USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati pioneer > Part 13
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heart said that he would be happy to see us at Fruit Hill; and we did not think he said it as a mere empty compliment ; so we instructed our secretary, Mr. Caldwell, to say to him that if it suited his convenience, we should visit here, and we are happy to receive your hospitality, and enjoy your presence. He told us of " M'Donald's Sketches," and with difficulty I procured a copy of them, and when I saw what had been done by M'Arthur, Massie, and M'Donald, they and their companions, I feel a pride, as a native of Ohio, to stand so near the ground where they stood. Upon this very table [striking his hand upon it] was signed the first Constitution of the State of Ohio, and as one of the citizens of Ohio, I will say that great care should be taken of it.
We have imprinted upon our badges, which we wear here upon this occasion, the picture of the old State-house, and the ground upon which it stood may now be visited ; and it is also the place and house where the first Legislature met, and where the first Constitution was made. I have a great pride in my native State, and whenever I see any thing that brings to my mind any thing connected with her early history I am proud of it ; and in reading of the difficulties that surrounded Nathan- iel Massie, I bring to my mind one of the scenes told of him, when surveying near Paint Creek ; and I tell you that those men were worthy of all honor, as well as those who were with them. Here was where Nathaniel Massie, Duncan M'Arthur, M'Donald, and others whom I can not recall to mind, labored. Peculiar times develops peculiar powers of endurance, both mental and physical; but I fear our young men of to-day, raised in luxury, would not do as well as those noble men did under the same difficulties ; they did their work nobly and they did it well, and all should have their names embalmed in our memories. Well, now, beloved brethren, I have heard of Chillicothe since I was a little boy, and when they told me of Chillicothe at Cin- cinnati, it recalled scenes to my mind ; and it is now my privilege and that of the men and women with me here, whom I have known so many years, to come here and to stand with them upon this honored spot. Again, your Ross County has only given us four governors, and their descendants are not dwarfed in size, and I also believe not in mental and intellectual powers and accomplishments [laughter]; and Ross County has had a proud record from the time that first old Constitu- tion was signed until this year 1875, and we of the pioneers of Cincin- nati are proud to be your guests to-day.
About twenty years ago a number of men, and some men of a con- siderable number of years, met together, and we were talking about the
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early settlement of this State, and of the hardships of their fathers, and of the difficulties of reaching here, and particularly those who came from the " Jarsies," that is what they called it. And they said that no efforts had been taken to preserve the records of that early settle- ment, and they said, " Let us form an association, and let us ask all who came to this State before 1812 to come into it, and let us sit down and take their stories." Here let me relate a little incident. My grand-parents were in New Jersey, and a young man of the same name as myself fell in love with one of these "Jarsey" maidens ; but the lady's people said, " William, we are going 'way off to Cincinnati, and we cannot consent that Mary shall stay here, but, William, if you will just go with us, we will have no objections to your marrying Mary." Well, he finally said " I will go," and at Pittsburg, on the " Broadhorn," his hands became sore and blistered ; having been a clerk and un- accustomed to such hard, manual labor as was required to manage it . When they arrived at their place of destination, they took the gunwales out of the boat, and constructed a hut to live in, and William said, " I have endured hardships enough now," and shortly afterward he and Mary were married. That occurred in 1805-and these were my parents. But to return to my subject ; these men thought it was time to gather up these old reminiscences, and when I remember the stories told me by my grandmother about the early settlement of Ohio, I feel as Governor Allen said to us last year, that "truth is stranger than fiction.".
John D. Caldwell, our Secretary, has been gathering up all of these old reminiscences, and John is writing down the story of the old grandfathers and grandmothers in our midst, and I hope that our children and our children's children will read thein with interest. We have had upon our rolls Judge John M'Lean, that model Post- master-General of the United States, and the great jurist, and we paid our last respects to him when he "went to that bourne whence no traveler returns," and he was one who did his duty with all faith- fulness. We called that noble old man, John Johnson, in Pioneer days the Indian Factor or Agent of the United states at Piqua, to oc- cupy our chair ; we had also Major Daniel Gano, son of the original Pioneer, General John S. Gano, as another of our Presidents, one who did his duty well as a soldier, and one who occupied high posi- tions of trust among us, and never did the breath of dishonor sully his name. He wore his queue to the last hours of his life, and was one of the old-time gentlemen, and I have no doubt that some of your
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citizens and some of these old gentlemen and ladies have seen him. He was the friend of art, and he sustained an artist for three years at his own expense; and when I look at the sculpture made by that artist during that time, I think of the great honor and respect due to him. That monument of art is in Spring Grove Cemetery.
