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CHAPTER XVIII
MISCELLANEOUS.
p. 365
A Duel in Adams County - Fourth of July Celebration 1825
- Scourge of
Asiatic Cholera - The Oldest House in Ohio - Trial and
Execution
of David Beckett - Lunching of Roscoe Parker - Treason
Trial in Ohio - Anecdote of Judge Thurman - The Iron
Industry - 'Fugitive Slaves and the Underground
Railroad - A Blue Eyed Nigger - Postoffices
in Adams County
A Duel in Adams County.
By Dr. A. N. Ellis
[Pg. 366]
[Pg. 367]
[Pg. 368]
[Pg. 369]
[Pg. 370]
Fourth of July
Celebration, 1825.
Volunteers.
[Pg. 371]
SCOURGE OF ASIATIC
CHOLERA.
Cholera in West Union in 1835.
[Pg. 372]
[Pg. 373]
[Pg. 374]
[Pg. 375]
[Pg. 376]
The Cholera of 1849
[Pg. 377]
[Pg. 378]
The Cholera in West
Union in 1851.
[Pg. 379]
[Pg. 380]
[Pg. 381]
The Oldest House in
Ohio.
[Pg. 383]
[Pg. 384]
[Pg. 385]
NOTE: CORRECTIONS - p. 385.
In second line from bottom of first
paragraph read "February 21, 1815," insead
of February 31, 1815.
[Pg. 386]
THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION
OF DAVID BECKETT.
History of the Crime.
[Pg. 387]
The Indictment.
[Pg. 388]
His Arraignment and
Plea.
Delay of the Trial
[Pg. 389]
The Venire for Thirty
Jurors.
The Trial Jury.
The Trial
[Pg. 390]
[Pg. 391]
Scenes and Incidents at
the Execution.
[Pg. 392]
[Pg. 393]
Lynching of Roscoe
Parker.
[Pg. 394]
TREASON TRIAL IN OHIO.
By James H. Thompson, Hillsboro, O.
[Pg. 395]
[Pg. 396]
[Pg. 397]
[Pg. 398]
[Pg. 399]
[Pg. 400]
THE IRON INDUSTRY.
[Pg. 401]
Marble Furnace
[Pg. 402]
[Pg. 403]
Brush Creek Furnace
[Pg. 404]
"Bull Forge," so called from the fact that the power to
drive its machinery was had from a great tread-wheel
forty feet in diameter, propelled by oxen, or "bulls."
This forge was on Ohio Brush Creek, near its mouth, on
what was known as the Wilson farm. It was
owned by a Mr. Kendrick, from Chillicothe.
A small furnace was also built and operated here - the
ore being dug on the creek in the vicinity.
FUGITIVE SLAVES AND THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
The ordinance of '87 contains among other
things the well-known provision with
reference to Negro slavery: "there
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in the said (Northwest) territory,
otherwise than for the punishment of crimes
whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted." This forever prohibited
slavery in Ohio and the other states carved
out of the territory for the government of
which the ordinance was framed by the second
continental congress, but it contained a
provision recognizing the institution of
slavery in the other states and territories,
providing "that any person escaping into the
same (Northwest Territory), from whom labor
or service is lawfully claimed in one of the
original stats, such fugitive may be claimed
and conveyed to the person claiming his or
her labor or services as aforesaid.
And the constitution of the United States
afterwards adopted contained the provision
hat "no person held to service or labor in
any one sate, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall in consequence
of any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered upon claim of the party
to whom such service or labor may be due."
Upon these basic principles of our organic law, the
owners of slaves pursued such of them as
escaped into free territory, and if
apprehended carried them back into slavery.
There were persons and communities in the
free states that lent assistance in
secreting fugitives and in assisting them to
escape from their pursuers to the English
provinces - particularly the Dominion of
Canada. In these days such violators
of law would be condemned as "Anarchists,"
and perhaps "enjoined" by the federal courts
from such acts of violence, and in cases of
bloodshed, as often occurred, would be
hanged, as was Parsons and his associates in
Chicago in recent years.
