Hanover Township (part 7 of 29)

In May the newspaper reported that Packet No. 1. Farmers' and Merchants' Line, P. .-V. Sprigman, master, had arrived at the Hamilton basin, and would ply regularly between Cincinnati and ? liddletown when the canal was passable.

In November, 1828, the commissioners announce the completion of the lower level from Cincinnati to Middletown, although some unexpected difficulties had been met with. They report :

" The first division of this canal, extending from the head of Main Street in the city of Cincinnati to the mouth of the Miami feeder, a distance of forty-four miles, has been completed during the past season. Its full completion was delayed until the latter part of the season in consequence of the multiplied difficulties which had to be encountered by t Bo contractors in completing their work on the heavy cJitls and embankments iu the valley of Mil! Creek, l'lie greater part of the line was finished as early as midsummer. The introduction of water into this canal was commenced about the 1st of July, and was attended with serious difficulties. By continued and persevi ring efforts thirty-eight miles nf it were sufficiently tilled by the 1st of November for the running of boats. The extensive beds of very coarse gravel over which the first, twenty miles of tire canal are constructed, with the dry condition of the earth and pure state of the water at this season of the year, rendered the operation of filling it difficult and tedious. The process was rendered more difficult from the circumstance of there being but one point from which water could he drawn to supply the demand produced by the great absorption throughout the Jiue below. Experience soon established the point that a patient perseverance was the only safe, and in the end the most expeditious, course which could be pursued. To increase the volume of water introduced from -the river, with a view to hasten its progress forward in the canal, only added to the liability of the new banks to give away, and thus to produce delays much more serious than would be experienced by the flow of water in smaller quantities, proportioned more nearly to the powers of resistance of the new and porous banks. The first view of the difficulties in filling this section of the canal seemed to wear a discouraging aspect; but a little observation and reflection only were necessary to satisfy the mind that the evil was merely temporary. The result has proved it to he so. Though by very slow degrees, and for a time scarcely perceivable, the absorption continued to lessen, until, with but little increase of the supply from the river, the canal was filled to a natural basin about six miles by the line of canal north of Cincinnati. It was deemed prudent to arrest the progress of the water at this point, with a view to allow the heavy clay embankment below it, under the seasoning influence of the Winter frosts and rains, time to settle and to acquire that solidity and strength which it is necessary they should have to render them safe, and which can only be acquired by the aid of time and the seasons. Embankments of the magnitude of these, where clay is the only material of which they are composed, can not be used while iu a green and unsettled state without incurring greater risk than the dictates of prudence will sanction. In the present case the obligation to adhere to the counsel of prudence was the more binding, as the season had too far advanced to permit the idea of doing much business on the canal before Spring. Navigation on this division of the canal may commence as earlv in the Spring as the bank can be raised, and such repairs made as the effects of the "Winter upon this part of the line may render necessary; and a full confidence is felt that the business which wiil he done upon it, and the benefits resulting to the country, will be equal to the most sanguine expectations of the commissioners.

"On the 2^th of November three fine boats, crowded with citi/eus delighted with the novelty nod interest of I the occasion, left the basin six miles north of Cincinnati, ! am! proceeded to Middletown with the most perfect sue- ! cess. Th(> progress of the boats was equal to about three I i » miles an hour through the course of the whole line, including the detention at the locks and all other causes of delay, which' are numerous in a first attempt to navigate a new canal, when masters, hands, and horses are inexperienced, and often the canal itself in imperfect order. The boats returned to the basin with equal success, and it is understood have made several trips since, carrying passengers and freight. The success of these experiments in canal navigation and the obvious facility with which heavy burdens were moved by the power of even a single horse, must go far to convince the most incredulous of the high interest and importance of such a channel of commercial intercourse passing the heart of a country- as populous and productive as that through which this canal passes.

" The levels throughout this line prove to have been taken with the nicest accuracy, and the work generally .appears to have been constructed in a substantial manner. Some breaches have occurred ou the first introduction of the water and iu consequence of the late heavy rains, but not to a greater extent than must be expected in all new canals. The liability to evils of this nature will gradually lessen, as time and the effects of the water upon the banks increase their solidity and strength. Two breaches occurred in the course of the season at a point about five miles from Hamilton, where the canal was constructed in the face of a bluff bank with the river, and considerable depth of watc-r Immediately at its base. The embank-' ment at its base yielded to the pressure from above, and spread in the deep .water of the river. The breaches are repaired, and probably have added to the security of the. other parts of the same line of embankment. Another breach occurred iu the embankment at Gregory's Creek, produced by the interference of an individual in closing the lock-gates below without the knowledge of the superintendent' before sufficient wastewavs had been prepared to pass off" the accumulated water. But the most serious injuries were experienced at the aqueduct over 3. till Creek. From the peculiar character of the bottom of that stream, the spring-floods undermined the foundation of one of the piers so as to require the rebuilding of about ten feet of the head of the pier : and one of the wing walis of the same work also gave way a few days after that level was filled with water. The space within the wing-walls not occupied with puddle was filled with a very flue sand (the adjoining material), which, on being exposed to the influence of the water, became a quicksand, assuming a semi-fluid state. The powerful prcs>ure of this mass overcame the wall, which, on a careful inspection, was found to have been built iu a very unfaithful manner. The wall has been rebuilt, and the breach fully repaired, ami measures have been taken, as far as practicable, to guard against similar i vils.

" The feeder trom the Grout Miami was completed at an early day in the season : hut the. dam did not progress with equal success. When nearly completed, a swell in the river, produced by the rains in October, caused a ' breach in the unfinished parts, which, from the advanced stage of the season and a constant succession of rains and i high water, could not be then repaired, and its final com- j pletion was necessarily postponed until another year. In j the mean time a sufficient supply of water for the canal : may be drawn from the river by the aid of the brushdam, which gives the present supply. Immediately after ; the injury to the dam was sustained, the contract was | declared to be forfeited on the part of the contractor, the ; work taken possession of by the State, and measures immediately taken to secure the dam against further injury, which, it is believed, will be effectual. The principal engineer was directed to make a particular examination of the state of the work and of the accounts connected : with it, from which it appears that tire acting commis- I sioncr had retained from the contractor money sufficient to admit of the completion of the dam by the State I within the sum which would have been payable had it been completed under the contract. This opinion is j predicated upon the idea that the work will sustain no | further injury. Several floods have occurred in the river ; since, which do not appear to have extended the injury, i

" Contracts were closed on the 26th of May for the | construction of the remaining division of this canal, j which begins at the mouth of the feeder from the Miami j River, and terminates in a clam in Mad River about one - mile above Dayton. That part of it from the saw-mill at Dayton to the Mad River dam is designed upon the j present arrangement to serve as a feeder ; but, in the j event of the extension of this work to the north at any ! future period, to be used as a section of canal. This division to the dam is twenty-three miles and twentyeight chains in length. Jt embraces ten locks, one aque- ; duct with a wooden trunk, three of heavy stone arches, with embankments of earth over them, and a dam i across the Mad River. The remaining work is generally of the ordinary character, with the exception of the cedar : bluffs near Dayton, and a very heavy bluff bank at Vail's mill, immediately below the mouth of Clear Creek. At each of these points the river comes in contact with the high lands, presenting passes for the canal expensive and somewhat difficult to encounter- The work on this line has progressed since its commencement with much activity, and is already in a very forward state. Bv the terms of the contracts, it is to be completed on the first J day of June next. The advanced state of the work justifies the opinion that it will be completed all in the month of July.

"The stone-work on this division, which has hereto- . | fore, on the Miami Canal, cost much more than it was j originally estimated to cost, has been let at rates about 1 equal to the first estimate; and the earth-work at as low ! rates as on any other part of the canals. But throughout the line of die Miami Canal it has been found that the quantities of most of the different items of work 1 upon which the first estimate was founded fall short of the actual quantity, and that its actual cost must necessarily exceed its estimated cost. The plans for crossing the different streams now adopted are, in many cases, more costly, but probably more substantial than those upon which the original estimates were made. In several instances heavy arches of masonry have been adopted, where wooden aqueducts or dams were the plans upon which the first estimates were founded. The item of locks is, however, the great cause of the difference between the actual and estimated cost of this canal, compared With that, of the Ohio Canal, north of the Licking Summit. The principal saving on that part of the Ohio Canal, now under contract, will be in the cost of the locks. A very large proportion of the lockage is embraced in that line, and from the great facility of procuring stone of the easiest quality to work the locks from the summit to Kaldersburg, will he constructed at an average of 01,500 each less than the first estimate of their cost, and those from the latter point to Lake Erie upon terms but little less favorable; while on the Miami Canal the locks, instead of being the chief item of saving, have necessarily cost a sum considerably above the original estimate.. The heavy bluffs and embankments encountered on the line have also contributed to swell the actual over the estimated cost of it.

