USA > Ohio > Logan County > The historical review of Logan County, Ohio > Part 26
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I was sitting in my dreamings On the grassy river side, Ilearing once again the music Of the murmur of its tide,
While its fringe of flats and willows And the orchards fragrant bloom, Wooed my senses with their beauty. And the joy of their perfume.
Twas a morning, calm and peaceful With the magic of its hush. Broken only by the carols, Of the red-wing, and the thrush. While the sun came out. the crimson Of the eastern shy serene, Flushed the bosom of the valley With the glory of his sheen.
I was giving rein to fancy --- Dreaming back the joys of yore, With the cloud upon my spirit Of the haunt of nevermore: 1 was singing for the gladness Which the years had borne away Since 1 strayed along the river In the glory of the May.
COLONEL DONN PIATT.
Colonel Donn Piatt was born in Cin- cinnati, but came with his father to the Macachack when the Indians were still plentiful and were occupying large por- tions of this frontier. He was a young man of fine attainments having been for- tunate in his surroundings and liberally educated in the best schools of the time. He studied law and for a time devoted himself to that profession becoming by appointment a Judge upon the bench.
His inclinations, however, were literary rather than of a legal character, and for many years he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was for several years attache of the United States Legation in Paris, and at different times edited journals and magazines.
He resides in a beautiful home on the Macachack, where he delighted in receiv- ing his friends and where he entertained some of the most distinguished men of the country.
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He was a charming conversationist and a man of unquestioned literary ability.
The poem which we give has had a wide and extended publication and has bc- come as familiar to the reading and liter- ary public as any of the choicer gems in the language.
THE BLOOM WAS ON THE ALDER AND THE TASSEL ON THE CORN.
I heard the bob-white whistle, in the dewy breath of morn:
The bloom was on the alder and the tassel on the corn.
I stood with heating heart beside the babbling Mac-o-chet,
To see my love come down the glen, to keep her tryst with me.
I saw her pace, with quiet grace. the shaded path along.
And paused to pluck a flower, or hear the thrushes song.
Denied by her proud father as a suitor to be seen. She came to me. with loving trust, my gracious little queen.
Above my station, Heaven knows, that gentle maiden slone.
For she was belle and wide-beloved, and I a youth unknown.
The rich and great about her thronged, and sought on bended linee
For love this gracious princess gave with all her heart to me.
So like a startled fawn, before my longing eyes she stood,
With all the freshness of a girl in flush of womanhood,
I trembled as 1 put my arm about her form di- vine,
And stammered as, in awkward speech, I beg- ged her to be mine.
"Tis sweet to hear the pattering rain that bulls a dim-lit dream:
'Tis sweet to hear the song of birds, and sweet the rippling stream.
"Tis swert amid the mountain pine to hear the south wind sigh-
More sweet than these and all besides was the loving, low reply.
The little hand 1 held in mine, held all I had in life.
To mold its better destiny, and soothe to sleep its strife.
'Tis said that angels watch o'er men, commission- ed from above:
My angel walked with me on earth and gave to mie her love.
Ah! Dearest wife, my heart is stirred, my eyes are dimmed with tears:
1 think upon the loving faith of all these by- gone years;
For now we stand upon this spot, as in that dewey morn.
With the bloom upon the alder and the tassel on the corn.
JAMES WIHTCOMB RILEY.
Perhaps no man that ever handled a pen, or dipped it into the streams that flow under the leafy brarches that are over- hanging the shidy brooks, which are rip- pling and singing in the cloudless skies of June, ever so sweetly touched the heart and trembled on the lips of humanity as that Hoosier poet, who has told us the story of the loving home life, and the sweetly tender sympathie- which gather about the farm and the fireside. There is about him so much that appeals to all and which recalls the days of boyhood and girlhood and leaves us dreaming over again the happy days which are gone.
James Whitcomb Riley is an Indianian by birth and breeding, but he belongs now to humanity, and because he has delighted to spend some of his time on the Maca- chack and the Mad river. drinking in the beauties which nature has been spreading so bountifully along the banks of these streams, and has been finding in these old haunts of the Indian and the deer, rest and recreation while enjoying the hospitality of that prince of entertainers, Colonel Donn Piatt, at his castle of the Mac-o-
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chee. I co-Mored it appropriate to give a little poem from the pen of Riley.
