LOGAN COUNTY

 

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Logan County derived its name from General Benjamin LOGAN; it was formed March 1, 1817, and the courts ordered to be holden at the House of Edwin MATTHEWS, or some other convenient place in the town of Bellville, until a permanent seat of justice should be established.  The soil, which is various, is generally good; the surface broken around the head waters of Mad river, elsewhere rolling or level; in the western part are eight small lakes, covering each from two to seventy acres. 

Area about 440 square miles.  In 1887 the acres cultivated were 138,272; in pasture, 47,314; woodland, 50,756; lying waste, 1,643; produced in wheat, 630,487 bushels; rye, 1,856; buckwheat, 1,253; oats, 197,399; barley, 1,331; corn, 1,283,173; broom-corn, 350 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 17,454 tons; clover hay, 6,588; flaxseed, 220 bushels; potatoes, 44,793; tobacco, 110 lbs.; butter, 582,708; cheese, 3,160; sorghum, 2,850 gallons; maple sugar, 158,587 lbs.; honey, 9,249; eggs, 517,596 dozen; grapes, 5,910 lbs.; wine, 14 gallons; sweet potatoes, 605 bushels; apples, 4,735; peaches, 911; pears, 1,383; wool, 287,130 lbs.; milch cows owned, 6,040.  School census, 1888, 8,316; teachers, 273.  Miles of railroad track, 61. 

 

 

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476 in Ireland; 163 in German empire; 59 in England and Wales; 43 in Scotland; 39 in British America, and 17 in France.  Census, 1890, 27,386. 

The territory comprised within the limits of this county was a favorite abode of the Shawanoe Indians, who had several villages on Mad River, called the Mack-a-chack, or Mac-o-chee towns, the names and positions of three of which are given to us by an old settler.  The first, called Mac-o-chee, stood near West Liberty, on the farm of Judge Pittman PIATT; the second, Pidgeon Town, was about three miles northwest, on the farm of a George F. DUNN, and the third, Wappatomica, was just below Zanesfield. 

Logan's Expedition Against the Mac-o-chee Towns.

The Mac-o-chee towns were destroyed in 1786 by a body of Kentuckians under General Benjamin LOGAN.  The narrative of this expedition is from the pen of General William LYTLE, who was an actor in the scenes he describes. 

March to the Mac-o-chee Towns. - It was in the autumn of this year that General CLARKE raised the forces of the Wabash expedition.  They constituted a numerous corps.  Colonel LOGAN was detached from the army at the falls of the Ohio, to raise a considerable force with which to proceed against the Indian villages on the head waters of Mad River and the Great Miami.  I was then aged 16, and too young to come within the legal requisition; but I offered myself as a volunteer. Colonel Logan went on to his destination, and would have surprised the Indian towns against which he had marched, had not one of his men deserted to the enemy, not long before they reach the town, who gave notice of their approach.  As it was, he burned eight large towns, and destroyed many fields of corn.  He took seventy or eighty prisoners and killed twenty warriors, among them the chief of the nation.  This last act caused deep regret, humiliation and shame to the commander-in-chief and his troops. 

Attack on the Towns. - We came in view of the first two towns, one of which stood on the West Bank of Mad river, and the other on the northeast of it.  They were separated by a prairie half a mile in extent.  The town on the northeast was situated on a high, commanding point of land, that projected a small distance into the prairie, at the foot of which eminence broke out several fine springs.  This was the residence of the famous chief of the nation.  His flag was flying at the time from the top of a pole sixty feet high.  We had advanced in three lines, the commander with some of the horsemen marching at the head of the centre line, and the footmen in their rear.  Colonel Robert PATTERSON commanded the left, and I think Colonel Thomas KENNEDY the right.  When we came in sight of the towns, the spies of the front guard made a halt, and sent a man back to inform the commander of the situation of the two towns.  He ordered Colonel PATTERSON to attack the towns on the left bank of Mad river.  Col. KENNEDY was also charged to incline a little to the right of the town on the east side of the prairie.  He determined himself to charge with the centre division immediately on the upper town.  I heard the commander gave his orders, and caution the colonels against allowing their men to kill any among the enemy that they might suppose to be prisoners.  He then ordered them to advance, and as soon as they should discover the enemy, to charge upon them.  I had my doubts touching the propriety of some of the arrangements.  I was willing, however, to view the affair with the diffidence of youth and inexperience.  At any rate, I was determined to be at hand, to see all that was going on, and to be as near the head of the line as my colonel would permit.  I was extremely solicitous to try myself in battle.  The commander of the centre line waved his sword over his head as a signal for the troops to advance.  Colonel Daniel BOONE and Major (since the General) KENTON commanded the advance, and Colonel TROTTER the rear.  As we approached within half a mile of the town on the left, and about three-fourths from that on the right side, we saw the savages retreating in all directions, making for the thickets, swamps and high prairie grass, to secure them from their enemy.  I was animated with the energy with which the commander conducted the head of his line.  He waved his sword, and in a voice of thunder exclaimed, "Charge from right to left!"

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pointing to the flying enemy, I obliqued across the plain, so as to get in advance of them.  When I arrived within fifty yards of them I dismounted and raised my gun.  I discovered, at this moment, some men of the right wing coming up on the left.  The warrior I was about to shoot held up his hand in token of surrender, and I heard him order the other Indians to stop.  By this time the men behind had arrived, and were in the act of firing upon the Indians.  I called to them not to fire, for the enemy had surrendered.  The warriors that had surrendered to me came walking towards me, calling his women and children to follow him.  I advanced to meet him, with my right hand extended; but before I could reach him the men of the right wing of our forces had surrounded him.  I rushed in among their horses.  While he was giving me his hand several of our men wished to tomahawk him.  I informed them they would have to tomahawk me first.  We led him back to the place where his flag had been.  We had taken thirteen prisoners.  Among them were the chief, his three wives-one of them a young and handsome woman, another of them the famous grenadier squaw, upwards of six feet high - and two or three fine young lads.  The rest were children.  One of these lads was a remarkably interesting youth, about my own age and size.  He clung closely to me, and appeared keenly to notice everything that was going on. 

Brutal Murder of MOLUNTHA. - When we arrived at the town a crowd of our men pressed around to see the chief.  I stepped aside to fasten my horse, and my prisoner lad clung close to my side.  A young man by the name of CURNER had been to one of the springs to drink.  He discovered the young savage by my side, and came running towards us.  The young Indian supposed he was advancing to kill him.  As I turned around, in the twinkling of an eye he let fly an arrow at CURNER, for he was armed with a bow.  I had just time to catch his arm, as he discharged the arrow.  It passed through Curner's dress, and raised his side.  The jerk I gave his arm undoubtedly prevented his killing CURNER on the spot.  I took away his arrows, and sternly reprimanded him.  I then led him back to the crowd which surrounded the prisoners.  At the same moment Col.  MCGARY, the same man who had caused the disaster at the Blue Licks, some years before, coming up, General LOGAN'S eye caught that of MCGARY.  "Colonel MCGARY," said he, "You must not molest these prisoners." "I will see to that," said MCGARY in reply.  I forced my way through the crowd to the chief, with my young charge by the hand.  But MCGARY ordered the crowd to open and let him in.  He came up to the chief, and the first salutation was in the question, "Were you at the defeat of the Blue Licks?"  The Indian, not knowing the meaning of the words, or not understanding the purport of the question, answered, "Yes."  McGary instantly seized an axe from the hands of the grenadier squaw, and raised it to make a blow at the chief.  I threw up my arm, to ward off the blow.  The hand of the axe struck me across the left wrist, and came near breaking it.  The axe sunk in the head of the chief to the eyes, and he fell dead at my feet.  Provoked beyond measure at this wanton barbarity, I drew my knife, for the purpose of avenging his cruelty by dispatching him.  My arm was arrested by one of our men, which prevented me inflecting this thrust.  MCGARY escaped from the crowd. 

