* MacGHAN,
Janarious A.
* McDONALD, John W.
* MECHLING, Peter P.
* MORTAL, William J. |
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Janarious A. MacGhan, The Knight of the Pen
By C. L. Martzolff.
On the 19th of May
1900, there came to the village of New Lexington,
Perry County, a stranger. He was a young man just
graduated from Harvard University, and was preparing
to return to his native land of Bulgaria. His
mission to New Lexington was to visit the grave of a
noted Perry County boy who is held most dear in the
affections of the Bulgarian people. Such honors are
rarely bestowed upon Americans by foreigners. This
honor, however, was not unmerited. You ask,
perhaps, why a boy reared among the hills of Perry
County, taught in the rude schools of half a century
ago, should receive such attention from a foreign
people. There is the best reason in the world. Do
we not have a great deal of respect for Lafayette,
because he came to America and helped us gain our
independence? Then why should not the people of
Bulgaria love Janarious A. MacGahan, the
Perry County boy, for securing their independence?
The story of the life of this man reads like a
page from a romance. He was born in a log cabin,
the roof of which was held on by long poles. To
enter the doorway you must climb over a log. The
only window was a small affair. A huge fireplace
occupied one end of the room. The sleeping
apartment of our young hero was in the loft, which
was reached by a ladder. There he could lie at
night and, looking through the clapboard roof, see
the stars shine down upon him clear and cold. We
wonder if he, like the astrologers of old, could
read those stars and from them learn what the future
had in store for him. We wonder if, while lying
asleep, with the snow sifting in upon him, he ever
dreamed of the time, when he would ride alone
through the deserts of Asia, when he should knock at
palace gates and stand before kings. Perhaps, had
some fairy whispered to him the things he should
experience within a few years, he would have thought
it only the idle fancy of a dream and would have
awaked in the morning to the realization of the
hardships of pioneer life. The parents of young
MacGahan were Irish Catholics. Their home was near
a place called Pigeon Roost. Here was a school that
was then, as it is now, called "Pigeon Roost." This
school Janarius attended till he was seventeen. He
must have been a good student for at that age he was
given a certificate to teach. He at once applied for
his home school. But the directors thought him too
young to teach and they refused him the position.
This was one of the very best things that could have
happened to him. Determining to leave home, he set
his face toward the great world without, where he
would carve out his destiny.
The day he left his hillside home in Perry
County, with all of his earthly possessions tied in
a very small package, he was seventeen years old.
Half of his life had already been spent, for just
seventeen years afterward he gave up his life for a
friend, under the shadows of the minarets of
Constantinople.
He first went into the Western States, where he
pursued several vocations. Finally he went to
Europe to study, and entered the law school at
Brussels. When the Franco-Prussion War broke out he
went into the field as correspondent for the New
York Herald. Journalism was henceforth to be the
work of his life. During the time of the Commune in
Paris, we find him busy writing such glowing
accounts and descriptions of the scenes, as to call
particular attention to his ability. During this
time he was arrested by the Communists and only
escaped death through the intervention of the
American Minister.
In the fall of 1871, when Russia was about to
move on Khiva, our hero was ordered by the Herald to
accompany the army of the Czar. MacGahan was at
Saratof on the Volga. The Russian army was 2,000
miles away at Kazala. It was the dead of winter,
but no weather or distance was too great for the
intrepid journalist. For six weeks, when the
mercury was thirty degrees below zero, he continued
his journey across the ice bound steppes of Russia,
the Ural Mountains, and the boundless wastes of
Siberia, where the howling wind of the north swept
in fierce blasts. Reaching Kazala he discovered
that the Russian army had already gone and was
nearing Khiva. He prepared at once to leave. The
natives tried to prevent him, but slipping away in
the night, he started upon what is one of the most
daring rides in history. Alone and unattended, a
mere speck on the desert, he searched for the
Russian army. For twenty-nine days under the
broiling sun, which poured down its pitiless heat,
he went without a plan except to ride as fast and
far as possible. Without a sufficient amount of
water and food; with a boiling sun by day and a
deadly chill by night; sleeping on the desert sands;
chased by Cossacks, he at last reached his goal,
just as the first column of the Russian hosts was
attacking the enemy. Dashing into the hottest of
the fight, he wrote such a vivid description that it
won the admiration of the Russian generals and
army. When Khiva fell he was one of the first to
enter its portals, and his account of the city's
capitulation stands as a masterpiece of military
journalism. Returning to Russia the Czar bestowed
upon him the Order of St. Stanislaus. For the next
five years his experience is varied and hurried. He
visits his home in Perry County for the last time.
He goes to Cuba to report the Virginius
complication. He hurries to Spain to report the
Carlist outbreak. For ten months he accompanies the
army of Don Carlos. He is captured by the
Republicans, who mistake him for a Carlist, and
condemned to death. He is again saved through the
intervention of the American Minister. Then he goes
to England, where he accompanies Captain Young into
the Arctic regions in search of Sir John Franklin.
