324 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

URBANA AND URBANA TOWNSHIP.

BY J. W. OGDEN.

(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE)

A sketch of the settlement and prosperity of the city of Urbana, and of the territory bearing the same name, would be, substantially, a record of the county in all the features which underlie its growth. The county was organized in 1805, and, in the same year, surveys were made and lots laid off, by Joseph C. Vance, on Section 23, for which William Ward held a patent. The town, as originally platted, contained 212 inlots, 6 rods in front abutting streets and running back 10 rods, and two tiers of lots on the western border and one tier on the southern border, aggregating twenty-two lots, ranging in size from an acre and a half to two acres, with suitable streets. Lots No. 201 and 202 were donated for educational and religious purposes, but were used, in part, for a burial-ground.

As was customary at that early day, and which found many followers in the Western territory, the center of the newly-made town was made an open space, called "the square," composed of four fractional lots, six rods square. This space was intended, probably, less for ornament and the uses of a park than as convenience for countrymen who should bring in the products of their farms, for sale, or who desired a convenient place to secure their. teams. Be this as it may, "the square " was made the "camping ground" for the surrounding country for many years, and, as the county became the more settled, was the more filled with wagons of wood, hay and other farm products.A few rods north of the center was a deep well, from which water was drawn by a windlass, in an old "iron-bound bucket," which, from its constant use, was never suffered to become "moss-covered."

The proportions of the public square and the extent of the newly surveyed village do not suggest the suspicion of great expectations. William Ward, the proprietor, was originally from Greenbrier, Va., and, with several of his neighbors, some years before, had settled in this district. He had an "eye for a farm," and, in the almost untrodden wilderness, with unerring sagacity, saw and selected for himself choice tracts of land.

By the third section of the act defining the boundaries of the county, the temporary seat of justice was fixed at the house of George Fithian, in Springfield, where the first court was held. Court was afterward held at the rapids of the Maumee, though there is no record of the fact, and the statement rests only on hearsay testimony. The seat of justice being removed to Urbana in 1807, a log house on Lot No. 174, on Court Street, afterward occupied as a dwelling-house by Mr. Duncan McDonald, was used as a court-room. The old court house has been removed, and on its site stands the livery stables of Mr. Samuel Marvin. The jail was erected on Lot No. 107, now called the Lawson property.

George Fithian, Joseph C. Vance and Simon Kenton were the first settlers in the village. Thomas Pearce, father of Mr. Harvey Pearce, before the town was laid out, built a log cabin on what is now the market space, and cultivated a field many years on the north side of Scioto street, near East Lawn avenue. George Fithian opened a tavern in a hewed-lag house where Grace Methodist Episcopal Church now stands.

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 325

Joseph C. Vance, father of Joseph Vance, who afterward served many years in Congress, and was subsequently Governor of the State, was appointed Clerk of the Court, which office he filled until he died, in 1809. In 1806, the inn of George Fithian was changed into a "store," the first in the place, by Mr. Samuel McCord. The cabin was afterward enlarged and weather-boarded, and occupied for many years as a residence and jewelry store, by William Thomas, and, more recently, as a dwelling-house, by Warren Holding. In 1878, it passed into the hands of the Society of the Second Methodist Episcopal Church, and its razing was watched by a large crowd with great interest, as the removal of one of the old landmarks. The generations since the days of Thomas the Clockmaker had supposed the building to be only a weather boarded "frame" or "balloon" structure, and were surprised to see, beneath the " veneering " of the poplar sheeting, the well-hewed log house. As the work of destruction went on, a bystander, one of the "oldest settlers," remarked that on the north side would be found an open space, made by the removal of part of one of the logs, for the purpose of light, and afterward used as a shelf, on which the " bottles of corn juice " called for at the bar were kept. The open space was soon made visible, but not a drop of "Old Monongahela " had been left as a memento of the old tavern and store, or as a sample of the "drink" of our forefathers. On the site of the old tavern now stands a beautiful church.

In the coming century, when progress shall declare the structure of to-day too straitened in its proportions, and luxury, smiling at the "simplicity" of the past, shall tear down, to build up a nobler temple of worship, curious crowds will again gather around to speculate on what may be found, and weary in seeking to decipher the almost obliterated papers and manuscripts beneath the corner-stone.

The first Methodist Episcopal Church was on Inlot No. 207, on the corner of Locust and Ward streets, where James Hendley now lives.

The first schoolhouse was a log cabin on the knoll on the north side of Scioto street, about forty rods east of the corner of East Lawn avenue, and was known as "College Hill." The cabin was built by Thomas Pearce, for a family residence, in 1804. The teachers in this cabin were Peter Oliver and William Stephens.

Fabian Engle opened the first store on the Springfield road, at about halfway between the present dwellings on the Newell and Dallas farms.

John Reynolds and William Ward erected the first grist-mill in 1814, connecting with it carding and fulling, which was the foundation of the present woolen factory of Messrs. Henry Fox & Co.

The first marriage license was issued to Daniel Harr and Elizabeth Ross, dated May 28, 1805. Both lived to an honored old age, and saw their children's children to the third generation.

The first deed recorded was executed by Samuel Wheeler to Timothy Woods, in Mad River Township, March 2, 1805, and was recorded by Joseph C. Vance, September 30, 1805.

The. first frame house built in Urbana was by John Reynolds, on the northeast corner of what is now called the " Weaver House," and subsequently the frame building on the southeast side of the public square, adjoining the brick store-house of Messrs. Hitt, White & Mitchell, and now occupied as photograph rooms and grocery. Mr. Reynolds used the building for his dwelling-house and had a store-room on the corner.

326 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

Christopher McGill was born in 1802, in a cabin on the farm of John H. Young, now within the city limits, and J. H. Patrick, in 1811, in a cabin near the place where Mrs. Keller's residence now stands. Dr. E. P. Fyffe was the first child born in town.

Among the first settlers in the village, in addition to those mentioned, were Samuel McCord, Zephaniah Luce, William H. Fyffe, William and John Glenn, Frederick Ambrose, John Reynolds, Edward W. Pearce, and others. In 1811, the population of the town comprised forty-five families. Among these were, besides the above, Benjamin Doolittle, Joseph Hedges, Mrs. Fitch, Dr. Davidson, Alex. Doke, George Hite, Job Gard, Alex. McComsey, John Shryach, Randel Sargent, N. Carpenter, John Frizzle, Joseph Vance, Frederic Gump, David Vance, David Parkison, Lawrence Niles, James Fithian, Wilson Thomas (colored), Toney (colored), Peter Carter (colored), Daniel Helmick, Nathaniel Pickard, Isaac Robinson, John Gilmore, Anthony Patrick, Jacob Thorp, William Powell, ---- Stout, Samuel Trewett, John Huston, Daniel Harr and Henry Bacon. The names of a number of these men will probably recur again in our sketch.

The first court met in the house of George Fithian, in Springfield; Francis Dunlevy, President Judge, and John Reynolds, Samuel McCulloch and John Runyon, Associate Judges; Arthur St. Clair, Prosecuting Attorney; John Daugherty, Sheriff Joseph C. Vance, Clerk. One of the incidents connected with the first court, was the return of the Sheriff on a writ of capias, issued against Philip Jarbo and Simon Kenton, for the recovery of a debt for which Kenton had become surety. The return of the Sheriff on the writ- was "Found Philip Jarbo, and have his body in court; found Simon Kenton, but he refuses to be arrested,"-and he was not arrested. We can readily believe that the high regard in which Kenton was held by the court and officers sufficiently explains why he was not punished for his contumacy.

The first jail was on Market street, east of South Main street. Simon Kenton was the jailor about the year 1811, and was at the same time on the jail bonds for a surety debt, and was therefore his own jailor.

The first municipal election was held in 1816, Simon Kenton, Anthony Patrick and George Hite being the judges.

The house on Court street, before mentioned, continued to be occupied as a court house until a new one was built in the public square in 1814. The new court house was constructed of brick, and at that time was considered a spacious building. The main, or rather the only, entrance faced the south. The courtroom was on the first floor, on the north part of the building. A hall led from the main entrance into the court-room, and on each side of this hall were the Clerk and Recorder's offices. The other county offices were in the second story, part of which was also used as a Masonic lodge. Although perhaps the most pretentious house in the village, the rooms were, in fact, small, dingy and unsafe, and the walls, more especially of the ante-room or main entrance and stairway, sadly defaced by the scrawls, marks and "flourishes " of "young America." The court-room was also used as a city hall, and was the place of all public and political meetings, and for the town and township elections. As no fence surrounded the building, and the main entrance always open, access to the stairway and belfry was easy and free to all, and the bell rope, reaching to the lower floor, was made to do service for all public meetings, and was rung to convene the court, for political meetings, for church, school and fires. In the belfry a heavy club was kept to be used in giving an alarm of fire, or to "toll "

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 327

when a death happened. The last time the bell was tolled for a funeral, was on the occasion of the burial of " Old Squire Thomas, " as he was commonly called and known, of Salem Township. The practice had been growing into disuse, but a party of boys were in the belfry at the time spoken of, when one of them struck the bell with the heavy beetle. This was repeated a few times, and then being too late to cease, the tolling was continued until the grave was closed. The old bell was broken in taking down the house, and was replaced by the bell which now swings in the new court house on the corner of Court and North Main, of about the same tone and caliber.

The old structure was removed in 1840, about the time of the completion of the court house on the site and forming part of the present building. The old house had one quality-so rare in these later days as to make one suspect it to be one of the lost arts-a first-class job of brick work and masonry. The walls were evidently made "to stay," and the bricks were held so tenaciously by the cement, that each particular brick had to be broken loose and dressed with the trowel. A section of one of the walls being thrown down, remained unbroken, and came down with a ^" thud " like a dead-fall. We may be the more surprised at this, as the formula in use with masons when the old house was built, and for many years afterward, was one-third each of sand, lime and clay. When the house was erected, Judge William Patrick carried the first hod of brick to begin the work, and when it was being torn down carried the first hod-load away.

The house in the public square was superseded, in 1810, by a brick building on the northwest corner of Court and North Main streets, on the site of the present structure, of which it forms a material part. This building at the time of its erection, was deemed amply sufficient for all purposes incident to a court house, for many years; but no long experience clearly indicated the house to be not only unsafe from fire, but too small for the increasing business of the county. The question of tearing down and rebuilding a house, convenient in arrangement, ample in size for present and future requirements, secure from waste by fire and creditable to the county, was discussed at some length and with considerable warmth, and was finally submitted to a vote of the people, and rejected. With the rebuilding of a court house, the construction of another jail was closely connected. For many years, the old jail, located on the same premises as the court house, had been declared by nearly every grand jury as discreditable to the humanity of the age, badly ventilated, dark, verminous, unhealthy and oftentimes crowded. Such being the admitted facts, the result of the election gave general surprise in the city ; but the further fact was that the " rural districts " were in no humor for an expensive house. It was currently believed, that back of the proposed improvements were radical changes, involving heavy expenditures without corresponding benefits, the sale or exchange of the present premises for others, on the plea of more spacious grounds, and an unbroken front of mercantile establishments, a sale uncalled for and unnecessary, a project worked up by some one who had "corner lots" for sale, and that the law empowered the Commissioners of the county to invest a sum of money in alterations and repairs, amply sufficient to meet the requirements of the case, without the sanction of a popular vote. The above explains the reason of the vote on the proposition submitted to the people by the Commissioners. Accepting the vote as final, the latter remodeled and enlarged the building in 1880, making it substantially fire-proof, and containing all the supposed necessary room and facilities for the transaction of the official business of the county for the next

328 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

hundred years. The exterior of the altered house was a model of architectural proportions, the portico supported by Ionic columns of rare merit, and the building modeled after the style of Grecian art, a kind of architecture which has singularly marked the public buildings of modern Republics. The remodeled building had in view space, comfort, convenience and safety, without regard to style of architecture. While these are said to be fully secured, though the building can hardly be called hideous as an object of art, it can with as little propriety lay claim to architectural beauty.

The "iron-handled " pump, on the north side of the house in the "square," before mentioned, a kind of public property, in which the teamsters of the county claimed a prescriptive right, was preserved and kept in use long after the building was removed. But the "town pump," in the progress of events, was made to give way to the changed order of things. What should be done to relieve the blankness of the open space, was long a mooted question.

