Image from Big Hair Envy
To oppose and overthrow political wrong, and corruption the people
“Have a weapon firmer set
And better than the bayonet;
A weapon that comes down as still,
As snow flakes fall upon the sod,
But executes a Freeman’s will,
As lightning does the will of God;
And from its force, nor bolts nor rocks
Can shield them — tis the ballot box.”
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) Aug 9, 1843
Image from the White River Valley Museum – Morse Code History
THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.
BY MRS. E.L. SCHERMERHORN.
The following beautiful verses were received by us from Washington by the Magnetic Telegraph; and though the lightning speed with which they were transmitted, adds nothing to their beauty, it was a happy thought to select the wonderful invention, of which they are in praise, as the medium of transmitting them: — [Baltimore Patriot.
Oh! carrier dove, spread not thy wing,
Thou beauteous messenger of air!
To waiting eyes and hearts to bring
The tidings thou were wont to bear.Urge not the flying courser’s speed,
Give not his neck the loosened rein,
Nor bid his panting sides to bleed,
As swift he thunders o’er the plain.Touch but the magic wire, and lo!
Thy thought it borne on flaming track,
And swifter far than winds can blow,
Is sped the rapid answer back.The sage who woo’d the lightning’s blaze,
Till, stooping from the summer cloud,
It played around with harmless rays,
By Fame is trumpeted aloud.And sure she has a lofty meed
For him whose thought, with seraph reach,
To language gives the lightning’s speed,
And wings electric lends to speech.Nerved by its power, our spreading land
A mighty giant proudly lies;
Touch but one nerve with skillful hand
Through all the thrill unbroken flies.The dweller on the Atlantic shore
The word may breathe, and swift as light,
Where far Pacific waters roar,
That word speeds on with magic flight.Thoughts freshly kindling in the mind,
And words the echoes of the soul,
Borne on its wiry pinious, bind
Hearts sundered far as pole from pole.As flashes o’er the summer skies
The lightning’s blaze from east to west,
O’er earth the burning fluid flies,
Winged by a mortal’s proud behest.Through flaming cherubs bar the gate,
Since man by tasting grew too wise,
He seems again to tempt the fate
That drove him first from Paradise!
Daily Sentinel and Gazette (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) May 18, 1846
The Electro-Magnetic Telegraph.
Some remarkable experiments have been made with Morse’s Electro-magnetic Telegraph arrangements, and they have demonstrated surprising facts. Wires extending in length 158 miles were laid down, the Battery, &c., prepared, and matters communicated that distance in almost a second of time! In experiments to ascertain the resistance to the passage of the electric current it was proved that this “resistance increases rapidly with the first few miles, and less rapidly afterwards, until for very great lengths no sensible difference can be observed. This is a most fortunate circumstance in the employment of electro-magnetism for telegraphic purposes, since, contrary to all other modes of communicating intelligence, the difficulty to be overcome decreases in proportion to the distance.”
This is truly one of the wonders of the age.
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) Oct 26, 1843
Image from Encyclopedia Britannica Kids – Samuel F.B. Morse; Telegraph
THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH — ITS SUCCESS.
The miracle of the annihilation of space is at length performed. The Baltimore Patriot of Sunday afternoon contains the action of Congress up to the moment of its going to press — received from Washington by Magnetic Telegraph Despatch.
The Patriot says:
Morse’s Electro Magnetic Telegraph now connects between the Capitol at Washington and the Railroad Depot in Pratt, between Charles and Light streets, Baltimore. The wires were brought in yesterday from the outer depot and attached to the telegraphic apparatus in a third story room in the depot warehouse building.
The batteries were charged this morning, and the telegraph put in full operation, conveying intelligence to and from the Capitol. A large number of gentlemen were present to see the operations of this truly astonishing contrivance. Many admitted to the room had their names sent down, and in less than a second the apparatus in Baltimore was put in operation by the attendant in Washington, and before the lapse of a half minute the same names were returned plainly written. At half past 11 o’clock, A.M. the question being asked here, “what the news was at Washington?” – the answer was almost instantaneously returned — “Van Buren Stock is rising” — meaning of course that his chances were strengthening to receive the nomination on Monday next. The time of day was also enquired for, when the response was given from the Capitol — “forty-nine minutes past eleven.” At this period it was also asked how many persons were spectators to the telegraphic experiments in Washington? — the answer was “sixteen.” After which a variety of names were sent up from Washington, some with their compliments to their friends here, whose names had just been transmitted to them. Several items of private intelligence were also transmitted backward and forward, one of which was an order to the agent here not to pay a certain bill. Here however, the electric fluid proved too slow, for it had been paid a few minutes before.
At half past 12 o’clock, the following wan sent to Washington, “Ask a reporter in Congress to send a despatch to the Baltimore Patriot at 2, P.M.” In about a minute the answer cam back thus: “It will be attended to.”
2 o’clock, P.M. — The despatch has arrived, and is as follows:
One o’clock. — There has just been made a motion in the House to go into committee of the Whole on the Oregon question. Rejected — ayes 79, nays 86.
Half past one. — The House is now engaged on private bills.
Quarter to two. — Mr Atherton is now speaking in the Senate.
Mr. S. will not be in Baltimore to-night.
So that we are thus enabled to give to our readers information from Washington up to 2 o’clock. This is indeed the annihilation of space.
The Clipper of Saturday contains the following information regarding the construction and working of the Telegraph:
The wire, (perfectly secured against the weather by a covering of rope-yarn and tar,) is conducted on the top of posts about 20 feet high, and about 100 years apart.
We understand that the nominations on Monday next will be forwarded to Washington by means of this Telegraph. The following is the Alphabet used:
We have no doubt that government will deem it expedient to continue this Telegraph to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, when its utility shall have been fully tested. When understood, the mode of operation is plain and simple.
American Freeman (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Jun 15, 1844
THE LATE CONVENTIONS.
A brief notice of the proceedings of the Tyler and Locofoco Conventions, held in the City of Baltimore on Monday the 27th of May and the following days —
….. [excerpt]
The Convention met again at four o’clock; when, after listening to sundry speeches, they proceeded to ballot for a candidate for the Vice Presidency, which resulted in favor of Silas Wright, of New York, who received 258 votes, and Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, 8. Information of his nomination was immediately communicated through the magnetic telegraph, to Mr. Wright, then at Washington City, who immediately replied, that [he could not accept] — eleven minutes only being taken in forwarding the information, and receiving the answer.
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Jun 15, 1844
THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH
On Thursday, the 23d ult, says the New York Commercial, the experiment of carrying the wires of the electro magnetic telegraph across, or rather under the East river, was made with perfect success. The lead pipe through which this communication is made, weighs over six thousand pounds, and was laid at the bottom of the river from a steamboat employed for the purpose, though not with out great risk and labor. It is one continuous line, more than half a mile in length, without joint. Through this extensive line of heavy pipe are four copper wires, completely insulated, so as to insure the transmissions of the electro magnetic fluid. We understand that the various routs north, east, and west, have been delayed at the intervening streams, for the purpose of learning the result of this experiment. The whole work had bee effected under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Colt engineer and of the proprietors of the New York and Offing Electro Magnetic Telegraph Line — Repub
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Nov 8, 1845
Image from The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F.B. Morse
The late experiment of carrying the wires of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph across, or rather under, the East river, New York, which was at first supposed to have been entirely successful, seems to have failed — the pipes through which the communication was made, having been brought up a few days afterwards, by the fluke of an anchor. Whether the attempt will be renewed, with such improvements as shall appear calculated to remove the cause of the failure, we are unable to say.
