HISTORY
Source: Historical Collections of Ohio
CARROLL COUNTY
was formed in the
session of 1832-33 from Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Harrison and
Jefferson. The population mainly originate from Pennsylvania,
Virginia and Maryland, with some Germans and Scotch-Irish. The
surface is somewhat hilly. Its area is 346 square miles.
In 1885 the acres cultivated were 68121; in pasture, 109,149;
woodland, 40350; lying waste, 273; produced in wheat, 81,869
bushels; corn, 514,155; apples, 303,928; sheep, 141,345; coal,
216,630 tons. School census 1886, 5513; teachers, 124.
It has 63 miles of railroad.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS
|
1840 |
1880 |
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS
|
1840 |
1880 |
Augusta |
1,234 |
1,126 |
Loudon |
966 |
965 |
Brown |
2,165 |
2,305 |
Monroe |
1,060 |
1,283 |
Centre |
1,139 |
1,590 |
Orange |
1,528 |
1,327 |
East |
995 |
868 |
Perry |
1,344 |
1,040 |
Fox |
1,491 |
1,275 |
Ross |
1,593 |
1,195 |
Harrison |
1,308 |
1,075 |
Union |
889 |
684 |
Lee |
1,372 |
933 |
Washington |
1,014 |
750 |
Population in 1840 was 18,108; in 1860,
15,738; 1880, 16,416, of whom 14,283 were Ohio-born.
The county was named from Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton, Md., the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. He died at Baltimore, Nov. 14, 1833, aged
ninety-six years. He was born Sept. 20, 1737; was of Irish
descent, a Catholic, and highly educated in France and in London,
thus passing his time from the age of eight years to that of
twenty-eight, when he returned to Maryland a fine scholar and a
polished gentleman. When informed by Gen. H. A. Stidger,
of this county, on a visit to Baltimore, that Ohio had named a
county in his honor he was extremely pleased; this was about six
months before his decease.
The Sandy and Beaver Canal extends from the Ohio river
through Columbiana, Carroll, Stark, and Tuscarawas counties.
It was begun in 1835 and it was navigable to some extent until 1850,
when it was abandoned. The aggregate loss of the stockholders
was nearly two millions of dollars. Its principal use was as a
feeder for mills. It is said that only one boat ever made the
entire passage through it. This was by the contractors who
built it, and because it was conditional upon their receiving their
pay for its completion.
The following items upon the history of Carrollton and
Carroll county are derived mainly from a series of articles, "Annals
of Carroll County," written for the Carroll Free Press by Peter
M. Herold.
Centreville, now Carrollton, was laid out by Peter
Bohart, Oct. 4, 1815; Hon. Isaac Atkinson gave much of
the land for the site. Bohart, was a Pennsylvania
German and came here about 1810. About the same time came
Richard Baxter, Richard Elson, Isaac Dwyer and some others.
At that time the line between Stark and Columbiana counties ran just
west of the village. Here Mr. Dwyer built what he
called upon the sign "The Rising Sun Tavern." When the
(Quaker) Commissioners of Columbiana county refused to grant him
license to sell strong drinks he removed his bar into the room on
the Stark county side of the line and handed down the bottles and
mixed toddies with impunity. Peter Bohart gave the land
for the Carrollton cemetery and is buried in it, where also is
buried Joseph Bushong, a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
and several soldiers of the Mexican war. On the farm of
Nathaniel L. Shaw, in Washington township, is a prehistoric
graveyard containing the remains of a people that were buried in
earthenware coffins. two or three of which were unearthed a
few years ago when digging a cellar.
Thomas L. Patton, the first child born in Carrollton,
was an officer in the Union army in the Rebellion, and is now living
here, as is also John Beatty, the first sheriff of Carroll
county. He was born Oct. 4, 1804. Among his
recollections is attending a Whig meeting at Massillon, July 4,
1838, where Gen. Harrison made an address. On the
platform were the "Poe Brothers," Adam and Andrew,
the Indian fighters, whose noted fight is related under the head of
Columbiana county. They were then very old and imbecile.
Gen. B. F. Potts, originally colonel Thirty-second
Ohio volunteer infantry, was born in Fox township. He was,
when a member of the Ohio Senate, offered by Grant
the governorship of Montana. He refused to accept it at the
time, though he did so later, and his refusal was because the
adoption by Ohio of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution
depended upon his vote, which would be lost if he vacated his seat.
In that daring railroad raid in Georgia of a band of
Ohio men from Gen. Mitchell's army was Wm. Campbell, a
native of Fox township, and he was one of those executed. His
mother's maiden name was Jane Morgan, and she was a cousin of
Gen. John Morgan, of the rebel army.
When Morgan was on his raid through Ohio he
passed through Carroll county, and in Fox township he took dinner
with Mrs. Allison, whose maiden name was Keziah Morgan.
She was the sister of Mrs. Campbell, and therefore also a
cousin of Morgan. While eating his dinner the family
genealogy was traced back to Kentucky. Ere he left, the old
lady gave him a clean shirt, of which John was sadly in need,
and he went on his way rejoicing, with a good dinner inside and a
clean shirt out. Several of Morgan's men who were
wounded obliged to remain behind at Mrs. Allison's, and were
consequently soon taken prisoners by the Union soldiers.
