Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 10: Larger Epochs in the Last Quarter Century - Railroad Expansion - Development of Coal, 1909

Chapter 10: Larger Epochs in the Last Quarter Century - Railroad Expansion - Development of Coal

LARGER EPOCHS IN THE LAST QUARTER CENTURY - RAILROAD EXPANSION - DEVELOPMENT OF COAL RICHES - THE GREATER COSHOCTON - ORGANIZED LABOR - THE NEW FARM LIFE.

Coshocton County's impressive development in the last quarter century along industrial lines has accompanied the extension here of railroad facilities, the uncovering of coal riches in our hills, the growth of manufactures, the building of a city, the organization of labor, and the advanced features of modern country life.

After the Pennsylvania main line three more roads spiked their rails through our county where the hills began yielding their riches of bituminous coal.

In the early eighties the north and south line of the Wheeling & Lake Erie, which has become part of the Wabash System, was in its narrow-gauge stage of development. At one time in later years the road south of Coshocton consisted of two streaks of rust and a rightof-way. It was staggering under first and second mortgages and equipment mortgage which piled up a debt as high as its water tank. The transformation came with the extension of coal fields - enough Coshocton coal to burn mortgages.

The only railroad in the county which does not reach Coshocton, and the one which covers the longest distance within our borders, by a fraction, is the Dresden branch of the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway, part of the Pennsylvania Lines. Its construction was long interrupted. The tunnel in Bedford Township - the only railroad tunnel in the county - had been started, and bridge approaches begun, when everything went down in the Panic of '73. The road was completed at the close of the eighties.

The Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio Railroad, of the Pennsylvania Lines, was built in the early nineties. This capillary in the system which covers the industrial heart of the country contributes its share to the enormous coal traffic moved over the Pennsylvania.

Herewith is tabulated the valuation of railroad property within the county, as presented by the railroads to the meeting of county auditors in Columbus, hospitably regaled by the railroads. The taxes paid by the railroads to the county in 1908 are also shown.

Prominent in the development of Coshocton County's extensive coal interests is J. W. Cassingham. From researches by him it is ascertained that coal was mined as early as 1834 by Morris Burt just east of Coshocton on land now owned by W. G. Hay. Soon afterward mines were opened by Jack Robson, Elisha Turner and Thomas Thornsley near what is now called "Hardscrabble." The coal was used mostly by the distillery here. The stoves of Coshocton were then burning wood, and, besides, Madam was prejudiced against coal on account of its soot. The ax and sawbuck were among the household gods of that period.

The largest mines in the county about 1850 were in the hills northwest of Franklin Station, the coal going to Newark by canal. H. Goodale controlled the property. There is still considerable output in sthat locality. The Columbus Coal & Mining Company is in the field. A track to the Panhandle was built after the canal days.

About 1856 mines were opened by Foght Burt on the farm southeast of Coshocton now owned by the 'heirs of W. K. Johnson. A standard gauge track was built to the Panhandle, then called the Steubenville & Indiana, over which the railroad's cars were hauled by horse power and later by small engine to the mine opening for loading. This was before the day of the tipple. Inadequate supply of cars was followed by the closing of the mines. Since then Thomas

Coke burning in this county was known just before the Civil war when John McCleary operated a mine at Rock Run, and converted part of the output into coke. Six years afterward the Rock Run Coal Company acquired the property, but a year or so later discontinued operations. Subsequently there were limited developments by others in that locality.

The first mine in the Coshocton territory producing coal to any considerable extent with the coming of the railroad was the Beech Hollow mine on Joseph K. Johnson's farm in 1861, opened by Edward Prosser, who knew mining from his boyhood back in Wales. After four profitable years he sold to the Coshocton Coal Company. Colonel J. C. Campbell, the superintendent, conducted the business profitably. Beech Hollow coaled the railroad engines, and the rest of the product went to western markets. This mine became the property of Prosser & Cassingham about 1880, and was operated until the vein of coal under the farm was exhausted.

Mr. Prosser opened the "Blaen Nant" (Welsh for bottom of the hill), along the Ohio Canal near Franklin, but lost heavily when he sold the mine for stock in the Newark rolling mill, which failed.

Mathias Shoemaker opened a mine on B. F. Ricketts' farm, east of Coshocton, which gave a moderate yield several years until abandoned for want of drainage facilities. Afterward the Miami Coal Company renewed operations there for a short time, and then Prosser & Cassingham conducted the mine successfully until the coal was exhausted. The mine named "Pen Twyn" by Mr. Prosser, the Welsh for top of the hill, was an important factor in the coal production of this locality until worked out in 1883. Of all the men connected with the mining industry of Coshocton County, no one was held in higher esteem than Edward Prosser. He was actuated by liberal motives in his relations with employees, and he sought to contribute to their advancement. The miners at Pen Twyn were largely men of his own nationality. Welsh religious services and singing school were held by them at Mr. Prosser's home.

The Home Coal Company mine at Hardscrabble was opened in 1868 by N. E. Barney, D. L. Triplett, John A. Barney, S. H. Lee, G. W. Ricketts and Edward Prosser. In 1876 the property was sold to Edward Prosser, E. T. Dudley and J. W. Cassingham, and a few years later bought by G. W. Ricketts and David Waggoner, who conducted it until the vein was exhausted. The output of this mine was probably the largest in the Coshocton district, and contributed materially to the commercial expansion of the city.

Near the home of John Porteus, south of Coshocton, a mine was operated about the close of the Civil war by the Union Coal & Mining Company. The superintendent was Colonel Robert Youart, succeeded several years later by Colonel Wood, and afterward L. W. Robinson, a son-in-law of Lewis Demoss and now associated with one of the largest coal companies near Dubois, Pa. When the Porteus mine was abandoned the equipment was sold to Mr. Cassingham, who opened and developed a mine in 1887 on the Vance & McCleary land.

