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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS EWING

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS EWING.

EDITED BY CLEMENT L. MARTZOLFF.

(Through the courtesy of Thomas Ewing, Jr., of New York City,

I am permitted to give to the public for the first time, the entire auto-

biography of his distinguished grandfather, Thomas Ewing, a pioneer,

the first Alumnus of the first college of the "Old Northwest," an

eminent lawyer, a profound statesman, an honorable citizen and a

Christian gentleman.-C. L. M.)1

NOTE:--I wish to express my gratitude to the following persons

who gave me valuable assistance in collecting data for my editorial

notes:

William C. Ewing, New York City.

Thomas Ewing, Jr., New York City.

Maria Ewing Martin, New Straitsville, Ohio.

Prof. Eli Dunkle, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Prof. D. J. Evans, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Dr. W. H. Venable, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hon. Henry Houck, Harrisburg, Pa.

Dr. C. W. Super, Athens, Ohio.

Librarian C. G. Matthews, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Miss Carrie Matthews, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Librarian Burton E. Stevenson, Chillicothe, Ohio.

Dr. A. E. Winship, Boston, Mass.

John E. Pierce, Lewiston, Me.

Hon. Moses M. Granger, Zanesville, Ohio.

C. L. M.

MY DEAR CHILDREN:2 Some time ago you united in a re-

quest that I would give you when leisure and health permit a

narrative of the events of my life from my earliest memory

to the present time - Such a narrative though of little interest

to any but my descendants, will doubtless be prized by you and

your children as a family relick; I therefore give it in compliance

with your request.

My father, George Ewing³held a subaltern commission,⁴ in

the New Jersey line of the Revolutionary War. He was then a

very young man, of good English education, fine literary taste,

(126)

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 127

and much reading for his age, and the times and country in

which his lot was cast. He inherited a moderate patrimony,

and on entering the army, he sold all and took bonds for the pur-

chase money. These fell due while continental money was a

legal tender. They were promptly paid and nearly all lost, by

depreciation.

In 1778 he left the army and married Rachel Harris, my

mother, daughter of a neighboring farmer, a woman of good

intellect, great energy of character and but slender education

though quite a reader and reciter of poetry in all its then popular

range, among which were a few fine odes of Anacreon,⁵ which

had in some way wandered to this strange and distant land.

After the close of the war, my Father finding himself poor

among those who had been no more than his equals in fortune,

and his business habits being broken by service in the camp and

field, left his little family, frugally provided, and came West-

ward6 as far as the then condition of the country would permit.

He found employment in Western Pennsylvania as a school

teacher; where he was joined by his family and a maiden sister.

He afterwards removed to West Liberty⁷in Ohio County, Vir-

ginia, where he taught school and where his sister was married

to Capt. John Morgan, afterwards for many years a member of

the Virginia House of Delegates. They were my uncle John and

Aunt Sarah Morgan, each of whom did something in shaping

the events of my life. I do not dwell upon the family genealogy

at large as I am aware that one⁸of you has traced it back several

hundred years;81/2 and more especially as I attach little impor-

tance to remote ancestry. Go back three hundred years and there

are few who may not number two or three hundred ancestors,

and among them persons in all ranks and stations of life and of all

nations holding intercourse with each other. Men who have pride

in their descent do for the most part trace back their genealogy

along the male line, forgetting that their ancestors all had

mothers who had their full share in forming the physical, moral

and mental man. You trace our name back to the Siege of Lon-

donberry⁹and the battle of the Boyne10 where a Captain Ewing,

your Grandfather's Great Grandfather performed an act of

valour11 for which he was praised by King William and honored

128 Ohio Arch

128 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

with a sword presented by his own hand; but we divide this trans-

mitted honor with thousands whom we do not know, descendants

of the valiant captain, and his blood in our veins is mingled with

that of a hundred other ancestors of whose names and merits we

are ignorant.

I was born near West Liberty, Ohio County, Virginia, on

the 28th of December, 1789.-So it appears by the record in my

Father's hand writing in his family Bible, which, I think, im-

ports absolute verity, though my Mother often told me it was a

mistake, and that I was born the day after Christmas-the 26th.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 129

Next to this the earliest evidence of my appearance in the

world, which has borne with me very long, and very kindly, is

a letter written by my Father to his paternal uncle James Ewing

of Trenton, New Jersey, dated July 26th, 1790, in which he says:

"I have a young son whom I call Thomas," so by this time

I was fairly in the world and a member, though not a very im-

portant one, of the very large and highly respectable human

family.

The letter I give entire, as much is to be inferred from it

of the situation of the country, and its condition and prospects,

as understood by its earliest inhabitants. The original is in the

possession of James Ewing, Esq., of Trenton, New Jersey,

Grandson of my Father's Uncle to whom it was addressed.

HONORED UNCLE:

The bearer Cousin Joshua will inform you of our welfare and

affairs in general which I shall omit. I request you, if any interest

can be procured on my certificates that you will get and send it by

Joshua or put him in the way to obtain it--and as I intend the certifi-

cates to purchase land, I request you to assist Joshua with your counsel

herein, either to purchase from the public, if an office for that purpose

is open, or to purchase Military rights, or in any other way that shall

appear most advantageous. Doubtless you are fully acquainted with

the resolutions of congress relating to the vacant territory. I shall

therefore submit the transacting the business to your prudence in con-

junction with Joshua who will inform you where we wish to purchase.

If nothing to advantage can at present be done in this business you

will send the certificates by him. I could wish to come down myself,

but my business will not permit it at present. I would wish to know

why the Government permits the English to keep possession of Detroit¹²

and the Indians to harass the Southern and Western frontiers-per-

haps you can give some political reason. I must inform you that I

have a young son whom I call Thomas. He ought to have been called

Maskell from his likeness to his cousin of that name.

Remember me to cousin Maskell and accept the love of your

nephew

Short Creek13GEORGE EWING.

July 26th/90

My Father intended to cross the Ohio and settle in the North

Western Territory but there was much to discourage the enter-

prize. All on the north side of the river were at that time in

Vol. XXII -9.

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130 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

garrisons14 fortified by strong posts well planted in the ground,

about eight feet high, inclosing an area in which were all the

dwelling houses, and defended by block houses at the several

angles. These were generally, when well guarded quite defensi-

ble but they were sometimes surprized and taken and all within

them massacred. A catastrophe of this kind occurred a few

months before my father's removal.

On Christmas day, 1791, a strong garrison at Round Bot-

tom15 on the Muskingum River was surprised by a body of

Indians who entered the open gate of the stockade and murdered

all within except two-a friendly Indian who made his escape

and carried the news to the neighboring garrisons, and one lad

who was adopted by an Indian and carried off captive. It was

an exceedingly warm, pleasant Christmas day. No danger was

apprehended-the Rangers who kept constant watch discovered

no "Moccasin tracks" or other Indian signs, and the inhabitants

twenty-five in number were taking in the open air a Christmas

dinner made up of such luxuries as the forest afforded Bear

Meat, Venison and Wild Turkeys then in great abundance and

at that season the fattest and best. Seeing the Indians enter

they all fled toward their houses, where they had imprudently

left their arms, but were shot down in their flight, or pursued

by the Indians who entered with them pell mell and stabbed or

tomahawked most of them without resistance-but not all-

one woman gained her house - sprang behind the door - seized

a broad axe and with it cut down two Indians and wounded a

third, when she herself fell by a blow with a tomahawk. Such

was the report of the boy prisoner who some year or more af-

terwards, escaped and came in to the Olive Green Garrison.16

The whole frontier was in a state of excitement and alarm.

The neighboring settlers all kept close in the Garrisons. Wolf

Creek Mill,¹⁷the only one in that part of the Territory except a

floating mill¹⁸near Marietta, was deserted and suffered to go to

ruin, and farmers cultivated their fields and gathered their crops

armed with rifles and guarded by scouts. Such was the condi-

tion of the country when in April, 1792, my father with his lit-

tle family and household goods descended the Ohio in a flat boat

and landed at Marietta.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 131

MY EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

Our earliest memories are faint & shadowy and with me it

is difficult to determine what I have retained of the impression

received at the time or what from subsequent teachings -a

mother's or elder sister's account of the very early incidents of

my life- A man died with the hydrophobia at my Father's

house when I was less than two years old -this I seem to re-

member, but it was a subject afterwards much spoken of in the

family and I presume I have from that repetition a seeming

memory of the incident which I was too young even to appre-

ciate much less retain. But one of no import, and merely of

self-consciousness, which occurred when I was but two years

and four months old, I remember distinctly. The family was

in a cabin on the bank of the Ohio in April 1792, making prep-

arations for their removal to the Territory. My father one day

took me out to a place a few hundred yards from the hut where

he & my brother were digging out a canoe. I remember the

odour of the fresh walnut chips, and my manly pride at making

the journey home by myself alone. I was reminded of this

on reading the memoirs of Marmontel19whose earliest recollec-

tion was the odour of the pears which were roasting before his

Grand Mother's fire. I remember also one incident in descend-

ing the river -which was in a flat boat; the canoe I presume be-

ing brought with it as a tender. As I was leaning over the side

of the boat my hat -my first hat-made of plaited straw fell

off and floated astern, out of reach before my cries gave the

alarm. The boat after passing a rapid would for a time move

faster than the tranquil water into which it passed.

I remember nothing more of the voyage down the Ohio-

Nothing at Marietta except that a lad of some fourteen years,

in attempting to wade the Muskingum at its mouth, sank in the

quicksand and was drowned, and I remember nothing of the

voyage up the Muskingum to Waterford,²⁰then the frontier gar-

rison on the river.

At Waterford my Father, joined with a few other families,

and fortified a garrison, about three miles above near the mouth

of Olive Green Creek-erected block houses and cabins for

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132 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

their families and my Father removed there after a few weeks

residence at Waterford. Of this temporary residence I retain

but a faint impression - the picket gate was sometimes left open

and the children allowed to go out and play -I remember that

we were several times much frightened by the tinkling of bells

among the hasel thickets which our careful mothers allowed us

to believe were death bells - doubtless to prevent the little tru-

ants wandering too far and encountering actual danger.

I have no remembrance of our removal to the Olive Green

Garrison; but there I first remember to have known persons not

members of the family. The population of the Garrison was

made up of incongruous materials agreeing in little except pov-

erty, courage and energy. I remember some of them distinct-

ly-Abel Sherman a man of fifty with three sons, one of them

a young man. Aaron Delong a Pennsylvania Dutchman who

had a large & very rough family quite the butt of the more

knowing ones, and Ezra Hoyt who had a very pretty little daugh-

ter, my first playmate. These families and two others whom I

do not so distinctly remember made up the little garrison all

drawn to the spot by a donation of one hundred acres of land

for every settler capable of bearing arms - the lots had a nar-

row front on the river & ran back on to the Hills. The men

exchanged work & each cleared & planted some land - some

working & others guarding them with their guns. There were

hunters among the young men who supplied the garrison with

wild meat, bears, deer & turkeys. Salt was for a long time an

unknown article. A party of soldiers who went up the river

in canoes I know not on what errand, left us a very small quan-

tity & I remember the exquisite relish which a little of it gave

to our food.^201/2

In August, 1794, a few days after Wayne's Victory, but be-

fore we heard of it, a marauding band of Indians was known to

be hovering round our little garrison. The cows which ranged

at large did not come to the call of their milkers though they

came near enough to low to them, and the men dared not go

for them lest they should fall into an ambuscade--they went

four or five together only to the nearest fields for vegetables

and the children, especially, lacked their accustomed food. Old

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 133

Mr. Sherman determined to go alone to the Waterford garri-

son on some pressing errand. My Father, as I have heard him

say, endeavored to dissuade him & proposed to send one of the

young men; more light of foot, in case of pursuit by Indians.

He rejected the counsel at once-said the young men had not

prudence & sagacity to avoid danger, and he went. He was

fearless even to rashness-hearing the cow-bell (as it was sup-

posed) on his return he turned aside when about half a mile

from the Garrison & fell into an ambuscade. He discovered the

Indians and fired at one of them, the same instant that the Indian

fired at him. Sherman was shot through the heart and the In-

dian's arm, as we afterwards learned, was broken--the re-

ports of the rifles were distinctly heard at the Garrison and one

of Sherman's sons, who was sitting with his gun in hand ex-

claimed-"that is the crack of my father's rifle" and sprang to

his feet and ran. He was gone but ten or fifteen minutes when

he returned -said he had found his father killed & scalped--

his dog lying by him, but saw no Indians. A detachment from

the Waterford garrison assisted next day to bring in the body.

I remember the incident well - he was carried by four men on

a litter made of poles, tied together and overlaid with small

beech limbs, some of the leaves dabbled with blood-his naked

scalped head realized the imagination, with which children were

used to be frightened of "raw head & bloody bones". My fath-

er had sent by him for some turnip seed, which was found in one

of his pockets tied up in a rag. His loss was deeply felt by the

little garrison--this was about ten days after Wayne's Victory

but before the news had reached us. I saw him buried, on the

plain back of the Garrison; and in 1840 I passed the spot, the

river had worn away the site of the little garrison & I could re-

call nothing but the burying ground which was in position &

surface as I remembered it. The stone which marked the brave

man's last resting place was rudely sculptured in basso with a

scalped head, and "His name, his years" and the manner of his

death spelled, not "by the unlettered muse" but in brief and

handsome diction, the product as I doubt not of your Grand

Father's pen. He was buried 75 years ago and I am perhaps

the only living man who personally remembers him.²¹

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While we were together in the garrison one of the "big

boys" got a book or pamphlet containing some of the Robin

Hood songs and acquired distinction by reciting them. I heard

the song celebrating the adventure with the "Old Bishop" (Ay-

mer) -had it at once by rote, and went about, a big headed

little wonder, reciting it. The young men gave me the soubri-

quet of the Bishop -I wore a hunting skirt, which my brother

George had outgrown which reached to my ankles and was the

Bishop's cloak. I wore the soubriquet though not the cloak, for

more than twenty years. In 1796 after we had left the garrison

my Mother's Brother,²²a Presbyterian Clergyman, who came

with the New Jersey Militia to Western Pennsylvania as a chap-

lain visited us. He was a kind genial man, my "black coated

uncle". He took me between his knees, patted my big black

head, & finding me annoyed with the "nick name", told me not

to be ashamed of it- that it was an honorable title, honorably

acquired, & that good & wise men were proud to get it-this

quite reconciled me and I was never afterwards ashamed of be-

ing the "Bishop".

In the fall of 1794 Delong the Dutchman of our Garrison

went to Western Pennsylvania and brought with him his Father

who was very old and feeble, and had some property. He said,

on his return that he would make out well by the trip if his

father died in many reasonable time. Being asked for the news,

he said "The Beople in Bensylwany taught dere would be a

general resurection". This was a subject of amusement on some

of the last days of the Olive Green Garrison.

I do not remember the removal of the family to our home

on the little farm, which was about half a mile from the garri-

son. It must have been in the spring of 1795 after the Treaty

which followed Wayne's victory had put an end to hostile In-

dian incursions. In the summer of 1796 my father, and my

brother George²³a lad of 16 who was expert with the gig (an

iron trident with which they struck fish in clear water) got the

canoe ready for a fishing expedition up the river. I begged to go

and my mother put on board a piece of corn bread & a jug of

milk as my outfit and I was duly entered for the voyage. We

had gone some four or five miles without any success when we

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 135

were hailed from a rock projecting into the river then known

as the "big rock" -by an Indian, who stood with his gun at his

side beckoning us to the shore. I was greatly frightened as I

understood little of the difference between peace & war and to

me Indians were Indians. My father who was guiding the

canoe turned her to the shore, the Indian came on board and

being hungry my father gave him part of my store of provisions

of which he partook very moderately. He could speak a lit-

tle English and made known by words and signs, that two Chiefs,

George White-eyes and George Girty were encamped with their

band two or three miles above-that he had killed a fine deer

on the hill too heavy for him to carry, and wanted the young

man, my brother, to help him bring it to the river. George

went & while gone I was full of fears that he would be killed &

scalped - however they returned dragging the carcass down the

steep hill & soon had it on board of the canoe & we were on

our way to the Indian camp. When there we found that the

chiefs were not in but were expected soon, and the Indians

would not consent to our going until they came. We waited

& just at dusk they came dashing in on their ponies. They and

my father were soon in council--they smoked the pipe--the

only time I ever saw my father smoke-they prepared an im-

promptu feast, made up of venison & young puppies, the sight

of which while cooking spoiled my appetite, and the little white

pappoose was sick & could not eat. After feasting they had a

talk to which I listened -both the chiefs spoke good English-

Girty was a half breed, son of Simon Girty a renegade white

man, who knew Crawford in early life, and who was present

when he was burnt at Sandusky,²⁴& would not and probably

dared not relieve his torture. In the evening talk George Gir-

ty²⁵said nothing of this, but he gave a graphic account of the

battle in which Wayne defeated them-a part of which-his

own personal part I most distinctly remember. The Indians

were broken by a charge of cavalry, & as they were flying, "I

heard (said he) the sound of a horse's hoofs close behind me &

felt the hot breath of the horse on my shoulders. I looked up

and saw the rider with a long knife raised above his head drawn

to strike. I instantly dropped to elude the blow-the horse

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136 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

leaped over me and I ran into a swamp & hid in the grass and

brush where I lay till night". He was a rough, stout savage ap-

parently about thirty or thirty-five. I never heard of him after-

wards.

White-eyes²⁶was a different style of man--a scholar and

a gentleman. He was a half breed. His father, chief of a

small tribe, who had been faithful and rendered service in the

revolutionary war. The son was educated at the expense of the

U. S. About the time he was prepared to graduate he heard of

the death of his Father and immediately cast off his student's

gown - dressed himself in his native garb and hastened to join

his tribe of which he was hereditary chief. I remember little

of him that night at the camp. My Father knew thus much of

his history & rated his scholarship highly - said he had with

him some of his class books among the rest a copy of Eschylus'

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 137

tragedies in the original Greek well thumbed and greased which

he took pride in exhibiting and which I suppose he carried as a

memento of his collegiate days. He had a young wife-a

half breed, not more than fifteen, a brown beauty, but as I re-

member her very beautiful-dressed in a black silk robe which

descended to her knees, fastened and ornamented with silver

brooches, and her moccasins were richly wampumed and tied

above the ankle. She did not appear at the feast but showed

herself in the morning. We were entertained. The chiefs had

sent two of their most expert giggers with our canoe to strike

some fish for us and they did not return till about ten o'clock -

in the meantime the young Indian boys got me out to play with

them. We ran & leaped & wrestled - they were neither strong

nor active but most expert at climbing. The Indians pointed,

laughed & seemed greatly pleased with our sport. My fears

were all worn off and I felt quite at home.

The canoe came back, but the fishing had been a failure &

the Chiefs sent an expert with us who stood in the bow of the

canoe & struck several fine fish. I leaned over the side of the

canoe & saw them struck, and wondered that the gig which

seemed to be aimed quite below should bend in the water &

hit them. No mathematical calculation of the deflection of the

rays of light in passing from a dense to a rarer medium could

have exceeded the accuracy of this Indian's practised eye &

hand.

The band soon left their encampment and I heard nothing

more of them until many years after when I was told that White-

eyes, completely demoralized by his associations with civilized

man, lingered about the frontier settlements, became drunken

and troublesome and was at last shot by a boy whom he at-

tempted to frighten.

