The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 39

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

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for the distance of twelve miles. During this tour of duty, he was sent with others down the river twelve miles, and assisted in protecting a settlement at Decker's Fort, in Virginia, while the inhabitants gathered their corn. This tour of duty lasted about seven weeks, and he was discharged on the 20th of December. In July, 1777, young Dunlevy served fourteen days in the militis at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) as a substitute for his father, who had been drafted for a month and had served the first half of it. The notorious Simon Girty was in the fort at this time and an officer of the militia, this being the year before he deserted to the Indians. In March, 1778, young Dunlevy again volunteered and served a short term; on the 15th of August, he was drafted, and served one month, and, in October, he again volunteered and served six weeks. He was again drafted on the 25th of August, 1779, and served about five weeks along the Alleghany River. In the spring of 1782, he again volunteered to serve against the hostile Indians, but the contemplated movement was aban- doned, and he was permitted to return home in a few days.

The most remarkable event in the military life of Francis was his service in the disastrous campaign of Col. Crawford against Sandusky, in May and June, 1782. In Dunlevy's declaration for a pension, made in 1832, and now on file in the pension office, he gave a clear and concise account of the expe- dition. This declaration is frequently cited in C. W. Butterfield's history of Crawford's campaign against sandusky, in which work a fuller account of Dunlevy's military services will be found than can be here given. At the bat- . tle of Sandusky, Dunlevy was engaged with an Indian of huge proportions. The Indian, as evening approached, crept carefully and cautiously toward Dunlevy through the top of a tree lately blown down and full of leaves. Get- ting near enough, as he supposed, he threw his tomahawk, but missed his aim and then escaped. This Indian was afterward recognized by Dunlevy, as he believed, in "Big Captain Johnny," who, in the war of 1812, was with the friendly Shawnees at Wapakoneta. "In a campaign," writes A. H. Dunlevy, "in which I served under Gen. William Henry Harrison, in 1812 and 1813, I frequently saw this Indian. He must have been seven feet in height. He was as frightfully ugly as he was large." In Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, it is stated that Dunlevy made his way, in company with two others, through the woods from the scene of Crawford's defeat, without provisions, to Pittsburgh, but Mr. Butterfield states that Dunlevy's application for a pension disproves the statement.

Although young Dunlevy's school days were often broken into by his military duties for the protection of the homes of the whites, he managed to obtain a good education. In 1782, he was, for a short time at least, a pupil of Rev. Thaddeus Dodd's Latin and mathematical "log-cabin" school in Wash- ington County, Penn. He was then described as "a young man of superior talent and amiable disposition." As soon as peace was secured, he went to Dickinson College. He became a fine classical and mathematical scholar, and could read and write the Latin language with ease. He was at one time a student of divinity under Rev. James Hoge, of Winchester, Va., and afterward taught a classical school in the same State.

About the year 1790, he moved with his father's family to the vicinity of Washington, Ky. In 1792, he moved to Columbia, where he opened a classical school in connection with John Reily, afterward of Butler County. After Wayne's victory, this school was moved up the Little Miami some ten miles. In 1797, he came to the vicinity of Lebanon and continued his school until 1801. It is believed that he was the first teacher of the ancient languages in the Miami Valley, and also the first in Warren County.

In September, 1799, a special election was held for the purpose of choos-

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ing two additional members from Hamilton County in the Legislature of the Northwest Territory. Mr. Dunlevy believed that he was duly elected one of the two new Representatives, but the House, by a majority of one, decided against his claim to the office and gave the seat to Isaac Martin. This was probably the first contested election case north of the Ohio. At the regular election, in October of the next year, Mr. Dunlevy was elected one of the seven Representatives from Hamilton County, and served in the Territorial Legisla- ture, which met at Chillicothe November 23, 1801. In this Legislature, he .acted with the anti-Federalists, who opposed the continuance in power of the Territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair, and who succeeded in securing for the Territory an early admission into the Union as a State. In 1802, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, receiving the highest num- ber of votes of nearly 100 persons voted for in Hamilton County. He took a prominent part in the proceedings of the convention.

