The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc, Part 31

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 926

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc > Part 31

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And we know that the latch-string will never have its end in. On the fourth day of March, Old Tip will move in it,

And then little Martin will have to shin it ; So burrah, boys, there's no two ways in

The fun we'll have at Old Tippecanoe's raisin'. Then hurrah ! hurrah ! for Harrison and Tyler, A nice log cabin and a barrel of hard cider.

The Democracy endeavored to meet the political storm by similar means ; but the ball was rolling on for " Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and the enthusiasm aroused, expired with the effort. John Brough, William Allen, John B. Weller, Wilson Shannon, Richard M. Johnson and Samuel Medary were the champions of the administration, and, at different times, discussed the situation in Cham- paign. Alfred Kelly, Thomas Corwin, Samson Mason and Thomas Ewing represented the opposition. Conventions and barbecues were held frequently, and always well attended. Newspapers published the names of former Demo- crats who

" Came out from among the foul party, To vote for old Tippecanoe."

Applause attended the man who deserted his former colors. Men rode in the log cabins hauled in processions, wearing their coats wrong side out. " Strike my name from the Nottingham list" headed the column of turn-coats in the newspapers. The women everywhere entered into the canvass with the same enthusiasm as the men, frequently joining in the dusty procession. Tables were placed on the sidewalks, covered with cold ham, beef, chickens and bread.

Hotels were insufficient to accommodate the throngs of strangers, and com- mittees quartered all who applied for accommodations on private citizens. In this way Dayton twice entertained an uncounted multitude, variously estimated at from one hundred and eighty thousand to three hundred thousand men. Badges, made of red or crimson silk, three by four inches in size, with the design of a spread eagle and Harrison and Tyler, were generally worn. It was a national holiday.

Champaign, with other counties of the State, had its grand convention and barbecue. The largest, perhaps, ever held in the county was on September 15, 1840. Delegations commenced coming in early in the morning-from the

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north, out of Logan, Hardin, etc .; from the east, from Union, Franklin and Madison ; from the south, from Clark, Greene and Montgomery. A delega- tion met Harrison, escorted from the west with an immense cavalcade, miles in extent. A platform had been erected on the public square, which, with every avenue leading to it, and every window and house-top within sight, was filled with eager spectators.

Gen. Harrison was introduced by Moses B. Corwin, in a very short speech, which was responded to in a speech of two hours' length, in a voice not loud nor strong, but clear and distinct, in which he reviewed the attack made on him as a soldier and man, the condition of the country and the public policy of the administration. The delivery and substance of the speech gave general satis- faction, though the age of the General was such that his best days were past. The crowd was too large to hear what was said in the square, and stands for other speakers were erected. Dinner was had in the grove of Mr. John A. Ward, in the southwestern part of town, where twelve tables, each over three hundred feet long, had been erected and laden with provisions. Oxen and" sheep were barbecued, and an abundance of cider supplied the drink for the day. In the evening, addresses were made by Arthur Elliott, Ex-Gov. Met- calf, of Kentucky, who wore a buckskin hunting-shirt, Mr. Chambers, from Kentucky, Mr. Christie, from Louisiana, and Richard Douglass, of Chillicothe. The day was one of great hilarity and excitement, and passed off without a sin- gle accident. The delegations and processions had every conceivable mode of conveyance, and carried flags and emblems with various and strange mottoes and devices. Among them was one, " The people is oll korrect," which gave rise to the use of the letters " O. K.," not uncommon at this day.

1880 .- In the electoral vote of 1840, out of two hundred and sixty-four votes Van Buren received only sixty. From so triumphant a victory, the jubilant Whigs were destined to ignoble defeat and ultimate annihilation. As the years ran on, the moral sense of the States, in which slavery did not exist, increased and gave efficient aid and comfort to the Abolition, or " Liberal," party. Mul- titudes who cared nothing about slavery became alarmed at the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the claims of slavery on free territory.' The passage of the Fugitive Slave law exasperated thousands who cared naught for the negro or his master, or the political question involved in the controversy. The con- test between the parties was a fight for place and power, and in the struggle a new party came into power, and, to a great extent, new men manned the ship of state. For twenty years the Republican party controlled the public affairs. Under its administration, slavery was not only abolished, but the former slave was made a citizen, with all the rights and privileges before the law, as his former master, and which was made part of the fundamental law of the nation. In June, 1880, a National Convention of the Republican party was held in Chicago, composed of delegates representing Congressional districts and chosen. by State Conventions. The Chicago Convention was divided between Ex-Pres- ident Grant, James G. Blaine, John Sherman, Senator Edmonds and a few scattering votes. On the thirty-fifth ballot James A. Garfield's name was an- nounced, and on the thirty-sixth he was declared the nominee.