Another one of our old Pioneers, a hotel-keeper, and the father of Governor Dennison, was also with us, and we had one of our re- unions at his house, and he was a worthy member of the Pioneer As- sociation. We had also another one whom we all dearly loved, whose lame was Stephen S. L'Hommedieu ; he and I were boys together, and our President, E. D. Mansfield, who has been a leading editor of the . Cincinnati Gazette for many years. I saw Mr. L'Hommedieu about ten days ago in good health, and he promised to be with us on this occasion, and said that he had to visit a married daughter in New York, but would be back in time to come here with us. What was our astonishment when a telegram was received that Stephen S. L'Hommedieu was no more, and that he was a corpse. We esteemed him as one of Cincinnati's leading citizens, and one who for twenty- two years sustained the position of president of, and leader in, railroad enterprises; but we have learned that we have lost him and we must leave him in the hands of God.
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David K. Este, a high-toned Christian gentleman, who married one of the daughters of President Harrison, has been but recently one of our Presidents. At the age of ninety he can not be much o a traveler. Father Este wrote us saying that he could not come, and he expressed a desire that we might have a pleasant time in Chilli- cothe. We have another man, Robert Buchanan, and he was one of the earliest mariners on the Ohio, and followed that business for some years, and since 1825 has turned his attention to the cotton business, and I am happy to say that he is here to-day, and is in a good state of preservation [laughter], although he is a very modest man, and I doubt if you can call him out, however much you may call for Buchanan.
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We have also Thomas Henry, son of the well-beloved Griffin Yeatman, and he is a man that we all highly esteem. To introduce our present Vice-president, Isaac Macfarland, I will relate this story: There was a time when we had no undertakers in Cincinnati, and we had persons who acted in such capacity, and took charge and man- aged affairs upon such occasions-there is a citizen here whose father was one of those men- and they would go to a funeral and see that
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people were buried decently and in order. Among them was one whom we greatly depended upon, Colonel Stephen Macfarland, who had not much of this earth's goods ; and when it was told that he was dead, one of the citizens said that he was a good man and went straight to heaven, while others expressed doubts upon that subject, saying that if while going there he should meet a funeral, he would stop on the road to superintend it. [Laughter.]
Mr. E. D. Mansfield is our present President, and one who is not unknown here, and who, from this county, took away as a wife one of your Governor's daughters, and who is a high-toned, accomplished Christian gentleman, and one whom we delight to honor, and whom we expect here this evening to address you. Our other officer is John D. Caldwell, and he is the "fellow" who is the Secretary of every thing with us to which there is no pay attached. [Laughter.] I thank you and the other citizens present for your patience in listening to me, and renew our expressions of gratitude to all Chillicothe for the warmth and earnestness of its greetings.
REMARKS OF GENERAL J. T. WORTHINGTON.
VENERABLE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF OHIO: I esteem it an honor to address you upon this occasion, and this welcome is dearly won. I have lived long enough to know it. Those whose memories go no further back than the days of steamboats and rail- roads can form no conception of the difficulties encountered by the early Pioneers of Ohio. I know that, because I crossed the mount- ains myself, on horseback, when the road was almost impassable, even for horsemen, and entirely so for other modes of conveyance; and when they arrived at the Ohio they found their way to their several places of destination through blazed paths of the wilderness. I speak of things I know. My first memories are of an old cabin in which we lived, and through which were loop-holes to defend it from the aroused revengeful spirit of the savages, and guards were regularly set to watch for them ; and that was a daily occurrence ; and, as Shakespeare says, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," and their scalps might be dangling to the belt of some savage. When the wolf's howl was heard outside at night, it was uncertain always whether it was the wolf or the savage imitating him, to lure us outside to our destruc- tion. All this is now changed, and our "lives are cast in pleasant places," and it is to you we owe all of this pleasantness. In conclu- sion, I invite you all to visit me at my old home to-morrow morning.
