USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 1 > Part 39
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When the fight was at last over and the votes were counted, it was found that the hero of Tippecanoe, Fort Meigs, and the Thames was successful, and his supporters rojoiced. The strain upon him had been too great. however. and he lived but a single month after the reins of the Government had been placed in his hands.
It is said that in 1847, when the Whigs were casting about for Presidential
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followers of Harrison determined to have a log-cabin raising and a grand time at the county seat. The Clinton Republican of May 16, 1840, says: " Satur- day last was a glorious day for Clinton. Although the morning of the day was unfavorable, considerable rain having fallen, and the clouds betokening a storm from their rapid moving, yet, notwithstanding all this, the people came in from all quarters to assist in raising a cabin in honor of the man who has been taunted and ridiculed by demagogues and silk-stocking aristocrats. The immenso gathering, the soul-stirring patriotism, and the outbreaking enthu- siasm took all by surprise. It confounded our opponents, and plainly demon- strated the firm hold the 'log cabin' candidate has upon the hearts of the people. Wo wished that every voter in the county could have witnessed the exciting scone and participated in the joy of the vast multitude. One thou- sand people were present, and it was the largest gathering which had ever been seen in Wilmington. They would have caught a spark of the fire that seemed to burn in every bosom, for all was joy and hilarity."
A dinner of ham, corn dodgers and hard cider was served to the hungry ones at 2 o'clock P. M., and after it was over, Capt. Joseph Parrott, a Revolu- tionary soldier, and a subsequent member of Harrison's army, delivered an ad- dress as follows: "I served under Harrison, and was close by his side, and know that he was a brave General. I frequently hear Harrison called a cow- ard, and that ho was never in danger; this is not so. Ho was too brave for a General. Ho placed himself in the hottest of the battle, and in the most im- minent danger, urging his men on with the eloquence of a Washington, for liberty. Gen. Harrison a coward! Sirs, I feel my blood boil when a charge so false is preferred against the man who protected our Northwestern frontier from an inveterato foe. Language is inadequate to express my opinions in re- gard to the men who are so lost to all reason and a sense of respect for ao in- dividual who rendered our country invaluable services, while those who now slander him were, in the days that called me to the battle-field, rocked in their cradles, and about whose bravery they know nothing. I have fought under Washington and Harrison. I knew the courage and bravery of the former, and I feel proud in saying that the latter was not his inferior in point of cour- age or bravery. But let these slanderers go on. The country knows his worth, and it is appreciated by every lover of liberty. The day is near at hand when an injured and insulted people will place him where his merits and claims and qualifications justly entitle him, a day I long to see; and I hope my Maker will prolong my existence to witness and assist in redeeming the country for which I spent my best days, and placed under the guidance of the soldier, statesman and the honest man-William Henry Harrison."
The speech is not entirely grammatical, and its construction is not indic- ative of the accomplished scholar, but it was undoubtedly earnest, and certain- ly went straight to the mark. Capt. Parrott was then a very old man.
Following the address of the Captain, which was loudly applauded. Eli Gaskill, a farmer and pioneer, spoke in the following strain: "I ampleased to see so many of the neighbors turn out to old Tip's raisin'. It is a good sign; it is a sign that ho is willing to help his neighbors. A good neighbor will al- ways have good neighbors. It was always the case with old Tip. I have been acquainted with the character of old Tip a long time-near thirty years. I recollect a great deal of work that he has done in the Western country. He once undertook a very large, difficult and dangerous job for Uncle Sam away out along the Northwestern frontier. There was a cabin to be raised at the rapids of the Maumee, and a great deal of hard work to be done. Many of us volunteered to help him. He accepted of the help of some; others he thanked and told them that he had not provisions and other means of using them well,
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timber, there were but six men in Wilmington who favored the nomination of Gon. Zachary Taylor. One of these men was Judge R. B. Harlan; the names of the others are not now rocollected. Many members of the party looked upon the General only as a fighter, a Southerner, and a slaveholder, and one who had novor, to a great extent, taken part in politics. He was nominated and elected, however, and nearly all, except the " immortal six," as they came to be known, were wonderfully surprised. As a partial coincidence, it is ro- lated that in 1860, upon the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas by the Demo- cratic Convention, there were six Democrats in Wilmington who declared Douglas to be a bogus Democrat, refused to support him, and said that John C. Breckenridge was the true representative of the National Democracy. In the light of subsequent events it is possible these men were willing to retract that statement.
