USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 60
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Allen Trimble rapidly gained reputation in the ever increasing community where he had found his new home. Several offices were conferred upon him, such as Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and County Recorder. For seven years he occupied these positions, taking up his residence at Hillsborough, the county seat of Hillsborough County. He thus became familiar with the prac- tice of the courts, and being a large landholder and an excellent surveyor, he soon became one of the most prominent men of that region.
General Hull's disastrous surrender had exposed the whole Northwestern frontier to the depradations of the Indians. With abundance of ammunition, and armed with the best of English rifles, the injury which these roving bands were able to inflict upon lonely cabins and scattered settlements was awful almost beyond conception. Tales of woe were circulated through the land which caused the ear which heard them to tingle.
Mr. Trimble, though a civilian, and having a small family now dependent upon him, volunteered his services to face these perils, and, if possible, to drive back the savages. In two campaigns he rendered efficient service, In 1812 he was appointed colonel of one of the regiments raised in southern Ohio. Valiantly leading this band, he marched to the relief of far distant Fort Wayne, with orders to attack and chastise with the utmost severity the hostile bands on the waters of the Upper Wabash and Eel Rivers. He executed this commis- sion with so much military ability as to merit and receive the warm approval of General Harrison. Upon the expiration of his term of enlistment he returned to his home, to engage in the more congenial occupations of peace.
Again, in the year 1813, he promptly responded to a call from Governor Meigs to repair to the cruel fields of battle. A regiment was raised from his own county and the adjoining County of Adams, of which regiment Colonel Trimble was chosen Major. With these troops he marched a couple of hun- dred miles to the Upper Sandusky. Little does the reader appreciate the
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significance of such a campaign. The hunger, the fatigue, the exposure ; the dreary march through bogs and streams with ragged shoes and dripping clothes ; the midnight bivouac on the wet soil swept by chill winds and deluged with rain ; the hours of languor, sickness, pain, with no possibilities of relief ; all these circumstances were combined to render this expedition through the wilderness one of extreme suffering. Such was the price which the fathers of Ohio paid for the beautiful domain which they have transmitted as a legacy to their children.
Upon the conclusion of this direful war, Colonel Trimble returned to his home, his agricultural pursuits, and to the varied duties of an influential civil- ian.
In 1816 he represented Highland County in the Legislature of the State. The next year he was promoted to a seat in the State Senate. His popularity was great and he was returned to this position by large majorities for four suc- cessive terms. In the year 1818 he was chosen Speaker of the Senate, and oc- cupied that chair of honor for eight years by almost unanimous consent.
In the year 1826, Allen Trimble was chosen Governor of Ohio. It is said that he retired from the Senate with the reputation of having been the most able presiding officer who had ever occupied the Speaker's chair. His popu- larity was so great that seventy-one thousand four hundred and seventy-five votes were cast in his favor at the gubernatorial election. This gave him a ma- jority of over sixty-two thousand above three other candidates.
The United States Government, interested in the promotion of all those in- ternal improvements which were deemed of national importance, had granted to Ohio five hundred thousand acres of the national domain within the state, to aid in the construction of the great canal. Governor Trimble, aided by Mr. Lewis Davis, of Cincinnati, was commissioned to the performance of the diffi- cult and delicate task of selecting these lands. They spent several weeks in the careful exploration of the Valleys of the Maumee and the Sandusky. The choice they made received the hearty approval of the Legislature.
In the year 1828 the State of Ohio was greatly agitated, as was also our whole nation, by one of the most stormy political conflicts our country has ever experienced. The two great parties were arrayed against each other in the most vehement strife. Andrew Jackson led the Democrats ; Henry Clay the Whigs. In this exciting canvass, Governor Trimble was re-elected as the re- presentative of the Whig party. His administration was conducted with wis- dom and impartiality which secured the approbation of all candid men.
Just before this last election there occurred infinitely the most important event in the earthly life of Governor Trimble. There is no thinking man who can reflect without awe upon that eternal existence which reaches out so sub- limely beyond the grave. Compared with it this life, with all its joys and griefs, is indeed but a dream ; an empty show.
