Historic Spots Marked

 The Marietta Times, December 17, 1891

Marietta, Ohio, November 20, 1891.

To the New Century Historical Society:

Your committee appointed at a recent meeting of the Society, to mark historical spots in and around Marietta, in attempting to discharge this duty, have found themselves surrounded with difficulties innumerable, and in this report, which is respectfully submitted, they but offer the results of broken history in support of their conclusions.

The Well at Fort Harmar, which for years has been disappearing in consequence of the crumbling of the river bank and the innovations of man, after diligent search was identified, and unmistakably marked by being covered at its mouth by an immense mill stone.*

The place of the Landing of the Pioneers April 7, 1788, (to one of your committee pointed out by one of that number, Amos Porter, many years since), was as nearly marked as possible, and the marking was as follows: An iron rod one inch in diameter and three feet eight inches in length, was driven even with the surface of the ground, near the mouth of Monroe street, on the bank of the Muskingum river, on the lower side of the gully, 71 feet from the southwest corner of the Dudley Devol house, which point is 10 degrees E of N from the iron rod. From the iron rod to the upper corner of the Nye Foundry, 122 feet 4 inches in southeast direction. The iron rod was placed 33 feet 2 inches in a direct line to outer curb of pavement 20 degrees northeast.

Picketed Point - Marked as follows: An iron rod, three feet eight inches long, driven even with the surface of the ground at the southwest corner, near the confluence of the rivers. This rod placed near the centre of the road now traveled, 122 feet 4 inches, 15 degrees W of N from the lower corner of office of Nye Foundry.

The southeast corner, marked by iron rod drive in landing 58 feet from the west corner of the Flat Iron Corner store house built and formerly owned by Dudley Woodbridge (near Boiler Corner); direction from rod 15 degrees west of north.

The northeast corner, marked as other corners, is back of the Ebinger building, now occupied by Mr. Sulzbacher, 90 feet from the east line of Front street, 12 feet 6 inches from the northeast corner of building, 106 feet from the south line of Butler street.

The northwest corner, marked by iron rod placed near Muskingum river bank 106 feet south of south line of Butler, 36 feet west of building.

For a more full account of the subject matter treated in this report, inquiring minds are referred to the invaluable work of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, entitled Pioneer History, published in 1848.

Your committee would respectfully ask further time for investigation, and to be allowed in the future to report upon other points of interest.

Committee:

George M. Woodbridge

William H. Leeper

J. D. Cadwallader

Note - *This is the stone spoken of as follows in Delafield's Washington County History in 1831, page 28: "In making a pair of mill stones out of a block from a quarry in Salem township, there were discovered the marks of some ancient working of the same stone, and on penetrating to the depth of a few inches, there was an iron wedge discovered, firmly imbedded in the rock. The stone with this wedge in it is now the upper mill stone in Mr. Merriam's mill in Salem township." Mr. M. in after years removed his mill to the Muskingum near mouth of Bear Creek, and this stone in 1887 was taken from the river by Capt. Sayre, Sidney Ridgway and G. M. Woodbridge.

Old Flat Iron Building is Being Torn Down

The Register-Leader, March 19, 1923

The building on the flat iron corner on lower Front Street is being dismantled preparatory to the building of a new structure. The old building had been one of Marietta's landmarks, having been built more than a hundred years ago, being one of Marietta's first business blocks.

A number of our readers will remember the time when that corner was the busiest place in Marietta, with Ohio Street and Greene Street as the business center. While much of the business has scattered, it is still a busy thoroughfare, more especially so since the building of the Ohio River bridge and the Norwood development.

Historic Spots Marked

The Marietta Times, December 17, 1891

Marietta, O., Nov. 20, 1891.

To the New Century Historical Society:

Your committee appointed at a recent meeting of the Society to mark historical spots in and around Marietta, in attempting to discharge this duty, have found themselves surrounded with difficulties innumerable and in this report, which is respectfully submitted, they but offer the results of broken history in support of their conclusions.

The Well at Fort Harmar, which for years has been disappearing in consequence of the crumbling of the riverbank and the innovations of man, after diligent search was identified and unmistakable marked by being covered at its mouth by an immense mill stone. Note - This is the stone spoken of as follows in Delafield's Washington County History in 1831, page 28: "In making a pair of mill stones out of a block from a quarry in Salem Township, there were discovered the marks of some ancient working of the same stone, and on penetrating to the depth of a few inches, there was an iron wedge discovered, firmly imbedded in the rock. The stone with this wedge in it is now the upper mill stone in Mr. Merriam's mill in Salem Township." Mr. M. in after years removed his mill to the Muskingum near mouth of Bear Creek, and this stone in 1887 was taken from the river by Capt. Sayre, Sidney Ridgeway and G. M. Woodbridge.

The place of the Landing of the Pioneers, April 7, 1788, (to one of your committee pointed out by one of that number, Amos Porter, many years since) was as nearly marked as possible, and the marking was as follows:

An iron rod once inch in diameter and three feet eight inches in length was driven even with the surface of the ground, near the mouth of Monroe Street, on the bank of the Muskingum River, on the lower side of the gully, 71 feet from the southwest corner of the Dudley Devol house, which point is 10 degrees E of N from the iron rod. From the iron rod to the upper corner of the Nye Foundry, 122 feet 4 inches in southeast direction. The iron rod was placed 33 feet 2 inches in a direct line to the outer curb of pavement 20 degrees northeast.

