In 1786 he took an active part in suppressing Shay's rebellion. Early in l788 he removed to Marietta with his family, and that of his son-in-law, Ichabod Nye, reaching there 19th August, 1788. These families and those of Col. S. Cushing and Maj. Goodale, who accompanied them, were the first families to settle in what is now the State of Ohio.
Gen. Tupper was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas in September, 1788, and, with Gen. Putnam held the first court in the Northwest Territory.
The following entry in Dr. Cutler's journal indicates that Gen. Tupper was the real inventor of the screw propeller: "Friday, August 15, 1788. This morning we went pretty early to the boat. Gen. Tupper had mentioned to me a mode for constructing a machine to work in the head or stern of a boat instead of oars. It appeared to me highly probable it might succeed. I therefore proposed that we should make the experiment. Assisted by a number of people, we went to work, and constructed a machine in the form of a screw with short blades and placed it in the stern of the boat, which we turned with a crank. It succeeded to admiration, and I think it a very useful discovery. " - Life of Rev. Manasseh Cutler.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
MAJOR ANSELM TUPPER, son of Gen. Benjamin Tupper, was born in Easton, Mass., October 11, 1763. In 1779, at the age of sixteen, he was appointed adjutant of Col. Ebenezer Sproat's regiment, which was engaged at Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth. He served through the war, and was a member of the Society of Cincinnati. In 1786 he was with his father in the survey of the seven ranges, and when the Ohio Company was formed he became a shareholder and was engaged by them as a surveyor, and "arrived at Marietta in the company of forty-eight, April 7, 1788". At the organization of the military companies at Marietta, in 1739, under Col. Sproat, Anselm Tupper was appointed post-major, and "had command of Campus Martius during the war." That winter he taught school in one of the block-houses at the fort. He was the Secretary of the Union Lodge of Free Masons, before whom he delivered an address on St. John's day,1790. Maj. Tupper was a brilliant man and a favorite in society. He died unmarried at Marietta, December 25, 1808. The Founders of Ohio.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
MAJOR WINTR0P SARGENT was born in Gloucester, Mass., May 1, 1753; graduated at Harvard in 1771. He served in the Revolutionary war. As secretary of the Ohio Company, he was associated with Dr. Cutler in the purchase of the lands. He removed to Marietta in 1788, having been appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory. He served as adjutant-general to St. Clair's army in 1791, and was severely wounded. He was also adjutant-general to Gen. Wayne in 1794. In 1798 he removed to Natchez, having received the appointment of Governor of the Mississippi Territory. He died June 3, 1820, while on a voyage to Philadelphia.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
COL. EBENEZER SPROAT was born in Middleborough, Mass., in 1752; died in Marietta, Ohio, in Feb., 1805. He served through the war of the Revolution, attaining the rank of 1ieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war he married Catharine, daughter of Commadore Whipple. He came to Marietta with the first party as one of the Ohio Company surveyors. Was the first colonel of militia commissioned in the Northwest Territory; the first sheriff of Washington county, serving for fourteen years.
He was six feet four inches tall, and his commanding figure so impressed the Indians that they called him "Hetuck" (Big Buckeye).
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
MAJOR HATFIELD WHITE was born in Danvers, Mass. At the close of the war of the Revolution he had attained the rank of major.
He was the head of the party of pioneers that left Danvers, Mass., Dec. 3, 1787. During the first year at Marietta he acted as steward for the Ohio Company. The next year, with Col. Robert Oliver and Capt. John Dodge, he erected the first mills built in Ohio, those at Wolf creek. He died Dec. 13, 1817.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
CAPT. JONATHAN DEVOLL was born in Tiverton, R I., in 1756. He was a skilful ship carpenter, and superintended the building of the "Adventure Galley," or "Mayflower;" also engaged on the construction of Campus Martius. He prepared the plans and directed the building of "Farmer's Castle;" he constructed the floating mill.