Governor Trimble was always a man of the strictest integrity, and of the highest sense of honor. He valued his good name above all price. But for many years he lived without any distinct recognition of his accountability to God. Like many other men, whose consciences will not allow them to do a mean or dishonorable thing, he was living without God in the world.
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In the year 1821 he buried three brothers within twelve months. This led him to reflect very seriously upon his own departure to the spirit land and his preparation to stand before God's bar in judgment. One of his sons had be- come a Christian and entered the ministry. The father went to hear his son preach when the young man was still a member of the Ohio University. The proclaiming by his son of salvation, through faith in our atoning Saviour, moved the father's heart as it had never been moved before. This sermon was preached in Hillsborough in the Spring of 1828.
The Governor did not make his feelings known at the time. He was then a. candidate for the governorship, and the election was near at hand. He feared that his open espousal at that time of the cause of religion might be attributed to a wrong motive. He, however, wrote to his son, referring to the sermon which had roused him to so keen a sense of his own unworthiness in the sight of God, and declaring his earnest desire to become a Christian and to consecrate his energies for the remainder of his days to the promotion of the cause of Christ.
After his re-election he, as required by law, repaired to Columbus, to be present at the counting of votes for the President and Vice President of the United States. It so happened that at that time there was a very powerful re- vival of religion in connection with the Methodist Church. Governor Trimble, in a letter to his son, dated November 19, 1828, gives an account of what fol- lowed. The reader will be interested in receiving the narrative in the Govern- or's own words :
" Though I was exhausted with the ride and not very well, I determined to go immediately to the church. The house was full to overflowing. Fathers Collins and Elliot were there. The latter was preaching, and half through his sermon, which was animated and powerful. Father Collins gave an exhortation and invited mourners to the altar. I had to pass through a long and narrow way, but resolved to go. When I kneeled I found myself beside my son C., who had no knowledge of my being in the house, for none of the family at church knew of my arrival home.
" After a prayer, we were requested to occupy a seat. Not until he arose did C. discover me ; and then his surprise and joy were equally great. He threw his arms around my neck, and when the invitation was given to unite with the society on probation, he proposed to me to go with him and to join the church. I advised him to wait until the next day, and that his mother would probably then go with us. The next morning your sister E. insisted upon being per- mitted to join with us. After the first sermon, an invitation was given by Father Collins. C. led the way, and we all, your mother, sister, and myself followed. In the evening, after another sermon, mourners were again invited to the altar. No tongue can describe the deep solemnity which pervaded the congregation.
" My own feelings I shall never forget. A darkness hung over my mind which produced unutterable anguish. Before the meeting closed I felt a partial gleam of hope, and my mind became more calm. But in the night my fears returned, and I thought I was deceiving myself. Sleep left my eyes and I was in great distress until morning, when Father Collins came in and prayed for us, collect-
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ively and separately, in a most tender and effecting manner. I told him the state of my mind, and he said that it was no doubt a device of the Devil to throw me back into despair, and that I ought not to indulge in such thoughts, but think only of God's goodness, in providing a Saviour, and by faith lay hold of the promises, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ ; that if I did so God would pardon all my sins. I have felt very much relieved since then, and ready, I trust, to take up my cross and follow Christ through evil and through good re- port."
From that time, Governor Trimble, having become "a new creature in Christ Jesus," entered upon the life of a consistent, uniform, and exemplary Christian. Openly and energetically he engaged in the service of his Redeemer. Fully convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God for the salvation of this lost world, he did everything in his power by his words and his example to win others to the Saviour. He took a lively interest in every thing which related to the progress and purity of the church. For many years he was a trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and a Vice President of the American Bible Society.
Governor Trimble's first wife was Miss Margaret McDowell, to whom he was married in the year 1806. The happy union lasted but three years, when death separated them. Soon after he married Miss Rachel Woodrow. For sixty years they shared together the joys and griefs of this momentuous life. Amidst all the cares and agitations of time's stormy battle-field, Governor Trimble ever found refuge in his peaceful home, and in the love of his gentle, intelligent and congenial wife.
