JEFFERSON  COUNTY

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            Jefferson County, named from President Jefferson, was the fifth county established in Ohio.  It was created by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, July 29, 1797; its original limits included the country west of Pennsylvania and Ohio; and east and north of a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga; southwardly to the Muskingum and east to the Ohio.  Within those boundaries are Cleveland, Canton, Steubenville, Warren, and many other large towns and populous counties.  The surface is hilly and the soil fertile.  It is one of the greatest manufacturing counties in the State, and abounds in excellent coal.  Area about 440 square miles.  In 1887 the acres cultivated were 76,976; in pasture, 86,680; woodland, 39,543; lying waste, 3,474; produced in wheat, 219,812 bushels; rye, 1,320; buckwheat, 168; oats, 309,089; barley, 2,511; corn, 517,398; broom-corn, 3,800 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 36,157 tons; clover hay, 4,201; flaxseed, 39 bushels; potatoes, 74,795; butter, 472,913 lbs.; cheese, 600; sorghum, 1,740 gallons; maple syrup, 5,146; honey, 4,938 lbs.; eggs, 443,652 dozen; grapes, 9,820 lbs.; wine, 540 gallons; sweet potatoes, 10 bushels; apples, 29,121; peaches, 785; pears, 1,644; wool, 566,680 lbs.; milch cows owned, 5,284.  School census, 1888, 11,905; teachers, 250.  Miles of railroad track, 83.  Coal mined, 243,178 tons, employing 347 miners and 80 outside employees; fire-clay, 144,090 tons.—Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888.

 

 

Township

And Census

1840

1880

 

Township

And Census

1840

1880

Brush Creek

   757

   623

 

Saline

   963

  1,480

Cross Creek

1,702

1,711

 

Smithfield

2,095

  1,887

Island Creek

1,867

2,029

 

Springfield

1,077

     817

Knox

1,529

2,011

 

Steubenville

5,203

13,150

Mount Pleasant

1,676

1,582

 

Warren

1,945

  1,923

Ross

   927

   741

 

Wayne

1,746

  1,751

Salem

2,044

1,907

 

Wells

1,492

  1,406

 

 

            Population in Jefferson in 1820 was 18,531; in 1830, 22,489; 1840, 25,031; 1860, 26,115; 1880, 33,018, of whom 24,761 were born in Ohio; 2,578 in Pennsylvania; 930 in Virginia; 158 in New York; 61 in Kentucky; 40 in Indiana; 1,179 in Ireland; 739 in England and Wales; 592 in German Empire; 188 in Scotland; 60 in British America; 9 in France, and 29 in Sweden and Norway.  Census, 1890, 39,415.

 

EARLY HISTORY

 

            The old Mingo town, three miles below Steubenville, now (1846) the site of the farms of Jeremiah H. HALLOCK, Esq., and Mr. Daniel POTTER, was a place of note prior to the settlement of the country.  It was the point where the troops of Colonel Williamson rendezvoused in the infamous Moravian campaign, and those of Colonel Crawford, in his unfortunate expedition against the Sandusky Indians.  It was also at one time the residence of LOGAN, the celebrated Mingo chief, whose form was striking and manly and whose magnanimity and eloquence have seldom


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been equalled.  He was a son of the Cuyaga chief Skikellimus, who dwelt at Shamokin, Pa., in 1742 and was converted to Christianity under the preaching of the Moravian missionaries.  Skikellimus highly esteemed James LOGAN, the secretary of the province, named his son from him, and probably had him baptized by the missionaries.

 

In early life, LOGAN for a while dwelt in Pennsylvania and in Day’s Historical Collections of that State is a view in Mifflin county of Logan’s Spring, which which will long remain a memorial of this distinguished chief.  The letter below gives an incident which occurred there that speaks in praise of LOGAN.  It was written by the Hon. R. P. MACLAY, a member of the State Senate, and son of the gentleman alluded to in the anedote, and published in the Pittsburg Daily American:

                       

SENATE CHAMBER, March 21, 1842

TO GEORGE DARSIE, ESQ., of the Senate of Pennsylvania:

 

                DEAR SIR—Allow me to correct a few inaccuracies as to place and names, in the anecdote of LOGAN, the celebrated Mingo chief, as published in the Pittsburg Daily American of March 17, 1842, to which you called my attention.  The person surprised at the spring, now called the Big Spring, and about six (four) miles west of Logan’s Spring, was William BROWN—the first actual settler in Kishacoquillas valley, and one of the associate Judges in Mifflin county, from its organization till his death, at the age of ninety-one or two—and not Samuel MACLAY, as stated by Dr. Hildreth.  I will give you the anecdote as I heard it related by Judge BROWN himself, while on a visit to my brother, who then owned and occupied the Big Spring farm, four miles west of Reedville:

               

“The first time I ever saw that spring,” said the old gentleman, “my brother, James REED and myself, had wandered out of the valley in search of land, and finding it very good, we were looking about for springs.  About a mile from this we started a bear, and separated to get a shot at him.  I was travelling along, looking about on the rising ground for the bear, when I came suddenly upon the spring; and being dry, and more rejoiced to find so fine a spring than to have killed a dozen bears, I set my rifle against a bush and rushed down to the bank and laid down to drink.  Upon putting my head-down, I saw reflected in the water, on the opposite side, the shadow of a tall Indian.  I sprang to my rifle, when the Indian gave a yell, whether for peace or war I was not just then sufficiently master of my faculties to determine, but upon my seizing my rifle, and facing him, he knocked up the pan of his gun, threw out the priming, and extended his open palm toward me in token of friendship.  After putting down our guns, we again met at the spring, and shook hands.  This was LOGAN—the best specimen of humanity I ever met with either white or red.  He could speak a little English, and told me there was another white hunter a little way down the stream, and offered to guide me to his camp.  There I first met your father.  We remained together in the valley a week, looking for springs and selecting lands, and laid the foundation of a friendship which never has had the slightest interruption.

 

                “We visited LOGAN at his camp, at Logan’s Spring, and your father and he shot at a mark for a dollar a shot.  LOGAN lost four or five rounds and acknowledged himself beaten.  When we were about to leave him, he went into his hut, and brought out as many deer skins as he had lost dollars, and handed them to Mr. MACLAY—who refused to take them, alleging that we had been his guests, and did not come to rob him—that the shooting had been only a trial of skill, and the bet merely nominal.  LOGAN drew himself up with great dignity, and said, ‘Me bet to make you shoot your best—me gentleman, and me take your dollar if me beat,’  So he was obliged to take the skins, or affront our friend, whose nice sense of honor would not permit him to receive even a horn of powder in return.

 

                “The next year,” said the old gentleman, “I brought my wife up and camped under a big walnut tree, on the bank of Tea creek, until I had built a cabin near where the mill now stands, and have lived in the valley ever since.  Poor LOGAN” (and the big tears coursed each other down his cheeks) “soon after went into the Allegheny, and I never saw him again.

                                                                                                                                                          “Yours,   R. P. MACLAY.”

 

            Mrs. NORRIS, who lives near the site of Logan’s Spring, is a daughter of Judge BROWN; she confirmed the above, and gave Mr. Day the following additional incidents, highly characteristic of the benevolent chief, which we take from that gentleman’s work:

 

                LOGAN supported his family by killing deer, dressing the skins, and selling them to the whites.  He had sold quite a parcel to one De YONG, a tailor, who lived in Ferguson’s valley, below the gap.  Tailors in those days dealt extensively in buckskin breeches.  LOGAN received his pay, according to stipulation, in wheat.  The wheat, on being taken to the mill, was found so worthless that the miller refused to grind it.  LOGAN was much cha-


 

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grined, and attempted in vain to obtain redress from the tailor.  He then took the matter before his friend BROWN, then a magistrate; and on the judge’s questioning him as to the character of the wheat, and what was in it, LOGAN sought in vain to find words to express the precise nature of the article with which the wheat was adulterated, but said that it resembled in appearance the wheat itself.  “It must have been cheat,” said the judge.  “Yeh!” said LOGAN, “that very good name for him.”  A decision was awarded in LOGAN’S favor, and a writ given to LOGAN to hand to the constable, which, he was told, would bring him the money for his skins.  But the untutored Indian—too uncivilized to be dishonest—could not comprehend by what magic this little paper would force the tailor, against his will, to pay for the skins.  The judge took down his own commission, with the arms of the king upon it, and explained to him the first principles and operations of civil law.  “Law good,” said LOGAN; “make rogues pay.”  But how much more simple and efficient was the law which the Great Spirit had impressed upon his heart—to do as he would be done by!

 

                When a sister of Mrs. NORRIS (afterwards Mrs. Gen. POTTER) was just beginning to learn to walk, her mother happened to express her regret that she could not get a pair of shoes to give more firmness to her little step.  LOGAN stood by, but said nothing.  He soon after asked Mrs. BROWN to let the little girl go up and spend the day at his cabin.  The cautious heart of the mother was alarmed at such a proposition; but she knew the delicacy of an Indian’s feelings—and she knew LOGAN, too—and with secret reluctance, but apparent cheerfulness, she complied with his request.  The hours of the day wore very slowly away, and it was nearly night, when her little one had not returned.  But just as the sun was going down, the trusty chief was seen coming down the path with his charge; and in a moment more the little one trotted into her mother’s arms, proudly exhibiting a beautiful pair of moccasons on her little feet—the product of LOGAN’S skill.