A Foot-Race after Hogs. -A detachment was then ordered off to two other towns, distance six or eight miles.  The men and prisoners were ordered to march down to the lower town and camp.  As we marched out of the upper town, we fired it, collecting a large pile of corn for our horses, and beans, pumpkins, etc., for our own use.  I told Capt. STUCKER, who messed with me, that I had seen several hogs running about the town, which appeared to be in good order, and I thought that a piece of fresh pork would relish well with our stock of vegetables.  He readily assenting to it, we went in pursuit of them; but as orders had been given not to shoot unless at an enemy, after finding the hogs we had to run them down on foot, until we got near enough to tomahawk them. 

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Indian would kill some of his men in the act of wheeling.  Whether the captain heard me I cannot say; at any rate the warning was not attended to, for after passing the Indian a few steps Captain Irwin ordered his men to wheel and recharge across the woods, and in the act of executing the movement the Indian raised up and shot the captain dead on the spot - still keeping below the level of the grass, to deprive us of any opportunity of putting a bullet through him.  The troop charged again; but the Indian was so active that he had darted into the grass, some rods from where he had fired at Erwin, and they again missed him.  By this time several footmen had got up.  Capt. Stucker and myself had each taken a tree that stood out in the edge of the prairie, among the grass, when a Mr. STAFFORD came up, and put his head first past one side and then the other of the tree I was behind.  I told him not to expose himself that way, or he would get shot in a moment.  I had hardly expressed the last word when the Indian again raised up out of the grass.  His gun, Stuckers', and my own, with four or five behind us, all cracked at the same instant.  STAFFORD fell at my side, while we rushed on the wounded Indian with our tomahawks.  Before we had got him dispatched he had made ready the powder in his gun, and the ball in his mouth preparing for a third fire, with bullet holes in his breast that might have all been covered with a man's open hand.  We found with him Captain Beasley's rifle - the captain having been killed at the Lower Blue Licks, a few days before the army passed through that place on their way to the towns. 

An English Block-House Burned. - Next morning at Gen. LOGAN ordered another detachment to attack a town that lay seven or eight miles to the north or northwest of where we then were.  This town was also burnt, together with a large block-house that the English had built there, of the huge size and thickness; and the detachment returned that evening to the main body.  But Mr. Isaac ZANE was at that time living at this last village, he being married to a squaw, and having at the place his wife and several children at the time. 

The name of the Indian chief killed by but MCGARY was MOLUNTHA, the great sachem of the Shawnees.  The grenadier squaw was the sister to CORNSTALK, who fell (basely murdered) at Point Pleasant. 

Jonathan ALDER (see Madison County) was at this time living with the Indians. 

From his narrative it appears that the news of the approach of the Kentuckians was communicated to the Indians by a Frenchman, a deserter from the former.  Nevertheless, as the whites arrived sooner than they expected, the surprise was complete.  Most of the Indians were at the time absent hunting, and the town became an easy conquest to the whites.  Early one morning an Indian runner came into the village in which ALDER lived, and gave the information that Mac-o-chee had been destroyed, and that the whites were approaching.  ALDER, with the people of the village, who were principally squaws and children, retreated for two days, until they arrived somewhere near the headwaters of the Scioto, where they suffered much for want of food.  There was not a man among them capable of hunting, and they were compelled to subsist on paw-paws, mussels and craw-fish.  In about eight days they returned to Zane's town, tarried a short time, and from thence removed to Hog creek, where they wintered: their principal living, at that place, was "raccoons, and that with little or no salt, without a single bite of bread, hominy, or sweet corn."  In the spring they moved back to the site of their village, where nothing remained but the ashes of the dwellings and their corn burnt to charcoal.  They remained during the sugar season, and then removed to Blanchard's fork, where, being obliged to clear the land, they were enabled to raise but a scant crop of corn.  While this was growing, they fared hard, and managed to eke out a bare subsistence by eating a "kind of wild potato" and poor raccoons, that had been suckled down so poor that dogs would hardly eat them: "for fear of losing a little, they threw them on the fire, singed the hair off, and ate the skin and all."

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continued the unwavering friend of the Americans, and fought on their side with great constancy.  He lost his life in the fall of 1812, under melancholy circumstances, which evinced that he was a man of the keenest sense of honor.  The facts follow, from Drake's Tecumseh. 

Logan's Indignation at False Accusations. - In November of 1812 General Harrison directed Logan to take a small party of his tribe, and reconnoitre the country in the direction of the rapids of the Maumee.  When near this point they were met by a body of the enemy, superior to their own in number, and compelled to retreat.  LOGAN, CAPTAIN JOHNNY [see vol. i., p. 602] and BRIGHT-HORN, who composed the party, effected their escape to the left wing of the army, then under the command of Gen. WINCHESTER, who was duly informed of the circumstances of their adventure.  An officer of the Kentucky troops, Gen. P., the second in command, without the slightest ground for such a charge, accused Logan of infidelity to our cause, and of giving intelligence to the enemy.  Indignant at this foul accusation, the noble chief at once resolved to meet it in a manner that would leave no doubt as to his faithfulness to the United States.  He called on his friend Oliver [now Major William OLIVER, of Cincinnati], and having told him of the imputation that had been cast upon his reputation, said that he would start from the camp next morning, and either leave his body bleaching in the woods, or return was such trophies from the enemy as would relieve his character from the suspicion that had been wantonly cast upon it by an American officer. 

LOGAN Captured by WINNEMAC. - Accordingly, on the morning of the 22d, he started down the Maumee, attended by his two faithful companions, CAPTAIN JOHNNY and BRIGHT-HORN.  About noon, having stopped for the purpose of taking rest, they were suddenly surprised by a party of seven of the enemy, among whom were young Elliott, a half-breed, holding a commission in the British service, and the celebrated Potawatomie chief, WINNEMAC.  LOGAN made no resistance, but, with great presence of mine, extending his hand to WINNEMAC, who was an old acquaintance, proceeded to inform him that he and his two companions, tired of the American service, where just leaving Gen. Winchester's army, for the purpose of joining the British.  WINNEMAC, being familiar with Indian strategy, was not satisfied with his declaration, but proceeded to disarm Logan and his comrades, and placing his party around them, so as to prevent their escape, started for the British camp at the foot of the rapids.  In the course of the afternoon Logan's address was such as to inspire confidence in his sincerity, and induced WINNEMAC to restore to him and his companions their arms.  LOGAN now formed the plan of attacking his captors on the first favorable opportunity; and while marching along succeeded in communicating the substance of it to CAPTAIN JOHNNY and bright horn.  Their guns being already loaded, they had little further preparation to make than to put bullets into their mouths, to facilitate the reloading of their arms.  In carrying on this process CAPTAIN JOHNNY, as he afterwards related, fearing that the man marching by his side had observed the operation, adroitly did away the impression by remarking, "Me chaw heap tabac."

Fight and Escape of Logan's Party. - The evening being now at hand, the British Indians determined to encamp on the bank of Turkeyfoot creek, about twenty miles from Fort Winchester.  Confiding in the idea that LOGAN had really deserted the American service, a part of his captors rambled around the place of their encampment in search of blackhaws.  They were no sooner out of sight than LOGAN gave the signal of attack upon those who remained behind; they fired, and two of the enemy fell dead - the third, being only wounded, required a second shot to dispatch him; and in the meantime the remainder of the party, who were nearby, returned the fire, and all of them "treed."  There being four of the enemy, and only three of Logan's party, the latter could not watch all the movements of their antagonists.  Thus circumstanced, and during an active fight, the fourth man of the enemy passed round until LOGAN was uncovered by his tree, and shot him through the body.  By this time Logan's party had wounded two of the surviving four, which caused them to fall back.  Taking advantage of this state of things, CAPTAIN JOHNNY mounted LOGAN, now suffering the pain of a mortal wound, and BRIGHT-HORN, also wounded, on two of the enemy's horses, and started them for Winchester's camp, which they reached about midnight.  CAPTAIN JOHNNY, having already secured the scalp of WINNEMAC, followed immediately on foot, and gained the same point early on the following morning.  It was subsequently ascertained that the two Indians of the British party, who were last wounded, died of their wounds, making in all five out of the seven who were slain by LOGAN and his companions. 

