Ohio History Journal

EDITORIALANA.

WILLIAM HENRY HUNTER. William H. Hunter, Trustee and member of the Executive Com- mittee of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, died

suddenly at his residence, Chillicothe, Ohio, in the early morning of Wednesday, June 19, 1906, after an illness of only five days' duration. Mr. Hunter closed his earthly career as he had often expressed a desire to do, in the very midst of his daily activities. Never was he more energetic or enthusiastic in his life work. On the previous Wednesday, June 13, Mr. Hunter attended the commencement at Marietta College, where he re- ceived from the college authorities the honorary degree of Master of Arts, conferred upon him be- cause of his literary attainments and numerous and valuable contributions to the History of Ohio. On the evening of the day in question, at a ban-

quet of the alumni of the college, Mr. Hunter delivered a most eloquent and scholarly address upon the racial "Birthright of Governor Arthur St. Clair." Governor St. Clair was a favorite historical character with Mr. Hunter. To the city of Chillicothe and also to Marietta College, Mr. Hunter presented oil portraits of Governor St. Clair, excellent like- nesses and admirable works of art by Charles P. Filson of Steubenville. Mr. Hunter was a man of superior talent and unusually endowed with the indomitable perseverance of the Scotch and no minimum of the fearless pugnacity of the Irish. These mixed elements of heredity made him a courageous fighter and won for him marked success in the struggle of life. Mr. Hunter was born at Cadiz, Harrison County, Ohio, May 26, 1852. He was the son of Joseph R. and Letitia McFadden Hunter His grandfathers, James Hunter and John Sloan were Scotch Presbyter- ians in Pennsylvania and soldiers in the American Revolution; a great- grandfather (Thomas Hunter) equipped and led a company in the French- English War; his father, Joseph R. Hunter, emigrated from Pennsyl- vania to Cadiz in 1830 and studied law in the office with the distinguished (383)

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Edwin M. Stanton. William H. Hunter was educated in the public and

private schools of Cadiz, and engaged for a time in wood carving and

the production of artistic pottery, originating the ware known as "Lon-

huda." Mr. Hunter's chosen vocation was journalism, and before the

age of eighteen he was in charge of the editorial department of the

Cadiz Sentinel. Mr. Hunter's tastes and pursuits from his earliest boy-

hood were those of an intellectual temperment. Under the tuition of

his brother-in-law and other men of educational attainments, Mr. Hunter

acquired a wide acquaintance with literature, science and philosophy;

he was an omniverous reader, easily absorbed information and there was

apparently no field of knowledge or speculation that did not elicit his

attention or become the subject of his investigation. In 1875, at the

age of twenty-three, Mr. Hunter in company with his cousin, H. H. Mc-

Fadden, purchased the Steubenville Gazette, and for twenty-five years

he conducted this paper, becoming a widely-known writer on historical

and economical topics, while at the same time taking the most active

interest in the municipal affairs of Steubenville. He had highly developed

the aesthetic sense and was an influential factor in the improvement both

of the sanitary condition and the ornamentation of his home city. With

the aid of other citizens he caused five thousand shade trees to be

planted along the sidewalks of Steubenville, transforming the appearance

of the barren thoroughfare to one of great attractiveness and beauty.

In the year 1890 with his brother George F. Hunter, then the owner of

the Chillicothe News, he purchased the Chillicothe Advertiser, and moved

to Chillicothe to conduct the paper thus resulting from the merger.

The writer first met Mr. Hunter at Steubenville, at the time of

the Jefferson Centennial. Mr. Hunter was much interested in the work

of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and at the solici-

tation of its Secretary prepared one of the most valuable contributions

ever published by the Society, that known as "The Pathfinders of Jeffer-

son County." This monograph has become the standard authority upon

the subject with which it deals and has been extensively consulted and

borrowed from by various writers throughout the country. At the Six-

teenth Annual Meeting of the Society, held at Columbus, April 26, 1901,

Mr. Hunter was elected a Trustee of the Society, which position he con-

tinued to hold until his untimely death; indeed, he was re-elected to that

position for the third time at the last Annual Meeting, held June 9,

1906, only ten days previous to his death. For the last four years Mr.