In 1792 he built entirely out of red cedar a twelve-oared barge for the use of Gen. Putnam, and in 1801 built a 4OO-ton ship, all of the wood used being black walnut. His mechanical skill and ingenuity were of great service to the pioneers. His death occurred in 1824.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
SAMUEL PRESTON HILDRETH was born in Methuen, Mass., Sept. 30, 1783; died in Marietta, Ohio, July 24, 1863. He received an academic education, studied medicine, and received his medical degree from the Medical Society of Massachusetts in 1805. He came to Ohio in 1806, settling at Belpre, but two years later removed to Marietta, where he acquired a large and successful practice, also serving in the legislature in 1810-11. At Marietta he began the first meteorological register in this State, which he kept for about fifty years. In 1837 he was a member of the geological survey of Ohio. Dr. Hildreth made collections in natural history and conehology, which, together with his valuable scientific library, he presented to Marietta College. During forty years he contributed to "Silliman's Journal" articles on meteorology, geology, botany and paleontology. He also devoted much study and labor to the antiquities and to the pioneer history of Ohio. A large amount of valuable history has been preserved through his writings.
Col. Charles Whittlesey writes of him: "Dr. Hildreth had not a robust, physical constitution, but this did not prevent an active life, from youth to old age. His manners were characterized by never failing good humor. In his extensive journeys on horseback among the frontier settlers they only recognized an early settler like themselves with the barren title of doctor. But he observed and noticed everything that came within the range of a capacious mind. It was by this quiet faculty, and by the lapse of time, that he concentrated knowledge on various subjects, most of which was original, and in addition to that of the books of his era. Without brilliancy or ambition, by persistent labor he left a deep, clearly cut impress upon a great State during the first half century of its growth."
Chief among his publications are "Pioneer History" (Cincinnati, ]848); "Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio" (1852); "Contributions to the Early History of the Northwest" (1864), and "Results of Meteorological Observations Made at Marietta in 1826-59," reduced and discussed by Chas. A. Schott in "Smithsonian Institution's Contributions to Knowledge" (1870).
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
SALA BOSWORTH was born in Halifax, Mass., Sept. 15, 1805, and when a child of eleven years came to this county. He studied painting in Philadelphia, and was the artist to whom the public are indebted for the portraits of Gen. Rufus Putnam, Judge Ephraim Cutler, Col. Joseph Barker and many others of the pioneers. The pictures of "Campus Martius," "Farmer's Castle at Belpre," "Wolf Creek Mills," "The Blennerhassett Mansion" and "Marietta at the Point in 1792" originally published in "Hildreth's Pioneer History" and in numerous other works, were all copies from his drawings, made from data supplied to him from the pioneers. He held various public offices, as county auditor, postmaster at Marietta under Lincoln. He died Dec. 22, 1890, in his eighty-sixth year. He was gentle, unselfish and much beloved. He left a widow, a daughter, Mrs. Dawes, the wife of Maj. R C. Dawes, and a son, Mr. C. H. Bosworth, Vice-President Illinois H. & S. R. R Co.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
ISRAEL WARD ANDREWS was born in Danbury, Conn., Jan. 3, 1815. He graduated at Williams College in 1837, and taught an academy at Lee, Mass., for one year, when he was appointed tutor at Marietta College, Ohio.
In April, 1839, he was elected professor of mathematics and upon the resignation of Dr. Smith in 1855 became the president of the college. In his administration of the affairs of the college he was eminently successful, not only as an educator; but in its financia1 affairs as well. One whom he taught has written:
"Dr. Andrews had no superior as an instructor and disciplinarian. He was one of the ablest mathematicians of the day, and before a college class he was an inspiration. No one of the five or six hundred graduates of Marietta College can ever forget his perspicuous, forcible and exhaustive methods in the classroom. The dullest and most diffident student was made at ease, and taught to express in the best way what he knew, and, in addition, every student was instructed in what he did not know. "
Throughout his long service of thirty years as President of Marietta College Dr. Andrews was a hard student, giving to every subject thorough and careful investigation. His published writings are forceful, clear and concise, and marked by careful thought and deep research into every particular of the subject in hand. His "Manual of the Constitution" has been widely adopted as a textbook for instruction in the principles of the American government.
His investigations and contributions to current magazines, on the history of the Northwest Territory and early Ohio history, are extensive and of great value.