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Nov 15, 1845
It is said that the American Magnetic Telegraph proves more efficient than those used in England and France — the former giving sixty signs or characters per minute, and the English and French not over one-fourth of that number. The impressions made by the American invention are likewise better, and more permanent, than those produced by its European rivals.
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Sep 11, 1846
ANSWER
To the Enigma that appeared in the “Telegraph” of last week.Maine, one of the United States.
Arctic, the name of an Ocean.
Greece, a country in Europe.
Niagara, a river in North America.
Egina, a gulf in Greece.
Thai, a country in India.
Imerina, a country in Africa.
Chili, a country in South America.
Tigre, a State in Africa.
Erie, a lake in North America.
Lima, a city in South America.
Elmira, a town in New York.
Green, a river in Kentucky.
Runac, a river in South America.
Aar, a river in Switzerland.
Parma, a country in Europe.
Herat, a country in Asia.
My whole is a Magnetic Telegraph, a great modern invention.H.W.W.
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Reivew (Alton, Illinois) Aug 13, 1847
Image from Telegraph History
From the West Jerseyman.
THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.Along the smoothed and slender wires
The sleepless heralds run,
Fast as the clear and living rays
Go streaming from the sun;
No peals or flashes heard or seen,
Their wondrous flight betray,
And yet their words are quickly felt
In cities far away.Nor summer’s heat, nor winter’s hail,
Can check their rapid course;
They meet unmoved, the fierce wind’s rage —
The rough waves’ sweeping force; —
In the long night of rain and wrath,
As in the blaze of day,
They rush with news of weal and wo,
To thousands far away.But faster still than tidings borne
On that electric cord,
Rise the pure thoughts of him who loves
The Christian’s life and Lord —
Of him who taught in smiles and tears
With fervent lips to pray,
Maintains his converse here on earth
With bright worlds far away.Ay! though no outward wish is breath’d,
Nor outward answer given,
The sighing of that humble heart
Is known and felt in Heaven; —
Those long frail wires may bend and break,
Those viewless heralds stray,
But Faith’s least word shall reach the throne
Of God, though far away.
Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Mar 17, 1848
Discontented People.
Philosophers have a good deal to say about the blessings of contentment, and all that sort of thing. Nothing, however, can be more uncalled for. Contentment is the parent of old fogyism, the very essence of mildew and inactivity. A contented man is one who is inclined to take things as they are, and let them remain so. It is not content that benefits the world, but dissatisfaction. It was the man who was dissatisfied with stage-coaches that introduced railroads and locomotives. It was a gentleman “ill at ease” with the operations of mail wagons who invented the magnetic telegraph. Discontent let Columbus to discover America; Washington to resist George III. It taught Jefferson Democracy; Fulton how to build steamboats; and Whitney to invent the cotton gin. Show us a contented man, and we will show you a man who would never have got above sheep skin breeches in a life-time. Show us a discontented mortal, on the contrary, and we will show six feet of goaheaditiveness that will not rest satisfied till he has invented a cast iron horse that will outrun the telegraph.
Alton Daily Telegraph (Alton, Illinois) Jul 13, 1853
The First Telegraph.
In 1844 when Professor Morse petitioned Congress to appropriate $30,000 to enable him to establish a telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, Ex-Governor David Wallace, of this State, was a member of the committee on ways and means, to which the petition was referred, and gave the casting vote in its favor. The Whig members of the committee all voted for the measure, and the Democratic members all opposed it. The members who voted with Gov. Wallace were Millard Fillmore, Joseph R. Ingersoll, of Pa., Tom Marshall, of Kentucky, and Sampson Mason, of Ohio. Those who voted against it were Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama, Frank Pickens, of South Carolina, Charles G. Atherton, of New Hampshire, and John W. Jones, of Virginia.
The Indianapolis News says:
“Gov. Wallace’s vote for the appropriation defeated him the next fall when he ran again for Congress. His opponent was Wm. J. Brown. He was, I’ve been told, a shrewd Democratic politician — the father of Austin H. Brown. The Governor and Mr. Brown stumped the district together, and Mr. Brown, all through the campaign, used as his most effective weapon, against his Whig opponent, the fact that he had voted for this appropriation. Pointing his finger at the Governor, he would say, ‘and the man who now asks you for your votes has squandered $30,000 of the people’s money, giving it away to Professor Morse for his E-lec-tro mag-net-ic Tell-lie-graph,’ with a most ludicrous drawl on the word telegraph. With the rough backwoodsmen, and even the people of the towns, the telegraph in that day was considered some sort of a trick or humbug; and many of Mr. Wallace’s staunchest supporters feared there was something wrong in the old gentleman’s head when they heard from his own lips that he really had voted the subsidy. One honest old Shelby county farmer, Mr. Wallace said, took him by the hand and looked into his face with the tenderest pity. Finally his lip quivered, and the tears fell as he sobbed out, ‘Oh, Davy, Davy, how could you ever vote for that d—-d magnetic telegraph.'”
The bill did not pass the Senate until the last night of the session. The story of its passage by that body has been often told, but will bear repeating. We clip the following from a scrap book’ without knowing the name of the author:
There were only two days before the close of the session; and it was found, on examination of the calendar, that no less than one hundred and forty-three bills had precedence of it. Professor Morse had nearly reached the bottom of his purse; his hard-earned savings were almost spent; and, although he had struggled on with undying hope for many years, it is hardly to be wondered at that he felt disheartened now. On the last night of the session he remained until nine o’clock; and then left without the slightest hope that the bill would be passed. He returned to his hotel, counted his money, an found that after paying his expenses to New York, he would have seventy-five cents left. That night ne went to bed sad, but not without hope for future; for, through all his difficulties and trials, that never forsook him. The next morning, as he was going to breakfast, one of the waiters informed him that a young lady was in the parlor waiting to see him. He went in immediately, and found that the young lady was Miss Ellsworth, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, who had been his most steadfast friend while in Washington.
“I come,” said she, “to congratulate you.”
“For what?” said Professor Morse.
“On the passage of your bill,” she replied.
“Oh, no; you must be mistaken,” said he. “I remained in the Senate till a late hour last night, and there was no prospect of its being reached.”
“Am I the first then,” she exclaimed joyfully, “to tell you?”
“Yes, if it is really so.”
“Well,” she continued, “father remained till the adjournment, and heard it passed; and I asked him if I might not run over and tell you.”
“Annie,” said the Professor, his emotion almost choking his utterance, “the first message that is sent from Washington to Baltimore, shall be sent from you.”
“Well,” she replied, “I will keep you to your word.”