" The chamber where the good man meets his fate, Is privileged above the common walks of virtuous life, Quite in the verge of heaven. '
The dying hour came; that hour of indescribable sublimity, when the "chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof" are in attendance, to transport the redeemed soul, through the constellations, to its Father's home, where it is received as a son and an heir. The patriarchal saint had attained the age of eighty-seven years. It was the third of February, 1870. As he reposed upon that peaceful pillow of death, which Jesus can make "soft as downy pillows are," he turned his eyes to the weeping group standing around and said :
"The Lord has been my God. It is my earnest prayer that he may be the God of my children, and my children's children to the latest generation. Bless the Lord ! O, my soul. How thankful I am for the victory."
Soon after he sweetly fell asleep.
"Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep, From which none ever wake to weep."
Eight months after the death of Governor Trimble his beloved wife followed him to the paradise of God. A very beautiful sketch of Governor Trimble's life and character appeared, soon after his death, in the Ladies Repository, of Cincinnati. It was from the pen of Rev. J. Marley, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, at the time of Governor Trimble's death. He was intimately acquainted with the governor. To this sketch we are indebted
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for several of the most interesting incidents in the above narrative. Very appropriately he closes his article with the verse,
"O, may we all like him believe, And keep the faith and win the prize ; Father, prepare, and then receive Our hallowed spirits to the skies, To chant, with all our friends above, Thy glorious, everlasting love."
HON. JEREMIAH MORROW.
[See page 437.]
Gettysburg, Orleans County, Pennsylvania, will in all future time be renowned, for one of the most terrific battles whose thunders ever reverberated upon this war-cursed globe. Neither Marengo nor Austerlitz nor Waterloo has witnessed a more direful and sanguinary conflict. One hundred years ago, upon these then silent fields, a very worthy man of Scotch descent and Scottish intelligence, energy and virtue reared his humble dwelling, and cultivated his silent and lonely yet fertile fields. His son, Jeremiah Morrow, was born on the 6th of October, 1771.
The early days of the boy were passed on his father's farm. He worked diligently through the Summer months in the fields, and in the Winter attended a private school which the inhabitants of the little hamlet had established. He was a bright boy and made rapid progress, particularly in his favorite branches of mathematics and surveying.
In the year 1795, young Morrow, then twenty-four years of age, left the paternal roof for the boundless field of enterprise for energetic young men, the far West. He first directed his steps to a cluster of a few log cabins at the mouth of the Little Miami River. Only six years before a few emigrants had reared their huts upon that spot and called the place Columbia. It was six miles east from Cincinnati, and was the second place settled in the state. Here the new emigrant, with nothing to depend upon but hand and brain, picked up such jobs as he could find. He taught school. He surveyed land. He worked on farms
At length, having saved a little money, and those wild lands over which the savages were roaming being very cheap, he ascended the Little Miami River about twenty miles, into what is now Warren County, where he purchased a large farm. In this profound seclusion he reared a log cabin, and was so fortu- nate as to persuade Miss Mary Packhill, a young lady of piety, intelligence and amiability, to share his lonely cabin with him. The buds of the Spring of 1799 were swelling when he led his bride into their humble home.
Ere long quite a flood of emigration commenced, and the increasing com- munity rapidly appreciated the intelligence and moral worth of Jeremiah. Morrow. In 1801 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature, which held its. session at Chillicothe. During this session arrangements were made to call a Constitutional Convention to organize the State of Ohio. Mr. Morrow was chosen a delegate to this convention. He was then thirty years of age.
Nearly half a century after this, in the year 1850, another convention was
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assembled, in the opulent City of Columbus, the capital of the majestic state, Mr. Morrow, a venerable man of three score years and ten, was then visiting the capital. The convention passed the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the President of this Convention be requested to extend to the Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, of the County of Warren, one of the surviving members of the convention which framed the present Constitution, an invitation to a seat within the bar of this convention during his stay in the city."
In 1803 Mr. Morrow was elected to the Senate of Ohio. In June, of the same year, he was chosen the first representative, in the United States Congress, of the new state. Ohio then, and for the ten subsequent years, was entitled to but one member in the lower house of Congress. During that period of five terms. Mr. Morrow worthily represented the state of his adoption. Though making not the slightest claim to oratorical display, his sound common sense ever secured the attention of the House to his remarks.