The building in 1882 of the Connotton Valley, now the Wheeling & Lake Erie, gave an impetus to the coal business here by furnishing an outlet to Lake Erie at Cleveland. The Morgan Run Coal & Mining Company built a branch railroad three miles up Morgan Run, and the output has been heavy for years. The Wade Coal Company is also an extensive producer from a mine on Morgan Run. H. D. Dennis, of Cleveland, is the principal owner of both mines, which ship to his yards in the lake city. The present Wade mine is to be abandoned this year, and a large new development begun in a field east of the old.

John Conly conducted a mine south of Rock Run on what is now the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and afterward it was transferred to H. D. Dennis. It has since been abandoned.

What has become one of the largest and most profitable mines in the county was opened in 1884 near the Panhandle west of Conesville by David Davis, J. W. Cassingham and D. M. Moore. It is related that when Mr. Davis was earning his dollar a day as a miner he showed one day the hills in that part of Franklin Township to the young woman who is now Mrs. Davis. "Those hills are full of coal," he told her, "and some day I'm going to own them."

In 1885 Mr. Davis bought the interest of Mr. Cassingham and Mr. Moore. The Pennsylvania Lines are large users of the Davis coal. From the days that David Davis worked with a pick he was a close observer and familiarized himself with the most minute details of conducting a mine. His first experience as an operator was in a small

After filling the office of County Auditor, Mr. Cassingham in 1887 opened a mine on the McCleary & Vance land, and shipments went over the Wheeling & Lake Erie to Canton, Cleveland and other points on that line. This mine continued one of the largest producers in the Coshocton field under the ownership of Mr. Cassingham until 1895, when the property was transferred by him to the Coshocton Coal Company, composed of Captain J. M. Drake, J. W. Warwick and Charles Zettelmyer, of Cleveland, and C. L. Cassingham, of Coshocton, by whom it has since been operated extensively.

In 1894 the Oden Valley Coal Company acquired a large acreage of coal northwest of Conesville and opened mines thereon that year, connecting with the Panhandle by using part of the Davis track to the railroad. G. W. Cassingham is the principal stockholder in the company and superintendent of the mine.

Within the last four years the Arnold Coal Company and the Burt Coal Company have opened mines along the Wheeling & Lake Erie southeast of Conesville, both of which properties are now owned by the Barnes Coal Company, of Coshocton.

When David Davis started coal development near Conesville there were not more than three houses in the hamlet which now has grown to a village of four hundred. The wage-earners are mine workers. A large sum is disbursed monthly by the Davis, Oden Valley and Barnes mines,

One of the most important mineral developments in the Coshocton district is the opening of twelve hundred acres of coal land in Franklin Township by the Warwick Coal Company, of Cleveland. The acreage extends into Tuscarawas and Linton Townships. The company is composed of C. L. Cassingham, J. W. Warwick and Charles Zettelmyer, all of whom are practical coal men. The equipment of these mines is of the most improved character, with electric mining machinery and motor haulage to facilitate extensive production.

Within a radius of two and a half miles of Coshocton are a dozen country mines, not connected with railroads, and producing considerable coal for steam and domestic use in Coshocton.

A picture which has gone with the passing of Coshocton's early mining life was that of good-natured, whole-souled Margaret Robson whose husband was a miner at Hardscrabble. The matron of the miners' boarding house would walk the mile and a half from Coshocton to Beech Hollow, both hands loaded with baskets of groceries, and a sack of flour balanced on her head. Her cheerful smile of greeting never left her, even in the years when she lived in darkness and recognized friendly voices that she had known in the old days.

In the ranks of the miners was first promoted the organization of labor within Coshocton County which has grown to a movement of the highest importance in the last score of years. That was a field day in industrial history twenty-three years ago when labor united its demand for protection and higher wages by the organization of the first local union here under the Ohio Miners' Amalgamated Association headed by the popular John McBride. Sam Nicholas, the lawyer and now judge, went to the mines to urge that organization, and to this day he is remembered by the miners. Morgan Run Local 370, Wade Mine Local 7, and Coalport Local 628, were the first to organize.

The miners' organization has made progress. It needs but a look at 1896 and 1909 to comprehend this. The conditions then and the improvements today afford a striking comparison, as described by FE. P. Miller whom the miners hold in the highest regard. When he came here in '96 the miners were getting fifty-six cents a ton for picked coal; now they are paid ninety-six cents a ton for screen lump coal. Drivers then got $1.65 for a nine-hour day; now $2.56 for an eighthour day. Outside men were paid from $1.35 to $1.50 a day; their wages now are $2 to $2.25. Trapper boys who open and shut the doors through which the coal cars pass in the mines got fifty cents a day in '96, and now are paid $1.13.

Mr. Miller is secretary and treasurer of Subdistrict No. 6, United Mine Workers of America, covering the counties of Coshocton, Guernsey, Noble, Muskingum, Morgan, and the Crooksville district of Perry, embracing a membership of 8,200.

Important state offices of the Ohio organization of miners have been creditably filled for years by Coshocton men. William Green, President of District 6 (Ohio) U. M. W. A.. is strongly-favored for president of the national organization. Dennis H. Sullivan, Vice- President of District 6, exerts much influence in behalf of the miners' interests. In preceding years the State organization came to Coshocton for its president, W. M. Haskins.