 

            LOGAN took no part in the old French war, which ended in 1760, except that of a peace-maker, and was always the friend of the white people until the base murder of his family, to which has been attributed the origin of Dunmore’s war.  This event took place near the mouth of Yellow creek, in this county, about seventeen miles above Steubenville.  The circumstances have been variously related.  We annex them as given by Henry Jolly, Esq., who was for a number of years an associate judge on the bench of Washington county, in this State.  The facts are very valuable, as coming from the pen of one who saw the party the day after the murder; was personally acquainted with some of the individuals, and familiar with that spot and the surrounding region.*  He says:   

           

I was about sixteen years of age, but I very well recollect what I then saw, and the information that I have since obtained was derived from (I believe) good authority.  In the spring of the year 1774, a party of Indians encamped on the northwest of the Ohio near the mouth of the Yellow creek.  A party of whites, called “Greathouse’s party,” lay on the opposite side of the river.  The Indians came over to the white party, consisting, I think, of five men and one woman, with an infant.  The whites gave them rum, which three of them drank, and in a short time they became very drunk.  The other two men and the woman refused to drink.  The sober Indians were challenged to shoot at a mark, to which they agreed; and as soon as they had emptied their guns, the whites shot them down.  The woman attempted to escape by flight, but was also shot down; she lived long enough, however, to beg mercy for her babe, telling them that it was akin to themselves.  The whites had a man in the cabin, prepared with a tomahawk, for the purpose of killing the three drunken Indians, which was immediately done.  The party of men then moved off for the interior settlements, and came to “Catfish Camp” on the evening of the next day, where they tarried until the day following.  I very well recollect my mother feeding and dressing the babe; chirruping to the little innocent, and it smiling.  However, they took it away, and talked of sending it to its supposed father, Col. George Gibson, of Carlisle, Pa., “who was then, and had been for many years, a trader among the Indians.”  The remainder of the party at the mouth of Yellow creek, finding that their friends on the opposite side of the river were massacred, attempted to escape by descending the Ohio; and in order to prevent being discovered by the whites, passed on the west side of Wheeling island, and landed at Pipe creek, a small stream that empties into the Ohio a few miles below Grave creek, where they were overtaken by Cresap, with a party of men from Wheeling.†  They took one Indian scalp, and had one white man

____________________________

                *This statement was written for Dr. S. P. Hildreth, by Mr. Jolly, and published in Sillaman’s Journal, for 1836.

                †Cresap did not live at Wheeling, but happened to be there at that time with a party of men, who had, with himself, just returned from an exploring expedition down the Ohio, for the purpose of selecting and appropriating lands (called in the West, locating lands) along the river in choice situations; a practice at that early day very common, when Virginia claimed both sides of the stream, including what is now the State of Ohio.—S. P. Hildreth.


 

962                                         

 

(Big Tarrener) badly wounded.  They, I believe, carried him in a litter from Wheeling to Redstone.  I saw the party on their return from their victorious campaign.  The Indians had, for some time before these events, thought themselves intruded upon by the “Long Knife,” as they at that time called the Virginians, and many of them were for war.  However, they called a council, in which LOGAN acted a conspicuous part.  He admitted their grounds of complaint, but at the same time reminded them of some aggressions on the part of the Indians, and that by a war they could but harass and distress the frontier settlements for a short time; that “the Long Knife” would come like the trees in the woods, and that ultimately they should be driven from the good lands which they now possessed.  He therefore strongly recommended peace.  To him they all agreed; grounded the hatchet, and everything wore a tranquil appearance; when behold, the fugitives arrived from Yellow creek, and reported that LOGAN’S father, brother, and sister were murdered!  Three of the nearest and dearest relations of LOGAN had been massacred by white men.  The consequence was, that this same LOGAN, who a few days before was so pacific raised the hatchet, with a declaration that he would not ground it until he had taken ten for one; which I believe he completely fulfilled, by taking thirty scalps and prisoners in the summer of 1774.  The above has often been related to me by several persons who were at the Indian towns at the time of the council alluded to, and also when the remains of the party came in from Yellow creek.  Thomas Nicholson, in particular, has told me the above and much more.  Another person (whose name I cannot recollect) informed me that he was at the towns when the Yellow creek Indians came in and that there was great lamentations by all the Indians of that place.  Some friendly Indian advised him to leave the Indian settlements, which he did.  Could any rational person believe for a moment that the Indians came to Yellow creek with hostile intentions, or that they had any suspicion of similar intentions, on the part of the whites, against them?  Would five men have crossed the river, three of them become in a short time dead drunk, while the other two discharged their guns, and thus put themselves entirely at the mercy of the whites; or would they have brought over a squaw with an infant pappoose, if they had not reposed the utmost confidence in the friendship of the whites?  Every person who is at all acquainted with Indians knows better; and it was the belief of the inhabitants who were capable of reasoning on the subject, that all the depredations committed on the frontiers, by LOGAN and his party in 1774, were as a retaliation for the murder of LOGAN’S friends at Yellow creek.  It was well known that Michael Cresap had no hand in the massacre at Yellow creek.*

           

During the war which followed, LOGAN frequently showed his magnanimity towards prisoners who fell into his hands.  Among them was Maj. Wm. ROBINSON, of Clarksburg, Va., from whose declaration given in “Jefferson’s Notes,” and information orally communicated by his son, Col. James ROBINSON, now living near Coshocton, these facts are derived.

 

            On the 12th of July, 1774, Major ROBINSON, then a resident on the west fork of the Monongahela river, was in the field with Mr. Colburn BROWN and Mr. HELEN, pulling flax, when they were surprised and fired upon by a party of eight Indians led by LOGAN.  Mr. BROWN was killed and the other two made prisoners.  On the first alarm Mr. ROBINSON started and ran.  When he had got about fifty yards, LOGAN called out in English: “Stop, I won’t hurt you!”  “Yes, you will,” replied ROBINSON, in tones of fear.  “No, I won’t,” rejoined LOGAN, “but if you don’t stop, by --- I’ll shoot you.”  ROBINSON still continued his race, but, stumbling over a log, fell and was made captive by a fleet savage in pursuit.  LOGAN immediately made himself known to Mr. ROBINSON and manifested a friendly disposition to him, told him that he must be of good heart and go with him to his town, where he would probably be adopted in some of their families.  When near the Indian village, on the site of Dresden, Muskingum county, LOGAN informed him that he must run the gauntlet, and gave him such directions that he reached the council-house without the slightest harm.  He was then tied to a stake for the purpose of being burnt, when LOGAN arose and addressed the assembled council of chiefs in his behalf.  He spoke long and with great energy

_________________________

                *A brother of Capt. Daniel Greathouse, said to have been present at the massacre, was killed by the Indians the 24th March, 1791, between the mouth of the Scioto and Limestone, while emigrating to Kentucky in a flat-boat, with his family.  He seems to have made little or no resistance to the Indians, who attacked him in canoes.  They probably knew who he was, and remembered the slaughter of LOGAN’S family, as he was taken on shore, tied to a tree, and whipped to death with rods.—S. P. Hildreth.


 

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until the saliva foamed from the sides of his mouth.  This was followed by other chiefs in opposition and rejoinders from LOGAN.  Three separate times was he tied to the stake to be burnt, the counsels of the hostile chiefs prevailing, and as often untied by LOGAN and a belt of wampum placed around him as a mark of adoption.  His life appeared to be hanging on a balance; but the eloquence of LOGAN prevailed, and when the belt of wampum was at last put on him by LOGAN he introduced a young Indian to him, saying: “This is your cousin; you are to go home with him, and he will take care of you.”

 

            From this place Mr. ROBINSON accompanied the Indians up the Muskingum, through two or three Indian villages, until they arrived at one of their towns on the site of New Comerstown, in Tuscarawas county.  About the 21st of July LOGAN came to ROBINSON and brought a piece of paper, saying that he must write a letter for him, which he meant to carry and leave in some house, which he should attack.  Mr. ROBINSON wrote a note with ink which he manufactured from gunpowder.  He made three separate attempts before he could get the language, which LOGAN dictated, sufficiently strong to satisfy that chief.  This note was addressed to Col. Cresap, whom LOGAN supposed was the murderer of his family.  It was afterwards found, tied to a war club, in the cabin of a settler who lived on or near the north fork of Holston river.  It was doubtless left by LOGAN after murdering the family.  A copy of it is given below, which, on comparison with his celebrated speech, shows a striking similarity of style.

 

CAPTAIN CRESAP:

            What did you kill my people on Yellow creek for?  The white people killed my kin, at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that.  But you killed my kin again on Yellow creek and took my cousin prisoner.  Then I thought I must kill, too.  I have been three times to war since then; but the Indians are not angry; only myself.

            July 21, 1774                                                   CAPTAIN JOHN LOGAN.

 

            Major ROBINSON after remaining with the Indians about four months returned to his home in Virginia.  In 1801 he removed to Coshocton county and settled on a section of military land, on the Muskingum, a few miles below Coshocton, where he died in 1815, aged seventy-two years.  His son resides on the same farm.

 

            Dunmore’s war was of short duration.  It was terminated in November of the same year, within the present limits of Pickaway county, in this State, under which head will be found a copy of the speech which has rendered immortal the name of LOGAN.

 

            The heroic adventure of the two JOHNSON boys, who killed two Indians in this county, has often and erroneously been published.  One of these, Henry, the youngest, is yet living in Monroe county, in this State, where we made his acquaintance in the spring of 1846.  He is a fine specimen of the fast vanishing race of Indian hunters, tall and erect, with the bearing of a genuine backwoodsman.  His narrative will be found in Monroe county.

 

            The last blood shed in battle between the whites and Indians in this part of the Ohio country was in Jefferson county, in August, 1793.  This action, known as “Buskirk’s battle,” took place on the farm of Mr. John Adams, on what was then known as Indian Cross creek, now as Battle-Ground run.  The incidents given below were published in a Steubenville paper a few years since.

 

                A party of twenty-eight Indians having committed depredations on this side of the river, a force of thirty-eight Virginians, all of them veteran Indian fighters, under Capt. Buskirk, crossed the river to give them battle.  And, although they knew they were in the vicinity of the enemy, they marched into an ambuscade, and but for a most singular circumstance would have been mowed down like pigeons.  The whites marched in Indian file with their captain, Buskirk, at their head.  The ambush quartered on their flank, and they were totally unsuspicious of it.  The plan of the Indians was to permit the whites to advance in numbers along the line before firing upon them.  This was done, but instead of each selecting his man every gun was directed at the captain, who fell with


 

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thirteen holes in his body.  The whites and Indians instantly treed, and the contest lasted more than an hour.  The Indians, however, were defeated and retreated towards the Muskingum with the loss of several killed, while the Virginians, with the exception of their captain, had none killed and but three wounded.

