Huron County, Ohio - The whole text, 1909 (part 4 of 29)

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Ox teams were used on the farm, for social visits, and for going to church. Your essayist well remembers of many occasions when the whole family went to meeting behind this kind of a team, upon a sled or in an old, squeaky wagon. Indeed, this was the rule among the pioneers sixty years ago, and caused no comment.

Before roads for wagons were made, horseback riding for both sexes was most common, and the horse-block before every door afforded the aid for mounting. The animal was often taxed to carry double, and this was the favorite mode with beaus and belles among the pioneers.

A farm wagon behind a span of plow horses showed the wealth and luxury of the owner, while the buggv and surrey, now so common, were unknown.

Postal Fagilities

The boy well remembers when Clarksfield's mail came but once a week, and then was brought by a post-boy on horseback with a leathern pair of saddle- bags as the mail car. When he arrived upon the east hill at the village, to warn Esquire Starr, the postmaster, of his coming, he most vigorously sounded his tin horn, which he carried fastened to his saddle. day, though it brought little of interest to the people, was the day of the week after Sunday. Few newspapers were taken, and letters at eighteen and three-fourths cents or twenty-five cents each, were too costly a luxury to be often indulged in by such a people. The mail carrier often brought news from the outside world of the elections, of wars or rumors of wars, which was passed from mouth to mouth.

Now the mail is brought to Clarksfield's dwellers daily from the east to the west and from the west to the east, upon the fast mail trains of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad; and instead of the horn of the mail-boy, is heard the scream of the locomotive engine and the thunderous rumbling of heavy trains of cars, bearing the commerce of the continent. Smith Starr, the first and long time postmaster of the town, who handed out to the boy in question, sixty-five years ago, the Western Christian Advocate, the family paper, sleeps with the neighbors whom he served upon the hill, while the mail is distributed and served to patrons by a woman postmistress, a descendant of Aaron Rowland, another of the pioneers of the town.

Death Among The Pioneers

In those pioneer days people died as they do now only oftener and earlier in life; for the hard life of privation most of them lived reduced the average term of life, and the pioneer fell an early victim to the ague or to the fever which followed in its train.

As people wore home-made clothing in life, so their dead were encoffined in a home-made, walnut coffin, made to order from an actual measure taken, by the local cabinet maker or by a carpenter, the funeral always awuiting the convenience of the mechanic. The account books of Capt. Samuel Husted, pioneer merchant and first manufacturer of Clarksfield, still preserved, furnish the only vital statistics of the town in the charges made therein for coffins, furnished for the dead among the pioneers.

Funerals among the pioneers were always formal affairs. The newest and best farm wagon of the settlement served as the hearse, and not until in the forties did our town furnish a pall for such occasions. A minister, if one could be had, must come, say a prayer and deliver a sermon. If no minister could be had, then some devout layman solemnized the occasion by a prayer. The old hymn begining, "Hark from the tombs a doleful sound," sung to the tune of China, by uncultured voices, made the solemnity of the occasion almost gloomy, and always awakened doubts of the reality of the resurrection.

The writer has a vivid recollection of his attendance upon a funeral in Clarksfield, the first that fell under his observation. It was that of a young mother who had yielded up her life in a forest home. The bereaved home was reached from our home by a tramp with mother and a neighbor, through a mile of dense forest. After the ceremony the burial took place upon a knoll in the deep woods near by. The sight of the dead mother and of the bereaved little ones made an impression upon the mind of the five-year-old boy which was deep and lasting. The little procession bore the body from the lonely cabin home to the grave where the neighbors filled in the earth and departed. For some years the mound reminded the observer of the departed, but finally all traces of the entombment were eradicated and the affair was was forgotten. The place of interment has long since been passed over by the stranger occupant of the farm with no knowledge of the burial.

Early burials were in most cases made upon the home farm, for cemeteries were not then established. In a few years, as in the instance above given, these places of burial were forgotten, so that now the plow and the reaper, unknown to the farmer in charge, desecrate the places once sacred to the pioneer.

Conclusion

The story you have listened to contains nothing startling, and has, I fear, hardly been interesting. It is but a recitation of commonplace affairs, with an antique odor, of which every pioneer boy knows, and perhaps, yes surely, this is all it has to commend it. Be this as it may, the story has its counterpart in the history of every section of our country, which has, with such marvelous celerity, emerged from a wilderness, the dwelling place of the savage, to a densely populated empire of civilization, within the lifetime and recollections of many here. The story begins contemporaneously with the first term of President Jackson, the seventh president, and runs to that of the twenty-fifth, counted consecutively, and covers one-half of the lifetime of our republic. It has seen the republic doubled and more than doubled in the extent of its territory, and more than quadrupled in its population; while in material resources and national virility the infant has become the giant of this globe.

During this period the last of the men who at the beginning of the story grappled with the wilderness here, has passed to the beyond. The children of the pioneer have in many cases, as in the case of the families most conspicuous in the story, gone to aid in developing other states, so that the only memory of their names is to be gathered from the tombstones in your cemetries. But such is the glory of American life everywhere.

Johnny Appleseed

John Chapman was born at Springfield, Mass., in the year 1775. OF his early life but little is known, as he was reticent about himself, but his half-sister who came west at a later period, stated that Johnny had, when a boy, shown a fondness for natural scenery and often wandered from home in quest of plants and flowers and that he liked to listen to the birds singing and to gaze at the stars. Chapman's penchant for planting apple seeds and cultivating nurseries caused him to be called "Appleseed John," which was finally changed to *Johnny Appleseed," and by that name he was called and known everywhere.

The year Chapman came to Ohio has been variously stated, but to say it was one hundred years ago would not be far from the mark. An uncle of the late Roscella Rice lived in Jefferson county when Chapman made his first advent in Ohio, and one day saw a queer-looking craft coming down the Ohio river above Steubenviile. It consisted of two canoes lashed together, and its crew was one man - an angular, oddly-dressed person - and when he landed he said his name was Chapman, and that his cargo consisted of sacks of apple seeds and that he intended to plant nurseries.

Chapman's first nursery was planted nine miles below Steubenville, up a narrow valley, from the Ohio river, at Brilliant, formerly called Lagrange, opposite Wellsburg, W. Va. After planting a number of nurseries along the river front, he extended his work into the interior of the state - into Richland county - where he made his home for many years.

Chapman was enterprising in his way and planted nurseries in a number of counties, which required him to travel hundreds of miles to visit and cultivate them yearly, as was his custom. His usual price for a tree was "a penny-bit," but if the settler hadn't money, Johnny would either give him credit or take old clothes for pay. He generally located his nurseries along streams, planted his seeds, surrounded the patch with a brush fence, and when the pioneers came, Johnny had young fruit trees ready for them. He extended his operations to the Maumee country and finally into Indiana, where the last years of his life were spent. He revisited Richland county the last time in 1843, and called at my father's, but as I was only five years old at the time I do not remember him.

My parents (in about 1827-35) planted two orchards with trees they bought of Johnny, and he often called at their house, as he was a frequent caller at the homes of the settlers. My grandfather, Capt. James Cunningham, settled in Richland county in 1808, and was acquainted with Johnny for many years, and I often heard him tell, in his Irish-witty way, many amusing anecdotes and incidents of Johnny's life and of his peculiar and eccentric ways.

Johnny was fairly educated, well read and was polite and attentive in manner and was chaste in conversation. His face was pleasant in expression, and he was kind and generous in disposition. His nature was a deeply religious one, and his life was blameless among his fellow men. He regarded comfort more than style and thought it wrong to spend money for clothing to make a fine appearance. He usually wore a broad-brimmed hat. He went barefooted not only in the summer, but often in cold weather, and a coffee sack, with neck and armholes cut in it, was worn as a coat. He was about five feet, nine inches in height, rather spare in build was large boned and sinewy. His eyes were blue, but darkened with animation,

For a number of years Johnny lived in a little cabin near Perrysville (then in Richland county), but later he made his home in Mansfield with his half-sister, a Mrs. Groome.

When upon his journeys "Johnny" usually camped out. He never killed anything, not even for the purpose of obtaining food. He carried a kit of cooking utensils with him, among which was a mush-pan, which he sometimes wore as a hat. When he called at a house, his custom was to lie upon the floor with his kit for a pillow and after conversing with the family a short time, would then read from a

General Reading Room, Public Library, Norwalk

Swedenborgian book or tract, and proceed to explain and extol the religious views he so zealously believed, and whose teachings he so faithfully carried out in his every day life and conversation. His mission was one of peace and 2004 will and he never carried a weapon, not even for self-defense. The Indians regarded him as a great "Medicine Man," and his life seemed to be a charmed one, as neither savage men nor wild beast would harm him.

Chapman was not a mendicant. He was never in indigent circumstances, for he sold thousands of nursery trees every year. Had he been avaricious, his estate instead of being worth a few thousand might have been tens of thousands at his death.

