Winchester Township (part 5 of 30)

He says the injury done there by the British caused nothing but alarm and since the British went dovm the bay, politics have been more tranquil, but they are so divided on politics, they are continually on the jar.

He says the epithet '*Tory,'' is brandished on all occasions and that all the entire party seems to be aiming at military despotism, if they could obtain it. He asks his friend's views of the political situation and to tell him how the elections have terminated in Virginia and how his speculation in flour has turned out, in view of the blockade.

The last letter is April 12, 181 5. He writes that since the peace, prices of grain have fallen instead of raised and the public was disappointed. That wheat was only one dollar per bushel and other grain correspondingly low. He ccmiplained that times were dull. He wants his friend to secure him house and store-room at Nelson C. H. He desired to be informed as to the election and the result of the contest between Epps and Randolph. In every letter, he sends his regards to his wife and family, and his friends, and all the letters are written on plain paper, now yellow with age, and folded, sealed with a wafer seal and addressed on the fourth page. They are addressed to Robert Shaw, at Buckingham C. H., Virginia, and are marked "free." They mark the writer as a student of the times, deeply interested in political matters and a Federalist. His friend, Robert Shaw, no doubt, was of the same political faith. The letters of Robert Shaw to Samuel McCuUough have not been preserved.

McCullough emigrated to Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1815, and from there to Adams County, Ohio, in 1816, where he followed the business of merchandising during the remainder of his life. His wife died February 6, 1835, at the age of forty-three, at West Union, Ohio, of consumption, after a long illness. He died on the eighth of June, 1835, of Asiatic cholera in his store in West Union on the spot where Miller and Bunn's drug store now stands. He was born May 5, 1775, and she was seventeen years his junior. They were the parents of Addison McCullough, deceased, and of William McCullough, of Sidney, Ohio.

Samuel McCullough, for the nineteen years he resided in Adams County, was a just and good man and respected by every one. He was quiet and unobtrusive in his views, but a reader and thinker who kept himself well informed on all public questions. He was by instinct and training a merchant. He knew the right time to buy and the right time to sell.

He was a successful merchant - always made money. He was trained to the business from boyhood and seemed to have a natural faculty for it. His son, John, died at Catlettsburg, Ky., in 185 1. Addison died at Point Pleasant, W. Va., November 16, 1876. A son, George W., died in infancy. Mr. McCullough lost his wife February 6, 1835, just a few months before his own tragic death of Asiatic cholera. The ashes of both repose in the cemetery at Tranquility, Ohio.

was born in Adams County, April 25, 1817. His parents were Samuel McCullough and his wife, Mary McVey, both from Cecil County, Maryland. His childhood and boyhood were spent in West Union, where his father was a prominent and successful merchant. He was attending college at Augusta, Kentucky, in June, 1835, when he was called home by the death of his father. He did not return to school but took charge of his father's business which he continued successfully in West Union, until 1847, when he closed it out and invested the proceeds in Star Furnace in Carter County, Kentucky. He was married in West Union on June 27, 1837, to Eliza Ann Willson, eldest daughter of Dr. Wm. B. Willson. He left West Union in the winter of 1847 and 1848 and removed to Catlettsburg, Kentucky. He was the financial agent of Lampton, McCullough & Company, of Star Furnace, until 1854, when he sold a portion of his interest in the concern and purchased an interest in Hecla Furnace. At this time, he removed to Ironton, which contimted his residence until his death. He continued his connection with Hecla Furnace until his death. His wife died December 16, 1868, at Ironton, and he died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Ella Capehart, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, November 16, 1876. Both are interred at Woodlawn near Ironton

Addison McCullough was of a thoughtful and serious mind ; he was religious by nature and instinct. In West Union, he lived in an atmosphere of earnest and sincere religious influence. He joined the Presbyterian Church at West Union at an early age, and when there was a division in the church there* on account of slavery, he. with the family of Dr. William B. Willson and others, went into a new church organization in which he and Dr. William B. Willson were made elders. He was highly respected and much loved by the people of West Union, and when he left there in 1848 there was universal regret and heartfelt grief. He- was a loving and lovable man, and his practical charity while in West Union had endeared him to all. Soon after he located in Ironton, he was made an elder in the church there and filled that office until his death. Though a thorough business man, the church held his affections and he was always present at all its services and social meetings. He was of a quiet disposition and spoke ill of no one. In the church meeting, he was earnest and fervent, eloquent in speech and prayer. He was a diligekit biblical student and was faithful in his attendance in the teacher's meetings for the study of the Bible.

He was respected and esteemed by every one in Ironton as a model citizen and a true Christian gentleman. His death was like his life. His last illness continued eight weeks and he suflFered much, but no complaint escaped him. The consolations of his religion made his final hours full of mental joy.

His children are Mr. Samuel McCullough, born in West Union, now a resident of Washington, D. C, where he holds a government position; Mrs. Julia Sechler, wife of Thomas M. Sechier, of Moline, Illinois; Mrs. Ella Capehart, wife of Hon. James Capehart, formerly a Congressman from West Virginia.

Pioneer Character Sketches 699

was bom November i8, 1796, in Allegheny County, Maryland, and emigrated to Adams County, Ohio, with his father, John McColm and family, about the year 1800, and settled on Gift Ridge. His brothers John, Malcolm, Matthew and David were all prosperous farmers, lived to a ripe old age, and have passed to their reward, excepting David, who lives near Bentonville.

William McColm married Lucy Turner, July 17, 1827, at New Richmond, Ohio. Their children were John T., Sarah, William S., the latter only of the three surviving and who resides at Portsmouth, Ohio. Mrs. Lucy McColm died at Clinton Furnace, December 24, 1833. The subject of our sketch was married again June 24, 1835, at Buckhom Furnace, to Martha McLaughlin, to whom were born James A., Mary, Henry A., Matthew and Clay F., all of whom are deceased except Henry A., a resident of New Comer, Delaware County, Indiana.

William McColm was the! descendant of Scotch-Irish parents and showed their characteristics in all his walks of life ; was a Whig in politics; a Methodist Prostestant in religion and a square man in all his dealings. He was a clerk and afterwards a store-keeper in West Union from 1824 to 1833, when he was induced by the late William Salter and other owners of Clinton Furnace to take an interest in the furnace arid act as store-keeper and furnace clerk. His investment in Clinton Furnace proving unprofitable, he moved to Buckhorn and later to Amanda Furnace, where he was employed in the same capacity as at Clinton.

On June i, 1840, he was appointed Treasurer of Scioto County in place of John Waller, who refused to qualify. He was elected to that office in 1841 and re-elected in 1843, ^845, 1847 and 1849. He qualified for liis sixth term, June 3, 1850. He died on his farm in Washington Township, September 7, 1850, while an incumbent of the office of County Treasurer. His wife died in Portsmouth, Ohio, April 9, 1890, and both are interred at Greenlawn, at that place.

Mr. McColm was a member of the Methodist Prostestant Church of Portsmouth, Ohio, during his entire reside^rice in that city. His congregation met at the house of Mrs. Sill, on Fourth Street, before the church on Fifth Street in the rear of Connolly's store was erected. He was always a Whig and anti-slavery. He was a strong advocate of temperance, being a member of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which flourished in his day.

was born at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in the year of 1789 and remained with his parents until 1807, at which time he emigrated to Cabin Creek, Kentucky, where he resided for four years, when he removed near the mouth of Brush Creek in Greene Township in Ohio. He was in the War of 1812, in which he served until December 24, 1814. On returning from the war he engaged in keel-boating salt down the Ohio River from the Kanawha Saline to Louisville, Ky. In 1828, he was made Major in the Second Regiment, First Brigade, Eighth Division of the Ohio Militia. He was married in 181 2 to Miss Margaret Eakins, who resided near the mouth of Brush Creek. There were thirteen children bom of this marriage, nine boys and four girls, Elizabeth, Susan, James, Mary, John, Joseph, William, Priscilla, David, George, Wilson, Rebecca, and Richard. Seven of these sons served in the Union army in the late Civil War. Our subject shouldered his gun in 1864 to assist in resisting General John Morgan's Raid, at which time he was seventy-five years of age. He served nine years successively as Justice of the Peace in Greene Township, during which time he solemnized numerous marriages. Mr. McKee was an elder in the Christian Church, and lived up to his profession. He was regarded as a good neighbor and citizen, and ever ready to help the poor and needy. He died near Waggoner's Ripple, at the age of ninety-two years and twenty-nine days. His wife, Margaret McKee, died seven years earlier. He was the grandfather of the Sheriff, James W. McKee, who was the son of David McKee, now residing at Wichita, Kansas, having removed there from Adams County in 1882. Joseph McKee was a Jeffersonian Democrat of the strictest sort, and his grandson. Sheriff James W. McK^e, is recognized as one of the most reliable leaders pf the Democrat party in Adams County.

