OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS


HISTORY of
GUERNSEY
COUNTY,
 OHIO
 

(Source: History of Guernsey County, Ohio by Col. Cyrus P. B. Sarchet - Illustrated - Vol. I. B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1911

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS

pg. 379 - EARLY GUERNSEY COUNTY MARRIAGES
(From the Times in 1903.)

     "The first marriage ceremony performed by a minister in Guernsey county was that of Thomas Sarchet, Jr., to 'Catty Markim,' September 11, 1809, by Rev. James Quinn, elder Methodist Episcopal church, both of them of Cambridge, Muskingum county, Ohio.  There was some bad spelling by the elder or clerk of record.  This was the first marriage in Cambridge and should read:  Thomas Sarchet, Jr., to Catharine Marquand.
     "The first marriage in Guernsey county was James Boler to Sally Leunce, September 11, 1810, by Thomas Henderson, justice of the peace, of Oxford township.
     "We give some of the first marriages at Cambridge.  John Robin to Mary Hubert, September 20, 1810, by Thomas Knowles, justice of the peace, both of Cambridge. 
Cyrus P. Beatty
to Nancy Sarchet, June 11, 1811, by David Kirkpatrick, justice of the peace, both of Cambridge. 
Lloyd Talbot
to Nancy Sarchet, November 10, 1811, by David Kirkpatrick, justice of the peace, both of Cambridge.
Thomas Lenfesty, Jr., to Cartaretta Hubert, January 9, 1812, by the Rev. William Lambdin, of Methodist Episcopal church, both of Cambridge.
Thomas Ogier to Rachel Marquand, May 28, 1812, by the Rev. William Lambdin, of the Methodist Episcopal church, both of Cambridge.
Thomas Metcalf to Sarah Gomber, March 17, 1814, by David Kirkpatrick, justice of the peace, both of Cambridbe.
Thomas Bryan to Joannah Olive, October 17, 1814, by David Kirkpatrick, justice of the peace, both of Cambridge."

THE HUMAN TEAM.

     " A Novel Spectacle, and, we may add, a moving one, was witnessed in this place ten or twelve days since, exemplifying in one of the strongest points of view a state of bodily degradation most painful and revolting to the feelings of human nature.  It consisted of a wagon filled with such articles of furniture, etc., as usually belong to an emigrating establishment bound for the 'Far West,' drawn by two men and a boy, all duly harnessed, acting in the capacity and doing the work of a team of horses!  The individuals thus engaged appeared cheerful and patient in the exercise of their laborious employment.  They were ascertained to be emigrants from Germany, on their way to the distant regions of the West."
~ Times, October 19, 1833.

METEORIC SHOWER OF 1833.

     The following appeared in the Times, by Mr. Sarchet, in November, 1890:
     "The old house now being torn down on North Eleventh street, at the divergence of the street through the McCracken and Matthews additions, is one of the early houses built in Cambridge.
     "It was built by Peter Sarchet, Sr.  It was a freak of architecture, a frame, the intervals between the studding being filled in with brick, and was plastered on the outside in imitation of stone.  Another house in the same locality, which stood on the northwest corner of Eleventh street and Steubenville avenue, was of similar build, except that it was lathed on the inside and plastered.  This house was built by John Torode.  Neither of these houses stood the test in our variable climate, and soon began to look ragged and unsightly, by reason of the bond in the mortar or cement giving way and falling off, but both, when new, were attractive looking houses.
     "But it is to relate an incident well known in history, in connection with the house then occupied by a Mr. George Clark, that we began this reminiscence.  In November, 1833, quite a number of citizens of Cambridge assembled at Clark's, as was a custom, to engage in 'fighting the tiger.'  During this frolic and carousal, toward the 'we sma' hours,' one of their number went and returned with the alarming declaration 'that the world was coming to an end, and the sky falling in.'  These midnight revelers looked upon a meteoric scene that led them to think that home, rather than a gambler's den, was the best place to be when the 'sky was falling in.'  So for home they made as best they could, so suddenly awakened from a drunken debauch, to be ever after during their lives living witnesses that the 'sky fell in.'
     "The New American Cyclopedia gives this description of that November night, 12th and 13th, 1833: 'But the year 1833, on the night of November 12th and 13th, is memorable for the most magnificent display on record, and was visible over all the United States, and over a part of Mexico and the West India islands.  Together with the small shooting stars, which feel like snowflakes and produced phosphorescent lines along their course, there were intermingled large balls of fire, which darted forth at intervals, leaving luminous trains, which remained in view several minutes, and sometimes half an hour or more.'
     "The writer of this, then a boy seven years old, well remembers the eventful night when the 'stars fell.'  At our home we were all engaged in the annual fall custom of making apple butter, which generally partook of the nature of a neighborhood frolic, paring and cutting the apples and stirring the butter until late into the night.  Some one of the number going out, returned with the cry that the 'stars were falling.'  We all looked upon the scene with wonder and amazement, and one of the number said, 'What's the use of making apple butter, when the world is coming to an end.'
     "But the the world did not come to an end, nor as yet have wonders ceased.  People come and go; one builds up, another tears down, and out of all we see the onward march of destiny.