Machine mining was successfully demonstrated in this county by the Coshocton Coal Company, which installed electric machines, 1901, after an unsatisfactory experiment at the Morgan Run mines. The puncher, a machine operated by compressed air, is in use in the Davis mine, Conesville.

Much headway has followed the policy of miners and operators acting jointly to regularly reach agreements in the last decade. Prior to that the conditions were unsatisfactory to both. As an instance, when a salesman succeeded in getting an order and the company called for the miners to dig the coal, there would come a question at times among the men whether their wages shared in the increased price for the product of their labor, and the upshot would be a refusal to work, resulting in loss of the order to the operator and loss of wages to the miner. Under the present system of joint agreement covering a stated period the operators are enabled to sell according to fixed cost of production, and the miners' pay is definitely determined.

MEMBERS Conesville Local No. 52504 Davisymme) deicatenctets eeeeeeee 98 Conesville, Local No. 976 (Oden Valley mine)................ ae Conesville,,.Local No. 1 GBarnes & Hudson mine ji) 4. so ese 84 Conesville, Local. No: 2.6 Barnes-& Edson) digas ke. See ores 67 Cassingham,. Local .No; 205), (Pleasant Valléy) a0 tection. oat 125 Morgan Run, Local No. 379 (H. D. Dennis; Cleveland)........ 125 Coalport):Local .No.628. GBarnes ane) .seS0.24 0 ee eee 72 Wade: Mine; ocaliNojeeiesncar: sch oe wee Gee aa eee 32 New: Cassingham, Mine, Local Noe a86o% ext, mee. ne 46 John Williams, Local No. 1852 (South of Rock Run).......... 19 Retaily Mine; Logal- Nox 74b cant nto ee 20 Roek Ruin, -LocalSNo#1o8e% GNichols) shee ee 8 Drake, Local No: 93, Ceast) Coshocton) tees san eee unre 6

To the total of 779 union miners is expected to be added nearly a hundred more with the organization of Roscoe Local, prospective membership of 60, and West Lafayette Local with 30 members.

In the progress of organized labor a step of far-reaching importance was the establishment of the Central Trades and Labor Council of Coshocton. Ten years ago a few crafts were represented in the local of the American Federation of Labor established here. Now there are represented fifteen crafts in the Council with the following membership: Miners, 779; Potters, 41; Glassblowers, 120, last fire; Printers,°32;)Pressmen, 19; 'Bartenders, 11);. Painters, .30;- Barbers, 16; Carpenters, 62; Tailors, 18; Lithographers, 19; Electrotypers, 7; Federal Union, 65; Railroad Trackmen, 200; Bricklayers, 75; Hod Qarriers, 15: c

The pioneer local of the American Federation of Labor, with Edward McCabe as President, and workers of the industrious, thorough-going union spirit of Secretary Al Tyler giving a willing hand to help along, built up a membership of five hundred. Out of this grew the Central Trades and Labor Council, whose present officers are: Charles Eddleman, President; Daniel Bowers, Charles W. Brownfield, John Poulton, Thomas Furnell, Jr., Vice-Presidents, John Lane, Secretary; Gus Ogle, Financial Secretary; Johnson Mc- Dowell, Treasurer; E. A. Mueller, Sergeant-at-Arms. The trustees are E. P. Miller, J. T. Hart and George C. Ordway.

In the organization of the Labor Day celebration, with the multitudinous details involved in effective advertising and arranging a day's entertainment for an assembly of thousands of people, Chairman Ordway's administrative qualities have been admirably demonstrated.

The advance of the city of Coshocton is a foremost achievement in the county history, an imperishable monument to those who have developed resources, expanded manufactures and commerce, fostered improvements for the general good, and promoted the social welfare. Running through it all is the spirit of that creative energy which has wrought in this county such a marvelous transformation within the span of a single lifetime, and of the dauntless vigor and enterprise which typify Coshocton citizenship.

Two-score years ago that pioneer industry, the steel works, was founded, and the name of Houston Hay became known in markets of America and abroad as the axle manufacturer. It was Mr. Hay who blazed the way for those civic improvements and public utilities which lifted Coshocton into modern city life. He lighted the city with gas from 1872 to 1888, and then with electricity, and in 1899 incandescents made radiant the stores, offices, shops and homes. [From a quarter that hankered to gain control of the electric light there emanated charges about high rates. The truth was there were no large profits, no dividends to stockholders for thirteen years, all earnings over the requirements for running expenses going into repairs and extensions of the plant to provide improved service. The company was willing to sell, and those who raised the dust of rate agitation got the business. October 29, 1901, a franchise was obtained from the city council, against the protest of Councilmen C. D. Brooke and E. C. Rinner, paying the electric light company $70 a year for each street light, with all-night lighting except moonlight nights. This nine-year franchise expires in October, 1910. The company furnishes incandescent lighting and steam heat.

In 1899 Contractor John Kissner began brick-laying in Main Street, transforming it from a dirt road to a paved thoroughfare. Then in quick succession came more brick-paved and asphalted streets, smooth and broad as boulevards. Extension of sewerage over the city marked a great stride in Coshocton's advancement along sanitary lines. Miles of cement sidewalks have beautified the town.

The Coshocton Board of Trade was organized 1899. Lots are sold to raise funds for bringing new industries here. To the publicspirited citizens who have subscribed for such building lots all credit is given. It is they who sounded the keynote for the new Coshocton. Theirs is the work that lives in the fires of new industries lighting the skies of Coshocton, theirs the honor that endures in the prosperity of a thriving city, the growing center of a rich farming community reaping the benefit of a city market offered by a population exceeding ten thousand.

