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BIOGRAPHIES
Source
1798
History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its
Pioneers and Most Prominent Men.
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers -
1878
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)
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Residence of
Hon. Benjamin F. Wade,
Jefferson, Ohio
B. F. Wade |
Jefferson Twp. -
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
In West Springfield, Massachusetts,
there is a region abounding in beautiful but rugged hills, whose
slopes in the early days were devoted to the pasturage of herds and
flocks; and from that circumstance it was called "Feeding Hills
Parish." Here the subject of this sketch was born. He
commenced with the century, Oct. 27, 1800. The present
generation have but a faint conception of the condition of the
country and the hardships endured by that people in those times.
His father, James Wade, had been a soldier of the Revolution,
and the events of that period had deprived him of the means of
supporting a large family and giving them more than the ordinary
education afforded by the common schools.
Work was the rule; schools were few and beyond the
reach of many; children were compelled to share the privations and
toil of their seniors. Frank, for so he was then and
through all his earlier years familiarly called, lost no opportunity
of making himself acquainted with all the books that came with his
reach. Hence, when he arrived at maturity he had acquired a
fund of historical and general information far superior to many who
had enjoyed all the advantages of a higher classical education.
In the fall of 1821, James Wade and his family removed to
Andover, in the county of Ashtabula, Ohio. Here Frank was
for two years employed in clearing land and with the ordinary work
of a farm during the summer, and in the winter as a teacher of
common schools.
In the fall of 1823 he assisted in driving a drove of
cattle over the mountains of Philadelphia; and from there he went to
Massachusetts, performing the whole distance on foot. His
brother James was then a practicing physician near Albany, in
the State of New York. Here Frank commenced the study
of medicine, but becoming dissatisfied with that profession he
abandoned it, and in the fall of 1825 returned to Andover. It
was during his stay in the State of New York at this time that,
being without funds and finding no other employment for which money
could be obtained, he labored for a time, with spade and
wheelbarrow, upon the Erie canal, which was then in process of
construction. Many years later, Mr. Seward,
speaking in the United States senate and alluding to this incident,
said, “From whence came the labor that performed that work? I
know but one American citizen who worked with spade and wheelbarrow
upon those works. Doubtless there are many others, but I know
but one, and he, I am glad to say, is a member on this floor,—Mr.
Wade, of Ohio, and one of the most talented members.”
His younger brother, Edward, who has since for many years
ably represented the Cuyahoga district in congress, was at that time
a student in the law-office of the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, at
Canfield, Ohio.
Frank was induced to join his brother in that
office, and at the end of two years was admitted to the bar, at
Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Here he commenced the
practice of his profession, and soon acquired the reputation of an
acute special pleader and a successful advocate. Joshua R.
Giddings was then a leading lawyer, having the largest practice
of any attorney in the county. In 1831, Mr. Wade
entered into partnership with that gentleman, and they continued
together in a large and successful practice in Ashtabula and the
adjoining counties until 1838, when Mr. Giddings was elected
to congress. In the fall of 1835, Mr. Wade was
elected prosecuting attorney for the county of Ashtabula. This
was his first public position, and from that time forward his
talents, fidelity, and energy assured him the confidence of the
public.
In the fall of the year 1837 the Whig convention
nominated him, and he was elected a member of the Ohio State senate.
This nomination was made in his absence and without his knowledge or
desire. Up to this time the subject of southern slavery, as an
element of political and party contention, had scarcely been
agitated. Legislation both State and national had all favored
the institution, and there existed in Ohio a miserable set of black
laws which was the product of the prevailing sentiment of the
country. But at the same time the better feelings of human
nature could not be wholly suppressed. There were some in the
south who saw and felt the injustice of the institution and favored
emancipation; and arrangements had been made by which a settlement
of blacks was formed at a place called Red Oak, on the free side of
the Ohio river, where those who desired could bring their slaves and
emancipate them. This settlement created a feeling of jealousy
on both sides of the line. The conservative spirits of the
north feared they might be overrun by the blacks, and the
slave-holders were alarmed by any movement which had a tendency to
weaken or relax the rigor of the slave system or to ameliorate the
condition of the slaves. Fugitives from slavery were
frequently
escaping across the line, and were either harbored in Ohio, or were
aided in their flight to Canada. Thus it happened that, not
content with the state of things then existing, in 1838 the
legislature of Kentucky sent two commissioners, Messrs.
Morehead and Price,—the one a Whig and the other a
Democrat,—to persuade the legislature of Ohio to pass still more
rigorous and effective laws for the return of fugitive slaves. This
measure was proposed in the Ohio senate, and Mr. Wade
and only four others arrayed themselves in opposition to its
passage. These five senators, of course, could do nothing but
obstruct and delay the passage of the measure. But this was so
boldly and adroitly done that the commissioners sought an interview
with Mr. Wade, in hopes to mitigate his opposition to
their scheme.
That meeting was amusing and characteristic. They
came with an injured and deprecating air, as though appealing to the
better feelings of his nature. They told him of the
patriarchal character of the institution, and how slaves were
treated by their masters as their own children, and showed the
cruelty of sundering such ties of tenderness, and consequently the
necessity of more stringent laws to prevent the evil. Mr.
Wade did not see the character of the institution in that
light, and in response to Mr. Morehead, the Whig
commissioner, he said, “ You want us to pass a law to prevent your
children from running away. In other words, you want to make
us all negro-catchers. Gentlemen, do you engage in this
business of negro-catching, yourselves? I see you do not.
If I were master in Ohio, and found you in this negro-hunting
business, I would put you in irons.” Price, the
Democratic commissioner, cried out, “By heavens! Morehead,
he has got us; it is certainly not the most honorable business.”
So ended the memorable interview. The resistance to the
passage of the bill was protracted two days and one entire night,
and a part of another. The following extract from a speech
made by Mr. Wade on that occasion may be interesting
to those who remember the excitement that followed upon the passage
of those fugitive slave laws:
“ Though I stand here at two o’clock at night, and
after a protracted session since yesterday at nine o’clock in the
morning, and though I speak to ears that are deaf and to hearts
impervious to a sense of right and justice and liberty, still I will
be heard; and although, from the timid and servile policy that has
been manifested by the majority on this floor, I have no hope of
arresting the progress of this measure, which shall ere long stamp
its supporters with deeper infamy and degradation than did the
famous ‘alien and sedition laws.’ The champions of this
measure, like the heroes of old, before taking up the gauntlet in
its defense, have thought proper to preface their remarks with a
history of their own birth, habits, and education; and, as I
suspected, it appears that they were themselves born or descended
from parents who were born in the murky atmosphere of slavery.
Were I to follow their example and speak of so unimportant a subject
as myself, I would say that I was born in a land where the accursed
system of slavery was unknown; where the councils of the State were
swayed by the great principles of equality; where right and justice
were deemed the greatest expediency. My infancy was rocked in
the cradle of universal liberty, and my parents were of the
Revolution. The earliest lesson I was taught was to respect the
rights of others and to defend my own; to resist oppression to the
death neither do nor suffer wrong; to do unto others as I would they
should do unto me; and, though my venerated instructors have long
since passed away, the Godlike principles they taught can never die;
and when they shall cease to influence my conduct, may my right hand
forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”
The five senators made a gallant but ineffectual
resistance. The measure was carried, and slavery triumphed for
the time. But the event stamped Mr. Wade as a
man of mark, and one of the most fearless and formidable opponents
of the slave-power. It brought him into immediate and signal
notice, and men came to him from the Red Oak settlement bearing a
petition, numerously signed, for a charter establishing an academy
to educate the freedmen at that place. On the presentation of
the petition a storm broke forth. “Do you know that these are
niggers?” And resolutions were offered to expel him from the
senate, so violent were the feelings against him for presenting a
petition signed by colored men. But while a member of the
senate of Ohio he performed noble work in other respects. He
was a member of the judiciary committee, and exerted a controlling
influence in abolishing imprisonment for debt in Ohio, and also for
the passage of a law exempting certain property from execution.
The legislature was then beset by applications for aid
to various public and private enterprises to promote internal
improvements in the State, which resulted in what were afterwards
known as the “Plunder laws." These he opposed, and thereby
incurred violent opposition from members of his own party. In
the fall of 1839 he was renominated by the Whig party in the
district, in their regular convention. There was a Whig
majority in the district of four thousand, but so strung was the
pro-slavery feeling in the district, and especially in his own
county of Ashtabula, that he was beaten, and a Democrat elected in
his place. But during the ensuing two years there was a
marvelous change wrought in the feelings of the people. During
the presidential canvass of 1840 he was prominent in the advocacy of
General Harrison for President, and his voice was
heard from almost every platform in northern Ohio; and when the Whig
district convention met in 1841 he was again nominated as a
candidate for the Ohio senate by acclamation. The subject of
slavery had been discussed, the views of Mr. Wade had
become popular in the district, and his election was then
triumphant. In the winter of 1841 and 1842 he resigned the
office, but was again elected in the fall of 1842. And during
his service in the senate he had the satisfaction of seeing the
Kentucky black laws erased from the statute-book of the State.
He then declined further service, and devoted himself to the
practice of his profession.
In the spring of 1837 he entered into partnership in
the practice of law with Rufus P. Ranney, who had previously
been a student in his office. The business of that firm was
very large, requiring their attendance upon all the courts in
several counties in the northeast corner of the State. This
partnership continued until Mr. Wade was elected to a
judicial position.
In 1841 he was married to Miss Caroline
Rosekrans, of Middletown, in the State of Connecticut.
By her he has two sons, both of whom performed service for the
country in the war of the Rebellion. James F., the
oldest son, still remains in the cavalry service, where he now holds
the commission of major, and has had several brevets for meritorious
services.
In February, 1847, Mr. Wade was elected
by the legislature of the State presiding judge of the third
judicial circuit, embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull,
Mahoning, Portage, and Summit. He entered immediately upon the
duties of the office, which he continued to hold until March, 1851,
when he was elected to the senate of the United States. The
circuit was large, and the dockets of the several courts were very
much encumbered with business when he went upon the bench, but his
high legal attainments and application to business enabled him to
dispatch the business of the courts with great facility, and he soon
became as popular on the bench as he had previously been at the bar.
The intelligence of his election to the United States senate was
brought to him in the court-room, while presiding in court at Akron,
in Summit county. The papers in the northeastern portion of
the State had urged his election to that position but still the news
of his election came to him wholly unexpected, and like every other
official position which he had held it was unsolicited on his part.
He did not feel at liberty or disposed to decline the high honor,
and assumed its duties and responsibilities, and continued to hold
the position for eighteen years, during the most interesting period
of the history of the country.
He entered the senate just after the notable compromise
measures of 1851. The terrible storm in which those measures
had been adopted had been allayed, but not spent. The compact
imposed eternal silence upon the north on the subject of slavery in
the councils of the nation. It also laid upon the north the
ungracious burden of returning fugitive slaves.
Parties were preparing for the presidential contest.
The Whigs had become demoralized by the death of President
Taylor, and the trouble and perplexity arising from the
administration of President Fillmore. Both of
the great national parties gave in their adhesion to the measures of
the compromise, and adopted the same plank of eternal silence on the
subject of slavery. But there was no silence!
