Brown County, Ohio - Chapter 8: General Progress of the County, 1883

County Buildings

THE first court house was built at Ripley; work on its construction was commenced in 1820. By a special act of the Legislature, the contractor, George Poage, was allowed $3,850, with interest thereon from the time the building was accepted by the County Commissioners. This building, after the location of the seat of justice at Georgetown, was sold at public auction for a small sum.

The contract for the erection of the first court house at Georgetown was let by the Commissioners on August 1, 1823. The contractors were Thomas L. Hamer, William White, Michael Weaver, William Butt and David Johnson. The sum agreed upon for the construction was $8,999.99, which was to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of lots donated to the county by James Woods, Abel Reese and Henry Newkirk. This building was accepted by the Commissioners August 2, 1824, and, for twenty-five years, was the court house of Brown County. A representation of this quaint old building, as it appeared a few years before it was taken down, may be found in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio.

The first jail was erected at the expense of parties who were interested in having the seat of justice at Georgetown. The date of its completion cannot be ascertained from the records. It stood on the site of the present jail, and was constructed of stone. Before the erection of the first jail, a defendant was committed on a writ of capias to the custody of the Sheriff. There being no prison, the defendant escaped. The plaintiff in the case brought suit against the Sheriff for damages sustained by reason of the escape, and obtained judg- .ment. The Sheriff, William Butt, paid the judgment, and brought suit against the County Commissioners for the amount he had paid. The case of William Butt against the Commissioners of Brown County was finally decided in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was divided in their opinions, but a majority of the Judges held that, where an escape happens in consequence of the want of a jail, the Sheriff is liable to the party sustaining damages, and the Commissioners, in their official capacity, liable to the Sheriff, who has been compelled to pay damages thus resulting.

April 18, 1827, the Commissioners contracted with John Walker for the erection of Auditor's and Clerk's offices, at $390. Thomas L. Hamer and Jesse R. Grant were the sureties of Walker for the faithful performance of his contract. The rooms were completed and accepted by the Commissioners on the 4th of December following. On January 14, 1828, the Commissioners sold the old Clerk's office to the highest bidder for $3.50.

The Commissioners, on January 15, 1828, authorized the Auditor to advertise for the purchase of land and proposals for building a poor house. On January 16, 1829, the Commissioners purchased of Michael Weaver a farm for the use of the county, for which they paid $522. On the same day, Job Egbert, Edward Thompson and Noah Ellis were appointed the first Poor House Directors.

for building a new jail, at the sum of $2,389. This jail stood on the southwest corner of Cherry and Pleasant streets, and the building is now used as a residence.

March 7, 1849, the Commissioners, being of the opinion that the old court house was insufficient, employed Hubbard Baker to prepare a draft of a plan for a new court house, and at the same time rented, for the use of the county, the basement of the Methodist Church, at an annual rental of $100. The contracts for the erection of the new court house were let May 22, 1849. The building, which has served the purpose for which it was erected until the present time, was completed and accepted by the county in 1851.

The contracts for the erection of the present substantial stone jail were let on August 13, 1868. It was completed in 1870, at a total cost of $34,- 314.57. On May 18, 1870, the old jail was sold.

The first roads in Brown County were mere traces or paths for horses. The public highways located by the authorities of Adams and Clermont Counties were for several years little more than tracks through the woods, cleared of timber, without bridges, and, in the fresh condition of the soil, became almost impassable in the wet seasons. Wagoning, however, was an important business, and it was common for several wagons to travel together for the mutual aid to be derived from combining teams when a wagon stuck fast in the mud.

Zane's trace, the most important thoroughfare of the Northwest Territory, struck the Ohio Biver at the site of Aberdeen. In May, 1796, Congress passed an act authorizing Ebenezer Zane to open a road from Wheeling, "Va., to Limestone, Ky., and, in the following year, Mr. Zane, accompanied by his brother, Jonathan Zane, and his son-in-law, John McIntyre, all experienced woodsmen, proceeded to mark out the new road, which was afterward cut out by the two latter. The cutting, however, was a very hasty work, nothing more being attempted than to make the road passable for horsemen. As a compensation for opening this road, Congress granted to Ebenezer Zane the privilege of locating military warrants upon three sections of land, not to exceed one mile square each; the first of these, at the crossing of his road at the Muskingum; the second, at the Hockhocking; and the third, at the Scioto. One of the conditions annexed to the grant to Mr. Zane was that he should keep ferries across these three rivers during the pleasure of Congress. Zane's trace was a great route of travel for forty years of Ohio's history. In 1798, the first overland mail in Ohio was carried over this route, the mail from Wheeling meeting that from Limestone at Zanesville.

After the admission of Ohio into the Union, Congress applied 3 per cent of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the State to the construction of roads. This 3 per cent fund was appropriated for the purposes intended by the Legislature, and the roads thus established were known as State roads. The first appropriation of money for a State road extending into Brown County was made February 18, 1804, when $1,200 were appropriated "for opening and making a road from Chillicothe by West Union, in the county of Adams, to the River Ohio, where it may intersect the same in the most convenient and proper route to Limestone, in the State of Kentucky. " Under this somewhat unintelligible expression of the law, a State road was constructed, which was elsewhere described as " the road from Chillicothe by West Union to Limestone." Josiah Espy, in his " Tour in Ohio and Kentucky," under the date of October 16, 1805, writes: "In passing from Limestone to Chillicothe, I took what is called the new State road, which passes through a poor, hi lly country, almost uninhabited. This circumstance (aided, no doubt, by my indisposition) led me to think very unfavorably of the soil of Ohio, compared with Kentucky, which I had left with most favorable impressions." The poor and hilly portions of the country over which he passed were chiefly in Adams County.

An appropriation was also made in 1804 for a State road from Chillicothe to Cincinciati. The road passed through Perry Township; it was opened about 1806, and, being surveyed by Col. Richard C. Anderson, was usually known as the Anderson State road. The first appropriation for this road was $1,650.

The first Legislature which met after the organization of Brown County appropriated $1,000 for the benefit of roads in the county, and appointed Commissioners, under whose direction the money was to be expended, as follows:

On the State road leading from Ripley to Hillsboro, $480 - Commissioner, William Dunlap; on the State road leading from West Union to the mouth of Clough Creek, $420 - Commissioner, Abram Evans; on the part of the State road leading from Limestone to West Union which lies within the county of Brown, $50 - Commissioner, Evan Campbell; on the part of the road leading from Hillsboro to Williamsburg which lies within the county of Brown, $100 - Commissioner, Thomas Ross.

The first turnpikes in Ohio were completed in the decade from 1835 to 1845. The Milford & Chillicothe Turnpike Company was chartered February 11, 1832, and constructed an important road, seventy-eight miles in length, less than half of which was macadamized in 1839. The road did much for the development of the northern part of Brown County. Gov. Allen Trimble, of Hillsboro, was long the President of the company. Its capital stock was $344, - 000, held in equal portions by the State and individuals. For the year ending November 15, 1849, its receipts were $10,498.60, and its expenditures $4, - 115.72, leaving profits of over $6,000 to be divided between the State and individual stockholders.

The Ripley & Hillsboro Turnpike Company was chartered February 19, 1833, to construct a macadamized road thirty-five miles and twenty-six polbs in length. The officers reported in 1839 that five and one-fourth miles near Ripley were completed, and ten miles on the northern end were under construction. At that time, A. Liggett was President, and William Y. Barr, Engineer.

The Zanesville & Maysville Turnpike Company was chartered to construct a road 126 miles in length, of which eighty miles were reported as completed in 1839. The pike follows the general direction and route of Zane's trace. Although this turnpike passes over one of the most hilly regions in Ohio, the report of its engineer shows the remarkable fact that 104 miles were graded with an elevation of but two degrees with the horizon; fifteen miles, with from two to three degrees; four miles, with from three to four degrees; and only three miles with an elevation of four degrees - the maximum allowed.

