USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 4
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There had never been an inn or hotel at Zanesville-which became a "city" in 1802-and John and Sarah, building a commodious house, luxur- iously furnished according to the times, opened it to travelers. Louis Phillipe, of France once stopped there and often recalled the gracious hospitality of Sarah and John McIntire. McIntire Tavern, as it was called, was visited by many famous people and the name of Sarah MeIntire has gone down in history with that of her husband, who, born a poor boy, yet died a rich and influential man.
Having no children they adopted a young girl fourteen years old whom they made their heir. But she died soon after the death of MeIntire, who passed away at the age of fifty-six.
Remembering his own difficult youth and aided and abetted by Sarah, whose heart was as large as the proverbial omnibus, they willed their fortune to found a free school for the youth of the community and a home for orphaned children. The latter is in existence today and is administered by executors of the estate.
It is said that Sarah had all the resolution and courage, all the fine sense of justice which made her father, Col. Zane, so notable. She certainly proved a splendid mate for the pioneering husband she married. Some of her silver and small possessions are in the possession of Zanesville families and are treasured for their historical value.
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The bodies of Sarah and John lie in a small plot of ground surrounded by a high iron fence in the estate surrounding the McIntire Children's Home. The setting sun seems always to shine with particular radiance upon these secluded graves and in the spring the children, whom their forethought be- friended, bring bouquets of wild flowers from the nearby woods to lie upon their quiet breasts.
TALITHA ELDERKIN is said to have been the first white woman to step foot in Cleveland. Talitha was the bride of John Phelps Stilles.
Both were born in Granville, Mass., both had taught school in Vermont. So they both decided to accompany the Moses Cleveland expedition and they both did.
They arrived in what is now Cleveland in June, 1796.
REBECCA CARTER and her husband, Lorenzo Carter, were the first two settlers to follow the original surveying party into Cuyahoga County. They came in 1797. They came to what is now Cleveland, Ohio, and was then a wilderness. More than that, Rebecca Carter and her husband were the only two white persons in this wilderness from January, 1799, until the spring of 1800.
Imagine what this meant. Lorenzo and Rebecca Carter had in all nine children. Their mother bore the earliest of them without benefit of physician or medical skill. These and the children of other settlers who came later must go to school. But where and how? Rebecca Carter answered the ques- tion-right there, in the Carter cabin. Who would teach them? Rebecca solved that question too-ANNE SPOFFORD could-and would. That was how Anne came to be the first teacher of any school in what later became Cleveland, Ohio.
Meanwhile Lorenzo Carter was equally well occupied. A ferry was badly needed to get across the river-he started one. Permanent settlers were now arriving in the community but had no temporary place to stay. Lorenzo built and opened the first inn. Until there was an inn, the Carter home was a free and hospitable substitute.
Lorenzo and Rebecca opened it for the first ball ever given in Cuyahoga County. Lorenzo-doubtless assisted by Rebecca, closed it-and barred it -- against an especially violent attack of drunken Indians. Although their in- toxication brought on the attack, it contributed definitely to the doughty major's victory. Knowing the redskins were more or less incapacitated, he assaulted them single-handed with no better weapon than a fire poker and drove them off in panic.
But there were evils that even the bravest could not dispel by force of arms, Ague, "low fever." Days and nights of shivering, burning, shaking as if palsied, broke the spirit of most of the early Cleveland settlers-they moved to the highlands. They had no doctor-so they doctored themselves. Not so the Carters. They had no quinine-so they steeped dogwood and cherry bark-and they carried on.
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Major Carter did not live long enough, however, to see the community he helped to found expand into a city. He died in 1814. His wife survived him until 1827.
Both were buried in what is now the East Ninth St. Cemetery. For years their tombstones stood there, moss covered, the inscriptions more and more weatherworn.
Then a great grand-daughter of the Carters, Jessie Martin Carter, co- operating with the Early Settlers Association, restored the monument. They had made a bronze plate and had it affixed to the old tombstone. They had only four words inscribed on the bronze plate-but the four words were sufficient. The inscription reads, "Others Fled-They Remained."
SOPHRONIA NORTON, the daughter of Samuel Norton, first settler in Crawford County, was the first white child born in Crawford County.
