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"Uncle Billy
Snider"
Everyone of any considerable age
in Fayette county will
readily recall the title "Uncle Billy
Snider." He was born in Redstone, Pennsylvania,
in 1805. His parents removed to Ross county,
Ohio, in 1805, soon after his birth. From there
they moved into Fayette county
in 1809. When grown to man's estate Billy
engaged in the live stock trade and followed it for
more than sixty years. He bought and drove cattle,
sheep and hogs to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York
cities. This was long before Ohio
had a railroad within her borders, and many
droves were thus taken overland on foot to the Eastern
markets. Billy went on his horse and was accompanied
by one man for each hundred hogs or cattle or sheep,
and these helpers went on foot the entire distance.
One winter he took a drove of hogs to Baltimore. There
were in that drove thirty-three hundred swine, and
upon his arrival he found a glutted market, and as a
result he lost over three thouand dollars in his
enterprise. The distance from Fayette
county to Baltimore is four hundred and seventy
miles. It required from forty to forty-five days'
travel to make the distance through a country wild and
its streams all unbridged and no modern pike roads
either!
The
swine of those days, three-quarters of a century ago,
were not of the fat, slick porkers of today, but of
the "elm peeling" type—lean, lank and long
in make-up.
When
passing through the Alleghany mountains with his
droves, Mr. Snider frequently met with many exciting
experiences with thieves and robbers. On one occasion
he stayed all night at a farm house on the mountain
side, and the next morning when ready to leave he
discovered that ten of his drove of hogs were missing.
He and the farmer tracked them up the side of the
mountain, the frost-covered leaves assisting them to
follow their trail. They located them in a rail pen in
the bushes. There they had remained most all night.
They were turned loose and were seemingly only too
glad to be released and speedily found the drove at
the foot of the mountains.
On
another occasion Mr. Snider drove three hundred and
twenty-nine stock hogs to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and
there sold them to a hotel keeper. He remained over
night at the same hotel and had on his person six
thousand dollars in money, all in his pocket books.
Not feeling well that night he did not sleep as sound
as usual, and well it was, too. About midnight he
heard muffled footsteps coming up the stairs toward
his room. He waited until the robber really entered
his room and commenced feeling about his head and
pillow, whereupon he jumped up and exclaimed,
"Leave this room at once or I will blow your
brains out." He left, too! As a matter of fact
Uncle Billy did not have any firearms with him.
At
another time he dropped his pocketbook from a pocket
that had a hole in it. When he missed it, he was out
some distance from the place he had last stopped at,
and soon retraced his steps. Upon going into a small
store, he saw some men looking at something on the
counter, and enquired if they had found any money.
Replying that they had, they never once questioned
him, but gave the whole amount over to him.
"Billy" thought he had struck a very honest
neighborhood. The pocketbook contained seven thousand
dollars.
In
pioneer days Uncle Billy "married" a good
many couples in Fayette
county, and it is related that his favorite
ceremony was as follows:
"Dark
and dismal is the weather
When
I tie this rogue and score together.
Since you are so well agreed
Great
success the young Indian breed;
Wild-cat Jo and Apple Lucia,
Great
success the young papooses,
Let rain, hail and thunder
Put
this rogue and score together
Salute your partner."
