Adams County, Ohio - Chapter 18: Miscellaneous, 1900 (part 2 of 2)

"V^ell, I was just standing in the front door of my tavern in Piketon, looking out for Gen. Morgan, who was coming, as our scouts said, and I sees a man whooping and galloping down the street, and he never stop until he was on my pavement with his horse's head inside my front door, and then he hollow out: Surrender, you d - d old Hessian!' Says I, 'Who is you, Ned Hughes?* TU let you know I am Major Ned Hughes, chief aid of Gen. John Morgan, who has been installed Governor of Ohio, and is now crossing the Scioto River and commands to have your house prepared for his headquarters during his tarry in your village. So unlock your cellar, roll out your barrels of the best, get him a splendid dinner, open up your parlors, send after mint and ice, call all the servants and have julips ready for him and his staff, count out all your money on his table, and if you are lively, I will try to keep him from carrying you a prisoner of war into the Confederate States." Says I, 'Anything more?* and just as I said them words, here they come in a cloud of dust, and a tall, fine-looking fellow on a sorrel mare, and a little man on a bay, ride up to my house and light on my pavement ; and Ned Hughes ran up to them, catching me by the arm and dragging me along and say: 'Governor Morgan, this is Mr. Nessler, the landlord, who has his orders and will have all things ready.' He then turn me 'round and say : Mr. Nessler, this is Mr. Basil Duke, the immortal Captain of cavalry !' Say^y I, with a bow and a smile, and a big Jie on my lips, "Governor Morgan, you ^nd Captain Duke are heartily welcome to my house. I am honored by your call, and will serve your every order. Please walk into my parlor as your headquarters, and order.' 'As we walked in, the governor saiid he would take a little something, and having seated them, I hurried out and come back with ice and mint, and the best in the cellar, and say: 'Merry times to you gentlemen. Will you have your dinner in the judge's room, or in the public dining room?" And one of the aids say: 'Dinner for the governor and his staff in private, and let that Hughes shift with the boys.' And I tell you he was shifting like a lord in tapping my barrels and handing 'round the drinks to the boys. Call me here, call there, call me everywhere. I say to myself : 'Biggest court day I ever see ;' but I takes care that the f^^ovemor and his party are served the best beef, chicken and pie, and didn't care for anybody else, but the old wom.an say that she fed all that called, with Major Hughes at the head of the table. After dinner the governor say to me: 'Is this fellow Hughes to be trusted?* *Oh, yes/ say I, *he is on your side and one of your best friends. I tell you the truth/ *I believe you, old man/ says that little Basil Devil - you call Basil Duke - and he says: *You shall not be hurt, old man, and we will remember your tavern and call again when in these parts/ 'Thank you,' says I, 'and I hope next time to be better prepared/

"And with that I goes out into the back yard, and as I passed along one young fellow says to me : 'This chap talking to me wants to pull up all the old Dutchman's cabbage, and throw them around for fun ; but as all the wine, beer, and whiskey about the house is drunk up, I tell him if you will give us your private bottle he shall not do it/ Says I, 'Go around the chimney corner there, and I fetch him/ I run in the house and turn up the bed tick of the old woman's bed, draw out my quart bottle, and take it to the young chaps. They takes what they called a stirrup drink, makes me take a taste, then they jumps over the fence, mounts their horses, sounds the bugle, and I hear Major Hughes parading and hallooing up and down the streets, 'To arms, boys, to arms ! and now for Jackson Court House !' And away they all go over the hill, and them two young chaps with my bottle. But I fool 'em already. All my money was hid around under the cabbages in the patch, and I find him all right when they left, and hand the bags to the old woman, and this is all I know about Ned Hughes."

"No; not when he came, but he rode away with from a quart to a half gallon of my whiskey under his sword belt, with his sword in hand as big as a general, and you can judge."

After the continuance, Mr. Hughes, his bail, and other friends, with myself, boarded the train for Hillsboro, through which travel leads to Locust Grove, and on the way held a consultation and made out a list of our witnesses, and all ageed to be present again on the twentyseventh of August next ensuing, then and there to hear what further the government would prove, and to determine on our future policy.

That day afterwards came and went, but not the accused. He had taken his own defense, without my knowledge or consent, into his own hands, assisted by his feet, and having conveyed all his property to his bail to indemnify them (in the interim), he had fled the country and taken up his abode at Montreal, under Queen Victoria's flag.

