Ohio History Journal

370       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

 

MILITARY DAY.

The third day was Military day, and no other county has

better right to commemorate the memory of the soldier than

Jefferson, whether he be of the Revolutionary war, of the Second

War for Independence, the Mexican war or the War Between the

States. Jefferson county furnished thousands of the bravest men

in the Federal army during the War Between the States. It is

not necessary to mention their names - the mere mention of this

awful conflict at arms between people of the same blood, of the

same ancestry, brings before us the names of men who were among

the bravest, whether in the line or whether they were in com-

mand. Jefferson county is proud of her military record. She

is proud to celebrate her prowess in war as well as her greatness

in peace.

After an imposing military parade, the addresses were deliv-

ered at La Belle park. Rev. J. A. Thrapp presided and ex-Lieut.-

Gov. R. G. Richards was the secretary. After the rendition of

"Marching Through Georgia," Rev. Dr. R. A. McKinley deliv-

ered an eloquent invocation, most feelingly spoken.

Hon. L. Danford, the Congressman from the Jefferson dis-

trict, delivered an address, reviewing the war and its results, refer-

ring to the part taken by Jefferson county in the conflict that

resulted in the freedom of the slave.

 

ADDRESS BY GEN. S. H. HURST.

Fellow Citizens of Jefferson County: -

At the invitation of your committee, I come with pleasure

to-day to join you in the impressive ceremonies of your splendid

centennial, and to bear to you the greetings of the people of the

Scioto valley and of old Chillicothe, where, almost a hundred

years ago, the seat of government of our great commonwealth

of Ohio was first established. In the midst of your rejoicings

we tender you our warm congratulations over your marvelous

growth and enrichment during the first century of your life. A

hundred years in the history of a people, spanning as it does the

average life of three generations of men, must under any circum-

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stances embrace many events of such interest and significance as

to make them worthy of commemoration in after years.

But when that hundred years covers the beginnings of things,

when in that period were laid the foundations, and was built the

superstructure of the splendid life of a free and intelligent people,

then indeed it must be crowded with significant events, worthy

to be recorded for all time, and to be commemorated and cele-

brated as the centuries go by.

And so it is most befitting that you gather here in vast

assemblage in these centennial days, and with song, and speech,

and story, with thundering cannon, and waving banners, and

with the gladness of grateful and patriotic hearts build here the

monument of your achievements, in the century just closed, by

recounting those achievements to your children and proclaiming

them to the world. In that hundred years you have transformed

Jefferson county from a dark and homeless forest to an Arcadia

of beauty-the happy home of fifty thousand souls. You have

built here a home-life as sweet and peaceful and charming as

the world affords. You have blended here into a social life,

where the knightliness of manhood, and the grace and charm

of woman have vied with each other to ennoble and enrich-

to beautify and to hallow the cricle of your broadened life. You

have planted here on every hill and in every valley, the school

house and the school, where the education, begun and continued

in the home, is enlarged and methodized, and inspired and directed

until intelligent thought and ripening scholarship have given you

an educational life of which you may be proud.

You have builded here your churches and your altars; have

treasured in your hearts and taught to your children the faiths

of your fathers; have cherished a sublime faith in the human

brotherhood of the race and the Divine Fatherhood of God; in

the immortality of the soul, and in the power of a pure religion

to transform and ennoble the spiritual life of men.

You have carried forward great industrial enterprises, util-

izing the soil, the forest, the mine and all the resources and forces

of nature, within your reach, and with skilled and educated labor,

as well as with intelligent operative labor, have carried forward

the work of the farm, the mine, the furnace, the forge, the mill

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and the factory until within your borders have grown many of

the industries of our advanced civilization. You have exercised

all the rights of citizenship, organized and administered local self-

government, furnished representative men for state and national

responsibilities and honors, and have been especially honored in

presenting to the nation the great war secretary, Edwin M. Stan-

ton, who was the right hand of support to Abraham Lincoln

during the four years' battle for the nation's life. Thus in your

home life, in your social life, in your educational life, in your

religious life, in your industrial life, and in your political life you

have wrought well, and have ever been an honored integral part

of this great central commonwealth of Ohio, whose conservative

power, alike in peace and in war is felt and recognized by the

whole Republic.