"The payments made on the entire line, within the year ending on the first of December, amount to 8258,- 525.79, which, with the sum of 8297,296.98 previously paid, makes the total payments to contractors on this canal, §555,822.77. There has been paid on the line from Cincinnati to the Miami feeder the sum of §456,- 854.52, and there remains yet to be paid the sum of 01,115.16, making 010,403.40 its average cost per mile. This sum includes what has been paid in raising banks, in strengthening, securing, and repairing the canal, and in building lock-houses, up to the first of December. There has been paid on account of the dam and feeder to the contractor, 810,614 ; and to the superintendent, since the work has been taken into the hands of the State, §600 - in all, 811,214. The original estimate of the cost of this division of the canal, commencing at the Ohio River, and including the dam and feeder, was 8474,254. The actual cost of the same, beginning at the head of Main Street, in Cincinnati, including the payments on account of the darn and feeder, is 8469,183.68. The estimated cost of the tipper division of this canal under the contracts is §234,686.54. The work performed agreeably to the certificates of the engineers amounts to 896,040.41, leaving work to be performed to the amount of 0138,646. 13. To this should be added the probable sum of 83.000. which will be required to complete the dam aemss the Miami River. .\ wards have been made bv tuo board of appraisers in favor of individuals for damages sustained by the construction of the canal to the amount of §5,011.54, which have been paid to the

.amount of $4,521.87. The sums awarded have been mostly for stone and timber used in the construction of the canal.. There are several claims for the value of land occupied and for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the separation of the different parts of a farm, which have not yet been decided upon by the appraisers. A schedule of the awards which have been made is herewith submitted, marked A.

In Whose Favor Ox What Account

Damage done his mill on the Miami River by mu ting ott'the communication between said mill and the surrounding country, and the consequent deterioration in the value of the mill and other improve-

"The injury which this canal sustained in consequence of the floods of the last Winter was not so great as, from its exposed position, was expected. The cost of repairing the several broaches which occurred on that part of the line below the Miami feeder did not exceed the sum of two thousand dollars. The effects of the Winter on the line, in the lower part of the valley of Mill Creek, were of a nature calculated to cause serious difficult',', and to require a very considerable expenditure to prepare that portion of the canal lor navigation. The settling of the heavy embankments, and the sliding of the earth lying in its natural condition from under the banks of the canal on the lower side, and into it from the upper side, were evils of much magnitude, which were increased by the peculiarly wet Winter and Spring. The breaches caused by the flood were repaired, and the effects of the- Winter upon the lower part of the line so far overcome as to permit of the passage of boats throughout the line from Middletown to Cincinnati, ou the 17th of March. Navigation on this division of the canal has been continued throughout the season with frej quent interruptions, arising out- of the peculiar character of the lower part of the line, and the uupropitious nature j of the forepart of -the season for the safety of a new canal, constructed upon clay side hills and artificial banks. A very salutary change has been produced in the appearance and character of this line since the termination of the Spring rains. The base of the embankments generally bad been extended with a view to their greater security, the inner slopes and bottom of the canal, where it was deemed necessary, have been puddled, and the banks have now become much more solid and compact, and the evils arising from the slips are evidently lessening so far as to give assurances of less difficulty hereafter. But it will require time, with the exercise of much vigilance, to render this part of the canal entirely free from the evils incident to its peculiar character.

"The measures which had been taken at the date of the last annual report of the board to secure the dam across the Miami Liver from further injury proved effectual. It sustained little or no further damage through the Winter and Spring, and ou the arrival of the proper season the breach through which the river had flowed for more than six months was closed in a very substantial manner. The sum expended in securing and rebuilding the dam, added to that which had been previously paid to the contractor, still keeps tiie cost of the dam and feeder within the sum which would have been payable had it been completed under the contract without the occurrence of the breach.

"The causes, in part, which delayed the progress of the work on the Ohio Cana' have operated in their full force to retard the progress cf the work on the upper division of the Miami Canal. It was confidently believed that this line could all have beeu completed in the month of July; its full completion was, however, delayed until the month of November, notwithstanding every reasonable exertion was made by the contractors to finish their work at an earlier period, lhe tmn-portbr which were situated seven miles from the line, was necessarily delayed until the middle and latter part of the Summer, in consequence of the impassibility of the mails during the Winter and early part of the season. This unavoidably delayed the completion of tiiese works until late in the sou.-ou. I he entire canal from Cincinnati to lk'Yton, with a feeder from the Miami River a short distance above Middletown, and one from Mad River near Dayton, is now completed with the exception of the dam over Mud River, which was injured by the floods of January last. The water of this river continued so high up to the month of July as to induce the postponement of the rebuilding of the dam until another season. The feeder has been extended a short distance further up the stream, which, with the aid of a temporary" brush and stone dam, gives an am pie .supply of water for the present.

"The filling of the new line with water has proved to be a tedious operation. That part of it nearest to Dayton, being first finished, the water was introduced into it as early as the 27th of September, and with an intermission of ten days made necessary by the unfinished state of a job, and another of twelve days, in consequence of a breach in an embankment, there has been a continued flow from Mad River in the canal of from six thousand to ten thousand cubic feet of water per minute up to the present time. Such has been the absorption of the water by the gravelly plains through which the canal is constructed, that with the utmost exertions on the part of the superintendent the water of Mad River has but just reached the head of the lower division of the canal. This portion of the line being filled with water, a change in the temperature of the weather is all that is now required to open navigation from Cincinnati to Dayton.

'"With the exception of about seven miles of the line near Cincinnati this canal is believed to be a very safe and permanent work, which will require for its annual repairs an expenditure comparatively small. It embraces twenty-two locks, overcoming one hundred and eightyeight. feet of lockage. These are built in a permanent manner, most of them in a character of workmanship that will beat a comparison with other works of the kind in the United States. The aqueducts on the lower division are constructed with wooden trunks, those in the upper division, with one exception, upon stone arches with embankments of earth over the arches. Ttiat over Clear Creek, supported by three arches of fortv feet chord, is built in a style of workmanship which, for strength and beauty, is not surpassed by any work of the kind. It reflects much credit upon the skill and fidelity of the contractor. A side cut to connect the canal with the town of Hamilton has been !ai 1 out and constructed under the authority of the board within the past season, the length of which is fifty-three chains and sixty-two links. The cost of this cut is between six and seven thousand dollars, two thousand of which have been paid by the State, and the remaining sum by tiro citizens of Hamilton and Rossville.

Length Of The Miami Canal Schedule Of Further Awards

SCHEDULE OF FURTHER AWARDS I SUSTAINED 1IY INDIVIDUALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIE MIAMI ! CANAL MADE BY THE HOARD OF Al'PKAlSEKS ON THE lliTH

On What Account

The canal has continued to be in use ever since, and has been of immense value to the people cf this section. Its usefulness, however, has been much lessened bv the railroad, and those who are best informed on the subject look forward to the day as not far distant when the tolls I will not pay the expense of keeping it in order, and it consequently will be abandoned. The dimensions of the channel are twenty-six feet at the bottom and forty feet at the top. In depth it varies in different sections from four feet to five feet. The locks are eighty feet long, and fourteen feet inside chamber. The maximum size of j canal-boats is eighty tons'.

The Warren County Canal Company was organized i February 22, 18-10, and led from Middletown to Lebaj non, a distance including the feeder, of twentv miles.

1 with an aggregate lift of twenty-eight feet, locking up | into the western part of the town; two lucks were !oj cated at Middletown, each with a fall of eight feet, locking down into the Miami and Erie Canal. At Lebanon j was a dura on Turtle Creek about one hundred feet long,

: and also a reservoir of forty-five acres, the water from 1 which, together with water uraisbed by the pool of the 1 dam, supplied lockage water to the caunl. To supply i the canal from Middletown to the locks at Lebanon, two I thousand cubic feet of water per minute was brought from Mad River by the Miami and Erie Canal, then known as the Miami Caual, and introduced into the Warren County Canal feeder above the second lock, i north of Middletown. This canal was commenced bv a company, and estimated in 1833 to cost 8123,861. Bv i an act of the General Assembly dated Februnrv 20. j 1836, the canal was made an appendage and part of the Miami Canal, and placed in charge of the canal eomj missioners. The canal cost, when finished, the stun of two hundred and seventeen thousand, five hundred and ilfty-two dollars and sixteen cents. The reservoir, shunted in the north-west part of Lebanon, when full of water, is very nm< ii elevated above the old dam site, j and the water, when drawn therelrotn for lockage pur- poses, was used to propel machinery in its descenr to the j canal The canal was suffered to go into disuse, and in 1855 was sold and abandoned. At the time the com- ' panv turned over the canal, to the State they had ex- ! pended §21,742.33.

Leaders Of The Half Century

We have found it expedient under this head to group together a list of names of those who, in the earlier half of the century, were the leaders of public opinion in this remote Western country. It only includes a few persons, ! and others as eminent are to be found outside of this | roll. All are now dead. The list begins with the yen- | erable president of Miami University, liobert Hamilton Bishop, I). D., first president of Miami "University, was the son of William and Margaret | Bishop. He was born in the parish of Whitburn, Lin- j lithgowshire, North Britain, on the 26th of July, 1777. | Having early evinced a fondness for books, as well as a j mind of more than ordinary vigor, he entered on a course of classical study, and in November, 1794, became a member of the University of Edinburgh. After completing his course at the university, he entered the Divinity Hall at Selkirk, under the Rev. George Lawson, ! in August, 1798. Here he passed through the prescribed j course of theological study, and on the 28th of June, j 1802, was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Associate . Burgher Presbytery of Perth.