Our subject was bom May 29, 1795, between Spires and Manheim, in Bavaria, Germany. Her maiden name was Foerst. We are not advised as to her parents or early history, but she was bom and reared a Protestant, and in 1826 identified herself with a division of the Prostestants, a branch of the Lutheran Church, believing in a deeper and more exalted piety. This branch or division of the German Prostestants were of similar views to thle followers of John Welsey as compared to the Church of England. They had many meetings for prayer and conference, and Mrs. Minick was one of their most enthusiastic adherents. She was married in 1815 to John Peter Minick, or Miinch, as it is properly written. We believe a correct translation in English would be Menken. Her husband was bom April 9, 1792. They had two children bom in German]^ Peter Minick was a soldier under the first Napoleon for a short time, in the campaigns where the Germans last su|^)orted his standard. He and our subject lived in Germany and kept house until 1830, when she was thirtyfive years of age and he! thirty-eight. It was while she was living in Germany that she had an experience given to none since the days of Elijah. When she was a young married woman, aged thirty-one, and in a time whefn she had been attending meetings of the pietists faithfully for some weeks, she fell down in her own house with a hemorrhage, and was found in an unconscious condition by her husband. She was put to bed and lay in an apparently unconscious state for six weeks, though, as she afterwards told, she was conscious towards the last, but was unable to move or speak.

At the end of six weeks, she died, or apparently died. Her physicians, her nurses and her friends thought she v;as dead, and she was dressed for burial. At that time, in her neighborhood, it was customary to keep the dead three days where circumstances permitted it, and this was done in her case. At the end of that time, some of her friends thought they saw signs of life, and she was kept a day longer. On the fourth day, her funeral was set. and the bells rung for that purpose. Her friends assembled and the funeral services were held. When the funeral procession was about to start, she came to life and was taken out of her coffin and put to bed. She was very weak and feeble for a long time, but finally recovered her health entirely, and when she did, she related this wonderful experience :

Pioneer Character Sketches 601

While apparently unconscious in her six weeks' sickness, she was conscious most of the time, and knew what was going on about her. She could hear what was said, but could not communicate. She felt the approach of d-dath ; she noticed the cessation of circulation in her extremities, and the approach of it to her heart. Then she became unconscious. Then, the first thing she knew, an angel approached her and took her in charge. She had no sense of thei time she traveled with him through space, but found herself in an outer court of a great pleasure garden or park. There was like lattice work before her, and beyond that, were a great company of happy people, surrounding a loved object. She could hear the most rapturous music and singing of the multitudes. At another place within the inner court, she saw a company sitting about a table. Their faces shone so she could not look upon them, and was ccwnpelled to take her eyes from them. Among those she saw in the inner court was the face of a young woman friend of hers, who had attended the pietist meetings with her. She made a request of her guide to be admitted to the inner court, but he said, "No, you must return to earth and preach Christ a period longer before you can be admitted." She then seemed to be spirited away by four angels and let down to earth as it were in a sheet.

As soon as she was able, after her return, she told her vision. People came from all the surrounding country to sae her and converse with her. In relating her vision, she predicted the death of her friend, whose face she had seen in Paradise, and it took place within a year, but she! died in the triumph of faith. Mrs. Minick believed in this heavenly vision as much as she believed in her own existence. To her it was as real as anything which tYtr occurred to her, and it influenced her entire life. The angel's message was ever as fresh to her and ever as important as the day she received it, and she followed it to the last of her life.

She and her husband had heard of the United States and longed to go there. His experience with the service under the great Napoleon satisfied him and made him wish for America. So he and his wife and two children came to the United States in 1830. They located at Piketon, Ohio, where they lived several years. Then they moved to West Union, Ohio, where they spent all of his life and most of hers. She lived in the little brick house just opposite the Pflaummer residence, then Dr. Wm. B. Willson'^ residence. She believed that cleanliness preceded godliness, and her home was always scrupulously neat and clean. She and her husband had and kept a most wonderful garden. A self-respecting weed would not grow in it, and none were ever seen in it, and all of the vegetables grew just as though they thought it their duty to do so to please her. One room in her house she had fitted up for religious meetings, and many were held there, the services being conducted in her mother tongue. She* had an occupation. She was a doctress and nurse and followed her profession most faithfully. In the cholera of 185 1, she went among the patients everywhere, and her services were thought equal to those of the rc^lar physicians.

She was the mother of four children, two sons and two daughters, the youngest born in this country. She was a woman of the most earnest and devoted piety. She believed in her reGigion, and she lived it every day. Her whole life, day by day, was a sermon and an argument in favor of her faith. While she never mastered the English language fully, she would attend the Methodist revival meetings, and she enjoyed them venmuch. She could not expretes herself to her satisfaction in English, and was often, at these meetings, requested to sing in German. She was always pleased to do so, and everyone felt the spirit of her hymns. She was always reluctant to tell the Heavenly Vision, as she knew many were skeptical about it, and only related it whete it was appreciated, but to her it was real. She had all the faith and love of St. John, and the zeal and enthusiasm of St. Paul. She was respected and loved by all who knew her. Her husband died August 19, 1870, and her pleasant home in West Union was broken up. After that she lived with her grandchildren until the tenth of April, 1883, when heir Heavenly Vision was realized. She and her husband rest in the old South cemetery at West Union, waiting the sound of Gabriers trumpet. Her life was full of usefulness, of good deeds, and she was a minister to the souls of all who knew her.

was born September 16, 1807, in Pennsylvania. He was a nephew of John Loughry. He went irom Pennsylvania direct to Rockville to engage in business under Mr. Loughry. He* was married to Martha Mitchell, the daughter of Associate Judge David Mitchell, on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1835, by Rev. Elcazor Brainard, and they went to housekeeping in Rockville. He remained with John Loughry from about 1831 to 1841 as a superintendent of the business of quarrying and shipping stone. From 1841 to 1847, he was engaged in boating on the Ohio River. He owned a tow-boat and a number of barges and engaged in transporting heavy goods on the Ohio River. He would load them on barges and tow the barges. From 1851 to 1859, he resided in Covington, Kentucky. He bought the Judge Mitchell farm, now owned by his sons, Albert R. and James H. Morrison, and removed there in 1859, ^"^ resided there until his death, though he never was at any time a farmer, but was always engaged on the river. He was a large man, weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds and was always active and energetic. He died suddenly March 23, 1863, irom the eflfects of an operation on his eyes. His wife survived him until March 18, 1886. They both rest in the Mitchell cemetery on the hill overlooking the home of Judge David Mitchell, her father. They had the following children: Mary, wife of Loyal Wilcox, residing" in Kansas. She has a large family and a son and daughter married. Armour Morrison resides in Chicago and is engaged in the life insurance business; Albert R. Morrison married Elizabeth McMasters, and resides in the old home in Nile Township, Scioto County ; James H. Morrison, the second son, resides in Portsmouth, Ohio; Charles W. Morrison, the youngest son, is a teacher of music in the conservatory of music at Oberlin College, and has been so engaged for twenty-three years. He went there a? a young man to study music and after he had completed his studies there and in Europe, he was engaged to teach there and has remained ever since. The sons are all like their father - active, energetic and industrious men.

Robert McClanahan and Isabelle, his wife, came from Ireland and purchased land on which West Union is now located and while it was still a part of the Northwest Territory, they donated or sold the land for public buildings to the county. Their son, Samuel, was born on the fifteenth of February, 1797. Hei was married to Mary Armstrong, December 14, 1815, and located on the farm west of West Union, where he lived until 1864 when be removed to North Liberty, Ohio, and died March 5, 1882. Isabelle, his daughter, married William McGovney, May 9, 1839. He was elected Associate Judge of Adams County in 1831 and served one term. He was a practical surveyor and did a great deal of work in the way of land surveying. He was also a school teacher and County Examiner and was one of the first School Examiners in the county. He died November 5, 1881.

In politics he was a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republican. He was a strong temperance advocate. He set the example of total abstinence by refusing to use liquor at a bam raising or in harvest, and to show his harvest hands it was not to save money, he offered to pay each one the amount ebctra for the cost of the whiskey they had formerly been furnished.

He was a Presbyterian, a ruling elder in the church for many years, the Associate Reformed and afterwards the United Presbyterian. He was liberal in his views and spiritually minded. In the last few years of his life, there was but one book to him - the Bible. He read it four times in four years, and said that each time he re-read it there was something new. 'His mind was clear to the last. In his final illness, he spoke calmly of his approaching end, and passed away in the confidence of Christian faith.

In his personal appearance Judge McClanahan was a remarkable figure, and in his old age he was one of the best types of the patriarch, with his long flowmg beard and dignifieJd bearing. He was a man among men and respected by the entire community for his sterling virtues.

was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1757, and emigrated to Virginia in the Spring of 1777. He enlisted the same spring as a private in Captain Wood Jones' Company and served afterward in Captain Benjamin Hoomes' Company, Second Virginia Regiment, commanded by Col. William Febiger, in the Revolutionary War. His enlistment was for a period of three years.

He was in the battles which occurred during the time of his services in New Jersey and about Philadelphia, but a large part of the time his duties consisted in hauling supplies to the army.

He came to Ohio in 1795, directly after the peace of Greenville, and bought two hundred and twenty-five acres of ground on Poplar Ridge, in Tiffin Township. This land is now owned by W. J. and B. Grooms, Caleb Malone and Mr. Defitz. He left the blockhouse at Manchester and located on land in Tiffin Township when there had not been a single tree cut down in the township and none outside of Manchester. He cleared oflF a patch of ground and built a pole cabin and moved his family into it. There were plenty of wolves, bears, wild turkeys and deer in the forest at that time, and a great many roving Indians.

