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 33
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After the cloth had been removed, the following toasts were drank :
1. Perpetuity to our Republic and its institutions ; immortal honors to Washington and Franklin.
2. Ohio, when her native beauties shall have received the polish of art, her fairest sister may well dread the rivalry of her charms.
3. The memory of the great compatriots, Adams and Jefferson. The nation they honored when living mourns them dead.
4. The President and Administration-like those who judge of its acts, the American people, intelligent and virtuous.
5. Our much-esteemed fellow citizen, James Cooley.
Mr. Cooley arose, and in an impressive manner said : " That the very flat- tering testimonial of the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, and the more flattering distinction in the sentiment given, demand and have his heart- felt acknowledgment. If he had been so fortunate as to acquire their confidence and in his endeavors faithfully to discharge his public duties, he had met their approbation-the measure of his reward was ample. Coming together from distant and various parts of the country and, in many instances, remote parts of the world, bringing different habits, feelings and tastes, it was natural that different and discordant opinions should be entertained on many subjects, but on one, at least, all united-a devoted attachment to our common country, the prin- ciples of her government and a sincere zeal for the prosperity of the State."
He then spoke of the encouragement and support he had received during a residence of eleven years in Urbana, and the prosperity he had from their ap- probation and aid ; that going to a new and untried field of labor, he knew their best wishes would go with him, and diminish the embarrassments incident to the occasion, and that in the discharge of its duties he would hold an earnest desire to promote the best interests of the country. That, though he then bade them farewell, it was with the hope that he again might be permitted to return to tread the fertile fields of Ohio, when her system of internal improvement shall be completed, her commerce giving life to the industry of her citizens, her system of education established and a solid foundation laid for the development of the resources of the State. And concluded with offering the following sentiment :
The Mad River Country : its generous, patriotic and enterprising population; health and continued prosperity attend them.
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The Mad River Courant adds : "The company dispersed with marked feelings of regret that so valued and esteemed a citizen is about to leave us for an undefined period of time-perhaps forever. In the evening a party numer- ously attended was given in honor of Mrs. Cooley. Arrangements are made to leave on Monday next, and if the virtues of a good and upright man, with the best wishes of many friends and acquaintances can secure him health, hap- piness and prosperity, he will be sure of those blessings."
Mr. Cooley left at the time proposed, reached his destination safely, and dur- ing a period of about fifteen months successfully prosecuted the duties of his mission and made troops of friends.
On the 19th of April, 1828, he had a violent bilious attack, which, from the beginning, he thought would terminate fatally, and on Sunday, the 24th, he died.
A letter from Stanhope Prevost, dated Lima, March 1, 1828, addressed to Henry Clay, then Secretary of State of the United States, after announcing the death of Mr. Cooley, goes on to say : "The body was removed to Callao, on the morning of the following day, in a carriage-and-four, accompanied by the Ministers of Foreign Relations and War of the Peruvian Government, and the aids of His Excellency, the President, with a suitable escort, an immense train of carriages and attendants on horseback, comprising the American merchants of the place, who, together with myself, appeared as chief mourners, and all the foreign residents of every nation, as well as many native citizens and officers. At about 2 P. M., the procession reached Callao, when the body was immediately embarked in a boat of the Brandywine frigate accompanied by the Captain and pall bearers. Next followed a boat with the before-mentioned members of the Government and the chief mourners, afterward, in their respective barges, Adm. Guise, Com. Jones, the British commanders and Vice Consul, Capt. Finch, a most numerous and respectable attendance of officers and citizens. The line of boats, occupying about two miles, moved toward the island of San Lorenzo, minute guns being fired by several men-of-war in the harbor. As the body passed, the English commencing, and, in succession, the French, Peru- vian and American, which latter continued until the interment had taken place. On the return of the boats, as the members of the Peruvian Government, who had been in attendance, passed the Brandywine, Com. Jones displayed the Peruvian flag at his fore and fired a salute of seventeen guns, which being answered by the Admiral's ship, closed the ceremony of the day."
" Mr. Cooley bore his illness, which from the commencement he appeared to conceive as likely to be fatal, with the serenity and spirit of a man and Chris- tian. As such he died, as deeply regretted as he had been esteemed and re- spected. His modest and correct deportment, his superior sense and talents, set off by an unexampled mildness and moderation of character, had procured him universal esteem, as was testified in the most sincere manner by the deep sorrow evinced at his loss."