"Long time ago," a liberty pole, surmounted with a brush, did impartial justice in flaunting the bunting of rival parties, and, on the `glorious Fourth," "flung out the star-spangled banner to the breeze." Beneath its shade, the traveling peddler cracked his jokes and sold his lotions and patent pills. Here the politician, on a platform improvised from a neighboring store-box, harangued the multitude and " saved the country," and here the " boys," when the election returns came in, brought out the cannon and the big drum, and with the smoke and smell of tar barrel and pine box, and unearthly yell, made night hideous in honor of the occasion. Here the "holiday" soldiers held their dress parade, " trailed arms, carried arms, and charged. the. bayonet." But all would not do.

The open place still had its unfinished appearance, and the feasibility of bringing the springs from "Buckeye " White's hill to grace the "square " with a living fountain, was freely entertained. But in this, as in other things, the old adage was verified, that " the business of everybody is nobody's business," and the project ended in talk. That was the time before the Holly Works were thought of. In the meantime, the civil war was inaugurated and ended, and Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and the March to the Sea made part of the record of the citizen-soldiers of Champaign in the contest. To commemorate the result, private subscription erected a granite monument, surmounted by a bronze figure, representing a returned soldier looking down on the graves of his comrades who lost their lives in the slaveholder's rebellion. By common consent, the term "Public Square," has been superseded by the significant and more appropriate " Monument Square."

It may not here be inappropriate to recall the names of the Judges of the court who sat in the "old temple " and the new, and dispensed justice with impartial hand, and of the bar, who, with " silver tongue of ready utterance," sought to make the wrong appear the better reason, or with honest purpose and manly courage, maintained their client's cause. Material changes have been made since that day. both in the organization of the court and in the general practice of attorneys. The Justices' bench was composed of one President Judge, supposed to be learned in the law, and three Associate Justices, taken from the body of the county, and selected for their good sense and integrity rather than for their legal acquirements. The office of Judge was one of appointment, which was superseded afterward by election by the people, and the office of Associate Judge legislated out of existence, in 1852. Occasionally, the President Judge, when the cases involving questions of law were disposed of,

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 329

would leave the unfinished business, which was more of the character of the work that now comes before the County Commissioners or Probate Judge, for disposition by his Associates. The latter naturally deferred to the opinion of the Chief Justice. We shall not attempt to give the names of all the Judges and attorneys who played their little part in the two halls of justice, but among them were men of rare ability and character. Among these were Joseph R. Swan, of Columbus, who for many years presided over this judicial district with great distinction and honor, and better known throughout the State for his invaluable "Treatise " touching the laws, duties and forms, appertaining to the office of Justice of the Peace. His legal knowledge and judicial integrity are too well remembered to require comment, and the younger members of the bar remember with grateful pleasure his patient courtesy and kindly suggestions in cases of embarrassment and hesitancy, and his readiness to show fair play between the supercilious and snubbing old practitioner and the unskilled novice at the bar. He retired from the bench about the year 1816, when the office was made elective, and continued his residence in Columbus, where he still lives, in an honored old age, revered by all who know him, and we reflect the common sentiment in saying that Ohio never had an abler or a better man. At the time he was on the bench he was a man of good size, of rounded and full form, a little stoop-shouldered ; a well-defined and strongly marked face, with a cast of the mouth, nose and marks in the forehead which indicated, to a stranger, severity. On the bench, it bore the impress of serious business, which probably gave this cast to his face. The voice was pleasant, though a little nasal in its tone, and just loud enough to be heard. He entered the court-room and upon his duties quietly, totally free from any self-conscious ness, spoke a pleasant word to those about him, as he took his seat, and, by his quiet dignity, commanded a decorum and stillness in the court-room which were enforced in after days by specific rulings.

After the court was removed to its present location, he "put up " during the session at the Hamilton House, a temperance inn kept by John Hamilton, the two-story brick tavern still bearing the name, and opposite the court house. His custom was, every morning before the opening of the court, and sometimes in the evening, to walk as far as the "Nutwood " farm of William Ward, now the property of Ab C. Jennings, and, in these morning walks, the writer of this paper was not infrequently invited to accompany him. The talk was generally rambling, but in which " the law " or legal questions had no part. On one occasion, the talk was of a very able effort made in the court-room on the previous day, by a young attorney, when he added to the comments, " I have heard him many times, and never heard him say a foolish thing."Rather a hard hit at the tyros generally, but the same young man has since become one of the most brilliant and successful lawyers in Ohio. On another occasion, the talk ran on the first sermon preached the evening before, by Thomas Coleman, a young clerk of town, who had been licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church. "Tom " had been a little wild, was not a man of learning, had a showy way of presenting a thought, and was a very clever imitator of the voice, gestures and mannerism of William B. Christie. The discourse was criticized with some little severity, and, when it was ended, he replied, " There was also another side to be looked at," and reviewed the discourse with impartial justice. It was then thought to be intended as a gentle rebuke of an ungenerous criticism, but a better acquaintance gave assurance that it was simply his habit of looking at a subject on all sides, and seeing the strong and weak points of the subject matter presented to his thoughts.

330 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

The Associate Justices during the administration of Judge Swan were James Dallas, James Smith (who was succeeded by John Taylor) and Elisha Berry. These all were men of sterling sense and integrity. Judge Dallas was a Protestant Irishman of superior ,common sense, and-a man of positive convictions, and who did not hesitate to express them as positively. Judge Smith came to Champaign in 1813, and lived one miles west of town. Judge Berry was quiet and unassuming, a good citizen, neighbor and friend. Judge Taylor still survives, at the ripe old age of eighty-five, and now lives in Defiance County. He afterward represented Defiance County in the Senate of Ohio. Judge Tayfor was "fornenst " the popular sentiment in politics, and made himself obnox ious by his uncompromising Democracy and his hostility to Whigism. In the readjustment of parties growing out of the secession doctrines, he joined the Republican ranks with the same enthusiasm he once labored for the Democracy. He boasts of having shaken hands with every Governor of Ohio.

Judge Swan was succeeded by Judge Torbert, of Springfield, who died after a few years of service on the bench, the associates being Judge William Patrick, Edward L. Morgan and Elisha C. Berry. They were all "old settlers." Judge Morgan resided in Salem Township, and was an active citizen in all matters relating to the public interests, and universally held in high esteem for bis intrinsic virtues. Judge Patrick was the son of Anthony Patrick, who emigrated into Champaign among the first pioneers. Ile alone survives of the number, and is one of the very few links remaining to connect the present with the early settlement of the State. His vigorous pen has repeatedly done good service in behalf of questions of public interest. When Mayor of the city of . Urbana, he was instrumental in having the road to the cemetery shaded on either side bv trees, and with pardonable pride watches the growth and safety of the maples and forest trees that line the streets-the glory and beauty of the city.

When the "old house" was new, the modes of travel were vastly different from what they are now. The stage-coach was too uncertain ; buggies were not common, and horseback-riding was the ordinary mode of travel from one town to another. In traveling the circuit, Judge Swan usually traveled in a kind of sulky, drawn by a pied horse-not a very handsome beast, whatever its merits as to horse-flesh. The members of the bar generally traveled on horseback, carrying saddlebags, an overcoat rolled up and strapped on behind the saddle, and with a piece of cloth about three-fourths of a yard square buttoned around the lower part of the leg and tied with a string below the knee. These were called "leggings," and were commonly well spattered with mud. The profession about equally divided their favors between the Exchange and the Hamilton House, and were received with a deference and treated with ceremonious consideration not altogether in harmony with the " Fifteenth Amendment." The law practice has greatly changed since that day. The names of Edward W. Pierce and Henry Bacon have already been mentioned. Bacon and C. P. Holcomb were resident attorneys for a time only. Pierce was said to be a man of learning and talents, but given to melancholy, and, in the winter of 1816, was found dead in the woods between Urbana and Springfield. The resident lawyers who practiced in the former house were Moses B. Corwin, Jaines Cooley, William Bayles, Daniel S. Bell, John H. James, Israel Hamilton, Richard. McNamar. George B. Way. Samuel V. Baldwin and John H. Young. Possibly, here John A. Corwin made his first law argument. McNamar, Way, Baldwin and Young also could not have been longer than a year or two. They

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 331

all carried their green bags and cases into the house of 1840. Then the lawyers traveled the circuit, going from one court to another, as business, or the hopes of business, called. Logan County sent Anthony Casad, Hiram McCartney, Richard S. Canby, Benjamin Stanton and William Lawrence; Clarke furnished William A. Rodgers, Charles Anthony and Samson Mason. John W. Andrews came occasionally from Franklin; and Mercer, Union and Miami each had a representative. They had jolly times then among the lawyers, and the best story-teller always had an appreciative audience.. A majority of these were young men, just pushing their way into public recognition, and, with the exception, perhaps, of Charles Anthony and Samson Mason, none had reached their prime. Such an array of legal ability is not often found. It is not our purpose to go outside of Champaign County, but we cannot forbear our tribute to the memory of William A. Rodgers, who died shortly afterward-the quiet, unassuming gentleman, the scholarly lawyer, whose opinion settled legal doubts. He was always cheerful, pleasant and communicative, but usually sat back, with eyes half closed, apparently inattentive to what was going on, but catching and remembering every word, and to whose legal opinion the oldest lawyers deferred. In his arguments to the court, he spoke rapidly, without gesticulation and without effort, in an earnest and somewhat conversational tone, but the casual observer saw at once that he was no common man.

Of the resident attorneys of forty years ago, not many remain to-day. James Cooley accepted a mission of Charge d'Affaires from the United States to Chili, where he died in 1828. His contemporaries speak in high terms of his abilities, and the promise he had given of a brilliant and successful future.

Moses B. Corwin was one of the first lawyers to locate in Urbana, and lived to an advanced age, but many years before his death dropped out of the profession. He was no great lawyer, but he had a fund of anecdote, which he narrated with " great unction."

With the new building came new aspirants for legal honors. Law offices formed partnerships, among which were Moses B. and John A. Corwin, who occupied what was afterward the Commissioners' room in the court house; John H. James and Richard McNemar, who had an oflice in a building adjoining Weaver's present hardware store, on Scioto street ; Israel Hamilton and John H. Young, whose office was in a frame building on West Court street, between the Presbyterian Church and the brick house on the adjoining lot, where Hamilton lived. These three firms graduated a large number of students, some of whom became men of character and force, in no way discreditable to their early instructors, while a few cared little whether they ever had a single brief. George B. Way and Sam V. Baldwin had an office in a brick building on the west side of North Main, not far from the National Bank. This firm did not long continue. Baldwin was afterward elected Probate Judge for many years, and Way located in Washington City.

With the increasing population and wealth of the county, the number of lawyers increased. The roster gives the following names in the order they came or were admitted to practice: Edward W. Pearce, Moses B. Corwin, John Holcomb, James Cooley, John H. James, Israel Hamilton, Daniel S. Bell, Richard McNemar, John H. Young, H. J. Kyle, George B. Way, Samuel V. Baldwin, John A. Corwin, Ichabod Corwin, John W. Ogden, W. F. Mosgrove, John D. Burnett, R. C. Fulton, Charles Fulton, W. D. Lowry, John S. Leedom, James Taylor, Levi Geiger, Jerry Deuel, W. A. Purtlebaugh, Thomas D. Crow, D. W. Todd, Dwight Bannister, W. R. Warnock, George M. Eichel-

332 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

barger, F. Chance, W. A. Humes, A. C. Deue1, J. F. Gowey, J. M. Russell, S. T. McMorran, T. G. Keller, George A. Weaver, L. H. Long, Henry T. Niles, John Henry James, T. C. Cheney, R. C. Horr, T. J. Corkery, Thomas J. Frank, H. D. Crow, M. C. Gowey, F. V. Sowles, G. W. Poland, B. F. Martz, Duncan McDonald, M. M. Sayre, H. M. Crow, C. C. Kirkpatrick, A. P. Middleton, A. N. Middleton, J. F. Eichelberger, L. D. Johnson, M. Gallagher, W. A. Hoopes, and J. W. Byler. Of this number, Burnett and R. Fulton went to Columbus; Charles Fulton and Banister to Iowa; W. A. Humes to Texas; L. H. Long, to Lebanon; John Henry James, Sandusky; M. C. Gowey and Hoopes, North Lewisburg; Lowry, Mutual: Cheney, Mechanicsburg ; Corkery, Toledo; Sowles, Cincinnati; McMorran, St. Paris; Kirkpatrick, Springfield, and A. C. Deuel to the public schools of the city.

Of the above, Cooley, Holcomb, Pearce, Hamilton, McNemar, Baldwin, Bell, Way, M. B., John A. and Ichabod Corwin, C. Fulton, Kyle and Mosgrove are dead. Gallagher deals out justice from a magistrate's office, and Warnock has been elevated to the "woolsack," of this judicial district. Niles and Ogden have abandoned the "crookedness " of the law and joined the ranks of the "honest farmers." John H. James, who, for more than half a century, maintained a front rank in the profession, has abandoned the "science of human experience" to younger men. The retirement of Mr. James from the profession leaves John H. Young the Nestor of the bar of Urbana, with years of good hard work still before him.