His daughter has told a lady now living near West Union that she had been at that place many times when all was forest, not a house in the vicinity, and had drank out of the spring where the public well now stands.

The squirrels and wild turkeys were so plenty that when he planted his com, it was necessary to stand gaurd over it until it was grown too high for them to disturb. After it was planted he made paw-paw whistles and had his children march around the com fields at the edge of the forests during the day, blowing these whistles so that the squirrels and turkeys would not bother thej com.

He was one of the first members of the" Presbyterian Church at West Union. He was not a pensioner of the Revolutionary War, because he owned considerable land and could not obtain a pension.

William McGarry had a second wife, Mary McKee, and she was the mother of three children. He was esteemed as a useful and valuable citizen. He did what could not be done in our day ; he was a very pious man and a consistent member of the Presb)rterian Church, and raised his family in the same manner as himself, and at the same time made and drank whiskey all the time when it was no disgrace either to make it or drink it.

was one of the old-time characters in West Union. He owned and occupied the property where Mrs. Sarah W. Bradford now resides, and dug the well there which was famous in his time and which is known as Ralph McClure's well to this day. Judge Byrd extolled the properties of the water in his diary.

Our subject was a north of Ireland Irishman with a rich brogue. He was a schoolteacher in West Union before public schools were organized. He taught many years in the home where he resided and all his schools were subscription schools. The first school David Dunbar, of Manchester, ever attended was at Ralph McClure's. The latter offered young David six and one-fourth cents if he> would learn the alphabet in three days and David accomplished the task. McClure once had a horse-mill on the rear of Mrs. Bradford's lot, opposite the Lawler residence, and at one time he had a distillery just south of his residence, but it was burned. He was a bachelor and never attended church. He was of medium stature and had a sharp face. He was very fond of smoking and raised his own tobacco and made his own cigars. His neighbors seemed to have a g^eat deal of confidence in him for they elected him Justice of the Peace in 1820, 1826, 1829, 1838, 1841 and in 1844. He and Nelson Barrere were great friends, The latter would often state a suppositious case to him and get his opinion. If the opinion pleased Barrere, he would immediately bring the real case before the Justice and win it, as McClure was never known to go back on any opinion he ever expressed.

He died April 24, 1846, while holding the oflSce of Justice of the Peace. We do not know the place of his interment or whether he left any relatives.

Pioneer Character Sketches 605

was born in County Down, Ireland, December 14, 1789, of Protestant Presbyterian parents. He receiveld a fair education, became a Free Mason and was advanced in that order to the degrees of Christian Knighthood, before leaving that country. While there he united with the Presbyterian Church. In 1 81 8, he came to this country and located in Adams County. He was married to Miss Mary McGovney, in Adams County, on the twentyeighth day of January, 1819. They had one child, Thomas, and she died January 14, 1820, at thef age of 28 years. Her surviving husband never remarried. In West Union, Mr. McGovney kept a general store and part of the time conducted a tannery. In 1840, he became a member of the Methodist Church and from that time until his death there was no more devout or consistent Christian than he*. Always in his place at every church service, and every prayer and class meeting, he was a bright and shining light. He lived his religion every day of his life, and in his dying hours it was his comfort and solace. He* was always at the Wednesday evening prayer meetings which the writer attended when a small boy. Uncle Adam, as all the boys knew him, had a fixed and certain prayer and the writer at one time knew it all and could repeat it from memory. He regards it as his loss that he cannot remember it and repeat it, until this day. One phrase in it was "Knit us. Oh Lord, closer to thy bleeding side." He, Abraham Hollingsworth, Nicholas Burwell, William R. Rape and William Allen could always be depended on to attemd and be found at the weekly prayer meetings.

Next to his religion, Mr. McGovney was attached to Masonry. He was as faithful a Mason, as he was a church member. The writer remembered seeing him in many Masonic parades and he usually wore the crossed silver keys of the lodge jewels. He was treasurer of the lodge many years. As a neighbor and a friend he was liked by all who knew him. He" published the country of his birth whenever he spoke, as he had the broadest of Irish accent, but it was a pleasure to listen to it.

He was very fond of the little people, the children. He knew how to please them, to cater to their pleasures, which he was very fond of doing. They weire always his friends, and he, theirs.

He promised to bring the writer up to the tanner's trade and took great pleasure in explaining it all to him. Mr. McGovney was over six feet and slender. He had a very firm expression when his countenance was in repose, but when animated or in a laughing mood, no one was more agreeable. He was always ready to sympathize with those who deserved it and to aid those who needed it. On his death bed he expressed his complete confidence in the religion he professed in life. He required no religious consolation and, when approached on that subject, said, "I have long placed my confidence in my Savior."

His funeral was conducted with Masonic honors by the West Union Lodge and members of other lodges in the same county. The services were at the Presbyterian Church and the interment was in the Kirker Cemetery where he was laid beside, his wife who had been buried there lorty years before.

was born at Lexington, Kentucky, July 14, 1806. His father came from the north of Ireland, and was a soldier under General Harrison in the War of 1812. He came to Adams County when a child and his whole life was spent there. In 1828, he was married to Mary Clark by the Rev. William Baldridge of Cherry Fork congregation. Of this church, he and his wife were members until the Unity Church was organized in 1846, when they transferred their membership there. He was an elder in the United Presbyterian Church at thirty years and held the office for fifty years. He was a man of decided convictions on all subjects. He was a Jacksonian Democrat from 1827 to 1836. Hei became a Whig in 1836, two years after the organization of that party. When the Whig party dissolved, he formed no other political ties until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined that party and continued in it all his life. He took a great interest in the church, in all public questions and in the welfare of his country. When the war broke out, he was fifty-five years of age, ten years over the limit of age for military duty. But he determined to enter the military service and did so. Here is his record : "Hugh McSurely, Private, Company E, 70th O. V. I. Captain, John T. Wilson. Enlisted November i, 1861, for three years; aged 55. Discharged December 8, 1862, on Surgeon's Certificate of disability." Of course, he ought not to have gone and the Government should not have accepted him, but he did so and the inevitable followed. His age was against him and he broke down and was sent home. When he returned he sent his son, George A., now a resident of Oxford, Ohio, who took his place in the same company and regiment and served until July 28, 1865. His son, Samuel A., served in the First Ohio Heavy Artillery.

Hugh McSurely's wife died August 19, 1865. He contracted a second marriage with Ann McClanahan, who survives him. He had five children, the! sons above named. Rev. William J. McSurely, D. D., of Hillsboro, Ohio, and Sarah A. McSurely, who resides on the home farm with his widow. Hugh McSurely always took an active interest in politics, though he was never a candidate for office. In the campaign of 1896. he took as much interest in the election of President McKinley as though he had forty years of life before him. He was honest and industrious: he was a public-spirited, honored and useful citizen and a cheerful Christian. He died December 5, 1896, in his ninety-first year.

was the son of Isaac and Mary Meek, born in Short Creek, Carroll County. Virginia, January 7, 1781. His father was a descendant of a Scotch family who came to Ohio early in the century and located in Jefferson County. Our subject very early in life was impressed with the notion that he was divinely called to the ministry, and yielding to these convictions, he was licensed to preach when only nineteen years of age. In September, 1803, he was appointed by the Baltimore Conference to the Scioto Circuit.

Pioneer Character Sketches 607

His first circuit had its extreme! southwest point on Eagle Creek, a few miles from what is now known as Fitch's Chapel. Then by Bryan's, on Three Mile Creek, to George Rodgers, near the mouth of Cabin Creek, up to Manchester, thence to Peterson's on Ohio Brush Creek, Joseph Moore's, then at the mouth of Turkey Creek ; then up the Scioto River to Pee Pee Prairie to Snowden Sargeants ; then to Thomas Foster's at Big Bottom; them from Foster's to Chillicothe; from Chillicothe to Bowdles, at Hay Run ; then to White Brown's on Deer Creek ; from there to West Fall on the Scioto River ; to Walnut Creek through the wilderness to old Brother Stevenson's; then to John Robbins' on Buckskin Creek; then to Hare's at the Falls of Paint Creek ; then to Braughter's Tavern ; up over a blind Indian trail to Benjamin Graces' near New Market in Highland County ; then to Odell's, near Briar Ridge), thirty miles distant, and from Odell's to the place of beginning, near mouth of Eagle Creek, or Elk River.

In 1805, he was appointed to Hocking Circuit with the Rev. James Quinn as senior preacher. He was here for a time and then returned to the East. Before Mr. Meek returned again to Ohio, he was married to Miss Ann Jones, daughter of John and Ann Jones, and sister of the Reverend Greenbury R. Jones, who was very well known in Adams County in the early days. His wife was a clear-headed woman who appreciated fully her posititon as the wife of an itinerant preacher, and she was during her lifetime a true helpmeet. She died in the triumph of the great field in February, 1855.

