HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 393
CHAPTER IX.
RELIGION, TEMPERANCE, EDUCATION, LITERATURE AND ART.
THE CHURCHES.
THE statistics of churches given in census returns do not, in all cases, agree with the statements put forth by the denominational organs of the various sects. The census Superintendents have their own point of view and apply tests different from those known to the compilers of religious year-books and registers. It should be borne in mind, too, that reports of the numbers of church edifices and their accommodations and value are not always true measures of the religious activity of a community. A strong denomination with numerous churches may often strengthen itself by suffering a weak church to cease to exist when it becomes unable to support itself. There are churches that find a place on the rolls of a denomination and may be enumerated in census returns, which, having a legal title to an edifice, and maintaining some kind of an organization, have ceased to gather congregations, to support a minister or to conduct any of the services of public worship. It is not easy to determine the number of churches in a given area, for the reason that it is not easy to determine what constitutes a church to entitle it to a place in an enumeration. On this point the Superintendent of the ninth census remarks: " A church, to deserve notice in the census, must have something of the character of an institution. It musi be known in the community in which it is located. There must be something permanent and tangible to substantiate its title to recognition. No one test, it is true, can be devised that will apply in all cases: yet, in the entire absence of tests, the statistics of the census will be overlaid with fictitious returns to such an extent as to produce the effect of absolute falsehood. It will not do to say that a church without a church building of its own is therefore not a church; that a church without a pastor is not a church; nor even that a church without membership is not a church. There are churches properly cognizable in the census which are without edifices and pastors, and, in rare instances, without a professed membership. Something makes them churches in spite of all their deficiencies. They are known and recognized in the community as churches, and are properly to be returned as such in the census."
In the county of Marion, as nearly as can be ascertained, there are about seventy-five churches. The number of members in these respective churches are reported in most instances in the city and township histories in this volume, but not being reported in all. the exact total cannot be given. It is estimated, however, that about twenty-seven per cent of the population are members of the church, or about one-half of those who are of an age of sufficient maturity to become members of the church.
The strongest denominations in point of numbers are the Methodists, Free-Will Baptists, Lutherans and Evangelical, Presbyterians and German Reformed, Catholics and United Brethren. There is but one Universalist Church in the county (at Caledonia), but two Christian Churches (Marion
394 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
and Letimberville), no Congregationalists, who are common elsewhere, no Unitarian, Swedenborgian or Mormon organizations, and but one Orthodox Quaker. Joseph Morris, of Richland Township.
THE MARION COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY.
A history of Marion County would be very imperfect if it did not include some account of its County Bible Society, auxiliary to the American Bible Society. There can be no doubt that this society has had much to do in influencing and determining the moral and religious tone of this community, out of which has come not only a large proportion of the existing churches of the county, but much of its prosperity and the spirit of improvement and progress which characterizes the people of the county at the Present time. When in 1830 the Marion County Bible Society was first organized, it was evidence of the fact that there were those among the pioneer setters who appreciated the teachings of the Bible and the importance of having these teachings disseminated and observed.
It is worthy of notice that the first organization of this society in 1830 was but fifteen years after the formation of the American Bible Society, which took place in 1815; so that this County Auxiliary Society, with all its disadvantages, was early in the field in its endeavors to help forward the beneficent designs of the parent society, and it is pertinent and fitting to say that whatever good has resulted from the operations of this county society, it may all be reviewed as so much testimony in commendation of the benevolence and wisdom of the originators and founders of the American Bible Society. There can be no doubt that this county society has been an incentive and a help :n the organization of most of the churches now found in the county. There were but few churches in the county at the date of its first organization-not half a dozen, it is believed-and at the period of its re-organization in 1836, only a comparatively small number of the churches now found in the county had been organized.
The increased circulation of the Bible, through the instrumentality of the county society called attention to its teachings and to the commission and warrant furnished by the New Testament to gather the people into church associations; and formal church organizations have followed as a natural result. Without entering into statistical details of the operations of the society, it will suffice for the present purpose to state that, from its re-organization in 1836 it has maintained a depository, at which there has usually been an ample supply of Bibles and Testaments to meet the wants of the county and carry out the objects of the society. Thousands of volumes have gone out from the depository, and, besides paying the parent society for these books, a very considerable sum of money has been contributed to that society, to aid it in its work of circulating the sacred Scriptures among the destitute in the wide field which it occupies. The work of the county society has been prosecuted by various methods. It has sometimes had local visitors in the different school districts, and at other times employed canvassing agents to go over the entire county to seek out the destitute families and to supply them, and at the same time solicit from the friends of the Bible their pecuniary contributions to pay for gratuitous distributions to the needy among us, and 'to enlarge the contributions of this society to the parent society. In addition to the methods just mentioned, there have been organized in all the fifteen townships of the county, branch societies, and there have been periods when most of these branch societies have done good work for the Bible cause. As the work of
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 395
this society has been inaugurated and carried forward chiefly by the personal agency of those who have been its official representatives and managers, their names are a part of its history.
The first meeting was called in February, 1830, when the county covered greater territory than at present and the settlers were scattered and poor. The roads were also poor, especially in the winter, and when this first meeting was held. It sometimes required three hours for a man on horseback to go from Big Island to Marion, a distance of five miles. For ten years after this time, no vehicle above the dignity of a two-horse wagon was known in the county, yet to this meeting came men from all parts of the county, as, Henry Ustick, from Mount Gilead; Joseph Boyd and Shubael W. Knapp, from Pleasant; John McElvy, from near Cochranton; and several Browns, from Canaan. In 1874, but one attendant at that meeting was living in the county-John Wildbahn, who died shortly afterward. This meeting was hold in the log-cabin residence of Mr. Wildbahn, located where Mr. Dietrich's residence now is , in Marion. The large rooms of this cabin were well filled.
