Adams County, Ohio - Chapter 16: Poutics and Poutical Parties, 1900 (part 3 of 4)

Then Dr. WilHam Doane, of Clermont Coimty, was elected to the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh congresses. He will not have a separate sketch, and we will finish him right here. He was born in the state of Maine. He removed to Clermont County and filled several local offices. He was elected as a Democrat. July 15, 1842, at a special session of the legislature, as in 1832, the fourth apportionment was made and twenty-one districts created. Clermont, Brown, Highland, and Adams were the seventh district. In this district, Gen. Joseph Mc- Dowell, of Highland County, was elected to the twenty-eighth congress, and served two terms, 1843 ^^ ^847. He was born in Burke County, North Carolina, November 13, 1800. He moved to Highland County, Ohio, in 1824, and became a farmer. He was a merchant in Hillsboro from 1829 to 1835. At that time he was admitted to the bar by a special act of the legislature. Previous to his election to congress, he was m the legislature, in the House in 1832 and 1833, and in the Senate from 1833 to 1835. He attained distinction as a lawyer, was an earnest and eloquent man, true to his constituents, faithful in the discharge of duty, and was noted for being a Christian gentleman. To the thirtieth congress, in October, 1846, Thomas L. Hamer, of Brown County, was elected, but never sat. He died in Mexico, December 21. 1846. Jonathan D. Morris, of Clermont County, was elected to succeed him. He was re-elected to the thirty-first congress, and served till March 4, 185 1. He had been clerk of the courts in Clermont County from 1831 to 1846, was a lawyer by profession, and was a faithful, conscientious and popular official. For twenty-five years he was a controlling factor in Clermont County politics. He had the respect and confidence of the people of his county, and was a leader of public opinion.

In the thirty-second congress, 1851 to 1853, Nelson Barrere, a Whig, for the first time represented the district. He was a resident of Highland County when elected, but had resided in Adams County from 1834 to 1845, ^^^^ while he had represented that county in the legislature in 1837 and 1838. In 1853, he was the Whig candidate for Governor, but was defeated by Mr. Medill. During the Civil War he was a Republican, but at its close became a Democrat, and remained such during his life. He 'was an able lawyer. He died August 20, 1883.

In 1852 the fifth congressional apportionment was made of twentyone districts. The sixth district was composed of Clermont, Brown, Highland, and Adams. Andrew Ellison, a lawyer from Brown County, represented the district in the thirty-third congress, 1853 to 1855. Nothing is now remembered of him except that he was a lawyer from Brown Countv. He was elected as a Democrat.

In the thirty-fourth congress, Jonas R. Emrie, of Highland County, lepresented the district as a Republican in 1855 to 1857. He was defeated for re-election to the thirty-fifth congress by Joseph R. Cockerill. of Adams Ccrtmty, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere. Under the plan by which the Democratic party was managing its affairs in the district at that time, Col. Cockerill was allowed but one term, and in the thirty-sixth congress, 1859 ^^ 1861, was succeeded by Col. William Howard, of Clermont County. He was a distinguished citizen of that county, whose memory is still fragrant. Like Campbell and Cockerill, he was a native of Virginia. When a boy he learned the saddler trade. He was prosecuting attorney of Clermont County from 1845 to 1849; state senator in 1849. He was a lieutenant in the Mexican War, and went into the Civil War as major of the 59th O. V. I., and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was a patriot, and so disclosed himself in congress, but the Democracy of his district had at that time established a foolish custom that no one should have but one term, so he retired at the close of his term and gave place to Chilton A. White, of Brown County, who was elected to the thirty-seventh congress, 1861 to 1863, as a Democrat. In 1862 the sixth apportionment for congress was made, and the Republicans had the innings. There were nineteen districts, and the eleventh congressional district was composed of Adams, Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia, Jackson and Vinton. The district was Republican, but to the thirtyeighth congress, Wells A. Hutchins, of Scioto County, was elected as a War Democrat on a platform for the more vigorous prosecution of the war. A sketch of Mr. Hutchins appears elsewhere. He was a candidate to succeed himself, but was defeated by the Hon. Hezekiah H. Bundy, of Jackson County, who represented the district in the thirty-ninth congress, 1865 to 1867. A sketch of him appears herein.

In the fortieth, forty-first, and forty-seCond congresses, 1867 to 1873, John T. Wilson, of Adams County, represented the district. A sketch of him will be found herein.

In 1872 the seventh apportionment was made. There were twentyone districts, and Highland, Brown, Adams, Pike, and Ross were made the seventh district. And Lawrence T. Neal, of Ross County, represented it in the forty-third and forty-fourth congresses, 1873 ^^ ^^77- Henry L. Dickey, of Highland County, was elected to the forty-fifth congress from this district, 1877 to 1879.

In 1878 the eighth apportionment was made, and this was the first not made at a decennial period. It was made by the Democrats, all previous ones having been made by the Whigs or Republicans. There were twenty-one districts, and the eleventh was composed of Clermont, Brown, Adams, Highland, and Clinton. Under this apportionment, Henry L. Dickey, of Highland, was re-elected and represented the district, 1879 to 1881. In 1880 the Republicans controlled the Legislature and re-enacted the apportionment of 1872, making the ninth, and in this district, composed of Highland, Brown, Adams, Pike, and Ross. John P. Lccdom was elected to the forty-seventh congress and served one term, i88t to 1883.

In 1882, the decennial period, the tenth apportionment was made. Under this there were twenty-one districts, and the eleventh was composed of Lawrence, Adams, Scioto, Jackson, Gallia, and Vinton. In this district John W. McCormick, of Gallia, was elected to the fortyeighth congress, and served one term.

In 1884 the legislature was again Democratic, and that party took a turn at the wheel of fortune. The eleventh apportionment was made, and twenty-one districts were formed. The eleventh was composed of

In 1886 the Republicans controlled the legislature, and they made the twelfth apportionment. Under this, Adams, Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia, Jackson, and Vinton composed the eleventh district, and Judge Albert C. Thompson was elected to the fiftieth congress, in 1887 to 1889. He was re-elected to the fifty-first congress from the same district, 1887 to 1889. A sketch of him will be found elsewhere. These political changes are hard on the historian, but have to be borne.

In 1890 the Legislature, controlled by the Democrats, made the thirteenth apportionment. Adams, Brown, Highland, Clermont, and Pike were made the eleventh district, and John M. Pattison, as a Democrat, of Clermont, represented it in the fifty-second congress, 1891 to 1893. In 1892 the Republicans made the regular decennial apportionment, the fourteenth in number. There were twenty-one districts, Adams, Scioto, Pike, Jackson, Gallia and Lawrence composed the tenth district, and in this Gen. William H. Enochs was elected to the fiftythird congress. He died July 13, 1893, after four months and nine days of his term, and Hon. Hezekiah S. Bundy was elected his successor, and served out his term.

To the fifty-fourth congress and to the fifty-fifth, Lucien J. Fenton, of Adams, was elected, and served from 1895 to 1899. A sketch of him appears herein. To the fifty-sixth congress Stephen Morgan, of Jackson, was elected, and is serving his first term.

There have been fourteen apportionments made, when regularly there should have been but nine. The first apportionment, other than at a decennial period was in 1878 by the Democrats. The next was in 1880 by the Republicans. The third was in 1874 by the Democrats, and the fourth in 1886 by the Republicans. The fifth was in 1890 by the Democrats. Exclusive of the present term, Adams County has been represented in congress ninety-six years, thirty of -which by its own citizens. Of the ninety-six years, the Democrats have had seventy-two years, and the Whigs and Republicans twenty-four years.

was the first congressman from Ohio. He was born in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania, October 6, 1771. His father was a farmer, and he was brought up on the farm. He attended a private school at Gettysburg, and was especially bright in mathematics and surveying, which were his favorite studies. In 1795 he emigrated to the Northwest Territory, and settled at Columbia, near Cincinnati. At Columbia he taught school, did surveying, and worked on the farm. Having saved some money, he went to Warren County, bought a large farm and erected a log house. In the spring of 1799 he married Miss Mary Packhill, of Columbia.

In 1 801 he was elected to the territorial legislature. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1802. In March, 1803, he was elected, to the Ohio senate, and in June, 1803, he was elected to congress, and re-elected ten times. While in congress he was chairman of the committee on public lands. In 181 3 he was elected to the United States senate, and was made chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1814 he was appointed Indian commissioner. At the close of his term he retired to his farm.

In 1820 he was a candidate for governor, and received 9,476 votes, to 34,836 for Ethan A. Brown, who was elected. In 1822 he w^as elected governor by 26,059 votes, to 22,889 ^^^ Allen Trimble and 11,- 150 for William W. Irw^in, and re-elected in 1824 by the' following vote: 39,526 for him, and 37,108 for Allen Trimble. During his service as governor, the canal system of Ohio was inaugurated, and Lafayette's visit to the state took place. On the fourth of July, 1839, he laid the corner stone of the capital at Columbus. In 1840 he was re-elected to congress to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Thomas Corwin, and was re-elected. He was a deep thinker, a delightful social companion, had a wonderful retentive memory, boundless kindness of heart and endowed with much vivacity and cheerfulness of spirit. He died March 22, 1853.

represented Adams County in the thirteenth and fourteenth congresses, 181 3 to 18 1 4. He represented the second district, composed of Adams, Clinton, Greene, Fayette, Highland, and Clermont counties. Brown Countv was not then established. He was elected as a Democrat. He appears to have been in the senate, twenty-second legislative session,

December 2, 1822, to January 28, 1823, and in the twenty-second legislative session, December i, 1823, to February 26, 1824, representing Greene and Clinton counties.

