Springfield Township (part 47 of 69)

A survey of Tecumseh Hill indicates that the Indians established their village a little above these rifle pits. There are hollowed out stones that were used for mortars in grinding corn, and when the Clark-Tecumseh monument becomes a reality Mr. Keifer will cause those stones to be removed from the woods to the knoll dedicated for monument purposes. These stones have been bursted by the action of the elements, but they may be placed together again, thus forming perfect caldrons. While they did not heat the mortars, some of the stones were evidently used for cooking. Older citizens of Clark County remember Fort Tecumseh as the Daniel Hartzler farm. He was a wealthy farmer who was murdered in the house now occupied by the O. N. G., by arrangement with Mr. Keifer. While part of the farm is cleared, much of it seems never to have been turned by the plow. While there were mills and distilleries, and traditions early and late cluster about those hills and dales, the State of Ohio farms the land after the fashion of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. It is excellent pasture land although dedicated to military maneuvers, and it is the center of historic interest in Clark County.

When the love o'f home and country is firmly established in the hearts of the youth of America, it is on a sure foundation. Pageants and anniversaries centering about civic and national traditions are educators ; they are community builders. The first American centennial celebrated in this country was the Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1876 - the centennial staged in Philadelphia - and it was a gala day in Springfield. The town was profusely decorated with American flags, bells were rung and cannons were fired; the banners and pendants everywhere betokened patriotic sentiment in the hearts of the citizens.

Ulysses Simpson Grant was United States president. At his suggestion the people assembled in churches for early morning worship, Springfield people meeting at 8:30 in Union prayer meetings in the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. There was a big industrial procession in the streets later in the day. It was a complete representation of the triumphs of a century; everything was in retrospect. All the arts were represented in the street parade ; it was educational and patriotic. The city government, the secret societies, the choral unions and the citizens forming a line several miles in length, and when the procession halted the Rev. H. H. Moore read the Declaration of Independence - perhaps the last time it has been read in public in Springfield - and the oration by Thomas F. McGrew whetted up the interest in such anniversaries, and four years later Clark County staged a centennial celebration at the battlefield - Fort Tecumseh.

While common usage has eliminated the final "e" in the name of Clark County, there is little doubt that the Ohio Assembly meant to honor Gen. George Rogers Clark on Christmas day in 18J7, when formal recognition was given the new county. The Revolutionary sentiment still prevailed when on February 12, 1820, the patriotic Ohio governing body recognized the military group of fifteen counties lying northwest from Clark - Allen, Crawford, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Marion, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Union, Van Wert, Williams and Wood, was outlined and all were named for Revolutionary soldiers - the spirit caught from that Christmas day christening of Clark County three years earlier. They all had their beginning in a splendid setting of patriotism, and their happy denouement has been in a burst of glory.

In Williams County the warrants issued from the office of the auditor bear the picture: "The Capture of Major Andre," a copy of the painting by A. B. Durand, showing David Williams, John Paulding and Isaac Van Wert dealing with the spy sent out by Benedict Arnold, three of the military group of counties being named for those captors - all Revolu- tionary patriots. The picture of General Clark has been widely published, although not as yet commercialized on county warrants. The word centennial had not come into general usage until 1876, when many Clark County citizens went to Philadelphia. Four years later it was used in connection with another anniversary in Clark County. The word pageant had not beeen used extensively in 1901, when Springfield celebrated its centennial, nor a year later when the centennial of Statehood was being celebrated in Ohio. Many celebrations in 1902, although Admission Day was in the following February.

The 1880 Clark County Centennial celebration at Fort Tecumseh attracted 20,000 people, so many going out from Springfield that the railroad company constructed a temporary bridge across Mad River. The twentieth century youngster who thinks in terms of trolley cars and electricity will think again and understand that more than forty years have cycled by since the Clark County centennial - the anniversary of the overthrow of the Shawnee Confederacy by General Clark. There was a sham battle staged, and they used fence rails on end in building the stockade ; there were wigwams everywhere, and Mad River was the Shawnee stronghold again. The Springfield militia represented General Clark's army, and there were plenty of volunteers for the part of the romance race - never any trouble to secure Indians for pageantry. Well known citizens painted themselves like warriors, and it was a great sham battle. When it was all over, all wanted to catch the same train back to Springfield.

While it seemed that the streams were fed from unfailing springs, when the crowd assembled there was a shortage of the water supply, so many came on horseback and they were sent to Mad River for water. The horse-drawn vehicles were scattered all about (they did not say "parked" that long ago), and the visitors were not limited to Clark County. While there was continuous train service, hundreds walked to the battlefield. All who had been there a century earlier had walked a much greater distance. It is related that a bare-footed Negro got into a "bumble bee's" nest, and "hot-footed" it to safety. Because August 8, 1880, was Sunday the centennial program was enacted the following Monday, and a Miami County visitor present - David Jones, of West Milton - who wrote the Annals of Newberry pertaining to Carolina history, jotted down the following lines:

"Last August 8, one hundred years ago, Near where Mad River's rapid waters flow, An Indian Village in Clark County stood Upon a hill surrounded by a wood ; A splendid scene of upland, glade and glen, The home of forest women - children, men; That August morn these forest people rose As was their wont, from undisturbed repose, But ere had passed that August morning fair A thousand guns resounded on the air - George Rogers Clark, a warrior of renown, Had with a thousand men assailed the town ; To its defense the savage warriors flew, And fierce and awful soon the battle grew."

"With maddening shouts the slumbering air was stirred, And musket's roar and rifle's crack were heard ; But led by one whose prowess ne'er had failed The steady courage of the whites prevailed; In wild confusion soon the Red Men fled And left the forest - still unknown the dead."

A copy of the Springfield Republic, Tuesday, August 10, 1880, carries a complete story of the Clark County centennial program, estimating the crowd at from 20,000 to 25,000, mentioning music, addresses, sham battle, dinner, and burning of the Shawnee village of Piqua. Everything was quiet, orderly and pleasant, and Major W. J. White, Captain of the Memorial Association, was chairman of the day and introduced the speakers. In his prayer, the chaplain, Rev. J. T. Harris, asked God's blessing upon the exercises and those taking part in them. One hundred years earlier the savage hordes had been overcome by men of strong arms and courageous hearts, and the land had been given over to freedom and civilization.

The address of welcome was given by Gen. J. Warren Keifer, who was born near the battlefield and who was familiar with every detail that had been published about it, the response being by Governor Charles Foster, who said it was the same old story - Clark the best county and Springfield the best city - and he congratulated the county assembled on its splendid civilization, its agricultural and manufacturing interests. Capt. D. C. Balentine reported many letters from friends unavoidably detained, some of them reviewing the history of Boston which once flourished in that vicinity. The skull of Black Hoof, who was the friend of Tecumseh, was shown by a Wapokeneta citizen. The principal thoroughfare of that town is Blackhoof.

While one historian characterizes the Piqua Village battle as a "bloodless" victory, it was the consensus of opinion at the anniversary that General Clark lost about twenty men and that the Shawnees lost the same number. The speakers quoted Henry Howe and said that he had drawn from Drake's Memoirs of Tecumseh for much information. A folder sent out broadcast at the time of the anniversary read : "One hundred years ago the now fertile farms, productive valleys, lofty ledges, and sparkling springs of Clark County were the homes, the haunts and the hunting grounds of the Shawnees," and one comment reads: "This is true, and may I be allowed to add that what is now the great state of Ohio was then to all intents and purposes a howling wilderness. One hundred years ago there was not in this vast extent of territory bounded on the north by the Great Lakes, on the east and south by the Ohio, and on the west by the Mississippi, a single permanent American settlement.

"Beyond the Ohio looking north and west was everywhere an Indian country, and at that time all the tribes but one throughout the whole region were openly at war with the United States. That one was the Delawares, and the next year they took up the hatchet in favor of the British. The settlements west of the Alleghenies and those dotting the wilds of Kentucky were suffering the horrors of the Western Border War of the American Revolution, a war characterized by rapacity and blood-tfiirstiness. There had been two expeditions against these warring Indians, one from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) in 1778, and the other from Kentucky in 1779, led by Col. John Bowman against Chillicothe, a Shawnee town in Greene County, and then in 1780 came the Clark campaign into the same territory - the Mad River country^ - and the anniversary speakers all used the expression : "One hundred years ago."

The Shawnees and Mingoes were described as "horrible hell-hounds of savage war," and they murdered indiscriminately - the young and the old, helpless women and children, every age and either sex - and to prevent continual depredations of this character upon the inhabitants of Kentucky, for as yet no white people had located in what is now Clark County, the expedition was organized by General Clark, who was personally known and trusted by General Washington. While the immunity from the Indians in Kentucky was of short duration, whites did not begin settling along Mad River for several years. However, there was never again a battle waged in Clark County. Simon Girty was the Mingo leader, although he was not an Indian. He was born on an island in the Susquehanna and he was a renegade from the beginning and was always a conspicuous character where there were Indian difficulties, although it is said that he once saved the life of Simon Kenton. Girty was never a citizen of Clark County - he was just a visitor on Mad River.

