finds its way to Lake Erie, and that from its south ridge to the Gulf of Mexico. -Old Edition. The old view, excepting that of Xenia, is the only one that shows a railroad in all the 180 engravings of our original edition. The hut in the centre stood a little southwest of the site of Young Brothers' present office. The church in the centre was the old Presbyterian, now down; and the taverns on the right were those of the American House, kept by Judge David Goodin, and the Mansion House, built by William Furney. The railroad shown was opened to Kenton, July 4, 1846, the very year the view was taken, and amid great rejoicings, an excursion train having come from Sandusky. Its name was the Mad River and Lake Erie, then running from Sandusky to Dayton; later, changed to the Cleveland, Sandusky and Cincinnati. The house which shed its rain for both Lake Erie and the Ohio was then the residence of John W. Holmes. The site is the present residence of General Robinson. About the highest point in the county is Silver Creek Summit, 1118 feet above tide. See page 60. In the spring of 1833 the State committee appointed by the legislature selected a site for the county-seat, on the north bank of the Scioto, on part of sections 33 and 34 in Pleasant township, George Houser, Jacob Houser and Lemuel Wilmoth giving forty acres of their land as an inducement. The committee having decided upon the site were unable to agree upon the name, but after its selection rode over three miles west with William McCloud to Fort M'Arthur, where he resided in a block-house, to get dinner. McCloud, who was a great hunter, and his good lady, had provided an appetizing feast of wild meat, for they were very hungry. The subject of the name being discussed, they left it to the decision of Mrs. McCloud, who declared in favor of KENTON, in honor of the friend of her husband, and nobody ever regretted the choice. A sketch of him will be found on page 376. Father Finley, in his own memoirs, gives these interesting details of his conversion in his mature years to the truths of Christianity. Simon Kenton was the friend and benefactor of his race. In the latter part of his life he embraced religion; in the fall of 1819 General Kenton and my father met at a camp meeting on the waters of Mad river, after a separation of many years. Their early acquaintance in Kentucky rendered this interview interesting to both of them. The meeting had been in progress for several days without any great excitement until Sabbath evening, when it pleased God to pour out his spirit in a remarkable manner. Many were awakened, and among the number were several of the General's relatives. His heart was touched, and the tear was seen to kindle the eye and start down the furrow of his manly cheek. On Monday morning he asked my father to retire with him to the woods. To this he readily assented, and as they were passing along in silence, and the song of the worshippers had died upon their ears, addressing my father, he said, “Mr. Finley, I am going to communicate to you some things which I want you to promise me you will never divulge.' father replied, "If it will not affect any but ourselves, then I promise to keep it forever." Sitting down on a log the General commenced to tell the story of his heart, and disclose its wretchedness; what a great sinner he had My been, and how merciful was God in preserving "Hymns of joy proclaimed through heaven. The triumphs of a soul forgiven.' Then from the old veteran, who immediately sprang to his feet, there went up a shout toward heaven which made the woods resound with its gladness. Leaving my father he started for the camp, like the man healed at the beautiful gate, leaping and praising God, so that the faster and farther he went the louder did he shout glory to God. His appearance startled the whole encampment; and when my father arrived he found an immense crowd gathered around him, to whom he was declaring the goodness of God, and his power to save. Approaching him, my father said, "General, I thought we were to keep this matter a secret.' He instantly replied, "Oh, it is too glorious for that. If I had all the world here I would tell of the goodness and mercy of God." At this time he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, lived a consistent, happy Christian, and died in the open sunshine of a Saviour's love. If there is any one of all the pioneers of this valley to whom the country owes the largest debt of gratitude, that one is General Simon Kenton. His KENTON, County-seat of Hardin, is forty-eight miles northwest of Columbus, seventy south of Toledo, on the dividing ridge of the State, the water running north and south. It is on the I. B. & W. and C. & A. R. R. County Officers, 1888: Auditor, George W. Rutledge; Clerk, James C. Howe; Commissioners, Wilber F. Pierce, Andrew Dodds, John L. Clark; Coroner, John Watters; Infirmary Directors, John Wilson, Samuel M. Andrews, Samuel Utz; Probate Judge, James J. Wood; Prosecuting Attorney, Charles M. Melhorn; Recorder, Dennis W. Kennedy; Sheriff, John S. Scott; Surveyor, Sidney F. Moore; Treasurer, Edward Sorgen. City Officers: Mayor, W. H. Ward; Clerk, George W. Binckley; Treasurer, A. B. Charles; Marshal, Michael Flanigan; Solicitor, Frank C. Daugherty; Street Commissioner, W. H. Miller. Newspapers: Das Wochenblatt, German, Louis Schloenbach, editor; Democrat, Democratic, Daniel Flanagan & Co., editors and publishers; News, Prohibition, Henry Price, editor and publisher; Republican, Republican, E. L. Miller, editor and publisher; Herald, Republican, L. I. Demarest, editor and publisher. Churches: one German Lutheran, one Episcopalian, one Presbyterian, one African Methodist Episcopal, one Methodist Episcopal, one Disciples, one Baptist, one Catholic. Banks: First National, S. L. Hoge, president, H. W. Gramlich, cashier; Kenton National, Asher Letson, president, Curtis Wilkin, cashier; Kenton Savings, L. Merriman, president, James Watt, cashier. Manufactures and Employees.