On the receipt of the information I indulged for the first time since the continuance in sound sleep, and did not think or care for old Mike Nessler, or the constant nightmare of his testimony. But my rest was soon afterwards disturbed by the call of his only son, who informed me that it had become so hot around his father's, at Locust Grove, that he had concluded it was safer to seek a colder climate, and that all his property was left in my care to do the best I could for my protection, and that of his bail and family, against all confiscation proceedings. Not appearing, the bail bond was forfeited by the commissioner, and thus matters rested until the October term, 1863, when suit was commenced to recover the amount of the forfeited bail bond, and the witnesses having been summoned and sworn and sent before the grand jury, and by them examined, an indictment for treason against Edward L. Hughes was found and returned into court at that term with two counts. And so in October, 1863, I found myself confronted with a suit on the bail bond, threatened proceedings for confiscation of property, and this formidable indictment pending against my client, a fugitive from justice, and bitter excitement against him in all the belt of country through which John Morgan's army had passed; without one ray of hope or light as to my future professional course in the case, although I sincerely believed that the accused was not morally guilty of the crime charged against him.

I demurred to the declaration on the forfeited bail bond for various good reasons, and walked out of court in black darkness, why I could never tell. My whole duty had been performed, and my client, without my advice, having chosen his own mode of defense, and thereby, for the moment at least, having secured his life and liberty, I could not conscientiously tell why I should fret so much, imtil one night Professional Fame, attired in glittering costume, appeared to me in a dream and said at my bed side : "You will win me still." And when I awakened in the morning I asked of the Goddess: "How?" No statutes, no forms of law, no teachings of books, could tell me, but some weeks thereafter having passed away, on one bright winter day the mail brought the publication in one of the newspapers of the amnesty proclamation of President Lincoln, of December 8, 1863. I read it with general interest, then re-read it with special interest in its bearings on my case, and clasified the persons who could claim its benefits, and at last my dream changed into reality, and the thought flashed upon me that my friend Hughes could avail himself of the pardon by a plea in bar of puis dariem continuance, having carefully examined all the authorities, advised his friends of my convictions, and that they might write to him to come home, and if I did not acquit him, we would go to the gallows together and be hung from the same scaffold. After considerable correspondence and explanation, Mr. Hughes, trusting to my opinion, returned to his home, and thereupon, on the first day of March, 1864, we appeared in open court and took and subscribed the oath required in the proclamation, and filed the same in the court, and Judge Leavitt, holding the Circuit Court of the United States, than whom there was no purer or more patriotic minister of justice, and Mr. F. Ball, the district attorney, than whom there had been none more competent, seeing Hughes present in court, and hearing from me that he had come to rest under the shadow of the wing of the Presidents proclaimed pardon or be hung, consented to set aside the forfeiture of the recognizance, and respite the same for our appearance at the October term, 1864. At this term we promptly appeared, after having been on good behavior and patriotic conduct during the spring and summer, and filed the ordinary plea of not guilty, and this novel and original special plea : (Being very lengthy, it is here omitted. - Ed.)

To this special plea, on which I had staked the liberty and life of my client, a demurrer was filed by the district attorney, and thereupon an animated argument was had, bristling throughout with vivid objections as to whether the proclamation was to be construed as operating northo f Mason and Dixon's line, whether it was not merely the act of the president in his military capacity as commander-in-chief, arid there- fore could not be intended to operate in civil proceedings ; whether the accused before conviction could claim its benefits, and whether he was among the class of persons who were entitled to its protection ; which, on being concluded, the judge very blandly remarked, "that inasmuch as Mr. Hughes had taken the oath of allegiance, and had in fact by submitting himself to trial, showed a disposition to return to and assume the discharge of all his duties as a loyal citizen, he felt inclined to suggest to counsel to impart and agree to some liberal settlement,'* and thereupon after several imparlances under the sanction of the judge, it was agreed for the public peace, safety, and good example that the demurrer pro forma should be sustained, and that Mr. Hughes should give his own recognizance for future fidelity to the government, which he then and there did, and the record states: "1 hereupon (on the twenty-first day of November, 1864,) came the attorney for theUnited States for the district on behalf of the plaintiff, and made known to the court that he is unwilling further to prosecute the indictment herein against said defendant. It is therefore considered by the court that as to said indictment said defendant go hence without day."

Thus terminated the treason trial Mr Hughes returned to his home, and lived many years the life of a patriotic citizen, and died several years past in the west.