There were letters of regret from President Rutherford B. Hayes, Senator Allen H. Thurman, Senator George H. Pendleton, and many others, one letter reading : "The battle of Piqua was only the commencement of a long line of conflicts with the savages in various parts of the Great Northwest Territory ; it awakened the echoes in other places." But that is departure from Clark County history. It is known that David Lowry, who located on Mad River in 1796, came directly from Cincinnati (Fort Washington), where the previous year he had helped pack provisions for the U. S. army in preparation for the expedition under Gen. Anthony Wayne directed against the Indians in western Ohio, his march being from Cincinnati to Greenville. When the treaty was effected David Lowry lost no time in coming to Mad River. While the Indians ceded much valuable territory in Ohio, Indiana and all of Michigan to the U. S. Government, Tecumseh, who was then a fearless warrior twenty-seven years old, did not approve of the treaty and he began his active campaign of organization among the Indians, pursuing the same tactics still resorted to by great religious or political leaders.

It seems that the Soldiers' Memorial Committee in charge of arrangements connected with the centennial program made an effort to gain exact information from the War Department, but the records had nothing concerning the engagement. It was rumored that an official report was on file in Virginia, but Thomas F. McGrew was unable to locate it. It is known that as a military officer General Clark was educated according to the standards of the time - that he had some experience in war and a reputation as an Indian fighter. His "backwoodsmen" army was of a type that has passed from earth, but they had qualities of personal endurance and patriotism. The Shawnees were the most war-like tribes, and they were led by Indians of the highest type of strategic prowess. The battle of Piqua Village convinced the Indians that separate and independent tribes could not hold out against the advance of civilization. The Shawnees and Mingoes combined had lost the stronghold on Mad River, and from that time forward the Indians realized the need of foreign aid and confederation.

When the day was ended in commemoration of the Piqua Village engagement that had cost the Shawnees their wigwams and given to the United States much valuable territory, in behalf of the Memorial Association Major White thanked all who had contributed to the success of the event, and the Rev. W. B. DePoy of Springfield spoke the benediction. While good people were assembled the "light-fingered gentry" were also in attendance, and reports say that thieves and pickpockets reaped a harvest. The bridge across Mad. River to the trains, which were operated until 8 o'clock in the evening, was the scene of many robberies. There was such confusion in boarding the cars that women had their hats torn from their heads, and babies were handed into the cars through the windows. Cars were crowded and people "hung on by the little finger and one toe" to the platform in coming back to town. While fifteen robberies were reported and some arrests were made, it was unknown how much loot was taken by the thieves operating on the train.

While a century milestone had been erected at Philadelphia in the shape of a centennial exposition, not many such events had been heralded to the world before the Clark County Memorial Association planned this anniversary program - the commemoration of the first 100 years since the overthrow of the Shawnee Confederacy - the exit of the Shawnee and the inevitable advance of civilization. While Clark County had no soldiers in the Revolution - because there was no Clark County - a number of Revolutionary soldiers found their final rest on the bosom of Clark County in later years, and there is a shrine in Ferncliff Cemetery sacred to them.

Chapter Xxxiv

While Gen. George Rogers Clark, the "Washington of the West," saved the day in what is now Clark County in the Revolutionary period, his body was not consigned to earth in this community. He lies buried at Clarksville, Indiana.

In a summary of the past, Gen. J. Warren Keif er said : "There came to what is now Clark County, as to other parts of the West, some Revolutionary soldiers, bringing with them their patriotism and generally their poverty. Their love of liberty was put into practice and by example these veteran soldiers did much to build up peaceful communities. In 1912, Lagonda Chapter D. A. R. erected a tablet in Ferncliff Cemetery in memory of the men buried in Clark County who fought in the Revolution, and the names Lieut. John Bancroft, William Mclntire, Samuel Lippincott, Sr., Cornelius Toland, Lieut. Jesse Christy, Elijah Beardsley, Merryfield Vicory, Capt. Richard Bacon, Stephen Harriman, Lieut. Henry Dawson, John Craig, George Lane, Jacob Ellsworth, Frederick Brown,

{ames Kelly, Isaac Davisson, Benjamin Bridge, John Kellar, George IcCleace^, Jacob Ebersole Farnum, James Galloway and Melyn Baker are inscribed upon it. General Keifer adds the names of William Baird, Andrew Pinneo, Abraham Rust and William Holmes as having been local citizens.

While these wilderness patriots had their rendezvous with death in different communities and they lie buried in different cemeteries, the Daughters of the American Revolution were fulfilling their filial obligation when they collated the names. The enduring monument - a shrine for all time - is located on a southern hillslope in a secluded spot. Not a drum was heard nor a funeral note, and while all that was mortal had long ago moldered back to earth in other cemeteries, some of them on Columbia Street and in Greenmont, and in sequestered vales among Clark County hills, it was a gracious thing that Lagonda Chapter D. A. R. should muster them all "in one red burial blent," where posterity hiay receive inspiration from this silent testimonial to the ages, gallantry in the wilderness - the men who helped to make the nation.

It is known that some who were with Gen. Anthony Wayne (Mad Anthony) in his campaign to the Maumee, who were in the Battle of Fallen Timbers and at the Treaty of Greenville and in other Indian expeditions, settled and died in Clark County. In territorial days, and long after Ohio was admitted as a state, it was a requirement that all ablebodied men should muster at least once a year, thus becoming familiar with firearms and military discipline. In 1792, quite early in the history of the republic, the United States Congress established militias in the different states.

All able-bodied white men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five were required to report for service. Later the word white was stricken out and all male citizens were required to report for military instructions. The system was continued until after the Mexican war, and every county was thus the home of a regiment. The boy must put on a military cap and submit to discipline; the incorrigible submitted the same as the patriotic - it was a universal requirement. When the first plat of Springfield was made in 1801 it showed the military or muster square that is now occupied by the court house, a soldiers' monument and the county buildings. It was so planned that a palisade constructed there would afford protection for all the citizens. While the annual muster was a state requirement, very little equipment was furnished and Clark County men and boys improvised arms for the occasion. They sometimes used cornstalks when learning the manual of arms, and the poems "The Charge of the Light Brigade/' and "Sheridan's Ride" did much to keep alive the military spirit. Since the Civil war the Ohio National Guard has supplanted Muster day ceremonies.

While for a time musters were gala days, the training in manual without the use of firearms meant little to the men, and finally they were discontinued and later abolished by law. Some distinguished Springfield citizens of that period - Samson Mason and Charles Anthony - ranked as brigadier generals in muster ceremonies, and sons of these men later served in the United States army in war time. The annals of the young Republic, said General Keifer, are surpassingly bloody. From Lexington to Appomatox (1775-1865) almost one year out of five, not enumerating the constant Indian wars, was a year of war. The worthy pioneers acted constantly in the capacity of soldiers. They were on guard, whether in field, at home or -at church - they were always alert against attacks by the Indians. It is known that when the citizens of Moorefield wanted better protection against the Indians they contributed to a fund and sent Andrew McBeth and Jeremiah Reese with the McBeth four-horse team to Cincinnati for arms and ammunition ; that long ago the maxim "Trust in the Lord and keep your powder dry," prevailed in Clark County.

While in times of peace the settlers did not need firearms, it was known that the Indians had respect for ammunition. Tecumseh had grown into manhood and he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Second war with England - the War of 1812, which he incited. He was the only commander who had power to control his fighters. Tecumseh was the only commander in charge of American forces who was able to compel his soldiers to forego the use of stimulants. While he could neither read nor write, he did not allow the use of whisky when danger was in prospect. He was a leader in the British army trying to regain lost territory.

The Northwest Territory was the principal theater of the War of 1812, and while Tecumseh hailed from Clark County he did not represent local sentiment. The Ohio Gazetteer of 1841, one o{ the earliest records on the subject, said : "In every vicissitude of this contest the conduct of Ohio was eminently patriotic and honorable. When the battle necessities of the national government compelled Congress to resort to a direct tax, Ohio for successive years cheerfully assumed and promptly paid her quota out of her state treasury; her sons volunteered with alacrity their service in the field; no troops more patiently endured hardships or performed better service. Hardly a battle was fought in the Northwest in which some of these brave citizen soldiers did not seal their devotion to their country with their life blood."

Fort Meigs (Toledo), and it was much traveled in prosecuting this war. It is a military road established by the United States Government, and General Hull with an army of 1,300 Kentuckians camped at New Carlisle while en route from Cincinnati to Toledo. It was a wilderness thoroughfare crossed by a "bush-whacking" army, and in 1813 when Gen. William Henry Harrison at Fort Meigs was calling for volunteers, as many as 500 men enlisted from Clark County. The first to offer his services was James Shipman, a Springfield tailor. It takes nine tailors to make a man, but Shipman went alone. When others were ready their courage failed, and on the way to the rendezvous at Uf bana Shipman met Thomas McCartney at the half-way point, and joining Captain McCord's cavalry at Urbana, they went to Fort Meigs together. While some of the Clark County contingent enlisted at Urbana - then all in Champaign County - other Springfield soldiers went to Troy and Piqua for their assignments in the service. A number of these soldiers returned and spent the remainder of their lives in the community.

