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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 178 Today's Topics: #1 COLUMBIANA COUNTY PART 6 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 HON. DANIEL W. CRIST - COLUMBIANA [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #3 BENJAMIN NEWCOMER - COLUMBIANA COU [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 08:19:58, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: COLUMBIANA COUNTY PART 6 HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 THE VALLANDIGHAM CAMPAIGN A vivid and interesting sketch of Vallandigham and the celebrated campaign of 1863 was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer a few years since. It consisted of personal reminiscences from the pen of the veteran Ohio journalist, W. W. Armstrong, who was Secretary of State for Ohio from 1863 to 1865. It has a peculiar interest from being from a fellow-townsman and a personal and political friend of Mr. Vallandigham, though not in sympathy with his extreme views. After the adjournment of Congress in March, 1863, and while I was Secretary of State, Vallandigham came to Columbus. He visited my office and there informed me that he was candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor. As I was originally from his home county, and our families had been friends, he counted upon my support for the position. I said to him very frankly: "Colonel, this is not your time to run for Governor. I think Hugh J. Jewett ought to be nominated." As usual, he gritted his teeth and said he was astonished that I of all other men in the State, should be opposed to his nomination. I replied that Jewett, by party usage, was entitled to a renomination if he would take it; that his candidacy in 1861 had been judiciously managed; that his speeches and letters had been patriotic and conservative, and that, being a "war" Democrat, or not so radical as he (Vallandigham), that he would poll a greater vote, and with the then dissatisfaction existing with the State administration he could be elected; but he had made up his mind to be a candidate and could not be swerved from his purpose........ THE CONVENTION -The conservative Democrats of Ohio did not desire to nominate Vallandigham for Governor, but his arrest, trial by Military Commission and his banishment excited every radical and ultra peace Democrat in the State, and they rallied in their strength at all the county conventions and captured the delegates. One radical can always be counted upon to do more work than ten moderate men. The day of the convention approached, and it soon became evident that it would be the largest ever held in the State, and would partake of the character of a mass-meeting more than of an assemblage of cool and collected delegates. The day before the convention assembled the city of Columbus was invaded by thousands of Democrats, bitter, assertive and defiant in their determination that come what would, they would defy "Order No. 38" and exercise what they claimed to be their constitutional right of free speech. Convention day came, and with it delegation after delegation with bands of music, flags flying, hickory bushes waving, from every section of the State. Great processions with men on horseback and in wagons crowded the streets, and the sidewalks were black with excited men. No hall in the city was large enough to contain one-tenth of the bold Democracy present who desired to attend the convention. It was held on the east front of the State-House, in the open air. Ex-Governor Medill, of Lancaster, Ohio -once a leading and very active Democratic politician, an old, good-looking bachelor -was chosen President of the Convention. No useless time was spent in the preliminaries. They were hurried through. The radicals soon ran away with the convention, and Medill, always a good presiding officer, could hold no check on the extravagant demonstrations in favor of the Man in Exile. A vote by counties was demanded, and under the rules the demand was sustained. The name of Hugh J. Jewett was presented before that of Vallandigham. The announcement of Jewett's name was heard with almost grim silence, and from his own county a tall delegate arose and declared that Muskingum was for Vallandigham, and asked that Jewett's name be withdrawn. The delegate who presented it declined to accede to the request. Then Vallandigham's name was mentioned. The roar and noise of that crowd in his favor could be heard for miles. The vote by counties began. Allen, Ashtabula, Auglaize, and even old Ashtabula answered "Vallandigham!" The B's followed the same way unanimously. When the Secretary reached the C's Cuyahoga county responded solidly for Jewett and her vote was most vigorously hissed. And after that, until Seneca county was reached, there was no vote for Jewett. VALLANDIGHAM NOMINATED. -The people became impatient, and it was moved and seconded by thousands that the rules be suspended and Vallandigham be nominated by acclamation. Medill put the motion, and it was carried amidst the wildest shouts, the swelling notes of the crowd reminding one of the fierce roar of the ocean in its almost turbulent moments. In a moment Vallandigham was proclaimed the unanimous nominee of the convention, and then was witnessed a scene of enthusiasm among "Val's" friends that exceeded anything ever before known in the political history of the United States. The jubilee continued for at least an hour. The next step was the NOMINATION OF GEORGE E. PUGH FOR LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. -The game little Senator did not want the nomination, but he could not resist the demand made for his acceptance, and on that night in front of the Neil House made one of the most fiery and eloquent speeches that ever fell from the lips of this ever great and ready orator. It was defiant and audacious. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. -The Democratic State Convention was held in the second week of June, and two weeks later the Republican State Convention convened. Governor Tod was confident of a renomination, but Smith, of the Cincinnati Gazette, Halstead, of the Commercial and Cowles, of the Cleveland leader, and others were afraid of his defeat were he renominated. They conspired to nominate John Brough, and, although he asserted he was not a candidate for nomination, his friends were at work secretly and efficiently. Governor Tod and his supporters were thrown entirely off guard by the loud assertions of Brough that he was not in the field for the nomination. To the surprise and the mortification of Governor Tod he was beaten for a renomination by a small majority. To do him justice, however, I may say safely that had Tod worked personally with the delegates, as he was advised to do, he would have outflanked the Brough managers. He stood upon his dignity, his right for an indorsement, and went down. The personal relations between Tod and Brough were never friendly after this convention. Governor Tod had very many weaknesses, but he was kind-hearted and generous to a fault. "My brave boy," as he styled the Ohio volunteers, never had a better friend. JOHN BROUGH. -Brough was a great popular orator. He had a sledge-hammer style about him that made him powerful. He used vigorous English, and had a directness about him which always told with the people. Like Tod, he was originally a Democrat; was at one time one of the editors and proprietors of the Cincinnati Enquirer; was Auditor of State, retiring from that office to go into the railroad business. He was not a tall man, but was very fleshy and never very cleanly in his personal appearance. He chewed enormous quantities of tobacco, did not believe in prohibitory laws, and could not be labeled as the exemplar of any particular purity. Of him some campaign poet wrote: "If all flesh is grass, as people say, Then Johnnie Brough is a load of hay." THE CAMPAIGN. -Both parties having placed their candidate in the field there opened a campaign which, for excitement, for rancor, and for bitterness will, I hope, never again be paralleled in this country. Vallandigham in exile in Canada, the command of his forces was given George E. .Pugh, while Brough led in person the Republican cohorts. Every local speaker of any note joined in the battle of words and "Order No. 38" was cussed and discussed, by night and by day, from the Ohio river to the lake and from the Pennsylvania to the Indiana line, before great assemblages of people. The great political meetings of 1840 were overshadowed in numbers by the gathering of both Democrats and Republicans in 1863. It was the saturnalia of politics. The Democratic meetings were especially notable for their size and enthusiasm. Everywhere in the State were they very largely attended, but particularly in the northwest, the Gibraltar of the Ohio Democracy, then as now, and in the famed counties of the wheat-belt region, Richland, Holmes, Crawford, et al., it was no unusual sight to see a thousand men, and sometimes half as many women, mounted on horseback, forming a cavalry cavalcade and escort body, and in each procession were wagon-loads of girls dressed in white, each one representing a State of the "Union as it was." Glee clubs were numerous and the song of "We will rally 'round the flag, Shouting Vallandigham and freedom." was as common with the Democrats as was the other song with the Republicans: "Down with the traitors, Up with the stars. Hurrah, boys, hurrah, The Union forever." INTENSE EXCITEMENT. -The excitement became so intense in many communities that all business and social relations between Democratic and Republican families were sundered. Fight and knock-downs between angered people were an every-day occurrence, and the wearing of a butternut pin or an emblem of any kind by a Democrat was like water to a mad dog before the irritated and intensely-radical Republicans. The women wore Vallandigham and Brough badges, just as their feelings were enlisted, and if there is intensity in politics or religion it is always among the sisters of the different flocks. continued in part 7 ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 08:20:07, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: HON. DANIEL W. CRIST - COLUMBIANA CO. History of Ohio, The American Historical Society, Inc., 195 Volume III, Page 297-298 HON. DANIEL W. CRIST. The distinctive service and achievement of Daniel W. Crist of Alliance consists in what he has done as an educator, as a teacher of schools and music, as a musical composer and music publisher. He has been publishing music for nearly forty years, and his business at Alliance, conducted as D.W. Crist, music publisher, is notable in size and distinctive as a house publishing largely the compositions and collections of one man, Mr. Crist. He was born at New Chambersburg in Columbiana County, Ohio, November 28, 1857, and is a representative of staunch old American pioneer stock. His paternal grandparents, Robert and Elizabeth (Stevens) Crist, moved out of Maryland, and settled near Osnaburg in Stark