Hunter has been a member of the Executive Committee. He was one

of the leading spirits in the inception and promotion of the centennial

celebration held by the Society at Chillicothe, May 20 and 21, 1903, upon

which occasion he presented the city of Chillicothe with the bas relief

medallion of Ohio's first Governor, Edward Tiffin. Mr. Hunter was a

natural historian, he reveled in the realms of the past especially in the

origin and development of nations and the characters and careers of

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Editorialana.                        385

 

distinguished personages. In addition to the writings mentioned above,

he wrote in 1895 for the Pioneer Society of West Florida an exhaustive

pamphlet on "Scotch Achievement," which is considered an authority

and which was embodied as a chapter in "The Scotch in North Britain,

North Ireland, and North America," a work by the Hon. C. A. Hanna

of New York. Mr. Hunter wrote many historical papers for the Ameri-

can Society of Jefferson County; read papers before the Scotch-Irish

Society of America and before the Scotch-Irish Society of Philadelphia.

He was vice-president of the American Society and was the only resident

outside of Pennsylvania which the Pennsylvania Society of Scotch-Irish

made a member, a distinguished honor. He was a most active member

of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, at one time being

vice-president of the state society, for the past three years he was state

historian, and for many years, and at the time of his death a member of

the board of managers. Mr. Hunter's favorite study was the pioneer

period and more particularly the early annals of the Northwest Terri-

tory and of his native state, Ohio. He wrote the biography of Consul

Wilshire Butterfield, the historian and one of Mr. Hunter's tutors, which

sketch was printed as a preface to "George Rogers Clark's Conquest of

Illinois," by Mr. Butterfield and published under the auspices of the

Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. During the year of

the Ohio Centennial Celebration (1903) Mr. Hunter wrote a series of

articles for his paper entitled "Historical Notes on Ohio," with comments.

They were the most informing series of articles appearing at that time

relative to the early history of Ohio. Space will not permit an enumer-

ation of even the leading historical monographs and brochures which

emanated from the facile and restless pen of Mr. Hunter. His mind

was a remarkable combination of activity and accuracy; he could do a

tremendous amount of work in a short space of time without any sacri-

fice either to the truthful or the complete presentation of his subject.

In politics Mr. Hunter was an Old School Democrat. This did not,

however deter him from accepting the doctrines of the day, but with

shams and demogogy he had no toleration whatever. He was outspoken,

frank and blunt, and wrote and spoke as he thought. When in a fight,

from which he never shrank, he could strike hard blows, but it was

always an open antagonism. He never fired from behind a masked barri-

cade. There was no mistaking his attitude or views. While he could

be an uncompromising enemy, he never harbored any personal bitterness

and his friendships were warm and firm. His home life was tender,

kind and sympathetic. Mr. Hunter may not have been without his faults

- few men are - but as men come and go, he was far above the average

in ability, achievement and sterling qualities of enduring character. On

the stage of life he was not an inconsequential actor and he left behind

him permanent and influential results of a life of great industry and un-

swerving integrity. Mr. Hunter was married to Harriet Rosemond Brown,

Vol. XV-25

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386        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

who with two sons now grown to manhood, Philip C. and Wm. J., sur-

vive the decease of husband and father. His demise was universally and

sincerely mourned by his fellow-citizens for he had done much for the

commercial and intellectual advancement of Chillicothe, Ohio's honored

first capital.

His funeral was attended by all classes of citizens and he was

buried on Friday morning, June 22, in the beautiful little cemetery upon

the hill where lie the remains of so many of Ohio's historic characters.

Vice President George F. Bareis and Trustees James H. Anderson,

D. J. Ryan, W. C. Mills and E. O. Randall represented the Society and

were present to participate in the last sad rites accorded to one who

had done much to promote the progress of the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society.

 

 

 

DOINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

On Saturday, June 30, 1906, the Executive Committee of the Society

met at the office of the Treasurer, Outlook Building. There were present

Messrs. Bareis, King, Martzolff, Mills, Prince, Randall, Ryan and Wood.

