Paulding County, Ohio - Chapter 8: Military History, 1892

Chapter 8: Military History

an escutcheon garnished with glory. With pride will it be cherished in the memories of her citizens, and by them proudly handed down to posterity, even as is being done. When,on that dark April morning, in 1861, the lightning flashed the startling news over the world that Fort Sumter had fallen before the bombs of the rebel Beauregard, it aroused a throb in the pulse of little Paulding which beat in unison with that of the patriotic north; and in a few days a company of her gallant sons had responded to the president's call for 75,000 three months'men. This was company G, of the fourteenth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry. It was recruited from all parts of the county and rendezvoused at Antwerp about the 22d of April, 1861. Its commissioned officers were: John S. Snook, captain; Alfred M. Russell, first lieutenant; and John Crosson, second lieutenant. A member of the company says: " At Antwerp we were drawn up in line preparatory to being mustered into the United States service. Before being mustered in we were told that all who did not wish to muster with the company might step two paces to the front. Only one man stepped out. * * * * Old Mr. Lewis Ward was there with us blowing the fife. He must have been sixty years old. I never shall forget how badly the old gentleman felt when told that his age prohibited his going with us. Tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks, and his every expression showed how intense was his desire to march to the front with the boys and do battle for his country." The company joined the regiment at Toledo, and with it was sent to Camp Taylor, at Cleveland, where, after a few weeks' drill, it received orders to join McClellan's forces, and go forth to the stern realities of war. The company with its regiment was the first organized force to invade the rebel soil at Parkersburg, Virginia, which it did on the 24th of May, a day made memorable by the death of the gallant young Colonel Ellsworth at Alexandria. The company served in West Virginia, took part in the engagements at Philippi and Carrick's Ford, and was mustered out of service August 13th, having served its term of enlistment.

The first company to be organized in the county under the three years' call was company F of the Thirty-eighth Ohio volunteer infantry. It was recruited, during the summer of 1861, in the eastern part of the county, mostly in Brown township, and when not more than twelve or fifteen men had been enrolled, they met on Saturdays at old Fort Brown - historical ground - - for drill. Its election of officers resulted in John H. Adams being chosen captain; John Crosson, first lieutenant, and Elias W Gleason, second lieutenant. Webster Jones, a soldier of the Mexican war, who had been largely instrumental in the recruiting service, was chosen orderly sergeant, and soon after arose to a lieutenancy in the company, and afterward to a captaincy in the regiment. In the latter part of August, the company joined its regiment at Camp Trimble, Defiance, Ohio, and on the 8th day of September started for Camp Dennison, where, after a few weeks spent in drilling, the regiment was ordered to join the forces under Gen. Buell in Kentucky, and spent the winter of 1861-2 in that state, participating in the battle of Mill Spring. The company veteranized with its regiment in 1863, came home on a thirty days' furlough, recruited its depleted ranks, and returning took part in many of the bloody engagements fought by the western army; marched with Sherman to the sea and through the Carolinas, passed in the grand review at Washington city and was mustered out of the service at Louisville, Ky., July 12, 1865. Capt. Adams contracted disease soon after entering the service, came home and died, and was succeeded by Capt. Crosson, who was killed in the terrible charge which the regiment made at the battle of Jonesboro, September 1, 1864, This was the severest engagement in which the company participated during the war, and its loss in killed and wounded numbered nearly one-half of the officers, and men engaged in the terrific hand-tohand struggle. Paris Tucker received eleven wounds, two of them bayonet thrusts, and yet lived many years after the war. Capt. Jones was severely wounded in the face in this battle, but is yet living.

