Christmas Is Coming

The Marietta Register, December 21, 1893

The remark of an old merchant is, "I never saw a time yet when there was not a Christmas trade."  And so he has not and never will.  This year is no exception.  Hard times in Marietta is only in the newspapers and found elsewhere.  Business is not booming, as it was a year ago, but, it must be acknowledged, we are a favored community.  Not a concern fully shut down, not a failure of any sort and not many unemployed.

There are more idle than usual for us, but there is not much suffering for necessaries nor much painful self-denial.  In the best of times we have the improvident and the unfortunate.  We have them now.  But Christmas is coming and the unmistakable signs are seen on every hand.  Christmas spirit, thought for others, is manifest all about.

The shop windows and counters show the faith the merchants have in the Christmas time, and the throngs that gather about them tell the rest.

What a social love-feast Christmas is.  How everybody is remembered from "tot" to grandma, and how blessed it all is.  How many warm up the cold estrangements among kin and acquaintance at the Christmas altar and consume in the holy fire of kindness the bitterness carried in unrelenting silence.  The older know full well that selfishness pays no dividends, and the younger cannot learn the lesson too early.  Christmas teaches it and brings conviction in time to start off the new year right.

Join the Christmas chorus; open the old wallet and buy something for somebody.  Surprise some one, too.  The gift need not be costly.  Our advertisers will name the price from five cents to fifty dollars, and the cheerful giver, rather than the expectant receiver, will reap the reward.

Christmas is coming.  It is almost here.

Visiting His Old Home

Marietta Semi-Weekly Register, August 19, 1884

The return of Capt. Thomas S. Battelle, after an absence of more than a third of a century, to visit his old friends in his native county, is an event of unusual interest.  Capt. Battelle, who is now 72, bears the burden of so many years with remarkable vigor.  He was born in Newport, this county.  One of the earliest incidents of his eventful career will certainly not diminish the cordiality of his welcome at the hands of the people of this city.  While in business in Clarksburg, (now W. Va.) in 1837 or '38, he came near being the victim of an infuriated mob, because he resented the charge of cruelty made by the slaveholders against the people of Marietta, in their treatment of certain Virginians, who were arrested and imprisoned for attempting to smuggle the negroes back into slavery, without due process of law.

In 1840 Captain Battelle moved to Muscatine Iowa, and for several years engaged in the steamboat business on the upper Mississippi.  He was unfortunate in this venture, twice sinking his boat, but managed to save enough from the wreck of his fortune to buy ox teams and outfit, and with his family he started in 1852 across the plains.  The wonderful revolutions of time are shown by the simple statement that he was as many months in making that disagreeable journey as he was days upon his recent return across the continent.

After an absence of half a long life time the captain, of course, finds many changes in his old friends and the scenes of his youth.  In that time very many have passed away.  His father and mother, who almost reached the century, lie buried at Newport.  Three of his brothers, whose families he has been visiting, and who, like himself, are natives of this county, are living in other parts of the state.  He expects to return in the fall to California, where he has grown up sons and daughters, who are married and settled in the Southern part of the state.

The College Foot-Ball Team Defeated by Ohio State University

Marietta Register, November 30, 1893

The foot-ball team left, Friday, for Columbus, to contest for honors with the State University in foot-ball.  They were full of enthusiasm and expected to hold their competitors down.  The account of the game from Sunday's State Journal tells the rest.  It says:

The Ohio State University defeated the Marietta College, Saturday afternoon, in a onesided game of foot-ball.  The attendance was very slim, due to the fact that there was no advertising of the game.  Not even a notice appeared in the halls of the University buildings and many students will be surprised to learn that a game was played.

The State University team was an experiment, new men being played in several positions to try their strength as possibilities for the Kenyon game on Thanksgiving.  Of these Potter fought through the line with some success, but was a failure going around the end and tackling.

Snediker played his second game at center to the satisfaction of everybody, with the possible exception of a few Marietta people.

The visitors had  a strong line but were weak in tackling.  Nelson, Moore and Rorebeck did some good individual playing.

O.S.U. scored the first touchdown after thirteen minutes, in which the ball changed sides several times on downs.  Nagle and Reed each made 25 yard gains.  Touch by Howard.  No goal.  O.S.U. 4, Marietta 0.

