Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1940-01-11

n dersons, Rays, Rowlands, Kings
: Cunninghams, Wilson's, Weedens
s McDonalds, to mention only a few
who lived in the Meigs creek val
leys and back on the hills, were al
prosperous and successful farmers
who set an example of thrift and in
dustry that future generation
might emulate with pride and prof
it,
! AS young man, taught schoo
several years, ringing the bell o
Nos. 6, 7 and 8, Unionville ano
i Muttonburg. During that period
also attended college, read law with
Judge w. b. Crew and George Ber
ry, at McConnelsville, was admitted
to the bar at Columbus, in 1898
and have been located at Carroll
ton, O., since 1894, engaged in the
law business. Have served locally
! as mayor, postmaster, prosecuting
attorney, and judge of the common
pleas court for ten years, holding
court in Is counties, and presiding
over many important trials, both
civil and criminal, including the
Maud Lawther murder case, at Ash
tabula, the Dasco steel mill murder
at Steubenville, the big damage suit
against the Republic Steel company,
at Canton, in which Luther Day ap-
peared as counsel, and the impeach-
ment of Judge Bostwick, at Colum-
bus, a bitterly contested case, in
which Newton d. Baker appeared as
counsel for the prosecution alto
gether a varied and valuable exper-
ience
1t may be of interest to recall
that in the early 1905 an unusual
number of young men came from
the farms to join the ranks of coun-
try school teachers, and later to
pursue professional careers as doc
tors, lawyers, ministers, and educa-
tors. Amongst others, the group
included the Garrett boys, Frank
and Hugh, Harley Hail. Will and
Robert Sears, Abe Gorrell, Jim Ped
icord, G. O. McGonagle, Geo. j.,
Wilson, and John F. Henderson,
John Evans, Chas Fouts, Howard
Strong, and Will Sealock Probably
not in its entire history has the
township produced an equal number
of professional sons. They were a
talented, ambitious and aggressive
group, but whether they achieved
any greater success or got more out
of life than their fathers, may well
be considered moot question
Probably not.
When Lou Strong opened the
Muttonburg school in September,
1884, Mary King, Anise Paxton,
Maggie Greer, Nettie Ashton, Rosie
Roberts, Cynthia Muse, Della Greer,
Fora Whitney and Lydia Roberts
answered the roll call, group of
gay young girls, the picture of
whose happy faces, etched SOn mem
ory's scroll, has never been dimmed
by the touch of time. 1t was, too,
an earnest, studious group. With
what avid curiosity We explored the
mystery of mathematics, charmed
by the results attained by the cor
rect manipulation of numbers; we
marveled at the grammatical con-
struction of language, even with its
maze of conjugations. parsing, par
ticiples and syntaX; watched with
keen interest the pageant of history
as it's pages unfolded with dramatic |
appeal to the imagination of youth; (;
with deepest sympathy we wandered
through the settlements = of the |
Evangeline, as she vainly sought /
the lover from whom she had been
separated, at Grand Pre-, by ruth
less deportation decree; we were
perhaps unduly impressed by Bry-
ants solemn dirge about the grave;
but we laughed at Carleton's graph
ic picture of the Hoosier school /
master and his grotesque board of
directors, and especially the speech
of the old fellow explaining to the
teacher why they had decided to
turn him out.
Recently, on a sky line drive
the township, | noted with
regret how the little one-room
school house has fallen into decay.
Once the community social center,
the inspiration of ambitious youth,
where fundamental education was
taught in its simplicity, now closed
and abandoned for a more preten
tious, and more expensive curricu
lum, and better one, let us hope.
Whittier was an old man when his
gifted pen sketched a pathetic pic
ture of the abandoned school house
which he had attended as a boy up
in the hills of New England: "Still
stands the school house by the road
4 ragged beggar summing, around it
now the sumacs grow, and black
berry vines are running. Within, is
seen the masters desk, deep SCARED
by raps official, the warping floor
he battered seats, the jack -knifes
,arved initial" A melancholy cpl
aph that should be inscribed on the
ioor of every abandoned school
house in the township.
Anyone who visits the scenes Of {
lis youth after the lapse of so
vears, will appreciate the letter of
ament which the old fellow wrote
o his friend, Tom, describing his |
experience and reactions when he [
to visit the comrades of
lis boyhood days. Genius turned |
hat letter into classic little poem,
md Professor McGuffey, with his
,een, sense of literary values, res
ued it from oblivion with his ia
nous reader. Listen: 1--WE wan {
lered to the village Tom, I've sat /,
the tree, upon the school i
louse playground, that sheltered {
'ou and me. But few were left to 6
rect me Tom, and none were left
o know, who played with us upon i
he green, just forty years ago." t
That is sad refrain that finds s
n echo in the heart of every youth !
7ho, after the lapse of many years, s
7anders back to the hills, back to '
o1I