In the course of the War of 1812 many United States troops passed through Clark County, Ball's Squadron among them, and there were British and Indians in the community, although they found little local sympathy. Tecumseh, who was known as The Flying Panther - The Meteor, because of his war activities, had a confederate in his brother, The Prophet, who attracted some attention to himself because of his inclination to forecast events. He was known as Elkswatawa, or Tenskwatawa, and while some of the books say he was a half brother to Tecumseh, the tradition prevails in Springfield that triplets were born, that one died, and that Tecumseh and The Prophet completed the trio.

No one equalled Tecumseh in war-time strategy. Jealousy among the Indians because of his leadership weakened their forces, and while he played an important part in the engagement at Fort Meigs beside inciting the Indians everywhere to action, on October 5, 1813, Tecumsesh met his death at the battle of the Thames.

The report is current that the man who shot Tecumseh was Richard M. Johnson, later associated with the administration of Martin Van Buren as vice president of the United States. An Indian who, witnessed the affair said: "Tecumseh fell dead and they all ran," and with their invincible leader removed there was no further trouble with the Indians. Thus heroically passed the majestic soul of Tecumseh. The final hopes of the Red Men were interred with his bones. Tecumseh gave his life for the rights of his race; his requiem was the clash of arms and the din of battle. It is said that his grief-stricken warriors stealthily removed his body during the night as it lay under the fitful light of the victor's campfires, and one biographer says of Tecumseh: "He was the finest flower of the American aboriginal race." Since the Battle of the Thames was across the Canadian border, the bones of Tecumseh are not guarded by the American flag. He died an officer in the British army.

The Toledo war in 1835 had to do with the Ohio-Michigan boundary difficulty, both states assembling their troops on the boundary, but the records are silent about Clark County representation. Before the opening of hostilities peace commissioners arrived from both states, and there was no bloodshed. There were concessions from both sides, and while Ohio gained the portage at Toledo, it relinquished all claim to the mineral counties in Northern Michigan. What Ohio wanted was the frontage on Lake Michigan, and in 1836 Congress decided in its favor. Otherwise

Toledo would be in Michigan. The Fulton and Harris boundaries were the questions in dispute, and a row of townships across the northern part of Ohio were once in Michigan. Stone markers have been placed at the southern line of the disputed territory - on one side the word Ohio, and on the other Michigan. Travelers appreciate them. They are two miles apart from Toledo west to the Indiana line, and thus Lucas, Fulton and Williams counties are separated from Michigan counties although once part of them. It was Governor Willis of Ohio who shook hands with Governor Ferris of Michigan when they had marked the boundary. There is some mention of a Reservoir war in Mercer which involved some other Ohio counties.

Ask the average Clark County citizen about the Mexican war; when it began and when it ended, and he will say it has been continuous, thinking of the border warfare going on there for several years. However, in the '40s, the United States was involved in a war with Mexico, which General Keifer characterizes as a war in which to acquire territory to devote to slavery. There were but few volunteer soldiers, but Capt. Simon H. Drum, who was a graduate of West Point Military Academy, receiving his appointment from Springfield, was killed while a member of the Fourth Artillery United States Army, September 13, 1847, in the final assault and capture of the City of Mexico. Mention is elsewhere made of a visit from Gen. Winfield Scott to the family of Captain Drum in Springfield. Captain Drum's body lies buried in Ferncliff. The first railroad connecting Springfield with Cincinnati had just been completed in 1846, when the Mexican soldiers were carried that far on their journey. Mexico lies south of the Rio Grande, and Texas was the disputed territory. Since it was slave territory, it strengthened the South when the United States was again at war.

In 1844, when Chancey Fall of Moorefield was called a whig, he was also thought to be an abolitionist. It required as much moral courage then to be an abolitionist as it does now to be a prohibitionist. Mr. Fall harbored runaway slaves, and because his neighbors were intolerant, he was tarred and feathered ; they rode him on a rail for it It is said that a Springfield merchant one time took advantage of an opportunity. A Madison County settler gave to him the power of attorney to free some slaves he had left in Delaware; the merchant was not so conscientious and he sold them, using the money to increase his stock of merchandise. Slavery was the question dividing the country, and the Rescue Case of 1857, illustrates it.

Some years ago Dr. B. F. Prince, a trustee of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, president of the Clark County Historical Society, and professor of History and Political Science in Wittenberg College, wrote the history of the Rescue Case of 1857, which, was published in pamphlet form and deals with the fugitive slave question, saying : "The years between 1830 and 1860 brought great strain to the people of the United States; the long border line between the slave and free states, stretching from the Atlantic on the east to a great distance beyond the Mississippi River, was crossed by a great many bonds- men seeking liberty for themselves and for their families. Lines of communication between points were established in all directions in the free states, where were located friends of the runaway slaves, and when once the slave had reached a station on the underground railroad, he was secretly conducted from station to station until he found some place of fancied security.

"The slaves most timid and fearful of being carried back by their pursuing masters, did not stop in their flight until they had crossed into Canada, where they were free from any danger of recapture.,, The refugees had a chant:

"I'm on my way to Canada, that cold and dreary land - The dire effects of slavery, I can no longer stand, I served my master all my days, without a dime's reward - But now I'm forced to run away, to flee the lash abhorred," there being several stanzas, the last one beginning: "I'm landed safe in Canada, both soul and body free," and there is no gainsaying the fact that the songs the people sing influence them in their methods.

In communities settled by Quakers there were many fugitive slaves in hiding through the day, who were carried along under cover of darkness to the next underground station, and the Clark County Quakers in the vicinity of Selma know about John Cooper whom they sheltered. He had a dream that he was being pursued, and that day a posse was after him; they were Kentucky planters and among them was Cooper's master, but he reached Canada in safety. When the war was over he came back to South Charleston, and lived with his family in the same cabin he had left so hastily. At another time a slave was captured, but the enraged populace arose en masse and shots were exchanged, and those engaged in the melee were brought to trial in Asbury Houston's court. The room was packed and the slave escaped, the incident remembered as the riot in South Charleston.

It is related that once when Ross Mitchell was employed as bookkeeper in a distillery along Mad River, some refugees were in hiding when the* planters arrived in search for them. It was only a thin board wall that separated them from their pursuers, and as the owners inquired about their property, the slaves stood in fear and trembling, their eyes shining through the cracks when Mitchell, recognizing the situation, picked up a newspaper and stood glancing over it, holding it so the Kentuckians could not see the frightened slaves, and under the cover of darkness they went on again toward Canada, that cold and dreary land, but anywhere was better to them than bondage.

It seems that Champaign, Clark and Greene counties are alike concerned with the Rescue Case of 1857, when Addison White, a Kentucky fugitive, was employed by Udney H. Hyde of Mechanicsburg. In 1856 he had escaped from his master. While the compromise of 1850 was intended as a check to the fugitive slaves, its harsh conditions intensified the friends of the renegades engaged in assisting them to freedom. The compromise provided for officers of the law following slaves to call upon citizens for assistance in apprehending them, those refusing being liable to arrest, and as a result of this measure more slaves escaped to freedom in the decade between 1850 and 1860 than had escaped in all the years of previous history. In was in 1856 that Addison White fled from servitude in Kentucky.

White was a man of great physical strength ; he could have disposed of any number of officers pursuing him in single combat. He was over six feet high, and weighed more than 200 pounds ; he was muscular and disposed to defend himself. Mr. Hyde, who employed White, was connected with the underground railroad, and at the time White came along he had assisted more than 500 slaves en route to freedom, directing, feeding and transporting them. While living in Mechanicsburg, Hyde was under suspicion, and in the spring of 1857. he removed fronl the village to a farm. White's wife was a free woman still living in Kentucky, and his place of hiding became known through letters passing between them, mailed at the postoffice in Springfield. He wished his wife to join him at the Hyde farm in Champaign County.

William K. Boggs, Springfield postmaster, discovered these communications, and gave the information to the United States marshal at Cincinnati. It was discovered that Charles Taylor of Mechanicsburg wrote the letters for White, and when they were intercepted the officers had a clew to the whereabouts of the slave. A man named Edward Lindsay sought employment at the Hyde farm, and while he had little to say he was an observing person; when he disappeared the officers came, and thus it developed that he was a spy. On May 21. 1857. B. P. Churchill and John C. Elliott, deputy United States marshals, accompanied by Capt. John Poffenbarger, also a deputy for Champaign County, and accompanied by five Kentuckians arrived before sunrise at the Hyde home in search of White.

The first to note the approach of the officers was the fugitive himself, and White determined not to surrender without a struggle. The Hyde family lived in a double log house with a loft, the opening to it large enough to admit one man at a time, and here White secreted himself. He was an adept in the use of firearms, and was armed with a revolver. When the officers discovered the loose boards of the loft which made the floor, one of them fired through a crack while Elliott mounted the ladder with a double-barrel shot gun in readiness. When he put his head through the aperture, the fugitive fired at him striking the gun barrel, the ball glancing and marking his cheek and nipping his ear. At the time Mr. Hyde was in bed suffering from a broken ankle, but he soon assumed responsibility, sending a daughter for assistance.