Picketed Point - Marked as follows: An iron rod, three feet eight inches long, driven even with the surface of the ground at the southwest corner, near the confluence of the rivers. This rod placed near the center of the road now traveled, 122 feet 4 inches, 15 degrees W of N from lower corner of office of Nye Foundry.

The southeast corner, marked by iron rod drive in landing 58 feet from the west corner of the Flat Iron Corner store house built and formerly owned by Dudley Woodbridge (near Boiler Corner); direction from rod 15 degrees west of north.

The northeast corner, marked as other corners, in back of the Ebinger building, now occupied by Mr. Sulzbacher, 90 feet from the east line of Front Street, 12 feet 6 inches from the northeast corner of building, 106 feet from the south line of Butler Street.

The northwest corner, marked by iron rod placed near Muskingum River bank 106 feet south of south line of Butler, 36 feet west of building.

For a more full account of the subject matter treated in this report, inquiring minds are referred to the invaluable work of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, entitled Pioneer History, published in 1848.

Your committee would respectfully ask further time for investigation, and to be allowed in the future to report upon other points of interest.

Committee:

George M. Woodbridge

William H. Leeper

J. D. Cadwallader

Charlotte Scott and the Emancipation Memorial

Charlotte Scott From the Library of Congress

The Marietta Register, April 20, 1865:

A Noble Offering By a Grateful Heart

Charlotte Scott, a colored woman living at Dr. Rucker's on Putnam Street, Marietta, wishes to show, in a substantial manner, her profound regard and high veneration for Hon. Abraham Lincoln, especially in his proclamation of freedom to the slaves. She has handed me five dollars to be applied towards rearing a monument in memory of the greatest man, in her estimation, that ever lived on earth. This noble thought, so far as I know, originated with herself. She thinks many colored persons would love to contribute for this purpose, in this region. She wishes me to act as their agent and receive their contributions and hand over the same to such agents as the government may hereafter appoint to rear said monument. I consent, and will keep a faithful record of all such contributions.

C. D. Battelle

[This $5 is to be the foundation of a fund to be applied toward the erection of the Monument to Abraham Lincoln, for which Rev. Mr. Battelle - a suitable person for the purpose - will receive further contributions, depositing the same in bank as received, until the time for its applications shall arrive. - Ed. Reg.]

The Marietta Register, July 17, 1873:

From the St. Louis Democrat.

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln.

Just after President Lincoln's death it was announced that a woman named Charlotte Scott, in Marietta, Ohio, had sent $5, "her first earnings in freedom," to Mr. Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to build a monument in memory of the Great Emancipator. The publication of this fact led to an enthusiastic response from several colored regiments in Tennessee, and other Western-Southern States, and there was at one time a good prospect that $100,000 would be raised. 

But the amount reached was only about $16,000, which was reduced by cost of collection and by several unsuccessful efforts to obtain a suitable design. But by increase of interest received the fund now in the hands of the Sanitary Commission is about $21,000, and we are gratified to announce that an order has been sent to Thomas Ball in Florence for a group to be executed in bronze, colossal size, which will, as we believe, give universal satisfaction. It has already been executed in marble, reduced size (four feet high), and has been seen by all visitors to Ball's studio during the last five years; for it was done by the artist immediately after the President's assassination, with the hope that it would be some day wanted to tell the emancipation story. One of the members of the Sanitary Commission, being in Florence two years ago, requesting Mr. Ball to keep it for the present use, and the fund having now reached the requisite amount, and photographs of the group having been received and approved, the design has been accepted and the order sent forward.

It is expected to be finished, including a white marble pedestal, 12 feet high, and delivered in Washington City in about two years, to be unveiled and dedicated perhaps on the anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death, in 1876.

The Marietta Register, May 18, 1876:

Charlotte Scott and the Lincoln Statue

To the Editor of the Cincinnati Gazette:

The first contribution to the Lincoln Statue Fund was made by Charlotte Scott, who was born the slave of Capt. William Scott, an officer of the Revolutionary War, who resided on his plantation, near Judith Dam, four miles above Lynchburg, Virginia. Upon a division of Capt. Scott's estate after his death, among his children, Charlotte fell by allotment to his son, Thomas H. Scott, who also received the old homestead. On this plantation Charlotte Scott was born and raised, and there lived until the marriage of Mr. Scott's daughter, Margaret Ann, with Dr. William S. Rucker, in 1852, when she, among other slaves, was given to Mrs. Rucker by her father. 

Dr. Rucker and his wife being strong Unionists, left their residence at Covington, Virginia, to escape rebel persecution; and Charlotte, in the face of great opposition from certain persons, was finally, mainly through the exertions of Col. Joel McPhearson of Lewisburg, West Virginia, permitted to accompany her mistress. Being once through the military lines, Mrs. Rucker took up residence in Marietta, Ohio, Charlotte remaining a member of the family. 

