Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. II

©1888

 

ROSS COUNTY—Continued

 

 

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in the old State capitol.  This was in 1852; a sort of wind-up blast in behalf of Winfield Scott for President, pugent and humorous.

 

The Colonel has had an interesting and lively career, as he tells us in his rich and racy autobiography in the County History. He was born in Chillicothe, Nov. 3, 1824, and of excellent parents: his father a purely good, honest gentleman, who promptly discharged every duty as husband, tailor, citizen and public man. Then, with a heart-tribute to the memory of his mother, he opens his heart about himself. “Of course,” writes he, “as brat, boy and youth—as somebody has divided male infancy—I had lots of fun. I was instructed a little, studied some, and was thrashed much!

 

“By Mrs. WADE and Miss Jane LUCKETT, with a slipper;

“Hiram McNEMAR, boxing my ears;

“Roswell HILL, with a flat ruler;

“Daniel HEARN, with a hickory switch;

“John GARRET, with a cowhide;

“John GRAHAM, with his tongue; and

“Wm. B. FRANKLIN, with a sole leather strap;

“All in the order named; and was so pre­pared for Athens College, which I entered in 1839.”

 

A cruel memory of his childhood had made him hate slavery. This was the sight at Portsmouth of a long coffle of negro slaves, men and women chained, two by two, with children of all ages of infancy following the gang, driven by ruffianly, brutal-looking white men. They were on their way from Virginia to the auction-blocks in Kentucky and Tennessee.

 

On entering college and avowing his sentiments, the Southern students called him “a d—d Abolitionist;” and he had to “eat dirt or fight.” “I didn’t,” he says, “eat dirt, and consequently had a large number of battles forced upon me with the Virginia and Kentucky students.” In one of these his arm was broken, from which he suffers to this day. Being full of life and animal spirits, he entered into all the practical jokes and “devilments” “of the students, but doing nothing malicious. Finally he played a trick on Professor Dan REID, and then, to avoid the danger of being shot out, wisely withdrew from the classic halls. This was in 1841.

 

He then studied law, became converted in a religious revival, studied at Lane Seminary, was for a time in the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, but when the war ensued was practising the law. He enlisted the first company raised in Chillicothe, and served as a colonel. Since the war he has pursued the law and politics; first in Missouri and last in Ohio, and with force and telling vigor. He is a large -man, with a somewhat massive countenance, especially useful for the display of the emotions of a social, kindly and humorous spirit. He is an adept alike with tongue and pen. His paper upon the “Bench and Bar,” in the County History, is a unique specimen of character-drawing, with unique characters as models such as no other bar in Ohio could supply.

 

His criticism, published Oct. 14, 1888, in the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette, upon Hinsdale’s recently issued work, “The Old Northwest,” is in a kindly spirit. While bearing testimony to its scholarship, he very properly points to its omissions in regard to the great work of the Virginia pioneers m the Scioto valley; and combats the allegation that they tried to fasten slavery upon the State Constitution, and would probably have succeeded but for the single saving vote in the committee of Judge Ephraim CUTLER, of Marietta. Gilmore winds up his dissection of the evidence by the true allegation, that “this was the first time the world had ever heard one word of a struggle to fasten the institution of negro slavery upon Ohio by that convention. For one humble Buckeye,” he says, “I resent the imputation upon my ancestry and State involved in the charge that such an effort was ever made. The Virginians who settled this portion of the territory northwest of the Ohio river never desired to continue negro slavery. TIFFIN, WROTHINGTON, and many more of them left Old Virginia, and made homes for themselves and their descendants, because they condemned and abhorred the system. They liberated the slaves they owned in Virginia. TIFFIN and WORTHINGTON—it is a matter of record—each refused $5,000 for the slaves they manumitted voluntarily and from convictions of duty, and came to the Scioto valley with less than half the money they declined to receive for their slaves.