In the fall and early winter of 1795 my eldest sister, Abi-

gail,²⁷taught me to read. I remember nothing of my early

lessons except one incident. Her mode of teaching was cate-

chetical. She asked "what does spade spell"-I don't know.

"What did Dadda cover the potatoes with?" Dirt. The larger

children spelled at me, "spade dirt" until they made me quite

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138 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

ashamed and impressed that trifling incident on my memory.

The combining of the three consonants in a single sound is quite

too much for a child unless led to it by hearing it practised. In

many words in our language the combined sounds of the letters

do not give the sound of the word though from habit we think

they do. But take letters of the Greek alphabet composing al-

most any word and pronounce them distinctly in their order and

according to division of syllables, no one, not a Greek scholar

will have any conception of the word from the combined sound

of the letters. But I soon mastered the spelling book and spelled

& read everything in it -and here I have to note a curious fact

of memory - whether a mental caprice of my own or common

to all I know not -what I tried to understand but found un-

intelligible I remembered verbatim & most distinctly--of all

that conveyed a distinct image, I retained the substance - the

thought--but not generally, unless in Rhyme or measure, the

words. The fable of the country maid and her mill pail, will

serve as an illustration. The introductory sentence,

"When men suffer their imaginations to amuse them, with the

prospect of distant and uncertain advantages, they frequently suffer

real losses by their inattention to present affairs"

was entirely unintelligible to me-the words were nearly all

new or used in a sense in which I had never heard them used -

but now at the distance of more than seventy-five years I re-

member every word just as I found it. The body of the fable

presented a distinct image and I retain the substance merely.

Before I part with my early friend Thomas Dilworth²⁸Esq. I

will refer to his definition of Grammar which I did not under-

stand when I read it but which I remember, & think excellent -

"Grammar is the art of expressing thought, by words, with pro-

priety and dispatch."

There is not a definition in the whole range of science or

art that excels this in exactness and brevity.

The stock of books to which I had access was very small

and none of them, except the spelling book such as are usually

placed in the hands of children. My Father came West in ad-

vance of his family and my mother brought with her, the Bible

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 139

(King James' translation as I remember the "Great and Mani-

fold^"29in the dedication). She brought also Watts' Psalms and

Hymns³⁰& a huge volume Flavel's Sermons,³¹Calvinistic I sup-

pose, but unintelligible to me and I did not read them. In the

Winter of 1796-7 I read first the New Testament then the Bible

thoroughly-even the Chronicles with all their unpronounceable

names in hopes of coming across something narrative and intel-

ligible. The four Gospels puzzled me. I took them to be nar-

ratives of four different advents, lives and crucifixions of our

Savior in which he had passed through the same scenes; and I

was greatly disappointed when my Father explained away that

crowning miracle. I was most assiduous at my book. My

Mother thought too much reading would injure my eyes &

therefore limited me to a given number of chapters each day

which she carefully marked. I read also that winter Watts'

Psalms and Hymns many of which I committed to memory &

still retain in whole or in part-passages referring to physical

nature most impressed me as

"On slippery rocks I see them stand

And fiery billows roll below"

I had seen one of my playmates walking by the margin of

Olive Green Creek slide on the slippery rocks & fall into the

water. The fire and whirlwind in Isaiah was assimilated in my

comprehension to what I had sometimes seen in burning brush

in a clearing on a fine evening - rare sport for boys - the lit-

tle fellows running from one heap to another setting fire to the

dry leaves, so that the whole clearing would be at once in a blaze.

In the summer of 1797 having exhausted my stock of read-

ing & being too young to work I became idle and in search of

play associated with a neighboring family of boys whom my

Mother thought of evil communication, and she forbade me to

play with them. One day I was left at home with my sister

Rachel³²about twelve years old who had charge of me. I either

made or found cause of quarrel with her-rebelled against her

authority & ran off to Mr. Gallant's to play with the prohibited

boys. I had a good deal of contrition with little play & re-

turned home soon. On my way through a skirt of woods a

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140 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Raven 33 flew across the path just before me. I remembered a

verse which I had read the winter before in Ecclesiastes namely

"The eye that mocketh at his Father and scorneth to obey his

his Mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out

& the young eagles shall eat it". I was alarmed with the

fear that the Raven had come for me, at least to give

me a hint. I hastened home and as a penitent boy should made

my peace with Rachel, who I think never told my Mother of my

disobedience. At least it was passed over without reproof.

Within a range of many miles we had yet no schools. In the

early part of the fall of that year 1797 my Father, Mother and

Brother took me in a canoe to my aunt Morgan's331/2 near West

Liberty to send me to school. She had a son about a year

younger than myself (Mason Morgan), a bright boy, and a

very fine scholar of his age. There were two spelling classes

in the school and Mason a little white headed urchin was head

of the first class composed in part of young men 18 or 20 years

old--spelling then being a high test of scholarship. I was

placed foot of the second class - was soon changed to the first

and in a short time took my place beside Mason - next to head

in the first class -after a long time Mason missed a word &

I got above him -on going home exulting in my victory I was

for the first time made to feel that my aunt was not my mother

-she did not rejoice with me, but seemed mortified that Mas-

on's supremacy should be contested.

I had had but little association with children of my own age

and was totally uninformed as to ghosts & goblins except what

I had learned from a couplet which I heard my Father once re-

peat to the older children:

"Ghosts and Goblins, Witches and Fairies

Haunt the head where naught but hair is"

and this gave me no distinct conception of those interesting en-

tities. But there was a Welsh family lived near my Uncles and

two of the boys went to school with us. From them I got much

information- among other things they told me that ghosts

walked every night in the grave yard which we passed on our

way to school. I endeavored to persuade them to watch with

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 141

us some night, but they would not, so Mason & I on a fine even-

ing lay down in the fence corner watching for ghosts till it be-

gan to grow dark when my Uncle appeared to us with switch

in hand & broke up our watch, which was never afterwards re-

sumed.

This winter I read my first novel "The Fool of Quality"³⁴

which is I believe now out of print -it was full of interest to

me and though it is more than seventy years since I read it, I

remember the substance of the narrative and verbally some pas-

sages which struck me favorably.

In the spring of 1798 my uncle took me home to my Father

who had removed to what is now Ames Township in Athens

county. We descended the Ohio River in a flat boat-were

landed at the mouth of Little Hocking³⁵and crossed a pine ridge

some twelve or fifteen miles to the mouth of Federal Creek³⁶

where David Daily an old pioneer hunter was encamped with

his family. Here we staid all night. We were about ten miles

from my father's cabin in the woods and one of Daily's sons

had been in sight of it and was able to pilot us, which he did

next day. The young savage stayed all the afternoon & night

& saw and admired some of the rude implements of civilization

which were in use-among the rest, an auger, with which

George was making a bench, especially struck his fancy. He

expressed the opinion that everything useful to man except a

knife, a gun & bullet mould could be made with an axe and an

auger.361/2

My Father's little cabin was about fourteen miles³⁷from any

inhabitants with whom we had associations and it so remained

during the year. I was then eight years old. I had no play-

mates. George was eleven years older, quite a man about house

and farm and with all "a mighty hunter", supplying the family

abundantly with game.^371/2 I performed some light duties fitted

to a boy of my age, and mainly amused myself in strolling over

hills & among rocks, with a favorite spaniel, a most faithful

friend who always attended me on these excursions. This year

the stervice berries³⁸were abundant and of great variety. I

selected & claimed as my own, five or six very fine trees which

I could climb easily & draw in the limbs to pick the berries.

142 Ohio Arch

142 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

They grew just on the point of the hill above & almost in sight of

the house -these I watched waiting for them to get fully ripe,

and at the proper time went with one of my sisters to gather

the berries, when I found that a bear had been there just before

me- broke in the limbs so they laid to the trees like a folded

umbrella and stripped them entirely of their fruit. There was

still plenty in the woods for bears and boys, but most of the

trees were tall & smooth so that like Montesquieu's³9 savages

of Louisiana, we felled⁴⁰the trees to get the fruit.

I got but two new books this year; Aesop's Fables most of

which I learned by rote and the Vicar of Wakefield⁴¹which I

read to my Mother and Sisters; for next to my Father I was

already the scholar of the family-even my oldest sister who

but three years before had taught me to read listened to me with

much deference and satisfaction.

During this winter our mother entertained us around our

evening fires with odes, songs and ballads with which her mind

was abundantly stored all selected with great good taste. One

ode was political and reflected strongly on the Administration of

Sir Robert Walpole.⁴²

You who have read English history will remember that

England maintained for a long time a fleet on the South Ameri-

can Coast, partly to protect her commerce in those Seas-princi-

pally to overawe and intimidate Spain.⁴³Admiral Hosier com-

manded one of these fleets which for a long time blockaded Por-

to Bello -the unwholesome climate made terrible havoc among

his sailors and he himself died of the climate or of grief and

was "plunged into the sullen wave" with a large portion of his

crew. At last war was declared and Admiral Vernon with a

small fleet captured Porto Bello. The ode⁴⁴opens just after

the capture-a spirit rises from the sea and thus addresses the

victorious Admiral-

"⁰ heed, 0 heed this shameful story

I am injured Hosier's ghost

So Vernon thou hast purchased glory

At the place where I was lost.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 143

I by twenty sail attended

Did the Spanish town affright

Nothing then their wealth defended

But my orders not to fight;

For resistance I could fear none

But with twenty ships had done

What thou brave and happy Vernon

Hast achieved with six alone-

Thompson⁴⁵in his Summer attributes Hosier's expedition to

Vernon. He sings thus:

"You gallant Vernon saw

The Miserable scene; You pitying saw

To infant weakness sunk the Warrior's arm.

The lip, pale quivering & the beamless eye

No more with ardor bright-heard the deep groans

Of agonizing ships from shore to shore

Heard nightly plunged into the sullen wave

The frequent corse.

Hosier's expedition occurred just before the first publica-

tion of the "Summer" - Vernon's not till several years after -

this passage therefore belongs, not to the original poem but to

a subsequent edition.

Of popular poetry nearly contemporary with her early wo-

manhood she recited an ode⁴⁶celebrating the capture of Que-

bec, which runs thus

"Our General's breast it felt the ball" etc.

Also a monody⁴⁷representing Brittania "In a mouldering

cave where the wretched retreat" mourning over the loss of her

Hero-her sorrow being pitied by Jupiter, he sends Mercury

down to comfort her

And those were the tidings that come.

Brittania forbear, not a sigh not a tear

For your Wolfe so deservedly loved

Your grief should be changed into triumph of Joy

For your Wolfe is not dead but removed.

144 Ohio Arch

144 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The sons of the Earth, the proud Giants of old

Had broken from their darksome abodes

And this was the news as in Heaven 'twas told

They were marching to war with the Gods.

A council was held in the chambers of Jove

And this was the final decree

That Wolfe should be called to the armies above

And the charge was entrusted to me.

So the case being urgent, Mercury used all reasonable dis-

patch-flew to the plains of Quebec, where he found Wolfe in

the heat of battle-could not allow him time to complete and

witness his victory, but

"conveyed him away in an urn"

to the Heaven where his services were so much needed.

In Grecian mythology⁴⁸giants are occasionally called in as

auxiliaries in the wars of the Gods and in one instance wage

war against them on their own account, but mere mortals were

never called to aid in these battles -but there is a case in a

Sanscrit poem, or play, called Sakuntala⁴⁹or the lost ring,

where a prince of valor and conduct is taken up to aid the Gods

against evil Genii which are warring with them but he is taken

& returned alive to his kingdom.

Fancy and fiction however strange were as good as truth

to a group of listening children -and these with some fine odes

of Anacreon celebrating Cupid's tricks as a winged boy with bow

and quiver, and ballads without number of love and misfortune,

constancy and falsehood made up the evening entertainment in

our little cabin before a bright fire in the winter of 1798-9.

The theater with all its attractions has never given me so much

pleasure, "Such a sacred and home-felt delight" as those simple

family recitals in my early boyhood.

My Aunt Morgan was also rich in narrative, but delighted

most in Scottish Legends some of which would occupy more than

an evening in the recital. One50 of these represents a pair of

fugitive lovers driven by a storm to take refuge in the hut

of a recluse who tells them his history which opens thus -

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 145

Ten winters now have shed their snows

On this my lonely hall

Since gallant Hotspur-so the north

Their youthful lord did call-

Against proud Henry Bolinbroke

Led up his Northern powers

And bravely fighting lost his life

Near proud Selopin's towers.

I incline to think that when songs and stories are read to

children though a mother read them, they lose something of the

attraction which attended their recital-so that while we gain

much, we lose something by universal learning and abundant

literature.

During this year I read eagerly everything I could lay my

hands on-old newspapers as well as new, indeed with little

regard to dates. I remember to have found in a paper, which

must have been more than a year old an expression of satisfac-

tion that Gen'l Washington had been succeeded by such a ster-

ling patriot as John Adams, & I hastened to my Father to show

him that Gen'l Washington was dead. He corrected my mis-

take and explained to me that the Presidency was not an office

for life.

The next year (1799) we had a near neighbor, Capt. Benj.

Brown,⁵l with a large family, and two others were making ar-

rangements during the summer to remove next spring.

Capt. Brown was a man of little learning but much good

sense and intelligence, and a tolerable share of miscellaneous

reading-he had some numbers of a periodical, "The Athenean

Oracle",52 which he lent me, but I could not profit by it - it was

if I remember it right not unlike the "Notes and queries" of

more modern times - it discussed too some questions in phil-

osophy as "why the shadow of a tree reflected on the water will

appear just as far distant as the tree itself on the bank?" and

another less profound, "why do young men wear long hair?"

from all which I derived little entertainment or knowledge. This

was but a few years after vaccination had been introduced into

the United States, and the captain gave me a very full, and

Vol. XXII--10.

146 Ohio Arch

146 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

clear account of the discovery - perfectly intelligible, to a child

of my age and capacity -his account was this -

At a time when the smallpox was epidemic and very fatal

in London Doctor Jenner observed that men who perform the

two-fold fuctions of Hostlers and Milkers were all as a class

free from the contagion and might nurse the sick without dan-

ger. Having by extended observation found their exemption

to be universal, he carefully examined into the cause, and found

that all of them shortly after commencing the business broke

out with pustules resembling the smallpox, and on experiment

he found that those pustules were produced by matter which

exudes from the pastern of the horse inoculated into the cow's

teat-thereupon he tried it on the human subject and found it

effectual.53

My Father and one of the new neighbors, Ephraim Cutler,54

joined in the purchase of Morse's Geography55 with maps. Mr.

Cutler's son could not profit by it so it remained with me. I

studied it diligently and acquired quite a competent knowledge

of Geography and of the slight historical sketches-which it con-

tained - at the time the book went to press the date of which I

do not know the white population of the North Western Ter-

ritory was set down at 5000--the most populous county being

Knox which included Detroit and the French Settlement on the

Raisin. In that year I got possession of a torn copy of the poems

of Casimer⁵⁶and read with intense interest the poem celebrating

the victory of John Sobieski⁵⁷over the Turks on the banks of

the Danube. This poem was entire, and it has considerable

merit though it seems to be out of print as I have not seen a

copy of it since. It opens by introducing an aged husbandman

"Gador the old, the wealthy & the strong" on the bank of the

Danube and

"As he broke up new lands & tired the plough

In grassy furrows; the torn earth disclosed

Helmets and shields rich furniture of war

Sleeping in rust."

In a note to this poem or in the brief historical sketch in the

Geography I found it stated that this battle, which was the final

check to the advance of the Turks into Europe, was fought on

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 147

the left bank of the Danube. I asked my Father what was meant

by the left bank as I understood it to depend on the direction

in which the observer faced. He told me that a military man or

the historian who recounts military achievements is always sup-

posed to look down stream, whether he be in fact marching up

or down, and he added - The Geographer faces to the North -

the Astronomer to the south-the Sooth-sayer to the east and

the Poet to the west. I have not in my subsequent reading met

with confirmation of the last of these, but my Father no doubt

had it from what he es-

teemed good authority.

This year, in April, I

went with George to Wolf

Creek Mills, about eighteen

miles distant to bring home

some meal. We had each a

horse and he had his gun,

and the little Spaniel was

one of the party. On our

return as we were about de-

scending the Laurel Hill

into Wolf Creek bottom

George gave me a rope at-

tached to his horse's bridle

and told me to lead him &

come on slowly, and he

would go forward into the

valley & try to kill some

game to take home with

us -it was a dim narrow

path, but I was able to follow it. In a few minutes after he

left me I heard the crack of his rifle & the bark of the dog. I

hastened on and soon heard a sound of a third crack of the gun,

and saw on the right of the path George running with his gun

in his hand closely pursued by a very large bear and the dog

following snapping & barking at the bear. George leaped be-

hind a tree and loaded his gun and the bear turned, ran a little

way pursued and worried by the dog, and climbed a tree, a

148 Ohio Arch

148 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

small beach broken off about 30 feet high & held on near the

top, his head between his forepaws looking down at man & dog

below--by this time I had tied my horses and joined George

who had his gun loaded and at a moderate distance fired at the

bear's head, but missed it, and shot him through one of his

fore-paws. The bear fell, and rolled down the hillside towards

us, and ran slowly toward the creek which was near-before

he got to the water George shot again, but the bear limped on

without heeding him and got into the water and lay down-

the dog followed and the bear seized him with his sound paw

and drew him under water. George took aim at the bear's head

and attempted to fire, but his flint flew out and was lost in the

grass and sand-he then drew his knife and was about leaping

in to save the dog, when I held by his hunting shirt & prevented

him- just then the bear let go the dog and went to shore on

the other side and lay down in the sand quite exhausted--the

dog followed and sat down & barked and the bear replied with

a growl. George had no second flint--his gun therefore was

useless-he said he could kill the bear disabled as he was with

his knife but to this I would not consent - he then said he could

tie his knife to a pole, with leatherwood bark, and spear him at a

safe distance. I agreed to this, but while he was preparing his

lance I got on my hands and knees & searching closely found the

flint - he then waded across and shot the bear in the head. All

his other shots had taken effect, but none in a vital part. We

were about ten miles from home. George climbed a tall slen-

der sapling which stood nearby-bent it down & secured the

hind legs of the bear to it- cut off the top above, and with a

forked pole on each side raised the huge carcass high enough to

be out of the reach of wolves, and we left it till next day when

we went with the necessary aid and brought it home. It was

very fat⁵⁸-had just left its winter den in the rocks and come

down to the creek bottom to feed on young nettles, their earliest

spring food.

We had yet no physician in the neighborhood, and some one

of the family being sick, my father sent to Waterford about

twenty miles for Doctor Baker. He at once made my acquain-

tance, & told me he had a book which he would lend me if I

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 149

would come for it - one he said I would like to read - not long

after I got leave of my Father and went, on foot, with the lit-

tle spaniel, Ring, for company and as a body guard-it was on

the same path that was the scene with the bear fight the year be-

fore, and still a space of thirteen miles without a house. I

made the journey without any adventure, was kindly received

by the Doctor and brought home the book-it was a transla-

tion of Virgil's Aeneid,⁵⁹I do not know by whom as the title

page was torn out, and I have not chanced to meet with it since

-it may be known by the opening lines which I remember--

they are

Arms and the man I sing, who first from Troy

Came to the Italian and Lavinian shores

Exiled by fate, much tossed by land and sea

By power Divine and cruel Juno's rage:

Much too in War he suffered till he reared

A city and to Latium brought his Gods

Hence sprung the Latin progeny-the Kings

Of Alba and the Walls of tow'ring Rome.