In the same month, a National Democratic Convention assembled in Cincin- nati and nominated W. S. Hancock for the same office. Both conventions issued a platform of principles, each abounding in professions of loyalty to the Constitution, country and laws. The Democratic platform pledged the De- mocracy to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party as

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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

illustrated by the teachings and examples of a long line of Democratic states- men and patriots. In the presentation of twelve resolutions are averred oppo- sition " to centralization " of powers ; an advocacy of " home rule," and "a tariff for revenue only ;" " congratulate the country upon the continuation of pros- perity at home and the national honor abroad, through a Democratic Congress, and upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the Government as shall insure a genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service."

" The Republican platform appeals to the history and acts of the party it has represented during the past twenty years, and asks the continued confidence and support of the people; and charges on the Democratic party the habitual sacri- fice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and pat- ronage."

The canvass for the respective candidates opened in August, and during the month of September a meeting to be addressed by political speakers was held in some portion of the county nearly every night. Each of the parties erected on Miami street, below Monument Square, on nearly opposite sides of the street, board structures at considerable expense, capable of containing six hundred to one thousand persons each. They were lighted by gas, and the walls were decorated with transparencies, mottoes, flags, rude portraits and ever- green boughs. Both parties were equally sanguine of success. During the campaign the Democracy charged that if the party in power should win, the result would give the sanction to corruption, encourage centralization of power in the hands of the Federal Government, destroy the right of independent State action and introduce an era of despotism. The Republicans, on the other hand, charged that if the Democracy should win, the result would be repudi- ation of the National debt; the recognition of the right of persons lately in rebellion to payment from the Government for property lost or destroyed dur- ing the civil war, including the valuation of the slaves set free; the disfranchise- ment of the colored race; the sanction of nullification ; the issue of which will be a dissolution of the Union, with anarchy or despotism.

The patriotism of the people outside the late slave-holding States cannot be questioned, and the sincerity of the opinions entertained by the members of both parties, both as to the good to be attained by the adoption of the princi- ples they advocate and the evils which will follow if the policy of the opposing party shall prevail, is also equally true. Each party suspects in the other the greed and lust of power and patronage, and imagines, on the part of the oppos- ing faction, no villainy too great to secure its ends. A calm and deliberate judgment sees only the sincerity of purpose and the earnestness of conviction on questions of public policy, which are believed to be essential to the peace, prosperity and perpetuity of the Republic. To this sincerity of opinion is due the personality and bitterness of the controversy. Truth has nothing to fear so long as a public press is left free to combat and expose error. A mistake now would be a virtual recognition of the failure of the public-school system.

The canvass of 1880 differs from that of 1840 in this: Notwithstanding the vastly greater facilities for travel, the conventions of to-day do not compare with the immense assemblages which met in 1840 ; then it was a national holi- day and jubilee, and the tidal billow that swept over the country did away with partisan bitterness. In 1880, evening parades with torches, and the discharge of rockets and Roman candles, take the place of the day processions of 1840, and there is an under-current of bitterness and hostility.

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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

The machinery of party politics has also changed. In 1800 there was none ; political opinions were no less decided than now, but the work of nominating candidates and discussing their merits were personal matters. As population increased, changes were made.

In 1840, conventions of the people were in order. A mass meeting elected a central committee, who had a general supervision of all matters appertaining to the county canvass.

