Ohio History Journal

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THE COFFIN OF EDWIN COPPOCK

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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