-Champion Iron Fence Company, iron fencing, etc., 125 hands; John Callam & Co., doors, sash, etc., 12; John Callam & Co., building material, 6; G. H. Palmer & Co., chair stock, etc., 52; Scioto Straw Board Company, straw boards, 33; Pool Bros., carriages, etc., 6; Smith & Smith, wood and iron novelties, 10; Curl & Canaan, chair stock, etc., 24; J. C. Schwenck, handles, etc., 9; Kenton Milling Company, flour, etc., 7; Kenton Milling Company, flour, etc., 6; Young & Bro., lumber, 19; William Campbell, staves and headings, 33.-Ohio State Reports, 1888. Population in 1880, 3,940; school census 1888, 1,403; E. P. Dean, School Superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $583,130. Value of annual product, $566,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. The location of Kenton is such that it can be seen on being approached in any direction for five or six miles. Being in a fine agricultural region, it commands a large trade in grain, cattle and pork, as well as lumber, staves, etc. All the principal streets are graded and gravelled. Indeed, but few counties in this part of Ohio have such a complete network of gravel pikes as Hardin. They were begun in 1869, now cover about 230 miles, costing about $2,500 per mile, or a total of over half a million of dollars. They radiate in every direction from Kenton, and the work of building still goes on. The streams are spanned by good bridges, and driving over smooth roads is a luxury to be enjoyed alike in rain and sun. HISTORIC AND DESCRIPTIVE MISCELLANIES. THE GREAT MARSHES.-The marsh lands of this county cover 25,000 acres, or an area of about thirty-nine square miles. The largest of these is the "SCIOTO MARSH," having about 16,000 acres inside of the timber line. It is in the southwest part, through which runs the Scioto river. Next is the "HOG CREEK MARSH with about 8,000 acres in the northern part, and then also a part of CRANBERRY MARSH of Wyandotte county, of which about 1,000 acres lie in this county. These low prairies attracted large numbers of deer and other wild animals that often found a safe retreat in the high grass, which the Indians would burn to drive them away. Since their departure an annual crop of grass often ten feet high has been added to the other accumulations of these basins. The bottoms of marshes are drift clay, which is covered from two to ten feet with the vegetable accumulations of centuries and is very rich. The margins, as with the banks of rivers, are lined with willows. The subject of draining these marshes has long agitated the people. They have been a constant source of malarial poison, and retarded settlement. In 1859 a contract was made by the county with Mr. John McGuffey to reclaim the waste lands of the Scioto Marsh by ditching the marsh and the clearing out the drift of the Scioto for three miles. The work failed it is said from the lack of sufficient fall in the river below the marsh. In 1883 the work under different plans was again begun, and is now progressing to a successful completion. The surface is peaty, and beneath it are found shell, marl and sandy deposits. The marsh is in the shape of a ham, and it is supposed was once a small lake. The main ditch we are told is from 45 to 60 feet wide, 7 feet deep and some 12 miles long. In all, thus far, 150 miles of ditching have been done therein, and 20 miles of the Scioto cleared and straightened. The work on CRANBERRY MARSH was begun in 1865 and finished in three years by a main ditch 20 feet wide and 4 feet deep with two lateral ditches. The water is carried into Blanchard river, and the soil is of the finest, deep, rich and inexhaustible. HOG CREEK MARSH, comprising twelve and one-half square miles, is mainly in Washington township. By ditching and also by deepening, widening and straightening the channel of Hog creek for a distance of four miles, which took six years of labor, from about 1868 to 1874, these marsh lands have been reclaimed. Thirty years ago these lands were almost worthless, a hot-bed of malaria, the resort of all sorts of venomous reptiles. The lands will now average sixty dollars per acre, and are among the most valuable in the Scioto Valley. The expense of draining was about thirteen dollars per acre. The wide ditches are cut by huge dredges worked by steam-power; the small lateral ditches are cut by spade. A picture of one of the dredges is before us, an improved dredge-boat, the invention of Colonel C. H. Sage. It is a scow drawing two and a half feet of water, twenty-six feet wide and seventytwo feet long, at work in the Scioto marshes, and the colonel himself is supposed to be on board, as he has charge there. The view is from the rear, and the scene around is wild and picturesque. A clearing wide as a road has been cut through the original forest, through which is a wilderness vista for miles. A large area of the ditch is in the foreground, at the rear of the boat, where the water looks as placid and pure as a mountain lake, and reflects upon its surface, in pleasing vividness, forest, sky and scow. The dredge has a roof on posts some seven feet high, but is open at the sides and rear, into which we can