Company G, of the Fourteenth regiment, was at home only about two weeks from the three months' service when it began organizing for the three years' service, the date of enlistment being August 26, 1861. W. H. Eckels was commissioned captain; Crawford C. Adams, first-lieutenant, and Henry B. Fergerson, second-lieutenant. It served again in the " Old Fourteenth," James B. Steedman, commanding. It took part in the campaigns of Kentucky and Tennessee, and at the battle of Chickamauga suffered terrible loss: out of forty-seven men, eight were killed, nineteen wounded, and three taken prisoners; a total of thirty, or more than sixty per cent. The loss of the entire regiment was a one-third greater per cent. than that of the English light brigade in its famous charge at the battle of Balaklava. After the fight at Chickamauga, the company, with the army, fell back to Chattanooga, and after a siege of about two months took part in the celebrated and successful charge on Missionary Ridge. On the 14th of December, 1863, it veteranized and came home on a thirty-days' furlough. After this the company served in the Georgia campaign, and went with Sherman to the sea, across the Carolinas to Raleigh, and was present when the surrender of General Johnston took place. 14 then marched through Richmond, Va., thence to Washington, D. C., and from there to Louisville, Ky., where it was mustered out, receiving final discharge at Cleveland, Ohio, July 11, 1865. The company served in all from April 22, 1861, to July 11, 1865, a period of four years, two months and nineteen days. The following graphic history of company C, Sixty-eighth Ohio veteran volunteer infantry, is furnished by Captain Patrick H. Mooney, of Antwerp:

"Organized November 25, 1861, with the following officers: Captain, P. H. Mooney ; first lieutenant, J. C. Banks ; second lieutenant, George W. Kniss, the company mustering 101 men, rank and file. Mustered into service by P. H. Mooney, captain and organizer of said company , attached to the sixty-eighth regiment Ohio veteran volunteer infantry, second brigade, third division, seventeenth army corps, army of the Tennessee. Division commanded by John A. Logan; corps commanded by Brig.-Gen. McPherson, who was killed July 22, 1864, before Atlanta. November 25, 1861, the company went from Antwerp, Ohio, to Camp Latty, at Napoleon, Ohio, the place of rendezvous. January 21, 1862, ordered.to Camp Chase, Ohio; February 29, ordered to Fort Donelson, Tenn.; March 7, ordered to Metal Landing, Tenn.; 15th, ordered to Crump's Landing, Tenn.; April 6 and 7, took part in the battle of Shiloh, Tenn.; April 17, ordered to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn.; 29th, to Corinth, Miss.; June 2d, ordered to Bolivar, Tenn., under division commander, Gen. Lew Wallace; June 28, marched to Grand Junction, Tenn., after Jackson's guerrillas; July 25, returned to Bolivar, where we remained constructing fortifications, company C occupying Fort Anaca, until September 22, when we were ordered to Iuka, Miss., via Corinth. This company skirmished with the enemy under Van Dorn and Price with good effect; the enemy being driven out we returned to Bolivar September 26. October 3, 1862, were ordered to Pocahontas, on the Hatchee river, to intercept rebel forces under Van Dorn and Price retreating from Corinth after a sanguinary battle with Gen. Rosecrans. Our forces, including company C, met the retreating enemy at Hatchee river, where a severe battle took place, in which company C took an active part with the regiment, receiving praise for gallant conduct under Gen. We returned to Bolivar, October 7, guarding thirty-six prisoners. This company was on the march through central Mississippi, and was with the regiment during the expedition and siege of Vicksburg; crossed the Mississippi river below Grand Gulf; marched to the battle of Thompson's Hill, Miss., May 1, 1863; met the enemy at Raymond, Miss., and routed him May 15, 1863; thence to Jackson, Miss., May 14; thence to Champion Hill, Miss., May 16, 1863; then crossed the Big Black to the siege of Vicksburg, May 18 to July 4, 1863; battle of Clinton and Jackson, Miss., February 5, 1864, and went to Meridian and burned the town and prison sheds. We were engaged for six successive days as sharpshooters, receiving praise for gallant conduct; was on the expedition under command of Maj. Gen. F. P. Blair, making a tour around by Yazoo City. This company, June 5, 1863, was in the rifle pits as before, and was in the expedition after the fall of Vicksburg under Maj.-Gen. Sherman against Johnson at Jackson, Miss. The company, with the regiment, guarded 554 prisoners into Vicksburg, Miss., where we remained until March 17, 1864, when we got furlough home. Returned to Cairo, Ill., in May, 1864, and marched from Clifton, Tenn., across Alabama, to Big Shanty, Ga., June 9, where a battle ensued; also Kennesaw Mountain and Brush Mountain until June 30, 1864; June 27, Kennesaw Mountain general assault; battle of Nickajack Creek, Ga., July 2-5; Atlanta, (Hood's first sortie) July 22, 1864; Atlanta, Ga., siege of July 28 to September 2, 1864; battle of Jonesboro, Ga., August 31 to September 1, 1864; also Lovejoy Station, Ga., September 2-6, 1864. After the fall of Atlanta went into camp at West Point, near Atlanta. This company marched from Atlanta, Ga., with Sherman to the sea and the siege of Savannah, Ga., December 10-21, 1864. Also battles as follows: Pocotalego, S. C., January 14-16, 1865; Orangeburg, S. C., February 12, 1865; Columbia, S. C., February 16-17, 1865; Cheraw, S. C., March 2-3, 1865; Bentonville, N. C., March 19, 1865; Goldsboro, N. C., March 21 1865; thence to Richmond, Va., to Washington, D. C., where the company marched in the grand review of the president of the United States, and all the government officials; thence to Louisville, Ky., where the company was mustered out on July 10, 1865, by Cyrus M. Roberts, captain Ohio veteran volunteer infantry."