In the distribution of offices of honor and responsibility, the profession has not been overlooked. James Cooley was Minister to Peru; Israel Hamilton, U. S. Attorney for the District of Ohio, under the administration of President Van Buren. Moses B. Corwin represented the district in Congress, John A. Corwin sat on the Supreme Bench of the State, and Ichabod Corwin, Robert Fulton and W. R. Warnock were Judges in the Court of Common Pleas. John D. Burnett, Robert Fulton, T. S. McMorrow and J. F. Gowey were members of the lower house, and John H. James and W. R. Warnock of the Senate, in the State General Assembly. Samuel V. Baldwin and D. W. Todd were Judges of Probate, John H. Young, a delegate to the third convention for the revision of the State Constitution, Jeremiah Deuel, Mayor, and A. C. Deuel, Superintendent of the public schools of the city. The remainder are young enough to bide their time, and supposed to have some "expectations," and, when the opportunity offers, like Barkis, will be "willin'."

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The most casual observer cannot but have noticed, notwithstanding the privation and discomforts attending the lives of the early settlers, the zeal they manifested in education, and that, as soon as a sufficient number of pupils could be collected and a teacher secured, a house was erected for the purpose. The period just preceding the Revolution was characterized by its number of literary men, and the interest they gave to polite learning; and the patriots who were conspicuous in the Revolution were men not only of ability but of no ordinary culture. We can readily understand that the influence of their example had its weight in molding public sentiment in other respects, besides that of zeal for the patriot cause. To this may be added that, for the most part, the early pioneers were men of character, who; endured the dangers and trials of a new country, not solely for their own sakes, but for their children, and, with a faith

PAGE 333 - BLANK

PAGE 334 - PICTURE OF JOHN LUTZ

PAGE 335 - PICTURE OF MRS. HANNAH LUTZ

PAGE 336- BLANK

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 337

in what the future would bring forth, clearly saw the power and value of education. Then we find, from the beginning, their object kept steadily in view, and provision made for its successful prosecution; and the express declaration of the fundamental law of the State, enjoins that "the principal of all funds arising from the sale or other distribution of lands or other property, granted or intrusted to the State for educational purposes, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished, and the income arising therefrom shall be faithfully applied to the specific objects of the original grants or appropriations, and the General Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, shall secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State." By virtue of this provision, the Legislature enacted a common school law, which went into effect about 1825. In many parts of the county, the election of directors and the efficient working of the law, engrossed the public attention. In Urbana, the provisions of the law, touching the assessment of property to meet the necessary expenses of free public schools, did not receive the popular vote, and, for many years, the schools were of a private character, the teachers occasionally receiving a pro-rata amount of the State funds in the treasury. In 1849, the general school law was greatly amended and improved, classifying the districts, and giving to Urbane that of a city of the second class. Under the salutary operations of the law, the public schools have taken a high character. Outside the larger towns, where classification of pupils and grading of schools became difficult, or, under existing circumstances, in many cases impracticable, the schools have, nevertheless, become efficient and invaluable, and the standard of qualifications of teachers required to be of a high order. Yet it will hardly be claimed, by the most enthusiastic advocate of the common schools, that the system, in its operations or results, is perfect. On the contrary, it has many imperfections, which time and a larger experience will remedy. But, contrasted with the scholarship and methods of not only the pioneer times, but those of the past few decades, we cannot fail to see a marked and continued improvement. While the public schools were never intended to take the place of the college, yet from the very nature of the case, the largest number of pupils must necessarily be unable to advance farther than the grammar department of these schools. Still, the minority, who may seek a more thorough scholarship here, may, and ought to be fitted, for admission into the colleges and universities. And such, we take it, has been the constant tendency of the system. Objection has been made that so small a percentage of the pupils in the intermediate department of the schools avail themselves of the advantages of the upper or grammar school, and that, therefore, the latter should be abandoned and left for private enterprise. If there be any validity in the objection, it loses its force in its application to the schools of Urbana, which annually transfer a large per cent of the pupils of the intermediate school into the grammar or high school for graduation.

As the town increased in population, the thought naturally arose as to the establishment of a school of a higher rank than that of the chance pedagogue. To meet this wish, the "old academy," as it was called, was built in 1820. This was a joint-stock concern, built of brick, on the site of the ward school building on Court street, two stories high, with a broad hall through the middle, with stairway and a room on each side, above and below. The lot was unfenced, and, when the building was not occupied, a favorite pastime of idle boys was to break the windows and commit other wanton waste. The appearance

338 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

and condition of the building and premises were not creditable to the town. About the year 1847 or 1848, it was sold to a man named Barker, who taught school for a time, and then re-sold to the public for common-school purposes. Prior to the adoption of the present system of graded schools, the public and private schools were conducted somewhat after the same style as the district. schools of to-day. That is, there was no systematic course of study. The boys and girls were placed in classes which corresponded with their acquirements in any particular branch. Thus one might be in a certain reading class, and also in a grammar or geography class which did not consist of any other members of the reading class. There being usually but one teacher, prevented conflict of time in hearing recitations. The morning work generally began with the reading classes, which used for text-books, the sequel to the English Reader, the English Reader and the Introduction. Before these were used, the New Testament was the common reader for the larger pupils, the little fellows using the short sentences in the American Speller and the fables at the close of the book. The writing was with a common goose-quill, made into a pen by the teacher, and who for half an hour daily was kept busy repairing the worn pens. The spelling class closed the day's work. The scholars generally studied their lessons in school, and were assisted as occasion demanded. The regular recitations having been learned, the residue of the time was given to arithmetic, the sums being wrought out on the slate and shown to the teacher only as help was wanted. Where the teacher had the rare faculty to create in the pupil a thirst for knowledge, the plan worked well, and unquestionably where there was a desire to learn, the progress was rapid and substantial, but where this faculty was wanting, or the boy was naturally indolent, it made great shirks. In a miscellaneous and crowded school, thorough classification was out of the question. The plan also involved a different discipline. Corporeal punishment was the rule-in presence of the whole school-the girls making no exceptions. In modes of inflicting punishment, there was a wide difference in different teachers, and, when not too severe, these frequently were sources of sly fun for all except the recipient. The younger pupils, having no lessons to learn, when not engaged in reciting, were ripe for mischief. A common trick was to place a bent pin or tack on a vacant seat, and so much the better if the " master " should be so fortunate as to sit on it. Another was to catch ground-squirrels, which were very numerous, and occasionally let one loose in the school-room. Almost every boy had his temporary pet in his pocket, which were called by the slang word 'grimy," and was indicated by the string by which the "grimy " was secured, hanging from his pocket or tied to his button-hole. It would require a volume to describe the tricks played on scholars and teacher, the modes of punishment, etc., which were part of the schools forty to sixty years ago. The town school was a counterpart of the country school. In some schools, the pupils were required to say " good morning " as they entered the room and on returning from school, to bow and wish a "good evening " to every one they might chance to meet-the little girls usually forming a line in the fence corner and courtesying all together. The 4th of July was the holiday. On Christmas, the larger boys claimed and exercised-the right to take possession of the school-room and " bar" out the teacher-which generally led to controversy until one or the other party was victor. The boys gave their " ultimatum " on a slip of paper passed through the keyhole or a broken pane of glass, and which was commonly a basket of apples and immunity from punishment; not infrequently the result was flogging all round.

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 339

More particularly in the rural districts, at the close of the term, in places where the worst element prevailed, the teacher, if he had at all made himself obnox ious, would be seized by the larger and stronger young men and " ducked " in the nearest pond, or placed under the pump.

Teachers were employed at an early day in Urbana ; but for the first forty years, the schools were "pay schools," and, as a consequence, many boys ran idle in the streets, or were early sent to learn a trade. For many years after the State law relative to common schools was established, all efforts to make them public and free by an assessment on property were voted down. In addition to the academy for boys, it was proposed about the same time to establish a female academy. For this purpose, a house, now the residence of Mr. William Wiley, on the corner of Church and Walnut streets, was secured, and Joseph Vance, then a member of Congress, employed in Washington two young ladies, sisters, named Buchanan, to take charge of the new enterprise. One of them afterward married Jesse Bayles. From some cause, the. school was a failure. The list of teachers who taught in town until the establishment of free public schools was, as far as we can now learn, Peter Oliver and. William Stephens, who occupied the log house built by Mr. Pearce on the knoll near the east end of Scioto street; Nathaniel Pincard, Henry Drake, John C. Pearson, who afterward was clerk of the court during almost the entire term of Judge Swan; a Mr. Thompson, who taught in a small frame house on Walnut street, next door to the residence of Peter R. Colwell. Both houses are still standing. Lemuel Weaver, about 1821-22, in the house where Mrs. Guinea. lives between Water and Reynolds streets. Whitney & Baldwin (partners).. George Bell, about 1825. Mr. Bell occupied a log house on Miami street, nearly opposite Dr. Mosgrove's residence, which was burned down in the fire of 1876. He next taught in a frame house on the corner of Scioto and Kenton streets,, where Evan Patrick now lives, and afterward in the frame house on Miami; street, which now adjoins the office of Dr. Mosgrove. Mr. Bell was an Irishman, and had a high reputation as a teacher. He was strict in his discipline, but drink in the latter part of his time made him very severe with the rod. He went to Cincinnati as clerk for the house of Robert Wilson, but returned and. opened a grocery in 1829. In 1830, several members of his family were killed by the tornado which swept through Urbana that year, and he became the more addicted to drink, which shortened his life. He was employed at one time by Judge Dallas, who lived about four miles south of town, as private tutor in his family. Several of the boys of town were permitted to join the class, going down on Monday morning and returning Friday evening on foot. Mr. Bell always carried a heavy cane, which he used to add dignity and impressiveness to his manner. John A. Mosgrove was one of the boys who, attended the Dallas school, and, as he and Mr. Bell usually walked down in company, he insisted that his pupil should carry a cane. The cane was an awkward encumbrance, and Mosgrove suffered it to drag instead of giving it the fling-out style indicative of elegant manners, and, before he was aware, would receive a heavy thwack on the back to remind him of his negligence. It was also his custom when walking with a friend or patron of the school, if happening to meet a promising pupil, to bail him anywhere on the street, and, in the nearest store or grocery, have his progress tested by difficult questions. He was as magisterial without as within the school-room, and with him obedience was a prime virtue. His ordinary salutation was "a fine sunshiny day," fine rainy day,""a fine cold day," etc.

340 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

Among the boys and girls who were pupils of Mr. Bell, were William W. Helmick, John A. Mosgrove, Thomas and David Gwynne, Irving Doolittle, Edward P. Harvey and W. H. Fyffe, Jr., the Baylor boys, Simeon and Jason Weaver, Sam and Henry Funk, William Corwin, Hiram Cook, Harris Patrick, W. Lansdale, James P. McCord, B. A. Berry, Bela Hovey, William Ambrose, John and Hisor Shryock, Than and Carr Kirkpatrick, Newton Heylen, James and Mary Jane Colwell, Eliza and Sophia Corwin, Eliza and Mary Wallace, Eliza and Polly Sweet, Susan Luse, Jane and Eliza Reynolds, Elvira Shryock, Fanny and Elnora Berry, Thomas and Mary Jane Bell, Mary and Jane McCord, Amanda and Tabitha Pearson, and others whose names are not recalled. Many of these began with other teachers, and continued on with others afterward, accessions being made from time to time by the younger ones of the same families and new settlers in town.

Mr. Haines succeeded Bell, and taught in the frame building on Scioto street, up-stairs, where Mr. Henry P. Espy now lives. Among his pupils were two sons of David Vance (afterward County Treasurer), Elijah and Elisha. Haines incurred their animosity, and, seizing a favorable opportunity, they waylaid him and punished him severely, and, fearing the consequences, fled to Mississippi.

King and Britton then opened school in the log house, elsewhere spoken of, where Grace Church now stands. John and Dan Helmick, W. H. Hamilton, the Lowe, Holden, Hovey and Patrick boys were occupying the lowest forms. The leading incident of this school was the " barring " out of the teacher, who, with an ax, cut down the doors and barricades within.

