I am very fortunate to have this book. It was written by Isaac G. Speck, of Dupont, Ohio in 1900. It also has “Historical Reading of Great Interest”. It belonged to my Grandma Nellie D. James Russell. Following are things from it that I thought were interesting.

In October 1896, the writer of this book, Isaac Speck, in company with Mr. Brady Evans visited the Freeport Cemetery. It is on the farm now owned (this would be in 1900) by David Sears one and a half mile above Freeport, Ohio. And by the kindness of Miss Amanda Sears who took us to the top of a high hill where the cemetery is. She pointed out the graves where Grandfather and Grandmother rests. Their graves are marked with round stones one at the head and foot of each grave, with the first letters of their names thereon. There are between fifty and seventy-five graves there. The Cemetery is located on top of a hill in an open field unenclosed by any fence, although a man was paid to fence it; his name could be given – but for modesty’s sake will be withheld from the public. It is unknown when the first person was buried there. There are no tombstones to mark the resting places of the dead – except those mentioned. I was informed that a woman by the name of Rachel Brown lies south from Grandmothers side. There had been a wild plum bush planted at the head of Mrs. Brown’s grave which had grown to be quite a tree. The lightning struck it a few years ago and killed it, tearing up the ground and leaving quite a hole; since that there has sprouted up a multitude of small bushes.

Then in July, 1899, in company with Messrs. Phileetus Steel, Albert and James Sears, I made my second visit to the old cemetery; from them I gathered much information.

There used to stand in early days near the cemetery a church built of round logs; a fireplace in the middle so arranged that the women sit in one end and the men in the other end facing the fireplace, a very good idea for the present day. It was removed in 1826. Isaac Wheeler owned the farm when Grandfather was buried. Grandfather built a stone house in Freeport, Ohio, but after the most searching investigation I failed to find any record or any person who had any recollection of ever knowing of such a building there.

The following is a short account of Isaac Newton Speck, son of Samuel and Mary Speck.

On the night of December 19, 1862, Newton Speck (as he was more commonly known) met with a very serious accident while employed in his fathers mill near Westchester, Ohio. While working about the engine he fell among the machinery, and got both of his legs broken. One of his legs was amputated close to his body on January 1, 1864. The leg that was saved appeared to get well so that he could use it.

The stump never got well. In May, 1872, with his family he moved to Kansas near Soldier, Jackson County, where he now resides. The following is an account of his sufferings written by himself. “Dear Uncle: As you requested me to write to you abut my leg I will give you a short account of my sufferings since I moved to Kansas. In the fall of 1874, there came a boil on the ankle of my remaining leg, and formed into a running sore – which I still have.

I suffered much pain, so much that I could feel my amputated toes – felt like they were in a cramped condition in my boot. So some of the people wanted to make me believe that if my leg that had been cut off many years ago, was taken up, and the toes straightened out the pain would cease; so I wrote to my brother Franklin at Westchester, to go and take up my leg, and straighten out the toes if they were in a cramped condition. Phileetus Steel, Thomas R. Dunaway, and Thomas Boyer took up the box with the leg in it, and found 29 bones in it, they wrapped them very carefully in cotton and put them in a box and buried them in Westchester Cemetery, by the side of Aunt Ellen. This was in 1875, but it done no good, it still feels as if my toes were cramped. My leg is very painful at times and a pain shoots up my leg to my body, then I chill and fever sets in, then pains start in my body and run down each side of the stump and meet at the end, when they do this, it is like you would strike the bone with a hammer. These pains last from 24 to 48 hours, then I sweat until the bed is wet as if dipped in water. This makes me very weak then I get gradually better.”

Here is another letter which was printed in the Speck book.

Dear Uncle: I received your card stating; you wanted me to give you an account of the time I was bit by a mad dog. My parents, Wm. And Elisabeth Smith, moved here what was then called Marion but now Morrow County, Ohio, in April 1839.

I was seven years old in January. In September following, my mother was invited and went to a quilting. I do not recollect the date but it was on Saturday. Mother took me with her to take care of the baby. While there, in company with another girl, we went to an old log house that stood in the yard and was looking in the window when we noticed a strange small tan colored dog walking toward the old house. We did not notice the dog very much, but he slipped up behind us and bit me on the heel.

He proved to be a mad dog. I had on a pair of low shoes and one tooth went above the shoe and two went through the leather. There was two or three men there and they tried to kill the dog but did not succeed. My mother did not quilt anymore that day. The dog went up to what is now called Edison and bit a little boy by the name of Mosier.

A Doctor Singery of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, was sent for to doctor the Mosier boy, and father went up to see him on Sunday and got medicine. I was kept very quiet for nine or ten days. My foot was dressed every morning with a powder that was got from the doctor and sifted in the wound and I took powders internally. I never was allowed to play any for two weeks. After my foot healed up, I could play a little, but for six months I was not allowed to exert myself enough to heat up my blood in the least.