 

“Profoundly honoring the memories of these grand and good men, I cannot silently permit them to stand falsely charged in history with having been participators in and advocates of that institution—now happily passed away—which John Wesley epitomized as ‘the sum of all villanies.’ ”

 

The citizens of Chillicothe, with commendable pride, rejoice in the fact that their town was the birthplace of LUCY WEBB HAYES, and where she passed her youth. Her childhood home, is or was lately, standing on a street corner, a plain two-story square structure, with about eight rooms, with a hall running through the centre. Memories of her winsome ways when a child are cherished by the elderly people.

 

THE CATTLE BUSINESS.

 

 

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brought at. an early date to Chillicothe. The following facts in regard to it are from a correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette:

 

Cattle raising was an industry of great importance in Ohio prior to 1850. The remoteness of the settlements from markets in the early days of the century made the price of grain so low that the most profitable disposition that could be made of it was to feed it to cattle. So, on the rich bottom lands of the Scioto, the business of raising cattle for the Eastern markets commenced nearly eighty-five years ago.

 

In the early days cattle were not sheltered, but were kept in open lots of eight or ten acres each, and fed twice a day with unhusked corn and the fodder. The waste was picked up by hogs. This practice, introduced in Ross county, is still in vogue throughout much of the West. The method of securing corn after maturity by cutting off the stalks near the ground and stacking them in shocks in the field where it was grown, also originated with the raisers of cattle in the Scioto valley.

 

The first English cattle that came to Ohio or to the West were from Patton’s herd, and were driven from Kentucky to Chillicothe.

 

In 1804 the first herd of cattle ever taken to an Eastern market was driven over the mountains to Baltimore by George RENICK, of Ross county. The business thus commenced soon grew to large proportions. The old Ohio drovers who visited New York stayed as a rule at the Bull’s Head Tavern, which was kept by Daniel DREW, and stands on the site of the Bowery Theatre.

 

The man who gave standing and system to the raising of stock was FELIX RENICK. He was in many ways a remarkable man, and he filled a great many positions of usefulness and responsibility. The family is of German origin. Felix RENICK was born in 1771, and first came to Ross county in 1798. He was a fluent and instructive writer, a man fond of books, and was President of the Logan Historical Association, and one of the first Associate Judges of Ross county; and to his other accomplishments added a knowledge of surveying. He made the historical map of the Indian towns on the Pickaway plains shown in Pickaway county in this work.

 

The first regular stock sale in Ohio was held October 26, 1835, at Felix Renick’s farm. In 1834 Mr. RENICK, after much labor, organized the Ohio Company for the purpose of bringing thoroughbred cattle from England and. The stock of the company proved to be excellent property. He, in company with two others, went to England in 1834 and purchased a number of thoroughbred cattle.

 

His home at High Rook farm, in Liberty township, at an early day, was the scene of many a festivity. Dinner parties, dances and fox hunts were of frequent occurrence. His favorite authors were Shakespeare and Addison, from whom he quoted not infrequently.

 

He was killed in 1848 by a falling timber, and his death was widely and heartily lamented.

 

Mr. RENICK was slender, of medium height, low-voiced, gentle in manner, but with great energy and determined will.

 

The Madeira Hotel, in its palmy days, was one of the most famous hotels in the West, and exceeding rich in its historic associations. It was two stories in height, but covered a large space of ground; was on the corner of Paint and Second streets, and was destroyed in the great fire of 1852.

 

 

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Top Picture

GENERAL NATHANIEL MASSIE.

FOUNDER OF CHILLICOTHE.

 

Bottom Picture

THE CHILLICOTHE ELM.

 

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vices. He married a daughter of Felix RENICK, and died in 1873.

