Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-11-26
AN OLD DIARY.
Record of Life in St. Clairsv11e in the
Twenties

ar. Time seems to throw the glam0r OF
romance over them. They loom up out
of the past like a spreading landscape
shorn by distance of its inequalities and
melting into symmetry and beauty. Dis
tance of time, no less than distance OF
space lends enchantment. Thinking cur
sorily of early times in any given locali-
ty, we are inclined to picture the people
in simplicity and crudity, as fresh,
new, unsophisticated, more natural and
more vigorous, because nearer to natures
heart; stronger and more earnest iii their
old beliefs, less vitiated by the unsettling
science of the moderns, the cynicism of
civilization and the iconoclastic spirit of
the expiring century. Such reflections
occur to one reading the diary of prom
inent citizen of this place back in the
| twenties
Moses Coulter came to st. Clairsville in
1920. He was then Is years old. His diary,
inscribed on heavy unruled paper, in the
precise though elaborate and ornate chi
Biography of that day, was written, he tells
us, for his "own qualification and inform
alton hereafter" Its style of compost
ton is calm, serious and stilted. One
cannot fancy its author as other than
grave and reverend, one who looked on
life seriously and as a reality. For a
number of years he was employed by
Ezer Ellis, and afterward by Peter Tall
man, in the Clerks Office, at a salary
OF $500. There could certainly have been
no complaint in those days, of extrava-
gance in the matter of county officials
salaries. The method of obtaining med
ical diploma in those days was less scien-
tific, though perhaps more arduous than
now, for Mr.. G. recounts that after due
study he was examined by The "Physi-
clans of st. Clairsville, and received
Certificate of qualification from each"
"But," he naively remarks, my success
whilst continued in practice, was better
in curing than in obtaining patients.
So he sold his physics and quit the prac-
tice lie pictures the campaign of 1928
between Adams and Jackson as vigorous
and hot, and filled with exaggeration and
abuse He became part owner and edi-
tor of the National Historian, one of the
two organs at this place. He entered
warmly into the fight, espousing the
cause of Adams, but Jackson was elect
ed, and, as not unnatural under the cir
cumstances, he says, 81 soon became
completely sick and disgusted with my
new situation" He quit the newspaper
business He then gives a dignified ac
count of his marriage. An interesting
comparison of real estate values may be
found in the fact tnat he paid $3.50 for
the house and lot in the west end of
town. now the property of j. F. Patton.
During the summer of 1929 there was
another warm political contest over the
election of Representatives. The ques-
tion was made local because certain
plums were to be distributed. The Jack
son party named themselves Democrat
ic Republicans" We should like to see
the man in politics to-day, who would
have the hardihood to take any such
name as that. But they were successful,
and Mr. C's party was showed IN Ter.
Four members of the Legislature were
elected for this county-three being
Jackson men-in the fall of 1929.
In November of this autumn the first free
school ever known in st. ClairSville was
established as Mr.. c. recounts. He says
the money to support such schools was
raised partly by direct taxation, and the
plan at first met with clamorous disfavor,
which, however, as the advantages both
to rich and poor became apparent, grad
ually grew into satisfaction. The tax
then was light, being only sufficient to
maintain the free school for three months
of the year. This is the parent of our
present system.
Though remote and isolated from the
greater centers of progressive thought,
the village did not lag, for in this No
vember the citizens met and organized a
a branch of the American Colonization
Society. This was built upon prophecy. Its
origin was in the fear aroused visions of
trouble to result from the great slave
population. Even at that early day, and
among small and distant communities,
an indefinable dread of some mysterious
difficulty was abroad, and hung in all
minds like the sword of Damocles. The
object of the Society was to coloniZe the
blacks on the west coast of Africa, and
at that time about 2000 had been remoy-
ell. The result of coloniZing the entire
p1puIation Mr.. C. characterizes as
splendid and invaluable" and he in
dulges in this prophecy, Zone of two
things is however certain: the blacks
must be removed or they 1OW free them
selves from the chains of slavery by a
civil war If the Colonization Society
fails in effecting the former, they will at
least procrastinate the latter" History
has justified the alarm of our ancestors
more than thirty years before war by
which the blacks were freed, but by
which they did not free themselves"
but it has also shown how utterly base
less was their horror ola free negro pop
ulation.
The tendency of the people of that day
to meet together in public, discuss queS-
tions of general interest, pass resolutions
and effect organizations for cooperative
work is well shown in this diary. The
public meeting seems to have taken the
place largely of the newspaper of TO-
day. Government was nearer the
hearts of the people, and politics not
so much an individual profession. An
account is given of the formation of
Temperance Society. At the first meeting
one hundred young persons, male and
female, were enrolled rs members. Mr..
= ,r-oc obocan Dracidant rhat On larOa