Ohio History Journal

OHIO STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

SOCIETY.

 

REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS

 

BY THE EDITOR

 

A VISIT FROM BENJAMIN LUNDY

A letter of Ruth Galbreath, wife of Nathan Gal-

breath, dated "New Garden, Ohio, 2nd mo. 3rd, 1833,"

contains among other things a description of a visit

from Benjamin Lundy which may be of interest to

readers of this issue of the QUARTERLY, as it expresses

the regard of Columbiana County Quakers for this re-

former and bears testimony to the fact that he was a

not infrequent visitor in eastern Ohio at this time. The

letter in part is as follows:

"I had the very great gratification of seeing B. Lundy last

fall. He gave us a call and took tea with us, and I must tell

something of the manner of his introduction. I happened to be

alone in the kitchen. * * * I was very much engaged in my

household concerns when I heard a knocking at the front door

with the head of a cane, by which I inferred that it was a man.

So I thought he might knock away until he was tired and then

come down to the kitchen door, but finding he continued to knock

I at length called out, 'Come in,' more than once, but the knock-

ing still continued, and seeing no alternative, I with the implement

I was using ran hastily up and met at the door a little strange

looking man of no very interesting appearance. The first thought

that struck me was that he was a school master, come to be ex-

amined, Nathan having performed the office of examiner since

the institution of district schools. I invited him into the sitting

room, left him and dispatched a messenger for Nathan (for the

man had asked for him) and resumed my work in the kitchen.

When Nathan came, he went up to the room and soon returned

to the head of the stairs and called in an animated tone of voice

desiring me to come up. I dropped my work in an instant, say-

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Reviews, Notes and Comments          495

 

ing to myself, 'Who can it be?' and adjusting as I went my cap

and handkerchief I entered the room; but my astonishment at

hearing the name of Benjamin Lundy may be more easily

imagined than described. The next moment presented him to

my mind as an imposter. I sat down to try if I could be satisfied

by listening to their conversation. I was soon convinced and

perceiving him to be hard of hearing (which accounted for his

knocking after I had said 'Come in') I took my chair and sat

close to him and (call me not enthusiastic) I devoured every

word with the keenest avidity. Indeed I so far forgot my work

in the kitchen that I was obliged to force myself out of the room

to give orders for tea. I mentioned to him something of my

surprise and he related to me an anecdote of a man he saw in

his route who, like me, had heard of him but had not seen him

and said he expected to see a great fellow six feet high. I told

him I was not so much deceived in the height but I expected to

see more breadth of face as well as hat.

"What a powerful thing prejudice is and how this idol's

plainness has been and continues to be worshiped. Had B. L.

appeared amongst us in a straight drab coat and a broad white

hat, I am well pursuaded he would have excited infinitely more

attention and interest than he did, and I cordially confess had

he appeared in the garb I have mentioned and instead of a cane

in one hand and a bundle in the other [had] come riding in a

nice plain carriage or even on a good horse, I should instantly

have seen the necessity, or at least the propriety, of treating him

with attention and respect; and very sure I am he would have

gained more subscribers to his paper among us orthodox

Hicksites. I think it is much to be lamented that the form and

color of our clothing should be considered in our Society of such

vast importance that we cannot believe men or women can be

what they ought to be without this token of sanctity and mark

of a Quaker, forgetting, it would seem, that He whose followers

we profess to be has not said, 'By this shall all men know that

ye are my disciples if ye have drab coats and white hats;' but

'if ye love one another,' and taking another precept from the

same lips, namely, 'Every tree is known by its fruits,' can we

forbear to acknowledge that B. Lundy's claim to the title of

discipleship appears at least as strong as those who would not on

any account vary one tittle in the cut or color of their garments

from what Quakerism has been thought to require.

"B. told us he believed himself as much in his place as any

man would, whatever by the character of the service to which

he was called, and I firmly believed it too, notwithstanding it was

some time, as I have hinted, before I became entirely satisfied

that a man with a lappelled coat, a high crowned hat and large

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496     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

whiskers (and red ones too, mind, how would it look?) could

be devoted to the best of causes, following the Divine Master

in humility of soul. Yet such I believe is the fact. But you will

say, why mention red? She knows he can't change the color.

True, but why not cut them off, for surely red looks fiercer than

black."

The portraits of Benjamin Lundy, so far as we have

seen them, represent him with a smooth face. At the

time mentioned by the writer he evidently had cultivated

an ample beard of war-like color.

 

 

THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, whose contribution on

The Coffin of Edwin Coppoc appears in this issue, is

one whose name ranks high among America's eminent

scholars and educators. He was born on a farm in

Columbiana County, Ohio, near the villages of Hanover-

ton and New Garden, October 4, 1841. His parents

were Quakers, who shared the enthusiastic hostility to

slavery that characterized the pioneers of that faith who

settled in eastern Ohio early in the last century. They

lived at the time of his birth near the Coppoc neighbor-

hood and were later deeply stirred, as were their chil-

dren, by the events at Harper's Ferry and Charlestown

following John Brown's invasion of Virginia and the

execution of Edwin Coppoc. With this antecedent in-

heritance and environment, it is readily understood with

what enthusiasm Dr. Mendenhall, when a young teacher

in the Salem High School, entered into the celebration

of General Lee's surrender and how naturally the

Coppoc coffin with the effigy of the general suggested

itself to him as an appropriate memento to be borne at

the head of the procession.

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