In the Spring and Summer of 1801, the Rev. (after- i wards I)r.) John M. Mason, of the city of New York, visited the Burgher Synod of Scotland, as the commissioner from the Associate Reformed Synod of North America, partly with a view to obtain a supply of preachers for the American Synod. Mr. Bishop, being at that time a student under Professor Lawson, was casually introduced to Dr. Mason, and the brief interview which he had with him led, some two months after, to a partial engagement to accompany Dr. Mason to America, provided the synod, at whose disposal he was, should so direct.

The synod met in April, 1802; and, under their special order, he was licensed to preach, with a view to his engaging in the contemplated mission. In September following, he, with five other ordained ministers, embarked with Dr. Mason at Greenock, and arrived at New York before the close, of October. Having attended a meeting of the Associate Reformed Synod, which took place shortly after his arrival, he set out with two other clergymen for Kentucky; but, being left to supply two nets- congregations in Adams County, Ohio, for two months, he did not arrive there until March, 1803. He had been appointed to labor in Kentucky by the casting vote of the moderator of the synod - what was then called the Second Congregation of New York having made application for his services. Five years afterwards the same congregation sent him a pressing invitation to return to them, which, however, he did not accept.

In the Summer of 1803 he had three calls presented to him in due form ; but that which he finally accepted was from Ebenczer, in Jessamine County, which was connected with Ye w Providence, in Mercer County. The two congregations united contained about thirty families spread over a tract of country at least fifteen miles square ; and, as the Kentucky River and the Kentucky cliffs intervened between the two places of worship, the two Churches were not expected to worship together much oftener than twice in a year. About the same time a professorship in Transylvania University was offered him, and, accepting it, he combined the duties of that office with those of his charge.

Haviug accepted the call from the above-mentioned Churches m the Autumn of 1804. subjects were given him for his trial discourses to be delivered in the Spring ; but at the Spring meeting he was informed that he could not be admitted to trial for ordination til! he should dissolve his connection with the Transylvania University. The reasons assigned for this were that the presbytery had the exclusive disposal of his time, and that his duties in connection with the university were of such a nature as to interfere greatly with his usefulness to the Associate Reformed Church. This brought him into unpleasant relations with the presbytery; and ultimately he was regularly prosecuted upon a charge of disobedience, the result of which was that he received a presbvterial rebuke, by which the matter was considered as judicially settled. The case, however, being subsequently referred to the synod, it was decided that the resignation of his place in the university should not be an unllsj pensable condition of his ordination, and that the Presbytery of Kentucky should proceed to ordain him as soon as circumstances would permit. This decision was given in June, 1807 ; but, owing to certain circumstances-, his ordination did not take place till June, 1808. Tints, for nearly four years he was virtually under ecclesiastical process ; and, although only a probationer, bad yet the j charge of two congregations, to which he preached alter- | nately every Sabbath - the one fifteen miles, the other ! twenty-seven miles distant from his residence.

For some time after his ordination. Air. Bishop seems j to have exercised his ministry with a good degree of ! comfort ami -incc--. In the year UiO the presbytery i appointed him, in connection with the Rev. Adam Ran- | kin, of polemic notoriety, to prepare an address to the i Churches, in the form of a pastoral letter, designed to illustrate the obligation of sustaining Christian institutions, and especially the ministry of the Gospel. The document was written by Mr. Bishop, assented to by Mr. Rankin, and passed without opposition by the presbytery, though it gave great offense in certain quarters, and especially in Mr. Bishop's own congregation. The j presbytery, with a view to prevent erroneous irupres- j sions and to avert threatening evil, directed their clerk to ! address an official letter to the Ebenezer congregation, s distinctly stating that the offensive circular was to he considered the act of the presbytery, and not of an individual. This letter Mr. Bishop caused to be printed, ! with some explanatory remarks of his own, in the close i of which he made an allusion to the conduct of Mr. Rankin, which he afterward pronounced "imprudent and unnecessary," and which occasioned him great embarrassment in his ecclesiastical relations. His original connection with the pastoral letter led to the dissolution of his relation to the Ebenezer congregation in October, 1814.

In the Autumn of 1811 Mr. Bishop entered into an ; arrangement with two or three other clergymen for con- | ducting a monthly religious publication, to be called the i Evangelical Record and Western Review. This was the I first thing of the kind ever attempted in Kentucky, and j the second west of the mountains. The work, however, j owing chiefly to a deficiency in the subscriptions, was i discontinued at the close of the second year.

In the second volume of this work Mr. Bishop published, as part of the history of religion in the State of Kentucky, an article entitled "The Origin of the Ran- i k mites," which gave great offense in various circles, and ; which he himself subsequently regarded as extremely illjudged and unfortunate. After considerable private and i extra-judicial conference on the subject, a regular judicial j inquiry was entered into by his presbytery, and in Oe- j tober, 1815, he was- brought to trial ou a charge of shin- j der; the result of which was, he was regularly suspended from the ministry. An appeal to the General Synod from the sentence was immediately taken. The synod met in j Philadelphia in May, 1816, and, pu an examination of ! the case presented by documents, they decided that Mr. j Bishop should be publicly rebuked by the presbytery for j the otiensive publications ; that the presbyter}' should use | means to bring the parties immediately concerned into I harmonious relations with each other; and that, if this could not be effected, there should be a regular trial in- ; stituted, and that the presbytery should make one of the i parties prosecutor and the other the defendant; and that, in the meantime, the seutence of sit-pension pas-'d hv the presbytery should be reversed. Nothing, however, : was satisfactorily accomplished under this decision, and j the case came again before the synod in 1817. At this 1 meeting a committee was appointed to proceed to Kentucky to take whatever depositions might lie considered necessary; but that committee, after some correspondence with the parties and others concerned, concluded not ; to fulfill their appointment. A synodical commission was, therefore, appointed in 1818, to go to Kentucky and adjudicate the case, subject to the review of the next synod. This commission, consisting of John M. Mason, Ebenezer Dickey, and John Linn, ministers, and Silas E. Weir, an elder from Philadelphia, proceeded to Lexington in September following, and in -the execution of their trust made Bishop the prosecutor and Rankin the defendant. The latter claimed his legal ten days to prepare for his defense; but when the time had expired, he declined the jurisdiction of the court. The trial, however, went on in his absence, and the decision was, "that the prosecutor should be publicly rebuked for the publications he had issued, and that the defendant, being convicted of lying and slander, be, as lie hereby is, suspended from the Gospel ministry." It is honorable to Mr. Bishop, considering the relations into which he was brought by Rankin, that he Las left the following testimony concerning him: " iff. Rankin, with all Irk bitterness on particular subjects and on particular occasions, was also, in all other matters and on Ml occasions, a kind-hearted, benevolent man." i Mr. Bishop's twenty-one years' connection with the Transylvania L diversity was marked by no serious difficulties or disagreeable circumstances, sc- far as he was personally or officially concerned. Lpwards of twenty young men, who were more or less under his special cure during this period:, afterwards entered the ministry, and several of them rose to eminence. During one of the three years in which he considered himself as virtually suspended from the ministry, he devoted nearly all his Sabbaths to the instruction of the negroes, and organized the first 'Sabbath-schools ever opened in Lexington for their benefit. He has been heard to say that this was one of the most agreeable enterprises in which he ever engaged; arid that in no other year of his residence in Kentucky had be so much evidence of the gnu ion -' presence of the Holy Spirit in connection with his labors.

In October, L811J, Mr. Bi-hop, having dissolved his connection with the Associate Reformed t hmvfi, joined the West Lexington Presbytery in connection with the General Assembly. From 1820 to 1823 iie officiated as stated supply to the Church in LcxingtOD, which had. been gathered by the labors of the Rev, James McC'hord; and his connection with this Church he seems to have considered as highly lavorable to both his comfort and usefulness.

In the Autumn of 1824 he accepted the prosidenev of Miami Lniversity, Oxford, Ohio, and was inaugurated on the 30 rh of March, 1825. Here he found a few Christian people who had been under the care of the Rev. James Hughes, for some years principal of tlu; g-aminar school in that place; and the pupils of thk be gathered and formed into a Presbyterian Church, and preached to them regularly ou tlu: Sabbath in the college chapel, until the year 1831, when, as the result of a revival, in which Dr. Blackburn was the principal instrument, the Church gathered so much strength that they undertook to build a place of' worship and call a pastor. In 1825 he was honored with the degree of j Doctor of Divinity from the college of Row Jersey.