Logan Laughs while in the Death-throes. - When the news of this gallant affair had spread through the camp, and, especially, after it was known that LOGAN was mortally wounded, it created a deep and mournful sensation.  No one, it is believed, more deeply regretted the fatal catastrophe than the author of the charge upon Logan's integrity, which had led to this unhappy result. 

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Previous to his death he related the particulars of this fatal enterprise to his friend OLIVER, declaring to him that he prized his honor more than life; and having now vindicated his reputation from the imputation cast upon that, he died satisfied.  In the course of this interview, and while writhing with pain, he was observed to smile; upon being questioned as to the cause, he replied, that when he recalled to his mind the manner in which CAPTAIN JOHNNY took off the scalp of WINNEMAC, while at the same time dexterously watching the movements of the enemy, he could not refrain from laughing - an incident in savage life which shows the "ruling passion strong in death."  It would, perhaps, be difficult, in the history of savage warfare, to point out an enterprise, the execution of which reflects higher credit upon the address and daring conduct of its authors than this does upon LOGAN and his two companions.  Indeed, a spirit even less indomitable, a sense of honor less acute, and the patriotic devotion to a good cause less active, than were manifested by this gallant chieftain of the woods, might, under other circumstances, have well conferred immortality upon his name. 

Col. John JOHNSTON, in speaking of LOGAN, in a communication to us, says:

Logan's children. -LOGAN left a dying request to myself that his two sons should be sent to Kentucky, and there educated and brought up under the care of Major HARDIN.  As soon as peace and tranquility were restored among the Indians, I made application to the chiefs to fulfill the wishes of their dead friend to deliver up the boys, that I might have them conveyed to Frankford, the residence of Major HARDIN.  The chiefs were embarrassed, and manifested an unwillingness to comply, and in this they were warmly supported by the mother of the children.  On no account would they consent to send them so far away as Kentucky, but agreed that I should take and have them schooled at Piqua; it being the best I could do, in compliance with the dying words of LOGAN, they were brought in.  I had them put to school, and boarded in a religious, respectable family.  The mother of the boys, who was a bad woman, thwarted all my plans for their improvement, frequently taking them off for weeks, giving them bad advice, and even, on one or two occasions, brought whiskey to the school house and made them drunk.  In this way she continued to annoy me, and finally took them all together to raise with herself among the Shawnees, at what Wapaghkonetta.  I made several other attempts, during my connection with the Indians, to educate and train up to civilized life many of their youth, without any encouraging results - all of them proved failures.  The children of LOGAN, with their mother, emigrated to the West twenty years ago, and have their become some of the wildest of their race. 

Logan County continued to be a favorite place of residence with the Indians for years after the destruction of these towns.  Major GALLOWAY, who was there about the year 1800, gives the following from memory, respecting the localities and names of their towns at that time.  Zane's town, now Zanesfield, was a Wyandot village; Wapatomica, three miles below, on Mad River, which then deserted; McKee's town, on McKee's creek, about four miles south of Bellefontaine, so named from the infamous MCKEE, was at that time a trading station; Read's town, in the vicinity of Bellefontaine, which then had a few cabins; Lewis's town, on the Great Miami, and Solomon's town, at which then lived the Wyandot chief, TARHE, "THE CRANE."  From an old settler we learn, also, that on the site of Bellefontaine was Blue Jackets town, and three miles north the town of BUCKONGEHELAS.  BLUE JACKET, or WEYAPIERSENSAW, and BUCKONGEHELAS, were noted chiefs, and were at the treaty of Greenville; the first was a Shawnee and the last a Delaware.  At Wayne's victory BLUE JACKET had the chief control, and, in opposition to LITTLE TURTLE, advocated giving the whites battle with so much force as to overpower the better counsels of the other. 

By the treaty of September 29, 1817, at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, the Senecas and Shawnees had a reservation around Lewistown, in this county; by a treaty, ratified April 6, 1832, the Indians vacated their lands and removed to the Far West.  On this last occasion James B. GARDINER was Commissioner, John MCELVAINE, Agent, and David S. ROBB, Sub-Agent. 

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Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

PUBLIC SQUARE, BELLEFONTAINE.

 

Bottom Picture

J. J. MILLIKIN, PHOTO., BELLEFONTAINE, 1887.

 

 

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sketches of two of them: the first is from N. Z. MCCULLOCH, Esq, a grandson of Isaac Zane - the last from Colonel John JOHNSTON. 

Isaac ZANE was born about the year 1753, on the south branch of the Potomac, in Virginia, and at the age of about nine years was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and carried to Detroit.  He remained with his captors until the age of manhood, when, like most prisoners taken in youth, he refused to return to his home and friends.  He married a Wyandot woman from Canada, of half French blood, and took no part in the war of the revolution.  After the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, he bought a tract of 1,800 acres, on the site of Zanesfield, where he lived until his death in 1816. 

James MCPHERSON, or Squa-la-ka-ke, "the red-faced man," was a native of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa..  He was taken prisoner by the Indians on the Ohio, at or near the mouth of the Big Miami, in Loughry's defeat; was for many years engaged in the British Indian Department, under ELLIOTT and MCKEE, married a fellow prisoner, came into our service after Wayne's treaty of 1795, continued in charge of the Shawanese and Senecas of Lewistown until his removal from office, in 1830, since which he has died. 

Logan County was first settled about the year 1806.  The names of the early settlers recollected are Robert and William MOORE, Benjamin and Jon SCHUYLER, Philip and Andrew MATHEWS, John MACKIMSOM, John and Levi GARWOOD, Abisha WARNER, Joshua SHARP and brother, Samuel, David and Robert MARMON; Samuel and Thomas NEWELL, and Benjamin J. COX.  In the late war the settlements in this county were on the verge of civilization, and the troops destined for the northwest passed through here.  There were several block-house stations in the county, namely: Manary's, McPherson's, Vance's and Zane's.  Manary's, built by Capt. James MANARY, of Ross County, was three miles north of Bellefontaine, on the farm of John LANEY; McPherson's stood at three-fourths of a mile northwest, and was built by Captain MALTBY, of Greene county; Vance's, built by ex-Governor VANCE, then captain of a rifle company, stood on a high bluff on the margin of a prairie, about a mile east of Logansville; Zane's block-house was at Zanesfield.  At the breaking out of the war many hundreds of friendly Indians were collected and stationed at Zane's and McPherson's block-houses, under the protection of the government, for a short time kept a guard of soldiers over them.  It was at first feared that they would take up arms against the Americans, but subsequent events dissipating these apprehensions, they were allowed to disperse. 

