An Old Block House Demolished

The Marietta Intelligencer, February 14, 1850

The property of Mr. John J. Preston, near the mouth of the Muskingum, has been bought by the Marietta Woolen Factory Company for building purposes, and Mr. P. is now removing his old dwelling.  The southerly wing of the building was an old "Block House," built in 1789. It was the first built on "the Point" - all those erected in 1788 having been built on the "stockade."

Men are now living here who used to sleep in this old "block house" during the Indian war. A large part of "the Point" was then covered with a dense forest.

The timbers of the old block are most of them as sound as when first put together. Most of them are poplar, but now and then we notice a stick of ash, oak and beech. Is not this the last of the "block houses" that has stood entire in Marietta for more than 60 years?

 

Employment for Boys

Marietta Intelligencer, March 30, 1848

The occurrences of the last week in this town must excite in the minds of all who love morality and good order a desire that something may be done to rescue our youth from the paths of vice in which so many of them are now walking.

On Saturday, John Cable, a boy not yet fourteen years of age, was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment in the Penitentiary for the crime of Arson; and Charles Kerr, aged seventeen years, to three years imprisonment for Horse Stealing. Young Kerr lived in Newport in this County and was convicted of stealing, some weeks since, the Horses of J. Dowling of Fearing.

Young Cable was convicted of burning the barn of J. C. McCoy of Harmar. Two other indictments were found against Cable - one for attempting to burn the house of Mr. McCoy, and one for attempting to poison Mrs. McCoy. Another, we hear, might have been found against him for Perjury, in swearing the crime for which he was convicted upon an innocent boy in an examination before a Justice, soon after the burning.

He has since his imprisonment twice attempted to burn the Jail. When upon his trial, it was found that he had a stone in his pocket, which he declared he would throw at Mrs. McCoy and which was wrested from him with great difficulty. When the Jury rendered their verdict he caught up a Law Book and threw at the Jurors, hitting one of them in the face. He was tried upon only one indictment. So desperate and malicious a criminal as this boy has probably never been seen in our Court House. 

Kerr, on the other hand, manifested a penitent spirit. He has no doubt been led into the commission of crime thro' the influence of his uncle, against whom an indictment was found, but who has not yet been arrested.  

At the very time when these boys were receiving their sentence, two other boys, one fifteen and the other sixteen years of age, were under examination before the Mayor on a charge of having committed nine burglaries during the previous night. They confessed the crime and are now in Jail waiting their trial. If the complaints against them are all pressed, the shortest term for which they can be sent to the Penitentiary is twenty seven years each. The following is a brief history of their transactions on Friday night.

They broke open Roberts and Beach's Tailor Shop and took a roll of cloth, two pairs of pants and two vests, one of which was on the younger boy when he was arrested. They then went to J. M. Booth's Cabinet Shop, opened a tool chest and took a bit &c., with which they opened A. Regnier's Grocery, from which they took some change, herring, crackers, candy, &c. &c. They went into Soule's Hat Shop, but took nothing by a single piece of silver coin. From T. P. Harsberger's Tailor Shop, they took two coats, a trunk, and sundry articles of small value. From the Library Hall Building they took two silver watches and two gold coins. From Theis' Shoe Shop they took a pair of boots. The Masonic Hall was also broken open, but we do not learn what they took. From the Sons of Temperance Hall they took some of the emblems from the officers' regalia and the marbles used in balloting.

These boys, with four or five others of about the same age or younger, have for several weeks past been engaged in stealing eggs, chickens and provisions in every part of the town, and the night before their arrest one of their associates stole a skiff and went to Parkersburg with eighty dozen eggs - a part of the plunder which the gang had been gathering for the two or three weeks previous. The two lads arrested do not, however, implicate any others in the burglaries, but declare that they had no associates in that business. They told where the stolen property was concealed, and it was found - as was also a great deal that had never been missed. Among other things, they had about 30 keys of all sizes and descriptions.

This is a sad tale of juvenile iniquity and one which we should be slow to give publicity to, if any good could result from withholding a disclosure of it. But we feel that the increase of crime by our youth is a proper though mournful subject of comment, and we are not altogether without hope that by directing attention to the facts, our citizens may be led to seek a remedy. We had better look the frightful evidences of the increasing evil sternly in the face, than quietly to fold our hands in peace and conclude that "Marietta is a very moral town," and "our children," as each many says for himself, "are in no danger," or "there are only a dozen such boys in town and the sooner they are on the gallows the better!"

