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
(452)
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.
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-
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.
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.