VARIOUS CYCLONES.

     The Times of June 25, 1885, speaks as follows of a roaring cyclone:
     "The village of Byesville was visited by a genuine cyclone last Sunday evening.  It was a veritable 'ring-tailed ripper and roarer,' to appropriate the graphic description of an impressed Byesvillian.  It was of the old-fashioned ortrhodox funnel-shape, with the little end down, and the big end several hundred feet up in the air.  It carried in its swirl boards, limbs, small trees and general debris.  It ambled in from the southwest at the rate of about five miles an hour, and after a deliberate but rude caress to the orchards at the edge of town it came hopping and hitting and skitting and slipping along through the village, leaving destruction behind, going off to the northeast when it grew tired.
     "It was after four o'clock when something unusual was detected by the villagers.  The June afternoon was sultry, and the atmosphere oppressive.  A dead stillness pervated the air, and the sun shone bright and hot.  Then there came a low rumbling sound from the southwest, growing rapidly into an angry roar, that drew the villages from their homes to look and listen.  Far to the southwest the tops of the trees were bending and breaking.  A dark-hazel cloud, compact and threatening, was flying above the tree tops toward the town.  A monster freight train seemed crashing through the forests.  Some few divined the cause and, foreseeing destruction, fled for refuge to cellars.  The consternation spread and, panic-stricken, the people rushed for the cellars.  It struck, and the angry roar was heard for miles.  The town of Byesville more than likely owes its escape from total destruction to the fact that the cyclone only struck a corner of the town, and did not strike it with its full volume.  It unroofed stables and demolished outhouses, carried away boards and timbers, as it was, and one house was moved eight feet off its foundation.  The house was occupied by Mr. Shields, the saddler, with his wife and little daughter.  They had fled to the house at the approach of the cyclone, but had barely entered when the windy monster took the house in his grasp, lifted it, and jammed it down.  The shock loosened the chimney, and the bricks came tumbling down into the room.  All three were injured, more or less, but none severely.  These are the only injuries reported. 
     "The cyclone moved slowly, and there was something awful in its deliberate majesty.  All the way the hazel-cloud seemed topping it, going on before.  It struck the tall trees on the creek banks, bent them low, broke them or tore them up, dipped dry the creek as it passed, and, and struck the hill that lies to the northeast, as a sentinel over the village.  The shock demoralized the cyclone, as no further damage of consequence is reported.  Its path was about fifty yards wide when it passed through Byesville.  It uprooted trees and nearly destroyed several orchards in and about the town, among them the orchards of Henry Wilson and Jesse Linkhorn.  Shortly after the passage of the cyclone, a terrific thunderstorm broke over the town, and for a little while the people fancied that the long predicted judgment day was come."

CYCLONE OF 1890.
(Jeffersonian, May 1, 1890.)

