TRUMBULL COUNTY

Page 657

            TRUMBULL COUNTY was formed in 1800, and comprised within its original limits the whole of the Connecticut Western Reserve.  This is a well cultivated and wealthy county.  The surface is mostly level and the soil loamy or sandy.  In the northern part is excellent coal.  The principal products are wheat, corn, oats, grass, wool, butter, cheese and potatoes.

            Area about 650 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 117,169; in pasture, 150,722; woodland, 57,927; lying waste, 2,033; produced in wheat, 169,681 bushels; rye, 1,772; buckwheat, 5,950; oats, 656,908; barley, 1,017; corn, 142,617; meadow hay, 42,730 tons; clover hay, 7,693; flax, 298,046 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 147,697 bushels; tobacco, 200 lbs.; butter, 1,114,672; cheese, 1,974,098; sorghum, 349 gallons; maple sugar, 93,028 lbs.; honey, 10,501; eggs, 457, 815 dozen; grapes, 15,185 lbs.; wine, 9 gallons; apples, 264,292 bushels; peaches, 15,707; pears, 2,361; wool, 275,638 lbs.; milch cows owned, 14,554.  Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888.—Coal mined, 157,826 tons, employing 520 miners and 80 outside employees; iron ore, 11,622 tons.  School census, 1888, 12,811; teachers, 435.  Miles of railroad track, 248.

            Population of Trumbull in 1840, 25,700; 1860, 30,636; 1880, 44,880; of whom 28,459 were born in Ohio; 4,627, Pennsylvania; 1,127, New York; 158, Virginia; 88, Indiana; 46, Kentucky; 4,569, England and Wales; 1,665, Ireland; 894, German Empire; 296, British America; 182, France; and 29, Sweden and Norway.  Census, 1890, 42,373.

            On the 10^th of July, 1800, Governor ST. CLAIR proclaimed that all the territory included in Jefferson county, lying north of the forty-first degree, north latitude, and all that part of Wayne county included in the Connecticut Western Reserve, should constitute a new county, to be known by the name of Trumbull, and that the seat of justice should be at Warren.  It will be seen that the county thus constituted was coextensive with the Reserve or the New Connecticut of five years before.

THE TRUMBULL FAMILY.

658

at the time distinguishing their State.  BENJAMIN TRUMBULL, a divine of reputation, had just published a history of the Connecticut colony, which has obtained a permanent place in our historical literature.  JOHN TRUMBULL was distinguished as a lawyer and judge, as well as a poet.  His poem, “McFingal,” passed through thirty editions.  It is in Hudibrastic verse.  Two or three of its couplets have passed into permanent use as proverbs, which have been wrongly credited to Samuel BUTLER, author of “Hudibras:”

                                                “No man e’er felt the halter draw,

                                                 With good opinion of the law;”

And

                                                “But optics sharp it needs, I ween,

                                                 To see what is not to be seen.”

            Another was Col. JOHN TRUMBULL, the painter, whose career was just beginning when the name was conferred upon New Connecticut.  Having served with credit as aide-de-camp to Gen. WASHINGTON, and having spent considerable time in England under the celebrated painter, WEST, he made himself known as an artist by the production of “The Battle of Bunker Hill” in 1796.  His most important works are the pictures in the rotunda of the capitol in Washington, which every visitor stops to admire.  His brother was Governor Jonathan TRUMBULL, Jr., in whose special honor the county was named.

            Jonathan TRUMBULL, Jr., was born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1740.  He served during the Revolution as paymaster, and afterwards as aide-de-camp to General Washington.  He was elected to the first Congress after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and in 1791 was chosen Speaker of that body.  In 1795 the Connecticut Legislature elected him to the United States Senate, where he distinguished himself as a Federalist and supporter of Washington’s administration.  In 1798 he was elected Governor of his State, an office which he held until his death in 1809.  If there is anything in a name to direct aspiration or give inspiration, it would have been difficult to find a more significant gift for a political division of territory.  There are few names in American history possessing an equal range of meaning.

            The first Governor TRUMBULL of Connecticut, Jonathan TRUMBULL, Sr., was the only governor under both the Crown and the Republic.  He was born in Lebanon, Conn., Oct. 12, 1710, and died there August 17, 1785.  His ancestor came from England about 1639, and settled in Rowley, Mass., having three sons.  His father, Joseph, was a merchant and farmer.  Jonathan was graduated at Harvard in 1727, studied theology, and was licensed to preach, but in 1731 resigned the ministry to take the place of an elder brother in his father’s store.  He afterward adopted the profession of law; was a member of the assembly in 1733 and its speaker in 1739; became an assistant in 1740 and was re-elected to that office twenty-two times.  He was subsequently judge of the county court, assistant judge of the superior court, and in 1766-9 chief justice of that body.  He was deputy-governor in 1767-8, and governor from 1769 till 1783, when he resigned.  When under the crown in 1765, he refused to take the oath of office that was required of all officials to support the provisions of the stamp act.

            BANCROFT says of him, in this period of his career (1767): “He was the model of the virtues of a rural magistrate; profoundly religious, grave in manner, discriminating in judgment, fixed in his principles.”  His opinion was formed that if “methods tending to violence should be taken to maintain the dependence of the colonies, it would hasten separation; that the connection with England could be preserved by gentle and insensible methods rather than by power and force.”  But on the declaration of war he threw his whole influence on the patriot side; co-operated with vigor in securing the independence of the colonies, and was the only colonial governor that espoused the people’s cause.

659

TRUMBULL convened his council of safety, and, although he had already sent out five Connecticut regiments, he called for nine more, and to those who were not enrolled in any train-band, said: “Join yourselves to one of the companies now ordered to New York, or form yourselves into distinct companies, and choose captains forthwith.  March on; this shall be your warrant.  May the God of the armies of Israel be your leader.”  At these words the farmers, although their harvests were but half gathered, rose in arms, forming nine regiments, each of 350 men, and, self-equipped, marched to New York just in time to meet the advance of the British.  In 1781, when Washington appealed to the governors of the New England States to “complete their Continental battalions,” TRUMBULL cheered him with the words, that he “should obtain all that he needed.”  He was the chosen friend and counsellor of Washington throughout the Revolution, who, says Jared SPARKS, “relied on him as one of his main pillars of support, and often consulted him in emergencies.”  The epithet, “BROTHER JONATHAN,” now applied as a personification of the United States, is supposed to owe its origin to Washington’s habit of addressing Gov. TRUMBULL, and to the phrase that he often used when perplexed, “Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says.”

            In 1783, he extolled Washington’s last address in a letter to him dated the tenth of June, as exhibiting the foundation principles of an indissoluble union of the States under one federal head.  In the next autumn, when he retired from public life after fifty years’ service, he set forth to the Legislature of Connecticut “that the grant to the Federal Constitution of powers clearly defined, ascertained, and understood, and sufficient for the great purposes of the Union, could alone lead from the danger of anarchy to national happiness and glory.”  Washington wrote of him as “the first of patriots, in his social duties yielding to none.”  The Marquis de Chastellux, the traveller, who saw him when he was seventy years of age, describes him as “possessing all the simplicity in his dress, all the importance, and even all the pendantry, becoming the great magistrate of a small republic.”  Yale gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1779, and the University of Edinburg the same in 1787.

            The TRUMBULL family illustrate its intellectuality in living characters as Hon. LYMAN TRUMBULL, the friend of LINCOLN, and senator from Illinois in the war era; JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBULL, LL.D., Hartford, philologist, historian, bibliographer, the only man living who can read Elliott’s Indian Bible in the original; his brother, HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL, D.D., editor of Sunday School Times, Philadelphia, author, traveller and lecturer, etc.; GORDON TRUMBULL, New London, artist and ornethologist, etc.

            Previous to the settlement of this county, and indeed before the survey of the eastern part of the Western Reserve in 1796, salt was manufactured by the whites, at what is frequently spoken of as the “old salt works,” which were situated, we are informed, in what is now the township of Wethersfield, on or near the Mahoning.  They were known to the whites as early as 1755, and are indicated on Evans’ map published that year.  Augustus PORTER, Esq., who had charge of the first surveying party of the Reserve, thus alludes to these works in the Barr MSS., in connection with the history of his survey.

            These works were said to have been established and occupied by Gen. PARSONS, of Connecticut, by permission of the governor of that State.  At this place we found a small piece of open ground, say two or three acres, and a plank vat of sixteen or eighteen feet square, and four or five feet deep, set in the ground, which was full of water, and kettles for boiling salt; the number we could not ascertain, but the vat seemed to be full of them.  An Indian and a squaw were boiling water for salt, but from appearances, with poor success.