In the great controversy which divided the Presbyte- l rian Church in 1888 -Dr. Bishop's sympathy and action were with the New School. In 1841 he resigned the presidency of Miami University, but held the professorship of History and Political Science until the Autumn of 18-14, when his connection with the institution ceased, j He then removed to Pleasant Hill, a beautiful spot in the immediate neighborhood of Cincinnati, where there j was already an academy which, partly through his agency, was now enlarged into a college, under the name of the "Farmers' College." Here he remained actively and usefully employed to the close of life. Dr. | Bishop preached regularly iu the chapel to the students ! as long as be retained the presidency of the university, i but after that had no stated charge. He preached, j however, very frequently during his subsequent years, j and his last sermon was preached on the loth of April, j 1855, but two weeks before his death. As be left his house to preach this sermon he distinctly told his v ife it \ would be his last. He heard his classes as usual on j Thursday, and was just going to the college on Friday morning, when his strength failed, so that he was no longer capable of making an effort. He lingered until five o'clock Sabbath morning (April 29th), his usual hour of rising, and then died, as he had often expressed a wish to die, "in the harness."

On the 25th of August, 1802, just as be was on the eve of embarking for America, he was married to Ann Ireland, by whom he had eight children, five sons and j three daughters. All his sous were graduates of Miami ! University. Two of them became clergymen, and one | of them a professor in the university at which he grad- ! uated. Mrs. Bishop survived her husband but two I .veeks.

The following is a list of Dr. Bishop's publications: | "Sermons on Various Subjects," 1808. (This was the I first volume of sermons printed west of the mountains.) | "Memorials of David Rice," with an Appendix, 1824; j " Elements of Logic, or a Summary of the General j Principles and Different Modes of Reasoning," 1838; j "Sketches of the Philosophy of the Bible," 1833; "Fie- | ments of the Science of Government," 1839; "The Western Peacemaker," 1839. He published, also, several occasional sermons and addresses, among which was a sermon ou the death of the Rev. James MeCliord, 1820, mid the address at his inauguration as president of Miami University in 1825. He contributed, also, liberally to several periodicals.

versity - of which he was for a long time president - di- 1 rectors of Farmers' College, instructors and pupils, with j a numerous concourse of friends, attended his remains to j their final resting-place on earth. Members of the Burritt Literary Society, preceded by the directors, bore the body to the college chapel, where religious exercises were commenced by Rev. Professor Cary. Dr. Alien, professor of Lane' Seminary, delivered an elegant and in- i struetive sermon from the text, Second Timothy, fourth ] chapter, seventh and eighth verses, ' I have fought a i good fight,'" etc. In the course of his remarks he read j a portion of his will, to the effect that being then ("14th ;

May* 1855) seventy-four years of age and much reduced in strength, though of sound mind, ho first gave, ' as he j always had attempted to do, his soul to God, and he j expected to be received as was the thief ou the cross. Second, his body after death to the directors of Farmers' ; College, to be placed in a plain coffin, and then inclosed in > a strong square box and deposited in an artificial mound in j a designated spot iu the college-yard, to consist of successive layers of earth and sand, not to be less than eight I feet, solid measure. No artificial monument to be erected j on it, unless it should be a few evergreens or shrubbery. | Another portion of the will spoke of the aged wife he left behind him. lie commended her, during the few j remaining years of her life, to the friends of Farmers ! College. During the- fifty years she, with him, Lad assisted in the education of young men, she had. on principle, never spent any thing for entertainments, but devoted all for the tuition and books of those needing j assistance.

Dr. Scott, late president of Miami College, and long connected with the deceased in educational efforts, gave personal testimony to the worth and noble efforts or Dr. Bishop. His personal history be gave with interest, mentioning that, "during the changes and controversies originating in skeptical views among those controlling that (Miami) university, there was always one who nobly : stood by the faithful Christian soldier. Dr. Bishop, and j that was the national statesman, Henry Clay. He continued to implore tire directors to retain Dr. Bishop, for, ; if they did not hove one praying man iu the university : it surely would go down."

William Bebb, who was governor of this State during the Mexico u war, was born on the Dry Fork of Whitewater, in Morgan Township, December 8, 1802. His father, Edward Bebb, emigrated from Wales, Great Britain, in 1705, traveled across the mountains to the valley of the Miami on foot, purchased in the neighborhood of North Bond an extensive tract of land, returned to Pennsylvania and married Mbs Roberts, to when he had been engaged in Mah-, and, with his bride, ridim; in a suitable conveyance, again crossed the mountains, and settled on bis land in what was then but a wilder- ness. He was a man of sound judgment, and, in common with many of his countrymen, of a joyous and overhopeful disposition. His wife was a lady of culture and refinement, and 3ier home in the valley of the Miami, with no near neighbors, was a great change from her previous life. There were, of course, no schools near to send her children to, and this was matter of grave concern to the parents, aud the son was, in consequence, taught to read at home. In those years the Western Spy, then published in Cincinnati, and distributed by a private post-rider, was taken by his father, and William read with avidity the contents of it, especially the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. A stream desire to acquire a better education induced him to make extraordinary efforts, and in this matter he was much assisted by Mr. David Lloyd, a graduate of a college in Philadelphia, who resided in the neighborhood. Bebb began teaching school at Oury's school-house, in the village of New Haven, Hamilton County, and afterwards at North Bend, the residence of General Harrison. He remained in this latter place a year, during which time he married Miss Sarah Shuck, the daughter of a wealthy German resident of the village.

Proving a success as a teacher of boys, he conceived the idea of extending his usefulness, and resolved to open an extensive boarding-school on part of his father's large place and farm, some two miles north of the Oury's school-house. With the assistance of his father and the encouragement of his neighbors, who bad much confidence in him and his learning and ability, and with the goodwill and aid of some Cincinnati friends, he had a large and commodious two-storv-and-a-half frame house and additions- erected ou the banks of the Dry Fork of Whitewater. The large building consisted of a middle two-and-a-half story house, and commodious wings ou each side one-and-a-half story high ; one of these, the northern wing, being devoted to himself and young family as a dwelling ; the other, the southern wing, being the school-house, and dormitory for the boys above. The center building contained a large dining-hall, entered from a beautiful covered portico, reached by a flight of steps extending the whole length of the building, and as large a dormitory for the boys immediately above, and rooms and large kitchen at the rear. The whole house was painted white, adorned with blue. Thus situated, Mr. Bebb began his boarding-school about the year 1827 or 1828, and, being an energetic man, he began to prosper, and his school was soon tilled with pupils and hoarders from the boys of Cincinnati and elsewhere. This was the first and pioneer boarding-school in the vicinity of Cincinnati. It was distant just twenty-five miles from that city, and it was reached by tolerably good roads for those days, either by way of Miiiereek and Coleralu townships, through the town of \ eniee on the Great Miami, or through Green aud Miami and Crosby townships, through the villages of Cheviot, Miamitowu, and

New Haven. In and about the locality, particularly on the Dry Fork Creek, there were a great many large, fuli-foliaged, and grand sycamore-trees, and Mr. Bebb named the place Sycamore Grove. This name became celebrated in Cincinnati and throughout the country, and Bebb's school and Sycamore Grove became a distinguished place. He carried on his school until the end of the year 1832, when, being filled with ambition to make a still greater mark before the public eye, he gave up his wellestablished school.

In 1831 he rode to Columbus on horseback, where the supreme court judges examined him and passed him to practice in the State. He -then removed to Hamilton, Butler County, and opened a law office, being for a long time in partnership with John M. Millikin, where lie continued quietly and in successful practice fourteen years. During this period lie took an active interest in political affairs, and advocated during his first, called the hard-cider campaign, the claims of General Harrison, and no less distinguished himself during that "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too'," campaign, in which the persons indicated were successful, and the \\ bigs, in 18-10. for the first time succeeded iu electing their candidates. Four years afterward he was elected governor of the State, and the war with Mexico placed him, as the governor of Ohio, in a very trying position. As a Whig he did not personally favor that war, and this feeling was generally entertained by the party who made him their leader in the State ; but he felt that the question was one not of party but of cordial support of the general government, and his earnest recognition of this fact eventually overcame the danger that had followed President Polk's proclamation of war. His term of office (1846-48) was distinguished by good money, free-scliools, great activity iu the construction of railroads and turnpikes ; the arts and industry generally were well rewarded, and high prosperity characterized the whole. State. Iu 1847 Governor Bebb purchased five thousand acres of land in Rock River County, Illinois, of which the locatio i was delightful and the soil rich. Five hundred acres were wooded, and constituted a natural park, while the remainder was prairie of the best quality, with a stream of water fed by perpetual springs. No man of moderate ambition could desire the possession of a more magnifieeut portion of the earth's j surface. Three years after making this purchase lie j removed to it, taking with him fine horses and a number of the choicest breeds of cattle, and entered upon the cultivation of this lino property. Five years afterward lie visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe. Iu j the birthplace of his father lie found many desirous to | immigrate to America, and, encouraging the enterprise.

| a company was formed, and a tried of one hundred thou- ! sand acres purchased for them in East Tennessee, where I lie agreed to presale over their arrangements ami the set* ' tlement of this land. In 185(1 a partv of the colonists j arrived on the laud, and Governor Bebb resided with them until the war of the Rebellion began, when he left the State with his family. The emigrants, discouraged by the strong pro-slavery sentiment, scattered and settled in various parts of the Northern States On the inauguration of President Lincoln, Governor Bebb was appointed examiner in the Pension Department at Washington, and held this position until 18G9, when he returned to his farm in Illinois, and the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. His scale of farming was the cultivation of two thousand acres in a season, while another thousand formed his cattle pasture. While in Washington he received the appointment of consul at Tangiers, Morocco, but declined.

