HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 Mechanicstown, nine miles northeast of Carrollton, was laid out in 1836 by Thomas McGovern; it has 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal church, and about 200 population. Kilgore, twelve miles southeast of Carrollton, has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, and 1 Reformed Lutheran church, and about 200 people. Magnolia, on the C. & P. R.R.; population 300. Dell Roy is on the C.V.R.R., eight miles southwest of Carrollton. It has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Protestant church, and, in 1880, 664 inhabitants. This place is now the centre of the most important coal mines of the county, and its population is largely composed of miners. New Harrisburg is a small village five miles northwest of Carrollton, and which in 1883 contested with it for the county-seat. This was the birth-place of Jonathan Weaver, bishop of the United Brethren church and president of Otterbein University. The village has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian church, and about 200 inhabitants. In the little churchyard adjoining the town, "in a valley of dry bones, amid the silent monuments of death and desolation," is a marble slab, twelve by eighteen inches, bearing the simple inscription as annexed: a remarkable instance of longevity. Harlem Springs is six miles southeast of Carrollton; it has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren church, and before the war it was quite a resort for invalids to partake of the water of its chalybreate springs; among the visitors of note were Robt. E. Lee and Edwin Stanton. Here is the Harlem Springs College, founded in 1858, John R. Steeves, president; three instructors; pupils, twenty-one males and eleven females. The Ohio McCooks acquired a wide popular reputation during the civil war as the "Fighting McCooks." In the various current notices of them they are spoken of as one family, but were really two families, the sons of Major Daniel McCook and Dr. John McCook. Of the former family there were engaged in military service the father, Major Daniel McCook, Surgeon Latimer A. McCook, General George W. McCook, Major-General Robert L. McCook, Major-General A. McD. McCook, General Daniel McCook Jr., Major-General Edwin Stanton McCook, Private Charles Morris McCook, Colonel John J. McCook -ten in all. Another son, Midshipman J. James McCook, died in the naval service before the rebellion. Of the latter family there were engaged in the service Major-General Edward M. McCook, General Anson G. McCook, Chaplain Henry C. McCook, Commander Roderick S. McCook. U.S.N., and Lieutenant John J. McCook -five in all. This makes a total of fifteen, every son of both families, all commissioned officers except Charles, who was killed in the first battle of Bull Run, and who declined a commission in the regular army, preferring to serve as a private volunteer. The two families have been familiarly distinguished as the "Tribe of Dan" and the "Tribe of John." I. THE DANIEL MCCOOK BRANCH Major Daniel McCook Martha Latimer Major Daniel McCook, the second son of George McCook and Mary McCormack, was born June 20, 1798, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the seat of Jefferson College, where he received his education. On August 28, 1817, he married Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer, of Washington, Pa. In 1826, they removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr. McCook was an active member and an elder for many years of the Presbyterian church of Carrollton, organizing and conducting as superintendent the first Sunday-school of that church. At the beginning of the war he was in Washington, D.C. and, although, sixty-three years of age, at once tendered his services to president Lincoln. Each of his eight sons then living also promptly responded to the call of the president for troops. When the rebel general, John Morgan, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCook was stationed at Cincinnati, and joined the troops sent in his pursuit. Morgan undertook to recross the Ohio river at Buffington island. Major McCook led an advance party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the skirmish that took place he was mortally wounded and died the next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He is buried at Spring Grove cemetery near Cincinnati. He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot, and an earnest Christian. He possessed a most gentle and amiable disposition, combined with the highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great force of character. He ruled his household in the fear of the Lord, and died as he had lived in the active performance of his duty. His wife, Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer and Mary Greer, was born at Washington, Pa., March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, but on the father's side they were English, coming originally from Leicestershire. During the war of the rebellion, Mrs. McCook was in a peculiarly difficult position. Her husband and sons were all in the service. No battle could take place but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each succeeding year brought death to a member of her family upon the battle-field. Her husband and three sons were thus taken form her and the others were so frequently wounded that it seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft of her entire family. Her life during these long years of anxiety was well nigh a continuous prayer for her country and for her sons that had given themselves for its defence. This patriotic woman well illustrates the heroic sufferings endured by the women of the Republic no less than by the men. Mrs. McCook died November, 10, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of her age, at new Lisbon, Ohio, surrounded by her surviving children and friends, and was buried beside her husband in Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati. The children of the above are as follows: 1. Latimer A. McCook, M.D., was born at Canonsburg, Pa., April 26, 1829. He was educated at Jefferson College (Canonsburg), studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. George McCook, a physician of great skill and eminence, and received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. He entered the army in 1861 as assistant surgeon, and was soon promoted to be surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first regiment, Illinois volunteers, known as "John Logan's regiment." He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, and, while caring for the wounded of his regiment during action, he was himself twice wounded -once in the trenches before Vicksburg, and again at Pocataligo bridge, in Gen. Sherman's movement northward from Savannah. He survived the war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23, 1869, from general debility resulting from wounds and exposure incident to his service in the army, and was buried at Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati. 2. George Wythe McCook was born at Canonsburg, Pa., November 2, 1821. He graduated from Ohio University at Athens, and studied law with and afterward became the partner of Edwin M. Stanton, the great war secretary, in Steubenville. He served as an officer in the Third Ohio regiment throughout the Mexican war, and returned as its commander. He was attorney-general of the State of Ohio, and edited the first volume of "Ohio State Reports." He was one of the first four brigadier-generals appointed by the governor of Ohio to command the troops from that State at the outbreak of the rebellion, but the condition of his health prevented him from taking any command that required absence from home. However, he organized and commanded for short periods several Ohio regiments. He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1871, but his health broke down during the canvass, and he was compelled to abandon the campaign. He, with the Rev. Dr. Charles Beatty, were the largest contributors to the erection of the Second Presbyterian church, at Steubenville, Ohio, of which he was a trustee. He died December 8, 1877, and was buried at Steubenville. 3. John James McCook, born at Canonsburg, Pa., December 28, 1823, was educated at the United States Naval Academy. While serving as midshipman of the United States frigate "Delaware" off the coast of South America he was taken ill with a fever following long-continued exposure while on duty. He died March 30, 1842, and was buried in the English burying-grounds at Rio Janeiro. Admiral Farragut in his autobiography pays a high tribute to the personal character and ability of Midshipman McCook. -additional children continued in part 5 |