 

            STEUBENVILLE IN 1846—Steubenville is on the Ohio river, 22 miles above Wheeling, 36 below Pittsburg and 147 east by north from Columbus.  It derives its name from a fort, called Fort Steuben, erected on its site as early as 1789.  It stood on High street, near the site of the female seminary.  It was built of block houses connected by palisade fences, and was dismantled at the time of Wayne’s victory, previous to which it had been garrisoned by United States infantry, under the command of Col. BEATTY, father of the Rev. Dr. BEATTY, of Steubenville.  On the opposite side of the river then stood a blockhouse.

 

            The town was laid out in 1798, by Bezeleel WELLS and the Hon. James ROSS, of Pennsylvania, from whom Ross county, in this State, derived its name.  Mr. ROSS, who has attained high honor, is yet living; but Mr. WELLS died poor, after having been at one time considered the most wealthy person in Eastern Ohio.  On the 14th of February, 1805, the town was incorporated and the following officers appointed:  David HULL, president; John WARD, recorder; David HOG, Zacheus A. BEATTY, Benj. HOUGH, Thos. VINCENTS, John ENGLAND, Martin ANDREWS and Abm. CAZIER, trustees; Samuel HUNTER, treasurer; Matthew ADAMS, assessor; Charles MAXWELL, collector, and Anthony BECK, town marshal.

 

            Steubenville is situated upon a handsome and elevated plain, in the midst of beautiful scenery.  The country adjacent is rich and highly cultivated, affording the finest soil for wheat and sheep.  Messrs. Bezaleel WELLS and DICKERSON introduced the merino sheep at an early day, and established in the town, in 1814, a woollen manufactory, which laid the foundation for the extensive manufactures of the place.  Steubenville contains about 30 mercantile stores, 2 printing offices (1 daily newspaper), 1 Episcopal, 2 Presbyterian, 3 Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 Baptist, 1 Associate Reformed, 1 New Jerusalem and 1 church for persons of color, 1 bank, 5 woollen, 1 paper, 1 cotton and 2 glass manufactories, 1 iron foundry and numerous other manufacturing and mechanical establishments.  In the vicinity are 7 copperas manufactories.  From 800 to 1,000 hands are employed in these various establishments, and over a million bushels of coal annually consumed which is obtained from inexhaustible coal-beds in the vicinity at 3 cents per bushel.  The town is very thriving and rapidly increasing.  Its population in 1810 was 800; in 1820, 2,479; in 1830, 2,964; in 1840, 4,247, and in 1847 about 7,000.

 

            Much attention is given to the cause of education in Steubenville.  There are five public and four select schools, a male academy and a female seminary.  The male institution, called “Grove academy,” is flourishing.  It is under the charge of the Rev. John W. SCOTT, has three teachers and eighty scholars.  The female seminary is pleasantly situated on the bank of the Ohio, commanding an extensive view of the river and the surrounding hills.  It is under the charge of the Rev. Charles C. BEATTY, D. D., superintendent, and Mrs. Hetty E. BEATTY, principal.  It was first established in the spring of 1829, and now receives only scholars over twelve years of age.  It is in a very high degree flourishing, having a widely extended reputation.  The establishment cost nearly $40,000, employs from ten to twelve teachers and usually has 150 pupils, the full number which it can accommodate.—Old Edition.

 

            The Steubenville Seminary, which the year of its foundation had but seven pupils, and at the time of the issue of our first edition 150, had gone on increasing its educational facilities, so that it has since had 250 pupils in one year, has graduated over 4,500, and at a reunion, held in 1873, more than 700 alumni were present.

 

            In 1856 Dr. and Mrs. A. M. REID succeeded Dr. and Mrs. BEATTY, and in


 

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Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846

MARKET STREET, STEUBENVILLE.

 

Bottom Picture

Davison Fillson, Photo., Steubenville, 1886

STEUBENVILLE FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA SHORE.

 


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1863 they in turn were succeeded by Dr. and Mrs. J. W. WIGHTMAN, the present principals.

 

            This school is remarkable for its age, its widespread educational, moral and religious influence.  It has sent missionaries to all quarters of the globe, many of whom are still engaged in the good work.

 

            The coal mines at Stuebenville are among the deepest in the State, Rush Run Shaft being 261 feet; Mingo Shaft 250 feet, and the Market street shaft 225 feet.

 

            The Perils of the Coal Miner, who works down deep in the bowels of the earth, are such that those engaged in coal-mining become imbued with a spirit of heroism and self-sacrifice that finds strong expression in times of danger.  The greatest peril of the miner is that caused by the explosion of fire-damp, a highly combustible and explosive gas generated by the coal.  Notwithstanding the precautions taken to avoid them, these explosions are constantly occurring in mining regions, with more or less loss of life, under the most horrifying conditions.

           

                Thus it was at the rolling mill shaft at Steubenville, about 7 o’clock on the morning of June 5, 1865, when the surrounding neighborhood was startled by a loud rumbling noise, the rattling of windows and the visible shaking of the ground.

 

                The miners were on a strike at the time, and but nine men were in the mine; of these Thomas SWEENY and Patrick BURKE escaped with but slight injury; Frederick HAZELER was seriously injured but recovered.  Wm. COWAN was fatally burned and a few days later died of his injuries; John DOUGLAS, James RILEY, James COWAN, Wm. MILLHIZER and LYNCH were killed.

 

                On the morning of the 23rd of February, 1868, the large building known as Wallace factory, located near the shaft of the “High Shaft” mine at Steubenville, was discovered on fire.  It became a question of great moment if it were possible to save the building over the coal-mine from destruction.  There were at this time about one hundred men and boys in the mine who must be got out ere the building burned or be lost.  Some of them were not only 225 feet underground, but three-quarters of a mile away from the bottom of the shaft.  Under the direction of Superintendent James H. BLINN, volunteers fought heroically to save the building, while others entered the mine to warn the miners of the danger.  Wm. DIXON and Hugh SUTHERIN, track layers in the mine, did noble service at imminent risk of losing their lives.  The hoisting cages were kept running at their highest speed until all the miners were at last safe about ground.  An instance of filial devotion displayed on this occasion is related by Mr. Wm. SMITHWAITE, from whose writings this article is abridged. 

 

                A miner, John STEWART, who was crippled by an accident in a mine in Scotland many years before, was working with his son William in one of the farthest workings of the mine, when they received notice of the danger.  They immediately started for the shaft, but their progress was so slow, that prospect of their arriving there in time was very discouraging.  The son assisted the father’s feeble steps, being passed on the way by men and boys hurrying to escape, who urged them to hasten, telling them again and again of their danger.  This increased their excitement, hindering rather than assisting them; the poor old crippled father, losing all courage, sank down by the way, giving up all hope and resigning himself to his fate urged his son to leave him and seek is own safety.  “I am auld an crippled, Willie, and of nae account in the warl; nae worth ony sacrifice; gang away an save yoursel or we’ll baith perish.  You are young and strang an may have many years tae live; gang away, Willie, an save yoursel; I canna coom.”  “I wanna le you, fayther.  Coom, I’ll help you alang, and we’ll baith get out,” was the reply.

 

                After repeated efforts the old man was induced to try again, but again sank down in despair, and in most piteous accents in his broad Scotch dialect urged his son to leave him and seek his own safety.  Paying no attention to the old man’s importunities, William would again with encouraging words and earnest pleadings get the old man up and make a little more progress towards the shaft.

               

Finally, after much toil and persistence, they both reached the shaft and were hoisted out in safety.

 

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY MANUFACTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN OHIO.

 

            The following very valuable article was written for this work by the venerable WILLIAM C. HOWELLS, father of WM. DEAN HOWELLS, the author.  It was written and sent under the date of Jefferson, Ohio, December, 1887, when he was eighty years of age.  In an accompanying letter, he wrote us: “I have endeavored to say enough to give the proper information, and to avoid saying anything


 

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of which I did not feel reasonably certain; yet it is hardly to be expected that, after a lapse of seventy years, many errors will not have occurred.”

               

Quaker Enterprise.—My father emigrated from Brecknockshire in South Wales, in 1808, landing at Boston.  I was then just one year old.  He had acquired a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of woollen goods.  In 1812 he was at Waterford, Loudon county, Va., having made his way to that point from Boston, when he made the acquaintance of a Quaker, Joseph STEER, who had a large flouring-mill and water-power on Short creek, about eighteen miles from Steubenville and four from Mount Pleasant.  This was a Quaker settlement of considerable importance, and the wealth and influence of that locality were chiefly in their hands; and they were not excelled by any in all useful enterprises that tended to improve the then new and growing country.  Along the little river of Short creek they had built flouring mills, salt-works, and a paper-mill of no mean capacity.

 

                Joseph STEER sought to supply a needed woollen manufactory, and he engaged my father to put it in operation.

 

                Passengers Transported by the Pound.—In the spring of 1813, as soon as the roads were in proper condition, my father engaged with one of the “Waggoners of the Alleghenies,” for our passage from Waterford to Brownsville, Pa., which was the usual place of changing shipments from wagons to boats, on the way to Ohio.  The wagons used in the transportation of goods on that route were large and heavy, drawn by teams of four, five, or six horses.  They would hold and carry 5,000 to 9,000 pounds, and movers took passage in them as they would in boats for themselves and household effects.  The wagon in which we travelled was one of the five-horse class, owned and driven by one Thomas, not Mr. BIRCHARD, who did not drink whisky or swear at his horses, which my mother regarded as virtuous of high esteem.  At this time he had loaded nearly full at Alexandria, and took us on to complete the cargo.  I very well remember that mother, my sister, brother, and myself, were weighed at the time our goods were loaded on, and all charged for at so much per pound, though I forget at what price, if I ever knew.  My father had a pony, which he rode in company with the two wagons that travelled together, for mutual help over bad places and steep hills, when they joined teams.  The trip was necessarily a slow one, as twenty miles was a long day’s drive.

 

                Keel Boat Travel.—Arriving at Brownsville, we gladly stopped to rest and wait for a boat.  We happened upon a new flat boat, which was being floated to Pittsburg, in which we found unbounded room, after the cramped journey in the wagon.  At Pittsburg we changed to what was then called a keel boat; a kind of barge about the size of a canal boat.  In it we soon floated the eighty miles to Warrenton, at the mouth of Short creek, then a thriving village, and an important point for building flat boats and loading them with flour and other produce for the New Orleans market.  Three miles up the creek brought us to our destination, and we took our position as Ohioans seventy-five years ago.