. It was written just after his last visit to and shortly before the death of Colonel Piatt :
DONN PIATT OF MAC-O-CHEE.
Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee -- Not the one of history. Who with flaming tongue and pen Svathes the vanity of men: Not the one whose biting wit. Cuts pretense and etobes it. On the brazen brow that dares Filch the laurel that it wears; Not the Donn Piatt whose praise Echoes in the noisy ways Of the faction onward led By the statesman-but instead. Give the simple man to me. Dont Piatt of Mac-o-chee.
Donn Piatt of Mac-o- chee! Branches of the old oak tree. Drape him royally in fine Purple shade and golden shine. Emerald plush of sloping lawn Be the throne he sits upon : And Oh! Summer sunset, thou Be his crown and gild a brow Softly smoothed and soothed and calmed By the breezes. melow-palmed. As Eratas' white hand a gleam On the forehead of a dream: So forever, rule o'er me Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee.
Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee. Through a lilied memory Plays the wayward little creek 'Round your home at hide and seek; And I see and hear it still. Romping round the woodled hill, 'Till its laugh and babble blends With the silence, while it sends Glances back to kiss the sight In its babyish delight. Ere it strays amid the gloom. Of the glens that burst in bloom, Of the rarert rhyme for thee. Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee.
Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee' What a darling de tiny Has been mine! To mect him there- Lolling in an easy chair, On the terrace while he tok] Reminisciences of okl- Letting my cigar die out. Hearing poems talked about, And entranced to hear him say Gentle things of Thackeray. Dickens, Hawthorne and the rest. Known to him as hot and guest- Known to him as he to me, Donn Piatt of Mac-o-chee.
There are a number of others who have from time to time contributed to the poetic writings of the country from Logan county, but space does not permit me to present them all, and I have only chosen a few whose poems have become more than local and whose fames are national.
CHAPTER XX.
NEWSPAPERS-LOGAN COUNTY GAZETTE-BEILEFON- MAINE REPUBLICAN-WEST LIBERIY PAPERS-DE- GRAFF BUCKEYE-DE GRAFF JOURNAL-LAKEVIEW VANGUARD -- RU SIEYIVANIA RECORD-BELLE CINILE HERALD -- RURAL MAIL DELIVERY.
Perhaps there is nothing so difficult to hunt up and discover as records. The musty tomes upon which our grandfathers putt the pages of history are scattered and difficult to obtain, and when obtained are in many instances unsatisfactory and in- complete. It is equally true of the news- papers, themselves the record of the weekly occurrences of the former genera- tion, they are in many instances only tra-
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dition-, and we are compelled to gather to print off a hundred impressions in an hour.
our information from the scattering data to be found in the lore and legends of early times.
There has been so much of an ad- vancement in the publishing and news- gathering methods of a generation or two that it is curious to look over the old news- papers of fifty or sixty years ago and see what a wonderful change has taken place. and what progress has been made in this particular department of the printer and the new -gatherer.
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Sixty years ago the type was all set by hand, and the forms locked in the chases with wooden quoins. shooting-stick and wooden mallet and were carefully placed upon the bed of an old-fashioned Washington press.
The printer's devil. a boy just being initiated into the mysteries of fire-maker, office-sweeper, typesetter. printer and ed- itor. took a dauber covered with sheep- skin and putting it into the ink. carefully patted the type with it until they were all covered with ink, and then the pressman having placed the white sheet of paper in the frisket, folded and put it down on the type. with his good right arm and a swing peculiar to the trade. pulled the arm or handlebar of the press until it brought the weight of the platen down upon the type. and letting it fall back into its place again, lifted the paper from the type. and taking it off, laid it care- fully on the slowly increasing pile of printed sheets at his side.
This process only printed one side, and the same operation had to be gone through to print the other side. It was a slow and laborious business and required strength and muscle and good right arm
It was fortunate that the circulation of the papers was not large, and four or five hundred impressions were enough to fur- rish the subscribers their papers once a weck.
In the National Museum at Washing- ton is the old printing press which Benja- min Franklin used in getting out his paper in Philadelphia and which was but a rough model of the improved Franklin or Wash- ington press of a later date, and it serves to show the wondrous progress of little more than a century's growth.