While the line was in process of completion, Professor Morse was in New York, and upon receiving intelligence that it was in working order, he wrote to those in charge, telling them not to transmit any messages over it till his arrival. He then set out immediately for Washington, and on reaching that city sent a note to Miss Ellsworth, informing her that he was now ready to fulfill his promise, and asking her what message he should send.
To this he received the following reply:
WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.
Cambridge City Tribune (Cambridge City, Indiana) Jan 1, 1880
Image of Sam Houston from Son of the South
MORSE OFFERED HIS TELEGRAPH TO TEXAS STATE
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 5. — Samuel F.B. Morse offered the Republic of Texas his invention of the electro magnetic telegraph in 1828, but the offer never was accepted, according to a letter by Mr. Morse found in the state library.
The letter, dated 1860, was addressed to General Sam Houston, then governor of Texas, and withdrew the offer, which had been more than twenty years before General Houston was president of the Texan republic. The communication was written from “Po’Keepsie”, taken by librarians to be Poughkeepsie, New York. It is dated August 9, 1860. Starting with “May it please your excellency” the letter read:
“In the year of 1838 I made an offer of gift of my invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph to Texas, Texas being then an independent republic. Although the offer was made more than twenty years ago, Texas while an independent state, nor since it has become one of the United States, has ever directly or impliedly accepted the offer. I am induced, therefore, to believe in its condition as a gift it was of no value to the state, but on the contrary has been an embarrassment. In connection, however, with my other patent, it has become for the public interest as well as my own, that I should be able to make complete title to the whole invention in the United States.
“I, therefore, now respectfully withdraw my offer then made, in 1838, the better to be in a position to benefit Texas, as well as the other states of the Union.
“I am with respect and sincere personal esteem
“Your Obedient Servant,
“Samuel F.B. Morse.”
Librarians are looking for the letter of 1838 offering the electro-magnetic telegraph to Texas. They are also seeking to find out what “other patent” Mr. Morse spoke of.
Ada Weekly News (Ada, Oklahoma) Aug 10, 1922
This Standard Gasoline advertisement ran in the Abilene Reporter News in 1937
Image from Gallery of Photgraphy
Good Counsel.
To the Editor of the Whig & Courier:
If you think the following scrap may be of service to any of our young men entering into life, you will please to insert it in you useful paper. It was taken from Mr. Sam’l Coates’s counting room over forty years since in Philadelphia. I think the direction good, and worthy to be got by heart by every young man engaged in business.
P.C.
“In things of moment on thyself depend,
Nor trust too far thy servant or thy friend;
For private views thy friend may promise fair,
And servants very seldom prove sincere.
What can be done with care, perform to-day,
Dangers unthought of may attend delay;
Thy future prospects all precarious are,
And fortune is as fickle as she’s fair.
Nor trivial loss, nor trivial gain despise,
Mole-hills if often heaped to mountains rise;
Weigh every small expense and nothing waste,
Farthings long saved amount to pounds at last.We return thanks to our venerable friend for the above and for other favors received from him. — Editor.
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) Jul 31, 1843
Image of Samuel Coates from Penn Medicine – University of Pennsylvania
I couldn’t find a biography at Wikipedia or other usual sources. Here is an excerpt from one at the American Philosophical Society.
Background note: Samuel Coates (1748-1830) was a prominent Quaker merchant, who was Treasurer of the Library Company of Philadelphia (1784-1793), Secretary and later President of the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1786-1825), a member of the Overseers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia. (1812-1823) and a director of the original Bank of the United States (1800-1812). Coates was born in Philadelphia on August 24,1748, the son of Samuel Coates and Mary Langdale. His grandfather Thomas Coates had emigrated to Pennsylvania from Leicestershire, England in 1684. He lost both of his parents at an early age, but was placed under the care of John Reynell, a merchant, who married into the Coates family. Under Reynell’s guardianship Coates received a good classical and business education. In 1767 at the age of nineteen Coates was put in charge of a small commercial business in order to give him practical experience.
Image from the Revolutionary War and Beyond
The Last of Paul Jones’ Men.
To the Editor of the Whig & Courier:
During a recent visit to the County of Oxford, I found time to call on the venerable THOMAS CHASE, of Livermore, the last, probably, of Paul Jones’ men. Mr. Chase is now 88 years old, and, though the old hull is pretty much battered and decayed, his mind is clear, and his recollection of the stirring events of his youth, is distinct and vivid. He was born at Martha’s Vineyard; from which place he removed to L some fifty years ago, where he has since lived. He has ever enjoyed, and deservedly, the reputation of an industrious, intelligent, and thoroughly honest man. In fact, the name of “Uncle Chase” is the synonym of “honesty,” in the neighborhood where he lives.
He delights to tell the history of his early life — to relate the story of his numerous adventures and sufferings; but it is when he comes to speak of Paul Jones and his daring exploits — when he is describing, it may be, the engagement between the Richard and the Serapis, that his eye kindles and sparkles with unwonted brightness, and his voice, broken and almost inaudible before, becomes strong and clear, and he is ready to shoulder his crutch and show how ships were taken seventy years ago.
The outlines of his story, as near as I can recollect, are as follows: —
A Privateer came to the Vineyard in the early part of the Revolution, for the purpose of engaging a number of men to go out cruising on the coast. Chase, and about a dozen other young men joined them. After they had sailed they were, for the first time, informed that their destination was the coast of England. At this intelligence, they were a “good deal struck up,” though there were a few that were not displeased at the idea of going abroad, and among this number was Chase, who had a love of adulation and a strong desire to see foreign countries. —
They had not been long on the British coast before they discovered a British man-of-war, much too strong and powerful for them. As they were not noticed for sometime they had hopes of being able to escape, and tried to do so, — they were, however, seen, before they could get away, and were finally taken. In a few days the prisoners were put into another ship, and were shifted not less than three times in about four months. In one of the ships they suffered exceedingly — there were over 1400 souls, men, women, and children, Americans, French, &c. on board. The ship was dirty, the prisoners were dirty, sick and dying — large numbers died. At length the American prisoners were landed at Plymouth, and carried before two justices and a clerk and arraigned for treason. Witnesses were examined, and they were told that they would be committed to “Mill Prison,” on “suspicion of treason against his most Gracious Majesty, George the Third, and would there await their trial or His Majesty’s most Gracious pardon.” They were committed to this famous [or infamous] prison, and kept there twenty three months, during which time they underwent almost incredible privations and sufferings. At the end of twenty three months, (two years and a quarter after they were made prisoners) they were exchanged for British sea men and sent to France. They landed at a small town about ten miles below Nantes. Here they found a recruiting ship and were persuaded to enlist for the purpose of filling the crews required for the squadron, then fitting out at Le Orient, for John Paul Jones.