Our noble state, of whose grand manhood and noble record

we are so justly proud, is doubtless the most completely repre-

sentative of American life and character of any of the great sister-

hood of states. Into her young life, a hundred years ago, as

she grew up to, and into statehood, came the blood and brain

and brawn, came the spirit and ambition and hopefulness, came

the best manhood and noblest womanhood of thirteen states lying

east of us. These lines of western migration, taking in all the

coast states from New England to the Carolinas, ran converging

into the new territory and state beyond the Ohio river, and Jef-

ferson county was among the first places where these lines cen-

ered, and where these noble pioneers determined to locate, to

build their homes, and to aid in laying the foundations of the life

of the new Republic of Ohio. Into this formative society, these

early pioneers brought the diverse thought, and habits and faiths,

nd industries of the sections from which they came, and here

in the cabin homes, in the log school-houses, in the churches,

in the social circle, and public assemblage, these ideas and faiths,

habits and principles were sifted and smelted, and wrought into

new amalgam of life, out of which ultimately came that splendid

product of modern civilization known as "the Ohio man." Then

when the young state had been fairly established, the march of

empire started westward again, and then all the lines of migration

diverged from Ohio, just as they had converged into it, diverged

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      373

 

into all the western, northwestern and southwestern settlements,

until now our blood and brains have made their impress upon

every state that has been formed west of us. And so I say we are

closely and deeply akin to all the east, and to all the west, and

are pre-eminently the representative state of the great sisterhood,

and I am inclined to believe that Jefferson county is the rep-

resentative county of this great representative state.

For many years I have been going over our state, some-

what every year; have been meeting the farmers and soldiers

and citizens generally, and I have noticed with much interest

that the lines of migration which used to be distinctly marked

across the state, are gradually but certainly fading out, and we

are becoming a great homogeneous people. And with another

fact I have been impressed, especially as I have studied our rural

life and agricultural interests, and that is that the typical, or ideal,

American farm-life comes as near finding its realization in Jef-

ferson county and some of her adjoining counties as can be found

anywhere in the state or country. You have comparatively very

little non-resident land ownership; almost all your practical farm-

ers own the land they live upon. They are attached to it, and

take good care of it, and it takes good care of them. You have

not many farmers who live in town and farm in the country,

and still fewer, I apprehend, who live in the country and farm

in town. But I should not farther pursue these lines of thought.

The facts relating to your growth and prosperity, and the recol-

lections of your early and latter history and achievements have

been the themes of the past two days, and it has been a rare

banquet indeed to listen to the eloquent words in which the story

of your life has been so beautifully told. This day, however,

is set apart for a somewhat different line of thought. To-day

is "Military" or "Soldiers' day," and the themes for our thought

and reflection are, I apprehend, the love of country and the

love of liberty, and of justice, and of political righteous-

ness, and the unselfish and heroic elements in manhood

which inspire men to stand by country and liberty and defend

them, if need be, to the death. There has rarely been a finer

exhibition of devotion to principle than was shown in the spirit

of the men who first planned the colonization of the "Ohio coun-

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try." When the men who formed the Ohio company were about

consummating their deal for so many million acres of this virgin

soil, there was some opposition to the passage of the ordinance of

1787, dedicating all this northwestern territory forever to free-

dom. But no dream of fortune, or of empire, could blind those

men of New England as to the path of duty, nor bribe them to

depart from that path, and so they frankly said to the committee

of Congress, with whom the negotiations were being carried on,

"We will not buy your land unless slavery is forever prohibited

in that territory." And so it came about that this nation and the

world is indebted to those brave Puritans who were to have the

public lands in consideration for military service, for which the

government had no money to pay, were also in that new land

to have free homes, "where the blight of slavery could never

come." Thus had the spirit of the Revolution made men strong

for duty in defense of liberty, whenever the exercise of that cour-

age was demanded.