County, Ohio, They were Catholic, but only one of their children remained in that faith. Their son, Robert Crist, father of Daniel W. Crist, was born in Maryland, was two years of age when brought to Ohio, and after his marriage lived in West Township of Columbiana County. As a youth he taught in one of the old log schoolhouses of the community, but for the most part was engaged in farming. He died in 1898 at the age of seventy-three. He married, Mary Ruff, who was born in the same section of Columbiana County in 1832 and died in 1908. Her paternal grandfather, Anthony Ruff, came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, to Columbiana County, at an early day. Her maternal grandfather, Rudolph Bair, came from the same county to Columbiana in 1803, and served as a first commissioner of the county. One of her great-grandfathers was Michael Zehner, who was an aide in General Washington's army during the War of the Revolution, and settled in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1804. Daniel W. Crist, one of the ten children of Robert and Mary (Ruff) Crist, was reared on the homestead farm, attended country schools, and was also a student in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, where he graduated in the year 1882. As a teacher in rural schools he did fourteen years of work in Columbiana and Stark counties. He became superintendent of the Osnaburg graded school in 1880, and for three years was superintendent at New Franklin. He early attracted attention by his interests, enthusiasm and proficiency in music, and was one of the pioneer singing teachers of his day. As a young man he began composing songs and later instrumental music, and gradually his efforts were directed to broader fields. His first publication, a collection of Sunday school music of his own composition, was published under the title of Gospel Gleanings in 1886. This was so successful that it proved the cornerstone of his business as a music publisher, which has been steadily growing through the past thirty years. He is a publisher of Sunday school song books, day school song books, music folios, sheet music, band music, instruction books, and is himself the author of eighteen song books, besides some eighteen volumes of musical collections and over 200 special compositions. For many years his business as a music publisher was conducted at Moultrie, in Columbiana County, but in May, 1915, he moved his plant to Alliance. Mr. Crist' s musical compositions have reached the sale of nearly 3,000,000 copies. He was one of the organizers and has been the first and only president of the Peoples Bank of Alliance. He has served on the school board of his home city for eight years, and is one of the men first to respond to organized effort in any worthy community project. In 1901 he was elected a member of the State Legislature on the republican ticket, was reelected in 1903, and in 1905 was elected to the State Senate. In the Legislature he was especially interested in education and taxation. He was chairman of the House committee on taxation, and while in the Senate he advocated ideas and principles that subsequently became the ground work of the state tax commission of Ohio. Mr. Crist is a member of the Christian Church. In Masonry he is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite mason, and Shriner, a member of Al Koran Temple, at Cleveland. He married in 1882 Miss Mary A. Reed, of Columbiana County. They have three children: Myrtie M., wife of Charles G. Miller; James R., connected with the manufacturing industry at Canton and Dillon, a prominent business man of Alliance. ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 08:26:27, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: BENJAMIN NEWCOMER - COLUMBIANA COUNTY BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL RECORD OF JAY AND BLACKFORD COUNTIES, INDIANA The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887 Page 575 BENJAMIN NEWCOMER, of Bear Creek Township, has been a resident of Jay County since 1849. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, April 23, 1824, son of Abram Newcomer, a native of Harrison County, Pennsylvania, and Catherine (Wolf) Newcomer, a native of Virginia. They were married in Columbiana County, and reared eleven children; two died in infancy. The father died in Hancock County, Ohio, at the age of eighty-three years, and the mother in the same county, aged eighty-three years. Benjamin's early life was spent in working on the farm, and later, occupied his time in clearing land. In 1843 he removed to Hancock County, Ohio, and before he arrived in Jay County he had cleared 290 acres of timber land. He was without means when he came to this county, but he had a strong arm and a brave heart. In 1851 he bought forty acres of wild land. He has since added to his original purchase, until he now owns 350 acres of as good land as can be found in Jay County. February 2, 1853, he was married to Miss Mary Hoffner, born in Clarke County, Ohio, September 8, 1832, daughter of Henry and Margaret (Sours) Hoffner. Mr. Newcomer has resided on his present farm since 1853. He has a good residence, a commodious barn and other farm buildings. Mr. and Mrs. Newcomer have six children -William Perry, Aquilla C., Cevilla H., Ceno C., Hosea L., and Winfield Seymour; three died when young. Mr. Newcomer is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Christian church. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #178 *******************************************