In 1876, he read a brief sketch of the
atrocities the Turks were committing in Bulgaria.
He surmised at once what it all meant. Going into
the employ of the London Daily News, he took his
departure to join the Turkish army. This was to
prove the great work of Janarius A. MacGahan. In
depicting the horrors and brutalities of the scenes,
his description was so thrilling that the world
stood aghast. He told how the Bulgarian Christians
were being robbed and murdered by Mohammedan Turks;
how their fields and homes and cities were being
burned and laid waste and of the commission of many
almost unmentionable crimes. It was too much for
the civilized world to stand. Men paled with anger
and involuntarily clenched their hands as the
burning words of MacGahan struck into their hearts.
Gladstone was fired into a revolt against such
barbarities. But Lord Beaconsfield, the Premier,
winked at it. Under pressure, he sent a man by the
name of Baring to investigate and break down the
testimony of MacGahan. But Baring returned and not
only substantiated what MacGahan had written but
stated that the half had not been told. England was
compelled to stand aside. She withdrew her fleet
and Turkey was without a protector.
MacGahan, in the meantime, went from village to
village, in Bulgaria, assuring the people that the
Czar would avenge all this and that he himself would
be back again within a year with a Russian army for
their release. The people had faith in his words
and wherever he went, he was hailed as "MacGahan,
the Liberator of Bulgaria." Hastening to St.
Petersburg, he laid the matter before the Czar, and
in a very short time an order went forth for the
immediate mobilization of the Russian forces.
MacGahan rode with the advance guard. During the
war that followed, in which the Turk was driven from
Bulgaria, MacGahan was alike the idol of the Russian
army and Bulgarian people. He continued to write
reams of description. At last Plevna fell and, in
the mad rush that followed, our Knight-errant went
with the army, which did not stop until the spires
and minarets of Constantinople were in sight. A
treaty of peace was signed in which Bulgaria's
independence was recognized. All of this because
one boy, reared in the woods of Perry County, had
lived. But the war clouds had scarcely rolled away
when a friend of his fell sick with a malignant
fever. MacGahan nursed him into health, but he
himself was stricken and in a few days died at San
Stefano a suburb of Constantinople, (June 9, 1878).
The next day they laid him in his far-off foreign
grave, around which stood weeping mourners of a
dozen nationalities. Here for six years his body
rested, but, in 1884, the Ohio legislature arranged
for its removal to the land of his nativity. On the
11th of September, 1884, his remains were laid in
their final sepulcher in the beautiful cemetery at
New Lexington, where only a few years ago the
teachers of the County placed a granite boulder to
his memory. But the true monument to MacGahan is
greater than chiseled granite, marble column or
tablet of bronze. His monument is free Bulgaria.
"Your years, though few, to shield
the weak you spent;
Your life, though brief, accomplished its intent;
All diplomatic Shylocks, bloody Turks, despite,
'Twas not in vain the Lord gave you a pen to write." |
JOHN W. MCDONALD,
superintendent of the county infirmary of Perry
county and a man well known in this portion of the
state, was born April 23, 1874, and is a son of
James S. and Martha E. (McKinney) McDonald. His
maternal grandfather was a boatman in early life and
aided in the construction of the Hocking canal.
Later he became a railroad contractor and was thus
actively identified with the improvement and
development of various sections of the country. The
father of our subject was born in Muskingum county,
Ohio, and when five years of age became a resident
of Pike township. Perry county.
Our subject spent his entire life in this county and
has become widely acquainted and favorably known.
His educational privileges were those afforded in
the Oakwood school district, supplemented by a
year's attendance at the high school of New
Lexington. After putting aside his textbooks and
entering upon life's practical duties in the fields
of business he became the owner of a livery stable
in New Lexington,. which he conducted for two years.
At the age of sixteen years he began teaching and
was thus connected in the district schools for about
ten years, proving a capable educator. He had the
ability to impart readily and clearly to others the
knowledge he had acquired. Since January, 1901, he
has occupied his present position as superintendent
of the county infirmary and his labors in this
office have made his course one highly satisfactory
to the general public.
On the 24th of August, 1899, Mr. McDonald was
united in marriage to Miss Clara H.
Moore, a daughter of Samuel and Martha
Moore, of Milligan. Mr. and
Mrs. McDonald have one daughter,
Nellie C. Our subject and his wife have a large
circle of friends in this portion of the state and
are held in high regard by their many friends. In
the public office which he is filling Mr.
McDonald has displayed marked ability, ever
striving to serve the best interests of the public,
and is known as a trustworthy and honorable
gentleman. |
PETER P. MECHLING.
The Mechling family is one well known in
Perry county. It was established here about a
century ago and from that time until the present
representatives of the name have been loyal and
active in citizenship and reliable and progressive
in business affairs. The subject of this review is
the youngest son of Samuel and Magdalena (Poorman)
Mechling. He was born in Hopewell township, May
16. 1847. His father was a native of Westmoreland
county, Pennsylvania, born on the 4th of December.
