Washington County, Ohio - War of the Rebellion - Continued (2 of 2 so headed), 1881 (part 11 of 11)

* The following is alist of the articles in the box: Holy Bible, presented by the Washington County Bible society; Constitution of the United States, with manuel of same, by I. W. Andrews, presented by J. M. Fuller; Constitution of Ohio, with volume of Ohio laws, 1873; brief history of Washington County Soldiers' Monument association' 'anda list of its officers from organization to date; constitution or articles of association of the Washington County Soldiers' Monument association; roll of the officers of Washington county; roll of officers of the city of Marietta; copies of the Marietta Register, Times, College Olio, and Zeitung; revised ordinances of the city of Marietta, presented by S. J. Hathaway; directory of the churches of Marietta and Harmar; Masonic calendar of American Union lodge and chapter and Harmar lodge. The constitution and by-laws and list of officers of the following benevolent societies: Elk Eye encampment and Marietta and Guttenburgh lodge of Odd Fellows, Manhattan and Muskingum tribes of red men, Reynold lodge Knights ot Pythias, Marietta and Harmar lodges of Good Templars; also a roll of Pierpont battery; a copy of the Boston Pos¢, one hundred years old; a premium list and list of officers of the Washington County Agricultural and Mechanical association, and various other articles presented by citizens.

preciate the animating spirit on our side, as distinguished from the passions and purposes which actuated and inflamed those on that side against which we strove, and over which, under God, we prevailed.

Do not think I talk party politics. The men who fought this war for us, to whatever party they may now belong, are above criticism as to their motives in public affairs, and their opinions are entitled to respect. I speak only of that on which, then, we all agreed, and ask that by the memory of these dead we may never give it up. Let us, to whatever party we belong, never give up the sentiment and the duty that united us in the war. The Rebellion was a crime against free government. If that conviction is given up by those who held it, the days of our Government are numbered. And so long as any considerable portion of our people rcfuse to accept that conviction, so long is our Government in danger.

Let us remember, then, we who were on the stage of action in the great contest, and you our inheritors remember, for what these dead fought - for what they died. And to all, and to future generations, let the appeal rise from the graves of those to whom we now dedicate this monument: ''We, to tell of whom this stone was raised, ask of those who come after us that they see to it that we did not die in vain."

In the evening, at the city hall, a reunion of veterans was held, President Israel W. Andrews, of Marietta college, delivering the address of welcome. He referred in complimentary terms to the distinguished guests present; he welcomed the soldiers from far and near who were gathered together on the occasion to renew their acquaintance and friendship; he paid a tribute to the heroic dead whose memories it was sought to perpetuate by the monument dedicated, though a feeble expression of the gratitude of our people; he referred to the distinguished general of the army and the distinguished jurist, who had laid aside his duties as a private citizen to join the army when our country was in danger. His remarks were received with hearty applause.

General John Pope spoke in a feeling manner of the "ties of friendship between comrades who fought side by side on so many bloody fields." He referred to the subject then so much discussed of conciliating the South. In closing he said:

Let us remember the solemn legacy these dead men have bequeathed us, consecrated by their lives to maintain among ourselves, and to transmit to their and our deseendants the results they laid down their lives to achieve.

But why are these dead so honored? Why is tribute given to them that is not given to wealth, or to power, or to learning? Is it because they were brave? Because they were patient? Because they were victorious? Because they were slain? No; it 1s none of these. It is because they died for us; because they gave themselves a cheerful sacrifice that our country might remain one, our free institutions stand perpetual. It is because of the work they did, but still more for the spirit in which they did it.

The monument erected to-day is a tribute of the people to public virtue. Let it stand as long as this Nation shall last. It will be honored so long as our institutions shall be upheld by a worthy people. Let it stand in our park, facing the setting sun, no mere ornament, but a lesson anda stimulus. As years roll by and generation succeeds generation, let old and young find in its sculptured face both history and admonition. As the sunlight plays about the inscription like the wind breathing upon A£olian strings, the letters will seem vocal, and chant, in earnest tones: The dead died to save their country, let the living so live as to keep it worthy."

After Judge Force had spoken, Hon. Oliver P. Morton, Senator of Indiana, being in the city, came upon the stage, and was called upon to speak. He thereupon referred, in eloquent terms, to the occasion aad the commemorative object of the meeting, but confined his remarks to the National as against the States Rights idea.

The main object of the association was now accomplished,* but the roll of the dead, referred to on the monument as recorded at the recorder's office remained unprepared until the spring of 1880. Mr.S. J. Hathaway having been elected secretary of the association in 1878, prepared a bill to enable soldiers' monument associations to record names of fallen soldiers, war of 1861 to 1865 inclusive.