"Johnny Appleseed's" name was John Chapman - not Jonathan - and this is attested by the muniments of his estate, and also from the fact that he had a halfbrother (a deaf mute) whose Christian name was Jonathan.

Chapman never married and rumor said that a love affair in the old Bay State was the cause of his living the life of a celibate and recluse. Johnny himself never explained why he led such a singular life except to remark that he had a mission - which was understood to be to plant nurseries and to make converts to the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. He died at the home of William Worth in St. Joseph township, Allen county, Indiana, March 1847, and was buried in David Archer's graveyard, a few miles north of Fort Wayne, near the foot of a natural mound. His name is engraved as a cenotaph upon one of the monuments erected in Mifflin township, Ashland county, this state, to the memory of the pioneers. Those monuments were unveiled with imposing ceremony in the presence of over six thousand people September 15, 1882, the seventieth anniversary of the Copus tragedy.

During the war of 1812 Chapman often warned the settlers of approaching danger. The following incident is given: When the news spread that Levi Jones had been killed by the Indians and that Wallace Reed and others had probably met the same fate, excitement ran high and the few families which comprised the population of Mansfield sought the protection of the blockhouse, situated on the public square, as it was supposed the savages were coming in force from the north to overrun the country and to murder the settlers.

There were no troops at the blockhouse at the time and as an attack was considered imminent, a consultation was held and it was decided to send a messenger to Captain Douglas, at Mt. Vernon, for assistance. But who would undertake the hazardous journey? It was evening, and the rays of the sunset had faded away and the stars were beginning to shine in the darkening sky, and the trip of thirty miles must be made in the night over a new cut road through a wilderness - through a forest infested with wild beasts and hostile Indians.

A volunteer was asked for and a tall, lank man said demurely: "I'll go." He was bareheaded, barefooted and was unarmed. His manner was meek and you had to look the second time into his clear, blue eyes to fully fathom the courage and determination shown in their depths. There was an expression in his countenance such as limners try to portray in their pictures of saints. It is scarcely necessary to state that the volunteer was "Johnny Appleseed" for many of

The journey to Mt. Vernon was a sort of a Paul Revere mission. Unlike Paul's, *Johnny's" was made on foot - barefooted - over a rough road, but one that in time led to fame.

for so expeditiously was the trip made that at sunrise the next morning troops from Mt. Vernon arrived at the Mansfield blockhouse, accompanied by "Johnny," who had made the round trip of sixty miles between sunset and sunrise.

About a week before Chapman's death, while at Fort Wayne, he heard that cattle had broken into his nursery in St. Joseph township and were destroying his trees, and he started on foot to look after his property. The distance was about twenty miles and the fatigue and exposure of the journey were too much for "Johnny's" physical condition, then enfeebled by age; and at the even-tide he applied at the home of a Mr. Worth for lodging for the night. Mr. Worth was a native Buckeye and had lived in Richland county when a boy and when he learned that his oddly dressed caller was "Johnny Appleseed" gave him a cordial welcome. "Johnny" declined going to the supper table but partook of a bowl of bread and milk.

The day had been cold and raw with occasional flurries of snow, but in the evening the clouds cleared away and the sun shone warm and bright as it sank in the western sky. "Johnny" noticed this beautiful sunset, an augury of the Spring and flowers so soon to come and sat on the doorstep and gazed with wistful eyes toward the west. Perhaps this herald of the Springtime, the season in which nature is resurrected from the death of Winter, caused him to look with prophetic eyes to the future and contemplate that glorious event of which Christ is the resurrection and the life. Upon re-entering the house, "Johnny" declined the bed offered him for the night, preferring a quilt and pillow on the floor, but asked permission to hold family worship and read "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven," "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," etc.

After he had finished reading the lesson, he said prayers - prayers long remembered by that family. He prayed for all sorts and conditions of men ; that the way of righteousness might be made clear unto them and that saving grace might be freely given to all nations. He asked that the Holy Spirit might guide and govern all who profess and call themselves Christians and that all those who were afflicted in mind, body or estate, might be comforted and relieved, and that all might at last come to the knowledge of the truth and in the world to come have happiness and everlasting life. Not only the words of the prayer, but the pathos of his voice made a deep impression upon those present.

| In the morning "Johnny" was found in a high state of fever, pneumonia having developed during the night, and the physician called said he was beyond medical aid, but inquired particularly about his religious belief, and remarked that he had never seen a dying man so perfectly calm, for upon his wan face there was an expression of happiness and upon his pale lips there was a smile of joy, as though he was communing with loved ones who had come to meet him and to soothe his weary spirit in his dying moments. as his eyes shone with the beautiful light supernal, God touched him with his finger and beckoned him home.

Thus ended the life of the man who was not only a hero, but a benefactor as well; and his spirit is now at rest in the Paradise of the Redeemed, and in the fullness of time, clothed again in the old body made anew, will enter into the Father's house in which there are many mansions. In the words of his own faith, his bruised feet will be healed, and he shall walk on the gold-paved streets of ihe New Jerusalem of which he so eloquently preached. It has been very appropriately said that although years have come and gone since his death, the memory of his good deeds live anew every Springtime in the beauty and fragrance of the blossoms of the apple trees he loved so well.

"Johnny Appleseed's" death was in harmony with his unostentatious, blameless life. It is often remarked, "How beautiful is the Christian's life;" yea, but far more beautiful is the Christian's death, when "the fashion of his countenance is altered," as he passes from the life here to the life beyond.

What changes have taken place in the years that have intervened between the "Johnny Appleseed" period and today! It has been said that the lamp of civilization far surpasses that of Aladdin's. Westward the star of empire took its way and changed the forests into fields of grain and the waste places into gardens of flowers, and towns and cities have been built with marvelous handiwork. But in this march of progress, the struggles and hardships of the early settlers must not be forgotten. Let us not only record the history, but the legends of the pioneer period; garner its facts and its fictions; its tales and traditions and collect even the crumbs that fall from the table of the feast.

Today, the events which stirred the souls and tried the courage of the pioneers seem to come out of the dim past and glide as panoramic views before me. A number of the actors in those scenes were of my "kith and kin" who have long since crossed over the river in their journey to the land where Enoch and Elijah are pioneers, while I am left to exclaim:

How Jay Cooke Financed The Civil War Society, At Its Meeting In Sandusky, October 3, 1000

PAPER READ BY JAY COOKE, OF PHILADELPHIA, BEFORE THE FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT ITS MEETING IN SANDUSKY, OCTOBER 3, 1000. COPYRIGHTED 1900. PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION.

Mr. President, and Members of the Firelands Historical Society: You must not expect from me on this occasion anything more than a truthful talk upon some subjects your President tells me you will be pleased to listen to as coming from one who, although not a member of your society yet, has for long years kept himself informed as to your aims and purposes and who has taken much interest in all you have done. I never delivered a speech in all my nearly eighty years of life. The largest body I have ever addressed was a male bible class of sometimes one hundred and fifty members which I have conducted each Sabbath for nearly fifty years and yet when I recalled the fact that my dear father, the Hon. Eleutheros Cooke, so frequently in the long ago met with you and addressed you and that your society has numbered and now numbers many old friends, I could not refuse the invitation to appear before you.

My preference would have been, however, to have met and talked with you at the fireside of my own home. Oh, what hours we could have spent together, chatting about the good old times, the old friends, the thousand and one incidents, old customs and experiences and again of the wondrous changes that have taken place, the rapid progress in arts and sciences and inventions in steamships and railroads, and telegraph and telephones. Why a whole year of such talks would hardly suffice to exhaust the infinite sum of the items we would recall from memory's storehouse, even a memory reaching no further backwards than three score years and ten.

My friends, I consider myself as one of you. I was born near the spot where we are now assembled. I. have a perfect recollection of Sandusky when it was but just changing from an Indian village. Old Ogontz many a time has carried me on his shoulders. I named my beautiful home near Philadelphia after this old chief and now the whole country around me for miles has appropriated for their postoffice, railroad station and village the name of Ogontz.

My father, I think, built the first stone house down on Columbus avenue. The town was then called Portland, and afterwards Sandusky City and now Sandusky. My first recollection of any public worship was of a Methodist meeting held in a cooper shop on Market street, our seats rough boards placed on kegs. Shortly after this a small frame church was erected by the Methodists near where the courthouse stands. After this a stone church built by the Congregationalists, also a stone church by the Episcopalians and many other societies followed until in time this fair city has become noted as a city of churches.

The bay was at certain times covered with ducks and wild geese and swan and the water populous with all kinds of fish. I remember a joke which our rival neighbors used to perpetrate, i. e., that before the Sandusky people could dine or sup they would have to send us boys down to the docks to catch enough fish for a meal. But in fact this whole country was full of game and fish of all kinds, a perfect paradise for hunters and fishermen. Deer and squirrels and prairie chickens and wild turkey, etc., abounded.