It is very true that this is a town more free from open vice than almost any other in the State. But it will not long be so unless parents and guardians find more regular, constant and useful employment for their children and wards than scores - we might almost say hundreds - of them now have. If idleness is much longer tolerated in so many of our lads, no man's children will be safe, and instead of a half dozen boys imprisoned for high offences, as there now are, our Jail will soon be incapable of holding a tithe of them.

Our citizens, we are sure, do not know how many boys in this town are unemployed - out of school - absolutely doing nothing but preparing for a life of shame and a death of misery. And the number, we believe, is rapidly increasing. They are now so numerous that those who have employment, or who are sent to school, can hardly pass a square without meeting them. No man can tell how many, or who, will yield to the importunities of these vicious idlers and, beginning perhaps with marbles, will go on to cards, and end with burglary. 

Let any man stand for one day about our Court House and see the boys who collect there to play marbles. Most of them are neatly dressed - many have books under their arms and stop for only a few moments as they are passing to or from school, "just to have a little fun." But there is hardly an hour in the day when only such boys are there. The John Cables are there, too, and doing a work of mischief which the teachers and parents of the school-going boys know not of. They are hearing profanity and witnessing trickery; seeing others cheat and learning to cheat themselves.

There are in this town probably a hundred boys between eight and eighteen years of age who are out of employment. The most of them have occasionally some work to do, or are sent now and then to school. But many of them go only when they please. There ought to be authority somewhere to make them go every day when a school is taught, and to keep them at some useful employment when there is no school. If their own parents are indifferent to their welfare, those who do regard the moral training of children as of some moment, should interest themselves in behalf of these candidates for destruction. They should, at least, exercise a more watchful vigilance over their own children, and not rely upon the instructions of the family to protect them from the corrupt influence of vicious associates.

Marietta Intelligencer, April 13, 1848:

Mr. Gates:

Mr. Shoop, the father of one of the boys who recently committed so many burglaries in town, for which two of them are now in jail, having reported to many persons that I sold said boys liquor on the night of their last depredations, I beg to state to the public that the report is utterly false. I never sold them any liquor. I do not keep it on my wharf boat and do not intend to. Since the boats came into my possession, I have neither sold or given liquor to those boys, to any other boys, or to any man, men, women or children. I have not even had it on the boat. I hope this emphatic denial of the prejudicial reports now circulated on the authority of a boy guilty of so many and so heinous crimes as this young Shoop, will put them to rest.

V. Payne.

The undersigned are in the employ of Mr. Payne on the Wharf Boat and know that no spirituous liquor is sold, given away, or kept on his boat.

William H. Douglass.

John Q. A. Cunningham.

Thomas Taylor.

 

 

Paving in Marietta

The Marietta Gazette, July 12, 1834:

Proposals for Paving the Streets of Marietta.

Sealed proposals will be received by the Trustees of the First Ward until Saturday, the 19th inst. at 2 o'clock P.M. for paving, with good hard sound flag stone, across the following streets, viz:

From the corner of John Mills' lot across Post street on Ohio street.

On the north side of Greene street, from J. Jennings' shop, across Second street: from the corner of S. Daniels' lot, across Third street; and from D. Gilbert's lot across Fourth street.

The flagging to be well bedded in sand, three feet wide and six inches thick, where it is to be crossed by teams; and not less than three inches thick in other parts; to be laid level with the side walk, or descending to the centre of the street,as the case may be, according to  the direction of the Trustees - leaving a free passage for the water in the gutters under the walk, covering them with stone of good length.

The Proposals will state at what price per rod the work will be done by the 10th day of August, another third to be done by the 1st day of September, at which time an order on the Treasurer for one half of the amount contracted for will be given; and the whole work must be completed by the 15th of September, to the satisfaction of the Trustees.

If the work is not done, a forfeiture of 25 per cent will be deducted from the whole sum contracted for, and the work given to some other person, unless some unforeseen cause should prevent its completion.

