Brown County, Ohio - Chapter 11: Sketches of Distinguished Citizens, 1883

Chapter 11: Sketches of Distinguished Citizens

[The biography of Thomas L. Hamer here presented is the first one given to the public of this distinguished lawyer, statesman and soldier. The materials for the sketch of Matthew Gardner were obtained from his autobiography. These sketches, with others of deceased citizens who were honored with high official positions and were prominent actors in the early history of the county, it is thought may appropriately form a chapter in this part of the work. ]

Gen. Thomas L. Hamer

Thomas Lyon Hamer was born in Northumberland County, Penn., in the month of July, 1800, and died near Monterey, Mexico, December 2, 1846. His father was a farmer of moderate means, who, about the year 1812, removed his family to the State of New York and resided for a short time in the vicinity of Lake Champlain. While there, it was the lot of Thomas L., then a youth of fourteen years, to be an eye-witness of the naval action fought by the heroic McDonough, and that thrilling scene, with its triumphant result, gave him, as he often declared, an inclination toward warlike achievements, which adhered to him through life. In 1817, the elder Hamer removed with his family to Ohio, and purchased a farm near Oxford, Butler County, where he resided until his death. Young Thomas accompanied the family until they reached the mouth of Nine Mile Creek, a stream of Clermont County which empties into the Ohio at the western boundary of the county. Here he bade his parents adieu, resolved no longer to be a charge upon their slender resources, and here, at the age of seventeen, with no money save only "one and sixpence/' in his pocket, with no property except the homespun clothing he wore, without friends or acquaintances, a stranger in a strange land, he began his career. He had received a tolerable English education, and in the immediate vicinity of the place where he landed, he taught a school for about four months. He borrowed while there, from a noted Magistrate named Lindsey, an old and worm-eaten copy of " Espinasse's Nisi Prius," which he read during his spare hours, reciting his first lessons in the law to the learned Justice of the Peace. He continued the business of teaching at Withamsville, where he had access to the library of Dr. William Porter. Subsequently, he took charge of a school at Bethel, where he boarded in the family of Thomas Morris, the pioneer lawyer of Clermont County, who superintended his legal studies until his admission to the bar. From a subscription paper, dated at Bethel, October 16, 1820, still in existence, it appears that the price of tuition in Mr. Hamer's school at that time was $2 per quarter; the regular branches to be taught were reading, writ ing and arithmetic; grammar would be taught, if requested, at $3 per quarter; the number of pupils subscribed was seventeen, the subscribers agreeing to furnish a schoolroom and fuel.

In the spring of 1821, Mr. Hamer was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at Williamsburg, Thomas Morris and Thomas Porter recommending his admission. It is said that up to this time, he had never, at any time, been within the walls of a court house, and was a modest, diffident and unassuming young man. On the 4th of July succeeding his admission to the bar, he delivered an oration at Withamsville, which was printed in the Farmer's Friend, a newspaper published at Williamsburg. This address indicates literary taste, is carefully written, and must have added to the reputation of the youthful member of the legal profession, who was just reaching his majority.

In the month of August, 1821, he moved to Georgetown, which, three months before, had been made a seat of justice, and then was a marshy piece of ground covered with a dense forest, with stakes driven into the ground to mark the corners of the lots into which it had been laid out. Here, in a new town and a newly formed county, at the age of twenty-one, he commenced the practice of law, and here was his home until his lamented death. Soon after establishing himself at Georgetown, he married Lydia Bruce Higgins, daughter of Col. Robert Higgins, a prominent citizen of Brown County.

The young lawyer soon became a favorite in the community. He was intelligent and talented; his manners were attractive, his conversation fascinating; he won for himself both esteem and affection. As is usual with young lawyers, his practice did not occupy all his time, but his spare hours were not passed in idleness. His tastes were literary and scholarly, and he read extensively. He accepted the office of Justice of the Peace of Pleasant Township, and, on the removal of the Benefactor, the first newspaper of Brown County, to Georgetown, in January, 1824, he became its editor and so continued for two years. For a while, he was lawyer, Magistrate and editor. His practice in writing, combined with his literary studies, gave him the power - not less valuable than oratory - of expressing his thoughts on paper in a style easy, clear and forcible. His practice at the bar increased and became lucrative. He rapidly rose to distinction in his profession, especially as a jury lawyer. His success in his profession arose more from his great knowledge of human nature and his " artless and spirit-stirring eloquence " than for any fondness for the intricacies and technicalities of the science of law and the common-law pleading. He came in contact with able and distinguished lawyers, who traveled the judicial circuit, but in ability to sway a jury, there were none superior to young Hamer.

Mr. Hamer early evinced a warm interest in politics. In 1824, his newspaper advocated the election of Andrew Jackson, and the same year he was proposed for the Legislature, but he declined to be a candidate. In 1825, he was first elected a Representative in the General Assembly. In 1828, he was a Presidential elector on the Jackson ticket, and was again elected a Repre sentative in the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1829. At the organization of the House of Representatives, in December, 1829, he was unanimously elected its Speaker, a station he was admirably qualified to fill by reason of his acquaintance with parliamentary law, his courteous deportment and singular self-possession. Among the distinguished members of this Legislature were Gen. Duncan McArthur and Robert Lucas, in the Senate, who became the opposing candidates for Governor at the next election, and in the House, ex-Gov. Morrow and Thomas Corwin. Between Corwin and Hamer a friendship was formed, and was long continued, notwithstanding their differences in politics.

