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From: MRS GINA M REASONER< >
Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY PART 46
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 23:57:50, -0500


HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

HAMILTON COUNTY PART 46

JOHN CLEVES SYMMES was born on Long Island in 1742. Removed to New
Jersey, and was prominent during the Revolution as colonel of a militia
regiment in active field service. He was one year Lieutenant-Governor of
New Jersey; six years a member of the Council; two years a member of the
Continental Congress, and twelve years a judge of the Supreme Court of New
Jersey. In August 1787, Judge Symmes, encouraged by the success of the Ohio
Company, obtained from Congress a grant for a purchase of a tract of land
fronting on the Ohio river between the two Miamis, and extending north to
the tenth township. Having been unable to pay for the whole, after much
negotiation, he closed a contract, in 1792, for 1,000,000 acres. The
continued rise in government securities made it impossible to pay for this,
and in 1794 a patent was granted him for between 300,000 and 400,000 acres,
including the front on the Ohio river and extending back to the third
township. He was appointed one of the judges of the Northwest Territory,
1788. He died, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1814. Judge Symmes was three times
married. He left two daughters -one, Maria, married Major Peyton Short;
one, Anna, became the wife of William Henry Harrison, afterward President
of the United States (See "McBride's Pioneer Biography.")
The name T. BUCHANAN READ is identified with the war period at
Cincinnati. He was born in Chester county. Pa., March 12, 1822. His mother,
then a widow, apprenticed him to a tailor, but he ran away to Philadelphia,
learned to make cigars, and at fifteen years of age came to Cincinnati,
found here a home with the sculptor Clevenger, painted signs, and at
intervals went to school. Through the liberality of Nicholas Longworth he
was enabled to open a studio and painted portraits. Not finding many
sitters, after a while he led a wandering life, by turns painting
portraits, painting signs and making cigars. At nineteen he went East to
New York and Boston, and at the age of twenty-one published several lyric
poems. In 1843 he first visited Europe and again in 1853, where he passed
five years as a painter in Florence. He afterwards passed much time in
Philadelphia and Cincinnati, but in the last years of his life made Rome
his principal residence; but he regarded Cincinnati as more especially his
home, where he is pleasantly remembered as a gentleman, small in person,
delicate and refined in aspect. During the civil war he gave public
readings for the benefit of the soldiers, and recited his war songs. The
most famous of these was "Sheridan's Ride," which was written in
Cincinnati; the details of its production are given under the head of Perry
county. He died in New York city, May 11, 1872, aged fifty years. His
"Complete Poetical Works" were published in Boston in 1860. Later he wrote
his "Wagoner of the Alleghenies," and in 1865-1867 were issued at
Philadelphia a quite full edition of his poetical works in three volumes.
"His paintings, most of which deal with allegorical and
mythological subjects are full of poetic and graceful fancies, but the
technical treatment betrays his lack of early training. He possessed a much
more thorough mastery in the art of poetry than in painting. His poems
express fervent patriotism and artistic power, with a delicate fancy for
the scenes of nature." Nothing can be more pathetically sweet than these lines:
THE WAYSIDE SPRING
Fair dweller by the dusty way,
Bright saint within a mossy shrine,
The tribute of a heart to-day,
Weary and worn, is thine.

The earliest blossoms of the year,
The sweetbrier and the violet,
The pious hand of spring has here
Upon thy altar set.

And not to thee alone is given
The homage of the pilgrim's knee;
But oft the sweetest birds of heaven
Glide down and sing to thee.

Here daily from his beechen cell
The hermit squirrel steals to drink;
And flocks, which cluster to their bell,
Recline along thy brink.

And here the wagoner blocks his wheels,
To quaff the cool and generous boon:
Here, from the sultry harvest fields,
The reapers rest at noon.

And oft the beggar masked with tan,
In rusty garments gray with dust,
Here sips and dips his little can,
And breaks his scanty crust.

And lulled beside thy whispering stream,
Oft drops to slumber unawares,
And sees the angels of his dream
Upon celestial stairs.