While at this place Mr. Chase very well recollects seeing John Adams on board the ship where he was. He was in his morning gown, walking the quarter deck when he saw him, and accompanied by his son, John Quincy Adams, then a boy some ten or twelve years old. Mr. Chase was one of the crew of the Alliance, Capt. Landais. His account of the celebrated engagement between the Bon Homme Richard, &c., the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough agrees in the main with that given by Mr. Cooper, though he differs with him in some respects. — He will not allow that the Alliance deserves all the left handed compliments paid to her by Mr. C. According to his account, it was the Alliance and not the Pallas, that disabled the Countess of Scarborough — that it was in consequence of the broadsides from the former that she struck — that the Pallas, coming up, rendered them valuable assistance, and was left in charge of the prize, while the Alliance went to the aid of Jones. And here, Mr. Chase says the Alliance also did good service — not to the enemy, as Mr. Cooper would have it, but to Jones.
When Jones sailed alongside of the Serapis, her commander hailed him — “who are you?’ Jones made no answer. The questions was repeated, “Who are you?” Tell me, or I’ll fire into you” “I will tell you when I get a little nearer!” roared Jones, in a voice that almost drowned the thunder of a simultaneous discharge of broadsides from the Richard and Serapis, which took place at that moment.
Chase was afterwards under Jones several months while he was in command of the Alliance, and became considerably acquainted with him. He was a man of great mechanical ingenuity, and an excellent worker of wood, and while at the Mill prison had beguiled many weary hours in whittling out some very curious wooden ladles, one of which he happened to have with him when Jones came to command the Alliance, and which so pleased Jones, that he gave him half a guinea for it for a punch ladle. He then employed him as a cabin joiner, and while in this capacity he saw a good deal of Jones, and had the vanity to believe he was quite a favorite.
Mr. Chase represents that Jones was liked by his own crew, but not generally by the crew of the Alliance. The crew of the Alliance were much attached to one of their Lieutenants, a Mr. Barkley of Boston, with whom Jones had a falling out, and who was sent below by Jones as the crew thought without sufficient cause. Jones tried to get him back, but he resolutely refused to stir without a Court Martial, Jones would not give him one and he did not go upon deck until Landais was reinstated.
He says Jones was a stern man — brave impetuous — a good man when the crew did well, but the devil if they did otherwise. He wanted everything done in its proper time and way, and everything in its place, and would have it. If his men did well, and took hold right he was kind and pleasant. He had a voice like a cannon, but which in ordinary conversation was rather thick and grum. He was of light complexion, and something, perhaps, below the medium stature. Chase speaks highly of his talents as a naval Commander, and says he always “liked Jones.”
En passant,]our friend is one of six revolutionary veterans (they are all Whigs,) now living in the fine old Whig town of Livermore. A year ago his son endeavored to persuade him to vote the anti-slavery ticket. “No, said he, “I was a Whig of ’76 — I am a Whig now — I have always been a Whig — I believe I shall die a Whig.”
X.
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) Sep 19, 1843
The Expedition:
Richard “Dick” Swete’s goal was to find, and preserve, all of John Paul Jones’ ships. A historian and underwater archaeologist, he spent years researching Jones and the American Revolutionary naval battle between the HMS Serapis and the HMS Bon Homme Richard. Gathering a group of volunteers, his own modest income and a great deal of perseverance, Swete laid plans to find Serapis.
Find out more HERE
Image from The Burns Archive
[ORIGINAL.]
The Mother’s Kiss of Her Dead Child.
The kiss of Friends, who meet to part,
Or welcome their return,
Is sweet, and grateful to the heart,
Where kind affections burn.The kiss, which faithful Lovers claim,
Is fonder and more true;
And, while it feeds the mutual flame,
It seals their vows anew.Still more sincere, the Parent’s kiss,
That bathes the Infant cheek,
Imparts and draws a kindred bliss,
Which language cannot speak;But far most sacred and most dear,
Of all most undefiled,
The mother’s kiss, who, with a tear,
Imprints it on her child.Her child, who sleeps in death’s embrace,
Her lips to feel no more, —
If aught could warm its icy face,
That kiss would life restore;And, if its spirit hover’d nigh,
This proof of holy love,
The richest blessing would supply,
Its wings could bear above.If angels sought with purpose mild,
Earth’s purest scene to know,
The mother, kissing her dead child,
That spectacle would show.Cherryfield, October, 1843.
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) Oct 26, 1843
Image from The Burns Archive
Image from The Victorian Web: A Victorian Blacksmith’s Shop
SONG OF THE FORGE.
We give below the “Song of the Forge,” a spirited and powerful poem. Even compared with Schuler‘s famous “Song of the Bell,” it remains unsurpassed. Many years ago it went the rounds of the papers, starting, we believe, from Blackwood’s Magazine. It then took a Rip Van Winkle’s nap, preserved, however, in the admiring memories of the discriminating, till, after circumnavigating the globe, it lately appeared in the “Calcutta Magazine,” whence it was copied as original by some American journals of more taste than reading. We reprint it, to preserve it in our pages, “for the long day,” as we hope. Observe — and admire too — the masterly variations of the tone in the gentle and genial description of the future course of the food-giving plough, in the dream of the mysterious wanderings of the anchor’s chain, and in the soul-stirring anticipations of the flashings of the sword.
— New Mirror.Clang, clang! the massive anvils ring —
Clang, clang! a hundred hammers swing,
Like the thunder-rattle of a tropic sky
Clang, clang!
Say, brothers of the dusky brow,
What are your strong arms forging now?Clang, clang — we forge the coulter now —
The coulter of the kindly plough;
Sweet Mary mother, bless our toil;
May its broad furrow still unbind
To genial rains, to sun and wind,
The most benignant soil.Clang, clang — our coulter’s course shall be
On many a sweet and sheltered lea,
By many a streamlet’s silver tide,
Amidst the song of morning birds,
Amidst the low of sauntering herds,
Amidst soft breezes which do stray
Through woodbine hedges and sweet May,
Along the green hill’s side.When regal autumn’s bounteous hand,
With wide-spread glory clothes the land;
When to the valleys, from the brow
Of each resplendent slope, is rolled
A ruddy sea of living gold,
We bless — we bless the PLOUGH.Clang, clang — again, my mates, what glows
Beneath the hammer’s potent blows?
Clink, clank — we forge the giant’s chain,
Which bears the gallant vessel’s strain,
‘Midst stormy winds and adverse tides;
Secured by this, the good ship braves
The rocky roadstead, and the waves
Which thunder on her sides.Anxious no more, the merchant sees
The mist drive dark before the breeze,
The storm cloud on the hill;
Calmly he rests though far away
In boisterous climes his vessel lay,
Reliant on our skill.Say, on what sands these links shall sleep,
Fathoms beneath the solemn deep?
By Afric’s pestilential shore —
By many an iceberg, lone and hoar —
By many a palmy, western isle,
Basking in spring’s perpetual smile —
By stormy Labrador?Say, shall they feel the vessel reel,
When to the battery’s deadly peal
The crashing broadside makes reply?
