CARROLL COUNTY
Page 359
CARROLL COUNTY
was formed in the session of 1832-33 from Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas,
Harrison and Jefferson. The population
mainly originated from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, with some Germans
and Scotch-Irish. The surface is
somewhat hilly. Its area is 400 square
miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were
68,121; in pasture, 109,149; woodland, 40,350; lying waste, 273: produced in
wheat, 81,869 bushels; corn, 514,155; apples, 303,928; sheep, 141,345; coal,
216,630 tons. School
census, 1886, 5,513; teachers, 124.
It has 63 miles of railroad.
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Augusta |
1,234 |
1,126 |
|
Loudon |
966 |
965 |
Brown |
2,165 |
2,305 |
|
Monroe |
1,060 |
1,283 |
Centre |
1,139 |
1,590 |
|
Orange |
1,528 |
1,327 |
East |
995 |
868 |
|
Perry |
1,344 |
1,040 |
Fox |
1,491 |
1,275 |
|
Ross |
1,593 |
1,195 |
Harrison |
1,308 |
1,075 |
|
Union |
889 |
684 |
Lee |
1,372 |
933 |
|
Washington |
1,014 |
750 |
Population in
1840 was 18,108; in 1860, 15,738; 1880, 16,416, of whom 14,283 were
Ohio-born.
This county was
named from Charles CARROLL, of Carrollton, Md., the last survivor of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence.
He died at Baltimore, Nov. 14, 1833, aged ninety-six years. He was born Sept. 20, 1737; was of Irish
descent, a Catholic, and highly educated in France and in London, thus passing
his time from the age of eight years to that of twenty-eight, when he returned
to Maryland a fine scholar and a polished gentleman. When informed by Gen. H. A. STIDGER, of this
county, on a visit to Baltimore, that Ohio had named a county in his honor he
was extremely pleased; this was about six months before his decease.
The Sandy and
Beaver Canal extends from the Ohio river through
Columbiana, Carroll, Stark, and Tuscarawas counties. It was begun in 1835 and it was navigable to
some extent until 1850, when it was abandoned.
The aggregate loss to the stockholders was nearly two millions of
dollars. Its principal use was as a
feeder for mills. It is said that only
one boat ever made the entire passage through it. This was by contractors who built it, and
because it was conditional upon their receiving their pay for its completion.
The following
items upon the history of Carrollton and Carroll county
are derived mainly from a series of articles, “Annals of Carroll County,”
written for the Carroll Free Press by
Peter M. HEROLD.
Page 360
Centreville,
now Carrollton, was laid out by Peter BOHART, Oct. 4,
1815; Hon. Isaac ATKINSON gave much of the land for the site. BOHART was a Pennsylvania German and came
here about 1810. About the same time
came Richard BAXTER, Richard ELSON, Isaac DWYER and some others. At that time the line between Stark and
Columbiana counties ran just west of the village. Here Mr. DWYER built what he called upon the
sign “The Rising Sun Tavern.” When the
(Quaker) Commissioners of Columbiana county refused to
grant him license to sell strong drinks he removed his bar into the room on the
Stark county side of the line and handed down the bottles and mixed toddies
with impunity. Peter BOHART gave the
land for the Carrollton cemetery and is buried in it, where also is buried
Joseph BUSHONG, a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and several soldiers of the
Mexican war. On the farm of Nathaniel L.
SHAW, in Washington township, is a pre-historic graveyard containing the
remains of a people that wee buried in earthenware coffins, two or three of
which were unearthed a few years ago when digging a cellar.
Thomas L.
PATTON, the first child born in Carrollton, was an officer in the Union army in
the Rebellion, and is now living here, as is also John BEATTY, the first
sheriff of Carroll county. He was born Oct. 4, 1804. Among his recollections is attending a Whig
meeting at Massillon, July 4, 1838, where Gen. Harrison made an address. On the platform were the “POE Brothers,” Adam
and Andrew, the Indian fighters, whose noted fight is related under the head of
the Columbiana county. They were very
old and imbecile.
Gen. B.
F. POTTS, originally colonel Thirty-second Ohio volunteer infantry, was born in
Fox township.
He was, when a member of the Ohio Senate, offered by Grant the
governorship on Montana. He refused to
accept it at the time, though he did so later, and his refusal was because the
adoption by Ohio of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution depended upon
his vote, which would be lost if he vacated his seat.
In that
daring railroad raid in Georgia of a band of Ohio men from Gen. MITCHELL’S army
was Wm. CAMPBELL, a native of Fox township, and he was
one of those executed. His mother’s
maiden name was Jane MORGAN, and she was a cousin of Gen. John MORGAN, of the rebel army.
When
MORGAN was on his raid through Ohio he passed through Carroll county, and in Fox township he took dinner with Mrs.
ALLISON, whose name was Keziah MORGAN. She was the sister of Mrs. CAMPBELL, and
therefore also a cousin of MORGAN. While
eating his dinner the family genealogy was traced back to Kentucky. Ere he left, the old lady gave him a clean
shirt, of which John was sadly in need, and he went on his way rejoicing, with
a good dinner inside and a clean shirt out.
Several of MORGAN’S men who were wounded were obliged to remain behind
at Mrs. ALLISON’S, and were consequently soon taken prisoners by the Union soldiers. Mrs. CAMPBELL is still living, but since the
execution of her son she cannot talk upon that subject without its effects
showing upon her mind; she imagines she has a mortgage upon the government. She is twice a widow; her first husband was a
soldier in the Mexican war. Her last
husband’s name was SHIPLEY, and her present residence is near Caldwell, Noble county.