                Amzi ATWATER, Esq., now (1846) of Portage county, who was one of the first surveying party of the Reserve, in a communication to us, says:

660     

claims to that tract, but I believe without success.  At an early part of the settlement, considerable exertions were made by Reuben HARMON, Esq., to establish salt works at that place, but the water was too weak to make it profitable.

            We annex some facts connected with the settlement of Warren and vicinity, from the narrative of Cornelius FEATHER, in the MSS. of the Ashtabula Historical Society.

                The plat of Warren in September, 1800, contained but two log cabins, one of which was occupied by Capt. Ephraim QUINBY, who was proprietor of the town and afterwards judge of the court.  He built his cabin in 1799.  The other was occupied by Wm. FENTON, who built his in 1798.  On the 27^th of this month, Cornelius FEATHER and Davison FENTON arrived from Washington county, Pa.  At this time, QUINBY’S cabin consisted of three apartments, a kitchen, bed-room and jail, although but one prisoner was ever confined in it, viz: Perger SHEHIGH, for threatening the life of Judge YOUNG, of Youngstown.

                The whole settlements of whites within and about the settlement of Warren, consisted of sixteen settlers, viz: Henry and John LANE, Benj. DAVISON, Esq., Meshack CASE, Capt. John ADGATE, Capt. John LEAVITT, William CROOKS and Phineas LEFFINGWELL, Henry LANE, Jr., Charles DAILY, Edward JONES, George LOVELESS and Wm. TUCKER who had been a spy five years under Capt. BRADY.

                At this time, rattlesnakes abounded in some places.  And there was one adventure with them worth recording, which took place in Braceville township.

                A Mr. OVIATT was informed that a considerable number of huge rattlesnakes were scattered over a certain tract of wilderness.  The old man asked whether there was a ledge of rocks in the vicinity, which way the declivity inclined, and if any spring issued out of the ledge.  Being answered in the affirmative, the old man rejoined, “we will go about the last of May and have some sport.”  Accordingly they proceeded through the woods well armed with cudgels.  Arrived at the battleground, they cautiously ascended the hill, step by step, in a solid column.  Suddenly the enemy gave the alarm, and the men found themselves completely surrounded by hosts of rattlesnakes of enourmous size, and a huge squadron of black snakes.  No time was lost.  At the signal of the rattling of the snakes, the action commenced, and hot and furious was the fight.  In short, the snakes beat a retreat up the hill, our men cudgelling with all their might.  When arrived at the top of the ledge, they found the ground and rocks in places almost covered with snakes retreating into their dens.  Afterwards the slain were collected into heaps, and found to among to 486, a good portion of which were larger than a man’s leg below the calf, and over five feet in length.

                The news of this den of venomous serpents being spread, it was agreed that the narrator and two more young men in Warren, and three in Braceville, should make war upon it until the snakes should be principally destroyed, which was actually accomplished.

                One circumstance I should relate in regard to snake-hunting.  Having procured an instrument like a very long chisel, with a handle eight or night feet long, I proceeded to the ledge alone, placed myself on the body of a butternut tree, lying slanting over a broad crevice in the rocks, seven or eight feet deep, the bottom of which was literally covered with the yellow and black serpents.  I held my weapon poised in my right hand, ready to give the deadly blow, my left hold of a small branch to keep my balance, when both my feet slipped, and I came within a hairs’ breadth of plunging headlong in to the den.  Nothing but the small limb saved me from a most terrible death, as I cold not have gotten out, had there been no snakes, the rocks on all sides being perpendicular.  It was a merciful and providential escape.

                In August, 1800, a serious affair occurred with the Indians, which spread a gloom over the peaceful prospects of the new and scattered settlements of the whites, the history of which we derive from the above-mentioned source.

                Joseph M’MAHON, who lived near the Indian settlement at the Salt Springs, and whose family had suffered considerable abuse at different times from the Indians in his absence, was at work with one Richard STORY, on an old Indian plantation, near Warren.  On Friday of this week, during his absence, the Indians coming down the creek to have a drunken folic, called in at M’MAHON’S and abused the family, and finally CAPT. GEORGE, their chief, struck one of the children a severe blow with the tomahawk, and the Indians threatened to kill the whole family.  Mrs. M’MAHON, although terribly alarmed, was unable to get word to her husband before noon the next day.

                M’MAHON and STORY at first resolved to go immediately to the Indian camp and kill the whole tribe, but on a little reflection, they desisted from this rash purpose, and concluded to go to Warren, and consult with Capt. Ephraim QUINBY, as he was a mild, judicious man.

661

and two boys, under the command of Lieut. John LANE, who proceeded towards the Indian camp, determined to make war or peace as circumstances dictated.

                When within half a mile of the camp, QUINBY proposed a halt, and as he was well acquainted with most of the Indians, they having dealt frequently at his tavern, it was resolved that he should proceed alone to the camp, and inquire into the cause of their outrageous conduct, and ascertain whether they were for peace or war.  QUINBY started alone, leaving the rest behind, and giving direction to LANE that if he did not return in half an hour, he might expect that the savages had killed him, and that he should then march his company and engage in battle.  QUINBY not returning at the appointed time, they marched rapidly to the camp.  On emerging from the woods they discovered QUINBY in close conversation with CAPTAIN GEORGE.  He informed his party that they had threatened to kill McMAHON and his family, and STORY and his family, for it seems the latter had inflicted chastisement on the Indians for stealing his liquor, particularly on one ugly-looking, ill-tempered fellow, named SPOTTED JOHN, from having his face spotted all over with hair moles.  CAPT. GEORGE had also declared, if the whites had come down the Indians were ready to fight them.

                The whites marched directly up to the camp, McMAHON first and STORY next to him.  The chief, CAPT. GEORGE, snatched his tomahawk, which was sticking in a tree, and flourishing it in the air, walked up to McMAHON, saying, “If you kill me, I will lie here—if I kill you, you shall lie there!” and then ordered his men to prime and tree!  Instantly, as the tomahawk was about to give the deadly blow, McMAHON sprang back, raised his gun already cocked, pulled the trigger, and CAPT. GEORGE fell dead.  STORY took for his mark the ugly savage, SPOTTED JOHN, who was at that moment placing his family behind a tree, and shot him dead, the same ball passing through his squaw’s neck, and the shoulders of his oldest papooes, a girl of about thirteen.

                Hereupon the Indians fled with horrid yells; the whites hotly pursued for some distance, firing as fast as possible, yet without effect, while the women and children screamed and screeched piteously.  The party then gave up the pursuit, returned and buried the dead Indians, and proceeded to Warren to consult for their safety.

                It being ascertained that the Indians had taken the route to Sandusky, on Monday morning James HILLMAN was sent through the wilderness to overtake and treat with them.  He came up with them on Wednesday, and cautiously advanced, they being at first suspicious of him.  But making known his mission, he offered them first $100, then $200, and so on, to $500, if they would treat with him on just terms, return to their homes and bury the hatchet.  But to all his overtures they answered, “No! No! No! we will go to Sandusky and hold a council with the chiefs there.”  HILLMAN replied, “You will hold a council there, light the war torch, rally all the warriors throughout the forests, and with savage barbarity, come and attempt a general massacre of all your friends, the whites, throughout the Northwest Territory.”  They rejoined, “that they would lay the case before the council, and within fourteen days four or five of their number should return with instructions, on what terms peace could be restored.”  For a more full and perfectly reliable statement of HILLMAN’S agency in this affair, see his memoir in Mahoning county.

                HILLMAN returned, and all the white settlers from Youngstown and the surrounding settlements, garrisoned at QUINBY’S house in Warren, constructed port-holes through the logs and kept guard night and day.

                On the fourth or fifth day after the people garrisoned, a circumstance struck them with terror.  John LANE went out into the woods a little distance, one cloudy day, and missing his way gave some alarm.  In the evening, a man’s voice known to be his, was heard several times, and in the same direction twelve or fourteen successive reports of a gun.  It was judged that the Indians had returned, caught LANE, confined him and compelled him to halloo, with threats of death if he did not, under the hope of enticing the whites into an ambush, and massacreeing them.

                In the morning, as these noises continued, Wm. CROOKS, a resolute man, went out cautiously to the spot whence they proceeded, and found that LANE had dislocated his ankle in making a misstep, and could not get into the fort without assistance.