The usual routine business was transacted, the most important of which

was that concerning the exhibit which the Society will arrange to make

at the Jamestown Exposition, to be held at Jamestown, Virginia, in the

summer of 1907. Negotiations have been in progress between the Execu-

tive Committee of the Society and the Ohio Jamestown Exposition Com-

mission, consisting of Mr. C. Clive Handy, Wauseon; Mr. Ernest Root,

Medina; Mr. John P. Given, Circleville; Mr. B. W. Campbell, Cincin-

nati, and Prof. Geo. W. Knight, Columbus, acting secretary. The com-

mission, after due consideration, formally offered from the fund at is

disposal the amount of $2,500 to the Society to defray the expenses of

the latter in making an exhibit of Ohio archeology and history. This

proposition was formally accepted at this meeting of the Executive Com-

mittee and a standing committee for the Ohio Society on the James-

town Exposition was selected as hereafter named.

Formal recognition was taken at this meeting of the sudden death

of Trustee William H. Hunter, who died at his home at Chillicothe,

June 19. An extended notice of Mr. Hunter and his services to the

Society are to be found elsewhere in this Quarterly. The Executive

Committee, being the controlling power of the Society in the interim,

in behalf of the Trustees proceeded to the election of a trustee to serve

in the vacancy above noted until the next annual meeting of the Society,

according to the provisions of the constitution. There was chosen to

fill the vacancy in the trusteeship Hon. James H. Beal, a resident of

Scio, Harrison County. Mr. Beal will bring to the trusteeship not

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Editorialana.                      387   only an enthusiastic interest but valuable service. He was born at New Philadelphia, Ohio, September 23, 1861, and received his early educa-

tion in the public schools of that town. He is an excellent example of Buckeye boys who have "worked their passage" through education and man- hood to success. While at school he labored during the vacations upon the farm and in the coal mines. He served as drug clerk for some five years in stores at Uhrichsville and Akron. He graduated at Scio College with the degree of Ph. B., and then for some two years attended the University of Michigan. His inclination was towards the field of science but circumstances led him to take up the study of law, and he entered the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated with the de- gree of L. L. B. in 1886, but he never engaged in

the active practice of law for he could not abandon his first love, science, and he began his life vocation in that department. He organ- ized the Scio College of Pharmacy and has been its dean since 1889. He acted as President of Scio College from 1902 to 1904. He became professor of Applied Pharmacy of the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy in 1890, which position he now holds. In 1889 he received the degree of Sc. D. for post-graduate work in Mt. Union College and later was given the honorary degree of Ph. G. from the Ohio Medical Univer- sity and Pharm. G. from the Western University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Beal represents that rare type of man that combines intellectuality and scholarship with peculiar adaptitude for the practical affairs of life. His efforts have not been confined to his mental attainments. He is engaged in manufacturing, banking and other lines of industrial and commercial activities. He was called by his constituents to represent his district in the General Assembly of 1892 and 1893, and there made himself prominent as the author of the Beal Local Option Law, the salient features of which have attracted wide notice and have been copied in other states. His legal knowledge and scholarly acquisitions, coupled with experience in public speaking, made him a prominent and forceful man in the assembly of which he was a member. Moreover, his frank manner and unquestioned integrity won the confidence of all his collegues without regard to party. Mr. Beal's acquirements in the study of pharmacy were recognized by the Ohio Pharmaceutical Asso- ciation, which in 1891 chose him for its president, he having been for some years one of the most active and conspicuous members of the organization, having previously held respectively the offices of second and first vice-president. He is a member of the board of trustees of the United States Pharmacopoeia Convention, a trustee of the Pittsburg