Her father came from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and he erected his pole cabin on a clearing before it was surveyed or offered for sale. In this cabin Sophronia was born.
CHAPTER THREE
Women At The Doorway
CHAPTER THREE
WOMEN AT THE DOORWAY
Nobody would undertake to tell the early story of Columbus, Ohio, without paying due tribute to Lucas Sullivant, sent at the age of 30 from Virginia as deputy surveyor to trace and mark the Virginia Military Tract in the region that later became Ohio. He had acquired grants in the north- central part of the state and selected for settlement one beautiful and well wooded spot, on the west bank of the Scioto, at the bend of the river, which he named "Franklinton" in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Franklinton is now part of Columbus, where has been preserved, in historical documents, paint- ings, buildings and old landmarks, the name of the enterprising and enthus- iastic founder.
"The story of Lucas Sullivant and his experiences in founding Frank- linton has been well told in many a volume," says Ruth Young White in "We, Too, Built Columbus," "but that of the young gentlewoman who . took her place beside that of her famous husband has remained untold."
The bride brought by Sullivant to the wilderness which the magic and good fortune of his touch was to make blossom like a rose, stemmed from a class and family far more favored financially, socially and culturally than that of the average pioneer.
She was a Starling. The Starlings had moved from their Virginia home to Harrodsburg, Ky., in 1794, taking their children, their blooded stock and their retinue of numerous slaves with them.
The Starlings were descended from Sir William Starling of Stopplesy Hall, Bedfordshire, England, who became Lord Mayor of London in 1670. It was a far cry for SARAH STARLING SULLIVANT, the 20 year old bride of Lucas Sullivant, from the luxuries and gayeties of her spacious Kentucky home to the pioneer settlement where wolves, wild cats and Indians vied with famine and hardship as grim background of the new settlement.
Nor is credit due the brave young bride for her readiness to face what might befall lessened by the fact that she was spared much of the toil and terror undergone by other pioneers of her sex. Lucas Sullivant was not the man to deprive his wife of any of the comforts-or luxuries-to which she had been accustomed, as far as his power to provide them could possibly be extended.
Lucas, as a matter of fact, did very well indeed by Sarah. He built her the first brick house erected in Franklin County. It had 20 rooms and was made so strong and staunch that it stands to this day-as part of the Convent of the Good Shepherd, at Broad and Sandusky Sts., Columbus.
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Sarah was a religious girl, for all that she had been the belle of so many gay parties in her ancestral home. So after Lucas had completed her brick house, he built her a brick church. This was in 1811.
He presented it, of course, to the congregation which had 13 members and constituted the First Presbyterian Church of the community. Dr. James Hoge, a young Virginian of fine old family who abandoned ease and plenty to become an itinerant missionary was pastor.
Lucas also gave Sarah four children. That she might face the ordeal of her first baby without terror, he induced a doctor to ride all the way from Chillicothe, 50 miles away, and await the advent for three weeks.
But do not think that Sarah Sullivant escaped altogether the perils and deprivations inseparable from the life of the pioneer. Once a tall half breed, inflamed with anger because he thought he had been short changed in the matter of certain yards of calico, caught her by the hair and pressed his hunting knife against her heart. A faithful servant rushed to the rescue and before he could be worsted, Lucas-for Lucas Sullivant always reached the right spot at the right moment-disarmed the drunken brute and gave him a good thrashing, then and there.
Sarah is said to have been a "ministering angel" to soldiers sent to Franklinton under William Henry Harrison in the war of 1812.
And after all, life was none too easy. In any case, Sarah Sullivant died at the age of 34, leaving four children, William Starling, Micheal Lucas, Joseph and Sarah Anne. The last named passed away soon after the mother but the other three lived and throve, married, begot fine and efficient children and left an indelible imprint on the entire region that is cherished to this very day.
KATHERINE DEARDURFF, born in Northern Germany, whence she brought to this country chests well filled with fine German linen, chinaware and a tailor's "goose," was the wife of Abraham Deardurff. They reached the settlement of Franklinton in October, 1798, to take up their ownership of 10 acres of bottom land obtained by Abraham through barter of his varied stock on a previous venture to the wilderness.
