Marietta, Ohio - Moral And Material Advancement (part 4 of 5)

The trip was made overland. Four of the party - Messrs. Hulet, Drown, Clark and Cutler - died of cholera on the way. On reaching California, representatives from almost every nation were found. They lived without law, in perfect peace and security for a time, but gamblers, roughs and robbers eventually came in, and a dangerous state of affairs followed.

Captain Caius Marcus Cole

The earliest account we have of the Cole family of which the subject of this sketch is a representative, shows that in the past century three brothers, Englishmen, settled on Long Island. They were attacked by Indians and fled to save their lives, one of them being killed by the pursuing savages. The two who were spared did not return to the dangerous locality they had originally chosen for a home, but settled in New York State upon the Hudson river. John Cole was the son of one of these brothers. His son Asa was the father of Sardis, who was the father of Captain Cole of Harmar. Sardis Cole was born upon the Hoosac river, January 26,1795. In 1799 his parents emigrated to the western frontier and locating at Wheeling, Virginia, were for two years or thereabouts residents of the historical old block-house at that place. The father, Asa, was during this period engaged in packing salt from the Atlantic seaboard over the mountains to Wheeling for Zane, the founder of the settlement. In the spring of 1801 the family became settlers on Indian Wheeling creek within the present limits of Belmont county, Ohio, and in 1806 they removed to Warren township, Washington county, where the father pursued the avocations of farming and keel-boating for a number of years. He finally returned to Belmont county, where he died. John Cole, the father of Asa, also settled in Warren township in 1806, and kept the tavern at the roadside on the river bank known as "the Half Way house," because about equidistant from Marietta and Belpre. Here he entertained the wayfarer and the stranger, and as was the universal custom in his time set forth the "gigger" of whiskey to his guests, until he passed away at the ripe age of ninetyfive years, about 1817. His grandson, the young Sardis Cole, who was eleven years of age when the family came into Washington county, upon coming of sufficient age to care for himself, entered the then very common, popular and then lucrative occupation of keel-boating. He made trips up the Ohio to Pittsburgh and as far down generally as Cincinnati, and also engaged in the navigation of the Big Kanawha, plying between the salt works on that stream and the best markets on the Ohio. He finally located on the Kanawha, engaged in salt manufacture, and remained there until 1827 having a full experience of that peculiar phase of pioneer life. On leaving the Kanawha salt works Mr. Cole located at Briscoe run in Wood county, Virginia, five miles below Marietta, a locality settled principally by Germans and a place of considerable note on the river, though seemingly without cause. Briscoe Run post office was established in 1838 and Mr. Cole was commissioned as the first postmaster, and held the office as long as he lived. By occupation he was a cooper, but he combined with his trade several other kinds of employment such as there was need for in the little community where he dwelt. He is described as a very clever, social man, and one who, despite the rough surroundings amid which his early life was passed as a keel-boatman and a resident of the isolated salt-making colony on the Kanawha, he was not only noted for his strict integrity but for a correctness of deportment and a freedom from the small vices and careless habits of life which it might naturally be supposed he would possess. He died in the spring of 1871, having passed through the alloted three score years and ten, loved and respected by all who knew him. Sardis Cole married, in 1817, Mary Uhl, of Briscoe Run, who died at the age of sixty-one years, in 1858.

They resided fora few years after their marriage in Warren township, Washington county, in the immediate neighborhood of Judge Ephraim Cutler's homestead, and it was there that their second child, the subject of this sketch, was born, January 6, 1821. A sister, older, Jane Ann (Webb) and a brother younger, Arius Nye, are now living at Briscoe Run. Caius Marcus Cole was in his seventh year when his parents removed to the little village which was to be their permanent home. When he was about eleven years old his father began the business of keeping a wood yard for the steamers plying up and down the river. He made some money at this business and invested most of it in land, the sterile, rough, rocky bank along the Ohio, valuable for little else than its stone and the timber it bore. The business of wooding steamers increased, and Briscoe Run became a favorite station among the river men. Before the subject of our sketch was twenty-one his father had practically turned over his business to him, and its prosperity was not abated under his management. He had become well acquainted with nearly all of the captains or pilots on the river, and was inuch liked by them. He slipped off occasionally upon boating trips "learned the river" easily, and at thirty years of age was a skilful pilot, (though he was never licensed to act regularly in that capacity until 1862.) It was natural that he should have a fondness for the water, and that he should take to it to gain a livelihood, for many of the Cole family before him had been watermen. Nevertheless, his whole attention was not given to river navigation. He became a jobber, and for years did a large business in furnishing, from his own land at Briscoe Run, building stone, to be used in Parkersburgh and Marietta. Among other extensive works, he built the fine landing at Marietta. Stone quarrying and boating were alternately or jointly his occupations. Since 1866 he has been a government contractor, and during a period of fourteen years has completed twenty-five contracts, of from five to twentyfive thousand dollars each, and he has now on hand two contracts on the Ohio, which amount to one hundred thousand dollars. 'The scene of the work is eighteen miles above the mouth of the river. Large dykes are there being constructed for the improvement of what is known to river men as the " grand chain," by turning the current from some very dangerous rocks to the smooth side of the bed. These dykes are to be each three thousand feet in length, and eight feet above low water. Mr. Cole's contracts have been both for construction and improvement of navigation through the removal of obstructions, such as snags, wrecks and rocks.. This work, whether of one kind or the other, has always been done thoroughly, conscientiously, and to the complete satisfaction of the Government, and has made him an enviable reputation asa contractor. While the promptness and reliability which characterize the captain in his business affairs, have won for him the confidence of the government officials on the one hand, and the sub-contractors, farnishers of material and employes, upon the other, his strict probity of character has made him universally respected by those who know him simply as the man. He has been uncompromising in his devotion to principle, even when, by violating the rigid dictates of conscience, he might very largely have advanced his own monetary interests. As an example of his strictness in this respect, we may state that he does not believe it right to do any work upon Sunday, and when that day comes his boats and men must lie still. Even should he be journeying down the river to engage in the prosecution of some large and important work, the boat must be tied up at the shore before the last hours of Saturday night are gone, and the line not loosed until Monday morning. As it would be impossible to carry out so literal and rigid a Sunday law in the passenger traffic, the captain has always refused to enter into that branch of business, and for the same reason would not become the owner of the Marietta and Williamstown ferry. Something of the same inflexibility of principle is shown in his attitude upon temperance. He is himself a total abstinence man, and he will not employ men who are addicted to the drink habit, even though their indulgence might be only what would ordinarily be termed moderate drinking. It is probable that the influence of his example and counsel has done much good upon the river in this matter. Captain Cole became in early years a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. For the past eight years he has resided in Harmar, and during the greater portion of that term has been connected with the First Congregational church, of which he is now a deacon.

Captain Cole had the misfortune of losing his life companion and helpmeet upon the twelfth of November, 1880. She was a lady of most rare and estimable qualities, and her death was a sad loss to her husband and children. Her maiden name was Nancy Scott, and she was the daughter of John and Nancy Scott, who came from the vicinity of Wheeling, West Virginia, to Warren township, Washington county, in 1839. She was born on the eleventh of December, 1815, and was consequently nearly sixty-five years of age when she died. Her marriage to Captain Cole took place in 1842. Eight children blessed their union. Nancy, the eldest, born November 20, 1842, married Leonard H. Robbins, and is now living in Lincoln, Nebraska; John Sardis, born December 31, 1843, was one of the many thousands of his generation who fell as victims to the civil war. He enlisted in the eleventh regiment, Virginia infantry, and was killed March 30, 1865, at Fort Baldwin ~ on Hatchers run, re-named by the Federals Fort Harris, and his remains lie in the soldier's burying-ground at Petersburgh; the third child and second son, C. Mark, born January 2, 1846, lives in Warren township; Mary Ann, born November 6, 1847, married Thomas Tyrrell, and now resides in Nebraska; James Franklin, born June 16, 1849, and Amanda Jane, born December 27, 1850, are in Harmar; Horace Dryden, born May 4, 1853, is aresident of Lincoln, Nebraska; and Charles Arthur, born December 20, 1857, is a citizen of Harmar.

About the middle of the seventeenth century Stephen Hart emigrated with his family from Scotland, and settled on the Connecticut river. At the place of their settlement there was a ford in the river, which became known as Hart's ford. The land which Mr. Hart owned and on which he settled, is now occupied by the flourishing capital city of Connecticut - Hartford.

Joel Hart, a descendant of Stephen Hart, lived in Hartford county. He married Lydia North, of Berlin, Connecticut, by whom he had four children, a short time, and then engaged in fruit raising in Illinois and Florida; Lidia married Carlyle Olmstead; Mary married Salmon Baldwin; both settled in Oswego county, New York; Lidia is dead.

Seth, the second son, was born in Berlin, Hartford county, Connecticut, November 13, 1804. When he was two years old his father moved with the family to Delaware county, New York, at that time a new county, so that his youth was spent amid the experiences of pioneer life. Joel Hart died October 17, 1811, and Seth spent the next four years of his life at the home of his grandfather, Jedidiah North, in Connecticut, where he enjoyed school privileges. At the age of twelve he returned to Delaware county, New York, where he was placed under the instruction of a tutor and received a liberal education. He remained in New York, teaching school, studying medicine, and clerking in a drug store, until 1824, when he came to New Philadelphia, Ohio, and taught school during the winter of 1824-5.

