Ohio History Journal

344      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

 

PIONEER DAY.

At the close of a very imposing Pioneer and Industrial parade

the people gathered at LaBelle park and on the beautiful lawns

that terrace the immediate neighborhood at the intersection of

Fourth street and LaBelle avenue, in full view of the Ohio river

and under the shade of hundreds of trees, they crowded to listen

to the addresses.

Hon. J. J. Gill, a descendant of an old and honorable Mt.

Pleasant family, as chairman of the day, spoke as follows:

 

ADDRESS OF HON. J. J. GILL.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

To me has been assigned the very gratifying and highly hon-

orable privilege of acting as the presiding officer of this meeting,

and it is my wish to confine myself strictly to my duties as such

chairman. We are here to listen to the formal addresses of the

occasion as arranged, and I shall not, therefore, delay the feast

of good things which is before us longer than to pause a moment

to congratulate the good people of Steubenville and of Jefferson

county and the various patriotic and self-sacrificing committees

having the work in charge upon the memorable and magnificent

success of this centennial celebration and upon the very great

general interest and enthusiasm which have been aroused. We

can all rightfully rejoice over and take pride in the past, and as

the events of history are recounted and the panorama is unfolded

before us, I sincerely trust that under the inspiration of the occa-

sion we shall also give sharp heed to the living present and to

the duties of to-day, and turn also with anxious thoughts towards

the future, earnestly resolved that if possible a more rapid rate

of progress shall be established, and that the splendid heritage

which has been left us shall not have its lustre dimmed by any

deed of ours, or dulled by our failure to adequately and propor-

tionately advance along the line of the world's grand march.

Invocation was offered by Rev. Dr. Geo. W. MacMillan,

of Richmond, after which Hon. H. L. Chapman made congrat-

ulatory remarks.

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ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY JOHN M. COOK, ESQ.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Jefferson county extends her greetings to the thousands that

have come to participate in our centennial anniversary. Wel-

come, thrice welcome, one and all. It is our birthday party; for

a hundred years of civil life is little more than a single year of

personal existence. On birthdays we look backward and for-

ward; have we gained or lost, and what are the prospects of

the future? Whatever may be our future prospects, in the record

of the past our hearts swell with unbounded pride.

What a magnificent county we had a hundred years ago. It

extended from the lakes on the north to Powhattan Point on

the south, from the Pennsylvania line on the east to the Cuyahoga

and Tuscarawas rivers on the west. Five thousand square miles

of as fruitful domain as the sun ever shone upon. Hill and valley,

forest and prairie, soil of the richest character watered by hun-

dreds of rivers, rivulets and springs. Like the promised land to

which the children of Israel journeyed, it was fair to look upon,

and flowing with milk and honey. Is it any wonder, therefore,

that the red men of the forest contested every foot of ground

with the pioneer homeseekers for such a land?

The early settlers were worthy of the land; they were not

Goths and Vandals seeking conquest for the sport of conquest

at the sacrifice of property and culture; they were not bigoted

crusaders, driving out a barbarous race for the purpose of estab-

lishing a system of religion, more intolerant and cruel than the

religion of the untutored worshippers of nature, "who saw God

in the clouds and heard Him in the wind"; they were not even

from a foreign land, warped and prejudiced by foreign educa-

tion and contact with foreign ideas and principles. They were

our own countrymen, speaking our own inimitable Anglo-Saxon

language; they came from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,

Virginia and Pennsylvania. What a grand combination: the

Puritans of New England, rigid, zealous, and quick-witted; the

Dutch of New York, not the equal of the Yankee in driving a

bargain, but surpassing him in industry and frugality; the Scotch-

Irish of New Jersey, in whose lexicon there was no such word

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as fail; the cavalier of Virginia, noble, dignified, and valorous;

and as if to cement the whole and round it out in strength and

symmetry, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, who would tolerate no

feuds and quarrels. Well might Gen. Washington in his cele-

brated eulogy upon our first settlement say, "No other colony

in America was ever settled under such favorable circumstances

as that which has just commenced upon the Ohio river. Infor-

mation, property, and strength will be its beginning."

We have been faithful to our heritage. No section of the

country has made greater strides in physical, intellectual, and

moral development than has our beloved Jefferson county. The

evidence of material growth is everywhere; the smoke and flame

of the furnace, factory and workshop greet every passing cloud;

the joyous song of the harvester gladdens every hilltop and val-

ley; the hum of busy industry is heard in the marts of trade

in a hundred cities and villages, for Cleveland, Youngstown,

Akron, Canton, and a score of others belong to us as surely as

Steubenville. Our boys and girls have done well. We gave

the country the literary genius, William Dean Howells; the pio-

neer abolitionist, Benjamin Lundy; the brave war governor,.

David Todd; the great war secretary, Edwin M. Stanton, and

the fighting McCooks. Yea more, we have furnished two of the

most illustrious chief magistrates of the nation: the scholarly

orator and statesman, James A. Garfield, who sleeps in Lake

View cemetery, and the conscientious and gifted William Mc-

Kinley, who now so worthily occupies the White House. Our

daughters have in every respect been the equals of our sons.

The women of southeastern Ohio and of the Western Reserve

have been proverbial for their refinement, culture, and religious

devotion; they have graced the homes of presidents, statesmen,

bishops, philanthropists, and financiers, and there is hardly a

missionary field in the world but what has felt the beneficent influ-

ence of the graduates of Beatty seminary. "I speak these things

to your honor."

Old Jefferson has felt the touch of the century. That touch

has been in many respects magnetic and uplifting, but in some

enervating or at least depleting. We have advanced from the

log cabin to the comfortable dwelling and palace; from the rude

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.       347

 

school house with its three R's to the magnificent high school

of the people and the college and university of the more favored.

Religious intolerance with its bigotry and aspersions has become

a thing of the past; and to-day Roman Catholic and Protestant,

Greek and Jew, meet upon the platform as brothers. Brute force

has been supplanted by steam and electricity; higher mechanism

has succeeded the waste of muscle and the sweat of the brow.

