Ohio History Journal

COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS.

THWING'S SKETCH OF OHIO. In Pearson's Monthly for February is the first of a series of articles which that magazine proposes to publish on "The Story of the States." This first article very fittingly is devoted to Ohio. It is from the pen of Charles F. Thwing, D. D., LL. D., President of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio. It is a very entertaining and informing monograph on our native state. In a condensed form, Mr. Thwing gives the leading events in rapid succession in Buckeye history. "As to who were the first inhabitants of the Ohio Valley," Mr. Thwing says, "scientific research has never enabled us to give a reason- able guess although the facts are buried with the unwritten records of a long-vanished race. There are records in abundance, however, such as the mounds in Adams County and at Marietta, and, in fact, all through the river valley, which indicate that the land was once inhabited by a race superior to the Indians in intelligence, if not in prowess. Over ten thousand of these mounds have been located in different parts of the state. Many of them have been found to contain neatly fashioned imple- ments, and from the fact that some appear to have been raised as forti- fications, it is presumed that these mound builders were forced to defend themselves from enemies, perhaps from the Indians, who later occupied the valley, and who may have annihilated them, or driven them out of the region. At any rate they disappeared long before the era of historical record. Even before the time of this prehistoric race, the geologists tell us Ohio was the scene of mighty conflicts between the rival forces of nature. At one time, the whole region embraced within the borders of the state was covered with a vast sheet of ice half a mile in thickness. This ice- field, as it receded, piled up a great dam, five or six hundred feet in height, across the Ohio River, at the point where Cincinnati now stands, backing up the waters of the river, and forming a great lake, which ex- tended for many miles. The trial of strength between this dam and the waters which it restricted probably lasted for hundreds of years, but in the end the river triumphed and broke through the barrier in a tremen- dous flood, which must have surpassed in destructive power anything of the kind that has been witnessed within the historic period. This, the first of many Ohio floods, must have swept away any inhabitants living at that time in the valley." (525)

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Whether there were any native Ohioans before or at the time of this

ice gorge is a debatable question among scientists, but whether there

were or not "cuts no ice" with the present generation.

Mr. Thwing takes up and cursorily disposes of the native Indians

and the various immigrations into the territory that later became the

state; the English and French traders, the expedition of Celoron De

Bienville from Canada in 1749, the first Ohio Company of 1750 and the

opposing English expedition at the instance of Governor Dinwiddie of

Virginia, who sent a message ordering the French off the Ohio (?) grass.

"The bearer of this message," says Mr. Thwing, was "Adjutant General

George Washington of the Virginia Militia, who thus made his appear-

ance in early Ohio history." Then follows the contest between the Eng-

lish and the French for possession of the country and the cession by

France to Great Britain of her claim to the territory in 1763. Four col-

onies (Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut) subse-

quently laid claim to this part of the country. The ordinance of 1787

established the Northwest Territory and the various settlements from the

east and the south rapidly followed. The Ohio Company of 1787-8 at

Marietta, the French settlement at Gallipolis, (1790), the New England

settlements along the Western Reserve and the rapid and marvellous

opening up of the territory until the entrance of Ohio as a state into the

Union. Mr. Thwing then selects the more prominent and picturesque

events along the course to the present time. He sketches with a fluent and

racy pen the agricultural, commercial, educational and political develop-

ment of what is now the fourth star in the constellation of our Union.

Many of the leading personages in this graphic panorama are spoken of

and characterized. The article does not attempt or pretend to be an

exhaustive history, nor present scholarly data for the accurate student.

Mr. Thwing admirably accomplishes his purpose to give a sketchy sil-

houette of Ohio from its beginning to the present day. It is artistically

done and gives one an excellent idea of the wonderful growth and strik-

ing prominence of our state. No one can read this article without having

his state pride raised to its proper pitch.