Jonathan Chaplin taught about the year 1828, in what was called the Colwell property, near the creek, on West Market street; afterward in a house on the alley by the Baptist Church. Chaplin used to go down the alley during recess to Hunter's Tavern, now the Exchange, and the boys read the day's disasters an his face. He afterward taught in one of the rooms of the old academy. About this time, he reformed his habits of drinking, and became an active and exemplary preacher in the M. E. Church. James McBeth taught in the lower part of town, in the middle of the hazel brush. The boys never came in on call, and fairly ran the gauntlet when they came in. Mr. Murray and Mr. Hamilton Davidson opened school about the same time, and, still later, Newton Heylen, in the house before occupied by Chaplin, on Court street, and then in an upper room of the court house. Among the lady teachers may be named Mrs. Shaw and Miss Amanda Fish. Mr. A. M. Bolton taught a school in a brick house recently on the lot of W. W. Helmick, and known as Lawrence Miller's grocery, and afterward in the Ohio House, the site of the I. O. O. F. building.

In 1832-33, Mr. Harvey Marsh had a private school on the Colwell property, on West Market street, and afterward in the Mosgrove house, on Main street. He was popular as a teacher.

In 1833-.34, he exchanged the school-room for merchandising, keeping an "all-sorts store," with a decided leaning toward fowling-pieces and ammunition. Some time after, he removed his stock in trade to a brick building on the west side of North Main street, a few doors below Court, where he continued until he sold out in 1878. His establishment was generally looked upon as a curiosity-shop of old and odd things. He did not keep pace with the changing times, and marked his goads at the prices of fifty years ago, and it was said that on his shelves were pieces of delft-ware and prints, fish-hooks and

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 341

barlow-knives, which probably made part of his first invoice. But the purchaser could always find there what he could not get elsewhere. At the auction which followed the purchase of the stock, the bidding was brisk, and prices ran up for articles whose greatest merit was age. He still finds his way to the post office-wears a heavy coat and is muffled about the throat with an old-style bandana handkerchief, and seems the relic of a former generation.

In 1833, Edward Taylor taught in the east room of the academy. He was not a success as a teacher, but wrote a fine hand, and employed a considerable part of the school hours in writing for outside parties. He remained here but a few years, and removed to Cincinnati. When the rebellion was inaugurated, be volunteered in the Union army, was taken prisoner at Bull Run, and one among the first inmates of Libby prison. What became of him on his exchange from Libby we are not advised, but then he must have been old, and the chances are that he is dead. John Sample, during the years 1833-34-35, occupied the west room of the building. Sample was a fair scholar, and considered a successful teacher. He was quiet and reserved in his manners, and fond of lonely walks. The latter may be explained by the fact of his fondness for botany, and of his purpose to write a -history of the flora of Champaign County, a purpose he was compelled to abandon on account of ill health. He died of consumption, shortly after giving up his school. He was understood to be the writer of a series of papers which appeared in the town journal, criticising a. rival teacher, which provoked retaliation, and gave the public much interest at the time, and which will be remembered by some of the older citizens of the then village. During Sample's time, a man named W. F. Cowles opened, school in the east room of the second story of the old academy, and, in the competition, Taylor, who occupied the first-floor east room, abandoned the field. Cowles was understood to be a Yankee, which was synonymous with "Abolitionist," a "pestilent fellow," unworthy of ordinary respect. In fact, his opinions in regard to slavery and the slave-trade was that of hundreds of other$ of that day-exceedingly moderate compared with the opinions of the present: time, and related mainly to the abstract question of right and wrong. The fewest number of the Abolitionists of 1830-40 had progressed far enough in their denunciations or opinions to accept the summing-up of John Wesley, as the "sum of all villainies." It was left for another generation, for the men who, were then schoolboys and their children, to see the enormity of human bondage. The morality or immorality of slavery was a mooted question, into which. passion, prejudice and early training entered largely, but with a growing sentiment strongly against its unrighteousness. But even the advanced and most pronounced Abolitionists had no well-defined opinions as to the way in which the evil was to be abated. They had faith to believe that public sentiment was. omnipotent in all questions of public policy, and that, when this sentiment. should be educated to duly appreciate the enormity of the system, slavery would fall from its own weight. It is questionable whether the result would have been accomplished within a century, if slavery itself had not been aggressive. As a political question, its maintainers were not satisfied to hold it in abeyance, and, in politics, it became not only a power, but arbitrary. The issue, then, was only a question of time. Be all this as it may, Cowles was a very moderate Abolitionist, but did not make himself obnoxious by his open advocacy of Abolition opinions.

He was a fair scholar, and a born teacher, and was probably the first teacher of the town who used the inductive mode of reasoning as a system for the

342 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

school-room. He was also the first man to introduce the blackboard in schools. He soon had a full house, and was very successful, but, with all his learning and ability, be was crotchety. The next year he proposed a manual-labor school, in which the boys were to study half the day and cultivate a farm and garden the other half. The spot selected for a garden was several acres bordering on the town branch, nearly opposite the schoolhouse, on Water street. This lot was divided into strips of eight or ten feet wide, reaching the entire length; each strip making a garden spot a little more than the usual size for a garden. The boys entered into the work with commendable zeal, and raised, not only the ordinary vegetables used in the household, but many of them had borders of pinks, four-o'clocks, and other common flowers, and, it must be confessed, some permitted the weeds to run wild and apparently take the ground. The soil was rich, and in the aggregate produced that year an enormous crop of vegetables. The farm selected for the manual-labor school experiment, contained ninety acres, adjoining town on the north, or northwest, belonging to John W. Hitt, through which the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland Railway now runs, and was entered through a pair of bars, a little to the west of the bridge near the Catholic Seminary, on North Main street. The land lay between a line running westwardly from the bars and a parallel line running near the dwelling-house, the ruins of which still remain, the space extending back from a third to half a mile. It was in sod, and turned under that spring, and, in its roughly-plowed condition, was transferred to the young farmers, each boy taking from one to three acres, in strips clear through the land. The crop planted was mainly corn, some few added pumpkins, others white beans. Here and there were to be seen patches of potatoes, and nearly all tried their luck in a melon patch. The ground was broken, planted and tended after the approved style of that day, the seeds were dropped by hand and cultivated with a hand hoe, though quite a number cultivated their lit tle patch with the "shovel plow " in addition to the use of the hoe. As the experiment was never repeated, it is doubtful, to use a phrase of to-day, whether it "paid." The melon crop, particularly, was a dead loss, The hoodlums, then as now, had a keen scent for a watermelon and where it grew, and a great corn-field afforded no concealment. The ripe ones were stolen, the large ones "plugged," and too often, with mere wantonness, the vines were destroyed. The "young farmers " ranged from twelve to seventeen years of age, and the growing corn received, in a number of cases, some outside help, more particularly where the shovel plow was in requisition. One instance is recalled, as indicative of the times: A colored man, named George Harris, was employed to assist in the corn-field with the shovel plow. He was a runaway slave, bad stopped in Champaign, as either a safe place, or to recruit, after his toilsome flight. His first employment was in this corn-field, on the patch assigned to Thomas Ogden. Harris was a capital hand, of medium size, strong, active and skillful. He spent the day in the corn-field, and at night made love to a colored woman whom Mr. David Ogden had brought from Virginia. One morning, young Ogden, on his way to school, saw a stranger with a handbill describing a runaway slave, and talking to a man named Kirkpatrick, who was known to make a business of capturing runaways. He at once hastened his steps to the corn-field where Harris was plowing, told him in a few words what he had seen, and added: "Now, George, if you have run away from the South, the best thing for you to do is to leave here as fast as you can." Harris was astounded at the news, said he was a runaway slave, and

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 343

added that he "would never be taken alive," and, leaving the horse standing in the furrow, broke through the corn at a full run, toward the north. In about a month a letter was received with a Canadian postmark, stating that he had reached Canada without interruption, was doing well, and requested that "Sally " might be sent to him. Sally was duly sent and reached his home. No word was heard from him afterward, but Harris had pluck, energy and intelligence to succeed anywhere. The two kidnapers, on scouring the field, which occupied some time, found that the prey had escaped, and gave up the chase. Among the boys who were concerned in the field and garden were Evan Patrick, Robert Colwell, Holly Raper, Thomas Ogden, William Samson, William H. Pearson, John A. Corwin, Decatur Talbot, Ichabod Corwin, Emmet and Warren Holding, William H. Colwell, George Folsom, John Carter, Lewis Hunter, Ed Goddard, Thomas Bell, Decatur Talbott, Bela Hovey, T. H. Berry, Newton Ambrose and others-in all about forty pupils. At the first the boys met at the school-room and were mustered in front of the building. A ballot was had for captain, which resulted in the choice of John A. Corwin, who at once stepped from the ranks and acknowledged the honor in as graceful a speech as he ever afterward made in his best efforts at the bar or on the stump ; when, with the order "shoulder hoes," the company started to their field of labor. But after a week or ten days the mustering was found to consume unnecessary time, and was abandoned.

There lived in Urbana at that time a colored man named George McCoy, a collar-maker by trade, a big, powerful fellow, bald as an eagle, with a narrow, contracted forehead and almost the whole of his brains lodged back of and above his ears. He was looked upon with much distrust by the community, but no suspicion had been fastened on him. He was afterward convicted of grand larceny and died in the State Prison. Cowles had some business with McCoy, and some one, seeing them conversing together, started the cry of "Abolitionist." A little encouragement excited the public indignation, and as he passed down the street he was plied with a volley of eggs. Very few probably were concerned in casting the eggs, but there was little sympathy manifested in his behalf. Assuming that Mr. Edmund B. Cavalier, who lived and had a store in the brick building now occupied by the Mutual Relief Association Fire Insurance Company, had furnished the eggs and probably assisted in the disgraceful and wanton attack, he went directly to the store where Cavalier was, and by a well-directed blow laid him on the floor. Cowles was not a large man, and to all appearances troubled-with pulmonary disease, but he was more than a match physically for Cavalier. The latter made no resistance, but armed himself with the purpose to kill Cowles on sight. Mr. William Patrick and William C. Keller, as soon as this was known, called on Cowles and urged his immediate departure from town as a means of saving his life. Cowles was not disposed to run from danger, and determined to risk the chances, probably acting on the presumption that his adversary, by his threats, had put himself equally on the defensive. The two gentlemen remained with him till nearly midnight, using every possible argument to induce him to "leave town on the morrow, without an encounter, and finally extorted from him a promise to leave within two weeks, on condition that he was not to be molested. They then went to Cavalier's, it being nearly midnight, and waked him from his sleep, informing him of the promise of Cowles to leave as soon as he could close up his business, or within two weeks, and urging him, under the circumstances, to let the man go without following up his purpose. They had the same difficulty

344 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

with Cavalier they had had with Cowles-a smarting sense of the indignity and wrong with which he had been treated, and his determination to take satisfaction in a summary way. They pleaded with him for hours to abandon his purpose, and finally obtained a reluctant promise that he would do nothing rashly within the time agreed upon. Both parties kept their promise. Cavalier made no demonstrations of resentment, and Cowles, closing up his business, left town, very few knowing then, or to this day, who had taken the pains to close up the difficulty. This ended the school and the manual-labor experiment. Cowles and Cavalier were both troubled with pulmonary consumption, and are long since dead.

The next teacher who occupied the ground floor, and afterward the upper east side of the Academy, was Mr. Ben F. Ogden, a fine, classical scholar and excellent teacher. His room was crowded with the young men and young ladies. of town, and be had such rare magnetism over his pupils as to compel an attachment for him personally, and an interest in their studies. As a disciplinarian and organizer, he was a failure-his talents and influence as an instructor acting on the individual rather than on the mass. He was a good reader, and read Shakespeare with rare skill, and in the evenings would gather into the schoolroom the larger boys and young men who wished to be present to read and hear recitations from his favorite author. He was erratic in his movements, and impulsive dissatisfied with himself and his employment-closing up his school, and spending a year in the East and South, to return and resume his work in Urbana, where he always felt sure of a full house and an appreciation of his labors. About the close of the war, he went to Iowa, and left the schoolroom for a farm, near Ottumwa, where he died in 1874.