Bellefontaine in 1846. - Bellefontaine, the county-seat, is on the line of the Cincinnati & Sandusky City Railroad, fifty miles northwest of Columbus.  It was laid out March 18, 1820, on the land of John TULLES and William POWELL, and named from the fine springs abounding in the vicinity.  The first of the above lived at the time in a cabin on the town plot, yet standing in the south part of Bellefontaine.  After the town was laid out Joseph GORDON built a cabin, now standing, on the corner opposite Slicer's Hotel.  Anthony Ballard erected the first frame dwelling; William SCOTT kept the first tavern, where J. C. SCARFF'S drug store now is.  SLICER'S tavern was built for a temporary court-house.  Joseph GORDON, Nathaniel DODGE, Anthony BALLARD, William GUTRIDGE, Thomas HAYNES and John RHODES were among the first settlers of the town, the last of whom was the first merchant.  The Methodists built the first church, a brick structure, destroyed by fire, which stood on the site of their present church.  Bellefontaine contains two Presbyterian, one Episcopal Methodist, and one Lutheran Church; one newspaper printing office, eleven dry goods stores, and had, in October, 1846, 610 inhabitants. - Old Edition. 

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The above is from the old edition.  The remains of General KENTON, many years after my visit, were removed to Oakdale Cemetery, Urbana, where now stands an elegant monument, erected at the expense of the State.  For full particulars, with a sketch of KENTON, see Vol. I., page 377, etc.  For the particulars

GRAVE OF SIMON KENTON—Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

 

of my making the above sketch, now forty-four years gone, and our first entrance into Bellefontaine, and its appearance then, see page 236. 

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Manufacturers and Employees. - Miller Carriage Company; MACK, DICKINSON & Co., chair stock, etc., 64 hands; CHICHESTER & HAVILLAND, chairs, 37; Bellefontaine Carriage Body Co., carriage bodies, etc., 25; A.J. MILLER & Co., carriage wood-work, 12; COLTON Bros., flour, etc., 16,; MILLER & KIPLINGER, carriages, etc.; WILLIAMSON & LESOURD, doors, sash, etc.; MILLER Carriage Co., carriage bodies, 33; David C. GREEN, lumber. - State Report, 1888.  Population in 1880, 3,998.  School census in 1888, 1,127; Henry WHITWORTH, school superintendent.  Capital invested in industrial establishments, $178,200.  Value of annual product, $723,500. - Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.  Census, 1890, 4,238. 

The town owns its own water- and gas-works, has about six miles of Berea flagging sidewalks, and its streets are nicely graded and shaded.  The bar is one of the strongest in the State, embracing Judges LAWRENCE, WEST, PRICE and Gen. KENNEDY. 

GEN. ROBERT P. KENNEDY                               JUDGE WILLIAM  H. WEST

                                                                                      The Blind Man Eloquent.

 

 

Bellefontaine has supplied three Lieutenant-Governors for Ohio. 

1st.  Benjamin STANTON, born of Quaker parentage on Short creek, Belmont County, Ohio, March 4, 1809.  Was bred a tailor, which appears to have been a favorite trade for young Friends, probably from its humanitarian aspects - "clothing the naked." Studied law and was admitted to the bar at Steubenville in 1833; came to Bellefontaine in 1834; then was successively prosecuting attorney, State Senator, member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention in 1851; served several terms as member of Congress and in 1861 was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio, and on the same ticket with Gov. David Tod; in 1866 removed to West Virginia, practiced law there and died a few years since. 

2nd.  Robert P. KENNEDY was born in Bellefontaine and, January 23, 1840.  Entered the Union Army in 1861, came out Brevet Brig.-General in 1865; studied and practiced the law; was Collector of Internal Revenue 1878 to 1883; elected to the 50th Congress, re-elected to the 51st Congress; was elected Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with J. B. FORAKER in 1885 and resigned in 1887.  In the stormy session of 1886, as President of the Senate, his rulings in regard to the seating of the Hamilton county Democratic Senators, their election being contested, gave him prominence.  

3rd.  Wm. Vance MARQUIS was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1889, on the ticket with Mr. James E. CAMPBELL.  He is of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry; was born in Mt. Vernon in 1828; came here when a boy of five years; was bred to merchandising, is present vocation. 

A house is pointed out in Bellefontaine where was born, November 21, 1850, Charles Julius CHAMBERS, author and journalist, now managing editor of the N.Y. Herald. 

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for a schooling in the winter, and then taught school half the year to sustain themselves while securing a profession.  This class has a brilliant constellation in history to carry its glory into after generations.  We have only to mention the names of Clay, Webster, Corwin, Lincoln, Benton, Ewing and a host of others to make good our assertion, and to this role of honor we add the name of William H. WEST.  

William was born at Millsborough, Washington county, Pa..  His father removed to Knox County, Ohio, in 1830.  He graduated at Jefferson College, Pa., in 1846, dividing the honors with Gen. A. B. SHARPE.  He taught school in Kentucky until 1848, when he accepted a tutorship of Jefferson College, and a year later was chosen adjunct professor at Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia.  In 1850 he entered as student the law office of Judge William LAWRENCE, Bellefontaine, Ohio, with whom he formed a partnership on his admission to the bar.  He was recognized from the start as an able attorney, and so worked his way to the head of his profession. 

There were two qualities that rendered Judge WEST eminent. One of these was his capacity to assimilate the law he studied to his remarkable intellectual qualities, and the other a strange facility and felicity of utterance.  When to these we add a delicate organization, that seemed to vibrate to the touch of passion, we have the powerful advocate who in court convinced the judge and won jury, and was so great before a crowd the won a national reputation under the name of "The Blind Man Eloquent."  Small wonder that Judge WEST has been the marvel of the legal fraternity at the West.  He has a wide reputation as authority on civil and corporate law, equalled by few and surpassed by none.  While on the Supreme Bench of Ohio, he was so unfortunate as to lose his sight - but with it came no loss of power.  His well-trained mind and powerful memory enabled him to dispense with his eyes, and it has been for years one of the most interesting spectacles to the bar to hear Judge WEST conduct a case in court.  Without assistance from anyone, he handles facts and law with the greatest accuracy and power.  There is no pause, not the slightest hesitation, as he calls up and unravels facts and quotes the law applicable to their case. 

Judge WEST entered politics at an early day, and soon assumed a leadership that was his by force of intellect and character.  He made one of the few prominent men who formed the Republican party.  It was in 1854 that he joined in an appeal to all parties after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, that brought out a convention at Columbus, Ohio, when WEST was one of the most prominent speakers, and Joseph R. SWAN was nominated as a candidate for the Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and through the aid of another newly formed political organization called the "Know Nothing" was elected by a majority of more than 75,000. 

In 1857 and in 1861 Judge WEST was a member of the State Legislature, serving in the House, and in 1863 he was returned to the Senate.  Afterward his party in the Logan congressional district sent him as their delegate to the Chicago Convention, when he took part in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln.  In 1865 and 1867 he was chosen Attorney General of Ohio, and in 1869 tendered the position of Consul to Rio de Janeiro, but declined.  In 1871 he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and was making his mark as an able jurist, when his failing sight forced him to resign. 

The marked event of his political life occurred in 1877, when he was nominated by his party, in State convention assembled, its candidate for Governor.  The great railroad strikes, that arrested the wheels of nearly all the locomotives of 150,000 miles of operating railroads, was on hand, and the newly named candidate for Governor had to meet the issue involved in the strife.  It was one Judge West had studied and mastered.  He knew what capital and labor meant, and he felt keenly all that it signified.  He saw then what was developed since, that it was fated to be the great issue of civilization, and had to be faced and solved before the wheels of progress could continue to revolve.  To the amazement and horror of his political associates, in his first utterance after nomination, he took the side of toil against the corporations.  Of course he was defeated.  He lost the proud privilege of appointing notaries public and pardoning criminals, but he carried back to private life the honor that comes of a courageous defense of principle. 

The Judge WEST twice married, is the father of an interesting family, and for the sake of his two sons, who inherit much of the father's ability, he continues, at Bellefontaine, the practice of his profession, although in feeble health.  There, loved by his friends and family and universally respected and admired, "the blind man eloquent" passes to his honored age. 