One position taken by Mr. Dunlevy during the deliberations in framing the first constitution of Ohio deserves to be particularly noticed. Born in a Slave State and having himself seen the evils of slavery, he looked with abhor- rence on every system of human bondage. In the convention, he not only voted against every attempt to introduce slavery in a modified form in the new State, but he went further, and was one of the minority who favored equal political rights for all men without regard to color. He voted in favor of the motion to strike out the word white from the constitution, so as to give the right of suffrage to colored men, but this principle of justice and human equality he did not live to see embodied in the constitution and laws of Ohio.

At the first election in the State, he was elected' a member of the Senate in the Legislature. Before its adjournment, this body selected him one of the three President Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the term of seven years. This position he held fourteen years. His circuit was the Southwestern, and at first embraced ten counties. He rode on horseback over the ungraded and bridgeless roads of a new country, and displayed his indomitable energy in promptly meeting his appointments, sometimes swimming his horse over the swollen streams rather than fail in being present. In the fourteen years he was Judge, it is said, he never missed more than one court. In his early cam- paigns against the Indians and his extensive travels in new countries, he had become so expert a swimmer that he thought nothing of swimming the Ohio in its greatest flood.

At the close of his second term as Presiding Judge, being poor and having involved himself as security for some of his friends, he felt compelled to engage in the practice of law for the means of sustaining a large family dependent upon him. For more than ten years he was indefatigable in his legal pursuits, attending the courts of several of the surrounding counties. At the age of seventy, after more than fifty years of labor as a soldier, pioneer, legislator, framer of a State Constitution, Judge of Court and practicing lawyer, he retired, to spend in reading and study, the years which might be allotted him beyond threescore and ten.

Judge Dunlevy was an active and prominent member of the Baptist Church. Both his parents were zealous Presbyterians, and Francis being their eldest son, was intended for the ministry of that church. But while a student of divinity, he arrived at the conclusion that pedobaptism and sprinkling instead of immersion were unauthorized in the Scriptures. Much to the mortification of his parents, as well as his brothers and sisters, he was compelled to become a Baptist. His brother John became a prominent Presbyterian preacher in Ohio and Kentucky, and afterward, a Shaker, being the author of "The Mani- festo," which is regarded as the strongest work ever written in support of the

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doctrines of the Society of United Believers. Francis abandoned his intention of becoming a minister, believing he had not evidence of a special divine call to that office. He was a member of the Columbia Baptist Church, in 1792, and assisted in organizing the Miami Baptist Association, and, it is said, drew up the articles of faith agreed upon by that association. In the church at Lebanon, he had his membership for more than forty years. "He was a Calvinist, firm and unyielding, but without any tendency to Antinomianism. In the division of the church at Lebanon, in 1836, on the missionary question, he made a long and earnest appeal to the members, giving the history of the church from its organization. The anti-mission movement, he said, was but Antinomianism in principle, and a step in contradiction to the whole history of the Baptist de- nomination in Ohio. He warned the advocates of the anti-mission movement of the destructive consequences upon them as a Christian denomination. He told them that he had seen a similar stand taken by Baptist Churches in Vir- ginia fifty years before that time, and the result was that in twenty years or less those churches had become almost extinct and that the same consequences would as surely befall those churches which would adopt anti-missionary senti- ments."

His opposition to slavery continued through life. Being among the few of his time to avow openly and publicly the equality of all men, white and black, he was thereby subject to much odium and abuse. But he never flinched from embracing and avowing the truth, however unpopular. He was one of those who advocated liberal civil, religious and political privileges for all men of whatever name, country, color or religion.