The Virginia Military District in Ohio, including Adams
County, was largely settled by persons from
the slave-holding states, particularly
Virginia and Kentucky; yet a majority of
these opposed Negro slavery - or at least
the extension of it - and all opposed for a
period of years the agitation of the
questions on social, religious, and
constitutional grounds. Many of the
early settlers of Adams County had freed
their slaves in the south, but brought with
them Negro servants, who remained here in
about the same status with reference to
their former masters as while in slave
territory.
In the old records of the Court of Quarter Sessions,
September term, 1799, we find that "Nathanial
Massie's Mike appeared in court
to claim his freedom. The court
ordered him (Mike) home and stay
until next court, to be confronted by his
master.
[Pg. 405]
Mike seems to have obeyed the court and stayed
at home until the December term, 1800, when it appears
on the record of the court that "On the motion of
Mike, a Negro man, the court rule he shall be heard
afer the prisoner, McGinnis." And, later, "Mike
came before the court and pleads for his freedom,
whereupon the court rule and order him to have his tral
at the next term, and that the sheriff give Nathaniel
Massie due notice thereof." Said notice was,
"that, whereas, Mike, a Negro man, has been
repeatedly before the court in making complaint of his
being held in bondage contrary to law; and the court has
ordered him on to trial at our next Court of General
Quarter Sessions at Washington in and for said county in
March next." John Beasley was presiding
judge of this court, Nathan Ellis sheriff, and
George Gordon clerk. The court also directed
the sheriff to "summon Thomas McDonald, if he may
be found in your bailiwick, to personally appear before
the court * * * on the second Tuesday of
March next, then and there in our said court to give
evidence and the truth to say on the behalf of Mike
v. Nathaniel Massie, in a Plea of Freedom."
Joel Bailey was also summoned as a witness for
Mike.
At the March session, 1801,
the case was disposed on as shown by the records, and
closed with the following entry: "The rule of the
court in this suit is to proceed no further therein, and
order said suit dismissed from the docket, which is
accordingly done."
It is said that many of the wealthier families in the
early days of the county held Negro servants practically
in bondage. The Early family had
three Negros, brought from Kentucky as slaves, one of
whom, a little boy, remained in the family until he
became of age. The Means family had a
number of Negro servants, as late as 1835.
Jeremiah Pittinger,
came to Adams County from the State of Maryland, in
1825, and brought as a servant in the family, Dinah,
a negro woman, who lived with the family during his
lifetime. She then went with a daughter, Julia,
the wife of John Morrison, of Eckmansville, and
served in his family until her death in 1878, at the age
of 106 years. The old cherry chest in which she
brought her worldly belongings from Maryland, is now in
the possession of Mrs. Alexander, a daughter of
Mr. Morrison.
The following certificate of manumission given Dinah
by John Schley, father of the popular admiral,
the hero of Santiago, is worth preserving. State
of Maryland, Frederick county, ss. I hereby
certify that the person to whom this is given, named
Dinah, a black-woman, about thirty years of age,
five feet eight inches tall, has a scar on lower part of
the left ear, and has a mole on left side of her face
near the nose, and has a scar on her left cheek and is
the identical negro woman heretofore manumitted by
John Campbell and Elizabeth Campbell on or
about the eleventh day of April, 1805, as appears by
said manumission on record in my office, and the
affidavit of John
Pittinger on file in my
office.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name
and affixed the seal of my office this twentieth day of
June 1824.
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John
Schley, Clerk of Frederick County. |
[Pg. 406]
The newspapers of that period carried advertisements
like the following, from The Village Register,
West Union, Ohio, Apr. 27, 1824:
100
DOLLARS REWARD
RAN AWAY from the Kenhawa
Salt Works, on or about the twenty-eighth of December,
last, a bright mullato man, about three -fourths white,
named William, the property of William Brooks,
of Franklin County, Virginia. He is about
twenty-nine years old, nearly six feet high, his head
woolly, and inclined to be yellow; he is a raw boned
stout fellow, tolerably thin visage, straight built, the
middle finger of his right hand is cut off at the first
joint; very fond of spiritous liquors, and when drunk,
inclined to misbehave. The above reward will be
given to any person who will return him to the
subscriber at the Kenhawa Saline; or fifty-dollars if
secured in any jail so that I get him again.