When a boy I had a great fondness for these newspaper offices and frequently assisted the devil and helped the printer in running off his weekly edition when Wil- liam Blocher, Seth and Park Snyder and Thomas Hubbard were getting out the old Logan County Gazette.
What a marvelous change since then! Non the Hoe or Babcock presses, with their intricate machinery and wonderful speed, assisted by typesetting machines. after getting together the news from every section of the world and having it transferred from the type to the plates which fit the cylinders, editions inked in half a dozen different colors and printed on both sides at the same time, are thrown from the press into the receiver, folded. counted and ready for delivery at the rate of fifty thousand per hour. When com- pared with one of these old-fashioned Washington presses of the Gazette office it is like comparing the Conestoga wagon of our fathers with the locomotive. palace car and parlor coaches of the railroad trains of the present day.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
THE LOGAN COUNTY GAZETTE.
The Logan County Gazette was estab- lished in 1830 by David Robb. It soon thereafter passed into the hands of Iliram B. Strother. Strother was in his day the most astute political manipulator in the county. He was an ardent Whig and his paper was the monthpiece of that party. His manner was personal and confidential. and many stories are toll of his methods of wire pulling.
The death of William Penn Clark at his home in Washington City, on the 7th inst .. at the advanced age of eighty-six years, re- moved the last surviving editor of the old Logan County Gazette, and so much has been printed in the newspapers of the coun- try in regard to Mr. Clark and his connec- tion with the Gazette, that we think it ap- propriate at this time to publish the authentic history of the Gazette, written by the late William Hubbard, and published by him in the last issue before the paper passed into the hands of William II. West & Company. October 20. 1854. His connection with the Gazette as printer's apprentice, editor, pub- lisher and proprietor and his personal ac- quaintance with its founder and all who suc- ceeded him, enabled Mr. Hubbard to give what is perhaps the only correct history of the paper. It is as follows :
"By a resolution of the Editorial Con- vention assembled last winter in Cincinnati -the editors of Ohio were requested to fur- nish the Secretary, Mr. Coggeshall, with a brief history of their respective journals. As the present number terminates our ed- itorial career, and extinguishes even the name of the Gazette. the time is appropriate for the publication of our little sketch.
der the name of the Bellefontaine Repub- lican, by David Robb. Sr., now a resident of Union county, in this state. It supported the administration of General Jackson. Vi- ter a brief period, it was purchased by I. B. Strother. still of this place, and Thomas M. Robb. now one of the editors of the Argus, published in Lima, Ohio, by whom the title was changed to The Gazette. Mr. Robb. after a connection of a few months, retired. and Mr. Strother became sole editor and pro- prietor. The presidential election of 1832 was now imminent, and Mr. Strother gave to Henry Clay not only the efficient aid of his paper, but also wielded. in the same le- half, a personal influence which few men in this region of the country have ever at- tained.
To these causes are attributable, in a very great degree. the decided and long-con- tinned ascendeney of Whigism in Logan county. In 1835 Robert R. Stuart. now, we believe, in Indianapolis, Ind., became a part- ner of Mr. Strother, but the association was brief and Mr. Stuart retired, leaving Mr. Strother again sole proprietor.
It was about this period that the Ga- zette suggested General Harrison as the Whig candidat> for president in 1836, and thereby won the honor of first nominating the candidate whose popularity, in after time, swept the land with the overwhelming force of a tornado.
Up to this time the Gazette was of superroyal size, (about one-third its present dimensions ) was printed on a ramage press. A new iron press was now obtained, and some long primer type, and the sheet was enlarged to an imperial. (six columns to the page). A slight change was also made in the title. Brand new German text letters
This paper was established in 1830, un- were obtained, and the Gazette was ushered
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HISTORIC.IL REVIENT OF LOGAN COUNTY.
into the world as the Bellefontaine. (Ohio) Gazette, and Logan County Advertiser. To our oll friend. Nicholas Sullivan, of Dayton, then a journeyman in the office, he- longs the doubtful honor of changing its designation. The elongation and interpola- tion were indispensible, as he imagined. to typographical beauty.
In the Fall of 1839. Mr. Strother retired finally from the Gazette. For a few months Benjamin Stanton. in intervals of profes- sional leisure, contributed many articles to its editorial columns.