John Meek was ordained deacon in October, 1805. His certificate is dated October 3, 1805, and signed by Richard What coat. In March, he was ordained as elder. His certificate of ordination is dated March 16, 1810, and signed by William McKendree. Rev. Meek's son, William McKendree Meek, was named for and baptized by Bishop McKendree.

.Our subject was a man of fine presence and possessed a noble bearing, unflinching courage, and polished manners. He was intellectually a strong man and ever ready to ckfend the doctrines and policies of the. church of his choice. He was a camp meeting preacher of wonderful powefr. He had a very fine voice, clear as a bell, and it rang out quite a distance. Reverend Maxwell P. Gaddis says: "I shall never forget a sermon which I heard him preach more than forty-five years ago at the old camp ground in Adams County, Ohio, from these words: 'He that rejecteth me and receivcfth not my words hath one that judgeth him. The words that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.' (John 12 : 48.) It would be impossible to describe the scene at the close of that eloquent effort. I felt that I was fully compe<nsated for the long and dusty ride even to hear him read the opening hymn, *That awful day will surely come.' "

John Meek was always in sentiment and feeling an anti-slavery man. He was earnest in the support and advocacy of colonization, the then best remedy for the evils of slavery. He closed his sixty years in the ministry in August, i860, and on the thirtieth day of December, i860, at his home in Felicity, in Clermont County, Ohio, he passed quietly away. His death was peaceful and quiet, signalizing a patient confidence in Christ, a fitting close to the long life in the ministry. His remains rest in the cemetery at West Union.

H« is so designated to distinguish him from his son, John Patton, who emigrated to Ohio. We find he was from the north of Ireland. He was one of eight brothers. We do not know what time he located in Virginia, but it was not later than 1774. He was bom about 1754. He was married in about 1775. His eldest child, Nathaniel Patton, bom February 22, 1776; was married m Rockbridge County, Virginia, 1797. Nathaniel Patton located in Adams County in 181 4, on the farm wl^re Ramsey Duffey now lives. He went to Rush County, Indiana, 1824. His wife's name was Polly Robinson. He was the father of fourteen children, all of whom but the eldest, John S. Patton, followed him to Decatur County, Indiana. He died there in 1844. The second child of John Patton, of Virginia, was Martha Campbell. She married James Campbell, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. They came to Adams County and settled near Decatur, Brown County. She left a large number of descendants, among whom are the Wassons of Cherry Fork. Thomas Patton, a son, lived and died on West Fork. The wife of Gen. William Mclntire was his daughter. His other children removed to Peoria, Illinois, in the forties. Nathan Patton owned the Sam McNown place in Brown County. He was a money maker and Adams County was too slow for him. He left after a feJw years' residence with his entire family and located in Iowa. All trace of him and his family have been lost to the other Pattons. John Patton, the youngest son, Mras bom in Virginia in 1787, a notice of whom is elsewhere herein. A daughter, Jane Patton, died in middle age, unmarried. Mary Patton was bora in Virginia in 1789, and was married to Charles Kirkpatrick in 1806. They came to Ohio and located on Eagle Creek. Three children were born to them, and Kirkpatrick died in the War of 1812. In 1813, she married William Evans, and ten children were born of this union, the eldest of which was Edward Patton Evans, of West Union, father of one of the editors of this work. She died March 22, 1830, at the age of forty-one. Nancy Milligan, the fourth daughter of John Patton, of Virginia, was bom in Rockbridge County, Virginia, about 1791. She married William Milligan, and they located near Unity in Adams County. She was the mother of a large family. J. C. Milligan, her son, was a County Commissioner of Adams County from i860 to 1863. Her son, John Milligan, is living near Decatur, Brown County.

John Patton, of Virginia, died in 1809 in Rockbridge County. He made his will in July, 1809, and it was probated in October, 1809. From the tone of his will, it is judged he was a very pious. God-fearing man. The inventory of his estate on file indicates he was an ordinary Virginia farmer. He owned 278 acres of land in one body, about five and threefourths miles from Lexington, on the upper Natural Bridge road. Two hundred acres of his land lay in Burden's Grant, and the remainder, seventy-eight acres, just outside of it.

The original grant of the Burden tract was from George, the Second, by the Grace of Ck>d of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King and De-* fender of the Faith, etc., and on condition that one family for eveiry thousand acres be settled on it within two years. There were 92,100 acres in the g^nt. The land was to be held in free and commwi socage and not in capiie or by knight service, and to pay a rent of one shilling for every fifty acres, to be paid yearly in the Feast of St. Michael, the Archangel (Sep- tember 29). Three acres out of every fifty were to be improved within three years. All these conditions were abolished by the Virginia Legislature during the Revolution.

John Patton bought his two hundred acres in Burden's Grant, December 3, 1782. That is the date of his deed, but he probably had it contracted for long before that. He purchased of James Grigsby, who died April 7, 1794, and was the first person buried in the Falling Spring cemetery.

John Patton hated the institution of slavery, and had intended to remove from Virginia had he lived, but he charged his children to remove from a slave state, which they did. His descendants are very much the same type of man that he was himself; strong, prudent, economical, honest, careful, despising all sham and pretense, and hating oppression and injustice in every form.

so designated to distinguish him from his father, having the same name, but who never resided in Ohio, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, June 9, 1787. His mother was Martha Sharp, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister of Glasgow, Scotland. He was married to Phoebe Taylor in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1813. While he was courting her, he used to visit her about every ninety days, riding over the Natural Bridge, his home being on the opposite side of the bridge from her. He resided in Rockbridge County until 1816, when he moved to Wayne Township, Adams County, where he purchased a farm, His wife was aunt of Bishop Taylor, of the M. E. Church, so long a missionary in Africa. She was born February 2, 1794. They joined the Associate Reformed Church in North Liberty as soon as they came from Virginia and attended it all theSr lives. They had ten children bom to them, four sons and six daughters. Martha, the eJdest, was born in Virginia. She married the Rev. Robert Stewart, who was pastor of the church at Cherry Fork for nineteen years. She died in 1852, His second son, James T., born October 25, 1815, died in 1835. He had been attending Miami University, and was expecting to become a minister of the Gospel. Another son, John Elder, lived many years near North Liberty on the Winchester :oad. Nathaniel C. Patton, one of the principal farmers of the county, lives near Harshaville. Henry Patton died unmarried. Of the daughters, Larissa married Alexander Caskey and had a large family. One of her sons is John P. Caskey, of the firm of Harsha & Caskey, at Portsmouth, Ohio. A daughter, Elizabeth, married Robert Morrison, of Eckmansville ; Phoebe Caroline married S. D. Mclntire, and Nancy and Margaret each married a Kirkpatrick. They also had an adopted child, Phoebe C. Finley.

John Patton and his wife were the very strictest Presbyterians. There was family worship morning and evening, grace before meals, and a returning of thanks after, and Sunday was devoted entirely to public and private worship, including the catechism. When anyone visited their house, he was not asked if he were a member of any church, but he was called 6n to say g^ace or take part in worship, and if he was not in a condition to do so he was put in the position to be asked to be excused. In those days 39a religion was a severe and awful matter, and they made it a part of their every day life. Sunday was a day when only public or private worship, reading of the scriptures or catechising, and nothing else, was to be thought of. They believed that the promises were for them and their children, and acted on their belietf. Their lives were models for all the world, but alas, how the world has changed since that time. The severity of the religion of the Pilgrim Fathers was no greater than that of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Presbyterians, but with all their religious severity, they did not forget to make and save money and had all that thrift which belonged alike to the New England Puritan and the north of Ireland Protestant Irishman.

In 1740 there landed at the port of New York a young immigrant from Alsace-Lorraine. His name was John Pennywitt, or Pennwitt. (The name was afterwards variously spelled Penniwitt, Petnnywit. Bennywitt, etc.) He was a Huguenot; his family had been well-nigh exterminated and he had been persecuted and driven from his native land because of his religious faith. He was by occupation a miller, and found employment at his trade at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He married his employer's daughter, and with his bridei started to join the Huguenot colony in South Carolina. On the way thither they passed up the Shenandoah Valley and were so impressed by the beauty of the scenery and the fertility of the soil that they decided to locate there. He built the first mill in the valley, the foundation of which is still standing near Mount Jackson. He had two sons and several daughters. One son, John, emigrated to the West and camei to Adams County. He was a giant in stature and his strength was remarkable. He could carry two barrels of flour at once, one under each arm. His remains now lie in the cemetery at Qiiinn Chapel. He had four sons, one of whom, Mark, succeeded to the home farm on Gift Ridge. Mark had six sons, one of whom, Samuel, was accidentally killed when a youth. The five surviving brothers, John, James, Reuben, David and Mark, lived to ripe old age. They were all large and muscular. Their aggregate weight was more than a thousand pounds, and their combined strength doubtless exceeded that of any other family of equal numbers in southern Ohio. As to their physical development they constituted perhaps the most remarkable family that Adams County has ever produced. And they were equally noted for their sterling integrity and irreproachable character.