He was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, about 1777, where the family was called **Elchinor." After receiving a common school education he removed to Ohio, where he was known at the "Buffalo of the West." He located in Greene Countv. He is said to have entered the war of 1812 as a private. He was a lawyer. He had a son, Washington, bom in South Carolina in 1800 who came with his parents to Greene County in 1802. He was also a lawyer. He had a son, William J., bom June 10, 1827, who was admitted to the bar in i860. He died in 1897.

was the third United States district judge for the district of Ohio. Like his two predecessors, he was a Virginian. He was bom February 23, 1782, near Miller's Iron Works in Auijusta County, Va. He only breathed the Virginia atmosphere until his ninth year, for at that time his father removed to Kentucky. He had no facilities for an education except those of the common schools of that day, and they were about no schools at all. He was not strong enough to perform farm labor, as his father's circumstances required, and he went to Cincinnati, then an insignificant village, where he began to learn the carpenter's trade. He remained in Cincinnati for a few months and then returned home. His parents soon afterward removed to that part of Adams County now in Brown, where John studied Latin under Rev. Dunlavy. He afterward studied under Rev. Robert Finley. His father was too poor to pay for his maintenance and books, and he worked clearing ground in the morning and evening to maintain himself in school. He studied the languages under Mr. John Finley, and afterward pursued them himself. He was then seized with a desire to study law, and went to Morgantown, Virginia, and studied under his uncle, Thomas Wilson. He earned his expenses while studying by teaching school. In t8o8, he was admitted to the bar in Ohio and fixed his residence at W^est Union. He delivered an oration on the fourth of July, 1808, at West Union at a celebration on that day. He was a Jacksonian Democrat all his life. In July, 1809, he was elected a justice of the peace of Tiffin Township, Adams County, and served until June 5. 1815, when he resigned. The same year, 1809, he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Adams County by the common pleas court, and was allowed from $25 to $30 a term for liis services, there being three terms in a year, and he served until January- 23, 181 7. He was elected to represent Adams County in the Legislature in October, 1810, with Abraham Shepherd as his colleague. He represented the county in the Legislature again in 1815 and 18 16 and had Josiah Lockhart as an associate. He was elected to the fifteenth congress in 1816, and served continuously until March 4, 1827. He was succeeded by William Russell. In 1828 he was a candidate for governor of the state on the Democratic ticket and was defeated by the vote of 53.970 for Allen Trimble and 51,051 for himself, majority in favor of Trimble, 2,019. I" March, 1829, President Jackson appointed him United States district judge for the district of Ohio, and he served until his death, September 24, 1833. In January. 1833, he received in the legislature,

49 votes for United States senator to 54 votes for Thomas Morris, at the time Morris was elected. He was a candidate for congress in 181 2, but was defeated, but was elected four years later. He terminated his congressional career at his own choice, was not choked off or killed off by politicians as is the fashion in our days. In 1827, on his retirement from congress, he removed from West Union to Brown County, Ohio, and settled on a farm in what is now Jefferson Township on Eagle Creek. His farm consisted of 250 acres. He lived there but two years after his appointment as United States judge, when he removed to Columbus. During the time of his residence in West Union, he resided in the house in which Mr. James Hood died and where Mr. Cooper's family now reside. He resided there from 1808 to 1827. He had a habit of rising at four o'clock in the morning to study and he kept this up after his removal to Columbus, although in his da}' there was but little for the United States district judge to do but to maintain his dignity. In 1833, his adopted daughter died after ten days' painful illness, during which time the judge was a watcher night and day. After her death. Judge Campbell and his wife, broken down with anxiety, concluded to visit Delaware Springs for relaxation and rest. On the way Judge Campbell was taken with a chill, followed by a high fever. However, the next day he proceeded to Delaware, but was taken worse and breathed his last on the twenty-fourth of September, 1833. On the arrival of the news of his death at Columbus, a great sensation was caused, as he was highly respected. Several hundred people of Columbus met his funeral procession at Worthington and accompained his remains to their last resting place.

In 181 1, he was married to Miss Eleanor Doak, daughter of Robert Doak, of Augusta County, Virginia. There was no issue of this marriage. Judge Campbell was a man of great natural dignity and force of character.

The source of our information is a book entitled "Biographical Sketches with other Literary Remains of the late John W. Campbell, Judge of the United States Court for the District of Ohio," compiled by his widow. It was printed at Columbus, Ohio, in 1838, and published by Scott & Gallagher. The biography was evidently written by a lady because it is conspicuous in faihng to tell, what, after a lapse of fifley-eight years, we would most like to know and by filling it up with comments for which posterity is not thankful and does not appreciate. What we would like to know ar, to Judge Campbell are the facts of his life and then our own judgment as to the place he should occupy in history.

He has been dead sixty-six years. All v;ho knew him personally are dead. We have to resort to his writings and to written accounts left of him to make an estimate of his character. He was highly respected by all who knew him. He was public spirited and patriotic. He was a friend whom his friends valued most highly. As a public speaker, his manners and style were pleasing. He investigated every subject presented to him with great care. He was of the strictest integrity. He was a successful lawyer, never lost his self- poise or equanimity and his judgment was never controlled by his emotions. His opinions were carefully formed, but wlien formed, did not need to be revised. The public welfare with him was paramount. He was very sympathetic in cases of suffering or distress brought to his notice. He took a great interest in education. He favored the colonization of the Negroes, and was president of the Ohio Colonization Society at the time of his death. He was strictly moral in all his life and conduct and this, from high principles, well considered and adopted, which served as glides to his life. He was intensely religious. He was the strongest kind of a Jacksonian Democrat, but yet was never offensive to his political opponents and treated them with the greatest consideration. His was a familiar figure on the streets of West Union from 1808 to 1826, during all of which time he resided there, but there is no tradition of him whatever in the village. He was fond of composing verse, was no insignificant poet, and had fine literary tastes. Altogether he was a valuable citizen of whose career present and future generations in Adams County may be proud.

v;as boni in Ireland in 1782. He was left an orphan at an early age. He came to the United States alone in 1796 at the age of fourteen. He remained a short time in Philadelphia and while there began to learn a trade, that of hatter. He went from Philadelphia to Maysville, Kentucky, took up hat making and followed it. While there, he married Sarah Tribbey. They had one child but she and it died shortly after it was born. He moved to Adams County, Ohio, in 1802. He represented Adams County in the first Legislature of the new state which sat at Chillicotl-e, Ohio, March i, to April t6. 1803. Thomas Kirker and Joseph Lucas were his colleagues. He was the first clerk of the courts of Srioto County, having been appointed December, 1803. It seems that the office did not suit his tastes and he resigned in June, 1804. In the eighth legislative session, December 4, 1809, to February 22, 1 810, he was a member from Adams County at the munificent salary of two dollars per day. He had Dr. Alexander Campbell afterward United States senator as a colleague. On the fifteenth day of February, 18 10, he was appointed an associate judge for Scioto County, Ohio. This office did not suit his tastes and he resigned it in 1812.

At the tenth legislative session. December 10, 181 1, to February 21, 181 2, he was a member of the house from Adams County, with John Ellison as a colleague. This legislature sat at Zanesville, Ohio. The house impeached John Thompson, a president judge of the common pleas, but on trial in the senate, he was acquitted. At this session, Columbus was made the capital of the state, and the legislature provided for the military equipment of the Ohio militia. It also incorporated a number of libraries in the state. At the eleventh legislative session, December 7, 1812, to February 9, 1813, William Russell was a member from Adams County with John Ellison as a colleague. This legislature provided for the care and maintenance of women who had been abandoned by their husbands, (an epidemic in those days,) an,d made the property of the absconder liable for the wife's maintenance. Strong measures were adopted to require every able bodied man to respond to the call to arms, but the lerislature, by special resolution, excused Jacob Wooding, of Scioto County, Ohio, from military duty, because his father was blind, lame, absolutely helpless and had two blind children. No one else was excused From 1813 to 1819, he dropped out of the legislature, but not out of public employment.

At the eighteenth legislative session from December 5 1819, to February 26, 1820. he was a member of the senate from Adams County. The House amused itself by impeaching two mdges on the ground of deciding an election contest contrary to the evidence, but the senate unamimously acquitted them. The senate spent a great deal of time in discussing the Missouri Compromise and the question of slavery.