There was but little abolition sentiment in
Adams County until about 1840. The
Covenanters about Cherry Fork and the Brush
Creek settlements were, from principle,
opposed to Negro slavery. At this time
a few "agitators" like Rev. Dyer
Burgess who had stirred up dissensions
among the people of the county over the
question of Free Masonry, began to discuss
publicly the question of Negro slavery.
These "agitators" were very abusive of those
who counseled obedience to the law, and
denounced the "government as a covenant with
hell.' The passage of the Fugitive
Slave Law gave the "agitators" renewed
opportunity for vituperation, and the slave
hunters legal sanction to their many
revolting acts of cruelty toward captives
taken in free territory. There were,
as there would be today, men in every
community without reference to creed or
political affiliations, who for the sake of
reward, would at the risk of life, pursue
the fugitives to captivity for the hope of
gain. A party of these pursuers from
the vicinity of Clayton, headed by James
Taylor, Godard Pence, and Harvey
Beasley, in 1851, caught sixteen negroes
near Thornton Shelton's, in Sprigg
Township. Taylor, a powerful
man himself, knocked one negro down time and
again with a handspike before Pence a
desperate character could secure him with
ropes.
William Gilbert was shot and killed by a
fugitive whom he had pursued over the county
line into Brown County, at the crossing of
Brushy Fork near the old store. The
negro was captured the next day near Clayton
by some of the Martins and a posse
from Maysville. This was in 1850, and
John Laney informed the writer that
he and old Dr. Norton, of near
Decatur, who was accompanying Laney
to answer a sick call, as they approach the
crossing at the creek, heard the shot, and
the sound of voices. On near approach,
William Paul and others were stooping
over Gilbert who was mortally
wounded. Dr. Norton whose house
was an "under ground station" refused to
attend Gilbert but rode on to
Laney's house. Gilbert
survived three days afer removal to his
home.
On the other hand, there were individuals in every
community who from "broadness of mind and
bigness of heart: would render as
[Pg. 407]
sistance to the fleeing slave and help him
on to a place of security from cruel
pursuers.
A powerful negro named Ned Abney had by working
overtime purchased his freedom from his
master in the south: He came to Adams
County in the vicinity of Cherry Fork and
labored at any kind of work to secure money
to purchase the freedom of his wife and
child left behind. In time he had
accomplished the task of freeing his wife
who joined him where he had secured a
domicile in the vicinity of Red Ook,
in Brown County. But there lay before
them the task of now accumulating enough to
purchase their child in the far south land
of slavery.
"Pony" Joe Patton, as he was familiarly known
from the fact that he imported and bred
Canadian ponies, learning the story of
Abney's life, resolved to secure the
child and deliver it to its parents.
He accordingly fitted up a light wagon and
started south to sell lightning rods.
He traveled into Tennessee, found the master
who held Abney's child, became
intimate with his household, and after due
preparation stole the child out at night,
and drove until daylight directly south.
Then he rested his pony and while so doing
cut down the bed of his wagon and covered
the "boot" of it with canvas. Under
this he stowed away the child, and then by a
circuitous route turned to the northward to
the oint of his destination in Ohio, which
he reached in safety after three weeks
travel, where he delivered his protege to
its delighted parents. The old gray
pony made many a trip over the underground
route from Red Oak to stations across Adams
County carrying fugitive mothers and
children to safety and freedom, but this
"incursion into the enemy's country," as
Patton turned it, was the greatest and
most trying of all.
After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Laws it became
necessary for the sympathizers with the
runaway slaves to use the utmost precaution
in assisting them to places of safety.
The runaways who crossed the river in the
vicinity of Ripley would be piloted by some
one after night to Red Oak or Decatur in
Brown County. From there some
conductor, "Pony" Patton, old
Johnny Thompson, of Cherry Fork, or old
Jim Caskey, of Grace's Run, would
take them to Daniel Copples in
Liberty Township, Adams County, known as
"Station Number 2" or to Gen. William
McIntyre's, on Grace's Run, in Wayne
Township, known as "Station Number 3"; and
thence to the vicinity of Sinking Springs in
Highland County, "Station Number 4."
This was the so-called "underground railroad" across
Adams County, although other persons besides
those above named frequently sheltered and
fed the weary fugitives.
On Grace's Run about midway between Cherry Fork and
Youngville was the residence of Gen.
