PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES

John Amen

was born April 9, 1799, in Botetourt County, Virginia. He was the oldest son of Daniel and Katherine (Heistand) Amen. He, with his parents, came to Ohio about the year 1808. They traveled in a four-horse wagon. They settled in Highland County, near Fast Monroe. They lived there a few years when his father bought some land a mile south of Sinking Springs in Adams County, and built the stone house that still stands there, and removed to it in about 1812. There the boy, John, lived until he was grown. He attended district school in winter time. His was a

rather hard and uneventful life. When twelve years of age, he drove a team of four horses and sometimes oxen, hauling pig iron from Marble furnace to the Rapids Forge, a foundry owned by John Benner, near Bainbridge, a distance of twenty miles, starting at four o'clock in the morning and returning the same day or night. His life was all work, no lay. When twenty-one years old, he left home to work in the store of his brother-in-law, David Johnson, at Georgetown, for the sum of four dollars a month and his board. He saved his earnings and when twenty-four years old, he married Melinda Craighead, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer living two miles from Georgetown. Mr. Craighead was a Kentuckian with aristocratic notions. He thought the young clerk was no match for his daughter, but the young people were their married, making the trip to the minister's, both riding horseback on one horse. Soon after marriage, they went to the old stone house, making their home with rents his parents for several months, until a cabin was built for them on a farm owned by Daniel Amen, two miles north of Sinking Springs, where they lived and worked about six years, when, on account of failing health, he and family came to Sinking Springs, where he engaged in business for more than thirty years, enjoying the quiet village life. He was a great reader. Though very economical, he did not stint himself or family in reading matter. In politics, he felt a great interest, but had no desire for office. He was an Abolitionist when it was dangerous to own being a friend to the slave people. His house was a station on the underground railroad from which no slave was ever caught. He was fearless when he knew he was right. On one occasion, a family of seven slaves were brought into the community. A large reward was offered, and the pursuers or slave catchers were close behind them. Fearing to trust his son or any young person to carry them on, he had two fiery horses hitched to a covered wagon, and although he was a small man, and alone, drove away

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just after dark, loaded the family in the wagon and hurriedly drove them to Marshall, eight miles north, when another party took charge of them. He used a to boast he had helped more slaves to liberty than any one near, and that he never had one captured in his charge. He member of the Presbyterian Church and held the office of deacon for sixty years. In the year 1865, his wife died. After her death, he sold his old home and went to reside with his three married daughters, all of whom lived in Portsmouth, Ohio. He had one son, Daniel, who died when thirty years of age, leaving two sons. The oldest, Harlan P. Amen, is president of Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, and the younger son, J. J. Amen, is a prosperous business man in Missouri Valley, Iowa.

The last four years of John Amen's life were spent at South Salem, Ohio, at the home of his eldest daughter, Mrs. E. McColm, who had removed from Portsmouth. He died at the age of eighty-eight, on December 27, 1887. Unto the last week of his life, he read the dail papers with all the interest of a young person. His last vote was for Governor Foraker. The fall before he died, he was taken to the election by a granddaughter. He was proud he had helped to elect the Highland County boy for Governor. His daughters are all living, Mrs. McColm in Norfolk, Nebraska; Mrs. P. J. Reed, in Cody, Neb., and Mrs. C. Gillilan at Sinking Springs, Highland County, Ohio.

James Anderson.

Of all the men who have lived in Adams County, none has enjoyed this life more or made it more pleasing to those around him than the subject of this sketch. James Anderson may have had fits of bad temper but the writer never saw him in one or ever heard of him having one. He was always brimful and running over with good humor. He always persisted in looking at the bright and cheerful side of things and was always ready to laugh and to make those about him laugh. Trouble rolled away from him like water rolls away from a duck's feathers. The writer never knew him until he was between fifty and sixty years of age and the foregoing describes him then. His acquaintance from twenty five to fifty would have been precious and valuable. He was a man to drive away despondency and to lift the world up. He had the keenest sense of humor of any man of his time in the county and yet he met and performed all the serious duties of life as a man and Christian should. Nature endowed him with great natural and physicial vigor and he never wasted any of it, but expended it in proper channels.

He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1796. His parents brought him to Adams County in 1807. They took up their residence one mile north of west Union and there he resided until 1866 when he removed to Sardinia where he made his home until his death, May 11, 1886. His father was Robert Anderson and his mother was Elizabeth Dickey, both from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother died in Adams County and are buried in the Old Trotter graveyard near the Wilson Children's Home.

Mr. Anderson was married June 2. 1831, to Mary Baird, sister of Robinson Baird, and daughter of James Baird, a brother of Judge Moses Baird. She only survived until May 7, 184o. By his wife, Mr. Ander-

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son had the following children : George Washington, who married a daughter of Wade Baldridge ; James Newton, William Henry, John, Elizabeth, and Mary. Washington is deceased. His widow and family reside at Webb City, Missouri. James Newton resides in Tulare, California; Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. Theo. Smith, of the same place. Mary is deceased. She died at Santa Cruz, Cal. Col. William H. died at McLean County, Illinois.

On November 7, 1844, he was married to Isabella Bryan Huggins, widow of Zimri Huggins. She had the following children by her first marriage: Nelson A., and Herman W.

To the last marriage were born the following children : Irwin M.: Benjamin Dickey, born June 8, 1847, residing at Santa Cruz, Cal.; and Martha Caroline, born February 12, 185o. She married J. Porter McGovney. He died and she married Frank Major. They reside at Salmon City, Idaho.

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson reared the three sets of children without a jar. They all got along happily together. Mrs. Anderson had the same happy and genial disposition as her husband. When the furnaces were opened in Adams County, Mr. Anderson did a great deal of work for them in hauling iron to the river and supplies to the furnaces. He was a man never ambitious for public honors or offices, but he had a prominent place in the militia because his talents deserved it.

On June 26, 1838, he was commissioned by Governor Vance as Major of the First Cavalry Regiment, First Brigade, Fighth Division of the Ohio Militia, and on August I, 1839, he was commissioned by Governor Shannon as Lieutenant-Colonel of the same regiment. When it is remembered that he was elected to those positions by those who knew him best, the honor will be more appreciated.

In 1862, he was selected as Captain of the "Squirrel Hunters" and took his company to Aberdeen to repel Morgan's Raid. James Anderson had a wonderful memory. He could remember every incident of his life and everything which had ever been told him. He was fond of telling of David Bradford's celebrated drive down the Dunbarton Hill. Bradford, who had a coach at Dunbarton, just repaired, wanted it down at the Sample Tavern at the foot of the hill. It was winter and the hill was covered with ice. He hitched two horses to the coach in front of the tongue and drove them from Dunbarton down the hill to the Sample Tavern. Bradford said it was a poor horse that could not keep out of the way of a coach. While Mr. Anderson was fond of telling humorous stories, yet he was a most earnest and conscientious man. He was anti-slavery. He was first a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was brought up an Associate Reform Presbyterian and adhered to that faith all his life. He was an older for over thirty years. As a farmer, he lived comfortably and easy. He was not the man to worry himself to make money. He was honest and honorable in all his dealings. His life was a more valuable lesson than that taught by the Greek Philosophers, for he was up to their ideas and was a Christian beside. In August, 1886, his widow removed to California, where her son, Benjamin D., resides. She was born July 2, 1806, and died May 6, 1896.

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Rev. James Arbuthnot

was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, December i, 1796. His father, James Arbuthnot, came from Scotland when quite young and married Mary White, whose parents came from North Ireland. James Arbuthnot grew up to manhood on a farm in Ohio County, West Virginia graduated from Jefferson College in 1820; attended the Theological Seminary at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was licensed to preach by the U. P. Presbytery of St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1823. He commenced his ministerial work at New Athens, Harrison County, Ohio, the same year and organized the academy at that place which in a short time grew into a college. In 1827, he moved to Savannah, now in Ashland County, Ohio, where he preached until 1840 when he moved to Greenfield, Ohio, and preached half the time there and the balance of the time at Fall Creek until 1851 when he moved to North Liberty, Adams County, where he founded the North Liberty Academy. He remained at North Liberty until 1854, when he moved to Unity in the same county. and was pastor of the U. P. Church there for twenty years until compelled to quit preaching on account of old age. He was married December 30, 1823, Eliza to Armstrong, who died April 23, 1846. To this union there were born ten children, nine daughters and one son, namely : Nancy, Frances M., afterwards married to George M. Thurman ; Ann F., afterwards married to Dr. W. P. Spurgen; Maria, Clara N., Ada, afterwards wife of Rev. J. G. McKee; Mary, Celia, afterwards wife of A. R. Clark ; Sarah J. and James A. The daughters are all dead and his only surviving child is Col. James A. Arbuthnot, of Brookfield, Mo.

Rev. James Arbuthnot died at his home at Unity, April 18, 1880, in his eighty-fourth year. He was a man of strong convictions and would never consent to compromise anything which he felt to be right. He was one of the original Free Soilers and voted for Binney and Hale as the Free Soil candidates for President. Rev. D. McDill, D. D., said of him.. "He was a wise, good, unassuming, godly man. He made no claims to oratory, but in preaching, spoke plainly and deliberately. His sermons were instructive and edifying. All who knew him recognized his sincerity and goodness."

Rev. James Arbuthnot married for a second wife Mrs. Mary Watt in 1848, who died in 1876. She had a daughter who married Rev. N. R. Kirkpatrick at Ada, Ohio, and another who married R. P. Finley, of Youngsville, Ohio.

Rev. William Baldridge.

The Reverend William Baldridge was born in Lancaster County, Penn., February 26, 1761. His parents were from Ireland and members of the Irish Covenanter Church. The year after his birth they removed to the banks of the Catawba River in Lincoln County, N. C., where he resided until 1776, when he joined a cavalry company and served as a soldier during the Revolutionary War. Of this period of his life, the most interesting of all, we have no record, but front the course of his after 1ive, we know that he did his duty as a soldier, conscientiously, and faithfully. He did not consider that in his seven years' service to his country, he had done more than his duty or that he deserved any special commendation therefor. After returning from the war, he prepared for college under and the instructions of Rev. Robert Finley, and attended Dickinson College

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in Carlisle, Penn., where he graduated in 1790 at the head of a class of twelve. Immediately after his graduation, he took up the study of theology, privately, with the Rev. Alexander Dobbins and studied under him one year. The second year of his theological studies he pursued under the Reverend Doctor Nesbit, of Carlisle, Pa. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Pennsylvania, Associate Reformed, in 1792. and fined ordained by the same Presbytery in 1793. On July 17, 1792, he was married to Rebecca Agnew. She was born December 12, 1772.

