Champaign County, Ohio - The whole text, 1881 (part 9 of 32)

He was equally faithful in his protection of animals from abuse and suffering. Whenever he saw an animal abused, or heard of it, he would purchase it and give it to some more humane neighbor, on condition that it should be kindly cared for. Lame and broken-down horses were frequently turned loose by emigrants, being unable to go further. These he would gather up in autumn, bargain for their shelter and care until the next spring, when he would lead them to some good pasture for the summer. If they recovered, he would loan or give them away, but always with the condition of their good usage. He was pained that in the " heat of his ungodly passion," he had killed a rattlesnake which had bitten him, and carefully released from his coffee-sack coat a hornet which had become entangled and stung him repeatedly. On another occasion, he put out the fire he had ignited near where he had intended to pass the night because he noticed that it attracted large numbers of mosquitoes, which flew too near the blaze and were burned, saying, in explanation of his conduct - " God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort which should be the means of destroying any of His creatures." At another time, he removed a fire he had kindled near a hollow log, and slept on the snow, lest he disturb a bear and her cubs which had taken possession of the log.

In business, he was particularly methodical. The location of his nurseries had reference to a probable future demand for his trees by the time they were large enough for transplanting. He would give them away to those who were unable to pay. Old clothing or a little corn meal were always a legal tender, but he preferred to receive a note payable at some indefinite period; but he never gave himself any trouble about its collection. His expenses for food and clothing were trifling, and he had more money than he cared to keep, which he quickly disposed of for wintering infirm horses or for the use of some poor family, whom the ague or accident had impoverished. In a single instance, he purchased a small piece of ground, in Ashland County, but with his customary indifference to matters of value, he failed to record the deed, and lost it.

In 1838, thirty-seven years after his appearance on Licking Creek, Johnny noticed that population was pressing into the State. Hitherto he had just kept in advance of the wave of settlement, but he now felt that his work was done in the region where he had labored so long. He visited every house, and with parting words of admonition, he left them and turned his steps toward the setting sun.

During the next nine years he pursued his old employment on the western borders of Ohio and in Indiana. In the summer of 1847, at the close of a warm day, after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of a settler, in Allen County, Ind., and was warmly welcomed. He declined to eat with the family, but accepted some bread and milk, which he ate on the door-step. Later in the evening, he delivered his "news right fresh from heaven," by reading the beatitudes. He slept, as usual, on the floor. In the morning he was found with his face all aglow, but so near death that he was unable to speak. There, at the age of seventy-two, died one of the memorable men of pioneer times ; who never inflicted pain or knew an enemy. " A laboring, self-denying benefactor of his race ; homeless, solitary and ragged, he trod the thorny earth with bare and bleeding feet, intent only on making the wilderness fruitful. Now no man knoweth of his sepulchre, but his deeds will live in the fragrance of the apple blossoms he loved so well, and the story of his life will be a perpetual proof that true heroism, pure benevolence, noble virtues and deeds that deserve immortality, may be found under meanest apparel and far from gilded hall and towering spire."

James Cooley

On other pages the names of James Cooley appears as one among the earliest resident lawyers and active citizens of the village. What we have been able to learn of Mr. Cooley, personally, is of a general character, but from all we can gather from the newspapers of that day, and from the testimony of the few survivors who knew him well, he was a man of no ordinary merits. It was a time of able men ; and a young man, whose virtues and talents shall be continued to be praised more than half a century after his death, clearly indicates not only his magnetic power to win and hold personal friendships, but that essentially he stood in the front rank of his associates. He was a man of fine appearance and prepossessing manners, and had secured the confidence of the community. Before his departure to Peru, he had filled several minor offices, and the same year was Prosecuting Attorney for the county.

In 1826, having been appointed to the Court of Peru, Charge d' Affaires of the United States, in July of that year, when making arrangements for his departure, " a number of his friends in Champaign and adjoining counties, desirous of manifesting their respect for him personally, as well as to bid him an affectionate farewell," requested him to attend a dinner to be given for that purpose at Mr. Hunter's hotel, on the 26th of the month. The invitation was accepted, and the dinner presided over by Judge Smith, of Champaign, as President, and Judge Paige, of Clark County, as Vice President.

Mr. Cooley arose, and in an impressive manner said : " That the very flattering testimonial of the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, and the more flattering distinction in the sentiment given, demand and have his heartfelt acknowledgment. If he had been so fortunate as to acquire their confidence and in his endeavors faithfully to discharge his public duties, he had met their approbation - the measure of his reward was ample. Coming together from distant and various parts of the country and, in many instances, remote parts of the world, bringing different habits, feelings and tastes, it was natural that different and discordant opinions should be entertained on many subjects, but on one, at least, all united - a devoted attachment to our common country, the principles of her government and a sincere zeal for the prosperity of the State."

He then spoke of the encouragement and support he had received during a residence of eleven years in Urbana, and the prosperity he had from their approbation and aid ; that going to a new and untried field of labor, he knew their best wishes would go with him, and diminish the embarrassments incident to the occasion, and that in the discharge of its duties he would hold an earnest desire to promote the best interests of the country. That, though he then bade them farewell, it was with the hope that he again might be permitted to return to tread the fertile fields of Ohio, when her system of internal improvement shall be completed, her commerce giving life to the industry of her citizens, her system of education established and a solid foundation laid for the development of the resources of the State. And concluded with offering the following sentiment : feelings of regret that so valued and esteemed a citizen is about to leave us for an undefined period of time - perhaps forever. In the evening a party numerously attended was given in honor of Mrs. Cooley. Arrangements are made to leave on Monday next, and if the virtues of a good and upright man, with the best wishes of many friends and acquaintances can secure him health, happiness and prosperity, he will be sure of those blessings."

Mr. Cooley left at the time proposed, reached his destination safely, and during a period of about fifteen months successfully prosecuted the duties of his mission and made troops of friends.

On the 19th of April, 1828, he had a violent bilious attack, which, from the beginning, he thought would terminate fatally, and on Sunday, the 24th, he died.

A letter from Stanhope Prevost, dated Lima, March 1, 1828, addressed to Henry Clay, then Secretary of State of the United States, after announcing the death of Mr. Cooley, goes on to say : " The body was removed to Callao, on the morning of the following day, in a carriage-and-four, accompanied by the Ministers of Foreign Relations and War of the Peruvian Government, and the aids of His Excellency, the President, with a suitable escort, an immense train of carriages and attendants on horseback, comprising the American merchants of the place, who, together with myself, appeared as chief mourners, and all the foreign residents of every nation, as well as many native citizens and officers. At about 2 P. M., the procession reached Callao, when the body was immediately embarked in a boat of the Brandywine frigate accompanied by the Captain and pall bearers. Next followed a boat with the before-mentioned members of the Government and the chief mourners, afterward, in their respective barges, Adm. Guise, Com. Jones, the British commanders and Vice Consul, Capt. Finch, a most numerous and respectable attendance of officers and citizens. The line of boats, occupying about two miles, moved toward the island of San Lorenzo, minute guns being fired by several men-of-war in the harbor. As the body passed, the English commencing, and, in succession, the French, Peruvian and American, which latter continued until the interment had taken place. On the return of the boats, as the members of the Peruvian Government, who had been in attendance, passed the Brandywine, Com. Jones displayed the Peruvian flag at his fore and fired a salute of seventeen guns, which being answered by the Admiral's ship, closed the ceremony of the day."

" Mr. Cooley bore his illness, which from the commencement he appeared to conceive as likely to be fatal, with the serenity and spirit of a man and Christian. As such he died, as deeply regretted as he had been esteemed and respected. His modest and correct deportment, his superior sense and talents, set off by an unexampled mildness and moderation of character, had procured him universal esteem, as was testified in the most sincere manner by the deep sorrow evinced at his loss."

Israel Hamilton

The subject of this sketch came to Urbana in 1828, when about thirty years of age. He was born in Massachusetts, was educated at Brown University, then taught school several years in Abbeville, S. C. In the mean time, studied law, and, having been admitted to practice, sought a location in the then West. Discouraged and despondent, poor, without employment and no friends, Judge John Taylor revived his energies by suggesting that Urbana presented as good opportunities for success as any other place, and he at once opened an office in a little room on the north side of a frame building on the corner of the square, where McDonald & Rock's store now is. His professional life is simply the counterpart of all men who have brains, resolution, endurance and economy. He was always found in his office, made himself master of the cases placed in his hands, and attended to his business faithfully. The few friends who at the first gave him encouragement, spoke of him as the rising young lawyer, and success, in a few years, thronged him with clients.

