OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 67 *********************************************************************** 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. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 67 Today's Topics: #1 Geauga County - part 3 [Gina Reasoner To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.20000219005021.0095c100@pop.prodigy.net> Subject: Geauga County - part 3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Historical Collections of Ohio By Henry Howe, LL.D. GEAUGA COUNTY - Part 3 TRAVELLING NOTES Burton is a pleasant place for a few days' rest. It has a ten-acre square with homes, churches and academy grouped around it, and on it is a band-stand where, on evenings, the village band gives excellent music. The place has had some noted characters. here lived, at the time of my original visit, two especially such, Gov. SEABURY FORD, born in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1801, and Judge PETER HITCHCOCK, born in the same place in 1781. Mr. Ford came here when a child. He was educated for the law, was long in political life, serving as speaker of both branches of the State Legislature, and was governor of the State in 1849-51, and died soon after from paralysis. he was an ardent Whig and greatly instrumental in carrying the State for Henry Clay. In 1820, with a companion, Mr. D. Witter, he travelled through an almost unbroken wilderness to New Haven, Conn., for a four years' absence to obtain an education at Yale College. They both graduated, and were the very first to do so from the young State of Ohio. While there he was elected the college "bully." This was an office for which the physically strongest man was generally chosen to preside at class meetings and to lead in fights against the "town boys," so called, the rougher elements of the city, with whom there were sometimes conflicts. On one dark night, the latter, a mob of town boys went so far as to draw up a cannon loaded to its mouth with missiles, in front of the college and applied the torch. It simply flashed, having been secretly spiked on the way thither. The office of "college bully" has long since become obsolete from the absence of low-down class of people to cherish enmity against students. Seabury Ford was one of the most efficient men known to the legislative history of the State. He gave an excellent piece of advice in a letter to his son Seabury, so characteristic of the man and so likely to be of use to some reader, that I know nothing more fitting for a close here than its quotation: "Avoid politics and public life until, by a careful and industrious attention to a legitimate and honorable calling, you have accumulated a fortune sufficiently large to entitle you to the respect and confidence of your fellow men as a business man and a man of integrity, and sufficiently large to render you thoroughly and entirely independent of any official salary." I walked about a mile from the village on the Chardon road to visit the old home of Peter Hitchcock, who has been defined as "Father of the Constitution of Ohio," so largely was his advice followed in framing it. I wished to see how this man of mark had lived, and was greatly pleased to find it was with full republican simplicity. It seemed like an old-time Connecticut farmhouse set down here in Ohio. Vines nestled over the attached kitchen building, and a huge milk can, tall as a five-year old urchin, was perched on the fence drying in the sun preparatory to being filled against to-morrow morning's visit of the man from the cheese factory. Both are shown in the engraving. Peter Hitchcock, in 1801, graduated at Yale at the age of 20, was admitted to the bar, and in 1806 moved to Ohio and took a farm here and divided his time between clearing the wilderness, teaching and the law practice. Four years later he went to the Legislature; in 1814 was speaker of the Senate; in 1817 a member of Congress; in 1819 was a Judge of the Supreme Court, and with slight intermissions held that position until 1852, part of the time being Chief Justice. He was a leading member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. In 1852, at the age of 70 years, after a public service of over forty years, like Cincinnatus, he retired to his farm and died in 1854. He is described as having been finely proportioned, erect, strong-chested, with a large head full of solid sense; his expression sedate and Puritanic. He was profound in law, his judgment almost unerring, in words few but exact to the point. He was revered by the bar and beloved by the people, and his decisions considered as models of sound logic. Unconscious of it himself, he was great as a man and a judge. The history of MORTIMER D. LEGGETT, one of Ohio's efficient generals in the rebellion, is identified with this county. he was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1821, and in 1836 came with his father's family on to a farm at Montville. He worked on the farm and studied at intervals, then went to the Teachers' Seminary at Kirtland, later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1844 but did not until six years after begin the practice, for he became deeply interested in the subject of common schools and labored arduously with Dr. A.D. Lord, Lorin Andrews and M.F. Cowdry for the establishment of Ohio's present system of public instruction. These three gentlemen, with young Leggett, stumped the entire State at their own expense in favor of free schools. Those two warm friends of education, Judge Worcester, of Norwalk, and Harvey Rice, of Cleveland, fortunately were in the legislature, and uniting their efforts in the fall of 1846, accomplished the passage of a special school law for the village of Akron, whereupon young Leggett, then but 25 years of age, went thither and organized the first system of free graded schools west of the Alleghenies, under what is known as the "Akron School law." The good Judge Worcester, whom I well knew -and who, by the way, was the brother of the scholar made the dictionary -passed away many years since. Harvey Rice I found at home in Cleveland in 1886, and although born in the last year of the last century, he was then erect, his hearing perfect, and his vision so good as to enable him to read without glasses. Moreover, he was active in instituting measures for the erection of a monument to the memory of the city's founder, now accomplished. Gen. Leggett is to-day a practising lawyer in Cleveland. His example of what a young man without experience, but enthused with a beneficent idea, can do for the public welfare, is too