Since 1866, a large number of free pikes have been constructed in Brown County, and most of the toll pikes have been made free. In 1880, the county had thirty-four pikes, with an aggregate length of 215 miles. Only two of these, with an aggregate length eight miles, belonged to incorporated companies.

Ohio River Navigation

The navigation of the Ohio River has always been a matter of vast importance to Brown County The first boats employed on its waters were canoes and flatboats, the latter made of stout and heavy green oak plank. In

January, 1794, a line of keelboats was established between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, each boat making a trip in four weeks. These boats were covered so as to be protected against rifle and musket balls, and had port- holes to fire from; each boat was armed with six cannon, carrying pound balls, and a number of muskets, and well supplied with ammunition, as a protection against the Indians. There were separate cabins for ladies and gentlemen. The proprietor of the line, Jacob Myers, announced in the Western Spy that " a table of the exact time of the arrival and departure to and from the different pi aces on the Ohio between Cincinnati aud Pittsburgh may be seen on board each boat. Passengers will be supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the finest quality, at the most reasonable rates possible. Persons desiring to work their passage will be admitted on finding themselves, subject, however, to the same order and directions from the Master of the boat as the rest of the working hands of the boat's crew. "

The first steamboat which made a voyage down the Ohio left Pittsburgh in October, 1811, and, in four days, arrived at Louisville. This boat was called the New Orleans, and was intended to ply between Natchez and New Orleans. On the voyage down the Ohio, no freight or passengers were carried. The novel appearance of the vessel, and the rapidity with which it made its way over the waters, excited a mixture of terror and surprise among many settlers along the banks, whom the rumor of such ao invention had never reached. Several smaller steamboats were constructed at Pittsburgh, Brownsville and Wheeling within the succeeding five years, but it was not until the successful voyages of the Washington between Louisville and New Orleans, in 1817, that the public were convinced that steamboat navigation of the Western waters would succeed. The General Pike, built at Cincinnati in 1818, to ply between Louisville, Cincinnati and Maysville, is said to have been the first steamboat on the Western waters for the exclusive convenience of passengers. This vessel measured 100 feet keel, twenty-five feet beam, and drew three feet three inches of water. At one end were six and at the other eight state-rooms. The cabin was forty feet long and twenty -five feet broad. She was described as having ample accommodations, spacious and superb apartments and perfectly safe machinery.

Many years elapsed after the completion of the first railroads to Cincinnati before it was thought practicable to construct a railway through a river county situated as is Brown. The Cincinnati & Eastern Railway Company was organized at Batavia January 10, 1876. It was called at first, and for a short time only, the Cincinnati, Batavia Williamsburg Railroad Company. In May, 1876, it was resolved to extend the line from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. The road was completed as a three-feet gauge road from its junction with the Little Miami Railroad to Batavia, October 18, 1876; to Williamsburg, March 1, 1877; to Mt. Oreb, April 19, 1877; to Sardinia, June 4, 1877; to Winchester, in September, 1877. This was the first railroad running east and west through the central portions of Clermont County, and the first of any kind to reach Brown and Adams Counties.

The Cincinnati & Portsmouth Railroad Company was incorporated March 1, 1873, for the purpose of constructing a narrow-gauge railway through the counties of Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, Adams and Scioto. The work of construction did not begin until three years after the organization of the company. In July, 1880, the road was in running order from Columbia to Cleveland's, one mile east of Amelia. The road was completed to Hamersville in December, 1881 . The great cost of the long and high bridge necessary for

The Georgetown & Sardinia Railroad dates from May 9, 1879, when the Legislature passed an act authorizing the village of Georgetown, after an affirmative vote of its electors, to construct a railroad. The people of Georgetown having given their approval, bon Is for the construction of the road to the amount of about $17,000 were issued by the municipal authorities. Three Trustees having charge of the construction were appointed by the Court of Common Pleas. Nearly all the grading of the road-bed was completed in the autumn of 1882, and the road was then leased to the Columbus & Ohio River Railroad Company. The right of way was donated by the land-owners along the line of road. The line of the road passes over a level country, and it has between the towns it connects but two variations from a straight course, and each of these is only one degree.

The pioneer preachers were mounted rangers. The Methodist preachers were circuit-riders, and their circuits extended a hundred miles. The Presbyterian and Baptist ministers had several congregations or preaching stations under their charge, which were often at a great distance apart. All were expected to seek out and preach to the scattered members of their fold over a large territory. They traveled on horseback, with their capacious saddle-bags under them; but these seldom contained manuscript sermons; a sermon written out and read to a congregation would have been received with little favor.

The first preaching in a community was almost always at a private house. The first churches were made of logs, hewed inside and outside. They were larger and built with more care than the schoolhouses, and, when the spaces between the logs were properly filled in with mortar, they proved to be comfortable rooms, cool in summer and warm in winter.

The itinerant clergy were important teachers among the early settlers. They lodged in their cabins and conversed with their families. Newspapers and periodicals of every kind were rare. Religious newspapers were then unknown. The preacher was usually a welcome guest.

The Baptists established the first church in Southwestern Ohio at Columbia, in 1790. The Miami Baptist Association, organized in 1799, was the earliest institution of the kind in Ohio. The earliest Baptist Churches of Clermont and Brown Counties were members of this association. Tbe minutes of the Miami Baptist Association, which are still in existence, and have been carefully examined by the writer, give more authentic information concerning the Baptist Churches of the Northwest Territory than any other source. The first Baptist Church within the present limits of Brown County of which we have any account was the Straight Creek Church, which was admitted into the Miami Association at a meeting at Columbia in September, 1799. The Straight Creek Church then reported twenty-one members. William Lacock was the first messenger of this church to the association. In 1813, a new association was formed, embracing the churches of Brown and some of the adjoining territory, which was called the Straight Creek Association.

A large proportion of: the early pioneers of Brown County were Presbyterians. The territory, on the first preaching of the Gospel by Presbyterian ministers, belonged to the Transylvania Presbytery of Kentucky. The minutes of this body show that, at a meeting held April 1, 1798, at Cabin Creek, north of Maysville, " a settlement of people living on Eagle Creek, Straight Creek and Red Oak Creek asked to be taken under the care of Presbytery, and to be known as the congregation of Gilboa. " In October, 1798, the territory of Brown County was placed in a new Presbytery, called Washington Presbytery, from the town of Washington, Mason Co.. Ky. The church of Red Oak was the first Presbyterian Church organized in Brown County. Its first log meeting-house was probably erected in 1799. Rev. John Finley, a member of the Washington Presbytery, was pastor of the church near the close of the last century.

The Methodists of Brown County, at the time of the first organization of churches of that denomination in Southern Ohio, were included in the Miami Circuit. Rev. John Kobler was the first regularly ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Miami Valley. Henry Smith was the first minister in charge of the Miami Circuit in 1799. Early in the present century, there were several local preachers in this large circuit. They went everywhere preaching the Word. They preached not only on Sundays, but on other days. They held two-days' meetings, and kept up a system of quarterly meetings, which, by this time, were attended by large numbers. Men and women would walk twenty and sometimes thirty miles to attend them. At night, the men would be quartered in barns and out- houses; the women, in the cabins. In 1802, Elisha W. Bowman, then a beardless youth, was sent to the Miami Circuit. In 1803, John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were the preachers for this large circuit. Francis McCormick, Phillip Gatchand John Collins all resided within the present bounds of Clermont County. In 1808, the White Oak Circuit was formed, with David Young as the first minister in charge. In 1810, there were in this circuit 766 white members and one colored member. The Straight Creek Circuit was formed in 1820, William P. Finley being the first minister in charge of it.