While one of the sons in the Hyde family had been seized, and was being held by the intruders the daughter soon aroused another son who lived near and he communicated with friends in Mechanicsburg. He secured a horse from a neighbor's barn, and in a short time a crowd was hurrying toward the Hyde farm. When the young girl was leaving to call her brother, the officers of the law called to her, threatening to shackle her, but she was fleet of foot and won in the race with one of them. The Mechanicsburg relief was armed with all kinds of weapons - guns, pistols, pitchforks and clubs - all of them in sympathy with the anti-slavery sentiment. When they assembled in the Hyde dooryard, the officers were nonplussed, until a citizen drew forth his watch and gave them five minutes in which to quit the homestead. They withdrew without securing the fugitive, and the friends of White conducted him to a place of safety. He was removed from place to place, and guarded with the utmost secrecy.

Ohio and Indiana, notwithstanding the pain he suffered. When he ventured back, spies gave notice of his return ; the authorities were anxious to arrest such a noted violater of the laws, but he eluded them again. On May 27, when Churchill and Elliott with a posse appeared again, Charles and Edward Taylor, Hiram Gutridge and Russell Hyde, the son who was in charge of affairs at the Hyde farm followed them, and a controversy ensued. The four men were arrested for obstructing United States officers in the discharge of their duties, and for harboring Addison White, the human chattel. They were taken without warrant, a fact that played an important part in subsequent events, however, they were allowed to change their clothes in preparation for the journey.

At Mechanicsburg, the four prisoners were given to understand that if they did not care to proceed further they would be released by the citizens. They decided to let the law take its course since the officers said they would be taken to Urbana for a preliminary examination. The prisoners and their friends alike accepted the statement, but some of the citizens trailed them. In a short time the officers turned their course away from Urbana, and there was an altercation along the highway. One of the pursuing party went to Urbana, and a writ of habeas corpus threw the matter into the courts of Champaign County. The United States marshals making the arrest had purposely avoided Urbana, knowing the citizens were hostile toward the institution of human slavery, and against the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. When the officers realized they might be pursued from Urbana, they bound their prisoners and guarded them closely; they were looking for trouble, and Churchill remarked that no process of any court should stop him ; it would only be fighters superior to himself.

Armed with the writ of habeas corpus from the Champaign County Probate Court, Sheriff Clark, accompanied by the town marshal of Urbana and others, started in pursuit. The entire population in the vicinity of Urbana and Mechanicsburg was aroused, and every horse and vehicle available were used in overtaking the officers and their prisoners. They passed through the eastern part of Clark County, planning to take a train at South Charleston; they would reach Cincinnati over the Little Miami, but the writ issued in Champaign County had been placed in the hands of Sheriff John E. Layton of Clark County. It was delivered to the Clark County sheriff by State Senator Brand and Pierce Morris of Urbana, who accompanied him, and Deputy Sheriff William Compton to South Charleston.

When the news spread in Springfield others joined in the race to apprehend the officers crossing the county with Champaign County prisoners. When Sheriff Layton and party intercepted the fleeing officials, seizing their horses and stopping them, Churchill was not in humor to be interrupted, knocking down the Clark County sheriff with a Colt revolver, beating him so badly that he suffered from it the remainder of his life. Shots were fired, and Elliott later acknowledged in court that he shot three times at Compton who had snapped a revolver at him. By this time many Champaign County people were on the scene, among them Ichabod Corwin, a noted lawyer of Urbana, and other prominent citizens. In the face of such a gathering, Churchill deemed it wise to depart without waiting railway transportation. His horses were jaded, and the prisoners already worn out with the excitement of the journey.

The pursuers did not follow immediately as their horses were exhausted in driving from Urbana, Mechanicsburg and Springfield. Fresh horses were secured in the surrounding country, and at 9:30 o'clock in the evening every available conveyance left South Charleston in pursuit of the fleeing officers of the law and their prisoners. Because of the injury to Sheriff Layton, a warrant was issued by Justice of the Peace J. A. Houston for the arrest of Churchill and his party. It was placed in the hands of Constable E. G. Coffin, and the race began. When the party crossed the line into Greene County, the writ of habeas corpus was transferred to the hands of Sheriff Mclntire, who joined in the pursuit. All night long they pressed forward, overtaking Churchill and party at sunrise in Clinton County.

At the Village of Lumberton, when the officers realized they would be overtaken, they broke and ran in every direction, even entering houses while the people were yet asleep in their beds. While some of the abducting party escaped, ten of them with the four prisoners fell into the hands of those in pursuit, and all returned to South Charleston. The United States marshals were arraigned before Justice Houston on a charge of assault and battery ; they were found guilty, and were bound over to the Clark County Common Pleas Court, and in the evening of May 28, Constable Coffin committed them to jail in Springfield. Next morning they were brought before Probate Judge James L. Torbert, who admitted them to bail in the sum of $150 each, when they furnished the necessary sureties, those admitted to bail being Churchill, Elliott and eight others, the bond being furnished by Dr. Cornelius Smith, David Shaffer, William Reid, William Anderson, John F. Chorpenning, William Berger and John Dillahunt.

When Churchill and Elliott were released, they were again arrested on a warrant issued by Justice James S. Christie when, by their attorney, J. M. Hunt, they moved to quash the proceedings, the motion continued until the following day and on May 30, they appeared An court again, Mr. Hunt defending them and J. S. Hauke representing the state. They pleaded guilty and waived further trial, Justice Christie binding them over in the sum of $1,500 each for their appearance in common pleas court. When they were unable to furnish bond, Constable E. Crossland committed them into the custody of the jailer. On complaint of William H. Compton, deputy sheriff, the eight persons associated with them: Evan B. Carty, Jared M. Trader, Thomas Meara, Samuel B. Garvey, James Darrell, Theodore D. Bentley, William H. Keifer and John Puffenbarger were again arrested, charged with aiding and abetting Churchill and Elliott in their assault upon Sheriff John E. Layton. They were brought before Justice Christie in the evening, and they passed the night at the Akens Hotel in the custody of the constable and his assistants.

At the instigation of Compton, a second warrant was issued for the arrest of Churchill and Elliott, charging them with maliciously shooting at him with intent to wound him; when brought before the justice they again pleaded guilty, waiving trial, their bond was fixed at $1,000 each and in default, they were transferred to the county jail where they languished* many hours before they were removed to Cincinnati. When they were taken before Judge Humphrey H. Leavitt of the United States District Court for Southern Ohio, there was delay over the question as to whether the State of Ohio or the United States had precedence, Judge Leavitt' deciding that at the time of their arrest Churchill and Elliott were in the rightful and proper discharge of their duties, and thus were not amenable to state laws. They could not be arrested and detained for trial in state courts, and they were released, this move causing trouble in Clark County again. Numerous arrests were made of those aiding and abetting Sheriff John E. Layton.

"It was a time that tried men's souls," those taken from Clark County to stand trial in Cincinnati being: Sheriff Layton and Deputies Compton and Fleming, Prosecutor John S. Hauke, Justice Christie, Attorney John C. Miller, Constables Temple, Crossland and Brown of Springfield ; Dr. M. L. Houston and Constable Coffin of South Charleston, and from Champaign County: Senator Brand, Sheriff Clark and David Rutan. The general charge against these citizens was resisting the United States officers in the discharge of their duties ; the cause of action against Doctor Houston was aiding Sheriff Layton. They were all held to bail in the sum of $1,500 each, their bondsmen being: James F. Whiteman, A. D. Rodgers, A. D. Coombs, Rodney Mason and David Compton, and their trial was set for the following October.

When the Churchill-Elliott party was overtaken at Lumberton, the pursuing party had two classes of writs : Habeas Corpus for the prisoners, and warrants for the United States marshals, the latter being disposed of at South Charleston while it was necessary to return the Champaign County prisoners to Urbana, and the docket of Probate Judge Baldwin shows that Sheriff Clark conformed to the requirements, presenting Edward and Charles Taylor, Russell Hyde and Hiram Gutridge in court, and when the name of Churchill had been called solemnly three times, he failed to appear against them and they were set at liberty. The writ of Judge Baldwin also bears the indorsement of Daniel Lewis of Greene County, who placed the four prisoners into the custody of Sheriff Clark. In the following July, the four were arrested on warrant of the United States Court and taken to Cincinnati for examination. While Hyde and Gutridge were dismissed, the Taylors were held under bond for their appearance in October.

The planter named White from Fleming, Kentucky, who owned the slave Addison White, was present and testified, saying that intercepted letters had enabled him to trace his chattel to Springfield, and thence to Mechanicsburg. Sheriff Clark and Senator Brand of Champaign County were examined in Cincinnati, and Stanley Matthews, who was United States attorney, became very bitter in his denunciation of those who would interfere with officers in the discharge of their duties. When Judge John A. Corwin of Urbana was called to their defense, a Cincinnati newspaper said : Judge Corwin, for the defense, made by far the ablest argument yet heard on either side ; it was an effort seldom excelled if ever equalled in Ohio courts for pertinency, aptness, logical force and consistency, legal erudition, bitter denunciation, withering sarcasm, biting mockery and powerful eloquence. * * * The first allegiance of a citizen of a state is to his own sovereignty." The conflict had not been between two sovereignties, but between the deputy marshals and the State of Ohio.