The first day that Mr. Wade took his seat
in the American senate, Mr. Foote, of Mississippi,
introduced a series of resolutions to confirm what had already been
done by congress on the subject of slavery, and upon these
resolutions frequent speeches were made during that session.
The canvass of 1852 resulted in the election of Franklin
Pierce to the presidency, and with him a Democratic congress.
Mr. Douglas, chairman of the committee on
Territories, reported in favor of the organization of Kansas and
Nebraska, leaving the report silent on the subject of slavery.
Upon this a fiery debate sprung up; speeches were made by southern
men of the most inflammable character, claiming that the old
Missouri Compromise of 1821 should be abrogated. The report
was recommitted and amended, containing the proposed abrogation of
that old national treaty.
After the nomination of General Taylor for the
presidency in 1848, a large
majority of the Whig party on the Western Reserve revolted and
refused to vote
for the nominee for the reason that he was a slave-holder, and
uniting with the
Democrats who were disaffected with the nomination of General
Cass
by their
party, under the name of Free Democrats, supported Martin Van
Buren
for the
presidency. Van Buren, when in the presidential chair, had shown
himself most
subservient to the slave power. Mr. Wade had confidence in
General Taylor for
uprightness, and believed he could be relied upon for integrity and
impartiality,
and he therefore zealously supported the slave-holder in preference
to the northern
man with southern principles, although he was thereby placed in a
minority
among his own friends and associates. The death of General
Taylor
elevated Mr. Fillmore to the presidency. Mr.
Wade, though sadly disappointed
in the
course pursued by President Fillmore, still adhered to the Whig
party.
He agreed with that party upon the subject of a
protective tariff, river and
harbor improvements, and other kindred measures, and many of the
southern
Whigs had proposed to hold generous and moderate sentiments on the
subject of
slavery, and he hoped that the old Whig party might be instrumental
in bringing
back the government to the purposes of its founders. He therefore,
in 1852,
supported the nomination of General Scott, and vigorously urged his
election before
the people. In March, 1854, during the agitation of the proposed
repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, he made a speech in the senate clearly
defining his
opposition to the measure, and fully demonstrating that the repeal
of that act
would be fraught with more evil to the country and more danger to
its peace than
had ever occurred to disturb the harmony of the different sections.
He learned
from the discussions upon the question that it was to be carried by
a combination
of the southern Whigs and those who, for the occasion, assumed the
name of
“National Democrats.” At this union for such a purpose his heart
sickened,
and he gave utterance to his feelings in a speech delivered in the
senate on the
night of the final passage of the measure. The New York Tribune of
that date
appropriately called it the “ new declaration of independence.” In
the course of
that speech he severed his connection with the Whig party, and bade
farewell to
his former Whig friends of the south. A short extract from that
speech may
not be inappropriate. He said, “Mr. President, I do not intend to
debate this
subject. The humiliation of the north is complete and overwhelming. No
southern enemy of the north can wish her deeper degradation. God
knows, I
feel it keenly enough, and I do not wish to prolong the melancholy
spectacle. I
have all my life belonged to the great national Whig party, and
never yet have I
failed, with all the ability I possessed, to support its regular
nominations, come
from what portion of the Union they might; and much oftener has it
been my
lot to battle for a southern than for a northern nominee for the
presidency, and
when such candidate was assailed by those who were jealous of
slave-holders, and
our people did not like to yield the government to such hands, how
often have I
encountered the violent prejudices with no little hazard to myself. How triumphantly
would I appeal on such occasions to southern honor, to the
magnanimity
of soul which I believed actuated southern gentlemen. Alas! If God
will pardon me for what I have done, I will promise to sin no more
in that direction.
We certainly cannot have any further connection with Whigs of the
south.
They have rendered such connection impossible. An impassable gulf
separates
us. The southern wing of the old Whig party have joined their
fortunes with
what is called the ‘National Democracy,’ and I wish you joy in your
new connection.
Tomorrow, I believe, there is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I
think
it is meet and proper that the sun in the heavens and the glory of
this republic
should go into obscurity and darkness together. Let the bill then
pass;
it is a
proper occasion for so dark and damning a deed.” No words could do
justice to
the feelings of the man, or the occasion which called them forth.
From that
time he knew no Whig party. He joined in the organization of the
Republican
party, and devoted himself earnestly to the advocacy and support of
the
principles and measures of that party in congress and before the
people from
Maine to the Mississippi.
In congress the issue was now clearly defined.
The south declared the institution of slavery to be holy, and
insisted that it should be extended and made coextensive with the
bounds of the republic; while the north declared the institution to
be inhuman and a relic of barbarism, and insisted that it should be
limited to the territory it then occupied. A southern senator
had declared that he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot
of Bunker Hill monument, and that threat had met with defiance from
northern men.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the torch
that lighted the pile. It raised the tempest that culminated
in the Rebellion. There were but few men from the north in the
senate who had the courage to speak out boldly on that question, but
Mr. Wade was conspicuous among that number. Events followed
of a startling character. The old land-mark of peace was
obliterated. Then came
the border ruffians, asking for the admission of Kansas as a slave
State. Douglas, Broderick, and a few other Democrats became alarmed, and a sense of
common
danger drove them to take counsel with some of the most extreme
radicals. Of
all men in the senate, Mr. Wade was most feared, trusted, and
respected by his
political opponents. He was a plain, blunt man, like Marc
Antony,
and spoke
right on. He had none of the graces of oratory; what he said was clear, simple,
and direct. In a single sentence he would sometimes annihilate an
opponent. An
instance of this occurred in the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska
question, when Mr. Badger, of North Carolina, appealed to the senate in a
sentimental way.
“What!” said he, “will you not allow me to take my old mammy with
me to
Kansas; she on whose breast my infancy was cradled; who watched over my
childhood and takes pride in my manhood?” “Yes,” said Mr.
Wade, “we will
permit you to take your old mammy to Kansas, but we will prohibit
you, by law,
from selling her after you get her there.” Mr. Badger was
extinguished. That
argument admitted of no reply. Badger was afterwards heard to say
that Wade was the only man he could never get even with. In the same debate, a
New
Hampshire senator was making a speech subservient to the ideas of
southern gentlemen. Mr. Wade was listening attentively to him, when he suddenly turned
and
said he would like to put a question to the senator from Ohio. “Would he recognize
his obligations and perform his duty in executing the fugitive slave
law?” Mr. Wade rose, and, in language more emphatic than reverent or
parliamentary,
responded, “No, sir;
I’d see ’em damned first.” And he immediately returned the
question, but before the New Hampshire senator had completed his
argumentative
reply, Mr. Wade turned to the Kentucky senators and put the same
question to
them. The response came quickly, “No, sir; there is no occasion for
it so long
as we have men like the honorable senator from New Hampshire to do
it for us.”
Nothing could have been more humiliating to the New Hampshire
senator.
During those years the greatest excitement prevailed in
congress, as well as the
country, and scenes of violence were rife on every hand. The code of
honor was
prevalent at the south, while at the north it was condemned by
public sentiment.
The result was that the conduct of many southern men became
overbearing and
insolent. Challenges could be given with impunity, as it was known
that no challenge
could be accepted by a northern man without incurring social and
political
ostracism among his own people. At this time a few men in congress,
among
whom were Wade, Chandler, Broderick, Douglas, and
Cameron, of the
senate,
and Burlingame, Potter, and others of the house, agreed that they
would submit
to no further insolence, and that they would accept the first
challenge given by
any southern member of congress. That if assailed in words they
would resent
the insult in words, and if challenged they would fight. In the
session of 1856, Mr. Sumner spoke in the senate on the “ barbarism of slavery.” The
next day
he was stricken down in the senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks, of
South Carolina. Senator Toombs, of Georgia, declared that he witnessed the assault,
and
declared his approbation of the deed. He said, “It was nothing more
than the
senator from Massachusetts richly deserved; he had played the part
of a dog, and
he merited the treatment of a dog.” Mr. Wade, in response to
Toombs,
said,
“Those are the sentiments of a coward and an assassin.” A duel was
expected
as the result, and Mr. Wade made his arrangements accordingly.
Colonel James
Watson Webb, who before that time had some experience in dueling,
volunteered
to act on his behalf. Inquiries were made whether a challenge would
be
accepted; but no challenge came, and on the morning of the fourth
day Toombs approached Wade cheerfully, and said, “What is the use of a man’s
making a
damned fool of himself ?” “There isn't much,” replied Wade, “but
some men
can’t help it.” So ended the expected duel, to the chagrin of many
of the
southern members.
Some little time afterwards there
was renewed excitement in the chamber. The Democrats were
resorting to all manner of dilatory movements, when Senator
Toombs arose and launched out into a most violent denunciation
of the north and northern men, and especially northern members of
congress. He was just in the height of his declamation, when
Mr. Wade arose, and demanded to know if he was
included in the invective? Mr. Toombs was
suddenly brought to his senses, and replied, “No; he excepted the
senator from Ohio,” and then went off into a glowing panegyric of
Mr. Wade. Another instance of Mr. Wade’s
vindication of justice, and of his bold and decided character, came
out in a passage which occurred between the Hon. John M.
Clayton and himself during the existence of the American or
Know-Nothing party, the purposes of which Mr. Clayton
reviewed in an elaborate speech in the senate. Senator Wade
was deeply interested in the passage of the “Homestead bill,”
and upon this bill he stood side by side with Senator
Dodge, a Democratic senator from Iowa. He brought all his
influence to bear upon the success of the measure, and had delivered
a powerful argument in favor of the bill, setting forth the
advantages to the country, the pioneer, and the emigrant. Mr.
Clayton followed, commenting upon the speech in a frank but
friendly spirit, to which Mr. Wade took no exceptions.
The speeches were supposed to be printed in the Congressional Globe
as they had been delivered in the senate. Mr. Wade
took no pains to revise or prepare his speeches for publication, but
trusted that work entirely to the reporter, and had not looked to
see that those speeches were correctly reported. A few days
afterwards, Mr. Dodge came to him and asked him if he
had seen Senator Clayton’s reply to his speech on the
Homestead bill, as printed in the Globe, saying, “You ought to take
notice of it, as he has ascribed sentiments to you which I am sure
you never held, and has put language into your mouth which you never
uttered.” On looking into the Globe the representations were
found to be true, and Mr. Wade lost no time in calling
to it the attention of the senate and the public. He was
willing to suppose that the senator from Delaware had, through
mistake or inadvertence, attributed to him opinions and expressions
which would be offensive to his constituents and the country.
He had satisfied himself that the reporter of the senate had
faithfully transcribed his language, and he could not account for
the course the senator from Delaware had pursued. Mr.
Clayton interrupted with the remark, accompanied by a
malicious glance, “When the senator gets through I will give my
version of the matter.” Mr. Wade concluded by
saying, “It is therefore a mistake or something worse.” Mr.
Clayton followed in a lofty, justifying strain, in which he
bore down severely on Mr. Wade, and took his seat,
leaving the impression on every mind that he had made no mistake,
and that his review of the speech of the senator from Ohio was
exactly right. Then Mr. Wade, rising to his
feet, and with a deliberate manner, and looking Clayton full in the
face, declared, “ You, sir, sneaked into your office and wrote what
you knew to be false.” This was the signal for the
intervention of the presiding officer, and the matter was at once
dropped in the chamber, but of course it was anticipated that Mr.
Clayton, as a southern man, would not let the matter rest.