CARROLLTON
IN 1846.—Carrollton, the county-seat, is 125 miles east-northeast from
Columbus. It was originally called Centretown, but on the organization of the county changed
to its present name. It has a public
square in the centre—shown in the engraving—on which stand the county
buildings. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1
Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Associate Reformed church, 6 mercantile
stores, 2 printing offices, and 800 inhabitants.—Old Edition.
Carrollton,
the county-seat, is on the C. & C. R. R., eighty-seven miles south-easterly
from Cleveland. County officers, 1888:
Probate Judges, James HOLDEN and Junius C. FERRALL; Clerk
of Court, Harvey B. GREGG; Sheriff, John CAMPBELL; Prosecuting Attorney, Irving
H. BLYTHE; Auditor, Luther M. BARRICK;
Treasurer, John B. VAN FOSSEN; Recorder, Will J. BAXTER; Surveyor,
Richard
Page 361
H. LEE;
Coroner, Harvey D. DUNLAP; Commissioners, James MURRAY, Wm. DAVIS, James H
RHINEHART.
Newspapers: Chronicle, Democrat, J. V. LAWLER &
Bro., publishers; Free Press,
Republican, John H. TRIPP, publisher, Peter M HEROLD, local editor; Republican,
Drawn
by Henry Howe in 1846.
VIEW IN CARROLLTON.
Republican, S. T. CAMERON & Co., publishers. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1
Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Reformed and 1 United
Presbyterian .Banks: Cummings & Couch, Stockton Bros., V. STOCKTON,
cashier. Population in
1880, 1,136. School
census in 1886, 417. A. M.
FISHELL, superintendent. In October, 1887, “no saloon in the town and no prisoners in the
county jail.”
Port C.
Baxter, Photo, Carrollton, 1887.
THE PUBLIC SQUARE, CARROLLTON.
The engraving
shows the new court-house and other buildings on the public square. This was finished in 1886, costing with jail
in the rear about $150,000. It is built
mainly of Navarre sandstone, with some from Berea. It is just to the left of the old court-house
shown in the old view. The old court-house
was sold on the 11th of June for $196 and the bell from $138.
Daniel McCOOK, father of one of the two famous families of
“Fighting
Page 362
McCOOKS,” was the first clerk of court of
Carroll county after its formation, in the winter of 1832-33. He resided in the large, white house shown on
the corner, to the right of the old court-house, at the time the view was
drawn; and it was the birthplace of several of his family. It is now partly occupied by Geo. J BUTLER as
a dry-goods store.
TRAVELLING
NOTES.
“You must see Gen. ECKLEY when you visit Carrollton,”
said the various parties when I was in the counties adjoining. “He can tell you everything.” He was, they said, “a man of great public
spirit and large intelligence.” On the
evening of my arrival, Friday, June 11, I found two old gentlemen seated on a
dry-goods box on a street corner—I may say two old boys—engaged in a social
chat; and one of these was Capt. John BEATTY, the first sheriff of Carroll
county; the other Gen. Ephraim R. ECKLEY, who was a judge before he was a
general—a man of law before a man of war.
His first greeting was, “You’ve grown old since I have seen you.” I did not remember to have ever seen him, but
must have done so when formerly here—when I took the old view shown on an
adjoining page—took it as one told me he remembered seeing me seated on a
wheelbarrow in the centre of the street.
Gen. ECKLEY had lived almost the entire period of the
history of the State; was born in 1811.
Having been long in public life, he had witnessed many changes. Among his experiences was his being in at the
death of the Whig party in 1854: the Free-Soil party, in nautical phrase, had
“taken its wind.” He was then the Whig
candidate for the United States Senate, which was the last effort of the Whigs
at organization.
In 1861 he served in the Virginia campaign under
ROSECRANS; later, under SHERMAN, had command at Paducah; in April, 1862, was
elected to Congress, where he remained until 1869. He gave me these interesting items, illustrating
the morals of the people here, viz.: that the jail was generally empty, and
when used at all it was largely for violation of some police arrangement; and
that from 1842 to 1863, a period of twenty-one years, Carroll county had not supplied a single inmate for the
penitentiary. Other counties in Ohio, I
find, can give a like record. Such,
however, have mainly rural populations.
General
Harrison and the Honest German.—On
July 4, 1838, Harrison addressed a Whig meeting at Massillon, and the next day
came here and “put up” at the tavern of David J. LEVY. In the evening he made an impromptu address
from the hotel steps. Next morning he
arose early to take a walk before breakfast, the ostensible purpose being to
get a drink from John YOUNG’S spring, a spot on the outskirts where Mr. YOUNG
had a tannery with a bath-house and fine spring of water. On his arrival there he met Jonas MILLER, an
honest, simple-hearted German, on his way to town. Harrison bade him good-morning, and observing
he had his hand done up in a bandage, asked him “What was the matter with
it?” He replied he had a felon on it and
was going to town to get a drink of whiskey; thought it would ease the
pain. Harrison advised him kindly not to
drink, it would be only the worse for him, gave him a receipt for its cure and
the twain walked into the town together.