"kelly"
Dixon, The Aged Pedestrian
John
Kelly Dixon, known far and near as "Kelly"
Dixon, a resident of this county
and aged ninety-one years, has a unique and
interesting record, he having been a California
"Forty-niner," at a time when crossing over
from the states to the Pacific coast was no pleasure
excursion. He was the son of Thomas and Margaret
Dixon, born in Bedford county,
Virginia, and when ten years old accompanied
his parents to Ohio, walking
four hundred miles. Until he
was twenty-five years of age he farmed and cleared up
timber and split rails at fifty cents a day and
received three dollars an acre for clearing up some
timber land. He boarded himself and subsisted on a
wild game, fish and corn bread diet. He was a dead
shot with a rifle and killed many wild turkeys a
hundred yards distant. In 1850 he was attracted, with
thousands more, to the newly discovered gold fields of
California. With him were his brother, Ellis Dixon,
Henry Hoppes and Joseph Sperry, who started out with a
mule team—four mules and a big wagon. From
Washington C. H. they made their way direct to
Cincinnati, Ohio, and
from there took boat passage for St. Louis, from which
place they started with their mules for the Golden
Gate on the far-off Pacific. En route they crossed
three great deserts, one ninety miles wide, one forty
miles wide and another thirty miles wide. After
traveling six hundred miles on the plains, they came
into a region where cholera was raging and people were
daily dying. Mr. Dixon's brother, Ellis, took the
dread disease and died. Saddened by the loss of his
brother and comrade. Dixon and Mr. Hoppes continued on
their journey to California, their first stop being
the then small village of Georgetown. Here they made
big wages digging gold, but after two weeks Mr. Dixon
decided to try his luck in other parts of California,
bade Hoppes good bye and went on alone. Chancing to-
fall in with a man of his liking, he formed a
partnership with him, and they were both quite
successful in gold-mining, but soon his partner
sickened and died, leaving him alone again in a
strange land. But by rare good fortune, he fell in
with two of his old company and they all started for
the northern mining section. This trip was among the
most trying of all his western experience. The little
band met several tribes of Indians, suspicious and
unfriendly. For a time things looked gloomy, but the
gold diggers sang and danced and finally won their way
into the good graces of the Indians, and were allowed
to go on their way unmolested. Starvation then
threatened them. During two weeks of their time they
were in northern California and they had nothing to
live on but taffy made from sugar and water. For a
time they tried mining in Oregon, but in that were not
successful, so returned to California. Again Dixon was
left alone, but in a rich field where he had the
highest returns of his sojourn in California, making
as high as forty dollars a day. He traveled two
hundred and twenty miles alone, making from fifty to
sixty miles a day, and by good fortune escaped from
Indians, bears and wolves.
During his entire trip he
traveled through thirteen bands of Indians, some
friendly and some savage and unfriendly to the white
race. After a
year in California he boarded a boat for
Mexico. He was thirty days on the Pacific coast and upon
reaching Mexico made his best pedestrian record of one
thousand miles, walking to Vera Cruz, from which city he
went to New Orleans by boat and over into the Mississippi
river, headed north for Cairo, Illinois. From that city he
walked four hundred miles to Cincinnati, finally arriving
at Washington C. H. January i, 1852. He was an early
convert to the gospel of work and continued to follow it
so long as his age and strength would permit.
AN AGED NATIVE-BORN CITIZEN
In April,
1913, the Ohio Register
spoke of an aged man, a native of this county,
as follows: "Wallace Creamer, of Jefferson
township, passed his ninety-fourth milestone yesterday. He
is a pioneer citizen of Fayette
county in whom all are justly proud. He is one of
the wealthy land owners, whose ninety-fourth birthday was
last Wednesday. He is truly a wonderful man and is
approaching his century milestone with the spirits of a
boy, with faculties preserved and undimmed interest in the
affairs of the church and nation. Mr. Creamer has voted
for every Republican President since the formation of that
party, and is a most loyal supporter of that political
party. He was born and raised on the Creamer homestead,
near Parrott's Station. He is rounding out his ripe old
age on the same spot where he was born. It is the ardent
wish of a large family and many friends that he may
celebrate many more birthdays in the same happy manner
that he has this year.
"Mr.
Creamer married and reared a family of honor in this county.
Mrs. Kate Worthington, mother of Mrs. J. D. Post,
is a sister of Mr. Creamer, and she has passed her
ninetieth birthday."
At this date
(October, 1914) Mr. Creamer is still living and full of
vigor and takes his usual interest in the affairs of the
world.
FAYETTE
PIONEER AT FORT MEIGS.
A
considerable number of the first settlers in Fayette
county had served as soldiers in the last war
with Great Britain, the War of 1812-14. Among this
number was Batteal Harrison, who was a representative
in the Ohio Legislature—the
first from this county. He
was later an associate judge and a man of unusual
importance to the first settlement. He participated in
the engagement at Fort Meigs, under command of Captain
Langham. The following
description of that awful engagement has been well
written by historian Henry Howe, and reads as follows:
Soon
after the active operations began around the fort,
Gen. William Henry Harrison received word that Gen.
