|
Ironton Register, Oct. 14, 1852
Negro Stampedes.
We clip the following from the
Maysville Eagle of the 6th inst.: On the 18th ult., fourteen slaves ran away
from Burlington, belonging to four citizens there; and on the
26th nine fled from Campbell county, owned by Joseph Taylor. On
Saturday or Sunday night last, some thirty-two slaves, the
property of citizens of Mason and Brackon counties, made their
escape across the Ohio River. - Three of them, captured some
thirty-five miles back of Ripley, have since returned; but owing
to the facilities afforded for flight in Ohio, the probability
is that the residue will make good their escape. It is beyond
question that fugitive slaves are afforded protection, means and
facilities, by people of Ohio.
|
Ironton Register, Nov. 10, 1853
Murder by a Slave.
On Monday evening, Oct. 17, Mr.
William K. Henry, an old and highly respected merchant of Natchez,
was attacked by one of his own slaves, named Frank, and most
horribly injured. It seems that Mr. Henry was about to chastise
the boy for some offense, when the latter attacked him from behind
with a small bench, knocked him down, stamped him, endeavored to
choke him with this cravat, and finally beat him on the side of
the face with a part of the bench, entirely destroying his right
eye, and crushing the skull from the eye to the ear. Part of the
horrible affair was committed in the presence of Mr. Henry's wife
and children. The former had her finger severely bitten by the
negro, in her efforts to aid her husband.
Ironton Register, Aug. 17, 1854
Important Decision
Judge S. F. Norris, in a case
recently tried before him in the Common Pleas of Clermont county,
decided that when a master had permitted a slave to visit Ohio, by
that act he made him free. The case in which the above decision
was made was this: A Mr. Anderson, of Kentucky, had been in the
habit of sending a slave named Poindexter on errands to Ohio. Four
or five years since, and after Poindexter had been sent to Ohio,
by his master, he purchased himself, giving his master his own
notes with endorsers. The suit was brought to recover on these
notes. The counsel for the defendant plead a want of
consideration, and the above facts were given in evidence. The
Court held the plea good, the evidence showing that Poindexter had
often been sent to Ohio by his master before the notes were given;
and on the case being decided, the Court dismissed it at
plaintiff's costs. - Cin. Gaz.
This decision is sound and logical,
and indeed, no other one could have been given, without
repudiating a long and well settled principle of law. Courts in
all parts of the Union have decided that the act of voluntary
taking a slave into a free State, of itself, makes him a freeman,
and that in all such cases he has a right to claim his freedom.
Another principle is well settled, and that is, that having once
been free, the black cannot again make himself a slave, by
returning to his servitude. Once a freeman, always a freeman, is
the maxim. Of course with these well settled principles before him
Judge Norris could decide in no other way, and his decision would
be confirmed, we believe, by the Supreme Court at Washington. -
Ohio State Journal.
Ironton Register, Dec. 6, 1856
Tragedy at Manchester.
Manchester, Adams Co. has been the
scene of an awful tragedy. We were in possession of most of the
facts last week, but forbore their publication. The tragedy has
been consummated, and a word is due.
In brief: On the night of Nov. 21st,
a desperate negro named "Bill Terry" (said to be well known in the
lower part of this county) took advantage of the absence of Israel
Morris, entered his house, and then committed brutal violence upon
the person of Mrs. Morris alone with her three children,
dislocating her lower jaw, and dangerously injuring her, despite
her efforts and the screams of the children. Just before daylight,
Saturday morning, the neighbors were aroused by cries of distress,
and going in found Mrs. Morris speechless and in a horrible
condition. When her jaw was set she was able to tell that the
villain had received a severe scratch from her on the lip, and by
this the negro was identified, and taken over to Manchester
Island, hung to the limb of a tree by the people, but finally
before life was quite extinct, he was let down, when he confessed
the horrid deed. He was then taken to the Adams Co. jail, at West
Union.