William McInyre whose wife was Martha
Patton, familiarly known as "Patsey"
McIntyre. She was a large
strong-minded woman, and from her
observations and experience in Virginia
where she and her husband had been reared,
she had learned to detest the institution of
slavery, and had allied herself with those
active in assisting fugitive slaes across
the border. The home of Gen.
McIntyre was known as Station Number 3,"
as above recited, and many a fugitive has
found shelter and protection under the roof
of the old red
[Pg. 408]
brick known as the abode of "Patsey" McIntyre.
Tradition says, and the fertile imaginations of
unscrupulous writers have added largely to tradition,
that upon one occasion "Patsey" met a party of
slave hunters from Kentucky at her door who had sworn
with terrible oaths that they would enter and search the
house for runaways, with a teakettle of boiling water
and stood them off until a pitchfork from the loft could
e procured for her, when she defied the pursuers and
drove them from the premises.
The widow of the late George Patton, of
Harshaville, a daughter of "Patsey" Mclntyre,
related to the writer that many slaves had been
sheltered in her father's house, and that persons had
made inquiry for them, but never threatened such
violence as above narrated. She said that once a
party of Kentuckians among whom was a Col.
Marshall Thompson, a brother
of the learned barrister Judge James H.
Marshall Thompson, of Hillsboro, from
whose facile pen the story "Treason Trial in Ohio." in
this volume comes, came to her father's house and
inquired for run- away slaves. They had been in
the neighborhood a day or two searching for fugitives
and it had been noised about that the negroes were
secreted in her father's house, and neighbors and
friends anticipating that there would be an attempt to
search the premises, gathered in soon after the coming
of the Kentuckians. Gen. Mclntyre
assured the hunters that no fugitives were in the house,
and the Kentuckians insisting that there were. "Patsey"
Mclntyre told them that if they did not leave,
she would scald them - the parties then being near the
spring back of the house, where Mrs. Patton.
then a girl, and her sister were washing clothes.
The Kentuckians then went to West Union and got out a
warrant to search the premises for "clothing secreted,"
but neither the "clothing" nor any fugitives were found.
A Preacher that Didn't
Materialize.
It must not be imagined that all the
"sympathizers" were of the "Pony"
Joe Patton class - for they were
not as a body different from other men.
They perhaps did sympathize with the
fugitive blacks and would give shelter,
raiment and food in exchange for much hard
labor, Illustrative of this, the
writer was informed by an intelligent old
negro who ran away from slavery, that when
he came to the vicinity of Cherry Fork he
was sheltered by a good man in sympathy with
the movement to free the blacks, who at the
end of a hard year's work, dressed him up in
an old pigeon-tailed coat and a bell-crowned
fur hat and insisted that the object of his
sympathy and charity receive them in
consideration of services rendered, assuring
him that with such an outfit he might cease
manual labor, and live in elegance and ease
as a minister come to lead the fallen of his
race in the way of glory and righteousness.
"But," said the old negro. "When I look in
de glass and sees de tail of that coat, and
that hat only held off'n my shoulders by my
ears, I said, 'No, I can't preach - you may
pay me de cash!"
"The Blue Eyed Nigger."
Typical of the times in the days of the
Fugitive Slave Law, and the "underground
railroad," the following anecdote was
related to the writer by Mr. Zedekiah
Hook, proprietor of the village hotel in
Cherry
NOTE: CORRECTIONS - p. 408.
In the second paragraph for Col. "Marshall"
read "Thompson." For Judge James H.
Marshall," read "Thompson."
[Pg. 409]
Fork. Mr. Hook was
living at the time of the occurrence on a
farm near Clayton in Adams County.
There resided in that vicinity at the time a
man named Lindsey and another by the
name of Ambus who with their families
had recently come into the neighborhood from
some place in Kentucky. Dave
Dunbar, now of Manchester, as that
genial gentleman is familiarly called, was
at that time a young man working at the
harness trade in Vincent Cropper's
shop in Clayton. A few days before the
incident herein narrated, Lindsey and
Ambus had caught a runaway slave and
returned him to his master across the Ohio,
and received for their services the sum of
fifty dollars each, as a reward. This
created quite a sensation in and about
Clayton, and the loungers who congregated
nightly in Cropper's harness shop,
grew enthusiastic on the subject of "Nigger
Catching" and awarded themselves large sums
in the near future from that pursuit.