The first office to which we find he was elected was that of Fence Viewer, in 1832. We are apt to suspect the office to have been a very humble one, and the election to it an indignity. But then caucuses and conventions were a refinement in politics not known, fences were a constant source of litigation and quarrels, and no higher compliment to good citizenship could be shown than to elect him Fence Viewer. It was the equivalent of stopping many foolish and bitter quarrels between neighbors, and we find that the best men in the county were chosen to the office, and among them John H. James, James Dallas, John Hamilton, John Glenn, William Patrick, Daniel Helmick, Samuel McCord and others. He took an active interest in matters of general concern. He entertained the opinion that parties became corrupt by long continuance, and that once in fifteen years changes ought to be made, and that, in the re-organization of parties, men, without being subject to the charge of instability or inconsistency, might affiliate with the new. When he settled in Urbana he was a Whig. He afterward became an active Democrat. As early as 1840, he believed that the Democratic party had outlived its usefulness, and that the only thing that could restore its honesty and integrity was the election of Harrison and a few years rule of the Whigs. But, as corrupt as he considered the Democratic party, he thought the Whigs more so, and that the only salvation for the country was a new organization and new men. At heart, he was an Abolitionist, and spoke with bitter denunciation of African slavery and its influence. During the administration of Martin Van Buren, he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Ohio. Although a respectable general scholar, he had little taste for reading outside of a law book, and, to one of his students, recommended the utter discarding of metaphysics, newspapers and novels. Yet no man was fonder of a metaphysical topic, and has an undisguised contempt for " leading " editorials. His notion was that a newspaper should give the current news, and stick to facts. The "editorials " he ranked in the same class as the summing-up of the testimony by the attorney to a jury - a paid-for job - and the facts he wanted to be stated clearly without coloring.

On one occasion, Charles Flago had been appointed Secretary of a Democratic meeting, and the proceedings of the meeting were thought worthy a place in the Ohio Statesman , a political newspaper of Columbus. Flago felt the importance of the case, and wanted Hamilton to assist him to draft the paper. " Did you take minutes of the proceedings ? " inquired Hamilton. " Yes, here they are." "Well," said Hamilton, " all you have to do is to tell the facts." "But," said Flago, " they are to be printed in the Statesman.,, " Tell the facts, and tell them just as they were," was the answer and all that Flago could get from him.

regard to a title, and handed him a dollar as his fee. Hamilton told him to state his case, and, having answered two or three irrelevant questions, informed him that he " had his dollar's worth " of advice, and took occasion to give his client a lecture on the niggardliness of asking counsel in regard to a purchase involving thousands of dollars, for which he was willing to pay only a dollar !

In company, he was reticent, but in the society of a few friends, talkative and easy ; with but a single friend, he was communicative and confiding. In term-time, he was abstracted, little disposed to talk - energetic in every movement. When court had adjourned and business hours were over, a favorite position was to stretch himself at length on a bench in the office and ask questions on metaphysical topics, and talk of the unseen and the unknown.

In person, he was about five feet six inches high, of good proportions, but not stoutly built ; straight as an arrow ; a square built head, covered with steelgray hair ; clean shaven ; dark blue eyes, nose short and strong, mouth tolerably large, with thin lips. As a public speaker, his voice was strong and good - but without training ; in the office with a friend, low-toned and full of sweetness. He never forgot a kind act, and never spoke an unkind word concerning his political opponents personally. He lived at a time when the bitterness of party strife acknowledged no virtues in an opponent. He died in the fall of 1842, at the age of forty-four. Death obliterated the asperities of partisan criticism, and the common sentiment of all who knew him was that the county had lost a good citizen, an honest lawyer, and an able man.

John Hamilton

The subject of this sketch will be remembered by multitudes of persons as the proprietor and landlord of the Hamilton House, forty years ago. He died in 1868, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He settled in Urbana in 1814, being in his twenty-second year, and during his long residence in Urbana, his frequent election to offices of trust and responsibility sufficiently shows the confidence of his neighbors in his integrity and prudence. He was a quiet, reserved man - had little to say - disliked any unnecessary noise, and kept a temperance house. The interest that mainly attaches to Mr. Hamilton, is his capture and residence among the Indians. At the breaking-out of the war in 1812, under the call of Gov. Scott, of Kentucky, he volunteered, and was attached to a company in the regiment of Col. Lewis, of that State, which was soon ordered to Fort Wayne. After the performance of a military order near Tippecanoe, the regiment returned to Fort Wayne, and from there was ordered by Gen. Winchester to march to Defiance on short rations about November 1 ; thence down the Maumee to Camps Nos. 1, 2 and 3, where they had no flour and but little meat for three weeks. On December 25, 1812, they left the latter encampment, when shortly after snow commenced falling, which continued all day, and fell two feet deep. They pitched their tents that night in the snow on the bank of the river. Col. Lewis was ordered to detach six hundred of his regiment and move them immediately to the River Raisin to dislodge the British and Indian forces there encamped. On January 18, 1813, Col. Lewis commenced the assault and drove them from their quarters into the woods, both sides suffering severe losses. Col. Lewis took possession of the enemy's position, and sent word to Gen. Winchester of the victory. Winchester then ordered a detachment of three hundred to support Col. Lewis, who arrived and encamped outside the pickets. The detachment was commanded by Gen. Winchester himself. On the morning of the 22d, the enemy were discovered approaching. The battle being joined, was fought with desperation, the enemy having the advantage. The detachment to which Hamilton belonged, was ordered to retreat into the woods, when Col. Lewis rode up and requested the men to make a stand and break the force of the attack. A few rounds were fired, when he saw that his men were surrounded, and he gave the word for " each one to take care of himself." Young Hamilton at once turned toward the south, but soon discovered that he was followed by an Indian. He had retained his gun, and was enabled to keep his pursuer in check - each occasionally " taking to tree." When being close enough to converse, the Indian would beckon to him and say " come here," to which he answered " no," when under pretense of firing, the Indian would "tree" and Hamilton would take advantage to spring forward and gain another tree, hoping thus to evade his pursuer until nightfall, when he should trust his activity and endurance. Late in the afternoon, while watching the Indian in his rear, he was startled by a shot on his right hand, and saw at once that he was a prisoner. Quick as thought, he reasoned that a man who would follow him all day without firing a shot, was the more to be trusted, and leaving his gun against the tree, beckoned to the first and gave himself up to him. The other demanded a division of the spoils, and a compromise was effected by a surrender by his captor of his overcoat and knife. He was then taken to the rear of the British lines and was permitted to warm himself at a camp-fire. While there, the second Indian made further claim, and in the controversy that followed, the Indians being of different tribes - one an Ottawa, the other a Pottawatomie - the latter threatened to kill and raised his gun to shoot, when the Ottawa satisfied the other by giving him his remaining coat. On the evening of the battle, the Indians retired to Stony Greek, about four miles eastward. There he was told by the interpreter that he would not be sold or exchanged, but must go with his adapted father, his captor, to his wigwam. At this place they arrived in about nine days' walk in a northwestern direction - and remained there until January, 1814. As the warriors were absent, the village was, at times, reduced to the verge of starvation, he suffering perhaps more than others from his inability to eat horse and dog flesh. Mr. Hamilton narrated many incidents of his life with the savages, but became enthusiastic in speaking of the high moral nature of his adopted father and the neatness of his mother. Of the latter, he was accustomed to say that, during the course of a long life, he had never seen a woman who, in her household affairs, was so scrupuously neat. The moral sense of the old patriarch would not tolerate the least prevarication, and on one instance when Hamilton had attempted to screen one of the boys from punishment by withholding a fact, the old man being satisfied of the guilt of the culprit and his prevarication, cut a hickory and soundly thrashed them both with equal stripes. His squaw mother could also on occasion use the hickory to some purpose. On one occasion, he was sent to the spring with a sugar trough filled with hot hominy, which had just been boiled in lye to remove the hulls, his business being to wash out the hulls made free by the lye. The day was cold, and his feet bare, and the hominy hot, and the temptation was too great not to stand in the trough. The old lady saw the act, and without delay, thrashed him severely.

In November, a deputation arrived from Detroit, offering terms of peace to the Ottawa tribe, on certain conditions. A council was convened to consider the matter, which resulted in an acceptance of the terms, among which was the surrender of prisoners ; and in January, 1814, he was delivered to the officer of the fort at Detroit, with other released prisoners. He was well cared for and forwarded to his home, and shortly after removed from Kentucky to spend the residue of his life in Urbana.

Dr. Adam Mosgroye

Few men have lived in Urbana more widely known throughout the county than the subject of this sketch. Born in Enniskillen, Ireland, August, 1790, attended lectures in the Medical College of Edinburgh, and graduated by the Royal College of Surgery, Dublin, April, 1814, and was at once commissioned Surgeon in the British navy. The ship Charlotte, on which he was Surgeon, sailed for America, 1816. The vessel becoming disabled in a storm, put into Philadelphia for repairs, and some dispute having arisen between the ship's officers and the British Government, the officers resigned their commissions and left the ship to rot in the harbor.

He at once resolved to practice his profession in a strange, and, according to a common opinion among Europeans, a semi-barbarous land, and located, first in Lancaster, and afterward in Elizabethtown, where, in 1817, he was married to Mary Miller, a sister of the late Lawrence Miller, of Urbana. Learning that George Moore, a former resident of Enniskillen, was living in Urbana, the ties of nativity were strong enough to attract him to the home of his old friend, and, in 1818, packing his worldly goods in a wagon, he and his wife took up their journey for the Far West and arrived here in June of that year. There are now but two persons living in Urbana who were then over eighteen years of age.