Mr. Hart, in 1824, received a diploma certifying that he had read medicine three years and qualifying him to enter the practice, and in 1858 he received an honorary degree from an Eclectic college in New York. He came to Washington county in the spring of 1825, and on the ninth of April of that year opened an office in Watertown. He remained in practice until September 27th, when he returned to New York and attended a course of lectures at Fairfield.

He married, February 19, 1826, Vestie Curtis, daughter of Dr. Bildad Curtis, of Delaware county, in whose office Mr. Hart had read medicine. Dr. Curtis was one of the leading physicians in Delaware county, and after coming to Watertown in 1827, he had a full practice until his death. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, October 31, 1775.

Mrs. Hart died in Watertown, March 22, 1827, leaving one child, Vestie Curtis, born December 1, 1826. She was married to F. H. Kemper, and lived in Cincinnati, where she died September 29, 1879, leaving one son and four daughters.

Dr. Hart married for his second wife, June 7, 1729, Mary Wilson, daughter of Deacon David Wilson, of Round Bottom, Waterford township. She was born in Waterford, July 18, 1798. She left eight children to mourn her death, which occurred June 14, 1863. Samuel, the oldest, was born June 7, 1830. He graduated at Cincinnati Medical college, and has since been in active practice. During the war he was surgeon for the Seventy-seventh regiment, and afterwards, army physician.

Romeyn Beck was born November 30, 1833. November 11, 1856, he married Martha E. Metcalf, who was born September 22, 1834. He lives in Harmar. Henry L. and Samuel Munson were born October 11, 1835. Henry married Lucy Wolcott Deming, and resides in Warren township. Samuel Munson married October 16, 1878, Mary Roan. He isa practicing dentist in Marietta.

David Wilson was born November 26, 1838, He married Mariam Cox December 23, 1865, and resides in Denver, Colorado. Lydia North, the youngest child, was born August 30, 1840. She has for many years been a successful teacher in the public schools of Harmar.

Dr. Hart married for his third wife Ella Lula Hiett October 22, 1863. She was the daughter of James Hiett, of West Virginia, and was born December 28, 1842. She died February 16, 1865.

Dr. Hart married November 16, 1870, Elizabeth D. Marshall, daughter of Gideon Marshall of Morgan county. She was born September 30, 1830. They have one child, Minnie HaHa Grace, born November 8, 1872.

Dr. Hart practiced in Watertown from the spring of 1825 until 1836, excepting the time he was absent, attending lectures in New York. Since 1836 his office has been located in Harmar, with but two breaks. In 1865 he was called to Tennessee to assist his son at the army hospital at Telahoma. After the close of the war he remained two years. In 1869 he took charge of a mining enterprise in the Rocky Mountains and remained one year.

Dr. Hart, ever since'entering the practice in 1825, has made a habit of keeping and preparing his own medicines. His first experience in compounding medicines was at a drug store at Palmyra, New York. Since then a long and busy life of practice has given him an intimate acquaintance with drugs and their use.

During the period of his practice in this county - more than fifty years - Dr. Hart has always maintained the highest reputation for efficiency as a doctor and integrity asa man. He isa man of vigorous physique and well preserved faculties. His life has been useful not only to himself and family but also to the community which he has served for half a century. His visits have been an inspiration to thousands of families in the hour of pain and distress, and his life has been an example of industry and uprightness. He joined the Presbyterian church at the age of sixteen. When he came to Harmar, he united with the Congregational church, where he still holds his membership.

Captain Hiram Burch

Hiram Burch, of Marietta, one of the best known of Ohio river men, was born October 13, 1796, near Newtown, Connecticut, and is a son of William and Grace (Northrup) Burch. His father was in early life a seafaring man. In the year 1804 the family moved to Pittsburgh, and the father engaged in keel-boating. As soon as he was old enough young Hiram also adopted this avocation, and served as a keel-boat pilot before he had fairly entered his teens. In 1809 or 1810, his sister haying married and located at Belpre, the lad removed to that place and it became his home, so far as one following the river for a living can be said to havea home. He served six months in the War of 1812, entering the ranks as a substitute. Although only sixteen years of age he was well grown, and his active life had made him muscular and hardy. As early as the year 1814 the young man engaged in the business of making brick, which he followed for many years in Belpre, when not engaged upon the river. He was successively pilot, captain, and owner, and for many years combined the two latter functions. As a pilot he "learned the river" easily, and was regarded as one of the very best upon the western waters. In his later years, when he owned, either alone or in company with others, several steamboats, he made a great deal of money, but met with some reverses. In one case he lost a fine steamer outright, by the carelessness of employes during his absence. But the most remarkable of Captain Burch's misfortunes were those which occurred to him in person - accidents with which he met upon the river. He was four times blown up, yet, strange to say, except in the latest instance, his most serious inconvenience was the mere loss of situations by the destruction or disablement of the boats oa which he was employed. 'The first experience that Captain Burch had in steamboat explosions was in June, 1816, when the Washington exploded her boiler at Marietta. Although this was a serious accident, and one in which several persons lost their lives, while others were injured, Captain Burch escaped unhurt. In 1817, however, he was slightly injured by the explosion of the Lawrence at Sugar Creek bend, below Cincinnati. The third miraculous escape was in 1819. Captain Burch was coming from St. Louis on the Kanawha, as pilot. Henry Fearing, of Harmar, was a passenger. When the boat was near the Guyandotte riffles her boiler exploded, and Captain Burch, who was upon the deck, immediately over it, was thrown a distance of nearly a hundred feet. He fell in the water and sustained no injury. In fact, he was able to assist a wounded man to the shore, and so save his life. In 1857, when the Harry Dean was blown up at Gallipolis, Captain Burch did not escape so luckily as he had in these former instances. He was frightfully injured, but his tough constitution, good medical attendance, and a very favorable condition of the weather, combined to restore him. The captain is a man of unusual strength and hardiness, and now, at the age of eighty-five years, retains his mental faculties and physical health in a very remarkable degree. He has led a retired life since 1857, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Iams.

Captain Burch was married February 18, 1821, to Nancy Whitney (daughter of Josiah Whitney), who was born in one of the old block-houses at Belpre, in 1798. She died December 7, 1855. Four children were the offspring of this marriage, viz: Lucy Amanda; Mary Whitney (Mrs. R. P. Iams, of Marietta); Ellen Elosha, who married Henry Deming, of Watertown; and Sarah Frances, who married Robert A. Garrison, and lived at Ashland, Kentucky. Mrs. Iams is the only one now living.

Martin Dewey Follett

been prominent actors in the colonial movements and in the war of the Revolution. Captain John F. Follett removed from Vermont and settled in Licking county, Ohio, with his entire family, consisting of his wife and nine children. Of the six sons three are now engaged in the practice. of law in Ohio; one of them, Judge Charles Follett, of Newark; another, Hon. John F. Follett, of Cincinnati; and the third, the subject of this sketch. Another son is Dr. Alfred Follett, of Granville, Ohio; and the others, George and Austin W. Follett, wool merchants in New York city. ;

Martin was but nine years of age when the family settled on an uncleared farm in a log cabin, where they lived until, by the labor of father and sons, a hundred acres had been cleared, a barn built, and a frame house, into which they removed. During this time he attended school or taught during the winters until he was twentyone years of age. After this, having determined to sesure a liberal education, he prepared for college, supporting himself meanwhile by his own labor, and in 1853 graduated at Marietta college, with the highest honors of his class. To defray expenses incurred in his course he engaged in teaching and taught in the public schools of Marietta, in Newark high school, and as tutor in Marietta college for one year, and was superintendent of the public schools of Marietta for two years, at the same time reading law.

He married in 1856 Miss Harriet L. Shipman, an old resident of Washington county. In 1875 he again married Abbie M. Bailey, of Lowell, Massachusetts. He has but two children living - both boys.

Mr. Follett was admitted to practice law at Marietta in the fall of 1858, and afterwards to the United States courts at Cincinnati. During his residence in Marietta, since 1851 (with the exception of one year in Newark), he has taken a deep interest in education in the city and county, holding for many years the position of president of the Washington County Teachers' association, and being for twelve years a member of the board of education of Marietta city.

Mr. Follett has been a member either of the Presbyterian or Congregational church since he was seventeen years of age, and is at present a member of the First Religious society (Congregational church) of Marietta, and a deacon of that body. He has served as Sabbathschool superintendent for the past three years, and occupied the same position in 1857, 1858, and 1859.

In 1879. Mr. Follett was sent by Governor Bishop as delegate from Ohio to the National conference of charties, which met in Chicago, and in 1880 was sent by Governor Foster as delegate to the same body, which met at Cleveland; and at present he is counselor for Ohio of the National association for the protection of the insane and the prevention of insanity.

Mr. Follett represented this congressional district in the National Democratic convention of 1864, at Chicago, that nominated General George B. McClellan, for president. He was a candidate for Congress in 1866 and

He continues in the practice of his profession in Marietta, with his elder son, A. Dewey Follett, as partner, and occupies the residence built by Governor Return Jonathan Meigs, which is pleasantly situated on.the banks of the Muskingum river.