Or else, as at the glorious Nile,
Held grappling ships that strive the while,
To death or victory?Hurrah! clang, clang — once more what glows
Dark brothers of the forge, beneath
The iron tempest of your blows
The furnace’s red breath?Clang, clang — a burning torrent clear
And brilliant, of bright sparks, is poured
Around and up in the dusky air,
As our hammers forge the SWORD.The sword! — a name of dread; yet when
Upon the freeman’s thigh ’tis bound,
While for his altar and his hearth,
While for the land that gave him birth,
The war-drums roll, the trumpets sound,
How sacred is it then!Whenever for the truth and right
It flashes in the van of fight,
Whether in some wild mountain pass,
As that where fell Leonidas;
Or on some sterile plain and stern,
A Marston or a Bannockburn;
Or mid fierce crags and bursting rills,
The Switzer’s Alps, gray Tyrol’s hills;
Or, as when sunk the Armada’s pride,
It gleams above the stormy tide;
Still, still, whene’er the battle word
Is Liberty, when men do stand
For justice and their native land,
Then Heaven bless the SWORD!
South Port American (South Port, Wisconsin) Aug 3, 1843
Some definitions and explanations of words mentioned in the poem:
*****
*****
Title: The Fifth Reader: for the use of public and private schools
Author: George Stillman Hillard
Publisher: Brewer and Tileston, 1863
Pages 111-113
Image from Grow & Resist.
When I first ran across this article for Ohio Ketchup, I had no idea that “ketchup” was ever anything except the red stuff that comes in a bottle.
Seasonable Recipes.
OHIO KETCHUP. — The Buckeyes are in the habit of making a certain kind of ketchup which I have found no where else, and have, therefore, taken the liberty to call it “The Ohio Ketchup.” Is is an article that should be found in every household. You may pardon me for not attempting to give you an idea of its deliciousness, because my pen cannot do justice to the subject. The season will soon be here when this “happy combination of vegetables” can very easily be made. I will therefore transcribe the receipt for the benefit of your readers: Take about three dozen full grown cucumbers, and eight white onions. Peel the cucumbers and onions; then chop them as finely as possible; then sprinkle upon them three-quarters of a pint of fine table salt, then put the whole into a sieve and let it drain for eight hours; then take a tea cup-full of mustard seed, half a cup of ground black pepper, and mix these well with the cucumbers and onions; then put the whole into a stone jar and fill up with the strongest vinegar and close tightly. In three days it will be fit for use, and will keep for years.
Let all your readers give the Ohio Ketchup a fair trial, and you and I will receive sixty thousand thanks for letting them into the secret of making it.
TO PRESERVE TOMATOS. — The following has been handed to us as the receipt of a good housewife for preserving or “curing” tomatoes so effectually that they may be brought out at any time between the seasons “good as new,” with precisely the same flavor of the original article; Get sound tomatoes, peal them, and prepare just the same as for cooking, squeeze them as fine as possible, put them into a kettle, bring them to a boil, season with pepper and salt; then put them in stone jugs, taken directly from water in which they (the jugs) have been boiled. — Seal the jugs immediately, and keep them in a cool place.
Watertown Chronicle (Watertown, Wisconsin) Sep 4, 1850
NOTE: The Republic Compiler (Gettysburg, PA) Jul 29, 1850, also carried this article and included its author as E.B.R. Springfield, Clarke co., Ohio, 1850.
TOMATO KETCHUP. — The following, from long experience, we know to be the best receipt extant for making tomato ketchup.
Take one bushel of tomatoes, and boil them until they are soft. Squeeze them through a fine wire sive, and add —Half a gallon of vinegar,
One pint and a half of salt,
Two ounces of cloves,
Quarter of a pound of allspice,
Three ounces of cayenne pepper,
Three table-spoonful of black pepper,
Five heads of garlic, skinned and seperated.Mix together and boil about three hours, or until reduced to about one-half. Then bottle without straining.
Daily Commercial Register (Sandusky, Ohio) Sep 9, 1852
** Bushel: In dry measurements, equals 8 gallons or 32 quarts of a commodity. Associated Content from Yahoo
Tomato Catsup — Tomato Sauce.
As the season is drawing near for all good housekeepers to commence putting up different kinds of preserves, pickles, &c., we copy the following recipe from the August number of the [American Agriculturist] for making tomato catsup and sauce: “The basis of tomato catsup, or ketchup, is the pulp of ripe tomatoes. Many defer making catsup until late in the season, when the cool nights cause the fruit to ripen slowly, and it may be t is gathered hurriedly for fear of a frost. The late fruit does not yield so rich a pulp as that gathered in its prime.
The fruit should have all green portions cut out, and be stewed gently until thoroughly cooked. The pulp is then to be separated from the skins, by rubbing through a wire sieve so fine as to retain the seeds. The liquor thus obtained is to be evaporated to a thick pulp, over a slow fire, and should be stirred to prevent scorching. The degree of evaporation will depend upon how thick it is desired to have the catsup. We prefer to make it so that it will just poor freely from the bottle. We observe no regular rule in flavoring. Use sufficient salt. Season with cloves, allspice, and mace, bruised and tied in a cloth, and boiled in the pulp; add a small quantity of powdered cayenne.
Some add the spices ground fine, directly to the pulp. A clove of garlic, bruised and tied in a cloth, to be boiled with the spices, imparts a delicious flavor. Some evaporate the pulp to a greater thickness than is needed, and then thin with vinegar or with wine. An excellent and useful tomato sauce may be made by preparing the pulp, but adding no spices, and putting it in small bottles while hot, corking securely and sealing. If desired, the sauce may be salted before bottling, but this is not essential. To add to soups, stews, sauces and made dishes, a sauce thus prepared is an excellent substitute for the fresh fruit. It should be put in small bottles containing as much as will be wanted at once, as it will not keep long after opening.
The Heral and Torch Light (Hagerstown, Maryland) Aug 2, 1882
— Old Virginia Ketchup. — Take one peck of green tomatoes, half a peck of white onions, three ounces of white mustard seed, one ounce each of allspice and cloves, half a pint of mixed mustard, an ounce of black pepper and celery seed each, and one pound of brown sugar. Chop the tomatoes and onions, sprinkle with salt and let stand three hours; drain the water off; put in a preserve kettle with the other ingredients. Cover with vinegar, and set on the fire to boil slowly for one hour.
— Ladies’ Home Journal.
The Wellsboro Gazette (Wellsboro, Pennsylvania Sep 5, 1895
** Peck: Equivalent of 2 gallons of dry weight, or 10 to 14 pounds. Associated Content from Yahoo
Image from the Local Food Local Farms Local Sustainability website.
Ketchup.
Why catsup? Nearly every bottle which comes from a public manufacturer is emblazened with that spelling. Wrong Ketchup is the word. It is a corruption of the Japanese word kitjap, which is a condiment somewhat similar to soy. It is a pick me up, a stirrer of the digestive organs, a katch me up, and hence its application to the mingling of tomatoes and spices, whose name it should bear.
— Philadelphia Times.
North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) Jan 15, 1896
NOTE: At the link for the mushroom ketchup (scroll down,) it says that Ketchup came from a Chinese word, rather than Japanese.
Image from the Simple Bites website – Real Food for the Family Table – Canning 101 Home Canned Tomatoes
TO MAKE KETCHUP.