Rev. Eldred Barber, who had been instrumental in calling the meeting, was the first President, and Adam Uncapher Secretary. Canvassers were appointed for each township, and soon about $300 worth of books were sent for from the American Bible Society, then only fifteen years old. These probably required six or eight weeks to reach their destination, and they were in due time distributed by the canvassers. Another invoice was afterward ordered, and of these about $300 worth were accidentally burned in the store of William Bain in 1834 or 1835. The society was now deeply in debt to the parent society, and seems to have held no meetings for two or three years. In 1836, it was re-organized, with Samuel Allen President, Thomas Crafty Secretary and Reese Darlington, Depositary. Rev. Henry Shedd was appointed General Agent for all that part of the county cast of the Whetstone. At this time, the society's debt amounted to $800 or $1,000. Many of the books were deposited in the different townships and in the hands of men who did not know how to push them out into the community or introduce them into use. Many of them lay in closets or upon shelves until they were saturated with dust and worm eaten.
Thus the interest wore along until about 1851 to 1853, when a general canvass of the county was made. At the present time (1883), another canvass is being made, for the second or third time. John Cocherl is the colporteur. In 1873, there were twenty life members and twenty-five county members; and since that time the average has not been far from that. A payment of $30 constitutes a life member and a payment of $5, a county member.
When the Masonic Block in Marion was burned, all the records of this society were burned with it.
The county depository is at Denison & Co.'s drug store; Marion.
According to the last annual report, March 9, 1883, the following is the status: Books sold from the county depository, $66.40; delivered to Ladies' Missions and Ladies' Depositories, $14; given away, $2; delivered to Lady Missionaries of the auxiliary and branch societies, $9.20; on hand, $254.50; received into the treasury, $166.72, of which $40.50 was paid to the parent society; $50.28 disbursed on donation account; $6.64 paid to the canvassing agent; and on hand $59.30; S. E. DeWolfe is President and J. C. Markert, Secretary.
396 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
MARION COUNTY SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.
This was first organized in March, 1829, with Eber Baker as President; Daniel D. Tompkins, Treasurer; and O. Bowen, Secretary. Rev. Eldred Barber, Agent for the American Sunday School Union, was the organizing officer This union was kept for a long time. In 1830, they reported ten schools in the county, with sixty-three teachers and 512 scholars, all furnished with libraries.
The Union was reorganized February 1, 1883, at the Presbyterian Church in Marion, under the direction of officers of the State Union, by the adoption of a constitution and the election of officers, as follows: Rev. E. B. Raffensperger, President; Vice Presidents--Marion, Rev. L. A. Belt; Prospect, John F. Sellers; Green Camp, John Kibler; Bowling Green, Luke Lenox; Montgomery, `Vest Precinct, H. B. Mills; East Precinct. J. B. Virden; Grand, Hugh V. Davis; Salt Rock, Samuel Morral; Grand Prairie, E. Brown; Scott, N. B. Brooks; Tully, I. Auld; Claridon, North Precinct, Rev. M. Scott; South Precinct, Rev. James Owens; Richland, M. Jacoby, Jr.; Waldo, James Emery; Pleasant, T. R. Smith; Big Island, Isaiah Uncapher. Permanent Secretary, Jacob Fribley; Assistant Secretary, Rev. J. F. Smith. Treasurer, Rev. O. E. Baker; Executive Committee, Rev. S. D. Bates, S. E. DeWolfe, Revs. W. Dowling, J. E. Julian and C. G. Hertzer.
By this strong organization, it will be seen that the educators of Christianity mean business. The object of the union is to render Sunday school work more efficient, by instructing the teachers how to teach and bring children into the school, by aiding and inciting parents to send their children to Sunday school and work in the same, and by aiding the officers of the Sunday schools to be proficient. in their work.
TEMPERANCE.
The first temperance society in Marion County was organized in the village of Marion as early as 1828. T. J. Anderson, Rev. Barbour, Rev, James. Gilruth, T. L. Henderson and a few others were the active workers, and the results of their labors were manifest, as the people began to learn that houses could be raised, logs rolled and corn husked without the aid of whisky. It was called a "Moral and Temperance Society," formed " to suppress drunkenness and blasphemy." They adopted a constitution and elected officers, Rev. Gilruth being the first President and James H. Godman the first Secretary.
The Washingtonian temperance movement was started in Marion in 1842, by Judge Thomas J. Anderson, Thomas Henderson, John E. Davids and others. Very few men signed the pledge, but most of the women did. After flourishing for three or four years, it went down, or was in a manner supplanted by the order of the Sons of Temperance, who organized a division here about 1846 or 1848, prominent among whom were Judge Anderson, Levi H. Randall, Alfred Randall, John E. Davids and the ministers of the place. The division became very strong and flourished until about 1854 or 1855. Soon after this, the Washington style was revived. The principal orator of those times was a resident of Fremont, Ohio, nicknamed the " Buckeye Broadax." After the close of the war, the Sons of Temperance were re-organized again for several years.
The Good Templars struck in about 1866, and soon grew to a numerical strength of from 400 to 500. Prominent in the organization were John E. and William B. Davids, William Turner and others. In four or five years,
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 397
the zeal for attending meetings died out, and the charter was consequently surrendered.
The Sons of Temperance are still flourishing in Marion, for an account of which see history of that city.
The "Murphy" movement was introduced in Marion April 7, 1877, by J. B. Pomeroy and R. V. Hunter, two young men from the University of Wooster. Their speeches were stirring appeals; their meetings were thronged; the music, led by Mrs. S. C. Osborn, was inspiring; and within two or three weeks more temperance work seemed to be accomplished than had been done for years before. By the 24th of the month, 1,200 had signed the pledge (same as the old Washingtonian of 1840 to 1855), several hundred of whom had been drinking men.
Women's Christian Temperance Union.-The temperance wave called the " Women's Crusade " struck Marion during the months of February and March, 1874. An informal meeting was held February 26, when Rev. Mr. Bates was elected President and Mrs. Van Fleet, Secretary. J. R. Garberson and Rev. D. D. Waugh were appointed delegates to attend a convention at Cleveland, where Dr. Dio Lewis was officiating, and invite him to come to Marion and open the campaign. They went upon their errand, but the Doctor was not at liberty to come. In the meantime the women had a remonstrance drawn up and signed by over 1,200 persons, and sent to the Legislature then in session, and also to the Constitutional Convention, asking them not to change the statute called the " Adair Law."