The assassination of Mr. Lincoln was announced while the family were at breakfast. All were sad and silent. Charlotte was the first to speak: "Well! Well! The best friend the colored folks ever had is dead! The colored folks ought to raise a monument to his memory! I will give $5 freely! The Lord knows I will!" And she immediately deposited the $5 in the hands of a gentleman for the purpose. After the Rebellion, she went back to the old homestead in Virginia and now resides on a small portion of it, to which she has a fee simple title.

The Marietta Tri-Weekly Register, January 29, 1891:

Charlotte Scott, a Marietta Woman, Dead

The Colored Woman Whose Name Appears on the Lincoln Statue Passes Away.

At 736 10th Street northwest in a frame tenement house of not very pretentious appearance lives a colored family, the members of which, representing three generations, are today mourning the death of Mrs. Charlotte Scott, a colored woman whose name at one time was doubtless upon the lips of every man and woman in the United States and is now read by the thousands who annually visit the Lincoln statue at Lincoln Park.

Inscribed upon one of the bronze tablets resting upon the base is the following:

Freedom's Memorial

In grateful memory of

Abraham Lincoln.

This monument was erected

By the Western Sanitary Commission

Of St. Louis, Mo.,

With funds contributed solely by

Emancipated citizens of the United States

Declared free by his proclamation

January 1, A.D. 1863.

The first contribution of five dollars was made

by Charlotte Scott, a freed woman of

Virginia, being her first earnings

in Freedom and consecrated

By her suggestion and request

On the day she heard of President Lincoln's

death to build a monument to his memory.

The woman whose name is thus honored died Saturday night, the 24th instant, at her home, Reusens, a little railroad station about four miles from Lynchburg, in the one hundred and ninth year of her age. As stated in the inscription, she was the first to contribute to the erection of a monument to Abraham Lincoln and at that time lived in Marietta, Ohio. It is said that when she heard of the assassination of the President she exclaimed: "Lord have mercy - Mr. Lincoln is killed! He ought to have a monument and I am going to give the last cent I have for it," and immediately contributed the sum of $5. The St. Louis Commission, as it is known, was soon afterward formed and, taking this $5 as a nucleus, collected the fund for the erection of the famous emancipation group that now adorns Lincoln Park.

THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE

took place April 14, 1876, and in order to honor the name and person who had made the first contribution, Mrs. Scott, through the instrumentality of Prof. J. M. Langston, who by authority of Congress was chairman of the committee, and Frederick Douglass, who was orator of the day, was brought on and given a prominent place in the procession and exercises. Her picture was taken and many thousands of them sold, from which a large revenue was derived and which was devoted to paying for the monument. While here she was the recipient of many attentions and met all the leading promoers of the scheme and many of the prominent men of the day.

A SKETCH OF HER LIFE

Charlotte Scott was born a slave on what is still known as the Scott plantation, near Lynchberg, and took and retained the name of her owners. Some years before the war she went to Marietta, Ohio, as the maid of Mrs. Dr. Rucker, nee Margaret Scott, and there she was set free some two years prior to the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln, January 1, 1863. Notwithstanding her freedom she returned to her old friends on the farm of her nativity shortly after the cessation of hostilities, and from the old folks readily obtained four acres of land, upon which she built a modest but comfortable home in order, as she said, to be near "her children," as she called the members of the Scott family to the day of her death. Her confidence in her "old folks" never flagged and it was not misplaced.

In this city lives her daughter, Mrs. China Brice; her granddaughter, Mrs. Alice Anderson Lewis, and her great-granddaughter, Mary Anderson, all at 736 10th street northwest. Mrs. Brice left last evening for Lynchberg, thence to Reusens to attend the funeral and burial ceremonies, which will take place tomorrow or Wednesday.

Mrs. Scott has twelve children, six sons, all of whom are dead, and six daughters, some of whom are well known among their race. Besides Mrs. China Brice of this city, there are Mrs. Celia Scott of Philadelphia, Mrs. Emma Turner of Baltimore, Mrs. Maria Williams of Lynchburg, Mrs. Mary Cole, who lives with her mother and Mrs. Rachel Scott, who lives in the same neighborhood. (Washington, D.C. Star)

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln

The Marietta Register, July 17, 1873:

From the St. Louis Democrat.

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln.

Just after President Lincoln's death it was announced that a woman named Charlotte Scott, in Marietta, Ohio, had sent $5, "her first earnings in freedom," to Mr. Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to build a monument in memory of the Great Emancipator. The publication of this fact led to an enthusiastic response from several colored regiments in Tennessee, and other Western-Southern States, and there was at one time a good prospect that $100,000 would be raised. 

But the amount reached was only about $16,000, which was reduced by cost of collection and by several unsuccessful efforts to obtain a suitable design. But by increase of interest received the fund now in the hands of the Sanitary Commission is about $21,000, and we are gratified to announce that an order has been sent to Thomas Ball in Florence for a group to be executed in bronze, colossal size, which will, as we believe, give universal satisfaction. It has already been executed in marble, reduced size (four feet high), and has been seen by all visitors to Ball's studio during the last five years; for it was done by the artist immediately after the President's assassination, with the hope that it would be some day wanted to tell the emancipation story. One of the members of the Sanitary Commission, being in Florence two years ago, requesting Mr. Ball to keep it for the present use, and the fund having now reached the requisite amount, and photographs of the group having been received and approved, the design has been accepted and the order sent forward.