ISRAEL HAMILTON.
The subject of this sketch came to Urbana in 1828, when about thirty years of age. He was born in Massachusetts, was educated at Brown University, then taught school several years in Abbeville, S. C. In the mean time, studied law, and, having been admitted to practice, sought a location in the then West. Discouraged and despondent, poor, without employment and no friends, Judge John Taylor revived his energies by suggesting that Urbana presented as
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good opportunities for success as any other place, and he at once opened an office in a little room on the north side of a frame building on the corner of the square, where McDonald & Rock's store now is. His professional life is simply the counterpart of all men who have brains, resolution, endurance and economy. He was always found in his office, made himself master of the cases placed in his hands, and attended to his business faithfully. The few friends who at the first gave him encouragement, spoke of him as the rising young lawyer, and success, in a few years, thronged him with clients.
The first office to which we find he was elected was that of Fence Viewer, in 1832. We are apt to suspect the office to have been a very humble one, and the election to it an indignity. But then caucuses and conventions were a refinement in politics not known, fences were a constant source of litigation and quarrels, and no higher compliment to good citizenship could be shown than to elect him Fence Viewer. It was the equivalent of stopping many foolish and bitter quarrels between neighbors, and we find that the best men in the county were chosen to the office, and among them John H. James, James Dallas, John Ham- ilton, John Glenn, William Patrick, Daniel Helmick, Samuel McCord and others. He took an active interest in matters of general concern. He entertained the opinion that parties became corrupt by long continuance, and that once in fif- teen years changes ought to be made, and that, in the re-organization of par- ties, men, without being subject to the charge of instability or inconsistency, might affiliate with the new. When he settled in Urbana he was a Whig. He afterward became an active Democrat. As early as 1840, he believed that the Democratic party had outlived its usefulness, and that the only thing that could restore its honesty and integrity was the election of Harrison and a few years rule of the Whigs. But, as corrupt as he considered the Democratic party, he thought the Whigs more so, and that the only salvation for the country was a new organization and new men. At heart, he was an Abolitionist, and spoke with bitter denunciation of African slavery and its influence. During the administration of Martin Van Buren, he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Ohio. Although a respectable general scholar, he had little taste for reading outside of a law book, and, to one of his students, recom- mended the utter discarding of metaphysics, newspapers and novels. Yet no man was fonder of a metaphysical topic, and has an undisguised contempt for "leading " editorials. His notion was that a newspaper should give the current news, and stick to facts. The "editorials " he ranked in the same class as the summing-up of the testimony by the attorney to a jury-a paid-for job-and the facts he wanted to be stated clearly without coloring.
On one occasion, Charles Flago had been appointed Secretary of a Demo- cratic meeting, and the proceedings of the meeting were thought worthy a place in the Ohio Statesman, a political newspaper of Columbus. Flago felt the importance of the case, and wanted Hamilton to assist him to draft the paper. " Did you take minutes of the proceedings ? " inquired Hamilton. " Yes, here they are." "Well," said Hamilton, " all you have to do is to tell the facts." " But," said Flago, "they are to be printed in the Statesman." "Tell the facts, and tell them just as they were," was the answer and all that Flago could get from him.
On another occasion, Mr. - went to his office to make some inquiry in regard to a title, and handed him a dollar as his fee. Hamilton told him to state his case, and, having answered two or three irrelevant questions, informed him that he "had his dollar's worth " of advice, and took occasion to give his client
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a lecture on the niggardliness of asking counsel in regard to a purchase involv- ing thousands of dollars, for which he was willing to pay only a dollar !
In company, he was reticent, but in the society of a few friends, talkative and easy ; with but a single friend, he was communicative and confiding. In term-time, he was abstracted, little disposed to talk-energetic in every move- ment. When court had adjourned and business hours were over, a favorite position was to stretch himself at length on a bench in the office and ask ques- tions on metaphysical topics, and talk of the unseen and the unknown.