On October 18, 1793, he accepted a call to two churches in Rockbridge County, Virginia. One of them was a mile from the Natural Bridge. It has long since disappeared, the building destroyed and the congregation dissolved. His other church was Ebenezer, about five miles northeast of Lexington. He labored as regular pastor of these two churches, both Associate Reformed, until 1803 when his pastoral relation them was dissolved, but what was an anomaly in Presbyterian practice, he remained their stated supply until 1809, when he removed to Adamss County, Ohio, to accept a call as pastor to the Cherry Fork and West Fork congregations. In 1797, he was moderator of his synod and delivered an important judicial decision in a case before that body. During his residence in Virginia, he was twice offered the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, but declined each time on the ground that it was his duty, as he saw it, to remain in the pastoral work. From 1803 to 1809, many of his congregation had emigrated from Virginia and located in Adams County, Ohio, at either Cherry Fork of West Fork. These former parishoners of his secured his call to the two churches of the two localities. During his residence in Virginia, he been a faithful and acceptable pastor and had been endeared himself to his people, and while there, the following children were born to him and his devoted wife: James R., May 22, 1793; Alexander H., January 13, 1795; John Y., December 20, 1796; William S., May 1, 1799; Samuel C. and Rebecca G., twins, February 18, 1801; David A., May 25, 1803; Wade, August 25, 1805; Agnew, December 5, 1807. With these eight boys and one girl and his wife, he made the journey overland to Ohio, in June, 1809, and locating at Cherry Fork at the age of 4c. He spent the remainder of his life there. The following children were born to him and his wife Rebecca, in Ohio: Joseph G., June 16, 1810; Ebenezer W., August 1, 1812; , William, August 17, 1814; Mary Jane, October 26, 1817, at whose birth the mother died. This daughter, Mrs. Mary Jane Waller, a widow, is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Julia Tappan, at Avondale, Ohio, the last survivor of her brothers and sisters.

On May 16, 182o, Rev. William Baldridge married Mrs. Mary Logan Anderson, a widow, and by her became the father of two children, Benjamin L., born February 9, 1821, and Nancy M. October 18, 1822. His daughter, Rebecca, married Joseph Riggs, December 8, 1819, a very

prominent citizen of southern. Ohio, and by him became the mother of a numerous family of sons and daughters, the former of whom and their descendants have distinguished themselves in financial circles, in the ministry, at the bar and on the bench. Of the Reverend Baldridge's sons,

Samuel C. and Benjamin L. became ministers and Alexander H., Agnew and Ebenezer W. became physicians. Of the literary works of the Rev. Baldrdge, we have but three sermons which were published in the As-

508 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

sociate Reformed Pulpit. These indicate that he was a fine sermonizer. But he especially excelled in pastoral work. He knew all the members of his congregation, and all their children by name, and knew their peculiarities. He made his pastoral visits regularly in each family and gave religious instructions in such manner as to make it attractive, and to fasten it to remain in the minds of those he visited. The Rev.. Marion Morrison, now residing at Mission Creek, Nebraska, relates an incident one of his visits to his father's, Judge Morrison's house, in which he heard a conversation between an older brother and the Rev. Baldridge, in which the latter sought to induce his brother to take a college education with a view of entering the ministry. This conversation so impressed young Morrison, then eight years of age, that he, in consequence thereof, took a college education and entered the ministry where he has labored successfully all his life. The Rev. Baldridge died in the midst of his labors on October 26, 1830.

Sixty-nine years having elapsed since his death, oblivion has claimed much that we would like to know of him, but the fact that he held but two pastorates in his lifetime; that he resigned the first and that death alone removed him from the other, speaks well of him as a minister Sixteen years in the same churches in Rockbridge County, Virginia and twenty-one in Adams County, Ohio, covered his ministerial work. He preached well in the pulpit and cared well and effectually for his people in their homes. The fact that Cherry Fork church grew an prospered during and after his labors in it speaks well for his work. The fact that for years past and that today the church at Cherry Fork is large and prosperous ; that its influence is well recognized in the county in its Presbytery and Synod; that it has sent out so many grand men and women to other parts of the country, is largely due. to the labors of the Rev. William Baldridge between 1809 and 1830. He took the church four years after its organization and builded it for twenty-one years.

But while he was an efficient pastor, teacher and guide in churches the for thirty-seven years, he did something even greater than that. He reared a family of twelve sons and two daughters to be godly women, to be goodly man and citizens and to take honorable and, prominent place in the world's work. Moreover, he laid the foundations of character in his sons and daughters, so deep, so wide, so strong in piety and moral truth that after seventy years, his descendants are men and women of the same stamp of moral worth, high character and sterling piety that he bore himself. Could he have done better as a life work than herein related? We think not. He performed his work so well and so thoroughly that it will last so long as descendants of his survive to illustrate and exemplify it. He sleeps in an unknown and unmarked grave in the Chreey Fork Cemetery.

Michael Baldwin

was a very marked and memorable member of our earliest bar. He came of a Connecticut family of note. One brother, Henry Baldwin, of Pennsylvania, was one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ; another, a wealthy planter of Tennessee ; a third lived in Connecticut.

Michael was admitted to practice here in 1799, and at once forced recognition of his energy, learning and sparkling intellectual gift; and

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almost as speedily developed his uncontrollable love of liquor, fun and frolic. He soon distanced all competitors for legal business save William Creighton, Jr., whose patient industry still retained him the larger and by far more lucrative practice. As between the two, it was the race between hare the and the tortoise again, and with the same inevitable result. One of the malicious stories of that day was, that certain other lawyers became so jealous of Baldwin's popularity and business success, that they encouraged the latter's passion for drink, so that his career might be shortened as much as possible.

In 1803, '4, '5, and '6, Baldwin, notwithstanding his dissipation, did a large amount of work. But from the latter date, there is a rapid decadence of his practice apparent in the records of the Court, and, by 1808, his name but rarely appears, save only as defendant in suits for tavern bills, borrowed money, and applications for the benefit of the insolvent law. We learn from Safford's "Life of Herman Blennerhasset" that Baldwin had been the United States Marshal for the State of Ohio, and he was that he was much embittered against President Jefferson for depriving him of that office. Aaron Burr advised Jacob Blennerhasset to retain Judge Burnett, of Cincinnati, and Baldwin, for the defense of both themselves in the trials for high treason, which they expected to undergo before the courts of Ohio, but which trials never took place. In a letter written to his wife, under date of December 17, 1807, Blennerhasset says : “I have retained Baldwin and Burnett. The latter will be a host with the decent part of the citizens of Ohio; and the former a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he properly styles his 'bloodhounds.' "

It is very suggestive of the character of Baldwin, that at almost every term of his practice we find this entry upon the journal: "Ordered that Michael Baldwin, one of the attorneys of this Court, be fined ten dollars for contempt of Court, and be committed to jail until the. fine be paid." Poor brilliant, boisterous, drunken, rollicking Mike! By reason of commitments for contempt of court and capiases for debt, he became familiar indeed, with the inside of the old jail which stood at the northwest corner of Second and Walnut Streets.

He was a member of the Constitutional Convention and tradition asserts that he wrote almost the entirety of the first Constitution of Ohio in the bar-room of William Keys' tavern, using a wine keg for his seat, and the head of a barrel of whiskey for his desk. A queer origination, truly

for the organic law of such an empire as Ohio grew to be, before that Constitution was superseded!

He was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1803, 1804 and 1805. Fond of gambling, of course, for he seems to have had all the modern accomplishments. It is told that he opened a game of vingt et un for the benefit of such members as craved excitement. Baldwin, being banker and dealer, of course, won all their money and most of their watches. The party broke up and went to their several rooms, drunk, long after the "wee sma' hours" of the night-.

Mike, used to such life, was in the Speaker's chair, on time, next morning, rapped the House to order, and proceeded with business. A call of the House was soon demanded, and the fact made officially apparent that there was no quorum present. The Speaker sent out the Sergeant-at-arms for absentees, and that officer, in the course of an hour or two,

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filed into the hall and in front of the Speaker's chair, some dozen or more of the half-asleep, and only partially sobered, gamesters of the night before. Thereupon Baldwin rose, and with dignified severity of manner, began to reprimand them for their negligence of the trusts reposed in them by their constituents, and reminded them of the great cost per diem to the infant State, of the sessions of the General Assembly, etc., until one of the party of culprits broke abruptly in upon the harrangue, with the exclamation, "Hold on now, Mr. Speaker! how the hell can we known what time it is, when you have got all our watches !"

At the June Term, 1804, the tavern-keeper, William Keys, sued Baldwin upon an account which aggregated twenty-five pounds, thirteen shillings, ten pence, a copy of which account is filed. Every item in it save three, was for drinks in one form or another—brandy, spirits raw, bowls of toddy, punch, treats to the club, etc. The three exceptional items were suppers for himself, for which he was charged one shilling and six pence for each. But with each supper there appears a charge of three shillings for a pint and a half of brandy—a proportion of drink to meat which strongly reminds one of the bill rendered by Dame Quickley to Sir John Falstaff.

"Drinks for the Club" were undoubtedly Mike's treats to the "Blood hounds," an organization of the rough and fighting men of that day which Baldwin had gotten up and which he controlled. The "Blood hounds" did his electioneering and fighting for him; and more than once delivered him from the jail by breaking in the door, or tearing an end out of that structure.

His brothers twice attempted to relieve him from the embarrassments of his debts, and for that purpose, sent him bags of coin amounting to a considerable sum. On these occasions, it is said he hired a negro for porter of the money, and went around to his creditors seriatim, allowing each one, irrespective of the amount of his account, to have one grab into the open-mouthed bag until it was gone.

His name appears in the records of the court for the last time in the early part of 1811, and he undoubtedly died soon thereafter.

His widow survived him for many years, and when not less than seventy years old, contracted a second marriage with Adam Stewart, of this county. An old citizen, Speaking to us of "Kitty Baldwin" in her prime, remarked, "I tell you, she was the proudest widow that ever walked the streets of Chillicothe."

Robinson Baird

was born in Pennsylvania, October 6, 1792. He was the son of a farmer. His father had twelve children, of whom our subject was the eldest. His Christian name was his mother's maiden name. He obtained his education partly in Pennsylvania and partly in Ohio. His parents were born in Pennsylvania, but they came to Adams County and occupied rented farms for awhile. As soon as could be done, our subject's father bought a farm five miles from West Union and two miles from Bentonville, where Robinson Baird was reared to manhood. He always felt the want of a more complete education, and for this reason he took a great interest in the public schools. He very frequently served as local school director of his district

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Robinson Baird was a very strict Presbyterian. He was brought up that way and never wandered from it. He believed in the strict observance of the Sabbath and practiced it. He was a Soldier of the War of 1812, was out both winters of 1812 and 1813, and endured many hardships. His Colonel was John Bryan. In politics, he was a Whig so long as that party existed. As a Whig, he voted for John Quincy Adams, when he was a candidate for President. There were only two others in his township who voted for Adams. He was a member of the American party when it was in existence, and afterwards of the Republican party.

He was married to Elizabeth Williamson, the third daughter of Rev. William Williamson, on June 13, 1815. She was born in South Carolina, on July 14, 1795. There were born to them ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Their oldet son, James T., was born March 18, 1816. He married Elizabeth Parker, July 1, 1842. He was a millwright by occupation, and was killed in St. Louis while working in a steam mill by the bursting of a boiler. He had two sons who were in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Nancy M. was born October 31, 1820. She married James McIntire, April 26, 1842. Major McIntire served in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry during the Civil War. He is now deceased. His widow survives him with a large family of children. Another daughter, Jane W. Baird, was born March 25, 1823, and married A. H. Mehaffey, September 2, 1846. Her daughter, Catherine, born March 20, 1825, was married to Jacob Mosier, May 27, 1846. A son, Thomas W. Baird, was born May 4, 1827. Joshua M. Baird, born October 5, 1829, married Margaret Graham, June 24, 1852. Harriet N. Baird, born November 7, 1833, married John L. Summers, February 28, 1855. Elizabeth V. Baird, born May 7, 1836, married Charles Fitch.