The outcome of this memorable case as to fees and compensation for professional services rendered as stated on the quantum mercuit principle, will interest the profession, if the report of the case be of any interest. Being at the termination of the case engaged in agricultural pursuits, and being vigorously engaged in professional labors from the same motive which impelled the distinguished Ben Hardin, of Kentucky, after three score years and ten of age, to continue his practice, as he said to me when I remarked to him that I supposed he had accumulated enough to retire, *'Why," he scornfully answered, "I have a farm, an old saw mill, and forty niggers, and I am compelled to work harder than I ever did in my life to pay expenses and support them all." Just so I was situated, except free labor was employed. Meeting Mr. Hughes one day (between whom and myself nothing had been said as to my fee), he addressed me : "I am told you are farming and have plenty of corn." **Yes, sir, that is my condition." "Well, I have seven mules, and if you will take them and square the docket between us, you may send after them. Feed them up awhile, and they will bring you $700." "Agreed," said I, and the mules were driven to my farm, fed until my fences would not keep them at home, and I sold them to an army contractor for the Potomac service, and the best and last account I had of them was that they were in the battle of the Wilderness.

'Colonel"William T. Moore, whose figure has been silhouetted thousands of times on the walls of the composing rooms of every newspaper office in West Union, since "way befoh the wah," relates with unfeigned pride the fact that he once drove Judge Allen G. Thurnian, at that time a United States senator of Ohio, from West Union to Portsmouth, via Cedar Mills, Wamsley, and Red Bridge, over the old Portsmouth road, in landlord Crawford's carriage, drawn by the famous match black ponies **Doc'' and *'Pomp." It was in the campaign of 1879, ^^^ Judge Thurman had spoken at West Union, and had to meet an appointment at Portsmouth, and the river being low and boats uncertain, he chose to make the trip overland. This was before the building of the C. P. & \'. Railway through the county. After getting beyond Cedar Mills and beginning the descent to the valley of Turkey Creek, the judge spoke of the fact that at a certain point beyond there was a spring by the side of the road at which he desired to stop and get a drink of cool water. He seemed familiar with the country through which he passed from Cedar Mills to Bear Creek, and would frequently stop the carriage to view the country from advantageous points, and would comment on the beauty of the hills covered with forests in their gorgeous dress of an October day. Upon inquiry as to the source of his knowledge of this region, the judge said he had carried on horseback from Chillicothe the tickets down into that region of country for the election in Jackson's campaign in 1832.

The Iron Ixdustry

The early land surveyors discovered iron ore in the region composing Adams County, and at its organization in September, 1797, one of the six townships into which the county was divided was named Iron Ridge. This township included the ore fields of the present territory' of the county. But nothing was done in the manufacture of iron in these fields until about the year 181 1, when our relations with Great Britain became such as to foreshadow war with that country. This greatly stimulated the iron industry in Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, as elsewhere throughout the country, and set on foot the movement to work the ore in the Adams County fields. The first furnace built was what was called Brush Creek Furnace on Cedar Run, about two miles from its mouth, in what is now Jefferson Township, and at a point now known as Cedar Mills. This furnace was erected by Paul and McNichol in 181 1. It was later operated by James Rodgers & Company ; they were succeeded by the Brush Creek Furnace Company, and they by James T. Claypool & Company, who were succeeded by James K. Stewart & Company, the last operators of the furnace.

The second furnace erected was the old Steam Furnace, near the present village of Peebles, in what is now Meigs Township. It was erected by James Rodgers, Andrew Ellison, and the Pittsburg Steam Engine Company. This furnace was named "Steam Furnace" from the fact that up to that time the power to propel the machinery of furnaces and forges west of the Alleghanies was derived from water by means of dams and races. The machinery of this furnace was propelled by means of a steam engine, and hence the name. Steam Furnace. In later years a man by the name of Benner became the proprietor of this furnace.

The third furnace was erected on the east fork of Ohio Brush Creek, south of the Great Serpent Mound, in what is now Bratton Township, and named the Marble Furnace, from the beautiful white limestone from which it was constructed. This was in the year 1816, and Governor Duncan McArthur and Thomas James, of Chillicothe, were the original poprietors. Henry Massie, the founder of the town of New Market, in Highland County, and a brother of General Nathanid Massie, was also interested in this furnace. There was a foundry at the Marble Furnace, and quite an extensive industry in connection with the furnace was carried on here until 1834, when the furnace and 1,200 acres of the furnace lands was purchased by Jacob Sommers, who abandoned the furnace in 1835.

There was a small furnace in connection with old **Bull" Forge, on the lower waters of Ohio Brush Creek, which was erected and managed by a Mr. Kendrick about the year 1818.

There was a forge at old Steam Furnace, and one. Brush Creek Forge, on Ohio Brush Creek, near where the Forge Dam Bridge now spans that stream at Satterfields'. (See Brush Creek Forge.)