My father never was a hunter but on one occasion he beat us all in prowess by capturing a couple of dozen of fat wild turkeys without firing a gun. He had a hundred-acre field of corn out on the prairie and had built a spacious corn house in the center. One day, riding over this field after harvest, he noticed a window was open and approaching and looking in discovered a large flock of wild turkeys within and feasting on his corn. He promptly closed the window and captured the whole flock, thus providing a feast for the good old Thanksgiving day then near at hand.

On this same prairie between Bloomingville and Strong's Ridge I have hunted with Judge Caldwell. It was a rare spot for deer and prairie chickens.

And now before closing these personal reminiscences I wish to refer to an incident which some of you will no doubt recall. It is this, at one of your meetings in Norwalk long ago my father, who was the orator on that occasion, took from his pocket the very first telegram that had been sent from Philadelphia to Sandusky. He reminded you of past difficulties, particularly in the earlier periods, in the matter of mails and messages from the East and how that frequently letters were days and weeks before reaching their destination and how he held in his hand a message that he had received from his son Jay from Philadelphia in just five minutes from the time his son had written it that very morning.

To realize the wondrous change that you and I have witnessed we can recall the time when postage on a letter from Sandusky to Norwalk was twelve and one-half cents and from Boston to Sandusky was twenty-five cents and if the envelope contained an enclosure beside the one sheet the postage was doubled. Why, my dear friends, I myself have paid seventy-five cents on a letter to my sweetheart in Kentucky just because there was so much news in Philadelphia that it required three sheets to tell it all. You and I remember when tomatoes were called "Love Apples" and were not eaten, considered poisonous. We remember the first soda water fountains, the first daguerreotype, the first steamship that crossed the ocean, the first railroad charter obtained in the world and that by my own father in 1826. We all remember the beginning of the road, at first between Sandusky and Bellevue, with a thin English strap rail and cars drawn by a horse.

I was present when, about 1835, ground was broken near Foreman's rope walk and a grand celebration held. All the great men of the state were invited. *Old Tippecanoe," the first President Harrison, was there. My father delivered the oration. We had music and a cannon and we boys all marched in the procession.

At this time a few other railroad projects had been launched, a few miles of the Baltimore & Ohio, some three miles of the Germantown road, also a piece of the Albany & Schenectady road and a mile in the Quincy granite quarries. But to my father and to the Western Reserve belongs the honor of being the pioneer in railroad matters. From this small beginning hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad have been constructed, why, my friends, there are today enough finished railroads in the United States alone to reach around the world fully ten times.

I have since 1838, when I took up my residence in Philadelphia, almost continually been financiering for railroads. As a member of the great firm of E. W. Clark & Co., and afterwards of the firm of Jay Cooke & Co., I have until recent years been instrumental in the building of nearly all the older railroads of the country. The last of these, the great Northern Pacific railroad, now a triumphant success and which has developed one of the finest portions of this country, where, in 1870, a vast territory was filled with buffalo and Indians, can now be found over six millions of intelligent and energetic farmers and miners and merchants and ranchmen, etc., and many large cities and thriving towns, hundreds of churches, schools and colleges and branch railroads innumerable.

In fact whether I journey east or west, north or south, I can recall the fact that at some early date our firms financiered the bonds issued by these roads many of which were entirely in our hands at some period of their history. I have always had faith in well managed railroad property. About the only time I ever met Jay Gould was when I asked him to assist in extending the Union Pacific one hundred and seventy-five miles into southern Utah. This he agreed to do. The purpose was to reach the great Horn silver mine at Frisco and it took us just twenty minutes to close the bargain, although the railroad alone cost over two millions of which the Union Pacific subscribed for one-half. This road was completed in five months. I had, I remember, one other transaction with Mr. Gould, and I found him in each case entirely trustworthy and reliable, and my confidence in his word was so great that we did not even draw up or sign any papers. He simply said: "I will do it, go ahead, and I will do my part."

I suppose it was this association from early youth with large financial and commercial transactions that gave me a vast experience and opened my mind and widened my views as to the future of this glorious nation so that at the period of the Mexican war from 1846 to 1849, as a member of the firm of E. W. Clark & Co., I assisted in the negotiation of the government loans required from time to time to carry on that war. Corcoran & Riggs, of Washington, and E. W. Clark & Co., of Philadelphia, took all of those loans. The amount altogether did not exceed sixty or seventy millions. Robert J. Walker was secretary of the treasury at that time and author of the sub-treasury system. I was quite intimate with him, not then, but during the war of the rebellion.

I could tell you of some amusing details as to the manipulation of the Mexican war loans. Why our firm made more profit out of each of their shares of the ten million awards than I made during the whole period of the war of the rebellion, a period of between four and five years during which, as selling agent of this government, I negotiated all the great loans issued amounting to over two thousand millions of dollars, this sum includes the early issue of temporary loan certificates, loan of 1881, 5-20 bonds, IO-40 bonds, 7-30 notes, etc., etc. This last loan was for eight hundred and thirty millions and I sold it all within five months, the sales occasionally reaching ten to fifteen millions a day and one day forty-two millions. It was the closing war loan and before its marvellous sale was concluded the war had ended. I could tell you, if I had time, of how I saved the treasury one hundred millions of dollars and how the success of this loan elevated the credit of this nation to a pinnacle far above that of any nation on earth and gave the final blow to the great rebellion.

This saving of one hundred millions was acknowledged by all acquainted with the facts and was originated and carried out successfully solely by myself, the treasury department simply agreeing to my wishes and plans. It was in connection with the vast issue of quartermaster certificates and the unwise provision made for their redemption which, instead of distributing the money, I poured into the treasury pro rata upon each outstanding group of certificates, paid out the bulk of it in Philadelphia, New York and Boston, leaving the hundreds of other quartermaster departments frequently for months without funds.

The consequence was that whilst quartermaster certificates in Philadelphia and the East could be sold when first issued at ten to twelve per cent. discount, the discount in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, etc., was twenty-two to twenty-five per cent, other points thirty to thirty-five per cent, and at Nashville I heard of a sale at fifty per cent discount. Now all this discount together with the doubts and fears created by the want of prompt payment which greatly checked competition added at least one million per day to the cost of the war and discredited our bonds and gave hopes to the rebels and their sympathizers at the north and in Europe that we would break down financially. I pondered over this fearful situation and devised and executed at once a scheme which within thirty days gave promise of the speedy ending of the war and reduced the discount on all vouchers issued by quartermasters in all parts of the country to not over two to three per cent and in fact the money flowed so rapidly into the treasury that ere long the vouchers were cashed as soon as issued. This, my friends, is the first time I have made any public mention of my services in connection with this marvellous matter. You will wonder how it was accomplished.

It was in this way. I called to my office in Philadelphia to confer with me all the large holders of vouchers residing in the eastern cities. These men agreed unanimously and privately to accept my proposition and to keep the plan from publicity in order that the greatest good could be accomplished by its success. These men held about eighty millions of vouchers, all of which were within a few days deposited with me and for which I gave them the current issue of 7-30 notes at gar; they agreeing to use them as a basis of bank loans until I had closed out the sale of 7-30's for cash. They could borrow twenty-five per cent more on the 7-30's than on the vouchers, and as the 7-30's carried interest they got their loans practically without cost. these treasury notes were day by day issued in exchange for the quartermaster's certificates, I was thereby able to add from three to ten millions a day to the sum of the public subscriptions. which, as I knew it would, created such an increased demand for the notes by the public and even foreign purchasers that the whole eight hundred and thirty millions of this issue were all sold within five short months. All the loans I negotiated went to a large premium. The 7-30 treasury notes after a short period were all funded into long bonds or paid off. I will say here that all the bonds I negotiated for the United States were paid off in gold as advertised and many of them long before they were due and being purchased at a premium by the treasury.

I am afraid I am already trespassing upon your time with these details, but you asked me to tell you some of the plans I adopted to win so great a success. I will but hint at a few of them and simply remark that these plans, originating as they did from practical business experience and entire independence of action and freedom red tape, were such as no official or the government itself could have planned or executed. Take for instance the following:

Newspapers and individuals got into the habit of deploring the war and its vicious expenditures. I offset this by quoting the fact that every dollar raised by the loans went right back into the hands of the people and was new and vigorous blood permeating all through the body of the nation and at that time the expense of the war had reached the vast sum of six hundred millions per annum. T simply, in addition to the fact as stated above, published statistics showing the importation annually for years past of the best kind of immigrants, mostly from the British Isles and the north of Europe. Such importation averaged over six hundred thousand per annum. The cost of rearing to the average age of those coming here was at least one thousand dollars each. This in addition to the money and goods which each immigrant brought in. These foreign countries were contributing to the United States without cost to us more than we were expending upon our war besides furnishing us many times the number of those who were killed and wounded and who were ready and glad to take their places the ranks. Thus by using the newspapers and pamphlets and circulars to disseminate these facts thoroughly and constantly all over the land I soon dispelled all gloom and brought about a more cheerful condition of public opinion. Another incident. The Quakers, so numerous in Pennsylvania and in many other states, so rich and patriotic, were, as I knew, only held back from investing millions in the United States bonds by the thought that the money was for war purposes. Their consciences could not be reconciled to helping pay for war and bloodshed. Hoy did I manage them? this way. I sent for a number of them whom I knew personally and held conferences with them, the result of which was that I told them that I was in full sympathy with their scruples and had taken measures at Washington to make it possible for them also to subscribe for bonds. I told them that millions of money was required for hospitals and sanitary purposes, the sick and wounded must be cared for, etc., and that if they subscribed, their money would by especial agreement be applied by the treasury department to thus doing good to the suffering soldiers.