School-teaching was now attaining the rank and character of a respectable profession. The talents, acquirements and character of Miss Eudora Heylen, Miss Catharine A. Baldwin, Miss Wentworth, Miss Mary Hughes and other young ladies of acknowledged merit, had contributed not a little to save the business from contempt. The absolute importance of employing the best talents with the most thorough scholarship, and at remunerative wages, was in advance of the times. The position of school-teachers was hardly respectable. It was practically considered a work which any one of ordinary attainments could do, and do successfully; and cheapness too frequently was made a material factor in the employment of the teacher; $3 per term of twelve weeks, may be considered a fair average for each pupil; in the aggregate, numbering thirty to forty pupils, including a number, either of charity or impecunious scholars. Like the horse in the tread-mill, there was no getting on, and, after years of honorable toil, the "school-master" found himself where he began-penniless, and, not infrequently, unfitted to engage in any other employment. Practically, it was a disreputable employment, and was the last resort for cultivated minds. In the rural districts it was still worse, for there a lower order of talents and acquirements prevailed; the pay was less, and generally the teacher was compelled to "board round; " that is, to take part of his pay in boarding a week, or other proportionate part of the time, with the several patrons of the school. Services were not estimated and paid for at what they cost or were intrinsically worth, but were gauged by the work and pay of an unskilled laborer. But, as we have said, a change was being made. A better class of teachers, and a more just appreciation on the part of the community of the office of teacher, inaugurated a revolution, which to-day ranks the cultured instructor among the learned professions. This change was produced partly by the character of he men who

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 345

engaged in the profession, not as a means to an end, but as a permanent employment, and partly by the opinions of leading citizens, who recognized the importance of the office, and the responsibilities imposed on the teacher.

This sketch would be imperfect were we to omit a notice of the present condition of schools in the town and county. The old log' schoolhouse, chinked and daubed, is only a memory of the past. In all the townships, brick structures, of size sufficient to accommodate from eighty to a hundred pupils, seated with single or double writing-desks, on iron frames, firmly secured in place, with chairs or seats, all made after the most approved pattern; "blackboards " of hard finish, made in the wall and reaching around three sides of the building ; the room well warmed and lighted; located in the midst of ample play-grounds, and costing, in the aggregate, an average of $2,000 to $2,500 each. Occasionally may be found the intermediate or frame building still used, but rapidly falling to decay, and destined soon to be counted with the primitive cabin of the wilderness. Teachers are employed for the term of three or six months, at a monthly salary varying from $30 to $50 or $60, payable out of the township treasury on the proper order. The schools are continued from six to ten months. The winter school is usually taught by a man, and the spring or summer term by females. In these, the course of instruction is generally restricted to the more elementary branches of an English education, with algebra occasionally added. Though the present country school is infinitely in advance of the school of eighty years ago, yet it must be admitted there is still a vast improvement to be made. The difficulty arises not so much from the want of learning or teaching capacity in the instructor, as from the crowded condition of the schools, the want of classification and the apparent indifference on the part of the patrons of the schools. Corporal punishment has been almost entirely disused ; discipline being restricted more to moral suasion ; the deprivation of little school privileges; percentages of merit and discredit; and, in extreme cases, whipping, suspension for a time and expulsion. In the towns accepting the law authorizing the organization of separate districts, are found larger and improved buildings, with greater facilities for study than in the sub-district schools, with a more extended course of study, and graded into primary, intermediate and grammar schools ; and pupils transferred from one department to another only on a satisfactory examination in writing. Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg, St. Paris and Urbana have organized independent districts, with buildings and appointments amply sufficient for the present and many coming years.

We have before indicated the style and pay.of the primitive teacher; it may not be amiss to give the recent action of the School Board of Urbana, in reference to teachers and salaries for the school year of 1880-81, in contrast with the same within the memory of the middle-aged men of to-day:

HIGH SCHOOL.

Principal, Miss Anna J. Arnold......................................................... $1,000

Assistant, Miss M. V. Friend........................................................... 800

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

Principal, Miss Eudora C. Baldwin.................................................... 650

Assistant, S. H. Wallace.................................................................... 400

PREPARATORY.

Grade A, Miss Mary C. Armstrong..................................................... 500

Grade B, Miss Sarah A. Warnock......... ............................................. 400

Grade C, Miss Minnie S. Deuel......................................................... 400

346 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

FIRST WARD, SOUTH DISTRICT.

Principal, E. B. Kiser..................................................................... 700

Miss Mary E. Mayse...................................................................... 400

Miss Mary Morgan........................................................................ 400

SECOND WARD, CENTRAL DISTRICT.

Principal, S. B. Price. ..................................................................... 700

Miss Anna Miller............................................................................. 400

Miss Bird West. .............................................................................. 400

Mrs. L. I. Bassett............................................................................. 400

THIRD WARD, NORTH DISTRICT.

Principal, Richard S. Pearce.................................................................... 700

John W. Crowl....................................................................................... 400

Miss Sarah J. Armstrong. ....................................................................... 400

COLORED SCHOOL.

Principal, W. O. Bowles.......................................................................... 650

Miss Frankie Jones.................................................................................. 850

TEACHER OF PENMANSHIP AND DRAWING.

G. W. Snavely............................................................................................ 700

SUPERINTENDENT.

A. C. Deuel................................................................................................1,800

Teachers, 22. Total Salaries, $12,550. The present Superintendent, Mr. A. C. Deuel, has been at the head of the Urbana schools since 1850.

URBANA UNIVERSITY.

In the year 1849, it was proposed, by a number of New Churchmen then residing at Urbana, to establish here an institution of learning, as the beginning of a university, to be under the superintendence and direction of persons connected with the New Church, or holding to the doctrines set forth in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (see article, "New Church "). Ten acres of ground, finely wooded, and affording eligible sites for the college buildings, and in close proximity to the railroads, were proffered as a gift to the proposed institution, and further donations were soon offered sufficient to insure the erection of a building for college purposes. In the autumn of that year, a meeting of persons friendly to the enterprise convened at Urbana, at the invitation of the Rev. James Park Stuart, and organized an association, which accepted the proffered gifts, appointed a Provisional Board of Trustees, and authorized an application to the Legislature of Ohio for an act of incorporation.

The charter bears the date of March 7, 1850, and is one of the most liberal ever granted by any legislature, giving ample powers for the establishment of whatever schools, seminaries or colleges may be deemed necessary or desirable, and for the conferring of the usual academic degrees. The Incorporators named in the charter are as follows: Milo G. Williams, of Montgomery County; John R. Williams, of Belmont County; Benjamin F. Barrett, E. Hinman and William E. White, of Cincinnati; David Gwynne, of Champaign County; George Field, of Detroit, Mich.; Sabin Hough, of Franklin County; Samuel T. Worcester, of Huron County; John Murdoch, of Clark County; and Richard S. Canby, of Logan County. The institution was incorporated under the title of "The Urbana University," The corporation is governed by

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 347

twelve Trustees, the persons above named constituting the first Board of Trustees. Vacancies in the board are filled by the remaining members. The title by which the grounds of the college are held is a fee simple, clear of incumbrances, and the deed provides that no part of the grounds shall ever be alienated by the university, either by its own deed or by judicial proceedings against it, nor any part of them used for any purpose not connected with the business of the college, nor any buildings erected on the grounds except such as shall be the property of the university, and for its use. On the 19th of June (still observed by the college as "Foundation Day "), 1850, the cornerstone of the university building was laid, and the eastern wing, the tower for the stairs, the central hall and class and library rooms were soon completed in a substantial manner. The College Hall, or students' dormitory and residence, was soon erected, and, in the year 1874, a third story was added to this building, and, in 1875, a wing was added to the university building, providing for a chemist's laboratory in the lower story, and for the President's room above: In the year 1855, we find the following names on the Board of Trustees, besides Messrs. Williams, Stuart, John Murdoch and David Gwynne, of the original incorporators, viz.: John H. James, Urbana ; Jabez Fox, Detroit, Mich.; John B. Niles, La Porte, Ind.; William M. Murdoch, Urbana ; Chauncey Giles, Cincinnati; and J. Young Scammon and J. R. Hibbard, of Chicago, Ill. Many of these gentlemen were continued on the board for a long period, Mr. Milo G. Williams, whose name stands first on the original list, remaining a member until his death, in the year 1880. The following of those named are at the present writing members of the board: Messrs. William M. Murdoch, Chauncey Giles, J. R. Hibbard, J. Young Scammon ; the remaining members constituting the present board are Messrs. Jacob L. Wayne, of Cincinnati; John Curtis Ager, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Hamilton Ring, Henry T. Niles, Henry P. Espy, Charles G. Smith and Frank Sewall, of Urbana, and C. H. Allen, of Cincinnati. Shortly after the original donation of ten acres by J. H. James, Esq., of Urbana, an addition of five acres was made by Mr. Edward Dodson, of Cincinnati, and an adjoining tract of fifteen acres was purchased and donated to the college by the Hon. J. Y. Scammon, of Chicago, Ill. Thus the entire domain of the college embraces about thirty acres, covered with a pleasant grove of native trees, and affording a college site hardly surpassed for beauty anywhere in the West.

Among the early professors in the college were Milo G. Williams, A. M., Professor of Science and Dean of the Faculty; Charles W. Cathcart, Professor of Mathematics and Librarian; J. F. Leonhard Tafel, Ph. D., Professor of Languages; Henry Thayer Niles, A. M., Professor of Greek and Rhetoric; Rev. James P. Stuart, A. M., Professor of Philosophy, and Miss Caroline W. Collier, Principal of the Preparatory Department. In the catalogue of 1855-56, we find enumerated 128 students and pupils of both sexes, including the three primary classes, 46; the preparatory, 54; the college regular students, 14; partial-course students, 15. A number of the students at this period, upon their subsequent graduation, were elected to the positions of professors or instructors, among whom may be named John Curtis Ager and Richard Foster. At the outbreak of the war, in 1861, the attendance of students became so reduced as to require the suspension of the collegiate department, and the institution was conducted for a number of years in the form of an academy, with a varying attendance. Among the teachers employed during this period, besides Prof. Milo G. Williams, who rendered

348 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

efficient assistance both in active teaching and in the general management of the institution, may be named the Rev. Charles Hardon, the Rev. George Nelson Smith, Mr. Julius Herrick, Mr. A. B. Farnham, Mr. James Dike and Mr. Alonzo Phelps; also Miss Theodora Howells and Miss Farnham and Miss Finney. The President of the institution during this period was the Rev. Chauncey Giles, who resided in Cincinnati, and had only an indirect management of its concerns. In 1870, the Board of Trustees elected as President of the university the Rev. Frank Sewall, then Pastor of the New Church parish of Glendale, near Cincinnati, and took measures to re-establish an actual collegiate organization. Thomas F. Moses, M. D., also residing at Glendale, was, on the nomination of Mr. Sewall, also elected the University Professor of Natural Science. In the fall of 1870, the institution was opened under the new organization with an attendance of fifty pupils, and, in the coming year, the primary department and the school for girls were, at the suggestion of President Sewall and by vote of the board, temporarily suspended until better provision could be made for their thorough and proper advancement. Classes preparatory to college were at once formed, the entire course, preparatory and collegiate, covering seven years.

In the year 1876, the first class of graduates under the new organization received their degrees, two as Bachelors of Arts and one in Science. Classes have since been graduated regularly each year, and the second or Master's degree has been conferred by the Board on a number of graduates who have since leaving college completed their professional studies, and been promoted into their respective professions. A number of students have pursued here a special theological course, and have since been ordained into the sacred ministry. Among those who have been students under President Sewall may be named the Rev. Richard De Charms, Rev. H. C. Vetterling, Rev. Julian K. Smyth, Rev. Jacob E. Werren, and Rev. Jacob Kimm. In the year 1872, the board undertook to raise an endowment fund for the college, and for this purpose constituted President Sewall a committee on the endowment and sustaining funds. After a continuous and persevering effort the President was enabled to report in the year 1878 that an endowment fund of $50,000 was raised, and, to a large extent, paid into the treasury. A statement of the payments and assets of the university was, by order of the board, published in that year, and it shows a total of property belonging to the college, including lands, buildings, furniture, library, etc., valued at $86,187.67. Among the larger subscriptions to the endowment fund were those of Mrs. A. L. Wentz, of Newburgh, N. Y., $5,000; Mr. Joseph A. Barker, of Providence, R. I., $10,000, and Mrs. Lenore M. Gordon, of Norfolk, Va., widow of the late George P. Gordon, of New York, inventor and proprietor of the celebrated Gordon printing press, $10,000. It is proposed to complete the endowment of a "Gordon Professorship " as a memorial of Mr. Gordon and his services in perfecting this mighty instrument of civilization and Christian advancement. Under the Presidency of Frank Sewall the college has also received large accessions to its library and cabinet, among which are specially to be mentioned the large donation from the late Christopher Cranch, of Washington, D. C., and of Dr. O. P. Baer, of Richmond, Ind. The cabinet of mineralogy, geology and paleontology is extensive and valuable, for which the university is largely indebted to Professor Moses' intelligent interest and care. There is also a valuable collection of coins and of zoological and botanical specimens. The library numbers some 5,000 volumes, arranged in sections of history, philosophy, classics, theology, literature,

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 349

biography, travels and science; it is constantly securing valuable additions, and is of great practical utility to the students. In the year 1879, the Committee on the School for Girls and Primary Department opened again these departments of the university in temporary apartments. In 1880, by means of the Loring fund, the gift of the late Mrs. Maria Loring, of Cincinnati, and other donations, a new building for these schools was erected on a part of the New Church society's lot, corner of Reynolds and South Main streets, this portion of the lot being granted by the society to the university under a perpetual lease for this purpose. This building composes three commodious school-rooms, hall and ante-room on the lower floor, and a fine lyceum hall, 40x30 feet, above. It was formally opened and dedicated with religious services on Sunday, September 12, 1880, the Rev. Frank Sewall officiating. The university schools for girls, the primary school and the Kindergarten, under the general charge of Prof. Moses as Director, and with Mrs. T. P. McNemar as Principal, Miss Adelaide Smith and Miss Anna M. Woelfle as teachers, opened in this building at the beginning of the fall term, September 29, 1880.