At the nineteenth legislative session, December 4, 1820, to February 23, 1 82 1, William Russell again represented Adams County in the senate. The question of a canal system occupied much attention; also that of attacking branches of the United vStates Bank. This legislature placed the United States Bank without Ohio's laws and forbade the officers of the courts to recognize it in any way. Justices and judges were forbidden to entertain any case for it ; sheriflFs to arrest any one at its instance, or notaries to protest notes for it, or take any acknowledgment for it. Justices and judges were to be fined $500 if they entertained a suit for it. and sheriffs $200 for putting any one in jail at its instance. From this time, 1821 to 1829, William Russell was out of public employment. In the fall of 1826. he was elected to congress as a Democrat, and re-elected for two succeeding terms. During all of this time he was a resident of Adams County and a merchant at West Union. After his third term in congress expired, March 4, 1833 he removed to near Rushtown, Ohio, in vScioto County and engaged in forging bar iron. In this enterprise, he was unsuccessful and is said to have lost $30,000. He was elected to the twenty-seventh congress in 1841 as a Whig and served one term. At the end of his first term, March 4, 1843, he returned to his farm on Scioto Brush Creek, w^here he continued to reside until his death, September 28, 1845, at the age of 63. When at Portsmouth in 1803, he was a Presbyterian but returning to West Union, he became a Methodist. In 1809 to 1820, he was one of the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in West Union, Ohio, and aided in the erection of the first church there, and all his life after, he was a faithful, devoted and devout Methodist. He was a student and selfeducated. He was a fluent and pleasant speaker and had extensive conversational powers. He was liked and respected by all who knew him. He had a remarkable popularity, largely owing to his even temper. As a merchant, he was strict and honorable in all his dealings, and maintained the highest credit. His public career began at the age of twentyone, when elected to the first legislature of Ohio. He was legislator, clerk of court, state senator and congressman and filled each and every office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. In private life, he was a successful merchant, an honored member of the Methodist Church and an upright citizen. In this case, the office sought the man. How many men have crowded into the space of forty years so many activities? Comparing him with the men of his time, we find he held office in two counties, and all he lacked was that he was not niade a militia general. Every legislator of prominence, under the constitution of 1802, was either made an associate judge or a major general of militia. William Russell obtained the judgeship but

In 1808, he married Nancy Wood and had seven children, six sons and a daughter. One of the sons lived near Rushtown during his life. Another, William B., married Rebecca Lucas and became the father of six chidren, three sons and three daughters. A grandson, James Russell, resides near Lucasville, Ohio, and another, George Russell, in Portsmouth, Ohio.

The worship of ancestors may be laughed down, or cried down, yet it exists. Hero worship is decried too, but all the same it goes on. Thomas L. Hamer lived in this world forty-six years. He has been dead forty-eight years and yet no man in Brown County wields such an influence as he did at the time of his death and which has extended to the present time. If you visit Georgetown you will see his lawyer's sign in the lobby of the court house, a precious souvenir. His picture hangs over the judge's seat in the court room.

In the village cemetery, his tomb is reverently pointed out, and in the village itself, his old home is shown, just as he had left it in the spring of 1846 to go into the Mexican War. The day when hjs sacred lemains, brought all the way from Mexico, were laid to their everlasting rest was the greatest day ever known in the history of Brown County. No such funeral honors were ever given any man in Ohio, and none will ever again be given. It seemed as though the whole population of Brown County had turned out to honor the great man. The particulars are graven on the memory of every man present at that funeral in characters never to be obliterated. Thomas L. Hamer was a man of middle height, of slender physique, ^yith a head covered with a shock of bushy red hair, always neat and cleanly dressed, and with smoothly shaven face, and with a personal magnetism which could be felt but not described. No man could inspire greater personal devotion to himself, and no man of his time ever did. He was everybody's friend, and his friendship was not seeming but real. He was a most entertaining conversationalist - brilliant, engagmg, interesting - a delightful companion, and as a public speaker, he carried his audience the way he wanted it to go. Time and again he had cavassed his own county and district and all the |)eople knew him. They seemed to know him, all at once, on first acquaintance, and they could not forget him. He moved to Georgetown, Ohio, in August, 1821, just after the town had been laid out, and while it was yet in the virgin forest. His manners were pleasing, his conversation charmed the hearer, and he won the respect and esteem of every one. The law business was in its infancy then, and he accepted the office of justice of the peace of Pleasant Township, and also edited a newspaper in Georgetown. His written articles were as happy as his speeches. His oratory was artless and natural. He carried his hearers with him and had great success with juries. In 1825, he was elected to the legislature. In 1828, he was an elector on the Jackson ticket, and was re-elected to the legislature in 1829. In December, 1829, he was elected speaker ol the house in the legislatore. Mr. Hamer, as a speaker, appointed a majority of his political opponents on seven committees out of eight. In the election of judges by the legislature, when the Democrats held a caucus in 1830, Mr. Hamer opposed the moticm to be bound by this caucus and in the subsequent election he voted against two of the nominees of the Democratic caucus on the ground that the selection of the judiciary should have no connection with politics. Mr. Hamer, in defending his votes against two of his own party, cm this occasion, made a noble speech, which anticipated all the doctrines of the civil service reformers, and should go down to the ages. He defined his oath as representative to vote according to the dictates of his judgment, and that if his judgment told him that a candidate was not quaUfied, and he voted for the man notwithstanding, because of his political affiliations, that was not honest; it was not a faithful discharge of the duties he owed to his constituents, and was a violation of his oath. He said, "I think so, and if any other man thinks otherwise, let him act accordingly. I never have and never will obey the dictates of party principles, or party caucuses, when by so doing, I must violate my oath as representative, betray my constituents or injure my country." If nothing made Hamer great, his sentiments before expressed, and his acting up to them were sufficient. It seems that Mr. Hamer's independence of action did not hurt him with his party, for, in 1S32 he was elected to congress from his district, and, moreover, he was elected as an indej)endent candidate against Thomas Morris, the regular Democratic candidate, Owen T. Fishback, the Whig candidate, and William Russell the anti-Jackson Democratic candidate. The vote was, Hamer, 2,069; Morris, 2,028, and Russell, 403. In Clermont County, where Morris and Fishback lived, Hamer had only 209 votes and Russell 19, while Morris had 1,319 and Fishback 1,186. Hamer swept Adams and Brown counties, simply by his eloquence. Thomas Morris had been Hamer's preceptor in the study of law. Two months after this Thomas Morris was elected United States senator from Ohio, and the two took their seats at the same time, and each served six years. Both were Democats, but differed widely as to their views on slavery. General Hamer was re-elected to congress from his district in 1834 and 1836. In the house Thomas Corwin and William Allen were among his colleagues. In the house he voted that petitions for the abolition of slavery should be laid on the table, and no further action taken on them. He declined a re-election to congress in 1838, but did not drop out of politics. His red hair and Corwin's swarthy complexion were common objects of remark in political circles of that time. There was a magic about Hamer which could be felt, but which could not be described. Every man who came within the sound of Hamer's voice could feel the spell of it, and ever afterward remember it, but could not describe the phenomenon of it. When Hamer spoke every one listened, and they gave him their exclusive and undivided attention, no matter how long he spoke. Old and young alike listened to every word, entranced bv his voice and manner.

Not only was he a speaker, but he was a writer as well, furnishing many articles for the press of his party, and at the same time he carried on an extensive correspondence with the most distinguished men of the nation. He remained out of public life until March 4, 1839, simply because he chose to, and not because it was the wish of his constituents and party friends. On October 3, 1845, President Polk tendered him the office of commissioner of Indian affairs, but he declined it. In the summer of 1846 he was renominated to congress by the district composed of Clermont, Brown, and Highland counties. When the president called for 50,000 volunteers for the Mexican army, Hamer rode over his district, addressed meetings, and, by his wonderful eloquence, aroused the war spirit. He himself volunteered as a private soldier in the company of his son-in-law, Captain Johnson. When the first Ohio regiment was organized at Camp Washington, he was elected major. On June 29, 1846, President Polk appointed him a brigadier general of volunteers, principally at the instigation of Congressman J. T. McDowell, whom Hamer succeeded. The appointment did not reach General Hamer until June 24, 1846, and his commission did not reach him until August i, 1846, at Camp Belknap, Texas. Gen. Taylor, in preparing for the attack on Monterey, arranged to allow none but southern volunteers and regular troops to participate. In a council of war, when this was proposed. Gen. Hamer protested and insisted that his brigade should have a part in the storming of Monterey, where, it is said, it performed prodigies of valor and won immortal renown. On the second Tuesday of October, 1846, Gen. Hamer was reelected to congress in his district without opposition. After Monterey, he commanded a division; but there was one thing that he could not endure. His constitution could not stand the trying climate of Mexico. Every northern soldier had to go through the process of acclimatization and have a spell of fever. Gen. Hamer was unwell from the time he landed in Mexico, but he was only dangerously ill a week previous to his death. He died on the night of December 21, 1846, near Monterey. He was interred with all the honors of war in a cemetery near the place of his death. At that time the Ohio Legislature met in December, and on December 31, 1846, Andrew Ellison, a lawyer of Georgetown, and a member of the house from Brown County, introduced resolutions as to the death of Gen. Hamer. This was on Wednesday. The resolutions provided that the speakers of the houses should procure a suitable person to pronounce a eulogy on the life, character, and pubHc services of the deceased before the legislature ; that tlie body of Gen. Hamer should be brought back and interred in Ohio soil at the expense of the state, and both houses agreed to the resolutions and adjourned to the next Saturday out of respect to the memory of the deceased. On January 6, 1847, the house resolved that Gen. John J. Higgfins, of Brown (a brother-in-law of Gen. Hamer), James H. Thompson, of Highland, and James C. Kennedy, of Clermont, be appointed commissioners to carry the house resolutions into effect, and they were to draw on the treasury for their expenses. The senate concurred in the resolution at once. When Hamer's body reached Georgetown, he was accorded the grandest funeral ever given to any citizen, except our martyred president. Hon. David T. Disney pronounced the oration at the funeral. Hon. James H. Thompson, of Hillsboro, Ohio, one of the commissioners, was present at the funeral. He has been asked to describe it, but does not think he has the eloquence or the pathos to do the subject justice. With the weight of his years, he cannot command the inspiration he thinks the subject demands. In several visits to Georgetown, I sought to obtain the original documents, books and writings, which would have shed a wonderful light on Hamer's career and life, but every avenue seemed closed to me, and reluctant as I am to give up the subject, I am compelled to let oblivion claim and hold many facts which it would have been well for posterity to have preserved.