Edward Henry KNIGHT was born in London, England, June 1, 1824, and died in Bellefontaine, January 22, 1883, where he had had legal residence the last twenty-five years of his life, and although absent a large part of the time in Washington, Paris, and England.  He was educated in England, where he learned the art of steel-engraving and took a course in surgery.  In 1846 settled in Cincinnati as a patent attorney. 

In 1864 he was employed in the Patent Office at Washington, where he originated the present system of classification.  In 1873 he issued his most important work, the "American Mechanical Dictionary."  He was a member of the International Juries at the World's Fairs in Philadelphia, in 1876, and Paris, in 1878; was U.S. Commissioner at the latter, receiving the appointment of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor from the French government, in recognition of his services.  He was a member of many scientific societies, both American and European.  In 1876 he received the degree of LL. D. from Iowa Wesleyan University. 

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author of a number of valuable scientific and other works, and one of the most useful men in research and literature that America has produced. 

His knowledge of books, men and things is said to have been marvelous.  After death his brain was found to weigh sixty-four ounces, being the heaviest on record, excepting that of Cuvier.  The average weight of the brain of Europeans is 49 1/2 ounces (av.)  Among the large brains on record are those of Agassiz, 53.4; Lord Campbell, 53.5; Daniel Webster, 53.5; Abercrombie, 63; KNIGHT, 64; Cuvier, 64.5. 

Judge William LAWRENCE was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1819; graduated at Franklin College, Ohio, in 1838; was educated for the law; from 1856-1861 was Judge of Common Pleas; Colonel of the 84th Ohio in the war; served in Congress, 1865, to December, 1871; from 1880 to 1885 was 1st Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury, and the only one whose decisions were regularly published.  He has published quite a number of law books: one, "The Law of Religious Societies and Church Corporations."

While acting as judge his circuit included Marion county.  The author of the county history thus writes of him: "He was always pleasant and affable.  At the opening of a court in May, 1861, when the people were excited about the war, he ordered the sheriff to raise the national flag over the cupola of the Court-house in Marion, which order the sheriff refused to obey.  The latter was, therefore, brought into court and fined for contempt.  He then hoisted the flag according to the original order.  In 1862 the judge went to the front with a regiment, of which he was Colonel.  While in the service his salary as judge continued, which he drew and distributed to the school districts throughout his circuit, for the benefit of the families of the soldiers."

The author speaks of the Judge as though he had passed away, but he remains very much of a live gentleman.  When we last saw him, in June, 1889, he seemed the embodiment of manly vigor and cheerfulness, full in figure, full-chested, remarkably neat in apparel, and wearing a button-hole bouquet on the lapel of his coat - in all respects, morally and physically, a fragrant presence; and what we believe has helped to make him such has been his life-practice of the principal illustrated in the name he gave to a daughter - Mary Temperance LAWRENCE. 

His law arguments would make several volumes.  An able writer, familiar with these and referring to a voluminous opinion he gave as to property rights growing out of the schism in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, in 1889, said:

"Judge LAWRENCE is one of the most eminent of living American lawyers.  His opinion must be regarded as entirely impartial, and it is maintained with a marked ability and forcible argument from beginning to end. 

"Judge Lawrence's reports and speeches while in the Ohio Legislature and in Congress would make volumes, many of them on Constitutional Law and on all the great questions in Congress during the period of twelve years of following the rebellion.  His report in Congress, February, 1869, on the New York election frauds, led to important legislation there and in Congress to preserve the purity of elections.  He first urged in Congress the law establishing the 'Department of Justice,' and is author of most of its provisions converting the 'office' of Attorney General into a 'Department.'  He is the author of the law giving to each soldier as a homestead 160 acres of the 'alternate reserved sections' in the railroad grant land grants, under which so many homes have been secured to these deserving citizens. 

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COL. JACOB PIATT,                                           JUDGE BENJ. M. PIATT,

of the American Revolution.                             Pioneer of Logan, at 80 Years.

 

THE PIATTS OF LOGAN.

[Originally published in the Urbana Daily Citizen.]

 

 

The PIATT family is of French origin and Hugenot blood.  Of course two centuries of births on this continent and a liberal admixture of Dutch, and Irish blood have modified the original conditions that forced the French puritans from their homes to life in the wilderness.  It is a fact, however, that where any trace of the Hugenot is found, it is marked by all old quality that turned a class into a race of strong, solid, persistent men.  In the persecutions that followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the family fled from the Province of Dauphine to Holland, where John PIATT married a VAN VLIET, and from thence John and his wife emigrated to Cuba, and from there to New York, finding a home at last in New Jersey. 

From this ancestry came Col. Jacob PIATT, grandfather of A. Sanders and Don PIATT.  He was born May 17, 1747.  When the war of the Revolution came on he was elected captain of the military company, composed of ninety young farmers.  Not long afterwards he was commissioned captain in the regular service, and from that on served through the entire war, taking part in all the great battles, and was promoted to the rank of colonel to serve on the staff of General Washington.  He was wont to tell how, at the battle of Brandywine, his command was on the extreme left as it lay entrenched on the banks of the Brandywine Creek. 

Before the battle, as they stood in line, looking at the English, Washington rode down, and stopping near Captain Jacob Piatt, observed: "Do you see those gentleman over there?" pointing at the red coats, "We do," was answered.  He then continued, "If they come nearer give them a knock and send them back again.  This will be a glorious day for America."  At the battle of Monmouth, Major PIATT was under Lee, who had been ordered to advance, while Washington brought the reserve.  History tells us of that Lee disobeyed orders and was in full retreat when Washington met him.  The meeting happened in the presence of Major PIATT, who, seated on a pile of rails, was binding up a wound in his leg.  The two generals swore at each other in the most furious manner.  The old Calvinistic Hugenot approved of his general's profanity on the ground that it was deserved. 

Colonel Jacob PIATT was in the first expedition against Quebec, and in the important battles of Germantown, Brandywine, Short Hills, and Monmouth.  At the last mentioned engagement he was wounded, as we have said, and, although seriously, clung to the service, never even for a day off duty.  He enjoyed the confidence of his great commander.  After the war he married and settled on the Ohio, in Boone county, Kentucky.  He was an extremely austere man, as pious as he was patriotic, giving all of his pension to the support of a clergyman of his own faith.  He lies buried on the farm, under a quaint old tombstone, that had engraved upon it the simple yet poetic inscription:

Jacob Piatt.

Born May 17, 1747; died August 4, 1834.

A soldier of the revolution

and

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Benjamin M. PIATT, the oldest son of Colonel Jacob PIATT, and long and lovingly known to the people of Logan County, was born in New Jersey, December 26, 1779; died at Mac-o-chee, April 28, 1863. 

Judge Benjamin M. PIATT is well remembered by his surviving friends and neighbors of Logan County, as a man of marked attributes and of reticent but amiable temperament.  Something of a student he possessed a thoughtful turn of mind that made him more of a philosopher than a man of active life.  He had his share of the adventure, however, as he began his business career boating produce from Kentucky to New Orleans before the day of steam-boating, when the flat boat and broad horn were floated down in continuous peril from floods and foes, to be broken up and sold at New Orleans, when these primitive merchants returned on horseback with their compensation in gold about their persons.  In that unsettled condition of the sparsely settled country, one carried his coin and life in perpetual danger.  Many were the adventures of the two brothers, Benjamin M. and John H. PIATT, that chilled the blood of listeners in after life.  At the earnest solicitation of his wife, Benjamin M. PIATT abandoned this hazardous but lucrative life of river merchant, and, studying law, was admitted to the bar.  Not long after he was appointed district attorney for the southern district of Illinois.  This was an arduous position and as it required his continuous presence in that state he decided to move his family also.  He selected as a residence Kaskaskia, a settlement on the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Kaskaskia river. 