In seven minutes O.S.U. scored again, after they had secured the ball on downs.  Nagle made a 20-yard run, and Foley made 20 yards and touch by hard fighting through the line.  Goal.  O.S.U. 10, Marietta, 0.

Next after O.S.U. received the ball on downs the ball was advanced within two yards of Marietta's line, when Howard carried the ball over for a touch.  No goal.  O.S.U. 14, Marietta 0.

Marietta made her first score by a kick for 20 yards, several short runs and Rorebeck's 12 yards and touch.  No goal.  O.S.U. 14, Marietta 4.

In the start off Wood gained 25 yards.  Then the ball was lost and regained on downs.  After the ball was advanced to the 5-yard line Howard carried it over for a touch.  No goal.  O.S.U. 18, Marietta 4.

Marietta next got the ball to the O.S.U. 20-yard line when Howard kicked for 20 and Wood secured the ball and made a 60-yard dash for a touch.  No goal.  O.S.U. 24, Marietta 4.

In second half O.S.U. made a touch after the ball had changed sides on downs and fumbles.  Potter carried it over.  Goal.  O.S.U. 34, Marietta 4.

Marietta tried to make a field kick, but was blocked by Reed, and Thurman securing the ball, carried it to the 5-yard line.  Nichols then crossed the line with the ball.  Goal.  O.S.U. 40, Marietta 4.

Marietta scored the last touch on Rorebeck's 40 yards and Nelson's 3 yards over the line.  No goal.  O.S.U. 40, Marietta 8.  The teams lined as follows:

O.S.U. - Nagle, Right End; Mullay, Right Tackle; Reed, Right Tackle; Gibbs, Right Guard; Snediker, Center; Calkins, Left Guard; Carson, Left Tackle; Boynton, Left Tackle; Thurman, Left End; Wood, Capt., Quarter; Foley, Right Half; Nichols, Right Half; Potter, Left Half; Howard, Full.

Marietta - Nelson, Right End; Hughson, Right Tackle; Williams, Right Guard; Keyes, Center; Middleswart, Left Guard; McLaren, Left Tackle; Dana, Left End; Brown, Capt., Quarter; White, Quarter; Moore, Right Half; Rorebeck, Left Half; Sloan, Full.

Summary:  Touchdowns, O.S.U., Howard 3, Foley 2, Wood, Potter, Nichols.  Marietta, Rorebeck, Nelson.  Goals, Howard 4.  Length of halves, 15 and 30 minutes.  Umpire and referee, Messrs. Haas and Sears.

Four Boys Drowned

Marietta Register, December 28, 1871

Drowned is a simple word, but it occurs often in the newspapers and is almost always passed by lightly, as a matter of course.  Yet there are hearts to which it carries inexpressible anguish.

Thursday afternoon, 21st inst., towards four o'clock, three among the best boys in Marietta, full of life and joy, were skating on the Muskingum - Wm. B. Coen, only son of Mrs. Coen and grandson of W. C. McCarty, aged nearly sixteen; Lee C., only son of Samuel L. Grosvenor, Sheriff of our county, aged about fifteen; and Charles Shipman, second son of Martin D. Follett, Esq., in his twelfth year.  They went up within about half a mile of Devol's Dam, and turned in near the eastern shore, to come down again, when suddenly a treacherous place in the ice, covered with a light snow, gave way, and they all went in together, in about six feet of water.  A man on the bank, said to be a German, saw them, and went to their aid; but Lee Grosvenor and Charley Follett had already disappeared.  Willie Coen came up, struggled for his life, and talked to the man who was trying to help him, and who pushed out a piece of fencing, which the poor boy was able just to touch with his fingers, but he was so benumbed that he could not get firm hold, and he sank beneath the surface.  Neighbors rallied, and in course of an hour or two, the bodies of all three had been recovered.

The body of Willlie Coen was first recovered and word sent to town.  It was not then known who the other two boys were.  Mr. McCarty went up for his grandson's body.  Charley Follett was late in getting home, and his father and older brother, unaware of the dire calamity, had started to look for him, walking up the road.  Capt. Grosvenor, fearing that his son Lee was one of the two unknown boys, started up in a buggy, and overtaking Mr. Follett, took him in, and the two fathers drove on fearing the worst, yet not without hope.  They met the wagon in which lay in a row, with their heads to the rear, the lifeless bodies of the three boys; and looking in, by the pale moonlight of early evening, they then discovered that the two before not known were their boys.  It was a terrible shock - and three mothers of our best known families, in the heart of town, came into the bitterness of the saddest grief.