The following history of company I, One Hundreth Ohio volunteer infantry, was written by a member of the company and published in the Antwerp Argus, July 23, 1891:

Company I, of the One Hundreth regiment, was raised at Antwerp upon the second call for 300,000 men in August, 1862. The company left here about 100 strong, under command of Capt. Kauffman; D. S. Hughes, first lieutenant; J. S. Champion, second lieutenant. Their first rendezvous was at Toledo. From thence they went to Covington, Ky., where they first sighted the " Johnnies." The regiment was a part of the Twenty-third corps commanded by Gen. Schofield, and saw some hard service. Their first regular engagement was at Buzzard's Roost,Ga. At the fight at Eutaw Creek the regiment lost 104 men out of 200 who were engaged. At the battle of Nashville the regiment captured a battery of eight guns after a desperate struggle.

The principal battles in which the company was engaged were: Knoxville, Columbia, Franklin and Nashville, Tenn.; Buzzard's Roost, Atlanta, Ga.; Raleigh, Wilmington and Eutaw Creek, N. C.

Captain Kauffman died at Knoxville in the spring of 1863, and was succeeded by Capt. D. S. Hughes, who had command of the company at the time of its discharge.

Paulding county furnished two companies to the 100-day service of 1864, and as the important part taken by the Ohio 100-day men is looming into especial and merited significance, a brief history of the movement which led to their call into the United States service may not be out of place: Brough was emphatically a war governor, and to him belongs the praise of being the originator of the movement which released so many of the veteran soldiers from guard duty and sent them to the front to swell the armies of Grant. Brough suggested a call of the governors of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, which resulted in a tender of 85,000 men for a period of 100 days, each state to furnish the following number: Iowa, 10,000; Wisconsin, 5,000; Illinois and Indiana, 20,000 each; and Ohio, 30,000 men. The proposition was forwarded to 'Washington and immediately accepted by Secretary Stanton. Governor Brough ordered Adjutant General Cowan to issue an order to the commandants of battalions and regiments in the state, calling them into active service. These had been organized really for the defense of the state, and were not in duty bound to respond, but, as the governor had relied upon their patriotism in issuing the call, they responded with alacrity, as he had believed they would. Only one company in the state, company B, Fortieth battalion, refused to be mustered into the United States service, and that company was dishonorably discharged from the service of the state. When the above call was made there was existing in the county a military organization known as the forty-second battalion, Ohio national guard, commanded by Major Andrew P. Meng. The battalion consisted of three companies - A, B and C - and was organized in the spring of 1863. When called into active service the battalion rendezvoused at Antwerp, May 2, 1864, drilled two days and was sent home, with orders to report on the 10th of the same month. Upon the 10th, the members of the battalion all reporting, they were soon on their way to serve the general government. At Toledo it was ascertained that the troop did not consist of three maximum companies, and company C was consolidated with companies A and B. By this arrangement some of the commissioned officers lost their commands, the ranking officers only being retained. With these two companies the battalions proceeded to Columbus, where it was consolidated with the Thirty-second battalion, from Logan county, and one company from Montgomery county, and became companies A and H, of the One Hundred and Thirtysecond regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, and as such was sworn into the service of the United States, Major Meng continuing to hold the same rank in the new organization that he had held in the battalion. The commissioned officers of company A were: John J. Shirley, captain; Fielding S. Cable, first lieutenant; and Peter Snook, second lieutenant; Of company H, the officers were: B. K. H. Hankins, captain; Eli H. Day, first lieutenant; and William Good, second lieutenant.