 

                Difficulties of New Manufacturing Enterprises.—The destruction of Mr. STEER’S flouring-mill deranged his plans as to manufacturing; and the woollen mill was limited to machinery adapted to country custom, carding and spinning machine, fulling-mill, etc., in a small way.  Though a child, I very well remember that this new business was started under very great difficulties.  Many of the parts of the machines had to be made by local mechanics.  For the spinning “jenny,” a blacksmith forged the spindles, and finished them with grindstone and files; while a tinsmith, a cabinetmaker, a turner, and one or two ingenious general workers made the other parts.  My father superintended the job; made the drawings, etc., and in due time, before winter set in, the little factory was in operation.

 

                Early Manufactures of Southeastern Ohio.—My father moved his family into Steubenville in 1816, when I had just entered upon my tenth year.  I was a rather forward boy, and especially interested in manufacturing and mechanical work, of which I had a good conception for one of my years, so that now I have a good recollection of what I then saw.  When recurring to that time—say August, 1818, and onward for a few years—I am rather surprised at the variety, as well as extent, of manufactures in which the people of Southeastern Ohio and the adjacent parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania were engaged.  The town of Steubenville, whose inhabitants then numbered about 2,000, was a centre of these operations that was typical in its way of the whole.  The chief manufacture of the place was woollen cloths, carried on by a company, formed about 1812, on a more extensive scale than any in the State, or west of the Allegheny mountains, at that time.

 

                An Enterprising Pioneer.—The leading man in this enterprise was Hon. Bezaleel WELLS, who was the original proprietor of the town, which was laid out in 1797, and who represented the county in the first Constitutional Convention in 1802, and who really spent his life and fortune in developing that part of the State.  Mr. WELLS associated with him in this undertaking several men of capital and enterprise, among whom were James ROSS, of Pittsburg; William DICKERSON, of Steubenville; and a Mr. PATTERSON, of whom tradition said that, after great anxiety to see this factory in operation, he died simultaneously with the starting of the engine.  My father having been engaged as wool-grader in the concern till 1826, I had an opportunity


 

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of  observing, and was familiar with its general work.

 

                Losses Through Improvements in Machinery.—About 1818 another firm was organized, of which the late Judge and Senator Tappan was a member, that was known as B. Wells & Co., which continued until about 1827, when the business passed into other hands.  It was for a time managed by Mr. WOLCOTT, of Akron, the father of the late Judge WOLCUTT, who changed the style of the product to a less expensive kind, and made it pay its way for a time.

 

                It was successful in the manufacture of great quantities of good cloth, and cheapening the cost to consumers, who were largely the people of the State, and making a market for good wool; besides introducing greatly improved brands of sheep.  As a profit to those who invested money, it must have been one of the worst of failures.  The original cost was necessarily very great; while the introduction of new machinery and new styles of working every year absorbed a great part of the profits.  I well remember, when very young, being impressed with the terrible losses that were evident to me, in the discarded machinery that filled every vacant spot of the ground and buildings—the result of changes that came in constant succession from year to year.  This was not the result of dishonesty or very bad management.  It seemed to have come of the crowding growth of improvements, which often made it economy to cast aside a machine of real value.  To this may be added successive fires, panics, and money depressions following the war of 1812.  This factor and its various buildings occupied about ten acres, near the west end of Main street, a little east of the two factories afterwards built by James and Ebenezer WALLACE.

 

                The establishment of Messrs. WALLACE, started under better auspices and in better times, succeeded, and has done well.  The WALLACES, availing themselves of a valuable vein of coal underlying the town, some twenty-five years ago sunk a shaft to it, which not only supplied them with fuel but became a source of material profit.

 

                Cotton Cloth Factories.—About the time of the commencement of the old  woollen factory, another company put in operation a steam flouring-mill and cotton factory in a small way, both in adjoining buildings and propelled by the same engine, on the bank of the river at the foot of Main street.  The cotton department was confined to carding and spinning only, producing yards used in home-made linseys, carpets, and satinette warps, etc.  It was discontinued about 1821.  Soon after this date two cotton mills, on quite an extensive scale, were built; both of which prospered permanently in the manufacture of yarns and unbleached cotton cloths.

 

                Early Paper Mills.—At an early day the manufacture of paper was commenced in many places in the State, that seemed to do well, and made a full supply for the wants of the country with the various kinds then in use.  There were mills at or near Cincinnati, Lebanon, Hamilton, Chillicothe, Columbus, Zanesville, Mount Pleasant, and Steubenville.  Of course, they all made paper by the old hand-process, that had been in use from time immemorial, and was good enough for the world until the Fourdrinier process was introduced; and these Western mills made a great deal of superior, fine paper.  In 1816 the Mount Pleasant mill made the paper for the notes of the Bank of Mount Pleasant.  The Steubenville mill, as I remember, had two rag-engines and three or four moulding vats, and employed forty or fifty men and women—many more than are now employed in the mill with its ten-times increased power of production.  This mill was propelled by a large low pressure engine, as were the flour and cotton mills and the woollen factory.  The business was carried on by John B. Bayless & Co., who sold their paper at prices not much higher than it was sold thirty or forty years ago.  I judge from the price of foolscap writing paper, that we used at school, which cost twenty-five cents a quire for a good article, not ruled.  This mill was on the river bank, near where the Pen Handle Railroad crosses.

 

                On the river bank, a short distance below, there was an iron foundry, operated by Martin PHILLIPS.  Connected with this, Adam WISE had a machine shop, where much of the machinery of the factory and mills of the vicinity was made or repaired.  Mr. WISE also made the first plows of the country with iron mould-boards.

 

                Extinct Trades.—On Main street, near Third, James WATT did a lively business as wheelwright, which meant the making of hand-spinning wheels for wool and flax, reels, etc., which trade is now extinct, and the wheels and tools that were to be found in every farmer’s house in nearly constant use, are now retired to garrets or collections of bric-a-brac.

 

                Another extinct trade was carried on by Daniel KILGOUR, at the corner of Main and Fourth streets, which was the making of cutnails by hand, but gave way to nail-making machines about 1825.

 

                Next door to this was the watch and clock-making shop of Alexander PAXTON, where he repaired watches and made brass eight-day clocks to order.

 

                Measured for a “Roaram.”—At the time I speak of, hats were made in shops as shoe-making and tailoring were done.  The, if a man or boy wanted a hat, it was bespoken, always two weeks in advance.  As old boys well remember, the hatter measured his head and fitted him accordingly.  The hats were made of wool or fur, or both mixed—the body of wool with the nap of fur, called a “roaram.” A name well suited to the appearance of the hat.  Fine hats were made with fur bodies and a nap of beaver or otter.  These were really nice hats and were worth the six to ten dollars they cost.  Wool hats cost about a dollar, and a “roaram” $2.50 or $3.  In that day the stiffening of hats


 

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with gum-shellac was not in use, glue being used instead of water-proof gum; and when overtaken with rain the hats would weaken down and bring the wearer to a “due scuse of his unworthiness,” for they would become flabby and the nap stick to them till they shone like a junk bottle after they became dry, besides “going to seed,” as it was called.  This made the hat an object of tender care, and led the wearer to carry in reserve an oiled silk or gingham covering, to be put on as required.  There were three hatters in town—Messrs. Hall, ODBERT and HOAGLAND, each of whom helped me to a crown, as needed.

 

                Mr. McFETRIDGE, whose trade is now also obsolete, made weavers’ reeds, of reed-cane, to supply the many looms that were to be found in the farmers’ houses all through the country.

 

                Of general trades, there were the usual variety.  I remember one earthenware pottery, three tanneries, carried on by Brice VIERS, Samuel WILLIAMS and Hans WILSON; six or seven shoe-shops and a like number of tailors, and one gunsmith, James LEAF.

 

                An old paper that I have fixes the number of merchants’ stores at twenty-seven, and of taverns at sixteen.

 

                Early Schools and Churches.—In the winter of 1816-17 there were two schools of the same order as our common schools, maintained by private subscription, all schools then were, at $2.50 a scholar per quarter.  One of these schools, at which I was a pupil, was taught by Rev. James B. FINLEY, and continued until it was overshadowed by the well-known school of Rev. Dr. BEATTY.

 

                At the beginning of 1817 there were three places of religious worship, where services were regularly held every Sunday: one Presbyterian, with Rev. Mr. HAGLAND as pastor; one United Presbyterian, Rev. Mr. BUCHANAN as paster, and a Methodist Episcopal Church, forming a part of the Steubenville Circuit, with Rev. James B. FINLEY as presiding elder for the quarterly meeting district, the extent of which would astonish many of his brethren of this day.  He lived in Steubenville, whence he made his four journeys on horseback, each year visiting, as extreme points, Zanesville, Norwalk, Cleveland and Warren, Ohio; Beaver and Erie, Pa.; and Fredonia, N.Y.

 

TRAVELLING NOTES.

 

            Steubenville was named in a spirit of patriotism, from Baron von de Steuben, the drill master of the soldiers of the Revolution.  He taught them to bring their muskets to the order by three motions in the slow style of the tactics of that day.  He lies buried alone in the depths of a forest in Oneida county, New York, and in 1840 I walked twenty miles for the sole purpose of sketching his grave.

 

            Steubenville is well situated, the best river town, steamboat men say, of any town on the Ohio, and because on the second plateau, and thus above the highest floods.  The scenery around is impressive.  In its rear high hills rise rounding in majestic curves.  Opposite, close up to the West Virginia shore, is a steep wooded bluff, some 600 or more feet in height, its upper part an overhanging precipitous cliff.  Down the river the view is expansive with bounding hills and never-returning waters.  One may well term this as the gateway to the charming scenery of the Upper Ohio.