While practicing his profession at Kaskaskia an event occurred strikingly illustrative of his character.  He was defending a man charged with manslaughter in the court at Kaskaskia, when his client in an unguarded moment seized the sheriff's rifle and fled.  The sheriff made an appeal for a posse.  Mr. PIATT, indignant at his client, said he would bring the man back if authorized by the court.  This being given he hurried home, procured his rifle and horse, and went in pursuit.  He overtook the criminal at the Mississippi river.  The man had secured a boat and was some distance from shore.  Mr. PIATT dismounted and ordered the fugitive back.  He was only jeered at.  Mr. PIATT brought his rifle to bear at the instant the fugitive did his.  But it was well known throughout the country that Benjamin M. PIATT was a most remarkable shot with the rifle, as he continued, until his failing sight robbed him in his old age of this accomplishment.  The desperado knew this and looking along the deadly level of his lawyer's rifle dropped his own and returned to shore. 

At this moment the sheriff arrived and the lawyer delivered his prisoner to the officer.  To disarm and fasten the late fugitive to a horse was the work of a few moments.  The man's legs were tied under the horse's belly, his arms strapped to his sides and his hands left enough at liberty to handle the reins.  He was ordered to ride forward and sheriff and lawyer followed.  They had scarcely got under way when the sheriff motioned his companion to ride more slowly.  When far enough back not to be overheard the sheriff said in a low tone:

"Now, Benny, let's fix him for slow traveling.  I'll take aim at his right leg and you at his left and when I count three we'll fire a couple of bullets through his trotters." "You cowardly brute," cried Mr. PIATT, his eyes blazing fire, "do you think I would consent to mutilate a helpless man?"  "I won't be answerable for his return then,"  "Nobody asks you.  I was authorized to arrest him.  You get away from here.  I will do it my own way."  The indignant sheriff did ride away, and Mr. PIATT calling to the prisoner to halt, rode up and cutting his bonds said: "Now we'll ride into town like a gentleman," and they did. 

The life in Kaskaskia was one of trial and hardship.  Mr. and Mrs. PIATT found themselves among strangers, who spoke a different language, poor and struggling for the necessaries of life.  There was little to encourage Mr. PIATT in the practice of his profession, yet he would willingly have persevered, had not his family been subjected to such great privations.  His wife's devotion and untiring exertions overtaxed her strength, and she lost an infant, soon after his birth.  Following immediately upon this Mr. PIATT was stricken with a serious illness brought on by exposure in the performance of his duties.  There was also a constant dread of earthquakes, several convulsions having occurred.  The proximity of the Indians was also a source of great uneasiness to Mrs. PIATT. 

After the war of 1812 the encroachments of the Indians became more alarming, and Mr. PIATT determined to return to Cincinnati.  At Cincinnati he formed a partnership with the celebrated Nicholas LONGWORTH, and between the practice of law and judicious investments in real estate he accumulated quite a fortune for that day.  In course of time he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the common pleas bench.  After, in 1816, he was elected a member of the State legislature, and as the records show, was the first to introduce a bill establishing the common school system.  He proposed, however, that the state should meet half the cost of the pupil's schooling, and this should not go beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.  The motion made subsequently to give every child a collegiate course he considered not only impossible but likely to break down the system.  "You make a system," he said, "where one boy gets a full meal and fifty boys go hungry."

In the prime of life and amid a most prosperous business career, Judge PIATT bought his farm of seventeen hundred acres, and building a double log-cabin for himself and family, devoted the rest of his life to agricultural pursuits, made pleasant by books and studies for which he had a mind and temperament to enjoy. 

There is a singular strain of contradiction in the PIATT blood.  Their ancestors left France because they would not be Catholics, and yet, "left to" themselves, have nearly all returned to the Catholic faith.  While Colonel Jacob PIATT of the revolution and his son Benjamin M. were extreme Federalists, believing in Hamilton and a strong central government, their children to-day are ultra Democrats. 

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and the suggestion made that his children be sent for, he said: "No, they cannot prolong my life, but they can and are serving their country; let them alone."

And so the grand old patriot passed to his final rest, when the war whose drum-beats his very heart echoed in its last throbs was drawing to a triumphant end.  "I do thank God," he said, "that my dying eyes will not close on a dissevered Union.  So long as I have children to remember me, let them remember this, my last will and testament to them."

Benjamin M. PIATT's quiet, philosophical life was in striking contrast to that of his younger brother, John H., and recalls the lines of the German poet as translated by Longfellow:

General A.Sanders PIATT'S stately house stands sentinel where the Mac-o-chee meets the Mad river valley, and the noisy little stream glides like an eel, through the narrow opening of the wooded hills.  General PIATT was a born soldier - tall, erect and well proportioned, and with great force of character.  His career in the army was brief but brilliant.  He was among the first to volunteer in response to President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men, and he left the field only after being disabled by an attack of typhoid fever, from which he has never entirely recovered.  For a brief mention of his services we quote from "Ohio in the War;" and can but add that in his patriotic effort to raise a brigade at his own expense, he brought on financial embarrassments from which he yet suffers, so that both in body and fortune he carries scars that are decorations to one who is without fear and without reproach.  Whitelaw Reid says:

"He solicited and received authority from Mr. Lincoln to enlist a brigade for the war.  Relying upon his own means he selected a camp, and organized the first Zouave regiment (so-called, though for no reason save that they wore a fancy red-legged uniform which they were soon forced to discard) in Ohio. 

"He subsisted is regiment for one month and 6 days, and was then commissioned as Colonel and ordered to Camp Dennison.  The regiment was designated the 34th.  He continued recruiting, with permission from the State authorities, and a second regiment was subsequently organized and designated the 54th.  This second regiment was being rapidly filled up when Colonel PIATT was ordered to report with the 34th to General Rosecrans, then heading commanding in West Virginia. 

"On his way to join Rosecrans he met an organized band of rebels in a strongly fortified position near Chapmansville, West Virginia. 

"After making a reconnaissance he attacked and drove the enemy in utter route from his position, and wounded and captured the commander of the force, Colonel J. W. Davis. 

"Colonel PIATT next attacked and defeated a rebel force at Hurricane, which was co-operating with General Floyd, then at cotton Hill. "

In March, 1862, he was obliged to return to Ohio on account of a serious attack of typhoid fever.  Before his recovery he was commissioned brigadier-general. 

In July he was assigned from General Sigel's command to a brigade in General McClellan's army, and a month later took a very gallant part in the Battle of Manassas Junction.  Reid says:

"Here he halted his brigade while the one in front marched on toward Washington.  General PIATT remarked to General Sturgis that he had gone far enough in that direction in search of General Porter, and that with his permission he would march to the battlefield.  He then ordered his men into the road and guided by the sound of artillery he arrived at the battleground of Bull Run at 2 o'clock p.m.  The brigade went into action on the left, and acquitted itself with great courage.  General Pope, in his official report, complemented General PIATT very highly for 'the soldierly feeling which prompted him, after being misled and with the bad example of the other brigade before his eyes, to push forward with such zeal and alacrity to the field of battle.'

"In the battle of Fredericksburg General PIATT occupied the right, and had the satisfaction of being assured by his superior officer that his brigade performed well the duty assigned to it."

Since his return from the army General PIATT has lived the retired life of a farmer, enlivened by books and literary pursuits.  He is a clever wielder of the pen, and not only an essayist but a poet.  His contributions to the magazines, notably the North American Review, marked him as a clear thinker, of a vigorous, incisive style.  He has taken part in politics always as a Democrat when not a Greenbacker; as of the last he was once nominated by that party as their candidate for Governor, and would have received a heavy vote but for the fact that the two candidates in the field at the time, being Hon. Chas. FOSTER and Hon. Thomas EWING, were something of Greenbackers themselves. 