I read it with great interest. My Father at that time had

several hired men, rough frontiersmen -I read at noon, in the

evenings and on Sundays to them and never had a more atten-

tive audience. The passage in the fourth book in which Aeneas

recounts to Dido the monitions he had received to depart and

seek Italy and build another Troy, excited much discussion es-

pecially his statement that a messenger from Jove appeared to

him in open day and commanded him to depart. One of the

men said he believed it was a made-up story - that he had got

tired of Dido and invented it as an excuse for being off -and

they all agreed it was a shame after the kindness she had done

him. So Virgil's hero lost something of reputation by this read-

ing.

On a hot day in July this year, George, fancying that the

heavy coat of hair was an incumbrance to the little Spaniel, Ring,

sheared him close all except his head and tail--the children

got round him and laughed at his changed appearance. He

seemed much ashamed--looked round repeatedly and did not

seem to know himself. As soon as he could get away he slunk

off among the weeds and we never saw him afterwards. The

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150 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

fields and woods were searched and Ring hunted for and called

everywhere-it seemed like the loss of a member of the family.

In the next year 1800 we had several neighbors within a

moderate distance. One large family from Kennebeck in Maine,

a wild region, and all of the family wholly uneducated. The old

man, Linscot,⁶⁰was a soldier at the taking of Lewistown.61 He

had spent his long life on the northern frontier, and he told me

many stories of his early adventures, illustrative of their habits

& modes of life-among the rest he gave an account of their

moose hunts. When a deep snow was falling, he said, the

moose would get together in considerable numbers in a thicket

or hemlock or fir & by walking round in a limited space beat

the snow down as it fell, and when the top of a deep snow was

covered with a hard crust, as was often the case, they were con-

fined within the limits of their beat-a hunter would find a

Moose pen, as they called it, and inform his neighbors, who would

go with their snow shoes on the top of the snow and surround

the pen attacking on every side and as the moose in their flight

would rush up against the snow, beat them to death with clubs.

Many years after I found in Virgil's 3d Georgic from line 367 to

376 inclusive,⁶²the old man's account of the winter the snow

-the crusted surface, the moose pen, and the moose hunt-

all true to the life. Virgil had doubtless got his account from

some one of Mr. Linscot's Scythian ancestors.

The next winter Moses Everett⁶³a graduate of Yale Col-

lege taught school in our neighborhood - he was of course well

educated and I profited much by his tuition. He had become

intemperate and fled from temptation, which on our frontier

was quite out of his way. He was especially careful to teach

me pronunciation and prosody.

In the spring of 1802, as I think, but I cannot certainly

fix the year, some ten or fifteen of the neighbors united and

raised a fund to buy books for a circulating library.⁶⁴I con-

tributed ten Raccoon skins - being all my hoarded wealth. One

of the neighbors, Samuel Brown,⁶⁵was going to Boston & he

took charge of the fund. We got some sixty or seventy vol-

umes tolerably well selected-they were brought from Mariet-

ta in sacks on horseback and emptied out on the floor at Capt.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 151

Benjamin Brown's where I was present to witness the exhibi-

tion. It seemed to me like an almost unbounded intellectual

treasure-the library of the Vatican and all other libraries of

which I had read were trifles,-playthings - compared with it.

It indeed served me well - and with subsequent purchases from

year to year, and with my Father's aid in selecting, it furnished

me abundant and excellent reading for the seven or eight years

that I afterwards remained at home. During all this time I

worked industriously on the farm except three winters that I at-

tended school, having for teachers Moses Everett and Charles

Cutler⁶⁵¹/2 also a graduate of Yale, who also banished himself.

I was in the habit of going to a mill near the mouth of Federal

Creek, about eight miles. I generally went in the afternoon-

got my grist ground at night, and returned with it next morn-

ing. There was an educated man whose name was Jones,⁶6 a

native of Rhode Island, evidently an outcast from friends and

family who made his home at the miller's. We called him Doc-

tor, and I sometimes purchased of him such drugs as my mother

knew how to administer--he spent most of his time hunting

and was quite intemperate. He often came in on evenings when

I was there, took off his moccasins, lay down with his feet to

the fire and had me read to him-generally poetry of which

he had several volumes. He always corrected promptly and

sternly, errors especially of prosody, to which he sacrificed pro-

nunciation, where they conflicted -as in Pope's Essay on Man,

the line

"Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove"

he made me pronounce satellites, satel-li-tes to fill the poetic

measure. He was a man of taste and I profited by the casual

association. He and Barrows the miller were fast friends.

When Jones was on his deathbed he called Barrows to him-

reminded him of an Indian Mound⁶⁷they had sometimes strolled

to, on Sundays and asked to be buried there. Barrows com-

plied with his request, and a few years after died and was bur-

ied on the mound by the side of his old friend.

The political parties of the time were Federalists and Re-

publican. I first knew something of this in 1798, while I was

at my aunt's in West Liberty. My uncle was a Republican and

152 Ohio Arch

152 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

took newspapers sufficiently abusive of the elder Adams and

laudatory of Mr. Jefferson. I remember something of the par-

tizan poetry of the time-not elevated in character or of high

poetic merit as for instance a pasquinade⁶⁸against James Ross,⁶⁹

when he and McKean⁷⁰were opposing candidates for Governor

of Pennsylvania --Ross is represented as meeting an old Re-

publican, when the following dialogue ensued-

"Says the Federal candidate, As I'm a sinner,

Old McKean he gets drunk every day at his dinner."

to which the Republican replies-

"That may be the case, but far worse they do say:

Ross is drunk at his breakfast and drunk all the day."

This related to persons merely -but the serious contest

arose from the supposition, that the Federalists were too much

disposed to favor England in her contest with the French Revo-

lutionists. That the Republicans on the contrary were disposed

to bully England and truckle to France.

My Father was a stanch Federalist, and when the conven-

tion met to form a constitution for Ohio Ephraim Cutler, a

neighbor and old personal and political friend was a member

of the convention. Shortly after the commencement of the ses-

sion, my Father read to us a letter from him, characterising the

elements of the convention a part of the summing up or group-

ing of which I remember.

"Ready to go all lengths about twelve or fourteen.

Something more moderate, six.

Federal and rational, ten.

Moderate and incling to rational principles71 * * *"

This number I have forgotten.

The constitution when completed was however quite satis-

factory to my Father and his Federal friends--except in the

single particular that it left the Executive too feeble.⁷²

My strong desire for an education, which my Father en-

couraged without any possible means to gratify it, seemed al-

most certainly doomed to disappointment. I had it is true access to

a tolerable library, and availed myself of it to the utmost, but

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 153

I had no associates of my own age with whom I could communi-

cate and I was becoming too large to stand by the knees of old

men and learn wisdom from their narratives of adventure or

observations on practical life. I felt this deeply and while thus

impressed, I met with an advertisement in the Marietta paper-

the American Friend⁷³-which was I believe verbatim as follows:

"WANTED-An apprentice to the printing business. A sober lad of

from twelve to fourteen years old, who can read well and write a toler-

able hand. He will be kindly treated and well instructed. Enquire at

this office."

I went with this to my Father and asked him to let me go

and offer myself, but he discouraged me, thinking there would

be more labor than learning in the vocation.

In our library there was but little poetry and no plays except

Goldsmith's. I never met with a copy of Shakespear until I was

more than twenty years old. We had a copy of Ossian⁷⁴which

I admired much, though not insensible to his occasional violations

of good taste, and I by no means yet agree with those who under-

value him. His address to the sun "O thou that rollest over my

head" is equal in beauty, fine taste and tender pathos to Milton's

"Hail holy light" though inferior perhaps in elevation of senti-

ment. Ossian's poems were admired by men of the highest order

of intellect and first critical taste in Europe. As somewhat op-

posite examples I may instance Napoleon Bonaparte and Goethe.

They acquired a large share of their fame, especially in Scotland,

from a belief in their high antiquity, and when that was with-

drawn they fell much below their intrinsic merits. McPherson,

however, fared better than the poor boy Chatterton⁷⁵who died

a victim to his forgery of ancient odes, which when detected as

his own production, ought to have immortalized him. One of

the finest examples of this kind of innocent imposition on the

public is the "Amber Witch"⁷⁶in which the author when he at

last claimed it as his own was accused by some learned criticks

of attempting to appropriate to himself what was in truth an

antique gem.

From 1803 to 1809 I made little mental progress. The neces-

sary aids were wanting. I studied geography very carefully,

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154 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

became pretty well versed in history, ancient and modern, was a

good arithmatician, and read some poetry and several novels.

My memory being tenacious I made the most of what I read. I

found Gray's Elegy in a magazine which accidentally fell into

my hands and committed it to memory in a single summer even-

ing, after coming in from my day's work. A poor sickly old

man whose name was Clark, who had been a school-master,

settled on a piece of wild land a few miles from my Father's'.

His neighbors built him a cabin and one day my Father sent me

with a yoke of oxen to haul rails for him & help him enclose his

little field. At noon while my oxen were resting he taught me

how to find the leap-year, the Epact,77and the age of the moon

on any day in the year -quite a treasure of knowledge which

my Father had omitted to teach me.

In 1809 having raised a good summer crop and put the farm

in order, I asked my Father to let me go for a few months in

search of adventure. He consented and I set out immediately

- made my way to the Ohio River and got on board of a keel

boat, bound for Kenhawa Salt works.⁷⁸I remained there three

months as a laborer, and became satisfied that I could in a few

years earn money enough to educate me for a profession. On

returning home I found several new books in the Library which

I read in the course of the winter. In the spring having put the

farm in order for a summer crop I returned to Kenhawa. This

year (1810) I saved some money, paid a debt of my Father

which annoyed him, and went to the College at Athens79 to try

my success as a scholar. The estimate formed of me there in

this short term was sufficiently flattering- considerably above

my actual capacity - for example I mastered English Grammar

in ten days-never having previously studied it. But I was

familiar with the best English authors, and spoke and wrote as

correctly before as after. So that in studying grammar I had

only to learn the names of the tools with which the grammarian

works, and commit some rules to memory. I acquired credit too

by a composition which I wrote this winter and which as I rec-

ollect it had some merit. On the whole I was encouraged to

persevere in my efforts.

I returned to Kenhaway & spent the greater part of the

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 155

years 1811 & 12 there. For about a month in the summer of

1811 I was up and about my work from midnight till after sun-

rise, and I noticed during all that time that a gentle breeze from

the east passed over and rippled the surface of the river just be-

fore early dawn on each fair morning-a single breath and

no more. I associated it with the panting of the steeds that

draw the chariot of the sun. I saw too on one of these nights

the comet of 1811 and spoke of it several days before it was

noticed in the papers.⁸⁰

I returned home in November 1812 quite exhausted by hard

and long continued physical labor and brought with me a little

over $600 in money. I descended the Kenhawa⁸¹in a keel

boat in which were also as passengers the family of a son of

Daniel Boone, the celebrated pioneer. He had with him a

daughter - Harriet⁸²- a handsome, educated young lady, who

had somehow got the impression that I was a scholar and en-

ticed me on the voyage to read novels and recite poetry with her.

She was engaged in reading the Wild Irish Girl,⁸³an extrava-

gant specimen of unrestrained imagination, with which she was

quite enchanted. Without sharing in her enthusiasm, her at-

tention & courtesy pleased me & she made the otherwise monoto-

nous voyage pleasant. But my hands were chapped and black

with toil-soap and water having no effect on them-so that

I hardly dared to offer them to help her out of the boat, and I

took due care to hide them in her presence. We landed at

Point Pleasant in the evening, where I left the boat and lodged

at a Tavern. In the morning I woke with a fever and head-

ache, but little able to travel. I crossed the Ohio and tried to

hire man & horse to take me on my way but a Battalion of re-

cruits⁸⁴had just crossed on their way to the frontier, and pressed

& taken off all the horses they could find - the Farmers to save

them had taken many to the woods and hid them in thickets. I

moved forward on foot slowly and painfully and having gone

about four miles discovered that I had left my watch-after

some hesitation I returned for it, and again resumed my toil-

some journey. Having walked about sixteen miles, just at dusk

I had the good fortune to meet with a man who had come in

from the woods with two horses and I hired him, without diffi-

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culty to take me some ten miles further to the house of a Mr.

Stedman a farmer whom I knew and where I was well taken

care of. After a few days rest and nursing I got home on horse-

back, but still feeble and exhausted. After remaining at home a

few days I made my way to the Library where I found Don

Quixote who proved one of the best physicians that I ever called

in. I did not follow the prescription of Doctor Pedro Positive,

but read and laughed myself well in a short time.

I had in the two years then last past paid off a residue of

my Father's debts, and put his little farm in order. My Brother

George lived near him, and was always at hand to aid whenever

he required assistance--both Father and Mother were in good

health so with the approbation of both and with cheering en-

couragement from my Father, I left them, determined with my

slender means to qualify myself for one of the learned profes-

sions or some other of the important vocations of life. The

world was all before me, but I entered it without a guide, and

had, under Providence to choose for myself the path which I

should pursue; and I had small knowledge of the affairs of life

and the ways of men except what I had learned from and among

the sons of toil with whom my lot had been cast. I had but

once seen a Judge on the bench, a jury in the box, and a lawyer

speaking at the Bar. I entered, however, on my new career

with undoubting confidence.

While attempting to test my own capacity and form a just

opinion of my mental powers, I studied what I was sure would

be useful to me in any event, - Latin & Rhetoric to give me

command of my own language, and skill in its use; astronomy-

Geometry speculative and practical, including surveying and

navigation, and with them the higher branches of mathematics.

To these last I was partly directed by strong inclination, and

marked facility in their acquirement and partly by what I es-

teemed a probability that they might be directly useful to me in

future life. I had no special facility in acquiring languages ex-

cept what arose from a good knowledge of my own and a read-

iness in tracing derived words back and finding their meaning in

the original, from my knowledge of them in the derived, and

a tenacious and ready memory, which enabled me to commit &

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 157

retain easily and permanently the rules which rest at the founda-

tion of language. For instance the 76 rules in Adams' Latin

Grammar85 I committed to memory in a single day, still it re-

quired many days to study the notes & find the rules always at

hand and ready of application. I also had considerable advan-

tage over younger students in a general knowledge of the sub-

jects of which authors treat; to some extent acquiring a knowl-

edge of language through my knowledge of things.

During my first year I devoted a good deal of attention to

composition, both prose and poetry, and acquired some facility

in numbers and versification. After testing my capacity I fan-

cied I could write tolerable poetry, but this Horace, in whom I

had confidence assured me neither men nor Gods could endure.

I therefore indulged in poetic composition no further than I

thought it might aid me in the choice and use of language. I

give from memory a fragment of college exercise in rhyme and

one in blank verse, which will serve as samples. Of the first,

in rhyme, I remember but a few couplets written immediately af-

ter the battle of Queenstown.⁸⁶The Federal party to which my

Father belonged and whose opinions I had imbibed, were op-

posed to the invasion of the enemy's territory but held that we

should confine our military operations to the defence of our

own. This opinion is distinctly presented in the fragment

which I quote-

"Liberty, guardian Goddes of our land

In thy defense let every Freeman stand

But not, while in thy sacred cause he fights

Trample on others or invade their rights.

E'en late on Queenstown's heights thy sons have bled

Her cold clods pillow many a youthful head

Who proud in arms, with courage all elate

Scarce left thy fostering soil when whelmed by fate."

A few brief years however changed my opinion as to of-

fensive, and defensive war. The English and their Indian al-

lies invaded us--captured Detroit and attacked Fort Meigs.87

Troops were called for and I with four or five other students

turned out as mounted volunteers, intent not only on driving

the enemy from our border but on the capture of Malden⁸⁸

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which we looked upon as the robbers' den. I was cornet of a

company and carried the flag which the ladies presented us. I

had a heavy plough horse which I borrowed of a neighboring

farmer, and a huge sword which an adventurer who purposed

to join Iturbide⁸⁹lent me. We galloped through town, colours

flying. "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campun",⁹⁰

but neither horses or riders were very well trained and our old

President91 who was an accomplished jockey looked at us quizi-

cally as we passed; but when we set out he prayed fervently for

us; and for the souls of the unfortunate Englishmen and In-

dians whom we were going to slaughter. After two days jour-

ney we were disbanded and returned home and so ended my

military career.

The second specimen, which I give below, in blank verse,

is an address to the Sun, a fragment, the concluding lines of

a composition, descriptive of "Early Morning". The subject

is trite, but managed with something of originality. The ad-

dress is so far connected that to make it intelligible I have to

give it in full. I give this also from memory.

Fire inexhaustible who bright returnst

Radiant with glory and with beams renewed

From their hesternal waste, say hast thou washed

Thy golden disc in occidental waves

And is the Eastern gulf thy couch of rest

Whence, on thy chariot, bright, with joyous train

Led by Aurora, and the laughing Hours,

All fresh thy race begins? Thus sang the muse

Ere science yet, her mind enlightening rays

Had shed on man and taught him what thou art

Where setst or seemst to set and whence arise

How when Earth's shadow casts its solemn gloom

Of darkness round us, and night's dusky cone,

Through which near its high apex,* oft the moon

Labors in dim eclipse, clasps with its base

One half of the convex globe; freedom's wild home;

The land of Montesuma and Peru,

And Chili to Magellan and the Horn;

The Atlantic Ocean with its mighty isles

*Not strictly accurate-the path of the moon is nearer the base

than the apex of the cone.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 159

Europe and Asia to the utmost bounds

Of Araby and Iran and the seas

Caspian and Aral, and the continent

Of Lybia to Mozambique all in night;

How there still shinest in glory-there the streams

Of India own thy presence and the Priest

Of holy Brama kneeling on the banks

Of sacred Ganges pours his hymn of praise

To thee his rising God. Thy setting rays

Gild that wild mountain the remotest source

Of swift Missouri's flood and idly play

On California's sands. Thy mid-day beams

Fall on the broad Pacific's scattered isles.

Rare gems of beauty mid an ocean's waste-

With earlier freshness and with rays aslope.

Thou gladst the valleys and the lofty hills

Of seagirt Niphon, populous Cathay

And savage Borneo and the spicy isles

Of Ternate and Tidore.+ How fixed thou art

Yet seemst in motion, as the voluble earth

Rolls oceans, continents, and Isles and Seas

In swift succession neath thee, while benign

Thou yieldsts Earth's every part the grateful change

Of light from darkness, but unchanging shinest

At once the morning, noon, and evening sun.

I had a ready aptitude for mathematicks, the study was

much to my taste-indeed absorbing-but if I obtained emi-

nence as a mathematician I did not feel confident that it would

help me to make an independent way through life--it seemed

to me rather like passing my time in happy mental abstraction,

than acquiring knowledge useful, and certainly applicable in the

current affairs of men. I therefore studied the speculative sci-

ence of mathematics no farther than I believed it useful to

aid my reasoning powers, in exactness of thought and language,

and in this I considered an algebraic demonstration involving

the higher powers, the most perfect and next to Euclid's Ele-

ments the most exact application of human reason--a mental

exercise in which there could be no ambiguity in thought and

none in language.

+"Ternate and Tidore whence merchants bring their spicy drugs."

-Milton.