     "The first genuine cyclone that has visited Guernsey county for many years passed through Monroe township Saturday evening.  About four o'clock the citizens were aroused to a sense of danger by the appearance of a small funnel shaped cloud approaching from the southwest at terrific speed, accompanied by lightning and a terrible noise.  The first account we have of its devastation is when it struck what is known as the Lytle farm, on Irish ridge.  Here it leveled the barn and stable, unroofed and crushed in one end of the brick residence; then, striking Commissioner John Thompson's farm, a large amount of timber and fencing were blown down and one steer killed;  fences and timber were destroyed on Philip Randal's farm, but his buildings were outside the path of the revolving terror and escaped.  Mrs. Yarnell's farm next lay in its path, and nearly all the timber and fences were leveled to the earth and scattered about;  Mrs. Hollingsworth's farm met the same fate, but the buildings on both farms escaped, being outside the tract of the storm.  Jonathan Colly's farm was stripped of about five hundred panels of fence and two acres of timber were leveled to the north.  The path of the storm was a short distance from his buildings, and they escaped serious damage.  It then passed over the farms of Weston and Asbury George.  On the former, the fences were leveled and the barn unroofed, and on the later an addition recently built to his residence was blown away, together with milk house, corn cribs, wagon shed and the grain scattered in every direction, the sheep house removed from its foundation, six hogs killed, their mother's back broken and a bureau carried from the part of the house blown away, to a distance of about fifty years, where it was lodged against a fence.  All the buildings on David Meek's property were unroofed, and a large orchard swept away, only four trees left standing.  A large amount of timber was destroyed along Laurel creek.  The storm passed on in an almost direct line to the northeast.  The path of the cyclone varied in width from ten to twenty-five rods.  It seemed to bound along like a ball of India rubber, passing over spaces, and wherever it struck the earth carrying everything with it.  Wheat was shaven off as by a scythe, the furrows where sod had been broken, lifted and scattered about, in some places lodged at quite a distance away."

A HAIL STORM IN 1826.
(Guernsey Times, July, 1826.)

     "A most tremendous storm of hale passed through this county on Saturday, the 1st inst., in a direction from northwest to southeast, about five miles north of this place.  Much injury as been sustained upon those farms which were within range; fortunately, however the vein was very narrow, from a half mile to a mile in width; many of the hailstones were nearly the size of a hen's egg.  We have heard of some farmers who had every vestige of their crops destroyed - corn that was nearly ready to tassel had the stalks entirely cut to pieces, to within six inches of the ground; wheat ready to harvest was completely threshed, and the straw cut to pieces and tangled together, so as to destroy it entirely; tobacco was wholly cut up, so as to appear as though it had never been planted; the trees in the woods and orchards were stripped of their leaves and fruit.  We have not been able to ascertain the extent of the injury in full, but from the best information we can receive, there certainly never has been so destructive a visitation to the citizens of this community, in proportion to its width."

COLD WEATHER STATISTICS.
(From the Jeffersonian, February, 1899, by Colonel Sarchet.)

     "Some time ago you said: 'Can you give us a little cold weather history?'
     "We will go back to the beginning of Ohio history as a state.  The winter of 1807-8 is known in Ohio history as 'the cold winter.'  We are unable to give the cold by degrees, as thermometers were not then in general use.
     "My grandfather then resided in a cabin on the north end of what is now the Guernsey National Bank lot, on North Seventh street.  We have heard our oldest uncles, who were then aged seventeen and thirteen years, say that they had two ways of keeping warm; one was to cut and carry in wood to keep up the fire, the other was to carry water to throw on the mud and stick chimney, to keep from burning up the cabin.  The water was carried from a spring, west of Sixth street, near the residence of Hon. David D. Taylor, on North Fifth street.
     "The next was the winter of 1817-18.  We have heard it said it was so cold that a bucket of water thrown into the air would be frozen to ice before it could fall to earth.
     "The next was the winter of 1835-6.  This comes within our recollection.  There was snow from two or three feet deep.  We well remember wading through it when it came well up to the waist.  My grandfather then had a thermometer which he kept hanging on the south side of his house.  He came to our house on the coldest morning, and said to me: 'Boy, it's colder than you are old.'  I was then eight years old."
     The writer then gave the temperature for the winter months from 1850 to 1865, but we will simply abridge and give his figures for the coldest day of the several years:
In 1850, coldest day was ten degrees above zero; 1851, in December it was seven degrees below zero; 1852, January 20, it reached seventeen below; 1853, January 27, one below; 1854, January 23, at zero, 1855, December 27, two above; 1856, January 9, twelve below; 1857, January 26, six below; 1858, February 23, seven below; 1859, February 1, five below; 1860, January 5, four below; 1861, February 8, zero; 1862, February 16, seven below; 1863, January 18, four above; 1864, "the coldest New Year's day." the thermometer indicated a change of forty-six degrees from nine in the evening until six in the morning, and went as low as eight below, and in the following month reached nineteen degrees below.
     The subjoined table shows the coldest weather from 1841 on to 1871, in Cambridge, Ohio:
January 8, 1847, four degrees below zero
December 4, 1849, two degrees below zero
February, 1850, two below zero
December, 1851, seven degrees below zero
January 7, 1852, seventeen degrees below zero
January, 1853, one degree below zero
January, 1856, twelve degrees below zero
February, 1856, fourteen degrees below zero
February, 1858, seven degrees below zero
January, 1860, four  degrees below zero
January 2, 1864, eight degrees below zero
January 7, 1864, four degrees below zero
February, 1866, four degrees below zero
January, 1867, ten degrees below zero
December, 1870, one  degree below zero
December 24, 1871, thirteen  degrees below zero, making it among the coldest days on record in the county.