As chairman of the Committee on Public Lands he rendered signal service to Ohio, and to the country at large. The insolent encroachments of the British Government, in arresting and imprisoning on board their men-of-war, without trial, citizens of the United States, upon the simple declaration of a naval officer that such citizens were subjects of Great Britain, roused his indignation! Cordially he sustained the United States Government in the War of 1812, into which it was driven by these outrages.
In 1813 the Legislature of Ohio conferred upon Mr. Morrow the honor of a seat in the Senate of the United States. In this august body he was also appointed Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands. With so much wisdom did he discharge these duties that he acquired the reputation of knowing more about the public lands than any other man in the country. He drew up most of the laws for the survey of the public domain. Henry Clay, in one of his most elo- quent speeches in the Senate, alluding to Jeremiah Morrow, said :
" A few artless but sensible words, pronounced in his plain Scotch-Irish dia- lect, were always sufficient to insure the passage of any bill or resolution he reported."
In 1814 Mr. Morrow, while a member of the United States Senate, was appointed Indian Commissioner, to treat with the Indian tribes west of the Miami. These tribes, having received great provocations from vagabond white men, were very restless. Mr. Morrow, eminently a fair-minded man, did every thing in his power to conciliate the deeply-wronged savages. He discharged his difficult duties to the perfect satisfaction of the government.
Upon leaving the Senate, Mr. Morrow retired to his farm, which had far more charms for him than the agitating scenes of public life. He was an earnest Christian. In his early youth he had become a member of the United Presbyterian Church, and throughout his whole life he continued to take an active interest in its welfare. He was ever ready to contribute of his time and money to promote the religious and intellectual interests of the community. He had no ambition to accumulate property, or to seek posts of honor. In his old age he has been known to walk to church over dusty roads and beneath a blazing sun for a dis- tance of four miles. He is now doubtless reaping the reward which follows the sentence, " Well done, good and faithful servant."
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The community will not leave such a man undisturbed in his retreat. In 1822, the almost unanimous voice of the people called him to the Chief Magis- tracy of Ohio. In 1824 he was reelected. So popular was he, where best known, that, at his first election, but a single vote, in his own township, was cast against him.
During his administration the distinguished Governor of New York, De Witt Clinton, by special invitation, visited Ohio. The New York Central Canal, the great achievement of De Witt Clinton's life, was just completed. He was invited to be present at the commencement of the work upon the Ohio Canal, and to deliver an address upon the occasion.
During the same year, General La Fayette, the nation's guest, visited Ohio." The enthusiasm of the whole Northwest was roused on this occasion, to confer honor upon the distinguished Frenchman who had so signally aided us in obtaining liberation from the thraldom of Great Britain. He descended, in a flat-bottomed boat, the beautiful river - La Belle Riviere, which his own enter- prising countryman had first discovered. At Cincinnati the whole population of the thriving town, with thousands from the surrounding region, flocked to welcome their great benefactor.
Governor Morrow met La Fayette at the wharf, and, in a few touching, unaf- fected words, assured him that a nation's heart greeted him with its love and homage. Upon Governor Morrow's retirement from the executive chair, he was still so earnestly solicited to fill several responsible public offices, that he could not well decline, though his inclinations urged him to enjoy the tranquility of an unambitious home.
On the 4th of July, 1839, he, being then in the sixty-eighth year of his age, was selected as the most appropriate person to lay the corner stone of the new State Capitol, at Columbus, and to deliver an address on the occasion. In 1840 he was again found in the National House of Representatives ; first, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Hon. Thomas Corwin, and, soon after, he was chosen for the whole of the succeeding term.
The good old patriarch, revered and beloved by all, full of years and honors, then again sought the retreat of the acres which his own hand had hewn from the wilderness. Here the sun of his earthly life gently sank in cloudless serenity and splendor. A plain marble tombstone marks the spot where his body reposes. It bears the simple inscription which, probably, he himself, with char- acteristic modesty, had directed should be placed upon it :
" JEREMIAH MORROW, "Died March 22, 1853. " Aged 80 years, 5 months and 16 days."
