The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio; or, Glimpses of Pioneer Life

by N. E. Jones

The facilities for the physical culture were greatly in advance of those for the development of the mental; and it is remarkable what the key to education has in its turn accomplished—the Bible, “Buckley’s Apology” and “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

Most of the present educational influences were unknown to the generation that has given to the United States so many great men. In their youthful days libraries were exceedingly few, and books were expensive and not easily obtained; and little reason had any one to anticipate that the boys living in the backwoods of Ohio, shooting squirrels and hoeing corn, spring and summer; catching rabbits, foxes and coons in the fall and winter, and occasionally attending a “subscription school” in some abandoned log cabin two or three months, would ever become stars of the first magnitude in the literary canopy of the United States.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific—in every city, in every town—boys of the rural districts of Ohio have marched to the front. Even in the National Metropolis it need not be asked: “Whence came Murat Halstead, Whitelaw Reid, John A. Cockerill, Charles J. Chambers, William H. Smith, Bernard Peters, William L. Brown, and others.” The New York Tribune, Herald, World, Associated Press, Times and Daily News, and the evidences of success resulting from ability, integrity and business capacity, give the answer, “Ohio.”[15]

Whatever the cause may now be attributable to, there can be no question of the inherited capacity and natural and acquired ability which has enabled the “Squirrel Hunters” of Ohio to give to the nation greater and more useful men during the present century than all the other states combined.

In every channel of advancing civilization the Ohio man is found over the entire world, and is known by the stamp he bears—“none other genuine”—“O.I.O.” It may be excusable to name a few of the many national characters which an Ohio man is ever proud to recall with an admiration unknown to egotism—of such—Thomas Ewing, Rufus P. Ranney, George H. Pendleton, Joseph Medell, Richard Smith, Donn Piatt, Ed. Cowles, Samuel Medary, W. McLean, E. D. Mansfield, James G. Birney, Swayne, Springer, Scoville, Chase, Simpson, McIlvaine, Thomas Cole, Hiram Powers, Wm. H. Beard, Quincy Ward; the great inventor, Edison; the arctic explorer, Dr. Hall; the Siberian traveler, George Kennon; the astronomer, Mitchell; geologists, Hildreth, Newberry, and Orton; humorists, Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby; as popular writer, A. W. Tourgee and William Dean Howells. The latter found “Squirrels” in the spring, where they resorted for “the sweetness in the cups of the tulip-tree blossoms;” and in boyhood made “impressions” with his bare feet in the snow on the cabin floor, and in after life more lasting ones with his pen on the hearts of those who have been favored with his literary productions.

Why was it said on the 4th of March, 1881, the nation was enabled to see “three men of fine presence advanced on the platform at the east portico of the Federal Capitol? On the right, a solid, square-built man, of impressive appearance, the Chief-Justice of the United States (Morrison R. Waite). On his left stood a tall, well-rounded, large, self-possessed personage, with a head large even in proportion to the body, who is President of the United States (James A. Garfield). At his left hand was an equally tall, robust, and graceful gentleman, the retiring President (R. B. Hayes). Near by was a tall, not especially graceful figure, with the eye of an eagle, who is the general commanding the army (Wm. Tecumseh Sherman). A short, square, active officer, the Marshal Ney of America, Lieutenant-General (Phil. Sheridan). Another tall, slender, well-poised man, of not ungraceful presence, was the focus of many thousand eyes. He had carried the finances of the nation in his mind and in his heart, four years as the Secretary of the Treasury, the peer of Hamilton and Chase (John Sherman). Of these six five were natives of Ohio, and the other a life-long resident. Did this group of national characters from our state stand there by accident? Was it not the result of a long train of agencies, which, by force of natural selection, brought them to the front on that occasion?”[16]

While this painting from life will ever stand as a most worthy compliment to Ohio, it must be looked upon as but a detached part of the great picture of the North-west, in the center of which may be seen the full measure of a wise man crowned with six stars untarnished with slavery—Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, 1787.

The Ohio State Journal says of the 4th of March, 1897, that, “This is a great time for Ohio at the National Capital. The Buckeye State is very much in evidence. The President is from Ohio; the Secretary of State is from Ohio; Mark Hanna is an Ohio man; Secretary Alger was born and bred in Ohio; ... Senator Foraker, who is expected to be one of the leaders in the senate, is an Ohio man; the First Assistant Secretary of State ... is an Ohio man. In short, Ohio politicians will be in the saddle as far as national affairs go, and, compared with them, the Republicans of the other states are small potatoes, so to speak.