 

Judge FREDERICK GRIMKÉ was the most noted of the characters that for years made the Madeira House their home. He was born in Charleston, S. C., Sept. 1, 1791, of Huguenot stock. His father was a jurist of eminence, an officer of the Revolution, and a member of the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. His brother, Thomas SMITH, was a reformer, with advanced ideas upon temperance, non-resistance, and education: he was much respected and beloved. His two sisters were driven from South Carolina on account of their Abolition views. One of them, Angelica, went to Cincinnati during the anti-slavery trouble at Walnut Hills, and soon married the brilliant Abolition lecturer Theodore D. WELD. The judge was educated at Yale, came to Ohio in 1818, and from 1836-42 was a Judge of the State Supreme Court, and then resigned, to devote himself to philosophical studies. He published an “Essay on Ancient and Modern Literature,” and a work on the “Nature and Tendencies of Free Constitutions.” When he died the nation was in the midst of the civil war, and, believing the Confederacy would be established, he left directions that one copy of his work should be deposited with the Government at Washington, and a second copy with the Confederate Government at Richmond. He was a slender, delicate man, neatly attired, and, with the often shy habits of scholars, made scarcely any acquaintances. He never married, and, what was sad, when he was buried, and from the Madeira House, not a woman followed his remains to their last resting place.

 

THE CHILLICOTHE ELM.

 

In the rear of the parsonage of the Walnut Street M. E. Church in Chillicothe, stands an ancient elm of huge dimensions. By my measurement I found its girth, one foot above its base, to be 28 feet 6 inches, and three above its base, 22 feet 7 inches. Learning that Dr. W. F. HUGHEY, of Bainbridge, years ago lived in the parsonage and knew more of its history than any one living, I wrote for and obtained these details under date of April 9, 1886. “I was sent to Chillicothe in the autumn of 1871, as pastor of the Walnut Street M. E. Church. Soon after I took a measurement of the ‘Big Elm’ one foot above the ground and found it 27 feet 8 inches. I also took two measurements of the spread of its top; one from north to south and the other from east to west. The first was 140 feet, the second 135 feet; covering an area of about 65 square rods.”

 

“It is a historic tree, under which tradition says Logan, the Mingo Chief, generally held his council. I was informed by Dr. McADOW, a local preacher of the M. P. Church, since dead, that the early settlers of Chillicothe found the remains of human bones among the coals and ashes beneath the tree, when they first came to the place. I credit this report, for he was the oldest native-born Chillicothean living at the time he told me.

 

I cannot remember the names of the parties who were married in the shade of the elm, nor the minister who married them. I did not have a study in the “Big Elm,” but my boys and those of Mr. D. PINTO, Mr. W. REED and Dr. S. DUNLAP built a platform up in the tree in the summer of 1872, large enough for half a dozen chairs, where they used to study during the hot summer days. I sometimes took my books up there during the afternoons, in order to enjoy the breeze which could not be felt in the yard below. This platform was reached by two ladders, one from the ground to the forks of the tree, and the other from there to a door in the platform.”

 

This must be the largest elm in girth in Ohio. Some years ago I investigated the subject of the more famous New England elms, and obtained data of their age and size and could not learn of one known to have exceeded two centuries. The Chillicothe elm is on a moist spot of ground, and I am told is “the white or swamp elm, which in exceedingly tough, almost impossible to split,” and perhaps far slower in growth than other kinds. Among the New England elms the famous elm is on Boston Common, said to been planted about the year 1670, by Capt. Daniel Henchman. On a map of Boston published in 1720, it is shown as a large tree. It is now gone, but in 1844, five feet from the ground its girth was 16 feet. In 1837, Oliver Wendell Holmes measured the Northampton elm five feet from the ground and made it 24 feet 5 inches in circumference. In 1846, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Horace Mann measured the Johnson elm, which at the smallest place was 22 feet, and threw up a prodigious weight of branches, twelve in number and each equal to a tree.

 

The Cambridge elm, under which Whitfield preached and under which Washington is said to have first drawn his sword on taking command of his army, is still standing. It is less girth and must be about 200 years old. Not one of the famous New Haven elms has yet reached 16 feet in girth by my measurement, and the oldest is only about a century from its planting.

 

 

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Wethersfield James T. Smith, before whose house it stands, under date October 10, 1883, sent to me its then dimensions, “Girth at 3 feet 3 inches above the ground, 22 feet 5 inches; girth of its four branches, 16 ft. 8 in.;11 ft. 6 in.; 10 ft. 3 in.; 8 ft. 7 in. Diameter of spread of branches north to south, 150 feet, and east to west 152 feet. Circumference of branches 429 feet. It is about 135 years old and was set out by John Smith of Withersfield. I measured it and found it 96 feet in height. A limb had been broken out in the middle that was several feet higher. Yours truly, James T. Smith.”

