Recollections of a lifetime

Dedication

To My Wife.

For forty -eight years, through sunshine and through cloudy weather, she has been my traveling companion in life's journey, and in all the vicissitudes of those years she has done more than her share in overcoming hindrances and in making our journey enjoyable. In all the vicissitudes of life she has been my counselor and helper, and always ready to make a sacrifice of herself for my advancement or comfort. In short, she has not only made my home a haven of rest and encouragement, but she has made my public career possible; and if I have accomplished anything of value, it is to her wise prevision and optimistic faith in Providential care, it is

largely due.

Preface

In genealogical explorations in past years, with a viewto the publication of a family history, I found it exceedingly difficult to get the facts I needed, and often wished that my ancestors had been considerate enough of the generations succeeding them to have left at least a brief outline of the events which had befallen them, and especially of the formative influences which had helped or hindered their mental, moral or physical development.

Considering, as I do, that genealogy is not only an interesting but an important study, I will endeavor to contribute to the records of the Brinkerhoff family an autobiographical outline of my own career and its environments, and trust that others of my name and blood will be induced to do likewise.

In addition to the genealogical incentive to autobiography, there is also the historical, for, as a member of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, I have for many years been interested in Ohio history; and here again the absence of authentic information in regard to the first half of the present century is painfully apparent, and we find that even the greatest men of that period are almost mythological for want of contemporaneous records.

There were giants in those days, and it is greatly to be regretted that the lives they lived and deeds they accomplished have not been fully recorded for the educacation and inspiration of succeeding generations.

Those who make history may not have the time or the

VI PREFACE.

inclination to write history, as Caesar did, but it is to be regretted that they do not. However, in recent years, the makers of history in the generation now closing have recognized the value of autobiography, and we have the recollections of Grant, Sheridan and W. T. Sherman among our generals, and Blaine, John Sherman and others among our statesmen.

Of course, autobiographies by ordinary citizens will not pay for publication, and therefore they rarely get into print; but yet they have a value even in manuscript, not only for family use, but for consultation by future historians, for they often furnish information of the highest value.

Now, it has so happened that the most active years of my life covered the most important events of the antislavery period, commencing with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, and closing with the rebellion and the reconstruction and reconstructive incidents growing out of it.

During that period, it has been my fortune to know quite intimately many of its leading men, and again and again I have been at the turning points of histoty, and have had a part in the shaping of events, and therefore the student of history will find in my recollections some side lights upon contemporary events, which may be useful and interesting.

At any rate, as a loyal member of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, I make this contribution to its archives, and trust that others will do likewise, for by so doing I am very sure we render a valuable service to coming generations.

Chapter I. Childhood And Youth

Place of birth — Ancestors — Life with grandfather — Home surroundings — First school-teacher — Chapter of accidents — The books I read — Religious influences — Call on President Van Buren — Academy days I

Chapter II. Business Beginnings

As a school-teacher — The ship launched — Southward bound — Storm on Lake Erie — A railroad experience — In a slave state — Kindness of Boniface Bell 20

Chapter III. Uee In Tennessee

Arrival at Nashville — Southern hospitality — My cousin, Hardenberg Parsell— Seeking a school — A disappointment — The Donelson family — The Donelson school — Social life in the South — "Poor whites"— Country life — Politics of the South — Followers of Calhoun — Repeal of the Missouri Compromise foreshadowed — Dueling in the South — The Branch family — Change of location 30

Chapter IV. The Hermitage

A plantation home — Early history of the Hermitage — Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr. — The Jackson family — Political views of the Jacksons — Judge Phillips — Slavery in the South 46

Chapter V. General Jackson's Home Ufe

Jackson's inner life — Wife of General Jackson — The Jackson cemetery — The Hermitage servants — "Alfred, the overseer" —General Jackson's later life — Closing scenes — Return to my early

home — Plantation life — The Jackson children 56

(vii)

vin CONTENTS.