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388        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   College of Pharmacy and a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Professor Beal is a clear and forceful writer and the author of many monographs on the scientific subjects to which he has given atten- tion and which productions have appeared in leading scientific publica- tions of the country. He has published notes which have become text authorities on Equation Writing in Chemical Arithmetic; Pharmaceutical Interrogations and Interrogations in Dental Metallurgy. For many years Mr. Beal has been a Life Member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, rendering thereto much valuable service while a member of the legislature and takes especial interest in the project of securing a building for the proper housing of the Society. He has ever maintained that the Society deserves generous support at the hands of the state, regarding the work of the Society as not only important because it is collecting and preserving material, archaeologic and historic, which would otherwise be irretrievably lost, but further recognizing that the Society by its publications awakens among the people of Ohio, and the young especially, a proper apprecia- tion of the rich prehistoric and pioneer past of the Buckeye State. As Mr. Hunter was also a member of the Executive Committee, it became necessary to select some one as his successor. Colonel John W. Harper, of the Board of Trustees and formerly a member of the Executive Committee, was chosen to fill the position. At the annual meeting of the Society, held June 9, past, as duly recorded in the proceedings of that meeting elsewhere in this Quarterly, the Rev. Isaac F. King was elected a Trustee and at the subsequent meeting of the Trustees he was chosen a member of the Executive Com- mittee. Rev. Isaac Fenton King was born in Muskingum County, May 8, 1834, the son of James J. and Marian L. King. The history of his early

youth is much the same as that of every boy born and raised upon an Ohio farm. His elementary education was that which the neighboring district school could supply, supplemented by future study in the Zanesville Public Schools. He was bent upon the best education to be obtained and finally gradu- ated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1858, which alma mater gave him the degree of A. M. in 1861; Miami University conferred upon him in 1891 the honorary degree of D. D. Mr. King chose the ministry as his life profession and entered there- upon in 1858 in the Ohio Conference of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. He served on circuits for seven years and in church stations for seventeen

years and was then promoted to presiding eldership, in which he served for fourteen years. For the past ten years he has been the endow-

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Editorialana.                      389   ment agent for the Ohio Wesleyan University having also been a trus- tee of that institution for the past fifteen years. Mr. King has been an extensive traveler. Some fifteen years ago he made a prolonged journey through the principal countries of Europe and also Egypt. Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. These rare opportunities of travel offered Mr. King rich material for his pen and enabled him to write very extensively for the press. Only a few months ago he returned from another extended journey in which he practically encircled the globe. visiting New Zealand, Australia, Philippine Islands, Cuba, Ceylon, India, and Egypt, Mr. King has been a devoted scholar not only in the theology and history of his own church in which he is an authority but also in general literature. He has contributed much to the publication of his denomination, not only of a polemic nature but descriptive of the countries which he has visited, their peoples, religions, etc. His denomination has honored him by electing him delegate to its law making conference and he has been the recipient of many other honors from his church in which he has taken so active a part throughout his life. For many years he has been a life member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, has been active in its proceedings and has contributed valuable historical material for its publication. In previous pages of this volume notice was duly made of the death of Mr. S. S. Rickly, former Treasurer and Trustee of the Society.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held on November 24, 1905, following the demise of Mr. Rickly, Mr. Edwin Forest Wood was selected as Trustee to fill the vacancy; made a member of the Executive Committee and also elected as Treasurer, he having been Assistant Treasurer under Mr. Rickly for the past several years. At the Annual Meeting of the Society (June 9, 1906), Mr. Wood was elected Trustee to serve until the Annual Meet- ing of 1909. He was also elected by the Society Treasurer for the following year.  This was a proper recognition of the long and excellent ser- vices rendered by Mr. Wood both as a member and as an officer of the Society. He became identi-

fied with the Society in 1890 and served as Assistant Treasurer, really per- forming the duties of Treasurer, and having practically charge of the funds and financial affairs of the Society, for the past thirteen years. Mr. Wood was born in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1863, and when but two years of age moved with his parents, Earl P. and Maritta J. Wood, to the little village of Jersey, Licking County, Ohio. Mr. Wood as a boy attended the district school and later the Presbyterian Academy at Central College, Franklin County. He took up his residence in Columbus in 1879 and in 1884 entered the Capital City Bank, of which