He took an active part in the election of General Grant, and the first sickness of any consequence he ever experienced was an attack of pueumonia following an exposed ride from Pecatonica, where he had addressed the electors, to his home. From this he never recovered, and, although he spent the following Winter in Washington, occupied mainly as a listener to the debates in the Senate, he felt his vital forces gradually declining. Returning home the next Summer, and feeling that he was no longer able to superintend his farm operations, he purchased a residence at Rockford, and there resided until his death, which happened October 23, 1873. His widow still survives him, and has now reached the age of seventy-eight. She lives in Rockford, Illinois.

David 51 A Cd Ill

The Rev. David MacDill, D. D., was born in the Northern District of South Carolina, December 27, 1790. He was of Seoteh-Irish descent. Plis father, though quite young, served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution, under Colonel Horry. The son in his youth enjoyed the advantages afforded by the Churches and schools which then existed among Seoteh-Irish Presbyterians in the South. At the age of sixteen he had studied as much mathematics as was then usually studied in c< liege. He had a thirst for knowledge and a love of hot >ks.

In 1800 the MacDill family removed from South Carolina to what was then regarded as " the far West," and settled in Preble County, Ohio. The country was almost an unbroken forest. A. section of land, consistmg of six hundred and forty acres, was purchased, and tin* work of erecting a log-house and other buildings and C clearing off the timber, mostly beech, was begun. In siK'h work as this young David. MacDill spent three years - teaching school, however, for three months during e.irh of those years. At the end of this time, being about nineteen years old, he commenced the study of languages under the Rev. William Robertson, at Leba- Gnio. He finished bis litoran ionise in Tians\!va- 1,1:1 l niversity. Lexington, Kentucky. Among bis cla.-s- "l:U,'s were the Rev. J. Finley Crowe, I). I)., the founder 1,1 lluuover College, and the Rev. David Muuibrt, D. 1).,

! pastors for many yearn of the Presbyterian Church in j Hamilton, Ohio. In 1813 he entered the Associate Re- | formed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in New York,

! Here he spent four annual sessions, and had as fellowj students many who afterward became leading ministers in their respective Churches. He spent the Summer va- ! cations in teaching in the vicinity of New York. When j he graduated, in 1817, from the Seminary, he delivered ! by appointment the valedictory address to his class. He . was iicensed to preach August 6, 181 7. Pie began to I preach in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (United j Presbyterian; Church, in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, in October, 1817. He was ordained and installed pastor ' of the congregations cf Hamilton and Concord, October.

| 1818. He continued in charge of these two eongrega- : tions for eight or ten years, and then demitted the Gonj cord branch. The Concord meeting-house was .about : eight miles north of Hamilton, and just this side of Coij linsville. He continued pastor of the Hamilton Church i until 1843, a period of more than thirty years. During I the most of this time he preached three times each Sabi bath - twice in his own church, and once in a sehool- : house or unoccupied church. . In addition to these labors he edited the Christian Intelligencer, a monthly religious periodical. He was also for manx years ( about twentvfour in all) a member of the board of trustees of Miami University, and was always punctual in attending its meetings. His influence did much to promote the prosperity of that institution.

In 1848 he removed with bis family to Sparta, Ean- ; dolph County, Illinois. Here he became pastor of the ! Union congregation, which, in a few years, became too j large, in his opinion, to be cared for by one of bis age.

He was appointed to this position by the synod of Uii- | nois. He was now nearly seventy years of age. He ! continued to discharge the duties of editor until 1SG2, when he resigned. He died in Monmouth, Illinois, June j 15, 1870, in the eightieth year of his age.

Professor Morrison, in his biograph v, says: "The fruit i of his untiring labors in and about Hamilton is not all seen in the congregation he there collected, oi the number of persons brought into that branch of the Church l of which he was a member. . . . The influence' of Dr.

MacDill was felt all over that country. . . . There was i perhaps no man in Butler County who did more to mold public opinion for good than Dr MacDiil. He was \ - r on the lookout for opportunities of doing good to nun and advancing the glory of God." (Pp. LS--2U. ) a pin ili'u I aral cultivated logician, a profound and vigorous | thinker, a general and accurate scholar, and a courteous i and attractive Christian gentleman." The same writer speaks of Dr. MacDill's editorials as being "among the liveliest and best specimens of thought and style anywhere to lie found." (Page 33.) Dr. J. B. Scouller, in the United Presbyterian Manual, says of him: " He wrote more for the periodical press than any man in the Church, having written very frequently during forty j years for all the papers. The style of his articles was ! always clear, pointed, and terse, and the matter season- : able and judicious. The same qualities characterized his i preaching, while his manner was quiet and subdued. He j was reverent and devout in the" pulpit, and vet fre- j quently indulged in sarcasm, of which he was a thorough i master."

Dr. J. G. Monfort, editor of the Herald and Presbyter, i speaks of him as follows : " Dr. MacDill was one of the ; ablest and best ministers this country has ever produced. Ilis delivery was slow, and not impressive ; but his sermons were models of rich, pure, accurate, and sound thought. For fifteen years, from 1820, we heard him j preach almost every other Sabbath in Hamilton, Ohio, j and no other minister has so excited our higher affections j and veneration. His reputation where he lived and i labored is a sweet perfume."

Of course, such a thinker and writer would be an op- : ponent of injustice and the advocate of true moral pro- i gross. Dr. MacDill was among the earliest advocates of i temperance and. anti-slavery views. It was for the special purpose of advocating anti-slavery principles that the j Christian Intelligencer, of which ho was the editor, was established in 1825. 2. t that time it required some courage to be an anti-slavery man.

John Woods

Alexander Woods, father of John Woods, was a native : of Ireland, born in the countv of Tvrone, in 17G8. lu 1790 lie left his native land and came to the United ! States, and resided for some years in the eastern part of ; Pennsylvania. He afterwards came to the West, first to [ Kentucky, and afterwards to Warren County, Ohio; where he purchased a farm a few miles cast of the town j of Frankhu, which he improved, and on which he re- ; sided until the time of his decease. He died on the ninth day of January, 1848. He was married in 1793, in Pennsylvania, to Mary Robinsmj, who was born in 1762, and who died on the 16th of August, 1828, haviug become the mother of eight children. John Woods, the I oldest son, and the subject of this sketch, was horn in j Jonestown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the 18th i of October, 1794. When Alexander Woods settled upon his land, in what is now Warren County, in tite year 1797, the country was a primitive wilderness ; the lofty trees had to he prostrated, and the dense forest cleared by hard labor, before the laud could be brought to a fit condition for cultivation. His son John, then in almost infancy, was reared in a log cabin, and as soon as his strength would admit, had to participate in the labors of the farm. He received such an education as the common schools of the country at that time afforded, which, by severe study at nights and such times as he could spare from hard labor on the farm, he improved, much to his advantage in after-life. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He was included in the last draft of the Ohio militia which was made in 1814, and was in the garrison at Fort Meigs when peace with Great Britain was proclaimed. On his return from the army he opened an English school in the neighborhood of Spriugborough, which lie continued for one or two years.

From boyhood Mr. Woods had formed the resolution of acquiring an education and finally becoming a lawyer : and for the purpose of enabling him to carry out Ins design he contracted, for a certain compensation, to clear a piece of ground adjacent to where his father lived, as a means of support. He built a hut or camp on his clearing, and after chopping and mauling the heavy timber all day, at night he often read and studied law in his rude cabin while others slept. He pursued his course of reading under the direction of Hon. John McLean, who had been a member of Congress, and was afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Woods prosecuted his studies in this manner for some time, and went regularly once a week to Lebanon, where Judge McLean then resided, to recite to him and receive instruction.'. He afterwards devoted liis time more exclusively to the study of law. Having qualified himself for admission to the bar, and having undergone an examination touching his legal knowledge and abilities, he made application to the Supreme Court of the State, sitting at Dayton, in Montgomery Countv, at their June term, 1819, and was admitted to practice as an attorney and counsclor-at-law in the courts of Ohio. Afterwards, in January, 1825. he received a license as attorney and solicitor-at-law to practice in the courts of the United States.

In August, 1819, he established himself in Hamilton, and, opening an office ou the 19th of that month, commenced the practice of his profession. The courts of Hamilton were then attended by some of the old and able lawyers from Cincinnati and Lebanon, with whom Mr. \Y oods had to come in competition. At his first attempts at the bar Mr. Woods said chat he sometimefelt himself in rather an awkward predicament with a confusion of ideas; bur, reflecting that but few of a lame audience could immediately perceive wluu was sound sense or the reverse, that those who were capable of thus discriminating wen probably the most generous ami indulgent to youthful orators and that it was necessary, at all events, to succeed in Ids profession, be made it a positive rule never to sit down or to la .state pr halt, but to talk on and go ahead. And be did go ahead. In li>20 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the county of Butler, in which office lie served till 1825, at which time his services as member of Congress commenced, when he resigned.