After a few days spent in drilling at Camp Chase, Colonel Haines was ordered to report with his regiment at Washington, D.C. Accordingly, on the 19th of May, it took up its line of march, and on the 22nd arrived at Washington, going over the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. At Washington it was ordered into camp at Arlington Heights, and remained there until about the first of June, when it boarded the steamer "John Brooks," and was sent to White House Landing, Va., which was then the base of supplies for that portion of Grant's army then in active operations before Richmond. At this place it was attached to the second brigade, second division, of the eighteenth army corps, commanded by General "Baldy" Smith. The base of supplies having been transferred to the south of Richmond, the regiment, on the 13th of June, was sent to Bermuda Hundred, and for the remainder of its term of service did honorable duty in the trenches in front of Petersburg. Its term of enlistment having expired, it was ordered to Camp Chase, Ohio, about the last of August, and was mustered out September 10, 1864. True it is, the term of service of companies A and H, One Hundred and Thirty-second Ohio, was short, but the glory of their achievements will grow in brilliancy the more there is known of them. Besides these six companies, which were organized in the county, many of its citizens enlisted in other regiments of the state, so that at one time during the war scarcely a " corporal's guard" was left in the county. There were two drafts ordered in the county, but this would not have been, had not many of the enlisted men been credited to other counties. Had proper credits been given, there would have been no drafts in the county, as her quotas would have been much more than filled by volunteer enlistments. As proof of this the following instance is given: In Brown township, in the spring of 1865, a draft was pending, and six men wanted, when there were but three able-bodied men between theages of eighteen and forty-five in the township. What is true of Brown township may also be true of the other townships. Since the war many ex-soldiers of other counties of these none have brighter military records than General S. R. Mott, Colonel Joseph M. Gaston, Major A. B. Holcombe and Colonel Robert S. Murphy. General Mott served as lieutenant-colonel of the Fiftyseventh Ohio volunteer infantry, and was breveted brigadier-general of

Union post at Paulding; Major Holcombe served in a New York regiment, and in 1887 was chosen brigadier-general of the Grand Army of the Republic brigade of the sixth Ohio congressional district; R. 8. Murphy served as first lieutenant of company H, Thirtieth Indiana volunteer infantry, and is now a grand army colonel in the county. Francis B. DeWitt, who has the distinguished honor of being the youngest soldier in the rebellion, resides in the county. He enlisted in the fall of 1861, when only about thirteen years old, and served in the One Hundred and Twenty-first Ohio volunteer infantry, until the close of the He took part in the battle of Pittsburg Land-

Grand Army, Union Veterans unions and Sons of Veterans posts in the county; and about one thousand resident veterans. The beautiful and patriotic custom of annually decking soldiers' graves with flowers is tenderly and zealously observed every 30th of May, and the exercises largely participated in by both citizens and ex-soldiers.

Bring flowers the sweetest, Bring flowers the rarest, And seatter them o'er our fallen braves; Bring flowers the brightest, Bring flowers the fairest, And strew them profusely on our dead heroes' graves.

