OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 613 Today's Topics: #1 JASPER FREMONT MEEK - TUSCARAWAS C [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 7 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #3 HENRY BOWERS - TUSCARAWAS COUNTY [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #4 Fw: General Irvin McDowell, Frankl ["Maggie Stewart" Subject: JASPER FREMONT MEEK - TUSCARAWAS COUNTY Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society Inc., 1925 Volume V, page 247-248 with photo JASPER FREMONT MEEK. A few years ago in a description of Coshocton's business resources, in a list of a score or more plants, factories and productive industries, the largest single group was that represented by the Novelty Advertising Works, which numbered half a dozen and gave a distinctive character to the city's business. This business, which in the aggregate involves an immense amount of capital and affords employment to hundreds of the city's population had its beginning in a very modest and humble way, in the original mind of the late Jasper Fremont Meek. A brief sketch of his career, with some notice of his family connections, has an appropriate place in the History of Ohio. He was born on a farm in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, July 20, 1856, son of Sylvester and Lucretia (Davis) Meek, grandson of Daniel Hitt Meek, great-grandson of Isaac J. Meek and great-great-grandson of Isaac S. Meek, whose father, Guy Meek, a native of England, came with his brother Samuel Meek, to America in Colonial times and settled in Virginia. Isaac J. Meek became a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and the military record of the family through all the generations is impressive. Isaac S. Meek was born in Virginia and became a pioneer on the western border of the state, along the Ohio River. His son, Isaac J. Meek, was born in Ohio County, West Virginia, near the present City of Wheeling, and his name appears in western history as second in command under Colonel Broadhead, when Broadhead made his treaty with the Indians within the borders of what is now Coshocton County. It was Daniel Hitt Meek who founded the family in Ohio, locating in Tuscarawas, where he spent the rest of his years. His son, Sylvester Meek, was a native of Tuscarawas County, and at the time of the Civil war became a Union soldier in the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was with Sherman on the march to the sea, and in one of the last battles of the great war was killed on the field. He married Lucretia Davis, a native of Tuscarawas County, who survived him with their four children, of whom Jasper Fremont Meek was the oldest. Due to the death of his father on a battlefield in the Civil war Jasper Fremont Meek as a boy had to assume heavy responsibilities in assisting his mother and the three younger children. When he was only fifteen years of age he had made himself so proficient in telegraphy as to be appointed a telegraph operator in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He continued that occupation for several years, but in 1875, at the age of nineteen, came to Coshocton, where he bought a small newspaper. While in the newspaper business he formulated some of the plans that proved the foundation of the advertising novelty industry. His experience as a printer and publisher was an indispensable asset in this new business. In 1886 he started to manufacture under the name of the Tuscarora Advertising Company some school-book bags and horse blankets, acquiring the printed means, and of course had to establish his product's popularity and sale. His efforts to secure the cooperation and financial interest of others in the enterprise were unavailing. For several years he struggled along under difficult circumstances. His supermanagement and determination to succeed brought him in time a fairly successful business. In 1900 he consolidated with the Standard Advertising Company, owned by Mr. H.D. Beach, and the firm became The Meek and Beach Company, but two years later Mr. Meek bought out his partner and then established the Meek Company. In 1905 he sold this business, on account of ill health, to what is now the American Art Works, the largest advertising novelty company in the world. About forty-five years ago the industry was stared with the manufacture of school-book bags made from gunny cloth. To this experimental line was soon added another article, a horse cover made from gunny cloth, and likewise carrying advertisements. Other articles were subsequently added. From 1905 for eleven years Mr. Meek was not connected with the business, but in 1916 he established the J.F. Meek Company, manufacturers of calendars, a business he continued under his direct management until his death on November 25, 1918. The business is continued as part of his estate, its active manager today being his son, Daniel C. Meek. The late Mr. Meek had very little schooling when a boy. However, he loved books and studies and intellectual pursuits and all his life he was making up for the lack of his early advantages by reading and contact with literature and practical affairs. He accumulated what many have been called the most complete private library in Ohio, made up of books of history, biography, economics, philosophy and the classics in literature. He was a pioneer in the prohibition movement in Ohio. He lectured on that cause, and was on the lecture platform frequently on other more general subjects, particularly pertaining to the philosophic and economic phases of life and affairs. He was a Methodist and a Master mason. Jasper F. Meek married din 1878 Miss Ella Bosley, a native of Tuscarawas County. She died, leaving one son, Guy Sylvester Meek, who is now proprietor of the Guy S. Meek Company, advertising novelties at Coshocton. In 1885 Jasper Fremont Meek married Emma Coe, a native of Coshocton County. She continues to