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DELAWARE COUNTY was formed from Franklin county, February 10, 1808.  It lies north of Columbus.  The surface is generally level and the soil clay, except the river bottoms.  About one-third of the surface is adapted to meadow and pasture, and the remainder to the plough.  The Scioto and branches run through north and south–the Olentangy, Alum creek, and Walnut creek.  Area, 450 square miles.  In 1885 the acres cultivated were 108,277; in pasture, 98,488; woodland, 43,371; laying waste, 1,009; produced in wheat, 279,917 bushels; corn, 1,410,875; wool, 606,665 pounds; sheep, 107,895.  School census 1886, 8,487; teachers, 196.  It has 72 miles of railroad.

 

 

 

 

 

The population of the county in 1820 was 7,639; in 1840, 22,060; in 1860, 23,902; in 1880, 27,381, of whom 21,890 were Ohio-born.

 

The name of this county originated from the Delaware tribe, some of whom once dwelt within its limits, and had extensive corn-fields adjacent to its seat of justice.  John JOHNSTON says:

 

“The true name of this once powerful tribe is Wa-be-nugh-ka, that is, ‘the people from the east,’ or ‘the sun rising.’  The tradition among themselves is, that they originally, at some very remote period, emigrated from the West, crossed the Mississippi, ascending the Ohio, fighting their way, until they reached the Delaware river (so named from Lord Delaware), near where Philadelphia now stands, in which region of country they became fixed.

 

 

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the nation.  They welcomed to the shores of the new world that great lawgiver, William PENN, and his peaceful followers, and ever since this people have entertained a kind and grateful recollection of them; and to this day, speaking of good men, they would say, ‘Wa-she-a, E-le-ne,’ such a man is a Quaker, i.e., all good men are Quakers.  In 1823 I removed to the west of the Mississippi persons of this tribe who were born and raised within thirty miles of Philadelphia.  These were the most squalid, wretched, and degraded of their race, and often furnished chiefs with a subject of reproach against the whites, pointing to these of their people and saying to us, ‘see how you have spoiled them,’ meaning they had acquired all the bad habits of the white people, and were ignorant of hunting, and incapable of making a livelihood as other Indians.

 

In 1819 there were belonging to my agency in Ohio 80 Delawares, who were stationed near Upper Sandusky, and in Indiana 2,300 of the same tribe.

 

BOCKINGHELAS was the principal chief of the Delawares for many years after my going into the Indian country; he was a distinguished warrior in his day, and an old man when I knew him.  KILLBUCK, another Delaware chief, had received a liberal education at Princeton College, and retained until his death the great outlines of the morality of the Gospel.”

 

In the middle of the last century the Forks of the Muskingum, in Coshocton county, was the great central point of the Delawares.  There are yet fragments of the nation in Canada and in the Indian Territory.

 

The following historical sketch of Delaware county and its noted characters was written for the first edition by Dr. H. C. MANN:

 

The first settlement in the county was made May 1, 1801, on the east bank of the Olentangy, five miles below Delaware, by Nathan CARPENTER and Avery POWERS, from Chenango county, N. Y.  CARPENTER brought his family with him and built the first cabin near where the farm-house now stands.  POWERS’ family came out towards fall, but he had been out the year before to explore the country and select the location.  In April, 1802, Thomas CELLER, with Josiah MCKINNEY, from Franklin county, Pa., moved in and settled two miles lower down, and in the fall of 1803 Henry PERRY, from Wales, commenced a clearing and put up a cabin in Radnor, three-fourths of a mile south of Delhi.  In the spring of 1804 Aaron, John and Ebenezer WELCH (brothers) and Capt. Leonard MONROE, from Chenango, N. Y., settled in CARPENTER’s neighborhood, and the next fall Col. BYXBE and his company, from Berkshire, Mass., settled on Alum creek, and named their township Berkshire.  The settlement at Norton, by William DRAKE and Nathaniel WYATT; Lewis settlement, in Berlin, and the one at Westfield followed soon after.  In 1804 CARPENTER built the first mill in the county, where the factory of GUN, JONES & Co. now stands.  It was a saw-mill, with a small pair of stones attached, made of boulders, or “nigger heads,” as they are commonly called.  It could only grind a few bushels a day, but still it was a great advantage to the settlers.  When the county was organized, in 1808, the following officers were elected, viz.: Avery POWERS, John WELCH and Ezekiel BROWN, commissioners; Rev. Jacob DRAKE, treasurer; Dr. Reuben LAMB, recorder, and Azariah ROOT, surveyor.  The officers of the court were Judge BELT, of Chillicothe, president; Josiah M’KINNEY, Thomas BROWN and Moses BYXBE, associate judges; Ralph OSBORN, prosecuting attorney; Solomon SMITH, sheriff, and Moses BYXBE, Jr., clerk.  The first session was held in a little cabin that stood north of the sulphur spring.  The grand jury sat under a cherry-tree, and the petit jury in a cluster of bushes on another part of the lot, with their constables at a considerable distance to keep off intruders.

 

Block-houses.–This being a border county during the last war, danger was apprehended from the Indians, and a block-house was built in 1812 at Norton, and another, still standing on Alum creek, seven miles east from Delaware, and the present dwelling of L. H. COWLES, Esq., northeast corner Main and William streets, was converted into a temporary stockade.  During the war this county furnished a company of cavalry, that served several short campaigns as volunteers under Capt. Elias MURRAY, and several entire companies of infantry were called out from here at different times by Gov. MEIGS, but the county never was invaded.

 

 

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charging his gun, rushed towards the camp yelling Indians!  Indians!  With all his might.