 

                A Sort of Lubberland.—The city has an old time look—little or no ornate architecture—but there is comfort everywhere.  It is similar in its social aspects and appearance to Marietta and Chillicothe.  The country around laughs in its fatness—nobody starves.  Going into a restaurant for dinner, there was placed before me on a side table some nineteen dishes—1.  Roast beef, very tender, Ohio grown.  2.  Excellent coffee.  3 and 4.  Cucumbers and onions.  5.  Corn.  6.  Asparagus in milk.  7.  String beans.  8.  Cabbage, boiled.  9.  Tomatoes, stewed with toast.  10.  Rhubarb.  11.  Potatoes warmed in milk.  12.  Cold bread, butter.  13.  Warm biscuit.  14 and 15.  Rhubarb and cherry pie.  16.  Ice cream.  17, 18, and 19.  Vanilla and chocolate, with strawberries—and for all this but twenty-five cents charge.  On my tour over Ohio forty years ago no such variety was anywhere seen, and not once a napkin at a meal, and eatable butter almost never—but no charge for smelling.  In no one thing has there been a greater improvement than in food.  Lubberland seems to be heaving in sight for this people, and yet they don’t all seem happy.

 

                The track of the Cincinnati & Pittsburg Railroad runs on the river bank in front of Steubenville.  The first person I met on my arrival to welcome me was Mr. J. J. ROBINSON, the station agent, at whose residence I called on an errand.  His house stands with its rear to the rail track and river, near by the station.  His home lot is 120 feet broad and 180 deep.  The house, on an elevation fifteen feet above the lawn, occupies the farther end and fronts on a street.  A line of Lombardy poplars, 120 feet in length and twelve feet apart, stands as sentinels on the river front of the lot.  They were set out in 1878, being then saplings but two inches in diameter and ten feet high; yet in 1884 they had attained a height of sixty feet, which he cut off


 

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Top Picture

Davison Fillson, Photo.

BOYHOOD HOME OF STANTION.

 

Bottom Picture

From the old edition of 1846.

FEMALE SEMINARY, STEUBENVILLE.


 

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twenty feet from the top.  Now (1886) they are forty-five feet in height, in luxurious foliage.  On V.I.P. 321 I speak on the subject of the poplar more fully.  Around some of the home lots in the upper part of the town are very long lines of poplars hundreds of feet in height, making a very imposing appearance. I know nothing of the kind equalling it.  The easy swaying of the top of the poplars in the wind and the glinting lights on their branches are pleasing.  But it is a solemn tree—does for graveyards and melancholy blue states of the mind.

 

                A Lesson in Ornithology.—Mr. ROBINSON’S house has a veranda eighty feet in length on the second story facing the river.  As he took me from the sentinel poplars across the lawn, through the shrubbery, grape vines and blooming roses to the veranda he said: “Come; I want you to see my birds.”  At that moment a peacock spread his tail at my feet and gave an infernal screech—“Look! admire my tail!:  “That,” said he, “is better than any watch dog or policeman that can be got.  Nothing can enter my yard at night but he sounds the alarm.  He is ever faithful.  Unlike a watchman, never falls asleep on his post, and, unlike a dog, can never be seduced from duty.”

 

                Taking me on to the veranda, there in fifteen cages were nineteen birds chirping their joy.  Among them English black-birds, golden oriole, canaries, mocking bird, Irish lark, Irish thrush, cat-bird and red-bird—nearly all foreign birds.  The Irish lark has a voice of a peculiar rollicking nature.  “Soars up in the air,” said Mrs. ROBINSON, a black-eyed lady, with a merry laugh.

 

                One canary was sitting on its nest.  It was her third brood.  I got within a foot of the little creature as she was sitting there so happy and comfortable.  She cocked up her little eye, as much as to say; “Oh, you get out.  You are nothing but a man.  You can know nothing of a mother’s joy.”  Mrs. R. told me that the canary lays from four to five eggs, and that fourteen days after the laying of the first egg a bird is hatched, and then after that one daily.  If it is a male bird it is surely a singer and will sing fourteen days from its birth.  Canaries are weaned in from fifteen to twenty-one days.

 

                Just at that moment a train went thundering by, when the peacock gave a screech.  He always does, and the pass every half hour; yells at every child’s laugh and spreads his tail ad libitum.  At night he perches on a flat board nailed on top of a post, close by the back door, and performs sentinel duty, at every noise sending forth a screech.

 

                Suffering Bennie Shaw.—While here I sketched a cottage, the once home of the long suffering but happy Bennie SHAW, who was deaf and dumb, very near-sighted and paralyzed.  It stands in a nook between two other buildings on a business street in Steubenville.  I called there and had an interview with his mother, a sad-appearing woman, to learn the history of her boy.  When he was eleven years of age he was taken sick, and, becoming paralyzed, lay on his back until he died, at the age of thirty-seven, November 2, 1884.  During that entire period only his head and chest grew, his body below remaining as in childhood.  The cottage in which he lived and the room in which he was confined were very small, the latter with only one window which looked upon a little garden wherein grew flowers.  He was very near-sighted, could use but one arm, could not lift himself in bed nor turn his head, and yet on the wall were numerous pictures in watercolors of flowers, birds and other objects which he painted mostly from copies and quite handsomely.  And how he was enabled to do them at all seemed almost incredible.  His mother thus described it to me, first showing me a board ten by twelve inches: “We,” said she, “tacked the paper on this board.  He laid on his back in his cot by the window, the board resting on his chest.  He held the top of the board with his two little fingers.  With the other three fingers he painted.  Owing to his near-sightedness he was obliged to bring the board within four inches of his face.  He could not paint all over the board except by turning it around, so it was often wrong side up.  As he could not turn his head, he had a mirror, which magnified and reflected the flowers in the garden which he studied and painted.  It was always a wonder to me how he was able to paint, and so beautifully, and when I asked him how he did it his answer always was, and with a smile, ‘God helps me.  He loves me.’”  His little room was a holy spot.  His presence made it an atmosphere of love, and when any strangers came in he always wanted to know if they loved Go and enjoyed him as he did.

 

            Several days passed in Steubenville enabled me to gather from some old gentlemen some amusing reminiscences upon its historical characters, as Edwin STANTON, Senator TAPPAN, Thomas COLE, etc.  One of these was Mr. James GALLAGHER, a tall, wiry gentleman, with some hesitation in his speech but none in his brains, who came here, in 1816, from Philadelphia, when a lad of ten years.  He said.

 

            Anecdotes of Ben Tappan.—I knew Ben Tappan well.  He was very sharp.  He had a large house-dog, which one day strolled into the shop of one Peters, a butcher, and seizing a nice roast of beef made off with it.  Peters, on discovering whose dog it was, called upon Tappan, and put the question to him:  “If a neighbor’s dog enters my shop and steals meat, is he not legally held in payment?”  “Certainly he is,” rejoined Tappan.  “Your dog,” continued Peters, “has this very


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morning stolen seventy-five cents worth of meat from me, and I have come for the money.”  “Not so fast, Mr. Peters,” replied Tappan; “I don’t give legal advice without compensation.  As you are a neighbor, I won’t be hard upon you.  My charge to you in this case is $2.00.  You must therefore pay me the difference, $1.25, and we will call it square.

 

            Ben Tappan was a most audacious man, and I have no doubt his example had much to do with the formation of the character of Edwin STANTON when he, a youth, became his partner.  In olden times our Common Pleas court consisted of a president judge for each judicial district, and three associate justices for each county in which the court was held.  The presence of three constituted a quorum.  At a court held here a Mr. Anderson, a very worthy man, was one of the judges.  He lived three miles out of town, and was wont to come to court on horseback with his saddle-bags, with his own dinner in one bag and oats for his horse in the other.  After a certain noon recess Anderson failed to appear in time.  Tappan, who was naturally impatient, arose to address the court, when Judge HALLOCK interrupted him: “Brother Tappan, there is not a quorum; you will have to wait for Judge ANDERSON,”  “Are his saddle-bags under the bench?”  “Yes.”  “Then,” rejoined Tappan, “I’ll go on with my plea; they will do just as well.”  And he did.  Soon Anderson came in, and heard the balance of the plea.  It is to be inferred its opening was in due time communicated to him by the saddle-bags.

 

                The Stanton family were from North Carolina, and originally Quakers.  They fell under the influence of the itinerating Methodists, and their house became a favorite stopping-place for itinerants.  Edwin was of an emotional nature, and, when a lad, was converted and joined them; eventually he “backslid,” but always had a great respect for religion.  We went to school together, he nine years younger.  He was somewhat lax in getting his lessons, especially in arithmetic, which he disliked, and often came to me for assistance.  He was an enterprising lad, and established a circulating library, a nice collection, the only one in town, and it was well patronized.  I drew from his library Plutarch’s “Lives,” Akenside’s “Pleasures of the Imagination,”” Campbell’s “Poems,” and other old-style books of that day.

 

                Edwin went as a clerk at about the age of thirteen with Mr. James TURNBULL, who kept books for sale, and was with him for several years.  Mr. TURNBULL is now living here at the age of ninety-two, and is the only survivor of the war of 1812 in this region of Ohio.  Edwin was reading so constantly that he somewhat neglected his duties as a salesman; he was a great reader and largely self-taught.  Turnbull thought highly of him as a boy.

 

                In his early career as a lawyer the people, more especially us old Whigs, regarded him as unscrupulous.  The family were Whigs, and he was brought up in that faith, but he joined the Democrats, they being especially strong in this county.  This was under the influence, I believe, of old Ben Tappan.  This change we thought was not from political ambition, but for the legal business the association would bring him.  He was a grand talker; not as logical as some, but his forte was his perfect self-poise and his indomitable bulldog courage and tenacity.  Though the heavens fell, he would never let up; it was push through or die.  His mind acted as a flash, and he never lost his balance, never flinched at a surprise; but with a bound would make a forward spring with a point for the emergency sharp as a bayonet; all his knowledge was always at hand.

 

                On looking at Stanton’s war record, the gigantic strength of character he exhibited, the value of his labors, and his absorbing devotion to his country, which finally broke him down and put him into his grave.  I cannot but feel a great respect for his memory.  He left the office poor and broken down.  When he died, as a reward for his herculean labors and great services to his country, Congress voted his widow a year’s salary as judge.  The friends of Stanton think, and justly think, that Grant in his Memoirs failed to do him justice.  He was naturally of a kindly nature, fond of children, and exceedingly generous to his poor relations; indeed, to all who had any claim upon him.