THE OLDEST MAN IN THE COUNTY.

     The oldest man who ever lived in this county is supposed to have been Benjamin Berry, who died here in 1877.  At that date many of the elderly people here remembered him in their childhood as the middle aged man during the war of 1812-14.  Enquiry was made at his death and it was learned that his age was one hundred and eleven years, having been born in 1765, as determined from the muster rolls of the war of 1812, in which he took part as a soldier.  He also served in the Indian war prior to the war with England.  It is not believed that an older man has ever lived in this county and but a few in Ohio have attained so great an age.

GRAVE ROBBING IN GUERNSEY COUNTY.
(Jeffersonian, December 11, 1879.)

     "In 18__ there was considerable grave robbing in Guernsey county.  An incidental account is remembered of a body being brought through a toll gate on the National road in a sleigh, head upright, between two men.  The body had an old coat thrown over it, and a hat put over its head.  The gate keeper was completely deceived.  The body of a woman was also taken from a cemetery within ten miles of the place from whence this body was brought.  One night, during some dissecting by medical students and others, some woman approached the place, probably with some suspicion of what was going on, and moved by a curiosity to know the facts.  They came so near, and their knowledge was so apparent to those present, that the solidly frozen head of a man was rolled toward them.  They screamed and ran away.  It was afterward discovered that they had seen nothing and knew nothing, beyond suspicion, and it was explained to them that a pumpkin had been rolled toward them in the dark.  If they had more suspicion, it was allayed, or their dread remembrance of the scene, or other considerations, kept their mouths closed.
     "Many readers of this will remember that, some years ago, an old barrel lay by the side of a public road in this county.  The stench that same from it was so indescribably horrible that no one who ever passed by will fail to call it to recollection now when they are told that the nauseating smell was from fragments of human flesh, which had, in the colder weather, been thrown into the barrel and hauled away in the night time and tumbled down by the roadside."

THE FIRST MAILS.

     We take the following account of the first mails of the state from an article written by Col. C. P. B. Sarchet for the Cambridge Daily Sun:
     "The first mails carried in Ohio was in 1798, from Wheeling over the Zane Trace to Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky, and from Marietta to McCullough's cabin at the ferry at the crossing of the Muskingum river, now Zanesville.  These were weekly mails, intersecting at McCullough's cabin.  He had the authority to open and assort the mails.  The postoffice was opened at Zanesville in 1803.  In 1805 John Beatty, at the cabins at the crossing of big Wills creek, had the authority to open the mails.  In 1807 Cyrus P. Beatty was appointed by Thomas Jefferson as postmaster at Cambridge, in Muskingum county, Ohio.  He held the office for a number or years.  In these early days there was but little letter writing.  The postage was so much that only business letters passed through the mails.  We have in our possession old letters showing postage paid of six an one-fourth, twelve and one-half, eighteen and three-fourth, twenty-five and twenty-seven and one-half cents.  There was no prepayment, and many letters were sent to the dead letter office, because the person addressed didn't have the money to pay the postage.  Letters were sent by travelers from town to town.  This came to be done to such an extent that Congress in 1817 passed a law making it a criminal offense for anyone but mail carriers to carry letters.  The next postmasters were Nicholas Blaithache, Jacob Shaffner, William Ferguson, Isaiah McIllyar, William Smith, Robert Burns, James M. Smith, James O. Grimes, Francis Creighton, Edwin R. Nice, William McDonald, C. L. Madison, D. D. Taylor and W. H. H. McIlyar.
    