In many respects, he was a remarkable man. Judge Burnet, who knew him well, describes him as "a veteran pioneer of talents, liberal educa- tion and unbending integrity." He possessed a remarkable memory, retaining whatever he heard or read with great accuracy. He retained his mental facul- ties in undiminished strength to the last. The last years of his life were passed chiefly in reading. A translation of the Bible in Latin was his frequent companion. He died of pleurisy November 6, 1839, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

Francis Dunlevy was married at Columbia to Mary Craig in 1792. His children were Anthony Howard, a lawyer at Lebanon; John Craig, who prac- ticed medicine at Hamilton, Ohio, for twenty years, and died in 1834; Rebecca White, who was married to Dr. Rigdon; Maria; Jane, who was married to Jacob Morris; and James Harvey, who was admitted to the bar in 1827, and made a tour through the South with his father, and died the same year in Louisiana.

The surname of the subject of this sketch was by him uniformly written "Dunlavy," and thus it is signed to the first constitution of Ohio, and in the journals of the courts over which he presided; but "Dunlevy," having been adopted by his descendants as the correct orthography of the family name, it has been followed in this work. On this point, the eldest son of Judge Dun- levy, writes: "The family were originally fromSpain. The name, which is properly Donlevy, has since been written variously, according to the vowel sounds of the different countries in which the family was scattered-sometimes Donlevy; by others, Dunlevy, and again, Dunlavy."

JEREMIAH MORROW.

This pioneer and farmer-statesman was born October 6, 1771, in what is now Adams County, then York County, Penn., not far from the place where the great battle of Gettysburg was fought. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage. His

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father was a native of Pennsylvania, but his more remote ancestors were Irish by nativity, Scotch by extraction and Covenanters in religion. The name Mor- row is a modification of the Scotch surname Murray, an older form of which is Moray, and it is certainly known that in the family of the subject of this sketch the modification was made in this country soon after the middle of the last century. The grandfather of the subject of this memoir, whose Christian name also was Jeremiah, emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to America, about the year 1730; he died in 1758, leaving one son and several daughters. His only son, John Morrow, was a farmer and a man of influence in his neighborhood. His name appears in the history of York County as Commissioner in 1791, 1792 and 1793, before the organization of Adams County. He died in 1811, having lived to see his eldest son elected for the fifth time a Member of Congress from the new State of Ohio.

The early instruction Jeremiah received in the local schools did not extend beyond the rudimentary branches of reading, writing and arithmetic; to these, however, he added an acquaintance with some of the higher mathematics and surveying, by attendance, when a young man, for one summer, at a school of a higher order. Perhaps the most important part of his intellectual education was the result of a habit of industriously reading the best books within his reach, which he continued through life. He grew up a young man with a better education than his associates, of robust understanding and a mind stored with a fund of useful information. Without an acquaintance with the rules of technical grammar-the English language not being taught grammatically in the schools of his boyhood --- he acquired the power of expressing his thoughts on paper in a style always clear, generally correct, and, while free of rhetorical ornament, sometimes characterized by elegance and grace. This capacity of fully conveying his thoughts, proved, in after life, of incalculable advantage to him, as well while serving as a member of the Legislature in the woods of the Northwest Territory, as when chairman of a committee in the halls of Congress.

In his twenty-fourth year, he determined to seek his fortunes in the Terri- tory Northwest of the Ohio. He arrived at the village of Columbia, now a part of Cincinnati, in the spring of 1795. Remaining here two or three years, he worked at whatever he could find to do in the new settlements; he raised corn on rented ground in the fertile valleys about Columbia; he surveyed land, and, for a short time, taught school. Having determined to locate in the Miami country, he contracted with Symmes for the purchase of lands on the Little Miami, about twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth. The purchase price was $1.50 per acre. In the winter of 1796-97, Mr. Morrow, Thomas Espy and John Parkhill, who had determined to settle in the same vicinity, surveyed their lands, enduring the privations of camp life in a wilderness in a winter of unusual severity. On February 19, 1799, Mr. Morrow was married to Miss Mary Parkhill, who was born in Fayette County, Penn., July 8, 1776. They began pioneer life in a log cabin about half a mile from the Little Miami River. The forests around their rude home were almost entirely unbroken; their neighbors were few; the church they attended was at the Mill Creek set- tlement, twelve miles distant. One day their cabin was destroyed by fire, with every article of household convenience it contained. The settlers for miles around gathered together not long after, and, in a single day, erected a new house in place of the burned one, constructing it, as all the first homes of the pioneers were constructed, of round logs, clapboard roof and puncheon floor.