On Tuesday morning, Nov. 25th, Mr.
Morris having returned home, he with Mr. Dougherty, brother of
Mrs. Morris raised a crowd of citizens, some fifty in number,
proceeded to West Union, and with axes, sledge hammers, and crow
bars, after some 15 minutes, succeeded in breaking down the strong
door of the jail, and took the negro out. Court was in session and
many people were in town, the trial of Milligan, a murderer, being
in progress. The Sheriff called on the people to assist him in
repelling the Manchester party, but no one seemed disposed to do
so, the crowd sympathizing with the rescuers. The negro resulting
in his brutality was taken to Manchester, amid shouts, he himself
swinging his cap and giving a hurrah as they entered town. At 3
o'clock P.M. he was hung in the limb of a tree some twenty-five
feet from the ground, on the Island, in presence of a large
concourse of people, in full sight of the town of Manchester;
after hanging 30 minutes he was taken down and buried on the
Island. The lynching party went about the work deliberately,
without any disgust.
Thus ended a shocking tragedy. The
brute met a well deserved fate; but there are conflicting opinions
as to the justification of the citizens of Manchester in their
proceedings. We have no space for argument; but for me -
emphatically, the late had better have taken his course.
Ironton Register, Apr. 29, 1858
A Master To Be Hanged For the Murder of His
Slave
The Savannah News states that Green
Jordan, who has been tried on a charge of whipping a negro to
death, has been convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hanged on
the 7th of May.
Ironton Register, Apr. 29, 1858
One of the religious papers says,
that "in Wayne county, Virginia, (wherein is Eli Thayer's town of
Ceredo.) there is only about one-quarter of a slave to a quarter
of a mile, and that fraction is daily melting away, like a tallow
candle by a hot fire." This is a species of cruelty we never heard
of before; take a quarter of a negro and melting him daily like a
tallow candle by a hot fire!
Ironton Register, Apr. 29, 1858
Slavery in Delaware
The Peninsular News, published at
Milford, Delaware, comes out in a long editorial article arguing
cogently for the abolition of slavery in that State. In order to
make good its cause, it institutes a comparison between Newcastle
and Sussex counties, the former free and the latter slave. In
Newcastle Co., improved farm land is worth over $53 per acre,
while in Sussex similar land is worth but from $7 to $8 dollars
per acres. It cites the following case as showing how slaver
repels population:
"About three years ago a band of three hundred
Swiss emigrants arrived in New York with all their arrangements
made to settle in Delaware. They were farmers, with money to buy
land, and hearing that land was cheap in Delaware - a State
settled by their fathers - they concluded to settle here, but
finding on their arrival, that Delaware was a slave State, they
passed us by, settled in Ohio, and helped to augment the wealth
of that young giant of the Union."
Ironton Register May 13, 1858
The Colored people held a Fair at
Union Hall, on Tuesday evening, May 18th, for the benefit of, we
believe, their Church; a grand entertainment for everybody may be
anticipated - music, promenading, refreshments, &c.
Ironton Register June 10, 1858
Excitement at Petersburgh, Virginia.
Dispatch under date of May 31st says:
The Keziah, of Wilmington, Delaware, Captain Baylies, cleared from
Petersburgh, last Saturday night. Several slaves being missing, a
steamer was sent after and overhauled the Keziah below the city
point. On searching, five slaves were found on board. The vessel
containing the Captain, crew and slaves, was brought to the city,
and the persons lodged in jail. An intense excitement prevailed.
About two thousand people were at the wharf when - do not have
end of this.
Ironton Register - Dec. 13, 1860
Fugitive Slave Case.
- On Tuesday of last week, Deputy U.