 

                I knew Thomas COLE, the celebrated landscape painter well.  He was born in England, and was regarded as a bright, intelligent young man.  There was quite a colony of English and Germans, who came here to work in the paper-mill and woollen factory, which were established here in the war period.  Among the English were the Cole family, Dr. ACKERLY, afterwards the noted New York surgeon; Wm. WATKINS a wool stapler, who soon returned to England and gained distinction as a miniature painter; painted a portrait of Queen Victoria on ivory.  He had taken lessons from Cole.  Then there was old Joe HOWELLS, grandfather of Howells, the novelist.  Cole’s father had charge of the manufacture of the wall-paper, and Tom worked at it, stamping the colors with diagram blocks.  Tom came here about 1820; did not stay very long, but went to Zanesville and elsewhere, and engaged in painting portraits.  His skill displayed in painting scenery for theatres first brought Cole into notice in New York.  The paper-mill was established about 1812-1813.  It stood on the river-bank, on the site of the present Hartje paper-mill.  The paper was all made by hand in the olden style.  The pulp was water-soaked in vats, dipped out with sieves, and spread out on blocks on felt,


 

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in alternate sheets of felt and pulp.  The sheets were generally foolscap size.  The sheets were then hung up to dry in a large drying-house, with open-air slats.  It sold for twenty-five cents a quire of twenty-four sheets, but for a single sheet the price was one cent.  A bright boy one day went into Mr. TURNBULLS’S store and said, “I want twenty-four sheets of paper,” and he supplied him that rate, whereby the boy saved a cent.

 

                Coppererus Works.—About the year 1820 copperas works were established here by Bezaliel WELLS, and was for a time a thriving industry.  The material was obtained from the coal banks, and manufactured in a rude way by a process of washing, boiling, and crystallizing.  The industry, at first lucrative, became overdone, from the abundance of the stock.  Copperas is now manufactured differently; but for some purposes the old kind is the best.  The works were on top of the hill, at the Red House farm, back of the town.  Wells’ chemist was North Prussian, by the name of Kolb.  He rigged up a huge grindstone for some purpose, but was a better chemist than mechanic; couldn’t make things work; got mad, and started the grindstone a rolling down hill; and it didn’t stop until he got it to the bottom.  Then he had to pay Christian BOUGHER a dollar to get it back.

 

                Thespian Society.—These Germans and English working people established a Thespian Society, and gave theatrical entertainments in an old brick stable for a theatre, and Tom COLE painted the scenery.  Kolb was active, and so was another German, Christian Orth, a blue-dyer in the factory.  One evening, in the midst of a play wherein a thunder-storm was represented, a vivid flash of lightning lit up the scene, whereupon the audience were convulsed with laughter, by the voice of KOLB from behind the scenes calling out, in his rough German accent, “Now, Orth, hurry up mit yer thunder!” which, by the way, was produced by rolling cannon balls on the floor.

 

            The photographer is one of our best modern acquisitions.  He is generally poor in his purse, but then he is, personally, a rich blessing.  We should thank the Lord for him.  While our daily bread feeds our bodies, his labors feed the soul; help preserve memories of the precious now dead or far away.  His business got a great start in the war era, when the soldier boys, in marching away, proudly clad in the panoply of Uncle Sam’s warriors, largely left their portraits behind, and carried away those of their loves to the camp and the battle-field.

 

            Steubenville rejoices in the possession of one photographer, who has been taking the faces of the people here for thirty years, until he has grown gray in the service.  He has lived to picture babes in the arms of parents, whose pictures he had made when they themselves began life’s march in the ranks of the light infantry.  This gentleman lives in rooms adjoining his gallery, and his son and daughter work with him; and there, for a pet, is Pearly, a French poodle, with white curly hair, soft as lamb’s wool, who is ever ready to sneeze, “by request.”  He has an honored pedigree.  His name is Davison FILSON, a descendant of the Davison FILSON whose son, John FILSON, a surveyor, was the very man, an hundred years ago, who laid out the city of Cincinnati and named it Losantiville.

 

                This John was a pedagogue, and author of a history of Kentucky.  One day, shortly after his survey, he set out alone to explore the solitudes of the Miami woods, and that was the last ever known of him.  His fate is yet a mystery.  It is supposed he was killed by the Indians.  One verse of Venable’s simple ballad, “John Filson,” tells all about anybody knows:

 

                “Deep in the wild and solemn woods,

                                Unknown to white man’s track,

                John Filson went one autumn day,

                                But never more came back.”

 

                The Six Hundred Dead.—Upon the walls of Mr. Filson’s gallery, in a large frame, 36 x 30 inches, is a picture consisting of 600 photographs of prominent citizens of the town, all of whom, with but few exceptions, were taken by him, and all of whom are now dead.  The sight of this vast concourse of adults—men and women from early manhood and womanhood to extreme old age, most of them looking upon you as in life—affects one with solemn scusations akin to those which we could imagine if they should collectively rise from their graves and appear as in life.  The faces are largely those of mature and thoughtful people, upon whom the cares and duties of human life, with its solemn responsibilities, have left their weighty impress.  One can but feel awed in their presence, and the mind goes instinctively beyond the portals of the grave to the unknown world to which each of that might concourse has vanished from sight forever.

                Among these are the faces of people whose history is imperishable.  The central head is that of EDWIN M. STANTON, the last portrait of him, taken but a few months before his death.  It is a massive head of great power, and the expression of the face is one of sadness and suffering.  It shows he was


 

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worn our with labors and anxieties.  In a lower corner is the had of  BEZALIEL WELLS, founder of the town, and that of his wife.  They are from oil paintings, and are fine faces of marked character.  The head of JAMES HUNTER, the first child born on the soil, appears as a very old man with a strong face and long gray locks, combed behind his ears.  Near the portrait of Stanton is the beautiful face and head of Colonel GEORGE McCOOK (see Vol. I, p. 365), as he was in his prime; also the heads of Major General DANIEL McCOOK, killed at Peach Tree Orchard, and General ROBERT L. McCOOK, murdered by guerillas.  On the extreme right is the head of Judge HUMPHREY HOWE LEAVITT, once a citizen of this town, later a citizen of Cincinnati, where, on the bench, in his capacity of District Judge of the United States Supreme Court, he sat on the case of Clement L. Vallandigham.  He was long an honored citizen of Cincinnati, and an old neighbor and a personal friend and it did me good to look upon his kindly, benignant face among the six hundred.  He was an old-style gentleman, a Presbyterian in faith, very modest and quiet, and simple in speech and manner; had but a few words; was a godly, dignified man.  We had marked time together in a company of the Home Guards, called the “Silver Grays”—because all the members were over forty-five years of age—when Cincinnati was threatened by Kirby Smith.  I missed his presence when we crossed the river to meet the foe.  Like myself, I suppose, he did not ache to kill anybody.

 

                Here are the heads of Benjamin TAPPAN, Thomas L. JEWETT, Rev. C. C. BEATTY, Rev. George BUCHANAN—who here preached for forty years in the United Presbyterian Church—with numerous other local celebrities.  Among these, on his couch of suffering, is the recumbent form of little Bennie SHAW, the only portrait where more than the head and bust are shown.  Heads of manly vigor and womanly virtue look down upon you as when among these early scenes, and they all preach to you—these six hundred dead.  I felt it with inexpressible awe, for only a few hours before, while in an abstracted state of mind, a train of cards was slowly, silently looking through a narrow alley upon me, and I only escaped by the fraction of a second from being crushed under the remorseless wheels.

 

                From the grave to the gay is the story of life.  The sun carries the morning on her wings and night flees at her coming.

 

                An Easy Talker.—As I sat gazing upon the faces of those six hundred dead, impressed by their, as I felt, living presence, an old gentleman, large, fleshy, with rotund visage, rosy cheeks and smiling eyes, came in by invitation of Mr. FILSON to tell me of the olden time; and this he did with an ease and deliberation of speech that was charming.  With him every sentence, as a printer would say, was wide-spaced, as if with em-quadrats, and every word the exact word for the place it was put; and there were no “doublets” for “outs” anywhere in his speech.  This was FRANCIS ASBURY WELLS, son of Bezaliel Wells, who laid out the town.  As his name indicates, his parents were Methodists, and so named him after the renowned Bishop ASBURY.

 

                “From an old book,” said he, “I find it was August 25, 1797, that my father, after laying out the town, sold the first lots.  They were 60 x 180 feet, and sold for from $60 to $180 per lot.  About the year 1819 the first steamboat was built here, and named from him ‘Bezaliel WELLS’—the boys called it ‘Beelzebub.’  It had brick chimneys, and they were built by Ambrose SHAW; they were not finished when she started on her first trip, which was for Pittsburg.  Mr. SHAW finished them between here and BROWN’S island, seven miles north.

 

                “My father, with others, in 1814 built the first woollen factory, I believe, west of the mountains.  I have here (showing it to me) a silver medal presented in 1824 to Wells & Co. by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, as a ‘reward of skill and ingenuity.’  This was in consequence of their having sent a piece of broadcloth to them on exhibition.”

 

                Memento of the Harrison Campaign.—Mr. WELLS showed to me a memento of the Harrison campaign of 1840.  It was a brass button, with a plough in front, a log cabin in the centre, and a barrel of hard cider in one corner.  “During the campaign,” said he, “I wore a Kentucky jeans suit buttoned with these buttons, and with my brother and others I manufactured a kind called Tippecanoe jeans—a sort of gray mixed.  We sent suits both to General Harrison and Henry Clay.”

               

When Lafayette visited this country, in 1825, he came up the Ohio from Cincinnati, and it was expected would stop here.  My father got his woollen factory in order, intending to show it to him and give him a big reception here.  He was sadly disappointed, for, owing to the low stage of water, Lafayette could get no farther than Wheeling, twenty-two miles below, and so went by stage to Pittsburg, where father went to see him.

 

                On meeting Lafayette he conversed with him upon the subject of raising wool in Jefferson county, and the trouble they had of raising sheep owing to the depredations of dogs.  Lafayette told him that in France they had a breed of shepherd-dogs, very large, of great sagacity, which were used in driving and protecting their flocs.  “Old a country as France is, and strange as you may think it,” said Lafayette, “our mountains are infested with wolves which commit depredations upon our sheep.  I will send you a pair for breeding.”  In due time they came, and were quite prolific.  They were a noble species, white with generally golden-hued spots; resembled the English mastiff, and were found extremely useful, but in time run out by mongrel associates.