The three great wars that have tested the quality of American

courage and patriotism, and demonstrated the soldierly possi-

bilities of American manhood have on our part been singularly

free from passion or from military ambitions. Our fathers did

not begin the fight for independence because George Washington

wanted to be the president of a new republic, or the ruler of

a new empire in America. Nor did they begin the fight with a

storm of blind and rebellious passion - seeking to break down

established forms and inaugurate the reign of the red-shirted

mob. Many of our colonial leaders were statesmen of rare cul-

ture and character, whose nobility would have honored any par-

liament in Europe or the world. Our colonial life of a hundred

and fifty years had been a great school of liberty, where all the

questions of human right had been thoroughly discussed and

were intelligently understood. Our people were calm and peace-

ful and loyal. They were not ambitious or warlike, but they had

studied the gospel of liberty, and enjoyed the blessings of colonial

liberty in a high degree, and they were determined there should

be no encroachments nor usurpations limiting, or robbing them

of the rights they had so long enjoyed. And again and again

they pledged their loyalty to the mother country, if King George

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should abandon and disavow his encroachments on our rights.

This he would not do, however, and at once prepared to enforce

our complete subjection. But when petitions were unavailing,

when there was no longer hope of enjoying a rational degree

of freedom under the protectorate of the British government,

then they struck for independence, as well as liberty, then the

Puritans of the north and the Huguenots of the south, standing

together with clasped hands, pledged to each other "life and

property and sacred honor," for liberty and independence, and

with a courage that commanded the admiration of the civilized

world, in a bitter fight of seven weary years, won the first great

battle for human rights fought in the western world. It would

be trite indeed for me to attempt a eulogy of the soldiers of the

Revolution. Their fame is as wide as human civilization.

It is sung by our children and voiced by statesmen and

poets wherever the English language is spoken. All alike

delight to do them honor, and I am sure it is, as it ought to be,

a matter of great and honest pride to many who join in this

centennial celebration- citizens of Jefferson county,-that you

are the direct descendants of these soldiers of the Revolution,

and that the blood of such immortal heroes thrills through your

veins. With great wisdom the infant republic was guided through

four decades of her young life; she had now taken a place among

the nations. But England was jealous of her prosperity, was

haughty and insolent, chary of granting us the rights that were

accorded to other governments by the law of nations. She cap-

tured our vessels, searched our ships, and impressed our seamen

at her pleasure, denying the right of expatriation to seamen who

were English born. Vainly we protested against the perpetra-

tion of these wrongs and outrages. Her replies were renewed

insults, and there was no redress left us but a resort to arms.

The issue was one of international rights. But the principles

involved we could not ignore, and so the nation bravely took

up the gage of battle. Two years of active war on land and

sea brought England to realize her great mistake. The courage

and spirit of our American soldiery again commanded the respect

of the world, and the concession of England practically to all

we claimed vindicated not only the righteousness of our cause

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but also our ability to enforce the recognition of our rights by

the leading nations of the earth. Every part of the state con-

tributed its quota of citizen soldiers in the prosecution of this

war, and though the armies were not large, nor the contest very

direful, much military, naval and mercantile significance was

attached to the two years' struggle.

The repeated outbreaks of border warfare with the Indian

tribes of our western territories developed along our frontier

a quality of soldiery among the hardy pioneer settlers, and in

our small standing army stationed there, capable of coping with

the wily and treacherous savages with whom they had to deal,

and although there were serious outbreaks and massacres, still

they were generally held well in check, and the tides of emigration

poured steadily westward, planting and building state after state,

and rapidly developing the marvelous resources of the great Mis-

sissippi valley.

The war with Mexico, though creating at the time great

political and military interest, was in fact scarcely a test of the

quality of our soldiery, since the enemy we were engaged with

was incapable of meeting a daring and skillful foe. And so our

marches to the capital of that country were a succession of almost

unbroken triumphs.

