USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 61
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In the Spring of the year 1793, four of these heroic scouts were employed continually to explore the Kentucky bank of the river, a distance of about 150 miles from Maysville east, to the mouth of the Big Sandy. Bands of Indian warriors, more ferocious than wolves, were continually crossing the river from the northern wilds, carrying woe and death to the humble homes of Kentucky. The object of these scouts was to keep a vigilant eye upon the river, and give the immediate alarm when the savages appeared.
The names of the four young men who quite signalized themselves in this service were Duncan McArthur, Samuel Davis, Nathaniel Beasley and Samuel McDowell. These heroes went in pairs, through the pathless, uninhabited wilderness, two leaving each extremity of the route each week, and meeting nearly opposite the mouth of the Scioto. The vigilance of the howling savages was such that it was dangerous to fire a gun at game, or to build a fire, lest the smoke by day or the gleam by night should bring the moccasined foe, with his soft tread, upon them. Occasionally the four would unite in exploring some sol- itary stream. Two would, as noiselessly as possible, screening themselves be- neath the overhanging foliage, paddle the birch canoe, while the other two would advance on foot, through the dense forest, about a mile in advance, keeping a sharp lookout.
After spending several months in these perilous labors, Captain McArthur
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again engaged in the service of General Massey, as assistant surveyor. In this employment he was occupied for several years. He assisted in laying out sev- eral towns, and among others, Chillicothe, where finally he took up his residence. It was in this service that he laid the foundation of his large fortune, for thus he became acquainted with the richest lands in Ohio, and was enabled to make investments which afterwards brought him in perhaps an hundred fold.
With increasing wealth and reputation, and ever growing confidence in his own abilities, he began to feel ambitious of political distinction. There were, however, other men in his county of equal ambition, and men of far higher in- tellectual acquirements. Captain McArthur had formidable rivals to contend against. In the year 1805 he was elected to the State Legislature. His round- about common sense and his industry enabled him to take, from the beginning, a very respectable position in that body.
His services as a soldier influenced him to take a deep interest in the military organization of the state, and he rose in office until he attained the rank of major general. In the war of 1812, he marched, as colonel of one of the Ohio regiments, to Detroit with General Hull. In this unfortunate expedition Colonel McArthur was second in command. Upon the surrender he became a prisoner of war to the English, and being released on his parole, returned to Ohio, deeply mortified and exasperated. Much as General Hull's military character suffered from this expedition, the reputation of Colonel McArthur remained unblemished.
Soon after this he was elected a member of the Congressional Legislature on the Jeffersonian, or Democratic, ticket. He succeeded Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, and was elected by an unprecedented majority. Being released from his parole by exchange, he immediately resigned his seat in Congress and re-entered the army as brigadier general, under General Harrison. In 1814 he succeeded General Harrison in command of the Northwestern army. He proved an able and a gallant officer. At the battle of Malcolm's Mills he defeated the British with great loss on their side.
Upon the declaration of peace, General McArthur again retired to his farm. But he was immediately sent to the Legislature, and soon after was appointed Commissioner to the Indians at Detroit, Fort Meigs and St. Marys. For three years he was employed in these arduous duties, by appointment of the President of the United States. After filling several state offices, he was again, in 1822, sent a representative to Congress from the Chillicothe district. Having served one term very acceptably, he declined a re-election, and devoted his energies to his long neglected private affairs. He was now a man of large wealth, and his business was widely extended, in furnaces, mills, and real estate.
In 1830 he was chosen Governor of Ohio. The two years of his administra- tion passed tranquilly in the ordinary routine of business. Weary of public life, he retired to his beautiful residence, called " Fruit Hill," near Chillicothe. Here he spent the evening of his days until his death, which occurred in 1840, in the 68th year of his age. About ten years before an accident befel him at Columbus by which he was dreadfully mangled, and which caused him the most excruciating pain. This accident was the ultimate cause of his death.
Governor McArthur was emphatically the architect of his own fortune. He died, leaving to his children the legacy of a good name and a large estate.
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HON. ROBERT LUCAS. . [See page 489.]