Today Coshocton is a city of advertising, the metal-sign industry which has sent the city's name over the world. The first of these metal signs came from the presses of H. D. Beach, and represents the important outgrowth of the novelty-advertising industry developed from the printing on burlap schoolbags and yardsticks by J. F. Meek in the days when Will Shaw showed the way to possibilities in this business.

With its advertising institutions, its glass works, its pottery, paper mill, brick works, axle and machine shops, linotype, printing houses, corrugated-paper plants, glove factory, piano works, furniture factory, foundry, packing plant, carriage shops, enameling works, planing mills, flour mills, and retail establishments of the finest, Coshocton compels attention among industrial centers of Ohio. Lots were sold last year to bring the Clow Pipe Works to this city. When this plant is erected it is expected to employ more than a thousand men.

The year which saw many beginnings in the new life of Coshocton - 1899 - also witnessed the extension of the telephone from the city to the country when the Citizens Company began wiring homes in the county. Since that the Bell system has extended into the country, and local telephone lines have been installed by farmers.

Natural gas came to Coshocton as a Christmas gift, 1902. It is piped from the Homer field near Utica, Knox County, thirty-two miles away. West Bedford and Warsaw are also supplied by the same line. This winter there was a daily flow of two and a half million cubic feet of gas into Coshocton worth at the current rate of twenty-eight cents a thousand, with ten per cent discount, $630 a day.

The earlier waterworks system of twenty-two wells has been supplanted by one large well thirty-two feet deep and thirty feet wide, sunk in the field near the Canal Lewisville road beyond the Tuscarawas River bridge. The water, purified by natural sand filtration, is pumped to the top of Reservoir Hill in East Coshocton. The reservoir has a capacity of 324,000 gallons. The purity of Coshocton water is a most important advantage of this municipality, and owned and managed by the city it strikingly demonstrates the benefit of government ownership of a class of public utilities.

In 1903 the city council accepted the $15,000 library gift of Andrew Carnegie made through his secretary who directs library donations and with whom F. FE. Pomerene corresponded. Several available sites in the heart of the town were offered, in the territory of four of the city's five school buildings, east of the Panhandle, but the west end was astir. There was pulling and hauling in council, and the city was led into strange ways. Coshocton started out to locate a library, and three different sites east of the railroad were officially chosen. One contract was not altogether to be kicked under the table, and the city paid a forfeit of $1,500 for a five-foot sidewalk from Main Street to the Sixth Street Theatre, before the owner of the lot alongside agreed to tear up his library contract.

Affairs were reaching a crisis. Before a large crowd the council went through a stormy session - one of those scenes which have made the old city hall memorable in the electric light and paving conflicts between public and private interests.

There was the customary edifying process of browbeating and bulldozing some councilmen. Then it was proposed that council retire with the library board to a room upstairs, to talk it over in private.

Councilman John Wisenburg, whose integrity and public spirit have won him the esteem of the people, protested long and vigorously against binding the council by admitting the vote of another body, the library board. The meeting waxed warm. A majority of the councilmen voted for a site east of the railroad, but the others, talked to and talked at a great deal, voted with library board members for the site at Chestnut and Fourth streets. This was supposed to settle it.

Wisenburg called across the table, "Change it, Charley; recall your vote." But it was not recalled. Somewhere there was a misunderstanding. And thus was the library storm laid by a vote.

Joseph Love's years of service as librarian, dating back to the days of the public library in the Burns Building, have been most useful and valuable to the community. An incident in his work has been the saving of thousands of dollars in the preservation of books by his own binding when the original covers have become too worn to hold a volume.

Miss Lucy Beach, assistant librarian, brings to the work a lively interest in literature and a ready disposition to serve inquirers. The library is held close to the people, an institution prized by all, in school and out. From the collection of Coshocton's daughters who started the first library the list has grown in the Carnegie institution to 7,500 volumes - and most of these are not long on the shelves, a tribute to the popular endorsement of selections made by the trustees. Reference works of special value are in the collection, covering a wide range of history, biography, travels, and scientific subjects. Standard literature is well represented. Fiction, which is most in demand, includes the work of the best writers. Leading periodicals are on file in the reading rooms. There are many government reports, but these are not listed, and remain in the basement, patiently and dustily awaiting someone to come along and ask for them. The top floor and basement are given over to assembly rooms, where literary, educational, musical and religious meetings are held. A museum collection of historical and gemeral character has been started. Every summer Coshocton stops business for a day to go on a railroad excursion, part of the proceeds from ticket sales being devoted to the library.

Life in the country has come into closer touch with the city as a result of the telephone and that great institution of a more recent date, the rural free delivery of mail. It was in 1899 that H. H. Milligan conferred with the writer about bringing this service to Coshocton County, and shortly afterward Coshocton R. D. No. 1 was established through Keene and Bethlehem townships. Today nearly two-score rural delivery routes are in operation in Coshocton County, including several extending from adjoining counties.

The piano is in the home, and the spinning wheel is no more, except as a decorative accessory. Even the feather-beds became represented years ago by a vast progeny of plump and fluffy pillows, and something more modern and less overwhelmingly luxurious took the feather tick's place. The land is filled with spacious country homes with wide verandas and their air of homelike comfort. Lawns are studded with trees that have shaded the pioneer planters.

