strongest personal friendship was for Rev. W. A. Smallwood, D. D., for many years rector of St. James Episcopal church, and they were constantly together and were referred to as the local David and Jonathan; when Rev. Culbert- son was dying Rev. Smallwood dismissed his congregation in the midst of his sermon that he might hasten -to the bedside of his much loved friend.
During Mr. Culbertson's pastorate he preached 3798 sermons, his register being accurately kept with dates, places, time and text.
A week before his death he was invited with others to meet at the house of a friend, and was lighting the candle in his lantern preparatory to starting home: he was standing at the time at the head of a flight of stairs and was suddenly paralyzed and fell backward down the steps : he was taken up unconscious and died February 23. 1847, eight days after, aged sixty-one years and four months.
The funeral was attended by the presbytery, all the clergy of Zanesville and Putnam, and a large number of citizens, all of whom bore testimony to his worth as a man, citizen and clergyman.
CAPTAIN JAMES HAMPSON
was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, in 1776, and was captain of an artillery company, at Lan- caster. September 16, 1807, and of a militia com- pany, at Zanesville, February 1, ISIT, and during the war of 1812 was a commissary. He was one of the most prominent and popular men of his period and noted for his success in securing public office : was one of the first village coun- cilmen, April 3. 1814, an office he held several years : internal revenue collector, February I. 1814, by appointment of President Madison, and retained the position until the repeal of the act in 1818: member of the Ohio Legislature three terms and sheriff two terms ; and superintendent of the construction of the National Road. west of Zanesville, from 1829-32.
One day a young attorney asked him the secret of his success in keeping in office continuously. stating that he might desire to become an office holder himself in the future; the Captain play- fully punched him in the side and said: "Young man, never sign your name to a paper and be sure to cover up your tracks. That's the secret."
Capt. Hampson was an extensive contractor at Lancaster and Zanesville and died in the latter place, March 26, 1843.
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SAMUEL HERRICK
was born in Dutchess county, New York, April 14, 1779, read law under Judge Thomas Duncan, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, came to the budding West and made his first appearance at court, in his chosen profession, at St. Clairsville, Ohio, in June, 1805, and in the following August was in attendance at court at Zanesville, then held in an unfinished log cabin near the southwest corner of Main and Sixth streets. He was pleasant, genial, kind-hearted, and studious in habit. and although poor in worldly goods was imbued with energy, ambition, astuteness and much natural ability ; thoroughly honorable and upright in the dis- charge of his own obligations he demanded that others should be equally punctilious in their re- lations with him.
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