The romance of frontier life, with all its hardships, has peculiar charms for the imagination. The log house in the primitive forest, crowded with game of every variety ; the crystal stream flowing by the door ; the boundless prairie, at one time a perfect wilderness of bloom, with its flowers of gorgeous hues, again blazing in sublime conflagration, and again covered with deer and buffaloes, whose numbers are to be counted by thousands ; the Indian canoe, floating like a bubble upon the sea ; the bands of savage hunters and warriors in their pictur- esque costume, all these combine to give attractions to men of imaginative mood.
Amid essentially such scenes Governor Lucas passed his early days. He was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Virginia, on the Ist of April, 1781. His father was a descendant of William Penn. His mother was of Scotch extraction. Dissatisfied with slavery, Mr. Lucas freed every one of his adult slaves and made humane provision for all. He then removed to the soil of the North- western Territory, north of the Ohio, which was consecrated to freedom.
He took up his abode in the beautiful but solitary village of the Scioto at the commencement of the present century. Ohio had not then been admitted into the Union, and there were but few settlers scattered over its vast expanse. Rob- ert was then about nineteen years of age. We infer that his father was a man of considerable means, since he was able to give his son a good practical education. A Scotch schoolmaster taught him mathematics and surveying. As a skillful surveyor he found remunerative employment immediately in the new and unex- plored territory. In 1810 he married Miss Elizabeth Brown, who died two years after, leaving an infant daughter. In 1816 he married Miss Sumner, a young lady from Vermont, who had accompanied her parents in their emigra- tion from the rugged hills of New England to the fertile prairies of the West. When young Lucas was but twenty-three years of age he was appointed County Surveyor of Scioto County. The standing of the family is evidenced by the fact that his elder brother, Joseph, was at that time associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas. When twenty-five years of age he received a commission as justice of the peace for Union Township, Scioto County. In those days every able-bodied man was bound to be a soldier. Robert Lucas passed through all the military grades to that of major general of the Ohio militia.
In the war of 1812, when the military science of Great Britain was united with the ferocity of savage warriors, all the energies of Mr. Lucas were called into requisition. He sent twelve hundred of his brigade to march to Detroit. Placing himself at the head of a small company of picked men he advanced through the forest to Greenville to watch the movements of the Indians. Then volunteering his services in the dangerous capacity of a scout, he passed through adventures of peril, of hardships, of hair-breadth escapes, the detail of which would fill a volume.
Governor Lucas accompanied Hull's army in crossing the Detroit River and invading Canada. He took so active a part in all the movements there that
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many, dissatisfied with General Full, and inspired with confidence in the mili- tary ability of young Lucas, indiscreetly urged him to take the command, which, of course, he refused to do. Hull's army, defeated and humiliated, retreated across the river, and Detroit was surrendered to the enemy. From this sur- render Mr. Lucas made his escape by putting his sword into his brother's trunk, exchanging his uniform for a citizen's dress, and walking into the town before the British. After taking notes of all that was transpiring, he embarked on board a small vessel and reached Cleveland in safety. He was this year commissioned as captain in the regular army, and rose to the rank of colonel in that service, when other duties called for his resignation. In 1816 he became a member of the Ohio Legislature, and for nineteen consecutive years served either in the House or the Senate. In 1820, and again in 1828, he was chosen as one of the Presidential Electors of Ohio. In 1832 he was elevated to the dis- tinguished honor of chairman of the Democratic National Convention, in Balti- more, which nominated General Jackson for his second term of service.
Robert Lucas had thus become one of the most prominent men in Ohio. His name was known throughout the state. In 1832 he was elected governor of Ohio, and re-elected in 1834. He declined a third nomination. It was during his administration that the perplexing question rose respecting the boundary line between Ohio and Michigan. We have already described the nature of this controversy and its results.