As a member of the Legislature and Speaker, Mr. Hamer's course was marked by impartiality and independence, rather than a narrow partisan spirit. Indeed, he was accused by some of the hot-headed members of his own party of a lack of zeal in promoting the interests of the Jackson party. The body over which he presided was composed of thirty- seven Jackson and thirtyfive Adams men. In appointing the fifteen standing committees, he appointed a majority of Jackson men on eight and a majority of Adams men on seven committees. In appointing select committees on local questions, he wholly disregarded political differences. In a caucus of the Jackson men of both Houses, held in January, 1830, a motion was made that the members pledge themselves to vote in the Legislature for the candidate for any office selected by a majority of the caucus. Mr. Hamer opposed the motion in two or three speeches, and gave several reasons why he could not abide by the rule if adopted. The Legislature then elected Supreme Judges and President Judges. Mr. Hamer said that a majority of the caucus was composed of farmers, mechanics and merchants, who were not versed in the law, and that if they should, with honest motives, select a candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court whom he personally knew to be not qualified, he could not go into the Legislature and vote for him. At the election of Judges, Mr. Hamer voted against two of the nominees of the Jackson caucus, one for Supreme Judge and one for President Judge. In defending himself against the charge of having been unfaithful to the interests of his party, Mr. Hamer afterward said:

" The business of legislating for the people of Ohio, generally speaking, has no sort of connection with party politics; it is impossible to bring them together. None but men of narrow minds and strong party prejudices ever did or ever will discover any such connection. In voting for State officers, however, all admit that the question should have its influence. How far that in fluence is to extend, is a different consideration. I have .never believed that a man who goes to the Legislature and takes an oath to discharge all his duties according to the best of his judgment and ability, as every member does, would be justifiable in voting for a candidate for Judge or any other office, whom he knew was unfit for the station. Does he not violate his oath if he gives such a vote ? He swTears to vote according to the dictates of his judgment; his judgment tells him the candidate is not qualified, but he still votes for the man because he is a Jacksonian, and has been taken up by the Jackson party. Is this honest? Is it a faithful discharge of: the duty he owes his constituents? Is it not a violation of his oath? I think so, and if any other man thinks otherwise, let him act accordingly. I never have and never will obey the dictates of party principles or party caucuses, when by so doing I must violate my oath as Representative, betray my constituents or injure my country."

In 1832, Mr. Hamer was first elected to the Congress of the United States from the district composed of the counties of Brown, Clermont and Adams. He appeared before the people as an Independent Democratic candidate; the opposing candidates were Thomas Morris, of Clermont, who claimed to be the nominee of the Democratic party; Owen T. Fishback, of Clermont, the Whig candidate, and William Russell, of Adams, then a member of Congress, who also appeared as an anti- Jackson candidate. The election for Governor that year was hotly contested, and party lines were closely drawn; the great excitement in the Fifth District, however, was the race for Congress, and this contest aroused the whole people. The three principal candidates, Morris, Fishback and Hamer, were all strong men; all three were lawyers of ability and had had experience in the Legislature. Morris lived at Bethel, Fishback at Batavia. Hamer at Georgetown, and Russell at West Union. The canvass could not well have been carried on without some bitterness, and there was perhaps more between the supporters of Morris and Hamer than of the other candidates. Hamer was successful, the aggregate vote of all the candidates being as follows: Hamer, 2,171; Fishback, 2,069; Morris, 2,028; Russell, 403. Morris carried his own county, receiving 1,319 to 1, 186 for Fishback, 409 for Hamer and 19 for Russell, but the eloquence of young Hamer carried captive the Democratic yeomanry of Brown and Adams, and their majorities bore him triumphant to Congress.

It is remarkable that Thomas Morris, so distinguished in the political history of Ohio, when first a candidate for Congress, was defeated by the young man whose law studies he had directed. Two months after his defeat, he was elected by the Legislature a United States Senator, and Thomas Morris and Thomas L. Hamer took their seats as members of the Congress of the United States at. the same time, and each served just six years, one in the Upper, the other in the Lower House. Both were elected as members of the same political party, and though differing widely, especially as to slavery agitation, both became distinguished and honored men. After the death of Hamer in Mexico, a member-elect of Congress, a son of Senator Morris, was, without opposition, elected to fill the seat in Congress vacated by his death, and upon that son, Jonathan D. Morris, devolved the duty of pronouncing in the House of Representatives a eulogy upon Gen. Hamer.

In 1834 and 1836, Mr. Hamer was re-elected to Congress from the Fifth District by large majorities, the party favoring the administration of Gen. Jackson being largely in the ascendency in each of the three counties of the district. Mr. Hamer took his seat on December 2, 1833, at the beginning of the session of the Twenty-third Congress. This session has been commonly called the "Panic Session," on account of the state of the country following the President's veto of the United States Bank-Charter Bill and the removal of the deposits of the public money from that bank. The sessions of this Congress were .he most eventful and exciting the country had known, and abounded with the men of high talents. From Ohio in the Senate were Thomas Ewing, Sr., and Thomas Morris; in the House were three young men who subsequently rose to distinction - Thomas Corwin, William Allen and Thomas L. Hamer, the last named being one of the youngest members of the Congress. One - f the first votes Mr. Hamer cast in the House was in favor of a series of resolutions offered by James K. Polk, declaring that the Bank of the United States ought not to be rechartered, and that the public deposits ought not to be restored to the Bank of the United States. These resolutions were long and vehemently debated, but finally were adopted by large majorities.