The following gentlemen have occupied positions in the faculty since the reorganization of the college in 1870. Those marked with a star being present incumbents of their respective professorships: Frank Lewall,* S. A. M., President and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Science; Thomas Freeman Moses,* A. M., M. D., Professor of Natural Science and Director of the School for Girls; Philip Baraud Cabell, A. M.,* Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature; Thomas French, Jr., Ph. D.,* Professor of Physics and Mathematics, and Master of the Grammar School; William Pinckney Starke, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages; Jacob E. Werren, Professor of Modern Languages; Hjalma Hjorth Boyesen, Tutor in Latin and Greek; George A. Worcester,* Instructor in Botany and Master of the College Hall. Among the contributions to general learning furnished by Urbana University, may be mentioned the Meteorological Reports, contributed to the records of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, during many years, by Prof. Milo G. Williams; "The Unity of Natural Phenomena," translated and edited, with notes from the French of Saigey, by Prof. T. F. Moses, published in Boston, by Estes & Lauriat, 1873; an address by the same, on " The Spiritual Nature of Force," published in 1871, and a number of papers contributed to the published records of the Central Ohio Scientific Association, by Profs. Moses and Werren, in 1878. The transcription in Latin for the press, of the large and important work in manuscript, by Emanuel Swedenborg, entitled "De Cerebro " (concerning the Brain), comprising some three or four hundred pages, folio, by Prof. Philip B. Cabell, the transcription and translation into English, by Prof. Cabell, of Swedenborg's treatise in Latin, entitled, "Ontologia," now in process of publication (1880), by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia; an address on the "Harmony of Religion and Science in the New Church," by Frank Sewall, published by Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati; also, by President Sewall, two volumes of religious discourses, entitled, "The Pillow of Stones, or Divine Allegories from the Old Testament," and "The Hem of His Garment, or Spiritual Lessons from the Life of our Lord," both published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia; and, by the same author, the "Latin Speaker," easy dialogues and selections for memorizing and declamation in the Latin language, published by Appleton & Co., of New York, in 1878.

The educational advantages of Urbana University have been more fully appreciated, it would appear, by those living at a distance and coming here

350 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

hundreds of miles to reside for a number of years, in obtaining an education, than by the youth of the immediate vicinity, of whom but few have availed themselves of the course more than for a few terms of irregular study. In the catalogue of 1878, we find the names of students from the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, Kansas and Maine, and, also, the names of those in previous years from Norway, Sweden and Canada, and, also, from other States of the Union.

The terms of tuition, which are somewhat high, although only about half the rates of the larger Eastern colleges, make it difficult for the college to compete with the free instruction offered by the State University, but the policy of the Board has been to offer only first-rate instruction and to charge for it accordingly, as necessity requires, believing that those parents and young men who are in search of a thorough education will not make "cheapness " of tuition the only consideration in their choosing. At the same time, by the judicious granting of free scholarships to worthy applicants, the board desires to make the course at Urbana University available to every earnest student who sball seek an education here and is able to provide for his living expenses.

THE CHURCHES.

It may be thought that too much space has been given to what in the beginning was intended to be only a sketch of the county. But the origin and progress of the religious sects of the country are closely identified with the development of the country. Religion, equally with trade and politics, occupies the attention of every community, and the men who were conspicuous in the early settlement of the country have been equally faithful and earnest members of some branch of the Christian church. It is in the purpose of these sketches to give not only the formation and early growth of the various churches which have formed societies in Champaign County, but also to note the marked changes which may have taken place. The early settlers were distinguished for their hospitality and kindly consideration for others. Poverty, sickness and want were incentives to considerate help. The hardships and deprivations which many families endured, make us wonder at the pertinacity with which they maintained their ground. We are surprised to hear that there should be want when game was abundant, but it must be recollected that many of them had no fire-arms, or, having them, were unskilled in their use. Common dangers and common wants did away with all minor questions. The preacher of the Gospel, whatever his particular belief, was a religious teacher, and, as such, received a common consideration.

As the country increased in population and sects increased in number, the lines of demarkation began to be drawn. It was the instinctive teaching that sectarian divisions copld be maintained in no other way. Before twenty-five years had elapsed, dogmatic theology entered largely into the pulpit discourses. Dogmatism was met with dogma, and Scripture quoted in proof that he who doubted was damned. The step was easy and rapid to censorious criticism. Harsh epithets and false statements were freely given and returned. It was sacrilege for one not to the "manor born " to be permitted to preach in another church than his own, and, if by any chance this happened, the preacher for the day took occasion to deliver a doctrinal sermon, with sharp thrusts at the heresies of his hearers, to be returned, with good usury, when the opportunity occurred. "Stand aside, for I am holier than thou," was the logical summing

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 351

up of the whole matter. The fact is, none of this class had any practical knowledge of the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians, and very little of the Sermon on the Mount. Unfortunately, the want of a generous recognition of the freedom of opinion transfused itself throughout the congregations. No one seemed to be willing to let another go to heaven or the other place, except after the mode prescribed by his own faith. This censorious judgment was not confined to any one denomination ; it was a common failing. No one questions the integrity and honesty of purpose of these men and sects. It was simply inherited bigotry-a zeal without knowledge.

The latter half of the period since sectarianism asserted itself has revolutionized the acrimony of religious opinion. A little leaven of the old lump still occasionally asserts itself; but, with a single exception, the representatives of all meet on the same platform and extend to others the charity each asks for himself.

With respect to the multiplication of churches, material changes are very naturally being discussed. The most cursory observer cannot but have noticed the number of sects and the conflicting ideas which divide churchgoing people. This may not be wondered at when dogmatic theology ruled the hour, and each separate sect was endeavoring to pre-occupy the field. But, at a time when the essential features of Christianity are accepted by all, that the shadow of a difference should induce so many to drag along a precarious existence when consolidation would be the equivalent of life and vigor, is not so plain. Nor is the thoughtful man any the less puzzled when he sees a field already pre-occupied, with facilities amply sufficient to give religious instruction to every man, woman and child in the community-to see some distant missionary society resolve such a place to be one of the " waste places of Zion," and forthwith erect another "tabernacle," and thereby condemn the "faithful few " found there to a heavy burden and a meager religious pabulum from an illy supported preacher, and by the act cripple, to that extent, the established societies. We have a vague notion that the future will condemn the act as lacking in worldly wisdom, as well as in religious sympathy.

The M. E. Church.-The early records of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Urbana have been destroyed or lost; so that it is impossible to ascertain the names of those who organized the first society of Methodists in the then village. John Reynolds, John C. Pearson, John Goddard, Joseph White, Martin Hitt, Joseph Reppart, Samuel Hitt, William Sampson, Frederick Ambrose, Moses B. Corwin, Jonathan Chaplin, Henry Weaver and others were long identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church in this locality, and either were active participants in the organization of the new society, or early participants in the work. But in all new countries where religious denominations are wanting, the entire community are apt to become active co-workers, both by aid and personal attendance at meetings for public worship, to strengthen the efforts of others.

Urbana was originally part of Mad River Circuit, and the name of the town first appears in the "General Minutes- of the Methodist Episcopal Church," in 1833 ; Urbana then being the chief point simply of a very large circuit, with Revs. R. Brandriff and O. Johnson as preachers. They were followed, in 1834, by George W. Walker and Michael Marlay. In 1835, Joshua Boucher and A. Morrow were appointed to the circuit, William H. Raper being then the Presiding Elder. In 1837, Urbana was made a "station," and Joshua Boucher appointed Pastor. He was succeeded by a long line of able and prominent ministers, including such men as J. L. Grover, William B. Christie, A. M.

352 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

Lorraine, Asa B. Stroud, Cyrus Brooks, Michael Marlay, I. S. Inskip, Granville Moody, J. T. Mitchell, M. Dustin, W. Herr, W. H. Sutherland, C. W. Sears and others whose names are not now recalled.

No data are obtainable concerning the first and second church edifice built in the town, reference to which is made on another page.

The present First Methodist Episcopal Church building was erected in 1836, and very largely through the efforts and liberality of the late John Reynolds, who might with propriety be called one of the early "merchant princes " of Ohio. The original subscription paper is still preserved. It is in the handwriting of Mr. Reynolds, who heads it with $500 as his own subscription. He is followed by John C. Pearson, with $200. Then follow, with smaller sums, John Goddard, William Sampson, Matthis & Wooley, R. Murdock, William C. Keller, Carter & Mosgrove, Joseph White, John Kiger, Daniel S. Bell, David Ogden, James Hunter, John Hamilton, David Sweet, Berry & Hovey, S. T. Hovey, Harry Marsh, David Vance, Henry Weaver, T. S. Hitt, W. H. Fyffe, A. and W. Patrick, O. T. Cundiff, E. B. Cavalier, W. and D. McDonald, F. M. Wright, P. B. Ross, A. F. Vance, Glenn & McDonald and many others. One peculiarity of the subscription list is, that a considerable number agreed to pay the amounts subscribed in lumber or work.

In 1855, the Second Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, with Rev. J. F. Chalfant, as Pastor. At that time the First Church reported a membership of 235, and the Second, 197, making a total of 432.

In 1879, the Second Church completed their new edifice on the corner of Main and Market streets, at a cost of about $25,000. In the same year, the First Church was refitted and refurnished at an expense of nearly $5,000. In that year, the membership of the First Church was 480, and that of Grace Church 310.

We are indebted to Rev. John F. Marley, present Pastor of the First Church, son of Rev. Michael Marley, who was Pastor in 1834-35, and afterward, for many of the foregoing facts.

The First Presbyterian Church.-General reference has been made to this church on another page. Like all religious societies of that day, in order to be self-sustaining as far as possible, the boundaries were made to take in a wide extent of territory, Buck Creek and Urbana constituting one society.

Among its ministers may be mentioned James Hughes and David Merrill. With the pastorate of Mr. Merrill two societies were organized, one called the Buck Creek Presbyterian Church, and the other the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana. In the Urbana branch ministered Rev. C. McGill, Edward Raffensperger, L. D. Long, John Woods, James A. P. McGaw, and others. At Buck Creek, Rev. Hugh Price, Melloy, T. B. Cross and W. F. Claybaugh. These two churches have pursued the even tenor of their way with little " flurry," save during the schism into "old and new school," the pastors for the most part serving acceptably until the opening of a more profitable field, or a conjecture of an end of their usefulness. The name of Mr. Raffensperger sug gests an episode that terminated his pastorate quite suddenly. He was young, inexperienced, just from college, and believed to possess more than ordinary pulpit abilities. Part of the contract between him and the church was that the salary should be paid promptly, quarterly. On one occasion, payday fell on a Saturday, and the Treasurer happened to be absent. Next day, the congregation assembled as usual, and no preacher made his appearance. One of the session, after some time had elapsed, made a call at the "study," which is in

PAGE 353 - BLANK

PAGE 354 - PICTURE OF MARTIN NITCHMAN

PAGE 355 - PICTURE OF MRS. CATHERINE NITCHMAN

PAGE 356 - BLANK

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 357

the same building, and found the reverend gentleman very quietly entertaining himself with a book. Surprise, inquiry and explanation rapidly followed, when the committeman returned to the audience-room and reported cause of absence. A few minutes sufficed for some one in the congregation to move that the relation between that church and its Pastor be at once dissolved, which was carried without a dissenting voice, and no after explanations were of any avail. The reasonable supposition is that he went to his next charge a wiser man.

The ministerial relation between J. A. P. McGaw and this church was closed in July, 1880, Dr. McGaw accepting a call from the Central Church of Rock Island, Ill. The membership numbers 329, and the church sustains a large and flourishing Sunday school, with fine library, Woman's Missionary Society, and the usual benevolent offices of the church.

