The College Boat House and Gymnasium

The Marietta Register, January 15, 1880

An organization has been formed for the erection of a Boat House and Gymnasium for the students of Marietta College with the following officers: Chairman, Gen. Benjamin Dana Fearing; Secretary, A. D. Follett; Treasurer, S. J. Hathaway; Building Committee, M. P. Wells.

The location will be at the upper end of the City Park and the Boat House is expected to be completed by the next College Commencement. Several plans have been received and one of them will be decided upon soon. Subscription papers have been opened which our liberal minded citizens will have the pleasure of reading in due time. The Boat House to be put up will be an ornament to the Park and one of the finest in the country.

Gen. Fearing has had some correspondence with Secretary Sherman and has received from him the following interesting letter:

Treasury Department, Washington, January 5th, 1880.

        

My Dear Sir: Your letter of the 2d inst., enclosing the circular of Marietta College proposing a plan for the development of physical culture in connection with the College, is received.

I regard this as an important movement in the right direction. The great need of College life is, while developing the intellect and storing the mind with knowledge, to also secure to the student a strong body with sound limbs, so that in the struggle of life he may combine physical with mental training.

I have always regarded my experience as a junior rodman on the Muskingum Improvement, during which time I spend several very happy months in Marietta, as the most valuable period of my education. The exposure in the open air, the severe physical exercise, the necessity of taking responsibility and of obeying orders trained me for the most important duties of my after life.

The life of a boy between twelve and twenty will fix the habits and thoughts of the man in the subsequent years of his life. Therefore it is that I think any plan to develop the physical strength and vigor of the boy is as important a part of his education as the study of languages or mathematics, and I would regard the combination of the two as requisite to every school that undertakes to prepare men for active life.

Anything I can do to promote your plan will be cheerfully done, and I am glad that you are devoting a portion of your time to this subject.

Very truly Yours,

John Sherman

Conditions Misrepresented - Editorial

The Marietta Daily Times, December 23, 1930

Everyone realizes that general conditions in Marietta are below normal, with more than the usual number of people needing some help in securing ordinary comforts, although observers find the situation much better here than in most cities. But it is doing harm, rather than good, for some of us to be circulating wild stories of suffering and hardship for which there is no foundation. This city has always taken care of its own people and we are confident that it will continue to do so as long as there is actual need.

For instance, there is the story of one family in such dire need of food that to dodge starvation it cooked and ate a dog. No one should be so credulous as to believe that, much less repeat it as fact. Then there is the more serious one, although there is no more truth in it, that fuel gas has been turned off at hundreds of homes because bills were not paid.

During November, the last month for which figures are available, gas was turned off at only six residences for non-payment of bills. Four of these were chronic delinquents, who do not pay until threatened in this way. Another was a case in which a relative guaranteeing the bill asked that the gas be turned off in an effort to force the head of the family to make an effort to take care of its needs, and the sixth was a case in which the family left town. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have guaranteed gas bills for a few families.

Every effort is being made to help every individual in the city who needs and deserves help. Persons who know of families who are suffering should report them to the Associated Charities or the Salvation Army. That will do much more good than repeating senseless stories that have no foundation in fact.

Shooting the Town Bull at Parkersburg in 1845

The Marietta Register, January 2, 1868

The Parkersburg Gazette has been publishing some historical sketches of that place - written, we judge, by J. E. Wharton, Esq. The following is his account of an affair which caused much laughter at the time. It was, if we are not in error, in 1845, when Garner, Lorraine and Thomas of Decatur Township, this county, lay in Parkersburg jail, having been seized by Virginians, at the Ohio shore, just below Blennerhassett, for aiding in the escape of slaves. He says:

"The town bull story is one of the institutions of our place. In 1840 or about that time, there were numerous slaves run across the Ohio, as was supposed by the Ohio abolitionists. A company was raised to defend the 'peculiar institution' from the Bohemians - Capt. Daggs commanded. The boys were kept on qui vive every night with the guns, pistols and sabres in good condition, and they had fun at wholesale, on night there was an extra alarm. All were called to duty. 

"The Captain came up street with sword drawn and pistols cocked and called his men to order, and they were drawn up in line on Ann Street about Court. Some had just come from visiting the girls, some from the whisky shops and some from a sound nap. They listened. There was a stir in the bushes that embellished the borders of Pond run. The soldiers listened with all their ears and watched with all their eyes. 

"The word went out that the abolitionists had landed and were forcing their way up to the very muzzles of their guns. The bushes cracked, the Captain trembled in his boots, some ran for safer points, and something dark parted the bushes, and Captain thundered out, fi-fi-fire. About twenty guns rang out upon the midnight air. 

"The sound was followed by another, more dreadful still. It was 'boo-bo-baugh,' a cross between the sound of a steam whistle, thunder and an ungreased car wheel - the bushes cracked again. There was a heavy thud and all was still. A part of the soldiers looked and kited for their homes.

"The next morning there was a crowd of boys examining the corpse of the town bull in those bushes. His skin was so full of holes that it was unfit to tan, and they buried him in the run from which his ghost sometimes arose, in low water, and glared with solemn anger across the river toward the abolitionists who had been the primary cause of his untimely death.

"The escape of slaves through some means, either by the aid of abolitionists in Ohio, or of their own motion, was so great that it is not surprising that deep and general feeling pervaded our people, and mistakes or follies were committed in the defence of what was then regarded everywhere as a property peculiarly valuable and sacred, as it was not only the money value of slaves that was lost, but valuable house servants that could not be replaced, were lost."

In place here we print the lines below, written at the time by A. Winchester, the clever old gentleman who now resides in Harmar. We have had the manuscript in our hands for a long time:

The Mighty Battle

Listen, ye brave of every land and clime,

While I relate strange prodigies in rhyme,

Such deeds of valor never done before,

Were acted near the great Ohio shore.

Let bards no more attempt to tune the lyre

To sing the praises of the ancient Tyre;

No ancient city, though of great renown,

Could e'er compare with our great modern town.

Let old Athens boast not of laurels won,

Nor Spartan warriors of the deeds they've done;

Let learned men no more their pens employ

To celebrate the deeds of ancient Troy.

And mighty Rome with all her pomp and pride,

Compared with us, I'm sure would step aside;

Her fair fained laurels at our feet would yield

And own us mighty in the battle field.

Behold! our men are not afraid to die,

They cross the river and in ambush lie,

With dirks and pistols there, in dreadful fight,

Three Buckeyes captured in the dead of night.

Our valiant soldiers of the best renown,

Were now enrolled throughout our famous town,

To guard the prison and secure the place,

Against the onsets from the Buckeye race.

But lo! one dark and solitary night,

An abolition host appear'd in sight;

Our brave and warlike men reserved their fire,

Until the foe advanced a little higher.

Fired with the thoughts of victory and fame,

They raise their muskets, take deliberate aim,

The word was fire, and oh! what showers of lead!

The day was gained; THE OLD TOWN BULL WAS DEAD!

                                                            Satireacilus