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390        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Mr. Rickly was President. He served that institution, thoroughly

acquainting himself with the banking business until November 4, 1905,

having been Assistant cashier for many years past. On October 21,

1905, he was elected Secretary of the Ohio State Savings and Loan

Association, of which institution he had been a Director some ten or

twelve years previous, assuming the duties of his new position November

14, 1905. On January 1, 1906, Mr. Wood was elected by the members

of the Columbus Board of Education a member of that body from the

Twelfth Ward, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the former

member from that ward. From his boyhood Mr. Wood has been an

enthusiastic and untiring worker in his church (Congregational) and

Sunday-school. Besides being one of the most efficient officers in man-

aging the financial affairs of the Society, Mr. Wood has ever taken

deepest interest in the work and progress of the Society.

In accordance with the action of the Executive Committee, the fol-

lowing Standing Committees were appointed for the ensuing year:

Big Bottom Park - Messrs. Martzolff, Prince and Bareis.

Finance--Messrs. Wood, Ryan and Bareis.

Fort Ancient--Messrs. Prince, Harper and Martzolff.

Jamestown Exposition - Messrs. Mills, Wright and Prince.

Museum and Library--Messrs. King, Wright and Mills.

Publications- Messrs. Ryan, Randall and Wood.

Serpent Mound-Messrs. Wright, Brinkerhoff and Randall.

 

 

 

 

 

THE COLLECTING OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL.

Mr. A. J. Baughman (Mansfield), Life Member of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society and Secretary of the Richmond

County Historical Society, has given much attention to the methods of

collection of historical material. What he has to say upon this subject

we deem worthy of publication here:

The collection of material for historical purposes covering what in

Ohio is called the pioneer period has been a difficult task. That was

not an age of literature, but of work - of clearing the forest and of

building homes. The pioneers made history, but they had no time to

write it. A few of the first settlers may have kept chronicles and

annals, but after the country was somewhat improved, the same impulse

that brought them to Ohio, impelled some of them to again take their

places in the line of the march of civilization to the still farther West,

and while enroute their records were lost. And when the historian

came to write of the early settlements of the country, the information

obtained was largely of the traditional kind, and it has been difficult

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Editorialana.                        391

 

often to discriminate between facts and fiction. There were state and

county records, but the woof of events which the pioneers wove into the

warp of time had to be sought in part outside of official records to

make the web of history.

To state what I consider the best method of collecting material,

I take the liberty to give my own experience, prefaced with some per-

sonal history. My grand-parents were pioneers of Richland County,

Ohio. They settled there in 1808, the year the city of Mansfield was

founded. When a boy I heard my parents narrate pioneer tales, as we

sat winter evenings around the family hearth, in the warmth and glow

of the log fire of our cabin home. Their stories interested me, and that

interest grew with my years, and I endeavored to extend my informa-

tion upon pioneer history as opportunities were afforded. But it takes

years to get an adequate knowledge and an accurate history of any

locality.

I am a newspaper man and my vocation gave me opportunities to

visit every part of Richland County and adjoining territory, not only once

or twice but dozens of times during a series of years in the capacity of

solicitor, reporter and special writer, and upon all such occasions I made

more or less effort to become familiar, not only with the people, but

with the early history, the geography, the geology, the topography and

the pre-historic earthworks of the county. With the information thus

gained, I began the publication of historical and biographical sketches

as feature articles in the Mansfield papers, and these in turn were copied

by newspapers of other towns, and gave the people opportunities to make

corrections and additions, and these articles also aided in creating an

interest in historical matters which had never existed before, and resulted

in the formation of the Richland County Historical Society. From these

sketches I prepared a history of the county, which was published in the

centennial year, 1900.

To the "Fourth Estate," as Edmund Burke termed the press, I give

the credit of affording me the opportunities I utilized in collecting material

and for its presentation to the public in a manner open to criticisms and

corrections ere it was put into book form.

Therefore, I consider the press the best means by and through which

historical material can be collected and presented to the public; the best

experiences of former years into lessons that work for good in this

commercial age of endless hurry and needless haste.