The self-binder harvests the wheat of Coshocton County, and corn is cut by machine, while some have experimented with milking cows by machinery. The phonograph is heard, and the bicycle long ago came into the country, and automobiles honk-honk all over the county in verification of the ancient prophecy that men would some day ride in horseless carriages, and fly through the clouds - for airship experiments have been made in Coshocton.

stitutes are principal conventions in various parts of the county. These organizations are designed to exert an educational influence along the line of improved farming, how to raise thirty bushels of wheat where the yield was fifteen to the acre, what kind of sheep to raise with the most wool, how to restore soil that has been cropped over and over, and saving what is possible of the timber before the sun bakes the life out of the land. The Grange is accomplishing that much needed thing for the agricultural interest - organization, the thing which has benefited every other interest, and the lack of which has been the one great drawback to the farmers in exerting the united influence that would be a power in accomplishing favorable results to themselves.

Labor Day Parade In Coshocton

Among the most important signs of the times is the political policy of leading newspapers in the largest cities to publish the news of all parties, leaving the people to form their own conclusions from what they read in the news columns, or to adopt the views expressed on the editorial page.

In politics as in all things it has come to be the day of independent thinking. The newspaper in greatest demand is the one that prints the news impartially. This advance of the independent press, however, is mostly in metropolitan centers. In the smaller field where county printing is given to the party organ there is less independence, though in recent years the item of county printing in Ohio has been considerably reduced.

Coshocton County is making tremendous progress in independent voting, while her party press continues. True the present-day partisanship of the local organs is not the intense, furious prejudice of the past, and to this extent reflects the change which is manifested the country over. The voters, however, have made such headway in the last decade that three-fourths of the ballots cast in local elections represent independent selection of candidates on various tickets. In many instances the voter's party affiliations cannot be detected from his marking of the ballot.

Of Coshocton's early press something is recorded in preceding chapters. To this is added an incident touching on the work here of Joseph Medill, as related by Ernest E. Johnson, well known in New York newspaper work and who was one-time editor of the Coshocton Age: In the garret of one of Coshocton's homes a bundle of musty newspapers, long since forgotten, came to light in 1889. They were yellow and crumbling with age. Those primitive looking little newspapers were the product of Medill's pen. The man who found them was a Whig, and in the dingy little newspaper office, where boxes served for chairs, quills for pens, and pokeberry juice for ink, they spent many hours debating the infant Whig planks. that grew to giants within a decade.

This friend who perhaps sowed the seed of some of Joseph Medill's greatness was Thomas Humrickhouse. That musty old bundle of newspapers of another generation had more than a passing interest for him. He preserved them with jealous care until his death. There was history wrapped up in that nearly forgotten bundle. It recalled stirring times of half a century ago. Lincoln's greatness dawned only a little later. Medill had heard of the tall "rail-splitter." He and this friend whose counsel he so often sought discussed the views taken by this man in Illinois. They read and re-read an anti-slavery speech which the 'Man of Destiny" made at Springfield.

"Who is this man Lincoln?" inquired Medill editorially. That copy of the Coshocton Republican should have had a place in historical records. Thomas Humrickhouse never forgot it. He pointed out the paragraph to the narrator of this incident in 1889. There was history - there was prophesy in every line of it!

He was one of the very first to discover the genius of Lincoln, concludes Mr. Johnson. Medill wrote to Horace Greeley, saying: "This man Lincoln will bear watching; there's good timber in him." What a prophet he was!

Coshocton's first newspaper led a precarious existence. After Dr. Maxwell founded the Republican it was continued by John Frew as the Coshocton Spy, then Burket E. Drone published it as the Democratic Whig, and after a year's suspension the name of Coshocton Republican was restored with the coming of Joseph Medill as editor. When he went to Cleveland the paper was acquired by H. Guild, but it again suspended until the office was sold to R: W. Burt who changed the name to the Progressive Age. James Matthews and Thomas W. Flagg were associate editors, and William A. Johnston was foreman. Several years later the paper was sold to A. R. Hillyer, and soon afterward to Joseph W. Dwyer who received an appointment in the

Treasury Department. The paper passed to Asa L. Harris in 1861, and the name changed to the Coshocton Age. At the close of the war Harris was appointed postmaster at Atlanta, Ga., and T. W. Collier became editor of the Age. A dozen years later it was purchased by A. W. Search and J. F. Meek, and subsequently the lastnamed conducted it alone. Mr. Parrish was identified with the paper, and Ernest E. Johnson was in editorial charge until C. B. McCoy obtained the property. James Collier, foreman, retained a proprietary interest. In after years the Age Publishing Company was formed with $12,000 capital stock, and the paper issued daily. T. W. Morris, now of Pittsburg, was the first city editor. The present editor is R. C. Snyder, and the business manager E. H. Mack. They own the majority of stock. Other shares went to W. A. Himebaugh, C. B. MecGoy,eH. L.) Lybarget, Jo Foo Meek, Se M. Snyder,--Evay A: McCoy, Mrs. R. C. Snyder, Mrs. P. P. De Hart, E. O. Selby, George M. Gray, J. M. Compton, W. H. Crawford, Dr. W. B. Litten, George A. Hay, Matthew Crawford, M. A. McConnell, R. A. Crawford. E. C. Compton is city editor.

The Castle of Liberty and the Battle Ax of Freedom was the militant name of a paper begun in 1831 at East Union by John Meredith and ended in Coshocton next year.

The Western Horizon was started in Coshocton in 1835 as a Democratic paper by County Treasurer William G. Williams. Russell C. Bryan and Joseph F. Oliver were successively editors. When T. W. Flagg and Chauncey Bassett became the publishers the name was changed to the Coshocton Democrat. Following came Avery & Johnson, James F. Weeks, Dr. A. T. Walling, Rich & Wheaton, Asa G. Dimmock, A. McNeal, Wash. C. Wolfe, Dimmock & McGonagle. In 1866 John C. Fisher of Licking County assumed the editorial management. C. E. Cottom was for years identified with the Democrat before going to the Standard. Ed Shepler succeeded him as foreman of the Democrat. While Mr. Fisher served in the State Senate the editorial work was done by the Rev. William E. Hunt, W. R. Gault and others.