The second Congress in which Mr. Hamer served was memorable for the exciting scenes which arose when the agitation of the slavery question was first carried into the halls of Congress, and John Quincy Adams, with a small minority, stood up boldly for the sacred right of petition. Mr. Hamer was a member of the select committee to which was referred every paper or proposition in relation to slavery offered in the House. This committee reported that for the purpose of arresting agitation and restoring tranquility to the public mind, they recommended "that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table; and that no further action whatever be had upon them." This report, though strongly opposed by John Quincy Adams, was adopted by a large majority. Mr. Adams himself was strongly opposed to the objects of the Abolitionists, and was governed by a sense of the sacredness of the right of petition, and what he deemed the most effectual way of putting an end to an agitation which he sincerely deprecated.

While a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Hamer was industrious and faithful to the trust reposed in him by his constituents. Ready and able as he was in debate, his appearance in the discussions of the House was rare; set speeches from him were still rarer. Among his more important speeches found in the Congressional Globe, are his remarks on the bill fixing the northern boundary of Ohio, a speech in favor of the appropriation for an exploring expedition to the South Seas, and a speech on the admission of the

States of Michigan and Arkansas into the Union. The constitutions of these States having been formed without the previous assent of Congress, and some aliens having participated in their adoption, Mr. Hamer, in favoring the admission of the States, discussed, in a philosophical manner, the right of aliens to vote before being naturalized, and argued that the right of suffrage is not inseparably connected with citizenship, but that the privileges are totally distinct - the Federal Government having the sole power to regulate naturalization, the State Governments the sole right to regulate suffrage.

The slavery clause of the constitution of Arkansas was a subject of controversy, and Mr. Hamer concluded his speech with an eloquent allusion to the distractions of the country which had prevailed during the controversy over the admission of Missouri, a congratulation upon their disappearance by the adoption of the Missouri Compromise, and an earnest exhortation to harmony and the preservation of good feeling by the speedy admission of the two States. Copious extracts from this speech are given in Benton's " Thirty Years' View," and the conclusion of the speech is perhaps the best specimen of his eloquence which has been preserved and is accessible to the general reader.

Having declined a re-election to Congress, Mr. Hamer, in 1839, retired to the management of his private business, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession with distinguished success. He continued, however, to mingle freely in the discussion of political questions. He had become widely known as a most effective popular political speaker, and his power to sway the masses caused his services to be in great demand in every important political contest. As a popular orator, he occupied much the same position in the Democratic party of Ohio as his distinguished cotemporary Tom Corwin did in the Whig party. The announcement of the name of Hamer was sufficient to insure a large political meeting. As a stump speaker, he was the favorite among the Democrats of the State. His wit and keen satire and ready repartee irresistably drew the masses to him. For years his "red-head" was the center o£ attraction in mass meetings. The red hair of Hamer and the dark skin of Corwin were familiar subjects of remark. Each orator found occasions to make playful allusions to his own complexion for the amusement of his hearers. Large open-air meetings, which had been dispersed into lounging and talking groups by the solemn and wise discussions of able but tedious statesmen were brought into a compact mass as soon as Hamer took the stand. The people seemed never to weary of hearing him. They would sit or stand for hours, entranced by the magic of his voice and his manner. Old and young would press about him and lean forward to catch every utterance.

Mr. Hamer at various times wrote articles for the newspapers on public questions. He also carried on an extensive correspondence with many of the most distinguished public men among his cotemporaries. Among those with whom he most freuqently corresponded were James K. Polk, John McLean, Lewis Cass and Thomas Corwin. The fact that he did not confine his studies to law and politics is illustrated by the following extract from a private letter written by him to Rev. Alexander Campbell, the distinguished religious reformer, and dated at Georgetown, October 31, 1837:

" Although a young man, and for twelve or fourteen years past immersed in professional avocations and politics, still I have found time to read a good deal upon the subject of theology. Among other works, yours have not escaped me, and I have read with interest, and, I trust, not without profit, a number of your productions. In my examination of the ancient religious systems of India, Egypt, Persia and Palestine, I have found much to perplex me, as every one must, who attempts to thread the maze of this interesting subject. But passing by all other difficulties, I am desirous to obtain information upon one point connected with the Holy Scriptures. The question is this: Is there any external evidence that the Pentateuch was ever committed to writing previous to the Babylonish captivity ? If you have in the course of your extensive reading met with any proof upon this point, you will confer a peculiar favor upon me by directing my attention to the place where it may be found."

The letter from which this is an extract called forth from the distinguished theologian a long, learned and able reply, which reached Mr. Hamer at Washington City.

President Polk, in a letter dated October 3, 1845, tendered Mr. Hamer the office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which he declined. The next year he manifested a willingness to return to public life, and early in the summer of 1846, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the district composed of Brown, Clermont and Highland Counties.