In person, he was about five feet six inches high, of good proportions, but not stoutly built ; straight as an arrow ; a square built head, covered with steel- gray hair ; clean shaven ; dark blue eyes, nose short and strong, mouth tolerably large, with thin lips. As a public speaker, his voice was strong and good-but without training ; in the office with a friend, low-toned and full of sweetness. He never forgot a kind act, and never spoke an unkind word concerning his political opponents personally. He lived at a time when the bitterness of party strife acknowledged no virtues in an opponent. He died in the fall of 1842, at the age of forty-four. Death obliterated the asperities of partisan criticism, and the common sentiment of all who knew him was that the county had lost a good citizen, an honest lawyer, and an able man.
JOHN HAMILTON.
The subject of this sketch will be remembered by multitudes of persons as the proprietor and landlord of the Hamilton House, forty years ago. He died in 1868, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He settled in Urbana in 1814, being in his twenty-second year, and during his long residence in Urbana, his frequent election to offices of trust and responsibility sufficiently shows the con- fidence of his neighbors in his integrity and prudence. He was a quiet, re- served man-had little to say-disliked any unnecessary noise, and kept a temperance house. The interest that mainly attaches to Mr. Hamilton, is his capture and residence among the Indians. At the breaking-out of the war in 1812, under the call of Gov. Scott, of Kentucky, he volunteered, and was at- tached to a company in the regiment of Col. Lewis, of that State, which was soon ordered to Fort Wayne. After the performance of a military order near Tippecanoe, the regiment returned to Fort Wayne, and from there was ordered by Gen. Winchester to march to Defiance on short rations about November 1; thence down the Maumee to Camps Nos. 1, 2 and 3, where they had no flour and but little meat for three weeks. On December 25, 1812, they left the latter encampment, when shortly after snow commenced falling, which contin- ued all day, and fell two feet deep. They pitched their tents that night in the snow on the bank of the river. Col. Lewis was ordered to detach six hundred of his regiment and move them immediately to the River Raisin to dislodge the British and Indian forces there encamped. On January 18, 1813, Col. Lewis commenced the assault and drove them from their quarters into the woods, both sides suffering severe losses. Col. Lewis took possession of the enemy's posi- tion, and sent word to Gen. Winchester of the victory. Winchester then or- dered a detachment of three hundred to support Col. Lewis, who arrived and encamped outside the pickets. The detachment was commanded by Gen. Winchester himself. On the morning of the 22d, the enemy were discovered approaching. The battle being joined, was fought with desperation, the enemy having the advantage. The detachment to which Hamilton belonged, was
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ordered to retreat into the woods, when Col. Lewis rode up and requested the men to make a stand and break the force of the attack. A few rounds were fired, when he saw that his men were surrounded, and he gave the word for " each one to take care of himself." Young Hamilton at once turned toward the south, but soon discovered that he was followed by an Indian. He had retained his gun, and was enabled to keep his pursuer in check-each occa- sionally "taking to tree." When being close enough to converse, the Indian would beckon to him and say " come here," to which he answered " no," when under pretense of firing, the Indian would "tree " and Hamilton would take advantage to spring forward and gain another tree, hoping thus to evade his pursuer until nightfall, when he should trust his activity and endurance. Late in the afternoon, while watching the Indian in his rear, he was startled by a shot on his right hand, and saw at once that he was a prisoner. Quick as thought, he reasoned that a man who would follow him all day without firing a shot, was the more to be trusted, and leaving his gun against the tree, beckoned to the first and gave himself up to him. The other demanded a division of the spoils, and a compromise was effected by a surrender by his captor of his over- coat and knife. He was then taken to the rear of the British lines and was permitted to warm himself at a camp-fire. While there, the second Indian made further claim, and in the controversy that followed, the Indians being of different tribes-one an Ottawa, the other a Pottawatomie-the latter threat- ened to kill and raised his gun to shoot, when the Ottawa satisfied the other by giving him his remaining coat. On the evening of the battle, the Indians re- tired to Stony Creek, about four miles eastward. There he was told by the interpreter that he would not be sold or exchanged, but must go with his adopted father, his captor, to his wigwam. At this place they arrived in about nine days' walk in a northwestern direction-and remained there until Jan- uary, 1814. As the warriors were absent, the village was, at times, reduced to the verge of starvation, he suffering perhaps more than others from his ina- bility to eat horse and dog flesh. Mr. Hamilton narrated many incidents of his life with the savages, but became enthusiastic in speaking of the high moral nature of his adopted father and the neatness of his mother. Of the latter, he was accustomed to say that, during the course of a long life, he had never seen a woman who, in her household affairs, was so scrupuously neat. The moral sense of the old patriarch would not tolerate the least prevarication, and on one in- stance when Hamilton had attempted to screen one of the boys from punish- ment by withholding a fact, the old man being satisfied of the guilt of the cul- prit and his prevarication, cut a hickory and soundly thrashed them both with equal stripes. His squaw mother could also on occasion use the hickory to some purpose. On one occasion, he was sent to the spring with a sugar trough filled with hot hominy, which had just been boiled in lye to remove the hulls, his business being to wash out the hulls made free by the lye. The day was cold, and his feet bare, and the hominy hot, and the temptation was too great not to stand in the trough. The old lady saw the act, and without delay, thrashed him severely.