They travelled to the new home by oxcart and later Abraham utilized his knowledge of the territory to carry mail and continue his merchandising trade. Katherine did not mind hard work but she could not endure Indians. Once when she was outside her cabin hulling hominy, she looked up to see a redskin staring hungrily at her hominy tub. Katherine made the house in record time, slammed and bolted the door, then proceeded to scream to her heart's content. But her men did not return until nightfall.
Then they made an investigation. In the woodshed they discovered a huge deer and a bundle of muskrat hides that the maligned and misunderstood Indian had left in lieu of the meal of hominy his mouth had so watered for.
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RACHEL FORD, sister of Joshua and Benjamin Ford, who accompanied her brothers to Darby Creek Settlement, near Franklinton, in 1822, must have been a girl with a mind of her own and plenty of will to carry it out.
She was raised on the plantation of her father in Maryland and owned 25 slaves in her own right. But Rachel did not believe in slave owning. In fact, she actually freed her slaves, for which forward and radical and alto- gether unladylike and unruly conduct-from the standpoint of her day and her environment-she was very properly disinherited. So Rachel decided to accompany her brothers north. Needless to say, she managed to do so. Her marriage in 1823 was interesting in that it united the daughter of southern slave-holders with the oldest son-David Deardurff-of the erstwhile itinerant salesman who obtained his first 10 acres of land by careful barter.
MARY MINER came with her parents from Connecticut to Franklin County in 1806. Mary grew up, was married to Henry Wharton, an English- man, was widowed and finally died in the very same house in which she had been born 89 years before. Not only in the same house but in the same bed in which she had slept for more than 50 years.
Mary is said to have been quite a friend of both Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. She was, in fact, chosen by the teachers at the Friends Seminary, Philadelphia, to which she travelled back and forth by stage coach, to write a letter to the great Webster, advocating the abolishment of slavery, one might begin to think that Franklin County was the magnet of very emanci- pated girls, for those early days. But this was not necessarily the case as regards Mary's letter to Webster. It was chosen because she wrote such a beautiful hand.
The Tombstone of ELIZABETH GOODALE, it is stated in "We, Too, Built Columbus" was found by J. H. Galbraith in the old Franklinton Cemetery, embedded in a tree trunk that had grown up around it. The stone bore the date 1809. It marked the end of a long journey and a brave life. In the spring of 1789, Elizabeth and Nathan Goodale settled at Belpre, where they endured actual famine the first winter. Toward the end the children were allowed a potato a day, then half a potato.
In the spring of 1790 the famine was so bad that they are said to have used nettles and purslane as food. The following year the Indians went on the warpath and the famous "Farmer's Castle" stockade was built at Belpre. The Goodales occupied one of these block cabins. But Nathan ventured further, cultivated his farm despite the danger and one day disappeared. It is believed that he was captured by the Indians.
One of the sons, Lincoln Goodale, became famous in two capacities, as a physician and as a particularly obdurate albeit-perhaps although-a par- ticularly charming bachelor. He later took his mother and the rest of the family to Franklinton, where his long service to the community as a physician was centered.
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SALLY WAIT came to Franklinton in 1805 with her father, Jenks Wait, from Jamestown, N. Y. A few years later came young William Merion from Massachusetts, taking up quarters at the Voris Inn. The two were married, much to the satisfaction, apparently, of their romance loving community, in 1809. They lived a short time in Franklinton, then on a large tract in what was then outlying district. Their cabin was located at what is now the corner of High and Moler Sts., Columbus, Ohio. In 1818 they built a very spacious brick house, from which, it is said, no one in need, man, woman or child, was ever turned away. It is of the spirit that ruled this home that special record should be made. Sally Merion was, it is stated, utterly without fear. Once she was overtaken by darkness when returning home on horse- back. She was alone. A pack of wolves caught the scent, pursued closely, and chased Sally to her very door. But even this could not frighten her. "Nothing could overtake my horse," she explained. "I knew that. What was there to be afraid of?"
Sally was a famous housekeeper, her home immaculate, her table a constant demonstration of her culinary skill. Nobody in the community could obtain baking soda so Sally evolved a formula for making her own. She leached hickory ashes, boiled the lye into potash, baked the product until it was dry and white. With this she was able to evolve buttermilk biscuits that were the talk of the country-side.