These all were what is known as the cold-blast, charcoal furnace, with water power, except the Steam Furnace, and produced from one to two tons each of iron per day. They were kept in blast from seven to ten months in the year, and gave employment to hundreds of men in the various divisions of the industry. Competition in the Hanging Rock, Youngstown, and Pittsburg fields, with better means of transportation of the product, together with more extensive ore beds, and the use of coke and coal in place of the more expensive charcoal to make the blast, caused the abandonment of the Brush Creek iron fields.

It is said that the quality of iron made here was of the very best. The ores lie in basins of limited extent, and irregular form, in the cliff limestone capping the hills in the region of Brush Creek. The natives speak of the "top hills" as being the place of deposit of the ore. **The ore seems originally,'* says Locke, *'to have been pyrites in huge nodules, and collections of nodules in the rock. Where these became uncovered and exposed to the influence of water, and the lime, which is more or less intermingled, a decomposition ensued, the sulphur was abstracted, and the hydrated peroxide of iron remained. Wherever the ore is covered by stone and the agency of water excluded it is still nodular pyrites, somewhat decomposed. In one instance a drift was made into an ore bed, under the rock at Brush Creek furnace, and plenty of heavy, beautiful, gold-like ore procured, but so full of sulphur that it could not be worked.

The valley of the east fork of Ohio Brush Creek has long been celebrated for its beauty of scenery and fertility of soil. In the early pioneer days, Massie, Lytle, O'Bannon, and others risked life and limb to make entries and surveys of these very valuable lands. The Shawnees, who had wrested the region from savage rivals long before the coming of the whites, held this valley as one of the richest fields for the chase, while the stream now known as East Fork afforded an abundance of fish of the finest and gamest kinds, as it does to this day, even against all the destructive influences and cunning inventions of civilization. In- the bottom to the north of the site of the old furnace there was a Shawnee village, and there the land had been cleared ; there under the rude cultivation of the patient and industrious squaw, the lazy warrior saw the broad acres of maize to supply the wants of hunger, flour- ish and grow as of magic. While along the narrow valleys ana up the broad hillsides the sugar maple (acer sacharinum), grew native monarchs of the soil. This was in every sense of the term the Indian's paradise. He esteemed it as such, and defended it against the encroachments of civilization to his utmost endeavor. Here, as late as 1805, remnants of Shawnee families, whose ancestors had resided in the valley, came to fish and hunt and take a last farewell at the graves of their forefathers. The white man's ax had even then so marred the forests as to make scenes once familiar unknown. It may properly here be remarked that in this valley a race of people, nothing of whom was known to the Indians, once flourished, who builded enduring monuments to the memory of their rulers, and constructed as an altar of worship to the Great Being that most remarkable effigy, the study and wonder of civilized man, the Great Serpent Mound.

While surveying in this valley, Massie discovered iron ore of very fine quality on the bordering hills, and later Thomas James and Duncan McArthur, afterwards governor, built the furnace known as Marble Furnace, and began a great industry, which was carried on for years. This was in the year 1816, and the furnace was in full operation in that year. The name **Marble" was g^ven to the furnace from the fact that the stack was built from a fine white limestone quarried near by, which, when dressed and bush-hammered, had, at a distance, the appearance of white marble.

The stack of the furnace stood on the lot now owned by Charles Miller. It was so located that from the cliff to the rear a kind of trestle bridge was constructed, over which trucks were propelled carrying charcoal, limestone, and iron ore to the top of the stack. The power to supply the blast was furnished by a canal or race leading from the creek above.

There were here at times from 400 to 600 men employed in the various divisions of the work, including wood-choppers, colliers, furnace men, ore diggers, teamsters, and so forth. The pig-iron was hauled overland to Benner's forge on Paint Creek, to Chillicothe, or to the Ohio River at Manchester, via West Union. While the hollow ware made at the foundry was distributed throughout the settlements for miles about. One of the prominent characters at the furnace for many years was Robert Ivers, a kettle moulder. Afterwards Peter Andrews and others built the cupola and molded stoves, kettles, pots, and dog-irons. Among the wood choppers Fred Griffith, Mathew Gorman and Abraham Wisecup were unequaled. It is said that either of these persons could cut seven and one-half cords per day, a feat never I)crformed by any other person of the hundreds of choppers who worked at the **coalings." Twenty-five cents a cord was the price paid in those days. David Gardner was overseer of the ore diggers, who received from thirty to forty cents per day in ''Furnace Scrip." There was a double log cabin on the lot where the old frame building now stands, which was in early days a famous boarding house. Just across the creek from it stood Joseph Thompson's cabin, where whiskey was sold, and many a foot race, wrestle, or fight has taken place on the historic spot for a quart of Thompson's '*old Monongahela," made up

About the year 1830 work at the furnace ceased, from the fact that charcoal can not compete with stone coal, that ox teams can not compete with more modern means of transportation, and limited supply of ore can not compete with supplies almost inexhaustible. In 1834 *Henry Massie, one of the proprietors of the furnace, sold his interest to McArthur and James, and they disposed of 1,200 acres of furnace land, including the old furnace, to Jacob Sommers, then a resident of Middlebury, Loudon County, Virginia. Here in December, 1835, he came with his family and moved into the old brick house built by Henry Massie, where now resides Captain Urton, a son-in-law of Mr. Sommers.