A large mass meeting was called to be held in the Methodist Church, and so thorough and earnest was the movement that a committee of one woman from each church in Marion was appointed to invite the men of the city to close their places of business, and even the court then in session to adjourn, so that all the citizens could be free to attend. Mr. Waugh called for all the women who would pledge themselves to the temperance work until success crowned their efforts, and 185 responded, which number was increased in a day or two to over 200. Besides, 160 men pledged themselves to assist in the work.
At a meeting held at the Presbyterian parsonage March 3, 1874, the " Temperance League " was organized with the following officers: President, Mrs. John Bartram; Vice Presidents, Mesdames Davis, Waugh, Kent, Baker, Snyder, Bates, Gugle and Day; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Sharpless; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Van Fleet; Treasurer, Mrs. J. M. Heller; Executive Committee, Mesdames E. Dickerson, T. B. Fisher, --- Cronenwett, H. Riley, A. P. Henderson, D. R. Miller, W. Dennig, P. Cusic, Mrs. Dr. True, ---- Powers and C. Smith; Advisory Committee, of gentlemen, Revs. Henderson, Waugh, Bates, Julian, Orr, Rummer, Miller and the Catholic priest.
During this month, a committee of eighteen ladies was appointed to canvass the town and obtain signatures to both the ladies' and the gentlemen's pledges, subject to the approval of the League; and also sent through the post office an invitation to each saloon keeper, asking him to offer his voluntary pledge of surrender. On March 5, the various forms of pledges were adopted--the " citizens'," the "physicians'," the "druggists'," the "dealers' " and the "property-holders'. "
March 6, 1874, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mother Stewart, of Springfield, Ohio, the apostle of this new departure, addressed the meet. ins preparatory to the heroic onslaught the women were about to make personally on the saloons. Prayer and deliberation brought down the Di-
398 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
vine baptism and grace, sufficient unto the day. They marched forth. " Although the day was exceeding inclement," the Secretary remarks on the record, " we decided the trial moment had come, and out we marched upon the streets, with Mother Stewart at our front. We went with trembling, but God's grace, which never fails in the hour of need, went with us by the way, and as we went upon the muddy pavements, we felt God's spirit overshadowing and leading us."
The women visited two saloons, but found their doors closed against them. They repaired to the church and prayed and sung, and went out upon the street again, nearly 200 strong. Two saloons were closed against their entrance and two opened their doors. Timothy Fahey was the first dealer to place out his sign that his saloon was closed. Within a few days several saloons surrendered. Detachments of the League were sent out to visit saloon-keepers in different parts of the county and ask them to join the good cause.
April 6 was municipal election day in Marion, and the influence of the tidal wave was perceptibly felt in the make-up of the new boards of officers and Councilmen.
May 20, the Advisory Committee asked the ladies to retire from the streets, that they might have a better opportunity to carry out some secret plans of their own. They retired, but never to take the street again.
In July, a movement was made for a more permanent organization, with a view to extending operations throughout the county, and keeping them up until victory was won. A constitution and by-laws were adopted and officers elected. In the course of a year or two, however, it was found unnecessary to continue meetings during the week.
By the close of 1876, nine leagues had been organized within the bounds of Marion County, petitions sent to Congress and tracts distributed and eighty subscribers secured for temperance papers. The good work ramified in all directions, especially in the channels of the church; 170 names were secured on the basis of a paid membership, placing $88.47 in the treasury.
In 1882, Miss Frances Willard, of Chicago, delivered a lecture in Marion, which was well attended and exerted a strong influence for good. During this year also nearly every township was visited by committees sent out to revive and ameliorate the methods of work; a petition extensively circulated was forwarded to the Legislature and resolutions passed at a large mass meeting of the citizens wera also sent to the Representative in the State Legislature. The Agricultural Society has been influenced to prohibit liquor-selling upon the fair grounds. In the absence of the President of the Union, on account. of ill health, the First Vice President, Mrs. Moore, filled her place creditably, and the attendance at the regular meetings has generally been good.
The Union has a room in the Masonic Block for their meetings, leased for the purpose, which they have bad for several years.
The foregoing account gives an idea of the nature and extent of the women's work which commenced as a "crusade " and soon crystallized into a permanent and beautiful form, which must grow until the laws of the land are made as efficient .as imperfect human nature can make them, and all sensible people refuse to touch, taste or handle the deceitful serpent-intoxicating liquor.
The present (1883) officers of the Women's Christian Temperance Union for Marion are: President, Mrs. J. C. Johnston; First Vice President,
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 399
Mrs. H. C. Moore: Second Vice President, Mrs. S. A. Powers; Recording Secretary, Mrs. R. H. Johnson; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Hattie Bartram; Treasurer, Mrs. H. S. Lucas; Editress, Mrs. L. Hums.
The women's union has done much good work throughout the county, not detailed in the above account. At Caledonia, for instance, they shut up every saloon. and their work at many points resulted in a more signal victory than at Marion.
A "Father Mathew," or Catholic, temperance society has been kept up in Marion, but it does not co-operate with other temperance societies in special work.
EDUCATIONAL.
Marion County has not been a whit behind her sister counties in her educational interests. The character and extent of her early schools are best described in the chapter on pioneer life. The proximity of the county to a fine university at Delaware has had a good effect upon the pedagogical profession here, and through them, materially, upon the schools. To obtain an idea of the growth of the schools, the only method is to compare the present statistics below with-nothing in 1820.
EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS OF 1881.
Paid to this county from the State Common School Fund, $9,568.55; payments from the county, $13,008.85; excess of receipts from the county, $3,440.30; balance of cash on hand in the county treasury, September 1, 1880, $35,420.43; State tax, $9,704.76; irreducible school fund, $922.52; amount of local tax for school and schoolhouse purposes, $49,334.73; amount received on sale of bonds, $200; amount Of fines, licenses, tuition of non-resident pupils and other sources, $1,623.34; total receipts, $97,205. 78. Amount paid teachers in the primary department, $34,844.25; in the higher departments, $2,485.60; total, $37,329.85; amount paid for managing and suparintending, $1, 740; paid for sites and buildings, $2,221.37; interest on or redemption of bonds, $1,426.80; fuel and other contingent expenses, $11,229.88; total expenditures, $53,947.90; balance on hand September 1, 1881, $43,257.88; number of youth between six and twenty-one years of age, 6,770; of unmarried youth between six and twenty-one, while, there are 3,423 males, and 3,282 females; colored, 32 males and 33 females; total, 6,770; number between sixteen and twenty-one, 1,621; per cent of enumeration to population of 1880, 32, which is about the average.