The Reservoir War.- - The early history of the world is so intermingled with fable, that it is almost impossible to separate truth from falsehood. Many of the wars of the reputed gods were only the productions of some vivid fancy; but not so the reservoir war. It was not merely the creation of the mind but a stern reality,as many living witnesses can testify who saw the grim visages of armed troops quartered in the county for a whole week, in the spring of 1887, to quell what was purported to be a "lawless mob." From time immemorial it has been the custom of all eminent historians who wrote of wars to prelude the actual jingling of arms with the causes which led to the sanguinary conflicts. With no least, be permitted to follow in the beaten path of those whose business it has been to rivet burning truths upon the lasting page. At this date, and when the white-winged dove of peace is again hovering over the may be truthfully and impartially told. In 1826 certain lands in what are now Crane and Carryall townships were set apart, by an act of the Ohio legislature, for the purpose of locating thereon a reservoir, designed to be a feeder of the Wabash & Brie canal, which was then under contemplation of being built, and which was completed in 1843. Work on this reservoir began in 1840 and it was completed about two years later. It was formed by clearing away the timber, throwing up an embankment and cutting off the waters of Six Mile creek, from whence it derived the name of Six Mile reservoir. The embankments inclosed only about 3,600 acres of land, but the cutting off of the creek caused it in time of freshets to overflow its banks, which were shallow, and to spread over many thousand acres west of the reservoir, rendering it impossible to put it in a state of cultivation. It is estimated that about 14,000 or 15,000 acres of fertile land in the county were thus rendered worthless. For many years, and while the canal was in active operation, nothing was said of the devastating features of the reservoir. It was regarded as a public necessity and the citizens acquiesced in the desolation which it wrought. But when Indiana had abandoned her portion of the canal, and when that portion in Ohio between Junction and the state line was no longer navigated except now and then by a solitary wood boat, or a floating boarding house for gangs of timbermen, then an entirely different phase was put upon the reservoir and its desolate surroundings. The citizens of Antwerp - then the most populous village in the county - looked forth and saw, upon the very verge of their southern suburbs, a large, gloomy and impenetrable swamp, made so by a portion of the public works which were no longer a source of revenue to the state, but virtually abandoned by it; and they readily and justly concluded that the time for its legal abandonment had fully arrived.

Accordingly, in the winter of 1886, a petition was gotten up, setting forth in vivid, yet not overdrawn, colors, the grievances brought about by the Six Mile reservoir and its attendant influences, and praying for the abatement of what was now pronounced an eye-sore upon the county and a nuisance to the vicinity in which it was located. The petition received many signers in all parts of the county, and upon being sent to Hon. John L. Geyer, then representative from the county, he prepared a bill for the abandonment of the reservoir, and that portion of the Wabash & Erie canal extending from Junction to the Indiana state line, At this juncture the bill found a formidabte and wary foe in the city of Defiance; and for the following reasons: It was a manufacturing city, and the products of its factories were mostly of wood. The vast forests in the vicinity of the reservoir were to them a territory of great wealth, inasmuch as they furnished much of the raw material for the factories; and the canal was a valuable channel, as it afforded excellent means for the transportation of said wealth to their city. What was the Upas to Antwerp and Paulding county was a Golconda to Defiance. It is not to be wondered at then, in a business point of view, that the citizens of that city sent large and influential lobbies to Columbus to oppose the passage of the bill. It was ably championed by Mr. Geyer and passed the house; but in the senate the influence brought to bear by the Defiance lobby was too powerful, and it was defeated in that body, March 9, 1887, by a vote of twenty-six to eight. When the news of the defeat of the bill reached the county, the deep rumblings of rage were heard in the breast of her citizens, and particularly in those residing in Antwerp and vicinity. In the failure of the passage of the bill they considered themselves sorely aggrieved. They felt that by the action of the senate a large, unsightly and miasmatic swamp had been fastened upon the fertile bosom of the county; and it is supposed that about this date the organization of a mysterious body, afterward known as the " Dynamiters," began; and that the avowed purpose of this organization was the destruction of the useless reservoir and canal. The state board of public works, one member of which resided at Defiance, as if in anticipation of that which did happen, placed a few citizen guards, employed by the state, on the banks of the reservoir, and at tne locks along the canal, to protect them from invasion. But notwithstanding this precaution, on the night of April 25, 1887,a loud explosion was heard in the vicinity of the reservoir, and on the following morning it was ascertained that the guards had been overpowered (without injury, however, to any of them) by a large force of masked men, and that the bulkhead of the reservoir and three locks on the canal had been blown out, or injured, by dynamite. The startling news flew like lightning throughout the county and state, and the following and similar telegrams were dispatched to Gov. Foraker from Defiance:

Two hundred men marched on the canal in a body, captured the guards and held them in confinement until daylight. They worked all night on the front and rear of the reservoir, cutting the ground enough to let the water out. Then they poured coal oil on the lock and the keeper's house, burning it up. One hundred more men went to Tate's and the other remaining lock, blowing them up with dynamite. No locks remain on the Wabash canal, and mob law reigns supreme. 'The people of Defiance and Paulding counties call on you to protect the state property.