In view of the expense attending so much litigation, efforts were made to secure a compromise. When $1,000 was paid to Daniel G. White for the loss of his chattel - the fugitive slave, Addison Whiter-all civil and criminal action would be withdrawn. The proposition was spurned by many concerned, the men from Clark County being much opposed to it ; they would fight it, but Mr. Hyde of Champaign County had long been in hiding and his friends raised the money. Judge Corwin was authorized to pay $950 to Daniel G. White, and various personal law suits grew out of the Rescue Case of 1857, most of them brought before the courts in Cincinnati. George H. Frey was then editor of The Springfield Republic; in an editorial way he commented on the actions of Churchill, and he was summoned to court in Cincinnati.

Mr. Frey was assessed $5,000 damage, but Judge Storer dismissed the case on the ground that a witness cannot be sued in another county. Mr. Frey also published some reflections on the official conduct of Postmaster Boggs, asserting that the information came from him as to the hiding place of the slave in transit to Canada. Mr. Boggs brought suit demanding $6,000, but Mr. Frey entered a counter-suit. Esquires Christie and Houston were notified of suits brought against them in Hamilton County, but none of the suits in Hamilton or Clark counties ever came to trial. They were allowed to languish, and when time had soothed the feeling of the interested parties, they were withdrawn or lapsed from want of prosecution. Constable Coffin, who was a conductor on the underground railroad, suffered arrest in connection with the Rescue Case and other charges were brought against him. He was called into court, but the case was deferred from time to time until the Civil war came on which stopped further proceedings. However, Coffin became known to the public through such activities and four times he was elected Clark County sheriff, and three times mayor of Springfield. For eight years he was warden of the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. There is a book on underground railroad activities written by Levi Coffin, who lived at Fountain City, Indiana ; he was a Quaker.

On July 2, 1857, the citizens of South Charleston held a public meeting in which resolutions were passed declaring they would not resist the execution of any legal warrant issued by state or nation, but they objected to high-handed measures of drunken United States officers. They indorsed the action of Sheriff Layton and the citizens aiding him, adding: "We will make our town too hot to hold any spy or informer, resident or foreign, who may be found prowling in our midst endeavoring to involve our citizens in legal difficulties."

The foregoing expressed the feeling almost universal in Ohio, and throughout the North. It foreshadowed the dark days when the Nation would be forced to settle the slavery question. After the purchase of his freedom, Addison White continued his residence at Mechanicsburg until he died there. His wife refused to come to Ohio, and he did not return to Kentucky. While he served two years as a soldier in the Civil war, and was honorably discharged, those who knew him best felt that he did not appreciate what was done for him when he was in sore need of protection. The people of three counties sacrificed for him, Mr. Hyde not only offering him shelter, but exiling himself until after the fugitive was freed through purchase, when he could come home again.

The Rescue Case of 1857 brought a number of attorneys into prominence, among them James L. Goode, Rodney Mason, John and Ichabod Corwin, C. L. Vallandingham, Stanley Matthews, Judge Caldwell, John O'Neal and George E. Pugh. While the Rescue Case did not have its entire setting in Clark County, it involved a great number of Clark County citizens. The Rescue Case and the Oberlin Case stand out in the underground railroad history of Ohio ; they will long remain historic marks of the intensity of feeling engendered by the institution of slavery. In each case men suffered in their bodies, their private means and their personal liberties. The rigid enforcement of the law concerning fugitive slaves aroused the bitterest feelings of hate and prejudice ; it engendered a constant feeling of suspicion, insecurity and hostility.

In the courts where these cases were tried, the doctrine of state's rights was urged as against the laws and authority of the United States. The North had not yet learned the lesson that the supremacy of the general Government was paramount - but when South Carolina proposed to put the idea into practice, well, the Civil war corrected the error. The Emancipation Proclamation changed conditions, and the Negroes who come into Springfield and Clark County are not fugitives.

Chapter Xxxv

While the Revolution and the second war with England are as a story that is told as far as personal knowledge goes, men and women still linger who remember all the horrible details q{ the Civil war - the dark days from '61 to '65 - and that human slavery was the underlying question. As an outgrowth was the question of state sovereignty, and when South Carolina seceded from the Union, opinion underwent a radical change in the northern states. When the gun was fired that was heard around the world - when Fort Sumter was fired on, April 12, 1861 - Clark County citizens raised the American flag on houses, shops and stores; they left their daily routine as Israel Putnam left his plow ; they answered the call of the country.

War is resultant from conflicting ideas, and the Rescue Case of 1857 reflects the local sentiment. The question of human slavery convulsed the whole country, and abolitionists were everywhere active. The evidence of internal strife was apparent in the mutterings from all over the country - it was the time that tried men's souls. While other states produced opponents of human slavery in the days leading up the Civil war, Ohio produced some of the most active abolitionists, and their spirit had response in Clark County. It is said that Benjamin Lundy was the pioneer of the anti-slavery movement. As .early as 1815 he organized the first anti-slavery society, and other leaders were: Charles Osborn, James G. Birney, Joshua R. Giddings, Benjamin F. Wade and Salmon P. Chase* In 1817 Osborn published The Philanthropist, the first antislavery publication in America. Lundy and Osborn were leaders from the Belmont-Harrison County locality, that part of Ohio being settled much earlier than Clark County.

The time came when legislative compromises were no longer effective, and when in the presidential campaign of 1860, Abraham- Lincoln was elected, it was apparent that abolition of slavery would be the next thing in order; a crisis was confronting the people of the United States. The problems of the ages have been solved on the field of battle; war has been the solution, and bloodshed has paved the way for many things. It seems that the events of the ages are not mere occurrences; they are part of God's eternal plans, and the lessons of the centuries have been written in blood. In the Civil war the Clark County soldiers wrote their chapter in United States history along with the rest of the country.

The number of soldiers who enlisted from Clark County is not known definitely; there were officers, soldiers, and sailors in the regular and volunteer service who joined the army or navy on the Union side in the Civil war both at home and abroad; some who enlisted in other places afterward became residents of Clark County, and the number can only be approximated; it will reach about 2,550, not counting double enlistments. While some enlisted in the regular army and navy, most Clark County men belonged to volunteer organizations, as follows : The Thirty- first Ohio Volunteer Infantry Company K had eighty Clark County soldiers in it; the Thirty-second Ohio had some Clark County men; the Sixteenth and Seventeenth and part of the Tenth Ohio Batteries were from Clark County; the Sixty-sixth Infantry, and the Seventy-first, Seventy-sixth and Ninety-fourth Regiments had Clark County men, but the bulk of Clark County soldiers were in the Forty-fourth Infantry, One Hundred and Tenth Infantry, One Hundred and Fifty-second and One Hundred and Fifty-third National Guards, and with the One Hundred Day Regulars under the command of Col. Israel Stough. On April 19, 1861, the Springfield Zouaves entered the three months service, and about that time the Washington Guards sprang into existence ; since then there has been a Gen. J. Warren Keifer in Springfield.

While General Keifer enlisted as a private early in the Civil war, he was mustered out as a major general. He is one of the very few survivors carrying that distinction. He was born January 30, 1836, and while that date fell on a Monday, A. D. 1922, he insisted that Sunday had rounded out eighty-six years - that on Monday he was turned into his eighty-seventh year, admitting that few persons are such sticklers for details. When asked about his plans for the future, the soldier, statesman and only Ohioan ever honored by being chosen speaker of the National House of Representatives looked forward with the same optimism that has always characterized him ; when seen at his office on Saturday, he was busy. He has a wonderful capacity for endurance, and is frequently called to Washington in consultation, dining only recently with President Harding.

A Springfield jurist, Judge F. M. Hagan, says of General Keifer: "His services to the nation, both in civil and military life, have marked him as the most distinguished of all the sons of Clark County who have attained eminence; impartial history will record that as speaker of the National House of Representatives, his ability justly ranked him among the first class of all the men who ever have occupied that position. General Keifer remains one of the few figures of the great Civil war whose achievements stamped them as leaders in that mighty struggle. Ever since the termination of the war, his services have been at the call of his country." It is understood that General Keifer participated in twentyeight battles of the Civil war. He says : "I enlisted as a private soldier in April, 1861, and was in the Civil war four years. In May, 1861, I was made a major of a regiment partly organized from Clark County. I was in the first battle of the war at Rich Mountain, Virginia, July 11, 1861, and I was also in the last battle wfren Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomatox, witnessing his surrender. I was shot four times. I was mustered out of the Civil war at Washington, June 27, 1865, with the title of major general."

In response to the direct question, General Keifer said : "Our Civil war was justified; it was necessary to reestablish our Republic, and to free the slaves, just as God sent the plagues of blood, of frogs, of lice, of flies, of murrain, of hail, of pestilence, of locusts, of darkness and of death to the first born of Egypt, to permit the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and from slavery." Wars were justified in times past to spread religion and to destroy the power and influence of the heathen, or those of different religion or idolatrous faith. Mohammedism has been spread by the sword, until its votaries outnumber those of the Christian faith in the world. In modern times Christian as well as Mohammedan or pagan nations have cultivated the spirit of war - in times of peace they have prepared for it, as well as in times of war. While Kaiser Wilhelm invoked the aid of the Almighty God, it was in a different manner from the prayer of General Washington at Valley Forge, who said of his troops: "May the Lord protect them and lead them to victory." The Kaiser said : "The soldier spirit is always cultivated by the Almighty War Lord," and he referred to the leaders: "Me unt Gott."