reside in Coshocton. She is the mother of three children, Daniel Coe, Sarah and Mary Meek. Daniel Coe Meek, son of the late Jasper Fremont Meek, was born at Coshocton, May 24, 1889. Unlike his father, he had the advantages of some of the best schools and colleges in the country. He finished his college education in the University of Michigan, graduating with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912 and receiving the Master of Arts degree in 1913. He then became associated with his father's business, and for the past five years has been the active manager of the J.F. Meek Company, Calendar Manufacturers. He also has a record as an ex-service man, having enlisted in May, 1918, in the Tank Corps, and was in training at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was mustered out with the rank of first sergeant, December 25, 1918. He belongs to the American Legion Post and is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. Daniel C. Meek married in 1917 Marie Frederick, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Frederick, of Coshocton. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 14:34:59, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199908131834.OAA11914@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 7 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 7 THE FORT BESIEGED. -The published statements of this affair say that the Indians enticed the men out in search of horses, by taking off their bells and tinkling them; but it is certain that no horses were left at the fort, as they must either starve or be stolen by the Indians; so that Mr. Jolly's version of the incident must be correct. During the siege, which continued until the last of February, the garrison were very short of provisions. The Indians suspected this to be the fact, but were also nearly starving themselves. In this predicament they proposed to the garrison that if they would give them a barrel of flour and some meat they would raise the siege, concluding if they had not this quantity they must surrender at discretion soon, and if they had they would not part with it. In this, however, they missed their object. The brave Col. Gibson turned out the flour and meat promptly, and told them he could spare it very well, as he had plenty more. The Indians soon after raised the siege. a runner was sent to Fort McIntosh with a statement of their distress, and requesting reinforcements and provisions immediately. The inhabitants south of the Ohio volunteered their aid, and Gen. McIntosh headed the escort of provisions, which reached the fort in safety, but was near being all lost from the dispersion of the pack-horses in the woods near the fort, from a fright occasioned by feu de joie fired by the garrison, at the relief. The fort was finally evacuated in August, 1779, it being found untenable at such a distance from the frontiers; and Henry Jolly was one of the last men who left it, holding at that time in the continental service the commission of ensign. Recent investigations by Consul Willshire Butterfield, embodied in his "History of Ohio" from information derived from the Haldiman collection of manuscripts in the British Museum, give a somewhat different version from the foregoing accounts of both the attack on Capt. Clark's detachment and the siege of Fort Laurens. The attack on Capt. Clark's men was made by seventeen Indians, mostly Mingoes, led by Simon Girty. Butterfied says: "The particulars were these: -On the twenty-first of the month Capt. John Clark, of 8th Pennsylvania regiment, commanding an escort having supplies for Gibson, reached Fort Laurens. On his return, the captain, with a sergeant and fourteen men, when only about three miles distant from the fort, was attacked by the force just mentioned. The Americans suffered a loss of two killed, four wounded and one taken prisoner. The remainder, including Capt. Clark, fought their way back to the fort. Letters written by the commander of the post and others, containing valuable information, were captured by "Girty." (These letters now form a part of the Haldimand Collection.) "From the vicinity of Fort Laurens, after his successful ambuscading, the detachment of Capt. Clark, the renegade Girty hastened with his prisoner and captured correspondence with his prisoner and captured correspondence to Detroit, which place he reached early in February. He reported to Capt. Lernoult that the Wyandots upon the Sandusky (and other Indians) were ready and willing to attack, the fort commanded by Col. Gibson, and that he had come for ammunition. He earnestly insisted on an English captain being sent with the savages 'to see how they would behave.'" "By the middle of February provisions began to grow scarce with Gibson. He sent word to McIntosh, informing him of the state of affairs, concluding with these brave words: 'You may depend on my defending the fort to the last extremity.' On the 23d he sent out a wagoner from the fort for the horses belonging to the post, to draw wood. With the wagoner went a guard of eighteen men. The party was fired upon by lurking savages and all killed and scalped in sight of the fort, except two, who were made prisoners. The post was immediately invested after this ambuscade by nearly two hundred Indians, mostly Wyandots and Mingoes. "This movement against Fort Laurens, although purely a scheme of the Indians in its inception, was urged on, as we have seen, by Simon Girty; and Capt. Henry Bird was sent forward from Detroit to Upper Sandusky with a few volunteers to promote the undertaking. Capt. Lernoult, in order to encourage the enterprise, furnished the savages with a 'large supply of ammunition and clothing, also presents to the chief warriors'" "The plan of the Indians was to strike the fort and drive off or destroy the cattle, and if any of the main army under McIntosh attempted to go to the assistance, of the garrison, to attack them