Harrison was dressed in a plain suit of fustian, and after parting from
MILLER, some one asked the latter if he knew whom he had been talking with? He replied “No.” When told, he was so overcome that he sat
down and cried like a child. Miller had
been a strong Democrat, but thenceforth was an enthusiastic Harrison man. In speaking of this event he would say in
broken English: “Mein Gott,
it was the Gineral Harrison that walked down the
street and talked with me and cured my felon.”
Rural
Sights.—Having slept upon the General’s chat I took a walk the next
morning. There is an advantage in these
small towns; a few steps take one into the country where the green earth and
the blue sky have an open chance to look at each other square in the face and
exchange notes; and there, too—and it is not a small matter—are the cattle on a
thousand hills, peaceful, patient and picturesque; chewing the cud and whilom
keeping the fly-brush agoing and often with a rhythm
so well pronounced that some painstaking, head-scratching poet might pause
there for a hint, if so disposed.
Carrollton is on undulating ground and the country
around a series of beautiful swells.
Each house is generally on an ample home lot and the people live mostly
in cottages. The gardens of the
villagers, rich in flowers, were yet moist with the dew of morning, while the
sunlight, stealing in long, slanting ribbon-bands across their beds,
illuminated them in richest glory of color and in sweetest blending of light
and shade. And the thought came upon me,
now this very morning, all over this broad land, there are multitudes of just
such villages as this with just such scenes and with just such worthy, virtuous
people as these. And with this grateful
fact upon the heart, should we question is life worth living? Whatever man might answer, the bee, flitting
on a golden wing from flower to flower, would reply, “Yes; don’t I get honey?”
The Old Lady
and her Flowers.—On coming to one of
the cottages I saw an old lady on her knees with a wet cloth in hand wiping her
porch. She was surrounded by the pots of
flowers which she had nursed through the winter and had brought them out
alongside of those that kind mother Earth had put forth from her bosom in the
Page 363
open air.
“Good-morning,” said I. With that
she turned her head, lifted her sunbonnet and arose to her feet to see who it
was that had greeting her. I then
continued, as she still held her cloth in her hand with her arm limp by her
side: “Do you know, Madam, what a favor you confer upon every passer-by with
your display of flowers?” Upon this she
smiled and said, “Why, I never thought of that; I cultivate them because I love
them.” “You people,” I rejoined, “appear
to live very pleasantly and the country around looks very sweet to me as I see
it rolling away in graceful swells of grassy fields interspersed with clumps of
trees.” “Yes,” she rejoined, “and it is
now in all its beauty.” Yes! she was right. It was
the beautiful month of June that had come, and had she felt like quoting the
poetry she might have started straight for Longfellow, as he thus speaks for
June:
“Mine is the month of
roses; yes, and mine The month of
marriages! All pleasant sights And scents, the fragrance
of the blossom- ing vines, The foliage of the valleys
and the heights. Mine are the longest days,
the loveliest nights; The mower’s scythe makes
music to my ear; I am the mother of all dear
delights, I am the fairest daughter
of the year.” |
“You people,” I continued, “appear to live in this
village in a great deal of comfort and freedom.” “I don’t like it,” she replied. “There is too much style for me! Until I was
forty years of age I lived on a farm, and I pine for its open, free life. There is so much to interest one, and the
animals are a continued source of gratification. Then your neighbors run in and out without
any formality and we all seem as one great family. This village life has too much
restriction. If one’s gate gets open and
your cow happens to get out she is taken up and put in the pound, and there is
seventy-five cents or a dollar to pay to get Muley
out.” “Trouble everywhere,” I said. “Yes,” she rejoined, and opening wide her
mouth, displayed a full set of perfect, pearly white teeth. God bless the dentist, I then thought, whose
inventive art permits a refined old lady like you to give full play to her
merriment without compelling her, when the hinges of her mouth relax for a good
hearty laugh, to hide it with her hand.
A moment later I met a young mother happy as a
lark. Instead of turning over her
children to the care of Bridget and lolling on a luxurious couch, absorbed in
reading the details of the make-up of Mrs. Cleveland’s wedding-dress, she was
leading by the hand, amid these rustic surroundings on this bright June
morning, her own little girl, perhaps her first-born. I watched as I came up the slender limbs of
the little one alternately stealing in and out from beneath the folds of her
blue dress and said, “Good-morning; I see the bluebirds are out.” “Yes, sir; this one.”
LEESBURG is on
the W. & L. E. R. R., 100 miles northeast of Columbus and twelve miles
southwest of Carrollton. One Leg courses
through it, a stream so named from a one-legged Indian who anciently dwelt upon
its margin. The Indian name of this
water course is “Kannoten;” and the branch known as
the “Dining Fork of the Kannoten” derived its
appellation from the first explorers in this region on an occasion partaking of
their noon meal upon its banks. The
post-office name of Leesburg is Leesville, as there is also another Leesburg in
Highland county. Part of Orange township
in which it is situated originally formed a part of One Leg township,
Tuscarawas county, a name now extinct even there, as applied to a township.
Leesburg was
laid out August 1, 1812, by Thomas PRICE and Peter SAUNDERS. It contains one newspaper, Connoton Valley Times, Independent, R. G.
RIVERS, editor; has 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, and, in 1880, had
408 inhabitants; coal mining and farming are its main industries.