That evening Senator Pratt, of Maryland, acting as the
friend of Mr. Clayton, called on Mr. Wade
at his lodgings to inquire on behalf of the senator from Delaware if
Mr. Wade was a fighting man,—if he recognized the
code? Free from the restraint of parliamentary rules and the
decorum of the senate, Mr. Wade replied, “Go tell the
scoundrel if he is tired of life and wants to know my views of
dueling, he can find out by sending the communication in the usual
form.” Senator Pratt remonstrated upon the
severity of this reply, and tried to have him soften it. “I do
not desire to have you act in the matter,” said Mr. Wade,
“but if you tell him anything you will give him my answer
unmodified.” The following morning they met, and Senator
Wade was first to speak. “Well, senator, what next?”
“Nothing, nothing at all,” said Senator Pratt; “ he is
a damned old coward.” There was no further intercourse between
Messrs. Clayton and Wade for the remainder of
the senatorial term. When within a few days of its close, and
Mr. Clayton was to retire to private life, he one day
came to Senator Wade, his eyes filled with tears, and
his voice trembling with emotion, and said, “Senator, that affair
which has so long interrupted our friendship, has cost me more
trouble of mind than almost any other of my life. I feel that
I have done you injustice, and that I ought to rectify it here in
the senate, before I leave it forever. I will do so in any
manner you may suggest.” And the brave heart, so quick to
vindicate wounded honor, melted immediately with kind ness.
“No,” said he: “Mr. Clayton, it would have gratified
me in the day of it; but it has long gone by, the circumstance is
forgotten; to revive it now will only open to the public an old
wound which they think nothing of. It will be up-hill business
to do it now. Let it rest in oblivion where we have consigned
it.” They grasped hands. Such was the magnanimity which
covered the fault of a fellow-man.
These qualities of mind and heart made him respected
even by his most violent political opponents in the senate far more
than many a northern doughface, whose subserviency they both
employed and despised. After these occurrences they were
really better friends than if he had truckled to their dictation, or
failed to show that he would brook no insolence and hold no malice.
In truth, it became quite customary for gentlemen from the south to
pay him public compliments, and the matter went so far that one day
when Senator Mason had been saying some very nice
things of him, he, with some pleasantry, repelled the praise,
responding to the senator from Virginia, “Sir, if you do not stop
saying these things of me it will ruin me at home.” It became
quite common with some of the southern members of congress to affect
great independence of northern markets and manufactures by wearing
what they called home-made clothing. In this matter Senator
Mason, of Virginia, was quite conspicuous. He appeared
one day in the senate chamber clad from top to toe in a genuine suit
of Virginia gray. Wade accosted him. “Well,
senator, you are well dressed to day,” at the same time closely
inspecting his dress. “Yes,” said Mason, “ I mean to do
justice by the south, and by my own State in particular. We
will show that we are not dependent upon the north for a shred of
anything.” Wade, looking full of mischief, stepped up
closer, and, taking hold of a button on Mason's coat, said,
“Of course you will do that. In what part of the south did you
obtain these buttons?” They were, in fact, made in
Connecticut, and Mason's face fell as he growled out, “Nobody
hut a damned Yankee would have found that out.” Senator
Evans, of South Carolina, a very bigoted and precise man,
once came into the senate chamber, and, taking his seat, lifted up a
copy of the Anti-Slavery Standard, which some one had placed there
in his absence, and then, turning to Mr. Wade, who was
standing by, observed, “Who could have put this vile thing upon my
desk?” “Why,” said Wade, “it is a most excellent family
paper.” “Ugh!” said Evans, “ I would no sooner touch it than
I would touch a toad.” At this Wade laughed heartily,
and left the old gentleman in his tribulation. On another
occasion, at the very close of the session, Mr. Evans
was in trouble about some bill, of no general importance, but in
which quite a number of his constituents were interested. He
had been trying all winter to get it passed; but a few hours of the
session remained, and his anxiety was intensified. It was late
at night; Senator Foote, of Vermont, was nodding in
the chair. The senate had been in continuous session for two
days and nights. Probably not a quorum was present or could
have been found. Some were absent, some in the ante-rooms,
eating or sleeping; only a few who could get the floor were
attending to business. In his distress he came across the
chamber to Mr. Wade, on the radical side of the hall,
a thing he seldom did, and which was almost as offensive to him as
the innocent paper he had found on his desk, and said, “Here, sir, I
have been all winter trying to get a bill through in which some five
hundred of my old neighbors are interested, and the time is rapidly
passing. What can I do?” “My friend,” said the senator,
“jump right up now, interrupt the proceedings, call up your bill;
now is the very time. I will help you.” Evans went back to
his seat and commenced fumbling about for a copy of his bill,
somewhat dazed at the sudden suggestion of his counselor, when
Wade was on his feet and called out, “Mr. President, the senator
from South Carolina, Mr. Evans, has a bill of a
private nature which has been pending for a long time; he is anxious
it should pass. I move the rules be suspended for that
purpose. It will take but a moment.” No one objected Mr.
Evans was recognized almost before he was aware of it.
His bill was passed, much to his delight. “I declare,” said he,
“nobody but a Yankee would have gone to work in that way.”
This was the southern fashion in those days; they spoke of all
northern people as Yankees. Such promptness of action and
readiness in expedients were always characteristic of him, at the
bar as well as in legislative halls.
Captain M. H. Simonds commanded a company in
Colonel Ball’s regiment of cavalry in the Mexican war. He
died in the service, leaving three horses and a full outfit for the
campaign. The major of the regiment, as his duty required,
took possession of the property and converted it to cash. The
major also died in the service, never having accounted for the
property, and leaving his estate insolvent. The mother of
Captain Simonds, who was a widow, applied to the
departments at Washington for compensation, but the claim was
rejected on the ground that the loss arose from the failure of the
major to discharge his duty in accounting for the property, and the
government does not hold itself responsible for the failure of its
agents. The equity of the case seemed so strong that she
appealed to congress for relief, and the application was placed in
the hands of Senator Wade. The bill passed the
senate promptly, but the committee on pensions, to which the bill
was referred in the house of representatives, rejected the claim for
the same reason urged against it by the departments. At
the next session of congress the bill was again passed through the
senate, went to the house, and was again referred to the committee
on pensions, and the committee reported against the claim as before.
Mr. Wade labored with the chairman of the committee,
and urged the equity of the claim, but he was deaf to all
entreaties, and assured Mr. Wade that he should not
permit the bill to pass, under any circumstances, as he should
regard its passage as a dangerous precedent. Some few days
after, Mr. Wade went into the house of representatives
and found the house engaged in passing private bills, and he
observed that the chairman of the committee on pensions was absent.
He went to the seat of Mr. Morgan, of New York, and
told him the nature and merits of the claim and the difficulties
attending its passage. Mr. Morgan expressed his
desire to aid him, but feared that nothing could be done; that it
could not be carried over an adverse report of the committee.
“Why,” said Mr. Wade, “don’t you see that they are now
taking up the reports of committees and passing the bills without
objection ?” “Yes,” said Morgan, “ but in those cases
the reports are all in favor of the claims, and in this case the
report, you see, is against the claim.” “But,” said Wade,
“ you can move to take up the report and put the bill on its passage
without mentioning the fact that the report is adverse.” Morgan
consented to try the experiment. The motion prevailed, and
the bill passed without objection. Thus an equitable claim
triumphed over technical objections.
In September, 1860, Senator Broderick, of
California, fell in a duel. Mr. Wade held that
gentleman in high estimation, and regarded him as one of the most
reliable men in the senate on the subject of northern rights, which
were then imperiled. And the circumstances regarding his death
were such that Mr. Wade regarded him as a martyr to
the cause of freedom. The following expression of his estimate
of the character of Senator Broderick, as made in the
senate, is quoted here because of the striking similarity of
character between the fallen senator, as described by Mr.
Wade, and his distinguished eulogist: “Mr. President, though not
of the same political party, I cannot suffer this occasion to pass
without expressing my deep sense of the noble qualities and manly
character of David C. Broderick. It was my good fortune
to become well acquainted with him soon after he took his seat in
this body. He was unassuming in manner, but frank, outspoken,
and sincere, despising all intrigue and indirection. He was
possessed of an excellent understanding and a fine capacity for
business. His love of justice was remarkable. Having
once determined and settled in his own mind what was right, he was
as immovable as the hills. Neither the threats or
blandishments of power nor personal peril could move him from his
purpose. Being of the people, their rights, interests, and
their advancement was the polar star of his action. For these
he was at all times ready to labor, and, if need be, to die.
In short, he was the very soul of honor, without fear and without
reproach. The loss of such a man, Mr. President,
is indeed a public calamity.”
Buchanan’s administration had been as weak and
imbecile as it was possible to be, and events were culminating
rapidly. The Republican party had been forced into existence
by the very necessity of the time. The presidential canvass of
1860 had resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln, and
the time intervening between November and the ensuing March, when he
was to be inaugurated, was used by southern members of congress to
promote the project of secession, and to plunge the country into
civil war. It was a period of the utmost uncertainty and
anxiety, when men’s hearts failed them for fear, and when many who
had been resolute on the slavery question were trembling,
vacillating, and ready to give everything to the demands of the
south. Mr. Wade was one of the few men who never
flinched. He looked the question squarely in the face, and
acted in that great emergency with a coolness and deliberation which
now seem surprising. He was one of the famous joint committee
of thirteen to take into consideration the last peace resolutions
ever offered in congress for the conciliation of the two
sections,—the resolutions presented by Mr. Crittenden,
of Kentucky. His associates on that committee from the senate
were Messrs. Davis, Mason, Toombs, and
Benjamin. In the consultations of this committee every
inducement brought to bear on Mr. Wade to make him
swerve one hair's breadth from the line of his convictions proved
utterly futile. He told Mr. Davis, who was the
acknowledged leader of the southern men in congress, that he was
convinced that while the south professed to desire peace, that she
meant war; that the resolutions, however well designed by their
author, were only a delusion and a snare; that the north would not
accept them, and even if she did, it would not satisfy the
augmenting demands of the south. “Well,” said Jefferson
Davis, “if war comes it will not be on our section on which
it will spend its force.” He had good reason for saying this,
for the opposition journals of the north were teeming with
declarations that if the black Republicans adopted any measures of
coercion to prevent secession they would first have to encounter
opposition at home, and to walk over the dead bodies of countless
Democrats, who would not, in such a crisis, abandon the cause of
their southern brethren. But the reply of Mr. Wade
showed how well he understood the situation, how clearly he saw
the real heart of his countrymen through the mist and darkness of
that perilous hour. “I know," said he, “ what the city of New
York has done; I know the resolutions which have just been passed by
two hundred thousand Democrats in Ohio, and I know what has been
done in Indiana; and let them carry out the doctrine and purpose of
their resolutions who can. But the first gun that is fired
will secure emancipation, and the Democrats will desert you.
They are now leading you into a trap, and, like the devil, they will
leave you there to get out the best way you can.” The
consultations of the committee failed; the counsels of the great
peace convention, held at Washington about the same time, failed.
Everything failed which even looked towards peace. The tide of
alienation was sweeping all before it. The Republican members
of congress, giving themselves up to the drifting current of events,
sat silent while the torrent of speech-making was flowing from
southern lips. At length Mr. Wade got the floor
for the ensuing Monday; meantime Mr. Douglas came to
him and said, “I want to make a speech. It shall be strong
anti-slavery. There is no use talking longer for peace.