gaze. In front are some huge spars coming to a point about twenty feet above the prow of the scow, with another beam, the pioneer of the concern, from the point of which hangs a huge bucket or dipper, which swings to alternate sides of the ditch and deposits mud as it goes, fifty-four feet from the centre of the turn-table. Evidently it was not made for ocean navigation; but it is a fact that some years ago in an adjoining county, near the head-waters of the St. Mary's we believe it was, a scow-dredge was built in a swamp and then dug its way out until it floated into a river and got an experience of river navigation. The Ditch Laws of the State are admirable. The system is very simple. Parties wishing their land ditched petition the county commissioners, who first examine, by sending an engineer to run the necessary levels, and, if his report and plans are favorable, they grant the request and assume the expense and supervision of the work. To meet the expense the county issues its bonds, running a term of years. The interest on the bonds, and finally the principal, are met by increase on the tax value of the land. It is by this system that the Black Swamp and other low wet lands of the Northwest are becoming the garden of Ohio. The people no longer shake with the chills and fever, the snakes have wriggled away, and big crops, sunshine and gladness have come over the land. GREAT TREES. One It This county had some noted trees. termed "Hardin's Great Walnut "has thus been described by Mr. James Cable: It stood 22 miles east of Kenton, in the centre of the Marion pike. Its roots-large spursextended twenty feet from the body each way, the body growing well to the ground. died in 1832, and was cut in 1837. diameter is not known, but its body measured seventy-two feet to the forks, and large railcuts were made from each fork. Large stiles had to be cut in the body to notch it for the saw. The tree was without a blemish. Mr. Cable said it was the best tree he had ever seen. The Walnut was abundant in the vicinity. On section twelve, near by, Mr. Johnson, an old Indian scout, reported that a walnut was cut in 1789 which measured four feet and a half in diameter. It was cut for bees by a white man. The stump was standing late as 1879. It was reported that a white man was killed near it by an Indian. This was probably the first tree cut in Hardin county. CAPTURE AND ESCAPE OF DR. JOHN KNIGHT. The earliest known incident of striking interest occurring within the limits of this county was the escape of Dr. John Knight in June, 1782. He was brotherin-law of Col. Crawford, and had been captured with the Colonel and two others near what is now Leesville, Crawford county. After the burning of Crawford, Knight was painted black and next morning put in charge of an Indian named Tutelu, a rough-looking fellow, to be taken to the Shawnee town of Wakatomika for execution. It is a well-received tradition that the precise spot where the Doctor outwitted, overpowered and escaped from his Indian guard was in Section 8, Dudley township, on the north bank of the Scioto, near the residence of the late Judge Portius Wheeler. The spot is on the old Shawnee trail, from the Wyandot and Delaware villages on the Sandusky and Tymochtee to the Shawnee towns on the Big Miami and Mad rivers, passing through what is now known as the townships of Goshen, Dudley, Buck Hall, and Taylor Creek. The details, as told by Knight, are these: They started for the Shawnee towns, which the Indian said were somewhat less than forty miles away. Tutelu was on horseback and drove Knight before him. The latter pretended he was ignorant of the death he was to die, though Simon Girty told him he was to die; affected as cheerful a countenance as possible, and asked the savage if they were not to live together as brothers in one house when they should get to the town. Tutelu seemed well pleased and said, "Yes." He then asked Knight if he could make a wigwam. Knight told him he could. He then seemed more friendly. The route taken by Tutelu and Knight was the Indian trace leading from the Delaware town to Wakatomika, and ran some six or eight miles west of what is now Upper Sandusky. Its direction was southwest from Pipetown to the Big Tymochtee. They travelled, as near as Knight could judge, the first day about twenty-five miles. The Doctor was then informed that they would reach Wakatomica the next day a little before noon. The Doctor often attempted to untie himself during the night, but the Indian was very watchful and scarcely closed his eyes, so that he did not succeed in loosening the tugs Iwith which he was bound. At daybreak Tutelu got up and untied the Doctor. They had built a fire near which they slept. Tutelu, as soon as he had untied the Doctor, began to mend the fire, and as the gnats were troublesome, the Doctor asked him if he should make a smoke behind him. He said, "Yes." The Doctor took the end of a dogwood fork, which had been burnt down to about eighteen inches in length. It was the longest stick he could find, yet too small for the purpose he had in view. He then took up another small stick, and taking a coal of fire between them, went behind the Indian, when, turning suddenly about, he struck the Indian on the head with all his force. This so stunned him that he fell forward, with both his hands in the fire. He soon recovered, and springing to his feet ran howling off into the forest. Knight seized his gun, and with much trepidation followed, trying to shoot the Indian; but using too much violence in pulling back the cock of the gun, broke