The Christian denomination originated in the West, in the revival known as the Great Kentucky Revival, at the commencement of the present century. No churches of this denomination were organized within the limits of Brown County for several years after the close of the revival. In 1810, a Christian Church was organized by Archibald Alexander, and a good stone meetinghouse was built for the society on the east bank of the West Fork of Eagle Creek. This was the first church erected by the Christian denomination in Brown County. Elder Matthew Gardner says that it was " the first erected by the Christians in Southern Ohio." The Union Ch irch, two miles from Higginsport, was organized in 1818 ; the Bethlehem Church, in Huntington Township, in 1820; Georgetown Church, in 1822-23; Pisgah, about 1824; and Russelville, about 1826. The Southern Ohio Christian Conference was organized at the forks of Brush Creek, in Adams County, October 20, 1820.

Religious statistics and materials for a history of the progress of religion are not readily accessible in a country where there is no State church or governmental support of religion. The State of Ohio requires full statistical reports to be made annually of the condition and growth of the schools maintained by public taxation, but the chief matters pertaining to religion which have been noticed by the State or national statisticians are the number of church organizations and church edifices, the amount of church sittings or accommodations for public worship, and the value of church property; and our information concerning these is derived chiefly from the census returns of the United States since 1850.

According to the census of 1850. .there were in Brown County sixty-one churches, valued at 166,740. In 1870 the churches had increased to seventy - nine, and were valued at $279,850. It thus appears that, in twenty years, the cost of churches increased much more rapidly than their number. The aggregate church accommodations or sittings in the county had not increased from 1850 to 1870, being returned in both years at about twenty-six thousand. Com- paring this number with the population of the county at the same dates, and making but a slight deduction from the population for infants, the sick and the infirm, it appears that at both periods there were seats in the churches for more than the entire population of the county who could attend public worship.

The statistics of churches given in census returns do not in all cases agree with the statements put forth by the denominational organs of the various sects. The census superintendents have their own point of view, and apply tests different from those known to the compilers of religious year books and registers. It should be borne in mind, too, that reports of the number of church edifices, their accommodations and value, are not always true measures of the religious activity of a community. A strong denomination with numerous churches may often strengthen itself by suffering a weak church to cease to exist when it becomes unable to support itself. There are churches which find a place on the rolls of a denomination, and may be enumerated in census returns, which, having a legal title to an edifice, and maintaining some kind of an organization, have ceased to gather congregations or support a minister.

Great changes have taken place in the mode of public worship since the first rude churches of hewed logs sprang up beside the green fields. In the former days, sermons were from an hour and a half to two hours in length, while the other services were protracted by long prayers and commentaries on the chapter read from the Scriptures, to a length that would now be thought unendurable. Often there were two services, separated by an intermission of fifteen minutes. During both services, horses, in the absence of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals stood, without food or water, haltered to trees, from which they gnawed the bark. The autumn sun was low in the horizon before the benediction was pronounced and the worshipers departed, some to distant homes. The singing was not artistic. The innovation of singing hymns without lining them out caused many a difficulty in the older churches. Sometimes there was a compromise between the opposing parties, and one hymn each Sunday was sung without being read line by line, and the others in the old way. A new tune, which all could not sing, caused some to grieve. The introduction of a choir or of a musical instrument caused serious dissension. Instrumental music was not common in the rural churches until after the introduction of the cabinet organ. The sin of wearing tlegant attires and adornment with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, was a favorite topic in the pulpit. Flowers on the sacred desk would have been considered as ministering to a worldly vanity. The most beautiful comedies and the sublimest tragedies to be seen on the stage were declared unfit for Christian eyes. Many pastimes and divertisements which scatter sunshine and sweetness over the cares and hardships of life were regarded as inconsistent with the seriousness, gravity and godly fear which the Gospel calls for.

It cannot be doubted that there was less harmony among the different denominations formerly than now. The religious men of former generations were sincerely and intensely sectarian. They believed that they had "thus saith the Lord " for their distinctive tenets. They believed themselves to be, and were determined to remain, rigidly " orthodox " - a term which, according to Dean Stanley, " implies, to a certain extent, narrowness, fixedness, perhaps even hardness of intellect and deadness of feeling, at times, rancorous animosity." Sermons were more controversial and doctrinal than now. It can hardly be doubted that, with the increase of culture and refinement in the clergy and laity, have come a larger religious sympathy and a higher and broader view, which would bre*ak down the party wall of sectarianism and sweep away the petty restrictions on thought and opinion.

The early Presbyterian and Baptist Churches were severely Calvinistic, and their pulpits dwelt more frequently and more strenuously than their modern successors on the five points of their creed - predestination, particular redemption, total depravity, effectual calling and the certain perseverance of the saints. The terrors of the eternal torment of the wicked were more frequently and more vividly portrayed than in the modern days. The belief in a material fire in hell for the future and endless punishment of the unregenerate was common in all the churches. The doctrine of a literal fire in hell was preached by Rev. J. B. Findlay and other early Methodist preachers, in which they followed the explicit teachings of the sermons of John Wesley. It is doubtful if a person known to be a disbeliever in eternal punishment would have been suffered to remain a member of any of the early orthodox churches. To-day, a belief in the final holiness and happiness of all mankind is not an insurmountable bar to a place among the laity of the evangelical denominations.

But let us not judge the religious men of former days harshly. They were noble men, and the county owes them a debt of gratitude. We cannot believe in all things as they believed, but we cannot fail to recognize their virtues and their worth.

Most of the changes in the religious beliefs and modes of worship that have taken place since the establishment of the pioneer churches are not such as result in modifications of creeds and articles of faith. They are the result of inevitable tendencies, and are brought about, not so much by theological discussions as by the changes in human modes of thinking, feeling and believing, which, taken together, we call the spirit of the age. The advance of the refinements of civilization may render the religious doctrines of good men in one age repugnant to those of the text.

The Legal Profession

Biographies of some of the most distinguished members of the legal profession in Brown County will be found elsewhere in this work. It is proposed in this place to narrate, with some regard to chronological order, some facts concerning the bar of the county not elsewhere recorded. The sketch must necessarily be imperfect.

The legal business of the early pioneers of Brown County, before the organization of a State Government, was transacted at Cincinnati and various towns in Kentucky. In 1796, there were nine practicing attorneys at Cincinnati, all of whom, except two, became confirmed drunkards, and dsecended to premature graves. Several of the early lawyers in Cincinnati and the towns in Northern Kentucky attended the courts of Clermont and Adams Counties until the organization of Brown County. Judge Jacob Burnet says:

" It was always my opinion that there was a fair proportion of genius and talent among the early members of the bar. Some of them, it is true, were uneducated, and had to acquire their legal knowledge after they assumed the profession. These were not numerous, but were noisy and officious, and, for some time, were able to procure a considerable amount of practice. This may be accounted for, in part, by the fact that the docket contained a large number of actions for slander, and assault and battery, and indictments for larceny, libels and the like."

It is worthy of note that Francis Dunlavy, the first President Judge of the circuit which embraced Cincinnati and the southwestern third of the State, was not a regularly educated lawyer, nor was he admitted to the bar until after his retirement from the bench. He was, however, a classical scholar, and had served as a member of the convention which formed the State constitution, and of the Territorial and State Legislatures. He practiced law for some years after his retirement from the bench, in 1817. His home was at Lebanon.

The attorney who prosecuted pleas in behalf of the State was appointed by the Supreme Court, and was frequently a non-resident of the county. In the earlier courts, the sum of $20 was the usual allowance for the services of a Prosecuting Attorney at a single term. Aaron Goforth, of Cincinnati; Arthur St. Clair, Jr., of Cincinnati; Joshua Collett, of Lebanon, were appointed attorneys for the State at different terms of the courts of Clermont County from

1803 until 1809. Arthur St. Clair was a son of the Territorial Governor. He is said to have appeared in court with a sword and a cocked hat. Joshua Collett was the first resident lawyer in Warren County, and practiced in the courts of Southwestern Ohio until he became President Judge. He presided at the first court in Brown County.

Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, afterward a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and a United States Senator, had a large practice in this portion of the circuit over which he traveled.

John McLean, of Lebanon, who afterward presided on the bench in Brown County as a Supreme Judge of Ohio, and was afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was known to the pioneers of this region as an able young lawyer.

Martin Marshall, of Augusta, Ky. , was regular in attendance at the courts of Brown County. He was a profound lawyer and a successful advocate.

Owen T. Fishback, of Clermont County, admitted to the bar in 1815, was for more than forty years a distinguished practitioner, and seven years a President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. " Half a century an ornament to the bar, of strong opinions, which he was accustomed to strongly express at all proper times, he was a man who left a decided impress on the history of his time and county. "

Thomas Morris, although he was never a resident of Brown County, was so long and prominently identified with the practice of law in the region now composing the county, both before and after its organization, that he should receive here more than a passing notice. He was born in Pennsylvania January 3, 1776, and died at his homestead, near Bethel, Ohio, December 7, 1844. The son of a Baptist minister of Welsh descent, his early life was passed in the wilds of West Virginia, where he had few advantages of schools. Excepting three months at a common school, his entire education was received in his log cabin home, where his mother taught him to read before he was six years old. In 1795, he removed to Columbia, in the Northwest Territory, where he clerked in the store of Bev. John Smith, one of the first Senators from Ohio in Congress. In 1797, he married Rachel Davis. In 1800, he removed to Williamsburg, and, in 1804, to Bethel, which was his home for most of his active life. In 1802, without the assistance of friends, without pecuniary means, without a preceptor, with a growing family and with but few books, he commenced the study of law. Early and late he was at his law books. After the hard labors of the day, night found him reading Blackstone by the light of hickory bark or a clapboard, at his cabin, and often by a brick-kiln which he was burning for the support of his family. Completing two years of study, in

1804 he was admitted to the bar. With a resolute purpose and an iron will, he pushed his onward way; he soon took a leading position at the bar; reputation and business rapidly accumulated, and for forty years he maintained his position among the able and successful lawyers of Ohio. Pie was among the ablest of the early lawyers of Clermont, many of his clients being from the region now forming Brown County. At the organization of Brown County, he was in the full tide of successful practice, and for years he had an extensive practice both in the courts of Clermont and Brown Before a jury there were few who surpassed him in power and effect. Indomitable energy was one of his marked characteristics. His son and biographer relates that u in a case of great im portance before the court of Brown County, he desired a continuance of his case, a principal witness being absent on account of high waters. The court refused the motion. Mr. Morris procured -a horse, swam the stream, and, with his witness behind him, returned and replunged into the swollen stream, entered the court and gained his case." He was often elected to the General Assembly, where he served on the most important committees, frequently being Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1809, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio; but, by an act of the Legislature called "the sweeping act," he was prevented from taking his seat on the bench. In 1832, he was elected United States Senator, and served six years. In the Senate he distinguished himself as an opponent of slavery. In 1844, the Liberty party nominated him a candidate for Yice President On his monument in the cemetery at Bethel is the following inscription:

John S. Wills, who was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1797, came from Columbus, Ohio, to Bipley, the temporary seat of justice of Brown County, about the time of the organization of the county, and was among the first resident practicing attorneys of Ripley. He afterward removed to Georgetown, and was engaged in the practice of his profession until his death, in 1829.

George W. Ring, the first resident Prosecuting Attorney of Brown County, came from his native State of Pennsylvania, where be was admitted to the bar in November, 1817, to visit his brothers in this county. He arrived in the county in December of the same year, and, after the formation of the county, began the practice of his profession at Ripley. It is believed that Wills and King were the only resident lawyers of the county when the first courts were held at Ripley.

Thomas L. Hamer commenced the practice of law at Georgetown in August, 1821; Archibald, Liggett, at Ripley, in 1825: David G. Devore, at Georgetown, in 1833; Andrew Ellison, at Georgetown, in 1835; Chambers Baird, at Ripley, in 1837; Hanson L. Penn, at Georgetown, in 1837; and John G. Marshall, in 1846.

For twenty years after the organization of the county, only four or five lawyers residing in the county were engaged in active practice at any one time. Attorneys and physicians were then subject to a tax of a few mills on each dol lar of their annual income, and the records of the County Commissioners contain lists of the practicing attorneys in the connty for a number of years following 1831. The list for 1831 is: Thomas L. Hamer, Archibald Liggett,

George W. King, John J. Higgins and Daniel F. Barney. Of these, Messrs. Higgins and Barney were not long engaged in the practice. In 1833, 1834 and 1835, only four lawyers were taxed on their incomes.

In 1840, there were six practicing attorneys resident in the county, viz. : Thomas L. Hamer, David G. Devore, Chambers Baird, Hanson L. Penn, Thomas H. Linch and Josiah Q. Gallup. Although the lawyers were few in numbers, it was not until about this time that the income of any one of them

In 1850, there were twenty practicing attorneys in the county - one at Aberdeen, one at Higginsport, two at Fayetteville, two ah Ripley and fourteen at Georgetown. In 1880, the number of practicing attorneys in the county was thirty-five.

Riding the circuit was the uniform custom of the early lawyers, whether they were old in the profession and had an established practice, or were young, briefless, and perhaps penniless, members, in search of business. They traveled on horseback, with their saddle-bags under them, an overcoat and umbrella strapped behind the saddle, and leggings well spattered with mud, tied with strings below the knees. Traveling the circuit became less common in the decade between 1830 and 1840, and finally ceased. Subsequent to 1840, it was continued only by the older lawyers, who had established a practice in the different counties of the circuit which made the toilsome journey, which took them away from their homes a considerable portion of the year, a remunerative one.

Lawyers' fees were low in the early practice in Ohio. A charge of hundreds of dollars was rare; a fee of thousands of dollars for services in a single case was almost unknown. Ejectment suits, which frequently arose from the disputed boundaries and titles of the Virginia Military Lands, were, perhaps, the most profitable part of the early lawyers' practice. It may be safely assumed that, for thirty years after the organization of the State of Ohio, $750, which was for a part of that time the salary of the Judg© of the Court of Common Pleas, was above rather than below the average annual income of a lawyer in full practice at Williamsburg, Batavia and Georgetown. The salary of the Judge of the Court of Common Pleas was fixed, in 1803, at $750; in 1816, at $1,000; in 1837, at $1,200; in 1852, at $1,500: and in 1867, at $2,500.

The Medical Profession

There are in existence no records from which we can learn the names of the physicians who practiced in the region now forming Brown County, previous to the organization of the county, and for several years subsequent there, to. The Legislature passed various acts to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery. The first of these was passed in 1811, when the whole State was divided into five districts. Among the censors named in early acts authorized to grant licenses to practice medicine and surgery in the districts which included the region of Brown County were Dr. Alexander Campbell, of Ripley; Dr. Levi Rogers, of Clermont County ; Dr. J. D. Keith ; and Dr. Edward Tiffin, the first Governor of Ohio.