 

                One of them one day followed my brother


                                   

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SALMON  P. CHASE.                                      EDWIN M. STANTON.

 


 

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Alexander to market when a large, ferocious bull-dog, encouraged by his master, attacked him.  The butchers formed a ring around them expecting the bull-dog to conquer.  He had seized the shepherd-dog by the throat.  The skin there was tough, and so loose that the other was enabled to twist his head around and grasp the bull’s head, and soon the bones were heard to crack.  The master of the bull then interfered.  “No,” said the others, “we formed a ring to see fair play; you set him on and now we will see it out.”  And they did.  The shepherd-dog had got his spunk up, and they heard the crunching of the bones, and quickly the bull-dog yielded up the ghost.

 

            I conclude these notes with some reminiscences of the early days of Edwin STANTON, from Mr. John McCRACKEN.  Nothing is too small to narrate that illustrates the characteristics of that great man.

 

I was a schoolmate with the STANTON boys, Edwin and his younger brother, Darwin, and lived opposite.  The boys had for pets, which they kept in their house, some black and garter-snakes.  They would bring the snakes out, sit on their doorstep and let them crawl over them.  I joined them and let them crawl over me.  I was then about thirteen, Darwin the same and Edwin sixteen.

 

                The Stanton homestead was on the west side of Third street, between Market and Washington streets.  Opposite their house was Isaac JENKINSON’S hotel, the principal hotel of the town.  In the rear was a noble grove.  There under the trees I have seen General Jackson and Henry Clay take dinner.

 

                I was very intimate with Stanton.  A most famous case in which he was engaged was wherein the firm of Gano, Thomas & Talbot, pork dealers, was sued on a claim involving an immense sum.  STANTON travelled all over the country, east and west, for evidence.  He argued the case from early morning until evening; looked fairly black in the face; was so tired.  In the evening the case was given to the jury.  I was sitting on the steps when STANTON came out and called to me.  He wanted me to walk with him; said his mind was so excited he could not sleep, and I walked the streets until abut six in the morning.  When the jury came in the verdict was for STANTON.  Stanton studied law with D. L. COLLIER.  I remember on the day he was admitted to the bar hearing COLLIER say he was as capable of practising as he or any other member of the bar.  Stanton was a very hard student and very muscular.

 

            STEUBENVILLE, the county-seat of Jefferson, is situated on the right bank of the Ohio river, 68 miles below Pittsburg and 400 miles above Cincinnati.  The average altitude of the city is a little over 700 feet above tide water, surrounded by hills rising several hundred feet higher.  The city lies well above the river with a general slope toward it, giving a fine natural drainage.  It is 41½ miles west of Pittsburg and 150 miles east of Columbus, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R., which crosses the Ohio river at this point.  It is also on the C. & P. R. R.  The surrounding country abounds in coal and natural gas, with which the city is supplied for manufacturing and other purposes.  County Officers: Auditor, William F. SIMERAL; Clerk, Andrew S. BUCKINGHAM; Commissioners, John UNDERWOOD, David SIMPSOM, Jacob P. MARKLE; Coroner, James M. STARR; Infirmary Directors, Eli FETROW, Thomas NIXON, Charles BARRETT; Probate Judge, John A. MANSFIELD; Prosecuting Attorney, Henry GREGG; Recorder, Jacob HULL; Sheriff, John G. BURNS; Surveyor, Samuel HUSTON; Treasurer, Hugh S. COBLE.  City Officers: Henry OPPERMAN, Mayor; James REYNOLDS, Clerk; Wm. McD. MILLER, solicitor; James BEANS, Street Commissioner; Wm. M. SCOTT, Marshal.  Newspapers: Gazette, Democrat, McFADDEN & HUNTER, editors and publishers; Germania, German Independent, Max GESCHEIDER, editor and publisher; Herald, Republican, P. B. COON, editor and publisher; Sunday Life, Independent, A. W. BEACH, editor and publisher; Ohio Press, Independent Republican, W. R. ALLISON, editor; Saturday News, Independent, Frank STOKES, editor and publisher.  Churches: 1 Congregational, 1 Methodist Protestant, 1 Christian, 1 American Methodist Episcopal, 2 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Episcopal, 2 Catholic, 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian and 2 Lutheran.  Banks: Commercial, Sherrard, Mooney & Co.; Miners & Mechanics, Jno. H. HAWKINS, president, J. W. COOKSON, cashier; Steubenville National, R. L. BROWNLEE, president, Charles GALLAGHER, cashier; Union Deposit, Wm. A. WALDEN, president, Horatio G. GARRETT, cashier.

           

Manufactures and Employees.—Hartje Brothers, glazed wrapping paper, 25


 

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hands; Ohio Valley Clay Co., glass melting pots, 38; Jefferson Iron Works, iron and nails, 540; Pearl Mills, flour and feed, 6; Sumner Glass Co., bottles, 140; Gill Brothers & Co., lamp chimneys, etc., 470; Riverside Iron Works, pig-iron, 95; James Means & Co., foundry work, etc., 30; H. J. Betty & sons, table glassware, 670; Steubenville Steam Laundry, laundrying, 10; Electric Light and Power Co., electric light, 4; Humphry Glass Co., glass novelties, 30;  Steubenville Pottery Co., decorated ware, etc., 175; Cyrus Massie, doors, sash, etc., 9; Caswell & Pearce, furniture, 35; W. L. Sharp & Son, stoves, mantles, etc., 55; Robinson, Irwin & Co., machinery, 5; Robert Hyde, doors, sash, etc., 6; L. Anderson & Sons, doors, sash, etc., 15; William McDowell, stairs and stair railings, 4.—State Report, 1888.  Population in 1880, 12,092.  School census, 1888, 4,382; Henry N. Mertz, school superintendent.  Capital invested in industrial establishments, $2,215,600.  Value of annual product, $3,007,000.  Census, 1890, 13,363.

 

BIOGRAPHY.

 

            EDWIN McMASTERS STANTON was born in Steubenville, December 19, 1814.  His boyhood home, of which we give a picture, is yet standing on Third street.  This was not his birthplace.  By the records his father bought this house when Edwin was three years old, and moved into it.  Through Mrs. WOLCOTT, a sister now living, we learn he was born on Market street, in a house of which only the rear is now standing.  It was in the house shown that when a boy he had a museum of butterflies, bugs and other curiosities he had collected.

 

            His father, a physician, died in Edwin’s boyhood.  He entered Kenyon College in 1831, but left two years later to study law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836, beginning practice in Cadiz.  He returned to Steubenville in 1839, was Supreme Court Reporter in 1842-5, preparing vols. XI., XII. and XIII. of the Ohio Reports.  Removed to Pittsburg in 1848, and in 1857 to Washington.  He was engaged by the government in many important land cases.  December 20, 1860, he was appointed Attorney-General by President Buchanan to fill the unexpired term of Jeremiah S. Black, who had been appointed Secretary of State.  He was called to the head of the War Department by President Lincoln on the retirement of Simon Cameron, January 15, 1862.

 

                Mr. Stanton was originally a Democrat of the Jackson school, and until Van Buren’s defeat in the Baltimore Convention in 1844 took an active part in political affairs in his locality.  He favored the Wilmot proviso to exclude slavery from territory acquired by the war with Mexico, and sympathized with the Free Soil movement headed by Martin Van Buren.  He was an anti-slavery man, but his opposition to that institution was qualified by his views of the qualifications imposed by the Federal Constitution.

 

                While a member of Mr. Buchanan’s Cabinet he took a firm stand for the Union, and at a Cabinet meeting, when John B. Floyd, then Secretary of War, demanded the withdrawal of the United States from the forts in Charleston harbor, he indignantly declared that the surrender of Fort Sumter would, in his opinion, be a crime equal in atrocity to that of Arnold, and that all who participated should be hung like Andre.

 

                After the assassination of President Lincoln Secretary Stanton took sides against the new President, Andrew Jackson, in the controversy between him and the Republican party.  Johnson demanded his resignation, which he refused; the President then suspended him, but he was restored to office by the Senate.  The President then informed the Senate that he had removed Secretary Stanton, but the Senate denied his authority to do this, and Stanton refused to surrender the office.

 

                After Mr. Stanton’s retirement from office he resumed the practice of law.  President Grant appointed him a Justice of the Supreme Court on December 20, 1869, and he was confirmed by the Senate, but died four days later, worn out by his herculean labors for his country.  Of Stanton it has been well said: “He was the GIANT of the great war, who more than any other trampled out the rebellion—that more and more as the ages run will history develop this fact.”  President Lincoln was a politician, statesman and philanthropist, and Gen. Grant was embodied military business, but the mighty public will was concentrated in Stanton, and he brushed aside the failures and pretenders, and the speculators and sentimentalists, and not only gave Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, and those who came to


 

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the front when the deadly work was done, a chance, but thrust into their hands the resources of the country, and more than organized victory.

 

                He cared nothing for men, everything for the cause of the Union.  That he should have made swarms of enemies was of course inevitable; as inevitable as that his full merits should be but slowly recognized.  For Stanton was a patriot of so firm and indomitable a character that his purity and single-mindedness belittled and humiliated the crowd of greedy egotists who pushed to the doors of the treasury, and the same qualities even obscured the greatness of all but the greatest of his contemporaries.  When the names of Lincoln and Grant have been written there is no other that deserves to be linked with that of Stanton.  He was a heaven sent minister, if ever there was one.  Carnot, the organizer of battles, was less to France in the crisis of the Revolution than our War Secretary was to the salvation of the Union.  So just, so pure, so incorruptible, so patriotic was he that it seems almost a work of supercrogation to attempt the defence of his memory against the base aspersions of his enemies who “with his darkness durst affront this light.”  His was a soul which could afford to disregard the spite of men having taken for its standard from the beginning the judgment of God.”