Dave Dunbar listened in
silence and resolved to have some sport at
the expense of these would-be slave hunters.
One evening after supper he dressed himself in a ragged
old suit of clothes, and having carefully
blacked his face and hands, made his
appearance in the village in the guise of a
runaway slave. He hurried along the
road leading toward Decatur, one of the
underground stations, some miles away,
seeming to avoid contact with those who saw
him. In a few minutes the word was
passed around that a fugitive slave had just
gone down the Decatur road, and soon the
would-be catchers set out in hot pursuit.
They were accompanied by a great
Newfoundland dog that now and then would
scent the fugitive's track and bark
encouragingly as the pursuers urged him on.
Coming to a turn in the road, they saw
beyond, the object of their pursuit hastily
climbing a rail fence, and then making off
with all his speed across a pasture field
toward a piece of woodland some distance
away. Now the chase began in earnest,
over fences, through fields, across hollows,
down hill and up hill, the pursuers shouting
and clapping their hands to urge forward the
dog to overtake and seize the fugitive, who,
when near the crest of a hill he was
ascending, from sheer exhaustion came to a
halt and threw himself down upon the ground.
The pursuers seeing this tried to recall the
dog then close upon the fugitive, fearful
that he would be torn to pieces by the
savage brute before they could interpose.
But to their astonishment the dog ran up to
where the fugitive lay, wagged his tail in a
friendly manner and sat down upon his
haunches to await the coming of the pursuing
party. To their disappointment and
great chargin upon approaching, they found
the supposed runaway slave to be Dave
Dunbar, rolling upon the ground
convulsed with laughter at the sport he had
had at their expense.
Now the whole party entered into the spirit of the
affair, and it was agreed that Dunbar
should make his way alone across the fields
to the residence of Lindsey and
inquire the way to Dr. Norton's,
an "underground" station, near Decatur some
miles distant. He did so, and
Lindsey fearing to seize him single
handed, in order to get the aid of Ambus,
told the supposed fugitive that he could not
direct him as requested, but that a neighbor
near by could, and he would accompany the
inquirer there to obtain the desired
information. They found Ambus
at home and were invited into the house, but
no sooner had they entered
[Pg. 410]
than Lindsey locked the door, and he
and Ambus seized the supposed
runaway, and informed him that they would
return him to his master in Kentucky.
The wife of Ambus threw the bed upon
the floor in order to get the cord off the
bedstead to secure the fugitive. While
this was taking place, Lindsey's
wife, who had put in an appearance, got into
a serious altercation with the Ambus
woman as to the share of the reward each
should have, the one accusing the other of
getting a silk dress out of the last reward,
while she got but a calico gown.
After the fugitive had been securely bound he was taken
before old Squire Bryan for
identification. Lindsey
testified that he knew the captive to be the
property of a Mr. McKee near
Washington, Kentucky. That he had
worked as a laborer for McKee the
year previous, and saw this negro daily.
That his name was William, and that
he was positive this was the same person for
he was the only "blue-eyed nigger he had
ever seen."
Then Dunbar, to the amazement of the court and
witness, disclosed his identity and was
speedily unbound and discharged.
Lindsey and Ambus took their
departure amid the jeers and shouts of the
spectators, and soon afterward removed from
the county.
Postoffices in
Adams County.
Beasley Fork 6
Beaver Pond 23
Bentonville 5
Blue Creek 15
Bradyville 10
Buck Run 20
Cedar Mills 10
Cherry Fork 10
Dunbarton 11
Dunkinsville 6
Eckmansville 16
Emerald 18
Fawcett 10
Grimes 12
|
Harshaville 10
Hills Fork 7
Jaybird 22
Locust Grove 16
Lovett 21
Lynx 10
McCullough 15
Maddox 10
Manchester 10
May Hill
Mineral Springs 18
Osman 5
Peebles 13
Seaman 15 |
Selig 20
Stephens 14
Stout 27
Tranquillity 17
Tulip
Vineyard Hill 8
Waggoners Ripple 10
Wamsley 20
West Union
Wheat 8
Wilson 14
Wincheser 14
Youngsvile 14 |
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*Names in black letter are Money Order offices.
Figures following, indicate distance from West
Union.
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