In 1880, the machinery was more complicated, but less liable to con- trol. A central committee, composed of representatives from the several townships, have a general supervision of the affairs of the party within the county or district, the local representatives having charge of the work in their respective precincts. Meetings are called by the central committee in each township and precinct for the election of delegates, in the ratio of the number of votes cast at the previous election for Secretary of State. The representa- tives thus chosen attend a general convention of delegates called by the same committee, when nominations are made and ballotings had for candidates for various offices, the entire proceedings being conducted in accordance with the usual parliamentary laws. It is understood and agreed, that all persons whose names are presented for the votes of the convention for any office will accept the result of the vote in good faith and support the nominee. And the suc- cessful candidates are taxed by the committee, in the ratio of the salaries of their respective offices, for the expenses of the campaign. Both the leading parties pursue substantially the same modes of political management.

From the division of the National Republican party into Democrats and Whigs, the majority of the electors of Champaign County were identified with the name and policy of the Whig party, until 1856, when old questions, as- suming new shapes and importance, and new men, made sectional issues. These gave rise to the Republican party, and for twenty years a majority of the citi- zens of the county have supported the principles and policy of this party.

Early Settlers .- In other portions of this work, embracing the local history and incidents of the county, will be found the names of the men who at an early day came to this section and took an active part in laying the foundation for a new order of things. The condition of the country and the sparse popu- lation, exacted of each one, however humble or illy prepared, efficient service in the work to be done. This was not limited to promptness in a defense against a common enemy, but in an interest in the common welfare and a friendly aid in assisting poor and sick neighbors and emigrants. Poverty was not only no bar to considerate regard, but was one of the strongest incentives to insure a general interest. The newly-arrived emigrant brought together an entire neigh- borhood to assist in preparing the family a home, and before the day had closed the cabin would be ready for occupancy. Advice and material help were given as circumstances demanded, and the new comer felt bound to repay the debt by reciprocal kindness and good deeds. The same spirit continued to be a charac- teristic of the men of that generation under changed circumstances. He who would be insensible to such treatment, or hesitate to fall in with the prevailing current, must be a bad man. With all the mutual help and good will, there was still among the earliest settlers much deprivation. As the country became opened up and more populous, the discomforts were greatly removed. But we are surprised that these men were willing to endure the cares, hardships and dangers from which there was no escape, except to retrace their steps to the older and long-settled sections of the country. To this, it may be replied, that

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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

familiarity with danger and deprivation of what are now called necessaries, became a second nature, and they had faith in the future. But, more than all, they felt free and independent. Many of them had come from sections where wealth had drawn social lines not to be passed over; and there was a servitude and a caste galling to men who looked for better things. We need not be sur- prised, then, to find that a large majority of the men who for these reasons braved the wilderness, were not ordinary men. The true men counted the cost and never "bated jot of heart or hope," and in the struggle developed the manly character with which they were endowed by nature. There were undoubtedly men of " bad blood " among them. But we can readily believe they were the exception.

We are also surprised at the fact that these men were not mere adventurers, untrained to habits of industry, but, for the most part, were skilled in the me- chanical trades. The country at first presented no opportunity for the exercise of their trained skill, and they were of necessity agriculturists, but engaging in their several occupations as the development of the country gave occasion. Without, therefore, indulging in a long list of names of worthy men and women who made their impress on the country, but whose influences were of a local nature, it may not be inappropriate to mention something of a few who became more widely known or who for many years occupied a prominent position in the State.

JOSEPH VANCE.

Gov. Vance's ancestors were Irish Protestants, or what were commonly called Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who settled in the colony of Virginia long prior to the Revolution. His father served in Capt. Vail's company, in Mor- gan's famous rifle regiment. Joseph Vance was born in Washington, Penn., near an Indian town called " Catfish," March 21, 1786. His father moved to Maysville, Ky., thence to Clifton, in Greene Co., Ohio, and in 1805, to Urbana, where he died in August, 1809. Joseph was married when twenty-one years of age, and at once took an active part in matters of public concern. For some years prior to, and during the war of 1812, fears were entertained of hostilities from the Indians, and, to meet these dangers, Mr. Vance was active in organiz- ing an independent rifle company, composed of some of the best marksmen of the county, to act as minute-men as occasion might require. He was chosen Captain of the company, and on several occasions was called out and rendered efficient service ; in addition to other duties, erecting a block-house for the safety of the inhabitants in the exposed quarter. He afterward passed through the several grades of Major, Colonel, Brigadier and Major General. Was member of the State Legislature in 1812 ; served as Representative in Congress, from 1820 to 1836, and again in 1843; Governor in 1837, and member of Ohio Senate in 1839. His last public service was as member of the Convention of 1851, to revise the Constitution of the State. After the convention had been in session several days, he had a severe attack of paralysis, from the effects of which he never entirely recovered, and died the following year on his farm in Salem Township, two miles north of Urbana.