Rev. Dr. John Boyd

rector of the First Episcopal church of Marietta, is the son of John and Sarah (Pierce) Boyd, who emigrated from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in 1797. He located at first in Franklinton on the Scioto, opposite the site of the city of Columbus, but removed from there to Hillsborough, Highland county, two or three years later, and was the first physician in that place.. The subject of our sketch was born in Hillsborough, December 6, 1823.

His youth was spent in his native town and in Gambier, Ohio. He finished his literary course at Kenyon college in 1844, and his health being poor, gave up for a time, intellectual work. As soon, however, as his condition had so improved as to make study possible, he went back and took a theological course, graduating from the seminary in 1850. On the fourth of August of that year, he was ordained at Mount Vernon, Ohio, by the Right Reverend Bishop Mcllvaine, and in the same summer he came to Marietta and began his labors with the church which still commands his services. His pastorate, which has extended through a period of thirtyone years, has been rich in rewards, and the church has prospered greatly under his charge. It was a young organization at the time Dr. Boyd became its rector, and small in membership. Now it is one of the most vigorous societies in the State. The length of Dr. Boyd's pastorate and the devotion of his energies to the church are remarkable. About 1870 he had a call to Trinity church of Columbus, which in all probability, had he been governed by personal ambition alone, he would have accepted. He refused the offer because, after careful deliberation, he felt satisfied that the field of his best influence was in Marietta, and with the church which at that time he had been ministering to for twenty years.

In the year 1845, Dr. Boyd was married to Eliza Sharpe, of Highland county, who is still living. They have had six children, four of whom are living.

Rev. Dr. William Addy

the pastor of the Fourth Street Presbyterian church, of Marietta, was born in Montreal, Canada, August 11, 1836. He was a graduate from Union college, Schenectady, New York, in 1857, and from Union theological seminary, New York city, in 1861. He served his first pastorate at Windham, New York; removed to Franklin, in the same State, in 1866, and tu Marietta in 18609. Most of the growth of the Fourth Street Presbyterian church has been made during the twelve years of Mr.

able proportions. Mr. Addy has been, since 1879, a trustee of Marietta college. He was married December 25, 1866, to Mrs. Frances A. Barnes, of Franklin, New York.

Rev. Dr. T. H. Hawks

Dr. Hawks, pastor of the First Religious society (Congregational church) of Marietta, is a native of Charlemont, Massachusetts. He graduated from Williams' college in 1844, and from the Union theological seminary, in New York city,in 1851. His first pastoral charge was the Congregational church of West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he went immediately after graduating from the seminary. He was afterward located in Cleveland, Ohio, and since 1869 has been in Marietta, serving effectively his present society.

Major Jewett Palmer

Jewett Palmer, third child of John Pemberton and Abigail Jewett Palmer, and father of the subject of our sketch, was born at Oxford, New Hainnshire, May 18, 1797. He enlisted at the age of sixteen, and served two years in the War of 1812. In 1818 he came to Ohio with his father's femily, and with it settled in Fearing township, Washington county. Here, on the thirteenth day of March, 1822, he married Rachel Campbell, by whom he had eight children, each of whom lived to rear a family.

Jewett Palmer, youngest child of Jewett and Rachel (Campbell) Palmer, was born May 7, 1840, in Fearing township, Washington county. He is descended on the paternal side, from staunch old New England stock. The Palmers were among the early eimigrants to New England, the head of this branch of the family bemg found at Rowley, Massachusetts, soon after the settlement of that place, in 1639. His ancestry on the maternal side is Scotch. William Campbeil, his great grandfather, was born in Scotland, married there, emigrated to this country in 1766, and settled in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. His third chiid, William, was the father of Rachel Campbell, mother of our subject.

Jewett remained on the farm with his parents until his twentieth year, when he went to Chicot Pass, Louisiana, at which place he spent the winter of 1860-61, engaged in the lumbering business with a brother-in-law. During the winter political affairs grew more and more threatening, until, believing war to be inevitable, and desiring to be where he could cast in his lot with the defenders of the Union, he left, early in the spring of 1861, for Ohio. He arrived at his home in Salem, on the eleventh day of April. On the seventeenth, at Marietta, he enrolled himself as a recruit in Captain Frank Buell's company, afterwards company B, Eighteenth Ohio infantry, three months troops - this course seeming to afford the best opportunity of speedily getting into active service. At the expiration of its term of service, the regiment returned from the field the latter part of July, and disbanded at Marietta. On reaching home, he began recruiting a company for the Thirty-sixth Ohio infantry, then forming at Camp Putnam, Marietta, in which he was assisted by James Stanley, of Salem, a comrade in the three months service. On the twelfth of August they went into camp with a company of ninety-eight men, recruited in elevendays. At an election of officers held on the nineteenth, he was unanimously chosen captain of the company. The regiment left for the field, via Parkersburgh, on the twenty-ninth, to join Rosecrans' forces on the Gauley river, in West Virginia. From this time his history and that of his company were substantially that of the officers and men of the gallant regiment, whose subsequent reputation for efficiency and valor was second to none in the armies of the Union.

He was promoted to major, to date from May 9, 1864; was severely wounded in the left thigh at Kernstown, Virginia, July 24th. On his yeturn to the field, he lost a horse, shot under him while in temporary command of the regiment, moving to the front to repulse a recognizance, made in force by the enemy, at Cedar Creek. He participated in the famous battle of Cedar Creek on the nineteenth of October, - the last action in which the regiment took part. On the twenty-ninth of November he resigned his commission, and returned home.

In 1865 he was elected on the Republican ticket, clerk of the courts of Washington county, and was reelected in 1868. Declining a third nomination, he retired from the office at the ciose of his second term.

During his second teri as clerk, he entered upon the study of the law with Messrs. Ewart, Gear & Ewart, and in April, 1872, was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of the law at Marietta. In April, 1874, he was elected mayor of the city, and was reelected in 1876. Fie was chairman of the Republican central committee of Washington county during the years 1875-6, was one of the delegates from the fifteenth district of Ohio, to the National Republican convention, held in Cincinnati in May, 1876, and was one of Ohio's ''Fortyfour for Hayes," who stood by the governor, until he received the nomination. In November, 1877, he resigned the office of mayor, to accept the position of collector of internal revenue for the fifteenth district of Ohio, tendered him by President Hayes, which position he still holds.

General B. D. Fearing

Benjamin Dana Fearing, the youngest son of Henry Fearing, esq., and Eliza Dana Fearing, was born at Harmar, Ohio, October 10, 1837. He is the grandson of Hon. Paul Fearing and Benjamin Dana, who was the son of John Winchester Dana and Hannah Pope Dana, the daughter of General Israel Putnam, and through his mother a lineal descendant of the fourth generation from General Israel Putnam. His early life was spent in his native place. He graduated at Marietta college in 1856, at the age of nineteen. During the five years following his graduation he was in business, first at Cincinnati and afterwards at Philadelphia. While on a visit to Cincinnati in the spring of 1861, news came of the firing upon Fort Sumter - then the call of the President for troops. There was a meeting of the citizens at the old stone church on Walnut Hills, to organize. He was at the meeting, and among the first to offer himself in response to the call of the President. The next day he selected from the companies being formed the one which he thought would soonest be ready, and telegraphed his father, ''Have joined the Zouave guards. Leave for Columbus on eighteenth, at 6 a. mM." The next day, the nineteenth of April, found him speeding away as fast as the iron horse could carry him to the fore-front of the battle. It seems a singular coincidence that 'twas on the same day of the same month, eighty-seven years before, that his ancestor, General Putnam, "left his plow in the furrow" and hurried off on flying hoof to Concord to repel the British and enter upon the war of the Revolution. Upon the organization of regiments at Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania, the Zouave guards became company D of the Second Ohio volunteer infantry. With this regiment they went to Washington, and thence into Virginia, under General Schenck. Here they remained, doing service until their term of enlistment had expired. They were then entitled to their discharge, but as a battle seemed impending they, by a unanimous vote, resolved to remain and share in it. On the day of the battle of Manasses they were detailed as skirmishers. At 4 o'clock a. mM. they had brisk work with the enemy's cavalry, driving them over Cut run, and to the banks of Bull run where the line of battle was developed. In the subsequent events of the day, its wild and terrific experiences of battle, carnage, panic, rout and disaster they bore their full share.

During his three months service Fearing received his first promotion, being made forth corporal of his company. After the battle of Manasses the adjutancy of the Thirty-sixth Ohio was offered him by Hon. William P. Cutler, then member of Congress from his district. The offer was again pressed upon him at Columbus when being mustered out at Camp Chase, but was declined as he then expected to join the National guard regiment at Philadelphia.

He accompanied them into West Virginia, and there served in the double capacity of acting adjutant general to General Slemmer and as adjutant to Major Andrews, then in command of the Thirty-sixth, Here he remained for three months, devoting himself assiduously to the drill of officers and men, often spending eighteen hours a day in this service. The high standing this regiment subsequently attained was no doubt largely due to the drill and discipline learned in this their early campaign in West Virginia.