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In testing my capacity I soon acquired confidence in my rea-

soning powers -knew myself a logical thinker, and found my-

self possessed of a use of language considerably above that of

most of my associates. I therefore determined on the Law as

my profession and made my reading and collegiate course as far

as possible preparatory to its study. In February 1813 an epi-

demic which was popularly called the cold plague⁹²took off

many persons in Athens and the country round and for a time

broke up the school. I went home, took with me Virgil, a Latin

Dictionary and Grammar and went on with my studies there,

commencing with the Aeneid, because being narrative, it was

easier for a beginner than the Bucolics or Georgics. I laid my

watch on the table before me and worked by the hour, doubling,

instead of anticipating the eight hour rule - the first day I made

but sixty lines-the last day twelve hundred -and I so read

as to comprehend fully the sense of every sentence. I did not

attempt Greek- my limited time and slender means forbade

it, though I much desired, as I knew its value to the student of

our own language in every department of science. My funds

were likely to fall short. I therefore took a school in Gallipo-

lis and taught one quarter.93 I went to Kenhawa to collect a

small debt which was due me there. I found the impression

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 161

among my old companions that a partnership with me insured

success, and met at once with several offers. I selected the best

- took off my student's garb and worked for a month in good

earnest-it went hard, but I earned about a hundred and fifty

dollars, and with my recruited finances returned to my studies.

In looking over some French books while in Gallipolis, I found

the language easy, so I took a grammar with me to Kenhawa

and paid some attention to it while there. After my return, I

went again to Gallipolis, and took lessons for a month with a

French teacher hoping to acquire something of pronunciation-

This I found must be a failure, but I soon read and translated

with facility.

The fourth of July before I left the college I was invited

to deliver the oration. Europe was in a disturbed state, with

the final struggle between Buonaparte and the allied powers,

and the world was looking anxiously to the result. It was my

first effort at a public speech. I wrote and committed it-gave

the manuscript to my Father and retain little memory of it. The

concluding sentence was an apostrophe, something as follows:

"and you, my beloved country, young and free and happy, may you

endure forever-esto perpetua. When the thrones of Tyrants crumbled

into dust lie in undistinguished ruin, and Europe from her present

shattered state sink if she be doomed to sink again to barbarism, still

may the unfading ivy twine around thy brow, peace, freedom and con-

cord bless you, till Time shall have finished its destined course and Earth

by his command who called it into being return again to former chaos."

It was the fit production of a Sophomore, but understood

to be a success. My Father was proud of it and it gave me con-

siderable reputation in the limited circle in which I began to be

known.

On my leaving college, the Board of Trustees awarded me

a diploma,⁹⁴waiving my want of Greek; and I went to my Fath-

er's and took with me Blackstone's Commentaries. I read the

four volumes through at about two hundred pages a day--a

mere exploration, to find what was there and to understand

what I could. I then turned back and studied the volumes care-

fully-after which, in the month of July I went to Lancas-

Vol. XXII-11.

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ter⁹41/2 and entered myself, a student of Law under General

Philemon Beecher.⁹⁵He was a man of fine intellect, though of

irregular and limited education. Naturally eloquent he would,

had his mind been disciplined, have been an orator. I remem-

ber some brief passages in his addresses to the jury, which for

strength and pungency are seldom excelled. One will do as a

sample. He was for defendant in an action of slander. The

Plaintiff appeared badly in the evidence, but his counsel was in-

dignant at what he called aspersions on the character of his

client. Beecher in his reply having condensed and presented

very strongly the enormities proved against him took up the

word. "Talk" said he "of aspersions on a character such as this

- is there a sprinkling, a spot upon him?- No-he has plunged

- he is steeped in infamy". He conceived a cause quickly and

truly-was familiar with all the affairs of common life and

looked quite through the deeds and motives of men--he was

consequently a very successful jury lawyer-afterwards when

in Congress to which he was elected in 1816, though highly esti-

mated by those who knew him well, he failed to make his mark

-evidently conscious of his ability but ashamed of his want of

education and aware that men much his inferiors in mental

power might criticise the English of his speeches however elo-

quent and impassioned.

Jacob Burnet96 one of our most eloquent advocates at the

Bar in Ohio, a scholar too and master of language, when sent

to the Senate of the United States, was mute, but for another

cause. He lost two of his front teeth, and being for almost a

lifetime familiar with his own full clear utterance, he could not

endure to lisp the language which he had before spoken to the

admiration of his hearers-it was like a skilled musician play-

ing on an instrument with broken chords. He might have par-

tially remedied the defect by artificial teeth, but did not.

After studying with Genl. Beecher thirteen months during

which time he paid me every attention, I was in August 1816

admitted to the Bar.⁹⁷The next month I went with him to

Circleville Court, where he promised me a cause to argue. One

was selected--a slander case in which he was for Plaintiff,

and I prepared in advance for the opening argument. It was

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 163

compromised. He gave me then a case of contract resting upon

written evidence which I prepared carefully but it was continued.

I sat at the counsel table quite disheartened while the clerk

called the docket-when a case was called in which Beecher

was for the defence -it was ready and he said I must try my

hand at that. I read the pleadings hastily, and attended to the

testimony, and when Genl. Beecher had closed the cross examina-

tion of plaintiff's last witness I thought I discovered important

matter which had not been distinctly brought out. I asked leave

to interrogate, which, being granted, I brought out by a few

questions the new matter which was conclusive for the defence.

This gave me confidence. I opened the argument for defendant

and Beecher very kindly said I had presented the defence

fully and he had nothing to add. The incident, trivial as it was

made a very favorable impression on the Bench and Bar at

that place. I went to Athens Supreme Court in November,

where I found nothing to do, but met a son of an old neighbor98

whose brother a boy of some fourteen or fifteen was indicted in

Washington Common Pleas for petty larceny. He asked me to

go to Marietta and defend him. I agreed to go for twenty-five

dollars but as my money was nearly out I required fifteen dol-

lars in hand. This was paid me and I went. My boy was con-

victed, but I obtained a new trial. The Court of Common

Pleas sat in Lancaster in November. Mr. Sherman,⁹⁹the Gen-

eral's father -then one of our best lawyers, had a case of tres-

pass and wounding for trial, and invited me to assist him. I

opened the case. We were successful-the Defendant appealed

and the Plaintiff retained me as assistant counsel for the Su-

preme Court. I found too that I had gained reputation at home

by my opening speech.

In the spring I went again to Marietta to defend my boy

client on his second trial. The evidence against him was his own

confession, and the witness testified that he used neither threats

or persuasion and held out no hopes to him of immunity if he

confessed. Having obtained the new trial, I enquired carefully

of the boy's brother and ascertained that the prosecuting wit-

ness had promised to him that the matter should be concealed

if the boy would confess, and that he had communicated the

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promise to the boy. On the second trial I asked leave to ex-

amine a witness to the court touching the admissibility of the

State's evidence-this though not strictly regular was permitted.

I called the brother and proved the fact & when the prosecuting

witness was called I asked him the preliminary question and he

admitted the conversation with the brother on which the court

rejected the evidence of confession, and my boy was acquitted.

He was a member of the Methodist church and his conviction

had caused some sensation. This trial was largely attended by

the Brethren and the result was so unexpected, that it was cred-

ited to me as a new and unusual stroke of professional talent.

There chanced to be at that term a very large number of crim-

inal cases for trial-the people had broken up a nest of coun-

terfeiters and had six or eight accused in jail-some out on

bail, and some cases of larceny and one of perjury. That even-

ing and the next day I was employed in twelve penitentiary

cases. From this time I took rank in public opinion -from

which opinion I was not so ungrateful as to dissent-as first

among the young members of the central Ohio Bar. My travel

on horseback to attend to my boy's case was about 240 miles-

the time spent with it about twelve days-my fee was $25. I

have had causes since, in which my fees ranged from $10,000 to

$70,000, but none which gave me more satisfaction, or was real-

ly of more consequence to me than this. Some two or three

of my new cases were tried that term. The first was a case in

which the evidence was quite insufficient, but to my great sur-

prize the jury, which was composed of some of the best and most

intelligent men of the county returned in a few minutes a ver-

dict of guilty. I moved for a new trial, and in my argument

dwelt with some severity on the unwarranted finding. The new

trial was granted and the jury was sworn in another case in

which the evidence was very clear for conviction. In arguing

this I commented on their hasty and unexpected finding in the

first case-they were evidently much troubled, and took very

ample time to consider this. After they came in, they sent for

me--spoke of my comments as harsh and unkind-said the

county had for several years past been greatly troubled with a

gang of counterfeiters and horse thieves but was unable to con-

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 165

vict them either because of the weakness or the complicity of

some one or two jurors-that they had now in prison, or on

bail, a large part of the gang--the very worst of them, and

they, the jurors had been selected to see that justice should be

done - that they had left their business at a great sacrifice and

were devoting their time, simply for the purpose of enforcing

the law and suppressing crime. I said in reply that I had no

doubt they were very good men - that their motives were good,

but that selected as they were they were not lawful jurors-

and that I must make use of what they had told me, in defence

of the other prisoners. Accordingly on the next prisoner being

called I challenged the array, and on the testimony of the fore-

man, and the sheriff got the jury set aside. This led to a con-

tinuance of nearly all the cases. From this time on I had a com-

manding practice in the southern counties - but the people were

poor and fees small. On this circuit I met with Samuel F. Vin-

ton¹⁰⁰and Charles B. Goddard101 --young lawyers of fine tal-

ents and high culture -who were my intimate friends and com-

panions during their lives. We practised in the courts togeth-

er for many years and Mr. Vinton and myself were for a long

time associated in political life.

I was for several years prosecuting attorney102 in Fairfield,

an office at that time by no means a sinecure, the country being

greatly infested with counterfeiters, or rather persons engaged

in passing counterfeit bank notes. They were generally manu-

factured at some distant place, and travelling merchants fre-

quently passed through the country bringing with them large

sums and distributing to supply the local demand. They sold

at a moderate price allowing a large margin to their customers

for risk and profit. My predecessors in office had prosecuted

very faithfully all cases which came regularly before the court,

but left it to the Grand Jury & Justices of the Peace to track the

felons and bring their causes there. I, when appointed deter-

mined to make an effort to cut the business up by the roots. I

soon ascertained that a loose young fellow had offered to pass a

new counterfeit bill--it was refused and the bill remained in

his possession, so that it could not be described, or proved false,

he therefore could not be convicted. I sent for him, told him

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his danger and advised him to tell me all he knew and if I found

him true I would overlook the past. He told me of the traveling

merchants - said they were soon to be along again and prom-

ised to inform me when they should be again in Town. The

day before Christmas 1818, he told me they had come and

stopped at the hotel where I boarded -that they hid their mer-

chandize he knew not where, and if arrested none would be

found in their possession-and added that they were to stay

all night at a tavern fourteen miles west of the town where they

expected to meet a large number of their customers. I told him

to go out and meet them, and as soon as business began, to come

out a hundred or two yards on the Lancaster road and I would

meet him, and receive his report. I bound him to the strictest

confidence, and took him to Judge Scofield¹⁰³one of the asso-

ciate Judges, that he might be able to vouch for him in case of

accident to me. The Sheriff was absent-the Deputy Sheriff

drunk, so that I must myself take charge of the enterprize or

let the rascals escape. Judge Scofield in whom I had great con-

fidence told me I must take fifteen or twenty armed men with

me, for if I went ill prepared I would come home well whipped.

I took his advice - summoned twelve of the best I could get-

told them I was going on a secret expedition with which I could

not trust even them, and that they must be ready each with his

horse and such weapon as he could get, to mount and follow

as I should ride down the street at dusk. I had got the deputy

sheriff as sober as possible armed with a warrant to arrest Mor-

ris Seeley and certain other persons, names unknown. My men

all joined me-pleased with the promise of an adventure and

we rode rapidly till we passed the intersection of the several

roads leading westward so that there was no danger of our be-

ing passed, when I halted and explained to the men our object.

We then formed and moved on silently till within two or three

hundred yards of the house when we turned into the woods &

tied our horses. I left the men, perdu, near the road, all but

one, whom I took with me and we ensconsed ourselves behind a

log and waited for the signal. A dog discovered us and barked

and growled down on us fiercely, but it was Christmas eve,

there were noise and revelry in the house, and men shouting,

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 167

and horns blowing outside - so we were not discovered. Af-

ter a long time my spy made his appearance - told me the mer-

chants had gone out to the stable for their wares and that they

would open immediately upstairs, and he hastened back that he

might not be missed. I saw a light move in from the stable

and soon reappear in the designated room. I summoned my

men -had a part of them stationed at the windows and doors,

and at the bar - reserving the deputy Sheriff and three others

to go with me upstairs. The Landlord met me & told me the

room above was occupied. I replied that I knew it and my business

was with the gentlemen there. I hastened him down, and entered

the room. There were some watches & chains on a table,

two men standing by it, one of whom seized & thrust some-

thing in his pocket and sprang to the door. I arrested the other

who made no resistance. The first, seized the Deputy Sheriff

who had followed next me and threw him across the room-

sprang upon the next, a small but agile man, who struck him

with a dirk and slightly wounded him, but he got to the door

and met the last of the party-Genl. Reese104-a strong reso-

lute man who grappled with him and threw him on the bed-

he soon surrendered and all resistance ceased. I searched all

present and found no counterfeit money except $150 new notes

in the pocketbook of Wm. Peck one of the Lancaster confeder-

ates, who as we came in, threw it under the bed to hide it, but

who was observed by one of the party. This convinced me that

they had the counterfeit merchandize in the room, but after the

most careful search I could not find it. Having given this up

and tied the prisoners to prevent escape, I left them in charge

of four of my party and went to see to matters below stairs.

I found forty or fifty persons there, who however attempted no

resistance. I searched the bar, and found several hundred dol-

lars of counterfeit notes, and I sent up stairs two pair of sad-

dle bags, which I directed to be left unsearched till I came up.

When I was absent however the Deputy Sheriff assumed com-

mand and proceeded to investigate the saddle bags. The at-

tention of the party being drawn from him, the active villain

who fought so well at the door went to the window and tied as

he was raised it and threw himself out-he fell directly on the

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guard that I had stationed below--brought him down and be-

fore he could recover and give the alarm, escaped into some fal-

len timber & brush-wood nearby and could not be found. In

more carefully securing the rest of the gang our stock of ropes

fell short and we had to take the bed cord, & in throwing off

the clothes and bed to get it two bundles of counterfeit bills fell

off containing exactly $10,000 less the $150 found in Peck's

pocket book. I examined the saddle bags, and found nothing

amiss in them except a doubtful bill of $50-which the own-

ers explained by a letter they showed me, and I let them de-

part; and myself and party with our prisoners reached Lancas-

ter about 2 o'clock Christmas morning. This broke up the trade

in Fairfield County.¹⁰⁴¹/2 Justices and Grand Jurors became vigi-

lant and I had but one other case of passing counterfeit bills in

the four or five years in which I was prosecuting attorney and

that arose from a mistake. A small dealer bought a half pint

of whiskey at a country tavern on the border and gave a coun-

terfeit dollar to be changed-the Landlord had him arrested

and sent to Lancaster for trial-he was amazed, thought he

was in Franklin county, and said he would have seen the land-

lord damned before he would have bought his whiskey, if he

had known he was in Fairfield.

I rapidly grew into practice in my own county and the oth-

er central and some of the northern counties of Ohio. The

older lawyers whom I met here, with the exception of Granger¹⁰⁵

of Zanesville, were not students-They were generally skilful

in managing causes before a jury but careless in preparation. I

studied assiduously-made myself master of criminal law and

special pleading and found much advantage in it.

A criminal case - homicide - accidental shooting as repre-

sented by the defense-malicious, as charged by the prosecu-

tion -which arose in Licking County and was tried on a

change of venue in Muskingum, in which I was successful, gave

me reputation in those counties and with the Bench and Bar.

From memory, I think I managed the case well both in the ex-

amination, and the argument -and it was a case involving much

doubt-the homicide having occurred in a quarrel, the defend-

ant attempting to shoot a dog, which under the circumstances

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 169

he had a right to kill--the deceased trying to protect him-

the gun went off by accident or design & the man was killed. To

the hackneyed appeal in the opening speech - "the blood of the

murdered man crying from the Earth for vengeance and jus-

tice," I replied-"I am glad this point has been taken, that I

may answer it, as it presents the only view on which a convic-

tion is possible-the separation of the event from the act and

purpose and thus making the event, and it alone the ground of

your judgment. The tendency to this state of feeling is irra-

tional but has its lodgement in the human mind and it is hard

to remove it-the messenger of bad news is often hated, and

the senseless stick or stone by which we are wounded is some-

dimes made the object of splenetic vengeance-but you are ra-

tional judges and as such will consider only the act and the pur-

pose moving to the act, and not its accidental consequence as

the crime of this man. If you are Christians you cannot believe

that a voice from the dead cried for vengeance, for we are well

taught that they are removed from all the passions by which life

here is agitated and disturbed. So it is written -'For also their

love and their hate and their envy are departed, neither have they

any more a portion in that which is under the Sun'- But if

the gospels of life be fallacious and the hopes of the Christian

vain -if the grave to which we descend be the eternal home of

all that once was man, what is there then I ask you to be pleased

with cruelty or gratified with revenge. Impassive as the earth

on which we tread - their silent dust cannot be provoked or

moved by our unhallowed passions? Consider then gentlemen,

the motive and the act disconnected with the result- suppose

the dog and not the man to have been the victim, would any

man have thought of pronouncing the act criminal? surely not-

and unless you condemn the motive and the act, with the pur-

pose, irrespective of the result my client, in the name of truth

and justice must stand acquitted." My object was to make a

favorable impression on the minds of the jury, and to lead them

from the question of carelessness, the result of passion, which

was against him, to that of intent, which was on the whole in my

client's favor. In this I was successful - the defendant was ac-

quitted. On the whole I was more successful, in defence, as

170 Ohio Arch

170 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

as a criminal lawyer the first ten years of my practice, than af-

terward.

Sherman had a commanding practice in the northern coun-

ties and invited me to go with him, which I did when my south-

ern circuit did not interfere-and though he must have been

well aware that I was to be his most formidable rival at the

Bar he never failed when an opportunity offered to advance my

reputation by commendation, countenance and encouragement.

The lawyers on our extensive circuits were indeed brother

lawyers in habit and feeling-there was no professional jeal-

ousy among us. We lodged at the same taverns-ate at the

same tables, occupied the same parlor (generally rustic enough)

and often to the number of eight or ten slept in the same large

chamber. The habits of physicians are solitary-they general-

ly practice alone--talk with their patients in their sick cham-

bers and sometimes learn to slander and hate their professional

rivals. The Bar at the time of which I write was eminently so-

cial. Generally we were employed on the circuit, in cases as

they arose, and went to trial on one or two days notice--the

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 171

social habits of the Bar rendered study almost impossible hence

the pleadings and practice were loose and irregular. My hab-

its were studious and I felt the obligation of preparation strong-

ly and was often almost churlish in withdrawing from a conviv-

ial party, to study my coming cause & prepare a special plea

or replication to the annoyance of my more liberal brethren-

but they bore with my eccentricities most kindly, and though

sometimes loud, they were never bitter in their denunciations

For instance, one evening the bar was having a pleasant sitting

at our common hotel on the circuit- happening to have a case

which required study I was out in quest of authorities, and as

the fun grew "fast and furious" I returned with two law books

under my arm. Dick Douglas, our wit par excellence exclaimed

as I entered the room - "Here comes the living embodiment of

malice at common law-a heart regardless of social duty and

fatally bent on mischief". The mischief on which I was fatally

bent, was a special plea or demurrer with which to defeat some

good jolly brother lawyer's case.