Never was there such advancement in any age as during this

last quarter of the nineteenth century, and in no corner of the

earth has it been more marked than in what was Jefferson county.

There is a reverse side to the picture. How small and dwarfed

our once magnificent county seems. It is with difficulty that we

recognize the old settlement and homestead; from five thousand

square miles it has been reduced to four hundred; our cities,

villages and farms with their riches and fertility have been taken

away from us; however, as dutiful parents, we rejoice in these

new settlements and the children that occupy them. Cuyahoga,

Lake, Ashtabula, Geauga, Summit, Portage, Trumbull, Stark,

Mahoning, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison and Belmont, we are

proud of you and your success. You are not with us, but you

are of us, and how dear you are to our hearts!

Children of these new homes, God bless you; sometimes

we fear many of you, in your incomparable prosperity, have

become proud and seldom think of your shriveled and dwarfed

old parent, yet our hearts go out to you like that of Jacob that

went out to Joseph and Benjamin, and upon this festal anniversary

we are glad to greet you and bid you welcome home.

 

 

ADDRESS OF HON. WEBSTER DAVIS.

 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen .

Of all the monuments erected to perpetuate the memory of

America's greatest men none are grander, sublimer or more en-

during than this--Jefferson county--named in honor of the

immortal Thomas Jefferson. It was the fifth county established

in Ohio and was created by proclamation of Governor St. Clair,

the first governor of the state, on July 29, A. D. 1797. Its original

limits included all the country west of Pennsylvania and the Ohio

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348       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

river; and east, and north, of a line from the mouth of the Cuya-

hoga; southward to the Muskingum, and east to the Ohio river.

Within those boundaries are Cleveland, Canton, Steubenville,

Warren, and many other large towns and populous cities. This

immense territory was considerably larger in extent than some

of the states of the American Union. Of course, as soon as the

population began to increase rapidly because of the large immi-

gration, which soon set in from other states, this territory was

considered entirely too large and unwieldy for one county, hence

it was subdivided.

The first settlers, long before 1789, were doubtless "Mound

Builders," that remarkable race of beings, of which so little

seems to be known; from whence they came or whither they

have gone, no one seems to be able to tell positively. But that

they inhabited this region at one time is very evident from the

fact that certain relics and bones have been found in the valleys

of the Miamis, the Scioto and the Muskingum, which indicate

their existence here at some remote period.

Then again, this magnificent territory was but a vast waste

of luxurious nature, where, amid scenes of primeval solitude, the

explorer might have thought that war's invading foot never trod.

Wild beasts, ferocious and terrible, had their lairs in the glens

and jungles. Reptiles dragged their slimy forms along the grassy

dells, while savages of the most bloodthirsty natures built their

wigwams in the hidden recesses of the forests, and on the banks

of the winding streams. But finally, the pioneers - the torch-

bearers of civilization, wended their way toward this virgin ter-

ritory, and soon the smoke from the cabins and the noise from

the woodman's axe proclaimed to the world the beginning of

a new era -the most wonderful in the annals of mankind. No

pen can portray, no tongue can describe the awful sufferings and

hardships endured by the first settlers in their struggles with the

Indians. For those savages died by thousands rather than yield

this rich and fertile territory, which they so loved and hoped to

enjoy for all time. After many years of fierce and bloody con-

flict, the Indians were compelled to give way to a superior race

of men and women, whom an all-wise Providence had directed

to open up this new land to civilization and to plant on its hill

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      349

 

tops, in its valleys, on its plains, and amid God's temples in its

picturesque woodlands, the altars of liberty and equality of rights,

and invite the genius of the earth to worship at their shrines.

And in passing it may be said, that the most ferocious Indian

incursions in these parts were inspired by the British government,

which has always been one of the worst enemies this youthful

republic has ever had. The last blood shed in battle between

the first settlers and the Indians was shed in this county in August,

1793. The battle is known in history as "Buskirk's Battle," and

took place on the farm of John Adams on what was then known

as Indian Cross creek, now as Battle Ground run.

A very important incident in the early history of this part

of this state should not be forgotten on this occasion; and that

is the fact that George Washington visited this county at Mingo

village in the year 1770, just seventeen years before the adoption

of the famous ordinance of 1787, which is now recognized by all

men as a masterpiece of statesmanship, ranking with the Decla-

ration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

And its author, Nathan Dane, became immortal, and his name

will be heralded to other generations as one of the great benefac-

tors of his race. For by that ordinance he laid a foundation upon

which the pioneers might rear an honest manhood and a loyal

citizenship. With that ordinance as a guide they could never go

wrong. It was their pillar of cloud by day and their pillar of fire

by night. By it all men and women were guaranteed freedom

of worship. They might worship God according to the dictates

of their own conscience. They were allowed the privilege of the

writ of habeas corpus-one of the choicest rights enjoyed by free-

men. By it also the people were given representation in the

affairs of government. It was to be a government of the people,

by the people and for the people. It also gave the right of trial

by jury-a blessing enjoyed by men and women only in a land

of freedom; and it also established roads and highways; abro-

gated the law of primogeniture, and made equal divisions of land

among children and heirs. It was also ordained that "there shall

be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory,

otherwise than in punishment of crime, and that religion, morality,

and knowledge, being essential to good government and the hap-

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350       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

piness of mankind, shall forever be encouraged." These were

placed by the ordinance as among the fundamental principles of

civil and religious liberty, and upon these as the foundation stones,

was erected a most wonderful temple of civilization; which is to-

day the marvel of the century and the pride of mankind.

The most important event in the early history of Jefferson

county was the founding of this beautiful city-Steubenville-in

the year 1797, which was named after Fort Steuben, which had

been erected in 1787. To Bezaleel Wells and James Ross. the

one hailing from Maryland and the other from Pennsylvania,

belongs the honor of laying out this city, which was incorporated

on February 14, A. D. 1805. These men were among the noblest

and sturdiest of the pioneers.  They started the manufactories

here, and they introduced into these parts the sheep industry and

for its Merino sheep it became famous. The finest wool ever

raised in the great northwest territory was raised in this county.