Lutheran Church.-This congregation was organized by Rev. Ezra Keller, D. D., assisted by Rev. Adam Helwig, in 1846. The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid in May, 1851. The society was incorporated as an Evangelical Lutheran Church, connected with the General Synod of the United States, which connection it has always retained. The pastors have been in the following order: Adam Helwig, A. M. Swath, Daniel Shindler, N. B. Little, J. D. Severinghaus, A. J. Imhoff, E. D. Smith, A. J. Kissell, E. W. Sanders and A. J. Imhoff.

This church has had times of prosperity and great discouragement. The first years brought considerable success, but, during the years of 1858-59, the membership was greatly reduced by deaths and removals, and, in 1862, came the resignation of Mr. Severinghaus. Disorganization was prevented through the trusteeship of Messrs. E. B. Gaumer, J. F. Rettberg, and others. In 1867, the Board of Home Missions appointed Rev. A. J. Imhoff, D. D., Missionary Pastor, who, on the 1st of April of that year, reorganized the congregation. Thirty-four of the former members were then living in the county, but, by reason of old age and distance from the church, a number never became members of the reorganized congregation. The new beginning was small, but was at once increased by persons who had moved into the town during the time the church was closed. At the end of two years the pastor withdrew from the support of the Missionary Board. Regular services have been sustained and attended by a constant increase in numbers and development for good.

The membership numbers over a hundred, and the Sunday school about a hundred and forty. It has a weekly prayer meeting, and a Women's Missionary Society, and is in hearty sympathy with the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and its religious and reformatory work.

Church of the Epiphany.-This denomination was organized into a society in 1847, under the rectorship of Rev. Charles B. Stout, and the active support of Dr. Adam Mosgrove, Samuel H. Robinson, Abram Robertson, T. M. Gwynne, W. F. Slater and others, who purchased the lot on the corner of Scioto and Kenton streets, then the residence of John McCord, and under their auspices a house for worship was erected in 1849. This church, from the beginning, has been small in numbers, and necessarily drew heavily on the liberality of its members for its maintenance. The deaths of several of its prominent and efficient members in successive years, together with the financial embarrassment of the country, which unavoidably pressed heavily on all public enterprises, have interrupted the regular maintenance of a clergyman, and the present indications are that, without extraneous assistance, the society will hardly be able to maintain a separate and independent existence.

358 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

The United Presbyterian Church.-This society was organized in the fall of 1844 by Rev. J. S. McCracken. James Dallas. Andrew McBeth and Miles C. Beatty were elected Ruling Elders, and constituted the session. Rev. Thomas Palmer was first Pastor in 1845, who died Feb. 15, 1847, and was succeeded by L. H. Long in 1849, and by J. B. Findley in 1853. In 1856, the congregation was without a stated pastor, and continued so until 1861, though services were held by Revs. David Payne, T. C. McCaghn and Thomas Brown. W. S. Morhead preached for one year, but declined a permanent pastorate to labor as a missionary in Italy. In December, 1862, T. P. Dysart accepted a call, and died at the end of two years' service. He was succeeded by Rev. H. H. Thompson in April, 1865, who still remains the faithful, earnest and able Pastor of perhaps the smallest church in the city.

The house in which the congregation worships was built in 1846, and occupies a lot on West Market street, below Grace Church. The probability is that at no distant day this branch or section of the U. P. organization will merge in the First Presbyterian.

The Howard Weaver Mission.-This association is under the control of no sect, but is managed and directed by persons attached to the various religious denominations of the city, and, without a formulated creed, accepts the Scriptures as the word of God, and a rule of faith and practice. The Mission was organized as a Sabbath school in 1867, which was held in different places until 1875, when Mr. Lemuel Weaver built and donated to the society the brick house in the northern section of the city, now occupied by the Mission for school, temperance meetings and religious services. The building was opened on Christmas, 1875, when the "Mission Association" was organized, and the deed for the building executed by Mr. Weaver, and delivered to the Trustees, Milo G. Williams, C. F. Colwell and David H. Hovey. This neat little building is a fitting memorial of Howard Weaver, son of air. Lemuel Weaver, one of the earliest laborers in the city in missionary work among the destitute, and one of the founders of the Mission Sunday school. He died of consumption in 1874, aged about twenty-three years. The school and Mission have been in charge of Josiah Talbott, General Superintendent, under whose faithful services much good has been done, and multitudes have here received religious instruction who could not be induced to attend or enter other houses of worship.

The Baptist Church.-This organization in Urbana resulted from the action of a State society, organized for missionary purposes. In the early settlement of the State, the Baptists had confined their efforts to the establishment of churches in the rural districts. The country was reasonably well supplied, while the towns were overlooked. By the missionary society, which had for its object the building-up of societies in places that had been neglected, Urbana was believed to present a good field, and thither Rev. Enos French was sent in 1840. Until the necessary preliminary arrangements could be made, services were held in the court-room, and, in the meantime, by act of the Legislature, the society was incorporated with the usual rights and powers, Samuel V. Baldwin being named in the charter as one of the Trustees. Under the efficient labors of Elder French, the site was secured, and the erection of the present church edifice, on the south side of Court street, between Main and Walnut, begun. Mr. French's health failed, and he was succeeded by Elder Gorman. Mr. Gorman was a man of untiring energy. He not only was unwearied in his efforts to raise money to build the house, but with his own hands prepared mortar, and carried the hod and brick to the mason. Through his efforts the house was built and

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY - 359

dedicated, and the church prospered. He was succeeded again by Elder French. In 1852, came Elder Williams, who died that fall. After whom, came Elders Bryant, Agenbroad and Bonham, the latter in 1858, Elder Tuttle in 1863, Taylor in 1868, Clark in 1870, Harriman in 1872 and Stone in 1878. The Baptist Church, in this locality, has been fortunate in it selection of ministers. Most of them were men of more than ordinary ability and learning, and Revs. Albert Tuttle and George E. Harriman ranked with the ablest pastors of the city. The former bad a love for his fishing-rod and gun, and was supposed not to be in perfect harmony with his congregation on certain questions of their own. The connection was dissolved, and he went to Minnesota. Rev. George Harriman was a ripe scholar, whose pulpit efforts showed thought and culture. To him, more than to any other one man, is clue the credit of building up a demand for a higher order of literary excellence among the lyceum-going people of the city, and of the suppression of the hoodlum and the rough by the introduction of entertainments which shut off their attendance, or elevated their standard of amusements. In 1874, the society was weakened by the erection of a church at Hickory Grove, which drew heavily on the resources of the Urbana society. The latter, at no time strong in wealth or numbers, has met heavy pecuniary liabilities, and successfully prosecuted its work, yet the erection of a house of worship, which unavoidably draws on the territory and resources of the other, while it may not close the doors, must nevertheless cripple its usefulness. At this present writing, the pastorate of Rev. E. C. Stone, in connection with this organization, is dissolved, and the society are making efforts to supply the vacancy. The church has a flourishing Sunday school, and takes an active interest in the missionary and other benevolent enterprises of the day.

The Urbana Society of the New Church.-The New Church is a body of Christians holding to the religious doctrines set forth in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a learned and pious Swede who lived from 1688 to 1772. The distinguishing features of the faith of this denomination are the following I. That the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of being one of three Divine Personages, is Himself the one and only God, and that the Divine Trinity is not a trinity of persons, but of divine attributes; the Father being the term used in Scripture to denote the Divine Love ; the Son, the Divine Wisdom or Word, and the Holy Spirit, the Divine Proceeding or Operation, and that this trinity resides in the Lord Jesus Christ like the trinity of soul, body and operation in man. II. That the Bible or Word of God is Divine truth, revealed to man in a three distinct planes of meaning, there being within or beneath the literal sense a spiritual and a celestial sense, and that these different senses are connected by a divine law of correspondence, according to which each thing in nature corresponds to something in mind, all nature being but a reflection of a mental or spiritual world, and the whole natural or literal sense of the Bible being but an outward symbol or parable of the inner meaning, which relates entirely to the soul of man and its world. III. That to redeem the world, God came into the world and took upon himself a human nature, and made it divine, even the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in so doing he combated and subdued the powers of hell, and released mankind from their spiritual bondage, and made it possible for man to freely choose the way of life, and thus to be saved by living a life according to the commandments; and that in this divine humanity He is ever nigh to aid and succor all who trust and pray to Him. IV. That we are immortal spirits clothed with natural bodies, which at death we shall leave forever. We shall then enter the spiritual world in a real human form and substantial spiritual

360 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

body, and shall be judged by our life on earth ; if it has been good, we shall live forever as angels in heaven; but if evil, we shall seek an abode with those who are wickedlike ourselves. V. That the second coming of the Lord is a coming "not in person but in spirit," by revealing the "spiritual or inner sense" of His holy Word, whereby He has commenced a new outpouring of light and of love through His church into the minds of men; that this spiritual sense of the Bible constitutes the doctrines of the new and lasting Christianity promised to the church under the figure of the holy city, New Jerusalem, seen by John the Revelator, descending out of heaven from God (Rev., xxi) (hence the New Church is often called the " Church of the New Jerusalem ") ; and, finally, that the way to the attainment of this spiritual sense is found in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a human instrument divinely raised up as were the sacred writers of old-for the communicating of a new dispensation of divine truth to the world.

The history of the society of the New Church (sometimes called "Swedenborgian ") in Urbana, is of peculiar interest, from the fact that it can be traced back very distinctly and directly to the very origin of the New Church in America, as will appear from the following facts of personal history

In the year 1784, Mr. James Glen came from London, England, to Philadelphia, bringing some volumes of Swedenborg's works with him, and he lectured in that city on the subject of the New Church, being the first avowed advocate of these doctrines in America. Leaving this country, he left behind him a number of these volumes, which afterward fell into the hands of Mr. Francis Bailey, of Philadelphia, a printer, who, with his wife and a Miss Hettie Barclay, became warm recipients of the doctrines. Mr. Bailey issued from the press the first volume of the New Church writings printed in America, and Miss Barclay was instrumental in forming a New Church Society in Bedford Penn., where she went to reside with her brother, in 1789. Some time prior to 1826, Mr. Thomas Gwynne came with his family to reside in Urbana. He was formerly of Cumberland, Md.; had there married Jane Murdoch. whose brother, Robert S. Murdoch, also came to Urbana to live, engaging with Mr. Gwynne in business. The brothers, John and William M. Murdoch, also subsequently came to live in Urbana. Mr. Gwynne was a New Church man, " having received the doctrines through Mr. Josiah Espy, of Bedford, Penn.," where, as we have seen, a New Church Society had grown up as the result of the interest and zeal of Miss Hettie Barclay. A nephew of Miss. Hettie Barclay, Mr. Josiah Barclay, became the husband of Isabella Murdoch, a sister of John, Robert and William M. Murdoch, who also came to reside in Urbana, and another sister, Miss Maria Murdoch, was the wife of Josiah Espy, who subsequently resided in Columbus, Ohio, the father of Mr. Henry P. Espy, of Urbana. In 1826, Mr. John H. James came to Urbana from Cincinnati, and took up his residence in Urbana. His wife, Mrs. Abby James, was a daughter of Mr. Francis Bailey, of Philadelphia, mentioned above. Mrs. James' three sisters, Margaret, Lydia and Ellen Bailey, subsequently, from the year 1833, made their home with Mrs. James, in Urbana, and formed a conspicuous part of the little group of believers in those early days of the New Church in Urbana. In May, 1828, John Murdoch and his sister, Mrs. Isabella Barclay, came here to reside, and added to the number. In 1835, Mr. David Gwynne and family returned for permanent residence here. Mr. Richard R. McNemar, a receiver of the doctrines, had also settled here in 1833. The little circle of believers in the " Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem " were visited by ministers and missionaries of

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 361

the New Church from time to time. The Rev. M. M. Carll visited them in 1831; Alexander Kinmont in 1836 and 1838; the Rev. T. O. Prescott (Miller) in 1813 to 1845; the Rev. Sabin Hough in 1847, and the Rev. James P. Stuart in 1848 and 1849. At this time the subject of establishing in Urbana a New Church College was set on foot, and for this purpose a meeting was called and the following persons came together, constituting the first assembly of New Church men in Urbana for purposes of cooperation in organizing the work of the church. There were present the Rev. James P. Stuart, of Twenty Mile Stand, Hamilton County; Milo G. Williams, Amos C. Richards and David Pruden, of Dayton; John Murdoch and William M. Murdoch, of Springfield; the Rev. Sabin Hough, of Columbus ; Richard S. Canby, of Logan County, and the Rev. George Field, of Detroit, Mich.