 

The sentinels, supposing the alarm to proceed from one of their number, joined in the cry and ran to quarters; the men sprang to their feet in complete confusion, and the courageous attempted to form on the ground designated the night before in case of attack; but the first lieutenant, thinking there was more safety in depending upon legs than arms, took to his heels and dashed into the woods.  Seeing the consternation and impending disgrace of his company, the captain quickly proclaimed the hoax and ordered a halt, but the lieutenant’s frightened imagination converted every sound into Indian yells and the sanguinary war-whoop, and the louder the captain shouted, the faster he ran, till the sounds sank away in the distance and he supposed the captain and his adherents had succumbed to the tomahawk and the scalping-knife.  Supposing he had been asleep a few minutes only, he took the moon for his guide and flew for home, but having had time to gain the western horizon she led him in the wrong direction, and after breaking down saplings and running through brush some ten miles through the woods, he reached Radnor settlement just at daybreak, bare-headed and with his garments flowing in a thousand streams.  The people, roused hurriedly from their slumber and horrified with his report that the whole company was massacred but him who alone had escaped, began a general and rapid flight.

 

Each conveyed the tiding to his neighbor, and just after sunrise they came rushing through Delaware, mostly on horse-back, many in wagons, and some on foot, presenting all those grotesque appearances that frontier settlers naturally would, supposing the Indians close in their rear.  Many anecdotes are told, amusing now to us who cannot realize their feelings, that exhibit the varied hues of courage and trepidation characterizing different persons, and also show that there is no difference between real and supposed danger, and yet those actuated by the latter seldom receive the sympathy of their fellows.

 

One family, named PENRY, drove so fast that they bounced a little boy, two or three years old, out of the wagon, near Delaware, and did not miss him till they had gone five or six miles on their way to Worthington, and then upon consultation concluded it was too late to recover him amid such imminent danger, and so yielded him up as a painful sacrifice!  But the little fellow found protection from others, and is now living in the western part of the county.  One woman, in the confusion of hurrying off, forgot her babe till after starting, and ran back to get it, but being peculiarly absent-minded she caught up a stick of wood from the chimney corner and hastened off, leaving her child again quietly sleeping in the cradle!  A large portion of the people fled to Worthington and Franklinton, and some kept on to Chillicothe.

 

In Delaware the men who could be spared from conveying away their families, or who had none, rallied for defence and sent scouts to Norton to reconnoitre, where they found the people quietly engaged in their ordinary avocations, having received a message from the captain; but it was too late to save the other settlements from a precipitate flight.  Upon the whole, it was quite an injury to the county, as a large amount of produce was lost from the intrusion of cattle and the want of hands to harvest it; many of the people being slow in returning and some never did.  Capt. DRAKE, with his company, marched on to Sandusky to execute the duty assigned him without knowing the effect produced in his rear.  He has since been associate judge and filled several other offices in the county, and is still living, respected by his neighbors and characterized by hospitality and good humor and his strong penchant for anecdote and fun.

 

Early Customs.–During the early period of the county the people were in a condition of complete social equality; no aristocratic distinctions were thought of in society, and the first line of demarkation drawn was to separate the very bad from the general mass.  Their parties were for raisings and log-rollings, and the labor being finished, their sports usually were shooting and gymnastic exercises with the men, and convival amusements among the women; no punctilious formality, nor ignoble aping the fashions of licentious Paris, marred their assemblies, but all were happy and enjoyed themselves in seeing others so.  The rich and the poor dressed alike; the men generally wearing hunting-shirts and buckskin pants, and the women attired in coarse fabrics produced by their own hands.  Such was their common and holiday dress, and if a fair damsel wished a superb dress for her bridal day, her highest aspiration was to obtain a common American cotton check.  The latter, which now sells for a shilling a yard, then cost one dollar, and five yards was deemed an ample pattern.  Silks, satins and fancy goods, that now inflate our vanity and deplete our purses, were not then even dreamed of.

 

 

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every variety of pastry.  Flour could not for some time be obtained nearer than Chillicothe or Zanesville; goods were very high, and none but the most common kinds were brought here, and had to be packed on horses or mules from Detroit, or wagoned from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio river in flat boats to the mouth of the Scioto, and then packed or hauled up.  The freight was enormous, costing often $4 per ton.  Tea retailed at from two to three dollars a pound, coffee 75 cents, salt $5 to $6 per bushel (50lbs.).  The coarsest calicoes were $1 per yard, whisky from $1 to $2 per gallon, and as much of the latter was sold as of all other articles, for several years after Delaware was laid out; but it must be remembered that this then was the border town, and had considerable trade with the Indians.

 

It was the common practice to set a bottle on each end of the counter for customers to help themselves gratuitously to enable them to purchase advantageously!  Many people suffered hardships and endured privations that now would seem insupportable.  In the fall of 1803 Henry PERRY, after getting up his cabin near Delhi, left his two sons and returned to Philadelphia for the remainder of his family, but finding his wife sick, and afterwards being sick himself, could not get back till the next June.  These two little boys, Levi and Pepper, only eleven and nine years old, remained there alone eight months, fifteen miles from any white family, and surrounded by Indians, with no food but the rabbits they could catch in the hollow logs; the remains of one deer that the wolves killed near them, and a little corn meal that they occasionally obtained of Thomas CELLAR by following down the “Indian trace.”  The winter was a severe one, and their cabin was open, having neither daubing, fire-place, nor chimney; they had no gun, and were wholly unaccustomed to forest life, being fresh from Wales, and yet these little fellows not only struggled through but actually made a considerable clearing!  Jacob FOUST, at an early day, when his wife was sick and could obtain nothing to eat that she relished, procured a bushel of wheat, and throwing it upon his shoulders carried it to Zanesville to get it ground, a distance of more than seventy-five miles, by the tortuous path he had to traverse, and then shouldering his flour retraced his steps home, fording the streams and camping out nights.

 

BIOGRAPHY.–Col. Moses BYXBE was for several years the most prominent man in the county, being the owner of some 8,000 acres of valuable land in Berkshire and Berlin, and joint owner with Judge BALDWIN of about thirty thousand acres more, the sale of which he had the entire control.  These were military lands which he sold on credit, at prices varying from two and a half to ten dollars an acre.  He possessed a complete knowledge of human nature, and was an energetic and prompt business man.  Upon the organization of the county he was elected one of the associate judges, and continued to hold the office till 1822.  He was afflicted with partial insanity before he died, which occurred in 1827 at the age of 67.