Chapter VI. At The North Again

Home again — "A dream that was not all a dream" — How I missed a college education — A law student again — Opportunities afforded — The Pantagonal Club — My social life — My first political speech 67

Chapter VII. Career As A Lawyer

My examination — My law partner — My marriage — My removal to Ashland — My first case at the bar — Church membership — Dutch Calvinism — More recent doctrine — Christ and the resurrection — Return to Mansfield — My new law partner — The repeal of the Missouri Compromise—A non-partisan political meeting — "The Know-nothings" — The People's Party — Thomas H. Ford 79

Chapter VIII. Career As An Editor

My valedictory and salutatory — David R. Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) — A parting word — Appreciation of reporters — Editorial incidents — Editorial conventions 94

Chapter IX

SAEMON P. CHASE.

First acquaintance with Chase — His influence over me— Oberlin rescue case — The Fugititive Slave Law — Decision of Ohio Supreme Court — Professor Peck in Cleveland jail — The State Convention of 1859 — Coming events cast their shadows before — Interview with Governor Chase — The Committee on Resolutions-— The famous third resolution — Presidential aspirations of Mr. Chase — Enstrangement and reconciliation with Mr. Chase 107

Chapter X. Various Events

A home of our own — Pittsburg convention — Discordant elements — Charles Reemelin as an orator — A national party organized — The Freemont Convention — Hobby number one — Pioneer history — Return to law again — Lincoln's inauguration 122

CONTENTS. lx

Chapter XI. First Year Of The Rebeujon

The guns of Sumter — News received in Mansfield — Proclamation of the President — The Sherman brigade — My enlistment as a soldier — A model military instructor — Our West Point colonels — Ordered to the front — My experience as quartermaster — Duties at Bardstown — Interview with General Thomas— St. Joseph's College as a hospital — Generosity of Father Verdon — Ordered to Nashville — Visit to the Hermitage — Ordered to the front— On Shiloh battlefield — Placed in charge of transportation—Views as to the treatment of slaves — Placed on the sick list — leave of absence granted — Trip up the lakes— Ordered to Boston „ 133

Chapter XII. New England Experience

Arrival in Boston — A week at Nahant — Ordered to Maine as chief quartermaster — Yankee dialects — Headquarters at Augusta- Duties in Maine — First meeting with James G. Blaine — Introduction to Maine audience — Appreciation by the people of Maine — Maine politics — Friends in Maine — Trip to Moosehead lake — Incident with John L. Stevens — A kind remembrance 152

Chapter XIII. Pittsburgh And Washington

Duties at Pittsburgh — Ordered to Washington — Duties as post quartermaster — Write and publish a book — End of Rebellion — Jollification at Washington — Death of the President — Scenes at Ford's Theater — Audience paralyzed — Booth's motives — Death of Booth 161

Chapter XIV. After The Assassination

Piomoted to a colonelcy — First acquaintance with Secretary Stanton— Leave of absence — On duty at the War Office — Relations with Mr. Stanton — Ordered to Cincinnati— Duties as post quartermaster — Six months of funerals — Politicians seek my transfer — Interview with Secretary Stanton — Out of the army — Again in civil life — Attorney for the War Office — Last visit to x CONTENTS.

Stanton — Estimate of Stanton — Seward and Chase — Stanton in Buchanan's cabinet 173

Chapter XV. New Experiences

Start again as a lawyer — Views of great cities — The Grant campaign — On the stump in Maine and New York — Suggestions of official appointments — Glad to stay at home — Views of civil service reform — A new hobby — Free trade in a Republican convention — Committee on resolutions — Speech for a tariff reform — A new vocation — On the lecture platform — The free trade league — Visit to New York — A call upon Henry Ward Beecher — Lecture appointments in Western cities — Incidents at Detroit and Michigan University — Chicago and beyond — Return to New York — Engagements with Governor Hoffman. 186

Chapter XVI. Tariff Evies

The Onondago Salt Co. — Tyrants of Syracuse — Conspiracy at Albany — How the state was trapped — Conspirators at Washington — A new dodge — Good accomplished — Free trade dinner — William Cullen Bryant— Tariff reform in Portland, Me. — Tariff in congress — Promises by Speaker Blaine — A winter in Washington — Blaine's duplicity — Indignation of Garfield — Wind-up of the forty-second congress 198