Green Clay was near at hand with a reinforcement of
twelve hundred men. The plan was for Clay to descend
the river in flat-boats; Clay was to detach eight
hundred men, who should be landed on the left bank of
the river, where they were to attack the English
batteries, spike the cannons and destroy the
carriages, then retreat to the fort, while the
remainder of the troops were to land on the side next
to the fort and cut their way to it through the
Indians. When Clay approached the fort, he detached
Colonel Dudley to attack the batteries. To divert the
attention of the English and Indians, General Harrison
ordered Colonel Miller, with his famous Fourth
Regulars, to make a sortie on the side of the river on
which the fort stood. He attacked the barriers, spiked
the cannon, and, though the English outnumbered him,
he took about forty prisoners and completely routed
them. Colonel Dudley raised the Indian yell and
captured the batteries on the opposite side of the
river, but, neglecting to spike the cannon, and
lingering on the spot, his scouts were fired upon by
the Indians in ambush. Indians began to swarm around
him; Tecumseh swam across the river with his savage
hordes upon his rear; Colonel Dudley fell by the
tomahawk, and scarcely two hundred out of the eight
hundred men reached the fort. The American prisoners
were taken to old Fort Miami, in which they were
confined. Here the infamous Proctor allowed the
Indians to butcher the Americans with the tomahawk and
scalping-knife and torture them as their fancy
dictated. He is said to have witnessed the massacre of
over twenty prisoners in this place. Tecumseh now made
his appearance, ignorant of what was going on inside
of the fort. A British officer described his conduct,
on this occasion, to an American. He said that
suddenly a thundering voice was heard speaking in the
Indian tongue; he looked around and saw Tecumseh,
riding as fast as his horse could carry him, to a spot
where two Indians had an American, killing him.
Tecumseh sprang from his horse and catching one Indian
by the throat and the other by the breast, threw them
to the ground. The chief then drew his tomahawk and
scalping-knife and, running between the prisoner and
the Indians, brandished his weapons madly and dared
any of the hundreds of Indians around him to touch
another prisoner. His people seemed much confounded.
Tecumseh exclaimed, passionately, "Oh! what will
become of my Indians!'' He then enquired where General
Proctor was, when, suddenly seeing him at a short
distance, he demanded of the
commander why he had allowed this massacre.
"Sir," said Proctor, "your Indians
cannot be commanded." "Begone!"
answered the wily old chief sneeringly, "you are
unfit to command; go and put on petticoats."
HON.
MILLS GARDNER AN EPITOME.
The late
ex-congressman from this county,
Hon. Mills Gardner, an honored pioneer of
Washington C. H., is entitled in this chapter to the
following epitome. His biography appears elsewhere in
the work:
Born
January 30, 1830.
Left
school at the age of fourteen years. -A store clerk
until twenty-five years of age. - Married October,
1851.
Admitted to
the bar in 1855. - 1855 sent as delegate to state
convention that nominated Salmon P. Chase.
Elected
prosecuting attorney two terms. - 1862, member of Ohio
State Senate.
1864,
presidential elector on Lincoln ticket. - 1866, member
of Ohio House of
Representatives.
1872,
member of State Constitutional Convention. - 1876,
elected to seat in United States Congress.
Died
February 20, 1910. - A type of noble manhood.
JUDGE
RICHARD A. HARRISON.
This
distinguished lawyer and honored citizen, while
not a resident, practiced law in Fayette
county nearly a half century, and by reason
of his strong personality and rare judicial mind,
won the esteem and confidence of many within this county,
who will recall his fair decisions and his
noble traitsof manhood. He passed from earth's
shining circle in August, 1904. He was born April
8, 1824, in Thirsk, Yorkshire, England, the son of
a mechanic who was also a local preacher of the
Methodist Episcopal church. With his parents young
Harrison came to America in 1832, the family
settling in Warren county,
but subsequently removed to Springfield,
where the subject of this memoir worked on the Republic,
a. newspaper of that city, when aged about
twelve years. In his after years he was classed
among such noted characters as Stanley Mathews,
Judge Hoadley, Judge Rufus S. Ranney and
others of his day. In his office he frequently
vacillated, but before the court he never wavered.
He studied every feature of the case—both
sides—and was never caught by the wiley traps
sometimes set by opposite attorneys. While he knew
both sides of all cases he tried, he never showed
this fact before the court and jury—one side was
his to contend for and there was none other to him
before the courts.