 

Solomon SMITH, Esq., was born in New Salem, N. H., and came here with Col. BYXBE in 1804.  He was the first sheriff in the county, and was the first justice of the peace in the township, which office he held, by repeated elections, more than twenty years.  He was also the first postmaster, and continued many years in that capacity.  The responsible offices of county treasurer and county auditor he also filled for many years, and discharged the duties of all these stations with an accuracy seldom excelled, and a fidelity never questioned.  In him was exhibited an instance of a constant office-holder and an honest man, and for a long time he possessed more personal popularity than any other man in the county.  He died of congestive fever, at Sandusky City, on his return from New York, July 10, 1845, in his 58^th year, and his remains were brought here for interment.

 

Hon. Ezekiel BROWN was born in Orange county, N.Y., in 1760, and moved to Northumberland county, Pa., when about ten years old.  In 1776 he volunteered and marched to join Washington’s army, which he reached just after the battle of Trenton.  He participated in four different engagements, and in 1778 joined a company of rangers called out against the Indians.  On the 24^th of May, when out scouting with two others, they same across a party of fifteen Indians watching a house, and were themselves discovered at the same moment.  The Indians fired and killed one man, and BROWN and his comrade instantly returned the fire, wounding an Indian, and then fled.  The other escaped, but he was not fleet enough, and was captured.  They were Delawares and Cayugas, and first took him to Chemung, an Indian town on Tioga river, where he had to run the gauntlet, being badly beaten, and received a severe wound on his head from a tomahawk, but he succeeded in reaching the council-house without being knocked down. 

 

 

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offices, and died about five years ago, leaving the reputation of an upright man.

 

Capt. John MINTER, from Kentucky, one of the early settlers in Radnor, and brother-in-law of Col. CRAWFORD, who was burnt by the Indians, was, in his younger days, a great hunter, and became famous for a terrible bear fight, in which he came very near losing his life.  When hunting alone one day he came across a very large bear and fired at him.  The bear fell, and reloading his gun MINTER advanced, supposing him dead, and touched his nose with the muzzle of the gun, when he instantly reared upon his hind legs to seize him.  MINTER fired again, which increased his rage, only inflicting a flesh wound, and then threw his hatchet at him; and as the bear sprang forward to grasp him he struck him with the rifle on the head with all his might, producing no other effect than shivering the gun to pieces.  Too late then to escape he drew his big knife from his sheath and made a plunge at his heart, but old Bruin, by a stroke of his paw, whirled the knife into the air, and enfolding its weaponless owner with his huge arms both rolled to the ground.

 

A fearful struggle then ensued between the combatants: one ruled by unvarying instinct, and the other guided by the dictates of reason.  The former depended wholly upon hugging his adversary to death, while the latter aimed at presenting his body in such positions as would best enable him to withstand the vice-like squeeze till he could loosen the grasp.  He was about six feet in height, possessing large bones and well-developed muscles, and being properly proportioned was very athletic.  The woods were open and clear of underbrush, and in their struggles they rolled in every direction.  Several times he thought the severity of the hug would finish him; but by choking the bear he would compel him to release his hold to knock off his hands, when he would recover his breath and gain a better position.  After maintaining the contest in this way several hours they, happily for him, rolled back near where his knife lay, which inspired him with buoyant hope, but he had to make many ineffectual efforts before he could tumble the bear within reach of it.  Having finally recovered it he stabbed him at every chance till he at last bled to death, only relaxing his hold when life became extinct.

 

He attempted to get up, but was too much exhausted, and crawling to a log, against which he leaned, his heart sickened as he contemplated the scene.  Not a rag was left on him, and over his back, arms and legs his flesh was lacerated to the bones by the claws of the bear.  By crawling and walking he reached home after night with no other covering than a gore of blood from head to foot.  His friends, who went out next morning to survey the ground and bring in the trophy, said the surface was torn up by them over a space of at least half an acre.  After several weeks he recovered, but he carried with him the cicatrices and welts, some of which were more than a quarter of an inch thick, till he died, which occured about fifteen years ago.  He never desired another bear hug, but gave up hunting, and turning his attention to agriculture left his children a comfortable patrimony and a good name.

 

Rev. Joseph S. HUGHES, from Washington, Pa., came to Delaware in 1810, and organized the first Presbyterian church here, and also those in Liberty and Radnor.  For a short time, he was chaplain in the army, and was with HULL when he surrendered, at which time he returned.  The societies being unable to pay much salary, he sought his support mainly from other sources, serving several years as clerk of the court, and afterwards in the capacity of editor.  He possessed a liberal education, superadded to oratorical powers of a superior order by nature.  As an orator he is described as being graceful, mellifluous, persuasive and convincing, and he has left the reputation among many of the old settlers of being the most effective speaker that they have ever heard.  In the social circle, too, he excelled, but unfortunately he had an indomitable penchant for festivity and sport.  Many anecdotes are related detracting from his clerical character, and when dwelt upon, we must not forget to associate the habits and customs of the times in which they occurred.

 

For instance, it is said that one time, on the occasion of a wedding at Capt. MINTER’s, after the ceremonies had been solemnized and the luxuries duly honored, he started off about dusk to go to a place some five miles through the woods, but after dark returned somewhat scratched by the bushes, and reported having been lost, and concluded to stay till morning.  According to the general custom on such occasions, all the young folks in the settlement had assembled for a frolic, and they charged him with having returned to participate with them, and as he was a good musician and their “knight of the bow” had disappointed them, they insisted upon his playing the fiddle for them to dance, which he did all night, with an occasional intermission for refreshment or to romp!  Some of the old citizens say also that he was a good hand at pitching quoits, and as it was common to choose sides and pitch for the “grog,” he seldom even then backed out!