Chapter XVII. The Eiberae Repubeican Movement

Beginnings in Missouri — Call for a national convention — The Cincinnati fiasco — Horace Greeley nominated — Events in Cincinnati — Mozart Hall convention — Fifth avenue conference — Greely campaign — Liberals in 1873 — Campaign in Ohio — Ohio liberal newspaper established— The Tilden campaign — Interview with Mr. Tilden 214

Chapter XVIII. History, Banking And Geneaeogy

Pioneers of Ohio — Ohio Archaeological Society— Objects of the society — Life as a banker — Mansfield Lyceum — Local history— Beecher's trial 229

CONTENTS. xl

Chapter XIX. Career As A Philanthropist

Ohio Board of State Charities — Secretary A. J. Byers — Visiting institutions in Canada and the Bast — Social Science Association — National Conference of Charities and Correction — Advance in care of the insane — Contributions to the Boston Congregationalist — Plans for the Toledo Asylum — Boards of County Visitors — Removal of children from county infirmaries — National Conference of 1882 and 1883 — Paper on building plans — Minneapolis incident — Inspiration from England — Friendship of Barwick Baker — The convict lease system — Ex-Governor Anderson as an orator 242

Chapter XX. Penology And Genealogy

National Prison Association of 1883 — Prisoner's Sunday — Penology and genealogy— United States prisoners — Prison Congress of 1884 — Crime schools at public expense — Report on Saratoga Congress — Genealogy justified — National Conference of Charities and Correction — A new era in penal legislation — Tribute to Allen O. Myers — The Intermediate Penitentiary 260

Chapter XXI

CONVENTIONS: CHARITABLE, COMMERCIAL, GENEALOGICAL. Tribute to Charles Boesel and Joseph Perkins— Brinkerhoff reunion in New Jersey — National Conference of Charities and Correction for 1885 — Prison Congress at Detroit — Commercial Conventiou at Atlanta — Response to an address of welcome — Alabama Hospital for Insane — Travels in Florida — Conference for 1886 — Civil service recommendations — County visitors reorganized — Civil service progress — Discharged prisoners — Prison [punishments 277

Chapter XXII

Sherman-Hineman Park — Report of board for 1897 — Omaha Conference—Session at Lincoln — Trip to Colorado — National Prison Congress at Toronto — Ohio Centennial — The National Conference of Charities and Correction for 1888 — The National Prison Congress — Annual report for 1889 — Baltimore Conferxii CONTENTS.

ence for 1890 — National Prison Congress at Nashville — Rebuke of dueling by General Hayes — Cincinnati Prison Congress — Cold reception in Cincinnati — Board report for 1891 — Ohio State Conference — Legislation for 1891 — Indianapolis Conference. 293

Chapter XXIII. Conventions And Travels

Changes in Board of State Charities — Report of board for 1892 — Denver Conference — The Indian question — Tributes to Oscar McColloch— Trip to the Pacific slope — Colorado Springs — Salt Lake City — Carson City — California— Oregon, Washington and Yellowstone Park — Hospitalities — National Prison Congress in Baltimore — Journey with General Hayes — Ohio State Conference — Conference for 1893 at Chicago — Death of General Hayes — Correspondence with Ex-President Harrison — President of the Prison Congress — President of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society 318

Chapter XXIV. Events Oe 1893 And 1894

The Chicago Exposition — Dedication of the Ohio Monument — Origin of monument — Dedication address — State Conference at Dayton — Legislation of 1894 — Interchange of commodities — Sons of Revolution — Address at banquet — Fourth of July address 329

Chapter XXV. Evolution And Revolution

As an evolutionist— The origin of life — The law of biognosis — Conference of 1894— Ohio State Conference at Kenton — Prohibition vagaries 34 2

Chapter XXVI

Accident in Washington City — Semi-centennial address — New Haven Conference — Trip to Europe— British Islands— International Prison Congress — French hospitality — At dinner with President Faure — Address at banquet — Sessions of congress. 354

CONTENTS. xiii

Chapter XXVII. Impressions Of European Travel

British Islands — Irish and Scotch hospitality — English hospitality — Crosby Hall — Historic places in London — John Bull a gentleman — France — Switzerland — Germany — Coblentz — Dusseldorf — German social life — Holland — From Zutphen to Rotterdam — Belgium — Ostend to Dover — South and west England — Gloucester — Hardwicke Court — Birmingham — Stratf ord-on- Avon — Chester — Liverpool — Liverpool to New York — The National Prison Congress — Legislation in 1895 and 1896 — The National Conference — State Conference of 1896 366