Like all the men of note of that day, he was " the architect of his own for- tune," commencing business in life when a mere boy as a wood-chopper at the salt works, and by his economy saving money enough to buy a wagon and ox- team, with which he hauled and distributed salt to the scattered settlers in Ken- tucky, and even after his settlement in Urbana making occasional trips to the

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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

salt works. It was here where he formed the acquaintance of Thomas Ewing, and an intimacy that continued through life. Under such circumstances, his educational opportunities were exceedingly limited.

It is no place here to speak of his public services as a legislator. His long time in the public service is sufficient assurance of his natural ability, and the satisfactory manner in which he discharged the trusts committed to his hands at a time when political parties were critical and plans to secure elections were not reduced to a science. His long public career brought him in contact with the first men of the nation, and necessarily largely increased his general knowl- edge and remedied the defects of his early education. In politics, he was a Whig of the Henry Clay school, and a zealous advocate of public improve- ments.

In 1827, he advocated the repair and extension of the National road, then called the Cumberland road, through Ohio and other States of the West, and, in a speech in Congress in support of a bill before the House, made some hard thrusts at the advocates of State rights. It was a time when the " Code " settled such matters, attacks in the House being satisfied in the field. But it was understood not only that the General would fight, but that he was a dead shot with a rifle, and nothing more was said about fighting.

Gov. Vance was about five feet ten inches in height, with a large frame, inclined to corpulency. He had a large head and forehead, and a strongly marked face. The eyebrows were heavy, and the right eye nearly closed, as though pained by the sunlight. He always wore a standing shirt collar, loose around the neck and not always square with his chin, and a black silk cravat or a neckerchief tied with a small bow-knot. At home and among his neighbors, he was partial to a blouse and jeans pantaloons, and had a great dislike to the fashionable cut of the latter. In his public life, he wore, according to the cus- tom of that day, the conventional suit of black cloth.

To young men with whom he met, he was pleasant and talkative, and had a happy faculty of describing scenes of public life he had witnessed and the public men he had met, talking in an easy, conversational way of the every-day life not often found in the books and papers.

As a speaker, he had a strong, rich voice, speaking with great earnestness and force, and without the arts of the practiced debater, and in the heat of the discussion apt to indulge in amargument ad hominem.

He not only gave his vote and influence in favor of works of public improve- ment, but was interested in the private enterprises which contributed to the general good. He was President of the Mad River & Lake Erie (now the C. S. & C.) Railroad. In 1818, he built a mill on King's Creek, a short distance above the junction with Mad River, with all the improvements in milling in use at that day. The patterns for the castings were made on the farm, and the castings hauled by wagon from McArthur's furnace, on Raccoon Creek. He was one of the first men in the county to import thoroughbred stock-cattle and horses-into this section.

PIERRE DUGAN.

We are not aware that the name that heads this sketch ever did anything to make the world wiser or better, and his title to being " handed down to pos- terity " is the simple fact that he lived near the head of the prairie that winds through Salem and Union Townships, which in that day was, at certain sea- sons, a succession of ponds or lakes, where he trapped and fished, and which, for this reason, bears his name.

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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