My proposition was cordially accepted and was widely made known through circulars and the newspapers, telegraph, etc., and soon my Quaker friends began to pour in millions from all parts of the country. Another incident. I had to labor with a class of men who invested only in first mortgages on real estate and would not invest in bonds of the United States. I got some of these men to a conference and told them that my government bonds were far ahead of their first mortgages; that in fact, their first mortgages were only second or third mortgages after all. In the first place the tax gatherers of the city and state both have a prior lien. If the owner of the mortgaged property is unable to pay his taxes the holder of the mortgage must do so or see his security glide from him. But above all I made clear to them the fact of the supreme position of the national government not only in the matter of imposition of any amount of taxation but even to the practical possession of every property in the land if its possession should be required to maintain the life of the nation. The nation's claim was first of all and universal confiscation of all property would be resorted to if needed to sustain the nation's life.

This is a solemn fact and these men understood it at once, being practical business men, and at once began to put their money into the best of all, the first lien upon all, the glorious 5-20's and other United States bonds. These true views were disseminated everywhere and greatly increased the volume of subscriptions.

I would not for a moment claim all the credit for the wondrous success that attended these vast negotiations which supplied almost wholly from the begin- ning to the end the money, the sinews of war during the great rebellion, the most gigantic contest this world has ever seen, but would share it with the host of faithful partners, clerks and assistants we employed and with our own numerous editorial staff and with the whole body of the press and newspapers throughout the land. The latter without exception or any discrimination whether they were north or south, east or west, republican or democratic, or "copperhead," or Protestant or Catholic, with the single exception of the Sunday newspapers, I never paid a dollar to these breakers of the Sabbath, all alike published my advertisements and my special editorial articles. were fully paid in cash, no discount asked and no commissions deducted by agents. It was a grand feast for the newspapers and the amount I expended during those four or five years reached probably two millions of dollars. Then too the country all the time was flooded with circulars and pamphlets and every possible means vigorously adopted to expand patriotism, to encourage the down-hearted, and to exalt the duty of every one subscribing to the current loans.

The officers and soldiers in the camps were fully instructed, and in addition to appeals to them for faithful service they were asked to subscribe and they did subscribe many millions of dollars. It 1s not too much to say that my efforts to popularize these various loans reached a grandeur of success that the world had never witnessed before; and that whilst our brave officers and soldiers and seamen were fighting great battles. I was confronted all the time with enemies less brave but equally active and strategic and determined, whom with the help of God and of splendid partners and assistants were finally overcome. I was asked during the great war when it seemed that a large portion of our prominent men in the army and navy and in public offices from the president and secretaries down were western men and particularly Ohio men, to explain how this could be. My answer was, so far as Ohio was concerned, that the men now of an age and experience to occupy these positions were the children of those energetic men and women pioneers who settled the Western Reserve and other parts of the noble state. They came from New York, Pennsylvania and New England states mostly, and some Virginians and Marylanders, but the mere fact of coming here and of battling as pioneers had given their offspring sturdy and prominent characters, such as Chase, and the Shermans and Stantons.

While I was, of course, more or less intimate with all the public men at Washington during the war yet I found my time so fully engaged that I spent but little of it in their company and, unless for some especial work or consultation connected with the creating and issue:of some new loan, I seldom visited Washington. My representatives there were my brother, Governor Henry D. Cooke, and Mr. H. C. Fahnestock, two noble and able men and partners in our house there.

I have gone to Washington and conferred with Mr. Chase, Mr. Lincoln, Gen. Grant and Mr. McCulloch, Mr. Fessenden, John Sherman and many others, and all these gentlemen have from time to time visited me at Ogontz, my home near Philadelphia, and Gibraltar, my Western Reserve island home, and I have enjoyed unusual opportunities in conversing with them during and since the war, but will have to reserve these anecdotes and details for some other occasion. They were all noble men; our nation owes them a debt of gratitude that monu- ments and honors cannot repay. I have always felt that in this matter of men fitted and born for the occasion none but our nation's God could have chosen and sustained these glorious characters who were prominent in those dark days of strife and bloodshed.

I will state that this nation stands today just where I prognosticated she would in due time stand, the most powerful, the richest, the most enlightened, and the freest and happiest nation on this earth.

We have kept all our promises financially, have seen our whole land again reunited so that we have no north and no south, and our financial and commercial credit is greater even than Great Britain. We have been able to borrow money at two per cent, in fact have lately paid off a debt bearing only that interest and have lately taken a British loan of twenty-five millions and sent them the gold out of our superabundance to pay for it and I presume from signs I see that we shall loan large sums to Russia before long and perhaps to other powers of Europe. We are kings in the iron, coal, cotton and grain trade.

It would require hundreds of pages to record the incidents and efforts accompanying the plans adopted for raising the millions of dollars required each month during the war. In fact the experience of past negotiations was no guide to present ones, and not only in the form and terms of the different loans was there a constant variance, but instead of being sold by the treasury department the most of these gigantic loans were sold to the public through myself as general subscription agent. I thus employing all banks, bankers and other agents who were accountable to me direct daily, and by me settlement was made with the treasury department. I paid all advertising and appointed all my own agents. The treasury department had practically but little to do in the matter beyond printing the bonds and receiving and disbursing their proceeds. The wisdom of Mr. Chase, of Mr. Fessenden and Mr. McCulloch as secretaries of the treasury was shown by a non-interference with my plans and the giving me perfect liberty to manage the loans in my own way. I was aided by some of the best writers in our land and thus was enabled to introduce and popularize many ideas that were adopted and universally believed in. Such for instance as that expenses of war if disbursed in our own borders tends rather to add to the nation's vigor and wealth, also that the population was rapidly increasing through immigration, increasing far beyond the loss by war, also that a government bond was first lien upon all else and the best security in the world. Remember, my dear friends, that from 1861 to 1865 practically the bulk of the funds raised was through my efforts and the efforts of my firm. We were God chosen. I have always thought we were helped and sustained by His Gracious power.

When in Washington I met, of course, most of our public men. How famous their names are now, such men as Chase, Lincoln, Sherman, Fessenden, McCulloch and Seward.

They were all great men and worthy of our remembrances. I have not time to tell you of incidents of deep interest taking place continually in connection with these men. Suffice to say such incidents were exciting and worthy of the men and the times.

During the battle of Gettysburg my office in Philadelphia was crowded with subscribers to the loans, and after the battle many citizens whose sons were in that battle and had been wounded and who had failed to get passes to visit them came to me and said, "Surely we are subscribers to the loans, can't you give us a pass?" I told them I would try, and sat down and wrote a short note to the commander at Gettysburg, which was accepted in every instance, allowing the Philadelphia father to pass to his wounded son. I have always regarded advertising as the great power to be availed of. I disbursed during the five years of war over two millions of dollars in advertising the loans.

Now a word in conclusion. The cost in commissions and printing and advertising, for instance in Europe and perhaps at times in England reaches two or two and a half per cent. For this guarantee some great banking house like Rothschild's places the loan. I understand that they simply financier it and do not take the risk of a dollar.

How different this is from the terms under which Jay Cooke undertook to financier for our treasury. He got but a paltry three-eighths per cent to cover all his advertising and agents of all kinds, and out of this scarcely saved a penny.

The whole amount of the outlay by the government during the war for materials, engraving and printing bonds and commissions allowed did not exceed seven and a half millions of dollars. So far as Jay Cooke & Co. were concerned they were left to enjoy the honors of such heroic deeds for they certainly saved nothing else.

Since writing the above I have seen an article in the September McCiure's magazine written by the Hon. Geo. S. Boutwell, ex-secretary of the treasury, who says, part: "It is not easy, in this age of comparative freedom and power in financial affairs, to comprehend that in the year 1871 the iong established bankers of New York, Amsterdam and London, either declined or neglected the opportunity to negotiate the five per cent coin bonds of the United States upon the basis of their par value.

It was in this situation of affairs that Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. proposed to undertake the sale in London, by subscription, of one hundred and thirty-four million five per cent bonds then unsold. Authority was given to Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. to proceed with the undertaking, and when the books were closed, September Ist, I was informed that the loan had been taken in full."