Governor Lucas removed from Portsmouth, in Scioto County, to Piketon, in Pike County. Here he resided twenty-two years, He was then appointed by President Van Buren Governor of the Territory of Iowa. To this office was joined the great responsibilities of Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
A journey from the interior of Ohio through the pathless wilderness to the banks of the Upper Mississippi was then a great undertaking. It occupied weeks, and exposed one to great hardships and not a few perils. We have not access to any record of the incidents of this journey. The governor set out from home, leaving his family behind him, on the 25th of July, and did not reach Burlington, then the temporary seat of the territorial government, until the middle of August. He was accompanied by Mr. Jessie Williams, as clerk of the Indian Department, and by Mr. Theodore S. Parvin, as his private secre- tary. It was not until the next year that his family joined him.
His subsequent history was troubled and eventful, as he was called to en- counter many very serious political difficulties, and to struggle against the most formidable opposition. But this portion of his career is connected with the annals of Iowa rather than with those of Ohio.
God preserved his life through more than the allotted three-score years and ten. He died on the 7th of February, 1853, at the age of seventy-two. It is said that all the members of the family save one were gathered around the dying bed of the affectionate husband and the tender father. His remains now repose in the cemetery adjoining Iowa City.
Iowa is much indebted for her prosperity to the impulse given by her first governor. He zealously advocated the common school system, now one of the crowning glories of the state. No gambler or drunkard could receive an ap- pointment from him. Through his influence probably Iowa was, it is said,
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the first of the states to enact by the popular voice a prohibitory liquor law. The marble shaft which marks his grave bears the inscription,
ROBERT LUCAS, Died February 7th, 1853.
Aged 71 years, 19 months and 6 days.
He served his country in the war of 1812; was elected twice Governor of Ohio, and was the organic Governor of Iowa Territory.
" I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
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HON. JOSEPH VANCE.
[See page 503.]
Joseph Vance was Governor of Ohio from 1836 to 1838. He was born on the 21st of March, 1786, in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The blood of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians circulated in his veins. In 1788 his father, a poor man, with his small family, emigrated to the Northwestern Territory. Joseph was a toddling babe two years old. The family floated down the river on a raft, and for a time resided in the solitude and silence of the wilderness of the southern or Kentucky shore of the river. These were the dreadful days on Indian warfare, of war-whoops and tomahawks and scalping-knives. The savages were numerous, and were led at that time by a renowned Indian called Captain Pipe, and by the renegade white man, Simon Girty.
Mr. Vance built him a strong block-house, where his neighbors could join him for defense, in case of alarm. Their home was in the region to which we have alluded as traversed by McArthur's scouts. Here young Joseph became acquainted with McArthur, and a friendship was formed which lasted through life.
In the year 1801, when Joseph was fifteen years of age, his father crossed the river into Ohio. After moving from place to place he reared the first cabin erected in what is now Urbana, Ohio, and became a permanent resident there. Under these circumstances the educational advantages of Joseph Vance were very limited. He had no instruction save the little teaching which his father could give him, and six months' schooling from an itinerant Irish schoolmaster.
Young Joe, as he was familiarly called, commenced life as a plow-boy and a wood-chopper, ready to turn his hand to any job which might present itself. He was a stout, energetic boy, never afraid of hard work, and remarkably skillful in swinging the ax. After working very industriously one season he laid up sufficient money to purchase a yoke of oxen. With this team, having pur- chased several barrels of salt, he traveled through all the distant and scattered settlements of Kentucky, peddling out his load at the log cabins.
This shows certainly very remarkable force of character in a boy of fifteen. The cattle moved at a snail's pace. The roads were often horrible, with bogs to wade through and rivers to ford. The gloomy forest was to be traversed, the path being often obstructed by gigantic trees blown down by the wind. Often
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for weary leagues he would find no cabin. At night, all alone, he would camp out, building a large fire to keep off the howling wolves and panthers, and standing guard through the night, rifle in hand, to protect his oxen from these ferocious beasts of prey.
The chivalry of this world is not all to be found on the field of battle. The arduous enterprises of peaceful life often call into requisition all the noblest and most heroic traits of human character. Young Vance continued this business for several years, finding it very profitable. He often suffered severely from hunger, thirst and exposure. Not unfrequently he would find a stream so swollen by the rain that it was necessary for him to wait several days in the tangled forest on its banks for the water to subside so that he could cross the ford. Some- times he would find a swamp so wet and soft that it became necessary to unload the team and drive the cattle over first, and then roll each barrel over by strength of hand.