Dr. Andrews was one of the chief promoters of the celebration of Ohio's centennial in 1888, but died in Hartford, Conn., a few days later, April 18th, without having been able to participate in the patriotic celebrations he had labored so ardently to make successful.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
WILLIAM P. CUTLER, son of Judge Ephraim Cutler, and grandson of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, was born in Warren township, Washington county, Ohio, July 12, 1812. He entered Ohio University in the class which graduated in 1833, but in health obliged him to leave college during his junior year. He was thrice elected to the Ohio legislature, acting as speaker in the session of 1846-47. He was a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1851. In 1860 was elected to Congress. His congressional career is marked for his strong denunciation of slavery. Mr. Cutler was a prime mover in the development of the railroad system of southeastern Ohio. His career was active and of great usefulness to the community in which he dwelt. Every public measure for the advancement of its interests found in him a leader. Mr. Cutler married, Nov. 1, 1849, Elizabeth Voris, daughter of Dr. William Voris. His death occurred in 1889.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
GEN. JOHN EATON was born in Sutton, N. H., Dec. 5, 1829. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1854, and for two years was principal of a school in Cleveland, Ohio; superintendent of schools of Toledo, Ohio, 1856-9.
He then studied for the ministry, and was ordained by the presbytery of Maumee, Ohio, in Sept., 1861. He entered the army as chaplain of the 27th O. V. L in Oct., 1863, he was appointed colonel of the 53d U. S. Colored Infantry, and received the brevet of brigadier-general in March, 1865. After the war he settled in Tennessee, became editor of the Memphis Post, and was elected State Superintendent of public schools in 1866. He was appointed U. S. commissioner of education in 1870, and served in that capacity until Aug., 1886, when be became president of Marietta College. The following is from Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography:
”The Bureau of Education at the time of his appointment had but two clerks, not over a hundred volumes belonged to it, and no museum of educational illustrations and appliances; but when he resigned there were thirty-eight assistants, and a library including 18,000 volumes and 47,000 pamphlets. Gen. Eaton represented the Department of the Interior at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. He was chief of the department of education for the New Orleans Exposition, and organized that vast exhibition; was president of the International Congress of Education held there, and vice president of the International Congress of Education held in Havre, France. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Rutgers in 1872, and that of LL.D. from Dartmouth in 1876. Gen. Eaton is a member of many learned associations, and has published numerous addresses and reports on education and the public affairs with which he has been connected.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
BENJAMIN DANA FEARING, grandson of Hon. Paul Fearing, the first lawyer of the Northwest Territory, was born in Harmar, Ohio, Oct. 13, 1837, and died there Dec. 9, 1881. He graduated at Marietta College in 1856.
In April, 1861, he enlisted in the 2d O. V. L. and took part in the battle of Bull Run. On Dec. 17th he was made major of the 77th. Ohio, which under his fearless leadership, distinguished itself by conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Shiloh. On March 22, 1863, he was promoted to a colonelcy. At Chickamauga he again distinguished himself by his superior courage, and was severely wounded in this battle.
In March, 1864, he returned to his regiment, and in December was brevetted brigadier-general for "gallant and meritorious services during the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Savannah." He commanded a brigade in Sherman's march to the sea, and was again wounded at Bentonville, where he lead a glorious charge that "probably turned the fortunes of the day."
After the war he engaged in business in Cincinnati, but was compelled to withdraw from active life on account of precarious health resulting from his wounds. He returned to his old home in Harmar, where the last years of his life were spent in literary pursuits.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
RUFUS R. DAWES was born in Marietta, Ohio, July 4, 1833; graduated at Marietta College in 1860. The beginning of the war found him in Juneau county, Wis. He at once raised a company, and May 13, 1881, was commissioned captain of Company K. 6th Wisconsin. Capt. Dawes served with this regiment throughout the war, assuming command of it in May, 1864. Col. Dawes regiment had very severe service, and participated in a large number of engagements. Only nine regiments in the war suffered greater loss in killed and wounded. Col. Dawes was mustered out Aug. 10, 1865, by reason of expiration of service. March 13, 1865, he was commissioned brevet brigadier-general. Gen. Dawes married, Jan. 18, 1864, Mary B. Gates, daughter of Beman Gates, of Marietta. In 1880 he was elected to Congress, and has since been prominently mentioned as the candidate of the Republican party for the governorship of Ohio. Brevet Lieut.-Col. E. C. Dawes, Commander Ohio Commandery Loyal Legion U. S., is a brother.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