I will make the speech on Monday if you will yield me the floor.”
To this Mr. Wade assented, and Douglas kept his
mind until Sunday night, and then gave up his purpose. It was
just as well. Mr. Wade occupied the floor on
that signal Monday. He did not speak very long, but long
enough to exhibit the real situation. His words were blunt and
plain. He closed by saying, “You have made yourselves believe
that you can whip the north. If, however, you should make a
little mistake here, you will be in hell!” He afterwards
remarked that Stephens, of Georgia, had told them the same
thing. That speech had a vast influence. From that time
forward there was little talk of peace. The southern States,
led on by South Carolina, began to take measures and pass ordinances
of secession. The southern members of congress began to make
farewell speeches, and to vacate their seats in the capitol.
The 4th of March arrived. Mr. Lincoln
was inaugurated in a scene of the greatest excitement and
apprehension; and old President Buchanan was relieved,
at once and forever, of the burden of a position where he had been
sitting for the last three months of his term crying and wringing
his hands and sobbing out his broken and incoherent and despairing
conversations with his visitors, “I have been the last President of
the United States.” Fort Sumter was attacked on the 12th of
April, 1861. Congress had done its work and gone. The
new congress was summoned to meet on the 4th of July of the same
year. Senator Wade was early recognized as one
of the few spirits who had the nerve to meet the great emergency.
He was the chairman of the joint committee on the conduct of the
war, and held this position during the whole of that bloody struggle
which followed. He was up early and late; he did an immense
amount of business, visiting the different sections of the country
and the armies in the field, and making reports, from time to time,
on the progress of the strife, the subjects of which now fill eight
large volumes, containing some of the most thrilling passages in the
history of the war. It was towards the close of Mr.
Lincoln’s first term that the brilliant success in the
southwest, which re-opened Louisiana to the Federal jurisdiction,
induced him to propose a line of policy for the restoration of the
recusant States that would have left the whole subject of
emancipation in a very precarious condition. Senator
Wade, who was then chairman of the committee on Territories in
the senate, and Henry Winter Davis, who was
chairman of the committee on Territories in the house of
representatives, were the only men who stood up openly opposed to
this policy. The subject came up just at the close of the
session, which gave them no opportunity to present the question
fairly before congress. They therefore prepared a powerful
manifesto against the proposal of the President, signed it, and sent
it to the New York Tribune for publication. Tried and
pronounced against slavery, in all its forms, as were the conductors
of that paper, they refused to publish the document; but it was
issued in the form of a circular, and effectually did the work; the
scheme was abandoned. This was done, not out of opposition to
Mr. Lincoln, but because they saw more clearly than he
seemed to see, the pernicious tendency of his policy; they stood by
him notwithstanding. He was chosen for a second term, and at
last the fearful struggle was ended. In his rejoicing over the
result, Mr. Lincoln was about again to yield to the
weakness of excessive kindness. He actually went down to
Richmond, after its occupation by our troops, and gave a private
order to General Heintzleman, then in command in that
city, to convene the old Confederate Virginia State legislature, and
to clothe them with all the authority they possessed as a
legislative body before the act of secession. Then it was that
Senator Wade again remonstrated and brought down upon
himself much ignorant and ill-timed censure of the press. But
the result showed him to be right in this, as he was in his joint
action with Mr. Davis before. A commission of
military men was formed to examine the action of the officer in
charge at Richmond. When asked upon what authority he had
convoked the rebel legislature, he quietly drew forth an order in
the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, bearing a
foot-note which read, “Show this to no one but Judge John A.
Campbell,” who was still in Richmond, having been a member
of the rebel cabinet. But in the midst of these rapid and
marvelous events President Lincoln was shot down.
The nation and the world were shocked by the murderous deed.
The whole order of things was changed by the elevation of Andrew
Johnson to the presidential chair. Johnson
proved false to the Republican party and to the interests of the
nation. Mr. Wade was now regarded as the head of
the Republican party in the senate. He was made president pro
tem, of the senate, and became vice-president in fact. The
impeachment trial of Johnson followed, and he was acquitted
by one vote. Had that trial resulted differently, Mr.
Wade would have succeeded Johnson in the presidential
chair. In 1869, Mr. Wade retired from the
senate, and up to the time of his death remained much in private
life, occasionally, however, engaged in professional affairs, which
required his attendance at Washington during most of the sessions of
congress. When, however, the excitement arose on the Saint
Domingo question, President Grant appointed him
chairman of the commission to visit Saint Domingo. The
expedition was successfully accomplished, and a report was made
which sustained the views of the President and his action in
relation thereto.
In 1875, Mr. Wade participated in the
State canvass, and several public speeches were made by him in
behalf of the Republican party and General Hayes, its
candidate for governor. He was a delegate from the Seventeenth
congressional district of Ohio in the Republican convention in 1876,
and was very influential in procuring the nomination of General
Hayes as the candidate for the presidency. He was also
one of the presidential electors for the State at large, that cast
the vote of Ohio for General Hayes for President, and
was selected to convey the electoral votes to Washington.
He took a deep interest in the affairs of the nation,
and was prompt in expressing his disapprobation of the policy
adopted by President Hayes, regarding his course as
unjust to the Republicans of the south and as endangering the
perpetuity of the Republican party, which Mr. Wade
regarded as essential to good government and the protection of the
rights of the citizens.
In the summer of 1861, when the call of the President
was issued for seventy-five thousand men, in pursuance of a
proclamation by the governor of Ohio the citizens of Jefferson came
together and were addressed by Mr. Wade. A call
was made for volunteers, and Mr. Wade’s name appeared
first upon the roll. The requisite number for a company was
immediately obtained, and the company was organized and their
services tendered to the governor. But the result showed that
seven companies in Ashtabula County had organized at the same time,
and the governor could receive only two of that number. The
Jefferson company was not one of those selected.
Through life Mr. Wade was abstemious in
his habits, alike in eating and drinking, and he possessed a strong
and vigorous constitution, which rendered him capable of great
endurance, and this, with his indomitable perseverance and untiring
industry, always enabled him to discharge with promptness whatever
duties devolved upon him. Hence he never seemed to be pressed
with business, but possessed much of apparent leisure.
He was plain and unassuming in manners, whatever
position he held, whether at the bar, on the bench, or presiding
over the senate of the nation. He was zealous and earnest in
the advocacy of measures, and sometimes sarcastic in language, but
he impressed all who heard him with his sincerity, and he rarely
created an enemy. He was prudent and economical in his
personal expenses, but liberal in his charities, and the sufferer
never went empty-handed from his door when he had the power to
relieve. Integrity of purpose and a keen sense of honor were
conspicuous traits in his character. The writer of this sketch
on one occasion went into his law-office and found him alone and
apparently moody and in ill temper; at length he broke out: “I never
have felt so humiliated in my life as by an incident that has just
occurred. I cannot restrain myself from speaking of it, and
still I should feel disgraced in the opinion of all honest men were
it made public.” He referred to a citizen of intelligence and
good standing in the community, saying, “That man has just left my
office, and while here he referred to a suit which I am prosecuting
against him, indirectly offering me a consideration if I would not
press the suit against him. My first impression, ’ said
Wade, “was to kick him out of the office; but on reflection, on
second thought, I was so humiliated by the proposition that it
seemed to me that I had been guilty of some wrong myself. I
asked him what I had ever done, or what he had ever seen or heard of
me that led him to suppose it was safe to offer me a bribe to induce
treachery to my client.” Mr. Wade said it was
the first time he had ever been approached by any man with such an
intimation, and he hoped his character for integrity stood high
enough so that it might never be repeated. It probably never
occurred again. And his friends have the satisfaction of
knowing that through his long career of public and private duties no
man ever impeached his integrity or made a charge of pecuniary wrong
against him.
Since the foregoing sketch was prepared for publication
Mr. Wade has passed away. The following
announcement of his death in the Cleveland Herald, of Mar. 4, 1878,
we append, as a just tribute to his memory.
OBITUARY.
EX-SENATOR BENJAMIN F. WADE
The Hon.
Benjamin Franklin Wade, formerly United States
senator from Ohio, died at his home in Jefferson, Ashtabula County,
Mar. 2, after an illness of more than four weeks, which he bore with
characteristic fortitude. The news of the death of Mr.
Wade, at the ripe age of seventy-eight years, has long been
anticipated by the public. His vigorous constitution gave way
slowly to disease, and death came only after a long and painful
struggle. Mr. Wade has for a quarter of a
century been a prominent figure in the politics of Ohio, and is
among the last of the anti-6lavery pioneers. Elected to the
senate by the Whig party in Ohio, in 1851 after serving two terms in
the senate of this State, and as judge of his district, he was twice
re-elected, and for eighteen years held a conspicuous position in
the councils of the nation. His fame as a statesman will rest
upon his long, earnest, and devoted adherence to the principles of
the anti-slavery party in America. It was during his term of
service in the senate that the slavery excitement culminated in
civil war, and the north and south met in bloody conflict to decide
the issue by an appeal to arms. From his entrance into the
senate he was known as an Abolitionist, and one year after taking
his seat voted in favor of the repeal of the fugitive slave law.
On all questions calculated to extend or benefit slavery he was
always found bravely and fearlessly in the opposition, and his
speeches against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the
Lecompton constitution for Kansas, the purchasing of Cuba, are all
fresh in the memory of our people. A genuine friend of the
laboring man, he advocated for years the passage of the Homestead
bill, and had charge of the measure when it passed the senate.
As chairman of the joint committee on the conduct of the war, he
urged the most vigorous action on the part of our armies, favored
confiscation of the property of leading rebels, and the emancipation
of their slaves. He was prominent in compelling the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in 1862 reported a bill
abolishing slavery in all the Territories of the Union or in any any
that might be acquired. His connection with the impeachment of
President Johnson is well known, and his narrow escape
from becoming President familiar to all our readers.
When Mr. Wade entered the senate he was unknown
to nearly all its members. Plain in person and speech, with
homespun manners and provincial dress, holding principles abhorrent
to nearly all his colleagues, he met with a cold reception, and for
a time was almost personally ignored. He was placed on no
committee, and the majority of the senate took small pains to L__gu__
how little sympathy they felt for him or his principles. But
Mr. Wade was naturally a bold, fearless, courageous man, and
the efforts to silence his voice and discourage his speech were
early met by him with open defiance, and senators soon found he not
only was determined to be heard, but had the will and the pluck to
assert his rights fearlessly and with manly vigor. He sought
no personal quarrel, nor avoided one by any sacrifice of principle.
It was soon discovered that the plain, unassuming man form Ohio was
equal to any emergency, and would prove an ugly customer if forced
into a merely personal conflict. Hence he gained the genuine
respect of his opponents, and finally their warm friendship and
regard.
Mr. Wade during the years of his public life,
was eminently trusted and beloved by the people. They liked
his rugged manner, plain, straightforward, homely speech. They
knew he was earnest, honest, sincere. His fearless utterances
upon the question of human liberty found a ready response in their
hearts, and his stirring eloquence upon the stump aroused their
enthusiasm and stimulated their real. Few men could portray
the evils of slavery with more effective skill, and his denunciation
of the "hellish traffic" in human beings found ready response in the
heart of his bearers.