When Congress authorized the President to accept the services of 50,000 volunteers to carry on the war which was declared already to exist with Mexico, Mr. Hamer rode over his district, addressed meetings, and, by his fervid eloquence, aroused the war spirit of his countrymen. He volunteered as a private soldier. At the organization of the First Ohio Regiment, at Camp Washington, he was elected Major. He was almost immediately appointed a Brigadier General of volunteers, and notified of his appointment by the following letter:

My Dear Sir: I have this day nominated you to the Senate of the United States as a Brigadier General, to command the Brigade of Volunteers called into the service from Ohio. I have only time to say that I have never performed any public duty with more pleasure than in conferring upon you this important command. That you will discharge your duty gallantly, and satisfactorily to the brave men you are called to command, as well as to the country. I have the greatest confidence.

This letter of the President was directed to Gen. Hamer at Cincinnati; thence it was forwarded to New Orleans, and thence to Point Isabel. The appointment was accepted in a letter to the President from Matamoras, dated July 24. Gen. Hamer's commission reached him at Camp Belknap, Texas, on the 1st day of August.

Gen. Taylor was at this time preparing for an attack on Monterey, which occupied a strong position by nature, was well fortified by art and occupied by the Mexican General Ampudia, with 10,000 regular troops. " Whilst at Comargo," says Rufus P. Spalding, in his eulogy on Gen. Hamer, " the Generalin-Chief resolved to proceed to the assault of Monterey with none but regular troops and Southern volunteers. The course pursued by Gen. Hamer on this occasion, would, in the days of yore, have secured to him a hecatomb. He declared in a council of war, that if a conquest of territory was to be made in the Mexican Empire, the citizen- soldiers from the Free States, and especially those from the Free States of the West, would claim the privilege, not only of taking part in the contest of arms, but also in the civil contest that would ensue as to the government and laws of the subjugated territory. His timely remonstrance produced the desired effect; the order of march was changed, and Gen. Hamer's Brigade, led on by their brave chiefcain, performed prodigies of valor and won immortal renown at the storming of Monterey. "

The capture of Monterey is justly regarded as one of the most brilliant achievements in the history of modern warfare. Gen. Hamer commanded the First. Brigade of the Third or Volunteer Division. The Brigade consisted of the First Ohio and First Kentucky Regiments. Gen. William O. Butler commanded the division. In storming the city, a part of Gen. Hamer's Brigade was left to support the mortars and howitzers, while Gen. Butler entered the edge of the city with the First Ohio. One of the forts of the city was called El Diablo. Gen. Butler advanced toward this fort under a severe fire, and was preparing to storm it when hq received a severe wound and was compelled to retire. His command then was surrendered to Gen. Hamer, who moved the regiment to a new position and within sustaining distance of the American batteries, which already occupied another of the forts. While these efforts were being made to carry the advance works, several demonstrations were made by the Mexican cavalry, one of which was repulsed by the First Ohio, aided by a part of the Mississippi Regiment. " For six long hours the contest in the lower part of the city continued, and the streets were slippery with the blood of the assailants. It was truly a scene of havoc and slaughter." One stronghold after another wab captured, the Mexicans contesting desperately every foot of ground until nothing remained in their possession but the citadel. On the 23d of (September, Gen. Ampudia capitulated.

On the second Tuesday of October, 1846, Gen. Hamer was, without opposition, elected a Representative in Congress. But how unstable is the enjoyment of earthly renown!

A letter from a private soldier from Georgetown, Ohio, serving in Gen. Hamer's Brigade, dated at Camp, near Monterey, Thursday, December 3, 1846,. says:

" Gen. Hamer died last night between 9 and 10 o'clock. I have not heard the name of his disease. He had been unwell since he landed in Mexico, and dangerously ill for about a week. Every attention was paid to him by his physicians, who used ever3T effort to stop the progress of his disease, but all in vain. By this dispensation of Providence, not only our company and regiment, but the whole brigade, have met with an irreparable loss, and the Nation is left to mourn one whose services in her councils were worth far more than all the country in dispute for which he so gallantly sacrificed his life. On the march from Comargo to this place, he was scarcely able to sit on his horse. But he said: ' While I am able to ride, I will go at the head of my brigade.' He went at our head and led us into Monterey. He went at the head of the Ohio Regiment, which carried the first stars and stripes that ever waved in the streets of that city. The whole camp to-day is shrouded in gloom.. All seem to feel the greatness of their loss. By his firmness and courage, he had won the respect of the officers, both in the regular and volunteer corps. To me it seems I have almost lost a father. To him I could always go with confidence* for advice and assistance."

Maj. Gen. Taylor, in announcing the death of Gen. Hamer, said: "In counsel, I found him clear and judicious, and in the administration of his command, though kind, yet always impartial and just. He was an active participant in the operations before Monterey, and since had commanded the volunteer division. His loss to the army at this time cannot be supplied."

The body of the dead soldier was interred with honors to which his rank entitled him in a cemetery about a mile from the quarters he had occupied in his last sickness. His remains were afterward removed to his adopted State and buried in the cemetery at Georgetown in the presence of thousands of sorrowing spectators. Fitting eulogies were pronounced upon him in the Congress of which he was a member-elect by his successor, J. D. Morris, and others; before the two Houses of the General Assembly of Ohio by Rufus P. Spalding, and at his burial by Hon. David T. Disney.

Thus passed away in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness one of the most talented men of his time. Perhaps no man in the whole history of Ohio had more warm admirers. His prospects for the highest office in the nation were considered bright.