FRANCES DANA GAGE was born in Marietta, Ohio, Oct. 12, 1808, and died in Greenwich, Conn., Nov. 10, 1884. Her father, Col. Joseph Barker, was one of the early settlers of Marietta. The following sketch of Mrs. Gage's career is from Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography:
Miss Barker married, in 1829. James L. Gage, a lawyer of McConnellsville, Ohio. She early became an active worker in the temperance, anti-slavery and woman's rights movements, and in 1851 presided over a woman' s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, where her opening speech attracted much attention. She removed in 1853 to St. Louis, where she was often threatened with violence on account of her anti-slavery views, and twice suffered from incendiarism. In 1857-58 she visited Cuba, St. Thomas and Santo Domingo, and on her return wrote and lectured on her travels. She afterward edited an agricultural paper in Ohio; but when the civil war began she went south, ministered to the soldiers, taught the freedmen, and, without pay, acted as an agent of the sanitary commission at Memphis, Vicksburg and Natchez. In 1863-64 she was superintendent, under Gen. Rufus Saxton, of Paris Island, S. C., a refuge for over 500 freedmen. She was afterward crippled by the overturning of a carriage in Galesburg, TIL, but continued to lecture on temperance till Aug., 1867, when she was disabled by a paralytic shock. Mrs. Gage was the mother of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity. Four of her sons served in the National Army in the civil war. Mrs. Gage wrote many stories for children, and verses under the pen name of 'Aunt Fanny.' She was an early contributor to the Saturday Review, and published 'Poems' (Philadelphia, 1872); 'Elsie Magoon, or The Old Still-House' (1872); 'Steps Upward' (1873); and 'Gertie's Sacrifice.'
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
DON CARLOS BUELL was born in Lowell, near Marietta, Ohio, March 23, 1818. His grandfather, Captain Timothy Buell, is said to have built the first brick house in Cincinnati. His father's death, and the second marriage of his mother, resulted in his being taken by his uncle, Geo. P. Buell, to Lawrenceburg, Ind., where he spent his boyhood days.
In 1841 he graduated from West Point, and was assigned to duty as brevet lieutenant of the 3d Infantry. He served during the Mexican war, and was severely wounded at Churubusco. At the beginning of the civil war he was serving as adjutant-general at Washington. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers May 17, 1861. Of his military career we give the following summary, abridged from Appleton's Biographical Encyclopedia:
After assisting in organizing the army in Washington he was assigned to a division in the Army of the Potomac, which became distinguished for its discipline. In November he superseded Gen. W. T. Sherman in the Department of the Cumberland, which was reorganized as that of the Ohio.
Early in December he entered upon the campaign which resulted in his troops entering Nashville March 25th, supported by gunboats.
He was promoted major-general of volunteers on March 21, 1862, and on the same day his district was incorporated with that of Mississippi, commanded by Gen. Halleck . He arrived with part of the division on the battle-field of Shiloh near the dose of the first day's action. The next day three of his divisions came up, and the Confederates were driven back to Corinth. On June 12th he took command of the district of Ohio.
In July and August Gen. Bragg's army advanced into Kentucky, and Gen. Buell was obliged to evacuate central Tennessee and retreat to Louisville, which he reached Sept. 24 1862. On Sept. 30th Gen. Buell was ordered to turn over his command to Gen. Thomas, but was restored the same day. The next day he began to pursue the Confederates, and met them in battle at Perryville. The action began early in the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1862, and was hotly contested until dark, with heavy losses on both sides. The next morning Gen. Bragg withdrew to Harrodsburg, and then slowly retreated to Cumberland Gap. Gen. Buell pursued him, but was blamed for not moving swiftly enough to bring on another action, and on the 24th was succeeded in his command by Gen. Rosecrans. A military commission appointed to investigate his operations made a report, which has never been published. Gen. Buell was subsequently offered commands under Generals Sherman and Canby, but declined them.
He was mustered out of the volunteer service on May 23, 1864, and on June 1st resigned his commission in the regular army, having been before the military commission from Nov. 24, 1862, til1 May 10, 1863. He became president of the Green River Iron Works of Kentucky in 1865, and subsequently held the office of pension agent at Louisville, Ky.
Gen. Buell is reserved in manner, cultivated and polished. His replies to the attacks made upon himself in the public press are written with great force and pungency, impressing the reader with & high opinion of his ability. Whitelaw Reid says he is "one of the most accomplished military scholars of the old army, and one of the most unpopular generals of volunteers during the war of the rebellion -an officer who oftener deserved success than won it -who was, perhaps, the best organizer of an army that the contest developed, and who was certainly the hero of the greatest of the early battle of the war."