In 1881, there were 120 subdistricts in the county and seven separate districts, with eight subdivisions. There were three schoolhouses erected during the year, at a total cost of $2,396; total number of schoolhouses, 120, besides seven in separate districts. The value of the school property in the townships was $62,930; in the separate districts, $65,700; total, $128,630. All the township schools are considered primary. The schoolhouses in the separate districts are counted also as primary, but of thirtytwo school rooms (not including recitation rooms) in these, five are high school rooms; in the townships are 121 school rooms; accordingly, in the latter are 121 teachers required, while in the other class 38 teachers are necessary.
During the year, 103 male teachers were employed and 136 females in the townships; and in the separate districts, 14 male and 31 female in the primary, and one of each sex in the high school; total number of teachers
400 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
employed during. the year, 286; number of teachers who taught the entire time the schools were in session, 56 of whom 21 were gentlemen and 35 ladies. The average wages of teachers per month of four weeks, to the nearest integer, were as follows: In the townships, for primary male teachers, $33 a month; female, $23; in the separate districts, male $44, and female, $34. ,
No townships or districts are reported as having less than twenty-four weeks of school within the year, and the average number of weeks the schools were fn session was 27 in the township; and 33 in the separate districts.
The average rate of local tax in the townships for 1880-81, was two and nine-tenths mills on the dollar; for 1882, three mills; in the separate districts, six and nine-tenths in 1880-81, and eight and six-tenths in 1882, which in the townships was' a little more than the average for the State, and in the separate districts a little less.
The enrollment of pupils in the townships was 4,051, of whom 2,174 were males and 1,877 females in the separate districts, primary, 590 boys and 610 girls; high 165 boys and 219 girls; total, 1, 584; grand total, 5,635. Total enrollment of pupils between sixteen and twenty-one, 815; total of re-enrollments, 168; average monthly enrollment, 3, 258 in the townships and 1, 299 in the separate districts. In respect to average daily attendance in the townships, that of the a boys was 1, 314; girls, 1, 206; in the separate districts, primary, boys, 408; and girls 432; high, boys, 101; girls, 151; grand total, 3,612.. The per cent which the average daily attendance was of the average monthly enrollment was 77 in the townships and 84 in the districts.
As to the branches of study, Marion County in 1.881 stood as follows: In the alphabet, 741 scholars; reading, 4,309; spelling, 4,467; writing, 3,778; arithmetic, 3,592; geography, 1,875; English grammar, 1,100; oral lessons, 1,073; composition, 305; drawing, 823; vocal music, 870; map drawing, 210; United States History, 358; physiology, 39; physical geography, 17; natural philosophy, 5; German, 56; general history, 14; algebra, 158; geometry, 17; trigonometry, 5; surveying, none; chemistry, none; geology, none; botany, 93; astronomy, 17; book-keeping, none; natural history, none; mental philosophy, none; moral philosophy, none; rhetoric, 10; logic, none; Latin, none; Greek, none; French, none.
The reader must not infer that, because no pupils are reported in certain branches above, therefore there is any lack of intelligence or of appreciation of those branches; for, in the first place, children generally attend higher schools for the higher branches, and, secondly, the relative importance of some of those studies is a debatable question.
There are no private or colored schools reported for 1881 in this county.
Teachers' Institutes.-These have flourished in Marion County for over thirty years. The records being lost, only an approximate account can be given. For some time past, the average attendance at these institutes has been 130 and upward. Their sessions are held in Marion.
In the winter of 1882-83, a "teachers' union" was organized, comprising the teachers of Marion and five other counties in the vicinity.
Teachers' institutes at the present day are far different in their character from what they were at first. In the early days, a few would meet, without programme, and endeavor to entertain one another by their wit, the subject matter being arithmetical and grammatical, puzzles and curiosities, comparing merits of text books, interesting experiences in the schoolroom,
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with an occasional essay, more literary than scholastic. Of course, there was a good deal of fun, but little instruction. Long since, the institutes have been turned into real schools, taught by competent instructors, who are paid in part by the State. In this respect, the teachers have been often favored by professors from the universities and colleges at Delaware, Columbus, Urbana, Springfield, Mount Union, etc.
LITERATURE.
Of good poets and writers Marion has had a fair share. None, it is true, have become eminent, but several deserve special mention in a work like this. Not to say anything here of the members of the various professions-ministerial, medical, legal, pedagogical and editorial-who enjoy a high average standing, there may be noticed in this connection the authors of poems and books, residents at some or other time of this county.
MRS. MINERVA RUNDLE.
This lady belonged to the talented family of William Brown, best known as a correct surveyor. She died in Marion in 1854, of cholera. Her poetic pen obeyed the weeping Muse, as her numerous productions show. She was a frequent contributor to the Buckeye Eagle. Two selections are here given:
IT MATTERS NOT MUCH WHERE THE COLD FORM IS LEFT TO LIE.
BY MRS. M. RUNDLE.
It matters not much, when the blood grows chill,
And the heart is hushed and the pulse lies still,
When the ear is deaf to the voice of mirth,
And the eye is closed to the scenes of earth,
When the last low word and the fainting breath
Is kissed away from the lips by Death
I say that it matters not where is laid
The cold, still form, when the soul has fled.
It matters not much, though the ashes lie,
Unburied, beneath a torrid sky;
Though the bones of a thousand soldiers slain
Be left to bleach on the battle plain;
Though the body may find a boundless grave
In the briny depths of the ocean wave ;
Though the feet of loved ones may never tread
Where the cold earth pillows the lifeless dead.
TRUE LOVE AND A HAPPY HOME.
O, give me neither pomp nor wealth,
Which some would gladly own!
For all I ask is strength and health,
True love and a happy home.
Where blessings such as these abide,
Harsh strife can never come,
And peacefully doth love preside
O'er such a happy home.
And sweet prosperity will cling
Around a bright hearthstone;
Its welcome presence e'er will bring
True, love and a happy home.