Chapter XXVIII

New Orleans Conference — River trip to New Orleans — The Conference — Prison reform in Louisiana — Homeward bound — National Conference at Toronto — New York institutions — State Conference for 1897 — After the conference — National Prison Congress — Sessions of Congress— Trip to Mexico — San Antonio — Laredo — Monterey — In the torrid zone — City of Mexico — Mexican officials— President Diaz 395

Chapter XXIX. Events Of 1 898-1 899

Care of adult idiots— Plans of new jails — The Spanish War — Institutions visited — Ohio State Conference — National Prison Congress — New Orleans Congress — Twenty-sixth National Conference of Charities and Correction — Results of philanthropic work — Care of epileptics — Custodial care of adult idiots — The dependent poor — Dependent children — Defective children — Juvenile delinquents — Adult criminals — Improved administration 407

Chapter XXX. Concluding Chapter

Home surroundings — Every day home life — Out of politics — Faith and ideals — The cry of the ten thousand 423

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LIFETIME.

CHAPTER I. Childhood and Youth

Place of birth — Ancestors — life with Grandfather — Home surroundings — First school-teacher — Chapter of accidents — The books I read — Religious influences — Call on President Van Buren — Academy days.

According to the family records, I was born June 28, 1828, in the town of Owasco, Cayuga county, New York, and was the youngest of nine children.

I have no recollection of my mother, who died July 4, 1830.

After her death, I was taken to my grandfather's home (my mother's father), who resided at the village of Owasco, three miles south from my father's house, and I was cared for by mother's sisters, and especially by my mother's youngest sister, Rachel.

There were three sisters, unmarried — Sallie, Margaret and Rachel — and these, with my grandfather, constituted the household.

My grandfather's name was Samuel Bevier, and he was the lineal descendant in the fifth generation in America from Iyouis Bevier (Bouvier in French), a Huguenot refugee from France, who came to the New Netherlands in 1650, and was one of the twelve patentees of the tract of land in Ulster county, New York, known as New Paltz, and upon which the Huguenot colony settled.

These Huguenots, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled to Holland, where they resided several years before emigrating to America.

They soon intermingled with the Dutch, and in a generation or two lost their language and identity as Frenchmen, and to all appearances were as Dutch as the Dutch themselves.

They were a very religious people, and the Beviers, all the way back to their ancestor, Louis, were members of the Dutch Reformed Church, and were active Christians in every good word and work.

My grandmother died eighteen days before I was born. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Bevier, and she was a cousin of my grandfather.

My grandmother on my father's side was also of Huguenot descent. Her name was Baeltie Des Marest, and she was descended from Samuel Des Marest, who came to New Jersey with a Huguenot colony in 1650, and settled upon the Hackensack, in Bergen county, New Jersey. The name is now commonly written Demarest.

Apparently, therefore, I am more French than Dutch, and, so far as I know, I have not a drop of English blood in my veins.

The Brinkerhoff name, however, is pure Dutch, so far as we know, which is back to 1638 in America, and 1301 in Holland and Belgium in the Old World.

My father and mother, and both my grandfathers and grandmothers, were members of the Dutch Reformed Church, and their ancestors, without a break in the line, as far back as we can trace them, were upright, Christian men and women. I have heard my father say that they were not very famous or very rich, but they loved God and their country, and he hoped none of his children would break out of the line.

The Brinkerhoff name has now reached the tenth generation in America, and there are at present about two thousand men, women and children who bear this name, and yet of those living, and of the thousands who have passed away since Joris Dircksen Brinkerhoff landed on Manhattan Island in 1638, not one, so far as we have any record, has ever been convicted of an offense against the criminal laws, and it is very rare indeed to hear of one who has reached middle life without becoming a member of a Christian church.*

My oldest brother was not a member of any church, but from his youth upward he was one of the main pillars of support to the old church at Owasco, but for Calvinistic reasons remained an outsider.