MURIEL BRODERICK was another Franklinton born girl that is credited by Ruth Young White with having helped to build Columbus. She married John Macy Walcutt, who conducted a chair shop at High and Town Sts. They had 16 children, eleven of them reaching maturity. Three of her sons became noted artists, one a distinguished general, one a naval captain who accompanied Commodore Perry on his famous voyage to Japan. Her five daughters shared the family heritage of energy and ability. One of them became a school teacher and on her death bequeathed a fortune to establish a home in Columbus for retired teachers. This foundation is known as the Gay bequest, much publicized and commended by educational publications throughout the country.
The married name of BETSY GREEN DESHLER was among those destined to grow in importance as the young state capital developed in importance.
It should be realized that Columbus was chosen as the seat of Ohio's government by specific act of the General Assembly. This took place Feb. 25, 1812. Nor was this selection by any means unanimous. Howe tells us that among others, Col. James Kilbourne worked enthusiastically for selection of Worthington-which was even more nearly the geographical center of Ohio.
Kilbourne, according to Howe, thought he had the choice cinched, with even a vote to spare. But when the crucial moment came, not only one but
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two of the Kilbourne voters were mysteriously missing. Not so mysteriously at that-their cache was presently discovered. It was still bounteously supplied with wine and cards-and dice as well.
David and Betsy Green Deshler were married in Easton, Pa., June 17, 1817. They started immediately for the new capital. Betsy, it is said, held her favorite looking glass safely in her lap all the way. They decided on a lot on the north side of Broad St. at High Street. They agreed to give in exchange the following, to-wit-a gold watch, $200.00 in cash, $400.00 on April 1st, 1819 and $200.00 more on April 1, 1820.
Their friends in the East were appalled at the price, urged the young couple to take warning, told them, probably that these April 1st pledges were April foolishness. Yes, they did their best. But the young couple went ahead with their purchase and it was just as well they did so. Part of their lot is now occupied by the Deshler-Wallick Hotel.
Letters written by Betsy Deshler to her family at Pennsylvania are among the few such missives preserved to tell the story of the early scourge of malaria, the hard times and the general struggle undergone by early residents of Columbus. Also of the compensating progress made by the young city and its citizens.
ELIZA WHEELER SULLIVANT was the second wife of William Sulli- vant, eldest son of Sarah and Lucas Sullivant. In addition to the care of five children and of a handsome and hospitable home, Eliza Sullivant found time, it seems, to assist her husband in his scientific studies. She became an expert botanist, made drawings so accurate that some of them are included in the collections of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University. In fact, a new variety of moss was named in her honor by a famous European expert in bryology.
HANNAH SCHWING NEIL was born June 3, 1794 in Franklin, Virginia and died March 18, 1865 in Columbus, long her home city and the home as well of literally hundreds of less fortunate men, women and children whose needs she relieved unceasingly.
But this does not tell the real story. Although William Neil, who came from Winchester, Va. and whom Hannah married when she was 22, became one of the richest men of the entire community, Mrs. Neil is said to have given away every dress she ever owned except one black "grosgrain." One cold day she actually took off her quilted petticoat to add to the comfort of a poor woman, already the recipient of Hannah's best featherbed. Even so, the Neils prospered. William erected a fine home on ground that is now the campus of Ohio State University. They became identified with many business enterprises as well as many great philanthrophies. These have been deservedly and often eulogized. But the finest tribute paid to Hannah Neil was un- doubtedly her funeral, at which not only was the church filled to overflowing but the streets leading thereto packed with those who waited to pay honor to their friend and benefactress.
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Among the many notable descendants of Lucas and Sarah Sullivant, is one to whom the entire city of Columbus is definitely and deeply indebted today. This is MRS. ANDREW DENNY RODGERS-Eliza Sullivant-the granddaughter of the original pioneer and for more than half a century a leader in virtually every worthwhile movement-civic, social, cultural and philanthropie-in which citizens of Columbus have engaged.