It is expected to be finished, including a white marble pedestal, 12 feet high, and delivered in Washington City in about two years, to be unveiled and dedicated perhaps on the anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death, in 1876.

The Marietta Register, April 27, 1876:

The Lincoln Monument.  Dedicatory Exercises.

The Freedmen's monument to Lincoln, dedicated on the 14th, was the outgrowth of the enthusiasm of a poor slave, Charlotte Scott, now living at Lynchburg, Virginia. She was at the time in Marietta with her old master, who was a refugee. The following letter was the means of making Charlotte Scott's five dollars the nucleus for the monument fund:

St. Louis, April 26, 1865.

Jas. E. Yeatman, Esq.

My Dear Sir: A poor negro woman of Marietta, Ohio, one of those made free by President Lincoln's proclamation, proposes that a monument to their dead friend be erected by the colored people of the United States. She has handed to a person in Marietta five dollars as her contribution for the purpose. Such a monument would have a history more grand and touching than any of which we have account. Would not it be well to take up this suggestion and make it known to the freedmen?

Yours truly, T. C. H. Smith.

On the day of dedication Mr. Yeatman presided over the ceremonies and made the following statements:

In compliance with General Smith's suggestion, I published his letter, with a card, stating that any desiring to contribute to a fund for such a purpose that the Western Sanitary Commission would receive the same and see that it was judiciously appropriated as intended. In response to this communication liberal contributions were received

FROM COLORED SOLDIERS

under the command of General J. W. Davidson, headquarters at Natchez, Mississippi, amounting in all to $12,150. This was subsequently increased from other sources to $16,242.

From the liberal contributions made in the first instance, we are led to believe that a very much larger sum would have been subscribed. But, as our determination was to have a free-will offering without solicitation, we determined to rest with what was voluntarily contributed.

Harriet Hosmer, one of America's greatest sculptors, asked for permission to submit a design, which she did. It was one of great beauty and merit, and could it have been executed, it would have been one of the grandest and most beautiful monumental works of art ever erected in this or any other country. I mention this here as the design has doubtless been seen by some that are now present. It was published in the London Art Journal and other journals published in this and other countries. I trust yet that the gratitude of the freed people will prompt them to execute this grand design. I now proceed to give you the history of the Lincoln monument as adopted and executed.

One of the members of the Western Sanitary Commission, Rev. William G. Elliot, being in Florence in the autumn of 1869, when visiting the studio of Mr. Thomas Ball saw the group subsequently adopted, and was so much pleased with it that he spoke strongly in its praise after returning to St. Louis. He had learned from Mr. Ball that the work was conceived and executed under the first influence of the news of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. No order for such a group had been received, but Mr. Ball felt sure that the time would come when there would be a demand for it, and, at any rate, he felt an inward demand to produce it. His aim was to present

ONE SINGLE IDEA

For several years it has stood there in its place, greatly admired, but not finding the direction of its rightful destination. But, when the artist heard of the possible use to which it might be put as the memorial of freedom by the emancipated slaves themselves, he at once said that he should hold it with that view until the commission were prepared to take action, and that the price to be paid would be altogether a secondary consideration. When the description was given to the other members of the Western Sanitary Commission, they sent for photographs, four of which, presenting the group at different points of view, were taken in Florence and forwarded to them. They at once decided to accept the design, and an order was given for its immediate execution in bronze, in accordance with the suggestions made by Mr. Ball. The original group was in Italian marble and differs in some respects from the bronze group now to be inaugurated. In the original the kneeling slave is represented as perfectly passive, receiving the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. But the artist justly changed this to bring the presentation nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated slave an

AGENT IN HIS OWN DELIVERANCE

He is accordingly represented as exerting his strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him. A far greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted.

*     *     *     *     *

Mr. Matthews read the poem written for the occasion by Miss Ray and entitled, "Lincoln," as follows:

To-day, O martyred chief! beneath the sun
We would unveil thy form; to thee who won
The applause of nations, for thy soul sincere,
A living tribute we would offer here.
'Twas thine not worlds to conquer, but men's hearts;
To change to balm the sting of slavery's darts;
In lowly charity thy joy to find,
And open "gates of mercy on mankind."
And so they come, the freed, with grateful gift,
From whose sad path the shadows thou didst lift.
Eleven years have rolled, their seasons round
Since itts most tragic close thy life-work found.
Yet through the vistas of the vanished days
We see thee still, responsive in our gaze
As ever to thy country's solemn needs.
Not regal coronets, but princely deeds,
Were thy chaste diadem; of truer worth
Thy modest virtues than the gems of earth.
Staunch, honest, fervent in the purest cause,
Truth was thy guide; her mandates were thy laws.