Mrs. Campbell is still living, but since the execution of her
son she cannot talk upon that subject without its effects showing
upon her mind; she imagines she has a mortgage upon the government.
She is twice a widow; her first husband was a soldier in the Mexican
war. Her last husband's name was Shipley, and her
present residence is near Caldwell, Noble county.
CARROLLTON in 1846. --Carrollton, the
county seat, is 125 miles east-northeast from Columbus. It was
originally called Centretown, but on the organization of the county
changed to its present name. It has a public square in the
centre - shown in the engraving - which stand the county buildings.
It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1
Associate Reformed church, 6 mercantile stores, 2 printing offices,
and 800 inhabitants -Old Ediiton.
Carrollton, the county-seat, is on the
C. & C. R. R., eight-seven miles southeasterly from Cleveland.
County officers, 1888: Probate Judges, James Holden and
Junius C. Ferrall; Clerk of Court, Harvey B. Gregg;
Sheriff, John Campbell; Prosecuting Attorney, Irving H.
Blythe; Auditor, Luther M. Barrick; Treasurer, John B.
Van Fossen; Recorder, Will. J. Baxter; Surveyor,
Richard H. Lee; Coroner, Harvey D. Dunlap; Commissioners,
James Murray, Wm. Davis, James H. Rhinehart.
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846
VIEW IN CARROLLTON.
Newspapers: Chronicle,
Democratic, J. V. Lawler & Bro., publishers; Free Press,
Republican,
John H. Tripp, publisher, Peter M. Herold, local
editor; Republican, Republican, S S. T. Cameron &
Co., publishers. Churches: 1. Methodist Episcopal, 1
Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Reformed and 1 United Presbyterian.
Banks: Cummings & Couch; Stockton Bros., V. Stockton, cashier.
Population in 1880, 1,136. School census 1886, 417.
A. M. Fishell, superintendent. In October, 1887, "no
saloon in the town and no prisoners in the county jail."
Port C. Baxter, Photo, Carrollton, 1887.
THE PUBLIC SQUARE, CARROLLTON
The engraving shows the new
court-house and other buildings on the public square. This was
finished in 1886, costing with jail in the rear about $150,000.
It is built mainly of Navarre sandstone, with some from Berea.
It is just to the left of the old court-house shown in the old view.
The old court-house was sold on the 11th of June for $196 and the
bell for $138.
Daniel McCook, father of one
of the two famous families of "Fighting McCooks," was
the first clerk of court of Carroll county after its formation, in
the winter of 1832-33. He resided in the large, white house
shown on the corner, to the right of the old court-house, at the
time the view was drawn; and it was the birthplace of several of his
family. It is now partly occupied by Geo. J. Butler as
a dry-goods store.
TRAVELLING NOTES.
"You
must see Gen. Eckley when you visit Carrollton," said
various parties when I was in the counties adjoining.
"He can tell you everything. He was, they said, "a man
of great public spirit and large intelligence." On the
evening of my arrival, Friday, June 11, I found two old
gentlemen seated on a dry-goods box on a street corner - I
may say two old boys - engaged in a social chat; and one of
those was Capt. John Beatty, the first sheriff of
Carroll county; the other Gen. Ephraim R. Eckley, who
was a judge before he was a general - a man of law before a
man of war. His first greeting was, "You've grown old
sine I have seen you." I did not remember to have ever seen
him, but must have done so when formerly here- when I took
the old view shown on an adjoining page - took it as one
told me he remembered seeing me seated on a wheel-barrow in
the centre of the street.
Gen. Eckley has lived almost the entire period
of the history of the State; was born in 1811. Having
been long in public life, he has witnessed many changes.
Among his experiences was his being in at the death of the
Whig party in 1854; the Free-Soil party, in nautical phrase,
had "taken its wind." United States Senate, which was
the last effort of the Whigs at organization.
In 1861 he served in the Virginia campaign under
Rosecrans; later, under Sherman, had command at
Paducah; in April 1862, was elected to Congress, where he
remained until 1869. He gave me these interesting
items, illustrating the morals of the people here, viz.:
that the jail was generally empty, and when used at all it
was largely for violation of some police arrangement; and
that from 1842 to 1863, a period of twenty-one years,
Carroll county had not supplied ia single inmate for the
penitentiary. Other counties in Ohio, I find, can give
a like record. Such, however, have mainly rural
population.
General Harrison and the Honest German -
On July 4, 1838, Harrison addressed a Whig meeting at
Massilon, and the next day came here and "put up" at the
tavern of David J. Levy. In the evening he made
an impromptu address from the hotel steps. Next
morning he arose early to take a walk before breakfast, the
ostensible purpose being to get a drink from John Young's
spring, a spot on the outskirts where Mr. Young had a
tannery with a bath-house and fine spring of water. On
his arrival there he met Jonas Miller, an honest,
simple hearted German, on his way to town. Harrison
bade him good-morning, and observing he had his hand done up
in a bandage, asked him "What was the matter with it?"
He replied he had a felon on it and was going to town to get
a drink of whiskey; thought it would ease the pain.