General Slemmer appreciating the value of his services, and recognizing his zeal and ability, recommended to the governor of Ohio, the appointment of Fearing to the colonelcy of the Thirty-sixth regiment. Major Andrews started for Columbus with the recommendation, but at the headquarters of General Rosecrans he was met by Captain George Cook of the Fourth regulars, who had already been appointed to the command of the regiment. Fearing continued acting as adjutant at Somerville with Colonel Cook until he received the appointment of maior of the Seventy-seventh regiment Ohio volunteer infantry. He reported at once to Colonel Heildbud at Camp Putnam, and entered upon the duties of his command.

Immediately after the organization of this regiment, although as yet without equipments of any kind, it was transferred to Camp Dennison. The regiment had been in this camp but a short time when orders came from General Grant at Fort Donelson to "move at once and report to General Sherman at Paducah, Kentucky," and at the same time the inquiry "How soon?" The superior officers being absent Major Fearing replied, "Zn an hour;" and so prompt were his movements that his regiment was the first of all the nine ordered from Ohio to arrive at Paducah. He went thence with the main army up the Tennessee river.

While General Sherman was conducting an expedition for the destruction of railroad bridges near Iuka, Mis- - sissippi, a heavy shower flooded Yellow creek so as to render his return impossible. Fearing reported the danger and asked permission to build a bridge of boats. This was done with so much expedition and skill as to secure the highest commendation of his commander, and General Sherman ever afterwards "entrusted him with a large share of the bridging operations over railroads, over streams and in the construction of corduroy-roads through the great swamp lands."

At the battle of Pittsburgh Landing Colonel Hildebrand being in command of a brigade and the lieutenant colonel absent, the command of the regiment devolved upon the major. The regiment was stationed at Shiloh church, its line being across the main Corinth road. This Sherman regarded as the most important point of his position. Of this Fearing was aware and realizing the necessity of maintaining his post he held it with unyielding tenacity. The repeated charges of the enemy in their desperate efforts to capture Taylor's battery A, of Chicago, he repulsed with great gallantry, and thus held the battery till orders came for its withdrawal. The general commanding commended the regiment for its brave and determined maintenance of the position at the church, and for its gallantry in defence of the battery.

The official report of the brigade commander says: "Major Benjamin D. Fearing, who commanded the Seventy-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, was cool and brave, and acquitted himself with as much skill as an old officer of larger experience, and was not excelled by any other field officer who came within my observation." officer of cool and accurate judgment, writes: "I think the conduct of Major Fearing at Shiloh the most creditable to him and valuable to the cause of anything in his long service. The Seventy-seventh regiment held the key point in Sherman's first line of battle, and maintained this position long enough to enable McClernand's and Hulburt's divisions to get into action, and Major Fearing by his reckless personal courage held the Seventyseventh regiment. The conduct of the, major and of the Seventy-seventh regiment in that hell of fire has never been appreciated."

The casualties of the regiment, amounting in total to one hundred and sixty-eight officers and men killed and wounded, tells the story of its fighting. In the disasters which befell the regiment on the next day, the major was in a subordinate position, Lieutenant Colonel DeHass being then in command.

While at Fort Pickering after the capture of Corinth and return of the regiment to Memphis, Major Fearing received the appointment of lieutenant colonel of the Ninety-second regiment then being organized at Camp Putnam, Ohio. The first service of this regiment was in the Kanawha valley, where it had a "stirring period of marching and fighting."

In January, 1863, he joined the Army of the Cumberland at Nashville. In March he was made colonel of the regiment, Colonel Van Vorhes being compelled by sickness to resign. At Murfreesborough he was assigned to the Fourteenth army corps under General George H. Thomas. On the twenty-fourth of June he went to the relief of Wilder at Hoover's Gap. On the night of the eighteenth of September he made the march to Chickamauga. His regiment formed a part of the famous "Turchin's brigade" and with it passed through the terrible fighting on the nineteenth and twentieth. In this battle he was severely wounded, a minnie ball passing through the front part of his right and thick part of his left thigh. On the following day the enemy captured the hospital to which the wounded had been removed, but Colonel Fearing and four of his officers were saved by the coolness of his colored servant who carried them to an ambulance and drew them through a continuous fire to a point within the protection of our lines.

As soon as the condition of his wounds would admit of partial duty he was detailed upon courts-martial at Cincinnati and Louisville. During his absence his regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Putnam, a soldier and officer of spirit kindred to his own, made its memorable record in the storming of Mission Ridge. He returned to his regiment at Ringgold, Georgia, in March 1864. In May he went south, and with Turchin's brigade "fought through that wondrous campaign, a hundred days continuous fighting." He was,in the "march to the sea." At Savannah, upon the recommendation of his corps commander, General J. C. Davis, he received a commission from President Lincoln as brigadier general by brevet, bearing date December 2, 1864, "for gallant and meritorious services during the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Savannah." He was assigned to the command of Colonel Daniel McCook's "fighting brigade," Second division Fourteenth army corps. At the battle of Bentonville when the enemy had broken the union left and centre, General Davis ordered General Fearing to move to the left and ''check the enemy's advance," if it "cost him his whole brigade." The charge was glorious. The check was made. The action was terrible. Fearing's horse was shot under him, and a minnie ball tore away the thumb, the fore-finger, and part of his right hand. Van Horne, in summing up the history of the battle, says: 'That the battle turned upon the action of the brigades of Mitchell, Vanderveer and Fearing, there can be no doubt. The two former did not give an inch of ground to the enemy, though thrown into single lines and compelled to fight in front and rear. The action of Fearing's brigade was not less important, as it disturbed and defeated General Johnston's combination to utilize for complete success his first advantage. General Fearing was brought in complete isolation for some time, without defences, and when his right flank was struck by the enemy with such force as to shatter it, he charged his front upon his left, rallied his shattered troops and held the ground essential to the stability of the new line. The latter dispositions and resistance by the whole command gave a symmetry and brilliancy to the conflict which have seldom found expression in such urgent improvision."

At the close of the war General Fearing was mustered out of the service at the age of twenty-seven years, having as a private taken part in the first, and as a commander of a brigade in the last, great battle of the war. He was offered the rank of major in the regular army, but declined. The battles in which he participated are memorable in the history of the war: - Manasses, the battles of West Virginia, Shiloh, Catlin Mountain, Iuka, Corinth, Carthage, Hoover's Gap, Tullahoma, Catlit's Gap, Lane's Church, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Buzzard's Roost, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Etowah, Altoona Pass, Pine Knob, Kenesaw, Nicojack, Peach Tree Creek, Chattahoochee, Utoy Creek, Rough and Ready, Jonesborough, Atlanta, Savannah, through the Carolinas, Averysborough and Bentonville.

The biographical encyclopedia of Ohio says of the General: "As a field officer he was ever ready night or day for active service; was quick to seize upon all the salient points of a position for defence, attack or picket; was admirally careful in the selection of good camping ground; attended personally to the instruction and comfort of his troops; knew the men of his regiment by name, and also their qualities; possessed the ability which organizes rapidly and effectually in the camp or during action; was strict in discipline and under all circumstances was extremely wary in his measures to avoid surprises, while incessantly devising new measures to ensure the Safety of his command; once engaged he never hesitated to expose it or himself, when extremities demanded a sacrifice."

For some years after the war, General Fearing was engaged in business in Cincinnati, but being compelled to withdraw from active labor, he returned to his old home in Harmar, where he now resides, devoting himself to literary pursuits, to his friends, and to caring for his health, still rendered precarious by the wounds of Chickamauga and Bentonville.

was born on a farm in Gustavus township, Trumbull county, Ohio, May 4,.1836. His immediate ancestry on both sides were of New England birth. The mother, born at Colebrook, Connecticut, June 13, 1815, was the only daughter of Luther and Chene (Waters) Simons - the former born January 26, 1794, also at Colebrook, and the latter at Granville, in that State, July 22, 1795.

In early and middle life Mr. Simons was a farmer and school-teacher. After his daughter's birth he came to the Western Reserve, in Ohio. Joshua R. Giddings married a sister to his wife, and the families were long in intimate acquaintance.

For more than twenty years before his death, in consequence of an injury to the spine, Mr. Simons was unable to walk. Such, however, was his intellectual force and activity that, while prostrate in bed and suffering from incurable disease, he so mastered the science of medicine as to rank high in knowledge and skill with educated physicians of his time and place.

On the father's side the line is traceable to John Sibley, who came from England in the Fleet A. D. 1629, settling in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a selectman of that town, and went to the general court at Boston. His son Joseph, born in 1655, settled at Sutton, Massachusetts. Joseph's son Benjamin, born September 19, 1703, went to Connecticut, dying at Ashford, November 2, 1789. His last will contains these words: "I recommend my soul to God who gave it, my body to the dust, to be buried with decent Christian burial, nothing doubting but soul and body will be united at the last day, by the Almighty power of God."