But the war of the Rebellion, or the late Civil War, that

from '61 to '65 menaced the life of the republic, constitutes a

chapter in our military and civic history which utterly overshad-

ows, dwarfs and belittles all that had gone before. That great

battle of four years was a struggle of such magnitude, of such

bitterness, of such determined purpose - on the one side to de-

stroy, and on the other side to save the great Republic--it

was so deeply and cruelly direful in its character, and its results

were so immeasurably important to the American people and

to the whole civilized world, aye, to the whole human race, that

it seems as if all our history, and all that was possible to us

of suffering, of peril, of disaster and defeat, of agony and despair,

as well as of courage and hope and triumph and destiny, were

crowded into those fearful years. And yet it came to us so sud-

denly and unexpectedly-we were so utterly unprepared to meet

the causeless revolt - it was so out of the realms of human reason

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.     377

 

to think that it would come, that it was many times more direful

than it could have been had we known it was coming. It defied

credulity that such an attack could come to us from our own

brothers, under our own roof-tree, to despoil our common her-

itage, to spread the blighting curse of slavery, and supplant the

Republic of Washington by the slave empire of Jefferson Davis.

We put from us the belief that the South would make war

upon us. It was so unnatural, and we refused to prepare even

for defense, lest we should fan the fires of passion, and provoke

them to hostilities. We were on our knees praying God for peace

and brotherhood, while they were drilling and preparing for the

conflict. They had every power of the government in their hands.

They had the President, and had inspired him to believe and

to say that there was no power in the government to conserve its

life. They had Congress, where they met the arguments of our

Senators with brutal and cowardly assault. They had the Su-

preme Court from whose chief they had just heard the doctrine of

the Dred Scott decision. They had the Secretary of War, who

submitted to the seizure of our southern forts and arsenals and of

large quantities of arms and army stores. They had the Secretary

of the Navy, who had sent our little navy to the ends of the earth.

They had the Secretary of the Treasury, who had bankrupted not

only the treasury, but our credit also. They had control of the

foreign diplomacy so that they could misrepresent to the nations

the spirit and purpose of our American political life and institu-

tions. They had the commander-in-chief of the army, who, like

the President, was mainly distinguished for his age and imbe-

cility. They had everything in their own hands, and they had

used all these offices and opportunities to plot and organize

treason against the Republic, even while the oath of allegiance

to the old government was upon their souls. And all through

the winter of 60-61, during the five months intervening between

the election and inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, they had

promoted the rebellion with all the power they could command.

Seven states had gone through the pretended form of seceding

from the Union, and had set up a confederate government at

Montgomery, Alabama, and the only things necessary to put the

revolt on its feet were the organization and equipment of a south-

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ern army and the firing of the southern heart. And to these two

things the fire-eating Southerners devoted all their energies. The

new confederate government was active in voting men and money

and in collecting supplies and material of war for the conflict

which they defiantly invited. But our own Government would

do nothing lest a conflict might be precipitated.

The first month of Mr. Lincoln's service was passed in the

same way, he hoping against hope that better counsels might

prevail, and waiting till the sleeping patriotism of the north awak-

ened to assert itself in case decisive action became necessary. The

attack upon and capture of Fort Sumter at Charleston Harbor,

brought on the crisis. It awakened the whole Nation, north and

south, to the startling fact that war was upon us, and was actually

begun.

The war spirit now swept over the north as it had over the

south, like wildfire. The time had come for action. Mr. Lincoln

called for 75,000 men, and 300,000 responded. The south had

constantly asserted that northerners were cowards, and would not

fight. Now the spirit of our northern manhood was awakened,

as we shall see. Still everything was for the time against us;

we had neither organization, discipline, nor drill. We had poor

arms, and inefficient officers, and were really incapable of doing

efficient service. But we were there, we answered to the roll call,

and were ready for any duty that came to us in defense of the

Republic.

Our successes in western Virginia during the summer of '61

led many to think the struggle would be short. But the sicken-

ing disaster at First Bull Run dispelled that hope entirely. And

now we were compelled to look the matter squarely in the face,

and to recognize the fact that the war might last for years, des-

perate and direful as it afterwards proved to be. And now for

the first time we began to appreciate the character and magnitude

of the work before us.