"Of these, nine were appointed as Whig, or Republican, and seven as Democratic.  We were acquainted with all of these but the first, and received  mail through their hands."

DARING MAIL ROBBERY.

     "On the night of Friday, the 17th inst., as the mail stage was going from Zanesville to Wheeling, one of the large mail bags was stolen from the boot about one mile east of Washington in this county, the bag cut open and the contents scattered in all directions.  The robber, or robbers, however, made but a water-haul, as fortunately the bag in question contained only newspapers.  We have not heard of a clue having been found yet, likely to lead to the detection of the daring perpetrator of this deed.
~ Guernsey Times, June 25, 1836.

POSTOFFICES IN 1895.

     In the year 1895, before the many rural mail routes had been established, the following was a list of postoffices and remuneration received at such offices by the postmaster in charge:
     Antrim $190; Blue Bell, $41; Brown, $142; Byesville, $283; Birds Run, $59; Brody, $50; Buffalo, $76; Cambridge, $1,700; Cumberland, $444; Creighton, $36; Claysville, $104; Dysons, $103; Danford, $6.00; Fairview, $265; Flat Ridge, $25; Galligher, $62; Gibson, $92; Guernsey, $65; Indian Camp, $65; Kimbolton, $88; Londonderry, $125; Lore City, $136; Midway, $35; Middlebourne, $84; Millinersville, $176; New Salem, $54; Odell, $37; Oldham; $27; Quaker City, $465; Salesville, $167; Senecaville, $270; Sutton, $20; Spencer Station, $104; Sugar Tree, $37; Tyner, $32; Washington, $385; Clio and Prohibition, amount not give.

GUERNSEY COUNTY'S MAN-WOMAN.

     "Florence Goldsborough's adventures as a woman in man's clothing through a period of sixteen eventful years cannot fail of partaking of the strangeness of fiction and the wildness of romance.  Such is the character of the history of Florence F. Goldsborough, whose masculine name is Johnny Howard, and whose wild and reckless career has been partly spent in Guernsey county.
     "She was born near St. Clairsville, Belmont county, in 1847.  Her father being a farmer, she was taught to work in the fields.
     "When about sixteen years of age, she was suspected and pronounced guilty of stealing sixteen dollars from an uncle.  For this crime, she served three months in the county jail.  While admitting many other crimes, she has ever protested her innocence of this first charge.  When she was released from jail, she donned man's clothing, and left home.
     "Upon coming into this county, she first hired to work as a farm laborer, for Rev. George W. Wharton, a Baptist preacher who resided north of Middletown.  During the six months she remained with Rev. Wharton, she had the benefit of morning and evening devotion, but without any apparent effect upon her spiritual nature.  At any rate, she had the benefit of early rising in order to get the work done in time for prayers, and her health may have been made the better for it, if nothing more.
     "Quitting Reverend Wharton's place, she hired to labor on the farm of Andrew Morton, a short distance west of Middletown, and she continued with him about a year.  During all that time, her sex was never suspected, and she regularly slept with Jacob Ducker and other farmhands who worked for Mr. Morton.
    
"But soon she grew tired of farm life, and set out for Columbus, where she found employment as a street car driver.  She continued in that vocation for some time, but at last he had fight, and was sent to the station house for thirty days.  When she was released, she went to Bellaire.  While there, she was arrested for stealing money from Mr. N. B. Hayes, the late well known stock dealer of this county.  For this crime, she was convicted and sent to the Penitentiary for three years.  Here her sex was discovered for the first time after leaving home in 1863, and she was placed in the female department.
     "When her term had expired, she went to Cincinnati, and engaged as second clerk on the steamer "Alaska,' plying between that place and New Orleans.  After making three trips, the falling in the river once, she quit boating, and returned to Columbus.
     "Since her return to that city, she has been variously engaged as bartender, bell boy, and farm hand and was served sentences to station-houses and jails, in addition to two other terms in the penitentiary, the first one for and the second one for three years.  Both crimes were stealing money, the last one in 1875.  The amount taken was five hundred dollars.
     "Her term having expired on the 8th of the present month, she now sooner got out than she put on her male attire, was arrested for so long, and put in the station house.  She protests that she is now going to live a better life, but will not give up men's clothing, as she prefers it to the garb of women.  She looks very much like a small, beardless boy, and the only quality apt to betray her sex is her small had.  She is thirty-two years old, carries her age well, and keeps good health for one who has endured so rugged a life." 
~Jeffersonian, 1878.