Acting upon these telegrams, Gov. Foraker immediately telegraphed Adj.-Gen. Axline to assemble a portion of the state troops and to proceed at once to the scene of conflict; and also issued the following proclamation, copies of which were posted up throughout the county:

WHEREAS, It has been reported to me that on the night of the 25th inst. an armed mob of lawless and rioting men drove away from the public works of the state in Paulding county, the guards who were in possession of the same, and with dynamite blew up certain locks of the canal, and with powder and fire destroyed others, and otherwise by cutting the banks of the canal and reservoir, did great damage and injury thereto; and,

WHEREAS, This armed and lawless mob are reported to be still banded together for the purpose of preventing the state authorities from again taking possession and control of the property so wrongfully wrested from them, and threaten by violence to prohibit the repair of the damage so as aforesaid inflicted by them; and,

WHEREAS, The civil authorities of Paulding county appear to be either unable or unwilling to suppress said rioters and protect the authorities of the state in resuming control of the property of the state and making repairs thereof, and appear to be either unable or unwilling to disperse said mob and preserve the public peace,

Now, therefore, I, Joseph B. Foraker, governor of the state of Ohio, do hereby call upon said rioters and evil-disposed persons to desist at once from their unlawful actions and to disperse at once to their homes, and I hereby warn them, failing to do so, they will be immediately compelled to such a course so far as the protection, repair and preservation of the public property of the state is concerned. All persons failing to serve and comply with the commands hereof, will do so at their peril.

In testimony whereof [ have hereunto subscribed my name and caused to be affixed the great seal of the state, at Columbus, this 26th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1887.

COLUMBUS, April 26, 1887. - Assemble about fifty men from sixteenth regiment as soon as possible for duty in Paulding county and await further orders. H. A. AXLINE, Adjutant General.

H. S. Bunker

Maj. Bunker immediately issued the following order to the captains of companies A, C and H: April 26, 1887. Special Order No. 1: In compliance with the above order, you will forthwith assemble your company at its armory ready for duty. H. S. BUNKER,

At 8 o'clock p. m., April 26, Gen. Axline, at the head of a force consisting of portions of the Sixteenth regiment, commanded by Maj. H.S. Bunker; and a part of the Fourth battery, First regiment, Ohio national guard, commanded by Capt. O. J. Hopkins, arrived at Cecil, a distance of four miles from the reservoir. Total number of the force was fifty-three enlisted men and nine officers. The infantry was armed with muskets and bayonets and 2,000 rounds of ammunition; the battery was armed with a gatling gun, and 4,500 rounds of ammunition. Headquarters were established at Cecil, and the troops fed at the Mackinaw House, after which a detachment of twenty-eight men, headed by Gen. 4xline, moved forward to the reservoir and took possession of the same without firing a gun, or even sighting an enemy. Within twelve hours after receiving orders, Gen. Axline was on the ground with an armed force ready to protect the state property. Tbe next day, April 27, the whole command marched to the front and went into camp at the northeast corner of the reservoir. This camp was appropriately named Camp Dynamite. It was not fortified, but tents were pitched, and the gatling gun placed in position to rake the north and east banks of the reservoir in case of a hostile demonstration by land; or to pour its leaden hail over the bosom of old canal in case of agunboat attack. Guards were thrown out, picket posts established, and everything in true military style. But no enemy appeared. No attacks were made. All around was as peaceful and quiet as the grave, save the roar of the mighty waters that rushed in torrents through the aperture made in the reservoir bank. Attempts were made by the board of public works to repair it, but they were unsuccessful; and the damage done was never fully repaired. Citizens from all parts of the county, excited by the novelty of an armed body of troops within her borders, flocked in great numbers to see the gatling gun, and mingled on the best of terms with the soldiery, gaily conversing and cracking Jokes with the officers and men. Neyer was an invading body of troops more kindly treated in an enemy's country than was Maj. Bunker's command by the citizens of the county. On the Sabbath that the soldiers were at Camp Dynamite, Rev. J. W. McClusky, of Antwerp, attended the camp and divine services were held. A waggish Antwerper (perhaps a dynamiter), says the words of the text were: " The sword of Foraker be upon us, and the roaring of mighty waters is heard throughout the land, and groans and lamentations riseth up from the city of Defiance; but the reservoir must go." The troops were stationed in the county about week and were then recalled. The only victim of the war was Fred Reeves, aged nineteen, private in company H. He accidentally shot himself through the head while on guard duty at Cecil an hour or two after the first arrival of the troops at that place. He was killed instantly and his remains were taken to Toledo the following day for burial, escorted by a corporal and two of his comrades. The citizens and soldiers alike mourned the sad and untimely fate of young Reeves.