The medical system ef the noted New England empiric, Samuel Thompson, was introduced into this county about 1826. It was termed the Botanic system, or Thompsonian system. Steaming a patient for the purpose of producing perspiration was such an important branch of the practice that the followers were frequently called steam doctors. They were also popularly termed herb or root doctors. The practitioners purchased Dr. Thompson's " New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician, containing a complete system of practice upon a plan entirely new, " with a patent right to the system, and, without any previous course of study, they were prepared for the practice of medicine: The system was extensively introduced in Ohio between the years 1825 and 1835. Dr. Thompson's book and patent right to the system were sold at $20, and the publishers of the book at Columbus, Ohio, put forth the statement that Thompson's agents disposed of 4.310 copies in three and a half years pre- ceding 1832, and that Dr. Thompson's share of the proceeds of his Western agency for that time was $17,500. The most important article used in Dr. Thompson's practice was lobelia, which he called the emetic herb, and the medicinal virtues of which he claimed to have discovered. The following extract from the " Botanic Physician " gives the Doctor's prescription of a stock of medicines for a family: "One ounce of the emetic herb, two ounces of cayenne, one-half pound bayberry root bark in powder, one pound poplar bark, one pint of the rheumatic drops This stock will be sufficient for a family for one year, with such articles as they can easily procure themselves when wanted, and will enable them to cure any disease which a family of common size may be afflicted with during that time. The expenses will be small and much better than to employ a doctor, and have his extravagant bill to pay." It is impossible to learn, at this time, how many of the practitioners of this system were to be found in this county. They were probably most numerous in Ohio about 1832.

The following is the list of physicians taxed on their income in Brown County in 1831: Greenleaf Norton, Alfred Beasley, Phillip J. Buckner, Samuel W. Penn, Enoch M. Ellsberry, George B. Bailey, Adam Wylie, Joseph Matthews, Thomas S. Williamson, Alexander Campbell, Samuel P. Anthony, T. M. Brown, Isaac M. Beck, Peter Williams.

The following is the list for 1841: Alfred Beasley, Simon L. Bearce, Isaac M. Beck, George B. Bailey, P. J. Buckner, Clinton Campbell, Henry Courtney, Y. M. Diball, Enoch M. Ellsberry, A. B. Heterick, William Herbert, Dr. Kincade, William B. McCormack, Peter Marshall, Thomas M. Moore, James B.'AfcConnell, Edward Newton, Daniel Porter, Nathan Scofield, John Thompson, William B. Thompson.

In 1831, $550 was the highest income upon which any physician in the county was taxed, and in 1841, the income of only one was placed as high as $1,000.

Agriculture

The great embarrassment under which the pioneer farmer labored was the difficulty of getting the products of his soil to a market. In spite of roots and stumps, sprouts and bushes, the newly cleared land brought forth bountiful harvests ; but the wagon roads were imperfect, canals and railroads unthought of, and the distance by the Ohio River to the principal markets so great, the navigation so difficult, tedious and hazardous, that the early farmer had little encouragement to increase the products of his fields beyond the wants of his family and the supply of the limited home market created by the wants of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns and the newly arrived emigrants. The average time required for a journey by a flatboat propelled by oars and poles, from Cincinnati to New Orleans and return, was six months. The cargoes taken in these boats were necessarily light, the boats could hot be easily brought back, and were generally abandoned at New Orleans, and the crew returned by land, generally on foot, through a wilderness of hundreds of miles. A large part of the proceeds of the cargo was necessarily consumed in the cost of taking it to market. Beeswax, skins and feathers were the principal articles that could profitably be transported by wagons to distant markets. Hogs and cattle were driv'%** afoot, over the mountains, and, after a journey of a month or six weeks, found an uncertain market in Baltimore. Corn rarely commanded more than 10 or 12 cents per bushel; wheat, 30 or 40 cents: hay was from $3 to $4 per ton; flour, from $1.50 to $2 per hundred; pork, from $1 to $2 per hundred; the average price of good beef was $1.50 per hundred, while oats, potatoes, butter and eggs scarcely had a market value, and the sale of cabbage and turnips was almost unheard of. But the early farmers supplied their homes liberally with the comforts of pioneer life; they lived independently, and, perhaps, were as happy and contented as those who have the luxuries brought by wealth and commerce.

The proximity of a spring, rather than the claims of taste or sanitary considerations, usually determined the location of the first residence of the pioneer farmer; and the log stable and the corn-crib, made of rails or poles, were apt to be in close proximity to the residence. The first fences, both for the fields and the door-yard, were made of rails in the form of the Virginia, or worm, fence. This, in a new country, where timber, readily split with the wedge and maul, was abundant, was the cheapest and most durable fence. Unsightly as it is, it is yet superseded to a limited extent only by post and rail, board or wire fences, or hedges.

Agricultural implements were at an early period necessarily few in number and rude and simple in construction. The plow first used was of rude contraction - often made on the farm with the assistance of the neighboring blacksmith. It had a wooden mold-board and a clumsy iron share. It took a strong man to hold it, and twice the strength of team now requisite for the same amount of work. The cast-iron plow was slowly introduced. The early harrows were made of bars of wood and wooden teeth, and were rude and homely in construction. Sometimes, in place of the harrow, a brash, weighted down with a piece of timber, was dragged over the ground. The sickle was in universal use for harvesting grain until about 1825, when it was gradually superseded by the cradle. The sickle is one of the most ancient of farming implements, but reaping with the sickle was always slow and laborious. For the twenty years succeeding 1830, there were few farmers who did not know how to swing the cradle and scythe, but during the next twenty years, reapers and mowers, drawn by horses, became almost the only harvesters of grain and grass. The first reaping machines merely cut the grain; a raker was necessary to gather the grain into sheaves ready for the binders. Self-raking reaping machines soon followed, and, about 1878, self-binding machines were introduced. Of the two old-fashioned methods of separating the grain from the straw - the flail and tramping with horses - the latter was the most common in this county. To-day, instead of this slow and wasteful method, a horse or steam-power thresher not only separates the grain, but winnows it and carries the straw to the stack, all at the same time.

The capital invested in domestic animals constitutes a large item in the wealth of the county. Improvements in breeds of all the farm animals have kept pace with the improvements in agricultural implements and methods of tilling the soil. After the land had been generally cleared of the forests, the necessity of .oxen ceased, and interest in the improvement of the horse commenced. The possession of good horses - elegant, strong and speedy - became a matter of pride with the farmer. Speed was not considered of special value in the horse until the improvements in the public roads rendered possible the use of the modern light carriage. The improvements in the horse are doubt- - less largely due to the infusion of the blood of the thoroughbred, which was early introduced into Southern Ohio. The Morgan, the Cadmus, the Bellfounder, the C. M. Clay and the Hambletonian stock were also common at different periods; but whatever breed has been introduced, the tendency has always been to amalgamate it with the stocks already in use. The strains of blood have not, therefore, been kept distinct. The farm horse, or horses for general purposes, found throughout the county are of a most uncertain blood,

Cattle

The cattle of the early settlers wore introduced from various quarters, immigrants from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky bringing many with them, and it is believed by some that cattle raised by the Indians previous to the first settlements by the whites were an element in the original or common herds in the "West Of course, they were a heterogeneous collection, yet, in process of timo, the stock was assimilated to the locality, acquiring local characteristics, by which the experienced cattle-dealer determined, from their general appearance, the region in which they were reared. The early farmers .suffered their cattle to wander through the woods and uncultivated grounds, browsing for their living, and thus some of the native grasses and shrubs were extirpated by being cropped off early in the spring before their flowers and seeds were formed. In winter, the cows were not housed nor sheltered, but found their subsistence at a stack of wheat straw, or in the cornfield after husking time; or, at best, 'were fed twice a day in an open lot, with fodder and unhusked corn. The practice, which is still common, of securing the corn before it is fully matured, by cutting off the stalks near the ground and stacking it in the field, is said to have originated with the cattle-feeders of Virginia.

The Patton stock of English cattle, imported into Kentucky early in this century, doubtless found their way across the Ohio and were crossed with the common cattle. Excellent Short-Horn cattle were introduced from time to time, until there is scarcely a neighborhood in the county in which more or less of their cross is not found. Of late years, the Jersey cows are coming into favor, especially in the towns and on farms adjoining the towns.