The great campaign of 1860 was stubbornly contested and we find in the papers of that year notes of warning from men who believed the South was only awaiting the defeat of the Democratic nominees to throw down the gaunt- let of war and plunge the country into a state of anarchy. The election de- termined the choice of Lincoln and Hamlin. In the midst of dangers they were inaugurated, and a little over a month after the latter event. the sullen boom of the guns of the Rebellion which had been trained against Fort Sumter awoke the Nation to a startled realization of the true condition of affairs. The earnest admonitions of the far seeing ones had been proven not founded upon idlo fears, and war was, upon the land. Happily, the country was plucked as a brand from the burning, and after four years of war, "Peace spread her wings ' neath the banner of stars." Clinton County had become strongly Republican in her political sentiments, and that condition of things remains unchanged to the present. The Republican majority in the county, on a full voto, is about fiftoon hundrod, although it varies according to the importance of the campaign and the enthusiasm of the people.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT.
Through very many years the feeling against slavery grew more intense in the region north of the Ohio River, and by 1840 this feeling was almost universal in all civilized countries. In that year, the first "World's Anti-slavery Convention" was held in London, and James G. Birney, subsequently candi- date on the Liberty ticket for President of the United States, was one of the Vice Presidents of the Convention. The agitation extended throughout Clin- ton County, which lay so close to the slaveholder's territory, and lines of the famous Underground Railroad passed through it from South to North. Wagons were made with tops and curtains, the latter buttoning down closely, and in these vehicles people attended the numerous anti-slavery conventions and car- ried fugitive slaves away in them whenever occasion offered. An organization was formed known as the "Clinton County Anti-slavery Society,." and in the Clinton Republican for December 10, 1842, is an account of one of its quar- terly meetings when Wright Haynes was President, and James Linton, Sec- retary. Resolutions were offered and speeches made by B. C. Gilbert, A. Brooke, J. O. Wattles and S. Brooke, which were all published at length. In February, 1842, an Anti-slavery Convention had been held in Wilmington, of which Perry Dakin was President. A Central Committee was organized for Clinton County, and among those elected to serve upon it was Eli McGregor. In the same year, the Abolition or Anti-slavery party nominated a Stato ticket, on which Leicester King was the candidate for Governor. The candidates on this ticket received sixty-seven votes in Clinton County. King was nominated again in 1844, and the county gave him 218 votes. In 1846, Samuel Lewis,
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for the same position, received 392 votes in Clinton, and in 1848, it is thought the Liberty party did not nominato a separate ticket. In 1850, however, a ticket was put in the field, upon which the name of Edward Smith appeared as candidato for Governor, and Clinton County gave him 350 votes. Samuel Lowis was nominated in 1851 and 1853, receiving in the former year 268 and in the latter 839 votes from Clinton. The strength of the party steadily grew from this time until 1854, when the Republican party was organized, and iu 1855 and 1857, Salmon P. Chase received respectively 1,640 and 1,848 votes from this county. In 1859, William Dennison received 1, 721 votes, and in 1861, the Ropublican candidate received 2,081 votes. From a small beginning, the men who opposed slavery-mon who were almost persecuted for their views-grow in power until they finally caused the overthrow of slavery in the United States and established the grand principles to which they had adhered when they wore in a hopeless minority.
Isaac S. Morris, a former resident of this county, but now editor of the Miami Helmet, at Piqua, Ohio, has recently written a letter to Mrs. Judge Harlan, of Wilmington, in reply to a request to furnish information on the sub- joct of Anti-slavery in Clinton County. The following is the letter :
PIQUA, OHIO, 5, 21, 1892.