     DAYS OF MOURNING.

     Cambridge, in common with al the country, has had her days of true mourning and here will be given brief accounts of how the citizens met these national calamities and how they were affected at the death of her fallen statesmen and military heroes:
     When James Monroe died in 1831, the column rules of the Times at Cambridge were turned, as an indicatino of deep sorrow.
     Upon the death of Hon. Henry Clay, June 29, 1852, and upon the decrease the Daniel Webster, the great New England statesman, on October 24, 1852, the same paper was deeply set in double-column turned rule.

DEATH OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

     President W. H. Harrison died at Washington on the 4th of April, 1841, thirty minutes before one o'clock in the morning.  Everywhere the national bereavement was deplored by Whigs and Democrats alike, and services were held throughout the length and breadth of the land.  In Cambridge, according to the Guernsey Times of April 10, 1841, a discourse upon the life, public services and character of Willilam Henry Harrison was delivered by Rev. James Drummond, at the Methodist Episcopal church, on the evening of Wednesday, April 14th, at early candle lighting.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION.

     "On Saturday last, about eight o'clock A. M., the sad intelligence of the death of President Lincoln reached this place.  Sorrow was depicted upon every countenance as soon as it was known that the chief magistrate of the nation was no more.  All felt the common calamity and men of every shade of political opinion mourned the loss of the dead President.  The bells of the village, whose iron tongues the day before had rung out their joyful peals, now tolled a solemn requiem through the weary hours.  Flags that had floated gaily were clothed n mourning and drooped listlessly upon the sodden air.  The elements were in harmony with the general grief, and the sky was overcast with dark and lowering clouds, which mingled their tears with those of the bereaved people.
     "In the afternoon a prayer-meeting was held in the Town Hall, where solemn and impressive prayers were made by Reverend Milligan and others.
     "On Sabbath day another meeting was held in the same place, when speeches were made by Reverends Ellison, Forsythe and McConnell.  The remarks of the former gentleman were well-timed and appropriate, but we are sorry to say that in the midst of the general grief, Mr. McConnell indulged in remarks better suited to a political meeting than the solemn occasion for which the people had assembled."

DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

     For the second time in the history of this county, the citizens were called upon to mourn the death of a President, who had fallen at the hands of an assassin.  It was in September, 1881.  The news spread quickly and sorrow was intense.  All business was suspended in Cambridge.  Public memorial services were held.  The bells of the city tolled and the streets were draped in mourning emblems for the dead president - a beloved citizen and native son of Ohio.  Services were held at the United Presbyterian church and at the Presbyterian church.  These places were heavily draped in black, intermingled with the flag/  A motto was displayed reading: "God reigns, the nation lives," which were Garfield's words in New York city in trying to quell the mob after the assassination of Lincoln, and which words now became appropriate in his own case.  Remarks were made by Professor McBurney, Reverend Young, Rev. Hyde Forsythe, Rev. B. Y. Siegford, Reverend Darrow, Judge Tingleand Col. C. P. B. Sarchet.  This was at the United Presbyterian church.
     At the Presbyterian church impressive services were held and the Masonic bodies were out in force.  Prayer was offered by S. J. McMahon, Esq. and by Rev. Milligan.  A song was rendered by Prof. John H. Sarchet entitled, "We'll Not Forget Our Buckeye Boy;" he was assisted by the Masonic Glee Club.  Benediction was pronounced by Rev. E. S. Hoagland
     Services were at the same time held at the African Methodist Episcopal church, Reverend Johnston officiating and made the point clear that mourning was not for a white man's President, neither a black man's President, but for "our President."