Rare heroism; spirit purity;
The storied Spartan's stern simplicity;
Such moral strength as gleams like burnished gold
Amid the doubts of men of weaker mold
Were thine, Called in thy country's sorest hour.
When brother knew not brother-mad for power-
To guide the helm through bloody deeps of war,
While distant nations gazed in anxious awe,
Unflinching in the task, thou didst fulfill
Thy mighty mission with a deathless will.

Born to a destiny the most sublime,
Thou wert, O Lincoln! in the march of time.
God bade thee pause-and bid the oppressed go free-
Most glorious boon giv'n to humanity.
While Slavery ruled the land, what deeds were done!
What tragedies enacted 'neath the sun!
Her page is blurred with records of defeat
Of lives heroic lived in silence-meet
For the world's praise-of woe, despair and tears-
The speechless agony of weary years!

Thou utterest the word, and Freedom fair
Rang her sweet bells on the clear winter air;
She waved her magic wand, and lo! from far
A long procession came! with many a scar.
Their brows were wrinkled-in the bitter strife
Full many had said their sad farewell to life.

But on they hasten'd-free-their shackles gone-
The aged, young-e'en infancy was borne
To offer unto thee loud paeons of praise-
Their happy tribute after saddest days.

A race set free! The deed brought joy and light!
It bade calm justice from her sacred height,
When faith, and hope, and courage slowly waned.
Unfurl the stars and stripes at last unstained!
The nations rolled acclaim from sea to sea,
And Heaven's vaults rang with Freedom's harmony.
The angels 'mid the amaranths must have hush'd
Their chanted cadence, as upward rush'd
The hymn sublime; and as the echoes pealed
God's ceaseless benison the action sealed.

As now we dedicate this shaft to thee,
True champion! in all humility
And solemn earnestness, we would erect
A monument invisible, undecked,
Save by our allied purpose to be true
To Freedom's loftiest precepts, so that thro'
The fiercest contests we may walk secure,
Fixed on foundations that may still endure
When granite shall have crumbled to decay
And generations passed from earth away.

Exalted patriot! illustrious chief!
Thy life's immortal work compels belief.
To-day in radiance thy virtues shine,
And how can we a fitting garland twine?
Thy crown most glorious is a ransomed race!
High on our country's scroll we fondly trace
In lines of fadeless light that softly blend;
Emancipation, hero, martyr, friend!
While Freedom may her holy sceptre claim
The world shall echo with "Our Lincoln's" name.

Professor Langston then introduced the orator of the day, Hon. Frederick Douglass, with the following words: "I experience especial pleasure in introducing to you the orator of the occasion, the Hon. Frederick Douglass."

Mr. Douglass was received with applause. During the delivery of the oration the approbation of his hearers was manifested in many ways, and he was frequently interrupted with applause. This address was as follows:

ORATION OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Friends and Fellow Citizens: I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object that has caused you to assemble in such numbers and spirit as you have to-day. This occasion is in some respects remarkable. Wise and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lessons of our history in the United States, who shall survey the long and dreary space over which we have traveled, who shall count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will make a note of this occasion - they will think of it, and with a sense of manly pride and complacency. I congratulate you also upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet to-day. They are high, inspiring, and uncommon. They lend grace, glory, and significance to the object for which we have met. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, uncounted wealth, and immeasurable territory extending form sea, could conditions be found more favorable to the success of this occasion than here. We stand to-day at the national centre to perform something like a national act, an act which is to go into history, and we are here where every pulsation of the national heart can be heard, felt and reciprocated.

A THOUSAND WIRES

fed with thought and winged with lightning, put us in instantaneous communication with the loyal and true men all over this country. Few facts could better illustrate the vast and wonderful change which has taken place in our condition as a people than the fact of our assembling here for the purpose we have to-day. Harmless, beautiful, proper and praise-worthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago. The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here to-day the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence. That we are here in  peace to-day is a compliment and credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice, but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then, the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races - white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present and the future, with

THE LONG AND DARK HISTORY

of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.

Friends and fellow-citizens: The story of our presence here is soon and easily told. We are here in the District of Columbia; here in the city of Washington, the most luminous point of American territory - a city recently transformed and made beautiful in its body and its spirit; we are here, in the place where the ablest and best men of the country are sent to devise the policy, enact the laws and shape the destiny of the Republic; we are here, with the stately pillars and majestic dome of the Capitol of the nation looking down upon us; we are here, with the broad earth freshly adorned with the foliage and flowers of spring for our church, and all races, colors and conditions of men for our congregation; in a word, we are here to express, as best we may, by appropriate forms and ceremonies, our grateful sense of the vast, high and pre-eminent service rendered to ourselves, to our race, to our country and to the whole world 

BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart. It has crowned and made glorious the high places of all civilized nations, with the grandest and most enduring works of art, designed to illustrate characters and perpetuate the memories of great public men. It is the sentiment which from year to year adorns with fragrant and beautiful flowers the graves of our loyal, brave, and patriotic soldiers who fell in defense of the Union and liberty. It is the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation, which often, in the presence of many who hear me, has filled yonder heights of Arlington with the eloquence of eulogy and the sublime enthusiasm of poetry and song; a sentiment which can never die while the Republic lives. For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom. First things are always interesting, and this is one of our first things. It is the first time that, in this form and manner, we have sought to do honor to any American great man, however deserving and illustrious. I commend the fact to notice. Let it be told in every part of the Republic; let men of all parties and opinions hear it; let hose who despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that now and here, in the spirit of

LIBERTY, LOYALTY, AND GRATITUDE

let it be known everywhere and by everybody who takes an interest in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of mankind, that in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American House of Representatives, reflecting the highest intelligence and the calmest judgment of the country; in presence of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of the United States, to whose decisions we all patriotically bow; in the presence and under the steady eye of the honored and trusted President of the United States, we, the colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of the first century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line, feature, and figure of which the man of this generation may read- and those of after-coming generations may read-something of the exalted character and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr President of the United States.