For a year or so after the Mexican War a religious publication called the Practical Preacher was issued at Coshocton by the Rev. C. E. Wirick of Plainfield, and historical sketches of Coshocton County were contributed by the Rev. H. Calhoun.

Nearly a score of years later a literary and local paper called the Saturday Visitor was published by H. D. Beach, who came from the Democrat and was associated with L. L. Cantwell. This was followed here in 1874 by an independent newspaper named the Coshocton People, published by H. D. Beach. It lived a year or so. L. L. Cantwell published the Farmers Home Journal monthly for a while.

With the beginning of the eighties the Coshocton County Commonwealth was issued by the Ferguson Brothers as an independent newspaper for a few years. A leading newspaper founded in 1879 was the Democratic Standard, and the vigorous campaign conducted by the owner H. D. Beach, for a division of the Democratic share of county printing between his paper and Mr. Fisher's Democrat led Mr. Beach into political activities memorable in the annals of the county. The only way to obtain recognition from the county officials was to elect officials who would accord recognition. Mr. Beach made a personal canvass which resulted in an organization of young Democrats throughout the county who formed a power. They were known as the "Kids," while the opposition Democrats were termed "Mossbacks." The "Kids" triumphed in the election of Casimir Lorenz from Adams Township as County Commissioner, and thereafter the Democratic portion of public printing was divided between the Standard and the Democrat. It was not until years afterward that the Kid-Mossback differences in the local Democratic party disappeared.

Linked with indelible memories of the Democratic Standard is W. H. McCabe, widely known, witty, humorous, always a fund of anecdote. His death marked the passing of the Standard. It was consolidated with the Democrat, a stock company was formed, 1901, and a daily started, edited at different times by C. Scherer and D. H. Harnley. A controlling interest was sold to W. T. Alberson who is the present editor of the Times, as the paper has been known since 1905. John Moist, formerly of the Columbus Dispatch, is city editor.

The law formerly required the county official reports to be printed also in German papers, and the Coshocton Wochenblatt was establisted in 1880 by H. D. Beach and L. L. Cantwell. Henry Minig was identified with the paper. It was later edited by Otto Cummerow until

Fourteen years ago the Coshocton Herald was published as an independent newspaper for a few months by Clem Pollock, who came from the New York World and who in recent years has been prominently connected with the Hearst newspaper interests in Boston and elsewhere.

The same year the Coshocton Bulletin began its four years' life. T. F. Smiley, who today is well known in Pittsburg newspaper work as night manager of the Tri-State Press Bureau, was associated with the writer in the editing and publishing of the Bulletin. R. A. Crawford, State Building and Loan Inspector, was at one time a partner. The Bulletin was Republican - intensely Republican - 365 days in the year. -The principle of refusing to advertise medical quacks turned away dollars that were sadly needed.

In Warsaw the Clipper was printed first by Mr. Crom, then by G. S. Bassett, on a press of heavy beams, old iron and things. When this mixture was agitated at one end, the cylinder started on a dizzy flight to the other end of the press, and you waited expectantly for something to go off. The catastrophe which followed each time was a copy of the Clipper. Afterward came the Neutral, edited by E. E. Hays, author of the official report of "Ohio at Vicksburg" and the "History of the 32d Ohio." In Plainfield Charles A. Platt issued the Sentinel. The Press appeared at West Lafayette, succeeded by the Indicator, the only paper now issued in the county outside the city.

Harry Ferguson's humorous writing has made tlie Indicator known a long way from West Lafayette. A specimen at random is his skit on the Vanderbilt-Szechenyi wedding, 'in which he mentioned the bridal trousseau worth two or three Tuscarawas valley farms, the honeymoon in a Newport villa, the light housekeeping on a yacht, then the usual misunderstanding about some actress, after which the two family residences farthest apart that would be used most. This is contrasted with another wedding - John Jones and Mary Brown - the bride jeweled with a fifty-cent breastpin and wearing her hair frizzed, while John has a $16 tweed and new shoes that hurt his feet and squeak. Their honeymoon is in a little house on the hillside where John's call of the pigs is sweet melody to Mary, and his gladsome ''Pooy, pooy" is accompanied by the soft, gentle strains of the dishpan. Fifty years hence, observes the philosopher, just look around for the Joneses, in the trades and professions, in high places - men of character and usefulness. Then look up the Szechenyis.

As previously noted the day of the hidebound party organ is passed, and newspaper-making is now so much a matter solely of accumulating money that there is danger of a commercial thralldom, insidious to the welfare of society. A press under venal control suppresses news or alters it at the dictation of private interest; reports are garbled and biased through sinister or mercenary motives, and to advance personal schemes.

Newspapers conducted only with an eye to money-making, regardless of principle, may win the applause of the shallow-minded always impressed with the sight of dollars, but such a press conspicuously fails in its pretended public service.

In its highest and broadest sense the press should champion the rights and liberties of the people; it should serve the whole community; nothing should stand in the way of devoted service to the common interests. Of necessity, this means an editorial policy that must beware of all entangling alliances, political, social, commercial, which may limit or embarrass such service.

The wrongdoer fears nothing so much as he fears publicity. A vigorous, impartial press is a blazing sun, blighting workers of iniquity. Turn on the light. Let us walk in it rather than in darkness. And let the people realize in time, and not when it is too late, their own responsibility of extending full support to an honest press, the advocate of industrious peace for the highest and best development of this city and county, and the advancement of justice.