The Doctor's wealth consisted of a few hundred dollars in coin, which he invested in the lot where the Democratic Wigwam now is, about midway between the Weaver House and Walnut street, with the tier of lots west to Walnut and south to Market. The frame building adjoining the wigwam was occupied by him as a residence for several years, which afterward was used as a schoolhouse by several of the pedagogues of town.

He was a strict Democrat in politics, and the party to which he was attached several times placed him in nomination for Congress and State Legislature, but with overwhelming majorities against the party, it was never anticipated that an election was possible.

He was a practitioner in Urbana for fifty-seven years, and settled here when houses were scattered, roads scarce, many of the trails blazed on the trees ; with all of which he became familiar, and traversed at all hours and weather, sometimes hitching his horse and taking his needed sleep on the ground.

He was temperate in all things, always cheerful, abounding in pleasantry and good humor ; possessed of a kind and affectionate disposition, his coming into a sick room was the signal for renewed hope and confidence on the part of the invalid.

His manners were those of the courtly gentleman of long time ago. He lived an active, consistent life, and died quietly and peacefully, at his home, March 3, 1875, in his eighty-fifth year, respected and esteemed by all, as an old citizen, a faithful physician, and an honest man.

Simon Kenton

A history of the life and times of the subject of this sketch, has, so far as we are aware, never been published ; yet no name is more intimately connected with the early history of Ohio. There are persons still living who knew him well, and who at times drew from him incidents connected with his own life and the times in which he lived, who it is hoped may make such record of them

Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier County, Va., April 3, 1755, and died in Logan County, near the place where he once narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Indians.

At the age of sixteen, he became entangled in a love affair, which brought him in contact with a rival, with whom he had an affray, and supposing that he had slain his antagonist, fled to the wilds of Kentucky. West of the Alleghanies, he assumed the name of Simon Butler, became an associate of Daniel Boone, and took an active part with Boone and other frontier's men in border life. The life was well adapted to develop an adventurer's true character, and young Kenton showed remarkable courage, sagacity and endurance. These virtues recommended him to the notice of Gov. Dunmore, by whom he was employed as a spy.

In 1782, learning that his adversary, whom he supposed he had left dead, was still alive, he returned to his native place, and by his representation of the country west of the mountains, induced his father to remove with him to Kentucky.

The scouts and spies of that day, by the nature of their employment, and perhaps from their natural impulses, were unsettled. His associations with Boone and others connected him with expeditions in Kentucky and Ohio against the Indians, and he had traversed nearly every part of Ohio before he settled in it. In 1778, when on one of his first expeditions through this State, he was taken prisoner by the Indians, on the north bank of the Ohio River, securely lashed to the back of a wild horse, and the horse turned loose in the woods. The animal, after plunging and kicking violently for some time, without being able to throw off the burden, and marvelously without injury to his rider, in his mad career through the brush and woods, quietly fell into line with the other ponies, subdued and tame. He was then taken to Chillicothe, and there compelled to run the gauntlet ; from thence to the Mac-a-cheek towns and Wapatomica - the latter near where Zanesfield, in Logan County, now is - at each of which places he was compelled to run the gauntlet. He was then condemned to be burned, but reprieved for a time, through the intervention of Simon Girty, a renegade white man, who had known Kenton years before as Simon Butler, and claimed him as his brother. He was again saved from the same horrible death, by the generous contrivance of the Mingo Chief Logan, by which he was taken to Detroit, from which place he escaped, and returned to Kentucky.

In 1786, the Mac-a-cheek towns, at the head of Mad River, were destroyed by a body of Kentuckians under Gen. Benjamin Logan. In this attack, Col. Boone and Simon Kenton (then Major) led the advance.

He settled in Urbana in 1802, and from that time until the close of the war of 1812, was identified with the interests and perils of the people of Champaign County, and no wrong treatment, of which he thought himself the victim, swerved for an instant his loyal mind.

His opportunities enabled him to secure large quantities of land in Kentucky and Ohio, but, though with every facility for being the owner of valuable lands, he became poor and necessitous. Several reasons may be assigned for this. He was unable to read, and trusted to his memory and the honor of men ; added to this, he was as generous and kind-hearted as he was brave, and incurred obligations which gave him much annoyance and distress. He judged others by himself, and was not conscious of the impositions and dishonesty to which he was subjected, until, defrauded and robbed of his estate, it was too late to remedy the wrongs.

He had certificates of purchase of five tracts of land in Ohio, being 2,700 acres on the Scioto, a tract on the Mac-a-check, a considerable portion is the large and valuable farm now owned by John Enoch ; a tract called the " Kenton farm," now owned by the heirs of Maj. William Hunt, and lies on the road from Urbana to Springfield, about five miles north of Springfield. Kenton had a cabin on this farm and at one time lived there. He had also what was called the Kenton Mill tract, and a place in possession of one Anderson. The Mill tract is now Lagonda. The Anderson tract embraced what afterward were the farms of James Johnson and Orsamus Scott, of Concord Township. He also owned several tracts of land in Ohio, together with Col. William Ward ; in the division of which and exchange for other property, Kenton claimed that he was entitled to a half-section adjoining Urbana. It is easy to conceive how an unlettered man in the sale or exchange of property might be overreached, but it is as easily conceivable that his memory might be treacherous, or misunderstandings exist. Col. Ward was also interested in certain lands in Kentucky, which Kenton was supposed to hold in fee simple. It is claimed that Ward furnished some capital and his knowledge of land titles and conveyances. Kenton was familiar with the country and knew of choice locations. To the latter was entrusted the payment of taxes, which Ward claimed he neglected, involving loss to him, and that he closed his partnership with Kenton by written article. The consequence was that Ward was accused of cheating Kenton, but there is no evidence to confirm the charge, and on the other hand Kenton, well meaning, honest and upright, was nevertheless known to be careless and shiftless in his business matters, and as to his business ventures with Ward, he was always reticent.

In 1811-12, when the jail stood on the corner of Locust and Market streets, he was jailer, and for a year was kept within prison bounds. Under the old law permitting imprisonment for debt, he was arrested on an execution issued by some Kentucky creditors. To avoid being locked up in his own prison, he availed himself of his privilege of prison bounds, which at that time extended from the alley on Scioto street, adjoining Ur. J. C. Brown's property, to High street ; and from Ward to Reynolds streets. These bounds afterward, by legislative enactment, became co-extensive with the county. He always walked with a long staff, which he grasped about a foot from the upper end. This end was charred, as he constantly used it as his poker to stir the fire. When walking within his prison bounds he would draw near the line as though about to pass, when he would bring up with a sudden halt, and though his own jailer, neither violated his duty nor the obligation of his bond.

In 1824, he visited the Legislature of Kentucky, then in session at Frankfort, to solicit a release of some claims held by the State on some mountain lands owned by him. He was now old and poor, and presented that tattered appearance which on first sight provoked the smiles and inattention of the members. But as soon as it was known that the old man was Simon Kenton, the companion and friend of Boone, he was the lion of the day, and received all due honor and consideration. The Legislature not only remitted the State claims, but was active in securing him a pension from Congress of $240.

Many of the older citizens of Urbana and Champaign knew and remember him well. Mr. John H. James, some time prior to the death of Gen. Kenton, spent several days with him, and learned from himself many facts connected not only with his own life, but of the history of the country not generally known. In his interviews with him, Mr. James was not only impressed with the simplicity, sincerity of purpose, and integrity of the man, but also with his peculiarity of manner and phraseology and shrewd comments, and with the tenacity of his memory. Mr. Patrick knew him from 1811 until his death in 1836, and sums up his character in these words : " He was one of nature's

The Scientific Association of Urbana has in its possession a copy of what is said to be an excellent portrait of him. It represents Kenton at apparently about the age of seventy, with a face clean shaven, a kindly expression of eye, a prominent chin, a well-shaped strong mouth, long nose, deep, overarching eyebrows, and high forehead, somewhat narrow toward the top. The face is a striking one and naturally attracts attention.

He was tall, nearly or quite six feet ; in younger life, erect ; compactly built and muscular ; blue eyes, inclined to gray, and a light sandy complexion.

His remains lie in Oakdale Cemetery, with no monument worthy of the man. There would be a fitness in the Legislature of the State granting a commission to John Quincy Ward, grandson of Col. Ward, and a native of Urbana, to erect over his grave a monument and statue of the old soldier, worthy the fame of Kenton and the genius of the sculptor.

During the summer of 1846, I chanced to spend the night with a Mr. Sloan, of Zanesfield, Logan County, Ohio. Gen. Simon Kenton having ended his days, as well as spent the latter years of his eventful life in that immediate neighborhood, he very naturally became the subject of conversation. Sloan having for many years been the personal friend and intimate acquaintance of Kenton, received from Kenton's own lips many incidents and items of interest which never appeared in print, and which, as Kenton belongs to Champaign County, may be read with interest by the readers of your valuable collection of incidents and reminiscences.