And this resulted in the establishment in this city of the first

woolen mill in the United States. In this county also was the first

public survey, and in this city was located the first land office in

the United States located in the district where the land lay. It

was this splendid opportunity given to the poor man that attracted

the attention of the people of other localities and caused them

to turn their eyes towards this great west, where they might go

and find a home for themselves and their little ones, where they

might sit under their own vine and fig tree with no one to molest

them and no one to make them afraid-a home where their youth

might be crowned with happiness and the sun of their life's even-

ing go down with the unmolested hope of a glorious immortality.

So they came from all states and all lands, until now Jefferson is

one of the most populous counties in this state, and Steubenville

has within its confines 14,000 souls, and instead of a village it is

to-day a splendid city, with many manufacturing institutions of

iron, steel, glass and pottery; with a supply of coal which is inex-

haustible; with splendid railway facilities; with water ways and

with vessels to assist in carrying her commerce; with excellent

wholesale and retail establishments; with modern improvements

unexcelled; with modern churches and schools; with bright and

sparkling newspapers; with petroleum and natural gas wells, and

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      351

 

on every hand thrift, prosperity and refinement. And, surrounded

by fertile farms, with plains, valleys and woodlands, with waving

fields and fruitful orchards, indeed with everything essential for a

people's happiness; with a climate too, unexcelled for health and

comfort, with sunshine enough for song, and snow enough for

courage, surely the people of this city and county ought to be

among the happiest and most contented people on earth. And

it may be said also of this county that, like Cornelia of old, the

brightest jewels in her crown are her children-the strong men

and beautiful women who have their homes within her borders.

Indeed it seems that God has brought, during this first cen-

tury, to this state and county, young people from every land and

every clime, from the rugged lands of Germany and the vine-clad

hills of France; from the snowy land of Scandinavia, and the sunny

land of the south; from the lowlands and highlands of Scotland,

and from the hills and dales of Ireland; from the mountain fast-

ness of Wales and from England itself. Ah yes, among them

are men and women whose ancestors in the long ago stood amid

that mighty array of barons who wrested Magna Charta from

King John on the historic field of Runnymede; among them too

were those whose fathers had stood with Oliver Cromwell at Mars-

ton Moor and Naseby, and among them were some whose fore-

fathers had followed the white plume of Henry of Navarre, in the

years that are past and gone. All of these were put as it were

into a mighty laboratory, out of which God brought the master

man and woman-the ideal citizens of the greatest republic known

in history's wondrous annals. Of all agents for the promotion

of enterprises, the upbuilding of cities, the development of states

and countries and the spreading of civilization, the newspapers

are the most powerful. Hence on this centennial anniversary it

would not do to forget to give proper credit to the newspapers.

The first one was started in this city in 1806, by Lowry and Miller,

its editors, and I am told that this paper still continues. John

Miller afterwards became a citizen of the city of St. Louis, and

in 1820 was elected to be the first governor of Missouri, a state

in which natural resources stand to-day without a superior in

the Union.

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Thus has Ohio sent her sons and daughters by thousands

into the western wilds, where they have become pioneers again

in the establishment of new cities and new states, and many a

homesick boy has laid his head to rest far out in the hills of the

west, thinking of the old home back in old Ohio, and in his dreams

his mutterings told of loved ones far away, but not forgotten.

Jefferson county is also the birthplace of the great anti-

slavery sentiment which resulted in the freedom of the slaves.

Because of the provision in the ordinance of 1787 against negro

slavery many of that sturdy sect of men and women who loved

liberty, known as Quakers, came here from North Carolina, and

immediately upon their arrival liberated their slaves. Indeed the

first newspaper devoted to the abolition of negro slavery, was

printed in this county, and here lived the great abolitionist, Ben-

jamin Lundy, who was the first man to get William Lloyd Gar-

rison interested in that question. These liberty-loving pioneers

believed that the spirit that causes the little bird to beat its breast

against the wires of the cage while it longs for freedom, is the

same spirit that is planted in the human breast struggling to be

free. Hence they were determined that here a man might assert

his claim to right and have it allowed. And as a result the people

who live here to-day, can boast that they live in a land of freedom.

Freedom not only in name but in fact. They live in a land of

liberty where everything is possible to every citizen, and where

the only restraints upon the full enjoyment of life, liberty and pos-

session of happiness, are the necessary restraints of society against

the abuse of these blessings. With no tyrant ruling over them;

with no privileged classes to exact support and luxuries from the

masses; with no great standing armies to eat up their substance

and oppress the people in the enjoyment of their liberties; with

fertile lands, yielding abundant increase; with splendid systems

of transportation; with commerce extending to almost every sec-

tion; with a mighty population increasing in wealth annually-in

the presence of blessings like these, thrilling with the conscious-

ness of citizenship in a government more glorious than any that

ever existed, surely these people should be thankful for a privilege

so great.

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      353

 

Steubenville is also a city of schools, and Ohio is noted for

its excellent public school system and also for its many excellent

colleges, universities and academies. The people of this state

have always been true friends of education, in fact one of the

strongest provisions in the famous ordinance of 1787 was that in

regard to the encouragement of schools, and the promotion of

education.

The pioneers of this region realized that, from the time the

Creator commanded the earth and the waters thereof to bring

forth abundantly the manifold species of living creatures, down

through the centuries until this day, there has been but little

change in the inferior animals. The beasts of burden still con-

tinue to bear their burdens for the convenience, profit and com-

fort of man. The cattle still graze upon the meadows, fatten,

and are led to the slaughter to furnish food for man. The wild

beasts of the forest, still ferocious and terrible, have their lairs

in the tangled jungle and mountain glen. The eagle still builds

his eyrie on the loftiest crag on the mountain peak; the birds

still carol the same songs amid the branches of trees that were

sung by the feathered tribe among the boughs of the trees in

the Garden of Eden. These have changed as little as the grasses

or herbs upon which they feed, or the trees beneath which they

shelter in the woodlands.