Walnut Street School In Both Arms Of The Service

VOLUNTEERS IN THE SPANISH -WAR - AT FEVER STRICKEN CAMP ALGER - COSHOCTON SOLDIERS IN THE PHILIPPINES - PRESENT REPRESENTATION IN BOTH ARMS OF THE SERVICE.

When the Spanish mine under the waters of Havana harbor sank the United States battleship Maine on the night of February 15, 1808, sending 266 souls into eternity, and war began for the freeing of Cuba from the oppressive rule of Spain, Coshocton County was ready again as she always was in the defense of the country.

Here the American spirit was as strong as in the days of old. Nearly two-score years had passed since the last war - a commercial era in which every efiergy of the community was directed toward the arts of peace. But when the country again called upon her young men the sons of Coshocton responded with all the patriotism which actuated the boys of the sixties.

They went out to endure hardships and they did it like Americans. True they traveled better, while their predecessors rode: in anything in the shape of a car that could be found. But when the boys of '98 reached camp they endured 28-mile practice marching, slender fare, and sleeping on the ground in rain. About the only complaint from our volunteers was that they were not permitted to go where the fighting was.

The Coshocton volunteers went from Camp Bushnell, Columbus, to Camp Alger at Washington, D. C. In that fever-stricken camp where troops of the United States suffered much from the scourge of typhoid there were eighty cases in the Coshocton company. In August Company F went to Camp Meade near Harrisburg, Pa., and remained on duty there a month, when peace followed the short, sharp and decisive victory of the United States over Spain whose navy had been sunk at Santiago and Manila.

Bahmer, Charles V., Orderly at headquarters, Point Montauk, Long Island; detailed messenger to General Wheeler; attached to Hospital Corps, Fort Wadsworth, N. Y.

Dr. George W. Crile, the eminent surgeon of Cleveland, who is a Coshocton County product, was in the Porto Rican campaign, commissioned as Major.

In the Philippine service during the period following the Spanish- American War when American troops were engaged in suppressing the native insurrection against the United States government, Coshocton County was creditably represented.

Coshocton -Soldiers Chapter Atit

THE BENCH AND THE BAR - THE ADVOCATE OF YESTERDAY AND THE BUSINESS LAWYER OF TODAY - ADVANCE IN JURY INTELLIGENCE - DISAPPEARANCE OF EMOTIONAL PLEADING.

It is not necessary to go outside Coshocton County courts to note the emphatic distinction between modern methods at the bar and those that prevailed in earlier times.

The advocate of yesterday and the business lawyer of today present widely different types in the professional pages of Coshocton life. For one thing emotional pleading belongs to the past. The change to the more matter-of-fact address may be attributed to the advance in jury intelligence.

Under the present mode of criminal practice, giving the prosecution the closing argument, much is detracted from the commercial value of counsel's emotions, whether real or artificial, and in consequence the safeguards of society have been strengthened.

Only once in recent years did a member of the Coshocton bar indulge in emotional pleading to the extent of calling on God to strike him down then and there if he were not telling the truth, and as the speech frothed from his lips he sank to the floor, and soon after went to his grave.

That most trying feature in litigation - the law's delays, against which the centuries have protested as far back even as in Shakespeare's day - may discourage the citizen seeking justice, but even a more grave condition confronts the people in the affirmation by a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court at the banquet this year of the Coshocton Bar Association, that the rule in the State Supreme Court at times may set aside a just verdict or sustain an unjust decision because of technical considerations! In other words, the bench gives us, not justice, but technicalities. Such things do not deepen veneration for our modern judicial system.

The bar of this county has a creditable record in its representation on the bench, among the most creditable in Ohio. High ideals maintained in the profession have conferred the ermine on very able members. Judge J. C. Pomerene and Judge R. M. Voorhees of the Circuit Court rank among the most distinguished in the service. Judge Voorhees, now on the Circuit bench, by temperament and vigorous mental organism is described as among the best qualified judges in the State. Neither abrupt nor impetuous in manner, but uniformly gracious, moderate and equitable, he is esteemed by the bar for his personal qualities and admired for his abilities. As lawyer, facing the strain of an uphill fight in court, he has always had in reserve an indomitable quality of endurance and firmness, the staunch character that endured in the defense of his country through her darkest years. Judge Voorhees served from 1899 to 1905, and is now entering his second term.

Judge Pomerene, who served from 1893 until his death in 1808, is remembered for his devotion to his profession, his careful address, his pleasant demeanor. The law was his life-work.

Striking individuality is noted in members of the Coshocton bar who have attained the Common Pleas bench. Puritanical sedateness characterized the first, William Sample, who served from 1857 to 1867, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1874. Emphatic personality distinguished John D. Nicholas who went on the bench in 1887, serving ten years. A tribute to his character is the statement that he had not an iota of sycophancy. He was eloquent and forceful as a speaker.

As pronounced a personality is that of Judge S. H. Nicholas, who won his spurs as lawyer in association with Attorney W. S. Merrell. He began his present term on the Common Pleas bench in 1907. Thoroughly sensible of the popular attitude toward defects in the present-day judicial system, Judge Nicholas is not given to regarding judges as any more than human; nor does he aver that infalli-

The fact that such discussion may strike some with a sort of horror, as though it sounded of sacrilege, only indicates that there are too many who have fallen into a habit of thought more becoming to subjects than to citizens. They have come to look upon their courts as far apart and above them - which is a state of mind that some one has well said is not to be encouraged in a government whose safety depends upon the intelligence and character of its citizens. The intelligence that is prone to slavishness and the character that bends its knees too reverently in the presence of power are the reverse of democratic. Respect for the courts is praiseworthy - provided the courts deserve it. But when the courts cease to be just tribunals and sacrifice truth on the altar of technicalities, the day has arrived that, in the words of Charles Sumner, the blood of martyrs crying from the ground summons them to judgment.