The life of Mr. Wade had been one eminently
useful to his country. From the humblest position, with scanty
education, and from the home of poverty, relying upon his own common
sense, shrewdness, and practical nature, he rose steadily in the
affection and confidence of the people until he became the acting
vice-president of the United States. Mr. Wade was the
most earnest and sincere of men in his convictions, and even under
the influence of strong emotion had full command of suitable and
expressive words, and the power to move his bearers in strains of
true and genuine eloquence. His manners were open and frank,
his speech at all times free and unreserved, and the absolute
sincerity of the man was stamped in every line of his countenance.
---------------
* By C. S. Simonds.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 17 |
Edward Wade |
EDWARD WADE.*
The Wades were a tough, hardy, brave, intellectual,
strong-fibred folk. One would like to know something of the genesis
of the family and the course of their history. A family of
nine by the same parents, of which “Frank” (B. F.) and
“Ned” were the youngest, must have been remarkable. The
four elder died between ages of seventy-eight and eighty. The
two survivors are eighty and seventy-eight. Of the others, one
died at fifty-three, one at sixty-three, and one at sixty-nine.*
Thoroughly English in breed, of the average rank, impregnate with
the honesty, wholesome virtues, wisdoms, and experiences of the
common toiling life, full of vigor and vitality, with a sense of the
ludicrous, a germ of grim humor, and a touch of the heroic,
combative and tender. The father, James, was some time
a shoemaker, a stout soldier, a daring privateer, and fought as
often and as bravely as the eight years War of the Revolution
permitted. The mother, Mary Upham, was the
daughter of a Baptist clergyman, Edward Upham, inbred with
the religious elements of the denomination, intensified by its
persecutions in Massachusetts in colonial times. Edward,
the youngest, was born at Feeding Hills, West Springfield,
Massachusetts, Nov. 22, 1802. He received his grandfather’s
name and religious nature. The family removed to Andover,
Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1821. He early manifested an
ingenious mind, with a tendency for mathematics; and when about
twenty-one composed and wrote a new arithmetic, which was burned
with a brother-in-law’s house, where it was deposited. He
studied law with Elisha Whittlesey, and after a three
years’ thorough course was admitted at Jefferson in 1827; was
elected justice of the peace in 1831; married the first time in
1832; elected prosecuting attorney in 1833. He resided a few
years at Unionville; removed to Toledo engaged in speculation; went
up in the explosion of 1837, though he afterwards paid every dollar.
After the failure he removed to Cleveland, formed a partnership with
Woolsey Wells, and later with H. A. Hurlbut.
Subsequently he was a member of the firms of Payne, Wilson
& Wade, Hitchcock, Wilson & Wade, and
Wilson & Wade. He was four times elected to
congress from the Cleveland district, serving from 1853 to 1861.
He died at East Cleveland, Ohio, 1866. Edward Wade
had but the scanty opportunity for education found by a boy of the
people of his time. An eager thirst for knowledge, indomitable
pluck, a strong, quick intellect, and hopeful spirit enabled him to
outstrip the average boys of his neighborhood. More sanguine
than his brother Frank, he induced him to enter upon the law.
Few men ever more thoroughly mastered the common law. He was
the best special pleader of his day. His success was
slow,—might have discouraged a less determined spirit. His
ventures in speculation were a grave hindrance. Dark and
saturnine of face, which to strangers was a little forbidding, to
which was added the austerities of religion, and the odium that
attached to the name of Abolitionist, which he early acquired, an
early lack of fluency, with his often change of residence, conspired
to keep him for many years in the background. Nor was he
fortunate in the associates of the two first firms of which he was a
member. Persistent, indomitable, aspiring,—such a man cannot
always be repressed. He laid his foundation deep in thorough
learning, and his time came. He overcame the counties around
Cleveland first. Lawyers who knew him had him employed in
difficult cases, and the other side sometimes found themselves
beaten by his better law, and they could hardly tell why. And
the shrewd, hard-headed New Englanders came to know that behind the
repulsive, cast-iron mask of a face there lay a charm which they saw
was potent. He became a leader in Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and visited
other counties on important retainers, yet he had no place at the
Cleveland bar, where he lived. Finally, Henry B. Payne,
one of the ablest lawyers of the State, overworked and in failing
health, wanted relief, and Payne & Wilson were
supplemented with Wade, and the city was astonished by the
revelation which the firm made of him. With the failing health
and gradual diminution of the head, the firm became a legal
kangaroo. Upon the retirement of Mr. Payne, Reuben
Hitchcock took his place, Mr. Wade content to
stand nominally third. No man perhaps ever cared less where
his name stood. Mr. Hitchcock was then at his
best, and second to none as an able and laborious lawyer.
Mr. Wilson did the dignity, suavity, and deportment of
the firm. For several years the house ranked with any in the
State. I have stated the thoroughness of Mr. Wade’s
legal training. On his early foundation he carefully built the
ever-growing, ever widening and rising structure, a profound and
accomplished lawyer. Master of the common law, thoroughly
versed in chancery, and at home in the narrow range of the laws of
crimes, there was not at the bar a more versatile man. He was
also widely read in history, biography, and politics; kept up with
the progress of the natural sciences. He excelled as
nisi
prius lawyer in the management and trial of cases before a
jury. A master of pleading, with the rules of evidence at his
command, knowing and sympathizing with the average mind, the habits
of life, and mode of thought of the people of whom he came, he
became one of the most formidable opponents to be met with in
northern Ohio, whose bar was in no way behind that of any section of
the State. With practice and perseverance he became one of the
best and most successful advocates of his region. The defects
and hesitancies that marred his utterance disappeared forever.
He had a copious command of language, a flowing delivery, free, bold
action, warmed readily, was intensely earnest, ingenious, and
logical. Nature had given him a fine, strong voice of great
power, with the tone of a trumpet in its higher notes. He was
not without fancy, and an abundant, homely humor. He never
overshot the jury. His illustrations were all drawn from
common things,—the kitchen door-yard and barn-yard,—were always apt,
often irresistible. He said a good many things which were
repeated. With his strong, deep, intense nature, kindled to a
height which he often attained, his declamation was most impressive,
sometimes splendid, and justly called eloquent. He had much of
that magnetic power which seizes the blood and sympathy of an
audience, adding effectiveness to an assault which shatters a
position found proof against logic and argument. Combative was
he, as lawyers must be, and a masterpiece of will, which is a great
force. Men often carry cases because they will. Though a
man of the quickest and tenderest feelings, he had no pathos and
little imagination. A most unambitious speaker, he never
labored for fine effects. The good things were struck out by
the collision of thought, his fire a natural product, and his humor
unstudied.
Edward Wade was originally a Whig,—made
the canvass of 1840 for Harrison. The anti-slavery seed
had quick, vigorous, and hardy growth in his deep, rich nature.
He became, soon after the canvass, an avowed, unwavering political
Abolitionist. Thought with him became immediate action.
He was at once the leader and the spokesman of the few despised and
persecuted who had the conviction and courage to organize in
political opposition to slavery. At the county-seats where he
attended court, at secluded school-houses, whether the audience was
few or many, a master of the subject, with labored earnestness he
planted with unstinting hand the seed that was so soon to spring up
and ripen. He was the Liberty party candidate for congress,
against Mr. Giddings, as long as Cleveland was in the
same district. He canvassed with more labor and care than
after the multitude came to act with him. In 1849, in the
triangular contest between the Whigs, Free-Soilers, and Democrats,
he was a candidate for the Ohio senate, and defeated by a small
plurality. In 1853, in a similar contest, he was elected to
congress against Judge Wilson, his former partner, and
William Case. His more famous brother had been four
years in the senate when he took his seat in the house.
Though the odium which attended the name “Abolitionist”
had in a way died out in Mr. Wade’s district, it had
not in Washington, and was remembered against him. The time
was past for partisan warfare. He was one of many, all able
and all older men in the house. He was not favored with any
conspicuous place on any important committees, although he served
with great credit for four congresses, and retained the undiminished
love and confidence of his people to the last. His early
unselfish devotion to truth bore him this endearing fruit. He made
several able and telling speeches, but can hardly be said to have
gained the ear of the house. On the committee of commerce he
made a masterly and exhaustive report on the commerce of the
lakes,—the first upon that subject. The results which it
exhibited were a revelation even to men whose lives, labors, and
capital were embarked in it, and gave the author a reputation
through the country which should have secured him a better
recognition in the house. Those were the evil days, the
breaking up of old political organization, and of the government as
well. Another, and personally to Mr. Wade and
his friends a most melancholy factor, is to be taken into the
account in estimating the reason why he never reached the position
in the house which those who knew him best expected. He certainly
did not fall below his brother in ability. He had a wider
reading at that time of their lives, and much more general culture;
in manner and address more polished. He died of a softening of
the brain. How early the shadow of the awfulest of fates,
heralding its oncoming, had darkened the high, pure soul, and
weakened the faculties of his strong, clear, practical, fervid
intellect, no mortal knows. From things learned at the
capital, it must have been some years before his retirement from the
house. His career there, compared with the average, was not only
most useful but highly honorable. It saddens me to remember
that it fell short of the promise of his powers and abilities as
exhibited at the bar and as a political speaker. Mr.
Wade’s first wife was Sarah Louise Atkins,
one of the several daughters of Judge Q. F. Atkins, of whom
it was said that his face, if
set on Mason and Dixon’s line, turned to the south, would of itself
abolish slavery. The daughters were all superior women, and it
was understood that it was the earnest, personal solicitation of the
young lady, preceding marriage, that first effectively called the
attention of her lover to the subject of religion. Mrs.
Wade was quite the equal of any of her sisters, and save that
the marriage was unblessed with offspring, it was one of rare
felicity. Gifted and cultivated, of rich and varied charities,
harmonious in life, united in effort for the various causes of human
advancement, especially of the slave and temperance, their house
became the asylum of the flying fugitive, as their hands were eager
to relieve suffering in all forms. The cause they knew not
they searched out. They adopted two children, offsprings of
different parents, a son and daughter, whom they reared with the
utmost care. The son was an early victim of the late war.
The daughter is the accomplished wife of Henry P. Wade,
son of B. F. Wade, a gallant young officer late of the
regular army. The first Mrs. Wade died in 1852.
During the early years of Mr. Wade’s congressional
services he contracted a second marriage with Miss Mary P. Hall,
the accomplished niece of the late Dr. J. P. Kirtland, who
survives him. This marriage was also childless. The
religious element in the nature of this well-endowed man was large
and constantly active. The tone of his mind, although he wrote
an arithmetic in youth, had a tendency to the visionary, and for a
time he was a believer in the Second Advent. It was remarked
by his opponents, however, that during this period his cases were
prepared with the same care and tried with the same consummate skill
that marked his entire career at the bar. In person he was
compact, well-made, with an erect carriage, and the same manly and
lofty pose of head that characterized his brother Frank.