                The little party continued to keep guard until the fourteenth day, when exactly, according to contract, four or five Indians returned with proposals of peace, which were, that McMAHON and STORY should be taken to Sandusky, tried by Indian laws, and, if guilty, punished by them.  This they were told could not be done, as McMAHON was already a prisoner under the laws of the whites, in the jail at Pittsburg, and STORY had fled out of the country.

                McMAHON was brought to Youngstown and tried with prudence, Gen. ST. CLAIR chief judge.  The only testimony that could be received of all those present at the tragedy was a boy who took no part in the affair, who stood close by CAPT. GEORGE when he said, “If you kill me, I’ll lie here; if I kill you, you will lie there.”  A young married woman, who had been a prisoner among the Indians, was brought to testify, as she understood the language.  She affirmed that the words signified, that if McMAHON should kill CAPT. GEORGE, the Indians should not seek restitution; nor should the whites, if McMAHON were killed.  In regard to the death of SPOTTED JOHN, the Indians finally claimed nothing, as he was an ugly fellow, belonging to no tribe whatever.

662     

river two or three miles, drove down a stake at the head of each grave, hung a new pair of buckskin breeches on each stake, saying and expecting that “at the end of thirty days they would rise, go to the North Sea, and hunt and kill the white bear.”  An old pious Indian said, “No! they will not rise at the end of thirty days.  When God comes at the last day, and calls all the world to rise and come to judgment, then they will rise.”

                The Indians nightly carried good supplies of cooked venison to the graves, which were evidently devoured.  A white settler’s old slut, with a litter of six or eight pups, nightly visited the savory meats, as they throve most wonderfully during the thirty days.

            The Hon. Joshua R. GIDDINGS, in a note to the above, says:

                McMAHON served afterwards in the war of 1812, and in the Northwestern army under Gen. HARRISON.  In the battle with the Indians on the Peninsula, north of Sandusky bay, on the 29^th of September of that year, he was wounded in the side.  After his recovery, he was discharged in November and started for home.  He left Camp Avery, in Huron county, and took the path to the old Portage.  Being alone and happening to meet a party of Indians, he fell a victim to their hostility.

            The Rev. Joseph BADGER, the first missionary on the Reserve, resided for eight years at Gustavus, in this county.  He was born at Wilbraham, Mass., in 1757.  He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, graduated at Yale College in 1785, in 1787 was ordained as a minister over a church in Blandford, Mass., where he remained for fourteen years.

                In 1800 such an opportunity for usefulness offered as he had long wished for.  The missionary societies of the Eastern States had for many years been desirous of sending missionaries to the Indians which then dwelt in the northern portion of Ohio.

                At their instance, Mr. BADGER made a visit to this country during that year, and was so well satisfied with his residence among the Wyandots and other tribes would afford, that he returned after his family, and since that time his labors have been principally divided between the Western Reserve, and the country bordering on the Sandusky and Maumee rivers.  Among his papers the writer finds certificates of his appointment to the several missionary stations on the Reserve and at Lower Sandusky, as also commissions of the postmaster’s appointment, for the several places where he has from time to time resided.  Mr. B.’s labors among the scattered inhabitants on the Reserve and the Indians were arduous and interesting.  Many incidents common to frontier life are recorded in his journals.  His duties as a missionary were all faithfully discharged, and he saw this portion of the West grow up under his own eye and teaching.

                In 1812 he was appointed chaplain to the army by Gov. MEIGS.  He was at Fort Meigs during the siege of 1813, and through the war was attached to Gen. HARRISON’s command.  He removed from Trumbull county in 1835 to Plain township, Wood county.

                Mr. BADGER was man of energy, perseverance and fine intellectual endowments.  His naturally strong and brilliant mind retained all its power until within the last three years of his life.  He was a faithful and devoted Christian.  He ardently loved his fellow-men—his God he loved supremely.  Few men have ever lived who have given such an unequivocal proof of Christian meekness and submission—few whose labors have more highly adorned the great and responsible profession of the ministry.  Full of years and of honors, and possessing the paternal affection of a people, who have been long accustomed to regard him as a father, he has at length gone to his final account.  He died in 1846, aged 89.

            The following miscellaneous collection of incidents and events of pioneer life in the Mahoning valley are derived from “Historical Collections of the Mahoning Valley,” published by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society:

O’MICK.

663

for this crime that he was hanged at Cleveland.  The name O’MICK did not properly belong to him but to his father.

EARLY COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.

                The first supply of merchandise was brought to Warren in June, 1801, in which year Jas. E. CALDWELL and an assistant poled a canoe up the Mahoning about once in two weeks.  When they approached a settlement they blew a horn, and the settlers who wanted anything came down to the river to purchase.

                In the fall of 1801, or early in 1802, George LOVELESS opened a small shop on the east side of Main street, a few rods north of South street.  About the same time Robt. ERWIN, “who was a handsome but a sad scamp,” so says an old lady, was set up in business by his uncle, Boyle ERWIN.

FIRST MAIL TO THE RESERVE.

                The following extract from a letter of Gen. Simon PERKINS gives some interesting items concerning the first mail route to the Western Reserve:

                “The mail first came to Warren, October 30, 1801, via Canfield and Youngstown.  Gen. WADSWORTH was appointed postmaster at Canfield, Judge PEASE at Youngstown, and myself at Warren.  A Mr. FRITHY, of Jefferson, Ashtabula County, was contractor on the route, which came and terminated at Warren, the terminus for two or four years before it went on to Cleveland.  Eleazar GILSON, of Canfield, was the first mail carrier, and made a trip once in two weeks; but I do not recollect the compensation.  This was the first mail to the Reserve.  Two years afterward, I think it was, that the mail was extended to Detroit, and it may have been four years.  The route was from Warren, via Deerfield, Racenna, Hudson, etc., to Cleveland, and then along the old Indian trail to Sandusky, Maumee, River Raisin, to Detroit, returning from Cleveland, via Painesville, Harpersfield, and Jefferson to Warren.  The trip was performed from Pittsburg to Warren in about two days.  The distance was eight-six miles.”

SQUIRE BROWN AND THE SLAVE-HUNTERS.

                One afternoon in September, 1823, a negro and his wife with two children passed through Bloomfield on their way toward Ashtabula.  At nearly dark of the same day, three dusty, way-worn travellers rode up to the tavern and announced themselves as slave-hunters.  They were much fatigued and easily persuaded by the landlord to remain over night.  It was soon noised abroad that the slave-hunters were in town and much excitement prevailed.  Squire BROWN got out his wagon, and a party of men were sent out to warn and secrete the slaves, who were found at a house near Rome, Ashtabula County, and temporarily secreted in a barn.

                In the meanwhile, the Virginia slave-hunters were sleeping off the effects of their hard journey.  A singular torpor seemed to come over every one about that tavern on that night, so that it was late in the morning before any one was aroused; the breakfast was delayed, the key of the stable lock could not be found, and when at last the stable was opened, the Virginian horses were each found to have cast a shoe.  A blacksmith shop was visited, but the smith was absent, and when at last hunted up, he had no nails, must make new shoes; the fire was out, so that when the horses were finally shod it was well toward noon.  The Virginians finally got started on their journey, but not until beset by the most remarkable series of mishaps and delays that ever occurred to impatient tavellers.

                Some time after their departure, Squire BROWN’S wagon drove into town with the negro family.  They were led into the dense woods, where under the direction of Squire BROWN, a temporary hut had been erected for their accommodation.  Here they were concealed, and food carried to them by night, until the excitement passed by.

                Three days later, the slave-hunters rode up to the tavern on their homeward journey.  They found a warrant, issued by Squire KIMBLE awaiting their attention.  Their offense was that of running the toll-gate on the turnpike a little north of Warren.  On passing the gate they had supposed that the objects of their pursuit had taken the State road toward Painesville, and therefore paid the half toll necessary to go by that route; whereas, if they has represented that they were coming to Bloomfield, they would have been required to pay full toll.  On application to Mr. HARRIS for horse-feed, they were told that no slave-hunter’s horses could again stand in his stable under any consideration.  They then hitched their horses to the signpost, and proceeded with the constable to Squire KIMBLE’s, where they were fined five dollars each and costs.  On their return they found the tails and manes of their steeds wanting as to “hair,” and a notice pinned to one of the saddles, which read something as follows:

“Slave-hunters, beware!

 For sincerely we swear

 That if again here

 You ever appear,

 We’ll give you the coat of a Tory to wear.”

                This latter episode was greatly deplored by those who took the most active part in the rescue.  After the departure of the slave-hunters, the negroes remained for some time, the father working for Squire BROWN.  Eventually they were placed aboard a Canada bound vessel, their fares paid, and they reached their destination without molestation.