On the 20th of June, 1820, John Woods was married to Miss Sarah Ann Lynch, of Spring-borough , Warren County. She was a native of South Carolina, born on the 29th of December, 1801. They forthwith commenced housekeeping in Hamilton. At the general election in October, 1824, he was elected a representative in Congress from the Second Congressional District, composed of the counties- of Butler and "Warren, over Thomas E. Ross, of Lebanon, who had been the former representative. His term of service commenced on the 4th of March, 1825, but he was not required to take his seat until the first, Monday of December following.

On the 18th of October, 1824, Mr. Wood's formed a partnership with Michael B. Sargent in the practice cf the law. Mr. Sargent was a fine classical and literary scholar, as well as a thorough lawyer. His qualifications and strict attention to business in superintending the affairs of tiie office, while Mr. Woods was absent attending Congress, were of great advantage to Mr. Woods. Air. Sargent died suddenly on the 19th of May, 1830.

" When Mr. Woods's first term in Congress expired he was again elected for a second term, so that he served four years from the 4th of March, 1825, until the 4th of March, 1829. While there he was distinguished for his industry and attention to business. On the 18th of January, 1828, Mr. Woods, from the Committee on Roads and Canals, made a report accompanied by a bill "to aid the State of Ohio in extending- the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie " The hill was twice read and committed, aud finally passed, and became a law on the 4th of May following. By this law there was granted to the State of Ohio a quantity of land equal to the one-half of five sections in width, on each side of that canal between Dayton and the Maumee River, at the mouth of the Auglaize. The saute law also granted to the State of Ohio the further quantity of five hundred thousand acres <>f land Or the purpose of aiding the State in the payment of the debts which had been or might thereafter he contracted in the construction of her canals. Mr. Woods v;w a warm friend of internal im provements, and while in < 'ongress advocated these measures with all his energy. At the session just referred to, the subjects of the tariff, internal improvement, Indian appropriations, and Indian affairs were largely debated, in all of which he took a prominent part. He was decided and ardent in politics as he was in every thing else. He warmly oppost * the election of General Jackson to tic- presidency. This throw Mm in the minority hi Buth-r County , which was then, about three-fourths in favor "t Jackson. Lie consequence was that, at the end of his second term, he was defeated l y the election of Juiurs Shields.

After Mr. Woods retired from Congress he became i | the proprietor, publisher, and editor of the Hamilton j | LudUfji-ncer, which lie conducted with great ability for j ! three years, a portion of the latter part of the time in connection with Lewis D. Campbell, who assumed the j i business management of the concern Although Mr. I ! Woods was engaged in editing a newspaper and attending i j to various other kinds of business, he did not relinquish j ] the practice of his profession as a lawyer, but prosecuted !

Or. the 30th' of January, 1845, the Legislature of { the State of Ohio elected him auditor of state tor the j term of three years from the 15th of March ensuing, at j which time he went to Columbus and entered on the i duties of his office. At that time the State of Ohio had \ been running in debt from year to year, "borrowing money | to pay the interest on the State debt, and thus com- J pounding it, until the public obligations loomed up in fear- i ful magnitude. John . Brough, the former auditor, had vainly endeavored to accomplish a reibrm in taxation ; | fear brooded over the members of the Legislature, and i none dared to touch the dreaded subject. It was iteces- j | sary that something should be done. Mr. Woods repre- i J seated the condition of affairs to the Legislature, and j j strongly urged upon them to take measures to remedy j the evil; and it was mainly through his instrumentality, j j and by his courage, industry, and perseverance chut the I | State was saved from repudiation, bankruptcy, and ruin. I | By virtue of his office, Mr. Woods was one of the board j j of fund commissioners who contracted the loans on be- j half of the State, and had the control of the public debt, j V. hen he went into office there was not to be found in i ! any of the offices at Columbus a book in which was enj tered an account by which the condition of the State j debt could be clearly seen. Mr. Woods procured a set i I of books, and from the loose papers found in the office j of the fund commissioners and in the auditor's office I

he had a set of accounts opWred , showing the amount of j [ each description of public vein and the balance remain- I ing standing. He also introduced important reforms in j | the mode of keeping some of the accounts in the office, j by which they were simplified and rendered more infeiiii gible. As auditor he left indelible marks on the policy aud history of the State. He had determined to relin- ! quish his office at the expiration of his first term of three 1 i years, but through the persuasion of a number of Ids j influential friends throughout the State, he was induced to serve for another term, and accordingly was re-elected and remained until March, 1851, when he returned to Hamilton.

1 however, permit him to remain idle. He became president of the Eaton and Hamilton Railroad Company, and brought his strong powers to bear on the prose- | cution ami completion of that work. Previous to the j second election, after Mr. Woods became president.

a proposition was agitated and advocated by many for the construction of a branch road from Eaton to Piqua by the Eaton and Hamilton Company. This Mr. Woods strongly opposed, and, in consequence, was defeated at the second election. Subsequent events have proved the correctness of hi? judgment on this subject. With some difficulty and trouble the Eaton and Hamilton Railroad Company have since been released from their obligation to construct that branch road. Immediately after retiring from the Eaton and Hamilton Road, Mr. "Woods was appointed and accepted the office of president of the Junction Railroad, leading from Hamilton to Oxford, Connersviile, and thence to Indianapolis ; to the prosecution of which work he brought his energy to bear, and faithfully attended to the business of the office, with honor to himself and to the advantage of the company.

Until the time of his death Mr. Woods was indefatigable and persevering in every thing he undertook. His energy was untiring, and his firmness indomitable. His early course of life had rendered his constitution hardy and capable of great endurance. At the bar his conduct was a model for imitation, despising all low and illiberal practice. To the junior members of the bar he was ever prompt to extend bis friendship and patronage ; and as an adviser to young men beginning life he won many friends among rising men by his generous treatment and sympathy. To the judges of the court he was polite and respectful ; and to witnesses he was considerate and candid, never attempting to puzzle or embarrass them, except when there were strong signs of falsehood or corruption. No one, it is believed, e\er discharged his trusts as a lawyer with more scrupulous fidelity and spotless integrity. The strong mind and energy of Mr. Woods have left their impression on almost every public improvement in and about Hamilton. He was a liberal contributor to every thing which had for its object the promotion of the happiness of man. Many years ago he took a leading part in founding and establishing t ic Hamilton and liossVille Female Academy. He was active in the construction of the Cincinnati and Hamilton Turnpike Road, of' which he was a director. Ho was president of the Darrtown and Fairhaven Pike. He was one of the leading spirits in projecting and constructing the Hamilton and Roasville Hydraulic Works. He spent considerable time in procuring subscriptions for the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, in which he was largely interested, and of which lie was a director during his life. Indeed, far more of the energy displayed in carrying forward that great work came from Mr. Woods than from any other man.

In his temperament he was decidedly amiable, and of a most kind and forgiving disposition. His walk through life was without iiiiv deviation from flic paths ot honor and rectitude. In his dealings ami business relations he Was prompt, honorable, ami expert, and a pattern of int.egi rity. Law and order had in him an undeviating advocate. He. was always found on the moral side of every public question. He was a regular attendant at the house of worship of the Associate Reformed Church, of which he was a consistent member. The purity of his private morals has never been questioned.

In the early part of the month of July, 1855, Mr. Woods was attacked with inflammation of the lungs, so severe as to cause strong apprehensions of its fatal termination. However, he became better, and hopes were entertained that his system would rally, but the disease finally terminated in typhoid fever with ulceration of the bowels, which ended his existence on Monday, the thirtieth day of the month, in the sixty-first year of his age. His funeral took place at five o'clock P. M. , on Tuesday, the thirty-first. The services on the occasion were by the Rev. William Davidson, of the Associate Reformed Church, of which Mr. Woods was a member,: after which the corpse was conveyed to Greenwood Cemetery, followed by one of the largest concourses of citizens ever assembled in Hamilton on a similar occasion. His remains were consigned to the tomb amid the regrets of numerous friends, and with the respect due to a life of integrity and useful public services.

Mary Woods was born June 3, 1821. She married Dr. Cyrus Falconer, and died September 18, 1870. Sarah Woods was born January 18, 1823, and died Friday, February 21, 1823. Martha Woods, who married William Beckett, was born February 14, 1824. Sarah Woods (second) was born October 10, 1827, and died July 23, 1840.

Rebecca Woods was born February 17, 1831. She married William H. Miller, a lawyer of Hamilton, who went out as lieutenant in the Twelfth Ohio Regiment of infantry, and fell in the Western Virginia, campaign under General Rnsecrans, in August, 1801. His remains j were interred in Greenwood Cemetery.

Rachel Woods was horn April b, 1835, and was marj ried on the loth of September, 1855, to Samuel Worthington, a commission merchant of Buffalo, New York.