In all his education and feelings he was an

AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS

He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his own race. To protect, defend and perpetuate slavery in the States where it existed, Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed constitutional guarantees of the Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the Slave States. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his guilty master were already in arms against the Government. The race to which we belong were not the special objects of his consideration. Knowing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens, a pre-eminence in this worship at once full and supreme. First, midst, and last, you and yours were the objects of his deepest affection and his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by force of circumstances and necessity. To you it especially belongs to sound his praises, to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon your walls, and commend his example, for to you he was a great and glorious friend and benefactor. Instead of supplanting you at this altar, we would exhort you to build high his monuments; let them be of the most costly material, of the most cunning workmanship; let their forms be symmetrical, beautiful, and perfect; let their bases be upon solid rocks, and their summits lean against the unchanging blue, overhanging sky, and let them endure forever! But while in the abundance of your wealth, and in the fullness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat you to despise not the humble offering we this day unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. Fellow-citizens, ours is no new-born zeal and devotion--merely a thing of this moment. The name of Abraham Lincoln was near and dear to our hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours of the Republic. We were no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt, and defeat than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory. Our faith in him was often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never failed. When he tarried long in the mountain; when he strangely told us that we were the cause of the war; when he still more strangely told us to leave the land in which we were born; when he refused to employ our arms in defence of the Union; when, after accepting our services as colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate our murder and torture as colored prisoners; when he told us he would save the Union if he could with slavery; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of General Frémont; when he refused to remove the popular commander of the Army of the Potomac, in the days of its inaction and defeat, who was more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress rebellion; when we saw all this, and more, we were at times grieved, stunned, and greatly bewildered; but our hearts believed while they ached and bled. Nor was this, even at that time, a blind and unreasoning superstition. Despite the mist and haze that surrounded him; despite the tumult, the hurry, and confusion of the hour, we were able to take a comprehensive view of Abraham Lincoln, and to make reasonable allowance for the circumstances of his position. We saw him, measured him, and estimated him; not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious delegations, who often tried his patience; not by isolated facts torn from their connection; not by any partial and imperfect glimpses, caught at inopportune moments; but by a broad survey, in the light of the stern logic of great events, and in view of that divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, we came to the conclusion that the hour and the man of our redemption had somehow met in the person of Abraham Lincoln. It mattered little to us what language he might employ on special occasions; it mattered little to us, when we fully knew him, whether he was swift or slow in his movements; it was enough for us that Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement, and was in living and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things, must go on until slavery should be utterly and forever abolished in the United States. When, therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of Abraham Lincoln, or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer is ready, full, and complete. Though he loved Caesar less than Rome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood; under his wise and beneficent rule, and by measures approved and vigorously pressed by him, we saw that the handwriting of ages, in the form of prejudice and proscription, was rapidly fading away from the face of our whole country; under his rule, and in due time, about as soon after all as the country could tolerate the strange spectacle, we saw our brave sons and brothers laying off the rags of bondage, and being clothed all over in the blue uniforms of the soldiers of the United States; under his rule we saw two hundred thousand of our dark and dusky people responding to the call of Abraham Lincoln, and with muskets on their shoulders, and eagles on their buttons, timing their high footsteps to liberty and union under the national flag; under his rule we saw the independence of the black republic of Hayti, the special object of slaveholding aversion and horror, fully recognized, and her minister, a colored gentleman, duly received here in the city of Washington; under his rule we saw the internal slavetrade, which so long disgraced the nation, abolished, and slavery abolished in the District of Columbia; under his rule we saw for the first time the law enforced against the foreign slave-trade, and the first slavetrader hanged like any other pirate or murderer; under his rule, assisted by the greatest captain of our age, and his inspiration, we saw the Confederate States, based upon the idea that our race must be slaves, and slaves forever, battered to pieces and scattered to the four winds; under his rule, and in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln, after giving the slaveholders three months' grace in which to save their hateful slave system, penning the immortal paper, which, though special in its language, was general in its principles and effect, making slavery forever impossible in the United States. Though we waited long, we saw all this and more. Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January, 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word? I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a distant city I waited and watched at the public meeting, with three thousand others not less anxious than myself, for the word of deliverance which we have heard read to-day. Nor shall I ever forget the outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning brought to us the emancipation proclamation. In that happy hour we forgot all delay, and forgot all tardiness, forgot that the President had bribed the rebels to lay down their arms by a promise to withhold the bolt which smite the slave-system with destruction; and we were thenceforward willing to allow the President all the latitude of time, phraseology, and every honorable device that statesmanship might require for the achievement of a great and beneficent measure of liberty and progress. Fellow-citizens, there is little necessity on this occasion to speak at length and critically of this great and good man, and of his high mission in the world. That ground has been fully occupied and completely covered both here and elsewhere. The whole field of fact and fancy has been gleaned and garnered. Any man can say things that are true of Abraham Lincoln, but no man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln. His personal traits and public acts are better known to the American people than are those of any other man of his age. He was a mystery to no man who saw him and heard him. Though high in position, the humblest could approach him and feel at home in his presence. Though deep, he was transparent; though strong, he was gentle; though decided and pronounced in his convictions, he was tolerant towards those who differed from him, and patient under reproaches. Even those who only knew him through his public utterances obtained a tolerably clear idea of his character and his personality. The image of the man went out with his words, and those who read them, knew him. I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin ; and second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful co-operation of his loyal fellow countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent ; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who could say, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether" gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go. Fellow-citizens, whatever else in this world may be partial, unjust, and uncertain, time, time! is impartial, just, and certain in its action. In the realm of mind, as well as in the realm of matter, it is a great worker, and often works wonders. The honest and comprehensive statesman, clearly discerning the needs of his country, and earnestly endeavoring to do his whole duty, though covered and blistered with reproaches, may safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time. Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house of his friends. Reproaches came thick and fast upon him from within and form without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed by Abolitionists; he was assailed by slaveholders; he was assailed by the men who were for peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war; he was assailed for not making the war an abolition war; and he was most bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war. But now behold the change: the judgment of the present hour is, that taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln. His birth, his training, and his natural endowments, both mental and physical, were strongly in his favor. Born and reared among the lowly, a stranger to wealth and luxury, compelled to grapple singlehanded with the flintiest hardships from tender youth to sturdy manhood, he grew strong in the manly and heroic qualities demanded by the great mission to which he was called by the votes of his countrymen. The hard condition of his early life, which would have depressed and broken down weaker men, only gave greater life, vigor and buoyancy to the heroic spirit of Abraham Lincoln. He was ready for any kind and any quality of work. What other young men dreaded in the shape of toil, he took hold of with the utmost cheerfulness.