MY DEAR FRIEND :- I have been trying ever since I received thy letter to look back over the years of the past more than thirty years ago, to my old county, and call up in response to thy request the men who labored in the anti-slavery cause, and the circumstances connected with that momentous period in our.country's history. As I was not old enough to take part as a voter through but the closing part of that period, prior to the formation of the Free-Soil party. with Van Buren at its head, my memories are not so vivid as to enable me to write what would be reliable history of the rise and progress of the movement in my own township-Chester. Yet I do re- member some men who were prominently connected with it, and whose names would. form a part of any history of anti-slavery that might be written of Clinton County. My impression is that Clark Township, with Aaron Betts and Christopher Hiatt at the head, took the lead, perhaps, in the county. These belonged to Fairfield Quarter- ly Meeting of Friends, and the sentiment grew among this class of people very rap- idly. Schooled in the doctrines of George Fox, William Penn, John Woohnan and others to " bear a faithful testimony against slavery," it was a part of the religion of the' Quakers to testify against this great evil. But nearly all of the men belonged to what was then known as the Whig party, and it took years to convince many of them that to "bear a faithful testimony " they must vote right-vote their principles. I well remember that when James G. Birney ran for President, the large majority of Friends in Chester, as well as all other anti-slavery men, said that to vote for Birney was to vote against the Whigs and elect the Democrats. This was the feeling when Harri- son ran in 1840, Clay in 1844, and Taylor in 1848. But the seed had been sown, and through all these years, in Chester Township, was carefully nurtured by such men as Seth Linton, Dr. Abram Brooke, Abram Allen, John L. Thompson, John Hollin, Elihu Oren, Amos Davis, and others whom I do not now call to mind. Through no little obloquy and some persecution, these men, with others like thein all over the country, led the forlorn hope that finally grew up into the great Republican party which, with Lincoln at its head, destroyed the great evil. I remember that at Abram Allen's and also at Dr. Brooke's the fugitive slave always found food and shelter and safety. And I think that either of these men, or either of their excellent wives, Katy Allen or Elizabeth Brooke, would have endured any hardship rather than to have betrayed the sable men and women who trusted them. They were of the same spirit as Levi Coffin in Cincinnati, Isaac F. Hopper in Philadelphia, Lydia Maria Child in New York, and William Lloyd Garrison in Boston. They were ready to be sacrificed for principle. They believed that the black men had an inalienable right to life and liberty, and they proposed by all their actions and teachings to uphold that right. How well I remember when they were jeered at as Abolitionists. How well I remember that there were men who were opposed to slavery in principle who scoffed at them and said they could never accomplish anything. But they believed that the right and the truth would triumph, and they imperiled their own name and fame in order to embrace these high principles, even though it was at the greatest personal sacrifice. Of course there were many others from 1850 on who joined in and helped to make the large vote for Fremont in 1856, and that helped to elect Lin- coln in 1860, but in our own township it was these men whom I have mentioned who
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led the way. As I come to think of it now, Thompson, Hollin and Linton did not live in Chester, but they acted in concert with those I have named, to build up and establish the great fundamental truths and doctrines that have so signally triumphed since.
While I feel, my dear friend, that I have not answered thy request as desired ; yet. taking the part I did, I have given the best recollections I have ; and if there should be any special question that it might be thought I could answer, I will yet be glad to do so if it is possible. Please accept this very imperfect scrap as the best I can give now, and believe me as ever thy friend, I. S. MORRIS.
Mr. Morris speaks of Abraham Allon as being a worker in the cause in Chester Township, which is erroneous in the latter respect, as he resided near Wilmington. He was an earnest and zoalous supporter of the Anti-slavery movement, and his house was one of the numerous stations in the county on the Underground Railroad, over which so many fleeing fugitives passed on their way to freedom and happiness. Among his associates in the work were Jona- than Hadley, Thomas Hibben, Eli McGregor, Thomas Wraith, John Work, and many others. The excitement bocame so great that even religious socie- ties were affected, and about 1843-44, a split occurred in the Methodist Epis- copal Church, which resulted in the organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, a strong Anti-slavery denomination. The latter society purchased the old school building at Wilmington and fitted it up for a house of worship. Rev. Mr. Voucher was an early minister in this church, which continued its meetings until the results of the great civil war removed the cause of separa- tion, when its members mostly returned to the parent church.
In Clark Township, Aaron Betts and Christopher Hiatt worked in har- mony with David Sewell (of Vernon?), and encountered great opposition. It is related that on one occasion, when some traveling Anti-slavery speakers were stopping overnight at Mr. Hiatt's, the manes and tails of their horses were trimmed close by the pro-slavery citizens of the neighborhood. Such action certainly did not reflect credit upon the perpetrators, and helped to lessen any popularity their cause might over have enjoyed.