Robinson Baird died March 26, 1870. His wife survived him until August 17, 1876. Mr. Baird never sought public office, but was content to live the simple life of a farmer. He has numerous descendants, scattered over the United States, and from those known, we would say that he impressed upon them the same serious, honest, upright character which he bore all his life.

Samuel Grimes Bradford

was born in West Union, December 3, 1813. His father was Samuel Bradford and his mother, Ruth Shoemaker. They were married August 11, 1811, by Job Dinning. Her father was Peter Shoemaker, who lived below the iron bridge, and whose will was recorded in 1799. Samuel Grimes Bradford was Sheriff of Adams County in 1812 and 1813.

In October, 18, he was appointed Recorder of Adams County to succeed General Darlinton. On the seventh of July, 1813, he was Captain of a militia company. He left a deed partly recorded and started with his company for the war. He never returned. He died August 13, 1813, in the army and is buried at Urbana. His widow was married June 1, 1815, to Col. Samuel R. Wood, by whom she had five children, Mrs. S. P. Kilpatrick, of Dunbarton; Mrs. George Sample, of Cincinnati ; Mrs. Rev. Lock, of Illinois; Mrs. Herdman, of Iowa; David Wood, of Newoirt, Ky., and. Frank Wood, of Urbana, Ohio. David, the brother of our subject, who married a daughter of Rev. John Meek, lived and died in West Union. He, his father, General Bradford and his mother, Barbara Grimes, are buried in the stone enclosure in Branson's field just

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north of the village cemetery at West Union. General David Bradford was one of the most important factors in the early settlement of Adams County. He owned a number of lots in the town of Washington and sided there while it flourished, and when it collapsed he went to West Union. When West Union was located he bought lots 10, 11, 18, 19, 65 and 75 at the opening sale. He built the Bradford House in 1804 and from that time until his death, kept tavern there. He was County Treasurer of Adams County from June 6, 1800, .until June 6, 1832. As he died in 1834 at the age of sixty-nine, he very nearly had the treasurer’s office for life. In 1804, he was made a Quartermaster General of the militia. He was a very popular man, and from holding the County Treasurership so long without any complaint, must have been a very honest one, but we must get back to our subject, his grand-son, Samuel G. Bradford. He clerked in an iron store in Cincinnati when he was about nineteen years of age for James M. Baldridge. When he was twenty years of age, he returned to West Union. He was married here on November 6, 1834, to Amanda M. T. Tapp. By her, he had six children Francis A., wife of Henry B. Woodrow, of Cincinnati; James H. Bradford, of Winchester ; Jennie, the wife of Gabriel McClatchy; Matilda, who died a young woman ; Harriet, widow of Capt. George Collings of Indianola, Iowa, and Samuel N. Bradford, who lives in West Union. In the same year, he Succeeded to the management of Bradford's Tavern now the Downing House. He conducted it until 1840, when he leased in. He contributed $200 to the erection of the Maysville and Zanesville Turnpike. In 1835, he took a drove of horses to Mississippi and sold them. On his return, he purchased the George Darling farm, formerly owned by Major Finley and moved there. His wife died May 2, 1847. In 1849, he returned to West Union and engaged in the tannery business with Edwards Darlinton.

On Ootober 29, 185o, he was married to Miss Sarah W. Smashea, who survives him. He continued the tannery business until 1851, when he drove a notion wagon through the country until 1853. From that date until 1863, he traveled and sold tinware for A. F. Shriver at Manchester. In 1864, he went into the sutler business with Thomas Ellison and remained with him until the end of the war. Then he went to Mississippi and raised cotton until 1868. After that, he engaged in the grocery business at West Union with his son, Samuel N. Bradford. After continuing that business for a short time, he took the mail contract between West Union and Winchester and drove a hack on it for four years. After that he conducted a livery stable in West Union until his death which occurred November 29, 1890.

In politics, he was a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was a large, fine looking man in old age, and in youth, he was handsome, He was genial and companionable. He was always ready to do a kind act for a friend. He was esteemed highly by all who knew him as a good man and upright citizen. What characterized him above his follow men was his love of children and of horseS. When Surrounded by children and encouraging their amusement, he was never happier. H always pleased to have good horses and to be looking after them. He was in his feelings and in his thoughts a relic of the older time in which

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he was always delighted to dwell. He passed away in peaceful sleep— “ as one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams."

Moses Baird

was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1762. His father, James Baird, came from near Londonderry, in the north of Ireland. His mother was a Miss Brown, also from Ireland.

Moses Baird married Mary Adams, July 5, 1787, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a woman of remarkable natural endowments and of distinguished and cultivated ability. They had one son, Robert, born in sylvania, in 1788.

They located in Adams County in the rich Irish Bottoms, at Sandy Springs, on the Ohio River, and took up a tract about a mile square. Those who located with them were Joshua Truitt, William Early, Jonathan Kenyon, Abner Ewing, above, and John Adams, and Simeon Truitt, below.

They had in all thirteen children, twelve being thereafter born in Adams County, as follows: Margaret, 1781; Alexander, 1792; Elizabeth 1794; Polly, 1796; Newton, 1799; James A., 1801 ; John A., 1803; Joseph C. V., 1805 ; Harvey, 1807; Harriet A., 1809; Chambers, 1811 ; Susan A., 1814.

Moses Baird was one of the justices of the Peace of Adams County and one of its Common Pleas judges under the Territory. He was elected a Commissioner of the County in 1803 and served three years. He was elected an Associate Judge of the County February , 1810, served and until April 10, 1821. He died November 1, 1841, and is buried in the Sandy Springs cemetery. He was tall, slender and active. He had a light complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, was nearly six feet tall, wore side whiskers and shaved the rest of his face. He was an easy, fluent talker, clear and concise in his expressions. He was an excellent judge of human nature and could judge a man on sight. He had easy manners, was pleasant and approachable. He was a good farmer and manager. He lived like a lord on his mile square of land. He raised all the crops he required and had five orchards of apples, peaches, plums and cherries. He had a great lot of stock, horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. He had all manner of fowls. He grew his own flax and sheared his own wool and made it into cloth on his own farm. His wife was a woman of great social attractiveness. She was one of the pioneer doctresses and a noted mid-wife, and died April 13, 1835, of a putrid sore throat, (diptheria?) which came of attending a child which had the same disease. She and her husband were members of the Sandy Springs Church, and her religion was such that its influence could be felt by all who associated with them. Susan A., their youngest daughter, was the wife of James McMaster, who is living (1899) at Sandy Springs, aged eighty-four. Their youngest son, Chambers, has a separate sketch herein. Their first three children, Robert, Elizabeth Adams and James A., made themselves homes within the original tract taken up by their father. The others went elsewhere into the Great West, and the descendants of Moses Baird are a great multitude, whom the census taker could enumerate, but it would take him a long time and a great deal of labor.

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Rev. Dyer Burgeon.

In writing a sketch of a person, in order to understand his life fully it is sometimes well to begin several generations before he was born.

Dyer Burgess traced his ancestry to Thomas Burgess, who came from England to Salem, Mass., in 1630, but who settled at Sandwich, in Plymouth Colony. This Thomas Burgess is recorded by Dr. Savage as being a chief among them. In the church organized at Sandwich, Mass., in 1638, he was an original member, and he served the tow in every office, humble or honorable, from land surveyor to deputy at the Court at Plymouth. He becave a large landholder, and his patriarchal estate was still held by a lineal descendant in the sixth generation, in 1863 Thomas Burgess died February 13, 1665, aged eighty-two years. His grave was honored by a monumental slab, imported from England, Aaron Otis says that this was the first monument set up for any pilgrim of the first generation. So that while Dyer Burgess' ancestor did not come over in the Mayflower, he was only ten years behind the first settlement, and of the same stock as the Pilgrim Fathers, and it is easy to see where he got his obstinacy and firmness of purpose.

The genealogy of the Burgess family was published in 1865, by the Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, of Dedham, Mass. From this, it appears that Thomas Burgess, who came from England, had a third son, Jacob. He married a Miss Nye, and had a son, Ebenezer, born October 2, 1673 who married Mary Lombard. Ebenezer had six children, all baptized September 23, 1711. Among them was a son Samuel, married to Jedidah Gibbs, March 30, 1732, and they had eight children. His wife died March 10, 1732, and he married Deborah Berse, November 7, 1754, and had four children by her. Jabez Burgess, one of the eight children by the first marriage, married Hannah Lathrop, May 3, 1754, and removed to Tolland, Conn., in 1783.

Jabez had nine children, among whom was a son, Nathaniel, born March 4, 1758, and married to Lucretia Scott in 1781. They had six children, of whom the subject of our sketch, Dyer Burgess, was born December 27, 1784, at Springfield; Vermont, to which place his parents had removed in 1781. So that our hero had a long line of fine old Puritan ancestors, with Scripture names, and all of whom lived godly lives and died full of years, in the hope of the gospel.

Dyer Burgess completed a scientific course at Dartmouth College to which he afterwards added a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and medicine. He became interested in religion, and was ordained a minister at Clovernook, Vermont.

At the age of sixteen years, he began to preach as a Methodist minister, but finding his views more in accordance with Congregationalism he joined that church and studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Wines. He came to Ohio in 1816, and was received in the Miami Presbytery from the Northern Association of Vermont, September 2, 1817. At Piqua, he organized a Presbyterian Church in the latter part of 1816. In the following year, it united with Troy to secure Mr. Burgess' services as a missionary. Presbytery met in Springfield the first Tuesday in September, 1817, and the two churches, Piqua and Troy, wanted the Rev. Dyer Burgess to preach for them, which he agreed to do for six months, at a salary of one hundred dollars. At the end of the six months, the

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two churches gave him a call as a regular pastor. In his old age, the last journey he took was to attend, at Piqua, the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the church there. From there he went to the Presbyterian Church at West Union, Ohio. While in charge of the church at West Union, during a period of nine years, from 1820 to 1829, he resided across the street from the church in a frame house, directly east of that occupied by J. M. Wells, Fsq., and while there, he did his own cooking, except the baking of his bread, which was done by the ladies of his congregation and brought to his house.

In Adams County he was brought into contact with the Rev. Wm. Williamson, with Rev. James Gillilan and Rev. John Rankin ; with Mr. Carothers and Mr. Dickey, and with Col. John Means. These gentlemen were born and educated in South Carolina, and most of them had been slaveholders, but having conscientious scruples as to the wrong of slavery, they left their native state and came to Ohio.

In 1823, he, organized the Auxiliary Bible Society of Adams County. Rev. Wm. Williamson was its first president, and Mr. Burgess was its corresponding secretary. The society is still in existence.

He was a very earnest man, and not only was he a strong opponent of human slavery, but he was a very great advocate of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and opposed to secret societies. He was also opposed to the use of tobacco in any form.