In November, a deputation arrived from Detroit, offering terms of peace to the Ottawa tribe, on certain conditions. A council was convened to consider the matter, which resulted in an acceptance of the terms, among which was the surrender of prisoners ; and in January, 1814, he was delivered to the officer of the fort at Detroit, with other released prisoners. He was well cared for and forwarded to his home, and shortly after removed from Kentucky to spend the residue of his life in Urbana.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
DR. ADAM MOSGROVE.
Few men have lived in Urbana more widely known throughout the county than the subject of this sketch. Born in Enniskillen, Ireland, August, 1790, attended lectures in the Medical College of Edinburgh, and graduated by the Royal College of Surgery, Dublin, April, 1814, and was at once commissioned Surgeon in the British navy. The ship Charlotte, on which he was Surgeon, sailed for America, 1816. The vessel becoming disabled in a storm, put into Philadelphia for repairs, and some dispute having arisen between the ship's officers and the British Government, the officers resigned their commissions and left the ship to rot in the harbor.
He at once resolved to practice his profession in a strange, and, according to a common opinion among Europeans, a semi-barbarous land, and located, first in Lancaster, and afterward in Elizabethtown, where, in 1817, he was married to Mary Miller, a sister of the late Lawrence Miller, of Urbana. Learning that George Moore, a former resident of Enniskillen, was living in Urbana, the ties of nativity were strong enough to attract him to the home of his old friend, and, in 1818, packing his worldly goods in a wagon, he and his wife took up their journey for the Far West and arrived here in June of that year. There are now but two persons living in Urbana who were then over eighteen years of age.
The Doctor's wealth consisted of a few hundred dollars in coin, which he invested in the lot where the Democratic Wigwam now is, about midway between the Weaver House and Walnut street, with the tier of lots west to Walnut and south to Market. The frame building adjoining the wigwam was occupied by him as a residence for several years, which afterward was used as a school- house by several of the pedagogues of town.
He was a strict Democrat in politics, and the party to which he was attached several times placed him in nomination for Congress and State Legislature, but with overwhelming majorities against the party, it was never anticipated that an election was possible.
He was a practitioner in Urbana for fifty-seven years, and settled here when houses were scattered, roads scarce, many of the trails blazed on the trees ; with all of which he became familiar, and traversed at all hours and weather, sometimes hitching his horse and taking his needed sleep on the ground.
He was temperate in all things, always cheerful, abounding in pleasantry and good humor ; possessed of a kind and affectionate disposition, his coming into a sick room was the signal for renewed hope and confidence on the part of the invalid.
His manners were those of the courtly gentleman of long time ago. He lived an active, consistent life, and died quietly and peacefully, at his home, March 3, 1875, in his eighty-fifth year, respected and esteemed by all, as an old citizen, a faithful physician, and an honest man.
SIMON KENTON.
A history of the life and times of the subject of this sketch, has, so far as we are aware, never been published ; yet no name is more intimately connected with the early history of Ohio. There are persons still living who knew him well, and who at times drew from him incidents connected with his own life and the times in which he lived, who it is hoped may make such record of them
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that in the future some historian may be able to make the biography full and complete.
Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier County, Va., April 3, 1755, and died in Logan County, near the place where he once narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Indians.