 

For these and other charges he was arraigned before the presbytery, where, declining all assistance, and relying on his own ingenuity and eloquence, he made a successful defence.  He continued to preach as “stated supply” until he was suddenly cut off by an epidemic fever in the fall of 1823, and was interred in the old burying-ground, but no tombstone points out the place where his mouldering remains lie.  He was succeeded in 1824 by Rev. Henry VANDEMAN, the first installed pastor, and who has retained his charge ever since, a fact that is mentioned, because in the west preachers seldom retain a pastoral charge so long, and in this presbytery there is no similar instance, excepting that of Dr. HODGE, of Columbus.

 

 

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fications are found in three places in the county, the most remarkable of which is in the lower part of Liberty, about eleven miles below Delaware, on the east bank of the Olentangy.

 

Indian Villages.–There were formerly two villages belonging to the Delawares, mostly within the limits of the present town of Delaware.  One occupied the ground around the east end of William street, and the other was at the west end, extending from near the sawmill to the hill-side.  Upon the ground now occupied by the town, they cultivated a corn-field of about 400 acres.  The Mingoes had a small village half a mile above town, on “horse-shoe bottom,” where they also raised corn.

 

Many of the old pioneers entertained towards the Indians an inveterate hatred, and did not consider it really criminal even to murder them.  One time, after the last war, a dead Indian was seen floating down the Scioto on two logs, lashed together, having his gun and all his accoutrements with him.  He had been shot, and the people believed the murderer was George SHANON, who had been in service considerably during the war, and one time when out, not far from Lower Sandusky, with a small company, fell in with a party of warriors and had to retreat.  He lingered behind till he got a shot, and killed one.  As soon as he fired, several Indians sprang forward to catch him alive, but being swift on foot, he could easily keep ahead, when he suddenly came to an open field, across which he had to run or be cut off.  The Indians gained the first side just as he was leaping the fence on the other and fired at him, one ball entering his hip.  He staunched the blood by stuffing the hole with a portion of his shirt, that they might not track him, and crawled into the brush; but they gave up the chase, thinking they had not hit him, and being convinced of his superior fleetness.  SHANON got into camp and was conveyed home, but he was always lame afterwards, and fostered an unrelenting desire for vengeance towards the whole race, not excepting the innocent and harmless.

 

As late as 1820 two Indians were murdered on Fulton’s creek.  A party came down there to hunt, as was customary with them every fall, and Henry SWARTZ ordered them off.  They replied, “No!  The land belongs to the white man–the game to the Indian,” and insisted that they were friends and ought not to be disturbed.  A few days after, two of their number were missing, and they hunted the entire country over without finding them, and at last found evidence of human bones where there had been a fire, and immediately charged SWARTZ with killing and burning them.  They threatened vengeance on him, and for several years after he had to be constantly on his guard to prevent being waylaid.  It was never legally investigated, but the neighbors all believed that SWARTZ, aided probably by Ned WILLIAMS, murdered and disposed of them in the manner the Indians suspected, and at one time talked of driving them out of the settlement.  They were considered bad men, and never prospered afterwards.

 

 

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“Scioto Exporting Company,” was started by a posse of counterfeiters, who drew in some others, but it was destroyed by the citizens before they could get a large amount of paper afloat.  The population of Delaware in 1840 was 898.

 

Delaware was laid out in 1808 by Col. Moses BYXBE and Hon. Henry BALDWIN, of Pittsburg, who had purchased a large tract of land for that purpose.  They sold the lots at private sale, at the uniform price of $30, the purchaser taking his choice.  Joseph BARBER put up the first cabin in the fall of 1807.  It stood close to the spring, and was made of poles, Indian fashion, fifteen feet square, in which he kept tavern.  The principal settlers were Messrs. BYXBE, William LITTLE, Dr. LAMB, Solomon SMITH, Elder Jacob DRAKE (Baptist preacher), Thomas BUTLER, and Ira CARPENTER.  In the spring of 1808 Moses BYXBE built the first frame house, on William street, lot 70, and the first brick house was erected the ensuing fall by Elder DRAKE, on Winter street, where Thomas PETTIBONE’s mansion not stands; being unable to get but one mason, his wife laid all the brick of the inside walls.  The court-house was built in 1815, the year in which the town was incorporated.  The Methodists commenced the first meeting-house in 1823 (now the schoolhouse), but it was not finished for several years.  The old churches of the First Presbyterians and the Episcopalians were built in 1825, upon the sites on which the present beautiful edifices were erected in 1845.  The Second Presbyterian church was erected in 1844, the new Methodist church in 1846, and the Lutheran church in 1835.–Old Edition.

 

The Ohio Wesleyan University has been recently established at Delaware, with fine prospects of success–the Rev. Edward THOMSON, D. D., president.  The college edifice stands on a pleasant elevation in the southern part of the village, and embraces within its grounds ten acres of land, including the sulphur spring.

 

The springs here have long been known.  Tradition states that the Indians resorted to them to use the waters and to kill the deer and buffalo which came here in great numbers.  Before the grounds were enclosed in the early settlement of the county the domestic animals for miles around made this a favorite resort in the heats of summer, and appeared satisfied with no other water.  The water is said to be similar to that of the celebrated white sulphur springs of Virginia, and equal in their mineral and medicinal qualities.  The water is cooler, being as low as 53E, contains more gas, and is therefore lighter and more pleasant than that of the Virginia water.  Many cures have been effected of persons afflicted with scrofulous diseases, dyspepsia, bilious derangements of the liver and stomach, want of appetite and digestion, cases of erysipelas when all the usual remedies had failed, and injuries inflicted by the excessive use of calomel.–Old Edition.

 

Aside from the long-famed spring above described this region seems to abound in mineral springs.  On the outskirts of the town, in the valley of Delaware Run, in an area of about thirty-seven acres, is a collection of five flowing springs called “Little’s Springs,” consisting of as many different varieties of water–white sulphur, black sulphur, magnetic, iron, and fresh water.