And naught can interrupt the bliss
Which speaks in every tone.
Who could desire aught more than this:
True love and a happy home!
402 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
MRS. JAMES HAVENS.
Prominent among Ohio's talented daughters is the gifted poetess and philanthropist, Mrs. James Havens a native of Ohio, for many years a resident of Marion, but now a resident of La Fayette, Ind. She was a sister of Mrs. Rundle just mentioned, and was born at the Indian mission of the Wyandot tribe near Upper Sandusky, close by the spot where the gal. lant Col. Crawford was burned at the stake by the Indians, and more than a decade of her first years was passed amid the leafy dells and wildwood glades of her forest home. Her friends often imagined that the wild, weird romance of those early years have lent their tinge of ideality to all her subsequent life. When in her eleventh year, her father left the Indians and removed with his little family of motherless children to Marion, the capital of this county, where the subject of this sketch first began to manifest a decided poetical talent. At the early age of twelve, she pubished in the Marion Buckeye Eagle, a poem entitled " The Sons of Temperance," which elicited an elaborate editorial compliment from the talented S. A. Griswold, who was at that time editor and proprietor of the paper. He spoke encouraging words of prophecy to the timid little poetess and offered her carte blanche to his columns, which she availed herself of with credit. At the age of fourteen, she entered the list of competitors for a prize poem, offered by the faculty of a university, and came off victorious over students and professors. She was educated under the vigilant eye of her father, who, a poet and a scholar himself, was proud of the success of his talented daughter, and urged her to unceasing efforts, and often child and father burned low the midnight oil in poring over tomes of romance, poetry and song.
At the age of sixteen, she was happily married to Mr. James Havens, a young clothing merchant of Marion, a gentleman every way worthy his bride, and for several years of her life seemed absorbed in domestic joys and cares; and though she never dropped her pen entirely, she devoted much of her time to domestic and social duties. But a change came. The financial crash that swept away so many fortunes in Marion County Sent Mr. Havens and his wife penniless out into new fields to retrieve their fallen fortunes. Earnestly, cheerfully and happily they labored, not for themselves alone, for their hearts and their home were always open to the necessities of others, and their little family of three boys was continually increased by the adoption of little waifs, who, but for them, would have been either homeless or county charges. And there has never been a year in all their married life that they were without adopted children, as carefully reared as their own. A philanthropist by instinct and education, Mrs. Havens has spent her life for the welfare of others, especially in the temperance field. As President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union ever since the first year of its organization in Indiana, she has labored with unabating energy, and though seriously objecting to the role of a public speaker, her grace as a presiding officer has often brought her to the rostrum; where her words of tender pathos and thrilling eloquence have charmed her audience into speedy conversion to her doctrines.
Not content with ceaseless effort for humanity at home, the foreign mission field claims a portion of her time, and for several successive years she has been chosen President of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in La Fayette. We find a little gem floating in the newspaper world, written, evidently, in her later years, which shows that though at one time her mind may have entertained the
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 403
ambition that beckoned her so wooingly toward fame in the fields of literature in the days gone by, her heart is now closed to all save the calls of (hod and humanity. The pathetic little poem is entitled
MY BROKEN WING.
I pass my hand through my faded hair,
That is almost white as the snowdrifts are;
And I see the trace of a hidden hand,
Girding my brow with a frosty band.
Age has been writing his autograph here,
Letter by letter and year by year;
Patiently printing each letter and line,
Dipping his pen in the fountain of Time.
Now, as the changeable seasons roll,
An eternal summer is in my soul;
All I covet and all I claim,
I comprehend in a spotless name.
My soul exults in the dim perfume,
That is wafted up from ambition's tomb;
For its frost and its fret and its fever-pain,
Will never sully my soul again.
Sweet content with her heavenly face,
Graciously planted a resting place;
In the strange, deep cells of my woman-heart,
Gilding my life by her magical art.
Never again shall ambition's strife
Ruffle the depths of this happier life.
Glorious dreams to the air I fling,
Fold forever my broken wing.
Faded the dreams and the hopes and the fears
That fretted the days of my earlier years;
The gilding is tarnished-mildew and rust,
Have scattered my glorious dreams to the dust.
Happily now, I can sit and sing,
Painless now is my folded wing;
I can even smile as the days go by,
That I only creep where I hoped to fly.
Notwithstanding her habitual cheerfulness, her poems generally have a tinge of deepest sadness-a doubt of the acceptability by the Father of the use of her talents.
We close this sketch by the reproduction of a poem filled with unrest and dissatisfaction that her efforts fall so far short of that which talents such as hers demand:
TEMPEST-TOSSED.
There's a dreary chill in my heart to-night,
A numbing woe in my heavy brain;
I look beyond for a gleam of light,
And but shadows troop in a dismal train.
I, shuddering, glance at my wasted strength.
At my unused gifts from my Father's hand;
At the chain of "resolves" drawn a marvelous length,
That rivals the strength of a rope of sand.
Misfortune skulks in my path anti laughs,
If I build a hope or indulge a dream.
I'll be glad when the Boatman is touching the shore
To ferry me over tile mystical stream.
404 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
I think with a moan of what might have been;
Of the better pathway I should have trod:
And shrink from a thought of the future dim,
When I render my stewardship back to God.
I have striven, I know, with a ceaseless care
To render that stewardship clear and true;
But the "interest " wastes, and despite my prayer,
The "principal" fades like the morning dew.
O, God! when the reckoning time shall come,
When the dross is cast from the purest gold
When nations flock to the harvest-home
Shall I be cast from the Shepherd's fold?
I blindly grope through a darkened moor,
And the shadows tangle across my way;
I can catch the gleam from the beautiful shore,
But it deepens the gloom this side the ray.
I wonder if others were ever lost
In the mazy gloom of a pathless lea?
I wonder if others are tempest-tossed
And comfortless left on a stormy sea?
I strain my eyes for the beacon-light,
Which others see from the watch-house shore,
But nothing catches my longing sight
But tempest and darkness, and nothing more.
Helpless and lost, I am drifting on,
Nearer and nearer the unknown sea;
Dreading, yet courting the Rubicon,
Doubting what there may be waiting me.