AN INTELLIGENT DOG.

664

1814 by Ephraim BROWN of Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and Thomas HOWE of Williamstown, Vermont, of Peter Chardon BROOKES of Boston, the proprietor of large tracts in this part of the Reserve.  They engaged S. J. ENSIGN to survey it, and in the winter of 1814-15, Lemon FERRY, wife, two sons and four daughters moved into the township.  This was the first family.  In the spring of 1815, Willard CROWELL, Israel PROCTOR, Samuel EASTMAN, and David COMSTOCK, came on foot from Vermont.  “By special request, HOWE allowed his favorite dog Argus to accompany these men.  Very much to their chagrin, the dog was missed somewhere in New York, and did not again join them.

                “Several months after, HOWE drove through, and, on stopping at a wayside inn to rest his horse, was much surprised to find Argus, who manifested his delight in all the ways within his power.  Mr. HOWE remarked to the landlord that he was glad to find his dog.  The landlord insisted, as landlords will, that he had raised the dog from a puppy.  HOWE thought it would be easy to test the matter of ownership, and pointing to his cutter, told the dog to take care of it.  He then told the astonished inn-keeper that if he could take anything from the cutter the dog was his; otherwise not.  The landlord endeavored by coaxing and threatening to obtain possession of a robe or whip, but in vain.  Argus, rejoiced at finding his old master, immediately resumed a grateful service to him.  When HOWE was ready to start, he told his host that he should not call off his dog, but Argus was only too glad to follow, and in the new county was a general favorite, and became famous as a deer hunter.”

INDIAN RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL.

                A few Indians still remained in the Mahoning Valley up to the time of the war of 1812.  They seemed like outlaws, who feel that their country owes them a living, and it is theirs to obtain it as best they can.  Still they were never quarrelsome, though in looks they were frightfully savage.

                A band of Indians and John OMICK, their sachem had until the year 1810, encamped on the west bank of the Pymatuning creek, and were supposed to be a remnant of the Chippewa tribe.  Their totem, or family designation, was the venomous black rattlesnake, called the Massasauga.  But they were peaceable, disturbing no man’s property or person.

                “Burning the White Dog was their annual religious festival, and to this they always invited white men to come.  The sacrifice was offered each year in a certain spot in the northeast part of the township, and the country was hunted over to find a dog purely white for the offering.  A pole was supported at either end by forked sticks set firmly in the ground; beneath it were placed wood and kindlings for the fire.  The dog was carefully bound with thongs, passed over the pole in such a way that the victim could be raised or lowered at will.  Whiskey and food were provided, and as the dusky band assembled their weapons were stacked and a guard placed over them, so that no one in a moment of excitement should seize a weapon for retaliation or destruction.  The fire was kindled and as a circle of these swarthy worshippers danced slowly around the altar, mingling their wailing songs with the beating of rude drums, the victim was lowered into the flames, then raised at intervals, and thus tortured until life was extinct.

                Attempts, it is said, were made to Christianize them; but at last, very many having fallen victims to the small-pox, they thought the Great Spirit frowned upon them for staying here, so the survivors moved westward in 1810.

HOG STORIES.

                In the spring of 1806 or 1807, David BROWNLEE settled in Coitsville; he hailed from Washington county, Pa.  In emigrating he brought with him a sow and a half a dozen pigs, five or six months old.  They all seemed satisfied with their new Buckeye home, regardless of dangers from the prowling wolf, the bear, the panther, and the other wild beasts, plenty in our forests in those days, and lovers of pork, and indulged in it at every opportunity.  These swine were in their stye every evening, and regularly at their troughs at feeding times, and things for a time went on very pleasantly with the porker family.  Anticipation ran high with Mr. BROWNLEE in prospect of the good and profitable things coming in the shape of ham, shoulders, flitch, spare ribs, sausages, etc.  Now one evening in early summer the pig-sty was empty; none of its occupants put in an appearance.  Not much solicitude was felt about their absence for a few days, then a dilligent search was made for their whereabouts, but they could not be found and were given up for lost.

                After a time, Mr. BROWNLEE went back to Washington county to harvest his wheat that he had left growing.  To his great surprise he found all his swine, with an addition of eight or ten pigs to the family, not one missing.  When Mr. BROWNLEE was ready to return to his home he gathered his herd of swine, notified them of his purpose, and started them on their way.  None making any detirmined opposition, they passed on before him until they came to the river, where they took to the water cheerfully and landed safely on the other side and took the direct road to Coitsville, nor ceased their efforts at all seasonable hours until they reached their Coitsville home and rested again within the sty, and fed from the trough which they had clandestinely deserted a few months before.

Page 665

when near the middle of the river and swam back to the shore.  They did not attempt to recover the hog, and when they landed drove on.  On the second evening after they crossed the river, Mr. STEWART put up for the night at Amos LOVELAND’S in Coitsville, and put the hogs in an enclosure by the wayside.  Next morning the missing hog was lying on the outside of the fence which enclosed its mates, composed as if nothing remarkable had happened.  It must have recognized that it was lost from its companions, swam the river, took the cold track of the herd, and followed on persistently, tired and hungry, until it overtook them."

THE DEAN RAFTS.

                In December, 1804, an elderly gentleman came to this region representing that he wished to contract for squared white-oak timber and staves to be used for ship-building, and the staves to be taken to the Madeira Islands for wine casks.  He was referred to Isaac POWERS and Amos LOVELAND, men that could furnish what he wanted.  He called upon them and made a bargain, which they had to go to Poland to have written.  The contract was drawn at the house of Jonathan FOWLER, and written either by him or Terhand KIRTLAND.  The sizes and lengths of the timbers were all specified.  It was all large timber.  The contract for the timber was made with Isaac POWERS, and the staves with Amos LOVELAND.  Mr. DEAN was evidently a man that understood his business, and capable of driving a sharp bargain, as he succeeded in getting Mr. POWERS into a contract entirely in his own favor.  Mr. POWERS, although being a good mechanic in timber, never had the experience of the cost of furnishing timber of such sizes and weight, and consequently got but little to pay the scant wages due his workmen and for his own time and labor.  He, however, furnished the timbers as called for by the contract.  Mr. LOVELAND'S part of the bargain will be understood by giving it in the words of his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth M'FARLAND, who is now living (1876) in Coitsville Township, and is eighty-five years of age.  She says:

                “My recollection of the DEAN rafts is that they were three in number, and were got up about the year 1803 or 1804.  They were composed of square timbers hewed out, and of large, air-tight casks.  My father, Amos LOVELAND, furnished all the timber for the casks, and helped to take it out.  He also furnished the trees standing in the woods from which the square timber was made.  He was not under contract for building the casks, or for any other part of the labor of constructing.  He, however, had the contract to furnish the staves dressed.  The staves were got out and dressed and finished, and then set up for the wine casks, and afterwards knocked down, that is, taken apart, and the staves destined for each cask punched or bundled, each bundle being secured by a small hoop at each end.  John MOORE, father of Wm. O. MOORE, of the Sarah J. STEWART tragedy, James WALKER, ^____ HOLMES, with the help of my father, were the coopers who split them out (the staves) in the summer, set them up and built the casks in the fall and winter.  The casks were intended to buoy up the rafts.  We furnished the boarding and lodging and shop for these coopers.  We were often hard put to furnish the table with the necessary substantials of life.  For meat we often had game, namely, wild turkey, venison, and occasionally bear meat.

                “Mr. POWERS took out all the squared timber and built the rafts.  It took about one year to get them completed.  They were successfully launched in the Mahoning River in Coitsville Township, at the south end of the present Lawrence Railroad Bridge, at the spring flood in 1806.  The river was swollen to its highest water-mark, and most of the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhood were there to see them off.  An old gentleman, Mr. DEAN, contracted for the building and launching of them.  He was not here often, but his nephew, James DEAN, bossed the job.  He, James, fell out of a canoe between this and Beaver Falls.  He, with two men, were travelling in the canoe.  The two others went ashore to sleep, leaving Mr. DEAN in the canoe to watch their trunks and outfit.  The next morning he was found at the bottom of the river, wrapped in his blanket, dead.  The rafts went to pieces on the falls of Beaver on account of insufficient depth of water to float them over.

                “The timbers of the rafts were lost, but most of the staves were gathered, loaded in flat boats, and taken to New Orleans.  These rafts were about one hundred feet in length, and about twenty-five feet wide.  The casks for buoys or floats were made air-tight, and frame or yokes were made, in which they were confined.  Upon this frame or yoke the raft timbers were placed.  The casks were about four feet in diameter and six feet in length, and made of very heavy staves and well bound with hoops.  The exact number to each raft is not known, but we are led to believe that it was twenty-four.  They were framed in the timbers in pairs, to move endways on the water.  On the top of the rafts were piled the staves.