Leesburg has a
particular history; has long been noted as an intellectual and reforming
centre. It was one of the stations of
the Underground Railroad, and in those days its little public hall at times
resounded to the voices of Wm. Lloyd GARRISON, Fred. DOUGLASS, Wendell
PHILLIPS, Parker PILLSBURY and their coadjutors. Some noted characters are now residents of
the place. Hon. Wm. ADAIR, author of the
celebrated liquor law, and a member of the last Constitutional Convention of
Ohio, is a practising lawyer of the place. Charles DUNSTER, also a resident, is builder
of an ingenious astronomical clock which keeps the time of some of the
principal cities of the world, and is remarkable from the fact that he is
entirely self-taught, and constructed it from such rude tools as he could make
in an ordinary blacksmith shop. This
clock is still ticking the time by the forge where he earns his daily bread.
And lastly for
our mention is a lady, Mrs. Mary E. KAIL, noted for her patriotic
Page 364
poems, the outgrowth of an intense and absorbing love of
country. She is a native of Washington
City, but from childhood has been a resident of Ohio, excepting for a few years
when she was clerk in one of the departments at Washington, which position she
lost recently through a change of administration. Her spirited songs have been sung and with
great acceptance on many public occasions, such as Decoration Days, at meetings
of the various posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, dedication of soldiers’
cemeteries, lodges of Good Templars, and in the
political canvass.
Her writings
under the title of “Crown our Heroes and other Poems” have recently been
published through the generosity of Mrs. Leland STANFORD. This little book is her only source of
livelihood in her advanced years. Of all
the songs sung on Decoration Day throughout the land “Crown our Heroes” stands
at the head. This and the one entitled
“Ohio” we copy entire.
CROWN OUR HEROES. Crown our heroes, the
soldiers, whose spirits have fled To the land of the blest ; crown the heroic dead. Let the fair hand of women
weave garlands of flowers Kissed by heaven’s pure
sunlight in sweet morning hours. Go tenderly, gently, and
scatter them where Our heroes are sleeping ! go scatter them there. Crown our heroes, the
soldiers, who sleep on the shore Where the call of the bugle
can wake them no more. Men who fought to defend
us—oh, can we forget The tribute of glory we owe
to them yet ? Bring love’s fairest
offerings, whit tears and with prayer, And gratefully, sacredly
scatter them there. Crown our heroes, the
soldiers, whose grandeur and power Save our own dear Columbia
in war’s trouble hour. When amid the fierce
struggle each soul was a host, Who was ready to die lest
his country be lost. They are dead! they are dead ! what can we do As a token of love for the
noble and true? Crown our heroes, the
soldiers. Oh! scatter the flowers O’er the graves of the dead ; they are yours, they are ours. Men who fought for the
flag, and foes in they fray ; For as brothers they sleep, both the blue and the gray. And true to our banner, our
offerings we bring— Blushing roses of summer,
and violets of spring. Crown our heroes, God bless
them ! no true heart must lag ; Crown the dead and the
living who stood by the flag. Through the oncoming ages
let each have a name Carved in letters of gold
in the temple of fame ; For the bright stars of
freedom—our banner unfurled— Is the joy of Columbia, the
pride of the world ! OHIO. Ohio, I love thee, for
deeds thou has done ; Thy conflicts recorded and
victories won ; On the pages of history,
beaming and bright, Ohio shines froth like a
star in the night. |
Page 365
Like a star flashing out
o’er the mountain’s blue crest. Lighting up with its glory
the land of the west ; For thy step onward
marching and voice to command Ohio, I love thee, thou
beautiful land. Commonwealth, grandly
rising in majesty tall— In the girdle of beauty the
fairest of all, Tho’ thunders of nations around thee may roar— Their strong tidal waves
dash and break on thy shore— Standing prouder and firmer
when danger is nigh, With a power to endure and
an arm to defy ; Ohio shall spread her broad
wings to the world, Her bugles resounding and
banners unfurled. A queen in her dignity,
proudly she stands, Reaching our to her sister
States wealth-laden hands, Crown’d with plentiful harvest and fruit from the vine, And riches increasing ores
for the mine. While the Liberty’s banner
unfurled to the sky— Resolved for the Union to
do or to die— Her soldiers and statesmen
unflinchingly come, ‘Mid booming of cannon and roll o the drum. To glory still onward,
we’re marching along, Ev’ry heart true and noble re-echoes the song, Ever pledged to each other,
through years that have fled, We have hopes for the
living, and tears for the dead. Bless the heroes who
suffered, but died not in vain ; Keep the flag that we
love—without tarnish or stain. Ohio, my home-land, my
heart clings to thee ! |
Mechanicstown, nine miles northeast of Carrollton, was laid
out in 1836 by Thomas McGOVERN; it has 1
Presbyterian, I United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal church,
and about 200 population. Kilgore, twelve
miles southeast of Carrollton, has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, and 1
Reformed Lutheran church, and about 200 people.
Magnolia, on the C. & P. R. R.; population 300. Dell Roy is on the C. V. R. R., eight miles
southwest of Carrollton. It has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1
Methodist Protestant church, and, in 1880, 664 inhabitants. This place is now the centre of the most
important coal mines of the county, and its population is largely composed of
miners.
New Harrisburg
is a small village five miles northwest of Carrollton, and which is 1883
contested with it for the county-seat.
This was the birth-place of Jonathon WEAVER, bishop of the United
Brethren church and President of Otterbein University. The village has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian
church, and about 200 inhabitants. In
the little churchyard adjoining the town, “in a valley of dry bones, amid the
silent monuments of death and desolation,” is a marble slab, twelve by eighteen
inches, bearing the simple inscription as annexed: a remarkable instance of
longevity.