All creeping things are just the same slimy, ugly things

they used to be before the serpent incurred the everlasting enmity

of mankind. And all the inhabitants of the mighty deep, from

the majestic whale that sports in its waters down to the humblest

member of the finny tribe, are still unchanged from what they

were on the evening of that wonderful day when the Creator said,

"Let the waters of the seas be filled with living things."

In one generation inferior animals attain all the perfection

of which their nature is susceptible.

That Being, without whose notice not even a sparrow falls

to the ground, has provided for the supply of all their wants, and

has adapted each to the element in which it moves.

To birds He has given a clothing of feathers, and to quadru-

peds a clothing of furs adapted to their latitudes. Where art is

requisite in providing food for future need or in constructing

Vol. VI-23

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354       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

a needful habitation, as in the case of the bee and the beaver, a

peculiar aptitude has been bestowed which, in all the inferior

races of animals, has been found adequate to their necessities.

The crocodile that issues from its eggs in the warm sand and

never sees its parent, becomes, it has been well said, as perfect

and as knowing as any crocodile.

But not so with man, he comes into the world the most

helpless and dependent of living creatures, long to continue so.

If deserted by parents at an early age, so that he can learn only

what the experience of one life may teach him, he grows up in

some respects inferior to the brutes themselves.

The condition of the inhabitants of this section, at the time

of the coming of the pioneers, was that of ignorance, superstition

and barbarism; they were cruel savages living upon roots and

herbs, wild fruit, fish, and the flesh of wild animals; their habi-

tations were wigwams or huts; their avocation was hunting and

fishing; their language was but a jargon; they loved to wage

war against each other and the neighboring tribes; and were in

all respects scarcely above the wild beasts that shared with them

their haunts in the shady groves and by the side of the winding

streams.

But now this county and state have undergone a marvelous

change; instead of being the abode of savages they are now

occupied by intelligent, energetic, peaceable, civilized men and

women, who have founded manifold institutions of learning,

constructed villages and magnificent cities, have converted the

impenetrable forests into cultivated fields and fruitful orchards;

clothed the hills with luxuriant vines and filled the valleys with

corn and wine; covered the sterile plains with beautiful gardens

and transformed the desolate deserts into fields of bloom and

have filled with plenty their granaries; while the music of

reapers and mowers, the songs of hardy sons of toil, as they

garner in the sheaves from the harvest fields, the murmur of the

loom and the shuttle, the roar of the hot breath of furnaces, the

hum and whir of wheels and spindles of the mills and factories

planted on the banks of the rivers, the music of ringing anvils of

the smithies at the forge, the laughter of little children sporting

on the schoolhouse playground,fill the land with the sweet melody

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of songs of industry, while plenty sits enthroned and crowned and

sways her joyous scepter over happy homes where millions dwell

in peace and sweet content.

These are living monuments to the power and beneficence

of education, and to the industry and patriotism of the rugged

pioneers.

I do not mean that education whose sole object is to make

experts. Not simply to make a man a great navigator, to be

able to plough unknown seas in the search of unknown worlds

and nothing more; or simply to enable him to have at his

tongue's end the writings of those wondrous geniuses who have

been enshrined in history and have been adorned by the poets

with their rythmic flowers.

Nor to become an expert and to excel in chemistry, or

higher mathematics, nor to become a great geologist, to delve

into the hidden recesses of the earth, and to be able to read its

history in its layers of rocks, clay, granite and mineral. Nor to

become a great geographer, who is able to give us the dimen-

sions of the mountains, plains and valleys, and the extent of the

rivers, lakes and seas. Nor to become a great philosopher, who

can with ease read and interpret the phenomena of nature, and

place her marvelous wonders before the minds of men, and

cause her to contribute of her stores to the comfort and happi-

ness of mankind.

Nor to become a great astronomer, whose comprehensive

mind is able to scan the universe, whose heaven-aspiring spirit

is able to soar beyond the boundaries of time and to discover

new worlds in the illimitable realm of space, to view them in

their grandeur, to tell the story of their past history, and to

prophesy of their future.

All this is pleasant and profitable to the inquiring minds of

men and women if they are able to obtain it, but the kind of

education that I mean is that which makes of men and women

good citizens and prepares them for successfully fighting life's

battles.

For a nation's wealth consists not alone in its natural re-

sources and broad domain, but in the intelligence and virtues of

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its citizens; its nobles are not the men of royal birth, but the

men of sober thoughts and righteous deeds.

It is upon the education of the people that this county and

state must depend for their still greater progress and advance-

ment in the future. For this age above all others demands an

educated people for citizenship.

Science and philosophy are revolutionizing the views of

mankind. Progress in the arts has transformed all society, in-

creasing a thousand-fold the ease of access and communication,

multiplying inconceivably the working forces of the world and

too often chaining men to the chariot wheels of mammon.

Truly, we live in a wonderful age of progress and advance-

ment, of education and civilization. A decade now is worth

more than half a century would have been in the early history

of your commonwealth. The good old times of your forefathers,

bordering seemingly on fairyland, so often referred to by those

who love to delve amid musty relics of forgotten ages, are not

to be compared with your time.

Instead of tearing open the soil of the fields with the roots

of a tree, that we may feed on the bounties of nature, as the

ancients did, the green covering rolls away with the perfection

and grace of art itself, from the polished mould-board of the

Pittsburg steel plough.

Machinery casts abroad the seed and the reaping machine

gathers the harvest. The loom has taken the place of the old

wheel that used to stand in the corner of old granny's log cabin

home. And the improved sewing machine has taken the place

of the needle-worn fingers, long since silent in the tomb, and fits

the fabric for the use of man.