S. Daniels, N. Bishop, J. Lewis, Trustees.

  

                                        *     *     *     *

Resolved By the Mayor, Recorder, and Trustees of the Town of Marietta, That a paved foot walk, four feet wide, of hard burnt brick, or smooth flag stone, be made the present season, from the corner of the Court House lot on Second and Putnam streets, and on the eastwardly side of Second street to and across Scammel street, to the corner of lot No. 569, thence across Second street to the corner of lot 570, thence on the northerly side of Scammel street to Front street; and from the corner of lot No. 665 across Putnam strreet to the corner of square No. 52.

Resolved, That a gravel walk be made on the westwardly side of Second street, from Scammel street to the foot of Liberty Hill, and from Second street, on the northerly side of Scammel street, to Fourth street, except across the drains, which are to be made of stone.

Resolved, That the crossings of the streets, culverts on the drains, and the gravel from the drains north of the Methodist Meeting House on Second street, and from Second street to Fourth street, on the northerly side of Scammel street, be done at the expense of the third ward; and that the residue be done at the expense of the lots, or the owners of the same on said lines, so as aforesaid; all under the direction of the Trustees of the Third Ward.

Nahum Ward, Mayor.

J. P. Wightman, Recorder.

Passed June 30th, 1834.

 

Letter from Mrs. Gage

Marietta Intelligencer, April 6, 1853

The Ohio Cultivator for April 1 contains a letter from Mrs. Gage, from which we make the subjoined extracts:

I last week visited the home of my childhood in Washington county, the oldest county in the State. Perhaps I am partial, but I fancy there are farmers there as "well to do" in the world as you will often find - not millionaires, but men and women who have learned the grand secret of being comfortable about as thoroughly as any other people I know of. I visited the townships of Marietta, Newport, Belpre and Union (the latter place of my nativity). They are wide awake on the great themes of the day, such as Devons, Ayrshires, Durhams, Merinos, Saxonys and Cotswold - Shanghaes, Polands and Durkings.

The women do not seem to be much in favor of women's rights theoretically, but they are getting monstrously out of their "spheres," for they talk about all these great progressions and improvements as knowingly as the men, and some even dare to take railroad stock, bank stock, and have their say about plank roads, with the rest of them - wonder what it will all come to.  *  *   

As I rode from farm to farm in the old familiar places of my childhood, I could not help thinking that they needed some contrivance to prevent the necessity of getting out of their carriages so often to open gates. A few years ago the roads all lay along the river banks. Now, as economy in distances seems to require, they are in many of the old neighborhoods thrown through the farms, which makes long lanes and diverse gates necessary. On one occasion I remember our lady driver alighted and opened fifteen. This, in a muddy or dusty time, would be no enviable job, and we would advise your lady readers in the country to examine "Enoch Woolman's Patent Gate," which can be opened and shut while in the carriage. You will recollect we looked at it together while at Cleveland last fall. There was a drawing of it in the Cultivator not long since (vol. 8, page 277).  * *

While visiting the family of G. W. Barker, one of the little boys brought in a basket of the largest hen's eggs I ever saw. I enquired by what breed they were produced. Mrs. Barker replied that none of the brag breeds had done the wonder - that she had been in the practice of selecting the largest and finest eggs for setting for a number of years, and in this way had much improved her stock of fowls - a large assortment being a mixture of the old varieties. Those who cannot afford pay the high prices for eggs and fowls of the large kinds, would do well to improve their poultry by this simple but certain method.  * *

 

A Pioneer Memorial

Marietta Register, undated clipping

Editors Register: 

The place, used as a burying ground by the early settlers of Lower Belpre is near the river bank on the farm of Edwin Guthrie [Newbury Cemetery, Little Hocking]. Many persons were buried there who left no descendants here, but the spot has been kept sacred by Mr. Guthrie to this day. Among those whose remains lie there are Mrs. Denham and two children, who were killed and scalped by the Indians only a few rods from the spot where they were buried; and Mr. and Mrs. Spacht, grandparents of the Humphrey family.

Lately, Mr. Shepard Humphrey and his brother of Troy Township, Athens County, and Selden Humphrey of Meigs County, have had a fine monument erected at a cost of one hundred and fifty dollars on this early resting place of the dead, bearing this inscription:

Pioneers 

of 

Ohio.

Anthony Spacht,

and his wife

Catharine.

Hannah

wife of

Joseph Guthrie.

____ Stratton.

____ Bliss.

____ Denham.

One woman and two children killed by the Indians. These and some others, names not remembered, died, and were buried, near this spot, between 1790 and 1810. Erected by some of their descendants as a token of their memory.