S. Marshal Boadarmour, of Ironton, arrested a young man and woman,
brother and sister, fugitive slaves from Floyd county, Ky. The
fugitives were under the guidance of Jim Ditcher, a free mulatto,
who has lived about Ironton for several years; and as they were
about to get aboard the cars at Washington Switch, on the Scioto
and Hocking Valley Railroad, Boadarmour, who was on board with the
owner of the fugitives, laid hands on them, and took them back to
Kentucky. Jim Ditcher made good his escape at "2:40 time," and has
not since been heard of hereabouts.
The mother of the fugitives left with
them, and remains in this county, the owner not choosing to take
her back, on account of her advanced years. The reclaimed
fugitives are cousins of the famous Polly negroes, whose right to
freedom has been in litigation now for some ten years, between
Ohio and Virginia.
Ironton Register, Jan. 19, 1865
Missouri A Free State.
At 3 o'clock P. M., Wednesday, Jan.
11th, 1865, the State Convention passed the following Ordinance of
Emancipation, by a vote of 60 to 4, thereby making every slave in
Missouri instantly and unconditionally free.
"Be it ordained by the people of the
State of Missouri, in convention assembled that hereafter in this
State, there shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude
except in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, and all persons held to service or labor as
slaves, are hereby declared free."
Ironton Register, Jan. 27, 1887
Mary Finley, a colored woman living
out the railroad, was granted $12 per month pension with
arrearages amounting to $200, last week. Also Dan McKnight, $160
and $6 a month.
Ironton Register, Feb. 09, 1888
Order of Twelve.
A lodge of this secret society has
been organized in Ironton, and last Monday night the first
officers were publicly installed. The ceremony took place in the
G. U. O. O. F. Hall. The Order of Twelve is a colored organization
exclusively, based upon the secret order that was formed in 1852
to operate the famous underground railway system, and operated
since the emancipation upon beneficiary principles similar to many
other orders. It has separate departments for men, women and
children. The lodge just formed belongs to the second class,
though some gentlemen belong to it, and is under the direction of
W. A. Craig, who joined the order in Arkansas and bears the title
of National Deputy and Grand Mentor. It is the second lodge in
Ohio, and has been named "Pride of Ohio Tabernacle, No. 384."
Following were the principal officers installed: Mrs. M. J. Poage,
Preceptress; Miss Callie Scott, Vice P.; Mrs. Caroline Scott,
Priestess; Mrs. Mary Peebles, Inner Sentinel; Mrs. Annie Watkins,
Outer Sentinel; Mrs. Kate Fossett, Chief Recorder; Miss Lena
Tyler, Vice R.; Charles Peebles, Chief Tribune; Levi Mitchel and
Henry Watkins, assistants.
Ironton Register, Oct. 11, 1888
Sudden Death.
Last Sunday afternoon, Albert Holt, a
well known colored man, was found dead in his bed, at his home, on
Washington street. He was up and about on Sunday morning, and was
last seen about 11 o'clock, and at about 2 o'clock, a member of
the family with whom he boarded, went to his room to call him and
found him dead. From all indications his death was without a
struggle. The immediate cause was heart trouble. He had several
times come near suffocation with this malady. A few months ago,
Dr. Henry, the Coroner, was called in when Albert was in one of
those distempers, and then told him he would "die of one of these
attacks if he didn't take care." Albert had been drinking a good
deal lately and that may have helped on the trouble. No colored
man was as widely known as he, and many were the kind words spoken
to him and of him, except when his own greatest enemy got control
of him.
His age was 42. He arrived in Ironton
in 1856. He came from Kentucky with quite a company of slaves that
had been liberated by their owner, Judge Holt. Judge Holt came to
Ironton with his old slaves, and while living, exercised toward
them a most fatherly care. He bought a little farm above Ice Creek
for one of them. He, also, purchased the cottage where Mrs.
Moreland lives for another, and it has remained in the family of
the owner ever since. Judge Holt died in this town a few years
after his arrival, mourned by his former slaves and the entire
community.