Swine

The raising of hogs has proved so well adapted to the agriculture of the county that on almost every farm it has been carried on, and the animal has been made to serve both as a popular and cheap article of food, and a means of condensing for the market a large part of the extensive crops of Indian corn. Of all domestic animals, the hog comes to maturity quickest, requires least skill and care to handle, and has been most generally relied on in the re gions around Cincinnati for domestic consumption and for profit. Ripley was at one time an important pork market.

Several breeds of hogs have been introduced into Southwestern Ohio, and have found their way into Brown County. The swine of the early settlers were long and slim, coarse, large-boned and long-legged, with erect bristles on the neck and back. They were active and healthy, and capable of making heavy hogs, but two years or more were required for them to mature. Until a short time before being butchered or driven to market, they were suffered to run at large in the woods, subsisting as foragers. They were sometimes known as " razor-backs. "

The Big China hogs, from which originated the celebrated Poland-China hogs, were introduced into Warren County in 1816. In that year, John Wallace, then a Trustee of the Shaker society, visited Philadelphia on business, and was shown what were called the Big China hogs. He was pleased with them, and purchased four hogs, and brought them the same season to Union Village. These four hogs were entirely white, except one, upon which were some sandy spots, in which appeared small black spots. They were repre- sented to be either imported or the immediate descendants of imported stock, and are believed to have been the first China hogs in Southwestern Ohio. Subsequently, other China hogs were introduced.

They were extensively raised and crossed with the best breeds then existing, and the product of these crosses constituted a breed of fine qualities, which was generally known as the 44 W arren County hog, " sometimes as the 44 Shaker hog."

The Berkshires were introduced in 1835 or 1836, by Mr. Munson Beach, who operated in connection with his brother, Louis Beach, then a prominent merchant in the city of New York. The Berkshires introduced by the Messrs. Beach were generally black, with occasional marks of white, either on the feet, the tip of the tail or in the face. They were muscular, active and round-bodied hogs, and, in most cases, had sharp -pointed, upright ears. Some families, however, were large in size, deep in their bodies, with ears that lopped.

The Irish Grazier breed of hogs was imported direct into Southwestern Ohio by William Neff, Esq., of Cincinnati, about 1839. The Graziers were white, with only occasional sandy spots, which appeared about the eyes. These three breeds - the Big China, the Berkshires and Irish Graziers - were extensively used in making crosses by the best breeders in Southwestern Ohio. The stock thus produced has resulted in what is known as the Poland- China hog.

The first part of this name, however, is a misnomer, as the best authorities agree that there never was a breed of hogs known as the Poland in the Miami Valley, and no Poland cross entered into the formation of the breed. The first part of the name is believed to have originated from the fact that a Polander residing in Hamilton County, having purchased some of the Shaker or Warren County hogs many years ago, disposed of them to purchasers, who named them Poland, Polander, hogs. The National Convention of Swine Breeders of 1872 retained this misnomer for the reason that the great mass of breeders so called the breed, and to change a name generally used is difficult.

In recent years, pure-blooded Berkshires have been brought into Brown County, and these, with the Poland-China, are the principal breeds raised in the county.

Tobacco

Tobacco early became an important crop in Brown County, For some years previous to 1850, it ranked second in importance to corn only. The crop at that time was estimated at some fourteen hundred hogsheads, the average yield per acre being about one thousand pounds. The price Varied with the quality, from 3 to 8 cents per pound. The crop was sold at Ripley, Higginsport and other places on the Ohio, where it was pressed into hogsheads and shipped to New Orleans.

Some of the agriculturists of Brown County foresaw the importance of the tobacco- growing interest. Previous to the civil war, Gen. James Loudon offered, at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, a resolution granting a premium on the best crop of tobacco grown upon an acre of ground in tho State, but the proposition was ridiculed and voted down, the majority believing that the growth of tobacco should not be encouraged. In 1863, Gen. Loudon, at a meeting of the same board, renewed his proposition, and stated that the production of tobacco was found to be the greatest and most profitable industry on the limestone lands of the Ohio Biver counties - the most profitable crop in Southern Ohio. He called attention to the fact that the hillsides of Brown County had been advertised for sale a few years before, and nobody would bid over 62 J- cents per acre for them; then, the same land was worth $50 per acre. The Germans, by their skill and industry, had made these steep hillsides the best producing land in Ohio. It had been asserted that Ohio could nover compete with Kentucky in raising tobacco; but at that time, he said, the best tobacco sold in the Cincinnati market, at 40 cents per pound, as Mason County, Ky. , tobacco, had been raised in Brown County, Ohio.

For more than twenty years past, tobacco -growing has been the most important industry of the county. In 1840, Brown stood tenth among the counties of Ohio in the amount of tobacco grown; in 1850 and 1860, fifth; since the civil war, Brown has been second to Montgomery only in the number of acres planted and number of pounds grown. While Montgomery County far exceeds Brown in the amount of tobacco grown, the quality of the leaf in Brown is far superior, and brings in the market a much higher price than that grown in Montgomery.

The growth of tobacco culture in Brown County is exhibited in the following table. The figures for the years 1840, 1850 and 1860 were obtained from the United States Census returns; those for the succeeding years, from the Ohio Statistical Reports:

The White Burley variety, so celebrated and highly prized for the manufacture of chewing tobacco, both fine -cut and plug, originated in Brown County. The story of its origin generally accepted is this: About the time of the civil war, a tobacco-grower named Joseph Fore, residing on the farm of Capt. Kautz, on White Oak, between Georgetown and Higginsport, observed in his tobacco bed some plants of a remarkably white color. The color of both stems and leaves of these plants was similar to that of chance stocks of corn called "sick corn." The seed sown in the tobacco bed was of the Little Burley variety. One or two stalks of the new and strange variety, although unpromising in appearance, were permitted to mature, and the seed they produced was saved. The plants grown from the seed, though not so large, thrifty and hardy as other varieties, were found to consist of an excellent fiber, to cure of a bright color, to be free from gum, and to possess all the qualities desirable for cutting purposes. The seed from the new varioty was gradually spread over Brown, and portions of adjoining counties in Ohio and Kentucky. It soon became the most desirable tobacco in the Cincinnati market, and commanded the highest prices. It is now almost the only variety grown in the Brown County, Ohio, and the Mason County, Ky., districts, nnd its culture has extended to other portions of the country. The growing crops of this variety during the first years of its culture were white, as if covered with hoar-frost. In later years, the white color is less marked, and a tendency toward a reversion to the original Barley tobacco, from which it sprang, has been observed .

The Brown County Agricultural Society was organized on the 17th day of January, 1850, agreeably to the laws of Ohio. The following were the first officers: Samuel Kerr, Decatur, President; Alexander Campbell, Ripley, Vice

The first fair of the society was held at Russellville, on the 161 h of October, 1850. The exhibition, though not large, was considered a respectable one, and the officers, in their annual report, stated that the number of animals and articles offered for exhibition and the competition for premiums were far greater than they had anticipated. No admission fee to the fair was charged. The following is the first report of the Treasurer of the society:

The officers elected January 17. 1851, were: Alexander Campbell, Ripley, President; Philip Jolly, Ripley, Vice President; Reason Shepherd, Ripley, Secretary; John Glaze, Russelville, Treasurer; John Williamson, Russelville; Absalom King, Georgetown; David Dixon, Ripley; and James Tweed, Ripley, Managers. The second annual fair was held at Ripley on the 2d and

3d days of October, 1851. The attendance was larger, and the number of articles and animals on exhibition greater, than at the first fair. The Treasurer's report shows that the total expenditures of the fair were $492.85, of which $409.75 were for premiums. At the annual meeting of the board, premiums on crops were awarded as follows: To George Snedaker, on corn, 120 bushels per acre; to the same, on wheat, twenty- eight bushels per acre; to Alexander Campbell, on oats, sixty-four and three-fourths bushels per acre; to Reason Shepherd, on buckwheat, twenty-four bushels per acre; to Samuel G. Moore, on hay, two and a half tons per acre; to Russell Shaw, on onions, fifty-four and one-fourth bushels, raised on forty-two poles of ground.