He thought and felt so intensely that his expressions in public speaking and in preaching had a wonderful effect on his hearers. He was a man of much more than ordinary intellect and was an excellent preacher.

He first preached for seven years in West Union, Ohio, but it seems that his doctrine was too radical for the people there, and he ceased to be their pastor, and was succeeded by the Rev. John P. Van lyke, after which he preached in Manchester, Ohio.

One of Mr. Burgess' elders was Gen. Joseph Darlinton, the Clerk of the Courts, of Adams County. Darlinton when a young man in Virginia had owned slaves. He had one, Dick, who was a refractory and ugly fellow. He sold him and kept the money. Mr. Burgess got to hear of this, and said at one time, in a sermon that in his congregation was one who had the price of blood in his chest. It waS supposed that Mr. Burgess' strictures bore hard on. General Darlinton, who was not a pronounced anti-slavery man. Some one asked Mr. Burgess how General Darlinton stood his anti-slavery doctrine. "Oh," said Mr. Burgess, "he stands it like an ox."

About this time the Rev. Burgess formed an attachment for Miss Elizabeth Means, the daughter of Col. John Means. His suit was discouraged by the brothers and the family, as they thought she ought to do better than to marry a poor minister. The matter never came to a proposal, but on the twenty-seventh day of April, 1827, Miss Means married Dr. William M. Voris. This event was entirely unexpected to Mr. Burgess, and struck him like a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky.

At a solemn communion service season the Sunday following, he preached from the text : "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," and he preached with such pathos and depth of feeling that his hearers could not but believe that his idol had been shattered when Miss Means married Dr. Voris.

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On March 19, 1831, he married Miss Isabella Ellison, the daughter of Andrew Ellison. She was a maiden lady of about his own age, and he married her in Cincinnati, where she was making her home with her brother-in-law, Adam McCormick.

The Rev. Burgess was very much opposed to secret societies. On June 5, 1831, he began the publication of a semi-monthly periodical at Cincinnati, Ohio, entitled, "Infidelity Unmasked."

There were twenty-four numbers of it; the last number appeared April 22, 1832. Mr. Burgess was the editor. It does not appear that he wrote any editorials of any consequence, but the periodical is made up chiefly of extracts from other periodicals of like character and from lectures and addresses against Masonry and slavery. The burden of the periodical is against Masonry, with an occasional article against slavery. In his prospectus, the editor states that he does not expect much patronage, that his object is that his work might appear in the Day of Judgement, and bear witness that he has not shunned the whole counsel of God, and that under the influence of the Spirit, he has undertaken to lift up the standard when the enemy comes in as a flood. He also stated in the prospectus, that, firmly believing that Masonry and slavery are identified, and that slavery is practical heresy of a damning character, he has, after a deliberately counting the cost, dared to undertake the difficult and responsible duties of editor of a periodical paper, the leading object of which is to clear the sanctuary of both of these abominations. He proceeds to say that he does not charge that all persons are infidels; but he does say, and will undertake to prove, if God permits him to succeed with the work, that Masonry is infidelity, organized and masked. He further declared that the paper would consist principally of extracts from other works which have been published in Europe and America, in which the principles of Masonry have been fully discovered and exposed.

Short communications on the subject of Masonry and slavery were thankfully invited; and would be inserted. The price of the periodical was $1.00 in advance. $1.25 in six months, and $1.50 at the end of the year. The bound volume consists of 384 pages.

At the close of the work on April 21, 1832, the editor states “I have now finished what I have steadily resolved on for more than twenty years. I have published my sentiments against the worst institution that ever subsisted; and I hope God will smile upon my poor labors. and make them a blessing to my acquaintances, and graciously accept of me, for Christ's sake.

"I have written but little for the paper, because I have always found abundantly more material ready prepared, in a style much superior to what I could produce myself. I have published but a small part indeed, of what I intend on the subject of slavery; and shall, if encouraged, continue to issue my paper in West Union, Adams County, Ohio, and to that place, I invite my correspondents to make their future communications.”

It appears from the periodical, that in April, 1831, the Editor secured the Chillicothe Presbytery to declare that it was unlawful and inexpedient to have its members connected with the Masonic fraternity. By his like influence, in October, 1831, the Synod of Connecticut declared that a connection with Masonry was inconsistent with Christianity.

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On page 266, of his "Infidelity Unmasked," Mr. Burgess has a letter of nearly two pages, addressed to Oliver M. Spencer, a prominent Methodist minister of Cincinnati, Ohio, on Masonry. It seems that Mr. Burgess had attended a Masonic funeral at Cincinnati, at which Mr. Spencer as was present as a Mason, and Mr. Spencer's appearance raised the choler of Mr. Burgess.

On page 26, June 26, 1831, he states that the Presbytery of Chillicothe the has made Masonry a term of communion, and that one person had argued to him that Jesus Christ was a Mason. He says that Christ Declared openly in the Court of Pontus Pilot (so printed in the newspaper), "In secret have I said nothing."

On June 1, 1830, Mr. Burgess delivered an address at the court house at West Union, Ohio, on the subject "Solomon's Temple Haunted, or Free Masonry, the Man of Sin in the Temple of God." His lecture was delivered at an anti-Masonic meeting. He took the ground that Masonry as (1) treason against the Government, (2) treason against God. He stated in his address that Washington in his youth took three degrees in Masonry, and then in his farewell address, raised his voice against all secret societies, and went to the Invisible World. He said that, on the strength of Washington's Masonry, thousands have been tumbled into the imaginary grave of Hiram Abiff, for the sake of stooping to folly, like Washington. He states that Masonry was first instituted June 24, 1717,

d that the Masons filled almost every office in the Republic. He spoke of the Masonic celebration of St. John's Day, as a "Gobbler's Strut."

It seems, from this periodical, that on the twenty-eighth of September, 1831, William Wirt, of Maryland, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, were nominated as anti-Masonic candidates for President and Vice President of the United States.

The book is largely filled up with letters from a Rev. Henry Jones, who signs himself a dissented Royal Arch Mason.

This Rev. Jones was expelled from King Hiram's Lodge in Waitseld, Vermont, on September 24, 1828, for unworthy and unmasonic conduct. On October 8, 1828, his church at Cabot, Vermont, had a meeting and highly approved of his conduct in leaving the Masons, and in their judgment, stated that the oaths and obligations of Masonry were no more binding on its members than the oath of Herod to slay John the Baptist, or that of the forty Jews who banded together to kill Paul. This Rev. Jones furnished no less than ten different papers for Mr. Burgess' periodical.

Rev. Burgess fought Masonry as a greater evil than slavery. He has been dead twenty-two years, and he survived slavery by ten years, but Masonry still exists in a renewed vigor. The Rev. Burgess was mistaken as to Masonry.

He wasted a great deal of superfluous energy on Masonry which had better have been doubled up on slavery and tobacco. On the subject of Masonry, Mr. Burgess was a fanatic ; but upon alcoholism, the use of tobacco and slavery, he was simply a thinker years ahead of his time.

His favorite text against secret societies was the language of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the eighteenth chapter and twentieth verse of St. John's Gospel in His answer to the High Priet: "I spake openly to the

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world and in secret I said nothing," and upon this text, he preach a most powerful sermon, which his hearers never forgot.

The Manchester Presbyterian Church took a Mason into full membership. Mr. Burgess remarked to Mrs. A. B. Ellison, that after that he would never again visit Manchester Church, or commune with it- and he never did.

To illustrate how strongly Mr. Burgess thought and felt on the subject of secret societies—when Abraham Lincoln was first a candidate for President, Mr. Burgess wished to support him, but would not do so until he had written to Mrs. Lincoln and received an answer to the effect that Mr. Lincoln did not belong to any secret society. Then he supported Mr. Lincoln's candidacy most heartily.

Directly after his marriage to Miss Ellison, which entirely revolutionized his finances, as she was wealthy and willing to spend her money for their joint enjoyment, he returned to West Union, and there built the property now occupied and known as the Palace Hotel, and immediately took possession of it. From that time on, until the death of his wife, the Rev. Burgess had no particular charge, but preached when and where he pleased. He and his wife lived in great state in their then elegrant home—as, when completed, it was the finest house in the county. They kept two pews in the Presbyterian Church at West Union, and these they had filled every Sunday. They entertained a great many visitors - usually had their house full of visitors, arid especially Mrs. Burgess’ relations. These she invited from far and wide and entertained them for a long period of time.

While living in this property, Mr. Burgess took it upon him to study Greek, which he had never studied before ; and while engaged in that study, he was so intent upon it, as he was upon everything else which he undertook, that he invited every minister far and near to make him a visit; and when the visitor arrived at Dr. Burgess' residence, he found found hat he was expected to read Greek with him and to Instruct him in that language At one time, when he was preaching in West Union, Rosanna, a colored nurse of Mrs. Ann Wilson's, had one of Mrs. Wilson's children there, as it was customary in those days to take the babies to church. This particular baby began to cry very loudly. Mr. Burgess paused in the midst of his sermon, and said in a commanding voice, "Rosanna, take that child out !" and out it went.

As before stated, he was a frequent visitor in the family of Col. John Means, and there he met, at one time, Maj. Barry, a young gentleman from Mississippi, who was a nephew of Col. Means, and who was making a protracted visit at his uncle's. Maj. Barry's father was an extensive slaveholder, and Mr. Burgess took pains to impress his view upon Maj. Barry, claiming that he was a mild Abolitionist. Maj. Barry was so impressed with Mr. Burgess' arguments, that he was almost willing to adopt the Abolitionist views himself.

Col. Means lived about three miles back of Manchester, and one Sunday, he and his family with Maj. Barry rode to Manchester to attend the Presbyterian Church there, and hear the Rev. Burgess preach. During his sermon, he remarked that a slaveholder was worse than a horse thief. This statement aroused Maj. Barry's ire, as his father, a most estimable man, was a slaveholder, and he arose and left the church.

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when he was about half-way out, Mr. Burgess thought he would emphasize the statement, and he said that a slaveholder was worse than ten sand horse thieves !

Maj. Barry wrote him a note the next day, and told him that if that was his mild Abolitionism he wanted none of it, and that he would be gratified to see him in purgatory.

The Rev. Burgess took his note, and called upon Mrs. Dr. Willson, Sr. and expressed himself horrified that one human being could wish her another in torment, and said to Mrs. Wilson, "He might as well have wished me in hell." Maj. Barry afterwards told Dr. Wilson that he could

see Burgess' throat cut from ear to ear and feel gratified at the sight.

Mr. Burgess was a most companionable man, and had a wonderful fund of humor. He had a happy faculty of clothing his thoughts in appropriate language, and his acrimonious denunciations were confined to his lectures and sermons.

When he was about to marry Miss Ellison, Aunt Ann Wilson, at whose house he was very intimate, rallied him about it, and wondered that he had not selected a younger and more handsome lady. Mr. Burgess replied that he loved youth and beauty as well as ever.

His wife died in their home, now the Palace Hotel, in West Union, November 3, 1839. She disposed of her property by last will and testament drawn by Hon. George Collings, father of Judge Henry Collings, of Manchester, Ohio. The will made no provision for Mr. Burgess except to give him two rooms in her house for life, but she had already given him a number of claims which she deemed a suitable vision for him.