These men, though the least conscious of mortals, could not help
carrying themselves as full men. In repose Edward was
grave and thoughtful, with an earnest, almost sad outlook from black
eyes, the rather austere, dark face, framed in night-black curly
hair, of silky gloss and fineness, and late in life adorned with a
full whisker, was ever ready to break into smiles, which lit it up
with great winningness. Of frank and pleasing manner, modest
and retiring
deportment, no man could be more genial and cordial, no man was ever
better loved by those who came to know him,—a not difficult
acquisition,—and no man had a wider and stronger hold on the popular
heart than he finally won. A more open spirit, a tenderer,
braver, purer soul, never found lodging in the frame of man. A
more unselfish, devoted heart never sent warmth through the human
form. A man was he in every fibre of his person, every
instinct of his nature, every impulse of his heart. Brave and
blameless, trusted, loved, deplored, compelled to linger above the
horizon after his night had set in, the mere body breathing and
feeding when the masterful spirit had departed. The sadness of
this fate throws its shadow back over his life, and invests his
memory with a regretful
tenderness.
---------------
*Hon. A. G. Riddle.
Written before the death of B. F.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations
and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by
Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 84 |
| |
HON. JONATHAN WARNER, was born
at Chester Parish, in old Saybrook, Connecticut, Dec. 11, 1782.
His father, Jonathan, was a farmer, and also owned some
interest in vessels engaged at that time in the coasting trade.
The young man was bred principally upon the farm, but had acquired
some experience as a sailor upon his father’s vessels, and had at
one time made a cruise to the West Indies. In the fall of
1804, in company with a man named Olmsted, he ventured on an
exploring expedition to the western country. He was provided
with a letter of credit, which spoke of him in high terms of praise.
At Buffalo they procured a boat, and started upon the
lake for New Connecticut, and his nautical experience was of value
during a violent storm, which compelled them to run their boat
ashore, where they spent a night under its shelter. They
landed at the mouth of Ashtabula creek, and made their way to the
interior as far as the present village of Jefferson. Here
Mr. Warner selected lands embracing a part of the present
village, while his companion made his settlement in what is now
known as the township of Kingsville. At that time there was
but
one resident of the township of Jefferson, a man by the name of
Mapes, who had previously settled upon a part of the same land, and
had built a log house and cleared a few acres. Mr.
Warner purchased his improvements and made provision for a
future home, although before locating permanently he went back to
Connecticut. In the spring of 1805 he returned, and fixed his
permanent residence in Jefferson.
In 1806 other settlers came into the township.
Among them came Edward Frethy, with his family, from
Washington city. He was the first postmaster, the first
justice of the peace, and the first merchant in Jefferson.
Mr. Warner was pleased with the
wilderness in which he had located, and which he was making every
effort to destroy. As a matter of choice he had settled in a
hermitage far from human habitations, and yet he found it not good
to be alone, and on the 4th day of May, 1807, he was married to
Nancy, a daughter of Edward Frethy. His
residence was three-fourths of a mile distant, and he went for his
bride on horseback. After the ceremony was performed he took
her upon the crupper and carried her to his cabin, near the same
spot where she now resides, at the advanced age of eighty-nine
years, and where she continued the partner of his joys and of his
sorrows through his life.
The first selection of land made by Mr.
Warner embraced the land upon which the court-house was
afterwards located; but to accommodate the new village and to secure
the county-seat he was induced to exchange a portion of his
selection for lands lying farther west and adjoining the proposed
town.
In the year 1815 he was appointed recorder of deeds for
the county, for the term of seven years. In the year 1825 he was
appointed treasurer of the county. Soon after this time the
anti- asonic excitement prevailed in politics, and Mr.
Warner was an active leader in the anti-Masonic party. In
the fall of 1831 he was elected a representative to the State
legislature, and in the spring of 1839 he was elected by the
legislature of the State an associate judge of the court of common
pleas, for the term of seven years, his term expiring on Apr. 1,
1846. He was always an active partisan in politics, and always
in sympathy with the Democratic party, except during the few years
that the anti-Masonic party had a political existence. He had
eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the ten who
reached maturity,—four sons and six daughters,—all but one are now
living, and all have families of their own, who now hold respectable
positions in society. George, his second son, was
killed by accident, Mar. 25, 1877, in Washington Territory, where he
left a wife and two children. Judge Warner died
at his old residence in Jefferson on the 12th day of April, 1862, in
his eightieth year, respected and honored by all.
He was a vigorous man, possessed of a strong will, a
kind heart, and affectionate disposition. He was a valuable
citizen, exact and trustworthy in all his dealings, as well in
public as in private life. And as one of the pioneers of the county,
who has helped to found and build up its institutions, his life and
character are worthy of commemoration by the present as well as by
the future generations of this county who may follow after him.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 115 |
| |
CAPTAIN
JOHN B. WATROUS, second son of John and Roxanna Watrous,
was born at Saybrook, Connecticut, Jan. 15, 1790. When
seventeen years of age, he made the journey to Ashtabula, Ohio, on
horseback, and bought the farm on which he afterwards resided, now
known as “ Maple Grove.” He returned to Connecticut, and
remained there until 1810, when, with his parents and family, he
removed permanently to his wilderness home. The journey was
performed by means of ox-teams, —two yoke of oxen to each wagon.
A log dwelling was soon erected, which quickly became a centre of
graceful hospitalities to a large circle of genial friends.
John B. was a soldier in the War of 1812, as were also two of
his brothers. He was a prominent member of the Masonic
fraternity, one of the first workers for the establishment of an
Episcopal church in Ashtabula, and a director in the “Warren and
Ashtabula Turnpike Company,” then considered a road of great
importance to the country. His tastes were literary, and to a
polished exterior he added the graces of a Christian character.
His was a nature dispensing sunshine wherever he moved.
Married at thirty-three years of age to a beautiful woman much his
junior, he was a tender husband and judicious parent. He died
in ripe old age, Feb. 24, 1869. His wife, Julia
Montgomery, was born in Conneaut, Dec. 14, 1806. She was
the youngest daughter of James Montgomery (who was the son of
Robert Montgomery), and was born in Schoharie, New York.
Robert Montgomery had emigrated from the north of Ireland, had been
a soldier of the Revolution, and was a cousin-german of the
Robert Montgomery who fell at Quebec.
James Montgomery had married Mary
Baldwin, of Catskill, New York. The pair became
pioneers of Conneaut, Ashtabula County, having removed there three
years after the first settlement of Harpersfield. The journey
from Buffalo was made in open boats, the intervening country being
but a trackless forest. The parents and their four children
disembarked at night, sleeping on the beach beneath their sheltering
boats. Arrived at Conneaut, a dwelling was hastily constructed
from the barks of trees, until a more substantial one of logs could
be made; and this speedily became “a tavern,” for the accommodation
of people emigrating still farther towards the setting sun.
The husband followed the business of boating between
Conneaut and Erie, thus supplying the infant colony with provisions
and other necessaries of life. He served for a time in the War
of 1812, and later served for two successive terms in the
legislature at Chillicothe, then the seat of government for the
State.
Four more children were born to them in Conneaut, and
when Julia was four years of age the Watrous family,
then on their way to Ashtabula, stayed overnight at this inn, and
then and there began the acquaintance which culminated in the
marriage of John B. Watrous and Julia Montgomery on
the 23d of June, 1823.
James Montgomery removed to Austinburg in 1813,
and here soon after was born his son, Colonel James Montgomery,
of Kansas celebrity,—the famed “ guerrilla chieftain,” the “
fighting preacher.” Colonel Montgomery also
commanded the Union army in Florida during the “ late
unpleasantness.” He died at Mound City, Kansas, in 1872.
James Montgomery, Sr., died at Ashtabula in
1834, and Mrs. Julia Montgomery Watrous is now the
sole survivor of her father’s family.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations
and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by
Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 144 |
E. M. Webster |
E. M. WEBSTER, M. D.,
was born in the township where he now resides, on the 21st day of
May, 1827. His parents were Hiram Hall and Corinna L.
Webster. He received an academic education, and, on its
completion, read medicine with his father, and graduated at Hudson
medical college, Cleveland, Ohio, receiving his degree Feb. 22,
1854. Has practiced medicine with eminent success until this
time, except a brief period passed at Philadelphia, as follows: in
1862 he was mustered into the United States army as an
assistant-surgeon, and assigned to duty as post-surgeon at that
point. His brother, who was with the army, died soon after,
when the doctor resigned his commission and came home. He has
been physician for the county infirmary for the past fifteen years.
Dr. Webster was married to Miss Emily A. Beckwith,
June 4, 1851. Have had two children. Darwin P. was born
June 28, 1852; died in infancy. George E. was born July
25, 1858. The doctor is thoroughly Republican in politics; is
a member of the Presbyterian church; is a Knight Templar, and
affiliates with Cache commandery, No. 27, at Conneaut.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page127 |
H. H. Webster |
DR. HIRAM WEBSTER
was born in Lanesborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on May
17, 1800. He is the second child of Clark and Naamah Hall
Webster. When he was five year of age his parents removed
to Franklin, Delaware county, New York. After two years passed
at this point his father made a trip to "New Connecticut," as the
Western Reserve was then called, and without making a purchase of
land put in a piece of wheat on the Ashtabula flats. This land
was owned by Matthew Hubbard. Returning to
Franklin for his family, he soon started for Ohio, calculating to
reach Buffalo on runners. At Skaneateles he found two families
named Pratt and Bartlett also en-route for the
"promised land," and in company with them proceeded onward and in
due time arrived at Black Rock, where they found a large open boat,
which was offered them at a low price, as it had become unseaworthy,—indeed
was almost a wreck. However, an arrangement was effected
whereby Mr. Webster repaired the boat, and in return
was given a passage for his family and goods to Ashtabula Landing.
It was not altogether a safe voyage, as not one of the company was
acquainted with handling a boat except Mr. Webster.
The motive power was oars and setting-poles, aided by extemporized
sails of bed blankets and sheets. There were twenty-one on
board at night the boat was beached and made fast, the greater
portion of the passengers going ashore to sleep. An incident
is related in which the subject of this sketch was an active
participant. He and a younger brother were sleeping on the
boat in company with several other persons; about midnight he was
shaken quite roughly by an old lady of the party, and ordered to get
off the boat quickly, as it was sinking. In the dense darkness
he was unable to find his brother, and while groping about in search
of him doubtless got in the way of the said female; be that as it
may, the result was a sudden push and an equally sudden plunge into
the lake being near the bow, however, the water was not deep, yet
before getting out his feet and his head became submerged, and he
“shipped” considerable water. Reaching Ashtabula, tarried
there until June, 1809, when the family removed to Kingsville and
made a permanent settlement. In the twenty-first year of his
age, Hiram Hall Webster commenced the study of
medicine, and in 1825 entered upon the practice of his profession,
and diligently pursued it until his son, Dr. E. M., was
qualified to take the labors upon himself, when the doctor left the
field. Those years of pioneer practice were fraught with
hardship and often danger.
Dr. Webster was united in marriage, in
April, 1824, to Corinna Lucinda, daughter of Russel
and Corinna Loomis, of Windsor township, this county. The
fruits of this union are Corinna Naamah, born Mar. 10, 1825,
married Rev. E. C. Williams (deceased); Eleazur Michael,
born May 21, 1827; Laura Ann, born July 8, 1829, died in
infancy; Ann Eliza, born Dec. 14, 1830, married
Darwin P. Venen, and is deceased; Clarinda L., born Aug.
19, 1833, married D. P. Venen; Charles Hiram,
born July 21, 1836; and Henry Clark, the youngest, who
was born Feb. 11, 1842, was a soldier of the Union army, and died at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 8, 1862. The wife of Dr.