A change having been made in the constitution of the society, the third annual election for officers was held on the second Tuesday of November, 1851. The election was held at Georgetown, and the following officers were chosen: H. L. Penn, Georgetown, President; E. B. Fee, New Hope, Yice President; Newton A. Devore, Secretary (declined); Abraham King, Georgetown; John Markley, Georgetown; James Loudon, Georgetown; Charles Richards, Georgetown; Henry Young, New Hope, Managers. The fair was permanently established at Georgetown; grounds were there purchased, upon which the exhibitions of the society have since been annually held.

In 1855, the society reported its total receipts at $893.60, and its expenditures at $727.34. In 1870, there were 556 members; the total receipts, $2,- 100; the total expenditures, $1,891, In 1876, the total receipts were $2,054.- 72. In 1880, there were 540 members; the total receipts were $2,490. The society has sixteen acres of ground, which, with the improvements thereon, is valued at $3,000.

A few years ago, the Directors of the society abolished horse-racing at the annual fairs, and since that time no premiums for speed horses have been offered. This measure, which was looked upon by many as a hazardous experiment, has resulted beneficially to the financial condition of the society. The fair for 1882 was the most successful in the history of the society.

Growth Of Wealth And Population

The assessment of property under the laws for the collection of taxes affords an imperfect means of comparing the wealth of the county at different periods. It gives by no means the market value, being generally much below the selling price. It is, however, the best means at our command to show the growth of the wealth of the county. Subjoined are the statistics for several years.

was in 1820, when party lines were obliterated, and James Monroe was reelected President with the electoral vote of every State in the Union. This was "the era of good feeling in politics." In 1824, the Republicans or Anti-Federalists, who had before been united in the support of J efferson, Madison and Monroe, were somewhat divided in their choice for President. There were four candidates for President, three of them having electoral tickets in Ohio, Many old Republicans supported J. Q. Adams; others Andrew Jackson, but Henry Clay carried the State of Ohio. Early in the canvass, it became evident that a large majority of the people of Brown were in favor of Gen. Jackson. This was shown by the votes taken at militia musters. Many newspapers in Ohio were neutral with respect to the opposing candidates, and contented themselves with the publication of communications from the friends of all the aspirants. Young Thomas L. Hamer, who then edited the Benefactor at Georgetown, was an outspoken advocate of the election of Jackson. The following is from his paper of the date of October 25, 1824: " Awake, citizens of Ohio!

Come forward and give your voice to the man who has done more for the welfare of your country than all the other candidates put together. Andrew Jackson deserves your suffrages if Washington deserved the offices conferred on him. Whilst Clay, Crawford and Adams were lolling on beds of down and feasting on the delicacies of both hemispheres, he was wading through swamps, sleeping on the cold ground and living upon acorns." Jackson received in the county nearly twice as many votes as were cast for both Clay and Adams. The full vote of the county by townships is not before us, but it is believed that J ackson received a plurality in every township in the county. At the October election this year, questions of national politics had little effect on the vote for the various candidates. The friends of Jackson, Clay and Adams in Brown united in supporting Jeremiah Morrow for Governor, and J. W. Campbell for Congress. There were this year four candidates for Representative in the Legislature; six candidates for County Commissioner.; six candidates for Auditor, and three candidates for Coroner.

In 1828, party lines were closely drawn between the Adams men and Jackson men. Rallying committees were appointed in the various townships for the purpose of getting out a full vote at the election for President. At that time, and for many succeeding years, one of the most hotly contested questions at issue was which was the old Republican party. Both parties claimed to be the old Jeffersonian Republicans. Federalist, the name of the pary to which Washington and Hamilton belonged, had long before become a term of reproach. At the October election in 1828, John W. Campbell, the Jackson candidate for Governor, resided in Brown County. Ho had for ten years been a Representative in Congress, during which time he was a resident of Adams County. In 1826, he removed to Brown County, and settled on a farm on Straight Creek, which he improved with care and built upon it a large and convenient residence, which he named " Solitude." Mr. Campbell was a native of Augusta County, Ya. , and studied law at Morgantown, Ya. , and was admitted to the bai' at West Union, Ohio, in 1808. In the canvass for Governor in 1828, he was defeated by Allen Trimble, and was afterward appointed a Judge of the United States District Court; he then removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he resided until his death, in 1831. His literary papers were published in a volume by his widow. Judge J. W. Campbell was a brother of Joseph N. Campbell, of Ripley, one of the first Associate Judges of Brown County, who died of cholera July 13, 1833, aged fifty years.

In the early history of the county, candidates were generally placed before the people without the intervention of a party caucus, a political convention or primary election. The names of candidates for county offices and members of the Legislature were usually ann< meed by themselves or their friends in the newspapers of the county several weeks prior to the election Sometimes there were seven or eight candidates for a single office; usually there were but two or three. The personal popularity of a candidate and his fitness for the office were of more importance than his views on national politics. The county seat contest for several years was an important factor in the selection of officers, especially members of the Legislature. On July 14, 1824, a meeting was held at Georgetown. which resolved that it was expedient " that the friends of the center interest delegate one or more persons from each township in the county to meet at Georgetown on the first day of the next official muster to select candidates for the next October election. "

In 1832, a call signed by more than two hundred supporters of the administration of Andrew Jackson was published, recommending the voters of the Jackson Democratic party in Brown County to meet on Saturday, August 11, at the usual place of holding elections in each township, and appoint five persons from each township to represent them in a convention to be held at Georgetown on August 25, 1832, for the purpose of selecting a ticket for the State Legislature and nominating committees of vigilance and correspondence, and transacting such other business as may be deemed necessary. At the county convention only eight out of fourteen townships were represented. The convention nominated candidates for Representative in the Legislature, and resolved that it was inexpedient to nominate candidates for county offices. Daniel F. Barney, Thomas L. Hamer and Jesse R. Grant were appointed a committee to prepare an address to the Democratic voters of the county.

In the early exciting contests the county was often flooded with handbills and circulars gotten up by the opposing candidates and their friends. Mr. Hamer, both when a candidate for the Legislature and for Congress, found it advisable to issue circulars explaining his views and replying to the charges made by his opponents. When he became a candidate for Congress the first time, he authorized the announcement of his candidacy in a Georgetown newspaper dated July 31, 1832, and at the same time authorized the editor to say that Mr Hamer, "as soon as professional avocations will permit, will publish an address to the electors, announcing his political principles. This measure is deemed necessary, not only because the people have a right to know tho sentiments of candidates for popular favor, but also to relieve other gentlemen from the trouble of circulating and explaining his sentiments for him - a work which has been in progress, as he understands, for some time past. "

Mr. Hamer's address "To the voters of the Fifth Congressional District of Ohio" was dated August 15, 1832, and consisted of an eight-page circular. It gave a full and frank expression of views on nullification, the tariff, the United States Bank and internal improvements by the General Government. On some of these subjects he differed with his best personal and political friends. A circular was soon issued and widely circulated by the friends of Thomas Morris, in which Mr. Hamer was accused of having deserted the Jackson party, and abandoned his Democratic principles. To this Mr. Hamer replied in a circular of equal length with his first address. Other circulars and handbills were issued on both sides in this memorable contest in the Brown, Adams and Clermont District

Anti - Slavery Sentiments

The doctrines of the Abolitionists were very unpopular in this county, and those who maintained them were subjected to much odium and abuse. There was, however, a small minority of the people who never flinched from avowing their deep-seated and uncompromising opposition to every form of human bondage. Leicester King, the Abolition candidate for Governor in 1842, received 108 votes in the county, the total number of votes being 3,792. In 1846, Samuel Lewis, the Liberty candidate, received 208 votes, and in 1853 the same man, as the Free Soil candidate, received 593 votes in the county. The greater portion of the Abolitionists of the county were in and about Ripley, Sardinia, Russellville, the Red Oak neighborhood and some other localities.