In about four weeks after the departure of the militia, Governor Foraker visited Antwerp in person. He was kindly received by the citizens, and by them escorted to the late seat of war. He looked upon the dilapidated reservoir and all its- desolate surroundings, and in a speech made to the crowd who had assembled to greet him said that he was convinced that the citizens of the county had grievances and that they should receive his immediate attention. A second bill for the abandonment of the reservoir and canal was presented to the Ohio legislature in the winter of 1887-8, and this time was successful. It passed both houses and became a law May 17, 1888. On the following fourth of July the citizens of Antwerp and the county celebrated the event at Antverp with a grand jollification, in which the troops which had been called out from Toledo heartily participated. The results of the war were that the abandonment of the reservoir was hastened by it, a canal commission of three persons was appointed who sold the state lands which it contained, the channel of Six Mile was again opened, and now large fields of corn and other cereals are grown upon what was a dismal and desolate swamp. The state paid the expenses of the war, and no restitution was made of the property destroyed. The dynamiter$! Who they were, from whence they came, or whither they went, is associated with as much mysteriousness as are the pre-historic races. We know that they existed only by the traces of identity which they left behind them. None of them were ever punished. The banner under which they rallied their forces was exhibited at the Antwerp jollification. It was a strip of black bunting, on one side of which was inscribed "No Compromise!" and on the other " The Reservoir Must Go!" Its memory has been perpetuated in the following stanzas:

The townsman cry, " Where do you go, Ye men of measured tread and slow? Can nothing turn you from your course?" The answer came in accents hoarse,

Francis Byron DeWitt was born March 11,1849. The old stock of DeWitts are of Scotch descent, who came from Holland, to Orange county, New York, long prior to the Revolutionary war. His great-greatgrandfather was the sire of nine boys, all of whom became the heads of families. The work of perpetuating the name and replenishing the earth is a family characteristic, which is well known by the family traditions covering a period of over one hundred and fifty years. Charles DeWitt, his grandfather, removed from Orange county, N. Y., to Richland county, this state, in an early period in the history of Ohio, and afterward took up his home on a farm in Delaware county. This farm is now occupied by Francis DeWitt, and has been a family homestead for sixty-two years. F. B. DeWitt says that time has worn the soil, "yet my veneration for the old farm has grown stronger as the years roll ty."