Though I've lost my compass, my chart and roll,
And the shore-lights sink in the mist afar,
My faith still points to the mystic pole
To the mystic pole and the guiding star.
CHARLES F. GARRERSON, ESQ.
For a sketch of this gentleman, see the chapter on the Bench and the B Bar.
A HUMAN SKELETON.
O. relic, ghastly, repulsive, clammy, void,
Wherein life and death were both destroyed!
Will reason e'er again this emptiness control
And it possess again that mystery, the soul,
And sentient be, instead of lifeless, mute and dull,
And cease to lie in ruins, a crumbling skull?
This vacant skull, the realm where busy brain oft teemed
With cheerful thought or sad and gloomy seemed,
Where wavering doubt still posed the reason in the strife
To know the substance, sum and end of life!
Could fancy e'er have dreamed that in this dingy room
'Twould lie untenanted, decayed in gloom?
This fleshless hand, which now no master thought obeys,
Perchance once clasped some loving palm in other days.
Perchance its bounties to the needy poor were free,
And earned enduring treasure, safe for all eternity;
These, stored in never-ending, fadeless paradise,
This hand shall ne'er be called again to sacrifice.
Here, in the ash of time, like fading embers gray,
Lie these feet, which, with their burdens mingled by the way,
Amidst the echoes of whose sad, departing tread;
Hope, too, of their return forevermore has fled,
And naught is left to time but this strange anatomy
Wondrous proof of God, and of His creatures' frailty.
PAGE 405 - BLANK
PAGE 406 - PICTURE OF JOSEPH FIELDS
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 407
These eyeless sockets in sullen blankness seem to mourn
The beauteous orbs which in them used to burn;
Yet, if with pure affection's glow they beamed,
The soul, whose kindling rays from out them streamed
Shall thrill again in never-ending light,
And to these darkened voids give back eternal sight.
From out this silent waste perhaps once came
The merry voice in joyous, glad acclaim;
From ruby lips the sweetest accents fell,
The spirit's loveliness in tuneful songs to tell;
'Tis naught not that these upon the ear once rung,
In scattered dust now lies the speechless tongue.
J. A. OSBORNE.
The following poetic effusion might paradoxically be termed a "sorrowful sonnet," published by the above, a resident of Marion at the time:
SORROW.
Sorrow has changed all nature to my view;
The woods are still as green, the fields as gay,
The stars are still as bright, the sky as blue,
As when they charmed me in my childhood's day;
But now, in all their beauty I can see
Something that ever 'minds me of decay;
Some leafless branch deforms the stately tree,
Some blight still lingers on the buds of May;
The starry watchers wear a softened light,
As if I a zed on them through gathering tears.
But when turn to yon pure sky, a bright
And glorious vision to my mind appears,
Making the earth seem dull beyond compare,
Since only heaven above is changeless as'tis fair.
J. J. CROWLEY.
This gentleman is a mechanic, now an employe in the Huber Maohine Works, and is a native of New York State. For a time he was at Urbana, Ill., attending the Industrial University at that place and working on the Republican, where he partially lost his sight. He came to Marion in 1874, and in 1875, when the "Philadelphians," a literary club, in which Such men as B. G. Young, S. A. Court and others took prominent part, was organized, Mr. Crowley indicted the following:
THE PHILADELPHIAN SHRINE.
Methinks I see a lofty height,
Enclothed in grandeur, armed with might,
Which stretches forth its massive peaks,
And to the world its wonder speaks;
Its deep ravines bespeak of thought
Far deeper than the world has wrought;
Its towering heights the excellence
Which ever follows diligence.
Its craggy arms loom out in air,
The emblems of its missions fair
To glow the world with culture bright,
To change thought's darkness into ligt.
And on its summit laurels grow,
Which in the air their fragrance throw
The symbols of the brilliant stars,
Who did not fear the world's vain scars.
408 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Aye, there they stand in morning sun
And gaze upon the race they've run,
E'er beckoning to those below
To come where brighter colors glow;
And o'er that mount a flame doth lie,
Which 'lumes the portals of the sky,
Causes the world to bow its knee
In reverence to its majesty.
And in the midst of that bright flame,
In blood-red letters, is a name
Its utterance is to me divine;
It joys my heart to see its shrine -
"Philadelphian" rules that towering height,
And on its brow her motto bright
Is scrolled in golden letters fair,
And mental culture freights the air.
O, were that glorious vision true,
"Philadelphian" shrine were naught but few
E'er reached that fairy land of thought,
Though millions for its plains have sought.
The world would bow its mighty head,
And God His richest blessings shed
On those who strove its crest to find
By cultivation of the mind.
Then, noble workers, clutch old Time,
And wrench from him his pearls sublime;
Climb on, up Learning' s laurel hill,
And thus obey your aster's will.
O, may the day not distant be
When I thy luster bright shall see,
The angels fair a wreath to twine
In honor of "Philadelphians' " shrine I
"AGNOSTIC."
The following is by a Marion citizen, signing the above as his nom de plume
WHY DON'T HE LEND A HAND.
You say there is a God
Above the boundless sky,
A wise and wondrous deity,
Whose strength none can defy.
You say that He is seated
Upon a throne most, grand,
Millions of angels at His beck:
Why don't He lend a hand?
See how the earth is groaning!
What countless tears are shed!
See how the plague stalks forward
And brave and sweet lie dead!
Homes burn and hearts are breaking,
Grim murder stains the land,
You say He is omnipotent,
Why don't He lend a hand?
Behold, Injustice conquers!
Pain curses every hour;
The good and true and beautiful
Are trampled like the flower.
You say He is our Father;
That what He wills doth stand;
If He is thus almighty,
Why don't He lend a hand?
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 409
What is this monarch doing,
Upon His golden throne,
To right the wrong stupendous,
Give joy instead of moan?
With His resistless majesty,
Each force at His command,
Each law His own creation,
Why don't He lend a hand!
Alas! I fear He is sleeping,
Or is Himself a dream,
A bubble on thought's ht's ocean,
Our fancy's fading gleam.
We look in vain to find Him
Upon His throne so grand;
Then turn your vision earthward;
'Tis we must lend a hand.