These pages in Pearson recall to us an incident in our own experi-

ence, when a few years ago we met in one of the foreign capitals a mem-

ber of the House of Lords. During the conversation his lordship asked

what part of America we were from. We informed him with much gusto

that we were from Ohio. "Ohio, Ohio," said he. "Seems to me we have

heard that name before. Let me see; I think I saw something about that

place in one of our American almanacs recently. It is a little town up

in Canada, is it not?" We hastened to set his lordship right and we not

only revolutionized his knowledge of geography, but we upset one of

his fundamental principles of mathematics, viz.: that the whole is greater

than a part, for we convinced him in short order that Ohio was greater

than all the rest of the United States. We informed him that Ohio was

not only the great state in mineral, agricultural and industrial resources,

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but that it furnished "the people" of the country; it produced all the

leading politicians, statesmen, orators, presidents, generals, cabinet

officers, foreign embassadors, poets, novelists, journalists, humorists,

inventors, that it supplied the main part of the Union army and practi-

cally put down the rebellion and was now "the mainstay and prop of the

nation." It was the first time in the career of "me lud" that his British

bluff and bluster had encountered a specimen of Buckeye bravado. When

we finished our descriptive discourse on Ohio, his lordship was as dazed

as if wandering in a London fog, indeed he quite "lost his balance" and

with great difficulty moved off in his accustomed aristocratic and com-

manding perpendicularity.

Mr. Thwing wields a facile, felicitous and prolific pen. It is natural

to him. He began when he and the writer were classmates and co-editors

of The Philo Mirror-the literary organ and intellectual outlet of the

students of the time honored preparatory school, Phillips Academy,

(Andover, Mass.). That was a long time ago-we were "Middlers"

then, "fitting" for college. Thwing still writes and writes well. His

article on Ohio would be an excellent stimulus to the young to study the

romantic and valuable history of our state.

 

 

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

We acknowledge the receipt of a history of Adams County from its

earliest settlement to the present time by Capt. Nelson W. Evans, a prom-

inent attorney of Portsmouth, a life member of The Ohio Archaeological

and Historical Society, and Hon. Emmons B. Stivers, a member of the

present legislature from Adams County, and the author of "Outlines of the

United States History," "Recreation in School Studies," and other well

known educational works.

It is one of the best books of its kind that has come under our eye,

and is really a valuable contribution to the historical literature of Ohio,

particularly the southern part of the state.

The historical portion of the work is by Capt. Evans, and is of a lit-

erary merit of high order. Capt. Evans has the true historical instinct,

has accurately gathered his data and carefully classified it. He devotes

a chapter to the geology and the mineralogy of the county. He presents

a most interesting and complete sketch of that interesting race known

as the Mound Builders, who left in Adams County some of the most

remarkable evidences of their peculiar traits that are to be found in any

part of the country. His description of the Great Serpent mound is one

of the best to be found in any publication and gives to his book a distinct

value. Speaking of the Mound Builders, he says: "Whence they came

is enveloped in impenetrable mystery. Some have supposed them to be

the lost tribes of Israel, which hardly deserves passing notice. Others,

and there is much to sustain the theory, suppose them to be of Mexican

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origin, having pushed gradually to the northward, where in time, they

were assailed by invaders from the northwest, who perhaps came from

Asia when that continent was united in the region of Alaska to America,

and who by reason of superior numbers or more warlike natures swept

these people in turn back to the southward. At what period of time these

people flourished, or when they ceased to be, is problematical. The In-

dians had no tradition concerning them. In fact, it is very generally

believed by those who have investigated the matter, that there was at

least one intervening race of inhabitants in the Mississippi Valley prior

to the advent of the Indians and following the disappearance of the Mound

Builders. We refer to 'The Villagers' who formed the 'garden beds' found

in northern Indiana, southern Michigan and lower Missouri. These

'beds' are laid out with great order and symmetry and do not belong to

any recognized system of horticulture. They are in the richest soils and

occupy from ten acres to three hundred acres each. That they are the

work of a race succeeding the Mound Builders is evidenced by the fact,

that some of these 'garden beds' extend over mounds which certainly

would not have been permitted by their builders. Again, the formation

of these 'beds' cannot be ascribed to the Indians, for no such system of

cultivating grain or plant foods was practiced by them. And again, when

the white man's attention was first called to the numerous mounds and

enclosures in the Ohio Valley as being the work of an extinct race, it

was observed that forest growths over these works were of the same

species as those in the outlying regions, which would prove the great

antiquity of these structures. On some of these mounds, as for instance,

one at Marietta, were found trees showing 800 annual growths."