 

A Stable in a- Hollow Tree—a Dr. Toland D. Jones, of London, writes to me, that when he was a lad he heard his father state “that just after the war of 1812, a friend of his, named TIMMONS, I think, used the hollow stump of a sycamore as a stable for two horses. It was near the mouth of Deer creek in Ross county. He had cut down the tree some ten feet.

 

Monster Grape Vine.—Up to about the year 1853, when it was cut down by a careless woodman, there stood about one and a quarter miles west of Frankfort, on land belonging to the McNEIL family, near the north fork of Paint creek, one of the largest, if not the largest grape vine on record. It was destroyed by cutting down two trees to which it was attached. In 1842 it measured 16 feet in circumference, 10 feet from the ground; 20 feet up it divided into three branches, each of about 8 feet in girth. The height was about 75 feet and the greatest breadth, 150 feet, by actual measurement. The grapes were the small hill variety, and yielded annually several bushels. It was growing very rapidly when destroyed: it then yielded by estimate about 8 cords of wood. These data are on the authority of Rev. L. C. BROOKS of West Rushville, Fairfield county.

 

 

 

“In the acts of the first session of the first General Assembly, held under the first constitution of Ohio, in 1803, which were printed by Nathaniel WILLIS, grandfather of the poet, a description of the State Seal is found in a law prescribing the duties of the Secretary of State, who was, at that time, William CREIGHTON. The act says: ‘The Secretary of State shall procure a seal, one inch and a half in diameter, for the use of each and every county now or hereafter to be created, on which seal shall be engraved the following device: On the right side, near the bottom, a sheaf of wheat and on the left a bundle of seventeen arrows, both standing erect in the background, and rising above the sheaf and arrows a mountain, over which shall appear a rising sun. The State seal to be surrounded by these words: The great seal of the State of Ohio.’ ”

 

The seal was then made. The picture of the seal as it was used by the State in 1846 and as it appeared in our first edition is shown above. The canal boat could not have been on the seal as originally made; but the date 1802 undoubtedly was.

 

 

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official recognition. On this ground a scholarly claim was put forth a few years since, that Ohio was not a State by the date of a year, when she thought she was. Sundry aged persons for the first time were told they were born in the Northwest Territory. It was a very disturbing, unhappy element: it was discussed by the Ohio Society of New York an entire winter and finally exhausted about a tie opinion, deciding nothing. No date now appears on the State seal: gone also is the canal boat, perhaps it was scuttled by some designing enemy of the canals. Gone also is the water. Not a drop anywhere for navigation, nor for thirst, but the mountains are still there; the morning sun still peeps over the land, and under its present light the children for the first time read in their school histories, that Ohio was not a State of the Union until 1803. According to this, what a delusion their fathers lived under.

 

It is claimed that the mountains on the seal were copied from the Mount Logan range. This range is shown on our view of Chillicothe, with, which the reader can compare and correctly decide.

 

According to tradition Logan had a cabin on Mount Logan and was murdered there; but this last statement—as to the place of his death—is rendered extremely doubtful by the evidence from Henry Brisch (see Pick away and Seneca Counties).

 

BIOGRAPHY.

 

ALLEN G. THURMAN’S early days were spent in Chillicothe, his parents settling there six years after his birth, in Lynchburg, Va.

 

We have given an outline of Judge THURMAN’S career in our Franklin county chapter, but some allusion to his early life is here in place. His father was an itinerant Methodist minister, who had to give up preaching on account of poor health. In 1825 he built the house on the north side of Main street, still standing, in which ALLEN spent his younger days. Judge THURMAN’S mother was a remarkable woman, with many fine qualities of both intellect and heart. Upon her devolved the training of two of Ohio’s statesmen, her brother, Gov. William ALLEN, and her son Allen G. She had received a liberal education, was of studious habits and well fitted to perform the task which fell to her lot. It is said that her son resembles her in personal appearance and qualities; he has borne testimony to the value of her instructions in saying, that “I owe more to my mother than to any other instructor in the world.”