In 1830, it was the custom everywhere in Adams County for the farmers to furnish whiskey for their harvest hands, and to distribute it freely among them. In that year, Mr. Burgess made a temperance address at Eenton's schoolhouse, on Gift Ridge, and his speech on that occasion was so powerful that it induced all the farmers on Gift Ridge to abstain from having whiskey in the fields during harvest, and since then it has never been used in harvest in that locality.

On one occasion when Mr. Burgess was going from Manchester to Cincinnati on a steamboat, "The Huntress," accompanied by his wife, a number of Kentuckians were traveling on the boat, and the Rev. Burgess took occasion to air his views on Masonry and slavery.

The Kentuckians, who were both Masons and slaveholders, proposed to hang him right there on the boat, and went so far as to secure a rope for the purpose and suspended it from the pilot house. Charles Stevenson, from Manchester, and John Sparks, of West Union, were on the boat, and the former was a Mason. Both of these and the Hon. John Rowan, of Louisville, interceded with the angry Kentuckians, and the captain of the boat saw that it would ruin his boat if a man were to be hung on it. The Kentuckians asked the price of his boat and wanted to pay it tor the privilege of hanging Mr. Burgess. His wife went on her knees and begged for his life. But Mr. Burgess himself asked for no quarter or mercy, and would not apologize a whit, or stop his denunciations. Had he lived in Joshua's time, he would have preferred a position upon

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Mount Ebal, rather than upon Mount Gerizini, for he was a master-hand at denunciation, when it suited his purpose..

The story is that the Kentuckians were the ones most to blame in the matter, but in truth the ones on the boat, who insisted most strenuously on the hanging of Burgess on that occasion were natives of Connecticut and of Ohio. Hon. John Rowan, himself a slaveholder, told Mr. Burgess on the "Huntress," that if he went below Cincinnati, it would be impossible for him to protect him. This incident occurred late in the thirties in this county. The friends of Mr. Burgess had him get off the boat at Ripley and give up his trip to Cincinnati.

His home in West Union, during the lifetime of his first wife, was called "Anti-Slavery Palace." The Abolitionists from far and wide visited him, and were always made welcome. The Rev. Stephen Riggs, Rev. Caskey and Mr. Longley were often at his home and studied with him.

In 1840, he left Adams County, and went to Washington County. He made his home there, and for a long time preached to the churches in Warren, Belpre and Watertown. In his sermons he always came out strong in his denunciatory parts. He as clear and pointed in his statements, and at times waxed eloquent. One thing is certain, no, one could go to sleep under his preaching.

On August 31, 1842, Mr. Burgess was married to Mrs. Elizabeth W. Voris, widow of Dr. William M. Voris, and the daughter of Col. John Means, and who was Mr. Burgess' first love. They were married at the home of her brother, Hugh Means, the former residence of her father in Adams County, Ohio. She was born in South Carolina in 1799 and came to Ohio in 1819 when her father came to this State to free his slaves. She was a noble Christian woman and lived a long life of sincere piety and good deeds. One of her daughters by •her first marriage was the wife of the Hon. Wm. P. Cutler, of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Burgess died February 28, 1889, in her ninetieth year, having lived with Mr. Burgess thirty years, and survived him nearly seventeen years.

In person, he was tall, over six feet high, straight as an Indian with a haughty courage. He was slightly inclined to corpulency. He had a large head, a high forehead, with heavy arched brows, and a square face with a great deal of determination expressed in it.

He was as fully opposed to the use of liquors and tobacco, as he was to Masonry and slavery.

At the age of eighty-three, in 1868, he had a severe attack of he was to considered typhus fever.

He was sick twelve weeks, and delirious most of the time. He regarded his recovery as wonderful, and writing to a friend, he said: "I seem a wonder to myself. Under Providence, I ascribe.my recovery to Mrs. Burgess. It is astonishing that she did not break down, but is still busy with domestic affairs. South Carolinians who could free their slaves and do their own work are most efficient laborers."

This last sentence refers to her father, Col. John Means, bringing his family and twenty-four slaves from South Carolina, in 1819, when Mrs. Burgess was twenty years old.

He says that the Abolition movement originated in Ohio, and that the two Mr. Dickeys of Tennessee, and himself, were the first projectors of

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the scheme, which at last succeeded. He also states that Rev. James Gilliland, Rev. Robert G. Wilson, and Rev. Samuel Carothers, were their earliest coadjutors. That they commenced operating in about 1817; that in 1818, he introduced a paper into the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia, which passed that body, and came near destroying him. He wrote to his cousin that those who would not speak to him then, would now willingly pass as having been friendly to the measure.

In 1857, he addressed an open letter to the Free Presbyterian, when it was proposed that they should return to the old church. He said: “It is proposed that we return to Egypt. Some of us, at least, have no hankering after garlic. We pledged ourselves, in the name of Christ, not only not to sustain human slavery, but also only not to sustain secret conspiracies ; either the curse-bound Danites of the Mormon's or any other conspiracy so bound. We pledged ourselves, also, not to sustain at the Lord's table, self-destroyers ; whether the instrument of destruction was the pistol, alcohol or that specific poison, filthy tobacco. Shall we violate that pledge "

Until the age of eighty-three, his faculties retained their vigor. In 1867, he attended the semi-centennial of the church at Piqua, Ohio, and there he contracted a severe sickness, which affected his mental faculties, but did not affect his general health.

His memory of passing and recent events was gone on his recovery, but he could repeat whole chapters of the Bible, and page after page of favorite old authors. He could give a rational and clear exposition of almost any scriptural passage. His power in prayer was unaffected to the last. Thus while in the last five years of hiS life, his communications with earth were cut off ; his connection with Heaven was clear to the last. He died in 1872 at the age of eighty-eight.

Why have we brought forward anew the memory of this man of God? Because in his time and in his place, he was the First Apostle of Personal and Social Purity. Because when the use of whisky and tobacco were almost universal, he had the courage to preach against them and depict their evils. Because when the national conscience was debauched and demoralized by that great curse of slavery, he had the discernment to see the evil of it, and to be the first to denounce it. Because he was a man of enlightened conscience, and had the courage to preach according to its dictates. Because he lived as he preached, and exemplified his ideas in a long and useful life. Such men should not be forgotten. The record of their good lives should be graven in living characters on the memory of each generation following them, and so long as the record is remembered, our people will seek the right, and try to follow it as Dyer Burgess did in his eighty-four years.

Nicholas Burwell

was born near Winchester, Virginia, September I1, 1794. He learned the shoemaker's trade as a youth at Winchester, and while residing there was in the War of 1812. In 1815, he and Murtaugh Kehoe, also a young shoemaker, came to the West from Winchester, Virginia. They floated down the Ohio River and landed at Portsmouth, Ohio. Kehoe was favorably impressed with the place and resolved to remain and did so. Burwell thought two of the Same trade should not locate in the same

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town, and he went on to Limestone, now Maysville. There he heard of West Union, then a new town, only eleven years old, and he went there and set up in the business of shoemaking. He lived there five years when he was married to Sarah Fenton, daughter of Samuel Fenton, of Gift Ridge, one of Adams County's pioneers. They were married April 19, 1820. She was born September 22, 1802. The minister who performed the ceremony was Rev. Greenbury Jones, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers. On this occasion, Rev. Jones alluded to them as children, owing to their youthful appearance.

Nicholas Burwell and his wife went to housekeeping in West Union and lived there all their lives. Their oldest child was Elizabeth, born May 5, 1821, and married Joseph West Lafferty, May 24, 1838. Their oldest son, Samuel, was born November 20, 1822. He is the veteran editor of the Scion and was married to Margaret Mitchell, March 30,1848. William Burwell, the second son, was born October 20, 1826. He married a Miss Murphy of Buena Vista and is now deceased; Martha Ann born January 16, 1830, married Ellis Bottleman, April 12, 1854; Edward was born January 26, 1834; Michael Henry was born February 26, 1839, and is now deceased. Mary, the youngest daughter, married Smiley Lockwood, May 23, 1860. She is now a widow residing at Winchester.

Nicholas Burwell conducted a shoe shop in West Union all his life. He was contemporary with Judge Byrd and knew him well. The judge took a fancy to Mr. Burwell's cow at one time and gave him $50 for her, I an extravagant price at that time. Nicholas Burwell was one of the pillars in the Methodist Church at West Union. He always attended all its services week days and Sundays and never missed one. He was particularly punctual at the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. The other pillars in the church whom the writer remembers, were Abraham Hollingsworth, Adam McGovney, William R. Rape and William Allen. They were always present as well as Burwell. The latter always felt well assured of his eternal salvation. At many of the meetings, he would get very happy. He was enthusiastic in his devotion to the church. With him, it was always first. Fverything else was secondary. He was a thin spare man, wore a silk hat and went along the street with his head slightly bowed as if in a deep study. He was cordial with and genial to every one. His likes and dislikes were very strong, a trait inherited by all of his descendants. He was often given to hyperbole in common conversation, another family trait, but he was honest and an honorable man, a good citizen and a good Christian. He feared the Lord but nothing else. He was active and energetic, very fond of physical exercise. Within a few months prior to his death, he walked from Manchester to West Union. In his old age, he was as good a walker as any boy. He entered into rest in all the triumph of his faith, July 1, 1879. His wife followed him, January 14, 1885. They rest side by side in the old cemetery at West Union, waiting the sound of Gabriel's trumpet.

John Belli

was a citizen of the world. His father was a Frenchman, his mother a native of Holland, and he was born in Liverpool, England, in 1760. He received a good education in England in a military school. When he came of age, he was in Amsterdam, Holland, and received his coming off

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age papers from the estates of Holland and West Friesland. When he undertook to start to the United States, it was from Paris, France, and he had a letter of recommendation from John Jay. He came over with a Mr. Francis Bowers, of Ostend, a merchant who was bringing over goods. His letters of introduction were to Mr. Josiah Watson, of Alexandria, Va. He had been studying about the United States and had become filled with the extreme Republican notions of that time. In theory of government, he was a rabid republican ; in his own personal relations, he was an aristocrat, though he was hardly conscious of the fact. Mr. Jay, in his letter, described him as a young man worthy of trust. He came alone, without any members of his family. He landed at Alexandria, Va., in May, 1783. That was then an important seaport. He engaged in business there as a clerk at first, and afterwards as a merchant, and remained there until the spring of 1791, a period of eight years. Of his life in and Alexandria, we have no account, but he formed a number of valuable and important acquaintances in that time, among whom were Col. Alexander Parker and Gen. George Washington.

In October, 1791, Gen. Knox, then Secretary of War, sent him to the Northwest Territory on public business. What his functions were does now clearly appear, but it was of a confidential character.

On April 18, 1792, when he was in the Northwest Territory, President George Washington sent him a commission as Deputy Quartermaster on the General Staff of Wayne's Legion. This commission is in the hands of John Belli Gregory, his grandson, at Fontana, Kentucky. It is on parchment, illustrated, and bears the original 'signature of President Washington and Secretary of War, Henry Knox. The commission does not state his rank, but it was that of Major, hence his title. He went by of Pittsburg, then called Fort Pitt and down the Ohio River to Fort Washington. Gen. Knox gave him a letter dated September 30, 1791, directed to the Deputy Quartermaster at Fort Pitt, stating that he was to have transportation down the Ohio River as he was on public business of great importance. He went direct to Fort Washington, where it appears he was stationed until the time of Wayne's expedition against the Indians.