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
MRS. CATHARINE FAY EWING was born in Westboro, Mass., July 18, 1822. She was the daughter of a farmer. Eleven years later her parents removed to Marietta. She was bred to the profession of a teacher, and taught a mission school among the Choctaw Indians for ten years. Her salary was her board and $l00 a year. While among them her sympathies were aroused for an infant left forsaken and friendless In a drunken spree this child was killed accidentally by a party of Indians. The sight threw her into a state of nervous prostration, and it was long before she recovered. It resulted in a determination to start a children's home at the earliest opportunity. Soon after she returned to Marietta, and visiting the county infirmary was so shocked at seeing little children receiving their first impressions of life in the midst of such degradation and woe, that she at once took steps to found a home for them. The directors of the infirmary eventually acceded to her proposition.
1. This was to take charge of them in a home that she would build for $1.00 per capita, a week.
2. They to supply a new suit of clothes when she should take them.
3. They to pay one-half the cost of medical attendance, and in case of death the burial expenses.
Her pecuniary means to carry out her project were ridiculously meagre. She had saved about $200 in the couple of years from her slender salary as a teacher, which with a legacy of $160, and $150 borrowed from a friend, amounted to $500 in all. With this, in 1857, she purchased twelve acres of land on Moss Run, ten miles east of Marietta, and began the erection of a home. There was a cottage on the farm of two rooms when she bought it. Into this cottage on the 1st of April, 1858, she received from the county poor-house nine children, eight of them boys, and all under ten years of age - four of them were babes.
On the 1st of May she took five of these children to the district school. On her arrival she found sixteen men by the door, who told her she should not take her little paupers among their children. She replied: "I am not afraid of you; I know I am right, and you are wrong;" and persisting, in she went. The teacher told her that he could not keep them without permission of the three trustees, who were among the sixteen men. Next Monday she went to Marietta., and got an appointment from the court as guardian over the children, which gave her full authority, and the second time she went to school with the children. Again was she confronted if the school door by thirteen men, two of whom were the trustees, who felt chagrined at the idea of the association of their children with paupers, for that neighborhood was composed of old Virginia families, who inherited a full share of their ancestral pride. Time with its developments changed all this, especially as the institution, by the increase of children for that district, lessened their school tax, the State disbursing a certain amount per capita for each scholar.
In the following August the permanent Home Building was finished. It had twenty rooms, and of the joy with which they moved in, why it cannot be written. This building cost full $2000, but she managed it all with the meagre income of which we have spoken and the credit which she got from the builder. In five years she had expended $4000 on the property, and cancelled every debt.
She relates some curious incidents. The name was as an inspiration "One night after I had been thinking over this matter I had a dream, in which appeared a wall on which in red block letters were two words: 'CHILDREN'S HOME.' I never," she says "ever mentioned this before to anyone, but I do it to you because it is the truth.
"On an afternoon I left the home for a visit of an hour or two with my sister in the neighborhood, leaving the home in charge of my four hired girls, with about twenty-five children. I had been there but a few moments when I seemed to bear a voice saying: 'You must go!' I sprang up to obey the summons, telling my sister. She ridiculed me for my folly. Again I sat down, when again louder than before came the summons: 'You must go!' and I went. What possessed me to go into the basement I do not know, but there I went. The four girls were together playing with the babes in the upper rooms. In the basement was a pile of shavings, in the midst of which was a meat-block:, and there I found the boys, twelve in number, amusing themselves by bringing hot coals from the kitchen fire, placing them on the block as on an anvil, and beating them with clubs to see the sparks fly. The shavings were smoking in several places, and in one a blaze had started. To seize a pail of water and put out the fire was but the work of a moment.
Wanting some lumber for building purposes a neighbor whom I shall here call Mr. Smith, a man of bad reputation, brought me what he said was 1800 feet. I told him that I would have my carpenters measure it, and, if they found it correct, would take it at his price. He flew into a passion that I should doubt his word in the matter. My carpenters found it some 400 feet short. I took it at that, and gave him my note, payable in three month amount, $20.30.
In a little short of three weeks, one Friday it was, Smith came to me and said I must be ready for that note on the next Monday, or he would sue me. I was completely taken aback, and asked to see the note. Then I discovered that he had altered the word "months" to "weeks." I was in great distress. The idea of being sued and thus disgraced before my children and the community was terrible, lone woman as I was. When Smith left I retired to my room, and threw my burden at the feet of Christ. Relief was instant, as it always was. The next morning I answered a knock at the door, and there stood a young gentleman of about thirty years of age in light clothes, and with the blackest eyes I think I ever saw.