In view of the power of heredity for good or evil in every human life, it is evident that the best heritage of a Brinkerhoff is an ancestry morally and physically sound. |

* In 1896, a man claiming the name of George Brinkerhoff was sent to the Penitentiary from Wood county, Ohio. He was an unknown tramp, and plead guilty of the charge of shooting with intent to wound. He could give no intelligent account of himself, and the only reference he would give was to a woman in Brooklyn, New York, as his foster mother. The Brooklyn chief of police, at my request, looked her up, and all she would say was that his father was a sailor, born in England, and left his son an orphan at an early age. The authorities were satisfied that George Brinkerhoff was an assumed name. Later on, he was transferred to the Ohio State Reformatory, at Mansfield, from which he was discharged upon the expiration of his sentence, and then admitted that his real name was George Beakley. The name Brinkerhoff, in Brooklyn, where he resided, was one of the oldest in the city, and always creditable, and for that reason, doubtless, he appropriated it. It is the old story of stealing the livery of heaven to serve the devil in.

f The history of the Brinkerhoff family is contained in a volume of 188 pages, published in 1887, entitled "The Family of Joris Dircksen Brinkerhoff, and can be found in all public libraries where genealogy has received attention. It was compiled mainly

4 RECOI^KCTIONS OF A UFETIMB.

In the Owasco village, my grandfather Bevier's house was a little east of the center, and as I remember it, the house was a comfortable, old-fashioned wood structure, located on a large lot, surrounded by fruit trees, and a wide, grassy lawn in front. It was, in fact, a part of my grandfather's farm, which comprised a hundred acres or more.

My recollections of the place are very meager, although I suppose I must have remained there two or three years.

About the only thing I can recall of my grandfather was sitting on his lap and listening to the ticking of a big silver watch he would hold to my ear.

He died about a year after I went there, very suddenly, of apoplexy, and I have a faint remembrance of the commotion it caused in the family.

I remember playing in the yard with a little girl from the neighborhood, by the name of Martha Watson, and beyond that, about the only incident I can recall is a visit to the schoolhouse in the village with my sister, and an attempt on the part of the schoolmistress to bribe me with a penny to say my letters.

I have no doubt my stay with my aunts was very pleasant and helpful to my child life, for they were all good people, but my recollections in regard to it are so dim as practically to amount to nothing.

In fact, my memory fails to report anything with any special distinction until I was six or seven years old.

I do not remember when I returned to my father's house, but I suppose I must have been four or five years old.

My father's farm was a part of a tract of land located by myself, but the chapters pertaining to the Flushing branch of the family were furnished by T. Van Wyck Brinkerhoff , of Dutchess county, New York.

by my grandfather in 1795, and he was one of the earliest settlers in Central New York.

My father's farm was one of the best in the county, and fronted upon the Owasco L,ake, a beautiful sheet of water, about twelve miles long and a mile and a quarter wide at the place where we lived.

For rural scenery, nothing could be more delightful, and the shores of the lake are now largely occupied by summer villas for city people.

We were on the eastern shore of the lake, about two and a half miles from the foot, and about five miles from the city of Auburn, which at that time, perhaps, had a population of four or five thousand.

Our neighbors were mostly farmers in comfortable circumstances, and for the most part they were of Holland descent, and were zealous supporters of the two Dutch Reformed Churches located at the Owasco village, three miles south of us.

The old homestead is still in the family, and geographically, for a hundred years, it has been known as Brinkerhoff's Point.

Our family at this time consisted of my father, two brothers, two sisters, and a housekeeper (Betsy Bingham) and a hired man.

I was the youngest, and was never strong enough to be of much use on the farm, and for the most part I was left to my own wishes as to employment or pleasure.

Our farm fronted upon the lake, and rose from the water's edge to its eastern boundary with a gentle inclination. The house, barn and other buildings were located on the east side of the highway, three hundred yards or more from the lake. Along the lake was a strip of woodland, a hundred yards wide, perhaps, and between the woods and the road was an apple orchard of choice fruit.

6 RECOIJ^CTIONS OF A UFF/ttMK.

On the southern and eastern boundary lines of the farm was another strip of woodland, and along our northern boundary, extending northeasterly, was a forest of a hundred acres or more, in which we had famous hunting for squirrel, pigeon, raccoon and other small game, during all my boyhood days.