About the year 1793, Kenton had been spending a season of inactivity in and around Boone's and Logan's Stations, Kentucky, and feeling that to him activity and adventure was life, while quietude and confinement were enervating, to say the least, concluded to sally forth in quest of something to relieve the monotony of camp-life. Equipping himself with all the appurtenances pertaining woodcraft, he crossed the Ohio River and strack boldly into the domain of the red man. Pursuing a northerly direction, he continued with all the strength and activity of youth until admonished by the shades of darkness and the gnawings of an empty stomach that arrangements for shelter and refreshments for the inner man required his immediate attention.

So, hastily improvising a shelter and bed from the branches of the trees, and preparing and dispatching his frugal meal, he wrapped himself in his blanket, and was soon in the land of dreams.

Contrary to Kenton's usual precaution, or from fancied security, he neglected to put out or cover up his camp-fire before retiring. Certain it is, however, that a party of straggling Indians, attracted by the light or by accident, discovered his retreat, and while reveling in the arms of Morpheus, little suspecting a visit from his enemies, he was brought to a realizing sense of his situation by a hearty kick in the ribs, accompanied by the command, expressed in good English, to " get up." Springing to his feet with the agility of a cat, he was confronted by four stalwart warriors. To resist or attempt to escape under such circumstances would be worse than madness. So, making a virtue of necessity, Kenton with an affability and grace, peculiar to himself, after being deprived of his accouterments, took up his line of march as a prisoner.

Pursuing a northerly course, after six days of hard travel the party reached the Indian village, at a point somewhere in what is now Northern Indiana or Southern Michigan, Kenton maintaining meanwhile a demeanor so cheerful and hilarious that his captors extended many little acts of kindness, and even went so far as to return his arms and ammunition while on the march ; at night, however, he was deprived of everything, and was compelled to sleep between two of the warriors, whilst the other two took turns standing guard.

Upon arriving at the village, Kenton was conducted into the presence of the chief, who seemed to be impressed with the manly proportions and pleasant, smiling countenance of the prisoner, and resolved at once to adopt him as a son, which he accordingly did, and Kenton was at once regularly installed a member of the family, and heir apparent to the rulership of the tribe. Being desirous of gaining the esteem and confidence of his new father and mother, as well as making himself useful in his new home, Kenton conceived the idea of improving his prospective winter quarters, and it was not long until the wigwam, with the hole in the top, bad been supplanted by a neat log cabin, with door, floor and chimney. The chief, together with the tribe, were electrified with this new acquisition, and Kenton at once became a hero, and would have become in a short time, chief architect and practical builder to the entire community, but for the intervention of the chief, who at once entered his protest that his adopted son should not be the slave of the tribe, being a member of his family. A compromise was effected, however, by which Kenton became superintendent of re-construction - men being detailed to perform the labor.

Thus the summer passed away, and the fall winds and eddying blasts heralded the approach of winter, which to the Indian is an important period, as it involves the necessity of providing sustenance in advance. A grand fall hunt was arranged, and, although Kenton desired to be one of the party, he was informed that he must remain at the village. Consequently, when the party left, Kenton and another prisoner were left in charge of two braves. Although Kenton had never exhibited any signs of discontent or dissatisfaction with his situation, yet there never was a time during his captivity that he did not meditate an escape when the proper time came and a suitable opportunity offered. The tribe having gone to the hunt, there remained only the old men, the women and children and the two warriors, the auspicious moment seemed to be approaching. The escape could be effected without trouble or opposition but for the two guards, who always went armed, and who watched Kenton and his companion with unceasing devotion. Finally an opportunity offered, a detailed account of which will close this chapter.

About a mile from the village was a small lake, which abounded in fish, and to which the Indians were in the habit of resorting, both for the sport of fishing as well as a means of sustenance.

A few days after the departure of the hunters, the guards proposed and arranged an excursion to the lake, to spend the day in fishing. Each one of the party being provided with hook and line, started. Kenton and his companion having discussed the probabilities, had previously determined to make the attempt at escape this day, if any possible opportunity should offer. The most eligible point for taking fish was where a large tree had fallen so that about thirty feet of the trunk extended into the lake. The Indians, in their anxiety to obtain the best point, were some thirty feet in advance of Kenton, and, thoughtlessly, no doubt, laid their guns and ammunition on the tree near the margin of the lake. Kenton, with his characteristic sagacity, took in the situation at once, saw his opportunity at the instant the Indians saw their mistake, snatched up one of the guns, and, as the Indians sprang to their feet, shot the foremost one, killing him instantly. The other Indian being so close upon him he had no time to use the other gun, clubbed the one he had in his hand, made a pass but missed his antagonist, and before he could gather for another blow, the Indian had clinched, and they both went into the water. In the struggle which ensued, the Indian succeeded in getting Kenton's head between his legs, and evidently intended to keep him under the water until drowned, to which arrangement Kenton did not so readily acquiesce ; so, with a mighty effort for life, he got one of the Indian's thumbs between his teeth, causing such acute pain that Kenton was enabled to extricate his head, and they both came to the surface, Kenton still holding on to the thumb, and, grasping the Indian by the throat, he succeeded in getting the Indian's head under water, where he held it with the determination of desperation until death ended the struggle. Kenton's companion meanwhile stood a quiet spectator of the scene. Arming themselves with the arms of their enemies, they struck out for home, which they reached in due time, to the surprise and joy of friends who had long mourned Kenton as dead.

Other names conspicuous in the history and prosperity of the county might be mentioned. These will be remembered in the sketches of the several townships.

Many names identified with the general prosperity have been mentioned' in the preceding pages. More special notice may be made of them and others, residents of Urbana Township.

John Reynolds

He was a man of simple tastes, quiet, unpretending and unambitious. He was a man of enlarged views, and, in an early day, took an active interest in all matters of public concern. The marked features of his character were great integrity and rare common sense. He never neglected his business, prospered in his undertakings, contributed to the prosperity of all connected with him, and had the open hand of a true charity. He died at an advanced age.

Henry Weaver

came from Kentucky when a youth, and soon became one of the first shots with the rifle in the country. The killing of a white man by the Indians in the southwestern part of the county alarmed many settlers, and most or all who came with him from Kentucky returned, he alone remaining. About 1830, he opened a store in a small frame building on the corner of the public square, where the Weaver hardware store now is. He had a judicious eye for a speculation or purchase, invested his profits in loans, mortgages and profitable enterprises, and died a few years since at an advanced age, having accumulated perhaps the largest private fortune of any citizen of the county. In advanced life, his appearance showed little of the encroachments of age, and he continued the practice of horseback-riding to the last.

one of the earliest residents of the county, and among the first to be chosen Sheriff. He opened the first store in town, and always had an interest in the general prosperity. The crushing of his foot by a saw-log, in 1844, gave him much inconvenience for the remainder of his life. He was fond of a practical joke, and was in the habit of attending auctions and bidding on all goods offered, apparently for the purpose of exciting a spirited bidding among the bystanders, and as a consequence had his cellar full of useless " traps." He built, in 1821, the brick residence on the corner of Scioto and Locust streets, which, for many years, was considered a model house. During a long life, he continued the hospitalities of the early pioneer, and the stranger and friend were made welcome. The table always had an extra cover laid for the probable guest. He died in 1849 at a green old age.

for many years a prominent citizen of Urbana, and partner in the mercantile firm of W. & D. McDonald. He represented the county in the State Legislature, and was considered a man of good sense, general intelligence and great integrity.

Samuel Keener

was from Baltimore. Had been formerly connected with a wholesale drug establishment, and, on removal to Champaign, became a farmer, and brought the training of his mercantile life into the business of the farm. He was a man of general knowledge, a considerable reader, and of fine practical sense. He was a good talker, " of infinite jest," and, in matters of business, a man of positive convictions and plain in their expression. Few men, perhaps no one in the township, did more for the development of a higher farming than he, both in the introduction of thoroughbred stock and in his system of agriculture, and, by his success, demonstrated that " farming may be made to pay." He died in 1854, aged fifty-six. Mr. Griffith Ellis is in possession of a fine oil portrait of Mr. Keener.

Other names might be mentioned equally meritorious - men of industry, integrity and worth, among whom may be named William H. Fyffe, John A. Ward, James Smith, William G. Keller, Ira Bean, Matthew Magrew, Jacob Kauffman, Dr. J. S. Carter, William Rianhard, John and William Glenn, Dr. William Happersett, Edmund Hovey, John Goddard, Joseph White, Erastus Sheldon, Milo G. Williams, and others, who were known as useful and valuable citizens - men who build up and give character to a town and country.

In art-life, Champaign has a number of representatives. The first in point of time, was Harrison Hite, son of George Hite, who, forty years ago, might have been seen any day standing in the water, or sitting on the factory pond bank, with his rod and line, waiting patiently "for a bite." Young Hite had the reputation of a finished miniature painter. He located in New York City, where, it is said, his time was fully occupied in his profession. He died a number of years ago.

William Sweet, son of Azel Sweet, had a decided talent for portrait painting. Travel and study would have given him a name in his profession. He was making arrangements for a residence in Europe for the prosecution of his profession, about 1840, when he died, at the age of twenty-five or thirty years.