'Tis we must grasp the lightning
And plow the rugged soil;
'Tis we must beat back suffering,
And plague and murder foil;
'Tis we must build the paradise,
And bravely right the wrong:
The God above us faileth;
The God within is strong.
A. F. LAPHAM.
Well known as a former resident of Marion, but now of Florida, is the author of the following jeu d'esprit, written in the Marion Probate office; November 14, 1873:
CHALK-MARKS OF A JUROR.
In the court-room we were seated
By the court politely greeted
Till the room was stuffed and heated
Sitting, standing, panting, fetid.
Some were chewing, others smoking,
Also with the poker poking,
Others in the corner joking,
And the belligerents choking.
But the lawyers were the queerest:
Each proclaimed his case the clearest,
And by night deblared the nearest
Though the beaten learned the dearest.
First they looked so calm and musing,
Then like storms on ocean cruising;
Face to face almost to bruising,
Soon to lull in quiet snoozing.
A SCRAP.
After the announcement in the Buckeye Eagle of the marriage of John W. Bain, July 29, 1851, to an Indianapolis lady, occur three and a half stanzas of poetry, one of which reads thus:
"Strange indeed that a Buckeye boy
Could find no land to give him joy
Without wandering to the Hoosier vale,
As if Buckeye lasses had grown stale!"
410 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY:
Many other parties in Marion County have contributed occasional pieces of poetry to the local papers, under nouns de plume, or anonymously, as Maria, Betts, Kate, Etta Edith, Yankeo Me., Ernest, Vario, J. G., P. H., etc., who could not be traced up. Richard Lawrence, of Claridon, published one good piece. Jacob Idleman, in 1831, published a lyrical poem full of religious fervor, and the nest year a hot philippic against priest-craft, which waked up some criticism. The "Olentangy Bard" published many years ago a number of interesting pieces in the Scotch dialect.
MARION ART SCHOOL.
Marion is also ahead of all her sister towns in the art of painting. The introduction of drawing and painting in this place was quite novel in manner and apparently accidental. The entire credit is due to Mrs. Sweeney, wife of Dr. R. L. Sweeney, a leading physician of this city. Mrs. Sweeney, a daughter of Col. W. W. Conklin, is a native of this place, but was educated in Pittsfield, Mass. While in school, she exhibited quite a talent for painting, excelled in the study and execution of that art, and acquired a very correct knowledge of painting in all its most difficult phases. After leaving school, she, unlike many other young ladies, did not neglect her acquirement, but continued to give it sufficient attention to improve, both in taste and execution, and thus aimed at a higher degree of culture in that direction.
When, in 186, Mrs. Sweeney's two daughters, Nellie and Jennie, arrived at such an age as to understand the fundamental principles of drawing and painting, she began teaching them. Their simple but beautiful productions soon attracted the attention of some of their schoolmates, who also desired to take lessons, and Mrs. Sweeney was prevailed upon to take a small class of perhaps half a dozen, composed exclusively of school children. This class made such rapid advancement in its work and acquired such skill and proficioncy that it engendered a taste for the accomplishment in persons of a mature age, and many accessions were made from time to time, until what was at first a small class of half a dozen has now grown to one of about eighty pupils, including young ladies and married ladies, and even some young men, representing the first families of this city, among whom are the wives and daughters of lawyers, bankers and merchants. Some are from neighboring towns, as Galion, Bellefontaine, Defiance, etc. One of the apartments of his elegant residence forms the studio, in which Mrs. Sweeney receives her pupils and gives them instructions. This studio is occupied every hour of the day and every day of the week, by some of her many pupils. This would seem an unwieldy class, for one lady to instruct at a private residence, but Mrs. Sweeney is equal to the emergency. She has divided the class into sections, and instructs them in a regular, graded and systematic manner. To some she teaches drawing, and the more advanced she assists in their work in water colors and in oils. During the hour spent by the writer at Dr. Sweeney's, examining the different productions of the young artists' skill and witnessing their work, there was a number of young ladies present whose work, though incomplete, showed real artistic taste and beauty. There was a profusion of pieces in the studio, many of which, however, were not completed. The young ladies present at the time were finishing work, both in water colors and in oils, and while their subjects were not of the most difficult character, being mostly flowers and some of the simpler landscape views, they exhibited in flower painting a fine appreciation of colors, a skillful
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 411
grouping and an excellent knowledge of materials; and in landscape painting a careful and delicate blending of colors really quite remarkable. The pupils have access to most of the leading art journals, which are taken by Mrs. Sweeney, are placed upon the tables in the studio and are at all times at their disposal. They also have the advantage of the studies of the masters to copy after, Mrs. Sweeney having secured and placed at their command copies from the works of Julien, Hubert, Bonheur, Birket, Foster, Landseer, and many others.
Mrs. Sweeney has pupils in all the departments of drawing and painting from the simplest pencil sketching to the highest perfection of portrait painting and decorative work, several of whom have done some very fine work on satin, both in water colors and in oils, and also in oils on china. A few have succeeded admirably in portrait drawing and painting. Among them is Miss Jennie Sweeney, who has several specimens in crayon in her fine collection, besides a very fine portrait of her sister finished in watercolors, which is certainly very well executed. The coloring is beautiful in the principal lights, and the flesh tints are softened by the shadows to an ivorylike smoothness. The pupils have several times placed specimens of their work on exhibition, one of them obtaining the first premium at the State fair for crayon work.
This is a brief sketch of the origin and progress in this department of art culture here in Marion, which although only about thirteen years in growth, is assuming a wide range and approaching a wonderful state of perfection. It has furnished something of interest for many of the Marion ladies to engage in, and the association and study has also been the means of adding culture to the accomplishment. Besides, it has enabled them to beautify their homes by the thought of their own brains and the skill of their own bands.
MUSIC.
Marion County is somewhat ahead of most counties of the State in respect to musical talent. Some of the finest amateur concerts that have ever been given in Northern Ohio have been produced here, which have elicited favorable comments from the press, both in the country and in the larger cities. This has been a source of, great pride and gratification to the citizens. Only a few weeks ago the Marion Cornet Band took the third prize at a State Band Tournament. (See history of Marion.) One of the greatest singers the world has ever known passed two of the best years of his life in Marion, namely,
PHILIP PHILLIPS.