Webster is likewise deceased, since which time he has resided
with his son, Dr. E. M. Dr. Webster,
senior, is a worthy member of the fraternity of Free and Accepted
Masons, and a Republican in politics.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 127 |
Hon. Horace Wilder |
HON.
HORACE WILDER, one of several sons of a farmer of limited
means, was born upon a spur of the "Berkshire hills" in West
Hartland, Connecticut, Aug. 20, A. D. 1802. In 1819 he
entered, and in the class of 1823 graduated, at Yale college with
honor. He almost immediately entered as a law-student the
office of the Hon. Elisha Phelps, of Simsbury,
Connecticut, where he pursued the study of his profession until the
spring of 1824, when he went to Virginia, and for about two and a
half years was there employed in teaching a “family” school in the
family and upon the plantation of Mrs. Morton, of
Stafford county. It is believed that the Hon. James A.
Seddon, secretary of war of the Confederate States, was one of
his pupils. During this period he devoted his leisure hours to
the study of the aw, books being procured for him at an office in
Fredericksburg. In January, 1826 he was “ licensed” to
practice in the courts of Virginia, but in the fall of that year he
returned to Hartland, where he remained during the winter, and in
the spring of 1827 left for Ohio, where he had determined to make
his future home. His first point was Claridon, Geauga county,
at which place he had a sister (Mrs. Judge Taylor) residing.
Shortly before this, Edson Wheeler, Esq., of
East Ashtabula, Ashtabula County, a lawyer of character and
influence, had deceased; and, after inquiry and consultation with
members of the bar in the vicinity, Mr. Wilder located
at that place. Never having “practiced,” by the law of the
State he was compelled to wait a year before admission.
At the August (1828) term of the superior court in
Geauga county he was duly admitted to the bar, in the mean time
doing his professional business in the name of a friend. In
October, 1833, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula
County, and in the fall of 1834 was elected representative to the
State legislature,—the only office of a political character ever
held by him. In 1837 he removed to Conneaut. In 1833 he
married Phebe J. Coleman, the eldest daughter of the late
Elijah Coleman, M.D., well known to all the residents of the
county of the past generation. Mrs. Wilder died
in 1847. He never re-married. Mr. Wilder, during the
entire period of his active life, devoted himself exclusively to his
books and professional duties, turning neither to the right hand nor
to the left, and at a comparatively early day earned for himself an
enviable reputation as a sound and skillful lawyer, a safe and
prudent counselor, and an honest and honorable man. In 1855 he
was elected judge of the court of common pleas for the third
subdivision of the ninth judicial district (composed of the counties
of Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga), to fill the vacancy occasioned by
the resignation of Judge R. Hitchcock, and in 1856 was again
elected to the same position for the full term of five years.
In 1862, soon after his term expired, Judge
Wilder was appointed by the late Governor Tod
draft commissioner for the county of Ashtabula, and as such
superintended and conducted the first draft of troops made in the
county.
In the spring of 1S63 he removed to Ashtabula and
formed a copartnership, in the practice of the law. with E. H.
Fitch, Esq., under the name of Wilder & Fitch.
This business arrangement was of but brief duration, for, in
December, 1863, Judge Wilder was appointed by
Governor Tod a judge of the supreme court, to fill the
vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Gholson,
and in the fall of 1864 was elected to the same position for the
balance of Judge Gholson’s term.
In 1865, Judge Wilder resumed practice at
Ashtabula. In May, 1867, he retired from active business and removed
to Red Wing, Minnesota, where he has since resided with and as part
of the family of his younger brother, E. T. Wilder, between
whom, even for brothers, very intimate relations have always
existed.
In politics, Judge Wilder was a Whig so
long as the Whig party existed. After it disappeared he
affiliated with the Republican party until some years subsequent to
the close of the war, when, dissatisfied with the policy of that
party towards the south, he has since been more nearly in harmony
with the Democratic party, though not fully identified with it.
In early life Judge Wilder was. in
religious matters, inclined to adopt views not in all respects
deemed orthodox, but in later years these opinions have been
entirely changed, and he now is and for some years has been a
communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church.
His decisions from the bench are enduring testimonials
to his familiarity with the law and to the accuracy of his legal
acquirements. Both his natural and acquired ability peculiarly
fitted him for the duties of a judge. In scholarship thorough,
in judgment sound, his knowledge of the law extensive, and its
exactness unquestioned, in character irreproachable, and to business
scrupulously attentive, he was a jurist who honored the position he
filled.
During his long residence in Ashtabula County he gained
the warm friendship of a large circle of acquaintances, by whom he
is still remembered with strong affection.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 89 |
Res. of
Geo. Willard,
Ashtabula,
Ashtabula Co., O
George Willard
Mrs. George Willard
--
Interior View of
George Willard's
Drug Store
--
Willard Block
George Willard,
Proprietor
Ashtabula, OH
Willard Block
as of the year 2020 |
Ashtabula -
GEORGE WILLARD was born in Holland patent, New
York, on the 12th day of August, 1812, and is the fifth of a family
of twelve children born to Simon and Rhoda Wills Willard,
originally of Weathersfield, Connecticut, but who removed in 1804 to
Holland patent, where they remained until 1834, at which date they
came to Ashtabula township. There the parents died,—the
mother January 21, 1842, and the lather November 18, 1850. Of
the brothers and sisters of George Willard, all are dead
except one, the oldest brother, William, who is still a
resident of Ashtabula. The education of Mr. Willard
was acquired through the medium of our American system of common
schools, after the completion of which he began what has proved to
be the occupation of his life, that of merchandising, making his
debut, in 1828, as clerk in a general store and forwarding and
commission house, at Whitestown, Oneida county, New York. The
Erie canal was then in its palmiest days. Remained here,
engaged in this avocation, until 1831, when he came to Ashtabula,
Ohio, and for the succeeding five years was clerk in the post-office
and store of A. C. Hubbard. In April, 1836, Mr.
Willard associated himself with Richard Roberts,
and, under the firm-name of Roberts & Willard, opened, in the
north half of the double two-story brick block built by H. J.
Rees, a stock of goods, consisting of drugs, medicines,
groceries, hardware, nails, and iron. This firm continued in
business only about six months, when the death of Mr.
Roberts occurred. From this time until 1844, Mr.
Willard conducted the business in his own name. He,
however, rented the south half of the building, and put in a dry
goods stock. In 1844 the firm was changed to that of George
Willard & Co., by the admission of S. B. Wells, Esq.,
a former clerk, as a partner. General produce became a feature
of the business at this time. In the year 1850 the firm was
again changed, by the admission of another clerk (Henry
Griswold), to Willard, Wells & Co. In 1855,
Messrs. Wells and Griswold withdrew.
Since this time Mr. Willard has been the sole
proprietor. The fine three-story brick block which he now
occupies was erected in 1874. The first real estate purchased
by Mr. Willard in this township was the lot upon which
stands his present business block. This was in the year 1838,
and the subsequent year he purchased the property now occupied by
William Willard. Mr. George
Willard has been engaged in the mercantile business in this city
for forty-two years, in addition to five years’ service in the same
occupation as clerk. During this time has been quite largely
engaged in lake commerce. Had a controlling interest, in whole
or in part, in the following vessels, viz., schooners “ B. F. Wade,”
“Boston,” “ Julia Willard,” “ York State,” and the bark “
Naomi.” Has served as mayor one term, and member of the common
council of the “ incorporated village of Ashtabula” for several
terms. Has also been township trustee. Has been one of
the directors of the Farmers’ National bank from its organization.
Was director and president of the Ashtabula County Central
plank-road company for a number of years. This road was
constructed some time prior to the opening of the Franklin division
of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad, and extended from
Ashtabula Harbor to the village of Jefferson, and thence on to the
lumber region in Richmond township. This road was for its time
a great convenience. Politically, Mr. Willard is
ardently Republican.
On the 15th day of September, 1833, he was united in
marriage to Julia Francis, daughter of Err W. and
Sarah Slawson Mead, who were living at the time in Ashtabula.
No children have blest this union. He is a member of the
Episcopal church. Mr. Willard served as a member
of the vestry and treasurer several years, and as senior warden some
twenty years. Thus have we briefly sketched the life of one of
Ashtabula’s representative business men. The pioneer in trade,
he has grown gray in its prosecution. As a business man, he
has been longer in service than any other citizen of Ashtabula.
He has ever proven himself a useful and public-spirited citizen.
The best interests of his village and of his county and of his
church he has always zealously striven to promote. Quiet and
unassuming, he is nevertheless an influential citizen, and
universally esteemed for his many sterling qualities. The name
of George Willard will not be forgotten when in coming
years other generations shall be the denizens of this beautiful
village.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 144 |
H. B. Woodbury |
HON. HAMILTON BLOSS WOODBURY
is the eldest of a family of six children. His parents were
Ebenezer B. Woodbury, who was born in New Hampshire, and removed
to Ohio in 1811, and Sylva Woodbury, born in Cazenovia,
Madison county, New York, and came to Ohio in 1816. They were
living in Kelloggsville, this county, when the subject of this
sketch was born Nov. 27, 1831. They, however, removed to
Jefferson after a term of years, and the mother is yet a resident of
that village, the father having died Aug. 14, 1870. Judge
Woodbury was educated in the common and select schools of
Ashtabula County. When seventeen years of age he entered the
law office of his father at Kelloggsville, and began the study of
the profession in which to-day he occupies a high position. In
the year 1852, at the September term of the district court of
Ashtabula county, he was admitted to practice. Some twelve
years since, he was admitted to practice in the United States
courts. In 1854 he was elected a justice of the peace for the
township of Monroe, this county, and re-elected in 1857. In
October of that year he removed to Jefferson, where he still
resides. Has held numerous offices; among these we may mention
trustee of the township and mayor of the village. In April,
1873, he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention of
Ohio. He now occupies the position of common pleas judge of
the third subdivision of the ninth judicial district of Ohio, having
been elected in January, 1875, and again re-elected in October of
the same year. On the 5th of September, 1863, he was by his
excellency Governor David Tod commissioned as
lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment Ohio Volunteer Militia,
which position he held until the disbanding of the organization.
The wife of Judge Woodbury was Mary E.,
daughter of Peter and Sarah W. Hervey, to whom he was united
in marriage at Jefferson, Ohio, on the 12th day of October, 1854.
Four children have blessed this union. They are
Frederick H., born Oct. 24, 1855; M. Jennie, born
Sept. 10, 1857; Hamilton B., born Dec. 17, 1867; and
Walter W., whose birth occurred June 19, 1871. Politically
Judge Woodbury is a Republican. As a jurist it is
perhaps correct to say that no sounder one is known to the courts of
northern Ohio. Conversant with the law, his decisions are
rarely called in question, and he presides over the tribunals of
justice with dignity and firmness.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations
and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by
Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 91 |
Ephm T. Woodruff |
Wayne Twp. -
REV. EPHRAIM TREADWELL WOODRUFF was born at Farmington,
Connecticut, Oct. 17, 1777, and was the youngest son of Timothy
Woodruff, by his first wife, Lucy Treadwell,
sister of John Treadwell, one of the governors of
Connecticut. He graduated at Yale college in 1797.