Capt. Evans has an interesting chapter on the Indians, the principal

tribes that inhabited Ohio, their mode of living and the pioneer expedi-

tions against them and their final disappearance from Ohio. He devotes

much space to the Virginia Military District, its first survey, the manner

of making the surveys and various surveying parties, and the system of

entering and recording land patents. Then comes in natural sequence

various settlements in the southern part of the state. He gives in much

detail the civil organization in the Northwest Territory particularly

of Adams County, its courts, townships and the political organizations

pertaining thereto. He describes the establishment of the public roads

and highways. He has an interesting account of the early taverns and

inns, with many anecdotal and historical incidents. The numerous bio-

graphical sketches of the pioneers which occupies most of the volume,

are interestingly told and are replete with valuable historical facts and

data. The work comprises nearly a thousand pages and is produced in

the best mechanical art of the publisher.

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Comments, Notes and Reviews.                 529

 

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.

There has also just been issued from the press the "Historical Collec-

tions of Harrison County," with lists of the first land owners, early mar-

riages (to 1841), will records (to 1861), burial records of the early set-

tlers and numerous genealogies, by Charles A. Hanna. This volume of

some 650 pages is mainly a publication of the records indicated in the

title. Mr. Hanna devotes his opening chapter to the Scotch-Irish in Har-

rison County. He says, "The truth of the matter is, that a vast pro-

portion of American people sometimes classed by the historians as Brit-

ish, have had their hard-earned laurels transferred to the brows of the

so-called Anglo-Saxons, or English; and very much of the honor and

glory which are so frequently claimed for the English in this country,

really belong to the people of another, and a distinctly different race.

These people are the Scotch-Irish, as they have come to be called, who

have done vastly more in the settlement and development of the central

and southern portions of our country than the English, arid yet a

people who have been too busy making history to spare the time to write

it; and one whose early annals, for this reason, have been, until recent

years, so far neglected as to be well-nigh forgotten."

He then gives a long list of the distinguished Buckeyes whose blood

classes them with this famous intermixture. In this list he names "Arthur

St. Clair, Jeremiah Morrow, Allen Trimble, Duncan McArthur, Joseph

Vance, Wilson Shannon, Mordecai Bartley, Reuben Wood, Rutherford

B. Hayes, Seabury Ford, William Medill, James E. Campbell, Thomas

L. Young, Joseph B. Foraker, Charles Foster, William McKinley and

of some few others who have been governors of the state. Or, of Presi-

dents Grant, Hayes, Garfield and McKinley. Or, of certain supreme

court judges, such as Jacob Burnet, John McLean, Joseph R. Swan,

John C. Wright, Thomas W. Bartley, W. B. Caldwell, William Ken-

non, Hocking H. Hunter, George W. McIlvaine, W. J. Gilmore, Rufus

P. Ranney, Josiah Scott, John Clark, W. W. Johnson and John H.

Doyle. Or, of certain well-known journalists, such as Whitelaw Reid,

W. L. Brown, John A. Cockerill, Joseph Medill, Samuel Medary, W.

W. Armstrong, the Farans and McLeans, and Richard Smith. Or,

of Bishop Simpson, John A. Bingham and Salmon P. Chase. Or,

William Dean Howells and John Q. A. Ward. Or, Generals U. S. Grant,

Phil Sheridan, Quincy A. Gilmore, James B. Steadman, Irvin Mc-

Dowell, John Beatty, O. M. Mitchell, James B. McPherson, Henry W.

Lawton and the fighting family of the McCooks."

Mr. Hanna also has valuable chapters on "The Friends or Quakers

of Harrison County," and on the Germans and Virginians; also, on the

first settlers in Eastern Ohio. He devotes much space to the early days

of Cadiz, the county seat, and Harrison County in 1813, and the early

churches of the various denominations represented in the pioneer days.

His book represents a vast amount of labor in gathering and transcrib-

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ing the records with innumerable brief sketches of the leading settlers.

This material will be of great value to genealogists and biographers.

It is rich in concise descriptions of pioneer life, its perils and hardships

and detailed accounts of the settlement and growth of the older com-

munities and institutions of the county; and it is perhaps, not too much

to say that this book contains more information and data relative to the

history of the various families of the county in question that is usually

given in county histories. As a sample of the extent of the work, the

list of early marriages in the county numbers 7,500 and their early

burials 5,000. The book is produced in attractive binding and will fill

a valuable place in the historical biography of Ohio.

 

 

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

 

A late number of The Northwest Magazine has a review of a note-

worthy paper read recently before the Minnesota Historical Society by

J. V. Brower, of St. Paul. The reviewer of the paper states that Mr.

Brower presented evidence tending to show that the Mound Builders of

Minnesota were none other than the old, full blooded Sioux Indians.