There is preserved a list of the Quartermaster's stores he had on hand at Fort Washington, November I, 1783. Mr. Gregory also has in his possession a letter addressed to Major John Belli from Gen. Anthony Wayne, in answer to one of May 3o, preceding. He tells the Major that he is glad he has been successful in purchasing cattle ; that 300 per month will be required independent of accident ; that he must forward those on hand by first escort. That he has three weeks' supply for the Legion, nor can he think of advancing with less than 600 or 800 cattle, which would not be more than ten weeks' supply, should they all arrive safe. He stated that the wagons would set out from Fort Jefferson the next morning for Fort Washington under a good escort, commanded by Major Hughes, and they were not to be delayed at Fort Washington more than forty-eight hours, to be loaded with tents, intrenching tools and axes. Also he was to send such hospital or ordinance stores as he had been provided with, together with all the hunting shirts, or shirts and tools that were in his possession. Also, that his own private stores were to be forwarded under a select guard, which he will request Major Hughes to furnish from his department.

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He was directed to use as many private teams as could be obtained which, with the use of the water transport, when a favorable rise may happen in the Miami, would enable him to forward the grain to Fort Hamilton, which the Quartermaster General bad required. He was not to lose a moment in mounting the dragoons and furnishing all the necessary accouterments. He was also to be furnished with $2,000 in specie, and $8,000 in good bank bills to be replaced by his department. He was told that every arrangement would be made by his department for a forward move ,by the first of July. He wished the Major every success in his purchases and supplies of every nature in the line of his department and signed himself, "I am sir, your most ob'dt humble serv't., Ant'y Wayne.”

As soon as the expedition was successful, Major Belli, went east and settled his accounts with the department. He returned with some $5,000 and bought 1,000 acres of land at the mouth of Turkey Creek and placed a man named Wright upon it, who cleared up a part of it, built a log house and planted an orchard. This was the first settlement in Scioto County, though the historian, James Keyes, disputes it, and says the first settlement was near Sciotoville, by the Bousers and Burts.

He laid out the town of Alexandria, at the mouth of the Scioto River and gave it its name for Alexandria, Virginia, where he had first landed in this country, and had spent eight years. He Spent considerable time in and about Alexandria as the agent of Col. Wm. Parker, for whom he located much land in Scioto County. In September, 1797, he was appointed Recorder of Adams County and held the office until October, 1803. He was a Justice of the Peace for Adams County, appointed by the Judges of the General Court, April 28, 1801, and his commission is in existence.

It seems he spent a great part of his time in Kentucky. He evidently did not and could not attend personally to the duties, of the office Recorder of Adams County.

On the twenty-first of March, 1800, he concluded some very important business in Kentucky, for on that date, he was married to Miss Cynthia Harrison, a cousin of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison. Her father Samuel Harrison, was a very prominent man in Kentucky, and a large slaveholder. He owned the site of the town of Cynthiana, Ky., and laid it out. He named it for his twin daughters, Cynthia and Anna, born just before the town was platted. On his marriage, Major John Belli moved to his land at the mouth of Turkey Creek. He named his home, “Belvedere," and he kept a carriage and horses and traveled in style. In every county of the territory, there was a Colonel of the Militia and a Major Nathaniel Massie was the Colonel of the Adams County Militia and John Belli, the Major.

On August 29, 1804, he was commissioned by Edward Tiffin, Governor of Ohio, Major of the Second Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Ohio Militia.

During the time that the town of Washington was flourishing as the county seat of Adams County, Major Belli was there much of the time. When he was absent, I do not know who attended to the duties of his office as Recorder, but have an idea it was General Darlinton, who was always ready to do anything to accommodate his neighbors.

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Major Belli had five children, four daughters and a son. His daughter Eliza was born December 3, 1809. She married Moses Gregory, October 20, 1826. Her son, John Belli Gregory, who was a citizen of Scioto County for many years, at one time, member of the Board of Public Works in this State, and afterwards its Engineer, resides at Fontana, Ky., and has kindly loaned the editor of this work the papers of Major Belli. His son, Hiram D. Gregory, is a lawyer at Covington, Ky.

Major Belli, after 1803, devoted his whole time to the improvement of his land on Turkey Creek, though he was a land owner in many places. He at one time owned a large tract near New Hope in Brown County. In 1806, he built him a large two-story frame house on his land at the mouth of Turkey Creek, but did not live to enjoy it. In October, 1809, it was taken with one of those fevers against which it seems the pioneers could not contend, and he died and was buried on the river bank near his home. His widow continued to reside there until 1838, when her home, built by the Major in 1806, was accidentally destroyed by fire. She removed to Illinois where she died in 1848. In 1865, the Major's grave was washed by the river and Mr. Gregory had his remains exhumed, and reinterred in the cemetery at Friendship. A picture of the Major is in the possession of Mr. Gregory. It represents him with powdered wig . And a continental coat, faced with red.

Major Belli was a gentleman of the old school. He never changed his dress from the style during the Revolution. While he lived among backwoodsmen, he always had his wig and queue, wore a cocked hat, coat with facings, waist coat, knee breeches, stockings and shoe buckles. His queue was carefully braided and tied with a ribbon, and this was his style of dress at all times.

While he believed himself to be a Republican, as the term was understood in his time, he had pride enough for all the aristocrats in the neighborhood. He was a disbeliever in slavery and it is thought his location in the Northwest Territory and his maintainance of his residence here, was on account of his repugnance to that peculiar institution. His wife's slaves were brought to Ohio and freed, and this through his influence.

Daniel Boyle.

John Boyle, father of our subject, was born on the banks of the river Boyne, in Ireland, a Roman Catholic. His wife, Sarah Wilson, was a reared a Presbyterian. Her father was a linen merchant, a wealthy man for his time. He never forgave his daughter for her marriage, but she adhered to her religion and converted her husband to it.

Our subject was born on the banks of the river Boyne in 1787, and emigrated to this country with his father, mother, brothers and sisters when he was eight years of age. The family located first at Shippensburg, Pa., and afterwards moved to Greensburg, in the same state, where his father died. John Boyle reared a family of nine children. Daniel , had a common school education and was apprenticed to the tin and coppersmith trade in Pittsburg. His master's name was Hampshire. At the close of his apprenticeship, in 1817, he married Margaret Cox, then residing in Pittsburg, but a native of Carlisle, Pa. Daniel Boyle worked at his trade in Pittsburg and in New York and Philadelphia. He walked from Pittsburg to Philadelphia no less than seven times. In 1819

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he came down the Ohio River from Pittsburg in a flatboat with his wife and household goods. Mr. Boyle left the boat at Manchester and came to West Union when the town was fifteen years old. He opened out the tinning business and carried it on there with the exception of a short time until near his death..

He bought a part of lot 67 on the corner of Main and Cherry Streets where he resided until his death. In 1829, he rented his premises and removed to Cincinnati where he and John Sparks kept an iron store. David Sinton was a clerk for them at a small salary. This venture was not profitable, and he returned to West Union after one year, where he continued his tinning business until 1872. When a young man, he made general trading trips to the South as was common at that time. While on one of these trips, he was an eye witness to the New Madrid earth-quake in 1811.

He was a Justice of the Peace of Tiffin Township from January 10, 1835, until 1838, and one term was sufficient for him. He possessed the strictest integrity. He was frugal and unostentatious in his manner. He always tried to do his duty by his neighbors, and in the several choler a scourges he and his family remained in the village and did all in their power to minister to the sick and dying and to aid the families of the victims. There were born to him and his wife nine children, three sons and six daughters. Of these, Sarah, the eldest daughter, resides in the old homestead. She bears the burden of years with grace and honor. She possesses that stering character of her father, hers by birthright, and is respected and honored by all who know her.

Daniel Boyle had excellent tastes. He was fond of music, being a player on the flute and clarionet. He was also a great reader and particularly of historical subjects. He took the Cincinnati Gazette from its first issue until his death. In politics, he was a Whig and a Republican. In his religious attachments, he was a member of the United Brethren Church. His faith was strong and he was devotedly attached to his religious principles. He departed this life in the peace of God, May 29, 1874. His aged wife followed him August 26, 1876. He was a just men who loved to render to every one his just dues. He left a memory of which his family can be proud and which posterity would do well to hold in lasting remembrance.

Charles Willing Byrd

was born in Westover, Charles City County, Virginia, on Monday, the twenty-sixth day of July, 177o, at one o'clock in the morning, so reads the record in the old Westover Bible. He was the second son and the seventh child of the third Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, Charles City County. His mother, Mary Willing, was born. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the tenth of September, 1740, and was the daughter of Charles Willing, and his wife, Ann Shippen, of that city. His father was a Colonel under General Washington in the early part of the Revolution, but died when his son was but seven years of age. Thus 1eft in his mother's care, she sent him at an early age to her brother-in-law. Thomas Powell. Mr. Powell, who married Mrs. Byrd's sister, was a member of the Society of Friends, and from whom Judge Byrd imbibed many of his views in regard to slavery, temperance, physical, moral and religious culture, for which views he was noted in his day. Thus we have

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the friends' ideas grafted on the old cavalier, fox hunting and rollicking, Virginia stock. One of the reasons his pious mother gave for putting her son under this influence to be educated was on account of the skepticism and infidelity that had crept into the old college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, where all the preceding Byrds who had not been educated in England, had attended college.

Judge Byrd received his entire academic and legal education in the city of Philadelphia, and was a finished scholar and a gentleman of rare polish and elegance. He pursued his law studies in Philadelphia with Gouverneur Morris. He knew intimately, through his mother's family, the Hon. Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. Directly after his admission to the bar in 1794, he went to Westover to spend the summer. There his brother-in-law, Benj. Harrison, wrote him that

Robert Morris wanted an agent to go to Kentucky and take charge of his lands there and bring them into the market ; and to any one who would do so, he would give him a salary of one thousand dollars a year, and he urged young Byrd to take the appointment and go to Kentucky at once.