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REMARKS OF WILLIAM ALLEN,
GOVERNOR OF OHIO, AT THE RECEPTION OF THE PIONEERS.
MY FRIENDS FROM A DISTANCE AND PRESENT :--- It would not be- come me to enter upon a general speech on this occasion ; it would look as if I sought to appropriate this occasion to other than its rightful object ; but I will offer a few sentiments that will be appreci- ated by the people abroad, and by the people of the Ancient Metrop- olis. I said in Cincinnati, when the thermometer ranged at 105 de- grees, and I made some allusion to some of the early settlers of the Scioto Valley : "I can not claim to being a pioneer myself, but I have the honor of being connected by marriage with one of the Pioneer families of Ohio, who, more than eighty-three years ago, when there were no house, no cabin, and no wigwam between the Scioto River and Maysville, and when that little band, few in number but resolute in heart, took a trail upon the Ohio River to the Scioto; and in the early days the only way the Indians had, and those who followed them, was to keep the line of the hills. These men had been pre- ceded twelve or fifteen years by Boone and his Pioneer companions, who had traced the Scioto Valley above this town, but they had trav- ersed it only as adventurers, and it must not be overlooked that there is in man's nature a strong temptation to hunt up danger only to overcome it. They passed over it as they did large regions here and in Kentucky, without driving down any stake; but those men who came here after them came to plant and to nourish a great civilized community, which was to amaze the world by its civilization ; these were authors of settlements, and of the rise and progress of commu- nities. They put down their stake where we call "The Station," and with the country covered with Indians; they put the ladies in a log house and left some of the men there with rifles to defend it and themselves, and the others went off surveying ; and that log hut was the nucleus of one of the greatest civilizations upon the globe. Mas- sie, M'Donald, and M'Arthur stayed around it and surveyed until the town of Chillicothe was laid off as it is on the map to-day. At that time, eighty-two or three years ago, there had been some other partial settlements in the State, and these men have passed away and left posterity, and if they had left no survivors, the richest legacy they could have left were their works. Some of the gentlemen who have preceded me have already told you that upon this old walnut
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table [placing his hand upon it] the first Constitution was signed ; and Chillicothe has also furnished several prominent men to the State, among whom are Edward Tiffin, Thomas Worthington, and Duncan M'Arthur. But there was nothing astonishing in this, for when it was under- stood that they were form- ing a new community, the best spirits clustered around her. We have re- ceived our friends abroad in the spirit always mani- fested by the citizens of Chillicothe, and we hope to have them returned to their homes safe and joy- ous. We have heard thus far of no accidents in your coming here, and all of us will rejoice when you re- Old State House, Chillicothe. turn to your homes without any accidents whatever, except this one you have had of witnessing the first spot settled in this valley by the white man, and that is an accident which few people will see who will be entitled to call themselves Pioneers hereafter; and we hope and trust that every man, woman, and child present will ever remember this day and occasion of the entertaining of aged hearts, where there so many commingled of aged, middle aged, and young, and also a great many who are the descendants of those old Pioneers of Ohio. It is a great event to trace one's origin to some of them, and any one who can do so has a right to feel a pride, and an honest pride, in tracing back to those old Pioneers.
GENERAL LESLIE COOMBS, OF KENTUCKY.
As the association had invited this distinguished survivor of the war of 1812, the secretary deems it proper to introduce his lively address at Chillicothe, by the following items of our border history. War was declared against Great Britain, by our Congress, 18th June, 1812. Three regiments were soon after marched from Ohio to Detroit, Michigan, under Colonels Lewis Cass, of Zanesville, Duncan M'Arthur, of Chillicothe, and James Findlay, of Cincinnati, and others prepared
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to follow them when required, under Colonel Tupper and Colonel Henry Brush.