The way he happened to come to
Ironton was, Rev. J. F. Givens, a nephew of his, preached at
Spencer Chapel. Mr. Given was probably the finest scholar Spencer
ever had. He was a man of wonderfully fine social and scholarly
instincts; and he won Judge Holt to him and his liberal ideas.
Thus Judge Holt came here and gathered his old slaves about him,
and helped them to enjoy their freedom. Mr. Given afterward
changed his ideas somewhat, and became an apologist for secession,
and thus lost caste in the Methodist church. He died many years
ago, but his wife still lives at Columbus, and his son, who is a
commercial traveler for some wholesale house was in Ironton, last
week, and shook hands with Albert Holt, his granduncle's former
slave. What singular things old Time gathers in his swathes as he
goes sweeping about the world!
Albert Holt was ten years old when
the little colony of freedmen came to town in 1856. He soon got to
be popular with the boys, and at once joined in their plays. He
went hunting and swimming with them, and did his best to make them
happy. The recollections of those days inspire the writer to drop
a kindly word that will brighten the memory of the impulsive,
erring, warm-hearted, good-natured, noisy, Albert Holt. May the
Good Father, who behold the longest lives of men as but moments,
see wherein his virtues out-balance his faults, and may he rest in
peace.
Ironton Register, Dec. 6, 1888
"UNCLE MOSE"
Charleston, W. Va. Dec. 5th.
Yesterday was Sunday. The bell in the
steeple of the Colored Baptist Church, with slow and measured time
struck four score and ten, for these were the number of "Uncle
Mose's" years. Uncle Mose was black. He had been a slave in the
Eastwood family for more than half a century, and for a quarter of
a century since "Old Marser Abe" sat him free, he has steadfastly
refused to be separated from them, for the Eastwoods were kind to
Mose and he loved them.
Saturday last he died. There was no
"dark river" for Uncle Mose to cross. He had kept "in de middle of
de road" all his life. Neither looking "to de right nor to de
left," but straight on until his feet got tired, and he laid down
to rest.
The steady stroke of the bell had
more than usual solemnity in its tones to the hundreds that new
Uncle Mose. They told of infancy, of childhood, then of young
manhood, of middle age, then of old age, then of more than old
age. For years he had lived in a comfortable little house provided
for him by the writer's brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Eastwood.
During the war I knew him - then an
old man. He drove the Quartermaster's post team - four slick, fat
mules, and nearly every old soldier who was camped at Charleston
during the war will remember "Uncle Mose," and drop a tear to his
memory. HOLLIDAY.
Ironton Register, Dec. 12, 1889
A colored man in South Carolina tried
to get appointed Postmaster, at a little burg in South Carolina.
First he got a certificate from 40 white men saying he was honest
and intelligent, without telling them what he wanted to do with
it. Then, he procured a petition signed by 113 colored people for
the post office, and sent it on to Washington. A few nights
afterward 20 white men entered his bedroom, took him out naked to
a ravine, jumped on him and pummeled him, breaking a leg and
mashing a hand, go that he is a cripple for life. That is the sort
of a free country there is down South.
UNION FURNACE
Lawrence County, Ohio
Built: 1826
By: JAMES RODGERS & CO.
Ironton Register, Nov. 10, 1892
THE FIRST IRON FURNACE
WILLIAM LOUDERBACK'S RECOLLECTION OF UNION FURNACE
Of the old men of our town, no one
holds his age better than William Louderback, who is nearly 82
years of age. He has worked nearly all his life about the furnaces
of the Hanging Rock region, and his fund of recollections of early
iron making is rich. The following is the substance of a
conversation with him.
"My father was Peter Louderback who
moved from Pennsylvania at an early day and settled in Scioto
county about three miles from where Sciotoville now stands. I was
born April 11, 1811. When I was four years old, I was placed with
Jesse Wolf who lived in Lawrence county about three miles from
where Center furnace stands. Wolf was a prosperous pioneer. In
addition to his farm, he ran a small still and made enough runs
each year to supply the neighborhood. He brewed some beer also.