The strip of woods on the east was a sugar camp, in which my father had erected a log-house for sugar- making, and in which some of the most pleasant memories of my early years are centered.

My father was a farmer of superior intelligence, and as a horticulturist had few equals, and he made our farm life very attractive, and from him I imbibed a love of nature and country life which has never allowed me to be contented with the limitations of a large city.

The fact that I have always surrounded myself with ample grounds, and have taken an active interest in their care and culture, has had very much to do, I have no doubt, in securing the uniform good health I have always enjoyed, and now, at the age of seventy- two, enable me to feel as vigorous in body and mind as I did at fifty.

The farm adjoining that of my father's on the south was that of my grandfather, Roeliff Brinkerhoff, after whom I was named. He died when I was two years old, and my grandmother a year or two later. I have no recollection of either of them.

The farm then came to my Uncle Henry, who had a large family of children, and with them for neighbors I had no lack of playmates, and we spent much of our time together, until they burned out and moved to Ohio in 1838.

The farm adjoining my uncle's on the south was owned and occupied by John I. Brinkerhoff, a cousin of my father, and he too had a large family of children, and with them also I spent much time pleasantly.

Northeast from my father's, half a mile across the woods, was the home of my uncle, Richard Parsell, who married my father's oldest sister, Margaret. We called her Aunt Peggy, and she was one of the best women in the world, and she took a special interest in me, and possibly at my mother's request, for I have alwa}^s understood they were very close friends. At any rate, Aunt Peggy was very kind to me and I was very much attached to her, and as she was a very superior woman, I have no doubt she influenced me for good in many ways.

Aunt Peggy lived to be ninety years of age, and throughout her long life she was a benediction to all who came within the sphere of her influence.

About a mile south of my father's house, on the main road to the Owasco village, was the schoolhouse of the district to which we belonged. It was a modest structure, painted red, and was on the edge of the woods, and was surrounded by some fine forest trees. It is still standing, I believe, and when I saw it a few years ago, it was not changed very much from what it was in my youth. In this house my experience as a schoolboy commenced when I was about six years old. My recollections of that period are very limited.

My teacher was a young man by the name of Jacob Hoornbeek, who afterwards came to Ohio and conducted a commercial school at Sandusky for a number of years, and died there some thirty years or more ago.

He always claimed to have taught me to spell and read, but all I remember of his school is that it was in the summer, and that on pleasant days we had sessions in the woods under a big tree, and had a good time, whether we learned much or little; and I presume my school attendance at this time was not for the purpose of scholarship so much as to keep me out of mischief at home. My sister was with me and took charge of me,

8 RKCOIXECTIONS OF A UFF/TIME.

and if I made no special progress, I suffered no loss. I at least learned to read, and I began to be interested in primers and story-books for children.

The next teacher of whom I have any special memory was a lady named Anna Maria De Witt, although not next, I think, in order of time. She interested me in my studies and aroused in me a thirst for knowledge, which soon developed into that love of books which has been the crowning pleasure of my life.

She started me in "Parley's Primary Geography" and commended my progress, and with her encouragement I went ahead of my classes in every direction, and for the first time felt the joy of a successful student. Since then, study has never been irksome, and the acquisition of knowledge has been my highest pleasure.

The old red schoolhouse, embowered in the forest trees, and overlooking to the westward, half a mile away, the blue waters of the Owasco, has always been a delightful memory. Since then, the grounds have been contracted, the trees have been cut down for the most part, the forest has disappeared, and the landscape has been cruelly scarred by the demands of modern improvements; but the old memory remains undimmed.

The lake alone remains unchanged — at least its waters remain, but modern villas and a railroad along its western shore have taken away the most of the charms which linger in my memory.

It has always seemed to me that people, especially country people, do not realize as they ought the importance of locating their schoolhouses amidst pleasant surroundings, and with pleasant outlooks. They ought to recollect that pictures hung up in the memories of childhood are about the only ones that remain when we grow old, and therefore, we owe it as a duty to children that, as far as possible, these pictures should be pleasant and