Benjamin's son, Ezekiel, married May 3,1753. From this union came a son, Ezekiel, born October 2, 1766. He went to the more fertile soil near Westfield, Massachusetts, where he reared a large family, the eldest of which, also named Ezekiel, was born August 27, 1789. Among the children of the latter was a son, Ezekiel, born at Westfield, Massachusetts, October 22, 1814. Not long after his birth the family removed to Genesee county, New York, and thence, about 1830, to Trumbull county, Ohio. There on the twenty-ninth of October, 1834, the younger Ezekiel married Phebe, the daughter, as stated above, of Luther and Chene Simons. The subject of th'- sketch was their first child.

In 1841, Ezekiel, jr., with his family, removed to Gallia county, Ohio, and in 1847 to Middleport, Meigs county. In 1855 he became a member of the Ohio conference, Methodist Episcopal church, with which body he is still connected, in active work.

time. At the age of 'thirteen he went to the trade of shoemaker. When sixteen, he got six months in a select school, earning enough in the shop, however, nights and mornings to pay for his tuition, board, and clothes. In 1856, another six months of school were added to those previously enjoyed. The winter following he taught hisonly term of school.

April 22, 1858, Mr. Sibley was married to Miss Esther Ann Ellis, eldest daughter of John R. and Elizabeth O. Ellis, of Racine, Meigs county, Ohio. From this union have come six children, three of whom are living - the oldest, William Giddings, graduating from Marietta college this year, 1881.

In the fall of 1858, Mr. Sibley, still working at his trade, began to spend his spare hours in the study of law. 'This continued until October, 1860, when he was elected clerk of the courts, for Meigs county, Ohio. During the canvas he was called upon to address a political club at Pomeroy. He spent the time in showing the position of the founders of the Government with respect to slavery, and especially as regards the doctrine that all men, regardless of race or color, are by nature equally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This principle, he claimed, affords the only justification for the Revolution, and of necessity, therefore, was declared by the "fathers," upon a clear ap-_ prehension of that fact., In this view, after referring to the almost absolute powers of the British parliament, and its assertion of the right to 'bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever," the address said:

From this determination of the highest power to which they could resort, there was no appeal by any established forms of law. They might question its justice, and vehemently denounce the wrongs of its enforcement, as did Pitt; they might reason and philosophise upon its obvious impolicy, as did Burke; and in the eloquent, indignant sarcasm of Barre, they might hold up the British government to the scorn and detestation of mankind, yet, asa question of mere legal and constitutional authority, with Lord Mansfield, they were compelled to admit its binding force upon them. Would it have answered the great end in view to assert - as Chief Justice Taney and Senator Douglas say they intended only to assert - the equal rights of white British subjects in America, with white British subjects in England? This, certainly, could avail them nothing, for the power which by existing law was the final arbiter, had declared against them. Their only hope therefore lay in resting their action upon some great principle, the assertion of which would justity them in rising above and resisting the long-established, lawful authority of the mother country. Our fathers saw and felt their peculiar situation. They appreciated the critical position in which they stood. Clearly comprehending the vast responsibilities resting upon them, conscious that every other resource had been tried only to meet with disheartening failure, were they not compelled to declare the natural right of every human being to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as the only doctrine upou which they could appeal to God. for support, in resistance to tyranny, and with which they could justify their action before the judgement-bar of human opinion.

Mr. Sibley entered upon the duties of his office as clerk February 12, 1861, continuing, however, the study of law. The opening events of the Rebellion came quickly on. He was often called upon to speak at Union meetings, and in gatherings to call for volunteers. In August, 1862, feeling unwilling longer to ask others to go without entering the service himself, he accepted a second lieutenant's commission, dated the twelfth of that month, and helped enlist a body of men, who became company B, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio volunteer infantry, going to camp at Marietta, Ohio. Mr. Sibley soon after resigned the office of clerk, and went with his regiment into West Virginia, as part of Major General R. H. Milroy's command. From November to April, 1863, Lieutenant Sibley, in the absence of the regimental adjutant, was detailed to act in his place. In the latter month, also, he was recommended by the officers of his regiment for provost marshal of the Fifteenth congressional district of Ohio, The matter coming to General Milroy's attention, he wrote a letter to the provost marshal general saying:

I have known Lieutenant Sibley for the last six months, while with his regiment in my command, and have observed that he is an able, energetic, and efficient officer - always prompt and attentive to duty - a true gentleman of high moral character, and excellent business talents and habits. He is just the man for provost marshal - who will deal promptly with deserters and other delinquents - and I should be pleased to see him get the position.

Mr. Sibley, with the regiment, was first under fire, at Moorfield, West Virginia, early in January, 1863. Most of the winter was spent at Romney, he doing the work of judge advocate in a court martial. In March the regiment moved to Winchester, Virginia. Here Mr. Sibley was appointed recorder of a military commission. While thus engaged he was prostrated with fever. Getting out for the first time, he was asking to be relieved from the commission, because of ill health, when the post was attacked by the advance of Lee's army, then on its way north. Too feeble to walk, he rode from the hospital to camp and joined his company. The regiment was not engaged until Monday, June 15th, when in retreat, three miles north of Winchester. In battle there, with part of his regiment, and about half of the command, he was made a prisoner of war. June 23rd, suffering still from sickness, Lieutenant Sibley entered the noted Libby prison, in Richmond, Virginia, where he remained until May 7, 1864, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia, and thence to Macon, Georgia, which place he reached May 17th. The last of July he went to Savannah, and on the thirteenth of September to Charleston, South Carolina, where, with other prisoners, he was placed under fire; that is, in the "shelled district" of the city, within range of the Union guns bombarding it. In this situation they remained until October 5th, when they were carried to Columbia, South Carolina, and located near the city in what became known as Camp Sorghum. December 10, 1864, in Charleston harbor, Lieutenant Sibley was exchanged. But his health was so broken by the semi-starvation and other hardships of his long imprisonment, that, in consequence of disability, he was honorably discharged, January 11, 1865. While a prisoner, Governor Brough had commissioned him first lieutenant.

April 14, 1865, Mr. Sibley was admitted to the bar at Pomeroy, Ohio. The next summer he did a few weeks' work as assistant assessor of internal revenue. This led to a position in the office of the district assessor at Marietta, Ohio, to which place Mr. Sibley removed in August, 1865. Atthe endof a year there, he began the practice of law, as one of the firm of Ewart, Shaw &

Sibley. In 1867 he was nominated by the Republicans of Washington county as their candidate for prosecuting attorney. The question of negro suffrage was in issue. While a prisoner in Libby, Mr. Sibley had led a protracted and exciting debate in favor of giving the ballot to the colored man, and he heartily entered this canvas for the same proposition. But on a close vote the county was lost, and he was defeated. During the fall he delivered a speech which, on request, was written out for publication. We extract a few passages. After referring to the riot and bloudshed in the south, since the war, he said:

During such a deplorable condition of things, Congress assembled in December, 1866. The great problem of the session was still that of reconstruction. After much deliberation they framed the present plan. It has two features; the first is temporary, the other permanent. For the time being the Nation protects its loyal sons from rebel outrage, by the strong armof military power. But in the nature of things this cannot bepermanent. Military government, except as a necessity limited by the occasion, is incompatible with the genius of our Constitution, and the spirit of our free institutions. Some other mode must therefore be devised, by which, in accordance with the fundamental principle of self-government, the spirit of rebellion might be broken, the duty of loyalty cherished, and patriots everywhere protected in all the rights of American citizens. By what means could these ends be accomplished? Only, I answer, by the great protective power of free institutions everywhere - the ballot. By rebel proscription, under Johnson's policy, the large majority of Union men in the rebellious States, were denied the elective franchise. And by this alone, traitors ruled in those States. Hence, the permanent feature of the present plan, by which the southern patriot, black as well as white, is armed with the mighty power of the ballot. Thus military power was rendered but temporarily necessary in the south, and thus negro suftrage wisely became the mode of reconstructing the rebellious States upon a loyal basis, in the strictest accordance with the American idea of self-government.

I do not hesitate to declare warmly in favor of striking the word white from our State constitution. It is demanded alike by the principles of free government, and by sound policy in the public administrations of the State. Political injustice is ever the ground of discord, and a perennial source of trouble. Hence to remove all difficulty - to put the ''nigger question'' forever at rest in our borders - as well as to conform our fundamental law to the idea of self-government, I approve and shall vote for the change. We tax negroes as other people. They fight for the country like white folks. They were everywhere brave soldiers, noble and true, who never faltered on any of the bloody fields where their lives were given, and their bones lie moldering with those of white comrades who fell with them, to ''save us a nation." After calling for the help and accepting the aid of the colored citizens of Ohio, after putting upon them all the burdens of taxation that white men endure; can we draw a line of right between them and ourselves, and claim the ballot for our protection as men, while we refuse it to them? I think not.

The fact is the Union party has upon this point followed in the footsteps of every administration that ever sold a National bond, and its action is sanctioned by precedents old and uniform, from nearly every Democratic administration in our history. Hence, if wrong here, it became so in following in the well-beaten tracks of all the old Democratic parties of the country. In pursuing this uniform policy of the Government, at the time these bonds were issued, I think the Union party acted wisely. Union statesmen, however, were sagacious enough to issue these bonds upon as short periods'as would be at all compatible with National credit, so that when our day of triumph came - when National unity was established - when the Nation should be able thoroughly to organize and to handle its debt - the maturing bonds might be called in and replaced by a different issue, made subject to local or National taxation, or at a reduced rate of interest which would be equivalent to taxation.