General PIATT has the temperament and

________________

Photo Caption

Gen. A. Sanders Piatt

"The one on earth in silence wrought,

And his grave in silence sought;

But the younger, brighter reform

Passed in battle and in storm."

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all the qualities the go to make a successful leader of men.  In illustration of this we have an event told by a correspondent of the New York World. 

It was after the gathering upon the fields of Chickamauga of Union and Confederate officers to designate the lines of battle and prepare the ground for a great National Park.  General PIATT made one of the number on a belated train of the Queen and Crescent when a frightful collision occurred.  The correspondent says:

"We were thrown out of our seats by the concussion that had a deafening crash and then a no less deafening escape of steam.  Although much shaken up the passengers were unhurt, and we hastily tumbled out.  The scene that met our eyes was terrible.  The two huge locomotives were jammed into each other, a great mass of wrenched and broken iron.  The freight train loaded with ties was scattered in piles each side of the track.  The baggage car was telescoped in the the postal car, and the two made a stack of broken boards and timber piled on each other.  As we swarmed about the ruins I saw the tall, soldierly form of General Sanders PIATT climbing upon the wreck.  He suddenly began gesticulating, but what he said we could not hear.  Suddenly the escaping steam ceased, and then the startling cry came to us from General Piat: 'There are live men under this wreck; come on!'  Sure enough, we could hear the feeble moans of one and the agonizing screams of another. 

"It was singular to see how one man could take control in the emergency as General PIATT.  He not only worked himself, but directed the others, officers of the railroad, veterans of the army and passengers.  It was not only a heroic effort of a strong man, but an intelligent one.  I noticed two men armed with axes cutting at a part of the under car that remained intact.  General PIATT saw them.  "For God's sake don't do that," he cried, "You will bring down tons on us."  In an hour, that seemed 5 to us, the hurt men were got at.  It was pitiful to see their mangled forms lifted tenderly out by the laborers, then as black as negroes from the soot that had settled on everything.  The gallant old veteran who directed the work was so exhausted when the work was done the we had to carry him back to the passenger car that yet remained upon the track.  General PIATT at won his laurels on hard-fought battles of the war, but no brighter crown could be awarded him than his labors on this occasion."

A. Sanders PIATT was born in Cincinnati, May 2, 1821.  But for a brief period of his life in Boone county, Ky., he has been a resident of Logan, where he yet will have, we trust, many years of happy life. 

 

SARAH M. B. PIATT                                            JOHN J. PIATT.

 

 

John James and Sarah M. B. PIATT. - It is difficult to think of these two poets separate and apart from each other.  Yet while both are poets and possess a like delicacy of touch and deftness of expression, they are really wide apart in their several spheres of thought and feeling.  John James is of the sunny woods and fields made dear and familiar by sweet human gossip.  With a verse all his own he tells of the "Pioneer Chimney" with a touching pathos that comes of clear knowledge of the inner thoughts, feelings and motives of humble, honest life.  The love of home, the loftier love of country called patriotism, are his, while the wife is the poet of motherhood.  Her power is circled by the home made merry by the musical laugh of children, and so quaint in their infant imaginings and odd fancies that are full of infant wisdom and delicate humor.  Then again the mother intervenes, and there is a page one reads through tears.  Her power is only second to that of Mrs. Browning; if, indeed, in her peculiar walk, she is not the better of the two. 

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Nearly all the literary people of the United States petitioned President Arthur to give John James a consulate.  The prayer was granted, and since then, as United States consul at Cork, he has resided with his beautiful family at a picturesque old home covered with ivy near Queenstown.  JOHN is a Republican, as his poetry proves, and when President Cleveland was inaugurated there was a fearful rush made for this post at Cork.  The President sent for John's record at the State Department together with the recommendations they gave Mr. PIATT the position.  "Why," said the President, "we don't want a poet Consul anywhere." "No," responded Secretary Bayard, "we do not, but we want an honest, capable man, and if you will look at Mr. PIATT's record you will find that he is all that.  Then, again, here are Joseph MCDONALD, John G. CARLISLE, Frank HURD, Dan VOORHEES and fifty more Democrats asking his promotion.  I think at least we had better let him remain."  And remain he did and does.  We give as a specimen a poem of John J. PIATT's:

 

 

Sarah M. B. PIATT, whose delicately beautiful head we reproduce, was Miss Sarah M. BRYANT, of Kentucky.  She contributed poetry to the Louisville Journal, when the witty PRENTICE was editor, and John James assistant editor.  Both were struck by the girl's originality and beauty of expression.  The admiration so won the younger journalist that he made a pilgrimage to the interior of Kentucky to see the gifted one.  Admiration melted into love, and won the inspired maiden.  We give as a specimen, taken at random, one of Mrs. Piatt's columns:

 

 

 

Colonel Don PIATT was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 29, 1819.  He was educated partly in Urbana and at the Athenaeum (now St. Xavier College, Cincinnati), but left that School before completing his course.  He studied law under his father, and was, for a time, a pupil of Tom CORWIN.  In 1851 he was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county.  He was made Secretary of the Legation at Paris, under Hon. John Y. MASON, of Virginia, during Pierce's and Buchanan's administrations.  When the minister died in October, 1859, Colonel PIATT served as charge d'affaires for nearly a year. 

On his return home he engaged actively in the presidential canvass, in behalf of Abraham Lincoln.  In company with General Robert C. SCHENCK he stumped southern Illinois, and his services were publicly acknowledged by the President-elect. 

During the civil war he served on the staff of General Robert C. SCHENCK, who was in command of the Middle Department, with headquarters at Baltimore.  While General SCHENCK was temporarily absent from his post, and Colonel PIATT, as chief of staff, in command, he issued an order, contrary to the policy of the administration at that time, to General William G. Burney, who was then in Maryland, to recruit a brigade of Negro soldiers - to enlist none but slaves. 

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COLONEL DONN PIATT                                      LOUISE KIRBY PIATT.

 

 

Secretary Stanton, and permitted to retain his rank in the army, though, on account of this rash act, he was always thereafter denied further promotion.  But it was a consolation for him to know that his one act had made Maryland a free state.  Word went out and spread like wildfire that "Mr. Linkum was a callin' on de slaves to fight fo' fredum," and the hoe-handle was dropped, never again to be taken up by unrequited toil.  The poor creatures poured into Baltimore with their families, on foot, on horseback, in old wagons, and even on sleds stolen from their masters.  The late masters became clamorous compensation, and Mr. Lincoln ordered a commission to assess damages.  Secretary Stanton put in a proviso that those cases only should be considered wherein the claimant could take the iron-clad oath of allegiance.  So, of course, no slaves were paid for. 

Having been sent to observe the situation at Winchester, Va., previous to Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, Colonel PIATT, on his own motion, which ordered General Robert H. MILROY to evacuate that indefensible town and fall back on Harper's Ferry.  The order was countermanded by General HALLECK. Three day afterwards, Milroy, surrounded by the Confederate advance, was forced to cut his way out, with a loss of 2,000 prisoners.  Had Colonel PIATT's order been carried out, the command would have been saved, and two regiments of brave men (who under SCHENCK and MILROY were the only force that ever whipped Stonewall Jackson) not needlessly sacrificed.  He was Judge-Advocate of the commission which investigated the charges against General Buell, and favored his acquittal. 

After the war he became the Washington correspondent of The Cincinnati Commercial, distinguishing himself as a writer of great brilliancy. 

Col. PIATT subsequently founded and edited the Washington Capital for two years, making it so odious to government officials that at their instance during the presidential controversy of 1876 he was indicted - but, as he naively says, "Though trying very hard, never got into jail." On the contrary he sold the Capitol at a very handsome figure and returned to the peace and quiet of Mac-o-chee, where he has since been engaged in literary work and farming.  "In all his writings he is apt to take a peculiar and generally unpopular view of the subject," says an eminent critic, and the observation is just. 