He traced these aborigines back to their ancient habitations and villages.

and in the course of his researches arrived at some surprising conclusions.

After describing every tribe of Indians known to have been permanent

residents of the region explored, Mr. Brower gave his attention to the

geological age of the lakes, the surface of the ground, and to the rivers,

creeks and other streams.

It was shown distinctly, he says, that the mounds were built on the

top of the black soil and of that material, indicating that hundreds of

them are of more recent origin than many suppose. From the numerous

village sites there have been collected stone, copper, flint and earthen

objects and artifacts which are exactly similar to the same kind of material

taken from the mounds adjoining the village sites. That fact shows that

the people who built the mounds also occupied the ancient villages.

Each of the village sites discovered has been explored and charted.

By the side of the chart of 1900 the Fauquelin chart of 1688 was placed,

and it was distinctly demonstrated by the two charts that the Sioux vil-

lagers residing in Mille Lacs in 1688 were resident at identical places

where the village sites were observed in 1900.

The next proposition submitted was proof from the records left by

Radisson, Hennepin, Duluth, Le Sueur and Carver that the Sioux made

and used stone implements, clay pots, copper crescents, flint knives,

quartz arrow points, and various stone and copper objects, following

which it was demonstrated beyond dispute that the Sioux removed the

flesh from the remains of their dead and deposited the bones, in a bun-

dled condition, with the skull. Catlin's works were here produced to

show that as late as 1835 the Sioux were building mounds over their

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Comments, Notes and Reviews.                   531

 

dead. A chart was shown delineating the bundled bones of Indians at the

surface of the ground at Mille Lacs, with mounds of earth built over

them.

James W. Lynd, historian of the Sioux nation, was quoted show-

ing that the Dakota people were at Mille Laces at a very ancient period;

in fact, so long ago that no tradition remained to show where they came

from or how long they had been there.

No trace of two distinct classes of stone implements and earthen

pots had been found at Mille Lacs, and the only island in the region

where the Sioux had a village, to which Hennepin was taken in 1680, is

overspread with broken clay vessels and stone implements.

 

PRE-HISTORIC BILL OF FARE.

A recent number of Chamber's Journal has an interesting article

concerning what might be styled the menu of the pre-historic man. The

article says:

Our attention has recently been called to some curious experiments

conducted some time ago by Mr. Charters White, M. R. C. S., lately

the president of the Royal Odontological Society of Great Britain. Upon

examining some skulls dating back from the stone age, he noted that

several of the teeth, although quite free from caries, were thickly coated

with tartar. It occurred to him that it would be possible by a rough ana-

lysis to identify any particles of food that might be embodied in this nat-

ural concrete, and so reveal the character of the aliment partaken of by

pre-historic man. Dissolving the tartar in weak acid, a residue was left

which, under the microscope, was found to consist of corn husks,

particles, hairs from the outside of the husks, spiral vessels from

vegetables, particles of starch, the point of a fish tooth, a con-

glomeration of oval cells, probably of fruit, the barblets of down and

portions of wool. In addition to this varied list were some round, red

bodies, the origin of which defied detection, and many sandy particles,

some relating to quartz and some to flint. These mineral fragments were

very likely attributable to the rough stones used in grinding the corn,

and would account for the erosion of the masticating surfaces, which in

many cases was strongly marked. This inquiry into food of men who

lived not less than 4,000 years ago is a matter of archeological interest.

 

 

OHIO PRESIDENTS.

The inauguration of William McKinley on March 4th and the death

of Benjamin Harrison, on March 14th leads to the inquiry from several

quarters concerning the date and place of birth of the so-called "Ohio

Presidents."

We give them in order of their succession:

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Ulysses S. Grant, born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant. (Clermont

Co.). Nominated from Illinois at Chicago, May 20, 1868. Inaugurated

March 4, 1869. Renominated, Philadelphia, June 5, 1872. Inauguarted

March 4, 1873. Died at Mount Gregor, N. Y., July 23, 1885. Buried

Riverside Park, New York, August 8, 1885.