Early in the spring of 1840. William Penn Clark, now a distinguished lawyer of Iowa City, purchased the establishment. By him the name was changed- the new style being The Logan Gazette. Mr. Clark. as a writer was possessed of a good deal of vigor, and a great deal of audacity. Ile fought the campaigns of 1840 bravely and well. In the spring of 1844 he disposed of the establishment to Dr. C. B. Large.
Dr. Large conducted the paper until de- clning years compelled a sale, when the of- fice was purchased in the spring of . 1845 by William Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence edited . the paper with distinguished ability for a few months. until increasing professional duties compelled him to abandon it. The writer hereof was engaged as editor and subsequently as publisher, under the pro- prietorship of Mr. Lawrence, until Septem- ber, 1847. By the kindness and liberal in- dulgence of Mr. Lawrence, we were then able to purchase the establishment. We immediately took Mr. Thomas Hubbard in partnership, and from that time to the pres- ent last issue of the Gazette, it has been pub- lished under the name of Hubbard and Brother.
William IT. West and Company changed the name of the paper to The Bellefontaine Republican, and in March, 1855. sold the office back to Hubbard and Brother, who re- sumed the publication of the Legan Gazette until 1863. In 1866 Thomas Hubbard re- vived the Gazette and published it until 1860. when he & ll it to Wm. P. Cotter, but in a short time he took the paper back. changing the name to The Bellefontaine Ex- aminer. Thomas Hubbard published the Weekly Examiner until his death in April last.
The Daily Examiner was established in . connection with the Weekly Examiner in 1800."
It is curious to look over the old issues of The Gazette, serupulously neat in its printing and type-setting, but without illus- tration or display of any kind.
The merchant's advertisements were set up about in the style that sheriff's sales are today, and with about as much display. The most important items of news and most startling events, are simply announced with a single head-line in the same style as the most unimportant event was placed on rec- ord. It was evidently a day when sensation- al newspapers were not in vogue and yellow journals were not known ; and is in strange contract with the newspapers of this day and generation, when the most unimportant events are heralded with a display of head- lines that would do honor to an old-time circus poster.
THE PEOPLE'S PALLADIUM AND ADVERTISER.
In the year 1836 the Rev. Arthur Crif- field began the publication of a newspaper in West Middleburg called the People's Pal- ladium and Advertiser.
Criffield did all the work, set all the type.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
daubed the ink, printed the paper, and edited it. It was intended for circulation in the counties of Union. Allen, Logan and Har- din.
The subscription price of the Palladium was two dollars per year in advance: two dollars and fifty cents if not paid within six months, and three dollars if not paid until the end of the year.
West Middleburg was at that day as good a business town as Bellefontaine, and was quite a thriving and promising village. containing some half a dozen stores and two +hotels.
Shortly after Criffield changed the name of the paper to the Heretie Detector.
"Detectors" were such useful articles in those days when shin-plasters, rag money. and wild-cat issues prevailed. that Criffield probably got his name and mspiration from that source; at any rate it was not long until he moved his type and press to Cincin- nati, and there continued the issue of the Detector.
THE DEMOCRATIC CLUB.
In 1840, R. B. Warden, then a young man, came from Cincinnati to West Lil :- erty and established a Democratic piper called The Democratic Club. It was printed on a ramage press, and as the press was too small to print all of one side at a time it re- quired four impressions to print the entire paper.
Warden has an assistant and co-laborer. Donn Piatt. then a young man of some eighteen or twenty.
The Club proved a financial failure, and finally suspended. Warden afterwards be- came quite prominent in the politics of the state.
THE BELLEFONTAINE REPUB: ICAN
The transfer of the Logan County Ga- zette from the Whig to the Democrats column came at a time when the political parties were going through the experi- ence of a marked and substantial change of policies.
The old Whig party, which had been the conservative and moderate party with- outt any aggressiveness upon the question of human slavery, and content to let it re- main, so long as it did not disturb the business and financial affairs of the coun- try, had been losing its hold upon the more progressive men who had positive opinions and convictions upon the ques tion of slavery, and who were impatient at the co tinuance of the incubus which was bringing the nation into disrepute, and were restless under the continued aggres- siveness of the slave power of the South.
This wis again emphasized when the fugitive slave law attempted to turn every northern man into a bloodhound and put him upon the track of the flying fugitive that he might be returned to bondage.