A more delightful profession or a happier or kindlier set

of men filling it is hardly to be found than the central Ohio bar

during the first ten or twelve years that I was a member--

there was personal adventure enough, and physical and mental

exercise enough-and more universal social feeling than gen-

erally belongs to societies of men. The close bonds of fellow-

ship were somewhat relaxed in after years when large hotels

were opened at our county seats and each lawyer had his own

private chamber.

In 1820 I first attended the Circuit Court of the U. S.

then held at Chillicothe, and became acquainted with Charles

Hammond¹⁰⁶and Philip Doddridge,l⁰⁷both excellent lawyers-

both wrote and spoke the English language perfectly, and with

a brevity and directness seldom equalled-both were very kind

to me, and I had afterwards for many years much pleasant in-

tercourse with them. Hammond was for a long time a leading

member of the Ohio Legislature, and permitted politics to with-

draw him much from the Bar, and at last he transferred his

clients & causes to me, left the court and became Editor of "The

Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette". In this particular de-

172 Ohio Arch

172 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

partment he has never been excelled-his editorials are well

judged and direct, with the point and brevity of Swift and more

than the correctness of Addison. In the politics of the coun-

try his influence was very great. While he was in the height

of his practice at the Bar the Ohio Legislature having passed a

law levying a very heavy tax on the branch Bank of the U. S.

located at Chillicothe, the bank refused to pay the tax, and a

commissioner was appointed to levy and collect it.¹⁰⁸He en-

tered the bank and seized its assets to the required amount, and

the Bank brought Trespass, for breaking and entering its close,

and carrying off its goods. Mr. Clay appeared for the Bank,

Mr. Hammond for the State. Mr. Clay offered his evidence to

prove title and possession of the close. Mr. Hammond denied

its admissibility and it was ruled out by the Court. Mr. Clay

took snuff with both hands, seemed quite bewildered and at the

mercy of his opponent. After a few minutes Mr. Hammond

rose, said the object of his client was, not to gain a technical

triumph, but to try the right, which could not be done in the

present form of pleading, he would therefore agree to an amend-

ment which should raise the actual question-let a verdict pass

by consent & take the case on Bill of exceptions to the S. C.

of the U. S. This was of course agreed to. The case had at-

tracted much attention-and the young members of the Bar

joined in the triumph and felt proud of the victory and mag-

nanimity of our Ohio Lawyer.

Doddridge was equal to Hammond as a lawyer, and his su-

perior as an orator. The correctness and brevity of his state-

ments in law papers were admirable. I once had occasion to

make a brief in a case in which I was employed with him and

found to my admiration that I could not at all abridge the stat-

ing part of the answer which he had drawn up for our client.

He could look through a case at a glance. On one occasion he

appeared in a case of Mr. Hammond and asked a continuance

because Mr. H. was unable to attend. Mr. Brush109 on the oth-

er side objected, and said his client absolutely required him to try

the cause at that term. On this Mr. Doddridge told the clerk

to give him the papers - he untied them and shuffled them over

in his fat clumsy hands. The action was Ejectment-having

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 173

looked at the papers four or five minutes he said the jury might

be sworn. Brush offered his first item of evidence, the deed un-

der which the Plaintiff claimed. It was not properly acknowl-

edged, and was rejected. Brush thereupon said he must sub-

mit to a non suit - but Doddridge said no - you may withdraw

a juror and continue the cause--this generous offer was of

course accepted and we all joined in lauding the tact and promp-

titude and professional liberality of Mr. Doddridge. Unfortu-

nately he was intemperate or we should have recognized him as

the monarch of the profession. On this occasion, the evidently

favorable impression he had made elated him-he went to our

hotel - indulged in large potations, and kept his room for three

or four days. Leonard,¹¹⁰a highly intellectual and learned law-

yer, but subject to the same frailty, was with him. He told me

that about the close of the second day, they were both in bed,

neither able to rise, he raised himself on his elbow and groaned

aloud "My God how my head does ache" to which the exper-

ienced old Philosopher replied "Let it ache, Mr. Leonard, it will

ache." He used to come round by Lancaster, that I might go

with him to Columbus to the Circuit Court and he would re-

turn with me the same way. Generally he was sober, and de-

lightful company, though he would sometimes, as I thought,

recount to me adventures entirely fictitious. One morning we

left Columbus in a post coach together for Lancaster-he was

in a fine humor, full of chat, and interesting narrative, but he

evidently had drunk too much and after a while became dull and

stupid. We stopped at Lithopolis to dine, and I directed the

driver to be at the door with the coach as soon as dinner was

over. A bottle of whiskey was set out by his order and he

took a draft before dinner. I took the bottle, put it in the bar,

locked the door and put the key in my pocket. Before getting

into the coach he asked again for the bottle but it was not to be

found-the bar door was locked and the key mislaid-after

some commotion the bar-keeper came with a sledge hammer,

broke the door, brought out the bottle and my excellent old

friend indemnified himself fully for the temporary privation.

When we reached Lancaster he was very drunk. I left him at

Mr. Noble's111 hotel with directions to send for Doc'r White,

174 Ohio Arch

174 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and give him no stimulant unless prescribed by the Doctor, un-

der whose care he so far recovered as to be able to travel next

morning. He was several years a member of Congress, where

he made one speech which was listened to and much lauded by

Mr. Clay; but the habit of intemperance was uncontrollable and

it was supposed to have caused his death at last. My poor

friend Leonard had a still harder fate-he destroyed his fine

intellect by occasional intemperance, and died in an insane asy-

lum. An amusing incident of his life is worth recounting. He

was fond of metaphysical studies, and having possessed himself

of Kant's "Critique of pure reason"^1111/2 in the original, he sat

down to study it, with no previous knowledge of the German

language, with no aids but a grammar & dictionary. He shut

himself up in his office and refused to see even his best clients

while thus engaged. William Creighton¹¹²a wagish brother law-

yer who knew his occupation and his nervous temperament gave

out in market one day that Mr. Leonard was purchasing but-

ter for shipment and paying high prices for it-told the far-

mers where he was to be found but that they must knock loud

as he was hard of hearing-they went one after another,

brought him out by hard knocking and offered him their mer-

chandize till he became furious, and at last in answer to a loud

knock he rushed to the door brandishing his poker and swore he

would knock the astonished farmer's brains out, if he dared say

butter to him once. But he persevered-read Kant in Ger-

man and understood him generally, wherever Kant understood

himself.

Creighton was on the North West frontier an aid to Col.

Brush, who lay with his regiment about twenty miles from De-

troit when Hull surrendered. This regiment was included in

the surrender and a British officer was sent to convey the order

and escort them to Detroit, as the whole country was in pos-

session of the Indian allies. Creighton in effect assumed the

command--he had the officer blindfolded and held a prisoner

till they were prepared to retreat--they then released him-

destroyed all their stores except their whiskey-placed that

in the most convenient situation for the accommodation of their

expected guests-and moved homeward with all practicable

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 175

speed. The Indians, as had been anticipated, soon took posses-

sion of the deserted camp and their pursuit ended there, in a

drunken row.

I was at one time 1823 a candidate for the Legislature-a

question was then agitated about changing the mode of taxing

lands-it had been according to quality 1st, 2nd, 3rd rates-

it was proposed to change this to an ad valorem -taxing land

according to value - this it was thought would increase the rel-

ative tax of Fairfield County and I was asked by some large

holders of valuable land to oppose it. This I declined to do, but

replied to them that it was just and I must sustain it-before

this there was no doubt of my election, but my rich farmer

friends were dissatisfied and interrogated me through the press

to which I promptly answered, and was consequently defeated. I

never permitted my name to be used for the Legislature or any

other office in the gift of the people of the State afterwards un-

til 1830 when a vacancy occurred in the Senate of the U. S. and

I signified to Mr. Elias Howell113 a member from Licking Coun-

ty my wish to be a candidate and he engaged for me the most

heartily at once securing the support of Mr. Mornton114 a Demo-

cratic member of Knox County. About this time the Court of

Common Pleas sat at Mt. Vernon was largely attended by the

Bar and they all united in a determination to urge my election

for the Senate though there were two older lawyers there, Mr.

Silliman115 and Harper¹¹⁶each of them of standing which would

well have entitled him to contest with me for the seat. I give

this to illustrate the kindness and good will of my brethren of

the Bar. I had no political prestige having never been in pub-

lic life and having failed in my election the only time I had been

a candidate-and being in the then present in a minority in my

own county which was largely Democratic. When it came to

the election the parties were closely divided-perhaps equally

-the Democratic candidate was Uriajah T. Williams,l¹⁷an un-

objectionable man. The Whigs were divided between Jeremiah

Morrow,118 an excellent old gentleman who had once served a

term in the Senate, Edward Kingl¹⁹a noble whole souled fel-

low - who had been several years in the Ohio Legislature,

and though not especially profound was a very eloquent

176 Ohio Arch

176 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

speaker--and myself who was confessedly in the first rank of

the legal profession. Of my own party politics King was my

most formidable competitor.

A few days before the election my friend Howell came to

me and said he had arranged for a caucus of Ohio members to

determine on their choice and that I would certainly be nomi-

nated. I replied to him, "and as certainly defeated-King thinks

that I-a lawyer-have no right to come in and supersede him-

an active and efficient Whig politician. He will be dissatisfied

and feel himself wronged by the result, and a day's reflection

and discussion of the matter with his wife and friends will the

more embitter him and them and he, or if not he some one or

more of his ardent friends will refuse to vote for me and I shall

be defeated. But if you go into the election without further

commital and he finds me far in advance of him and when the

scattering votes are all given to me, and some of his less de-

cided friends vote for me, though disappointed, his first impulse

will be a generous one-he will give me his vote and take care

that his few remaining supporters give me theirs." Mr. Howell

on my suggestion went and saw the friends with whom he had

consulted and they withdrew the proposal for a caucus. When

they went into the election I had on the first ballot 31 votes, one

of which Mr. Thornhill,120 a Democrat who would not vote for

King. He had 16 one of which was a Democrat who would not

vote for me and Mr. Morrow had 4 votes. It required * * * to

elect.121 Mr. Morrow's 4 votes soon fell to me, and King's slowly

and gradually until he had but four. He wrote my name on his

ticket, held it up and showed it to his friends who were around

him. They conformed their votes to his and I was elected but

he was next day and for a long time a soured and disappointed

man-though afterward we were friends as before.

[It is unfortunate that Mr. Ewing did not continue his narrative,

giving his experiences in the United States Senate during one of the

most interesting periods of American history-the "reign of Andrew

Jackson." These were the days of South Carolina Nullification. The

echoes of the Webster-Hayne debate had hardly ceased reverberating

through the corridors of the Capitol. (See Note 122.) Such giants as

Clay and Benton and Calhoun were at the zenith of power and influence.

The people were realizing the consciousness of their power. Matters

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 177

were beginning to shape themselves for the new issues, out of which

should come the dreadful shock of arms a generation later. Mr. Ewing's

characterization of men and issues would have been a decided contribu-

tion to the history of that time.

Perhaps the sickness which attacked him in the autumn of 1869

had a great deal to do with the non-completion of his reminiscences.

While he was addressing the United States Supreme Court he was

suddenly stricken. For several days his life was despaired of. He

regained much of his wonted strength and vigor of mind, but old age

had come and he quietly breathed his last at Lancaster, where he had

been for half a century, her most honored citizen. The date of his

death was October 26, 1871.]

Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. March 24, 1912.

REFERENCES.

1. From what Mr. Ewing subsequently states concerning the death

and burial of Abel Sherman, the date of writing the Autobiography

must have been 1869.

2. The children of Thomas Ewing, six in number, were: Philemon

Beecher Ewing, late of Lancaster, Ohio; George Ewing; Ellen B.

Ewing, who became the wife of General William T. Sherman; Hugh

Boyle Ewing, late of Lancaster, Ohio; Thomas Ewing, once the Demo-

cratic candidate for governor of Ohio; Maria, the wife of Colonel

Clement F. Steele; and General Charles Ewing.

3. Thomas Ewing, the grandfather of George Ewing, was born in

Ireland in 1695, emigrated to Southampton, Long Island, probably in

1718, for in that year he went to Greenwich, West Jersey, then called

Cohansey from the stream on which it lay. Here he married Mary

Maskell in 1720 and died in February, 1748. His children were: Maskell,

Thomas, Mercy, Mary, Samuel, John, Lydia, Joshua, Samuel (2), and

James. Two of these were officers in the militia during the revolution.

Samuel was a county Judge for a short time in the revolution. Joshua

and James are the only ones mentioned in the Journal of George

Ewing (1775-1778).

Thomas Ewing, 2d, father of George Ewing, was born Oct. 6 (17),

1722, and died, May 27, 1771, leaving children (living) Dixon, Rachel,

(Peck) George, Phebe (later Wid. Ewing) and Sarah (later Wid.

Morgan). He married Phebe Sayre, Rachel Dixon and Sarah Vickars,

but the children of the two former died in infancy except the second

Dixon who was a Tory and disappeared from his home about 1778

probably. Nothing further is known of him. Of the children of

Thomas Ewing and Sarah Vickars, Sarah, Hope, Joel, Hannah and

Thomas died in infancy. Sarah Vickars Ewing married (2d) William

Carle and died in the same year, 1773.

Vol. XXII- 12.

178 Ohio Arch

178 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The first Thomas Ewing was deacon and his son Thomas elder

in the Presbyterian church at Greenwich. The latter was on the county

board for many years and clerk of the board for some time. He built

a house still standing at Greenwich on Bacon's neck road in 1766 or

1767. This was sold by George Ewing when he went to the Ohio river

and is now in the possession of a related family. The Peck family was

last heard of in the west and Sarah Ewing Morgan shared in the

western migration of George Ewing. Phebe married a revolutionary

soldier, Remington Ewing, in January, 1784. George Ewing signed the

marriage bond. Remington was a grandson of Judge Remmenton and

had a brother, William Ewing, both mentioned in Judge Remmenton's

will. Remington Ewing and his wife were said to have gone south.

There is no record of them after 1794.

George Ewing was born March 18, N S, 1754, as it is entered

on the record of the church. He was living in one of his father's

houses on November 2, 1767, as the will refers to "twelve acres where

George Ewing now resides." This mention and a grant in the will of

sixteen acres and some residuary clause are the sole mention of him

prior to the revolution, the commencement of his journal, 1775-1778.

"George Ewing, commonly called during his residence in the county,

Lieut. Ewing, was, it is believed, the first white settler within the bounds

of what is now Ames township. A native of Salem, New Jersey, he

entered the continental army at the beginning of the revolutionary war,

and served with credit during its whole course. For his bravery and

good conduct he received, soon after entering the service, a commission

as first lieutenant of the Jersey Line, which position he held till the

return of peace. Shortly after the conclusion of the war he emigrated

to what is now Ohio county, West Virginia, which was then constituted the

very frontier of civilization, and was, with the surrounding region, the

scene of many a bloody conflict between the "Long Knives" and the

red men. After a few years' residence here he removed with his wife

and young family, in 1793, to the Waterford settlement, on the Mus-

kingum river, where he passed a year or two in the block house, until

the danger from Indian attacks, then imminent, had passed. In the

spring of 1798, Lieutenant Ewing, encouraged and assisted by Judge

Cutler, removed his family to a place seventeen miles northwest of the

frontier settlements, in what is now Ames township, and became a

pioneer of that section of country. He settled on what is now known

as the Thomas Gardiner farm. During the period of his residence here

he was an active supporter of schools and every means of developing

and improving the community. He was chosen township trustee at the

first election, in 1802, and in after years filled that position and the

office of township clerk. He was fond of reading, possessed a bright

and active mind, and a fund of sterling sense, combined with lively wit

and good humor. In 1818 he removed to Perry county, Indiana, where

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 179

he died about the year 1830." Walker's History of Athens County,

Ohio, p. 394. The correct date of George Ewing's death is 1825.

4. He held the rank of Lieutenant. During his service in the

Continental Army he kept a Journal, from which the following facts

have been gleaned by Wm. C. Ewing:

The journal covers the period from his first enlistment, Nov. 11,

1775 to May 21, 1778. He was then serving as a volunteer lieutenant in

Col. Lamb's regiment of artillery with which he continued until after

the battle of Monmouth. The journal may have contained later records

but if so the pages have been torn out. I do not think it probable that

the journal was continued after his marriage in August, 1778, for his

subsequent service was in the home militia and the boat companies of

Captain Allen serving along the Cumberland and Salem coasts. From

the references in the journal I believe that in 1778 his sister Rachel

Peck was dead and Phebe and Sarah, aged 16 and 9, made their home

with their uncle Joshua Ewing, whose wife, Hannah Harris Ewing, was

an aunt of the Rachel Harris whom George Ewing married, August,

1778.

George Ewing occupied his home at Greenwich until 1785, when

he sold the property and moved to Ohio county, Virginia, where his

second son, Thomas Ewing, was born, December 28, 1789.

His journal shows an enlistment in the company of Capt. Richard

Howell, 2d Jersey Regt. for one year; his journey as far as Albany

where he was taken sick and left in the home of Philip van Rensselaer

where he was kindly taken care of until May, 1776, when he joined

Capt. Bloomfield's company of the 3d regiment, with whom he made

the Mohawk expedition to Schenectady, the German Flats, the company

building Fort Dayton. On October 20, his company marched to Ticon-

deroga reaching the fort November 1. Here he joined his own regi-

ment and on the 15th, the company was disbanded and he returned to

Greenwich by way of Kingston, Florida, Trenton and Philadelphia. He

re-enlisted in two days on the news of the seizure of Trenton by the

British.

This militia service was under Capt. Daniel Maskell, and he shortly

enlisted as sergeant with Capt. John Barker, his term running until

April 1, 1777, being discharged with his company April 2; on the 22d,

1777, he recruited for the Third Jersey Regiment of the Continental

Line, and on June 5 received his commission as ensign in that regiment.

He was in Captain Henion's company and was with the regiment at

Amboy, Staten Island, and was in the fight at Brandywine and the

subsequent encampment at Valley Forge. Here he took part in Lafay-

ette's enterprise at Barnhill as he called what is now Barren Hill.

He visited his old home that winter and took part in a militia

engagement, being absent from Valley Forge from February 4th to

March 20th, meanwhile he enlisted some recruits.

180 Ohio Arch

180 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

On April 28th, 1778, he resigned his commission as ensign and got

a discharge from the service. On the 30th he entered as a volunteer in

Capt. Randall's company of artillery, Col. Lamb's regiment. That day

the news of the recognition of the United States by France and Spain

was received in the camp. May poles were erected in every regiment

and the next day was spent in a general jollification, and a more formal

celebration was made on the 6th of May.

The journal closes with an account of the reconnoisance to Barren

Hill under Gen. Lafayette above referred to, in which George Ewing

served in the artillery as a volunteer.

5. "Anacreon," a lyric poet of Greece, who lived in the fifth cen-

tury before Christ. Of his many poems, expressed in light and flowing

strains, in praise of wine and beauty, only a few remain. No doubt

the poems read by Mrs. Ewing were the odes translated by Thomas

Moore, while he was a student in the University of Dublin.

6. This was in 1786.

7. Ohio County, now in West Virginia, is the county in which

the city of Wheeling is located.

8. Hugh Ewing in 1867.

81/2. The first American Ewing was Thomas Ewing, (1695-1747)

married to Mary Maskell (1701-1784). They lived at Greenwich, New

Jersey. One of their sons was Thomas Ewing, (1722-1772) whose third

wife was Sarah Vickars. They were the parents of George Ewing,

(1754-1825), the father of Thomas Ewing. The wife of George Ewing

was Rachel Harris.

