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OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                    Volume 99 : Issue 429

Today's Topics:
  #1 HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 30            [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]

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X-Message: #1
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 00:54:25, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 30


HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                        HAMILTON COUNTY - part 30

        PLEASANT RURAL SCENES. - The winter of 1791-2 was followed by an
early and delightful spring; indeed, I have often thought that our first
western winters were much milder, our springs earlier, and our autumns
longer than they now are. On the last of February some of the trees were
putting forth their foliage; in March the red bud, the hawthorn and the
dog-wood, in full bloom, checkered the hills, displaying their beautiful
colors of rose and lily; and in April the ground was covered with May
apple, bloodroot, ginseng, violets, and a great variety of herbs and
flowers. Flocks of parroquets were seen, decked in their rich plumage of
green and gold. Birds of various species, and of every hue, were flitting
from tree to tree, and the beautiful redbird, and the untaught songster of
the west, made the woods vocal with their melody. Now might be heard the
plaintive wail of the dove, and the rumbling drum of the partridge, or the
loud gobble of the turkey. Here might be seen the clumsy bear, doggedly
moving off, or urged by pursuit into a laboring gallop, retreating to his
citadel in the top of some lofty tree; or, approached suddenly, raising
himself erect in the attitude of defence, facing his enemy and waiting his
approach; there the timid deer, watchfully resting, or cautiously feeding,
or, aroused from his thicket, gracefully bounding off, then stopping,
erecting his stately head and for a moment gazing around, or sniffing the
air to ascertain his enemy, instantly springing off, clearing logs and
bushes at a bound, and soon distancing his pursuers. It seemed an earthly
paradise; and but for apprehension of the wily copperhead, who lay silently
coiled among the leaves, or beneath the plants, waiting to strike his
victim; the horrid rattle-snake, who more chivalrous, however, with head
erect amidst its ample folds, prepared to dart upon his foe, generously
with the loud noise of his rattle, apprised him of danger; and the still
more fearful and insidious savage, who, crawling upon the ground, or
noiselessly approaching behind trees and thickets, sped the deadly shaft of
fatal bullet, you might have fancied you were in the confines of Eden or
the borders of Elysium.
        TURKEY BOTTOM. - At this delightful season, the inhabitants of our
village went forth to their labor inclosing the fields, which the spring
flood had opened, tilling their ground and planting their corn for their
next years sustenance. I said, went forth for their principal corn-field
was distant from Columbia about one and a half miles east, and adjoining
the extensive plain on which the town stood. That large tract of alluvial
ground, still known by the name of Turkey Bottom, and which, lying about
fifteen feet below the adjoining plain, and annually overflowed, is yet
very fertile, was laid off into lots of five acres each, and owned by the
inhabitants of Columbia; some possessing one, and others two or more lots;
and to save labor, was enclosed with one fence. Here the men generally
worked in companies exchanging labor, or in adjoining fields, with their
fire-arms near them, that in case of an attack they might be ready to unite
for their common defence. Here, their usual annual crop of corn from ground
very ordinarily cultivated was eighty bushels per acre; and some lots, well
tilled, produced a hundred, and in very favorable seasons, a hundred and
ten bushels to the acres. An inhabitant of New England, New Jersey, or some
portions of Maryland, would scarcely think it credible, that in hills four
feet apart, were four or five stalks, one and a half inches in diameter,
and fifteen feet in height, bearing each two or three ears of corn, of
which some were so far from the ground, that to pull them an ordinary man
was obliged to stand on tiptoe.