In 1800, Mr. Morrow was first called into public life, being chosen to a seat in the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, and attended the session which met at Chillicothe November 23, 1801, and in that body favored the for- mation of a State government. In 1802, he was a member of the convention

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which formed the first constitution of Ohio and was Chairman of the committee which reported the fourth article of the constitution on "Elections and Electors." In 1803, he was a member of the Senate in the first Legislature of Ohio, and, in June of the same year, was elected the first Representative in Congress from Ohio.

Having resigned his office as State Senator to accept that of Representa- tive in Congress, Mr. Morrow was summoned early in the ensuing autumn to attend a special session of Congress convened by the President, and made the first of sixteen journeys from his home to the national capital to attend the annual sessions of Congress, in as many successive years, all of which he per- formed on horseback, for almost the entire distance. He took his seat as a member of the Eighth Congress October 17, 1803, the first day of the called session. He continued a Representative in Congress for five successive terms; each time he was a candidate for re-election, leading his opponent by a decided majority. During this period of ten years, he was the only Representative of Ohio in the Lower House of Congress. After the State was divided into six Congressional Districts, he was chosen by the Legislature a United States Senator, for six years, from the 3d of March, 1813. His election to the high- est legislative council in the world was a triumphant one; of eighty-one votes on the joint ballot, he received sixty-three.

During the long period of his uninterrupted service in both Houses of Congress, his course was marked by the most scrupulous and unwearied appli- cation in the discharge of his public duties. He was always at his post; he was present on the first day of the session; he attended all the committees to which he was appointed; he was punctual at every place where duty called him. He never acquired distinction by powers of oratory and debate-those showy talents, which, in this country, more than any other, attract and dazzle popular opinion; but he had the capacity of administering public affairs with sound judgment, energy and industry. His talents were useful in the committee room, in drawing up a report, in the presentation of facts and figures and in casting the intelligent vote.

He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands in both Houses of Congress; almost all the laws relating to the survey of the public land do- main, during the period he was in Congress, were the productions of his pen; and his opinion on any question connected with this important branch of the public business uniformly commanded the respect of Congress. As he was about to leave the Senate, Senator Crittenden pronounced him the "Palinurus of the Senate in everything that related to this important subject;" and Henry Clay, in his great speech on the Public Lands, in the Senate, twelve years after, thus eulogized his administration of these interests: "No man in the sphere within which he acted ever commanded or deserved the implicit confi- dence of Congress more than Jeremiah Morrow. A few artless but sensible words, pronounced in his plain Scotch-Irish dialect, were always sufficient to insure the passage of any bill or resolution which he reported."

His term as United States Senator expired March 3, 1819, and he retired to private life, believing that his public career had closed. He had not sought official station, and had been elected to high offices without any effort on his part; he was now content to retire to the management of his farm and his mill. The next year he was solicited to allow his name to be used as a candidate for Governor; this he felt compelled to decline, as his friend, Gov. Ethan Allen Brown, who was serving his first term as Chief Magistrate, was a candidate for re-election. Before the succeeding election for Governor, he accepted the office of State Commissioner of Canals.