When you cut up the tomatoes remove that part of pulp which holds the seeds, as that produced only some of the watery fluid which afterward must be got rid of. Then cook the tomatoes until perfectly soft and strain like this: Take a pan sieve; place over a two gallon crock, the top of which is a little smaller than the sieve. Set the crock in a dishpan. When you pour the hot tomatoes in the sieve, the thinnest liquid will run through the edge which extends over the crock, into the pan, and you can throw all that liquid away, which otherwise would have to be boiled away. Then with a spoon, and afterward with your hands, rub the tomatoes through the sieve. In half the time the ketchup is better and thicker than ever. When it doesn’t cook too long, the ketchup also is lighter in color. This fact, and because I tie the spices in a bag, makes it as bright as that you buy.
Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Jul 1, 1907
Sauce for Chops.
Pound fine an ounce of black pepper and half an ounce of allspice, with an ounce of salt, and a half ounce of scraped horseradish and the same of shalots peeled and quartered; put these ingredients into a pint of mushroom ketchup or walnut pickle; let them steep for a fortnight and then strain it. A teaspoonful or two of this is generally an acceptable addition, mixed with the gravy usually sent up for chops and steaks; or added to thick melted butter.
Another delightful sauce for chops is made by taking two wineglasses of port and two of walnut pickle; four of mushroom ketchup; half a dozen anchovies pounded, and a like number of shalots sliced and pounded; a tablespoonful of soy and half a drachm of Cayenne pepper; let them simmer gently for ten minutes; then strain, and when cold put into bottles, well corked and sealed over. It will keep for a considerable time.
Suburbanite Economist (Chicago, Illinois) Jan 23, 1914
American Pickles for Queen Victoria.
Lusden & Gibson, grocers, of Aberdeen, Scotland, regularly supply Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s residence, with Heinz’s sweet pickles, tomato soup, pickled onions, ketchup and chutney. The goods are supplied through H.J. Heinz Company’s London Branch.
— New York Sun.
The News (Frederick, Maryland) Mar 1, 1899
T.M. Shallenberger comes to the defense of labor as an institution. The subject is one that admits of endless discussion, without arriving anywhere. If a man like to work, it is entirely proper that he should be given the privilege; but it not fair that people who detest work are compelled to work if they would be considered respectable. It would be just as reasonable to compel a man to play ball, although he abhors the game.
There is something wrong with the man who really enjoys working: he is not balanced right; the busy bee is a sample worker; it sweats around all day, going three or four miles to get raw material that could be obtained just as well a few yards from the hive.
Ketchup is another worker; when it is bottled, instead of taking things easy, it begins to work and gets sour and spoiled. That is the way with most people who work; they get sour and spoiled.
We are arranging to organize a new political party, composed of non-workers. The only toll permitted will be the working of candidates for cigars, which is a pleasing and profitable employment.
The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) Aug 13, 1899
I wonder if this works:
Household Hints
WHEN cooking ketchup, etc., try putting a few marbles into the kettle to prevent burning. The heat will keep the marbles rolling and prevent the stuff from sticking to the kettle.
Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Jun 9, 1922
When the slow eater calls for ketchup, he means business.
–[N.O. Picayune.
The Mountain Democrat (Placerville, California Jun 19, 1880
When Casey’s small son was asked by the teacher to give the plural of tomato, he promptly answered: “Ketchup, mem.”
Suburbanite Economist (Chicago, Illinois) Jul 4, 1913
The following poems aren’t ABOUT ketchup, but the do mention it. I have bolded ketchup:
Image from the USDA National Agricultural Library
A Sunnit to the Big Ox
Composed while standin within 2 feet of Him, and a Tuchin’ of Him now and then.
All hale! thou mighty annimil–all hale!
You are 4 thousand pounds, and am purty wel
Perporshund, thou tremenjos boveen nuggit!
I wonder how big you was wen you
Wos little, and if yure muther wud no you now
That you’ve grone so long, and thick, and phat;
Or if yure father would rekognize his ofspring
And his kaff, thou elefanteen quodrupid!
I wonder if it hurts you mutch to be so big,
And if you grode it in a month or so.
I spose wen you wos young tha didn’t gin
You skim milk but all the kreme you kud stuff
Into your little stummick, jest to see
How big yude gro; and afterward tha no doubt
Fed you on otes and ha and sich like,
With perhaps an occasional punkin or squosh!
In all probability yu don’t no yure enny
Bigger than a small kaff; for if you did,Yude brake down fences and switch your tail,
And rush around, and hook, and beller,
And run over fowkes, thou orful beast
O, what a lot of mince pize yude maik,
And sassengers, and your tale,
Whitch kan’t wa fur from phorty pounds,
Wud maik nigh unto a barrel of ox-tail soop,
And cudn’t a heep of stakes be cut oph yu,
Whitch, with salt and pepper and termater
Ketchup, wouldn’t be bad to taik.
Thou grate and glorious inseckt!
But I must klose, O most prodijus reptile!
And for mi admirashun of yu, when yu di,
I’le rite a node unto yore peddy and remanes,
Pernouncin’ yu the largest of yure race;
And as I don’t expect to have a half a dollar
Agin to spare for to pa to look at yu, and as
I ain’t a ded head, I will sa, farewell.
LeRoy Gazette (LeRoy, New York) Apr 20, 1859
CINTHY ANN’S NEW HOUSE.
I built a house for Cinty Ann — an made it red and rich,
An rigged it up with cuperlows an lightnin rods and sich,
An built a wide piazzer roun ware she could set and sew,
An take her knittin work an gab with ole Kerturah Snow.An Cinthy Ann was happy fer about a week or so,
And then she foun the chimbley draft wus workin ruther slow;
For the smoke came in her kitchen an she couldn’t bake her pies,
An her pudd’n only sizzled, an her johnny cake wouldn’t rise.An soon she foun her buttry wuz too small to hol her stuff,
For apple sass and blackb’ry jell it wasn’t large enough,
An all her things were scrooched right in ez tight ez she could cram,
Her pickles, an her ketchup, an her elderberry jam.An then a dog day storm came on an drizzled for a week,
An the roof around the chimney had to go an spring a leak,
An mildewed four er my white shirts thet she hed made an biled,
An her winter muff was rooined and her weddin dress was spiled.An then sez I to Cinthy, w’en she sut down to cry,
“Ther ain’t no home upon this side the mansions in the sky
But what has some leak in the roof, some trouble in the flue,
Some mis’ble cluttered buttry” — an poor Cinthy said “Boo hoo!”We build our pooty houses that are ternal fine to see,
An we stick’em up with cuperlows and sich like filigree,
An in our dreams they’re fair ez heaven, but let us wait a week,
This pooty palace of our dreams is sure to spring a leak.— S.W. Foss in Yankee Blade.
Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Sep 14, 1892
Image from http://americangallery.wordpress.com
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Few columns rose when Rome was free
To mark her patriot’s last repose;
When she outlived her liberty,
The emperor’s mausoleums rose;
And Trajan’s shaft was reared at last,
When freedom from Tyber passed.
“Better than Trajan” lowly lies
By broad Potomac’s silent shore,
Hallowing the green declivities
With glory, now and evermore.
Art to his fame no aid hath lent —
His country is his monument.