This modern "psalmist of Israel," who still considers Marion his home, enjoys a national reputation as a musician, and is even known in the Old World, where he has spent some time. He was born August 13, 1834, in a plain farmhouse at the foot of a wooded hill in Chautauqua County, N. Y., a section of country famous for literature, science and song. Here, at the above date, says leis biographer, "Philip began his song in a minor key, for be was a minor of minors himself. This first song was, perhaps, nothing new or strange in the Phillips household, for this noisy youngster was the seventh in the squalling scale! The six other children, as they came in their regular order of about one year and a half apart, no doubt had introduced themselves in the same key. Philip's lungs, however, proved to be as elastic in this first exercise as those of his stoutest baby predecessor; and why not? He was the prophet of his own career."
412 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
When about five years of ago he was frequently called upon to sing by the neighbors who dropped in to visit his parents. Before complying with such requests, he would always settle himself in the family cradle, and then rock himself vigorously all the time he sang. This rocking accompaniment seemed to be necessary to his success, as well as to his own enjoyment of the exercise. When yet but a very small boy, Philip made his first public appearance in sacred song-by almost an accident. It was at church, when the minister gave out the familiar hymn, " When I can read my title clear," and the choir, an untrained rural organization, made a failure to sing it. They attempted a tune somewhat new, and, after scrambling around tones and half tones, they became discouraged. The minister, having heard Philip sing the tune at home successfully, stepped down to where he was sitting and asked hint forward to sing it, -which the little fellow did, all alone, and well. The effect can be more easily imagined than described.
When the boy singer was nine years of age, his pious mother died. A short time previously, he had accidentally cut his foot with a scythe, and seeing the blood flow, freely, and believing in his youthful simplicity that the flowing of blood was a sure forerunner of death, he ran, frightened, to his mother for consolation, asking how soon he would die. His mother, ever on the alert to impress religious truth on his mind, answered " Oh, Phillie, I don't know. Don't you think we had better pray." Thus she taught him that "God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble! when his mind was in the most impressible condition, although she knew the wound was not dangerous-an opportunity that most mothers would inadvertently let slip.
After the death of his mother, the lad went out among comparative strangers to be brought up. At one of his homes, he had charge in part of a large dairy. He soon got to know all the sixty or eighty cows be name and in milking (he milked eight or ten cows night and morning), he would sing. The cows became so accustomed to it that they would become restive if he did not sing. When rallied upon the point, he modestly replied, " The cows kick and hook if I do not sing; and sometimes they hook and kick all the same, even if I do sing."
In the fall and winter of 1850-51, Philip attended his first singing school and learned the rudiments of music, using first the "Dulcimer " and then the "Shawm." During the year following, he had access to a melodeon, upon which he became so proficient in a few months that he could play it in church. Meanwhile he began to enjoy a rising fame for singing temperance songs in the neighborhood. The Good Templars opened before him considerable opportunity. He began teaching music at the age of nineteen in Allegany, N. Y., and conducted his large class through one term with signal success.
After commencing two or three doubtful ventures, from which he was wisely dissuaded, he set out independently to devote his time to teaching music and selling music books and musical instruments. At a Baptist revival he sang sacred solos, which had great effect, possibly beyond that of all the other efforts of the minister and congregation combined. One day Mr. E. B. Olmstead, Superintendent of the Public Schools of Marion, Ohio, went to hear him sing, and was so greatly pleased that he invited him to his Ohio home. Mr. Phillips came, and his first introduction to the people of Marion was an evening of song at the Baptist Church. At the close a large class was organized, which Mr. Phillips taught every week for two
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 413
consecutive terms, with greater success than ever before. After making another tour in Western New York, he returned to Marion and brought out the cantata of Esther and gave it several times with eminent satisfaction to the public.
"It was during this second visit," says Dr. Alexander Clark, "that Philip began to permit a touch of roma ace in his music. He suddenly discovered that he had a very interesting pupil in one of his classes in instrumental music, Miss Ollie M. Clark, daughter of Harvey Clark." They were married September 27, 1860, and Mr. Phillips bought a residence in Marion for $1,000, in which he resided two years. As there was then no regular Baptist Church in Marion, he felt it his duty to join the Methodist Church, of which his wife and friends were active members. Rev. Isaac Newton was at that time the pastor. Of that church Mr. Phillips has ever since been a member.
About this time the subject of this sketch brought out his first book, "Early Blossoms," and although his opportunities were not large, he sold 20,000 copies. He also taught music at other points in Ohio and Indiana. He then formed a partnership with William Sumner, of Cincinnati, and for the purpose of prosecuting business, he temporarily disposed of his Marion home. In a year or two he brought out his second book, "Musical Leaves," which commanded an immense sale; it had a large circulation in the army. Upward of 700,000 copies of this work were sold. Next appeared the " Singing Pilgrim," a most unique and methodical compilation of sacred songs. The story of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim" suggested topics of thought and pictorial illustration. This book had an extremely large sale, and occasioned innumerable calls from all parts of the country upon the author to give "services of song."
The great war of the rebellion closed, and Mr. Phillips was invited to be present at the final anniversary of the "United States Christian Commission" at Washington City, where he sang a song entitled "Your Mission" with such effect that he was requested to repeat it the same evening, by President Lincoln, who was present.
During the same year, 1865, his music store in Cincinnati was swept away by fire the same evening that he was singing in Leavenworth, Kan.-
"Can there overtake me any dark disaster,
While I sing for Jesus, my blessed, blessed Master `! "
He then rented a store in New York, but a bad man caused him to lose $5,800. He then visited England, but was soon offered $4,800 a year to sing in the Presbyterian tabernacle in San Francisco, which he partially accepted. He is now (1883) with his wife, making a tour of Europe.
Mr. Phillips has given thousands of evenings publicly to sacred song, never with pecuniary loss to the party or society employing him, and generally with considerable gain.
In 1880, he published a nice 300-page volume entitled the " Song Pilgrimage Around and Throughout the World," embracing a life of song experiences, impressions, anecdotes, incidents, persons, manners, customs, sketches and illustrations throughout twenty different countries, and containing his biography, from which we have abstracted the foregoing account.