John H. “Davis” Mackley was editor of Jackson Standard; one of Jackson County’s 13 abolitionists born 11 Dec 1818 and died March 19, 1887, married to Polly Steece, d/o of Henry Steece, a half-sister to Samuel Brady Steece.
The Jackson Standard, Jackson, OH 6 Jun 1867 p2
Random Thoughts No. 23
By The Editor.
Some two months ago, I received a letter from my brother-in-law, S. B. Steece (Samuel Brady Steece.) Postmaster at Ironton, telling me that he was going to get married about the last of May to Miss Ella Willard, daughter of the late J. O. Willard (James Orville Willard) of Ironton, and urgently requesting my wife and me to be present. I notified him that I would be there. (Ella Willard was born 3 Mar 1847 Buckhorn Furnace, died 29 Nov. 1924) Samuel Brady Steece died on 28 Oct. 1918.
We left on Monday afternoon last week and stopped in Portsmouth Monday night.
I noticed all along the road that the wheat looked good and fruit would be abundant. At Portland, I saw several fine new buildings going up and some recently finished. Evans and Jones, whose advertisement will be seen in the STANDARD, have put up a large three-story frame storehouse on the village’s main street. Dr. Williams will soon commence a fine house. Portland is destined to be a fine business point in our county and will soon be a large town.
At Scioto Furnace, I saw a man, woman, and girl unloading an ore car. The woman was throwing off blocks of ore that probably weighed a hundred pounds. She was a powerful-looking woman and would be an ugly customer in a fight.
Portsmouth is improving faster than it has ever done. The large number of buildings is rising, and property is rapidly rising in value. I called on L. Englebrecht grocer, whose advertisement recently been in the STANDARD. He told me that he had a very large trade in Jackson county. I went to the great wholesale grocery story of A. W. Buskirk bought a supply of family groceries to last me a year. Mr. Buskirk is highly pleased with his large trade in our county. He urged me to spend a half day in Portsmouth, and he would take me in his buggy over the city and show me the improvements I promised to do so if I came back that way.
A friend told Capt. Scott (Uriah Bonser Scott), of Victor No. 4, that I was an editor, and when I went to settle for my passage, I was told they did not charge editors. I replied that I was not one of that sort but had enough money to make me through. But the Clerk would not receive one cent from me, and I was treated with much politeness, and I would here recommend this little boat to the traveling public. It leaves Portsmouth every day at 1 ½ o’clock P.M. for Big Sandy, stopping at all intermediate points.
In going up the river, we passed old Franklin Furnace. This is the place where I first saw the Ohio River. It was in the summer of 1834. My father and I came to the Furnace and visited the river at a point where a Dutchman named Wilhelm kept a tavern just above old Franklin. A man on the boat told me that Wilhelm had committed suicide by hanging himself.
My father told me in 1834, when we were here, that he and two other men had encamped in the woods near Wilhelm’s tavern in 1817. They had been to Cincinnati with a boatload of coal. My father then owned the land where West Columbia, West Virginia, is now located, and he had loaded a boat at his coal banks, taken it to Cincinnati and sold it, and was then on his return to West Columbia. He walked from Cincinnati. There were then no steamboats running on the Ohio river, the only conveyance being keelboats pushed along by poles.
We landed at Greenupsburgh, Ky., and put off some freight and passengers. I was at Greenupsburgh in the fall of 1844 and from that place to Raccoon Furnace. This village does not appear to have improved during the past twenty-three years. The old Court House, a tavern called the “Kouns House,” and a grocery or two are all that attract attention from the river. I notice the name of a man named Roach in large letters above a door as the agent of the “Kentucky Improvement Company.” I thought that that was just the company needed in Kentucky, as no place needs improvement more than the present residence of the immortal Nasby.
Hanging Rock has improved some since I was there in the year 1846.
We arrived at Ironton a few minutes past six o’clock P.M. My father-in-law, Mr. Steece, met us at the boat, and we stopped with him at the “Sheridan House,” where he was boarding. This house is kept by William St. Clair, who was a soldier in the Union army. He is a fine gentleman, and his wife is a worthy lady. They furnished us with one of the very best rooms in the house, and we had excellent fare during our visit. I would recommend all who visit Ironton to stop at the Sheridan House.
On the same evening that I arrived, E. S. Wilson, Esq., editor of the Ironton Register, called on me, and we had a pleasant talk. He is a young man of fine talent and, with experience, will be one of the most useful editors in the state.
On the next day, I saw a large number of my old friends, among whom I must mention R. M. Stimson, Esq., editor of the Marietta Register, Hiram Campbell Esq., who edited a paper in Hillsboro, in the years 1833-4, S. P. Calvin Esq., Prosecuting Attorney, Seth Sutherland Esq., county auditor, who lost his right arm in the recent war, Col. James Allen, of the 2nd Va. Cavalry, Hon. T.N. Davey, member of the Ohio Legislature, P. (Peras) R. Polley and J. W. Henthorne Esq., justice of the peace, Hon. John Campbell, late Collector, John Peters Esq., and many others. I called to see Col. Elias Nigh, Assessor, but he was in the country. Mr. Betts, his assistant, was in the office. He is a worthy gentleman, and I had a pleasant talk with him.
There was an old man in town named Willis. He was one hundred and five years old, had walked thirteen miles that morning, and had arrived before eight o’clock. He was very hard of hearing and walked with a long rough staff with an iron ring upon the lower end of it. He had seen lawyer Deem about some matter in which his son, Elza Willis, was concerned.
Judge Johnson, Mr. Neal, and others I desired to see were at Gallipolis Court.
Ironton is a very pleasant little city. It is the quietest place of its size that I ever saw. There is some noise in the lower end of the city, where the rolling mills, foundry, machine-shop &c., are in full operation. A great black cloud of smoke is constantly darkening this part of the city. But I saw no drunkenness or carousing and but little loafing.
The Irontonians are a “peculiar people.” Shut out from the world, except by the Ohio river, their ideas of social etiquette are strange to a person who has been accustomed to mixing in good society in such neighboring cities as Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Columbus &c. Shut out on one side by Storms Creek and the Greasy Ridge and on the other by the rebel State of Kentucky, Ironton is almost as isolated as Japan. It is a kind of microcosm. But with all their peculiarities, the Irontonians are a worthy people.
We came down on the steamer Telegraph with the bridal party, met the cars at Sciotoville, and arrived home the same evening. D.M.
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