Dear dweller by the dusty way,
Thou saint within a mossy shrine,
The tribute of a heart to-day,
Weary and worn, is thine.

A prominent and most useful man to Cincinnati and the State in the
war-period was Col. LEONARD A. HARRIS, who was born there in 1824 and died
there in July, 1890. He was a captain at the first battle of Bull Run, and
later was Colonel of the Second Ohio Infantry. At Perrysville he commanded
a division, and behaved with singular bravery and skill. Breaking down from
disease he was obliged to resign and returned to Cincinnati. The year 1863
had troublous times, and the office of mayor required a firm and cool head;
the public eye was fixed upon Col. Harris as just the man; and he was
elected. In the fall came on Vallandigham campaign, and there were several
outbreaks of the riotous elements in the city, which he squelched with an
iron hand.
His great distinguishing work was in drafting the famous "hundred
day-men" law, Governor Brough having taken him into his counsel for that
purpose. By this law Ohio sent 43,000 men, National Guard, into the field
as her quota; and these, uniting with the avalanche from other States under
Lincoln's call, led to the overwhelming of the exhausted South.
In 1865 he was re-elected mayor by 8,000 majority, his personal
popularity having been great. He was the principal founder of the famed
Cuvier Club, and for years, by appointment from Congress, one of the
managers of the Soldiers' Homes. His qualities were kindliness, generosity,
modesty, courage, power of intellect and executive capacity. Rarely has any
public man in the city been so personally popular.
HENRY VAN-NESS BOYNTON - soldier, journalist and author - was born
in West Stockbridge, Mass., 22d July, 1835. He removed with his father, a
distinguished minister, to Ohio, when quite young, and graduated at the
Woodward High School, Cincinnati, in June, 1855. Wishing to become a civil
engineer he entered the Kentucky Military School, and received through its
training and instruction all that could have been given him at West Point.
When the late civil war broke out he volunteered, and was elected and
commissioned Major of the Thirty-fifth Ohio Infantry, 27th July, 1861. He
was promoted Lieut. Colonel 19th July, 1863, and commanded the regiment
during the Tennessee campaigns, and was brevetted Brigadier for gallant
conduct at the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. At the last
named fight he fell, badly wounded, as he led his regiment up that famous
height. General Boynton was regarded by his men, brother and superior
officers, as the bravest of the brave. To this courage he added a soldierly
turn of mind that would have made him invaluable in an independent command
where such quality is called for. As it is, his fine mind and vast stores
of information make him a great critic on war matters. His comments on W.T.
Sherman's "Memoirs" created a wide excitement and interest in war circles.
Of like sort is his valuable contribution to history in his famous papers
on the Chickamauga campaign and battle.
On leaving the army at the end of the war, General Boynton entered
journalism, and almost immediately became the Washington correspondent of
the Cincinnati Gazette. His keen, incisive efforts in that line gave his
journal a national reputation. He was soon put at the head of the
Washington bureau, in which a syndicate of several leading papers was
formed, and to-day he is regarded as the front in his profession; one of
the most noted, loved, feared and respected of journalists, General
Boynton's great quality in the army was his high courage, that was animated
by the purest and deepest patriotism.
His distinguished characteristic as a journalist is his sterling
integrity, inspired by a sense of justice, that can be appealed to at all
times. He is feared by knaves of all sorts, for his singularly incisive
style, backed by his courage, makes him terrible in his assaults on wrong.
He has driven some of the worst lobbyists from Washington, and is feared as
no other man ever was by the entire lobby. General Boynton's largest
achievement was the selection and dedication of the Chickamauga
battle-field as a public park. He was greatly assisted in this by General
Henry M. Cist, of Cincinnati; but General Cist, with the frankness of a
true soldier, gives General Boynton full credit for this great work. The
post-office nearest the battle-field has been called Boynton, and ere long
a bronze bust will mark the place where he so gallantly fought, in token of
the affectionate feelings and admiration of his brother soldiers.

-continued in part 47

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