At twenty-one years of age Joseph Vance married Miss Mary Lemen, of Urbana. Two years after this he was elected captain of a rifle company, which was several times called out to fight the Indians in the murderous excursions upon which the savages entered just before the war of 1812. As a rendezvous for his company on its expeditions, he built a strong block-house on the edge of a prairie, a few miles north of Urbana, which the wary savages could not approach unseen. With his brother John, in 1812, he piloted Hull's army through the pathless forest to Fort Meigs, on the Maumee.
In 1817 he contracted with two others, Samuel McCulloch and Henry Van Metre, to furnish the northern army with provisions. On foot they drove cattle and swine several hundred miles through the forest, while flour, whisky and other necessaries were transported on sleds and wagons. With versatility characteristic of these western emigrants, he entered into mercantile business for three years at Urbana and Fort Meigs, now Perrysburg.
It was extremely difficult at that day to transport goods to those distant wilds. They were carted through the dark and dense forest, across the country to Fort Findlay, on the upper waters of Blanchard's Fork. There they were paddled or poled in canoes down the shallow and winding stream to the Auglaise. Thence they pushed down that stream, full of whirling eddies and shallows, upon which their boat not unfrequently grounded. Upon reach- ing the Maumee they had good boat navigation to Fort Meigs. The remarkable fact is stated that on one occasion, when hopelessly stranded on the Auglaise, having unavailingly used every effort again to get afloat, a friendly Indian chief appeared upon the bank and shouted out to them in broken English :
" Get heap brush ; make big fire ; heap smoke : make cloud ; get rain."
This indicates, it has been said, that the theory of M. Espy, the Storm King, was not original with him. The industry of Joseph Vance was untiring. Whatever he undertook prospered. In the midst of all these accumulated labors he was in 1812 elected to the State Legislature, and continued a member of that body for four successive years. Increasing in wealth, he, with two others, in 1820, purchased a large tract of land upon the upper waters of Blanchard's Fork and founded the town of Findlay. At the same time he was elected Representative in Congress, and for fifteen years, until 1836, continued
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a member of that body. He was always at his post, and though seldom attempting to speak, was highly regarded for his sound judgment.
Politically, he was a Whig, and a warm admirer of Henry Clay. In the year 1836 he was elected Governor of Ohio. Nothing of interest occurred during his term of office. From the gubernatorial chair he retired to his farm near Urbana, intending to spend the remainder of his days free from the agitations of office. But the voice of the people soon called him again to the State Senate ; and in 1842 he was re-elected to Congress. In 1850, while attending a consti- tutional convention, he was struck with paralysis, and died at Urbana on the 24th of August, 1852.
Governor Vance has left behind him a high reputation for industry, ability and enlightened patriotism. To his tireless energies the state is much indebted for its prosperity.
HON. WILSON SHANNON.
[See page 513.]
In the year 1802 Mr. Shannon, father of Wilson Shannon, emigrated from Pennsylvania, and took up his residence in Belmont County, Ohio. One year after Mr. Shannon had reared his humble home in these solitudes, through which Indian bands were ever roving, his son Wilson was born, on the 24th of February, 1803. In this deep seclusion and silence of the wilderness Wilson remained, assisting his father in the varied duties of the farm, until he was fifteen years of age. His opportunities of getting an education were of course very limited.
In 1818 he was sent to school, for one year, at what was called the Ohio Univer- sity, at Athens. With such preparation, at the close of the year he entered Tran- sylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky. In this school he remained two years, and then returned to his native county, to commence the study of law, Having completed these studies, he opened an office in the little struggling vil- lage of St. Clairsville, which had become the shire town of Belmont County.
Here, for eight years, Mr. Shannon continued engaged in the various pursuits of a country lawyer, ever rising in reputation as a man of ability and integrity. In the year 1832 his neighbors indicated their estimate of his worth by nomi- nating him as the Democratic candidate for a seat in Congress. But Whig prin- ciples then ruled the state, and Mr. Shannon, as was expected, lost the election.