On March 4, 1865, in his second inaugural address, President Lincoln in referring to the divided country, the soldiers of the North and the South, said : "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God ; and each invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both could not be answered; they have not been answered; the prayers of neither have been fully answered, but the Almighty has His own purposes in the world/' and reverting to the stirring days of 1861, when recruiting officers were combing Clark County for volunteers, it may be said that few Ohio counties of like population offered better response, either in the number or quality of its private soldiers. None would brook disloyalty, and there was nothing Turkish about Uncle Sam's American Eagle, the proud bird of freedom ; when it ruffled its feathers and spread its wings, well, "Thereby hangs a tale."

While President Lincoln faced an unprecedented crisis in American history, and the people were in doubt and uncertainty, he did not at once interfere with human slavery. While the new-born republican party had not taken a direct stand against the slavery question, its leaders were among the avowed opponents of that institution; when the President declared that the country could no longer exist half free and half slave, there was ready response from Clark County. When the slaveholding states led by South Carolina began passing secession ordinances, Clark County citizens realized that some decisive action was necessary. Within twenty-four hours after President Lincoln's call for volunteers Capt. Edwn C. Mason's company enlisted in Springfield in the three months' service. It was known as Company F of the Second Ohio Infantry, fighting under Capt. David King in the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, many from Clark County serving with this regiment in the Southwest in the three years' service.

When President Lincoln first called on his countrymen to avenge the insult to the American flag at Fort Sumter, there was quick transformation from peace to a state of war; the memory of it is like a passing dream, but everywhere there were spontaneous meetings. The latent fires of patriotism were soon aflame, were soon fanned into a glowing heat. There had been no parallel in history to the rush to arms, when Grant, Sherman and Sheridan led the way, and Clark County soldiers braved the rain of shot and shell on many hotly contested fields of strife. They endured long and tedious marches under the parching southern sun, through snow, rain and mud and with scanty supply of rations often, and many times nothing to eat. Some of the Clark County soldiers never returned ; and they sleep the sleep that knows no waking in the National cemeteries: Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Andersonville, wherever they fell, and some are in unknown graves on hillsides and in the valleys, where no loving hands place flowers, the final resting places of many Clark County "boys in blue/' notwithstanding the G. A. R. burial plot in Ferncliff Cemetery, with its spot sacred to the unknown dead, where flowers are scattered on recurring Decoration days.

In the Civil war there were many soldiers and sailors in the United States Army and Navy of whom no records exist, and the same thing is true in the preceding as well as subsequent wars. "While not a sparrow falleth, but its God doth know," the unmarked graves never will be known to the world. While "Times that tried men's souls" is a stock expression carried over from the Civil war, later generations have experienced similar conditions ; what General Sherman said about war has been demonstrated again and again in Clark County.

In 1860 the South accepted Abraham Lincoln's election as a direct menace, and the doctrine of states' rights as paramount to National control was openly advocated. It was on December 20, that year, that South Carolina took the initiative in passing a secession ordinance, and autonomy was the rule until the peace commission met in Baltimore m 1861, with the far-reaching purpose of safeguarding the Union; when Jefferson Davis was chosen president of the Southern Confederacy decisive action was necessary. Sometimes conditions are insurmountable, and while meetings were being held and plans of action were being considered - the gun was fired that was heard round the world. On April 12, 1861, war was inaugurated following quickly the inauguration of Lincoln; it was domestic strife with men and brothers fighting each other.

It was worse than fighting a common enemy - this war to the finish among the people of one country - and the question was whether or not the United States should be rent asunder, or remain an undivided country. There must always be a planting of moral and patriotic ideas before there is personal or national advancement, and the human voice in appealing song always has telling effect in stirring people to action. The songs growing out of the Civil war have no parallel in American history; the Puritan conscience was aroused by William Lloyd Garrison, Joshua R. Giddings, Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell and Julia Ward Howe, and the printed page - poems and song - the winged arrows of God's truth were unlimited in their effectiveness. As a result there was a revival of the feeling of accountability to God. It spread all over the country, and Clark County was in line with the rest of the world.

When Harriet Beecher Stowe's great story, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," made its appearance in serial, Clark County men and women read it who never needed to read it again ; it spurred them to action, and it was the greatest human agency in bringing about the Emancipation Proclamation. It is said that those who write the hymns of a nation are responsible for its religion, and the same holds true of patriotism. Such war songs as "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," "The Army and Navy Forever," and "Hail Columbia," enable the students of history to approach Bunker Hill, Lexington and the later American struggles fully understanding their significance. The assertion has been repeated many times that the American flag never has been carried into any war without righteous cause, and it never yet has trailed in defeat.

Sometimes it is necessary to inspire optimism in order to tide a nation over a crisis; some of the songs of the Civil war were as effective in promoting enlistments, and arousing men and women to deeds of sacrifice and heroism, as the stimulating patriotic addresses from the recruiting officers. When the men of the Civil war heard the country's call, some of them were only boys. On January 1, 1863, when emancipation became the paramount question, there was another call; when the men of the North invaded the South to remove the shackles of human slavery Clark County volunteers were among them. It is said there never was lack of men to fill the quota ; in the four years of war Ohio met every demand, and Clark County had its part in supplying soldiers. Business and professional men, college students, mechanics and farmers responded alike to the call for soldiers.

While the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts were filled with sentiment when the soldiers were leaving for the fortunes of war, they soon settled down to stern realities. Some one said of the period, "Everybody knows that had it not been for the loyal women of America we would be a divided nation today." While nothing was heard about "surgical dressings/' the women "scraped lint" for the same purpose, and some of the Civil war women frequented the Red Cross work rooms again. There are Clara Bartons among them, and surgical dressings do not disconcert them. No doubt many a maimed arm or leg would have been saved with better hospital facilities in the Civil war. While there were army nurses who followed the regiments, they lacked many working facilities that are now known to humanity. The Sanitary Commission of the Civil war was unable to afford the relief that has been accomplished by later organizations.

While the daily newspapers had not yet made their appearance in Clark County while the soldiers were engaged in the Civil war, there were Chicago, Cincinnati and Columbus, as well as New York, papers being read, although in most cases only the weekly issues. When there was favorable news there was rejoicing, the people gathering in groups to discuss it. The women continued scraping lint for bandages ; there were public and private contributions to the cause until after the fall of Appomattox. The bravest and best had gone to the front ; the best and the bravest remained by the stuff, and today the Grand Army of the Republic would not rob the Woman's Relief Corps of its heritage. While their numbers are reduced, their patriotism remains undiminished, and they hold their regular campfire meetings in a hall dedicated to them in the splendid Clark County Memorial Building in Springfield.

While some of the Union soldiers would not review their war records, saying that when they were mustered out they would take care of themselves again, others enjoy meeting and discussing the stirring events. While some would not claim their pensions because they received no disabilities, others enjoyed "putting down the war" again. The campfire meetings are social opportunities, and the men and women who lived through the stirring days from '61 to '65, enjoy them. On one of the quarter-squares in the court house group is a stone bearing the inscrip- tion: "Union Soldiers' Monument erected by Clark County in 1869," and the two cannons placed near it are an educational influence to the young who only know of the Civil war in the pages of history.

Mitchell Post G. A. R., which meets in Memorial Hall, reported 130 members in the closing days of 1921, which represents a number of transfers from abandoned posts. While a number of Civil war soldiers do not affiliate with the Mitchell Post G. A. R., posts are maintained at other points, as New Carlisle, South Vienna and Catawba. When South Charleston and Enon posts were abandoned, the remaining members were transferred to Springfield. While the Grand Army soldiers have grown feeble, and their wives have grown aged with them, their friends look after their comfort on each Decoration Day, providing automobiles and assisting them in the arduous duties of laying flowers on all the graves ; as their numbers decline the graves increase, and in a few years none will be left of the Civil war veterans to mark the spots :

While many Clark County soldiers distinguished themselves in the Civil war, they also enkindled a flame of patriotism that manifested itself in succeeding generations. In 1863, James C. Walker of Springfield carried the flag over Missionary Ridge, and in 1895, he was decorated with the Congressional medal. He wears it whenever occasion demands it, and has been signally honored because of it. Because of having this special recognition from Congress, the hero of Missionary Ridge was invited to participate in the burial service of America's unknown soldier at Arlington Military Cemetery on Armistice Day, 1921, going to Washington through the courtesy of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Walker has been indorsed by Mitchell Post as a department commander of Ohio. He served through the Civil war as a member of Company K, Thirty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

When the Civil war was raging at its height in 1864, three-fourths of the Clark County men within the age of enlistment limit, and more than one-half of the voting population were in the military and naval service of the United States. At the time of the Kirby Smith raid, men without military training and but poorly equipped rushed to camp, and were hurried to Cincinnati in the defense of that city, among them some of the most prominent citizens ; they were designated as the Squirrel Hunters. Clark County men who distinguished themselves in the United States Navy were: Reed Werden, Joseph N. Miller, and later, Clarence Williams. They were all graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Some Clark County men graduated from West Point Military Academy, John Williamson, being in the class with Gen. U. S. Grant, and Gen. Frederick Funston. born at the close of the Civil war in New Carlisle, the house in which he was born still being a landmark in the community, was a West Point soldier. He came into prominence through the capture of Aguinaldo in the Philippine Islands later.