I am now sixty-eight years old and have never felt any symptoms of the malady returning.
The doctor cured everyone that was bit that was in reach of him, but he died with his secret.
This is the best I can do for I was only seven years old and there is no one left to help me remember.
Respectfully Yours,
Cynthia Farlee.
To I. G. Speck.
Cardington, Ohio, July 4, 1900.

At the request of Grandmother I am writing the above amidst the roar of the 4th of July celebration to my great-great uncle. I am fourteen years old.

Nellie Farlee.

One part of the Speck book is School Days of 1825.

The following is an account of the first Pioneer School House in Washington Township, Guernsey County, Ohio, known as the Powell school house, also the names of teachers that taught, the scholars that went to school, down to 1852, as written by Prof. Geo. Haistings, Wm. B. Speck, Sarah B. Jones and Sarah Bowers. About the year 1825, the people of District No. 1, Perry Township, Guernsey County, Ohio, deemed it necessary to adopt some plan to erect a building to send their children to school.

The description was as follows; round logs, the floor was made of split puncheons, the loft likewise, the chimney made of sticks and clay. The fire-place would take a back-log six or seven feet long, the window was chopped out of the side and end and the “glass” made of greased paper. The seats were split puncheons with sticks for legs, with no backs, the roof was made of clapboards kept in place by poles, and was built by the citizens of the district.

Close by was a spring of clear water running from under a large hill.

The first teacher was Lewis B. Kingsberry, in 1826. He kept a beech rod six or seven feet long to tickle the boys on the head. The teachers were paid by subscriptions of the public.

Next, it lists the teachers of the school and then a partial list o f names of scholars that went to school at the old log school house. I see a lot of family names in that list.

In 1839, a new frame school house was erected about 80 rods west of the old one. Teachers are listed and then names of the scholars that went to the new school house up to 1852. Again a lot of family names.

WESTCHESTER, OHIO

Westchester is in Tuscarawas County, and is located on the road leading from Cadiz to Coshocton, Ohio. It is one of the earliest settled pioneer towns of the country; the plat was of goodly dimensions; the streets are wide and well arranged with a public square.

The town was once incorporated but alas, it has only one post office. The town was laid out by John Cadwallader in 1808. There were four brothers: John, Isaac, Joseph and David. Joseph Cadwallader was a preacher. David Cadwallader owned the William Mears’ farm. Isaac Cadwallader owned the Daniel Kurtz farm. John Cadwallader owned the town and kept the post office from which it got its name. The oldest settlers after the Cadwalladers came could not be ascertained. Wm. Boyd Sr., moved there in 1831. He kept store until he left in 1846 going to Tippecanoe. Thomas Holiday taught school in 1840. Thomas Horn moved there in 1845. Among the first storekeepers were John Jenkins and James McMath. John Cory kept the first hotel. Riley and Brown kept store in 1836. Jacob Yantis was the first blacksmith. James McGraw general store.

Amos Richards moved there in 1818. The Westchester Times was printed in 1849, by James McGaw and Charley Allen.

Robert Brown and son. Robert was suffocated with gas in Robert Mears’ well in 1846.

John Riley kept a general store. Colonel McCue kept store. Nathaniel Ayers Sr., entered his farm in 1804. Thomas Jefferson signed the patent.

In the winter of 1845, the Methodists had a protracted meeting. One night the ‘roustabouts’ got together and concluded they would have some fun. They cut the saddle skirts off, cut the bridle and lines, cut the stirrup leathers off and threw the stirrups away; but they had all the fun to themselves, as they knew it would not be the best policy to say anything about it. It was never ascertained who played so contemptible a trick. Wonder if they are living today?

The business men of today are: John Smith, general store; S. N. Bowers, general store; Thompson Slow, blacksmith; James Meeks, blacksmith; Smith and Mears, undertakers; J. D. Johnson, Physician and Surgeon; John Williams, dealer in organs; George M. Johnson, hotel.

A protracted meeting was held at the new house of Augustus Speck at the Sawmill in November, 1839.

I am putting this part in because I found it interesting and thought others might find it interesting too.
ANTRIM, GUERNSEY CO., OHIO

Antrim; a small village of about 300 inhabitants if on what they call the clay pike between Cambridge and Cadiz. Antrim was laid out by ________ Alexander, the date not being known by anyone living there at the present time. Antrim is quite a village with numerous stores and shops, of various kinds, one genuine shoe maker’s shop of the 1840 fame, one post office and the most abominable side walks in existence. However, it is noted for hitching-racks, side-saddles and the old platform for the ladies and old men to mount their horses.