The eldest of these brothers, John (the subject of this sketch), was married in early manhood to Ann Wade, a schoolmate of his boyhood days, the daughter of a near neighbor. They reared a family of four sons and four daughters, all of whom are living at the date of this writing ( September, 1899). At the age of nineteen he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Naylor's Meeting House. To that deaicwnination he continued faithful to the end. He organized a class made up of his immediate neighbors, donated the ground and was the chief contributor to the fund for erecting Quinn Chai>el, and the main support for many years of the society that worshipped there. During a considerable portion of his life he was one of the stewards of West Union circuit in which was embraced Quinn Chapel.

Pioneek Charactkr Sketches 611

In his younger days he served as Justice of the Peace and as Captain of Militia. He was an old-line Whig. When the Republican party came into existence he identified himself with that political organization. To the principles of that party he was firmly attached. To the institution of slavery he was always a relentless enemy. His party honored him with a nomination to the State Legislature and elected him County Commissioner. While serving in the latter capacity he was largely instrumental in securing the construction of improved roads throughout the county. He was Chairman of the Republican Executive Committee for several years, during which period his party was generally successful at the polls ; but for his right arm he would not have used a single dollar to corrupt an American voter.

The panic of 1875 brought financial ruin to him. He gave up his home and his last dollar, and in 1874, with his wife and one unmarried daughter, removed to Washington, D. C, to accept a home proffered them by one of his sons. In May, 1876, he received an appointment to a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department, which position he held during the remaining six years of his life.

The distinguishing features of John Pennywitt's character were unswerving honesty, absolute integrity of purpose and unflinching adherence to the truth. He never told a lie. He was an absolute stranger to deceit. A near neighbor, Peter Thompson, saw him grow from infancy to manhood and clearly recognized this trait in his character. Once upon a time this old gentleman had occasion to repeat a statement made by him, and a bystander expressed some doubts of its truth. This aroused his Scotch ire and he burst out in tones of indignation, "I know it's true, for John Pennywitt himself told me.'' From this incident he became generally known as "J^^^ Pennywitt himself." Higher tribute than this can not be paid to human character. Those who knew him well never doubted a word that he uttered.

He was self-educated and his education was thorough and practical. Notwithstanding his limited opportunities for attending school he became familiar with all the common branches of learning, and in mathematics he was superior to many college-bred meai. He taught many terms in the public schools. Algebra, geometry and surveying he mastered without a teacher. He became widely known as a land surveyor, and in contested cases his surveys were accepted by the courts as thoroughly reliable.

His remains rest in Odd Fellow's Cemetery in Manchester. His funeral was one of the largest ever witnessed in the county. By his side sleeps the partner of his life's joys and sorrows. Adams County may justly be proud of such a son.

was bom May 31, 181 7, the fourth child of Mark Penny wit, who reared his family on Gift Ridge in Adams County. He had six brothers and each of them was more than six feet tall. In youth, he delighted in feats of strength. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church ' at Quinn Chapel at its dedication, December 20, 1842, a church built on the old Pennywit home, and largely by the contributions of the family.

living at the time of the death of their father. They were Captains WyHe and Alfred ; George and Mary of Manchester ; Captain Samuel Pennywit, of Natchez, Mississippi; Mrs. Edward McMillan and Mrs. J. P. Duffey, of Cincinnati, and Joseph W. Pennywit.

Robert Poage landed in Philadelphia in 1738 with his wife, Elizabeth, and nine children, Margaret, John, Martha, Sarah, George, Mary, Elizabeth, William and Robert. A tenth child, Thomas, was bom to them the next year. The second son, John, above named, married Mary Blair, who was a sister of the Rev. John Blair and Rev. Samuel Blair, of Pennsylvania, and William Lawrence Blair, a lawyer of Kentucky. Robert Poage located his family within three miles of Staunton, Virginia. John Poage, Robert's son, had six sons and two daughters. The subject of our sketch, the fifth son, was bom March 17, 1760, near Staunton, Virginia. All the sons were eminent men, surveyors, and counted wealthy for their time.

Martha, the third child of Robert Poage. the emigrant, married Michael Woods, who located in the Valley of Virginia, in 1734, She was bom in Ireland in 1728, and died in Ripley, Ohio, in 1818. She was the mother of eight children, all of whom grew lo maturity, married and had families. Mary, her daughter, born Febmary 18, 1760, was married to Col. James Poage, March 10, 1787, and died at Ripley, Ohio, in April, 1830

Ann, daughter of John Poage and Mary Blair, married Andrew Kincaid. She and her husband died about the same time, leaving six young children, three of them daughters, whom Col. Poage took and reared as his own. They grew to womanhood in Ripley and all three of them married.

Robert Poage, grandfather of Col. James Poage, established his residence within three miles of Staunton, Virginia, on a tract of 772 acres, and he acquired much larger tracts afterward. He and his wife were well educated and strong Presbyterians. He led his family in Bible reading, sacred song and prayer, every morning and evening, never permitting an^- press of business to interfere. Sunday afternoons, his wife led all the children of the family, visitors and callers in the study of the Bible and of the shorter catechism, while he attended to the chores. This Sunday afternoon study was made very interesting and was kept up in the family of his son, John Poage, and his son-in-law, Rev. Woods.

Robert Poage was one of the first Magistrates of Augusta County, and on several occasions entertained General George Washington. His son, John, father of James, the founder of Ripley, accompanied Col. Washington on the Braddock campaign and became much attached to him. Robert, the emigrant, died about March 6, 1774, and his will was probated that year in Augusta County.

John Poage was County Surveyor of Augusta County, Virginia, about thirty years and was Sheriff in 1778. He was a strong Presbyterian and died in the faith. He gave each of his children a large family Bible, several of which are still in existence. His will was proven in Augusta County, Vrginia, April 22. 1789. General Washington himself requested the Poages to aid in securing the Ohio Valley to the people of the United

Pioneer Character Sketches 613

Colonies. In accordance with the request, William Poage, uncle of Col. James Poage, moved to Kentucky in 1778, and there lost his life in an Indian campaign, leaving seven children.

Col. James Poage went to Kentucky in 1778, but there is no authentic account of his movements from that time until his marriage in 1789, except that he was engaged with surveying parties, and in protecting the families of his relatives from the incursion of the Indians. Sometime in this period, he was at the head of a surveying party and sometimes he commanded several. His work was fraught with great dangers. No men were permitted to accompany his parties except those expert in the use of a rifle. A number of hunters accompanied the parties to provide food. The furs of the animals were carefully preserved and packed. The most efficient scouts were obtained to guard against Indian attacks which could be expected at any tinre. Danger often compelled several surveying parties to keep together. The head of a single party would be called a Captain. When several parties worked together, their chief was called a Colonel, and James Poage often commanded consolidated parties, and it was in this way in which he obtained his title of Colonel. Few Western surveyors did more work in dangerous localities than Colonel James Poage and yet he was never involved in any serious encounter with the Indians. He was always on the lookout for them and Indians will rarely attack an enemy except by surprise. Col. Poage could not be surprised by any of them. Whenever he encamped his party or parties, he took such precautions that he could not be surprised, and his men had implicit confidence in him as a commander. When he met the Indians openly and peaceably he always treated them fairly and with justice and kindness, and he had their respect. He did work with surveying parties in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Considerable of this work was done after his marriage. When at home he devoted himself j.o farming and stock raising. He could get more work and more willing work out of his farm hands and slaves than any man of his times, except his brothers, George, William and Robert, who had the same traits. Another feature of those who worked for him, whether free or slaves, was that they would be as faithful in his long absence from his home as during his presence. He took an interest in everyone who worked for him, and whenever occasion required he would turn to and perform manual labor in that perfect manner he expected it to be done for him. He had a tact with his servants that could be imitated by no one and which cannot be described. ^

He first resided in Clarke County, Kentucky, and represented that county in the Legislature of 1796, but most of his time in Kentucky he was a resident of Mason County. He disliked and was opposed to human slavery. In 1804, he took up one thousand acres of Survey No. 418 in Ohio, along the Ohio River, the center of which contains the town of Ripley, and here he made his home and laid cut a town, which he named Staunton, for Staunton in Virginia. He located this tract because he wanted to free his slaves, and to do it, had to remove to a free state. During his residence in Ripley, he was distinguished for his liberality and hospitality, but he always lacked ready money. However, that was the case with everyone in that time, but was the hardest on those disposed to be liberal. He always entertained all the visiting ministers. All distinguished visitors were his guests. It was rarely his family sat down to a meal without gfuests. Every Virginian passing that way felt in duty bound to visit him, and he felt in duty bound to entertain everyone from his native State. Frequently he had so many visitors at one time, that his daughters all occupied one room and his sons all occupied the hay loft. So lavish was his hospitality that often tea, coffee and sugar were lacking at his table, but neither he nor his wife ever apologized for these deficiencies or were kss cordial to their guests for the want of them. His daughters and his wife, from flax, wool and cotton, made nearly all of the clothing for the entire family and fitted it as neatly as a modern tailor.

For his services in surveying Virginia and General Government, he was granted 40,000 acres of land, half near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and half that quantity near Cairo, Illinois. On this he paid out a large amount of taxes, and his executors abandoned this land after his death for want of funds to pay taxes and bring it into the market.