JONATHAN
LEWIS.
AGED
104
Harlan Springs
is six miles southeast of Carrollton; it has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1
Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren church, and before the war it was quite a
resort for invalids to partake of the water of its chalybeate springs; among
the visitors of note were Robt. E. LEE and Edwin
STANTON. Here is the Harlem Springs
College, founded in 1858, John R. STEEVES, president; three instructors;
pupils, twenty-one males and eleven females.
Page 366
THE FIGHTING McCOOKS.
THE FIGHTING McCOOKS.
Major Daniel McCook.
Dr. John McCook.
Head of the “Tribe of Dan.”
Head of the “Tribe of John.”
The Ohio McCOOKS acquired a wide popular reputation during the civil
war as the “Fighting McCOOKS.” In the various current notices of them they
are spoken of as one family, but were really two families, the sons of Major
Daniel McCOOK and Dr. John McCOOK. Of the former family there were engaged in
military service the father, Major Daniel McCOOK,
Surgeon Latimer A. McCOOK, General George W. McCOOK, Major-General Robert L. McCOOK,
Major-General A. McD. McCOOK,
General Daniel McCOOK, Jr., Major-General Edwin
Stanton McCOOK, Private Charles Morris McCOOK, Colonel John J McCOOK—ten
in all. Another son, Midshipman J James McCOOK, died in the naval service before the rebellion.
Of the
latter family there were engaged in the service Major-General Edward M. McCOOK, General Anson G. McCOOK,
Chaplain Henry C. McCOOK, Commander Roderick S.
McCook, U. S. N., and Lieutenant John J. McCOOK—five
in all. This makes a total of fifteen,
every son of both families, all commissioned officers except Charles, who was killed
in the first battle of Bull Run, and who declined a commission in the regular
army, preferring to serve as a private volunteer.
The two
families have been familiarly distinguished as the “Tribe of Dan” and the
“Tribe of John.”
I. The Daniel
McCook Branch
Major Daniel McCOOK.
Martha
LATIMER
Major Daniel McCOOK, the
second son of George McCOOK and Mary McCORMACK, was born June 20, 1798, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania,
the seat of Jefferson College, where he received his education. On August 28, 1817, he married Martha
LATIMER, daughter of Abraham LATIMER, of Washington, PA. In 1826 they removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and
later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr. McCOOK was an active member and an elder for many years of
the Presbyterian church of Carrollton, organizing and conducting as
superintendent the first Sunday-school of that church.
At the beginning of the war he was in Washington, D.
C., and, although sixty-three years of age, at once tendered his services to
President Lincoln. Each
of his eight sons then living also promptly responded to the call of the
President for troops. When the
rebel general, John MORGAN, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCOOK
was stationed at Cincinnati, and joined the troops sent in his pursuit. MORGAN undertook to recross
the Ohio river at Buffington island. Major McCOOK led an
advance party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the skirmish that took place he was
mortally wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-fifth year
of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove
cemetery near Cincinnati.
He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent
patriot, and an earnest Christian. He
Page 367
possessed
a most gentle and amiable disposition, combined with the highest personal
courage, untiring energy, and a great force of character. He ruled his household in the fear of the
Lord, and died as he had lived in the active performance of his duty.
His wife, Martha LATIMER, daughter of Abraham LATIMER
and Mary GREER, was born at Washington, Pa., March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, but
on the father’s side they were English, coming originally from Leicestershire.
During the war of the rebellion Mrs. McCOOK was in a peculiarly difficult position. Her husband and sons were all in the
service. No battle could take place but
some of her loved ones were in danger.
Each succeeding year brought death to a member of her family upon the
battle-field. Her husband and three sons
were thus taken from her; and the others were so frequently wounded that it
seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft of her entire family. Her life during these long years of anxiety
was well nigh a continuous prayer for her country and for her sons that had
given themselves for its defence. This patriotic woman well illustrates the
heroic sufferings endured by the women of the Republic no less than by the men.
Mrs. McCOOK died November
10, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of her age, at New Lisbon, Ohio,
surrounded by her surviving children and friends, and was buried beside her husband
in Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
The children of the above are as follows:
1. Latimer A. McCOOK, M. D.,
was born at Canonsburg, Pa., April 26, 1820.
He was educated at Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine with
his uncle, Dr. George McCOOK, a physician of great
skill and eminence, and received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, of
Philadelphia. He entered the army in
1861 as assistant surgeon, and was soon promoted to be surgeon, with the rank
of major, of the Thirty-first regiment, Illinois volunteers, known as “John
Logan’s regiment.”
He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the
Tennessee, and, while caring for the wounded of his regiment during action, he
was himself twice wounded—once in the trenches before Vicksburg, and again at Pocataligo bridge, in Gen.
Sherman’s movement northward from Savannah.
He survived the war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23,
1869, from general debility resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his
service in the army, any was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
2. George Wythe MCCOOK was born at Canonsburg, PA.,
November 2, 1821. He graduated from Ohio
University, at Athens, and studied law with and afterwards became the partner
of Edwin M. STANTON, the great war secretary, in
Steubenville. He served as an officer in
the Third Ohio regiment throughout the Mexican war, and returned as its
commander. He was attorney-general of
the State of Ohio, and edited the first volume of “Ohio State Reports.” He was one of the first four
brigadier-generals appointed by the governor of Ohio to command the troops from
that State at the outbreak of the rebellion, but the condition of his health
prevented him from taking any command that required absence from home. However, he organized and commanded for short
periods several Ohio regiments.