 

Judge Alfred Yaple has given the following instructive account of Judge THRUMAN’S youth.

 

“He was then a small boy with what poets in pantaloons would denominate flaxen hair, and versifiers in crinoline golden locks, but what Governor Allen and common people call a towhead. His mother was drilling him in his French lessons. She continued to superintend his education, directing his reading of authors even after he left the old Chillicothe Academy, a private institution and the highest and only one he ever attended until his admission to the bar. While attending this academy THURMAN’S classmates and intimates were sent away to college. He could not go, for not only did his parents find themselves without the means to send him, but even required his exertions for their own support and the support of his sisters, a duty which he cheerfully and efficiently rendered, remaining single and at home for more than nine years after his admission to the bar, giving a large part of his earnings toward the support of his parents and sisters.

 

The day his school companions mounted the stage and went away to college he was seized with temporary despair. Sick at heart he sought the old Presbyterian burying-ground, and lay down upon a flat tomb and wept. The thought that his tears were vain and idle came to him with force. He told his sorrows to a friend who chanced to be wandering among the graves, and closed his recital with the significant remark, “If my school-fellows come home and have learned more than I have, they must work for it.”

 

“0ld citizens still remember that a light, during this time, was often seen in young THURMAN’S room until four o’clock m the morning. He would never quit anything until he had mastered it and made it his own. This particular trait he has possessed ever since.

 

In the acquisition of solid learning his academy fellows never got in advance of him, and he kept studying long after they had graduated. He taught school, studied and practised surveying, prepared himself for and was admitted to the bar in 1835, and practised his profession until he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1851.

 

 

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to Chillicothe, leaving her brother in an academy at Lynchburg, Va. Two years later he followed her and completed his education in Chillicothe. He commenced the study of law in the office of Judge SCOTT, and completed it with Col. Edward KING, with whom he was associated in a partnership after his admission to practice, when not yet 21 years of age. He was tall and impressive in appearance, with a powerful voice so penetrating that he was given the soubriquet of “Ohio gang.” In 1832 he was elected to Congress by the Democrats by a majority of one. He was the youngest man in the Twenty-third Congress, but was recognized as a leading orator and made a strong impression in a speech on the Ohio boundary-line question.

 

In August, 1837, he made a strong speech at a banquet in Columbus, which unexpectedly led to his nomination to the Senate, to succeed Hon. Thomas Ewing. Before the close of his first term he was re-elected to the Senate.

 

In 1845 he married Mrs. Effie McARTHUR COONS, a daughter of ex-Gov. McARTHUR, notwithstanding a strong personal dislike to the senator on the part of McARTHUR. Mrs. ALLEN inherited from her father the old homestead, “Fruit Hill.” Governor and Mrs. ALLEN had but one child, Mrs. SCOTT.

 

In August, 1873, Senator ALLEN was elected Governor of Ohio, being the only candidate on his ticket not defeated. In 1875 he was renominated by the Democrats, but was defeated on the “greenback” issue by R. B. Hayes.

 

Gov. ALLEN died at Fruit Hill in 1879. He was said to have originated the political catch-word of 1844, “Fifty-four forty or fight,” referring to the Oregon boundary question.

 

An interesting anecdote is told of Gov. ALLEN by Mr. F. B. Loomis in the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette: “An old friend of Gov. ALLEN has just told me an anecdote which is worth repeating. The Governor was very fond of his residence, Fruit Hill, and had caused a very spacious covered veranda to be built around it in order that he might have a sheltered place for walking when he chose to take it in that way. This veranda was uncommonly wide and often attracted attention by reason of its great dimensions. One morning a Yankee book agent trudged out to Fruit Hill to sell a copy of some subscription book of little value to the old Governor. The agent was not greeted very cordially, as Mr. ALLEN was not in the best of spirits, and as he turned to depart without having made a sale, he remarked: ‘Governor, it appears to me you’ve got a mighty sight of shed-room around this house.’ The allusion to the porches touched the old man’s fancy, and he called the dejected agent back, purchased a book and invited him to dine with him.”