Andrew Way had considerable talent as a portrait painter. He studied in Europe, and is said to have painted a number of historical pictures. He lives in Baltimore.

John Q. A. Ward, son of John A. Ward, a man of rare talent as a sculptor, and, by his designs and works, has now an enviable reputation. Emphatically a "home-made " man, having never had leisure to study the work's of art in the old world. Central Park, New York City, contains a number of his works. The plaster statuette of Simon Kenton, to be seen in the Citizens' Bank, was designed and made by him.

Edgar Ward, son of John A. Ward, has talent for figures and landscape painting. He excels in depicting the country life of the old world. Several of his pictures were on exhibition at the Exposition in Chicago. He has spent some time in Europe, and is now in Paris.

Warren Cushman, a native of Woodstock, has a studio in Urbana, and has painted portraits of a large number of the citizens of town. In crayon drawing, he has been very successful, and has made one of the very best of the many portraits of President Hayes.

Miss Lillie King paints both in oil and water colors, and, in some of her sketches and paintings, has shown considerable talent in landscape and natural objects.

Odds And Ends

As the century came in, much of the fashion that prevailed during the Revolution began to make way for a simpler dress. The three-cornered hat, the cue, the Continental coat, with its lappels and buff facings, the breeches, knee-buckles and garters, were hardly suited to a new country, and, of necessity, made way for buckskin, tow shirts, coon caps and linsey-woolsey. Yet at the time of which we write, the "gentleman of the old school," who prided himself on his "blue blood," held with pertinacity to his cue and his buckles.

A majority of the early settlers wore the buckskin hunting-shirt and trowsers. There was no economy or comfort in it after linsey-woolsey could be obtained. After they had become wet, no amount of manipulation could restore their wonted pliancy ; and the boy running daily through the woods and high grass, soon found his trowsers not only rigid, but, in spite of his best endeavors, by skrinkage leaving a wide margin between his feet and the trowsers.

It is difficult to find a true dandy of that period. The common feeling was one of contempt for those who made a display of dress. At the log-rollings, corn-huskings and general social gatherings, there was rivalry for partners, pride in athletic sports, and in neatness of personal appearance ; but, so far as we have been able to learn, the animal we call a "dandy " was not known in the earlier part of the century. The same feeling of contempt for fashionable dress continued a marked trait of the rural population until, perhaps, within the present generation.

The girl of the period dressed in homespun, showed the deft hand in the adjustments which give a charm to the humblest materials, at home, went barefoot, tied up her hair in a knot with a string, wore sun-bonnets or hats made of straw, and, when she was married, put on a cap.

The changing fashions brought the "swallow-tailed" dress-coat and pantaloons into use, and a disuse of the cue, or "pig- tail," as it was styled among the profane among the younger set. The older class still held to the cue and kneebreeches. The clergy were in the habit of railing at the frivolity of the age. Martin Hitt wore what was then and has since been called the "shad-belly," cue, breeches and buckles, which he held to be the true dress of a gentleman as long as he lived.

About the year 1820, the Methodist Episcopal Conference sat in Urbana, of which Henry T. Bascom, then a young man, was a member. Bascom was a little foppish in his dress, and carried a light cane, and gave great offense to the " shad- bellies " for preferring broadcloth to jeans, and a fashionable swallowtail to the distinctive style of the minister. Bascom had a ready answer, that he had no objection to a suit of the simplest sort, but his clothes had been given to him, and he was too poor to throw them away, and would be glad to receive another suit of plainer cut !

William Ward, more commonly called Col. Ward, who was grandfather of the families bearing the name in the vicinity of Urbana, during his life held to the old style of dress. Solomon Yause, discarding the rest, retained the cue until his death, which happened in 1837.

About 1830, the "shad-belly " and "pig- tail" were to be seen only on men of advanced age, though occasionally a young man affected the latter. About this time, singing-schools were places of common interest. One of them was conducted by Samuel Miller, afterward a man of some note in the village, who wore his hair in a cue. Some of the young fellows of the town started a manuscript newspaper, called The Wasp , of which half a dozen copies were gratuitously circulated. The Wasp was used to lampoon the follies of the day, and Miller's cue came in for a share of the ridicule, and was called the " skillethandle." Miller was not invulnerable to the satire, and cut off the handle.

The style of wearing the hair during the first forty years underwent several changes. The young man of fashion at the first tied his back hair in a bandage of ribbon, leaving the extremity loose, and no Chinaman ever guarded his pig-tail with more jealous care. By 1830, the fashionable man "roached" his hair, and trimmed behind to a moderate length. By 1840, the hair of the back part of the head, in a line drawn from ear to ear across the crown, was cut very short, and the front part permitted to grow to the length of six to eight inches, which was nicknamed by the unfashionable "soap-locks."

The men of eighty years ago were all clean shaven, which was the custom generally until a very recent day. In 1840, the men who wore whiskers were the "border ruffian" and the Mississippi steamboat poker player. The long beard and waxed mustache in the rural districts were a curiosity, and the big watch chain, flowing beard and fierce looks plainly indicated the proprietor to be somebody. In recent times, it has become almost universal to let the beard grow. The exceptions are to be found mainly among the " oldest settlers," who, to this day, wear clean shaved faces. Among these, we now recall the faces and names of Judge John Taylor, John Enoch, Samuel Humes, Robert M. Woods, John H. James, John Earsom, James McLean, William Patrick, John Hurd, Jacob Minturn, Simon Earsom and others.

Mad River Tp

The fashions of the ladies have been so variable and complicated that e shall not attempt the task of describing them. 'Tis said the quantity requisite for a dress pattern has increased with the increasing years. It is a greater puzzle to the " old man " when he foots the bill, and remembers that Mrs. Lafferty, the largest woman in the county when linsey-woolsey was fashionable, required only six yards, and left a remnant for repairs !

The Urbana Union newspaper, in March, 1867, began a publication of the history of Champaign County, prepared by Mr. John H. James, running through the pages of that paper about a year. The papers abound in items of interest, and personal sketches of men who lived in the county. Having come to Urbana at an early day, and whose studies and pursuits brought him in close acquaintance with the old settlers, and an intimate knowledge of the projected improvements and changes which have taken place for nearly three-quarters of a century, no one is better qualified than he to narrate the details of the border life, and the progress that the hand of industry has wrought accurately and well. The history was copyrighted by Mr. Houx, the publisher, and we are authorized to make extracts from its pages.

The first Legislature had provided for an enumeration of the inhabitants. This was duly made, and the returns made to the General Assembly, which met in 1803, showed that there were then fifteen counties in the State, and that the number of white male inhabitants was 17,767. Of this number, Greene County, out of which Champaign was carved, had 446.

The first session of the Legislature passed an act to establish seats of justice. The law required three Commissioners, to be appointed by the General Assembly, to examine and determine what part of the county was most eligible for holding the courts. The Commissioner was not to be a resident of the county, nor own any land therein, and must have arrived at the age of twenty-five years. The Commissioners were to meet within sixty days of notice of their appointment, give twenty days' public notice to the people, take an oath to perform their duties, and then proceed to select a place as near the center of the county as possible. Report of what was done was to be made to the Court of Common Pleas, and, if no town had been laid off, the court appointed a Director to purchase the land, lay the same off into lots and streets, and sell the same at public or private sale for the benefit of the new county. The law is interesting, as showing the means adopted to secure justice and honesty in the discharge of a public duty.

Ichabod.B. Halsey and George Harlan, of Warren County, and William McClelland, of Butler County, were appointed Commissioners to locate the county seat for Champaign. They met during the summer of 1805. Springfield was the only town laid off in the county, but the law required the seat of justice to be as nearly central as possible. Instead of purchasing land for a site as the law required, they made an arrangement with Col. Ward to select the present site of Urbana on condition of his laying off a town, and giving to the county one-half of all the lots. Col. Ward, it is said, urged them to select the table-land on Bogle's Run, now owned by the county as the Infirmary Farm, the reason being that the nearness to Springfield would prevent the latter from being made a county town, and, consequently, the incentive for the division of the county would be taken away. The Commissioners made report to the court at the September term of their selection and the proposals of Col. Ward. The action of the court consisted in appointing "Joseph C. Vance as Director to purchase the land and make the necessary arrangements for estab- lishing and fixing the permanent seat of justice." In an old contract between Robert Renick and another for the sale of a piece of land at Urbana, the land is described as lying on Flag Run. The " crossing place" was "down by old Mr. Luse's." The curious of to-day will find Flag Run is wThat is now called the "Town Branch." The "crossing" was on Miami street, near an old tannery, and "old Mr. Luse " was Zephaniah Luse, owner of the tanyard, which was perhaps the first one sunk in Urbana. On the authority of the " history " before named, a colored barber named Robert Fleming, who always traveled the circuit with the Court of Common Pleas, and had spent his youth among the Shawnee Indians as a servant of Matthew Elliott, said that the "Run" was called by the Shawnees the " Hop-kesepo," which meant the Pleasant River.