On the 17th July the British and Indians captured Fort Mackinaw ; also, on the 15th August, Fort Dearborn, at the mouth of the Chicago River ; next day, General William Hull disgracefully surrendered his army and gave up Michigan Territory to the enemy.
On the very day of Hull's surrender, Kentucky, in ignorance of this discomfiture, mustered three volunteer regiments into service, at Georgetown, ready to march to Canada. Colonel Scott and Colonel Lewis, two old Indian fighters, and Colonel John Allen, a distinguished lawyer, were in command. General William H. Harrison was appointed by Kentucky Major-General of these troops, with General John Payne Brigadier-General. After these Kentucky forces had reached Fort Wayne, the lad Leslie Coombs persuaded his mother to let him-now two brothers also in the army -- become a soldier. . So he gave his share of the estate for a horse and trappings and started on his own hook to become identified with defense of the Western Frontier. On arrival at Fort Wayne he was appointed a cadet and attached to the First Kentucky Regiment, and served in that capacity during the rest of the campaign.
In the dead of Winter it was his heroic service to act as a mes- senger from General Winchester to General Harrison, at Upper San- dusky. On 30th December, with four days' provision and a blanket on his back, with one guide, he started on foot, to plod through the snow with prospect of a nine-day march through the wilderness to reach Fort M'Arthur, the head-quarters of Colonel Tupper. The fatal slaughter of Winchester's men, on the 22d at the River Raisin. one- third was killed and the remainder captured, except thirty-three, who escaped and reached General Harrison. Thus ended his first cam- paign. Having returned to Kentucky in April, 1813, he repaired again to Dayton, and united with General Clay's brigade, on its march to Fort Meigs ; and in consideration of his experience and knowledge of the country, he was appointed a captain of spies in Colonel Dud- ley's regiment, being then only nineteen years of age.
He was proved to be the hero of a hazardous enterprise. A council of officers on the Auglaize River was called on receiving an express that General Harrison expected an immediate attack, and they deter- mined that some one should be sent down the river to notify him of their approach and bring back his orders. Captain Coombs volun- teered, and, with four men and an Indian guide, started in a large canoe
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from Fort Defiance at dusk, on 30th April. Near morning, having hauled their boat around the rapids, they came in sight of Fort Meigs, and " our flag was still there." Before a safe landing was secured, the Indians fired on the party and two were killed, Coombs wounded. The Captain escaped and returned, not with a message from Harrison, but with cheering news that the fort was still safe. When the Clay · brigade got to the rapids, by the chance arrival of Tecumseh, was brought about Dudley's defeat, on the fatal 5th of May, and the brave Captain Coombs, with others, became prisoners of war, at Fort Mau- mee. The massacre was only prevented by Tecumseh, and prisoners were taken first to mouth of Swan Creek, now Toledo, and thence to Huron, where they were paroled.
SPEECH OF GENERAL LESLIE COOMBS.
MR. MAYOR OF THE CITY, MR. SECRETARY, AND GENTLEMEN : I do not know in what attitude I stand here, but this terrible secretary wrote and told me to come and bring with me my daughter, who is a mere girl ; but she is married and has children as large as herself. [Laughter.] This is not the first time I have been in Chillicothe ; sixty- two years ago I first saw this place, returning home a .paroled prisoner of war with a bullet through my shoulder. In the Spring of 1813 two regiments, Boswell's and Dudley's, came over the Ohio River from Ken- tucky, and I, as senior captain, had command of one of them, and, we were to land on the British side of the Maumee, near the foot of the rapids, to fight their troops and to take their batteries. It was our duty not to retire unless we had orders to that effect, and, as Ken- tuckians, we were not going to do it. Tecumseh and his Indians landed and reinforced them, and drove us back, and I was taken prisoner and forced to run the gauntlet. I passed through double quick, I can tell you. I did not stop to ask any questions or interview any body [laughter], and I passed through safely, while others succumbed to it. There was one time I saw Tecumseh. and that was when the Indians threatened to scalp us prisoners, and one of them that I saw had four scalps in his belt. Word was sent to Proctor and Elliott, the British commanders, that if they did not interfere we would all be scalped ; but neither of them did do any thing ; but Tecumseh did, in our behalf, and denounced it as an outrage, and said it was a shame to kill and scalp prisoners of war. We were finally carried to the mouth of Swan Creek and exchanged.