At the age of sixteen, he became entangled in a love affair, which brought him in contact with a rival, with whom he had an affray, and supposing that he had slain his antagonist, fled to the wilds of Kentucky. West of the Allegha- nies, he assumed the name of Simon Butler, became an associate of Daniel Boone, and took an active part with Boone and other frontier's men in border life. The life was well adapted to develop an adventurer's true character, and young Kenton showed remarkable courage, sagacity and endurance. These vir- tues recommended him to the notice of Gov. Dunmore, by whom he was employed as a spy.
In 1782, learning that his adversary, whom he supposed he had left dead, was still alive, he returned to his native place, and by his representation of the country west of the mountains, induced his father to remove with him to Ken- tucky.
The scouts and spies of that day, by the nature of their employment, and perhaps from their natural impulses, were unsettled. His associations with Boone and others connected him with expeditions in Kentucky and Ohio against the Indians, and he had traversed nearly every part of Ohio before he settled in it. In 1778, when on one of his first expeditions through this State, he was taken prisoner by the Indians, on the north bank of the Ohio River, securely lashed to the back of a wild horse, and the horse turned loose in the woods. The animal, after plunging and kicking violently for some time, with- out being able to throw off the burden, and marvelously without injury to his rider, in his mad career through the brush and woods, quietly fell into line with the other ponies, subdued and tame. He was then taken to Chillicothe, and there compelled to run the gauntlet; from thence to the Mac-a-cheek towns and Wapatomica-the latter near where Zanesfield, in Logan County, now is- at each of which places he was compelled to run the gauntlet. He was then condemned to be burned, but reprieved for a time, through the intervention of Simon Girty, a renegade white man, who had known Kenton years before as Simon Butler, and claimed him as his brother. He was again saved from the same horrible death, by the generous contrivance of the Mingo Chief Logan, by which he was taken to Detroit, from which place he escaped, and returned to Kentucky.
In 1786, the Mac-a-cheek towns, at the head of Mad River, were destroyed by a body of Kentuckians under Gen. Benjamin Logan. In this attack, Col. Boone and Simon Kenton (then Major) led the advance.
He settled in Urbana in 1802, and from that time until the close of the war of 1812, was identified with the interests and perils of the people of Champaign County, and no wrong treatment, of which he thought himself the victim, swerved for an instant his loval mind.
His opportunities enabled him to secure large quantities of land in Ken- tucky and Ohio, but, though with every facility for being the owner of valuable lands, he became poor and necessitous. Several reasons may be assigned for this. He was unable to read, and trusted to his memory and the honor of men ; added to this, he was as generous and kind-hearted as he was brave, and in- curred obligations which gave him much annoyance and distress. He judged
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others by himself, and was not conscious of the impositions and dishonesty to which he was subjected, until, defrauded and robbed of his estate, it was too late to remedy the wrongs.
He had certificates of purchase of five tracts of land in Ohio, being 2,700 acres on the Scioto, a tract on the Mac-a-check, a considerable portion is the large and valuable farm now owned by John Enoch ; a tract called the " Ken- ton farm," now owned by the heirs of Maj. William Hunt, and lies on the road from Urbana to Springfield, about five miles north of Springfield. Ken- ton had a cabin on this farm and at one time lived there. He had also what was called the Kenton Mill tract, and a place in possession of one Anderson. The Mill tract is now Lagonda. The Anderson tract embraced what afterward were the farms of James Johnson and Orsamus Scott, of Concord Township. He also owned several tracts of land in Ohio, together with Col. William Ward; in the division of which and exchange for other property, Kenton claimed that he was entitled to a half-section adjoining Urbana. It is easy to conceive how an unlettered man in the sale or exchange of property might be overreached, but it is as easily conceivable that his memory might be treacherous, or misun- derstandings exist. Col. Ward was also interested in certain lands in Ken- tucky, which Kenton was supposed to hold in fee simple. It is claimed that Ward furnished some capital and his knowledge of land titles and conveyances. Kenton was familiar with the country and knew of choice locations. To the latter was entrusted the payment of taxes, which Ward claimed he neglected, involving loss to him, and that he closed his partnership with Kenton by writ- ten article. The consequence was that Ward was accused of cheating Kenton, but there is no evidence to confirm the charge, and on the other hand Kenton, well meaning, honest and upright, was nevertheless known to be careless and shiftless in his business matters, and as to his business ventures with Ward, he was always reticent.
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