Francis, his father, was born in Richland county, in 1819, and Sarah ~ McLane, his mother, was born in Pickaway county, in 1821. This couple, still living, have celebrated their golden wedding, and the subject of this sketch is the fourth child of a family of ten children, nine of whom are now living. His early life was passed on the old homestead, where a good opportunity was afforded for plenty of hard work and a country education, so essential to success in life. He spent about four years in academic and collegiate education, making a specialty of the higher mathematics. When asked at college to what class he belonged he invariably replied, to the irregular scientific preps. His profession is such _that the details of mathematics have not been called into practical use, yet his faculty for correct mathematical reasoning is made apparent by every turn of his successful career. Let us pass for a moment to his military life. In 1860 he procured an old drum for one dollar in boy's work, in husking corn. He enlisted the friendship of an old Mexican war drummer, who gave himsome points 'in this kind of music. In 1861 he could pound the sheep skin so that the neighborhood boys, who had military ambition, could keep step quite well in their home drill. Seeing others go to war and hearing the stories of camp life and battle field, he was seized with the irrepressible passion for becoming a soldier. He enlisted at the age of twelve, in the ` Forty-sixth Ohio regiment, and was at the battle of Shiloh. On the campaign to Corinth he acquired a temporary disability, from which, after the fall of Corinth, he was discharged. Remaining out of the service _ but five weeks he enlisted, in 1862, in the One Hundred and Twenty-first Ohio regiment. He was with his regiment at the battle of Perryville, Ky.; in Rosecranz's campaign through Tennessee, and under Steadman at Chickamagua; his regiment, holding the right wing of the army on that memorable field, achieved a national reputation for maintaining every foot of ground over which it fought, capturing a rebel flag from the Twenty-second Alabama against odds on an open field, firing the last | gun in that most terrific conflict, and serving as a rear guard to the great army which withdrew in the direction of Chattanooga. In Bragg's siege of Chattanooga which followed, DeWitt says: That his experience of hunger impresses him yet; how every soldier on short rations coveted the army mule's ear of corn and the musty cracker, which was out of reach ' and carefully guarded at the commissary, and how we hailed with a sol- delight the re-inforeements under Sherman and Grant, of the 1 army of the Tennessee from Vicksburg, and the bountiful provisions . which they brought. He participated with his regiment in the entire Atlanta campaign, 100 days under fire, and knows by experience of the 'Savannah campaign in marching through Georgia. In the compaign from Savannah through the Carolinas, while venturing too far in advance of the army with a squad of Shermans bummers, he unfortunately, after a sharp encounter with a detachment of Wheeler's cavalry, became a prisoner of war,and learned something of Confederate prison 'life in Salisbury, Danville and Libby prisons; at the latter prison he remained until the close of the war in 1865. All of DeWitt's military life, except while a prisoner, was at the front. Others as young who served so long were in favored positions. The history of this country perhaps does not furnish a parallel of one of such tender years | undergoing such long and hard service and retaining such a powerful constitution and robust health as he possesses. He thinks that the front battle field to him who is shielded in the fortunes of war by the kind hand of providence is the paradise for the soldier. _ DeWitt came to Paulding in the spring of 1867, and performed manual labor through the summer and attended school in the winter under Samuel Means, in the old frame school building which stood on the southwest corner of the public square. His collegiate course was between this and 1872. His vacations were spent at hard labor in replenishing his purse, so that the beginning of each school year found him at his desk withlimited means,a sun-burned complexion, calloused hands and a strong determination to acquire knowledge. Having read law under T. B. Holland, at Paulding, he was admitted to practice in 1875. He at once built up a good law practice and at all times enjoyed the respect and confidence of the bench and bar. His success in some of the most distinguished criminal cases in the history of the legal jurisprudence of Paulding county, such as the Upthegrove, Plumley and Waterside cases, has earned for him a good reputation asa prudent criminal lawyer, while his ability as a civil lawyer having to his credit success in a long line of important real estate cases passes without question. He was married, in the spring of 1875, to Dell V. Williams, and, as a result of this happy union, is at the head of a family of highly appreciated children: Gail, John S., Eva M. (deceased), William B., Clayton and Florence Bell. Eva May, his second daughter, who departed this life in the summer of 1887, will long be remembered by many in Paulding as a very bright, interesting child. Now residing upon his reservoir farm of about 700 acres in Crane township, he is taking quite an interest in agricultural matters. The product of this farm for 1891, when considering the short time it has been occupied, is almost phenominal.

On July 25, 1891, Mr. DeWitt was nominated, by the republican convention of Paulding county, as the first representative for that county to the Ohio legislature, Paulding county never having a sufficient population heretofore under the constitution to entitle her to a separate representative. Mr. M. N. Utley, a democrat and merchant of Cecil, was his opponent. The county, in 1890, gave a democratic majority of 468. This, although not promising upon its face, was deemed a sufficient fighting chance for one of DeWitt's courage. The campaign, though long and closely contested, resulted, on November 3rd, in De- Witt's election by 343 majority. As Mr. DeWitt is a man of good character, well defined intentions and honest convictions, his friends have no fears but what he will acquit himself with credit to his people, as the first representative of Paulding county.