Governor Morrow's treasures were not in this world. He left but little prop- erty. His energy was indomitable. No obstacle, not absolutely insurmount- able, could swerve him from his purpose. He was of medium stature, compactly built, and with a boundless kindness of heart, was endowed with much vivacity and cheerfulness of spirit. He was a delightful companion, a deep thinker, and was blessed with a memory which was well stored with anecdotes and with reminiscenses of distinguished men. He was proverbially generous and hospi- table. Of a family of seven children, his eldest son only survived him.
CHAPTER XL.
LIVES OF THE GOVERNORS - CONTINUED.
DUNCAN MCARTHUR, ROBERT LUCAS, JOSEPH VANCE, WILSON SHANNON, THOMAS CORWIN.
HON. DUNCAN MCARTHUR.
[See page 459.]
Duncan McArthur, who was Governor of Ohio from 1830 to 1832, was like many others of our most successful men of Scottish descent. He was born of poor parents in the year 1772, in Dutchess County, New York. When eight years of age, his parents moved to an humble log cabin in the solemn wilder- ness of Western Pennsylvania. Duncan was a stout lad and was hired out at day's work and month's work on the adjacent clearings. Nothing can be more cheerless in aspect than the commencement of clearings in the gloomy forest. The dead, girdled trees, with their leafless, skeleton branches deforming the sky ; the blackened stumps ; the decaying trunks of gigantic trees, uprooted by the wind ; the rough and broken soil ; the rank weeds, and the comfortless look- ing, windowless hut of logs, all combine to present a picture which to the eye of taste is revolting.
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Amid such scenes, a day laborer, coarsely clad and coarsely fed, Duncan Mc- Arthur was reared. Little could he then have supposed that he was to become one of the most wealthy men in the nation, that he was to occupy the highest posts of honor, and take his stand as the acknowledged equal of the most dis- tinguished men. He contrived, by occasionally spending a few weeks in school, to pick up a little learning, so that he could read and write. Having naturally a strong and inquisitive mind, he was ever gaining additional education and ris- ing in mental culture.
Like most of the young men of his day, who had energy of character and their fortunes to make, he decided to emigrate to the West. With that object in view, and having no money, when about eighteen years of age he enlisted under General Harmar, for his campaign against the Indians north of the Ohio River. In a previous part of this volume we have given an account of that dis- astrous expedition. Barely surviving the perils and hardships of this terrible campaign, in 1792 he again enlisted as a private in that terrible war with the
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savages, which for so many years desolated our western frontiers with smoulder- ing ruins and blood.
At the battle of Captina, which was fought in May, 1792, young McArthur took a conspicuous part. The conflict took place in May, 1792, in what is now Belmont County, Ohio. The American troops, a small band, were attacked by an overwhelming force of savages. We find the following statement in refer- ence to this event :
"The commanding officer was shot early in the action. McArthur, although the youngest man in the company, was chosen to its command. His conduct on this occasion was such as to elicit the hearty applause of his associates. Young McArthur showed the best of judgment, and fought in such a manner as to pro- tect his men from the fire of their enemies as much as possible. When the order for retreat was finally given, Captain McArthur, with a gallant little band of troops, covered the retreat and ordered the wounded to be sent in advance. This fight made him the general favorite of the frontiersmen."
Returning from this campaign, Captain McArthur, still a young man, but twenty years of age, hired himself out for a few months to work at some salt springs in Maysville, Kentucky. Looking for jobs wherever he could find them, he ere long engaged as chain-bearer to assist General Massey in surveying the Scioto Valley. There again he was employed as a scout to watch the proceed- ings of the Indians and to give warning of their approach. This was one of the most difficult and perilous of enterprises. It required the greatest sagacity, coolness and bravery. The scouts, two only together, had to paddle up the lonely river and penetrate the forests to great distances. They were ever in danger of encountering bands of hundreds of Indian warriors. If captured, death, by the most awful torture, was their inevitable doom. Several of his adventures we have already described.
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