There is a parallel between the lives of General Hamer and Gen. Franklin Pierce, president of the United States, that is more than remarkable. Hamer was bom in 1800, Pierce in 1804. Hamer was a farmer's son and so was Pierce. The latter, however, secured a good college education, which the former lacked. At the time, Hamer had been two years in the Ohio legislature, Pierce was admitted to the bar. In 1829, Pierce entered the legislature of New Hampshire as a Jackson Democrat, and he served in the legislature four years, two of which he was speaker of the house. In 1825. 1828, and 1829. Hamer was in the Ohio legislature, the last two years of which he was speaker. Hamer was in the lower house of congress from 1833 to 1839. Pierce entered the lower house in 1833 ^"^ served four years. He spoke and voted against receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and so did Hamer. In 1833, Pierce entered the United States senate from his state and retired from that in 1842. At this point, there is contrast, and not comparison between the two. In the National Legislature, the two stood alike on the slavery question. When the Mexican war broke out in 1846, the same military spirit was shown by Pierce as by Hamer. Pierce enlisted as a private, so did Hamer, and, like the latter, went about everywhere making war speeches. Pierce, like Hamer, was soon after elected to office, being appointed colonel of the Ninth Regiment of Infantry of his state. Like Hamer, Pierce was made a brigadier general, dated March 3, 1847. He did not reach Mexico until June 28, 1847, ^"^ i" the war displayed the same personal bravery, the same spirit of self-sacrifice and the same devotion to the men of his command as did General Hamer. Both Hamer and Pierce were men of pleasant appearance, of excellent address ; both were fond of neat and elegant apparel ; both had a charm in social intercourse, and both were eloquent advocates. Each had a clear, musical voice, graceful and impressive gesticulation, and each could kindle the blood of his hearers, or melt them to tears by pathos. Each had a natural oratory that had an inimitable charm of its own, and each had a wonderful natural kindness of heart. Pierce's oratory had more of the polish of education while Hamer's had the fire of nature. Each had an intuitive knowledge of human nature, but Hamer was a diligent student, while Pierce was not. Each had a wonderful and remarkable popularity in his own district and state. Each could attract, hold, move and sway audiences by the power of oratory. Hamer's power of oratory had to be felt to be appreciated. It could not be described in words, and the same was true of Pierce, though tiierc was more of nature and less of art in Hamer's oratory. Had Hamer lived and continued the promise of his life, as no doubt he would, in 1852, he would have been the nominee of his party for president, instead of General Pierce. Every one who knew Hamer has expressed that thought, and what every one felt would no doubt have been carried oat. In 1852, the conditions were such that the Democrats were bound to nominate a northern man and one of a military reputation. General Pierce barely filled the military requirements, but had Hamer lived, he would before then have been governor of the state or United States senator and would have filled the requirements of his party better than General Pierce, and would have been the nominee of his party for president.

Thus death robbed Brown County, Ohio, of the opportunity of furnishing a president, but by a singular coincidence, General Grant, whom Hamer had appointed from Brown County, Ohio, as a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1838, became president of the United States in 1869. Thus, while Hamer did not live to become president of the United States, as surely he would have been, yet he shaped the career of a boy of his own village, so that this boy afterward became the president of the United States. Even in the appointment of the boy Grant, as a cadet, Hamer showed himself cf noble mind.

Jesse R. Grant, young Grant's father, was not friendly to Hamer, so much so that he could not and would not ask Hamer to make the appointment, but got Gen. James Loudon, father of Col. D. W. C. Loudon, of Georgetown, to obtain the appointment for him, which General Loudon did. Hamer did not know young Grant's real name but took it to be Ulysses Simpson, and sent it in that way, when really it w^as Hiram Ulysses. When Grant found that he was appointed as Ulysses Simpson Grant, he adopted that name and used it ever after.

was born in Maine. He received a public school education. He removed to Ohio and filled several local offices. He was elected to the twenty-sixth Congress as a Democrat, and re-elected to the twenty-seventh Congress. He served from December 2, 1839, ^o March 3, 1843. ^^ represented the sixth district, composed of Highland, Brown, Clermont and Adams counties. He was a resident of Clermont County, and a physician.

was born in Burke County, North Carolina, November 13, 1800. He removed to Ohio in 1824 and located on a farm about seven miles north of Hillsboro. In 1829, he located in Hillsboro, and engaged in the mercantile business until 1835, when he was admitted to the bar by a special act of the legislature, and began the practice of his profession. In 1836, he formed a partnership with Col. William O. Collins, and followed the profession until 1843.

He was a member of the thirty-first general assembly from Highland County. In the thirty-second general assembly, December 2. 1833, to March 3, 1834, he was a member of the state senate representing Highland and Fayette counties. He represented the same constituency in the thirty-third general assembly in the senate from December i, 1834, to March 9, 1835. He represented the seventh district of Ohio in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth congresses. This district was composed of Adams, Brown, Clermont and Highland counties. He resumed his law practice after his return from congess, and also engaged in farming. He died January 17, 1877.

He was an earnest and eloquent man, true to his instincts, faithful in the discharge of duty, and was honored and rejected by the community as a Christian gentleman, and died in the faith of which he was in later life a defender.

began the practice of law in Clermont County, Ohio, in 1828. In 1 83 1, he was appointed clerk of the courts, which position he held un- 1846, and in 1847 ^^ was elected to congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of General Thomas L. Hamer, and was re-elected in 1849.

He was a faithful, conscientious and popular official and for a quarter of a century exerted a controlling influence in his county's history, being a leader of political opinion and a man in whom the public reposed great confidence.

was born near Newmarket, Highland County, Ohio, April i, 1808. and was the seventh of twelve children. His father was George W. Barrere, a very prominent citizen of Highland County. He was a deputy surveyor, justice of the peace, member of the Ohio senate nine years, and an associate judge of Highland County for fourteen years. He was in the Indian War, 1791-1795. Was in St. Clair's defeat and Wayne's victory. He was also in the War of 1812 at Hull's surrender, and was in every public enterprise in Highland County until his death in 1839. His son, Nelson, lived on the farm until eighteen years of age and attended school in the winters. He spent a year in the Hillsboro High School and in 1827 entered the freshman class at Augusta College. He graduated from there in 1830, finishing a four years' course in three and a half years.

In 1 83 1, he began the study of law in Hillsboro with Judge John W. Price and was admitted to the bar on December 23, 1833. ^^ opened an office in Hillsboro and remained there nine months. He located in West Union in 1834, forming a partnership with Samuel Brush. This partnership continued for a year. He remained in West Union eleven years altogether and had a large and lucrative practice. He had the confidence of the people. He represented Adams County in the lower house of the legislature at the thirty-sixth legislative session from December 4, 1837, to March 4, 1838. In 1846, he removed his residence to Highland County and continued there until his death. In the thirty-seventh congress, he represented the sixth district, composed of Adams, Clermont, Brown and Highland counties from March 4, 1851, to March 4, 1853. I" 1853, he was the Whig candidate for governor, but was defeated, receiving 85,847 votes, while his competitor, William Medill, received 147,663. When the Whig party dissolved, he went over to the Democratic party, in which he remained during the remainder of his life, but during the Civil War, he supported the Republican administration. In 1870, he was a candidate for congress cm the Democratic ticket, but was defeated. He was the Democratic candidate from Highland County for member of the constitutional convention in 1875 and was defeated by one vote. He never married. He continued in the active practice of the law until his death, which occurred August 20, 1883.

In Adams County, during his residence there, he was very popular. He was always conspicuous for his public spirit. As a lawyer he was energetic and industrious. He was a safe and reliable counsellor and an eloquent and successful advocate. He was always agreeable and courteous in his manners. In West Union, he formed many warm friendships, and he, Joseph Allen Wilson, Davis Darlinton and others had a club at Darlinton's store, to which they resorted of evenings and spent many pleasant hours. Joseph West Lafferty and John Fisher, of Cedar Mills, were two of his most particular friends in Adams County.

was bom in Loudon County, Virginia, January 2, 1818. His father's name was Daniel Cockerill, of whom there is a separate sketch in this book, and his mother was Esther Craven. His father's family emigrated to Adams County, Ohio, in 1837, and located near Youngsville, in Scott Township. After coming to Ohio, he taught school for a while and afterwards in 1840. was elected county surveyor. In the same year he was married to Ruth Eylar, daughter of Judge Joseph Eylar, of Winchester, Ohio.