It is in historical publications and by historical associations that

the lessons of pioneer life, with its joys and its sorrows, its trials, its

hardships and its achievements, can be preserved and inscribed, as they

should be, on the heart-tablet of every child in the land, from genera-

tion to generation.

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HAYES-TILDEN CONTROVERSY.

There is a saying, "Happy is the nation that has no history." We

doubt the truth of that trite-ism and would certainly take issue with

its philosophy. To say a nation has no history is to brand it as having

been one lacking necessity and activity. These latter elements wanting,

a nation would speedily lapse into lassitude and retrogression. Certain

it is that the nations that have contributed the most to the progress of

civilization are the nations which have led the "strenuous life" both

within themselves and with their environment. This is particularly true

of our own United States. Born amid the throes of a sturdily-fought

Revolution it grew to lusty manhood amid the strengthening struggles

incident to untrodden territory and untried forms of government. Having

won the perilous victory of independence, it next had to learn the lesson

of self control. That lesson it learned in the contest of Civil War--the

greatest internecine strife ever experienced by a civilized nation. The

world stood aghast at the magnitude and fierceness of that war in which

brother-states contended against brother-tates for the dissolution of the

perpetuity of the Union. The end of that bloody clash sealed forever

the unity of our government and the universal liberty of its inhabitants.

Scarcely had the vast armies of the North and South been dispersed

to their peaceful homes when the strength of this dearly bought unity

was to be tested, not upon the field of battle, but in the forum of bitter

political strife. This was the unique and unparalleled controversy known

as "The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876." A history

of that intensely interesting event was never fully written and put in

historical form until the appearance of a volume with that title, just

quoted, by Paul Leland Haworth, Lecturer in History, Columbia Univer-

sity, a volume in convenient form of some 370 pages, published by the

Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio, at $1.50, net.

We have carefully perused the pages of this book and cannot too

highly commend the thoroughness and impartiality with which Professor

Haworth has performed his task, one difficult, delicate and tedious. To

the handling of his subject Professor Haworth has brought the advantage

of the specially trained methods of a scholar; the historical temperment

and the untiring patience requisite for the acquisition and digestion of a

vast amount of detail. He has consulted practically all the material extant

of any value concerning his topic, and from this mass he has sifted that

which was reliable and pertinent to the proper presentation of both sides

of the controversy. With rare judgment he has impartially and fully pre-

sented the facts of both sides. Professor Haworth has chosen the oppor-

tune time for the preparation of such a political dispute. Up to within

comparatively a few years ago it would have been difficult to have obtained

an unbiased survey of the claims of either party, and a few years hence

there will probably have passed from the stage the witnesses who alone

could give testimony at first hand. Professor Haworth seems to have

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Editorialana.                       393

 

left little or nothing to be desired in the treatment of his subject. To

the presentation of his facts he gives logical organization and from the

results draws a judicial and convincing conclusion. After a painstaking,

minute and unprejudiced investigation, the author sums up the evidence

-in his chapter on the Legal Aspects and the Equities - and elicits the

verdict that the seating of Mr. Hayes was a justifiable compromise of a

doubtful perversion of political rights; that the Democrats committed the

first legal wrong by the shameless suppression of the elective franchise,

particularly in Louisiana and Florida, so as to unlawfully give those

states to Tilden. The Republicans met this initial wrong by the commis-

sion of another wrong, so claimed, namely the formal counting of the

electoral votes in question for Mr. Hayes. It was a game of seizure

engaged in by both parties. Had there been no theft on either side no

one questions but what the Republicans would have justly won the

election at the polls., therefore it is possibly a rare instance in which

two wrongs made a right. But, Congress with undisputed powers

created the Electoral Commission, and says Mr. Haworth, "So far as the

two parties as a whole are concerned, the plan adopted was favored by

more Democrats than Republicans." That the final outcome was accepted

with approval by the American people is evidenced by the fact that they

elected the Republican Garfield as the successor of Mr. Hayes. Professor

Haworth has produced a most valuable contribution to the historical and

political literature of our times. Mr. Haworth writes in a most vigor-

ous, bright and entertaining style.