He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio
in 1871, but his health broke down during the canvass, and he was compelled to
abandon the campaign. He, with the Rev.
Dr. Charles BEATTY, were the largest contributors to
the erection of the Second Presbyterian church, at Steubenville, Ohio, of which
he was a trustee. He died December 28,
1877, and was buried at Steubenville.
3. John James McCOOK, born at Canonsburg, PA., December 28, 1823, was
educated at the United States Naval Academy.
While serving as midshipman of the United States frigate “Delaware” off
the coats of South America he was taken ill with a fever following long-continued
exposure while on duty. He died March
30, 1842, and was buried in the English burying-grounds at Rio Janeiro. Admiral FARRAGUT in his autobiography pays a
high tribute to the personal character and ability of Midshipman McCOOK.
4. Robert Latimer McCOOK, born at New Lisbon, Ohio, December 28, 1827. He studied law
in the office of STANTON & McCOOK, at
Steubenville, then removed to Cincinnati, and in connection with Judge J. B.
STALLO secured a large practice. When
the news reached Cincinnati that Fort Sumter had been fired upon he organized and was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Ohio
regiment, among the Germans, enlisting a thousand men in less than two
days. He was ordered to West Virginia,
put in command of a brigade, and made the decisive campaign there under Mc-
Page 368
CLELLAN. His brigade
was then transferred top the Army of the Ohio, and took a most active part in
the battle of Mills Spring, in Kentucky, where he was severely wounded. The rebel forces were driven from their lines
by a bayonet charge of Gen. McCOOK’s brigade and so
closely pursued that their organization as an army was completely
destroyed. Gen. McCOOK
rejoined his brigade before his wound had healed, and continued to command it
when he was unable to mount a horse. His
remarkable soldierly qualities procured him the rank of major-general and
command of a division.
He met his death August 6, 1862, while on the march
near Salem, Alabama. He had been
completely prostrated by his open wound and a severe attack of dysentery, and
was lying in an ambulance which was driven along in the interval between two
regiments of his division. A small band
of mounted local guerillas, commanded by Frank GURLEY, dashed out of ambush,
surrounded the ambulance, and discovered it contained an officer of rank, who
was lying on the bed undressed and unable to rise. They asked who it was, and seeing that the
Federal troops were approaching, shot him as he lay and made their escape, as
the nature of the country and their thorough familiarity with it easily enabled
them to do. This brutal assassination of
Gen. McCOOK aroused intense feeling through-out the
country. The murdered commander was
buried at Spring Grove cemetery, and his devoted soldiers and friends, at the
close of the war, erected a monument to his memory in Cincinnati.
5. Alexander
McDowell McCOOK was born on a farm near New Lisbon,
Columbiana county, Ohio, April 22, 1831. He entered the United States Military
Academy, at West Point, and graduated in the class of 1852. At the opening of the was he was promptly
made colonel of the First Ohio regiment, which he led among the very earliest
troops to the relief of the capital, and commanded at Bull Run, or
Manassas. He became a brigadier-general
in September, 1861, and commanded a division under Gen. BUELL in the Army of
the Ohio. He was made a major-general
for distinguished services at the battle of Shiloh, and was placed in command
of the Army of the Cumberland, with which he served during the campaigns of
Perryville, Stone River, Tullahoma, Chattanooga, and Chickamauga. Gen. McCOOK
subsequently commanded one of the trans-Mississippi departments. He is now colonel of the Sixth regular
infantry.
6. Daniel McCOOK, Jr., was
born at Carrollton, Ohio, July 22, 1834.
He was rather delicate and over studious, and with a view to improving
his health entered Alabama University at Florence, from which he graduated with
honor. He returned to Ohio with health
greatly improved, and entered the law office of STANTON & McCOOK at Steubenville.
After admission to the bar, he removed to Leavenworth,
Kansas, where he formed a partnership with William T SHERMAN and Thomas
EWING. When the war opened that office
closed and each of the partners soon became general officers.
Daniel McCOOK, Jr., was
captain of a local company, the Shields Guards, with which he volunteered, and
as a part of the First Kansas Regiment, served under General LYON at Wilson’s
creek. He then served as chief of staff
of the First Division of the Army of the Ohio in the Shiloh campaign, and
became colonel of the Fifty-second Ohio Infantry in the summer of 1862. He was assigned to the command of a brigade
in General SHERIDAN’s division and as such continued
to serve with the Army of the Cumberland.
He was selected by his old law partner, General
SHERMAN, to lead the assault on Kennesaw mountain. After all the arrange-
Page 369
ments for the assault had been made, the brigade was formed
in the regiment front and four deep.
Just before the assault Colonel McCOOK recited
to his men in a perfectly calm manner the stanzas from Macauley’s
Horatius, in which occur these lines:
Then out spake brave Horatius, The captain of the gate: “To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his
fathers, And the temples of his gods, “And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast?” |
Then he gave the word of command and dashed
forward. He had reached the top of the
enemy’s works, and was encouraging his men to follow when he was riddled with minie balls, and fell back wounded unto death. For his courage and gallantry in this assault
he was promoted to the full rank of brigadier-general, an honor he did not live
to enjoy, as he survived but a few days.