Harrison advised him kindly not to drink, it would be only
the worse for him, gave him a receipt for its cure and the
twain walked into the town together. Harrison
was dressed in a plain suite of fustian, and, after parting
from
Miller, some one asked the latter if he knew whom he
had been talking with? He replied "No." When
told, he was so overcome that he sat down and cried like a
child.
Miller had been a strong Democrat, but thenceforth was
an enthusiastic Harrison man. In speaking of
this event he would say in broken English: "Mein Got, it was
the great Gineral Harrison that walked down the
street and talked with me and cured my felon."
Rural Sights. - Having slept
upon the General's chat I took a walk the next morning.
There is an advantage in these small towns; a few steps take
one into the country where the green earth and the blue sky
have an open chance to look at each other square an open
chance to look at each other square in the face and exchange
notes; and there, too - and it is not a small matter - are
the cattle on a thousand hills, peaceful, patient and
picturesque; chewing the cud and whilom keeping the
fly-brush going and often with a |
rhythm so well pronounced that
some painstaking, head-scratching, poet might pause there
for a hint, if so disposed.
Carrollton is on undulating ground and the country
around a series of beautiful swells. Each house is
generally on an ample home lot and the people live mostly in
cottages. The gardens of the villagers, rich in
flowers,, were yet moist with the dew of morning, while the
sunlight, stealing in long, slanting ribbon-bands across
their beds, illuminated them in richest glory of color and
in sweetest blending of light and shade. And the
thought came upon me, now this very morning, all over this
broad land, there are multitudes of just such village as
this with just such series and with just such worthy,
virtuous people as these. And with this grateful fact
upon the heart, should we question is life worth living?
Whatever man might answer, the bee, flitting on golden wing
from flower to flower, would reply, "Yes; don't I get
honey?"
The Old Lady and her Flowers - On coming to one
of the cottages I saw an old lady on her knees with a wet
cloth in hand wiping her porch. She was surrounded by
the pots of flowers which she had brought them out alongside
of those that kind mother Earth had put forth from her bosom
in the that she turned her head, lifted her sunbonnet and
arose to her feet to see who it was that had greeted her.
I then continued, as she still held her cloth in her hand
with her arm limp by her side: "Do you known, Madam, what a
favor you confer upon every passer-by by your display of
flowers?" Upon this she smiled and said, "Why, I never
thought of that; I cultivate them because I love them." "You
people," I rejoined, "appear to live very pleasantly and the
country around looks very sweet to me as I see it rolling
away in graceful swells of grassy fields interspersed with
clumps of trees." "Yes," she rejoined, "and it is now
in all its beauty." Yes! she was right. It was
the beautiful month of June that had come, and had she felt
like quoting the poetry she might have started straight for
Longfellow, as he thus speaks for June:
"Mine is the month of roses; yes, and mine
The month of marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vines
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;
I am the mother of the dear delights.
I am the fairest daughter of the year."
"You people," I continued, "appear to live in this
village in a great deal of comfort and freedom." "I
don't like it," she replied, was forty years of age I lived
on a farm, and I pine for its open, free life. There
is so much to interest one, and the animals are a continued
source of gratification. Then your neighbors run in
and out without any formality and we all seem as one great
family. This village life has too much restriction.
If one's gate gets upon and your cow happens to get out she
is taken up and put in the dollar to pay to get Muley out."
"Trouble everywhere," I said. "Yes," she rejoined, and
opening wide her mouth, displayed a full set of perfect,
pearly white teeth. God bless the dentist. It
then thought, whose inventive art permits a refined old lady
like you to give full play to her merrimont without
compelling her, when the hinges of her mouth relax for a
good hearty laugh, to hide it with her hand. A moment
later I met a young mother happy as a lark. Instead of
turning over her children to the care of Bridget
and lolling on a luxurious coach, absorbed in reading the
details of the make-up of Mrs. Cleveland's
wedding-dress, she was leading by the hand, amid these rustic
surroundings on this bright June morning, her own little
girl, perhaps her first-born. I watched as I came up
the slender limbs of the little one alternately stealing in
and out from beneath the folds of her blue dress and said,
"Good-morning; I see the blue-birds are out." "Yes,
sir; this one." |
|
LEESBURG is on the
W. & L. E. R. R., 100 miles northeast of Columbus and twelve miles
southwest of Carrollton. One Leg courses through it, a stream
so named from a one-legged Indian who anciently dwelt upon its
margin. The Indian name of this water course is "Kannoten;"
and the branch known as the "Dining Fork of the Kannoten" derived
its appellation from the first explorers in this region on an
occasion partaking of their noon meal upon its banks. The
post-office name of Leesburg is Leesville, as there is also another
Leesburg in Highland county. Part of Orange township in which
it is situated originally formed a part of One Leg township,
Tuscarawas county, a name now extinct even there, as applied to a
township.
Leesburg was laid out Aug. 1, 1812, by Thomas Price
and Peter Saunders. It contains one newspaper,
Connoton Valley Times, Independent, R. G. Rivers, editor;
has 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, and, in 1880, had 408
inhabitants; coal mining and farming are its main industries.