Late in 1867 Mr. Sibley and Hon. R. L. Nye formed a law firm which continued till 1869, when ill health compelled the former to retire. But health returning he resumed practice at Pomeroy, Ohio, in the fall of 1870, as one of the partnership of Paine & Sibley. Shortly prior to this, in response to an invitation of the Teachers' institute in Meigs county, he delivered an address upon the "Nature and True End of Education," which, by request of his hearers, was published. On the first branch of the subject, in summary view, this was said:

Bearing in mind now the distinctions made, separating from education the knowledge which is ever its genial companion, the system of motherly discipline under which it is obtained, the exhilerating mental activity without which it could not be born, and tracing it as an idea to its metaphysical root, we affirm it to be, in its essential nature, simply the volume of disciplined mental power, the aggregate of trained intellectual ability, called forth by the various agencies of the educational course. In this view the activities, learning, and dicipline of the curriculum are only so many instruments used for the attainment of the great result. The enlarged, cultivated capacity evolved through these instrumentalities is the end to which they stand in the relation of means, and to reaching which it is their purpose to contribute. Education itself soars far higher than the learning of the books, its gaze reaches beyond the intellectual gymnastics of the schools. These are but favorable conditions for it, the shell in which its life begins, but out of which it breaks in fully entering upon its own career.

In virtue of a law penetrating to the centre of his being, for a man habitually to exert his powers for self alone, is moral debasement, spiritual defilement, and death. Selfishness is a malignant cancer in the best impulses and tenderest affections of the heart, a fatal blight upon the noblest desires and holiest aspirations of the soul. Like a darkness that can be felt, unless dispelled by the light and power of love, it settles down upon the spirit, enshrouding it from the healthful, life-giving influences of goodness, and shutting up the soul to die from moral and spiritual inanition. Under this general law of his constitution, therefore, man is forbidden the use of the power of education for self alone. Hence, considered with exclusive reference to its subject, the true end of culture reaches beyond himself, and shrivelling moral and spiritual death confront him as the divinely ordained penalty for clipping the wings of education until its powers and ends are cooped in the narrow limits of his own soul. Wherever Christian thought has penetrated, and the best results of philosophical inquiry are known, the oneness of our race in nature and general capability is recognized and believed. Out of the notion of common endowment, and the idea of unity in origin, arises the conception of the brotherhood and social nature of man, with all their sequences of mutual obligations and duties, in virtue of which, if we live in obedience to the law of our being, we necessarily become reciprocating co-workers for the common good. Alike, therefore, upon the principles of philosophy snd Christianity, every one stands in correlated obligation with all his fellows to use his various abilities and powers for others as well as himself, so long as he remains a subject of social relations. The educated man, as a member of society, by virtue of his moral constitution, is imperatively bound to use his culture for the elevation of his kind. He is to raise up those bowed down in ignorance, to establish the weak in knowledge, to open the eyes of the blind to truth, to aid in breaking the power and dominion of passion, and keep in the work of dispelling the thick clouds of prejudice that everywhere overshadow the uneducated mind. In brief, he ** to consecrate his culture to the doing of good, and exalt it thereby into an instrumentality of human progress. Here the true social and individual ends of education meet as brethren to dwell "together in unity."

About this time, also, Mr. Sibley published some essays upon the constitutional law of Ohio respecting religious liberty. Looking back of the conceded rights of conscience to the principle upon which they depend, its true statement was considered to be this:

That before the State, or in the eye of the law, one mam's convictions, beliefs, or faith, in regard to any and all matters of religion, are equally sacred with every other man's, no matter what their nature or character may be, and, therefore, with all other convictions, beliefs, or faiths, equally entitled to the protection of the law, and to the respect of the State authorities. This imports absolute equality before the law in all matters of religion, and utter independence of State authority as to religious convictions, beliefs, or faiths.

2. Theright, also, to act in accordance with the opinion, conviction or faith entertained, so long as the conduct is consistent with an equal right in atl others, and is not palpably destructive of social order.

These propositions seem to us so nearly self-evident that we support them only by a reference to section seven, article I, of our Constitution. That section, in its first clause, embodies the principle of our definition of the rights of conscience, and of the equality of all therein, by declaring the natural, indefeasible right of all men to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. 'This idea is fundamental in the controversy - is, indeed, the very tap-root of religious liberty. Logically following it, also, are certain restrictions upon the power of the State, which, if observed, renders its intervention in any matter of conscience; except to protect the citizen where his rights are assailed, morally impossible. No person can be compelled to support any form or place of worship, against his consent, ''nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted." Finally, the General Assembly is directed to pass suitable laws for the protection of all religious denominations, in their chosen forms of worship. Hence, in view of these considerations, we feel justified in regarding the following asa correct although summary statement of the doctrines of our Constitution upon this question, viz. :

'That in rights of conscience all persons are equal, whether they be Christians, Jews, or Pagans; the State can interfere in no matter of conscience, except for the sole purpose of affording protection when its rights are assailed; and that all matters of religious belief, and of conduct in accord therewith, not inconsistent with equal rights in others, nor manifestly dangerous to society, are included in rights of conscience, and are legally open to every person in virtue of his religious freedom."

Your fallacy is, in confounding every conviction of conscience with a right of conscience. These are not always convertible. Either may exist in the absence of the other. A right of conscience, in legal and constitutional sense, is the right to entertain any opinion whatever, in regard to religion or morality, without question, and to act in accordance therewith, so long as the conduct is consistent with an equal right in all others, and not palpably destructive of social order. These rights the State obligates itself in the constitution to protect. Hence, when the conviction of conscience coincides with the rights of conscience, the zgis of the constitutiomis thrown around it, but not otherwise. This distinction will dissipate a thousand sophistries, grounded upon a tacit assumption of the necessary and unvarying identity of a conviction with a right of conscience.

In April, 1874, Mr. Sibley returned to Marietta, and became one of the law firm of Ewart & Sibley. The summer following he discussed the "license question," as connected with the adoption of the proposed new constitution. We quote: license to sell intoxicating liquors, for common drinking as a beverage, is aconsent to, and authorization of, such sales, together with their usual and probable consequences. é Another usual and probable consequence of selling liquor for common drinking, even to adults who are not habitual drunkards, is vice and crime. These cancerous sores upon the body politic radiate from the liquor traffic as their focal centre. They are so interwoven with the abominable business as practically to be inseparable, if they do not, indeed, coexist in the relation of effect to cause. Hence, so long as the liquor traffic continues vice and crime will remain - its natural, necessary concomitants. Therefore, to license it, is to consent to and authorize festering nurseries of vice and crime all over the State.

But, as clinching the pro-license argument, it is stated that free rade in liquors, within certain limits, now in fact exists. But how? We say by sufferance, merely; for lack of a public sentiment sufficiently powerful to destroy it. But what does license propose but to surround this practical free trade with the affirmative sanction of law? Any bond that license might exact from the liquor seller can be had now, by simply enacting the law requiring it, before he can begin selling at all. Every mill of tax that a license would bring may be levied by an excise, if the legislature so direct. Hence, all the fancied '' responsibility" of the liquor seller, under the license system, about which its advocates prate so much, is equally attainable under the no-license plan. The failure to burden the liquor traffic with special taxation, and bonds against illegal sales, is not from lack of power in the legislature, for that already exists, but because of unwillingness to exercise the power.

Sibley published an article on the questions connected with counting the electoral vote of 1876. After discussing what a counting imports, and the election of a president by the e/ecfors, he comes to the question of his election by the house of representatives. We extract this :

The exact point in issue is whether it rests with the State, or the house of representatives finally to determine the validity of an appointment of certain persons as electors. No express restriction upon the broad power to appoint electors, in any manner the legislature of a State may direct, is found in the constitution. Nor is it qualified by necessary implication, unless in the right of the house to elect, in the one contingency, which will be noticed hereafter. Nevertheless, it is urged, that while the State appoints, the house is the final arbiter of the legal validity of the appointment of electors, under the laws of the

' State, or rather, it is a declaration of power in the States which had never been conferred upon any department of the National government, a specification of power not delegated, and therefore reserved to the States respectively. Does it include the authority not only to make the appointments in question, but also the right conclusively to determine their validity for all purposes ulterior to that fact? Argument seems inadequate to make the proposition clearer than the fair import of the words of the constitution itself. The whole matter is referred to the State authorities. All regulations respecting the appointment of electors, except as to the day when made, and the disqualification of members of Congress, and others, for the position, are left to them. Had it been intended to vest in Congress the power to say whether or not the act of a State in appointing electors, conforms to its own laws - thus, in effect, making the assent of that body necessary to a legal appointment - some hint, at least, of so important an authority should be found in the constitution. But it is said that the house elects the President, in a certain contingency, and therefore it must determine when its right arises. But how? The answer to this requires one to follow the plain provisions of the constitution.