                “Jonathan FOWLER, the first settler of Poland Township, was drowned at that time at Hardscrabble in the Beaver River.  He was accompanying the party that was running the rafts.  While passing the rapids at that place, the canoe in which he was riding struck a rock and upset, and he was lost.  The others that were in the canoe at that time were rescued.

666

many that they were intended to be used by him in his treasonable purposes against the Government.  Nothing, however, positive was ever known to the people of this country as to their intended destination.”

THE EMIGRATION OF 1817-1818 TO NEW CONNECTICUT.

            For some years just prior to the war of 1812, and also during the war, the emigration to Ohio was slight.  This primarily was caused by the unhappy condition of the people on the seaboard, consequent upon the embargo and other non-intercourse acts of the general government, which brought on a stagnation in trade and great pecuniary distress.  The people could not sell their farms, had they been so disposed, and thereby raise the means to venture into a wilderness, nor did they have much inclination, in view of the demonstrations from the Indians, which eventually culminated in open war.

            A few years after the close of the war there came a great revival of emigration, which is thus well told by Goodrich in his “Peter Parley’s Recollections of a Lifetime:”

            I must now ask your attention to several topics having no connection, except unity of time and place: the cold seasons of 1816 and 1817, and the consequent flood of emigration from New England to the West; the political revolution in Connecticut, which was wrought in the magic name of Toleration, and one or two items of my personal experience.

                The summer of 1816 was probably the coldest that has been known here in this century.  In New England—from Connecticut to Maine—there were severe frosts in every month.  The crop of Indian corn was almost entirely cut off; of potatoes, hay, oats, etc., there was not probably more than half the usual supply.  The means of averting the effects of such a calamity—now afforded by railroads, steam navigation, canals, and other facilities of inter-communication—did not then exist.  The following winter was severe, and the ensuing spring backward.  At this time I made a journey into New Hampshire, passing along the Connecticut river, in the region of Hanover.  It was then June, and the hills were almost as barren as in November.  I saw a man at Orford who had been forty miles for a half bushel of Indian corn and paid two dollars for it!

                Along the seaboard it was not difficult to obtain a supply of food, save only that every article was dear.  In the interior it was otherwise; the cattle died for want of fodder, and many of the inhabitants came near perishing from starvation.  The desolating effects of the war still lingered over the country, and at last a kind of despair seized upon some of the people.  In the pressure of adversity, many persons lost their judgment, and thousands feared or felt that New England was destined, henceforth, to become a part of the frigid zone.  At the same time, Ohio—with its rich soil, its mild climate, its inviting prairies—was opened fully upon the alarmed and anxious vision.  As was natural under the circumstances, a sort of stampede took place from the cold, desolate, worn-out New England, to this land of promise.

                I remember very well the tide of emigration through Connecticut, on its way to the West, during the summer of 1817.  Some persons went in covered wagons—frequently a family consisting of father, mother and nine small children, with one at the breast—some on foot and some crowded together under the cover, with kettles, gridirons, feather beds, crockery and the family Bible, Watts’ Psalms and Hymns, and Webster’s Spelling Book—the lares and penates of the household.  Others started in ox-carts, and trudged on at the rate of ten miles a day.  In several instances I saw families on foot—the father and boys taking turns in dragging along an improvised hand-wagon, loaded with the wreck of the household goods—occasionally giving the baby and mother a ride.  Many of these persons were in a state of poverty, and begged their way as they went.  Some died before they reached the expected Canaan; many perished after their arrival from fatigue and privation; and others from the fever and ague, which was then certain to attack the new settlers.

667

and languid movement which marks the victim of intermittent fever.

                The instances of homesickness described by this vivid sketcher were touching.  Not even the captive Israelites, who hung their harps upon the willows along the banks of the Euphrates, wept more bitter tears, or looked back with more longing to their native homes, than did these exiles from New England; mourning the land they had left, with its roads, schools, meeting-houses; its hope, health and happiness!

                Two incidents related by the traveller I must mention, though I do it from recollection, as I have not a copy of the work.  He was one day riding in the woods, apart from the settlements, when he met a youth, some eighteen years of age, in a hunting-frock, and with a fowling-piece in his hand.  The two fell into conversation.

                “Where are you from?” said the youth at last.

                “From Connecticut,” was the reply.

                “That is near the old Bay State?”

                “Yes.”

                “And you have been there?”

                “To Massachusetts!  Yes; many a time.”

                “Let me take your hand, stranger.  My mother was from the Bay State, and brought me here when I was an infant.  I have heard her speak of it.  Oh, it must be a lovely land!  I wish I could see a meeting-house and a school-house, for she is always talking about them.  And the sea, the sea! Oh, if I could see that!  Did you ever see it, stranger?"

                “Yes; often.”

                “What! The real salt sea; the ocean, with the ships upon it?”

                “Yes.”

                “Well,” said the youth, scarcely able to suppress his emotion, “if I could see the old Bay State and the ocean, I should be willing then to die!”

                In another instance the traveller met, somewhere in the valley of the Scioto, a man from Hartford, by the name of BULL.  He was a severe Democrat, and feeling sorely oppressed with the idea that he was no better off in Connecticut under Federalism than the Hebrews in Egypt, joined the throng and migrated to Ohio.  He was a man of substance, but his wealth was of little avail in a new country, where all the comforts and luxuries of civilization were unknown.

                “When I left Connecticut,” said he, “I was wretched from thinking of the sins of Federalism.  After I had got across Byram river, which divides that State from New York, I knelt down and thanked the Lord, for that he had brought me and mine out of such a priest-ridden land.  But I've been well punished, and I’m now preparing to return.  When I again cross Byram river, I shall thank God that he has permitted me to get back again!”

                Mr. BULL did return, and what he hardly anticipated had taken place in his absence; the Federal dynasty had passed away, and Democracy was reigning in its stead!  This was effected by a union of all the dissenting sects—Episcopalians, Methodist, Baptists—co-operating with the Democrats to overthrow the old and established order of things.

            The intense bitterness existing in those early days between men of different politics and religious faiths seems in these later times to have been childish, when we reflect that all parties and all sects have an honest and patriotic and precisely the same ends in view.  It was a difference in belief as to the means to that end.  Among the outgrowths of the feeling of the early days was a comical pasquinade by Theodore DWIGHT, later Secretary of the Hartford Convention, in ridicule of a Jeffersonian festival, held at New Haven early in the century.  It was repeated and sang all over the country by the Federalists, greatly to the irritation of the Democrats.  But when years later the Democrats got into power, they repeated it in their own meetings with great gusto.  We annex the first two stanzas:

668

EMIGRATING TO NEW CONNECTICUT, 1817-1818

669

lished on the basis of the meagre charter of the king, the Congregational church assumed especial privileges.  Every person was taxed to support it unless they should declare their adhesion to some other persuasion.  And all were taxed to support Yale College, a religious seminary governed by the Congregational clergy.  Practically the State’s government was a theocracy, a union of church and State.  In 1818 the Federalists were overthrown and a State constitution adopted.  The conflict, while impending, occasioned great distress among the Congregational clergy and their members.  If the people were not compelled by law to support the institutions of religion, they felt religion would perish from the earth.

            Lyman BEECHER, in his reminiscences, gives vent to his distressful emotions on the occasion of the success of what was termed the “Toleration Party.”  Years later, Lyman BEECHER rejoiced with exceeding great joy on witnessing the success of the voluntary system in its support of the institutions of religion.  He felt that freedom in religion was of God.  At the time of the success of the Toleration party there was not a Catholic church in the State, and when, from the influx of foreigners about 1834, they began to erect Catholic churches largely over the country, many looked on with horror, apprehensive of the reign of the Pope and the eventual advent of the Spanish Inquisition.  Early in the century “Fox's Book of Martyrs” and other similar lugubrious books had been largely circulated in the rural regions at the east by perambulating book-vendors going from house to house.  Lyman BEECHER, on coming to Ohio, although he had survived the Toleration scare, found a fresh one in his fear of Catholic supremacy, and thundered and lightened.  But he lived to modify his opinions when he saw that Catholic priests never ran away from a pestilence and the Sisters of Charity were unceasing in ministering to the sick and dying.  The soul of goodness is in all Christian faiths, and the spirit of patriotism prevails in the hearts of the people, irrespective of politics.