In Chester Township, one of the strongest Abolitionists was John Grant, of New Burlington, who identified himself with the Liberty party upon its or. ganization in this section. His right-hand supporters were Allen Linton and Amos Compton, Sr., and numerous good deeds are related as having been per- formed by these men. Dr. Brooke, of Oakland, was wonderfully zealous in the Anti-slavery cause, and on his land was erected a large building which received the name of Liberty Hall, in which enthusiastic conventions were held, and prominent men were speakers on numerous occasions. Oakland was one of the best known points during the years through which the controversy continued.
Elihu Oren was the principal Underground Railroad station keeper in Liberty Township, and his station was often full of refugees on their way to Canada. Hon. Jesse N. Oren, in his history of Liberty Township, when speaking of these refugees, says: "They usually took passage in Abram Allen's ' Liberator,' a large curtained carriage made for the purpose, and were driven by the light of the stars toward the land of promise." Other adherents of the canso in Liberty were Joseph Coat, Abel Boven and Dr. Watson, at Painter- ville, and Samnel Haines, D. S. King, Andrew Strickle, W. M. Waln, and others in other localities.
Thomas Woodmansee, a pioneer of Washington Township, was one of the original Anti-slavery men of Southern Ohio, and also enjoyed the privilege of. keeping a station on the famous thoroughfare several times previously men- tioned.
Anecdotes of the days of which we write could be multiplied to an almost unlimited extent, and volumes could be written, if necessity required, without
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exaggeration. Many people who are living in Clinton County could relate tales which would be equal to those with which Harriet Beecher Stowe made Uncle Tom's Cabin interesting, and if space permitted, they might be incor- porated hero; but it is only aimed in this article to give a synopsis of the work performed.
As is often the case with other great movements, the Anti-slavery excite- ment gave many people who had a natural inclination toward fanaticism to in- angurate a singular custom. So intenso was the feeling against slavery, that many became strongly opposed to using anything which had been produced by slave labor, and while some went only to a certain extent, others took advantage of the opportunity offered and went so far as to discard tea and coffee and re- strict themselves to the use of Graham bread, made in the simplest manner. The change from the more luxurious mode of living was so great that it oper- ated with fatal result in some instances, and one whole family in the neighbor- hood of Wilmington was nearly blotted out because of its adherence to the new regime. Fortunately for the county, the Grahamito mode of living did not continue long in favor, and the memory of it at this day gives rise to specula- tion upon the proceedings of those who adopted it in the days gone by.
Slavery has been blotted out from the American Republic. No longer are Underground Railroads necessary, and no more are anxious owners of human flesh continually crossing the bordor seeking for runaway property. The blighting curso has been eternally lifted, and the sun shines upon what the fathers of the land intended it should be but did not live to see it become so-a free country.
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CHAPTER XI. THE BENCH AND BAR OF CLINTON COUNTY.
A H. DUNLEVY, of Warren County, Ohio, in a letter written in 1875, · upon " Wilmington Sixty Years Ago," published in the Wilmington Journal, speaks thus of matters pertaining to the early courts and bar:
"The scenes which I witnessed at Wilmington in the spring of 1815, the first time I visited it, are all passed away. The few inhabitants then dwell- ing there are probably all gone, and a new people now occupy their places. Isaiah Morris, who then lived there, was Clerk of the Court, an office which he filled subsequently for over twenty years. Francis Dunlavy was Presiding Judge; Peter Burr, Jesse Hughes and Thomas Hinkson, if my recollection is correct, were the Associate Judges, and William R. Cole, who settled here in 1812, was Prosecuting Attorney. He was the successor in that office of James Montgomery, who came to Wilmington in 1810, and removed to Fayette County in 1813. He was the first member of the bar in Wilmington, Mr. Hale the second, and Mr. Cole the third. Court was held in a log house* near the sito or on the same spot where the present court house stands.