From 1840 to 1846, he was a school teacher and surveyor. In 1846, when Gen. Joseph Darlinton's term expired as clerk of the court of common pleas, Joseph R. Cockerill was appointed his successor, and as such served until the new constitution was adopted. He was elected to the fiftieth general assembly of Ohio, the first held under the new constitution. In this legislature, he was chairman of the committee on corporations, and as such drew that part of our revised statutes on corporations, which remains on the statute books today, substantially as he drew it, a monument to his knowledge as a lawyer.

On returning from the legislature, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1856, he was elected a member of the thirty-fifth congress from the sixth district of Ohio, composed of Adams, Highland, Brown and Clermont.

The writer remembers him as a lawyer prior to the Civil W^ar. As a boy, for the first time, he went into the court house to listen to a trial. There was a party on trial for stealing watches. David Thomas was prosecuting and Cockerill defending. After hearing Thomas' opening argument, the writer concluded the defendant was guilty. Then after hearing Cockerill's argument, he was fully convinced that the defendant was innocent and ought to be acquitted.

In i860, Mr. Cockerill was elected a delegate to the Charleston convention and attended. E. P. Evans offered to pay his expenses if he would take several copies of the New York Tribune and let it he known he was carrying them, but the offer was not entertained. In t>je split which ensued, Mr. Cockerill adhered to the Douglas wing of the party. When the war came on, Mr. Cockerill was fired with

On October 2, 1861, he was commissioned by Gov. Todd to organize the 70th Ohio Infantry Regiment, as its colonel. The camp of rendezvous was fixed at West Union, Ohio, and was called Camp Hamer. The regiment was raised in the counties of Adams and Brown. While it was organizing at West Union, Reuben Smith, from Oliver Township, came to West Union, got enthused and expressed treasonable sentiments. Col. Cockerill at once had him arrested and sent under a guard of the soldiers to the probate court where he was compelled to take the oath of allegiance. Once during the war, probably in 1862, Col. Cockerill was at home for a few days. During the time, there was a Democratic countv convention in the court house and the war policy of the government was under discussion. Squire Jacob Rose, of Green Township, was speaking. He favored peace, and in his remarks, held out his right hand and said, "We must approach our southern brethren with the olive branch in the right hand." Then he extended his left hand and said, "We must also approach them with the olive branch in the left hand." Col. Cockerill was sitting in the audience in his full colonel's uniform and when Squire Rose extended his left hand, the colonel sprang to his feet and extended both his arms, shook his fists at Rose, and said in most emphatic tones, "No, we must approach them with a sword in each hand." Col. Cockerill displayed great bravery in the battle of Shiloh, and was a model officer. Most of the time he commanded a brigade. His merits as officer entitled him to have been made a brigadier general. Gen. Sherman said of him at Shiloh that "he behaved with great gallantry and kept his men better together than any colonel in my division and was with me from first to last." His promotion was several times recommended by Generals Grant and Sherman. They were prompted to do this from observation of his conduct on the field of battle, but for some reasons not now known to us, but not creditable to the authorities at Washington, his promotion was not made, though so richW deserved. Congress however, afterwards, gave him the brevet of brigadier general in recognition of the merit which should have given him the office.

When Col. Cockerill saw that justice would not be done him, he resigned and came home. He was always popular with his own soldiers and with all soldiers who knew him and had the admiration and respect of all his fellow officers. He never broke his political ties with the Democratic party and in 1864, after returning home, continued to act with that party, though he was never at any time a Peace Democrat. He had many Republican friends who were of opinion that when the war broke out, he should have gone over to the Republican party. Had he done so, no doubt he would have been speedily promoted and might have had any office in the gift of the Republican party of his state. His Republican friends believed he would have been governor of the state had he joined that party in 1862 or earlier. His own party sent him to the legislature from 1868 to 1872, and he had a most excellent record as a busy, useful and working member.

He was a man of independent, broad and liberal views. In public affairs, he was always actuated by the principles of right and justice, looking to the general welfare and not to any local advantage. Charity, benevolence, and liberality were prominent traits in his character. He was public spirited in all things.

His public and private life were each without reproach. As a social companion, he was always agreeable and entertaining. He knew every one in his county, knew all their faults and foibles and all their good qualities. He had a fund of entertaining anecdotes which was inexhaustible. As a conversationalist, he had no superior. A fact once acquired by him was always ready for use and he knew more of the history of Adams County than any man of his time. He should have written the history and it is unfortunate for the county he did not. Bv his death much valuable information about citizens and events in the county has been lost. He was a born soldier. As a courtier and diplomat, he would have been successful. As soldier, lawyer, statesman, citizen, he was successful and merited the approbation of his cotemporaries and will merit that of posterity. His family consisted of three sons and two daughters. His eldest son was an officer in the 24th O. V. I. and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He died at the early age of twenty-eight, after the close of the war. His second son, John, was also a soldier of the Civil War and became a journalist of world wide fame. His second daughter, Sallie, married Lieut. W. R. Stewart of the 70th O. V. I., and both she and her husband are dead. Their only son, a young man, was lost at sea, washed overboard off Cape Horn. The eldest daughter, Esther, married John Campbell, M. D.. who was a captain in the 70th O. V. I. and is now in the employment of the Equitable Insurance Company at No. 328 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She too, has drank the cup of sorrow, in the loss of her only son, Joseph Randolph, an ensign in the navy, who died in the service of his country, during the Spanish War, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere. Surely the family of Joseph R. Cockerill haye shown their love of country.

was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, December 31, 1817. His father removed to Wheeling, West Virginia. He lived on a farm until the age of fifteen. He learned the saddlery trade in West Virginia. In 1835, he removed to Augusta. Kentucky, where he entered Augusta College, and graduated in 1839. He was very proficient in mathematics and studied surveying. He supported himself while in Augusta College by working five hours each day at his trade. He studied law under Hon. Martin Marshall, and was admitted in 1840, and located at Batavia. He was prosecuting attorney of Clermont County from 1845 to 1849. ^^ 1849 ^^ w^s state senator from Brown and Clermont counties. In 1 858 he was elected to congress for the district for Adams. Brown Clermont and Highland counties. He took strong grounds for the preservation of the Union while in congress. He was elected as a Democrat. He served asaheutenantin the Mexican War, Co. C, 2d Ohio Regiment.

He went into the War of 1861 as major of the 59th O. V. I., and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1863 owing to ill health. He was a zealous Methodist. He was married January 29, 1852, to Amaratha C. Botsford. He had a son, William Howard, who died in his twenty-third year, and a son, John Joliffe Howard. His wife died July 13, 1875, and he married November 27, 1877, Mrs. Harriet A. Broadwell. He died Sunday, June i, 1890.

represented Adams County as a part of the eleventh congressional district in congress from March 4, 1863, until March 4, 1865. He was born October 7, 181 8, in Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio. His father Asa Hutchins, and his mother, Hannah Bushnell, were from Hartford, Connecticut, so that Mr. Hutchins was a true blue Connecticut Western Reserve Yankee. His father was colonel in the War of 181 2, but he died at the early age of forty-five, leaving his widow with eight children, of whom our subject was one, at the age of twelve years. The year following his father's death, he worked on a farm for $25 for his entire services for a year, and from that time on, was dependent upon himself for a livelihood. He had a quick, active mind and made the best use of the opportunities of education about him. At the age of eighteen he had qualified himself for a school teacher, and at that tirre went to Corydon, Indiana, where he taught a select school for eighteen months. During this period he saved from his salary $900. took it home, and with that he began the study of law. He read law with the Honorables John Hutchins and John Crowell at Warren and was admitted in 1 841. He immediately went to Portsmouth, where he was an entire stranger, and set himself up to practice law. He was instinctively a lawyer. He loved the profession and naturally succeeded in it. For a while after he came to Portsmouth, he edited a newspaper, or spent part of his time at that.