A spade, a rake, a hoe,

A pick-axe or a bill;

A hook to reap, a scythe to mow,

A flail, or what you will.

ALL DAY LONG HE COULD SPLIT HEAVY RAILS

in the woods, and half the night long he could study his English grammar by the uncertain flare and glare of the light made by a pine knot. He was at home on the land with his axe, with his maul, with gluts and his wedges; and he was equally at home on water with his oars, with his poles, with his planks and with his boathooks. And whether in his flatboat on the Mississippi river, or at the fireside of his frontier cabin, he was a man of work. A son of toil himself he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the Republic.

Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; had he reached that good old age of which his vigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of death come down but gradually, we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief and treasured his name lovingly. But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence; killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate, for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him, but because of his fidelity to Union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and will be precious forever.

Fellow-citizens, I end as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race to-day. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator we have been doing highest honor to ourselves and those who come after us. We have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal. We have also been defending ourselves from a blighting slander. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless; that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Rufus Putnam House

Sunday Morning Observer, September 30, 1917

The Rufus Putnam house, standing at the corner of Second and Washington streets, is probably second to the oldest house in the entire state and in the early days of the pioneers this historic old building housed the first school founded in Marietta. The building, which was one of the Campus Martius houses, was erected in the summer and fall of 1788.

It was built as a residence for General Rufus Putnam, facing on Washington Street and next adjoining the southeast corner of the block house. After the Indian War, General Putnam enlarged and improved the residence. Several years later he tore down a part of the block house and used a portion of it to build a wing kitchen on the Second Street side of his home. It was to this house he moved his family in 1790 and it was there he resided until his death in May, 1824.

During his life in Marietta, General Putnam had no other residence, except in the early summer of 1788 when he domiciled in his tent at "The Point," near the A. T. Nye and Son foundry.

Two years after the death of General Putnam, Arius Nye moved with his family into the house at the corner of Second and Washington streets. In 1831 he purchased the property from the heirs of Rufus Putnam. He made his home there until his death, July, 1865.

The last piece of wood from the old blockhouse was removed from the grounds in 1847, when Mr. Nye tore from his house the wing kitchen. At this time all the other buildings of the historic old fort had been removed.

Contrary to the belief of many Mariettans, the Rufus Putnam house was never a block house. It is now the Chapter House of the Daughters of the Revolution.

 

Fort Harmar Well

The Marietta Register, May 13, 1869:

Since the appearance of our article on Harmar, the boys over there have unearthed the old well that once stood in the center of the Fort, cleared away the rubbish, and taken the dirt out to the depth of about four feet. They propose to go still deeper. The well is about midway between the top of the bank and the water's edge now. It is walled with boulders.

The Marietta Register, May 27, 1869:

The boys have taken out the rubbish in the old well that was in the Fort at Harmar, to the bottom, and found in it a cannon ball. The Fort embraced within its walls about three-fourths of an acre, the greater part of which caved into the river many years ago.