Rutherford B. Hayes, born October 4, 1822, Delaware, (Delaware

Co.)  Nominated at Cincinnati June 14, 1876. Inaugurated March 5,

1877. Died Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893. Buried Fremont.

James A. Garfield, born November 19, 1831, at Orange, (Cuyahoga

Co.). Nominated Chicago, June 8, 1880. Inaugurated March 4, 1881.

Died September 19, 1881, at Elberon, N. J. Buried Cleveland, Ohio.

Benjamin Harrison born August 20, 1833, North Bend, (Hamilton

Co.) Nominated from Indiana, at Chicago, June 26, 1888. Inaugurated

March 3, 1889. Renominated Minneapolis, June 10, 1892. Defeated.

Died Indianapolis, Indiana, March 14, 1901. Buried at Indianapolis.

William McKinley, born January 29, 1843, Niles, (Trumbull Co.).

Nominated St. Louis, June 18, 1896. Inaugurated March 4, 1897. Re-

nominated Philadelphia, June 19, 1900. Inaugurated March 4, 1901.

 

 

COLONEL CHARLES PARROTT.

Colonel Charles Parrott, one of the original members and a life

member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, and for

many years one of its active trustees, died at his home, Columbus, Ohio,

January 22, 1901. Colonel Parrott was born in Dayton, Ohio, September

2, 1834. A brief sketch of his life will be found in Vol. IV, page 470,

of the Society's publications. The last few years of his life were devoted

to the work incidental to his membership in the Ohio State Board of

Charities, to which position he was at first appointed by Governor For-

aker in 1889. He was an earnest student in the subject of public char-

ities, and had become by both study and experience, one of the best

authorities in matters of the conduct of eleemosynary institutions. Col-

onel Parrott was a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University and the

Cincinnati Law School, and was a gentleman of much learning and

culture.

 

BY authority of the Ohio 74th General Assembly (1900-1), Elliot

Howard Gilkey, Assistant Clerk of the Senate, has prepared and pub-

lished the Ohio Manual of Legislative Practice. The contents are divided

into five subjects. 1. Constitution of the State of Ohio, with annotations

by E. O. Randall, Reporter of the Supreme Court. 2. Legislative Sec-

tions of the Revised Statutes. 3. Rules of Legislative Practice. 4 and

5. Official Directory of the Senate and House of Representatives of the

74th General Assembly. The work comprises some 540 pages, and the

biographical sketches of members of the Legislature are accompanied

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Comments, Notes and Reviews.                   533

 

by half page portraits. Mr. Gilkey has edited his part of the work in an

accurate and admirable manner. The manual is a most valuable book,

not only to members of the Legislature but to members of the legal pro-

fession in general.

 

A LITTLE pamphlet entitled "Tract No. 90 in Volume 4," has just been

issued by the Western Reserve Historical Society. It is prepared by J.

P. McLean, Ph. D., Secretary of the Society. It is devoted to the archae-

ological collections of the society, giving at some length lists and desscrip-

tions of the archaeological relics collected and now exhibited by

that society.  It is profusely illustrated and valuable to the archae-

eologicalist, and particularly the collector. It is something more than a

catalogue, for it not only fully describes the relics in the possession of this

society, but it tells where they were found, and so far as possible the

mode of their manufacture and their use in the domestic life of the In-

dians and the Mound Builders. The Western Reserve Historical Society

is very rich in its collections of this character.

 

 

THERE has recently been published a most attractive volume of stories,

legends, historical sketches, poetic and prose selections, concerning the

Ohio Valley. The work is entitled "The Hesperian Tree" -edited by one

of the most distinguished Ohio literateurs, John James Piatt. The aim of

the editor has been, as he says in his preface, to offer to the public a

magazine of literature miscellanies in prose and verse, the contributors

to which are native to, or identified with the Ohio valley. The literary

articles are accompanied in many cases by beautiful illustrations by artists

also "native and to the manner born." The volume is a gem in typo-

graphical and publisher's art. Each article is by some well known or

eminent writer, and the table of contents presents a literary feast, calcu-

lated to furnish great pleasure and profit to the patron or lover of what

might be called Ohio literature. The contributions were prepared ex-

clusively for this publication, and do not appear elsewhere. Among the

writers are such names as William Dean Howells, James Whitcomb Riley,

Kate Brownlee Sherwood, Henry Watterson, William Henry Venable,

Maurice Thompson, Murat Halstead, John Hay, the Piatts and a score

of others almost equally well known. This volume will be a welcome

guest to the libraries of choice literature.

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