in the night and distress them as much as possible. By stratagem the Indians made their force so appear that 847 savages were counted from one of the bastions of the fort. The siege was continued until the garrisons was reduced to the verge of starvation, a quarter of a pound of sour flour and an equal weight of spoiled meat constituting a daily ration. The assailants, however, were finally compelled to return home, as their supplies had also become exhausted. Before the enemy left, a soldier managed to steal through the lines, reaching Gen. McIntosh on the 3d of March, with a message from Gibson informing him of his critical situation." NEW PHILADELPHIA IN 1846. -New Philadelphia, the county-seat, is 100 miles northeasterly from Columbus. It is on the east bank of the Tuscarawas, on a large, level, and beautiful plain. It was laid out in 1804 by John Knisely, and additions subsequently made. The town has improved much within the last few years, and is now flourishing. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Disciples church, 5 mercantile stores, 2 printing offices, 1 oil and 1 grist mill, 1 woollen factory, and a population estimated at over 1,000. -Old Edition. In the late war, some Indians under confinement in jail in this town, were saved from being murdered by the intrepidity of two or three individuals. The circumstances are derived from two communications, one of which is from a gentleman then present. A DARING LEADER. -About the time of Hull's surrender, several persons were murdered on the Mohiccan, near Mansfield, which created great alarm and excitement. Shortly after this event, three Indians, said to be unfriendly, had arrived at Goshen. The knowledge of this circumstance created much alarm, and an independent company of cavalry, of whom Alexander M'Connel was captain, was solicited by the citizens to pursue and take them. Some half a dozen with their captain, turned out for that purpose. Where daring courage was required to achieve any hostile movement, no man was more suitable than Alexander M'Connel. The Indians were traced to a small island near Goshen. M'Connel plunged his horse into the river and crossed at the same time ordering his men to follow, but none chose to obey him. He dismounted, hitched his horse, and with a pistol in each hand commenced searching for them. He had gone but a few steps into the interior of the island when he discovered one of them, with his rifle, lying at full length behind a log. He presented his pistol -the Indian jumped to his feet, but M'Connel disarmed him. He also took the others, seized their arms and drove them before him. On reaching his company, one of his men hinted that they should be put to death. "Not until they have had a trial according to law," said the captain; then ordering his company to wheel, they conducted the prisoners to the county jail. A BRAVE JUDGE. -The murder which had been perpetrated on the Mohiccan had aroused the feelings of the white settlers in that neighborhood almost to frenzy. No sooner did the report reach them that some strange Indians had been arrested and confined in the New Philadelphia jail, than a company of about forty men was organized at or near Wooster, armed with rifles, under the command of a Captain Mullen, and marched for New Philadelphia to despatch these Indians. When within about a mile of the town, coming from the west, John C. Wright, then a practicing lawyer at Steubenville (later Judge), rode into the place from the east on business. He has hailed by Henry Laffer, Esq., a that time sheriff of the county, told that the Indian prisoners were in his custody; the advancing company of men was pointed out to him, their object stated, and the inquiry made. "What is to be done?" "The prisoners must be saved, sir," replied Wright; "why don't you beat an alarm and call out the citizens?" To this he replied, "Our people are much exasperated, and the fear is that if they are called out they will side with the company, whose object is to take their lives." "Is there no one who will stand by you to prevent so dastardly a murder?" rejoined Wright, "None but M'Connel, who captured them." "Have you any arms?" "None, but an old broadsword and a pistol." "Well," replied W., "go call M'Connel, get your weapons, and come up to the tavern; I'll put away my horse and make a third man to defend the prisoners; we must not have so disgraceful a murder committed here." -continued in part 8 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 14:34:49, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199908131834.OAA05474@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: HENRY BOWERS - TUSCARAWAS COUNTY Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925 Volume V, page 385 HENRY BOWERS. During a period of more than thirty-six years Henry Bowers has been one of the leading members of the Tuscarawas County bar, and at present is the senior member of the well known and formidable legal combination of Bowers & Bowers, with offices at New Philadelphia. Mr. Bowers has applied his entire career to the demands of his profession, having let no outside interest interfere with his advancement therein, and today is accounted one of the thoroughly informed, reliable and able members of the bar, esteemed alike by his clientele and his fellow practitioners. Mr. Bowers was born on a farm in Tuscarawas County, March 12, 1858, a son of Samuel and Martha (Dillon) Bowers. The name Bowers is of German origin, and was originally spelled Bauer. The great-grandfather of Henry Bowers was Jacob Bowers, who accompanied his son, Joseph Bowers, the grandfather of Henry, from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, to Wayne County, Ohio, at an early date in the history of that county. The mother of Henry Bowers was born in Trumbull County County, a daughter of Aaron Dillon, a native of Scotland, who had come to America with his father and lived for