 

 

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WELCH, cashier.  Churches: 4 Methodist Episcopal, 1 German Methodist Episcopal, 2 Colored Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal, 1 Baptist, 1 Colored Baptist, 2 Lutheran, and 1 Catholic.

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846

WINTER STREET, DELAWARE

 

Manufactures and Employees.–CLARK & YOUNG, builders’ supplies, 15 hands; Delaware Chair Company, 205; RIDDLE, GRAFF & Co., cigars, 104; J. HESSNAUER,

 

Ulrey Bros., Photo, Delaware, 1886

SANDUSKY STREET, DLEAWARE.

 

 

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work, 15.–State Report for 1887.  Also, brick, carpets, mineral waters, stoves, and pumps.  Population in 1880, 6,894.  School census in 1886, 2,621; J. L. CAMPBELL, superintendent.

 

The great distinguishing feature of this pleasant town is as an educational point.  The Ohio Wesleyan University located here is one of the largest in America under the auspices of the Methodist Church.  It was founded in 1842.  The Ohio

 

THE OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.

 

Wesleyan Female College, founded in 1853, was consolidated with the University in 1877, and the two institutions are now conducted as one, ladies being admitted to all branches of study.  This part of the institution has the finest and largest of the college edifices: it is called Monnett Hall, and is about ten minutes’ walk from the Male Department, in a pretty campus of about ten acres.  Over 1,100 young men and women have graduated from the University, and several thousand have

 

 

MONNETT HALL.

 

taken a partial course; “the annual attendance has reached to 830.”  The University has a very complete Conservatory of Music, a flourishing Art Department, and a Commercial Department, giving a business training.

 

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and the rear wood.  When a boy he went to a private school–that of Mrs. John MURRAY–on Franklin street.  A brother of his was drowned while skating in the Olentangy; a melancholy incident, remembered by the older citizens.

 

His father, Rutherford HAYES, a Vermonter, came to Delaware in 1817, and engaged in merchandising.  He died in the very year of his son’s birth (1822),

 

Ulrey & Bro. Photo, Delaware, 1846

BIRTHPLACE OF PRESIDENT HAYES.

 

leaving a widow and three young children, with a large, unsettled business.  Sardis BIRCHARD, a brother of the widow, then a youth of sixteen, emigrated with the family from Vermont.  He worked with his brother-in-law in building, farming, driving, taking care of stock, and employing all his spare hours in hunting, and was enabled with his rifle to supply his own and other families with turkeys and venison.  He was a handsome, jovial young man, a universal favorite, and devoted to his sister and her little flock.  In 1827, when the future President was five years of age, Mr. BIRCHARD removed to Fremont, then Lower Sandusky, and from that date it became the home of the family.

 

Mr. HAYES graduated at Kenyon in 1840, then prepared in Columbus for entrance into the Harvard Law School, where he in due time also graduated.  It was at this period he illustrated his regard for his native State, which all through his career has been a marked trait.  The anecdote is thus related in the history of Delaware county, with which we here close, referring the reader to a more extended notice of him under the head of Sandusky county.

 

 

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leader carefully placed over the rude banner, and the unexpected “Ohio delegation,” proudly marching under a crown of laurel leaves, was cheered and honored as Ohio had never been honored before.  This was probably Mr. HAYES’ first appearance as a political leader, and doubtless one of the happiest and proudest days of his life.

 

JOHN ANTHONY QUITMAN, a noted general of the Mexican war, and later governor of Mississippi, was a resident of Delaware for a number of years, studied law, and was admitted to the bar there.  He was born in 1799, in Rhinebeck, N. Y.  THOMAS CARNEY, governor of Kansas during the rebellion, was born in Kingston township, near ROSECRANS’ birthplace.  His private secretary was John C. VAUGHN, the veteran journalist of Ohio and Kansas, who, now well in the eighties, with the memories of a useful life, is passing his remaining days an inmate of the “Old Gentlemen’s Home,” Cincinnati.  PRESTON B. PLUMB, now United States Senator from Kansas, was born on Alum creek, in Berlin township.  A. P. MOREHOUSE, now governor of Missouri (born in 1835), is a native of this county.  Gen. JOHN CALVIN LEE, who did efficient service in the Rebellion, and served two terms as lieutenant-governor under HAYES, is a native of Brown township.  Judge THOMAS W. POWELL, now deceased, resided in Delaware.  He was one of Ohio’s most eminent and learned jurists, and author of a historical work entitled “History of the Ancient Britons.”  His son, Hon. T. E. POWELL, was the Democratic candidate for governor of the State in 1887 versus J. B. FORAKER.  Mr. Philip PHILLIPS, the famed Christian songster, has his home in Delaware–a pleasant residence.  The annals of Delaware show a bevy of authors: Rev. Drs. PAYNE and MERRICK, Profs. MCCABE, PARSONS, and GROVE–all of the University–in works of instruction or theology; Prof. T. C. O’KANE, in Sunday-school song-books, and Prof. G. W. MICHAEL, in “Michael’s System of Rapid Writing.”

 

The Delaware Grape.–This remarkable and celebrated grape was first sent forth from this county.  It took its name from the town.  This was about the year 1850, when it was discovered growing near the banks of the Scioto in the hands of a Mr. HEATH who brought it from New Jersey years before.  Its origin is doubtful, whether foreign or native.  Mr. THOMPSON, the editor of the Gazette, discovered its superior merits.  Its introduction created a great furore in grape-growing, called “the grape fever.”  The ability of grape propagators was taxed to the utmost to supply the demand, and Delaware grape-vines were sold in enormous quantities at prices ranging from $1 to $5 each.  The wildest ideas prevailed in regard to it and inexperienced cultivators suffered through their excess of zeal over knowledge.  In soils suitable the Delaware grape maintains its original high character, but its cultivation requires great skill and care.