The old-time abolitionists who had lived in an atmosphere of disrepute for so many years, became more tolerable and the free sollers, who believed that every acre of this territory had been dedicated by a higher law to liberty and humanity. began to assert themselves and to be ag- gressive and independent. The attempted occupation of the new territories of the West by the slave power instead of gain- ing for slavery an ascendency, only pro- voked the opponents of slavery to more determined opposition.
The burning words of Philips, Garri- son and Lowell in the East and the won-
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drous speeches of Crittenden. Corwin and stands before the law in the full measure and the perfect stature of a freeman.
Lincoln in the West had brought about a new order of things, and from chaos and disorder came the new party organization which was in after time to become the
So successful had been its gathering together of forces, and so promising its fun- ture, that although defeated in the eles- tions of '56. there was an enthusiasm everywhere manifest that presaged a final victory.
In these conventions some of our Lo- gan county citize is were prominent. and William H. West. James Walker, William Lawrence. Benjamin Stanton, Anthony Casad. William G. Ke: nedy. Robert Can- by. Abner Riddle. Nathaniel Knox. Ed- ward Patterson and many others were conspicuous and enrolled themselves in the ranks of the new Republican party.
Then followed the great campaign of Lincoln and Douglass in Hlitois in 1858. and the leaven which had been working since the campaign of 1856. raised up as the leader of the Republican party. that wonderful embodiment of human wisdom and justice. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.
Since that day a wondrous growth and development has enveloped the whole count- try; the mighty conflict of arms which drenched the land with blood and covered it with glory: the sweeping away of every vestige of human slavery, the final triumph of the doctrine of equal and exact justice to all men, and a nation where every man
It was in such times as these that the Bellefontaine Republican was brought forth to be the champion of the new doc- most powerful and commanding the coun- . trine of universal liberty, and William H. try had ever known ; and in 1856 the first convention of that party formed its perma- neut organization in the city of Philadel- phia and nominated for its leader Jolen C. Fremont. of California, and entered the contest.
West. James Walker and Lemuel S. Pow- ell were its founders. Since that day the despised abolitionists and the doubtful free sollers have been vindicated. and not only the great West. but the whole country has been redeemed and dedicated forever to human Herty.
The first issue of the Republican was in 1854. and it was the out-spoken defender of the new faith. It passed from time to time into other editorial hands: L. D. Reynolds succeeded to its ownership and control dur- ing the campaign of 1800, and was vigorous ail aggressive in the cause of the party; David R. Locks succeeded and gained a name and fame as Petrolion V. Nashy.
Samuel T. Walker soon thereafter be- came owner and proprietor and remained in control until after the war, when it passed into the hands of J. Q. A. Campbell, who has since been its proprietor.
THE INDEX.
The Logan county Index was originally the Bellefontaine Press.
It was first established in West Liberty as the West Liberty Press by W. H. Grib- ble and Donn Piatt, and was afterwards re- moved by Gribble to Bellefontaine, and its name changed to the Bellefontaine Press.
After editing the paper for some time Gril.ble disposed of the paper to P. S. Hoop- er. who became editor and proprietor and for sine three or four years conducted it with marked ability.
He afterwards disposed of his interest
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in the paper to Martin Barringer, who at that time was proprietor of a job print- ing office in Bellefontaine. Barringer con- ducted it for a short time and having secured an appointment in the Government Printing Office at Washington, sold the paper to J. H. Fluhart, who became its sole proprietor.
Fluhart changed its name to the Logan County Index, and continued the publication of it in the second story of the old Belle- fontaine National Bank building.
Fluhart disposed of the paper to J. H. Bowman and Bowman in 1870 soll a hali interest to W. S. Roebuck, and the office was removed in 1882 to the Opera block.
In 1885 Mr. J. C. Brand bought the in- terest of Mr. Bowman and the paper went into the possession of Roebac! and Brand.
In 1804 the paper was incorporated under the Ohio laws as the Index Printing and Publishing Company and still contimes its publication. It has grown with the growth of the county and its business has been greatly enlarged and extended. It has the most complete printing plant in the county and its county circulation is three or four times as great as that of any other paper in the county.
WEST LIBERTY PAPERS.
The list of West Liberty newspapers is too long to give them in detail with a his- torical review. They broke out now and then like the measles, and went out, leav- ing behind only the memory of their hay- ing lived.
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