The appointment of electors by a State, is conclusive of their right to represent the State in the electoral college. The duties of their office are to vote for a president and vice-president, and to make, certify, and transmit, to certain officers, including the president of the United States senate, lists of these votes. The votes thus certified, the president of the senate is to open in the presence of the senate and house, when they ''shall he counted." If upon the counting of these votes no person has the majority required to an election in that mode then - and not till then - '' from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the house of representatives shall choose immediately the President.'' Hence, if it obeys the constitution, the house decides upon its right to elect, solely by the result of a count - the simple enumeration - of the votes of electors certified to the president of the senate, and opened_by him in the presence of both houses. And this is all there is in the decision the house is to make. Certainly, by no necessary jimplication does it involve the power to question the act of the State in appointing its electors - to declare the action of those officers void because of defects in their appointment, when the vice, if it existed, would be incurable - thus disfranchising the State, and drawing to the house alone the power it otherwise could not have - to elect the President.

So far, for the sake of clearness, and in order to show in strong light what are conceived to be the principles which should guide in this matter, the discussion has been confined to the assumed case of one set of electors, in each State, who, iu formal compliance with the law of legitimate local government are accredited as such. Upon the state. of facts thus presupposed, the case is plain, on the theory of action set out. Furthermore, with these doctrines distinctly in mind, one is in position to consider other possible cases, which, in entire harmony therewith, may open to Congress, within certain limits, defined by the nature of each particular case, the right to inquire respecting the appointment of electors, and their action in voting fora President. For example, suppose what purports to be the votes of two sets of electors from one State are certified and transmitted to the President of the senate, in due form of law, and that the election of a President by the electors, turns upon the votes of that State. This condi_ tion of affairs is probable only when there is the formal existence of two state governments, as during the Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island, or the possible case, in view of the late war, of a legal and insurrectionary government in the same State. For the purpose o¢ ascertaining whether or not a lawful State government in fact had accredited certain persons as electors, where that is in doubt, and the genuineness of the votes certified as theirs, on the states of fact suggested, Congress would, we think, be authorized to look behind the certificates transmitted to the president of the senate. Evidently, however, the power arises ex-necess¢¢ate, and therefore upon principles perfectly settled. The extent of the inquiry it authorizes will be limited strictly by circumstances which gave it birth, and the end it is to subserve. Hence, in all cases, when the vote of a set of electors in fact appointed by the recognized lawful State government, is- ascertained the utmost limit of this extraordinary inquiry is reached, and the power that authorized it is exhausted. Confusion has worked into the dis. cussion of this question, and the true principle of action has been clouded, in consequence of not distinguishing, upon the basis of their essentially different states of fact, the cases where Congress may look beyond the certificates of votes returned, and the granay. one in which it cannot. ~ 3 © 2 .

Upon the occasion of decorating the graves of Union soldiers at Marietta, Ohio, in May, 1877, Mr. Sibley wrote an address which was published, and from which we extract the following:

But with emotions aroused by the memories with which the associations of the hour come trooping upon us, may we not examine for a few moments the grounds of the honors we are paying our fallen brothers? Not everyone who dies deserves even to be remembered. There is a deep philosophy implied by the assertion that the ''way of the wicked shall perish." Truly estimated, the wars and quarrels of kings and potentates, entitled to a place in history rank but little above the petty contentions of school-boy strife, except as they involve a question of public right or affect the interests and welfare of communities and States.

We must not forget that rectitude is an inseparable element of true greatness. Doing right in the hour of supreme trial, at the greatest possible cost, has gradually come to embody our noblest conception of real heroism - the most exalted ideal of moral perfection in character - which, as in themselves a permanent power for good, through their influence upon mankind, justly entitle one thus worthy to high historic honors. The act performed may not seem to be intrinsically great; no more, perhaps, than that some poor widow gives the last pittance she possesses, and which appears as her only earthly support, for the good of others. Or it is the noble deed of a common soldier, who with heroic purpose in itself sublime, and which shall be an inspiration to patriots for all time -

Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. Our proposition is that the great act is of necessity a right act. Putting the other side of the truth here, wrong action, however able or brilliant in daring and genius, tested by the highest criterion, lacks an indispensable element of true greatness and one link in a title to the first honors of history. For a time, we agree, transcendant powers devoted to bad ends may excite admiration and secure a measure of renown. There is almost a fascination in the great poet's picture of the "angel fallen, ''who durst defy the Omnipotent toarms."' The frightful audacity of the act inspires a degree of respect for the dauntless courage which dared to undertake it. And thus it is, we presume, as to the homage paid certain characters in history, many of whose most famous deeds are in fact great crimes, but as the years roll on the meteoric splendor of wicked actions pales and fades. Later generations, aided by better and more elevated ideas of the end of life, estimate the fame of those whose names and acts come down to them, nearer their real value. By the operation of the laws of our moral being, we come to assign the honors of history not merely to great abilities or wondrous success in what men undertake, but more to the royal qualities found in intrepid uprightness of character - the genius for being right as well as able and successful in the affairs of life. The fond remembrances and spontaneous honors of generations to come will be more and more largely reserved for the real benefactors of the race, and for him who, when thrust .into the furnace of some fiery trial or facing some mighty temptation, shall be found -

We linger not to argue the righteousness of the cause in maintaining which these soldiers fell. The result of the dread ordeal of battle, ,to whose final arbitrament the south in frenzy appealed, and the nearly unanimous judgment of civilization, ¢ concur at this point; and we have no reason to think that posterity will not confirm their verdict.

It is right here, however, in the application of 'the principle we have endeavored to present and illustrate, that we touch upon the real grounds of distinction in the honors which history will confer upon the brave men who fell on opposing sides in this terrible struggle. They were all Americans. Speaking in general terms, both armies were equally heroic in the field. Upon the whele, perhaps their leaders will not be found to differ largely in military genius and skill. Yet the proud record of those who fought for the American Union, and human liberty, will shine in ever increasing. brightness and glory when compared with that of our equally gallant countrymen behind whose line of battle were the flag of disunion and the clanking chains of slavery. Those who followed the nation's ''banner of beauty and glory" were allied by their cause to the most exalted aspirations and hopes of the future, and consequently were fighting a battle for the elevation and progress of the race. Government by the people, for the people, was inwrapped with thetr-success. On the other side was,the principle of civil disintegration, tHe fact of human bondage - iron links which bound our brave but erring fellow-citizens to the dead body of a barbaric past.

In truth, the Lost Cause was lost before its fight with arms began. The thing itself - disruption andslavery - was an anachronism. Judged by the moral sense of mankind, as well as the law of the land, the attempt to sustain it by war was acrime. 'The spirit of theage, the conclusions of the: best political thought, and the high demands of the immediate future were all in league against this cause. It received no sympathy, and was entitled to none, from the toiling millions of civilization, but only the deceptive, baleful, friendship of tottering despots, or aristocracies whose very foundations were crumbling under pressure of the great ideas of Bs government. Hence, though we saw it not, if faithful to our duty; the success of this cause was from the beginning impossible. No human genius or bravery could save it. And for the same reasons the heroism of those who fell, its devoted victims in the-carnage of battle, cannot lift them to the position in history forever to be occupied by the soldiers of ''Liberty and Union," who in the mighty conflict '' perished for the Right."

Republican convention of Washington county, Mr. Sibley was declared its candidate for common pleas judge. His competitor, however, not abiding by the action of the convention, as it was supposed and implied by the circumstances that he would do, when the matter was submitted to its decision, in a triangular contest going to the fifty-eighth ballot, Mr. Sibley was defeated in the nomination, by a close vote, in the District convention.

Excepting the period of his army service, and a season of bad health, Mr. Sibley on the stump has advocated the principles of the Republican party in every year from 1856 to 1880, inclusive. During the late Presidential canvas he delivered a speech at Pomeroy, Ohio, which was published on request of gentlemen hearing it, and from which we extract a few passages:

The doctrines of State rights, or, more properly, State supremacy, as against the power and authority of the National Government, under the Constitution, have been in contest ever since that instrument was before our people for ratification. They constituted, indeed, the chief ground of opposition tb its adoption; and when that could not be prevented, became the basis first of personal effort and then of party organization, designed by narrow and false constfuctions of the Constitution to emasculate the National Government of its legitimate powers and authority. The country was fortunate, however, from the first, in having able statesmen of National views, to combat the notions of State supremacy, declared by some, and point out the consequences of their general acceptance.