On February 23, 1843, ^^ married Cornelia Robinson, daughter of Joshua Robinson, then and for many years afterward one of the foremost citizens of Portsmouth. During the time of Mr. Robinson's activities in business in Portsmouth, nothing in the way of public enterprise went on unless he was engaged in it. Naturally, such a fatherin-law was a great aid to a young lawyer, but Mr. Hutchins would have succeeded without such aid. In his political views, at the time he located in Portsmouth, he was a Whig. He became a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1852 and 1853 ^^ such. When the Whig party dissolved, he became a Democrat, which he remained during his life. In 1862, he was a candidate for congress on the platform, ''a more vigorous prosecution of the war," being endorsed by the Democratic party. He was elected on his platform, defeating Hon. H. S. Bundy, but again in 1864, he and Bundy made the race, and the latter was victorious. While Mr. Hutchins was a great success as a lawyer he was not a success as a politician, and his party was very much worried at its failure to make him over into one. He could never make up his mind that he must be bound by a party caucus. He had the oldfashioned idea that he must use his own judgment, and be controlled by his own conclusions of right and wrong, and he was so constituted that he could not do othen\'ise. In congress, he voted for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and he alone of his own party voted for the thirteenth amendment to the federal constitution. Whenever an opporunity offered, his old-fashioned anti-slavery abolitionist ideas would come to the front. In 1867, he and one other of his party were the only ones in Scioto County who voted in favor of the amendment to the state constitution granting negro suffrage. But Mr. Hutchins was old-fashioned in many things. Under the old constitution, he traveled over the circuit and practiced law, and he kept up the custom under the new constitution. He believed that there was such a thing as justice and that it was administered in the courts. He believed that a judge should not be approached about a matter in his court unless he was on the bench and in the presence of opposing counsel. There is no word in the English language, outside of slang, which will express the qualities he displayed in the trial of a case. The sporting man would have said he was the **gamest" man he had ever seen. Whatever may have been his inward feelings while engaged in a trial, he never expressed or betrayed the slightest surprise in its conduct, no matter what occurred. If his client broke down, if a witness disappointed him, if the court ruled against him, or a jury verdict was unexpected, he never gave a sign of emotion or disappointment any more than an Indian would. If he had a case he expected to win, but lost it. to the public, he accepted the result as expected. He was calm and collected under all circumtances, and never lost his equipoise. If Gabriel had blown his trumpet at any time, no matter when, Mr. Hutchins would have lined up and said he was ready and he would have been ready. His reputation as a lawyer was coextensive with the state, and he was employed in many important cases. His cases for the Furnaces against the old Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad were carried on for twenty-one years and resulted in a victory for his clients. It is said the fees in this case were $65,000, but the amounts involved were large and covered freight overcharges for many years. No one thought he would ultimately be successful, but he. believed in the causes and succeeded. In the Scioto Valley Railroad case, he took the claim of C. P. Huntingdon for $750,000, when it was worthless, and he maintained a contest on it until it was paid in full with interest, dollar for dollar. For thirty years prior to his death, he was considered one of the ablest lawyers in Ohio, and his assistance was sought in weighty and great causes.

In his arguments to the court, he always spoke clearly and with great deliberation. In no part of the conduct of a case was he ever in a hurry or ever perturbed. If he believed in his case, he usually carried the court or jury with him from the outset. If he did not believe in his case, he aimed to take up and impress on the court or jury, the one or two controlling principles, and let the others go. In this, he was very successful. His arguments were all well arranged, logical, forceful, clear, to the chief points, and brief.

In the case of Oliver Applegate v. W. Kinney & Co., involving some $200,000, and where it was sought to hold the defendants as quasi partners, he represented, with numerous counsel, the plaintiff, and Col. O. F. Moore, with numerous counsel, rerpesented the de- fendants. Col. Moore spoke three days. Mr. Hutchins closed for the plaintiff in one hour and carried the jury with him from the opening of the speech. While other lawyers had to work out by hard study the principles governing a case, they came to Mr. Hutchins by instinct. He could look into a case and almost immediately say what principles would determine it.

Mr. Hutchins was a high-toned old-fashioned gentleman. He was always tastefully and neatly dressed. He always paid the highest price for his clothing and had the best. He always preferred walking to riding in a carriage, and when past seventy, he walked with the springing step of a young man. Though he aged in years, he did not in appearance, or in manners. He always laughed at the idea of being called old.

Mr. Hutchins' motto must have been nil desperandum for he was always cheerful, always hopeful and always encouraging those about him. For the last thirty years of his life, he traveled much of the time. He always paid for the best accommodations on the train, always stopped at the highest priced hotels, and always took the best rooms. Whenever he was likely to arrive home late at night,he would wire the fact and have a full meal ready for him on arrival. He uniformly preferred to sleep on a full stomach, and said that was the way animals do and thought that was best for mankind. A number of times in his history, he was very sick and his life despaired of, but he never despaired, and surprised his friends and physicians by recovering. He may be said to have died in harness. While in the latter years of his life, he only took employment in important cases, he worked hard until stricken with his last sickness. In the earlier part of that, before the disease assumed a fatal turn, he was anxious to get out and go to work in the preparation of arguments for the Supreme Court, but when his disease look a fatal turn, and the fact was announced to him, he was not taken by surprise. He did not repine and grieve, and made no attempt to transact or close any business, but met the inevitable with the utmost calmness and composure. He died on the twenty-second of January, 1895, with a disease of the kidneys. He was the best illustration of a self-contained, self-composed man ever known to the writer He passed away in perfect peace, just as though he had been ready for the event all his life. To those who knew him, he was the most perfect type of the true philosopher of modern times. He did not concern hiiusclf why he came into the world or about his going out. He did not concern himself what happened to him, good or bad, but simply imdertook to make the best of every situation when it presented itself and as it presented itself.

was born August 15, 1817, in Marietta, Ohio. His father was Nathan Bundy, a native of Hartford, Conn. His mother was Ada M. Nicholson, of Dutchess County, New York, where they were married. In 1816 they removed to Marietta, Ohio. Two years later, Mr. Bundy's father settled near Athens where he leased college land and cleared and improved it. His title, however, proved invalid. He was killed in 1832 by the falling of a tr^e. In 1880, his wife died at the age of eighty-one years. Of their three children, our subject is the only one who reached maturity. In 1834 he located in McArthur and in 1837 went to Wilkesville, where he married Lucinda, daughter of Zimri Wells. In 1839, he moved back to McArthur, where his wife died in December, 1842, leaving three children, William Sanford, Sarah A., wife of Major B. F. Stearns, of Washington, D. C, and Lucy, now Mrs. J. C. H. Cobb, of Jackson County.

From 1839 to 1846, Mr. Bundy was engaged in merchandising in McArthur, Ohio. In 1844, he married Caroline, daughter of Judge Paine, of Jackson County, and in 1846, moved to the old home of his fatherin-law, which he afterward purchased and where he continued to reside until his death. His second wife. died in 1868, leaving two daughters, Julia P., now the wife of U. S. Senator Joseph B. Foraker, of Ohio, and Eliza M., wife of Harvey Wells, the founder of Wellston. Mr. Bundy was again married in 1876 to Mary M. Miller, who survives and still occupies the old home.

In his early life, he attended for a short time a private school under the charge of David Pratt, of Athens, but his schooling ceased when he was fourteen years of age. In 1846, he commenced the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1850. In the fall of 1848, he was elected to the legislature from Jackson and Gallia counties and voted to repeal the black laws. In 1850, he was elected to represent Jackson, Athens, Gallia and Meigs counties in the house. In 1855, he was elected to the state senate to represent the present seventh senatorial district. In i860, he was a presidential elector from his congressional district and cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln. In 1862, he was the Republican candidate for congress from the eleventh district of Ohio, but was defeated by the Hon. Wells A. Hutchins by 1900 votes. Two years later, he was again a candidate against Mr. Hutchins and defeated him by 4,000 majority, and was elected to the thirty-ninth congress. In 1872, he was a candidate for the forty-third congress in the same district and defeated Samuel A. Nash by a large majority. In 1874, he was again a candidate, but was defeated by Hon. John L. V^ance, of Gallipolis. In 1893, he was a candidate for congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Gen. Wm. H. Enochs, and was elected. Upon Mr. Bundy 's retirement in March, T895, he was tendered a banquet and reception at Jackson, Ohio, which was attended by Gov. McKinley, and state officers. Senator Foraker, Ex-Governor Foster, General Keifer. General Grosvenor, and many others of National prominence; and to Mr. Bundy upon that occasion was given one of the grandest tributes ever witnessed in Ohio. He represented Adams County in the state senate and in his first and third terms in congress.

In 1843, he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was one of the two first lay delegates from Ohio to the General Conference. In 1848, he bought the farm where he died and since then was largely engaged in the iron and coal interests in Jackson County, Ohio, and owned Latrobe and Keystone Furnaces. He also at one time owned the Eliza Furnace.

His son, William S. Bundy, served in the i8th O. V. I. during the first three months of the Civil War. He then enlisted in Co. G. of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, September 20, 1862. He was severely wounded December 14, 1863, at Bean's Station in Tennessee. In January, 1864, he was sent home on account of his disability and on March 22, 1864, discharged for the same reason. After his return from the army he married Kate Thompson, and had one child, the present William E. Bundy, United States attorney for the southern district of Ohio. He died from the results of his wounds January 27, 1867, and his wife was killed in December, 1868, by being thrown from a horse.