Leesburg has a peculiar history; has long been noted as
an intellectual and reforming centre. It was one of the
stations of the Underground Railroad, and in those days its little
public hall at times resounded to the voices of Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, Fred. Douglass, Wendell Phillips, Parker Pillsbury and
their coadjutors. Some noted characters are now residents of
the place. Hon. Wm. Adair, author of the celebrated
liquor law, and a member of the last Constitutional Convention of
Ohio, is a practising lawyer of the place. Charles Dunster,
also a resident, is builder of an ingenious astronomical clock which
keeps the time of some of the principal cities of the world, and is
remarkable from the fact that he is entirely self-taught, and
constructed it from such rude tools as he could make in an ordinary
blacksmiths shop. This clock is still ticking the time by the
forge where he earns his daily bread.
And lastly for our mention is a lady, Mrs. Mary E.
Kail, noted for her patriotic poems, the outgrowth of an intense
and absorbing love of country. She is a native of Washington
City, but from childhood has been a resident of Ohio, excepting for
a few years when she was clerk in one of the departments at
Washington, which position she lost recently through a change of
administration. Her spirited songs have been sung and with
great acceptance on many public occasions, such as Decoration days,
at meetings of the various posts of the Grand Army of the Republic,
dedication of soldiers' cemeteries, lodges of Good Templars, and in
the political canvass.
Authoress of "Crown our Heroes" |
Her writings under the
title of "Crown our Heroes and other Poems" have recently been
published through the generosity of
Mrs. Leland Stanford. This little book is her only
source of livelihood in her advanced years. Of all the
songs sung on Decoration Day throughout the land "Crown our
Heroes" stands at her head. This and the one entitled
"Ohio" we copy entire. |
CROWN OUR HEROES
Crown our heroes, the soldiers, whose spirits
have fled
To the land of the blest; crown the heroic dead
Let the fair hand of woman weave garlands of flowers
Kissed by heaven's pure sunlight in sweet morning hours
Go tenderly, gently, and scatter them where
Our heroes are sleeping! go scatter them there.
Crown our heroes, the soldiers, who sleep on
the shore
Where the call of the bugle can wake them no more.
Men who fought to defend us - oh, can we forget
The tribute of glory we owe to them yet?
Bring love's fairest offerings, with tears and with prayer
And gratefully, sacredly scatter them there.
Crown our heroes, the soldiers, whose grandeur
and power
Saved our own dear Columbia in war's troubled hour.
When amid the fierce struggle each soul was a host,
Who was ready to die lest his country be lost
They are dead! they are dead! what now can we do
As a token of love for the noble and true?
Crown our heroes, the soldiers. On! scatter
the flowers
O'er the graves of the dead; they are yours, they are ours.
Men who fought for the flag, and our foes in the fray;
For as brothers they sleep, both the blue and the gray.
And true to our banner, our offerings we bring -
Blushing roses of summer, and violets of spring.
Crown our heroes, God bless them! no true
heart must lag;
Crown the dead and the living who stood by the flag
Through the oncoming ages let each have a name
Carved in letters of gold in the temple of fame;
For the bright stars of freedom - our banner unfurled -
Is the joy of Columbia, the pride of the world!
OHIO.
Ohio, I love thee, for deeds thou has done;
They conflicts recorded and victories won;
On the pages of history, beaming and bright,
Ohio shines forth like a star in the night.
Like a star flashing out o'er the mountain's
blue crest,
Lighting up with its glory the land of the west;
For thy step onward marching and voice to command,
Ohio, I love thee, thou beautiful land.
Commonwealth grandly rising in majesty tall -
In the girdle of beauty the fairest of all,
Tho' thunders of nations around thee may roar -
Their strong tidal waves dash and break on they shore -
Standing prouder and firmer when danger is nigh,
With a power to endure and an arm to defy;
Ohio shall spread her broad wings to the world,
Her bugles resounding and banners unfurled.
A queen in her dignity, proudly she stands,
Reaching out to her sister States wealth-laden hands,
Crown'd with plentiful harvests and fruit from the vine,
And riches increasing in ores from the mine.
While the Liberty's banner unfurled to the sky -
Resolved for the Union to do or to die -
Her soldiers and statesmen unflinchingly come,
'Mid booming of cannon and roll of the drum.
To glory still onward, we're marching along.
Ev'ry heart true and noble re-echoes the song,
Ever pledged to each other, through years that have fled,
We have hopes for the living, and tears for the dead.
Bless the heroes who suffered, but died not in vain;
Keep the flag that we love - without tarnish or stain.
Thus uniting with all, shall my song ever be
Ohio, my home-land, my heart clings to thee! |
Mechanicstown, nine miles
northeast of Carrollton, was laid out in 1836 by Thomas McGovern;
it has 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal
church and about 200 population. Kilgore, twelve miles
southeast of Carrollton, has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, and
1 Reformed Lutheran church, and about 200 people. Magnolia, on
the C. & P. R. R.; population 300. Dell Roy is on the C. V. R.
R., eight miles southwest of Carrollton. It has 1 Methodist
Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Protestant church, and, in
1880, 664 inhabitants. This place is now the centre of the
most important coal mines of the county, and its population is
largely composed of miners.