Thomas L. Hamer was of medium stature; his hair was very red, and, to a stranger, his personal appearance was not at first prepossessing; he had great vivacity and cheerfulness and boundless kindness of heart. He was generous and hospitable, and treated the humblest with unaffected friendliness. He was neat in his attire and careful as to his personal appearance. While a member of Congress, his face was shaved every day. He was a delightful companion, and held his friends to him as with hooks of steel. Many of his political opponents were his warm personal friends. His portrait was placed in the capitol at Columbus by Gov. R. B. Hayes.

Elder Matthew Gardner

This pioneer preacher and remarkable man was born in Rensselaer County, N. Y., Dear the Massachusetts State line, December 5, 1790. His father, a small farmer and carpenter, was of Quaker descent. When Matthew was ten years old, his father moved to the Northwest Territory, and settled in what is now Brown County, Ohio, in the autumn of 1800. There were no schools in the region in which he first lived in Ohio, and Matthew's education was limited and obtained by his own industry. The first money he obtained was 25 cents for a raccoon skin; this he expended for a copy of Webster's Spelling-Book. He was then about fourteen years old, and had so far forgotten what he had learned in New York that he could scarcely read. His spare hours at night he now applied to study, and, by diligence, he soon learned to read and write. When seventeen years old, he made a flat-boat voyage from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and was absent from home about six months. In his twentieth year, he went to school twenty -seven days, which comprised all his school education, except that received in New York when he was six or seven years old. In these twenty-seven days, he acquired all the knowledge of arithmetic absolutely necessary for ordinary business purposes, and was able to solve almost any practical problem in arithmetic. In 1810, he joined the Christian Church, and was baptized in the West Eork of Eagle Creek by Elder Archibald Campbell, and, about the same time, began to exercise his gifts in public speaking and exhortation. In 1812, he received his letter as a preacher of the Christian Church, and traveled and preached in various parts of Kentucky and Ohio as an associate of Barton W. Stone, William Kinkade and others. He, however, supported himself by work as a carpenter and on a farm which he purchased. He continued his studies, and, having procured a copy of Bindley Murray's Grammar, he studied it diligently, frequently continuing his studies until midnight, after working hard all day. As he became able, he procured other books. He was ordained to the Gospel ministry by the Kentucky Christian Conference March 2, 1818.

Soon after his ordination, he organized Union Church, two miles from Higginsport, and, in 1819 or 1820, he organized a Christian Church at Bethel, Ohio; later in 1820, he formed a regular circuit in Brown and Clermont Counties, with two appointments for each day, several miles apart. This circuit required a two weeks' journey. As a pioneer preacher, he was remarkably successful. He was six feet one inch high, and weighed over two hundred pounds. He had a strong, clear voice, and as he led the singing in an outdoor meeting he was told that his voice was sometimes heard and recognized at a distance of a mile and a half. In his personal appearance, he bore a striking resemblance to J oshua R. Giddings. His manner in preaching was dignified and attractive, and his congregations were large. He continued to preach in groves and churches and to organize new societies for sixty-three years. The churches he first organized were poor and unable to pay a preach- er. He believed be could support himself and bis family by laboring one half of bis time, and resolved to devote the other half to the work of a Gospel minister. Near the close of bis life, ho computed that be bad organized twenty-two churches, and that (>,100 persons bad embraced religion under his ministry.

He says: "When my ministry began, there were no Christian Churches to support ministers. 1 therefore received little compensation for many years. When the churches grew, my conscience compelled me to decline putting a price on my preaching the Gospel. T could find no 'thus saith the Lord' for it. I do not reprove those who do, however. I therefore left this to the churches to say how much they would give. This wTas commonly a mere trifle, about $50 or $60 a year for monthly preaching. The Bethlehem Church possessing a good deal of wealth, proposed to give me $100 a year, and,' in 1866, they gave me $200 a year for semi-monthly preaching on Saturday and Sabbath, and attending their communion and protracted meetings, etc. This was by far the largest salary, if it may be so called, I ever received, and this was paid for only one or two years out of forty-five."

Beginning life in poverty, Elder Gardner was compelled to practice rigid economy and frugality, which became habitual with him and was continued after he became a man of wealth. He had but four pairs of shoes in twenty years, although he wore shoes all the time, summer and winter. He wore one overcoat twenty years. His clothing of all kinds, including shoes, did not cost him to exceed $10 or $12 a year. He carried one small two-bladed pocketknife thirty-five years, and an umbrella twenty-five years. It was by this rigid economy that he was enabled, he said, without salary from the churches and dependent on his own resources in a new country, to spend one-half his time in traveling and preaching, to support his family, to give many hundreds of dollars to aid in building Christian chapels and to sustain the the cause of religion in Southern Ohio, to give $1,100 for the endowment of Union Christian College, and to divide $60,000 among his eleven children, while he had nearly that amount left in his old age.

Elder Gardner was of a combative disposition, and, while he had many devoted friends, he had many bitter enemies. He was engaged in several public debates with ministers of other denominations, and was a party to some vexatious law-suits and ecclesiastical trials, an account of which he narrates in his autobiography. He was a strong opponent of secret societies.