This furnace stood on Cedar Run, about two miles from its confluence with Ohio Brush Creek. It was erected in the year 181 1 by Paul and McNichol, of Pittsburg, and furnished employment to several hundred men tor a period of twenty years. Paul and McNichol were succeeded by James Rodgers & Co., and they by the Brush Creek Furnace Company, who conducted the business until 1826, when James T. Claypool & Co. became the proprietors. In November of this year the company advertised for fifty or sixty wood choppers, "to whom prompt and liberal wages will be g^ven." "Also ox drivers and ore diggers. Ox drivers will be given $28 a month, $5 of it in cash.'* The company advertised "Hollo- ware, pig-metal and castings of every description, suitable to the wants of the country." This company conducted a general store at the furnace, at which the furnace hands and their families were compelled to purchase their goods and groceries. Corn, oats, wheat, and farm products were taken in exchange for goods from the store, or for the products of the furnace and forge conducted in connection therewith.

Claypool & Co. were succeeded by William K. Stewart & Co., in 1834-5. At this time the supply of ore in the vicinity was thought to be exhausted, and operations at the furnace had ceased. But the new proprietors opened new beds of ore and carried on a profitable business for several years thereafter, until competition in other fields became too great to realize profits in the Brush Creek fields. In the year 1838 Mr. Stewart, with twelve laborers, in a period of 120 days made a blast which produced over 200 tons of pig-iron.

Brush Creek Forge stood on the west side of Brush Creek, near the present "Forge Dam" bridge, at Satterfield's. The old dam across the creek was constructed to furnish power to propel the machinery at the forge. The pig-iron from the furnace was here made into wroughtiron blooms. John Fisher, a prominent character of the county in those days, was proprietor of the forge and a member of the furnace company. During the flood of 1832 the back-water from the Ohio River rose in Mr. Fisher's dwelling, which stood in the bottom, back from the forge.

<* It Is said that the only son of Henry Massie is buried near the old brick residence built by him in 1886. and now occupied by Captain Urion. Mr. MaHsie's wife died here, but was interred at Chillicothe. The stone from which the sarcophagus over her grave was built, was quarried at Marble Furnace and hauled by ox teams to Chillicothe.

"Bull Forge," so called from the fact that the power to drive its machinery was had from a great tread-wheel forty feet in diameter, propelled by oxen, or "bulls." This forge was on Ohio Brush Creek, near its mouth, on what was known as the Wilson farm. It was owned by a Mr. Kendrick, from Chillicothe. A small furnace was also built and operated here - the ore being dug on the creek hills in the vicinity.

The ordinance of '87 contains among other things the well-known provision with reference to Negro slavery: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said (Northwest) territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This forever prohibited slavery in Ohio and the other states carved out of the territory for the government of which the ordinance was framed by the second continental congress, but it contained a provision recognizing the institution of slavery in the other states and territories, providing "that any person escaping into the same (Northwest Territory), from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in one of the original states, such fugitive may be claimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid. And the constitution of the United States afterwards adopted contained the provision that "no person held to service or labor in any one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."

Upon these basic principles of our organic law, the owners of slaves pursued such of them as escaped into free territory, and if apprehended carried them back into slavery. There were persons and communities in the free states that lent assistance in secreting fugitives and in assisting them to escape from their pursuers to the English provinces - particularly the Dominion of Canada. In these days such violators of law would be condemned as "Anarchists," and perhaps "enjoined" by the federal courts from such acts of violence, and in cases of bloodshed, as often occurred, would be hanged, as was Parsons and his associates in Chicago in recent years.

The Virginia Military District in Ohio, including Adams County, was largely settled by persons from the slave-holding states, particularly Virginia and Kentucky; yet a majority of these opposed Negro slavery - or at least the extension of it - and all opposed for a period of years the agitation of the questions on social, refigious, and constitutional grounds. Many of the early settlers of Adams County had freed their slaves in the south, but brought with them Negro servants, who remained here in about the same status with reference to their former masters as while in slave territorv.

In the old records of the Court of Quarter Sessions, September term, 1799, we find that "Nathaniel Massie's Mike appeared in court to claim his freedom. The court ordered him (Mike) home and stay until next court, to he confronted by his master."