New Harrisburg is a small village five miles
northwest of Carrollton, and which in 1883 contested with it for the
county-seat. This was the birth-place of Jonathan Weaver,
bishop of the United Brethren church and president of Otterbein
University. The village has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian
church, and about 200 inhabitants. In the little churchyard
adjoining the town, "in a valley of dry bones, amid the silent
monuments of death and desolation," is a marble slab, twelve by
eighteen inches, bearing the simple inscription as annexed; a
remarkable instance of longevity.
Harlem Springs is six miles southeast of
Carrollton; it has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United
Brethren church, and before the war it was quite a resort for
invalids to partake of the water of its chalybeate springs; among
the visitors of note were Robt. E. Lee and Edwin Stanton.
Here is the Harlem Springs College, founded in 1858, John R.
Steeves, president; three instructors; pupils twenty-one males
and eleven females.
The Ohio McCooks acquired a
wide popular reputation during the civil war as the "Fighting
McCooks." In the various current notices of them they are
spoken of as one family, but were really two families, the
sons of Major Daniel McCook and Dr. John McCook.
Of the former family there were engaged in military service
the father, Major Daniel McCook, Surgeon Latimer A. McCook,
General George W. McCook, Major General Edwin Stanton
McCook, Private Charles Morris McCook, Colonel John J.
McCook - ten in all. Another son, Midshipman J. James
McCook; died in the naval service before the rebellion.
Of the latter family there were engaged
in the service Major General Edward M. McCook, General
Anson G. McCook, Chaplain Henry C. McCook, Commander
Roderick S. McCook, U. S. N., and Lieutenant John J. McCook -
five in all. This makes a total of fifteen, every son of
both families, all commissioned officers except Charles, who
was killed in the first battle of Bull Run, and who declined a
commission in the regular army, preferring to serve as a private
volunteer.
The two families have been familiarly
distinguished as the "Tribe of Dan" and the "Tribe of John."
I. The Daniel McCook
Branch.
Major Daniel McCook
Matha Latimer.
Major Daniel McCook, the second son of
George McCook and Mary McCormack, was born June 20, 1798,
at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the seat of Jefferson College, where he
received his education. On August 28, 1817, he married
Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer, of
Washington, Pa. In 1826 they removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and
later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr. McCook was an active
member and an elder for many years of the Presbyterian church of
Carrollton, organizing and conducting as superintendent the first
Sunday-school of that church.
At the beginning of the war he was in Washington D. C.,
and, although sixty-three years of age, at once tendered his
services to President Lincoln. Each of his eight sons
then living also promptly responded to the call of the President for
troops. When the rebel general, John Morgan, made his
raid into Ohio, Major McCook was stationed in Cincinnati, and
joined the troops sent in his pursuit. Morgan undertook
to recross the Ohio river at Buffington island. Major
McCook led an advance party to oppose and intercept the
crossing. In the skirmish that took place he was mortally
wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-fifth
year of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove cemetery near
Cincinnati.
He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot,
and an earnest Christian. He possessed a most gentle and amiable
disposition, combined with the highest personal courage, untiring
with the highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great force
of character. He ruled his household in the fear of the Lord,
and died as he had lived in the active performance of his duty.
His wife, Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham
Latimer and Mary Greer, was born at Washington, Pa.,
March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, but
on the father's side they were English, coming originally from
Leicestershire.
During the war of the
rebellion Mrs. McCook was in a peculiarly difficult position.
Her husband and sons were all in the service. No battle could
take place but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each
succeeding year brought death to a member of her family upon the
battle-field. Her husband and three sons were thus taken from
her; and the others were so frequently wounded that it seemed as if
in her old age she was to be bereft of her entire family. Her
life during these long years of anxiety was well nigh a continuous
prayer for her country and for her sons that had given themselves
for its defence. This patriotic woman well illustrates the
heroic sufferings endured by the women of the Republic no less than
by the men.
Mrs. McCook died November 10, 1879, in the
seventy-eighth year of her age, at New Lisbon, Ohio, surrounded by
her surviving children and friends, and was buried beside her
husband in Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
The children of the above are as follows:
1. Latimrer A. McCook, M. D., was born at
Canonsburg, Pa., April 26, 1820. He was educated at
Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine with his uncle.
Dr. George McCook, a physician of great skill and eminence, and
received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia.
He entered the army in 1861 as assistant surgeon, and was soon
promoted to the surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first
regiment, Illinois volunteers, known as "John Logan's
regiment.
He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the
Tennessee, and, while caring for the wounded of his regiment during
action, he was himself twice wounded - once in the trenches before
Vicksburg, and again at Pocataligo bridge, in Gen. Sherman's
movement northward from savannah. He survived the war, but was
broken down in health, and died Aug. 23, 1869, from general debility
resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his service in the
army, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
2. George Wythe McCook
was born at Canonsburg,
Pa., Nov. 2, 1821. He graduated from Ohio University at
Athens, and studied law with and afterwards became the partner of
Edwin M. Stanton, the great war secretary, in Steubenville.
He served as an officer in the Third Ohio regiment throughout the
Mexican war, and returned as its commander. He was
attorney-general of the State of Ohio, and edited the first volume
of "Ohio State Reports." He was one of the first four
brigadier-generals appointed by the governor of Ohio to command the
troops from that State at the outbreak of the rebellion, but the
condition of his health prevented him from taking any command that
required absence from home. However, he organized and
commanded for short periods several Ohio regiments.