The Hon. Henry Bohl, then representing Washington county in the State legislature, procured the passage of the bill May 27, 1879, so that the assessors in the spring of 1880 were required to take an enumeration of all deceased soldiers who enlisted from this county. A blank was prepared giving the facts. The assessors did their work as well as it could be done after so many years had elapsed since the war. This was supplemented by facts and data, procured at much labor and trouble, from other sources, until a sufficient degree of fullness and accuracy was obtained to justify the record to be made.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest ! When spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By forms unseen their dirge is sung; There Honor comes, a prilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair

*Through the eftorts of one of Marietta's public-spirited citizens - M. P. Wells, esq. - a neat iron fence wag, in the spring of 1877, placed around the monument, part of the money to pay for which was donated by the Philomathean society, composed of young ladies of the Marietta high school. The same gentlemin then followed up the work so well begun by moving for a donation of four cannon from the United States arsenal, at Washington, to p!ace at the four corners of the monument. The Hon. A. J. Warner, our Representative in Congress from this district (thirteenth), procured the passage of a bill, approved June 8, 1880, donating to the association four twenty-pound Parrot guns. These were received in the summer of 1880, were let into four stone blocks and placed at the corners of the monument, as they now stand.

The subject of this sketch was born at Tiverton, Rhode Island, at a place known as Howland's Ferry, June 30, 1782. His father, Captain Jonathan Devol, was born in the same vicinity, where he had numerous connections.

In the fall of the year 1788 the family moved to Marietta, then inthe Northwest Territory, he being then but six years of age. The journey took six weeks of incessant toil. When the family arrived at Marietta they found a wilderness to be conquered, requiring years of patient toil and entailing, at times, great privations. In the spring of 1789, his father and family, in company with a number of others, removed to Belpre.and began that settlement. They had cleared a few acres, amid much suffering from scarcity of food, when the Indian war broke out, and for four years thereafter they were confined within the protecting walls of ''Farmer's Castle," a strong palisade and log fortification built by the settlers for their safety. Near the close of the war, when only thirteen years old, he served as a soldier in Fort Harmar, performing the routine of duty and standing guard in the sentry-box during the darkest nights with the firmness of a man of thirty. He was, when a youth, noted for his cotrage and daring feats. At the close of the war he removed to a farm five miles above Marietta, on the Muskingum, where he erected a large mill, carried on shipbuilding with other various mechanical pursuits, in all of which his son Charles bore a part until he was twentyone years of age.

Just before the war he was married to Sallie Hoyt, daughter of Benajah Hoyt. At the close of the war he settled on a farm at the mouth of the Big Hocking river.

He served as a magistrate several years with credit to himself and the community in which he lived. Owing to the scarcity of physicians in those cays men of tact and experience often had to act in the place of the doctors. Captain Devol filled this position in the community in which he lived, acting as doctor or dentist as occasion required. In religion he was a Congregationalist, and remained a consistent member of that church up to the time of his death. Captain Devol was endowed with a cheerful disposition, fine conversational powers, and a superior'personal appearance. His affable manners won for him the lasting regard of all who knew him. He died from the effects of paralysis, August 28, 1845, at Chauncy, Athens county, Ohio, while on a business visit to Hon. Samuel F. Vinton.

The children of Captain Devol were: Sarah, who married Winchester Dana, the owner of the well known "Dana farm" just below Beverly; Henrietta, who married Samuel S. Knowles, prominent in Washington county as State senator and judge of the court of common pleas; Frank Devol, who removed to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and there engaged in the hardware business; and Captain Prescott Devol.

Of Captain Prescott Devol we should make more than a passing notice did our space permit. Nature seldom endows a man so richly as she did the brave, adventurous, and generous "Pres" Devol. He was named after his father's intimate friend, Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth, of Marietta, and was born in March, 1822. When about twelve years of age he went to school at Marietta, and afterwards studied at the Ohio university at Athens. In addition to physical strength he possessed unusual vocal powers.

In the fall of 1840 he took a boat load of cord wood to Cincinnati. The Harrison campaign being then in full blast young Devol's vocal powers were in demand, being pressed into the service of the Whig party at Cincinnati, as he had no equals in singing campaign songs. -

He was borne through the streets in a triumphal car, singing to the great amusement and edification of the throng that flocked to hear him. During the campaign he visited St. Louis and New Orleans, creating great excitement by his stirring political songs. He was afterwards clerk and then captain of one of the fast Clipper steamboats, then plying between' Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and such was his popularity that passengers would wait over to go with Captain "Pres" Devol. He went to Mexico during the Mexican war on a war vessel in the service of the United States. Upon his return, in the fall of 1846, he was married to Sarah, daughter of Gilbert Devol. He afterwards went to California upon the breaking out of the gold excitement, and from there to the Sandwitch Islands. He seems to have sailed in a whaling ship, and finally brought up in Chinese waters. When he left the Sandwitch Islands, such was his popularity with the officers of the ships of different nationalities gathered there that they fired salutes in his honor as he sailed out. When he arrived at China the impression prevailed there that he must be a superior personage of high rank. At least he soon found a position as captain of a Peruvian manof-war sent for the protection of the Peruvian merchant ships in those waters. He was next in the service of China as captain of a large steamship. He was soon after commissioned as captain of a man-of-war by the king of Siam to cruise for pirates. In one of these cruises he encountered two pirate ships, engaged them, totally disabling one with cannon shot, and upon closing in to board her Captain Devol headed the boarding party in person. They surrendered, however, without further resistance. The other piratical craft also surrendered, and with these he returned to port. We next find Captain Devol organizing a gold mining expedition to the interior of Siam. While on this journey among the jungles and mountains of Siam he died from the effects of miasma, in his thirty-fifth year. He left a wife and one child.