Cyrus Falconer Woods was born December 8, 1845, and died November 24, 1844. John Woods, the youngest, was born on rhe ldth of Juuo, 1838. tie graduated at Miami University in ISfiO, subsequently stia bed theolj ogy at Alleghany and Princeton sen iuaries, aud was or- ' dained to the ministry in the Old School Presbyterian , Church by the presbytery of Oxford.

G Rough .Ji N Kin

George Juiikin, ptvdilent <>f the Miami University, was born in Cumberland County, 1 Vim-vl vauia, on tin Is: of November, 17lM>. He was the sou of Joseph Je.nkii. and Eleanor Cochran, both descended from Scotch cov- ena nters who had settled in Ireland. Nowhere, proha- ! hjv, have religious duties been more strenuously attended to than among those of this descent, and the J unkin family were no exceptions to the rule. In his eleventh year he became impressed religiously, but made no public acknowledgment of his conversion until his nineteenth year, when he united with the Church.

George J unkin was a boy of exceeding diligence, and as a man he fulfilled in this respect the promise of his youth. There was nothing to help him in his efforts to obtain an education ; but, by dint of industry, he qualified himself to enter Jefferson College in 16U9. In 1813 he graduated, although mot having been- the whole term at college. For the sake of lessening his expenses he had been much of the time at home, studying, and keeping j pace with his classes. [

He had early entertained the idea of becoming a min- ! ister, and immediately after graduation entered the Theo- ! logical Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church, then under the supervision of the illustrious John M. Mason, the great pulpit orator. lu this place he stayed the customary three years, and was then licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Monongahela of the Associate Reformed Church, in September, 1816. He was immediately sent to the presbyteries of New York and Saratoga, preaching in various places in 1816, and afterwards laboring in the same way in Pennsylvania and Maryland. In June, 1818, he was ordained at Gettysburg, and was soon invited to take charge of the united congregations of Milton and Pennell, a call which he accepted.

He preached to these flocks about eleven years, but in 1824 changed from the Associate Reformed Church to the Presbyterian Church. Iu 1830 he resigned this charge, accepting the position of principal of the Manual Labor Academy at Germantown, near Philadelphia. Two years of successful labor followed. Easton offered him, however, inducements to remove his students to that place, and, taking advantage of the opportunity', a charter was procured the Legislature of Peuusylvania granting the institution the title of a college, named after the illustrious Lafayette, who had shortly before been in this country on his last visit. The new institution was successful, and it has since performed a great work. Mr. Junkin toiled assiduously. He gave regular instruction in the college, and, besides, preached <»n the Sabbath. In 1833 lie was made a doctor of divinity by Jefferson College.

In 1841 he came out to Ohio and entered upon the presidency of the Miami University at Oxford. He can not l>e said to have been very successful iu this place. He was a man naturally of an autocratic disposition, and Omul iu the free Most difficulties iu maintaining the mine discipline that was to he enforced in the Last.

M inv iriends of the institution considered him as the ' hoice of a cabal which had ousted Ur. Bishop ami the "Ja r professors who were not meek-minded, and be was offensive also to some patrons who were not Presbyterians. This was a State institution, and yet entirely- controlled by one sect. There was still another grievance which was felt, although not in the university. Dr. Junkin had imbibed a strong friendship for the "peculiar institution," or at least for its friends, and his politics were tinctured by the Jeffersonian school of State rights. The anti-slavery discussion had then begun, and was not to be stopped. Dr. Junkin became involved in a controversy with the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, of Rossville, one of the most eloquent preachers of the day, in which these questions were brought up. The discussion was oral, but was afterwards published in a very large volume. No decision, of course, was reached satisfactory to the minds of the public. Each party thought as before. Finally Dr. Junkin concluded to resign and give up his unquiet seat. He did so, and went back to his former place at Easton.

There he continued till the Autumn of 1848, when he accepted an invitation to become president of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, to which he was followed by twenty-six of his former pupils, who thus indicated their high appreciation of his merits. He continued in this place until May, 1861, when he was admonished that it was time to withdraw. The clouds and portents of disunion were thickening fast, and he felt that he could no longer remain in this college, which was a hot-bed of secession, or even occupy an equivocal position. His love for the Union was strong- and ardent.

I and he foresaw the certain ruin that would follow to the j inhabitants of the Southern States if they took up arms against the United States. He went from there to Philadelphia, where, for the remainder of his life, he found a home in the family of his son, George Junkin, an eminent lawyer. He did not desist from labor. He preached earnestly and often. To the soldiers he was a friend ; their encampments were visited, their wants inquired into, and their souls' prosperity solicitously regarded. He j visited the -Southern prisoner? at Point Lookout and Fort j Delaware, and looked- after the unhappy wounded made at the battle of Gettysburg. He also wrote much. Lor a long time he contributed articles to the newspapers oil the proper observance of the Sabbath. He published a " Treatise on Sanctification," a "Treatise on the Ancient Tabernacle of the Hebrews." and some smaller works; and he left behind him in manuscript a full commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.

He was married in June, 1819, to Julia Rush Miller, of Philadelphia, and by her had five sous ami three daughters. One of the daughters married Geuoral Jacksou ("Stonewall"), of the Confederate army. Mrs. Junkin died in February, 1854.

Dr. Junkin was a man of great iron era 1 ability. Impatient of contradiction or procrastination, he had an excellent insight into the ways (.f remedying difficulties. Church matters were thoroughly understood hv him, and he. was at homo in a Church trial. He knew instinct- j ively the measures to be taken. IIo was well liked by those with whom he was brought into contact unofficially, aa<l his memory will long be cherished by those who had the honor to know him. He died May 20, 1808;

John B. Weller

John B. Weller, who tilled more important public j stations than any one else who ever lived in this county, | was born in the village of Montgomery, Hamilton j County, Ohio, on the 22d of February, 1812. He | was of German descent, bis ancestors originally settling j in New York. From that State his parents removed to ; Ohio some few years before his birth. He was educated ! at the Miami University, but did not graduate. At the j age of eighteen he commenced th<i study of law in the | office of Jesse Corwin, in Hamilton. Lewis D. Campbell, his principal competitor in the polities of this county, came here at the same time, and the two young men slept together in the same bed. They were then of the same politics. Before attaining his majority young Weller was admitted to the bar, and soon after was nominated by the Democrats for the office of prosecuting j attorney, his opponent being Jesse Corwin, his old tutor, 1 whom he defeated by a handsome majority.

In 1888, when barely of legal age, he was elected to j represent the Second ' Congressional District iu the lower ; house of Congress, consisting of the counties of Butler, Preble, and Darke, lie held his seat for three terms, twice defeating the Hon. Lewis 1). Campbell. Mr. j Weller, though very young, early took a leading part in j all debates before the House, and proved himself a ready j and powerful speaker.

Mr. Weller, at an early age, had married Miss Ryan, ; dan ftiter of one of the leading merchants of' Hamilton ; j but this lady lived but a short time. Early iu his con- j gressiouai career he married Miss Bryan, whose father, ! the Hon. John A. Bryan, was auditor of the State at j that time. His second wife lived but two years. In 1845 he married Miss Taylor, a niece of Thomas IT. i Benton, senator from Missouri. She lived three years. I

Mr. Weller -was not allowed to practice his profession \ for any length of time ; for on the breaking out of the war with Mexico he volunteered as a private, but was j elected captain of his company, which became part of the j Second Ohio Regiment, of which lie was elected lieu ten- i ant-colonel. He fought all through the war, and led his regiment in the charge through the streets of Monterey, when the gallant Colonel Mitchell was wounded.

After peace was declared, Colouei A eller returned to his home in Hamilton, and took up hi: profession, but was called on by the Democrats of Ohio to lead them in the great gubernatorial tight of 1848. 1 1 is opponent.

the "Whig candidate, was Seabury Ford, and the campaign was the fiercest and most bitter ever known in tlffi Suite. This was virtually a fight to decide the presidential question as far as Ohio was concerned; for it was conceded that if Weller carried the State, Cass would get Ohio's vote. After a canvass carried on in all parts of the State, in which Colonel Weller spoke in seventyeight counties, and after weeks of doubt as to the final result - for it took the official vote to decide - it was found that Weller had been defeated by a majority of three hundred and forty-five votes out of an aggregate of almost three hundred thousand. In one county over four hundred votes were cast for John Weller, which were thrown out. But the great point was won. after all; for Ohio went for Cass.

In January, 1849, President Polk tendered to Colonel Weller the appointment of commissioner under the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, to settle the boundary line between California and Mexico. On President Taylor's accession to the .office, Colonel Weller was relieved, and proceeded to San Francisco, where he pursued his profession. In 1852 he was elected United States Senator in the place of John C. Fremont, for the long term ending in 1857. Upon his return to California in that vtar he was elected governor of the State by a large majority. At the termination of his career as governor he settled in Alameda County, near Oakland, but was sent bv President Buchanan as minister to Mexico in the fall of I860. M hen President Lincoln came into office. Colonel Weller was succeeded by his old Ohio friend, Tom Corwin. In 1867 Governor Weller removed to New Orleans, where he was appointed master in chancery for all of the Gaines cases. Here he lived until his death, on the 17th day of August, 1875.