He asked: "Are you Miss Fay, the matron of this institution? " "I am." "Here is a package for you."
With that he turned on his heel, and before in my astonishment I could even thank him disappeared.
Who he was, where he came from, or where he went, I never was able to learn from that day to this, now over twenty years ago. On opening I found it to contain exactly the amount of my note, $20.30.
"Many of my neighbors had strange ideas of my work. They thought it a mere money-making scheme, and an injury to them, as they paid taxes to the State, and they tried to injure me. At night they opened my gates and let in hogs and cattle upon my garden and fields, and killed my chickens. Once when I went to take one of my children to a home I found on my return fifty-two of my sixty chickens dead."
In June, 1860, her family were attacked with diphtheria, and sickness lasted for months. Her hired girls left her, and on the day the last left she was sick also. "I crawled downstairs and found things in a dreadful condition. The children gathered around me so pleased to have me with them again, and with the help of the two oldest, a girl of twelve and a boy of thirteen. I went to work to set things in order, but soon the sick upstairs needed my attention. I was too weak to walk, I had to creep on my hands and knees. There lay six dear children, very sick, one of whom died next day. Thus it went on for weeks. Many a day I had no one to speak to but the children.
"The hardest time came one evening when I knew that one of the little ones could not live through the night. I dreaded to be alone, and just at night I sent one of the boys to ask a neigh bar to come and stay at least part of the night. He returned with the answer: 'Tell old Kate she was paid for taking care of the children, and now she might do it.' When the boy told me this I broke down and cried, until one of the children came and put his arm round my neck, and said: 'God can take care of us. ' 'So he can,' I said; 'I will trust in him.' Nor did I trust in vain, for before dark Dr. Beckwith came, bringing his wife with him."
Mrs. Ewing's enterprise was sneered at by many, who regarded it as a great folly; but her strength was in her utmost faith in God, and in many instances aid seemed to come almost miraculously. Her motto always was "never let up." To pause is misery, to move is, in some unseen way, joy and perhaps eventual victory.
God raised up friends for her. He always does. The cititens of Marietta and Harmar by two entertainments at one time raised $400, and lifted her out of debt.
At the close of the war two-thirds of the children were soldiers' orphans. At that period the donations were less frequent, and at the same time were more greatly needed; for the war had caused the prices of goods and clothing to greatly increase. At this period she had thirty-six children. Her allowance for the care of each child was raised to $1.25 per week. In her reports to the county commissioners she plead for a Soldiers' Orphans' Home, and, as a consequence, was the establishment of the noble institution at Xenia.
Early in her career, on account of the many epithets applied to her children by the other children at the district school, and the annoyance she had in receiving anonymous letters containing threats of mobbing and burning, she decided to build a school-room and employ a teacher at the home. During the ten years she had charge of the home 101 indigent children were taken care of by her, she finding homes for them as opportunity offered.
Through these years of trial, the greatest care of all being to meet her expenses, she found time to exert an influence upon the public mind to ask for legislation upon the subject of children's homes, and in the years 1866-67 an act was passed by which a home could be established in every county if so desired. As soon as this was effected a purchase of a farm of l00 acres was made two miles from Marietta on the bank of the Muskingum for $18,000. When the plan was perfected, and everything was in readiness to receive the children, Miss Fay, who had married six months before Mr. Ewing, a farmer by avocation, was soon to remove the family to the Children's Home; she received a letter asking if she would like the superintendent of the new home, adding that a farmer had been hired to manage the farm. She replied, "When you leave my husband out you leave me out also. " Thus was the connection severed between the mother of this first home and her family. She clothed them all, as she expresses it, in flannel, and gave them many garments and bedding beside, and near the 1st of April, 1868, these children, thirty-six in number, entered the first home established by law.
This, the first Children's Home on the "Ohio Plan," is justly a matter of pride with the citizens of Washington county for the great work of good it is doing, and the ability shown in its management. The home has now an average of over one hundred children, ranging in age from a few months to sixteen years. The property is valued at forty thousand dollars. It is supported by direct taxation and the income from the farm.
History of Washington County, Ohio 1788-1889
by Henry Howe
Published 1898
Click here to return to biography index.