In conclusion, my dear friends, after thanking you for your patience in listening to so long a story, I would refer to the history of this favored portion of our country and the circumstances which led you to adopt it as your home. This belt of land on the south bank of Lake Erie, including many islands, is called the Firelands of the Western Reserve, granted long ago as compensation for losses and trials and sufferings endured by your fathers and mothers many years ago in Connecticut in the Revolutionary War. A glorious and goodly land was then provided for you by a kindly and beneficent government, but, oh, I would remind you that there is a better land, a land of pure delight which our loved and powerful Saviour has gone to prepare for you, "Sweet fields arrayed in living green and rivers of delight." This coming inheritance is a new and Heavenly reserve made ready for all who now hear my voice. The journey thither will not be through dangerous forests and Indian foes or wearisome marches and toilful struggles, but will be to those of you who are looking forward to a future home in that Heavenly reserve, but an instant of transition. You will find there no early or later toil and struggles such as you met within this earthly reserve, but will realize in that Heavenly reserve such peace and rest and joy as we pilgrims of earth cannot conceive of.

The Firelands Historical Society

The Firelands Historical Society was organized in the court house at Norwalk in June, 1857. It has held annual meetings in Norwalk and numerous quarterly meetings in various portions of Huron and Erie counties since its organization fifty-two years ago.

"Nearly half a century has elapsed since the organization of the Firelands Historical Society, which took place in this town of Norwalk, when many of the first settlers of the Firelands were present and participated in that memorable event. In the years that have since passed, nearly all of those pioneers have crossed the great divide.

"It is our proud privilege and pleasure to claim the possession and ownership of the only building solely used for historical and archaeological purposes by any organized county society in Ohio. Even the 'Historical and Archeological Society' of our state has as yet no home for its library and valuable archeological deposits. While Huron and Erie counties through the agency of this society and many years of zealous work has now such a home, wherein we can safely deposit in a fireproof museum the authentic records which commemorate the labors and achievements of our ancestors. For all time these collections and such other of like contributions as may come to our society, may be viewed and reviewed by the present and future generations with a gratified pride of worthy ancestry.

"In 1857 the pioneers of the two counties of Huron and Erie met at Norwalk and organized "The Firelands Historical Society,' the chief purpose of which was to collect and preserve in proper form the facts constituting the full history of the 'Fire Lands,' and to secure an authentic statement of their resources and productions of all kinds. The society, which has a charter, was not organized for profit, and yet no corporation has ever declared richer or greater dividends. And what has this society done? Its meetings, quarterly and annual, have been quite regularly held. Its publications, forty-five numbers or volumes, are, in number of pages, exceeding those of any county historical society in Ohio or in the west. These publications devoted to the early history of the Firelands and of the state of Ohio include nearly seven thousand pages of valuable early history, most of which was never in print before and contain full and complete memoirs of thirty-two townships reported by original pioneers in these townships. It has collected valuable books, papers, pamphlets and writings along special lines which cannot now be duplicated. It has also many bound volumes of newspapers, which both the local, as well as the general history of the state and country is preserved for the use of investigators and historians. Its collection of maps, many made by the original surveyors, will be of great value in settling matters of facts and early land titles. It has a large collection of genealogy which is often consulted for early family history.

"The museum collection embraces a large number of Indian relics, nearly all found within the Firelands. The selection embraces rare fossils and petrifactions which possess great interest to the geologist and student, and tend to confirm the theory that the shores of Lake Erie at some remote period extended farther south than they do now.

are original letters from our early statesmen and warriors, from Generals Washington, Greene and Harrison, from Cass and Chase, from Grant and Sherman, and from many of the present day.

"There are guns and pistols, cannon and rifle balls, musket bal! and grape shot, powder flasks and pocket books picked up on the battlefields of all the wars in which our country has engaged, and also numerous mementoes of the battle on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813.

"During the existence of our society since May, 1857, it has exchanged its publications with a large number of state historical societies, thus spreading broadcast the early and important events of our section of Ohio, both in peace and war, which go far to make up and complete the grand and glorious history of the state of Ohio's century of growth, and which mark its transformation step by step from a wilderness into its present prosperous condition.

"Tn the society's publications are to be found the able, interesting and eloquent addresses of such pioneer citizens and distinguished men as Eleutheros Cooke, Elisha Whittlesey, E. Lane, Giddings, L. B. Gurley, President K. B. Hayes, General L. V. Bierce, P. N. Schuyler, Clark Waggoner, G. T. Stewart, and many others. These addresses being of great interest and value and never published elsewhere."

Every citizen in the Firelands should be interested in preserving a history of the events transpiring within our borders. The only way to do this successfully is to support the Firelands Historical Society in its laudable efforts to carefully preserve and frequently publish these volumes of history, biography and record of passing events.

Constitution

Art. 2. Its objects are to collect and preserve in proper form, the facts constituting the full history of the "Fire Lands ;" also to obtain and preserve an authentic and general statement of their resources and productions of all kinds.

Art. 3. The officers of the society shall consist of a president, five vice-presidents, a treasurer, one recording and two corresponding secretaries.

Art. 4. The officers hereof shall be elected annually at the annual meeting, and shall perform the duties usually pertaining to their respective offices.

Art. 5. The annual meeting of the society shall be held in Norwalk, on the second Wednesday of June, at o'clock A. M., of each year hereafter.

Art. 6. Any person a resident of the "Fire Lands" may become a member by signing this constitution, and paying into the treasury the sum of twentyfive cents.

The Firelands society has one of the largest and finest museum collections in the state. It is well cared for and is kept in fire-proof rooms of the Firelands memorial building.

Present Officers, Directors, And Trustees Of The Firelands Historical Society

Board of Directors and Trustees - The president and secretary ex-officio ; W. W. Whiton, Wakeman, Ohio ; Hon. J. F. Laning, Norwalk, Ohio; George E. Titus, Norwalk, Ohio; G. S. Mordoff, Norwalk, Ohio; A. S. Prentiss, Norwalk, Ohio.

Remember The Pioneers

In the presence of the old men and old ladies, of the Firelands, nearly a century looks down upon us today. And whata century! Never in history has there been such a century, so remarkable in great events as the past one. There has never been such men of brains; such men of science as have lived in the past one hundred years. These meetings of the pioneers bring up the thought that all we enjoy are the work of our forefathers. It is difficult, at this late day to concede or believe all that we owe to them. It was the training that the boys of the Firelands received that made men of muscle and men of brains. The men who were chopping the trees, and clearing the forests made way for the railway, the telegraph, the telephone, and the electric car. I want you all to remember that the best servants make the best men. A pioneer is one that goes to prepare the way. I hardly know whether I am a pioneer or not. My father came here in 1839, with his family of six children, of which I am the only one that remains, that leaves me here fifty-nine years. Is that long enough to make me a pioneer?

We all know that the country lying between the foothills of the Alleghanies and where the prairies break was an interminable forest not many years ago.

The roads, the houses, the schoolhouses in the valley and the churches on the hilltops, tell the tale of the work of the pioneers, a brave set of men and women.

It required as much courage to face this forest as it did for the Puritans to face King Phillip, the patriots to fight on Bunker Hill, the soldiers to stand in the trench as before Vicksburg, and the veterans to hold the field at Gettysburg.

I will not describe those early days. You old ladies and gentlemen can tell about those times. You old pioneers can go back in memory, and you do not need to have your recollection revived by me. You remember the thatched log cabins, the yards full of weeds, and the woods in which the barefooted boy went for the cows before supper. Then you remember how hard it was to pull out the plow after it had sucked under a root. I think that was the hardest thing to do, excepting to pay taxes.

I saw the roads in the woods broaden out under the wheels of the carts in summer and by the sleds in winter. We were a church-going people then. We will not forget the old Methodist preacher who traveled about and asked for a gallon of oats for his horse - no half pecks then. Such people went to church.

The church had no ornamental pulpit, no carpeted floor, no cushioned seats, and often our feet rested on andirons. The fathers and mothers were strong, but died sooner than now. Early to bed and early to rise made the life work short. They had little of ideas for riches. They were working for homes; but without knowing it, they were preparing the way for roads from east to west, for great railways that now span the country and all great improvements.

What pleasure there was in the wood-chopping bees, and those house-raisings and huskings. They had the comfort of knowing that the latchstring was always out. There were none but were welcome to their generous hospitality. As they were raised, so they raised their children.

But while these heroic men are honored, we too often fail to remember the struggles of the noble pioneer women, our mothers. Always busy, we never knew when they went to bed, nor when they arose. They cooked for the men working in the woods, with poor material. They made the woolen cloth, spun it, wove it, and ten to one, that they cut the garments at home. Where on earth did they get courage for the work? It was a gift from God.