Antrim has never fully recovered from the fright given her by John Morgan during the eventful month of July 1863. The Confederate, General Morgan, made a dash into Indiana and Ohio with four-hundred cavalry. He entered Indiana at Bradenburg and after scouring the country around Cincinnati and southern Ohio, made an effort to re-cross the Ohio at Pomeroy. Here however, the Union gun-boats cut off his retreat and being hemmed in by the pursuing forces most of his men were captured, while he and a remnant of his army escaped along the southern border of the state. They struck the Baltimore and Ohio R. R., at Campbell’s Station, Guernsey Co., Ohio.

They burned the station and passed on to Washington and Winchester. By some maneuvering at Winchester their pilot took them off the main road, and out of their way about four miles, down on Sugar Tree, which delayed them about six hours, (rather a risky business).

They struck the main route again at Antrim, burning every bridge small and large; exchanging horses with every farmer they found having a better animal than their own, plundered the stores and citizens along the route of everything they could use.

They would go into a house and compel the lady of the house to bring out the best feather pillows she had which they would take and use for saddles.

About one and a half miles east of Antrim they pressed George Bear into service and compelled him to carry water for their famished horses. Poor George was badly frightened, and then to make matters worse George was a Democrat. That was what made it go so hard with him. They passed through Londonderry, Smyrna and Morefield. In the meantime, the Union army was about twelve hours behind them pressing them hard, but were considerable delayed on account of the depredations committed by Morgan’s men while enroute. After leaving Morefield they came to the Notingham Church one mile north of New Athens. There they camped for the night on the Dickerson farm. They were up early the next morning to start on their raid but were headed off at Georgetown by the Harrison County militia. He then went south to Harrisville, then to Updegraff mills, then to Smithfield, then to New Alexander, Ohio, then to Richmond, Ohio, then north to Salineville, Ohio. There they were headed off by the United States soldiers and after a short fight were captured near Dobson’s Mill on little Beaver by General Shackleford, John Morgan had about four hundred men when captured, and Shackleford six hundred. He was taken prisoner and sent to Columbus, Ohio, with his officers and put in prison. He made his escape by tunneling out under ground, and made his escape back to Richmond after four months. Morgan’s men were sent as prisoners of war to camp Chase and some to Johnson’s Island. So ended Morgan’s Raid.

In the next year Morgan was found in Tennessee with a band of guerrillas and on the night of September 4, 1864, he with his band of guerrillas stopped at Greenville at an hotel, a large mansion kept by Williams. He was located by the Union troops and was surrounded. Morgan saw at once that his doom was sealed, and was not long in making up his mind what to do. He made a break for the back door, and out into the darkness. He made a bold attempt to escape but was shot dead before making his way across the garden.

OHIO IN THE WAR OF REBELLION


Ohio troops formed the bulk of the army that saved West Virginia. The bulk of the army that saved Kentucky; a large share of the army that took Fort Donelson; a part of the army at Island No. 10; a great part of the army that, from Stone River and Chickamauga, and Mission Ridge, and Kenesaw, and Atlanta, swept down to the sea and back through the Carolinas to the old dominion. They fought at Pea Ridge. They charged at Wagner. They campaigned against the Indians along the base of the Rocky mountains. They helped to redeem North Carolina. They were in the siege of Vicksburg. The siege of Charleston, the siege of Richmond. At Mobile; at Pittsburg Landing; at Antietam; at Gettysburg; at Corinth; in the Wilderness before Nashville; at Five Forks and Appomattox Court House. Their bones are reposing on the fields they won and are a perpetually binding pledge that no flag shall ever wave over these graves of our soldiers but the flag they fought to maintain. Three hundred and ten thousand six hundred and fifty four men went from Ohio to the front of the fight.

POSTAGE

Postage on letters, etc, was payable in currency for a number of years after 1776, and the rate was increased as currency depreciated until at last the rate was reduced and was made payable in specie.

The rates varied according to distance and in 1792 were as follows: For 30 miles and under, 6 cents; from 30 to 60 miles, 8 cents; 60 to 100 miles, 10 cents; 100 to 150 miles, 12 cents; 150 to 200 miles, 15 cents; 200 to 250 miles, 17 cents; 250 to 350 miles, 20 cents; 350 to 450 miles, 22 cents; for any greater distance 25 cents.

In 1845 the rate for letters not exceeding _ ounce under 300 miles, 5 cents; and over 300 miles, 10 cents.

In 1851 the rate on letters weighing not more than _ ounce was changed to 3 cents for any distance under 3000 miles if paid for in advance or if not the rate was 5 cents; over 3000 miles the rate was 6 cents prepaid or 12 cents if paid at the receiving end.

In 1855, 3 cents was charged for all distances under 3000 miles and 10 cents for over 3000 miles.

The distance part of the scale dropped out in 1863, and a rate of 3 cents adapted on all letters of _ oz. or under.

The rate of 2 cents for each ounce or fraction thereof was made in October 1883.

Postage stamps were first used in this country in 1847.