Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

H. Lee; Coroner, Harvey D. Dunlap; Commissioners, James Murray, Wm. Davis, James H. Rhinehart.

Newspapers: Chronicle, Democratic, J.V. Lawler & Bro., publishers; Free Press, Republican, John H. Tripp, publisher, Peter M. Herold, local editor; Republican,

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

Republican, S. T. Cameron & Co., publishers. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Reformed and 1 United Presbyterian. Banks: Cummings & Couch; Stockton Bros., V. Stockton, cashier. Population in 1880, 1,136. School census 1886, 417. A. M. Fishell, superintendent. In October, 1887, "no saloon in the town and no prisoners in the county jail."

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

The engraving shows the new court-house and other buildings on the public square. This was finished in 1886, costing with jail in the rear about $150,000. It is built mainly of Navarre sandstone, with some from Berea. It is just to the left of the old court-house shown in the old view. The old court-house was sold on the 11th of June for $196 and the bell for $138.

Daniel McCook, father of one of the two famous families of "Fighting

McCooks," was the first clerk of court of Carroll county after its formation, inthe winter of 1832-33. He resided in the large, white house shown on the corner, to the right of the old court-house, at the time the view was drawn; and it was the birthplace of several of his family. It is now partly occupied by Geo. J. Butler as a dry-goods store.

[ocr errors]

TRAVELLING NOTES.

66

"You must see Gen. Eckley when you visit Carrollton," said various parties when I was in the counties adjoining. He can tell you everything.' He was, they said, “a man of great public spirit and large intelligence. On the evening of my arrival, Friday, June 11, I found two old gentlemen seated on a dry-goods box on a street corner -I may say two old boys-engaged in a social chat; and one of these was Capt. John Beatty, the first sheriff of Carroll county; the other Gen. Ephraim R. Eckley, who was a judge before he was a general-a man of law before a man of war. His first greeting was, "You've grown old since I have seen you." I did not remember to have ever seen him, but must have done so when formerly here when I took the old view shown on an adjoining page-took it as one told me he remembered seeing me seated on a wheelbarrow in the centre of the street.

Gen. Eckley has lived almost the entire period of the history of the State; was born in 1811. Having been long in public life, he has witnessed many changes. Among his experiences was his being in at the death of the Whig party in 1854: the Free-Soil party, in nautical phrase, had "taken its wind. He was then the Whig candidate for the United States Senate, which was the last effort of the Whigs at organization.

In 1861 he served in the Virginia campaign under Rosecrans; later, under Sherman, had command at Paducah; in April, 1862, was elected to Congress, where he remained until 1869. He gave me these interesting items, illustrating the morals of the people here, viz. that the jail was generally empty, and when used at all it was largely for violation of some police arrangement; and that from 1842 to 1863, a period of twenty-one years, Carroll county had not supplied a single inmate for the penitentiary. Other counties in Ohio, I find, can give a like record. Such, however, have mainly rural populations.

66

General Harrison and the Honest German. -On July 4, 1838, Harrison addressed a Whig meeting at Massillon, and the next day came here and put up at the tavern of David J. Levy. In the evening he made an impromptu address from the hotel steps. Next morning he arose early to take a walk before breakfast, the ostensible purpose being to get a drink from John Young's spring, a spot on the outskirts where Mr. Young had a tannery with a bath-house and fine spring of water. On his arrival there he met Jonas Miller, an honest, simple-hearted German, on his way to town. Harrison bade him goodmorning, and observing he had his hand done

up in a bandage, asked him "What was the matter with it?" He replied he had a felon on it and was going to town to get a drink of whiskey; thought it would ease the pain. Harrison advised him kindly not to drink, it would be only the worse for him, gave him a receipt for its cure and the twain walked into the town together. Harrison was dressed in a plain suit of fustian, and, after parting from Miller, some one asked the latter if he knew whom he had been talking with? He replied "No." When told, he was so overcome that he sat down and cried like a child. Miller had been a strong Democrat, but thenceforth was an enthusiastic Harrison man. In speaking of this event he would say in broken English: "Mein Gott, it was the great Gineral Harrison that walked down the street and talked with me and cured my felon.'

Rural Sights.-Having slept upon the General's chat I took a walk the next morning. There is an advantage in these small towns; a few steps take one into the country where the green earth and the blue sky have an open chance to look at each other square in the face and exchange notes; and there, too-and it is not a small matter-are the cattle on a thousand hills, peaceful, patient and picturesque; chewing the cud and whilom keeping the fly-brush agoing and often with a rhythm so well pronounced that some painstaking, head-scratching poet might pause there for a hint, if so disposed.