            Warren in 1846.—Warren, the county seat, is on the Mahoning river and Ohio and Penn. Canal, 161 miles northeast of Columbus and 77 from Pittsburgh.  It is a well-built and very pleasant town, through which beautifully winds the Mahoning.  In the centre is a handsome public square, on which stands the court-house.  In June, 1846, this village was visited by a destructive fire, which destroyed a large number of buildings facing one side of the public square, since built up with beautiful stores.  Warren was laid out in 1801, by Ephraim QUINBY, Esq., and named from Moses WARREN, of Lyme.  The town plat is one mile square, with streets crossing at right angles.  Warren contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist and 1 Disciples’ church, about 20 mercantile stores, 3 newspaper printing offices, 2 flour mills, 1 bank, 1 woollen factory and a variety of mechanical establishments; in 1840, its population was 1,066; it is now estimated at 1,600.  In a graveyard on the river’s bank lie the remains of the Hon. Zephania SWIFT, author of “Swift’s Digest,” and once chief-justice of the State of Connecticut.  He died here September 27, 1823, at the age of 64 years, while on a visit to a son and daughter.—Old Edition.

            WARREN, county-seat of Trumbull, on the Mahoning river, about 145 miles northeast of Columbus, 52 miles southeast of Cleveland, is the centre for a fine agricultural region famous for dairying.  Its railroads are N. Y. P. & O., A. & P., P. P. & F., and Mahoning Branch of N. Y. P. & O.

670

GOODALE, Sealer.  Newspapers: Chronicle, Republican, William RITEZEL & Co., editors and publishers; Taxpayers’ Guardian, Independent, J. S. WRIGHTNOUR, editor; Tribune, Republican, W. H. SMILEY, editor and publisher; Western Reserve Democrat, Democrat, R. W. PADEN, editor; Church at Home, Evangelistic, E. B. WAKEFIELD, editor and publisher.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1 German Lutheran, 1 Disciples, 1 Catholic, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist.  Banks:  First National, H. B. PERKINS, president, J. H. McCOMBS, cashier; Second National, C. A. HARRINGTON, president, R. W. RATLIFF, cashier; Western Reserve National, Albert WHEELER, president, O. L. WALCOTT, cashier.

            Manufactures and Employees.—W. PACKARD & Co., planing mill, 30; R. BARTHOLOMEW, building, 4; George T. TOWNSEND, furniture, 12; Trumbull Milling Co., flour, etc., 5; The Warren Paint Co., paints, 23; DRENNEN & Son, carriages, etc., 8; GRISWOLD Linseed Oil Co., linseed oil, etc., 20; SPANGENBERG, PENDLETON & Co., machinery, 15; REED’s Planing Mill, planing mill, etc., 3; Warren Evaporator Works, sugar evaporators, 6; Warren Stave Works, staves, heading, etc., 45; S. F. BARTLETT, carriages, etc., 12; James REED & Son, stoves, 10; G. H. REED & Son, machinery, 6; Warren Tube Co., iron and steel tubes, 161; The WINFIELD Manufacturing Co., tinware, 86; Ætna Machine Co., machinery, 40; R. P. McCLELAND, woollen mills, 4; R. McBERTY, blinds and screens, 3.—State Report, 1887.

            Population, 1880, 4,428.  School census, 1888, 1,912.  E. F. MOULTON, school superintendent.  Capital invested in industrial establishments, $368,500.  Value of annual product, $613,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.  Census, 1890, 5,973.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

            On my arrival at Warren I found it was a day for the reunion of the 105^th Ohio.  This regiment was mainly made up of farmers from the counties of Lake, Ashtabula, Geanga, Trumbull, and some miners from Mahoning.  At Perrysville it lost heavily, and it was on SHERMAN’s march to the sea.  Judge Albert TOURGEE (see Vol. I., p. 280) was an officer of this regiment.

            Naturally one warms towards these veterans.  Going up to a group in the hotel I said to one of them: “Aren’t you glad you have got through your shooting?”  “Humph,” he replied, “I am glad I have got through being shot at.”  Then he showed me his mutilated, ruined arm, and told me he had been hit five times and laid long in hospitals.

            On my tour I met many of the Grand Army veterans, and they are largely wrecks.

            Many of these men who look well are in anguish from their war experiences.  Comparatively few are in full physical vigor.  The hardships and sufferings of years of campaigning have left a majority with broken constitutions.  One I met in Bellaire, on the Ohio, had been in twenty-eight battles.  He had been wounded four times.  He was suffering from part of his windpipe having been shot away.  Back of his neck was a wound that has been a running sore since 1864.

671

Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

PUBLIC SQUARE, WARREN

Bottom Picture

L. M. Rice, Photo, 1887

672

            Yet with any of these old soldiers, who volunteered because they loved their country, you cannot get one to say they regretted their experiences.  So grand is this principle of patriotism, that suffering for it but increases devotion.  I asked on who had half of his lower jaw shot away beside receiving other wounds:

            “Do you regret your army experiences?  If you could have foreseen them, would you have refrained from volunteering?”

            “No,” he replied, with a twinkle of the eye; “lost jaw and all.”

            In the many conflicts of the war, the narrow escapes from death often seemed a little less than marvellous.  At Paulding, in the person of the landlord of the hotel where I tarried, was an old soldier, Mr. T. J. SALTZGABER.  A piece of shell had gone coursing through his head just under his skull.  He showed me the scar where it had entered and the scar where it had come out.  The distance apart was six inches, by my measure, around the back of the neck.  It entered one and a half inches behind the right ear, on a level with the ear entrance, took off a piece of the base of the skull, and passing between the “leaders” and spinal column, came out three inches below the lobe of the left ear and the same distance farther back.  He handed me the missile.  Its weight was three ounces.  I laid it on my notebook and with a pencil outlined its thickness and its other dimensions.  The diagrams annexed are fac-similes of the originals in size and form.

            “This,” he said, “was fired into me by Wheeler’s artillery down in Alabama, October 25, 1864.  After the war I met the artilleryman in Seguin, Texas, who fired the gun, and boarded at his hotel—a very clever fellow.”

            The wounds which some of them received and survived were indeed alike marvellous.  Col. Charles Whittlesey relates an instance in his “War Memories” in which an apparently mortal wound through his body saved a man’s life.  We extract his statement, which is under the caption of “Experience of Col. Garis:”

            Col. C. Garis, of Washington, Fayette county, Ohio, was a captain in the 20^th Ohio.  Soon after the battle of Shiloh Church he resigned on account of a large abscess in the left lung, which, it was presumed, would soon terminate his life.

                When the one hundred days’ regiments were organized, he was appointed a colonel, and sent to Kentucky.  His command was stationed at Cynthiana, on the Licking river, when the place was attacked by Morgan with a large force.  J. R. STEWART, who had been a private in the 20^th Ohio, and was then hospital steward, was captured in the town early in the day.

                After several hours’ fighting, Morgan set fire to the building occupied by Col. Garis, and sent STEWART to him with a demand to surrender.  On his way back Morgan’s men fired on STEWART, but Morgan told them he was a prisoner, and they allowed him to pass.

                STEWART was taken away by the Confederates, but about thirty miles out he managed to escape.  Col. Garis came out of the burning buildings and surrendered.

                He was fired upon at a few steps by five men, one shot passing through the diseased lung.  He was left for dead, or more bullets would have been put into his body.  What appeared to be entirely fatal wounds, proved to be a savage remedy for his lungs.

                From the bullet holes a large quantity of pus was discharged, and, although not very robust, Col. Garis is still living, and a man of active business (1884).  Col. Garis’ statement here follows:

.                                            

673

                “You use the proper term when you call our treatment at Cynthiana horrid butchery.  We fought for two hours, with inferior arms and a force ten to our one, from some buildings, which gave us some advantage; but the people, being nearly all rebels, set fire to the buildings, which compelled us to surrender or be roasted alive.  We chose the former, expecting to be treated as prisoners of war; but to the surprise of us all, as when I, at the head of my men, stepped out of the building, we were fired upon by five men, not more than ten or twelve yards from me, and I received every ball in my arm, side and shoulder, after which they ceased firing.

                “While weltering in my blood they tore my sword off from me, and robbed me of my watch.  My horse had been shot from under me at the commencement of the battle.  My saddles, pistols, trunk, and all we had shared the fate of my sword and purse.”

            Mr. WHITTLESEY gives also an instructive paragraph upon the last moments of the dying soldier.  In speaking of the battle of Shiloh, where he was in command of the 20^th Ohio, he says: “On such fields there are great mental activities and agonies that must not be overlooked.  Before the stupor of death comes on, there are preternatural flashes of memory, illuminating the path of life.