The great steamers that plough the waters of the mighty

deep, and the locomotives that encircle the continent on their

bands of rails, bearing the freight of commerce to the uttermost

parts of the earth, carrying the people to and fro with the rapidity

of the winged messengers of the air, from the busy marts of

trade, render communication in person and in thought more

easy and rapid than in other years.

The discovery of the powers of electricity has also revolu-

tionized the age; the electric light has enabled men to turn the

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darkness of night into the light of day, and were Diogenes now

living, he might pursue the even tenor of his way along the

streets of Athens in search of an honest man, with an electric

light instead of a lantern.

The telegraph too, has made it possible for men to com-

municate with each other across seas and lands with the rapidity

of lightning itself, and by the telephone man is enabled to con-

verse with his fellow man and even recognize his voice at a dis-

tance of thousands of miles. Think too, of the graphophone

and the kinetoscope, and countless other inventions more mar-

velous than any recorded in the history of people of other ages.

These discoveries and inventions, together with the progress

made in the realms of science, literature and art, and the ad-

vancement in every field of thought, are the wonders of the age.

And all these are but a few of the outcroppings, everywhere vis-

ible, of this marvelous age of progress.

And let it not be forgotten that liberty is not the child of

ignorance, superstition and barbarism, but the child of intelli-

gence, education and progress. The love of liberty is a passion

that has been wont to spring up in the hearts of men since time

began, so soon as their minds began to expand under education,

however crude, in their breasts the fires of liberty began to burn.

In all centuries and in all lands that passion has lived and defied

rocks and chains and dungeons to crush it; it has strewn the

earth with its monuments and shed undying lustre on a thousand

fields whereon it has battled in the gloomy night of ages.

And here in Ohio there seems to be something in the scenes

of nature, in her beautiful landscapes, in her luxurious vine-

yards and orchards, full of bud and blossom, in her waving fields

and in the dim vistas of her mighty woodlands, in the beauty of

bird, of bud, of tree and flower; and in the pure and exhilerating

air on her hills, her fields and her meadows, that inspires her

youth with an ardent love for knowledge.

And why is it that Babylon, with her hanging gardens;

Egypt, with her pyramids and temples -  stony records of the

twilight of history - Greece, with her wondrous works of art,

her power and renown, her temples, and statues of the gods

crowning the Acropolis, the golden splendor of her Athens,

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358      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

whose columns and temples have long since passed away; and

Rome with her grandeur and might as an empire; when con-

trasted with the greatest of Time's offerings -this Republic,-

in the latter half of the nineteenth century, dwindle into mere

specks and fragments of history? The answer is to be found in

the increasing volume of intelligence among the masses of our

people, behind which stand the public schools, academies, col-

leges and universities, and that spirit of philanthropy which has

been the inheritance of the nations. With continued effort to

increase the opportunities for, and to stimulate a stronger desire

in the minds of the people for education, what marvelous prog-

ress may we expect of the generations of the future.

 

Oh, royal mind! nor cease thy flight,

While sun and stars dispense their light

And roll in grand array.

And when these orbs shall cease to shine,

When suns decay and stars decline,

Let onward progress still be thine

And upward hold thy way.

Ohio has given to the Republic many of its noblest and

greatest men. The bar, the press, the pulpit, the rostrum and

the schoolroom have all had their worthies. And in the realm

of science, literature, art and invention, in oratory and music her

sons and daughters have held their own in the march of progress

and advancement.

I would not attempt to call the roll of her distinguished

statesmen of all political parties in the past lest I should neglect

some and thereby appear to discriminate. But it is true that her

sons have not been surpassed in the halls of Congress, or in the

highest Judicial Tribunals in the land, or in the Executive man-

sion itself. In all these there have been worthy sons of Ohio,

whose names are cherished by the people, for they are names

not born to die.

And, living to-day, are men representing the people of this

great state as state officials, and as representatives in the Con-

gress of the United States, who are an honor to their people and

to their state.

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      359

 

Among those may be mentioned the peerless Sherman, the

dashing Foraker, the sturdy Hanna and the genial Bushnell.

These are all worthy representatives of a state whose foundation

stones were laid by the superb Anthony Wayne and the indomit-

able William Henry Harrison.

But one of the greatest of all the dead, and one of the greatest

of all the living, of Ohio's distinguished sons, were born within

the original territory of this county of Jefferson-Stanton and

McKinley.

Edwin M. Stanton sleeps in his narrow home-but he is not

forgotten, for he lives in the immortality that blooms beyond the

grave, he lives in the record of his country's history, and he lives

in the hearts of living millions on hill-top, valley and plain.

Grand indeed is the monument in Trafalgar Square which

perpetuates the triumphs of Nelson on the sea, and grand is the

Column Vendome which eternizes the victories of Napoleon on

the land, but grander and sublimer by far than these is that love

implanted in the hearts of American freemen for the invincible

Stanton, who, with the immortal Lincoln, laid his life on his coun-

try's altar that the Union might live, and all men and women be

forever free.

Brave, generous and lofty, endowed with the most exalted

sense of honor. We seem now to be gazing upward to the sum-

mit of that Olympus upon which he serenely sits.

He seems as one who belonged to that majestic race of be-

ings to whom the ancient Greeks and Romans ascribed qualities

and honors almost divine-to some modern Achilles, Hercules,

or Theseus, and not a leaf of his laurels has yet had time to wither.

 

Deep scars of thunder had entrenched;

And Care sat on his faded cheek;

But under brows of dauntless courage.

 

Stanton stands out in our history as a mighty rock, firm and

immovable as the angry waves of rebellion dashed themselves

into foam at its base. His faults are but as the setting of the no-

bility of his nature which rises-

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360       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form,

Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm;

Though round its base the lowering clouds may spread,

Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

Dropping a tear of sorrow on the tomb of our dead Stanton,

let us turn with a smile of joy to our living McKinley. He too,

is a typical American. No other country on the face of the earth

could have produced him; simple-mannered, rugged, broad, com-

prehensive and manly; and a gallantry approaching the spirit of

the old cavaliers of romance, possessing talents of the highest

order, and an intellect cultivated to the most brilliant point of per-

fection; joined to all this, refined sensibilities, which constitute

the poetry of life and rescue men from the groveling vices and

debasing passions of our kind. He is just what the educating

forces of our own civilization would make of these attributes.