 

Benjamin Tappan.BENJAMIN TAPPAN was born in Northampton, Mass., May 25, 1773, and died in Steubenville, April 12, 1857.  He was the son of Benjamin TAPPAN, a Congregational pastor, and Sarah HOLMES, the great-niece of Benjamin Franklin.  The original family name was TOPHAM.  The Tappans were largely clergymen and educated men.  Benjamin Tappan received a public-school education, and was apprenticed to learn copper-plate engraving and printing.  Subsequently he studied law and was admitted to the bar, and began practice in 1799 in Steubenville; was elected to the Legislature in 1803; aide to Gen William Wadsworth in the war of 1812; after which he served for seven years as President Judge of the Fifth Ohio Circuit.  President Jackson appointed him Judge for the District of Ohio in 1833.  From December, 1839, to March, 1845, he served in the United States Senate, as a Democrat.  He was an active leader of his party, but afterward joined in the Free-Soil movement at its inception.  Judge Tappan published “Cases Decided in the Court of Common Pleas,” with an appendix (Steubenville, 1831).

 

 

            His brother, Arthur Tappan, was the distinguished Abolitionist and philanthropist, President of the American Anti-Slavery Society, founder of the American Tract Society and Oberlin College.  A son of Benjamin, Eli T. Tappan, LL.D., was from 1868 to 1875 President of Gambier.  Later he received the appointment, under Gov. Foraker, of School Commissioner of Ohio, and died in office 1889, much lamented; he was a man of superior ability and usefulness.

           

Judge Tappan was widely known for his drollery and with and anti-slavery sentiments.

 

            HUMPHREY HOWE LEAVITT was born in Suffield, Conn., June 18, 1796, and died in Springfield, Ohio, in March, 1873.  His father removed to Ohio in 1800.  He was admitted to the bar in 1816, and settled in Cadiz, but later removed to Steubenville, where he was prosecuting attorney, and successively representative and senator in the Ohio Legislature in 1825-6-7.  He was elected as a Jackson Democrat to Congress in 1830, and resigned in 1834 to accept the appointment of President Jackson as Judge of the United States Court for the District of Ohio,


 

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which office he held for nearly forty years.  Before the war, in 1858, in a charge to a jury in a fugitive slave case, he said: “Christian charity was not the meaning or intent of the fugitive slave law, and it would not therefore answer as a defence for violating the law.”  He was an authority on patent laws, and during the civil war decided the Vallandigham case, which Mr. Lincoln said was worth three victories.  He was a greatly influential member of the Presbyterian Church, and sat as a delegate during eleven sessions of the General Assembly.

 

                In his manners he was simple, unostentatious and with that quiet dignity and modesty that is every weighty.  We never heard him laugh aloud, but his smile was a carrying power.  As our neighbor in Cincinnati, we felt as though he was one of those characters that adorned humanity, a much venerated person.  He once told us that it was one of the enigmas of his life, how it was that he was given for a middle name the name of “Howe.”  We were sorry we could not aid him to its solution, but glad that such a man had it to help give it respect.

 

                JAMES COLLIER was, we believe, a native of Connecticut, born in 1789; an officer at the battle of Queenstown in the war of 1812, after which he settled in Steubenville; became eminent as a lawyer; was, with Thomas Ewing and John Brough, of the High Commission on the part of Ohio that settled the disputed boundary line between Ohio and Virginia; in 1849 was appointed United States Collector for California, and went overland, escorted by a small company of dragoons, fighting his way through hostile Indians.  On his arrival, being the only government officer there, he for some time acted as Military Governor.  He died at Steubenville, February 2, 1873, aged 84 years.  He was a contributor of valuable facts for our first edition.

 

                Judge JOHN C. WRIGHT was, we think, at one period a partner with COLLIER; at any rate, was contemporaneous with him in the practice of law here.  In about 1848 he edited the Cincinnati Gazette.

               

Col. JOHN MILLER, an eminent officer of the war of 1812, was from Steubenville.  He commanded the gallant sortie from Fort Meigs, May 5, 1813, driving the British from their batteries.  He edited the Western Herald at Steubenville, both before and after the war.  He eventually removed to Missouri, of which he was elected Governor.  From 1837 to 1843 he represented it in Congress.  He died at Florissant, Mo., March 18, 1846.  (“Western Reserve Historical Society Tracts,” No. 19.)

               

THOMAS L. JEWETT was born in Maryland about 1810, and was a lawyer in Steubenville—at one time a judge.  When he became interested in the construction of the Pan Handle Railroad was elected its president, and eventually became a conspicuous railroad manager.  As Virginia was unwilling to grant a charter for a connecting line across her territory for the Penn. Central Railroad, Judge Jewett sought the interposition of the General Government.  He died in 1875.

 

                HUGH J. JEWETT, of Zanesville, the eminent railroad president and politician, was a younger brother.

 

                THOMAS COLE was born in England in 1801.  His father emigrated to Steubenville, where the son resided until 1825, when he removed to New York city.  He became famous as one of the best American landscape painters, particularly of autumn scenes.  He was a warm friend of the poet Bryant, who delivered a memorial address in New York city after his death, which occurred at Catskill, N. Y., February 11, 1848.  (See page 463.)

               

JAMES ALEXANDER WILSON McDONALD was born in Steubenville, August 25, 1824.  In 1844 he removed to St. Louis and while employed in business during the day studied art at night.  His first production in marble was a bust of John H. Benton in 1854.  Eleven years later he settled in New York city, where several of his works adorn the public parks.  He also paints portraits and landscapes in oils, lectures on art and science and writes criticisms on art and artists.

 

                STEPHEN MASON MERRILL was born in Jefferson county, September 16, 1825.  In 1864 he was a travelling preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, four years later became editor of the Western Christian Advocate, and in 1872 was consecrated bishop.  He received the degrees of D.D. and LL.D., and has published a number of valuable religious works.

               

WILLIAM PITTENGER was born in Knoxville, Jefferson county, January 31, 1840; is the historian and one of the participants in that daring enterprise of the civil war known as Andrew’s raid.  After the war he became a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church and since 1878 he has been a professor in the National School of Elocution and Oratory in Philadelphia.  He is also the author of “Oratory, Sacred and Secular” (Phila., 1881), and “Extempore Speech” (1882).

 

                A few miles north of the Jefferson county line, Near Hanoverton, in Columbiana county, was born, October 4, 1841, the eminent scientist, Prof.

 

THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL.  From childhood he showed a fondness for the study of mathematics and natural philosophy and acquired by himself a knowledge of those branches of physics in which he has since excelled.  He has been twice a Professor in the Ohio State University, resided a number of years in Japan as professor of physics in the University of Tokio; in 1884 became Professor in the United States Signal Service; in 1886 President of Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Ind.  He gave the first public


 

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lectures on science in Japan to popular audiences.  In 1889 was appointed by President Harrison Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.  Beside many scientific papers he has published A Century of Electricity.

 

                A Scientist’s Witticism.—We once heard in Pike’s Opera House, Cincinnati, Proctor, the famous lecturer on astronomy, to illustrate the distance of the sun from us, quote this witticism of Mendenhall’s which naturally brought down the house.

 

                Professor Mendenhall, of the Ohio State University, said he, has stated that if an infant to-day, attracted by the brightness of the sun, should attempt to reach it by thrusting forth its hand and it should travel toward it at the rate of a thousand miles an hour and thus finally reach it and burn its fingers, that young one would then have been dead more than a hundred years!

 

            TORONTO is on the Ohio river and the C. & P. R. R., eight miles north of Steubenville.  It is located in the centre of the great fire-clay industry of Eastern Ohio, there being in this section a half dozen large manufactories engaged in making sewer-pile, a total of nearly a thousand men being thus employed.  Newspaper:  Tribune, Independent Republican, Frank STOKES, editor and publisher.  Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Methodist Protestant, and 1 Catholic.

 

            Manufactures and Employees.—Franey’s Sons & Co., sewer pipe, etc., 55; Great Western Fire Clay Co., sewer pipe, etc., 75; Pennsylvania Manufacturing, Mining and Supply Co., sewer pipe, etc., 55; Bowers & Custer, flour and feed, 3; Myers & McFerren, doors, sash, etc., 8; Medcalf, Cooper & Goodlin, doors, sash, etc., 12.—Ohio State Report, 1888.  Population about 2,000.  Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $98,000.  Value of annual product, $110,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

 

            RICHMOND is 11 miles west of Steubenville, on the proposed line of the Lake Erie, Alliance and Southern Railroad.  It is surrounded by an agricultural region and noted for fruits, especially fine plums.  A skirmish between United States forces and John Morgan’s raiders took place near Two Ridge Church, three miles east of here.  This is the seat of Richmond College, Rev. S. C. FARIS, president.  Newspaper: Radiator, Independent, J. B. SPRAGUE, editor.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian and 1 United Presbyterian.  Population, 1880, 491.

 

            ELLIOTTSVILLE (P. O. Calumet) is on the Ohio river and C. & P. R. R., 11 miles north of Steubenville, where are situated the extensive sewer-pipe works of E. CONNOR and the Calumet Fire Clay Company.

 

            MT. PLEASANT is 20 miles southwest of Steubenville.  Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist Protestant, 1 Friends, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian.  Bank: First National, R. W. CHAMBERS, president, I. K. RATCLIFF, cashier.  Population, 1880, 693.  School census, 1888, 281; Wm. M. WHITE, school superintendent.

 

            IRONDALE, 9 miles southwest of Steubenville, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Presbyterian.  Population in 1880, 399.

 

            SMITHFIELD is 14 miles southwest of Steubenville.  Newspaper: Times, Independent, Herbert Harrison, editor and publisher.  Bank: First National, C. D. KAMINSKY, president, Wm. VERMILLION, cashier.  Population, 1880, 559.  School census, 1888, 196.

 

            BRILLANT, P. O. LaGrange, is 7 miles south of Steubenville, on the C. & P. R. R. and Ohio river.  Population about 1,000.

 

            NEW ALEXANDRIA is 4 miles southwest of Steubenville.  Population in 1880, 175.

 

            BLOOMFIELD, P. O. Bloomingdale, is 18 miles west of Steubenville, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R.  Population, 1880, 175.  School census, 1888, 67.  Newspaper: Bloomfield Correspondent, Independent, C. T. ATHEARN, editor and publisher


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            MINGO JUNCTION is on the Ohio river, 3 miles below Steubenville, at the crossing of the P. C. & St. L. and C. & P. R. R.  It is a famed historical point.  It has some manufacturing establishments, one Methodist church and a population of about 700.    

 

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