There was nothing wanted that mother could not supply. Praise then the pioneers as you will, but when you come to the mothers, your tongues must be dumb. Talk about your heroes; if you want to find one never daunted, never

The Past And The Present By Sade E. Baughman, Mansfield

Into an unbroken wilderness the early settlers came, Clearing spots for their cabins and searching the forest for game. And they were a hardy race of men, those grand old pioneers, Who came to this unsettled country the fertile land to clear. The women were brave hardy, sharing dangers with the men, And aided in field labor and their homes they helped defend. We turn to the dear mothers as the needle turns to the pole, And in neither verse nor story have their virtues been half told. And we bless the noble pioneers, whose hands with toil were brown, We will sing their praise through all the land for they deserve renown. They left their homes and scenes of peace for log cabins in the woods, Where dangers lurked at every turn, these men and women good. They are in a land of light and promise we have never seen, Where the streams are golden rivers and the forests ever green. And dear forever be the graves and bright the flowering sod, Where rest the grand old sires who loved their country and their God.

An Interesting Paper

At a meeting of the Firelands Historical Society held in Norwalk, May 1967, the following interesting paper was read by Mrs. W. A. Ingham, of Oberlin, who as one of the "old girls of Norwalk," was formerly Miss Mary B. Janes, daughter of Rev. John Janes, a Methodist Episcopal minister, who for many years was an honored citizen of Norwalk.

"Norwalk - chief city of the Firelands - our childhocd home- - was always, to us, enchanting ; the wide streets bordered by rows of maples, the sandy soil and emerald turf were lovely in our eyes and yielding to little feet.

"In '41 my younger sisters and I were in the primary public schools - Lizzie Higgins our teacher; whose attractive face, drooping curls and gentle manner made her our friend even long after she wedded Hon. J. M. Farr, of the Experiment. Further on, Sarah Mason instructed little folks.

"At nine years of age, father and mother wisely placed me in Principal Edward Thomson's large Latin grammar class at the seminary - as a basis of my future discipline in various languages. A small member thereof gained the hearts of teacher and pupils by voluntarily, every morning, filling the wood-box, that the homely, oblong stove might diffuse warmth among us chilly linguists. He was,

Myrtle Avenue, Chicago, Ohio

"Norwalk Seminary was by far the most popular academy of Ohio, and many substantial young men and women attended ;-among them Rutherford B. Hayes, Bishop William L. Harris, Governor Charles Foster, General McPherson, Judges Gershom M, Barber, Charles E. Pennewell and George E. Seney. The latter three I remember well, also Representative Francis Le Blond, whose personnel and chapel orations impressed me, an infinitesimal student, in a way altogether grand.

"Sarah Gray, Emeline Yocum and Ellen Dunn were intimates. We had a playhouse in the seminary yard ; of course we played 'school.' Our bell was a rusty tin basin. But I recail with pleasure Thirza, Delilah and David Allen, the Dunn boys, the Heath sisters, Julia, Talitha and Irene Pope, Sophia and Cornelia Steele, Lydia, Althea, Ann and Ambrose Beebe, the Bigelow sisters, McDonough and Cinderella Cary, Mary Jane Hoyt, Huldah Seeley, Mary Tillinghast, Sarah Shaffer, Thomas Cooper, E. P. Jones, Ann and Thomas Smith (what dimples Ann had!) who, with her mother, lived in the present Theodore Wooster house ; Sophia Walker - handsome, with a trace of Indian blood; Jane Cook, who believed in Birney and Third Party - Free Soil, it was then. She died at school, universally mourned; indeed, a long procession seem, now, to pass before me as nameless shadows.

a short time promotion brought into Latin reader the four Marys: Mary Watrous, Mary Beardsley, Mary Tuttle, Mary Janes; the fifth member was a bright, genial girl, granddaughter of Platt Benedict - Sarah Gallup - whom I met in after years as the dignified Mrs. Henry Brown.

"Tt was a cruel fate that deprived us five girls and boys of our father, Rev. John Janes. He was so witty and wise, so kind and mindful. His untimely taking off is even yet a source of greatest grief ; for years I could not see with composure a young girl sharing her father's protection and society. Mother mournfully gathered us about her - baby Johnny in her lap, brother Frank, three years old and recovering from severe illness, and us three sisters. Father's death in 1843 began an era for me; as oldest child I felt a responsibility and aged beyond my years. The first article ever written by me, appearing in print, were lines on father's taking away, carried to The Reflector office by Rev. Edward Thomson in February, 1843. In the next month I passed my eleventh birthday.

"Te is interesting to note that The Reflector, aged and honorable, is about to celebrate its seventy-seventh Christmas. The time-honored journal ought to hold a diamond anniversary.

"Before the middle of that decade the dear old academy blossomed into the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and into Baldwin Institute, Berea, Ohio. A Christmas tribute should here be paid to a very few who gave of their best years to Norwalk Seminary. Edward Thomson, a skeptical young man of Portsea, England, came to Wooster. Ohio, with his parents, studied medicine in that old town and was converted there. His deep learning, piety and gifts as orator and writer brought him to the head of our leading Methodist institution - from Norwalk to Cincinnati as editor, then president of Ohio Wesleyan. all these positions he was brilliant, capable and beloved. His successors at Norwalk were Rev. and Mrs. A. Nelson, Rev. and- Mrs. Holden Dwight; all of whom needed only to be known to be forever remembered.

"In April, 1846, Rev. Mr. Dwight became principal of Baldwin Jnstitute, but died in his prime the following November, greatly lamented. Theodore D. Shepherd, so long postmaster of the Maple City, was a nephew of Holden Dwight.

"Henry Buckingham, Alfred Henry Smith and myself were tutored in Virgil at my home, evenings, by Mr. Curtis, a law student. We lived on Main street ; our place being the whole St. Charles Hotel corner plat. Shepherd Patrick had a dry goods store next to us; Obadiah Jenney kept the Mansion House nearly opposite; in a line with that were Theodore Williams' and the Stoutenburghs' stores. Across a narrow street, at the side, was the Presbyterian church. Mother, shrinking from the remote and almost inaccessible Methodist meeting-house, placed us in the beloved Sunday school, so near our home. Cortland Latimer was superintendent; John R. Osborn a prominent layman, and Rev. A. Newton, pastor. My Sabbath school teacher was Elizabeth Buckingham - a grand woman. The only two class members whom I can define were Belle Scott and Louise Latimer. A small host of town-girls were delightful friends: Harriet and Sarah Buckingham, Cecelia Jenney, who from her early years was a pronounced church woman, Martha and Ann Eliza Mallory, Emma Brown, Sarah Jane, Louise and Caroline Smith, Jane Rule, Cornelia Boalt, Rebecca and Sara Miller, and Laura Tifft, who married Dr. Seth Beckwith.

"The names of citizens, wide-wake then, are now chisled in marble and granite. Some of them live again in their children: Wickham, Kennan, Gibbs, Carter, Baker, Benedict, Gallup, Colonel James A. Jones and brothers, surely are honored yet in that community.

"[ must mention three or four: Rev. Leonard B. Gurley belonged not simply to one church or village; Huron and Erie counties revered him, for he was orator, artist, poet and brilliant in prose, furnishing most rare contributions to the Firelands Pioneer. Who could forget Hon. and Mrs. S. T. Worcester and the Woosters? To my childish eyes no mansion, anywhere, seemed so palatial as Richard Vredenburgh's villa in the grove. There was nothing, ever, like those pillars!

"I cannot omit Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Strong. Mr. Strong came in 1873 to see mother dying in my Cleveland home, and bade her good-bye. He used to say that she was the most yesterday, today and forever woman he ever knew.

"It was one of my heart's chief delights, with my little hand in that of Lib Smith, to go out into the country, on the farms of Charles and Caleb Jackson, and the Dounce's not far off. Such apples and nuts, with popcorn, never, before nór since, circulated about a generous hearthstone.

"Right here our mother, Mrs. H. B. Janes, shall have her due. Messrs. Boalt and Worcester assisted her in the settlement of our estate. She read the statutes of Ohio, and becoming administratix, secured the respect and confidence of citizens. Father owned property in Akron, Ohio, and there she chose her 'thirds.' It was the one great mistakes of our lives, to sell that valuable plat in Norwalk, and has ever been to us an inextinguishable sorrow.

"Before mother was twenty years of age she and her sister founded the First Methodist Episcopal church of Ann Arbor, Mich., and that is how father invited her to share his life and work.

"Mother did all she could for us children before leaving Norwalk. Four of father's nieces - two of whom mother had educated at the seminary, married stirring business men of Sandusky city; one of them, W. S. Mills, so long editor of the Register. The older of these four gentlemen was Leonard B. Johnson, whose hospitable home in the city and whose island in Sandusky bay, delighted us all.

"She had us know Milan, then in its prime, albeit Thomas A. Edison was not yet its most distinguished child. Lyme, Monroeville and especially Bellevue were dear to her. In person and in memory she was devoted to the Firelands - noble New England woman that she was!

