Ohio History Journal

THE COFFIN OF EDWIN COPPOCK

 

BY THOMAS C. MENDENHALL

 

There has recently been added to the collection of

John Brown relics in the museum of The Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society another concern-

ing which I have been requested to tell the following

story:

On the morning of the tenth of April, 1865, I left

my room which was over the Farmers' National Bank

on Main Street, Salem, Ohio, intending to proceed to

the High School, in which I was a teacher. But I did

not see the inside of a school room that day.

Groups of people were forming at every corner and

I soon learned that news had been received of the sur-

render of Lee to General Grant, the long looked-for

climax of the Civil War. This event was of far greater

importance to the people of the United States than was

that of the armistice at the end of the recent European

war, and the joy with which it was greeted was far

greater than that exhibited on the latter occasion.

There were many reasons why the town of Salem,

Ohio, should be more jubilant over the end of the strug-

gle than most communities. For many years it had been

the center of activity of the anti-slavery forces west of

the Allegheny mountains, the headquarters of the

Western Anti-Slavery Society, as Boston was of the

New England Anti-Slavery Society. Out of it, during

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The Coffin of Edwin Coppock      453

many years, had gone the weekly issue of the Anti-

Slavery Bugle (the organ of The Western Society, as

Garrison's Liberator was of that of New England)

from which many a powerful and far-reaching "Blast

for Freedom" had come. Its town hall had resounded

with eloquence of the most famous expounders of the

anti-slavery doctrine, including William Lloyd Gar-

rison, Fred Douglas, Wendell Phillips, Parker Pills-

bury, Abby Kelley, "Sojourner Truth" (illiterate but in-

spired negro-slave woman orator) and many others. It

was the "Faneuil Hall" of the West.

Some of the people of Salem had suffered, some to

the extent of being "tarred and feathered", because of

their activity in an unpopular cause, and in its cemetery

was the tomb of Edwin Coppock, who was one of John

Brown's men, hanged at Harper's Ferry, December 16,

1859. The body of this martyr to the anti-slavery cause

was sent to the home of his relatives living near New

Garden (a few miles south of Salem) and on December

18 it was buried in the cemetery* of that small village,

in the presence of as many as two thousand witnesses,

including practically the entire population within a

radius of a few miles.

A few days later a "call" was issued, printed on thin

blue paper about eight inches by five inches in dimen-

sions, signed by twenty-four leading citizens of Salem,

of which the following is a copy:

 

* This cemetery is now in the village of Winona.

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454      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

FUNERAL

OF

EDWIN COPPOCK

The friends of Edwin Coppock and of the great principles of

freedom for which HE sacrificed his life, and to advance which

he suffered martyrdom, being desirous of showing proper re-

spect to his memory have obtained his remains from his rela-

tives, and have made arrangements to inter the body in the

cemetery in

SALEM, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1859.

To meet at the TOWN HALL at 1 o'clock P. M. All the

friends of JUSTICE, LIBERTY and HUMANITY are invited to attend

and participate in these solemn rites.

R. H. GARRIGUES                                                     JOHN HUDSON

DANIEL BONSALL                                                     C. H. GARRIGUES

JACOB HEATON                                                          JAMES WHINERY

ISAAC TRESCOTT                                                       ELIJA WHINERY

OLIVER MILLER                                                         ALLEN BOYLE

JOHN FAWCETT                                                          EDWARD GIBBONS

J. K. RUKENBROD                                                     JOEL MCMILLAN

ISAAC SNIDER                                                             J. C. WHINERY

T. E. VICKERS                                                           SAMUEL BRUBAKER

W. P. WEST                                                                 A. WRIGHT

JOHN MCLERAN                                                          SAM'L D. HAWLEY

A. BRADFIELD                                                       J. M. BROWN

In response to this call thousands of visitors from

all parts of Northeastern Ohio came to Salem on the

day announced and the body of the martyr, after being

transferred from the rude coffin in which it had been

sent from Harper's Ferry, to a fine metallic casket, was

buried in Hope Cemetery where it has since rested be-

neath a shaft of sandstone on which the only inscrip-

tion is the name "Edwin Coppock".

While enthusiasm over the "end of the war" grew

rapidly on the streets of Salem on the morning of April

10th, there was little organization for its expression-

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The Coffin of Edwin Coppock       455

and little was needed. The mayor of the town, how-

ever, issued a proclamation requesting all persons to

close their places of business, to give up the day to gen-

eral rejoicing and to illuminate their dwellings at night.

A meeting was held in the historic town hall and within

a few hours practically the entire population of the

town, numbering at that time about three thousand, was

upon the streets, bent on giving voice to the joy which

was in their hearts. Only a little more than five years

had elapsed since the body of Coppock had been received

in Salem, at which time it had seemed to many that the

miserable failure of John Brown's venture had post-

poned indefinitely the freedom of the slave.

The historic value of the rude box in which it had

come had been recognized by Dr. J. C. Whinnery,* and

he had preserved it in the attic of the building in which

his offices were located. This fact was known to the

writer of these lines and with the assistance of three

others (young men) it was brought down and an effigy

of General Lee was placed in it. It had not been for-

gotten that it was General Lee who commanded the

marines who broke into the Fort at Harper's Ferry,

who prevented the escape of Edwin Coppock and were

thus immediately responsible for his death. With this

upon their shoulders they came out upon the street and

in an incredibly short time they were marching at the

head of a procession numbering more than a thousand

people, all shouting the refrain of that great war hymn:

 

"John Brown's body lies moldering in his grave,

His soul goes marching on."

 

*Whinnery is the correct spelling. The name is misspelled in the

handbill.

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456     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

With this song of triumph as they marched, the

streets of the unusually quiet old Quaker town were

made to ring as never before and never since, and it is

doubtful if there was anywhere in the country, on that

memorable day a more vivid illustration of the rapid

march of events during those half dozen fateful years.

At the death of Dr. Whinnery many years later, this

interesting relic came into the possession of his daughter,

Mrs. Gertrude Whinnery Richards, to whom The Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society is greatly

indebted for its transfer to the Society's museum at

Columbus, where it will continue to be an object of great

interest to the thousands who annually visit this very

remarkable collection of articles and documents, mostly

related to the history of our own state. And it will help

to keep alive in the minds and thoughts of these thou-

sands, some knowledge and veneration for the men and

women of that heroic period.

The Society is also much indebted to Mrs. Annie

Boyle Gilbert, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the

original of the call to the Coppock funeral to which the

name of her father, Allen Boyle, is attached.

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