The Marietta Weekly Leader, November 9, 1886:

George M. Woodbridge has located and is cleaning out the old Fort Harmar Well dug in 1785. It now lies about 40 feet below the bank, though when built it was within the Fort yard and there was sufficient room for parade outside of that.

Many curious sight-seers may be observed at all times of the day congregated on the Muskingum bank, taking observations of the old "Fort Harmar Well" which is now being opened by Mr. Woodbridge.

The bottom of the Fort Harmar well being reached, it is estimated that the well proper was probably about 40 feet deep. A large pewter plate about one inch in thickness was found, besides numerous pieces of strange glass.

Boiler Corner

The Daily Register, June 30, 1902

Editor Register:

The old boiler at the corner of Ohio and Front streets - where did it come from and for what purpose was it used? 

The following account, which the writer believes to be correct, was given by the late Ebenezer D. Buell, who was born in 1805, in the old red house which stood on bank of the Ohio river, opposite the head of Marietta island on the Ohio side, quite recently torn down. Mr. Buell spent the most of his life here.  

He says that a man by the name of Adams had a distillery on the bank of the Little Muskingum, where the road leading to Cornerville strikes the creek, for many years known as the Howe place, but at present the Scott farm. Mr. Buell says this boiler was used in that distillery, that he was often there when a boy, as it was not more than a half mile from his father's home.

It will be observed that there is a short pipe on one side, 6 inches in diameter, perhaps, without any arrangement for a connection or for closing other than a wooden plug which Mr. Adams made use of to confine the steam; in so doing he had made the discovery that steam had considerable power when confined, and on one occasion called in his wife to witness the operation while he worked the plug. Having much more pressure on than he was aware of, the plug blew out with considerable force, slightly scalding him. 

Mr. Buell, in speaking of this old boiler, always claimed that it came from the Adams distillery. We have no means of telling just when this distillery ceased to do business. The writer remembers going to school in a house which was very near where the distillery stood and remembers that it was all gone but two or three rounds of the bottom logs. This was as early as 1827 or '28. The only other history I ever had of the old boiler was from the late G. M. Woodbridge, who claimed that it was shipped to his father in transit to some other point and that his father had paid some freight charges which he never collected, as the boiler never got any farther.

William Harris  

 

Fort Harmar

Marietta Daily Leader, November 24, 1900

In the autumn of 1785, Colonel Joseph Harmar sent Major John Doughty with a battalion of his (Harmar's) regiment to build and garrison a fort near the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. It was, when completed, the first fort in the State of Ohio, with the exception of Fort Laurens, which was erected in the year 1778 on the right bank of the Tuscarawas, a little below Sandy Creek, by General McIntosh, in the heart of the Indian country, and was evacuated in the autumn of the following year.

The fort stood on what was called the "second bottom," being elevated above the ordinary floods of the Ohio, while between it and the banks of the rivers was a lower, or first, bottom. The outlines of the fort formed a pentagon, and the area embraced within its walls contained about three-quarters of an acre. 

The main walls of the fort were built of large timbers, placed horizontally and raised to the height of twelve or fourteen feet and were 120 feet in length. The bastions were of large timbers set upright in the ground, fourteen feet high, and fastened together by strips of timber. The outlines of these were also [pentagonal], the fifth side, or that opening into the area of the fort, being occupied by the dwelling houses or quarters of the officers.

In the rear of the garrison, on the ground which had supplies the materials for building the fort, were fine gardens, laid out by Major Doughty. These were cultivated by the soldiers who took great pride in them. Peaches were planted out as soon as the ground was cleared and in the second or third year produced crops of fine fruit. A variety of this is still cultivated around Marietta and is known as the "Doughty Peach."

The fort was named in honor of Colonel Josiah Harmar. It was occupied by the troops of the United States until September, 1790, when they were ordered to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. During the Indian wars, the fort was occupied by one Captain Haskell, their chief duty being to help the settlements of Belpre, Marietta and Waterford against the Indians. The houses formerly used by the soldiers as quarters were occupied by the settlers living on the west side of the Muskingum. 

It does not appear that any regular batteries were built within the walls for mounting of cannon, as it was in no great danger of any attack from the enemies who had the use of cannon. One or two six-pound field pieces were mounted on carriages and usually kept on the bank just without the walls; with these they could command the boats on the river.

Between the walls of the fort and the bank of the Muskingum was sufficient space to muster a battalion of men; a part of this ground was occupied by three stout log cabins erected for the use of the artificers attached to the garrison. At this day not only the whole ground between it and the water is washed away, but also more than half of the site occupied by the fort.

In digging away the bank in 1840 to form a landing or road up from the river on the site of the old fort, several interesting relics were found which once belonged to the inmates of the garrison. Although no attack was ever made upon the fort by the Indians, yet they often appeared on the hill in its rear, which commanded a full view of its interior. From this elevation they often watched the inhabitants as they went out to work in the gardens and fields, and many of these were killed within gunshot of the fort.

No trace of the fort is left, except a small marble monument and a fine school building; this showing that the site on which formerly stood an edifice of war is now occupied by an edifice of learning.

J. O.