In 1822, he was a candidate for Governor and was elected. His principal

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opponent was Allen Trimble, who, before the election, became Acting Gov- ernor, on the election of Gov. Brown to the Senate. Questions of national politics seem to have had little influence in this election, some counties casting almost their entire vote for their favorite candidate. Mr. Morrow received a very large majority in the southwestern part of the State, and in the township in which he resided but a single vote was cast against him, and this vote was possibly his own. Two years after, he was re-elected. He took the oath of office, and delivered his inaugural address December 28, 1822. So few were the duties devolving upon him, under the constitution he had assisted in fram- ing, that during the four years he held the office of Governor, when the Legis- lature was not in session, his presence was only occasionally required at the State Capital, and the greater portion of his time was spent on his farm, ninety miles distant from Columbus. The chief themes of his annual messages were the Common School System and Canal Navigation.

The law authorizing the construction of the Ohio State Canals was passed at the same time as the school law, the two measures being carried by a union of the friends of each. Ground was first broken in the construction of the Ohio Canal at Newark, on the 4th of July, 1825. Gov. De Witt Clinton, the distin- guished advocate of Canal Improvement, was present, by invitation of the Commissioners, and, after appropriate and imposing ceremonies, Gov. Clinton and Gov. Morrow each took a spade and removed the first sod in a work which connected the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie. On July 21, Govs. Clinton and Morrow broke ground at Middletown for the Miami Canal.

In 1825, it became the pleasing duty of Gov. Morrow to welcome La Fay- ette, the nation's guest, to Ohio. La Fayette arrived at Cincinnati May 19, 1825, and his formal welcome to Ohio was truly a grand demonstration of popular enthusiasm, in which 50,000 grateful people participated. At mid- night, La Fayette embarked on the steamer Herald, for Wheeling, to which place Gov. Morrow accompanied him.

At the October election, succeeding his retirement from the office of Gov- ernor, he was unexpectedly elected State Senator from Warren County, to fill a vacancy. In accordance with his rule never to seek nor decline office, he ac- cepted the position, and the next winter occupied a seat in the Legislature. At the Presidential election of 1828, his name was placed at the head of the Adams electoral ticket in Ohio. In 1829, he and Thomas Corwin were elected Representatives, from Warren County, in the Legislature. Being a strong opponent of the policy of the administration of Gen. Jackson, Gov. Morrow represented his Congressional District in the National Republican Convention, which met in Baltimore Decmber 12, 1831, and nominated Henry Clay and John Sargent for President and Vice President; and the next year he headed the electoral ticket in Ohio for these men. The last Legislature in which he served was that of 1835-36. This Legislature granted the charter for the Little Miami Railroad, and, for several years following, he devoted much of his time to the enterprise of constructing this, the first railroad in the Miami Valley. He was from the beginning a leading spirit in the work, and the President of the company. Amid all the doubts, delays, discouragements and financial em- barrassments under which the road was constructed, his courage never gave way. On July 4, 1839, he laid the corner-stone of the Capitol at Columbus. The address he delivered on this occasion has been much admired.

In 1840, he was elected a Member of Congress, to succeed Hon. Thomas Corwin, resigned, and served three years. He was then seventy-two years old. "My old associates," he said, "are nearly all gone. I am acting with another generation. The courtesies which members formerly extended to one another, are, in a great measure, laid aside, and I feel I am in the way of younger men."

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He declined a re-election, and never consented to be a candidate for a public office again. He declined a seat in the Constitutional Convention, in 1850, saying that "he had assisted in framing one constitution, it was worn out, and he was worn out with it. The new one ought to be formed by those who would live under it." He continued, however, to serve as President of the Board of Trustees of Miami University. His interest continued in the church and in the school until the last. The winter before he died, old as he was, he traveled across the State to attend an educational convention.

His last days were passed in peaceful retirement, in a plain dwelling, on the bank of the Little Miami, not far from the spot where he had built his pioneer cabin. He retained the full possession of his mental faculties, and was able to use his extensive library or pour out in conversation the rich treasures of his memory, until his last brief illness. He died as he lived-a Christian; he was buried without ostentation, and in a country graveyard a plain tomb- stone, not larger nor costlier than those around it, marks his resting-place, bear- ing the simple inscription: "Jeremiah Morrow. Died March 22, 1852, aged 80 years 5 months and 16 days."

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 39

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081