"Of the ninety or more passengers on board (men, women, children and soldiers) very few escaped uninjured and many (about twenty-five) were killed, among the latter being Lieutenant Coppoc. I saw him at the St. Joe Hotel the day after the accident, and how he survived twenty-four hours with the frightful wound in his head * * was a miracle, as very few men could have withstood the shock." (See note 2, page 450.)

*

The Daily Conservative of Leavenworth, Kansas, in its issue of September 5, 1861, gives a very full account of the disaster at the Platte River bridge. From this we learn that the train plunged into the river at about eleven o'clock at night. The heavens were clouded and a heavy darkness overhung the scene of the tragedy. A few of the passengers escaped uninjured and these made heroic efforts to save others. Some went to St. Joseph, nine miles distant, and others to Easton to bring aid. It was four o'clock the next morning before a relief train arrived.

The Conservative of September 6 contains an account of the funeral which is here quoted in full:

"The burial of B. Coppoc and C. Fording, two of the victims of the unparalleled atrocity of last Tuesday night, took place yesterday from the Mansion House.

"Coppoc, recently from Iowa, was a young man of noble soul and undaunted courage, and held the position of Lieut. in the company of Capt. Allen, in Col. Montgomery's regiment. Barclay Coppoc was with John Brown in the raid on Virginia; his brother Edwin was captured and hung but Barclay escaped. He fled in company with Captain Cook and succeeded in eluding pursuit when his companion was taken. There was nothing of the bravado about him. Religiously anti-slavery, he endeavored solely to do what he considered his duty. C. Fording was a young man who was coming with him from Ohio to join the

same company.

"The Home Guards, Fencibles, and the Old Guard led the procession while a large concourse of our most influential citizens followed the hearses containing the remains to the cemetery on Pilot Knob. The companies of Captain Swoyer and Jenkins were with the procession part of the distance.

"At the graves, Rev. Mr. Paddock delivered an earnest, soulstirring prayer, and at about five o'clock the remains were committed to the ground. A military salute was then fired over the graves."*

And thus the lives of these two young brothers, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc, which began among the peaceful scenes and surroundings in a Quaker community of Columbiana County, Ohio, after many vicissitudes, each had a tragic ending. Their devotion to principle and the courage with which they lived and died in the service of what they esteemed a righteous cause -a cause that was soon to triumph throughout the Republic - - entitle them to a place in the history of the Buckeye State.

THE MOTHER OF EDWIN AND BARCLAY COPPOC.

The mother of Edwin and Barclay Coppoc was a staunch advocate of the reforms that were popular among the Quakers of Columbiana County in the early half of the last century. She was strongly opposed to slavery and her two sons owed their hostility to that institution, in no small measure to her teaching. She did not wish to see them join John Brown. She had already lost three children and she felt that the enterprise upon which they were venturing was a very dangerous one. After they had given up their lives to the cause that she held sacred, however, one on the scaffold and the other in the Union army, she accepted the results with remarkable calmness and stated that she felt honored in the sacrifice they had made.

At the time of the funeral of Edwin Coppoc she was almost totally blind. In a letter to Rev. North, who visited her son in jail at Charlestown, she wrote:

"Every son of America whom you send to the North with the prints of the accursed halter upon his neck and whose funeral is attended by assembled thousands, has a tendency to kindle the fires of indignation and hatred against the common cause, slavery, which is at the bottom of all of this."

Her only remaining child, Joseph L. Coppoc, enlisted in the Union army and rose to the rank of major. He was for many years a minister in the Baptist Church. His contribution to the Midland Monthly of September, 1895, entitled "John Brown and His Cause," is a spirited defense and eulogy of Brown. He died at Chambers, Nebraska, in 1914.

* From typewritten copy contributed by William E. Connelly, Secretary of the Kansas Historical Society.

Vol. XXX-31.

UNVEILING OF TABLET AT CAMPUS MARTIUS.

A number of interesting functions attended the unveiling of the tablet on the Campus Martius House, September 28, 1921, as the most historical spot in the state. The exercises were conducted under the auspices of the Daughters of the American Revolution who selected this spot and presented the tablet.

On the evening of September 27, Mr. Edward MacTaggart threw open his stately old home "The Anchorage" to the members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and their guests. A local paper described this as one of the most brilliant functions ever given in Marietta. Mr. MacTaggart welcomed the guests to the spacious hall with its "exquisite tapestries, superb rugs and carved chests imported from Florence." Miss Ida Merydith, Regent of the Marietta Chapter, D. A. R., led the receiving line. Later the guests were conducted to the dining room, "quite baronial with its high walnut wainscot, lofty ceiling and handsome furnishings, all aglow with innumerable candles in many-branched candelabra." The reception will long be remembered by those who were so fortunate as to be present.

The program rendered at the Campus Martius House on the following day was well timed, appropriate and successfully carried out in every detail. The exercises opened with a bugle call by Bugler Adolph Corwin, followed by an invocation by Dr. E. S. Parsons, President of Marietta College. Mrs. William Magee Wilson, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was then introduced and spoke as follows:

"Madam Regent and Members of Marietta Chapter, Ohio Daughters of the American Revolution and Friends:

"Many years ago it was my pleasure to witness a play by John Drew. It was so long ago that only a single sentence uttered by that famous actor has stayed with me through the years. The beginning of the play pictured a gay young lover and his sweetheart. In the closing scene the lover appears as a feeble old man; he gazes tenderly upon a faded bit of flower which long ago had lost its color, but as the sweet scent came from it he was reminded of his youth and of the sweetheart who had given it to him. Tenderly he looks at it and murmurs, 'Rosemary, that's for remembrance.'

"Last night one of the gracious ladies of Marietta bestowed upon me this fragrant bunch of Rosemary, which I hold in my hand. I shall keep it through the years and as I look upon it I shall think, 'Rosemary, that's for remembrance,' remembrance of this day and this tablet to be unveiled and all that it stands for in the past and means for the future.

"As members of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution we are ever under orders from the superior organization. The Chapters take orders from the State organization and the States from the National Society. One of the directions of this National Society to be carried out by states and chapters is the marking of historic spots.

"To keep in remembrance sacred and historic spots is our duty as well as our pleasure. Our duty, that future generations may know to whom and to what they owe so much; and it is surely our pleasure to keep green these memory places that we may, now and then, in our busy lives, pause in reverence before them lest we forget.

"The leading figure in this work, the culmination of which we are here to celebrate, is Ohio's very capable State Chairman of Historic Spots, and it is my great privilege to present to you this Chairman, Mrs. Eugene G. Kennedy of Dayton, Ohio."

Mrs. Kennedy stepped forward, unveiled the tablet and presented it in the following address:

"Madame State Regent, Gentlemen of the Ohio State Archaological and Historical Society, Daughters and Friends of Marietta:

"The event we are celebrating today- the unveiling of this tablet upon Campus Martius House marks the culmination of the work of several Daughters for several years. These Daughters have worked zealously in behalf of Campus Martius