Among the prominent leaders of the anti-slavery cause were Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley; Rev. James Gilliland, of Red Oak; Rev. Jesse Lockhart, of Russelville; Dr. Bearce, of Decatur; Rev. Robert B. Dobbins, of the Sar dinia Presbyterian Church; Dr. Isaac M. Beck, of Sardinia; Rev. John B. Mahan and John Moore, of Washington Township; Dr. Alexander Campbell, of Ripley, and others whose names apppear in other parts of this work.

Many fugitives from bondage passed through the county on their way to Canada, and found friends to assist them on their way to liberty. A common route followed by escaping slaves was from Ripley through the neighborhoods of Red Oak and Russellville to Sardinia; thence to the Quaker settlements in Clinton County. John W. Hudson, a colored man, did much service in piloting the fugitives.

The operation of the Underground Railroad through Brown County awakened the most bitter animosity on the part of the Kentuckians against those who were believed to assist the slaves in their flight. At an anti-slavery meeting of the citizens of Sardinia and vicinity, held on November 21, 1838, a committee of respectable citizens presented a report, accompanied with affidavits in support of its declarations, stating that for more than a year past there had been an unusual degree of hatred manifested by the slave-hunters and slaveholders toward the Abolitionists of Brown County, and that rewards varying from $500 to $2,500 had been repeatedly offered by different persons for the abduction or assassination of Rev. John B. Mahon, and rewards had also been offered for Amos Pettijohn, William A. Frazier and Dr. Isaac M. Beck, of Sardinia, Rev. John Rankin and Dr. Alexender Campbell, of Ripley, William McCoy, of Russellville, and citizens of Adams County.

The trial of Rev. John B. Mahan, of Brown County, Ohio, in the Circuit Court of Mason County, Ky. , for felony in aiding certain slaves to escape from their master, was a celebrated case in the history of anti-slavery agitation. M ahan was a local preacher and kept a tavern on temperance principles in Sardinia. He was indicted in Mason County, Ky., on the charge of " aiding and assisting certain slaves, the property of Wiliam Greathouse, to make their escape from the possession of the said William Greathouse, out of and beyond the State of Kentucky." Mahan claimed that he had never seen one of the two slaves of Greathouse which had escaped; that the other had stopped at his tavern, but had not been secreted by him, and that he had no agency whatever in causing or assisting the escape of either of the slaves; nor had he been in Mason County or any adjoining county for nearly twenty years. After his indictment, the Governor of Kentucky sent a requisition to the Governor of Ohio for his delivery to the authorities of the former State. Joseph Vance, Governor of Ohio, on the 6th of September, 1838, issued a warrant for the arrest of Mahan, and his delivery to the custody of the Sheriff of Mason County, Ky.

On Mahan's arrest, several of his friends accompanied him to Georgetown for the purpose of securing his release on a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was obtained, but it was directed to the Sheriff of Brown County, Ohio, and Mahan was already in the custody of the Sheriff of Mason County, Ky., who was on

Lis way with the prisoner to Kentucky, and refused to regard the command of the writ. Mahan remained in prison until his trial, which commenced on November 13, and continued six days. Ho was absent from his home in all nearly ten weeks. He was acquitted by the jury, under the charge of Judge Walker Iteid, that the court had no jurisdiction of the case, if the jury should find that the prisoner was a citizen of Ohio, and had not been in the State of Kentucky until brought there by legal process.

Although he was granted a fair trial and was acquitted, the surrender of Mahan to the authorities of another State was justly regarded as a great hardship. His defense cost him a large sum of money. A civil suit was brought against him for damages for the loss of the two slaves he was accused of helping to escape. The case directed public attention to the extradition laws of Ohio as they then existed, and which certainly needed revision for the protection of the personal liberty of its citizens. The Governor of Ohio, in his annual message, referred at length to the case as one which had caused much political excitement, and defended his conduct in surrendering Mahnn as a high duty of an executive officer under the requirement of the National Constitution, but he expressed the hope that the Legislature would take such steps as would best secure the peace and tranquility of our border population. The conduct of Gov. Yance in the case was severely censured by many citizens of Ohio.

This case occurred fourteen years before the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, two years before the organization of the Liberty party, and in the first year of the publication of the Philanthropist , the organ of the Ohio State Antislavery Society, edited by Gamiliel Bailey, Jr., and printed at Cincinnati. The Mahan case occupied considerable space in the columns of the Philanthropist and other anti -slavery journals for several successive numbers. The report of the trial was published in a pamphlet, and anti-slavery societies were called on to assist in spreading it far and wide, as it would do much for the cause of Abolition. The White Oak Anti-Slavery Society, at a meeting held at Sardinia, adopted resolutions in relation to the Mahan case, as did the anti- slavery citizens of Sardinia at a public meeting. One of the resolutions adopted at the later meeting severely condemmed Hon. T. L. Hamer for refusing his services as attorney in the habeas corpus case for the benefit of Mahan.

One year later, John B. Mahan, Joseph Petti j oh n and Amos Petti john wore tried at Georgetown on an indictment for riot in rescuing a negro from the hands of a Constable. David G. Devore, Prosecuting Attorney; W. C. Marshall and T. L. Hamer appeared on tho side of the prosecution. Thomas Morris and Messrs. Jolliffe and Fishback for the defendants. Mahan and Joseph Pettijohn were found guilty, and wero sentenced each to pay a fine of $50, to be imprisoned in the dungeon of the jail of Brown County for ten days, and to be fed on bread and water only during the term of imprisonment. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, and (lie execution of the sentenco was suspended until the decision of the higher tribunal. In pronouncing sentence upon Mahan, the court reminded him that it had been proved on the trial that he was a minister of the gospel of peace; that the riot had taken place on the Sabbath day; that instead of attending to the duties of his sacred calling he had been found traversing the country on horseback in company with armed men, violating the laws of his country and resisting a ministerial officer in tho regular discharge of his duties. He advised him that his present situation should be a warning to him, and that he should not allow his excessive pliilan thropy to lead him into similar aggressions in the. future.'5 The sentence wras reversed by tho Supreme Court for error in empanneling the jury.

The following from the pen of Bev. John B. Mahan is here given in justice to him. and as reflecting not only his own sentiments, but probably those of the great majority of his cotemporary Abolitionists:

" However much every good man desires that slavery should have an end, and however much Abolitionists are willing to hazard and sacrifice for this oppressed, degraded and despised portion of our fellow men, I am confident that few, if any, for various reasons, would invade the jurisdiction of another State to give aid or encouragement to slaves to escape from their owners. But it ought not to be concealed that a very great majority of Northern people, as well as those that are not Abolitionists as well as those that are Abolitionists (however much human nature has been marred by sin), are not capable of violating the sympathies of their nature or the dictates of their common humanity so far as to be able to drive from their doors the unsheltered, unprotected stranger, or send away unfed, unclothed, unprovided -for the outcasts or wandering poor."

1851 - Vote for Governor under new constitution: Reuben Wood (Democrat), 1,807; Samuel F. Vinton (Whig), 1,081; Samuel Lewis (Free Soil), 165; total vote, 3,053.