During the hunting season, he would kill many deer and would
sometimes have from 60 to 70 deer skins to sell in the spring.
When I was about 13 years old, I went to live with Joshua Horner
at Kelley's Mills on Pine Creek."
"While living there, Union Furnace
was built. It was the first iron furnace in southern Ohio, and
they began building it when I was 14 years old. It was only about
a mile and a half from where I lived and I hauled charcoal to it
when it began running. Charcoal was then hauled in 150 bushel
beds. We used oxen altogether for there were no mules in the
country then. James Rogers, who was the manager of the furnace,
was the first man who counted five pecks of charcoal, a bushel.
The furnace was on a primitive order. It made only about three
tons a day. The output on Sunday was run into pigs, but the output
during the week was made into hollow-ware, stoves &c. The molten
metal was ladled out from the hearth and poured into the various
molds. A man was employed to skim the metal in the hearth and I
have done the work many a time."
"John Sparks was the name of one of
the owners. David Sinton his nephew was a boy of all work about
the store and office. I have heard that Sinton died a millionaire
in Cincinnati. Thos. W. Means was bout the furnace also." [Union
Furnace was built in 1826, by John Means, a South Carolinian, who
settled with his slaves in Lawrence county in 1819. He was an
abolitionist and came to Ohio that his slaves might be free. -
ED.]
"Slaves used to run away from
Kentucky quite often in those days. I remember of many who went
through. There were so many passing, that one man made a living by
catching them and taking them back to Greenup, Ky. Once, a slave
stopped at the home of a man named John Bruce and begged a
breakfast. He was invited in, and while eating, he saw Bruce's
rifle hanging over the door. Something happened to scare the
runaway, and he jumped up and grabbed the rifle, and shot Bruce
dead. He then escaped."
"I have worked at Franklin, Junior,
Buckhorn, Olive, Vernon and other furnaces and came to Jackson
from Buckhorn. When I was at Olive I enlisted in the 4th Ohio
Calvary and served seven months. My son Jacob served in the war
also."
"The pioneers believed that the
Indians had a lead mine on Raccoon Run, which flows into Pine
Creek. Many a search was made for it, but only little pellets of
lead were found." - Jackson Standard.
Semi-Weekly Irontonian - March 9, 1909
Negro Burned At the Stake.
Rockwall, Texas, March 8. - After
having been identified by Mrs. Arthur McKinney as the negro who
attempted a criminal assault upon her Friday morning, Anderson
Ellis was taken from the Rockwall county jail last night, secured
to an iron stake driven into the earth, and burned to death in the
presence of about a thousand persons. Earlier in the evening Will
Clark, a negro, was shot and instantly killed when his father,
Andrew Clark, refused permission to a posse to search his premises
in the assumption that Ellis was concealed there. People were here
from sever towns and from Dallas, Collin and Hunt, as well as
Rockwall county to witness the execution of the negro.
Ellis admitted his guilt, but refused
to make a statement or to leave farewell message for his
relatives. He did not utter a cry as the pile of cordwood, which
had been well saturated with kerosene, was set afire, nor did he
show loss of nerve as the flames cooked his flesh.
He was dead within nine minutes after
the torch had been applied.
Ironton Register, Sept. 19, 1896
OUR AFRO-AMERICAN CITIZENS.