 

Among the interesting. relics in Chillicothe is a large, fine, one-story, stucco house, covering much ground, on the southeast corner of Water and High streets. The builder and owner was WILLIAM CREIGHTON, JR., the first Secretary of State Ohio ever had, and who was twice a member of Congress. He came to Chillicothe from Virginia in 1799, and practised law here fifty years. He was large in person, clear-headed, social, a great admirer of Henry Clay, and with a boyish humor that sometimes found vent in practical jokes.

 

THOMAS SCOTT was born October 31, 1772, at Old Town, or Skipton, Va., at the junction of the North and South branches of the Potomac river. When 17 years of age he was licensed by Bishop Asbury to preach in the Methodist church. He learned the tailor’s trade; was married to Catharine WOOD in 1796, and while working at his bench she read “Blackstone” to him, and he thus studied law. Early in 1801 he came to Chillicothe and commenced the practice of law. In 1802 he was secretary of the Constitutional Convention. He was the first justice of the peace in Ross county; was clerk of the Ohio Senate from 1804 to 1809, when he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. During his long career he occupied many public offices, performing his duties with conscientious, painstaking care, and always finding time to act as “supply” in the pulpit of the Methodist church. He had a wide reputation for learning and legal ability, and was retained in many important cases, receiving large fees for his services. He died in February, 1856; his worthy wife died some two years later.

 

MICHAEL BALDWIN was contemporary with CREIGHTON, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He was from that strong New Haven (Conn.) family of BALDWINS, so prolific and talented in lawyers and judges. One brother was the eminent Judge Henry BALDWIN, of the United States Supreme Court. “Mike,” as he was commonly called, was a brilliant man of varied attainments, and soon was known throughout the Territory. For a time he did a large legal business, but it was an era when whiskey flowed like water, habits of drinking and gambling were almost universal, and he became a confirmed sot. Gilmore, in his sketches of the bar, gives this. “He was a member of the first Constitutional Convention, and it is a common tradition that he wrote almost the whole of our first constitution in the bar-room of William KEYS’ tavern, using a wine keg for his seat and the head of a whiskey barrel for a writing table. If this tale is true, and it is by no means improbable, the instrument that was the fundamental law of this State for about half a century had a queer origin.

 

 

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latter a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he very properly styles his ‘blood-hounds.’ “

 

At almost every term of his practice at court would be entered upon the journal, “Ordered that Michael BALDWIN, one of the attorneys of this court, be fined ten dollars for contempt of court, and be committed to `jail until the fine be paid.” He was Speaker of the House of Representatives for its first three years, 1803-1804 and 1805. Fond of gambling, it is told that he opened a game of “vingt et un” for the benefit of his brother members. Upon one occasion, being banker and broker, he won all their money and most of their watches. When the party broke up it was near morning, and they retired to their several rooms, most of them drunk. Used to such a life, Mike was next morning promptly in the speaker’s chair; but there was no quorum. He dispatched the sergeant-at-arms for the absentees, and, after an hour of delay, they filed into the hall and in front of the speaker’s chair some dozen or more of them half asleep and only partially sobered gamesters of the night before. Thereupon BALDWIN rose and with dignified severity reprimanded them for their neglect of duty to their constituents, until one of the culprits unable any longer to stand his tongue-lashing, broke forth with, “Hold on, now, Mr. Speaker how the ^___ can we know what the time is when you have got all our watches?”

 

In the June term of court, 1804, the tavern-keeper, William KEYS, sued BALDWIN upon an account of £25 13s. 10d. These were mostly put down as “drinks for the club,” Mike’s treats to the bloodhounds—an organization of the roughs and fighting men, which he had gotten up and controlled, who did the electioneeering and fighting for him, and when he was put in jail for debt more than once broke in the door or tore out an end of that structure and set him at liberty. Twice his brothers sent on from Connecticut bags of coin to relieve him from debt. On these occasions, it is said, he hired a negro for porter of the money, and went around in turn to each of his creditors, allowing each one, irrespective of the amount of his account, to have one grab in the open-mouthed bag until all was gone. “Poor, brilliant boisterous, drunken, rollicking Mike” died young. It was about the year 1811 and at about the age of 35 years.