PRESIDENT'S GRANT'S MEMORIAL SERVICES.

     When General U. S. Grant, the soldier President and retired fellow citizen another son of Ohio soil had passed to the other shore, this county, in common with the entire country, were again in deep sorrow.  Though not as sudden as other public calamities, for ex-President Grant had log suffered and his death was thought to be inevitable, yet here in Guernsey, where there were so many of his old army comrades and political friends, the news was hard to realize - the man of an iron will who had marched to victory on many a well fought field, and he who, after the war closed, had said:  "Let us have peace" - the man who had been around the globe and admired by all peoples and tribes, finally had to succumb to the cold hand of death.  On August 8, 1885, at the hour when his body was being lowered into the grave, memorial services were being held throughout the entire country.  At Cambridge the bells all tolled while Grant's remains were being lowered to the earth at Riverside, in New York.  Soon after two P. M. the Grand Army of the Republic, with draped banners and flags, fell into line, headed by the Cambridge Band.  They passed to School Park, where a stand had been erected.  There might have been seen a picture of the illustrious American soldier-President, surrounded by flags and crepe.  The orator of the occasion was Capt. J. B. Ferguson.  Prayer was offered by Reverend Jennings.  Dispatches were read from time to time, as the body of Grant was being taken to its last resting place and while it was being lowered to the vault at Riverside.
     Like services were held at Byesville, Cumberland, Fairview, Quaker City and other places in the county.

DEATH OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM M'KINLEY.

     Again, in September, 1901, President McKinley, in extending his hand to a supposed friend, while visiting the great Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, New York, was shot by an assassin and only survived eight days, the date of his death being September 14, 1901.  Memorial services were held in this county.  In Cambridge, at the Methodist Episcop0al church, old and young filled the house to overflowing.  Many of these present had met in like services at the death of the lamented Lincoln and Garfield.  Church bells tolled solemnly, and black and white draperies were in evidence throughout the entire city.  Mayor Baxter had charge and welcomed the speakers.  The front seats were reserved for the old soldiers, including the Grand Army of the Republic, with its banners draped in black.  Doctor Milligan spoke touchingly of the unspotted life and, above all, of his beautiful love and tenderness for Mrs. McKinley, during the years of her long illness or infirmity.
     Resolutions were passed which contained these words, significant in themselves:
     "Resolved, Most sincerely do we record our confidence and pride in him as a man; our admiration for his unspotted life and character, and above all, our love for him because of his tender care of Mrs. McKinley during her longs years of infirmity.
     "Resolved, That in his death our hearts are filled with an untold sorrow.  In this sad hour we have ceased to be Republicans, Democrats, Prohibitionists and Populists - Northern, Southern - but are simply American citizens of a bereaved country, mourning a common loss."

SARCHET BROTHERS AND THEIR BIBLE.

     "It is well known here that the Sarchets, who were among the first settlers of Guernsey county, came from the isle of Guernsey, but we have an item of their history beyond that.  The original Sarchets were natives of France, and during the Huguenot persecution two of the brothers were converted from Catholicism and purchased a Protestant Bible, Calvin's translation to the French.  Information was given to the priests that they were in possession of this book, and to avoid arrest and punishment by the Inquisition they fled with the "Word" to the island of Guernsey for safety.  From these heads sprang the two branches of Sarchet family in this county, and all of the name that we know anything about.  To this day that same old  Bible remains intact, and is in the possession of Mrs. R. M. Beatty in Cambridge.  It is fully three hundred years old, and was brought to this place by the oldest Thomas Sarchet known to this country, in 1806, who was in the line of descent of the two brothers and who was awarded the custody of the same.  It is considered of great value as a family relic, and the older members still inquire for the 'old book' whenever they visit Mrs. Beatty."  - In the Times, January, 1875.

AN OLD BRIDGE.

     Just where the Cumberland and Senecaville creeks unite to form Wills creek, on the old Pike road, between Buffalo (or Hartford) and Derwent is a very old bridge, said to be almost as old as the famous old bridge in Cambridge.  The details of its construction, its exact age, or any data concerning it are unknown to the writer.  It will be torn down the coming season and a new steel bridge constructed in its place.                    

 

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