His well-balanced purpose of lofty devotion to duty, his uncon-

querable courage, his unselfish patriotism, his strict integrity,

honesty and nobility of character, his tender love for the wife of

his early manhood, all will ever remain glorious examples for the

emulation of the young men of this splendid land, to stimulate

them to a nobler manhood.

Oh, may our young men draw lessons of patriotism and de-

votion to their country from the example of his noble life, and from

its richness may the future gain its highest aspirations, for out

of that life they may construct an ideal on which to mould them-

selves.

In all the wars during the last century, and especially in the

war of the rebellion, Jefferson county furnished its full quota of

men, and sent officers and privates to every battlefield. Immortal

heroes! They each performed a part in the greatest drama in

our Republic's history. They assisted in settling for all time the

supremacy of the Union of the states, and the equality of all men.

And after the war was over, realizing that mercy is the brightest

flower in the victor's wreath, they bade the vanquished return to

their homes, lay aside their swords and muskets for the tools and

implements of workshop and farm, and mingle with the songs of

the birds their joyous songs of contentment, industry and peace.

Thus spreading over all the past the mantle of sweet charity and

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.       361

brotherly love, they returned to their homes, and soon as com-

rades and soldiers in war, were lost in the busy throng of citizens

of peace.

Surely the Union soldiers are the assured idols of undying

renown; living or dead they shall never be forgotten; and their

graves will be known as a shrine so long as chivalry girds on a

sword; shrines where patriot knees will bend and patriot eyes will

weep as long as freedom has a worshipper and patriotism a dev-

otee.

A few years ago, Jem Hollingsworth, a young miner in a

western camp, was turning a windlass by which a bucket filled

with earth was being lifted to the surface, while two of his com-

rades were digging at the bottom of the mine. When within a

short distance of the top the handle broke and the bucket started

down with fearful force; then, remembering his friends at the bot-

tom of the mine, Jem threw his body into the cogs of the wheel

and checked the fall of the bucket. Bystanders seeing the acci-

dent hastened to him, and after securing the windlass took poor

Jem's bleeding, mangled body out and laid it on a stretcher: as

they carried him away one of the men said, "Jem, this is awful,"

but with a smile on his dying lips poor Jem replied: "What's

the difference since it saved the boys?"

Thousands of splendid young men in Jefferson county and in

Ohio, over a third of a century ago, threw their strong, manly

forms into the iron jaws of rebellion, and when they were taken

out mangled and bleeding and sent home on crutches, with empty

sleeves, bearing scars and wounds, the legacies of battlefields,

their loved ones said when they got home, "Isn't it awful?" Their

answer was: "What's the difference since it saved the Union?"

Oh! patriotism  superb! Oh, heroism  sublime! On this

centennial day we must not forget to pay this slight tribute to their

memory.

Nor must we forget the patriotic women of this county and

state, who in all the years of the past contributed so much to that

upbuilding and development. And in the wars it was woman's

soft hand that staunched the bleeding wound, and cooled the

fevered brow of the soldier boy; it was woman's sweet voice that

spoke into his ears words of consolation and cheer; it was woman's

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362        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

tears that fell upon the face of the dead; and it was woman who

wrote his last message to the loved ones at home. And they did

all of this because of their love for the Union.

Ah, yes:

The maid who binds her warrior's sash

With smile that well her pain dissembles,

The while beneath her drooping lash

One starry tear drop hangs and trembles;

Though Heaven alone records that tear

And fame may never know her story,

Yet her heart hath shed a drop as dear

As e'er bedewed the field of glory.

The wife who girds her husband's sword

Mid little ones who weep and wonder,

And bravely speaks the cheering word

E'en though her heart be rent asunder;

Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear

The bolts of death around him rattle,

Sheds holy blood as e'er was shed

On freedom's gory field of battle.

The mother who conceals her grief

While to her breast her son she presses,

And speaks a few brave words and brief;

Kissing the patriot brow she blesses:

With no one but her secret God

To know the pain that weighs upon her,

Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod

Received on freedom's field of honor.

How wisely the fathers builded-how closely their sons have

followed in their footsteps! The wilderness has in reality been

made to blossom as the rose. And Ohio to-day is known as the

key of the heart of the continent. Two hundred miles square,

with an area of over twenty-five millions of acres. This happy

intervening of rivers, valleys and uplands, with a fertile soil, cov-

ered with forests, fields, orchards and meadows, with rivers and

canals, with turnpikes and railroads, and with a population larger

than the population of all the original thirteen colonies when they

declared their independence. A population of hardy freemen and

women larger than that grand old Republic nestled in the shadows

of the Alps held within its borders, when its brave, heroic sons,

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      363

seized with the noble inspiration on the famous battlefield of

Sempach, rescued liberty from the grasping hand of Austria; more

than Athens crowded within her historic gates when the gallant

Greeks at Plataea delivered their beloved land from Persia's

threatened yoke of slavery; more than Rome gathered on her

seven hills when Julius Caesar unfurled the banner of equal rights

to the balmy breezes of Italy, and amid the wildest acclaim and

joyful shouts of multitudes of outraged people, overthrew the

aristocratic commonwealth under Pompey on the battlefield of

Pharsalia, and reared upon its ruins the Imperial Republic.

This is the glorious result of the work started by the pioneers.

Their every endeavor seemed to be to develop their new country

and make it pleasant and profitable for their posterity. A beau-

tiful story is told of one of these. John Chapman, or Johnny

Appleseed, as he was called, who came to the Muskingum at an

early day and spent his time chiefly in scattering nurseries of ap-

ple trees about the country for the benefit of the coming people.

