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SOCIETY.

REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS

BY THE EDITOR

A VISIT FROM BENJAMIN LUNDY

A letter of Ruth Galbreath, wife of Nathan Galbreath, dated "New Garden, Ohio, 2nd mo. 3rd, 1833," contains among other things a description of a visit from Benjamin Lundy which may be of interest to readers of this issue of the QUARTERLY, as it expresses the regard of Columbiana County Quakers for this reformer and bears testimony to the fact that he was a not infrequent visitor in eastern Ohio at this time. The letter in part is as follows:

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"I had the very great gratification of seeing B. Lundy last fall. He gave us a call and took tea with us, and I must tell something of the manner of his introduction. I happened to be, alone in the kitchen. * * I was very much engaged in my household concerns when I heard a knocking at the front door with the head of a cane, by which I inferred that it was a man. So I thought he might knock away until he was tired and then come down to the kitchen door, but finding he continued to knock I at length called out, 'Come in,' more than once, but the knocking still continued, and seeing no alternative, I with the implement I was using ran hastily up and met at the door a little strange looking man of no very interesting appearance. The first thought that struck me was that he was a school master, come to be examined, Nathan having performed the office of examiner since. the institution of district schools. I invited him into the sitting room, left him and dispatched a messenger for Nathan (for the man had asked for him) and resumed my work in the kitchen. When Nathan came, he went up to the room and soon returned to the head of the stairs and called in an animated tone of voice desiring me to come up. I dropped my work in an instant, say

ing to myself, 'Who can it be?' and adjusting as I went my cap and handkerchief I entered the room; but my astonishment at hearing the name of Benjamin Lundy may be more easily imagined than described. The next moment presented him to my mind as an imposter. I sat down to try if I could be satisfied by listening to their conversation. I was soon convinced and perceiving him to be hard of hearing (which accounted for his knocking after I had said 'Come in') I took my chair and sat close to him and (call me not enthusiastic) I devoured every word with the keenest avidity. Indeed I so far forgot my work in the kitchen that I was obliged to force myself out of the room to give orders for tea. I mentioned to him something of my surprise and he related to me an anecdote of a man he saw in his route who, like me, had heard of him but had not seen him and said he expected to see a great fellow six feet high. I told him I was not so much deceived in the height but I expected to see more breadth of face as well as hat.

"What a powerful thing prejudice is and how this idol's plainness has been and continues to be worshiped. Had B. L. appeared amongst us in a straight drab coat and a broad white hat, I am well pursuaded he would have excited infinitely more attention and interest than he did, and I cordially confess had he appeared in the garb I have mentioned and instead of a cane in one hand and a bundle in the other [had] come riding in a nice plain carriage or even on a good horse, I should instantly have seen the necessity, or at least the propriety, of treating him with attention and respect; and very sure I am he would have gained more subscribers to his paper among us orthodox Hicksites. I think it is much to be lamented that the form and color of our clothing should be considered in our Society of such vast importance that we cannot believe men or women can be what they ought to be without this token of sanctity and mark of a Quaker, forgetting, it would seem, that He whose followers we profess to be has not said, 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have drab coats and white hats;' but if ye love one another,' and taking another precept from the same lips, namely, 'Every tree is known by its fruits,' can we forbear to acknowledge that B. Lundy's claim to the title of discipleship appears at least as strong as those who would not on any account vary one tittle in the cut or color of their garments from what Quakerism has been thought to require.

"B. told us he believed himself as much in his place as any man would, whatever by the character of the service to which he was called, and I firmly believed it too, notwithstanding it was some time, as I have hinted, before I became entirely satisfied that a man with a lappelled coat, a high crowned hat and large

whiskers (and red ones too, mind, how would it look?) could be devoted to the best of causes, following the Divine Master in humility of soul. Yet such I believe is the fact. But you will say, why mention red? She knows he can't change the color. True, but why not cut them off, for surely red looks fiercer than black."

The portraits of Benjamin Lundy, so far as we have seen them, represent him with a smooth face. At the time mentioned by the writer he evidently had cultivated an ample beard of war-like color.

THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, whose contribution on The Coffin of Edwin Coppoc appears in this issue, is one whose name ranks high among America's eminent scholars and educators. He was born on a farm in Columbiana County, Ohio, near the villages of Hanoverton and New Garden, October 4, 1841. His parents were Quakers, who shared the enthusiastic hostility to slavery that characterized the pioneers of that faith who settled in eastern Ohio early in the last century. They lived at the time of his birth near the Coppoc neighborhood and were later deeply stirred, as were their children, by the events at Harper's Ferry and Charlestown following John Brown's invasion of Virginia and the execution of Edwin Coppoc. With this antecedent inheritance and environment, it is readily understood with what enthusiasm Dr. Mendenhall, when a young teacher in the Salem High School, entered into the celebration of General Lee's surrender and how naturally the Coppoc coffin with the effigy of the general suggested itself to him as an appropriate memento to be borne at the head of the procession.

Dr. Mendenhall was educated in the public schools, was one of the members of the first faculty of the Ohio State University, was called to the Imperial University of Japan where he occupied the chair of physics from 1878-1881; returned to Ohio State University where he taught three years, after which he was successively professor of the U. S. Signal Corps, President of Rose Polytechnic Institute, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. From 1901-1912 he was in Europe. Degress have been conferred upon him by a number of colleges and universities in America and he has been decorated with the Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan and honored with a gold medal from the National Educational Society of Japan. He is at present a trustee of the Ohio State University, where he celebrated his eightieth birthday this month. He is author of a Century of Electricity. His home is in Ravenna, Ohio.

BARCLAY COPPOC AND THE JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI, TRAGEDY

Rev. John J. Lutz, a native of Wayne County, Ohio and later a citizen of Kansas, wrote for the Kansas Historical Society an article on "Quantrill and the Morgan Walker Tragedy" (Kansas Historical Collections, Vol. 8, pages 324-331) in which he says that Richard J. Hinton is in error in regard to the participation of Barclay Coppoc in this affair. The three young men who were killed through the perfidy of Quantrill were Charles Ball, Chalkley T. Lipsey and Edwin S. Morrison. Charles Ball was born in Salem, Ohio, in the year 1837. He was first cousin of Edwin and Bar

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clay Coppoc. His relationship to the Coppocs may have led Hinton into an error which has been repeated by many subsequent writers. Barclay Coppoc, however, was in Kansas about this time and was closely associated with those who were aiding negroes to escape from Missouri. Whether he actually had any part in this particular raid is a question.

Chaulkley T. Lipsey was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in 1838. Ball came from Springdale, Iowa, to Kansas. All three of the young men who lost their lives were Quakers.

LEVI COPPOC AT ANTIOCH COLLEGE

It has frequently been reported in the public press that Edwin Coppoc, who was with John Brown at Harper's Ferry, was at one time a student at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. A letter recently addressed to the librarian of the college, Emily Turner, brought the following reply:

"We do not find in any of our catalogs the name of Edwin Coppoc. The name of Levi Coppoc appears as a student in 1853-1854. Springdale, Iowa, was given as his address. James Coppock, of West Milton, Ohio, was a student in 1855-1856.”

Levi Coppoc was an elder brother of Edwin Coppoc, as already stated on another page of this issue of the QUARTERLY. As West Milton, now Milton, was settled by Quakers, it is probable that James Coppock was also related to Edwin.

THE BRYAN-HAYES CORRESPONDENCE

The October number of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly contains the first installment of the cor

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