In October, 1867, Elder Gardner closed his pastoral labors with the Bethlehem Church, after a pastorate of forty -five years. He had been re-elected by a unanimous vote each year, except one, and then the brother who objected soon gave up his objection and became the pastor's friend. The church was large and had lived in peace. Nearly fifteen hundred members had been received into the church during the pastorate of Elder Gardner. Four other churches had been organized from its members, and still it was the largest church in the conference. The Elder thus describes his farewell writh this people:

" Elder Fangburn preached an excellent sermon. Then I felt constrained to speak, if only a few words. I referred to my visits among them nearly fifty years before. Then the country was wild; now it is cultivated. Theu the roads were by the mountain paths and the meandering valley brooks. Then they lived in log cabins, where now they have fine residences. I threaded my way over the hills and through the hollows, boldly fording the mountain streams and searching out their rudest homes. Then the people had little culture, where now they are educated. Then they were without hope and without God in the world. I took them by the hand and led them to God. I was inexperienced, but earnest. I preached in their rudest cabins. I led them in prayer at their fireside altars. I baptized in their woodland streams. I kneeled at the dying pillows of their parents, and preached the funerals of their children. God blessed my labors, and changed the lion to the lamb, the raven to the dove, and made the desert to blossom as the rose. My eyes could see but few present who were living in the country at the beginning of my ministry there. Then I was young and strong, but now I am old and feeble - too old to serve them, and they to whom I then preached are gone. I tried to say that this was the last day of my pastorate, but I could not. I tried to say farewell, but there was so much weeping that utterance was choked and tears blinded my eyes. Some kind brother started a farewell hymn, and, while singing, they gave me the parting hand,"

He died October 10, 1873, in the eighty-third year of his age, and was buried at Union Christian Church, in Brown County, the first church he organized. The autobiography of Matthew Gardner, edited by N. Summerbell, D D., was published by the Christian Publishing Association, at Dayton, Ohio, in 1874. Dr. Summerbell says of Elder Gardner: " His opponents will concede that he was great in the things they dislike, and successful in the things they disapprove, and his friends will indorse the rest. Without excusing his defects or magnifying his virtues, his friends contend that his life gives its own lessons, and that he was a great thinker, a great worker, a great economist, a great friend, a great antagonist, a great preacher, a great debater, a great farmer and a great financier."

Dr. Alexander Campbell

The subject of this sketch was the only resident of Brown County who reached the high position of United States Senator. He was a native of Greenbrier County, Va., and was born in the year 1779. When he was quite young, his parents moved to East Tennessee, where they remained five or six years, and then, in company with several families, removed to Crab Orchard, Ky., the removal being effected by traveling on horseback the distance of 170 miles. The Campbell family located at Morrison's Station for a few months, and then settled about one mile from the station. Here they built a cabin, cleared a few acres of land and planted it in corn. The father, Alexander Campbell, Sr. , a few months after his settlement, was called back to East Tennessee on important business; while on his way, he was taken sick, and died on the ninth day after leaving home. His wife was now left a widow in a land almost a wilderness, with a family of eight small children. Young Alexander had not up to this time attended school, there being none in the new country in which his young days had been passed. As soon as a school was established, he was sent to it. His mother purchased a small farm of ten acres in Woodford County, Ky., and removed with her children to it. Here the children attended school in winter, and as soon as the spring approached, resumed work upon the little farm. A school having been established at Pisgah Meeting-House, two miles distant, at which Latin and Greek were taught, Alexander urgently solicited his mother to permit him to attend it. Her embarrassed circumstances were such that he not only agreed to work in the morning and evening, but also to refund to his brothers and sisters the cost of his tuition. Havingstudied at the school, he went to Lexington, and studied medicine with Drs. Ridgely and Brown. Having pursued the study of medicine two years, in 1801, he commenced the practice of his profession in Cynthiana, Ky. Here he married Nancy, daughter of Col. Alexander Dunlap. While at Cynthiana, he was elected a member of the Kentucky Legislature. In 1804, he removed north of the Ohio and settled in what is now Brown, then Adams, County. In

1807, he was elected a Bepresentative in the Legislature from Adams County; in 1808, he was re-elected, and was chosen Speaker of the House of Bepresentatives; in 1809, he was re-elected and was again chosen Speaker.

While serving as Speaker, he was, on December 12, 1809, elected a United States Senator to succeed Hon. Edward Tiffin, resigned. His principal competitor for this high office was Bichard S. Thomas, a lawyer then residing at Lebanon. Campbell received thirty- eight votes and Thomas twenty-nine. Dr. Campbell served in the United States Senate four years. He voted against the declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812, and also against the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank. On the expiration of his term, he returned to his home and resumed the practice of medicine and also engaged in mercantile pursuits. As a physician, he took a high rank, and more than once was appointed by the Legislature a member of the medical society which was authorized to grant licenses for the practice of medicine. After the organization of Brown County, he was elected to the Legislature, serving in the Senate in 1822 and in 1823, and in the House in 1832. In 1820, he was elected a Presidential elector on the James Monroe ticket, and, in 1836, on the William Henry Harrison ticket. In 1826, he was one of four candidates for Governor of Ohio; the people in Brown County gave him a large majority over the combined vote of his three competitors, but Allen Trimble was elected. He was a man of uncompromising anti-slavery principles. He died at Bipley in 1857.