Huron Reflector (Norwalk, Ohio)1832
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
The following account of the appointment of General Washington to the supreme command of the continental army, June 18th, 1775, has been placed in our hands by a gentleman in whose veracity we have full confidence. We cannot doubt the authenticity of the anecdotes he gives.
This subject has of late years been brought before the public under various versions, and has in every shape attention. The private journal is narrating a conversation with John Adams, senior, before that great and good man was called to his final rest. The relation is more in detail than that which has hitherto been made public, but it substantially corroborates the former versions of the causes which led to the appointment of Washington. Lest we should in any way affect the anecdote, we give it in the words of the narrator.
The army was assembled at Cambridge, Mass., under Gen. Ward, and Congress was sitting at Philadelphia. Every day, new applications in behalf of the army arrived. The country was urgent that Congress should legalize the raising of the army; as they had, what must be considered, only a mob, a band of armed rebels.
The country was placed in circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger. The struggle had begun, and yet every thing was without order. The great trial now seemed to be in this question. Who shall be the commander-in-chief? It was exceedingly important, and was felt to be the hinge on which the contest might turn for or against us.
The Southern and Middle States, warm and rapid in their zeal for the most part, were jealous of New England, because they felt the real physical force was here; what then was to be done? All New England adored Gen. Ward; he had been in the French war, and went out laden with laurels. He was a scholar and a statesman. Every qualification seemed to cluster in him; and it was confidently believed that the army could not receive any appointment over him. What then was to be done? Difficulties thickened at every step. The struggle was to be long and bloody. Without union, all was lost. The country and the whole country must come in. One pulsation must beat through all hearts.
The cause was one, and the army must be one. The members had talked, debated, considered and guessed, and yet the decisive step had not been taken. At length Mr. Adams came to his conclusion. The means of resolving it were somewhat singular, and nearly as follows: he was walking one morning before Congress hall, apparently in deep thought, when his cousin, Samuel Adams, came up to him and said,
“What is the topic with you this morning?”
“Oh the army,” he replied. “I’m determined to go into the hall this morning, and enter on a full detail of the colonies, in order to show an absolute need of taking some decisive steps. My whole aim will be to induce Congress to appoint a day for adopting the army as the legal army of these united colonies of North America, and then to hint at an election of a Commander-in-Chief.”
“Well,” said Samuel Adams, “I like that, cousin John; but on whom have you fixed as that Commander?”
“I will tell you — George Washington, of Virginia, a member of this house.”
“Oh,” replied Samuel Adams quickly, “that will never do, never.”
“It must do, it shall do,” said John, “and for these reasons — the Southern and Middle States are bout to enter heartily in the cause; and their arguments are portent! they say that New England holds the physical power in her hands, and they fear the result. A New England army, a New England commander, new England perseverance all united, appal them. For this cause they hang back. Now the only course is to allay their fears, and give them nothing to complain of; and this can be done in no other way but by appointing a Southern Chief over this force, and then all will rush to the standard. This policy will blend us in one mass, and that mass will be resistless.”
At this, Samuel Adams seemed greatly moved. They talked over the preliminary circumstances, and John asked his cousin to second the motion. Mr. Adams went in, took the floor, and put forth all his strength, in the delineation he had prepared, all aiming at the adoption of the army. He was ready to own the army, appoint a commander, vote supplies, and proceed to business. After his speech had been finished, some doubted, some objected, and some feared. His warmth increased with the occasion, and to all these doubts and hesitations she[he?] replied.
“Gentlemen, if this Congress will not adopt this army before ten moons have set, New England will adopt it, and she will undertake the struggle alone — yes, with a strong arm, and a clean conscience, she will front the foe single handed.”
This had the desired effect. They saw New England was neither playing, nor to be played with. They agreed to appoint a day. A day was fixed. It came — Mr. Adams went in, took the floor, urged the measure, and after some debate, it passed.
The next thing was to get a commander for his army, with supplies, &c. All looked to Mr. Adams on the occasion, and he was ready. He took the floor, and went into a minute delineation of the character of General Ward, bestowing on him the encomiums which then belonged to no one else. At the end of the eulogy he said, “But this is not the man I have chosen.”
He then went into the delineation of the character of a Commander-in-Chief, such as was required by the peculiar situation of the Colonies at this juncture. And after he had presented the qualifications in his strongest language, and gave the reasons for the nomination he was about to make, he said —
“Gentlemen, I know these qualifications are high, but we all know they are needful, at this crisis in this chief. Does any one say they are not to be obtained in this country? In reply I have to say they are; reside in one of our own body, and he is the person whom I now nominate.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, OF VIRGINIA
Washington, who sat on Mr. Adams’ right hand, was looking at him intently in the face, to watch the name he was about to announce, and not expecting it would be his, sprang from his seat the minute he heard it, and rushed into an adjoining room. Mr. Adams had asked his cousin Samuel to ask for an adjournment as soon as the nomination was made, in order to give the members time to deliberate, and the result is before the world.
I asked Mr. Adams, among other questions, the following:
“Did you ever doubt of the success of the conflict?”
“No, no,” said he, “not for a moment. I expected to be hung and quartered, if I was caught; but no matter for that — my country would be free; I knew George III, could not forge chains long enough and strong enough to reach around these United States.”
The Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) Mar 6, 1843
Where is Mr. Jefferson when we need him? If only these principles held true today:
Image from http://www.ng.mil
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES.
Jefferson lays down the following principles:
The people, the only source of legitimate power.
The absolute and lasting severance of church and state.
The freedom, sovereignty and independence of the respective States.
The Union, a confederacy, a compact neither a consolidation nor a centralization.
The constitution of the Union, a special written grant of powers, limited and definite.
The civil paramount to the military power.
The representative to obey the instructions of his constituents.
Elections free, and suffrage universal.
No hereditary office, nor order, nor title.
No taxation beyond the public wants.
No national debt, if possible.
No costly splendor of administration.
No proscription of opinion, nor of public discussion.
No unnecessary interference with individual conduct, property, or speech.
No favored classes, and no monopolies.
No public moneys expended except by warrant of specific appropriation.
No mysteries in government inaccessible to the public eye.
Public compensation for public services, moderate salaries, and pervading economy and accountability.
The Experiment (Norwalk, Ohio) Oct 11, 1843
The Old Stone House, Slippery Rock PA
This house was near where the murders took place, and is mentioned in one of the articles below.
From the Butler Herald.
A Mother and her Five Children Murdered!!
A most shocking and brutal murder was committed in Slipperyrock township, this county, on this morning, by an Indiam calling himself Samuel Mohawk. We have been enabled to gather the following particulars of the horrid tragedy. Mr. James Wigton had left his house early in the morning for the purpose of going to his father’s to borrow from him a horse to plough corn, leaving his wife and five children at home. While he was absent, the Indian came there, and as appears from his confession, murdered Mrs. Wigton and her five children by beating out their brains with stones. Mrs. Wigton and the youngest child were not quite dead, when first discovered. The Indian then proceeded to a Mr. Kennedy’s house, and made an attack on him and his family — injuring a son of Mr. Kennedy very severely, perhaps dangerously, by hitting him on the head with a large stone. After being driven off by Mr. Kennedy, he next went to Mr. Kiester’s, where he was captured, after a desperate resistance, in which a man named Blair was seriously injured. He was taken to Wigton’s and confessed the murder, and said he way sorry for it.