 

RICHARD DOUGLASS was born in New London, Conn., in 1875; came to Ohio in 1809, and in the same year commenced the practice of law in Chillicothe. Mr. DOUGLASS was a man of great talents, and impressed his associates as one who seemed to know everything. Short in stature, with a large body and thin legs; small, keen, twinkling eyes; he was an oddity in appearance and said to resemble the traditional “Santa Claus.” Many anecdotes are told of his ready wit and retentive memory. We quote the following from the “Ross County History:

 

“In a suit for damages for malicious arrest and prosecution Gustavus SCOTT, for defendant, had quoted in Latin the maxim that `No man shall be held responsible in damages for the use of the king s writ.’ DOUGLASS replied, ‘Very true, Brother SCOTT, that such was the very ancient maxim. But you ought to know, sir, that the great Lord Mansfield, seeing the injustice of such a rule of law, reversed it 200 years ago, and from his day to the present the maxim stands ‘Canis Kinkaidius cum ambos oerus assoribus;’ or, freely translated, `No man shall take shelter from the responsibilities of his wrong acts, under the king’s name.’ Days after the case had been won, SCOTT took DOUGLASS to task for misquotation or mistranslation. DOUGLASS denied that he had so translated it, and insisted that he had only informed the court of the very peculiar metallic formation of the tails of Kincaid’s dogs.”

 

Withal, Mr. DOUGLASS was a man of fine attainments, and a lifelong member of the Episcopal church. He died in 1852.

 

JOHN PORTER BROWN was born in Chillicothe, August 17, 1814. He served several years as a midshipman in the navy. In 1832 he accompanied his uncle David PORTER to Constantinnple, the latter having been appointed first American minister to the Porte. BROWN gave much study to oriental languages and literature. Nine times he represented the United States as charge d’ affaires. While acting in this capacity, Martin Koszta, the Hungarian patriot, who had declared to the American Consul his intention to become an American citizen, was seized by the Austrian authorities and held on one of their frigates. Koszta appealed to the American legation, upon which Mr. BROWN sent to Capt. Ingraham of the U. S. corvette “Dale” the laconic message, “Take him.” Capt. Ingraham gave the Austrians three hours in which to deliver Koszta, and in the meanwhile prepared his vessel for action. Within half an hour of the expiration of the stipulated time the prisoner was delivered to the French consul and by him to the Americans. A service of plate in recognition of his conduct was presented to Mr. BROWN by American admirers. Mr. BROWN died at Constantinople April 28,1872. He had a wide reputation as an oriental scholar, wrote “Dervishes, or Oriental Spiritualism,” and trans­lated other valuable works.

 

 

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the unexpired term, and in 1889 was elected by the people for the full term of three years.

 

Mr. HANCOCK has been an important factor in the advancement of education, not only in the State, but throughout the nation. He has been president of the Ohio Teachers Association and of the National Education Association; has received honorary degrees from Kenyon College and from Wooster University. He has also been an active worker in teacher’s institutes for more than twenty-five years and has contributed to various educational journals.

 

WILLIAM H. SAFFORD was born at Parkersburg, W. Va., February 19, 1821. He received a common-school education and became a school teacher, later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1842. In 1848 he removed to Chillicothe. In 1857 was elected to the State Senate and in 1868 Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Judge SAFFOrd spent his boyhood days in the vicinity of Blennerhassett Island, was attracted by the sad and romantic history of its owner and devoted much study and research to the career of Blennerhassett, which he embodied in a biography published in 1861, and later enlarged into the “ Blennerhassett Papers,” an important work of much historic value. Judge SAFFORD is now engaged on a series of papers on the domestic life of Aaron Burr.