On November 8; 1850, the society of the New Church in Urbana was organized, and an act of the Assembly of Ohio incorporating the society was passed March 20, 1851. A constitution was adopted on December 28, 1351, and on January, 1352, the first Board of Trustees was elected, as follows : Messrs. John H. James, David Gwynne and William M. Murdoch. Mr. Milo G. Williams was elected Secretary. A resolution was passed looking to the purchasing of a building lot. The incorporators were Milo G. Williams, James P. Stuart, William M. Murdoch, David Gwynne, John H. James, Edward U. Blake, Thomas Al. Gwynne and John Murdoch. Mr. Amos A. Richards had also brought his family to reside here, from Dayton. These families constituting the New Church community, were in the habit of meeting from house to house on Sunday evenings, and holding a simple service of divine worship, consisting of a chapter from the Word, a passage of Scripture chanted, the Lord's Prayer repeated, and a sermon selected from some New Church writer. In 1852, the number was increased by the families of Dr. Hamilton Ring and Dr. Joseph Howells. In 1855, a lot was purchased by the society on the corner of what are now South Main and Reynolds streets, and a plain structure of wood, 30X50 feet, known as the New Church Hall, was erected thereon, and was first opened for service on January 5, 1856, the Rev. James P. Stuart conducting the worship, and Mr. Willard G. Day, a student in Urbana University, delivering a lecture on the " History and Character of the Word."

On May 14, 1856, the Rev. James P. Stuart was duly elected Pastor of the society, which office he held for two years, resigning in 1853. From that time, the society has elected no Pastor, but has co-operated with th e Urbana Univer sity in the support of public worship and preaching for the united benefit of the college and the society. the Professors of the college frequently being ministers of the church or students for the ministry, and officiating in the pulpit as part of their regular duty. The worship was conducted by Mr. John C. Ager in 1859. Rev. J. C. Eaton officiated regularly for this society and the New Church society in Bellefuntaine in the year 1860 ; Mr. George Nelson Smith was leader in 1861, Mr. Charles Hardon and the Rev. A. J. Bartels in 1862 and 1863. In 1864, Mr. Charles Harden was ordained, and entered into an engagement as minister of the society for the years 1864 and 1865. The Rev. J. M. Miller made monthly visits to the church in 1866, and the Rev. E. A. Beaman in 1867. The Rev. George Nelson Smith, having been ordained into the ministry, served the society and college as minister in the years 1868 and 1869. Mr. Milo G. Williams frequently officiated as leader in worship in the absence of a minister, and for many years served as Superintendent of the Sunday school of the society. In the year 1870, the Rev. Frank Sewall, having

362 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

been elected by the Board of Trustees President of the university, removed with his family to Urbana, and assumed the pastoral charge of the college and congregation, the society stipulating to contribute a stated sum toward the current expenses of the college. The Rev. Mr. Sewall still remains in this charge.

The total number of names enrolled on the list of members up to the present writing (1880) is 140. The present number of resident communicant members is about forty, and the general attendance at divine worship is from eighty to one hundred. There have been in all, since the foundation of the society, one hundred and twenty-seven persons baptized, infants and adults, of which number fifty-six have been baptized by the present minister, the Rev. Frank Sewall.

In the year 1879, the society voted to give into possession of the Trustees of Urbana University its house of worship, to be removed to the rear of the church lot and converted into a building for a school for girls and primary school, to be under the direction of the Trustees of the university, at the same time giving to the university a perpetual lease of the rear part of the lot required for the purposes of the school. This was done in consideration of a sum being raised sufficient to warrant the beginning of a new house of worship to be erected on the site of the former one. The required sum being raised, in the spring of 1880 the society released its former building, which was thereupon removed and converted into the school building as above described, and, on July 1, the work of cutting and laying the stone of the new church edifice was commenced. The corner-stone of the church was solemnly laid with prayer and benediction, and a declaration of the faith of the New Church, the Rev. Frank Sewall officiating, on the 30th of July, 1830. The church is constructed entirely of Springfield limestone, from the quarry of Mr. A. Holcomb, the architect of the building being the Rev. Frank Sewall ; the master builder, Mr. Thomas Allison, and the toaster mason, Mr. Laury. The new school building, being completed for the uses of the girls' and primary school of Urbana University, was formally opened and dedicated with religious services by the Rev. Frank Sewall on Sunday, September 12, 1880.

The following is the Declaration of Faith subscribed to by members of the Urbana Society of the New Church:

I. That God is one in essence and in person ; that, from love toward men, he assumed humanity, and glorified it; and that He thus became God with us, the Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

II. That the word is divine truth proceeding from the Lord; that it is adapted to all the states of angels and of men, and that thus it is the divine medium by which men and angels are conjoined with the Lord.

III. That the Lord alone is the source of genuine life, the precepts of which are the Ten Commandments; that these precepts are to be obeyed by man as of himself, with the acknowledgment that the power and the will to do so are of the LORD ALONE, and thus that men are regenerated and saved by the Lord by means of a life according to His precepts.

St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church.-This church was organized about the years 1824 or 1825, by Rev. Moses Freeman, a missionary of the Philadelphia Annual Conference. When on a missionary tour in the West, finding a few colored persons living in Urbana, some of whom had been members of the church, he made known the object of his mission. He was gladly welcomed, and preached his first sermon to the house of Fanny Carter. After the services, he organized the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Urbana, with Frank and Rachel Reno. Lewis and Susan Adams, John and Re-

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 363

becca Gamon, Elijah Brown and Fanny Carter, Elijah Brown was appointed Class-leader and local preacher until a preacher could be sent. The congregation, like all the pioneer churches, met from house to house until able to build a house of worship of their own. The first building was of logs, afterward weather-boarded, which was removed, in 1844, to make room for a brick house. They had then increased in numbers and influence. "The people had a mind to work." Many members of the church worked in the brick-yard to assist in the cause. Robert Reno molded the brick, Jeremiah Dempsy wheeled the clay to make them. This house was soon found to be too small, and, in 1866, under the administration of Rev. J. W. Steward, was torn down and the foundations laid for the present " Saint Paul's." The work was finished under the pastorate of David Smith, who followed Mr. Steward. June 1, 1876, Benjamin W. Arnett was appointed to the charge. Under him the church was finished, and was dedicated in the following September by Bishop Wayman, of Baltimore, assisted by J. A. P. McGaw, of the Presbvterian, George G. Harriman, of the Baptist, and H. H. Thompson, of the United Presbyterian Churches of the city.

The colored residents of the city and members of the church have good reason to be proud of their new St. Paul's. It is comfortable and convenient, and presents a fine appearance, with the appointments of rich and well-to-do societies. When the sittings become insufficient to meet the wants of the colored population, worshiping in St. Paul's, instead of tearing down and building larger, they will be more apt to follow the example of Grace Church, and, on withdrawing from the parent hive, erect for themselves a " new St. Peter's."

"'This church has been fortunate in receiving the ministrations of a number of able men. Among these may be named Jerry Thompson. Mr. Thompson was among the first in order of time, and inferior to none of his successors in natural abilitv. He was illiterate, but possessed a vivid imagination, and pictured to the fears of his hearers the wailings of the damned in the bottomless pit, and portrayed in as strong contrast, to the delight of the saints, the blaze of glory in the celestial city.

"His strength as a preacher was in his quaint, vivid and original descriptions, uttered with the impressiveness of conviction, and philippics against the sins of the times, too personal to be misapplied. With equal facility, he drew his hearers from the groan to the shout. To him hell was a material place, bubbling and hissing with molten fire and brimstone-where the worm died not and the fire was never quenched,; and when he got on, his ` high horse,' it was said he would `dip up hell with a ladle,' and. having wrought up his congregation to a high pitch of excitement, would close with a powerful appeal to `flee from the wrath to come.' It need hardly be said revivals were common in that church.

"The music, too, was usually of that emotional character that strongly impressed the audience. Improvisation was not unusual, after the manner of some of the Southern churches, where books are not used-a practice not infrequently in use on the old plantations. at their social gatherings. and on the Mississippi River steamboats, by the deck hands. A leader-sometimes a self constituted chorister-would sing a line or stanza, bearing upon the salient points of the sermon, with words and music of his own composing, when the congregation would join in the chorus, not always appropriate, but suited to arouse the religious fervor of the assembly. Then, if the sermon had presented the fears and hopes of the Christian, a thought or sentence of the

364 - HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

preacher would be improvised into measure and sung in recitative, when the house would join in the chorus

"'Oh! Gabriel's gwine to blow-gwine to blow-gwine to blow,

Gabriel's gwine to blow at that great day.'

'`Many of the voices were rich and strong, the music abounding in quavers and slurs, but moving in perfect time and harmony, while the deep-toned voice of old John Gamrel, like the tones of a trombone, filled the house. While the singing was progressing, the preacher, at intervals, would improve the opportunity by a word of exhortation The pent-up feelings of the assembly were unloosed. ' Bless the Lord!' 'Amen!' 'Hallelujah!' 'Glory!' and other exclamations of similar import, were heard from various parts of the house. Sobs and groans mingled with shouts of triumph. Here might be seen one clapping her hands; near by, another, keeping time with his foot and swaying his body to and fro, and another, too full for restraint, would give play to his excited feelings in shootings of delight, or one of the females, overcome by the nervous strain, would fall in a swoon, the crowd surrounding her in a circle, and a female friend kneeling at her side. High above all the demonstrations of religious fervor, the voice of the preacher might be heard in his impassioned exhortation, alarming the impenitent and encouraging the faithful, when, the song having ceased, the minister quieted the noisy worshipers into something like order with a few more words of exhortation, and the `apostolic benediction dismissed the meeting."

St. Paul's of 1880 is not the little log or frame church of 1840, though sometimes still the demonstrative spirit of the pioneer Methodist asserts itself, and the music has lost none of its wonted force, and we doubt not the influence of this church has been an efficient means to make the colored people of the city, who are numbered among its worshipers, peaceful, quiet and active citizens.

Second Baptist Church.-This church was organized in March, 1846, in a log cabin bought of J. H. Patrick by Washington Cheevers, and the members composing the first society were Elizabeth Cheevers, Elizabeth Farrow, Mary Ann Morse, John Clark, Bryant Clark and Lucy Clark. Mary Ann Morse is the only surviving member of this number. The Elders, in succession, were Rev. P. Young, L. B. Moss, Richard Meredith, Henry Reckhold, G. W. Curry, L. B. Moss, L. B. Moss has served the church for twenty-five years. The church has had a large membership since its organization, and occupies for its place of worship the brick building on the corner of Buckeye and Hill streets.

The St. Mary's Catholic Church.-The Roman Catholic Church of the city was organized by Rev. Augustus Grogban, in 1853. He continued with the church until his death,, in 1859. His successor was Rev. James Francis Kearney, August 1, 1859. During the administration of Father Kearney, the church was enlarged twice; the first time, in 1867, the addition cost $14,010.64 and the second enlargement, in 1873, cost $6,263.53. He not only did a good work for his congregation, but was universally esteemed by all who knew him for his tolerant opinions and social character. He died in 1877, and was succeeded by Rev. M. W. Walsh. Under the administration of the latter, the brick building near Boyce, on North Main street, formerly erected for a seminary under the auspices of the Associate Reformed or United Presbyterian Church, was purchased and converted into a nunnery and parochial school. He died in 1878, and was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Donahue.

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. - 365

Rev. J. A. Henry, for several years, has been Assistant Pastor. The church is flourishing, with a large membership and a number of social organizations, or societies, for the promotion of temperance, social intercourse and general knowledge.

THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE.

In February of 1874, the ladies of Xenia, in Greene County, as a means to close the drinking saloons of that city, and thereby stop a prolific source of crime, want, suffering and degradation, agreed to go in a body to the several shops where intoxicating liquors were sold as a drink or beverage, and appeal to the men engaged in the traffic to abandon a business which their own moral sense condemned, and which was in hostility to the best interests of humanity and the country. As might have been expected, and probably by many was anticipated, the owners of the "Little Gem," "The Saloon," and kindred shops with fancy names and a suspicious record, turned a deaf ear to their entreaties and expostulations. A few were ready to argue the question; they were engaged in a legitimate business ; the manufacture and distillation of highwines had already tied up a large capital and afforded an immense revenue; that the destruction or crippling of this industry would re-act on the body of the country in destroying a market for leading farm products of the State ; that the manufacture of alcohol was essential to the prosperity of the mechanic arts; and that they did not solicit the patronage of their husbands, brothers and sons, and withal kept an orderly house. A few received them graciously, and were not to be. outdone in polit