ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 9 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        KINGSVILLE, on Lake Erie, sixty miles east of Cleveland, fourteen
miles from Jefferson, on L.S. & M.S. and N.Y.C. & St. L. Railroads,
surrounded by a fine farming country. Newspapers: Tribune, Republican, I.V.
Nearpass, editor. Churches: 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian. The principal
industry is basket making, the Kingsville handle works employing 83 hands.
Population in 1880, 495. The youth of Judge Tourgee, author of "The Fool's
Errand," was passed in this place.
        ALBION W. TOURGEE, LL.D., was born in Williamsfield in this county
in 1838, and when seven years of age removed with his parents to
Kingsville, near the lake. At the breaking out of the rebellion he was a
student in the Rochester University, and enlisted in the 27th New York; was
wounded in the first battle of Bull Run. In 1862 he was Lieutenant in the
105th Ohio and served in Kentucky and was taken prisoner and spent several
months in Libby and other prisons. Being exchanged he rejoined his old
regiment and was with it until after the battle of Chickamauga, when from
his sufferings form his old wound, an injury to the spine, he was discharged.
        After the close of the war for twelve years he was a resident of
North Carolina; held various offices, among which was that of a Judge of
the Superior Court. Observing the effects of reconstruction in the South,
he began a series of political novels on the effects of reconstruction on
the condition of the blacks and their old masters, the most noted of which
were "A Fools Errand" and "Bricks Without Straw." They had an immense
circulation and their influence so great Mr. Garfield wrote a friend that
in his opinion they turned the scale of the Presidential election in his
favor. His present residence is Mayville, N.Y.

        Ashtabula county was the most noted spot in the Union for its
anti-slavery position. The county anti-slavery society was formed in June,
1832, followed by local anti-slavery societies in various parts of the
county which continued during the entire period of the anti-slavery contest.
        The 4th of July, 1837, was celebrated by two local societies - one
at Kingsville and the other at Ashtabula. The radical element had no great
force. When Abby Kelly and Foster and Parker Pillsbury came and proclaimed
that the "the constitution was a covenant with death and a league with
hell," all listened but few believed. The societies here were mainly formed
on the principle of moral suasion, declaiming against slavery as a wrong
and opposing its extension. They denounced the fugitive slave law, and at a
meeting at Hart's Grove in December, 1850, they resolved "a law to strip us
of our humanity, to divest us of all claims to Christianity and self
respect and herd us with blood-hounds and men stealers upon penalty of
reducing our children to starvation and nakedness. Cursed be said law!"
Again, "that sooner than submit to such odious laws, we will see the Union
dissolved; sooner than see slavery perpetuated we would see war; and sooner
than be slaves we will fight." At this time there was a regular underground
railway extending from Wheeling to the harbor at Ashtabula. The people felt
that the principal of freedom was fastened to the eternal principle of
right and anchored in God himself. While Benj. F. Wade and Joshua R.
Giddings represented the sentiment of Ashtabula county in the Congress of
the nation, a woman, Miss Betsy M. Cowles, by profession a teacher, by her
fiery eloquence and intensity of feeling, more than any other person
created in Ashtabula the sentiment which upheld them. She was born in 1810
in Bristol, Conn., and was brought to Ohio an infant when her father, Rev.
Dr. Giles Hooker Cowles, removed to Austinburg with his family.
        During the entire anti-slavery agitation Miss Cowles and her sister
Cornelia were foremost in this work. Often after a stirring address an
impromptu quartette would be improvised, Miss Cornelia sustaining the
soprano and Miss Betsy the alto; and as their strong sweet voices rang out
the touching strains, "Say, Christian, will you take me back? or that other
saddest of lamentation,
        "Gone, gone; sold and gone
         To the rice swamp dank and lone,
         From Virginia's hills and waters,
         Woe is me, my stolen daughters!"
Bosoms hardened before thrilled in sympathy with an influence they could
not but feel, and melted before a power they could not withstand.
        Nor was it alone for the slave that she made her voice heard and
her influence felt. The position of women before the law, and especially
married women, early arrested her attention.
        "In 1848, in Seneca Falls, N.Y., a convention was called by
Lucretia Mott and Mrs H. B. Stanton, for the purpose of obtaining from the
constitutional convention about to meet in the State juster laws regarding
women. Over his convention Lucretia Mott presided. The next one was held in
Salem, Ohio, for a similar purpose in 1850, and Betsy M. Cowles presided.
She died in 1876 at her homestead in Austinburg. Useful as was her life,
fitting as were her words and deeds, all who knew her felt that she was
greater than all she did. She was indeed a perfect woman nobody planned. It
was not so much what she did, writes one who loved her, as the atmosphere
she created which won all hearts. So sunny, genial and hospital was she
that she drew all sufferers to her side."
        John Brown and associates just prior to the raid on Harper's Ferry
made West Andover in this county their headquarters.
        Brown's Sharp's rifles and other materials of war were stored in
the cabinet manufactory of King & Brothers on the creek road in Cherry valley.
        After the raid John Brown Jr., who resided in Cherry valley, was
summoned to appear before the United States Senate and give evidence.
Refusing to obey, their sergeant-at-arms was ordered to arrest him.
Apprehensive that an armed force would be sent not only to arrest him but
to take Meriam, Owen Brown and other fugitives in the vicinity, citizens of
West Andover and neighborhood, organized a secret society, the "Independent
Sons of Liberty," to defend these men with their lives if need be. Signals,
signs, passwords and a badge were agreed upon, arms procured and a place of
rendezvous selected. A State lodge was organized and finally a United
States lodge. The final object was to act politically and in a
revolutionary manner if necessary for the overthrow of slavery. Members in
common parlance were called "Black Strings" from a badge which they wore, a
black string tied into the buttonhole of their shirt collar.
        ROCK CREEK, sixteen miles south of Lake Erie, on the Ashtabula &
Pittsburg R.R. Newspapers; Banner, Republican, Scott & Remick, publishers.
Churches; 1 Congregational, 1 Methodist and 2 Disciples. Bank; Morgan
Savings & Loan Association, E.M Covell, president, W.W. Watkins, cashier.
Principal industries are tannery, flouring, saw, planing and handle mills,
moulding factory, etc. Population in 1880, 558.


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