In summing up Civil war activities, General Keifer says that among the rank and file were some of the best and bravest, and the Ohio rule of claiming great men applies to Clark County. All who were born, or who ever lived in the country, are listed among its distinguished citizens, no matter where they achieved distinction. However, from Big Bethel to Appomattox, wherever bloody sacrifices were to be made on river, sea or land, they were ready to make them; they fought and fell under McClellan, Rosecrans, McDowell, Thomas, Sheridan, Sherman, Meade and Grant, and under other equally brave commanders of the Union Army. Clark County volunteer citizen-soldiers shed their blood at Bull Run, Antietam, Winchester, Gettysburg, Organe Grove, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, New Orleans, Iuka, Corinth, Perrysville, Stone's River, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, Knoxville and hundreds of other fields of carnage, all to preserve the Union established by General Washington and his patriot compeers of 1776, and the Constitution, they died in an effort to destroy the curse of the ages - human slavery.

It cannot be ascertained how many soldiers and sailors of the Civil war fell and were buried in the Southland. Some who were buried where they fell were later transferred to National cemeteries, and in all of them will be found the names of men from Clark County, both marked on headstones, and recorded in registers. It is impossible to formulate a complete list of the soldier dead from Clark County, and those buried within the county represent many different volunteer regiments. They belonged to independent companies or batteries, to the regular army or navy, and to all branches of the military service. Some died in military hospitals from wounds received in battle, or of disease contracted in war service, and some died of starvation in southern prisons. The people of the Civil war period in Clark County performed their whole duty toward preserving civil and political liberty; it was a war of humanity, and the result was the overthrow of slavery.

While Mitchell and other G. A. R. posts still exist, few communities boast of a major general of the Civil war, and in his book : "Slavery and Four Years of War/' General Keifer says that as commander-in-chief he only once executed the death sentence, and that was for the worst offense a soldier can commit - desertion in the face of the enemy. He was a nineteen-year-old boy, who escaped with an older soldier who forged a furlough and went to visit relatives at Philadelphia. He delayed execution one day, thinking President Lincoln would intervene, and was reproved by General Meade. The boy was blindfolded, and a firing squad of six soldiers was called; when the command to fire was given he fell dead, and later came a commutation of his sentence ; some one failed to do his duty promptly, and thus occurred a real tragedy.

In recent years General Keifer received a letter from a Confederate soldier who relates that he fired several shots at him, and that he learned of his whereabouts through a newspaper article widely copied, detailing the story of the flag sent to the general which he had lost in the Shenandoah Valley. It was left flying over a fort to deceive the enemy while the troops were being removed ; the Confederates thought the soldiers were still in the fort, and waited until day break to attack them, finding an abandoned fort, and fifty-nine years afterward those who captured the flag returned it to General Keifer. The flag was rescued by Mrs. Mary Joy Kipp, who carried it away concealed under her skirts, and the general planned to have it preserved in Columbus by the Ohio Archaeological Society, along with other Civil war relics. By using the flag to deceive the Confederates, General Keifer was enabled to evacuate the fort with 4,000 Union soldiers, when 30,000 Confederates surrounded it.

While the assassination of President Lincoln occurred before the end of the Civil war, he directed it from humanitarian motives and although misrepresented and underestimated, many of the people believed in him, and some one has said : "While in his life he was a great American, he is an American no longer, he is one of those giant figures of whom there are very few in history who lose their nationality in death. They are no longer Greek, Hebrew, English or American, they belong to mankind. While George Washington was a great American, Abraham Lincoln belongs to the common people of every land." It was Lincoln who suggested that the Lord must love the common folk because He made so many of them. Three years after the close of the Civil war, May 30, 1868, is recognized as the first Decoration Day in the United States; it was suggested by Gen. John A. Logan, and at that time Mrs. John A. Logan organized the Woman's Relief Corps of America.

It was the great Lincoln who, in a speech at Gettysburg, exclaimed: "We here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain," and while decoration in its purpose is a memorial to Civil war soldiers, the time has come when they have grown feeble and their admirers and friends assist them in the discharge of their solemn obligation - placing flowers on the lowly mounds, the resting places of their comrades in arms. Since then two wars have added younger men to the roll of veterans. Since 1919, the Decoration Day service presents the spectacle in many communities of the veterans of three wars marching in the same procession to lay flowers on the graves of comrades - the battle-scarred

While 1898 was a year of uncertainty for the Spanish-American soldiers in the training camps, for many of them it only meant a year's absence from their homes, however, they offered themselves a living sacrifice upon their country's altar. While they are reticent about their military experiences - say they did not have any - there .was patriotism in the air when it seemed that Cuba needed them. While "Remember Buena Vista harks back to the Mexican difficulties in the '40s," "Remember the Maine" stirred the hearts of all Cuban sympathizers, and there was military discipline and drill ; the manual of arms and the uniform awakened universal patriotism.

When President William McKinley called for volunteers to compel Spain to assume a right attitude toward Cuba, Springfield and Clark County contributed the full quota of soldiers and sailors, and others were disappointed because they were unable to enter the service. Col. Charles Anthony commanded the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and Camp Bushnell was opened for training at Columbus. It is given to but few men to exhibit a war record through three successive generations, as was the privilege of General Keifer who, when the Spanish-American war was in prospect, offered his services again. He was commissioned major general by the President. Maj. Horace C. Keifer was a member of the Ohio National Guard, receiving an appointment from the War Department as captain of the Third United States Volunteer Engineers, and he was an aide of the staff of General Keifer in Florida, Georgia and in Cuba. When there was another call' for soldiers in the World war, four grandsons of General Keifer responded: Joseph W., Oswin,

J. Warren, Jr., and Horace S. Keifer, and thus has he contributed to three wars, and born in 1836, he remembers much about the Mexican war - has lived through four wars.

General Keifer is the only major general of the Civil war to attain the same rank in a later war, and along with his G. A. R. button he has worn a service button having four stars upon it. Keifer Camp No. 3, Spanish War Veterans, is named in honor of Horace C. Keifer who did service in Cuba. Keifer Camp uses the Mitchell Post G. A. R. rooms for its meetings. While many Spanish war soldiers did not encounter actual service in Cuba, some enlisted for service in the Philippines, some went into the Regular Army and others into the United States Navy, and it may be said that Clark County - christened for a warrior - has had its f Jill mede of service in bearing the country's flag to victory on land and sea.

In connection with the Springfield Centennial in 1901, General Keifer said : "With all the significant things accomplished at the cost of blood and treasure in the nineteenth century, future generations will not be content to mark time over the grave of the past," and it is a coincident that at the beginning of the World war, he was in Berlin en route to Stockholm to attend a meeting of the Interparliamentary Union for Peace. He had delivered his message in Brussels, but he did not arrive at Stockholm; it was with difficulty that he got out of Germany.

In the class with Gen. John J. Pershing, who led the United States forces in France, was Gen. Frederick Funston, a son of Clark County who died while defending the Mexican border in 1916, before the United States was actively engaged in the great war. Hope centered in Funston, but he was removed by death when the country needed him most, and quoting again from an address by General Keifer in 1901 : "Would to God we could foretell the events and the progress of the twentieth century, and write with the pen of prophecy Springfield's history," and while on Decoration Day every grave was singled out in all of the cemeteries; flowers were placed on hallowed spots sacred to absent sleepers, and there were flowers on the water for all who lay buried in watery graves, he had not dreamed then of the sad hearts unable to visit overseas cemeteries; he had not heard the Flanders Requiem: "And we shall keep true faith with those who lie asleep, with each a cross to mark his bed," although in many households today are sad hearts because of sons, brothers, aye, young husbands who sleep beneath the poppies of France. The poet exclaims: and while some Clark County families have had bodies of their soldier dead consigned to them, others are content to leave them where they fell in the discharge of patriotic duty.

While some have objected to the use of the word civil in designating any war, and suggest that instead of Civil war the struggle between the

North and South be called the war of the states because the slavery question involved the free and slave states in conflict, others do not say World war, but speak of the war of the nations ; a few nations were not involved, and world includes all. The war of the states and the war of the nations involve very different warlike conditions; a nation of storytellers was a development of the war of the states, but the United States had become a nation of newspaper readers, and few stories are told of the war of the nations by the soldiers. Before the advent of the daily newspaper, young and old alike enjoyed the recitals of their adventures by the Civil war soldiers who spent the best of their lives in the service. A grateful republic still holds them in remembrance ; a nation was plunged into sorrow and debt because of human slavery.