But -it is to the saniiclatraltdis of Washingiba that the country is most deeply indebted for the assertion and practical establishment of the powers and authority of the General Government upon the National principles embodied in the constitution. The laws enacted by Congress during that period provided for a National judiciary invested with the power of final, authoritative decision, in all cases at law or in equity, arising under the constitution itself, the laws of Congress, and treaties made by the Nation. They also armed the President with the authority and means of performing his sworn duty to ' 'preserve, protect, and defend the constitution," and of taking "care that the laws be faithfully executed.'' Moreover, as a matter of wise policy, Washington, against the bitter opposition of the State Rights school of his time, made the National constitution and laws supreme in fact, as they were in legal theory, by crushing, with military force, in 1794, armed resistance to them in what is familiarly known as the Whiskey Insurrection of Western Pennsylvania. It was during this contest, felt at the time to be a crucial one between the friends of the constitution'and the partizans of State Rights, that in answer to the suggestion in some way to ''influence" the insurgents to submission, instead of compelling obedience to the laws, Washington expressed a truth of profound and vital import, upon which he also acted, by declaring that ''influence is not government."' Before his retirement from the Presidency, therefore, the true theory of the constitution and of National power had become essentially settled, not only in the letter of law, but in the vastly higher efficiency of its actual enforcement by the combined civil and military power of the people acting in National capacity. The result was a second and most signal defeat of the advocates of State rights, or State supremacy, the first having been in the adoption of the constitution by the people. At a later period the same principles respecting the National authority and power were emphatically asserted and acted upon by the Supreme Court of the United States, through the great Chief Justices Jay and Marshall; were sanctioned and carried into execution with patriotic vigor by the prompt, decisive action of Jackson in his conflict with State rights, as nullification; and were made clear and intelligible, and thus immensely strengthened in the popular mind, through the masterly expositions of Webster. Thus vitalized, they from time to'time overcame the ''political heresy" of State su_ premacy, even when supported by the name and fame of Jefferson, the acute and subtle argument of Calhoun, the influence of a great party organization, and, finally, by an armed rebellion of unprecedented magnitude and power. Whether these principles, so potent for good in the past, can be made efficient to protect the citizen and preserve a pure and free ballot in National elections, as against open fraud, intimidation and murderous violence, under cover of State rights, is the great question now dividing the Republican and Democratic parties, and yet to be settled by the political action of the people.

John C. Calhoun may justly be"characterized as eminently the metaphysician of our politics. Beginning public life asa politician rather of National than narrow State rights views, the circumstances of his political career finally carried him over to the full acceptance, and elaborate exposition and advocacy of the Jeffersonian dogmas of State supremacy. To comprehend the public life of this distinguished leader of political thought, one must understand that in the latter part of his public career he was wholly devoted to two objects - the perpetuation of slavery in the south, and the maintenance of southern control in the government of the nation. This, of course, made him what his public action in later life shows him to have been - an extreme section. alist and bitter enemy to the idea of universal human freedom. In 1816 he had been favorable to and had voted for a protective tariff; but in 1832 the scheme of tariff protection to American industry had become in his opinion not only unwise and impolitic, but clearly unconstitutional. The secret of the change is easy to penetrate. Calhoun had the sagacity to see that the south, with its system of slave labor, could never successfully engage in manufactures, and that, aided by the protective system, the north would inevitably outstrip her in the closely contested race between the two sections for population, wealth, and political ascendancy. Regardless of personal consistency or party relations, therefore, he attacked the idea of protection, and as a means of securing its defeat by the power of a single State, planted himself firmly upon the principles of State supremacy untruly termed State rights. On the tariff question, as we all know, he failed. Old Hickory even drove him into a corner, where he was compelled to vote fora tariff to save being arrested and tried for treason. But with the sagacity of one born to lead, and a courage which snatches victory from the very jaws of defeat, Calhoun suddenly changed his line of battle and organized a ''Solid South" for negro slavery and southern sectional control of the Nation; or, in the alternative of failure in the latter point, secession and a confederacy of slave-holding States.

No man more thoroughly understood the power of political ideas in the government of this country than Calhoun. At once, therefore, he set about the work of indoctrinating the people with the notion that negro slavery was right, and the Democratic party with the principles of State supremacy. The labors of this great but misguided man in which his life was literally worn away, are not more astonishing in the magnitude of what, for the benefit of southern sectionalism and slavery, he undertook, than in the extraordinary measure of his success. He ultimately broke down the scheme of protection which Henry Clay had fondly called the American system; he compelled the great parties of his day to bow in abject submission at the feet of the slave power, and pledge resistence to northern discussion of the sin and crime of slavery, and barely missed seeing his most signal triumph in the adoption by the ''Jackson Democracy" of those very principles of State supremacy which the old hero had put his foot upon, with such crushing effect, in 1830-32.

With the exception of one year Mr. Sibley has been in full practice as a lawyer since 1866. He has gained a high position at the bar in the counties where he has practiced, and, we believe, commands the respect of his legal brethren for ability, learning, and personal and professional integrity and honor. He has written arguments in a number of important cases in the supreme court of Ohio, and has appeared in oral and written arguments before the United States courts of the State. In a letter now before us, his powers are thus estimated by a distinguished member of the legal profession, who has known Mr. Sibley well ever since he began practice:

As a lawyer he is possessed of an unusual degree of aptitude for the analysis of complicated facts, and a very happy faculty of lucidly stating them. He readily masters legal principles, and is logical and accurate in their application. His style of composition is terse, chaste, and accurate. He is master of good English, in the true sense; that is, he uses good words, and no more of them than is necessary.

Since 1856 Mr. Sibley has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for ten years past has held the local relation therein. In 1867 he was the delegate from Marietta to the international convention of Young Men's Christian associations at Detroit, Michigan. By the Ohio conference of 1879 he was elected alternate lay delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church for 1880. Heis now the head of the law firm of Sibiey & Ewart, Marietta, Ohio.

Hon. Thomas Watson Moore

The subject of this sketch was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1825. His father, Joseph, was a well-to-do farmer of the region, and his mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Watson, sprang from a race of quiet but thrifty farmers of the same region. At the age of seventeen, young Thomas resolved to quit the life of farmer, and accordingly went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he engaged himself to the firm of J. B. Warden & Co., machine builders, and began to learn the trade of an engine forger. He served as an apprentice in the shops of this firm for four years, and then, his task being completed, he was employed by Messrs. Warden & Co. as a journeyman. In this capacity he served for the next two years, at the expiration of which he engaged as engineer on the steamer Northern Light, then plying between St. Louis and New Orleans. Remaining as an engineer on the Northern Light for a year, he next engaged in a like capacity on the Pennsylvania, a fine passenger steamer plying from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. In this position he remained only about a year, when he abandoned this kind of life and determined to engage in business on the land.

Within a year after completing his trade as an engine forger and while yet employed by Messrs. J. B. Warden & Co., Mr. Moore married, taking as his wife Margaret McClelland, of Pittsburgh. In January, 1850, this lady "died, leaving two children: Mary, aged two years, and Margaret, but a few weexs old. 'These children lived but a few years, Mary being three, and Margaret six years old when they died.

In the fall of 1849, a short time previous to the death of his first wife, Mr. Moore, by industry and frugality, having saved some twelve hundred dollars out of his earnings, came to Warren township, Washington county, Ohio, and invested the entire amount of his savings in a farm near what is now known as Tunnel Station, on the Old Line railroad. In April, 1850, Mr. Moore removed with his two children from Allegheny to his new purchase, and for the next four years engaged in farming and in buying and selling stock.

In April, 1853, Mr. Moore married a second time, taking as his wife Mary Green, daughter of Caleb Green, esq., of Washington county. As a result of this marriage, three children were born. The eldest, now known as Tunnel station and a dwelling house ad- | | to Point of Rocks, via Washington City; from thence to | Bermuda Hundred, where the regiment performed garrijoining. Here he opened out a line of general merchandise, and at the same time took a contract from the railroad company. He remained here selling goods and filling out contracts for the railroad company until 1858. During these years Mr. Moore held a number of local offices, serving as justice of the peace for seven years in succession.

breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, this work was still uncompleted, but Mr. Moore, foreseeing the difficulties likely to be met by an uncompromising Union man in that section, immediately sold out his interest in the contract and returned home.

About this time, the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad company determined to tunnel the hill near the station already spoken of, and the contract for this work was let to the Hon. W. P. Cutler and Mr. Moore. In July, 1861, the railroad company, for want of funds, suspended work on this tunnel, and Mr. Moore at once raised a company of one hundred volunteers in Warren and and the company to the United States. They were accepted, and Captain Moore's company became a part of the famous Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry. He remained at the head of his company until the next February, when the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad company, having secured funds for the completion of the tunnel above mentioned, demanded that the contractors proceed to finish their contract, and Captain Moore was compelled to resign his position in the army. This work was finished in 1863. Shortly after its completion, Mr. Moore purchased his beautiful home on the banks of the Ohio, three miles distant from Marietta, where he has since resided. This home consists of about six hundred acres of land, upland and bottom, with forest and orchard interspersed here and there, the whole being kept in condition by a number of tenants, whose houses are built on the premises.

| self and company in readiness to enter the service whenever a call should be made. During the same spring he took a contract to build a portion of the Baltimore Short Line railroad, and had just entered on this work, when

His and anumber of other companies rendezvoused at Marietta, May 2nd, where Mr. Moore was at once elected colonel of the regiment, and placed in command. The regiment was ordered to Harper's Ferry, and from there

Colonel Moore was made commandant of the post at Bermuda Hundred, and to these important duties were afterwards added those of assistant inspector general.

Upon his return from the service, Colonel Moore renewed the work on the Baltimore Short Line, which he Finishing this work, he went to Missouri, buying a farm of one thousand acres in sight of Sedalia, and embarked in the stock business, at the same time assisting in the organization and establishment of the First National bank at Sedalia. In 1868 he abandoned the stock business, and went to Saginaw, Michigan, and engaged for the next two years in the lumber trade.

In 1870 Colonel Moore engaged in the business of merchandising in Harmar, which, together with his operations in farming, he has continued down to the present.