Mike seems to have obeyed the court and stayed at home until the December term, 1800, when it appears on the record of the court that "On the motion of Mike, a Negro man, the court rule he shall be heard after the prisoner, McGinnis." And, later, "Mike came before the court and pleads for his freedom, whereupon the court rule and order him to have his trial at the next term, and that the sheriff give Nathaniel Massie due notice thereof." Said notice was, "that, whereas, Mike, a Negro man, has been repeatedly before the court in making complaint of his being held in bondage contrary to law ; and the court has ordered him on to trial at our next Court of General Quarter Sessions at Washington in and for said county in March next." John Beasley was presiding judge of this court, Nathan Ellis sheriff, and George Gordon clerk. The court also directed the sheriff 'to "summon Thomas McDonald, if he may be found in your bailiwick, to personally appear before the court * * * on the second Tuesday of March n^xt, then and there in our said court to give evidence and the truth to say on the behalf of Mike v. Nathaniel Massie, in a Plea of Freedom." Joel Bailey was also summoned as a witness for Mike.

A' the M.arch ste^sion, 1801, ue case was dispoh^rl 01 as shown by the records, and closed with the following entry: "The rule of the court in this suit is to proceed no further therein, and order said suit dismissed from the docket, which is accordingly done."

It is said that many of the wealthier families in the early days of the county held Negro servants practically in bondage. The Early family had three Negros, brought from Kentucky as slaves, one of whom, a little boy, remained in the family until he became of age. The Means family had a number of Negro servants, as late as 1835.

Jeremiah Pittinger came to Adams County from the State of Maryland, in 1825, and brought as a servant in the family, Dinah, a negro woman, who lived with the family during his lifetime. She then went with a daughter, Julia, the wife of John Morrison, of Eckmansville, and served in his family until her death in 1878, at the age of 106 years. The old cherr\' chest in which she brought her worldly belongings from Maryland, is now in the possession of Mrs. Alexander, a daughter of Mr. Morrison.

The following certificate of manumission given Dinah by John Schley, father of the popular admiral, the hero of Santiago, is worth preserving. State of Maryland, Frederick County, ss. I hereby certify that the person to whom this is given, named Dinah, a blackwoman, about thirty years of age, five feet eight inches tall, has a scar on lower part of the left ear, and has a mole otn left side of her face near the nose, and has a scar on her left cheek and is the identical negro woman heretofore manumitted by John Campbell and Elizabeth Campbell on or about the eleventh day of April, 1805, as appears by said manumission on record in my office, and the affidavit of John Pittinger on file in my offxe.

RAN AWAY from the Kenhawa Salt Works, on or about the twenty-eighth of December, last, a bright mullato man, about three-fourths white, named William, the property of William Brooks, of Franklin County, Virginia. He is about twenty-nine years old, nearly six feet high, his head woolly, and inclined to be yellow; he is a raw boned stout fellow, tolerably thin visage, straight built, the middle finger of his right hand is cut off at the first joint ; very fond of spiritous liquors, and when drunk, inclined to misbehave. The above reward will be given to any person who will return him to the subscriber at the Kenhawa Saline; or fifty-dollars if secured in any jail so that I get him again. Joel Shrewsbury.

There was but little abolition sentiment in Adams County until about 1840. The Covenanters about Cherry Fork and the Brush Creek settlements were, from principle, opposed to Negro slaver>\ At this time a few "agitators'* like Rev. Dyer Burgess who had stirred up dissensions among the people of the county over the question of Free Masonr\% began to discuss publicly the question of Negro slavery. These "agitators" were very abusive of those who counseled obedience to the law, and denounced the "government as a covenant with hell.' The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law gave the "agitators" renewed opportunity for vituperation, and the slave hunters legal sanction to their many revolting acts of cruelty toward captives taken in free territory. There were, as there would be today, men in every community without reference to creed or political affiliations, who for the sake of reward, would at the risk of life, pursue the fugitives to captivity for the hope of gain. A party of these pursuers from the vicinity of Clayton, headed by James Taylor, Godard Pence, and Harvey Beasley, in 1851, caught sixteen negroes near Thornton Shelton*s, in Sprigg Township. Taylor, a ])owerful man himself, knocked one negro down time and again with a handspike before Pence a desperate character could secure him with ropes.