Her most recent service to her city and entire community is believed to be as far reaching in its importance and its influence as it was original. For it was Eliza Sullivant Rodgers who conceived the idea of recording in permanent form the part played by women of Columbus, past and present, in the establishment, development and progress of their city. For years Mrs. Rodgers had noted with satisfaction the tribute paid to men who founded her home city, to those who contributed to its financial, industrial and educa- tional growth. The facts were set forth in many books and articles. They were well represented on library shelves, in newspaper and magazine files.
But virtually nowhere, it occurred to Mrs. Rodgers, could she find any such record concerning the women of Columbus. Search the public library shelves as diligently as she might, they were as bare of this part of the story as Mother Hubbard's cupboard.
With the Sullivants, to note a lack is usually to meet it, and Eliza Rodgers was no exception. With characteristic enthusiasm, with the persistance which was the heritage of her race, she threw herself into the work of research. For six years Mrs. Rodgers toiled at her task. Her original idea was enlarged to include contemporary as well as pioneer history. She persuaded other capable women to enlist in the work of research and compilation.
The result was "We, Too, Built Columbus," published in 1926 and said to be by far the most interesting as well as the most authentic volume evcr written about the women of an American city.
A number of years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers celebrated their golden anniversary with a dinner party at their home on E. Broad St. The occasion caused resurrection of old newspaper descriptions of the wedding and renewed memories of many wedding guests no longer subject to earthly invitation. It told how the bride, considered the most beautiful girl in Columbus society, had been given away by her father, Mr. William S. Sullivant, in the fine old home on E. Broad St. and made it clear, between the lines if not in them, that any bride could be thankful to have so handsome, courteous and dis- tinguished a father, oldest son of the oldest pioneer, to give her away. Also that the most distinguished father could hardly have had a finer daughter to give away-or a more desirable young husband to give her to.
The years bridged by the two wedding parties-Eliza Sullivant was married Oct. 5, 1858-and those passed since have been filled to overflowing with useful and self-sacrificing service, in which all Columbus takes due pride. But the women of Columbus rate Eliza Rodger's recent task as com-
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parable to any, in that it made possible a record of the service given to their city by other women of Columbus as well.
MARGARET BLENNERHASSETT was not born in Ohio nor did she die there. Yet to omit from a history sponsored by newswomen the romantic tale of Blennerhassett Island and its high born and equally high strung mistress would outrage the journalistic instincts of every newspaper woman worthy of her craft.
For if ever a story dripped with human interest, it is that of the lovely lady who with her husband, Harman Blennerhassett, a direct descendant of King Edward III of England, took up residence in 1798 on the upper end of what was then known as Backus Island, in the Ohio River 14 miles below Marietta, Ohio.
Not only was Harman Blennerhassett of the line of English kings but also of Irish peers. This was moreover, a descent which his wife also could have claimed, had she so desired.
She did not and no wonder. Margaret Blennerhassett was her husband's niece. She was the daughter of his sister, who was the wife of Captain Robert Agnew, Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man.
When Harman Blennerhassett was 31, handsome, talented, intellectual and heir to a fine estate, his sister happened to ask him to escort his niece home from school for her vacation. Harman complied, no more willingly perhaps than does the average brother on whom some such little job is wished. If so, his feeling changed rapidly. For when the 31 year old uncle and the 18 year old niece reached home, they were man and wife.
This curious core of the full flavored story was not publicly disclosed until many years after the ill-starred principals were dead and buried.
Other high lights had been told and retold many times when, in the Century Magazine in 1901, Therese Blennerhassett Adams, a descendant, revealed in print the reason why Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett sought escape in the new world from the scandal they had planted in the old.
So-Blennerhassett sold all he had to his cousin, afterward Lord Ventry, for the lump sum of $160,000.00 and started with his wife for America. For ensuing developments as well as for the romantic details already given, the editor is indebted to a booklet "Blennerhassett Island and the Burr Con- spiracy," by Norris Schneider, recently published at Zanesville, Ohio.
In this colorful brochure the author describes how the exiled bride and groom sought a home in the west. How they went down the Ohio River in a keel boat, spent the winter at Marietta, enjoyed the country and its people so much that they finally decided to buy-for $4,500.00-a tract of 170 acres occupying the upper stretch of Backus-which Blennerhassett renamed Beau Pre-Island.
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