Hezekiah S. Bundy was always remarkably popular among the furnace men of his own county. They were for Bundy for congress at any time and at all times. He was an excellent campaigner. While he was not trained and never sought to train himself in the arts of oratory, yet he was an entertaining and effective public speaker. The people came to hear him and were always pleased and instructed. Mr. Bundy was well informed in every detail of public affairs, and had a good memory. He had a most remarkable treasure of illustrative anecdotes from which he could draw at any time. His reminiscences were always delightful. He thoroughly understood human nature, and always kept in close touch with the common people. On the floor of the house, or in committee, he was familiar with the public business, and always performed his duties creditably to himself and acceptably to his constituents. On all public questions in congress while he was a member, he was usually in advance of the march of public sentiment, - especially was this true of reconstruction measures. As a business man, he did much to develop the iron and coal industries in the region where he lived. He enjoyed to a remarkable extent the confidence and esteem of all who knew him and was universally mourned when he died at his home in Wellston, Ohio, December 12,

The words of Miss Edna Dean Proctor's poem are ringing in my ears. She inquires if the heroes are all dead ; if they only lived in the times of Homer and if none of the race survive in these times ? The refrain of the poem is ; "Mother Earth, are the heroes dead?" And then she proceeds to answer it in her own way, and she answers it thus :

' ' Their armor rings on a fairer field Than the Greek and the Trojan fiercely trod : For freedom's sword is the blade they wield, And the light above is the smile of God. "

Hon. John T. Wilson Politics And Political Parties 319

We have heroes in these, our days, who will compare more than favorably with those of the Homeric, or any subsequent times ; but having known them as neighbors and friends, and having associated with them from day to day, we do not appreciate them till death has sealed their characters, and then as we study them it begins to dawn on us that they have done things to be canonized as heroes.

Till since his death, we believe the public has not fully appreciated the character of the Hon. John T. Wilson, a former congressman of the tenth (Ohio) district, though it is his record as a patriot, and not as a congressman, we propose especially to discuss.

He was a hero of native growth. He was born April i6, 1811, in Highland County, Ohio, and lived the most of his life and died within ten miles of his birthplace. His span of life extended until the sixth of October, 1891, eighty-five years, five months and twenty days, and in that time, his manner of life was known to his neighbors like an open book.

In that time, living as a country store keeper and a farmer, and resisting all temptation to be swallowed up in city life, if such temptation ever came to him, he accumulated a fortune of about half a million of dollars, which, before and at his death, was devoted principally to charitable uses.

To attempt to sum up his life in the fewest words, it consisted in trying to do the duty nearest him. He was never a resident of a city, except when attending to public official duties, and to expect a hero to come from the remote country region about Tranquility in Adams County, Ohio, was as preposterous as looking for a prophet from the region of Nazareth in the year one ; yet the unexpected happened in this instance.

Till the age of fifty, he had been a quiet unobtrusive citizen of his remote country home, seeking only to follow his vocation as a country merchant and to do his duty as a citizen ; but it was when the war broke out that the soul which was in him was disclosed to the world. He showed himself an ardent patriot. When government bonds were first offered, there were great doubts as to whether the war would be successful, and whether the government would ever pay them.

No doubt occurred to Mr. Wilson. He invested every dollar he had in them, and advised his neighbors to do the same. He' said if the country went down, his property would go with it, and he did not care to survive it; and if the war was successful, the bonds would be all right. As fast as he had any money to spare, he continued to invest it in government securities. In the summer of t86i, he heard that Capt. E. M. DeBruin, now of Hillsboro, Ohio, was organizing a company for the Thirty-third Ohio Infantry Regiment, and he went over to Winchester and arranged with the Rev. I. H. DeBruin, now of Hillsboro, Ohio, that his only son and child, Spencer H. Wilson, then nineteen years of age, should enlist in the company, which he did, and was made its first sergeant, and died in the service at Louisville, Ky., March 4, 1862.

In the summer of 1861, Mr. Wilson determined that Adams County should raise a regiment for the service. He did not want to undertake it himself, but he believed that Col. Cockerill, of West Union, Ohio, would lead the movement ; it could be done and he sent Dr. John Campbell, now of Delhi, Ohio, to secure the co-operation of Col. Cockerill.

That was not difficult to do, as Col. Cockerill felt about it as Mr. Wilson. It was determined to ask Brown County to co-operate, and Col. D. W. C. Loudon, of Brown, was taken into the plan, and the Seventieth Ohio Infantry was organized in the fall of 1861. Mr. Wilson undertook to raise a company for the regiment and did so, and it was mustered in as Company E.

The captain, the Hon. John T. Wilson, was then fifty years of age, and he had in the company three privates, each of the same age, and one of the age of fifty-five, so that the ages of five members erf that company aggregated 225 years. Hugh J. McSurely was the private who was past fifty-five years of age when he enlisted in Capt. Wilson's Company. He is the father of the Rev. Wm. J. McSurely, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hillsboro, Ohio, and has a separate sketch herein.

Capt. Wilson's company was much like Cromwell's troop of Ironsides. It was made up of staid old Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who went in from a sense of duty. Col. Loudon, of the Seventieth O. V. I. says that Capt. Wilson did more to raise and organize the Seventieth Ohio Infantry than anyone else. At the time he went into the service, he was physically unfit, and could not have passed medical examination as an enlisted man. He had an injury to his leg. from the kick of a horse years before, that greatly disabled him, but be wanted to go and felt he owed it to his friends and his country to go. He would not consider his own Dhvsical unfitness.

He led bis company into the sanguinary battle of Shiloh. His personal coolness and self-possession inspired his company, and he held it together during the entire two days' battle.

During the march to Corinth, after Shiloh. he was taken down with the fever, and by order of the surgeon was sent north. At Ripley, Ohio, he was taken much worse, and lay there for weeks, delirious and unconscious, hovering between life and death. Owing to the most careful nursing, he recovered. He was not able to rejoin his regiment until September, 1862. at Mertiphis, Tenn.

Col. Cockerill was then in command of the brigade, and made him brigade quartermaster, so he would not have to walk ; but it was apparent that he was unfit for service ; and was imperiling his life for naught. Col. Cockerill and Lieut. Col. Loudon both told him he could serve his country better at home than in the army, and insisted on his resigning and going home. He resigned November 27, 1862. Col. Loudon says his record was without a stain, and none were more loyal than he.

Capt. Wilson was married in 184T to Miss Hadassah G. Drysden. There was one son of this marriage, Spencer H. W^ilson, born September 13, T842, and whom he gave to his country, as before stated. Capt. Wilson's wife died March 23, 1849, ^"^ he never remarried.

Captain Wilson not only invested his fortune in the war securities and sent his only son and child to the war, but went himself, and served as long as he could. Could any one have done more?

In the summer of 1863, he w^as nominated by the Republicans of the seventh senatorial district of Ohio, to the state senate without being a candidate, and without his knowledge or consent he was elected. In 1865 he was renominated and re-elected to the same office, and served his constituency with great credit and satisfaction. In 1866, he was nominated by the Republicans of the Eleventh Ohio District for a member of congress, and was renominated and re-elected in 1868 and in 1870; though just before his congressional service, and just after it, the district was carried by the democracy.

When Mr. Wilson was first nominated for congress, it was not supposed that he was a speaker, or that he could canvass the district, but he made appointments for speaking all over the dictrict, and filled them to the satisfaction of everv one. He made a most effective speaker, and moreover, the farmers all over the district believed what he said, and were justified in doing it. He was never present at a convention which nominated or renominated him for office, and never in the slightest way solicited a nomination or renomination.

He was the most satisfactory congressman ever sent from his district. Every constituent who ever wrote him, got an answer in Mr. Wilson's own handwriting, which was as uniform and as plain as copperplate. The letter told the constituent just what he wanted to know, and was a model of ])erspicuity and brevity. Those letters are now precious relics to anyone who has one of them, and they are models of what letters should be.

If a constituent wrote for an office, he was sure to get an answer which would tell him whether he could get an office or not, and if Mr. Wilson told him he could get an office, and that he would assist him, he was sure of it. Mr. Wilson had the confidence of the President and of all the appointing officers, and if he asked for an office inside of the district, he usually obtained it, because he made it a rule never to ask for an office unless he thought he was entitled to it, and that it would be granted him.

Mr. Wilson retired from congress at the end of his third term with the good will of his entire district, and with the feeling that he had served to their entire satisfaction.

On March 6. 1882, he gave Adams County, Ohio, $46,667.03 towards the erection of a Children's Home. The gift was really $50,000, but was subject to certain reductions, which netted it at the sum first named. As the county built the Home, he issued his own checks in payment for it, until the entire gift was made. That Home is now one of the best and finest built institutions of the kind in this state. Bv his last will and testament, he gave to the Children's Home an endowment of $35,000 and $15,000 in farming lands. He also gave $5,000 towards the erection of a soldier's monument to the memory of the Adams County soldiers who had died or been killed during the Civil War. This momument has been erected in the grounds of the Wilson Children's Home, and occupies a site overlooking the surrounding country.

Mr. Wilson made many private bequests in his will, which it is not within the scope of this article to mention ; but to show his kindly disposition we mention that he gave $1,000 to a church in which he was reared and held his membership, and $1,000 to the church at Tranquility, where he resided. His housekeeper, a faithful woman, he made independent for life As a residuary bequest, he gave to the commissioners of Adams County, $150,000 to be expended in the support of the worthy poor.

It is to the interest of the state that every citizen should be law abiding; that he shall faithfully follow some occupation and support himself and those dependent upon him ; that he shall accumulate and hold property to guarantee his own independence and that of his family, and that he shall be able to contribute to the needs of the state.