Sales of lots were made in October, 1805. But no sale lists were preserved and no reports of sales exist. The court files were kept loosely. No minutes of the County Commissioners are found prior to 1809. William H. Fyffe was present at the first sale and bought the lot on the corner of South Main and Market, where he lived and carried on a saddlery shop.

The court allowed Arthur St. Clair $25 for his services at the first term of the court as Prosecuting Attorney. In 1826, James Cooley, then Prosecutor, received $30. In more recent times, the sum of $200 is considered the proper honorarium.

At that period, the body could be taken for debt. In the list of civil cases, it is curious to note that in every instance suit was commenced by capias, and special bail was entered. In every instance defendants gave bail when execution was ordered, which was generally by an entry on the docket and signed by the attorney. The order is for a writ to take the defendant's goods and not a writ for his body.

At a special election in 1806 to choose a Sheriff, Coroner and three Commissioners, the returns of Salem Towmship only are found, which consists of a single sheet of foolscap, folded in half and stitched, with the certificate of John Runyon, Associate Judge, at the top. Thirty-seven votes were polled. Jacob Minturn, Alexander Miller and William Hendricks were Judges, and David Vance and John Lafferty, Clerks. Some of the names of the voters are spelled differently from the orthography of to-day, but this probably was due to the Clerk. Salem then embraced the eastern half of what is now Champaign and Logan, and the list of voters shows that their descendants are still among the efficient men of the section in which they lived. The names are in the following order : John Runion, George Jameson, James Suit, Zekiel Davis, John

In 1806, Zane Township was formed and taken from the north end of Mad River and Salem Townships, and embraced very nearly the present county of Logan. It was named in honor of Isaac Zane, who lived at the Big Bottom on Mad River, near the present town of Zanesfield. When nine years old, he was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and, having lived with them many years, married an Indian woman. By her he .had a son, Isaac Zane, who lived at the same place, and four daughters, who married men of prominence in the county, and among the earliest settlers, named McCulloch, Armstrong, Long and Reed. Their grandchildren and descendants still live in Logan.

Isaac Zane was one of the sworn interpreters at the making of Wayne's treaty at Greenville, in 1795. He stood high in the estimation of the Wyandots, who assigned him a tract of land four miles square at the Big Bottom on Mad Biver. This reservation was not stipulated in the treaty, and he afterward petitioned Congress to confirm the grant. Being in the Virginia Military District, the confirmation could not be made, but the President was empowered to convey by patent to Zane three sections, which he could select from any unsold lands in the Northwest Territory. Two of the sections selected were on King's Creek, east of the Urbana & West Liberty road, embracing now the Kingston Mills ; the third, at the mouth of King's Creek, on Mad River.

Robert Renick was a Justice of the Peace in the early days, and many good stories are told of him. One of them is that, having occasion to detain in custody a person who had been brought before him, and having no court house, he had a large stick of wood, too heavy to be dragged off, split open at one end by a " glut." The prisoner's leg was inserted in the opening and the glut knocked out. The clamp was not tight enough to do injury, but sufficient to hold the prisoner till wanted.

The store of Fabian Engle has been noticed elsewhere. The grassy nook by the edge of the forest, near the clean and gravelly knoll where it stood, still remains, but the house was removed fifty years ago. His stock in trade consisted of knives and forks, spoons, knitting-needles, weavers' reels and Turkey red, awl-blades, sewing-thread, needles, powder, lead and tobacco, a little whisky, and one piece of calico, to exchange for linsev-wToolsey and home-made linen.

For these valuables he received, in pay, home-made woolsey and linen, beeswax and deer-skins. Money was a scarce article, and could be dispensed with altogether except for the payment of one thing - taxes. Fabian was a bad manager and a not very neat shop-keeper. He fell into debt, and the last accounts of him were his arrest and imprisonment for debt.

In 1807, two men named Bowyer and Morgan, brothers-in-law, had settled in the southwestern part of the county, and made a clearing. As the country wTas open, the Indians, in their hunting expeditions, built lodges near by, which Morgan one day burned. This exasperated the Indians, who sought revenge in shooting Bowyer, whom, by accident, they had mistaken for Morgan. The killing was done in sight of the wives of the two men, who, with their children, fled and hid in a thicket. Five Indians passed close by them and approached the body, and finding they had shot the wrong man, passed on without carrying off any plunder or committing any depredations. It gave great alarm to the country. Morgan left the country, ai\d many returned to Kentucky. Henry Weaver, long an old resident of Urbana, then a mere lad, was among the few who refused to leave. A deputation from Urbana, among them Joseph Vance, went down to William Lemon's to make note of matters and bury the body. They reported that the killing indicated a private grudge, and that there was no cause for general alarm. Mary Lemon rode to Urbana on horseback behind Joseph Vance, as wTas the custom. In December of that year (1807), Joseph Vance and Mary Lemon were married.

The killing of Bowyer caused very general alarm, and brought in messages of peace from the Indians. A general meeting of the Indians was held at

Springfield, and some of the chiefs stopped in Urbana to talk the matter over. Col. Ward and Simon Kenton were present. Ward exhibited great excitement in his talk and manner, while Kenton, throughout, remained composed and silent. His knowledge of the Indian character made him take this course and gave an effectiveness to his words when the time came for him to speak.

Joseph C. Vance was appointed Director of Greene County in 1803, and in laying off the seat of justice drew on his classical learning for a name for the new town, which he called, from the Greek, Xenia, meaning hospitality. In 1805, he moved to the newly created county of Champaign, and was again appointed Director of the county. In laying off the town, which he called Urbana, he drew his name from the Latin tongue, literally meaning city-like, or courteous. He died in 1809, leaving a large family. His successor as Clerk of the Court was Maj. Thomas Gwynne, one of a family which came from Cumberland, in Maryland, and settled on Deer Creek. They, or their ancestors, perhaps, came originally from Wales, the name in Welsh being a synonym of White. He was for many years Paymaster in the army, and settled and died in Cincinnati in 1824. Other members of the family settled here, and were conspicuous as merchants and enterprising men. Maj. Gwynne probably never served as Clerk. In the year following the death of Joseph C. Vance, William Ward was appointed Clerk, and succeeded to all the offices held by Vance. He was also made Director of the town of Urbana, David Gwynne and Samuel McCord being sureties in the sum of $1,500.

The aggregate statement of taxes for the year 1810 shows there were seven townships, and the amount of State and county tax levied was, for county, $925.85, and for State, $792.20, making a total of $1,767.85 - a rate of about $1 to each inhabitant. In 1866, the same territory (Clark, Champaign and Logan) paid $210,000 State and municipal taxes, and Champaign alone, in 1880, $236,033.92.

The wolf was a serious enemy to the early settlers. The Territorial Legislature enacted a law paying to every one over ten years of age, for killing a wolf within six miles of any settlement, 50 cents for a wolf under six months old, and $1.25 if more than six months. A bounty was allowed by the County Commissioners, in 1809, of $1 for each one. The certificates for wolf scalps were used for currency, and Collectors of taxes took them in payment as money. The price for scalps was afterward made 75 cents for those of wolf pups, and $1.50 for those of the old wolves.

It has been elsewhere noted that Congress provided in the law for the sale of the public lands that Section 16 in each township should be set apart for the use of schools in that township. By State law, it was required that the inhabitants of these townships should elect three Trustees and a Clerk, who should be a corporation for leasing the school sections. This was done by granting a lease of a quarter-section for a short term of years, on condition that the tenant should erect a cabin and clear a certain number of acres, after which the tenant paid a portion of the crops as rent. The proceeds of these crops were paid to the teachers, as per pupils, and the amount was credited each quarter, pro rata, on the tuition bills. Congress afterward gave consent to the sale of the lands, which was concurred in by the State, with the provision that the money should go into the State Treasury, at 6 per cent forever. Sales were made in 1828 and after - probably the land selling for all it was worth then - but subsequent growth and value have shown the short-sighted policy, to be repeated nearly forty years afterward in the sale of Agricultural College land scrip. The section within a mile of Urbana sold for an average of $3 per acre, or about $1,900 in the aggregate. The same land to-daj will be valued at $50 an acre, without the improvements.

The number of votes cast in these townships, which, in 1810, comprised the limits of Champaign County now, was 287. The amount of tax-lists for 1811, for the three counties named, delivered to Samuel McCord, Collector, was (State and local), $1,727.75. It was then made the duty of the Collector to call on every tax payer at his home. His fees, bylaw, were 8 per cent, and the Commissioners appropriated that year $130 for his services.

Among the first - or probably the first - native-born citizens of the town, were Newton Harr and Edward P. Fyffe, and in the county, James McGill, James McLain and Jacob Minturn.

When John Reynolds settled in Urbana, a post road had been authorized from Cincinnati to Detroit, and a mail was carried from Cincinnati to Lebanon, and thence to Xenia, where it stopped. Postmaster General Granger agreed to establish a mail to Urbana on condition that the inhabitants would pay the expenses and save the department from loss. Mr. John Reynolds became Postmaster on these terms, and the mail was carried at his expense, less the proceeds of the office, which but slightly reimbursed him.