With nothing but his axe and bag of appleseeds he made his pil-

grimages far into the wilderness, when he cleared or deadened

spots in the woods in which he sowed his appleseeds, and sur-

rounding them with hedges of brush to keep off the deer, left them

as gifts to those who should follow. Many an orchard far out

in the Firelands and at the head of the Scioto and Miami, and the

Wabash was planted from these seedlings.

Marvelous indeed were the struggles of the pioneers-their

patience, fortitude and perseverance, their example should be a

constant inspiration to their children, spurring them on to nobler

deeds and holier endeavors.

In fancy I see a pleasant picture of the old father and mother

-they of the pioneers, sitting on the porch of their cottage home,

when they are in that period known as the sear and yellow leaf.

 

Almost alone like pilgrims worn,

Journeying alone,

Of all the friends they once possessed

They hardly can find one.

And, as the old father looks into the eyes of that dear com-

panion of his youth and old age, his mind wanders back along the

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364        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

pathway of the years, flecked and checkered with sunshine and

cloud, with storm and calm, through years of struggles, trials sor-

rows and disappointments; out at last into the grand, glorious

crowning beauty and benison of hard won and well deserved

success.

He feels prouder of her than ever before, and, as the tears roll

down his wrinkled cheeks, he blesses his God for that precious

gift of a good companion who has stood by his side in all those

years of hardship and sorrow.

And she, with a sweet smile, looking at him through her tears,

says in tremulous voice:

John, dear, we are old and gray;

Fifty years since our wedding day,

Shadow and sun for every one as the years roll on;

John, dear, when the world went wry,

Hard and sorrowful then was I,

Ah, lad, how you cheered me then;

Things will be better, sweet wife, again;

Always the same, dear John, my own,

Always the same to your old wife Joan.

John, dear, but my heart was wild

When we buried our baby child,

Until you whispered, Heaven knows best;

And then my troubled heart found rest.

John, dear, 'twas your loving hand

Showed the way to the better land;

Ah, lad, as you kissed away each tear,

Life grew better and Heaven more near.

Hand in hand when our life was May,

Hand in hand when our hair is gray,

Shadow and sun for every one as the years roll on,

Hand in hand when the long night tide

Gently covers us side by side,

Ah, lad, though we know not when

Love will be with us forever then;

Always the same, dear John, my own,

Always the same to your old wife Joan.

By and by the storm of their life was over, and side by side

they were laid to rest in the quiet little cemetery, and now each

springtime they are covered with the same mantle of green, decked

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.     365

 

by nature with the same wild flowers blooming over each with im-

partial love; while at nighttime the whippoorwills chant their

solemn requiem to their memory.

Let them peacefully sleep; all honor to their memory-they

were Jefferson county's noble pioneers.

Some one has said, that in the pious and magnificent struc-

tures of the great temples of the Mohammedan faith the inde-

structible and infinitely divisible fragrance of the attar of roses

was mixed by the builders with the mortar with which they held

together the mass and ever since annually ten thousand worship-

pers have worn the stone pavement of the structure for a hundred

generations, and yet find their prayers still imbued with the un-

dying fragrance of this inexhausted and inexhaustible perfume.

These great masses of wealth, and of population and of power,

this structure that our fathers built and we occupy is but the as-

semblage of the great material structure that built up to the visi-

ble eye a temple. But the cement that holds it all together is

perfumed by the great virtues and the sweet influences of the

men and women that laid this moral structure. Let us never

lose that perfume, for if we do, that cement will crumble and the

structure be destroyed.

As heirs of a splendid heritage we should love our homes,

our city, our county, our state, and our Republic. It is only when

a people lose their patriotism and become stupid and careless

from too much revelry in luxury, peace, and prosperity, that they

are in danger. This has been the road along which many nations

and many peoples of all the ages in the past have gone down to

ruin and decay. And the wrecks of their cities are strewn along

the banks of Time's fretful stream. So it was with Tyre, the queen

of the desert, her atmosphere ever fragrant with the sweet aroma

of spices brought to her fairs by caravans from distant climes;

her sails of commerce once whitened many seas, the beautiful

horses of Arabia were on sale in her market places. There too

could be found the rarest wines, emeralds, corals, embroidered

work, and upholstered wares, of the rarest quality and pattern.

But where now is the din of her markets, where the splendor

of her magnificent structures?  Where the noise of her chariots

and the laughter of her charioteers as they thundered along the

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366       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

public thoroughfares? Where, where are all these? Let the

rude fishermen, who dry their nets where here palaces once stood;

let the crested billows of the sea that now roll where her towers

once gleamed in the sunshine; let the humble heathen who now

sets his tent where Tyre once sat in glory, answer the question.

Thebes too, was once the brightest star of her time, with her

public places filled with wondrous works of art challenging the

admiration even of the antiquarian who now digs and studies

amid her historic ruins; with columns and temples unsurpassed

in the history of mankind, when the artists of the renowned

studios of earth brought the products of their brains and hands

to win the plaudits of the world's lovers of art.

And Babylon, with her towers, her gates of brass and her

granite walls, and with palaces wherein were gathered riches un-

surpassed, her hanging gardens also, with trees of rarest foliage,

and flowers of varied hues yielding their rich perfume to make

fragrant each passing breeze, with fountains sending up their

silver sprays to glitter in the sunshise, while amid the spreading

boughs of the trees birds of wondrous plumage chanted their

sweetest songs, until they filled with enchanting melody the wav-

ing woods of Babylon. But finally the storm came; the gates

crumbled and the walls fell, and the startled banqueters, hasten-

ing from their palaces, joined the revellers in the garden groves

and in terror together went down into oblivion.

To-day the pilgrims walk on that scene of desolation, and

from the broken stones and pottery they read its history. The

owls and bats have their homes amid the ruins of the once far-

famed palaces, and amid the awful surging of that billow of deso-

lation that now rolls over the place where Babylon once was,

they hear the wild waves saying, "Babylon, oh Babylon, in the

midst of thy glory and grandeur thou didst slumber in the dreamy

realms of wealth and luxury and inactivity. Thou didst lose thy

pride and patriotism, and now thou are no more." So it was

with them all, they slept the sleep of the sluggard, and the wiley

enemies from without and from within their borders accomplished

their ruin and downfall, so that now they live only in legend and

story.

