CARROLL COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: PART 4 (Howe, Henry LL. D 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        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.
        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.
        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
chalybreate 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.
        The Ohio McCooks acquired a wide popular reputation during the
civil war as the "Fighting McCooks." In the various current notices of them
they are spoken of as one family, but were really two families, the sons of
Major Daniel McCook and Dr. John McCook. Of the former family there were
engaged in military service the father, Major Daniel McCook, Surgeon
Latimer A. McCook, General George W. McCook, Major-General Robert L.
McCook, Major-General A. McD. McCook, General Daniel McCook Jr.,
Major-General Edwin Stanton McCook, Private Charles Morris McCook, Colonel
John J. McCook -ten in all. Another son, Midshipman J. James McCook, died
in the naval service before the rebellion.
        Of the latter family there were engaged in the service
Major-General Edward M. McCook, General Anson G. McCook, Chaplain Henry C.
McCook, Commander Roderick S. McCook. U.S.N., and Lieutenant John J. McCook
-five in all. This makes a total of fifteen, every son of both families,
all commissioned officers except Charles, who was killed in the first
battle of Bull Run, and who declined a commission in the regular army,
preferring to serve as a private volunteer.
        The two families have been familiarly distinguished as the "Tribe
of Dan" and the "Tribe of John."

                        I. THE DANIEL MCCOOK BRANCH
     Major Daniel McCook                Martha Latimer

        Major Daniel McCook, the second son of George McCook and Mary
McCormack, was born June 20, 1798, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the seat of
Jefferson College, where he received his education. On August 28, 1817, he
married Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer, of Washington, Pa. In
1826, they removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr.
McCook was an active member and an elder for many years of the Presbyterian
church of Carrollton, organizing and conducting as superintendent the first
Sunday-school of that church.
        At the beginning of the war he was in Washington, D.C. and,
although, sixty-three years of age, at once tendered his services to
president Lincoln. Each of his eight sons then living also promptly
responded to the call of the president for troops. When the rebel general,
John Morgan, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCook was stationed at
Cincinnati, and joined the troops sent in his pursuit. Morgan undertook to
recross the Ohio river at Buffington island. Major McCook led an advance
party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the skirmish that took place
he was mortally wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the
sixty-fifth year of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove cemetery near
Cincinnati.
        He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot, and an
earnest Christian. He possessed a most gentle and amiable disposition,
combined with the highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great
force of character. He ruled his household in the fear of the Lord, and
died as he had lived in the active performance of his duty.
        His wife, Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer and Mary
Greer, was born at Washington, Pa., March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors
were Scotch-Irish, but on the father's side they were English, coming
originally from Leicestershire.
        During the war of the rebellion, Mrs. McCook was in a peculiarly
difficult position. Her husband and sons were all in the service. No battle
could take place but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each succeeding
year brought death to a member of her family upon the battle-field. Her
husband and three sons were thus taken form her and the others were so
frequently wounded that it seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft
of her entire family. Her life during these long years of anxiety was well
nigh a continuous prayer for her country and for her sons that had given
themselves for its defence. This patriotic woman well illustrates the
heroic sufferings endured by the women of the Republic no less than by the men.
        Mrs. McCook died November, 10, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of
her age, at new Lisbon, Ohio, surrounded by her surviving children and
friends, and was buried beside her husband in Spring Grove cemetery,
Cincinnati.
          The children of the above are as follows:
        1. Latimer A. McCook, M.D., was born at Canonsburg, Pa., April 26,
1829. He was educated at Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine
with his uncle, Dr. George McCook, a physician of great skill and eminence,
and received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. He
entered the army in 1861 as assistant surgeon, and was soon promoted to be
surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first regiment, Illinois
volunteers, known as "John Logan's regiment."
        He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee,
and, while caring for the wounded of his regiment during action, he was
himself twice wounded -once in the trenches before Vicksburg, and again at
Pocataligo bridge, in Gen. Sherman's movement northward from Savannah. He
survived the war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23, 1869,
from general debility resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his
service in the army, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
        2. George Wythe McCook was born at Canonsburg, Pa., November 2,
1821. He graduated from Ohio University at Athens, and studied law with and
afterward became the partner of Edwin M. Stanton, the great war secretary,
in Steubenville. He served as an officer in the Third Ohio regiment
throughout the Mexican war, and returned as its commander. He was
attorney-general of the State of Ohio, and edited the first volume of "Ohio
State Reports." He was one of the first four brigadier-generals appointed
by the governor of Ohio to command the troops from that State at the
outbreak of the rebellion, but the condition of his health prevented him
from taking any command that required absence from home. However, he
organized and commanded for short periods several Ohio regiments.
        He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1871, but
his health broke down during the canvass, and he was compelled to abandon
the campaign. He, with the Rev. Dr. Charles Beatty, were the largest
contributors to the erection of the Second Presbyterian church, at
Steubenville, Ohio, of which he was a trustee. He died December 8, 1877,
and was buried at Steubenville.
        3. John James McCook, born at Canonsburg, Pa., December 28, 1823,
was educated at the United States Naval Academy. While serving as
midshipman of the United States frigate "Delaware" off the coast of South
America he was taken ill with a fever following long-continued exposure
while on duty. He died March 30, 1842, and was buried in the English
burying-grounds at Rio Janeiro. Admiral Farragut in his autobiography pays
a high tribute to the personal character and ability of Midshipman McCook.

         -additional children continued in part 5


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