As a husband and father, he was kind and affectionate^ He was a magnetic kind of man and his family obeyed him implicitly. He exercised a wonderful influence among those around him, securing their concurrence in his judgment and direction about matters. But above all things, he was distinguished by his robust, cheerful piety. His life and example tended to make other men believe and embrace his faith. A number of his letters breathing that earnest spirit of piety, his chief characteristic, are still in existence.

His children were as follows: Martha, bom in Virginia, February 17, 1788, married George Poage, son of Gen. George Poage, her uncle. Died in Brown County, Ohio, between 1855 and i860. No descendants. John C. Poage, born in Virginia, April 19, 1779, married Mary Hopkins. No children. Andrew Woods Poage married Jane Gray, died April 19, 1840, at Yellow Spring, Ohio. Mary and James, twins, born March 25, 1793. She died in Ripley in 1821 and he in 1820. Robert Poage, bom February 4, 1797, married Sarah Kirker, had children. Died in Illinois, February, 1874. His oldest son, James Smith Poage, is a minister of the Gospel. Elizabeth Poage, born April, 1798, married Isaac Shepherd, a minister, died in Ripley, Ohio, July 30, 1832. No children. Ann bom May 5, 1800, married Alexander Mooney. Died near Russellville, Ohio. Margaret, bom September 10, 1803. Married Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, died at St. Peter, Minn., July 21, 1872. Had ten children, the thre^ eldest died in childhood and 'are buried in the old cemetery at Ripley. Three sons of the remaining seven survive. Rev. John Poage Williamson, D. D., Missionary to Dakota; A. W. Williamson, Ph. D., Professor of Mathematics, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois; H. M. Williamson, Editor of the Rural North West, Portland, Oregon. Also, one daughter survives, Sarah, born March 4, 1805, married Rev. Gideon H. Pond, died at Bloomington, Minn., 1854. Had seven children, of whom six survMve. Thomas, born at Ripley. Ohio, June i, 1808, died there August, 1 83 1.

Rev. George Poage, bom June 18, 1809, married Jane Riggs, died in Colorado in 1807. Had six children, of whom only one survives, but had a number of grandchildren, all surviving.

Hon. James H. Rothrock Pioneer Character Sketches 616

In what proved to be Col. Poage's last sickness, he was prevailed upon to go security for a large sum for a woolen mill in which he had invested money. After his death, the mill failed and his estate was called on to pay the debt. Want of capacity to make the note might have been successfully pleaded, and his executor and legatees were so advised, but his children declined and the debt was paid by his estate. However, it was this that made the executor abandon the lands owned by him in West Virginia and in Illinois. Finally enough was saved out of his estate to give each one of his children a fine farm.

This is the story of the founder of Ripley, and the materials were accessible to have made it more elaborate in details which would have been as interesting as any given. His ashes repose in the old abandoned cemetery of Ripley.

was bom at Milroy, Pa., in 1829. In 1838, his father removed to Mt. Leigh in Adams County, where he took up wild woodland. Our subject attended schools three months each winter and the remainder of the year he spent in aiding his father subdue the wilderness. Thus he spent ten years, but in that time was schooled in humanity. His father was a Binny Abolitionist and his home was a station on the Underground Railroad. The next station north was Flat Run in Highland County, and in the ten years, from his ninth to- his nineteenth year, our subject piloted not less than three hundred slaves between the stations on their road to freedom. That work was a good lesson for the boy and helped make the man. From 1848 to 1850, he attended an academy at Felicity and taught school. From 1850 to 1852, he attended Franklin College at New Athens, Ohio. In 1852, he went to West Union and began the study of the law under the late Edward P. Evans, father of the writer of this sketch. During the time he was studying law, he taught school to earn his living. In the spring of 1852, he and Alexander Woodrow were the only two persons in West Union who cast their votes for John P. Hale for President. In the spring of 1854, he and his preceptor went to Columbus, where he was admitted to the bar. He at once located in Greenfield, in Highland County, where he began the practice of law. Here, on the fifteenth of October, 1855, he was married to Miss Austie Foote. That same fall he was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Highland County and served one term. He was a candidate for re-election in 1857, but was defeated. He removed to Hillsboro in 1858 and remained there until t86o, when he removed to and located in Tipton, the county seat of Cedar County, Iowa. In 1861, he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and served part of the time as Speaker, pro tern. In July, 1862, he was appointed Lieutenant- Colonel of the 35th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and in that organization distinguished himself by signal bravery in battle. General William L. Davis, in speaking of the attack on the rebel works at Vicksburg, in which the 35th Iowa participated, said: "Lieutenant-Colonel Rothrock sprang to the front, ordered the regiment to charge, and, taking the lead, with hat in one hand and sword in the other, the Thirty-fifth went into that awful shower of lead and iron. The line was repulsed everywhere with fearful slaughter. No braver man than he ever drew a sword or held the affection of his soldiers more strongly." However, his constitution was broken down by the hardships of the service, and he was compelled to resign in the fall of 1863. I" 1S66, he was nominated and elected District Judge. He served as such nine years, when the Governor of the State appointed him to the Supreme Bench to fill a vacancy. He was elected for the succeeding term and re-elected until he voluntarily retired after twenty-one years' service. His opinions are found from the 41 to the loi Iowa Reports.

When he retired from the Supreme Judgeship, Judge H. E. Deemer. one of his associates, on the Supreme Bench, said of him : "He is a man of good, common, hard sense, who took his diploma from the school of experience, and has risen to his present proud position through honest and earnest endeavor. A man who has the best judgment upon important questions of any man with whom I ever came into contact, a man who is king among men. He gave thirty years of continuous judicial service to his State, seven years in the District and twenty-one years on the Supreme Bench. His work as a jurist was painstaking and thorough. He never wrote an opinion without the most conscientious research. He did his best every time."

The strength of his decisions were not only recognized in Iowa, but in Ohio as well. In the latter State, his old friends of the bar always sought out his decisions and were proud to cite and rely on them as the best law. To the Hon. N. M. Hubbard, his fellow townsman, we are indebted for an estimate of his character, which is most accurate. He said of Judge Rothrock: "His chief characteristics are probity, common sense and an unbiased judgment. His opinions were the result of reasoning, never of feeling. His decisions not only convinced the successful party that they were the law, but convinced the losing parties that their causes had been decided rightfully. His opinions are contained in sixty-one volumes of the Iowa Reports. They are models of compact statements, and clear analysis, which lead to irresistible conclusions. His language is plain, simple and terse Saxon. He was not a great scholar, nor of any considerable literary attainments, but he had the remarkable faculty of expressing himself in plain English so as to be clearly understood and to convince the reader by his forceful reasonings. He is a good talker, a better listener, and of rare judicial talent. The people of Iowa, without dissent, honor him as one of its first citizens and most eminent jurists."

The wife of his youth died April 9, 1893. He has three sons, Edward E., born in 1850; James H., in 1869. and George L., in 1873. The writer, as a boy, went to school to him in West Union while he was a law student. He was then a boarder at the home of his preceptor, and there the writer became acquainted with him. When this history was projected, he opened a correspondence with the Judge and several pleasant letters were exchanged. The Judge looked forward with pleasure to the time when he could read of his Ohio friends, those of his childhood and youth in this history, but alas ! that was never to be ! Those years of leisure to which he and his family looked forward with pleasure were never to be lived by him. November 17, 1898, he wrote : "My race is nearly run. After three score and ten, there is little left but to wait the end." When he wrote those words, he little realized how near he was to the end. He died on the fifteenth of January, 1899. His funeral was honored by the attendance of the Governor and Supreme Judges of the State and by numerous distinguished citizens as well as by his townsmen. He has left a grand and noble memory, and those who knew him in Ohio in his boyhood and young manhood, cherish it equally with the citizens of Iowa, who knew him so well. Adams County is proud of the history of his life.

was bom October 12, 1801, in Pennsylvania. His father moved to Mt. Leigh when he was eleven years of age. He went to school in the district school of the neighborhood and afterward at the North Liberty Academy. When the war broke out he raised a company for the 60th O. V. L for one year and was appointed Captain, November 26, 1861. He served in the organization until November 10, 1862, and while in it was in several battles and skirmishes, and was taken prisoner of war at Harper's Ferry in the surrender there. He remained at home until June, 1863, when he raised Company B, Second Ohio Heavy Artillery. While he was recruiting that, he and his brother, Joseph, and John Van Deman attended the North Liberty United Presbyterian Church and took communion. Philip said it v/ould be the last time he would be with them and so it proved to be. His regiment was sent for service in Last Tennessee. On August 18, 1863, he was wounded by an explosion of one of our old cannon at Cleveland, Tennessee, then used to repel an attack by the Rebel General Wheeler. The next day he was appointed Major but was never mustered. He was sent to the hospital where he remained until October 12, 1864, when he died. In November, his remains were brought to Mt. Leigh and reinterred.

He was married August 18, 1857, to Rebecca E. Shaw. There were two sons of this marriage, Joseph Lewis, born June 11, 1858, who is married and now resides at* Washington C. H. He has two children. Another son, Philip E., resides at Washington C. H., and is married. He is the father of four children, and is engaged in the hardware business there.