 

“The State Reform School for Girls,” as it was originally called, but changed in 1872 by an act of the Legislature to the “Girls’ Industrial Home,” is on a beautiful site on the Scioto, ten miles southwest of Delaware, and eighteen above Columbus.  The spot was long known as the “White Sulphur Springs.”  In early times a hole was bored here 460 feet for salt water, but, instead, was struck a spring of strong white sulphur water.  In 1847 a large hotel and some cottages were put up for boarders, and the place was for a term of years quite a resort, but finally ran down.

 

It becoming a home for girls was the result of a petition to the Legislature by some of the benevolent citizens of the county, who, seeing the fine property going to decay, desired that it should be purchased by the State, and converted into an asylum for unprotected girls.  In 1869 the State purchased it, and founded the institution “for the instruction, employment, and reformation of exposed, helpless, evil-disposed, and vicious girls,” above the age of seven years and under that of sixteen.  The institution at times has over 200 pupils, and is on a well-conducted foundation.  Col. James M. CRAWFORD is the superintendent.

Delaware county will be permanently rendered noted not only as the birthplace of a President but also of that of one of the most brilliant military strategists known to the art of war–that great soldier and patriot, WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS.

 

 

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most, if not himself the foremost, of all our generals. . . . .  His tactical ability shone as conspicuously as his strategy.  He handled troops with rare facility and judgment under the stress of battle.  More than all, there came upon him in the hour of conflict the inspiration of war, so that men were magnetized by his presence into heroes.  Stone River, under ROSECRANS, and Cedar Creek, under SHERIDAN, are the sole examples in the war of defeats converted into victories by the reinforcement of a single man.”

 

We give a sketch of his career from the pen of Mr. W. S. FURAY, a native of

 

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846

THE WHITE SUPHUR SPRINGS.

 

Ross county, who was war correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, beginning with the opening campaign in Western Virginia and continuing until the close of the war.  Since that period Mr. FURAY has held various civil and journalistic positions, and is now on the editorial staff of the Ohio State Journal.

 

WILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS was born in Kingston township, of Delaware county, Sept. 6, 1819.  He merited in one respect the title of “the Dutch General,” given him by the Confederates early in the War of the Rebellion, for his ancestors on the father’s side came from Amsterdam, although his mother traced back her descent to Timothy HOPKINS, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

 

At the age of fifteen ROSECRANS entered the military academy at West Point, graduating thence in the class of 1842.  Entering the Engineer Corps of the Army as Second Lieutenant, he served the Government efficiently and well in various capacities until 1853, when he was promoted to First Lieutenant, and shortly after, to the great regret of his superior officers, resigned.

 

From this time until the breaking out of the rebellion, he devoted himself to civil engineering and kindred occupations, making his headquarters at Cincinnati.  During all these years of his earlier career he exhibited, in the limited fields open to him, those characteristics of original conception, inventive genius, restless activity and tireless energy which were ever afterwards to carry him through a career of wonderful success at the head of great armies and enroll his name amongst those of the most brilliant soldiers known to military history.

 

The following is a rapid outline of that career:

 

In the spring of 1861, W. S. ROSECRANS was commissioned by the Governor of Ohio Chief Engineer of the State of Ohio, with the rank and pay of United States Colonel of Engineers.  Answering his country’s call, however, as a citizen volunteer aide he organized the troops at Camp Dennison, Ohio, and began the organization of Camp Chase as Colonel of the 23d United States Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

 

 

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route, and subsequently by way of Romney, and along the B. & O. road.  The Legislature of West Virginia passed a unanimous vote of thanks in recognition of his services in defending the State, which was followed soon after by a similar vote of thanks from the Legislature of the Satae of Ohio.

 

In 1862 he submitted a plan for the campaign of that year auxiliary to that for the movements of the Army of the Potomac, which plan was highly approved by the general-in-chief and by the War Department.

 

Early in April, 1862, he was ordered to Washington and sent to find and conduct BLECNCKER’s Division to General FREMONT.

 

He submitted to the War Department a plan for the application of the forces under Generals MCDOWELL, BANKS, and FREMONT to occupy the Shenandoah Valley and threaten communications with the South.

 

In May, 1862, he was ordered to report to General HALLECK, who commanded our army in front of Corinth, Mississippi.  Was put in command of two divisions (STANLEY’s and PAINE’s) in front of that city, and when it was vacated by BRAGG and BEAUREGARD he led the infantry pursuit until ordered to stop. 

 

In June, 1862, he was placed in command of the Army of the Mississippi, consisting of four divisions.

 

In September, 1862, with two small divisions he confronted General Sterling PRICE, and fought the battle of Iuka.

 

In connection with the mention of his general system of army management, it may be stated that he originated the making of photo-printing maps, and furnished his subordinate commanders with information maps of the regions of military operations; established convalescent hospitals for the treatment or discharge of chronic cases; organized colored men into squads of twenty-five each, and equipped and employed them as engineer troops; employed escaped colored women in laundries and as cooks for hospitals, etc.

 

On October 3d and 4^th, 1862, with four divisions, he fought the battle of Corinth.

 

By order of the President he was placed in command of the Department of the Cumberland and Army of the Ohio, relieving General BUELL, October 30, 1862.  He reorganized this army, and established an Inspector-General’s system by detail from the line, also a Topographical Department by detail of Brigade, Division, and Corps Engineers, and a Pioneer Corps by detail of officers and men from the infantry.  He also reorganized both the cavalry and artillery.

 

On December 31, 1862, and January 1 and 2, 1863, he fought the battle of Stone River, against the Confederates under General BRAGG, and drove him behind the line of Duck river.

 

From June 23 to July 7, 1863, he conducted the campaign of Tullahoma, by which BRAGG was driven out of his intrenched camps (at Shelbyville and Tullahoma) in Middle Tennessee.

 

After the battle of Stone River he was tendered, almost simultaneously, a unanimous vote of thanks from Congress and from the States of Ohio and Indiana.