In 1826, John C. Peasrson was Postmaster, and postage on a letter was 12J, 25, 37 J and 50 cents per half-ounce, according to the distance carried. Every separate piece in the letter was taxed at the same rate. Thus, a letter containing two one-dollar notes was charged at the rate of three letters. The envelope was a later invention. To fold a letter neatly was considered a fine art, and some of the school-teachers made this one of the lessons for their pupils.

In 1838, William Hunt was Postmaster, who afterward was President and Director in the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad. About 1840, he removed to the old Simon Kenton farm, about five miles from Springfield, on the Urbana pike, where he died a few years since.

In the early settlement of the country, the office sought the man. If any one wanted an office it was no discredit to announce his name as a candidate. Conventions came into fashion about 1828, and like all new machinery worked awkwardly and with friction at the first. The setting up and manipulation of conventions, have, in these later days, be'en reduced to a science. A change of parties in power is now understood to mean new men and new ways ; and we find in the run of years that Samuel K. Ward, Decatur Talbott, John A. Corwin, James Taylor, Newton Ambrose, William C. Brand, Daniel Hitt, and perhaps others who have in turn sorted the mail, ranging from the weekly advent of the post-boy on his tedious and tired horse with his single pouch of papers and letters to the two-horse "carryall " - semi-weekly - the splendid coach of the old stage company - "all full inside " - and to-day a daily mail by express car - from east, west, north and south - weighing 500 to 1,000 pounds.

One portion of this "veritable history" is lacking - a feature commonly overlooked - but one which perhaps as much as any other one thing shows " the form and pressure of the times " - the phraseology or modes of expression and thought of the people at different periods. That of Simon Kenton was peculiar, and although each man brought more or less of the dialect of the locality whence he came- - there soon came to be a "shibboleth," common to many of which the slang words and expletives formed a rich and forcible vocabulary, which, if the truth were known, has contributed its portion of " Anglo-Saxon " to the unabridged. Untrained in the schools, circumstances suggested analogies and expressions stronger and more expressive than its Latin synonym.

Abram Smith in the early settlement of Salem Township, bought a tract of land on what is now the Urbana pike, about three miles southeast of West Liberty, and paid at the rate of $2 per acre. David Ogden sold the same land to Abraham Herr about 1850, for $50 an acre. The property to-day is owned by Joseph Miller, and would probably sell in the market for $100 per acre.

Daniel Louderback, of Mad River, purchased, in 1820, 160 acres of land, valued at $50. He has held continued possession until 1880. and the same land is now valued at $70 per acre. Taxes have advanced in the same ratio.

Mr. Solomon Vause's farm in Union Township, in 1830 valued at $5 per acre, has been in the uninterrupted possession of Robert M. Woods till 1880 ; assessed value, $50 per acre. In 1832, taxes $1 per 100 acres ; in 1880, 50 cents per acre.

In 1830, and onward for many years, the town held weekly lyceums, composed of the attorneys, preachers and young men of literary tastes, where questions of popular interest were discussed in the presence of enthusiastic audiences, of which the ladies composed a large part. By 1840, an essay or lecture was added to the amusement of the evening.

In 1850, or later, public lectures were read at certain intervals. Members . of the bar and other scientific and literary gentlemen of the community responded to the call, and a course of lectures was given during the winter months.

By 1870, the public lecturing business had become one of the fixed " institutions " of the country. Bureaus were established at various centers to facilitate the securing of prominent and popular essayists and orators, when a choice of names was offered and terms arranged without an extended correspondence. Under this system, a committee have continued until the present a winter course of lectures by many of the distinguished public speakers.

It is elsewhere stated, that, in the earlier period of the State's history, the squirrels were accustomed to travel in coundess numbers from the north to the south. The squirrels then were a nuisance, and their destruction encouraged by a squirrel tax. So effective has been the course pursued, but more particularly by the bands of young hunters, that the squirrels are becoming very scarce, and in one or two more decades will be so rarely seen as to be a curiosity. The last emigration of the squirrels from or through Champaign County was in 1836. They came from the northwest, moving across the county diagonally, and crossing open fields, fences and houses in their course. They were rarely seen in numbers together, but, singly, each seemed to be striving to reach its destination. In the fields one might have been seen in every space of fifty yards square. Thousands were killed by the boys with clubs in mere wantonness, and a large proportion of the squirrels were found to be infected with "warbles," a probable larva of the gadfly. The "stampede" continued about a week, but was at its height not longer than twenty-four hours. The remaining time was filled by scattering ones, which had perhaps lagged behind from weariness.

In 1830, and for many years thereafter, the " martins," as the summers came, were very numerous. In 1880, they are little seen. The birds which are found in the groves and in the trees of town, are the thrush, catbird, robin, blue-jay and turtle dove. In the country, the prairie blackbird, the woodpecker, sap-sucker, crow and blackbird - the last in numbers - the others less numerous than they were ten years ago. No flock of wild turkey has been seen since 1840, and no wild deer since 1835. The pheasant is occasionally found, but is almost exterminated. Quails are becoming numerous - protected for a limited time by law. In 1875, a few pairs of English sparrows were first noticed in Urbana. In 1835, wild geese and ducks were abundant, but annually have become less and less numerous, and, in 1880, are rarely bagged by the hunter.

Every national census has recorded the names of residents in every township who have long passed the year allotted by the Psalmist as the measure o human life. The two oldest, of whom we have any record, are Stanhope, ) t Concord, mentioned in the notes on that township, and James Gales, of Urbana Township - both colored men. Gales is still living on a farm about four miles south of Urbana. The oldest citizens of Urbana remember his coming to Urbana fifty or sixty years ago, and say he was an old-looking man then, and the uniform testimony is that he cannot be less than one hundred and twelve years old. The record in the family Bible, in the possession of his son, Cal Gales, makes him one hundred and twenty. lie is a native of Berkeley County, Va., and his occupation generally was that of a farm hand. He -goes about the house and yard, but his senses and appearance all indicate the feebleness and breaking of old, old age.

In a hurried manner, we have reviewed the early beginnings and progress of the county until the present. The log cabin has made way for the commodious dwelling ; the tinder-box, with its lint and flint, for the lucifer match ; the pine knot and the cotton-wick in the bowl of grease, tallow candle, lard oil, to kerosene and gas : hard, constant, manual toil in the workshop and the field, for machinery - lifting the burden of labor. Instead of the transient, expensive weekly newspaper, the mammoth daily, from every city ; the lumbering coach and weekly mail exchanged for the palace car, steam and telegraph ; the science of politics and the rights of man better understood than ever before ; art, science, literature and religion cultivated and maintained; human life lengthened. These are among the landmarks in the progress of a lifetime; and, dispassionately surveying what was, compared with what is, and as indicative of what may be, the general verdict will be, " the latter times are better than the former."

A sketch of the settlement and prosperity of the city of Urbana, and of the territory bearing the same name, would be, substantially, a record of the county in all the features which underlie its growth. The county was organized in 1805, and, in the same year, surveys were made and lots laid off, by Joseph C. Vance, on Section 23, for which William Ward held a patent. The town, as originally platted, contained 212 inlots, 6 rods in front abutting streets and running back 10 rods, and two tiers of lots on the western border and one tier on the southern border, aggregating twenty-two lots, ranging in size from an acre and a half to two acres, with suitable streets. Lots No. 201 and 202 were donated for educational and religious purposes, but were used, in part, for a burial-ground.

As was customary at that early day, and which found many followers in the Western territory, the center of the newly-made town was made an open space, called "the square," composed of four fractional lots, six rods square. This space was intended, probably, less for ornament and the uses of a park than as convenience for countrymen who should bring in the products of their farms, for sale, or who desired a convenient place to secure their teams. Be this as it may, "the square" was made the "camping ground" for the surrounding country for many years, and, as the county became the more settled, was the more filled with wagons of wood, hay and other farm products. A few rods north of the center was a deep well, from which water was drawn by a windlass, in an old "iron-bound bucket," which, from its constant use, was never suffered to become " moss-covered."

The proportions of the public square and the extent of the newly surveyed village do not suggest the suspicion of great expectations. William Ward, the proprietor, was originally from Greenbrier, Va., and, with several of his neighbors, some years before, had settled in this district. He had an "eye for a farm," and, in the almost untrodden wilderness, with unerring sagacity, saw and selected for himself choice tracts of land.

By the third section of the act defining the boundaries of the county, the temporary seat of justice was fixed at the house of George Fithian, in Springfield, where the first court was held. Court was afterward held at the rapids of the Maumee, though there is no record of the fact, and the statement rests only on hearsay testimony. The seat of justice being removed to Urbana in 1807, a log house on Lot No. 174, on Court Street, afterward occupied as a dwelling-house by Mr. Duncan McDonald, was used as a court-room. The old court house has been removed, and on its site stands the livery stables of Mr. Samuel Marvin. The jail was erected on Lot No. 107, now called the Lawson property.

George Fithian, Joseph C. Vance and Simon Kenton were the first settlers in the village. Thomas Pearce, father of Mr. Harvey Pearce, before the town was laid out, built a log cabin on what is now the market space, and cultivated a field many years on the north side of Scioto street, near East Lawn avenue. George Fithian opened a tavern in a hewed-log house where Grace Methodist Episcopal Church now stands.