9. Londonderry in the north of Ireland was one of the Protestant

strongholds. It was here in the early summer of 1789 that James II,

aided by the King of France, laid siege to the town. The place was

stubbornly defended during a period of one hundred and five days,

when James retired to the south.

10. The Battle of the Boyne was fought on the river of that

name in eastern Ireland, July 12, 1690. The contestants were the forces

of James II and William of Orange. The result of that battle was the

complete overthrow of James, thus forcing his abdication and establish-

ing the rule of William and Mary. The anniversary of this battle is

still celebrated by the Orangemen or Irish Protestants.

11. It is not known what the particular act of valor was. But the

sword presented was silver-handled and was in possession of the family

in New Jersey. It was stolen by a slave and the handle was melted

for the metal.

12. British possession of Detroit and the menacing attitude of the

Indians was a source of much disquietude at this period. The settlers

were awaiting their entrance into the Northwest Territory. Although

Marietta had been settled and the Seven Ranges were open to occupancy,

yet there was much uncertainty as to the future of the country. This

was a mooted question in the Northwest until after the War of 1812.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 181

13. Short Creek town is on the boundary between Ohio and Brooke

counties, West Virginia. Short Creek empties into the Ohio at this.

place.

14. Among the garrisons then in Ohio might be mentioned Cam-

pus Martius, at Marietta; Farmers' Castle, at Belpre, and Fort Frye,

at Waterford.

15. Mr. Ewing is in error about some of the details of the

massacre at "Round" Bottom. The place is better known as Big Bot-

tom, near Stockport, Morgan County. The site of the massacre is

marked by a monument and is owned by the Ohio Archaeological and

Historical Society, a gift from Obadiah Brokaw, the owner of the land.

The date of the attack was January 2, 1791, instead of Christmas day.

There were three saved, but neither of them was an Indian. Mr.

Ewing also errs in giving the number in the garrison. There were but

fifteen instead of twenty-five. Volume XV of the Ohio Archaeological

and Historical Society Publications gives a detailed account of this

massacre. Dr. James Ball Naylor, the novelist, has included this event

in his story "In the Days of St. Clair."

16. Olive Green Creek flows into the Muskingum from the east

about three and one-half miles above the present town of Beverly.

Hildreth states that there were about thirty inhabitants in this gar-

rison: Geo. Ewing, wife and seven children, Ezekiel Hoit (instead of

Ezra Hoit, as Mr. Ewing states), wife and children, Abel Sherman,

wife and two sons, (instead of three), Ezra Sherman, wife and son,

named Abel, Aaron DeLong, wife, son and two daughters, and Matthew

Gallant, wife and several children.

17. Wolf Creek flows from the west, into the Muskingum at

Waterford. The mill was erected about a mile from the mouth. It

was built in the summer of 1789, by Colonel Robert Oliver, Major

Haffield, and Captain John Dodge. The mill-stones were procured from

Laurel Hill, near Brownsville, Pennsylvania. It is stated that the mill

could grind a bushel of corn in four minutes. This was the first

mill built in Ohio.

18. In the spring of 1790, another mill was attempted on the Little

Hocking about a mile and a half from where it empties into the Ohio

River. This would be closer for the Marietta and Belpre people than

the one on Wolf Creek. The timbers were prepared, but the Indian

War breaking out put a stop to its building and was not resumed until

after peace had again come.

The settlers not to be outdone, contrived a "floating mill." This

could be anchored out in the river and be comparatively safe from the

Indians. The mill was erected on two boats, planked together. The

water wheel, propelled by the current of the river, was fastened on

one boat while the burrs were in the other. The apace between the

boats formed a deck. It could grind from twenty-five to fifty bushels

182 Ohio Arch

182 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

of corn in twenty-four hours, owing to the velocity of the current.

The mill was placed in the Ohio near Belpre.

19. Marmontel, an elegant French writer (1723-1799). He studied

for the church but turned aside toward literature. His most celebrated

book, Belisaire, a political romance, excited furious opposition on the

part of the clergy, who condemned it as "heretical and blasphemous."

There was a dead set-to between the philosophers and the clergy. Pam-

phlets and caricatures, both pro and con, appeared in great numbers.

While this book excited the most comment, yet his reputation as a

writer rests on his really best book, his "Elements of Literature."

20. The Waterford garrison to which Mr. Ewing refers is better

known as Fort Frye. It was begun a few days after the Massacre at

Big Bottom and finished in March of 1791. Its purpose was to afford

protection to the settlers of Wolf Creek and those at Waterford. The

site selected was on the east side of the Muskingum river about a third

of a mile below the present town of Beverly. The fort was triangular

in shape, with a block house at each corner. The palisades were twelve

feet high. About two weeks after its completion the Indians made an

attack, but it was too strongly built, and they soon gave up the attempt.

20�. The following taken from Howe's History of Ohio (1852)

is descriptive of life in Olive Green Garrison from another source:

From the communications of one of the early settlers at Olive

Green, we annex some facts respecting their privations and the dis-

covery of a salt well.

"The inhabitants had among them but few of what we consider

the necessaries and conveniences of life. Brittle wares, such as earthen

and glass, were wholly unknown, and but little of the manufactories

of steel and iron, both of which were exceedingly dear. Iron and salt

were procured in exchange for ginseng and peltry, and carried on pack

horses from Ft. Cumberland or Chambersburg. It was no uncommon

thing for the garrison to be wholly without salt for months, subsisting

upon fresh meat, milk and vegetables, and bread made of corn pounded

in a mortar-they did not yet indulge in the luxury of the hand-mill.

"There had been an opinion, founded upon the information of the

Indians, that there were salt springs in the neighborhood, but the spot

was carefully concealed. Shortly after Wayne's victory, in 1794, and

after the inhabitants had left the garrison and gone to their farms, a

white man, who had been long a prisoner with the Indians, was released

and returned to the settlements. He stopped at Olive Green, and there

gave an account of the salt springs and directions for finding them. A

party was immediately formed, (of whom George Ewing, Jr., then a

lad of 17, was one), who, after an absence of 7 or 8 days, returned, to

the great joy of the inhabitants, with about a gallon of salt, which

they had made in their camp kettle. This was, as I think, in August,

1795. A supply, though a very small one, was made there that season

for the use of the frontier settlement.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 183

"Whether this salt spring was earlier known to the whites I am

unable to say. It may have been so to spies and explorers, and per-

haps to the early missionaries; but this was the first discovery which

was made available to the people." Howe's History of Ohio, p. 511.

The editor secured, through the late Captain Isaac Hook, of Stock-

port, Morgan County, in 1905, a kettle that had been used by the salt

boilers at Chandlersville. This relic was presented by Mr. Hook to

the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society and is now in the

museum of that organization.

The "Notes of Ephraim Cutler" contain some additional interesting

information concerning the pioneer manufacture of salt.

SALT MAKING IN 1797.

"Soon after I settled at Waterford, Lieutenant George Ewing,

(father of Hon. Thomas Ewing), informed me that he had discovered

a salt spring that had furnished salt for the Indians. We were often

visited by numbers of Wyandotts and Shawnees who came to sell wild

meat and furs, and one of these had given to Mr. Ewing such informa-

tion that he, with two or three other men, went in search of the spring

and succeeded in finding the place. It was in the wilderness, nearly

forty miles from us, on Salt Creek, where Chandlersville, Muskingum

County, is now situated.

"The article of salt was extremely difficult to procure. Nearly all

the salt consumed west of the Alleghanies was brought over the mount-

ains on pack-horses. The price was seldom less than five, and was

sometimes seven and eight dollars a bushel. People sent to Marietta

to purchase it by the quart or gallon. It was not only excessively dear,

but scarce and hard to be obtained; and our means of realizing money

were very limited. When the springs were discovered a public meeting

was called, and a "Salt-Spring Company" was formed from the settle-

ments at Olive Green, Wolf Creek Mills, Cat's Creek, and Waterford.

for the purpose of making salt. They were divided into four classes,

bearing the names of these places, and at stated times they relieved

each other in the work. We took possession of the spring, cleaned it

out, set the large iron kettles, which we had for making sugar, into

arches, and began boiling the water for salt. It was a slow, tedious

process. During a week of hard work four men could make about six

bushels. We succeeded, however, in making a full supply for the sev-

eral settlements represented in the company, and had some to spare.

Afterwards when our conveniences were improved we could, by our

best efforts, make five bushels a day; and it was a great relief to the

whole country. We sold it at two dollars for fifty pounds.

"When Zane's road across the country from Wheeling, Virginia,

to Maysville, Kentucky, which had been authorized by Congress in 1796,

was opened through the forest and made passable for pack-horses, the

184 Ohio Arch

184 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

inhabitants of the settlements near St. Clairsville, cut out a path from

this road after it crossed Will's Creek, to come to the Salt Works;

and we cut one through the woods to Zanesville, where Messrs. McCul-

loch and Crooks with their families had made a settlement, and fre-

quently travelers would leave Zane's road, take the track of the Salt-

Works, and thus we often had company in our cabin for a night.

"I was often up with parties to make salt, and had at one time

in my company a lively little Frenchman named Peter Noblaise, who

came from France with the Gallipolis French. One evening two gentle-

men called and requested our hospitality for the night. They appeared

to be foreigners, but spoke English well. Peter soon discovered that

our visitors were Frenchmen, and after we had collected in our cabin,

he and one of them became very loquacious in their native tongue.

Being a good singer, Peter commenced the Marseilles hymn, and sang

several other French airs, in which he was joined by one or both of

the strangers. The other man, who was a person of fine figure and

engaging manners, confined his conversation mostly to me; asking many

minute questions about the Ohio Company and the settlers at Marietta,

and especially the French at Gallipolis. We conversed until after mid-

night, when I gave him my bunk and bearskin for a bed. The next

morning on departing he thanked us in the most cordial manner for our

entertainment, as they were about to start, the one who had talked with

Peter took him aside and told him we had entertained the Duke of

Orleans." (Afterward Louis Philippe, king of France.)

21. The burial-ground has, too, become a thing of the past. Some

years since, the bodies were all removed. That of Abel Sherman was

taken to a small cemetery below Beverly and re-interred. The rude stone

described by Mr. Ewing was again placed at the head of the grave, and

can be yet seen. It is still in a good state of preservation. The epitaph

plainly legible, reads:

"Here lyes the body of Abel Sherman who fell by the hand of

the Savage on the 15th of August, 1794, and in the 50th year of his

age."

22. This was the Rev. Nathaniel Harris of Trenton, N. J., where

he was interested in the Academy. His wife was Mrs. Catherine (Cox)

Stockton, widow of Samuel Nitham Stockton and daughter of Col.

John Cox of New Jersey. Their one child was Rev. Nathaniel Sayre

Harris, an Episcopal minister, who died in New York in the '80s.

Rev. Harris must have come out to help put down the Whisky

Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. Although the date of that event

does not coincide with the one given by Mr. Ewing. There were

New Jersey Militia in service at that time.

23. George Ewing, Jr., a brother of Thomas Ewing, was born at

Greenwich, New Jersey, March 11, 1779. He married Hannah Boyls,

August 19, 1809, in Ames township, Athens county, Ohio. In May,

1818, he removed to Perry county, Indiana, where the wife died August

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 185

12, 1848, and the husband, November 29th of the following year. George

Ewing was uneducated, but an excellent man and a great hunter.

24. "At Sandusky" is probably a little misleading. Crawford was

burned on Tymochtee Creek in what is now Salem township, Wyandot

county. Lang, in his History of Seneca county, does not seem to think

as Mr. Ewing suggested that perhaps Girty did not "dare" to aid Craw-

ford. Lang states that when Crawford, in his agony, asked Girty to

shoot him, the latter "tauntingly replied that he had no gun."

25. George Girty had been a disbursing agent at the Shawanese

towns during the Revolution. In the disastrous defeat of Col. Lochry,

near the mouth of the Great Miami, August 24, 1781, he was with the

Indians in the battle. Lang says he "was adopted by the Delawares,

became a ferocious monster and died in a dunken fit."

26. George White-Eyes was the son of "White-Eyes," a Delaware

chief, who lived the most of his life on the upper Muskingum. He

was a friend to the Americans during the Revolutionary War. He

was made a colonel on the staff of Gen. McIntosh and was present with

the forces when Ft. Laurens in Tuscarawas County, was erected. It

was here on August 10, 1778, that it is said he was treacherously killed,

although this is a disputed point. The son was sent by Colonel George

Morgan, the Indian agent at Pittsburg, to be educated at Princeton.

He came into considerable property at his father's death. It is stated

that "he was a degenerate and soon squandered his means in debauchery."

He was killed by William Carpenter, Jr., on May 27, 1798, in Jefferson

County. The trial of Carpenter and his father, as abettor, was the

first to be held in Jefferson County. An interesting account of this

trial is to be found in Vol. VI, p. 227, of the Ohio Archaeological and

Historical Publications.

Dr. Hildreth does not agree with Mr. Hunter as to the place of

George White-Eyes' education: "In the fall of that year (1790) young

George White-Eyes, a son of the Delaware chief of that name, passed

through Marietta on his way home to his tribe, he having been educated

at Dartmouth College, by the United States, as a token of respect for

his father, who was always a friend of the whites." Pioneer History

of the Ohio Valley.

27. Abigail Ewing was the second child of George Ewing. She

went to Indiana with the family. Her husband's name was Brown.

A son, Ewing S. Brown, was once a student at Marietta College. He

went to Mississippi and died in the Confederate service. Abigail died

shortly after the Civil War.

28. Thomas Dilworth was an Englishman, who died in 1780. He

was the author of several books,-"The Book-Keeper's Assistant," "The

School-Master's Assistant," "Authentic Compendium of Arithmetic," "A

New Guide to the English Tongue."

In America no school books were imported in any quantity until

the publication of this book in 1740. It was the most popular speller

186 Ohio Arch

186 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

of the eighteenth century. A portrait of Dilworth with a scholastic

cap on his head and a pen in his hand served for a frontispiece; and

in truth, as the greatest school-book author of his time, he was not

unworthy of the honor. The spelling words were interspersed with

much religious reading and dismal moralizing, but as an offset to this

matter, there was "A select Number of Fables adorned with proper

sculptures." Johnson's "Old Time Schools and School Books."

29. "Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Sovereign,

which Almighty God, the father of all mercies, bestowed upon the

people of England, where first he sent Your Majesty's Royal Person

to rule and reign over us." The first sentence in the dedication.

30. Isaac Watts, (1674-1748), English hymn writer, published three

volumes of psalms and hymns. Many of his verses are still retained in

church collections. Some of the best known are his "Before Jehovah's

Awful Throne," "Joy to the World, the Lord has Come," and "Come

Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove." He is the author of one of the most

beautiful "cradle hymns" in the English language, "Hush, My Dear,

Lie Still and Slumber."

31. John Flavel, 1627-91, an English non-conformist, who, under

the act of uniformity, was ejected from his pastorate. After the fall

of the Stuarts he was minister of a non-conformist church at Dart-

mouth. His works were popular for a long time.

32. Rachel Ewing married William Thomas. They lived in In-

diana.

33. The Northern Raven, now scarcely ever seen in Ohio, but in

the pioneer days they were more plentiful. They mostly frequented

desolate and uninhabited places. The cutting of the forests in the state

has driven them away.

33�. Captain Morgan had married Sarah Ewing. Mrs. Mor-

gan in her later life lived near Urbana, Ohio, with her niece, Hannah

Harris Ewing.

34. The Fool of Quality; or, the History of Henry, Earl of More-

land, was written by Henry Brooke, (1708-83).

It dealt with the education of an ideal nobleman. The hero is

brought up by an uncle, who gives him unlimited means for relieving

poverty, etc. The personal history of this quixotic young man is com-

pletely overshadowed by the frequent homilies and dissertations on poli-

tics, morals and social amelioration; the theology is that of Brooke's

future editor, Charles Kingsley-the identity of Goodness and God.

(Edited by Kingsley, abridged and with biographical preface, highly

eulogistic, and printed in 1873.)

35. Little Hocking is a stream entering the Ohio River near Belpre

in Washington County.

36. Federal Creek is a stream of some importance, emptying into

the Great Hock-Hocking east of Athens, in Rome township, Athens

County.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 187

36�. Under date of July 3, 1871, Mr. Ewing in a letter to the

Athens County Pioneer Association, which held a Fourth of July cele-

bration at Amesville, gave some reminiscences of his early experiences.

"In the spring of 1803, my father removed his family to a small

farm seven miles southeast on the Marietta road. In this I am not

mistaken, as I made record of the date on the bark of a beech-tree,

which I have seen often since. I remained on the Amestown farm, to

go to school and help my brother take care of the stock. Judge Walker

came in November of that year, and occupied the principal cabin, and

such of our family as remained, a smaller one the other side of the

little run. I was reading a library-book-The Children of the Abbey-

and had got together a good supply of hickory bark to make me a light,

and I rose an hour or two before day, and sat on a stool by the fire

reading. Henry Bartlett, Esq., who happened with us that night, came

and sat also, and asked to look at my book. I handed it to him, and,

as he returned it, it fell open on the fire, and scorched and spotted

several of the leaves. By the rules of the library, there was a fine for

every spot, and, in counting over the injury in fips and levies, I found

myself a bankrupt boy. However, I took the book to the next library

meeting, explained the misfortune, and the Board very kindly remitted

the fines. If the volume (I think it was the second) be still in being, it

must bear the marks of the adventure.

"I remember a rural scene of the summer of 1800, simple and

childish, but illustrative of a fact in history. Mrs. Brown had a hand-

some little tomato-plant of the small, round kind, which was then

called love-apple. It was not known among us as an article of food

until several years after the French inhabitants of St. Domingo had

been driven from the island and took refuge on our shores, and then

its use extended slowly. On the day named, children of the two

families were at play in Mrs. Brown's garden, when suddenly the

alarm was raised, and ran through the little group, that Apphia Brown

had eaten a love-apple. We sped with the fearful intelligence to the

grown-up people, who did not partake of our alarm, and it passed off

without a catastrophe. It was many years later when I first saw the

tomato used on our tables as an esculent.

"For many years, we had no post-office nearer than Athens; but

my father's little farm, on the Marietta road was passed once a week

by a mail carried on horse-back between Clarksburg, Virginia, and

Chillicothe-one week east, the next week west. I always took care

to be on hand when the mail passed. It was carried by a boy of six-

teen or seventeen-John Davis-who became my intimate friend; and

I fed his horse, and mother gave him supper and a bed with me by

the fire, as a reward for the news he brought us. I have often sat

up till ten o'clock listening for his horn; he was very punctual with

his satchel of

188 Ohio Archi

188 Ohio Archi. and Hist. Society Publications.

"'News from all nations, lumbering at his back'."

I am indulging in trifles, but,

"'These little things are great to little man,' and I write as I

would talk with you if present. I wish all our assembled friends many

happy returns of this glorious day.

"I am, very respectfully, yours,

"T. EWING."

Memoir of Thomas Ewing of Ohio, p. 224.

37. The Ewing farm was located about a mile from the present

village of Amesville, in Athens County.