Ohio was at that time a wilderness. Wapakonetta and Franklinton,
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near Columbus, were at that time frontier towns. I shall never forget that night ; the British wounded were well cared for, while we had nothing but cord wood and our blankets for beds. I took a bullet in my mouth and bit it in the agony that I suffered while the surgeon was extracting the ball from my shoulder. We were afterward landed on the other side of the creek and brought southward, and a great many of us, myself among the number, had neither hat nor coat until we got to Lancaster, Ohio. The ladies of Ohio, as we passed along through the State came out and, sympathizing with us, with tears in their eyes, bound up our wounds and dressed them as well as they could. When I got to Lancaster, I sent for a man who had a hat big enough for me, and wore it until I came here, where the quartermaster furnished me with transportation to Kentucky. . That was my first visit to Chillicothe ; I shall never forget it, nor their kindness then to me.
I came here again in 1840, to speak in the Harrison campaign for Harrison, and addressed audiences here night after night, and was again treated with the greatest hospitality.
I have made some friends here who were young then, but who are getting old now ; among whom is Dr. Waddle; but if they will get old, why I can't help it. [Laughter.] They ask me "How do you keep your hair so black?" and I tell them, by allowing the oil of human kind- ness to well up from my heart to my head. [Applause.] I have always met with kindness here, and when Caldwell told me to come and go along with them up here, I thought I would go; I knew some of the " boys," and I knew they were such wild and frisky fellows, that I would have to go along to make them behave themselves, and to take care of them. [Laughter and applause.]
I made a speech yesterday, at Maysville, to some of the Pioneers of Kentucky and Ohio, the occasion being the centennial celebration of Simon Kenton's settlement, back of Limestone, Kentucky. My father made corn in Kentucky one hundred years ago ; and this was a universal wilderness then. Virginia, at that time, wanted this country settled up, and promised all who would emigrate to Kentucky one thousand acres of land, which they were to pay for in old continental money, worth at that time about five dollars a bushel. They first came and settled in Lullebegud, a name not found on any map or in any book except Gulliver's Travels. [Laughter.] Gulliver was their favorite author [prolonged laughter], and they named the creek upon which they settled Lullebegud Creek, and planted corn there and left it to be gathered by they did not know who; and that was the founda-
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tion of the first settlement of Kentucky. I have documents to prove that my father did it in the year 1775, and then went back to Virginia, and was present and took part at the siege and surrender of Yorktown under Washington. There were some colonies here in this country at that time, and thirteen of those little colonies grew up since that time to be mighty States. Then we were very few in population, and we had nothing except shovel plows, that would bounce as high as your head if they struck a root; but now, if one of our shovel plows strikes a root, it goes right over it, and it does not make any difference. Then we had not a turnpike in America, and had no ways and means of communication except upon horseback or on foot. My father did not come back until after the surrender of Yorktown. 1
I entered into the service as a pioneer in 1793, and I never heard of a railroad until I introduced a bill in the Kentucky Legislature to build one there, when there was not one on the continent of America ; and now they talk about a railroad through the South from Cincinnati, and I hope they will succeed in having one. [Applause.] At that time France owned along the Mississippi, and Spain had California ; and now you can bathe your face in the Pacific and wash your feet in the Atlantic, and not go out of the United States to do it either. "[Great applause.] I am a Union man and have always been, but I an no radi- cal, and I would fight for Rhode Island as quick as I would for Ken- tucky, and Kentucky came in to fight for Ohio in early days when you could not fight for yourselves. I am going to the next centen- nial, and the next one after that. In fact I don't know when I am going to die [laughter and applause]; I was introduced at one place as the man who came to this continent with Columbus, and I told the people that I had come here to find the spring of everlasting youth that the Spaniards had been hunting for. I am for the maintenance of the Union as it is, and for each of the States maintaining their own rights, and I came here with these "Ohio boys " because I felt grate- ful to Ohio for what she has done for me. [Applause.]
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