Philip Rothrock was a Presbyterian, and much devoted to his faith. He was a man of generous impulses, intensely patriotic, and had he survived, he would have been a most valuable citizen in any community. His untimely death was much deplored by all who knew him.

a son of William Stivers and Elizabeth King, was bom n^ar the city of New York in the year 1765. He had six brothers, Edward, William, Reuben, Peter, James and Richard, and three sisters, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Bergin of Bourbon County, Ky., who afterwards settled near Columbus, Ohio. In 1775, in order to escape the Tory allies of George HI, in and about New York, William Stivers moved to Spottsylvania County, Virginia. There he was comparatively safe from Tory persecutions, and during the Revolution he sent six sons to battle for the cause of Liberty, his seventh son, Richard, being too young to bear arms. John Stivers, the sixth son, volunteered in May. 1780, in Captain Robert Daniel's Company of Colonel Spencer's Regiment. Virginia Volunteers, when but little past fifteen years of age, for a period of service of five months. At the expiration of the term of his first enlistment, he again volunteered for

Regiment. At the expiration of his second term of enlistment the war was practically over. Virginia was cleared of marauding bands of Tories.

and Comwallis and his British and Hessian forces were shut up in Yorktown to stay until they marched out to the tune of "The World's Upside Down/* and he surrendered his sword to Washington.

In the year 1786, John Stivers married Miss Martha Neel, a daughter of John Neel, a Scotch emigrant, and settled in the forks of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. There his family of eight children were born : Samuel K., Robert, James, John, Matilda, who married Isaac Teachenor ; Lydia, who married William Shaw; Washington, and Nancy, who married Enoch Moore. In 1799, he moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and soon thereafter came to Sprigjg: Township, Adams County, Ohio, and settled on Brier Ridge within sight of the old Methodist Church in what is now Liberty Township, where he continued to reside until his death in 1839. B^" fore coming to Ohio he and his oldest brother, Reuben, who settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky, laid military warrants Nos. 6640, 6642 and 6643 covering 630 acres of land lying on Treber's Run, and on the East Fork of Eagle Creek in Adams County. The youngest brother, Richard, afterwards came to Kentucky and settled near Louisville, where he became one of the most prominent planters of that region. John Stivers was an active, vigorous man, both in body and mind, and took a deep interest in his day in affairs of county and state. He was a radical Jeffersonian Democrat in his political opinions, and he was a faithful member of the Baptist Church for nearly fifty years. In personal appearance he was a little below the medium in height, but very compactly built, and weighed in full and vigorous manhood about 165 pounds. He had dark hair, steel-blue eyes and regular features, and was of a buoyant disposition and pleasing turn of mind ; yet he was not slow to resent wrong or a personal affront. It is related of him that soon after his first enlistment in the Revolution, that while resting with his company at a spring, a bumptious militia officer rode up and addressing him as "Bud," requested a drink of water. This so enraged the youthful soldier that he seized the officer and dragged him from his saddle and gave him a deserved pummelling for his impertinence. He and his faithful wife are buried in the old cemetery at Decatur, in Brown County, Ohio.

The name is Anglo-Saxon, and in the early history of the family the Sintons were found settled near the border of Scotland. The ancestors of this subject went to the north of Ireland with one of Cromwell's colonies. His father and mother were Quakers. His mother's name was McDonald. John Sinton, father of David Sinton, was married in Ireland. He resided in County Armagh, and was a linen manufacturer at the city of Armagh.

David Sinton was bom January 26, 1808. and in 181 1, his father and mother came to the United States in a sailing vessel, which occupied nine weeks in the voyage.

John Sinton located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and went to merchandising with his brother-in-law, McDonald. In one year the partnership was dissolved, and Sinton removed to West Union, Ohio, where he sold goods from 1812 until 1825, at which time he closed out his business at auction.

David Sinton Pioneer Character Sketches 619

studied medicine with Dr. William B. Willson, and had qualified himself for a physician, when death cut him off in his early manhood. He had just begun the practice of medicine at the time of his death. One of David Sinton's sisters never left Ireland, but married there. His other sister, who came with the remainder of the family to this country, married John Sparks, the banker, and died at Union Landing of the cholera, in 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Sparks had three children: Mary Jane, who married a McCauslen and resides near Steubenville, Ohio, and George Sparks, who resides at Clinton, Indiana. The third child died an infant at West Union, Ohio.

John Sparks was bom near West Union, Ohio, in 1800, and reared there. He lived awhile in Hillsboro, when a young man, and then began merchandising in West Union, Ohio, on the corner now occupied by Miller & Bunn's drug store, and was in business there from 1820- until 1830. He went to Union Landing in 1830, and remained until 1833. He then returned to West Union, Ohio, and went into the banking business, where he remained until his death in April, 1847. Bates & Surtees founded the bank at West Union, Ohio. They were both from Cincinnati. The bank was an unsound concern, and when it collapsed Thomas Huston lost $13,000 by its failure.

He left West Union in his fourteenth year, and went to Sinking Springs, in Highland County, Ohio, where he went into the employment of James McCague, who kept a tavern and a country store there, and remained at that place two years. McCague had a branch store at Dunbarton, Ohio, three miles south of Peebles. David Sinton was in his sixteenth year when he kept store at Dunbarton, for three or four months. McCague was a dnnking man, and his wife and Sinton attended to all the business. Sinton says tliat the sales in the branch store at Dunbarton were principally whiskey. On Saturday, the furnace hands from the Brush Creek Forge, Steam Furnace and Marble Furnace, gathered at Dunbarton, and got gloriously drunk. Whiskey was then about six and one-fourth cents a quart, and drunks were consequently gotten up very cheap.

David Sinton went to Cincinnati in 1824 and waited there four months before he could get any employment. In that time he improved his mind by reading Hume's History of England, and other works. Mr. Sinton thought he could have gotten employment, had he made himself "a hail fellow well met," with the young men of his own age with whom he became acquainted, and had he participated in their dissipations, but this he refused to do. He says those young men have been dead and forgotten for years. While trying to get work, he answered all advertisements, but with no success. He applied for the position of bookkeeper at Adams' Commission House on Main Street, but found, on looking at their books, he could not keep them. He then went to work as a porter or laborer. He put up twenty tons of bar iron from Pittsburg, and placed barrels of sugar in the loft. He had a difficulty with a fellow-laborer in the same house, and says : "I went to Mr. Adams, and asked him to discharge the other man. He refused to do so, and I discharged myself."

Union. There he) received letters, asking him to return to Sinking Springs. He went there and remained wilii his former employer, Mc- Cague, at eight dollars per month, for two years. Then he concluded he wanted to be a capitalist. He went into partnership with a Methodist preacher, and bought a still-house for one hundred and fifty dollars. He ran the still until he paid his debts, and then being ashamed of the business, he sold out. He guarded a prisoner for nine days in 1826 and got twenty dollars for it, and then concluded to go to Cincinnati.

There he opened out a commission house for John Sparks, his brotherin-law, and Daniel Boyle, of West Union, but the venture was not successful, and the house was closed in six months. He then went to Washington C. H., in the employ of Dr. Boyd, to take charge of a store. He remained there six months at twenty-five dollars per month. Then he received an oflFer to go to Hanging Rock at four hundred dollars per year. He left Washington C. H., and w^ent to West Union to consult his brotherin-law, John Sparks. He offered Sparks to go to Union Furnace for two hundred dollars per year, and his board. The offer was accepted, and he went to Union Furnace Landing, where he kept store, and sold pig iron. He was there three years. The firm was James Rogers & Co. Rogers soon sold out, and the firm became John Sparks & Co., and Sinton became manager of the furnace at four hundred dollars per year, when other furnaces were paying one thousand dollars per year for the same service. Union Furnace had cost seven thousand dollars, but was much in debt. Sinton made the furnace put out five hundred tons of iron per year, and made it pay dividends. The output was mostly hollow-ware. Sinton wanted to push the business. He leased the furnace at a rental of five thousand dollars per year for five years. The stack fell down, and the bars gave out. While rebuilding the stack, he bought great quantities of wood, and had it stored about the furnace. Before the stack w^as rebuilded, the wood caught fire, and was all consumed. Sinton was then twentyeight years of age, and financially broken up. He had been up three days and nights fighting fire, and was utterly discouraged. He thought he would go to Mexico, but lay down and slept eighteen consecutive hours. Twice before he had lost all he had, and he concluded he would try it again. The men who had brought in the wood, and worked at the furnace, wanted their money. Sinton professed his ability to pay, and the men were paid as they came up, in as small bills and change as could be used so as to consume as much time as possible in settling and making payment. He had one thousand dollars in small bills and change, and managed it so that he only paid out one hundred dollars on the first day of the run. The run continued until the third day, when one of the men put a stop to it by telling the others they were all fools, and then they brought tlieir money back.

After the furnace started up, Sinton sold iron at thirty-five dollars per ton, which he made at a cost of ten dollars per ton. At that time the furnace made six tons per day. David Sinton built Ohio Furnace during his lease on Union Furnace. Tt made ten tons per day, and Sinton ran it a year before his lease terminated on Union Furnace. Union Furnace was then put up and sold in partition, and David Sinton and Thomas W. Means bought it. They then owned and ran both Ohio and Union Furnace.