 

From July 7, 1863, to August 14, 1863, he was bringing forward supplies, perfecting the organization of the army, and manœuvring for Chattanooga, giving special attention to the rebuilding of a railroad, as a necessary pre-requisite to success.

 

From August 14 to September 22, 1863, he made the campaign of Chattanooga, and fought the battle of Chickamauga, manœuvring the Confederates out of the objective point covered by Lookout Range and the Tennessee river.

 

For his services at Chickamauga, he received a unanimous vote of thanks from the National House of Representatives.

 

After the battle of Chickamauga, he was engaged in making the preliminary arrangements to constitute Chattanooga a new main depot, by water and rail connections with Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati.

 

Between October, 1863, and January 27, 1864, he presided over the great Western Sanitary Fair at Cincinnati, which raised $325,000 for objects of beneficence to Union soldiers.  He also presided over the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair, which raised $525,000 for the same cause.

 

On the 27^th of January, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department of Missouri, in which capacity he succeeded in defeating all the objects and purposes of PRICE in Missouri, defeated him on the Big Blue and at Maris des Cygnes, and drove him out in a state of disorganization, from which he never recovered.

 

He was also successful in exposing and defeating the objects of the Order of American Knights.

 

In January, 1866, he was mustered out as Major-General of Volunteers and resigned as Brigadier-General in United States Army in 1867.  He was afterwards made Brevet Major-General.

 

 

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alight upon the Union standards, and gained a victory which electrified the nation and the world.  In the Tullahoma campaign he had exhibited a talent for strategy equal to Napoleon in the campaign of Ulm, and without the loss of a regiment, a gun or a stand of colors, had driven BRAGG from his whole line of entrenched camps, and expelled him from Middle Tennessee.

 

ROSECRANS had been too successful.  He had raised himself to too exalted a height.  The fatal halo of supposed invincibility glimmered around his head.  No soldier ever was or ever will be absolutely invincible, but he who is believed to be so must maintain the reputation or fall to a lower level than what he rose from.  Nay, he must not merely succeed thereafter in attaining the object at which he aims; he must attain it in the manner that public opinion marks out for him, and scarcely dare achieve less than the impossible.

 

The limits of this sketch will not permit a discussion of the campaign in August and September, 1863, and only the conclusions can be set down, which, by a prolonged and conscientious study of the whole history of that campaign, have been arrived at.

 

The object that ROSECRANS had in view when he commenced his great movement on the 23d of August, 1863, was to relieve East Tennessee from Confederate occupation and get possession of that central key to the Confederacy, the city of Chattanooga.  The place was defended by Gen. BRAGG’s army, which from the first was fully equal in numbers to that under ROSECRANS and soon became greatly superior.  The all-knowing soldier who commanded the Union army knew from the first that BRAGG could easily be reinforced, that every effort would be made by the Confederate government to save Chattanooga, and that his own force was inadequate to the mighty task he had before him.  Hence he begged, pleaded and implored for reinforcements which were within easy reach, which were persistently denied him, but which when the campaign was ended came up in such numbers that had a third of them been sent to ROSECRANS before he began his march across the Tennessee and the mountains to manœuvre BRAGG out of Chattanooga, would have enabled him not only to get possession of that stronghold, but to utterly destroy the army opposed to him.

 

Chattanooga could not be obtained without a battle.  To assail it directly would be simply madness.  ROSECRANS therefore began that splendid series of manœuvres to the southward of the city which carried his army into Georgia and threatened the Confederate communications with Atlanta.  BRAGG retired out of the city and marched southward, taking up such position that he could, at any time, return on shorter lines and compel ROSECRANS to fight a battle for the prize.  The Union general expected this, and had prepared accordingly.  But while he was concentrating his army, that which he had clearly foreseen occurred.  From every quarter of the Confederacy troops were hurried to BRAGG’S assistance.  From Mississippi, from Mobile, from Savannah they came, and from Virginia the powerful corps of Gen. LONGSTREET was hurried to North Georgia to overwhelm the comparatively feeble army under ROSECRANS.  In round numbers, 40,000 Union soldiers were to contend with 75,000 Confederates, to see which would finally hold Chattanooga.

 

Before the Union army was fully concentrated the Confederates assailed it, and the awful battle of Chickamauga began.  The first day the assailants were repelled at all points.  The second day they rushed through a gap in our lines caused by a miswording or misunderstanding of orders, and separating the right wing of our army from the centre, overwhelmed that wing.  Our centre and left stood firm; ROSECRANS seeing this and that the enemy who had overwhelmed our right might push up the valley (which the right had been covering) into Chattanooga, hastened to rally the right, to get the troops left behind in Chattanooga as guards to our stores and reserve artillery, in proper shape, and to prepare a new position for the army at Rossville in case the centre and left should also be compelled to retreat.  It was here he showed the greatness of the true soldier who leaves nothing to chance; it was here he specially proved his worthiness for the highest command.  As fast as he could do so, he urged portions of the rallied troops to the assistance of that part of the army which still held the field; he sent word of all he was doing to the brave THOMAS, who was so grandly resisting the enemy’s onset, and gave new courage and confidence to that veteran by assuring him when he felt he could no longer hold his position on the field the new lines would be ready for his reception.  It was this knowledge that inspired THOMAS with the stern determination not to retreat in the face of the foe at all.  And he did not retreat.  He held his own until nightfall, suffering dreadful loss, but always inflicting more than he suffered, and when the last effort of the foe had been repelled, retiring leisurely to the new lines which the genius of ROSECRANS had marked out for the army.

 

The next day the Confederate forces, who did not know that they had gained any victory, and who had really retired from the battle-field at night as far as our own soldiers had retired, came slowly and cautiously up towards the new Union lines, took a careful look at them, heard the loud cheers of the Union legion as ROSECRANS rode along them, and decided not to attack!  The great objective of the campaign, the great prize of the battle, namely, the city of Chattanooga, was in possession of the National troops, and never again went out of their hands.