                                BIOGRAPHY
                        GOVERNORS OF OHIO FROM CINCINNATI
        Thirteen of the Governors of the State have been at some time
citizens of Cincinnati, one of whom only, William Dennison, was born in the
city. They were Othniel Looker, 1814; Ethan Allen Brown, 1818-1822; Salmon
P. Chase, 1856-1860; William Dennison, 1860-1862; John Brough, 1864-1865;
Charles Anderson, 1865, 1866; Jacob D. Cox, 1866-1868; Rutherford B. Hayes,
1868-1872; also 1876, 1877; Edward F. Noyes, 1872-1874; Thomas L. Young,
1887, 1888; Richard M. Bishop, 1878-1880; George M. Hoadley, 1884-1886;
Joseph B. Foraker, 1888-1890.
        We annex slight sketches of those not elsewhere noted:
        OTHNIEL LOOKER was born in New York, in 1757; was a private in the
war of the revolution and a man of humble origin and calling, and of whose
history but little is known, but, being Speaker in the Ohio Senate, by
virtue of that office became acting Governor for eight months when General
Meigs resigned to go into Mr. Madison's cabinet. He was later defeated as a
candidate for Governor against Thomas Worthington.
        ETHAN ALLEN BROWN was born in Darien, Conn., July 4, 1766; studied
law with Alexander Hamilton; settled in Cincinnati in 1804; from 1810 to
1818 was a Supreme Judge, when he was elected Governor, and began agitating
the subject of constructing canals. In 1820 was re-elected over Jeremiah
Morrow and General Wm. Henry Harrison; in 1822 was elected to the United
States Senate; from 1830 to 1834 U.S. Minister to Brazil; later
Commissioner of Public Lands; then retired to private life and died in 1852
in Indianapolis after a long and useful career.
        THOMAS L. YOUNG was born on the estate of Lord Dufferin, in North
Ireland, Dec. 14, 1832; came to this country at fifteen years of age;
served ten years as a private in the regular army, entering on the last
year of the Mexican war; in 1859 came to Cincinnati; graduated at its law
school. When the rebellion broke out was assistant superintendent of the
House of Refuge, Reform School, and on the 18th of March wrote a letter to
Gen. Winfield Scott, whom he personally knew, offering his services for the
coming war, thus becoming the first volunteer from Hamilton county. He
eventually entered the army, was commissioned colonel and for extraordinary
gallantry at Resaca was brevetted general. In 1866 he was elected to the
legislature; in 1872 served as a Senator, and in 1876 elected
Lieut.-Governor and succeeded R. B. Hayes when he became President. As
Governor of Ohio during the railroad riots he showed extraordinary pluck.
Being asked to call upon the general government for aid from the regular
troops he replied tersely; "No, not until the last man in Ohio is whipped."
He died July 19, 1888, singularly admired for his thorough manliness.
        RICHARD M. BISHOP was born in Fleming county, Kentucky in 1812, and
at the age of thirty-six came to Cincinnati, where for many years he was at
the head of a wholesale grocery house; in 1859 was elected Mayor of the
city and in respected citizen and now, in advanced life, is erect as in
youth and possesses a fine patriarchal presence, wearing a long flowing
beard, as grand we dare say as that Moses had when on Pisgah. From early
life he has been one of the most prominent men of the Disciples or
Campbellite Baptist Church, the same as that with which President Garfield
was identified.
        WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON was born at Berkley, on James river,
twenty-five miles from Richmond, Virginia, in 1773. He was the youngest of
three sons of Benjamin Harrison, who represented Virginia in Congress in
1774-1776 and was chairman of the committee of the whole house, when the
declaration of independence was agreed to, and was one of its signers. He
was elected Governor of Virginia, and was one of the most popular officers
that ever filled the executive chair. He died in 1791.
        Wm. Henry Harrison entered Hampden Sydney College, which he left at
seventeen years of age. He then began the study of medicine, but the death
of his father checked his professional aspirations; and the "note of
preparation" which was sounding through the country, for a campaign against
the Indians of the West, decided his destiny, and he resolved to enter into
the service of his government.
        His guardian, the celebrated Robert Morris opposed his wishes, but
it was in vain that he placed the enterprise before the enthusiastic youth
in all its hardships and privations. General Washington yielded to the
importunities of the youth; presented him with an ensign's commission. With
characteristic ardor he departed for Fort Washington, now Cincinnati;
where, however, he arrived too late to participate in the unfortunate
campaign of St. Clair. The fatal 4th of November had passed, and he was
only in time to learn the earliest intelligence of the death of Butler, and
of Oldham, and of the unparalleled massacre of the army of St. Clair.
        The return of the broken troops had no effect in damping the zeal
of young Harrison. He devoted himself ardently to the study of the theory
of the higher tactics; and when, in the succeeding year, Wayne assumed the
command, Ensign Harrison was elected by him for one of his aids, and
distinguished himself in Wayne's victory.
        After the treaty of Greenville, 1795, he was given command of Fort
Washington; and shortly after married the daughter of Judge Symmes, the
proprietor of the Miami purchase.
        The idleness and dissipation of a garrison life comported neither
with the taste nor active temper of Captain Harrison. He resigned his
commission, and commenced his civil career, at the age of twenty-four
years, as secretary of the Northwestern Territory. He was elected, in 1799,
the first delegate in Congress. The first and general object of his
attention as a representative was an alteration of the land system of the
Territory. He was appointed chairman of the committee on lands, and though
meeting with much opposition from speculators, secured the passage of a law
for the subdivision of public lands into smaller tracts. To this measure is
to be imputed the rapid settlement of the country northwest of the Ohio.
        The reputation acquired by the young delegate from his legislative
success created a party in his favor, who intimated a desire that he should
supersede the venerable governor of the Territory. But Mr. Harrison checked
the development of this feeling as soon as it was made known to him. He
cherished too high a veneration for the pure and patriotic St. Clair to
oppose him. Shortly after, when Indiana was erected into a separate
Territory, he was appointed by Mr. Adams the first governor. Previously,
however, to quitting Congress, he was present at the discussion of the bill
for the settlement of Judge Symmes' purchase; and although this gentleman
was his father-in-law, he took an active part in favor of those individuals
who had purchased from him before he had obtained his patent. This was the
impulse of stern duty; for at the moment he felt he was jeoparding a large
pecuniary interest of his father-in-law.

        -continued in part 31

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End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #429
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