Pioneer Character Sketches 621

John Ellison, of Adams County, Ohio, and sister to the wife of his partner, Thomas W. Means. There were two children of this marriage, Edward, who died, unmarried, at the age of twenty-one, and the wife of the Hon, Charles P. Taft, of the Times-Star, of Cincinnati. Mrs. Jane Sinton died in 1853, at Manchester, Ohio, and is buried there. David Sinton never remarried.

Mr. Sinton's father died at West Union, Ohio, Sunday, June 28, 1835, at the age of seventy-one, of that dread scourge, the Asiatic cholera. There were seven other deaths that day at the same place, and of the same disease, and it was the first day of the outbreak of the pestilence at West Union. David Sinton was then at Union Landing, and was notified by messenger, but, as was the custom at that time in cholera cases, John Sinton was buried the same day he died, and when Mr. Sinton reached West Union, his father had been buried two days. Mr. Sinton's mother survived until 1866, when she died at the ripe age of eighty-five.

When the War of 1 861 broke out, pig-iron was eighteen dollars per ton, and David Sinton had seven thousand tons oh hand. Many thought he was ruined, but he held on to that iron until it went up to seventy-five dollars per ton, when he sold it. When iron rose in price, he continued making it, and selling it for cash. In 1863, he began putting his money in Cincinnati real estate. That real estate, bought with the proceeds of iron sold at seventy-five dollars per ton, advanced until it made its owner one hundred and twenty-five dollars per ton for all the iron he sold at seventy-five dollars per ton.

Mr. Sinton attributes his great fortune to judicious investments of the money he made in the manufacture and «ale of pig-iron, at the beginning of, and during the late Civil War.

In Cincinnati, he has taken an active interest in many of the leading enterprises, and he has erected many substantial and elegant buildings there. He has made a number of munificent public gifts. He presented $100,000 to the Union fkthel and $33,000 to the Young Men's Christian Association. ,He is entirely a self-made man. He is noted for his strong common sense and self-reliance. In business matters, his litigations, his conclusions and his manner of execution are his own. He may be said to be self-educated. His readings on all topics have been extensive. In literature, science and history he is well Informed, retaining all of any value he ever read, and being able to converse on all subjects with great interest to his listeners.

Mr. Sinton was a Whig and has been a Republican in his political views, but never took any active interest in political matters. During the war, he was a strong Union man and did all he could with his influence and means to sustain the Government. His practical religion is justice, charity and good will to all men. In private relations, he is characterized by his kindness and benevolence.

Since the above was written Mr. Sinton made the princely gift of $100,000 unconditionally to the University of Cincinnati. He died August 31, 1900.

eldest son of John Stivers, the pioneer, and Martha Neel, was bom near the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania February i8, 1787. In 1799, he came with his parents first to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and afterwards to Adams County, Ohio, settling on Brier Ridge. Here he helped his father to "clear out" a farm, earning some money himself by teaching school. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he volunteered as a Private in Captain Josiah Lockhart's Company of Colonel James Trimble's Regiment under General Duncan McArthur, and was surrendered to the British by General Hull, at Detroit, August 16, 1812. After his parole, he came home; but learning that his brother, James, had volunteered in a Kentucky regiment, he at once hastened to Maysville and re-enlisted in Captain Simmons' Company of Colonel William E. Boswell's Regiment. He served under General Greene Clay in Harrison's Campaign, and commanded a "Spy Company" in Colonel Boswell's Regiment of Kentucky Militia at the battle of the "Rapids of the Maamee," May 5, 1813. He took part in the action under Colonel Dudley, and was made a prisoner of war after the latteir's defeat and death. Knowing his certain fate should he be recognized by his former captors, he assumed the name of "Samuel Bradford'' and was under that name discharged. He was one of the number that escaped the tomahawks of the Indians through the timely arrival of Tecumseh, while confined in the blockhouse at Maiden. After his release by the British, he returned to Adams County, and soon afterwards married Miss Mary Creed, a daughter of Mathew Creed, who had come from Monroe County, Virginia, to Rocky Fork, Highland County, Ohio, in 1804. About the time of his marriage he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Sprigg Township, which position he held until his removal from the county in 181 8. He lived for a time on a farm near the residence of his father-inlaw, and then removed to Russellville, Brown County, where he followed surveying and school teaching until 1829, when he settled on a farm of three hundred and fifty acres one mile north of the present village of Fincastle. Here he resided until his death, August 7, 1864. His widow survived until November, 1867, having been bom in 1790. Samuel K. Stivers was widely known as a surveyor and civil engineer. He held the rank of Colonel, in the old State Militia, and had a large circle of warm political friends, among whom was Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, the peer of Tom Corwin in the field of political oratory. He was a Democrat of the old school, a Breckenridge Democrat in i860, and lived and died a member of the "New Light" or Christian Church.

Among his warm personal friends were Gen. Nathaniel Beasley, Judge George Barrere, Colonel James Trimble and Dr. Lilly, and he named the four sons of his family, Beasley, Barrere, Trimble and Lilly. And his wife named the three daughters for her best friends, Amanda Carlisle, her cousin; Elizabeth Brockway, and Mary Creed, herself. He and his wife are buried in the old Earl Cemetery near Fincastle, Ohio.

was bom on the thirty-first day of September. 1772, at Old Town or Skipton, at the junction of the north and south branches of the Potomac River. He came of that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which has furnished very many remarkable and valuable men to the bar, army, navy and legislature of America. His grandparents emigrated to the United States very soon after the battle of the Boyne and settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, from whence the father of Judge Scott removed to and settled in Virginia.

In May, 1796, Mr. Scott married Catherine, daughter of Robert and Catherine Dorsey Wood. He very early connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout his long life. He was licensed a preacher when only seventeen years of age by Bishop Asbury, and was ordained at eighteen. At this period of life, Mr. Scott fully intended to devote himself to the ministry, and he prudently learned the tailoring trade so as to be sure of the necessaries of life while in charge of the then very poor and scattered flocks of the Methodist Church.

In 1793, he was placed in charge of the Ohio Circuit, and in 1794, was sent as delegate to a conference held in Lexington, Kentucky. By this time he had resolved to study law, and he began reading under the auspics of James Brown, of Lexington. But he was so poor that he was compelled to labor at tailoring much the preater portion of the time. In this strait, his wife (who, beside possessing in an eminent degree, all the noble attributes of womanhood, was an unusually well educated and intellectual lady) sat beside his work and read to him "Blackstone," "Coke upon Littleton," and the other law books usually put into the hands of law students in those days. Whether licensed to practice or not, and it does not appear that he was, he certainly appeared as a lawyer in the courts of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, and even prosecuted for the State in 1799 ^^^ 1800. Early in 1801, he came to Chillicothe, Ohio, and there was licensed to practice law in June, 1801. In the following winter, he was Clerk of the Territorial Legislature. In November (from the first to the twenty-ninth), he was the Secretary of the Constitutional Convention. In January, 1803, he was commissioned Prothonotary of Common Pleas, which he held until the reorganization of the Courts, and in April of that year, he was Clerk of the Common Pleas, pro tempore, and candidate for the permanent clerkship, but was defeated for the position by John McDougal. He was then commissioned the first Justice of the Peace of the county and continued in that positioa for three or four years, although, meanwhile, he practiced in Common Pleas, and was also Prosecuting Attorney in 1803 ^"^ 1804.

In the Fall of 1805, ^^ was chosen Clerk of the Ohio Senate, and continued such, by successive annual elections until 1809, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, upon which he remained with good credit, until 1815. He was then Register of Public Lands from 1829 to 1845. When, after the "era of good feeling'' which existed during Monroe's administration, men began to divide up again on political questions, Judge Scott took his place with the Republican party. But President Adams, having made him the promise to appoint him District Judge of the United States for Ohio and this having been prevented by the interference of Clay, who obtained the place for another. Judge Scott immediately became a zealous and active Jackson Democrat. He continued his affiliation with the Democracy until 1840, when he went over again to his old partisan friends, then called Whigs, and supported General Harrison's candidacy. He remained a Whig during the remainder of his life, but strongly sympathized with the anti-slavery movement which gave birth to the present Republican party. We must not forget to mention that in all the vicis- situdes of his long and busy life, he continued to fill the pulpit of the Methodist Church whenever called to supply it as a "local preacher."

He died February 13, 1856, at the age of eighty-three, and at that time had been longer in the active practice of law than any other person in Ohio, and probably, longer a preacher of tlie Gospel than any minister in the United States. His excellent wife survived him about two years. As a lawyer, Judge Scott was painstaking, laborious and precise to a remarkable degree. Some of his briefs are marvels of patient research and also of prolixity. He had a wide reputation for learning, in the laws of realty especially, and was employed abroad in some very important cases, and for his services, received a few large fees.

It will be noticed that in the foregoing sketch of his Hfe, that, true to the instincts of the Virginian, Judge Scott loved official distinction. No position was too high for his solicitation, and none too humble for his acceptance. As a husband and a father, never was mortal man more gentle, affectionate and provident.