Of
Judge Harrison's early career it should be
recorded that he commenced to study law in the
office of Judge Rodgers, of Springfield, Ohio.
After eighteen months there he entered the
Cincinnati Law School, the first such institution
established west of the Alleghany mountains. He
graduated in the spring of 1846 and by virtue of
his diploma was admitted to the bar oh his
twenty-second birthday, April 8, 1846, at London, Ohio.
He had many celebrated cases, some of which
were fought out before the supreme court. Among
such noted cases at law may be recalled that in
which the proceedings attacked the patents of the
Bell Telephone Company. In this case he had
associated with him Governor Hendricks, of
Indiana, and J. J. Starrow, of Boston.
Politically, Judge Harrison
was first a Whig and later a Republican. In 1857
he was elected to a seat in the General Assembly,
being in the House. In 1859 he was elected to the
State Senate. He there served with such noted
law-makers as Gen. James A. Garfield, Jacob D.
Cox, Thomas C. Jones and E. A. Ferguson. In 1861,
when Gov. Thomas Corwin was appointed as minister
to Mexico, his place as congressman was filled by
Judge Harrison, who was appointed to such
position. He retired from public life in 1863. In
1875 Governor R*. B. Hayes appointed him as a
member of the supreme court commission for Ohio,
but he respectfully declined, as did he
upon the death of Judge William W. Johnson, in
1887, when Governor Foraker tendered him a seat on
the supreme bench. He preferred the private
practice of law to holding public offices.
Among the paragraphs in the
fine set of resolutions by the bar association,
after his death, occurs these words: "He was
the ideal lawyer, statesman and citizen. Truly a
great man has fallen. Nevertheless he lives and he
was a man who in his profession and his every walk
of life is worthy of emulation and
veneration."
HON.
MARSHALL J. WILLIAMS.
This
deceased member of the state supreme court was
born in Fayette county,
Ohio, February 22, 1837, and died at
Columbus, July 7, 1902. His father was Dr. Charles
M. Williams, who was a native of Clermont county,
this state. The
parents resided in Fayette
county nearly all the years of their
married life. The father was a noted physician of
his day. Judge Williams, of whom this memoir
treats especially, was permitted to attend the
common schools, but had a hard time at trying to
secure a higher education, but finally mastered
all obstacles and became a learned man. Aside from
two years at Delaware College he had no school
advantages outside the common district school.
Before he had reached the age of twenty years he
had taught a number of terms of district school,
at the same time studying law. In 1857, when he
was about twenty years old, knowing that he was
qualified to practice law, but also knowing that
he had to wait another year before he could be
admitted in Ohio, he
went west to Iowa, where age made no difference,
and there he was at once examined and admitted to
the bar. He remained and practiced there for one
year, then, being seized with a home-sickness for
his native state, he returned and opened a law
office in Washington C. H. He continued in the
practice until 1884, when he was elected judge of
the second district circuit court. The year after
he returned from Iowa, 1859, he was elected
prosecuting attorney for Fayette
county and was re-elected in 1861. In 1869
he was honored by being elected to a seat in the Ohio
Legislature, and was re-elected in 1871. In
1884, when the circuit court of Ohio
was created, he was elected a judge in that
court, and was soon its chief justice. He served
two years on the circuit bench and in 1886 was
elevated to the state supreme court. In 1891 he
was re-elected and still again in 1896, serving
almost sixteen years on the supreme bench of the
state.
As a
judge the name of Marshall J. Williams will be
honored as one of the greatest jurists of his
generation, and will stand in fame among the
ablest of any age. In the social relations of
life, among his neighbors and acquaintances, he
was highly respected, and in his profession was
admired and beloved by all the attorneys. His
moral character was above reproach and unsullied.
He was ever a true gentleman, honest and upright,
commanding the respect of all within the large
scope of his activities. His influence was always
on the side of right and good order.
Hon.
A. R. Creamer, a fellow associate, used these
words in his eulogy over Judge Williams: "He
needs no bronze statue or granite shaft to
perpetuate his memory. His decisions will be read,
studied and followed in the legal profession and
the courts for a thousand years and as long as our
present form of government endures. A man's good
works are the most enduring monument to his
memory. Judge Williams could leave no richer
legacy to the public or to posterity than the
record of a pure, well-spent, honored life."
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