The Croghan Celebration. 73
three tremendous cheers. The day was a
glorious one for the
cause of freedom." This of course
foreshadows the civil war.
"Who used Old Betsy last?"
asks the Journal of January
23, 1857. "It has been standing in
the street for several weeks
now. Captain Parrish should see to this
old servant."
In a long article on the celebration of
August 2, 1860, the
Journal says: "At 6 o'clock Captain
Parrish brought out 'Old
Betsy' and fired a salute of thirteen
rounds. Soon after the peo-
ple of the county began to pour in.
Cassius M. Clay was the
orator of the day." At the
celebration of 1852 Thomas L Haw-
kins, a well-known Methodist preacher
and the town poet, who
had been appointed commissary of the
fort after the battle of
Fort Stephenson, read a poem addressed
to the old six-pounder,
apostrophizing her as Betsy Croghan, a
name by which she is
frequently called. This poem is printed
below. In another
poem on Croghan's victory, Mr. Hawkins
calls her "Our Bess,"
while tradition has it that the garrison
called her "Good Bess."
But "Old Betsy" she is now and
ever will be in local and na-
tional parlance. Little children play
about her, the birds often
build their nests in her mouth, visitors
pass curious hands over
her breech, and young reporters take her
photograph and write
"story" about her. After all
she is the only one left who saw
our hero in battle, who heard the quick
orders of those two days'
fight, who faced the oncoming veterans
of Wellington's troops
and settled it that they should rest
thereafter in Lower Sandusky
soil.
"Old Betsy's" voice will
probably never be heard again, but
as she stands her silent guard over the
remains of George Cro-
ghan, on the scene of their great
victory, she "yet speaketh."
"OLD BETSY."
THOMAS L. HAWKINS.
Hail! thou old friend, of Fort MeGee
Little did I expect again to see,
And hear thy voice of victory,
Thou defender of Ohio!