Sunday, at 2-1/2 o'clock, P.M., the three funerals were held together in the Congregational Church, services conducted by Rev. Dr. Hawks, of that Church, and Rev. A. C. Hirst, of the Centenary M. E. Church. The house was crowded to its utmost capacity, and perhaps half the people could not get in.

There had been singing and prayer, and just as Dr. Hawks was commencing his remarks, two boys strolled across the common, in front of the church, walked down on the ice, and in a moment the alarm was given that Albert R. Field was in the river.  A few yards from the shore was a hole, perhaps two or three feet across, and the boy was under the ice, in fifteen feet of water.  It was about an hour and a half before his body was recovered.  He was about seventeen years of age, and the oldest of two sons of Mrs. Field, on Second street, widow of the late Richard Field, a most worthy woman, in the church, attending the funeral of the other three boys, when this quick and terrible calamity came upon her.  The funeral took place Tuesday, 10 A.M., at the Unitarian Church, services conducted by Rev. J. Riley Johnson.

It forms, perhaps, the most sorrowful page in the history of Marietta's families.  And yet we repeat what was said in this paper, only two weeks ago:

The Editor of the Register was once, when a boy, drowned, as far as to lose all consciousness; but consciousness continued what seemed to be a long time after respiration must have stopped.  The mind acted with lightning rapidity, and the things thought of in their multitudinous numbers and extreme vividness would appear absolutely incredible to one who has not tried it.  The only disagreeableness was in the first strangling.  After that, all was pleasantness, perfect physical and mental happiness.

From Out the Past: Statement by Elisha Allen

Sunday Morning Observer, August 25, 1918

Letter from Elisha Allen to Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth.

In answer to your letter, I will now give a short relation of my father's emigration to this country.

In May, 1791, my father with four other families left the County of York, Township of Wells, in the now State of Maine, for the Ohio Company's purchase and arrived at Westmoreland County in the State of Pennsylvania the following Autumn.  Because of the Indian hostilities at Marietta they concluded to stay there until the close of the war.  Nothing particular came under my observation until the Summer of 1794 when the insurrection broke out called the "Whiskey Boys" one company of which marched past my father's going and coming from burning Mr. Wells, the excise master's house.  In the Autumn an army of United States troops marched through to quell the insurrection and consumed the greater part of the provisions near their route which created a great scarcity of provisions and also of the greater part of the inhabitants who took flight for Kentucky.  My father became dissatisfied and hearing of Wayne's treaty with the Indians concluded to move and having heard Marietta highly spoken of concluded to remove there.

Early in March, 1795, he joined with a neighbor and built a boat and arrived, I think, at Marietta, April 6th.  You may surmise with what consternation he was seized as soon as he ascended the bank, expecting to find Marietta a thriving, industrious, enterprising town, to find a few log cabins and block houses, surrounded with palisades 15 or 16 feet high, with almost every room occupied and numbers preparing to remove to their farms in the country, which many did that Spring.  And now, dear sir, think of Marietta more than half of the houses empty going to decay, with but a few men of any enterprise, schools and but very little respect paid to the Sabbath.  No society but down at the point and that was protracted society, meeting night and day at the tavern and returning often with wounded heads and bloody noses.  However, this dark picture did not [last] long.  There were some seeds of Puritans here and others frequently arriving.  In the Summer of 1795 a man by the name of Daniel Gurley taught three months, the first school we had after our arrival.  I went to his school and now believe he was an excellent teacher.

The next school was taught by _____ Little who practiced law as States' attorney at Marietta and had to leave for misconduct which was as follows:

An action of criminal law was pending in the court.  The defendant being an avaricious man and Little a lover of money, he (Little) received a fee on both sides.  The case was called and Mr. State's attorney pleaded "not prepared."  The Judge told him that the State must always be ready and called on the defendant if he was ready.  He answered, "yes."  Who is your attorney, in quired the judge.  Mr. Little, sir, replied the defendant.  Have you paid him, said the Judge.  I have answered the defendant.  Have you his receipt, inquired the Judge.  I have, was the reply.  The Judge ordered the court to be cleared.  Shortly after the Deputy Sheriff came out of the Court with Mr. Little followed by a crowd to his lodgings.  There he took his trunk and proceeded to the river, put Mr. Little and his trunk in a small canoe and in another took him to the middle of the river, and there left him without a pole or paddle.  He begged for some time for either pole or paddle but being denied took off his cocked hat, these being then fashionable, and began to paddle with it.  Not being a waterman he soon gave up, sat down in the canoe and so floated out of sight.  I heard afterward that he was taken up at Parkersburg.