1804, and was a son of Jacob and
Mary, who were also natives of Westmoreland
county. The mother of our subject was born in the
southern part of Hopewell township and was a
daughter of Bernard and Elizabeth
Poorman. On the 24th of April, 1824, she gave
her hand in marriage to Samuel Mechling
and unto them were born six children: Simon P.,
who was born May 10, 1835, died February 3, 1860;
Bernard, born April 21, 1837, died April 17,
1896; Hannah, born November 26, 1839, died
January 27, 1842; Daniel, born April 8, 1842,
died March 11, 1846; Eliza, born July 3,
1844, is the wife of Simon Rarick and
resides in Thornville, Ohio; and Peter P. is
the youngest of the family. Samuel
Mechling received but limited educational
privileges, pursuing his studies in an old log
school house common at that time, but through his
industry and enterprise as a farmer he became a very
successful man. In his political views he was a
Democrat, and both he and his wife were members of
the Lutheran church and took an active interest in
church work. He passed away in 1849, at the age of
forty-five years, when our subject was about
twenty-two months old. His wife died February 24,
1892, at the age of seventy-seven years, and both
are interred in St. Paul's cemetery in Hopewell
township. Samuel Mechling was a man of
marked worth, his character was ever beyond reproach
and in his business dealings he was ever just and
honorable. He so managed his business interests that
as the years passed he gained a comfortable
competence, being one of the prosperous and
successful farmers of the community.
Peter P. Mechling obtained has education in the
district schools of Hopewell township and in the
high school of Somerset, Ohio, which he attended for
a short time. He always remained with his mother
until his marriage, which important event in his
life occurred 011 the 8th of December, 1872, the
lady of his choice being Miss Frances
Orr, a daughter of Hiram and
Mary Orr, who were natives of Bowling
Green township, Licking county, Ohio, and are now
residents of Illinois. After his marriage Mr.
Mechling removed to his present farm, which
adjoins the farm upon which he was born, and there
he began life in a log house, but he now has a large
and attractive residence, which is indicative of the
prosperous career which he has led. The brick was
burned upon the farm and the house was erected in
1877. He also built commodious barns and made other
excellent improvements upon his place, which shows
that he is a man of progressive and practical ideas.
He owns three hundred and forty acres of rich and
arable land, which is devoted to general farming and
stock-raising. He makes a specialty of the raising
of hogs and cattle for the market and his sale of
these annually increases his income to a gratifying
extent.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Mechling has been
blessed with five children: Hiram Orval,
born August 22, 1873, is a druggist at Thornville,
Ohio: Rosella, born December 19, 1874, died
on the 25th of October, 1883; Bertha Edith,
born January 17, 1878, married William H. Walser,
and is living in Hopewell township; Frank D.
and Fred S., twins, born June 13, 1882, are
at home. Mr. Mechling and his family
are members of the Lutheran church, of which he
served as trustee for a time. In politics he is a
Democrat and for eleven years has served as
treasurer of Hopewell township, while at the present
time he is filling the office of justice of the
peace. He has ever discharged his official duties
with promptness and fidelity and his public career
has therefore gained him commendation and respect.
In his business affairs Mr. Mechling
has prospered from year to year, and his life stands
as an exemplification of what can be accomplished
through determined purpose when guided by sound
practical judgment. Starting out upon his business
career with small capital he has steadily advanced
and is today the owner of two of the finest farms of
his township, their well tilled fields, good
buildings and rich meadow land all being indicative
of the progressive and enterprising spirit of the
owner. |
WILLIAM J. MORTAL is
the editor and owner of the Somerset Press, of
Somerset, Ohio, and throughout his business career
has been connected with journalism. He was
born in Rushville, Fairfield county, Ohio, on the
16th of July, 1859, and is a son of Albert and
Mary (Puller) Mortal. In the year 1858 the
father of our subject located in Rushville, Ohio,
while the Puller family came to this state
from Virginia. One child only was born of the
marriage of the parents of our subject.
William J. Mortal was educated in the public
schools of Rushville and after putting aside his
text books he there learned the printer's trade,
following that pursuit in both Rushville and
Lancaster. In 1881 he began business on his
own account in the former town and afterward was
located at Thornville. He then conducted a
daily paper in Lancaster and was also the owner of a
jobbing office there, both departments of his
business bringing to him a good financial return.
In 1893 he came to Somerset and in 1895 purchased
the Somerset Press, which he has developed into a
successful paper having a circulation of about one
thousand copies. This paper is largely given
to the dissemination of news of general interest as
well as matters of a local nature. He is found
on the side of progress, improvement and upbuilding
and its owner is widely known as a public-spirited
and enterprising man, who is the champion of every
measure for the general good of his fellow men. |
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