 | The Missionary Society of
Tried Stone Baptist Church held their monthly meeting Monday
evening. Miss Effie Bryant, the president, deserves much credit
for the excellent program she arranged. The subjects discussed,
and addresses were very good, the spirit exhibited showed that
they were working in the right direction. Last Saturday a
fishing party composed of Mrs. Jennie Crossley, Mrs. Georgia
Brooks, Miss Cora Brooks, Mrs. Eliza Woodfin, Mrs. Clint
Roberts, Mrs. Carrie McConnell and Dr. C. T. Smith camped along
the river and threw out their hooks and line, and with patience
spent the day in the endeavor to haul in some of the finny
tribe. |
| Mr. Wheeler Brooks has
returned home from his visit to Portsmouth. |
| Mrs. Caroline Scott is
visiting her daughter, Mrs. Royal, in Cincinnati. |
| Mrs. Sallie Thompson was
visiting her sister, Mrs. Levi Harris, at Central City, last
Sunday. |
| The school bell has called
many of the children off the streets for another nine months. We
would say to the parents, send your children to school; educate
and christianize them; teach them to become good citizens.
|
| Mr. Chas. Robinson returned
home yesterday from his trip to Cincinnati. |
| Portsmouth will give a big
emancipation celebration the 22d at the Scioto county fair
grounds. |
Ironton Weekly
Republican, Feb. 6, 1897
OUR AFRO-AMERICAN
CITIZENS
Personal and Social
Notes Concerning Colored People.
| Rev. Edley, formerly pastor
of the Ashland Baptist church, assisted Rev. R. J. Flemming of
the Tried Stone Baptist church Sunday. |
| Elder J. H. Jones held his
second quarterly meeting at Quinn Chapel A. M. E. church Sunday.
There was a large congregation out of the services. Quarterly
conference was held Saturday evening. |
| Mrs. Mary Colley of south
Ninth street, who has been on the sick list, is improving.
|
| Mrs. Richard Brooks is
convalescing. |
| Mrs. Robt. Leftrage is on the
sick list. |
| Mr. Randall Ross is in very
poor health. |
| Mr. Gabe Johnson, who has his
eye operated upon, is getting along nicely. |
| Master Thornton Brooks has a
slight attack of fever. |
| Mr. Chas. Robinson presented
the choir of Quinn Chapel A. M. E. church with eight handsome
new chairs. |
Ironton Register, Nov.
20, 1897
OUR AFRO-AMERICAN
CITIZENS
Minor Mention and
Personal Notes Concerning Colored People.
| Sunday was rally day at Tried
Stone Baptist church. |
| Mrs. Dr. C. T. Smith went to
Catlettsburg, Ky., Monday on a visit to friends. |
| The Busy Bee sewing circle of
Quinn Chapel A. M. E. church gives a literary and social
entertainment at the church Thursday evening. |
| The order of the Eastern Star
will give a mask social the first Monday. The one wearing the
oddest mask will receive a handsome prize. |
| Mrs. Levi R. Moore has
returned home (from) her visit to Charleston, W. Va. |
| Mr. B. Frank Jones and family
will soon become residents of the Second ward again. |
| What do you think? Mr. Benj.
Reynolds is going to sing a solo in the old folks concert at the
A. M. E. church Thanksgiving evening. |
| The little daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. George Howard has the scarlet fever. |
OBITUARIES
Ironton Register, Oct.
31, 1895
| FRED HARRIS,
the young colored man whom Robt. Royal, a companion, shot by
accident at Jones's restaurant, died last Thursday night. A post
mortem revealed the bullet in his brain. The Coroner's verdict
was that the shooting was purely accidental. It was another case
of "didn't know it was loaded."
|
Ironton Register,
Sept. 19, 1896
| MACK JOHNS DEAD:
A Former Colored Resident of Ironton Killed by His Stepfather at
Ashland.
|
Semi-Weekly Register,
Oct. 1, 1915
- Aged Inmate Dies -
| GEORGE STEWART,
colored, who was close to being a centenarian, his age said to
be 98 years old, died Monday at the County Infirmary, where he
has been an inmate for a number of years. The deceased was
admitted to that institution from this city. Several months ago
he narrowly escaped death from being beaten on the head by
another inmate, named Sylvester Howard, who was committed to the
Athens Insane Asylum. The remains of Stewart will be laid to
eternal rest Wednesday morning in the county graveyard by
Messrs. Gholson and Sons |
|