It is not known certainly who was the first white man that lived in Salem, or where the first cabin was built, but it is generally accepted that Dugan is en- ' titled to the " honor." Pierre Dugan was a Canadian Frenchman, who had an Indian squaw for his wife, and in 1803 was living in a cabin near the resi- dence of Mr. Mark Higbee, not far from the junction of the railway track with the main road, about four miles northeast of Urbana. Dugan was a sim- ple, inoffensive man, who employed his time in fishing, hunting and trapping, for which his location at the head of the prairie gave him unusual facilities. At that time, and for many years afterward, with the exception of here and there an island, it was covered with water, in some parts to a considerable depth. In spring and summer it had the appearance of a lake, winding around the projections of land, interspersed with elevated spots of timber, and ex- tending miles toward the south. To-day, the prairie presents as fine a body of alluvial and black soil as may be found anywhere, and a large portion of it under the plow. The traveler, looking down from any of the hills which skirt its sides, sees stretched out before him, as far as the eye can reach, or bounded only by a jutting piece of timber, a beautiful landscape, dotted with farmhouses and orchards and checkered with fields of golden corn, instinctively says there was the bed of a once mighty river. Great bowlders lie along its channel, seamed and washed in fissures by the once moving waters, and a mountain of sand, now covered with great oaks and hickories, attest the eddy that swept around its base. Sloping banks of clay and beds of marl confirm the conject- ure. But conjecture is lost in the time when this bed was a majestic stream. If the supposition be true, King's Creek, breaking away to the west, and Buck Creek, bearing off on the south, alone indicate the diminished current. Here a vast amount of fish, frogs and turtles were to be found, and countless num- bers of water-fowl made it their resort, and the beaver, otter, mink and musk- rat had their houses near the margin of the lake. It was a terrestrial paradise for a man like Dugan. "In very dry summers, water on the prairie would get so low that some parts would become entirely dry, and leave large quantities of fish exposed, which would be devoured by the hogs, wild beasts and fowls, or left to rot in the hot sun, causing an intolerable stench and much sickness for miles around."

In 1825, the Legislature passed an act authorizing John Reynolds, of Ur- bana, to drain the prairie, which he accomplished in a short time at a heavy ex- pense. The ditch begins not far from the boundary line of Urbana, Salem and Union Townships, on the land owned by Joseph Reynolds and more recently by Judge Warnock, thence northwardly, making a wide circuit and washing past the railway stations and depots in Urbana. The ditch not only drained a large extent of country, but has been a blessing to the entire neighborhood through which it passes in removing prolific sources of disease. The ditch for a long time was called the Reynolds Ditch. The lower portion of Dugan, within the past ten years, has been drained by a ditch beginning not many rods from the head of the Reynolds Ditch, thence running south into the waters of Buck Creek. As the waters were removed, the wild grass grew luxuriantly, still furnishing shelter for deer and turkey, and the undrained ponds a resort for wild geese and ducks. It was customary for farmers of the neighborhood to cut the wild grass for hay, though coarse and not very nutritious. Black and prairie rattlesnakes were very numerous. An old settler, who lived in the cabin on the hill, three-fourths of a mile northeast of the crossing of the Mil- ford pike and Ludlow, east of William Madden's residence, according to his

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own report, went out one morning to cut a pile of hay, not far from a clump of trees opposite his cabin, in the midst of the prairie. His grass hook happened to be a sharp butcherknife, and after cutting what he supposed would make a good-sized haycock, he proceeded to gather it up in a pile, and was surprised to find thirty-seven heads of rattlesnakes, which he had cut off while cut- ting the grass ! Prairie rattlers are abundant in that locality still, and the serious manner in which the statement is made removes the last vestige of doubt as to the truth of the story. The same party also told of a trip down the prairie one morning, when a thunder-storm came up before he could reach home, and he took shelter beneath a tree. While there, he saw a squirrel on the highest branch of a tree near by, coming down to its nest in a knot-hole, when at the same instant the lightning struck the tree. He had never before. supposed that a squirrel could climb so fast, and for a moment he thought the squirrel would escape; but the lightning was too quick for him, for before he could pull his tail in the hole, the lightning, in passing down the tree, cut it. off ! A volume would hardly contain the stories of the early history of Dugan, and, though marvelous and strange, quite as truthful as the foregoing. A young man named Rohrer, who was much interested in the stories and advent- ures of the Western hunters and trappers, spent a night at his cabin. There happened to be an old crony present, and the old hunters sat up till midnight, recounting their adventures in hunting bears and other animals. Rohrer en- joyed the stories as much as the old hunters, and closed the talk by saying he had just bought a book containing many anecdotes of hunting and trapping bears, in which he had been much interested; but after hearing their marvel- ous adventures and accounts of the animal, he was satisfied that the author knew nothing about bears, and as soon as he got home he intended to burn the book !

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The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc, Part 31

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 926

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 926