He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in
1871, but his health broke down during the canvass, and he was
compelled to abandon the campaign. He, with the Rev.
Charles Beatty, were the largest contributors to the erection of
the Second Presbyterian church, at Steubenville, Ohio, of which he
was a trustee. He died December 28, 1877, and was buried at
Steubenville.
3. John James McCook, born at Canonsburg, Pa.,
Dec. 28, 1823, was educated at the United States Naval Academy.
While serving as a midshipman of the United States frigate
"Delaware" off the coast of South America he was taken ill with a
fever following long -continued exposure while on duty. He
died March 30, 1842, and was buried in the English burying-grounds
at Rio Janeiro. Admiral Farragut in his autobiography
pays a high tribute to the personal character and ability of
Midshipman McCook.
4. Robert Latimer McCook, born
at New Lisbon, Ohio, Dec. 28, 1827. He studied law in the
office of Stanton & McCook, at Steubenville, then removed to
Cincinnati, and in connection with Judge J. B. Stallo,
secured a large practice. When the news reached Cincinnati
that Fort Sumter had been fired upon he organized and was
commissioned colonel of the Ninth Ohio regiment, among the Germans,
enlisting a thousand men in less than two days. He was ordered
to West Virginia, put in command of a brigade, and made the decisive
campaign there under McClellan. His brigade was then
transferred to the Army of the Ohio, and took a most active part in
the battle of Mills Spring, in Kentucky, where he was severely
wounded. The rebel forces were driven from their lines by the
bayonet charge of Gen. McCook's brigade and so closely
pursued that their organization as an army was completely destroyed.
Gen. McCook rejoined his brigade before his wound had healed,
and continued to command it when he was unable to mount a horse.
His remarkable soldierly qualities procured him the rank of
major-general and command of a division.
He met his death Aug. 6,
1862, while on the march near Salem, Alabama. He had been
completely prostrated by his open wound and a severe attack of
dysentery, and was lying in an ambulance which was driven along in
the interval between two regiments of his division. A
small band of mounted local guerillas, commanded by Frank Gurley,
dashed out of ambush, surrounded the ambulance, and discovered that
it contained an officer of rank, who was lying on the bed undressed
and unable to rise. They asked who it was, and seeing that the
Federal troops were approaching, shot him as he lay and made their
escape, as the nature of the country and their thorough familiarity
with it easily enabled them to do. This brutal assassination
of Gen. McCook aroused intense feeling throughout the
country. The murdered commander was buried at Spring Grove
cemetery, and his devoted soldiers and friends, at the close of the
war, erected a monument to his memory in Cincinnati.
5. Alexander McDowell McCook was
born on a farm near New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, April 22,
1831. He entered the United States Military Academy, at West
Point, and graduated in the class of 1852. At the opening of
the war he was promptly made colonel of the First Ohio regiment,
which he led among the very earliest troops to the relief of the
capital, and commanded at Bull Run, or Manassas. He became a
brigadier-general in September, 1861, and commanded a division under
Gen. Buell in the Army of the Ohio. He was made a
major-general for distinguished services at the battle of Shiloh,
and was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland, with which
he served during the campaigns of Perryville, Stone River,
Tullahoma, Chattanooga, and Chicamauga. Gen. McCook
subsequently commanded one of the trans-Mississippi departments.
He is now colonel of the Sixth regular infantry.
6. Daniel McCook, Jr.
was born at Carrollton,
Ohio, July 22, 1834. He was rather delicate and over studious,
and with a view to improving his health entered Alabama University
at Florence, from which he graduated with honor. He returned
to Ohio with health greatly improved, and entered the law office of
Stanton & McCook at Steubenville.
After admission to the bar he removed to Leavenworth,
Kansas, where he formed a partnership with William T.
Sherman and Thomas Ewing. When the war opened that
office closed and each of the partners soon became general officers.
Daniel McCook, Jr.
was captain of a local company, the Shields Guards, with which he
volunteered, and, as a part of the First Kansas Regiment, served
under General Lyon at Wilson's creek. He then served as
chief of staff of the First Division of the Army of the Ohio in the
Shiloh campaign, and became colonel of the Fifty-second Ohio
Infantry in the summer of 1862. He was assigned to the command
of a brigade in General Sheidan's division and as such
continued to serve with the Army of the Cumberland.
He was selected by his old law partner, General
Sherman, to lead the assault on Kennesaw mountain. After
all the arrangements for the assault had been made, the brigade was
formed in regiment front and four deep. Just before the
assault of Colonel McCook recited to his men in perfectly
calm manner the stanzas from Macaulay's Horatious, in which
occur these lines:
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The captain of the gate;
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods,
"And for the tender mother
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
Hisbaby at her breast?"
Then he gave the word of
command and dashed forward. He had reached the top of the
enemy's works, and was encouraging his men to follow when he was
riddled with minie balls, and fell back wounded unto death.