An Inquest was held on the dead bodies, and the jury returned a verdict that the murdered persons came to their deaths by the hands of Samuel Mohawk.
Mrs. Wigton was about thirty-five years of age — the children, three girls, and two boys, were aged about eleven, nine, five, three, and one, years.
The Indian is now in jail, and will be tried at the September Sessions. We understand that he lives in Cattaraugus county, N.Y. This unfortunate wretch remained in this place for a day or two previous to the commission of the above horrid deed, and complained of being sick.
Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) Jul 3, 1843
TRIAL OF MOHAWK. — The trial of SAMUEL MOHAWK, for the murder of the wife and five children of Mr. JAMES WIGTON, commenced in the Oyer and Terminer of this county on Wednesday the 13th, and resulted on Saturday in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. A motion was immediately made by his counsel for a new trial. This motion will be argued, and, we presume, decided at our adjourned court on the third Monday in January next. — Butler Herald
Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) Jan 1, 1844
THE ruins of the Butler county Court house call up many interesting reminiscences says the Oil City Blizzard; But one murder received the death sentence in the old building. It was in 1869, I believe that a young farmer named Hockenberry, living on Muddy creek, asked the hand of Minnie McCandless, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. She refused him and he was so grieved and disappointed that he had determined to kill her. One bleak, dismal night in the late fall, he crept up to the old farm house and peering through the window, saw the rosy cheeked girl sitting by a cheerful fire. His pistol aim was deadly and the poor creature fell over dead, while the blood slowly oozed from the wound in her head. The trial of the young farmer lasted several days, and Judge McGuffin pronounced the sentence which was soon after executed in the county jail yard. This lead back to the only other execution in the county, in 1843, Mohawk, a raftman, was returning from Pittsburgh to Orlean, N.Y. He was drunk when he left the stage about 12 miles below here, and the tavern keeper refused to keep him over night. The drunken and enraged red man sought the house of James Wigton.
Wigton was absent and the Indian wreaked his vengeance against the white people by murdering Mrs. Wigton and five children. The butchery was brutal, almost beyond savagery. The neighbors gave chase to Mohawk, and with great difficulty made him prisoner. His trial caused much interest and excitement at the time as old newspapers show; He was the first person executed in the county.
Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania) Jan 16, 1884
1843 Massacre Near Stone House Described By Speaker At Meeting
The 1843 murder of a mother and her five children — reportedly the last Indian massacre in Pennsylvania — was described last night at a meeting of the Venango County Historical Society.
Lloyd Bromley of Seneca, retired Venango Campus professor and a close student of Indian history in this area, used the Old Stone House as the theme of his talk in the Franklin Library.
HE TOLD of the Wigton Massacre of 1843 near the Stone House, historical event which he has researched in detail. In that massacre Mrs. James Wigton and her five children were slain by Samuel Mohawk, a Seneca Indian from Cataragus County, N.Y., on Saturday, June 30, 1843.
Bromley said Mohawk arrived in Butler from Pittsburgh after he had helped bring a raft of logs to Pittsburg from the Upper Alleghney.
After a brief stay in Butler, Sam took the stage for the interchange at Stone House Tavern.
In the evening he wound up in a fight with the proprietor, John Sill. Sill broke a chair over Sam’s head and shoulders and put him out of the tavern.
The next day Mohawk wandered back up the road, a mile north of Stone House, and entered the grounds of the Wigton home.
“Just what prompted the struggle we are at a loss to know,” Bromley said.
“Crazed with white man’s liquor, having lost his sense of moral values, abused and beaten, he attacked Mrs. Wigton as she defended herself and her brood.
“Leaving her lying there in the yard, he entered the home to complete his infamous work. Finding the baby in the kitchen cradle was not a girl, he bashed its brains out.
“Searching around he found a stone in the washhouse fireplace used there in place of an iron. He took it and went upstairs to the bedroom where the other four children were sleeping and beat their brains out.
“Meanwhile Mrs. Wigton with one hand partly severed crawled into the kitchen only to be dispatched a few minutes later by Sam Mohawk.”
A neighbor’s son found Mrs. Wigton in a pool of blood in the kitchen. Her face was badly beaten and one hand almost severed.
The boy called his parents and the tragic news quickly spread about the community.
“Very soon about 100 settlers flocked in from all directions,” Bromley said. They found blood stained the floor, walls and ceiling of the children’s bedroom “and their heads had been bashed in by the rock Sam had taken from the fireplace.”
“The room was found covered with blood,” he said.
James Wigton returned from his father’s farm where he had borrowed a horse and was stunned by the tragedy. He never entered the house again.
THE MOTHER and five children were buried in a common grave July 2, 1843, in the cemetery of Muddy Creek Presbyterian Church, three miles south of Stone House and about 1,000 feet off Route 8. To date the grave is unmarked, Bromley said. An estimated 6,000 people attended the funeral.
Later Charles McQuiston, brother of Mrs. Wigton, Tom Donahy and others cornered Mohawk in the home of Paul Keister.
He was beaten into unconsciousness and dragged outside.
After he was revived, Mohawk was taken to the Wigton home where he confessed and rehearsed the crime in part but he later said they could not prove he committed the murders.
James Wigton and his brother William drew guns and stepped forward to shoot Sam.
After a plea for law and justice, a coroner’s jury of six men head a hearing under an apple tree on Wigton Farm. Mohawk then was taken to Butler in a covered wagon.
Later a grand jury returned a true bill.
While in jail, Mohawk was baptized into the Christian faith.
“Upon coming to his sober senses, he had sought God’s forgiveness,” Bromley said.
His trial began December 13, 1843, and after four days and 48 witnesses had testified in four days the jury in one hour handed down the first death penalty in the history of Butler County.
Sam was hung March 22, 1844. His body was refused burial in any Butler cemetery though he made a “profession of religion and implored God’s mercy,” Bromley stated,
SHORTLY BEFORE his death, two Seneca Indians came from Cataragus with a burial suite and moccasins and begged that Sam be shot instead of hung. Mohawk was laid to rest in the woods on Hill Street.
James Wigton received a letter signed by six Seneca chiefs saying they did not condone Mohawk’s offenses and actions and they implored him to intercede for safe conduct for Indians passing through this area.
They had to return home by the Venango Trail from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to the upper reaches of the Allegheny.
Bromley said that for a long time Indians were not welcome in this area.
Derrick (Oil City, Pennsylvania) Oct 21, 1970
UPDATE: I just ran across an old New York Times article about this murder, which can be found HERE. ( It’s a PDF.) It gives a good summary of the case.
UPDATE 2: I searched Google Books for the Butler Co., PA history book mentioned in the comments, but did not find it. I did, however, find a mention of this massacre in the Jefferson Co., PA history book, which follows:
Title: History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illus. and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers
Author: Kate M. Scott
Publisher: D. Mason, 1888
Pages 613-615
YesterYear Once More 