valuable not to have a permanent record. In Burton I made the acquaintance of an ex-soldier of the Union army, Mr. E.P. LATHAM, whose history is a wonderful example of pluck and will power. He was early in the war in the Cumberland mountains, under the command of Gen. Morgan, where, while assisting in firing a salute from a cannon, both of his arms were blown off above the elbow. Yet Mr. Latham feeds himself, drives a fast-going horse in a buggy around Burton, keeps the accounts of a cheese factory, writes letters, manages a farm, and superintends a Sabbath-school. At table his food is prepared for him, and he feeds himself with a fork or spoon strapped to his left stump, his right stump being paralyzed; he drives with the reins over his shoulder and back of his neck, guiding his horse, turning corners, etc., by movements of his body; and writes with his mouth. As he wrote the specimen annexed in my presence I describe it. 1. He placed himself at the table, and with his stump moved paper and pen to the right position. 2. Picked up the pen with his mouth and held it in his teeth, pointing to the left. 3. Dipped it in the ink. 4. Brought his face close to the table and wrote, dragging the pen across the paper from left to right. He had such control of it that by the combined use of his lips and teeth he turned the point so as to bring the slit to its proper bearing for the free flow of the ink. In the engraving it is reduced one-third in size from the original. His right stump is useless, being without sensation; he cannot feel a pin prick. It is, indeed, an inconvenience. In winter, said he, "before retiring I am obliged to heat it by the fire, otherwise it feels in bed like a clog of ice -chills me. I have not been free from pain since my loss; I don't know what it is not to suffer; but I won't allow my mind to rest upon it -what is the use? I have now lived longer without my hands than with them, yet to-day I feel all my fingers." Then he bared his left stump and showed me the varied movements necessary for picking up and grasping things in case the remainder of his arm and hand had been there. I persuaded him to give me a specimen of his handwriting, saying that he ought not to withhold the lesson of his life from the public; that it would be of untold benefit to the young people as an illustration of the principle never to despair, but to accept the inevitable and work with what was left; that these seeming disasters were often of the greatest benefit. "Yes," said he, "I know it; but for this, I might to-day be in the penitentiary." Mr. Latham is rather tall, erect, slender, with an intellectual and somewhat sad expression, the result I presume of never ceasing pain. I once met while travelling a young man, a stranger, whose every breath, was in pain, one of his lungs having when diseased become attached to his ribs; his expression was like that of Mr. Latham's. Mr. Latham has a family and enjoys life because his mind is fully occupied with pleasant duties. A French author, in writing a book entitled "The Art of Being Happy," finally summed it in three words, "An absorbing pursuit;" and this Mr. Latham has. Then he can pride himself on being original; does things differently from anybody else. A lady said to me, "I was one day walking behind Mr. Latham, when a sudden gust of wind blew off his hat; with his foot he turned it over, bent down and thrust in his head, arose and then walked away independent, as though he felt that was the proper way to put on a hat." And it was for Mr. Latham. -continued in part 4 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 19:38:12 EST From: MMacmurph@aol.com To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: Jerimiah & Anice Allender Armstrong 1909 Guernsey Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Newspaper (unknown) article TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY On the morning of April 1, 1909, the twenty fifth anniversary of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Armstrong, about 60 of their former neighbors and friends of the vicinity of Pleasant Hill and Cambridge, boarded the train at Cambridge with well-filled baskets, for their present home in New Concord, joining others from New Concord and Zanesville, and gave them a delighful surprise. A bountiful dinner was enjoyed by all present. An artist was on the ground and took a picture of the group, after which remarks were made by Rev.[O.H.] Nash [United Presbyterian Church], who had performed the marriage ceremony twenty-five years ago; by Rev. Richie, their present pastor, and others present. A letter was read from G. M. Allender, a brother of the bride, who found it impossible to be present. Music was furnished by Miss Dora Martin and the day was delightfully spent. A number of valuable presents were received. After singing the Twenty-third psalm, and prayer by Rev. Ritchie, the company dispersed, wishing them many happy returns of their wedding anniversary. Those present were Rev. Nash and wife, Rev. Ritchie and wife, and T. E. Linn and wife and son, James, H. R. Armstrong and wife and son, Arthur, J. C. Armstrong and wife and little son, Frank White and wife, Mr. and Mrs. D.E. Branden and daughter, Mary and Mrs. Mary C. Scott, Mrs. Mary E. Maxwell, Mrs. J.S. Armstrong and Mrs. W. H. Armstrong and daughter, Helen, Mrs. David Patton and Mrs. David Wilson, Mrs. C.E.Tedrick and son, Ronald, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Bonnell and two daughters, Frances and Fay, Mr. John A. Allender of Hickory, Pa., and Mrs. Lydia Allender of Fairmont, W. Va., and Miss Lenna McGrew of Lore City and Mr. Alvin Armstrong, Chicago Junction; Mrs. Margaret McConnel and Mrs. Blanche Johnson and two daughters, Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Pattison and Mr. John Cross and Mrs. Emma Kirkwood and Mrs. Iva Kirkwood and Mrs. J. E. Armstrong and Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Allender and son, Fred and daughter, Grace, Mrs. Bell Adair and Mrs. Blanche Bell, Mr. Geo. Clarkes and wife and Mr. Henry Gillespie and wife, Mrs. Henry Martin, Mrs. J.W. Martin and daughter, Dora, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Pattison, Mrs. John Jamison and Mrs. John Pattison, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Allender and children, Fay, Glen and Gertrude of Zanesville and Miss Catharine Rex of Mannington, W. Va., and Mrs. Grace McKee of New Concord. Mr. Lou Richardson of Concord. Ten of this number were at the wedding twenty-five years ago. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #67 ******************************************