Rev. James Murdock, who, in 1848, wrote a work
entitled “Brief Memoirs of the Class of 1797,” says in his preface
to that work: “The Class of 1797 is distinguished for the
longevity of its members, twenty-four out of thirty-seven, or about
two-thirds of all that graduated, being alive after a separation of
half a century.” He also says: “It was distinguished for the
uniform good scholarship of its members.” Among its graduates
are such well-known names as Henry Baldwin, judge of
the United States supreme court; Lyman Beecher, D.D.;
Judge Thomas Day, official reporter of the
supreme court of Connecticut; and Horatio Seymour,
Sr. Mr. Woodruff, after finishing his
theological course as the pupil of Rev. Charles
Backus, D.D., of Somers, Connecticut, and teaching the academy
at Stonington one year, was ordained pastor of the church in North
Coventry, Tolland county, Connecticut. His health failed him
in 1817 so much that he resigned his pastoral charge, and he took a
commission from the Missionary society of Connecticut to labor on
the “Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio.” He, however,
stopped for one year at Little Falls, Herkimer county, New York, and
taught an academy. He arrived in Wayne, Ashtabula County, in
April, 1819, and became the first pastor of the church, settling
upon a tract of land which he purchased from Issacher
Jones, of Connecticut, all heavily timbered, and upon which the
sound of the woodman’s axe had not been heard; but with the generous
aid of such stout hands and hearts as were possessed by Nathaniel
Coleman, Samnel Tuttle, Jonathan Tuttle,
Norman Wilcox, Joseph Ford, Deacon
Ezra Leonard, Samuel Jones, Deacon
Calvin Andrews, Simon Fobes, Titus
Hayes, Elisha Giddings, and Joshua
Giddings, he soon erected a log house, in which his family,
consisting of his wife and sister and six children, were made as
comfortable as any of his congregation. He preached one-half
of his time in Wayne, while the remainder was spent in missionary
work and in the distribution of Bibles all through the wilderness
for more than fifty miles in every direction from his home. On
that same spot he died, on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1859,
at the age of eighty-two years. On his death-bed, being in
great pain, he said to his youngest son: “This is a rough road to
travel, but its roughness has elevated spots, from which I see ‘the
city' beyond.”
Mr. Woodruff was married Oct. 7, 1801, to
Sally Alden, orphan daughter of Jonathan
Alden, a lineal descendant of John Alden, the
pilgrim of Plymouth Rock of that name. She died in 1829.
In 1832 he married Susan Porter. He had no
children by his second wife. His oldest daughter, born in
1804, was the wife of Hon. Seth Hayes, of Hartford, Trumbull
county. She died in 1850. Phoebe married Dr.
T. J. Kellogg, of Girard, Erie county, Pennsylvania. Jonathan
Alden, a graduate of Hamilton college, and Presbyterian
minister, died Sept. 12, 1876, at Imlay City, Michigan. Harriet
died in 1828, at the age of eighteen years. Charlotte Maria,
who married J. B. Clark, of Kelloggsville, Ashtabula County,
removed to Michigan, and died in 1871. Samuel
Ebenezer, born Mar. 31, 1817, is an attorney-at-law, and with
his son, Thomas S., constitutes the firm of S. E. & T. S.
Woodruff, attorneys-at-law, Erie, Pennsylvania, and in which
county the senior partner of the firm has practiced his profession
for thirty-four years.
The first meeting house in Wayne was erected in 1816.
A grave-yard was opened upon the tract of land purchased, as before
mentioned, by Mr. Woodruff. The meeting-house was in
dimensions twenty-eight by thirty-six feet, built of legs hewn only
on the inside. A heard pulpit, ascended by five steps, stood
at the north end; a singers’ gallery, six steps high, of the same
material, extended across the south end, with wings about ten feet
along the east and west sides. A hearth of rough
cobble-stones, about six feet square, in the centre of the building,
without either chimney or stove-pipe, was the only fire-place
previous to 1825. At first most of the seats were slabs
without backs; but they were crowded with true, faithful worshipers
every Sabbath-day. They were not of the fair-weather kind.
At the right of the pulpit sat the elder Deacon Leonard.
He generally selected and read the hymns: he was a noble man, six
feet in height, with flowing white hair, knee- and shoe-buckles,
faultlessly clean, white bosom, rich, sonorous voice, and one of the
best of readers. In the west wing of the gallery Elisha
Giddings was the leading bass singer; in the centre,
Captain Levi Leonard led the tenor, assisted by
his nephew, Marvin Leonard, son of the deacon, and
who, some time after the death of his father, which occurred in
1829, became a deacon of the church. Linus H. Jones was
one of the prominent members of the choir, composed of about twenty
persons. The music was of a high order, on account of the
heart and soul it possessed. This meetinghouse stood on the
identical spot where the Rev. George Roberts, a subsequent
pastor, lived immediately before his death. It was burned down
about the year 1829. This church was highly prosperous, and its
membership was increased to more than two hundred.
The chief obstacle to Mr. Woodruff’s usefulness
as a pastor was the bronchial complaint that had compelled him to
leave Coventry. This affected his utterance so much as to make
it difficult at times to be heard by a large audience; yet, it is
doubtful if his efficiency and usefulness as a pastor were much
affected for many years; yet it detracted somewhat from his
popularity as an orator, though his success and reputation as such
fully sustained the character ascribed to him by an eastern
cotemporary, “He was an excellent pastor.” He continued in the
pastoral relation of the original church until about 1835, when the
infirmities of age, and the consequent failure of his vocal powers
and hearing, induced him to resign, and attend church as a listener,
often standing in a leaning position upon the front of the pulpit,
so that his dull ears might not fail to catch each word that fell
from the lips of the speaker. In a letter to his son Samuel,
dated Dec. 7, 1856, he says: “On the Lord's-day I get out with my
family, without fail, and attend to my Bible-class of aged members,
who gather together with great regularity, with the simplicity of
little children, to receive instruction. I wait upon them with
great delight.” In further addressing his son in regard to his
hope, confidence, and appreciation of the great refuge, as he was
nearing the end of his days upon earth, in closing, he says:
“If thou, my Jesus, still art nigh,
Cheerful I live, and cheerful die
When mortal comforts flee.
To find ten thousand worlds in Thee.
“Great King of Grace, my heart subdne
I would be led in triumph too,
A willing captive to my Lord,
And sing the triumphs of His word.” |
Among the former residents of the
township of Wayne no family is more kindly remembered
or associated with stronger ties of friendship and appreciation,
than that of Ephraim T. Woodruff.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page betw.
248-249 |
| |
Kingsville
Twp. -
MARSHALL WILLIAM WRIGHT, INFIRMARY DIRECTOR, a
fine portrait of whom appears in connection with the sketch of the
county infirmary, was born on the 27th day of August, 1818, and is a
child of Sherman and Fanny Howes Wright, originally of
Wilbraham, Hampden county, Massachusetts, but who removed to Ohio
and located in the township of Conneaut in the fall of 1811, where
they resided until their decease, which occurred—the father's on
Jan. 3, 1847, and the mother’s Jan. 15, 1872. The education of Mr.
Wright was received at a common district school, principally
at the school-house on the south ridge in Conneaut. His time
was divided between labor in his father’s tannery and shoe-shop, and
the tilling of the small farm owned by him, until his failure in
business in 184S, since which time he has served his township and
the county in the discharge of various public trusts. He was
first elected a justice of the peace in 1851, and since that date
has been an incumbent of that office some thirteen years, and still
administers justice to those who are unfortunately compelled to
resort to the law to settle their differences. In the year
1853 he was elected to the office of sheriff of Ashtabula County,
and served two terms, and in 1868 was elected county commissioner,
and continued in office one term of three years; was elected to his
present position as infirmary director in the fall of 1877. He
has also served as trustee of his township several terms, and for
the greater portion of the time since attaining his majority has
filled the office of school director.
On the 1st of August, 1862, he entered the volunteer
service of the United States in the capacity of quartermaster of the
One Hundred and Fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry; served until
April, 1864, at which time he was compelled by failing health to
resign. In reply to the question, “Were you wounded ?” he
answered, "Once only, when at home on leave of absence in 1863, by a
friend congratulating me on the position I held in the service,
which would give me an opportunity to make money"
On the 27th day of March, 1844, Esquire
Wright was united in marriage to Miss Sarah
Wayland, daughter of the Rev. Asa and
Sarah Saxton Jacobs, of Conneaut (this county).
The children of this marriage are Elizabeth, born Feb. 9,
1845; married Levi T. Scofield, and now resides in Cleveland,
Ohio. Lydia, born Mar. 20, 1847; married Conrad J.
Brown; residence, Erie, Pennsylvania. Altie, born
Apr. 23, 1850; married the Rev. Jeremiah Phillips, Jr., and
whose home is now in Kenosha county, Wisconsin. Sherman, the next
child, was born September 29, 1854; and Nellie, the last, whose
birth occurred on Jan. 8, 1859.
The ’squire was from the outset a Liberty-party man,
and is, as a matter of course, at this writing a Republican, and
believes that one hundred cents should make a dollar. He is a
member of Kingsville post, Grand Army of the Republic, and his
religious belief is in keeping with the tenets of the Free-Will
Baptist church, of which he is a member. We cannot perhaps
better close this sketch than by quoting from the notes of the
gentleman himself: "Have thus far lived on my own resources;
none of my family have as yet been charged with crime, have became a
public charge or a member of congress."
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 208 |
| |
Conneaut Twp.
-
REV. ORRIN T. WYMAN. This gentleman was
born at Millville, Orleans county, New York, Aug. 25, 1836.
His parents, who were natives of New England, were Oliver and
Emily Wyman. The mother is yet living; the father died in
1861. The education of the Rev. Mr. Wyman was
academic. In 1855, feeling the need of a better preparation
for the ministry, he, in September, entered “ Meadville Theological
School” for one year, then became a pupil of Antioch college (Yellow
Springs, Ohio). Sickness obliged him to leave this school
after two mouths. September, 1857, returned to Meadville,
Pennsylvania, completed a three-years’ course, and graduated June,
1859. About Oct. 1, 1854, he left home with an uncle—Rev. S. H.
Morse, evangelist—to assist in revival meetings in Chautauqua
county, New York. Preached his first sermon at Fluvanna, New
York, Jan. 14, 1855. After leaving school continued his
studies, and supplied churches at different points in Orleans and
Chautauqua counties. Was ordained at a special session of Erie
Christian conference, called for that purpose at De Wittville, New
York. June, 1862, and on the 15th of same month delivered his
first sermon in the Christian church at Conneaut, Ohio. The
membership, when he became pastor of this church, was not numerous,
but during the sixteen years he has been in charge, he has raised
its membership to two hundred and fifty, and has thoroughly repaired
the church edifice. His labors have certainly been crowned
with merited success. He is a strong advocate of temperance,
and a member of the Independent Order of Good Templars and Royal
Templars of Temperance. In politics, Republican. He is also
president of the Erie Christian conference, and a trustee of “
Christian Biblical Institute,” at Stanfordville, New York.
On the 7th of September, 1859, he was united in
marriage to Miss T. V., daughter of Newell and Lucy Putnam,
also natives of the New England States. This estimable lady
received an academic education, and was a teacher for several terms.
She is also a member of the Christian church.
But one child has blessed this union, Benson N., whose
birth occurred on June 17, 1863.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 169 |
NOTES:
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