a time in New Jersey, whence he came, a married man, to Ohio and settled in Trumbull County, thence moving to Tuscarawas County. Aaron Dillon was an officer in the American Revolutionary war, and was a millwright by trade, but lived on a farm in Tuscarawas County, where his death occurred, burial being made at Dundee. He was a member of the Christian Church. He was a staunch whig in politics, and his sons became republicans. They moved to Kansas, where they became prominent citizens. One son, A.I. Dillon, was an officer in the Union Army during the Civil war, and met a soldier's death on the bloody battlefield of Cedar Creek. Samuel Bowers, the father of Henry Bowers, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and was six years of age when taken by his parents to Wayne County, Ohio, later moving to Tuscarawas County, where he met and married Martha Dillon, and they settled down to housekeeping on a farm. They became the parents of five sons and two daughters. In 1878, with all their children save Henry, they moved to Kansas, settling in Doniphan County, where a year later the mother died, the father surviving her another year. They were members of the Christian Church, in the faith of which the mother had been reared, although the father had been reared a Mennonite, his father having been a preacher of that denomination. Henry Bowers was reared on a farm in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and receive his education in the public schools and at the Ohio Northern University at Ada. He followed the family to Kansas, where he taught school for one year, but returned to Ohio and resumed his teaching activities, being an educator all told for a period of six years. Mr. Bowers then began the study of law in the office of J.T. O'Donald, an eminent lawyer at New Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in 1888, since which time he has been engaged in practice at New Philadelphia. He has built up a large and representative clientele, his practice carrying him into all the courts, and of late years has had as his associate one of his sons, Russell C., under the firm style of Bowers & Bowers, with offices in the Alexander Building. In politics Mr. Bowers is a staunch republican, and takes a good citizen's interest in matters of political importance and moment. In religious faith he is a Lutheran, and his fraternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is greatly popular. In 1878 mr. Bowers and Miss Elizabeth Bair were united in marriage. Mrs. Bowers was born in Tuscarawas County, a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Sliffe) Bair, the Bair's being of French origin and the Sliffe's of German. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bowers: Roy S., a minister of the Lutheran faith; Charles R., likewise a Lutheran minister; Jessie, the wife of Rev. Russell B. McGiffin, of the same ministry; Leah, the wife of Carl F. Ludwig, of Orrville, Ohio; and Russell C., a former prosecuting attorney of Tuscarawas County, who is now the junior member with his father in the firm of Bowers & Bowers. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #4 Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 16:16:01 -0400 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <003501bee5c8$aa9ba6e0$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: General Irvin McDowell, Franklin County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: LeaAnn To: Maggie Stewart Sent: Friday, August 13, 1999 4:25 AM Subject: General Irvin McDowell In Franklinton is now standing the birthplace of Gen. Irvin McDowell, who in the period of the war of the rebellion, as Whitelaw Reid says, "was one of the best military scholars of the army and one of the most successful of its officers. ...His place in the sure judgement of coming times is secure. He will not be reckoned brilliant or great; but his ability and devotion will be recognized. His manifold misfortunes, the amiability with which he encountered personal reverses, the fortitude with which he endured calamity will be recounted. Men will do justice to the services he rendered us in our darkest hours, and he will leave an enduring and honorable fame." Irvin McDowell was of Scotch-Irish descent, and the branch from wence he sprang were early immigrants to Kentucky. He was born in 1818, was educated at West Point, served in the Mexican war, and died in San Fransisco in 1885, having been retired in 1882 from the army and the position of major-general, in command of the Division of the Pacific. The great misfortune of his career was, that it fell to his lot to command the Union troops at the first great battle of the war, that of Bull Run, and he was made the scapegoat of that mortifying disaster. Of his generalship there Mr Reid says, " His plan was excellent, and though there were innumerable faults of execution, they arose more because of the materials with which he had to work than from his own inexperience or lack of judgement. After all the display of ability which the war has called out, we would be puzzled today if called upon to name any officer who, if then put in McDowell's pplace would have done better. We may doubt, indeed, if there are any who would have done so well. The long and full narrative of his career, as given by Mr Reid, is a pitiful tale of cruel wrong against a high-minded and patriotic soldieer made the victim of calumny. It is one of the peculiarities of war that while it often develops the most noble and heroic qualities of patriotism and self-sacrifice the diabolical and atrocious has its fullest scope. No "jealousies," wrote the late Colonel Charles Whittlesey, "are equal to those between military men," and history records innumerable instances of multitudes slain through the exercise of this passion against a brother officer. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #613 *******************************************