CLERMONT COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: CLERMONT COUNTY [Part 4] (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        BETHEL, on the line of the C.G. & P.R.R. and Ohio turnpike, in a
fine country. It has 2 Methodist, 1 Christian, and 1 Baptist church, and in
1880, 582 inhabitants. The place was settled in 1797 by Obed Denham, a
Virginian, on account of his abhorrence of slavery.
        A WITCH STORY. - In the early settlement a family by the name of
Hildebrand accused one of their neighbors, Nancy Evans, of being a witch.
Although the statues of Ohio made no provisions for cases of this kind,
they persuaded a justice of the peace to take the matter in hand. A
tradition prevailed that if a witch was weighted against the Bible she
would be compelled to tip the beam. A rude scale was made, and in the
presence of the neighbors, with the Bible at one end and Nancy Evans at the
other, she was thus adjured: "Nancy Evans, thou art weighted against the
Bible to try thee against witchcraftry and diabolical practices." This
being done in the name of the law, and with a profound respect for the word
of God, had a solemn and conclusive effect. Nancy was of course too heavy
for the Bible; an excellent woman, who willingly submitted to this novel
process to bring peace of mind to her ignorant, deluded neighbors, whom she
pitied.
        Bethel is noted for the number of prominent characters who have
dwelt there. Samuel Medary, from Pennsylvania, came to Bethel almost
destitute; with twenty-five cents capital opened a school, and in 1828
started a newspaper, the Ohio Sun, now the Clermont County Sun, at Batavia.
Medary was no printer, but he edited it, delivered it personally to the
subscribers, and taught school at the same time. He eventually moved to
Columbus, and as editor of the Statesman and Crisis, became the most
influential editor of the Democratic party in the State. Late in life he
was territorial governor of Kansas and Nebraska. He was genial, possessed
business tact and force of character. Prof. David Swing, D.D., the eminent
divine, was born near the village. Two eminent Methodist divines are
identified with the history of the county: Rev. Dr. Randolph Swing Foster,
who was born here, and Rev. Stephen M. Merrill, who passed his youth here.
The noted Gen. Thomas L. Hamer, in 1818, came to Bethel
a poor, friendless boy, and found a home in the family of Thomas Morris,
with whom he studied law.
        Jesse R. Grant, the father of Gen. Grant, bought a home at Bethel
about 1845, where he lived ten or twelve years. While he was there the
general at that time just from the Academy at West Point, and later from
the Mexican campaign, visited his father, and passed a number of months in
the quiet village. The general's father carried on a tannery, and in 1852,
was elected mayor. Hid duties were partly magisterial, and one of his first
was to try some of the village roughs for fighting, on which occasion he
used the finishing-room of his tannery for a court-room. The place was
crowded, and the better to see some of the small boys mounted a pile of
hides. The pile was totlish, and the leather slid, and one urchin landed
precipitately into a tub of Father Grant's oil, which afforded as much
diversion as the fight itself.
        In the village graveyard at Bethel is the grave of Thomas Morris; a
marble monument with the annexed inscriptions marks the spot. Said Salmon
P. Chase: "Senator Morris first led me to see the character of the slave
power as an aristocracy, and the need of an earnest organization to
counteract its pretensions. He was far beyond the time in which he lived."
In 1637, Thomas Morris, the first representative of the family, a name
prominent in English history and patriotism, settled in Massachusetts,
Isaac, the father of Thomas Morris, was born in Berks county, Pa., in 1740,
and his mother, Ruth Henton, in 1750, being the daughter of a Virginia
planter. Nine sons and three daughters were born to them. Thomas, John, and
Benjamin came to Ohio, finally settling in Clermont County. Thomas was the
fifth child, and was born January 3, 1776; soon after his birth his parents
moved to Western Virginia, and settled near Clarksburg. The father was a
faithful minister of the Baptist church, p
reaching without failing in a single appointment for over sixty years,
never taking a dose of medicine. He died in 1830, aged ninety-one. The
mother of Thomas Morris refused her inheritance of four slaves.