 

WILLIAM SOOY SMITH was born in Tarlton, Pickaway county, July 22, 1830, a few miles north of the line of Ross county. His grandfather was a revolutionary soldier, his father a captain in the war of 1812. Both belonged to the Society of Friends, but severed their relations with their sect to fight for their country. Wm. Sooy Smith worked and paid his own way through Ohio University at Athens, graduating in 1849; attended West Point, and served in the army but one year, resigning in 1853. He then engaged in civil engineering, made the first surveys for the international bridge across the Niagara river. In 1857 he was elected chief engineer and secretary of the Trenton (N. J.) locomoworks, then the chief iron-bridge manufacturing company in this country. He introduced important improvements in bridge building. At the outbreak of the war, he entered the volunteer service as assistant adjutant-general at Camp Dennison, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was soon made colonel of the Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the West Virginia campigns. April 7, 1862 he was commissioned brigadier-general for gallant and meritorious service. He participated in the battles of Shiloh and Perryville. Subsequently was made chief of cavalry of the Department of the Tennessee and as such attached to the staffs of General Grant and General Sherman, but owing to an attack of inflammatory rheumatism, brought on through exposure in a Mississippi raid, for six weeks he was unable to move even a finger; he was obliged to resign in July, 1864. HIs military career was able, efficient and valuable.

 

Returning to his profession, in 1867 he sank the first pneumatic caisson in building the Waugoshanee light house at the Straits of Mackinaw. He built the first all-steel bridge in the world, across the Missouri river at Glasgow, Mo.

 

General Smith has been concerned in many other important engineering enterprises, has served on numerous commissions; in 1880 was president of the Civil Engineers Club of the Northwest, and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

 

KINGSTON is ten miles north of Chillicothe, on the S. V. and C. H. V. & H. Railroads. Newspaper: Blade, Independent, Arthur JACK, editor and publisher.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Presbyterian. Bank: Scioto Valley, James MAY, president, H. F. MOORE, cashier.

 

Manufactures and Employees.—C. Boice & Co., flour and feed, 3 hands; Jesse Brundidge, flooring, etc., 3; Halderman & Boggs, grain elevator, 3; May, Raub & Co., drain tile, 10.-State Report, 1888.

 

Population 1880, 442. School census, 1888, 207.A. L. ELLIS, superintendent of schools. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $10,000. Value of annual product, $10,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics,1888.

 

ADELPHI is eighteen miles northeast of Chillicothe, on the C. H. V. & H. R. R. Newspapers: Border News, Neutral, Hugh F. EAGAN, editor and publisher. Population, 1880, 469. School census, 1888, 165. G. W. FRY, superintendent of schools.

 

BAINBRIDGE is on Paint creek and the O. S. R. R., nineteen miles southwest of Chillicothe.

 

“It was laid out in 1805 by Nathaniel MASSIE and will become the seat of justice for the projected county of MASSIE, in case it is established. It is surrounded by a beautiful country and contains two churches, a forge, one newspaper printing office, eight stores and about eighty dwellings. About a mile northwest of the town is a small, natural tunnel, about one hundred and fifty feet in length, through which courses a little sparkling rill.”—Old Edition.

 

 

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lisher. Banks: Rockhold, Cook & Co., E. C. ROCKHOLD, president, W. P. SHEIBLE, cashier; Spargur, Hulitt & Co., J. B. W. SPARGUR, president, H. E. McCOY, cashier. Population, 1880, 825. School census, 1888, 295. J. A. WILCOX, superintendent of schools.

 

FRANKFORT is eleven miles northwest of Chillicothe, on the C. B. & W. and D: & I. Railroads and north fork of Paint creek. Newspaper: Sun, Independent, H. C. PAINTER, editor and publisher. Bank: Merchants’ and Farmers’, D. C. ANDERSON, president, D. L. SUTHERLAND, cashier. Population, 1880, 548. School census, 1888, 199.

 

CLARKSBURGH is sixteen miles northwest of Chillicothe. Newspaper: Telegraph, Independent, D. F. SHRINER, editor. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Christian. Population, 1880, 348.

 

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