And yet there was nothing else to do but to fight. There was

no answer to the gage of battle but battle. And if we were not

able to move upon the enemies of our country in aggressive fight,

then we must assume the defensive, until we were ready to fight

them in open field. Our statesmen had beaten them in argument

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.     379

 

in Congress and in the Senate; and when they could not answer

our great Senator with words and arguments they answered him

with the bludgeon of a bully.

We had beaten them at the ballot-box and when they had

no answer to that they said, "We can whip you," and we said,

"Maybe, but so long as you make war upon our country and its

flag, we'll fight you to the death." Deep in our hearts we had

unquestioning faith in the righteousness of our cause, and al-

though the triumph was postponed, still we had the men and we

had boundless resources. Skill in arms and genius in leader-

ship, ability to fight a disciplined foe would come with time and

discipline and experience. And so with a deep conviction of the

sacredness of our cause, and an abiding faith in its ultimate tri-

umph, we pledged our lives and loyalty to God and the country

"for three years or during the war." Young men, most of us,

just entering the fair fields of life. Joyful and hopeful in the

bright dream of the future, happy in our surroundings and our

homes, we were-yet what could we do but answer to the drum

beat when the country called us to duty. And so without a tear

we laid our lives upon the altar, almost without a pang we gave

up home and friends and loved ones-almost without a regret we

severed the tenderest and holiest ties of life for duty. What else

could we do? Could the great battle of the ages for free man-

hood and free government, and free civilization in this western

world be fought and we not there? No, no, we had to go; all

that was heroic in our natures, all that was noble and true within

our souls bade us go; and answering to that heroic inspiration,

you, and you, and you, gave up everything for duty. Out of the

hills and villages of Jefferson county, out of the homes that crown

your hills and gem your valleys you came by hundreds and by

thousands, answering the call of duty. Oh, if the grand old Puri-

tan heroes whose blood flows through your veins, could have seen

you muster to God's grand army of freemen, or could have seen

you fight for what they had bequeathed you, every hero, living

or dying, would have heard their proud commendation, "soldier,

well done! well done!"

And it ought to be a matter of deep pride to you, my com-

rades, that in the providence of God it was your privilege to be

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a soldier in the grand army of free civilization and to have done

battle for liberty that shall bear fruit not only in this country, but

throughout the world. Have you ever attempted to grasp the real

magnitude of the great struggle? Have you, in imagination even,

rode along its picket and army lines from the mouth of the Poto-

mac to the Rio Grande? Have you counted a million and a half

of men on duty at a given time, or more than four million in the

grand aggregate of the two armies during the fight? Have you

seen ten thousand cannon wheeling into battery along that line,

or observed the hills and valleys of a dozen states ribbed with rifle

pits as though some great plowshare of nature had torn them up?

Or have you seen those armies moving southward over vast areas

as the victorious armies of the Union bore down upon the foe

and drove them toward the gulf? If you have seen all these you

can yet have only an approximate idea of the vastness of the

struggle. We had now thirty-four states. Three were border

states torn and divided in sentiment. Eleven states with twelve

million people were in revolt and twenty states with twenty mil-

lion people stood by the flag; while all the energies and resources

of both sides were devoted to the business of making war, the

one side to destroy and the other to defend the Republic. But

if the contest was grand in its physical proportions, how much

grander, how infinitely grander it was in the interest involved,

and in the far-reaching significance of its results. Not from the

Potomac to the Rio Grande alone, but from the Klondyke to

Cape Horn, nay, wherever men are now struggling for a freer life

and a nobler manhood, our triumph was felt as a mighty inspira-

tion and will continue to be an inspiration of hope while our proud

flag floats upon the breeze.

The fact that both armies were composed of men of heroic

blood, made the combat as direful and costly in human life as it

was vast in proportions.