        At sixteen Thomas Morris shouldered his musket to repel the
aggressions of the Indians, serving several months in Capt. Levi Morgan's
rangers, stationed near Marietta. At nineteen he was employed as a clerk in
the store, at Columbia, of the then famous Baptist minister, Rev. John
Smith. November 19, 1797, he married Rachel Davis, daughter of Benjamin
Davis, from Lancaster, Pa. In 1800 Thomas Morris and his wife removed from
Columbia to Williamsburgh, where, in 1802, he commenced the study of law,
without friends, pecuniary means, or a preceptor, with a growing family and
but few books. After the hard labors of the day he studied at night by the
light of hickory bark or from a brick-kiln which he was burning for the
support of his family. With resolute purpose and iron will he succeeded in
overcoming these formidable difficulties, and in two years was admitted to
the bar. In 1804 he removed with his family to Bethel, and in 1806 was
elected a representative from Clermont.
        In the Legislature his abilities soon placed him among the most
distinguished men of the State. He labored for the equal right of all, and
to conform the civil government to the principles of justice and Christian
morality. He opposed chartered monopolies, class legislation, and traffic
in spirituous liquors, believing in a prohibitory high license. He was a
warm friend of the common schools, labored earnestly for the extinction of
the law of imprisonment for debt, and advocated the doctrine of making all
offices elective. In 1828 he introduced a bill to allow juries before
justices of the peace, and one the next year that judges should not charge
juries on matters of fact. In 1812 he obtained the passage of a bill
allowing the head of a family to hold twelve sheep exempt from execution
for debt. In 1828 he endeavored to obtain a law taxing all chartered
institutions and manufactories and exempting dwellings. He foresaw the
great future of Ohio, although he alone of the public men opposed the canal
system, for he deemed it impracticable, and prophesied that in twenty years
Ohio would be covered with a network of railroads and canals superseded.
        At incident will illustrate the wonderful progress since that time.
When the Legislature adjourned in March, 1827, the mud roads were about
impassable and streams overflowing their banks. But Mr. Morris determined
to overcome all obstacles, and with Col. Robert T. Lytle embarked in a
canoe or "dug-Out" with their baggage, and after a passage of some hundred
miles down the Scioto from Columbus in this frail craft reached Portsmouth,
where they took a steamboat, reaching home after a perilous journey of four
days. This transit now by rail takes less than four hours.
        Thomas Morris was elected Senator in 1813, 1821, 1825, 1827, and
1831, and while occupying this position for the fifth time was elected
United States Senator for the term of six years from March 4, 1833, having
as colleagues from Ohio Thomas Ewing (four years) and William Allen (two
years). On the opening of the United States Senatorial session in December,
1833, Mr. Morris became actively identified with the anti-slavery movements
against the aggressions of the slave power.
        To him were addressed the memorials and petitions from all parts of
the land, and in spite of the frowns and entreaties of his own party, he
would introduce them all, although on all other subjects he was in full
accord with it. In Thomas Morris the apostles of human freedom found their
first champion. The Congress of 1837-38 saw a deep and agitated discussion
of this question, and Mr. Morris replied to the arguments of John C.
Calhoun, in an able and elaborate speech, which attracted the attention of
the whole country by its bold and truthful utterances.
        February 7, 1839, Henry Clay made a great speech, to counteract and
arrest the public agitation of slavery; and two days after Thomas Morris
replied to it, in the mightiest and crowning effort of his life, concluding
with these prophetic words (golden in the light of subsequent events):
"Though our national sins are many and grievous, yet repentance, like that
of ancient Nineveh, may yet divert from us that impending danger which
seems to hang over our heads as by a single hair. That all may be safe, I
concluded that the negro will yet be free."
        This noble speech startled the Senate, produced a marked sensation
throughout the country, and electrified the warm hearts of humanity the
world over. John G. Whittier, the poet, then a young editor said: "Thomas
Morris stands confessed the lion of the day."
        Thomas Morris was fair in advance of his time, and in less than a
month after the delivery of his great startling speech he left the Senate
and public life, a political exile, his party having refused to re-elect
him to the Senate. Mr. Morris soon became identified with the "Liberty
Party," and in 1844 was its candidate for Vice-President. He died suddenly,
December 7, 1844, aged sixty-nine years, with his intellectual powers
unimpaired by age, his physical system in vigorous activity, and his heart
still warm in the cause of freedom.


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