It is also to the interest of the state that, in case of war, its citizens shall place th*e«r entire property and their personal services fully at its disposal. A citizen who performs all these obligations is said to be patriotic, and the virtues of patriotism are more admired than any other, because what is given in that direction is given for the common good of all the people of the country.

One may take the entire list of patriots, from Leonidas, the Spartan, down to Lincoln, the great war president, or in our country, from Gen. Warren down to the last man who fell at Appomattox, and none can be found who did more work for his own country than the Hon. John T. Wilson.

If each man does all he can, and offers or gives all he can, he is as great a patriot as any one can be. Measured by this standard, Capt. John. T. Wilson filled the full measure of patriotism.

When he came to the last of earth, he not only remembered those upon whom the law would have cast his estate, but he devoted the greater part of it to public benefactions and especially to the relief of the innocent unfortunates who were not responsible for their own misfortunes.

In his public duties as captain in the line, as brigade quartermaster, and as a representative in conpfress, he performed every duty apparent to him honestly and conscientiously, and in the very best manner in which it could be done. His entire life consisted in the performance of each and every duty as he saw it at the time. He never did anything for effect, or for show, or to be spoken of and praised by his fellow men.

In size, he was like Saul, head and shoulders above his fellows, over six feet high, but with a most kindly disposition. His features were attractive and commanding. He was willing to meet every man, to estimate him according to his manhood, and to bid him God-speed, if he deserved it.

He never tried to do anything great, but his punctuality to every duty before him, from day to day, made him known of all men. He simply tried to do right, and, this simple devotion to duty in war and peace, in public office and as a private citizen, cause his memory to be revered as a perfect patriot so long as his good deeds shall be remembered.

of Chillicothe, Ohio, was born at Parkersburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), September 24, 18.14 I ^^'^^^ educated at the Asbury Academy at that place; removed to Chillicothe in 1864; studied law there and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, in 1866; was solicitor of the city of Chillicothe from April, 1867, to April, 1868, and declined re-election; was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1867 and served two years and declined re-election ; was elected prosecuting attorney of Ross County in 1870 and held that office until October, 1872, when he resigned and was elected to the forty-third congress as a Democrat, receiving 13,379 votes against i2,io(5 for John T. Wilson, Republican. He was re-elected in 1874. He was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1893 and defeated by about 80,000 plurality.

Mr. Neal is noted for his devotion to his party. He is a lawyer of respectable attainments and is now residing at Columbus, Ohio. He was not engaged in the Civil War and is unmarried.

of Greenfield, Ohio, was horn in Ross County, Ohio, October 29, 1832 ; received an academic education ; studied civil engineering, and, subsequently, the law, and is a lawyer by profession; was a member of the Ohio house of representatives in 1861, and of the Ohio senate in 1867 and 1868; was elected to the forty-fifth congress in 1876 as a Democrat, receiving 14,859 votes against 13,518 votes for A. Brown. He was reelected to the forty-sixth congress in 1876, but in a different district. His father resided in Washington C. H., until our subject was fifteen vears of age, when he removed to Greenfield, Ohio, where Mr. Dickey has resided ever since. He was, as a youth, a civil engineer on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad during its construction. He resigned the position in 1855 and began the study of law with his father, who was a prominent lawyer and common pleas judge of ability. He was admitted to the bar in 1857. He afterward attended law school in Cincinnati and in 1859 he formed a partnership with Judge James H. Rothrock, afterward supreme judge of Iowa.

On January 2, t86t, he was married to Miss Mary L. Harper. He was defeated for a second term in the lower house in 1863. From 1870 to 1872, he was chief engineer of Highland County in the construction of its turnpikes.

was born in Adams County on December 20, 1847, ^"^ received a common school education. He i^raduated at the Smith Business College in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1863. He then taught in the public schools. He was elected clerk of the courts in Adams Co., in '74, and re-elected in ^jj. He was a member of the Democratic state committee in 1879 \ ^^ elected to the forty-seventh congress as a Democrat, receiving 17,375 votes to 15,663 votes for the Republican candidate. In this congress, he served on the committee on territories. He was a candidate for the forty-eighth congress, but was defeated by John W. McCormick, of Gallia County, by a vote of 15,288 to 13,037. He was elected sergeant-at-arms of the forty-eighth congress ; also of the forty-ninth and fiftieth congresses. The defalcation of a trusted subordinate broke him down financially, and in health and spirits. He left Washington in October, 1890. and was never well afterwards. He had suffered much before with acute attacks of kidney trouble, and he died at Toledo, Ohio, March 18, 1895, and is interred in the Odd Fellow's cemetery at Manchester. He was married in 1869 to Ruth Hopkins, of Adams County. His children are Mrs.

Eva Bundy, wife of Col. W. E. Bundy, of Cincinnati, United States attorney for the southern district of Ohio ; Mrs. Effie Dugati, widow of the late Jesse Dugan, and a son, Wilbur H. Leedom, now a law student at Manchester. Mr. Leedom was a man of fine appearance and pleasing address, and was popular as a public officer. He made a good impression wherever he went. Ill health and misfortune - ^the misfortune of trusting too much to others - cut short a most promising career.

of Gallipolis, represented in the forty-eighth congress, the district consisting of Adams, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Scioto and Vinton counties. He was born in Gallia County on December 20, 1831. He was brought up on a farm and educated at the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, and at the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio. 6n leaving school, he engaged in farming and was elected delegate to the Ohio constitutional convention in 187? and was elected to the forty-eighth congress as a Republican, receiving 15.288 votes against 13,037 votes for John P. Leedom, Democrat.

represented the forty-ninth congress for the eleventh district, composed of Adams, Brown, Highland and Ross counties. He was born at Newhope, Brown County, Ohio, December 18, 1833; received a good education in the public schools of his native county, finishing at a private academy in Clermont County. After having taught school for two years, he began the study of medicine with bis father. Dr. E. M. Ellsberry, a noted pliysician of his time. He attended medical lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, graduating there, and some years later he attended a full course at the Ohio Medical College, adding its diploma to the former. He continued in the successful practice of his profession until his election to Congress. He \vas appointed superintendent of the Central Insane Asylum, of Columbus, Ohio, in 1878, but declined to serve. He was three times chosen county auditor. At the outbreak of the war, he was one of the county military board. He was a member of various medical societies, including the American Medical Association. He was always a Democrat and was a delegate to the national convention, which nominated Hancock in 1880. and he was elected to the forty-ninth congress as a Democrat, receiving 15,251 votes against 14.841 votes for Hart. Republican.

On February 14, 1894, the legislature passed an act to apportion the state of Ohio into congressional districts, and amended the act of April 77, T882. Under this statute, Ross, Highland, Brown and Adams counties composed the eleventh district, and Vinton, Pike, Jackson, Lawrence and Scioto counties composed the twelfth district. Under this law, in the fall of 188-I, Albert C. Thompson was elected congressman for the twelfth district, and W. W. Ellsberry, of Brown, was ejected for the eleventh district. On May 18, 1886, by act of that date, congress was reapportioned into congressional districts, and the eleventh district was composed of Adams, Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia, Jackson and Vinton. In this district A. C. Thompson was elected to the fiftieth congress, and re-elected to the fifty-first congress, and represented Adams County as its Congressman.

Judge Thompson was born in Brookville, Jefferson County, state of Pennsylvania, January 23, 1842. He was two years at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, his course ending with the freshman year. He was a student at law when the Civil War broke out. On April 23, 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army, and served as second sero;eant of Company I of the Eighth Pennsylvania, three months troops. The regiment served in Maryland and Virginia under General Patterson. On the twenty-seventh of August, i86t, he enlisted for three years in Company B, 105th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was made orderly sergeant of the company, and in October, 1861, was promoted to second lieutenant and on the twenty-eighth of November, 1861, he was transferred to and promoted to the captaincy of Company K of that regiment. On the thirty-first of May, 1862, he was severely wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, and was again wounded on the twenty-ninth of August, 1861, at the second battle of Bull Run. The last wound was a serious one. A musket ball entered his right breast, fracturing his second and third ribs, and lodging in the lungs where it remained. He was confined to his bed by this wound for ten months. In June, 1863, he entered the invalid corps, but resigned in December, 1863, and resumed the study of law. He was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania on the thirteenth of December, 1864. In 1865 he removed to Portsmouth, Ohio. In 1869 he was elected probate judge of Scioto County and served from February 9, 1870, to February 9, 1873, and was not a candidate for reelection. In the fall of 1881 he was elected one of the common pleas judges of the second subdivision of the seventh judicial district of Ohio, and served until September, 1884, when he resigned to accept the nomination of his party as a candidate for congress to which he was elected and served as above stated. After he retired from congress he was appointed by Gov. McKinley, chairman of the Ohio Tax Commission which made its report in December, 1893. He was chosen a delegate to the Republican national convention at St. Louis in 1896. In January, 1897, he was appointed chairman of a commission created by congress to revise and codify the criminal and penal laws of the United States, and served as such until he was appointed by President McKinley, United States district judge for the southern district of Ohio. He entered upon the discharge of his duties as district judge on the twenty-second day of September, 1898. After his appointment as United Sates district judge he removed to Cincinnati, where he has resided since the first of November, 1898.