He died July 21, 1864, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery,
Cincinnati.
7. Edwin Stanton MCCOOK was born at Carrollton, Ohio,
March 26, 1837. He was educated at the
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, but preferring the other arm of the
service, when the civil war began he recruited a company and joined the
Thirty-first Illinois Regiment Infantry, of which his friend, John A. LOGAN was
colonel. He served with his regiment at
the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, where he
was severely wounded. In his promotion
he succeeded General Logan, and followed him in the command of regiment,
brigade and division throughout the Vicksburg and other campaigns under Grant,
in the Chattanooga and Atlantic campaigns and in the march to sea under
Sherman.
He was promoted to the rank of full brigadier and
brevet major-general for his services in these campaigns. He was three times severely wounded, but
survived the war. While acting governor
of Dakota and presiding over a public meeting, September 11, 1873, he was shot
and killed by a man in the audience who was not in sympathy with the objects of
the meeting, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
8. Charles Morris McCOOK was
born at Carrollton, Ohio, November 12, 1843.
He was a member of the freshman class at Kenyon College when the war
began, and although less than eighteen years of age volunteered as a private
soldier in the Second Ohio Infantry for three months’ service. Secretary Stanton offered him a lieutenant’s
commission in the regular army, but he preferred to serve as a volunteer.
At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, he served
with his regiment, which was covering the retreat of the shattered army. As he passed a field hospital he saw his
father, who had volunteered as a nurse, at work among the wounded,
and stopped to assist him, the regiment passing on. As he started to rejoin his company young McCOOK was surrounded by an officer and several troopers of
the famous Black Horse cavalry who demanded his surrender. His musket was loaded, and he quickly
disabled the officer, and, as he was highly trained in the bayonet exercise,
kept the other horsemen at bay. His
father seeing the odds against the lad called to him to surrender, to which he
replied, “Father, I will never surrender to a rebel,” and a moment after was shot
down by one of the cavalrymen. His aged
father removed his remains from the field, and they were afterwards buried at
Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
9. John J. McCOOK was born
at Carrollton, Ohio, May 25, 1845. He
was a student at Kenyon College when the war began, and after completing his
freshman year, enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Cavalry. He was promoted to a first lieutenancy on
September 12, 1862, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Thomas L.
CRITTENDEN, commanding a corps of the Army of the Ohio, which subsequently
became the Twenty-first Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.
He served in the campaigns of Perryville, Stone River,
Tullahoma, Chattanooga and Chickamauga with the Western armies,
and in General GRANT’s campaign with the Army of the
Potomac, from the battle of the Wilderness to the crossing of the James
river. He was commissioned a captain and
aide-de-camp of the United States Volunteers in September, 1863, and was
brevetted major of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services in action at
Shady Grove, Virginia, where he was severely and dangerously wounded. He was afterward made lieutenant-colonel and
colonel
Page 370
for gallant and meritorious services. Colonel McCook still survives, and is a
lawyer engaged in active practice in New York City.
II. The John McCOOK Branch.
John McCOOK M. D. Catherine Julia SHELDON
Dr. McCOOK was born and
educated at Canonsburg, Pa., the seat of Jefferson College; was a man of fine
presence, genial nature, and a physician of unusual ability. His wife was born at Hartford, Conn., of an
old New England family, and was a woman of rare culture. She was remarkable for her gift of song and
musical attainments, and her fine intellect and sprightly manners. She greatly excelled in reading aloud, and
taught her sons this art, instructing them also in declamation and composition,
before these branches were introduced into the schools of the
neighborhood. She was particularly fond
of poetry, and could render from memory chapters of Scott’s “Marmion” and “Lady of the Lake,” as well as the poems of
Burns. Her influence was decided upon
the character of her five sons.
Dr. McCook practiced medicine for many years in New
Lisbon, Ohio, whence he removed to Steubenville. He was an ardent patriot, and, although a
lifelong Democrat, joined the Union Republican party, and gave the whole weight
of his influence and service to the support of the government during the civil
war. He died just after its close,
October 11, 1865, at the headquarters of his son, General Anson G. McCOOK, in Washington, D. C., during a temporary visit, and
was buried at Steubenville, Ohio, by the side of his wife, who had preceded him
just six months.
He united with the Presbyterian church of New Lisbon,
Ohio, together with his wife, after the birth of all their children. The latter were baptized on the same Sabbath
by the late Dr. A. O. PATTERSON. Dr. McCOOK was a warm friend of Sunday-schools, and was
Superintendent for years of the school of the First Church of Steubenville,
under the late Dr. H. G. COMINGO.
The children of the above are as follows.
1. Major-General Edward Moody McCOOK,
born at Steubenville, Ohio, June 15, 1833.
He was one of the earliest settlers in the Pike’s Peak region, where he
had gone to practice his profession, law.
He represented that district in the legislature of Kansas, before the
division of the Territory. He was
temporarily in Washington in the troubled era preceding the war, and by a
daring feat as a volunteer secret agent for the government, won such
approbation that he was appointed into the regular army as a lieutenant of cavalry. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was
appointed major of the Second Indiana cavalry, rose rapidly to the ranks of
colonel, brigadier and major-general, and, after brilliant and effective
service, retired at the close of the war, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel
in the regular army. His most difficult
and dangerous service, perhaps, was penetrating the enemy’s lines by way of
diversion previous to Sherman’s march to the sea. He returned from this “forlorn hope,” having
inflicted great damage upon the enemy, defeated and captured a large number,
whom he was compelled to release, and retired in the face of HOOD’s entire army.