Carrollton is on undulating ground and the country around a series of beautiful swells. Each house is generally on an ample home lot and the people live mostly in cottages. The gardens of the villagers, rich in flowers, were yet moist with the dew of morning, while the sunlight, stealing in long, slanting ribbon-bands across their beds, illuminated them in richest glory of color and in sweetest blending of light and shade. And the thought came upon me, now this very morning, all over this broad land, there are multitudes of just such villages as this with just such scenes and with just such worthy, virtuous people as these. And with this grateful fact upon the heart, should we question is life worth living? Whatever man might answer, the bee, flitting on golden wing from flower to flower, would reply, “Yes; don't I get honey?"

The Old Lady and her Flowers.-On coming to one of the cottages I saw an old lady on her knees with a wet cloth in hand wiping her porch. She was surrounded by the pots of flowers which she had nursed through the winter and had brought them out alongside of those that kind mother Earth had put forth from her bosom in the

open air. "Good-morning," said I. With that she turned her head, lifted her sunbonnet and arose to her feet to see who it was that had greeted her. I then continued, as she still held her cloth in her hand with her arm limp by her side: "Do you know, Madam, what a favor you confer upon every passer-by by your display of flowers?" Upon this she smiled and said, “Why, I never thought of that; I cultivate them because I love them. "You people," I rejoined, "appear to live very pleasantly and the country around looks very sweet to me as I see it rolling away in graceful swells of grassy fields interspersed with clumps of trees. "Yes," she rejoined, "and it is now in all its beauty.' Yes! she was right. It was the beautiful month of June that had come, and had she felt like quoting the poetry she might have started straight for Longfellow, as he thus speaks for June:

[ocr errors]

"Mine is the month of roses
yes, and mine
The month of marriages! All pleasant
sights

And scents, the fragrance of the blossom-
ing vines,

The foliage of the valleys and the heights. Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;

The mower's scythe makes music to my ear; I am the mother of all dear delights, I am the fairest daughter of the year." "You people," I continued, "appear to live in this village in a great deal of comfort and

freedom." "I don't like it," she replied. "There is too much style for me! Until I was forty years of age I lived on a farm, and I pine for its open, free life. There is so much to interest one, and the animals are a continued source of gratification. Then your neighbors run in and out without any formality and we all seem as one great family. This village life has too much restriction. If one's gate gets open and your cow happens to get out she is taken up and put in the pound, and there is seventy-five cents or a dollar to pay to get Muley out. "Trouble everywhere," I said. Yes," she rejoined, and opening wide her mouth, displayed a full set of perfect, pearly white teeth. God bless the dentist, I then thought, whose inventive art permits a refined old lady like you to give full play to her merriment without compelling her, when the hinges of her mouth relax for a good hearty laugh, to hide it with her hand.

[ocr errors]

A moment later I met a young mother happy as a lark. Instead of turning over her children to the care of Bridget and lolling on a luxurious couch, absorbed in reading the details of the make-up of Mrs. Cleveland's wedding-dress, she was leading by the hand, amid these rustic surroundings on this bright June morning, her own little girl, perhaps her first-born. I watched as I came up the slender limbs of the little one alternately stealing in and out from beneath the folds of her blue dress and said, "Good-morning; I see the blue-birds are out.' "Yes, sir; this one."

[ocr errors]

LEESBURG is on the W. & L. E. R. R., 100 miles northeast of Columbus and twelve miles southwest of Carrollton. One Leg courses through it, a stream so named from a one-legged Indian who anciently dwelt upon its margin. The Indian name of this water course is "Kannoten;" and the branch known as the "Dining Fork of the Kannoten" derived its appellation from the first explorers in this region on an occasion partaking of their noon meal upon its banks. The post-office name of Leesburg is Leesville, as there is also another Leesburg in Highland county. Part of Orange township in which it is situated originally formed a part of One Leg township, Tuscarawas county, a name now extinct even there, as applied to a township.

Leesburg was laid out August 1, 1812, by Thomas Price and Peter Saunders. It contains one newspaper, Connoton Valley Times, Independent, R. G. Rivers, editor; has 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, and, in 1880, had 408 inhabitants; coal mining and farming are its main industries.

Leesburg has a peculiar history; has long been noted as an intellectual and reforming centre. It was one of the stations of the Underground Railroad, and in those days its little public hall at times resounded to the voices of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Fred. Douglass, Wendell Phillips, Parker Pillsbury and their coadjutors. Some noted characters are now residents of the place. Hon. Wm. Adair, author of the celebrated liquor law, and a member of the last Constitutional Convention of Ohio, is a practising lawyer of the place. Charles Dunster, also a resident, is builder of an ingenious astronomical clock which keeps the time of some of the principal cities of the world, and is remarkable from the fact that he is entirely self-taught, and constructed it from such rude tools as he could make in an ordinary blacksmith shop. This clock is still ticking the time by the forge where he earns his daily bread.

And lastly for our mention is a lady, Mrs. Mary E. Kail, noted for her patriotic

poems, the outgrowth of an intense and absorbing love of country. She is a native of Washington City, but from childhood has been a resident of Ohio, excepting for a few years when she was clerk in one of the departments at Washington, which position she lost recently through a change of administration. Her spirited songs have been sung and with great acceptance on many public occasions, such as Decoration Days, at meetings of the various posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, dedication of soldiers' cemeteries, lodges of Good Templars, and in the political canvass.