* Samuel H. Hale, t who purchased the Western Star in 1809 from Nathaniel McLean, sold out two years afterward and removed to Wilmington. Benjamin Hinkson commenced practice in 1820. Wilmington was almost the only place where the Scioto and Miami bars met at the courts, and it being then customary for lawyers to ride the circuit almost as regularly as the Presiding Judges, it was an occasion of great interest to see members of both bars to. gether, and frequently testing their legal knowledge and powers of advocacy before the same tribunal. The late William Creighton was one of the ablest of the Scioto bar, and Richard Douglass, or Dick Douglass, as usually called, . was more noted for his ready wit than for his legal talent, though I believe a good lawyer. Both were from Chillicothe, and frequently in attendance upon the Wilmington courts, and there they met John Alexander, of Xenia, Thomas Corwin, Thomas R. Ross, and others of Lebanon, and in early times Thomas Morris and O. T. Fishback, of Williamsburg, then the county seat of Clermont. William R. Cole came to the Wilmington bar, as near as I can now recollect, about 1812, and remained over twenty years."
Judge Francis Dunlavy (spelled by other members of the family Dun- levy), the first President Judge of the district which included what is now Clinton County, resided in Warren County, near Lebanon. Judge Harlan said of him: "He was born near Winchester, Va., about 1761 or 1762. He entered the army of the Revolution as a substitute for a man with a large fam- ily, at the age of fourteen years. He served in several campaigns, mostly against the Indians. In the summer of 1778, he assisted in building Fort McIntosh, on the bank of the Ohio River, a few miles below Pittsburgh. This was the first American fort northwest of the Ohio River. In May, 1782, he was
* Refors to the first court house, for which see description in another chapter.
t Mr. Hale lived to be the oldest member of the Miami or Scioto bar.
# Fort McIntosh stood on the present site of the town of Beaver, Penn., and was built by Gen. Lachlan McIn- tosh, preparatory to an expedition under his command against the Indians northwest of the Ohio. It was a regular stockaded work, with four bastions, and was defended by six guns. Gen. McIntosh, for whom it was named, had been ordered to Fort Pitt by Congress during the early part of 1778, with portions of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thir- teenth Virginia Regiments of the Continental army. He succeeded Maj. Neville in the command of Fort Pitt on his arrival there. The latter fort, as is well known, was situated at the "forks of the Ohio," where Pittsburgh now stands.
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with the unfortunate expedition from the Ohio and Washington County, Penn., under command of Col. Crawford, to destroy the Delaware and Wyandot towns on the Sandusky River. Mr. Dunlavy and two others escaped from the field of the defeat and made their way through the woods safely to Fort Pitt. Without having studied the law or having been called to the bar, he was elected by the General Assembly of Ohio, at its first session, in December, 1803, President Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Ohio; yet he held the office for fourteen years, or until 1817. He rose by the successivo steps of schoolmaster, member of the Territorial Legislature, and member of the first Constitutional Convention of Ohio, to this important position. He was forty- one years of age when elected Judge. Strictly honest, he had no motive to do wrong, and every motive to do right. He had a quick perception, a clear and logical understanding. He must on the bench, at least at first, have keenly felt his want of legal study and the technical knowledge of proceedings in a court of justice. With these he never became very familiar, but must have overcome the defect to some extent. We have slender means of knowing how he performed his judicial duties, but we may infer from his great good sense and love of justice among men that he was able to arrive at the justice of the case brought before him. In qualifying himself for the discharge of his ju- dicial duties, he was greatly aided by excellent education. Immediately after his election, he began earnestly to study the law. Being of quick and solid .. parts, he soon acquired a fair amount of legal learning, which turned to good account, enabling him to decide debated points with general accuracy and to detect the sophistry of attorneys who had given their days and nights to the study of Bacon. Blackstone and Coke. The system of slavery he detested and opposed. He stood up for human right oven irrespective of color. In the first Constitutional Convention, he opposed restricting the right of suffrage to white men. This proving an unpopular side of the question, lost him the po- litical friendship of many who admired his integrity, his great good sense and high qualifications for public office. They would have willingly voted for the Judge, but not for his negroes. After his second term of office as Judge ex- pired, he retired almost entirely from politics and devoted himself to the study and practice of law. At the May, 1816, term of the Supreme Court of Ohio, sitting in Clinton County, Judges John McLean and Ethan Allen Brown hold- ing the term, Judge Dunlavy was first admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor at law. Before his marriage, Mr. Dunlavy had been engaged in teaching classical schools, and after that he continued to teach select schools and give private instruction at home. After serving out his term in the army of the Revolution with fidelity, Mr. Dunlavy had, in 1783, entered Dickerson College, being at that time twenty-one years of age."
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