371/2. "My brother was engaged in making some bedsteads. He had

already finished a table, in the manufacture of which he had used

also an adze to smooth the plank, which he split in good width from

straight grained trees. Transportation was exceedingly difficult, and

our furniture, of the rudest kind, composed of articles of the first

necessity. Our kitchen utensils were "the big kettle," "the little kettle,"

the bake oven, frying pan, and pot; the latter had a small hole in the

bottom which was mended with a button, keyed with a nail through the

eye on the outside of the pot. We had no table furniture that would

break-little of any kind. Our meat-bear meat, or raccoon, with

venison or turkey, cooked together and seasoned to the taste (a most

savory dish) -was cut up in morsels and placed in the centre of the

table, and the younger members of the family, armed with sharpened

sticks, helped themselves about as well as with fourtined forks; great

care was taken in selecting wholesome sticks, as sassafras, spicebush,

hazel, or hickory. Sometimes the children were allowed, by way of

picnic to cut with the butcherknife from the fresh bear meat and

venison their slices and stick them, alternately, on a sharpened spit and

roast before a fine hickory fire; this made a most royal dish. Bears,

deer, and raccoons remained in abundance, until replaced by herds of

swine. The great west would have settled slowly without corn and

hogs. A bushel of seed wheat will produce, at the end of ten months,

fifteen or twenty bushels; a bushel of corn, at the end of five months,

four hundred bushels, and it is used to much advantage for the last

two months. Our horned cattle do not double in a year; hogs, in the

same time, increase twenty fold. It was deemed almost sacrilege to kill

a sheep, and I remember well the first beef I tasted. I thought it

coarse and stringy compared with venison. We had wild fruits of sev-

eral varieties, very abundant, and some of them exceedingly fine." Walk-

er's History of Athens County, Ohio, p. 396.

38. The service-berry, or as it is more commonly known in south-

ern Ohio by its colloquialisms "sarvis" or "June-berry," was very plenti-

ful all through that section of the state.

39. Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), a French writer best

known and remembered for his great work, representing twenty years

of toil, "The Spirit of Laws." Twenty-two editions were published in

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 189

eighteen months, and it was translated into several European languages.

The purpose of the book was to show the relationship between the laws

of different countries and their local and social circumstances.

40. This method of gathering wild fruit was always prevalent in

southern Ohio. Not only were the service trees felled, but even chestnut

trees and the trees upon which the wild grape grew, were frequently

cut down. It was not uncommon for "coon hunters" to chop down a

large oak tree for the purpose of getting a coon skin. The tree would

often be permitted to decay.

41. Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" had appeared in 1766. It

was the first novel of domestic life in the English language and it

"soon made its way into every castle and peasant's hut in England."

It is significant that it should be read in a pioneer home in the woods

of Ohio at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

42. Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), was the first prime minister

of England, as we accept the meaning of that office today. While he

was a Whig, he was vigorously assailed by another faction of that party

which eventually brought about his political undoing. His policy was

that of peace; he could hardly be drawn into war. For years the

English Jingoes tried to precipitate a Spanish war, and finally Walpole

could resist the popular clamor no longer. The war that followed is

that of the Spanish Succession.

43. Mr. Ewing had the situation well in mind. Admiral Hosier

had been sent to the coast of Panama, as a sort of blind. No doubt

Walpole's orders were not to make an attack. This was in 1726-27.

Admiral Vernon in Parliament had made his boast that he could capture

Porto Bello with six ships. In 1739 he made the attack with the loss

of but seven men.

In the middle of March the news arrived of Vernon's capture of

Porto Bello. It was not enough to exalt this somewhat minor success

into a great national victory. It was converted into party capital. The

two houses of parliament voted thanks; congratulatory addresses poured

in upon the king; medals were struck showing Vernon's head with the

legend: "He took Porto Bello with six ships." In this legend lay the

sting which the opposition, who claimed the hero of the hour as their

peculiar property, applied to Walpole. Admiral Hosier at the head of

twenty ships, had ventured no further than to establish a blockade of

Porto Bello which had cost the country, besides the life of the admiral

himself, the lives of 4,000 men. The inference was clear. The naval

strength of the country had been sapped by Walpole's pusillanimity.

44. The title of the ode is "Admiral Hosier's Ghost." It was

written in 1739 by Richard Glover (1712-1785), an anti-Walpole political

writer, who expressed the popular opinion that Walpole was truckling

to Spain. While the ballad itself seems to malign Vernon, yet its pur-

pose was to injure the prime minister. The ballad is to the effect that

after the success of Porto Bello, when Vernon and his men were cele-

190 Ohio Arch

190 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

brating their victory, suddenly from out the sea came hideous yells

and shouts. Troops of ghosts arose from beneath the waves, with

Admiral Hosier in the lead.

Hosier is the spokesman. He tells how he and his men are undone

by the action of the home government, and how it would have been bet-

ter for him to have disobeyed and lost his life on the scaffold, rather

than to meet such a dishonorable death. He closes with an appeal of

vengeance for his ruin.

45. James Thomson (1700-1748) an English poet, not read a great

deal any more. His first poem to attract attention was Winter (1725).

Two years later the Summer, from Which Mr. Ewing quotes, appeared.

Thomson in describing the region of perpetual summer, where the clim-

atic influence is "casting down the towering hopes and all the pride

of man."

46. After diligent search and inquiry on the part of the editor,

neither the author nor the ballad on the Capture of Quebec were ascer-

tained.

47. The editor has been unable to learn anything concerning the

"Monody" on the death of Wolfe.

48. The assistance rendered Zeus, when the Titans made war

against Olympus, by Briareus and his brothers is an instance of the

first reference.

Later Briareus, Typhon and Euceladus opposed father Zeus. They

were finally subdued and buried alive under Mount Etna, where they

still sometimes struggle to get loose and shake the whole island with

earthquakes.

49. Sakuntala, the daughter of a King and a heavenly nymph,

is discovered with her friends by King Dushyanta who instantly falls

in love with her and marries her. The King is suddenly recalled to

his court and during his absence a Brahmin's curse falls upon Sakuntala,

which causes the King to forget his love. But if she wears his ring

she will recover his affection when meeting him. But her ring is lost

in a pool on the way. By a miracle she is wafted to heaven. A fisher-

man finds the lost ring in the body of a fish and he restores it to the

King, whereupon the enchantment is removed and he bewails his loss.

Years elapse and the King is called to heaven where he aids the gods

in their war with the giants. When he returns, he rides in India's

Chariot. Alighting on a lofty mountain he sees a child playing with

a lion. It is his and Sakuntala's child and through it, he and his wife

are reunited. Sir William Jones and Sir Monier Williams have made

excellent translations of this drama. The author is Kalidasa.

50. The editor must plead ignorance relative to this Scottish

legend.

51. Capt. Benjamin Brown, one of the most prominent among

the early settlers of Ames, was born October 17, 1745, at Leicester, Mas-

sachusetts. His grandfather, William Brown, came from England to

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 191

America while a youth, was the first settler in the town of Hatfield,

on the Connecticut river, and was often engaged in the Indian wars

of that period. In February, 1775, Benjamin Brown, then thirty years

old, joined a regiment of minute men, and two months later was en-

gaged in active hostilities. In May he was commissioned a lieutenant in

Colonel Prescott's regiment of the Massachusetts line, and in June par-

ticipated in the battle of Bunker's Hill. In January, 1777, Lieut. Brown

was commissioned a captain in the eighth regiment Massachusetts line.

His regiment took a very active part in the operations directed against

Burgoyne during the summer of 1777, and Capt. Brown was engaged

in nearly all of the battles that preceded Burgoyne's surrender, in some

of which he particularly distinguished himself by his gallantry and dar-

ing. A short time after this he was offered the position of aide-de-

camp on Baron Steuben's staff, but declined it, fearing that his military

knowledge was inadequate. In 1779, compelled by the necessities of his

family and other personal reasons, he resigned his commission and re-

turned home to provide for their support. About the year 1789 he re-

moved with his family to Hartford, Washington county, New York,

then a new settlement, when he again migrated in the fall of 1796, and

sought a home in the northwestern territory. He reached Marietta in

the spring of 1797, and in 1799 came to Ames township, in company with

Judge Cutler. He was one of the prominent citizens during the time he

resided in Ames, holding various township offices, and contributing

largely to the advancement of the settlement. In 1817, his health becom-

ing feeble, he went to live with his son, Gen. John Brown, in Athens,

and here he died in October, 1821.

His wife, whom he married in Massachusetts in 1772, and who

bore him a large family of children, died at Athens in 1840, aged eighty-

six years. Walker's History of Athens County, Ohio, p. 404.

52. The facts concerning the time and place of publication of the

Athenean Oracle have not been available.

53. Mr Ewing's account agrees in a general way with the facts

that led up to the successful inoculation of James Phipps in 1796. Vac-

cination was first practiced in America three years later.

54. Ephraim Cutler (1767-1853) was born at Edgarton, Martha's

Vineyard, Mass. He was the son of Dr. Manasseh Cutler. He came

to Ohio in 1795 and lived a few years in Ames Township, Athens

County, and afterwards removed to Washington County, where he spent

the remainder of his life. He was appointed by the first territorial

legislature one of seven Commissioners to lease all the ministerial and

school sections in the Ohio Company's lands. In 1802 he was a member

of the Constitutional Convention and secured the adoption of the pro-

vision which imposed upon the General Assembly the obligation to "en-

courage schools and the means of instruction." In that Convention he

voted alone on the motion that it was now expedient to form a state

government. His vote was in the negative. In 1819 he was elected a

192 Ohio Arch

192 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

member of the General Assembly of Ohio. Here he served on important

educational committees. In 1823 Mr. Cutler was elected Senator. He

was a member of the School Committee, and it was largely through his

influence that the Common School System of Ohio was established. The

first school ever taught in his neighborhood near Marietta was in a room

of his own house.

55. Morse's American Geography was first published in 1789. Its

author was Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) of Charlestown, Mass. He was

a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale. He published quite a

series of geographies and gazetteers. Some of his books were published

in England and were translated into both French and German. His

Geography was popular, running through many editions. The copy

owned by the Dover branch of the "Coon-Skin Library" is now in the

possession of the Ohio University Museum. It is the eighteenth edition

and was published in 1816. Johnson's "Old Time School and School

Books" contains a very full description of this "First American Geog-

raphy."

56. No poet by the name of Casimer has been found. Casimer

was the name of many Polish princes and kings. Might not the general

name of the king, by which Sobieski might have been known, become

interchanged so that the hero and author were confused?

57. John Sobieski, (1624-96) King of Poland (1674-96), with his

brothers undertook to restore the fortunes of their country. John dis-

tinguished himself and became not only the admiration of his country-

men, but also the dread of the Tartars and Cossacks. In 1673 he de-

feated the Turks in the battle of Choczim. This victory made him

King of Poland. When the Turks besieged Vienna, Sobieski came to

the rescue, compelled the raising of the siege, captured the Mohammedan

standard and sent it as a trophy to the Pope.

58. Naturalists would hardly agree with Mr. Ewing, when he says

that the bear was fat after his winter's hibernation, yet Joseph Bobo,

a pioneer of Lodi township, Athens county, says in Walker's History

that bears were always fat when they came out in the spring.

59. The name of the author of this translation was not attainable

by the editor.

60. Linscott is a familiar family name yet in Athens county. It

is spelled sometimes with one t and again with two.

61. The editor is unable to find any historic account of the "taking

of Lewiston." The local historians of the place know nothing about it.

It is more than likely that Mr. Ewing meant the Siege of Louisburg,

which occurred in 1745.

62. "The sheep and the goats perish with the cold and the cattle

stand around in great hulks, encased in a frosty cover.

"The deer huddled together are numb under the fresh deep snow-

fall. When so burdened, hunters do not chase them with unleashed

hounds, or frighten them into pitfalls between the red feathered lines."

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 193

63. Mr. Walker in his History of Athens County makes Moses

Everett a graduate of Harvard. He was the son of Rev. Moses Everett

of Dorchester, Massachusetts.

64. "In 1803 the inhabitants of Ames assembled in public meeting

to consider the subject of roads, which, having been disposed of, the

intellectual wants of the settlement became a topic of discussion. They

were entirely isolated and remote from established schools and libraries,

and felt keenly the necessity of providing some means for their own

and their children's mental improvement. The establishment of a library

was suggested, and all agreed that this was the readiest way to meet

the case, provided funds could be raised and the books obtained."

Walker's History of Athens County, page 367.

"In this great scarcity of money the purchase of books for a library

seemed like an impossibility; but the subject was canvassed by the meet-

ing, and it was resolved to attempt it. Before the end of the year, by

dint of economy, and using every ingenious device to procure necessary

funds, a sum of money was raised. Some of the settlers were good

hunters, and, there being a ready cash market for furs and skins, which

were bought by the agents of John Jacob Astor and others, these easily

paid their subscriptions. At all events, the movement was successful,

and the money was paid in. Esquire Samuel Brown was just ready to

make a business trip to New England. He was going in a light wagon,

and took with him a quantity of bear skins and other furs, which he

designed exchanging in Boston for such goods as were needed in the

settlement. The money was placed in his hands, and he was deputed

to make the first purchase of books for the embryo library-the first in

Ohio. He was furnished with letters to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris

(a gentleman of education and note, who had visited the western country

a short time before), and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, who accompanied Mr.

Brown to Boston and selected a valuable collection of books." Id. page

368.

The original record of the association is entitled "Laws and reg-

ulations of the Western library association, founded at Ames, February

2, 1804." The preamble to the articles sets forth that, "considering the

many beneficial effects which social libraries are calculated to produce

in societies where they are established, as a source both of rational

entertainment and instruction, we, the subscribers, wishing to partici-

pate in those blessings, agree to form ourselves into a society for this

purpose, under the title of the Western library association, in the town

of Ames. Furthermore, at a meeting of the said association, at the

house of Christopher Herrold, on Thursday, the 2d of February, 1804,

agreed that the following articles be adopted as the rules of the so-

ciety." The shares were $2.50 each, and each share paid a tax of

twenty-five cents a year. Walker's History of Athens County, Ohio,

p. 369.

Vol. XXII-13.

194 Ohio Arch

194 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

December 17th, 1804, a meeting of the shareholders was held at

the house of Silvanus Ames, and Ephraim Cutler was elected librarian.

It was also "voted to accept fifty-one books, purchased by Samuel

Brown." At the annual meeting held at the house of Ephraim Cutler,

January 7th, 1805, the committee reported that they "have received pay

for thirty-two shares, amounting to $82.50, of which they have laid

out $73.50 for books." For this year Benjamin Brown, Ephraim Cut-

ler and Daniel Weethee were elected the committee of managers, and

Ephraim Cutler librarian. "Voted that the thanks of this association

be transmitted, post paid, to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, for his as-

sistance rendered in the selection and purchase of the books which con-

stitute our library." The list of this first purchase of books contains

"Robertson's North America," "Harris' Encyclopedia," 4 volumes;

"Morse's Geography," 2 volumes; "Adams' Truth of Religion;" "Gold-

smith's Works," 4 volumes; "Evelina," 2 volumes; "Children of the

Abbey," 2 volumes; "Blair's Lectures;" "Clark's Discourses;" "Ram-

sey's American Revolution," 2 volumes; "Goldsmith's Animated Nature,"

4 volumes; "George Barnwell;" "Camilla," 3 volumes; "Playfair's His-

tory of Jacobinism," 2 volumes; "Beggar Girl," 3 volumes, etc. Later

purchases included "Shakespeare;" "Don Quixote;" "Locke's Essays,"

"Scottish Chiefs," "Josephus," "Smith's Wealth of Nations," "Specta-

tor," "Plutarch's Lives," "Arabian Nights," "Life of Washington," etc.

Page 370.

The library received additions from time to time, until there were

finally accumulated several hundred volumes--a considerable library

for the place and period. Many years later it was divided, and part taken

to Dover township (where some of the original stockholders lived),

where it formed the nucleus of another library, which was incorporated

by an act of the legislature, passed December 21, 1830. Walker's His-

tory of Athens County, page 373.

65. Samuel Brown, brother of John and nephew of Capt. Benja-

min Brown, a native of Massachusetts, came to the northwestern ter-

ritory in 1797, and settled with his family on "Round Bottom," on the

Muskingum river. In the year 1800 he bought a piece of land on Sun-

day creek, within the limits of Ames township as soon after defined,

but in the present township of Dover. In 1805 he returned to Wash-

ington county (having sold his farm on Sunday creek), and opened

a new farm about eight miles west of Marietta. He lived here till

1835, when he took up his residence with his son-in-law, Mr. James

Dickey, at whose house he died January 15, 1841.

65�. At an exhibition given at the close of the term taught by Mr.

Cutler, the children recited dialogues or other pieces committed for the

occasion. Thomas Ewing and John Brown spoke the dialogue of Brutus

and Cassius, from Shakespeare.

A younger brother of Ephraim Cutler, a graduate of Harvard and

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 195

not of Yale. The school was taught in a room of Ephraim Cutler's

house.

66. Timothy Jones, a native of Rhode Island, was born of wealthy

parents, graduated at Brown University, became a lawyer and also a

graduate of medicine, and held a high social position in Providence,

Rhode Island, where he lived. In 1805, when near fifty years old, his

wife having died, he relinquished the comforts of settled life and re-

moved to Ohio. He arrived in Rome township, Athens county, in that

year and buried himself in the forests of Federal creek. He was a

man of considerable scientific research. During the revolutionary war

he obtained the first premium, offered by the legislature of Massachusetts,

for the manufacture of saltpeter. Dressed in the garb of a pioneer

working on his farm on Federal creek, he presented to those who knew

his history and character an interesting study. An aged citizen of Rome,

who knew Dr. Jones, says, "in the forest he was a hunter-in the log

cabin parlor a perfect Chesterfield." Walker's History of Athens County,

Ohio, p. 508.

Jones married a daughter of Ebenezer Barrows, who had been

a soldier in the French and Indian War. Walker's History of Athens

County, p. 509.

67. The Indian Mound can still be seen about a mile from the

village of Stewart, in Berne Township, Athens County. The grave is

yet visible.

68. Pasquinade, a lampoon or satirical writing.

69. James Ross, of a family various members of which were prom-

inent in colonial and revolutionary affairs, was a courtly gentleman of

the olden times. He was an intense and uncompromising partisan in his

support of Adams and the Federal party, and was for many years the

recognized leader of Pennsylvania federalism. It was the great ambition

of his life to become governor of Pennsylvania, an ambition which was

never gratified, although he appeared before the people as a candidate

three times.

Thomas Mifflin, the first Governor of the State under the Consti-

tution of 1790, held office for three consecutive three-year terms without

serious opposition. During his third term, however, political differences

between the Federalists and the followers of Jefferson became very

violent. When he retired, in 1799, James Ross became the candidate of

the Federalists and Thomas McKean of the Jeffersonians for the guber-

natorial office.

The campaign which followed was the most violent the State had

yet known. Personalities and abuse of the respective candidates figured

largely in the contest. In a total of 71,000 votes, McKean obtained a

majority of a little over 5000. Very singularly, the principal topic of

acrimonious discussion during the campaign was not any matter of

policy connected with our own internal affairs but a question of sympathy

196 Ohio Arch

196 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

with England and France respectively in the great wars then being

waged on the European continent.

Three years later Ross was again a candidate against McKean

But McKean, from the first, had pursued an aggressive policy, letting the

axe fall relentlessly on all officials suspected of Federalism. By this he

had so disintegrated the Federal party of the State that Ross received

but a little over 7000 votes in a total poll of 66,000. Ross had the

mortification of falling nearly 2000 votes below another Federal candi-

date, also named James Ross, who, by way of distinction, was called

"James Ross, of Pittsburg," in the annals of that day.