There were by that time considerable additions to the town by the return of a number of citizens who had been absent with Wayne's army.  They began to pull down the old buildings and build new ones.  The next school was in the academy taught by Mr. David Putnam, Esq., where I received the most of my education and from the knowledge I have had of the scholars taught by him, in their after life, great praise is due to Mr. Putnam for his stability and perseverance while connected with the school.  You will perhaps inquire how persons of every grade and from almost every clime, lodged in that lone spot in the wilderness, could keep up their spirits.  But there are always some in every society full of chicanery and others to act the Mountebank.  Of such I will give one or two specimens.

The first I shall name is Edward Moulton, who was the butt of all the humorous.  To detail all the pastime had with him would exceed my limits.  One, however, I will relate as a specimen.  The family consisted of his mother, two sisters and himself.  They kept a respectable boarding house for the time.  A certain Dr. _____ came on with a small allotment of cheese (which was a rare thing) and took up his lodging with Widow Moulton, who was rather parsimonious and who set a table for the Dr., herself and the daughters, in the dining room but Edward had to eat in the kitchen.  They had their tea, coffee, butter and cheese and he had to eat hasty pudding and milk.  This he thought rather humiliating.  However he soon found an opportunity to convey one of the doctor's cheeses away and secreted it in the barn.  The Doctor soon missed the cheese, suspected Edward, and got a warrant to apprehend him.  The Sheriff found him hoeing corn and read his warrant, and as soon as read told Edward he must go with him.  His answer was, "I will not go for Doctor loves cheese, Marm loves cheese and Dr. b[e]ds with Anna and I won't go."  This was nuts for the Sheriff.  Away he went to the Esquire returning his warrant.  (The house was crowded.)  "Where is your prisoner?" asked the Esquire?  He says "Doctor loves cheese, Marm loves cheese, Anna loves cheese and Doctor b[e]ds with Anna and I won't go."  A burst of laughter arose all over the house.  The Doctor arose and said, "I will pay the cost; let him go."

Not long after this another Doctor arrived from England, known about as much as a curiosity as Moulton for his chicanery.  He was a very small man, merely skin and bones, without a spire of hair on his head but covered with a large wig finely powdered with old-fashioned shad-body coat, vest with flapped pockets, breeches and stockings, large shoes with silver buckles.

Marietta Woollen Factory

American Friend & Marietta Gazette, April 17, 1830

The Subscriber has commenced the various branches of Manufacturing Cloth, at his Fulling Mill.  Carding and Spinning, Fulling and Dressing Cloth, or either of the said branches will be done for customers; or he will take wool in the fleece and manufacture it into Flannels, Satinett, or Fulled cloths, on the most reasonable terms.  His Cards, as well as his machinery are new, and of a superior quality, and he will spare no pains to perform every part in a workmanlike manner; he would however observe, that much depends on the cleansing and preparing the wool before it is brought to the Carding Machine; as well as the management of the Sheep before shearing, (which he would not undertake to describe at this time.)  Those who have Domestic Spinning Machines, should bring their wool in boxes; and particular pains will be taken in carding, to make the rolls of a proper and equal size, and pack them so that they may be transported any distance without injuring them.

The customary price will be charged for carding; varying according to fineness, &c.

Spinning, eight and ten cents per run.

Cloth dressing, at reduced prices.

The subscriber has for sale a new and complete Spinning Gin and Roping Machine, containing 72 spindles.

He has also the exclusive right of using, and vending to others the right of using that valuable and highly approved machine called the Columbian Spinner, in the township of Marietta, excepting a few family rights already sold by Mr. Barnard.

Cash, Wool, and many other articles will be received in payment for the above.

WANTED, - A good Weaver, and three or four young women to spin, splice rolls, prepare wool, &c.

Billy Todd.

Marietta, April 3d, 1830.