Governor Weller left two children, - John B. Weller, -Jr., whose mother was Miss Taylor, and Charles L. Weller, Jr., who was the only child by his marriage with Mrs. G. W. Staunton in 1854 - still living.

Frances Mon Fort

One of the earliest preachers of the Gospel in tins neighborhood was Francis Monfort, who, for a long time, was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hamilton. He was a descendant of the Huguenots. The founder of the American family tied from France, after seeing the oppressions he would be subject to if. he remained a Protestant iu that country, first going to Holland, and then coming to the American colonics. The lather of Frauds Monfort was Lawrence Monfurt, and his mother was Elizabeth Cassat, and he was born seven miles north-east ot Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in what was then York County, but is now Adams, an the loth of Dec mber. 1782. Mr. Mon fort moved to the West whh hifamily, in lilt!), and arrived fti Cineinnati, Mav 28th. He soon removed to \\arnn County, remaining for the Summer on a place three-quarters of a mile south of Leha- non. otnl in November taking a place eight voiles west of was settled as pastor of the Church on the 14th of June, that town, on the way to Hamilton. Francis- Monfort ' 1814. The flock increased and multiplied, and he reassisted his father on the farm until he was of age. In j mained with it until April, 1821, when lie begun to 1800 he experienced a religious change, and he united with ; preach in Hamilton and Seven Mile, places left vacant the Presbyterian Church of Turtle Creek, which was the : by the removal of the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace. He nearest to his house, and which was then under the pas- j removed to this place in the following October. Here he toral - charge of the Rev. Richard MeNemar. As he j stayed for sixteen years, during ten years of which he grew older he determined to enter the ministry, and ' preached half his time at Seven Mile, began his studies under the supervision of his pastor, ? Iu 1830 a petition was sent to the presbytery by four occupying more than two years. There was then no j of the elders, four trustees, and fifty members, asking fur theological seminary in Ohio, and it was the common a dissolution of the relations existing between them, plan tor those who could not go East and complete their i This was resisted by Mr. Mon fort, who appealed to the studies to take them up with some approved 'clergyman | synod, and. received a decision in his favor. The clissatiu their neighborhood. The one then best known here- i isfic-d members would not take this answer as conclusive, about? was che Rev. John Thompson, of the place now | and organized another Presbyterian Church in Rossvillc, called Springdale. He taught many, and continued in j both of the Churches flourishing. They were finally* the labor year after vear. Previously to going with united iu 1842. under the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas. Mr. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Mon fort studied for a time with i Monfort resigned his charge in 1837. and removed to

Marshall, in Fayette County, of the same State. He ! His bodily health, however, had grown weak, and he then considered himself qualified to preach, and on the j then ceased regularly to preach or take charge of a 31st of -July, 1807, he was licensed to preach the Gos- ; Church. For four years, however, he preached occnpel, delivering hi- first discourse at Now Castle, Ken- sionaliy, and at two different times, for three months tucky. Through the south- of Kentucky he soon after : each, he occupied the pulpit of the Church at Greensweut on a preaching torn-, extending it into Tennessee, , burg, Indiana. He never was more useful than at- these in the neighborhood of Nashville. Then he came over times. Mr. Monfort was a strong and fervent preacher, into Ohio, in the Mad River country, and afterwards- i and to him many have owed their spiritual birth. He preached in Kentucky. He did not at this time belong was for forty-eight years in the ministry*, and he lost no to the Presbyterians, but from the time he began his | opportunity of doing good. His oiet-v was constant ; no studies was a '-New Light." Ilis Church, with many j one could be in his society, for a few minutes even, others, had seceded from its previous denominational ; without knowing that he was a religious man. He Ud relationship and joined the new body, yvhic-h .was then ; not grow lax and idle as he grew old, but was willing thought to be more thoroughly moved by the grace of ; to undertake new tasks. He began the study* of the God. On the 6th of June, 1809, lie was married, in ; Hebrew language when sixty-one years of age, and kept Aou County, Kentucky, to Sophia Glass, daughter it up until his death. He died June 48, 18-Vq aged "f -' oseph and Elizabeth Glass, formerly of Frederick seventy-two years. He had uue daughter and four son?.

County, Virginia, and sister of Mrs. Marshall, the wife of the Rev. Robert Marshall. After being married he l"9n:e hark to Olio, being fir sc on Clear Creek and then <'U Dick -- Creek, and preached till October. 1811. when joined the Presbyterian Church, returning at the mui',* time as the Rev. John Thompson. He was placed on probation tor sixteen months, at the satue time pursuing additional studies under the direction of the Ivey*. Daniel i:-.iydi>n and the Rev. Joshua E. W ilson, I). D. 2s o stop, l'VAvver, yva> put to his conducting religious meetings, -'isd ho continued them until licensed by the prcsbvterv Day ton. Ohio, in March, 1813.

V arrcti, was at about that time begun a new oougrep '1-1"11' ka.iv.-n as the Xt.yv Jersey euiigi eg. i don, from tiu t must oi their members having come from that l.here he was a-kod to preach, and afterwards

Charles K. Smith

Few of the men who have lived in this couutv have exerted a greater or better influence upon it" future than i Charles Kilgore Smith, for many rears a well-known reddent of Hamilton. He was horn at the very beginning of W extern civilization, and lived to see the humanizing e Abets 1 of arts and letters spread -over the whole of the Noithwestern Territory, as this region was at his birth. - now i the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, an i V isconsiu - and 'vas able to carry them -till further, to lands lvyoud tiie original limit? of the United States, and to help set up there the maeninen of government, m;-- ioriniug the same duty for Minnesota that eras done in Ohio by St. Clair and Sargc-nt.

enterprising 'men who aided in setting the tide of emi- j gration in motion. James Smith was horn in Cumberland Comity, Pennsylvania, then wild as Oregon is now, , and removed to Ohio in 1792, in company with Gen- ! oral James Findlay, an old friend of his, with whom j he formed a copartnership after landing at Cincinnati. ! Elected to several offices in succession, he was an occu- j pant of the shrievalty when his son Charles was born, on j the loth of February, 1799. He gave the boy the best j instruction the place afforded, and sent him, in 1812, to a ! grammar-school at Oxford, conducted by the Rev. James j Hughes, a Presbyterian minister of excellent repute. Here j for three years he was thoroughly taught in all the com- j men branches and Latin, but was withdrawn, for a brief | time, during the second war with Great Britain, in order j that he might aid his father in paying oil' the troops on j the frontier. In 1815 he finished going to school ; but so 1 great sec-rns to have been his popularity and so solid his | claims to respect that he was elected, in 1825, by the Erodelphian Society of Miami University, Oxford, which had succeeded to Mr. Hughes's school, as a member of their body. When he first went out to that town the country was a perfect wilderness; but be lived to see it fully cultivated, and the university strong and respected. Jamfes Smith had removed with his family from Hamilton County to Butler in 1805, settling upon section 21. St. Clair Township, at the confluence of Four-mile Creek j and the Miami River.

Charles K. Smith came to Hamilton to live, upon the j conclusion of his school-days, and entered the employ- i meat of John Reily, then postmaster, clerk of the courts, \ and agent of several corporations and absentee property- I holders. For two years of this time he acted as deputy- j postmaster and clerk In 1821 he was chosen recorder i of the county, and continued in that occupation until j 1835, being also, , from 1827, treasurer of the county. He might have remained longer in these positions had | he ehoseu ; but he voluntarily gave them up to become cashier of the Bank of Hamilton. There were then few banks of unquestioned responsibility in the West, although there were multitudes of irresponsible ones. The ! Bank of Hamilton was begun with large means, and was j one of the few which had sufficient strength to resist the j pressure put upon moneyed institutions by General Jackson during his war upon the United States Bank. It rode through the storm of 1837 triumphantly ; hut in 1842, on the 9th of February, it made an assignment. This was in consequence of new and stringent regulations in the law, but was also partly occasioned by the lack of surplus capital in the community. It is a well-known j principle of banking that these institutions are chiefly i valuable for acting as a reservoir to collect the spare | earnings of the community. But in this case those eoudi- , tions did not exist. Depositors were comparatively few, I as not many had any surplus of funds, and borrowers 1 were needy and importunate.

Mr. Smith was a man of much geniality of disposition, and a great favorite with all classes of society, ff,. became prominent while yet under age for his contributions to the new spapers, a habit kept up all his life. Ile was a member of the Thespian Society, which supported Mr. Forrest and Mrs. and Miss Riddle, on their visit to thus town in 1823, and he frequently spoke prologues and made introductory speeches in public assemblies. He was an early member of the Masonic order.

On bis retiring from the bank be entered upon leaal practice. He bad previously studied law under John M oods, and had been admitted to the bar in 1840. In this new calling he attained a fair measure of success. He was an attorney in the courts of several of the United States, and also became a member of the American Ueunl Association of New York. This was iu a day when such qualifications were not so common as now.