Joseph C. Vance, father of Joseph Vance, who afterward served many years in Congress, and was subsequently Governor of the State, was appointed Clerk of the Court, which office he filled until he died, in 1809. In 1806, the inn of George Fithian was changed into a " store," the first in the place, by Mr. Samuel McCord. The cabin was afterward enlarged and weather-boarded, and occupied for many years as a residence and jewelry store, by William Thomas, and, more recently, as a dwelling-house, by Warren Holding. In 1878, it passed into the hands of the Society of the Second Methodist Episcopal Church, and its razing was watched by a large crowd with great interest, as the removal of one of the old landmarks. The generations since the days of Thomas the Clockmaker had supposed the building to be only a weatherboarded "frame " or "balloon" structure, and were surprised to see, beneath the "veneering" of the poplar sheeting, the well-hewed log house. As the work of destruction went on, a by-stander, one of the "oldest settlers," remarked that on the north side would be found an open space, made by the removal of part of one of the logs, for the purpose of light, and afterward used as a shelf, on which the " bottles of corn-juice " called for at the bar were kept. The open space was soon made visible, but not a drop of " Old M'onongahela " had been left as a memento of the old tavern and store, or as a sample of the " drink " of our forefathers. On the site of the old tavern now stands a beautiful church.

In the coming century, when progress shall declare the structure of to-day too straitened in its proportions, and luxury, smiling at the "simplicity" of the past, shall tear down, to build up a nobler temple of worship, curious crowds will again gather around to speculate on what may be found, and weary in seeking to decipher the almost obliterated papers and manuscripts beneath the corner-stone.

The first schoolhouse was a log cabin on the knoll on the north side of Scioto street, about forty rods east of the corner of East Lawn avenue", and was known as " College Hill." The cabin was built by Thomas Pearce, for a family residence, in 1804. The teachers in this cabin were Peter Oliver and William Stephens.

John Reynolds and William Ward erected the first grist-mill in 1814, connecting with it carding and fulling, which was the foundation of the present woolen factory of Messrs. Henry Fox & Co.

The first marriage license was issued to Daniel Harr and Elizabeth Ross, - dated May 28, 1805. Both lived to an honored old age, and saw their children's children to the third generation.

The first deed recorded was executed by Samuel Wheeler to Timothy Woods, in Mad River Township, March 2, 1805, and was recorded by Joseph C. Vance, September 30, 1805.

The first frame house built in Urbana was by John Reynolds, on the northeast corner of what is now called the " Weaver House," and subsequently the frame building on the southeast side of the public square, adjoining the brick store-house of Messrs. Hitt, White & Mitchell, and now occupied as photograph rooms and grocery. Mr. Reynolds used the building for his dwelling-house and had a store-room on the corner.

Christopher McGill was born in 1802, in a cabin on the farm of John H. Young, now within the city limits, and J. H. Patrick, in 1811, in a cabin near the place where Mrs. Keller's residence now stands. Dr. E. P. Fyffe was the first child born in town.

Among the first settlers in the village, in addition to those mentioned, were Samuel McCord, Zephaniah Luce, William H. Fyffe, William and John Glenn, Frederick Ambrose, John Reynolds, Edward W. Pearce, and others. In 1811, the population of the town comprised forty-five families. Among these were, besides the above, Benjamin Doolittle, Joseph Hedges, Mrs. Fitch, Dr. Davidson, Alex. Doke, George Hite, Job Gard, Alex. McComsey, John Shryach, Randel Sargent, N. Carpenter, John Frizzle, Joseph Vance, Frederic Gump, David Vance, David Parkison, Lawrence Niles, James Fithian, Wilson Thomas (colored), Toney (colored), Peter Carter (colored), Daniel Helmick, Nathaniel Pickard, Isaac Robinson, John Gilmore, Anthony Patrick, Jacob Thorp, William

The first court met in the house of George Fithian, in Springfield ; Francis Dunlevy, President Judge, and John Reynolds, Samuel McCulloch and John Runyon, Associate Judges; Arthur St. Clair, Prosecuting Attorney; John Daugherty, Sheriff; Joseph C. Vance, Clerk. One of the incidents connected with the first court, was the return of the Sheriff on a writ of capias, issued against Philip Jarbo and Simon Kenton, for the recovery of a debt for which Kenton had become surety. The return of the Sheriff on the writ was : " Found Philip Jarbo, and have his body in court ; found Simon Kenton, but he refuses to be arrested," - and he was not arrested. We can readily believe that the high regard in which Kenton was held by the court and officers sufficiently explains why he was not punished for his contumacy.

The first jail was on Market street, east of South Main street. Simon Kenton was the jailor about the year 1811, and was at the same time on the jail bonds for a surety debt, and was therefore his own jailor.

The house on Court street, before mentioned, continued to be occupied as a court house until a new one was built in the public square in 1814. The new court house was constructed of brick, and at that time was considered a spacious building. The main, or rather the only, entrance faced the south. The courtroom was on the first floor, on the north part of the building. A hall led from the main entrance into the court-room, and on each side of this hall were the Clerk and Recorder's offices. The other county offices were in the second story, part of which was also used as a Masonic lodge. Although perhaps the most pretentious house in the village, the rooms were, in fact, small, dingy and unsafe, and the walls, more especially of the ante-room or main entrance and stairway, sadly defaced by the scrawls, marks and ''flourishes " of "young America." The court-room was also used as a city hall, and was the place of all public and political meetings, and for the town and township elections. As no fence surrounded the building, and the main entrance always open, access to the stairway and belfry was easy and free to all, and the bell rope, reaching to the lower floor, was made to do service for all public meetings, and was rung to convene the court, for political meetings, for church, school and fires. In the belfry a heavy club was kept to be used in giving an alarm of fire, or to " toll " when a death happened. The last time the bell was tolled for a funeral, was on the occasion of the burial of " Old Squire Thomas, " as he was commonly called and known, of Salem Township. The practice had been growing into disuse, but a party of boys were in the belfry at the time spoken of, when one of them struck the bell with the heavy beetle. This was repeated a few times, and then being too late to cease, the tolling was continued until the grave was closed. The old bell was broken in taking down the house, and was replaced by the bell which now swings in the new court house on the corner of Court and North Main, of about the same tone and caliber.

The old structure was removed in 1840, about the time of the completion of the court house on the site and forming part of the present building. The old house had one quality - so rare in these later days as to make one suspect it to be one of the lost arts - a first-class job of brick work and masonry. The walls were evidently made " to stay," and the bricks were held so tenaciously by the cement, that each particular brick had to be broken loose and dressed - with the trowel. A section of one of the walls being thrown down, remained unbroken, and came down with a "thud" like a dead-fall. We may be the more surprised at this, as the formula in use with masons when the old house was built, and for many years afterward, was one-third each of sand, lime and clay. When the house was erected, Judge William Patrick carried the first hod of brick to begin the work, and when it was being torn down carried the first hod-load away.

The house in the public square was superseded, in 1840, by a brick building on the northwest corner of Court and North Main streets, on the site of the present structure, of which it forms a material part. This building at the time of its erection, was deemed amply sufficient for all purposes incident to a court house, for many years ; but no long experience clearly indicated the house to be not only unsafe from fire, but too small for the increasing business of the county. The question of tearing down and rebuilding a house, convenient in arrangement, ample in size for present and future requirements, secure from waste by fire and creditable to the county, was discussed at some length and with considerable warmth, and was finally submitted to a vote of the people, and rejected. With the rebuilding of a court house, the construction of another jail was closely connected. For many years, the old jail, located on the same premises'as the court house, had been declared by nearly every grand jury as discreditable to the humanity of the age, badly ventilated, dark, verminous, unhealthy and oftentimes crowded. Such being the admitted facts, the result of the election gave general surprise in the city ; but the further fact was that the " rural districts " were in no humor for an expensive house. It was currently believed, that back of the proposed improvements were radical changes, involving heavy expenditures without corresponding benefits, the sale or exchange of the present premises for others, on the plea of more spacious grounds, and an unbroken front of mercantile establishments, a sale uncalled for and unnecessary, a project worked up by some one who had " corner lots " for sale, and that the law empowered the Commissioners of the county to invest a sum of money in alterations and repairs, amply sufficient to meet the requirements of the case, without the sanction of a popular vote. The above explains the reason of the vote on the proposition submitted to the people by the Commissioners. Accepting the vote as final, the latter remodeled and enlarged the building in 1880, making it substantially fire-proof, and containing all the supposed necessary room and facilities for the transaction of the official business of the county for the next hundred years. The exterior of the altered house was a model of architectural proportions, the portico supported by Ionic columns of rare merit, and the building modeled after the style of Grecian art, a kind of architecture which has singularly marked the public buildings of modern Republics. The remodeled building had in view space, comfort, convenience and safety, without regard to style of architecture. While these are said to be fully secured, though the building can hardly be called hideous as an object of art, it can with as little propriety lay claim to architectural beauty.