BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS of
COSHOCTON COUNTY, OHIO 1764-1876
by William E. Hunt. - Publ. Cincinnati - Robert Clarke & Co., Printers
1876

Unless otherwise noted

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MATTHEW SCOTT  was born in county Donegal, Ireland, in 1795.  He came to America in 1816, but lived at Cumberland, Maryland, until 1833, when he came to Coshocton county, settling in Virginia township, near Adam's mills.  As the owner and cultivator of a considerable body of land; as a man of diligence and integrity, of more than ordinary intelligence, and of fair education, Mr. Scott was long had in repute in the region where he dwelt.  As an enthusiastic son of Erin, and a most earnest and liberal adherent of the Presbyterian church, he was known by thousands.  In 1856, he made a visit to the old land.  He was for several years a director of the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburg. He was a member of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, meeting in Peoria, Illinois, 1863.  He was always a warm friend of the colored people, and was chiefly instrumental in establishing a school for the education of colored girls, called " Scotia Seminary," in North Carolina.   Having no children, and his wife having died before him, he gave almost his whole estate—of some $25,000—for educational, missionary, and other benevolent purposes, in connection with the Presbyterian church, a large part going to the support of the little church in which he had long been an elder, and in which his kindred hold yet a large place.  For some time before his death, Mr. Scott had been in poor health.  Early on the morning of the 13th of September, 1872, the family of the brother with whom he had been staying for some days, were alarmed by his absence from the house and the appearance of his forsaken bed room, and search having been made, his dead body was found, after some hours, in the Muskingum river, which flowed through his lands. Source: HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS of COSHOCTON COUNTY, OHIO 1764-1876 by William E. Hunt. - Publ. Cincinnati - Robert Clarke & Co., Printers - 1876 - Page 254

G. W. SILLIMAN was the son of a lawyer (Willys Silliman) practicing at Zanesville, and a nephew of Lewis Cass. He pursued his academical studies at Ohio University, and afterward at the military academy at West Point.  Having read law with his father in Zanesville, he was admitted, and soon thereafter came to Coshocton (about 1830).  He was sent as a bearer of dispatches to C. P. Van Ness, minister from the United States to Spain.  He returned to Coshocton in 1833; was soon elected prosecuting attorney, and by re-election continued in the office for ten years.  In 1843, he went on a voyage to Europe for his health, but was not greatly benefited, and on his return voyage grew rapidly worse, and died at sea.  His remains were brought to New York, and interred in Greenwood Cemetery.      In 1834, he married Miss Ann Johnson, who survived him many years, dying in 1864.  There was one child, Willys Cass Silliman, who survived the father only about two years.  Mr. Silliman's reputation is that of genial, scholarly gentleman. Source: HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS of COSHOCTON COUNTY, OHIO 1764-1876 by William E. Hunt. - Publ. Cincinnati - Robert Clarke & Co., Printers - 1876 - Page 249

DAVID SPANGLER was born at Sharpsburg, Md., Dec. 24, 1796. In 1802, the family removed to Zanesville, Ohio.  Here the father established himself in trade as a black smith, and David, as his age and strength admitted, was a helper, and continued at the forge and anvil for years, learning lessons of patient toil, and endurance, and self-reliance of vast advantage in later years.  Subsequently, the father engaged in mercantile business, and in this, as in the other, David, as the eldest son, was his chief assistant.  Study, however, was not neglected, and David profited diligently by his opportunities in that line, limited as they were.      When twenty-five years of age, he commenced the study of law with Alex. Harper, and was admitted to practice at a term of the Supreme Court of the State, held in Cleveland in 1824.  He commenced practice in Zanesville.  In 1830, he was nominated for representative for Muskin gum county in the legislature, and polled far more than his (Whig) party vote, though not elected. In 1832 he came to Coshocton.  Professional business poured upon him from the start, and beside he soon was taking a leading part in politics.  In the fall of the same year in which he came into the county, he was nominated for representative from the Twelfth (then) Congressional District, and such was the esteem and popularity in which, as a lawyer riding the circuit, that he was elected by a round majority, although the district (composed of Coshocton, Knox, Holmes, and Tuscarawas counties) had been hitherto in the hands of the opposite party.  He was re-elected by the same constituency in 1834, by a still more decisive vote.  Mr. Spangler was thoroughly satisfied with the political experience thus had, and proclaimed his determination to give his whole attention thereafter to professional practice.  In 1844, his party, then in the ascendancy in the state, nominated him, by convention assembled at Columbus, for Governor, but he declined the nomination, insisting upon his tastes for private life, and his need of attention to professional business, and the claims of his family, especially those of his two sons, then in course of education.  While in Washing ton city in his first term as congressman he was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, arguing a case carried up from Ohio, and prevailing for his client.  From 1836 to 1856, in which year he died (October 18), his office and home, his neighbors and friends, received the whole of his time and attention.  For some years' before his death his health was far from vigorous.  He was, it will be observed, about two months less than sixty years old.      His parents were members of the M. E. church, as was also the lady whom he married (December, 1829), Miss Elizabeth Grafton Etherington, of Baltimore, Md., and he was always awake to the interests of that body and exceedingly helpful to it, although never a member.  In the heaviest of his business and height of his fame, he would give active aid in the Sabbath-school and in the musical department of the church.      He was initiated into the Masonic body about the time he attained his majority, and served in the capacity of Worshipful Master, Representative to Grand Lodge, of which he was S. G. Deacon, Grand Orator, and Deputy Grand Master.  In 1846, the Lodge formerly established having become defunct, he, in connection with others, se cured a dispensation for a new Lodge (No. 96), of which, for many years, he was W. M.      His sympathy and readiness to associate freely with the masses—his great industry and energy—and his keen in sight of human nature and ready wit were qualities giving him his place and power in public life.  And with this is our present concern.  He used to joke with his friends about his growth in popularity when a candidate, stating that in one township he doubled his vote—the fact subsequently coming from him that the first time he ran he got in that township (a Democratic stronghold) one vote, and the second time two.  A young lady came to his office to have him commence proceedings for " rape."  After hearing the story, he said it was important he should know the case, and informed her that there was an offense called "rape," and one called " rapee," and that the latter covered the case of the mildest possible resistance.  She concluded the latter was her case, as he keenly suspected from the first.      A minister of his church once undertook to deliver a learned controversial discourse, having very much to say about li the original."  Coming out of church, he quietly ob served to a prominent lawyer of the place, of another faith, "That was a remarkable discourse; remarkable, sir; remarkable, sir; and especially remarkable, because neither the preacher (as he knew) nor any of his hearers had any knowledge of that original language." Source: HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS of COSHOCTON COUNTY, OHIO 1764-1876 by William E. Hunt. - Publ. Cincinnati - Robert Clarke & Co., Printers - 1876 - Page 249

SAMUEL SQUIRE, SR., died on the 24th of November, 1874, at his residence in Jackson township, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.  He was brought as a child to Coshocton county, in 1814, being then eight years of age.  His parents came from Rutland county, Vermont.   He took possession of the place where he died, in 1832.  He was a deacon in the Regular Baptist church.  He left children and a large circle of relatives. Source: HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS of COSHOCTON COUNTY, OHIO 1764-1876 by William E. Hunt. - Publ. Cincinnati - Robert Clarke & Co., Printers - 1876 - Page 262