The Circuit is the Fifth, embracing the fifteen counties of Ashland, Coshocton, Delaware, Fairfield, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry, Richland, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne.

And Mayors Of Coshocton

COUNTY OFFICIALS - REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS AND STATE LEGISLATURE - COSHOCTON MEN IN VARIOUS PUBLIC OFFICES - POSTMASTERS AND MAYORS OF COSHOCTON.

In the seyenties Warsaw presented arguments in favor of making it the seat of county government. There was talk of building a new courthouse in Coshocton. Opposition to this came from Warsaw, and the county voted against a new building. Representative Blackburn, from this county, fathered a bill in the Legislature, providing for the collection of taxes to pay for the $90,000 courthouse which was finally erected in Coshocton in 1875, but it cost Mr. Blackburn his re-election.

The County Infirmary, two miles east of Coshocton, was provided in the forties. Four hundred acres were bought for $5,500, and the buildings erected thereon cost several thousand dollars. 'There are fifty inmates at present.

At first the treasurer received five per cent. of the taxes collected, then three per cent., amounting to about $60 a year before 1818. It was customary then for county funds to be loaned to responsible citizens.

Infirmary Directors

Coshocton County has been in various Congressional districts, and at present is in the Seventeenth with Tuscarawas, Wayne, Holmes and Licking. Five Coshocton representatives have been sent- to Washington: David Spangler, 1833-37; James Matthews, 1841-45; John Johnson, 1851-53; Joseph Burns, 1857-59; and John W. Cassingham, I9OI-04.

Sale Senators

The county is in the joint 18th-19th Senatorial district, with Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Monroe, except part of Benton and Bethel townships, and Rinard's Mills precinct, and Noble County, except part of Beaver, Buffalo, Enoch, Marion, Seneca, Stock, Wayne, Center, Elk and Jefferson townships, East Union and part of Dexter precinct.

A. L. Cass, 1858-59. The salary of members in the State Legislature is $1,000 a yea, with allowance of twelve cents a mile, limited to two trips a month.

Spate Representatives

Coshocton County citizens filling State offices include R. A. Crawford, Building and Loan Inspector; C. H. Geidel, Canal Superintendent; C. L. Cassingham, of State Mining Commission; Miss Mary McClure, Workshop Inspector; E. L. Lybarger, of Commission investigating election of U. S. Senators by vote of the people - was formerly member of the State Board of Public Works, State House

George A. Hay was a member of the State Board of Penitentiary Managers during Governor McKinley's administration, a member of the commission investigating convict labor conditions, and at present on the Board of Review adjusting tax valuations in this county. W. M. Smith and George Ayres are members of this Board. J. M. Comp-

Captain E. Z. Hays was a member of the Vicksburg Monument Commission; J. P. Forbes of the Ohio Centennial Commission; L. K. Anderson of Governor Bushnell's staff; James Gamble of the Board of Public Works, 1863, James Moore, 1864-69, Leander Ransom, 1836-45; John C. Fisher of the Fish Commission, 1875; J. W. Dwyer, Superintendent of Internal Revenue for the Northern District of Ohio, and afterward Pension Agent at Columbus; W. A. Johnston, Deputy U. S. Internal Revenue Assessor; John Frew, James Dryden, Dr. J. H. Lee and C. A. Lamberson, Deputy Collectors of Internal Revenue; William E. Mead and George Hill, Canal Superintendents; Joseph L. Morris, State Inspector of Mines, 1886-89; C. A. Marden, Electrician of Penitentiary.

For anyone with the inclination or leisure to go into the details of modern Coshocton County politics there is much to interest, to amuse, to edify, and to mystify. It would fill a separate volume to tell the story of Democratic and Republican politicians, the county conventions and the caucus methods now abandoned for the later system of nominating candidates and party committeemen by whole vote of the people, a nominating system which like others may develop unforeseen defects, but which is hailed as an advance over the caucus-stuffing, convention-packing and vote-buying of corrupt politicians.

From the time that Senator Foraker knew the usefulness of a subservient press and included Coshocton among the newspaper rivets in his State machine, he has filled the Coshocton postoffice with his creatures. To their pie-counter vision the Standard Oil Senator appeared always white as the driven snow. The climax came when the oil and railroad statesman could not resist having his name come before the Chicago convention for President in 1908. No one apparently wanted the job of naming him, and the Coshocton delegate who made the attempt may yet live it down. The vote for Foraker was too small to remember.

Afterward the Standard Oil statesman's hopes for reelection to the Senate were blasted. His expected leader in the fight for him on the floor of the Legislature did not go back to Columbus. The Coshocton County Republican convention decided that he had better 'Stay at home.

The business of the Coshocton postoffice is an index to the increasing importance of this city in the commercial world. From annual receipts of $11,000 in round numbers a dozen years ago the office now receives $25,000 in a year, while the money-order business amounts annually to $80,000. Nearly four million pieces of mail pass through the office yearly. The present force besides the postmaster includes assistant postmaster, two dispatchers, two general delivery and stampwindow clerks, one money-order and register clerk, five city carriers, seven rural carriers, one substitute clerk, two substitute carriers, and one special delivery messenger.

Among Coshocton's mayors George A. Hay, Republican leader who for many years actively devoted his energies to the party's interest, holds the record for longest service. Nominated each time by acclamation he was elected four times. The village incorporation dates back to 1833, but the loss of early records deprives us of the names of the early mayors.