Marietta Times, May 4, 1909
Former Marietta Man Now in West Reaches Age of 91 and Tells Many Interesting Tales.
“The Oregonian” of Sunday, April 18, published in Portland, Oregon, contains an account of the celebration of the 91st birthday of Ebenezer Warner, of Oregon City, written by Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, author of “The Conquest,” the true story of Lewis and Clark.
Mr. Warner was born in Harmar, in April 1818, and his earliest recollections are of the Revolutionary soldiers coming after their pensions, in their curious “three cornered hats and knee breeches.” Mr. Warner’s father, Anaximander Warner, was the son of a schoolmaster of Achville [Ashfield], Mass., a captain in the Revolutionary War, and one of Washington’s bodyguard in his retreat from Long Island.
At the time of Ebenezer’s birth his father was one of the associate judges of the Court of War Claims, and young Warner has a vivid recollection of Ephraim Cutler, the Putnams and others of the pioneers who were frequent visitors at his father’s house. He recalls the firing of the big guns in celebration of the election of John Quincy Adams, which guns were later spiked by some of the opponents, and the visit of Lafayette, which occurred about the same time. From the west side of the Muskingum he watched the crowd and the procession marching up to the Congregational Church, the only building in those days large enough to accommodate the crowd called together by such an occasion. Although he did not himself see the distinguished visitor, he recalls the crowds and the music of fife and drum which marked the occasion.
Speaking of the dress of the Revolutionary soldiers, he says: “Some of them wore ruffled shirts, starched to stand out with full bosoms, and high-crowned beaver hats. The founders of Marietta were substantial men, plain and honest, but some of the old soldiers who drifted out West became hard drinkers. Saloons were called groceries in those days.”
The Fourth of July was celebrated with great demonstrations. A big dinner was usually served in the grove, where men drank patriotic toasts to the memory of their national heroes, while their opponents were denounced as tories and traitors.
“All of that part of Ohio was heavily wooded then. Herds of deer were in the woods around Marietta; once I saw five in a bunch when out shooting squirrel. We used to hunt foxes with hounds. Wild turkeys were abundant and once I helped get honey out of a bee tree. Ferrying across the Muskingum, my people attended the Congregational church of which Rev. Samuel Robbins, [grand]son-in-law of General Rufus Putnam, was pastor.” Mr. Warner was baptized by Mr. Robbins.
“I used to read as a boy on the hearth by firelight, while mother spun flax or sewed by a tallow dip. My first teacher was Sarah Robinson, who afterward became the mother of Bishop McCabe. Our school books were the New Testament, Murray’s English Reader, which I knew by heart, and Webster’s old spelling book. Sarah Robinson catechized us in the Bible; she was just the sort of a woman to become the mother of a Bishop.”
Mr. Warner’s school days closed at the age of twelve years, when he entered a printing office as an apprentice and from that time he became his own teacher. In the spring of 1830 the family moved to Portsmouth, Ohio, where young Warner found employment in the office of the Portsmouth Times, and in later years he was employed on the Spectacle and Chronicle at Athens, and The Public Advertiser of Louisville, one of the leading Democratic papers of the new West. He also worked seven years on the Gallipolis Journal and served as city recorder for a time, and then on the Kanawha Banner of Charleston, W. Va. During the war he was in Wisconsin and in 1866 he went to Oregon City, where he now resides, hale and active for a man of ninety-one years.
In 1845 he married Miss Lucy Higbee, a schoolmate of James A. Garfield. He has one brother living in Medford, a sister went as a missionary to Africa, and one brother went South, married a planter’s daughter and owned slaves.
Former Marietta Man Now in West Reaches Age of 91 and Tells Many Interesting Tales.
“The Oregonian” of Sunday, April 18, published in Portland, Oregon, contains an account of the celebration of the 91st birthday of Ebenezer Warner, of Oregon City, written by Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, author of “The Conquest,” the true story of Lewis and Clark.
Mr. Warner was born in Harmar, in April 1818, and his earliest recollections are of the Revolutionary soldiers coming after their pensions, in their curious “three cornered hats and knee breeches.” Mr. Warner’s father, Anaximander Warner, was the son of a schoolmaster of Achville [Ashfield], Mass., a captain in the Revolutionary War, and one of Washington’s bodyguard in his retreat from Long Island.
At the time of Ebenezer’s birth his father was one of the associate judges of the Court of War Claims, and young Warner has a vivid recollection of Ephraim Cutler, the Putnams and others of the pioneers who were frequent visitors at his father’s house. He recalls the firing of the big guns in celebration of the election of John Quincy Adams, which guns were later spiked by some of the opponents, and the visit of Lafayette, which occurred about the same time. From the west side of the Muskingum he watched the crowd and the procession marching up to the Congregational Church, the only building in those days large enough to accommodate the crowd called together by such an occasion. Although he did not himself see the distinguished visitor, he recalls the crowds and the music of fife and drum which marked the occasion.
Speaking of the dress of the Revolutionary soldiers, he says: “Some of them wore ruffled shirts, starched to stand out with full bosoms, and high-crowned beaver hats. The founders of Marietta were substantial men, plain and honest, but some of the old soldiers who drifted out West became hard drinkers. Saloons were called groceries in those days.”
The Fourth of July was celebrated with great demonstrations. A big dinner was usually served in the grove, where men drank patriotic toasts to the memory of their national heroes, while their opponents were denounced as tories and traitors.
“All of that part of Ohio was heavily wooded then. Herds of deer were in the woods around Marietta; once I saw five in a bunch when out shooting squirrel. We used to hunt foxes with hounds. Wild turkeys were abundant and once I helped get honey out of a bee tree. Ferrying across the Muskingum, my people attended the Congregational church of which Rev. Samuel Robbins, [grand]son-in-law of General Rufus Putnam, was pastor.” Mr. Warner was baptized by Mr. Robbins.
“I used to read as a boy on the hearth by firelight, while mother spun flax or sewed by a tallow dip. My first teacher was Sarah Robinson, who afterward became the mother of Bishop McCabe. Our school books were the New Testament, Murray’s English Reader, which I knew by heart, and Webster’s old spelling book. Sarah Robinson catechized us in the Bible; she was just the sort of a woman to become the mother of a Bishop.”
Mr. Warner’s school days closed at the age of twelve years, when he entered a printing office as an apprentice and from that time he became his own teacher. In the spring of 1830 the family moved to Portsmouth, Ohio, where young Warner found employment in the office of the Portsmouth Times, and in later years he was employed on the Spectacle and Chronicle at Athens, and The Public Advertiser of Louisville, one of the leading Democratic papers of the new West. He also worked seven years on the Gallipolis Journal and served as city recorder for a time, and then on the Kanawha Banner of Charleston, W. Va. During the war he was in Wisconsin and in 1866 he went to Oregon City, where he now resides, hale and active for a man of ninety-one years.
In 1845 he married Miss Lucy Higbee, a schoolmate of James A. Garfield. He has one brother living in Medford, a sister went as a missionary to Africa, and one brother went South, married a planter’s daughter and owned slaves.
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