 

 

 

THE OHIO MAGAZINE.

It is the day of magazines. The latest which has just made its

bow before an omniverous reading public is the Ohio Illustrated Maga-

zine, edited by the well-known writer and journalist, Webster P. Hunt-

ington and published at Columbus, Ohio, by The Ohio Magazine Publish-

ing Company, American Savings Bank Building, subscription price $2.00

per year. The initial number, which is dated July, gives promise of

occupying a field not yet pre-empted and occupying it in a most

attractive and acceptable manner. The editor of this magazine sets

forth as his reason for its being:  "The establishment of The Ohio

Magazine proceeds from the recognition of a condition not the promul-

gation of a theory. It takes into account, primarily, the fact that the

Buckeye state, with a population of more than 4,000,000, resources vast

enough to make it a princely empire in itself, a past justly celebrated in

the history of the world's most important nation and a future brilliant

with the promises of inestimable achievements, has no representative in

the field of periodical literature such as is now contemplated in this

magazine. Theory might flatter itself that a barren waste would become

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394        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

productive; but Fact, as related to this venture, may well congratulate

itself that here the richest of soil only awaits cultivation. The Ohio

Magazine will endeavor to afford the people of this state a monthly

medium for their enlightenment and entertainment, with the aid of the

pen, brush and camera. It will try to stand for Ohio character and

represent what is best in Ohio manhood and womanhood. It will seek a

special sphere in which it hopes to exercise an educational influence for

the betterment of material conditions and the uplifting of moral and

mental standards. It will exhibit what cause may exist that the Ohioan

should be proud of his state, by dealing candidly and comprehensively

with its history, progress and hope of future development. In detail

these objects will be infinitely diversified, but in inspiration and purpose

they will be the same."

The contents of the July copy thoroughly vindicate what is set forth

by the editor in his prefatory platform. Among the well-chosen and

admirably written articles are: Heroic Literature of the War of the

Rebellion, by Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood; Our Schools and Our Country,

by Alston Ellis; Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Ohio, by Col. William

A. Taylor; Some Old Medicine, by Dr. Starling Loving; Picturesque

Ohio, by Hollis Kight; a characteristic poem, The Old National Road,

by James Ball Naylor, etc. Mr. Huntington promises in future numbers

articles from very many of the most distinguished scholars, writers and

public personages of Ohio. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society Quarterly wishes its latest collegue in the field of Ohio literature

long life and prosperity. It goes without saying that Mr. Huntington's

magazine is executed in the highest art of the typographer; paper, illustra-

tion and every mechanical feature is delighting to the eye. The cover

is an unique representation in colors of the Ohio flag, with the Ohio seal

in the center. Subscription price $2.00 per annum, single copies 20 cents.

 

 

 

 

HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY.

Professor C. W. Williamson of Wapakoneta has prepared and put

forth a volume entitled "A History of Western Ohio and Auglaize

County." The volume consists of some 860 octavo pages with numerous

illustrations. It is divided into two parts, the first being purely historical

and pertaining to Western Ohio. This section treats of the early French

and English explorations; English Occupation of Ohio; Early Settlers;

Harmar's, St. Clair's and Wayne's respective Expeditions; Territorial

Events from 1791 to 1812; Harrison's Campaign; Indian Treaties, etc.

It is particularly complete in its treatment of the Indian tribes and chiefs

of Western Ohio. Part second deals more particularly with the history

of Auglaize County, its topography, geology, organic, political, judicial

and military history, with innumerable biographical sketches of pioneers

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Editorialana.                         395

 

and prominent personages. Professor Williamson is one of the best

known educators of the state, and in preparing this volume has brought

to bear not only the historic material which he has carefully collected,

but a discriminating use of the same and the employment of clear and

concise descriptive powers. This volume will be useful as a handy com-

pendium of the historic field with which it purports to deal. The mechan-

ical features of the work are all that could be desired. It is from

the press of William Linn & Sons of Columbus, Ohio.

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