Two years after this, in 1834, he was nominated for the office of district attorney of the county. His appreciation by his neighbors is evidenced in the fact that he was chosen by a majority of twelve hundred votes. The duties of this office he dis- charged with such ability that his reputation was greatly extended. In 1838, the Democrats of Ohio, in looking over the state in search of the most popular man they could find as their candidate for the gubernatorial chair, selected Wilson Shannon. He was nominated by the convention, and after a very closely contested election was chosen by about thirty-six hundred majority.
At the close of the term he was re-nominated by acclamation. Hon. Thomas Corwin, one of the most popular and eloquent of men, was the Whig candidate.
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Party politics then ran very high throughout the whole nation. The slavery question was becoming one of absorbing interest. Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison were rival candidates for the Presidency.
Governor Shannon addressed the people in nearly every county in the state. Mr. Corwin did the same. In this conflict "Greek met Greek." " Tom Cor- win," as he was familiarly called, possessed unrivaled powers to move the masses. The day of election came. " Tom " was chosen by a majority of fif- teen thousand votes. The personal popularity of Governor Shannon was manifest from the fact that the state went against Van Buren, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, by a majority of twenty-five thousand.
Governor Shannon, retiring from office, returned to the practice of law in Belmont County. Two years after this, in 1842, the Democratic Convention again, with entire unanimity, nominated Governor Shannon for the chair of the chief executive. Governor Corwin was again the Whig candidate. Both men canvassed the state. Governor Shannon won by about four thousand majority.
In the Spring of 1843, the National Government tendered to Governor Shan- non the office of Minister to Mexico. In June he repaired to the " Halls of the Montezumas," and discharged the then exceedingly difficult and delicate duties of ambassador at the Mexican Court for two years.
Upon the annexation of Texas, when the Mexican authorities renounced all diplomatic intercourse with the United States, Governor Shannon returned home and again resumed the practice of law. In the discharge of these peaceful labors he continued for seven years. In 1852 he was nominated as the Demo- cratic candidate for Congress from the Belmont district, and was chosen by a majority of thirteen hundred votes. His action in Congress gave such satisfac- tion to his party, then in power, that he was appointed by the President Gov- ernor of the Territory of Kansas.
The direful conflict which soon culminated in civil war was even then begin- ning to develop its energies upon those far-distant plains. It was the great struggle between freedom and slavery which soon deluged our land in one of the most sanguinary wars this war-scathed globe has ever witnessed. Of Governor Shannon's administration in Kansas we know but little. No mortal man could then satisfy the antagonistic parties. After holding the office about fourteen months, in 1856 he was superseded by John W. Geary.
In 1857 Governor Shannon removed his family to Kansas, and opened a law office in Lecompton, then the capital of the territory. His reputation was such that he immediately entered upon a very extensive practice. An immense amount of litigation grew out of contested land claims, under the preemption laws of the United States. Upon the admission of Kansas as a state of the Union the capital was removed to Topeka. Governor Shannon then removed to the City of Lawrence, where he still resides, in the year 1874, revered and beloved by all who know him. He has already passed his three-score years and ten. May a kind Providence lead him serenely through the evening of his days, till his laborious and useful earthly life shall terminate in translation to a better land.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
HON. THOMAS CORWIN.
[See page 535.]
In the year 1798, when the present State of Ohio was an almost unbroken wilderness, Matthias Corwin-a man of some note in his day-took up his resi- dence in what is now called Warren County, Ohio. Though one of the most respectable and honored men in the state, his children in their wide seclusion and log cabin could enjoy but few advantages of education. His son Thomas was a bright boy, who was sure to triumph over all adverse circumstances.
The first school the child entered was held in a log shed which his father and some neighbors, who were anxious for the education of their children, had con- structed by the labor of a few hours. It stood upon the right bank of a little stream called Turtle Creek, about a mile from the thriving town of Lebanon. A young man by the name of Dunlevy, who subsequently attained some dis- tinction, taught the school. It was however in operation only one or two months in the year.
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