James Loudon

The subject of this sketch was born in Henry County, Ky., October 21. 1796, and was the oldest of three children whose parents were John and Dorcas (Masterson) Loudon. His father, a native of Washington County, Penn., followed agricultural pursuits through life, and was a participant, under Gen. Wayne, in the battle of Fallen Timbers. He died in Henry County, Ky., where he had settled in 1794. His paternal grandfather was actively engaged in association with the patriots during the Bevolutionary struggle. His maternal grandfather, John Masterson, was one of the body guards of Gen. Washington, and was intimately identified with colonial measures and efforts. His mother was a native of Washington County, and one of a family whose male members were prominent throughout the Bevolutionary period. In 1806, Gen. Loudon removed with his mother to this county, settling at a point about six miles east of Georgetown, on the farm of Neil Washburn, whence, at the expiration of four years, he and family removed to Arnheim, where a farm was rented and a residence maintained for a period of about two years. His mother was then again married, to Joshua Jordan, one of the earliest pioneer settlers of the country, whereupon the family removed to Biver Hill, on the Ohio Biver, a short distance below Bipley. Here he made his home during the ensuing fourteen years, employed in laboring on the farm, and during the summer months of five or six of those years in clerking in dry goods stores, which with river occupations consumed his time during the winters.

His first boating was on the Ohio Biver, in the old keel-boat line. In the fall of 1813, he made a trip to the salt works on the Kanawha Biver; the next fall he made a trip from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, and attempted to go to the head of navigation on the Alleghany Biver, but, after getting up about sixty miles, found there was not water enough to allow the boat to pass over the shoals; so the boat had to wait for a rise in the river, and the men went back to Pittsburgh. Here he found his old boat loaded with iron and ready to descend the river. He took a situation on the boat as a hand; arriving at Qineinnati, the freight for that port was discharged and preparations made to descend to Louisville. The Captain desired very much to have him continue on the boat, and offered him a clerkship; so he continued to the port aforesaid, and, after " keeping boat " a few weeks, was discharged. Thus ended his keelboating, and at the date of his death, he firmly believed himself the last of that strong, hardy, daring race of men who carried on the commerce of the Ohio Valley in keel- boats, propelled against the current |>y long poles, with heavy iron sockets on the lower end and a round, smooth knob, turned from the root of the laurel, to fit the shoulder on the top end. In the fall of 1818, and also in 1819, he made trips to New Orleans in flat-boats. On both these occasions, he had to work his way home on foot through the wilderness and two savage nations of Indians. He made many other trips to that Southern center in the same class of boats, and was always lucky enough to find a steamboat to return in.

In 1820, he associated himself with William Butt and Daniel Ammen, in the printing of a newspaper at Levanna, two miles below Ripley, on the Ohio River, and, in July of that year, the Benefactor made its appearance. This was the pioneer newspaper of Brown County. His connection with the paper continued one year; he then sold his interest to one of his partners, and the paper was removed to Georgetown, where its publication was continued for many years. Although his early education had been quite limited, in both degree and kind, his reading and study and one year's drilling with the composing stick at the type case, together with his keen power of observation, counterbalanced to a considerable degree the lack of primary training. In 1822, he taught a country school with more satisfaction to his employers than to himself. In the fall of this year, his friends elected him to the office of Coroner of the county. In 1824, he was re-elected to the same office. In 1826, he was elected Sheriff of Brown County, and re-elected to the same position in 1828, thus serving his county as Coroner and Sheriff eight years. He was married, July 11, 1826, to Elizabeth Chapman, a native of this county, and a daughter of Henry Chapman, one of the earJy pioneers of the country, who came from Kentucky in 1800. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and an active participant in the war of 1812.

lu 1831, Gen. Loudon was employed in a dry goods store in Georgetown. In the spring of 1832, he left Georgetown, and settled on his farm, about four miles south of the village, and engaged in general agriculture, taking a hand in any branch incident to the business. In 1834, many of his friends urged him to be a candidate for the Lower House of the Ohio Legislature; he Anally consented to stand a poll and was elected. In 1835, he was re-elected to the same place. This year trouble arose between the authorities of the State of Ohio and those of the Territory of Michigan, in regard to the northern boundary of Ohio (known in Michigan history as the Toledo war). A long and threatening correspondence was kept up between Gov. Lucas and the Department of State at Washington. Gov. Lucas called an extra session of the Legislature of Ohio, which met in June of that year. At this session, Gen. Loudon took a very active part in support of the ciaim of Ohio and indorsed the course of her Governor.

In 1836, Gen. Loudon was again elected to the Lower House of the General Assembly. At this session he took an active part, and probably did more than any one else in electing his friend William Allen to the United States Senate. March 2, 1837, having been previously elected to the Legislature, he was formally commissioned Major General by Gov. Vance, and was given command of the Eighth Division of the Ohio Militia. In 1842, he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Ohio Senate, occasioned by the resignation of Senator Foos, of Clinton County. In 1843, he was re- elected to the same position, and served two terms, during 1843-44-45-46. In 1849, he was elected a delegate from Brown County to the Constitutional Convention; was made Chairman of the Committee of Finance and Taxation, and successfully carried through the twelfth article, and it became a part of the constitution. He addressed the people in every township in his district, and urged them to vote for the adoption of the constitution.