            “The spirit of the dying soldier returns to the home he has left.  Actions and thoughts that occupied many years, reappear with a rapidity comparable to nothing better than electricity.  Some are silent, only a few utter groans; others sigh and pray, only rarely there are curses.

            “A later stage is that of delirium with chatter and laughter, as indescribable as it is horrible, because it is a premonition of the end.  Many who anticipated death, that did not come, spoke of a spiritual elevation, such as a mind partially liberated from the body might experience.”

                In his time HORACE GREELEY, through the influence of his paper and his oft personal visits in lecturing, was a great educational force on the Reserve.  His discussions of new questions seem to be especially adapted to the tastes of the active minded progressive people of New Connecticut.  His very oddities made him stand apart from other leaders of men: as his uncouth, careless attire, shambling, awkward gait, childlike simplicity of manner and speech.  His personal presence, light pale eyes, complexion, and hair gave to him a sort of milkiness of aspect very unusual, and when he was seen in motion, wearing his old white coat and hat, he seemed, as he was, an original character who lived in his own philosophy and felt at peace with all mankind.

                I got here in Warren an original anecdote that illustrates the Johnnie APPLESEED spirit of this original Horace.  It is from the Warren editor, Mr. F. M. Ritezel.  “When,’ said he, “Greeley was lecturing over the line in Greencastle, Pa., I went thither and engaged him to come to Warren and give us a speech.  I met him there on the street occupied eating a peach.  As we walked along he continued eating and talking, and when he had dispatched the peach he threw the stone over into a field for its planting with the remark, ‘There; somebody may have the good of it.’”

                This anecdote of Mr. Ritezel brought another from me.  Stories are fruitful of others, and this of mine was about fruit; the subject was the same, Horace Greeley, only it was not about a peach, it was an apple that was concerned.  At the period of the Harrison campaign, Greeley, from a raw country youth had quickly become a power in New York city, and, indeed, in the nation.  My room-mate, near that period, told me he was walking on Nassau street when, just ahead of him, his attention was arrested by the quaint person of Greeley, as usual shuffling along, oblivious to all surroundings, busy eating an apple.  Presently he paused on the edge of the pavement, threw his weight on his right leg, lifted the other and cast the apple-core as far behind as he could, and then, country boy like, looked behind to see what had become of it!

                It is probable that this eccentric performance, in a crowded street of the great metropolis, was unknown to the actor himself.  It was an automatic performance; his mind at the moment absorbed in thought upon some topic of public utility that was to appear as a leader in his next day’s issue.

                In spite of his eccentricities Greeley was a man who inspired respect from his force of intellect and high moral aims and his memory is held in honor, though in looking back upon his career in the light of our time we can see his judgments were often erroneous—a great man in some directions, but not a safe guide in a time of peril to a nation.  Still everybody is glad that to help out our variety of beneficent characters that America has produced a Horace Greeley.

BIOGRAPHY.

674     

Top Left: GENERAL SIMON PERKINS

Top Right: GENERAL J. D. COX.

Bottom Picture

675

wego, N. Y., in 1795, where for three years he was occupied with large land agencies.  In the spring of 1798 he went to the Western Reserve, to explore and report a plan for the sale and settlement of the lands of “The Erie Land Company.”  He entered Ohio July 4, and established “PERKINS’ Camp” on Grand River.  Returning to Connecticut in October, he was given entire control of the lands of the company.  For several years his summers were spent on the Reserve and the winters in Connecticut.  March 18, 1804, he married Nancy Ann Bishop, of Lisbon, Conn., and with his wife settled the following July at Warren.  His integrity and superior business judgment and capacity were highly appreciated by land proprietors.  So extensive were the agencies entrusted to him, that in 1815 the State land tax paid by him was one-seventh of the entire State revenue.

                He was the first postmaster on the Western Reserve.  IN 1807, at the request of Postmaster-General GRANGER, he established a line of expresses through the Indian country to Detroit.  His efforts led to the granting, in a treaty held at Brownstown in 1808, the right of way to the United States for a road from the Western Reserve to the Rapids of the Maumee, the Indians ceding lands a mile in width all the way on each side of the road.

                In May, 1808, he was commissioned a brigadier-general of militia.  In the war of 1812, on learning of Hull’s surrender, without waiting to hear from his superior officers, he issued orders to his colonels to prepare their regiments for active duty.  To him was assigned the duty of protecting the Northwestern frontier.  He held his position in the field until Gen. HARRISON had been reinforced by regular troops and the militia were withdrawn. Gen. HARRISON highly complimented his zeal and activity, and tendered him a colonelship in the regular army, which he declined.

                From 1826 to 1838, Gen. PERKINS was an active member of the “Board of Canal Fund Commissioners,” serving without bond or pecuniary reward, issuing and selling State bonds to the amount of $4,500,000.

                November 24, 1813, he organized, and was president for twenty-three years of the Western Reserve Bank, conducting its affairs, during trying financial periods, with such wise judgment and management that “As good as a Western Reserve bank bill” became a common saying.  He died at Warren, Nov. 19, 1844.  LOSSING’s “Field Book of the War of 1812” said of him: “Among the remarkable men who settled on the Western Reserve, Gen. Simon PERKINS ever held one of the most conspicuous places, and his influence in social and moral life is felt in that region to this day."

                Of his six sons and two daughters only two are now living—SIMON PERKINS of Akron, and HENRY B. PERKINS, of Warren.  The former removed to Akron in 1835, and took an active part in the affairs of the county.  He projected the Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad; was a partner of John BROWN, the Abolitionist, in the wool business.  He married a sister of Gov. TOD.

                JACOB PERKINS, next to the youngest son of Gen. PERKINS was a man of unusual ability and industry.  He was active in the promotion of education; was president and principal factor in the construction of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railway, to which he devoted so much of his energies and strength that his health gave way, and he died at the early age of thirty-eight.  A short time before his death he said to a friend, “If I die, you may inscribe on my tombstone, ‘Died of the Mahoning Valley Railroad.’”

                HENRY B. PERKINS, the youngest son of Gen. Simon PERKINS, occupies the old “PERKINS Homestead” at Warren.  He is a very public-spirited man; has done much to promote the cause of education; is a man whose solid weight of character and moral influence has made a strong impression upon his fellow-men.

                In 1878 he served on a commission to re-establish the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania.  In 1879, and again in 1881, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, and has occupied other important public offices; but in every instance the office has sought the citizen.  A sketch of JOSEPH PERKINS, another son of Gen. Simon PERKINS, is given in Cuyahoga County.

            JACOB DOLSON COX was born in Montreal, Canada, October 27, 1828.  His parents were natives of the United States, and had but a temporary residence in Canada.  The following year his parents removed to New York.  In 1846 he entered Oberlin College, graduating in 1851, and in 1852 removed to Warren as Superintendent of the High School, which position he held for three years; in the meanwhile he studied law; was admitted to the bar, and began practice in 1854.

676

ferent sects.  Both were close students and persuasive speakers.  While they were firm in their convictions against negro slavery, they were not offensive nor disposed to treat their opponents with disrespect.  Undoubtedly they agreed with Gov. CHASE in regarding the rebellion as a fortunate opportunity for the legal extirpation of slavery.”

            Gen. COX assisted in the organization of the State militia, and was commissioned by President LINCOLN a brigadier-general of United States Volunteers.  With the assistance of Gen. ROSECRANS he laid out Camp Dennison, and was in command there until July 6, 1861, when he was assigned to the command of the “Brigade of the Kanawha” in Western Virginia.  He drove out the Confederates under Gen. WISE, taking and repairing Gauley and other bridges which had been destroyed.  He held this position; engaged in a succession of skirmishes until August, 1862, when he was assigned to the Army of Virginia under Gen. POPE.  He served in the Ninth Corps at the battle of South Mountain, and when Gen. RENO fell, succeeded to the command, and in this and the subsequent battle of Antietam, the troops under his command so distinguished themselves that he was commissioned major-general.  On April 16, 1863, Gen. COX was placed in command of the district of Ohio, also a division of the Twenty-third Army Corps.  He served in the Atlanta campaign, and under Gen. THOMAS in the campaigns of Franklin and Nashville.  March 14, 1865, he fought the battle of Kingston, N. C., and then united his force with Gen. SHERMAN’S army.

            He resigned from the army, after the close of the war, to accept the office of Governor of Ohio, and was inaugurated January 15, 1866.

            In the controversy between President JOHNSON and Congress, he espoused the cause of the President.