the main-spring. The Indian continued his flight, the Doctor vainly endeavoring to fire his gun. He finally returned to the camp from the pursuit of Tutelu, and made preparations for his homeward flight through the wilderness. He took the blanket of the Delaware, a pair of new moccasins, his "hoppes," powder-horn, bullet-bag, together with the Indian's gun, and started on his journey in a direction a little north of east. About half an hour before sunset he came to Sandusky Plains, when he laid down in a thicket until dark. He continued in a northeasterly direction, passing through what is now Marion, Morrow, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, and so on, until evening of the twentieth day after his escape, he reached the mouth of Beaver creek on the Ohio, in Beaver county, Pa., and was then among friends. During the whole journey he subsisted on roots, a few young birds that were unable to fly out of his reach, and wild berries that grew in abundance through the forest. THE TORNADO OF 1887. On the night of Friday, May 14, 1887, the western part of Ohio was visited by one of the most destructive storms known in the history of the State. While great damage was done to property throughout other coun ties, its effects in Hardin and Greene counties were particularly disastrous. The destruction in Greene was largely caused by flood, the damage in Hardin principally by the great force of the wind; it partook moreof the character of a tornado, the effects being similar to those of the tornado which had visited Fayette county the preceding September, nearly destroying the entire town of Washington C. H. Commencing in the western part of Hardin county the storm travelled in a northeasterly direction over a course of about eight miles, leaving destruction in its path. It passed out of Hardin at the northeast corner, and did great damage in Wyandot county. TRAVELLING NOTES. At Kenton on this tour we met Gen. James S. Robinson. We were glad to meet him again, having made his acquaintance on our original tour, but had not seen him since. In the interim he had an unusual career, civil and military. He was born of English parentage, near Mansfield, October 14, 1827. He was bred a printer and editor, looks like the typical John Bull, but is every inch an American. He is a tall, somewhat huge man, with clear, weighty voice, one with strong convictions and frank in their expression. He was secretary of the first Republican State Convention ever held in Ohio, of which Salmon P. Chase was president; has held many other political and civil offices; is the only person ever elected to Congress from Hardin county, first in 1880 and then in 1882; was Secretary of State from 1885 to 1889. He enlisted in the civil war as a private, and ere its close had become a full brigadier and brevet major-general. He was in the Virginia campaign under Fremont; was in Sherman's march to the sea, and had some interesting experiences at Gettysburg, incidents of the first day's fight and what he saw while he lay wounded and a prisoner within the enemy's lines. We abridge from a published account. He entered the fight as commander of the Eighty-second O. V. I., two other colonels ranking him. But in five minutes one was wounded and the other (Colonel Musser, of the Seventy-fifth Pennsylvania) killed while engaged in conversation with him, which devolved upon him the command of the brig GEN. JAMES S. ROBINSON. ade. The firing was from the right flank and front and was very destructive of human life. His regiment went into action on the morning of the first day's fight with 19 officers and 236 men. It lost all but 2 officers and 89 men. After the death of General Reynolds and other disasters an order was issued assigning to Robinson the command of the division, but ere it reached him he was struck in the left breast by a minie-ball, which passed clear through his body, making a gaping wound. This was just at the edge of Gettysburg, and as he fell his troops were forced to give way before the overwhelming forces of the enemy, who swept on and over the field on which he lay wounded. He was taken to the residence of a couple of maiden ladies by the name of McPherson, sisters of Hon. Edward McPherson, late Clerk of the House of Representatives, where he lay upon the kitchen floor during the night. The following day he was taken up-stairs and placed in a bed, looking out upon the busy scenes being enacted in the town. In the meantime he had had no treatment whatever. Some water was brought him, which he poured through his wound and which ran through his body like through a sieve. To this the general attributes his recovery from a wound which would have killed almost any other man. After an examination of his wound the surgeon coolly told him that he could not possibly recover and that he had better complete at an early moment whatever arrangements he wanted to make preparatory to a voyage across the dark river. But the colonel intimated that he had some faith in his recovery and that he had no arrangements to make just yet. Another surgeon came who succeeded in finding a small dose of morphine. This gave relief, and he was able to sleep for a few hours. During both days of the battle he could hear the rattle of the musketry and the roar of artillery on all parts of the field. On the afternoon of the third day, when the signal-gun was fired and the artillery opened from both lines, the shock was terrific. It fairly shook the building which he occupied. Then came a lull and after that the rattle of musketry. Just as the sound |