Ross did not appear in the field when McKean was elected to a

third term, but, three years after that, when Simon Snyder was the

Jeffersonian candidate for Governor, Ross once more appealed to the

Federalists to rally around him, but Pennsylvania had become a rock-

ribbed Jeffersonian State and the result at the polls was:

Snyder .................................. 67,975

Ross ......... ................. 39,575

70. Thomas McKean (1734-1817), admitted to the bar 1777 and

a member of the State Assembly, 1762-79. Member of Continental Con-

gress from 1774 to 1783. In 1781 was president of that body. From

1777 to 1799 he was Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court

and resigned to accept the governorship, which he held until 1808. He

was the author of the Delaware Constitution.

71. Since there were only thirty-five members of the first Con-

stitutional Convention, there were but about five in the class "moderate

and inclining to rational principles." It is not difficult to discover who

the "rationals" were by an analysis of the vote. Yet Mr. Cutler voted

with the majority twenty-four times and with the minority nineteen

times.

72. The reasons for the "feeble executive" are easily discoverable.

Under the Territorial form of government the people of Ohio had been

denied the right of self-government; Governor Arthur St. Clair had

freely and often arbitrarily used the veto power. Besides, the democratic

doctrines of Jefferson had found fertile soil among the pioneers of the

West. These things prompted the convention to make of the Governor

"a name almost without a meaning" and subsequently to cause Governor

Tom Corwin to affirm that his only duties were "signing notaries' com-

missions and pardoning horse thieves."

73. The American Friend was published at Marietta from 1813 till

1833. Its editor was David Everett, a brilliant writer. But when Mr.

Ewing saw the advertisement, it was known as the Ohio Register and

Virginia Herald. The paper was established in 1801 and was published

under the above name until 1810, when it was changed to the American

Spectator.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 197

74. Ossian, a Celtic warrior-poet, is said to have lived in the third

century. James Macpherson, a Highland schoolmaster, published in

1760 some literary fragments, which purported to be translations of the

Gaelic verse of Ossian. They at once became popular. Their genuine-

ness has been attacked, much to the detriment of Macpherson's post-

humous literary reputation. Macpherson, as Mr. Ewing indicates, fared

well. He held many lucrative official positions, sat in Parliament, and

retired to an estate with a pension.

75. Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), the most unique genius in

English letters, died with his own hands at the boyhood age of eighteen.

Yet in these few years he succeeded in perpetrating a series of high-

handed forgeries, purporting to be ancient manuscripts. He nearly suc-

ceeded in trapping the wily Walpole. During the last few months of

his life his literary productions were prodigous in amount. One of the

most beautiful of his passages is the lament in Aella. His ode to

Liberty in The Tragedy of Godwin is considered especially fine in its

imagery.

76. The Amber Witch (Die Bernstein Hexe), a novel by Johann

Wilhelm Meinhard (1797-1851), a German litterateur.

77. The excess of the solar month above the lunar month or the

solar year above the lunar year. The Annual Epact is eleven days, the

difference between 365 and 354.

78. The Kanawha Salt Works were located at Maiden, a few miles

from the present capital of West Virginia.

79. The Ohio University at Athens had opened for the reception

of students June 1, 1809.

80. The comet of 1811 is one of the most celebrated of modern

times. It was discovered on March 26 of that year and was last seen

on August 17, 1812. In the autumnal months of 1811 it shone very con-

spicuously, and owing to its great northern declination, remained visible

throughout the whole night for many weeks. The extreme length of

its tail was about 25 degrees and the width about 6 degrees. The

diameter of the nucleus was 428 miles. It was of a reddish hue, while

the nebulous portion had a bluish-green tinge. It is conjectured to be

a periodical comet whose orbit permits it to make its appearance every

3065 years.

81. Note the different spellings. Washington in his Journal

spelled it Kanhawa. The word is Indian and means the river of the

woods. It is now spelled Kanawha.

82. No account of Harriet Boone has been discovered by the

editor.

83. The Wild Irish Girl was a romance written by Lady Morgan

(Miss Sidney Owenson), (1783-1859).

84. The War of 1812 was then in progress.

85. Alexander Adam (1741-1809), Scotch writer; student at the

University of Edinburgh; became rector of High School at Edinburgh.

198 Ohio Arch

198 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Was a popular teacher; among his students were Sir Walter Scott, Lord

Brougham and Jeffrey. His first publication was his Principles of Latin

and English Grammar (1772). This was severely criticized because it

was written in English. He wrote other books of a classical nature,

but his best work was his Roman Antiquites (1791).

86. Queenstown Heights was on the Canadian side of the Niagara

River, between the Falls and Lake Ontario. Here on the thirteenth of

October, 1812, troops under General Van Rensselaer attacked the British

under General Brock. The attack was successful. General Brock himself

lost his life and six hundred American troops held the Heights. In the

afternoon a large body of British came to re-capture the lost field and

General Van Rensselaer hastened to bring over the New York militia,

stationed at Lewiston, on the American side. These brave (?) soldiers

refused to move. They appealed to the ever-ready slogan of "states'

rights" and the victory of the morning was changed to defeat. This

attitude of the militia and the Federalist party is clearly indicated in

Mr. Ewing's verses.

87. Fort Meigs was built by General William H. Harrison in the

winter of 1812-13 on the right bank of the Maumee. The fort occupied

about ten acres of ground and was well constructed. Generals Procter

and Tecumseh in the late summer of 1813, with a band of English and

Indians, tried to reduce it, but without success.

88. Maiden, a British fort on the Canadian side of the Detroit

River, was the headquarters of the British army during the War of 1812.

89. Augustin de Iturbide was Emperor of Mexico from 1783-1824.

90. The horse's hoofs strike the mellow plain with a galloping

sound.-Virgil's Aeneid. Book VIII, line 595.

91. Rev. Jacob Lindley, the first President of the Ohio University,

serving from 1808 until 1822.

92. "In 1814-15, the county was visited by a terrible epidemic

designated then as the 'cold plague.' I recall with painful emotions the

events of that period. My father had, from increasing infirmities, almost

wholly retired from the practice of his profession, and I had succeeded

in some measure to his business. Thus it fell to my lot in connection

with my professional brethren to participate in the warfare against this

dreadful disease. The leading physicians of the county at that time were

Dr. Ezra Walker, of Ames, and Dr. Leonard Jewett, of Athens, both of

them very skillful practitioners. The disease was not confined to the

western regions; indeed it originated in New England, and had, in many

instances, baffled the efforts of the best physicians there. We all labored

intensely during the winter, and I am forced to confess in my own case

that I had but little success. The disease raged with terrible violence,

and many died in all parts of the county." -Reminiscences of Dr.

Chauncy Perkins, Walker's History of Athens County, p. 581.

Dr. Perkins and Mr. Ewing do not agree as to dates. The disease

is now known as La Grippe.

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 199

93. There is quite an interesting letter extant written by Thomas

Ewing to his classmate, John Hunter, while he was staying in Gallipolis.

It describes the muster of the Militia for the War of 1812.

94. "May 3d, 1815. The committee appointed by the board of

trustees to examine Thomas Ewing and John Hunter, candidates for a

degree of bachelor of arts and sciences, beg leave to report:

"That they have examined the applicants aforesaid in the different

branches of literature, viz.: in grammar, rhetoric, the languages, natural

and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy, geography, and the various

branches of mathematics, and that they have witnessed with much grati-

fication the proficiency made by the before named students. They there-

fore report the following resolutions:

"1. Resolved, That the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter merit

the approbation of the board of trustees, and that they are each entitled

to a degree of bachelor of arts and sciences.

"2. That the president be authorized and required to inform the

said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter that they are each so entitled to

such degree in this seminary, and your committee recommend that the

same be conferred.

"3. That the secretary of the board deliver to the said Thomas

Ewing and John Hunter each a copy of these resolutions.

"JESSUP N. COUCH,

"CHARLES R. SHERMAN,

"STEPHEN LINDLEY,

"J. LAWRENCE LEWIS,

"Committee.

"Report accepted." - Record Book, Ohio University Trustees, Vol. 1.

941/2. A. B. Walker, a boy about fifteen years of age, went with

Mr. Ewing to Lancaster to bring the horse back. Walker's History of

Athens County.

95. Philemon Beecher (1775-1839) was a native of Litchfield, Con-

necticut. He came to Lancaster in 1801 and two years later was elected

to the Ohio Legislature. He served in the second, the fourth, the fifth,

and the sixth sessions of the General Assembly. In the year 1818 he

went to Congress, where he remained for ten years.

96. Jacob Burnet (1770-1853) was born in Newark, N. J. He was

educated at Princeton and came to Cincinnati in 1796 to practice law. In

1799 he became a member of the Territorial Legislature where he was

a partisan of Governor St. Clair. From 1812 to 1816 he served in the

Ohio Legislature. From 1821 to 1828 he served as a Judge of the

Supreme Court of Ohio, but resigned that position to accept the United

States Senatorship, as a successor to General Harrison, who had resigned.

He served but three years in this capacity. Judge Burnet was the

author of a book on the Northwest Territory, published in 1847.

200 Ohio Arch

200 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

97. During his preparation for the bar, Mr. Ewing for the first

six months studied sixteen hours a day.-Walker's History of Athens

County.

98. This neighbor was Elisha Alderman.

99. This was Charles Robert Sherman, father of John and William

T. Sherman. He was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, September 17, 1788.

He came to Lancaster in 1810, and decided to make it his future home.

The next year he returned to Connecticut to bring his wife and child,

Charles T. Sherman, to Ohio. The trip was made on horseback, and

the babe was carried the entire distance, resting on a pillow.

Mr. Sherman was a brilliant orator and held many positions of

trust and honor. In 1823 he was elected one of the Judges of the Ohio

Supreme Court. He died at Lebanon, Ohio, June 24, 1829, in his forty-

first year. He had been a trustee of the Ohio University, and was one

of the examiners who conducted the examination for Mr. Ewing's

graduation.

100. Samuel F. Vinton (1792-1862), born in Massachusetts; grad-

uated at Williams College; settled at Gallipolis, Ohio; served twenty-

two years in Congress; author of law extending the idea of "section 16"

for school purposes in all the new states; an earnest advocate for the

good treatment of the Indians. Perhaps what is the greatest argument

ever delivered before an American court is that of Mr. Vinton's on the

Ohio-Virginia boundary line. See Ohio Archaeological and Historical

Quarterly. Vol. 4.

101. General Charles Backus Goddard practiced law at the Zanes-

ville bar from 1817 to 1864, the date of his death. Henry Howe tells an

interesting story of how General Goddard once overheard Thomas Ewing

rehearsing the arguments he expected to make in a case where Goddard

was the opposing counsel. When the case came on for hearing, Goddard

had stolen Mr. Ewing's thunder and took all the wind out of his sails.

102. Under Ohio's first Constitution the Prosecuting Attorney was

appointed by the County Commissioners.

103. This was Elnathan Scofield, a native of Connecticut. He

came to Lancaster in 1805. He was by profession a surveyor, but for

many years was a merchant. He held various offices, serving in turn

as County Surveyor, Justice of the Peace, State Senator, and Post-

master, under John Quincy Adams, of Lancaster. He held the position

of Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County

for two terms. The Court then consisted of a Judge and two Asso-

ciates. He died suddenly in 1841.

104. This was certainly not William J. Reese, who was popularly

known as General Reese, for he did not come to Lancaster until 1827.

Graham in his Fairfield County History states it was David Reese.

1041/2. This must have occurred about 1820, or shortly before. The

rendezvous of the gang, according to Graham's History of Fairfield

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 201

County, was in the locality known as "Sleepy Hollow" among the hills

south of Lancaster.

105. This was Ebenezer Granger, a native of Connnecticut. He

came to Zanesville about the beginning of the War of 1812.

106. Charles Hammond, (1779-1840) was born in Baltimore and

educated in the University of Virginia. He located in Belmont county

in 1801, and was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for the Northwest

Territory. During the War of 1812, he published The Federalist in St.

Clairsville; was a member of the State Legislature (1816-21) and

reporter for the Supreme Court of Ohio (1823). In 1824 he removed to

Cincinnati and a year later became editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, which

position he held for fifteen years. He was the author of political essays

signed "Hampden," published in the National Intelligencer in 1820, upon

the Federal Constitution which were highly complimented by Jefferson.

He died in 1840. See Howe I-311 for estimate of his journalistic

ability. Also, Howe II-506 for a narrative of the United States Bank

Contest.

107. Doddridge, Philip-An American lawyer, born in Brooke

County, Virginia, in 1772. He acquired distinction as an advocate in

trials by jury. In the Constitutional Convention of Virginia, in 1829-30,

he represented several Committees in western Virginia, and was the

leader of the party which preferred white Representation. He died in

1832.-Dictionary of Biography.

108. The law taxing the branches of the United States Bank was

passed in 1819. There were two branches in the state-one at Cincin-

nati, and the other at Chillicothe. The tax levied was $50,000 for each

branch. This law was popularly known as the "Crow-bar" law since

the state collector forcibly took the money for both branches out of the

Chillicothe bank. The state resisted the Federal Courts and declared

her "sovereignty" in unmeasured terms. Howe states that the rights

of the bank were defended by Duncan McArthur. Hon. Daniel J. Ryan

has contributed an interesting article on "Nullification in Ohio" to the

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society's Publications, Volume II.

109. Henry Brush came from New York state to Chillicothe in

1803. His practice was limited till after the War of 1812, when for

twenty years he acquired a good business. His rank as a lawyer was

not high. He served as Prosecuting Attorney of Ross County in 1808-

09; member of the lower house of the Ohio Legislature 1810; State

Senator 1814; in Congress 1819-21.

In the War of 1812 he was in command of a company of Ross

County volunteers that had marched to re-inforce General Hull at Detroit.

He had not reached Detroit, but hearing that Hull had surrendered and

by the terms of capitulation, his command was included, he made his

escape. Anticipating pursuit by the Indians, Captain Brush caused the

head of a whisky barrel to be broken and scattered some tin cups about.

The pursuers got no further than the barrel. While they were imbibing

202 Ohio Arch

202 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and getting so drunk that pursuit was impossible, the entire company

succeeded in beating a hasty retreat.

Mr. Brush abandoned his profession in 1838. He moved to a farm

and died in Madison County, in 1860, at the age of eighty.

110. Benjamin Greene Leonard, son of Colonel Nathaniel Leonard

of the Revolutionary army, was born at Winsdor, Vermont, November 8,

1793. He graduated at Dartmouth College and came to Chillicothe at

about the age of twenty-seven.

He was remarkable for the keenness of intellect and for his

knowledge of law, language, science and-his eccentricities. It is said

he would remain locked in his office for whole days. He was never

known to have his office in the business section of the town. Clients

had to knock, long and loud, before they could get his attention. He

seemed to avoid practice, was a recluse from society and-an opium

fiend. In 1840, in a case before the United States Supreme Court, he

displayed such ability and legal acumen as to win the commendation of

Chief Justice Marshall. Soon after, symptoms of insanity appeared. He

was sent to Columbus for treatment, but he died in the insane asylum

in 1845.

111. John Noble, the father of Hon. John W. Noble, of Missouri,

Secretary of the Interior under President Benjamin Harrison, came to

Lancaster about 1815. He was then a tailor. His hotel was known as

the Union Hotel, situated where later the well-known hostelry, the

Tallmadge House, stood.

111�. Kant's "Kritik der reinen Vernunft" was published in 1781.

112. "William Creighton, Jr., Ohio's first Secretary of State, was

twice member of Congress. He came from Virginia to Chillicothe in

1799 and practiced at the bar for fifty years.

"He was large in person, clear-headed, social, a great admirer of

Henry Clay and with a boyish humor that sometimes found vent in

practical jokes."-Howe's Ohio. Vol. II-517.

113. Elias Howell was a member of the Senate from Licking

County.

114. Mr. Ewing is mistaken about Mr. Mornton being a member

of the Legislature from Knox County. At that time Knox County was

represented in the Senate by Thomas Rigdon and in the House by John

Greer. The records fail to disclose a man by the name of Mornton

representing any county then or in subsequent years. Taylor's "Hundred

Year Book."

115. Wyllys Silliman, born at Stratford, Connecticut, October 8,

1777; edited Federalist newspaper in Western Virginia in 1800; married

Deborah Webster Cass, daughter of Major Cass, at Wakatomika, near

Dresden, Ohio, January 14, 1802; in 1803 was chosen President Judge

of Common Pleas Court, and sat at the April term, 1804, in Muskingum

County; Registrar General, Land Office, 1805; Commissioner of road

from Zanesville to forks of Muskingum, February 4, 1807; helped move

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing

Autobiography of Thomas Ewing. 203

state papers from Chillicothe to Zanesville, 1810; Incorporator Zanes-

ville and Lancaster Turnpike Company, December 25, 1816, and of Zanes-

ville and Cambridge Turnpike Company, January 27, 1817; Representa-

tive in Ohio Legislature, 1828; Solicitor of United States Treasury,

appointed by Jackson. In 1836 he removed to Cleveland, returned to

Zanesville, where he died at the residence of his son-in-law, Charles C.

Gilbert, November 13, 1842.

He is said to have been a most eloquent speaker.

116. Judge Alexander Harper of Zanesville, where he died in

1852. He was Judge of the Common Pleas Court for fourteen years.

117. Micajah T. Williams, of Hamilton County, served five terms

in the Ohio Legislature. He was Speaker of the Lower House in the

twenty-third session.

118. Jeremiah Morrow, of Warren County (1771-1852). In 1801

he was elected to the Territorial Legislature; was a delegate to Ohio's

first Constitutional Convention; elected to Ohio Senate in 1803; served

ten years in House of Representatives at Washington. From 1813 to

1819 he was in the United State Senate; elected Governor of Ohio in

1822 and re-elected in 1824. In 1841 he again went to Congress and

served in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh Congresses. See Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Society's Publications, Vol. II, p. 98, for

an interesting account of the public services of Mr. Morrow.

119. Edward King represented Ross County in the Senate at that

time.

120. Bryant Thornhill was a member of the House from Licking

County.

121. There were then 108 members of the Ohio Legislature.

Fifty-five votes would be necessary for election. If the parties were

about equally divided Mr. Ewing evidently did not receive the entire

Whig support, and evidently, more than one Democrat voted for him.

The ballots as given in Taylor's "Annals of Ohio Progress" stand

as follows:

Ewing ............ 23 37 42 46 51 54 55

Williams ........... 49 50 49 52 57 53 51

King ............... 21 21 16 9 5 2 2

122. The following abstract from a letter written by Theo. D.

Jervey, a distinguished investigator of Charleston, South Carolina, is an

interesting addendum to what the editor has stated. Mr. Jervey is the

author of a Life of Thomas Y. Hayne:

"What you had to say about Thomas Ewing interested me more

than all else. One of my friends here, is an Ohio scholar. From him I

have heard of this great son of Ohio. But I have other reasons for

being interested in Ewing. I note he graduated one year prior to that

which saw Hayne of South Carolina win his election to the State Legis-

204 Ohio Arch

204 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

lature. Fifteen years later, you note Ewing in the United States Senate,

where he found Hayne, who had preceded him there by seven years.

Hayne met in debate in the Senate many strong men, Clay, Webster,

Dickerson and Chambers; but I do not think any man he ever met in

debate helped him as much as Ewing. Ewing's speech in 1832 was the

strongest presentation made in reply to Hayne, and this despite the fact,

that Clay made a famous speech. Ewing's ideas reappear in an address

of Hayne, delivered some five or six years later, when he was exerting

every effort of which he was capable, to push through his railroad to

connect Ohio and South Carolina, a work which scholars have paid too

little attention in their studies of our history, in my opinion."