            From March, 1869, till December 1870, he was Secretary of the Interior under President GRANT, but resigned on account of disagreement with certain measures of the administration.

            Returning to Cincinnati, he resumed his legal practice.

            In 1873 he was elected President of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad; removed temporarily to Toledo, where, in 1876, he was elected to Congress.  Subsequently he resumed his law practice at Cincinnati, where he now resides.  He has been honored by the degree of LL.D. from the University of North Carolina and Dennison University, Ohio.  In person he is tall, graceful and well-proportioned; his manners are unassuming, pleasing and courteous.

            Col. WHITTLESEY says: “The prolonged service of Gen. COX in one grade is too well known to require repetition.  His promotion was once determined on and reported to the Senate, but withdrawn.  His rank among the brigadiers, however, gave him the command of a division, and finally a corps, by seniority, until a commission as major-general of volunteers arrived.  Patience is certainly a military virtue, but there is no occasion where it is so difficult to practice as while an officer is being systematically overslaughed. . . . . Two of Scribner’s volumes of war history are of his composition.  In the domain of science Gen. COX has kept pace with the progress of the age in a way that is not demonstrative, but, like his other qualities, more profound than brilliant.  Having occupied so many prominent situations, quite diverse from each other, he is still a comparatively young man.  On the subject of assimilation of the white and colored races in the South, he differed from his Republican friends in the days of reconstruction.  The state of society in the slave States since that period has proven the sagacity of his conclusions.”

            KENYON COX, a son of ex-Governor COX, eminent as a painter and a writer upon art topics, was born at Warren, Oct. 27, 1857.  He pursued art studies in Paris under instruction from Carolus-Duran and Gerome.

.                        

677

ceived an agency from the Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society, and for nine months travelled, at his own expense, promulgating anti-slavery doctrines, forming societies, giving public discussions and private interviews.  He was classed with GARRISON and PHILLIPS as one of the able leaders of the anti-slavery movement.

                In 1834 he was admitted to the bar at Warren.  In 1850 he was elected to the Ohio Senate by the Free Soil party, and it was to him that Benj. F. WADE was chiefly indebted for his election to the U. S. Senate at this session.  In 1857 Judge SUTLIFF was elected to the Supreme Bench of Ohio, which position he held for five years—the last year as chief justice.  In the celebrated BUSHNELL-LANGSTON slave rescue cases, he held, with Judge BRINKERHOFF, that the prisoners ought to be discharged.  In 1872 he supported Horace GREELEY, and was the Democratic candidate for Congress in opposition to Gen. GARFIELD.

                EZRA B. TAYLOR was born in Nelson, Portage county, Ohio, July 19, 1823.  He studied law with Judge R. F. PAINE, and was admitted to the bar in 1845.  He practiced law at Ravenna until 1862, when he removed to Warren.  In 1864 he enlisted as a private in the 171^st Ohio National Guard, which served three months.  On its return he was elected colonel of the regiment.

                In 1877 he was appointed Judge of Common Pleas, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge LEWIS; every lawyer in the district, Republican and Democrat, signed a petition for his appointment.  In 1880 he was elected to Congress as Gen. GARFIELD’s successor; has been re-elected to each succeeding Congress, and has served on some of the most important committees.

            Niles in 1846.—Niles, on the Mahoning river and on the canal, five miles southerly from Warren, contains 3 churches, 3 stores, 1 blast furnace, rolling mill and nail factory, 1 forge and grist mill, and about 300 inhabitants.  There is some water power here.  In the vicinity are large quantities of excellent iron ore and coal.  In Braceville township is a Fourierite association, said to be in a prosperous condition.—Old Edition.

            NILES is five miles southeast of Warren on the north bank of the Mahoning river and on the N. Y. P. & O., A. & P., P. & W., P. P. & F., N. & N. L., and A. N. & A. Railroads.  Its iron manufactures are among the most extensive in the State.

            City Officers, 1888: William DAVIS, Mayor; M. J. FLAHERTY, Clerk; E. H. HALL, Treasurer; C. H. STROCK, Solicitor; James W. McBRIDE, Marshall.  Newspaper: Trumbull County Independent, Independent, E. M. McCORMICK, editor.  Churches: 1 Disciple, 1 Methodist Episcopal, Welsh do., 1 Primitive do., 1 Presbyterian Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Catholic, 1 Cumberland Presbyterian.

            Manufactures and Employees.—THOMAS Furnace, pig iron, 70; REEVES Bros., steam boilers, etc., 38; SYKES Iron Roofing Co., 6; Falcon Iron and Nail Co., 715; COLEMAN, SHIELDS & Co., skelp and tube iron, 165; Niles Fire Brick Co., 19.—State Report, 1887.

            Population, 1880, 3,879.  School census, 1888, 1,370; W. N. WIGHT, school superintendent.  Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $380,000.  Value of annual product, $1,551,400.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.  Census, 1890, 4,308.

            NILES is in the heart of the great mining industry of Ohio.  The population in the main consists of the workmen in the iron establishments and their families, largely foreign—Irish, Welsh, and German, the Irish being the strongest element.  The houses are mainly two-story buildings of wood, dingy from the smoke that hangs over the place.  It has a public square not exceeding two acres, around which are Catholic, Methodist, and Disciple churches, the town hall (a plain wooden structure), an engine-house and alarm tower.  Upon it is a soldiers’ monument of granite about sixteen feet high, upon which is inscribed, “Erected in memory of our fallen heroes in the war of 1861 to 1865 by the McPherson Post, No. 16, Dept. of Ohio G. A. R., and the citizens of Weathersfield township.”  The city is a hive of industry of solid work and solid people.

678

manded by W. S. ROSECRANS, and later by Rutherford B. HAYES.  He served therein until the close of the war.  (See Stark County.)

            Newton Falls in 1846.—Newton Falls is nine miles westerly from Warren, on the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal, in the forks of the east and west branches of the Mahoning, which unite just below the village.  This flourishing town has sprung into existence within the last twelve years; it was laid out by Thomas D. WEBB, Esq., and Dr. H. A. DUBOIS.  The water power is good; it is an important point of shipment on the canal, and its inhabitants are enterprising.  It contains 1 Congregational, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist and 1 Disciples church, 5 mercantile stores, 3 forwarding house, 1 woollen factory, 1 paper mill, and about 900 inhabitants.—Old Edition.

            NEWTON FALLS is nine miles southwest of Warren, on the Mahoning river and on the C. Y. & P. and P. & W. Railroads.  Newspaper: Echo, Independent, Ralph R. MONTGOMERY, editor and publisher.

            Population, 1880, 575.  School census, 1888, 221; L. P. HODGEMAN, school superintendent.

            GIRARD is ten miles southeast of Warren, on the Mahoning river, and on the P. & W., A. & P., P. & Y., and N. Y. P. & O. Railroads.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran, and 1 Disciples.  Bank: Girard Savings, R. L. WALKER, president; O. SHEADLE, cashier.

            Manufactures and Employees.—MORRIS, PRINDLE & Co., flour, etc., 3; Trumbull Iron Co., 280; Girard Iron Co., 200; Girard Stove Works, 16; KREHL, HAUSER & Co., tannery, 51.—State Report for 1887.

            School census, 1888, 608; A. W. KENNEDY, school superintendent.  Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $565,000.  Value of annual product, $1,695,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

            HUBBARD is thirteen miles southeast of Warren, on the Mahoning division of the N. Y. P. & O. R. R.

            City officers, 1888: J. D. CRAMER, Mayor; Robert J. ROBERTS, Clerk; C. W. HAMMAND, Treasurer; William RAY, Street Commissioner.  Newspaper: Enterprise, W. R. WADSWORTH, editor and publisher.  Churches; 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Welsh Congregational, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Catholic.  Banks: Hubbard Banking Co., Robert H. JEWELL, president; S. Q. MARCH, cashier.

            School census, 1888, 678; L. L. CAMPBELL, school superintendent.

            KINSMAN is fifteen miles northeast of Warren, on the Youngstown branch of L. S. & M. S. R. R.  Newspaper: Citizen, James M. DOW & Co., editors and publishers.  Bank: Kinsman National, Allen JONES, president; G. W. BIRRELL, cashier.  School census, 1888, 113.

            MINERAL RIDGE is eight miles south of Warren, on the N. & N. L. R. R.  It has churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Welsh Independent, 1 Catholic.  Population, 1880, 1,150.  School census, 1888, 376; A. A. PRENTISS, school superintendent.

            BLOOMFIELD P. O. North Bloomfield, is sixteen miles north of Warren.  School census, 1888, 109.