He did so and Robert Morris gave him a power of attorney, the original of which is in the hands of the Judge's descendants. He went to Lexington, Kentucky, and there met the family of Col. David Meade of Chaumiere, who had removed from the estate of Maycox, Prince George County, Virginia, opposite Westover and whose family were intimate friends of the Byrds. Col. Meade had four young daughters, and it was very natural that young Byrd should fall in love with one of them, which he proceeded very promptly to do, and on the sixth day of April, 1797, which was Easter Sunday, and which Judge Byrd, in his quaint way, called the “Day of his Resurrection," he was married to Sarah Waters Meade, the second daughter of Col. David Meade. Her eldest sister married General Nathaniel MasSie, the founder of Manchester. After his marriage, he returned to Philadelphia and remained there until he was appointed by President Adams, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, which appointment was made in January, 1799. He held this munificent office at a salary of $400 a year, until he succeeded General Arthur St. Clair as Territorial Governor, and retained that position until 1802, when the State was organized and Governor Tiffin took charge on March 4, 1803. His commission as Secretary of the Territory in which he was sworn in as Secretary by Arthur St. Clair is in the possession of his family. On the third of March, 1803, he was appointed by President Jefferson, United States Judge for Ohio and held that position until his death on the eleventh day of August, 1828. During the time he was Secretary of the Northwest Territory and Federal Judge, up to June, 1807, his residence was on Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, which was then known as Byrd Street. The Presbyterian Church now stands on what was part of his home. Judge Burnet, Nicholas longworth arid George Hunt were among his many friends. The father of the late Vice President Hendricks kept a school in his vicinity. On June 8, 1807, he bought from his brother-in-law, Gen. Nathaniel Massie, a tract of six hundred acres in Monroe Township, Adams County, Ohio, being known as Buckeye Station and Hurricane Hill. He took up his residence there at once, at a point on the ridge overlooking the Ohio River, a romantic spot where there is a fine view of the Ohio both up and down stream, and under

528 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

which the river almost directly flows. He held this property until August 15, 1817, when ne conveyed it to John Ellison, Jr. In 1811, Nathaniel Massie, of Hillsboro, Ohio, lately deceased, then a boy of six years, in company with his father and mother, visited his uncle Judge Byrd at Buckeye Station. Mrs. Byrd, nee Sarah Meade, died February 21, 1815, and was buried at the Station. Judge Byrd removed to Chillicothe and lived there one year. He went to West Union in 1816 and resided there until March 16, 1823, when he removed to Sinking Spring, in Highland County, where he had bought a large tract of land and built a brick house. He resided there until his death.

While residing in West Union, on March 8, 1818, he was married to Hannah Miles, a widow with four children. He believed the water of the "Sinking Spring" in Highland County, to possess remarkable medical properties, conducive to health and longevity, and so persuaded was he of this, that he bought the property having the spring thereon and built a fine brick mansion there, which is standing to-day. It seems that notwithstanding he had been reared in the elegant home in Westover and moved in the highest circles at Philadelphia, he had a strong taste for the primitive and quiet life he found at Buckeye Station at West Union and in the wild country of Highland County. He was very strict in the observance of Sabbath and would not, on that day, ride to church on horseback. He had a very strong liking for the principles and teachings of the Shakers, as appears by his will.

Unlike the typical Virginian, he was a total abstainer from all kinds of liquor, in an age when whiskey, was pure and temperance societies unknown. He was very temperate in his eating, and guarded the digestion of his children in a manner unknown to the mothers and fathers of this day. He kept small silver scales by his plate, upon which he weighed every article of food which they ate, allowing a certain quantity of fat sugar, and phosphates, with each portion. He had peculiar ideas as to the preservation of life to longevity, and yet, died suddenly at the compartitively early age of fifty-eight, when he had never been seriously sick in his life. He was engaged in the trial of a mail robbery case when he took his final sickness. His associate, Judge Todd, of Kentucky, took sick at the same time and they both died within an hour of each of other. The cause of the death of these two judges is a mystery to this day. The children of his first marriage were all born between 1798 and 1810, and were Mary Powell, Kidder Meade, William Silonwee and Evalyn Harrison. His daughter Fvalyn married her cousin and raised a family. She has two daughters now living at Nicholasville, Mrs. Anna Letcher and Miss Jane Woodson. The children of his Second marriage were Jane and Samuel Otway, both deceased. Samuel Otway died at the age of forty-five, and left a son, William 0. Byrd, who died a few years since at the age of forty-one.

While a resident of West Union, Judge Byrd lived in the property opposite where Mrs. Sarah W. Bradford lives, and afterward in the Judge Mason property on Mulberry street, where Mr. Riley Mehaffey now lives.

Judge Byrd kept a diary from 1812 to 1827. He writes nothing about his doings in the courts, the lawyers he met, or the judges with whom he sat, but a great deal about his diet. It appears that he was a

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dyspeptic, and suffered with a disordered stomach, and that his private thoughts were largely about his diet and the better preservation of his health. He was constantly making experiments in dieting on himself and his children. He notes Judge Todd's opinion as to medicines. Had he lived in our day, he would have been called a crank. At one time, he thought river water was the best and had three barrels of it hauled to his house for his use. At another time, he thought "McClure's well in West Union was the proper water to use. At another time, he thought the water at Yellow Springs was the best, and when he became convinced that the Sinking Spring water was the best, he bought property there and made it his home. He refers to Judge John W. Campbell in his diary on the subject of grape culture only. He refers to the Rev. Dyer Burgess on Free Masonry. He speaks of his horses which he named Dolly, Paddy and Pau1. The latter was named after a blacksmith who shod them all, and who was probably an ancestor of the Pauls of Bloom Furnace. At one time, when he was riding to Chillicothe, Dolly shied at a black hog along the roadside. He then had black hogs painted on his barn door where she could shy at them at her pleasure. He, at another time, became of the opinion that ammonia was healthful, and he had a seat fixed in his barn and about spent a great deal of time there where he could inhale the fumes of it from the stable.

The judge was very fond of sauer kraut and made frequent mention of it. Another vanity of his was boiled pullet. He had a horror of bile on the stomach, of jaundice and of epilepsy, and frequently writes of these, though it does not appear that he was ever afflicted with the latter. Occasionally, he wrote about the Frie Canal and of canals projected in Ohio and frequently gave figures and statistics.

In November, 1826, he gave an item of seventeen dollars, traveling expenses from Philadelphia to Maysville, Kentucky ; five dollars for tavern bills from Pittsburg to Maysville, and eight days allowed for the trip. At times he contemplated joining the Shakers and would sit down and write in his journal his reasons pro and con. One of his reasons, con, was the weakly state of his health, which would or might render it injurious to him to take such a diet as they use, and to rise hours before day as they used to do and sit by their stoves. Evidently the Judge liked good things to eat and to lie abed of mornings. Another reason, con, was that if he joined the Shakers, Hannah could get a divorce from him under the laws of Kentucky, and could marry again and probably would, and that would be sinful in her. Evidently he did not consider the sin of leaving Hannah and his family. His son, Samuel, said that his whole idea of the Shakers arose from a disordered stomach, which was no doubt true. Here is a tribute to hiS wife: "Mrs. Byrd. this morning after sunrise and before ten o'clock in the morning, April 23, 1827, after dressing and washing herself, got breakfast, consisting of excellent coffee, with hot bread and butter, milked three cows, disposing of the milk in the unusa1 way ; washed up the breakfast things ; made three pies ; dressed and washed the little boy (Samuel) ; made up other bread, working it over a great deal, setting it away to rise a first and second time ; and churned our butter; all these nine several things after she was dressed and had washed her face and hands, between sunrise 2.nd ten o'clock in the morn-

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ing, and without any help from Catherine or any. one else." We pause to inquire where the Judge was and what he was doing all the time he was making these observations. We very much suspect he was in bed.

August 22, 1822, he writes that he has put $1,400 in the hands of William Russell, to trade in, to be invested in merchandise, the profits of which he was to account for on fair and just principles and the money was to remain in his hands for four years. He writes that Mr. Russell had purchased $4,000 worth of merchandise and expected it on in one week's time. The same day he wrote that Mr. Sparks stated that in two months last past, he had sold $3,000 worth of goods. On February 26, 1822, he wrote that he had bought 39 1/4 pounds of beet sugar at 27 ½ cents per pound.

On December 19, 1822, he made an estimate that a single man may dress decently for thirty-three dollars per annum, including washing, mending, shoes, handkerchiefs and a hat, and for thirty-seven dollars, he may, if he lives in a rented room, with another, get his whole living in addition, his rented room, his washing, his bedding, and his bread and water, included, full total, seventy dollars. What a thing for our young men to look back to, that the young man of 1827 could live for seventy dollars a year. On February 26, 1823, he was living on venison at two cents a pound. Mutton, at the same time, was four and a half cents a pound. It was then fifteen days' passage to Maysville from New Orleans, and that it cost fifteen dollars to go from Maysville to Pittsburg. On June 10, 1822, he devotes two full pages to General Darlinton's, Mr. William Russell's, and Judge Campbell's culture of grapes. In June, 1822, he writes that it takes Paul, the smith, an hour to make nails and fit a pair of shoes and put them on, the shoes being made previously. He devoted a great deal of space in his journals to his children. His objection to a frame house, he wrote, was that it was an ice house in winter and an oven in summer, which has a tendency to produce derangement of the bowels. The Judge had the house at Buckeye Station in view when he wrote that. He gives a great deal of good advice to his children, but it is so much like what has been stated that we leave it out.

I have endeavored from the light afforded me, which is meager, to form an estimate of the character of Charles Willing Byrd, first United States Judge in Ohio. There are some strange contradictions in it. Had his father lived, there is no doubt he would have been reared a typical Virginian of the first families, But his father dying at the age of forty-nine, when he was but seven years of age, and his mother being a Philadelphian and having brothers and sisters living there, he was sent to Philadelphia and placed under the care and instruction of a Quaker who it seems had sufficient influence to mould his character. It was there he received his ideas against the use of liquors and against human slavery. His ideas of Republican simplicity were partly from his own and partly Mr. Jefferson, his personal friend and friend of his father and mother, I have not been able to secure any of his writings except his will, and some of his journals.

That he was a gentleman in the fullest, highest and the purest sense of the term, there can be no doubt. A tinge of sadness was no doubt cast upon his life by the death of his father, and the extraordinary and almost

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inconsolable grief of his mother, which he was compelled to witness. His habits of prudent economy can be attributed to the fact that his father's estate was largely impaired by debts made by a course of liberal and reckless living incident to his day.

He had been a witness to the curse of slavery in Virginia, of its wastefulness and destruction of fine estates and that embittered him against the institution. Then his instruction in Philadelphia was that the institution was a positive sin. His mother was compelled to live in a less expensive house in order to extinguish the debts of his father and that intended to impress upon him the importance of economy and simplicity in living.

When he went to Kentucky, a young man of twenty-seven years, it was natural that he should visit the friend and neighbor of his father, on James River, Virginia, Col. David Meade, then living at Chaumiere Du Prairie, nine miles from Lexington. It was quite natural that he should be well received there and that he should fall in love with and marry the daughter of Col. Meade, whose social standing and his own were equal.

It was natural that he should receive the appointment of Secretary of the Northwest Territory from President John Adams. From, one of the best families of Virginia and protege of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, that followed.

It was natural that he should receive the appointment of United States Judge from Jefferson, for the latter knew him as a scion of one of the most prominent families of Virginia, and in sympathy with his Republican notions of simplicity, which he had imported from France and which were much in vogue in those days.

There is, however, one feature of his character I cannot understand. He had been residing in Cincinnati on Fifth Street from 1798 till 1807. His eldest child was but nine years of age and he had five younger. He bought a tract of 700 acres of land in the then wilderness of Adams County and moved there, where he resided till 1815, or about that time. Why he should want to take his wife and young children into this wilderness, when he had a life position, which required him to discharge his duties in the large cities, seems strange

Judge Campbell, one of his successors, when appointed, resided in County but moved to Columbus where he was required to hold court. On the other hand, Judge Byrd, after having occupied his office for four years, removed to the country and continued to reside there for the remaining twenty-one years for which he held the office of Judge. At Buckeye Station, he could see all the steamboats or craft which passed up and down the river and could take boats to Cincinnati or points up the river. Being a Virginian he loved the country, as the English, their ancestors do, and have always done. At that day, few, if any, Virginian gentlemen would live in cities or towns, who could live in the country.