When his labors terminated with that deliberative body, he returned to his farm, intending never again to mingle in the arena of politics; nor would he, had it not been for the terrible rebellion that came upon the country. On the arrival of the news that Fort Sumter was fired upon, and that the wicked war had begun, he declared his ardent love for the " Old Star Spangled Banner, " and, like his political godfather, " Old Hickory, " swore " By the eternal, the constitution must be preserved." From that time he was outspoken in his denunciations of the rebel spirit, South or North, doing all in his power to encourage the patriotic sentiment of the country. In 1863, the Republicans and Union men of his district held a convention to select a candidate for State Senate, and in his absence gave him a unanimous vote for that position. On being notified of the action of the convention, he accepted the nomination and took early steps for a vigorous canvass. Although he had to encounter a Democratic majority of some 1,500 votes, he was elected. He took his seat in January after the election, and for two years gave his best efforts to the cause of his country.

After the close of his official career, he lived in peaceful retirement at his Georgetown home until his death. For more than fifty years, he was a working member of the Masonic fraternity. He was a believer in the Christian religion, but not a member of any religious sect. He was a positive man, whose word was respected alike by friend and foe, even in the most bitter political contests. His life was a useful one. He lived more than eighty years, and died November 14, 1876.

Nathaniel Beasley

Gen. Beasley was born in Spottsylvania County, Va., May 19, 1774. When he was about fourteen years old, his father with a large family of children emigrated to Limestone, Ky., or that vicinity. The Beasley brothers became noted as sagacious pioneers, hunters and scouts, and were the associates and assistants of Gen. Nathaniel Massie in the early survey and settlement of the Virginia Military District. Previous to Wayne's victory, Nathaniel and Benjamin were employed by Simon Kentor to serve as spies or scouts along the Ohio for the protection of the Kentucky settlements. These scouts, of whom there were several, ranged up and down the Ohio in pairs from Limestone to the mouth of the Big Sandy, alternately performing tours of service of from two to four weeks' duration. They were especially charged to give information to Kenton, who lived at Washington, near Limestone, of Indians who had crossed the Ohio or were about to cross over into Kentucky. Among those who served in the capacity of scouts were Samuel Davis, Samuel McDowell, Duncan McArthur, afterward Governor of Ohio, Benjamin and Nathaniel Beasley. Some of the adventures of these scouts with the Indians were recorded in Mc- Donald's sketches, and Otway Curry wrote an account of others, which he obtained from Samuel Davis and published in the year 1838 in the Hesperian, printed at Cincinnati. The account given by McDonald and quoted at length in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, of an adventure two of the scouts had with the Indians near the mouth of the Scioto, is in one particular erroneous, as Curry learned from the lips of Davis himself. It was Benjamin Beasley and not Duncan McArthur who accompanied Davis on that occasion.

John, Benjamin and Nathaniel Beasley were assistant surveyors under Massie in the Virginia Military Dtstrict, and their privations and dangers are elsewhere described in this volume. Nathaniel became an extensive dealer in the lands of what is now Brown County. He settled upon a farm near Decatur, which was his home until his death. He served as a Major in the war of 1812, and in the militia he rose to the rank of Major General. In 1814, he was elected a Representative in the Legislature, and a Senator in 1818; he was again a Senator in 1820 and 1821. On February 25, 1824, he was appointed a member of the State Board of Canal Commissioners by joint resolution of the General Assembly. In the capacity of Canal Commissioner, he accompanied Gov. De Witt Clinton, of New York, and Gov. Morrow, of Ohio, at the ceremony of breaking ground in 1825 for the construction of the two State canals,' at Licking Summit and Middletown. Gen. Beasley was married to Sarah Sutton, who died August 19, 1841, aged sixty-one years. He died March 27, 1835, aged sixty years, ten months and eight days, and was buried at Decatur.

Abraham Shepherd

Mr. Shepherd was born August 13, 1776, at or near Shepherdtown, Va., a town laid out by his grandfather. He received what was then regarded as a good education. When he was nineteen years old, his father left Eastern Virginia, crossed the mountains and settled in West Virginia. In early manhood Abraham engaged in the business of surveying. About 1798, he was for a time in the vicinity of Mayslick, Xy., and not long after crossed the Ohio and made his home in what is now Brown County. He married Margaret Moore in 1799. On the north side of the Ohio he first lived near where the Red Oak Presbyterian Church stands, and afterward built a brick house about two miles from the site of Russellville, and operated the mills afterward known as Pilson's. In the war of 1812, he raised a company and served as Captain. In

1817, he moved to Ripley, and operated the mills on Red Oak, about one mile from the town. In 1825, he added steam power to these mills. In connection with others, he built the mill one mile farther up Red Oak.

In 1803, he was elected a Representative in the Legislature, and served as a member of the Lower House, in all, six years. In 1815, he was firsCelected to the State Senate, and served in that body six years. He was Speaker of the House in 1806 and Speaker of the Senate in 1816, 1817 and 1826. His name is signed as President of the Senate to the act organizing Brown County. In

1818, he resigned his position as Senator, and became the first Clerk of the Common Pleas and Supreme Courts of Brown County, a position he occupied until 1824.

In 1816, he was a Presidential Elector on the James Monroe ticket. After the organization of the Whig party, he became a Whig and was a great friend and admirer of Henry Clay and his American system, and was consequently in the minority in Brown County. In religion, he was a Presbyterian, and long held the office of Ruling Elder in that church. In 1834, he moved to Putnam County, 111 , where he died in 1846, in the seventy-first year of his age.