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      367

 

Every effort put forth to develop this country and this state

still more in the future, to make a dozen vines to grow where

but one grew before, to swing to each other their delicious clusters

that seem a whole happy rural population held in Dryad spell,

whose joined hands a word would set free to urge all with glad

coercion into the merry vintage dance:-To cause two trees to

spring up where but one appeared before, to hold aloft in their

rustic hands their luscious fruit to ripen in the sunshine; to make

two stalks of wheat bend their heads to the harvester, where but

one nodded its head before, and to make two ears of corn to

swing their silken tassels to the breeze, where but one had waved

its plume:-Every effort to build churches, colleges and universi-

ties; to found homes for the helpless and the aged, asylums for

the unfortunate, hospitals for the sick, and art galleries, museums

and libraries for the poor:-Every effort to elevate the character

of the people, to banish ignorance, vice and impurity from the

land, and to cultivate a desire for intelligence, purity, integrity,

loyalty and nobility of character in the minds of the masses of

our citizens:-Every advancement made in the realms of science,

literature and art; every new discovery, every new invention,

every encouragement to gifted genius in every field of thought;

every act that ennobles humanity and makes the world better.

Every wise law promulgated; every effort to cultivate peace and

good will among the people of the different sections of our coun-

try and uphold an unconquered flag:-Every endeavor to nar-

row and obliterate forever the widening chasm between capital

and labor, to ameliorate and improve the condition of those who

toil in the workshops, in the mills and in the fields, until their

labor shall be more productive and their lives made brighter;

until equal and exact justice shall prevail among all classes of

our people, and beautiful virtue and spiritual grace shall light

up the homes of the poor, and the shadows of darkness and gloom

shall melt away before the dawning light of a brighter day of

contentment, happiness and peace:-Every effort to teach the

youth in the public schools and elsewhere to love their country

and its flag, and to fondly cherish the memory of the pioneers

who opened the gates of the Ohio to the tide of a marvelous civil-

ization:-All this is glorious work in which to be engaged, and is

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368      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

worthy of the descendants of those brave and chivalrous men

and women.

The pioneers builded better than they knew, for no country

in the world furnishes such splendid opportunities for poor boys

as this country does, and Ohio is almost in its center.

As we pass through many of the cities and villages of the

northwest, we often see some country boy standing by his load

of wood and to the passer-by he says, "Mister, will you buy a

load of wood?" To him we cannot keep from saying, be coura-

geous, my boy, your lot may be a hard one, your clothes may not

be as good as the clothes some boys wear, but be manly, be strong,

take advantage of your opportunities, go to the public school, be

loyal to your country and true to your fellow men, for once upon

a time a boy like you stood on the streets of a western city selling

wood, and now a majestic monument rises to mark the place

where he once stood, and the "wood hauler," Ulysses S. Grant,

is immortal.

And as we pass by a canal we see a little boy, ragged and

barefooted, driving his mule along the tow path, and to him we

feel like saying:

Don't be discouraged, my lad, your pathway may not be a

pleasant one, but remember that once there was a barefoot lad

who trod the weary tow path which led from a canal in Ohio to

the White House in Washington, and the canal boy, James A

Garfield, is immortal.

Then away in a forest we see a stalwart farmer boy splitting

rails with which to build an old fashioned worm fence around

father's little farm, and to him we feel like saying:

Be brave, my boy; though poverty and hard labor may now

be your portion, there's a better time coming by and by, take ad-

vantage of our free institutions, for they will furnish the full equip-

ment of shield and spear for the battles of freedom; and don't

forget that once there was a homely rail splitter who climbed the

granite shaft of fame amid the admiration of the civilized world;

with his chisel he carved a place as it were for his fingers and

his toes as he climbed hand over hand, and foot over foot, with

the weight of a Republic resting on his shoulders and tears rolling

down his sad face; he climbed higher and higher, while the shame-

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.       369

ful darts of malice, hate and envy were hurled at his quivering

form; around the base of that shaft the boys in blue with muskets

and fixed bayonets guarded him as he climbed, until finally God

stretched forth His hand and plucked him from the theater of

things to become a saint in glory in the Pantheon of Kings, and

the "rail splitter," Abraham Lincoln, is immortal.

Great and happy country. Where manhood reigns alone

and every citizen is king. May patriotism and love of country

bloom and blossom in the hearts of the present generation of

free men and women, even more than they did in the hearts of

the fathers and mothers who blazed the pathway through the

primeval forests for this unexampled civilization, and as they now

sleep in their quiet homes covered each springtime by wild flow-

ers, nature's sweetest emblems of love and affection, while their

children continue the great work which they so nobly began.

And gathering together on this centennial day let them unite

in a mighty anthem of praise and thanksgiving until their land

shall be filled with melody as they sing:

 

Great God we thank Thee for this our home

In this bounteous birthland of the free,

Where wanderers from afar may come

To breathe the pure air of liberty;

Still may thy flowers untrampled spring,

Thy harvests wave and thy cities rise;

And yet till Time shall fold his wing

Remain; Oh, remain our cherished paradise.

All hail! Jefferson county. All hail! the dawning of the new

century, with hope and joy.

Brief addresses were made by Mayor McKisson, of Cleve-

land; Hon. John J. Sullivan, of Warren; Lieutenant Governor

Asa W. Jones, Rev. John J. McCook, of Hartford, Conn.; Adju-

tant General Axline, General E. R. Eckley and Hon. E. O. Ran-

dall, of Columbus, Secretary of the Ohio Historical Society and

official reporter of the Supreme Court.

Gen. Anson G. McCook was called for, but as the general was

to accompany Gen. Sickles to the train he begged to be excused.

 

 

Vol. VI-24

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