Why he removed to West Union in 1815, we cannot conjecture, unless on account of the death of his wife, he desired to see more of society. He resided in Chillicothe for one year, but did not seem to like that place and returned to West Union. In traveling from his home to hold his courts, he went from West Union through Dunbarton, Locust Grove and Bainbridge to Chillicothe. Sinking Springs was on his route, and hav-

532 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

ing tasted the water there, he became satisfied there were some wonderful qualities in it, though it was not considered peculiar before, nor has anyone since Judge Byrd's time regarded it as anything extraordinary. He however, had the water brought to him at West Union for some time and finally purchased the property on which the spring is located, built a home there, which was an extraordinary one for his clay, and resided there until his death.

The home is still standing and till lately was occupied by his grandson, William Otway Byrd. The neighborhood of Sinking Springs was, in 1825, much more remote from haunts of men than Buckeye station and why Judge Byrd, who had been reared in the most elegant society, and in his youth and young manhood had moved in the best circles of Virginia and in the city of Philadelphia, then the metropolis of the United States, who had moved in the best society in Cincinnati, should want to seclude hmself and family in the wilds of Highland County, seems unaccountable.

His childish and youthful ideas of religion were derived from two sources, that of his father and mother who were attached to the Episcopal Church, and from his uncle, Mr. Powell, of Philadelphia, who was a Quaker.

It seemed the Quaker ideas predominated with him, and at the time he wrote his will he appeared to think the Shakers had the true ideas of religion.

None of his decisions have been reported. McLean's Reports do not begin until 1829, the year after his death, and no reports on his circuit were published during this time.

He sat in the celebrated case of Jackson vs. Clark, 1st Peters:, page 666, when it was tried in Columbus, Ohio, in July, 1826, and the decision of the Circuit Court was affirmed in the Supreme Court.

The generation which knew Judge Byrd personally and that which followed him has passed away and thus the avenues to a knowledge of the character are closed. Had any of his decisions been reported, or had we any of his writings, or were there extant any of the books he had written, we could judge of him is very meagre but as it is, our judgment of him is very and narrow. Tradition tells us that he was learned in the law and had the training of a complete and thorough education. He was evidently a good judge, or we should have heard to the contrary. He must have had a large capacity for business, or Robert Morris would never have entrusted him with an important mission on his own private business in Kentucky. President John Adams had a good opinion of him and his abilities or he would not have appointed him Secretary of the Northwest Territory. President Thomas Jefferson must have had a good opinion of him or he would not have made him United States Judge.

Stephen Wilson Compton

was born September 25, 1800, in Harrison County, Kentucky. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Harper) Compton. His parents emigrated from Virginia in 1790. His mother's (Elizabeth Harper) father was the original proprietor of Harper's Ferry in Jefferson County Virginia. Samuel Compton settled in Adams County where Dunkinville now stands in about 1806. When old enough to be apprenticed, he was

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indentured to William Roff; of West Union, to learn the saddler's trade and served out his indenture. At the end of his apprenticeship, he traveled about and worked at different places, including Newport, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, which then had a population of only 20,000 people. When in Cincinnati, he worked on Main Street when there was only one building on it, on the west side of the street between Fourth and Fifth Streets, the old Presbyterian Church.

He married Harriet Donalson at Manchester in 1826 and settled that in town. He engaged in the saddler's business there in all its branches and carried it on there until 1844. He was a rapid and expert workman is in his business. Owing to the sparsely settled condition of the country, he sometimes made more work than he sold, and then he would travel about and dispose of it by barter, trading with the merchants and taking their goods in exchange for his work, as much of the business of that time was transacted in that way, owing to the scarcity of money.

In 1844 he bought a farm near Winchester and removed to it and remained there until 1857 when he removed to the vicinity of Hillsboro. He resided in Highland County until 1860 when he removed to a small farm in Harveysburg, Warren County, Ohio. He had seven children, all of whom lived to maturity. His oldest son was named Israel Donalson, after his wife's father. He entered the service of his country on the fourteenth of August, 1862, in the 79th O. V. I. as First Lieutenant of Co. H, at the age of 33. He died at Gallatin, Tennessee, December 31, 1862.

His daughter, Ann F., married William Crissman and lives near Eckmansville, Ohio.

Samuel W. lives at Fayette, Fulton County, Ohio. He enlisted at the age of 28, on the nineteenth of April, 1861, in Co. F, 2d O. V. I., for three months' service, and was mustered out June 19, 1861. On the same day he enlisted for three years in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., and served until the first day of July, 1864.

A daughter, Mary J., unmarried, lives at Stout's P. O., Ohio.

Another daughter, Carrie, married J. N. Patton, and lived in Washington D. C. She died some three years ago.

A son, Joseph William, now a clerk in the Postoffice Department in Washington, D. C., enlisted in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., for three months' service, on June 19, 1861, at the age of twenty-one. He was mustered on July 11, 1864.

The youngest son, John Donalson Compton, who is Deputy United States Marshal at Covington, Kentucky, living at Dayton, Kentucky, enlisted in Co. F, 12th O. V. I., January 28, 1861, for three years and was transferred to Co. H, 23rd O. V. I., July i, 1864. In July, 1864, the 12^th O. V. I. was consolidated with the 23rd O. V. I. and the new organization called the 23rd O. V. I. He was discharged from this service August 8, 1865. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Compton's four sons all served in the army in the Civil War.

In 1866, he sold his farm in Warren County and removed to Stout's P. O. in Adams County, and engaged in the grocery business. He was postmaster and resided there until his death in 1882, at the age of eighty-two He is buried at Manchester, Ohio. His widow survived him until 1893, when she died at the age of eighty.

534 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY

He always tok an active interest in politics, but never sought or held any public office with the single exception of school trustee. He felt a great interest in education, desiring to provide the advantages which were denied him in his childhood. He had no school education but was able to keep his accounts and correspondence very creditably. He was first a Whig and afterward a Republican when the latter party was formed. He was very loyal during the war and had no toleration for those who were not. He was anxious that all his sons should serve their country and while he could not go in the service himself, he did all he could to promote the comfort of those in the field and to aid and encourage them in their services. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and lived up to all that implies. He was a man of strict integrity, honorable in all his dealings and in his intercourse with his fellow men. He had the respect and good will of the entire community in which he resided. He was a useful citizen and his life's work is best exemplified in his sons and daughters, who are all honorable and useful members in the community.

John Campbell.

The earliest ancestor of which we have any account was Duncan Campbell, of Argyleshire, Scotland. He married Mary McCoy in 1612 and removed to Londonerry in Ireland the same year. He had a son John Campbell, who married in 1655, Grace Hay, daughter of Patrick Hay, Esq., of Londonderry. They had three sons, one of whom was Robert, born in 1665, and who, with his sons, John, Hugh and Charles Campbell, emigrated to Virginia in 1696, and settled in that part of Orange County afterward incorporated in Augusta. The son, Charles Campbell, was born in 1704, and died in 1778. In. 1739, he was married to Mary Trotter. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was the historian of Virginia. His son, William, born in 1754, and died in 1822, was a soldier of the Revolution, and as such had a distinguished record as a General at King's Mountain and elsewhere. He married Elizabeth Willson, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, a member of the distinguished Willson family. They had eleven children. Their son, Charles, was born December 28, 1779, and died September 26, 1871. He was married September 20, 1803, to Elizabeth Tweed, in Adams County. He had five sons. The third was John Campbell, of Ironton, born January 14, 1808, in Adams County, Ohio.

The Willson family intermarried with the Campbell family, who also have a distinguished record. Colonel John Willson, born in 1702, and died in 1773, settled near Fairfield, then Augusta County, Virginia, was a Burgess of that county for twenty-seven years. He once his held court where Pittsburgh now stands. His wife, Martha, died in 1755, and both are buried in the Glebe burying ground in Augusta County, Virginia. His brother, Thomas, had a daughter, Rebekah, born in 1728, and died in 1820, who married James Willson, born in 1715 and died in 1809. This James Willson, with his brother, Moses, was found when a very young boy in an open boat in the Atlantic Ocean. They were accompanied by their mother and a maid. The mother died at the moment of rescue and the maid a few moments after. The captain of the rescuing ship brought the boys to this country where they grew up, married and spent their lives.

PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 535

James Willson had a large family of sons and daughters. His daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1758 and died February 27, 1832, married William Campbell, the Revolutionary General. Her brother, Moses, was father of Dr. William B. Willson, of Adams County, who has a sketch in this work, and also of James S. Willson, the father of Dr. William Finley Willson, who also has a sketch herein. Judge John W. Campbell, United States District Judge, who has a sketch herein was a son of the Revolutionary General, William Campbell, who removed from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790 and from Kentucky to Adams County, Ohio, in 1798. Our subject was a resident of Adams County from his birth until 1857, when that portion of Adams County where he resided was placed in Brown County. He was reared on his father's farm and received what education he could obtain at home. He clerked for his uncle, William Humphreys, who had married his father's sister, Flizabeth, at Ripley, in 1828. After learning enough of the business, as he thought, he induced his uncle to go in partnership with him and they started a store at Russellville, Ohio. Here John was popular with every one and would have succeeded, but the place and business was too slow for him. He had $600 up and he sold out the business and put his capital in the steamboat, “Banner," of which he became clerk. The boat was in the Cincinnati and Pittsburg trade. After his second trip on the steamboat, he made up his mind that was not his vocation. While coming down the river on this trip he met Robert Hamilton, the pioneer master of the Hanging Rock iron region and made inquiries for any opening in the iron business. Mr. Hamilton invited him to get off at Hanging Rock. He left the boat and accepted a clerkship at Pine Grove Furnace. This was in 1832. Mr. Campbell was anxious to stand well in the estimation of Mr. Hamilton. Shortly before his steamboat venture, he had met in Ripley, a young lady named Elizabeth Clarke, niece of Mr. Hamilton's wife. He fell in love with her. She made her home with her aunt, Mrs. Hamilton, who was a daughter of John Ellison and a sister of William Ellison, of Manchester. Naturally, Mr. Campbell would accept an invitation to go to Pine Grove Furnace. He was ambitious to succeed as a business man and he believed he could do so under Mr. Hamilton's teaching. He wanted to marry his niece, who stood to Mr. Hamilton as a daughter. He succeeded in both purposes. The next year, 1833, he took an interest with Mr. Hamilton in building the Hanging Rock Forge at Hanging Rock. The same year he and Andrew Ellison built Lawrence Furnace for the firm of J. Riggs & Co. This year was formed the celebrated partnership of Campbel1, Ellison & Company, of which he was a partner and which continued in existence until 1865. In 1834, he and Robert Hamilton built Mt. Vernon Furnace and he moved there and became its manager. The furnace was the property of Campbell, Fllison & Company for thirty years and largely the source of the fortunes made by the members of that firm.