[graphic]

Her writings under the title of "Crown our Heroes and other Poems" have recently been published through the generosity of Mrs. Leland Stanford. This little book is her only source of livelihood in her advanced years. Of all the songs sung on Decoration Day throughout the land "Crown our He

Ross EN

MRS. MARY E. KAIL. Authoress of "Crown our Heroes."

roes "stands at the head. This and the one entitled "Ohio" we copy entire.

CROWN OUR HEROES.

Crown our heroes, the soldiers, whose spirits have fled

To the land of the blest; crown the heroic dead.

Let the fair hand of woman weave garlands of flowers

Kissed by heaven's pure sunlight in sweet morning hours.
Go tenderly, gently, and scatter them where

Our heroes are sleeping! go scatter them there.

Crown our heroes, the soldiers, who sleep on the shore

Where the call of the bugle can wake them no more.
Men who fought to defend us-oh, can we forget

The tribute of glory we owe to them yet?

Bring love's fairest offerings, with tears and with prayer,
And gratefully, sacredly scatter them there.

Crown our heroes, the soldiers, whose grandeur and power
Saved our own dear Columbia in war's troubled hour.
When amid the fierce struggle each soul was a host,
Who was ready to die lest his country be lost.
They are dead! they are dead! what now can we do
As a token of love for the noble and true?

Crown our heroes, the soldiers. Oh! scatter the flowers
O'er the graves of the dead; they are yours, they are ours.
Men who fought for the flag, and our foes in the fray;
For as brothers they sleep, both the blue and the gray.
And true to our banner, our offerings we bring-
Blushing roses of summer, and violets of spring.

Crown our heroes, God bless them! no true heart must lag;
Crown the dead and the living who stood by the flag.
Through the oncoming ages let each have a name
Carved in letters of gold in the temple of fame;
For the bright stars of freedom-our banner unfurled-
Is the joy of Columbia, the pride of the world!

OHIO.

Ohio, I love thee, for deeds thou hast done;
Thy conflicts recorded and victories won;
On the pages of history, beaming and bright,
Ohio shines forth like a star in the night.

Like a star flashing out o'er the mountain's blue crest,
Lighting up with its glory the land of the west;
For thy step onward marching and voice to command,
Ohio, I love thee, thou beautiful land.

Commonwealth grandly rising in majesty tall-
In the girdle of beauty the fairest of all,

Tho' thunders of nations around thee may roar-
Their strong tidal waves dash and break on thy shore-
Standing prouder and firmer when danger is nigh,
With a power to endure and an arm to defy;
Ohio shall spread her broad wings to the world,
Her bugles resounding and banners unfurled.

A queen in her dignity, proudly she stands,
Reaching out to her sister States wealth-laden hands,
Crown'd with plentiful harvests and fruit from the vine,
And riches increasing in ores from the mine.
While with Liberty's banner unfurled to the sky—
Resolved for the Union to do or to die-

Her soldiers and statesmen unflinchingly come,
'Mid booming of cannon and roll of the drum.

To glory still onward, we're marching along,
Ev'ry heart true and noble re-echoes the song,
Ever pledged to each other, through years that have fled,
We have hopes for the living, and tears for the dead.
Bless the heroes who suffered, but died not in vain ;
Keep the flag that we love-without tarnish or stain.
Thus uniting with all, shall my song ever be

Ohio, my home-land, my heart clings to thee!

Mechanicstown, nine miles northeast of Carrollton, was laid out in 1836 by Thomas McGovern; it has 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal church, and about 200 population. Kilgore, twelve miles southeast of Carrollton, has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, and 1 Reformed Lutheran church, and about 200 people. Magnolia, on the C. & P. R. R.; population 300. Dell Roy is on the C. V. R. R., eight miles southwest of Carrollton. It has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Protestant church, and, in 1880, 664 inhabitants. This place is now the centre of the most important coal mines of the county, and its population is largely composed of miners.

JONATHAN

New Harrisburg is a small village five miles northwest of Carrollton, and which in 1883 contested with it for the county-seat. This was the birth-place of Jonathan Weaver, bishop of the United Brethren church and president of Otterbein University. The village has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian church, and about 200 inhabitants. In the little churchyard adjoining the town, "in a valley of dry bones, amid the silent monuments of death and desolation," is a marble slab, twelve by eighteen inches, bearing the simple inscription as annexed: a remarkable instance of longevity.

LEWIS.

AGED

104.

Harlem Springs is six miles southeast of Carrollton; it has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren church, and before the war it was quite a resort for invalids to partake of the water of its chalybeate springs; among the visitors of note were Robt. E. Lee and Edwin Stanton. Here is the Harlem Springs College, founded in 1858, John R. Steeves, president; three instructors; pupils, twenty-one males and eleven females.

« ZurückWeiter »