William Gilbert was shot and killed by a fugitive whom he had pursued over the county line into Brown County, at the crossing of Brushy Fork near the old store . The negro was captured the next day near Clayton by some of the Martins and a posse from Maysville. This was in 1850, and John Laney informed the writer that he and old Dr. Norton, of near Decatur, who was accompanying Laney to answer a sick call, as they approach the crossing at the creek, heard the shot, and the sound of voices. On near approach, William Paul and others were stooping over Gilbert who was mortally wounded. Dr. Norton whose house was an "under ground station" refused to attend Gilbert hut rode on to Lanev's house. Gilbert survived three (lavs after removal to his home.

A powerful negro named Ned Abney had by working overtime purchased his freedom from his master in the south : He came to Adams County in the vicinity of Cherry Fork and labored at any kind of work to secure money to purchase the freedom of his wife and child left behind. In time he had accomplished the task of freeing his wife who joined him where he had secured a domicile in the vicinity of Red Ook, in Brown County. But there lay before them the task of now accumulating enough to purchase their child in the far south land of slavery.

"Pony" Joe Patton, as he was familiarly known from the fact that he imported and bred Canadian ponies, learning the story of Abney*s life, resolved to secure the child and deliver it to its parents. He accordingly fitted up a light wagon and started south to sell lightning rods. He traveled into Tennessee, found the master who held Abney's child, became intimate with his household, and after due preparation stole the child out at night, and drove until daylight directly south. Then he rested his pony and while so doing cut down the bed of his wagon and covered the "boot" of it with canvas. Under this he stowed away the child, and then by a circuitous route turned to the northward to the point of his destination, in Ohio, which he reached in safety after three weeks travel, where he delivered his protege to its delighted parents. The old gray pony made many a trip over the underground route from Red Oak to stations across Adams County carrying fugitive mothers and children to safety and freedom, but this "incursion into the enemy's country," as Patton termed it, was the greatest and most trying of all.

After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Laws it became necessary for the sympathizers with the runaway slaves to use the utmost precaution in assisting them to places of safety. The runaways who crossed the river in the vicinity of Ripley would be piloted by some one after night to Red Oak or Decatur in Brown County. From there some conductor, "Pony" Patton, old Johnny Thompson, of Cherry Fork, or old Jim Caskey, of Grace's Run, would take them to Daniel Copples in Liberty Township, Adams County, known as "Station Number 2" or to Gen. William Mclntyre's, on Grace's Run, in Wayne Township, known as "Station Number 3" : and thence to the vicinity of Sinking Springs in Highland County, "Station Number 4."

This was the so-called "underground railroad" across Adams County, although other persons besides those above named frequently sheltered and fed the weary fugitives.

On Grace's Run about midway between Cherry Fork and Youngville was the residence of Gen. William Mclntyre whose wife was Martha Patton, familiarly known as "Patsey" Mclntyre. She was a large strong-minded woman, and from her observations and experience in Virginia where she and her husband had been reared, she had learned to detest the institution of slavery, and had allied herself with those active in assisting fugitive slaves across the border. The home of Gen. Mclntyre was known as Station Number 3," as above recited, and many a fugitive has found shelter and protection under the roof of the old red brick known as the abode of "Patsey" Mclntyre. Tradition says, and the fertile imaginations of unscrupulous writers have added largely to tradition, that upon one occasion "Patsey" met a party of slave hunters from Kentucky at her door who had sworn with terrible oaths that they would enter and search the house for runaways, with a teakettle of boiling water and stood them off until a pitchfork from the loft could be procured for her, when she defied the pursuers and drove them from the premises.

The widow of the late George Patton, of Harshaville, a daughter of "Patsey" Mclntyre, related to the writer that many slaves had been sheltered in her father's house, and that persons had made inquiry for them, but never threatened such violence as above narrated. She said that once a party of Kentuckians among whom was a Col. Marshall, a brother of the learned barrister Judge James H. Marshall, of Hillsboro, from whose facile pen the story **Treason Trial in Ohio," in this volume comes, came to her father's house and inquired for runaway slaves. They had "been in the neighborhood a day or two searching for fugitives and it had been noised about that the negroes were secreted in her father's house, and neighbors and friends anticipating that there would be an attempt to search the premises, gathered in soon after the coming of the Kentuckians. Gen. Alclntyre assured the hunters that no fugitives were in the house, and the Kentuckians insisting that there were, "Patsey" Mclntyre told them that if they did not leave, she would scald them - the parties then being near the spring back of the house, where Mrs. Patton, then a girl, and her sister were washing clothes. The Kentuckians then went to West Union and got out a warrant to search the premises for "clothing secreted," but neither the "clothing" nor any fugitives were found.