He resigned from the regular army to accept the appointment of United
Sates minister to the Sandwich islands. He was twice subsequently appointed governor
of Colorado Territory by President GRANT.
2. Brigadier-General Anson George McCOOK
was born in Steubenville, Ohio, October 10, 1835. He was educated in the public schools of New
Lisbon, Ohio, and at an early age crossed the plains to California, where he
spent several years. He returned shortly
before the war, and was engaged in the study of law in the office of STANTON
& MCCOOK, at Steubenville, at the outbreak of the rebellion. He promptly raised a company of volunteers,
and was elected captain of Company H, which was the first to enter the service
from Eastern Ohio. He was assigned to
the Second Ohio regiment, and took part in the first Bull Run battle. Upon the reorganization of the troops, he was
appointed major of the Second Ohio, and rose by death and resignation of his
seniors to the rank of colonel. At the
battle of Peach Tree Creek, near Atlanta, he commanded a brigade. He was in action in many of the principal
battles of the West, including those of Perryville, Stone River, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, etc.
On the muster-out of the Second regiment, at the close of three years’
service, he was appointed colonel of the One-hundred-and-ninety fourth Ohio,
and was ordered to the Valley of Virginia, where he was assigned to command a
brigade. He was brevetted a
brigadier-general at the close of the war.
He returned to Steubenville, whence, after
Page 371
several years’ residence, he returned to New York city, his
present residence. He served six years
in Congress from the Eighth New York district, in the Forty-fifth, forty-sixth
and Forty-seventh Congresses. He is at
present secretary of the United States Senate.
3. Rev. Henry C. McCook, D. D., the third son, was
born July 3, 1837, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and married an Ohio lady, Miss Emma C.
HORTER, of New Lisbon. He graduated at Jefferson
College. He was a student in the Western
Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), Allegheny City, on the outbreak of the
rebellion, and having made an engagement to go West to
spend his summer vacation, stopped at Clinton, Dewitt county, Ill. He was actively engaged in raising troops for
the service until the first Bull Run battle, when he enlisted as a private
soldier, stumped the county to raise troops, and was mustered into the
Forty-first Illinois regiment as first lieutenant. He was appointed chaplain of the regiment,
and returned home for ordination by the Presbytery of Steubenville, Ohio. He served for less than a year, and resigned,
with the intention of taking another position in the army: but, convinced that
he could serve his country better in a public position at home, he returned to
his church at Clinton. He was
subsequently a home missionary and pastor in St. Louis, Mo., whence he was
called to Philadelphia in 1869, where he continues pastor of one of the most
prominent churches of the East. He is
author of a number of popular theological and ecclesiastical books, but is
particularly known as a naturalist. His
studies of the ants and spiders, on whose habits he has written several
important books and numerous papers, have made his name well known among the
naturalists of Europe and America.
4. Commander Rhoderick Sheldon McCOOK, U. S.
N., was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, March 10, 1839. He graduated at the Naval Academy, Annapolis,
in1859, and his first service was off the Congo river,
Africa, whence he was sent home with a prize crew in charge of a captured
slaver. From 1861 to 1865 he took active
part in aggressive operations before Newberne,
Wilmington, Charleston, Fort Fisher, and on James river. At Newberne he bore
an active and successful part in the battle on land. He offered himself and the services of his
marines to the land force in moving a battery of guns from his vessel. With this battery he took a conspicuous part
in the conflict, and had the honor of receiving the surrender of a Confederate
regiment of infantry, probably the only surrender of this sort which occurred
during the civil war. During his arduous
service with monitors, particularly the “Canonicus”
at Fort Fisher, he seriously injured his health. He was engaged in the operations on the James
river, and also in those ending in the surrender of
Charleston. He attained the grade of
commander September 25, 1873. His last
service was in lighthouse duty on the Ohio river, on
whose banks, in the family plot in the Steubenville cemetery, his remains are
buried. Failing in health, he was
retired from active service February 23, 1885, when he went to Vineland, N. J.,
seeking restoration of strength in the occupations of farmlife. His death was caused by being thrown from his buggy upon his head, sustaining
injuries which resulted in suffusion of the brain. He married Miss Elizabeth SUTHERLAND, of
Steubenville, Ohio, who, with one son, survives him.
5. The fifth son and sixth child, Rev. Prof. John
James McCOOK, was born at New Lisbon, Ohio, February
4, 1843. He served as lieutenant in the
First Virginia volunteers during a short campaign in West Virginia, a regiment
recruited almost exclusively from Ohio.
There were so many volunteers from that State that its quota of
regiments was immediately filed, and many of its citizens entered the service
with regiments from other States. He was
at Kelleysville, one of the earliest engagements of
the war. He graduated at Trinity
College, Hartford; began the study of medicine, but abandoned it to enter the
Protestant Episcopal ministry. He was
rector of St. John’s, Detroit, and now of St. John’s, East Hartford. He is distinguished as a linguist, and is
author of a witty booklet, “Pat and the Council.” He is at present Professor of Modern
Languages in Trinity College, Hartford.
__________________
Photo caption: Col. JOHN J. McCOOK
(see page 368.)