For his courage and gallantry in this assault he was promoted to the
full rank of brigadier-general, as honor he did not live to enjoy,
as he survived but a few days. He died July 21, 1864, and was
buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
7. Edwin Stanton McCook was born at Carrollton,
Ohio, March 26, 1837. He was educated at the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis, but preferring the other arm of the
service, when the civil war began he recruited a company and joined
the Thirty-first Illinois Regiment Infantry, of which his friend
John A. Logan was colonel. He served with his regiment at
the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, where he was severely
wounded. In his promotion he succeeded General Logan,
and followed him in the command of regiment, brigade and division
throughout the Vicksburg and other campaigns under Grant, in
the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns and in the march to the sea
under Sherman.
He was promoted to the rank of full brigadier and
brevet major general for his services in these campaigns. He
was three times severely wounded, but survived the war. While
acting governor of Dakota and presiding over a public meeting, Sept.
11, 1873, he was shot and killed by a man in the audience who was
not in sympathy with the objects of the meeting, and was buried at
Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
8. Charles Morris McCook, was born at
Carrollton, Ohio, Nov. 13, 1843. He was a member of the
freshman class at Kenyon College when the war began, and although
less than eighteen years of age volunteered as a private soldier in
the Second Ohio Infantry for three months' service. Secretary
Stanton offered him a lieutenant's commission in the regular
army, but he preferred to serve as a volunteer.
At the battle of Bull Run,
July 21, 1861, he served with his regiment, which was covering the
retreat of the shattered army. As he passed a field hospital
he saw his father, who had volunteered as a nurse, at work among the
wounded, and stopped to assist him, the regiment passing on.
As he started to rejoin his company young McCook was
surrounded by an officer and several troopers of the famous Black
Horse cavalry who demanded his surrender. His musket was
loaded and he quickly disabled the officer, and, and he was highly
trained in the bayonet exercise, kept the other horsemen at bay.
His father seeing the odds against the lad called to him to
surrender, to which he replied, "Father, I will never surrender to a
rebel," and a moment after was shot down by one of the cavalrymen.
His aged father removed his remains from the field, and they were
afterwards buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati.
9. John J. McCook
was born at Carrollton, Ohio,
May 25, 1845. He was a student at Kenyon College when the war
began, and, after completing his freshmen year, enlisted in the
Sixth Ohio Cavalry. He was promoted to a first lieutenancy on
September 12, 1862, and was assigned to duty on the staff of
General Thomas L. Crittenden, commanding a corps of the Army of
the Ohio, which subsequently became the Twenty-first Corps of the
Army of the Cumberland.
He served in the campaigns of Perryville, Stone River,,
Tullahoma, Chattanooga, and Chickamauga with the Western armies, and
in General Grant's campaign with the Army of the Potomac,
from the battle of the Wilderness to the crossing of James river.
He was commissioned a captain and aide-de-camp of the United States
Volunteers in September, 1863, and was brevetted major of volunteers
for gallant and meritorious services in action at Shady Grove,
Virginia, where he was severely and dangerously wounded. He
was afterward made lieutenant-colonel and colonel for gallant and
meritorious services. Colonel McCook still survives,
and is a lawyer engaged in active practice in New York city.
II. The John McCook Branch.
John McCook, M. D.
Catherine Julia Sheldon
Dr. McCook was born and educated at Canonsurg, Pa.,
the seat of Jefferson College; was a man of fine presence, genial
nature, and a physician of unusual ability. His wife was born
at Hartford, Conn., of an old New England family, and was a woman of
rare culture. She was remarkable for her gift of song and
musical attainments, and her fine intellect and sprightly manners.
She greatly excelled in reading aloud, and taught her sons this art,
instructing them also in declamation and composition, before these
branches were introduced into the schools of the neighborhood.
she was particularly fond of poetry, and could render from memory
chapters of Scott's "Marmion" and "Lady of the Lake," as well as the
poems of Burns. Her influence was decided upon the
character of her five sons.
Dr. McCook practiced medicine for many years in
New Lisbon, Ohio, whence he removed to Steubenville. He was an
ardent patriot, and, although a lifelong Democrat, joined the Union
Republican party, and gave the whole weight of his influence and
service to the support of the government during the civil war.
He died just after its close. October 11, 1865, at the
headquarters of his son, General Anson G. McCook, in
Washington, D. C., during a temporary visit, and was buried at
Steubenville, Ohio, by the side of his wife, who had preceded him
just six months.
He united with the Presbyterian church of New Lisbon,
Ohio, together with his wife, after the birth of all their children.
The latter were baptized on the same Sabbath by the late Dr. A.
O. Patterson. Dr. McCook was a warm friend of
Sunday schools, and was Superintendent for years of the school of
the First Church of Steubenville, under the late Dr. H. G.
Comingo.
The children of the above are as follows.
1. Major General Edward Moody McCook, born at
Steubenville, Ohio, June 15, 1833. He was one of the earliest
settlers in the Pike's Peak region, where he had gone to practise
his profession, law. He represented that district in the
legislature of Kansas, before the division of the Territory.