"The fact must not be lost sight of that this is a Christmas article. When father died, mother chose a beautiful knoll under two great forest trees in St. Paul's church-yard, for the repose of her dead. No more charming spot could be outlined even Mt. Auburn or Greenwood. Of course, 'God's acre' endeared us to St. Paul's - the oldest parish of Norwalk - founded in 1820. The sacred edifice itself, within and without, inspired us with awe, especially on Christmas Eve during 'illumination' - the chief anticipation of the whole year.

"Let us glance into 'the church' during its earliest Christmas carols. The women singers, we will say, were twelve in number ; six of them married, dressed in black with bishop sleeves, white caps and poke bonnets ; six young ladies arrayed in white, all the sweet faces with woman's crowning glory combed smoothly adown the cheek and over the ear. In their hands, all in a line, is the anthem prepared for the occasion, printed on fly-sheets:

"Mo dim religious light pervades the sanctuary, but an illumination from candelabra of wocd suspended from the ceiling, perforated and holding in pyramidal shape a host of tallow candles. Across the middle of the eight windows, in a wooden frame, are lighted candles. The interior of the building is grand with festoons of groundpine wound by the young men and maidens of the parish. The supreme moment is when, all the people rising, the rector emerges from the vestry, wearing a white surplice and introducing in solemn tones the ritual, with 'Dearly beloved, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness.'

"T love my prayer-book and the old established church which John Wesley never left, and I always loved to go to St. Paul's, expecting to see in the same places, year in and year out, standing to read the service, Mr. and Mrs. John Gardiner, Theodore Williams, Judge C. B. Stickney and the Chapin giris.

"The first rector I can recall, is Mr. O'Kill, a bachelor, who, out of the chancel, was a very social man ; he paid court to the dashing Louise Burgess.

"A commanding figure, high in church circles, was Rev. S. A. Bronson, D. D., of Sandusky, pastor of Judge Ebenezer Lane there, also, presumably, of Rush

Sloane, our president; he was of a most genial personality and a power the pulpit, who, in 1807, a babe in his mother's arms, came from Waterbury, Conn., to this Western Reserve, a pioneer of the pioneers. He was well known in St. Paul's pulpit, and to the satisfaction of everybody, married the elegant Louise Williams. I remember, also, Rev. Mr. Winthrop and Marion, nor should mention fail of chief vestryman for years - Charles E. Newman.

"Ever dear to me and mine will be that church-yard, in whose earth our family dust is absorbed - even though in glory as a cemetery is departed; in whose enclosure and grass-grown walks only neglect is apparent; where a horrible silence reigns; whose acres are untrodden by eager feet and over which no flower-laden hands ever, now, cause the grave to blossom in hope of the final resurrection !"

Execution Of Two Indians At Norwalk

In 1819, two Indians were tried and executed at Norwalk, for murder. Their names were Ne-go-sheck and Ne-gon-a-ba, the last of which is said to signify "one who walks far." The circumstances of their crime and execution we take from the Mss. history of the "fire-lands," by the late C. B. Squier, Esq.

In the spring of 1816, Tohn Wood of Venice, and George Bishop of Danbury, were trapping for muskrats on the west side of Danbury, in the vicinity of the "two harbors," so called ; and having collected a few skins, had lain down for the night in their temporary hut. Three straggling Ottawa Indians came, in the course of the night, upon their camp and discovered them sleeping. To obtain their little pittance of furs, etc., they were induced to plan their destruction. After completing their arrangements, the two eldest armed themselves with clubs, singled out their victims, and each, with a well-directed blow upon their heads, dispatched them in an instant. They then forced their youngest companion, Negasow, who had been until then merely a spectator, to beat the bodies with a club, that he might be made to feel that he was a participator in the murder, and so refrain /from exposing their crime. After securing whatever was then in the camp that they desired, they took up their line of march for the Maumee, avoiding, as far as possible, the Indian settlements on their course.

Wood left a wife to mourn his untimely fate, but Bishop was a single man. Their bodies were found in a day or two by the whites, under such circumstances, that evinced that they had been murdered by Indians, and a pursuit was forthwith commenced. The Indians living about the mouth of Portage river, had seen these straggling Indians passing eastward, now suspected them of the crime, and joined the whites in the pursuit. They were overtaken in the neighborhood of the Maumee river, brought back and examined before a magistrate. They confessed their crime and were committed to jail. At the trial the two principals were sentenced to be hung in June, 1819; the younger one was discharged. The county of Huron had at this time no secure jail, and they were closely watched armed guard. They nevertheless escaped one dark night. The guard fired and wounded one of them severely in the body, but he continued to run for several miles, till tired and faint with the loss of blood, he lay down, telling his companion he should die, and urging him to continue on. The wounded man was found after the lapse of two or three days, somewhere in Penn township in a dangerous condition, but he soon recovered. The other was recaptured near the Maumee by the Indians, and brought to Norwalk, where they were both hanged according to sentence. i

In this transaction, the various Indian tribes evinced a commendable willingness that the laws of the whites should be carried out. Many of them attended the execution, and only requested that the bodies of their comrades should not be disturbed in their graves.

The Senecas, who were in the habit of passing through the southern part of Huron county, on their way to eastern hunting-grounds, were particularly fierce in appearance, bedecked in their barbaric garb of feathers and skins, but nevertheless were friendly.

Honor The Pioneer Men And Women

As we recede farther and farther from the days of the pioneers, the lives of those who are still among us have a peculiar interest. These are the last vital lines that bind us to a whole generation that has nearly passed away, and we are left today with but a few of its living representatives.

The pioneer of today stands along the track of our civilization, like a weatherbeaten finger-board pointing backward to the days of the far-off years. They are among us like the echo of some grand old hymn with which we used to be familiar, but the notes of which became fainter and more indistinct, as we get farther away from the years in which it was sung.

In the nature of the case the time can be but a little way off when the last one of these heroic men and women will have gone out from us. Indeed, the pioneer proper - those who first felled the forests, and blazed our highway, and transformed the wilderness into fruitful fields, are nearly all gone. Here and there, there is one left, connecting the life of our pushing, cultured generation, with one whose mode of living and deeds of daring - when told to us - seem more like fiction than reality.

If it is beautiful to see childhood holding the wrinkled hand that used to lead it, and steadying the feeble steps that used to guide it, why should not we cherish and honor the memory of those to whose care and economy we owe all we now have.

In the history of our pioneers it is eminently true that these have labored and we have entered into their labors. Nowhere can it be more certainly verified "that one soweth and another reapeth." It is according to the plans of God, that the results of every life shall reach beyond the term of its continuance.

There is danger, even though we have inherited the wealth produced by their care and economy, that we forget or neglect to crown the pioneers with the

These annual meetings ought to have the dignity and inspiration of a public holiday in which the people unite to keep in perpetual remembrance the names and heroic deeds of those who so well laid the foundations of our civilization.

But few of the brave men and noble women of the pioneer days remain among us. The ring of the woodman's ax echoes no more through the aisles of the forest, and the lurid glare of blazing windows no more light up the nightsky, "for the former things have passed away." The log cabins - those most hospitable homes ever builded anywhere, by hands - have yielded to decay, and are superseded by cottages of beauty and homes of wealth. Here and there the old log-house has been spared by the hands that built it, as God has spared the few hardy pioneers who remain among us.

The men of today may be better educated for business and our women may be deemed more refined, as society estimates culture; but we shall never have a class of men of more stalwart integrity, nor a womanhood whose characters will shine with greater luster. It is to honor these heroes of the past, whose harvests of good we are now reaping, that we annually gather to repeat the story of their toils and triumphs, and to keep green the memories of those who have passed from labor to repose.

We began life with the accumulated advantages secured to us by their sacrifices and economy, and the record of our achievements ought to be more brilliant than theirs. While personal virtue cannot be received among the values we inherit from our ancestors, the tendencies to integrity may be builded into the very foundation of our being.

We are standing today in the twilight of receding physical and social conditions, and in the gloaming of a generation of which we may justly be proud to be its descendants. If the histories of the noble pioneers may not be found in our

Hunting In Pioneer Times

Hunting was an important part of the employment of the early settlers. For some years the woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence, and it was no uncommon thing for families to live several months without a mouthful of bread.

It frequently happened that there was no breakfast till it was obtained from the woods. Fur constituted the people's money ; they had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt and iron, on the other side of the mountains.

The fall and early part of the winter was the season for hunting the deer, and the whole of the winter, including part of the spring, for bears and furskinned animals. It was a customary saying, that fur was good during every month in which the letter "B" occurs.

As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy, accompanied with light snows, these men after acting the part of husbandmen as far as the state of warfare permitted, began to feel that they were now hunters and became uneasy at home, their minds being wholly occupied with the camp and chase.

Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game, in which there was nothing of skill and calculation; on the contrary, the hunter before he set out in the morning, was informed by the state of the weather where he might reasonably expect to find game, whether on the bottoms, the sides or the tops of the hills.

In stormy weather the deer always sought the most sheltered places, and the leeward side of the hills. In rainy weather, when there is not much wind, they kept in the open woods on high ground. In every situation it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so as to get the leeward of the game. As it was necessary, too, to know the cardinal points, he had to observe the trees to know them.

The bark of an aged tree is thicker and much rougher on the north than on the south side; and the same may be said of the moss. From morning till night the hunter was on the alert to gain the wind of his game, and approach him without being discovered.

If he succeeded in killing a deer he skinned it and hung it up out of the reach of the wolves, and immediately resumed the chase till the close of the evening, when he bent his course towards his camp; when arrived there he kindled up his fire, and together with his fellow hunter, cooked his supper. A place for a camp was selected as near water as convenient, and a fire was kindled by the side of the largest log that could be procured. The ground was preferred to be rather sideling that the hunters might lie with the feet to the fire, and the head up hill.

The common mode of preparing a repast was by sharpening a stick at both ends, and sticking one end in the ground before the fire and the meat on the other end. This stick could be turned round, or the meat on it, as occasion required. Sweeter roast meat than was prepared in this manner no European epicure ever tasted. Bread, when they had flour to make it of, was either baked under the ashes, or the dough rolled in long rolls, and wound round a stick like that prepared for roasting meat, and managed in this way. Scarce any one who has not tried it, can imagine the sweetness of such a meal, in such a place, at such a time. French mustard, or the various condiments used as a substitute for an appetite, are nothing to it.

Supper finished, the adventures of the day furnished tales for the evening, in which the spike-buck, the two and three pronged buck, and the doe, figured to great advantage.

One important pastime of the boys - that of imitating the noise of every bird and beast in the wood - was a necessary part of the education on account of its utility under certain circumstances.

Originally Huron county embraced all of the Firelands of five hundred thousand acres of land and was organized by an act of the general assembly of the state of Ohio, passed February 7, 1809. The county included all of what is now Erie county except the territory taken from Sandusky county when Erie county was formed. The act of the general assembly of the state of Ohio by which the formation of Erie county was authorized was passed March 16, 1838, twenty-nine years following the passage of the act authorizing the formation of Huron county.

The first county seat of Huron county as first organized was Avery, selected by a committee appointed by the legislature on the farm of David Abbott near Milan now within the territory of Erie county.

The location of the county seat was not satisfactory to many of the settlers and an effort to have it removed to some other place was made and the legislature was induced on the 26th day of January, 1818, to appoint a committee to investigate the matter and locate the seat of justice at some other place if in their opinion it was best to change.

The infant village of Norwalk, scarcely two years old, was the place selected by this committee and the county seat was removed to this place. The county in 1811 had its boundaries changed and took in a large part of what is now Lorain county. Ruggles township belonged to the county until it was transferred to Ashland county February 26, 1846, the time when that county was formed, so that after having had slices taken from all its boundaries it now contains only three hundred three thousand, nine hundred and five acres of land instead of five hundred thousand acres and more, if we include the territory transferred to Lorain county, which it had originally.

It is bounded on the north by Erie county, on the east by Lorain and Ashland, on the south by Ashland, Richland and Crawford and on the west by Seneca and Sandusky counties. It has nineteen townships, as follows: Wakeman, Clarksfield, New London, Townsend, Hartland, Fitchville, Greenwich, Norwa!k, Bronson, Fairfield, Ripley, Ridgefield, Peru, Greenfield, New Haven, Lyme, Sherman, Norwich and Richmond.

As the county is now constructed it seems strange that Norwalk, the county seat, should be located so near to the northern boundary. It must be remembered that when the county seat was located at Norwalk, Erie county was then a part of Huron county, and when the division was made the northern boundary came very close to Norwalk. For many years the settlers in the southern and central parts of the county had hopes that the county seat would some day be removed to North Fairfield. And when the Clinton Air Line Railway was in course of construction, bright visions of a magnificent courthouse sprang up before them. But when the railroad project failed their cherished hopes were blasted and their spirits died within them. North Fairfield now has a trolley line and the people are measurably happy.

Settlements were made in some of the townships as earlv as 1810, but it was from that time until 1825 before settlements were made in all of the townships, Ripley and Richmond being the last on the list. Greenwich township was settled in 1817.

The first authentic census of the county I have been able to find was taken by townships in 1827 and shows the county at that time to have a population of nine thousand, one hundred and ten as against a population of thirty-two thousand, three hundred and thirty in 1900.

Picturesque Clark

A large majority of the early settlers of Huron county like those of other parts of the Western Reserve were of Connecticut birth. This gave a fixed character to the inhabitants. The old stock has given way to younger generations, but the same traits of character remain unchanged to any great extent. It is therefore not strange that many of the people of the county today are so nearly like, in many ways, the people of the Wooden Nutmeg State.

The early settlers of Huron county were a good people; generally speaking I believe they were Christians, yet they indulged in habits that didn't unchristianize them then, but would do so now. I refer to the use of strong drink. Everybody drank then. Even preachers imbibed and nothing was thought of it. But if a preacher used it as a beverage now he would lose his ministerial standing and pastorate as soon as the fact was known. I am speaking of Huron county. Whiskey was regarded as one of the necessary adjuncts of a log-rolling or a houseraising. No one dared for several years to undertake either without having the weil filled jug in evidence. But the time came when the Yankee settler was convinced that the use of whiskey, even on these occasions, was evil and only evil and determined to put it away. But he thought of his slashing covered with logs ready to be put into heaps to burn, and his log barn which he could not get along without, yet, true to his convictions, when the invitations to his log rolling or raising went out, he said whiskey." He was told that his logs would not be rolled nor his building raised but they were, possibly with less help, but we venture with more safety. So the time honored custom was gradually wiped out and today the whiskey jug is not a drawing card, especially to the rural people of our county.

It is difficult for us to understand the trials and hardships that the pioneers of this county had to undergo in a journey from the east to this place. Mo public ccnveyances, no railroads, and even the stage coach was only thought of as a future possibility. The journey then required weeks and sometimes months, and was supposed to be full of danger from start to finish, and the danger was not over when here for the country was infested with wild animals while roving bands of Indians were a menace to the lives of the early settlers. In view of these facts we do not wonder that the "good-byes" were often pathetic in the extreme.

A lady and her husband emigrated to Huron county in 1829 and settled in Ripley township where they builded for themselves a home which they occupied until called to the one not made with hands. I have a letter in my possession bearing date of November 26, 1829, written by this lady to her friends in the east, after she was settled in her little log cabin in her Huron county home. In this she recounts the sad partings from her friends, the trials and perils of her journey and the hardships attendant on the beginning in those days of a home in the woods. Seventy-five years later a granddaughter of this lady went 'round the world with less misgivings and forebodings on the part of herself and friends.

The Indians frequently committed depredations and the lives of the settlers that came within their power were not always safe. A true incident which occurred in another part of the county illustrates what I mean. The story is of a woman, and I have it from her own lips, who was alone in her cabin one bright day and while seated at her little wheel spinning an Indian came in at the open door and stepping to her side with raised tomahawk, said in his broken English, *Me tomahawk you." 'The lady made no outcry and her wheel kept running, but the

Indian who regarded the situation as one of bravery on the part of the woman said, "brave woman, me no tomahawk you." The Indian left the cabin and the woman was unharmed save a bad scare. The settlers most of all feared the wild animals and the Indians, now the fear of the country people is about equally divided between the lightning rod agent and all other members of that family, the trolley car and the automobile.

The spinning wheel was a necessity and used in every household, but now if in the house at all it is stowed away in the garret out of sight or in the parlor as an ornament, according to the taste of the owner.

The tood of the settler was of the plainest kind, consisting chiefly of mush and milk, Johnny cake or bread of coarsely ground flour or meal. Venison was common and a little later on shack fatted pork was not hard to obtain. In the course of time more dainty dishes were in evidence, especially for company. The following incident occurred about this time, if it ever did occur:

A young man called unexpectedly on his best girl. The evening family meal was about ready, but now that they had company something better must be prepared, so the mush and milk were set aside. When supper was called the young man was asked to say grace and this is what he said: "The Lord be praised how I'm amazed to see how things have mended ; short-cake and tea for supper I see, where mush and milk were intended."

Dogs did not figure in the early history of the county for then they were not taxed, so we have no means of knowing how many there were, but according to the auditor's late report there are now one thousand, one hundred and ten. It is fair to presume, however, that some got away just before the assessor made his rounds.

Then there were no railroads, now there one hundred and sixty miles of main track and ninety-eight miles of siding, making a total of two hundred and fifty-eight miles, with a valuation of two million, four hundred and ninety thousand dollars, which brings a revenue to the county by way of taxes of fifty-two thousand, two hundred and four dollars.