 

 

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completely deceived the enemy and manœuvred him by masterly strategy out of his stronghold, then had baffled all his efforts to regain it, had fought nearly double its own numbers for two days, suffering a loss of 15,000 men and inflicting a loss of more than 18,000 upon the enemy, had held the field until it retired of its own choice and after all firing had ceased, then leisurely assumed the new position which its great leader had prepared, and then defiantly awaited another attach which its awfully punished foe did not dare to make.  And it held the city it had won and for which the battle was fought.  Was all this failure and defeat?  The blood of every soldier who fell upon that gory field cries out against the falsehood!

 

Abraham LINCOLN’s clear eye perceived the truth; he saw that the skill of ROSECRANS had assured relief to East Tennessee, had cut the line of the enemy’s defence by rail, had secured the key that was to unlock the treasure-house of the foe, and had opened the way to the very heart of the Confederacy.  He telegraphed ROSECRANS, as well he might, “be of good cheer; we have unabated confidence in your soldiers, in your officers and in you”

 

And ROSECRANS was of good cheer, and immediately devised the plans for reopening communications along the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, plans which others afterwards executed; for the clear-sighted LINCOLN yielded to some sinister influence; and the brilliant leader of the Army of the Cumberland, after a campaign which in all its aspects was one of the most successful known to history, and in the very midst of the city which his valor and genius had won, found himself summarily relieved of his command!  It was the one act of measureless injustice and wrong which, while not Abraham LINCOLN’s fault, stains the annals of his otherwise spotless career.

 

On resigning his commission General ROSECRANS went to California and became a citizen of that State.  He was offered and declined the Democratic nomination for governor of California in 1867.  He was also offered the nomination for governor by the convention of Independent Republicans held at Marysville, and declined.  In 1868 he was nominated and confirmed as United States minister to Mexico, without consultation or knowledge on his part until officially notified thereof.  He accepted this appointment on condition that he sould be allowed carte-blanche to represent the good will of the American republic towards Mexico.

 

In 1869 he returned to California an resumed the practice of his profession, namely, that of civil and mining engineering.  It should be stated, however, that during his residence in Mexico he became thoroughly convinced that the mutual prosperity of Mexico and the United States would be promoted by the progress of Mexico under her own autonomy, and, acting in accordance with his carte-blanche, he urged the Mexican cabinet and other leaders to further and foster the construction of railroads.  His efforts in this direction met with such success that the initiative period of Mexican development in this regard dates from the time of these earnest efforts on his part.

 

In 1869 he was also offered and declined the Democratic nomination for Governor of Ohio.  In 1870 he memorialized Congress, urging the encouragement of commerce with Mexico.  In 1872-3, at the instance of influential people in this country, and on the invitation of the president of Mexico, he supervised the legislation in favor of railroad construction among the various States of that republic.  As a result of his presence in the country, and counsel given by means of public discussion in the prominent newspapers of the republic, the legislatures of seventeen Mexican States passed unanimously resolutions urging the government to take favorable legislative action for encouraging the construction of railroads in Mexico.  In six other States, whose legislatures were not in session, the governors sent, officially, strong messages to the general government in favor of the fostering of such enterprises.  Thus, practically, in twenty-three States favorable legislation was enacted asking the government to encourage railroad construction.

 

In 1881 he was urged by the workingmen of California to allow his name to be used by the Democratic party as a candidate for the Forty-eighth Congress, and on his consent thereto was nominated and elected.  He was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress.  During each of his congressional terms he was assigned, as representative, to important legislative and political duties.  In June, 1885, he was appointed by President CLEVELAND to the position of Register of the United States Treasury, the duties of which office he is now performing with characteristic thoroughness and efficiency.  Thus his career has been as useful and honorable in peace as it was patriotic and glorious in war.

 

 

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It was a most pathetic scene when he came upon the platform, an old man, sixty-eight years of age, and told his surviving comrades of the bloody fields how his removal took place.  It is thus related by Frank G. CARPENTER, the interesting Ohio correspondent, who was present:

 

“It was at night,” said ROSECRANS, “that I received the order, and I sent for Gen. THOMAS.  He came alone to the tent and took his seat.  I handed him the letter.  He read it, and as he did so his breast began to swell and he turned pale.  He did not want to accept the command, but we agreed on consideration that he must do so, and I told him that I could not bear to meet my troops afterward.  ‘I want to leave,’ said I, ‘before the announcement is made, and I will start in the early morning,’ I packed up that night, and the next morning about 7 o’clock I rode away through the fog which then hung over the camp.  The best of relations prevailed between Gen. THOMAS and myself, and as to the statement that he considered himself my superior and obeyed orders only from a sense of duty, I assure you it was not so.”

 

As ROSECRANS bowed to the audience and stepped back from the platform there was not a man present who did not feel sorry for him, and he was so much affected himself that his voice trembled as he uttered his closing words.  He talked in a low tone and his accents were almost pleading.

 

SUNBURY, on Walnut creek and the C. Mt. V. & D. R. R., has 1 Baptist and 1 Methodist church; 1 bank: Farmers’, O. H. KIMBALL, president, Emery J. SMITH, cashier; 1 newspaper: The Sunbury Monitor, SPRAGUE & ROBINSON, publishers; and had, in 1880, 340 inhabitants.  School census 1880, 192; W. W. LONG, superintendent.

 

Here are extensive blue-limestone quarries, supplying the finest quality of building stone; and the new process rolling mill at this place is described as “the pride of the county.”

 

ASHLEY, on the C. C. C. & I. R. R., has churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Friends; 1 newspaper: the Ashley Times, C. B. BENEDICT, publisher; 1 bank: ASHLEY, SPERRY & WORMSTAFF; 2 regalia and emblems factories, a roller flouring mill, and is noted as a shipping-point for live-stock.  In 1880 it had 483 inhabitants.

 

 

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