There were northern homes made desolate because of those who lie buried in the battlefields of the South, and southern firesides had their own losses, but now the whole civilized world knows the sorrows following in the wake of war. In France, Belgium and England there have been burial ceremonies connected with the bodies of unknown soldiers in honor of all the unknown dead, and finally there was a ceremony connected with the burial of an unknown soldier in Washington.

While there were recruiting offices and many volunteers, the flaming signs : "Men wanted for the army," always having a lure for the young men of the country ; soldier life affords to young men an opportunity of travel who otherwise would be unable, to see the world, not much thought had been given as to who was enlisting and leaving the community. Young men frequently enlisting who were unknown in Clark County.

Sometimes parents favor the army on account of the rigid discipline it offers, and which they have failed to enforce ; they recognize the manly bearing that comes from military training; they covet the splendid physiques, realizing that the manual of arms develops them. While young men sometimes enter the army to escape unpleasant home environment, when there was a call to arms it was pure patriotism that prompted Young America to quit his home, and offer himself upon his country's altar. The first World war draft called for young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-one, and how quickly many of them registered and put themselves in line for service; when the age limit was raised to forty-five years none shirked responsibility. Old Company B of the Ohio National Guard was on the Mexican border patrol in 1916, and when on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war against Germany this company went to France ; it is now a machine gun company.

While the United States was last to get into the war - the war of the nations - and last to get out of it, the policy remains : "Trust in the Lord and keep your powder dry." Unpreparedness was heard on every side; the United States was a peace-loving nation. However, Clark County immediately marshaled its forces when there was a call for soldiers. While America needs to be fortified, the reformers say it needs to be purified; they urge that its larger centers were just as wicked, April 6, 1917, as Paris, London or Rome; they were just as vulgar as Berlin or Vienna, and that they remain unchanged after going through the purifying fire of war. Some political economists charge that

America has held aloof from helping restore the peace of the world because of partisan reasons, influenced by ambitious political spoilsmen. The United States was represented at Versailles by President Woodrow Wilson, and the warring nations sent their representatives to the Disarmament Conference in Washington. The United States did not go to Genoa nor to The Hague; it did not assume responsibility for tne European situation. Some have charged this country with hesitating as to whether it shall do its duty by the rest of the world or live to itself; the questions confronting the thinking people are nationalism and internationalism. Apropos the time, some one said in rhyme:

"Between you and me, in the last year or two, My ideals are not so sunny; I'm about on the brink of beginning to think. We are more or less out for the money."

Under wartime conditions seemingly respectable men abandoned themselves to making money greedily, but Springfield industries were not converted into munitions of war channels ; it is urged that while America was making money, France was shedding blood - that France put up the men while America furnished the money - and General Pershing now urges a greater preparedness, saying this country may not be favored with allies again. It is said that a money-maker enjoys reading the Prophet Isaiah better than the Sermon on the Mount, and in driving home the cost of war in wealth alone President Tulloss of Wittenberg localizes the problem, saying that 961 memorial halls like the one in Springfield could be built with the money spent each day; the cost of the great war for one year would have financed 1,752,000 Wittenberg colleges that long, and that another such war will destroy civilization. The war cost the United States $24,000,000,000, while the annual products of agriculture are less than $15,000,000,000, and the profiteer is described in the lines:

An unusual condition followed in the wake of the World war. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments were written into the Constitution of the United States, and accompanying prohibition came the liberated woman ; and the flapper has attracted much attention. It is said that respectable women copy styles from women who are far from respectability, and the young people - a generation of butterflies - care only for excitement, change and money. It is written that a nation or community, like the individual, will reap what it sows - sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind. Some of the problematic students say the world had needed a violent shaking up long before August, 1914, when Germany started the pot to boiling, and that gross materialism is still the malady ; that humanity still has some lessons to learn - that it requires a good many reprimands to bring it to an understanding of things.

While arbitration seems the humane thing, the war record of Clark County is in no sense a reproach to its citizenry. It will welcome universal peace, even though the League of Nations did not meet all the requirements. While some people argue that they are in the world, but not of it, Clark County is in Ohio, and Ohio is in the United States, and while the United States entered the War of the Nations it was. not through the motive of conquest. While fireless and wireless are economic terms in common usage, the people of Clark County learned about heatless, meatless and wheatless days after the beginning of Germany's struggle for world supremacy.

Platform speakers frequently urged that with the opportunity for profit removed from the individual, and greed expurged from the nations of the earth, the question of war will be settled. The World war soldiers in France said: "We are good soldiers because we are not soldiers," demonstrating clearly that the United States troops were with the Allies for a purpose other than conquest - it was wholly humanitarian. The United States never has entered war to enlarge its domain, even though the Mexican war resulted in more slave territory. When the American flag has been unfurled in war it has been for the protection of civil liberty. With 81,000 Americans - fathers, sons, brothers, husbands - who fought, bled and died in France and Flanders; with 81,000 Gold Star War Mothers in the United States, it follows that some of this sorrow was visited upon the households of Clark County. While in time France may forget that the American Expeditionary force was there, the people of the United States have not forgotten the visit of Lafayette. When General Pershing stood at his tomb saying: "Lafayette, we are here," the greeting was "heard 'round the world."

While Clark County contributed 3,300 men to the World war, and it is known that 168 of them died away from their homes, there were heroes and heroines who "carried on" in their absence, all other considerations being subordinated to wartime activities. Clark County boys received their military training at Camp Sherman and in all the military training camps about the country. The American Legion .Posts keeping alive the war memories are George Cultice in Springfield, named for the first Clark County boy who died in the service, and the Posts in South Charleston, New Carlisle and Tremont City. And in Springfield is the Antonio Bailey Post, composed of Negro soldiers, with Robert Allen as commander. The George Cultice American Legion Post commanders are Wallace S. Thomas, Dr. J. H. Rinehart and W. W. Diehl. There are 'Ladies' Auxiliaries in connection, those eligible to membership being the mothers, wives and sisters of the soldiers.

While 3,300 Clark County soldiers were reported enlisted under the draft, it is not known how many enlisted in other communities or how many had entered the army or the navy while the recruiting offices handled the situation in Springfield. The local recruiting office being in an industrial center, attracted many young men from outside of Clark County. The Students Army Training Corps in connection with Wittenberg College attracted many young men, and the naval recruiting station in Springfield enrolled many young men from Clark County. The Motor Transport Corps attracted many local young men; the Kelly Motor Truck Company supplying many army trucks accompanied by local men as drivers, and Clark County was touched in many ways by the war.

It is said the Springfield and Clark County Draft Boards had little difficulty with slackers. There was excellent community response to all war measure demands, men and women cheerfully giving their time to it. Just a few times freedom of speech was curtailed, one man being "ducked" because of unpatriotic utterances, his fellow workmen attending to the ceremony. While everybody responded and many sacrificed, not sufficient record was made at the time to enable full credits to be given, the community settling back into the even tenor of its way as soon as the wartime need was ended, the men having taken care of the financial situation and the women quit their homes for the Red Cross workshops, the Dorcas of the Bible being multiplied many times in Springfield an throughout Clark County. They all served many weary hours, days, weeks and months in their united effort to "make the wortd safe for democracy."

The Springfield and Clark County War Service (War Chest) was organized to correlate and finance all Clark County wartime activities. Its president was Warren A. Myers; vice president, C. G. Heckert; treasurer, J. L. Bushnell, and when the secretary, J. E. North, resigned, the duties were performed by F. A. Crothers. The executive committee members were: P. J. Shouvlin. J. E. Bowman. W. C. Hewitt, R. C. Bancroft, G. W. Tehan and H. E. Freeman of Springfield, while W. N. Scarff and John F. Brown had charge of the rural subscriptions to the fund. An active subscription campaign was launched, reaching 31,936 subscribers, who gave their money without reservation. There were Clark County boys in the service, and in ten days the amount subscribed totalled $1,339,247.66, but when the Armistice was signed the amount was automatically reduced and the amount asked was $892,831.76, but there was some shrinkage and the amount collected was $703,902.42, the disbursements being $530,148.03, and when the Armistice stopped the collection the War Service Commission had a balance of $173,754.39, which was invested in Liberty bonds and turned over to the City of Springfield, the income from them to be used.in the support of soldiers. The Commission or War Chest also turned over a certificate for cash on deposit amounting to $7,539.69 to be held as a trust fund. It is an endowment to the City Hospital for the benefit of the service men, the principal to remain intact for fifty years.

Sometimes the question has been raised as to what was done with War Chest money, and while the facts have been published some did not happen to read the reports. The War Service activities in Clark County began April 1, 1918, the payments falling due June 1. and notwithstanding the Armistice in November, $703,902.42 was collected, those having paid in full in advance receiving pro rata rebate. The War Service paid all the expenses for the Liberty loans, and paid to the* Clark County Chapter American Red Cross $204,000, and including memberships and other donations the Red Cross received $350,000 from Clark County. Under the leadership of H. S. Kissell, chairman of the Clark County War Savings Commission, the county was awarded a tablet as special recognition. He built up a good working organization and went "over the top" with $1,760,000, and the tablet in Memorial Hall tells the story. There were many willing workers, and they reached every home in Clark County.