And to-day, my comrades, as we gather here in this great

reunion, it is a deep delight that we may look back over those

years of battle, and suffering, and triumph, and feel that we were

right, and know that God was with us, and crowned our courage

with success. Aye, and a deep delight, too, to look out over our

great free country, to-day, and know that this great American

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.      381

Republic-built of fifty-five Republics,-is the grandest nation

and the first power of the earth. It was but the other day that

England's grandest statesman, the "old man eloquent," Lord

Gladstone, declared in a public speech, "Now and henceforth

America leads the world." And so, my comrades, we shall count

it the glory of our lives to have lived in the most eventful age

of the world, and to have shared in the labor, and suffering, and

manly devotion to patriotic duty, that saved the nation's life,

brought liberty to millions and happiness to untold millions more.

And now in conclusion, let me say that I recall with pride and

joy, every influence, every agency, every effort, every consecra-

tion and every sacrifice, that contributed to this marvelous ad-

vancement of free civilization in our own times, and made the out-

look for the future brighter and more hopeful for the whole hu-

man race. I remember how in those perilous days at the be-

ginning of the struggle our hearts ached with suspense and anx-

iety. How the people met together by communities and counties

and states and pledged to each other their devotion to the Union.

It was inspiring indeed to attend those union meetings and warm

your heart in their patriotic fires. But I recall the fact that there

was one great union convention that was grander than all the

rest-grander because vaster-and more far-reaching in its scope.

In that great union meeting the Rocky Mountains presided, and

New England was "orator of the day." At the opening, Niagara

thundered her mighty solos till she wakened the echoing con-

tinent. Then the Mississippi with her thousand murmuring

voices sang that beautiful chant, "E Pluribus Unum," "many in

one," "many in one," "many in one." The oration, full of patri-

otic sentiment and heroic fire, thrilled every heart with the story

of Plymouth Rock and Lexington and Bunker Hill. Then the

Savannah and Etowah sang "Marching Through Georgia." The

hills and prairies and lakes were the committee on resolutions,

and when they brought in their report they simply said, "Re-

solved, That we are one; one and indivisible; now and forever;

and what God hath joined together let no man put asunder."

And when the vote was taken every mountain and every hill,

every river and every lake, every prairie and every plain in all

the land voted, "Aye, aye, we are one, we are one."

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Thursday was closed, as was also Wednesday, by a magnifi-

cent display of fireworks.

 

STEUBENVILLE AND JEFFERSON COUNTY

AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS.

Steubenville to-day is one of the most beautiful of Ohio

cities. It is a city of beautiful homes, and while there are no

wealthy people living in Steubenville there are very few paupers.

The homes are mostly owned by those who occupy them, a con-

dition that speaks volumes for the thrift of the residents. The

streets are all paved with fire brick and the drainage is complete,

there being no disease resulting from miasma. The sidewalks

are lined with magnificent shade trees, most of which were planted

in 1879-80 by W. H. Mooney, W. H. Hunter and A. F. Matlack,

who formed a self-constituted committee known at the time as the

Tree Commission. The city is most favorably located on the

second bank of the Ohio river, the streets being at right angles

connecting with an excellent system of McAdam roads leading in

every direction. The business houses are substantially built,

many of them being elegant in architecture and massive in con-

struction, while the school houses are commodious and church

buildings magnificent. The manufacturing consists of iron, pa-

per, glass, pottery, brick, flour, while the surrounding country

is fertile and peopled with industrious farmers, who produce

wheat, corn, oats, garden vegetables, fruit, live stock, wool, etc.

The city's population is about fifteen thousand, while that of the

county is about forty-three thousand. There are many towns in

the county, the most populous of which are Toronto, Mingo,

Dillonvale, Mt. Pleasant, Smithfield, Irondale, Brilliant. There

is much coal mined in the southern part of the county and Dillon-

vale has grown to a large town as a result of this industry. One

of the principal industries of the county is the manufacture of the

products of fire clay along the Ohio river. The towns on the

river above the city, including Toronto, have become noted for

the manufacture of paving brick, fine building brick, sewer pipe

and architectural terra cotta, the clay industry being now perhaps

the most important in the county, while a few years ago iron

took the lead in importance; that is to say that more factories are

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The Centennial of Jefferson County.         383

 

engaged in this line than in any other and it is also likely true

that more people are employed in the terra cotta works, includ-

ing clay mining, than in glass or iron. The transportation facili-

ties are ample by rail or water.

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