It must not be imagined that all the "sympathizers" were of the "Pony" Joe Patton class - for they were not as a body different from other men. They perhaps did sympathize with the fugitive blacks and would give shelter, raiment and food in exchange for much hard labor. Illustrative of this, the writer was informed by an intelligent old negro who ran away from slavery, that when he came to the vicinity of Cherry Fork he was sheltered by a good man in sympathy with the movement to free the blacks, who at the end of a hard year's work, dressed him up in an old pigeon-tailed coat and a bell-crowned fur hat and insisted that the object of his sympathy and charity receive them in consideration of services rendered, assuring him that with such an outfit he might cease manual labor, and live in elegance and ease as a minister come to lead the fallen of his race in the way of glory and righteousness. "But," said the old negro, "When I look in de glass and sees de tail of that coat, and that hat only held off'n my shoulders by my ears, I said, *No,' I can't preach - you may pay me de cash !"

Typical of the times in the days of the Fugitive Slave Law, and tlie "undergroimd railroad," the following anecdote was related to the writer by Mr. Zedekiah Hook, proprietor of the village hotel in Cherry

Fork. Mr. Hook was living at the time of the occurrence on a farm near Clayton in Adams County. There resided in that vicinity at the time a man nemed Lindsey and another by the name of Ambus who with their families had recently come into the neighborhood from some place in Kentucky. Dave Dunbar, now of Manchester, as that genial gentleman is familiarly called, was at that time a young man working at the harness trade in Vincent Cropper's shop in Clayton. A few days before the incident herein narrated, I/indsey and Ambus had caught a runaway slave and returned him to his master across the Ohio, and received for their services the sum of fifty dollars each, as a reward. This created quite a sensation in and about Clayton, and the loungers who congregated nightly in Cropper's harness shop, grew enthusiastic on the subject of "Nigger Catching" and awarded themselves large sums in the near future from that pursuit. Dave Dunbar listened in silence and resolved tb have some sport at the expense of these would-be slave hunters.

One evening after supper he dressed himself in a ragged old suit of clothes, and having carefully blacked his face and hands, made his appearance in the village in the guise of a runaway slave. He hurried along the road leading toward Decatur, one of the underground stations, some miles away, seeming to avoid contact with those who saw him. In a few minutes the word was passed around that a fugitive slave had just gone down the Decatur road, and soon the would-be catchers set out in hot pursuit. They were accompanied by a great Newfoundland dog that now and then would scent the fugitive's track and bark encouragingly as the pursuers urged him on. Coming to a turn in the road, they saw beyond, the object of their pursuit hastily climbing a rail fence, and then making oft' with all his speed across a pasture field toward a piece of woodland some distance away. Now the chase beg^n in earnest, over fences, through fields, across hollows, down hill and up hill, the pursuers shouting and clapping their hands to urge forward the dog to overtake and seize the fugitive, who, when near the crest of a hill he was ascending, from sheer exhaustion came to a halt and threw himself down upon the ground. The pursuers seeing this tried to recall the dog then close upon the fugitive, fearful that he would be torn to pieces by the savage brute before they could interpose. But to their astonishment the dog ran up to where the fugitive lay, wagged his tail in a friendly manner and sat down upon his haunches to await the coming of the pursuing party. To their disappointment and great chargin upon approaching, they found the supposed runaway slave to be Dave Dunbar, rolling upon the ground convulsed with laughter at the sport he had had at their expense.

Now the whole party entered into the spirit of the affair, and it was agreed that Dunbar should make his way alone across the fields to the residence of Lindsey and inquire the way to Dr. Norton's, an **underground" station, near Decatur some miles distant. He did so, and Lindsey fearing to seize him single handed, in order to get the aid of Ambus, told the supposed fugitive that he could not direct him as requested, but that a neighbor near by could, and he would accompany the inquirer there to obtain the desired information. They found Ambus at home and were invited into the house, but no sooner had they entered than Lindsey locked the door, and he and Ambus seized the supposed runaway, and informed him that they would return him to his n^aster in Kentucky. The wife of Ambus threw the bed upon the floor in order to get the cord off the bedstead to secure the fugitive. While this was taking place, Lindsey's wife, who had put in an appearance, got into a serious altercation with the Ambus woman as to tJie share of the reward each should have, the one accusing the other of getting a silk dress out of the last reward, while she got but a calico gown.

After the fugitive had been securely bound he was taken before old 'Squire Bryan for identification. Lindsey testified that he knew the captive to be the property of a Mr. McKee near Washington, Kentucky. That he had worked as a laborer for McKee the year previous, and saw this negro daily. That his name was William, and that he was positive this was the same person for he was the only "blue-eyed nigger he had ever seen."

Then Dunbar, to the amazement of the court and witness, disclosed his identity, and was speedily unbound and discharged. Lindsey and Ambus took their departure amid the jeers and shouts of the spectators, and soon afterward removed from the county.