He was temporarily in Washington in the troubled era preceding the
war, and by the daring feat as a volunteer secret agent for the
government, won such approbation that he was appointed into the
regular army as a lieutenant of cavalry. At the outbreak of
the rebellion he was appointed major of the second Indiana cavalry,
rose rapidly to the ranks of colonel, brigadier and major-general
and, after the close of the war, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel
in the regular army. His most difficult and dangerous service,
perhaps, was penetrating the enemy's lines by way of diversion
previous to Sherman's march to the sea. He returned
from this "forlorn hope," having inflicted great damage upon the
enemy, defeated and captured a large number, whom he was compelled
to release, and retired in the face of Hood's entire army. He
resigned from the regular army to accept the appointment of United
States minister to the Sandwich islands. He was subsequently
twice appointed governor of Colorado Territory by
President
Grant.
2.
Brigadier-General Anson George McCook was born in
Steubenville, Ohio, October 10, 1835. He was educated in the
public schools of New Lisbon, Ohio, and at an early age crossed the
plains to California, where he spent several years. He
returned shortly before the war, and was engaged in the study of law
in the office of Stanton & McCook, at Steubenville, at the
outbreak of the rebellion. He promptly raised a company of
volunteers, and was elected captain of Company H, which was the
first to enter the service from Eastern Ohio. He was
assigned to the Second Ohio regiment, and took part in the first
Bull Run battle. Upon the reorganization of the troops, he was
appointed major of the Second Ohio, and rose by death and
resignation of his seniors to the rank of colonel. At the
battle of Peach Tree Creek, near Atlanta, he commanded a brigade.
He was in action in many of the principal battles of the West,
including those of Perryville, Stone River, Lookout Mountain,
Missionary River Ridge, Resaca, etc. On the muster-out of the
Second regiment, at the close of three years' service, he was
appointed colonel of hte One-hundred-and-ninety-fourth Ohio, and was
ordered to the Valley of Virginia, where he was assigned to command
a brigade. He was brevetted a brigadier-general at the close
of the war. He returned to Steubenville, whence, after several
years' residence, he removed to New York city, his present
residence. He served six years in Congress from the Eighth New
York district, in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh
Congresses. He is at present secretary of the United States
Senate.
3. Rev. Henry C. McCook, D. D.,
the third son,
was born July 3, 1837, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and married an Ohio
lady, Miss Emma C. Horter, of New Lisbon. He graduated
at Jefferson College. He was a student at the Western
Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), Allegheny City, on the outbreak
of the rebellion, and having made an engagement to go West to spend
his summer vacation, stopped at Clinton, Dewitt county, Ill.
He was actively engaged in raising troops for the service until the
first Bull Run battle, when he enlisted as a private soldier,
stumped the county to raise troops, and was mustered into the
Forty-first Illinois regiment as first Lieutenant. He was
appointed chaplain of the regiment, and returned home for ordination
by the Presbytery of Steubenville, Ohio. He served for less
than a year, and resigned, with the intention of taking another
position in the army; but, convinced that he could serve his country
better in a public position at home, he returned to his church at
Clinton. He was subsequently a home missionary and pastor in
St. Louis, Mo., whence he was called to Philadelphia in 1869, where
he continues pastor of one of the most prominent churches of the
East. He is author of a number of popular theological and
ecclesiastical books, but is particularly known as a naturalist.
His studies of the ants and spiders, on whose habits he has written
several important books and numerous papers, have made his name well
known among the naturalists of Europe and America.
4. Commander Rhoderick Sheldon McCook, U. S. N.,
was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, March 10, 1839. He graduated at
the Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1859, and his first service was off
the Congo river, Africa whence he was sent home with a prize crew in
charge of a captured slaver. From 1861 to 1865 he took active
part in aggressive operations before Newberne, Wilmington,
Charleston, Fort Fisher, and on James river. At Newberne he bore an
active and successful part in the battle on land. He offered
himself and the services of his marines to the land force in moving
a battery of guns from his vessel. With his battery he took a
conspicuous part in the conflict, and had the honor of receiving the
surrender of the Confederate regiment of infantry, probably the only
surrender of this sort which occurred during the civil war.
During his arduous service with monitors, particularly the "Canonicus"
at Fort Fisher, he seriously injured his health. He was
engaged in the operation son the James river, and also in those
ending in the surrender of Charleston. He attained the grade
of commander September 25, 1873. His last service was in
lighthouse duty on the Ohio river, on whose banks, in the family
plot in the Steubenville cemetery, his remains are buried.
Failing in health, he was retired from active service February 23,
1885, when he went ot Vineland, N. J., seeking restoration of
strength in the occupations of farm life. His death was caused
by being thrown from his buggy upon his head, sustaining injuries
which resulted in suffusion of the brain. He married Miss
Elizabeth Sutherland, of Steubenville, Ohio, who, with one son,
survives him.
5. The fifth son and sixth child, Rev. Prof. John James McCook,
was born at New Lisbon, Ohio, February 4, 1843. He served as
lieutenant in the First Virginia, a regiment recruited almost
exclusively from Ohio. There were so many volunteers from that
State that its quota of regiments was immediately filled, and many
of its citizens entered the service with regiments from other
States. He was at Kelleysville, one of the earliest
engagements of the war. He graduated at Trinity College.
Hartford; began the study of medicine, but abandoned it to enter the
Protestant Episcopal ministry. He was rector of St. John's,
Detroit, and now of St. John's, East Hartford. He is
distinguished as a linguist, and is author of a witty booklet, "Pat
and the Council." He is at present, Professor of Modern
Languages in Trinity College, Hartford. |
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