His entertaining volume, "Memories of the Men who Saved the Union," whom he designates as Lincoln, Stanton, Chase, Seward and General George H. Thomas, is sharply critical, and severe on General Grant.  But its strong passages and just appreciation of the great deeds of the other great men atoned for this fault.  Its sale has been large and is steadily increasing.  The Westminster Review describes it as an "The record of great geniuses, told by a genius."

Colonel PIATT has published a delightful little book of love stories, true to life and of pathetic interest, mostly war incidents, called "The Lone Grave of the Shenandoah and Other Tales."  In 1888 he edited Belford's Magazine as a free trade journal, and made the tariff issue strangely interesting and picturesque.  He contributes regularly to the leading English reviews, and is at present engaged with General Charles M. CIST, of Cincinnati, in preparing a life of General George H. THOMAS. 

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Cincinnati, his old home, than all the Hamilton county delegation together.  His ability as a speaker and usefulness in the committee room were widely recognized and praised. 

Who can describe the beauty and charm of Mac-o-chee Valley? As seen from his great stone mansion in presents one of the fairest prospects that ever delighted the vision of man.  There is no description truer than Tom CORWIN'S: "A man can better live and die here than in any place I have ever seen."  Above is an excellent picture of the ivy-crowned west and south fronts, and entrance into one of the best libraries in Ohio.  The beautiful residence harmonizes with the great scenery about it - like the castles along the historic Rhine, one of which it closely resembles and is modeled after. 

Near the old mill on the direct road from Col. PIATT's to Urbana is the family burying ground, just back of the old log Catholic church, which is now almost destroyed.  Here the Piatts for four generations have worshipped and near by many are buried. 

In the hillside just below the old church Col. PIATT has had erected a substantial stone vault.  It is the tomb of the wife of his early manhood, a gifted and charming lady. 

A more appropriate epitaph, or one so touching, could hardly be written than that chiseled in marble on the reverse side of the medallion, shown in the picture.  It was written by Col. PIATT and reads as follows:

To thy dear memory, darling, and my own, I build in grief this monumental stone; All that it tells of life in death is thine, All that it tells of death in life is mine; For that which made thy pure spirit blessed, In anguish deep has brought my soul unrest You dying, lived to find a life divine, I living, die till death shall make me thine.

 

 

(Frank Henry Howe, Photo., 1890.)

THE TOMB.

Mrs. Louise Kirby PIATT, wife of Col. Don PIATT, was born in Cincinnati, November 25, 1826; died at Mac-o-chee, Ohio, October 2, 1864.  She was the daughter of Timothy KIRBY, a prominent and wealthy banker, an agent of the United States Bank in Cincinnati, closed by President Jackson, and a devoted Whig in days when partisan bitterness ran at fever height; but Col. PIATT was an equally zealous young Democrat, and, for this reason, principally, Mr. KIRBY strongly opposed his daughter's marriage to him.  The circumstances of his courtship and marriage by Col. PIATT were, indeed, highly romantic.  The license was quietly procured from his relative, Mr. Jacob W. PIATT, then clerk of Hamilton County, and the marriage ceremony as quietly performed at the Catholic Cathedral by Rev. Fr. Edward PURCELL, since Archbishop.  Immediately after, the newly made bride left in her mother's carriage for her home, and the husband boarded the train for Mac-o-chee. 

Six weeks after the marriage was discovered, and Mr. KIRBY, a man of firm purpose, in his wrath, as he had threatened, turned the young people out to care for themselves.  It was years before he softened and forgave them.  The reconciliation came none too soon.  The life of poverty and privation that followed the marriage proved too much for the sensitive, delicate organization of the daughter, who, when she did return to the shelter of her father's house, returned to die. 

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of, and about her, like a rose-tinted atmosphere, heavy with the perfume of flowers.  She was not only a brilliant conversationalist, but a fascinating one as well, for she won the sympathy, as well as admiration, of her listeners.  There was in her manner a strange mixture of shyness with a frank way that was very winning.  A fine linguist she lived in the English classics with a love that made her akin to their genius.  Her contributions to literature were not great, but enough to prove the excellence she might have achieved had life been spared.  She had to perfection a rare quality in woman, and that was a keen sense of humor.  When not encroached upon it was exceedingly delicate and quaint. 

Soon after her marriage her husband was appointed as Secretary of Legation at Paris, and she accompanied him abroad, and in his promotion to charge d'affaires attracted much attention at the court of Louis Napoleon under the Second Empire, where she soon became a favorite with the Empress Eugenie.  During her residence in Paris her contributions to the Ladies' Home Journal were greatly admired and widely read, and these were, in 1856, published under the title of "Belle Smith Abroad."  They comprise one of the most interesting volumes of foreign travel of that period.  Her descriptive powers were excellent, and through all she has written runs a vein of happy wit and merriment highly enjoyable to this day. 

The brief story of her life is told in a monument that adorns one of the sweetest scenes at Mac-o-chee.  On one side can be read:

 

 

On the reverse side of the shaft of the monument, on which is a well executed medallion of her fair face, is also the touching epitaph written by her husband and printed on the preceding page. 

We conclude here with the poem so widely popular - a tribute from him to her while giving the sunshine of her living presence to warm his heart and gladden his home:

"The Bloom was on the Alder and the Tassel on the Corn."

 

 

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The Lewistown Reservoir for supplying the Miami canal is in the northwestern part of the county; its area is 7,200 acres, or nearly 12 square miles; extreme length 5 miles and width 4 miles.

West Liberty is 8 miles south of Bellefontaine, on the I. B. & W. R. R., and upon Mad river, one of the best mill streams in Ohio, the valley of which is here two or three miles wide, and of unsurpassed fertility and great beauty.  The Mac-o-chee here joins it.  Newspaper: Banner, Republican; Don C. BAILEY, editor and publisher.  Churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, Christian, Lutheran.  Bank: West Liberty Banking Co., W. Z. NICKERSON & Co.; W. Z. NICKERSON, cashier.  Population, 1880, 715.  School census, 1888, 367. 

West Mansfield is twelve miles northeast of Bellefontaine.  Population, 1880, 333.  School census, 1888, 160. 

Belle Centre is twelve miles north of Bellefontaine, on the I. B. & W. R. R.  It has 4 churches, viz.: 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Disciples, 1 Reformed Presbyterian.  Newspapers: News-Gazette, also Bulletin.  Bank: Belle Centre, J. H. CLARK, president; Wm. RAMSEY, cashier.  Population, 1880, 434.  School census, 1888, 298. 

Zanesfield is 5 miles east of Bellefontaine.  Population in 1880, 307.  School census 1888, 128. 

Huntsville is six miles north of Bellefontaine, on the I. B. & W. R. R.  It has 3 churches.  Population, 1880, 429.  School census, 1888, 216. 

De Graff is 9 miles southwest of Bellefontaine, on the C. C. C. & I. R. R.  Newspaper: Buckeye, Independent, D. S. SPELLMAN, editor.  Bank: Citizens', LOUFBOURROW & WILLIAMS; I S. WILLIAMS, cashier.  Population, 1880, 965.  School census, 1888, 330. 

Quincy is 12 miles southwest of Bellefontaine, on the Great Miami river and the C. C. C. & I. R. R.  Population, 1880, 442.  School census, 1888, 127. 

Rushsylvania is 9 miles northeast of Bellefontaine, on the C. C. C. & I. R. R.  Newspaper: Times, independent; Henry M. DANIELS, editor and publisher.  Bank: Citizens', W. MCADAMS, president; O. R. PEGG, cashier.  Population, 1880, 445.  School census, 1888, 184. 

West Middelburg is 10 miles southeast of Bellefontaine.  Population, 1880, 272.